Sword Art Online - Volume 4 - Fairy Dance Read online

  Still unused to flying, holding a stick while flying unsteadily was Sasha.

  Unknown when they were gathered, Sakuya and Alicia Rue, along with several other Cait Sith and Sylph players were next.

  Waving his hand and raising came Recon.

  Along with General Eugene and an army of Salamanders.

  “Hey, we are going to leave you behind!”

  Leaving only Cline’s yelling sound behind, the huge party flew ahead into the night sky, heading to the castle in the sky.

  And finally in a white tunic and mini skirt, a silver rapier on her waist, a small pixie sitting on her shoulder was Asuna, her long blue hair glittered as she stopped in front of us.

  “Let’s go, Lyfa-chan!”

  Lyfa timidly grabbed Asuna’s outstretched hand. Asuna smiled, moved her water colored wings and turned.

  Yui flew from Asuna’s shoulder onto Kirito’s shoulder.

  “Hey, Papa, hurry!”

  Kirito’s piercing glance looked at Aincrad, for a moment he was downcast. His lips moved, whispering a name, but she couldn’t hear it.

  When Kirito raised his head vigorously, his face had his usual dauntless smile back on again. He spread his wings wide, aiming for the sky in front.

  “Ok - Let’s go!!”

  Author’s Notes

  Good day, I am Kawahara Reki. Thank you for holding my 8th book, ‘Sword Art Online 4: Fairy Dance’.

  This one story came in two volumes, with a very long epilogue. When I started writing, it was just going to be the story of the hero, Kirito, searching for and finding the heroine, Asuna. But to fulfill this and that element, the pages started adding up.

  One of those element is, “Can only playing a RPG normally become a novel?”, a trial mistake.

  When I wrote the first volume of SAO, I found out that a RPG novel can’t work without some kind of setting. Because, no matter how much of a life or death pinch the hero has in the game, the hero in the real world is not hurt the least. Since that is «just a game», you can «reset it to end», to remove these two options, the first volume was a Death Game, that is dying in game means death in a real kind of setting.

  But, always inside me, there’s the question ‘does it really have to be like that’. If a RPG novel can’t be made without this kind of setting, then that would mean my feelings of excitement and passion as a MMO player would be fake. Making a party with friends, stepping gingerly into a dungeon for the first time, the joy from that, I want to see if I can make a story out of it. This is a huge theme in these two volumes of “Fairy Dance”.

  How well I accomplish it… if you who finished reading the last page thinks ‘I want to try a MMO’ then you would have understood (laugh).

  Based on a «Virtual Netgame Novel», this expansion of SAO series, from the next volume will be a big turn of the wheel, it will start to wander around or runaway completely. This might extremely disturb people who like the first test. The only thing that will never change is that it will be Kirito’s story (laugh). I would be happy if you continue to watch his future adventures.

  Many characters from the previous volumes and monster group were beautifully drawn and illustrated by Abec-san, the many revisions which delayed again and again trouble my editor Miki-san, I thank you both again this time! And to you who stuck with me to the last, I thank you for your large storage capacity!

  2010 January 28, Kawahara Reki