"Asuna..." "You're late, Kirito-kun." "You..." "What if I'd caught a cold?" "S-Sugou?" "That was a horrible thing you did, Kirito-kun." "I can still feel the pain." "Sugou, you're finished..." "Turn yourself in, and stand trial." "What's finished?" "There are plenty of companies that would want me." "Yes, once my research is complete, I can become a true king." "The god of this world." "You..." "But first," "I'm going to kill you, Kirito-kun." "Hey, stand up." "Stand up!" "A piece of trash like you, slowing me..." "Slowing me down!" "Naturally, the punishment for that is death." "Nothing but death will be acceptable!" "Huh?" "My right eye is all foggy..." "So I missed." "You garbage..." "You..." "You don't have any real power!" "Sugou, you aren't any different." "Die, trash!" "A weak weapon..." "It's light, without any reach." "But it's more than enough to kill you!" "Go on, she's waiting." "Asuna..." "Kirito-kun." "Yeah." "The final..." "The true final battle just finished." "It's over..." "I'm sorry." "I still can't hear properly." "But I can tell what you're saying." "It's over, isn't it?" "I finally..." "I finally got to meet you." "Hello." "My name is Yuuki Asuna." "I'm back, Kirito-kun." "I'm Kirigaya Kazuto." "Welcome back, Asuna." "The World Seed" "Friday, May 16, 2025" "So this sentence construction..." "That's all for today." "I'll send out homework files 25 and 26." "Be sure to upload them by next week." "Sorry to make you wait, Asuna." "I'm tired." "Tired and hungry..." "You sound like an old man, Kirito-kun." "Over the past month, I feel like I've aged five years." "Also, it isn't Kirito." "It's Kazuto." "Using your character's name here is bad manners." "That's right!" "I forgot..." "What about me, then?" "Everyone will know!" "It's because you used your real name for your character." "Well, everyone at this school was an SAO player." "I think they know me, too." "Asuna..." "How are you doing?" "You're still in rehab, right?" "Yeah." "I can finally walk without a cane." "But they say I still shouldn't run." "Oh." "By the way, Kirito-kun..." "Didn't you realize this place is totally visible from the cafeteria?" "Seriously..." "That screw-up just cost you lunch." "Ah!" "Sorry..." "Ta-dah." "By the way, is your father doing well?" "Yeah, but for a while, he was pretty down." "He resigned as CEO, and he's basically retired." "So he's not sure what to do with himself now." "He'll find a hobby soon and cheer up." "I see..." "That snowy day," "Sugou was arrested in the hospital parking lot." "Following his arrest, he denied everything, trying to pin all the blame on Kayaba Akihiko." "But once an employee was brought in for questioning, he confessed to everything." "Fortunately, the three hundred players who hadn't escaped SAO had no memory of the experiments performed on them." "And no one developed any neurological problems." "They say everyone will be able to return to society." "Another Terrifying VRMMO Incident" "However, the Virtual MMO genre" "Horrifying Human Experiments was dealt a fatal blow." "Fatal Flaw in the Game System!" "?" "After SAO, another horrible crime occurs in ALO" "In the end, RCT progress was disbanded." "And RCT itself received a serious setback." "Apology Regarding the ALO Incident" "Of course, ALO was shut down." "And five or six other VRMMOs weren't expected to survive, either." "Hey, come to think of it, what happened to the Commander?" "Kayaba died." "They say it was suicide." "Suicide?" "When SAO collapsed, he performed a high-output scan on himself." "Does that mean he copied his consciousness onto the internet?" "I heard his chances of success were fewer than one in a thousand." "But back then," "I spoke with his consciousness." "What's this?" "The beginning of a world." "It's called The Seed." "Once it buds, you'll understand what it is." "I'll leave what to do then up to you." "You can delete and completely forget it." "However, if you have any feelings left for that world besides hatred..." "Kirito-kun?" "Hey, Kirito-kun." "About today's meeting with the others..." "Oh..." "Sorry." "I spaced out." "Ah, seriously..." "When you relax, you really do space out." "Whether in the game or here." "Aw, Liz..." "I mean, Rika-san." "Don't slurp so much." "But..." "Look at how Kirito's all over her." "They shouldn't act like that at school!" "You shouldn't be watching." "If I'd known that would happen," "I wouldn't have agreed to that one-month ceasefire." "It was your idea!" "Letting those two enjoy their romance for a month..." "You should have known better." "Are you going to the meeting today?" "Of course!" "Hey, did you ever meet Agil, Sugu?" "Yeah, we went hunting twice in ALO." "He's really big!" "Just a heads-up..." "He's that size in real life, too." "Prepare yourself." "Reserved Today" "Hey, now..." "We aren't late." "The stars of the show always turn up last." "So we told you a slightly later time." "Come on in." "Let's have a cheer, everyone." "Ready!" "Kirito, congratulations on beating SAO!" "Here." "Cheers!" "Cheers!" "Bartender, bourbon on the rocks." "What?" "This is oolong tea." "Agil, give me a real one." "Sure about that, Klein?" "Aren't you going back to work after this?" "Can't pull overtime without alcohol." "And..." "Hello." "Thinker-san..." "I heard you married Yulier-san." "I know it's late, but congratulations." "Getting used to the real world is still taking everything I have." "I'm finally getting back into the groove at work." "Congratulations, man!" "Hey, I've been reading the new MMO Today." "Oh, how embarrassing." "There isn't much content yet." "And the way things are for MMOs now, walkthrough info doesn't mean so much." "It's like the chaos when the universe was born." "Agil, how has the seed been?" "Amazing." "There are around fifty mirror servers." "A hundred thousand downloads." "And three hundred major servers that actually run it." "After I saved Asuna," "I took the World Seed Kayaba had given me to Agil, and I asked him to analyze it." "I learned that the World Seed was a program package that ran a full-dive MMO called The Seed, made by Kayaba." "In essence, anyone with access to a good enough server could download The Seed and create their own online world." "I asked Agil to upload it to servers across the world for anyone to use." "This revived the dying Virtual MMO genre." "ALfheim Online's data was all transferred to a new company, which still runs it." "But ALfheim wasn't the only world born." "Smaller companies, and even private individuals, began to run their own virtual game servers." "They began to be compatible with one another." "And it's reaching the point where a character created in one game can be transferred to another." "Hey, we're still going to the same place for the after-party, right?" "Yeah, at eleven tonight." "We meet in Yggdrasil City." "ALfheim, Cait Sith Territory Above the Capital City, Freelia" "Altitude Limit" "I was worried you'd go too high up." "It's almost time, so I came to get you." "Oh, thanks." "Hey, Bro..." "Kirito-kun." "ALO has a new company running it, and you can use your SAO avatars now." "Why didn't you go back to your old avatar like the others did?" "The job of that world's Kirito has ended." "I see." "Then I'm the first to meet the Spriggan Kirito-kun and to take him to the World Tree." "Hey, Kirito-kun..." "Let's go back." "It's an advanced technique they just developed." "You hover, then move slowly horizontally." "Huh..." "Like that, yeah!" "Leafa..." "I'll be going now." "Wh-Why?" "Because..." "You're too far away." "Like everyone else." "I can't go that far..." "Sugu..." "That's not true." "You can go anywhere you want!" "It's coming." "What's happening to the moon?" "It can't be..." "It can't be." "That's right." "That is the floating castle Aincrad." "But why?" "What's it doing here?" "I'm going to finish this." "This time, I'm going to beat all one hundred floors, and conquer that castle." "Leafa..." "My stats were reset, so I'm a lot weaker now." "You'll help me, right?" "Yeah, I will." "I'll go anywhere with you." "Hey!" "You're late, Kirito!" "We'll leave you behind!" "See you there!" "Come on." "Hurry." "Let's go, Kirito-kun..." "Leafa-chan." "Come on, Papa, hurry." "Okay, let's go!"