Part2

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Well, I'm done with my exams (and had a nice few days of recuperation), so I've returned to working on Cordial Chords. I've already read the full story and can confirm that the second half of the story will reference details from Hopeful Chant, so you might want to read that if you haven't yet. It will still take a bit of time to finish the translation, but shouldn't take too long. However, Pryun is going away until February, so I wouldn't expect an update till then.

In this part, we get some daily life tidbits and interesting trivia about some of the cast. And we also get started on the actual plot of the story. Also, if you thought three Yunas weren't enough already, how about a fourth one?

Italic text is Engrish (English written in katakana).

Any feedback is appreciated.

-Gsimenas

CreditsRaws:: Mttblue2

Translation: Gsimenas

Editing: Pryun

Tie-breaker: ZeHaffen

2

Travelling from Seibuyagisawa Station, the closest station to my school, to my home near Hon-Kawagoe Station along the Seibu Shinjuku Line took forty-five minutes. It also took five minutes to travel to the station from school on foot, and ten more minutes to travel home from the station by bike, so a one-way school commute took me around an hour.

Asuna's home in Miyasaka, Setagaya Ward was much closer if we were to look at linear distances; however, she had to use an extremely complicated

route: first, she had to take a

bus from school to Kichijoji Station, then travel to Meidaimae Station via the Keiō Inokashira Line, then switch over to the Keiō Line to travel to Shimo-takaido Station, where she needed to switch over to the Tōkyū Setagaya Line, before finally arriving at the Miyanosaka Station near her home; hence, her

door-to-door travel took up an hour and a half.

I believe a brisk ride by motor

bike through Kanpachi Street and Ome Highway would be better as it would only take a bit over thirty minutes, but I couldn't really say "Ya shud get a license" to Asuna, the daughter of a company's director. On the other hand, perhaps due to all the training she had in her

rehab after being released from ALO, she didn't seem to mind the long commute as she thought of them as good exercise.

From my perspective, it was painful that the time we could spend together after school would surely grow shorter, but, now that I think about it, the very fact that I could meet with Asuna in the virtual world and go to the same school as her in the real world was a miracle in itself. And we could meet up as much as we wanted in ALfheim after she returned home, thus asking for more would be demanding luxury.

After arriving in front of my home by bike and engaging the

wirelock, I opened the sliding door.

At that moment, Suguha, who usually returned home later than me, stuck her head out from the corner of the corridor.

"Onii-chan, welcome home."

"I'm home. You sure are early today; what about your club work?"

When I asked this question while taking off my shoes, Suguha answered while still leaning out from the corner for some reason.

"We had a joint practice yesterday, so we have the day off today~"

"That so…… good work then."

Having entered a prestigious girls' school in Saitama City under the

sports referral from her kendo club, Suguha, now a second-year student, was leading a

life with increasingly

hard club work; on the nineteenth last month, individual match preliminaries of the Kanto Tournament were held, followed by the team preliminaries the week after, and she managed to clear both of them.

Since she only needed one stop down the Kawagoe Line to the Ōmiya Station close to her school, I heard her commutes to school take around thirty-five minutes, but she returned home later than me practically every day. You'd think that she wouldn't have the energy left for playing games with a lifestyle like that, but she would always find at least a little bit of time to

log in each day before going to bed, and she's apparently enjoying tackling large-scale

quests with her mates on her days off.

Additionally, Suguha had a strange method of concentrating; the night before a match, she'd always

duel with me in ALO until we fell. Both I and Leafa were

speed-types, thus our battle would always turn into a show of vehement speed, but, strangely, she's apparently able to fight calmly in her match the next day.

Someone who loved ALO as much as Suguha couldn't possibly have no interest in

Ordinal Scale—— there was no way to question the fact that her kendo techniques were many times more effective in AR

battles than in VR—— and using her mother's

connections, she finally acquired an

Augma, but she had departed to the faraway Shimane prefecture for a kendo club training camp around the time SAO

bosses began to appear. However, she was able to take part in the final battle against the hundredth floor's

boss at the spur of the moment from Shimane and had been a great help to us in that very unfavourable situation, so I feel quite indebted to her.

She said that the next Kanto Tournament would be in early June, so I should go to cheer her on then…… with such thoughts, I stepped into the corridor and saw that Suguha, aside from her head and right shoulder, was still hiding behind the wall.

Having caught on to what was up, I pretended to head for the washroom before suddenly breaking into a

dash, thus catching Suguha by the nape of her T-

shirt just as she tried to escape.

"Gueh."

As my sister gave such a moan, I discovered her holding 1

little cup of economical

vanilla ice cream in its entirety in her left arm, with a

spoon dipped into it. Apparently, she was eating directly from the

cup.

"Come on now, mom will be mad at you for this."

When I said this to her while letting go of her nape, Suguha turned around and stuck out her tongue.

"But if I use a plate, we'd have more dishes to wash. I'm thinking

eco;

eco, you hear."

"That's definitely not how it works…… I'll keep quiet about this, so give me some too."

Offering a backroom deal, I was about to extend my hand towards the

spoon, but Suguha grasped it a moment sooner. Just when I thought that my deal had been rejected, she scooped out a heap of the

vanilla and shoved it into my mouth.

"Hnn!"

"Hnn, hey…… that's too much……"

With these words, I unwillingly got my cheeks stuffed with a mouthful of vanilla ice cream and then felt my temple aching from the cold. Seeing my frown, Suguha cackled.

When I opened the

door to my room after washing my hands and face, the light of the setting sun coming from the window in the south-western

corner dyed the room a deep red.

It seems like I have developed a weakness for the red sunset after two years of living in Aincrad, as I was taken aback by the sight despite a year and a half having passed since I returned from the game. Only after staring at the

orange sky for twenty seconds did I hastily get changed.

Just as I began wondering whether I should sit down on the chair and start on my homework, or take a peek at the land of fairies for a bit, a lavish

device placed at a corner of my

work desk caught my eyes.

This

headset-like device with a white

plastic frame was the

Augma. The details of the incident were left entirely unreported; instead, the rampaging

boss monsters at Black Yuna's concert venue were explained away as just a

surprise for the

event, thus, unlike the

NerveGear, this device wasn't confiscated.

Even now, if you take a stroll around town, you could easily find people who still wear an

Augma, but I've become even less interested in it than before. Kikuoka has said that performing a

scan with the kind of output that could inflict damage to the brain required

wireless charging from special large

drones, and that the latest

firmware created by Professor Shigemura would have killed the memory

scan function of the device, yet that kind of experience couldn't just be cleared away through reasoning like that. Even I had such sentiments, so Asuna, who had her memories stolen, albeit temporarily, would have all the more reason to think like that.

As I thought, I'll stop using the

Augma.

Having made this decision, I took the

device into my hands in order to format it. There were plenty of handy AR

apps other than

Ordinal Scale on it, but it wasn't like they couldn't be substituted by traditional portable devices.

When I equipped it by placing it on my left ear, the device automatically booted up and the

Augma's

logo was displayed in the middle of my vision. This

logo was directly projected into my eye through the

projection lens at the tip of its thin

arm, but, at that same moment, the

matrix panel installed in the device's

support arm that reached for the back of my head initiated a

link with my brain. This ability to use both retinal projections and cerebral

links at the same time could be considered the

Augma's greatest feature.

Once the

logo disappeared, my vision was filled to the brim with a large number of

icons and

widgets.

When I first experienced this 《virtual

desktop》, I thought, 'This is so messy that it's making me dizzy!', but I got used to it in no time. Thinking about it, if you were to expand the various

holo-windows in ALO, you'd find that the density of information would be about the same. And, when I got used to it, I had to accept that it was so handy that it even got on my nerves.

Though, this would be the last time I looked at this virtual

desktop——

As I looked around the weather forecast and

news widgets with such deep emotions, I noticed a character string

scrolling through the upper left side of my view, and frowned.

Ordinal Scale was a well-made game, but the thing about it I hated most was that you couldn't turn off the

push notifications. The entire string of characters was a so-called 《announcement from the administrators》.

Through the strenuous effort I had invested in order to bring back Asuna's memories, I defeated several old SAO

bosses, which offered a large number of

bonus points, one after another, then won against Eiji, the 2nd-ranked player, and, in the end, I crushed the final

boss, thus I quickly rose from the 100,000s rank to

rank 1. It was no longer realistic for anyone to exceed the number of

points I had accumulated if they only got their points through

item collection and

monster farming, thus I believe that

players who wanted to reach

rank 1 would need to beat me in PvP several times to achieve their goal, but I wonder how this will turn out when I retire from

Ordinal Scale today——

Nah, someone else can worry about that.

In order to begin formatting, I was about to reach for the

system settings

icon with my left hand, when I stopped it midair.

That was because a new

message was displayed on the annoying

push notifications I mentioned earlier. Noticing that it had the characters 《Yuna》, I

tapped it by reflex.

Written on the

window that opened up wasn't a notice for an

event or a new song, but an announcement on the release of a new

desktop mascot app.

"……A Yuna

mascot……?"

Muttering this, I read the details. Apparently, it was a traditional

widget that only served to tell you the weather forecast and your

schedule, but it seems that the mascot could grow to some extent through conversation. Of course, I had Yui with me, so I had no need for such a

mascot, but I suddenly felt the need to say my goodbyes and thus tapped on the

link in the

message.

The

window transitioned to an

app store; the

download and

install was finished in no time. When I returned to the

home screen and tapped on the

icon with a 'new'

mark, a familiar terms of service

window came up.

'This doesn't look like a good idea'…… with this thought, I quickly skimmed through it and

touched the agree

button. The window disappeared and a small

ring of light appeared on the surface of the desk that I had been using for many years.

That

ring, having turned into a

progress meter, spinned around once and disappeared, creating a humanoid

avatar with a soft sound effect.

It was somewhat smaller than the

PET bottle of carbonated water that was placed nearby, thus the avatar's height should be around twenty centimetres. Long, pure white hair coupled with a mainly black

costume. When the closed eyelids suddenly opened up, I saw the avatar's ruby-like red eyes——

As a smile adorned her beautiful,

coquettish face, the

avatar turned to me and waved her hands.

"Nice to meet you! I am Yuna. T-h-a-n-k-s for the

download!"

She greeted me in a bittersweet voice and right afterwards blew a

kiss. The behaviour of this

avatar could apparently be customised through conversation with the

user, but the

default version seemed to be quite impish.

——Hmm, perhaps it should be called a nice reproduction of the

original's personality.

The small Yuna took a brisk walk atop the

desk and leaned against the

PET bottle. I see, so it's a literal

desktop mascot. It tilted its small head and looked at me at an

angle.

"Say, what is your name?"

It was a

sequence to confirm the pronunciation of the user's name that frequently took place the first time you log into a VRMMO, but it was quite unnerving when this happened in the real world. Taking care to make my pronunciation clear——

"Kirito."

"Kirito, is that right?"

Hearing the same voice as that in my memories, I nodded in silence, after which I answered again, 'Yep'. Yuna once again smiled, as she said, 'Delighted to make your acquaintance, Kirito!'

The only thing this

mascot had in common with the White Yuna that saved us was its face, while it's probably not sharing its

data with Black Yuna either. Nevertheless, feeling that this would pass some sort of message along somewhere, I was about to say 'Thanks' and 'Goodbye' to the Yuna before me.

Yet, a moment before I could open my mouth.

Something abnormal happened to Yuna, leaning on the

PET bottle.

*Zaza*, with such a jarring sound, an electronic

noise affected various parts of the

avatar. The avatar stood upright in a way that felt like an unnatural drop-frame

(1), as if it was resisting this phenomenon, and then, looking straight at me——

"Kirito."

It once again called out my name. However, the alluring tone from just moments ago was nowhere to be found in this voice; instead, it sounded rather serious.

"Kirito, save me."

Upon whispering this, the

mascot once again returned to its original place as if by

warping. With no more

noise affecting her body, she began rocking and humming a tune.

After gazing dumbfounded at this scene for over ten seconds, I timidly called out.

"Yuna……?"

"What is it, Kirito? If you want me to sing, I need a

mic and

costume!"

"Ah…… U-uh huh……"

Perhaps judging my unintelligible response as a positive answer, the small Yuna suddenly waved her right hand. The newly displayed

window was an

item shop filled with

mics and

dresses of various design, among other

accessories. Apparently, when you collect an entire set, the corresponding repertoire of songs will be available to the mascot.

Points from

Ordinal Scale could be used in place of

real money, thus, if I felt like it, I could purchase all the

items in the store with no significant change to my enormous

point balance, but now wasn't the time for something like that.

"……Hmm, I'll leave it for later."

When I pronounced it clearly this time, Yuna responded, 'That so?', without any sign of dissatisfaction, after which the

window disappeared. After a stroll atop my desk, Yuna sat down on the

mouse for my PC and once again began humming something to herself.

For a

desktop mascot, there was nothing unnatural in her actions. But, in that case, what was with those words just moments ago? "Save me"—— I certainly heard these words after the Little Yuna called out my name.

What if that was a

message sent by someone on the

Net, borrowing the mouth of the

mascot to do it?

There was only one person like that that I could think of. The White Yuna that should have disappeared in the New National Stadium—— the

digital ghost of Shigemura Yuuna.

To Professor Shigemura, the

original Black Yuna that continued her AR

idol role appeared to be but a

tool for resurrecting his daughter. The reason why the idol had the same face as his daughter was to make SAO Survivors recall the memories of Yuuna they had held sealed deep in their mind; perhaps for this very reason the professor was so cold towards Black Yuna, said Kikuoka. In fact, the professor

shut down the

workstation that was controlling Black Yuna just before his attempt at a simultaneous memory

scan at the New National Stadium began.

Afterwards, it's said that the control of Black Yuna was transferred to Kamura, though I've heard that her

data was

reset at the time. So, her recognising me and using the

mascot to request help was unthinkable.

Assuming that White Yuna's consciousness still remained somewhere…… the only conceivable place was the old SAO

server. However, even I didn't know what became of that machine after the incident.

Should I try to contact Professor Shigemura again, I wonder.

Just as I had that thought, I recalled the time I visited the Toto Institute of Technology to question the man, and thus I frowned. When I straight up asked him, "Aren't you performing memory

scans on SAO survivors with the

Augma", I figured that, knowing his position, the professor would only deny the allegation, yet the blunt answer he gave me really ate away at me. Even if I gave him another nonchalant visit to tell him that "the Black Yuna

mascot asked for help", I don't think I'd get a proper answer from him. In the first place, I don't even know where the professor currently is, and Kikuoka wouldn't tell me about that either.

In that case, there was but one other person I could go to for a talk about this case.

First, I looked up the instructions for the

desktop mascot and called out to the still humming Yuna to say, "See you later." Then, Yuna quickly stood up, "Okay, later, Kirito!", and waved her hand, before being engulfed by light and disappearing. There appeared to be a way to turn off the app without the need to call out to it, but since the avatar was similar to Yui in appearance and size, it would have felt awkward to make her disappear with my fingertip without saying a thing.

Once the

mascot disappeared, the words I heard from her felt more and more like a dream or illusion, but I wouldn't have got myself involved in all those incidents if I was actually capable of pretending that something like this never happened. Preparing for the worst, I opened my mouth once again.

"

Command, call Kikuoka Seijirou."

At that moment, the

Augma's voice call

app started up and began ringing. I felt like I wouldn't be able to return to using portable phones if I got used to this, but it'll just be for today…… no, until I figure out the intention of that

message… as I made this decision, I waited.

The twenty-second ring was suddenly interrupted and I heard a slightly flustered voice.

『You know, Kirito-kun, today is a Thursday and it's not even six yet. As great as I am, even I could be unable to answer a sudden call like that.』

"My bad, I figured a government worker would have finished up by five."

At my sincere apology, the

elite bureaucrat riddled with mysteries, 'Fuga', let out some strange sound, after which he answered in a resigned voice.

『……So, what brings you to me?』

"There's something I want you to look up for me."

Next, I raised two questions. He told me he'd call me back in five minutes, so I quietly hung up and activated a

timer app.

I can't say I didn't expect it, but I heard the ringtone again when the

timer reached four minutes and fifty eight seconds.

After writing down the info he looked up for me on a note

app, I gave my sincere thanks, before hanging up.

The date and time handwritten on the note was the 8th of May, Friday, sixteen hundred hours. Meaning, tomorrow. Was this nice

timing a coincidence or intentional?

The answer should be clear if I got to meet with her once again.

Just as I saved the note, I heard a

knock on the door. After looking around the

desktop reflexively, I realised that it came from the real world.

"Onii-chan, it's about time to make lunch."

Having heard Suguha's voice from across the

door, I replied, "Okay", while taking off the

Augma.

Notes1.

^ Drop frame (コマ落ち) refers to a phenomenon when, during the playback of a video, the sound and/or image stops for a moment when a part of the frames aren't played for some reason