VOLUME 1
Chapter 4: The Duel
Part 6
The earth shook as the Veil Guardian’s massive body fell to the ground.
Jun, watching intently, breathed fast.
Though it was a difficult battle, Jun’s team finally succeeded. It was over.
Then, he picked up the key item from the Veil Guardian’s remains. If he activated the inactive airship in the innermost parts of the forgotten temple…
Jun’s search on this island would be over. He, Kasumi, and Eri would be able to fly off into the vast sky. However…
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Clapping echoed in the valley.
After looking up, Jun saw a figure slowly approaching from the entrance to the valley.
Who was it? Jun tightened his body. Was it a member of the Crimson Scarf Knight Association? No, the stubbornness of some of their members had already led to their deaths twice; they wouldn’t have the nerve to leave the town. They would have come to an agreement about that.
That being the case… who could possibly be there?
There was one other possible explanation.
Adventurers and NPCs were not strictly the only people on this island.
Well, those Crimson Scarf Knight girls might have really been the only humans…
(Maybe Alice’s people?)
Jun quickly took out his healing rod and healed himself. At the same time, he drank some recovery potions. He left the items from the Veil Guardian on the ground for later. At any rate, now…
“Hey Jun, don’t be so wary of me,” the figure said.
It was the voice of a young woman. She seemed a bit taller than average.
Suddenly, a strong wind blew. The fog that had been covering the entire area cleared away, revealing the approaching figure. It belonged to a girl with long black hair, carrying a gigantic greatsword, and wearing light armor. Her eyes looked friendly, like those of a cat, and Jun thought she was cute. However, at the same time, he felt scary vibes from her. Those vibes made her look like the cat straight out of Alice in Wonderland.
Jun had felt that before.
He had a hunch. She… Or rather, he…
“Kai… no, Sakuya, how should I address you?”
“Whichever way is easiest for you. Names after all, are just sounds. No matter what name I use, we both will be somewhere, doing something… The name doesn’t matter ’cause you’re my close friend, Junichiro Mikimori.”
She smiled a bit, and her name showed up on a projection screen.
Sakuya. Magic swordsman.
Then next to her class, a red PK icon lit up.
She had recently killed another player.
“Surely, at this meeting, we should be saying something like ‘Long time no see’ or maybe even ‘Nice to meet you’ if you were confused, but…” Sakuya opened her mouth and laughed sarcastically. “Either way… I’ll say something. Yo, Jun! … I’ve come to stand in the way of your quests.”
Jun shrugged, sighing. She always talked nonsensically.
That was right. Kai/Sakuya. When he was with him/her, Jun always became involved in unreasonable things. Though, this time…
“Aren’t you being awfully irrational, Sakuya?”
“You prefer to call me by that name? Well then… I suppose an explanation is in order.”
“I got your message and came here. I just think you could give me a bit more information.”
A communication stone shook from inside his bag. It was probably Kasumi.
“Somebody’s calling you? You should pick up.”
“As soon as I take my eyes off you, I’ll be attacked, so I can’t.
“You seem like you have trust issues.”
“Didn’t we often do surprise attacks back when we hung out together?”
“Well, if morality doesn’t extend to companions… I’m not trying to look like I’m betraying your trust.”
The communication stone kept ringing. Kasumi and Eri had to have been worried.
Sakuya took a big, exaggerated breath.
“I don’t want to meet up with Kasumi.”
“So that’s why. I get it.”
Jun took out the communication stone and connected to Kasumi.
Calming down Kasumi, who had been worrying almost to the point of crying, Jun explained that he just hadn’t been paying attention and that everything had worked out.
“Come to the temple from earlier. I’ll be there as soon as I get the key.”
He accidentally looked at Sakuya. She had her hands on her hips and an assertive expression on her face.
Jun put the communication stone he had finished using back into his bag and glared at her.
“Is it okay to say such things? After this, I’ll take the key item from the monster that you killed there from you.”
“Do you want the airship?”
“Nah, my party already has one. We just don’t want you guys to get it.”
“Why not?”
Jun shook his head in disapproval. His opponent would be Kai, Jun’s close friend Because of that, he should act just like usual.
Jun grinned and teased her.
“I told Kasumi not to come here because I didn’t want her to see your dead body. I will defeat you.”
“Do you think you can? Isn’t your MP at zero? In addition to that, you already used your secret power.”
“Do you know about secret powers?”
“Well, I also have a secret technique book. You’ve seen Kasumi’s skin, right? There should be a secret power slot there.”
Now that Sakuya mentioned it, Jun remembered that when he had seen Kasumi’s tablet, that was true.
At the instant he saw the code for that skin, he noticed some of Kai’s own coding peculiarities, and so, he thought it seemed like the work of Kai.
“… When you clear all of the quests on a particular island, you get a special move specific to your class. However, you can only use it once an hour, and it is easy to get your companions caught up in them accidentally. It is hard to use in situations other than one on one battles. This is the first time I knew somebody else who had it. Your questmania worked in your favor.”
“It still didn’t seem like there was anybody who had completed all of Altaria Island’s quests. … This isolated island doesn’t have many quests calling for interisland travel.”
“Seems that way. Because of that, the developers hid the book of secret techniques on this island. … It seems like a way to balance the system.”
“Honestly, I wanted to keep it that way. It could cause problems.”
She said, detachedly, “I’m terrible, doing things like being an obstacle to you who has been working hard for the sake of his companions.”
That was as usual.
This was the usual Kai. (S)he talked in the same way and said the same things as Jun remembered. Though Jun didn’t expect her to be such an amazing girl, as far as he was concerned, it didn’t matter, because s(he) was his online friend.
“By the way, did I make you uneasy by hiding my gender?”
“Even if I asked, you could have lied about it It doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl. That doesn’t change the fact that you are Kai.”
Sakuya frowned cutely.
“That’s not interesting. You’re mean, Jun-san.”
“Then visit her instead. … Why did you keep Kasumi with you?”
“I thought that I would be able to protect her. Sometimes, I wanted to try being the knight that protects the helpless princess.”
“But even now, she still trusts you.”
“I know. That’s why I took away her wings. I’m not giving you the airship. I don’t want you guys to get the wings of freedom.”
“Do you know what you’re saying?”
She opened her mouth and smiled sarcastically, looking lonely.
“… I don’t want her to see gruesome things like murder. There are still a few people I’m killing. Of course it’s not the type of ‘killing’ that one can revive from. I need to give them complete ‘death’, the type that comes from dying three times and losing all battery.”
Sakuya looked up at the blue sky.
From this island on the eighth island ring, one could only see the islands close by. There were landmasses much farther away, beyond the clouds.
“I can’t live if I don’t do that on the higher islands.”
Even Jun had only made it up to the fifth island ring.
Jun didn’t remember Kai as such a bloodthirsty person. Actually, could that even be true? The world Sakuya was in, Sky World, which Jun had come to and seen, still seemed a bit different from the real world.
“What’s up there?”
“Who knows. After all, I’m a guest here. However, I want to make it to Aion. I’ll have to eliminate anybody who stands in my way. … Kasumi was a hindrance to my doing so.”
As she said ‘hindrance’, Sakuya frowned a bit.
She wasn’t being honest. Jun sighed. What she just said actually meant something along the lines of “Since it kept on being bloodier than I originally thought, I didn’t want to hurt Kasumi Yukasaki’s purity.”
That sounded like Kai; he was very indirect. Just from word choice, he was always misunderstood. However, Jun knew. (S)he had a sensitive heart, so he was able to sympathize with that ‘companion’ of his.
“You care about her so much.”
“That’s cause she’s my friend. … She’s been an important friend since I’ve first entered high school. Probably my first in real life. Together with online friends, she would be second next to you.”
With just those words, Jun finally understood why that girl invited Kasumi to Sky World.
He let his guard down. While not paying attention, he leaned over. He always hoped that Kai thought of him that way.
“Kai, I thought you had a lot of friends.”
“If by that you mean superficial relationships, I do.”
Jun understood that (s)he was just like Eri. One way or another, those kinds of people naturally attract each other.
“Hey, that can come in handy.”
“Sheesh. … So, your response?”
“So if I’m not mistaken, you want me to protect Kasumi, and while I’m doing that, you’ll enjoy yourself adventuring on the higher islands. You want me to babysit a trouble child while you yourself go out and have fun.”
“What a strong way to put it… To be frank though, you’re right. Will you do it?”
“Do you think I would accept those conditions?”
“There’s another option, if you really won’t do that. You can leave Kasumi alone and come with me.”
“If you get that I’d never agree, don’t even try.” Jun, shocked, glared at Sakuya. “Why don’t you think about your companions’ feelings a bit more?”
“No, I want to be yelled at by you after such a long period of separation. Hey look, I’m a masochist.”
“I’m not going to get angry at you. If I do even a little bit, I won’t be able to get along with you anymore.”
“So you’re the type of guy who likes to neglect others.”
“I’m not.”
“I don’t want you to drive Kasumi crazy. She is important to me. But she surely would not be able to survive in the higher islands. … Actually, I don’t want to see anybody become driven to suicide. I thought it was good that I sent her down to this island so early” Sakuya said, clearly.
Jun nodded. Just as he had suspected, Kasumi Yukasaki’s fall had been intentional.
He had thought that there was something fishy about the whole situation from the start. That coincidentally, a monster event started on an airship in flight over Altaria Island, an island that would be very difficult to escape, and that the place where Kasumi happened to land was a bind point…
That was too many perfectly aligned events to have happened purely by chance. Much less that Kai was involved.
“However…”, Jun thought. Because of that, he glared at Sakuya. “Even so… She tried so hard to try and reunite with you.”
“I know.”
“Even now, if we couldn’t get the airship, she wasn’t planning on giving up. She would have gotten on the regularly scheduled airship rides.”
“So, I’m going to end this once and for all. Just to be sure, I came here.”
“Be happy that you’ve met up with your good friend!”
“But Jun, you aren’t listening to me.”
Jun smiled bitterly. He thought to himself, “Did Kai understand?”
The conversation seemed to be heading in one direction.
Normally, they would have first tried to find a compromise. However, in this case, they had known each other too well, and so they knew that they would have to fight it out before they would reach a solution.
Even so, they did not stop talking. In the midst of their chattering, profound thoughts flooded both of their minds.
“If your proposal is decent, I will listen to you. However, if it involves betraying my companions, I won’t. It would be better to fight.”
“So, you’ve decided to fight a cute little girl? What an unpleasant guy.”
“I’ve always been the one to hold you back .”
“That’s right. When you weren’t there, the online persona ‘Kai’ was able to run wild and wreak all sorts of havoc.”
“Don’t make it seem like it’s somebody else doing it. Even now, you’re still doing it.”
“Yeah. But, the whole time, nobody was there to hold me back.”
She smiled. Kai/Sakuya smiled boldly and disrespectfully.
Jun didn’t know what she had done in this world. Nor her thoughts about going to Aion. Nor the dangers that would await him in this world that he had come to live in. He didn’t know that kind of stuff. There was always one thing that was important to him.
Whenever Kai ran amok, it was Junichiro Mikimori’s duty to stop him.
“So, let’s have at it.” Sakuya stopped smiling and drew her greatsword.
“Wait, there’s still something I want to ask you.”
“Sorry, but there’s not much I can tell you. By all means, if you want to know, you can come with us to the heavens. However, you have to leave Kasumi on this island.”
“It’s about your last mail. Why did you— ”
Sakuya shook her head silently.
He had no choice. Jun prepared his weapon.
Sakuya moved away and started to cast a spell. It was elementary level attack magic. When it hit Jun, he only took a little bit of damage.
Both of their names turned red, marking them like hostile monsters.
“I want the honor of defeating you, Jun.”
“So that’s all you want?”
“Kind of like a punishment.”
“Don’t say things like that.”
“I really like you a lot.”
Jun shook his head, “What an unexpected meeting.” As if breaking off their long-held friendship, he responded to her challenge. ” I too want to know about the truth of this world. In order to do that… I’ll force my way through right here.”
Jun kicked at the ground. He lowered himself and facing Sakuya, he charged.
“That’s fine. In any case, we can’t help but fight this one battle. … As for my real intention, I really wanted to see you give your all in a battle.” Sakuya shook her head and lifted her greatsword. “Even though you have a handicap… I’m not going easy on you.”
Then, what would become a fierce and intense battle began.
VOLUME 1
Chapter 4: The Duel
Part 6
The earth shook as the Veil Guardian’s massive body fell to the ground.
Jun, watching intently, breathed fast.
Though it was a difficult battle, Jun’s team finally succeeded. It was over.
Then, he picked up the key item from the Veil Guardian’s remains. If he activated the inactive airship in the innermost parts of the forgotten temple…
Jun’s search on this island would be over. He, Kasumi, and Eri would be able to fly off into the vast sky. However…
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Clapping echoed in the valley.
After looking up, Jun saw a figure slowly approaching from the entrance to the valley.
Who was it? Jun tightened his body. Was it a member of the Crimson Scarf Knight Association? No, the stubbornness of some of their members had already led to their deaths twice; they wouldn’t have the nerve to leave the town. They would have come to an agreement about that.
That being the case… who could possibly be there?
There was one other possible explanation.
Adventurers and NPCs were not strictly the only people on this island.
Well, those Crimson Scarf Knight girls might have really been the only humans…
(Maybe Alice’s people?)
Jun quickly took out his healing rod and healed himself. At the same time, he drank some recovery potions. He left the items from the Veil Guardian on the ground for later. At any rate, now…
“Hey Jun, don’t be so wary of me,” the figure said.
It was the voice of a young woman. She seemed a bit taller than average.
Suddenly, a strong wind blew. The fog that had been covering the entire area cleared away, revealing the approaching figure. It belonged to a girl with long black hair, carrying a gigantic greatsword, and wearing light armor. Her eyes looked friendly, like those of a cat, and Jun thought she was cute. However, at the same time, he felt scary vibes from her. Those vibes made her look like the cat straight out of Alice in Wonderland.
Jun had felt that before.
He had a hunch. She… Or rather, he…
“Kai… no, Sakuya, how should I address you?”
“Whichever way is easiest for you. Names after all, are just sounds. No matter what name I use, we both will be somewhere, doing something… The name doesn’t matter ’cause you’re my close friend, Junichiro Mikimori.”
She smiled a bit, and her name showed up on a projection screen.
Sakuya. Magic swordsman.
Then next to her class, a red PK icon lit up.
She had recently killed another player.
“Surely, at this meeting, we should be saying something like ‘Long time no see’ or maybe even ‘Nice to meet you’ if you were confused, but…” Sakuya opened her mouth and laughed sarcastically. “Either way… I’ll say something. Yo, Jun! … I’ve come to stand in the way of your quests.”
Jun shrugged, sighing. She always talked nonsensically.
That was right. Kai/Sakuya. When he was with him/her, Jun always became involved in unreasonable things. Though, this time…
“Aren’t you being awfully irrational, Sakuya?”
“You prefer to call me by that name? Well then… I suppose an explanation is in order.”
“I got your message and came here. I just think you could give me a bit more information.”
A communication stone shook from inside his bag. It was probably Kasumi.
“Somebody’s calling you? You should pick up.”
“As soon as I take my eyes off you, I’ll be attacked, so I can’t.
“You seem like you have trust issues.”
“Didn’t we often do surprise attacks back when we hung out together?”
“Well, if morality doesn’t extend to companions… I’m not trying to look like I’m betraying your trust.”
The communication stone kept ringing. Kasumi and Eri had to have been worried.
Sakuya took a big, exaggerated breath.
“I don’t want to meet up with Kasumi.”
“So that’s why. I get it.”
Jun took out the communication stone and connected to Kasumi.
Calming down Kasumi, who had been worrying almost to the point of crying, Jun explained that he just hadn’t been paying attention and that everything had worked out.
“Come to the temple from earlier. I’ll be there as soon as I get the key.”
He accidentally looked at Sakuya. She had her hands on her hips and an assertive expression on her face.
Jun put the communication stone he had finished using back into his bag and glared at her.
“Is it okay to say such things? After this, I’ll take the key item from the monster that you killed there from you.”
“Do you want the airship?”
“Nah, my party already has one. We just don’t want you guys to get it.”
“Why not?”
Jun shook his head in disapproval. His opponent would be Kai, Jun’s close friend Because of that, he should act just like usual.
Jun grinned and teased her.
“I told Kasumi not to come here because I didn’t want her to see your dead body. I will defeat you.”
“Do you think you can? Isn’t your MP at zero? In addition to that, you already used your secret power.”
“Do you know about secret powers?”
“Well, I also have a secret technique book. You’ve seen Kasumi’s skin, right? There should be a secret power slot there.”
Now that Sakuya mentioned it, Jun remembered that when he had seen Kasumi’s tablet, that was true.
At the instant he saw the code for that skin, he noticed some of Kai’s own coding peculiarities, and so, he thought it seemed like the work of Kai.
“… When you clear all of the quests on a particular island, you get a special move specific to your class. However, you can only use it once an hour, and it is easy to get your companions caught up in them accidentally. It is hard to use in situations other than one on one battles. This is the first time I knew somebody else who had it. Your questmania worked in your favor.”
“It still didn’t seem like there was anybody who had completed all of Altaria Island’s quests. … This isolated island doesn’t have many quests calling for interisland travel.”
“Seems that way. Because of that, the developers hid the book of secret techniques on this island. … It seems like a way to balance the system.”
“Honestly, I wanted to keep it that way. It could cause problems.”
She said, detachedly, “I’m terrible, doing things like being an obstacle to you who has been working hard for the sake of his companions.”
That was as usual.
This was the usual Kai. (S)he talked in the same way and said the same things as Jun remembered. Though Jun didn’t expect her to be such an amazing girl, as far as he was concerned, it didn’t matter, because s(he) was his online friend.
“By the way, did I make you uneasy by hiding my gender?”
“Even if I asked, you could have lied about it It doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl. That doesn’t change the fact that you are Kai.”
Sakuya frowned cutely.
“That’s not interesting. You’re mean, Jun-san.”
“Then visit her instead. … Why did you keep Kasumi with you?”
“I thought that I would be able to protect her. Sometimes, I wanted to try being the knight that protects the helpless princess.”
“But even now, she still trusts you.”
“I know. That’s why I took away her wings. I’m not giving you the airship. I don’t want you guys to get the wings of freedom.”
“Do you know what you’re saying?”
She opened her mouth and smiled sarcastically, looking lonely.
“… I don’t want her to see gruesome things like murder. There are still a few people I’m killing. Of course it’s not the type of ‘killing’ that one can revive from. I need to give them complete ‘death’, the type that comes from dying three times and losing all battery.”
Sakuya looked up at the blue sky.
From this island on the eighth island ring, one could only see the islands close by. There were landmasses much farther away, beyond the clouds.
“I can’t live if I don’t do that on the higher islands.”
Even Jun had only made it up to the fifth island ring.
Jun didn’t remember Kai as such a bloodthirsty person. Actually, could that even be true? The world Sakuya was in, Sky World, which Jun had come to and seen, still seemed a bit different from the real world.
“What’s up there?”
“Who knows. After all, I’m a guest here. However, I want to make it to Aion. I’ll have to eliminate anybody who stands in my way. … Kasumi was a hindrance to my doing so.”
As she said ‘hindrance’, Sakuya frowned a bit.
She wasn’t being honest. Jun sighed. What she just said actually meant something along the lines of “Since it kept on being bloodier than I originally thought, I didn’t want to hurt Kasumi Yukasaki’s purity.”
That sounded like Kai; he was very indirect. Just from word choice, he was always misunderstood. However, Jun knew. (S)he had a sensitive heart, so he was able to sympathize with that ‘companion’ of his.
“You care about her so much.”
“That’s cause she’s my friend. … She’s been an important friend since I’ve first entered high school. Probably my first in real life. Together with online friends, she would be second next to you.”
With just those words, Jun finally understood why that girl invited Kasumi to Sky World.
He let his guard down. While not paying attention, he leaned over. He always hoped that Kai thought of him that way.
“Kai, I thought you had a lot of friends.”
“If by that you mean superficial relationships, I do.”
Jun understood that (s)he was just like Eri. One way or another, those kinds of people naturally attract each other.
“Hey, that can come in handy.”
“Sheesh. … So, your response?”
“So if I’m not mistaken, you want me to protect Kasumi, and while I’m doing that, you’ll enjoy yourself adventuring on the higher islands. You want me to babysit a trouble child while you yourself go out and have fun.”
“What a strong way to put it… To be frank though, you’re right. Will you do it?”
“Do you think I would accept those conditions?”
“There’s another option, if you really won’t do that. You can leave Kasumi alone and come with me.”
“If you get that I’d never agree, don’t even try.” Jun, shocked, glared at Sakuya. “Why don’t you think about your companions’ feelings a bit more?”
“No, I want to be yelled at by you after such a long period of separation. Hey look, I’m a masochist.”
“I’m not going to get angry at you. If I do even a little bit, I won’t be able to get along with you anymore.”
“So you’re the type of guy who likes to neglect others.”
“I’m not.”
“I don’t want you to drive Kasumi crazy. She is important to me. But she surely would not be able to survive in the higher islands. … Actually, I don’t want to see anybody become driven to suicide. I thought it was good that I sent her down to this island so early” Sakuya said, clearly.
Jun nodded. Just as he had suspected, Kasumi Yukasaki’s fall had been intentional.
He had thought that there was something fishy about the whole situation from the start. That coincidentally, a monster event started on an airship in flight over Altaria Island, an island that would be very difficult to escape, and that the place where Kasumi happened to land was a bind point…
That was too many perfectly aligned events to have happened purely by chance. Much less that Kai was involved.
“However…”, Jun thought. Because of that, he glared at Sakuya. “Even so… She tried so hard to try and reunite with you.”
“I know.”
“Even now, if we couldn’t get the airship, she wasn’t planning on giving up. She would have gotten on the regularly scheduled airship rides.”
“So, I’m going to end this once and for all. Just to be sure, I came here.”
“Be happy that you’ve met up with your good friend!”
“But Jun, you aren’t listening to me.”
Jun smiled bitterly. He thought to himself, “Did Kai understand?”
The conversation seemed to be heading in one direction.
Normally, they would have first tried to find a compromise. However, in this case, they had known each other too well, and so they knew that they would have to fight it out before they would reach a solution.
Even so, they did not stop talking. In the midst of their chattering, profound thoughts flooded both of their minds.
“If your proposal is decent, I will listen to you. However, if it involves betraying my companions, I won’t. It would be better to fight.”
“So, you’ve decided to fight a cute little girl? What an unpleasant guy.”
“I’ve always been the one to hold you back .”
“That’s right. When you weren’t there, the online persona ‘Kai’ was able to run wild and wreak all sorts of havoc.”
“Don’t make it seem like it’s somebody else doing it. Even now, you’re still doing it.”
“Yeah. But, the whole time, nobody was there to hold me back.”
She smiled. Kai/Sakuya smiled boldly and disrespectfully.
Jun didn’t know what she had done in this world. Nor her thoughts about going to Aion. Nor the dangers that would await him in this world that he had come to live in. He didn’t know that kind of stuff. There was always one thing that was important to him.
Whenever Kai ran amok, it was Junichiro Mikimori’s duty to stop him.
“So, let’s have at it.” Sakuya stopped smiling and drew her greatsword.
“Wait, there’s still something I want to ask you.”
“Sorry, but there’s not much I can tell you. By all means, if you want to know, you can come with us to the heavens. However, you have to leave Kasumi on this island.”
“It’s about your last mail. Why did you— ”
Sakuya shook her head silently.
He had no choice. Jun prepared his weapon.
Sakuya moved away and started to cast a spell. It was elementary level attack magic. When it hit Jun, he only took a little bit of damage.
Both of their names turned red, marking them like hostile monsters.
“I want the honor of defeating you, Jun.”
“So that’s all you want?”
“Kind of like a punishment.”
“Don’t say things like that.”
“I really like you a lot.”
Jun shook his head, “What an unexpected meeting.” As if breaking off their long-held friendship, he responded to her challenge. ” I too want to know about the truth of this world. In order to do that… I’ll force my way through right here.”
Jun kicked at the ground. He lowered himself and facing Sakuya, he charged.
“That’s fine. In any case, we can’t help but fight this one battle. … As for my real intention, I really wanted to see you give your all in a battle.” Sakuya shook her head and lifted her greatsword. “Even though you have a handicap… I’m not going easy on you.”
Then, what would become a fierce and intense battle began.
