Sword Art Online 05: Phantom Bullet Part 23

Sinon forgot to breathe, and her eyes widened.

Does he know? she thought that for a moment. The mysterious visitor, did he know that Sinon's past was paint in darkness, and an incident happened?

'- No, wrong. It's not like that. Probably... this person as well, in the past...'

The left hand supporting Sinon's back became hard with tension, but soon relaxed. While his hair touched Sinon's forehead, Kirito shook his head and whispered; "...I can no longer do that. That's why I am not strong. I... cut two people at that time, no, three people, and I do not even know their real names... I just closed my eyes, plugged my ears, and pretended to forget everything..."

Sinon did not understand what he meant.

However, she was sure of one thing. Inside Kirito, a darkness similar to Sinon's - a fear was hidden. And then probably, while he waited in the Standby Room, something happened. Something that made his supposedly buried darkness overflow.

Sinon's left hand let the MP7 fall onto the ground.

Her empty hand rose as if pulled by an invisible string, and closed near Kirito's cheek past the lightsaber blade.

Right before her fingers touched - .

Unexpectedly, the usual carefree smile returned to Kirito's cheeks. His eyes still retained a painful light. Even so he shook his head, and said as if to interrupt Sinon's hand.

"- Well. It appears that I've won the match... do you agree?"

"What...? Ah, that's..."

While she blinked as she was unable to switch her feelings, Kirito's face closed in and he whispered.

"Then, would you submit? I do not like to cut a girl."

Hearing his very rude and cheeky words, Sinon finally realized her situation. In other words, she was restrained by a left hand on her back and a lightsaber at her throat, and while she was in an unmovable state in extremely close contact with Kirito, that miserable appearance - that scene, was broadcasted live to the Standby Room, Presidential Lobby, and all the pubs in Gurokken, such was the situation.

While conscious of the blood rushing to her face, Sinon spit out a retort from her clenched teeth.

"...I am thankful to have another chance to fight with you. In tomorrow's main tournament, absolutely stay alive till you encounter me."

And then she turned her face away, and loudly shouted, "I Resign!"

Match time: 18 minutes and 52 seconds.

F Group, Third Bullet of Bullets qualifying final ended.

(To Be Continued).

Author Notes.

I'm Kawahara Reki. I'm extremely grateful that you bought the fifth volume of this series. Including the other series, this would be my 10th work, "Sword Art Online 5, Phantom Bullet".

In Net-gaming, there are two rather popular forms of gaming genre other than MMORPGs. One of them is "Real-Time Strategy", and the other one is "First Person Shooter".

I like both genres, but if I want to talk about RTS, this column wouldn't be enough, so I'll have to cut it short (laughs).

And as the t.i.tle implies, FPS is a game genre that normally allows the main character (=player) to wield a gun through a first-person view and play. It originated from America, so right now, no matter whether it's the number of games or the number of players, Americans form the majority. But when fighting online in a player vs. battle, there would be situations where people would feel like saying "Are you the revived version of Simo Hayha[1]?" Most likely, it's those kind of situations while I'm still rushing forward at full speed, I'll hear a bang from afar, and then there's bleeding from between my eyebrows and I died, or that in close ranged combat, I already got an a.s.sault rifle and am shooting recklessly, but the enemy is closing in on me, dodging left and right, and then using the knife to kill me easily (At this moment, I really feel like saying: "Are you the revived version of Simo Hayha!?"). However, people would just say that I'm a Greenhorn.

The PvP in MMOs would be affected greatly because of the level and equipment difference, but the FPS character's ability itself would rely on the player's own skill. One of the reasons why I created this "Phantom Bullet" is to present this "ability" in the "SAO" series.

However, the problem was that even though I like FPS, I don't understand anything about guns at all...this time, I used a lot of gun names and unique terms, but these were all hastily compiled knowledge at the last second. To the readers who are rather well-versed in this, you may feel that there are a lot of scenes where you'll go "How is this possible!", but I hope that everyone can be forgiving and treat it as "It's part of a game anyway."

To Miki-san, who is beginning to have more and more related tasks and yet still patiently waited for me to fine-tune my original script, abec-san, who was able to present the charm of two (laughs) female leads perfectly in the ill.u.s.trations, and everyone who supported me even after I wrote that 'I'll be going crazy', please accept my headshot grat.i.tude with your foreheads. I hope to meet you next time!

2010, June 10.

Kawahara Reki.

References.

Legendary sniper of Finland who racked up the most confirmed number of kills. 505 sniper kills, and well, you can read the rest here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4.

end.