Chapter 94: Yui's Awakening
"Hey, Kirito! How do we move these wings?"
"No idea!"
"At a time like this, isn't there some basic operation?"
"Try focusing your attention on your back or something!"
"Alright, I'll try."
"How can you stay so calm?"
"Stop nagging and just do it."
"Damn it! Move, my wings!"
Whether Kirito's shout carried to the sky or not, their falling speed slowed down a little. "Did the falling slow down?"
"Yeah! Hachiman, try strongly imagining the will to fly. At times like this, the state of the wings doesn't matter."
"Got it. Okay, let's fly!"
In an instant, their falling speed visibly decreased, and they barely held their position in the air. "Alright, success."
"Just as I thought."
"What do you mean?"
"For example, even if humans grew angel wings, they wouldn't actually be able to fly because of their weight, right? Similarly, these small wings can't really make you fly."
"Yeah, so?"
"These wings are ultimately just auxiliary tools. The most important thing is the will to fly. Looks like I guessed right."
"Now that you say it, physics laws don't matter much in games."
"Next, we just need to master mind control to fly freely. Although we have controllers, I really don't want to use such troublesome things."
"Yeah, guess we just have to practice. For now, let's slowly descend."
"Got it."
The two of them slowly descended cautiously.
After reaching the ground, they breathed a long sigh and slumped down. "Ha... That was really scary."
"The spawn point was set in mid-air? That wasn't in the manual at all."
"I've read so many walkthroughs, and none mentioned this."
"Anyway, let's check what we can do. How do we bring up the menu?"
"Seems like SAO, right? Although it's initial state, probably not many functions yet. Let's just check if the menu exists."
"..."
Nervously, they first confirmed the presence of the logout button. "The logout button is still here."
"Yeah, still there."
"To be honest, I was super nervous just now."
"Hachiman too? Actually, me too."
"Well, that's a relief. Now let's check our current skills."
When they checked the skill stats, both were stunned. "Hey."
"Ah."
"What the heck is this?"
"Totally don't get it."
Their skill values were almost max level. After a moment of silence, Kirito suddenly spoke as if he remembered something: "Hey, I recognize these stats. What about you?"
"Coincidentally, me too."
"Are these the same final skill stats from SAO?"
"That's right, exactly the same."
"What do you think?"
"Probably SAO and ALO use the same data format. The NerveGear's saved data must have been directly overwritten."
"Look at our money! We started as rich guys."
"HP and MP don't seem overwritten though, probably different formats."
After checking skills, they looked at the item inventory. "How about the items?"
"Probably no chance. We're wearing the initial gear shown in the manual, if it was overwritten, the appearance should be different."
"Let's see."
They cautiously opened the inventory. Though holding a faint hope, reality was cruel as expected. Kirito sighed with regret, and Hachiman sighed similarly beside him. "Of course no luck, everything except the initial gear is corrupted. How about on your side?"
"Same here, total wipeout."
"Should we delete these?"
"Yeah, if it's considered a bug, it'll be trouble. We have to delete."
"Right."
"I understand how you feel."
They hesitated pressing the delete key for a long time. Though the items were garbled, each piece carried memories. In the end, they gritted their teeth and pressed delete.
Looking at the empty inventory, their sighs were heavier than before. "Feels a bit lonely."
"Men always have a collector's obsession."
"Kirito, you're lucky, just a normal sword is fine."
"My special gear… probably doesn't exist in this world."
"Probably not, we have to find replacements."
"If the data format is the same…"
"Stop kidding yourself, Hachiman. Give up."
"..."
Hachiman's eyes reddened. Kirito, browsing the skill menu, suddenly remembered something: "By the way, Hachiman, the dual-wield skill is missing. How does dual wielding work in this game?"
"Oh, forgot to say. Here you can use single-handed weapons in both hands without restrictions."
"Really? That's great."
"Ah!"
Hachiman suddenly had an idea. "What's up?"
"That means I can dual wield too! Just grab a dagger in my left hand, problem solved. Though I'll need practice."
"Awesome! Problem solved!"
"My previous gear was just a fake dual-wield workaround."
"Ah!"
This time Kirito exclaimed. "What's wrong?"
"Hachiman, don't you have a special item folder?"
"Right! I stored Yui and Kizmel's gems separately. Where is it… here! Got it, Kirito!"
"What's inside?"
Hachiman opened the folder trembling. "This is… look! No corruption!"
He excitedly showed Kirito the screen. "Great! Click and try it."
"Okay!"
Hachiman clicked the gems containing Yui and Kizmel. Kizmel's gem showed no reaction, but Yui's gem suddenly burst into wing-shaped light, gradually forming a human figure. "Hey! No way!"
"It's the Yui from back then! Success! Thanks to you, Kirito!"
The light faded, revealing the girl exactly as remembered. "Yui! Yui!"
Hachiman called repeatedly as the girl slowly opened her eyes.
"Papa?"
"That's right! Papa here!"
"Papa!"
The awakened Yui happily jumped into Hachiman's arms.
"Finally reunited!"
"All thanks to Kirito."
"So great, Hachiman!"
"Uncle Kirito? Oh, Uncle's here too."
"Long time no see, Yui."
"Yeah! I always believed we'd meet again! By the way, Papa, where's Mama?"
"Yui, Mama seems to be imprisoned somewhere in this world. Can you help Papa rescue
Mama?"
"No way, I understand!"
"Yui, can you sense Asuna's presence?"
"I can only confirm she's not nearby."
"Okay, tell us everything you know."
"Yes!"
"First, do you know where this place is? And why is Kizmel not reacting?"
"Please wait."
Yui put her hand to her ear and performed a detection gesture. After a moment, she began
explaining:
"Papa, this seems to be a replica of the SAO server."
"The server is the same?"
"The core program and image format are completely identical."
"Yui, there's no problem keeping our skill values as they were in SAO, right?"
"No problem on the system side."
"Will there be no problem with your existence?"
"Right now I'm classified as a navigation fairy to avoid being noticed by other players, so I have
to look like this."
"Oh, okay."
Yui transformed into a 10 cm tall fairy form.
"Wow, so cute."
Hachiman gently poked her.
Yui squirmed from the tickle, then happily flew around him while Kirito watched with interest.
After playing for a while, Yui remembered business and returned to Hachiman's shoulder.
"Sorry, Papa, I got distracted."
"Continue telling us what you know."
"About Kizmel AI, it's currently dormant due to lack of a suitable host. If a suitable host appears in the future, it should awaken."
"I see… Kizmel will have to wait a little longer."
Hachiman carefully stored the gems back in the folder.