Chapter 341 - 42: She Just Hit Me (Bonus - for 100 Power Stones)

Chapter 341: Chapter 42: She Just Hit Me (Bonus Chapter for 100 Power Stones)

Sugou Nobuyuki had only meant to drum up a bit of hype to gratify his own vanity, and, riding the mood of the moment, to bring a little good reputation to the projects he was openly developing as well.

Kayaba Akihiko’s fall from grace suited him perfectly. Showing concern for Kuradeel at a time like this—besides fretting over whether that bastard had cooked up some new gadget behind their backs—also carried the meaning of using Kayaba Akihiko as a stepping stone to climb another rung higher.

He hadn’t expected the effect to be so unexpectedly fierce—he’d become utterly famous.

The SAO Incident was obviously the focus of worldwide attention, and correspondingly an unsolved case like Kuradeel’s briefly became world-famous as well. It was only after their meeting that Sugou Nobuyuki learned the other man had AIDS, which was why, upon returning, he’d said in disgust, "How revolting."

Then—no one knew who leaked it—and since the media couldn’t care less whether the latency periods lined up, the fact that Sugou Nobuyuki likewise had AIDS was dug right out into the open.

And so, riding the heat around the SAO victims, Kuradeel too gained world-class fame, dragging along with it "Sugou Nobuyuki and His Unspeakable Secret" as a topic discussed the world over.

The biggest problem with this whole affair was that Sugou Nobuyuki genuinely believed he’d contracted the illness by fooling around with some woman trying to get ahead, while Kuradeel genuinely believed that, during his coma, this fellow he’d never even met had done something to him—otherwise why would the man have suddenly handed him a large sum of money just for a private chat??

On the verge of a breakdown, Kuradeel used that money to take Sugou Nobuyuki to court, claiming that the injury to his vitals must likewise have been Sugou Nobuyuki’s doing—some sort of small-bomb trickery—all meant to force him into sex-reassignment surgery.

However the two of them carried on, Yuuki Shouzou, out of lingering fear, had grown noticeably haggard in an instant.

Most of the SAO victims had indeed woken up, yet his daughter, inexplicably, remained in a deep slumber. It was then that Sugou Nobuyuki—this young man he thought so highly of—had suddenly stepped forward and declared, "Even if your esteemed daughter remains asleep forever, I am willing to marry her."

Hearing such pleasing words, Yuuki Shouzou was naturally more than willing; as for that youth who, the moment he woke, had gone searching for his daughter and come to visit her—he simply wasn’t part of Yuuki Shouzou’s considerations.

But no sooner had he agreed than word broke that this creep had a taste for men and had caught a disease on top of it.

"You have absolutely no ability to judge people." Yuuki Shouzou’s wife, Yuuki Kyouko, berated her husband.

"Don’t say any more—I’m already reflecting on it."

Yuuki Shouzou looked down at his daughter on the bed. "Once Asuna wakes up, I’ll resign from my position."

"That irresponsible talk again. From start to finish your company never once managed to figure out the death game Kayaba Akihiko created. Is Asuna supposed to wear this NerveGear for the rest of her life?"

"This whole matter was something I’d entrusted to Sugou Nobuyuki to handle..."

"Meow~"

Found her.

Yimi crept up all sneaky and catlike, having secretly trailed Yuuki Shouzou straight to Asuna. There had been no true-to-life scent settings within SAO, but if she smelled it, she smelled it.

Heedless of the strange looks from the other man and woman in the ward, Yimi hopped straight onto the nightstand used for get-well gifts and cocked her head to look at Asuna on the hospital bed.

Compared with how she’d looked before, Asuna was now noticeably thinner, but under better care she didn’t differ too much from that beautiful figure she’d cut in SAO.

"A cat? Where did this cat come from?" Yuuki Kyouko reached out to shoo her away.

"I’ve seen this cat before—it seems to be one Sugou Nobuyuki keeps." Yuuki Shouzou’s single remark froze his wife’s half-extended hand.

It had nothing to do with knowledge or education—who would want to touch something an AIDS patient had touched?

Yuuki Shouzou had vaguely heard Sugou Nobuyuki say something about a talking cat, but that scoundrel had already been beaten senseless, and with the string of matters uncovered afterward, even Sugou Nobuyuki himself had, for the time being, stopped paying any mind to the bizarre business of how he’d been injured.

"One of Sugou Nobuyuki’s? Drive it away, quick!"

As she said this, Yuuki Kyouko grabbed the bananas Kirito had brought on his visit and hurled them at Yimi.

"Meow?"

How rude this woman was!

Yimi angrily bit down on a banana, then saw Kyouko—who’d found a broom from who knows where—swinging it at her.

"Meow!"

She spat out the banana and clamped her jaws around the broom handle. Never having imagined a cat could be so strong, Kyouko, in a moment of carelessness, actually let her wrench the broom away.

Rising up on her hind legs, Yimi flicked out a claw and skewered it into the banana.

"Wee-wee, wee-wee." Grumbling a couple more curses, Yimi stood up on her hind legs and clutched the broom with her front paws.

Kyouko & Shouzou: "?"

And then, under the two’s baffled gazes, she swung the broom at Kyouko. At the thought that this was a hospital broom—who knew what all it had swept up—Yuuki Kyouko was, for the moment, driven steadily backward.

What’s more, even as she retreated, Yimi would come chasing after her, broom in her arms, to keep swatting at her.

A cat demon?

Because Kyouko too carried Asuna’s scent, she didn’t take it too far.

Yimi tossed the broom aside, leapt up once more, ran onto Asuna, and gently pressed down on her a couple of times.

The several thousand SAO victims had all been set free; at a time like this, even if two or three hundred people were still trapped in there, it probably wouldn’t draw much attention, and would only be pinned on Kayaba Akihiko as the scapegoat.

Exploiting this, Sugou Nobuyuki had pulled some strings and, at the moment SAO collapsed, transferred three hundred people including Asuna, imprisoning them within another FullDive game he was in charge of operating—ALfheim Online.

Every one of the other three hundred, Asuna aside, he’d taken to conduct experiments on consciousness and memory. As for Asuna, she was a woman he’d long since coveted; he wanted, by this means, to separate Asuna’s consciousness from her memories, and thereby possess her in both worlds.

"Meow."

Yimi meowed at Asuna. In the past, Asuna had never been a heavy sleeper—the slightest movement nearby could startle her awake—which was precisely why Yimi had never once had the chance to do away with Mr. Crocodile.

Yimi stared in puzzlement at the NerveGear atop her head; a moment ago she’d heard that woman ask whether Asuna would have to wear this NerveGear her whole life.

Since Asuna wasn’t much of a gamer herself—she’d only borrowed her brother’s gear on the spur of the moment to give it a try—she’d honestly given her game ID the very same pronunciation as her real name, so Yimi could tell that the "Asuna" they kept saying was her.

Yimi placed her front paws on Asuna’s NerveGear and activated Love Train.

To take it off for her.

"Stop that!" Yuuki Kyouko watched in horror at the cat demon’s destructive antics before her.

The electromagnetic waves that would have fried the brain never triggered, and after a slight delay, Asuna struggled to open her eyes, which hadn’t seen proper light in over a year.

"Yimi..."

Was this a dream?

Of course she wasn’t granted any buffer of time to come to her senses; only a second ago she’d still been locked in a birdcage-like cell in ALO, secretly grieving over Kayaba Akihiko’s final words.

Her father, her mother, and Yimi in her cat form.

"Asuna!" After the shock of the past few moments, Kyouko—who had built up a great deal of resentment inside—set aside her complaints for now and, shaken with lingering fear, grasped her daughter’s hand.

But Asuna pulled her hand back with great aversion, as though mounting her first act of rebellion against Kyouko’s high-pressure upbringing.

No—no matter what she’d gone through in the game, the fact that she couldn’t work up any will to defy her mother had never once changed.

But it was all too fake.

"Asuna?"

From what Asuna knew of her mother, the concern of holding her hand wasn’t out of character—but the first words out of her mouth would surely have been, "You’ve already wasted nearly two years; people your age should be thinking about which university to attend."

Most crucial of all: how could these three people possibly be in the same frame?

Asuna gave a sneer she never would have given before, and reached out to stroke Yimi’s kitty face.

If Sugou Nobuyuki thought such a clumsy ploy could fool her, then his brain was even more foolish than she’d imagined.

Yimi nuzzled Asuna’s hand, then stood up on her hind legs and pointed at Kyouko to tattle. "She just... hit me."

Kyouko: "..."