Unital Ring II: The Virtual Study Society

Meeting with Kikuoka

Joshua

"I believe you already know me quite well. At last, we meet, Chrysheight."

That's Tomo Hosaka, known to Kazuto Kirigaya and me as Argo the Rat, the great info broker from SAO and occasionally a help later on. I've known her to be a dispensary of knowledge, but her knowing not just who Seijirou Kikuoka is but the identity of his ALO avatar is surprising. Kazuto and I glance at each other, with many questions running through our heads, and even Kikuoka himself is shocked Argo identified him.

Forgetting that Kikuoka rarely logs on to play ALO with his undine character, how would she know that character? How did she connect the man to the avatar? Speaking from personal experience, it took me quite a while to recognize Kazuto, Asuna Kotone, Keiko, Nijika, and Rika when I met them after SAO despite seeing (for the most part) their actual appearance over that two-year time span. But the biggest question in my head is how she knew we were meeting him too?

"...I see, so it was you that one time..." Kikuoka drops that bit of information that throws my mind haywire so much I almost ignore the waiter who comes for our order. Since Kikuoka is paying, I decide to get a chocolate mousse cake and hot cappuccino, about 3,400 yen total (less than $30 USD, this place isn't for the faint of wallet). Despite being rich, I try to be frugal, even with virtual currency. Kazuto's bill for the same drink and cheesecake with chestnut sauce comes to a total of 3,100 yen, while Tomo wins the most expensive order award with an order of the month's special cake and hot royal milk tea totaling 3,500. In total, we're a perfect 10,000 yen, about $72 USD.

For the couple of times I came here with Rika, Kotone, Momiji, Shino, or Koharu, I allowed them to get what they wanted, no matter the cost. Yet I've never breached a bill of 6,000 yen. And the last time Kazuto and I were here not too long ago with our girlfriends, the four of us didn't breach 10,000 yen when our meals were combined.

Argo is still expensive, and I don't even want to know how much Kikuoka's pear parfait costs.

"Well…I needed to get in contact with you again anyway, Argo, so…"

"So how do you two know each other?" Kazuto finally asks.

"We're client and investigator," answers Tomo.

"Which one's which?"

"Do you even hafta ask? This fella's the client."

"What's she doing for you?" I inquire Kikuoka.

"You know a public servant isn't supposed to talk about their official duties."

"But you're a fake government agent."

"Well, that's just rude…but to tell you the truth, it's not worth hiding from you two anyway," Kikuoka then lowers his voice to a whisper. "You know the company Kamura, right?"

I nod...for multiple reasons, but I choose to voice the most pertinent one. "The Augma devs."

"Yes. We've got info that they're doing something fishy with a VRMMO world, which is why I hired her."

Kazuto scowls. "Fishy? I hope it's not something like the Ordinal Scale incident all over again." I nod my agreement on that. During that time, Klein, his guild Fuurinkazan, Asuna, and many survivors of the SAO incident temporarily lost their memories of Sword Art Online. While that sounds like a blessing - I wouldn't disagree with someone for saying so, like Klein did - it was forced upon us by Dr. Shigemura. He used the Augma and the AR game Ordinal Scale to collect those memories of SAO as we fought against Old Aincrad's bosses and relived our fear. That data was, in turn, a ploy to recreate his daughter, Yuuna Shigemura, who died in SAO, with her artificial intelligence clone and current AR idol, Yuna. We were reunited with Yuuna's childhood friend Nautilus, going by his real name Eiji now, and even faced the true final boss of SAO.