Sword Art Online II: Sheik's Story

One Step At a Time

Until the authorities arrived, I spent some time with Asuna in her house. Telling her about myself here in the real world. She already kind of explained her situation to me in GGO, so no need for that. And once they arrived, they recognized me immediately, having been to the police station before. But thankfully, Asuna vouched for me, and took most of the blame, since she was the one who slammed a stereo onto his head. Now that I know she's safe, it was time for me to head home too.

———

A couple days pass. Asuna had spoken out against her mom. Taking a stance that can effectively call her own. Of course, being a parent, it took more than a couple words to convince her to let Asuna make her own decisions. So Asuna requested she play GGO with her for a five minutes. They talked there, when into a couple fights, and seeing how confident her daughter could be, her mother slowly started to calm down on the whole suitor thing. However, one proposition didn't change, and that was that Asuna can't marry someone of lower status than her. Other than that, Asuna was given a bit more freedom in her spare time. Once that was done, she found me parked outside her home, waiting for her. Apparently, Kikuoka wanted to talk with her as well for assisting in the investigation. Also, Pito wouldn't be showing up, since she had a pretty packed schedule. Guess she's a pretty busy woman. We met at the same cafe from before.

After giving Asuna the details about what happened after her friend, Shinkawa, and his older brother XaXa were arrested. There was a third guy as well, but he hasn't been put into custody. Apparently it was a scheme that the Shinkawas thought up after the older brother, Shouichi, got the invisibility cloak from a real money trade. With it, a pair of binoculars, Shouichi used it to spy on other players real life info. Around this time, his little brother, Kyouji Shinkawa, was having trouble with his own avatar, Spiegel. He was an AGI player, which XeXeeD, the top player in GGO at the time, used to recommend, but then made a 180 statement about how STR and BIT combo builds were the way to go. So basically, he was a meta-slave. Back on topic, to make a long story short, Kyouji gets mad, his brother gives him XeXeeD's IRL info and permission to use his avatar, Kyouji shoots screen with XeXeeD on it, XeXeeD dies from Shouichi injecting a drug he got at their father's hospital. Oh yeah, they also got a master keycard from their dad's hospital too, so they can open any security system lock in case of an emergency. But as you know, they weren't using it for emergencies, they were using to murder people. Gotta say, these guys definitely knew what they were doing. Researching their victims meticulously, pinning down which players lived alone, tracking their real life info, and going in for the kill when the signal was given. Seriously, it takes a real psychopath to think of and pull this off with such major success. But they didn't have the impact they wanted. Death Gun became a urban legend, or more like a community joke. So they decided to up their game by killing people in the BoB final. Garret, and Pale Rider, and Asuna. Thankfully, I managed to save Pale Rider and Asuna, but not Garret...

But I know what you're thinking, dear reader, "but Shiek, Asuna doesn't live alone, she lives with her parents!" Yes, she does. However, Kyouji got rather close to the family, being their family doctor and what not. And Asuna would usually consult in him whenever she was down. So he knew that on the day of the BoB finals, she would be completely alone once 9 PM hit, and her maid and butler went home. As for why he wanted to kill her, I had no idea. He clearly had the hots for her.

"Seriously, what kind of family of psychos thinks they can get away with that shit?" I growl and sip some tea.

"Indeed. We haven't caught their third accomplice, but he cannot hide for very long."

"How did this third guy even get into contact with Death Gun guys?" I asked.

"Because he was an old friend of Shouichi's. They were in Laughing Coffin together. His handle was Johnny Black." Kikuoka says.