Railgun Online Book 4: Alicization Beginning

Explanation of Fluctlights

"Wow.. it is hot out.."

The 17 year old girl ran her fingers through her chestnut colored hair and sipped a little more of her ice cold drink.

Sitting next to her, was her Cousin Shino Asada, also known as Sinon, master Bow user in ALfheim Online, and the strongest Sniper in Gun Gale Online. Though Shino was technically slightly younger then Mikoto, Mikoto tended to call her Nee-Chan, because she Shino as a more mature figure then her. And Shino thought of Mikoto as cute.. therefore she referred to as Mikoto Imouto-chan..

The two had been living together for several months now.. having even gone on a rather disturbing journey together through a VR Horror game called Dead Space Online. And despite the short time they had known each other, their friends often said that they were closer then anybody else they knew.

"Of course it's hot.. it's early June.." said the black haired boy sitting across from Mikoto, Kazuto Kirigaya, also known as the Black Swordsman Kirito, and one of Mikoto's best friends.

Sitting next to Kazuto, was his girlfriend, and another one of Mikoto's best friends, Asuna Yuuki, AKA The Lightning Flash Asuna.

Mikoto also had her own various titles.. but unlike her friends.. they were quite numerous. The Railgun, The Number 3, The former Ace of Tokwadai, The Blurred Blade of ALO and SAO, The Electric Princess, The Fastest Swordswoman, and etc...

Though Mikoto sometimes found the titles a bit overwhelming and pressuring.

"Oh what are we doing complaining about the heat?" Shino said, smiling at her cousin. "Considering that both Imouto-chan and Kirito-san finally got a nice break from  their mysterious top secret jobs."

"It's not top secret." said Kazuto. "It's just very controversial, so they needed to obscure some details, not even we know what exactly they're doing."

"Yeah, of course." said Asuna. "They keep deleting your memories every time you're done testing, kind of irritating, but I get why they would probably need to."

For weeks, Mikoto and Kazuto had been working as testers for a new VR technology made by a new company on the scene, known as Rath.

Mikoto and Kazuto both suspected that it might be a successor to the Amusphere. Some of the Rath employees even let slip that it might lead to the creation of a new device that would allow somebody to mentally connect to net and Full Dive from anywhere in the world, a device that was currently only theoretically called, The Neuro Linker. But for now.. the current beta technology for what would eventually be called Brain Machine Interface, or BMI..

Kazuto and Mikoto were both testers in the device. The process involved Full Diving in a dream like state for a full 3 days straight.. and afterwards, their memories of the experience were deleted to preserve the integrity of the new technology until the BMI was released.

Every 3 days that Mikoto came home, Shino would become worried, since the result of Full Diving 3 days without food, or water, was a bit detrimental on Mikoto's physical health.

Indeed, both she and Kazuto looked thinner. Due to this job, Shino had gone to the 4th Bullet of Bullets on her own.. making second place before Subtilizer took her out.. and took the winning title for himself.

It was now that, the friends began to discuss the 4th BoB..

"So wait." said Mikoto, interrupting Shino's explanation of what happened during the tournament. "You're talking about Subtilizer? The guy who got shot in the crotch by Twilight Prankster last BoB before Prankster said something about Meme attacks and destroyed him?"

"Well, I highly suspect Subtilizer would have definitely beaten all of us during the Death Gun incident." said Shino. "Cause this time.. he didn't bring any weapons at ALL.. he beat us all with his bare hands.."