Having arrived at the Ocean Turtle and discarded their disguises, Yuuki Asuna and Sachi demanded the information about their fiance, Minamoto Yami and their brother in law Kirito from Kikuoka Seijirou.

Sachi: Where's Yami?

She stood in front of Kikuoka and sent the man a glare. Kikuoka just stood still, didn't say anything as he was still startled at Asuna's sudden appearance. Seeing both sides doesn't say anything, Higa decided to intervene.

Higa: See? What'd I tell you, Kikuoka? That kid's the biggest security hole in this whole operation. Luckily it's not Ichigo or the rest of his family who found us or you will get your ass beaten by them.

Kikuoka then shivered when Higa mentioned Ichigo or the rest as Kikuoka know that they will beat him when they found their young brother-figure missing and he was the source of it. Kikuoka then shook his head, calmed down, and look at Asuna, Sachi and Rinko.

Kikuoka: Look like you couldn't have been more right.

Asuna: Is Yami and Kirito safe? Were you lying when you said you could heal him? Tell me, Kikuoka!

Asuna yelled at Kikuoka in frustration. She'd also appeared to have her hand on the hilt of her sword if it were there.

Kikuoka: When that fugitive from the Death Gun incident attacked, Kirito's brain sustained damage that modern medicine is unable to heal.

Asuna: Unable... to heal him...?

Kikuoka: However, there exists one piece of technology, here at Rath, that may be able to save him. I'm sure you've heard of it. The STL... the Soul Translator. If we use the STL to directly stimulate his Fluctlight, we can help him generate a new neutral network.

Kikuoka: But it takes time. Kitsune and Kirito is inside one of the few full-spec STLs in existence, all of which are in this facility. We're treating him better than any hospital could. He even has his own personal nurse.

Sachi closed her eyes and thinking of if she can trust the man in front of her. After a while, Sachi opened her eyes and stared at Kikuoka with an intense stare, trying to seek out Kikuoka's true intentions. After several seconds, she finally bobbed her head and said.

Sachi: All right... I'll believe you for now.

Kikuoka's shoulders slouched a bit with relief. Rinko stepped toward him and asked.

Rinko: Now that all that's out in the open, why don't you just tell us everything, Kikuoka? Why is an SDF member like you posing as a harmless department head in the Ministry of the Interior? What are you plotting here? And why did you need Minamoto-san?

Kikuoka: Will you help us if I tell you?

Rinko: I'll decide based on your answer.

Kikuoka: Well then, may I assume you're both familiar with the concept of the STL?

Asuna: It's a machine that reads a human's soul... their Fluctlight... making it possible to dive into a virtual world indistinguishable from reality.

Kikuoka: Correct. But I take it you don't know this project's objective. Right?

Asuna: Objective?

Kikuoka: To create a bottom-up, general artificial intelligence being.

——

After Kikuoka finished telling Asuna, Sachi and Rinko about their objective, the two of them looked at him with shocked expressions.

Asuna: An artificial intelligence being?

Kikuoka: Let us start by discussing what is currently referred to as AI. Before the millennium, developers of artificial intelligence used two different approaches toward the same goal. One was called top-down AI and the other was called bottom-up AI.

Asuna and Sachi then focused very hard on the explanation.

Kikuoka: First, top-down. This approach involves taking simple question-answer programs and protocols based on existing computer architecture, then feeding them more knowledge and experience until they eventually learn enough to approach true intelligence.

Higa: Until recently, the AI that Professor Shigemura has been researching and essentially all of the AI that you see currently used the top-down development method.

Kikuoka: But a top-down type can't react appropriately to anything it hasn't learned about. In effect, this means they have not yet reached the level of true intelligence. Next, I will explain bottom-up artificial intelligence. This is the idea that involves re-creating the human brain—a biological amalgamation of one hundred billion brain cells connected in complex ways—in an electronic fashion, to simulate intelligence. That's how we hope to give rise to intellect.

Asuna: If what you said is true, then what does it have to do with creating an artificial being?

Kikuoka: You see, Asuna. After witnessing, Yui, the former top-down AI transferred into a body of a young girl, I got this idea of creating one with a bottom-down AI type. So if we were to combine a living human's DNA and raise this AI in a realistic environment simulation, then I believe we can successfully create an artificial being no different from a human.

Asuna: Is that... even possible...?

Kikuoka: Until now, it was thought to be impossible. But the Soul Translator can scan a human soul, the quantum field we call Fluctlight.

Higa: And to transfer the same amount of data of Fluclight into a human brain, we've developed the Light Quantum Gate Crystal, aka the Lightcube, as a medium.

Rinko: Which means it can be used to copy a Fluctlight?

Kikuoka: Correct. We have, in fact, succeeded in replicating the human soul.

Hearing the words, Asuna, Sachi and Rinko simultaneously looked at Kikuoka with a shocked expression. Rinko also wondered why they need her if they already succeed in their project.

Rinko: Then why did you need me at this point?

Kikuoka: Because, foolishly enough, we'd missed something. The fact that an unbelievably vast and deep chasm exists between a copy of the human soul and a true artificial intelligence being. Higa. Show them "that".

Higa: Huh? We're doing that again?

Higa protested sourly, but he gave in and reluctantly started tapping at the console. Abruptly, the image of the strange, exotic city on the mega-screen went black.

Higa: All right, here we go. Loading copy model HG-001.

Higa smacked the ENTER key, and a complex array of radiant colors appeared in the middle of the screen. It was nearly white at the center, while the tips reaching outward got redder as they went and stretched and contracted irregularly.

???: ...Is the sampling over?

Rinko and Asuna's eyes widen in surprise when they heard a voice that similar to Higa's voices from speakers. However, there was a slight electronic falseness to it, roughness around the edges.

Higa: Yep, fluctlight sampling has concluded without issue.

???: Okay, cool. But... what's going on? It's all dark. I can't move. Is there something wrong with the STL? Hey, can you let me out?

Higa: Nah... sorry, I can't do that.

???: What? Wait, what do you mean? Who are you? I don't recognize your voice.

Higa: I'm Higa. Higa Takeru.

???:...

The red spikes suddenly shrank. After a brief silence, the sharp edges extended defiantly.

???: That's crazy. What are you talking about? I'm Higa. You'll see once you let me out of the STL!!!

Higa: It's all right. Don't get worked up. That's not like you.

At last, Rinko understood what she was witnessing. Higa was conversing with a copy of his soul.

Higa: You may be a copy, but you're Higa Takeru.

Copy of Higa: ...That's a lie! It can't be true. I'm not a copy; I'm the original Higa Takeru. If I'm a copy, then I should feel like one! This... This isn't... No! Let me out of here! Let me out of this thing!

Kikuoka: You need to calm down. You're aware of the danger to your Fluctlight if you lose the capacity for rational thought.

Copy of Higa: I am rational! Why don't we have a pi-recitation contest between me and that imposter over there, so I can prove it?! Let's start! 3.1415926535897932, three-ay-fo-sig-hdhdizi-hfjjfj&99,-fo-thril-dil-dil, dil, di-didi-!.$&:&/@/'ns, dil-dil-dil-dil dbsnsnsnzjiwjz nansnajs....

The red light expanded to fill the screen like an explosion. Then a black dot appeared at the center and spread outward until there were no traces left. Higa let out a very, very long sigh and helplessly tapped a key on the console.

Higa: That's a collapse. One minute, eight seconds.

Rinko balled her hands into fists in anger while Asuna had her hand over her mouth, sick at the presentation, Sachi looked away in rage. Rinko then glared at Kikuoka.

Rinko: There's a limit to bad taste!

Kikuoka: I apologize for that. But now you see why I could explain it by showing you. Including myself, we've copied the Fluctlight of over ten people, and not a single one could beat the thought of being a copy. If full copies are out of the question, what should we do?

Rinko: What should we do? Raise them from the start?

Sachi: You mean...

Kikuoka: That's right. Copy the souls of newborn infants and raise them.

Asuna, Sachi and Rinko looked at Kikuoka with wide eyes.

Rinko: But what kind of environment would you raise them in? You can't create an exact copy of the real world.

Kikuoka: Yes, that's impossible. But we realized something. Plenty of perfect solutions already exist on the network.

Asuna: ...VRMMO worlds.

Higa: You got that right. Using the Seed, we created small villages and surrounding landscapes and converted them for STL use.

Kikuoka: In the very first time we created, members of the RATH raised 16 soul archetypes, that is. AI infants, to the age of 18. These sixteen youths grew up quickly. Although we call them artificial Fluctlights for convenience, the way they turned out was more than satisfactory. They were all very obedient and upstanding.

Kikuoka: When they were joined in marriage, we gave them babies—in other words, new soul archetypes for them to raise. And after accelerating time in their world by five thousand times the speed of the real world, there were more and more generations, and by the time 3 weeks, or 300 years in their world, had elapsed, a massive society with a population of 80,000 had emerged.

Rinko: But at that level, that's a civilization simulation.

She stared at the screen that had changed back into the Underworld. In front of Rinko is a huge, 100-story square white tower, with mirror-like marble walls, that towers at the center of the Human Empire.

Kikuoka: You're true about that. At this time. 480 years have already passed in that world, and the population of the capital, Centoria has reached 20,000.

Higa: At this time, the artificial Fluctlights have matured into the bottom-up AI's that we'd hoped for. So we were thrust to be able to move to the next phase. However...

Kikuoka: that's when we noticed a certain major issue.

Rinko: Issue?

Kikuoka: A governing body called the Axiom Church had created laws known as the Taboo Index.

Asuna: Taboo Index?

Kikuoka: For example, it contains a law forbidding murder, just like we have in the real world. But just by watching the news, it's clear how often humans violate such laws. However, the Fluctlights obey those laws. Obey them excessively, you could say. This town is beautiful and far too perfect. There isn't a piece of garbage on the streets and not a single thief. Needless to say, no murder has ever been committed.

Rinko: And how is that a "problem"?

Sachi, who had been listening all along, finally spoke up when she realized what Kikuoka's true intention is.

Sachi: Could it be that your objective... is to create AIs capable of murder?

Rinko, Kikuoka, Asuna and Higa were all speechless. Asuna stared at each of them in turn before continued.

Sachi: the three of us Yami, Kirito and I figured that the reason for your interest in VRMMOs was because the technology could be applied to police work and SDF training. But... This project is far too ambitious for just that. For an SDF official like yourself to attempt something of this scale... What you want to build AIs capable of killing enemy soldiers in battle. Am I wrong?

Rinko: Is that true, Kikuoka?

Sachi, Asuna and Rinko looked at Kikuoka suspiciously. The military officer's poker face broke for just a second, betraying a look of shock. Then he smiled.

Kikuoka: Five years ago, when the NerveGear was announced, it struck me. This technology had the potential to upend the basic precepts of war. When the SAO incident occurred, I volunteered to transfer to the Ministry and joined the task force. I did all that so I could get this project off the ground. Five long years later, and here I am.

Rinko then looked at Higa and asked him what his reason for joining with Kikuoka was. As far as she knew him, Higa is the person that looked up to Kayaba Akihiko and Sugou Nobuyuki. Thus, she can't imagine why the person who idolizes Kayaba followed a person like Kikuoka, who is completely different than Kayaba.

Rinko: Why did you decide to take part in this project, Higa?

Higa: Well, actually, my motivations were a bit more personal. I was friends with this one guy when I was a college student in Korea. And he died during his military service. And so I thought... even if this world is never rid of war, at least if people never had to die anymore, then... I know it's a pretty childish reason.

Asuna then looked down and said to Kikuoka as everyone's attention turned to the brown-haired girl.

Asuna: But... you haven't spoken a word of this to Yami?

Kikuoka: What makes you think that?

Asuna lift her face and looked at Kikuoka with a serious expression.

Asuna: If you had talked to him about it, he never would've agreed to help you. There's one crucial piece you missing from your story.

Kikuoka: And that is?

Asuna: The rights of artificial intelligence. These so-called "artificial Fluctlights" have the same cognitive abilities as humans, right?

Kikuoka: It's not as if they have physical bodies.

Asuna: But they're are no different than living beings. Forcing them to kill or be killed as tools of war... Yami and Kirito would never play part in that! Never.

Kikuoka: It's not like I don't understand what you're saying. But to me, the lives of 100,000 artificial intelligence are worth far less than a single SDF soldier's.

Asuna and Sachi and Kikuoka then glare at each other, both sides don't want to lose as both sides believe in their belief.

Rinko put her right hand on Asuna's and Sachi's shoulder and looked at her with an "It's alright, let me handle the rest" look, then stood in front of Kikuoka.

Rinko: Anyway, why did you need Minamoto-kun? Why would you use him at the risk of leaking something so highly confidential?

Kikuoka: Oh, right. I was telling you all this to help me explain that. Why are the artificial Fluctlights unable to disobey the Taboo Index? That's when I came up with a certain experiment. If we were to block all of a real human's memories, revert him to childhood and have him grow up in the Virtual world, would the subject be able to disobey the Taboo Index? To carry out this experiment, we need a subject who was used to moving in a Virtual World. And not just a week or a month's worth, but experience amounting to years.

Asuna widened her eyes in surprise as Minamoto Yami, Kirigaya Kazuto or famously known as Kitsune and Kirito perfectly fit the description of Kikuoka

Kikuoka: You understand now, don't you?

Asuna then reluctantly nodded her head but she remembered something missed in Kikuoka in explanation. He only explained to her how he planned to create the "artificial being" with an ability of bottom-up AI and not

Asuna: You said time was accelerated in there. How long has Yami been in there?

Kikuoka: Two years. But luckily we didn't leave them stranded with no direction. If an emergency were to happen, we gave him an objective to reach the tower console in the central city. I personally watched over Kitsune and Kirito as one of his favorite video game characters. But now, let me show the primary test subject.

Asuna: Test subject?

Kikuoka: If you would follow me to where Kitsune and Kirito are being treated.

Kikuoka started to walk away from the room, followed by Asuna, Sachi and Rinko while Higa continues to do his job. Asuna, Sachi and Rinko soon found themselves staring at two machines in the cleanroom on the other side of the glass.

The Soul Translator is a very large rectangular cuboid machine that, along with the console and cooling equipment, can take up an entire large room, nearly reaching the ceiling at the top.

The outside of the machine is not dyed; however, the machine gives off a dark grey-silver glow and mechanical feel due to the aluminum used in its construction. The machine also has a logo of the manufacturer, just the simple words <<Soul Translator>> in English on its side and a large number on top.

From there, Asuna, Sachi and Rinko could see Kirito diving from within the STL. The number on top of Kirito Soul Translator is 4.

Kikuoka: This is where Kirito is being treated. Let me show you whete's Yami is.

They followed him to a seperate room away from Kirito. He pulls the curtains away as the three females gasped to see Yami connected by cables on the machines.

Sachi: oh my god, what happened?

Kikuoka: that one is still confusing. He used his powers to connect to Underworld like the Soul Translator. Although he's connected usually it would shut him down but he still can breath and feel the emotions.

Sachi: even pain?

Kikuoka: yes but his regeneration ability has healed those wounds.

Asuna: wait since when did you know his powers!? Only we know them!!

Kikuoka: he told me about his powers when the Death Gun incident was happening.

Asuna: who's taking care of Kirito if Yami can regenerate?

Kikuoka: Don't worry, he was taken by someone that he trusted.

Minutes later in the Ocean Turtle's upper shaft, Sachi and Asuna was gazing at her fiancé's boyfriend/brother in law, lying in a bed connected to a Soul Translator while Yami was using his powers, together with Rinko.

Rinko looked at the machine and saw the large numerals designating unit numbers. She gazed at them for nearly half a minute before she finally spoke.

Rinko: This one's unit four... And that one's unit five.

She said, gazed at the machine beside Kirito and it has number 5 on it while Kirito has number 4 on it. Suddenly, a hushed voice on her right began to explain.

???: Prototype one, and units six, seven, eight, and nine, now under construction, are at the Roppongi branch, while two and three are installed in the lower shaft. And as you know, unit zero is hidden in another room beside Mikogami-kun's room.

Asuna and Rinko turned around and saw Aki. She wore a white uniform over her tall, shapely body, flat-soled slip-on shoes, and the distinctive hat of a nurse.

Sachi: Aki...! What are you doing here?

Aki: Taking care of Yami and Kirito, of course.

Asuna: But we thought you were a nurse at the hospital in Chiyoda Ward. Were you pretending like, just like Kikuoka-san?

Aki: Of course not. Unlike that old man, I'm an actual nurse. It's just that the school I graduated from is the Tokyo Self-Defense Force Higher School of Nursing.

Asuna and Sachi looked at Aki with a shocked expression as Aki lifted her right hand to her forehead in a crisp salute and winked with her left eye.

Aki: I am Sergeant First Class Natsuki Aki. I pledged to protect Yami and Kirito, life, and limb, with full of responsibility! And so on!

Asuna and Sachi stared at her, half in shock and half annoyed. She sighed and bowed her head.

Asuna: I'm counting on you, then.

Aki: Right. Just leave it to me.

After the introduction, Sachi and Asuna turned back toward STL Unit Four and gazed at the white-haired boy lying on the gel bed, just ten feet away, yet out of reach behind the glass.

Asuna: Yami, Kirito... are coming back, are theh?

Aki: Of course. Yami and Kirito's Fluctlight is vital and active inside the treatment program, even as we speak. And besides, we're talking about the hero who cleared SAO, right?

Asuna then put her left hand with her engagement right on the mirror as she looks at Yami and Kirito on the other side of the room. Rinko looked away from Asuna, feeling guilty, then took a deep breath and spoke to her.

Rinko: Asuna-?

Upon her calling, Asuna and Sachi turned at Rinko with raised eyebrows.

Asuna: Yes. What can we help you with, Rinko-san?

Rinko: I wanna talk with you about something important. Did you have a free time?

Asuna: Sure. We got nothing to do at eight o'clock. Is that alright with you?

Rinko: Hai.

(Timeskip)

It was now eight o'clock and it was now pitch-black outside. After requesting a private conversation with Asuna along with Sachi and meet her in her room, Rinko currently sat on the chair in front of Asuna and Sachi who sitting down on the bed.

Rinko then summoned her courage and stared Asuna and Sachi right in the eyes.

Rinko: There's something I need to tell you. No... not just you. It's something I should confess to all former SAO players.

Upon the mention of SAO, both girls fixed their gaze and stare at Rinko with a serious expression.

Rinko: You already know that during the SAO incident, Kayaba Akihiko and I were hiding in the mountains of Nagano?

Both nodded and Rinko undid two buttons on her cotton shirt. She lifted a silver necklace out of the way of the gap to expose a diagonal surgical scar to the left of her sternum.

Rinko: I had a micro-bomb implanted in my chest.

Both girls gasped when Rinko mentioned that there is a micro-bomb implanted in her chest. They stared at her with a shocked expression and curiosity.

Rinko: Because of that, for two years, I was forced to collaborate with him on this terrifying project. But that wasn't really true.

Rinko put her necklace and shirt back in place, then summoned the courage to continue.

Rinko: I was well aware that the bomb would never go off. The bomb he implanted in me was a ruse meant to stave off any criminal charges against me. It was the only presented he ever gave me.

Rinko then held the necklaces tightly and continue to tell her story.

Rinko: Apparently, by the time he got into Toto Institute of Technology, Kayaba was already the head of development at Argus, but I didn't know anything about that, all I could see was a scrawny kid who was shut-in, immersed in his research. Although I began dating Kayaba, I couldn't figure out why he never pushed me away. Well, it's more like... I never really understood... anything about him in the first place. When I went to his mountain lodge, it wasn't because I wanted to be his accomplice. I... intended to kill Kayaba.

Asuna:...

Both girls continued to listen to the story while stared at Rinko with a sad frown. The man she fell in love with was a criminal and she thought it was her responsibility to kill him with her own hands.

Rinko: But... I'm sorry, Asuna. I... couldn't kill him.

Rinko then started to teared up when she continued to tell her story.

Rinko: Kayaba figured that I was armed with a knife. He only said, "What am I going with you?" like he always did, and then went right back to Aincrad.

Rinko couldn't go on. She could only breathe, over and over as she started to completely burst into tears.

Rinko: I... I...

Seeing Rinko apologizing in tears about her inability to stop the incident, Sachi and Asuna can't help but feel bad for her. Both look at Rinko and spoke up.

Sachi: Neither Yami nor I have ever hated you for that. In fact, I'm not even sure if I really feel any hate for Heathcliff... Kayaba Akihiko himself.

Rinko looked up at Asuna's and Sachi's face with a confused expression when she saw a faint smile on their faces lips.

Asuna: A lot of lives were indeed lost in that incident. The commander's crime is simply unforgivable. But... we know this is really selfish thing to say... we are sure that I we look back on the days we've passed with Yami... Kitsune in that world and think of it as the best time of our life.

Rinko looked at Asuna and Sachi completely shocked.

Asuna: Just as Commander's is guilty of his sin, so am I and so is Yami, Sachi, Kirito. And so are you, Rinko-san. But these aren't crimes we can atone for by being tried and punished. The day might never come when we are forgiven for our sins. And that means we have to continue to face what we've done.

——

Time Skip

After confessing her sin to Asuna and Sachi, Rinko head back to her room and slept in her bed, tired of today's expedition. In the middle of the night, Rinko heard a familiar sound of that gentle voice that caused Rinko's eyes to peel open. She got the sense that a tall figure was standing next to her bed in the dark.

???: What am I going to do with you? I can't believe you came all this way.

Rinko: What's going on? It's still the middle of the night...

Realized that she was talking to Kayaba, Rinko gasped and her eyes wide open. Immediately, she got out of the bed and barefoot rushing through the hallway only to found no one.

Rinko: Was I just dreaming...?

But she could still hear that low, soft voice in her ears. Without realizing it, Rinko clutched the locket she always wore around her neck.

End of Volume