Anyway, this chapter concludes the Taikoku vs Kirito duel... and surprisingly, Kirito was cutting it rather close there. If it wasn't for his horribly dorky fake dialect, I'd say that Taikoku would be quite an interesting character to have incorporated into the main story... if it wasn't for his excessive dorkiness that makes his dialogue hard to read.
The next ME will be the final one that contains Sugary Days, so Kawahara finally actually met his promise of "I'm ending the story with the next release for sure" after I-already-lost-count number of times of finally ending the story.
P.S.A. For those who are finding Taikoku's lines hard to read and don't read my notes: I've also posted a non-dialectal version of what he's saying below his lines. Just highlight the text below his lines to see the easier-to-read translation.
Seeing as October 18 marks the day Yuna died in SAO, we'll be making an Ordinal Scale release for next week.
Any feedback is appreciated.
-Gsimenas
Credits
Raws: CelestTranslation: Gsimenas
Editing: Cirtoyt
Proofreading: JengKay
Translation (choice/nuance) comments:
- Taikoku is a total dork who speaks in dialectal samurai speech... as if any one of those isn't enough on its own... Sigh, to account for the three-in-one package, I made all his lines broken archaic English. Since I'm a nice guy, I added a hidden proper English version of his lines in white font just below each line. Just highlight to see them.
- The new character's speech pattern consists of things like using "oi" as a personal pronoun, using weird abbreviations, and near-Kansai-level grammartical structures. Also, he uses a -don honorific, which is the southern Kyushu version of -dono. Note that Kirito and Asuna catch the dialect bug in some instances of the text too, which is reflected with the same speech styling as Taikoku's.
- Phrase comment: 'You're just looking for excuses to show off your dialectal grammar, aren't you!' - the original text was "You just wanted to say "mohan", didn't you!" "-mohan" is the Satsuma equialent of the standard Japanese "-masen" verb form (polite negative). In the Satsuma dialect, the standard Japanese "-masu" form gets replaced with the verb "mousu" (申す), which apparently gets inflected as "-mohan" in Satsuma dialect to produce a negative verb.
- Phrase comment: 'staff-wielder's slow speech' - the original text was "slow tempo speech", where slow-tempo is in Engrish.
- All but one instances of "quarterstaff" was 両手棍 (ryoute tsue; two-handed staff). In the previous ME, one instance of this weapon name was given an English translation of "quarterstaff" (クォータースタッフ) as furigana for the term, thus we decided to maintain this translation for all instances of the term, even if furigana was not provided for any instance of it in this ME. There was one instance where the English word "quarterstaff" was used and is indicated in itallics, just like all notable Ingurisshu words
- Phrase comment: 's'ry and thx' - the original was すまんこってす (sumankotessu), an abbreviation of the phrase すまない事です (sumanai koto desu) that means "I apologise for this". Since Kirito used an abbreviation, I made this phrase more informal in English as well.
- Amputation damage is a term for when an avatar loses a part of their body (e.g., when Kuradeel chopped off Kirito's hand in volume 1/season 1 episode 10). Yen Press has translated this term as either "limb damage" (V1) or "part-loss damage" (PV5). Fan translations for V1 also went with "part-loss damage". However, "limb damage" is inaccurate, since it can also imply fractures, rather than literally chopping a limb off; meanwhile, "part-loss" doesn't specify that it refers to body parts. After consulting my editor, we decided to go with "amputation" instead of either of Yen Press's versions, as it's both accurate and succinct.
- I chose to keep the names of Japanese articles of clothing as is. I'm pretty sure everyone knows what a kimono is by now.
- Phrase comment: 'Ya've gotta be kidding me' - Kirito isn't suffering from Taikoku's dialectal bug. He just said うぞ (uzo) instead of うそ (uso), probably out of his shock.
- Pun explanation: 'was still very much on hand, or more like on foot' - the original phase was まだ手は、もとい足はある (mada te wa, motoi ashi wa aru), which literally means "there is an option, or rather, foot, still available". The word "hand" in Japanese can also mean "option/method/trick/approach", rather than solely the human body part. However, Kirito's plan involves using his feet, rather than hands.
- The original term for "legendary sword" was 魔剣 (maken), which refers to sword from legends/myths (or RPGs) that have some special powers. Depending on the context, it can either be short for "mahou no ken" ("magic sword"), or the "ma" kanji can be seen as the opposite of "holy", i.e. a cursed/demonic sword. The former definition doesn't really work in SAO, since the game has no real magic whatsoever due to its lore. So, to play it safe, I went with a broader "legendary" translation.
- The word "high-five" somehow ended up as "high-touch" (ハイタッチ) in Japanese. Guess Japanese just have to insert their Engrish everywhere, even where an actual English phrase exists.
- "Thick dialect" was actually "deep" in Engrish in the original, but that's not how English actually works.
- Itallics mark text that was written in katakana English (I only highlighted the cases where the author uses both English and actual Japanese equivalents for the same thing, or when I needed to emphasise that an English word is used there).
- Ｆｕｌｌ－ｗｉｄｔｈ text indicates non-Japanese text that was written in the Latin/English alphabet, rather than katakana. Basically, what you see is exactly how it's written in the raw.
- Courier font indicates that the original word was written in kana for emphasis (when such a word usually isn't written in kana)
- In some instances, the original text used furigana. In cases where the furigana wasn't exact match for the underlying text (usually when the author uses furigana to translate or describe foreign words in Japanese), I maintained the furigana format. Furigana text should be read as follows: Japanese translation/description of what the term/name means (e.g. cat fairy race - "Cait Sith" is what was actually said in text, while "cat fairy race" is just a brief description of what Cait Sith are to help differentiate between the different fairies.
- Single quotation marks (') are quotes that weren't in the original text but were added for the convenience of English speakers to mark implied quotations. I used it mostly to separate Kirito's internal monologue from his narration, as well as mark sound effects and so on. Actual dialogue lines or quotations (with 「」 punctuation marks) within a narration line are indicated with the usual double (") quotation marks.
1
"Ai esk thee agen. Kirito-don, Dyul mi end if thou were tu luze, I want thou to anser mi. Wat r da anlok kondishons fer da 《Dual Bleidz》 Yunik Skil…… end wehr ken Ai faind Mahokl-don, da suprym instraktur of da Vei of za Kritikal Hits.""I ask thee again. Kirito-don, Duel me and if thou were to lose, I want thou to answer me. What are the unlock conditions for the 《Dual Blades》 Unique Skill……and where can I find Mahokl-don, the supreme instructor of the Way of the Critical Hits."
The demand from the mysterious staff-wielder Taikoku, who appeared at our front yard out of the blue, was so staggering that I even forgot all about his fake Satsuma dialect for a moment.
It goes without saying that the brazenness with which he made his demand for me to reveal the unlock conditions for the 《Dual Blades》 skill that only I appear to possess in Aincrad at the current moment was staggering in its own right, but I found it unexpectedly hard to believe that Mahokl, the woodcrafter with swirly glasses, is the leader of the 《Kaishindou》——that is to say, the Critical Fundamentalists.
The Critlers are a bunch of people who have yet to join the Clearers despite the fact that two years have passed since the death game began, instead opting to spend all their time polishing their skills with Criticals at some secret training ground somewhere in Aincrad; sugarcoating things: they are a stoic bunch, or just some egoistic experimenters if I were to be blunt. Their secretiveness is said to be even greater than that of the 《Laughing Coffin》 PK guild that we crushed in August this very year; even an info broker as skilled as Argo the 《Rat》 has not been able to find out the simplest of things about the group, such as even what the guild the Critlers have probably created for themselves by now is called.
Having spent just two seconds with both my eyes and mouth open wide, I once again checked out the Colour Cursor above the giant man calling himself Taikoku. His name was yet to be displayed on his green Cursor as he's only given his name verbally, but I couldn't find any Guild Tag, which should be displayed if the player is in a guild either.
"……So, you're not in any guild?"
"On za pas of hauning wan's Kritikal skils, wan nydz not hev a gild."
"On the path of honing one's Critical skills, one needs not have a guild"
So, he's saying that the Critlers never actually formed a guild, system-wise, huh. In that case, it's very much possible that the players I've had contact with on a daily basis were secretly members of the Critlers, I mean, the Kaishindou…… possibly. There was that KoB wooden-handled-spear-enthusiast that came up during our conversation just before I noticed Taikoku's presence, perhaps he's also——
"Hey now."
My incoherent thoughts were interrupted by Asuna's voice, quite sharper than usual.
"It's way too insolent of you to barge in on someone's Player Home all of a sudden at a time like this, incite a Duel, and then demand that we tell you not one, but two major pieces of intel if you were to win. I'll humour you and ask: you do have some intel of equal value that you'd be able to share if you were to lose, right? The 'how I found out that this is the home of《The Black Swordsman》' thing you mentioned earlier is nowhere near equal value."
At her tough-nut negotiation skills that left me thinking, 'She's not the KoB Vice Commander for nothing', Taikoku's eyes under his super-thick eyebrows continued blinking repeatedly.
"Uch…… zou, thou kenot posibly ekspekt as ta hev intel on a Yunik Skil of aur aun."
"Uugh…… though, thou cannot possibly expect us to have intel on a Unique Skill of our own."
'You're just looking for excuses to show off your dialectal grammar, aren't you!'
Holding myself back from actually making that jab at that moment, I lent an ear to the staff-wielder's slow speech.
"Wailst Ai em not serten if dis ken be konsiderd of ykval velyu, Ai em viling ta forfit dis insted."
"Whilst I am not certain if this can be considered of equal value, I am willing to forfeit this instead."
What Taikoku materialised out of the window he opened with these words was a single long sword. Both its scabbard and handle were coloured a plain brown; I couldn't sense all that much rarity in the sword based on its appearance, to be honest.
Taking his left hand away from his quarterstaff that continued standing on the ground——I wonder if the wooden staff doesn't fall down because of some inherent ability of the weapon, or because of its owner's skills——Taikoku drew the sword from its scabbard. The instant I witnessed that the sword's blade was of the same colour as its handle, I realised what was so peculiar to it.
"Is that……a wooden sword, perhaps?"
"Ies siry."
"Yes siree."
Confirming my guess in an ever-increasingly-questionable(1) Satsuma dialect, Taikoku held out the deep-brown sword up high. Reflecting the moonlight, its blade gave off a dim flash of light.
"Notwisstending za fekt dat it iz a vuden sord, dis hyr sing iz no myr blant praktis sord. Its AKT(2) velyu is 620; ez far ez Ai em avehr, it grents za haiest Kritikal baunus among al wan-hend'd sords."
"Notwithstanding the fact that it is a wooden sword, this here thing is no mere blunt practice sword. Its ＡＫＴ value is 620; as far as I am aware, it grants the highest Critical bonus among all one-handed swords."
"O-oooh……"
An attack power value of 620 came up short compared to my beloved, over 700 Elucidator+45. However, it was quite a big number nonetheless, and I was curious about that Critical bonus whatsit too.
"…………"
I turned my face to my side in silence. Asuna turned her gaze to me at the same moment, thus we spent the next few moments making eye-contact in silence. Having read the "oh, what am I going to do with you" look from her hazel eyes and having sent over a "s'ry and thx" response through our telepathy, I returned my gaze to Taikoku.
"……Alright. I aksept…… I mean, I accept your challenge."
"Thou hev mai sanks."
"Thou have my thanks."
Having stolidly bowed his head in response, the staff-wielder looked around the area after storing the wooden sword back in its sheath, then walked over to a wooden table that had been left lying around on the lawn, atop of which he placed down the sword. Returning to us straight away, he gripped the still-standing quarterstaff with his big hand.
After opening his window once more, his finger suddenly stopped in its tracks——
"Iz a Fuhst Straik rul fer za Dyul ta thy laiking?"
"Is a First Strike rule for the Duel to thy liking?"
"Sure. I wouldn't mind a Half-Finish match either though.
As I found myself getting carried away, Asuna gave a stern nudge at my right elbow, while Taikoku himself shook his head at the same moment.
"Nei, Ai vud not rekomend det opshon. Efter al, if Ai ver ta misjuje mai eim, Ai mait end ap kiling thee, Kirito-don."
"Nay, I would not recommend that option. After all, if I were to misjudge my aim, I might end up killing thee, Kirito-don."
"……Heeh……"
As I stared at Taikoku's ever-serious expression, it only strengthened my first impression of him as an 《amusing staff-wielder》.
Long, long ago——way back on Floor 3, I had been challenged to a Half-Finish Mode Duel. I hadn't given much thought to my enemy's intentions when I accepted that Duel, which nearly led to me being killed back then. My enemy's goal had been to reduce my ＨＰ to just slightly above half of its maximum value, whereupon he planned to land a Critical on me with a high-powered Sword Skill in order to blow away the rest of my ＨＰ in one go.
Compared to back then, my ＨＰ value was now several times higher, but player attribute values and weapon specs increase accordingly as well, so it's not like there's no longer any risk of a single hit leading to death in a Half-Finish Mode match. Seeing as he went out of his way to warn me about that possibility, I could probably presume that Taikoku almost certainly has no interest in a 《Duel ＰＫ》 unlike that axeman I encountered back then. Another thing was also clear: the guy had absolute confidence in his own skills.
"In that case, let's go for a First Strike."
Nodding at my words, Taikoku operated his window with motions so smooth that it seemed out of place considering his thick-glove-like hands, in order to send out a Duel request to me. Once I accepted the request after checking over its terms, a line of text,【Ｔａｉｋｏｋｕ】, appeared over his Cursor.
"Sheesh…… just don't do anything rash, okay."
Having muttered this, Asuna stepped back to the porch of the house. Her firmly holding onto the scabbard of her rapier with her left hand was probably to allow her to intervene at a moment's notice if need be. After sending her a 'I'll be fine' message with my eyes, I drew out my beloved sword and threw its scabbard some distance away, before taking up an orthodox chuudan(3) stance.
During the thirty second countdown, I observed my opponent in order to predict the trajectory of his first strike, as usual. However, the staff-wielder didn't budge the slightest bit from his daunting pose after sticking his quarterstaff into the lawn with his left hand.
Based on his current posture, he'd need to go through two separate actions regardless of whether he went on the defensive or the offensive: lift up his heavy wooden staff and then get into a proper stance. All I need to do is charge at his right hand side that doesn't have contact with his staff just as the Duel begins…… or so one might think based on the situation, but unlike Kuradeel, the two-handed-sword-wielder and veteran KoB member—— who actually turned out to have been a Laughing Coffin remnant in disguise, that I had fought about a week ago, this guy had a composed and firmly-rooted posture.
So, the crucial question here: is the blindspot on his right side actually bait to lure me in for a counter, or not. Seeing as my hesitation wouldn't go away even as the timer crossed the ten second line, perhaps it was caused by my relaxed sugary-sweet daily life with Asuna for three whole days…… wait, that's not the case. It's actually the result of the man named Taikoku emitting an aura far different from any player I've had a Duel against. If I had to put my finger on it, I'd say that the aura was just the slightest bit similar to that of Heathcliff, against whom I fought before a huge crowd the very next day after my Duel against Kuradeel. Perhaps my loss from that Duel was the driving force behind my hesitation.
At times like this, if you can't go for the best option, at least go for the better and clever one: start observing my opponent without making any moves just the same. Three seconds left, two, one…………
Zero.
Just as that number flashed by, I kicked off the ground with all my might. If Taikoku actually had a plan for countering my rush attack from that posture, then I very much wanted to see what it was. I'm quite well aware that it's not all that clever of a course of action to take, but it's not like I managed to survive two years here through acts of intelligence.
Just like back in my battle against Kuradeel, the skill I chose to activate was the charging leap technique《Sonic Leap》. However, I passed over my sword from my right hand to my left one just as I stomped down and used left-handed mirror motions to aim for Taikoku's right arm.
Although an arm was, of course, not a critical point, the only thing my opponent had equipped on him was Japanese-style fabric armour. Even if he had some chains or something of the sort underneath that armour, my Elucidator+45 with plenty of points set to Heaviness should have no trouble going through some half-baked metal armour and deal enough damage to earn me a First Strike win.
"……Haah!"
Letting out a short shout, I was about to strike Taikoku at his upper right arm with my sword.
Just as I was on the brink of doing so, the staff-wielder once again took his left hand off his quarterstaff and folded his arms in a pose similar to a pullover and brought them into a position in front of his body.
"Dosukooi!!"
With a yell loud enough to make the trees in the yard shake, Taikoku unleashed a gray light effect from his entire body.
This motion was one that I've seen before and one that I could use on myself too. It was a high-grade technique from the Martial Arts skill tree, 《Steel Tempering》. For a single second, it increased your Defence so high that your entire body would become harder than a set of full plate armour. However, the conditions that had to be met in order to trigger the skill were very strict: even if you were to take up the 《Relax Equipment Conditions》 Ｍｏｄ from the skill, you still had to equip nothing more than fabric armour on your torso; moreover, you had to have both of your hands entirely free to be able to use the technique. This was the first time I saw someone letting go of a wooden staff after stabbing it into the ground, using the weapon's or Taikoku's own special abilities to fix it in place, in order to meet the latter condition.
——I see, so that's his game, huh.
During that split second, I instantly decided on a course of action to take in response. If I were to cancel my Sonic Leap here, I'd get socked with the guy's quarterstaff during the ensuing rigor penalty and that would bring the Duel to an end. I only had a single choice at my disposal——to have faith in myself and my beloved sword and ram the steel-turned Taikoku at full power.
Holding my breath, I swung my arm along the trajectory of my Sonic Leap, further increasing the speed of my spin. This was my Non-System Skill, 《Power Burst》.
The Elucidator's blade practically engulfed into Taikoku's burly right shoulder as it hit.
Our light blue and gray effect lights collided, gushing out dazzlingly. A powerful feedback. Taikoku's large body, so firmly-rooted in place as if he were a tree that had taken root into the ground, lurched backwards violently.
The ＨＰ bar at the edge of my view went down by just a mere three percent. That's not nearly enough to qualify as a First Strike. However, my full-powered slash managed to cause a knockback effect; even if it was quite meagre, it did allow me to block him from carrying out a split-second counter-attack that he had probably been planning as a follow-up to his 《Steel Tempering》.
I recovered from my post-skill rigor after landing on the ground at just about the same moment as Taikoku managed to recover his posture and grab his quarterstaff.
Now we'd have to read each other's moves as we exchanged blows at point-blank range. The first to screw up here would lose.
"Tsk!!"
A thrust so sharp that it belied the heaviness of the wooden staff came flying right at my throat. If he'd been using some lightweight weapon, I could probably parry the blow, yet a quarterstaff might just knock my blade aside. Although I attempted to dodge the blow with a backward dash and a sway of my body instead, the tip of the staff reached out farther than I had anticipated and thus I felt a sting of heat at my Adam's apple despite bending my body backwards as much as I possibly could. No sooner than I managed to evade the blow somehow by the skin of my teeth, I switched over to a tactic that made use of both the shortcoming of two-handed staves, and the advantage that one-handed swords offered.
The flaw of any quarterstaff-type weapon is that they do not have a blade. Although Taikoku's quarterstaff had an octagonal cross-section, rather than an orthodox circular one, this difference had no bearing on the fact that you wouldn't suffer damage just by touching the weapon. Meanwhile, the advantage of one-handed swords was, of course, the fact that your opposite hand would remain free. Normally, people would use it to equip a shield; however, those who kept that hand empty like me could either use it for Martial Arts or Blade Throwing skill techniques, or pull off something like this instead.
The moment the quarterstaff stopped at my throat, I grabbed its tip with my left hand and yanked it while sliding out of the way to the right. Having shifted his center of gravity forward at the end of his technique, Taikoku pitched forward without getting the chance to brace himself. Not wasting a single moment of this opening, I lunged with my Elucidator to slide along the surface of the quarterstaff towards my rival's right hand. This would either lead to my immediate victory if I managed to deal a sufficient amount of damage to end the Duel, or I'd at least get quite the upper hand in our following clashes by causing Amputation damage to his right hand.
"Nuwah!"
With that shout, Taikoku suddenly took his right hand off the quarterstaff as if having suffered an electric shock. However, that countermeasure of his was well within my expectations. I took one step closer and switched over to targeting his left hand at the base of the staff instead. He can't possibly let go of the staff with that hand as we- ——
"Nuuun!"
As Taikoku raised his voice once again, I got the impression that his left arm peeking out from the sleeve of his kimono suddenly became more brawny. I guess the creak I just heard was the equivalent of the quarterstaff screaming out from the tremendous amount of grip power that had just been focused on it.
The sensation of the firm ground suddenly disappeared from my feet. Taikoku had just lifted me high into the sky along with his weapon with just his left hand. 'Ya've gotta be kidding me', came a shout in my mind as I hastily let go of the wooden staff; however, I had no way of moving aside or back while I was in mid-air.
Meanwhile, having returned to gripping his wooden staff with both hands after instantly pulling it back to himself, Taikoku roared out another war cry is his loudest volume yet.
"Cheeeest————!!"(4)
His wooden staff took on a red gleam as it came plunging right at the center of my torso with a fierce thrust. It was a Sword Skill—— albeit probably just a basic thrust technique; however, if I took a direct hit here, it was all but certain to bring the Duel to an end. Both parrying and swaying out of the way were out of the question; a Sword Skill could only be intercepted with another Sword Skill, but I wasn't in a position to activate one when my body was in the……
Wait, that option was still very much on hand, or more like on foot.
Fixing my gaze on the rapidly encroaching tip of the wooden staff, I bent my body backwards with all my strength. A sensation of my left leg being yanked by itself. As if flung through the power of an invisible rubber band that had been stretched to its limits, my left foot shot up overhead. This was the Martial Arts skill backward somersault kick, 《Crescent Moon》.
Just before Taikoku's thrust could make contact with my chest, the tip of my boot smacked the lower half of the quarterstaff.
'Sukaaa——n!', came a satisfying sound effect as my kick flinged the quarterstaff upwards.
"Muuuh!"
Despite his deep groan, the staff-wielder didn't even try to resist the momentum of his wooden staff, allowing it to continue its upward swing high into the air. If he had attempted to forcefully pull his staff back like a good little boy, I ought to have bought myself enough time to get my sword into a proper stance after landing on my feet; I didn't quite expect his duelling instincts to be this good. At this rate, Taikoku would get the chance to trigger his next technique first.
Seeing the wooden staff take on a flame-like light effect at the bottom edge of my vision over his head, I made up my mind for my next course of action.
If the technique that Taikoku is about to unleash on me turns out to be a multi-hit one, I might find myself in a spot of trouble. Making an educated guess that this wouldn't be the case based on his conduct and battle style so far, I quickly swung my right hand.
The moment I finished my somersault and landed onto the lawn with my feet, the wooden staff descended onto me with a roar. Meanwhile, I tightly squeezed my left, and my now-empty right hand, lowering my hips as I drew my hands to the front of my body.
"Dosse————i!!"
As I shouted out subconsciously, though I wasn't actually trying to imitate Taikoku with it, my body was enveloped in a dim silver radiance. It was the Martial Arts skill defensive technique, 《Steel Tempering》.
In order to fulfil the conditions for triggering the skill, I had hurled my sword upwards while I was mid-air. What's more, my current equipment consisted of my loungewear: a cotton shirt and pants.
The quarterstaff heavily smacked the top of my now steel-hard head. Then came a prominent, dazzling flash, alongside a shockwave that seemed all but ready to tear my eardrums. So it's come to this——a True Critical!
As I gritted my teeth, my ＨＰ bar started whittling away at the upper-left corner of my view. Five percent…… seven percent…… if the damage from this blow crosses the ten percent line, it will be recognised as a powerful strike, thus ending the Duel in my loss.
As I observed the event in slow-motion, my ＨＰ bar continued going down bit-by-bit, stopping at what I assume to be the nine-point-five mark.
The moment my Steel Tempering was lifted, I extended my right hand over my head, catching my Elucidator as it fell down. Using that momentum, I swung my blade down at Taikoku's left shoulder as he was stuck in place due to the post-skill rigor. 'Sashu!', came a sharp sound as a deep crimson damage effect gushed out.
Even a regular ol' attack with a blade on the level of a legendary sword managed to swipe exactly ten percent of the giant man's ＨＰ. The name of the match's victor was displayed over our heads; however, Taikoku fell to his right knee without even bothering to look at the notification.
Once I picked up my scabbard from the lawn and put my sword away, Asuna ran up from the porch.
"Whoopee!"
With that innocent cheer, she held out her hands, thus we exchanged a high-five. If we didn't have eyes on us, this would be a perfect moment to lift her high into the sky with my hands and spin around with her like that, but I'll have to keep that urge in check for obvious reasons.
However, it seemed the high-five was more than enough stimulation for the stoic experimenter; standing up vacantly, Taikoku said the following in a grave tone while shaking his head to the sides.
"Purheps…… I hed bin rizolv'd fer mai los yvn byfor aur behtle hed bygan……"
"Perhaps…… I had been resolved for my loss even before our battle had begun……"
2
Once we sat down on opposite sides of the newly-purchased dining table after we invited the staff-wielder to our log house when he accepted his loss, Asuna brought out her prized tea. It wasn't made from the regular old black tea leaves that you could get in Aincrad, but rather ones that produced a drink quite similar to green tea in both colour, taste, and aroma; Taikoku seemed to be enjoying his drink when he took some sips of it, before letting out a deep sigh and saying the following."……Vat ken Ai sei, za autkom did not kam az a sarpraiz. Ai did hev kvait a bit of konfidens in mai dyuling skils maiself, dau Ai nevur imejin'd though vud jast anhend yer sord laik dat……"
"……What can I say, the outcome did not come as a surprise. I did have quite a bit of confidence in my duelling skills myself, though I never imagined thou would just unhand your sword like that……"
"You're the one who pulled it off first, after all. So, where does the special ability that keeps the staff standing upright even when you let go of it come from?"
"Det vud bi mi."
"That would be me."
After a smirk, he gave a short sight, before turning his eyes to the right side of the table. Lying on the table there was the entirely wooden one-handed sword that Taikoku had wagered on our match.
"Ez promis'd, Ai ofer it ta thee, Kirito-don. Alsau, ez fer hau Ai menej'd ta faind dis haus…… Kirito-don, hev thou teiken up the Trehking skil?"
"As promised, I offer it to thee, Kirito-don. Also, as for how I managed to find this house…… Kirito-don, have thou taken up the Tracking skill?"
"Yeah, I have teiken…… taken it up……"
"Hauever, yer skil profishensy iz bylau 1000, if Ai em not misteiken?"
"However, your skill proficiency is below 1000, if I am not mistaken?"
"Y-yeah."
At that point, Taikoku smirked as he said the following with a hint of pride.
"Ven wan kamplyts baus za Trehking skil end za Apreizel skil, zey shel hev za apertyunity ta teik ap de 《Komodity Trehking》 Ｍｏｄ."
"When one completes both the Tracking skill and the Appraisal skill, they shall have the opportunity to take up the 《Commodity Tracking》 Ｍｏｄ."
"Commodity Tracking……?"
I cocked my head subconsciously upon hearing that unfamiliar name.
However, that's only natural; Tracking is a maniac skill that only solo players would take up, while Appraisal could basically be described as a merchant-exclusive skill. What's more, both of the skills are a huge pain in the ass to level up; I think I could probably count the number of people who have completed either of the two skills on my hands. My own Tracking skill proficiency is about 960, but I only have it that high up because I spent a whole load of time chasing after rare monsters based on their footprints back during my solo days; most people who continue playing in parties, where there's a not much chance that a wounded monster got the chance to escape, would reach their plateau at around 500. Now as for Appraisal, I've had the axesman-slash-merchant Agil around, so I never even felt like taking it up, though even Agil himself shouldn't have completed the skill yet.
"……So, you're saying that you've completed both the Tracking and the Appraisal skills?"
I asked with admiration from the bottom of my heart, but Taikoku was quick to shake his head to the sides.
"Nei, it iz not mi hu did it."
"Nay, it is not me who did it."
'Say wut', that revelation almost had me falling out of my chair, but I barely managed to hold my ground. As my thought processing ground to a halt, Asuna brought up a question in my stead.
"So that is to say that 《Commodity Tracking》 is the composite Ｍｏｄ between the Tracking skill and the Appraisal skill, right? But then how did you use it to find this hou-……oh."
Raising her voice a bit, she placed her left hand on the top of the glamorous dining table.
"Could it be……because of this? You tracked down this table, which led to you arriving here……?"
"Korekt."
"Correct."
With a deep nod, Taikoku straightened up his huge back on his chair.
"……Sying ez vy hev gohn dis far, Ai shel tel thee al abaut it. Abaut vai Ai, nei, vy r luking fer Mahokl-don……"
"……Seeing as we have gone this far, I shall tell thee all about it. About why I, nay, we are looking for Mahokl-don……"
Thirty minutes later.
Having seen off Taikoku as he returned to Coral Village at the border between the log house and the front yard, we both found ourselves looking at each other.
Jumping forward nimbly with both feet, Asuna slipped her arms around my body and gave me a squeeze. Seeing as our heights weren't all that different from each other, we'd inevitably find ourselves bumping into each other with our foreheads when we're this close to each other.
"W……where did all of this come from out of the blue?"
"Mm, I kinda had some things I was thinking about. Like, you sure have fun when you're fighting, Kirito-kun…… or that the Duel had me worried nevertheless……"
"…………Is that so."
I then returned the hug on her slender body, peering into her hazel eyes at point-blank range.
"Sorry, I should have consulted with you before accepting the Duel. I kinda found myself under the spell of his initiative……"
"Hu-huh, he was quite the amazing person in many ways. Even in the real world, I've never heard anyone speaking in such a thick Kagoshima dayalekt."
"Naizer hev Ai. Though, the guy himself admitted that it was fake."
After laughing for a bit in a low voice, we exchanged a short kiss, before separating from each other.
Upon hearing Taikoku's story, we've basically resolved almost all of the mysteries that had piled up over the course of three days. However, there was still one single thing that I didn't get.
If Mahokl hid herself after breaking away from the True Critical Pursuers group, named as the 《Kaishindou》, that she herself was spearheading, why was she attempting to construct a ballista that was directly responsible for her breaking away from her group?
This probably wasn't a matter that outsiders like me or Asuna should poke our noses into any further. I assume that Taikoku will be able to track down Mahokl's atelier in the main town of Floor 3 someday even if he didn't hear it from me; besides, it doesn't seem like it's going to lead to some perilous situation anyway.
Still, we were the ones who gathered up all the materials for the ballista that Mahokl is trying to construct——or perhaps she already has constructed one; besides, Taikoku did mention this. The reason why their chief Mahokl hid away wasn't just because she had found the recipe for a ballista, but also because——the people had begun talking about the appearance of the 《Dual Blades》 Unique Skill.
"…………Shall we head out?"
At my question, Asuna blinked once, before giving a pleasant smile as she nodded.
"Sure, let's go."
(To be continued)
Afterword
This is Kunori. Thank you very much for purchasing SAO Material Edition 26!Maaan, the MEs are already at their 26th installment, huh…… And Sugary Days is already at its 13th chapter…… Content volume-wise, it has already reached around 200 pages if converted to Dengeki Bunko page format; I shudder at the thought of how thick the compilation is going to be, but the even bigger worry is when the story is actually going to end, huh.
This past year, I feel like I had written "I am ending it with the next chapter for sure this time" in every single afterword for the story, so even I myself have started to doubt my own words, but maybe I'll finish it next time…… or so I hope…… but don't hold me to my word! I don't actually have confidence in that statement! However, the next release is coming in the May 'Tia, the most brisk month of the year, thus I would like to publish the final chapter ＆ the compilation there…… By then, the Alicization TV Anime should already have details announced! Also, I believe that the SAOAGGO anime will have garnered a lot of positive attention during its broadcast, so I hope you will continue to support us!
Sword Art Online Material Edition 26
Publisher: WordGear
Date of publishing: 2018-02-11
Supervisor: Kunori Fumio
Printing: Ryokuyou
Notes
1. ^ Probably referring to the fact that Taikoku's "yes" was in Ingurisshu with a tacked-on Satsuma equivalent of the word "gozaimasu", even though he's supposed to be speaking dialectal-only.
2. ^ I guess it's a misspelling of ATK (attack power).
3. ^ A chuudan (中段, lit. "middle/central") stance is where the sword is held out in front of oneself at around stomach level.
4. ^ In kendo, you yell out the part of the body you're aiming for during your attack. I guess the same may apply to other martial arts.
What is May' Tia? Also, nice chapter!!
ReplyDelete'Tia is short for COMITIA (https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMITIA), the doujinshi convention where Kawahara publishes his Material Editions.
Deletethanks
ReplyDeletethank youuuu! really nice work :)))
ReplyDelete