The story takes place shortly after the Fairy Dance arc and focuses on Kazuto and Suguha in the real world.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the release. If you have any suggestions/requests for what to work on, feel free to leave a comment or contact us through Twitter/Discord/Email.
Finally, a standard thank you to all of those who contributed to the SAO Scans project for helping us get the raws.
Any feedback is appreciated.
-Gsimenas
Credits
Raws: SAO ScansTranslation: Gsimenas
Editing: Gsimenas, Cirtoyt
Translation (choice/nuance) comments:
- I left kendo terms as-is, since I practice kendo myself and we don't translate Japanese kendo terms.
- Crimson text highlights differences from the original material edition.
- 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)
- Comic sans indicates emphasis added by myself when I needed to stress something to get the meaning across properly.
- 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.
ME4 (Cold hand, Warm heart) |
ME6 (Algade Showdown) |
Salvia and the MTB
"I'm done for. I can't take it anymore."Casting a sidelong glance at the face of her elder brother, whining pathetically beside her, Kirigaya Suguha stifled a smile as she raised her voice.
"Come on, keep at it! Just twenty more!"
The two of them continued swinging down their shinai(1) side-by-side in the midst of the stingingly-cold outdoor air. It seemed that three hundred suburi swings(2) every morning was still a daunting task for Kazuto, as he continued blurting out remarks like, "I'm done for", or, "I'm dying", every few minutes but nonetheless made sure to continue his swings till the very end, which earned him Suguha's respect for his persistence.
"Two hundred and ninety-eight…… Two hundred and ninety-nine…… there, now we're done."
"My arms…… My arms are gonna fall off……"
Having somehow managed to finish this morning's quota of swings as usual, Kazuto handed over his shinai to Suguha, before wobbling over to the engawa(3) and slumping down onto it. With a smile finding its way on her face as she watched over his actions, Suguha wiped the two shinai with a dishcloth, before placing them against the trunk of a black pine. Taking out a pile-fabric handkerchief from her tracksuit's pocket, she wiped away her sweat and let out a deep sigh.
The thin layer of snow that had been covering the yard just the other day had utterly vanished from sight by now due to the recent spell of fine weather. Noticing that the soil in the planters beside the gravel path that stretched all the way from the yard to the entranceway looked dry, Suguha showed no mercy to the moribund Kazuto, sprawling on the engawa, as she called out to him.
"Onii-chan, pour some water into that watering can and bring it over heeere."
Several seconds later, "Kaaay", Kazuto got up with a lifeless reply, before pulling out a worn-out watering can from beneath the engawa, filling it up with water at the tap located at the corner of the yard, and then carrying it over to Suguha. As she took it into her hands and tilted it over a planter, a small, sparkling stream of water poured down with a quiet sound.
The 26th of January, 2025; Sunday.
Two months and a half had already passed since Kazuto had awoken from his whole-two-year-long slumber and four days have flown by since Suguha and Kirito finished up their great adventure that had unfolded in a VRMMORPG named 《ALfheim Online》(ALO).
In the realm of fairies, Suguha had run into the Shadow Fairy Race swordsman Kirito as Leafa, the Wind Fairy Race magic swordswoman. Although she wouldn't describe her first impression of him in positive terms, something about the gloomy expression that would occasionally slip out onto his face, the drive he would show in moments of battle, as well as his outstanding skills with the sword, made him seem different from other players, which is why she had set out on a journey from the Sylph domain's capital of Swilvane to the Alfheim central capital of Alne with him.
It was only two days after setting off on their journey that she came to discover that this Kirito was actually her brother, Kazuto, with whom she shares the same roof. At first, this came as a major shock, which led to her hitting Kazuto with every single bit of the emotions she had been bottling up for so long, but four days later now her emotions had finally settled down to some extent, leaving only a faint pain deep inside her chest.
The reason why Kazuto/Kirito had been after Alne…… or more precisely, the World Tree Yggdrasil towering in the middle of Alne, was all to rescue his lover, Yuuki Asuna, dragged into a new scheme and now held captive in ALO despite joining the ranks of SAO Survivors alongside himself. When Kazuto succeeded in his efforts, Asuna woke up in her hospital in Tokorozawa City and had now begun her rehab since yesterday, it seems.
Kazuto had apparently happened upon Asuna inside Sword Art Online, where they had managed to live on by supporting each other throughout the death game, where every death was fatal. Suguha couldn't even begin to imagine the strength of the bond they had forged, nor did she believe that Kazuto's feelings for her would ever waver.
Of course, Suguha had her own bond with Kazuto as well. When they were little, they got along so well that she couldn't remember ever having any arguments with him, and although a slight rift had opened up between Kazuto and her when he entered middle school, Kazuto had returned to being just as close with Suguha as he had been in the past now that he was back from SAO, alive. In fact, he wasn't actually a real brother but rather just a cousin to her, though it seemed that this fact only made it that much harder for the feelings that had sprouted inside Suguha to go away.
Yet, she couldn't allow herself to water this specific bud. She had to stifle it under a tight lock deep, deep within the corners of her heart, until these emotions crystallised into a mere memory one day……
As she kept the watering can tilted whilst such thoughts occupied her mind, Kazuto crouched down in front of the planter and decided to ask her something that her brother from the old days would likely never have thought to ask.
"……What is this flower called?"
Kazuto's gaze had fallen on the small, light-orange flowers blooming modestly in the planter in a manner that made it look like they were huddling each other. With a deep, gentle breath to wash away the prickling in her chest, Suguha answered as follows.
"They're called adonis. The Chichibu Beni variant."
"Hmmh…… So they bloom at this time of the year, huh."
Kazuto poked the adonis's petals with great interest, as if it had reminded him of something.
"It's the earliest bloomer among the flowers we have at home…… Though hold on, Onii-chan, did you always have an interest in flowers?"
"Oh, well, it's just that I've also come across a similar flower in SAO…… What about this planter? It looks empty, as far as I can see."
"Come spring, we'll be planting salvia seeds in that one. They'll be blossoming come summer."
"Salvia…… what kind of flower was that, again?"
Now having finished her watering, Suguha sprinkled the garden with the water remaining in the watering can as she answered the question with exasperation.
"They've been blossoming every year for a long time now, remember. Those red flowers that look like itty-bitty goldfish, ring any bells? Onii-chan, you'd often earn a scolding from mom for always plucking the salvia just when they would start to bloom to suck out their nectar."
Just then, Kazuto got up with a shocked look on his face.
"N-nectar!? Did I really act like such a feral child……?"
"Ha-ha, you don't remember. I'll have you know that I would be in tears whenever my share was all gone in no time."(4)
"……My share?"
"Oops……"
Having made an oopsie by blurting out more than she should have, Suguha stuck out her tongue a bit with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Hey wait a minute…… now I remember……"
A big grin found its way on Kazuto's face.
"You were the one who'd often earn a scolding, Sugu, not me. As I recall, Mom had set up a 《no more than three flowers per day》 rule back then or something."
"Ahaha, guess the jig is up. I'm surprised you managed to remember all that……Strange as it may be, now that I think about it, the nectar from a salvia tasted sweeter than any actual sweets."
"Hmmh, well I can't seem to remember the taste itself though……"
Kazuto let his gaze wander towards the sky for a moment, seemingly prying into the depths of his memories when——
"Ah……"
He suddenly froze still with his eyes wide open.
"……? What's the matter, Onii-chan?"
"Wait……oh, right……come to think of it……"
Seeing him mumble words incoherently, the girl peered into his face with worry, whereupon her gaze met Kazuto's at point-blank range all of a sudden. Flustered, she took a step backwards to conceal her cheeks, flaring up like a red hot stove as her heart skipped a beat.
"W-whoa, you can give someone a heart attack like that."
"……Sugu, do you have time right now?"
"Whu?……Well, my kendo practice is in the afternoon today, so I guess so……?"
"Good. Come with me for a bit."
Pulling on Suguha's arm as she struggled to follow what was going on, Kazuto briskly walked under the eaves of the main house.
"W-whoa, hey, where are we going?"
"Don't worry about the small stuff right now, come on. Climb aboard in the back."
Upon approaching his own mountain bike, he removed the number-lock on it and mounted atop the saddle.
"Wha, but I'm not dressed right for this……"
Twisting his face into a wide grin when Suguha brought up the concern, looking down at her green, school-issued tracksuit, Kazuto replied with the following.
"So, now you're going to pretend you don't go jogging in that very same tracksuit anyway?"
"I do my jogging in a cooler tracksuit, thank you very much!……Oh whatever, sheesh."
Pouting, she sat down on the ＭＴＢ's rear rack. Upon encircling Kazuto's waist with her arms and clinging firmly to him, she began to worry that he'd notice her heart was racing like the hammer of an alarm clock once again.
"Hang on tight!"
Paying no attention to Suguha's inner worries, Kazuto took off with a great stomp on the pedals. 'Jah', with the rear wheel kicking off the gravel, the ＭＴＢ flew out the gate and began riding off with a spurt of energy.
The time now was past eight in the morning; although it was a Sunday, there was no shortage of people walking in the direction of the station along the road. Meanwhile, their two-passenger bike was speeding through the road in the opposite direction. Getting the sense that all the people they passed by were all making fun of them, Suguha buried her face into Kazuto's back as she shouted out the following in a whisper.
"T-this is so embarrassing, Onii-chan! How far are you planning to go!"
"It's not too far from here…… or at least it shouldn't be."
"Shouldn't!?"
The bike was rapidly making its way to Kawagoe City's east side. Although the rear rack was hard and made of aluminium, Kazuto's ＭＴＢ had wide tires and was equipped with built-in suspension to boot, thus sitting on it didn't feel half bad.
Fortunate enough to avoid being stopped by any concerned policeman for both riding on the same bike like that, Kazuto eventually hit the brakes behind a small shrine. They were in the corner of a quiet residential area, seemingly deserted due to the lack of people along the road.
"……Is this it?"
"Probably……"
Giving a vague answer to Suguha's question, Kazuto got off the bike. Suguha also jumped off the rack, stretching her back with her hands on her waist.
"……Come on, it's about time you explain what's going on here. Is there something you want to do at this shrine?"
"…………"
Just when she convinced herself that his destination was the lonesome shrine before them, Kazuto instead came to stand in front of the gates to a mansion opposite to the shrine, contrary to her expectations.
"……? An acquaintance's house?"
Suguha then got beside him, turning her gaze to the estate with an exterior decor of red brick tiles. The spacious garden, encircled by a white-painted wooden fence, was covered in a grass as discoloured as dried straw; perhaps this residence was home to a small child, as a single red three-wheeler was lingering all by its own in the garden.
Just as the girl looked up to his face to repeat her question once more, Kazuto finally shook his head slowly.
"Oh, nah…… I've never seen this house. This used to be a spacious empty lot way back when. With tons of grass growing all over the place."
'Haaah', he gave an exaggerated sigh, before showing her a subtle smile.
"……Not much of a surprise there, I guess…… It's already been seven to eight years, after all……"
"An empty lot……? Was there something on it that drew your interest……?"
"Nah…… Nothing. Welp, let's get back home."
Just as he had uttered those words, Kazuto suddenly set off back to his bike at a brisk pace, as if having arrived at the answer to his questions on his own, which prompted Suguha to let out a dissatisfied "Whaaa!?", addressed to him.
"I don't get what's even going on here anymore. Did you really come all this way looking for some empty lot?"
'Haah', she let out a sigh and was about to go after her elder brother, when——
"Ah……"
She caught a glimpse of a vivid blue in her peripheral vision.
A corner of the mansion's garden was surrounded by bricks, forming a small flower bed. As if hidden away by the lush, deep green foliage of cold-resistant plants——a dense growth of short grass was blossoming a cluster of small, blue flowers.
"……Those are salvia."
"……Wha?"
At Suguha's remark, Kazuto rushed over beside her and peered into the flower bed.
"Salvia…… where?"
"Right here. These blue flowers."
"Hey wait……didn't you tell me that they were red flowers, Sugu?"
"There are hundreds of salvia variants. This is one of the blue salvia variants. Though, it sure is odd……"
Just as Suguha gave a frown, the kitchen door of the large house opened up, from which a young, apron-wearing woman stepped out. She had her long hair tied into a ponytail and was carrying a shiny, tin watering can in hand.
Upon noticing Suguha and Kazuto, the woman gave a slight quizzical tilt of her head for a moment, before immediately taking on a sweet smile as she approached them. Without any sign of caution on the wide smile decorating her white cheeks, she gave them a slight bow.
"Good morning."
"G-g-good morning."
Suguha and Kazuto hurriedly returned the greeting.
"Are you from around here?"
"W-why yes, we are."
"Do you happen to have any business at our humble abode, I wonder?"
"U-umm……ehm……"
As Kazuto continued mumbling on without coming up with anything to say, Suguha leaned forward and uttered the following in a fluster.
"Um, we just thought that your salvia look lovely!"
"Oh my, why thank you."
The woman gave a sweet smile. With a sigh of relief, Suguha continued the conversation with the following.
"Though…… even the late bloomer salvia normally only stay up till December at the latest, right? Is this some special variant of the flower?"
"Oh, yes…… I did find it strange myself. This is a perennial species of salvia, but their flowers usually fall off in November each year, and yet for some reason the flowers are still up even after we went into the New Year this winter……they are regular blue salvia…… or so I believe, but I'm not really sure." "You're not sure……?"
"These salvia were blooming in a corner of the lot even before we built this house. They were far too lovely to just throw away, so I moved them out before the ground was levelled for construction. They've been blossoming fine flowers every year since then."
"I-is that true!?"
Kazuto shouted out all of a sudden, surprising Suguha and the woman, both of whom then looked up at him.
"W-what's the matter, Onii-chan."
"Oh, uh……"
For some reason, Kazuto kept scratching his head in a bashful manner, but in the end he timidly opened his mouth.
"……The one responsible for planting these salvia is me…… Seven or eight years ago……"
"W-whaa!?"
"Oh my!"
While Suguha was taken aback by this total shocker of a confession, the woman gave a sweet smile while still holding her watering can up at chest level.
"Oh, is that so. In that case, perhaps these flowers were waiting for your return. Ah…… one moment, please."
The woman placed her watering can atop the bricks and trotted back to the house. When she returned just a few moments later, she now had a trowel in her right hand and a small plastic pot with handles in her left.
As Suguha and Kazuto watched on, the woman inserted her trowel into the corner of the blue salvia cluster, whereupon she delicately dug up about three of the plants before moving them into the pot. She then took out a plastic bag with handles from the pocket of her apron and placed the pot with the flowers within this bag, before holding it out to Kazuto with both of her hands, gracing him with a smile.
"Take these with you."
"Oh……no, that's not what I had in mind when I……"
"It's quite alright. I'm sure the flowers will be happy too."
"……Thank you very much. In that case, I will take you up on your kind offer……"
Upon giving a bow, Kazuto accepted the bag. The salvia flowers swayed gently, resulting in a faint aroma that tickled Suguha's nose.
"Well then, feel free to come over to look at the flowers anytime now. There will be plenty of them blooming come spring."
"Yes, with pleasure. ——If you'll excuse us."
Bowing his head to the woman, who had now begun watering the flower bed with her watering can, Kazuto slapped Suguha on the back.
"Come on, we're going home, Sugu."
"Ah, y-yeah…… If you'll excuse us."
Although still not having digested what had just transpired here, Suguha gave the woman a quick bow, before going after Kazuto.
Instead of getting on his bike, Kazuto chose to go back on foot, supporting the bike handle with one hand. Now beside him, Suguha failed to contain her curiosity, which resulted in a barrage of questions.
"Wait just a minute, Onii-chan, what on earth was that all about? Is all that stuff about planting the seeds true?"
"Oh, ehm, well you see……."
Upon circling around the shrine, Kazuto stopped his ＭＴＢ before the stone steps. Turning a slight bit red in the face for some reason, he coughed and mumbled out 'ah's and 'uh's, before eventually shoving out the bag in his right hand to Suguha with a sudden jerk.
"Sugu, this is your birthday present."
"Haa!?…… But my birthday is still some time away, you know?"
"This is for the one you had seven years ago."
Now things were making even less sense. When the girl tilted her head with a quizzical look, Kazuto began explaining himself, his eyes firmly settled onto the shrine.
"……Seven years ago, you see……I came up with the idea to let you enjoy as much salvia nectar as your little heart desired for your birthday, Sugu, so I spent all my pocket money on buying some seeds, which I then planted in that vacant lot after weeding out a part of it. In spite of all that effort, though, I just couldn't trace my steps back to this shrine that served as a landmark, no matter how hard I tried, you see. I did spend a whole lot of time looking for it, but I just couldn't find my way back, so I had to give up on it in the end. I sure was heartbroken about the whole thing back then…… Yet seeing how I managed to come across it in one single go at this point, I've got to say that a child's memory sure does leave much to be desired."
"Onii-chan……"
Her eyes now wide-open, Suguha fixed her gaze on Kazuto's face as he continued averting his eyes bashfully. She felt her chest tighten as all the overflowing emotions seemed to grab hold of her heart with a big squeeze.
She gently extended her right hand and plucked out a single salvia flower head peeking out of the bag. She took in a small droplet that had accumulated at its base, whereupon she felt a faint yet vivid sweetness spreading over her taste buds——
At that moment, she felt a breeze of time from the ten-odd years she had spent with Kazuto tickling her skin. By the time she noticed, two streaks of liquid came down her cheeks, plopping down beside her feet.
Once again, she felt something tightening deep within her chest. The emotions she had convinced herself to stifle were now quivering within her. Like a firm flower bud, attempting to blossom amidst the cold wind.
"W-whoa, there's no reason for you to cr-……"
As Kazuto faltered in panic, Suguha leapt onto his chest. Encircling his back with her hands, she gave him a big ol' hug. Eventually, she felt Kazuto's hands gently stroking her head. Suguha snuggled her cheeks against him as she materialised the sweetness left in her mouth into the form of words as best as she could.
"Onii-chan……I love you!"
(The End)
ME4 (Cold hand, Warm heart) |
ME6 (Algade Showdown) |
Notes
1. ^ Shinai (竹刀) literally means "bamboo sword".
2. ^ In kendo, suburi (素振り) are practice swings (i.e. shinai swings without an actual opponent) that are used as a warm-up exercise at the beginning of a training session, or for muscle training at home.
3. ^ Engawa (縁側) refers to a veranda-like corridor on the external side of traditional Japanese homes.
4. ^ Suguha begins teasing Kazuto about his short-term memory (read in a kindergartner teasing tone). She then tries to imply that she was crying because Kazuto plucked the Salvia flowers, but she was actually saying that she had been crying because it didn't take long for her to finish up her own share of the nectar. Since Japanese is heavily-context dependant (the sentences usually lack subjects, so you need to determine who's doing the action from context) each sentence is open to interpretation. Suguha made use of this inherent vagueness in the language to make Kazuto think it was all his fault, until she makes a slip of the tongue by explicitly saying that she herself had a "share" of the flowers for nectar.
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