Three dark blue points of light are side by side like little constellations.

Naoba Kiritani stretched out the fingers of his right hand and touched the light.

This is an LED indicator that indicates the operation status of the fully stealthy VR game console [NERvGear]. The light dot mounted on the front of the helmet shows the status of the main power supply, network connection, and brain connection from the right. When the rightmost point of light turns red, it means that the helmet user's brain has been damaged.

In the middle of a snow-white hospital room, a wide gel bed lay the owner of the helmet in a state of eternal slumber. No, it may be a bit incorrect to say that. In fact, her soul is fighting in another distant world, for thousands of prisoners.

"Sister ...... Night"

Naoba whispered to his sleeping sister, and the night.

"It's been two years...... I'm about to go to high school...... If you don't wake up soon, I'm going to drive you there......"

She ran her finger down from the LED and began to trace her sister's face.

Her sister's face has become thinner due to long-term sleepiness, and the thin profile of her face makes Kazuya, who was already a beauty, even weaker. Mom even jokingly called her "Our Sleeping Beauty".

In fact, it's not just the face that gets thinner. My sister's whole person has lost weight to the point of being miserable, and her weight is obviously much lighter than Naoba, who has been practicing kendo since she was a child.

Isn't my sister going to disappear like this...... Recently, Naoba's heart has begun to feel such a sense of fear.

But Naoba still tries not to cry in the hospital room since a year ago. Just a year ago, a member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' [SAO Incident Response Team] told her that her sister's [Level] was among the best among all the players in the game—that is, one of the few strategy players who often fought on the front lines of danger.

Now my sister must be fighting in the face of death. So Naoba can't cry here anymore, but should hold her hand and cheer her on.

"Come on...... Come on, Sister Night. ”

As usual, she clenched and prayed desperately with Ye's bony hand, when suddenly another voice came from behind.

"Oops, are you here, Naoba. ”

She hurriedly turned her head.

"Ah, Mommy......"

Standing there was my mother, Tsui Kiritani, and since the room had a magnetic levitation electric door, it was almost impossible to hear the door opening and closing.

Emeri quickly inserted the cosmos bouquet in her right hand into the vase beside the bed, and then sat down on the chair beside Naoba. Judging by her relaxed outfit of cotton shirt, close-fitting jeans and wide leather jacket, she should have just gotten off work. The face with a little light makeup and the dress of bunching her hair back at will make it impossible to tell that she will not be confused next year. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she's the editor of a computer-related information journal.,She's not a calm personality for her age.,So for Naoba, it's more like her sister than her mother.。

"I didn't expect you to be able to come over, Mom, isn't the proofreading deadline approaching?"

Hearing Naoba say this, Emerald grinned.

"I pushed the job to someone else and ran out. It's not usually possible to come, but I have to come and see her today. ”

"Uh-huh...... Today is my sister's ...... Birthday. ”

Then both of them were silent for a moment, staring together at Kazuya who was lying on the bed. The evening breeze with the color of the setting sun blows into the room and shakes the curtains, filling the ward with the scent of cosmos.

"And the night...... You're sixteen years old......"

Cui muttered.

“…… In retrospect, it was like it happened just yesterday. When Feng Song and I were watching a movie in the living room, Kazuya suddenly said to us from behind, "Please tell me who my real parents are......"

Tsui's lips with a little lipstick on showed a faint wry smile with a sense of nostalgia, while Naoba kept staring at such a mother.

"We were really shocked. Kazuya was only ten years old at the time, and we had planned to wait until Naoba went to high school...... It will take another seven years to tell you, but I didn't expect that child to pay attention to the erasure of his electronic account file......"

It was the first time Naoba had heard about this part, but before she was surprised, she smiled wryly like her mother.

"It's like what my sister would do. ”

"It's so shocking that we don't have time to deny it. And this seems to be the battle with her at night, Feng Song and he shouted afterwards that he was "designed" and regretted it. ”

The two of them laughed a few times, and then stared at the sleeping Kazuya in silence.

Although she has been living with her sister Kiritani and Night since she was sensible, she is actually Naoba's [cousin] to be precise.

From the biological daughter of Kiritani Fengsong and Kiritani Tsui, Naoha, Kazuya is Cui's sister, that is, the child born to Naoba's aunt. The aunt and his wife died in an accident when their only son was less than a year old, and the night who managed to pick up a life under serious injuries was adopted by Tsui.

His parents told Naoba about this fact two years ago in the winter, shortly after Kazuya was imprisoned in the imaginary world of [Sord Art Online]. Naoha's emotions, which had already been hit hard by the incident, were even more confused because of this, and he even yelled at Cui why he didn't tell me earlier, why didn't he tell me until now.

Even though two years have passed, Naoba still has a sense of alienation in his heart that he is the only one who has been excluded.

But recently, she finally understood the mood of her parents at that time.

The reason why her parents told her this secret that was originally scheduled to be kept until Naoba was in high school was because they wanted to tell her the whole truth while Kazuya was still alive, so they made such a bitter decision. Within a month of the SAO incident, up to two thousand people had already died. Faced with this situation, the two of them, whether they want to or not, must be aware of Kazuya's death. So after dealing with everything, the parents should just hold on - at least don't let Naoba regret this [thing that she never knew], so they will tell her the truth early.

In this way, Naoba frequently visited her in the ward with various contradictory feelings, and she was desperately thinking about what kind of loss would be caused to her by the fact that "Kazuya is not her biological sister".

In the end, she finally got the answer that "there is nothing to lose".

Nothing will change at all. There will be no loss either.

Whether before or after knowing the truth, I prayed that Kazuya would be alive and return safely.

In the past two years, Naoba's prayer has only been half fulfilled.

"Mom's ......"

Naoba stared at Kazuya's side face and whispered.

"What's wrong?"

“…… Do you think my sister is because of this...... That's why I'm always immersed in online games as soon as I go to middle school?"

Although the question omitted the content of 'because he is not the biological child of the Kiritani family', Tsui immediately shook his head and replied:

"No, it has nothing to do with that. Because this kid, when he was six years old, he built his own computer from parts that I didn't use in my room. I guess she got the inheritance of my PC fanatic in terms of spirit. ”

Naoba grinned, then elbowed his mother's arm.

"When I said that, I remembered that I had heard my grandmother say that my mother loved to play games when she was a child. ”

"Yes, I've been playing online games since I was a kid. How can I compare with the night? ”

After the two of them laughed again for a while, Cui looked at the hospital bed with loving eyes.

“…… But no matter what game I played, I never came out on top. It should be a lack of perseverance and perseverance. She's not like me in this respect, but more like you. It's because she has this in common with you, who has been practicing kendo for eight years, that she is still alive until now. Maybe I'll wake up soon. ”

Kiritani Tsui put her hand on Naoba's head with a 'bang' and stood up.

"Then I'll go back first. Don't come home too late. ”

"yes, I see. ”

Naoba nodded. After Tsui glanced at Kazuya again, she whispered "Happy Birthday". Then he blinked quickly, turned and walked briskly out of the room.

Naoba put his hands on the uniform skirt, and after breathing hard, he looked at the helmet LED indicator covering his sister's head again.

The blue star, which indicates the connection between the Internet and the brain, is busy flashing constantly.

And the consciousness of the night in the remote SAO server is now obtaining countless signals through NERvGear.

Where is my sister now? Is it holding a map in one hand, getting lost in a dim labyrinth. Or ask someone to evaluate the product on the façade of the prop house. Or maybe maybe he's bravely fighting a terrifying monster with a sword.

Naoba quietly stretched out his hands and wrapped Kazuya's white, thin right hand again.

In the real world, all sensations in the skin are canceled by NERvGear at the spinal cord and cannot be transmitted to the brain. But Naoba still believes that as long as he holds her hand like this, his encouragement can be conveyed to her heart.

Because Naoba can still feel the heat emanating from the soul of his sister, or cousin, to be precise. I could also feel her strong will to return to the real world.

The golden glow that flickered outside the white curtain soon turned to vermilion and then purple again. Until the ward was surrounded by darkness, Naoba remained inside. She didn't move at all, just listened to her sister's subtle snort.

The emergency notice from the hospital and the night that he had woken up was a month later, on November 7, 2024.

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Haha (crazy smile) ~ I even took out Sword Art Online and whipped the corpse