6th July 2026, Monday, 7:45 AM.
Having paid a visit to Kirito—Kirigaya Kazuto, undergoing
treatment in the upper half of the main shaft, called the «upper
shaft», Yuuki Asuna had her breakfast at the eleventh deck’s
lounge with Koujiro Rinko, a researcher of fulldive technology.
She figured she had no room for complaints, seeing as she was
no guest on some luxurious passenger ship—or rather, she
would have been escorted to the detention barracks (though she
didn’t know if one existed) if not for the decision of Lieutenant
Colonel Kikuoka Seijirou, who supervised the project, but she had
no choice but to admit the buffet-style meal was fairly splendidly
done.
Rinko, who inserted a knife into a battered white fish on the
other side of the table, spoke as she stared hard at the crosssection.
“I wonder if this fish was caught from the Ocean Turtle?”
“Wh-Who knows…”
Having taken the same onto her dish, Asuna timidly brought a
small piece to her mouth. The tender white flesh shredded easily
yet kept its mellow texture when chewed. She had no doubt it
was reasonably fresh, but she had no idea if fish could actually be
caught by throwing a rod into these open seas.
Putting down the knife in her right hand, Asuna turned her
eyes towards the window on the left of the table while bringing
up her glass of iced tea. The calm ocean surface was pitch-black,
without a single fishing boat in sight, let alone fishes.
Sword Art Online 13 - Alicization Dividing
Interlude IV
12
Now that she thought about it, Asuna hadn’t heard anything
about the Ocean Turtle’s current location, aside from it being in
the «sea near the Izu islands». Even if it was around the Izu
islands, that was a long distance from north to south. If she
recalled right, even Hachijyou Island near the middle was almost
three hundred kilometers from Tokyo.
She could just start up a location application and display her
current location on the portable terminal she brought from
Tokyo if she could use it, but unfortunately, she didn’t have
permission to connect to the shipboard Wi-Fi due to security or
something. She could play the music files and such stored in the
local memory, so she felt lucky enough that it didn’t get
confiscated, but frustration certainly did accumulate when stuck
in a situation incapable of doing an «instant search whenever a
thought struck her». She didn’t feel this disgruntled back in SAO,
where she couldn’t even get a single piece of news from the real
world, let alone perform a search, though.
Gulping down her sigh along with the iced tea, Asuna thought
to refresh her mood.
She only got this irritated at not being able to use the internet
due to that lingering sensation that she wasn’t kept in the loop
enough.
Was the «project» Kikuoka Seijirou, Higa Takeru, and the rest
worked on truly limited to those details they explained
yesterday? Were there not still many concealed secrets hidden in
the experimental world, «Underworld»? Also—would Kazuto,
receiving treatment on the Soul TransLator number 4, awaken
when tomorrow comes as Nurse Aki Natsuki had said…?
No, putting the first two aside, she had to cast off her doubts
over the third. She could only believe entirely in it now. When
tomorrow—7th July comes, Kazuto’s damaged neural network
will have been regenerated and he will regain consciousness.
Asuna had no choice but to return to Tokyo via the helicopter
departing from the Ocean Turtle on the seventh’s evening, but
Sword Art Online 13 - Alicization Dividing
Interlude IV
13
there should be enough time to exchange some words. And the
time for Asuna to firmly embrace the body that protected her.
Having regained some of her spirit by imagining that moment,
Asuna continued eating while asking Rinko on the opposite side.
“Rinko-san, do you have any details on this ship’s current
location? I haven’t heard anything more than it being in the sea
near the Izu islands.
“…Now that you bring it up, I think I know as much as you…”
Having finished the battered fish, Rinko lightly tilted her head
and put her hand into the pocket of her white robe. She appeared
to be retrieving her portable terminal, but apparently recalled
that she couldn’t connect to the internet immediately after and
faintly frowned.
“Erm, I believe Higa-kun mentioned that we were a hundred
kilometers or two west of Mikura Island… or wait, was it Miyake
Island…”
While voicing out those vague information, Rinko turned her
eyes towards the window that was large for a ship. Asuna, too,
gazed upon the blue-black sea surface once again.
The morning sun shone in from the opposite window, so the
direction their two faces turned towards should be west. If the
Ocean Turtle truly was west of the Izu islands presently, neither
Mikura Island nor Miyako Island would be visible, much less
Honshuu…
A soft “Ah” escaped from Asuna who gazed at the ocean from
right to left with those thoughts in mind. She didn’t notice it
when she looked at the window earlier, but it was shining white
in the light from the morning sun. Something slender and manmade, floating in the distant sea—a ship. Grasping its scale was
difficult without anything to compare it to, but it appeared rather
large.
“Rinko-san, over there."
Having paid a visit to Kirito—Kirigaya Kazuto, undergoing
treatment in the upper half of the main shaft, called the «upper
shaft», Yuuki Asuna had her breakfast at the eleventh deck’s
lounge with Koujiro Rinko, a researcher of fulldive technology.
She figured she had no room for complaints, seeing as she was
no guest on some luxurious passenger ship—or rather, she
would have been escorted to the detention barracks (though she
didn’t know if one existed) if not for the decision of Lieutenant
Colonel Kikuoka Seijirou, who supervised the project, but she had
no choice but to admit the buffet-style meal was fairly splendidly
done.
Rinko, who inserted a knife into a battered white fish on the
other side of the table, spoke as she stared hard at the crosssection.
“I wonder if this fish was caught from the Ocean Turtle?”
“Wh-Who knows…”
Having taken the same onto her dish, Asuna timidly brought a
small piece to her mouth. The tender white flesh shredded easily
yet kept its mellow texture when chewed. She had no doubt it
was reasonably fresh, but she had no idea if fish could actually be
caught by throwing a rod into these open seas.
Putting down the knife in her right hand, Asuna turned her
eyes towards the window on the left of the table while bringing
up her glass of iced tea. The calm ocean surface was pitch-black,
without a single fishing boat in sight, let alone fishes.
Sword Art Online 13 - Alicization Dividing
Interlude IV
12
Now that she thought about it, Asuna hadn’t heard anything
about the Ocean Turtle’s current location, aside from it being in
the «sea near the Izu islands». Even if it was around the Izu
islands, that was a long distance from north to south. If she
recalled right, even Hachijyou Island near the middle was almost
three hundred kilometers from Tokyo.
She could just start up a location application and display her
current location on the portable terminal she brought from
Tokyo if she could use it, but unfortunately, she didn’t have
permission to connect to the shipboard Wi-Fi due to security or
something. She could play the music files and such stored in the
local memory, so she felt lucky enough that it didn’t get
confiscated, but frustration certainly did accumulate when stuck
in a situation incapable of doing an «instant search whenever a
thought struck her». She didn’t feel this disgruntled back in SAO,
where she couldn’t even get a single piece of news from the real
world, let alone perform a search, though.
Gulping down her sigh along with the iced tea, Asuna thought
to refresh her mood.
She only got this irritated at not being able to use the internet
due to that lingering sensation that she wasn’t kept in the loop
enough.
Was the «project» Kikuoka Seijirou, Higa Takeru, and the rest
worked on truly limited to those details they explained
yesterday? Were there not still many concealed secrets hidden in
the experimental world, «Underworld»? Also—would Kazuto,
receiving treatment on the Soul TransLator number 4, awaken
when tomorrow comes as Nurse Aki Natsuki had said…?
No, putting the first two aside, she had to cast off her doubts
over the third. She could only believe entirely in it now. When
tomorrow—7th July comes, Kazuto’s damaged neural network
will have been regenerated and he will regain consciousness.
Asuna had no choice but to return to Tokyo via the helicopter
departing from the Ocean Turtle on the seventh’s evening, but
Sword Art Online 13 - Alicization Dividing
Interlude IV
13
there should be enough time to exchange some words. And the
time for Asuna to firmly embrace the body that protected her.
Having regained some of her spirit by imagining that moment,
Asuna continued eating while asking Rinko on the opposite side.
“Rinko-san, do you have any details on this ship’s current
location? I haven’t heard anything more than it being in the sea
near the Izu islands.
“…Now that you bring it up, I think I know as much as you…”
Having finished the battered fish, Rinko lightly tilted her head
and put her hand into the pocket of her white robe. She appeared
to be retrieving her portable terminal, but apparently recalled
that she couldn’t connect to the internet immediately after and
faintly frowned.
“Erm, I believe Higa-kun mentioned that we were a hundred
kilometers or two west of Mikura Island… or wait, was it Miyake
Island…”
While voicing out those vague information, Rinko turned her
eyes towards the window that was large for a ship. Asuna, too,
gazed upon the blue-black sea surface once again.
The morning sun shone in from the opposite window, so the
direction their two faces turned towards should be west. If the
Ocean Turtle truly was west of the Izu islands presently, neither
Mikura Island nor Miyako Island would be visible, much less
Honshuu…
A soft “Ah” escaped from Asuna who gazed at the ocean from
right to left with those thoughts in mind. She didn’t notice it
when she looked at the window earlier, but it was shining white
in the light from the morning sun. Something slender and manmade, floating in the distant sea—a ship. Grasping its scale was
difficult without anything to compare it to, but it appeared rather
large.
“Rinko-san, over there."