November 1, 2024 Floor 1: Town of Beginnings
This is...
...amazing.
Yeah.
It's like this every day.
Is Yui-chan okay?
She got a good night's sleep, and you can see it's helped.
Has this ever happened before?
We don't know.
When we found her, she was wandering in the forest on the 22nd floor.
It seems that she's lost her memories.
Oh, my.
So we came to the Town of Beginnings.
We thought someone here might know about her.
Any ideas?
I'm sorry, but I don't think
she's one of the kids from the Town of Beginnings.
When the game started,
most of the children suffered terrible psychological trauma.
I wanted to do something,
so I took them in at this church.
Every day, I walk around the town to see if anyone needs my help.
But I've never seen anyone like her.
Oh...
Hello.
I am Yulier.
Aren't you with the Army?
Are you here to complain about yesterday?
Not at all.
It's the reverse.
Honestly, I wanted to thank you.
I've come with a request for you two today.
A request?
Yui's Heart
We...
No, the guild leader, Thinker,
never wanted it to be a dictatorial organization like it's become.
We wanted to share information and food
evenly among as many players as possible.
But the Army grew too large.
Yes, there were multiple internal power struggles, and a man named Kibaou
ended up with a great deal of power.
Kibaou and his faction have grown strong,
monopolizing all the best monster spawn points,
and have even started extorting people for taxes.
But many people were upset with his lack of interest in clearing the game.
So he sent the highest level players
available to the front lines.
Corvatz-san...
After that massacre, he's taken a lot of heat
and we're close to dismissing him from the guild.
But he is scared and desperate, so he set a trap for Thinker.
Thinker's been stranded, deep in a dungeon!
Does he have a teleport crystal?
Unarmed?
He was too trusting.
He believed Kibaou when he said he only wanted to talk unarmed.
That was three days ago.
Three days?
What's happened to him?
It's a very high-level dungeon.
He's trapped there.
As his second-in-command, this is my responsibility.
But my level isn't high enough to reach him.
And Kibaou is using his influence
to prevent the rest of the Army from helping.
And then I heard
that two incredibly high-powered players had come here.
And so, I'm asking for your help.
Kirito-san, Asuna-san...
Would you please come and save Thinker with me?
I'd like to help, if we're able.
But we have to verify that you're telling the truth.
I understand that I'm asking a lot!
But when I think about him trapped in there,
I feel like I'm losing my mind...
It's okay, Mommy.
She's telling the truth.
Y-Yui-chan, you can tell?
Yeah.
I can't explain why...
But I know.
I'd rather trust and regret than doubt and regret.
Let's go.
It'll work out.
Right?
You're always so laid-back.
We'll do what we can.
Thank you.
I know how it feels to want to save someone you care for.
Stay here.
No, I'm coming, too.
Yui-chan, stay here with me, okay?
No!
So she's in a rebellious stage, huh?
Don't be silly!
Yui-chan, the place we're going is dangerous.
I'm going, too!
Floor 1: Town of Beginnings Black Iron Castle
I had no idea a dungeon like this was beneath the Town of Beginnings.
This wasn't here during the beta test.
This is unexpected.
It probably opens further, as the floors above are cleared.
Kibaou planned to keep it for himself.
Exclusive access to spawns can be quite profitable...
But the monsters that spawn here have levels around the 60s.
So he wasn't able to do much hunting.
This is the entrance.
I'm not scared!
It's okay.
She's much tougher than she looks.
Yeah.
I'm sure she'll be a fine swordsman someday!
Let's go, then.
I'm sorry for not helping.
No, this is his kind of thing.
Just let him be.
We're pretty far down.
Are we almost there?
Thinker hasn't moved from here.
I think he's in a safe spot.
If we can reach it, we can use a teleport crystal.
Good fight...
Sorry about that.
No, I enjoyed it.
And they dropped stuff.
Anything good?
Wh-What is this?
Scavenged toad meat.
Those frogs?
They say the stranger it is, the better it tastes.
Cook it up later.
No way!
Wh-What are you doing?
Damn it!
Fine, then...
How about these?
No! No, no, no, no!
Asuna, it's good meat!
Get rid of it!
But it's delicious!
You smiled.
It's the first time you've smiled!
Let's go.
There's the safe zone.
One player is inside.
Thinker!
W-Wait...
Yulier!
Thinker!
Stay back!
That corridor is...
Stop!
Yulier-san, come back!
Yulier-san,
retreat to the safe area with her.
Right.
Mommy...
Let's go.
Asuna,
use a teleport crystal to get Yui and the others out of here.
Even my identification skill isn't helping.
It's probably as strong as something from the 90th floor.
I'll buy time.
So run!
Y-You come with me.
I'll catch up. Hurry!
Mommy...
Take care of Yui!
You three should run!
Asuna!
I can't...
Hurry!
Kirito-kun!
Yui-chan, no!
It's dangerous...
Come back!
Don't be stupid!
Get out of there!
Yui-chan...
It's okay... Daddy, Mommy.
Yui-chan!
Immortal Object?
Yui-chan?
Yui...
Daddy... Mommy.
I remember everything.
Yui-chan,
you regained your memories?
Yes.
Kirito-san.
Asuna-san.
This world, Sword Art Online,
is controlled by a single, immense system.
The system is called Cardinal.
This system was designed to operate without any human intervention.
It regulates the balance of SAO, according to its own discretion.
From monster and NPC AI,
to drop rates for items and money.
Everything is controlled by the processes the Cardinal program executes.
Even player psychological care...
Mental Health Counseling Program, prototype 1.
Code name: Yui.
That's me.
A program?
An AI?
I was given the ability to emulate emotion,
to put players at ease with me.
I'm a fake...
All of me.
Even these tears.
I'm sorry, Asuna-san...
Yui-chan.
But you had amnesia.
Can that happen to an AI?
Two years ago,
on the day of the launch...
For reasons I never understood,
Cardinal forbade me from interacting with any of the players.
I was forced to do nothing
but continue to monitor the players' mental states.
It was utterly horrible.
No!
Terror, despair, rage. People were overcome by negative feelings.
Some of them went completely insane.
Normally,
I would have gone to them immediately.
But I wasn't permitted any contact with them.
Gradually, errors accrued within me,
and I fell apart.
But one day,
I saw two players whose mental parameters were
very different than the rest.
Joy,
peace...
But it was more than that.
I wandered through the field,
hoping to get as close to you as I could.
And that's why you were in the 22nd-floor forest?
Yes.
Kirito-san, Asuna-san...
I've always wanted to meet you.
It's strange, isn't it?
It should be impossible for me to think that.
I'm only a program...
Yui-chan,
you have true intelligence, don't you?
I don't know.
I don't know what's happened to me.
You aren't just a program that the system controls anymore.
So you should be able to say what you want.
What do you want?
I...
I want to stay with you forever...
Daddy, Mommy!
Together...
We'll be together forever, Yui-chan.
Yeah, you are our child.
It's too late...
Too late?
This console grants the GMs emergency access
to the system.
I used it to delete that monster.
But now it's running a check on my program.
Since I've disobeyed Cardinal's orders,
it considers me a foreign object.
I'll be deleted soon.
No...
Can't we do something?
Daddy, Mommy, thank you.
This is goodbye.
No!
I don't want that!
We've just started...
We've just started living together...
Yui, don't go!
Everyone smiles when they're with you.
Please...
From now on, go and help people in my place.
Share your happiness with them.
No... No!
I can't smile without you...
Smile, Mommy.
Cardinal!
No, Kayaba!
Don't think things will always go the way you want them to!
Kirito-kun, what are you...
I can probably still use this GM account to access the system.
Kirito-kun!
Are you okay?
What's this?
Before Yui's admin credentials were denied,
I split off her main program and turned it into a game object.
Then, this is...
Yui's heart.
Hey, Kirito-kun...
If the game is cleared and this world ends,
what will happen to her?
Yui's data is set
Floor 22: Coral
to save to my NerveGear's local memory.
When we get back, recreating her as Yui won't be easy.
But I'm sure it'll work.
Okay.
Then we'll see her there.
Our first child.
Yeah, I'm certain.
Hey, Asuna...
Mommy, good luck.
Next Time: Edge of Hell's Abyss