Okay, let's toast
to celebrate everyone's first time meeting each other.
Cheers!
These members are all amazing.
If you want, we can go and defeat the next floor boss, too!
That's a great idea!
Okay, let's go! Let's go!
I won't lose!
All right!
Yay!
from: Kurahashi-sensei subject: Urgent Yuuki-san, Konno-san's condition has deteriorated. Can you come immediately?
Mother's Rosario
from: Kurahashi-sensei subject: Urgent Yuuki-san, Konno-san's condition has deteriorated. Can you come immediately?
I'm glad you made it in time.
Forty minutes ago, her heart stopped once.
We restored her pulse with a defibrillator and drugs,
but the next time it happens...
Why? Why?!
Yuuki's still...
To tell you the truth, since your visit in January,
this could have happened at any time.
But for the past three months, she's worked so hard, it's astonished us.
She's kept winning an impossible battle, day after day.
For Yuuki-kun,
her fifteen years of life have been one long battle.
It wasn't only the HIV.
For a long time, she's been fighting a harsh reality.
The Medicuboid's clinical trials
must have caused her an incredible amount of pain.
But she fought hard anyway.
So, now let's let her rest.
Yuuki...
Yuuki won't lose, right?
Because you're Zekken!
The strongest swordsman!
Asuna-san,
please hold her hand.
Doctor, can you use the Medicuboid right now?
But she said she wanted to spend her last moments outside it.
No, she wants to go back to that world once more.
Please! Let her use the Medicuboid!
It will take a minute to boot up.
What will you do?
I'll use the Amusphere in the next room!
Wait! I'm coming!
Thank you, Asuna...
I forgot something important.
I need to give you something.
What did you want to give me?
Hold on...
I'll make it now. Hold on a second.
Yuuki?!
It's strange...
It doesn't hurt, and it's not painful.
But for some reason, I feel so weak.
It's okay.
You're just a little tired.
If you rest, it'll get better.
Yeah.
Asuna, take this...
It's my Original Sword Skill.
You're giving it to me?
I want you to have it.
Now open the window.
The skill is called "Mother's Rosario."
I'm sure it will protect you.
Thank you, Yuuki.
I promise...
Even if I leave this world someday,
I'll pass the skill on to someone else.
Your blade will never disappear.
Yeah. Thanks.
What?
You all promised not to say goodbye...
We aren't saying goodbye.
We're here to cheer you up.
Don't waste too much time.
We'll be following you soon.
What are you talking about?
If you come too soon,
I'll be mad.
No, no.
You can't do anything without us.
You need to...
to wait...
No, Nori-san.
You promised not to cry.
Fine...
I'll be waiting.
So take as long as you possibly can.
Wow...
Look at all those fairies.
I'm sorry.
I thought you might get upset.
I'm not upset at all.
But why?
Why are there so many?
Am I dreaming?
Because... Because...
Yuuki, you're the strongest swordsman in this world.
There will never be someone as good as you.
So I can't let this be a lonely goodbye...
Everyone is praying that your next journey
is to somewhere as wonderful as this.
I'm happy...
I'm so happy.
I always... I always wondered...
I was born to die,
so what was my reason for existing in the world?
Without creating anything, or giving anything to anyone.
Wasting so much machinery and medicine,
causing the people around me trouble...
Suffering, worrying...
And if I were just going to disappear in the end,
it would be better to die right now.
I thought that so many times.
"Why am I alive?" I wondered for so long...
But... But...
I finally feel like I've found the answer.
Even if there's no reason,
it's okay for me to be alive.
Because my last moments are of such fulfillment.
I can end my journey surrounded by so many people,
in the arms of the person I love.
I...
I'll see you again.
In some other place,
in some other world.
We'll see each other again.
When I see you, tell me what you found.
I... I did my best to live.
I lived here.
Konno Yuuki Memorial Service
Without creating anything, or giving anything to anyone.
But what you carved into my heart is still here.
Hello, Asuna-san.
Are you Siune-san?
Yes, that's right.
My real name is An Shiun.
It's been a long time.
O-Oh, nice to meet you, too!
I'm Yuuki Asuna!
It's been about a week.
I'm all right.
Just this month, April, they're finally letting me leave.
Then you're doing better?
Yes.
My disease is called acute lymphocytic leukemia.
It started three years ago.
The side effects of the medicine are horrible,
and so many times, I was ready to give up.
But each time I met Yuuki,
she always cheered me up by saying I was much older than she,
so why was I crying?
But around February, the amount of medicine
I was getting began to decrease,
and I thought it was time.
But one month ago,
the day after I said goodbye to Yuuki,
the doctor said the disease was in complete remission.
And then, I actually left the hospital,
without really knowing what was happening.
It still doesn't feel like I'm better.
And...
Yuuki's waiting, so I don't know if it's okay for me to be the only one still here.
Yuuki, Ran-san, Clovis, and Merida...
We promised to always be together.
I... I...
Shiun-san,
lately, I've been thinking that life
is something in which to carry and share your heart.
For a long time, I was scared.
Scared of sharing my feelings, and of knowing how others felt.
But Yuuki told me that isn't right.
If I don't try to touch them, nothing will happen.
I want to share the strength I learned from Yuuki with a lot of people.
I want to carry Yuuki's heart a long way,
as long as I can keep walking.
And someday, when I see her again,
I want to give many hearts back to her.
That's what I think.
Thank you, Asuna-san.
We're very grateful to you.
I was worried about Yuuki.
She was carrying so many things on her little shoulders.
But then, you appeared.
When she was with you,
she looked like she was having so much fun.
She was like a little bird who'd remembered how to fly.
She's flown beyond our reach now, though.
Jun says the medicine he's been taking recently
has been working very well.
It's like Yuuki is saying it's too early for him to join her.
It'll be a long time before the Sleeping Knights are together.
Next time, I'm planning on having you make me a full member.
Hey.
There you are.
Am I interrupting?
No...
Huh, you two know each other?
Yeah, we've been exchanging e-mails on that communication probe I told you about.
That's right.
We're talking about whether it can be used for medical full-dive technology.
I see.
Come to think of it, what will happen with the Medicuboid tests?
Oh, we've already gotten far more test data than we need.
Patients all over Japan will soon...
Oh, I'm sorry.
I forgot the first thing I should have said.
An-san, congratulations on leaving the hospital.
I can't imagine how happy Yuuki-kun must be.
Thank you.
It makes me happy when I think how
the data Yuuki left behind is helping so many who are fighting their diseases.
Really.
I think her name will live forever as
the first one to test that device.
She should get some kind of amazing award,
like with the external helper who gave us the initial device designs.
I don't think that would make her happy.
She'd say she couldn't eat it.
Um, doctor...
Did you mention an external helper who gave you initial designs?
Wasn't it designed by a medical device manufacturer?
Well, you see...
The initial designs were offered for free by an outside helper.
I think her name was Professor Koujirou Rinko...
Wh-What's wrong, Kirito-kun?
I know that name...
I've met her.
She was the person who took care of Heathcliff's body while he was diving.
She was working on
full-device technology at the same lab.
In other words, the real person who invented the basic design
for the Medicuboid was...
The guild leader, Kayaba Akihiko.
I'll put the lunches here.
Okay, thanks.
Huh? Isn't she cute?
This is for you, Sinon-san.
Thanks!
Huh? I think she's cute!
You know, when you come with everyone, it's fun.
Yeah.
The sakura blossoms are very pretty.
They're mostly gone now, though.
You don't need to say that!
But we really were able to come here with Yui-chan.
I didn't think we'd be able to do it so fast.
Thank you, Daddy.
Thank you, Kirito-kun.
No, it's thanks to Yuuki helping me.
I thought that the closer the real and virtual world got,
the better the future would be.
But the more the boundary between them blurs,
the more it starts to trick people.
But it also saves many people.
I don't know what that man who disappeared into the cyber-world thought,
but as the survivors of that world,
we have a duty to see what happens.
Aren't you overthinking it?
Maybe.
But I want to see for myself.
After everything that's happened, that feeling has become stronger.
I don't like the feeling that I'm being manipulated, though.
So...
I don't know what the future will hold.
However, Asuna,
I want you to be with me forever.
And I want to be with you forever.
Yeah.
I'll follow you to the other side of the world!
That's a bit more extreme than I was thinking...
I'll follow you, also!
Hey! You two!
We're all going to take a picture!
Get over here!
Hurry! Hurry!
Okay, let's go.
Okay, Daddy.