"I..."

Shino used both hands to grab Kirito on the collar and lifted him.

"-I WAS THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE SAYING THAT! I...I THOUGHT THAT YOU WERE DEAD THERE!!"

Perhaps after shouting, all her tension disappeared as Shino suddenly felt darkness in front of her eyes. She slowly shook her head and looked at Kyouji who collapsed slightly afar.

"Is...he still alive?"

As Kirito asked her, Shino timidly reached her hand out to hold Kyouji's limp right wrist. Luckily, his hand was giving a clear pulse. Shino had the thought of wanting to tie Kyouji up, but she really couldn't look straight at him now that his eyes were closed, and could only look away. Shino didn't want to think about Kyouji anymore. Even though she didn't have any anger or sadness in that, there was a severe emptiness in her.

Shino kneeled down and blankly stared at the high-pressure syringe that rolled onto the floor-she should call it the real "Death Gun". A few seconds later, she finally spoke up, "Anyway...thanks for coming over to help..."

Kirito smiled like usual and then shook his head.

"Don't worry...I didn't really help much...and I was nearly late, so, sorry. Because Kiku...my associate didn't really understand my explanation...are you alright?"

Shino nodded her head.

At this moment, a fluid flowed out from her eyes.

"Eh...that's strange..."

Even though her mind was blank and couldn't think, the tears that flowed down the face continued to land on the floor.

Shino kept quiet, and tears just streamed out from her eyes. She knew that if she started talking, she would start crying.

And Kirito didn't do anything as well as he remained silent.

After a while, Shino noticed the police car siren that came from afar, but her tears didn't have any intention of stopping. The large tears silently rolled down, and she realized-that the emptiness in her chest came from the heavy loss.

Chapter 16.

At this point, the wide sky would make people think of the vast galaxy behind it.

This "wideness of the sky" was a feeling that virtual reality would never be able to duplicate. The autumn season that passed seemed to be all forgotten, and the blue sky looks like herds of sheeps as they gathered high in the air together with the thick clouds. The fine cables had two sparrows standing there, and the military airplane that was flying in the air reflected the sunlight back.

Shino stared at this vast and endless scenery, and she looked like she wouldn't be irritated by it.

The wind now would be considered warm for mid-December, and the after school noise from students wouldn't reach the back of the school. Normally, the sky in the capital of Tokyo would be covered with a thin grey, but today, it looked like a town in the north. Shino sat beside the flowerbed with black soil and placed her bag on her knees. And then, she let her soul move through the unlimited space for about 10 minutes.

However, a moment later, several footsteps accompanied by laughter were heard as they got near to Shino and pulled her back from space to earth.

She turned her neck that was trying its best to look up, pulled her white shawl and waited for those intruders to walk near.

Endou and her two companions came in from the northwest area of the school building and the large incinerator. They smirked upon seeing Shino and showed cruel smiles.

Shino's left hand took up the bag and said, "Since you took the initiative to invite me, don't be late."

After hearing Shino said that, a lackey of Endou blinked her thick eyelids, kept her smile and shouted, "Asada, you're really mischievous nowadays, aren't you!"

The other lackey said with a similar tone, "Yeah~ isn't this too much to treat your friends like that?"

The 3 people, who were about 2m away from Shino, each thought that they could give threatening looks which they thought would be most effective. Shino stared hard at the predatory insect-like narrow eyes belonging to Endou who was standing in the center.

Both of them remained silent for a few seconds. Endou then smiled and lifted her chin, "Oh well, we're friends anyway. Oh yeah, if we have troubles, you should help us. We're a little tight here..."

On hearing her say that, the other two starting laughing, "So just lend us 20,000 yen first."

Endou said that in a tone like she was borrowing rubber eraser.

Shino took off her NXT optical glasses that didn't even have a prescription on the lens, and put it in her skirt pocket. She gave them the sternest of looks at Endou's trio, and said each word out clearly, "I said it before. I don't have money to lend you."

At this moment, Endou's eyes narrowed like cables. She gave a stubborn look from her face and said with a deeper voice, "...Don't think you can continue to be so arrogant. Speaking of which, I really brought that thing with me from nii-san, so don't go crying, Asada."

"...Whatever."

Shino thought that these people wouldn't be so daring as to take out a gun near school, but Endou actually smirked and reached her hand into her school bag.

A black automatic pistol was whipped out from that bag which had lots of dolls hanging on it. This scene really gave a little sense of black comedy. Endou gingerly pulled out the large model gun and then pointed it at Shino with her right hand.

"I heard that this can blow a hole in thick cardboard. Nii-san told me not to use it to shoot someone, but you won't listen to that right, Asada? You're used to it."

Shino's eyes were naturally taken in by the black handgun.

Her heartbeat hastened. The ringing in her ears caused all other sounds to leave. She started breathing hard, and an icy feeling started to move up her fingertips.

However, Shino gritted her teeth and motivated all her mental strength to look away from the the gun's profile. Her eyes moved from Endou's right hand that was holding the gun, then started moving to the arm, and then to the shoulder, the dyed hair and finally Endou's face.

Endou's eyes were pulsating with their blood vessels showing due to over excitement, and the irises were turning an ugly black, the owner of the handgun was just a pitiful worm who's drunk in violence.

The real terror wasn't the gun itself, but the person holding it.

Perhaps because Shino didn't give the expected response, Endou anxiously smirked and said these words, "Cry, Asada. Kneel down and beg for forgiveness. Or else I'll really shoot."

Then, she aimed the model gun at Shino's left shoulder before smiling. Her shoulders and arms jerked slightly, and Shino immediately knew that she was going to squeeze the trigger. However, the bullet didn't fire.

"Damn it, what's going on!"

Though she squeezed the trigger a few more times, she could only hear the sound of plastic rubbing against each other.

Shino took a deep breath, gained strength all over her body, threw the bag onto the floor and reached her arms out.

She used her left thumb to press down hard on Endou's right wrist, and got the gun while her grip weakened. She then slid the index finger into the trigger guard, and the handle easily landed in her hands. The gun felt like plastic, but it was heavy.

"A 1911 Government? Your brother really likes such traditional designs. Just doesn't fit my tastes, though."

Shino said that and showed the left side of the gun at Endou.

"The Government has a hand safety and a grip safety, and you can't shoot it without opening these two safeties."

Clak, clak. With these two sounds, both safeties were removed.

"Also, it's a single-action gun, so you have to lift the hammer right from the beginning."

Shino flicked the hammer up with her thumb, and the trigger lifted up slightly with a little hard sound.

She turned her eyes from the stunned Endou and company and looked around, found a row of blue plastic bins about 6m away beside the incinerator, and there happened to be a can on it.

Shino then placed her left hand on the grip and got into a basic sidearms shooting stance. She lined her right eye with the sights, aimed it at the empty can, considered for a while, lifted the gun up a little, held her breath, and squeezed the trigger.

'PA'. With a soft sound, a little recoil was sent to Shino's hand. This Government did really show recoil, and the orange bullet flew out.

As Shino wasn't familiar with the trajectory of this gun, she thought that the first bullet would miss. However, the bullet luckily grazed the top of the empty can, which shocked Shino herself. The aluminium can let out a 'Klang', spun like a spinning top and finally fell and dropped from the bin.

Fuu, Shino sighed and placed the gun down. Endou's arrogance was already long gone as she could only stand there in shock. As Shino looked at her eyes, she timidly closed her mouth and took half a step back.

"No...no..."

After hearing her terrified sound, Shino relaxed her stern glance.

"...It's true that it's better not to use this to shoot others."

She said that as she cocked the hammer back before closing the 2 safeties. As Shino handed over the gun, Endou's body jerked, but still reached out for the model gun timidly.

Shino grabbed her school bag and again tugged at her shawl. She said goodbye to the 3 people behind her and started walking forward. However, Endou and company didn't respond at all. The trio could only stand there blankly until Shino went around the corner and disappeared.

The moment she couldn't see Endou, Shino's legs immediately lost their strength as she nearly collapsed onto the floor. She finally managed to stand up by supporting herself on the school building.

A thunderclap rang inside Shino's ears, and the blood was flowing quickly through her temples. The reverse flow of acid made her throat hurt slightly. If anyone was to tell her to do what she did just now, she would say that she wouldn't be able to do that again.

Even so-this can be considered a first step.

Shino forced herself to move her weak legs and made herself move away. The icy weight of the model gun was still stuck on her hands and couldn't be shaken off, but after putting her hand under the dry cold wind, her touch finally began to recover. She took out her glasses with her numb fingers and put it on.

She crossed the corridor that linked the west staircase of the school compound and the sports hall, reached the side of the field after walking for while, passed the sports clubs members who were running and cheering themselves on, through the little woods on the south of the track, and the main gate appeared in front of her.

Students were going back in groups, and just when Shino was about to pass through these people and head through the gate, she felt that something was amiss.

Some female students were standing on the school side of the wall, looking through the school gate, and exchanging words which she did not know.

Shino noticed that there were 2 girls from her class who she had a somewhat good relationship with, and she walked to them.

A girl with long hair and black framed spectacles noticed Shino, smiled and raised her hand.

"Asada-san, are you going home now?"

"Un-what are you people doing?"

As she asked that, another girl with chestnut-colored hair that were tied into two braids shrugged, smiled and answered, "Listen to me. There's a guy at the school gate with a uniform that's not from a nearby school. He parked his bike there and even had two helmets. It seems like he was waiting for a student from our school. It's a little like gossip, but we want to know who was so daring to invite her boyfriend over to the gate to fetch her, right?"

The moment she heard this answer, Shino immediately realized that her face was all white. She checked her watch and was screaming in her heart 'no way'.

He did agree to meet her at the school gate at this time, and that person even said that 'don't waste your bus fare, I'll come over to fetch you'. However, he shouldn't be so aloof so as to park his vehicle in front of the school gate- ...No, that guy would definitely do that.

Shino timidly leaned her body on the fence and peered outside from the school gate. Immediately after that, she felt completely weak. That male student who was wearing a uniform she had never seen before was leaning on a bright little motorbike that had it's tripod down. He was holding two helmets and looking up at the sky in a dazed manner-undoubtedly, he was the boy she got to knew two days ago.

Thinking that she would have to say hello to him and take the back seat of the bike with dozens of people looking at her, Shino couldn't help but blush. She muttered inside her heart 'I really want to log out from here', and squeezed out her last ounce of courage before turning to face her classmates beside her.

"Eh...well...he...he's my friend..."

She said in a soft voice that almost couldn't be heard. The eyes of the bespectacled girl widened.

"Eh...Asada-san's?"

"Wha, what kind of friend?"

The other girl shouted out like this too. Noticing the stares that gathered over because of these sounds, Shino could only hug her bag and shrink back...

"So...sorry!"

Then, she started apologizing and ran away from some reason.

Shino had already went through the green bronze school gate and arrived at the back lane as she heard a voice from behind yell out to her, "Explain everything clearly to me tomorrow!~"

Even though she arrived beside him, this daring visitor still looked dazed as he looked up at the blue sky.

"Well..."

After talking to him, he blinked and turned his eyes over before showing a lazy smile on his face.

"Ah, good afternoon, Sinon."

Meeting under the bright sun like this again, it felt like Kirito in the real world had a transparency that seemed to have left the ground. His slightly long black hair made his skin look more bright, and the slender body that looked shocking like a girl looked similar to his avatar in the virtual world.

This weak feeling, or rather, this feeble presence made Shino remember that he once spent two years of captivity, and caused her to keep her scathing words.

"...Good afternoon...sorry to keep you waiting."

"It's nothing. I just arrived too-speaking of which...why does it feel like..."