"...Over here?"

"Un."

Kirito nodded and took out his bike keys before pushing the door without hesitation. The slow-tempo music of jazz accompanied a quick 'Clink' as the door was opened.

Shino entered the shop like she was attracted by the fragrance of coffee. Under the orange light, the wooden boards were glowing too. The entire space was small, but it had an unspeakable warmth. This made Shino's tense shoulders relax.

"Welcome..."

Upon entering the shop, a clear baritone came immediately. Looking around, Shino spotted a large man with chocolate-colored skin standing behind the bar. That face of an old war veteran looked intimidating, but that white shirt and little butterfly knot bow tie on the collar gave an amusing feeling to that.

There were already two customers who were in the shop. On the round chairs in front of the bar counter, there were two girls wearing school uniforms. Shino noticed that their uniforms were the same color as Kirito's.

"You're too slow!"

One of them, a girl with shoulder-length hair curling inwards jumped up from the round seat and exclaimed that to Kirito.

"Sorry, sorry, Chrysheight spoke too much."

"I ate 2 apple pies while waiting for you. Kirito! It'll be your fault if I grow fat!"

"Why, why is it my fault now...?"

The other girl with slight brown straight hair, down to the middle of her back, merely laughed as she heard their conversation at the beginning, but soon after, she got off the bench and interrupted with a tone that seemed to show that she was rather used to this situation, "Hurry up and introduce us, Kirito-kun."

"Ah...you're right."

After Kirito nudged her on the back, Shino arrived at the center of the shop. She tried her best to suppress the fear she would have when meeting someone for the first time and nodded at them.

"This is the 3rd winner of Gun Gale Online, Sinon, real name, Asada Shino."

"Do, don't say that."

Shino protested slightly after hearing this unexpected introduction from Kirito, but Kirito merely chuckled and continued. He pointed at the energetic girl he was quarreling with and said, "This is the cheating blacksmith Lisbeth, real name is Shinozaki Rika."

"You bastard..."

The girl called Rika immediately gave a bad look and attacked Kirito. He dodged and raised his left hand towards the other girl.

"And this is the berserk healer Asuna, real name Yuuki Asuna."

"Tha, that's too much!"

Asuna protested, but her face was still smiling. She then stared at Shino with clear beautiful eyes and then nodded at her.

"And that..."

Kirito finally pointed his jaw at the shopkeeper inside the bar.

"That's Iron Wall Agil."

"Oi oi, am I an Iron Wall now? My mom gave me a nice name, okay?"

What's shocking was that it seemed that even the shopkeeper here was a VRMMO player. The giant laughed and placed his right hand on his sturdy chest and said, "Hello. I'm called Andrew Gilbert Mills. I hope we can get along."

As what he said was all in fluent Japanese except for his name which was in English, Shino couldn't help but blink a few times and hurriedly lowered her head to greet him.

"Let's sit down and talk first."

There were two 4-seater tables in the shop. Kirito walked towards one and pulled the chair out. After waiting for Shino, Asuna and Rika to sit down, he flicked a finger at the shopkeeper.

"Agil, I want ginger ale. What do you want, Sinon?"

"Ah...the same then."

"The ginger ale here's really spicy."

Kirito chuckled and said 'two glasses' towards the counter, and then cupped his hands on the table.

"Then, I'm going to explain to Lisbeth and Asuna what happened last weekend."

Even though Kirito and Shino had already collated what happened during the BoB finals with what Kikuoka said, it took them more than 10 minutes to explain everything to others.

"Un-as things aren't revealed on the media yet, the real names and detailed information couldn't be revealed, but that's basically it."

After concluding things, Kirito looked somewhat tired as he laid his tired body on the chair and finished the second cup of ginger ale.

"...You, for some reasons...you really get into lots of trouble."

Rika shook her head and sighed as she commented. However, Kirito looked down and shook his head, "No...Well, I can't really say this. This incident did involve me after all."

"...Is that so-ahhh, I knew I should have been there. I have a whole lot of things I want to say to that Death Gun."

"That guy's not that only one who got his soul twisted by SAO. There's likely lots of them."

At this moment, Asuna smiled to chase away the current moody atmosphere.

"But I feel that a lot of souls were saved, like mine. Of course, I don't mean that I agree with SAO...the guild leader's actions...because of that a lot of people died...but even so, I won't deny these two years I lived, and I won't regret about them at all."

"...Ahh, you're right. During the last battle with Death Gun, if it wasn't for Asuna holding my hand, I wouldn't be able to use that move. I guess...it's because of those two years in SAO...that your warmth reached me..."

Of course, Shino couldn't understand what Kirito meant by that. The boy found that she seemed to be puzzled and smiled in an embarrassed manner before explain, "Didn't I say that I dived in from the hospital in Ochinomizu during the night of the finals? I never told anyone about that place, and Asuna tortured and interrogated Kikuoka before he spilled it out."

"Y, you don't have to say it like that!"

After Asuna said that, she puffed her cheeks angrily. Then, Kirito gave a mischievous smile and said, "And then, she dived in from this shop, but after knowing the location, came rushing over to that hospital I was at. At that moment...I was fighting with Death Gun, and she grabbed my hand tightly. And unbelievably...I did feel Asuna's warmth at that moment. It's thanks to her that I drew that FiveSeven handgun I had forgotten about."

"...I see..."

Shino nodded her head silently. Though she was thinking whether the two of them were dating, she immediately threw that imagination aside. Luckily, Kirito didn't notice this abnormal situation and slowly continued, "But that wasn't all. After the tournament ended, I logged out, and Asuna told me...that the log in name "Sterben" Death Gun used was actually German, and it should be read as that. It meant "Death". But this was a name that only doctors and nurses would use in Japan, and so...I remembered that you told me that you have a friend who's a doctor's kid, and you were about to call him to your house, so I had a bad feeling. Once I found out that it would be too late once the police arrive, so I rode my bike to Yushima...but I didn't really help out much..."

These words shook Shino in a certain silent way.

"...Sterben. Not Steven..."

She muttered, closed her eyes, thought and said, "...Hospital's term, it means death...why did he choose such a name...?"

"Maybe he wanted to rebel against his dad who was a doctor. Anyway-it's not a reason we can easily think of."

Kirito sighed. Sitting diagonally opposite him, right in front of Shino was Asuna, who said with an optimistic tone, "It's better not to think too much into the meaning of a VRMMO character name. Once you find out certain truths, you'll lose even more."

Beside her, Rika immediately chuckled and answered, "Oh~, as expected of someone who used her real name as the character name, it's really convincing!"

"Hey!"

Asuna immediately attacked with her right elbow, and Rika pretended to look in pain. Shino inadvertently smiled as she watched their interactions with each other, and at this moment, Asuna suddenly looked at her. The shiny tea-colored eyes were glowing with brightness, and Shino felt strength in that humbleness.

"Well...Asada-san..."

"Wha, what is it?"

"These words may not be suited for me to say this, but...I'm sorry, for letting you see such a terrifying thing."

"No...don't say that..."

Shino hurriedly shook her head and said each word out one by one, "This incident may be caused by me. Because of my personality, play style...my past and other things. Anyway, during the tournament, I panicked...luckily, Kirito made me calm down. Well, what was telecasted was that he was comforting Sinon..."

And then, Kirito jumped up immediately and spilled out words in rapid fire.

"Tha, that's right. I almost forgot about the most important thing. It was an emergency, we were being chased down by that killer in that situation. Don't think too much into it!"

"...Alright then, we'll trust you for now. But we don't know what will happen in the future...."

Rika continued to mutter as she stared at Kirito, but still clapped and showed her lively smile.

"But I'm happy to know a female VRMMO player in the real world."

"That's right. I still have a lot of things I want to ask about GGO. Please be friends with me, Asada-san."

Asuna gave a steady smile before stretching her right hand out on the table. After seeing that white and tender hand- Shino couldn't help but feel somewhat intimidated.

Friends. As the word entered her heart, she felt a burning sense of yearning, but also a sharp pain and anxiety.

Friends. Ever since that incident, she had yearned for them many times, but got betrayed just as many times, until she finally told her heart that she should not wish for such luxury.

I want to be friends with her. To hold the loving hands of this girl called Asuna, to embrace her warmth. I want to go out and play with her, to talk with her, to do what normal girls would do.

But in that situation, it would be a matter of time before she knew that Shino killed before, that her hands were stained with blood.

She was scared that Asuna would give her an irritated expression. To touch humans-such a simple act would likely be something that would be eternally denied to her.

She thought that she should just head back like that, that the mere words of 'being friends with her' would be enough to warm her heart for a while. As she got ready to apologize- "Sinon..."

This little muttering made Shino waver because of her shrinking consciousness. Her body jerked, and she then looked at Kirito beside her.

As they exchanged looks, Kirito nodded his head slightly but firmly. His eyes were telling Shino that it was alright. Thus, Shino turned her eyes back to Asuna as if she was hypnotized.

The girl was still smiling, and her right hand was still shown in front for Shino.

Shino's arm felt as heavy as a lead block. However, she was starting to fight against this shackle as she slowly, slowly lifted her arm. Compared to isolating herself because she didn't want to doubt others or was scared for being betrayed, she would rather trust others and be hurt by them. That was the first time Shino had this thought ever since that incident.

It felt like Asuna's hand was far away. As the distance was closed in, the density of the air increased, feeling like there was a wall to bounce Shino's hand back.

However, her fingers finally touched the other party's.

The next moment, Shino's right hand was tightly cupped by Asuna's hand.

That warmth really couldn't be described with words. The warmth that was passed over started moving from the fingertips and up the arms, shoulders and entire body before finally melting Shino's frozen blood.

"Ah..."

Shino subconsciously exhaled. To think that it would be that warm. She had long forgotten about something-a human's hand touch can move the soul. At this moment, Shino felt that this was reality. She realized heavily that all the fear she used to have, how she continued to run away from this world, she was finally tied to this real reality now.

Just like that, a few seconds passed, no, numerous seconds...

At this moment, Shino noticed that the smiling Asuna showed some hesitation on her lips. As she instinctively tried to draw her hand back, Asuna held on with even more force. At this moment, Asuna seemed like she was choosing her words wisely as she slowly said to the bewildered Shino.

"...Well, Asada-san...Shino-san. There's another reason why we invited you here today. This may not make you comfortable...and it may make you angry. But, we, we have to...tell you no matter what..."

"Reason...? Me, angry...?"

She was losing grasp of the situation. But at this moment, Kirito, who was sitting on the left, said with a nervous voice, "Sinon, well, I have to apologize to you first."

After that, the boy bowed his head down in apology. Then he used the pitch black eyes that were in the midst of that slightly long bangs and that girlish-avatar look to stare at Shino.

"...I told Asuna and Lisbeth what happened to you before. That's because I needed their help."

"Eh...?"

As Shino heard that Kirito told the truth to them, she couldn't hear what happened next.

-They knew what happened at the post office? Asuna and Rika knew what the 11-year-old Shino did?

This time, Shino did use all her strength to try and pull her hand away from Asuna.

But she didn't succeed. This delicate girl called Asuna was holding Shino' right hand with an unknown strength. The girl's eyes, expression and the warmth she was passing through to her seemed like she wanted to say something to Shino. But-what? What did she want to say? Was there anything to say to me even after knowing that my hands were dyed in blood?

"Shino...actually, I, Lisbeth and Kirito all took leave on Monday from school, and went to the ...city."