The sound of the explosion from the plasma grenade that would put them out of their misery,

"Wha?"

Reached M from outside the window.

Even with his eyes closed, he knew what the hit point gauges at the top left showed. His own was…green. And, Pitohui's… was also green. 

The moment M opened his eyes, he saw,

"Whoa whoa, what're you doing? A lovers’ suicide? Are we in Sonezaki?(1) Or Roppongi?(2) We’re not! This is GGO!"

The avatar of the woman he loved, glaring at him as she said that.

Pitohui had raised the top half of her body from the bed, her right arm pointing straight out the window.

M understood.

That, having regained consciousness, Pitohui threw the plasma grenade outside the open window, and it exploded on the ground.

"Aah!"

When M opened his eyes and tears of joy began flowing down, his face,

"You dumba.s.s!"

Was a.s.saulted by Pitohui's right hand, which had formed a fist.

"Augh!"

His left cheek was punched.

"You dummy!"

"Gefuh!"

His right cheek received a backhand blow.

"You idiot!"

"Gah!"

His chest received a strike from the heel of her palm, or the firm part below the palm, in other words.

His huge body was easily blown back and he collapsed, shaking the floor.

"And here I was having a nice dream!"

Having suddenly leapt up from the bed, Pitohui stood up in front of M. Then,

"Why you why you!"

She used her foot to press on M's nether region with extreme force,

"Gaugaugagagagagagah!"

And, as if struck by electricity, his large limbs began flailing noisily.

"Gaugagaaaagagagagagaga!"

"Don't ya just up an' decide to kill me!"

"Gagagagagagagaga!"

This situation… was fortunately not broadcast either.

Several seconds later──

Having suddenly removed her leg from M, Pitohui lifted her beloved KTR-09, left beside the bed, with her right hand,

"It's just the two of us, huh. What about the enemy?"

And requested a status update.

"MMTM, down the stairs. They'll be rus.h.i.+ng up here very soon."

Quickly standing up with a serious look, M nimbly drew his HK45 from his right thigh. On his burly figure, there was no sign of him having been in agony just moments ago.

"Welp, guess we'll just ma.s.sacre them!"

Giving a broad grin, Pitohui turned her left hand toward her waist. She opened the cover of the pouch there, and her hand went inside.

M asked a question.

"You said 〝And here I was having a nice dream〟──about what?"

While pulling out the contents of her pouch, Pitohui answered.

"A dream of going wild in the death game that Sword Art Online had become, with sword in hand, together with my merry buddies from the beta period!"

A pale light illuminated her fiendish smile.

The MMTM members, who went up to the second floor fluidly like a stream, rushed into the guest room to their immediate left, in other words, the western side of the building.

The tall man had brought the bed from this room, thus they had concluded that the remaining PM4 members were there.

However, there was no one inside the s.p.a.cious guest room.

As Jake kept watch on the east side with his machine gun in the corridor, MMTM rushed into the next room──

'Clear!'

And confirmed that no one was there. The room was a mess from the leader's grenade attack, but there were no corpses there. Nor were there any places to hide. An MG3 machine gun that had lost its owner stood there in silence.

In that case──

With simple hand signs, the leader gave an order.

〝Opposite side, eastern room, we're goin' in.〟

The situation was broadcast to the bar.

Keeping their posture low, the six men crossed the centre of the approximately 2 metre-wide corridor, doing their best to avoid their footsteps making any sound.

GGO players avoided walking along the walls as much as possible, .

The reason for that was ricochet. When an enemy bullet hit the wall obliquely, its angle would drop, and it would come at them mostly along the wall.

MMTM crossed the centre of the corridor in a line. They were prepared for the man in the lead to be shot if the enemy jumped out and fired at them.

But his body would become a s.h.i.+eld that would protect the others. And the man behind him would bring down the enemy.

There were only two rooms left.

M and that woman… were in one of the two.

Without a sound or a word, the six men advanced through the corridor.

Avoiding the hole in front of the stairs where a man had fallen down, they s.h.i.+fted the direction of their muzzles bit by bit.

In the lead was the not-chicken G36K wielder, Kenta, boasting the highest speed on the team.

Following him was Lax, the sungla.s.ses man with the same gun.

Bold, the dark-skinned ARX160 man.

The muscular Samon, holding a SCAR-L.

Then, it was the turn of the leader, a handsome man wielding an STM-556 switched to its short barrel.

The slender Jake, having taken some distance from them, was the rearguard──the valuable man keeping watch on their rear.

There were roughly 7 metres from the stairs to the door that served as the entrance to the room on their right-hand side.

In fights taking place inside buildings, alongside ricochet, one absolutely had to watch out for〝Wall piercingKabenuki〟.

As the name implied, it referred to bullets piercing through cover, such as walls and doors, and flying at them. In other words, a sudden attack from an unseen enemy.

In GGO, it was possible to sense enemies beyond the wall through items like sonar sensors, which used sound to determine the position of the enemy, or skills with a similar effect. Even more simply, a 〝gut feeling〟 that the enemy was around there.

Be that as it may, even if you knew their position, kabenuki would be impossible if the attack could not reach its target. Whether or not it was possible varied based on the gun caliber, as well as the type and thickness of the cover.

Rifle bullets had an awful lot of penetration, thus walls in a simple wooden house could easily be pierced. Exactly like how, just moments ago, Jake was able to bring down the enemy on the second floor by shooting through the floorboards.

However, at the moment, to MMTM's left and right were large logs, about 70 cm-wide.

Shooting through them with anything other than an anti-materiel rifle, even though not completely impossible, would still be quite difficult. And even if the bullets were to somehow pierce, they would lose a large amount of power, the remainder of which would be greatly insufficient to kill. 

In that sense, in this corridor, it would be enough to be cautious of attacks from the front and back, as well as the windows. It was relatively safe.

Or it should have been safe.

The moment Kenta was three steps away from the door──

Vehement gunshots resounded in the corridor, and the leader saw.

How Samon, who was walking in front of him, had hit effects light up in succession on his right side.

"Gyafu!"

His large body twisted to the right, and as more light spouted, his SCAR-L's enhanced plastic stock was torn to pieces. Once the bullets finished destroying the stock, they again a.s.sailed its owner.

His hit points began decreasing at an alarming rate. Having seen such situations many times over, he knew what it meant. This momentum indicated instant death.

"Right! From the window!"

The leader broke the silence to shout to his comrades, but even he was unable to understand.

He understood that the attack was coming from the room, but──

'How could so many bullets pierce the ma.s.sive logs, and yet attack without losing their power?'

'Could it be that these logs were only here for the sake of appearance, like in a movie set? Can kabenuki work on them?'

"Why yooou!"

Bold, who had been walking ahead of the dying Samon, unleashed a semi-auto rapid fire on the wall with his ARX160, causing wood chips to scatter.

They clearly did not pierce the wall,

"Stop!"

And just as the leader gave this order, the enemy's shooting also stopped. Samon, who seemed to have been shot in the abdomen,

"Grud!"

Cursed as he collapsed and fell to the floor, the emblem on his left shoulder depicting a skull holding a knife in its mouth hitting the floor first. A 【Ｄｅａｄ】 marker lit up.

Since it had come to this, they had to break in as soon as possible and kill the two inside.

As if having having foreseen the leader's thoughts, a large hole opened up in the door in front of Kenta.

Seeing several holes open with one attack, it was undoubtedly caused by a shotgun. An attack from inside. And it was three consecutive attacks.

"Tch!"

If he had been just one, no, half a step ahead, Kenta would have been turned into beehive just like the door, but he, along with his G36K, managed to pull back. It was already too dangerous to stand in front. 

At that moment, MMTM's fluid movements suddenly came to a halt.

Having stopped shooting, Bold drew closer to the edge of the wall and, from the side, brought his face closer to the place where the bullets that shot his comrades came from.

And, he informed his comrades of what he had found with a whisper.

"There's a hole!"

'So that's it, they got us good!'

MMTM's leader was astonished at the exceedingly simple, and effective, trick──, no trap.

PM4 had, naturally, predicted that they would pa.s.s through here, thus while the mask- and goggle-wearing men bought time, the enemy had secretly made holes where a log met another log.

He did not know how yet, though. It did not seem like they had the leeway to open holes with bullets, thus perhaps there was a powerful electric drill inside. The plasma grenade explosion outside just moments ago could have been done to camouflage the noise from that work.

Bold, who found the hole, pressed his back against the wall next to it and, without delay, inserted the muzzle of his own gun, the ARX160. This way, even if the enemy fired, the only thing that would be hit would be the gun. Then, he began rhythmically firing the gun in semi-auto──

When, after 2 shots, it stopped.

"Gah……?"

His face… froze with an expression of anguish and confusion.

Then, the leader - and the others, aside from Kenta, who was in the lead and keeping an eye on the door - saw.

How, leaning against the wall, Bold, or specifically, his right eye, began s.h.i.+ning a bluish-white.

Then, the light increased in intensity and formed the shape of a rod, slowly piercing his eye. Having projected about 3 cm out of his eye, it stopped there.

"Gaaaaaaaaaah."

Bold began trembling as his right eye s.h.i.+ned blue. His hand let go of the gun, and, still having its muzzle inserted into the hole, the ARX160 became a part of the wall.

In the upper left corner of the leader's view, Bold's hit points were decreasing with terrifying momentum.

'Aah……, s.h.i.+t…… So that's what it was!'

He was a bit too late to realise it. This time, he did not have the leeway to commend his enemy; he just cursed himself.

He had forgotten about a weapon that could easily pierce the 70 cm-wide logs, and the head of a person standing beyond them.

Because there was no way he would use such a thing, it fell outside of his memory.

Although, a newbie player, whose name he had never heard, had run wild with one during the previous, third BoB tournament.

It was an ultra powerful and ultra-close range weapon that did not exist in the real world.

A weapon that produced a blade of light about 1 metre in length and cut up anything it touched.

The sword of the gun world── a photon sword.

Bold turned into a corpse and his feet lost their strength.

At the same time, the photon sword was pulled out of him, and the ghost-like bluish-white light disappeared from the corridor. Then, the corpse tumbled down.

The next moment, a bluish-white circle was drawn on the wall.

An instant, one-stroke sketch of a circle, about 1.5 metres in diameter, appeared on the log wall. And it was right in front of the aforementioned vanguard, Kenta──

"Dodge!"

The leader's shout and the moment the wall attacked Kenta coincided. With extreme force from inside the room, the round logs were blown away──

"Fubeh!"

After sending Kenta flying, they sandwiched him against the wall on the other side of the corridor.

And from the resulting hole in the wall suddenly came… a very ordinary hand grenade. It fell atop the head of Kenta, trapped between the wall and circle, and exploded there.

Kenta's upper body, from the chest up, was blown to pieces, and a red polygon light shone inside the corridor. The logs cut in a circular shape separated on the spot and crumbled down.

Several fragments from the hand grenade a.s.saulted the closest man, Lax. The blast blew the sungla.s.ses off his face.

"Why yooou!"

Undaunted by the damage, he unleashed a semi-auto rapid fire with his G36K placed firmly against his right shoulder. Pa.s.sing through the newly-created hole, his bullets went into the room.

The leader followed suit right away by beginning to fire, aiming his beloved gun at the hole located about 3 metres diagonally forward while moving sideways towards the front of the hole.

At this rate, they had no choice but to approach the hole while shooting intermittently, then rush into the room at once to bring them down. Compare to being attacked unilaterally, it was better to rush forward and fight in a place where they could at least see their enemy, and defeat them.

From the hole, at a low position, something came rolling out into the corridor.

It was a black, round, large, spherical ma.s.s that looked like a smallish watermelon.

It was a gigantic plasma grenade, commonly known as a 〝Giga-nade〟.

As proof that its activation switch has been pressed, a part of it was giving off flickering light.

"Hih!" "Bah──!"

Lax's and the leader's stiff voices were magnificently synchronised. They stopped shooting.

'Is the enemy an idiot! Do they want to die with us!'

The leader questioned the sanity of his opponents. Who would have thought that, in such a confined s.p.a.ce, they would use strong-even-in-normal-circ.u.mstances plasma grenades… three times stronger version, the Giga-nade.

They did not know how many seconds were set on the timer, but when it exploded, it would, naturally, not only take them out due to being in close vicinity, but also not leave the one who threw the grenade, hiding beyond the hole, unscathed. 

And then he understood.

'Aah…… knowing her…… she'd do it.’

'Knowing that crazed woman, knowing Pitohui──'

'If it were to kill an enemy standing before her, she was entirely unwary of dying herself. In the past, when I had just began playing GGO, I had seen such conduct… many times over.'

'She's prepared to die and take us with her! That s.h.i.+thead!'

The leader, despite thinking that it was pointless, attempted to dodge. At that very moment, he saw.

How Lax, whose feet were right next to the fallen Giga-nade, threw away his gun and covered the Giga-nade.

〝If it covered a hand grenade, the person's body would become a s.h.i.+eld, protecting his comrades in the area despite dying himself.〟

Such an act overflowing with self-sacrifice repeated itself time and time again in RL battlefields at all times and places. And even in GGO's world.

However, that was the case for ordinary hand grenades that launched fragments with the blast.

But if one were to ask how effective this would be on high-power plasma grenades, and the even more destructive Giga-nades──

The answer would probably be 'negligible'. 

The leader was prepared for his death several seconds later. However, at the same time, he was antic.i.p.ating his enemies likely being annihilated along with him.

The bluish-white explosion torrent would also a.s.sail the room and blow up anyone inside. He did not know how st.u.r.dy the log house was, but its walls and ceiling would probably be blown away.

'In that case, why don't I watch the explosion from the front.'

Having made up his mind, the leader stopped running away. He stopped turning. And then he saw.

A lone woman coming out from the hole in the wall.

A woman wearing tight, dark-blue overalls and equipped with protectors and weapons seemingly throughout her body.

A woman who had gathered her long, black hair behind her into a ponytail.

A woman who had a brick-coloured, geometric tattoo on her brown face.

A woman who named herself after a bird so poisonous that one could die just by touching it.

Pitohui.

With her hands behind her back as she entered the corridor, Pitohui first brought her right arm forward.

From the tip of the dull-silver rod in her hands, it seemed as if a bluish-white line extended, and, along with an afterimage, it swung down at high speed. A motion from the bottom upwards, grazing the floor as it went up.

With just that, Lax, who had been covering the Giga-nade, had his head separated from his body, and the head rolled away.

The leader knew even without needing to look at his team's hit point gauges. Because even in the world of GGO, there was no one who could survive after having their head severed from their body.

Seeing the woman, standing beside the corpse that held the powerful explosive with a smile,

'So that's it!'

The leader realised. That the Giga-nade… would not be exploding for a while.

Just like when she lured out bosses in dungeons to bring them down, she had probably set the explosion timer to a long time of several minutes. It was a trap… meant to stop their shooting for a moment.

Naturally, he should have thought of that possibility, but based on past experience that he did not want to recall, 〝Knowing Pitohui, knowing that woman, she wouldn't hesitate. Actually, she'd definitely do it.〟, he arbitrarily decided.

'In that case, die.'

The moment the leader aimed his muzzle at Pitohui, Pitohui herself brought her left hand in front of her.

And then, a gunshot.

The STM-556 spouted fire, and a 5.56 mm bullet flew at Pitohui's chest, merely 4 metres away, faster than sound──

There, it created sparks as it sprung to the side, piercing a log in the wall.

The 50 cm x 30 cm metal plate that Pitohui was grasping in her left hand repelled the bullet diagonally. It was a piece of M's s.h.i.+eld. Having expected such a use for it, there was a small handle welded on its back.

"Taaaaaaaah!"

Along with a high-pitched roar, Pitohui kicked off the floor with all her might. The leader's second shot was once again repelled by the s.h.i.+eld due to the Bullet Line──

"f.u.c.k you!"

She avoided the third shot aimed at her feet with a minor side step──

Before the fourth shot could be fired, she sharply swung the 1 metre-long rod of light of her light sword, s.h.i.+ning a bluish-white.

The bluish-white blade made the short barrel of the STM-556 even shorter. Melting the metal, it sawed through the barrel, completely cutting off the front half, along with the large grenade launcher barrel.

If the leader had not promptly pulled back his left hand, letting go of his gun, it would probably have been cut off at the wrist.

"Uraah!"

The leader threw his beloved gun that was now in need of repair.

The metal ma.s.s flew towards Pitohui in front of him, but Pitohui did not dodge. She received it with the forehead part of her headgear and parried it by slightly shaking her head.

During that meager opening, the leader moved his right hand towards his side holster while backstepping. He pulled out the 9 mm caliber 《Steyr M9-AI》automatic pistol from it.

Still holding it at his side, he began firing consecutively. He did not aim. He just fired.

One of the recklessly fired 9 mm bullet sank into Pitohui's thigh and another cut through her side, but──

"Hyaai!"

With that cheerful sound, Pitohui swung her left hand and the tip of the s.h.i.+eld made a direct hit on the M9-A1, plucking it from the leader's hand with a dull metallic sound.

The machine gunner Jake had been looking for a chance to fire at Pitohui the entire time.

Standing furthest to the back in the corridor, he held his HK21 machine gun at his shoulder and had time to switch the selector to semi-auto.

However, having rushed out from the hole, Pitohui kept moving on the other side of the leader. It seemed like she could not see him at all, but in fact, she saw him well. Such a terrifying lack of any opening.

"s.h.i.+t!"

As a result of having heavy firepower, Jake could not fire.

Having knocked out the leader's pistol, Pitohui suddenly pulled the photon sword in her right hand behind her, pushed the s.h.i.+eld in her left hand forward,

"Shaaah!"

And, letting out a strange voice, she rammed the leader.

"Gah!"

Receiving a direct hit with the hard plate from his chest to his face, the leader was pushed back with terrifyingly superhuman strength, and his feet were moved backwards with no regard to his will.

"Uhi!"

There, he collided with Jake, holding his HK21 at the ready.

The superwoman's charge blew Jake and his machine gun backwards.

"Dooon't f.u.c.k with meee!"

Having gained a chance to stop because of this, the leader put all his might into his feet that had regained their grip, planting them firmly on the ground. Clinging to the s.h.i.+eld in front of him with his hands, he used all his strength to tear it out and throw it away.

What the leader saw the next moment was Pitohui holding her light sword in an overhand stance and smiling.

Holding a sword in an overhead stance during an indoor fight was the height of folly.

That was because the sword would hit the ceiling and it would be impossible to swing it. Long ago, there were probably a number of warriors who had subconsciously raised their katana into an overhead stance in a desperate fight but their blades got stuck in the lintel or beams.

But for a photon sword, this was of no concern.

"Well then, die for me, okay."

Along with mutter-like voice, Pitohui, drawing her left hand closer to herself, instantly swung downward. The tip of the bluish-white light sword increased in speed while smoothly tearing through the ceiling boards, heading straight for the leader's forehead,

"Uraaaaaa!"

But was stopped.

The leader's hands extended skywards and seized Pitohui's hands, which were grasping the handle of the photon sword, from above, stopping the blow there.

The two instantly stopped moving. With practically identical physiques, the two became connected through their hands.

Forcefully adding strength from above, Pitohui,

"Oh dear. How persistent."

Lifting her arms from below, the leader,

"What's the matter, is that all you've got?"

The two had put all their strength into their arms, continuing their battle of power.

And so, Pitohui's arms slowly went back. The blade rapidly went upwards, until its tip eventually touched the ceiling once again.

Having pa.s.sed right above her, the blade closed in on Pitohui's forehead. The leader put even more strength into his arms, slowly but a.s.suredly pus.h.i.+ng it back.

"Hah! Something as silly as a light sword is, after all, a toy!"

When the leader, glaring the woman in front of him, cried out, the woman gave a smile.

"Oh dear. You're one to talk for a guy who has no interest whatsoever in photon swords. You gun maniac-san."

"So what!"

"So… you don't know, right? Right right? That this 《Muramasa F9》 has a nice function!"

Pitohui's right thumb speedily turned the dial at the top of the grip to the left. At that moment, the blade of light suddenly disappeared and the two ended up scrambling for a mere rod, less than 30 cm in length──

"Hah?"

Having no clue about Pitohui's intentions, the leader's pupils once again saw the ominous, bluish-white light. More vivid and dazzling than before.

Pitohui's finger began turning the dial even further to the left. This time, awfully slowly.

"Wha──"

The leader saw.

How the festival day toy-like rod that he and the woman had been pus.h.i.+ng with their hands──

Had its blade come out from the hole on the opposite side, giving off a bluish-white light.

And how it slowly but a.s.suredly spread towards his own face.

"Wha! ──Y-you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

'This light sword is able to bring out a blade of light from either the top or bottom.'

The leader understood that 〝function〟, giving him gooseb.u.mps all over his body.

"Look look…… I'll make it longer…… Long, longer, longest……"

In proportion to Pitohui's finger turning the dial, the blade slowly but a.s.suredly grew.

As the leader slightly lost strength in his arms, Pitohui also loosened her strength appropriately, maintaining the photon sword's angle.

"Wh…… why you madwoman!"

"Oh stop now, the one who knows me best is myself."

"You find this fun? You s.h.i.+thead!"

"I feel like I was asked the same thing by someone just moments ago, but── yes, of course I'm having fun! This is awesome! You're enjoying life and death too, right? Hei hei!"

The blade continued to grow and grow even during their conversation──

"Pitohuuiiiiiii!"

"Yees, that… is… me!"

The tip of the bluish-white blade of light touched the leader's forehead.

"Gaah!"

*Juri*, with a strange sound, the light sank into his head,

"Gogaaagagagaagagagagagagaah!"

The leader's face became stiff with an expression of mental anguish to such an extent that even the shape of his eyes began to differ.

"Hmm, what language is that? I can only speak j.a.panese and English, ya know. Understand?"

"Biiidoobuuuuuugiiiiiiii!"

The hands of the man, giving a shout of agony as his brain was eroded by the light, suddenly lost their strength. Sluggishly, they dangled down.

"Oh no you don't donncha die on me yeeeeet!"

Keeping the photon sword inserted several cm into her opponent's brain, Pitohui,

"Houraaaaaaaaah!"

Grabbed the leader by his collar with her left hand and charged forward. The leader's back once again collided with Jake, who had somehow been able to get up,

"Fi! Nal! Blow!"

This time, she instantly turned the dial all the way to the end.

*Buon*, with a growl, the Muramasa F9's bluish-white blade instantly grew out to its maximum 100 cm length──

Completely piercing the leader's head,

"Gahah!"

And sinking into Jake's left eye behind him.

From the time MMTM was about to a.s.sault the last room till the final two died──

No other battles were taking place, thus, naturally, the whole thing was broadcast to the bar. 

Beginning with the shooting from the hole in the wall at the approaching MMTM till the conclusion was finally reached, the time taken was not even 2 minutes.

Even the spectators, who had been cheering with excitement at the abrupt battle at first──

Growing quiet around the part where Pitohui decapitated the head of a man lying on his face, they went completely silent around the final struggle to the death.

The moment MMTM was wiped out,

"Aah."

Seeing the two men being joined together by the sword of light, someone said.

"I… won't be able… to eat dried sardines for a while."(3)

Another person, seeing Pitohui's devil king-like rampage,

"…………"

Was dumbfounded and held the most conflicted emotions about the ordeal.

A woman, who, unlike all others, partic.i.p.ated in SJ2 to save and to kill this Pitohui──

It was LLENN.

At a place about 500 metres away from the log house, hiding in a small hollow she had found in the flat meadow with a camouflage poncho obscuring her, she had been peeking through her monocle.

The entire time since MMTM broke in,

"Aah…… they're fighting……"

She reported the situation of the battle from what she could see through the window to the nearby f.u.kaziroh, and Boss on the other side of the log house.

"Aah, they came to the stairs. Though the masked men are on the second floor── aah, seems like one of them got shot!"

Such as this,

"Explosion in the middle of the stairway! A suicide attack? A suicide explosion? But, MMTM still has six guys……"

Or this,

"Wow, a masked man attacked with a bed! ──A second bed! Aah, there's a machine gun below; run run! ──Shot! ──He died……"

And other such live commentary continued.

Naturally, at the bed part, Boss,

"Is that some kind of name for a gun?"

Replied with such words.

And, upon seeing MMTM, still unscathed, beginning their attack on the room where Pitohui was probably hiding,

"Run run Pito-san run run for now!"

LLENN began muttering as if she were praying and was heard by the other two, but──

From that moment on, she saw something conversely terrifying.

How MMTM, who had been slaughtering them one by one without any decent counterattack.

And how, when Pitohui began to wield her sword of bluish-white light, the scene changed to a picture of h.e.l.l that left her unable to comment as she continued watching through the round view of her monocle.

"Ooi, LLENN. What happened? Did ya fall asleep?"

"LLENN, what's wrong? What's happening?"

Unable to respond to the two voices, she continued watching intently.

Seeing the two men skewered and falling down on the floor the moment the will-o'-the-wisp-like bluish-white light disappeared,

"Hii!"

LLENN returned to her senses.

"What's wrong? "LLENN?"

"T-they've… been wiped out…… Pito-san… alone… all six of them……"

Just as LLENN finished her report to the two,

"Ah──I have to win against that……"

The cry of LLENN's heart sprung out from her mouth.

When her left wrist suddenly began to vibrate right afterwards,

"Hyaaaaaa!"

Mistakenly thinking that someone had caught her by the wrist, LLENN gave a shriek in surprise and saw an illusion for a moment. An illusion that Pitohui had come crawling through the ground and was smirking as she grasped her wrist. Her heart throbbed as if it had exploded, and she was nearly brought back to RL by the meddlesome AmuSphere.

As her heart continued its barrage, the wrist.w.a.tch on the inner part of her wrist told her that the scan was coming soon.

14:20.

The eighth satellite scan in SJ2 began.