Chapter 340 - 41: You’ve Got This Disease Too?

Chapter 340: Chapter 41: You’ve Got This Disease Too?

Humans really were strange creatures. Some grew frightened at the sight of a talking cat, while others took it entirely for granted.

They all came from this same world, yet over where Kirito and the others were, she could talk—or even transform outright—and no one made anything of it; come running over here and merely say a word, though, and everyone had to make a huge fuss.

As if in this world only they were allowed to speak.

Yimi huddled sulkily in the corner of the room, watching Konno Yuuki. The girl believed her days were numbered and that she’d begun to hallucinate, and she was just about to put her equipment back on to bid farewell to her sister and the others in palliative care.

But because of her body’s frailty, she was still bracing a hand against the bed, paying the price for having just suddenly crouched down and then just as suddenly stood back up.

It wasn’t only because of the illness. She had originally planned to spend what limited life remained to her living free of pain inside this palliative-care machine—which meant never again logging out of the game to face cruel reality.

For now she wasn’t yet as badly off as those who had left SAO, but relying on the machine alone to handle her metabolism for such a long stretch still made her look a touch more frail than before.

"Meow."

As she came around from her dizziness, Yuuki saw Yimi balanced on her hind legs, front paws wrapped around her leg as if trying to steady her.

"Are you not feeling well?" the kitten asked, puzzled.

Even though this woman had made such a fuss, the kitty still chose to forgive her, because there was something about her voice that carried a little of the feel of Madoka.

"Mm, I’ve pretty much gotten used to it." Only after answering did Yuuki realize she was holding a conversation with a cat...

"Are you the Grim Reaper who’s come to collect me?"

Young as she was, Yuuki had quite the imagination, and without bothering to work out whether this was a hallucination brought on by the virus, she went right on chatting to herself.

At the very least, her mind still felt clear.

Or was it that she hadn’t actually logged out at all, but had merely had an identical scene fabricated for her inside the game? After all, given Kayaba Akihiko’s track record, another conspiracy of some sort wouldn’t be the least bit surprising.

"The Grim Reaper?"

"I always thought the Grim Reaper would be all gloomy, draped in a black robe and holding a scythe." Yuuki studied Yimi curiously.

"That one’s already been... offed by me."

The one that had stood guard before the GM Emergency Login System back then had indeed been draped in a black robe and holding a scythe.

Yuuki laughed aloud. "If only that were true."

She could no longer tell whether this place was reality or an identical scene within the game; that dizzy spell just now was something she hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Perhaps an identical scene inside the game counted as part of palliative care too; even if it was thoroughly deceptive, she didn’t dislike this kind of gentleness.

Yimi hopped onto the bed and looked at Yuuki. "Are you not feeling well?"

"You can tell that at a glance, can’t you? This is a hospital, after all." Yuuki sat up on the bed too and reached out to hug Yimi, only to find that, frail as she was, she couldn’t quite lift her.

"What illness do you have?"

"That’s a secret." Yuuki stroked Yimi’s back.

Ever since her status as an HIV carrier had been exposed at school, she’d had no wish to mention her condition to anyone. Still, she had always been careful not to pass it on to others... though, staying here now, there was probably no longer any need to be careful, was there?

"If you really are the Grim Reaper, could you let me go before my sister... I’m sorry, forget I said that. That request would be far too selfish toward my sister."

Deep down she knew Yimi wasn’t the Grim Reaper—so why had she said such a thing?

Yimi lifted a paw and patted Yuuki’s calf, helping to redirect the misfortune out of her body, then asked, "Where is your sister?"

The kitty’s way of repaying her.

...

"Get out—did I say you could come in?" Back in reality, Kuradeel was in a rather unstable state of mind.

His wound had already been stitched up, but sadly his manhood was gone for good.

From the vantage of the hospital’s surveillance footage, his groin had plainly just suddenly soaked through with blood, yet by the doctors’ judgment it looked as though it had been pierced by a sharp weapon.

Did Kayaba Akihiko’s equipment hide some other secret? But according to the investigation, his device basically targeted brainwaves alone.

In any case, as the only person to suffer such a thing after waking, he had certainly become famous. Somehow the news had leaked—no one knew from where—and now some reporters wanted to interview him about whether he had any clue as to what had happened.

After this, the whole world would probably come to know that he’d had his junk blown to bits from playing the game.

Kuradeel’s expression was grim.

As the only member of Laughing Coffin to come out of the game alive, his heart was surely darker than anyone’s.

That bastard Kayaba Akihiko...

The pent-up grievance and irritation inside him couldn’t be captured in a curse or two. His life was, for all intents and purposes, completely ruined—yet he certainly didn’t have the courage to kill himself.

That brat—that brat named Kirito—once he was discharged, he’d take a knife and make the little punk taste the very same fate as his own!

That was, assuming this bout of pain healed enough to let him move; as things stood, he couldn’t even manage to walk.

"There’s an important person who’d like to see you alone," a nurse reminded him as she came in.

"Didn’t I say I wasn’t seeing anyone?!"

"...Then let’s run some tests first and see whether there are any other lingering aftereffects." After all, even something like his junk bursting had happened.

The nurse took out her instruments, collected a sample from his body, and carried it off for testing.

The more the doctor looked, the more something seemed off—so much so that his hand gave a shudder.

AIDS?

And not in the latency stage, either.

...

"How revolting."

Sugou Nobuyuki—the man who had shared a university laboratory with Kayaba Akihiko—both envied and loathed Kayaba Akihiko, while at the same time harboring enormous ambitions of his own.

He was the one who had wanted to see Kuradeel. On one hand it was to drum up publicity by showing concern—though of course that was only incidental. Mainly he wanted to know whether this fellow’s junk blowing up truly had anything to do with Kayaba Akihiko’s technology; as far as he knew, such a thing ought to be impossible.

Reluctant as Kuradeel was, under the temptation of money he’d agreed to a meeting after all—first letting the media see his caring attitude, then talking things over in private.

In the end he got nothing he wanted to know out of it—an utter waste of time and money.

Sugou Nobuyuki sat on the sofa.

So then, the next step would be to marry the eldest daughter of the Yuuki family.

Chuckling darkly a couple of times, Sugou Nobuyuki suddenly caught sight of something wildly out of place.

"Meow." Yimi, who had once again randomly teleported using a Teleport Crystal, greeted him.

Sugou Nobuyuki frowned. "Where’d this stray cat come from?"

"Meow!"

Yimi’s fur bristled in an instant.

"Diego!"

The World manifested and drove a fist into Sugou Nobuyuki’s face.

"Bwagh!"

The World seemed puzzled for a second.

But then, at Yimi’s command, it delivered another punch without the slightest hesitation.

The kitten even provided the sound effects. "Muda muda muda muda! Muda!"

She had long since made up her mind: the next time she ran into Diego, she’d attack outright without a word!

Nearly every bone in Sugou Nobuyuki’s body was shattered, and he wailed in agony on the floor, thoroughly beaten by something invisible without even understanding what had happened.

There’s a ghost!

"Meow..." Yimi’s fur was still standing on end, but she knew that Diego could never truly be rooted out.

Hearing the commotion, Yuuki Shouzou—that is, Asuna’s father—came in and stared in horror at the scene before him. "What happened here?"

"An... an ambulance..." Sugou Nobuyuki tried to reach out to him with a shattered arm, but couldn’t manage to lift it.

Yuuki Shouzou hurriedly dialed for an ambulance; he’d originally intended to make Sugou Nobuyuki his son-in-law, and couldn’t have anything happen to him here.

Catching the scent on Yuuki Shouzou, the kitten—who had been about to finish Sugou Nobuyuki off—paused in puzzlement and, for the moment, called off The World from continuing its assault.

Because Yuuki Shouzou carried Asuna’s scent.

...

At the hospital, the doctor treating Sugou Nobuyuki knitted his brow tightly.

He remembered this man—the one who had spoken privately with Kuradeel during the day, the one who’d even had the surveillance cameras shut off.

HIV usually had a latency period, sure... but this was far too fishy.

And the fishy part was: how had you ended up with this disease too? Just what was the relationship between the two of you?