Blazing Bullet (Sinon)
| Blazing Bullet (Sinon) | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 02 August 2015 |
| Location: | Shino Asada's Apartment - Tokyo (Sword Art Online-1) |
| Synopsis: | Synthesis. |
| Cast of Characters: | 649 |
"Asada-san... Asasa-san... asada san aasadasanasadasanasadasanasadasan..."
At the last moment, when all in the incident seemed resolved, everything had gone terribly, horribly wrong. In the tiny one-bedroom apartment where she removed her <<AmuSphere>> following the happy conclusion of the Bullet of Bullets tournament, the reinvigorated Shino Asada ceded to the desire of her only other RL friend, Kyouji Shinkawa, to come to her home to check on and congratulate her following her victory.
However, she now lies pinned to her bed by that same boy. Next to him is a 'Prime Resonance bonded' needleless medical injector, filled with the medical drug named succinylcholine. If it is injected into the correct place in a person's chest, it would cause complete muscle relaxation and would stop the person's heart from working, ensuring their death. This is the intent of Kyouji Shinkawa, both for Shino Asada and himself.
Upon confronting Shino in her locked apartment, he explained the situation to her. With a trembling body, he quietly raged against the player 'XeXeed', and explained to her how himself and his brother- Shouichi Shinkawa, known as 'Red-Eyed XaXa' in Sword Art Online and 'Sterben' in Gun Gale Online- became involved with the Pure, and their plan to create the legend of the 'Death Gun'.
He explained to her that he learned of her situation in the past, and of the incident where she killed a post office robber in an act of defense using his own gun. 'I think if there's a girl who once used a real gun to shoot and kill someone, you'll be the only one in all of Japan who had done that. That's really amazing. Didn't I say that Asada-san has real power?' Kyouji explained, enlightening her as to why the Type-54 'black star' handgun became Death Gun's weapon- in tribute to her, the girl he had become unambiguously obsessed with.
And now... he explains. Sterben no longer has a physical existence. He has gone... somewhere else. And so, convinced due to what has happened to his brother, Kyouji told her that his final step is for them to accompany him- to end their lives in this world and 'be reborn' in one of the various and sundry 'better' worlds out in the multiverse.
'Just like my brother,' he said. 'Let's leave this world behind for the <<next step>>.'
For it to end like this, at the hands of this boy, the only friend she thought she had in the outside world... Shino's heart sank into the abyss of despair, her conciousness fading away as all of her senses gradually left her.
---
In the deepest darkness of the human body, Shino Asada returns to the time of her childhood, frozen in a mechanical lattice of cold, cruel ice. That ice took away her father, her mother's kindness, and even took away a part of her soul. And now, even though she has nothing, it seems to want to take away her life, as well.
"...I don't want to see anything, or feel anything any more."
Maybe she really was destined to die. Although part of her kept reaching for the sun- kept reaching for something greater- Maybe she was always going to end up a delusional, worthless person like this Shinkawa Kyouji. And yet, and yet--
"We can be your friends, too!" "Yeah, you can hang with us if you want-" "Death Gun! I'm calling you out!" "A world like this is real so long as the people who are in it are real." "I like the way you think." "I'm used to thinking for other people." "This isn't the best of times to bring this up... but you're in danger, Sinon." "E-er, excuse me! I'm... kind of lost..." "When this is over, I want to meet you offline, Sinon. OK?"
...Kirito would be coming to her house, wouldn't he? Maybe even some of the others. But even if they do, it'll be too late. Once he meets Kyouji, that guy might do something. He might run away... but he might attack Kirito with the weapon in his hand. Given all of the hatred Kyouji bears, he would almost certainly do that.
"Kirito, I'm so sorry... you went to all that trouble for nothing... I could never become a better person..." "You can."
Shino looks up. There, moving down to one knee next to her is that sniper girl with the muffler- Sinon. She is placing her hand on Shino's shoulder, and she is pressing her forehead against Shino's. Something about this feels so incredibly right. She feels like a chick that has become aware of the eggshell around it.
"...all we've been doing has been looking out for ourselves, up until now. But we were surrounded by other people who looked out for us. We didn't want to believe it was true, because we'd spent so many years in this cage of ice. But now... now we can fight for the sake of others." "...!" "...or rather, I can. Because you and I were always the same person, Shino. You even pushed away the pieces of yourself, but... please. Listen to what your heart is telling you. Let's go... let's go back. Not be reborn in another world, but go into the world that connects to so many others."
And two hands join together, and the shell of ice is just a small shell, and she stretches out and she shines--
---
Kyouji Shinkawa is thrown backwards, onto the floor and into a dresser. Various items clatter out of the drawers and onto the floor, and he looks up, bewildered, at what happened to do this to him.
There is no longer a young girl lying underneath him. Instead, standing tall in front of him is a lady in green, with hair the colour of the sky, wrapped in a long scarf and staring down at him with a glow of determination in her aquamarine eyes.
"...everything's painful, yeah. But I still like this world. I think I'll like it more in the future. Sorry, Kyoji. I can't go with you."
He looks at her with a crazed expression, a medley of awe, fear and desparation. Both of them reach for something- he for the tool he entered with, the injector weapon, her for something that fell from her dresser- a plastic toy, a model mockup of the <<Procyon SL>> handgun that she was awarded a year ago for previous performance in the BoB.
Some time ago, Shino could not even hold this weapon, even though it was just a fake replica, without disintegrating. She could not put her fingers around the trigger without being violently sick...
...But this is the process of moving forward.
"Tha...that's just a model gun, right? Do you really think that that thing can stop me?”
"And yet, here I am. You said it before, Kyoji. I have real power. It just wasn't the kind you were expecting."
She stares down at him. "I am Hecate. I am the winner of the third Bullet of Bullets. I am a Gun Gale Online avatar. I am a girl who will never give in to you. I am Shino Asada. I am Sinon. I am I. And unless you get out of my sight-" She cocks the hammer of the gun. "You'll be going to your new world alone."
"No... no... NOOOOOO!"
Kyouji screams in terror and incomprehension. He doesn't know what's happening. All he knows is that he doesn't want to die tonight after all. He bolts, he yanks the window open and he flings himself outside, half-breaking the glass in the process, falling two stories onto a dumpster and onto the pavement below.
He runs away into the night and Sinon never sees him again.
She looks out at the open window and feels the cool air of the evening. It touches skin that has only ever known the warm air of a ruined future city- and yet, has always been breathing in this world- and through azure hair that has been matted with gun oil and dust.
Her eyes see beyond the norm to watch the city outside, and she swears she can almost see a young man with black hair removing an Amusphere in a nearby hospital. Her senses sing with digital inventories. And her heart- for once, in a very long time, her heart feels...
Complete.
Sinon sits down on her bed, and ponders what she has become.
"I think I like it."
