02x22 - Journey's End

[bunniefuu]

"Please answer me, Yuuki!"



"Please answer me, Yuuki!"

"This player is not online."

Ms. Asuna...

Siune!

Tell me... what happened to Yuuki?

It looks like she hasn't logged in

for three days...

None of us have been able

to contact her, either.

Ms. Asuna... Most likely,

Yuuki doesn't want to be reunited.

And not for anyone's sake but yours.

But why?

No... The truth is,

I had a feeling that was the case.

I know you were all trying

not to get too close to me.

If I'm being a nuisance,

then I won't pursue her anymore.

But... Telling me it's for my sake...

I can't accept that!

A nuisance? No!

All of us... we're truly happy

that we got to meet you.

It was thanks to you that we could create

a wonderful final memory for ourselves in this world.

I'm sure that Yuuki

feels the same way, too.

But this is our fervent wish.

We'd like you to forget all about us now.

Is this really goodbye, then?

I thought that we could go on being friends

even after you disbanded the guild.

But... was I the only one

who thought that way?

I'm sorry.

Wait!

I've been walking in the light all this time

I've been following footprints

that didn't exist until yesterday

Although I've been in a maze with no goal,

with a map drenched in rain

I have no regrets at all

If I cry out

I'm sure my voice will reach you

The sound of the bell in the beginning of the story

Will connect us during our journey

The future world that you envisioned

Will lead you to a sky of that day

And will make our dream come true

and even go beyond miracles

The future world that you envisioned

Exists somewhere even now

Let's add layers of our dream

and reach the true pure light

Ah on give for my way

"The End of the Journey"

Asuna!

--Morning!

--Good morning!

Good morning...

Finally caught you!

Hurry up and tell us what you meant

in that message you sent us!

I heard from Liz

that you'd joined a guild...

So, tell us--what was it like?

Well...

Oh... hold on a moment.

"Kazuto Kirigaya"

Yui? How's it look?

Can you see my face?

It's a little blurry, Daddy.

So could the autofocus be malfunctioning?

Sit tight for a second.

Okay, Daddy!

Hey.

So do you want to see Zekken,

no matter what?

Yes.

But they told you it'd be better

not to meet up, right? Even still?

Yes. Even still, I want to see Yuuki

one more time and talk to her.

I've got to do that!

I see.

You might get to see her

if you go here.

Of course, it's only a possibility.

How do you know

where she is, Kirito?

That's the only place in Japan

conducting clinical trials for the Medicuboid.

"Yokohama North General Hospital"

"Yokohama North General Hospital"

Medicuboid?

Um...

Are you here to visit a patient?

Yes. But I don't know

the patient's name.

Excuse me?

I think she's a girl around fifteen or so,

and her name might be Yuuki...

That's not enough to go on...

Uh...

I believe she's a patient

using the Medicuboid you're testing here...

Pardon me, but what is your name?

Uh, I'm Asuna Yuuki.

Please have a seat on that bench,

and wait for bit.

A-All right.

Ah... forgive me.

So sorry to keep you waiting.

Oh, not at all.

Uh, so you're Ms. Asuna Yuuki, am I right?

Yes.

My name is Kurahashi.

I'm Yuuki Konno's primary physician.

Ms. Konno...?

I'm impressed that you found us.

You see, Yuuki had told me

that someone named Asuna

might be coming to visit.

Yuuki said that?

But also that she hadn't told you

about this hospital.

I replied, "Well, then she's certainly

not going to find you here!"

I was quite astonished

to hear from the reception desk.

Um... so Yuuki's spoken to you

about me, Doctor?

Oh, yes--you're almost

all she ever talks about!

The only thing is, whenever Yuuki talks about you,

she always ends up in tears.

Normally, she always keeps a stiff upper lip

about her own plight, but...

She wants to see you.

But she can never do so again, she says.

Both Yuuki and her friends said the same thing to me

when we said goodbye in the virtual world.

Why is that?

Why can't we see each other again?

All right, why don't I start

by telling you about the Medicuboid?

All right.

"Medicuboid" is the code name

for the world's first medical Full-Dive machine,

whose development is being pushed

at the state level.

Medical Full-Dive machine, did you say?

That's right.

For example, for people

with visual or hearing disabilities,

that machine is a godsend.

Since with the Amusphere, it's possible

to send images and sounds directly to the brain.

And it's capable of more

than just transmitting signals.

You know that the Amusphere has the ability

to cancel out physical sensations as well.

By sending electromagnetic pulses to this area,

it can temporarily numb the nerves.

In other words, it has the same effect

as general anesthesia.

Uh... but wouldn't that be impossible?

The level of interruption that the Amusphere

can achieve is extremely low, after all.

That's right!

You're absolutely right about that!

The Amusphere--no...

Even the NerveGear is incapable of blocking out

the pain of surgery or critical illnesses.

Therefore, the electromagnetic output

of the Medicuboid has been enhanced,

and incorporated into the patient's bed

to cover the entire body, from brain to spinal cord.

Once it goes commercial,

it will drastically change medicine as we know it.

Not only that, but with the

Medicuboid's specs, an AR function--

processing real-world images in real time by

connecting it to a camera--shouldn't be too far behind.

Well, that would be a dream machine

in the truest sense of the word!

Yes, it's exactly that--a dream machine.

But it's not as if it can cure the illness itself.

The field that has the highest hopes

for the Medicuboid...

That would be terminal care.

Terminal care?

In kanji, it's written as

"final stage medical treatment."

Final stage?

Yuuki has told me to tell you everything about herself,

if you wish to hear it.

But afterwards, you might wish

that you'd stopped the conversation right here.

No...

Please go on. Please!

Because that's why I'm here!

Yuuki was born in May .

It was a difficult birth

and a C-section was performed.

An emergency blood transfusion

was given during that procedure.

Unfortunately, the blood used

was contaminated by a virus.

The contamination was discovered that September.

It was found when her mother

was tested for post-transfusion infections.

By that time, the entire family

had been infected...

"Special Measuring Equipment Room #"

This way.

Beyond this area is a an air-controlled sterile room,

so we won't be able to go in.

I hope you understand.

Yuuki!

Doctor...

What's the name of Yuuki's illness?

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

She has AIDS.

AIDS is not as terrifying an illness

as it's generally perceived to be.

If you can start treatment in the early stages,

it's possible to delay the onset of AIDS over a long span.

But the virus she contracted turned out

to be difficult to treat--a drug-resistant strain.

Yuuki's mother became despondent

over her children's future,

and at one point,

considered committing family su1c1de, I'm told.

But she nevertheless chose

to go on fighting her illness.

Go on... fighting?

Yes.

Soon after birth, Yuuki was put on

a multidrug therapy course.

It's hard for a child to keep to a regular schedule

involving so many medications.

After all, there are side-effects...

Not to mention the pain of being subjected

to prejudice as well, I've heard.

Still, Yuuki fully believed that she and her family

would be cured of this disease, and was a trouper.

However, when she was in fourth grade,

her immune system took a nosedive.

In other words, she developed AIDS

and was brought to this hospital.

Even so, Yuuki never stopped smiling.

Doctor?

Why is Yuuki using the Medicuboid?

Right about the time that the world was in an uproar

over that NerveGear incident,

the first Medicuboid prototype was completed.

But the tests were stalled because

no one could project the long-term effects

of electromagnetic output

several times stronger than that of the NerveGear.

Finding a patient who would take on that kind of risk

proved to be quite difficult.

When I heard that,

I made a proposal to Yuuki's family.

If she became a test subject, she could move

into the sterile room housing the Medicuboid,

and then it'd be possible to drastically lower

the risk of opportunistic infections.

To this day, I'm not always sure

whether I did the right thing or not.

Both Yuuki's parents, and Yuuki herself

agonized over my proposal, it seems.

But perhaps the lure of the unknown, the virtual

world she yearned for, was the deciding factor.

She agreed to become a test subject

and moved into this room.

Ever since then,

Yuuki's lived inside the Medicuboid.

What do you mean by

"ever since then?"

I mean it literally.

Yuuki rarely, if ever, returns to the real world.

Because right now she's using the Medicuboid's

sense-numbing function to block her pain.

You mean that she's in

a continuous, -hour dive?

And for...?

Three years.

A whole year longer than us.

A child of the full-dive environment itself.

That's the vibe I got.

Thank you very much.

For letting me see Yuuki.

As long as she's in here,

Yuuki will be all right, won't she?

Even in a sterile room,

there's no way that we can eliminate

the bacteria and viruses already inside her.

Then you mean...

Yuuki's symptoms are

in their terminal stages.

I believe you now understand the reason

why she tried to vanish from your sight.

No way... No way!

Asuna...

I-I...

Leave it to me, Big Sister!

Um... Doctor... By any chance,

does Yuuki have an older sister?

Yes, that's right.

Yuuki had a twin sister.

Her older sister was named Aiko.

She was always quietly watching over

the lively, active Yuuki with a smile.

Come to think of it,

she might have even resembled you in a way.

Resembled me?

Two years ago, Yuuki's parents...

and one year ago, her older sister,

all passed away.

Yuuki...

Yuuki!

Don't cry, Asuna!

Yuuki!

Yuuki! Are you there?

Yeah. It's through the lens,

but I can see you, Asuna.

Wow... you really look exactly like you do

in the other world, huh?

Thanks for coming to see me.

Yuuki...

I... I...

Doctor? Please let Asuna

use the room next door.

Fine.

There's an Amusphere in that room,

which I always use for meetings.

All right!

The app launcher has ALO loaded,

so once you've logged in,

come to that place where you and I first met!

One more time...

I want to see you just one more time!

I want to see you, and talk about

what's really happening with you this time!

Yuuki!

Yuuki!

Yuuki...

I wonder why...

I had a feeling that you'd find me

in the real world, you see.

Although since I never told you anything,

it was never gonna happen.

But you did come, Asuna.

It's pretty rare for any

of my predictions to come true.

You made me so happy! Really!

You smell exactly like my big sister

when she held me.

You smell like the sun.

Aiko?

So your sister played VRMMOs too?

Yeah. Big Sister was the original leader

of the Sleeping Knights, you know.

And she was way, way stronger than me.

I met Siune and the others in a virtual hospice

called the Serene Garden.

In the beginning, there were nine of us.

But then Big Sister, Clovis, and Merida...

Already, three of us are gone.

And that's why we talked it over

and made the decision...

To disband the guild

the next time we lost someone.

Asuna, I'm so sorry.

That I couldn't tell you the truth.

The Sleeping Knights disbanding in the spring isn't because

we're going to be too busy to do much gaming anymore...

But because there are two of us

with a prognosis of three months, at best.

That's why we were so bent on creating

one last memory in this wonderful world!

We wanted to leave proof that we were once here

on that gigantic monument.

We wanted to go on an amazing adventure

that we could brag about to Big Sister and the others!

But nothing seemed to go right for us...

And we decided that we'd look

for just one more person to help us out.

But we ended up causing you trouble

and hurting your feelings, too, didn't we?

Sorry. Sorry, Asuna.

It's not too late

for you to forget about us.

But I can't do that!

I'm so happy that I met you all,

and that I was able to help you out!

Even now, I still wish that you would let me

join the Sleeping Knights!

Right... I... am so happy that I got to come

to this world, and got to meet you...

Just hearing you say that is enough...

It really is enough...

Now I'm totally...

I'm totally satisfied with everything...

But... but there's still so much

that you haven't done yet, right?

Even in ALfheim alone, I'm sure there are

tons of places you haven't been to yet!

Combined with all the other virtual words,

this realm has infinite possibilities!

So don't say that you're satisfied!

In the last three years,

we've gone on tons of adventures, in tons of worlds.

I want the very last page to be a memory

that we created with you, Asuna.

But there are still things you want to do, right?

Places you want to go?

Let's see...

I think I'd like to go to school.

S-School?

Oh, hey, sorry to ask

for the impossible!

I'm really happy that you want to help.

But I really am satisfied.

You might be able to go.

Huh?

You just might be able to go!

To school!

The street lights cast a glow on cheerful

laughter and footprints in the back-alley

I wonder how much you understood of the

feelings I've always wanted to convey to you

I always turn around to you and make sure

Because no matter how I am, I believe you'd

always chase after me without any hesitation

When I gazed at your eyes,

I saw the proof that I've lived

Whenever my heartbeat was about to stop,

you made it ring out very, very loudly

I want to go far beyond today

Next time: "The Dream Begins."