"Eh!?"
Shino Asada froze.
It wasn't because of Haruto's suggestion about online counseling.
It was because—
The boy before her had mentioned psychological counseling.
That meant… he had already recognized her.
But when?
Eh!?
She had thought he didn't know. That was why she had been secretly trying to get close to him.
She had even directly called him by name, shortening the distance between them.
If Haruto had recognized her from the start…
Even if it was inside a game…
Shino's whole face turned hot.
"What's wrong?"
Haruto asked, puzzled.
From earlier, he'd already felt that this Sinon was acting strangely.
"H-Haruto-kun… when did you recognize me?"
Shino asked, still not giving up.
She had wanted to just call him Haruto, but in this situation, just using his name felt too embarrassing.
So she added -kun.
It was like how, online, people could casually call each other darling or baby, acting all lovey-dovey.
But offline, when meeting in person, those words just wouldn't come out.
"When? Of course, from the moment I first saw you. It hasn't been that long since we last met, right? Even though you changed your hair color, your face really hasn't changed much. So it was pretty easy to recognize you. After all, someone as cute as you, Sinon, is hard to forget."
Because of their time together in the game, Shino had been pulling herself closer to him.
Haruto, following along naturally, called her by name.
And his words were straightforward, honest—without any hint of disguise.
Shino instinctively covered her burning cheeks.
What on earth had she done!?
If he had recognized her from the very beginning—
Then all those things she did… wouldn't they have made her seem frivolous in Haruto's eyes?
Aaaaahhhh!!
Offline, she had always acted cold and unapproachable.
Yet online, she was desperately trying to stick close to him.
Didn't that make her exactly like one of those gap moe girls people talked about!?
Right now, Shino just wanted the ground to swallow her whole.
"Th-thank you, Haruto-kun… I'll try counseling. I'm logging off now, bye-bye!"
And with that, she immediately disconnected.
She ran away.
Haruto tilted his head.
Strange.
Was Sinon always like this?
She felt a little different from the Sinon he thought he knew.
=-=
After logging out, Shino pulled off her full-dive headset.
The room around her was completely dark.
Since it had still been afternoon when she logged in, she hadn't bothered turning on the lights.
Lying in the darkness, Shino stayed still like a salted fish.
And then, all of a sudden, she started rolling around on her bed.
"Ahhhhhh! Shino Asada, what the hell were you doing!?"
In the end, this little episode ended when she smacked her knee against the bedframe.
Hugging her aching knee, Shino finally turned on the light.
The incandescent bulb lit up the entire room.
Not used to the brightness, she raised a hand to shield her eyes, rubbing them lightly.
Then she sat up.
Her stomach rumbled loudly.
Hunger spread through her body.
Feeling her empty stomach, Shino blanked out for a moment.
She had thought—
That after what happened that afternoon, she wouldn't be able to eat anything.
It had happened before.
Whenever she came across something that reminded her of guns, or was the target of someone's malice, the memories of fear would come flooding back.
The nausea, the urge to vomit—it would overwhelm her.
And for a day or two afterward, she would have no appetite.
If she hadn't constantly forced herself to eat, even when she didn't want to, she probably would have developed anorexia.
Even so, she had grown painfully thin.
But today, even though she had gone through that ordeal—
She could still feel hunger. She could still taste the pull of appetite on her tongue.
Unconsciously, she thought back to him.
Supporting herself, she stood up and walked to her cabinet.
Taking a deep breath, Shino opened a drawer.
Inside lay a single wooden case.
She lifted the lid. Resting inside was a gun model.
Normally, just the sight of a gun model would torment her.
Fear would rise in her heart, unstoppable.
But today—
Shino reached out her hand.
Her fingers touched the cold metal of the grip.
A shiver ran through her.
She lifted the model out.
Its heavy weight pressed into her hands, like she was holding a real gun. The nausea, the dizziness, the vomiting urge—came crashing down all at once.
Her breath quickened. Her heart pounded wildly.
Her hands began to shake.
She fought desperately to recall the feeling of being beside Haruto.
That sense of freedom, that overwhelming security.
Miraculously, the nausea receded.
Her hands steadied.
She raised the gun model.
Then slowly put it back into the case and closed the lid.
When she shut the drawer, her legs gave out and she nearly collapsed. But her face shone with excitement, her expression brimming with emotion.
"It feels like… as long as I'm by his side, I can do anything…"
That was what Shino thought.
Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, she walked to the kitchen and began to hum a tune while cooking.
Before, making meals had always been painful.
Because she had to force herself to eat food she didn't want.
But now, for the first time, she felt joy in cooking.
And she found herself looking forward to eating.
Meanwhile, Haruto had also logged out.
"Sinon's acting a little weird, but she should be fine."
Haruto actually thought highly of her.
Otherwise, after detecting the irregularity in her, he would have directly used memory-clearing measures.
Instead, he had gone so far as to recommend counseling.
But Haruto hadn't expected Shino to meet Mirai Kuriyama.
This time, his reason for entering GGO was actually to look for Mirai.
The monster he had killed earlier—according to Foundation investigations—wasn't some newly-emerged being.
Rather, it was a leftover problem from ages past.
Something called a Youmu.
An alien existence that roamed the world.
Its forms were ever-changing, born from human grudges.
Some even fed on humans, though most ordinary people couldn't see them.
Before the Foundation had even been established, there had been many families dedicated to hunting Youmu.
They were called Spirit World Warriors.
Around seventy years ago, the three most powerful Spirit World Warrior families had united.
Pooling all their strength, they had completely defeated and sealed away the Youmu of the main world.
The seal was similar to the Boundary Gate—but even stronger.
After that, Youmu almost never appeared in the main world.
Even if they did, they were harmless, invisible to normal people.
When the Foundation was created, records of these supernatural events were collected. But they had never directly contacted the Spirit World Warrior families.
Those family lineages carried strong conviction.
They rarely caused trouble.
So the Foundation had no need to exterminate them.
Compared to other supernatural organizations, the Foundation was relatively lenient toward such families.
But recently—
The Youmu had become active again.
And the place they had reappeared was within full-dive games.
Gatherings of human consciousness, separate from the main world—negative emotions were condensing into new Youmu.
Upon learning this, the Foundation investigated further.
And discovered—
That a certain Spirit World Warrior seemed to have entered GGO to hunt the Youmu.
That person was Mirai Kuriyama.
Which was why Haruto had entered the game too, to check on things.
As for why he joined the BoB tournament—
It was because BoB was the most high-profile event in GGO.
When the crowd's emotions reached their peak, the Youmu would be easiest to draw out.
Mirai had likely learned about the origins of Youmu from her family's knowledge.
After investigating, she had chosen BoB as her battleground.
Her reasoning wasn't wrong.
But Haruto couldn't help doubting whether that airheaded girl could really handle it.
He actually knew quite a bit about Mirai Kuriyama.
The world's cutest glasses-wearing girl.
The kind of existence that made people shout from the heart: "A future without Mirai is not a future I want!"
As a Spirit World Warrior, her ability was manipulating her own blood—and cursing with it.
Even among the abnormal, she was considered an outcast.
Constantly anemic, in need of nutrition, often going hungry.
And yet she was still a bright, optimistic, adorable girl. Who wouldn't like her?
The Foundation was already preparing to seal the Youmu within the game.
But before that was complete—Haruto planned to go with the flow, keeping an eye on both Mirai Kuriyama and Shino Asada.
Both of those girls were rare talents worth nurturing.