Sword Art Online - Volume 1 - Aincrad (26 page)

She squeezed my cheeks with both her hands, and then said:

“I learned something here, and that was to keep trying and never give up. If we make it back to the real world, I’ll definitely come find Kirito again, and I’ll still like you.”

How many times have I marveled at Asuna’s honest and strong heart? Or maybe mine was just too weak.

But even if I was the weak one, it was still all right. I had forgotten for such a long time how comfortable it was to depend on someone else and have them depend on me. I didn’t know how long we would be able to stay here, but at least we were away from the battlefield during this period of time
—
 

I let my thoughts wander and concentrated my feelings on the softness and the sweet smell that filled my arms.

The float attached to the fishing line hadn’t moved even once. Drowsiness invaded my consciousness as I watched the dancing sunlight reflected off the sparkling water ripples of the lake.

I made a huge yawn and pulled up the fishing line. Only an empty silver hook on the end shined in the light; the bait that I had put on it was gone.

Over
ten
days
had
passed
since
we
moved
to
the
twenty-second
floor.
In
order
to
gather
food
each
day,
I
had
erased
my
two-handed
sword
skill,
which
I
trained
briefly
in
a
long
time
ago,
and
exchanged
it
for
the
fishing
skill.
I
began
to
imitate
Taikoubou
 
[1]
 
in
fishing.
But
for
some
reason,
I
just
couldn’t
catch
anything.
The
training
score
had
just
passed
600,
so
I
didn’t
expect
any
big
catches,
but
I
thought
that
I
should
have
at
least
caught
something
by
now.
Instead,
I
simply
spent
day
after
day
wasting
the
cases
of
bait
that
I
bought
in
the
village.
 

“Gah, this is so annoying
…
”

I muttered my complaints, tossed the fishing tackle aside, and then threw myself onto the ground. The wind that rushed over the water was icy cold, but the overcoat that Asuna had made me with her sewing skills kept me warm. Asuna was still in the middle of training that skill, thus the coat wasn’t as good as clothing from the NPC stores. But since it was useable and kept me warm, there weren’t any problems.

It was now «The month of the Cypress» in Aincrad, which meant it was November back in Japan. Although it was almost winter, fishing in SAO didn’t have anything to do with seasons. Maybe it was simply because I had used up all my luck on getting my beautiful wife.

As my thoughts reached this, my entire being was filled with happiness, and a wide smile spread across my face. Then suddenly, a voice reached my ears.

“How did you do?”

I leapt up in surprise and saw a man standing there as I turned around.

He was wrapped in thick clothing, including a hat with ear flaps, and had fishing tackle in his hands just like me. But the surprising part was his age. No matter how I looked at it, he seemed at least fifty years old. The eyes behind metal framed glasses showed the age of a senior. Amongst the hardcore game addicts of SAO, it was extremely rare to see someone so old. Actually, I had never even seen one before. Maybe-?

“
I
’
m not a NPC.
”
 

He smiled bitterly as if he had read my thoughts, and then slowly descended down the slope.

“
S-Sorry. I was just wondering
…”
 

“
No, it
’
s fine. It
’
s understandable. I
’
m most probably the oldest player here.
”
 

His healthy body rocked as he gave a hearty “wa-ha-ha” laugh.

“
Excuse me.
”
 

He said as he sat down next to me. He took out a bait case from his hip, then awkwardly opened a pop-up menu, retrieved his fishing rod, and put the bait on it.

“
My name is Nishida. I
’
m a fisherman here. In Japan, I worked as the head of maintenance for a company called the Tohto Broadband Connection. I
’
m sorry but I don
’
t have my business cards with me.
”
 

He laughed again.

“
Ah
…”
 

I could mostly guess the reason for why he was in this game. Tohto was a network operator company that had been cooperating with Argas. They were responsible for taking care of the network that linked to the SAO servers.

“
I
’
m Kirito. I moved here from the upper levels a while ago. Nishida oji-san
…
must have been
…
maintaining the SAO network connection
…
?
”
 

“
I was in charge of it.
”
 

Nishida said as he nodded. I looked at him with a complicated feeling. This meant that the man had become entangled in everything here because of his job.

“Haha, my superiors said there was no need to log on, but I can’t be fully at ease until I see my work with my own eyes, and because of an old man’s worries I became like this.”

He swung his rod with an amazingly smooth motion as he said this, and one could tell that he had the professional mastery of a skilled fisherman. He also seemed to like talking, as he kept on going without waiting for a response from me:

“Other than me, there are around twenty to thirty other old men who ended up here due to various reasons. Most of them are living safely in Starting City, but I enjoy this far more than simply eating three meals a day.”

He lifted his fishing rod a little.

“I searched endlessly for good rivers and lakes, and finally came up all the way to a place like this.”

“
Oh, really
…
Well, there are almost no monsters on this floor.
”
 

Nishida just smiled at what I said without answering. Then he asked me:

“
Well, are there any good spots on the upper floors?
”
 

He asked.

“
Hmmm
…
Well, the sixty-first floor was entirely a lake, well, more like a sea, and they say one could catch huge fish there.
”
 

“
Ohh! I better go there sometime.
”
 

At this time, the float of his fishing rod began to quickly sink. Nishida wasted no time in pulling it in. It seemed that his fishing skill level was pretty high, as well as his actual ability to fish.

“
Woah, it
’
s huge!
”
 

As I strained to lean forward, Nishida calmly reeled in the fishing line and quickly pulled up the shimmering blue fish. The fish flapped in his hands a few times and then vanished into his inventory.

“
Amazing
…
!
”
 

Nishida gave an embarrassed smile as he raised his head to reply:

“
It
’
s nothing. All you need to do here is raise your fishing skill.
”
 

Then he added while scratching his head:

“
But, even if I can catch them, I still didn’t know how to cook them properly
…
I wanted to eat sashimi or grilled fish, but I can
’
t do anything without soy sauce.
”
 

“
Ah
…
yeah
…”
 

I hesitated for a moment. We had moved here to avoid other people, but I figured that this person wouldn’t really be interested in rumors and gossips.

“…
I know of something that tasted a lot like soy sauce
…”
 

“
What!?
”
 

Nishida leaned closer with his eyes shining behind his glasses.

As Asuna greeted my return and saw Nishida, her eyes went wide with surprise, but then she smiled and said:

“
Welcome back. A guest?
”
 

“
Yeah, this is Nishida oji-san, a fisherman. And-
”
 

My voice trailed off as I turned towards Nishida and was unsure of how to introduce Asuna. Then, Asuna smiled at the old fisherman and introduced herself:

“
I
’
m his wife, Asuna. Welcome to our home.
”
 

She nodded confidently.

Nishida was staring at Asuna with his mouth open. Asuna was dressed in a plain long skirt, a hemp shirt with an apron, and a headscarf on top. She looked very different from the imposing warrior image of her as a KoB member, but her beauty didn
’
t change.

After blinking several times, Nishida finally came to his senses and said:

“
Ah, ahh, I apologize. I was mesmerized for a moment. I
’
m Nishida. Sorry for intruding upon you like this
…”
 

He scratched his head and laughed.

Asuna applied all of her impressive cooking skills on the huge fish that Nishida had caught, and brought it onto the table after turning it into sashimi and grilled fish with soy sauce as a seasoning. As the aroma of the handmade soy sauce wafted through the house, Nishida widened his nostrils with a look of delight on his face.

It tasted more like a yellowtail with just the right amount of oil rather than a freshwater fish. According to Nishida, you needed to have at least 950 points in fishing to be able to catch it. After a brief conversation, the three of us focused on eating with our chopsticks.

The plates were empty within the blink of an eye, and Nishida sighed with an expression of bliss as he held a cup of hot tea in his hands.

“…
ah, that was very satisfying. Thank you. To think that soy sauce actually exists in this world
…”
 

“
Oh, it
’
s handmade. You can take some back with you if you like it.
”
 

Asuna retrieved a small bottle from the kitchen and handed it over to Nishida. I thought that it was a good idea not to tell him the recipe. Asuna then smiled and said to the grateful Nishida:

“Don’t worry about it; you also brought us such a good fish.”

She then continued:

“
Kirito never caught anything.
”
 

At this sudden attack, I simply sipped on my tea in silence before responding:

“
The lakes in this area are all too hard.
”
 

“
No, not really. It
’
s only the lake that Kirito-san was fishing in.
”
 

“
Eh
…”
 

What Nishida said made me fall speechless. Asuna grabbed her stomach and began to laugh without stop.

“
Why did they set it like that
…
?
”
 

“
Well actually, in that lake
…”
 

Nishida lowered his voice before continuing, so Asuna and I leaned forward.

“
I think the local god lives there.
”
 

“
Local god?
”
 

As Asuna and I echoed each other, Nishida smiled, pushed back his glasses, and then kept talking:

“
In the village item shop, there is one bait that
’
s much more expensive than the others. I was curious about its capabilities, so I decided to buy it once to try out.
”
 

I swallowed instinctively.

“
But I couldn’t catch anything with that bait. After trying it out in various locations, I finally thought of taking a shot at that high-difficulty lake.
”
 

“
Did, did you catch something
…
?
”
 

“
Well, something took the bait.
”
 

Nishida nodded deeply, and then his expression became one of regret:

“
But I couldn’t pull it out with my strength and ended up losing my fishing rod to it. I only managed to see its shadow during the last moments. It wasn’t just huge; one could call it a monster, but in a different sense from the ones that appeared in the fields.
”
 

He spread his arms wide apart. This was probably the reason behind his meaningful smile when I said, “There are almost no monsters on this floor.”