Sword Art Online II Episode 03

Memories of Fresh Blood (鮮血の記憶) is the third episode of the Sword Art Online II anime adaptation, as well as the third episode in the Phantom Bullet Arc. It aired on July 19, 2014.

Plot


Two days after the events in Gun Gale Online (GGO), Asada Shino, the person controlling the avatar Sinon, finished school. Covering her face with a scarf, she went to the market district, when she heard people calling her name. She was then approached by two members of Endou's group and forced to come to an alley. They claimed they did not have money for a ride back home, and so they needed to borrow 10,000 yen from her. Having thought through all the discrepancies of logic in their explanation, Shino rejected their demands. Angered, Endou started to intimidate Shino by making an imitation of a pistol with her hand and threatening to bring her brother's toy guns to school, causing Shino to have a panic attack. Before Endou could leave with Shino's bag, someone called out to a police officer that Shino was being mugged, forcing the gang to flee. It was revealed that Shino's friend, Shinkawa Kyouji, had merely pretended to be bringing a police officer, scaring off the delinquents.



Kyouji then accompanied Shino to a cafe where they had a conversation about Gun Gale Online and Shino's intent to participate in the next Bullet of Bullets (BoB) tournament. Shino asked about Kyouji's grades, since he always seemed to be playing GGO. Kyouji explained that he did study, since he was being forced to be a doctor by his parents and had no other choice. After the conversation, Shino prepared to return home, but Kyouji asked to walk her home not just that day, but every day. Oblivious to his intentions, Shino declined.

At home, Shino reached into a drawer and tried holding a model «Procyon SL» to test whether her experience with Behemoth had helped her with her Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) induced fear of guns. However, she still suffered a panic attack from it, even having to go vomit in the toilet. She recalled a series of previous events during her childhood. When she was about two, her father died in a car accident. This left her mother extremely frail, so they left Tokyo and settled in a suburban town in the hopes of coping with the loss. Nine years later, however, Shino's mother was making a withdrawal at a post office, when a filthy, intoxicated man staggered in and shoved Shino's mom to the floor. He pointed a pistol, a «Type 54 "Black Star"», at a post office worker and made him load money into a bag. The worker pushed a button to call the police, prompting the robber to shoot and apparently kill him. The robber then pointed the gun at a woman behind the counter, and made her load the money, threatening to kill Shino's mother otherwise.



Wishing to protect her mother, Shino bit the robber's arm, causing him to drop the gun. Just as she quickly grabbed the pistol, the robber jumped on her in an attempt to forcefully retrieve his weapon. Frightened, Shino shot the robber in the stomach and then the shoulder in self-defense, before dealing the final blow to the unyielding man's head. The thought of murdering someone, and her mother's expression of fear and panic, resulted in her trauma with guns. Shino then had to live alone with her grandparents before moving all by herself to Tokyo in a further attempt to cope. When that did not work, Kyouji recommended GGO as a form of therapy. She was able to use guns in the virtual world without suffering from panic attacks, but still had problems with her real-life trauma. Shino now believed that winning the next BoB tournament would cure her entirely. After a talk with her worried grandfather the next day, she went to play again.



Meanwhile, Kirito (Kirigaya Kazuto) told Asuna of his decision to convert his ALfheim Online (ALO) avatar to GGO. This angered Asuna, since she thought it was permanent. She questioned why he could not just make a new account like he had countless times before. After Kirito told her that it was a request of Kikuoka Seijirou, however, she relented, but asked him to come back soon, since ALO had become their new home. Kazuto later arrived at the Toritsu Central Hospital, where Kikuoka Seijirou had arranged for a nurse to look after his body as a safety precaution. At the designated room, Kazuto met with Nurse Aki, the nurse who oversaw his rehabilitation. Much to Kazuto's dismay, Aki began touching various parts of his body and asking him to undress, though Kazuto asked to only undress his upper garments. After Nurse Aki attached electrodes to Kazuto's body to monitor his condition during his Dive, Kazuto put on an AmuSphere and began his «FullDive». At the same time, while listening to how other players did not treat him seriously, the person calling himself «Death Gun» planned to target Sinon as his next victim.

New Characters

 * Endou
 * Shinkawa Kyouji
 * Oosawa Sachie (cameo)
 * Nurse Aki

Locations

 * Asada Shino's school.
 * Market district outside of Asada Shino's apartment.
 * Cafe Louvre
 * Asada Shino's apartment
 * Toritsu Central Hospital

Adaptation Notes

 * Adapted from Volume 5 Chapters 4-6


 * Shino's thoughts about school were omitted.
 * The background for Shino's relationship with Endou was omitted.
 * In the anime, it was not explained how Shino got the model gun.
 * Asuna's reaction to the news about Kirito converting his account to another game was less dramatic than in the novel.
 * Kirito and Asuna were seen with rings on their fingers in ALO, despite the lack of a marriage system in ALO.
 * Kazuto did not listen to the recording of Death Gun's voice at home in the novel. Instead, he listened to it at the cafe during his meeting with Seijirou.
 * In the novel, people were seen exchanging ideas about Death Gun via BBS, but in the anime, they were seen of exchanging ideas via nickonicko livestream video service (a reference to niconico).

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