Hopeful Chant

Hopeful Chant (ホープフル・チャント) is an extra story written by the author of the Sword Art Online light novel, Kawahara Reki. The story was distributed as a present to visitors of Sword Art Online The Movie -Ordinal Scale- in Japan in the third week of the official cinema release between March 4 and March 10, 2017.

Part 1
On October 15, 2023, three Knights of the Blood parties under the command of Asuna engaged the Ruthless Warder Chief, a mid-boss on the twenty-third floor of the Labyrinth located on the 40th Floor of Aincrad, in battle. After close to twenty minutes of battle, Asuna's party executed a Party Switch with Team C, Asuna dealing an attack on the boss using her «Triangular» Sword Skill that eliminated the first of the boss's Hit Point bars in the process.

Due to the possibility of the boss's attack patterns having changed, Asuna commanded her party members, including the one-handed sword-wielding Nautilus and the spear-wielding Sanza, to split into smaller groups. Sanza's spear was not durable enough to guard against the boss's wide-range attacks, thus Nautilus was expected to defend him; however, Nautilus failed to comply with Asuna's orders, leaving Sanza defenceless.

Before Sanza could retreat, he suffered a wide-range attack from the boss, which resulted in his weapon being broken and Sanza himself crashing into the wall, temporarily stunned. As the boss possessed an algorithm known as «Bullying», it immediately ignored its previous targets and focused its next attack on the collapsed spear user. Just before Sanza could suffer a finishing blow, the attack was intercepted by Kirito.

Due to Kirito joining the battle, the boss was easily defeated. After a short chat, Kirito proceeded further into the Labyrinth, while Asuna focused on investigating why Nautilus had ignored her order. As Nautilus had seemingly not suffered any damage or debuffs, Asuna requested him to explain the situation. The one-handed sword user reluctantly admitted that his legs had refused to move forward, despite his attempts to do so. After a moment of deliberation, Asuna commanded everyone into formation to depart from the Labyrinth.

Part 2
After the group reached the main city of the fortieth floor, the party was disbanded, and Asuna went into the direction of the teleport gate. After reaching it, she teleported to the main town in the thirty-ninth floor, 《Nolfret》, which was the closest place to her guild headquarters. She started walking, aiming for the rural mansion located in the outskirts of the town, while remembering the moment when it was announced that the guild would move their base to the thirty-ninth floor, which could be considered as “a town in the country-side of a fantasy world”. At first, none of the members knew the reason why Heathcliff, the guild leader, decided to change the Headquarters location, but after moving, they all understood why it had happened. The place was chosen for many factors, like the abundance in ores and herbs’ collection points. It also had 《Awfully firm but weak》-type monsters, and other monsters that dropped high quality leather and scales. After noticing this, all guild members including Asuna understood the decision of moving to that floor

Reaching the mansion, 《The flash》headed towards the guild leader’s room, located in the northern tip of the second floor. Asuna knocked on the door, and right after she got permission from the leader, she entered the room and bowed in a sign of respect. Despite feeling suffocated by his overwhelmping presence of Heathcliff, she proceeded in reporting the daily clearing efforts. She told him that 70% of the labyrinth was already cleared and how they would find the boss room in the following day or the day after. The guild leader asked if there was anyone ahead 《KoB》in the process of clearing the dungeon, leading Asuna to tell that the party had an issue against a mid-boss-class monster, being aided by a player passing by. Heathcliff asked if it was a member of the clearing guild 《Dragon Knights Brigade》, but Asuna denied it, telling it was a solo player. Instantly understanding it was Kirito, since he was the only player in the frontlines, the guild leader pondered if he should invite him again, but gave up on the idea due to Asuna telling it would be useless.

Curious about the mentioned issue, Heathcliff asked for further explanation on it. Asuna hesitated on how to tell it, afraid of the guild leader doing a heartless decision if he knew Nautilus’ 《Condition》, but she decided to report everything clearly after remembering that if Kirito wasn’t passing by, Sanza’s life could’ve been lost. After Heathcliff listened to the story, he asked if it was Nautilus’ first time clearing the labyrinth, and after a short confirmation, he asked if this have happened before. Asuna told him it was the first time it happened, and raised the hypothesis of Nautilus only cowering, but the guild leader didn’t deny it. Instead, he claimed that it had a possibility of being a case of 《Full Dive Non-Conformity》also known as 《FNC》, where the Nerve Gear had problems with the conversion of his brain signals. Contrary to the hypothesis he raised, he said that all he said was nothing more than his conjecture, and addedthat with some experience the problem could be solved.

Heathcliff asked about Nautilus’ skills, and Asuna told him that he had a good sense when it came to Sword Skill activation speed and accuracy. She also claimed that despite breaking his posture, he practically never fumblesmessed up the activation. After pondering a little bit, the guild leader decided to leave the problem dealing to Asuna, because he thought it would be futile for him to try solving the problem. With her mind already made, the girl with chestnut hair reported that she would investigate the problem right after the clearing of the fortieth floor. After she told the leader that she wouldn’t let Nautilus participate in the boss fight, Asuna bowed one more time and left the room.

Navigation
Hopeful Chant