User blog:Gsimenas/Rainbow Bridge

Seeing as no one was doing Rainbow Bridge and I wanted to practise my Japanese a bit, I figured I'd make a little surprise by translating it.

''Note: Only part 1-2 are translated so far. There are 3 more parts left.''

If anyone notices a mistake or has a better way of phrasing something, let me know in the comments.

Part 1
A castle shining in a madder-red colour, floated in the distance of the violet sky.

Two months have passed since the reborn Aincrad was implemented, yet when I look up from the surface of Alfheim's ocean, I still find myself captivated by a mysterious sensation. I just cannot believe that this small structure, and the floating castle that once existed in the skies of a different world, were really of the same size.

Of course, if I spread the wings on my back, take flight and ascend towards the New Aincrad in the faraway sky, before long, the castle will reveal all of its majesty that I will not be able to fully picture. After landing on the first floor from the aperture in the outer circumference, there will be a vast field with various mountains and lakes. I guess that walking from one side to the other will take as much time as it did in the old Aincrad.

While still trying to comprehend that, I continued with my own thoughts.

About being trapped inside that castle during those two years. About wandering through the roadless wastelands, fighting atrocious monsters, encountering lots of people, and then being separated from them. About my battle with Heathcliff on the 75th floor, where we were both defeated and the death game came to an end. I wondered if that was truly reality.

Or.

About landing in Alfheim in search of the slumbering Asuna, and successfully releasing her from the cage of malice at the end of a short but hectic journey. And now, about how I’m spending the tranquil days together with former allies and new friends in both the real and virtual worlds. Again, I wondered if this is a reality.

While I was surrounded by such endless thoughts, I silently looked up at the floating castle illuminated by the evening sun, and——

Suddenly, a loud, horn-like koooo――――n sound broke out next to my feet. My avatar’s legs lost their ground, as the grayish-white texture of the ground shook violently. Reflexively, I raised my arms and grabbed Asuna’s hand with my right, and Klein’s with my left.

“Woah, wh-what the--?”, Lisbeth screamed.

“I-it can’t be planning to drop us off here, can it―?”, Klein shouted.

“If so, we could just fly, right?", Agil calmly retorted right away.

The small hole in the ground in front of us spread out suddenly, and a large quantity of water was blown out of it with the force of a geyser.

“Kyuuuuuu!” “Hawawaaaaa!”

These screams were of the small dragon Pina, who had taken position just above the hole, and the Yui, who was riding Pina. Although the abrupt water current shot up to no less the five meters, at that moment Pina spread out her wings and restored her balance, lightly hovering at the top of the water fountain. It is hard to believe that Yui had screamed two seconds ago, as a laughter of enjoyment could now be heard.

While using my left hand to avoid the small drops of water that were falling down, I exchanged glances with Asuna, and we both gave a wide smile simultaneously.

“.......Wow, it spouted like a tide, huh.”

At that moment, Asuna nodded and answered,

“What can I say, it is a whale, you know.”

That is so. What our party of seven people: me, Asuna, Leafa, Silica, Lisbeth, Agil and Klein, including Yui and Pina, were riding on, while it was swimming in the ocean, was a while whale, which was an evil god-class monster that boasted superior speed alongside a large build.

Everyone uh-huhed to express their agreement to Asuna's remark and, as the whale’s spouting ended, Yui came down from the skies and said while flying to Asuna’s left shoulder,

“This does not mean that the whale-san in the real world actually sprays water from its blowhole. It is just that when they exhale close to the surface of the sea, ocean water is also carried along!”

“Whaaaat?!”, the seven people exclaimed in unison.

Yui, who just showed her encyclopedic knowledge and strong memory as always, simply said “ahem” and set her small hands upon her hips. While thinking that her posture was lovely, I once again looked up at the floating steel castle in the night sky.

As the reborn Aincrad revolves around the skies of Alfheim at a considerable speed, the outline of the castle I saw a while ago was getting smaller and smaller. I motionlessly fixed my eyes onto the location approximately one-fifth of the castle from the bottom—— the place where the profoundly memorable 22nd floor should be.

Although, for now, only the first ten floors have been opened, I'm sure that we will eventually climb up and reach the 20th floor and beyond. When I see the log house built in the depths of the snow-covered forest once again, will I truly be able to believe, I wondered. Believe that the former Aincrad disappeared to distant memory. And believe that the world where games are meant to be played has returned.

The white whale carried us from Thule Island in Alfheim’s southwest sea to a beach in Sylph territory. Then, with a voice that sounded like a giant tuba, it prompted us to get off. After watching us safely get off his back and land on the white, sandy beach with a gentle expression in the eyes, it turned around leisurely, and swam towards the bright red evening sun in the horizon, in the company of a school of dolphins.

“Whale-saan, thank yooou! Let us ride on your back again sometime, okaaaaay?!”

In response to Yui's voice, the white whale spouted a very high column of water once again, and its large body sank into the ocean bit by bit. Before long, it could no longer be seen. Yui, who was sitting on Asuna's shoulder, gently lowered her hands that she had been waving affectionately.

While smiling, I called out to that slightly lonely-looking face.

“I'm sure you'll meet it again someday. The quest from before looked as if it was hinting that it will somehow continue.”

"Oh, speaking of which, Kiri-no-ji!"

The loud voice that interrupted me and spoiled the atmosphere of the farewell, was of course Klein's. While scratching his unshaven face, he continued with an expression that could not be understood.

“What the heck was the deal with that quest? Like the mermaid princess turning out to be an old dude, the old dude turning out to be a giant octopus, then the giant octopus turning out to be the lord of the abyss, and something about divine beings; I didn’t get any of that stuff.”

“The first one about the mermaid princess was merely your aspiration.”

Although I gave a tsukkomi retort by reflex, I too could not give an immediate reply to Klein's doubts. Fleetingly looking around my allies, I saw that Asuna, who had previously been called the devil of clearing, Leafa, who knew a lot about Norse mythology, the intuitive Agil, as well as Lisbeth and Silica all folded their arms and said “hmmm”.

Today is ―― July 25, 2025, Friday.

In order to grant Yui’s wish of “seeing a whale”, we challenged the «Deep Sea Plunderers» quest that was rumoured to have a large, aquatic-type monster.

We were requested, by an ojii-san, to search for an item in a dungeon-just a common errand-type quest ―― or so we thought. But the truth was that the ojii-san was actually pulling our strings. Unwittingly, we ended up stealing a treasure that was sealed in an Underwater Temple. Well, this was still a common storyline, but from here on, the super rapid development, or should I say, an overly rapid plot twist began. The ojii-san had seven HP bars and transformed into a gigantic octopus-type monster, «Kraken the Abyss Lord», who beat us, hands down, to a near death status with just a single hit from a single tentacle. But, before we could even think that this was impossible, a gigantic oji-san, calling himself «Leviathan the Sea Lord», descended from above. Just as the two of them had their hard to understand conversation, Kraken sunk into the depths of the sea. Leviathan then recovered the pearl (which was actually a large egg) that we had taken out of the temple and, at that moment, a “quest cleared” fanfare played ―― It is such an incomprehensible quest, even after thinking about it back and forth.

While dumbfounded and discouraged that the aquatic-type monster in the rumours was a kraken, the old man calling himself lord of the seas summoned a white whale. Because it was going to take us to this beach, in any case, the initial objective of Yui getting to see a whale was thus accomplished. And we all lived happily ever after―― although that is true, I understand the feeling of why Klein wanted to say "I don't get it" well.

Because my comrades were moaning, I looked around their faces, and said,

“I wonder if anyone can accurately remember the talk between the octopus and the ossan?”

If this was in an MMORPG, we could just roll the mouse wheel over the message window and browse through the conversation in the middle of the quest, but in VRMMORPGs, there's basically no such convenient function. Therefore, there's a technique of using a crystal to record the event's conversation if it looks like it includes important information. However, this time, we didn't have such a luxury by any means.

To my query, the six of them simultaneously tilted their necks, and then shook left and right.

“Heh, indeed a vanguard only party with no at all.”

I commented with a sigh mixed in. Then, Liz raised her right hand overhead with a pitcher's pitching-like motion, and with her index finger, thrust it three time consecutively towards me.

“You're the one to talk! You're exactly the same as us!”

“......Yeah, sorry.”

However, at that moment, Yui, who flew up from Asuna’s shoulder, landed on my head with a post just like Leviathan descended at the Underwater Temple.

“I guess it cannot be helped. Although it is a bit unfair, I will reproduce the conversation!”

All of us shouted “ooo” in an amazed voice, and, puffing out her chest, the pixie began the narrative while skilfully imitating the tone of the octopus and the old man.

Leviathan: “It's been a long time, my old friend. I see you're up to your old tricks.

Kraken: “The same to you. How long will you be satisfied as a servant to the Æsir? You're an embarrassment to the name 'Lord of the Sea'.”

Leviathan: “I am satisfied with being a king. And this is my domain. Knowing that, do you still wish to fight, Lord of the Abyss?”

Kraken: “For now, I shall withdraw. But I shall not give up, my friend! One day, I shall claim the prince's power, and make the accursed gods pay! Until that day!......”

Leviathan: “That egg belongs to the one that will someday rule all the sea and air. I must find it a new home, so I shall take it back.”

“......That is all!”

After Yui's reproduction of the conversation ended, all seven people applauded together. Even Pina, sitting on Silica’s head, flapped its wings lively.

“Thank you, Yui.”

After thanking my daughter for the job well done, I started pondering about it once again and continued my speech,

“Hmm…… The proper nouns that concern me are «Æsir» and «Prince». I have a feeling that I've heard something like that somewhere, but……”

“Heere!”

The one who said this while raising her hand enthusiastically, was the mage and swordswoman, Leafa. Possessing the most knowledge about myths and folklore among all of our party's members, she stepped forward and explained with a clear enunciation,

“The Æsir, are a family of gods that come from Norse mythology! You guys have heard of gods like the chief god Odin, the thunder god Thor, and the mischievous Loki among others, haven’t you?”

“I have I have I have”

Six people gave their acknowledgement one after another, and Leafa gave a big nod in return.

“Then, as for the Prince……”

“Uhmmmmmmm”

“I have no idea at all!”

Bam, all of us made an honest falling to our back motion, and started pondering again.

The next one to speak was the, Silica.

“Err, in short, the Kraken-ojii-chan detests the Æsir, but, since he hasn’t been able to win yet, he wants to obtain the «Prince’s power» to become stronger…. is that how it is?”

“If even that giant octopus’s ridiculous power was no match for the Æsir, I wonder what kind of power do the they have……”, said the Lisbeth, while tossing her metallic gloss pink hair.

“Well, they are gods after all”, said the Asuna during the break in the conversation. At that point, the one who interrupted with a self-important manner of speaking was the Klein.

“That’s right, you younglings might not know, but Odin is actually of the strongest class. The moment he’s summoned, bam! And the monster is sliced into two……”

“Oi oi, that’s not the plot inside the myth.”, the Agil inserted a tsukkomi with an amazed expression and everyone, including Yui, burst into laughter.

Understanding the parody in Klein's remarks, I too formed a wry smile. While doing so, I thought I felt a faint sense of discomfort about this conversation.

The answer soon came.

During the quest, Kraken and Leviathan appeared as NPCs until the very end ―――Even though they were essentially boss-class monsters. It can be expected that their conversation was nothing but a scenario written by the scenario writer-shi of «Ymir», the company that manages ALO.

And yet, all of us talked about Kraken and Leviathan as if Kraken and Leviathan had their own consciousness.

Perhaps the reason for that is that their words sounded far too human. The remorseful and angry expression of Kraken, unwilling to accept his defeat and declaring "I will not give up!", inadvertently led us to think that "Hmm that octopus must have went through a lot of things...".

Or possibly, Kraken and Leviathan are not…... mere NPCs?

I and Asuna met a female dark elf knight after beginning the clearing of a floor in the old Aincrad and had an adventure with her. She was named Kizmel and although she was an NPC, she was never just a moving object that repeated standard phrases. She had quite the ability to reply to our remarks…… you could even call it a volition.

ALO makes use of an architecture that is almost identical to the old one in SAO. In short, if we presume that it's just the ability of, their existence scope could just be „Advanced AI influenced NPC“, the same way as Kizmel.

However, if we assume that…… while being a quest NPC, Kraken was not just an existence that moved according to the quest's plot…...wouldn't it become such a thing? Obtaining something like the “Prince's power“ and raising a mutiny against the Æsir is that big octopus's own will……?

“……………That can't be the case, right?”

Becoming self-conscious of how my thoughts were going too far into the area of absurdity, I halted such mutters and guesses and faced Silica and the others. Klein was insisting on how strong the good old day Odin and Bahamut and the like were. Right at that moment, Klein shouted in a loud, hysteric voice. “Awwww, crap! I have a pizza home delivery order for ten o'clock!”

“Hey, that's after three minutes. If you fly from here to Swilvane, it will take ten minutes” To what Agil calmly pointed out, Klein held his head with both of his arms and bent his head backwards with all his strength.

“MY SEAFOOD PIZZA AND DRAUGHT BEER――!”

While dearly feeling that I have heard that line a long time ago, I stepped up to the katana user struck at the big sleeves of his Japanese-style armour with a pop.

“Until your avatar disappears, we'll watch over you, so calm down. This time you'll get it.”

After I said that, Klein blinked for a moment and then expressed that he understood the meaning of my words with a light “hehe” laughter.

“Is that so. Then I'll take you up on your offer and excuse myself for the day.”

“Good luck with the shrimps, crabs, cuttlefish and octopus placed on your pizza”

While making a complicated-looking face to Liz's words, Klein opened his main menu.

“Well then, great work everyone!”

After pressing the logout button, the salamander's avatar automatically switched over to standing on one knee, closing its eyes and stopped moving.

In ALO, to prevent people from „Escaping“ from personal fights, when logging out in the field, the player's avatar will remain on site for a little while. Naturally, it's highly probable for monsters to target the player and the player finding himself in the form of a when they log in. Therefore, for logging out outside the area, it's popular for the player's mates to protect them until the time limit expires and the player's avatar disappears. Thankfully, this beach did not look like it had many strong monsters spawning, thus I changed my glance from Klein's body and proposed,

“Additionally, if there's anyone else who wants to log out, it's fine. I'll watch over you till the end.” At that moment, firstly Asuna apologetically brought up her right hand.

“Err….. then I'll be logging out too, if it's okay……”

Although I haven't had an audience with her, I have heard stories that Asuna’s mother was a very strict person, so I quickly nodded.

“It's fine. Thanks for today.”

“Yeah, thanks to everyone for today too, thank you for the great work!”

As Asuna nimbly operated the menu and switched to standby position, Agil wished for a prompt logout next, who had preparations for tomorrow's work, then Liz who wanted to watch a TV program, then Silica who had to do today's homework, and they simultaneously left from the fairy homeworld.

When Silica entered the standby posture, Pina, who was sitting on Silica's head, began to look around restlessly, as if trying to protect her avatar. “How noble”... while thinking that, I stretched my limbs with great effort.

At that moment, my eyes met with Leafa, who had taken the exact same pose at the same time. For some reason or another, after we formed a smiled all together, I turned my eyes towards the west horizon.

Before I became aware of it, the sun had completely set, with only a deep vermillion left near the horizon. Yui, who was sitting on my head, used my shoulder as a stool to plunge into my chest pocket, and made a lovely yawn.

“…...Papa, the whale-san was really big, was it not?”

I gently brushed the head of the pixie, who said this in a sleepy voice, with my fingertips. “Yeah. Let's ride it again someday.”

“Yeah……”

Yui nodded and closed her eyelids, then immediately afterwards, started making a small sleeper's breathing.

Yui, who is an AI independent from ALO's system, has no necessity to sleep like a human, but when she has a large quantity of information input and she has doesn't need to process it quickly, she often conducts memory sorting in a sleeping state like this. I wondered whether Yui was in a dream that played back today's adventure.

After a while, first Klein’s avatar, then Asuna's, after that Agil's, Liz's, and Silica's avatars, as well as Pina, scattered into beads of light and disappeared.

I faced Leafa and, while casually extending my right hand, said,

“Well then, Sugu, shall we return to Swilvane in one flight?”

Upon that, my imouto slightly frowned.

“Say, Onii-chan, since we're not in the water, we don't have to fly while holding hands.”

“Ah…...I-I see… Sorry about that……”

However, the blonde mage-and-swordswoman quickly snatched the hand that I withdrew.

“However, as I'm better than you in the sky, from here on, I'll be the one to lead!”

“......I-I'm counting on you”

We spread our wings at the same time and took off from the sandy beach that was being dyed in purple. Returning my glance to the northeast, the gigantic silhouette of the World Tree in the background of the sky, with already twinkling stars, came to view. Before us, a group of green lights glittered like jewels. It was the dear Sylph territory capital, Swilvane.

After confirming that Yui was in her place in my pocket, Leafa and I nodded and, riding the sea breeze, we began flying.

Part 2
“............Haruhohohee……”

I muttered this in and unintelligible voice, while chewing my chewy udon.

At that moment, Suguha, who was on the opposite side of the dining table, looked over here with upturned eyes.

“That's bad manners, Onii-chan.”

It's true that holding chopsticks in my right hand and a tablet terminal in my left while eating a meal probably isn't appropriate. However, after swallowing the udon in my mouth with a gulp,

“I should be deciding on how to eat my bukkake udon.”

“......Then, what about karē udon?”

“No way.”

“......How about kitsune udon?”

“That's fine.”

“......And what about nabeyaki udon?”

“No way.”

“I don't get your standards at all……”

Sighing, I slurped the chilled bukkake udon (with hot spring eggs, steamed chicken, boiled shrimp, okra, thick wakame leaves, shiso and shredded nori as toppings) in one mouthful.

We logged out from ALO around fifteen minutes ago. As usual, our mother has yet to return home, thus the two of us made a late dinner; however, lately, I feel as if we've also been favouring the «quick to make and simple to clean» route too much.

Let's make at least three meals for tomorrow―― while secretly deciding thus, I again heard the voice from across the table.

“Then, what was with that ‘I see’?”

“It took me a second to understand that the question was about the 「haruhoho」 that I uttered a while ago.

“......That 『I see』 was about me understanding something….. no, about the Æsir story.”

“Oh, so you investigated that promptly.”

“Although you may say so, it's only to the extent of reading a rough outline.”

I presented the tablet, where the corresponding article of an online encyclopedia was displayed, to Suguha and considered whether I should crack open the preserved hot spring eggs and mix them in with the udon, or simply bite into them. However, faster than I could come up with a solution, Suguha fearlessly and scornfully laughed.

“......What is it?”

“It's completely useless, Onii-chan. Why did you say “I see” with just this? This has nothing but a mere outline written.”

“I-is that so?”

“Yeah. If you really want to know, it did not begin with the head god Odin's father, the giant Borr, nor Borr's father, the first god Búri…… Err, first of all, in Norse mythology, the beginning of the world began with a large rift, called Ginnungagap……”

“S-stop stop. Let's save the beginning of the world till later, when we have time for you to tell me about it without rushing. Hey, we'd better eat quickly or the udon will grow stale.”

At my interruption, Suguha made a displeased face, but obediently put down the tablet and took the chopsticks into her hand again. Without hesitation, she cracked the hot spring eggs and mixed the egg yolk that flowing out into the noodles. As that golden radiance was too beautiful, I did the same and vigorously slurped it.

Although I thought that interrupting the earnest lecture was inexcusable, I haven't needed such detailed information so far. Because, as far as I know, the Æsir realm does not exist in ALO――probably, and the «Deep Sea Plunderers» may or may not have a continuation.

Leviathan did say 『I am going to move it to a new home』when he took away «Prince's Egg», which we had taken from the Underwater Temple after being so splendidly tricked by Kraken. With this issue being solved, we had a feeling that this wouldn't end with ‘and they lived happily ever after’. What the heck is that prince or something―――it's not a human, as it was going to be born from an egg―――but I have no idea. Kraken also seemed like he hadn't lost yet, as he didn't seem too satisfied with pent-up revenge.

This merely has a few personal feelings mixed in, but, wouldn't this lead into a quest and not a single instance quest after all?

In ordinary campaign quests, if one of the quests is cleared, the player can receive the following quest and the new destination will be specified via markers. However, there are rare cases, in which the players themselves must guess which place they should go to and what should they do based on the information that they had received up to that point.

If we assume that that this campaign is of that type, there were supposed to be hints for the location, where the next quest could be accepted, in the conversation between Kraken and Leviathan…...but…….

“......-chan, come on, Onii-chan.”

Suguha called me several times while I was pondering before I finally came to my senses and raised my head.

“Eh, wh-what is it?”

“I hope that you haven't forgotten that we're doing a major cleanup of the dojo tomorrow. Don't stay up late tonight; we have to go to bed soon.”

Of course I forgot about it, but without saying a word, I nodded.

“I get it I geet it, I'll go to sleep in one… make that two hours, I promise.”

I avoided my imouto's eyes with a questionable look, and escaped to the kitchen with the now empty plate.

In my room, I rolled in bed and looked up at the alarm clock on my headboard while upside down

It was 23:30. At around this time in the old Aincrad, I would be in the midst of my «night phase», secluding myself in a high-efficiency hunting ground and continuing to swing my sword.

Of course, I don't lack levelling (although ALO doesn't have levels) in ALfheim. Particularly because I had reset my stats inherited from SAO, thus, in order to catch up with Asuna and the rest, there were times when I worked vigorously towards hard hunting.

But of course, there was no chance of experiencing the trepidation from before—that throbbing motivation to level up in order to live on.

Needless to say, that's a fortunate thing. By no means do I think of things like wanting to return to that world.

However, somewhere in my heart, I may be continuing to wish. For something that is a game, but not a game…… for something in the miniature garden of the virtual world that could invoke breathtaking «reality».

I felt an sign of that «something» the moment Leviathan's trident came down in the nick of time, when we were about to be wiped, after being driven to a near-death state by Kraken's blow. So in that event of pre-established harmony, it wasn't someone's written plot and was really an accidental development…………?

“......No, well, it would just be interesting if that were the case…...”

I muttered that monologue to hide my embarrassment, and, in order to prepare for tomorrow's major clean up and go to bed early, I turned off the lights of my room.

After ten seconds had passed, I fumblingly grasped the AmuSphere and mounted it on my head, and then recited the voice command in a whisper.

“Link Start.”

Credits

 * Raw: Takazuki
 * Translation: Gsimenas, 1caiser
 * Editor: 1caiser, Dennis Lee, Pryun