Sword Art Online Light Novel Volume 06

Phantom Bullet (ファントム・バレット) Part 2 is the 6th book in the Sword Art Online Light Novel series, published on December 10, 2010.

Summary
Kirito entered the finals of the Bullet of Bullets tournament to find the truth about the mysterious Death Gun. Assisted by the sniper Sinon, he fought for his life and others to stop a mysterious but lethal force.

Chapter 7
Kirigaya Kazuto was eating his lunch when his sister Suguha began interrogating him about a new competitor on the Bullet of Bullets competition named Kirito. With clever maneuvering, she caught Kazuto in his lies and told him that she knew that he converted his ALfheim Online (ALO) account into Gun Gale Online (GGO). She then confessed her worries about Kirito going away, but Kazuto reassured her he would come back. Kazuto was unable to tell Suguha about his real reason for converting to GGO - he had some unfinished work to be done, especially since he had met a survivor from the Player Killing (PK) guild Laughing Coffin from Sword Art Online (SAO). Kazuto headed over to the hospital where he first woke up after clearing SAO, where Nurse Aki was waiting for his arrival. When she saw he was in distress and offered counsel, Kazuto confessed to her he had killed people in SAO and that he felt guilt over it, but Nurse Aki assured him that, sometimes, a minority had to be sacrificed to save the majority, the fact he felt remorse over the matter meant he still remembered what he did, he did the right thing in protecting others, and he had a right to consider the people he saved.

Chapter 8
Asada Shino was hanging out with Shinkawa Kyouji as she angrily reminisced about the preliminaries the day before. Kirito, an absolute amateur to GGO, had surprisingly made it to the finals, and to top that, had actually beaten her. Shino was irritated by everything that Kirito had done: his mannerisms, the fact that he pretended to be a girl, his overwhelming ability in game, and his explanation to her of his preference to not hit a girl. Kyouji remarked how she was uncharacteristically focused on someone else and offered his help in retribution, but Shino, who nevertheless admired Kirito's style and skills, declined and vowed to defeat him in a fair fight. To her surprise, she found herself imitating a gun with her hand, when such an action would normally have triggered a panic attack. After she quickly desisted the action, Kyouji grabbed her and expressed his admiration of her strength, both in the real world and in GGO, and that he wanted her. Shino responded by saying that she did not have that sort of feelings for him, but that if he was willing to wait for her, she might one day accept. Later, Kyouji met up with Sinon in-game as his avatar Spiegel and confirmed her promise that she would wait for him. After he left, to her irritation Sinon heard Kirito calling her from behind.

Chapter 9
Kirito recollected his memories of the previous day; «Laughing Coffin», «Death Gun», Sinon, Bullet of Bullets, 30 finalists, and finally, fear. He saw Sinon and asked her to guide him through the rules of the tournament. The map was ten kilometers in diameter, and every 15 minutes, a satellite probe was sent into the air to map the location of each contestant. The goal naturally was to be the last one standing. At Kirito's request, Sinon revealed three other new participants in the Bullet of Bullets: «Jūshi X», «Pale Rider», and «Sterben». After pondering on the names for a while, Kirito hinted to Sinon about his previous life in SAO and about the «Laughing Coffin» guild. As they headed off to the waiting dome to prepare for the arena, Kirito promised Sinon that he would stay alive until she could kill him.

Chapter 10
Within the first 30 minutes, 8 players had been eliminated from the tournament. After defeating «Shishigane» as her second target and the ninth casualty, Sinon checked the «Satellite Scan Terminal» to find «Pale Rider» chasing «Dyne». As they were closer to her position than «Lion King Richie» and since the latter was in a highly defensible position, she decided to move after the former two. When she had reached the bridge over the river dividing the area, she settled down to a sniping position, and as Dyne made his way to the end of the bridge and moved into a prone position for Pale Rider, she prepared to eliminate her former squadron leader. However, Kirito snuck up on her while she was distracted, but instead of killing her, he requested her to wait and watch what happened, to which she grudgingly agreed.

When Pale Rider appeared on the far end of the bridge, Dyne opened fire, but the new player, lightly armored and with high strength and speed stats, dodged all the bullets and defeated Dyne. As Sinon turned her targeting sights towards him, Pale was suddenly hit by a Stun Bullet and immediately paralyzed. Shocked by the unexpected action, as they hadn't noticed any other enemies near the area, Kirito and Sinon began speculating on how anyone could have accomplished such a feat and how they managed to get close. Suddenly, «Death Gun» stepped out of the shadows and walked towards the immobilized player, carrying a «Accuracy International L115A3», also known as the «Silent Assassin». As the cloaked player switched out the sniper rifle for an ordinary handgun, pointed it at Pale Rider, and made the sign of the cross, Kirito urgently ordered Sinon to shoot the former. However, Death Gun managed to dodge the bullet and fired a single round into Pale Rider's body. As the status effect finally wore off, the latter leapt to his feet and aimed his «ArmaLite AR17» at the former, but suddenly collasped and convulsed before being forcibly disconnected from the system. After Death Gun pointed his handgun at the video cameras broadcasting the tournament for a while, he returned to the shadows and disappeared, both from sight and the Satelltie Scan.

Confused at how the cloaked player had managed to cheat his victory, Sinon was stunned when Kirito announced that Pale Rider had been killed both in-game and in real life, and that the rumors about Death Gun's power to kill players in the real world were true. As Kirito headed off to find and stop Death Gun, Sinon chased after him and reluctantly proposed a temporary alliance to chase after the murderer, to which Kirito also reluctantly agreed to. Immediately afterwards, they were ambushed by «Kakouton», and the duo focused their efforts on defeating him.

Chapter 11
Asuna, Klein, Lisbeth, Yui, Silica, and Leafa were spectating the game from Kirito and Asuna's rented room in Yggdrasil City in ALfheim Online. They witnessed the death of Pale Rider as it was being streamed live, and then how Death Gun made his proclamation of power in front of the cameras, ending his speech with the phrase «It's showtime», a catchphrase frequently used by the leader of Laughing Coffin, PoH. A shocked Klein immediately realised that the mysterious player was a former high-ranking player from the Laughing Coffin guild. After Silica explained the history of Laughing Coffin to Leafa, Asuna realized that the possible presence of a Laughing Coffin survivor in GGO was the reason behind Kirito's conversion, and immediately left ALO to contact Kikuoka Seijirou.

Chapter 12
Sinon noticed a longing feeling for Kirito. «Jūshi X» and «Sterben» were the last two suspects. Sinon and Kirito targeted Jūshi X first. Kirito went to attack Jūshi X and left Sinon behind for the sniping but suddenly she was stunned by a bullet from her blind spot. Death Gun was using «Metamaterial Optical Camouflage» to hide from the satellite probe. Kirito quickly killed Jūshi X, who was really called Musketeer X, and headed back towards Sinon, noticing that she was in trouble. Sinon noticed that the Death Gun's gun was a Type 54 "Black Star", the gun that she had used years ago to kill a dangerous man, triggering a panic attack. Kirito jumped in to save Sinon and then they hurriedly found a buggy and drove off. Death Gun chased after them while riding a mechanic horse, expertly utilizing it to their shock.. Sinon was too scared to press the trigger and couldn't shoot. In a last moment effort, Kirito forced her to make the shot. She missed but hit an oil tanker behind Death Gun which caused a large explosion. Sinon confessed that she had murdered lives in the real world before and to calm her down, Kirito explained his situation while he was in SAO. A short while later, Kirito figured out the secret behind Death Gun. It was not only one person; there had to be somebody in the real world that timed the kills perfectly with the kills in-game. He postulated that by using the invisibility cloak, Death Gun could have waited at the BoB registration place and stole character information, such as their street address, and later giving the address to his accomplices to kill in the real world.

Chapter 13
Chrysheight logged into ALO and told the group of everything that had transpired and the reason as to why Kirito was in the death game. Asuna immediately rushed over to the hospital that Kirito linked from. She would wait by his side until he woke up.

Part 1
Kirito and Sinon hid in a cave, avoiding the satellite scan. It seemed that nobody was around them. By counting the screen, Kirito noticed that only 28 out of the 30 participants were visible, whether dead or alive. That would either mean that somebody was hiding or another person was killed by Death Gun - 1 hour and 45 minutes into the game. They came up with a plan to take out both «Yamikaze» and Death Gun, then they would have their 1v1 fight.

Part 2
Kirito drove the buggy into the center of the desert. He then used it as a shield. Coming in from opposite directions were Death Gun and Yamikaze. Sinon was waiting to snipe Yamikaze from a high area. She had gained the courage to shoot her Hecate II again and was waiting for the perfect moment to take out Yamikaze. She only had one chance, because after that first shot, there would be a shot line that would make the next shot easy to dodge.

Part 3
Kirito remembered faintly about the night where Laughing Coffin was destroyed and captured. The person that was Death Gun was most likely the player that had held the «Estoc», but he just could not remember the name of the player though. Kirito nearly dodged a bullet.

Part 4
Sinon sniped Yamikaze and he immediately died. She then pointed her Hecate II toward Death Gun. He quickly reacted and shot a bullet straight back at her. Her scope was destroyed, but she was able to destroy Death Gun's L115A3 «Silent Assassin». Death Gun pulled out a weapon that seemed to be like a sword. Sinon was shocked as she had never heard of another blade in GGO other than the one Kirito was wielding. Kirito was damaged in the left shoulder.

Part 5
Asuna entered the hospital worriedly. She immediately rushed to Kazuto's room with Yui, who was connected by a voice speaker, and was worried after seeing Kazuto's heart rate rise from being stabbed by Death Gun.

Part 6
Death Gun was definitely part of the Laughing Coffin guild. Kirito revealed to Death Gun that he had solved the mystery behind the in-game and real world killings. He also revealed that after he remembered Death Gun's SAO name, he would be able to track him down. Sadly, Death Gun informed Kirito that he would never know his name because Kirito did not spend the time to even hear it while Death Gun was being dragged off to prison in SAO.

Part 7
Kirito was stabbed in the side and left with only a sliver of HP. He immediately did a backflip and retreated. Sinon, no longer able to support from a long distance due to her missing scope, charged into the battlefield hoping that Kirito could hold off long enough until she got there.

Part 8
Worried, Asuna screamed out Kirito's name as she noticed SAO Sword Skills being used. Kirito was gravely injured, his face was pale, and his skin was cold. Yui told her to grab his hand. Even in-game, Kirito would be able to feel her radiating warmth.

Part 9
In his last moments, Kirito remembered the name and epithet of the Estoc user, «Red-Eyed XaXa». At the same moment, Kirito felt warmth envelop his hand. He remembered that he still had his gun by his side. By using the gun, Kirito was able to mimic «Double Circular», a Dual Blades Sword Skill he had mastered in SAO. Death Gun's avatar was sliced in half, his final words saying that it was not over.

Part 10
Kirito told Sinon to immediately call the cops when she exited the virtual reality. He also contacted Kikuoka and told him to send police immediately over to Shino's house. They knew that somebody in the real world was or had been in Sinon's room, waiting to kill her. Then, to finish off the game since they didn't want to fight more, the two decided to commit a double suicide by using a grenade. This allowed both of them to be crowned as the victors of BoB.

Chapter 15
Shino hadn't noticed anything strange happen after getting back to reality. It didn't seem that anyone had been in her room. The doorbell suddenly rang, and outside was Kyouji. She let him inside noticing how quick he was, it had been only a matter of minutes since she exited GGO. Kyouji recounted what he saw in the tournament when Kirito and Sinon were very close together while in the cave. He demanded a reason for it, since he "loved" Shino. Kyouji pushes her onto the bed, screaming that he loves her. The fear of being raped flashed through her brain, but that was not what Kyouji wanted. He wanted to kill her by injecting her with «Succinylcholine», a poison that could stop her heart if given in generous amounts. Attempting to stall for time, Shino talked to Kyouji, asking him the reason behind Death Gun. He revealed that the person that had been in SAO was his brother and that there were actually three people in this plot. Shino fought her way out of his grasp and reached for the model gun that was in her drawer. She was not able to shoot it, so she ran for the door instead. Right when she reached it, Kyouji grabbed her leg. Suddenly, Kazuto burst through the door and attacked Kyouji. Kyouji stabbed Kazuto with the syringe. Luckily, Kazuto had accidentally forgot to remove one of the metal plates that he had been attached to while at the hospital (it had been used to monitor his homeostatic levels), blocking the syringe. Police car sirens could finally be heard from a distance.

Chapter 16
A few days later, Endo and her gang teamed up on Shino again. This time, they asked for 20,000 yen from her; Endo also brought a real gun in hopes of scaring Shino. Knowing that she had to stand up for herself, Shino finally faced her fear of holding a gun. She took the gun from Endo's hand and showed her the ability of «Sinon». Endo, scared, was speechless while Shino walked off. Kazuto was waiting for her in front of her school. They went to meet with Kikouka to be debriefed on the case. The Shinkawa brothers had been taken into custody; their third accomplice, Kanamoto Atsushi, another member of Laughing Coffin, was still on the run. Kikouka revealed that Shinkawa Shouichi had written a note to Kazuto stating that "it" was not over. After clearing things up, Kazuto and Shino go to Dicey Cafe where Asuna, Lisbeth, and Agil were waiting. Although Shino had secretly gorwing feelings for Kazuto, she realized that Kazuto and Asuna were a couple and decided to step down a little. Soon, the veteran SAO players confessed to her the true reason for bringing her here. A former female worker from the post office where Shino saved many people faced her with her four year-old daughter. The worker apologized to Shino for not attempting to find and thank her, but the woman, along with her daughter, thanked her whole-heartedly for the heroic deed she had done that day.

Adaptation Notes

 * In the web novel, rather than ending the Bullet of Bullets in a tie, Sinon instead managed to beat Kirito in a duel, using a hidden Photon Sword to block Kirito's strike as he came at her, repelling both of their blades apart, giving Sinon time to shoot Kirito with her Hecate II at point-blank range.

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