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 the ocean, I still find myself captured by a strange sensation. By no means can I believe that the small structure, a floating castle, which once existed in the skies of a different world, was really of the same size.

Of course, if I spread the wings from my back, take off and ascend, aiming for New Aincrad in the faraway skies, before long, it will take a majestic appearance that will not be able to completely fit in my field of vision. After landing on the 1st floor from the aperture of the outer circumference, there will be a huge field of mountains and lakes. Walking from one side to the other will take as much time as it did in the old Aincrad.

I understand that, yet I still continue to think about it. About those two years, how we were trapped inside that castle. About wandering the roadless wastelands, fighting atrocious monsters, meeting a lot of people, and then being separated. About my battle with Heathcliff on the 75th floor, where we struck each other simultaneously and ended the death game. About whether that was really a reality.

Or.

About how I pursued Asuna, who continued to sleep, and landed in Alfheim; how at the end of this short and hectic journey I released her from the cage of ill will. And now, about how I'm spending the tranquil days together with former allies and new friends in both the real and virtual worlds. About whether this is really a reality.

While I was surrounded by such endless thoughts, I looked up towards the floating castle, which was illuminated by the evening sun, in silence.

Suddenly, a horn like koooo――――n loud sound arose from around my feet. Both of my avatar's legs lost their ground, while the grayish-white texture violently shook. By reflex, I raised both my arms and, I grabbed Asuna's hand with my right hand, and Klein's hand with my left.

“Nowa, wh-what is going on!?”, Lisbeth screamed.

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

“From here on, it's alright if we just fly, right”? Agil calmly retorted immediately afterwards.

The small hole in front of us heartily spread out and, from there, a large quantity of water was blown out 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 pixie 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 avoiding the small drops of water that were falling down with my left hand, I exchanged glances with Asuna, both of us smiled broadly 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 gave their consent and, with the end of the whale's spouting, Yui came down from the skies and said while moving to Asuna's left shoulder.

“It does not mean that the whale-sans in the real world emit ocean water in practice. It is just that when they emit gas close to the surface of the sea, they also blow up ocean water!”

“Whaaaat?!”, thus seven people raised their voice all together.

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

As the reborn Aincrad travelled around the skies of Alfheim at a considerable speed, the shape I saw awhile ago was getting smaller and smaller. I motionlessly fixed my eyes at around the one fifth part from the bottom of the castle, the vicinity of where a certain place ―― the profoundly memorable 22nd floor, should be.

For now, only the first ten floors have been opened; however, eventually, we expect to also reach the point of being able to climb the beyond the 20th floor. When I once again see the log house, erected deep in the snowy forest, I wonder what I'll actually feel. That one in the former Aincrad had vanished, and was a thing of the past. The game had returned into a so-called world of play.

The white whale carried us from Thule Island in Alfheim's southwest sea to a beach in Sylph territory and, with a voice that was like someone blowing an enormous tuba, it prompted us to get off. After ensuring with its sweet-looking eyes that the party got off its back and landed on the white sandy beach, the whale turned around calmly. It then swam off towards the bright red evening sun in the horizon, while taking along dolphins as its companions.

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

To Yui's voice, the white whale responded with a very high spout and the large body of the whale sank into the ocean bit by bit, until soon it could no longer be seen. Yui, who was sitting on Asuna's shoulder, gently lowered her hands, which she had been waving with utmost effort.

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.”

”Hey, that, that was surely the end of the quest!”

The loud voice that interrupted me and spoiled separation moment, was of course Klein's. While scraping 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, 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 monster 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 a quest, called the „Deep Sea Plunderers“, which was rumoured to have a monster with the appearance of a large, aquatic-type monster.

We were requested to search for an item in a dungeon by an old man; the common errand-type quest ―― or so we thought, but the truth was pulling our strings. Without knowing it, we stole a treasure that was sealed in an Underwater Temple. Well, this was still a common story, but from here on, the overly rapid development, or should I say, an abrupt plot twist began. The old man had seven HP bars and transformed into a gigantic octopus-type monster, „Kraken the Abyss Lord“, who beat us hands down with a single hit from one tentacle and drove us to a near death state. But, before we could think that this was impossible, a gigantic old man, calling himself "Leviathan the Sea Lord", descended from above. The two of them had what I thought was a hard to understand exchange of words, and Kraken then 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 ―― Thus, when I think back upon it, what was the reason for the quest?

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 accurately remember the talk between the octopus and the old guy?”

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, we're really the only party with a vanguard without .”

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: “And 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 ended the reproduction of the conversation, all seven people together applauded and even Pina, who was on Silica's head, flapped its wings.

Thank you, Yui.

After thanking my daughter for the well done job, while I was once again in the middle of pondering about it, I continued my speech,

“Hmm…… The proper nouns that worry me are „Æsir“ and „Prince“. I have a feeling that I have heard something like that somewhere, but……”

“Yeaah!”

The one who said thus while raising her hand with great vigour was the Sylph mage and swordswoman, Leafa. She, being the one with the most knowledge about myths and folklore out of our party's members, came forth one step ahead and, properly enunciating, explained,

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

“I have I have I have”

Six people gave their assent moment by moment, and Leafa too gave a big nod in return.

“Then, as for the Prince……”

“Uhmmmmmmm”

“I have no idea!”

With that honest disposition while showing a goofy motion, all of us once again pondered.

The next one to speak was the Cait Sith, Silica.

“Err, in short, the Kraken-ojii-chan can't stand the those 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 we are no match for that giant octopus's ridiculous power, then what kind of power do the Æsir have……”, said the Leprechaun Lisbeth, while waving her pink hair with metal brilliance.

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

“That's right, you younglings might not know, but Odin is on the strongest class. The moment he's summoned, bam! And the monster is sliced into two with one strike……”

“Hey hey, that's not the story of a myth.”, the Gnome 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.

Kraken and Leviathan appeared as NPCs until the end during the quest―――Even though they were essentially boss-class monsters. It is expected that their conversation was nothing but a scenario written by „Ymir's“, the company that manages ALO, scenario writer-shi.

And yet, all of us felt as if Kraken and Leviathan were speaking out of their own individual volition. The reason is that perhaps their manner of speech seemed too much human. Kraken, who said 'I shall not give up' unwilling to admit defeat in this regrettable situation, it unintentionally thought to the degree of 'This giant octopus too has various tricks up its tentacles'.

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.”

“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 bukakke 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