Sword Art Online Alternative – Gun Gale Online Vol 2 Chapter 2

The Second Squad Jam.

Nicknamed ＳＪ２. Ess Jay Two, if that is how it should be read.

It would be held exactly 1 month later, on Saturday, 4th of April, 2026. Starting at 1300.

It would be another private cooperation hosted tournament; however, the sponsor will not be the author that sponsored the previous tournament, but rather a different person who remained anonymous.

The basic rules would mostly be the same as the previous SJ; however, there were minute adjustments, thus going through the rule book via the attached link was required.

The winner's prizes were still under consideration, but they would be announced before the registration deadline.

The tournament was currently accepting applicants.

The registration deadline was the noon of the 1st of April. If over thirty teams participated, theteam versus team preliminaries were planned to be held the day before, starting at 2000.

However, the 〝leaders of the teams that took the top four places in the previous tournament, and their current teams〟 will be seeded and automatically exempt from these preliminaries.

And, the teams that this exemption applies to: the fourth ranked Self-Defense Force (?) pro team. The third-ranked skull emblem team. The runner-ups, Saki’s attached high school rhythmic gymnastics club’s team.

And herself.

The winner, LLENN.

As Karen held out her keycard at the entrance of the high-rise tower apartment complex, and went through the automatic door after giving a light bow to the familiar, resident guard...

“…………”

There was a person, watching her with binoculars.

In a multi-storey car park 200 metres away from the apartment complex, and separated by a main street. A high-class, German-made SUV (sport utility vehicle), with smoked glass for its rear seat windows, was parked close to the wall.

Therefore, unless one approached it very closely, the large binoculars that were mounted inside the car would probably go unnoticed.

The man inside moved the orientation of the camera platform mounted on the windowpane via suction pads. The objective lens of the binoculars on top of it moved as well. And, it was fixed on a new target across the smoked glass. A room on the fifteenth floor of the apartment complex. Those movements lacked any hesitation.

2 minutes later, the curtains of the room were opened from inside. Next, the glass door opened, and the room’s owner appeared. A 183 cm-tall, high-statured woman.

Possibly having finished its role in ventilation, the glass door was closed after about 3 minutes. And then, although it was still morning, the massive curtains were once again closed.

The person inside moved his eyes away from the binoculars, immediately opened his notebook, and launched a single program.

The logo that came up ── was【Ｇｕｎ　Ｇａｌｅ　Ｏｎｌｉｎｅ】.

The person lay down on the rear seat, and quickly equipped an AmuSphere on his head. And then,

“ Link Start.”

He dived into GGO from the car.

“Found it! Oji-san, I’m buying this! Buying it now! Buying it right now!”

Having come to GGO for the first time in a while, the small child LLENN dressed in a dark brownrobe saw the thing that she had been looking for.

“Yay! Yay! Yay! Yaaaaay!”

Her great joy was already like that of a child.

Hopping from one small back alley gunshop to the next, the item that she decided to purchase as soon as she laid eyes on it in the third shop, was a strange-looking submachine gun.

That’s right, it was the Belgian FN Herstal-made P90. A gun that was completely identical to her former partner that she had lost by protecting herself in the SJ.

Naturally, she requested a custom job on it on the spot. She had it dyed in dusky pink, the same as her uniform and equipment.

She could no longer tell the difference, but this gun was the second generation P-chan.

‘Should its name be 〝P-chan II?〟? Or, should it be 〝P-chan the Second〟?’

Several minutes ago, at the front of the first floor of the apartment complex,

“Please don’t shout! LLENN! It’s me! M!”

Hearing the man’s voice,

“Haah…….? That can’t be!”

Karen exclaimed in a loud voice.

An old lady, who happened to be passing by on a bicycle, ‘Hiku!’, shouted in surprise and staggered with her handle. She did not fall down, but it was a considerably close call.

Even so, Karen couldn’t help but shout.

‘The actor-like stalker in front of me is M?’

‘That body builder-like macho avatar── the player controlling the avatar with whom I fought with in the SJ?’

She could not believe it.

Well, it was quite normal for the appearance of the avatar and player to differ.

Afterall, she herself was a 183 cm-tall sky tree woman. And her avatar was a less than 150 cm-tall chibi.

That was not the problem,

“If you are the player behind M-san…… how did you figure out that I was LLENN? How did you know?”

Karen assaulted him with questions.

The only people aware of the fact that LLENN was Kohiruimaki Karen, or vice versa, was Miyu and Saki’s group. M, who she had only met twice within GGO, should not have known this.

It was a big mistake to confirm the fact that she was LLENN with her question, but Karen did not think of that.

“I will explain later. I have something very important to talk with you about, thus I came to meet Karen-san, the real LLENN, in person. We can’t talk here, so I would like to go to a place, no matter where, away from the public where we can have a calm conversation without being overheard.” 

Said the man self-proclaiming to be M with the very seriousness of an ikemen.

And Karen asked with an expression like she was looking at a swindler.

“And if I refuse?”

The man answered immediately.

“Then, on the night of the second Squad Jam in April next month, people will die.”

when speaking to a suspicious man like that, thus she used a considerably blunt one.

“Yes.”

The man, while fixedly gazing at Karen with a handsome expression that was the very image of seriousness, nodded.

Of course, she could not just believe him on his word alone, thus, not worrying about whether or not it was rude, Karen enquired.

“And the proof for that?”

“None.”

The man answered immediately.

“Haah? Then, how are you going to get me to believe……”

“None is none. I am not lying.”

As Karen was really shocked,

“You could just tell me something that I and M-san had said during the SJ……”

She even ended up letting out those lifeboat-like words.

Although the SJ’s battles were broadcast, voices were not picked up, unless one intentionally approached the camera or shouted. Thus, only LLENN could have heard M’s words back then.

But then, then man,

“That would not serve as any kind of proof.”

Resolutely rejected the idea.

“For example, even if I told you that 〝During the SJ, LLENN said this to me.〟, I could have just heard it all in detail from 〝the real player behind M〟.”

“…………”

‘Well, that really is true, but, you know, that’s not something that a man who should be proving something would say.’

Karen was shocked.

“That’s why, all you can do is trust my words, Karen-san.”

“That’s mean!”

“True.”

“…………”

‘I so want to just leave this guy here and return to my room now.’

Karen thought, but just couldn’t put her foot down. Because her mind was fixed on the boisterous words 『People will die on the day of SJ2』.

And thus, she decided to ask another question.

“Then if, although unwilling, I give in and temporarily believe that you’re M-san…… can I ask another question? No, I will ask.”

“Feel free to do so.”

“How did you know that my name was Kohiruimaki Karen, and that I am LLENN? Also, how did you find out this address? That should have been totally impossible!”

She recalled an unpleasant scene. The tear-flooding expression of a rough-looking macho.”

“Pito will be participating in SJ2 this time. With me and some currently gathered members.”

“And you want me to join that team?”

‘I see! Things are finally making sense!’

In other words, this was the case.

‘LLENN had not declared her participation in SJ2 yet. If I joined Pitohui’s team, they would beseeded in the preliminaries. That’s what this person has come to request.’

‘No, it can’t be that simple, can it……’

Karen dismissed her own idea.

If it was for such a simple reason, he wouldn’t have resorted to such stalker-like behaviour. It would be sufficient to send a message by normal means. The preliminaries would probably be easy as well. Furthermore, the death and so on of Goushi and Pitohui(‘s RL) would not make sense.

“And that’s not it, huh. ──Go on.”

“Okay. This time, there is no plan to invite LLENN to the team. And, although it sounds like self-flattery, we’re not particularly concerned with the preliminaries.”

“Right. If M-san and Pito-san formed a team, you’d be that strong. You’d probably wi── be able to aim for victory.”

The reason why Karen began saying ‘win’ and stopped was because she remembered Saki and the others.

《SHINC》, the runner-up team of the previous tournament, were full of determination. They would probably go really wild in the upcoming tournament as well, and they were definitely the favourites. A bit of a digression, but Karen learnt from Saki that SHINC is an abbreviation of ‘rhythmic gymnastics club’.

‘Pitohui’s team versus Saki’s team, who’d win in the end?’

Karen has not considered participating in SJ2, but she did think that she could at least dive in that day and watch the live broadcast in a bar.

Putting that aside, Karen had to finish listening to Goushi’s story.

“Pito is, of course, participating with the intention of aiming for victory. I believe that anything other than victory would be entirely meaningless to her, no matter what place she takes.”

“That’s so like Pito-san.”

“So── she told me this. ‘If I can’t win, I’ll die.’”

“Wha?”

“Pito, no 〝Pito’s RL self〟 said this. 『If I don’t win SJ2 or I get killed during the game, I’ll commit suicide.』

“…………”

“And, I too shall die. If I don’t commit suicide, I’ll be killed.”

“…………”

“And, when that woman says she’ll do something, she really will do it.”

“……Just like when she threatened to kill you, Goushi-san?”

“Yes.”

Seeing Goushi nodding, Karen was astounded.

‘Not only did I have to worry about it during that SJ, but now I have rack my brains again here!”

The large muzzle of a pistol, an 《HK45》, being thrust right towards her all of a sudden came to mind. As well as it beginning to shine. Even now, she could recall that scene clearly.

If she had not dodged it── Karen’s hair would probably still be long.

Having somehow avoided the attack, she interrogated M with her P90 thrust at him, and she was told about Pitohui’s abnormality.

Truthfully, she could not understand it then, nor can she understand it now.

Due to the astounded LLENN taking individual action back then, M did not die and everything ended well. Since the man controlling M was right in front of her.

Of course, if that really was him but── Having heard this much, Karen had mostly cast aside the possibility that he was a fake.

As words like ‘kill’, ‘die’ and so on continued, Karen looked around her surroundings for a moment.

She would have heard the sound of the door opening and closing if someone had come, but she was still worried. This was definitely not a discussion that they could have in a place where there were other people. Though, she had no intention of bringing Goushi up to her room at all.

“Goushi-san……”

“Yes.”

“Why is……Pito-san imposing such weird things? Like, killing herself and others if she died within a game, why is she this──”

‘Out of her mind?’

Karen was about to voice out, but stopped herself, and in response to her,

“I did say during the SJ, didn’t I? She’s out of her mind. She’s crazy. Her mind’s captivated by 〝death〟 itself, and she always yearns for a fight where she can put her life on the line.”

“…………”

‘Should I or should I not ask for the reason’, Karen pondered.

However, if she did not ask, they could not continue the conversation. With the thought that she did not mind even if Goushi did not know the reason,

“Why is that?”

Karen enquired.

And Goushi answered the question with a question.

“Have you heard of, 〝Sword Art Online〟?”

1. ^ For reference, the average female height in Japan is about 158 centimetres.

2. ^ Fukajirou is the Hepburn romanisation of フカ次郎, while Fukaziroh is the official Latin alphabet spelling for it. In the Hepburn romanisation system, the kana じ (the reading of 次) is transcribed as “ji” while in Kunrei-shiki romanisation it is transcribed as “zi”. Hepburn is a romanisation system suited for English pronunciation, while Kunrei-shiki is a more standard (i.e. fewer exceptions) and the officially adopted romanisation system in Japan. A “u” vowel after “o” in Japanese just makes the “o” longer - the equivalent of the function of “h” in English.

3. ^ 郎 (rou/roh, son) is a commonly used last character for boy names, just like 子 (ko, child/girl) is for girl names.

4. ^ In this case, the word 次男 (jinan, second son) is used. But the 男 kanji is replaced with 郎 in the name, since it’s more common to use 郎 in names.

5. ^ A karaoke box (カラオケボックス) is a common type of karaoke establishment in Japan. Each of these have several rentable rooms with karaoke equipment.

6. ^ Possibly implying that Fukaziroh became strong enough to wield the sword. Or just that the sword used to be too good compared to her stats.

7. ^ An anastrophe is the inversion of the syntactically correct word order in a sentence for emphasis. Basically, imagine Yoda’s speech.

8. ^ Keigo (敬語) is Japanese for "honorific speech". This can mean anything from turning all verbs to the polite (masu) form or using the copula です (desu) to special words etc..

9. ^ Asamkhya is a Hindu/Buddhist name for an incalculable number. Depending on the translation, it can be as small as 1056, 1064, 10140 etc. or as big as 1074,436,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. In countries using Chinese characters, the value of one asamkhya differs based on the history period, region, country etc. In Japan, it is usually used to refer to 1056, though some people have 1064 in mind instead.

Chapter end