Without time to think about her mother, Asuna chased after the man, clutching her parasol.
Perhaps due to an adrenaline surge, even in the real world, in a body not enhanced by a game, she faced an attack from a stranger who nearly stabbed her or her mother with a highly suspicious syringe.
Yet now, Asuna felt no trace of fear or hesitation.
Gripping the parasol's handle tightly, the scenery before her blurred backward, her eyes locked on the hooded man trying to escape the tree-lined path and slip into the crowd.
"If it's not in the virtual world, if I'm not 'Asuna,' I wouldn't have the courage to step forward, to swing my sword against hardship…"
In the past, she had stubbornly thought this way.
So, after her gaming helmet was confiscated, she once again faced her weaknesses, crying in sorrow over her frail, powerless self.
If you don't move forward, you won't get what you want.
If you don't swing your sword, you can't break the chains that bind you.
Though she knew this, she could never change.
She stood at the bottom of the cage, looking up at the free sky where she could soar with others, folding her wings to avoid getting hurt, complaining about her suffocating life, and wallowing in self-pity.
Until…
That false sky showed her she had the strength to break those chains.
That warm hand showed her that the courage to move forward was within reach.
The greatest fortune in her life was meeting the right Yuu at the right place.
"Just like Yuu-kun… I'll never regret the choices I've made up to now!"
Clutching her parasol tightly, Asuna bit her lower lip, kicking the grass hard with her foot, accelerating her already swift pace, gradually closing in on the fleeing hooded man.
Closer, closer—she could even see the shock and distorted madness in his eyes as he half-turned.
"You damn nuisance, careful or I'll really kill you!"
"Who's getting killed by you, you filth worse than a minotaur!"
Her heart pounded, her blood boiling. Asuna raised her parasol, aiming its tip forward and downward, letting out a sharp cry:
"Haaa!"
Though she could no longer play that game, the changes in her were irreversible.
Asuna, the chestnut-haired rapier master, and Asuna, the eldest daughter of the Yuuki family.
Transcending the boundaries of reality and virtuality, she had finally become herself.
Her shackled heart evolved once more, radiating light like a shooting star.
The basic rapier skill, Linear!
"Stop right now!"
The pristine white parasol's tip chased forward, piercing the air between them, striking hard at the back of the hooded man's knee.
"—!"
Though there were no light effects or data damage, the sensation of striking a human felt vividly real, giving her clear feedback.
At the same time, it caused her opponent to stumble, his body lurching forward uncontrollably.
Success!
The tense string in Asuna's heart loosened slightly, and she hurriedly balanced her hands and feet.
In the game, she could flip multiple times with one hand and land perfectly, but in the real world, she couldn't pull off such feats. After that strike, she was overwhelmed by inertia, nearly falling—in short, she was stunned.
But no one attacked her. With good athletic reflexes and a flexible body, she naturally wouldn't tumble like the attacker in front of her.
As Asuna thought this, a sudden anxious shout came from behind:
"Asuna, switch!"
Switch, a game term from that world, was a tactic to cancel the stun time from a sword skill in a team—after the first member used a sword skill to create an opening in a monster's defense, the second member would immediately follow up with another attack.
Asuna didn't understand why that shout came now or why a "switch" was called.
Though her mind was blank, her body reacted like a soldier receiving orders.
She gave up stabilizing her balance, automatically falling to her left side.
The next second.
*WHIZZ—*
A new bamboo sword sliced through her fluttering hair.
At the same moment, before hitting the ground, the hooded man flashed a crazed, satisfied grin, the syringe he'd been clutching suddenly flying free, its needle shooting straight toward Asuna's face.
"Die… What?!"
In the man's disbelieving gaze, the bamboo sword seemed to anticipate his move, striking the syringe mid-air first and, without losing momentum, slamming hard into his face.
*SMACK!*
A crisp, resounding sound.
"Puah!"
Letting out a cry more pained than when his chest was hit earlier, he tumbled backward several times, face-up, nose bleeding. The bamboo sword and high-quality syringe rolled into the grass beside him.
The scene fell completely silent.
Asuna, covered in grass and finally stabilizing herself, blinked, dazed by the scene that seemed to have ended, struggling to comprehend what had just happened.
But the sound of footsteps from behind quickly snapped her back to reality.
"Are you okay?"
"N-No… I'm not hurt." Asuna hurriedly stood, brushing off her skirt, checking her hands and feet, then looking at the man passing by without stopping.
"Yuu-kun, how did you…"
"I'll explain later. Right now, this guy's the priority."
Yuu quickened his pace, and before the man could get up, he kicked his backside, making him collapse face-down again.
"You damn—"
"Shut up and answer my questions."
Pressing his foot down, pinning the man's back to make movement and breathing difficult, Yuu grabbed his hair and said expressionlessly:
"Are you a random serial killer? Or did someone send you to kill the Yuuki mother and daughter? Who's behind it? Do you know Sugou Nobuyuki?"
Four questions in a row. Only at the last one did the man's eyes widen slightly, then he sneered, "Idiot…! You think I'll answer your questions?"
Yuu smirked, releasing his hair like discarding trash.
"Idiot, I already know the answer."
A lowlife criminal with acting skills not even at an expert level—how could he escape Yuu's interrogation?
Having learned what he wanted, Yuu ignored the hooded man's struggles, yanking off his belt and tightly binding his hands behind his back.
He also stepped on the man's leg, removed his shoe, and used the laces to tie his ankles, making him look like livestock ready for slaughter—only able to shout in helpless anger, unable to resist.
If there hadn't been time to use Justice Execution, Yuu wouldn't have let him off so easily.