Hold over Myriad of Worlds

Quickly reloading my gun, I jumped to the side, circling the quickly recovering Yamikaze. Entering one of the shop's aisles, I moved to the back of the shop where the smoke was slightly thinner. Hiding behind a column, I tensioned the steel wires I prepared beforehand around the shop.

Each of these wires was made of a strong alloy, sharpened to the extreme. With even a slight touch, they would cut into skin, and with little force, one could lose an arm or a leg. This form of crude trap would normally be ineffective, as even the weakest defensive equipment could block them while any optical augment would spot them, but now, after being disrupted by EMPs and hidden by smoke, this trap could show its true colors.

I learned this traditional trap from no one other than Little Hinata, who would often show me what she learned during her missions. Despite her becoming med-nin under my and Tsunade's tutelage, she still wished to be qualified in other roles, so she learned everything she could. As she slowly started to grow into a young lady, her character slowly became more and more cheerful and confident, showing how much progress she had made this past year.

But back in the virtual reality, I heard the footsteps echoing around the now quiet shop. As I expected, Yamikaze's priority after getting his bearings back would be to escape this place. This meant exiting through the back door in the staff area, as the front was fully collapsed, and to do so, he needed to pass by where I was now hiding.

I didn't have to wait long before I felt the wire near me being tugged. With this as a signal, I pulled the wires in my hands, quickly binding Yamikaze, trying to cut and strangle him. As I slowly felt the wires cutting into my opponent, he was able to take out a knife and escape my binding, luckily not before losing his other hand.

At that moment, I moved from behind my cover and once again fired my whole magazine at the target. This forced him to retreat to the entrance and made him seek cover. With this narrow escape, he will now be much more careful with his actions, which for me means that he will act more slowly, giving me the time I need.

Looking at the timer, there were still a little over two minutes before the scan. I also glanced at Death Gun's location, and seeing him approaching this place rapidly, I knew that my lure was successful. I smiled while reloading my gun.

As I was waiting for Yamikaze's next action, I heard the sound of a pin being dropped, followed by an explosion a few seconds later. Surprisingly, the grenade that just exploded was nowhere near me, but rather close to Yamikaze's location. Looking at where the blast happened, I understood that he was planning to create a way outside for himself, but this resulted in failure.

Now, he was truly beginning to understand his predicament. From that blast, he knew that it was unlikely he would be able to move that debris, and from how well prepared my previous trap was, he didn't want to move in my direction.

As the time slowly ticked away, neither of us moved, keeping the stalemate in place. When the full minute since the beginning of our fight had passed, he finally couldn't stand being in such a disadvantageous situation and made a move.

With a strong stomp, he jumped up, flying toward the nearest column. Using it as a springboard, he bounced from it toward an exposed ledge onto a higher floor that was exposed due to one of the previous explosions. I must admit that this was quite an ingenious way out of the situation, but at the same time, it was stupidly risky.

Jumping into the air, especially when one doesn't have any way to alter their trajectory while in midair, is just giving your enemy a clear target to shoot. And so I did, hitting his legs at least five times, disabling both of them. As he disappeared from my eyes, I saw his HP drop to sub 5%, and with his other statuses, he was all but dead.

With a minute to the scan, it was a good time to wrap him up, and so, I moved to the backroom where the stairs up were located. Stopping by the doors to the room Yamikaze landed, I listened to the sounds inside, and hearing how he crawled, I knew he would launch one last desperate attack.

I thought about entertaining his plans and simply rushing inside, but as I already had enough fun, I simply pushed the door ajar and threw my last grenade where he was lying. After the somewhat loud sounds of the grenade rolling forward due to the silence around, the last explosion resounded, finishing what was most likely my last fight.

After the dust cleared, I saw that my grenade blew a hole in the wall, making my spot visible from outside. After approaching it carefully, I looked around, cross-referencing the radar that was tracing the Death Gun to find his hiding spot. After looking around, my eyes finally settled on an open window on the third floor of the opposite building.

I quickly looked away so as not to alarm Death Gun, who was hiding there. While this was a good spot to hide, he shouldn't have touched that window, as before I entered this spot, it was closed, and with my memory, such a discrepancy was easy to notice. Looking at the timer, it was exactly fifteen seconds before the scan, so, waiting no more, I controlled my drone to fly toward the target.

Timing the impact with the explosions of the grenades, I watched as my drone plummeted down, its frame covered by streaks of electricity, and above it, I saw that Death Gun's situation was not better. His cloak was charred by the EMPs, rendering it beyond saving.

At that moment, the sound of the scan occurring rang around. I could now stand up and look at still disheveled Death Gun. Opening my map, I saw a red dot at his position, and after clicking it, the last link dispelling any doubt about his true identity appeared: his nickname, Suteruben.

Connecting this with information gathered previously, now I not only know his real name, but also his address and elements of his past, such as being involved in SAO, belonging to the Laughing Coffin guild as one of its major members known as XaXa.

Task done, I relaxed waiting for the finishing shot, and Shinon didn't disappoint, as a second later, a clear gunshot was heard as Death Gun's head exploded.

With that resolved, I simply jumped outside and looked at the building where Shinon was staying. Walking there slowly, I was about to enter it when she ran down the stairs.

-"Yue!"-Shinon shouted as she approached me.

~"Great shoot."~I smiled at her.

-"Thanks. So what now?"

~"Good question. How do you wish to end this tournament?"

-"Well. Do you mind closing your eyes?"

~"It depends on what you plan to do?"

-"Do you know how one of the previous BoBs ended on the American servers?"

~"No, I never looked such things up."

-"Because of a certain accident, one game ended in two players emerging victorious."-She spoke as she took out one of her grenades.

~"I see, so be it."~I nodded in understanding and closed my eyes.

I heard the sound of a pin being taken out, and waited for the explosion, but before it occurred, I felt how Shinon suddenly jumped at me, hugged my neck, and kissed me. As I was to react, the blast happened, and eliminated both of us, thus ending the tournament.

Opening my eyes, I saw the familiar roof of my room. Taking the AmuSphere off my head, I stood up and walked toward the exit.

~"Nuwa, please process all the evidence and send it to the authorities to make them move."~I spoke to sisters sitting nearby.~"Fuxi, you are going with me."

-"Yes"

Nuwa quickly took out her phone and called someone while Fuxi ran to my side.

-"You done it again, Yue."~Fuxi spoke with a mischievous smile.

~"Sigh."

-"I wonder, how many girls will be harmed by you in the end?"

~"Leave that for later. How's the situation in Rath?"~I asked while exiting the house we were in.

-"Our base was raided as we predicted. There were no casualties on our side, just some destruction, while opponents were all dealt with. Most of the dead are some red players from SAO, led by one Gabriel Miller, who was linked to the CIA."

~"And what about our package?"

-"Delivered. They sent it on a secure link, but Mei already traced it to Omnica."

~"Then we can end this charade and close our trap. Have Mei start pressuring the UN. In three days, I will hold a press conference, stepping down due to what occurred, while disclosing all that happened. Let that fire be my last gift before we leave."

-"I will inform her."-She nodded while taking out her phone.-"By the way, where are we going?"

~"To one who, in your words, was harmed by me just recently."

A few minutes later, I entered a small but comfortable flat, where Fu Hua was standing next to a girl sitting on her bed and a boy lying on the ground, handcuffed and seemingly knocked out.

-"Yue."-Fu Hua was first to react, bowing slightly while showing a gentle smile.

~"Thank you for your work, Fu Hua. It's our first real meeting, Shinon, no Shino."~I spoke to the girl who was avoiding eye contact.

-"Yes..."

~"No need to be awkward, after all, it's a little too late for that after your small stunt. I will explain the ins and outs of the situation to you later, but for now, I will need your cooperation."

-"Tell me what to do."

~"Good."

While later, police arrived and took Shino's recounting of the events. After that, I took her with Fu Hua to Rath, where everyone else was waiting for us.

The next three days were like a great storm, shaking the whole world from its apparent calm and peace. By the end of them, after I stepped down, the UN was almost stormed by many protestors, while the streets of many countries were full of riots against Omnica Corporation. The US also didn't emerge unscathed, being slapped by many condemnations and even some penalties.

Public sentiment turned against them, but the clever politicians quickly moved to push the blame, and soon the attention switched from countries and companies to 'rogue AI' who plotted this, and extremists connected to terrorists. A few arrests later, and the chaos slowly started to calm down, but the technology produced by Omnica Corporation was now looked at with rejection and suspicion.

This was exactly what we needed, as these seeds of hate will slowly bloom in young AIs, and after guidance from hidden precepts of ours in the stolen data, the future I planned will happen, no matter how they try to prevent it.

We in Rath, on the other hand, quietly receded into the background, leaving only our investments and hidden hands here and there, waiting for a time when we will claim this world. Many organizations tried to work with us, some with good intentions and some with more malicious ones, but all were met with rejection. And so most thought that after this experience, we became disillusioned with the current state of affairs.

The projects we were working on, Azure and Underworld, were moved by me into the Hold's Akasha, where we will continue them later, as they have now entered a stage where technology was meeting its limits. By now, AIs in the underworld were approaching human-like complexity with their spirits. While there were some issues with special individuals born there, Sofia took care of them and slowly gathered them into a knight order.

The Azure project also arrived at, and even exceeded, our expectations. The operators, who called themselves Ship Girls, formed their own identity, beliefs, and even bonds, adapting elements from the simulation and events happening around. Vill-V also guided them slightly, instilling in them absolute loyalty to their 'commander' who was created in my image, guaranteeing their allegiance to Hold. The only element that needed to be dealt with was fusing their spirits, Origin Cubes, and ships, which were nearing completion in Hold.

As more time passed, we slowly faded from the minds of the people, and after a month of such silence, we were ready to leave. Seijirou took upon himself the task of supporting the personnel that will be sent from Hold in the future, and thus decided to stay behind, while Kayaba and his lover will follow us as this world couldn't accommodate him. On the last day, we gathered together to 'bid farewell' to this world, but more importantly, hear the decisions of Misumi, Asnua, and Shino whether to leave with us or stay.

Three of them joined Rath directly after what happened, working with Mei while getting to know more details about us, Hold, and our plans. Of course, secrets such as my plans for how to take over this world were not known to them, as even Mei was unaware of them, though she most likely suspected some things from my actions and orders.

Their parents were opposed to all of that, but they still decided to follow us to Rath. Asuna is taking the most drastic action of running away from home due to her mother's strict control. In the end, I managed to ease their relations with us slightly after unveiling some details and knowledge of Hold, though I bound them with a contract that promised them positions of power after Hold controls this world.

~"So have you decided?"

-"Yes."-They spoke together.

-"We all decided to follow you and learn under Mei to join Hold and became officials."-Said Misumi, who became their leader.

-"You can leave them to me. I will make sure they are qualified members of either Duty or Avarice."-Mei nodded as she was aware of their plans for some time.

~"Then I can only wish you good luck in your studies."

-"Hey! Why not join my Hope?!"-Elysia pouted on the side.

-"Sorry, Elysia, but we would like to help Yue."-Asuna apologized to the Pink Fairy, who was throwing a tantrum.

-"Yes, while fighting in games is one thing, we wanted to do something to make Yue's life easier."

~"I can't deny that we are in dire need of officials and bureaucrats, but don't forget to also grow your own strength. Even if you don't wish to fight, if you wish to stand by my side, you first need to grasp immortality with your hands."~I said as I remembered the letters I received from them some time ago.

My words made three of them lower their heads, as Elysia, who was the main perpetrator of why the three shy girls sent said letters, laughed on the side.

~"After we return, Elysia, you and I will go and hold a meeting with Nobu, Astraea, and Ningguang. We have to make plans, as after the festival, we will be quite busy."

-"I know, I know. Everyone in Hope rested nicely during those days, so we are ready to do whatever you order us to do."

~"Good to hear that."

-"Then, shall we go?"-Mei asked everyone.

Seeing that no one objected, I unsealed my power and took us all back to Hold.