Sword Art Online: Phantom Reaper || SAO OC

24 - Deadly Request

December 7th 2025 - 11:37am

Niko walked into a high-class sweet shop in the downtown area of Chiyoda. He usually never went to places like this, but someone had called him out here and unfortunately for him, Niko couldn't say no to this person.

He looked around for a bit before seeing a man sitting alone at a table. Niko walked over to the table and took a seat. Taking a deep breath, he looked across the table at the man that called him over. He was scanning the menu with a smile on his face, trying to decide what to order

"Hello, Mr. Kikuoka. So, why'd you call me out here? I'm pretty sure I've told you everything I remember about my time in SAO."

Just then a waiter walked up to them and took their orders. After he left, Kikuoka quickly closed his menu and looked at Niko "Straight to the point as always, aren't you Mr. Shinoda?"

Niko glared at Kikuoka "I prefer Miller instead of Shinoda..." he said in a low growl.

"Right, my mistake. Well anyway, I didn't call you out here to talk about SAO."

He reached over into a bag that sat on the ground at his side and a second later he pulled out a tablet. "Take a look at this."

Niko looked down at the tablet and saw the face of a man he didn't recognize. "Who's this?"

"Well last month, November 14th I believe, a landlady of an apartment in Nanako City noticed a smell coming from one of the rooms. She disabled the electronic locks and entered the room to find this 26 year old man, Shigemura Tamotsu had been dead there for about 5 and a half days. The room was messy, but there was no sign of a break-in, and his decomposing body was found lying on his bed with an AmuSphere on his head."

Niko listened attentively, trying to understand the point of his story. "An AmuSphere? So what? He gamed for too long, didn't take a break, and eventually died while playing."

Kikuoka shook his head "We don't know. An autopsy revealed that he died of acute heart failure - in other words, his heart stopped. But his body was too far decomposed for a proper autopsy. What we do know is that he was logged in for two days straight without eating or sleeping."

"And you're sure he didn't just game himself to death?"

Kikuoka stayed silent for a moment but decided to continue explaining his point "This man was a top player in a VRMMO called Gun Gale Online. Ever heard of it?" Niko nodded silently and Kikuoka continued "In the game he was called XeXeeD. Apparently, while he was logged on he was making an appearance on a show called MMO Stream using his XeXeeD avatar."

"Okay... Where's this going?" Niko asked, both interested in what he was saying but impatient to hear why he was telling him this.

"I can't confirm what I'm going to tell you next but... around the time XeXeeD apparently died, there was a player acting strangely in a bar in GGO. He apparently walked up to a TV screen that MMO Stream was showing on, said a couple of words about 'Judgement', and fired at the TV. Records show that the time he shot the screen and the time XeXeeD died were practically the same, and there's a voice recording of this character speaking moments before he fired the gun."

Niko took a sip of his water and a bite out of his food before commenting. "Interesting, yeah. But it could be a coincidence."

Kikuoka shook his head and scrolled through his tablet. A moment later he handed Niko the tablet and showed him a picture of another man.

"November 28th, another incident occurred in Saitama on the second floor of an apartment building. A newspaper delivery boy noted a foul stench and..."

He was cut off by a lady from another table who coughed as though she were sending a message to him. Niko turned to look at the lady for a second and glared at her. "Mind your own business would you?" He thought to say, but he stopped himself and looked back at Kikuoka. "Continue."