Torn Between Worlds

Chapter 18: Remembrance

*Asuna's POV*

Taking a seat next to Delsin, he never really said it, but I could tell based on his facial expression that he missed the original Aincrad.

Ordering some coffee, Kazuto and Shouichi  walked in soon after.

"You know it's funny," Shouichi  started. "We used to be mortal enemies, and now look at us, five amigo's sharing drinks," he smiled.

"I wouldn't exactly call us friends," I told him.

"Ah! You wound me Lightning Flash. So I heard you and Kirito got down and dirty after that incident with Kuradeel," he grinned.

"Mordred!" I yelled.

"Why do you assume it was me who told him?" he asked me, but we all just looked at him in the way of 'really'? "You guys are such stick in the muds," he laughed.

"You're such a child sometimes," I sighed.

"It's part of who I am," he told me.

And apart of you died in Aincrad.

"Yeah I guess you're right," I smiled. "So any indication on who Death Gun might be?" I asked them.

"Well Shouichi's been doing some digging in the servers hoping to find any clues that could possibly link us back to Death Gun, but the real enigma is how players are dying after Death Gun shoots them," Delsin explained.

"How are they dying?" I asked him almost too afraid to hear the answer.

"Heart failure. Which leaves me to believe there's something else at work here, as if the Death Gun in GGO is nothing more than a distraction for the real Death Gun in the real world," Kazuto told us.

"So are you saying someone's breaking into people's houses and killing them?" I asked them.

"We got no solid evidence, but it's definitely a likely outcome. I'll call Seijirou to see if he can't get the police to be on alert for any suspicious activity, but the real question is how are they causing the death?" Delsin asked.

"Man this takes that whole fake death in the safe zones to the next level," Agil pointed out.

"Yeah only this time it's all too real," Delsin told him.

Hearing a phone go off it was Delsin's.

"Seijirou, please tell me you've got something," Delsin requested putting it on speaker for all of us to hear.

"I do actually. Upon further inspection of the bodies, we found traces of cyanide in their blood stream," he told us. "So we found out how the heart failures are happening we just need to figure out who's doing it and why," Seijirou added.

"The Battle of Bullets tournament," Shouichi mentioned.

"What about it?" Seijirou asked him.

"Xexeed and Yamikaze were some of the top players in GGO, it's a classic Laughing Coffin strategy. Get rid of the strongest players that way it's just the weak ones left allowing for an easy kill or victory in this case," Shouichi explained.

"I see why you wanted to bring Xaxa on board Mordred," Seijirou stated.

"I don't," I stated.

"I'll simplify it, in order to catch a serial killer, you need to think like one. Since Xaxa here was part of the most infamous murder guild in Aincrad, I knew he'd be a valuable asset to have on this case," Mordred explained.

"So now the question is how is Death Gun getting their hands on Cyanide. Not like you can just buy that at your local pharmacy," Agil stated.

"...We could check my old man's hospital, I remember something about never going into a room because it had dangerous chemicals in there that could kill someone, but since Aincrad he's revoked my privileges to go anywhere near the place," Shouichi mentioned.