Sword Art Online 13 - Alicization Dividing Interlude IV 11 research with absolutely no relation to the ocean was being carried out there. One that duplicated a newborn baby’s soul, brought up a virtual world, and seemed to have given birth to the world’s first bottom-up artificial intelligence—named the «Alicization Project». 6th July 2026, Monday, 7:45 AM. Having paid a visit to Kirito—Kirigaya Kazuto, undergoing treatment in the upper half of the main shaft, called the «upper shaft», Yuuki Asuna had her breakfast at the eleventh deck’s lounge with Koujiro Rinko, a researcher of fulldive technology. She figured she had no room for complaints, seeing as she was no guest on some luxurious passenger ship—or rather, she would have been escorted to the detention barracks (though she didn’t know if one existed) if not for the decision of Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka Seijirou, who supervised the project, but she had no choice but to admit the buffet-style meal was fairly splendidly done. Rinko, who inserted a knife into a battered white fish on the other side of the table, spoke as she stared hard at the cross- section. “I wonder if this fish was caught from the Ocean Turtle?” “Wh-Who knows…” Having taken the same onto her dish, Asuna timidly brought a small piece to her mouth. The tender white flesh shredded easily yet kept its mellow texture when chewed. She had no doubt it was reasonably fresh, but she had no idea if fish could actually be caught by throwing a rod into these open seas. Putting down the knife in her right hand, Asuna turned her eyes towards the window on the left of the table while bringing up her glass of iced tea. The calm ocean surface was pitch-black, without a single fishing boat in sight, let alone fishes.