Chapter 2 She checked the watch on her left wrist as she exited the C10 exit of Chiyoda Line’s Otemachi Station. There was more than five minutes left before the agreed time of 3:00 pm. As Yuuki Asuna was about to lower her wrist, her eyes paused casually at the small calendar window in the watch’s dial. Sunday, December 7th, 2025. It may not be a special anniversary, but within Asuna’s chest, the seed of a certain strong emotion had sprouted. As she began to walk along Eitai Street, she looked up, facing the main gates of the Imperial Palace and murmured without letting her voice out. - Soon, it will have been one year... Left unspoken were the words, “since my return to the real world.” After the floating castle of steel (SAO), to the bird cage in the treetops (ALO), she was subsequently rescued and returned to the real world in mid-January of this year. The fantasy world was gradually becoming a memory, but even so, she still occasionally felt strange about herself living like this in the real world. The wide walkway paved with stone, the roadside trees shaking in the cold air and pedestrians walking with their faces buried beneath the collars of their coats or mufflers. Walking slowly in the midst flow of the crowd, was Asuna herself.