Prologue “— Asuna, have you heard of «Zekken»?” Hearing Lisbeth’s voice, Asuna stopped typing and looked up. “A player’s number? Are you starting a sports competition?”1 “No, no.” Lisbeth shook her head and smiled. She drank a little from the steaming mug on the table and continued. “It’s kanji, not katakana. It’s written with zetsu(絶) from zettai(絶 対) and ken(剣) from sword, Absolute Sword.” “Absolute... Sword. Is that a new rare equipment or something?” “No, no. It’s a person’s name. A nickname... or alias, so to speak. Nobody knows the character’s real name. Anyway, Absolute Sword is very strong. We don’t know who started using this name, but this person eventually ended up being known as Absolute Sword. Absolutely invincible sword, peerless sword... I guess that’s what it means.” Very strong. It really piqued Asuna’s interest when she heard this. It goes without saying that she was really confident of her sword technique. As an Alfheim Online player, she chose to be an Undine which focuses on supporting with healing magic, but her previous hot- bloodedness would occasionally arise leading her to unsheathe her 1 Cloth bibs with an a person’s number(ゼッケン) and Absolute Sword(絶剣) are both pronounced as ‘zekken’