Prologue

Nicole POV

I walked inside the conference room where everyone was taking their seats. The chief of the police department, Mr. Subaru, advised them to stay quiet and take notes as time for questions would be given after the lecture.

I took my position on the second central row. I waited while the brightness in the room was slowly lowered and an elderly man, Dr. Shikaku, took the stand. He had pure white, short hair with a small gap at the top of his head. He had light wrinkles forming in his forehead and glasses. All around he looked like the stereotypical university lector, which was a bit out of place in the police building. He coughed, to clear his throat and begun speaking.

'Kazuto Kirigaya!' He started and an image of a black haired boy, no older than eight, was projected behind him. 'A simple, common name for a teenage boy.'

'Externally the said boy had nothing that made him stand out. He was mediocre at school, he was of average height, and he even had black hair.' His voice was very dry and almost bored in sharp contrast to the way he continued.

'Certainly he was a bit better than average when his software engineering, kendo and gaming skills were concerned but he didn't even truly stand out in any of the above.' He said the way a person would list the clues of a particularly intriguing riddle. 'Well, maybe he stood out a bit in the most useless of the three, the gaming department that is.' He said in a very amused tone which earned some slight laughter.

'He was after all the best player through the 1000 beta-testers in the first game of the new genre, Sword Art Online. But the inside the boy was a bit more… troubling.' His tone started getting grim

'The boy had certain repressed killing tendencies. The said killing tendencies started developing during his kendo training from his grandfather 4 years ago, according to his cousin,' The image changed to a kendo match. The winner stood over his opponent with his broken sword under his neck while the opponent seemed terrified. 'In this picture had broken his wooden sword on a defeated athlete in the finals of the nationals. He was ofcourse banned from championships of such kind but the fact still remains. The boiling point though came three years ago inside the famous, or rather infamous, Sword Art Online incident.'

Arbitrary conclusions. Since when do we trust uneducated, teenage civilians for such deductions?

'He is the person with one of the highest estimated kill account in the whole planet' He said and the hesitated. 'And here lies the problem.' He said and everyone in the room stopped breathing. They knew the general image but the details were just now being made known to the public. The server company had been quite secretive about this.

'We are unable to link him directly to the murders as there are detailed documents of the actions of the players that were made public once the game was cleared but.. his kill count is zero.' The reporters and psychologists inside the room were obviously shaken by this revelation. They obviously struggled with the idea of voicing the question in everyone's minds but then they looked at the gruff chief who seemed to dare them to do just that and thought twice about it. In the end a voice was heard from the back. A man.

'I am sorry but… what is the incriminating evidence then?' Asked the man.

I cringed. I hated amateurs. And especially impatient amateurs. What did that guy think would be the next things he would say? The weather?

All eyes turned to the new voice except mine who turned to Subaru. The man looked ready to take action and kick the man out but the doctor mouthed him something and he stood back. He then turned back to the crowd whose attention was back to the doctor.

'There are eye-witnesses.' He said. 'Actually way too many of them to count! In any other case he would have been sentenced to multiple life times or worse but this would be a… special case.' He worded very carefully. 'He claims that there could be other people with his features or glitch that made other people look like him. Then he talked about the facts. His account as I said has a zero kill count. And the worst part is that the names don't fit. The eye witnesses talk about a person called Poh while his alias was Kirito. Also the said Poh does not seem to have a real life equivelant according to the files. He was inside the game but no one that woke up had the nickname Poh!' Finished the Doctor incredulously. 'At present there is a stalemate in the court about what is true. Truth be told, he makes a solid case and even cannot be certain.' He said and the lights turned back up. 'If you have any questions please voice them and…'

I shut him out at that. I had all the data I wanted. The rest I would get from the source. I was, after all, the psychologist chosen by the ministry of justice to shed some light into this case. I had to study this case today so I would be ready tomorrow when I faced him.

I exited the station and turned on the engine of my car.

'Let's see now. What's your story Kirito?'