From Shinkawa Kyouji's words, it was clear that he knew a great deal about Sinon.
For example, Shinkawa Kyouji knew that the sniper "Sinon," who had ranked twenty-second in the previous BoB Tournament in GGO, was actually Asada Shino and no one else.
In other words, Shinkawa Kyouji knew about Sinon's activities in the game.
That was only natural.
Just as Naoha had entered ALO because of a recommendation from her classmate Regan, Sinon had started playing GGO because of Shinkawa Kyouji's recommendation.
Before summer vacation—in June of this year—Shinkawa Kyouji had still been Sinon's classmate, but after the new semester began, he had stopped coming to school altogether.
Sinon had heard that Shinkawa Kyouji had suffered severe bullying from the senior members of the soccer club. His family ran a large hospital, and he himself was rather weak, so he had been treated as the ideal target for bullying and forced to pay for the seniors' meals and entertainment.
As a result, Shinkawa Kyouji had stopped attending school after summer began, and had even gotten into a serious argument with his father over it.
After all, his father ran a fairly large hospital and had ordered Kyohei, the second son of the family, to get into medical school from a very young age. Naturally, he would never permit Shinkawa Kyouji to drop out.
Afterward, Shinkawa Kyouji had been allowed to study at home, but he had to take the university equivalency examination the year after next and enter the medical school of a prestigious private university.
That was why Sinon had been so surprised to see Shinkawa Kyouji. It was simply because he had not appeared at school for such a long time, so she had never expected him to show up today.
But Shinkawa Kyouji had indeed been