Episode Title:
One Little Step.
Episode Description:
Kyōji manages to inject Kazuto in the chest with the syringe, but Shino bashes Kyōji unconscious with a stereo record player, before finding out that Kazuto had a hospital electrode still stuck on his chest which protected him from the syringe. Shino is later ridiculed again by Endou, who points a replica air gun at Shino but fails to fire a bullet. Shino takes the gun from Endou, disables the safety and shoots an empty soda can, before returning the gun back to Endou, proving that she overcame her fear. Kazuto picks Shino up and takes her to see Kikuoka to report on the Death Gun incident, in which Kyōji and his brother Shōichi Shinkawa worked together to kill players in both the real and virtual worlds. Kirito and Shino later meet with Asuna and Rika Shinozaki at the café owned by Andrew Gill "Agil" Mills. After Kirito reveals that he told Asuna and Rika about her past, Shino is introduced to Sachie Oosawa, a former employee at the post office during the robbery, who was pregnant at the time with her now four-year-old daughter Mizue. Shino finally finds closure in the lives she saved, shedding tears of happiness.
