Phantom Bullet is the 3rd Arc in the Sword Art Online series. It covers the Gun Gale Online-related events occurring between November 9 and December 6, 2025, which corresponds to the SAO novel's Volumes 5 and 6, the Phantom Bullet manga, and episodes 1 to 14.5 of the anime's second season.

Story

On a MMO Stream translation broadcast at a bar inside GGO, XeXeeD, the champion of the 2nd Bullet of Bullets (BoB) tournament, explains the game rebalancing dulled the edge of agility builds, and disparages those who still use it; the second place holder Yamikaze simply attributes the strength-vitality build XeXeeD's victory to his rare gun. The bar patrons lament the change of XeXeeD's tune as he used to promote agility builds. A black masked and hooded man comes up, brings up a gun, and shoots at the translation screen, which causes laughs but in a few seconds XeXeeD clenches at his heart and disconnects. The hooded man boasts his "true power and strength", says he and his gun (a Type 54 "Black Star") are called Death Gun, then logs off.

Kazuto is invited to a café by Kukioka Seijirō, a member of the Virtual Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the man who first met Kazuto in the hospital after SAO had been cleared. Seijirō details XeXeeD's real body was found a few days later by the smell (provoking the discomfort of those who have come to the café to eat). He also says another prominent GGO player Usujio Tarako died in the same fashion. After some deliberation, the appalled Kazuto and Seijirō agree no in-game gun could kill real people like that, and Kazuto agrees to a well-compensated offer of in-game investigation.

Asuna and Kazuto go on a date to the Edo Castle ruins while discussing their adoptive daughter Yui's possible interaction with the real world. Kazuto informs Asuna he will be doing GGO for some time.

The female sniper of renowned precision, Sinon is hired by Dyne's Squadron to help them ambush a trading caravan. They have trouble with their guard, Behemoth and are almost wiped out but decide to take a stand and win, after a spectacular duel between Sinon and Behemoth.

Asada Shino is caught up with her ex-friend the school bully who knows Shino has a pistol phobia, and is in a fit over a gun finger gesture. Shinkawa Kyōji comes by scaring the bullies off. Kyōji is the boy who earlier introduced Shino to GGO so she could deal with the phobia. He tells her Behemoth is famously hardy, and laments how his AGI build locked him out of the best guns that are STR-locked. Later, Shino comes home and tries holding a toy gun to see if she can. She shudders and gets a flashback from the one time she was 9, and a junkie went into a post office after her and her mother, and tried robbing the place, and Shino tried to protect her mother which escalated to her shooting the man to death.

Death Gun looks at his PC screen, musing aloud how his power is certain unlike the Black Swordsman's. His target list is on the screen with photos of XeXeeD and Usujio Tarako crossed-out and one of Sinon. He adds her "mind and body could become [his]".

Kazuto prepares to FullDive in a secured room assisted by the military-affiliated nurse Aki who used to care after him during the SAO incident. His new avatar is long-haired and girlish, but GGO retains the player's real-life gender. He needs to enter the next BoB and tries to decide what to do next, and finds Sinon passing by. Kirito decides to speak girly just in case; Sinon agrees to show him around. Needing the money for the gear he wins the jackpot of the Unbeatable arcade machine that is player agility-based, explaining to the dumbfounded Sinon he was predicting the Prediction Lines. He buys armor, an expensive lightsaber, and a semi-auto pistol. Sinon then realizes they might be late to the tournament, so Kirito rents a motorcycle few players apparently can even use right, and they rocket down the street.

Kirito and Sinon sign into the tournament, and the system wants them to enter their real addresses and names so real-life prizes can be delivered; Kirito skips the thing. Sinon starts changing and learns Kirito is a guy. She tells him they're enemies after this. Spiegel, Kyōji's avatar, makes an appearance. Kirito then fights in his first match in the preliminaries (the fights are broadcast for everyone using automated in-game cameras), then meets a man looking like Death Gun who asks him if he is the real Kirito. Kirito notices the man's tattoo with a grinning coffin and remembers the raid to deal with the player-killing guild Laughing Coffin in SAO, and how their leader PoH escaped. Kirito killed a few people there, and this makes him remember it and panic.

Sinon faces Kirito in the last round. He wins but will not hurt her anyway. She decides he is her rival.

Kazuto is reluctant to explain his work in GGO to Suguha. He goes to work and talks to Aki about his panic and having killed some LC members. She convinces him he did what he should have and his guilt itself is proof he had not switched sides to evil, earning the right to justify his actions by having saved others.

Shino and Kyōji hang out but Shino keeps holding a grudge against Kirito's sense of fairness, combat prowess, and what looked like being condescending. Kyōji notices her aloof and offers help in defeating Kirito, but Shino wants to play fair too. She even gestures a finger gun without getting a fit, and Kyōji is happy for her new strength and hugs her. She pushes him away strongly then apologizes asking Kyōji to wait for her to solve her issues first. She wonders if the bank robbing incident did not result in her apprehension of men.

Kirito convinces Sinon to explain the main tournament rules to him. Sinon says the map is ten by ten kilometers (≈ 40 mi²), and a satellite scan highlights the players every 15 minutes to prevent camping, which is still enough time for snipers to do their cycle. Kirito also asks her which tournament participants are new people. She points at Jūshi X, Pale Rider, and Sterben. As they part, Kirito promises her to stay alive until the rematch between them.

Continued on page 2

References

• Phantom Bullet Arc - Fan Wiki
• Volume 5 - Fan Wiki
• Volume 6 - Fan Wiki