Ecole du Ciel is preparing to take their students to space for training. However, because there were actual rifle bullets in the simulation machines the school closes for a few days to inspect the accident. All the students enjoy a few days of free time before their big training program. A few days later, the students fly off to space. Asuna has returned home, and she is enjoying life in zero gravity. Meanwhile, Professor Forma meets up with General Yogan Phara, and they talk about the Newtype candidates and about the council's surveillance over the Newtype candidates. Forma deduces that it was no coincidence that the school chose to go to space, since the Newtype legend calls for extreme stress in the battlefield to conjure out the Newtypes. It is the day for the students to train in space, and the mission is to maneuver a MS through a given course by avoiding space debris and rocks. When it's Asuna's turn, she keeps her time up with Elicia's (who was the fastest). Asuna does a better than an average job of avoiding the obstacles. After the training, the students are given a few days off at Achilles. Professor Forma tells Shin and Emilu to tell Asuna that her mother is sick, and so she must visit her mother. Sending Asuna to her mother was actually the council's idea, believing that by sending Asuna to her mother, they would be able to pry information about Asuna's father. A few days later, Asuna visits her mother, and she is relieved to find that her mother is not direly sick. In the shadows, Professor Yahagi is outside of the home, and he watches Asuna's mother from afar. Asuna and her mother talk about recent happenings. But, when her mother mentions her father, Asuna gets angry and storms out of the house, yelling I'm just an experiment, and he's not even my real father! Asuna's mother tries to follow Asuna, but runs into an embarrassed Yahagi. Forma and another spy involved with the council listen to the entire conversation, and is disappointed at the fact that they couldn't get a location of Asuna's father, but Forma hangs on to the word experiment. As Asuna runs out from her house, she runs into the former National Defense University.