Sword Art Online

After The Incident

Chapter 1 – The Nightmares

In school. Kazuto´s POV

It had been a whole year since I got out of ALO. I finally started to walk without crutches six months ago. The dreams, no, nightmares of Asuna ever leaving my side, was still haunting me. And they were more powerful and terrifying than ever before. Every night I would wake up, burst away from my pillow with an ear piercing scream, which could probably be heard all over town. My aunt and cousin knew of this of course, but I hadn´t told Asuna anything yet. She had her head full enough with school life, her friends, and her family. And I didn´t want to worry her.

I still had a feeling she knew something though. I was extremely tired in the day. Would often fall asleep in class. It made my grades drop and I knew Asuna would notice. She would worry over it sooner or later, so my options were simple. Tell her about my nightmares and worry her, or don´t tell her and worry her with my mood and grades dropping. I honestly didn´t know what was worse.

She would ask me sooner or later anyway. So I decided to get it over with and try to find a solution to my nightmares.

One day when we were walking back home from school, she looked at me with a worried expression when I had yawned loudly "Kazuto you ok? You have been really tired lately" She said with a hint of worry in her voice. I sighed a little and shook my head "If I need to be honest Asuna no I'm not… I.. I tried to keep it to myself but…" I muttered as I stopped walking and let my hair hide my eyes.

She stopped walking and looked back at me with a worried expression "K-Kazuto what are you talking about… Keep what to yourself?" She asked softly as she gripped her shirt in her hands with worry. I hitched a little as tears were threatening to fall, looking down to hide my shame "I'm sorry Asuna I… I tried to lie to you again…" I said as tears did roll down my eyes, staining the ground in front of me. She widened her eyes as she saw me cry and ran over, hugging me close to her. I could once again feel her warmth run throughout my body, and I took a deep breath before looking up at her with a saddened frown.

I was disappointed in myself for not telling her sooner. I knew she wanted the best for me, and I kept it to myself. Those awful dreams that haunted me every night.

"Asuna I… I´m having nightmares… E-Every night…" I mumbled. As I finished mumbling the truth she gasped and widened her eyes even more as she put her hands over her mouth in disbelief. She stared at me for a couple of seconds. Silence fell between us, a breeze wafted between us, and I couldn´t bring myself to look at her. I looked away, not able to look at her scared and pained expression. It didn´t suit her. A smile suited my queen in red and white best after all.

After a long silence she looked down and mumbled "How long…?" I didn´t quite understand so I looked up at her "What?" I asked softly as I looked at her. She growled and looked up at me. Now her pained expression had turned into one of anger "How long have these nightmares been with you!?" She asked angrily as she stared at me in disbelief. I hitched a little and looked down again. "Ever since I was captured by Sugou…" I mumbled, and began to cry. She looked at me angrily and began to sob too "For more than a year Kazuto… You lied to me for over a year!" she shouted angrily as she stared at me. Her sobbing made me look up at her and the sight before me crushed me to say the least.

There she was, my normally happy and cheerful queen, crying and pained and angry. I could see the fury behind those beautiful orbs for eyes of hers. Those that normally sent happy and loving signals, was now full of anger and despair. I took a step forward to hug her but she stepped away from me "No Kazuto… Don´t…"

This sentence made my insides curl up. It felt like I could puke at any moment. My emotions shattered just like a dead player in SAO would. I broke down and cried loudly as I stared at her, tears were falling down my face like waterfalls. My girlfriend pushed me away. She never did that. "Asuna please… Let me explain" I said desperately as she kept backing away from me. "No Kazuto… Just let me calm down a bit… " She mumbled as she turned on her heel and began running towards her residence. I looked after her shocked and desperate, reaching out my hand towards her and yelling her name "Asuna wait!"

My nightmares had now become a reality. I had lost what was most precious to me. The person I loved the most in the whole world had ran away from me, tears running down her face. I lowered my head screamed, hitting a concrete wall that stood beside me in my anger and desperation "Damn you Sugou… You took her away from me…" I mumbled as I could soon feel the blood from the new wounds on my knuckles run down my wrist, coloring it red. I looked down at my wounded hand and balled it together in my anger, before slowly making my way home, sobbing or crying all the way.

As I got home and in through the door, Suguha greeted me with her cheerful smile, just like always. I didn´t hear or see her though. It didn´t matter anymore. I simply ran up to my room and locked the door behind me, slowly sliding down of it with my back against it. I curled up, making my knees hide my face as I cried. Soon I could hear concerned voiced from the hall and several knocks on my door, but I didn´t care. I didn´t answer them. Nothing mattered anymore if I couldn´t have my girlfriend by my side. The knocks and voices soon stopped and so did my crying. I just lied down on my bed, my head filled with negative emotions. I became like an empty shell, hollow and emotionless as I fell asleep.

Some hours later I woke up again, to the sound of knocking and voices. This wasn´t my aunt or cousin´s voices though. It was female, sure, but this was a voice I would recognize anywhere. It was soft and wary, but powerful and strong at the same time. It was Asuna.

I flew off my bed and unlocked my door, practically ripping it off its hinges. I stood there and stared at my girlfriend who stood on the other side of the doorframe, with tears in her eyes and on her cheeks. She smiled sadly and flew into my arms, and I caught her, immediately wrapping my arms around her, her arms around my neck. She nearly suffocated me with her hug but I didn´t care. I was just happy that she didn´t totally hate me.

As we parted from the hug, I stared at her and she looked at me with a small smile "Kazuto our relationship isn´t over… I just hate when you lie for my sake." She said as she cupped my face in her hands. The shattered pieces of my emotions that was shattered earlier began to pull themselves back together, and gave my emotions back. I was no longer an empty shell of myself. My eyes were filled with tears once again and my breathing got heavy and fast as I broke down again and hugged her close to me. "Oh god… Don´t ever scare me like that again…" I whispered softly as i sobbed onto her shoulder and felt her hand run over the back of my head.

I slowly calmed down and took a couple of deep breaths before we sat down on the bed and talked it through "Well ever since I got captured by Sugou, I have had these terrible nightmares every night.." I mumbled as I looked at my significant other "Some where you would leave me one way or another.. and some where Sugou would come back and kill everyone I love.. Our friends, our families… Yui…" I mumbled sadly as my memories flashed back to a nightmare where Sugou was standing over the corpses of my virtual wife and daughter.

I teared up a little but wiped off my tears before continuing my story "but I knew how much your school, friends and family fill in your life so… I decided to keep quiet about my problem" I said regretting as I clenched my fists. I growled a little of my own stupidity and continued "It went well at first but… My grades began to dive and I didn´t get much sleep. I got caught sleeping in class and I couldn´t concentrate." I said with a sigh.

"This continued for a year until I decided for you and for myself that I would tell you… And let you help me through these nightmares" I said as I finished my speech and looked back up at Asuna. Throughout the speech she had just nodded an hummed yes, looking at me as she listened to what I had to say. As I finished she nodded one last time and sighed "Well the first thing to do is to get rid of those nightmares." She said softly as she gently caressed my arm. I smiled a little and nodded as I looked at her "I´m sorry that I lied to you.." I mumbled a little as I looked at her with a sad smile.

She nodded and looked back at me with a smile and tears in her eyes "It´s okay Kazuto… Just.. Don´t do it again please… I want to know when my knight in black armor isn´t feeling well." She said as the tears in her eyes began rolling down her cheeks. I blushed a little at the knight comment but wiped her tears away with my thumb, before gently embracing her. She smiled and hugged me back as we sat there for a moment to calm down.

As we had calmed down and let go of each other, Asuna lied down on my bed and looked up into the ceiling "Kazuto… What are those nightmares about?" She asked softly as she looked up at me with a soft smile. I smiled back and lied down beside her, taking her hand and squeezing it lightly "Well… Most of them is about Sugou taking you and Yui away from me… sometimes you guys are dead…" I mumbled as the nightmares rushed back into my head. She nodded a little and cuddled up to me as she squeezed my hand, and kissed my cheek "Don´t worry.. Me and Yui are here for you ok?" She softly said as she lied her head on my shoulder. I nodded a little and kissed her back before hugging her closer by my right arm.

"Speaking of Yui, what do you say we go into ALO and visit her? I´m sure she miss us." I mumbled as I looked into Asuna´s bright chestnut eyes, that now was sparkling with happiness again. She softly nodded and smiled as she pecked my cheek, and went to get my old Nervegear, and the new Amusphere I had bought. I smiled a little as we both put on our respective VR helmets, and lied down with her, taking her hand and closing my eyes before we shouted in unison "Link, Start!"

Soon we were back in ALO by the world tree. I had been amazed when I first came back here how much detail that had been put into the game. I hated to admit that Sugou and his team had made a pretty good job in making this game. The thing I was most excited about was, that my new character could fly. I could never do that with the avatar I had been imprisoned with, but then again Sugou had GM privileges at that time, and could probably forbid my character from flying.

As Asuna and I entered ALO, Yui immediately transformed into her human form and hugged us both close, excited to see her parents "Mama, Papa! Welcome back" She yelled happily, as she smiled and hugged Asuna and I by our necks. As we had said our hellos, Yui transformed into pixie form and hid in my breast pocket, before I took Asuna´s hand and we flew towards the inn we were staying in. We hadn´t saved enough money for a house or cottage yet, and New SAO was still under development. Me, Agil and Klein had worked on it for a long time now, and in a week, it would finally be done. I had of course made sure that me and Asuna´s cottage on floor 22, and the beautiful lakes and mountains that surrounded it was included in New SAO.

But for now we had to settle with a three man bedroom in world tree´s city´s best inn. Asuna and Yui definitely didn't complain, even though we all missed the cottage in SAO. Me and the guys was almost finished, and I had tried to bring my family in to check out the earlier versions of the game, but sadly it wasn´t possible without very complicated codes. Even Yui couldn´t decode them.

As me and my family entered the inn I smiled at the girl who was standing behind the counter and gave her the rent for the day, before heading up to our room. I smiled and piggy backed Yui up there, before sitting her down on one of the beds. "Hey Yui… How about we go train some sword skills today?" I asked her with a smile. She lit up in an excited scream and smile "Yay! My first battle with Mama and Papa" She exclaimed happily as she jumped into my arms.

I chuckled a little and hugged her back before looking at her. "Good. I have turned all your data into an avatar you can use in this game, and in New SAO. This gives you the ability to go between ALO and New SAO anytime you would like. That also means you will be able to use magic, sword skills and weapons and equipment from the games. But if we accept the conditions you can no longer be a navigation pixie. That means no code decoding, or map navigation. You can´t do what you could as a navigation pixie. Do you still want to switch into an avatar?" I asked as I looked into her dark grey eyes. She smiled widely and clenched her fist confidently, as she put her fist in the air "I´m not backing down now!" she exclaimed as she smirked at me. I chuckled a little and nodded "Ok. I will just need to log out and commence the process. Be back in a minute" I said as I opened my menu, and logged out.

As soon as I got out I booted up my computer and found the conversion program on my hotbar. I clicked the mouse and ran the program, before monitoring how it was going on my three screens.

Inside ALO. Yui´s POV

Not very long after Papa logged out of the game, I could feel a fuzzy feeling starting from my tummy. I could feel how my codes slowly got changed, into ones that had all the privileges a normal avatar had. A blinding light began appearing all around me, and at no time at all, I could feel my codes turn from a navigation pixie´s, to ones of a neutral avatar. As the light disappeared I stood in the middle of the room. All of a sudden I realized I wasn´t wearing the same clothes as I did before. Now I was wearing a light grey shirt and dark brown jeans, with shoulder pats on both my shoulders, and a belt with a sheath and a sword around my waist. I smirked over at Mama and gave her a thumbs up, unsheathing my sword with confidence "hehe. I´m definitely going to be a strong swordswoman someday" I said confidently as my mother smiled at me and hugged me close "Yeah someday you are" She said softly as she held my head close to her shoulder.

Back in ALO. Kazuto´s POV

As I logged back into ALO to check how the program worked, I smiled a little as I woke up on the bed I had lied in to log out. I sighed a little as I sat up, but not as soon had I done that before Yui jumped into my arms, and pushed me back down on the bed "Yay! I´m a fairy now! Thank you so much daddy!" she yelled happily as she wrapped her arms around my neck. I laughed loudly and so did Asuna, who decided to join in. She jumped onto the bed and laughed loudly as she hugged us both. I chuckled a little as I looked at my daughter and wife "Well if you want to apply to a race we have to take contact to the highest counsel of ALO. They will be able to help us" I said with a smirk as I held them both close. "Ok Papa. But let´s do it tomorrow. Today I wanna train" My daughter said happily as she let go of me and jumped up and down excitedly. I nodded with a smirk and looked over at Asuna, who smiled and nodded, before we stood up and headed out into the world of ALO to train our daughter.

A/N

Hello guys. Yes I am back with another SAO Story!
This time it´s After The Incident. You excited? I sure am :D
Be sure to be back next week to read my new chapters.

See you next week :D