A/N: So I was looking back on my past stories and I was reading my SAO story and I was thinking, "hmm what if I rewrote the first chapter to see how much I have grown in my writing." And after some time, here is my finished product. Now will I continue this? I would like to, but with Lost Data and its eventual sequel and Eclipse keeping me on my toes, I just don't think Diverted Reality will be continued in the time being. But hey, if I get enough asks for me to continue this, I'll give it a go in the future. That's how my other stories got continued after many months of hiatus. Anyway, here's to another year of writing.

Chapter 1

A nightmare that she wished she could wake up from. That was all Asuna could ever think of every time she stopped in front of the stark white door that led to his room. Even after so many months of visiting him, she still couldn't get used to the reality that laid in front of her. It was a reality that she didn't want to accept. Not after everything she went through with him in that Death game she escaped from.

Feeling a lump in her throat began to form, Asuna quickly shook her thoughts away and opened the door and walked in. The first thing she saw when she entered the room was the comatose boy laying still on the bed attached to IVs and wires that were connected to life support machines by the side of his bed. His head was slightly concealed by a headgear strapped on his head, the same headgear that had trapped millions of people in that death game as well as her. Asuna felt helpless everytime she looked at the headgear, knowing she couldn't do anything about it. All she could do was wait for the boy to wake up and pull the headgear off of his head by himself. But with each passing visit, it was becoming increasingly hard to stay hopeful.

Taking a deep breath, Asuna walked forward to the side of the bed and sat down on a chair that was nearby, placing the crutches she used to help her walk near her chair. She took the boy's hand into hers and caressed it with her fingers, giving as much warm as she could to the cold hand. When she had first seen the comatose boy and touched his hand, it had been strikingly icy to her touch, a sheer sign of how lifeless the boy was. Now, Asuna tried to give warmth to the boy as much as she could every time she visited him, hoping that he would respond to her warm touch. She was afraid that one day, she would find the bed empty and the comatosed\ boy gone forever from her life. She didn't want to ever experience that.

Yes, it was truly a nightmare she wished she could wake up from.

"Hello, Kirito-kun." Asuna said slowly, noticing how dry her throat was. She swallowed and forced herself to continue talking to the sleeping boy, despite knowing that everything she said wouldn't be heard by him. The headgear he wore made sure of that wouldn't happen.

"Kirito-kun, I'm getting better now. I don't need to use a wheelchair anymore. The doctors have allowed me to walk with crutches, and soon, I'll be allowed to walk without them."

Asuna tried to smile, but her facial muscles wouldn't respond. Instead, she felt her mouth tightened into a frown. It was getting harder every time to smile, let alone keep in the tears that were threatening to come. How could she be happy when Kirito was still trapped in his mind, while she was out in the real world? It felt wrong to keep moving on with her life, when the person she loved wasn't by her side and was still in a coma.

That day she last saw Kirito was still clear in her mind. She remembered the battle Kirito had with Heathcliff, after Kirito revealed that he was actually Akihiko Kayaba. When Heathcliff was about to give Kirito the final strike that would kill him, Asuna broke the paralyzation that held her still and launched forward, ending up as the one Heathcliff struck instead. She remembered Kirito catching her and looking down at her with an expression of disbelief and horror, only her being able to simply apologize to him before her vision fell into darkness. When her vision returned to her, she found herself on a platform in the sky overlooking Aincrad. Shortly after, she heard an announcement stating that the game had been cleared with Kirito appearing soon after. She remembered them embracing and sharing a long passionate kiss, only to be greeted soon after by Akihiko Kayaba in his true appearance. He explained to the two what was happening, as the floating castle in front of them began to destroy itself in its deletion, and how he had forgotten why he trapped thousands of people in SAO. After giving them a sincere congratulations, Kayaba disappeared leaving the two alone.

Asuna remembered clearly how she felt as she watched the final floors of Aincrad being deleted: fear, sadness, regret. And yet, oddly, she felt in bliss. She was afraid of dying and never being able to see all she ever known ever again, but the thought of dying together with Kirito by her side, kept her calm enough to accept it. It was the only thing she could do. After giving each other one last kiss, both Asuna and Kirito told each other their real names and ages. Kirito soon apologized to her with tears falling down her cheeks for breaking his promise to send her back to the real world, but Asuna was quick to comfort him. She had been the one to break her promise of not dying. It should have been her apologizing instead of Kirito.

Asuna remembered the final words she exchanged with Kirito and her heartfelt declaration to him. She remembered holding him tightly as a bright light engulfed them, pulling her apart from Kirito and dragging her into a sea of darkness, which she was sure was the afterlife. But when she finally could open her eyes, Asuna was met with a bright light that immediately made her vision go hazy. She felt disoriented and could only hear silence. After a few minutes of her eyes getting adjusted to the bright light above her, Asuna soon realized where she was: In a hospital.

She was alive.

And what followed after finally awaking in the real world was many weeks of painful rehabilitation as she was reacquainted with her family. During her rehabilitation, Asuna could not stop herself from seeking out Kirito. She had hope that if she was alive and awake now in the real world, then he must be too. She wanted to be with him and become his girlfriend in the real world. The idea that they both could now be together drove her to continue persisting in finding him. And it was the help of her father that allowed her to find Kirito.

After she told her father who Kirito was and her relationship to him, her father surprisingly accepted her request for his help to locate Kirito. Using his resources as the CEO of Recto Progress, Asuna's father was able to to get into contact with someone who knew about Kirito's location. That person's name was Kikuoka Seijurou and he was the investigator for the Sword Art Online Case Victims Rescue Force. From what Asuna had learned, Kikuoka had interviewed numerous people that had witnessed Kirito's fight with Heathcliff and wanted to have an interview with her. In payment, he would give her information about Kirito's location.

Asuna remembered how ecstatic she was when she got this information. But all of her excitement about finally seeing Kirito was immediately casted away, when her father told her other information he had received from the SAO investigator. Apparently, Kirito, as well as other 300 other SAO victims had not woken up. They were still in a comatose state. When Asuna heard this, it felt like her heart had literally dropped. Yet, she still agreed to meet with Kikuoka. Even if Kirito was not awake, she wanted to at least see him.

When she finally met up with Kikuoka for the interview, she was asked about many questions from him concerning the events that happened in the game and what happened during Kirito's battle with Heathcliff. She also told him what she and Kirito had talked about with Heathcliff and their final moments together. After explaining everything she could talk about, Kikuoka gave her information about Kirito's location in return for agreeing to meet with him. Of course, he also wanted to make sure why Asuna wanted that information, but once he knew why, he was happy to leave it at that. To Asuna's surprise, before Kikuoka left, he also asked if there was anyone who she wanted to contact that she knew from the game. Knowing who she wanted to see again, Asuna gratefully told him her friends' avatar names. Kikuoka left after that with his contact information left behind for Asuna to use if she ever needed to speak with him.

It was a week after her meeting with Kikuoka that Asuna used the information Kikuoka had given to her about Kirito. She learned that the information she received was the address to Kirito's home as well as the address to the hospital he was staying at. But before seeing Kirito, she decided to contact his family and meet them. Despite learning that his parents had died long ago, Asuna was able to meet his aunt, Kirigaya Midori, whom had adopted Kirito, as well as his sister, Kirigaya Suguha, who was actually his cousin. Asuna remembered when she met them the first time how skeptical they were of her. Of course, she understood why. There had been information that had been leaked out of players that had purposely killed others in the game. They didn't want a potential player killer to get close to Kirito.

But after explaining her relationship with Kirito, they slowly warmed up to her. From what she learned from them, Kirito had distanced himself from them after finding out the truth about not really being Midori's son. It made sense though to Asuna why Kirito kept to himself in the game and why he was never good at socializing. He had been reluctant to truly open himself to others.

Once she received Midori's permission to see Kirito, Asuna wasted no time to go to the hospital where he was staying. Despite the fact she still had to use a wheelchair and have an escort take her, she was still glad that she would finally see Kirito. But even then, she still could not prepare herself for the scene that she saw when her escort helped her into Kirito's room. It was a scene that she wished she never had to see: Kirito lying comatose in a bed, hooked up to life support machines. It wasn't until Asuna finally found her gaze upon Kirito's sleeping face did the tears she held back for so long finally broke through.

She remembered vividly how she struggled to take Kirito's hand into hers, while she mentally begged for him to wake up. It was tortue for her. She could touch the boy that she loved with all her heart only he could not feel her touch and respond to it. They were separated by an invisible wall that she could not destroy no matter how much she tried. All she could was wait for Kirito to wake up.

After her first visit with Kirito, Asuna was given permission by Midori to visit Kirito whenever she wanted to. When she was not attending her rehabilitation sessions, Asuna always made sure to go to the hospital to see Kirito. Even though she knew he wouldn't feel her touch, let alone hear her voice, she always took his hand into hers and spoke to him, talking about anything that happened to her and the things she regularly saw now in the real world. The first few visits were hard for Asuna, but it slowly got better for her. She was now able to hold back her tears whenever she saw Kirito. She didn't want him to see her upset once he woke up.

During this time, Asuna also slowly became friends with Suguha. She would often go with her to see Kirito as well as spend time with her in the Kirigaya household. It was also at that time, Asuna became reunited with the many friends she made in SAO. When she was finally allowed to walk with the use of crutches, she began to meet with them at Dicey Cafe. Despite still not getting over the news about Kirito's conditions, her friends were quick to always cheer her up, making jokes about Kirito's tardiness. She liked the meetings she had with them. Even though it was not the same without Kirito, it helped remind her that she wasn't alone. There was always those there for her whenever she was in need of help.

But after so many weeks, she wondered if that was even enough for her to keep going on without the one that she loved.

"Kirito-kun, I miss you…" Asuna managed to say, lifting his still hand onto her chest. "Please… Please come back to me."

Asuna had no idea how long she held onto Kirito's hand. But once she realized how long had passed, she gently placed his hand back onto the bed and released her hand from it. She slowly stood up and gazed at Kirito with a heartbroken gaze. She longed to kiss him and embrace him, but she always held herself back. What right did she have to do that when she had broken her promise to Kirito?

"I'll be leaving now, Kirito-kun. But I'll be back tomorrow. I promise."

Yes, she would. She would make sure she would always come back. It was the least she could for Kirito. She wanted to be by his side when he woke up, but for now, she would watch over him. She knew he would the do the same if their roles had been reversed.

Once Asuna had left the hospital and out to where her escort was waiting for her, she felt herself stop and turned towards the snow, watching as small white snowflakes began to gently recede from the sky towards the ground. She watched them silently as she felt her chest began to tighten with pain. Christmas was a week away and it would be her first Christmas out in the real world. But the thought of spending Christmas alone without Kirito was enough to make her feel disheartened. She wanted more than anything for him to wake up, free from his coma and allowed to go on with his life in the real world with his family, friends, and her. Feeling a slight chill, Asuna turned away from the cloudy, white sky and continued her trek towards her escort.

She felt useless and wanted to hate herself, but she was quick to dismiss these negative thoughts. Christmas was a time for joy and spending time with loved ones. And so for Kirito's sake, she would smile for him. She knew in her heart he wouldn't want her to blame herself for his condition. She was sure that if she had been the one in a coma, he would also be blaming herself. It was just like Kirito to do that.

Asuna smiled fondly at this thought. Even if this was a nightmare she wished she could wake up from, she would continue to fight it. It was the only choice she had.

After all, she had hope that the invisible barrier that kept her and Kirito separated wouldn't last forever. It was wishful thinking of course, but it was enough to help keep her spirits up.

She had hope that this nightmare would eventually end and turned into a blissful dream. A dream that had Kirito returning back to her and them finally being able to experience the real world together.

It was her wish that they could be together once again.

Edited on 1/18/18