January 2027, Kawagoe City, Kirigaya Household

Kirigaya Midori looked outside her bedroom window to see her two children in talking in their driveway. Her son, Kazuto, was pacing back in forth in front of his bike, while her daughter, Suguha, was leaning against it. Midori looked at the clock by her bed stand, reading the glowing red numbers.

"9:45 a.m." she thought, "I hope it isn't too late. Elsewise his impatience might get the better of him, and he might just get on and start driving around looking for the damn thing. Then with his luck, it'd probably show up as soon as he left." Midori chuckled at her musings. She closed the curtains again and made her way downstairs. After pouring herself some tea, she tied her robe and walked out to greet her children.

"… it matter what time it gets here. You won't even be able to use it for another few weeks," she heard Sugu finish as she walked out. Her son looked like he was about to rebuttal, but the sound of an engine from up the street caught his attention. Midori followed his gaze towards the sound, only to see the back of a truck as it passed their street.

"You should listen to your sister, Kazuto. You getting worked up like this isn't going to make the delivery come any faster," Midori wisely said.

"I know, I know," he sighed, before falling back into the grass. "It's just that I'm running low on time now, and I want to make sure everything is ready for her, you know?"

"You have plenty of time, bro. She won't be here for weeks still. Mom and I are just as excited but you don't see us acting like we only have an hour," Sugu pointed out. Kazuto slumped forward, his arms resting on his legs. He let out a long breath before looking up at his sister.

"You guys are right, I know. It just feels so close, and I'm not sure I'm ready yet," her son lamented.

"Oh, hush. All you've been talking about for months now has been how you're going to do this, and how she's going to be like that. I mean really Kazuto, you're probably more prepared than I was to take you in," Midori said, laughing at her son's worries.

Kazuto groaned and fell back into the grass. He covered his head with an arm as Midori and Sugu began to start laughing at him. They only laughed for a moment before being interrupted by the sound of a diesel engine coming up the street. The laughing died down as Kazuto sat up, all three looking towards the noise.

Around the corner of the street, a large black truck pulls up the street, slowing as it approached the Kirigaya household. Midori could make out K.C.S.F. on the side before it finished its turn. Her son leaped onto his feet running towards the end of their driveway, as the truck moved to a stop in front of the house. Midori walked towards her son, seeing an older man hop out of the driver's seat.

"Kirigaya Midori?" he asked looking down at his clipboard when he made it to the driveway.

"That's me," she responded, and reached her arm out towards the man. He handed her the clipboard and a black pen. She signed where he instructed, and handed it back.

"You mind giving me a hand young man?" He asked Kazuto.

"Not at all, Sir. Lead the way."

The two disappeared behind the truck. She heard the sound of the back door opening and the two climbing in. She grinned, knowing how happy and excited her son was to be getting almost everything ready after all this time. As she walked back into her home, leaving the door open for her son and the delivery man, Midori admitted to herself that she's a little excited too.

She took a peek into her, now former, guest room, seeing the bed, the only piece of furniture that remained, leaning against the wall of the room. The room was small, with only a tiny empty closet and two windows. She took a sip of her tea and walked into the room.

She wasn't in here too often, only to dust or to clean up before or after a guest stayed. Still every time she walked in, it was like a trip down memory lane, and though she didn't know it today was no exception. She walked towards the closet, peeking in to make sure nothing was going to get lost after Kazuto began loading stuff into it.

She quickly scanned the closet, and was about to close it when something caught her eye. Something small and blue was sitting behind the door. She poked her head in a little further and saw a little lump of blue cloth leaning against the wall. She set her tea down for a moment and reached in for it. When she pulled it out. It was one of Kazuto's old toys, a light blue dragon puppet. She smiled deeply remembering how much he had loved it.

November 2011, Kawagoe City, Kirigaya Household

Midori walked into the nursery holding Suguha, and saw her husband, Minetaka, playing with their nephew, Kazuto. No wait, not her nephew, her son. He was hers now. Minetaka was sitting on the floor with Kazuto across from him. He had a little puppet on his hand, in the shape of a Samurai, while Minetaka had on a blue dragon puppet.

"Grr, fear my fiery breath Kirito!" her husband said in a mock scary voice.

"Never, Whitefang! A true swordsman has no fear, specially from a weak monster like you," her new son responded. The two started clashing puppets making noises with their mouths to sound like swords clashing and dragon roars.

January 2027, Kawagoe City, Kirigaya Household

Midori smiled at the puppet again, and stuffed it in her robe puppet. This room had housed both of her kids, only being empty since her father passed and Sugu took his room. It'll be weird to have someone living in here again. Although, it'll probably be the same as when Kazuto was first brought here. Sure she's a bit older, and apparently a lot more mature, but it's close enough.

Despite never actually having met the girl, she did feel like she already knew her form her son's stories. The thought of actually meeting her, as well as housing her, had still been almost like a fantasy to her and Kazuto, but now that she was having all of Sugu's old furniture brought back from storage, it started to feel a lot more real.

She walked back into her room, and finished getting dressed into more comfortable, and functional, clothes. When she was finally satisfied with her looks, she made her way to their family room, to see her son waving goodbye to the man. She looked around and saw that her family room was now filled with old cardboard boxes. Kazuto closed the door, and turned around to face them again, a determined look on his face.

"Alright, guys. Here's the plan. I'm going to start moving the actual furniture into the room. Mom, would you start bringing in toys and decorations? You know things to put on the shelves and walls," Kazuto said to her.

"No problem, happy to," she responded and started looking for the boxes marked Sugu toys.

"What about me, Kazuto?" asked Sugu.

"I want you to go through your old clothes. I need you to clear out the toddler clothes. After that, would you split up the remaining clothes, bring the winter clothes into the room. The rest just put back into the boxes, and then bring them in." Kazuto clapped his hands together and started sliding the box labeled dresser into the hallway.

"Oh, why do I get the boring job?" Sugu complained, once Kazuto was out of earshot.

"It's not meant to be boring, Sugu. Just think, you get to be the one that picks out most of your niece's outfits. You're the only girl we know who can do it, because you're the only one he knows won't tell Asuna," Midori pointed out.

Sugu sighed. "Fine, you have a point. I guess it is flattering that he trusts me with this part."

"Well actually, it was my idea. Kazuto wanted to do it all himself, but you know how he is. He would have only kept the really dark clothes that match his own. I didn't want my first grandchild to only wear black, gray, and blue," laughed Midori.

"Well that's fair enough," Sugu admitted, kneeling down to work on the first box, "plus, this may actually be kinda fun." A new look of determination crossed her daughter's face suddenly. "With Aunt Sugu on the job, Yui will always be the best dressed kid in town!"

Kazuto stood in the doorway of Yui's future room. He'd just finished moving the boxes of clothes his sister had sorted into the closet, and finally felt finished with his project. The last three days he'd spent the vast majority of his free time in here, furnishing, decorating, and just preparing. Finally, with some guidance from his mom, he was satisfied with his work.

The walls were white, just like the rest of the rooms, and he had put up large dandelion silhouette stickers on the right wall, one almost green, two pink and two purple. Between the green and the rest, her bed was against the wall. Past the silhouettes was a short bookshelf, holding books of all different levels, from Mother Goose to The Hobbit. On the far wall was a white chest with a padded lid. He had placed some of his sister's old toys on top. The left wall had her closet in it, as well as a white dresser to its left. A little cushioned rocking chair sat along the wall to the right of the doorway next to the bookshelf. The room was completed by a large purple rug in the center.

Kazuto smiled to himself again. Turning around, he shut off the light and pulled the door closed, locking it behind him. He made his way back to his own room to start up his computer.

Not long after booting it up, while connecting his amusphere, he heard the familiar Ding of his computer alerting of a new email. Setting the headset down, he sat himself down again and clicked on the notification.

1 new Email:

Yuuki.S

Subject: RE: Happy Birthday

Kazuto recognized the address as that of Yuuki Shouzou, Asuna's father. The subject was their code for anything relating to Yui's "birth." Nothing was actually left to be done for now, until the big day actually came. "What could he want?" Fearing something had gone wrong, Kazuto clicked it open.

Kazuto,

With the big day drawing closer and closer, our American friend has some things he wants to go over with you. He has some of the answers you were wondering about, specifically about what to do with the present afterwards. It's not anything too bad, just some warnings. Now I know you might be thinking that I could have sent these to you, and I could, but, he says that the present is ready to be inspected, so he's brought it here ahead of time. It's awaiting the big day, and is completely finished expanding. He says you will be very satisfied. If you would meet me at my house between 14:30 and 15:30 tomorrow, I would like to take you to see it.

Yuuki Shouzou

He couldn't believe his eyes. She was here? In Kawagoe? He read it over again, picking up the details. From the code words, he managed to decipher that Yui's body had finished growing ahead of time, and Mr. Yuuki's American colleague, Dr. Shepherd, had brought her here already, with some extra information he'd collected after growing the body. He quickly went to his keyboard and sent a response, saying he'll be there.

The two of them arrived around 3 p.m. Mr. Yuuki had spent most of the trip telling Kazuto about what Asuna and Kyouko had been up to in Tokyo, on their mother daughter bonding trip, that he had insisted on. Kazuto pretended to listen, not really paying attention. Asuna had been telling him about how much she was wishing she wasn't there since she had left a week ago, but he didn't want Mr. Yuuki to know that. Besides, he was way too distracted. He was going to get to see Yui's future body for the first time in just a few minutes, and all his mind was capable of now was preparing himself for that.

"Any way, Dr. Shepherd is upstairs with the body. Uhm, you speak English right?" Mr. Yuuki asked Kazuto.

"Huh? Oh yeah," he responded, getting out of the car.

"Oh good thing. I feel it'd be a little awkward having to act as a relay between the two of you," he chuckled. The two walked through the doors into the hospital, the same hospital Asuna had been kept in while in SAO. Apparently, it'd been outfitted with some high-end VR gear to help support the imprisoned players, making it an ideal location for the process of bringing Yui here.

Mr. Yuuki escorted him to an elevator leading upstairs. As they got out, Kazuto realized the hallway was the same one Asuna had been in.

"By now, I'm sure you've realized that we're heading towards the same room Asuna had been kept. It seemed a little poetic that we keep the body here, make it seem almost as if she was born here," Mr. Yuuki said.

"Yeah, I can see that, I guess," responded Kazuto. Now knowing exactly where they were headed, he looked ahead towards the room he had first "met" Asuna in. Standing in front of the door was a caucasian male doctor, a clipboard in his hands. As they approached, Mr. Yuuki stepped forward.

"Ah, Dr. Shepherd," he began in English and bowed to the doctor, "This young man is Kirigaya Kazuto."

"Nice to meet you," Kazuto said, bowing to him as well. They each received a bow back, clearly done by one who's not had to bow very often.

"Hello Kazuto. My name is Alex. I've heard a lot about you young man, including your part in saving all those poor victims of the SAO incident. Anyway, I know you aren't here to hear praises about your accomplishments. You're here to see her," Dr. Shepherd said, smiling at him.

"Yes sir, thank you," H=he responded, a huge smile stretching across his mouth.

"Well let's get to that first. We can go over the details afterwards. Follow me," he said, waving Kazuto over. Kazuto looked at Mr. Yuuki who gave him a "go ahead" wave of the hand. Kazuto nodded and ran over to Dr. Shepherd. He waited for him to open the door, and followed him in.

The room was illuminated by the sun still, and he could hear the sounds of life support machines beeping and pressing out air. The bed in the room was currently surrounded by a curtain, and he could see a silhouette behind it. Dr. Shepherd walked towards the curtain, disappearing behind it, while pulling out his stethoscope. After a moment, he heard, "It's all right, Kazuto. You can come in."

His feet took a moment to respond as he began walking forward. He could feel his heart beating faster and faster as he approached the curtain. He grasped the curtain, took a deep breath, and pushed it away. Walking through, Dr. Shepherd stepped aside, and Kazuto saw his daughter's face in the real world for the first time.

Hey, Thanks for taking the time to read my story. This is, hopefully, going to be my first real attempt at creative writing. I have a couple more chapters ready to be written, and will be posting them in the coming week or so. If you like what you are reading, let me know, and I'll keep writing after those. If you don't definitely let me know. I could use all the constructive criticism I can get.