Asuna opened her eyes and saw a familiar ceiling above her. She was in her room, not the one in Salemberg, but the one in the real world. She sat up and saw the furniture that she has had since she could remember. How did I end up here, she thought. A knock on the door.
"Asuna, hurry up. School isn't going to wait for you." That voice, could it be... The tone of it sounded demanding and brought back many childhood memories.
"M-mother?" Asuna asked hesitantly. Could I be imagining things? She thought to herself.
"Yes, what is it?" her mother said through the door.
The blood in her veins froze as she processed what happened. She was in the real world, but then what about SAO? What about her guild? What about Kirito-kun? The last question made her heart skip more then one beat.
"N-nothing mother, I'll get ready." she quickly responded while still trying to regain her bearings. Why am I here? We just cleared Floor 74, and there was still more then twenty floors to clear before getting out of the game, so why was she here? Most importantly, where was Kirito-kun? She remembered falling asleep in his arms in her room in Salemberg, but anything related to how she got to here real world room was a mystery to her.
She moved off the bed to stand up and her chestnut hair moved with the slight breeze of the air conditioner in her room. She moved to the window and looked outside, stifling a gasp. Everything looked exactly the same as when she left for SAO.
"Imposible..." She whispered. Turning to the desk in the corner, she walked till she saw the small calender in the corner of the screen of her laptop. The date was Monday November 7th, 2022. She took a step back. Thats... Thats the date... After the SAO servers went online... She went bach to her laptop and immediately went on a search engine, typing the words 'Sword Art Online' in the box. This time she took no initative to stifle her gasp, for in the results box was the words 'No Results' which caused her panic immediately.
Was it all fake? Was the two years I spent there a unreal? Does that mean that my time with Kirito-kun was just a dream? She sat on the bed, trying to calm herself and slow her breathing. It was then she realized that both her hands were shaking uncontrollably in front of her. She steeled her resolve and decided to go along with this till she found some answers to what has happened.
She went to the bathroom and got herself ready for the day, returning for he room and putting on her middle school uniform. She frowned at it slightly for she was so used to seeing her white and red Knight of The Blood uniform instead of the gray uniform she had on now. She also noticed that she felt weaker without her beloved rapier, Lambent Light. Everything about this felt foreign to her, not seeing the stone of the next floor above her, the lack of BGM in the air, and most of all, not having Kirito-kun with her.
She left her room and went downstairs, and saw her mother sitting at the family table, sipping her morning tea. Asuna stopped in her tracks as she saw her mother. Two years that I haven't seen her and yet I feel as if nothing has changed, she thought. Maybe everything in SAO didn't happen like she thought... Kirito-kun... She shook her head, putting on her shoes at the door and left, not bothering to even take her school bag.
Kirito-kun... She remembered when she first met him in the first floor dungeon, when he had been kind to her when everyone else had gone about and left. Were these memories a lie? Were they just false memories to a dream? All this time, she had been running around the streets of the city, but now she stopped. She saw a tree, and instantly remembered when she fell in love with Kirito-kun. When he had invited her to take a nap next to him; stating that it was Aincrad's best weather settings.
She walked over to the tree and sat under its shade, hugging her knees to her chest while trying to suppress the tears that threatened to shed from her eyes. He was the one that showed he that one could live, even in virtual reality. She could still hear the words he told her in the canyon ring in her ears, 'My life belongs to you, Asuna. So I'll use it for you. I'll stay with you until the end'. Now all she felt was fear and panic as she heard his words echo in her mind. They had just begun to convey her feelings and now it might be that he never existed.
She put her head down on her knees and let the tears stream down her face.
She felt a slight feeling on her back, making her look up. Everything was the same and she put her head down. The same feeling came again but she felt herself drift off this time.
She opened her eyes, looking to what was next to me and blinked twice. She could feel a smile form on her face as she saw him. Kirito-kun, he was real and with her.