Author's Note: I do not own Sword Art Online or any of its characters. This fanfic was inspired after reading the currently ongoing Project Alicization arc.
There was one thing keeping him from being the perfect subject. A name that tied him to this reality. The only thing left for me to take. And Kirigaya Kazuto would be no more…
"Asuna, sorry."
"Whose name are you calling?"
The voice was not one he could disobey. It reverberated within his very soul. At his question, the boy imagined Asuna.
A silhouette came to his mind. Her long chestnut hair swayed with the wind. That scene of her in their home kept the young boy going until he rescued her from Sugou. She would always turn around and smile at him.
"Whose name are you calling?"
"She's my-"
He couldn't continue. The face of the girl before him had disappeared. He tried to remember her face… her smile. But what he got in return was a painful headache.
Like a broken video she appeared to him in a loop. He knew it had to be there. But each time she turned around, the face remained blank.
"Asuna. A-suna. A-su-na."
He recited her name like an incantation. He cannot lose her ever again. Especially now.
"Did you mean A-li-ce?"
"A-alice? No. Asu-" He repeated the name with a trembling voice.
"Ah, yes. That childhood friend of yours. You failed to save her when she broke one of the laws in the Taboo Index. You have not seen her in six years. Alice."
Trying to put a face on the name, the image of a sweet girl with long chestnut hair came to his mind.
"Kirito-kun."
He would recognize that face and voice anywhere. That was…
"Alice."
He could have sworn feeling someone from behind him. The next thing he knew, Kirito awoke on his bed with tears on his eyes.
A dream? But what's with these tears?
As he dried his eyes, Kirito uttered the last name he could recall.
"Alice."