A/N: You watched the Lost Song Trailer, didn't you ?! Well you should have at least. It's SUGOII. Btw pick a nice mild-sad SAO song for this chapter if you read with background music ;).

With that you all know what is going to happen in this chapter ... at least I know it Mwahaha. Enjoy !

"Why.." he rasped lowly. "Why "

His murmuring reached barely the ears of the person at the door frame. Slowly, the world seemed to assume colour again, if not necessarily much. At least he could move his blank eyes now and was able to breathe on a normal pace again. This feeling of betrayal and having lived his life in a huge lie, crumbled a part of his heart. Tentatively, he turned his swivel chair to the side and glanced back over his shoulder to the person standing there.

The middle-aged woman was shocked as she saw the expression of the boy. She didn't know what happened, nor why he was like that, but when even Kazuto was ready to show this much of emotions outward, then something really bad must have happened to him.

Even if his tearducts should have been completely dry by now, the wall broke rather easily and he started weeping bitter tears yet again, which followed the dried tear traces from the bottom of his eyes down to his jaw, some tears dripping to the ground and some flowing down his neck.

"What happened Kazuto ?" Midori asked as she drew closer to Kazuto. She stopped a few steps away from him as he sobbed more painful.

"I will call your sister, we will help you Kazuto, my dear ! Just tell us what happened." She said smiling wryly with a significant amount of worry written on her face.

As Midori lightly stroked his raven hair, he began to entirely break down. He couldn't surpress the sadness any more, any longer. A loud painful cry with all the force he could muster in his lungs followed the action of hers. It was probably loud enough to be heard at the whole neighborhood. He curled up on his chair and sobbed into his kness.

Midori couldn't do anything, could she ? When she reached out to comfort him with actions, he just started to cry louder, and words didn't have an effect on him since he ignored every single one of them. She felt helpless. Didn't she promise herself that she would rear him like a real mother and never let him feel that sad ? She did, namely in front of the tombstones of her sister and the husband of her sister.

The memories resurfaced and she remembered the sadness she felt back then. She sure cried but not in the very least like she would actuall have done. She had a family to take care of, and it wouldn't do good for her child, with which she was pregnant at this time. She refrained herself from crying and lived on as if nothing happened after the first couple of days. A week after the incident, she adopted the small baby with the age of around one who was left completely alone, without a family.

Without parents who would take care of him, stay by his side when he was crying, play with him, praise him or at least be with him. The fate decided for him to be a loner, which Midori couldn't accept.

The little boy hadn't smiled once the very first few months since she adopted him. He would wake up at nights and start crying as if he had a horrible nightmare, and he always had this tense expression on his face. In spite of that, his very words has been "Mommy" while pointing at Midori's nose with his short short chubby fingers, which made her blissfull and happy.

But presently the grown up boy lay on the ground with something terrible happened to him, and she couldn't even do anything. Finally, his cries seemed to cease and his sobs got weaker. As if on clue, yet another person entered the room with wide eyes.

"Oni-chan ?!" She exclaimed and covered her mouth in irritation to see her admired brother in this kind of state. He was always strong, friendly and smiling a lot, doesn't matter what happened, and now he was crying like this, her brain had to process this side of her brother first. Kazuto sobbed loudly at her words and wiped the tears off with his sleeve. He took a bag, put in some clothings and all of his savings, and walked out of his room in silence, his head turned down and his dark bangs threw an even darker shadow on his face.

"I am not your Oni-chan !" He murmured barely loud enough for her to hear, as he passed her stiffened and shocked body.

Outside, the icecold morning breeze caused him to shiver and puff visible oxygen clouds in to the air. In the hurry he didn't take any warmer clothes with him. The bag on his back slid down one of his shoulders, but he didn't care in the slightest way. He walked there, where his feet led him, without a certain destination. His mind filled with sadness and anger. Sadness, not to have a real family, and anger, because of having lived his whole life being lied on.

In the morning cold, the streets were empty of cars, and the grasses of the gardens of various houses wet with dew. A little bit of fog was in the air, blocking the direct sunshine and enveloping this whole part of the city. He just walked and walked on, for around thirty minutes, before leaving the footprints and accessing a carpet of grass. It was another park, an unfamiliar one to him. Since his body couldn't handle the new information fully yet, he sat down and tried to relax. He wanted to relax, but actually, the frightening truth terrified him and saddened him even more, the more he thought about it.

After sitting there for a while, the fog cleared and revealed the sun. It was approximately the apex of the sun's motion, warming up his frozen cheeks and nose, visitors came all around and broke the silence from before. The park filled in a matter of minutes. Since he sat alone on a bench while all the others seemed occupied, a small family asked him, if they may sit on the bench too. After Kazuto affirmed as normal as he could in his state, they sat down on the other side of the bench. A family of four. A smiling father, a caring mother and a blonde joyous big brother of a small shy girl.

He gritted his teeth as he watched them in the corner of his eyes. They emitted a very longing and nostalgic aura.

"Dad, can we buy ice cream later ?" The boy asked jumping around the bench hyperactively, coming to a halt at the end of the question in front of his father.

"Sure !" The father smiled happily and patted his son. The smaller one let out a loud awe with glittering eyes.

Kazuto couldn't watch them any longer. A feeling of jealousy gnawed at him. He stood up and grabbed the bag at his side, hanging it over one shoulder he walked on, not knowing where. At the end, he found himself near the downtown. He was near to Agil's, so he decided to visit him, in order to distract himself from the problems. Agil was good talker and had much experience with a good portion of humoursomeness, and it was always interesting to talk with him, doesn't matter about which topic.

He opened the wooden door, followed by a little chime, indicating that a new customer had entered the bar. It was empty since it was around noon, and the people went here for a drink usually in the evenings or nights. After several seconds of standing at the door, the familiar, tall and muscular man appeared from the back door at his counter and looked at him with surprise.

"Welcome, Kazuto! Didn't expect you to be here on a school day this early." He greeted and beckoned him to sit down in front of his corner. Kazuto had totally forgotten about school, it's not that he would have attended lessons today even if he didn't forget. 'Anyways..' He took the seat at the counter and watched Agil drying glasses.

"So what leeds you here ?" He asked as he saw Kazuto's thoughtful expression.

"Nothing, just wanted to see my favourite place." Kazuto joked scratching the back of his head and grinning sheepishly. At least he tried to. He didn't want to involve others in his problem so he would have to put up a facade.

"Your usual ?" Agil asked, referring to Soda he always drank when he was here.

"I would rather have a beer." Kazuto responded. Agil was surprised, sure, Kazuto was an adult by now with the age of 18 but he never drank alcoholic stuff. 'Something must have happened' he thought. He turned around to the shelves with various types of drinks in it, and picked the beer. Filling in a glass, he put it down on the counter in front of the boy who didn't seem to be present with his mind. He didn't make a move for a few seconds before Agil tapped his shoulder.

"O-oh sorry !" He apologized for his daydreaming.

"Cmon man, you can tell me ! What happened?" Agil spoke emphatically.

"N-Nothing.." Kazuto was a bad liar, everyone would be able to tell that he was lying. Agil glared at him, but he just tried to dodge the gaze.

"You want me to ask your mom ?" Agil joked half-serious. Kazuto expression darkened instantly as he looked down, his hair covering his eyes.

"Good joke.." Kazuto said in a really wavering voice which Agil never heard from him before. Downing his beer, he wiped the foam off the corners of his mouth and stood up tentatively while grabbing his bag. He walked towards the door as he turned around with a cheesy and desperate smile and waving his hand, leaving a dumbfounded man behind.

'What did I do wrong ?' Agil thought but brushed it off almost instantly. 'I think he just needs a little bit of time for himself.'

The weak sunlight hit her face through the curtains and lit up her inner eyelids. Slowly, she was dragged out of her peaceful sleep. She slept amicably, in her dreams she hanging out with her boyfriend in their warm log house. Birds chirped loudly and shrill in the garden, which could be seen from her window. Gradually, she sat up, and yawned loudly while stretching to get rid of the stiffeness. The clock next to her bed showed 12am.

A smile formed on her lips as she remembered what she did last yesterday. She let her eyes wander through the big room, which always let her feel so small and lonely. Standing up, she went to her desk to pick up her phone, and sat on her chair. She opened the contacts and searched for Yui's name. Normally, Kazuto would wake up late, so she didn't call him in the mornings. After pressing "call" she heard the chime ringing very briefly before a lovely voice picked up the line.

"Good morning, Mama!" She exclaimed cheerfully.

"Good morning, Yui-chan." Asuna responded with an even more happy and loving voice, if that was even possible. "How are you doing ?"

"I am doing fine ! And also I am very excited about today evening."

"Ah right, I promised, didn't I ?! How are the kids doing ?" asked Asuna. Yui played almost every single day with the NPCs in the City of Beginnings in the New Aincraid.

"I was just about to play with the kids. I have to go now, sorry Mama." She told her with a slight hint of sadness in her voice.

"It's ok, I just wanted to hear your voice anyways." She told her. "Have fun, my dear and be safe!". Receiving a short affirmating "hmm", they said their farewells and ended the call. At this moment, someone knocked at the door.

"Asuna, are you awake ?" She recognized the voice of her father. After a few moments he added. "Can I come in ?"

Asuna, of course, opened the door and sat down on her chair. Shouzou was still in his blue sleepwear with a chequer pattern on it. He took the edge of her bed as a seat and adjusted his glasses. Smiling heartily at his daughter, he took her hand placed it between his palms. Asuna looked at her father half-curious and half-surprised.

"Asuna..." He started, changing his look to as serious as he could, and talked in the sternest voice he could muster. "I just got a call from the Kirigaya's while you were asleep."

A small amount of fear formed in her mind, seeing her father like that. He always joked around and was even-tempered in almost every situation. She couldn't remember the last time her father looked like that.

"Promise me you won't panic or something like that." Now the fear almost escelated in her head. Her hands started to tremble slightly, and she already thought about various possibilities what could have happened.

"Okey."

"Kazuto,... is missing." She was sure that she heard something shatter. She didn't know if it was her mind or something outward. Actually, she didn't care. She froze right there and just stared in abstraction.

"W-what do you mean...by missing ?" She murmured, one part of her left in disbelief, and the other one in shock.

"He went off the house 5am this morning and didn't come back yet, his mother told me while crying. Something really bad must have happened to him. She begged us to report her when we get to see him. I know how precious he is to you, and even I already acknowledge him as your boyfriend, but you mustn't let this get you down, k?" He tried to convince his daughter as he tugged her hair back which was obscuring her eyes.

Asuna felt more and more depressed at each word. Anxiety gnawed at her mind and all the bliss, she had collected from the date and talk with Yui, just crumbled away.

"Dad, I wanna go and get some fresh air now." She got on her limp feet and opened the door, beckoning him to leave her room. He understood and did as she told him. Changing in a plain yellow T-shirt and a short skirt, she left home with a toast between her teeth, replacing her breakfast, and began searching for the missing boy.

Suguha and her mother sat on the couch in the living room, texting their friends whether they saw Kazuto since this morning. A flurried feeling, due the last words of Kazuto, bothered her. She couldn't hear him clearly, but she understood one thing. Kazuto doubted her.

" -guha, Suguha !" Her mother dragged her out of the trains of thought.

"Did you find out something ?" She asked.

"No.." Suguha responded, disappointed.

"Well, I just informed Asuna's parents."

"What happened ?" Suguha asked a last time. Midori flinched briefly before shaking her head and shrugged her shoulders.

"I dunno" lied Midori. Actually she came to know why he acted like that, after he left the house. She saw it on his monitor's screen: The news reports and the National Registry. But she didn't want to have Suguha knowing about this. She admired her brother and always looked up at him, so when she found out, it would break her heart.

"We can't contact the police, since he must have been away for an entire day to do so." Suguha said as she considered ways and means how to find her brother.

'It's a pity, we can't do much." Midori sighed.

'Beside waiting for him' she added in her mind.

On shaky legs and unsteady steps, Kazuto wandered around the downtown. The new beginning sunset caused dimness, so the lamps on each side of the street lit up. He walked away from the downtown to a place, he didn't know himself. The urge to rest due the alcohol and lack of sleep, compelled him to sit down on a bench which he found at the start of a hike path. With heavy eyelids he gazed around.

The downtown must have been really far away from his location. He didn't even notice that he covered this much of a distance. Near to him where the hiking path led to, was a forest giving off a spooky atmosphere in the dark. Fortunately, he wasn't afraid of the dark, so it didn't bother him all too much. As he watched the small forest in front of him, his eyes grew heavier and finally shut after a while, letting the sleep take over his mind.

Chirping birds, buzzing insects and the warming sun woke him up. 'Shoot, I fell asleep here!' He scolded himself and swiftly jumped up from the bench. If everything went okay, he would be in a hostel right now, as he planned while he was slendering around the whole day. The cold of the night still attached on his clothes and skin, provoked a tickling in his nose and ended up in a sneeze. Sneezing several more times morbidly afterwards, he threw himself back on the bench.

'That's all I needed, a cold, perfect!' thought Kazuto. 'I think I should go to the downtown and get some things together.' Well, it would have been great if he knew the way back. Kazuto facepalmed himself for his stupidity and tried to remember which way he had taken to come here. 'Stupid alcohol, I knew I shouldn't have drank that much!" He raged in his mind as he realized that he had almost no memories of the way from Agil's to here. Knowing fully that the alcohol was actually less to blame, since the main reason should have been "sunk in thoughts".

Shifting his mind to the present, he decided to walk the main path, leading away from the forest, and then branched off at the third junction. He was still on grassy ground, and the familiar concrete ground was nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, this city had next to no hills or something like that, so he couldn't just position himself at a higher located place and realign.

Before he noticed, he found himself in a more heavily vagitated area. Small trees surrounded him and plants grew all over the place. Panic formed in the back of his mind and he took up a quicker pace. His phone ? He let it at Midori's house half on purpose and half due the circumstances and rushing. When he tried to leave the forest on the way back he just got deeper into it. Then he realized the undeniable truth.

'I am totally lost! '

I know it's rude to ask for reviews, follows or favourites (support in general), but I still beg you to help me out (more like motivate me). Hopefully, you understand how much effort and time it takes me to get these chapters done, while having exams on the other side. (I don't know how much, but I guess it's around 10 hours per chapter including the beta-reading and storyforming)

So enough begged for now. Just wanted to tell you, that I thoroughly will drop the story when it gives me the impression of not being read. Don't get me wrong, but I think it's how all authors feel.

Next chapter within a week (writing pace depends on motivation)

Title: Void

Teaser:

'Wishing for him to be at her side and hold her hand. Wishing for that void in her heart to be filled. Losing him, is losing herself. They have become one back in Aincraid and they have promised each other to stay together until death would seperate them, no, they would find each other even after that and become one again.

So why? Why did he have to leave her like that?' The wall in her inner tearducts broke and opened up an exit for her bitter tears, that she held back these past hours. 'Please.., don't leave me and come back to me, my everything.'