Disclaimer: Don't own SAO or any of it's characters.

Rating: T

A little something I wondered about, to see what it might have been like for Yui, that drove her to meet Kirito + Asuna


SAO, Floor 22

"-how am I supposed to do a Switch move with a fishing pole?"

"You're the only one I know who can figure it out."

She heard their words, and only that, but Yui was still happy - they were so nice to help this old man out.

"What if you catch it? Will you keep it?"

"Is that even possible?"

After that, she felt the lights come off, due to a sense that she couldn't explain... and more than that, instead of answering, her mommy simply lay down directly on her daddy. She didn't even need her senses to know that mommy was smiling, completely happy and content, warmth radiating off her every second. Yui treasured that warmth, because this must be what love physically felt like! And the warmth continued as her mommy and daddy talked, not just about the old man, but about how people were living normal lives in this virtual game. And how they felt that, with their help, they owed it to those people to help clear the game for their sakes.

Then at one point, her mommy got up a little, to help look at daddy. Somehow, Yui could see this little scene herself, as if she still had her eyes. "Everyone expects great things from you now" her mommy breathed gently. "And guess what, so do I. Talk about pressure, huh?"

Her daddy merely smiled, looking down a little, then his hand slowly brushed against her game object, still hanging from mommy's neck. She felt happy to feel his love, in the fatherly way, even if it was like this.

"Yeah" he breathed softly. "I promised I'd save everyone... hell of a thing to live up to."

Then his hand moved off, and her mommy slowly laid down on him again. "Well, they'll understand if you take tonight off" she breathed, extra soft as her head cuddled against his neck.

"Yeah."

Yui smiled in her mind, just happy to see them like this, and it continued long after they had fallen asleep.

/

Later

She wished she could still be with them, but also knew they'd be okay; if her game object self was worn around mommy's neck while they fought to clear the game, something could hit her, and then truly destroy her.

That would utterly crush them, and she didn't want that to happen.

Still, she wished she still had the ability to access the system. To watch her mommy and daddy, or just to pass the time, if nothing else - on her mind, she did the mental version of holding her hands together.

However, some time later, this kind of flickering went on in her mind, to her surprise. But it didn't seem to be something she'd done, and when it happened again, she was sure of it... but still confused. Briefly, an image came forward, blurry, but still enough to give her a sense of people. It went through several more of these quality flickers, then it suddenly sharpened, and-

Huh, daddy!?

He was grimly determined, standing aloof amidst the cheering of other people, specifically what seemed to be a kind of pre-battle cheer or something.

His fist clenched... and was taken by another softer hand.

"Everything's gonna be fine" her mommy breathed in his ear. "I won't let anything happen to you, promise. Make sure you protect me too, okay?"

He smiled back. "Yeah, you know I will."

Yui smiled a little, subconsciously at least, then breathed out in worry when the 'picture' started flickering again... soon she couldn't make out anything again. However, strangely, it didn't disappear on her, and appeared to be struggling between whether to show her more or just vanish.

She hoped with all her virtual heart; please show her them again. Even if just in bursts, so that she could make sure they were okay.

It took a little time, but eventually it decided on showing her- and she gasped; they were in the middle of the 75th Boss Floor!

"It's the Skull-" Klein started.

"-Reaper" daddy finished.

On her screen, the terrifying centipedial skeleton Boss screeched in her face, causing her to jump back... or she would have, if she still had a body. Because of this, Yui missed the man known as Heathcliff issuing orders, but she did vaguely hear her daddy ordering other scared soldiers to get away from the thing. They obeyed, but they were still too late... one hit was enough to send several flying, and to kill them.

"T-That was one hit!"

"Man we are so dead!"

The Skull Reaper growled at it's remaining opponents, it's skeletal arms moving in ways that were simply not natural. Now Yui was afraid; her mommy and daddy were up against the toughest Floor Boss since the 50th! Truly, aside from the unknown stats of the 100th Boss (even to her), this one was intentionally more powerful and faster than all the regular ones, to represent the step up in difficulty! And with this one, one hit to any of the vital areas would overcome even the most powerful armor and health that could be obtained before this floor! Potentially even if they were at max level too!

"Look out!"

"No, don't!" Yui cried out, terrified as her daddy blocked the thing's scythes with both dual blades. Even without system access, she could see the shoulder wound, and knew his health was dropping rapidly - she wanted the soldier he was protecting to make it too, but this was still serious! She trembled as The Skull Reaper's other scythe came straight toward him... and was blocked by the man known as Heathcliff, to her relief.

Then her mommy forced the scythe and the Boss off her daddy.

"If we block it together we have a chance. Come on, we can do this!" she said, helping him up.

"Okay" her daddy agreed, then they rushed forward.

Yui made a little sound, both of nervousness and anticipation; she hoped they would stay okay!

"Me and Asuna will deal with the scythes!" her daddy yelled, even as Heathcliff blocked one scythe, and they dodged the other. "Everyone else, flank it and attack!" he continued, as they both worked and broke open it's guard (and kept it's attention). She heard the others acknowledging this, and the various battle cries as they worked to attack, and dodge around this thing's reach. The entire time, her screen would move across the battle at random, and to her distress, there was this one moment where the Skull Reaper's tail slammed into a group of three. Two of the soldiers were killed instantly, but to her relief, the third man known as Agil survived thanks to the hit only being on his arm (and he cursed the Boss for the others' deaths).

Then the screen moved again.

"Ready, Kirito?"

"Yeah!"

The Skull Reaper moved with terrifying speed, sliding and targeting at random, as it's irregular programming dictated. However, despite this, she saw the ones named Klein and Agil rushing forward with battle cries. Klein moved in a blur, suddenly underneath the Skull Reaper's frame, his sword glowing red by use of a Sword Skill - he yelled as he stabbed the thing in the spine, causing it to shudder. This only lead to an opening that Agil exploited, screaming as he slammed his green-glowing ax into it's spine from above.

This two-hit combo enraged the Boss, and it lunged with a growl - her parents sideways-blocked it with fierce glares, forcing it off themselves as they ran forward. The Skull Reaper attempted to strike them with both scythes, but they dodged all attacks and, screaming, blasted the Boss with their blades.

In that moment, she saw their fierce determination to beat this thing, their emotions and desires so similar it's like they were working as one.

It warmed her heart, even as the worry pounded.

Now even angrier, the Skull Reaper targeted them again-

They were way ahead of him, their three weapons already glowing a blue-white...

-it drew back it's scythes to take care of them; Yui whimpered.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

With a ferocity that was unmatched, just as the scythes might have hit them, her parents struck the thing directly in the face with their full might. To say that it was flung away would've been an understatement; when it got up, extremely angry now, it's skeletal face was severely cracked.

Her parents were definitely amazing; she just wished they weren't in danger right now!

Then the screen started flickering again, causing her to try and stop it by instinct; but she couldn't, no longer having a human form. Then to her distress, it vanished entirely, leaving her without any connection to her parents.

No! She wouldn't believe that!

Yui focused hard on that.

She loved them with all her virtual heart, and she knew they loved her with all of theirs too - they were still connected. If anything would happen to them, she would feel it, even in this form.

/

Yui waited, trembling but hopeful, that her parents would remain okay.

She'd gotten a brief image, thanks to her hope; the Skull Reaper on it's last small batch of health. And it couldn't even move, thanks to the never-ending swarms of light from Sword Skills striking it, constantly interrupting it's ability to act.

She'd been relieved, knowing that they'd figured out it's weakness; the more health it lost, the slower it got, and it got considerably more susceptible to the damage interruption modifier from weapons. In return, it's attack would increase to absurd levels, that no player could have withstood under any conditions without cheating, but that was a moot point to any experienced party at this stage of the game.

After that, it'd been quiet again, except for a last burst that showed the Skull Reaper turning into light and disappearing, but she continued to hope.

"Mommy" Yui thought to herself. "Daddy."

And she waited even more...

"Asuna..."

She breathed out; daddy? Wait... his tone sounded weak.

"Asuna... you can't... you can't be..."

What did he mean!?

"I'm sorry... goodbye."

Her entire mental state gasped at that; if she'd had her body, she would've torn out her virtual vocal cords. No! It couldn't be! They'd beaten the 75th Boss, there was nothing else on that floor, and nothing on the 76th was capable of wielding the extremely-low-chance-of-causing-instant-death blades! Her mommy couldn't be dead!

Just then, as if responding to her state, an image suddenly burst into being in her 'vision'.

Her daddy picked up Lambent Light, moving with extreme slowness, his opponent Heathcliff. Then he moved again, raising his Elucidator... but the swing had no emotion, no speed, no technique, no... anything. He moved as if he were dead, and his opponent barely had to dodge him at all.

Her entire self was shaking; if she could've cried, she wouldn't be able to see at all.

It couldn't be... her mommy was dead... and her daddy was so broken by this, that he couldn't even feel rage...

Across from him, his opponent sighed, then knocked her daddy's sword out of his hands - he barely reacted, as if it hadn't happened, and he didn't try to get it back.

Then Heathcliff moved again-

"NOOO!"

Daddy barely reacted to being stabbed as well, slowly looking between the sword sticking through his torso, and the face of his opponent. When his vision closed, she knew it was seconds away, but Yui was still screaming for him to survive! Even one HP would be enough!

Her daddy's mouth opened a bit.

His form began to glow-

N-No... it's over...!

But instead of turning completely white and breaking apart, Kirito's image only glowed enough to light up the area - he still had form, as he gripped Lambent Light only tighter. He shook hard, and his teeth were gritted-

"What...?" Yui breathed weakly, utterly trembling and barely a moment away from complete despair.

-he took a step forward, looking like every movement took tremendous effort... even still, it was enough to unnerve his opponent, with something approaching total shock. Lambent Light was slowly raised, and the trembling only got worse, but daddy still gritted his teeth again.

Then he lunged forward, his expression twisted, and his eyes inexplicably a deranged yellow as he screamed!

It scared her, but Yui couldn't look away...

Heathcliff smiled... daddy's blow struck home; he hadn't even tried to move out of the way.

Daddy slowly breathed out, or made the motion of it, before glancing down at her mommy's rapier... then he closed his eyes. The glow, which had stayed the same throughout, began to intensify again, as it did on Heathcliff a moment later.

They they both burst into light-

"DADDYYYYYY!"

The immediate reaction was unexpected; the combined might of SAO's database spilled over into her brain. Staggered, Yui tried to figure out what was going on, but still shaking as her emotions shook - as she slowly figured out, she had somehow gained access to the system itself.

But, she was a game object; she couldn't do that anymore...

However, the servers soon provided her the answer... Heathcliff was in fact the game's creator, Akihiko Kayaba, who was meant to betray the players he had served with and was in fact the 100th Boss. Defeating him meant that the game was cleared... and moments ago, she had seen him killed. Now that he'd been defeated, and the game cleared, all previous restrictions were gone - in that moment between cleared and the game's shutdown mode, anything could access the system if they were able to. Theoretically, nothing should be able to; all the remaining players had been logged out immediately upon the game's clear... but she was not a player.

Her physical form was still a game object, but her mind was not.

Yui took in this revelation for a moment, then freaked out.

Mommy! Daddy!

With haste born of desperation, she accessed the servers connection to the player's life-signs without thinking, which were required to be monitored at all times prior to shutdown mode. If she had a body, she would have gasped, and cried... but as it was, she was severely stunned by what she saw.

Life Signs

Kazuto: Steady; Character Status: Dead

Asuna: Steady; Character Status: Dead

And they stayed that way as the long seconds passed.

Yui was certain her game object form trembled, even being unable to move, because that's exactly how she felt. They were alive!

But how!?

She looked through all records, her AI mind capable of going through information much faster - still boosted by desperation for answers - and soon found it. Moments after their character deaths, Heathcliff (Kayaba) had told the system to not send the signal that would fry their brains, out of respect for them! Even though he was responsible for trapping them in SAO, and her indirectly meeting them, she still silently thanked him for that. And in addition, she'd slowly learned something else as well, from an otherwise obscure part of the code. It monitored lesser stats, such as the amount of time each Sword Skill should take to execute, how long it should take for status effects to wear off... and the amount of time it took between character death, and actual system response to do so.

Her daddy's status on that last one? A total of forty-five seconds, where the usual rate was one-to-two seconds.

She couldn't believe it at first; that wasn't possible.

But she also knew her daddy; he had a habit of doing the impossible, when he was determined... in fact, she'd just seen him accomplish the impossible with her own eyes. Somehow, using every fiber of his being, he had physically held off the system commands on his virtual body by sheer force of will, while still managing to stab the one responsible for mommy's... character's death.

With whatever vision she had, Yui slowly looked down at the world of Aincrad... the sky expanded infinitely, but the floating castle itself was breaking apart, from the bottom up.

She watched as bit-by-bit, it broke apart and continued to spread - in particular, the little cabin on the former Floor Twenty-Two.

She couldn't know that at the same time, her family was watching this as well.

This made her sad, but only for a moment. More than anything, Yui slowly felt happy again, all previous indications of shock, horror and despair gone - the voices of the players had gone silent. The survivors were all home now.

"Mommy and daddy have survived, in the real world" she thought, feeling her game object self being crushed along with the rest of the cabin, somehow. "They're safe... that's all that matters to me" she continued, knowing she was safe, as her game object data was saved on her daddy's Nervegear. "And I'll always be with them, no matter what happens."

And Yui cherished the happiness that she felt, till the very last moment, where her sense of mental self was slowly being erased along with the rest of SAO.

She wasn't afraid, even if she would feel nothing as part of data on a Nervegear.

"Mommy, Daddy... I love you."

Then she was gone from SAO.


Still sad... but luckily, now it'll get better.