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

ALO

"What, what!? You're kidding! You're quitting ALO!?"

"N-No, it's just a couple of days - I'll convert back after that!"

"But why?"

"Well uh... it's complicated. There's this other virtual MMO that I need to check out."

"Need to? But you've done this before, by making new accounts... why not for this one too? I mean, if you convert, your items will be reset; why would you want to do that?"

"Oh, uh, it's a favor- for that guy from Internal Affairs."

"I guess if Mr. Kikuoka's asking you to, you can't say no. I don't know what it is about that man, but there's a part of me that still doesn't trust him."

"Yeah, I'm not too sure myself."

Mommy got closer, touching her ringed hand to his. "Just get back as soon as you can, Kirito - this is our home, and it's not the same without you."

Yui smiled to herself, recalling that moment where she sat on their joined hands, showing that they're a family in all this. She wished that she and mommy could go with daddy, but it was too dangerous, especially to her - ALO may have had a system that was similar to an AI function, which was how she'd stayed okay when daddy converted to ALO, but what about GGO?

She knew neither of them would risk anything happening to her, and besides, she couldn't let mommy be alone! Though, if only there was some way to not let daddy be alone either...

"Well, he can always make new friends" Yuithought, still happy. "Maybe even bring them to ALO when this is over."

Even as she thought so, everyone shifted on the sofa, watching the live broadcast of the Bullet of Bullet PvP tournament in GGO, which they'd learned her daddy was part of. If only the footage would stay on him once he showed up, but there were many other players after all.

"Mmh, where's Kazuto? He should have shown up by now" Leafa breathed, feeling a little down.

"Maybe they don't have all the battles up to feed yet?" Silica asked, worried. "I mean, knowing Kirito, we should have seen him running around guns-blazing from the start."

"I don't know" Klein added from behind them, the only one at the table. "He's one of the craftiest players I've ever met. He's probably laying low out there until the players have thinned out, killing each other off" he continued, before sipping at his drink.

"Oh please; you and I both know he doesn't play like that" mommy retorted, but playfully, before looking at her. "Isn't that right, Yui?"

"Absolutely" Yui said softly. "Besides, Daddy's so fast I doubt he'd even show up on camera - he'll sneak up and strike before his enemy knows what hit him!" she added with much more enthusiasm, shown in her little awesome-type air punches.

Mommy laughed playfully, and the others were quick to follow, all knowing her daddy that well.

"He literally can't do it any other way!" Liz answered, smirking in her laughter. "I mean it's a game with guns, and he's using a sword; what a doofus!" she continued, to further laughs, hers included (she still remembered his flying mishap, hehehe... though that was also kinda her fault).

Even as the conversation turned to a particular pair of players, Yui listened, but was also curious about the mechanics of this PvP gun game - by force of habit, she was analyzing what she saw through her processes. Movement was exactly the same except for lack of wings/flight, but there was something about the gunshots and the players' reactions toward them... hmm. Every time a shot came toward them, they either ignored it completely as it zoomed past them, or reacted before being hit or managing to dodge. Even though she couldn't see the mechanics, it was too consistent to be merely their reactions/nerve - it seemed more like a system-assist type of thing, showing players where their shots would go/where they would be hit with.

Well, being a game, that certainly made sense.

Either way, the Pale Rider finished off his opponent, quite confidently too - but then he was blindsided from 'offscreen', much to their surprise.

"Looks like your boy's full of suck, Liz" Klein teased.

"Shut up! He's not out of it yet!" Liz retorted, before zooming the feed in on Pale Rider's 'wound'.

"What happened to him?" Silica asked, worried but curious.

"It's some kind of paralysis attack, most likely temporary" Yui said, a little worried.

"Reminds me of Thunder Web, a little too much" Leafa breathed.

Then the scene shifted, and another played appeared beside the paralyzed Pale Rider - a man in all black, his face covered by a metal mask (with 'teeth' constantly clenched, or given the appearance of it), and his eyes a glowing red. Yui felt mommy tense a little looking at this visage, and she worried about that too, but also had a feeling; something wasn't quite right here.

They all watched as the unknown player held up his gun, did some sort of weird motion with his arm, before loading the gun and pointing it at Pale Rider. Even from a long-view, his fingers started to clench-

Then he moved quickly, and the ground directly to his left exploded - wow, that bullet must've had a lot of force!

Despite looking in the direction it came from though, the unknown player was unfazed, and apparently determined another attack wasn't forthcoming. Then he aimed at Pale Rider again without fear, and shot him... but in a non-fatal area.

Why?

Almost as if the shot had stimulated him, Pale Rider got back up and aimed at the unknown player, who didn't move- huh?

What? What was wrong with him?

Only thing Yui knew, was after Pale Rider clutched his heart, he just vanished... not dead, but 'Disconnected'.

She didn't know what to make of it; logging out in the middle of a tournament meant disqualification, she's sure of it. And more than that, Pale Rider had been about to fight back; what made him stop?

"Something's wrong here" Yui thought, worried. "Very, very wrong!"

As if to add insult to injury, the unknown player stepped on the 'Disconnected' pop-up, before the camera quickly focused on his face (something she was liking less and less). "Death Gun is my name" he spoke in a deep, mechanical-sounding voice, "-and the name of my gun."

She made a sound when he pointed that gun at the in-game camera, even as mommy shifted.

"One day, I'll pay you all a visit too" he continued to speak, "-and bring real death with this gun. You've seen my power. It is real. This isn't over, not yet. I'm just getting started. It's show time."

There was silence for awhile, and Yui felt mommy tense up, until the sound of breaking glass startled them all.

"Ugh, way to scare the hell out of everyone" Liz breathed to Klein, irritated.

But Klein seemed to be in shock; he was completely serious and self-focused.

"Y-You gotta be kidding me" he breathed, stepping forward to the back of the couch; his gaze was definitely beyond what's in front of him, at least in part. "No way, can't be..."

Mommy gasped, and quickly stood up (Yui made a sound as she quickly had to readjust). "You know him too? Do you remember his name?" she asked, intent.

"No, I forgot his old handle" he continued, gaze still elsewhere. "But it's him... there's no doubt. He was in Laughing Coffin."

Mommy gasped, as did everyone else, their worry shooting up tremendously, her included as she trembled!

No, not the murder guild again!

"-no, pretty sure it's not him" Klein continued, faint, when Yui realized she'd zoned out in her reaction. "Something about the way this guy acts and talks is definitely different. Except for that 'It's show time' line - that was the knife-wielder's catchphrase. This guy must have been close to him; I'm talking right-hand-man quality."

Mommy breathed, turning to face the broadcast again. "Kirito" she whispered to herself, worried; Yui shared in it.

After that, there was no longer any excitement - just serious talk about how Laughing Coffin broke the unwritten rules, and how the others tried to stop them, including her mommy and daddy. For her part, Yui was just sad, thinking about the trauma these players had caused her in SAO... her function had been to help players. It hadn't been bad enough she couldn't help anyone, nor those who fell to monsters or Bosses, but those players were the worst of the worst. Their sick enjoyment had been the hardest thing she was forced to watch in that game... at least, until much later, when Kayaba had stabbed daddy...

Then-

"Sorry everyone, but I'm logging out" mommy announced to their group.

She made a little sound as the same time as everyone else.

"I have to get in contact with Kirito's employer - he's the one who sent him into GGO, and I bet he knows something about what's going on" mommy breathed, before turning to her. "Oh, and Yui? I'm gonna need your help while I'm gone. Find out anything you can about GGO."

"You can count on me, mommy" Yui breathed quickly, more cheerful than she actually felt, saluting as she flew up a ways. She waited till mere seconds after mommy logged out, then she was gone too, at least in the physical sense - carefully, she maneuvered herself on the Nervegear, before attempting remote access to the internet, anything she could get her hands on that was related to GGO. First it was simple stuff like game mechanics and rules and such, because this was still new to her, but she took her time learning. Then came the list of players competing in the BoB tournament, including daddy, which she took a moment to access and see what-

-uh.

But... what... how did he...?

Why was his hair so long!?

Much later, mommy came back to ALO, but only said that the one who hired daddy was on his way - so they waited. Thus far, they also hadn't seen too much of daddy in the tournament, which Klein attributed to his strategy-

Knock knock

Curious, she looked over mommy's shoulder, seeing another Undine member with glasses walk in.

"Jeez, Chrysheight!" Liz exclaimed. "Took you long enough!"

"Sorry, guys - I book it over here as fast as I could from my save point." the man breathed, somewhere between exasperation and sheepish. "If there was a speed limit in ALO, my licence would be revoked."

Mommy quickly stood up, facing him. "What is going on?" she demanded, intent.

He cleared his throat. "I'd be happy to explain, but I should warn you... it might take awhile to explain. To tell the truth, I'm not sure where to begin-"

"Oh don't even!" mommy warned.

"Not to worry; I know just where to start" Yui said, floating down, hands on her hips. "On November 9th, in GGO, a player called Death Gun fired his weapon at an avatar on a monitor. That same day, in a Nakano Ward, that avatar's player mysteriously died."

Chrysheight was certainly impressed, staring at her in surprise. "Young lady, that was unbelievable" he breathed with a similar tone, straightening with a little smile. "Gathering all that data and connecting it in such a short time; you must be quite the researcher. Have you ever thought about a career in the VR business?"

She made a little sound, curiously confused; but, she was only three years old chronologically, even if her body and her mind did not fit those specifications.

That couldn't be enough to apply for work already, could it?

At the same time though, mommy gave her opinion on that with little more than a glare, causing Chrysheight to verbally backstep - when she noticed, Yui slowly giggled mentally; yeah, that's her mommy, always so protective hehehe.

"She's right though; it's all true."

After that, the conversation continued very seriously - at first, Klein demanded to know why he'd sent Kirito in when he knew murderers were on the loose, but that wasn't quite correct; the full-dive gear couldn't possibly harm their users. 'A bullet in-game cannot kill in the real world', so something else was going on. Then they informed the man of their earlier discussion, about how Death Gun was a former member of Laughing Coffin, and how they should track him down... but that wouldn't be so easy. And anyway, daddy had learned a bunch of this info by himself recently, and had gone back in knowing it to finish the job.

Klein pounded the table. "Damn idiot!" he cursed, but to the air. "Why didn't you say anything!? I could be backing him up right now- all he'd have to do is ask and I'd do it!"

"We all would have" Silica said, in a sad soft kind of way. "Don't you see; that's why he didn't tell us. If he thought there was any real danger, there's no way he'd get us mixed up in it - that's just how he is."

"Yeah, you're right" Liz agreed. "He's always thinking of others before himself. In fact, he's probably protecting someone right now - and I bet whoever it is, doesn't like him much."

That would certainly be like him, Yui thought, happy but also a little sad, holding her hands together - mommy's fist clenched a bit, no doubt thinking about daddy getting himself in trouble again, but worried for him because of it (just like her).

They were determined though, and would be glad to see him when this was over-

"Okay Chrysheight, where Kirito is diving from? I know that you know, so tell me now."

"Ah, w-well that's confidential..."

Stomp

"Okay, okay! I'll tell you- I set up the room myself, so he's safe-"

Yui smirked a little, knowing not to cross mommy, even as she started to fly up to her shoulder again.

"-security's rocked, and the monitoring's top-of-the-line. Got a trained professional right by his side the whole time; I guarantee his body's in no danger whatsoever-"

"Where is he?" mommy demanded, and she nodded in agreement!

/

"Kazuto..."

"Don't worry, mommy" Yui assured in the data stream, seeing her face in her screen (even if mommy couldn't see hers). "No matter how strong his enemy is, daddy won't lose. He's daddy, after all!"

Mommy smiled, nodding. "Yeah, you're right" she breathed, before looking up (apparently she'd come to her stop). After that, mommy was rushing, and all she could visually see were scattered fast-moving images - but information-wise was another story: "Turn left - his room is eight meters down."

Mommy did so, but as soon as they opened the door, an unfamiliar female voice said "Kirigaya?"

"Kazuto!" mommy breathed in alarm, hurrying closer.

"You're Ms. Yuuki, right?" the other woman - whose name was Aki Natsuki - asked. "We've been expecting you-"

"Is something wrong with Kazuto!?"

"No, he's okay. I know it looks back, but he's not in danger; his heart-rate spiked is all."

"His heart?" mommy breathed, worried. "Why? What's going on?"

"Mommy, look to your right!" Yui said intently. "At the monitor on the wall! I'm tuning it to the MMO Stream's live footage."

Very soon, mommy and Natsuki soon noticed what she'd been watching - daddy was in combat against Death Gun, holding his shoulder from a minor wound, and wielding an energy sword weapon. Mommy said that must be why his heart-rate's elevated, until she breathed out in shock at Death Gun's weapon, "An estoc?"

A type of rapier, Yui looked up very quickly, before that bit set in.

Hey! No copying off mommy!

At the same time though, mommy and Natsuki discussed the Death Gun player's avatar name, and how it meant 'death' in German; it would have made her shiver if she weren't so focused on what was happening on the live footage.

She gasped when Death Gun started using an absolute flurry of rapier stabs-

Okay, that's just plagiarising!

-Daddy managed to get out of it before he took too much damage, yet Death Gun continued his rush, and daddy could only defend/dodge, but he was losing ground; Death Gun kept scoring small cuts.

"He's sweating so much, he'll dehydrate soon. Wonder if we can get him to log out, or at least warn him..."

"No, he wouldn't hear us" mommy breathed, sad and worried. "Diving blocks everything out. But the Amursphere is designed for stuff like this, so it should shut off if he gets too dehydrated."

"...okay then, I guess we just have to wait."

No, maybe he couldn't hear them, but she'd seen too many impossible things to give up that easily.

"Hey, mommy" Yui breathed softly. "Try holding daddy's hand. He'll feel the warmth of your touch, and know you're here watching over him. Since I can't touch anything in your world, mmh... hold his hand for me too."

Then mommy slowly smiled, shaking her head. "No, Yui" she breathed, gentle. "That's not true - I'm sure he'll feel your hand too. I know he will; you're a part of our family" she continued, sliding daddy's hand over her screen, along with her own. "Let's cheer him on, together."

"...mommy" she whispered, as happy as could be; if she had her body, she'd be crying happily right now. But Yui couldn't dwell on it, so she directed her focus between watching daddy, and channeling her will to reach him through the real world. She could feel it though; mommy's hand was touching her own in her datascape, as was daddy's, or least their images of it were. It made her happy, and she continued to focus with her might. For a few moments, the situation remained the same as it was, but she kept going, hoping.

Then something changed in the battle; daddy's mouth moved, and Death Gun jolted, with their next clash ending in sudden utter stillness.

"He must have figured it out" Yui thought, glad if continuing to hope.

The moment didn't last long; a red targeting reticle appeared on Death's Gun shoulder.

Wait, how was she seeing that!? She wasn't in the game at all!

Suddenly, inexplicably, everything she saw on the livestream seemed to be going in slow motion - or was that just her perception?

Death Gun freaked and hastily tried to move backward, even as daddy grunted, rushing forward and raising his energy sword for a finishing blow. But Death Gun started to flicker out of sight, and daddy tried to reach forward, but they both knew he couldn't reach in time.

"Daddy, you can do it!"

The hand reaching forward changed direction, going toward his hip now - then with a roar, he pulled it out at lightning speed and shot Death Gun multiple times, spinning in mid-air. The invisibility flicker couldn't maintain, and Death Gun recoiled at his injuries, but he retaliated with numerous rapier stabs - daddy grunted, still in his mid-air spin as Death Gun closed in. But daddy would not be denied; with another roar, he turned his mid-air spin into an outright spinning slash.

And she could've sworn his SAO form was superimposed over his GGO avatar...

The energy sword struck Death Gun, who recoiled; Daddy didn't quit, forcing it through Death Gun's body as he continued roaring, his eyes burning yellow - a look she knew all too well, scarily so.

He sliced Death Gun in half, the result exploding- again with that in video games...

Still, he won! Woohoo, that's her awesome daddy!

"Fool, it's not over. You can't stop me... he'll find youuu..."

Yui worried; what did he mean?

Out in the real world, mommy breathed a big sigh of relief, leaning over daddy's form, something she shared in. "Mommy" Yui breathed gently, which was a little comfort to her.

At the same time, Yui watched the livestream, which showed daddy and the last remaining player, named Sinon, approach each other - however, their small smiles said they knew each other, and they shared a fist-bump. Good, he's made a new friend- but if she shows any interest in daddy, there's gonna be words later!

She made a little sound when the girl leaned toward Daddy's ear, a little jealous, but soon interpreted from their latter expressions that what she'd said to him was entirely friendly.

Phew...

After about another minute or so of talking, the girl pulled something out of her belt, which seemed to be a grenade. She took daddy's wrist, and put it in his hands, then pressed a button-

-his freaking out made clear what she'd done, but what she DIDN'T expect was for her to hug him!

Then they exploded.

"Ah" Yui breathed, at a loss, blinking - did they just... throw the tournament together?

Her shock was mirrored by mommy, who hardly reacted at all outwardly, so great the shock was... but they all noticed when daddy began to stir some thirty seconds later, his Nervegear model shutting down. Yui couldn't see everything, but mommy reacted to this quite gladly, hugging daddy once he'd sat up, which made her happy.

Still, while he was surprised, daddy was also glad to them all for their support (the nurse included), before he slowly leaned into the phone's vision.

"Sorry that I have to run so soon, but there's something I have to do" he breathed, making motions here as he removed the electrodes attached to his body. "A friend I have to see, to make sure she's safe."

"A friend, huh?" mommy breathed, but soft.

Daddy just smiled. "Yeah, just a friend" he said back, soft and sincere.

"I believe you" she said, completely teasing and playful. "Don't oversell it, Kazuto. Just know that I'll be expecting the full story when you get back."

He slowly chuckled, half-sheepish but sincere as he nodded, pulling on a shirt - however, as he did so, something caught her attention; he'd missed an electrode attached to the left side of his chest, just over his heart. But Yui didn't suppose it was that important, and because daddy had already pulled it down, she didn't mention it... still, she did wonder if she should've anyway.

After all, he could realize this much later, and feel silly that he missed it hehe.

Somehow when I saw this, I always figured in his haste to get over to Sinon's house, he might have missed one - we've all missed small things like that, have we not? Thus it wasn't really as out of nowhere as it might have seemed, least imo

Anyway, surprise ;) When I first stopped, the GGO arc was still ongoing - and personally, when it comes to fics like this, I prefer the entire arc/season/whatever before I start the entire in-depth look; makes it easier and more accurate for later continuity nods. And now that the second season is getting dubbed, I can start updating it in the same style.

And also, sorry that the GGO arc was wrapped in one chapter; wasn't too much for Yui to experience, all things considered... and the BoB tournament did take place over the course of a day or so. But there's more to come, primarily in the next two arcs.