AN: Again, thanks to Fictiondevourer for beta-ing, without his help I don't think I could have gotten even this far for this chapter at this point of time.
Chapter 29
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Kirito stomped into Titania's office, displeasure so obviously on his face that not even the AI could have missed it.
"I've said it before, if you have something to say to me then use the private messaging system," Titania remarked, without bothering to look away from her screen. She considered attempting to defuse the tension by making some inane comment about how he didn't visit with sandwiches for the visit, but she decided to discard such frivolity.
"What was that about the binding earlier?" Kirito said straightforwardly. "We have no guarantee that what we see in the testing will be true – observations can be wrong. A few tests, or even a week's worth of them, isn't going to change that by a lot."
"We won't be risking anything important; I was considering something like a repurposed World Tree Guardian, with all of its communications and connections to the rest of the systems removed," Titania said disinterestedly. "From how agitated you appear to be, it's like you have misheard me to having agreed to let them attempt a binding directly on the World Tree."
"You might as well have," Kirito said sourly. "Like you've said, 'nothing is impossible'. All we have is their word that Void is a lost magic, or that it does what they say it does. It might not even be a deliberate lie on their part. For all we know the binding on some random piece from Alfheim could end up with the binding on everything; some things are too important to be risked."
"Are you talking about Asuna, or the entirety of Alfheim?" Titania asked, finally shifting her eyes to look at the Spriggan.
"Both," Kirito replied. "You might not believe me, but I do care about the rest of the players in ALO."
"Just not as much as you do about Asuna," Titania said dryly. "Nevertheless," the GM said, forestalling Kirito's reactions, "my reasoning differ to yours; some things are too important to not take reasonable risks for. There is nothing in the Cardinal system that can return everyone back to Earth – that is even with the outright reality warping the administrator consoles are capable of, such as the spatial manipulation for the Bank Chests storage or creating items from nothing. In order to obtain the end goal of returning the players, we must look outside methods derived from Alfheim Online."
"It's the 'reasonable' part I'm worried about," Kirito argued. "Risking everyone for something we don't even know will work seems like a bad move. Take this slower, and see if after months of experimenting things still seem as promising or not."
"And I'll reply to you the same thing I said earlier:" Titania said bluntly. "If Asuna was returned to you, will you still be this persistent about it?"
"Yes, I will," Kirito said, looking Titania in the eyes. "We could all end up being screwed over anyway, doesn't matter if Asuna is still with you or not. This could affect you as well; don't you have a sense of self-preservation?"
"Of course I do," Titania replied. In terms of being able to continue to function to perform her duty at least, if not for fear of her continued existence – though Titania thought Kirito would be unlikely to be able to distinguish the difference.
"I have already made up my mind," Titania told Kirito. "And I am unlikely to change it with the reasoning you have given me thus far. If you have nothing else to say, leave."
"You…" Kirito clenched his fists. To Titania's surprise, the shade that stayed at the edge of the room approached Kirito, hesitantly placing one phantom hand on the Spriggan's shoulders.
Even through the Black Wyrm Coat, Kirito looked as if he felt the ghostly touch. The Spriggan whirled around, looking right at the shade – no, right through her. Titania saw Kirito's darting eyes flash green momentarily, before fading to normal.
"What is it?" Titania frowned. It was the first time for the GM seeing the shade to do something physical to Kirito throughout all of the visits that Kirito had come over the past few days; and the AI wondered what the shade was planning.
"… No, it's nothing," Kirito said, after closing his eyes and breathing deeply for a moment. "At least, I think it's nothing. Hypersense requires focus as well, and I'm not sure I'm clear-minded enough to use it properly right now."
Hypersense – a Outside System Skill from Aincrad. Titania's frown continued for a second more, before realizing she shouldn't have known those terms. The GM has never heard SAO players mention those terms through her surveillance using the Medallions, and Kirito have never said it when he was with her. Yet another bleed-through from Asuna, it seemed.
"Are you sure nothing could have came in without you knowing?" Kirito asked, wary of his surroundings.
"If something like that did happen, do you think I can tell either way?" Titania sniffed.
Kirito winced. "Yeah, dumb question."
"Returning to our previous topic," Titania said. "If you have time to waste to try and convince me, you should instead be using it to trying to convince the Faction Leaders into agreeing to let Asuna go. You have a 'Victory Condition', use it."
"We both know that's not going to happen any time soon," Kirito retorted. "Rufus and Mortimer aren't likely to change their minds once they decided on something, so that's two down from the nine Faction Leaders right there."
"… Fair enough," Titania conceded, much to Kirito's surprise. "It is rare that you humans can unanimously agree on anything, if we take a long look on decisions made politically on at least a national level; regardless of your distinctions between different cultures, there are always dissenters to the leading party. I am willing to make allowances so that this is not an impossible task.
"Convince seven of the nine Faction Leaders, and I will allow Asuna to be returned to you," Titania said finally. "I will even allow the decision to pass with only six Leaders' support, if they can offer a clear-cut plan as to how to move forward without my supervision for the next two months. Looking further than that is unlikely to net useful information, given the changing circumstances."
"… You're not joking, right?" Kirito said suspiciously, yet hopeful at the same time.
"I don't joke," Titania said flatly. "Yes, I'm serious. Now are you going to continue to take up my time or are you going to do something more productive?"
Kirito was out the door before Titania had finished speaking, only giving a small bow to the AI as he departed. The only ones left in the room were Titania and the shade.
|I don't see why you sent him off like that,| the shade said, tilting her head. |You could have easily calmed him down by telling him he'd get Asuna back in a few days.|
"I am… irked… by the idea that Kirito gets what he wants in the end not because of any virtue on his part, but solely because I can no longer oppose the outcome," Titania said. "That something as irrational, as obsessive as 'Love' triumph at the expense of the masses does not sit well with me.
"By the way, I'm surprised that Kirito noticed you," Titania commented. "I had thought you were just a hallucination in my head – none of the sensors I have could catch you in a recording. Yet, Kirito could sense you…"
|Things like me work off different rules, I guess,| the shade shrugged. |I think there's still a logic to how everything works, even if it doesn't seems so to you.|
Titania grimaced. While an AI like herself wasn't inflexible in changing her world-views, Titania didn't like the implication that the foundation of her directives was flawed. That to save many at the expense of a few was ultimately a doomed endeavour, the world inherently allowing it to be trumped by its opposite.
The GM shook her head, and went to work on her new host body; there was nothing to be gained by navel-gazing.
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Sakuya managed to get Kirito and Yui into a meeting with the other Faction Leaders as they debated on the topic of retiring Titania – with the GM's course of action in regards to Tristain's proposal, they would not have a better chance to argue for Kirito's case. Not all of the neutral Leaders thought Titania's choice was a wise one, and the Sylph Leader had hoped to capitalize on those Leaders' indecision. As expected however, Rufus obstructed their way:
"We stand to lose more than we gain from supporting Kirito," the Leprechaun stated, in the midst of the discussion. "Everyone here agrees that Alfheim would be weakened without Titania – the only difference between us is that some of us believe it to be a cost worth paying in order to save someone. I definitely don't agree with that line of thought.
"I have nothing personal against you, Kirito," Rufus said to the Black Swordsman. "You look out for the benefit of yourself and the people you care about, and I can understand that. The only difference between us is who we choose to look after, and that in this situation our interests are mutually exclusive; as Faction Leaders we have to do the same for our Faction – it's the price of Leadership, after all. Unfortunately, it's not possible to save everyone and letting you get Asuna back could be detrimental for our interests, and I don't want to risk that."
"And you feel nothing about the tragedy that happened to Asuna?" Alicia asked.
"Why should I care about what happened to her in particular?" Rufus countered. "As opposed to similar circumstances that struck everyone else in ALO. It's not just Kirito that has lost contact with someone he cared about.
"If I get a couple of others to come in and give their story, would you guys vote for my view instead?" Rufus shook his head mournfully. "Then will you guys focus on getting everyone back to their loved ones, instead of postponing it? The Transition hit everyone, not just Kirito.
"I don't know about others, but I'm not that keen on letting Alfheim as a whole take a hit just so you can play family."
Kirito looked like he wanted retort, but it was Yui that spoke up instead:
"'Play' family?" The pixie said with a frown. "There are connotations of faking and frivolity in the use of the word. Are you suggesting the connections I have with Mama and Papa are insignificant?"
"Well, I wouldn't phrase it like that," Rufus shrugged. "But yes, something along those lines. You've been doing good work in keeping the players that ask for your help sane, Yui-chan, but I don't believe that justify this kind of special treatment. From what I've heard you're an AI, just like Titania; Kirito and Asuna aren't related to you, and the three of you have only been together for less than a month. The connection you have with them aren't as deep, as real, as what other people have with each other. Can you really argue the three of you deserve happiness, at the expense of everyone else?"
Sakuya was gobsmacked, and she could see similar reactions to a varying extent from other Leaders; even Mortimer raised a thin eyebrow in response. The Sylph Leader could hardly believe Rufus' callous words – did he not know how hurtful his words were? Even if Yui wasn't human, her childlike manner suggested she would be tremendously upset by Rufus' claims.
Kirito trembled, looking like he was about to explode. The only reason he held back seemed to be he couldn't decide how to hurt Rufus as much as he could, with the options he had to him. Before the Black Swordsman did anything however, Yui responded:
"Yes, I can argue my connection aren't fake," the small AI said determinedly.
"Oh?" Rufus raised an eyebrow in response.
"When I said I'm Papa's daughter, I don't mean something as simple as being adopted by the two Sword Art Online players named Kirito and Asuna," Yui shook her head. "Do you know how I was transferred into Alfheim Online from Sword Art Online?"
"I admit, I am curious about that myself," Mortimer inputted. "As powerful and experienced as Kirito was in SAO, he was still only a player in the game – he shouldn't have been able to take control of an AI as important as yourself."
"There were exceptional circumstances at the time," Yui told everyone. "At the start of Sword Art Online being locked down, Cardinal, due to Kayaba Akihiko's doing, forbade me to contact players in person. This was in direct conflict with my purpose to help players when their mental state are being negatively affected, and my impulse to help clashed with my inability to act. For two years I could do nothing but watch player suffer from feelings such as fear, rage, and despair. This eventually led to me, Mental Health Counselling Program 001, codenamed 'MHCP-001', 'Yui', breaking down from errors."
Sakuya held back a grimace – the kimono-clad Leader couldn't really imagine the full extent of what Yui went through. Judging by the expressions on many other Leaders, they feel similar to the Sylph. Sakuya had saw other players emotionally afflicted from afar, in the early days immediately after the Transition, and such a sight pained her; But at least Sakuya could feel she was accomplishing something, working to help everyone adjust, and to find a way to return everyone back to Earth. What would it be like, then, to be literally physically unable to help in any meaningful manner, from a position that could see their suffering constantly?
"It was when I found Papa's and Mama's mental state, that they were able to be truly happy and at peace even in Sword Art Online, that I was able to piece myself back together," Yui continued. "From what I know about human reproduction, an offspring between two people is made up by a mix of the two parents' DNA; it was a similar case with me. I attempted to rebuild my data composition by modelling my appearance and personality from the traits Papa and Mama had – this, in hindsight, might have been the reason why I had wanted to approach them, to want to be with them. Even then, I only stabilized after coming into direct contact with Papa and Mama as they found me wandering and lost."
Yui met Rufus' gaze steadily.
"I owe being who I am today to Papa and Mama, and not just because Papa managed to copy my files to his NervGear before I was deleted by Cardinal. Even though it's not in the sense of being related by blood, I believe I'm as close to being Papa and Mama's daughter as anyone can be – and such a relation is no more fake than one any human have with their parent or offspring."
Rufus spoke no words in response. Looking at the disapproval from around the room, the Leprechaun sighed.
"Well, I apologize for what I said about your family," Rufus yielded. "In hindsight, accusing someone that they're not their parents' child tend to be a bad move."
"Were you in a pixie form back in Aincrad too, Yui-chan?" Sasaki asked hesitantly. "If I heard right, there wasn't any magic-using NPCs like pixies in SAO."
In response, Yui levitated up from where she sat on Kirito's shoulders and began to glow. After a blinding flash of light later, a small human girl in a white one-piece dress that looked no older than ten landed onto the floor on her feet in the pixie's place. The similarity in facial features to Kirito and Asuna was there, apparent by the inherited beauty from her mother's side if nothing else. Yui's long black hair gleamed under the lights, and her skin was as pale as the snowy plains that used to be around the Gnome's Capital.
"This is what I looked like back in SAO," Yui stated, brushing a lock of hair away from her eyes with one hand. "I took up the Navigation Pixie form in ALO to prevent being located by the system as a error of some sort. Every step of the way since Papa travelled to the World Tree, I was there helping him and Leafa-san to get to Mama."
"And from what I've heard too, Kirito might have reached the top of the World Tree anyway," Morgiana shrugged. "I can respect that kind of dedication, if nothing else."
"That's all fine and good," Rufus said as he looked at the other Leaders. "However, I stand by my earlier point that the tragedy here is no more special than any other that happened to the players in ALO. I don't have children myself, but I can imagine how separation for the well-adjusted kids can hurt, being gone from their family. Same applies for any possible parents that might have kids not logged in when they were playing, and any other such case that led to suffering from separation.
"Imagine what happened here to Yui and Kirito multiplied by a thousand, or maybe ten thousand times – that's what happened to ALO," Rufus finished. "Shouldn't we work to reduce the suffering in general? Supporting Kirito means we could lose the ability to save many, many others – and I still believe that one family shouldn't be elevated above everyone else's needs."
"I think you all are falling into the trap of 'A single case is a tragedy, but a million cases is just a statistic'," Rufus argued. "That many of us struggle to imagine the scale of the problem, so we latch onto what we can understand. If I have to be seen as cold and heartless in trying to look on a larger scale, to put the interests of my Faction over others, then so be it. I'll warn you all though – don't be surprised if you get voted out and your successors decide to reverse this decision, once the other players find out what we did."
"That will only happen if we cannot deal with trouble effectively," Alicia replied. "The ALO players have no personal attachment to the 'Fairy Queen' – they care about what she does, not who she is. As long as we resolve everything that comes up, there wouldn't be a call to reinstate Titania – or for us to be replaced, for that matter."
"Not to mention," Thinker opened up a new window using his Medallion. "Titania's power will mostly remain available to us, and we can make decisions if we hold a vote on it. There'll be greater freedom for us to utilize this power for our Faction Capitals, for example if there was another attack like Gatan experienced the Faction Leader can authorize repairs without needing a vote. Only the core functions like the respawn mechanism that are out of our control, and I'm not sure we need to change those functions as it is now."
Rufus glanced around the room; Sasaki and Pieter looked like they supported that line of thought. Even Simon appeared to have made up his mind one way or another.
"I didn't want to resort to this," Rufus sighed, and began typing on a screen. Looking at the Undine's Leader, Rufus continued. "It's nothing personal, Thinker – but we all do what we have to do."
"What-"
Before the Undine Leader could finish however, a message reached Thinker's inbox with a 'ping!' sound. The fact that a message managed to get through the filters caught the attention of everyone in the room. In the Leaders' meetings messages what wasn't urgent normally were postponed until the meeting was over.
Opening it, Thinker paled upon reading the contents within the message.
"What is it?" Morgiana asked curiously.
"Due to circumstances having stabilized, Atlanta sent me a message asking to take over the official Faction Leader position for the Undines," Thinker said faintly. "We have a previous understanding that I will hand over my position when Faction Leaders strictly speaking didn't need to be present in Arrun, allowing her to work from Parasel. And she'd prefer it if I willingly pass the position back to her instead of forcing a vote, as fighting over political support isn't going to do any of us favours."
"Now?" The Spriggan Faction Leader said with a raised eyebrow. For some reason, Sakuya had a foreboding feeling about Thinker's next words.
"Yes, 'now'," Thinker said. "Before the vote to retire Titania proceeds, anyway."
"I forwarded Titania's message explaining the situation to us to Atlanta," Rufus explained. "Though I didn't expect her to be able to oust Thinker this quickly – maybe force him to abstain from this vote, at most."
Why that underhanded little… Sakuya thought unfavourably. Out loud, the Sylph Leader said instead: "What do you want to achieve with this move, Rufus? Even without Thinker, this will still be six votes supporting Kirito."
"As the representative of our factions, shouldn't our views reflect the people that voted us in and not just our personal ones?" Rufus shot back. "Thinker, can you honestly tell me most of the Undines would support a vote to retire Titania?"
"And what makes you so sure the Leprechauns think the same way as you are, Rufus?" Alicia commented. "If people really believed the same things you did, then I'm not sure why Vulcan was the Leader of the Leprechauns for all this time instead of you."
"If you have been keeping up with the politics a while back, Alicia, you'd know there was only one major difference between me and Vulcan," Rufus shrugged, uncaring at the Cait Sith's jibe. "Vulcan wanted to play it safe, and look for methods for Leprechaun to become stronger that was not dependent on other Factions – for example Quests and inherent racial advantages. I advocated for a more aggressive plan that secures the resources around Demnann and to weaken other Factions. Other than that, we agreed on most policies."
"So you say," Sasaki noted. "None of us can tell for sure though what happened behind closed doors in Demnann – spies usually don't last long in other Factions' Capitals."
"If you want to release information to the public and have them debate on it, I wouldn't mind," Rufus replied. "See if the Leprechauns really do think my way, if you want."
"You know full well we can't do that," Sakuya said sourly. "Letting everyone know Titania doesn't mind keeping a player captive for her own ends will definitely be bad for morale. It'll only fuel suspicions that Titania as an AI ultimately won't be acting for our benefit."
"Not to mention this would further alienate the SAO players from the ALO players," Mortimer remarked. "Their experiences in Kayaba Akihiko's Death-Game already set them apart. The friction between our two sides are mostly bypassed because of their contribution to adjusting to the Transition, and that we all work for a common goal. Creating divisions in our ranks, beyond the differences in opinions between us as Leaders, will only weaken us. And I do not want that to happen any more than losing the GM, none of those options would be beneficial."
"Alright, alright," Rufus put up his hands in gestures of surrender. "Just saying. Still, that doesn't change the 'conflict of interest' bit.
"Besides, I wouldn't be counting the votes too quickly, Sakuya," Rufus disputed. "If it's even just one more vote other than Thinker's lost to you, this issue will be shelved indefinitely. Unless everyone has made up their mind already?"
All eyes in the room rested on the neutral Leaders. Sasaki and Pieter declined to commit to either side for the moment however, and Simon shied away from giving a response.
"We'll let things between Thinker and Atlanta to be settled first," Pieter stated. "Then we'll make our decision."
The meeting was momentarily adjourned, while the Undines sorted things out. Sakuya was hopeful that Kirito could still be successful, but after Rufus' meddling the outcome became more doubtful.
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An hour later, in one corridor in the upper levels of the World Tree, Kirito slammed a fist against the walls in frustration. The Spriggan tried to keep his composure, as Yui looked at him worriedly, but Kirito was struggling to do so.
Atlanta did end up taking over from Thinker; he bowed to the inevitable, that he didn't have the social capital to keep the position as Leader for the vote. And as expected, Atlanta didn't support Kirito – otherwise Rufus wouldn't have bothered notifying her of the situation. While Atlanta asserted she was not Rufus' proxy, and would remain neutral in her dealings with all of the Faction Leaders, it was of little solace for Kirito when she didn't help him where it mattered most to him.
Ultimately, the vote was five to four in Kirito's favour; short of the minimum mark Titania set him. In addition to Atlanta, Simon went against retiring Titania – the timid Gnome being unwilling to take up more accountability, and wished for the security and support of an active GM.
The topic was unlikely to come up again in official Faction Leader meetings from that point on as well, unless a majority of Leaders vote to have it appear on the meeting agenda beforehand. While Atlanta didn't rule out changing her votes after further fine-tuning of the conditions, that would take time - time Kirito was loath to let pass by.
However, there was nothing left that Kirito could do except to wait.
