A/N: Sorry to say it guys, but I think this may be my standard update speed from now on (about once a month) :P I wish I could make these faster, but I refuse to lower my standards on completing a chapter. I prefer quality over quantity, and I will never change my stance on that. But I hope that the waits are worth it for you guys. Now enjoy the newest chapter of Fire Sword, where we see the possibilty of a new face, and the return of an old one! Who and where? Go read!


Innocence Lost

Shino took Yui flying first thing after breakfast the next morning. The daughter of Kirito and Asuna was weak physically, but her magic remained strong, so her shining white wings were more than capable of carrying her thinning body. Shino's yellow wings glowed softly as she rose into the air, off the ship's deck, Yui holding her hand as they took off.

As they left, Shino looked back to see Kazuto looking up at them with grim eyes. He gave her a slight wave, but said nothing as he watched them go. She smiled back at him, even though she could feel a pit growing her stomach. She didn't want him to know how much this terrified her, but he had done more than enough to earn her help with this. Yui needed her help, and she would not turn back from that.


Kazuto watched the two girls fly away for a long time before he turned and walked back across the deck without a word. Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw Robin smiling and talking with Lucina, as well as Suguha looking through a book with her friend Ricken, the Shepherd's recognized wind master. Another sight that surprised him was that of Sachi sitting on a crate, talking to Robin and Lucina's son, Marth.

He stopped to pay more attention, as he was surprised to see Sachi interacting with anyone outside her usual group, which consisted of the others from earth. She wasn't doing much of the talking, but she was smiling consistently, a rare occurrence for her. Also, Marth seemed to be more vibrant in his movements than Kazuto remembered. Although he hadn't spent much time with the boy, he knew from what Robin had told him that the boy was the quiet, reserved sort, although he did display an ability to rally those around him on the battlefield.

"What's going on with those two?" he wondered aloud.

"Wow, you really are dense, aren't ya?" Yuuki's voice startled the boy, who nearly jumped out of his skin as the other Alfheim warrior came up behind him. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay," he gasped. "You just caught me off-guard. But what'd you mean about me being dense?"

"Asuna talks about how you never had a clue that she was falling for you, but I couldn't really believe it until now," the smaller girl grinned. "Although, she also says it's a good thing, cos you never noticed the other girls hitting on you, too."

"Uh…?" Kazuto blanked.

Yuuki burst out laughing, followed by the words, "Wow, this is amazing! You really are clueless!" She kept laughing, much to his discomfort.

"Now you're just being rude," he grumbled.

"Hehe, sorry, I couldn't help it," she giggled. "I'll get right to it, and I'll put it in a way that you can understand." Despite his protests, she grabbed his head and aimed his gaze so that he was looking at Sachi and Marth again. "You see that? The more observant of us call what they're doing flirting. You know… Boy meets girl?"

"Huh?" he said, still confused for a moment. Then it clicked, and his eyes widened. "Oh… I get it…"

"Took you long enough," Yuuki giggled. "How in the world did you end up marrying Asuna? You're so clueless."

"Well, she saved my life and then we spent the night together," he mumbled absentmindedly. "But she punched me a couple of times cos I didn't get that-" He suddenly reddened and sputtered, "N-Never mind!" And he walked away very quickly, much to Yuuki's amusement.


Once they had been flying for some time, Shino finally spoke up so that her younger companion could hear her. "Freeing, isn't it?"

"Huh?" came the soft reply.

"Flying," Shino replied. "Just you and the sky, no worries in the world… Makes you almost forget about everything down below, huh?"

"I suppose…" the child replied quietly. Her voice was even quieter than usual, Shino noticed. "Miss Shino, why are we out here? I'm getting tired…"

"Just a little longer, Yui," Shino replied. "There's something I need to talk to you about." Her voice caught a bit, and her stomach clenched, but she forced herself to remain calm.

"Did Daddy ask you to talk to me about what happened in Valm?" Yui asked quietly.

"No, I asked him if I could talk to you about it," Shino replied, surprising the young Kirigaya. "I know what it's like, doing what you did, Yui. And I don't want you to suffer like I did, which is why I wanted to bring you out here."

"If you really know what it's like…" Yui said, tears springing to her eyes. "Then you know that nothing anyone says will make it okay…" She sagged, but Shino caught her up quickly.

"I know," she said quietly, speaking past the lump in her throat. "Nothing I say can change what happened. I can't make the pain go away. It's something that will stay there forever." Yui curled into a little ball, shivering and crying. She weighed almost nothing, Shino realized. She was on the point of being emaciated.

"But…" Shino said quietly. "You can learn to live with the pain. You can find things that make living through it worthwhile. The pain may leave scars, but they'll fade with time. You just have to find something or someone to shoulder your burdens with you. You can either let the wounds stay fresh, and let your life bleed out with them, or…"

For a moment, Yui said nothing. Then, barely audible, she asked, "Or…?"

"Or you can find a way to bandage the wounds, and live life despite them," Shino answered. "What you did doesn't make you any less human than anyone else unless you let it. Your father taught me that. We can live a life just as fulfilling as anyone else's if we want. Just don't ever do it alone."

Yui said nothing, but she leaned into Shino's embrace tighter. Shino looked down at the small girl in her arms and wondered, Is this what being a mother feels like?

"Thank you…" Yui cried softly.

"I just don't want to see you make the same mistake of isolating yourself like I did," Shino replied. "You're too precious to Kirito and Asuna for me to let that happen."

"I've really worried them, haven't I?" Yui sniffled.

"Yes," Shino nodded. "But it's not too late to start recovering, Yui. If I was able to come to terms with what I did, I'm sure you can, too."

"Because I'm younger?" she asked, starting to relax a little bit.

"No, because you have a family that loves you and is willing to stand by you, no matter what," she answered. "And because I believe you're stronger than I am, Yui." When the girl looked up at her, she smiled and said, "You have your mother's courage, and your father's heart. I think you'll live a wonderful life, Yui Kirigaya."

"Y-You do?" she sniffed, wiping at her eyes.

"I do," Shino nodded. "Just live at your own pace, and no one else's. There's not a time limit on the healing process. Just live, and let those around you help however they can."


"Hey, Chrom?" Robin said as he sat down at the table where his commander and Kirito were sitting at. "I've got a request to make."

"Name it, old friend," Chrom grinned. "Unless you wanted a pay raise?" The three men laughed a bit as Robin pulled out a chart of the ocean area that they were sailing in.

"No, though I might want one, now that you mention it," Robin grinned mischievously.

"I'm letting you court my daughter," Chrom said, though it was only half-jokingly this time.

"You know, I think my finances are quite secure, now that I think about it," Robin said quickly, and Chrom grinned in satisfaction. "But I wanted to talk to you about this, actually." He pointed to a smaller island on the map. "I would like to stop here, if we could."

"Hmm…" Chrom eyed the map for a moment before he said, "It's not terribly out of the way… As a matter of fact, we'd only be delayed by two days in total if we only spent one night there. And it might be good for us all to get off the ships… But why this island? It's not inhabited."

"That's not what Anna told me," Robin countered. "According to her intelligence, the island is inhabited by a warrior with the strength of ten men." There was a stretch of silence at the table.

"Tell me you didn't pay her for that Intel," Kirito said with a shake of his head. In his opinion, he'd rather have dealt with Argo than Anna and her family for information. She charged twice as much for riddles and obscure dealings, whereas Argo actually gave you the information you paid her for.

"I did, out of my own savings," Robin replied quickly before Chrom could ask if he used the War Funds. "She was able to tell me that it was this island specifically. And there's more if you want to hear about it."

"A guy with the strength of ten men?" Kirito asked skeptically.

"Says the one with the fairy wings coming out of his back?" Chrom said with a raised eyebrow. "Go on, Robin. What else did Anna tell you?"

"Well, there's not much to go on, but apparently this man has a sword that once rivaled Falchion in power," Robin continued. "The name of it is Ragnell. And the man himself is said to have descended from Ike."

"The Grail Mercenary?" Chrom asked, sitting up straight in surprise.

"The very same," Robin nodded.

"Who's this Ike guy?" Kirito asked curiously.

"He was the most powerful swordsman in his day," Chrom answered. "No one could face him in battle and live, apparently. And if this descendant of his has even one-tenth of his power…"

"That's a pretty big 'if', you know," Kirito said with a frown. "Where'd Anna get this info from?"

"She said she got it from a new recruit," Robin replied with a shrug. "She didn't give me a name, but she did mention that she was a friend of yours, Kirito. I thought maybe one of your friends had found out about it during our stay in Valm."

"No, it wasn't one of my friends," Kirito frowned harder. "If they'd found out something like that, they'd have told me, not Anna."

"Unless there was money to be made," a familiar voice said from nearby, one that caused Kirito to stiffen, and widen his eyes.

"No way…" he breathed. His eyes shot over to a barrel, and he darted over to pry the lid off and reveal a brown-hooded small figure. "I shoulda known."

"Hey there, Kirito," the girl said as she hopped out of the barrel.

"Stowaway?!" Chrom exclaimed.

"Relax, I know her," Kirito sighed. Shaking his head at the girl, he said, "And you wonder why people called you the Rat?"

"I don't gotta wonder," Argo replied cheekily. "It's cos people are rude."

"How'd you get here?" Kirito asked heavily.

"Pay up," Argo grinned as she held out a hand. She looked just as she had in Aincrad, complete with three red stripes on each of her cheeks.

Without missing a beat, the Black Swordsman slapped a gold coin in her hand and said, "That's all you're getting for this one. Spill it."

"Had a weird dream a few weeks ago," Argo shrugged as she pocketed the money. "Some glowing dragon lady said you were in trouble. She didn't give me her name, but she said that you and the gang needed all the help you could get. I'd heard from the grapevine that you'd gone missing IRL, so I decided to come here and lend a hand. I spent some time keeping an ear to the ground, gathering info where I could before I found out you were about to leave town. I snuck on board this ship and kept listening in on people, trying to figure out as much as I could before I decided to say hello."

"You know there's no guarantee that we can go back, right?" Kirito said, concerned.

"Yeah, I know," she shrugged. "But I couldn't let you get back in the 'save the world' game without your primary source of Intel, you know?"

Kirito's mouth opened and closed several times in surprise before he said, "Well… Thanks, Argo. Glad to have you here. But how'd you get on board without being spotted?"

"Yes, I would like to know that as well," Robin frowned. "And how do I know there aren't more of you in hiding?"

"Ten gold," Argo grinned.

"Never ask Argo a question if you expect it to be free," Kirito rolled his eyes. "And she's like me- or at least, how I used to be. She's works solo, so there's no way she helped anyone else get on the ship. As for how she got here…" He slapped two gold coins in her hand and folded his arms to wait for an answer.

"I dumped a barrel that one orange-haired guy in a street where some kids went to play so the candy in there wouldn't go to waste," she grinned. "He never checked twice to see if the candy was missing."

"He will eventually," Robin said, paling.

"Hey, is he okay?" Argo asked, cocking her head at the tactician.

"You've obviously never seen Gaius go through a sugar withdrawal," Chrom said shakily.

"Well, I heard some of the people talking about it," Argo shrugged. "But I thought they were exaggerating. People usually do."

"If anything, their descriptions probably didn't do it justice," Robin shuddered.

Argo looked up at Kirito, who shrugged. "I couldn't tell you," he said. "But I know Chrom and Robin aren't liars. Maybe you should've figured out a different way on board…" He looked like he was going to say more, but just then, Asuna ran up to the four of them.

"Shino and Yui are back!" she exclaimed. Kazuto bolted upright and made a dash for the main deck before anyone else could react.


The two girls touched down on the deck, Yui holding Shino's hand and stumbling a bit when she touched down. She was still weak, so the older girl had to help her regain her balance. When she had steadied herself, Yui looked up to see her father looking down at her, though he glanced at Shino for a second.

Knowing that his fear was eating him alive, she reached up to him with both hands and said, "I love you, Daddy."

He gathered her up in her arms and murmured into her dark tresses, "I love you too, Yui. My sweet little girl…" He looked over at Shino, who smiled slightly at him and nodded once. "Thank you, Sinon," he added.

"Of course, Kirito," she nodded. "She's a very special girl."

"I know she is," he said as he refastened his grasp on his daughter. He turned to see his wife walking up to him, and he smiled at her. She smiled back, tears of relief streaming down her face as she hugged him, and squeezing Yui in between them. The little girl was breathing deep and evenly, a sign of a peaceful sleep.

"She's gonna be okay now," Kazuto said as Asuna stroked her little face.

"Thank you, Kirito," she sighed.

"Don't thank me," he said as he jerked his head at Shino. "Thank her."

"Shino, thank you so much," Asuna said as she bowed from her waist to the other girl.

"I was glad to," the brown-haired girl nodded as Asuna straightened. "I just couldn't stand to see her suffer like I did. She won't be the same as before, but she'll be okay, as long as you're there for her."

"We will be," Kazuto vowed. "Her innocence might be lost, but we won't love her any less for it." Asuna nodded her affirmation to the statement, and Shino smiled at them with a trace of tears in her eyes.

"You're such a beautiful family," she said softly. "Don't ever forget that."


Aiko: So it seems that Kirito's old info broker has made a return. I must admit, that was unexpected.

Mataras: I like keeping people on their toes with surprises like that.

Leafa: So we've heard...

Mataras: Also, to clear up a bit of confusion that I guess I haven't explained very well... Basically, everyone looks like how they do in real life, but with their respective ALO wings, the only exceptions being Asuna and Yui, who have white wings instead of blue and pink.

?: Oh, that makes sense.

Mataras: Hey! You're not supposed to be here! Get out!

?: C'mon man, I'm gettin' tired a waitin' on the sidelines! When's my shot?

Shino: Wait, who's that?

Mataras: Nobody important!

?: Man, that is cold! I thought we were tight!

Mataras: You're about to find out how tight my fist is clenched when it collides with you face! Get out of this segment! NOW!