AN: It's time to have a look into the outside world as I prepare the next chapter. I wouldn't want to mix exposition, seriousness and the like with some fluffy stuff, best to keep them separate. Oh, and if you get the names and references, know that some plot points and some series that don't exist in this world will be partly used for future Keikaku and arcs.

A little bit to show Argo's side of the family, along with hints into Kirito's importance. I've been planning this since the early chapters if you check back to see Argo's last name in the relationship list around the time of the first boss battle.

Abyssal Side : Argo's Family

In a hospital in West Tokyo, Naruki City

"Sheesh, like father like daughter, huh? Really… you just can't help looking into things, Shiori…"

A tall and lean-built man with fair skin, brown eyes, and shoulder-length dark hair kept combed back said as he poked the cheeks of the young girl cut off from the real world.

Ginjo Shiori, better known as 'Argo the Rat' within SAO and outside the world, was one of many SAO players put into the hospital's latest beds that came with a certain electrotherapy functions to stimulate the muscles, this would cut down the rehabilitation time drastically when the players escape SAO.

The man, her father, was currently watching her latest activities.

Considering that as Argo, his daughter had an ear in almost every aspect of the going on's of Aincrad, he had pretty much resigned himself to keep her stream open to the public almost 24/7.

Aside from the usual private moments like bathing, and all of that sort of thing.

It helped that his daughter's stream was netting him good ad revenue and donations due to the sheer amount of content gleaned from her experiences.

"Sir, visiting hours are over and… are you eating Ramen? In a hospital?" A nurse who entered the room looked at Argo's father incredulously.

"*Slurp* Want some?" He held up his half-finished cup ramen to the nurse, who looked at him with disgust.

"No! And for god's sake don't eat ramen right next to your comatose daughter!"

"Geez, give me a few seconds… *Slurp* almost done. Now, you have absolutely no problems with me being here, right?" Shiori's father said to the nurse while pushing mana into his eyes and using the visual contact to activate his Hypnosis spell on the nurse.

"I have… I have no problems with you being here." The nurse intoned emotionless.

"Great. Now, why don't you check on someone else or pleasure yourself with a fish." He told her as he placed his empty ramen cup on the floor.

"I will go check on someone else or pleasure myself with a fish."

Ginjo Kugo held himself back from sniggering at how people would behave just like they have been 'Jedi Mind Tricked', ah, good memories… he thought, as he reminiscence on the time he watched the first Star Wars movie with his late wife.

As the nurse left, he felt the early summer wind blow onto his back.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he addressed the man who opened the window of the 7th floor hospital leading to his daughter's hospital room.

"Oi! You think entering through windows is cool, punk? What if your sister and your dear old dad catches a cold?"

As he turned around, he caught the amused smirk of his adopted son as he sat on the window sill, once again reading another book.

He was a tall young man with brown eyes and wavy black hair that rested on his shoulders. He wore a long-sleeved collared shirt with suspenders and dark pants.

On his face was a long scar running vertically along the side of his left eye, a scar from his childhood that came when Ginjo Kugo saved the boy from some low-level gang member with connections to 'The Abyss'. Low level or not, that are some powers that scar permanently.

"Is that so… then I suggest you cut down on that cup ramen of yours. Unlike Shiori-chan, you eat unhealthily. At this rate, you'll get a beer belly…" The young man looked down at Kugo's stomach briefly. "Oh, never-mind. Too late for that."

"Shukuro... you little prick! Just you wait until you try working at a desk job and we'll see who ends up with a beer belly." Kugo grumbled at his disrespectful son.

Tsukishima Shukuro, he kept his last name from when he lost his parents as a child as a reminder. Kugo was cool with that and went ahead to adopt him regardless.

Shiori hadn't even been born yet during the time, Shukuro or Shuu-kun as his friends called him, only stopped being a single child during the age of 10, 5 years after that fateful day he was saved and adopted.

Unfortunately for the family, the day he stopped being a single child was the day Shukuro lost another mother, just as Kugo lost his significant other.

Then again, considering their line of work, it wasn't totally unexpected that she would be killed at some point. Their only hope now was for Shiori to avoid that side of their lives, but considering that she inherited Kugo's inquisitiveness and desire for the truth… she will be bound to get into trouble with the wrong people, just as her father did.

"I will never get a desk job. You'll see. In any case, we just got another job… turns out Sugou Nobuyuki wants to hire the famous hacker 'Medjed' for a certain project. It seems he wants our 'investigative' skills to find the group of hackers." Shukuro explained to his father, who rolled his eyes at the request.

"That little bitch? How did he even find out about our 'services' anyway? I doubt he's connected to 'The Abyss'." Kugo questioned his son, who smiled psychotically.

Kugo groaned, considering that Shukuro was smiling like that it meant only one thing.

"Oh, believe me… I asked nicely at first, you know, to check how secure our security measures were. He wasn't so co-operative until I had my fun with him…."

In other words, Shukuro was torturing the clients again before wiping their memories of the event, typical…

"Turns out he got it from a flyer that flew into his face, one of the old ones that didn't have the enchantments for it to be seen only by people with sufficient mana reserves." Shukuro explained.

"That must have been like 5-6 years ago… was it the one with Shiori's shitty cat drawing or the scanned cover of a porn magazine?"

"The latter. I didn't know you were into that."

"Shut up. Anyway, chances of him screwing us over?"

"A lot."

"What is he planning?"

"To get 'Medjed' help him hack Sword Art Online."

"...Fine then. We'll set them up and see how risky it is. If they push it when it's too dangerous for Shiori... we stop them. We'll set up a meeting but we won't be exposing anyone's identity to each other. If he doesn't pay, beat him up, get his bank account number, pin and enough blackmail to ruin him. After that, we'll make it look like he had sexual relations with an under aged girl and post the pictures online." Kugo immediately listed out an unethical list of ways to treat his clients.

"Gladly. Oh, and you might be interested in this." Shukuro hands him some documents he had hidden inside his shirts.

"What's it about?"

"Masayoshi Shido."

As soon as the name left Shukuro's lips, the cup ramen at Kugo's feet was repeatedly stomped at in anger as the widowed father of two cursed the man responsible for his wife's death.

Unfortunately for the both of them, they could not simply crush the man as he had a significant number of grunts from 'The Abyss' working for him. Low-level as they might be, they have skills befitting that of High-ranked fighters as outside of Japan, as that was their real power level.

The barriers were like one large pseudo Illusion Barrier that 'capped' out the powers of supernatural beings that were in Japan if they did not have any blessings from the gods or Gaia.

It rendered Japan a much 'weaker' country in terms of ability users, mages, and the like… but it had the benefits of making it a safe zone of sorts for those that are too weak to succeed in 'The Abyss'.

High-ranking ability users like Ginjo Kugo and Tsukishima Shukuro were weaker in Japan even under an Illusion Barrier.

As such, try as they might, without resourceful planning they wouldn't be able to handle Masayoshi's conspiracy. Even then, they didn't have such allies and resources to deal with him.

Deprived of their revenge, they settled for investigating for things they could use against him along with continuing their 'private investigation' services.

After venting his anger, Kugo read the documents and smiled.

"Akechi Goro? So there is a blood relation eh? Naughty Naughty Shido... an illegitimate child. How did you find out?"

"I thought it was strange someone with such a fake mask would work with Shido… so I managed to get a sample off the boy and ran a divination ritual."

"I see… nice work, this is great! I'm not sure if we can use this but this might be an interesting avenue. Go tell Inspector Kutsuzawa about this, we can at least have our friend in the force be on the lookout." Kugo praised his son as he gave his next set of directives.

"Oh yes, there were some inquiries into the player known as 'Kirito' by certain people and-"

"Burn those requests and tell them no. The last time I tried, I got a big notice from Susanoo himself on leaving him be."

"... Who exactly is he?"

"I dunno, and I don't think we want to know. All I know is we leave the Kirigaya's boy alone. For whatever reason, a demonic incursion broke the Shinto gods barriers... happened nearly 15 years ago, they converged in one area. October 7, 2008. Strange how a newborn baby boy survived an 'accident' that left his parents brutally dismembered. Especially when the event was covered up by some 'thing'..."

Shukuro kept quiet as he made his decision to avoid that boy. He playfully poked his sister's slightly sunken cheeks before leaving by the window.

Deciding it was time to get to work, Kugo said his goodbyes to his information broker of a daughter and left with Shukuro by the window… after taking the destroyed ramen cup to the rubbish bin.