AN: Poor Leafa/Suguha always gets the short end of the stick by missing out of SAO (Lol, depends). In terms of popularity and everything it's kind of sad... I like her plenty, although I admit I always liked non-main characters more but still, any hate for Sugu is misplaced! In fact, she deserves a future mini-arc of her own, one where she doesn't just end up in a harem as a side-note or something.

In any event, Kirito is going to have to work for Leafa. It might have slight NTR bastard boyfriend jealousy tropes and everything, but hey, if she's going to get a worthwhile romance it's gotta be through some good triangle dynamic. I think the Kirito-Leafa-Nick angle could work with the fanon Bleach Ichigo-Orihime-Aizen triangle, the dynamics could be interesting, although there won't be any rapey nonsense involved and will be more of a Nick Leafa conspiracy to get Kirito to notice her.

On another note, I realised in the SAO Memory Defrag game that I don't have a single Leafa.

Not a single one. Not even the lowest rarity Leafa... I'm completely Leafa-less. Seriously, what the fuck.

On the other hand, I have three Lisbeth's. Ninja, Ordinal Scale and ALO Liz... I don't even know anymore. Fuck my Real Life E-Rank Luck.

So yeah, here's some Yuuki and Leafa ALO shenanigans while expanding on the world outside.

Some answers: Shiori was chosen as Argo's name earlier on due to her VA, I didn't know someone else used it yet, and if I did I probably forgot, lol my memory sucks. Argo, eh, she works better with Kirito, honestly. Although her more amoral family would get along swimmingly with Nick. Persona 5 characters will be there, but certain details of the plot will be very different. There is no Igor, but who ever said that someone couldn't take that place or even create Persona's in the first place?

ALO Side: Yuuki and Leafa

"Swimsuits huh… isn't it too early for that sort of thing? I think there's about a month to summer vacation but, then again, I don't think it counts if you're in Aincrad."

Yuuki didn't particularly want to go watch everyone have fun under the sun through the various streams, although that had more to do with her prior engagement.

Unlike the last timeline, Yuuki wasn't afraid of making other friends outside their circle since she was confident that Nick would get around to healing them all quicker this time.

Her older sister Aiko was doing her own thing somewhere.

Merida and the others were doing a whole bunch of stuff, like grinding.

Yuuki kind of cheated since Nick had bought over ALO the last time around and pretty much gave her the walkthrough to some quests generated to a certain point. Somethings don't change even when the past is changed it seems.

Sure she didn't ask for the walkthrough… but he tricked her into thinking that she went and met certain NPC's in her own 'free will' with certain word tricks plus other stuff that 'happened' to lead to the best quests.

Yuuki skipped around the large tree she was waiting under, musing about various other things to pass the time.

She found it interesting that ALO was created so early, she remembered it only being made at the end of the year but perhaps the streaming had something to do with it.

Perhaps the extra look into SAO allowed the misogynistic bastard running the whole game to make and market it faster.

She vaguely remembered looking up the internet and reading some claims that people should play ALO to 'empathize' with SAO victims, but that sounded really stupid to her.

There were some interesting speculations on the identities of certain SAO players that weren't already obvious thanks to certain 'anons' claiming so and so is actually a classmate or that sort of thing.

Yuuki manoeuvred the internet screen that was part of the Amusphere's function (rather than a part of ALO) and was browsing through some forums, frowning as people were joking about 'Sex Acts Online' after Kirigaya Kazuto's / Kirito's stream had several minutes of an actual blowjob.

Apparently his sister must have been too shocked to have disconnected it, that, or she was busy.

Who knows? Nick might know but he dislikes giving 'spoilers' simply to see her shocked face when she figures something out.

The forum she was on was run by a subsidiary of Shigemura Labs, that was made specifically for video streaming, commentary, and discussing of SAO specific topics.

It's audience was typically global although 40% of the discussions were in Japanese while the rest were in Mandarin and English, with a few other languages here and there.

The most interesting streams and clips were subtitled in different languages and uploaded onto Youtube, before people would come over to comment and discuss over the website ran by Yuuna's father and associates.

It was always fun for Yuuki, who had been forcefully 'taught' foreign languages by her husband, to see the difference in comments.

Like Nick said, the actions and values across America and Japan can be totally different.

Let's see, scroll through the 'Kirito's new 'sword' skill' jokes, more hentai art online and varied acronyms later… she found the slightly buried and less active forum.

Specifically, she looked through the thread titled "References and Meme's from NickLZH, compilation".

Slowly, jotting them down on another of her notepad apps.

Yuuki needed to go watch or read wherever the references came from.

It was part of a good wife's duty to know more about her husband's references, so she tells herself.

"Hmm, 'You're locked in here with me', that's Watchmen. Mmm, okay, watch the director's cut. Got it." Yuuki typed it as she wrote down more references while scrolling down the 'Gamatatsu slime jail' and 'Since when were you under the impression that…' dramatic memes.

At this point, quite a bit of Nick's quotes from that manga that didn't exist in this world had become popular quotes. Although the ones he said were from 'Aizen' were now viral due to how it could applied anywhere.

"Yaaah!"

Yuuki heard a panicked scream from somewhere, until she heard the typical sound of someone that forgotten the flight time limit and crashed into a tree.

"Eh?" Yuuki turned around and saw a green-clad blonde haired Sylph slide onto the grass along the tree trunk.

"Ah! Leafa-chan! You made it!" Yuuki happily helped her friend and fellow 'independent' players.

Neither of them were big on the whole quest in the 'Grand Quest' nonsense, although whilst Leafa was eager for unlimited flight, the whole race based factions were stifling to her.

Through some Luck that Yuuki guessed was from Nick's Luck sharing skill, and through some perseverance, she convinced Leafa to party up and be her friend… they were kind of, but not really, so called 'renegades' but whatever.

"Hwaawa!" Her friend was clearly suffering under some dizziness effect.

"What's wrong? Do you need a healing potion?"

"I-I'm okay now. Haha… everything is oookaaayyy."

Yuuki tilted her head while crossing her arms. "Something definitely isn't okay."

And that's when she saw Nick (via Kyoka Suigetsu), standing right behind Leafa holding up a sign that said 'Kirito is going to see swimsuits'.

O-oooohhhhh… now the whole Kirito fan-boying by Leafa made a lot of sense. Along with all the other hints plus Kirito's own hints about having a sister.

Yuuki recalled that Leafa took frequent breaks to post things against the Kirito bashers even during quests.

Such dedication makes sense now.

"Are you worried that your favorite Black Swordsman is going to see his harem in swimsuits?" Yuuki smiled brightly as she directly asked Leafa, whose eyes became white as the pale shocked in-game expression activated.

"W-wha-Yuuki! I don't... I don't see what that has got to do with this."

"Hmm, okay!" Yuuki dismissed after Leafa's fervent denial that gave way to some lifelessness in a few moments.

"Come on, it's that way." Yuuki pulled Leafa along to the small hole in a mountain that would lead to a dungeon. It was supposedly a small but tough dungeon, but she had a plan for that.

At the side, she said to the illusion Nick following her and Leafa, "What are you up to? Here to see little old me?"

The Nick that only she could see and hear right now was clearly using Kyoka Suigetsu to ensure the Leafa didn't hear anything out of the ordinary.

Leafa, having watched many of the streams, would have already saw Kyoka Suigetsu, hence she was under [Complete Hypnosis]'s effect.

Nick smiled and walked alongside her.

"Why certainly! Although, while the 'little' part is true, I can't say the same about the 'old'." He pleasantly made small talk as per usual.

"Isn't that a good thing? You're a big enough deviant to think having a middle school girl like me as a wife is a turn on, right?" Yuuki grinned and started poking the illusion Nick's sides, even if he can't feel it, it makes them both feel better to pretend that they are right next to each other.

He made an aghast expression. "Yuuki, how could you? Implying I'm some sort of pervert and pedophile. If we counted all that extra time in the illusion barriers plus your extra half a year here, you're certainly over 18."

"No way! Those months and years cramming training and everything can't be considered living!"

"Oh? What happened to living your life to the fullest? Surely the pain of studying counts."

"But it's sooo harddd… and really, Japanese History was useless. I liked the Fascism in Europe topic more than that."

"Careful now. No knowledge is useless, unless you're unable to make use of it, that is."

He admonished her, wagging his finger like scolding a child. All in good humor, of course.

"Heehh… those monsters guarding the hallway look really tough Yuuki. With all the things going on IRL I don't think I trained my stats enough." Leafa told Yuuki as they hid behind a corner.

"Ah, I get that. Don't worry! Normally I don't like sneaking around but this is an exception, Ta-da!" Yuuki took out two potions from her inventory.

"Their potions." Leafa blandly stated.

"Whoever said that potions could only recover HP and MP?"

"No one."

"Yeah yeah, these are two bonafide [Potions of Invisibility]! We're going to sneak our way to the treasure room!"

"Oh… are you sure that isn't poison? I see purple smoke rising up…"

"Come on Leafa-chan! It's perfectly safe! Probably!"

10 seconds later...

"Ohhh! I should have brought a drink item with me! Bleh! Disgusting…" Leafa complained as she was rubbing her tongue with her fingers, trying to get the taste off.

"Gack! This is worse than the time I tried to make a fruit smoothie…" Yuuki, who was now invisible, was grumbling while licking the stone wall to get the taste off.

"Speaking of that fruit smoothie, that is exactly why I banned you from the kitchen." Nick nonchalantly mentioned as he looked amused from his end.

"No you didn't! I cooked plenty of times after that!" Yuuki denied.

"I only let you because you were cooking with only an Apron on. Who am I to stop you?"

"Wha- Hmm, no wonder…" Yuuki trailed off.

"Eh? Yuuki, what are you talking about?" Leafa seemed to have heard Yuuki talking.

Yuuki pouted, Nick was playing tricks on her again to make her sound schizophrenic.

"Nothing, anyways… it's sneaky ninja time! Nin Nin!"

"Ah?! I mean, Nin Nin!"

Leafa copied Yuuki as they clumsily stumbled their way through the dungeon without killing a single monster.

They eventually reached the treasure room, there was some weird NPC waiting at the end telling them about some super awesome armour for anyone that opens the treasure chest before disappearing.

"Eh? It's a Mystery Equip, does that mean we have to go to town for an appraisal?" Leafa didn't look the slightest bit eager for that.

"I don't think so, look! It says the item can be revealed if we equip it on. And we can see the stats already, wow, this looks like end game equipment. Lucky!" Yuuki read the flavor text and showed Leafa her menu, not holding back the excitement of getting such good gear so early into ALO's release.

"Oh! Well, then we just gotta try it on then! Me first!" Leafa selected the mystery equip and slid it to her character screen.

In an instant her equipment had been swapped.

In contrast to the high defensive and offensive power offered by the equipment… it didn't look like a powerful piece of equipment at all.

A typical male otaku that has played even a single game with the Himekishi (Princess Knight) trope would recognize this style of Armour.

Leafa found herself wearing a green and gold bikini held up by small black straps, two pairs of metal pauldrons on her shoulders and hips, white battle dress originating from the pauldrons at her hips that failed to cover her front, white gold knee-length greaves and black panties with green gold armor at the center of it.

Needless to say, this was Bikini Armour.

Such a thing should not have been discounted from a game ran by Sugou Nobuyuki, wannabe rapist extraordinaire.

Yuuki watched, shocked at how revealing the armor was, and covered her face.

"L-Leafa-chan, you might want to close your eyes and change your clothes."

"H-huh? What are you talking abo...about… oh… AHHHH!" The blonde busty Sylph immediately crouched down and covered her front with one hand in order to hide as much skin as possible.

She attempted to unequipped the armor, only to find that the system stated that it couldn't be unequipped for 24 hours from when it was first equipped.

"I guess it counts as 'cursed' armor then?" Yuuki added.

"'Cursed' my ass, this is great. I can't believe there's actually something I wouldn't punch Suguo for… on second thought, he just embarrassed Kazuto's sister so I should go punch him for that." Nick mused at the side, using Yuuki's vision, he had already seen what he needed to see and was clearly delighted.

"I'll lodge a GM report! How can this be allowed! Isn't the Ethics Code permanently on or something!?" Leafa continued to cry out in her little shell.

"Eh… if you see what Alicia and Sakuya wears this isn't so different you know? Ah! I know! We can run over to my home, it should be safe to log out there. And it isn't too far from here!" Yuuki suggested optimistically.

Leafa with tears in her eyes, shook her head. "I don't wanna run nearly naked! They don't even let me equip anything to cover up. What if some player screenshots me? I heard there are even spells used for scouting, oh no oh no, what do I do?"

Nick held up a sign that said 'Give confidence! Ganbatte!'

Yuuki thought for awhile, before deciding that she needed to push Leafa to get out of her funk.

She equipped the no longer mystery equip for herself.

Yuuki found herself equipped with a similar ensemble, except her bikini armor was mainly purple with gold highlights. Instead of a purple bikini, she had a black bra attached with metal purple armor over it.

"Yessss! Just as Planned!" Her husband cheered at the side, causing Yuuki to blush bashfully, although she didn't attempt to cover herself.

"Y-yuuki? Why did you put it on!?" Leafa looked confused, until Yuuki grabbed her hands with her own.

"Ahaha! Well, if we're going to run through Alfheim showing so much skin then we may as well do it together, right? What are friends for?"

"... Only you Yuuki… Yosh! We gotta fly fast, got it?"

"Yes Maam!" Yuuki saluted Leafa as they were going to make a brave attempt at exiting the dungeon and making it back home without anyone seeing them.

"Such camaraderie… commendable. But Yuuki, you seem to be forgetting that you have more [Potions of Invisibility]." She heard her husband speak to her, only, she saw that Leafa had also noticed.

Eh!? Did Nick suddenly decide to become 'visible' for Leafa? Oh, he changed his appearance slightly to add pointy ears, but otherwise, he looked nearly the same as he does when wearing what he called the 'Ghost Mexico' outfit. (Hueco Mundo)

"W-who are you?" Leafa held out her sword, in preparation.

Considering that this was a PvP focused game, it would be a reasonable assumption to consider most players in different territories hostile.

"Who am I? Why don't I let my darling wife answer that for me?" Nick had a smug smile as he looked at Yuuki for a moment.

"Oh! Ah, Leafa, this is N- I mean um…" She wracked her head for a name to giveaway, this was one of Nick's sudden pop quizzes again and… oh!

"Aizen Sosuke. Yeah, that's the name you're using this time around. Leafa, meet Aizen Sosuke, my husband. Sosuke, this is Leafa. Wow, I love bringing people together! Ahahaha!" Yuuki introduced them to each other, although only Leafa was out of the loop as only Yuuki knew the full extent of his likeness to that individual from another world.

"Husband…? Oh, so we're all friends then!" Leafa sheathed her sword in relief, momentarily forgetting that she was still in Bikini Armour.

"Certainly so. It's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Leafa." Before she realized it, Leafa had the back of her hand kissed by the man.

"E-ehh?!"

Ignoring her reaction, Nick turned to Yuuki and began talking about something else.

Specifically, he opened a party invite through his power.

"I thought you needed to be in the same area to add people?" Yuuki asked Nick, knowing that Nick wouldn't let Leafa hear such topics.

Unlike Han Jee Han's [The Gamer] power, Nick couldn't add people from anywhere across the world to his party. There were differences with their power.

Nick's could be silently operated through thought, in contrast to Jee Han's need to voice out most of his commands or touch certain areas, although in terms of spellcasting, Nick couldn't just say the name of a skill as a shortcut and needed to go through the right processes of a spell.

Nick couldn't add people to his party on a global range, but was compensated by getting telepathic communication in contrast to Jee Han's loud voice chat.

"To be more specific, I needed eye contact. With Kyoka Suigetsu activated through Leafa I could add you through her vision. Also, as the Party System and my power is powered through my spirit, by extension, my spirit would be touching upon yours which means…"

"Connected buffs and magic spells would work, you mean… ah! Can we do it? Can we? You know, connect with each other again and-" Yuuki excitedly blabbered on, her decent enough knowledge of magic and Nick's own motives lead her to the conclusion on what he was going to talk about.

"Yes, and I wished I had the time to do so now but I will need to prepare some items for a long range ritual like this. So wait for me just a bit longer my love."

"Alright!"

Yes, she could wait a little longer until their souls were bonded, no... married to one another again. He always did talk about doing it the proper way the first time around in this timeline.

At any event, they made lots of small talk with Nick deflecting questions about how similar he looked and talked to the NickLZH in SAO, saying that it was mere coincidence.

Through the potions, they made it back to Yuuki's home safe and sound.

Yuuki went ahead to get some drinks ready for her guests, Aiko would have prepared some and left it in storage.

Leafa was looking at the clock, a little depressed at both the Bikini Armour event and her brother's summer harem event.

"Why the long face, my dear?" Nick asked in concern, albeit, he already knew her concerns.

"O-oh? Sorry. I was just thinking about my baka Onii-chan."

"Hmm, he sounds rather troublesome."

"Yeah, but he's the best brother. He's really brave, kind, considerate and…" Leafa ended up listing a whole bunch of stuff she loved about her brother (who she learnt was actually her cousin earlier).

"Sure he's a perverted womanizer but there's a lot of things I love him...for…" She made a sad expression once again as she realised how difficult it would be if she even tried this time around.

"Hmm, you know Leafa, somethings are worth fighting for. I may not fully understand your situation but you shouldn't give up just because it's hard."

"I know but…" Her excuses were cut short as the man she knew as Aizen Sosuke was suddenly in front of her.

"A girl like you should smile more often." He said to her, smiling as moved his face close to her own.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, the man's gentle touch trailed across her shoulder.

The image of the man brushed his faux warm hand up the delicate skin of her neck.

'W-wha? Why couldn't she move?' She thought to herself, not knowing the myriad repertoire of [Monologue], [Speech] and [Attention Grabbing] related skills were forcing her to pay attention and not react to his words just yet.

"Overcast skies blot out the sun, and that always brings people's spirits down."

His hand was now on her cheek, he tilted her head with it to make her look at him.

And like a broken doll, she did nothing. Or rather, she couldn't do anything.

"So why not let the sun shine...For just a while longer?"

As he finished his words, he pulled back and continued walking on as if nothing had occurred.

Leafa stood there, her mind blank for a few seconds before her thoughts caught up with her.

Before she knew it, he had exited the door with Yuuki following him from behind.

"I'm not sure if that was nice or mean." Yuuki made a small frown.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I was simply encouraging and educating her on the merits of smiling. It would be a waste if such a beautiful smile was wasted on a downcast expression."

"Hmm, maybe. I know your heart is set on helping her and Kirito get together but… you shouldn't mess with her feelings like that."

"I know, I like to think that I'm simply teasing her but I also need to plan things out. By the time Kirito gets out of SAO he will have found a balance of some sort with his harem, which will make it difficult for Leafa to break in. And I… will have to play a bit of a villain role, he'll have to realise that he has to fight for his sister's happiness, of course, I will make sure anything I plan will be perfectly consensual."

"Why do I get the feeling this will be a scenario right out of a Shoujo manga?"

"Because I did pluck out such a scenario from a Shoujo manga… Anyways, talk to you later, my dear. I got an appointment to keep."

Nick kissed Yuuki on the lips goodbye as he focused his attentions back in SAO for the lake trip.

Leafa burst out of Yuuki's home entrance.

"Yuuki! I think your husband is cheating on you, I mean, he's trying to cheat on you with me!"

Now how was she going to solve this? Stupid Nick, leaving her with the aftermath.