Kazuto had spent many weeks in the TAD section. He helped them with updating the system computers and making them compatible with the VRMMO section. He would have to work even harder, to make it, so they could accommodate Augmented Reality adaption. Given his experiences working with it, he might be up to the task. No one else had any prior knowledge. Some resistance, they turned out to be.
His assigned assistant would bring him everything he needed, so he wouldn't have to leave the lab.
The single boys were bunked with other single boys, and single girls, with other single girls. There were up to twelve accommodated by each bunker. Kazuto was assigned a separate room of his own, because despite Hyme's decision to trust him, the other people, mostly picked on him, for being 'responsible' for the mess, the world is in.
Sometimes Kazuto even wondered how much Hyme trusts him, either. Even though, he isn't being forced, he feels like he is being kept away from his friends. He hadn't seen Asuna since his assignment. Not to mention, he felt like he was being watched by his assistant.
He was told to keep his work under wraps, just in case. Hyme would come down for a daily report and Kazuto would constantly have to tell him, progress was slow.
When he thought about their plan to destroy Augmented Reality, he was reminded that Yui was being compromised by these actions. He didn't want to lose her, when they had finally got so close. He kept thinking about how to avoid that outcome, by any way possible. But in doing so, he only dragged on his updating and progression, longer.
They were expecting him to use the system admin privileges to override the system. To do that, they would need to have access to the main frame. That is why they were putting so much pressure on Kazuto, to get it done.
They had no idea how long they had, before towers would be placed throughout these forests. There would be nowhere to hide, if that should come to pass.
Asuna hadn't seen Kazuto in weeks or months. Time didn't really measure anymore. No one kept track.
She was worried and asked the guards if she could see him, but they told her, that she was not authorized to be in that division. She gave a guard a letter to give to Kazuto, but the guard, just gave it back to her. He told her that nothing can go in or out of that sector, to prevent compromising their efforts.
She felt like they were keeping her away from Kazuto on purpose. Maybe, she was just paranoid.
Cooking, day and day out, was tiring. At least, everyone was grateful for her personal touch. Though, they grew accustomed to her food and started expect it.
As she stared at the burners, stirring the soup, she wondered to herself, if things would ever be normal again. Not just for people to return to everyday living, but her and her friends, would they be able to continue on, like nothing ever happened? Somehow, she doubted it. What kind of effect will this have on everyone? Would it hit everyone as hard as Kazuto, or harder? While she was thinking on the subject, she wondered if Kazuto got over it at all. He has been known to push through things and mope about it, later. Maybe, he is just being strong, right now, because he has to be… Or maybe he isn't holding together as well, as she hopes… It isn't like she has seen him in a while.
She overhears people talking about Kirito, almost everyday, in the morning whispers. Like they have any clue, what they are talking about. They don't even know him. The real him. She wondered sometimes, if Kazuto was still under their control. She didn't think it were possible, because he fought them, in the end. He finally woke up and smelled the flowers.
A woman took the soup away from her. "What gives? It's done already! People are starving!"
Asuna quickly grabbed the ladle and followed behind. "I'm sorry. I got a little carried away." Asuna joined her at the dishing station. She always wondered why they brought everything to the tables, rather than letting the people dish themselves up. She figured it was to give people something to occupy their time and feel useful, so they wait on others. It wasn't like there were a ton of jobs around here. People might start going crazy, not doing anything.
Now that she was thinking about it, weren't there any cooks down here, or did they strike the most plain, boring, useless people, they could find?
All the sudden, there was some commotion going on in the mess hall, that grabbed her attention. She had to investigate.
Kazuto was sitting at his computer, for the umpteenth hour. He finished clearing more codes and starting up successful programs. If he knew he was going to be tested on VRMMOs and Augmas, like this, he would have studied even harder in school. This would be classified as the toughest college exam of the century.
He finished the last bit of his coffee and placed it on the desk. His eyes barely holding, as if he stayed awake for a week. He felt the rumble in his stomach.
It didn't take any time at all, for his trusty assistant, to take his mug and offer to get them lunch.
"Saja. I appreciate it, but I think I can get it, this time." Kazuto stood up.
"Don't be insane! I'm the one, not doing anything! Let me be of use, I'm begging you." Saja insisted Kazuto take his seat.
"I would like to have some fresh air. If I stay in this room any longer, I will lose my mind."
"Outside, you say? I suppose it is a bit stuffy in here."
Kazuto allowed the hope to rise, inside of him. Maybe he wasn't a prisoner, after all. "You're telling me."
"I will bring your request to Hyme."
"What? Is that really necessary?" Kazuto couldn't believe that a simple break would have to be cleared with the man in charge.
"I have to make sure that you are undisturbed. Your division is classified. People aren't supposed to know about your involvement in this." Saja explained.
"Is it because of my involvement with the Augmented Reality presentations?"
"Yeah. People don't really trust you. People are on edge, as it is. There would be a riot in here. The resistance would fall apart. With the new Augma towers being placed in the east of the forest, everyone knows we are running out of time." Saja put a hand on Kazuto's shoulder. "We are all counting on you. Don't let us done!" Saja turned to leave in a pursuit for lunch and Kazuto's coffee.
Kazuto placed his head on the desk. 'What if I can't… do it…?' He held his head firmly in his hands, as the pressure on him, increased exponentially.
He needed a break, but could he really afford one? He wanted to see Asuna, but was denied any opportunities.
Kazuto stopped Saja from leaving. "Let me see Asuna! I won't type in another code, until I do." He knew this is the only way, they would take him seriously.
"Kazuto! You can't! You're our last hope, man! You quit on us and you have doomed us all!"
"If I am really that important, than I don't see there being any problems, with meeting my request. Please. Let me see her!" Kazuto didn't mean to sound so desperate, but he wasn't sure how much more, he could take.
Saja's tone was lined with sympathy. "I'll do what I can." He turned and left. He returned in a short time. "Kazuto. Hyme and Lazzari want to see you. They say it is important."
"Can I see Asuna?"
"They want you right away. You should hurry." Saja wore a solemn expression.
Kazuto halfheartedly, did as directed.
Saki entered with Varina in tow, followed by Kazuto, shortly after.
Kazuto's eyes met Vari's and it felt like they hadn't seen each other, in forever.
They would have talked or exchanged a greeting at the very least, but Hyme and Lazzari sought out their attention.
"You are probably wondering why we called you here. It is because we have to discuss some issues. First things first, our information has told me, that not only, do we have a boy who worked for the man we are at war with, it has come to my attention, we are also harbouring that very man's daughter." Lazzari glared at Vari and watched her tremble. "Just what else are you keeping from us?!"
"Don't blame Varina! She has done a lot for our cause." Kazuto defended.
"Give me one good reason, why I shouldn't bounce the two of you, back out of these gates!" Hyme grew more angry.
Lazzari turned to Hyme. "Like it or not, we need Kazuto. That girl however, is useless to us."
Kazuto became furious. "You would throw her out, because she doesn't provide a significance in this war! I thought you were here to help those, who resisted! Isn't that the whole point of your operation?!"
"If she is a spy…" Lazzari accused.
"I'm not." Varina found her voice.
Kazuto was already used to people looking down on him and talking behind his back. It was even worse than the days, he was labelled a 'beater'. He sympathised for Vari.
"I can provide to your cause." Varina stepped in front of Kazuto. "I have someone on the inside. She is working as my double agent. I can get in contact with her. She will be able to shed light on the current situation. She might even be able to provide me, a window of opportunity to stop them, once and for all."
Kazuto grabbed her arm, so she would face him. He whispered, "What are you doing? Rosalia? Are you mad?"
Hyme approached her. "How do you intend to do that?"
Varina turned to Kazuto. "Kazuto? Do you think you can make that possible?"
"Yeah… but I am not sure that's-"
"It's a chance. We need to try." Vari was filled with confidence, that surprised Kazuto.
"I hope you know, what you're doing." Kazuto turned back to the others.
Lazzari smiled. "Can you patch it through here?" She pointed to a large screen, hanging off the rock wall, positioned perfectly, for optimum view of everyone, who the conference table would have seated.
Kazuto pulled out his laptop and proceeded to synchronize several programs with the large monitor. After a moment, Rosalia came into view. Kazuto felt the nerves starting to circuit, from being on edge, with this whole ordeal.
Rosalia glanced at the unfamiliar faces and then her eyes landed on Varina. "I didn't know if I would ever hear from you again."
"Rosalia? Did you manage to do anything useful, while I was gone?" Varina remained as calm as she could.
"As a matter of fact, Princess, I did." Rosalia smirked at her.
"I would like the return of my system admin."
"I can't do that, I'm afraid." Rosalia didn't even lose her smile, while saying that. It was like she was trying to piss Kazuto off. "I had no choice but to hand it over to my employers. If I hadn't, I wouldn't be here right now."
"So you accomplished nothing!" Kazuto sneered. "And what's worse, you gave them more power over the system!"
"Wrong again, Black Swordsman. I have all the files you need, to lock these men away, for a very long time. I know all their names and handles, too." Rosalia turned back to Varina. "I also know the location of where they are keeping, your dear sweet daddy." Rosalia mocked, then turned to Kazuto again. "I hope you're being a good boy, and not wearing your Augma." She enjoyed hassling him. "You wear it now and you can kiss your entire operation, good-bye."
Kazuto felt like he would burst out in a rage soon. How dare she toy with him, in a time like this!
"I know what they plan to do, once they get their hands on your half of the system admin, too."
"Half?" Kazuto and Varina both stared at her blankly.
"That's right. Kazuli split it in half, to prevent the traitors from finding it. I don't want to get too deep, but you should know… They get their hands on your half, Black Swordsman, you can forget about having a home to come back to." Rosalia warned. "I will patch through the data."
He heard a notification on the laptop, with a bunch of files streaming onto it. Kazuto quickly examined it. His face regained some color. "This could work…" He muttered to himself.
"One more thing." Rosalia grabbed their attention. "They mention a little girl being their undoing, or something stupid like that. If they are that worried about it, it is definitely worth looking into."
"...Yui…" Kazuto muttered under his breath.
"That's the one. I can see you know about her." Rosalia continued to ignore the leaders.
"What did they say about her?! Tell me!" Kazuto stormed up to the screen.
"They keep that secret pretty close. You're lucky I was able to hear about it, at all. Relax. The girl is some kind of program. She isn't human." Rosalia sloughed it off, because of how worked up, Kazuto was over it.
That made Kazuto even more infuriated. He clicked the disconnect button and watched the screen go black.
"What now? I want to view the files that you have received. I want to know everything there is, about this girl, Yui, too." Hyme stressed.
"You want a plan! I know someone who is capable of putting a stop to all of this! My father." Varina studied Kazuto's face to see if he would agree.
"Not going to happen." Hyme shot her down.
Kazuto turned to him. "She's right. He will know how to stop it. He knows more about this Reality, than anyone."
"I am not going to risk the security of these people, over the man responsible for this, in the first place." Hyme roared.
"Then I will go." Kazuto added, "Alone."
Lazzari became furious, which was unlike her. "Are you nuts! You are the one, who holds the key and you plan to storm into their hideout and take their leader!"
"Prisoner. And I can do it. I can…" He really didn't want to say these words, but it called for it. "Get Rosalia's help, from the inside."
"Then I'm going, too!" Varina volunteered. "I don't want to hear of it, Kazuto. Someone has to make sure, daddy doesn't get his way, all the time."
"B-but… I am the one, who has the means to fight."
"So? I am the one, who has a grand protector. I don't need a weapon." Varina winked at Kazuto.
Kazuto was unimpressed, but as usual, there was no arguing with her on this. "Then you better do what I tell you and stay out of the way."
"Come on! What are we waiting for?" Varina grabbed Kazuto's hand and dragged him out of the conference room and towards the front gates.
Kazuto stopped her. "There is something I need to do, first. Will you wait for me?"
Lazzari spoke into the speaker on the front of the conference table. "If Kazuto and Varina leave, they are no longer permitted here." She straightened out and stepped towards her husband.
Hyme could barely stay calm. "Let's just stop them." His eyes were glazed over, with sorrow and anguish.
"They want freedom to chose. They will only turn against us, if we oppress them. You know about this." Lazzari didn't like it either.
"It would be bad news, to have them all show up here. Kazuli will turn on us. We would just be dooming ourselves."
"Is Haven complete?" Lazzari asked, hoping it was.
"Not yet, but I don't think we can afford to wait here, any longer. I think it is time to evacuate."
"What of the girl, Asuna? And Kazuto never told us about Yui. Maybe, she might know."
"She will accompany us to Haven."
"What if she refuses? She has been asking a lot of questions about Kazuto."
"We can cross that bridge, when we come to it." Hyme noticed someone at the door. "Come in, Saja. Did Kazuto manage to get into Augmented Reality?"
"I believe so." Saja responded.
"Good. We will hook up the destruct frequency to its core and create a chain reaction, that should fry every Augma at once." Hyme explained.
"B-but sir? If you do that, then… won't it fry the users' brains?!" Saja became frantic.
"You must understand… Saja. It is already too late for them. We need to consider who we can save and who we can't." Hyme spoke with a heavy heart. "The Augma sickness is getting worse. We can't fight it, forever. This is our only hope, to save this world."
Saja felt like his heart might explode. "...No… There has to be another way! Kazuto is out there looking for another solution. We-"
"No. We can't rely on Kazuto any more. He is already lost to us." Lazzari spoke wryly. "He worked for the men responsible, so it isn't like we could really trust him, anyways. It is better if he stays out of it."
"You think Kazuto would betray us?" Saja asked.
"I believe that boy would do anything, to save the people he cares about." Hyme answered, before pressing the communications button, under the conference table.
Hyme addressed Saki, who entered. "Keep Kirito away from Asuna! Do not let her leave! The other two… let them go!"
Saki bowed and left.
"Why are you keeping Asuna? What use is she?" Saja asked in confusion, but more importantly, in frustration.
"If there is another way, the answer may lie with her."
Asuna headed towards the commotion.
"Everybody, pack your things! We are leaving for Haven. We need some good strong backs to assist with moving the equipment. Everyone else, be at the gate in an hour!" Saki announced.
Asuna had to find Kazuto and Varina. Something burned inside, like a fear, that somehow, she was going to lose them again. She grabbed a guard's attention. "Excuse me. I need to know where Kazuto is. Have you seen him?"
"I see a lot of people, ma'am. You can't expect me to keep track of every face, I see." The guard retorted.
Fine then, she was just going to have to describe Kazuto to him. "He has short black hair and black eyes."
"Sorry, lady. Haven't seen him."
"Thanks…" Asuna's eyes landed on two guards whispering to each other, suspiciously. Then the one guard approached her.
"You need to come with me."
"Are you going to take me to Kazuto?" Asuna glared at him.
"Kazuto has left already, so it would be wise, if you cooperate." He spoke a little more casually, "Look you don't need to be worried. They just want you to help with a few things. Nothing horrible I'm sure."
"Alright. Where do I go?" Asuna couldn't believe that Kazuto would leave, without saying anything to her.
She was pointed in the direction of the conference room. When she left, she had just missed Kazuto, for he came to find her, despite what he was told.
Kazuto entered the mess hall. He ignored the dirty looks and angry faces. He hastened towards the kitchen staff. "Excuse me! I was looking for Asuna. It's kind of urgent."
"She's not here. You just missed her." The disgruntled cook gave him a snide look.
"Do you know where she went?" Kazuto tried to remain hopeful.
"No. Are you going to take your plate, or do I need to shove it down your throat?" She turned to the waiter. "NEXT!"
It wasn't like he wasn't used to being treated like this, but they could at least, pretend they have a heart. Reluctantly, Kazuto left towards his room and took his SAO gear. He scanned the area for Asuna, everywhere but couldn't find her. He started to worry.
"Took you long enough!" Varina grabbed his arm. "Let's go!"
"Asuna… Have you seen her? She wasn't at the mess hall."
"I knew it. You wanted to say good-bye. That's sweet." She made dreamy eyes.
"If you knew Asuna, as well as I do, you would know she hates it, when she is kept out of the loop." Kazuto explained.
"That may be. But it will get dark soon. We have to leave. Why don't you just right her a note. I am sure, the guards will give it to her, for you." Vari suggested. Then her smile turned mischievous and in a cheeky manner, she accused, "Unless, you're wanting her to come with us."
"I would rather have her stay safe." Kazuto remembered the last time he asked her to stay out of it, she mentioned she would kill herself, if he died. He better not die then. But in a way, he really did want Asuna to come. He hadn't seen her in a while and he missed her.
He knew that Varina was right though. They had to leave before it got any later. He finally settled on writing Asuna a note. He approached the guard at the gate. "Could you give this to Asuna?" He handed the guard the letter.
"Sure, kid."
Kazuto paused for a moment, wondering if this was going to be the last time, her said anything to Asuna. If something bad happened… Kazuto shook those thoughts away and followed Varina out of the gates and into the forest, once they left the cave entrance.