Suguha returned home after yet another long day of school and kendo practice. Leafa had been strangely silent as of late, but at this point she was glad not to hear the increasingly risque demands regarding Kazuto. She made her usual trudge through the house to her room.
"Hello Suguha!" Yui looked up from her manga, as Suguha entered her room. She was about to grumble a response before realizing that Yui was completely naked. On instinct she covered her eyes and stammered.
"W-what the heck are you doing?"
"Just reading this manga I found." Yui casually turned a page "The pacing is really slow…"
"Not that! Why are you naked?"
"Oh that! It turns out the dress for my human form is an actual dress that I can take off. So I'm just enjoying the freedom of nudity," Yui gave her a cute smile that greatly contrasted with the scene before Suguha. "Why? Nudity within the comfort of home is perfectly safe."
"It's not just a matter of safety!" Suguha eyed Yui's dress on the floor, as well as a pair of white panties (AIs wear panties too, you lolicons.) "Humans aren't exactly comfortable around other naked humans," she tried to conceal her blush. "Unless of course they're in love or something; but you're way too young for that kind of thing!"
"Why is that? Does my body offend you in some way?" Yui asked.
Suguha was about to answer when the weight of Yui's words dawned on her. Did her nudity offend her in some way? The last time she checked, Suguha wasn't intimidated or aroused by the body of an eight-year-old, and she certainly wasn't envious.
"Well… no," she answered.
"Do you feel embarrassed or humiliated?"
"I don't… think so," Suguha thought harder.
"Are you sure this isn't just because you aren't used to seeing a naked child in your room?" Yui grinned, matter-of-factly.
Suguha let out a sigh. A social construct or not, she just couldn't argue with Yui's logic. Besides, she wasn't exactly keen on arguing with anyone today.
"Alright, you win Yui. Just make sure no one sees your or something bad might happen,"
"Okay!" Yui turned another page. "Say, maybe you should strip!"
"What?" Suguha began to blush incredibly hard. She'd never thought she'd ever be asked to strip by what appeared to be a young girl who was also naked. That phrase sounded even worse now that she thought about it.
"We're both mature enough to control ourselves," said Yui. "And besides, I think it might be able to help you with your Leafa problem,"
"How, exactly?" she asked.
"Leafa's an extension of you, right? Maybe you're on bad terms with her because you secretly have a problem with yourself. And my algorithms say that nudity is the best way to build up self-acceptance!"
"I…" Suguha was even more lost for words. Everything Yui said made sense, yet it just seemed so… taboo. Then again, what was she supposed to accept from what was essentially a mental health database in the body of a little girl.
"No one has to know about it. It can be just between you and me," Yui genuinely smiled. Suguha sighed in defeat.
"I guess if you can't trust a super-advanced computer program, who can you trust?" She began to swiftly unbutton her shirt.
A little later…
"You know, I thought you were crazy, Yui," Suguha said, filling in each math problem. "But you were right, I feel way better without my clothes!"
Yep, she's buck naked. And we're the only ones who know about it.
"I know, right?" Yui laughed, putting her manga back on the shelf.
"And that's the last equation!" Suguha closed her book. "Now for Sword Art Online!"
She took her NerveGear off her desk and hopped into bed. Yui slipped her dress back on and went into Kazuto's room.
"Link Start!"
Much much later...
Kayaba idly clicked about on various screens, checking the status of the numerous AIs and neural networks.
"Let's see what my secret weapon is up to…"
He opened a live feed for his AI, and to his surprise, he saw both Yui and Strea in the game.
"WHAT?!" he closed the rest of his displays and focused on the programs. "This is perfect! System Command: Disable MHCP001 and MHCP002,"
Nothing happened.
Kayaba let out a sigh.
"Of course, they must be using the servers through a PC with a firewall. No matter, I'll have my secret weapon take them for me,"
Yui and Strea were watching a boy hack away at a large tree. While the scene appeared innocent enough, their expressions read otherwise.
"So cruel…" said Yui.
The boy's axe dug into the side of the tree.
"Yet so disturbing…" said Strea.
He pulled it back and repeated the action.
"Eternally doomed to attempt a task that can never be completed…"
"Blissfully unaware of his horrific fate…"
"And never experiencing true happiness…"
"Oh hey there!" said the boy, in between strikes. "Are you looking for Lumberjack Orick?"
"Oh no!" Yui said. "We're just… watching you cut that tree,"
"Well, this is quite a tree," the boy laughed casually. "The Gigas Cedar. It's been about 4837 days since I started but I'm feeling pretty good about today!"
The tree was barely a foot thick and only four meters tall, yet the boy's axe never seemed to dig any further into it.
"This is too sad to watch…" said Strea. "Let's go, Yui,"
The two of them walked away as the boy waved them off.
"My name's Eugeo, by the way!"
"Good to know…" the two of them hurried off.
"See ya, little fairies!"
"WE'RE PIXIES!"
As they left, another girl walked up to Eugeo.
"Hey," she said. "Need any help with that?"
"Sure I…" Eugeo stopped when he saw her, his eyes drifted to her long flowing golden hair, bright as the sun. Sapphire eyes, porcelain white skin, and an elegant suit of golden armor.
"Uh… hello?" she said.
"Gah!" he snapped himself out of his trance. "Nice to meet you, I'm Eugeo!" he dropped his axe and held out his hand, blushing deeply.
She awkwardly shook his hand and continued.
"I'm Alice. It looks like you might be having trouble with that tree there,"
"I don't know, I think I'm making progress on it…"
Alice took a very long look at the Gigas Ceder.
"This is an immortal object," she pointed out. "You can't actually cut it down without an enchanted weapon."
"Huh?" Eugeo gave her a strange look.
"Watch," she drew her sword and swung at the tree. "Horizontal Sting!"
In one slash, the tree fell to the ground.
"See?" Alice confidently stood. Eugeo's jaw dropped. "Wait, what are you doing?"
"Do you mean to tell me that all my life I've been trying to cut down that tree when it was truly impossible?"
"Uh… basically?" Alice gave him a strange look
Eugeo stared up into the sky.
"MY ENTIRE LIFE HAS BEEN A LIE!"
Alice covered her ears as he flailed about screaming.
Meanwhile, Yui and Strea sat on a hill, watching a group of players fight a World Boss.
"Things are really going by fast, huh Yui?" said Strea.
"I wish you could be there with us. I bet you would love the real world. It's so pretty, and colorful and all the people are so nice. Well, most of them."
"I've still got you and Users, right? Besides, I can't go to the real world without Kayaba sending me. I mean, unless he for some reason intentionally sends some random sentient AI to the real world, but what are chances he's gonna do something like that? Anyway, what's Kazuto up to lately?"
"Every female in the team is attracted to him,"
"Figures," Strea snapped her fingers and sighed. "Darn. And I thought I had a good chance with him,"
Yui raised an eyebrow.
"You had… a thing for him?"
"Well, who wouldn't? Besides, I'm programmed to be older than you so I… have certain feelings that you don't"
"Really? What's it like?"
Strea tapped her chin
"Well you see, sometimes if I imagine Kazuto in a certain way…"
Meanwhile, on another floor…
"Ready guys?" said Kazuto as the Heroes of the Fairy Dance and the Heroes of Aincrad flipped through their menus. "The boss spawns in just a few minutes,"
"You know it, Kirito!" Yuuki leaned in close and fluttered her eyelashes. Asuna's eyes widened.
"Don't get distracted," she remarked and turned away. "This is the 75th boss."
"What's the matter?" said Rika. "Jealous?"
"What?! No!" Asuna blushed hard. She shuffled closer to Kazuto and grabbed his hand. "I'm just trying to keep everyone alive,"
Suguha was quick to notice the two sisters staring daggers at one another. She felt a temptation creep in, to push the two of them out of the way and claim him for herself.
She shook her hand. Leafa was rubbing off on her.
"Alright, let's go!" said Kazuto. The eight of them cheered and rushed into the room.
About three hours later.
"Phew! That was a tough raid, but we did it!" Kazuto said as the eight of them walked out of the boss room.
"Barely!" Asuna glared at him. "What the heck were you thinking? That Starburst Stream skill hardly does any damage! It's just a bunch of lights and cool poses."
"We still won, didn't we?" said Kazuto. "Besides, that's my signature skill,"
"You just renamed a simpler dual-wielding skill and then used a bunch of buffing items to make it look cooler," Rika pointed out
"It's garbage in the current meta," said Asuna. "You should really keep up with the tier lists…"
"Oh, Asuna, ever the meta-slave tsundere," Rika suddenly said out of nowhere.
"I thought I got the yandere role!" said Asuna.
"That's for Lightning Flash Asuna," Rika said, pulling out a chart. "You're still fulfilling the tsundere role, Yuuki's the new deredere, Sinon's the kuudere, and Asada's a low-intensity mayadere,"
"I thought it was Lightning Typhoon Asuna," said Yuuki.
"Lightning Flash sounds better," said Asuna. "I'm sharp and quick, not a bludgeon,"
"If that's the case, can I change my moniker to the Absolute Sword? That's what everyone calls me in-game,"
"I guess so," said Suguha. "Well, guess we better eat dinner…"
"Actually, I just got this cool new feeding thing that lets you eat while in FullDive," said Kazuto. "My game's been doing really well. Anyway, I'm going to try and set it up in your room." he started opening the menu. "You stay here and see if it works."
"Okay, onii-chan!" said Suguha. Kazuto logged out. She got the weird feeling she was forgetting something important regarding Kazuto entering her room, but it never quite wrapped around her head.
"So…" said Rika. "How are you two doing?"
"Not that great," she admitted. "Leafa's been acting up like crazy as of late. Yui said I might have some kind of deep-seated self-loathing issue or something,"
"Oh!" Keiko's eyes lit up. "Maybe Leafa is actually the personification of who you wish you were, and your conflict represents your desire to fit in with society's expectations!"
"That's… incredibly stupid," said Suguha. "And I used to watch Super Sentai."
Rika gasped.
"That's what I was forgetting! We need a team catchphrase! And poses to go along with it!"
"I know, right?" said Yuuki. "Don't worry, you're talking to the master of cool poses!"
"It's spreading!" said Asuna. "My worst fear is now concrete!"
Meanwhile…
"So let me get this straight," said Eugeo. "We actually live inside some kind of simulation thing that serves as a virtual game for creatures from another world, and you're going to try and combine both worlds by sending monsters and building portals?"
"Yeah, basically. And I figured I could use someone like you," said Alice.
"Me?" Eugeo did a double take. "But I'm just a lumberjack. I haven't swung a sword in my life!"
"It's not that hard actually," Alice handed him a blue metallic sword. "Let us begin with a lesson,"
Alice drew her own weapon.
"To start, hold the sword with both hands in front of you. You can pick your own starting pose later, but let's just start with the basics."
Inside Kazuto's bedroom.
Yui opened her eyes and got out of the bed. She looked at Kazuto, with his NerveGear on, as he lay on the floor on a futon. Despite her protests that she could sleep just fine in Suguha's school bag, Kazuto had insisted upon ensuring she had a bed.
"I wish I could see you more, Strea." Yui sighed.
Just then, she heard the sound of...
"Gah! Suguha, you're naked!"
"Wha..."
"Uh, please don't scream! I don't want to police getting in on this!"
Silence for a few moments.
"ONII-CHAN PERVERT!"
Now, I know I said I didn't really like Alicization, but I have to admit that I enjoyed the characters. I was thinking of a way to integrate them into this story, but adding them a high school students might be a little weird. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't think of something to do with them. So I took a break and played some RPGs. Then I realized that some characters in the game repeat an action over and over again, no matter what. Then I thought back to how Eugeo's Calling was to cut down an enormous tree for years. So I thought, I should make Eugeo a lumberjack NPC! You know, the kind that swings at a tree for a while and tells you where to find the quest giver.