Including this chapter, three chapters remain. I actually wrote the final chapter first before this one and the next one. I don't know why, but I was bored and trying to finalize ideas for the future parts, especially the next story in the series.

But I think everything is good now, so Courage and Realization will be finished this week. Enjoy the two-parter, and the next author's note will be in the final chapter.

Kirito's Room, later that night

"How did you get into this?"

"I...suggested it."

"And how did I get roped into this?"

"Because of Philia and Lisbeth."

"Just making sure." I lean against the kitchen counter, mentally groaning about being "coerced" into participating in a sleepover with Philia, Leafa, Asuna, and Lisbeth in the virtual world. It's not like I'm against it, but with Aincrad forming above our heads...well, I can understand why this is happening. For four of the five of us, Aincrad is a reminder of two years of separation from the real world, of death and loss. I guess, for morale purposes, this is a good thing for the group. Aincrad was only around four floors high when Kureha and I went to investigate, and based on the MHCPs' calculations, it'll be days before Aincrad is complete. However, we'll tackle it and Tia tomorrow, using as much time of the weekend as possible.

Kirito sits in a chair at the table nearby. "Will Kureha be joining us tomorrow?"

"Nah. She and Crimson Squad are investigating something, though she won't tell me what it is. Not until I return to GGO, that is. In case it is some trouble, Sinon and I agreed to return once we're done here. We need to start training for the next Battle of Bullets anyway."

Knock! Knock! Knock! "It's me!"

"Come on in, Philia."

The treasure hunter enters the room, brightly smiling as she saunters over to us. "Thanks for waiting to start the fun! Wow! Everyone's already here."

"Philia's here! Yay," Lisbeth shouts as Philia comes into view of the girls.

"Of course, they didn't have a room with enough bedding for all of us," Asuna explains as she drops on the sofa, "but we can definitely stay awake on the sofa."

"That's perfect. We can lay down whenever we get tired."

"I'm really getting kind of excited, guys!"

"It's perfect! Now it feels just like a school trip--or camp!" I remember the school trip us survivors went on last summer and how fun it was. I wouldn't compare it to this moment, but I see where Leafa is coming from.

"So now I guess we just...talk," Kirito asks as we boys join the girls. Asuna, Philia, and Lisbeth settle on the sofa, Kirito sits on the bed with Leafa, and I take the comfy chair.

Philia giggles. "Mhmm. Also, I brought the perfect snack to keep us going into the wee hours of the morning."

"Someone came prepared."

Philia reveals her chosen snack, a bowl full of nuts. "Tada! Mixed nuts! I figured they were the perfect snack for a late-night char mission."

"Yeah, no." I take out a snack of my own, which just so happens to be a container filled with Silica's pork buns. Yes, I'm addicted. "You can have the nuts, and I'll stuff myself with these. And that excludes you too, Kirito!"

"Nobody wants your buns anyway," he grumbles.

"All right you guys, " his sister chants as she lays on the bed, "I am ready to chat my lips off! I have so much to say for sure! We're gonna go ALL night, and it--" Leafa suddenly falls asleep, and is momentarily forced to log out.

"Did… Did Leafa just disappear?"

"She fell asleep already? No way!"

"She was going a mile a minute just two seconds ago."

Kirito chuckles. "Ah, yes. My darling little sister has a unique super power, you see. She can fall asleep moments after laying down anywhere."

I scoff. "I'm sure it runs in the family."

"Heh. Maybe."

Lisbeth sighs. "Well, we can't wake her up from here, guess we just enjoy the sleepover without her."

"So what do we discuss?"

"We're treating this like a school trip, right? Asuna, what do you think?"

"Hmm, well, I know what always comes up on a school trip; love! And who's got a crush on who and who's cute and--"

Lisbeth squeals. "That's perfect! Can't mess with the classics."

Philia nods. "It's total girl talk!"

Kirito gestures to me and him. "You know we're guys, right?"

"Guys in a relationship, with two of your girls."

Philia waves us off. "Psh! Details." Asuna and Lisbeth seem to be in agreement, so I guess I'll get the chance to talk about the cute girl I sit by at school in me and Asuna's class.

Lis faces Asuna, and that troublesome smile appears. "Okay, Asuna. You first."

"Wha? M-Me?"

"Uh-huh. If you suggest it, you have to confess it."

Asuna sighs and faces Kirito. "Um… I-Is there anything I can say about love and stuff?"

"...Are you pushing this off on me now?"

"Well, we are talking about romance and...you know…"

"There… There's gotta be something…"

Asuna's face burns. "I guess, we just, fall into it, y'know? We're with each other all the time so it feels normal."

Kirito agrees. "Yeah, I guess we don't do too many crazy things. We had quite a fill in SAO. More than anything, I actually wonder if you'd just get tired of me. I'm not really great at picking out places for dates or anything like that."

"It's not about where we go. It never has been. As long as we're together, I'm happy. Truly happy."

"Asuna, you…"

"Kirito…"

"Okay," Lisbeth shouts with annoyance. "That's more than enough goo-goo eyes. Thank you!"

"Yep, that concludes the romantic portion of our chat. Mhmm! Pretty sure we exhausted that topic."

"But you guys barely said anything!"

I roll my eyes. "I have nothing to say about romance after all that."

Lisbeth nods. "The adorableness of it all was too much. I think I got a cavity from all the saccharine in here. I love Jaymes, but not enough to continue this. We're good."

"Seconded," Philia agrees. "Thanks to that, I'm swearing off sugar for a week!"

Asuna pouts. "Just like that...hmmph."

"Let's change the subject. What's on your mind, Philia?"

"New topic… New...topic… New… Topic…" She glances at me, and in the midst of our direct eye contact, her lightbulb turns on. "I know! Let's talk about treasure!"

Lis giggles. "Should have seen that coming."

"No, like, what does everyone treasure? What do you have that means something to you? I've got a ton of stuff! Um, like this belt! I have it waaaaay in the back of my inventory. Hehe! I bought it from another player for eight times the market price."

I remember that belt because I was with Philia when she bought it. I rise up, smirking. "And pray tell why you bought it at such a ridiculous price, my friend."

Philia tries to hide her face. "I saw it in their shop and thought it was a steal at 2,800 Col. It sold in town for 3,500. Turns out it was 28,000 Col, and you let me buy it!"

"Hehe. That's why I don't buy equipment from other players unless it cannot be found easily in town, in the field, or crafted. And if I do, I make sure the prices aren't sneaky. I learned that from Agil, the criminal himself."

"I didn't know anyone actually fell for it," Lisbeth says.

"I did. Whatever. Point is, it happened but I will never let it happen again. That's why I keep the belt around."

"It definitely makes a good story," Kirito comments, "though. At the end of the day, that's what makes some items so special to us."

"I agree." I take my dagger out of my inventory, fiddling with it. I have no real reason to have one, but ever since Koharu's death I've kept a dagger in my repertoire, but not solely in remembrance of my friend. In SAO, it was because I never got to give her the knife I had made for her; in ALO, it's works well as a tertiary weapon; in Origins, it's due to Trojan Horse's usefulness as a counter-attacking skill; in GGO, there's really no reason for the combat knife, but it's there in case I need it.

"Speaking of… I know this takes us back to SAO, but Ragout Rabbit meat was the absolute best!"

Asuna giggles. "Hehehe! Yeah, it really was. Mostly because we ate it together."

"It was the first time you had invited me into your house. Heh, I was so nervous I was practically shaking."

"You were nervous? I-I was nervous just asking you to come over. And don't get me wrong, it was a delicious S-class ingredient, but eating it with you, that was the perfect seasoning."

"Asuna…"

"Kirito…"

Before Kirito can speak another word, I hold my knife in his face, glowing with a sword skill that won't truly activate in town outside of a duel. "This brings back some memories, huh?"

Lisbeth groans in irritation. "COME ON! Just stop right there, you two!"

"Different people treasure different things. We all have a story to tell. We get it. Really, we do!"

Kirito leans up as I lower my blade. "Hey, what was that for? We were in the middle of a good story!"

"One you didn't invite me too!"

"Are you still hung up on that? I said we were sorry."

Lisbeth clears her throat. "I think it's my turn to pick a topic..."

"Looks like everyone else is out like a light." Kirito yawns softly as he tries to hold himself up on the bed. The girls fell asleep one by one after Lisbeth told a scary story that resulted in the sudden reappearance of Leafa and the hilarious fright of Asuna. I'm feeling the call of sleep myself, but after lasting longer than the girls, I'm slightly determined to last the longest.

"Such a shame, they wanted this more than we did."

"Mhm… Anyway, what did you find out about Aincrad earlier? How worried should we be?"

"From the distance, it looks vastly incomplete. Like a bunch of rocks just hanging in the sky. Yui and Strea ran the numbers, Aincrad is being built very slowly. We got a few days before it's completed, but I rather not run this like a dungeon. The sooner we deal with this, the sooner we save the game."

Kirito nods. "Even if we can't stop the formation of Aincrad, we can stop its completion. We'll tackle it tomorrow once everyone is on, as we planned. But how do we stop her is the question."

"She may not be human, Kirito, but AI can be reasoned with." I stretch my arms and stare at the ceiling. "But first, we just have to beat them. They're most reasonable when their directive cannot be completed. When we faced Lievre, it was not until we defeated her massive army that we managed to defeat her. Artificial intelligence, unlike humans, are unable to efficiently process something so different from what they know."

"Such as?"

"Let's say, for example, you're a high-scoring student in school, with all the praise and popularity that comes with it. You believe yourself to be better than anyone and everyone below you. But if I, someone who usually makes average or low grades overtakes your position once, how would you feel? Confused, enraged, wanting. That's a normal human response when someone rises above you after being on top so long. Either you study harder to never let your status on top be threatened again or you let your failure overwhelm you and slip lower in the future. But AI, with all their calculations, cannot compute for such a sudden alternative. If they are subjected to the same example, that one moment of failure will break them down. No matter how many outcomes are possible, they believe in the most possible outcome, and if another outcome, especially one of such low probability occurs… I'm sure you get the point. Lievre, in her case, had a massive Arfa-Sys and mechanical army at her disposal. In all regards, she should have won."

"But stopping her...put her in some sort of 'emotional turmoil' is what you're saying? I see now… So by the same logic, besting Tia will make her most vulnerable to reason, or at least, stops her plan, correct?"

I nod. "But first, we got to get there. There's a gate near Aincrad, so I hope that's the way up."

The next day

"Aincrad," Philia softly says as we all appear on the massive floating castle. Per my report, it is vastly underdeveloped. Seems Tia (or Cardinal) is uninterested in truly reforming Aincrad in the same vein New Aincrad did. But this is Aincrad, the one we spent two years within, not the remodeled one that ALO possesses.

"Well… We're baaaaack!"

"Don't sound so excited to be home, Strea," Rain says to her with a smile.

"This is one but o' intel I'm probably not gonna sell," Argo, who joins us today, tells us. "The last thing we need is to fill Aincrad with people, death game or not."

"This place gives me the creeps," Yuuki states. "I wasn't there, but… It somehow still has that essence. You can still feel the pain."

"It still IS a death game for every AI down below," Klein informs. "For the entire world of Ainground."

Agil sighs. "It's almost funny. We fought our way outta here to save lives, now we're fighting back to save even more."

"We beat Sword Art Online once, we can do it again." I gesture to the newcomers to Aincrad, Sinon, Leafa, and Yuuki, then to Lisbeth and the others who weren't on the frontlines. "It's not just the five of us now."

Argo chuckles. "Weird to hear you say such things in confidence. Feelin' somewhat reminiscent yourself, huh? Sounds like somethin' Lady Koharu would say."

I scoff. "Koharu got that from me, I don't know what you believed… But yeah, yeah I am."

"But you're right," Asuna says. "Think of everything we accomplished since that day. I can feel all that strength returning...coursing through me."

"This world means too much to us! There's no way we're gonna let it be destroyed!"

"We are gonna smash our way though this place!

"With all of our efforts combined as one, this will be a piece of cake… Likely of modest size."

Asuna giggles at Premiere's train of thought. "That's right, Premiere. Everyone, stay close, stay alert, and fight well!"

Kirito nods and draws his swords with a grin on his face. "Let the assault of Aincrad begin!"

"Gotcha!" I block an arm of one of the skeletal enemies in the unfinished castle. Repelling it back and stunning it with a shield art, I turn around to the hammer-wielding blacksmith. "Lisbeth, switch!"

"Hah!" She swings her weapon, smashing the enemy to polygonal fragments. Leaping back to me, Lisbeth and I share a smile and bump fists. "I think I'm enjoying battering these guys. Two years of pent-up stress is finally being released."

"Maybe I should have taken you out on enemy-bashing quests more often back then. Quite the reliever."

"Mhm… Hey, um, how are you holding up?"

Making sure we're clear of any enemies, I stop walking and face Lisbeth. "Well… I think, out of the five frontliners, Kirito and I had it the hardest. We lost Sachi and Koharu in very similar ways, but I think he's pushing through the recollecting memories. I…am trying to do the same."

"Yeah. The last time we appeared on Aincrad, we didn't all have each other, but you had Koharu almost immediately upon logging in… If she was here now, I wonder what she'd say."

"She had vocal confidence, so probably something like 'C'mon guys, we can do this!' But also probably not like being here as well." Lisbeth nods and drops her head as she walks on ahead. I wonder what's going through her head, but before I can ask, I see Silica up ahead, waving and telling us to come on and catch up. I drop the topic for now, regaining focus on the current objective.

Thanks to Kirito's stomach, we take a short break in what we believe to be halfway into our journey towards the core of the broken Aincrad. Tired more than hungry, I find myself seated beside Strea, the younger MHCP humming happily to herself. "Yahello, Jaymes!"

"Your excitement is refreshing, Strea. Aren't you tired?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean my spirits should be, right?" I can't argue with that, but even if I wanted to, there's no point to fighting Strea. I put my sword and shield aside and lean back. Strea looks at me curiously. "Oh, are you a little winded, Joshua?"

"You could say that. I stayed up late last night and Lisbeth's feast this morning is not helping. I don't know how Kirito is hungry, but I'm feeling exhausted."

"All right now, rest your head riiight here. You'll be rested soon." By "rest your head riiight here", Strea means putting my head in her lap, which is fine, but also putting her breasts on my forehead, which is…well, internally, I'm not complaining.

"Strea...why?"

"Keeping you comforted and warm, of course! I swore to rest you up!"

"I could have easily just sat down beside you like I was. I'm not that tired."

"True, but whenever you're tired, you always lay down."

I sigh and accidentally move my head, which in turn moves Strea's breasts into my face. "Okay...but why are these against my head?"

"I can't help it. How else am I supposed to tend to you? Besides, I'm pretty sure you find it soothing. You've never truly complained about them before, hehe! Not once since we first met here."

I don't know her definition of "truly" but she isn't lying...though I rather not question how she knows that. Strea "introduced" herself to me (and, by extension, Rain and Philia) by tackling me, and I was more concerned with why a girl just threw herself at me rather than the two organs that were smothered against my face. I half smile at the memory, then drop the smile as Strea begins to rub my chest. "Umm, why are you stroking my chest?"

"This is where your heart would be in the real world. It must be thumping so fast. It is the center of human emotion, isn't it? Where feelings are born. Oh, how I wish I could listen to everyone's heart."

"It's not quite the emotional center, but yeah, if we were in the real world, it would be beating faster than normal. And you don't really listen to one's heart."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You feel it, actually. The brain, specifically the amygdala, is the emotional center of the brain, but the heart is just a way to project it, like a person's face. Surprise, sadness, happiness, all echoed by the heart. And in the virtual world, it works the same."

"I think I understand. So, can everyone feel the sound of my heart as well?"

"Of course. If I was to hear it now, I bet it would be partially fearful right now because of what could happen, but on the other hand, mostly happy because you got me right where you want me to be. I believe my heart is similar."

Strea smiles and hugs me. "Hehehe, really? Really? Yay! Feel the sound of my heart, Jaymes! Feel my emotions!"

I slip out her hold but fall back on her lap on my own. "Not how it works...and not what I'm possibly feeling right now."

"Oh, then what are you feeling right now?"

I sigh and turn away. "...You wouldn't understand…and hopefully you never do."