A week after the Rath incident...

Rinko: We thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules. Today, our organization is announcing the birth of the world's first true artificial general intelligence.

Cameras around the audience snap pictures of the stage.

Rinko: And now, allow me to introduce... Alice!

The young girl from the Underworld, with blonde hair walks to the stage, wearing the same uniform from the SAO survivor school. She greets everyone with a bow.

Alice: My name is Alice Zuberg. I am pleased to meet you all of the real world.

At the Dicey Cafe, everyone including Kirito, Eugeo, and Asuna watch the TV screen of Alice.

Keiko: That's our school uniform!

Rika: I heard she requested it. "The same uniform as the order of the knights who came to aid the Human Guardian Army."

Suguha: How come Eugeo's not there?

Eugeo: Well, to be honest, I don't do so well in front of an audience.

Ryoutarou: Darn.

Shino: I'm amazed by the recreation they did. How did they do it anyway?

Kazuto: The same way Tails did with Yui and Strea. They used replicas.

Kotone: Replicas? They actually exist?

Asuna: They sure do. We've seen it for ourselves!

Yuuki: Wow. No wonder why Yui and Strea have everything a human has.

Kazuto: So Eugeo. How are you enjoying living here so far?

Eugeo: Well... I've been here for a few days. I've pretty much learned the basic gist of life here. It's definitely different from the Underworld, that's for sure.

Kazuto's cell phone rings.

Kazuto: A video call from Sonic?

Asuna: Sonic? He's at South Island, right?

He answers the call.

Sonic, Tails, Mighty, and Ray: WHAT'S UP HOMEYS! WOOOOOOOO!

Kazuto: Hey guys.

Mighty: You guys watching Alice right now?!

Asuna: Yep! We are! And so far, she's looking great.

Suguha: How are things with Eggman?

Sonic: We're working on it. We'll have him beaten by dinner time.

Back on the TV...

Rinko: I'd like to start with a question and answer session.

Audience Member 1: Let me start with the basics. How is this replica different from the other replicas used for top-down AI?

Rinko: It's her brain... or what we're calling her brain. The consciousness stored inside the brain right beneath her skull is not a program that can be rewritten with binary code. It's essentially no different from our human brains. That's what makes her categorically different from existing robots. They may have human flesh and organs that are just as real as us, but the brains between the top-down and bottom-up AI are different.

Suguha: Hmm... What even is a replica anyway?

Tails: Well, they're basically people. A man named Even was the one who invented replicas. They're so real that you can easily mistake them for people. They take the form of the person inside it. Even an AI as how they look in the virtual world.

Audience Member 2: This question is for Dr. Kojirou. Some labor unions are already raising concerns about the industrial use of advanced artificial intelligence causing a further rise in unemployment.

Rinko: That concern is unfounded. Our organization has no intention of deploying true AI into the unskilled labor force.

Audience Member 2: However, the financial world has high hopes that they can be used as industrial robots. Do you have any comments?

Rinko: True AI's, what this organization calls "artificial Fluctlights," cannot be mass-produced in a short time. Like us, they're born as infants and raised by their families from childhood to adulthood, and they mature while developing their own unique personalities. In our opinion, to load such an intelligence into industrial robots and force them into labor shouldn't be allowed to happen.

Audience Member 2: In other words, Doctor, are you saying that you acknowledge this AI's human rights?

Rinko: At this moment, I'm sure that many of you would feel uncomfortable if asked to acknowledge artificial Fluctlights as humans to grant them human rights. But in another century, or perhaps two centuries, we'll be living in the same society as them as a matter of course, interacting with them without discrimination, even marrying and starting families with them. That's what I firmly believe. And if that's the case, shouldn't we shy away from treating them like objects and abusing them?

Audience Member 2: But Doctor! Their existence is too different from ours! How exactly can we acknowledge man-made machines as being the same as humankind?

As Rinko was about to say something, Alice stops her and speaks up.

Alice: I accept and acknowledge the fact that you real-worlder's are our creators. I am grateful to you for creating us. But as another person in my world once said, "What if the real world is also created by others? What if there were even more creators outside it?" If, one day, when your creators appear before you and ordered you into slavery, what would you do? Would you grovel on the ground, pledge for loyalty, and beg for mercy?

Her face turns into a smile.

Alice: I've already had many interactions with real-worlders. I was alone in a strange world, but they've encouraged me and supported me. They've taught me many things, and taken me to many places. I am very fond of them. And that's not all. I was childhood friends with one of them. He, my other childhood friend, and friends of the real world came to save me from being a puppet. I have a right hand that will extend to the people of the real world. But I will not fall to my knees or grind my forehead in the dirt. That's because I am a human.

Eugeo looks at her face on the TV with a smile.

Eugeo: I couldn't have said it better myself. Alice.

Rinko: Our hope is that, through the virtual world, you can all interact with newly-born artificial Fluctlights, and that this will change how you feel about them. That's all we ask of everyone watching this broadcast.

Audience Member 3: Doctor! Is there any danger of AI's annihilating us humans and taking over the planet?

Rinko: If you are referring to what Dr. Robotnik does for a living, I'm sure that would never happen as long as someone as strong as Sonic the Hedgehog is there to stop him. We aren't talking about movies or books. They're probably myths.

Sonic: FACTS PEOPLE! FACTS!

Tails: A movie will be a movie!

Knuckles: Well, like in the movies, the good guy always wins, right?

Rika: Not all the time, but yeah.

Later on, Kazuto, Asuna, and Yui eat dinner at home.

Kazuto: A lot has happened, hasn't it?

Asuna: You guys were in the Underworld for 2 years. I was so scared that you wouldn't be the same Kirito we remember. But I realized I was being too overdramatic.

Kazuto: I really missed you guys so much.

Yui: I missed you too, Daddy.

Kazuto: I'm sorry for worrying you guys again.

Asuna: It's okay. You took Johnny Black's strike just to protect us. I'm glad that you're always there to keep us safe.

Yui: Umm...

Asuna: Yes Yui?

Yui: When you go to the Underworld again, can I come too?

Kazuto: You want to meet our friends, right? Of course you can come.

They hear a knock on the door.

Kazuto: Hang on. I got it.

Kazuto answers the door and it's his two childhood friends.

Eugeo: Hi Kirito.

Alice: Hey Kirito.

Kazuto: Eugeo? Alice? What are you doing here?

Alice: Rinko gave us a pie after the conference was over. We thought we could share it with you guys.

Kazuto: Really? Nice!

Eugeo: Can you guess what kind of pie it is?

Kazuto: Hmm... Is it honey?

Eugeo: Wow. You guessed it right.

After dinner, they all take slices of the honey pie.

Eugeo: Kirito would always get honey pies from the Jumping Deer in Centoria. They're absolutely the best.

Asuna: Well, it's good to know that he hasn't changed. He's still a gluten that takes naps all the time. I'm sorry if Kirito gave you any trouble.

Eugeo: It's okay. I'm used to it. You know what it's like, huh?

Asuna: Painfully so.

Kazuto: Hey come on! I never caused that much trouble!

Eugeo: Really Kirito? Breaking curfew, rules, yourself, even though I tried to stop you? You can't begin to imagine the headaches you put me through!

Kazuto: Hey... It's not like I did those things on purpose! You helped me do them!

Eugeo: Well, yeah, but... you know what I me...

Asuna, Alice, and Yui: Ahahahahahaha!

Kazuto: What's so funny?

Alice: I feel so sorry for you, Eugeo.

Kazuto: You agree too, Alice?

Alice: Well, Asuna and Eugeo said so, so it has to be true.

Asuna: You two arguing like brothers is so funny. I've never seen this side of Kirito.

Kazuto: Really?

Asuna: You two seem more close than you are with Sonic, Snow, or any of the other guys.

Eugeo: Well, we've been together for two years. That much is certain.

Alice: I can see that.

A tear starts coming down Alice's eye.

Eugeo: Alice?

Asuna: What's wrong?

Alice: Kirito. Eugeo. There's so much that I want to thank you guys for. That goes for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mighty, and Ray as well. If you all hadn't come, I'd still be a puppet knight. I was so scared when Chudelkin and the Administrator took my memories away. But in the end, I knew that you would come.

Yui: Daddy's a hero. He even saved me back in Aincrad when I getting deleted with the help of Tails.

Eugeo: You're right. He is a hero. He's our hero.

Kazuto: Guys... I didn't do all of this alone, you know.

Asuna: We know that.

Kazuto: The good news is that, we're all together again. And Eugeo is with his true love.

Eugeo and Alice: Ah!

Alice: What's wrong with you, Kirito?!

Eugeo: Don't say such embarrassing things!

Kazuto: It's true, isn't it?

Eugeo: Well, it is.

Asuna: Hehe!