BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!

Kouichurou groans from the sound of his alarm clock going off. He is currently in his bed; he didn't open his eyes and attempted to reach his arm out towards the alarm clock. Feeling it on his fingers, he searched for the snooze button and found it before pressing it.

When he tried to go back to sleep, he heard his curtains open as beams of sunlight flash his face. He hears Mayumi's voice afterward.

"Don't you have work today?" asked Mayumi.

Kouichirou pulled the bedsheets over his face, which was later yanked off his body by the blonde. He sits up and rubs his eyes before slowly opening them, looking at Mayumi with a tired and annoyed look.

"Come on, I made breakfast and everything," she pouts at him.

"Just because I'm letting you stay at my place doesn't mean you have to be all wife-like to me," chuckled Kouichirou softly.

Mayumi responded with a huff as she looks away from him.

"I'll get ready. Just leave the room," Kouichirou requested.

Mayumi looked back at him before smiling again, nodding and leaving the room.

Later, after getting changed and having breakfast, Kouichirou went for the door. He stopped in front of it before looking back at Mayumi.

"You sure you'll be fine being alone while I'm gone?" He asked.

"I'll just play your video games to pass the time," answered Mayumi. "Get going, or you'll be late!"

"Quit acting like you're my wife," Kouichirou chuckled as Mayumi responded by sticking her tongue out at him. "See ya."

He opened the door before stepping out of his home. Once he closed the door behind him, he walked towards his car in the driveway, unlocking the doors before going inside the vehicle.

A few hours later, Kouichirou was in his office at RECT Inc. He works for his father's company as the company's CFO (Chief Financing Officer).

"Six years of college wasted..." he sighed.

Kouichirou has his master's degree in electronic engineering. It paid off when he helped with the designing of the NerveGear with Akihiko and the development of Sword Art Online for ARGUS.

But when he started working for his father, he put him in a position that has nothing to do with what he specializes in. He is good at it, but it wasn't a position he wanted.

Kouichirou heard his door creak open as his eyes glanced towards the door.

He saw a Japanese man the same age as him with short, slicked black hair, dark eyes and glasses, and is wearing a black business suit with a red tie.

Kouichirou immediately recognized the man as Nobuyuki Sugou. But Kouichirou usually, in a spiteful manner, calls him by:

"What do you want, four-eyed pervert?" Kouichirou questioned his colleague with a disgusted tone.

"Still as witty as ever, Kouichirou-kun," Nobuyuki smiled back at him, ignoring the insult made towards him.

Kouichirou knew Nobuyuki since middle school since his father knows Nobuyuki's. They weren't exactly friends, not even rivals. Nobuyuki has made claims of being Kouichirou's rival throughout middle school, but those claims soon ended when Nobuyuki could barely get second behind Kouichirou, who always had the top scores.

"I'm busy; what do you want?" Kouichirou asks Nobuyuki once more.

Kouichirou always found Nobuyuki as an annoyance, but he never really hated him. The disrespect towards Nobuyuki started to grow when he acted as a rival for Akihiko and persistently attempted to court Rinko. Why wouldn't he get pissed at him? He's best friends with Kayaba, and he also had feelings for Rinko.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing," Nobuyuki answered as he takes a seat in front of Kouichirou. "I heard about Asuna-chan and thought I should be consoling you."

"Thanks, but I prefer being consoled by a hot girl with big breasts," Kouichirou rolled his eyes before looking at his computer monitor while typing on his keyboard. "If you're here to boast about my father choosing you to be the company's Chief Technology Officer instead of me again, I swear to god!"

"I'm smart enough to not boast more than once with you," chuckled Nobuyuki. "And you were working for ARGUS to make the NerveGear and SAO while you were working here. So, it's your fault that your position changed from CTO to CFO."

"Don't make me piss your pants again like I made you did in grade school," Kouichirou threatens him.

Nobuyuki's face flushed in embarrassment as he points at Kouichirou. "H-Hey, you promised never to mention that again!"

"And I just broke that promise," chuckle Kouichirou. He stops typing and leans back into his chair, stretching his arms. "Ok, I'm in the talking mood now, so tell me why you're really here."

Nobuyuki sighed and adjusted his glasses before looking at Kouichirou. "Shigemura sensei called me," he answered, causing Kouichirou to groan. "He told me you haven't been answering his calls."

"Well, I did specifically tell my secretary to put everyone on hold for me since the whole 'SAO Incident' started," shrugged Kouichirou. "What does he want?"

"He wants to ask the same question every other parent in Japan is asking for the people at ARGUS to answer right now," replied Nobuyuki.

Kouichirou raised a brow, wondering what he meant by that until he finally realized.

"His daughter is in the game too?" Kouichirou asked in disbelief.

Nobuyuki nodded in confirmation. "Yuuna-chan is also trapped in the game."

Kouichirou turns his head, tapping his fingers on his desk before slamming his fists down onto it.

"God damn it!" exclaimed Kouichirou angrily before puts a hand on his forehead. "How many kids' lives are at risk because of me?"

"Probably a lot, but it's not entirely your fault," he shrugs.

Kouichirou looks at Nobuyuki angrily and points at him. "Don't patronize me, Nobu!"

Kouichirou gets up from his seat before grabbing his briefcase from under his desk before going around Nobuyuki and towards the front door.

Nobuyuki turned around to look at Kouichirou, who was already at the door.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"Apologizing to sensei," Kouichirou answered before opening the door and leaving his office.

Later, Kouichirou was at his college professor, Tetsuhiro Shigemura's home. The young Japanese man was in the living room with the older man, sitting in couch chairs across from each other.

"I want to apologize, sensei," Kouichirou bowed his head respectfully to his old college professor. "What happened to your daughter, it's—"

"It's not your fault," Shigemura sighed. He looks at his old student with gentle eyes. "You and Kayaba have been working on this for years. Even with all that time, there was bound to be some defect to happen."

Kouichirou looks up at the professor. "You don't blame me?"

"Well, it's not like you and Kayaba have any intentions to trap ten thousand players in a death game," Shigemura smiled. "I know you two well enough to not even think of doing such a thing."

Kouichirou chuckled softly. "There is no reason for us to want to do it, huh?"

"Exactly," Shigemura nodded. "While we're still on the topic, do you know where Kayaba is?"

Kouichirou shook his head. "No, but I haven't tried calling him yet," he reached for his pocket to pull out his phone.

"Don't bother," Shigemura said, stopping Kouichirou from getting his phone. "I tried calling him multiple times, and I was always left on voicemail."

"Then I should try asking Rinko where he is."

"She doesn't know anything either."

Kouichirou was confused by this. How could Rinko not know Kayaba's whereabouts? He knew something isn't right.

Kouichirou stood up from his seat and bowed his head to his former teacher. "Thank you for having me, sensei, but I must go."

Shigemura nodded and smiled at him. "Thank you for coming by."

Kouichirou flashed the older man a smile before leaving his teacher's home.

Kouichirou checked the time on his watch. It was 8:30 PM. He remembers that it is the ninth of November today. This would make it day four since the SAO incident started.

Kouichirou was at Rinko's home. He knocked at the front door, waiting for an answer.

After a few seconds, he heard and looked over at the garage door that was opening. Seeing a car coming out, Kouichirou quickly hid out of sight. He peeks at the car coming out of the driveway and saw Rinko in the driver seat.

As Kouichirou watched Rinko drive down the road, he quickly got into his car and followed her.

An hour has passed since he was tailing Rinko, carefully keeping his distance from her and having his headlights off to remain undetected. They drove all the way to the mountains until she finally stopped at a mountain cottage.

Kouichirou parked his car far from the cottage, out of Rinko's sight as he got out of his vehicle and watched her enter the cottage.

"Isn't that Aki's cottage?" Kouichirou asked himself before walking towards it.

Kouichirou went up the steps of the cottage before standing in front of the door.

If it's unlocked, I could just walk in, Kouichirou thought to himself before shaking his head. No, no, no. It's better if I just knock. If Aki's really here, she has a lot of explaining to do.

Kouichirou raised his fist before knocking on the door.

"It's Kouichirou. You're in here, Rinko?" He called out.

The door slowly opened as Rinko looks at Kouichirou with shocked and nervous eyes.

"K-Kouichirou?!" Rinko gasped. "Did you follow me?!"

Kouichirou chuckles nervously. "Sorry," he apologizes before looking down at her with a severe look. "What are you doing here?"

"W-Well..." Rinko stumbled on her words.

"Is Akihiko here?" Kouichirou asked as he welcomed himself inside the cottage.

"K-Kouichirou senpai, wait!" Rinko tried to stop Kouichirou, but he kept moving.

"Aki!" Kouichirou shouted as he checks every room. "You better have a good explanation for what's happening!"

Kouichirou checks inside the last room and was shocked to find Kayaba on the bed with a NerveGear on his head with life support hooked into him.

"What the hell..." Kouichirou exclaimed softly before turning his head towards Rinko. "When you found me at the hospital... you were coming back from the cottage."

Rinko was still hesitating with her words. "S-Senpai, I—"

"Kayaba is the one responsible for trapping all those players in the game, isn't he?" he questioned Rinko.

"I-I didn't want to keep it a secret from you..." Rinko was on the brink of tears.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Kouichirou shouted at Rinko with anger and hate in his voice.

Rinko falls to her knees as she bawled her eyes out, covering her mouth to muffle her wails.

Kouichirou was so angry that he felt like punching something. But he took deeper breaths and went on his knees as well. He was looking at Rinko, who was too guilty and scared to look at him. Just like she did for him when he cried, he wraps his arms around the crying woman, embracing her in a warm hug as she slowly wraps her arms around him too.

"P-Please..." whimpered Rinko. "Please don't tell anyone where he is."

"But, Rinko-chan, I—" Kouichirou's was interrupted mid-sentence by Rinko.

"I promised him I'd protect him," Rinko whimpers and looks up at Kouichirou. "You're his best friend. Please don't tell anyone."

"But ten thousand people are at risk, including my sister," Kouichirou replied, only to see Rinko's eyes tearing up even more than before.

He knew this was wrong, and he couldn't say no to the Rinko when she's like this. He sighed and nodded at her.

"I won't tell anyone that Aki's here and that you're with him," Kouichirou tells Rinko. "If anyone asks me where he is, I will lie to them."

Rinko sniffs and looks up at Kouichirou with teary eyes. Kouichirou looked down at her, and it gave him a sense of nostalgia that reminded him of a similar situation back in college.

"You promise?" asked Rinko.

Kouichirou smiled at Rinko. "I promise."