(A/N: Hello readers, this is KiritoIRL back with the chapter that you and I both have probably been anticipating since chapter 9: Mother's Reconciliation. As the title suggests, this chapter will have Asuna and her mother will finally reconcile and bring a closure to their long-time feud as they start to understand each other better than before by Asuna telling her mother the details of what happened between her and Kirito during SAO and beyond. Some of you have asked me both in the reviews and in PM to have Asuna and Kyouko to have a serious talk, and even have Asuna discuss some of the details in SAO, as well as elaborate on her views about Kirito… if you were among these people, then you're about to get your wish…
And, here's the thing: there's only two chapters in this story left, meaning that this story will end with 24 chapters in total! I will write an epilogue that follows the ending of the story, but that'll be a separate oneshot, because it'll most likely contain spoilers for the entire Alicization arc.
I can't believe it! I started this story on June 2015 out of boredom and wasn't expecting it to receive much attention, but I'm just touched by the attention I received for my very first fanfic. And it took me a long time to upload chapters and yet, you all were surprisingly patient and understanding.
Not to mention, many of you have been supportive of me through encouraging and constructive reviews and PMs. I am grateful.
At first, I was expecting this story to be about 10 to 15 chapters (originally, there was no conflict in the Yuuki family planned), but after getting the idea to have a fight break out between Asuna and her family, I needed to make massive revisions for this story. And added to that, my university life kept me very busy and thus it took longer to write some of the chapters as well.
To summarize, I thank each and every one of you that patiently waited for this story and took your time to review them as well.
Now, enjoy reading!
Disclaimer: I don't own SAO, its characters, or the OSTs. They belong to Kawahara Reki-sensei and Kajiura Yuki-sensei, respectively!)
Chapter 22 – Mother's Reconciliation
On the island of the 24th floor, which was now remembered by many ALO players as the Zekken's island, no one else was around, with the exception of the two female fairies that were present on its flower field. Around them, the virtual sunlight had by now filled the skies, brightening the entire 24th floor up.
The usually peaceful silence of the island had been for the past hour or so been broken by the cries of a young fairy who was still in grief of her deceased friend. But thankfully her mother was there to comfort her this time, to which the girl was thankful for.
It took a while, but Asuna finally managed to stop crying and was now able to talk cohesively without being a tearful blubbering mess.
"Are you alright now, Asuna?" Kyouko asked her daughter, who now seemed to have ceased crying and started to calm down.
In response, she gave a silent nod.
After giving herself some more time to completely calm down, Asuna started to think on what she should say to her mother. She had brought her here for a purpose after all.
Yes, wanting her mother to be beside her to visit Yuuki's virtual memorial was one of the reason, but it wasn't all of it.
It was now or never.
"Say, mom?" Asuna finally broke the silence.
"Yes?"
"I brought you here not just because I wanted to see Yuuki, but also to tell you how I really feel and I want to know how you feel as well." Asuna explained.
"How you and I feel? About what?" Kyouko asked.
"Oh, I think you know: Kirito-kun, or rather, Kirigaya Kazuto" Asuna said.
Kyouko already had several things to say as soon as she heard the boy's name and immediately started guessing about what her daughter wanted to say about him.
"I know that you want what's the best for me and after everything you've been through because of me even before SAO, I think I can see why you did some of the things that you did" Asuna said.
Kyouko processed her daughter's wording.
"Asuna… do you…" She started.
"Do I know that I almost died when I was just two days old, almost run over by a car when I was five, and kidnapped without knowing during grade school? Yes I do… Nii-san told me all about it yesterday…" Asuna explained, confirming her mother's suspicions. Kyouko gave a sigh at this.
"After listening to what had happened to me, I think I'm starting to understand your reasons for doing what you've done… I know that you were worried sick for me my whole life, but that doesn't give you the right to interfere with every single thing I do and how I want to live my life, especially regarding my love life" Asuna started.
"I know that you have your reasons for disapproving Kirito-kun, and those reasons are valid ones too. So I want to explain to you how we met and got to know each other in SAO and how I grew to love him… It's a very long story and it's going to take a while to get it all out. It won't be too late to judge him after you hear what I have to say about him so please, listen to what I have to say until the very end" Asuna requested.
Kyouko paused, thinking her daughter's words through. After a few seconds she nodded, complying. So Asuna began her story.
"I know that you're skeptical of Kirito-kun because of the fact that he is a gamer. And believe me, when I first met him in SAO, I never imagined that I would end up falling for him, especially with the way our first meeting went down…" Asuna started, remembering what had happened on the day they first met. And her mother listened on quietly.
"When SAO commenced, feeling terrified was the only thing I could feel at the moment. I had only planned to play the game for a few moments and then log out, but as you know, that wasn't possible. For the first two months, I shut myself in the safezone, praying every time I woke up that it was all just a bad dream. After all, how was I, someone who never even played a computer game, much less a virtual one, survive a virtual death game where dying in the game means real death? I didn't even know anything about the game's mechanic or how to even survive outside the safezone"
"But as the two months passed, I decided to finally leave the town. But the fear of death was still with me and… I don't know what I was thinking, but I travelled into the field dungeon and ran into the dungeon's boss…" Asuna recalled.
She had to admit, it wasn't her best choice to leave the safezone, having no idea what to do, much less how to fight. Her mother's eyes opened wide in shock.
"You did what?! Why would you do such a thing?! You could have died then!" Kyouko shouted, feeling her heart drop at what she heard.
"I know… I wasn't thinking clearly… Fear can make people do irrational things mom… I learned that well in SAO… but fortunately for all of us, I didn't die back then… Just as the boss monster was about to finish me off, a boy around my age who had seen me enter the dungeon alone went after me and got me out. I had lost consciousness at the time and woke up later to see the boy who saved me. Yes… that was my first meeting with Kirito-kun"
"And although I was grateful that he saved me, he wasn't particularly good at expressing himself back then; although that kind of is an issue from time to time even now, but… pff…" Asuna continued but then suddenly looked like she was doing everything in her might to stop herself from bursting out laughing. Her mother raised her eyebrow in confusion at her sudden change of behavior.
"What's so funny?" She asked in confusion.
(A/N: Play the OST: "With My Friend")
Asuna calmed herself down before answering; though her voice still contained amusement, probably from the memory that she was about to tell her.
"Like I said, he wasn't very good at communicating with other people, and the way he told me of how he pulled me away from the boss monster that I had recklessly challenged, I… kind of misinterpreted it as he had molested me while I was knocked out and lashed out at him…" Asuna answered.
To be precise, when she said 'lashed out', she meant she had thrust her rapier to where her future boyfriend's head had been, with the thin blade hitting the tree that was right behind him, quivering ominously. And the face Kirito had made as he dodged the rapier and when he desperately tried to clarify what he had said with the expression of utmost terror when he was asked by her in a voice that just emitted every possible signal that she was livid at what she THOUGHT he had done, was just laughable now that she recalled the memory.
"But, once I got over the misunderstanding, he taught me many of the basic skills and game mechanics for survival. And I started to have more confidence in my ability to survive the game. The fear was still there, but it was far more manageable"
"But as we gathered in a meeting so that we could begin to get ready to tackle the first floor's boss, a problem arose: a player named Kibaou had started to form a rift against the regular players and beta testers; as in, the players who had played the beta version of SAO before the launch of the official game. He claimed that the beta testers, who had valuable knowledge for survival had left the other players in the dark about what they knew, leaving them for dead. I was sure that Kirito-kun, who was one of the beta testers of SAO was feeling uneasy at this accusation. But thankfully, the claim was quickly dismissed by another player who later becomes a valuable friend for both Kirito-kun and me. A month into SAO, 2000 players were killed, but what Kibaou didn't know was that about 30% of the dead were the beta testers, so his claims were dismissed, and I thought that the accusation against beta tester wouldn't be a problem again… but I was wrong…"
"The one who had organized and lead the battle for the first floor's boss was killed during the boss raid while trying to deliver the final blow to the boss and Kirito-kun had to deliver the blow in his place. But Kibaou who had seen what had happened accused Kirito-kun of letting the leader die so that he could take the item the boss dropped. What was worse was that some of the players who seemed to share Kibaou's beliefs deduced that Kirito-kun was a beta tester and backed Kibaou up. They started to look for other beta testers in the group who hadn't revealed themselves"
"The situation looked bad… Kibaou and his cronies were being unreasonable enough by framing beta testers to be potential killers, and if we allowed it to go on, it would have been a matter of time for a rift between the players to form, or worse, a witch hunt against beta testers could have eventually taken place as well, now that I think about it. Even when we worked together to clear the boss of the very first level in the game we had suffered casualties, but if we were divided because of some nonsense accusation made by obnoxious people like Kibaou, we would have no chance of leaving the game alive"
"Just then, Kirito-kun did the unthinkable: he played the role of the villain"
"What exactly do you mean by that?" Kyouko asked, silently asking for clarification.
"He made himself look like the villain so that the other beta testers wouldn't have to take the brunt of Kibaou's ridiculous accusations. In essence, he had all the blame and accusation that was directed towards the beta testers to fall towards him. He admitted to everyone that he was indeed one of the beta testers, but unlike the other testers, Kirito-kun was already familiar with playing games in VR beforehand, so while the others barely made it to the first or second floor, Kirito-kun had reached the tenth floor alone during the closed beta of SAO. This was why Kibaou and the others accused him of being a cheater and a beta tester. So, many of the players started to call him 'The Beater' from that point on… and many of them with ill-intent"
"But me and a few of the players who were there knew what Kirito-kun was trying to do by saying all of those, so even though some of the players kept vilifying him, I still stayed with him during other quests up until we reached about the tenth floor. After that, we started to see each other less and less, and at one point, Kirito-kun advised that I shouldn't follow his way of surviving in the game"
"Because the progress and leveling that he had done during the beta test was carried over, Kirito-kun's level was significantly higher than the other players, even more so than the frontline players and he must have thought that if I stuck around him for too long, I might become outcasted too… So, after we reached about the 10th floor, we started to see each other less and less outside of the strategy meeting for tackling bosses, and by that time, I had already taken Kirito-kun's advice and joined up with the guild, the Knights of the Blood Oath. And by the time we had reached the 25th floor, after suffering numerous casualties during the boss raid, we could pretty much say that we both went our separate ways. I had worked hard with the guild I joined, the Knights of the Blood Oath, to clear the floors and eventually become the guild's sub-commander, while Kirito-kun continued to stay as a solo player, and up until we reached the 59th floor, we didn't really have any noticeable encounters. And what little encounters we had often involved in arguing about the best strategies to tackle the level boss so needless to say, at the time, I still didn't have any feelings for him; I was too busy focusing on clearing the game and getting back to reality as quickly as possible; often sacrificing my sleep to do it"
Kyouko's eyes narrowed in concern. Being the busy woman that she was, she had her fair share of working without getting a decent rest and it often didn't end well for her later work performance. Her daughter had put herself in the dangers of clearing the death game and often in a sleep deprived state; no less… she was surprised that she hadn't already died, either from the lack of sleep or by the monsters in the game.
"But when we reached the 59th floor, I came across an astounding sight: Kirito-kun was sleeping under the tree in the field in plain sight. It was a sunny day at the time and he was in a 'safe' area where there were no monsters and the players were protected by the game's program, an 'anti-criminal code' if you will, so that their health wouldn't go down even if they were attacked by other players. But unfortunately, there were a few loopholes in this rule. One of them was that if a player was asleep in plain sight, then a criminal player was free to move the hand of the sleeping player to open up their menu to steal items, or worse, kill the player by challenging them to a duel because dueling was the only exception to the players being immune to damage by other players"
(A/N: Play the OST: "Everyday Life")
"So, I approached him feeling both incredulous and worried and asked him what he was doing lazing about there instead of going to the dungeons clearing them. But his answer was something that I wasn't really expecting. The weather setting of that day was at its brightest, he said; it was the nicest weather that the game could offer us and he felt that it would be a waste to spend that day in the dark dungeons instead of enjoying the weather. I wasn't completely convinced but then he offered to try it myself; to lie down on the grass and take a nap and before I could say anything more, he just resumed his napping"
"I thought about just leaving him alone at first, but because of the said loophole in the anti-criminal code, I decided to stay there and guard him while he took his nap and… well… I ended up falling asleep myself on the grass beside him…" Asuna explained, slightly embarrassed as she recalled that day.
"I didn't realize it before then, but I must have been exhausted out of my mind to have fallen asleep just by lying down on the grass. And when I came to, I saw that the sun was setting and Kirito-kun was awake and looking at me as I was waking up. When the sleep cleared and I started to realize that I had fallen asleep while trying to guard Kirito-kun, I suddenly realized that he had actually had done the same for me when he woke up and most likely found me sleeping right next to him… I was too embarrassed to thank him openly, so I told him that I would treat him to a meal, no matter how expensive it was"
Kyouko acknowledged silently. If what she said was true, and he had no dubious intentions, then he really was looking out for her daughter's safety. IF he really didn't have any dubious intentions at the time that is…
(A/N: Play the OST: "Taut Nerves")
"But as we were talking and eating, we heard a commotion coming from outside. When we went to investigate, we saw that a player was pinned up against the wall of a building with a sword on his chest. And shortly after, he died. This was very disturbing news because if someone was able to be killed like that inside a town that was within the Anti-Criminal Code area, then that would mean that no one would be safe from players who were intending to harm other players, even within the only places in the game that guaranteed safety. So, as frontline players, we needed to investigate into the matter as quickly as possible. So after such a long time, Kirito-kun and I partied up to investigate together"
"But that would involve dealing with murderers." Kyouko said. "Weren't there police or any sort of group that could have dealt with this?"
Asuna shook her head.
"The closest thing Aincrad had to a police force among the players was a guild known as the Aincrad Liberation Army, and frankly they were rather unreliable and corrupt. And the frontlines were constantly busy clearing floors" she explained.
"In any case, we met up with a friend of the victim. A girl named Yolko. She had no clue how he ended up there. We walked her back to an inn, and then Kirito and I went over possibilities of how the murder could have occured. Kirito even tried testing out the murder weapon on himself to see if it could actually damage players inside a safe zone"
Kyouko widened her eyes.
"He tested it on himself?"
"He was about to before I stopped him. He always has been reckless at times." Asuna admitted with a sigh.
"We got the weapon appraised and there didn't seem anything special about it. But we did notice it was player-made. The one who smithed it was called Grimlock. We talked with Yolko the next day and when we mentioned the name, she had an idea as to the motive for Caynz's death"
"And that was?"
"Yolko, Grimlock, and Caynz, the one who died, were in a guild together with a few others called Golden Apple. They found a rare item at one point, but were conflicted with how to use it. After putting it to a vote, they opted to sell the item. Their leader Griselda left to sell it, but never returned. They soon found out that she had died. Suspicion grew amongst the others and eventually the guild disbanded"
"That sounds rather tragic." Kyouko said.
"Indeed." Asuna said with a nod of agreement.
"The killer was likely one of the three people that voted to keep the item. Caynz was one of them. Yolko was another. And the third was a player named Schmit. So we found Schmit and met with him, along with Yolko. However, when we did… Yolko was murdered by an attacker from outside the room. Kirito tried to give chase, but the killer got away. The two of us were at a loss at what to do"
"So was that the end of it?" Asuna shook her head.
"No. Thankfully, Kirito managed to realize that we had missed something. All while eating one of my sandwiches no less. The truth was that Caynz and Yolko were both alive"
"Alive? But you told me you saw them die." Kyouko said.
"We thought we did. What we actually saw though was their armor shattering due to durability hitting zero. At the same time, they used a teleport crystal to disappear and make it seem like they had died. Whenever an object monsters or players in SAO were destroyed, they would shatter into polygrams, and that was exactly what we had seen. They had done all of this to try and get Griselda's killer to reveal themselves. They suspected Schmit and worked with Grimlock to guilt him into confessing" Asuna explained.
"Was Schmit the culprit though?"
(A/N: Play the OST: "No Way")
Asuna shook her head.
"No, he wasn't. The real killer… was actually Grimlock. He and Griselda were married, both in-game and in real life. But in SAO, Griselda changed; before SAO, they were a couple that barely had any arguments. But when SAO started, she had changed from being an obedient wife to a leader of a guild. And apparently, Grimlock couldn't stand her not obeying his every whim and well… he killed her because of it"
'He just wanted to possess her.' Kyouko realized. 'Just like so many of the men I've tried to set Asuna up with…'
"Grimlock planned on luring Yolko, Caynz, and Schmit to Griselda's grave and had one of the worst murder guild in SAO called Laughing Coffin to kill them all. Thankfully, Kirito managed to get there in time and save them. Meanwhile, I caught Grimlock and made him explain everything. With that, everything was settled"
"My… that poor woman…" Kyouko said.
"Yes… looking at Grimlock, it reminded me a lot… of Sugou Nobuyuki… what he felt towards Griselda wasn't true love… it was a hideous possessiveness and obsession… just like Sugou's… I started to think then and there: if I did end up getting married to Sugou, is what happened to Griselda what might have happened to me?"
The similarities between the two men were undeniable. Kyouko looked away in shame.
"Right after the case was closed, I asked Kirito-kun, if he ever got married and found out something about his partner that he didn't know about before, what he would do and how he would feel… and his answer, it surprised me…" Asuna paused, recalling his answer with a smile.
(A/N: Play SAO season 1's first ending, "Yume Sekai (TV size)" by Tomatsu Haruka)
"What did he say…?" Kyouko asked, curious.
"He said, he would think that he's lucky"
"Lucky…?" Her mother repeated, puzzled.
"Being married means that you know a side to a person… and if you truly loved that person and find out that there is another side to her, then there's twice the reason to love the person; that's what he answered. It may have sounded corny, but I could tell that his words were sincere… and they were touching too…" Asuna finished.
Kyouko thought deeply on what Asuna had just told her. The boy definitely had noble qualities… he had protected her daughter on more than one occasions and even went as far as taking a blame from a ridiculous accusation to keep the frontline groups from falling apart. He was selfless and he cared for others.
And besides, her daughter's descriptions of him so far were well-detailed and too elaborate to be made up. Suddenly, it started to feel like her attempts into investigating the boy had been embarrassingly feeble. From what she was hearing, it was clear that she didn't know that much about the boy in actuality.
"I… I see…" Kyouko finally said. And she let her daughter continue her story.
"After that day, I found myself being able to sleep much better and any dreams I had were becoming more and more pleasant as well. And sometimes, I would even have dreams about him as well… I think that it was at this point that I started to realize that I had feelings for him. He was certainly different from all the other men that I had met. I couldn't describe what exactly that difference was at the time, but I started to feel more and more curious; I wanted to learn more about him"
"I started looking forward to when we would meet each other again. And knowing Kirito-kun, I knew that he could handle himself against the monsters inside dungeons…" Asuna paused for a moment before continuing.
"But unfortunately, inside SAO clearing floors and fighting the boss monsters weren't the only dangers we had to face… sometimes, other players… other humans in the game were far scarier enemies than the somewhat predictable monsters"
"In SAO, there was an important unspoken rule: to let no one's health reach zero, because we all knew that it meant real death for that person. But there were players who blatantly ignored this important rule and deliberately killed players for money or items or worse, they killed just for fun… and Laughing Coffin, the group that Grimlock hired, was one of them; one of the worst sadistic group of killers in the game. This guild of murderers, they would go as far as call themselves the 'red players'; someone who killed people just for the fun of it"
"The frontline players knew that criminal guilds like the Laughing Coffin was an ongoing issue for the people in SAO, especially for players who weren't on the frontline, but by the time we realized how serious the dangers they posed to everyone was, we found out that over a thousand players had already lost their lives to the Laughing Coffin"
Kyouko stared at her daughter, shocked. She knew that almost 4000 people died in SAO, but to think that about 25% of them were killed by those killers… it was disgusting to think about.
"So before we proceeded any further on clearing the floors, we decided to destroy the Laughing Coffin guild once and for all… so after gathering enough information about them and finding out their home base, my guild and other players from the frontline guilds formed up and went to their base. Of course, Kirito-kun and I took part in the event as well. But somehow, the Laughing Coffin had known that we were coming; we were ambushed while we were closing in on their home base"
(A/N: Play the OST: "Critical Phase")
Kyouko remained quiet as she continued to listen, growing worried. Obviously, her daughter had survived the encounter from those killers, but just imagining that she had been thrown into such dangers still had shivers sent to her spine.
"We were taken by surprise but fortunately, we regrouped quickly and started to overwhelm the Laughing Coffin. Kirito-kun and I fought alongside the other allied players. And while I was busy fighting, a Laughing Coffin member had been sneaking up on me, no doubt with the intent to kill…" Kyouko felt her blood freeze when she heard this.
"But thankfully, Kirito-kun had seen it just in time and knocked my attacker back. From the glimpse of what I saw of the attacker, he was holding a knife; most likely a poisoned one…" Asuna trailed off as her mind started to deviate from her story.
Poisoned dagger… those two words gave her an unpleasant reminder of Johnny Black, one of PoH's lieutenants and one of Laughing Coffin's most sadistic killers. Currently wanted by the police for the Death Gun serial murder case, it had been almost 4 months since Kikuoka had told them that the arrest warrant for Johnny Black's real-life counterpart was made. But the fact that he had still evaded capture uptil now despite Kikuoka's assurance that he will be caught was still very troubling to think about. Knowing the Laughing Coffin, for all she knew Johnny Black could be hiding in the shadows in the real world plotting his next murder, not caring too much of what would happen to himself, just like the other fanatics who allowed themselves to be destroyed by the frontline players rather than surrender.
"Asuna…? Asuna!"
Hearing her name snapped her back to where she was.
"Are you alright? You spaced out for a moment there." Her mother asked, worried.
"Yes… Sorry… I was just thinking about… about what happened…" Asuna said, quickly making up the last part.
After a few seconds of silence, Kyouko spoke up.
"Asuna, if you want we can save this discussion for another time…" She said, realizing that she may have accidentally dug up what looked like unpleasant memories from SAO.
"No, I'm okay mom, really! I have to finish this…" Asuna said, unrelenting. She had come this far. She couldn't risk breaking the momentum that she had gained so far. So, she continued her story after recalling where she had left off: The fight with the Laughing Coffin.
"In the end, we were successful; for all intents and purposes, the Laughing Coffin guild was destroyed for the most part, but both sides suffered casualties… by the time the fight was over, we had lost 10 to 20 players, and what was more, no small number of the Laughing Coffin members refused to surrender and fought to their deaths even though it was clear that they were losing. Other surviving members were captured and put in the prison area until SAO was cleared. I was lucky that I didn't have to kill any of them… I had managed to hold off or incapacitate the ones I fought with, other than the one that almost snuck up on me… but for Kirito-kun… he wasn't so lucky…"
"What do you mean by that?" Kyouko asked.
"During the fight, Kirito-kun had to face two of the ones who kept fighting despite their health bars being dangerously low; in the red zone. And given the circumstances as well as considering who exactly we were fighting, given the chance they wouldn't have hesitated to murder us in cold blood. I've seen the looks on their faces when we fought; their insane bloodlust… some of them looked as if they were enjoying the killings, even as they were dying and if Kirito-kun had faced such an opponent, he would have had no choice but to strike them down in self defense. But when I looked at him after the fight was over, he didn't have to say anything… I could tell just from looking at him that he felt horrible killing the two, even if they were insane killers…"
"I realized then that beneath that tough solo player who was strong enough to survive in the field alone, he was just like me; an ordinary person who was around my age, thrown into this warzone, forced to fight for his very survival and trying to find a way for us to escape it…"
Kyouko pondered her daughter's words silently… In such a situation, faced against a deranged group of killers, no sane person would have had any choice but to fight them, kill them if necessary, to survive… She couldn't blame the boy for his actions… she probably would have done the same if she was in his place…
"I'm sure that the event took a toll on his conscience, but for the sake of clearing SAO, we had to move forward and not look back. And in time, it looked like he had recovered from that traumatic event for the moment"
"The next encounter I had with him was when we were on the 74th floor. It was almost time for the next boss raid, so I had decided to find him and see if we could party up again. When I found him, he was in a shop run by one of his friends, discussing something. After exchanging our greetings, I found out what he was doing… he had gotten an extremely rare cooking ingredient in the game and his cooking status wasn't good enough to properly cook it, so he was looking for someone who could cook it when I came along. Fortunately for him, I had maxed out my cooking skill a week ago, which meant that I could cook just about anything in the game, so I agreed to cook it for him on the condition I have half of the food. So, I invited him over to my home and thanks to the ingredient Kirito-kun had gotten, we had a good dinner. And afterwards, I asked him to party up with me again and go to the dungeons so that we could scout out the area together. We still had yet to find the location of the boss yet after all…" Asuna said. Maybe saying that she 'asked' Kirito to party up with her wasn't exactly accurate… she had half-threatened him at knifepoint, after all…
"But on the next day, when I was about to leave home and meet up with Kirito-kun, I found out that one of the members of my guild name Kuradeel, who was in charge of being my bodyguard by the commander of my guild, had been waiting for me in front of the house. According to him, he was just there to take me back to the guild headquarters, and that he was concerned that I had invited Kirito-kun over to my place… He had been present the day before when I met up with Kirito-kun you see, and he didn't look very happy that I was even meeting up with him in the first place. I had never liked the rule that I even needed to have an escort and frankly, what Kuradeel was doing was borderline stalking. So, I tried to ditch him and get to where Kirito-kun was waiting for me"
Kyouko didn't like where this was going. This Kuradeel person really did sounded like a stalker who was after Asuna.
"When I managed to meet up with Kirito-kun in front of the teleportation gate, Kuradeel had followed suit to take me back to the guild. I was hoping that Kirito-kun would step in and stop him and thankfully, that was exactly what he did. Having seen Kuradeel's arrogant behavior the day before, Kirito-kun wasn't about to let him do as he pleased. Kuradeel started going on about that he was more suited to protect me rather than a shady solo player like Kirito-kun. But having been his party member and seeing him fight more than once, if it did ever come to protecting someone, I knew that Kirito-kun would be more suitable than Kuradeel. But when Kirito-kun didn't relent, Kuradeel challenged him to a duel to settle the score and Kirito-kun accepted. The fight didn't last long at all. As I had predicted, Kirito-kun won against Kuradeel with no trouble at all. But Kuradeel refused to admit defeat at Kirito-kun's hand and lunged at him to attack him again. I had seen enough at that point and told Kuradeel to return to the base and relieved him of his duty of being my bodyguard"
Kyouko was glad to hear this. It seemed that Kirito had once again saved her daughter from an uncomfortable position.
"After that ordeal was over with, Kirito-kun and I went into the dungeons and explored the area together. With our levels, tackling the monsters there wasn't hard at all. In fact, it felt like I was clearing the monsters out at a faster rate than usual when we fought together. So we decided to proceed further into the dungeon. But then, we stumbled across the room of the level boss. And since we had come that far, the two of us decided to take a peek inside the boss room to see what kind of boss we were going to have to face with the other assault players" Asuna recounted that day.
"But… wasn't that dangerous…?" Her mother asked.
"We were safe as long as we didn't venture too far into the boss room and we had teleportation crystals that would teleport us away to a safe area in hand, just to be sure. But when the previously dark boss room lit up, we could see the boss monster clearly; just from looking at it, we knew that it would be tough to beat compared to the previous floors' bosses. It wasn't just its gigantic size, but its look of a demon with a goat for its head and a snake as its tail, with a giant sword in its hand; it was downright frightening to look at. We didn't have to say anything to each other. Both of us ran as fast as our legs could carry us out of the room and away from the huge demon"
"After we were a safe distance away, we decided to rest for a moment and discuss the best strategy to tackle the boss monster. And while we were resting, a group of six stumbled across us, and the leader of the group happened to be a good friend of Kirito-kun. His name was Klein and he is guild, the 'Fuurinkazan' was one of the frontline guilds. It was a small guild, but all of their members knew each other well and they hadn't lost a single member since the game had started. And after SAO, Klein-san is now one of the friends that we get together with to play online alongside Kirito-kun. Just as we were introducing each other though, another group of players were heading our way. It was a larger group of people and as they got close, we saw that it was the Aincrad Liberation Army"
"Aincrad Liberation Army? You mean the unreliable guild that was the closest thing to a police in the game?" Kyouko asked.
"Yes… They were a powerful guild back during the beginning of SAO, but on the 25th floor's boss battle, they were almost wiped out and afterwards, they started to focus more on building their numbers instead of clearing the floors, and we almost never saw them again in the frontlines until then. They had become a very large guild by then, but we had no idea if they were strong enough to be in the frontline anymore"
"The leader of the group, Kobaltz, after introducing himself, asked that we hand over any of the mapping data of the dungeons that Kirito-kun had over to him, much to my and Klein's dismay; mapping out the dungeons and finding the boss room was not an easy task. But Kobaltz said that the Aincrad Liberation Army shared information and resources to other players with no charge and persistently demanded to hand over the map to him. The rest of us, including myself were going to argue back against, but Kirito-kun handed over the mapping without resistance, saying that he had intended to release the map to the public when we had gotten back anyway. But before Kobaltz started to leave, Kirito-kun warned them not to challenge the boss monster if that was what they were thinking of doing. We didn't know what they had been doing before they met us, but the men following behind Kobaltz looked like they were exhausted and barely able to stand. But Kobaltz didn't listen and led his men away towards the boss's room"
"That… sounds concerning…" Kyouko commented.
"Yes… a person with common sense would've been able to see that the boss wasn't something you could beat by recklessly charging in… but the Aincrad Liberation Army's records weren't exactly stellar. As we watched them head towards the boss room, we wondered if they were going to be okay. I thought out loud that they should know what they were doing and that they wouldn't rush in without checking it out first, or at least, that was what I was trying to convince myself. But Kirito-kun suggested that we follow them and keep an eye on them, just to be safe… Honestly, sometimes, he was just too nice for his own good…" Asuna sighed.
Kyouko had half expected to hear her daughter say that Kirito had argued against handing the mapping data over, but hearing her say that he handed the information over with no resistance, it surprised her. From what she had gathered, mapping data was valuable and could be sold to others for a big price. And the fact that he suggested to follow them to see if they did challenge the boss, yes, it did sound like he was too nice for his own good…
"And before we started to head back to the boss's room to catch upto Kobaltz's men, Klein-san made a request; he said that Kirito-kun may be hard to talk to, a lone wolf and a bit of a battle maniac, but he was a good person at heart and asked me to take care of Kirito-kun. And I answered him that I gladly would"
"We then proceeded to head to the boss's room. The only thing that got in the way was the dungeon's monsters that respawned there periodically, and they were easy to take down. We were just about at the boss's room and we hadn't seen any sign of Kobaltz and his men. We were starting to think that they had used a teleportation crystal to go back to the safe zone. But then we heard screaming, coming from the direction of the boss room…"
"Wait, you mean that they actually challenged the boss?" Kyouko asked in incredulous shock.
"As soon as we heard the screams, Kirito-kun and I rushed to the boss's room and found that the doors were wide open… I didn't want to believe it but yes, they did…"
"Those idiots…" Kyouko voiced exactly what she had been thinking as she and Kirito had rushed to the Gleam Eyes' room.
"When we arrived at the boss's room, we could already tell that things were bad. Some of the men were on the ground helplessly, and many of them had their health dangerously low. Kirito-kun shouted to them beside me to use the teleportation crystal to get away but one of them answered that the crystals weren't working. There had been dungeon areas in the game before that had traps with anti-teleport crystal area before, but there never had been one inside boss rooms until then…"
"But despite all that, Kobaltz still ordered his men to keep attacking the boss instead of finding a way for them to get away. When we were pondering on what to do, Klein-san and his guild had caught up to us. They must have fallen behind because of the dungeon monsters that spawned between us and them. The three of us were thinking hard on the spot to help them. We could have gone in there to distract the boss and give them time to escape the room, but that was far too risky. But before we could do anything, Kobaltz gave orders to his men to charge at the boss. Kirito-kun yelled at them not to, but his warnings fell into deaf ears. The result was immediate… with just two swings from the boss's giant sword, 3 or more men were thrown into the air. One of them landed right in front of us… it was Kobaltz… Kirito-kun approached him attempting to help him, but... he died before Kirito-kun could do anything…" Asuna trailed off.
"Oh no…" Her mother moaned.
(A/N: Play the OST: "We have to Defeat It")
"I couldn't take it anymore… I didn't want to see anymore people dying around me… as we were standing there in shock, the boss monster was getting ready to kill another one of the men who was cornered and paralyzed in fear… I knew that it was a huge risk, but I just couldn't stand to see another person die in front of me. So I drew my rapier and charged in"
Kyouko once again felt her blood go cold… she knew that Asuna was never one to back away from someone who needed help. But still…
"I managed to distract the boss long enough to save the player. Kirito-kun joined me to fight and distract the boss while Klein-san and the rest of his guild worked on helping Kobaltz's men get away from the boss. Kirito-kun and I had taken a few hits but we were alright. But the way things were going, we were never going to buy enough time for the others to escape. But then Kirito-kun asked me and Klein-san to keep the boss off of him for 10 seconds. I thought that he may have a backup plan in mind, so we kept the boss occupied. But what I saw Kirito-kun do next surprised all of us. He had two swords in each of his hands and started to use sword skills that none of us had ever seen before. With the skill, the damage he was doing to the boss monster was enormous. But at the same time, in the interval of his attacks, the boss kept damaging him. Each time Kirito-kun managed to damage the boss, so did the boss, and all of us stood there and watched anxiously. Both the boss's health and Kirito-kun's were in the red zone. It was dangerous but he kept attacking, both of their healths becoming lower and lower… Thankfully, Kirito-kun managed to get the boss's health down to zero before his was, and he had defeated the boss almost single-handed. But it was still a very close call. I thought that he might actually die from fighting the boss all by himself like he did. One more hit from the boss and he definitely would have and it would've been my fault if he did… And imagine how shocked I was when I saw him collapse immediately after he realized that he defeated the boss… I was scared that he actually did die! But thankfully, Kirito-kun regained consciousness a few seconds after I reached him"
"According to Klein-san, Kobaltz and two others were killed in the fight… no, this wasn't a fight, it was suicide… but thanks to Kirito-kun's bravery, we had managed to prevent any further casualties"
"And Kirito-kun's ability to wield two swords at once, it was thanks to a skill that was unique only to him: Dual-Wielding. It allowed him to use a combination of sword skills that did much more damage to monsters than other frontline players. He had the skill for half a year at that point, but Kirito-kun had been careful not to use it in front of other players because he didn't want to be at the receiving end of their petty jealousy. He used it that time because it had been an emergency"
"It was also at this point that I realized without a doubt that I was helplessly in love with him…"
Kyouko nodded silently as she heard this. So, he wasn't an attention seeker… nor was he stuck up or arrogant. If he had been an arrogant boy, she would have thought that he would have flaunted his newfound skill to everyone, but instead, he chose not to stand out. Kirito or Kirigaya Kazuto… the more she heard about him, the more intriguing he sounded like.
"Klein-san told us to go to the safe zone and get some rest while his guild went onto the next floor and that was exactly what we did. I had decided there and then that I was going to ask my commander that I be allowed to take a break from the guild's frontline work to spend time with Kirito-kun"
"The rumor that Kirito-kun had single-handedly defeated a floor boss and that he had used a skill never seen by others before to defeat it spread like wildfire. Soon, he was being chased by info brokers and other players who wanted to know more about Kirito-kun's newfound skill. But that was the least of our problem… when I went back to the guild and told Commander Heathcliff the founder and leader of the KoB of my intention; it didn't go at all according to plan…"
"What happened?" Her mother asked.
(A/N: Play the OST: "A Strategy Meeting")
"I know that I had put a lot of effort after joining the Knights of the Blood Oath to clear the floors as quickly as possible and I had become the guild's sub-commander and I was acknowledged by Commander Heathcliff for my skills. But with the position as the sub-commander of the guild that was rumored to be the strongest in SAO, its rules and restrictions as well as the pressure really had started to take its toll on me, and I thought after what had happened with the 74th floor's boss battle, I would have a good enough excuse to take a break with Kirito-kun, but… the commander had other ideas…"
"The Knights of the Blood Oath was indeed a powerful guild consisting of the best players that SAO had to offer, but it was also not too large of a guild, and the commander valued every member that he could get, and when he heard that I was asking him to let me take a break from the guild because of Kirito-kun, he must have taken it as a challenge to our guild. Because when the commander summoned both me and Kirito-kun to the guild, he said to Kirito-kun that if he wanted to take me off of the guild, then he would have to duel him for it; a one on one battle for Kirito-kun and the commander… and if he won, then he was allowed to take me out of the guild but if he lost, then he would have to join the Knights of the Blood Oath. Before I could protest and tell Kirito-kun not to, he went ahead and accepted the commander's challenge. And before we knew it, it had become a huge deal to just about everyone in SAO; the other members of the KoB started advertising to everyone about the upcoming duel between Kirito-kun and the commander. There was no going back"
"I was annoyed that Kirito-kun had just accepted the challenge without a second thought. I had seen just how powerful Kirito-kun could be first hand with his Dual-Wielding skill, but the commander's strength was on a whole new level… he had a unique skill of his own called 'Divine Blade'. It allowed him to maximize both his attacks and defenses as well. He was so good at fighting in the game that no one had ever seen his health fall even to the yellow zone. The commander's strength was one of the most prominent reasons that many regarded the KoB as the strongest guild in the game; that was who Kirito-kun was up against." Asuna explained.
"Your commander… he was that powerful?" Kyouko asked.
"Yes… his strength was almost game breaking, so as much as I wanted Kirito-kun to win, I really couldn't tell what the outcome of this duel would be. I didn't care so much about my leave of absence at that point; Kirito-kun's independence as a solo player was at risk and it was my fault that this whole thing had happened too. But Kirito-kun still didn't back down. He proceeded with the duel with the commander…"
(A/N: Play the OST: "Confront Battle")
"So… who won then?" Her mother asked, wanting to know the outcome. She almost sounded like a child who was listening very closely to her parent telling her a very suspenseful story… almost. And Asuna, who couldn't forget the events of that day even if she wanted to, continued to explain the fight in full detail.
"As they both started to exchange their blows to each other, they both looked like they were having a lot of trouble landing a hit on each other. Kirito-kun's reaction speed was incredible and he was dodging the commander's attacks well, but the commander's defense with his shield was hard to break through. At that point, the rate they were exchanging blows and dodging or blocking each others' attacks was almost too fast to count and keep up anymore. But as Kirito-kun started to use the combination of attacks that he used to defeat the demon boss, I was shocked to see that Kirito-kun was actually starting to overwhelm the commander's impregnable defenses and eventually managed to pushed him back, leaving him wide open for Kirito-kun's attacks to hit. At that moment, I was almost certain that Kirito-kun was actually going to win the match. But then the commander quickly regained his footing and managed to counter his attacks. The next coming blow was too fast, even for Kirito-kun to dodge. And in the span of less than 3 seconds, the commander had turned the table around and landed a blow on Kirito-kun to bring his health down to the yellow zone. Kirito-kun had lost… I was shocked at the outcome and I admit, I was a bit upset about it too… after all, Kirito-kun had been so close… but what Kirito-kun had managed to do against the commander was still commendable; I'm pretty sure that Kirito-kun was the first person to have pushed the commander that far. But no one realized at the time that this duel between Kirito-kun and the commander would later become an important catalyst in clearing the game…"
"With Kirito-kun losing the duel, two days later, he officially became a part of the Knights of the Blood Oath…"
"And he wasn't bitter about it? About losing?" Her mother asked.
"If he was bitter, he sure didn't show it… If anything, he looked more stunned than upset at the outcome… but he did admit defeat and joined the guild as promised." Asuna explained.
So… the boy wasn't a sore loser… he kept his promise, even when things didn't go his way… Some of her colleagues and professional adversaries could actually stand to learn from the boy… and maybe… just maybe… herself as well…
"I had never seen Kirito-kun wearing anything that wasn't black or dark blue before… he had always thought any other colors just didn't suit him. But since all of the KoB's uniforms consisted of white and red, Kirito-kun was pretty reluctant to wear his new guild uniform. So I had to pick out one of the least flashy ones for him to wear… I thought it looked good on him, but he didn't seem to think so…"
"I was still sorry that I had dragged him into this mess, but he responded that it may be for the better… He said that he was starting to feel the limits of being a solo player anyway and joining our guild might actually be a good opportunity for him. I was glad to hear that he was taking it better than I thought"
"But then, I decided to ask him a question that had been bugging me for a long time: Why he always avoided joining guilds and always stayed a solo player… at first, I had thought that it was because of him being a beta tester and because of his unique skill, but those just didn't seem like a good enough reasons anymore. I knew that I might have been asking too much, but I wanted to know… So, he started to tell me the reason why…"
(A/N: Play the OST: "In Your Past")
"Before the KoB, there was only one instance when he had joined a guild. It had happened about a year ago, during the time Kirito-kun and I went on our separate ways… he had met a small guild of friends who were in the computer club in their school in the real world and they were all around Kirito-kun's age… The guild's name was the Moonlit Black Cats. They were all good players, but Kirito-kun being a beta tester, his level was way higher than theirs… When they got to know each other, they offered him to join their guild. Kirito-kun must have gotten tired of being a loner at some point, because he accepted to join them, but he hid the fact that his level was far higher than theirs because he was afraid that they wouldn't want him join the guild…" Asuna started.
"But why would he think that…? If his level was higher, then wouldn't they have been more insistent that he join them?" Kyouko asked.
"Remember mom, after SAO became a death game and after the events of the 1st floor boss fight, beta testers were always met with suspicion by many players… despite Kirito-kun's and a few others' best efforts to prevent other players from viewing beta testers with suspicion, it hadn't done them much good. He must have thought that the Moonlit Black Cats may think so as well…" Asuna explained.
"He got along well with everyone in the guild and he must have thought that if any danger came to them, he could protect them because of his much higher level…"
"But… one day, when the guild leader left to buy a new place for their guild to be in, Kirito-kun and the rest decided to explore the dungeons while they waited for the leader to finish his business. Unfortunately, the floor they were exploring was notorious for having traps set all around. Kirito-kun was well aware of this, but he was still afraid that if they found out about him being a beater, they wouldn't want him around anymore, so he couldn't say anything… but then, one of the guild member had triggered a trap in the room they were in and they were surrounded by high leveled monsters. They all tried to use their teleportation crystals to get away, but the room was an anti-teleportation area…" Asuna explained sadly. Her mother's eyes widened. She could tell where this was going, and she didn't like it at all…
"The monsters themselves were no problem for Kirito-kun alone, so he tried his best to fight the monsters and protect his guildmates, but there were simply too many of them… he just couldn't fight them and protect his friends at the same time… One by one, Kirito-kun saw them being overwhelmed and killed by the monsters, until he was the only one left… Eventually the trap deactivated but by the time it was, the rest of the guild members were long dead…"
"And when Kirito-kun met up with the leader to tell him what had happened, it was then that he finally revealed that he was the infamous beater… When the leader heard everything, he was unable to take it and… he killed himself right in front of Kirito-kun…" Asuna finished the sad story quietly… Her mother had a hand over her mouth in shock.
"Oh no…" She moaned sadly.
"After hearing all that, I could understand why he had avoided guilds like a plague… being around one reminded him of the Moonlit Black Cats… his friends that he had failed to protect… So I swore to him, that I wouldn't die and that I would protect him in return… and I was going to keep that promise to the end…"
"I later asked Klein-san about what Kirito-kun had told me about what had happened to the Moonlit Black Cats and he confirmed that everything Kirito-kun had said was true… in fact, he told me more of what happened between him and Kirito-kun after the death of the entire Moonlit Black Cat guild… It was during Christmas on the same year that the guild perished… it must have been about half a year after the guild was wiped out at that point, and Klein-san, who had met up with Kirito-kun from time to time after hearing what had happened to the guild he was in, explained to me that he had never seen Kirito-kun like that… it was clear that their deaths still haunted him and he thoroughly blamed himself for it…"
"There was a rumor of a special event happening on Christmas that year… a boss monster would show up and that if you managed to kill it, it dropped a revival item that would be able to revive any player that had died… But there was no guarantee about the rumor being true and it was likely that the boss was extremely powerful… but Kirito-kun heard about this unconfirmed rumor and he decided to do it, alone…" Asuna continued. Kyouko just listened on.
"But when he went to the area where that special boss was, Klein-san and his guild had followed him because he was concerned that Kirito-kun might do something stupid and reckless in his state. He tried to convince Kirito-kun not to go on this suicidal mission, but as he was doing so, other players started showing up. It was clear that they had followed Klein-san as he was following Kirito-kun and that they were after the revival item the Kirito-kun was after as well. So, when he realized that he couldn't convince Kirito-kun not to challenge the boss, Klein-san told him to go and that he and his guild would hold the others off while he took on the boss and pleaded to him to not get himself killed"
"Klein-san had managed to hold off the others by settling the score in a duel and by the time Kirito-kun returned to them, he had somehow managed to defeat the boss and get his hand on the revival item, but his health was almost zero when he had returned. But instead of using it, he gave it to Klein-san and told him to use the item if someone dies in front of him…" Asuna said.
"But why would he do that…? He almost died trying to get the item too… was that item a dud?" Her mother asked. Asun shook her head in response.
"No… the revival item was real, but… it could only be used to revive a player whose health had reached zero for less than 10 seconds, meaning that it was useless for reviving a member of his guild who had been dead for half a year at that point…"
(A/N: Play the OST: "Despaired")
"Just when Kirito-kun was about to leave, Klein-san pleaded with him to survive, no matter what…"
At that moment, Kyouko truly felt sorry for the boy… To think that he had went through something like that and to disclose such a heartbreaking story to her daughter… he was a lot braver than she had thought… he really must have trusted Asuna to tell her all about his past mistakes…
"After I heard Klein-san's story, I was even more determined to keep Kirito-kun safe, no matter what…"
"The day after Kirito-kun told me about his past with the Moonlit Black Cats, the commander of the frontlines, Godfrey, told Kirito-kun that he wanted to evaluate his skill for himself and that he was taking Kirito-kun and another member of the guild in the fields to train together, much to my dismay… just when we finally had some time to be alone together…"
"But after they left, I found out something very troubling… Godfrey had said that he was taking Kirito-kun and one other person along with him, but that other person turned out to be Kuradeel…"
Kyouko furrowed her eyebrows as she recalled that name.
"Kuradeel? You mean your former escort?" She asked. This couldn't be good…
"Yes… when I found out about it, I got concerned and started to track Kirito-kun's location on the map. In SAO, if you had someone on your friend list, then you could track that person's location on the map. For a while, it looked like nothing was wrong, but then I saw that Godfrey had suddenly disappeared from the map, leaving only Kirito-kun and Kuradeel. I immediately realized that something was wrong, so I wasted no time in rushing from where I was to Kirito-kun's location. I was so thankful at the time for the fact that I had a very high agility skill because I needed all the speed that I could get to get to Kirito-kun on time. When I arrived where Kirito-kun was, I found that he was unable to move because of a paralysis status effect and Kuradeel was using his sword to inflict damage to Kirito-kun… I got Kuradeel off of him just in time. A millisecond later and Kirito-kun would have been dead… that was how low his health was when I got there… I quickly used a health recovery crystal on him to get him back to full health. I still can't believe that I had actually made it on time… I can't tell you how relieved I was back then" Asuna paused for a moment, before continuing in cold fury.
"Then, I turned my attention to Kuradeel… I could tell just by looking at him that he was without a doubt the one who attacked Kirito-kun and most likely killed Godfrey before I got there. I could tell because, one, his player cursor had turned from green to orange. You see, all players have green cursors above their heads so that other players could differentiate them from NPC's. But if a player commits a crime to another player, that cursor would turn orange so that it could tell other players that the player had committed a crime. If this was done only once or twice, then the cursor's color would revert back to green in time, but if that player repeatedly committed crimes, or committed a very serious crime, such as kill another green cursored player, the cursor would permanently stay as orange. And Kuradeel's cursor had become orange when I had gotten there. And two, I could see even from where I was standing, the insignia of the Laughing Coffin on his wrist"
The Laughing Coffin… them again… it had only been a few hours since Kyouko had fully began to know their existence and the full extent of their crimes, and she was already getting sick of hearing the name…
"I had never liked Kuradeel, but I didn't think that he would stoop so low to join the Laughing Coffin… or may be he had been a part of the LC even before joining the KoB, but that didn't matter… all that mattered to me at the moment was that the person I had sworn to protect had been dangerously close to dying again, at the hands of that murderer… At that moment, all I could feel was pure rage… As I approached Kuradeel with my rapier in my hand, he said that he could explain what was going on, but I didn't need an explanation. I started attacking him with the intent to kill"
"But that would have turned your cursor to orange as well, wouldn't it?" Her mother asked, very concerned. To think that her gentle natured daughter would feel anger to such degree… to fight to kill… it was concerning to think about… Of course, given that her opponent was someone who had long since disregarded all moral at that point, she was sure that no one could blame her for feeling what she felt…
"No, your cursor turns orange only when you attack a green cursored player. Since Kuradeel was already an orange player, I received no penalty from the system for attacking him"
"When I disarmed him and managed to get his health to the low yellow zone, he surrendered but I didn't want to hear it… I readied myself to deliver the final blow, but when I saw him get to his knees and plead for mercy, I hesitated… I really shouldn't have…" Asuna trailed off.
"Why? D… did that man attack you?" She guessed. Asuna slowly nodded in response.
"He disarmed me and attacked me back when he saw that I had my guard down for a moment. But then Kirito-kun's paralysis effect must have worn off by then because he got between me and Kuradeel and took the blow that was intended for me. He then delivered the final blow on Kuradeel in my place"
Kyouko couldn't deny that it was the best course of action… Kuradeel had already attempted to kill the boy, and tried to attack and kill her daughter as well. She was becoming more and more grateful to the boy.
"When I realized what had happened, I… I felt absolutely horrible… I shouldn't have hesitated… I should have struck him down myself when I had the chance so that Kirito-kun didn't have to kill anyone else… He was already hurt because of what had happened with the Black Cats guild, not to mention that he still felt guilty about the two he was forced to kill during the battle with the Laughing Coffin… So I said to him, that I would stay away from him; for his sake…"
(A/N: Play the OST: "A Tiny Love")
"But then, Kirito-kun responded by kissing me…" Asuna paused as she said this, as she saw her mother give off a small flinch in response to what she had just said. But her mother just asked her to continue her story and so she did.
"I know that it may not have been the best time to, but Kirito-kun confessed to me… I could tell that somewhere along our way together our feelings for each other had become mutual… we swore to each other that we'd continue to protect each other, and survive together and return to the real world together… I was sure that at that point, my feelings for him weren't a fleeting one… I really did love him, and I was glad to know that he felt the same for me…" Asuna said, with a small smile on her face. But then, she braced herself for what she would have to say next, and her mother's reaction to it…
"We spent the night together that day because we were afraid that something might happen to each other after everything that had happened in the past few days… and during that night, we discussed that we should stay away from the frontlines for a while; after everything that had happened, we both had a feeling that something bad would happen if we continued to stay on the frontlines; not to mention that I was concerned with the current state of the Knights of the Blood Oath, seeing that a member of the guild had resorted to becoming a part of the Laughing Coffin… So we decided to ask the commander the next day for a leave of absence again, and this time we had a valid reason for it…"
"And while we were discussing this, Kirito-kun asked something that made me so happy… he… he asked me t… to marry him… and I said yes…" There… she said it…
(A/N: Play the OST: "Smile for Me")
As she had predicted, her mother's response was that of complete bewilderment and surprise… she could tell just by looking that she was struggling to think what to say. Then, she finally said something.
"I… I'm sorry; did I just hear that right…? You and him…? Married?! And you said yes?!" She blurted out.
"Well of course, since we were in a game, there wasn't really a public ceremony. And remember, there were other married couples in the game as well, although there were very few of them in the game, such as Grimlock and Griselda. And there was something I liked very much about the marriage system in SAO: when you do get married, our inventories would be shared; in essence, what was mine was his and what was his was mine. It was a sign of mutual trust for each other; I thought it was straightforward, romantic and pragmatic system. And we both knew that the whole marriage thing would be valid only inside SAO. But believe me when I say that we really did feel happy together and we don't regret that decision and probably never will" Asuna explained calmly.
She had been preparing herself on what she would say to her mother as soon as she had made the decision to return home, and she was glad that she wasn't as nervous as she had thought it would be; she had been worried that she might mess up when she came to this part. But thankfully, her mother seemed to be taking it rather well and more importantly, she seemed like she was starting to understand Kirito better through explaining everything through her perspective.
"On the day after Kirito-kun had 'proposed' to me, we explained all that had happened between us and Kuradeel to the commander and told him that we wanted the leave of absence from the guild to think things through together. He allowed it somewhat reluctantly. But told us that we would return to the frontlines sooner or later"
"After that was all done, we bought a cottage together; it was right beside a huge lake on the 22nd floor and a beautiful scenery accompanied it" Asuna said. The description of the cottage was somehow familiar to Kyouko.
"Your home in the game was right beside a lake too…" She observed.
"Yes… believe it or not, that's the very same house that we bought together in SAO as well… that's why as soon as the 22nd floor was unlocked in the New Aincrad, here in ALO, the first thing Kirito-kun and I did was buy the cottage right beside the lake again. That place held a lot of special memories for us after all…" Asuna said in a happy tone.
Kyouko nodded in understanding.
There was however, something that was plaguing her already shocked mind… if Asuna and the boy really did get married, in game, mind you; then did they… well… do it…?
She couldn't believe what she was about to ask her daughter, but she had to know… a part of her still wanted to treat her like a young child just like any other parents, who would always see their son or daughter as a little boy or girl, regardless of their age. But at the same time, because of the two years that she had spent in SAO, she realized not too long ago that her daughter was forced to mature and grow up faster than any other normal children in order to survive… That was why she was going to ask her the question.
"Asuna… I have to know… did you and K… Kirito, you know… do the thing… while you were married in SAO…?" Kyouko asked, rather awkwardly.
(A/N: Play the OST: "He, or She?")
Asuna paused for a second but quickly realized what her mother was trying to ask… She should have seen this coming… Asuna could swear that her face was starting to catch on fire…
There was no way she was going to be able to tell her that she and Kirito had done exactly what her mother was asking her; there was the 'Ethics Code' disabling option in the player menu that even Kirito himself didn't know had existed until she told him about it… But there was just no way she could tell her mother about any of that! Doing so would without a doubt lead to a lot of awkward explaining.
So, thinking quickly on her feat, she answered.
"N… No way, mom! SAO may have been very realistic game, but do you really think it would be possible for that to be implemented into the game?" Asuna said, trying desperately to control her expression.
She didn't like the fact that she had to lie to her about this, but at the same time, there was no way that she'd be able to explain the full details of their first night together in SAO.
"Alright… if you say so…" Thankfully, her mother seemed convinced for the moment. Glad that her mother seemed to believe her words, Asuna quickly continued her story.
"Our vacation together lasted for about 2 weeks… and I can say without a doubt, it was the happiest two weeks that I've had in my life… during that time, we also met a lot of players and befriended them; many of them we would meet again in the real world after SAO was cleared…" Asuna explained, feeling a small pang of guilt.
She knew that Yui was among those precious people that they had met during their 2 weeks of vacation. And as much as she wanted to tell her mother about Yui's story, and how she became her and Kirito's daughter, that would definitely overwhelm and confuse her mother beyond reason, and she was sure that her mother was already shocked enough from having to hear that she had married Kirito-kun in game, so she didn't want to risk it by telling her… plus, it would have been an even more awkward thing to explain than their first night together…
She would have to tell her mother about Yui at some point… but now was not the time…
"And we wanted to take as much time as we needed away from the frontlines, but after 2 weeks after our vacation began, we received a message from the commander; he wanted us to come back to the KoB guild hall as soon as possible"
"We were a bit annoyed that our time together was cut short, but whatever the commander's reason was for summoning us during our vacation, it sounded serious… and it was…"
(A/N: Play the OST: "Stand at Bay")
"He told us that half of the recon team that was scouting the 75th floor for the upcoming boss battle was wiped out… the recon team had consisted of 20 players consisting of players from 5 different guilds. When they found the boss room, ten of the members had decided to go into it, but as soon as they did, the boss had appeared and the doors closed behind them, cutting them off from the rest of the party. In about 5 minutes, the gates reopened, but there wasn't any sign of the trapped players or the boss… the 10 trapped players were later confirmed dead… if they were all unable to escape like that, then it was likely that the boss's room was another anti-teleportation area, just like the previous one… so that was why the Knights of the Blood Oath was gathering the largest assault group that they could muster for the upcoming boss fight and he needed us, the best fighters in the guild besides himself, to take part in it"
"The assault group that the Commander had gathered was indeed big. It included Klein-san and his guild, and another good friend of ours, Agil-san… I hoped at that moment that we would all survive this fight… because we all knew that it was going to be a difficult one…"
"You see, all of the boss monsters that guarded each floors were difficult to kill; even with a full team of experienced players. But every time we reached the quarter milestones; as in, the 25th and 50th floors, the bosses there were much more difficult to take down compared to others and we all walked out with numerous casualties during those boss battles. In fact, the sheer difficulty of the 25th boss and the number of players that were killed during the fight was one of the reasons Kirito-kun and I had split up and went our separate ways…"
"So we could only assume that the upcoming 75th floor boss fight was going to be another extremely difficult fight… and we were right…"
"When everyone walked into the boss room, we had walked straight into a nightmare." Asuna explained.
"At first, everything was quiet. Then I noticed the boss, crawling on the ceiling of the room; the 'Skull Reaper'… it looked like a giant centipede made entirely out of skull and bones… It was a pure nightmare fuel… After that, it was a desperate struggle to survive…"
Memories of the 75th floor boss fight still haunted Asuna to this day. The same was likely true for everyone who survived that battle.
"We had an elite team of the best players in the game. But the boss was powerful enough to kill some of them with a single hit. Kirito-kun, the Commander and I managed to divert its attention while the others flanked and attacked its sides and slowly whittled down its HP. Despite that, it still took over an hour before we finally won. But by then... 14 players had already died." Asuna finished…
"Asuna..." Kyouko looked at her sympathetically.
"We all knew what we were going into. But it was still a hard blow." Asuna said with a sigh.
"After we finally managed to defeat the Skull Reaper, the realization that we had lost 14 top players and that we still had 25 more floors to go, struck us all hard… but while I was still grieving for the 14 players who were killed, Kirito-kun out of nowhere, attacked the Commander…"
"But why would he do such a thing…?" Kyouko asked, bewildered.
"He was testing a theory that he had… remember that time Kirito-kun lost to the Commander in a duel at the last minute and that it became an important catalyst later on?" Asuna asked. Her mother nodded in response.
"Well, this is it… when Kirito-kun's attack landed on the Commander, instead of his health going down, a notification saying 'Immortal Object' popped up. I as well as every assault players present, were confused… that kind of notification popped up only when players attacked indestructible objects or NPC's in the game, meaning that the Commander was protected by the game system itself… Kirito-kun deduced that this was why the Commander's health never went down to the yellow zone…" Asuna explained.
"But… how is that possible…?" Kyouko asked completely bewildered.
(A/N: Play the OST: "He Rules Us")
"Kirito-kun explained that there was only one explanation to the game system protecting him: Commander Heathcliff, the founder and leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath, was Kayaba Akihiko himself…" Asuna revealed the shocking plot twist.
The surprise in her mother's eyes was plain to see. Asuna could only imagine that her own expression had been similar when she found out about the truth.
"Kirito-kun then proceeded to explain that the first time he felt something was off was when he and the Commander had dueled… his movement at the last minute to counter Kirito-kun's attacks were far too fast…"
"Then the Commander confirmed Kirito-kun's theory… he admitted that he was indeed Kayaba Akihiko and that he was the final boss in the 100th floor that we needed to defeat in order to escape SAO…" Asuna continued to explain. Kyouko was still unable to recover from this unexpected twist.
"Then, one of the Knights of the Blood Oath members, who felt so betrayed at this revelation, proceeded to attack him, but Kayaba quickly responded by using his admin privileges to paralyze every single player present besides Kirito. At first, we thought that he intended to kill us all and cover it up, but that wasn't the case… Kayaba then challenged him to a one on one duel. If Kirito-kun managed to defeat him, then the game would be cleared. And of course, he would deactivate his immortality status when fighting him…" Asuna explained.
"But… he could've been lying… Kayaba could have just been saying that to bait him and kill him…" Kyouko said, sounding worried.
"I know… That was exactly what I was thinking, so I told him not to do it… and so did Klein-san and Agil-san… but him being Kirito-kun, of course he accepted, despite me pleading with him not to do it…"
"And he fought Kayaba and won?" Her mother asked in anticipation. Asuna frowned.
"Kayaba was skilled. He created Sword Art Online. That meant that he created every single sword skills, which was a player's greatest weapon… So, using those very skills against its creator was useless. Kirito fought as hard as he could. But Kayaba had the upper hand. He blocked one of Kirito-kun's attacks and was..." It took Asuna a moment, remembering how scary that moment was for her.
"He was about to deliver the killing blow. But before he could, I jumped in and shielded Kirito-kun from the attack, losing all my HP in the process." Asuna recalled. Kyouko gasped when she heard this.
"Wait but that means you-"
"Died… yes…" Asuna confirmed.
"Or at the very least, my HP hit zero."
"But then how did you-"
"Kirito continued to fight Kayaba after I died. Apparently, they both took each other out." Asuna explained.
"But you still jumped in front of him! You must have known you would die!" Kyouko told her.
"I did." Asuna nodded.
"But none of that mattered. Because I loved him."
It was perfectly clear in that moment just how much her daughter cared for him. She was willing to die for him. She had proved it in that one action. And the same could be said for him.
"The next thing I knew, I was standing in the sky with a setting sun, and Kirito-kun joined me soon after. When we looked down, we could see Aincrad slowly crumbling, and we watched it fall"
"But then, to both of our surprises, Kayaba Akihiko showed up beside us, not in his Heathcliff avatar, but as how he really looked like in real life…"
"What…? Kayaba Akihiko himself…?" Her mother asked, astounded.
"Yes… To our surprise, Kayaba told us that the world of SAO was being purged as we spoke and that all of the six thousand surviving players had successfully logged out and were back in the real world. And before he left, he congratulated us on clearing the game… for a man who was beaten at his own game, he didn't look bitter about it at all… in fact, he looked intrigued, more than anything else… but before we could say anything else to him, he disappeared, leaving us alone…" Asuna explained.
She could recall every single thing Kayaba had said to them that day and as much as she wanted to elaborate all of his words, she thought that it may overwhelm her mother again, so she decided to mention the part only briefly.
"When we were left alone, we started to reveal to each other who we really were in the real world. Up till that point, we didn't know each other's real names or exact age; just the fact that we were around the same age since our faces were the same as the real world's"
"Wait, you didn't know each other's real names…? Why didn't you ask him?" Her mother asked.
"Because it was a breach of manners… even in other normal games, it was considered rude to ask players about their real world selves unless they chose to disclose it. But you should know at this point of how much we trusted each other"
(A/N: Play the OST: "At Our Parting")
"When he told me his real name, and I told him mine, he started crying and apologizing to me… he thought that he had failed to keep his promise to protect me; to send me back to the real world… The game had been cleared, but both of our HP's had hit zero before that had happened and we were both sure we were going to die as soon as SAO was completely deleted… but I told him that it was alright… the times we had spent together was the happiest that I had felt in my life… so, we gladly prepared to embrace death; together"
"But surprisingly, we had both survived when by all rights, we both should have been dead. When I thought about it later, the most likely explanation was that it was Kayaba's doing; I couldn't think of any other explanation…"
"Kirito woke up in the real world, as did most of the 6000 survivors of SAO." Asuna said. "But as for me and 300 others... that wasn't the case. I remember waking up to birds chirping. I thought I was in heaven for a moment. But then... I saw the cage bars around me. And then not long after... he showed up."
It wasn't hard for Kyouko to figure out that her daughter was referring to Sugou Nobuyuki. Her daughter spent two months trapped in that cage she spoke of while that horrid man did... who knows what with her. She didn't like to think about what Asuna must have gone through due to her ignorance.
"Straight out of one hell and into another..." Asuna said with a sigh.
"We had both survived SAO and Kirito-kun was back in the real world, alive and well… but I didn't know that at the time; I thought that he had died while I was spared by Sugou's scheming… But ironically, after about two months had passed, during one of his visits, Sugou himself told me that he had met Kirito-kun in the real world in person and told him about our… engagement…" Asuna said, shivering in disgust.
Kyouko was appalled… She felt another pang of guilt and shame resonate through her…
"He must have thought that it would discourage me even further from trying to resist him, but ironically, this had given me hope instead… if Kirito-kun was alive and found out that I was trapped here, I knew that he would definitely come to find me… and he didn't betray my expectations… after not even a week had passed since I found out that he was alive, Kirito-kun finally found me and freed me from captivity with the help of his sister… and you should know everything else that happened afterwards…" Asuna concluded and gave a sigh of relief at finally finishing her lengthy story.
"You may think that the SAO incident was all gloom and doom mom, and I'm glad that we escaped from the death game and I know a lot of people died because of Kayaba and there's no way to excuse what he did, but at the same time, I don't regret logging into SAO anymore; not one bit. Nor do I wish to forget what had happened inside SAO." Asuna said, much to her mother's surprise.
"You… you don't…? Are you sure?" She asked.
"Yes… it was because of that I was able to meet Kirito-kun; he taught me that life goes on wherever you are; how to not just survive in SAO, but also to enjoy and cherish the little things… it's thanks to him that I also met many other friends that I wouldn't trade for anything; and Yuuki is one of them…"
"Kirito-kun changed my views and my life for the better; I wouldn't be here talking with you if it wasn't for him. For all we knew, if it wasn't for him, I'd either be dead or worse, be Sugou's trophy wife…"
"And that's not all; Kirito-kun hasn't just been playing games after coming out of SAO… he's been working hard in his classes and he's started preparing for his acceptance into university and major in VR development. Not only that, he told me in person that he wants to see where the future of the VR industry would go, and that he wanted to prevent something like SAO from ever happening again. He's working hard for my sake as well, so that's why I want to stay with him for the rest of my life… I want to stay by his side; by my precious and beloved Kirito-kun…!"
Kyouko stayed silent for a very long time, thinking, processing, and then thinking again about everything her daughter had just told her; why she held the boy named Kirigaya Kazuto, or as she liked to call him, Kirito-kun, in such high regard and why she had feelings for him.
She had thought until now that it was just fleeting feelings that would go away with time, but now that she heard the whole story, she was starting to understand.
And as for her daughter, the young and obedient girl that she had known her to be before the SAO incident had changed so much in the two years in the game. For one, she could now speak her mind and not be afraid of what she thought about her anymore. She could also make her own decisions for herself even in the game. She was forced to mature and adapt because of the literal life and death circumstances but had survived to tell her the tale of not just herself but the boy she cherished.
Her daughter had grown so much in the last 3 years, and now she could tell that Kirigaya Kazuto had a lot to do with it.
After a very long silence, and after taking her time in thinking about how she should respond to everything her daughter had just told her about herself and Kirito, she finally decided to answer.
"Asuna… I have to tell you something…" Kyouko started but was unable to continue, as if she herself didn't know what to say. Asuna waited patiently for her mother to speak up.
Finally, seeming like she had figured out what to say, Kyouko spoke.
"I don't know if you know this already, but… yesterday, one of the suitors that we had arranged for you to meet… well…" Kyouko trailed off, hesitating on what she should say next.
"I know about what happened to the Murayama's. It was on today's news headline." Asuna finished what her mother was hesitating to tell her. She had always hated beating around the bush.
Kyouko sighed. So… she had already known about it after all…
"I see… well… it was another bad decision on my part… I can't deny that… The point is… your father and I discussed about it when it came on the news yesterday…" Kyouko said. Asuna gave a surprised look.
"And obviously, the meeting between the Murayama's never happened… that much is certain. Also, I think you'll be glad to know that we will be cancelling the meetings we had planned for other suitors altogether; both for you and Kouichirou…"
Asuna sat where she was, eyes wide and her mouth opened wide in surprise. Did her ears just deceive her…?
"If the two of you hate it that much, then I suppose there is no point in pursuing the matter any further. After all, it only ended up causing more grief and trouble than it was worth…"
Asuna continued to stare blankly at her mother in stunned silence. Her brain was currently in a comatose state, unable to process what she was hearing.
"But that being said, although I won't force you anymore to meet any more potential suitors, I have to say that I'm still a bit concerned about your love life, especially with the Kirigaya boy despite everything you told me about him" Kyouko stated. Asuna almost groaned at this, having finally snapped out of her frozen state.
"Uptil now I didn't think that he would be worth my time or yours, but after listening to everything you've said about him, I'm starting to I may have been too hard on him" Kyouko continued. Asuna continued to listen on, wanting to hear where her mother was going with this.
"So, I want you to invite him over to dinner sometime so that I can actually talk to him face to face and judge him for myself; and tell him that I will not take a 'no' for an answer" Kyouko finally said. Asuna's eyes opened wide again in pleasant surprise.
(A/N: Play the piano & cello collab. cover of the OST "Reconciliation". Search this on Youtube:
"Sword Art Online- Reconciliation Piano Cello Collab Cover ft. Blackchaosvortex" and it'll be the first video on the search...)
"Mom… you mean…?" Asuna started but her voice trailed off in pure disbelief.
"Yes… I'm giving him a chance to prove his worth. So, for both of your sakes, I hope that he is who you tell me he is" Kyouko answered, leaving Asuna once again in a stunned silence. Could this be true? She wasn't dreaming, now was she?
Unable to think about anything else other than the pure joy she was experiencing, Asuna did the only thing that she could think of doing currently: jump onto her mother and pull her into a hug.
"Mom… thank you… thank you so much… You have no idea how much this means to me… He won't let you down, I promise. You'll start to like him more once you really get to know him…" Asuna said.
"I hope so…" Kyouko said, returning her embrace.
But as she did, Kyouko felt something wet contact her cheek. She blinked in surprise. Were tears falling from her own eyes, or was it…
"Asuna… Are you crying again…?" She asked. Asuna once again looked surprised at herself.
"Oh… sometimes I really want to ask the developers to just create some kind of method to hold back tears…" Asuna stated as she once again wiped the tears off her face. But compared to how she had cried earlier, this was nothing.
"I'm not crying because I'm sad this time; in fact, I'm really happy that you decided to give us a chance. You have no idea how happy I'm feeling right now" Asuna said as she blinked away the remaining tears in her eyes. Kyouko had no reason to doubt her daughter's words.
"Oh, I think I can see just fine" Kyouko said, feeling her heart lightening at the sight.
Asuna's eyes and hers met and for a very brief moment, a smile formed on both their faces and then came a chuckle from both mother and daughter. How long had it been since the two of them had laughed together like this, they both wondered.
"Oh, and mom? There's one last thing that I almost forgot to tell you" Asuna said as soon as she finished her chuckling.
"And what would that be?" Kyouko asked.
"It's one of the reasons that I had to come back to Tokyo today; tomorrow is the day for Yuuki's memorial service" Asuna explained. Kyouko paused, surprised.
"Oh… I see…" She could see where Asuna was getting at.
"I have to go tomorrow and see her off… I have to go no matter what" Asuna said. Of course she did Kyouko thought. She was a friend that had changed her daughter so much; admittedly for the better.
"Of course you do. I'm sure you would have gone even if I didn't allow you to. In fact, I would have been astounded if you decided not to go. She is your friend, and after everything you've told me about her, I wouldn't expect anything less." Kyouko stated. Asuna blinked in surprise. Was this really the same mother of hers that she had argued with for the past days?
Asuna embraced her mother, truly grateful that she had made up with her, and that her mother was now making every attempt to understand her desires and was willing to give her and Kirito a real chance.
"Thank you… mom…" Asuna mumbled into her mother's shoulder.
"You're welcome…" Kyouko responded back.
Then after pausing, she continued.
"Asuna… I… I…" She hesitated to speak.
"Hm…?"
"I have to say… I'm so sorry… for everything I've put you through…" She finally swallowed her pride and apologized.
"It's alright, mom… I forgive you…"
The two remained like that in complete silence. No words were needed after everything that had been said and happened.
It was truly reconciliation at its finest.
"Wow…"
"Yup…"
"I can't believe that it actually worked… Color me impressed, Asuna"
"Thanks…"
The Yuuki siblings were currently outside their mother's ward, with Asuna briefing in on what had happened in ALO and how exactly she had reconciled with their mother.
After staying in ALO a little longer, they decided to log off and Asuna was surprised that it was well into the evening.
Asuna had tried to go into her mother's ward again after logging out of the virtual world, but the nurses had asked their father to come in and told them to wait outside until they were finished.
When the nurses came out though, they had informed them that their parents had asked them to stay out just for a little longer, clearly wanting to discuss something alone.
So now, Asuna had used the given time to explain to her brother what they had talked about in ALO. Of course, she had to give him the short version of it, or she would've spent another 2 or 3 hours telling the story all over again.
Hearing everything that she had said, Kouichirou had to admit that he was proud.
She had overcome her fear and confronted their parents; something that took a lot of guts to do if he said so himself.
Before they could say anything else, the door to their mother's ward opened to reveal their father.
"Come in you two. Your mother and I have something we want to tell you" Shouzou said, gesturing them inside.
They complied and went in to see their mother sitting up on the hospital bed.
She certainly looked much better than when they had first come in earlier that day; not to mention look happier too, to their relief.
"So… to begin…" Shouzou started, and Kouichirou and Asuna listened in full attention.
"Regarding the whole suitor business for the both of you, I think you both will be happy to know that the whole plan is now officially void. It's what caused Asuna to run away in the first place and start this whole mess, and after Sugou and Murayama, well… I think it's best for all of us that we just not go down that route again"
The siblings looked at each other with their eyes wide open in surprise. Although Asuna had known that the meetings would be cancelled because Kyouko herself had told her about an hour ago in ALO, it was still surreal to hear her say those words again. It was the same for Kouichirou, who had been told the same from his father while the mother and daughter had dived into ALO.
Kouichirou was just glad that he wouldn't have to sit through another set of seemingly 'good and suitable' girls, with most of them just wanting him for his looks as well as receiving the perk of being a part of the Yuuki family. He knew that Asuna was thinking the same thing.
As they were thinking these things, their mother continued on where her husband had left off.
"And also, earlier today in the morning, the doctor told me that I will be discharged the day after tomorrow. But they told me not to stress myself out and advised me to relax and rest, and that specifically means no working for two weeks"
"So, we think that this warrants a trip for just the four of us. After everything that's happened, I think we all need it… Spending some time together might do us good. We are going to start planning for the trip and do the booking later today"
(A/N: Play the OST: A Tender Feeling")
The two siblings once again found themselves too stunned to reply. Is all seemed too good to be true…
"R… really…?"
"Are you serious?"
Asuna and Kouichirou asked respectively, both still stunned.
"Yes. This upcoming Monday should be the best day to start." Kyouko answered.
Both their minds paused at hearing that. Did they really just hear their strict and workaholic mother say that they would be taking a family trip starting at a weekday, while school was still going? They both looked at each other, flabbergasted.
"So, let me get this straight: you're telling us that we're going on a family trip, when it's not even school break…?" Kouichirou reiterated, still trying to process what was happening. Judging from the expression on his face, Asuna could tell that he was just as confused as she was.
Kyouko sighed, slightly exasperated.
"Do I have to repeat myself? Yes I did say that we should go on a trip together. I can't go to work for the next two weeks anyway and your father can ask your supervisor to extend your break from work if necessary. And as for Asuna…" She paused, taking a look at her daughter.
"We'll call the school and tell them what happened… If all goes according to plan, you would have the next week off school. This should go without saying but Asuna, after you come back from the trip, I want you work hard to catch up on the school work you will have missed, is that clear?" Kyouko said to her daughter.
Asuna stood still, still stunned to respond. When the shock of what her mother had said finally wore off, she approached her mother and embraced her tightly. Her mother returned it shortly afterwards.
Shouzou and Kouichirou just looked at each other and smiled. No one said anything for none was needed.
Asuna could hardly believe that it was really happening… she had finally reconciled with her mother and she was grateful for it. It was surreal to think that this whole thing had happened in just a span of less than a week… She had felt such pain, heartbreak and anguish for a long time because of the misunderstanding for each other, but now that this was happening, she felt like it had been worth it… If only Yuuki was still here with her so that she could tell this story to her in person. After all, it was also thanks to her that she had finally found the heart to forgive and understand her mother…
"Thank you, mom… Thank you, Kirito-kun… and thank you… Yuuki…"
(A/N: And that's it! Hope you all enjoyed.
I want to thank each and every one of you that have been supportive, even during hard times for me.
Again, I'll start writing the next chapter as soon as I'm not tumbling over one exam/assignment after another. And I have a feeling that the upcoming chapter may be the trickiest one to write… so please be patient with me… We're almost finished…
If you enjoyed, don't forget to leave a comment for this chapter and the OST's used.
Yours truly, KiritoIRL.)
