Sword Art Online

After The Incident

Chapter 3 Imaginary Loss

Kazuto´s POV.

Another scream. It came from the cottage. I knew the voice it belonged to, and I shuddered to imagine what had happened. I ran and ran towards it, but no matter how far I ran I would get any closer to the cottage. The sky above me quickly turned a dark crimson red, but I didn´t give it much thought. The only thing on my mind was to get to that voice.

I stopped for a while to catch my breath. Sweat was running down my face, and not my eyes, blurring my vision. I closed my eyes to wipe them and when I opened them again, I stood on the porch to the cottage.

Another scream pierced the silence. My stomach turned and I quickly grabbed the doorknob, but the door wouldn´t open. I kicked the door, banged onto it with my hands furiously and desperately. I kicked again and again. I could feel how my hands and feet began to go numb, but the door wouldn´t budge in the slightest.

I moaned a little out of pain and took a step back, considering what else I could try. Out of my desperation, I slammed into the door with my body, and finally I could feel the doorframe give out. I widened my eyes and gasped, as I realized there was still hope.

I continued to slam my body onto the oak wood door, one time, then a second, and a third. My shoulder hurt like hell but I didn´t care. My mind was only set on getting inside.

Finally the door broke down and pulverized into many small polygons. I growled and panted a little as I sprinted up the stairs, the wood squeaking under my feet as I jumped three steps at a time.

Sweat ran down my face like waterfalls and I clenched my aching shoulder tightly as I made my way upstairs. I finally made my way to the last step, confused and desperately looking right and left before sprinting left down the hall and slamming onto the door to my wife and my owns bedroom.

"Asuna! Asuna are you in there?!" I screamed loudly as I banged onto the door again and again.

My desperate cry was met with a loud scream of my name.

"Kirito!" The woman voice echoed, desperate and afraid.

I gritted my teeth and once again began slamming onto the door with all my body weight and soon it also fell apart and burst into nothingness. I burst into the room and my hand instinctively reached up for the sword on my back, but my movements froze when I saw what was happening before me.

Asuna was sprawled out across her bed, with a very wide wound across her abdomen. She stared up at me with obvious pain and fear printed into her facial expression. Above her was a dark silhouette. In the other end of the room, Yui sat with her back against the far wall, a small blood pool running down the wall behind her, signifying that it was her blood, and she had been slammed onto the wall and slided down of it.

I looked at the sight before me, stunned and afraid, before stepping forward towards the silhouette and unsheathing my Elucidator and Dark Repulser, slashing towards him. He simply jumped backwards away from Asuna´s out sprawled body, and towards the far corner of the room. His front hair was covering his eyes and facial features so I couldn´t see who he was.

I growled and madly swung up down and left and right, faster and faster all the time, my Dark Repulser shining a faint bright blue, and my dark repulse pulsing out a dark aura, powerful and full of anger. My rage turned into speed and power, but when I finally hit the guy he simply vanished into the air. I widened my eyes and lowered my sword, looking around and frowning deeply as I kept my guard up.

Suddenly Asuna´s beautiful voice cut through the silence.

"Kirito behind you!"

I spun around and saw the person, his hair was no longer covering his face, and his body was no longer a dark silhouette. I could see who he was, and I knew the person all too well. It was Sugou, once again back to haunt me, back to hurt me and my family to get what he wants.

Before I could defend either my family or myself, I could feel the very well-known feeling of cold steel entering my body from the outside. I let out a choked gasp as the knife Sugou had been holding made its way through the meat on my stomach, all the way into my internal organs. I fell backwards and down on the floor beside my unconscious daughter, as I heard a scream somewhere from far away.

The scream came from my virtual wife, who was currently on her way towards me. She fell down beside me and grabbed my head in her hands desperately, while calling out my name again and again. Tears were clinging to my eyes as I weakly looked up at her, Sugou´s looming body slowly walking up behind her, raising his knife for another strike.

My vision was blurry, my surroundings hard to make out, and my breath was choking in blood as I slowly lost my consciousness, and closed my eyes, followed with one last scream from my wonderful and beautiful wife.

I burst my eyes open and yanked my head off the pillow as I woke up with a gasp. I was panting violently and sweat was running down my face, as I stared out into my room. I panted slightly as I looked down to my right. Beside me lied my beautiful girlfriend, no wound, no screams, no terrified eyes begging me to wake up. There was a beautiful girl, peacefully sleeping with her boyfriend, her breath deep and clean.

I sighed a little and looked down at her with a faint smile. She really was an angel. Not only could she live with me and my flaws, but she had sworn to do anything to help me, and protect me. She truly was my queen in red and white.

I smiled and stood up from the bed, and went out into the bathroom to get some water in my face. I had had enough of those goddamn nightmares. I cupped my hands and filled them with water, splashing my face over and over again, to try and forget the nightmares, just for a while at least.

When I had splashed my face for the tenth time, and opened my eyes, Asuna suddenly stood behind me, and wrapped her arms around my waist. I was a little scared but smiled and hummed in appreciation as she wrapped her arms around my body. I smirked and put my arms on hers.

"More nightmares huh?" She asked me softly as she looked at my mirror reflection.

I nodded softly before turning around to face her. I smiled a little before softly kissing her lips.

"Yeah. Did I wake you up?" I asked softly as she put her head on my chest.

She smiled and chuckled before looking up at me with a smile, brushing some hair away from my forehead.

"That doesn´t matter." She mumbled softly as she began to stroke my hair gently.

"What matters right now is to get rid of those nightmares." She said as she kissed my cheek.

I nodded a little and sighed as I led her back to the bedroom and lied down with her.

She smiled and hugged me close by the waist.

"Kirito… You do know you have nothing to fear right?" She softly asked as she crawled up onto me and looked down at me, her hair forming a curtain around us.

I nodded a little and sighed as I moved some of her hair behind her ear.

"I know Asuna… I have been telling myself that for months now…" I mumbled as I stared into her chestnut eyes, which was sparkling with life.

She frowned a little and kissed my forehead before sighing.

"I really think it´s time for you get a vacation Kirito… These nightmares are coming more frequently than ever and you´re stressing out…" She suddenly mumbled.

I nodded a little. I knew she was right. The nightmares did come more often than they used to, but I did not have a clue why. They had also become more horrible, once or twice, I had watched my daughter and wife being tortured and killed before my eyes. So at this point, a vacation didn´t sound so bad.

"That does sound good… But what about school?" I Asked as I looked up at my girlfriend, who was currently lying down on top of me, putting her forehead on my chest.

"Screw school. The principal will understand." She mumbled as she played with an especially long lock of my hair. I looked up at her with surprise in my eyes. She never were like that. She never 'Screwed' anything, especially not school. Could love really make people change that much?

"I guess I can go with a vacation with my family..." I mumbled softly, which was replied with a pout from Asuna.

"I´m going too dummy!" She huffed as she puffed out her cheeks. I looked at her in absolute shock.

"What!? You´re going to abandon school!?" I asked in surprise, she simply nodded and chuckled down at me.

"Of course. I don´t want to let you go somewhere if there is something really wrong. I would worry way to much" she mumbled as she kissed me deeply.

I smiled and closed my eyes as I felt her lips towards mine, aggressively kissing her back. I always loved this. Not just because of the physical contact between me and my girlfriend, but the feeling she gave me when she kissed me was always wonderful. Just her presence was enough to keep me happy, for the rest of my life. I was just happy that the girl, no, woman I loved cared so much about me.

When we broke off our first kissed I smirked at her and rolled us around playfully, so she no longer was the one at the top, but on the contrary, I was now at top and pinning her down on the mattress. She smiled up at me seductively and I smirked back.

"If you want to go on a vacation with me you would better behave young lady" I said playfully as I brought my face closer to hers. She giggled and stuck her tongue out at me playfully.

"You can´t decide for me! You´re not my dad" She responded, in the same playful tone as mine. I smiled and kissed her deeply, and she smiled and cupped my face in her hands as we kissed.

"Hey Kazuto… I have been thinking about something…" She mumbled about 30 minutes later.

"What is it Asuna?" I asked as I stood by the room´s window, staring out at the sun that was starting to rise in the distance.

"Well, lately Yui have been asking about her grandparents… About her family…" She mumbled silently as she walked up beside me in her nightgown. I nodded a little and sighed looking over at her.

"Yeah. This might be the best time to tell our parents about her." I mumbled back as we closed ourselves in for a hug. She nodded softly as she lied her head on my shoulder, keeping the silence to ourselves.

~ Later that day ~

Me and Asuna had made our parents meet at the park under the giant Sakura tree, where me and Asuna had first met. With us we had brought a virtual monitor, where Yui would pop up as soon as we presented her. I wasn´t that nervous about my own family, since Suguha already knew Yui from playing with her, and my aunt was always understanding. I wasn´t so sure about Asuna´s parents though.

When me and Asuna arrived at the Sakura tree, our parents were already there, waiting for us. I held Asuna´s hand and squeezed it tightly in my nervousness. I could feel her squeeze back and her breath towards my ear, followed by a soft and beautiful voice.

"It´s ok Kazuto. It´s going to be ok" She whispered softly as we approached our parents and I deeply bowed.

"Thank you everybody for coming." I said as I looked back up at Asuna´s parents.

"We…W-We have something to tell you.." Asuna said shakily as we continued. It seemed she was just as nervous as I was. Kyouko huffed and crossed her arms.

"Can we hurry this up? I have a business meeting!" She hurried, and I nodded a little.

"Well if you want this to be fast I will get straight to the point. We want you guys to be introduced to our daughter, Yui Kirigaya" I said as I booted up the virtual monitor, a happy and cheerful fairy Yui appearing on the screen.

" Good afternoon grandpa, grandma!" She excitedly shouted as she hugged the screen. Me and Asuna´s parents stared at our daughter, completely shocked. Shouzou, who is Asuna´s dad, was the first to say anything.

"When did you get her?" He asked softly, but was interrupted immediately by Kyouko.

"Honey that doesn´t matter! What matters is how you could get a child and not tell us before!" She shouted angrily, and for the first time I had ever seen, on the verge of tears. Yui hid behind a bush on the virtual monitor, supposedly scared of her grandmother. My aunt was standing against the trunk of the sakura tree. She looked like she had trouble processing the information she had just received.

Asuna and I quickly began explaining how we had met Yui in Sao, how we took care of her in our cottage, and how quickly we had grown real feelings for her. How we quickly had grown into a real family with real emotions attached. Our parents silently listened to our story, and when we reached the part where Yui was taken from us by the Kardinal system, even Kyouko had to blow her nose through her tears.

When we had finished the whole part where Yui had helped her mother rescue me out from the game, our parents finally took control of the words that needed to be spoken. Shouzou was the first to speak.

"Well Asuna I can´t really say i´m not shocked and the same goes for your mother and Kazuto-kun´s aunt." He began as he looked at us both with a very serious look.

"But I can´t see how this child, Yui was it?" He asked as he moved his face towards the monitor, where Yui, popping her head out of the bush she was hiding in, gave a quick and shy nod.

"I do though " Kyouko added, now stepping forward.

"Asuna you can´t use all that time in the virtual world. It´s a waste of time. You should concentrate about your career, not about some fake reality in some fake world." She coldly stated, crossing her arms with a glare.

I growled angrily as I stared at Asuna´s mother. I had always seen her as a very respected, and nice woman. But after hearing what she just said I got extremely angry.

"So you´re calling Sao fake? You call the virtual world fake?" I mumbled, seething and shaking with anger.

Kyouko didn´t hear me properly, so she asked. "What?"

I gritted my teeth and balled up my fists.

"Are you saying the virtual world is fake?! That everything I experienced… Everything that happened in Sao… My relationship with your daughter…. Yui… It´s all just one big lie?!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, ready to explode at any second with anger.

"Kazuto…" Asuna sadly mumbled, as she stared at me. I looked over at her angrily and then back at her mother.

"The things that happened to me… To all those people in those two years… Those wonderful, beautiful, horrible and nightmarish things that happened… I will remember them forever and they are not fake!" I screamed again. My throat burned and hurt and my eyes stung with tears. But I didn´t care. I handed Asuna Yui´s monitor and stormed away from them, hearing Asuna call my name from somewhere behind me.

I was fuming as I walked down the street, angrily gritting my teeth as I walked into an alleyway to take a shortcut to my home. That´s when I realized that I had gone down the wrong alleyway, into one that ended blindly. I angrily growled and punched the wall lightly, before sighing and looking down.

Suddently I heard a sound behind me. I stopped moving and listened closely. I thought I had heard footsteps. I listened intensely and frowned as my anger disappeared and was replaced with slight fear. The sound didn´t appear again, so I turned around and was about to head out of the alleyway again.

When I turned around I was met with a wildly grinning mask, a coat and a bat. I widened my eyes in fear and was about to yell but it was already too late. The mysterious person had already given me a quick jab in the neck with his bat. My vision blurred as I fell on the ground, the world around me slowly went dark. The last thing I saw and heard was the masked figure looming over my body, and car horns sounding in the far distance.

A/N

Surprise!

Here you guys go. That was the third chapter.

Well since I had some time to write between exams and whatnot, I decided to write a new chapter.

There will not be a certain date of uploaded chapters, until my exams are over for this year. And the reason for this is that it´s not certain that I will have any spare time for writing, so I will just write when I have time. This of course means that I can´t make sure this will be uploaded on a Sunday.

Hope you guys liked the chapter, be sure to review and tell me what you liked and didn´t like.

Until next time, goodbye my dear readers.