Sword Art Online
After The Incident
Christmas Special 3 - Hopes For The Future
Another year, another Christmas. The last year felt like it had flown right by me. Then again, a lot of things had happened, some of which I would rather forget.
It was the 24th of December today. Though the traditional Christmas hustle and buzzle was not present this year at the Kazuto residence. Asuna and I, and our families and friends, had less than traditional plans this year.
After putting on a t-shirt I smiled and stepped over to the window, drawing away the curtain and gazing out into the street, getting chills from the cold winter air. This year, all of us could take it easy. All that needed to be done was to prepare the food. No stressing out about calling families to gather for Christmas evening, no race to get out and buy the last presents in the nick of time because there was that one person that I for some reason always forget. No stress whatsoever.
This year, Asuna and I had proposed what I would honestly call a rather untraditional idea to our parents and friends. That we all forget about presents and put our money together to rent a place for our entire group, where we could gather together and have a god time for a couple of days over the holidays. Some of us had been a bit reluctant, especially Asunas parents who were all about the traditions of christmas, but eventually we managed to convince even them to join in.
It had snowed unusually much the last month. It had almost become a problem for public transport, several trains had been forced to stay put at the stations for fear of being ran off the tracks by the huge amounts of snow. Several busses had also taken a break at times in fear of being trapped in several big snow storms that had hit the country this month alone.
Asuna and I had enjoyed the weather plenty though. On the 5th of December we had gone to an outdoors ice rink. December 9th we were playing in the park, doing snowball fights and making snowmen. A week ago, we had enjoyed a couple of warm mugs of cocoa with marshmallows snuggled up under the sheets in my bedroom. And last weekend we had enjoyed helping each other find the perfect place, big enough for a group of 14 people, cozy, warm and nice. Those fourteen people included Asuna and I and our families, our friends, and Agil's wife, Kathy.
We had eventually settled on a cozy wooden cottage in the woods, personally recommended by Asunas mother, Kyouko. Apparently, she knew the area rather well since they spent each of Asunas childhood Christmases around her grandparent's cottage in the area. Asuna had never talked to me much about her grandparents, but I knew that some of her most precious memories involved them in some way or another.
Knowing how important her grandparents were to her and having no real reason to disagree to the decision, I quickly agreed, and everyone chimed in to pay for what it would cost to rent the place for a couple of days, from the 24th to the 26th of December.
As I stood by the window, getting lost in gazing out into the snow-white canopy of the street outside, I jolted a little as the familiar ringtone from my phone interrupted my thoughts. Looking over to my nightstand, I smiled quietly as I saw the name on the screen, and quickly accepted the call, pressing my phone to my ear.
"It's your cool and handsome boyfriend who loves you very much" I chuckled "What's up Asuna?"
"Oh, not much. Just wanted to hear if my handsome boyfriend is ready for tonight"
"I just woke up, lovely girlfriend of m-"
My smirk dropped as I heard a knock from the other side of the wall.
"If you don't knock off all that obvious flirting I'll come in there and whack you on top of the head with my kendo sword"
It was Suguha. She had had a hard time with romance ever since she and Shinichi began hooking up. As far as I knew they weren't official or anything yet, but they had been going on dates regularly. No matter the details, she had become shy and bashful every time someone would be flirty around her.
And It didn't even have to be Asuna and I. Even Shino and Kyouji could get her worked up sometimes, or when a random couple down the street were kissing or other stuff like that. I had always figured it was because she needed to figure out her own feelings and that stuff like that just left her flustered. No matter the case, she definitely didn't act like herself sometimes.
"Sorry sis" I chuckled, turning back to my phone "Sorry hun, what was that?"
"I said, I just needed to know if you were ready for tonight"
"Almost, I just need to get the outfit ready" I smiled "Or, outfits really. Casual and formal"
"Is that so? You're covering all bases huh?"
"Well I want to be prepared" I smirked "Formal for dinner, casual for when we're sitting in the living room around the fireplace"
"That sounds nice" She admitted "Alright, I'll see you later okay?"
"See ya"
"Yuuki-san seriously, we don't need anything that extravagant!"
I yelped as I heard about the vehicle that Kyouko had planned to pick everyone up and drive us to the lodge. She had ordered a limousine, the kind of vehicle that celebrities and other famous individuals used to drive around. Her best argument for the lavish choice of transport was that this was the only kind of vehicle besides a private bus that could take that many people at once, and none of the adults had licenses for that size of vehicles.
"Don't be silly, of course we do" She smiled brightly "there's no other vehicle that could take all of us there in one sitting"
"My aunt has a car, each of you have one too" I retorted in half a panic "We could ride all three of those instead of this!"
"But then we couldn't share the car ride" Kyouko smiled devilishly "Come now Asuna, back me up here"
"W-Why do I have to be dragged into this!?" Asuna yelped.
Pinning me up against my own girlfriend!? Even when she was in her casuals, she was sneaky and slick as a snake. But I guess that was a quality you had to have when you were an upper-class business woman like Kyouko was. Now whether that was a good quality for her to have really depended on whether you faced her as an enemy or a companion.
"You know Yuuki-san, you could probably make a really good lawyer"
Her smile grew in intrigue, but she refrained from delving into asking why I thought so and simply ordered the limo to get us in a couple of hours' time.
"I told you not to try Kazuto" Asuna mumbled as I collapsed in the couch next to her "She usually gets her way one way or another"
"I see that as a challenge rather than a statement set in stone" I smirked up at her "Just you wait, I'll make it my personal mission to beat her. Think of it as an MMO boss, but battling with my words rather than a sword"
"Do you know how dorky you are?" She laughed and pecked my cheek.
"You tend to remind me" I laughed back and turned to kiss her gently as we waited for the limo together.
The trip out to the cottage was nice and smooth. At first it had seemed a little awkward with the whole group there, my friends knew what I had been through with Asunas parents after all. But when I finally managed to break the ice between us all, the car ride could not have been much more pleasant.
To my surprise, my aunt, Klein, Agil, Kathy and Mr. Yuuki hit it off quite well, happily discussing various topics around alcohol. The topic didn't surprise me much though, they were quite a bit older than the rest of us after all.
Shino hit it off with Kyouko, wishing to know some tips and tricks on how to manage and read into statistics and development data. Kyouko had been quite surprised at her questioning, until Sinon answered that she was a sniper in game, and therefore needed to be able to read further into resulting data after each raid so she could get even more effective in the future. Kyouji just kind of smiled as he listened to their conversation.
Asuna and I just kind of huddled to ourselves and Rika, Keiko, Suguha and Shinichi were excitedly discussing the happenings around the faction wars of ALO. All in all, a fairly good time. The trip wasn't too long. Get outside the city borders and there is loads of nature to be seen, the forest containing our cottage was no different. So the trip out there only took about an hour or so, in which we had plenty of opportunities to converse, and let my friends get to know my parents-in-law.
Before long though we finally rolled up along the path to the cozy wooden lodge, the forest floor crinkling beneath the car as it slowed to a stop. It had snowed for most of the trip out here, but for now the snowfall had come to a pause, leaving a gentle, white canopy of a winter-touched lodge in its wake.
"Wow… this place is even more beautiful in person" I mumbled, everyone stepping out of the vehicle to grab their suitcases from the trunk.
"Isn't it?" Kyouko smirked in self-satisfaction "I told you, I know a house has style when I see it"
"One more point for my mother, Kazuto" Asuna giggled, heaving her case out of the trunk and joining me "You still adamant about defeating her?"
"Damn straight I am" I smirked in determination "Only adds to the challenge"
"Geez, what am I to do with you…"
Before long we had all chosen a room and had settled in, our clothes and personal items taken care of and placed where they belonged. It was surprisingly big, even for a house that was supposed to hold a group of our capacity and size. When you entered through the front door, the first two doors you would encounter would be the first of three bathrooms on the left, and the first of 4 two-person bedrooms on the right.
When you walked further into the house past those two rooms the open kitchen would come up on your left, and the hall would exit out into an open space, including a huge living room area with three couches and a tv, with any stationary console system you could imagine hooked up to it.
"Whoa hey!" Klein shouted in glee as he stepped over to the tv, examining an old box "They got all sorts of old consoles in here too!"
I sprinted over to his side and took a quick look inside, completely baffled. They had several old consoles from way back when gaming was still a fairly fresh concept. Retro gaming was pretty popular within the community these days. The older generation had left gaming to the newer one after all, and people of my age were curious as to what came before VR and FullDive. But people would usually turn towards emulators for the game they were interested in, rather than get their hands on an old console from way back when. It was simply too hard or too expensive or sometimes even both to bother trying to get your hands on an original console.
Taking all that into consideration, it was a wonder that whoever owned this place had so many of these old consoles.
"Getting all of this stuff must have cost a fortune…" I mumbled as Klein and I rifled through the old box of items.
"I imagine the original owner bought them when they originally came on the market" Sinon said as she watched from the couch "I could imagine the consoles getting passed down from each parent to their children and so on"
"Like, a generation to generation thing?" Kyouji laughed "That would be pretty sweet"
"So this is what video games used to look like, papa?" Yui asked, and I nodded "Yeah, video games used to exist more than 30 years ago"
"Really? Video games are that old?" She asked, surprised and awed "So what was the first console people made?"
"There's actually a lot of debate on that" I explained "Many people have different explanations for it, but I believe that the very first console was the Magnavox Oddysey which was made back in 1972"
"Wow! Really!?" She gasped "Was there even technology back then!?"
"Of course there was Yui" Asuna giggled "Video games just wasn't as big bag then as they are right now"
"Indeed" I chuckled and widened my eyes as I looked back into the box "NO WAY!"
"W-What!?" Asuna yelped, visibly jumping in her seat from my sudden shout "What's the matter Kazuto!?"
"They have the original Virtual Boy!" I yelled in excitement, holding up a bright red console and a controller
"No way, I heard that console was horrible!" Sinon exclaimed "It apparently gave you headaches if you used it over longer periods of time"
"Let's not judge it too hard" I chuckled as I clutched it to my chest like a child who had just received a new toy car "The early versions of the Nervegear used to do the same thing"
"Exactly what is the Virtual Boy?" Silica asked from upstairs, having just finished putting everything in its proper place.
"One of Nintendo's oldest consoles" I explained "It was supposed to be one of Nintendo's first attempts at virtual reality and 3D graphics more than 30 years ago!"
"Except it was a horrible attempt" Agil continued "It was way ahead of its time. The red graphics gave you migraines, the design was clumsy, and it was an overall drag to play on."
"Sounds like you talk from experience, Agil" Klein taunted with a smirk.
Agil sighed and nodded in regret.
"I'm afraid I do" He mumbled "When I was six, I was really into old retro games. My uncle knew about the flaws of the Virtual Boy and thought it funny to buy me one as a birthday gift. Funny right until I complained of migraines and my parents beat the snot out of him"
I laughed a little at his story and looked back to the collection of old consoles.
"It's kind of funny…"
"What's funny Kazuto?" Sinon asked curiously.
"It's funny how much has changed and is still somehow the same over a timespan of what, thirty or forty years?" I smiled "Virtual reality is still up for perfection, even today. We can still have some of the same problems, but humanity always finds a way through with innovation. And you can still build the same kind of relationships and connect through video games.
Plus, video games have always been able to connect people" I continued "Technology may have advanced, but video gaming has always brought people closer together, in some cases much better than "normal social interaction" could ever do."
"Damn, look at Kazuto getting all philosophical over here" Klein chuckled "Enough with the chit chat, we need to hook this thing up!"
"Slow down! I got it!" I laughed, before the two of us dove back into the box of contents.
Evening came quicker than anyone had expected. Eventually, people began breaking off from the main crowd to get ready for the dinner that evening. Everyone looked stunning. The ladies were in sparkly dresses and make-up, and the gents were in their crispiest suits they could find.
We settled around the table, and I placed my phone with Yui on the screen against a flower vase in the center of the commotion so she could attend as well. We helped each other serve the first drink, before Asuna clinked her glass with a fork to get everyone's attention and stood up straight before looking over the table.
"I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for coming for this short holiday together" She smiled brightly "I know some of us have our differences, but I am glad that each of us could put those differences aside to have a wonderful couple of Christmas days together"
"Hehe, wouldn't miss this for the world Asuna" Klein smirked, shooting a quirky thumbs up "We're all family here. Let's enjoy the times together!"
"I can't help but agree" Shouzou smiled pleasantly "We might not always agree, but moments like these are rare and precious. Something we must cherish"
"Couldn't have said it better myself" Agil smirked.
"Let's raise our glass" Asuna smiled, holding up a glass with a bit of Verdi wine "To friendship, family, and good times"
"Cheers!"
As everyone drank their wine, I cleared my throat and stood beside my girlfriend.
"Actually, I have something I want to say too" I say, already running through what to say in my mind.
"Hey, never took you for a big public speaker, Kazuto" Lisbeth commented with a smirk.
"Yeah, yeah, I know" I chuckled "But to be serious for a second, I would also like to thank you all. Not just for attending for these next few days but… but for being a part of my life"
A hushed silence fell over the group as I continued.
"Years ago… before any of this started, before SAO… before I met any of you guys… I was alone. Completely, and utterly alone. I had Suguha and my aunt, true, but I had pushed them away for years for reasons that I don't want to get into tonight."
Suguha and my aunt nodded quietly as they listened.
"But then, SAO happened. It is probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. Because despite how much we suffered at the hands of Kayaba Akihiko, he showed us all a world beyond anyone's imagination. And in some weird way… He led me to all of you. To the best friends and the best family that I could have ever asked for.
And I know that whatever happens next, we can pull through it. We're stronger and closer than ever before. And together, I know we can overcome anything."
I raised my glass with a bright smile.
"To us. To the future."
They nodded, some with tears in their eyes, as they raised their eyes, and joined me.
"Cheers!"
And as we sat there together and indulged in the food, the laughs, the drinks and the festivities, I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming bubbling happiness in my chest, and an excitement for the future.
As I laughed at one of yet another of Klein's awkward and inappropriate jokes, I looked over to Asuna as she pulled on my sleeve and smiled happily.
"Merry Christmas, Kazuto…"
I smiled and leaned in, the warmth of the candle lights and the festivities enveloping me as I kissed her gently.
"Merry Christmas Asuna"
A/N
This was supposed to be up on the 24
th of December, but I guess I forgot to upload it. I even had it all written and ready to go. Rip xD
Aaaaanyway.
Holy crap, another chapter down, and yet another year of school, writing and stress having come and gone.
Despite how rarely I've been uploading for the past long while, I have had so much fun with the chapters I did manage to put out, and I still appreciate you guys' support, which somehow never wavered despite how rarely I uploaded. You guys keep the support going despite how much I seem to be getting distracted from putting anything out there, and that support means so much to me.
So from me and the SAO crew, merry Christmas and happy holidays. May the next year be even better than the last.
Dragondemolition