A/N:

Before we get started, I want to give a quick shout-out to Falchion1984 for his help in writing this chapter!

Let's address some of the reviews from last chapter:

HyperPanda101: There's a reason I had Asuna deal the final blow to PoH, and why Kirito didn't face him at all during the Laughing Coffin raid. My reasons for doing so will reveal themselves in time… hehe.

Otaku of Anime: Yep! This chapter is all about Sugou and the Yuukis. (Which sounds like a band name. Huh.)

Singingtheblues: As morbid as it's going to sound, I'm glad I was able to make you cry. It means my story's hitting the your feels in the way it's supposed to!

Tertius711: Oh, we're not ending at 75. We're going all the way to the end, baby.

tom476ty18: We'll see what's up with the seed much later on.

RandomDSdevel: I think you'll enjoy this chapter then!

Gadget boy: The IRL chapters are always fun to write since I get to make up entirely new material for characters that have had very little spotlight canonically. Expect more in the future!

lilLJBeacon: We'll definitely be seeing some down time following the stress of the Laughing Coffin arc. Then we'll get into the final arc(s) of the story.

delphinous: Thanks for sticking around! I appreciate you all!

Lord Destroyer: We'll just have to see how Yui develops as we go…

It was a strange thing, time. For instance, Shouzou Yuuki could swear he'd issued his summons to Sugou hours ago. Yet, if neither his eyes nor his desk clock had played him false, it had merely been the better part of five minutes.

Time went by very slowly when laden with misery, and this day saw Shouzou giving serious contemplation to antidepressants, both licit and…otherwise.

What he had seen in that horrible cave would doubtless haunt his nightmares until he was in his grave.

He'd lost count of how many times Asuna had nearly died in that terrible Death Game, and had had to wrestle with his conscience every time someone else's daughter or sister or wife - or son or brother or husband, for that matter - had died in her place. Yet, none of that had prepared him for the sheer, soul-rending terror of watching her and her friends assail a cavern populated by a band of killers whose madness would've had Freud sweating bullets.

Nor had it prepared him for the grief he'd seen on her face at Kizmel's death.

He was past wondering if the term applied to an A.I., for he had seen that she'd come to regard the dark elf as the older sister she'd never had, and Koichirou had jokingly expressed some jealousy at the relationship.

The livid rage on her face as she'd killed PoH, however, had driven home a truth that he had been deeply reluctant to pry into.

His little girl was gone.

Oh, she was still wowing the public on the streams, she was still carving away the mobs in her path, she was still climbing her way to freedom from the meat grinder that was Aincrad, but she had changed.

She had found her courage. She had found love in Kirito. She had experienced the love of a mother to her child in Yui. She had made many friends she never would have even met under normal circumstances. And, in Kizmel, she had found a mentor and a sister.

Whoever emerged once Aincrad was cleared would not be the same innocent, demure, obedient little girl who'd put on the NerveGear by happenstance. That girl was gone.

And, at times, Shouzou feared just who he would find be greeting when those hazel eyes finally opened again.

While every technophile who knew the difference between C++ and Linux (and quite a few who didn't) bemoaned the loss of such an advanced, human-like A.I. and the new age in artificial intelligence that had been lost due to a cruel whimsy of fate, Kizmel's death had also had a profound and much more personal impact on those who followed the exploits of their trapped loved ones. Quite a few of them had burst into tears. There was talk about adding Kizmel's name to the memorial dedicated to those who'd died in SAO. He'd had it on good authority that the grandfather of Rika "Lisbeth" Shinozaki, who was not-so-coincidentally a swordsmith, had fashioned an impeccable duplicate of Kizmel's saber and had planted it at the cemetery where certain SAO survivors were interred. Upon learning of this odd but appropriate tribute, others were now suggesting that a number of stills of the dark elf be made and collected, as well as facsimiles of her effects created through 3-D printing, all of which could then be buried in effigy at her "grave".

A drunkard who'd derided the idea of grieving over a "bundle of ones and zeros with a rack" was beaten half to death.

And, of course, seeing his daughter kill a man in front of an audience numbering in the millions, if not more, hadn't helped restore calm to the Yuuki household either.

Kyouko, whether out of stubborness or denial - or, more likely, both - had been carrying on as though Asuna being "indisposed" (her words, not Shouzou's) was a temporary misfortune, and she was already trying to get things back on their proper course.

Trying, but not succeeding.

Despite the unspoken, and soon-to-be null and void, expectation that Asuna would marry Sugou Nobuyuki, Kyouko had decided to keep Asuna's prospects open and had been actively seeking "alternatives" amongst the sons of well-to-do families, in case Sugou should lose her approval.

Unsurprisingly, however, Asuna's marriage prospects had begun to dry up.

Some disapproved of her involvement on the front lines. Others were leery about marrying a woman who could kill when so inclined. Others still attached surprising validity to her marriage to Kirito. More than a few disliked the idea of playing second fiddle to someone of Kirito's notoriety, both in terms of Asuna's regard and in the public eye. And, even more remarkable, others claimed they didn't want to get into a custody battle over Yui.

All this had just about made Kyouko hit the ceiling.

And, when one of the ex-suitors congratulated Kyouko on her adorable granddaughter, she did hit the ceiling…with a very expensive vase. She'd then proceeded to hit the wall with a bottle of fine sherry. After that, she'd hit the window with her laptop. And, after that…actually, Shouzou was depressed enough as-is without going through the whole list.

Besides, the insurance adjusters would do that; and with smiles on their faces, no less.

And, speaking of smiling bastards, Kayaba had struck again.

Apparently, just before the Renegades had attacked Laughing Coffin, they'd had a pow-wow in their bathhouse, and Kayaba had seen fit to release it.

Audio only, thankfully.

Still, that he'd broken his hither-to ironclad rule about the players' privacy had caught everyone's attention. But, if anyone was after the Renegades' "secret identities", they came away disappointed. Sinon had been involved in an armed robbery where the gunman had been killed? Even in a country with such stringent gun laws as Japan, that was hardly a unique phenomenon.

There were no real names mentioned, no dates, no addresses. Nothing researchable had passed the Renegades' lips or, if it did, Kayaba had snatched it away from the lolling tongues of the inquisitive public.

What was revealed instead was something deeply humanizing about the unknowing heroes who, even now, had millions of people following their exploits and entire lines of merchandise dedicated to them. It had served to remind the awestruck public that these people in the Death Game were simply that, people.

They'd had lives before Aincrad, not all of which were pleasant. They had people waiting for them to return home. They had their respects to pay to those who didn't make it.

And, above all, they had stories to tell.

And Kayaba, never one to pass up the chance to stroke his own ego or salt everyone else's wounds, had promptly posed a previously unspoken question to his second, captivated audience.

"How much of this would have been said if AIncrad had never happened?"

And, the dumbstruck public was stumped for an answer.

Would Sinon have found the acceptance she'd craved but long since been denied if she'd never put on the NerveGear?

Would Lokuss have been able to admit his desire to have a closer relationship with his father and what his mother, sisters, and stepmother had put him through?

Would Kirito have realized the consequences of pushing away his foster family without several brushes with death?

Would Asuna have admitted what Sugou was really like if she'd never dove into VR?

Kayaba's smug tone made it clear what the likely answer was.

And, he was right. If Shouzou had never seen Asuna's confession to Kirito on the private stream, he would never have realized what sort of monster had wormed his way into the Yuuki family's good graces until it was too late. Shouzou's enlisting Takei Tomo's assistance, and his friend's investigative prowess, had very likely spared Asuna a marriage that would have been unhappy at best and abusive at worst.

And, in a very real, thoroughly nauseating way, he had Akihiko Kayaba to thank for that.

"If I EVER have to swallow another irony, it'll be too soon!" Shouzou said, half snarling, half whimpering.

And, he apparently wasn't the only one affected. He remembered that Lokuss' father and Sinon's family, hither-to absent from the Dicey Cafe, had finally made an appearance. Lokuss' father, a weary-eyed man who might've been in his late thirties to early forties, looked as if a heavy weight was on his shoulders. Despite his calm and reserved demeanor, he carried the airs of a man who'd gone through entirely too much stress for one lifetime.

But, then again, between his son being trapped in a Death Game, one failed marriage, another which was less-than-blissful, and losing custody of his daughters, that hardly came as a surprise.

Lokuss' mother, sisters, and step-mother had yet to put in an appearance but, by the sound of it, had they done so, they were at risk of having the door slammed in their faces. And, quite possibly, on their hands as well.

Sinon's mother was much what one might expect. Her expression languidly shifted from abstracted to melancholy, her daughter's imprisonment in Aincrad likely worsening her already fragile state. In fact, Sinon's grandparents had needed to come with her, leading her by the hand as if she were still a child. And, several times during the assault on Laughing Coffin, she had apparently had to force herself to sit through it. The minute the fighting was done, she'd raced to the ladies' room and, judging by the sounds from within, had become violently ill.

Aside from the inevitable discourse on how Kayaba's little exposé had illustrated the erosion of the family unit over the past several decades, Shouzou had had the bad luck to cross paths with a punchable man who'd described it in far cheekier terms.

"Here's another addition to Kayaba's list of titles," he had said. "The World's Deadliest Family Therapist!"

The man had been very punchable, indeed,

Shouzou had proven this by punching him.

His inability to form a counter-argument, however, had hurt far more than his bruised knuckles or the publicity squelching bribes he'd subsequently had to dole out.

He wanted the notion out of his mind badly enough to contemplate how disturbing it was to see the normally cool and composed Kyouko Yuuki in the midst of an honest-to-God temper tantrum when, finally, the door to his office creaked open and he was brought out of his recollections.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

Oh, there was so much more Shouzou Yuuki wanted to do than just see Sugou Nobuyuki. He wanted to throttle the man and return to him, tenfold, the beatdown the slimeball inflicted upon Asuna. He wanted to publicly humiliate the man, expose him for the perverted, misogynistic charlatan he was, and ruin any prospect of a future career. He wanted to -

Shouzou took a deep breath and plastered on his "public relations" smile. Now was not the time to blow a gasket, much as he might like to curse out the man he once considered family.

That would come later.

"Sugou! Please, come in and have a seat." Shouzou gestured towards the quartet of seats in front of him. The others hadn't arrived yet, so he'd need to find a way to kill some time.

Sugou gave a seemingly warm smile in response, and Shouzou had to remind himself that the smile was not genuine. Or, if it was, it was also used so expertly to manipulate others to serve Sugou's own selfish needs.

"Thank you, sir. How are you?"

Angry. Shouzou answered silently.

"I'm doing well, Sugou," he replied instead, with no small effort. "Thank you for asking. We're still waiting on a few others, but perhaps we can discuss some of our projects while we wait. This is not a formal report, mind you, but rather an informal… status update."

"Of course! What would you like to discuss?"

"How is ALO coming along?" Shouzou asked, tenting his fingers. "I believe, last I heard, you were putting the finishing touches on the final quest for the World Tree?"

"Ah, yes." Now that he knew to look for it, there was that smugness. "I've actually just finished it. I was planning on including that in my formal report next week, but in any case it's now complete. It will need to be beta tested, of course. But, I'm confident that, if any issues exist, they are superficial at best."

"Excellent!" Shouzou exclaimed with an enthusiastic clap of his hands. Despite, to put it mildly, having his misgivings about the man, Sugou was efficient and quick with his work. At least he wouldn't have to worry about handing off the project to someone else while it wasn't complete. "That should prove to be quite the final challenge for our players. The difficulty should be enough to buy us a little time before we have to unveil new content."

Sugou smirked before nodding. "Quite the challenge, indeed. One might be forgiven for assuming it was impossible to beat."

"Not too hard, I hope!" Shouzou chuckled. God, it was difficult to keep this facade of pleasantry up. Hopefully they would arrive before he -

*Bzzzt!*

Speak of the devil.

Shouzou pressed the button on his office phone. "Yes?"

"Your 11:00 is here, sir."

Shouzou smiled. "Excellent, please send them in."

"Of course, sir."

A moment later, the door opened to admit the three other attendees of this meeting. Kyouko, Kouichirou, and Takei all walked in. His wife, ever the born-again aristocrat, had her classic stoic expression so firmly in place that one would find her recent spate of property destruction impossible to believe, while his son looked genial in equal measure. Takei Tomo looked uncharacteristically serious, but given the bombshell he and Shouzou would drop on the others in a few minutes, that was to be expected.

"Mother, brother, how pleasant to see you." Sugou greeted them as they seated themselves. Shouzou felt a shiver run down his spine; the familiarity Sugou used was once a source of comfort. No longer. Sugou paused for a moment after taking in Takei's appearance at this meeting.

"This is Takei Tomo, an old family friend." Shouzou introduced. "Mr. Tomo, this is Sugou Nobuyuki, Asuna's fiancé."

"I've been lookin' forward to finally meetin' you, Mr. Nobuyuki." Takei grinned as he held out his hand. The smile looked friendly, but there was a mischievous glint in the investigator's eye. "I've heard so much about you."

"Nothing bad, I hope." Sugou joked as he returned the handshake.

"Nothin' I wasn't already expectin', I assure you." Takei laughed, and Shouzou suddenly found himself wondering if anyone else had drawn a link between the consummate investigator and the infamous Rat. "You're every bit the man I thought you'd be."

Shouzou had to stifle a laugh at the double-meaning. Takei was Argo's father, of that there was no doubt. The man was an expert at diplomatic backhanded comments, it seemed. He could tell Takei was just as eager as he was to stick it to Sugou. He, however, was not looking forward to his wife and son's reactions.

"Now that we're all here, I wanted to talk more about Asuna." Shouzou began while keeping an eye on Sugou's reaction.

"Yes, she's made quite a name for herself now, hasn't she?" Sugou replied. "You must be quite proud; I know I am."

"While true, I was referencing her recent run-in with Laughing Coffin."

"Must we discuss… them?" Kyouko interjected. "It's bad enough Asuna had to deal with such degeneracy and insanity. The government may be content to let her kill those maniacs like some vigilante out of those atrocious gaijin comic books, but I hardly believe respectable society will feel the same. It will undoubtedly stain her reputation once she returns to us."

"I'm afraid so, dear." Shouzou sighed. "I've been giving her future a lot of thought of late, ever since that incident, and it's come to my attention that there is a… shall we say, unsavory element in her life that we need to excise."

"Curious. I was under the impression you were smitten with the boy." Kyouko inquired. "I must admit I was hesitant at first; were my suspicions warranted?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Shouzou saw a series of expressions, no longer than a second each, flit across Sugou's face. Disgust at the mention of Laughing Coffin. Surprise at the implied topic of Kazuto Kirigaya. Relief at the suspicion of Kazuto's supposed "unsavory" behavior.

"Not at all; he's been the model of civility and kindness towards our daughter." Shouzou continued. "However, it has come to my attention that someone else in her life may be potentially dangerous, should they be allowed to continue as they have. To that end, I hired Mr. Tomo here to investigate the individual in question and perhaps shed some light on the situation."

"Oh?" Kouichirou hummed, arching an eyebrow. "Are you a detective, Mr. Tomo?"

Takei shrugged nonchalantly. "Private investigator."

"What is it you've found, Mr. Tomo?" Kyouko asked, and Shouzou could practically hear her cringing at the prospect of more bad news.

"I'll be frank; it isn't pretty." Takei replied. "Through the course of my investigation, I've found several cases of sexual harassment and at least one case of physical assault. They haven't been caught and charged, unfortunately. They're a rather high-ranking member of…I believe you called it "respectable society", and I can only assume they've been able to get away with this sort of behavior for so long because of their status."

"Deplorable." Kyouko spat. "We can't do anything about their interactions with our daughter while they're in the game, but at least we can take measures to keep them away once they finish SAO. I assume you have evidence, Mr. Tomo?"

"Oh yeah, you bet I've got it. I have several witnesses ready to testify and the police have already been notified."

"I'll bet it's that "Klein" character." Sugou scoffed. "He always struck me as a bit of a ruffian."

"It's not Klein, actually." Takei was quick to deny. "Admittedly, I haven't looked into the Renegades themselves. Outside of Mr. Kirigaya – and that's only thanks to Shouzou here – and my own daughter, I don't know the identities of any of the other players."

"Wait, are you saying that this person isn't in the game?" Kyouko asked, surprise working its way past her customary reserve.

"Unfortunately, yes. This is someone from Asuna's personal life, out here in the real world. Remember that case of physical assault? I'm sorry to say that it was Asuna who was the victim of the attack."

Sugou had a hell of a poker face, Shouzou realized. Yet, when he looked closer, he saw a bead of sweat trickling down from his scalp.

"What?!" Kyouko shouted, her upper-class airs thrown to the wayside. "Impossible! We would have seen something!"

"I have the medical records to prove it." Takei said, opening the satchel he brought in with him. "Would you care to verify?"

"Give me that." Kyouko demanded before looking through the offered folder. Her brow furrowed and her lips thinned into a very dissatisfied line. "A name, now. I intend to pursue litigation myself. I'll sue them so fast they'll - "

"Sugou Nobuyuki."

At once, all eyes fell upon Asuna's would-be fiancé.

Ex-fiancé, Shouzo silently amended.

Strangely enough, Kyouko was the only one who looked shocked. Not even Kouichirou seemed to be startled at the revelation. That… raised questions. Questions he would ask once Sugou was in handcuffs. Sugou responded with merely a raised eyebrow, the contemptuous prick. He wasn't even trying to deny it. Yes, he looked a little on the pale side, and certainly caught off guard, but he made no move to defend himself.

"That's not funny."

"Wish I were jokin', ma'am."

Kyouko's eyes hardened as she glared at the man she once considered a second son. "Explain."

"You must have mistaken me for someone else, Mr. Tomo. I would - "

Shouzou, having already retrieved a remote from his desk while they were talking amongst themselves, turned the television on. Immediately, Sugou shut up and the four other occupants of the room turned their attention to the screen on the far side of the room. On the screen was the footage of Sugou punching Asuna in the face. Shouzou had already seen the footage more times than he cared to remember, but every time it always managed to get his blood boiling. A sideways glance at his wife and son revealed they were just as incensed at the assault playing on the television.

"That is clearly doctored footage." Sugou attempted to object, and turned to face Shouzou. "Sir, you cannot honestly believe that I would ever - "

"We've also got DNA evidence, buddy." Takei interrupted, and Shouzou took a slight joy in watching Sugou bristle at being cut off. "Her current physician – ya know, the one whose sole job at the moment is the well-being of every inch of her body? – confirmed she has occipital scarrin'. You hit 'er hard enough to leave a mark. It's not visible to the naked eye, mind ya, but she's got a slight deformation under the skin from it because it wasn' treated properly after you smacked her around."

"How dare you!" Kyouko growled, her disposition far from composed at the moment. "Understand that the moment this meeting ends, I will be calling the authorities and turning you in."

"Already handled, ma'am." Takei interrupted again. He brought a cupped hand near his mouth and turned to the door. "Alright, boys! You can come in now!"

The door opened, and – much to the delight of Takei and the Yuukis – two police officers strode into the room, their gazes locking onto Sugou's seated form. One of the officers, a clean-cut man who looked to be in his late 20's, fixed Sugou with a firm scowl. "Sugou Nobuyuki. You are under arrest for domestic abuse and two counts of sexual assault. Please come with us. Any attempt to resist will be met with force. It is my duty to advise you to shut the fuck up until your attorney is present, but feel free to consider that a suggestion."

The other officer, a man in his mid to late thirties with a well manicured goatee, mouthed something that looked suspiciously like "superfan".

Sugou, his face devoid of emotion at this point, simply stood up and complied. Once he reached the police officers, he was placed in handcuffs and escorted out of the room.

Shouzou breathed a sigh of relief before addressing his family. "I'm sorry you both had to see that, but I wanted you to understand my reasoning for breaking off Asuna's engagement to Nobuyuki."

The formal use of the man's last name, rather than the informal use of his first name which had been customary for some years now, was not lost upon (or disputed by) the others in the room.

"To think we almost married off our daughter to that monster." Kyouko shuddered. "I had no idea."

Kouichirou, however, was silent.

"Kouichirou?" Shouzou prodded reluctantly. "You hardly seemed surprised."

"I wasn't. Not really."

Shouzou frowned; he'd been dreading this. "Why not?"

"I knew some of what was going on, at least in terms of how he really was when he wasn't being watched. The fact that some of our maids suspiciously decided to go on vacation or hand in their resignations after he visited was enough of a hint for me. I suspected that behavior extended to Asuna, but I couldn't be sure. I could only guess, but now that I know for certain… I can't say I'm surprised."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Kyouko asked, beating her husband to the punch, so to speak.

"The same reason Asuna didn't." Kouichirou responded, his voice uncharacteristically cold. "I didn't think it would have made a difference. You two were so ready to marry her off to Nobuyuki – without her approval, mind you – that you were blind to the possibility that he could be, to put it mildly, a poor match for Asuna. Anytime Asuna objected to anything, you were quick to dismiss her opinion as "naive" or "juvenile''. She probably figured objecting to Sugou was futile, and I can't say I blame her."

Shouzou sat stock-still, so horrified by his son's confession that he didn't even register that this family conversation wasn't really private. Takei, to his credit, remained politely silent and found other ways to occupy his time: namely, organizing his files and browsing on his phone. Not that Shouzou noticed, anyway.

He was too busy questioning everything he knew.

"She's a sixteen year old girl, Kouichirou." Kyouko countered. "She can hardly be expected to know what's best for herself."

"With all due respect, mother, I think that's ignorant. You can't say you know what's best for her when you don't even know her. When was the last time you had a proper conversation with her that didn't involve your expectations of her? When was the last time you actually enjoyed each other's company? Mother, I love you, but you've been so fixated upon Asuna's future…no, strike that, on what you think should be Asuna's future, that you haven't stopped to get to know her in the present."

Kyouko sat there, mouth agape.

"And I don't think you give her enough credit, either. I have watched her nearly every day that she has been stuck in that game… the same game that has already killed over two and a half thousand people. Not only has she survived, she's overcome obstacle after obstacle and become a strong, independent woman who commands respect and leadership on the front line of a war, Mother. Few people have that strength of character. When was the last time you watched her?"

"I…" Kyouko's words trailed off, her expression becoming one of bleak horror.

Shouzou could feel his heart drop into his stomach, his son's words leaving his head awhirl. While he wasn't nearly as closed off from his daughter's exploits in Kayaba's Darwinian playground as his wife was, he would admit that he didn't watch her all that often. He tuned into the stream maybe once or twice a week, barring major events like boss battles. The realization that he was apparently content to go days between seeing his own daughter hit him like a sack of bricks, and he felt his stomach twist itself into a leaden knot around his now convulsing heart. Yes, he couldn't interact with her like he used to, but he should have taken a more vested interest in his daughter's life.

It was a much-needed reality check, and one which ranked right up there with how Kizmel's death must surely have affected his daughter.

"If you had, you would have known that Nobuyuki hit her. I suspect that's what got father to start investigating Nobuyuki. Am I correct in that assumption, Father?"

Shouzou nodded, too numb to speak.

"She's even mentioned that to the rest of her guild." Kouichirou continued, heedless of the paling of his mother's face. "She opened up to them during that group bath session that everyone's talking about."

"A bath session?!" Kyouko finally asked, obviously caught off-guard by the risque-sounding venue. "I thought those streams were supposed to filter out moments like that!"

"Relax, mother. Nothing was shown, but the audio was still transmitted. Personal details were filtered out, obviously, but a few days before the Laughing Coffin raid, the Renegades took a group bath – covered by towels, so nothing terribly scandalous – and opened up to each other about some of the things that weighed on their minds. She mentioned her engagement there as well. And, in very candid terms, I might add."

As if his spirits could not sink any lower, Shouzou heard in his mind's eye – or was it ear? – the recording in question. It was painful to think that Asuna was comfortable enough to share the details of her relationship – or lack thereof – with Sugou to people outside the family. Then again, these people behaved more like family than he and Kyouko had over the past couple of years, so it wasn't entirely inexplicable. Or even that surprising.

Shouzou heard the sound of a door creaking open and only now registered that Kouichirou was halfway out of the office.

"Mother, I ask that you take some time and get to know Asuna again. I know that once you see for your own eyes the kind of woman she's become, you'll see what I'm talking about. The same to you, Father. Just… get to know her. You might learn a thing or two."

The door closed, and Shouzou exchanged a look with his wife.

"I'm… just gonna head on out, then." Takei meekly said, quickly getting up from his seat and grabbing his satchel. Shouzou blinked, having forgotten that the investigator was still in the room. "You two probably have a lot to talk about, so I'm-a just get out of yer hair. Shouzou, call me sometime, okay? We oughta go do stuff more often, and yer more than welcome to join us, Kyouko; I expect we'll be seein' a lot of o' each other once our daughters get out o' there, anyway. See ya."

The door quickly opened and closed as Takei made his hasty exit.

"...Dear?" Shouzou trailed, noting the thousand-yard stare his wife was sporting, her eyes focused on nothing at all as she looked out the window. "Talk to me, please."

"..."

"Kyouko?"

She finally sighed, a pained look in her eyes. She chuckled sardonically. "I'm a fool."

"How so?" Shouzou asked, not bothering to refute her. It wouldn't have worked; he knew his wife well enough by now that when she put her mind to something, she was steadfast in her beliefs.

Much like their daughter, he now realized.

"We almost married off our daughter to a monster, and we would have been none the wiser." She explained. "How ironic that the game that imprisoned her ultimately led to freeing her from what would have been a terrible marriage."

"I suppose that's true, but how does that make you a fool?"

"Kouichirou was right; I know nothing about our daughter." Kyouko said, now turning to look her husband in the eye. "I've been so obsessed with her image and her future for our family that I've overlooked her opinion on the matter. Clearly she's more mature and responsible than I gave her credit for. She saw Nobuyuki for what he was, found herself a boy who loves her for who she is – and not for her looks, wealth, or status – and from what I can gather, has proven herself a capable leader."

"True on all counts." He agreed.

"I suspect Kouichirou may still be bitter towards me after that, so I will ask you instead. May I join you the next time you watch Asuna's stream?"

Shouzou smiled as he watched the icy facade he was used to seeing on his wife start to melt.

"Of course. I want to watch her stream more often myself. If you're not too busy today, perhaps we could watch now?"

He switched the channel to Asuna's stream. His daughter looked to be cooking a meal for her guild, with that Leonn boy acting as a sort of sous chef, oddly enough. Shouzou went back to work, listening more than watching his daughter, but taking special care to look up every now and then at not only his daughter, but his wife. He could see the faint glimpse of a frown on his wife's face, clearly still displeased at the confrontation that transpired not ten minutes ago. Despite his calm exterior, he was much the same way. The first steps had been made for both he and his wife to improve their relationship with their daughter, but he was still reeling.

He had learned that a man he had trusted and loved as a second son was a base villain who, had things gone to plan, would have shackled his daughter into a loveless or even abusive marriage.

He had realized that Asuna and Koichirou's seeing Sugou's true nature and yet keeping silent about it likely meant that his children had lost faith in his ability to act in their best interests.

He didn't even want to revisit the memory of Asuna's declaration that she would rather die than live without Kirito. That was telling in and of itself; she felt her prospects in the real world were bleak enough for her to seriously contemplate suicide.

He had seen his wife crumble, twice, under the weight of realization after her mistakes in raising Asuna, well-intentioned though they were, had finally come crashing down upon her.

And, of course, his daughter was still trapped in that game, fighting for her life.

He was, to put it in the mildest possible terms, still emotionally compromised.

Had he been in a more lucid state, either at the time of the intervention or even now, he might've noticed a slew of sinister peculiarities about Sugou. Aside from his attempts to deflect the accusations through clever wordplay, Sugou denied nothing. He made no protestations of innocence, no threats, didn't try to pull an alibi out of his ass, didn't demand to see a lawyer, didn't try to offload the blame onto Asuna, didn't demand to know who his other accusers were, didn't try to offload the blame on them either, and didn't even seem that alarmed or surprised when the police arrived to take him into custody.

It was almost as if he'd expected it.

…and was ready for it.

Quite a few people witnessed Sugou's less-than-auspicious exit from the office of RECT Progress. Some were blue collar, others white collar. Some had eviable salaries, others didn't. Some were technicians, others artists. Some were accountants, others engineers. Some saw him as they passed him in the hallway, others saw him through interior windows while seated at their desks. Some stopped in mid-stride and gaped at the handcuffed man and his small escort, others merely gave a sidelong glance and then got right back to work. Some were astonished at the sight of their vice-president being led out in handcuffs, others seemed less-than-surprised. Some hurried away after he'd passed while others didn't break stride. But, all had one particular commonality:

They've all neglected to grind their Observation Skill, Sugou mused, before blinking in silent stupefaction. Wait, did I seriously use a VRMMORPG term IRL? And use the term IRL?

He shook his head and swallowed a self-deprecating chuckle. Maybe he had been working here too long.

Still, that was immaterial. He might be walking out the door in admittedly undignified circumstances but, if all went well, the next he came to RECT, he'd own the place. And several others besides.

While this turn of events was unfortunate, and certainly one he would have preferred to avoid, it was far from fatal. Quite the opposite, in fact, as it would be a temporary setback at most.

Ever since he'd caught wind of the streams of SAO, and noted that more and more content was becoming available to an ever greater number of people, including the Yuuki's, he'd realized it was only a matter of time before Asuna became a bit too candid about the…small unpleasantries brought on by her uncooperativeness. Naturally, he knew her father wouldn't see it that way, so Sugou had taken…precautions.

Mentally, he reviewed the encrypted emails he'd sent and received via a clandestine (that is, favored by adulterers, criminals, drug dealers, and the occasional terrorist) service, all of which he had deleted from his inbox after decrypting, reading, and memorizing their contents. According to them, his partners were in place, their roles set, and all was in readiness. For good measure, he had also installed a "worm" on his office computer, one which he had activated upon receiving Shouzou's summons. If he did not enter his password and deactivate the worm within four hours, or if anybody that would fail a facial recognition test tried to access his computer, the worm would go into action. It would purge all memory, including anything that might give away his true plan which he might've failed to delete, and then fill all existing memory with random data, thus precluding data recovery.

By the time he…unveiled his masterpiece, and it occurred to anyone to check his former computer for anything that could be used against him, any such information would be long gone. The clandestine email service was also designed to automatically delete his account if it went more than a few days with no activity on his end, so identifying his associates that way would also prove a dead end.

Even better, the additional arrangements he'd recently drawn up and finalized would ensure that his plans would proceed regardless of how his newfound legal troubles panned out.

Whether he was acquitted, but still barred from RECT, or whether he went to prison, it would make no difference.

He had planted his "seed", and it would sprout in due time, now matter what verdict the jury reached.

And, even the Black Swordsman and Papa-in-Law wouldn't be able to do a damned thing about it.