As the meal proceeded, everyone savors Asuna's home cooking. I don't think I can eat another bite if I wanted to...or maybe there's another reason I don't want to consume another bite. Is it the realization that this will be the last time I'll have the opportunity to eat something Asuna prepared? And now that I think on it, when was the last time I ate something Koharu made for me?
So many thoughts run through my mind on the edge of our return home. Today's been nothing but a constant reminder that we're almost home, and either we'll die on the final stretch or make it back home alive. Talking to Klein, Agil, Sanya, and many others of the Assault Team amde me wonder what's next for me once I leave Aincrad.
"It's so good," Koharu sings while we all rest on the couches and sofa chairs.
"I guess this might be our last meal in this house," Asuna says with a slight frown as she glances up at the ceiling, her daughter sleeping in her arms. "You know, I might even be happy if i got to live here forever."
"Asuna..."
"I'm sorry, I know. Our bodies in reali are bedridden right now. The only nutrients we're getting must be through an IV. It's not something that's possible. Our happiness here is almost like an illusion. I feel that way somewhere in my heart. We have to go home, even if it means sacrificing something. We have to go to the real world. That's why we've kept figting as top players, after all."
"You too, Asuna?" Lisbeth says with a sad, fragile smile. "I was just so moved after the meeting when I realized that the hundredth floor is already right before our eyes. And...scared. Yes, maybe that's what I'm feeling. I've been a crafter for all this time, right? I like to think that I worked hard at it and became a first-rate master. I've even been able to make it as a top player, too. it's only natural to think that I'm leading a happy life."
"But you're not?" I inquire.
Lisbeth glances at me, holding the gaze a moment longer than I think is necessary, and shrugs. "Not completely, I guess. The space closest to my true happiness is already taken... So I'm sure that in the real world too..." She looks away from me to my hands, leaving me with a weird feeling that maybe, just maybe, Lisbeth was speaking to me. I don't know what she's trying to say, nor does she elaborate as her eyes fall on her interlocked fingers. "I know that I just have to make up my mind about it, but..."
"Lisbeth," says Koharu, a sniffle in her voice. That gets Lisbeth to perk up and glare at Koharu, though I can't tell if she's annoyed with my partner or acting annoyed to hold back alternative emotions.
"Ugh, why are you the one crying here?"
"S-sorry."
"Anyway, you all are close friends. I'm sure we'll keep hanging out in real life, too. I'd make someone feel guilty about dating the guy if I'm always looking sad around her. That's why I'm going to be sure to make myself smile."
Making herself smile despite her sadness? That's one way to live life, though I wonder who Lisbeth speaks about. Considering the number of guys she could like, I'm not dense enough to not figure out the two obvious possibilities...and now it makes sense. It now make sense why Koharu started to cry, why Lisbeth looked at me with that long look. I always assumed, when this matter came up, she was speaking of Kirito, but all this time, it was me she held affections for? I didn't know...no, I didn't want to acknowledge it because the signs were obvious.
Hopefully one day, when we meet in the real world, Lisbeth will tell me those feelings, even if it hurts her to speak them and for me to reject them. "Liz, what will you do when you're back?"
"Hmm, I want a little shop of my own in real life, not just in SAO. Please do become my customers as you have now! I also want to see our favorite beast tamer mature as a woman; physically, of course."
"Ngh," Silica tenses, then sighs while rubbing the sleeping Pina in her lap. "So mean, Liz."
"Sorry."
"Uh huh... Since we're talking about this, when I thought about how we'll be going home soon, I suddenly started to recall so many memories. I can't believe that SAO, something I started because I won a prize, turned out like this. I happened across Pina, who became my emotional support. We were able to make it through so many adventures together. I was even able to go from being a mid-level player to a top one after meeting all of you. There were times when I thought I'd have been better off if I'd never won that contest, but not now. I'm glad I was able to come to SAO. I've been able to lead such a happy life here."
Silica, the youngest person on the front lines and the famed Beast Tamer. A girl who I sometimes wished I convinced to return to the Town of Beginnings, but saw how her resolve to do something to survive in this world mirrored my partner's. A girl that, in time, became something of a younger sibling to both me and Lisbeth, someone who I almost broke my one rule for. At the edge of the end, I'm proud to see not only that she's alive, but she's a strong young woman. If we meet again in the real world, I hope the strength she gained here is reflected there.
With that, I ask her the same question I asked Lisbeth. "What will you do when you're back?"
She looks down at the blue feathered dragon in her lap. "I once told Kirito that it's going to be hard for me to leave Pina. After that, he used Lueur's connections to make a suggestion to someone with GM privileges. Apparently they'll evacuate Pina's data to my NerveGear's local memory, same as Yui. Now I can go back to the real world without feeling afraid."
"That's great to hear," I respond with a nod, then turn to Asuna. After Koharu and Kirito, I've known Asuna since we met as party members on the first floor. We've shared many adventures together in those days. Koharu and I have given the Knights of the Blood Oath preferred treatment because Asuna was vice commander (not to mention our friends Eiji and Yuna are associated with the guild, and even Kirito was a member for a short while). Kirito once believed Asuna would become a pillar of the front lines, and I cannot say I agreed with him back then, not until she became KoB's vice commander, now serving as its unofficial commander in Heathcliff's absence.
And I cannot skip my best friend in this world, Kirito. In the beginning, we were the only guys in a group of girls, the only guys we could trust completely. Even when Kiritos plit from Asuna and became distant after the deaths of the Moonlit Black Cats, I did my best to stand by him as a friend, to let him know that he's not alone and has a shoulder to lean on.
Having seen their growth myself, both as an ally, former party members and one of her closest friends, I'm intrigued to know what's next for them. "Kirito, what will you do once we're back?"
"I...haven't decided yet," Kirito answers. "What I can say, though, is that I've lived a second life here in this virtual world. I want to take my experiences here and use them in some kind of VR-related job, so I also want to study to make that possible."
"I want to go to school...and lead a regular life," Asuna says for her answer.
"I see."
"That's a surprisingly normal answer."
She shrugs. "I've been trapped in the NerveGear's virtual world all this time. I think it's something that's unprecedented in the long history of our society. Living a normal life might actually be asking for too much."
"You're right," Kirito agrees. "I'm not worried, though."
"How are you able to say that?"
"Because we're not alone now. We're able to care for each other and live on. isn't that the promise we made?"
Asuna has the look of tears welling in her eyes as she places her head on Kirito's shoulder. "...Kirito..."
"Ahem," coughs Lisbeth harshly, breaking the lovey-dovey moment before it can start. "Can you two wait until after we're gone to do that? Geez."
"I know, right?" says an annoyed Silica. She clears her throat and faces Koharu and me. "Well, what about you two?"
"A normal life, huh?" Koharu muses. "Asuan might be right. Even if we go back to the real world, our lives might not go the way we want... You know, every once in a while, I've dreamed of my time as a student. I'm usually having fun and laughing. Life as a student wasn't all fun, though. There were times when I got upset or when I cried. Isn't it strange? When I think back to those times in my dreams, all I remember are the good ones. Maybe it's that I want to go back there. I want ot go back to the real world and go to the same school as you, Jaymes, and all of you guys."
An image sprouts in my head of the six of us. Considering our ages, Liz and Asuna will be in the same year as me, Koharu and Kirito will be right behind us, and Silica is farther back. But my mind ignores that reality and places us all in a run-of-the-mill school life. We're all in a classroom, all wearing blue uniforms, and like we're in a romcom story, Kirito and I are surrounded by four cute girls.
Koharu and I would met up and walk to school together, meeting with everyone else along the way, talking about nothing in particular as we arrive at school and head to our classroom. At lunch time, Asuna feeds Kirito his lunch like they're actually husband and wife, Lisbeth teases Silica over having a Pina=like plushie brought to school, and Koharu and I share amused glances at each other for our friends' actions. During exams, Asuna and I race for the highest marks while the others lament having not studied enough for the exams. After school, some days Kirito and I are in a club for some for of technology, Koharu joins a sports club, Silica tends to the animal pens, Asuna reads a book in the library, and Lisbeth snoozes right across from her. On other days after school, we hang out at Agil's cafe, the mall, or karoake, then later on, we play games together.
A student life doesn't sound so bad.
"Do you think we'll be able to have something like that?"
I look to Koharu, taking her hand in mind. "I promise I'll make it a reality. For you, me, all of us. As for my dream... The first thing I'll do is follow in my father's footsteps. His dream will become my goal, to perfect the creation of artificial intelligence. SAO has not only changed my views on AIs, but it gave me so many encounters that I know what to do with them. They're not just computer programs, but another form of humanity given form...and i want the world to know it."
Kirito nods. "But before we can see any of our hopes and dreams, let's get through this first. Let's pass the ninety-ninth and hundredth floor together, and then let's all meet one day on the other side. Let's all hang out like we are now on the other side, got it? And make more memories of the future."
"Got it."
"Yeah,"
"Let's do it."
"Okay."
"It's a promise."
With the anime celebrating ten years today, I found it only right to make a short story based on the memories of Aincrad. Of course, most of them are from my OC's perspective, with no relation to most stories that I've previously written except Progressive I and II. Most parts, like Silica's in chapter 4 or Koharu's in chapter 2, I've never written before, while Diavel's in chapter 3 is coming pretty soon, but maybe not from Jaymes' POV. The first chapter, aside from the union of Asuna's party (I got lazy, I wrote that scenario twice) and Jaymes meeting Koharu in the beta (also a new writing) and Lisbeth's part are new perspectives, which was fun to do.
I wanted to do a trip down memory lane, but had no clue how to do so. I long decided not make it relate to my other stories, else Lisbeth's moment would be from Blacksmith and Warrior, not Progressive II. I wanted to do something new, and with Integral Factor giving us Floor 99 as a moment of reflection for the cast, that became the best route to write this short tale.
I don't see myself moving much beyond Aincrad in the near future. Progressive II is still ongoing, not to mention I'm going to read volume 7 and 8 afterward; I recently bought the Aincrad arc books, so I can read those in my downtime; Integral Factor's Floor 35 story is coming next year, and I have a heart to do Floor 14 and 20 too. Started playing Hollow Fragment too, and sometime after this story is uploading, Integral Factor updates with the 100th floor unlocked. I'm all Aincrad out lol.
Hope you all enjoyed this, thanks for reading.
