"We have to go back!" Yui screamed, pounding her fists into Argo's back, making the Info Broker stumble. Beside her, Thinker slowed down, but she waved him onward. He had a weapon now, he would be fine.
"Aa-chan and Kii-bou'll be jus' fine," Argo said, readjusting her grip on Yui, trying to be as reassuring as she could. It was undercut by the shaking in her voice. "They're the- They're the stronges' people I know." The little girl only struggled harder, not calmed by The Rat's words.
"It's too strong for them!" Yui screamed, ramming a particularly vicious fist into what in real life, would have been Argo's kidney. "We have to go back!"
"WE CAN'T GO BACK!" Argo shouted, her eyes flecked with moisture. "I told 'em I'd keep ya safe, squirt," The info broker continued, her feet pounding out a steady rhythm as she approached the stairs. "An' I'm gonna keep ya safe, no matter what." Argo said, an almost too-quiet whisper.
She knew almost from the instant the boss had appeared that it was impossible for Asuna and Kirito to defeat it alone, hell, even the whole assault team together might not have been able to defeat it. They had known precisely what they were doing when they had attacked the boss, and she would stop sending out her newspapers and live as a hermit before she broke the last promise she had made to her best friends.
No matter how much it would hurt.
As Argo crossed the threshold of a new room, Yui rolled out of her arms and back through the doorway. Skidding to a halt, the Info broker wheeled around and tried to dive onto the little girl, only to be stopped mid-dive by a transparent barrier, falling heavily to the floor.
"I'm sorry Ago-mama," Yui said, sounding far more somber than Argo had ever heard her be; her face grave. "I have to do this."
"Wha'?" Argo gasped, "hang on, we gotta take this thin' down, hang on, there's gotta be a switch somewhere." The info broker started hurriedly running her fingers around the edges of the doorframe, trying and failing to find the source of the barrier.
"Ago-mama?" Yui flicked open her menu, which had changed from when Argo had last seen it, with even more windows flickering open and closed in less time than it took to blink.
"Yeah squirt?"
Argo kept searching. Somehow, she knew it was futile, that whatever had triggered the barrier wasn't something that she could take down. But her daughter was on the other side of that thing. In danger, and nothing else mattered. Not Thinker frantically gesturing at her to run, not the knowledge that the two people she loved the most in the world were most likely gone without her being able to so much as say goodbye.
And not even the fact that she'd never told Kirito and Asuna that she loved them.
All that mattered was getting Yui to safety.
No matter what it took.
"I love you," Yui selected a button on her menu, and the glow of teleportation started to consume her body. "But I have to do this."
It struck Argo in that moment, just what her daughter was going to do. "Hey, squirt, Yui, common, I'll have this barrier down soon, jus' wait, an' then we can go get some ice cream from Madam Charla's place, okay? The Info Broker begged, her hands running even faster over the doorframe as her eyes darted about the room, desperately trying to find some sort of device that would disable the barrier preventing her from reaching her daughter even though she knew it was futile.
In a fit of anger, the Info Broker pounded one fist into the invisible wall that occupied the doorway.
Unseen to either party, it cracked, as Argo damaged an immortal object in her desperation to reach her daughter.
Yui smiled sadly as the teleportation effect consumed her, leaving behind only a few words.
"I'm sorry, Ago-mama. Goodbye."
Argo stumbled through the doorway, the barrier that blocked her having faded as soon as the light of her daughter's teleportation faded. She almost fell as she lunged toward the spot where she had last seen her daughter, only to come up with empty air. The Info Broker desperately activated her tracking skill, only to find no footsteps indicating the direction towards any of her party members.
In desperation, she cupped her hands around her mouth and howled, hoping against all hope for a response.
"YUUUUUUUUUUUUI!" Her scream rang through the corridors of the hidden dungeon, carrying an almost palpable air of grief and fear with it.
Only silence met her desperate cry.
Argo fell to her knees and howled in grief, her failure echoing across her mind. She'd failed to anticipate Kibaou's maneuvers. She'd failed to notice the Fatal Scythe in time for all of them to get away.
And now she'd failed to keep her daughter safe.
I barely managed to sidestep another swing as the Fatal Scythe closed in, and the near miss shaved of a tenth of my health bar. I wasn't far from the red now, and Asuna wasn't fully healed up. Even if she was, my situation would still be perilous.
I'd ran out of quick-access healing pots two minutes ago.
The Fatal Scythe was far more intelligent than most bosses we'd faced, blocking any attempt by me or Asuna to reach the safe zone, where it couldn't follow. It was almost like fighting a player, in some ways. But it was far more powerful than any player I had ever encountered, and it was only the new equipment that Asuna and I had purchased, and the new parrying skills I had chosen to compliment my bracers that let us survive the withering assault of the boss.
Asuna deflected a strike from his scythe, avoiding the shaft of the polearm as it came swinging around in a follow up, using her rapier to springboard into a flying kick that sent her sailing away. She looked like she could fight forever.
But we couldn't keep it up. It was between us and the entrance of the boss corridor, and consistently struck at whoever was attempting to go for the safe zone. Sooner or later, one of us would make a mistake, and die.
The Fatal Scythe let out a cackling laugh, and charged after my wife, it's scythe angled low for a sweep. I needed to move, to get it off of Asuna, but my health was still in the yellow.
I didn't dare open my inventory to access more healing pots. The last time Asuna had tried that, the boss had nearly bisected her.
Gritting my teeth, I drove the Elucidator into a lunge. The boss didn't bother to block. Why should it, when my weapon would run out of durability far before it would run out of health.
But I distracted it from Asuna, whose health was dropping into the orange, which was the important part.
I spared a glance at my wife, trying to tell her with my eyes to make a break for it while I kept the boss occupied. She shook her head, raising her rapier into a guard position. As I dodged another sweeping blow I tried to point with one of my swords at the end of the corridor. She ignored me, circling, waiting for an opening.
Why wasn't she running? Her life was worth so much more than mine. She was the vice-captain of the KOB, one of their chief strategists, and I was a nobody. There was nothing I did that couldn't be replicated by someone else. If she died here, it was entirely possible that the entire clearing effort would stall.
I deflected the blade of the scythe again, leaving a small gap that I plunged my sword into, even as Asuna came from behind the boss, her health now back in the yellow. She drove her rapier in parallel to my blade, and for the first time, I saw the boss's health bar dip noticeably.
The Fatal Scythe let loose a terrifying cackle, spinning around in a circle. The air pressure from the passage of it's scythe knocked me back into a wall, and I heard something crack.
An icon popped up in my vision. I was suffering from the [Broken Leg] debuff, which would prevent me from using the limb until I could heal fully or get a healing potion. I swayed and fell to the ground. Distantly, I heard Asuna scream my name.
So this was it, huh?
The boss seemed to realize it too, running one finger down the edge of it's scythe. Behind it, Asuna was getting up. Her sword arm hung limply from it's socket, but her other hand held her rapier tightly. Her health was deep in the red.
She took an unsteady step towards where I lay on the floor.
"Run!" I shouted at her, pointing at the wide open corridor leading back through the dungeon to safety. If she started now she could probably get far enough that the Fatal Scythe would lose interest in her. I was already dead at this point, not even able to run away.
"Not without you!" My Brave, oh so Brave wife said defiantly, raising her rapier as best she could with her off hand, and charging. Her face was filled with determination, eyes alight with a desperate fire.
She always was beautiful when she fought.
The Fatal Scythe let out a chattering laugh that filled my bones with fear, and turned to face the fencer, it's scythe rising up…
And up…
And up…
And Fell.
Far too fast to evade.
"Asunaaaaaa!"
I wailed, even as the prone body of my wife shattered into pieces.
No…
Why didn't…
Why didn't she run?
The Fatal Scythe turned toward me, it's scythe still pointing towards the spot where Asuna had fallen, as if to taunt me.
I pushed myself up as steadily as I could, onto one leg, using one sword as a crutch. I lifted the other up as defiantly as I could. Asuna would hate me if I just accepted death.
The boss laughed at my pitiful act of defiance, and raised it's scythe again. There would be no distraction to save me this time.
"Stay away from my Papa!"
Yui?
What was she doing here? She was supposed to be with Argo! A million and one questions ran through my mind as my daughter plunged a flaming sword almost three times her size into the chest of the Fatal Scythe.
The boss screamed in rage and fear, one hand swinging towards the small black-haired girl.
It shattered into pieces before it even got close.
I was dimly aware of the [Congratulations!] popup appearing on my screen, but most of my attention was taken up by something far more important.
"Yui!"
The Black-haired girl glanced around the room at lightning speed before her face twisted into a rictus of grief.
"Yui!" I called again, wincing as my sword slipped, and I had to realign it quickly or collapse. "What are you doing here? You should-"
"Summon object ID: Divine Stone of Returning Soul!" My daughter cried, raising one hand to the heavens as a whirlwind of light coalesced in her hand. It vanished as quickly as it appeared, leaving a painfully familiar stone behind.
The black haired girl slammed the stone down onto the space where Asuna had died, and I saw a faint glowing outline form around the stone.
"Common Una-mama," Yui said, focusing on the outline. "You can do it." I stumbled closer, dropping the sword I wasn't using to keep myself upright as a desperate hope filled me.
There was the sound of something shattering, and for a heartbeat, I thought that the item had failed, that it had taken too long.
Then Asuna's avatar filled in, and she convulsed, sitting up as if she had been struck by lightning.
She was alive.
She was Alive!
"Yui, what?" My oh so gloriously Alive wife said, lifting her hands like she couldn't quite believe it.
"Una-mama!" My daughter tackled Asuna, nearly knocking her over in her desperation to hug her. "Una-mama! Una-mama! Una-mama!" She cried, heaving great sobs into Asuna's chest, desperately clinging to her like she would vanish again if she relaxed for the tiniest bit.
I wrapped an arm around Asuna, even as she wrapped her arms around the two of us, and we huddled together, tears falling from our eyes. We were just happy to all be alive.
"You are going to be in a lot of trouble when we get back." The black-haired girl gave a great hiccupping sob, and shook her head.
"I'll be dead before then."
"What?" Why? How? I scanned her status briefly: no status effects that I could see.
"I should introduce myself properly," Yui said, pulling away from our huddle pile. "I am Mental Health Counseling Program 001, designation 'Yui'." The black haired girl said, and a million things slotted into place.
"You're an AI?" Yui nodded, wiping her eyes.
"I've been constrained, trapped ever since SAO launched." The raven haired girl looked more haunted than ever. "I-I couldn't help anyone, until now."
"Yui-"
"And now I'm going to be deleted for it." The AI said, moving toward the safe zone. "Just let me spawn items for you before the Cardinal system finishes deleting me."
"What? What's going to delete you?" I asked, rising unsteadily to my feet. It was the work of seconds to open my inventory and activate a healing potion. For the first time in a while, my health climbed up above the 50% margin.
"Cardinal, the system that runs SAO," Yui said, maneuvering her way to the black… console? Yes, that was a console, an Admin console in the middle of the safe zone. "I'm not allowed to do anything to interfere with the game. I was able to fool it for a while by erasing my memories, but now that they're back, it will label me as a rogue program and I will be erased."
Yui paused, one hand over the keyboard, looking out of place, having to stand on the edge of the console to reach the physical keys. "It's starting."
I didn't quite shove her aside, but I came fairly close as I pushed to the console. "Where are your files located?" I pulled up a navigation directory, my hands falling back into years-old patterns as I started to hack into the system directory of Sword Art Online.
"Papa, you can't beat Cardinal," Yui said, smiling sadly even as I frantically typed her designation into the search bar.
"I don't need to beat Cardinal," I responded, even as Asuna grasped Yui as tightly as she could, trying to hold her here through sheer will. "I just need to trick her."
Yui looked doubtful, but she still guided me to a small set of files that were labelled as [Expansions]. It was only partially activated, presumably to lock the many, many MHCP's that I saw out of the game.
As I worked, Yui began to fade, becoming a pale shadow of herself in Asuna's arms, her figure becoming ghostly.
"A… At least…" Yui croaked out as I tried to salvage files even as they were deleted faster than my eyes could see, "At least I'll die happy."
"You're not gonna die, Yui," Asuna said, stroking her hair, "Kirito's going to save you, and then we'll go get some ice cream together, okay?"
Yui smiled, even as she became so transparent I could see the floor through her. She looked so damn happy that I wanted to cry. No, I was crying. Why was she so happy? She was dying.
"Ice… Cream," My AI said, her eyes wistful. "I always… wanted to…"
I slammed my finger down on the transfer button, watching as thousands of files were moved to a separate drive. If I was right about this…
"Yui!"
I turned around, breathing hard, and collapsed to my knees. Yui was so faint that I could only see the barest outline of her form, and Asuna's arms passed through her as she desperately tried to grasp her daughter.
For a second, It almost seemed as if she was looking at me, and I heard her whisper "Thank you,"
Then her outline shattered, much like Asuna's had only a few minutes prior.
There was one difference between Asuna's brush with death, and Yui's. I picked up the small necklace that had dropped where our daughter had lain.
[Yui's Heart] gleamed dully in the sheer whiteness of the safe room.
