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Caring For A Rat: Book 2, Part 4

Sugou Nobuyuki, in the guise of the Fairy King Oberon, pushed open the door to his laboratory. He had very little time today, and a lot of work to do. "Report."

His voice echoed in the cavernous room, bouncing around the various devices that he had painstakingly constructed. A vaguely humanoid figure emerged from behind the pillar that stood in the center of the lab. It cast shadows on the opaque tanks set into the wall as it passed, coming to a stop in front of it's master. With a low humming noise, the literal slime that served as his assistant began to speak.

"Experiment B-31 failed." It's tendrils waved in a complex motion, almost like they were flailing. "The commands failed to take root for long and we had to return the subjects to their containers."

That was not an unexpected setback. Experiment B-31 had been a rather blunt attempt at his end goal, and quite frankly one that he had only attempted because it cost almost nothing to attempt, and he had spare test subjects. He brushed past his assistant, moving for the console that let him interact with his laboratory.

"We'll try Experiment D-12 next, then." Oberon's assistant paused, his tendrils hovering mid-air.

"Experiment D-12?" The slime's voice was pitched up in a useless question. Didn't it know by now to follow it's master's orders?

"Yes, Experiment D-12," Oberon said patronizingly. "If it works, we will have almost finished our grand experiment."

"But the materials can't take-"

"So use a different set of materials." The Fairy King flicked a switch, and the massive cylinder that formed the center of his lab rotated. A new set of subjects spun down from the top, ready to use. "Get Gamma-3 and finish the prep work, I'm going to visit the queen."

"At once, master." The slime that nonetheless made a moderately useful assistant slithered off to finish preparing the code for the experiment.

As Oberon ascended the steps to his queen's chambers, he felt his heart beat faster. A fantasy began to take shape in his mind. He would enter her chambers, she would smile, delighted to see him, and he would grant her a kiss.

She would vacillate, and flutter, but eventually accept, and be granted the pleasure of his presence. He would indulge her with her pleasures and fetishes, and let her cook for him, with the ingredients he could call up as easily as people breathed.

Her food would be good, and she would thank him for providing the food they ate, and they would make love. A pair of sentinels would guard them, and bring food and drink as they conversed, her sharp mind needling his plans for flaws and finding none, for he was far smarter than she was.

But she would be glad just to be in his presence, for he could always- "Go fuck yourself Asshole!" The fantasy shattered as his far too defiant queen threw a teacup at him. It shattered on the walls of her cage.

"Temper, temper," Oberon said, coming to a halt on the other side of the cage door. It looked as though she wouldn't permit him inside today. "Such unladylike-"

"You can take ladylike and shove it up your ass!" Titania said, fixing him with a glare that made his arousal squirm in anticipation. Oh to have her looking like that when she finally submitted to him! "I'm no one's lady, and most certainly not yours!"

"Oh but you are mine," the Fairy King said, smiling beautifly. "You just don't know it yet." His queen stared at him in astonishment, her mouth moving up and down as she tried to find the words to refute his statement. Finding none, she grabbed another teacup and hurled it at him.

"Do you honestly care so little for Tea?" He asked, raising his hand to work another "miracle" "Summon Object ID: [Radiant Teacup.]" A shower of lights coalesced in His Queen's room, shaping itself into a teacup identical to the one she had just thrown at him. He would have to make sure he included an appreciation for tea when he reprogrammed her. It wouldn't do for her to have a different favorite drink than him.

She grabbed that one, but rather than hurling it at him like she had the last two, she instead dropped it onto the floor.

Oberon sighed. "It seems you are not in a pleasant mood today, my lady," He said, turning to leave. "I will return soon, there are many things that I need to do before our wedding, after all."

His Queen's defiant voice followed him down the stairs as he descended to his workplace.

"I'll never fucking marry you, you asshole!"

He paid it no mind. She would change her mind when he perfected her, and he had an experiment to oversee.

"Alright," Tomo said, setting down a sheaf of papers. "You don't know why you spawned in a random location, but you think that the reason that our old character data was imported was because SAO and ALO are compatible?"

"Not precisely," I said, taking a sip of my drink. We were back in the Dicey Cafe. I had been eager to get out and prove that my fall last night had been a fluke even as Sugu had tried to wrap me up in a cotton blanket.

Thankfully not literally.

It had been very, very tempting to dive back into ALO first thing in the morning to see Yui, but until I knew that Sugu was otherwise occupied, I wouldn't risk using the Nervgear. She already treated me like he was made out of glass; I didn't want to know what her reaction to me diving into VRMMO's again would be.

Probably not anything good.

"The games use the same character data frame." I grabbed one of the pieces of paper I had sketched out my stats on. "The base stats and the skill system are the same," I said, and Tomo rolled her eyes. "But the actual implementation of those stats is different. In SAO, Strength only contributed to raw weapon damage, but in ALO, it's also tied to sunder damage, or the ability to destroy an opponent's weapon."

"So it's like portin' a save to a remake?" Tomo asked.

"That's… A not inaccurate summation," I said, setting the paper down. "The items don't carry over because they aren't programmed into the game, but the character data is similar enough that the Cardinal System makes it work."

"So we tell everybody ta delete their items?"

I nodded, "The character flags themselves shouldn't be that different. After all, it wasn't that easy to tell who was using an imported character in the old Mass Effect series and who wasn't unless you were looking at the actual guts of the game."

"But someone carryin' that many corrupted items would." Tomo finished for me.

"Sounds like you two are planning something big." Agil said, bringing over the sandwiches that we had ordered earlier. "Care to share with a friendly barkeep?"

"This isn't a bar," Tomo said, grabbing one of the sandwiches. "An' we're plannin' a raid on the World Tree in Alfheim. Care ta join?"

"As much as I would love to, my wife would kill me if I dived into VR so soon. I'm barely out of Physical Therapy as is. I'd need to buy one of the new Animuspheres, and if I have to spend the amount of time in-game to prepare for this raid that I did for the floor bosses..." Agil sighed, "I don't think it would work. I need to get my life back together here, and while I want Asuna out almost as much as you two do, I'm not sure I can make it."

Not having Agil would be a blow. The merchant and his axe had been a reliable sight on the frontlines, and he was probably one of the better tanks in the game. Which was a strange thing, since he didn't use a shield.

"Well, I've contacted Fuurinkazan, and they've indicated tha' they're willin' to take par'," Tomo said, leaning back in her seat, taking small bites from her sandwich.

"Well, that's good news indeed."

"Yeah." Fuurinkazan were the top guild in SAO in terms of average level, losses taken, and dungeons cleared. Klein, the leader, and a somewhat close friend, had managed to get his guild all the way through two years of torment without losing a single member. He was a far better leader than Heathcliff had been.

The rest of the conversation was easy. Other than Fuurinkazan, no one else had committed yet, although one person had talked about contacting his sister, who was apparently someone high up in the hierarchy of one of the factions of ALO. Most of the people Argo had been counting on to show up had had their NervGears confiscated and destroyed by the government, and were unable to meaningfully contribute.

When it came time to pay for our food, I set a bundle of yen down on the table, making Tomo frown.

"You know I can pay for my share," She said, moving to set her own bundle of money down.

"You can, but you also need to pay rent on your apartment." I pointed out, making my partner wince. Her parents had been willing to let her stay in the city on one condition: that they would only pay for half of the rent on whatever apartment she was staying in. She had some money saved up from before SAO, but it was running out quickly, and she was scrambling for a job to help lengthen the amount of time she could stay.

I hadn't inquired, but her relationship with her parents was... tenuous, at best.

She withdrew her portion of the money. Agil picked up our money and the dishes without complaint, and we left the Dicey Cafe. It was a rather warm day, with the temperature above freezing, hovering around 2 degrees celsius. Still, we leaned against each other as we walked through the park, our canes clacking against the cement.

It was nice walking with Tomo like this. Her presence had been a comfort for almost as long as I had known her, and with her by my side, it felt like we could figure everything out. It was a very different sensation to the one Asuna gave me, which made me feel as though any obstacle in our path would be beaten down.

Together, it felt like the three of us would be able to overcome any obstacle.

Hesitantly, I brought up something I had been meaning to talk about with Tomo for a long time.

"Would you be alright living at my place?" Tomo didn't pull away, but she did look up at me incredulously. "I mean, my family has the space, and I talked to my mom about it, and she said that she was willing to consider it. So, if you want?"

Tomo stopped, making me stumble as her support all but vanished out from under me. "You're sure?" Her eyes were questioning. My partner had always been rather fiercely independent, but maybe, just maybe, she would accept living with me again.

I nodded.

"That eager ta live with a girl, huh?" Tomo said, grinning good-naturedly.

"I already live with two women." It wasn't as effective a rebuttal as I'd hoped.

"Oh really? What will Asuna say? Her husband, living with other women!"

"My mother and sister, Tomo. My mother and sister."

"So I'm a sister to ya Kii-bou?" My partner smirked. "Didn' know ya were inta that."

"Because I'm not." I did my best to not respond to the rest of Tomo's teasing. Thankfully, she seemed to realize that she'd almost crossed a line, and shifted the focus of her statements more towards what living together would be like, even making insinuations about sex.

"Ya know, it'd be a shame if we had ta sleep in separate rooms." Tomo nudged me in the side gently, careful to not overbalance me on the cane. "I'd hate ta deprive you o' seein' me in all my mornin' glory."

"Your 'morning glory' is bed hair and bleariness, Tomo. And while I would love to wake up next to you every day, I think my sister might disapprove." My partner raised her eye at that statement.

"She wouldn't be happy for her brother?"

"No. Yes, It… it's complicated," I said, wracking my brain to try and come up with a succinct way to explain it. "Can we sit down for this?" I asked, pointing towards a bench with my cane.

It was difficult to talk about it, but Tomo deserved to know. I had told Asuna, and since I was intending to pursue something romantic with Tomo, she should know too.

"I'm adopted."

Once the first two words fell from my mouth, the rest fell out like a waterfall. "My parents were involved in a car crash when I was a baby. I don't remember it, and I don't remember them." Tomo's eyes widened in shock at my words, but she didn't otherwise react.

"My maternal Aunt received custody of me after the incident. She's been a great mother, if a little overworked. It was my adoptive grandfather that was the problem. He believed a lot in the way of the Samurai, in Bushido. He wanted me to take up Kendo. I don't have any talent for it, never have, probably never will."

"Bullshit," Tomo said, rather vehemently. "You're one o' the most talented swordsmen in SAO. You have-"

"Basic training in Kendo. Footwork, how to hold oneself in combat, and the like," I said, cutting off Tomo's rant. "Everything else is my own style. It's not Kendo, and never will be Kendo. That style won't work for me.

"But my Grandfather expected me to carry on the family legacy. If Sugu hadn't stepped up and said that she would be a Kendoka so I wouldn't have to…" I trailed off, scratching the back of my head.

"She's always been protecting me, from bullies, from my grandfather, even from myself, at times, until…" I trailed off. Tomo knew what I was talking about. "I think she's trying to make up for lost time."

"An' she thinks I'm a threat?" Tomo seemed amused by this. Why, I wasn't certain.

"In that she's not sure if she can trust you, yes." I frowned, as much as I liked my sister, she was being a little difficult right now. "Honestly, if it weren't for school, I think she'd try to shadow me all the time. She gave me hell about forgetting my phone last time I left the house."

"Do I need ta help ya sneak out?" Tomo smirked, "It's been a while since I wrote up a good stealth plan, but if you send me the blueprints, I might be able to get you a hidden route in and out."

I sighed, "Thanks for the offer, but no." I wasn't certain how serious she had been, but either way, such an avenue would be just asking for trouble. "I'd prefer to stay on the good side of my sister. She could probably bench both of us at once."

"It's not like that's a hard thin', right now," Tomo said, waving a hand at herself. We were still underweight for our age groups, having spent a month adjusting back to solid food after being fed intravenously for almost two years. Even now, eating anything other than soup and the specially prepared meals that Agil and my mom made in moderate amounts made me feel like I was going to throw up.

"Yeah," I said, standing up, and extending a hand out for Tomo to use to pull herself up. As she was standing up, her phone rang with an incoming text message. Her face curled into a smile as she looked at the screen. Before I could ask, she turned the phone around.

"We got an alliance with the Sylphs."

Yui buzzed around my head happily, seeming to delight in the simple pleasure of flight. I let myself get lost in watching her, my eyes following the dizzying swoops and dives she engaged in, letting out peals of laughter as her hair fluttered in the wind.

I was supposed to meet with a member of the main Sylph faction here, on the edge of the safe zone I had logged out in last night.. Apparently the leader of the Sylph forces were meeting with the Cait Siths to renew their alliance, so I would be meeting with someone relatively low on the totem pole.

Tomo had impressed upon me the need to remain formal, respectful, and above all, to be quick. The Leader of the Sylphs, Lady Sakuya, was apparently the sister of an SAO survivor, and had a vested interest in making sure that the three hundred remaining victims got logged out safely.

Apparently the idea that they might be in Alfheim had sent her into a fit of rage.

"Papa, papa, fly with me!" Yui grabbed my hands, trying to tug me up into the sky with her tiny body. I grinned and let her tug me up, activating my wings, and letting myself hover. It was easy to let her guide me, following her tugs without complaint, until we were hovering up in the air.

"Alright, we're flying," I said, making Yui giggle. "Now what?"

"We dive!" And then Yui dragged me down into a dive that looked a lot less terrifying from the outside. We swooped down, down, and then Yui tugged me up so late I could feel my feet brush the ground. It was one of the most exhilarating sensations I had ever felt.

I let out a whoop of laughter as we ascended, and I spread out my hands to feel the wind rushing past. I leveled off, and spun in a circle. It almost threw me off balance, but the flight system assist stabilized me before I could fall too far. It had been one of the first things I had enabled after falling on my first day in the game, and now I could enjoy flight freely.

I spied Yui climbing higher into the air, and followed her, my much larger wings eclipsing her speed. I caught up to her, the buzz of my wings throwing her off momentarily before she turned, and smiled at me as I slowed to match her speed.

We lost ourselves in flight, for once not caring about anything other than the pure excitement of flying, of doing something no human had been able to do before VR: fly, unaided by technology, with a degree of freedom unknown to modern aviation.

I did a pirouette in the air, just for the fun of it, then dived down towards the ground, my wings folded in. It rushed towards me, looming closer and closer. The wind was so strong it felt like it was cutting into my eyes, and I understood why skydivers wear goggles. It was a rush of adrenaline like no other, and I understood how this game had maintained such a competitive playerbase.

Who wouldn't want to fly forever?

As I neared the trees, I flared my wings. They caught the air almost immediately, arresting my momentum in a matter of heartbeats, leaving me dizzy from the vertigo, hanging in the air five feet off the ground, my head spinning.

As I hovered there, a warning beep sounded, and my wings started to fade. I let myself drop, landing in a crouch.

"Nice landing!"

"Oh," I said, just now noticing the familiar Sylph standing at the edge of the clearing. "Hi Leafa. I was just having some fun."

The sylph nodded. "Flying is a rush, that's for sure." She reached a hand out towards the sky. "When you're up there, it feels like you can go forever, that nothing can stop you, and everything is within reach."

"Flying is really fun!" Yui chimed in, settling onto my shoulder.

"So, Leafa, I know that I said we would head out as soon as possible, but do you think we could wait a bit? I'm supposed to be meeting someone from the Sylph leadership here, and…"

My conversational partner stared at me as I spoke, making me trail off towards the end. "Kirito," She said, grabbing me by the shoulder. "I'm a member of the Sylph leadership."

What?

"But you said you were a grunt!" I immediately wanted to clap my hand over my mouth. Why did I say something so, so, weird! It was precisely the sort of statement that Asuna had trained me to not make.

To my surprise, Leafa nodded. "I'm a squad leader, which is still a grunt. I just have a little more responsibility than most."

"And weren't you placed-"

"No. I'm on special assignment, which is a fancy way to say we're not quite sure if we want to promote or demote you, so here's something to do while we figure it out." Leafa sat down on a rock near the edge of the clearing.

I sat down opposite her. It was less surprising now that she had been the victim of an attempted gank. It hadn't been three randoms attempting to bully another player. It had been a targeted attack by the Salamanders on a moderately important Sylph target.

"Well, I assume you know the basics?"

Leafa nodded. "There's several SAO survivors who want a shot at clearing the world tree, and we're going to take it on with them."

It's a little more complicated than that." I brushed one finger over Yui's head, the pixie snuggling into the side of my neck. "I'm not certain how much Lady Sakuya shared with you, but we have reason to believe that the 300 SAO survivors who haven't woken up yet are trapped here, in Alfheim, at the top of the World Tree." As I spoke, Leafa's face grew more and more horror-struck.

"No." I sighed. I had expected this. "You're wrong. RECT took over the servers after ARGUS shut down, my, my brother, he wouldn't, he wouldn't be alive if it weren't for them, they, they can't. They can't-"

"Leafa." I said, grabbing her hand. "I need you to look at something." She quieted, but didn't move away. I carefully pulled up my photo gallery, thankful that Argo had made me import the photos for this exact reason.

There were two photos displayed. One was the achingly familiar picture of Asuna in the cage, reaching out towards the camera, her mouth open in an unheard shout. The other was a picture of her I had saved from SAO.

"These are in-game photos, the photo on the left was taken a week ago by a guild that tried to circumvent the trial in the World Tree. The photo on the right is from SAO."

Leafa took one look at the photos, and refused to look at them any more. "They, they must be faked, they- they couldn't..." Leafa went very still, staring down at her lap.

"Ms. Leafa?" Yui took off from my shoulder, flying over to the paralyzed Sylph. "Are you alright?" When Leafa didn't answer, the pixie landed on her lap, staring up into the swordswoman's eyes. "Do you need a hug?"

When the sylph didn't respond, the pixie flew up towards her face, until Leafa made to push her away. Undeterred, Yui grabbed onto the sylph's hand. Staring into Leafa's eyes, Yui opened her mouth.

"It's okay to cry."

That was the stone that broke the dam. Within seconds, Leafa was sobbing, curled up into a ball on the stone, her breath coming in huge gasps. I carefully approached the crying girl. I had no real idea how to deal with this. Argo wasn't really a crier, and the only times Asuna had cried around me, I hadn't exactly been in a position to provide care.

Thankfully, Yui seemed to have the problem well in hand. She clung gently to Leafa, holding her as her sobs subsided. Once the Sylph had worn herself out, Yui spoke again. "I know it hurts, but we're going to fix it."

Leafa nodded, "They saved so many people, and now…"

"If it helps," I said, "We're fairly certain that it's just the guy running ALO, since I can't think of a reason why the owner of RECT would want to keep his daughter trapped in a game he doesn't play."

"His own daughter's still trapped? And they're not investigating harder?" Leafa looked rightfully incredulous.

"It's even worse," I said, gritting my teeth. "He's marrying off his daughter to the guy running ALO, who has to be in on it. He'd have to be truly incompetent to be running the game and not know it."

"Fuck…" There was silence for a bit after Leafa's response, as she digested the implications of my statement. "We have to stop him."

I nodded. "There's no telling what he might do to Asuna. But I'm not going to sit around and let-"

"Asuna?" Leafa was staring at me, her eyes scanning over my body.

"My partner, from SAO." I pulled up the pictures again. It was probably a little much to reveal to someone who was still basically a stranger, but there was very little chance that she'd ever know me IRL.

The sylph moved closer, her eyes darting between the two photos and me, as if looking for something. Then, opening her mouth, she said a single word that made the bottom of my stomach drop out.

"Kazuto?"