Thanks everyone for reading. Special shoutout to Capitalist Banter for going through and leaving reviews on most of Book 2, also a thanks to Agent 94 for his honest criticism. I look forward to your next reviews. Everyone should go read Sinonon and leave a review on it, Agent will really appreciate it and it's a great story.
Without further ado, here's chapter 10 of book 2, which features Asuna confronting her father, plus a guest appearance from Klein.
Caring For A Rat: Book 2, Part 10
Asuna clasped her hands together tightly, so tight that she felt a twinge of pain coming from them. That was good. It was a distraction. Anything to take her mind off of the coming conversation.
At the end of the bed, her father sat in a chair, leaning forward, resting his arms on his legs; he looked far more tired than she had ever seen him. His brown hair was streaked with grey now, and he had far more wrinkles than he had had the last time she had seen him.
Had it really only been two years?
Kirito and Argo had been hesitant to leave her alone, but she needed to speak to her father, Yuuki Shouzou, alone. She needed to know.
Summoning up all the strength she could, she took the first step.
"Father?" In the silence, it sounded almost like a thunderclap. The elderly man's head rose up, and his eyes focused on her.
"Yes, my princess?"
For a second, she was a little girl again, standing outside her father's office, shaking from a nightmare, waiting for him to open the door, sit her on his lap, and chase away all the demons with his calm presence.
But no, she was here, in the hospital, all but betrayed by her own father.
Asuna took a deep shuddering breath, before the words fell out of her mouth in a flood. "Why did you engage me to that Creep?" More words bubbled up in her throat, a tide that she couldn't stop. "You told me when I was ten that I would have a say in whatever marriage I had. You promised me that I would have a choice!"
Her voice rose in anger, and Asuna was aware of herself sitting up straighter, slipping back into the habits and mannerisms of Asuna the Flash, vice-commander of the most powerful guild in Aincrad.
Her father flinched back before her.
"The last time I had such a major choice taken away from me, I was locked in a death game for two years. I found friends, people very dear to me in that hell, and I almost didn't make it out. I died, father. I felt my body shatter and my mind-"
Asuna stopped mid sentence, stricken by the memories of her mind and body piecing themselves together from a million tiny fragments.
"You died!?" Her father breathed out so low it was nearly inaudible, "Asuna, you-"
"And then," Asuna gathered herself to continue speaking, words falling from her lips in a flood. "When I finally made it out, when I killed Kayaba with my own blade and freed everyone, I found myself trapped again." The fencer's eyes narrowed, staring accusingly at the hunched-over figure of her father.
"Trapped by a man you put into power."
"Asuna, I-"
"And as if that's not enough!" Asuna rose as far as she was able, the IV in her forearm tugging painfully as she thrust a finger forward. "You arranged my engagement while I was in a coma, with none of the say I was promised to have; to a man who wanted to take apart my mind, my very sense of self, and use it as a toy for his childish whims!"
She was shouting now, her throat hoarse from talking, and her breath coming in heavy gasps.
"He what?" Her father looked shocked. "Asuna, If I had known-"
"You'd have done what?" She shrugged her shoulders. "I heard all about how you wanted Sugou as your heir, taking over the position of CEO so you could retire."
"That was before he kidnapped my daughter!" Her father stood up suddenly, his face flushed with anger.
"If I had known what he had planned to do to you, to any of the survivors, I would have-"
"If." Asuna cut her father's rant off before it could truly get started. "That's always the thing, isn't it?" She turned her head to look out the window. "If I hadn't picked up the NerveGear, If I had been faster, smarter, If you had figured out that the man who was all but your son was planning on brainwashing your daughter. So many Ifs."
Asuna turned back towards her father, who now just looked very tired. About as tired as she felt.
"But if we spend all day talking about 'if-thens', and 'could-have-beens', we'll never talk about anything." She took a deep breath, feeling the burn in her chest that normally accompanied heavy exercise.
"I'm not certain I can forgive you." She raised a hand to forestall her father's questions. "I'm certain that you thought I would be content with Sugou, but I am not the person I was before I entered SAO. Even if he had been who you thought he was, I would never have been content with him, and that is disregarding the promise you made to me when I was ten." Asuna's voice was hard, cold, and sharp. It cut into her father like a knife.
"Asuna…" her father started, then trailed off. Whatever he had been about to say wasn't enough.
"You promised I would have a say in the man I married. And you broke that." Yuuki Shouzou slumped over, drained of all energy.
Asuna sighed; she was exhausted. It had been a while since a conversation had drained her this much.
"Just, just go." She waved a hand at him. "I'm not interested in your explanations. I'm certain they were sufficient in the moment, but they don't change that you broke your word."
Her father bowed, turned, and left. He didn't say a word as he walked out of the door. In her room, trapped in her bed, Asuna stared out the window. Suguha had dragged Kirito and Argo outside, and was letting the two lean on her as she talked into a phone about something.
She wanted so badly to be out there.
Asuna looked down, holding her thin arms out so that she could inspect them. Once, she had been able to split boulders with a single blow and move so fast that she became a blur to the human eye.
She clenched her weak fists.
She would not allow herself to remain like this, trapped in a husk of a body, one that got tired from talking.
She couldn't be as strong as she had been in SAO, but she would be strong.
I hovered anxiously as the physical therapist poked and prodded at Asuna.
The therapist, a balding man named Dr. Tatsutora, held up his hands with thumbs facing up, the fingers at a right angle to his palms. "Now pull against me." Asuna complied with his instructions, locking her fingers with his from the bottom and pulling back as hard as she could.
She barely managed to move the thin man's hands back a centimeter.
Dr. Tatsutora smiled, the laugh lines on his cheeks deep. "Good, very good." He smiled. "You're in remarkable shape for someone in your condition," He said, straightening up. "Now, can you sit up without leaning on anything?" he asked, moving around to the side of the bed.
Asuna shook her head. "Not for long periods of time."
"That's still a feat for someone in your condition." Dr. Tatsutora placed one hand on the blanket that covered most of Asuna's lower body. "Is it alright if I pull this back? I need to get a proper look at your legs."
My wife glanced at me and Tomo, and I smiled reassuringly. My own physical therapist hadn't been as compassionate, but she had been encouraging, in her own way.
Asuna nodded, Dr. Tatsutora pulled back the blanket, and The bed-bound girl let out a hiss of shock. Her legs somehow seemed harder hit than the rest of her. They were so thin that it almost looked like her skin was draping off of a tent, rather than the fullness of body that I was used to.
"Everyone reacts like that the first time they see them," The physical therapist chuckled, his hands hovering over Asuna's legs. "I am going to grab onto your calves now, and when I do, I want you to try and lift your legs up."
Asuna nodded in acknowledgment, and I could see the strain in her legs and torso as she tried to raise her legs against the force of Dr. Tatsutora pressing down, very carefully not putting his weight on her legs.
"Alright," he said, releasing her calves, "Now raise your legs as far as you can, while keeping your feet flat on the bed."
"Man, this is nostalgic," Tomo said to me as Asuna worked through the next set of exercises that Dr. Tatsutora needed to establish a routine for her.
"I know." It seemed like just yesterday that I was working through my own setup session of physical therapy, fresh off of the news that three hundred people, including Asuna, were still trapped in SAO. Now I was standing here, watching my wife run through her own session.
"The doctors were actually worried that I might have set myself back when I staggered into the hallway trying to find you."
"They were right to worry," Dr. Tatsutora said, gently lowering one of Asuna's legs and turning around to face me. "Most people aren't able to even sit up, much less walk around when they wake up from a coma. If you had gone much further there was a high likelihood that you would have torn a ligament or muscle, or even had a heart attack from the strain."
Asuna glared at me. "Kirito…"
"I know, I know," I said, rubbing the back of my head. "Finding you and Tomo seemed like the most important thing at the time.
"Well," Dr. Tatsutora said, covering Asuna's legs with the blanket once more, and removing the support from her back, easing her down into a supine position. "In any case, you're in remarkable health for someone in your situation, young lady, and I think that with a proper routine, you might be walking around with a cane in as little as a month. Asuna nodded, her face a mask of determination.
"Just don't try to do any physical activity that hasn't been cleared by myself or a Nurse, and if you experience any sharp pain, you should stop what you are doing immediately and tell someone."
"I'll do my best, doctor," Asuna said, smiling. "After all, I don't have to go and find someone. They found me."
"Alright then." Dr. Tatsutora straightened up, readjusted his tie, grabbed his clipboard off the table, and clicked open a pen. "Let's go over some therapies that I think will be effective, and see which ones you want to try first."
Before Asuna could respond, a ringtone sounded in the room. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I scrambled to get it out. "Oh!" It seemed obvious, in hindsight, that he would call. I tapped the answer button on my phone, and stood up, reaching for my cane as I did so, already starting to move out of the room.
"Hey Klein, what's up?"
As the guild leader of FuurinKazan, and one of the first friends I had made in SAO, Klein and I had a relatively long relationship. Although we had never really been close friends, we still called upon each other from time to time, and he had invited me to that one really poorly thought out Christmas party he had tried to host, so I considered him a good friend.
"Hey dude, did you see the news yet?" Klein said, sounding as lively as ever.
"Well, I did pick up a newspaper this morning," I said wryly, walking over to the door as quickly as I could.
"They made it out!" Klein exclaimed happily, and I could picture the jubilant grin he was wearing alongside the barest hint of 'Manly Tears'.
"Asuna fucking broke herself out! I knew she could do it!"
"I know," I said, opening the door. "I was there when it happened."
"You were?" Klein, if it could be possible, got even more excited. "Oh, c'mon, you'll have to tell me about it! No, wait," he said, clearly reevaluating where I was. "You're with Asuna right now, right?"
"I am," I nodded, "She's doing well, but her doctor is glaring at me, so I think I should leave the room so he can talk to her."
"I want to talk with her!" He said, sounding like nothing so much as a large, friendly dog.
"I'm sorry, but she's still busy at the moment. Maybe soon?" I cast a hopeful look towards the doctor, who nodded. "Alright, soon." As I left, I could hear Asuna and Dr. Tatsutora start to talk about what sort of therapy would be best for her.
"Is she doing alright?" Klein said, "I mean, did that guy, the one who just got arrested..." the sound of my friend snapping came clear over the speakers of my phone."Shoot, what's his name, I just had it-"
"Sugou Nobuyuki?" I supplied helpfully. "And, no, Asuna broke herself out before he could do anything to her."
"That's a relief," Klein said, "Hey, is she ready for visitors yet? I want to come see her, maybe I can bring the guild around. They want to thank her for getting them out of Aincrad."
"Well, I'm not sure how up she is for large groups, and she's slept for most of the day already, so maybe it would be a better idea to come by tomorrow, or the day after?"
"Well we're not going to be coming immediately," Klein scoffed. "Harry One is all the way up in Iwate, so it's going to take a bit for him to get down here for the party." Oh, right. Some of the small guilds and friends that had formed in SAO had awoken to find themselves living on opposite ends of the country, and struggling to get back in touch with each other.
When Tomo hadn't been trying to find Asuna, she'd been establishing a message board where people could find each other, including at least one other couple who had met in Aincrad and fell in love.
They'd sent Tomo a picture of the two of them, both in wheelchairs, in a train station. She'd blown up my phone with messages about it the day she received the photos, and hadn't been able to stop talking about it for a week.
"Oh, right, does he need anywhere to stay? I can talk to my mother; it's going to be tight given that-" I cut myself off. Tomo wouldn't appreciate me sharing info about her personal life with anyone, and until she gave me permission to share, I'd keep her moving into my house a secret from everyone, except Asuna of course.
"Nah," Klein dismissed my question. "Kunimittz, ah, sorry, Yoshida, offered to put him up for the week. We're gonna have a tour of the city, see if any of our old haunts have changed, and introduce Harry One to the wonders of Master Fujiwara's noodles!"
"That sounds like a great time." I hummed appreciatively. The few FuurinKazan parties I had attended at Klein's behest had been loud, raucous affairs, with the guild indulging in synthetic alcohol, getting into singing contests, and in some cases sneaking off into side rooms. I still wasn't certain if any of them were dating each other, or if they had a friends with benefits thing going on, but I hadn't asked, given that Klein had looked distinctly uncomfortable the one time I had pointed out Issin and Dynamm wandering off into a side room, their arms wrapped around each other.
"So, when are you guys planning to have the party?" I asked, mentally checking my schedule. Would Asuna be recovered enough to attend? I didn't want to ask them to push the party back for Asuna, but it seemed a shame to throw a party for the end of Aincrad and not have the woman who ended the game attend.
"About that…" Klein said sheepishly, and I could imagine him rubbing the back of his head. "We were planning to hold it after the raid on the World Tree?" What? After… was Klein still planning to?
"You still want to do that?" I asked, not able to keep the incredulity from my voice. "Even though Asuna's already out?"
"Actually, it would probably be all the more important, I mean, there's nothing really riding on this, right?"
"Well," I hesitated, "Apparently the race that we help get through the dungeon might get unlimited flight, but the game is probably going to at least get a huge overhaul the more that comes out about what Sugou was doing." Asuna hadn't been able to tell me much, but Tomo had somehow intercepted a confession from one of the man's accomplices.
When I'd asked her how she had, she'd laughed, booped me on the nose, and said "A girl has ta have some secrets, Kii-bou." But she had shown me the e-mail as well, so the info was accurate.
Probably had someone on the inside of RECT Progress that was informing her stuff about the company.
"Why, what did Sugou do?" Klein asked, "He didn't do anything to-"
"No, he didn't do anything to Asuna beyond kidnapping her." I cut Klein off before he could begin. "But he was abusing his employees pretty hard, particularly the mid-level GM's that he blackmailed and threatened into helping him run experiments. Like, forcing them to use non-human avatars, making them use full dive for up to 100 hours a week, almost twice the medical standard that he set in place, and that's not counting what he made them do while in Alfheim."
"I can already tell I'm not going to like this," Klein grumbled, "But what were they trying to do?"
I told him. His reaction was about what you could expect.
I heard something crash to the floor from the other side of the line, and a guttural scream echoed out. The last time I had heard Klein scream like that had been on the 68th floor, when FuurinKazan's frontline tank, Dale, had taken a nasty hit and dropped down into the red. Klein had been on the golem that had hit the tank in an instant, unleashing a series of sword strikes with blistering speed, almost as fast as Asuna could thrust.
The Golem had shattered half a second later.
"Klein, Klein, it's okay, Sugou's currently in custody, Asuna's awake, everyone's out, he's not able to experiment on them anymore." I tried to calm the angry guild leader down, but Klein had a lot of anger to work out.
"Not everything's about Asuna!" He yelled into the phone. "What about the others, the 300 guys who got experimented on. Dynamm and Kunimittz both have friends in that group, and you're telling me that they might be waking up brain damaged, or brain dead?!"
His voice abruptly grew weak and I had to strain to hear his next words. "I thought I was done losing people when SAO was cleared." I couldn't say anything to that. Klein had always considered himself responsible for more than just his guild. FuurinKazan was always on the frontlines of every boss fight, and Klein was in the vanguard more often than not.
The parties after a boss fight always featured toasts to the departed, and often a short speech by a surviving friend about what sort of person they were. Several times, often while drunk, Klein had confided in me about his guilt for not saving the people who had died, because he had been too busy saving someone else who might have lived without his intervention.
"Klein…" I didn't know what to say. I was never good at this sort of stuff.
"No, it's not your fault, Kirito." Klein reassured me wearily. He sounded tired. All of us got tired easily these days. There was another voice in the call. "Oh, hey Ryu, what is it?" The muffled voice I could hear through Klein's phone sounded urgent, and Klein sounded rushed when he spoke to me again.
"Hey, Kirito, I'm sorry, but I need to get going, talk to you later?"
"Talk to you later," I said, starting to move the phone away from my head.
"Oh, wait, can you tell Asuna that FurinKazan is going to visit in about a week?"
"Sure, Klein," I said, even as my distracted friend started to hang up.
Well, I had a lot to think about.
