Lmao I don't know why this chapter took so long because it's actually one of the shortest XD I just haven't been paying attention to this fic for a while because I've been working on other things, but here we are :D Thought this might be a fun change of pace.

"Hi! Lovely place you've got here!"

Right now, Rinko is probably closer to hating her housemate than she ever has been before.

"Thank you," she forces out alongside a smile, half-heartedly wishing the earth would kindly swallow her whole right about now, please and thanks.

The mountains are too treacherous, he said. Hikers don't come up here, he said.

You liar, she screams internally, smile still plastered to her face. She's no medical expert, but she's pretty sure she's been having a more or less constant heart attack from the moment this hiker-shaped bundle of sunshine showed up on the porch.

Keep it together. Keep it together.

The young hiker sticks her hand out with a cheery grin. "I'm Amane Mai! Nice to meet you!"

Mechanically, Rinko shakes her hand. "Nice to meet you." Keep it together.

Amane doesn't ask for a name, thankfully. "So you live here? Are you here for summer vacation?" At Rinko's hesitant nod, her eyes go wide as she looks around. "Up here? All by yourself?"

Not quite. "More or less." Rinko decides it's her turn to ask. "What are you doing up here? These mountains aren't easy to get through." She would know.

The hiker beams, her dimpled smile framed by short dark locks. "That's the fun of it, right?" Her bright countenance dims fractionally. "And, y'know, to get away from everything else for a little bit."

Rinko exhales quietly. "Yeah." Unfortunately, she knows all too well what it's like to be sequestered away up here, and before she can catch herself, she finds herself asking, "Would you like to come in?"

While she makes coffee, she quietly breathes a sigh of relief that it really does look like she lives here by herself. There's one car parked on the path, one coat slung over the back of one chair at the table, one umbrella, one scarf. No pictures, no personal affects, and few extras of anything.

Akihiko barely exists in the real world, and right now, it's a blessing.

There are a few spare mugs in the cabinet, luckily, but no extra chairs anywhere in the house, so Rinko is left leaning awkwardly against the counter, and still quietly screaming inside. She has no plans to leave Amane unsupervised during her hopefully brief visit, and Akihiko always has his door closed when he's Diving, but the mere presence of someone who isn't herself or him in this house sets off automatic alarm bells left and right.

"Do you live nearby?" Rinko asks, hands cupped around her mug. She did just have coffee about an hour ago, but she'll never say no to another cup, and she figures the extra caffeine can't hurt, probably.

"Kinda. I go to uni up north, but my family lives here," Amane replies, sitting with one foot tucked under a rhythmically bouncing knee, still smiling. "I'm visiting them for the summer." Her smile becomes a little more fixed as she stirs her coffee absently. "Originally I was going to take some summer classes, get an internship or something, but I couldn't visit over the winter, so…"

Rinko can sympathize; a pang of guilt accompanies it, and she shakes herself. "Can I ask what you're studying?"

Amane's smile widens, a little warmer now. "Marine biology. I get to go fishing for a job," she says with a little giggle.

It makes Rinko smile, reminded of how much she loved her own work—well, loves, present tense, but whether it's what he did or the simple lack of his presence, it just hasn't been the same. He took ten thousand lives with him to his virtual world and many more souls, including hers.

"So what about you?" Amane asks, eyes bright and inquisitive.

"I do research on virtual reality technology."

Amane doesn't stop smiling, even as her expression becomes a little more hollow. "Oh." Her leg stops bouncing. "I bet that's tough right now."

Rinko can only muster a tiny shrug, knowing that there is no one who is less deserving of sympathy than herself. "I get by."

The hiker hums softly, lacing her fingers together around her mug. Her foot describes a slow circle just above the floor as her shoulders, having carried that weighty backpack sitting by the door up a mountain, start to sag.

"That's why I'm here, actually," she admits conversationally, and Rinko's stomach drops out of her feet and her heart stops before Amane continues, totally oblivious, "My little sister—she's sixteen, and she's one of the SAO players." She rubs her eyes briefly, blinking rapidly; there's a shell of a sad smile left on her chapped lips. "It's been rough on my parents, and they weren't too happy when I couldn't come home last winter—long story. I think my mom especially misses having someone to, well, someone to mom, but I just needed some alone time up here."

The irony of the situation is not lost on Rinko. In a distant part of her mind, she wonders what Amane would do, if Rinko pointed her towards the door just down the hall and told her who was inside. Given the chance, would Amane be able to do what Rinko can't? Would she be able to kill him?

And if so, what would Rinko do? What would she do, if someone were to try?

Would she let them, knowing that it's only what she should've done all those months ago? Or would she fight for him? Would she pick up the knife she brought to kill him only to defend him instead?

All questions she hopes, in her cowardice, that she'll never have to answer.

Amane sighs into her cup, mumbling, "I just don't know how no one saw it coming."

Yeah, Rinko thinks to herself bitterly, she's not quite sure either.

For hours every day for weeks, she and the other lab members put all of their own projects on hold and did nothing but scour the code of the game for hours each day—partially to try and find a way to shut it down, as well as to sate their own burning need for answers. How did he get this past all of them? Sure, he was the one who developed most of the intricacies of the technology, but even so, they all worked on it for years.

But the system itself, in the grand scheme of things, feels like but a fraction of the whole, at least to her. Perhaps it's what's holding them all in this mess, but still…

I didn't know.

She was so foolish. How could she have not seen how unhappy he was in this world that he had to go to such lengths to create a brand new one?

Did I do something wrong?

All of his little tics and habits that sometimes raised eyebrows, she just thought that was Akihiko being Akihiko. There were times when she got annoyed with his detachment, although she's always been terrible at holding grudges so it didn't last long in her heart or memory. Should that have been a red flag? It didn't feel like it; she loved him enough for both of them, she thought, enough to love that part of him too, though maybe that was the problem.

Was there something more that I could've done?

Or perhaps even all those years ago, on the shores of Enoshima, the ocean waves lapping gently at their feet, pulling and pulling, she was already too late.

She wonders which would feel worse—to have meant nothing at all so that it would've been pointless to try, or to have meant something but not enough because she didn't do everything that she could've. Was it either of those? Something in between?

"Did you lose someone too? To the game?"

She stirs, broken out of her thoughts, and she can't help but glance down the hallway.

"Yeah," she admits. "But some days, I wonder if he was long gone even before."

I could basically just see Rinko smiling and making small talk like 'oh yes sure come in, it's not like I'm harboring an internationally wanted criminal down the hall, would you like some tea (oops we only have coffee)' and internally screaming the entire time in her head like YOU SAID-