"Gotcha, stay here with Kirito Shi-Shi," Rika directed to her girlfriend as she untangled her hands from Kirito's and used Shino's knee as an anchor point to help push herself to her still slightly weak feet as she looked at Kirito. "I'll come back when I've seen Asuna."

Shino looked like she wanted to argue, but thankfully she didn't, since Kirito could hear the wheezing and the way air was rattling through Shino's chest. From a semi-permanent defect of the disease that had given them the super natural powers outside of civilization, but also from the inhalation of lit gunpowder and other explosive material when her gun had been shot right through the barrel and caused the weapon to explode in her hands.

He wanted to tell Shino to start a breathing treatment and or the regular treatments she had to do to keep her lungs working correctly, but didn't have the energy to argue with her. Not when he knew that she hated them and being forced to rely on a machine and other devices and medications while her lungs healed enough for the surgery she'd need to mostly repair it.

Plus, he didn't have time to since the last person finally showed up.

"Next time Ima steal yer pass, Ki-Lii," Argo grumbled as she walked toward them all and Caylee obediently tossed her ID to the lightly fuming blonde who tossed her a set of car keys without looking and caught the ID. "'s so much faster 'en dat stuff."

Caylee gave the guards a long look when they moved to mention that it was technically illegal for Argo to have the brunette's id, and Kirito couldn't resist the amusement he got at the way the guards reluctantly shut up and diverted their gazes from the tired secret agent.

Even if his gaze was focused more on the grumpy looking cheeky blonde who walked toward them.

Seeing the small blonde, who had functioned as an assassin and recon expert during the twelve month hell of the post game events, be safe and sound was the last confirmation that he needed that everyone was okay. Argo was alive and safe and sound, she wasn't bleeding out and choking on blood, Shino was struggling a bit to breathe but she was using her hand and all of the injuries were mere scars, Rika had the exoskeletal system on her right calf so she was fine, and Asuna was paralyzed a and a little sick, but she wasn't deathly ill from her injuries.

And if the four worst injuries weren't there, then he couldn't be hallucinating.

They were safe and Asuna would be okay.

That doesn't mean he didn't flinch when Argo ruffled his hair when she got close enough.

"H-Hey!" He whined, the first words he had spoken for a while without shaking, "What was that for!"

"I don't need a 'eason ta mess with ya, Kiri-boi," Argo smirked as she dropped into the chair next to Kirito. While Shino seemed to be reluctantly testing her blood oxygen on his other side. "'Lus ya needed a wake up 'all."

Kirito groaned at the fact that the cheeky blonde was right and leaned back in his chair, "do you have to rub it in, Argo?"

"Of 'ourse I do," Argo laughed even as she was busy unbuckling the buckle of the baby seat she now had resting at her feet. Where Kirito could see the fluffy dirty blonde hair of Argo's son Kai. "Since when do I not 'ub somethin' in, Kiri-boi?"

"Since never," Kirito sighed with agreement and silently watched Argo finish unbuckling the seat belts to the baby seat, which were holding her baby son in his carrier. He had been there, been in the same area but outside with the practically wild Rika as they lead a small group to fight and protect the others. While Asuna was unconscious, Argo had been struggling with Silica to bring the dirty blonde baby into the world, and Shino had been up top trying to cover them with her sniper despite Silica's directions.

So he had known just how much of a miracle it was that the baby survived, not to mention Kai had been the real reason that they had been saved. Argo's condition hadn't been getting any better and neither was Asuna. However, the baby was what caused Rika to grit her teeth and put her life on the line.

The brunette had rigged her powersuit with what little power it had in it's tank to get Argo, Kai, and Asuna back to civilization and had refused to stay there, since the sniper who was barely able to run and walk the distances they had to walk every day hadn't been able to go with them. Granted the smith had also all but fallen out of the sky on the return trip back, crash landing hard and leading to Kirito and Shino finding her mostly upside down, partially trapped in the confines of her armor and barely semi-conscious. Bleeding out with a leg more shattered than Kirito would ever admit to seeing, since the actual damage to Rika's leg was kept to him, Klein, Silica, and Shino.

Still, getting Argo out of there was what had led people back to them. The blonde's perfect photographic memory had given her the edge. So the moment she was cleared enough to make the journey back with a lot of help, she trusted her best friend with her baby and went after them. While Asuna had been in their control room, relaying to her sister where they were according to the faint brief blip of the GPS of Caylee's watch.

Rika's last ditch effort to tell them where they were since they couldn't keep moving anymore.

Those four alongside Caylee were the reason why they were all alive. Alive while he had given up when Asuna had been taken away and Caylee and Shino had stepped up to make up for his inability to lead.

And he would always be grateful for them all.

They were his comrades in arms, his best friends, and his family.

"I told you not to run to get here Rika," Shino's voice a little muffled from something, footsteps, and the sound of Argo cheekily snorting at the comment pulled Kirito out of his thoughts and his gaze away from the sleeping baby nestled in Argo's arm.

Rika was walking toward them. Well, walking was a loose term, since she was actually limping pretty badly and was leaning against the doorjam like she was in a good amount of pain. The obvious pain had to be from her bad leg, namely the brittle bones in her right calf thanks to a bars of metal simultaneously keeping her alive but also acting like a chisel and snapping her bones every time she stood up without the exoskeleton. He could guess that she had run a bit too hard without the suspension part so it broke in a hairline fracture, like always, and now that the adrenaline was out of her system, she was probably feeling the break.

She poked her tongue out at Shino's comment and just stayed where she was, evidently taking a moment to breathe, "like you were any better, if you still had asthma Shi-Shi you would've given yourself an asthma attack~"

Shino rolled her eyes and pulled a thin cylindrical case from her base before she tossed it to Rika. Which gave Kirito an explanation for why she sounded odd, namely that she had a breathing tube around her nose and cinched together around the back of her head. "Unlike you, I'm not in danger of breaking something and won't have to explain to Asuna why you're banned from visiting her tomorrow if you try walking at all without that."

Kirito couldn't resist snickering alongside Argo, after all, it wasn't every day that Rika Shinozaki got told off in front of all of them for breaking her leg again. The brunette did it at least a few times a month, overestimating her strength.

Rika jokingly sulked, "yes, dear," before she laughed at Shino's flat look, "I get it, I'll be careful. Didn't mean to slip though," she admitted and Kirito relaxed in his chair, listening to his friends talk while watching Rika pop the top of the case he had never seen before. To be fair, he hadn't seen Rika in person for a couple weeks, since she and Shino had been in another district for a drone competition Kirito had missed but watched their entry with Asuna.

Shino just rolled her eyes at the notion that Rika had slipped slightly and definitely broke her leg while Kirito and Argo both winced.

"You're an idiot Rika," Caylee piped up as she sat down next to Argo and drummed her fingers over the back of Argo's chair.

"Pretty sure all of us are," Rika cheekily returned with her shoulder braced against the doorjam as she lifted her bad leg with some kind of a more rigid and much more complex rigging than the exoskeleton currently on her calf. She undid the locked-in clips while Shino groaned at the ridiculous comment and Rika slipped the device off with a giggle at her girlfriend's reaction through the new device in her mouth.

"What's that?" Kirito asked curiously, referring to the device that Rika had in her mouth, as Rika rolled up the other exoskeleton and tucked it into the case.

"It's the new exo piece I built for my leg, had to have something at the drone competition in case I broke my leg while I was there," Rika replied once she had the device in her hand rather than poking out of her mouth. "If you want, I can show you the specs till we get full news on Asuna."

"Oh hell yeah, lets talk engineering, Rika," Kirito smirked and rubbed his hands together.

"Better believe it," Rika smirked in turn while the other three girls promptly groaned in mock complaint.

They were safe. Safe, alive, healthy as they could be in their situations, but they were okay.

And that was all Kirito could ask for.