Kirito, Sinon and Leafa huddled together in a hug after they finally received word from outside through the form of someone Kirito never thought would become part of the SAO situation. Eya to him was a legend waiting for just the right time to start releasing insane inventions on the world. He was apologetic about hacking into her server, but at that moment thankful and knew exactly the only person insanely talented enough to get into the game's communication without trapping themselves inside.

"We're going to be alright..."

Kirito's relieved tone of voice made Sinon and Leafa relax as well and laugh softly. It was like a dream. There was another option, but one that would take a long time, and there would be reinforcements soon. Helping level up the reinforcements would be troublesome, but as far as they knew, there might be a point in the journey up through Aincrad they wouldn't be earning experience at the top levels and have plenty of time to work on bringing up the levels of lower level people who hadn't fought yet. And, the reinforcements wouldn't need to worry about the death penalty, since they weren't going to be strapped into the death trap helmet. Their character data might also not be reset.

The contact with outside of the game was heavily significant though. Knowing exactly what their situation was inside and out of the game was going to mean a lot to both sides. It was a relief to know there were people actively helping on the other side instead of letting everyone trapped inside waste away with their real bodies.

It was only a trip to the first floor and the monument of heroes in the town hall to figure out how many people were left, but most people from the clearing group were afraid to go see it and how many people they failed to save.

Everyone from the clearing group were on a short break from exploring after clearing the floor 25 boss, to regain their sanity, but the news gave more inspiration and motivation than feasible to understand to Alt. They considered sharing the information with the rest of the population within the game.

They couldn't let the news change how they would progress, but the energy they had was immense. It would be nice to chat with their family, to know they were alright and waiting patiently for them to return. To know how their bodies were doing.

It was already fairly late in the day though, so after having dinner, everyone went to bed with more energy than they could fathom. That energy went away pretty easily for most of them though as they fell asleep quickly.

Kirito fell asleep patting Yui's head. She was getting more cuddly, if it were possible to imagine. That night, Kirito had a dream which made him wonder just what was going on in his head to dream such things. He dreamt that he was a far lonelier person while entering SAO. That he had done the beta on his own, and reached floor 10 in the beta on his own. It was baffling. He had short hair inside of the dream.

"I'm finally really here..."

The him in the dream was not feeling the same way at all. Didn't check if the logout button was there, just getting right to leaving the entrance plaza down alleyways until he was stopped by a familiar face Kirito was feeling bad about not being more social with. Klein.

Klein commenced the conversation with the intent to ask for some pointers. After a little consideration, the him in the dream agreed and went with Klein out into the fields, bringing him to a cliff with a nice view, the same spot they had been to with Sinon. Teaching Klein how to use skills went by about the same. It took a while, and shortly after he got it figured out, they were force ported back to the entrance plaza.

That event was hauntingly similar. It gave Kirito the impression of being trapped in a nightmare. He wanted to wake up. It was pleasant getting to remember Klein in such a way, a reminder to check on him and how him and his friends were doing in Fuurinkazan. The announcement that they were stuck within Aincrad and many people had already died to being forcibly pulled out of the game or to a simple mistake out in the fields was jarring. Kirito couldn't recall if the images and videos shown by Kayaba were the same, but it felt just as haunting.

Leaving the plaza after the announcement was over was very different. Klein's reaction was similar though, to seeing what Kirito really looked like. Not the same, but similar. Kirito had short hair in the dream after all. Klein made the same type of comment about him being Klein's type. Klein was more hesitant to let Kirito go. That expression on his face made Kirito's heart ache. Why did he shut Klein away so much in both the dream and reality? Kirito forced himself to remember, and at that time, Kirito was worried about suddenly needing to teach numerous people how to play the game, and that his priority was to take care of Leafa and Sinon. Eventually, a big family formed around them. It wouldn't be so difficult considering Kirito's current memories to just teach Klein's friends how to play while working forward as fast as possible. Was there something more to it?

Kirito found out a little later, when he arrived at the first town after leaving Klein behind. Coming across another player, a new player who had rushed to the next town for supplies who had a good head for gaming. He found out that the other player was also a beta tester making use of the same quest. The quest was to kill a bunch of small field creatures while avoiding the ones with fruits as the fruits attract them. The quest was to gather the flowers they hold, but Kirito's first true partner within the dream, Coper died to the mistake of accidentally killing a monster with the fruit. Kirito barely escaped with his life within the dream. It was terrifying. They had quickly become friends, and just as quickly parted. The terror of losing someone filled him and he didn't move on from the town for a while, which was bad considering that Kirito needed to keep moving along if he wanted to gain the strength he needed. Depression and anxiety assaulted his similarly minded personality and he couldn't so easily move forward. He didn't have Sinon or Leafa with him to pick him up from his depression.

The dungeon wasn't finally discovered until a month later within the dream, which was disheartening since at that time in his memories, they had found the door to the boss room and set up a teleport, Kirito, Sinon and Leafa. The meeting at which Kirito finally met Asuna was dismal, accusatory beyond belief at beta testers being cheaters hogging all the quests. The quests didn't disappear, only being on a timer before the next person would be able to accept it. Otherwise the quests could be partied up for, but people weren't sharing which pinned blame on the beta testers.

Kirito had already been into the dungeon, but wasn't sharing information within the dream, plundering loot and becoming as strong as possible on his own. After a long time within the labyrinth of the dungeon, Kirito's dream self finally encountered Asuna for the true first time in dream Aincrad. She was not very considerate of her self preservation, reckless and overusing skills on the last bit of a monster's hit points. The robe and voice gave her away, but his dream self was less observant. Kirito helped her retreat out of the dungeon after finding the boss room door.

Days later was when the meeting was held for assaulting the dungeon. The same person who had called for the meeting in Kirito's memories, someone who hadn't been on the front lines after the first boss fight, Diabel, made a very awkward introduction. The unsociable Kirito in the dream didn't help, and didn't offer helpful information regarding the boss to the raid party. When the mention of partying up for battle arrived, Kirito and Asuna surprisingly partied up within the dream, but it was only the two of them. The raid group was very much out of balance and far weaker in the dream, which spelled dismally in his mind.

"Why am I so stubborn and foolish in this dream...? Why...?!"

The boss fight went horribly. Team work was horrible, coordination of the parties was dismal, holding the boss's attention was impossible as it nimbly moved around the field and ended up killing Diabel who Kirito knew was still alive outside of the dream.

The guilt that piled on the self of the dream made him do something stupid. He wasn't the only person in the beta to make it up through the floors. He separated himself from the rest of the beta testers so that beta testers wouldn't be bullied and discriminated against so harshly. Claiming the title as Beater, the dream ended and Kirito was left feeling a terrible pain in his chest.

After he woke up, he found Yui staring in his eyes uncomfortably close. He made a bit of space and patted her head gently.

"Are you doing alright Yui? Did you have a bad dream?"

"Mama had bad dream. It's okay mama. Bad dream is over."

The childish voice got through to him, leaving Kirito in a dazed state between awake and the dream. He couldn't get the events of the dream out of his head. Why did his mind fill with such things? Why was such a version of himself conveyed in that dream? The self in that dream wasn't good with words. Was selfish and afraid of getting close to people, only making it worse after a mistake took a partner's life. Why was the self in the dream such a disaster?

"It's okay, Yui. Dreams are just dreams. They go away with time."

Kirito was still remembering the dream very clearly, recalling more and more information, like staying together with Asuna for a fair while before the boss fight, training and teaching her gaming machanics. Her blatant disregard for her life was frightening to him and he wondered, was the Asuna he knew the same, and saved by having Sinon and Leafa as well as Kirito to help her early on?

The affectionate and thankful Asuna he knew made him thankful that they had accepted her into their party back then. Everything went better in his memories than in the dream. They saved people who died in the dream. They were so close. Asuna in the dream treated him as a creep, a pervert. They were also a little closer to Argo.

Outside of the dream, they never parted for long, but after some questing on the second floor, getting along quite well, Kirito and Asuna parted ways. They were getting along much better after a while, able to work together to a degree that they were regarded a deadly pair. Kirito urged Asuna who was much more experienced at that point to join a good guild who would take care of her. That he didn't want her targeted for harassment anymore by people who disliked Kirito for his Beater self projected title.

The unfamiliar events in the dreams, the different landscapes and experiences, the blatant lack of Sinon, Leafa and a significant portion of himself...it had Kirito worried about what could have been, and what would have led to him being on his own in the beginning. The affection that filled him toward Asuna was immense. Like he was splashed with hundreds of attraction potions in his sleep. In the dream, she turned him away, treated him like he imagined most girls would treat a game obsessed person like Kirito. But growing closer through that distaste only made their relationship more fulfilling.

Was his heart telling him that she was the one? Why should he base his feelings on one dream?

"Kirito, do you have any ideas for breakfast or should I just start whatever I feel like?"

The affectionate from the start Asuna who peeked into the room and whispered so to not wake up others in the cottage reminded Kirito that he was in reality. That he needed to consider the real her instead of the dream. Certainly she had recently confessed her feelings to him, but he needed to make sure of his feelings before making any life deciding choices.

"I would like to try making a new breakfast item. I'll be out in a minute."

Asuna smiled wide and nodded her head. After she left the room, he took the minute he gave himself to swap from long, full body covering pajamas into a casual sundress and stockings. It was so strange to him after that dream to be wearing a dress. What would it take for that dream version of himself to wear anything other than black armor or blatantly male fashioned equipment? How would he react to being put into female clothing? In conclusion, Kirito was firmly in belief that the him in the dream wasn't him at all. It was a different timeline altogether where something was fundamentally different between the him he knew, and the him in the dream. Something that would happen earlier in life that he didn't know, and part of him didn't want to know what caused such difference.

After giving Yui a new dress he had finished crafting before the contact made by Eya, Kirito made his way to the kitchen so Yui could change into the new dress on her own. When she shortly after joined them in the kitchen, she was adorable in the light coloured white and purple sundress which showed off her slim youthful arms and her long stocking covered legs. The dress matched what Kirito was wearing in a scale meant for a child. There was a fair difference in size between them, so dressing and caring for her felt like he was genuinely caring for a child, for his daughter.

Yui was growing on him in a way that made it more and more difficult to deny the maternal instincts which developed and flourished in the situation. His virtual body, his soul wanted to be her mother. Only his mind was still struggling to understand. What determined a difference between motherly instincts and fatherly instincts? He didn't have the first idea how to be a father instead, so being a mother to her was just how it became.

The gender conflict in Kirito was baffling. Considering the him in the dream being so bluntly...masculine and disappointing to him due to the mistakes and sloppy communication with other people, being socially distant, he didn't want to be like that. If being masculine meant being bad at communicating, cutting his hair and being slightly perverted, he would rather be full on female. He had thought he got over the gender conflict in him before, but it continued to rage on unnecessarily when more information and conflicts came up.

"So what are you thinking of making today, Kirito?"

Kirito gave Asuna a smile and pulled a metal press-like item from his inventory he had asked Lisbeth to work on lately. It took her a while to get it done just right, but now that it was done and after a test in secret, he knew it was going to work. Asuna understood what the shape of the press meant immediately.

"Waffles...!"

Kirito push a finger to his lips to remind her that most of the guild was asleep still. A quick glance to the side showed that their near permanent party settings had only Kirito and Asuna without the sleep debuff.

He set out all the ingredients that he would need for making the waffles and decided he was going to start trying something different. He did a quick scroll through his menus to disable skill use. After disabling skill use, Kirito got to work on preparing all of the ingredients. Thankfully, his touch in the kitchen hadn't dulled too much and after fixing his grip with the eggs, it was no different than real life. He was surprised the systems inside of the game were working so well without skill use.

"How are you doing that?"

He gave Asuna a confused expression in response.

"How are you doing all of the cooking steps naturally? Maybe there's a glitch in the system not letting you prepare the ingredients...?"

Kirito shook his head and stifled laughter.

"I turned off automatic skill use so that I can find out if maybe preparing food naturally would turn out a better taste. I've been feeling recently that food doesn't taste as good as I remember outside of here. Like the taste sensation is a little bit dull compared to outside, or very samey."

Asuna stared in surprise at Kirito.

"You can turn off skill use...?"

Asuna's surprise at that caught Kirito off guard. He thought that she might have already spent enough time in the menus to have seen that, but most people wouldn't turn off something so essential.

It took him a few more minutes before he had the waffle mix ready and poured it into the bottom mold which was set on the fireplace stove. Shortly after he got it started, her placed the top on, let it sit for half a minute and flipped it over. While it cooked for another couple of minutes on the top section of the waffle mold, he got to work on preparing some cream topping for the waffles and jammed some berries to add to it. Asuna was excited at the scents which permeated the environment of the house. It was the most real feeling that food preparation had been so far within Aincrad.

The waffle finished cooking, Kirito emptied the mold onto a plate. The waffle was big enough to fill the entire plate. Cream was spread over the waffle after that, and then a spoonful of jammed berries was placed in the middle of the waffle.

An audible gulp came from Asuna and Kirito placed the plate in front of her.

"Tell me your impressions."

He got to work on the next waffle while Asuna stared for a moment taking in the rare sight to her, an imperfect food item which gave a far more delicious impression than all the food they had made together so far.

"How do I turn off automatic skill use?"

Kirito guided her through the menus and after hers was disabled too, she dug in, cutting a piece off the waffle and eating it. She couldn't contain the excited sounds which she produced. She was so happy just having a little piece of the waffle.

"It should be criminal that this is the best food I've had since being in here, Kirito..."

Asuna had tears in her eyes and dripping down her face. It was wonderful, she couldn't help but feel. And she was baffled that once again, she wasn't able to stifle her tears. She already knew it in a part of herself that it was impossible to hide true feelings inside of Aincrad, but it was unsettling sometimes. She was uncomfortable most of the time in showing her true emotions, but she happily expressed the intense happiness the waffle was giving her.

Minutes passed, and the dining table was filled with waffles. Kirito sent out a waking alarm to the rest of the guild and sat down at their dining room table with Yui on his lap. Asuna waited with them before eating any more from her plate, but she was itching to continue eating.

"Mmm~ this feels nostalgic..."

Sinon arrived first with those words, sitting down on the other side of Kirito from Asuna while rubbing the sleep from her eyes. As soon as she looked at the contents of her plate, she blinked.

"Kazu's home made waffles?!"

She covered her mouth after quickly realizing she said Kirito's real nickname.

"It's okay, but yes, I made them with auto skill use turned off."

Sinon squirmed a little in excitement. She wanted to drag everyone in so they could eat together as quickly as possible, but it didn't take long for everyone to get seated. Without letting further conversation stop them from getting started eating, Kirito clapped his hands.

"Thanks for the meal~"

Everyone followed his lead and dug into the waffles. The happy sounds they made filled the dining area and Yui especially gave off an excited reaction practically jumping off of Kirito's lap to dance.

"I'm going to cook like this from now on, and I'm also going to practice combat and other crafting in here this way so that in the near future, I don't need to rely on auto skill use to be able to perform everything in here. I think that we could all benefit from turning it off so we can maybe turn this experience into a total gain for outside, gaining understanding of skill instead of having the system guide us."

There was a pause, but it didn't take long for nods in agreement happened here and there, visible worry appearing for Silica and Sachi alone. Agil was showing concern.

"I'm only saying that we could benefit from it, make whatever we get good at in here a skill we can make use of outside. If you're afraid of risks, then keep it on. I'm only sharing my intentions because I might be slowing down a bit for a while on progression so that I can rely on myself more moving forward. Sometimes being locked into a skill use activation can be risky, so I want to personally eliminate that risk for myself since I'm often main tanking."

Everyone else thought about it. In the end, only Kirito was going to be guaranteed moving forward learning skills naturally without the guidance from the system.