"Watch out!"

Leafa shouted for Kirito.

Kirito swiftly spun in place meeting the morning star closing in on him with the blade of his Elucidator, cutting through the weapon and narrowly avoiding taking any damage. It was baffling, but monsters even though they weren't scaling much stronger than before, were moving far more athletically and swiftly. The scale of difficulty wasn't only in the levels of the monsters now. It was dangerous to fight anything. Only the truly skilled stood any chance, and it was next to impossible to go alone.

Leafa and Kirito were on their own for once. They were exploring the dungeon of the 59th floor. They had been having trouble with monsters getting increasingly more difficult to defeat alone, so Kirito's solo missions were kicked to the curb and he would take at least one person whenever he would head out to gather materials or information for boss fights.

"That was really close. Thanks Leafa."

Leafa pouted and sighed, sheathing her katana as she felt the weight of battle disappear. With the enemy Kirito had disarmed having been cut down not a second later, their current battle was over.

"I really wish you would use my real name when we're alone together."

Kirito chuckled and shook his head.

"And as usual, we can't be sure that there aren't other people lurking around, looking for a chance to kill steal or someone from Laughing Coffin. Giving those creeps even the slightest chance to know who we are in reality feels dangerous, like they'd come after us outside."

Leafa looked down defeated. She just wanted real quality time with Kirito. It felt like so long to her since Kirito opened up to her and her alone. He was spending time training up the squadron from [KoB], getting everyone acquainted with team tactic fighting, and strangely getting along better with Asuna and Sachi more than herself or Sinon, who actually knew him outside.

Leafa had a question on her mind she felt was relevant as they continued making their way toward the spawning chamber for a type of monster they needed materials from for upgrading everyone's equipment.

"How is everything on your end? Have you been feeling okay recently? You give a really...motherly feeling when you're taking care of Yui recently, and not like you were at first."

Kirito glanced at her and the blush on his face made her immediately think bad thoughts. He quickly defended the blush however.

"It's complicated. I've been feeling better recently than I was, say 2 weeks ago. You know, just before the floor 50 boss fight. Something came up recently though and reminded me that we've been in here for a long time..."

Leafa was confused when Kirito mentioned something that reminded him how long they were in there. Of course they had been in there a long time. Leafa had lost track of how long they had been in Aincrad though, because there wasn't really an in game tracker for what time it was outside. As far as they knew, the time within Aincrad was moving at the same pace as outside. She was curious the explanation Kirito had.

"It was mother's day yesterday. You know, the holiday to give thanks to the mothers in your life for taking care of you. Yui gifted me a bouquet of flowers from the garden at the cottage and told me happy mother's day. It wasn't until last night that I knew for sure from Ela's check ins that it was in fact mother's day. Her kids were apparently just as cute. It really hit me though, that Yui saw me in maybe the same way that I saw my mom. It feels like so long ago...it made me really miss her. A part of me still feels horrible when I'm reminded that even when we get out, I can run back to that house and find my mom and dad there. I wouldn't mind if my dad were as strict and lecturing as always. I would just be happy to see his grumpy old face again. I miss my mom so much and it hurts that the last time we spoke, she was in so much of a hurry to go to work."

Kirito took a deep breath, and continued.

"We've been in here for a year and a half. It was May 16th yesterday. We're just over half way through this place now. What if it takes just as long getting through the rest of this? Will we experience another mother's day in here? Will Yui grow that much older? How are our bodies outside? I bet we're getting really weak out there..."

Kirito's words stung Leafa deeply.

"Also, I'm struggling with my comfort zone as far as "identity". Ela has been offering me a bit of insight as far as gender identity goes. She's a trans woman and she made me realize how similar my mindset is to hers when she was my age. Maybe I am like that. Maybe I'll eventually want to be a woman for the rest of my life. Maybe I'll want to be Yui's mother and want to raise more children. I don't know for sure. I feel fulfilled in a strangely satisfying way when Yui calls me her mother. I feel like I've accomplished more than when I topple any horrifyingly strong monster in here. I'm not particularly attracted to men either. I think if the person I like is a bit boyish, a strong reliable person, than I would be happy with them."

Leafa was blushing hard when Kirito turned his head to look at her. He was already blushing from feeling he was exposing himself too much while they were just doing a material run.

"I didn't realize...so much. It's like you're a totally different person now. Kirito is..."

Her voice trailed off and she didn't know how to continue how she was talking. But she realized as she thought to gather her continuation, that Kirito wasn't a totally different person. He was always sensitive as a person. Very strong, very smart, adapting far faster than pretty much anyone she knew. He was a lot like her mother. Interested in computers, skilled in martial arts, but not committed to taking over the family dojo. He was good at all the household work and it was natural to him. It was natural to Leafa too, but she didn't feel like she was getting any better because Kirito was taking all of the household work from her both in reality and within Aincrad. She wanted to learn all of those things from him, but what would her role be in his life if he ever actually considered her a relationship partner? She knew by that time it was hopeless. That she could have feelings for him but they would never be able to be returned. And it wasn't because she was a girl, but because she was already family.

The Kirito she knew in the past, the Kirito after he lost his parents and the Kirito now who was a parent to Yui, were all the same person. They were all incredibly important parts of him that she loved, but there was a bit of jealousy there. She loved and was envious of the aspects he had cultivated in himself. The strength built in facing things that were far beyond himself at many steps.

"Are you okay Leafa?"

Kirito's concern was plain on his face and the embarrassed flush was gone from his face.

"I'm okay...but I'm embarrassed. I'm so embarrassed by myself. I didn't realize what you were going through. You're so important to me, but I was too involved in my own interests to see what you were really going through. If you ever need me for something I can help with, talk to me first and I'll do what I can. And also...I'm a little depressed to admit that being a girl really suits you, maybe more than me or Sinon. I'm jealous so much about how natural it all is to you. You work hard at it, but it all fell into your habits so easily. I'm jealous about that."

Kirito smiled and pulled Leafa into a hug.

"It's okay, and of course I'll take any help you offer. But please, if you want help with some of the things you have been struggling with, tell me and I'll help you to the best of my ability."

Leafa rubbed tears from her eyes and smiled back to Kirito.

"It's a promise! Please teach me your cooking and other housekeeping skills and how you're adapting to so many weapon styles so elegantly."

Kirito burst out laughing and Leafa pouted.

"It's a deal. The next rest day we have, let's work on a schedule for us to work on those things for you. Part of it is going to be taking off the system guidance though, because the system stops us from following all the way through on some things you want help with."

Leafa stared at him in horror. Everyone in the guild had agreed that Kirito was just special in being able to adapt to not using the system's guidance. Asuna had recently gotten used to not using the guidance with cooking and a bit outside of battle, so Leafa pulled together her mind and nodded her head.

"I'll do it...but not right now. We're still in the middle of the dungeon and we still plan on farming for those equipment upgrading materials."

Kirito grinned and picked up his pace as he noticed them getting closer to the farming location they had scouted out the previous time they had been through the dungeon. The room they arrived at was full of large human like raptors. The strange shape of the creatures was interesting at first, but they were quickly the most annoying monster type they had faced yet. With strong thick humanoid arms, about twice the size of the tallest human inside Aincrad, short but muscular arms and a scaled complexion, they were already a threat. With weapons, even more so. They had a rapid spawn point within the room.

Kirito took a deep breath and signalled to Leafa he was going to draw their attention. Admittedly, they were more of a challenge on their own than in a group if the group was divided however, it was very dangerous. Being surrounded by them was an instant loss. After so long without deaths from the clearing group, ten members of the Holy Dragon Alliance had died recently. It was to carelessness challenging the dungeons with the smarter and stronger monsters. Having numbers as players didn't make much of a difference unless they were well coordinated and functioned at their best in a group.

Kirito danced gracefully through the creatures and the close call from before seemed far away as his beautiful black Elucidator sliced the limbs from the enemies, sending the severed limbs tumbling to the ground or spraying digital blood spraying over the floor around him. Not a speck of the fighting showed on him. Kirito still only used one of his one handed swords even around Leafa. She wondered when he would finally unsheathe that special ability he had revealed to the guild. Just another sword, she knew he was fluent with. But he probably still worried that someone could be spying on them and so he kept the ability hidden from everyone outside of the guild.

The group of monsters were filled in quickly after one was dispatched. Another would spawn and rush in at him. Kirito was unfazed by the replacements, pulling them into the whirlwind jail that he had built in the chamber. If they tried getting out of his striking range, they would immediately die.

Leafa once again recalled how the day was going. He handled everything on his own. She was only able to help by warning him if there was an enemy not trapped in his storm. There was no magic within Aincrad, but sometimes watching Kirito go all out with a fighting style made it seem real. Would he be able to bring that kind of ability out of Aincrad? Or was his body in reality just not capable of handling the exertions he put on himself within the digital world?

After about ten minutes of slaughtering the monsters, the room was filled with dust and he appeared out of the dust in front of Leafa.

"465 scraps of demiraptor adamantite...should be enough for upgrading everyone's equipment."

Leafa just shook her head and giggled.

"Remind me why we all need to go as groups to fight monsters when you're still cutting down monsters like nothing?"

Kirito sighed and reminded her that she had warned him before when he nearly too a morning star to the back of the head. The two ported out of the dungeon back to the 30th floor and made their way to Agil's shop where a number of the squadron were helping serve customers.

"Oi, how was the grind out there?"

Agil's intense stare made Kirito flinch a little. Leafa noticed it then that Kirito was definitely still showing a bit of social anxiety. It was almost non existence when they were alone, but flinching and tensing up, stiffening around other people were signs that he was still struggling in one way. He wasn't perfect. Even if he was an amazing fighter, housekeeper, and intelligent when it came to crafting and leading, he had things which made everything more difficult for him. Suddenly Leafa understood why he had the concussion before.

"The grind went good, I think we got enough materials to upgrade everyone's equipment. Oh, and a rare monster spawned while I was farming that spawn room. What do you think about this material for the base ingredient of a feast tonight?"

Kirito summoned a platter from his inventory onto the counter between him and Agil, then summoned a giant slab of raptor meat. The meat was extremely fatty, and the ingredient description classed it as an s rank ingredient.

Agil gulped in response.

"...an S rank ingredient..."

Those words alone drew the attention of everyone within the floor of the store. There were diners who stared, servers from the knights, Asuna and Sachi in the kitchen, and Silica and Lisbeth at the forge. All sound stopped and they all stared at Agil, then the giant slab of meat on the counter between him and Kirito.

"You don't plan to sell it? You're really going to cook it?"

Kirito gave him a confused look.

"Why would I sell a good ingredient when I have my cooking stats capped? We're already well enough off we don't need to sell it, and I'd feel bad for the ingredient if it wasn't prepared by a worthy cook. Of course I don't plan to cook it on my own though. Asuna also has her cooking stat capped and some members of our guild want to get better at cooking so they can help with other ingredient preparations and such. It would be nice."

The dining customers gulped and Agil shook his head.

"Why would you show it off in front of our current customers?"

Kirito shrugged.

"Let's just say...enough dropped to put it on the menu for a week."

Agil's jaw dropped.

Kirito leaned in to whisper how much of the ingredient dropped.

"28 slabs dropped."

Kirito returned the items to his inventory and went back to the kitchen after giving a gentle smile and wave to the customers dining in the restaurant section. The kitchen and crafting station behind the reception desk Agil stood at all stared intensely at him as Kirito settled in among them and finally released the tension. Leafa followed him in and sighed at the ridiculous nature of how lucky he was and bragging about it. She knew there would be some resentment, but at least he was making it available to the public.

"I would like to try a meal based around this raptor meat. I have some ideas but what do you think Asuna?"

Asuna stared at the meat as Kirito summoned it back from his inventory onto the large platter again and scratched the back of her head.

"I don't know what I would do with something that large..."

Asuna suddenly smiled.

"I bet you have ideas that would make everyone here weak in the knees though."

Kirito grinned and began writing down menu ideas for it in a private chat to Asuna and she smiled wider and gulped as she read through the options he presented.

"The roast, the strips, or the stew would be easy to do for the restaurant, just needing some preparation. The steaks would be heavenly and the easiest."

Asuna said those in the private message response, and immediately her stomach growled.

"I'll get to work on tonight's special then. If everyone isn't too busy, can I get some of these prepared for stew stock, some of these, and some of these ready?"

Kirito put out a few lists of ingredients and how to prepare them, and got to work on the slab he had summoned from his inventory. The slab was cut into a third and the rest was put back into his inventory, then the third was cut into three pieces. The fatty slab of meat was intense in the marbling. Kirito quickly got to work on preparation, cutting the three sections of meat into steaks, into roast rolls, cutting some pork strips for bacon binding for the roast, and the third slab was cut into strips and chunked half of the strips.

The chunks he cooked a little frying on a pan, sprinkling a very light amount of seasoning to bring out the natural flavour of the meat so that it would spread well through the stew broth, the strips he coated in a very light breading that was prepared quickly by Leafa, and he gently set them into a vat of hot cooking oil. He spread and beat light seasoning into the thin roast slab and rolled it up, then coated the roast in a thin layer of the binding pork strips, holding them together with some utensils. Finally, the steaks were prepared the quickest after he finished preparing everything else. There was enough meat prepared from a third of a slab to fill an entire dinner menu for a night.

In no time it seemed, Kirito messaged Agil a price for the steaks which were cooked fast, and slid them onto the counter with a preservation heating light cast down on them. He carefully made sure everything else was prepared and after Kirito heard the steaks were bought, he went to the doorway separating the restaurant from the kitchen. Watching as the diners went to cut into the steak the their forks went right through like touching warm butter, their gulps anticipating the steak, and then the finale of them putting the bite sized piece of steak in their mouth making their facial expressions melt into pure joy. Kirito smiled seeing those joyful expressions and nodded.

"Steaks are on our menu tonight for the feast."

Everything else prepared perfectly, and everything was prepared for the feast for the night. Kirito added one more surprise dish to the mix.

The night quickly approached, and every dish made customers more eager to return through the week. The night was interesting. Leafa wondered if the future surrounding Kirito would be the same as it was inside Aincrad. Would he be as outgoing? Would he be as intense about everything? As she wondered those things and dinner finished with Kirito heading out of the restaurant on his own, she followed him. Nobody else followed and she wondered why nobody followed him the times he went on his own. Without a word, not telling anyone where he was going. Some secrets were revealed, but as his real life family, she was concerned about not knowing everything she could about him.

She remembered what was said earlier about Kirito potentially identifying as female. That it was a big chance. That the person she always saw as an older brother might become an older sister. She suddenly didn't mind it so much. If there was no romance to be had, then she wanted to support Kirito in whatever choices would be made. As long as they were good choices and meant well, she would stay by Kirito's side. To her, that was what it meant to be family.

Kirito teleported from the teleport plaza instead of using vocal commands or crystals like he usually would have. Leafa checked his status, which told her he ported to the first floor. The town of beginnings. She followed.

Kirito led her out of the town, and she continued to follow. Out of the town, they didn't make it far before Kirito disappeared. Leafa hurried to catch up and found a trap door leading into the ground. Leafa waited a little before hopping through the hole and landing on the ground, only to hear a whisper in her ear immediately.

"You should raise your sneaking skill."

Leafa pouted and stared Kirito down as she realized they were somewhere dangerous.

"You've been here before, right?"

Kirito scratched his cheek and nodded.

"I have, and it was too dangerous to come back here at first. The reaper boss which roams here was focused on me for a while. It finally started ignoring me a week ago. Which is nice because this dungeon is good for practising my extra fighting skills. Plus, I cleared out to floor -10's boss room door. I only need one other person with me to defeat that boss, so if you could help, I would really appreciate it. We might need another weapon to use on floor 60, which is why I want to try and clear it. It would be good to have another backup to be able to fall on."

Leafa nodded with a fierce expression in her eyes. She was going to be allowed in on one of Kirito's secrets. It took them a while to descend through the floors. It was a dungeon for 5 full floors before they reached the next sanctuary after all, and then they progressed down another 5 floors before they reached the boss room door. The boss on the other side of the door was a sight for sore eyes as far as Leafa was concerned. The familiar sight of a giant kobold stood at the far back of the room. The kobold wasn't all together though. The rotting appearance of it being an undead creature were plain even from far away. She wanted to retch as soon as she saw it.

"If it was wielding anything other than a katana, I would be confident to defeat it on my own, but kobolds using a katana are very agile and move around too much. If you can draw its attention for me after I set it up so I can hack it down, we should be done in no time."

Kirito conveyed the battle plan and Leafa nodded in response. It felt good to her to be relied on. It was a little disappointing to her that she was little more than a distraction for the monster, but at least he was relying on her.

Kirito gave the signal and dashed in like usual, fast enough to make her wonder if the system really wasn't guiding his movements. The light wasn't present around him at all which signified the use of skills. The system wasn't guiding him. Kirito sliced through the Kobold five times, establishing enmity and then threw a holy water item on it as a bomb, before stunning it.

"Switch!"

Leafa dashed in and sliced into the flank of the giant kobold, carving a chunk out of the monster. Kirito leapt up into the air, swapped to his normal katana, and cleaved through the Kobold's head from the top, and the blade sank through to the ground with a loud exploding sound. The monster didn't split and fall like it would be assumed from such a deadly blow. Its attention was fully on Leafa still, and swinging the giant katana from the side at her. Leafa looked at Kirito in the moment she realized it didn't kill the boss looking for an answer of what to do and she saw a frantic expression mouthing loudly to her. All she heard was a loud pounding in her ears as her eyes drifted back to the closing in blade.

"GET DOWN!"

Kirito dashed at Leafa when it was obvious she was frozen in fear, slamming into her side because he couldn't hold back if he was going to save her. The tip of the katana slid through Kirito's back just slightly, enough to send a horrible stinging pain through him. Kirito moved to stand up after taking the hit and the pain became indescribable. It was like he was going to fall apart if he moved any more. He racked his brain for what seemed an eternity to Leafa and she cried seeing the pixelation where he was cut. Like he was disappearing, a destroyed object.

Kirito pulled the dragon king's katana from his inventory and readied his stance to counter the next incoming strike from the kobold. He couldn't dodge or he would be sentencing Leafa to death, and he couldn't allow himself to take any more damage. He glanced to his hit points as the bar swiftly drained. A message quickly shot through to Leafa to use a bleed cure potion and regeneration potion on him. It was a requirement to live through the next attack before he could equip the other last resort item. He already noticed the curse debuff from the attack. The effect was lethal.

The monster slashed at Kirito and he parried the blade, holding it as strong as he could so it would miss Leafa, and at the end of the slash Kirito knocked hard against the belly of the monster, sending it tumbling back. Drawing on all his remaining strength, Kirito launched himself at the monster, plunging the katana of the dragon king into the middle of the monster's face. The monster shattered in its dying animation and Kirito fell over, the katana shattering along with the monster. That was the last strike the cheat weapon had in it.

Kirito breathed fast and hard, fighting with everything he had to stay conscious, to live through what could potentially kill him. He pulled together strength as it came to him to open his inventory, select the cursed neck piece and equip it to himself. He didn't feel it appear on him, but as his hit points ticked to 1 hit point remaining, the neck piece status became bound. He felt his eyes glaze over as his gaze fell to the side, seeing Leafa crying and slowly making her way to him. She hadn't been hurt, he thought.

"Thank...whatever allowed me to save you..."

Kirito's eyes fluttered closed and he heard Leafa scream as she suddenly had all the strength she needed to rush to his side. She was flustered, a total mess. She summoned her whole potion inventory by accident, then scrounged through the pile before finding the ones she was asked to administer to him before. She lifted his face up so she could pour the contents into Kirito's mouth. The first was the bleed cure potion which stopped the bleed effect he was experiencing, the wound closed, but was not healed. Kirito's skin was turning black where she could see it through the torn equipment. She hurried through the pile again to find her regeneration potion and dumped the contents into his mouth. The blackening of his skin didn't stop.

Kirito blinked a few times, barely seeing Leafa through his open eyes. The curse had already spread the blackness into his eyes.

"Anti...curse..."

Leafa hurried through the pile of potions again, finding the anti curse potion after a minute. It was the smallest bottle in the pile, easy to miss. She uncapped the bottle and placed the mouth of it into Kirito's mouth, moving his head to her lap.

"I'm sorry...! I'm so sorry Kirito...!"

Leafa cried as she hugged him, hoping that he would heal.

"It's...okay..."

Kirito forced a smile.

"...the anti curse...potion takes ten minutes to take full effect...a regen potion...get me...to a sanctuary."

Kirito struggled to get those words out, but Leafa swiftly teleported them to the latest sanctuary that popped up on the list, putting them into a teleport plaza that was surrounded by what seemed to be a European city plaza. It was a large space, the sky above was cloudy, and the ground was a light grey stone, very cold to the touch. Like it would start snowing at any second.

"The cold...is nice."

Kirito stared up at the sky-like visuals above and he was able to tell after a while that what he was staring at was a very bright crystalline ceiling in a very overcast grey light. Out in the far distance, the sky suddenly met a harsh black. There was no sky outside of the one above them. At least, they were on a floor unlike with the 6th which had fields leading downward in a terrifying dungeon.

Leafa arrived in his view, and he smiled as he felt his other senses returning to him.

"I'm...feeling better."

Leafa rubbed the tears from her eyes and wiped her face before clapping her cheeks and hugging Kirito again.

The sound of teleport animations coming through surrounded them, and the whole of their guild stared in horror at the sight of the barely conscious.

"What happened?!"

Kirito brought up his status screen and spread it around to those in the surroundings. Yui shouted crying as she hugged him.

"Mama!"

"Regen potion, anti curse potion, curse of the undead, brink of death, wounded, curse of the dragon king...seriously, what happened?"

Kirito spoke up.

"I was a little clumsy...protecting Leafa. It's not her fault. I should have...brought more people along to fight it. It's over though. The status...curse of the dragon king is...from the neck piece I revealed before. Now...I guess...I'm trapped in here."

Kirito paused to take a breath and continued.

"Regen potion...and anti curse potion are because of Leafa...or I would be dead. Curse of the undead...is from taking the hit to protect her. Brink of death...is because I would have died without the neck piece on. I was technically...negative hit points...before I got potions in me."

Asuna breathed a sigh of relief and scolded.

"Obviously wounded from the attack you took...now, at least show us what kind of loot you got from taking such a huge risk? Was there an equal payout for it?"

Kirito showed the loot list since he hadn't yet closed it out.

System[Underground Floor 10 Boss Cleared]

System[City of the Damned Unlocked for Teleport]

Personal[Rewards issued for: Boss completion in under 1 minute and Last Hit Bonus]

Loot[Diakatana of the Undying]
Loot[Cursed Earrings of the Kobold King]

Kirito hadn't yet checked over the details of the loot yet, but he had an idea about the diakatana. [Diakatana of the Undying]'s effects were, increased bleeding damage with the greater blood consumed by the weapon, functioning much like the previous weapon. A weapon that grew stronger with use. [Cursed Earrings of the Kobold King] had the effect that on their own, they would kill the wearer and make them undead. If paired with the [Neck piece of the Dragon King], negates the cursed effect and can be removed, while also berserking the wearer. The dying effect of the earrings would be lost by pairing with the neck piece. So the neck piece would basically only counter the worse negatives of the earrings, while the earrings would counter all the negatives of the neck piece. It was basically meant to be. The broken aspect of the neck piece was still present, especially when paired with the earrings.

"It was worth it."

Kirito smiled and pushed himself groaning to his feet and equipped the earrings, then removed both at the same time, tucking them into the bottom of his inventory.

Another once-over of his status, and the afflictions were gone. The curses were gone. The wound was gone. The regen potion effect was gone and so was the anti-curse potion effect.

"All better."

Kirito said those words and then tumbled over from exhaustion, caught immediately by Agil and Nautilus.

"Geez...you need to get some rest after pushing yourself so much. Even if you're all better, you didn't keep your promise to slow down."

Leafa's scolding tone was accompanied by nods with the rest of the guild.

"No more small party missions for Kirito, and a week of bed rest!"

Sinon's following statement was met with agreement.

"We could all do with a bit of relaxation anyways. We've been working hard lately."

With that, it was decided that Alt was taking a vacation. However short lived it would be.