As Kirito walked through the doorway of 'his' house he finally realized that, despite what his family and the officials at RATH had told him, this was the first time he had walked through this door in years. Five years to be precise, not a few months like everyone else tried to tell him.
Only adding to this conclusion was the awe that filled him when he saw the Television in the living room, or the Fridge in the kitchen. Sure, when he 'woke up' he'd been poked and prodded with technology over ten times more impressive than what he was seeing now. But it wasn't simply the technology that awed him, it was the simple fact of seeing something so advanced being in normal family's home.
Upon entering the bedroom…. No, his bedroom. The sight of the Nervegear and Computer neatly tucked in the corner of the room made the place seem almost…. Foreign
For the next month Kirito was put on 'house watch' by RATH and, despite their insistence that it was merely to observe how he reacted to the 'real' world, he felt it was more akin to a house arrest. No, he wasn't forced to stay at his home, but who wants to go anywhere with people in black suits following them?
He couldn't blame them. The lasting effects of his time in the Underworld was there for all to see. Instead of the cheerful Kazuto that his friends had grown used to, he was now the more reserved, quiet Kirito whose life kept getting destroyed out from under him.
Not long after settling into his old room he started to have nearly daily visits by Asuna. At first her visits seemed to help speed up his return to normalcy, they would talk of his time in the Underworld, of his quest to defeat Administrator, of Eugeo. The mere thought of his friend brought tears to his eyes and reminded him of others close to him that he had lost, people like Ronye and Tieze.
Nearly a week after Asuna started visiting him he could start to feel how strained their relationship was becoming. Before the underworld, He could spend every second of the day with her and never once would he have wished away a second of it.
Now, as he sat listening to how she got on the Ocean Turtle, he couldn't help but start to wish she would leave him alone. These thoughts made him feel a bit guilty as she was trying to help him, and it wasn't as if she was acting any different than she did before. His mind was simply elsewhere. He was merely someone else.
As much as he tried, it seems he couldn't hide his thoughts as not long after she finished speaking she stood, with a pained look on her face, and said she needed to go home and that she wouldn't be able to come over for a while.
That was nearly a week ago.
As he finished reminiscing about how he pushed away the one person that was always by his side, he put let out a sigh and his head fell into his arms. This room, this house, everything, everyone, was foreign to him for the past 3 years he only had two people he was truly close to. The first one, the one he knew the longest, was dead, killed as he tried to atone for sins he thought he had committed. The second, the one who saved his life more times than he knew, she was -
His thoughts were cut off as the faint sound of music filled his room. In the back of his mind he thought the music was familiar like something he had heard much earlier in his life. Suddenly his mind connected the dots and he realized it was the music that played on floor 22 of Aincrad. At the same time another realization struck him, the music was coming from his cellphone! For what had to be the umpteenth time today Kirito mentally slapped himself. After all, who forgot their own ringtone?!
As he picked up the phone, he idly noted it wasn't anyone from his contact list, but he decided to answer anyways.
"Hello," he said with a cheerfulness that didn't reach is face, "This is Kiri- Kazuto how can I help you?" Once again, his near slip-up reminded him just how much the Underworld affected him.
However, the instant the voice on the other end of the line responded he could feel the weariness he'd constantly felt being quickly washed away
"Oh," a sweet, and distinctly female voice responded. "I'm sorry, it seems I have contacted the wrong person, I was expecting to reach Kirito…" As the oddly formal response trailed off Kirito noticed just how sad she sounded at the end, the realization broke his heart.
She's on the verge of tears he thought, was he truly that important to her? After thinking it over, he is the only lifeline that she had, the one connection she had to her world. Not to mention she is my only lifeline as well he thought, after all if this world was foreign to him, he didn't even want to imagine just how lost she felt.
Before she could sink anymore into despair Kirito responded with a sad smile on his face. "I'm sorry Alice," the use of the girl's name brought a quiet gasp, from the newly dubbed Alice, "I wasn't expecting a call from you, not to mention it slipped my mind that you knew me only as Kirito and not Kazuto."
Seconds passed, and yet still no response came from the blond-haired girl that had been his caretaker for the past six months. Soon, Kirito's brow furrowed,had he been too direct?
A pained gasp broke him out of his thoughts and, with what Kirito could only assume was a teary face, the golden-haired knight responded, "Thank Stacia… I... I was so scared."
Scared? Why would she be scared? Do I truly come off as uncaring? Enough to break one of the strongest people I know. These thoughts ran through Kirito's mind bring up memories he'd tried so hard to forget.
Beater! You only care for yourself! Yea, you chose the LA bonus over saving my brother's life!
Drowning in his own dark thoughts Kirito nearly missed her next words that came out of her mouth. "I... I just thought that… you didn't want to talk to me… I knew it was you, as I recognized your voice, but I... I thought maybe, you wanted to forget about the Underworld... About me." She finished her sentence in a quiet whisper clearly not intending for Kirito to hear her.
Her words pulled him back into reality. She though he wanted to forget about the Underworld. Why? The Underworld meant as much to him as the real world did to him at this point, hell he spend more time in the Underworld than he did in the real world.
Suddenly, a thought hit him like a ton of bricks, she just needs a friend, a pillar of support, no matter how unstable that pillar might currently be…
As he went to speak another thought hit him, what good was words spoken across a phone? She wasn't used to this. The solution came to him in an instant.
Quickly coming up with a convincing lie on why the had to cut their reunion short, whilst also ignoring both the pain in Alice's voice and his own guilt that he was causing it.
In a pitiful attempt to rid himself of his guilt, he reasoned a physical reunion would be best, for both of them.
Dropping the phone, he quickly launched himself at his computer, Stacia give him luck.
Somehow, he had gotten the Ok from Dr. Koujiro to have Alice come out on a "Dinner Date" as she'd called it. Despite having some disagreements with the name, Kirito made no attempt to argue with her, never tickle a sleeping dragon they say.
Releasing a sigh of relief, or was it was one of exultation? Shaking his head, Kirito looked out the window, it doesn't matter what I feel, Kirito thought as he watched a young couple walk down the road, Its all for her.
The young couple brought another hurtle into the forefront of his mind, how was he going to explain this to Asuna? It was true
Passing a glance at the clock in the corner of his room Kirito nearly had a figurative heart attack. 6 PM! I'm supposed to go out with Klein at 6:15!
Running with a strength he didn't know he possessed, he quickly threw off his nightwear, put on a black jacket and a pair of pants, which were also black, before hurrying to the door to put on, you guessed it, black shoes.
Quietly he slipped out the door, moments before Klein's car slowly pulled up on the side of the road. Surprisingly, the passengers window was down and inside it was a toned, muscular face. One that did not in any way belong to Klein, Despite his numerous trips to the gym and "Samurai training", he had yet to show any noticeable changes. Taking seconds longer than it should have, Kirito finally recognized the familiar, bearded man, that was staring at him, with visible mirth in his eyes.
"Well" came a rough voice, "Here I thought that I would be the one to first get memory issues"
"Give him a break, Agil" came a snarky reply from Klein "Think you could spend years in a VR world and not forget a thing or two?"
"I would think he wouldn't forget the person who he always sold useless junk too!"
As Kirito slid in the backseat, and the playful argument continued, Klein flash him a quick thumbs up with a poorly concealed smirk. No doubt because Kirito didn't forget him as well. Good to see that somethings never change.
Not that he would tell Klein this, but he had indeed had difficulty's putting a face to his name when he woke up. The poor guy already had enough on his plate as is.
"Doesn't look good for you to be at other bars Agil, what will potential customers think?"
"Oh, shut it" the older man said, setting his mug down on the bar "I'd be lucky to have a conversation for 3 minutes before I get roped into taking orders. I'm sure you know what it's like."
The server, a man no doubt older than the three of the combined, leveled a glare in Agil's direction, "Know what its like? I'm Living it! Tonig…"
"Edward!" boomed a voice, "You don't have time to be slacking off! Lord knows it's all you're good for!"
With speed unbefitting a man of his age Edward managed to take their orders and get Klein a refill in what had to be thirty seconds flat.
Giving a questioning glance at Agil, hoping to gain some insight as to what I just witnessed, all I got was the simple you'll learn what just happened when you are older.
The rest of the night passed in a blur, with Agil having banter with a few other people, even Klein seemed to know one or two (No doubt from his time spent at Agil's bar)
It was nearly midnight before Kirito got home, and despite having a fun night he was left with question that consumed his thoughts.
What did he have?
What made this world meaningful to him, he had Asuna, but even before the current strain on their relationship, even she couldn't be counted, after all, he did meet her in SAO.
All of his friends came from another world, another life
Everything he was attached to came from SAO, without it he would be nothing.
Mechanically he made his way up to his room, dark thoughts plaguing him every step of the way.
The house was quiet, being so late he had no delusions that Sugu was using her AmuSphere, while she had come far from the athletic kendo practitioner that despised games she was no where near enraptured enough to stay up this late at night to play.
Sitting on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands he sat, hours passed by and yet he didn't move it wasn't until the morning sun finally made its appearance was he snapped out of his musings by a brief glint of light from his shelf.
With a snap in his joints, slowly he stood and inched his way to the shelf, his heart constricting with every inch that passed.
A photo, one positioned in such a way that the light would hit it in the mornings a create a brief spark of light.
Hesitantly, his hand raised to grab the photo, the walls that he'd spent all night creating in his head cracked.
It was a photo of him and Asuna in ALO, Asuna's arms wrapped around his neck from behind with her head resting on his shoulder, her blue hair flowing softly in the wind. Both his and Asuna's faces were lit up with a radiant smile.
Glancing at top of the photo, the cracking in his wall suddenly became gapping holes as he read the words inscribed there.
In this world and the next
