Haha...Please don't get mad at me. This chapter just had to be done and this was actually part of the story that I totally forgot to mention in the Author's Notes last chapter... Well, one could call it a filler but it and isn't. But this just needed to come out so please, please, PLEASE dont kill me... Thank you to AkimiMaeNyan, Kanrei, Karlial, TheRandonGuy (the person I really want to PM), Guest, realisticFantasy, and TheNamelessNoob for reviewing last chapter!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own SAO. If I did, then this story would've been it. So, obviously I DON'T own Sword Art Online.

Chapter 7

The moon had risen and the stars twinkled beside it. The hospital below was silent and most of the lights were out. Many of the doctors had left for the day and the night nurses had began their shifts. Rinko walked down the empty hospital halls with a heavy heart. She just finished her shift but she had no intention of going home. Every night for the past month and a half, she would walk down the empty halls and stop in front a room.

Tonight was no different. She stopped in front of room 274 and frowned. She reached for the doorknob and twisted it. The door clicked open and Rinko entered the dark room. She closed the door behind her silently.

A loud clank echoed through the room made Rinko alert. Someone was here. Without a second thought, she went to the closest cabinet and quietly opened it. She grabbed a surgery scalpel from the emergency kits and silently advanced further in the room.

A dark figure stood next to the only bed in the room as they held the frail hand of a teenager. She crept up to the figure and raised the scalpel, but was stopped by the figure's voice.

"Rinko."

She dropped the scalpel in shock and backed away. "Kayaba-san?!"

Kayaba turned to face her as she backed up to the wall. Rinko felt for the light switch and flicked it on. Kayaba stood before her with a dark zipped up brown jacket and dark blue jeans. He had a sorrowful expression on his face as he stared at her.

"Kayaba-san, what are you doing here?!" Rinko demanded. He placed his forefinger to his lips to silence her.

"You don't want everyone to know I'm here, do you?" he whispered. Rinko curled her hands into fists.

"Like I care! Now tell me, why are you here!" she half-yelled. Kayaba face palmed.

"Alright, alright. I just wanted to see Kazuto-kun." he answered. Rinko glared at him.

"Liar." she said through gritted teeth. She walked past him and took a seat next to the "sleeping" teen's bedside. Eyes softening, she held on to the teen's soft, yet frail hand. Rinko's anger toward Kayaba faded, and sorrow filled her. She couldn't understand why, but when she was near Kazuto, any anger or irritation would disappear in an instant. Instead, sorrow would take its place.

"Why are you doing this, Kayaba-san? What did he do to deserve this?" Rinko asked Kayaba.

Kayaba sighed and flicked the lights off. He obviously didn't want to be discovered. He walked to the right side of Kazuto's side and took his other hand.

"It's not his fault. It's those stupid drivers who can't drive." Kayaba began. Rinko stared at him as he continued. "If only those accidents didn't happen, then he wouldn't be in so much pain. He would've been able to run and have fun like any normal teenager. He would've been able to speak normally just like us. Haven't you ever wished that he lived a normal life?"

Rinko looked away to hide the tears threatening to fall. "I won't lie," she said. She faced Kayaba with a look of hurt. "I had those wishes, but what is done is done. All that happened to Kazuto-kun was probably unintended but it still happened."

"Rinko, he had a wish." Kayaba said with a strain in his voice. "He wanted to do kendo with his sister. He wanted go outside without the fear of getting hit by a car. His wish was to be normal, Rinko." He closed his eyes and squeezed Kazuto's hand to keep his rising temper down. Rinko sighed.

"And you tried to grant it." she stated. Kayaba shook his head and opened his eyes.

"I didn't try to grant it." he said, firmly. "I granted his wish. I created this game and system for not only myself, but for Kazuto-kun. Heck, even half the game is based on his imagination. By creating Sword Art Online, Kazuto-kun can run, talk, and have the joy and excitement of a normal kid his age!"

"But playing a game that ends in death isn't fun, Kayaba-san! Trapping ten thousand players'-including Kazuto-kun's-consciousness in that game isn't his wish, but yours." Rinko countered. She began to realize what Kayaba truly intended to do. "You can't possibly think that you can extend his life with this game, do you?!"

He words hung in the air as Kayaba reached his empty hand to Kazuto's face. Quiet, slow but steady beeps echoed in the silence as he brushed aside the black bangs that covered the teen's eyes before answering.

"I wouldn't want him to leave us and his family without the joy of living. His mother never told him yet, and I intend to keep it that way. Suguha-chan already knows how much time he has left." he said with a serious tone. Rinko's eyes widened in shock.

"You mean, you're going to let him live in this game for the rest of his days and not with his family? He's surrounded by strangers, and you know how he interacts with others! His body will shut down on him if he remains this way! His health has been steadily decreasing ever since he got here. He'll die, Akihiko-kun!" Rinko said as her voice grew to a half-yell. She was clutching Kazuto's hand harder than she expected and immediately loosened her grip.

"It's the same thing, either way. If he keeps moving his body can't handle the stress that he'll eventually encounter. If anything, he'll live longer if he stays in one place for a while." Kayaba said as he tried to convince Rinko that he was doing this with good intentions. "Like Yuuki-chan, for example."

Rinko shook her head. "Yuuki-chan and Kazuto-kun are two different cases, Kayaba-san. Either way, Kazuto-kun won't make it. He was born with a weak body in the first place. It's just a miracle in itself that he was able to survive that last accident four years ago."

"All the more reason for him to play SAO." whispered Kayaba. "He's bound to die at an early age and at any time. Just give this a chance, Rinko."

"And what if he dies, Kayaba-san?" Rinko asked with a serious look in her eyes. "What if he dies in the game? Along with the other normal players you trapped? What will you do then?"

"He won't die." Kayaba answered as he stared back into her eyes. "If he's desperate to come back to this dying reality of his, he won't die. If anything, he'll be trying to get back to Suguha-chan."

Rinko looked away and watched the heart monitor next to her. The line pulsed as it mimicked the beating of Kazuto's heart with a tiny beep. She frowned at the long pauses between each beep. "I doubt that this was the wish Kazuto-kun wanted. Living in a game full with traps along the path and death at every corner, is the same thing as living in reality to Kazuto-kun."

Kayaba glared at her and got up as he released Kazuto's hand. "Living in the real world is not the same thing as a virtual reality, Rinko. There are more things in the virtual world that Kazuto-kun can do than the real world."

Without waiting for her reply, Kayaba left the room in a hurried, but silent fashion. Rinko continued to sit in her place when she heard the door click closed. She lifted Kazuto's limp hand to her lips and began to silently cry. Over and over, she couldn't stop herself muttering the same three words into his frail hand.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry..."

Yup. And that's this chapter. Honestly, I want to ask you guys a question. After reading this part about Kayaba and Rinko, who's side do you guys agree on? Rinko (who believes that Kazuto should've never been trapped in SAO)? Or Kayaba (who firmly believes he finally granted Kazuto's wish of being free)? I just want to know. I'm a bit curious.

And the other thing I will ask... in the next chapter do you guys want a time skip (progresses more into the story faster (Black Cats of the Full Moon)) or continue where we left off last chapter (Kirito is getting the Anneal Blade from that side quest thingy but makes the story progress slower)? You guys' choice this time. I honestly and a bit lost here at where to go...

Thanks for reading and tell me what you guys think about this chapter!

-CloudyLightning

(Sorry for the long A/N but it was needed...)