I'M SO SORRY.

Life gave me an utter slaaaaaaaaap in the face. I got sick a bit earlier and suddenly found time to do this. Stupid, but it worked. It's amazing how fevered thoughts actually run. Plus I am currently participating in NaNoWriMo. The challenge where you write 50,000 words in one month. I'm currently near 20,000 words. I hope you guys don't mind if my updates aren't very fast any more. I mean, life kinda sucks right now. :/

A-anyway, Thank you to Takei Daloui, Blitza (Chapter 26 and 20), Lord Destroyer, Guest, jord477, Firehedgehog, Sn0wk1tty, Not-Gonna-Update, T51b Moridin (ALL chapters), orca3553, and Shadowed Voices for reviewing last chapter!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Sword Art Online, but my own characters.

Chapter 27: The Memories He Forgotten

"Kazuto-kun?" called a voice. A small black haired child with a weird cat-lion stuffy at his side, looked up from his book to see a familiar sight. Immediately, Kazuto's face lit up with a smile and the book dropped out of his hands, reaching out to the teenager. Kayaba Akihiko walked into the boy's room and gently took the hands into his own, smiling at him. Kazuto's mouth easily formed words, but not a sound left his lips.

Although it stabbed Kayaba's heart, he read the lips with relative ease with years of practice and answered. "No, no, Kazuto-kun, I didn't skip work, I promise."

Kazuto gave him a look that said "Oh really?"

Kayaba couldn't help the laugh that left him as he patted Kazuto's head. "Yes, really. Say, Kazuto-kun? Would you like to accompany me?"

The small boy tilted his head, silently questioning him. Even though he was at a very young age of eleven, his eyes were older than his years.

Kayaba smiled as he ran a hand through Kazuto's natural soft hair. "There's someone I want you to meet. I'm sure, you'll like them."

._._._._._.

For once in his time in game, Klein thought that he finally got what he deserved.

A break.

But...that was not to be.

Not.

At.

All.

._._._._._.

"Y-yo-you're a-a-a what?!" Klein stammered as he pointed a shaking finger at the two teenagers.

"Well, you see...Morgan and Yui are just kids that were by themselves." Kirito said, shyly, looking like a kick puppy from his seat at the dinning table. "They didn't want to go to the first floor, so I...I played with them to give them some company..."

"And Yui started calling us their parents..." Asuna continued, trailing off as she slowly directed her gaze downward, feeling a bit ashamed of her actions.

"We couldn't just let them be alone so..."

Kirito and Asuna shared a look of dread as Klein suddenly switched gears. "YOU DO THAT AFTER MARRIAGE!"

"We aren't married!" Asuna defended.

"They're just kids!" Kirito added, "They just probably miss their parents! What's wrong with helping them a bit?"

"Kirito, that isn't helping!"

"Then you explain it!"

"I don't know how!"

"Okay, okay! At least tell me this: just what, exactly, are you going to do with those children?" Klein asked, hoping to stop their...argument, if that was what one would call it. It was pretty effective as the two teens clamped their mouths shut and shared a look.

"Well?" Klein prompted, trying to get an answer out of them both. There was still no answer as Kirito hopelessly shrugged his shoulders. Klein sighed as he face palmed. Just what were they going to do now? They were only here for vacation and nothing more!

"Uhm...Well, why don't we go and see if we can find someone who knows them on the first floor?" Asuna asked. "They could have a family in SAO too."

Kirito blinked.

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea..." he said as he placed a fist in front of his mouth.

"Why not? That's our only option." Klein insisted.

"...But Morgan..." Kirito began, but cut himself off as Asuna patted his shoulder.

"I'm sure he'll be fine with it, Kirito." she assured.

"...Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you." Kirito sighed, falling back into his chair. Asuna and Klein shared a look of confusion before shrugging.

Oh, how they wished they followed Kirito's advice.

._._._._._.

"No."

"Morgan-" Asuna began.

"I refuse to go."

"Will you just-" Klein tried.

"You can't make me!"

"It'll only be a-" Agil attempted.

"I said I don't wanna go!"

"Ah..." Kirito was at a loss of what to say when every looked at him in hopes of getting Morgan to listen.

"Papa! Don't make me go there!" said Morgan as he ran over to Kirito. The said teen only had a second to react as Morgan leapt at him.

"Wait! Morgan, no!" Kirito yelped as the boy crashed into his waist. Morgan's grip around his waist was tight as they collided with the floor. Kirito didn't even hold back a curse as he felt a sharp pain shoot through his leg.

"I absolutely refuse to go!" Morgan said in Kirito's shirt. The Black Swordsman heaved a painful sigh as he sat upright with the boy around his waist.

"Morgan-Just...just one hour." Kirito muttered through gritted teeth. "Give us one hour to look around and them we can come back here okay?"

Morgan was silent for a moment, but didn't lift his head as he answered. "...No more than one hour."

"One hour. I promise." Kirito said with a sigh, running a comforting hand through white hair. He felt sorry for the child. Morgan was stuck in this death game at such a young age. Kirito felt guilty, knowing that he was partially at fault for the children's predicament. Heck, he was at fault for everyone's imprisonment!

Frowning, Kirito couldn't help but feel a bit of nostalgia as he recalled doing the same action for his sister in the real world. For a moment, be wondered if he'd ever be able to run his hand through his sister's hair again just to comfort her. At the rate that he was going...

He probably never would.

"Well, we should've just let Kirito do all the work." Asuna said as she sighed and placed both her hands on her hips. Klein scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, no kidding..."

Agil looked over to Yui as she picked up Shiku. "At least we had an easier time with Yui..."

"Papa, are we going out?" Yui asked as she plopped right next to him with a purring Shiku in her arms. Kirito gave her a smile and a gentle pat on the head with his free hand.

"Just for a little. Your brother is a bit stubborn though." he said. Morgan finally looked up and frowned, hiding a bit of fear being his eyes.

"That's because I don't want to go."

"Nevertheless, you still agreed to one hour." Agil said as he placed a hand on his hip as he looked over them. "You know, Kirito, from this point of view, you really do look like their dad."

Yui suddenly brightened. "Papa is Papa! And Mama is Mama!"

Both Kirito and Asuna shared a look before turning away, their faces slightly red as they flushed in embarrassment. Morgan got up, softly apologizing as Kirito slowly stood up, making sure not to aggravate his leg so much.

"So, when do we leave?" Kirito asked.

"Well, we can leave now, but I don't think you guys should go unarmed." Agil advised. "The army does control the whole floor."

Asuna nodded as she dropped her hands. "Right. You'll never know what they might do."

"Should we split up into two groups or three? We can broaden the search that way and make the most of the hour we have with Morgan." Klein suggested. Kirito hummed in agreement.

"Yeah...that's a good idea. Let's split into three. Asuna, do you think you can take Yui? I'll take Morgan, if that's alright." he said, sparing a glance at Morgan.

"But I wanna go with Papa!" Yui said, clutching the edge of Kirito's shirt.

"Or...you can take Morgan, if you're fine with that." Kirito said as he lightly touched Yui's back when she leaned closer. Asuna laughed a little.

"I can take Morgan. You okay with that?" she asked, looking at Morgan. The white haired boy had slight smile on his face as he nodded.

"Y-yeah." he assured. "It's Mama, so I'm fine...I think."

"I guess it's just me and you, Agil." Klein said patting the much taller man's shoulder.

"After an hour, Klein and I will send you a message if we get anything or not. We'll keep searching a bit longer than an hour." Agil said. Kirito nodded as their plan was set.

"Alright." Kirito said. He looked at Yui and Shiku. "Ready to go?"

"Yes!" Yui said happily. Before Kirito could say anything, Yui hurried out of the living room and out the door.

"Yu-Wait!" Kirito called after her. He looked to his friends and gave them a quick nod as he ran after Yui. "I'll see you in an hour!"

"Be careful!" said Asuna. She couldn't help but feel a little worried about Kirito by himself. Would he really be alright with Yui?

"Don't worry, Asuna." came Klein's voice. "Kirito's strong enough to survive on his own. He did solo several floors already."

The others looked over to Morgan, expecting a response of awe or surprise, but they were wrong. Morgan held his elbows and frowned. His eyes were clear and his body was completely serious, nothing like the childish personality he displayed earlier. His next words shocked them.

"And that would probably be the death of him. He may not last long."

They were stunned into silence. Did Morgan really not believe that Kirito would not live through this death game? No, he had to! Kirito had to live!

And yet...Morgan's words held reality. There was no false hope, no beating around the bush. Just...the reality; the one possibility they were all avoiding.

One they did not want to believe.

But then, all the signs were there. Kirito seemed exhausted with each passing day. Shiku never left his side in the mornings he would sleep in. There was a slight limp in Kirito's form when he walked, and his smiles seemed a bit forced. During their time getting this house, he took more naps than Klein could keep track of. Sometimes, Kirito never noticed their calls to him until several minutes later.

Asuna bit her lip while Agil and Klein's expressions darkened.

Without realizing it, Morgan had reminded them just how short time was for their friend. He brought them reality.

They needed to beat this game.

._._._._._.

Kirito was walking down the streets of the Town of Beginnings with Yui holding his hand happily, asking anyone if they had seen the girl before. But, everyone he encountered said that they had never seen the girl before. Kirito began to doubt that she was actually from here. Or even a player at all. She had no cursor over her head and she knew about the Cardinal system enough to call Kirito its son.

It was impossible. There was no way he could be Cardinal's son. Yes, he knew a majority of the system like the back of his hand, but that wouldn't count as a reason why. Was it a glitch in the system that just hid Yui's health bar and cursor? Or was it something else?

Kirito suddenly stopped as a thought occurred to him.

Did the system recognize him?

The very thought of it launched a surge of fear thought his body.

"Papa?" Yui's voice cut through Kirito's panicked thoughts, slapping him back into reality. "Are you okay?"

Kirito blinked several times before focusing on Yui. "Y-yeah. I'm fine."

He vaguely felt something rubbing against his leg, and he spotted Shiku rubbing his face into the cloth of his black pants. He smiled and bent to a knee, still holding Yui's hand and petting his cat-lion's fur. He looked around the area they were in, but he didn't see anyone other than a few NPCs shouting from their stalls. He sighed. "It's nearly an hour but no one had recognized you...do you have any idea where your parents are?"

Yui just looked confused as she grabbed Kirito's hand with both of hers. "You are! You're my Papa!

Kirito sighed once more. "Yui, I'm not-"

"No! You are, you are!" Yui insisted, cutting Kirito off. "And I can prove it, Kazuto-kun!"

Kirito froze at Yui's words. Her eyes were staring right him. Now that he actually looked at her, he began to slowly recognize her.

._._._._._.

"Cardinal, Aki-nii-chan?" Kazuto asked as his "older brother" carried him on his back. Kayaba smiled as he adjusted Kazuto for a moment as he walked down a path in a dark castle dungeon. They had just entered a structure of Aincrad that the two had gone through the lengths of making. There wasn't any monsters around yet, simply because they had yet to program them into the system. Kayaba had invited the frail child into the early stages of development. Kazuto didn't really have anything better to do so he took the opportunity. He was always curious as to what his "Aki-nii-chan" was up to and it was his chance.

Kazuto still didn't seem to be able to move his legs, but they were beyond excited that Kazuto could talk like a normal child. They spent a good half hour just laughing and Kazuto ranting off just about anything he could think of. But, that wasn't what Kayaba had brought him into the system for. In fact, he wanted to show him something extraordinary the system itself had done.

"Yup. It's what I decided to call the system we created. What do you think?" Kayaba asked, glancing at Kazuto at the corner of his eye.

"A system that acts on its own without human intervention and doing everything according to its own discretion...Hmm...sounds so...important. I think I like it." Kazuto answered honestly. He wrapped his thin arms a little tighter around Kayaba's neck. "Nee? Aki-nii-chan? Where are you taking me?"

"You know that we programed it to also keep track of the physiological care of the players right?" Kayaba asked. Kazuto made a noise of confirmation, allowing Kayaba to continue. "Well, Cardinal created something called the 'Mental Health Counseling Program, Prototype 1. Code name: Yui."

"Yui?" Kazuto echoed as they came upon a corridor with a doorway of white at the end.

"And you wouldn't believe what it did..." Kayaba said as he picked up his pace a bit. Kazuto waited patiently for them to reach the end of the corridor and enter the room. He gaped in surprise as he spotted a small girl with her back facing them, sitting on a black stone slab in the center of the room.

"It created her." Kayaba said. At his words, the girl perked up and twisted her body around, her long black hair swaying with her as she did. She caught sight of them and smiled.

Kazuto couldn't help but push away from Kayaba's back slightly, staring at the girl in awe. Kayaba walked over to the stone slab and placed Kazuto sitting on top. She brought her legs up to the slab and observed Kazuto as Kayaba spoke.

"Go on, introduce yourself." he told them both. Kazuto looked at him before shyly turning to Yui.

"H-hi...I'm Kazuto." he said, holding out a hand. He wasn't absolutely sure if this was how a normal kid would do it, but it was certainly something. Yui looked at it for a moment before reaching over to take his hand.

"Yui."

._._._._._.

Her black hair was just as long as he remembered it. Her bubbly personality had dulled a tiny bit, but her speech dumbed down considerably. Other than that, she hadn't changed for five years.

Shock flooded Kirito's features as his eyes widened in realization. Without asking permission, Kirito pulled Yui closer and just embraced her. He didn't want to let her go.

Two years.

Two long damn years.

Kirito remembered all the times he came to just see her, simply because he could talk to her without moving his hands. She was the one who taught him how to walk in Aincrad mere months before Sword Art Online came out. She was the only AI he could talk freely to, despite her being a program. When the death game began, he didn't realize that he had forgotten all about her.

The stress from all of the players' mental state had her regress into a child, not almost like a toddler. All of the hatred, the fear, the anger, sadness, grief, depression...and so many other emotions, he didn't know where to even begin any more. She had suffered so much and Kirito didn't remember her.

His grip around her tightened as he began to tear up, not caring if there was anyone watching. He bowed his head and whispered the same words over and over again.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Yui. I'm sorry..."

Yui had a faint smile on her face as she hugged him back, gently rubbing his back to comfort him as best as her small form could do. "Welcome home, Papa."

SYSTEM COLABORATION AT SIXTY-ONE PERCENT

Ahahahaha...don't kill me please, But do tell me what you all though of this chapter. If you got confused, I did intentionally say that Kazuto did help Kayaba build the Cardinal System. I seriously hope you guys don't mind Morgan being in here. I seriously want to get to the part where he becomes the POA Morgan... Seriously, why is he so hard to write seriously?!

And those who read Summer's Dream, someone on Wattpad asked for a sequel, so I'm making one. Don't know when that will come but it will. It's going to be a romance story. Be warned, if Dual Blade made you cry or Summer's Dreams, then it's sequel would probably make you cry anyway.

Oh...there is one thing I am seriously considering...I'm thinking of ending this story soon. As you can see, we're kind of nearing the end. I mean, after Yui's arc its...Well, you know. Now, because of this, I'm planning on ending this story in eight to ten chapters. or hopefully less and make them long. But! Making them long will take a while for an update, so I'm going to ask you guys what you prefer. Short chapters with shorter updates? Or Longer chapters and a bit of a wait (that also means the "reality check" chapters will merged with the virtual world)?

Please, let me know~!

Preview!

"Hello? This is Kikuoka speaking." came a tired voice over the line. Kayaba's prepared works came to a stop at bottom of his throat as he stared at the file before him. He told himself that he would do this. He was determined to do this, and yet he was already backing out?

"Hello?" came Kikuoka's slightly impatient voice. Kayaba shook his head and steeled his resolve. He had to do this. For Kazuto.

"Hello, Kikuoka-san. I'm sorry to be calling you at a late hour," he said glancing at the clock that read a third past two in the morning. "But there's something important I must speak with you about. It pertains to one of the victims of Sword Art Online...and the Cardinal System."

"...Who is this?" Kikuoka asked, his voice concealing caution. The game creator smiled sadly as he tapped a hand on the file, trying to keep his composure.

"Just...just an older brother scared for his little brother's life."

Later~!

~CloudyLightning