Sword Art Online

After The Incident

Chapter 43 – New Aincrad

A/N

Hey guys. I just want to explain a little bit about the timeline of the last 2 chapters or so, to those who might be a little confused.

The two chapters, Recon Takes A Step, and Shino Steps Out Of Her Shell, is placed on the same day in the timeline, but in two completely different places. Also, this chapter is placed on the same day as these two chapters, continuing from when Suguha went up after calling for Kazuto, but in Kazuto's POV.

Anyway, enough about my rambling, enjoy the chapter!

~The Kirigaya Residence, Kazuto's POV~

I blinked my eyes open that morning, the morning sun filtering through my curtains in my room. I could have sworn I heard Suguha call for me, but I didn't hear anything now. I could feel a familiar warmth press up against my back as my body began to wake up, and i smiled softly as I immediately realized what it was.

I rolled around and smiled as I looked at the figure of my sleeping girlfriend, who was clinging to me desperately. I smiled and wrapped my arms around her frame, enjoying her warm presence beside me in my bed. I smiled and snuggled up towards her, not even caring that we both currently were stark naked.

I loved the feeling of her skin against mine. I had had the best experience of my life with her last night, a night I was convinced I would never forget. I smiled quietly as I stared at her beautiful face, before giving her a light peck on the forehead and sitting up on the edge of the bed.

I sighed softly and stretched my arms, feeling the pleasant feeling of the suns ray's hitting and warming up my back. If only I could wake up like this every morning. That would truly be a bliss.

I sighed softly as I was about to stand up onto my feet, when I suddenly felt a warmth press against my back: I gasped suddenly, before I saw a couple of thin arms wrap themselves around my chest, and I realized that Asuna was hugging me from behind. I gulped and blushed a little as I felt her chest against my back.

"G-Good morning dear" I mumbled softly as I looked back at her with a small smile.

She made a small moan as she was just waking up, and she rubbed her eyes softly as she sent a sugarsweet smile up at me.

"Good morning, Hun" She mumbled before giving my cheek a small peck.

She put the covers over her nude body before sitting beside me and leaning her head on my shoulder. I smiled and wrapped her in an arm, making us even closer than before.

"What was the time when we finally went to bed yesterday?" Asuna mumbled with a giggle.

"To be completely honest, I have no idea" I mumbled with a chuckle as I snuggled closer to my wonderful girlfriend "Anyway, let me help you find your clothes"

Finding her clothes wasn't a very hard task, in fact it didn't take many minutes. Though there was one certain article of clothing that took a little longer than then the others to find, namely, her panties, which somehow had ended up hanging on top of my computer monitor in the entirely opposite end of my room.

Asuna giggled quietly as i finally handed her her panties, and i smiled as i pulled on my own clothes as well.

"How the hell did they end up there!?" She said with a laugh as she covered herself with the bedsheets and pulled on her underwear.

"Who knows? I was more focused on you last night" I said with a chuckle "Those were just in the way"

A blush rose up into her cheeks, but her embarrassment wasn't strong enough to keep her from retorting my teasing.

"Don't act like you weren't as shy and nervous as I was" She said with a giggle.

I chuckled quietly and felt the blush run up into my cheeks. Though, despite what was happening, I wasn't really freaking out from embarrassment like I thought I would. I quickly finished dressing and turned my back so Asuna could get some privacy.

"oh come on Kazuto, you're not gonna look at me?" Asuna teased with a giggle "We're real lovers now, you know? It's okay for you to look at me when I'm changing"

"What the hell happened to you last night?" I said with a chuckle as I glanced over my shoulder "Normally you would never have let me do this"

I quietly turned around just as she let the bedsheets fall from her body, letting me see her fully. Instead of panicking like I usually would, I was surprisingly calm and just smiled as I headed over and sat down beside her, before wrapping an arm around her waist.

"Have I ever told you, you're the most beautiful human being?" I said with a cheeky smile.

She giggled quietly with a hand over her mouth as she nuzzled into me.

"Yeah, several times. Last night too" She added with a smirk "Though I'm never gonna get tired of hearing it from you"

"Hehe, I thought so"

I smiled quietly before lifting her gaze with a finger under her chin and kissing her deeply, feeling us melt into each other as we always did in each other's embrace. Though this was different, as it was very passionate, longing and gentle.

After having sat there for a while, and let the outside sun warm us back to life, we dressed up and I opened the door to my room. I was surprised to see a couple of plates with bacon and eggs lie on the other side.

"Wake up on time tomorrow, would you? ~ Suguha"

I shaked my head with a chuckle and crumbled the note in my hand and took the plates back in with me, the steam still rising from our breakfast.

"My dear sister has been taking good care of us" I said to Asuna as I led her back to the bed "Let's hurry up and eat"

"You in a hurry Kazuto?"

"Yeah, but I'm not telling with what, just yet" I said with a smirk, before I started to wolf down my breakfast.

~Inside The VR space, Kazuto's POV~

"Alright, try placing a boulder over in that corner, Klein!"

"You got it!"

Everything was finally falling into place. It had been in development for more than a year, and finally it was almost done. The program I had been working on.

All the extra courses in programming I took at school had apparently paid off, cause the program was running like a dream. I felt my smile widen as a boulder began materializing in the grass in the corner of the world room tutorial I had created for tests of the program, and felt a pride rise in my chest like none other as I watched it appear without problems.

This space was something that I had created. While under the excuse of making it to be a new way for players to interact with VR, but to be honest I had started this project with my own selfish desires and goals in mind.

Asuna and especially little Yui, had expressed how much they missed the cottage in the woods that we used to live in, in SAO. So I had hoped that, with a little help from my friends, that I could create a space entirely for myself and my family. A nice little place where we could be on our own, without having to be interrupted by anything ever again.

I owed this to both of my favorite girls in the world. We were finally able to live carefree again, swim in the lakes, go on walks through the woods, finally be a family again, without me constantly having to deal with outside danger.

The stress of chasing around Sugou's tail had made me distant from my girls, and I hadn't seen Yui as much as I had wanted to. It pained me to the core that that was how it had to be, but at the same time, I wanted to protect my family at all costs. So ultimately, I did it for their sake.

When the boulder was finally done spawning, I looked over at Klein with a smirk.

"It's running relatively smoothly," I said as I wrote down a note "But we'll have to work on it's spawn time. How long did it take for spawning in?"

"Around two minutes" Klein admitted with a scratch of his neck "And that's just a boulder. Think about it if someone tries spawning a castle, or an underground cavern"

"Exactly" I mumbled softly "There won't be much to a dungeon creator if it takes all day just to spawn everything in"

Suddenly, Agil swung down from a tree in a vine and landed between us.

"I'm sure we can work on the spawntime" He said with a small smile "What I'm more concerned about is bugs"

"Yeah, I know" I mumbled quietly as I pinched my chin in thought "I took a look at the programming board. Nothing should be out of the ordinary"

"It's always good to take a second peek" Agil said with a smirk "We'll want it to be able to run smoothly when you make your new world for Asuna and Yui"

"Yeah, that's true" I said with a chuckle "Seriously guys, I can't thank you guys enough. You didn't have to help me with this…"

"Don't even say it, dude" Klein said with a smirk as he punched my shoulder "This is what friends do for each other. And besides, you deserve it after all you've gone through to protect us"

"That's right, Mr. Black Swordsman" Agil said with a smirk even wider than Kleins "Let us begin to repay you, man"

"I really appreciate it" I said with a small bow to them. A little out of place maybe, but I felt it necessary "Thank you"

"No problem. Now let's take a look at the remaining bugs" They both said, as we each began to log out for what might have been the twentieth time today.

~A Couple Of Days Later, unknown location. Asuna's POV~

I had been a bit in a hurry that afternoon, ever since Kazuto called me. He had asked me to come over, and begged me to bring my old Amusphere. I had no idea why, but I didn't see any reason to object, so I quickly headed out towards the Kirigaya residence. I looked forward to seeing Kazuto's family again. It had been a while.

When I finally arrived at the Kirigaya residence and knocked the door, the first familiar face I was greeted with was Suguha, as I had predicted. We had become very good friends after all, and I had expected her to be pretty excited about the news of me arriving.

After a couple of hugs and moments of happy chattering with Suguha and her mom, I smiled and excused myself before heading upstairs. From inside, I could hear explosions, futuristic gun shots, and the sounds of planes flying over the sky.

I opened the door and smiled as I saw Kazuto sitting by his computer and playing an older FPS game. I quickly ran over and pecked his cheek.

"So what did you want to show me?" I asked excitedly as I looked at him.

He smirked quietly and chuckled teasingly.

"Someone seems excited. Go ahead and boot up your Amusphere, and lie down"

"Are you sure about it? I mean, these things did trap us in a game for years. Are you sure using your old Nervegear is going to be okay?"

"I've taken a look at it" He said with a smile "I've made sure it can't harm me, so it's okay"

I looked down at the helmet in nervousness. It was, after all, a tool that had held me and my partner captive in a virtual world for more than 2 years, and could have possibly killed us. Of course I trusted my partner and his abilities, but I couldn't help but feel a sting of nervousness as I accepted the helmet.

I strapped my new VR helmet, the Amusphere, on with nervous excitement. When it came to virtual reality, there was no saying what Kazuto could have been planning, or for how long he had been planning to do this. The fact that I had no idea what this was all about, made my curiosity overpower my fear after a short moment, and I quickly lied down.

"Okay, so I'll have to boot up the program before I can follow you inside" He said with a smirk "Just wait for me okay?"

Program? Now my curiosity was through the roof. He hadn't mentioned anything about a program until now.

"Sure. I'll see you there, hun. LINK START!"

Barely had I shouted those familiar words before a rain of flashing colors rushed past me in virtual reality. It was nice being back here, after all this time. I had honestly missed it, despite the various memories that came with it.

At first, everything around me was black. Then slowly, a light began emerging in the horizon, revealing the most wonderful thing I had seen in a long time.

I was suddenly standing in front of a cottage that was all too familiar to me. I had arrived back at the cottage Kazuto, Yui and I, had been staying in on vacation, the same cottage as in Aincrad, the cottage where many of my most precious memories had home.

Everything was standing in its prober place. On the porch was our cozy rocking chair that we had spent one afternoon after the other, telling each other stories and relaxing with Yui. From where I was standing, I could see the flower crown that Kazuto had made for Yui, was hanging from a nail in the bedroom window upstairs.

Behind me was the lake where we had spent countless of mornings and evenings, waking up with a comfortable and cool bath.

Everything was exactly as I remembered it. Not even the slightest flower in the grass was out of place. It brought tears to my eyes, and I was about to break down, when Kazuto suddenly appeared beside me and smiled over at me softly.

"Surprise! Do you like it?"

Barely had he said those words before I tackled him and assaulted him with kisses and hugs.

"Like it!? I love it! Everything is there!"

"Well, I have one final surprise. Come out honey!"

I looked up from my partner's embrace and felt my eyes fill with tears once again. After more than a year where the closest I could get to her was to look at her through a screen, Yui was finally standing there, in flesh and blood, her white summer dress swaying gently in the breeze as she watched the two of us with a smile.

"Welcome home mommy"

I released the breath I had subconsciously held in and sprinted up to her, tossing my arms around her in a tight hug. I couldn't take it anymore. I broke down and cried. I cried, and cried, and cried, more happy tears was shed than I had ever she before. I was finally able to hold my precious daughter in my arms again, to tell her stories, and to kiss her goodnight when tugging her in.

I was finally able to do all of those things again. I cried silently as I hugged her in close.

"Yui! Oh god Yui! It's you! It's really you!"

"Mommy! Mommy!"

We sat there and cried for a while. It was good to get it all out of my system. To let me hold my precious daughter within my embrace once again, was the greatest gift anyone could ever have given me. I pulled Kazuto in for a hug as well, and we sat there and hugged each other for a long while.

"How long have you been working on this, Kazuto?" I whispered softly as we all snuggled in closer to one another.

"About a year now" Kazuto said with a chuckle "Yui actually gave me the idea. And I knew that you missed her, so none of us had any objections"

"Daddy somehow managed to convince me to keep quiet" Yui said with a giggle as she snuggled her face into my shoulder "You would have known along time ago, if it was up to me"

"I hate you for not telling me earlier, Kazuto" I said with a pout, but that only made Kazuto smile brighter and laugh heartily.

"Haha, that might be so, but then it wouldn't have been much of a surprise, would it? Besides, I doubt you could have lived with the excitement and impatience for a whole year, so technically I did you a favor"

"Call it what you want, I still want to strangle you sometimes"

We laughed loudly as we held each other, and laid down in the grass, cuddled up close to one another. This was easily one of the best days in my life.

A/N

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this months chapter!

I'm so sorry that I've been holding this (And some other) Fanfics on hiatus for so long, but I had a tough time figuring out what I should do for them, and how to put it all together. But now it's finally here, and I hope I won't have to put anything on hiatus for so long ever again.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I'm happily this fanfic is finally back with a new release. Hope you guys had an awesome day, and keep on reading.