So here are the tales from the outside as requested, next chapter will be clearing this bloody floor and moving on, holy hell this has taken too long.

As always, mad props to my partner in this insanity Lady Lily Anne, seriously you people would be getting no updates for like...months, without her gentle prodding.

Enjoy!

P.S. Sugou is creepy...I wish he wasn't, I don't like writing him...

After Yuuki Kouichirou had turned up at the Kirigaya household to sell his endorsement idea a week beforehand he had quickly become a semi-permanent fixture, because as Suguha had put it, he got it. He understood why Keiko would be freaking out if she knew she was being watched by millions, he understood this was wrong on so many levels, and he understood how powerless one could feel watching a family member being exploited.

So with that being said he did his best to keep them updated on the plans progression, which was why he was currently seated in the Kirigayas living room with Midori on his left and Suguha on his right. Both ladies shaking their heads in bemusement at the image displayed on the wall mounted television.

Asuna's planning session, and Keiko's on the fly tactics had worked wonders against the Bullbous Bow field boss, and in less then two minutes the six leaders managed to take the thing down without any troubles what so ever.

Their post victory reactions were surprisingly varied though; Thinker looked contemplative which was no real shocker there, Klein seemed bemused, Lind flummoxed, Diavel just kept shaking his head spitting out curses in German, Kirito was holding the bridge of her nose muttering to herself, and Asuna was at her side obviously trying not to laugh.

Argo was on the sidelines, taking notes to potentially sell to other players when the boss respawned the next day. Waste not want not after all.

"So, why is your girl looking so frustrated at beating that thing finally?" Kou asked in honest confusion.

Midori sipped her tea while shaking her head slowly, "Because, knowing my daughter, deep down she was rather hoping she had been wrong about her leadership abilities. This all but confirms her talents which means she's stuck in the position she volunteered for."

Suguha laughed while nodding along with her mother, "Yeah, nee-chan has always been like that. She will near maniacally avoid things she doesn't want to do, but the second she proves she's capable of doing it she'll give it her all. She doesn't go for half measures. She has to be the best if she has the skills for it, even if she's the only one who knows about it..."

Kou took on a contemplative aire at this statement as he glanced towards the ceiling in thought, "Was raising Keiko, you know, difficult?"

Midori paused at that while raising a brow in question, "What do you mean by difficult?"

Kou ran his hands through his auburn hair a few times before letting out a slightly frustrated sigh, "Look, Asuna and I? We had to practically raise each other. Dad is a workaholic and our mom is just...a self centered piece of work, seriously, worlds biggest control freak. The thing is? We're both brilliant, I even have a piece of paper back home stating I'm all kinds of smartified!"

This earned a chuckle from Midori and a case of the giggles from Suguha as Kou tried to articulate exactly what his point was, eventually he seemed to have gotten what he wanted.

"That being said, Asuna is just as intelligent and talented as I am, but my parents ignore that and are just grooming her to be a house wife when she could be so much more. She resents it too, they don't see it, but that's because she's a good actress and has me to vent to. She's bitter, getting more so, and watching her bloom like this by stabbing monsters in the face of all things with your daughter's help? I just don't know what to think anymore."

He sighed once again, "What was it like? Raising a daughter you knew would never conform to what our society would demand of her? That the world would have to bend for her and not the other way around?"

Midori stared at him a few moments while sipping her tea, eventually she glanced to the side while shaking her head slowly, "Heartbreaking, and at times, terrifying. It's hard, knowing that Keiko will have to forge her own path, but at the same time, I know my daughter. She will not accept being shoehorned into being what is expected of her if she doesn't agree with it."

Midori laughed at that while meeting Kou's gaze evenly, "She will make her own mark on the world, and heaven help whoever gets in her way, because she will not turn away. As I said, I know my daughter, and violence will be the least of the worries she leaves in her wake. Because we raised her to never leave a confirmed enemy in a position where they can hurt you more than the initial strike, and to make sure they can never strike again."

Kou stared at her a moment before letting out an amused snort, "You're kinda scary, you know that right?"

Suguha snorted in amusement as she refilled her teacup, "All the women in our family were raised by a modern day samurai Kou, what did you expect other than a case of silk hiding steel?"

Kou smirked at the trope reference before replying with, "Ok, so Midori and yourself are beauty hiding power, what is Keiko then?"

Suguha replied immediately, "Combat Pragmatist mixed with Lady of War, seriously she idolizes Indiana Jones and The Bride enough to make that fairly clear if you get her going on the subject."

Kou blinked and after a moment nodded in understanding, "Yeah, I can totally see that. I mean, watching her in private and all that...which just sounds so damn creepy, and have I mentioned how sorry I am about the damn live feed broadcasting to every neckbeard in the country?"

Midori sighed as she nodded once, "Yes Kou, repeatedly, and once again we don't blame you at all we know you did your best to prevent it." Suguha simply nodded in agreement as she glanced back at the TV, it appeared the group had decided to take on the floor boss and were now summoning their minions.

Always a good sign.

Kou leaned back into the couch as he continued on, "Right...anyway you'd never pick up those traits if you only observed the mask she showed people in public, that's what I was trying to get at."

Midori snorted lightly rolling her eyes to the ceiling in the process, "Dad's doing mostly. Keiko had always been an astute student but after the...incident, he began teaching her how to hide in plain sight in order to cope with her new phobias. I'll give the old man this, he never once judged her for it, and unlike Tamaki he saw the entire scenario as an opportunity to improve a promising student rather then being a sign of failure on our part."

Suguha frowned and shook her head slowly as the grip around her cup tightened to the point it would soon break, "Dad really took the whole thing in as his fault. He shouldn't have taken that contract in America, Keiko...no...we needed him in our lives, but instead of facing what he perceived as a failure...he ran away thinking it would make things better. It didn't..."

Kou was now incredibly uncomfortable, he'd wondered about the male of the household yeah but this all seemed kinda...personal.

Thankfully Midori seemed to catch on to his discomfort and quickly changed the subject as she motioned towards the TV, "So, what are they going up against now? This floor boss?"

Grateful for the diversion Kou stroked his chin a moment as he racked his brain, "Err...a minotaur I believe. Uses a huge ax, has an area of effect stun capability when it uses its 'Stomp' attack. You can cancel it if you can drag aggro from outside of the attack radius but it's difficult to pull off. All I really know unfortunately, it was kind of, you know...generic, so I didn't really delve too deeply into its mechanics, I'm sorry."

Suguha waved off the apology and shrugged lightly in return, "Don't worry about it, I'm sure either Argo or Keiko will explain it as well as they can, what are they doing now anyway?"

Refocusing on the TV Kou snorted while rolling his eyes, "Pulling a Lord of the Rings I think."

Both women blinked at him in confusion, which only made him laugh in return, "A whole lotta walking, partnered with slightly bored banter, followed by a heart attack inducing epic battle."

Midori grimaced as she placed her cup on the table and then began rubbing her temples lightly, "Oh...lovely..."

On the other side of Tokyo the newly appointed employees of the Virtual Division's equally new Public Relations Department relaxed in the flat they shared in a not so great part of town. The plus side was that the train station and bus stops were within two minutes walking distance, the rent was cheap, and there was a liquor store around the corner that also sold halfway decent noodles, so none of the trio could complain about the arrangement.

Tsunayoshi, Nagi, and Hayato were technically on duty at all times according to their recently signed contract. Even when they were off the clock they had to have the feed from SAO running in case something important happened that they had to put a spin on in a hurry. It was annoying but the rather massive pay increase, benefits package, and working under a sane, intelligent, and fully understanding boss made the arrangement worth the mild inconveniences.

Currently the mandatory live feed was running on the three friends modestly sized TV when a voice Tsunayoshi was learning to dread spoke a question he just knew was going to give him a mountain of paperwork induced headaches.

"So, you guys think prostitution is a thing in game yet?"

God. Damn. It. ARGO!

Much to Tsunayoshi's complete and utter lack of surprise Kirito replied in a bland yet slightly interested tone, all while Asuna froze up in horror silently mouthing the words 'Prostitution? Wait what?!'

"Dunno, gotta figure it would happen eventually though. Worlds oldest profession and all that, although I'm not sure if most of them know you can even fuck in this game yet so really who knows?"

The boys froze up at this revelation as they all let choked out variants of 'Wait what!?,' 'You can do that in this game?!,' and 'Why do you even know about this?!'

Nagi, who had turned her head to watch the antics closed her eyes trying to block out the thought of the shear amount of work she was going to have to put out to spin this one.

"Those two are enjoying themselves far too much," the violet eyed woman finally snarked out as she tried to focus on her boyfriends hands running through her hair. You know...rather then the walking talking migraine inducers she was supposed to be covering for.

Hayato sighed tiredly as he ran his hands up and down his cheeks in frustration, "Seriously our jobs would be at least sixty percent easier if Kirito wasn't friends with that woman."

"I'm not so sure about that," Nagi stated tiredly as she locked her tablet down and tossed it on the end table, "I think Argo kind of redirects Kirito's sense of dramatics. Both of them are showmen right? Argo is more upfront about it though, enjoying the reactions of those around her and gaining the chance to tease them for her own amusement. Kirito though?"

Tsunayoshi snorted at that while rolling his caramel brown eyes to the ceiling, "She's like a cat, she enjoys playing with her food, and would likely escalate matters to the extreme. Having Argo around to essentially steal her thunder is probably, likely, and sadly, for the best."

Hayato stared at the television a few moments before jamming a cigarette between his lips while flicking his lighter, putting the flame to the tube of tobacco he sucked in a breath and a moment later exhaled a puff of smoke that was sucked out by the window fan. Accepting an empty coffee cup from Nagi he ashed into it before finally replying with a glimmer of resignation in his tone.

"So no matter what those three crazy broads do we still get paid regardless if they get themselves killed, right?"

Tsunayoshi let out a grunt of agreement as they focused back in on the players in question, who were still bantering between each other over the morality of prostitution in Aincrad.

Despite the raises they had received he and his friends really weren't paid enough for this...

Sugou Nobuyuki approved of prostitutes for multiple reasons he was quite willing to delve into. One, they didn't ask questions in so long as they got paid, a mindset he could readily connect to. Two, you could do things to them that they'd accept without question that no virtuous woman would ever endure which was a bonus. Three, if they did in fact ask too many questions you could have them floating in the harbor for a few thousand yen to the right man.

So, really, when his girls began discussing prostitution in Aincrad, he became rather curious and listened in intently.

"Look, this game, everything about it, is seriously about enabling bad decision making," Kirito stated as she walked backwards facing the group as she gestured wildly to the skies above.

"What do you mean about that Kirito?" Asuna asked sounding quite contrite, and my wasn't her angry face just the sexiest thing ever?

"Well, for starters, how many alcoholic drinks do you think I've had in the real world?"

The group paused to process Kirito's question before Klein snapped out with, "I know for a fact 'None'. You admitted as much yourself."

Kirito nodded at this as she stretched a hand out to the surrounding hills, "None, yet I get shit faced every single night without worry. Why?"

Eventually Diavel spoke up shaking his head slowly in understanding, "Because there are no repercussions. No hangovers, no drunk calls to exes, no fear of date rape, you're basically free to let your flag fly."

Kirito grinned widely at that while nodding once for emphasis, "Got it in one. So what do you think would happen if a selection of players who weren't keen on the whole 'risking their lives' thing decided to put their back to the mattress rather than the wall?"

Sugou leaned towards the monitor as Argo took up Keiko's speech with a wide grin, "Why, if girls-"

"Guys too, don't forget," Kirito threw out helpfully which didn't seem to distract Argo in the slightest as she continued.

"-And some guys too wish to bend over for some Col rather than fight the good fight who are we to judge? Really it is a matter of priorities and...what is it Asuna?"

The brunette was glaring at her for several seconds, occasionally sending a scathing glance at Kirito, before she finally ground out her reply.

"You want to start a brothel."

Argo looked affronted a moment as she began to reply while Keiko gripped her chest as if in shock, "What!? How could you ever say such a thing to a friend!? I mean really Asuna your op-"

Kirito collapsed under Asuna's glare and interrupted Argo grinding out, "Fine yes we're saying if people are willing to degrade themselves by selling their virtual bodies for virtual money then why not arrange for said virtual currency to fall into our virtual pockets? I mean if anyone is going to profit off this why shouldn't it be us?"

The gathered party stared at a nonplussed Kirito for several seconds, Argo looked irritated that her game was up, the boys looked various shades of ruffled, and Asuna was completely unreadable.

"What!?" Keiko finally spat out, not knowing what else to do, eventually Asuna began quivering and shaking, then just burst out into laughter, that had most of the gathering raising an eyebrow at least. Eventually silencing the young woman let out an amused snort as she grabbed Keiko's hand and began dragging her along towards the Minotaur's Labyrinth while shaking her head slowly.

"Don't ever change Keiko...seriously..."

Sugou leaned back into his chair and couldn't help smiling to himself, maybe one of the girls on call looked like his lovely ladies, they were ever so ...delightful...

Tsunayoshi pinched the bridge of his nose and a moment later downed the whisky filled tumbler his girlfriend handed him while resisting the urge to gag on the rotgut liquor. Extending the now empty glass towards his best friend Hayato readily refilled it as Tsuna just as quickly emptied the glass again.

Focusing his thoughts the young man ran a hand down his recently clean shaven chin, because his boss was a mild dick and said the goatee looked ridiculous and needed to go, and came to a simple decision.

"We're not paid enough for this..." his friends both nodded as one while he turned to face the still blaring television, "But good god damn are we going to make this work and no one will ever question our integrity..."

Nagi smiled brilliantly at him as Hayato gave him a thumbs up while lighting another smoke, they weren't going to let these insane teenagers beat them.

Not by a long shot.

You all wanted more from the outside world, and here you go. My favorite characters to write this time around were the HR department recruits and Suguha. Sugou still creeps me the fuck out.

More soon, please review!