Lily and I put this together in about three hours, a lot of editing went into this and while it could have led directly into the Silica situation Lily decided it was best to keep the creepy voyeurness separate from the actual mission and I decided to heed her advice on this one. Hope you all enjoy!

Kayaba watched the girl he was very much considering his spiritual daughter pace back and forth as she stewed over what she wished to discuss, which was just fine because it gave him some time to muse himself.

Asuna and Keiko's 'coming out of the closet' surprisingly enough hadn't caused as much trouble for the young women as he had initially feared it would. Sure, most of the older generations were kicking up a fuss but quite frankly no one in power cared what they had to say mainly due to the fact that, finally, they all realized how collectively fucked they were when those girls got out of the game.

An Australian blog put it best, "In an attempt to cover up a fiasco that would cripple their tech industry Japan's movers and shakers created a social, ethical, and moral time bomb that was bound to explode in their collective face at any given moment."

Kayaba himself thought that they were not wrong in the slightest, though it would definitely get worse when his disciple cleared the game and was confronted with what had been done in her name.

Considering the conversation they were about to have, he truly felt pity for that public relations team the Virtual Reality division had put together, because this was not going to end well for anyone.

Eventually Kirito stopped pacing and met his gaze evenly, taking in a deep breath she said, "I need advice sensei, I know what I have to do but... I'm not sure I have the right to do it."

Kayaba smiled then nodded towards Keiko, "Well I have always told you that I am here for you dear, so please, elucidate."

Slowly sliding her hands down her face she eventually let out a tired sigh and spoke, "So remember those player killers that baited me into confronting them?"

He nodded slowly at that, "They killed that group of low level players you had been tutoring, there was a survivor I believe?"

Keiko grimaced at that, "Sachi, she isn't doing too well, I managed to find someone who was a social worker in the real world and she's doing her best playing counselor but... Yeah... Anyway thanks to Argo I found out their guild name is Laughing Coffin."

Kayaba, along with all the millions watching collectively shuddered impulsively and it nearly caused him to break character, what the hell was that?

The girl continued on though as if not feeling the sense of trepidation herself as she flippantly twirled her right hand as her left held onto her elbow, "I initially thought the assholes I've decided to deal with were them but they are not in fact affiliated. These pricks, Titans Hand, don't out and out kill people, rather they use this honey trap named Rosalia to entice them to do a dangerous quest, collect the reward, then surround them with orange tagged players demanding all their shit and leaving them to die after the theft."

Raising a brow Kayaba titled his head to the side while stating, "My my, how industrious of them. Honestly it sounds like something you might have come up with in less dire times."

Rather than being offended Keiko nodded as she replied, "Yeah don't get me wrong, solid plan when you know, it wasn't a life or death situation. Really I think I have more respect for Laughing Coffin than I do for Titans Hand. At the very least they own up to the fact they are psychotic killers and don't hide behind the technicality that they hadn't actually murdered those other players, they had just facilitated the situation that allowed it to happen."

Kayaba nodded at that, Keiko was a very straight forward person who did not hide what she was once she was called on it; sure she would lie, manipulate, and coerce a situation in her favor, but if you actually called her on it with a logical argument you would not earn her ire, you would earn her respect.

Thus pretending your hands were clean when you caused the deaths of fellow players would undoubtedly annoy her beyond words.

She let out a sigh as she continued speaking cutting through Kayaba's musings, "I need to deal with them, and I need to deal with them now. Laughing Coffin is... oddly enough less of a problem at the moment, they have more or less become contract killers and after...after the Cats, they've been rather quiet. These pricks though...twenty seven..."

Kayaba tilted his head at that, "Twenty seven?"

Taking in a deep breath Keiko plopped down on the previously ignored chair he had set up for her as she rested her head in her hands, "They are directly responsible for the deaths of twenty seven people..."

Sighing she glanced up to meet Kayaba's gaze and it very nearly broke his heart seeing his daughter looking so lost, "I can't let them continue on like this, I have to end this, now, before anyone else gets hurt but... The only way to do that is to kill them, and I can manipulate the situation where I don't get red tagged for it but... Wouldn't this be premeditated murder? Would I be taking the moral high ground removing the threat to my people, or would I just be a cold blooded killer? I just... I just feel so lost right now sensei..."

They remained silent for a time before Kayaba made a decision and spoke up, "Kirito, we are not in Japan anymore."

Blinking Keiko glanced up and cocked her head to the side in confusion, "What?"

Sighing Kayaba stood and held his hands behind his back as he began pacing, "This is not Japan, this is Aincrad. We are stuck in a closed system where our population is continuously dropping, not increasing in the slightest, and is completely reliant on the populace itself to free them from this world. The soft, comfortable, humane methods of punishment that we rely on in Japan do not apply here. We do not have the luxury of courts, lawyers, and juries, much like in ages past we have to take a direct route to punish the guilty."

"Direct route..." Keiko whispered to herself.

Kayaba nodded solemnly as he continued, "In times past, a thief had his hand cut off if caught, a spy had his tongue removed so they could not spread their honeyed lies, and a murderer was-"

"Executed so they could not kill again," Keiko muttered to herself.

"Correct, it is not premeditated murder my dear, it is removing the festering flesh from the wound to save the limb."

There was another bout of silence when Keiko eventually nodded to herself and stood up to face Kayaba evenly, "Thank you sensei, I know what has to be done now." Bowing slightly she turned and left the building as Kayaba rested his chin in his hand as his elbow hit the table, smirking ever so slightly.

"That's my girl."

"Thank Obi-Wan!" Hayato cried out startling Tsunayoshi and Nagi but earning a pleased, "Hear hear!" from Kikuoka.

"Boss, what?" Nagi asked in genuine confusion.

Hayato let out a tired sigh as he eventually turned away from the monitor while gesturing towards his boss, "You figured it out too I take it?"

Kikuoka smirked at that and nodded slightly as he replied with, "How did you figure it out?"

Flicking his lighter repeatedly since he was not allowed to smoke in the office Hayato grinned widely as he snapped out, "There is no fucking Heathcliff in the player registry. So a person that doesn't exist, worked for Argus, was a mathematics and programming wiz takes the top rated beta tester under his wing and guides her along a path that leads her into a leadership position, what's wrong with this picture?"

Tsunayoshi's eyes widened in horror as he rasped out, "Oh fucking hell..."

Nagi held her hands over her mouth a moment before dropping them and whispered out what could have been a thunderclap, "The demon has been grooming the savior this entire time...hasn't he?"

Kikuoka nodded solemnly at that as he stood from his desk and adjusted his tie, "Correct, and now we have an out for our young Miss Kirigaya's future actions."

"Future...actions..." Nagi muttered as her brow furrowed in worry.

"She is going to execute Titans Hand, all of them, and Kayaba just made himself the scapegoat for her actions."

There was dead silence for a time, then eventually Tsunayoshi muttered, "Fucking hell."

"Sums the situation up rather nicely," Kikuoka stated as he adjusted his glasses, "Go home, get some sleep, and we'll figure out how to handle this when the action actually begins."

Nodding the PR trio left the office leaving their boss alone as he sat behind his desk, staring at the ceiling for a time before opening a drawer and removing a glass and bottle. Pouring nearly a fourth of the said bottle into the glass he stuffed the cork back into place and raised the glass towards the heavens as he made a toast.

"Thank you, Kayaba, for giving our girl an out to a situation she would never be able to ignore."

With that he downed the liquor and coughed a bit, resigning himself to a long ride home he froze as three words blinked across his monitor, stark green against the desktop photo of his family.

'YOU ARE WELCOME'

Shivering, Kikuoka decided to pretend he had not seen that, and after shutting down the computer and clicking off the lights quickly left his office feeling more disconcerted than he had ever been in his entire life.