Chapter I
January 15th, 2025
9:30 PM Eastern Standard Time
Will and Emily stood over their friends' beds in the very same hospital that they had all been admitted to together. It'd been over two months since they had beaten the death game that was Sword Art Online, the game where they'd spent two years of their lives living inside virtual floating castle in the sky known as Aincrad, fighting for their very lives on an almost daily basis. They'd all been present and alive when the game had been beaten, but while Will and Emily had woken up almost immediately, Grace and Xander had yet to show any signs of consciousness. Their skin was still a deathly pale color, as Will's and Emily's had been when they'd just woken up. It was as unnatural as it was terrifying and confusing, and they felt just as helpless as they had when Akihiko Kayaba had first laid down the crushing revelation that they were trapped inside of SAO.
"I don't understand... why haven't they woken from their comas yet?" Emily sighed as she felt the all too familiar feeling of a tear running down her cheek. She held Grace's hand in her own, silently begging her friend to show even the slightest signs of waking up. A small pulse monitor was clipped onto her finger, the long cord trailing down over the side of her bed and over to the vitals machine. Both Grace's and Xander's chests still rose and fell evenly, but the rhythmic beeping of the vitals monitors felt entirely artificial, like they weren't living, just being kept alive.
They were just four people among a list of just over six thousand others who had come out of Sword Art Online, known simply as 'Survivors'. When they'd woken up, they quickly realized that the game they had been trapped inside had done much more than merely flipping their lives upside down. Some people still called it that, but although this was never to their faces, it'd found its way to their ears regardless.
Before they logged in, Will had just gotten home from college for a holiday break. Emily had been on course to become the senior Valedictorian of the high school they had gone to together with Grace and Xander, and had even gotten an email saying she'd be accepted into her first choice of colleges as a music education major. Grace herself had been announced as the junior Salutatorian, and Xander had been named as the band captain for their marching band, with his girlfriend having been accepted to be an intern at a large engineering company.
Now, everything had changed. Unable to bear the worries of him dying, Xander's girlfriend had moved on, and though Will knew they would no doubt still be friends when he woke up, he also knew that it would be quite awkward for a time. Grace was in a similar situation, as one of her closest friends from childhood had been forced to move away halfway across the country. As for Will and Emily, they were still able to keep up with their former peers to an extent, but most of them had moved on with their lives while the four of them were stuck in comas. And not only that, but they would soon have to keep in touch with both their families and friends virtually.
Due to how few people in the United States there were who got trapped in SAO, with the large majority of the survivors living in Japan, they had been told that they would have to attend a new school in Nishitokyo, called simply "The SAO Survivor School." Unfortunately, because of the radically different time zones of all the Survivors, since players had been trapped inside Sword Art Online from all over the world, there was only one feasible solution to getting all of the survivors who had been in school when the game started back on track. They would all have to move to Japan.
Fortunately, there was some good news. After hearing that the two of them would have to live in Japan for a time, Will's step-grandmother, who grew up in Japan, was helping them to build up a better grasp of Japanese, building off of how the NerveGear's voice translation matrix had tricked their brains into being able to understand many other spoken languages including Japanese without having ever actually heard them, and moreover, how to read and write in the various Japanese writing languages, such as Hiragana, one of the predominant written languages of the island nation. She also promised to help bring Xander and Grace up to speed when they woke up.
Not only that, but she had helped them get in touch with Kazuto Kirigaya, another player whom they knew well from their last few months in SAO, albeit as Kirito, the very one with whom they had fought Akihiko Kayaba, and subsequently cleared the game with. He'd offered to let Will and Emily stay with him and his cousin, Suguha Kirigaya, since they would have no where else to stay, and they had been all too grateful to accept his invitation.
Still, they both hated the idea of leaving their friends behind. Unfortunately, they had to, and soon. Their flight to Japan left the next evening at eleven, and after they left the hospital tonight, they did not know when they would see Grace or Xander again, or even if they would at all. It was a heart wrenching reality for the two conscious Survivors. Before Sword Art Online, they had been merely a group of four really good friends. They'd sit together at lunch, go to each other for help with the occasional project or assignment, and of course, they all always saw each other at marching band. But now, they had all experienced something that few people who hadn't experienced the death game first hand ever would, and as a result, they were closer to each other than even some families.
After one last tearful goodbye from Will and Emily, they left the hospital room, walking into the nurse who had been taking care of them. Coincidentally, this nurse was also a graduated member of their high school's marching band as well, and they all knew each other well in some way.
"Brianna..." Emily mumbled, her eyes stained with tears.
The redheaded woman shook her head with a smile. "Don't worry about them. I'll take good care of them, I promise," she reassured her. "In fact, when they do wake up, and they will, I'll even move a camera into each of their rooms so you can talk to them virtually while they're in rehab. How does that sound?"
Emily nodded, a quiet "thank you" falling out of her mouth. Leaving the hospital in Will's car, they first drove to Emily's house. After she got out of the car, Will told her that he'd be there to pick her up the next night to go to the airport. With a quick kiss goodbye, he waited for Emily to close the front door of her house, and then he drove home for the night.
As Will pulled up to Emily's driveway, he saw that Emily and her entire family were waiting for him there, and her mom was holding something in her hands. It wasn't until he got closer that he realized it was a small, plastic dish with chocolate chip cookies on it, covered with clear wrapping.
After one last goodbye to her parents, brother, and their large husky, and numerous promises including to call home when they landed in Japan, and then to text or call home frequently once they got to the Kirigaya's residence, and also to take care of both themselves and each other, Emily's family helped her load her two suitcases, her instrument cases, and her backpack into the trunk of Will's car. After that was done and Emily had climbed into the car, her mom handed her the small plate of cookies through the open window.
"You won't be able to take those on the plane with you, so eat them up quick and enjoy them," said she said. She leaned through the open window and kissed Emily on her forehead one last time. "Now go. Stay safe, I expect you both to have plenty of stories to tell both of our families once you get back."
Will and Emily nodded, and then they drove to the airport in almost grim silence. It was a fairly long drive, but fortunately, they didn't encounter much traffic. Rush hour had long passed, and it wasn't until they got closer to the airport that the roads started to slow down. Even still, they were able to get into the building by ten, giving them a whole hour to get through security. After they passed through the baggage check, they sat down at one of the benches together while they waited for their flight to begin boarding, with around five minutes to spare before their part of the plane began boarding. This soon after Christmas, the airport was always moving really slow as friends and family flew away to return home, or arrived to return home after a vacation. As someone who had worked at that airport's security once for around a year, that was a fact that Will knew all too well.
A little while after they sat down, Will's phone began vibrating in his pocket. When he took it out, he saw that it was a call from Kazuto. Answering the call, he plugged in his earbuds and handed one to Emily so she could listen, and said, "Hey, Kazuto. We just passed through security, but we've got..." he trailed off, as he looked at his watch. "We've got a few more minutes before our section starts boarding."
"Sounds good. Klein and I are going to pick you up at the airport tomorrow, since we figured you both could use some familiar faces in such an unfamiliar environment," Kazuto replied. "When are you two supposed to arrive?"
"Our flight leaves at eleven, our time. According to the flight plan I looked at last night, we're supposed to be landing at around one in the afternoon tomorrow. Geez, talk about a long flight!" Will joked, but under their circumstances, neither he nor Emily managed much more than a grin.
"Tell me about it. I've never flown overseas before, but a fourteen hour flight sounds rough. Sugu and I pulled out mattresses for you both in our rooms, and we've got some extra clothes set aside for you to wear over here so you'll feel like you fit in better. Oh, and all of our uniforms for school got here yesterday," he told them. "Well, you've got a long, and I bet rather uncomfortable night ahead of you, so I'll let you two get some sleep. See you tomorrow," Kazuto replied. But before he could hang up, Will had a question.
"Hey Kazuto, before you hang up..."
"What is it?"
"You remember the other two players who dived into SAO with Emily and I, right? Grace and Xander?"
"Yeah, what about them?" Kazuto replied, confused. Not only had they all worked together with the rest of the assault team to take out numerous bosses, for a brief time they had all even been in the same guild, the Knights of the Blood Oath. They'd watched each other's backs so many times anyone could easily be forgiven for losing count before even getting halfway done. Why wouldn't he remember them?
Will felt a tear fall down his face, and a glance showed that Emily was also fighting back a tear. "The real reason we're flying out so many months in advance isn't just because we wanted to get used to the Japanese culture. That's what Emily and I told our parents, but there's another reason," Will told him, remembering how he'd carefully hidden the despicable device he'd worn for two years underneath some clothes in his suitcase. It was the same device he'd told his mother he had driven to the incineration complex to have melted down.
Even though the only game they owned for the NerveGear was Sword Art Online, which was now no more useful than a paperweight with it's servers deleted, and though the devices brought back no small amount of terrible memories they knew deep down they would likely never be free from, they had both agreed to keep their headsets once they realized that Xander and Grace hadn't woken up from their comas. It was very much a longshot of a plan, but for some reason, they both felt as though they weren't done with the NerveGear, as if it might yet still hold the key to freeing Xander and Grace from their perpetual nightmares.
"Ok... what is it?" Kirito replied, a worried tone in his voice.
"Emily and I were told by our doctors and nurses that we woke up within minutes of each other. But Grace and Xander... neither of them have woken up yet. At this time, even two months and counting after the game was cleared, they're both still completely comatose. So we wanted to talk to some other SAO survivors in person, and see if we could put our heads together and figure out why they haven't woken up," Will explained.
After a moment, Kazuto gave them an answer that shocked them both. "Well, believe it or not, but what you described just now... Asuna and almost three hundred other SAO players around the world are in the same boat."
"Wait, you mean Asuna's still alive? But we all saw her, well, die, when she saved us from Kayaba. Wait, don't tell me he's alive too," Will asked him. "And how come this hasn't been on the news? If people still haven't woken up from SAO, it'd be all over the internet, wouldn't it?"
"She's alive, but comatose like your friends. As far as your question about Kayaba, we don't know. No one has been able to track him down, not even agents from the Ministry of Internal Affairs here in Japan," Kazuto replied. "Also, a lot of information regarding the NerveGear is under strict red tape by the Ministry. I only know because one of those agents came to ask me some questions about what happened during SAO, especially in those final hours."
The call fell silent for a few moments at that, until a bell rang out in the airport. "All block B passengers on flight thirteen-thirty to Okachimachi airport, Japan, please line up next to the jetway. Again, all block B passengers riding flight thirteen-thirty to Okachimachi airport, Japan, please line up next to the jetway. Your plane is now boarding."
"Well, that's our flight. Gotta go, Kazuto. We'll talk more in Japan," Will said, stifling a yawn before hanging up his phone. He and Emily picked up their backpacks and carry-on luggage, and went to stand in line with the other passengers in block B.
Will and Emily woke up to the plane shuddering, many hours later. Like many of the other passengers on the aircraft, they had fallen asleep during the flight, even with the chairs being as uncomfortable as they were.
"Nngh... Are we here?" Emily groaned, rubbing her eyes. Will pulled up the window blinds. After using his hand to shield his eyes from the sudden light, he looked out the window and saw that the plane was touching down on the tarmac.
"Seems so. That didn't seem to take as long as I thought it would," he mused.
Emily giggled. "Well, we did fall asleep halfway through the flight,"
Will laughed with her now. "I don't know when you fell asleep, but I was out cold before we were even over the Pacific. Bit too soon to say we were halfway through," he replied jokingly.
Emily rolled her eyes at her friend, grinning. "You're impossible."
Will shrugged, a similar grin on his face. "I hate to break it to you, but that's not exactly new news for either of us."
The two put away everything they had taken out of their backpacks. Not long after, the plane came to a halt, and they undid their seatbelts to grab their bags in the overhead storage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived at Okachimachi airport in Japan. Thank you for flying with us, and we hope you stay safe and decide to fly with us again in the future," said a voice through the intercom, before repeating itself in various languages, all of which Emily and Will understood to a frightening degree as everyone stood up to disembark.
"Better give Kazuto a call and tell him we're leaving the plane. I'll text our parents and tell them we've landed," Emily suggested as they stepped off of the plane, pulling out her phone. A glance through the massive windows showed that they were on the coast, as right behind the edge of the tarmac landing strip was the Pacific ocean. Sunlight reflected off of each crest in the waves and created brief spots in their eyes, before fading as they turned away.
Will nodded and pulled out his phone. He dialed Kazuto's number, and after a few seconds, the call was answered. "Hey Will. Klein and I are waiting at the baggage claim area. What do your suitcases look like?"
Will looked over at Emily as they walked. "What suitcases did you bring?" he asked, and his friend turned away from her phone for a moment.
"I brought my marching band suitcase and my beach patterned one," she answered as they stepped onto an escalator.
"Marching band and beach, got it," he replied. While their high school's performing arts program had never been anything close to well funded, their principal, who had long been an avid supporter of each of the programs, having children in just about every one of them, had managed to find a loophole in the school's regulations when he had been appointed as the new principal, a few years prior to Will's freshman year. Because of that loophole, the performing arts teachers, students, and families were all allowed to fundraise for their programs as much as they wanted. And when their football team had gone on to win a spot at the national level of competition against another team from the other side of the country, the marching band had tagged along to support them, raising enough money not only to fly the entire band out to the game with reserved seats in the stadium, but also to order custom suitcases for each of them, as sure a sign as any of just how much their supporters cared for the marching band students, even when the school district seemingly didn't.
"Okay Kazuto, I'm gonna list them off. There's a total of four. We both brought our marching band suitcases, a beach patterned one for Emily, and a chess board one for me. The marching band ones are mostly the same as each other, solid black fabric and a silver colored wolf paw joined with a music note in the middle, and they've got our names right above the paw print," he explained. A few moments later, Will heard Klein's voice over the phone, but he couldn't make out what he said.
"Okay, I've got both of your black bags, but I don't see either of the other t- oh, wait, there they are, Klein, coming your way now. See them?" Kazuto reported. After a few seconds, Kazuto replied, "Ok, we've got all of your bags, now to meet up... Let's see... can either of you make heads or tails of where you are?"
"Sort of," Will replied, stepping off of the escalator with Emily right behind him, slipping her phone back into her pocket. "Right now, we're just going off of different logos though. We just got off an escalator, and now it looks like we're walking towards a coffee shop."
"All right, I think I know where you two are. Wait there, and we'll come and meet you," Kazuto told them. After a moment, he continued, "You two haven't changed your appearances much since SAO, have you?"
Emily shook her head. "Nope, once we found out we'd have to attend the survivor school, it made sense to keep our appearances as close to how we looked in the game," she replied into the phone.
"All right, that makes things easier," Kazuto said. "Some decided to change our hairstyles, or try dyes with different styles of clothing, but for the most part a lot of us look pretty close to how we did for the last two years."
Will thought back to how long his and Emily's hair had been just after they woke up. It had been a startling realization, as in the game, his hair more or less matched the short cut he'd stuck with his entire life, but when he'd woken up, it had grown to reach halfway down his back. Emily had been in a similar situation, with her once shoulder length braids reaching all the way down to her hips when she'd woken up.
"Hey, is that them?" Will and Emily heard Klein say through the phone as they waited at a table just outside the coffee shop, startling them out of their memories. "It is! Hey, over here you two!" he called out from the top of an escalator.
Will and Emily both grinned as Klein's reddish-brown hair, still tied up with his signature red and yellow bandana, came into view. Next to him was another all too familiar face: Kazuto Kirigaya, the Hero of Castle Aincrad, or as they had known him for the past two years, Kirito, the Black Swordsman. Without more than a second thought, both Emily and Will stood up from their chairs and ran over to say hello to their friends.
"Kazuto! Klein! It's so good to see you both again!" Will exclaimed as he and Emily both ran over to hug their brothers in arms. If there was one good thing that had come out of their time in Sword Art Online, it was that they'd have friends wherever they went around the world. Each and every one of them, no matter what guild or party they had been part of, no matter what squabbles had come between them, every one of the players who had risked death to fight on the front lines, or worked to support the lower leveled players below, saw each other as family now.
Klein and Kazuto both returned the favor before gently pushing them away as Will and Emily remembered one of the things that Will's grandmother had taught them. Unlike in the United States, where they had grown up, hugging, especially in public, was seen as more than just something close friends did in Japan. As the two born westerners realized this, they both laughed awkwardly, and the four of them quickly walked out of the airport before they drew more curious gazes. Though Klein and Kazuto would always be like family to them, and thus understood the impulsive action, it still could be interpreted as something different to people who didn't recognize what they'd all been through.
Getting into Klein's car in the parking deck, Kazuto took the front passenger's seat while Klein drove, and Will and Emily sat in the back. "So? What's been going on with the two of you since we got out of that game?" Klein asked, a friendly grin on his face.
Will shrugged. "Not much, honestly. Just lots of mandatory rehab and therapy, really," he replied with a sigh. "Because we cleared it in November, the school system we were enrolled in before SAO was already almost done with it's first semester of the year, so we've been allowed to skip the year and focus solely on getting our lives back in order." Emily nodded in affirmation as Will went on. "Originally, the plan was that we'd just enroll again next year. But that's not gonna happen now, I guess."
"Hey, you'll have fun here too, don't worry. One of Suguha's old teachers volunteered to be one of the music directors at the Survivor School, and she always had nothing less than glowing praise for her after coming home from school. I could always hear it from my bedroom, even when I was wearing my headphones," Kirito reassured them, knowing from experience that they were both very interested in music. "As for the other teachers, you shouldn't have to worry about any of them being dull, since all of them volunteered to work there."
Emily tilted her head to the side slightly. "Really? They all volunteered?" she asked, surprised, and Kazuto nodded.
"I heard that's what happened for a lot of them, although the fact that they're all getting paid even more than teachers here normally do is certainly an added bonus," he pointed out. "Speaking of, I was wondering something. Do teachers where you're from get paid as much as they do here, in Japan? I've heard online they don't, but I try to take stuff I hear online with a grain of salt anyway."
Will shook his head. "Unfortunately, they don't, so more often than not where we're from, your teachers teach students because they want to teach, and not because of the money. In that sense, it's kind of a two way street. On one hand, the vast majority of teachers, like our old middle and high school band directors, are really good at teaching, because it's what they love to do," he explained. "But on the other hand, they still barely get paid minimum wage. Heck, they could probably get paid better to work fast food joints if they wanted to. Before SAO there was actually a huge, almost national protest to get teachers better pay. I'm not actually sure if it paid off in the end though, since it was still going on when we dove in."
Kazuto's eyes widened. "Really? That's crazy. Over here, being a teacher is up there with some of the highest paying jobs there is. Most of the time, their wages are pretty close to company CEOs."
Emily gaped in surprised disbelief. "Wow. Take some notes, US government..." she muttered, and Will nodded in agreement.
"Getting onto a different topic, how are your families doing?" Kazuto asked, and Will sighed.
"They're okay, but they weren't very happy to learn that I'd have to take classes so far from home, especially after missing me for two whole years," he replied with a twinge of sadness. "But you should've seen my puppy's reaction to my waking up," he then added, laughing slightly. "That little monster is still the same as I remember her being before SAO. I can't tell you how many different slippers she's got lining her bed now."
Emily nodded. "Yeah, I remember hearing from our nurse that any time they wanted to check on you while we were trapped in SAO, they'd have to bribe Bella away with dog cookies," she reminded Will, who smiled fondly, before digging into her backpack and pulling out a small sealed plastic dish. "Oh, speaking of cookies, we weren't supposed to bring these on the plane, but the lady checking our baggage at the airport was really nice once she found out we were Survivors, and said she wouldn't make a big fuss about it as long as we kept it sealed until we got off the plane. Here, take one, both of you!" she said, holding out the small container of chocolate chip cookies.
Kazuto grinned, taking a bite of one of the treats. "Wow, did you guys make these? They're really good!" he asked, and Emily shook her head.
"Nope, they were a treat from my mom for us to enjoy before getting on the plane, but we couldn't finish them before getting to the airport," Emily explained. "Since it'd be a few days before Will's family could come get his car, we decided to try our luck and see if we could bring them over for you all to try."
Klein also tried one of the cookies, having a similar reaction to Kazuto. "Well, tell your mom she makes really good cookies. Actually, speaking of, shouldn't you call your families and tell them you got here safely?" he suggested. "Or did you already do that?"
Both Will and Emily nodded. "Way ahead of you. I already did that back before the four of us met up in the airport," Emily replied, before looking out the window as they turned off a main road and around a corner. Klein and Kazuto both nodded in approval.
"Good to hear. I'm sure they were worried about you being on such a long flight," Kazuto guessed, and Will nodded.
"My mom and siblings were, but since my dad used to have to take a number of trips overseas for his job every year before SAO, he knew the flight would be fine," he answered. "In fact, I think one of his bosses works here full time. Who knows, maybe we'll bump into my old man while he's over here for business. Wouldn't that be funny..." he trailed off. As the car pulled off of the main road, Klein motioned with a flick of his head towards the side window.
"Hey, Kiri-dude, it's this one, right?" he asked as they turned around another corner into a neighborhood, or at least, what Will and Emily would assume to be one. With large houses all around, each with slanted, tiled roofs and large yards, they weren't sure what else it could be.
"Yep, third house on the left," Kazuto replied. "Just go ahead and pull in the driveway, my mom shouldn't be getting for at least another few hours."
Klein nodded and turned the car in, putting it into park just as a girl with black hair like Kazuto's came running out the sliding door, a big smile on her face as she ran towards the car. "Ah, there's Sugu. I was actually just about to send her a text and ask her to come help us," Kazuto said, waving to her through the windshield.
Snow had started to flutter down softly as Will and Emily got out of Klein's car and took in the sight of where they would be living until the Survivor School's dorms opened up, which had been built for the players who were attending from outside Japan. It was a large plot of land surrounded by a smooth, brick and wooden fence wall. To their left was two story building with large solar panels on the slanted roof, while on their right was a smaller, rectangular building. And a glance around showed that many of the buildings around the residence were quite similar in design.
"Wow… this is really pretty," Emily breathed, and Will nodded in agreement.
"Hey Kazuto!" Sugu called out, running over to hug her brother, before walking around the car to where Will and Emily were standing. "You must be Will and Emily, right?" she asked.
"Yep, that's us," Emily said, and she shook Suguha's hand, watching the black haired girl bow slightly and doing her best to mimic it.
"It's great to finally meet you! As soon as we knew you'd be staying with us for a while, Kazuto's been telling me about all the things you did together in SAO!" Suguha replied, and both Will and Emily did a slight double take.
"Hold on, can you understand us?" Will asked, confused, and Kazuto laughed slightly.
"Oh, right, I forgot to mention that. Suguha actually has an Amusphere that she uses. It's basically the successor to the NerveGear, without the major drawbacks of, well… you know," he trailed off for a moment, before shaking his head. "At any rate, it uses the same translation engine as the NerveGear, so Sugu can understand both of you without taking any English classes."
Will grinned and raised an eyebrow. "So… say I were to speak in elvish from those old Tolkien novels," he started, before Suguha grinned back.
"I'd still be able to have a fluent conversation with you without batting an eye, even without my Amusphere," she cut him off, surprising Will. "Yep. I'm also a bookworm," she added with a playful grin.
Emily giggled. "I think she's got you in checkmate, Will," she said, and Will jokingly rolled his eyes at the sky.
"I guess you do. Well, either way, it's good to meet you, Suguha," he said, pulling his and Emily's suitcases out of the trunk. "Here you go," he said, handing over Emily's suitcase to her.
"Right this way!" Suguha said as they walked up to the front door. "Oh, you know about the tatami mats, right?" she asked, and Will and Emily nodded.
"Yep. Since we're going to be living in Japan for a while, we figured it'd be a good idea to make ourselves a bit more knowledgeable about the culture and tradition. As it turns out, Will's grandmother moved from Japan when she was about our age, so she gave us a full masterclass over the past few months," Emily explained, untying her shoes and taking them off as they stepped onto the porch. Giving the sneakers a few whacks with her hand over the slowly accumulating snow, she nodded and walked inside with the others.
Suguha and Kazuto both nodded in pleasant surprise, although Kazuto quickly shook his head, reminding himself that this was just how they acted in SAO. It was, after all, one of the primary reasons that Asuna had saw fit to promote them to the leaders of the scouting division of the Assault Team. After having risked their lives time and time again to go into unknown territory to scout out a floor boss, for them to have taken the time to learn about a culture vastly different from the one they grew up in seemed like something that should've been obvious for them to do anyway.
As they were moving the suitcases inside, Klein felt his pocket buzz twice, and he pulled his phone out to look at a message on his screen, before nodding and putting it away. "Sorry Kiri-dude, I've gotta get going. Boss needs me to come in to work because someone else called off at the last second," he said, and Kazuto nodded.
"No sweat, we can take it from here," he replied, and he bowed slightly at the waste to Klein, before the latter got back in his car and drove off. Moments later, another car pulled into the driveway. "Huh. I wonder what Mom's doing back so early. Did she say anything to you, Sugu?"
Suguha shook her head. "Nothing to me. Maybe she finished work early?"
As a tall woman with short hair just as black as Kazuto's and Suguha's got out of the car, Will and Emily looked over at each other. The woman walked towards them with a smile on her face, and she bowed to them both, just like Kazuto had. "It's good to finally meet you, Will and Emily," she said. "Please, let's go inside. We're going to catch a cold standing out here."
With a welcoming smile, she walked past the two shell shocked foreigners and inside the house, taking off her shoes and entering the kitchen. With a shared grin, Kazuto and Suguha gave them both a gentle nudge. "You heard her, no fair getting sick right after arriving," Kazuto joked, and after another moment, Will and Emily followed them inside.
"Here, we'll take your stuff up to our rooms. Go and see what mom's cooking, because it smells good," Kazuto suggested with a grin. The other two survivors nodded, and they walked through the open door that Mrs. Kirigaya had gone through. Kazuto was right. It did smell good. Seeing that the pair wasn't sure what they should do, she smiled at them.
"Well, come on then. Have a seat. You must be exhausted after such a long flight," she offered, gesturing to the chairs at the table. The pair nodded thankfully and sat down, holding each others hands at their sides. "So, how are you doing?" she asked.
"We're doing well," Will slowly replied, and Mrs. Kirigaya laughed.
"It's okay, you can relax. You were probably expecting communication to be more difficult, weren't you?" she guessed, and they both nodded, slightly embarrassed. "I suppose that'd partially on me. I should've had Kazuto tell you that we already understand at least some English for one reason or another. Kazuto and Suguha got it from their games, while myself and my husband get it more from our work. Although, the kids definitely know the most out of our family," she explained, walking over to the table with a large plate full of food.
"Thank you, Mrs. Kirigaya," Emily replied as she set down plates in front of them. "We're really grateful for you letting us stay here in advance of the new school year," she said, and Mrs. Kirigaya nodded.
"It's my pleasure. With how much you helped Kazuto in getting out of the game, it was the least we could do to help you get acclimated to the different environment," she replied with a friendly smile.
"Wait, he told you about all of that?" Will asked. "Back home, after we woke up, people were saying it might be best to come to terms with what happened ourselves before talking about it with others."
Mrs. Kirigaya sighed slightly. "That's understandable. I'm not sure if Kazuto was told not to tell people about what happened inside that game, but as soon as he came home from the hospital, he started telling his father, Suguha, and I all about it," she explained. "To be completely honest, I think that somewhere deep down, he really enjoyed that game, despite all the risks involved."
"You think so?" Emily asked. "I'm not sure anyone could enjoy an experience like that..."
Mrs. Kirigaya nodded. "Not like you would a simple hobby, and I know it was difficult and painful for you all. But all the same, for all of the bad things that happened because of Sword Art Online, I can tell that there were good things to come from it too. The two of you, for example."
Will's eyes widened. "Us?" he asked, and Kazuto's mom nodded.
"Yes. If it wasn't for that game, my little champ wouldn't have met people like you. I won't pretend to understand what happened in there, but when he woke up, he was much different than he was two years ago, and I believe that has to be at least in part because of the friends he made in there. Friends like you, your friends Grace and Xander, miss Yuuki, Mr. Mills and Mr. Ryoutarou, and everyone else," she told them. "Not only that, but that game forged some very tight bonds between the players. It's easy to see in the way you talk to each other. Without that game, would you say that you would have anywhere near as many close friends all over the world as you do now?"
Will and Emily both thought about what she was saying, and they realized that she was right. It was a shockingly different perspective from what they had of SAO, but not one without its own validity. Were it not for their experiences in the game, both of them knew that they likely wouldn't have gotten into a romantic relationship with each other, since they weren't originally planning to even go to the same colleges after graduating from high school, and so probably wouldn't see much of each other face to face. They certainly wouldn't have made so many close friendships with so many people all around the world. "But that's enough talking about the dreary past for now," Mrs. Kirigaya said, pulling them out of their thoughts. "Are you looking forward to your classes in a few months?" she asked, and Will and Emily both nodded.
"I definitely am. Even though I was in college when the game started, I'm rather intrigued at how school works over here compared to in the states. Still, I really wish we could've taken the classes from home..." Will admitted.
"Yeah, it is frustrating that we have to move away from home, but it does make sense too," Emily replied. "I'm glad they have a music course though. When Grace and Xander wake up, I know they'll both be excited to hear about that."
Mrs. Kirigaya bowed her head. "Yes, I heard about them last night from Kazuto. I'm truly sorry," she said, and Will and Emily nodded in appreciation. "But you all survived that game together, so I know they'll find their way out, just like the rest of the players did."
Will nodded. "That's what we're hoping for," he said, as Suguha and Kazuto walked into the kitchen.
"I thought I smelled something good. You didn't have to wait for us, you know," Kazuto told them, but Will and Emily shook their heads.
"Maybe, but we both always ate with our families all together at home, so it only felt right to wait for you both to get here too," Will replied with a smile. Kazuto walked over and ruffled his hair playfully like Will had occasionally in SAO, before sitting down next to Suguha across from them.
A/N: WOW that was a lot of work, but I'm super, SUPER happy to finally be able to start working on this series again. With my clean up of the Forgotten Heroes mostly done, I figured it'd be high time to finally get this one going too, since it's been so long since the original draft of TFH was finished. Originally, I had planned to get to work on this right after TFH, but a couple of things kept that from happening. For one thing, I had gotten more interested in my Genshin Impact Fic (which I also need to finish... Eh, not like that hasn't happened before.), and so that was at the front of my brain. But even more than that, one of my pet peeves that I've noticed I have when writing fanfiction is that I simply cannot stand getting stuff wrong, and if I realize I did after publishing something, I need to go back and fix it. But for some reason, and I'm fairly positive it was because a lot of the beginning of this series takes place in a world that, aside from VR being significantly more advanced that it is in real life, is quite similar to real life. And because it takes place in Japan, I really, REALLY wanted to get stuff that has to do with things like the culture and traditions right.
The catch? I don't live in Japan, I never have (although I will admit, going there to visit is definitely on my bucketlist of things to do in my life), and the only person I know who lives, or at least, has lived for a long time in Japan, is someone I have no way to get in contact with them anymore (they were a foreign exchange student I shared a couple classes with in high school and got to be decent friends with). And even if I could get in touch, I wouldn't be surprised if they barely remember me anymore since it has been quite a few years since we haven't talked much, if not at all, since they flew back home right before all the borders went into pretty much total international lockdown for the pandemic.
So, I really only had one option: Google. Lots, and lots, and lots and a lot of a lot more googling. Seriously, I don't think I've ever googled "Do people do blank in Japan" than I have for this fic. (I kid you not, I was googling stuff as basic as how handshakes and shrugging works, to how roofs were designed, to the existence of coffee shops. That's how serious I was about getting this kind of stuff right. I think I even at one point googled if people parked their cars outside or in garages, just because I wasn't sure, and well, I wanted to be. Hey, in my defense, I was going off of various pictures, sketches, designs, and even a floorplan for the Kirigaya residence shown in the anime, and I could never see one in their house, but I figured surely Kazuto wouldn't just leave that fancy motorcycle out in the elements.) Anyway, that's the main reason why even though I started this chapter right after TFH, but it took me almost three quarters of a year to finally decide "Yeah, let's get this thing done already". It was simply really overwhelming, and so I put it off and rationalized it by telling myself that it wasn't like many of my readers were probably looking forward to it anyway, at least not as much as they were my other fics. Eventually, I got really engrossed in Sword Art Online again however, and after one of my friends posted a video about why they really liked the Fairy Dance arc, I finally decided that I wanted to start working in earnest on the sequel to my first ever published fanfiction series.
All in all, I guess what I'm trying to say is that this story has been a long time coming, and I'm more happy than I can put into words to finally have the energy and drive to get back into it. Say what you will about Sword Art Online, I know it's far from the best shows, but I can say for certain it's always going to be special to me, since it was what got me into Japanese anime in the first place. (I know shows like Avatar: the last Airbender are also technically an anime, and although it will always be near and dear to me since I grew up with it as a kid, but something about SAO just hits different for me.)
Anyway, I've taken enough of your time with my rambling, so I'll let you all go now. I hope to see you all again soon for the next upload of this saga! (Whenever it is, haha.)