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I do not own SAO, and all credit is due to Reki Kawahara.

When Midori Kazehaya had entered the house she shared with her husband, daughter, and nephew, she hadn't expected to arrive just in time for the phone to ring. She stood there, silently, gazing at the ringing phone, bag loosely hanging from her hand.

She didn't bother to hide her anxiety, no one was here to see it. Her daughter was at kendo practice; her husband was at work. Every, single, time that the phone rang she was afraid. Afraid that this would be the call that would send her family into a spiral of depression. Afraid that this would be the call that would break their hearts.

It was times like this, when she was alone, that she could feel the sadness creeping in on her. She missed Kazuto. Everyone in her family did and even though they had grown a bit farther apart over recent years, their feelings towards one another had managed to weather the storm.

But standing here wasn't accomplishing anything. It might even be good news.

I can't be afraid of everything that life throws at me. I need to keep going.

She walked up and answered the phone…

Midori POV

The call hadn't been announcing the death of her beloved nephew. It also hadn't been one announcing his awakening. It seems that they were going to continue to be stuck in this exhausting state of limbo. She couldn't keep bouncing to hope and back. It was too tiring.

The person on the phone wasn't from the hospital. It wasn't a telemarketer. It was a girl. She had claimed to know Kazuto, even though she messed up sometimes and called him Kirito. Her voice had been mellow and sweet, and her voice undoubtedly carried a hint of underlying steel.

The girl, Yuuki Asuna-san, said that she wanted to know if Kazuto could come meet up with some of the other players from SAO. This meant that she didn't know that Kirito hadn't woken up yet. While, she felt that Yuuki-san was being truthful in her intentions towards her nephew, she didn't know what to think about the other members of the group. So she refrained from mentioning the condition of Kazuto over the phone. But Yuuki-san seemed well-intentioned, and if Kazuto was really friends with her, it might do him some good to have visitors other than family.

If they couldn't be trusted, they weren't going to get anywhere near Kazuto. She had sworn to protect him to the best of her abilities, on the night of her sister's death. She could remember the night exactly…

-2009, The Kirigaya Household-

She and her family had been celebrating the good news of her own pregnancy. The very fact that her sister and husband had traveled from where they lived in a neighboring prefecture. Her parents and in-laws were coming as well. It was just for a few days to celebrate. Her parents were the first to show up, and then her in-laws, they all showed up and were prepared to have a good time. But as hours passed, it became apparent that three very important people were missing.

"Midori-chan!" she jerked a bit, scared out of her thoughts by a voice. She started to fall, only to be caught by her ever watchful husband (he really was a worrywart).Eyes wide, she breathlessly rebuked her mother, "Okaa-san. Really, please don't scare me like that!"

Kuroki Hanako carried herself well, happy and content. Even after the death of her beloved husband, she didn't let anything get her down. She had aged gracefully from a beautiful youth into a still striking older woman. She had plenty of gentleman callers, and was veritably popular in the middle aged to elder community. "I just checked my phone, and it turns out that I have a message from your sister, Shouhei. She mentioned that they were going to head out around ten this morning."

Midori turned glanced at her watch. It was nearing four. Her mother saw this and her faced took on a slightly worried look. "They should have been here by now."

Not wanting her mother to be upset, and a little worried herself she tried to justify their absence, "I'm sure that they are just running a little late. They could have run out of gas, or maybe something could have come up with work." To her, the excuses seemed feeble to her ears, but they seemed to be working on her mother.

Her mother shook her head exasperatedly, "Mou, those two, they should have called if they were going to be late…" saying this, she turned and walked back to the group. Midori was left alone in the hallway, trying to quiet her own worried thoughts. "Midori! C'mon!

Dinner had been great, and they played many games together. They had been so happy. When they had announced their coming child, her family had celebrated, with the occasional wolf whistle, or bawdy joke aimed at Minetaka.

The only problem was Shouhei, Mitsuko, and never showed up. At the time, no one was worried; they just assumed that something came up. They never suspected the truth. It was only the next day that they got the call.

The family had all been crowded in the kitchen, eating toast, miso soup and some tamagoyaki when the phone rang. She had had to remove herself from the table and navigate the crowded kitchen, dodging an errant elbow; squeeze past an improperly positioned chair. Her mother giggled at her, not bothering to help. She reached the phone and picked it up, only to silence it by putting it against her shoulder and turning to glare at her now cowed guests. They immediately turned back to their food. When Midori was irritated, she meant business.

She returned the phone to its place and heard a tired man's voice on the other line.

"Hello, is this the Kirigaya residence?"

She didn't recognize him. "Yes. May I ask who's calling?"

"This is # #$*%$ from Saitama Red Cross Hospital. Are you related to one Tsukino Shouhei, and one Tsukino Mitsuko?"

What?

"What?! They are in the hospital?! Are they okay?! Please tell me they're alright!"

They have to be okay. They have to.

"Ma'am. Please calm down. I am sorry to say, yesterday, there was a pile up on the Nagoya Expressway. This crash involved five other cars. A drunk driver had swerved on the highway into other lanes, and they and the other three other cars were unable to avoid it. There have been four casualties, as of this morning."

"What about them, please!"

She could hear an audible breath on the other line before, "I am sorry to say that Tsukino Shouhei died on scene, and Tsukino Mitsuko made it to the hospital, but died later in surgery. I am sorry for your loss."

She couldn't take it. She dropped the phone. Everyone at the table had been paying close attention to her after her cries into the phone. Her husband dropped what he was doing, and raced over to her. He picked up the phone and listened. His only words were, "What about my nephew?", and 'I see.". He hung up.

She could see that her family understood the reasons for her devastation. The only word they needed to hear was 'hospital' and to see her reaction. She pulled herself up using a nearby table edge. She wavered a bit, and her legs felt like jelly but she stood on her own. They had to hear it. Nothing else could make it real.

"Okaa-san, Tou-san.. Minna-san… yesterday, there was an accident… and Oniisan and Oneesan…. died." It was hard to keep going. Every other word faltered, and she had so much trouble saying it out loud. She had to acknowledge it, because even if she didn't, it still had happened.

There it was. No going back now. They were gone, and they weren't coming back.

Silence reigned. And one by one, everyone in the room succumbed to tears. Her mother could be heard muttering "Ohhhhh… my daughter, my son..." or "My beautiful baby girl…"

Her mother had stared bleakly at the ceiling, "A mother should never outlive her children."

That day the world lost two precious people. Shouhei and Mitsuko Tsukino were kind. They helped others to the best of their abilities, and they absolutely adored their son Kazuto. And then they were gone. All because of one man who decided to drive while drunk. He died in that accident, but it didn't make anything right. There was nothing that could take back what he had stolen.

Kirito soon joined their little family. He had been left with some family friends, because they didn't want to take him somewhere with a cold. It took about a week for the adoption papers to be signed. His family name was changed to Kirigaya.

The wake and funerals were held.

One of the only happy occasions was when Suguha Kirigaya came into the world a few months after the accident. It gave everyone a reason to be happy again, to celebrate. She was a year younger than Kazuto, and we hoped that he would be like a big brother to her. She adored him, even as an infant and though young himself, he doted on her.

Time passed. Kazuto started learning Kendo under Otou-san (Minetaka's father). A year later Sugu joined. Then Kazuto started learning about computers, and quit. Not too long after that, he found out he was adopted. Apparently he had managed to find a copy of his birth records in the national registry. He started pulling further and further away from us.

-Present day-

Then Sword Art Online happened. She couldn't protect him from it. There was nothing she could do. She could only visit him, talk to him, hope for him.

But still, she wouldn't give her family up for anything. Every single moment of joy, amusement, sorrow, anger, and exasperation in between. It was worth it. For him, for Sugu, for her family. She would do whatever she could to protect her children.

The phone call definitely wasn't what she had expected. It was from a girl, her name was… Yuuki Asuna-san. She claimed to have been friends with Kazuto from SAO. Several times during the conversation, she slipped up and called her son 'Kirito'. She could only assume that was what he was called during the game. But Yuuki-san wanted to meet her son. Her son which was currently unconscious in the hospital. She believed that the girl's intentions were sincere, but she could not say the same for the others in their group. She wouldn't be able to say if her son would be safe. The only way to do that would be to meet them in person and to ascertain their wishes towards Kazuto.

She knew her son was fighting his own battles. She would just have to protect him since he couldn't protect himself.

"Sugu! We're going out!"

"Kaa-san?!"

"We're going to meet a few friends of your brothers."

Dicey Cafe

"Um, is the party for the SAO players?"

Asuna was unsure, but she thought she had heard that voice before…when she had called Kirito's house.

"Ano… Kirigaya-san?"

Kirigaya Midori noticed Asuna saying her name, and smiled, "Asuna Yuuki-san?" she asked for verification.

"Hai, but you can just call me Asuna."

"Well, then you can call me Midori."

"Oh, no, I couldn't-"

"I insist" she interrupted smiling scarily. Klien gulped in the background.

"-but it's nice to meet you Midori-san."

Her face softened.

Asuna could see how Kirito was related to her. They looked very similar, with the same kind of dark eyes that could be intimidating, but also kind. But as she watched Kiriga-Midori-san notice the variety of assembled characters she could see she was at a loss. Taking the reins she said "Midori-san," and her sharp gaze flickered to her. She pointed at Klein

"This is Klien-" "Tsuboi Ryoutarou"

"Argo" (she didn't volunteer her real name), "over there is Silica" "Ayano Keiko"

"Lisbeth," "Shinozaki Rika"

"And Agil" "Andrew Gilbert Mills"

At this point everyone had introduced themselves, and Midori seemed to come to a decision. "Okay. Kazuto is my son." Some looked confused at the name, and she seemed confused as well for a second. Then her gaze fell on Asuna and she coughed and said "Kirito", the confusion cleared. "This" she said thrusting her arm out the open doorway behind her and dragging a shape in. "is my daughter, Suguha."

Said girl looked embarrassed, but stood tall. Her hair was short and she dressed simply, but she was undeniably cute. The only sign of her anxiety was the way she kept fingering her shirt, as if trying to fix some non-existent wrinkles. Asuna ignored this, she was nervous as well. She put on her brightest smile and "Hajime mashite, Suguha-san. I've heard a lot about you from Kirito-kun, ano, I mean Kazuto-kun." She received a radiant smile in return.

"Now," Midori-san continued "Kazuto is unable to be here tonight" she looked at the array of concerned faces. "He is still in the hospital." She continued, only to be caught in a flurry of "Is he okay?", "When does he get out?", "Umm... is there any way we can visit him?", "Why isn't he out yet?"

"Umm…"came quietly from behind the target of their badgering, "He hasn't woken up yet."

Silence.

Midori sighed. "I wanted to make sure that none of you were actually those PKers I heard about on the news." She looked apologetically at Asuna. "That's why I didn't tell you over the phone, so I apologize." She bowed at them. "At the same time, if you were actually all friends of my son, I didn't want to break it to youover the phone. Friends of Kazuto's deserve better than that."

Her eyes hardened, and her voice resonated sharply among them." While I'm sure all of you are good people, I still don't trust you. I won't bring more people than I think I can handle near my son. Besides, even if I wanted to, the hospital limits the number of visitors. Decide who wants to come. The limit is two visitors. One of them will be me." She turned to walk out the door, but hesitated on the precipice.

She spun to face them, and bowed low. As she stood she said, "Thank you for being friends with my son." She walked out and didn't look back.

They were in shock. No one had expected the news that Kirito had yet to wake up. It seemed impossible. What with Asuna being up and about. He couldn't not wake up. He was Kirito, the black swordsman, he never lost. No way. "Uso."

Not a moment later Lisbeth looked up, and said determinedly "Asuna should go see him."

Everyone turned to her shocked. Lisbeth looked annoyed at that. "What?! It makes sense doesn't it?! She's his wife, they love each other. He would want to see her." The last part had trailed off a bit, losing strength but no one else seemed to notice.

Klien opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Agil. He had his arm around his beloved wife, and said "Yeah, Asuna should go."

"But I shouldn't be the only one-"

Klien seemed to have taken the hint and said quietly, "Asuna-chan. Just... go and check him out for us all right?"

She glanced all around her, taking note of the expressions on their faces, and walked out the door to find Midori-san and Suguha-chan.

Sorry if it gets confusing in some of the parts with the okaa-san and otou-san, or the onii-san and onee-san. Midori's father is dead, but you can also call in-laws as actual brothers and sisters. Minetake's father is the one with the dojo.

I hope that the names that I chose for Kirito's parents are all right. Their surname, Tsukino, means 'moon field'.

I really didn't want to stop there, but it was just taking forever to write. I feel really guilty about taking so long to post this. Sorry everyone.

I was really surprised at all the follows I got! I mean, wow! Thanks!

The next chapter shouldn't be up in too long. I have a job interview this week that is really worrying me. But if I get the job, I should have less time to write, and college is starting up soon. Thanks for bearing with me.

ps.- If you see any glaring errors, feel free to tell me. No, PLEASE tell me. Thanks for the help.

Have a nice day! :D