Chapter 3: The Stepmother and Cinderella

August 16, 2023 - 15 months ago.

It was a beautiful sunny day with only a few clouds in the sky. On the air could be heard the delightful squeals of small children chasing each other in a park across the street. A gentle breeze came up to move the branches of the cherry trees, which let out a pleasant sigh.

A young man was sitting on a porch with a perfect view. He was dressed in overalls and was wearing a ball cap.

A red-crested cardinal fluttered over to the porch and landed on the railing right in front of the person in the chair. It was only a couple feet away. The bird tucked its red head under a wing to clean it, then turned to face the person in the chair.

The bird tilted its head sideways, then it hopped right into his lap. It stole a breadcrumb that had been laying there. Then it flew away.

The person in the chair did not move.

There was a knock on the door. A woman got up and invited the visitor to come inside.

"Good afternoon, Sachi. How are you today?"

Sachi was holding a shopping bag. "I'm fine, Mrs. Hayashi. It's a wonderful day outside."

"It certainly is."

The girl walked in. "I bought the pumpkin bread that you wanted from the bakery. It's fresh baked."

"Oh that's wonderful. My, you picked some pretty wildflowers."

"Thank you. I got them from my back yard. I thought Keita might like them."

"Yes, I am sure that he will love them. I'll go get a vase. You can put the bread on the counter."

Sachi went in to the kitchen and put down the bag and removed the wrapped loaves. The woman returned with an empty vase and gave it to Sachi, who used a pair of scissors to trim the stems diagonally and fit them into the container. Then she used a kitchen knife to cut a slice from one of the loaves. She picked up the slice and spread some butter on it, then placed it on a small plate and covered it with a paper napkin.

She took the vase and the plate and walked out onto the sunlit side porch. She placed the vase on a small stand within view of the chair, then she sat in a second chair next to the former leader of the Moonlit Black Cats.

Sachi held up the plate. "I brought you some fresh pumpkin bread, see?" She unwrapped the napkin and held the still-warm slice under his nose. "Doesn't it smell wonderful?"

There was no reaction.

She broke off a small piece. She touched the piece to his lips. His mouth opened a bit. She then carefully placed the piece on his tongue.

He slowly began to chew it.

"I knew you'd like it."

She continued to feed him pieces of the bread as she went on with her one-way conversation. "You know, I think this is the best day we've had all summer. Don't you agree?" After a pause she gestured at the vase. "Look, I brought you some wildflowers. I picked them myself. Do you like them?"

Mrs. Hayashi quietly watched the one-way conversation from the doorstep.

Eventually she went back inside.

Sachi sat with Mrs. Hayashi in the foyer. She sipped her tea. "You know, I think he's improving."

Keita's mother said with some anxiety, "It's been months." She looked down. "I'm starting to wonder if my son will ever come back to me."

Sachi leaned forward to give words of encouragement. "I'm sure he will."

"Really? Do you think so?"

"Yes, I do. It just takes time, that's all. This is a new experience for all of us, this VRDP syndrome. We each reacted differently and recovered at different rates. Do you remember how wiggy I was at first?"

"Oh yes, I remember. You were in a terrible state."

June 29, 2023 - 17 months ago.

It was one week after the Cats' awakening. Mrs. Hayashi and the other parents were finally allowed to see their children in the Acute Recovery Ward.

Ducker remained sullen and listless. Tetsuo was still wild eyed, with outbursts of aggression. Sasamaru had Tourette's Syndrome. Keita remained completely catatonic. Sachi was still coming down from her initial panic attack after she had fought the orderlies who had tried to restrain her.

Five days after awakening she was still jumpy and twitchy, her face haggard, her hair unkempt, with dark black cycles under her eyes. Her stress levels remained highly elevated. She still had not been able to sleep since waking up.

The lack of sleep caused her to have hallucinations. Eventually she had to be sedated. By the end of the first week the hallucinations had mostly subsided, but the doctors were still concerned about her inability to sleep without a strong sedative.

Meanwhile, the government was insisting on interviewing and debriefing the VRDP victims as soon as possible. It was because the fugitive, Akihiko Kayaba, was still on the loose, and the government was anxious for any information they could get on his whereabouts. It was assumed that he was still somehow connected to the game and was monitoring it closely. It was possible that he was even an active participant.

Shortly after their failed break-in attempt at Argus headquarters, the JGSDF was tasked to find out if Kayaba was still hiding inside the building. At first the mission seemed impossible, for there was no possible access into the booby-trapped building.

Then the engineers hit upon an idea: Check the water usage. They tapped into the water mains and sewer systems at their entrance to the building and placed sensitive electronic monitors to measure water consumption. After a week there was almost no water usage, not even a toilet flush. The conclusion: No one was inside.

The fact that no information was coming out of the game was very frustrating. Other than a basic log that displayed the active player roster, and a second log showing the time and floor number of each victim's death in the game, nobody knew what was happening inside. The only real source of information came from interviewing the VRDPs.

June 30, 2023 - 17 months ago.

Seijirou Kikuoka sat at a small desk in the interview room. The room had no windows and was bathed in a soothing yellow light. A round chair was situated in front of the desk. He was a tall thin man in his late 30s wearing eyeglasses and a business suit.

Kikuoka adjusted his glasses as he read the dossier folder to prepare for the next interview. He was shaking his head.

He worked in the new Ministry of Internal Affairs Telecommunications Bureau, Virtual Division. His current primary duty was to interview and debrief the VRDP victims in order to gather information on the SAO Incident.

He was an ideal person for the task, not only because of his previous experience in giving counseling and training, which gave him good skills as an interviewer, but also because of his martial arts skills. A few VRDPs had a tendency to suddenly lash out violently without warning, and this allowed him to disable any sudden attacks to prevent any harm to himself or others.

Kikuoka had doubted that his martial arts skills would be required for his next interview session. He pressed his mic and said, "Please bring her in."

The door opened and a girl hesitantly entered the room. Her eyes were dark and bloodshot.

"Please, Miss Watanabe, sit down. Can I get you anything?"

She paused, then sat in the offered chair. Her fingers idly twisted her hair in ragged knots.

"Would you like some tea perhaps?"

Another pause, then she shook her head. She simply looked down at the floor while avoiding any eye contact.

That poor girl, she's just a child. He checked the dossier: Sachi Watanabe, age 14, single child living with her mother. Above average intelligence, some computer skills, type INTP in the Myer-Briggs system (a rare category), with anomalous scores on the MMPI-2 in the D, Hy, Pa, Pt, and Si scales. She's introverted and smart, but she's still pretty messed up.

He clasped his hands together on the desk. "Miss Watanabe, I know this has been very hard for you, and I know that you are still recovering, but I have some questions for you. I want to help you, to see if we can find out what happened to you. Do you think you can do that?"

She continued to look at the floor in silence.

"Please, Miss Watanabe. It is important that you try to help us. So that we can help you. We want to learn more about who did this to you and why."

At the word 'why' she looked up. Then she repeated the word. "Why.."

He sighed, "Yes, why. Do you think you can help us? Then maybe we can try to learn the answers, together."

She began to get agitated. She stood up. "It makes no sense! Why create that world? Why did I end up stuck there? Why did all of those terrible things happen to me? Why?"

Kikuoka got up and walked around the desk. "It's okay." He gently placed his hands on the scared young girl's shoulders. He spoke soothing words. "I understand. We have a lot of questions to ask you, but I know that you have a lot of questions too. Let's work together." Poor thing. She's the same age as my own daughter.

The petite girl looked up into his eyes, pleading, searching for answers. "Then please sir, tell me why? Why did he do that to me? Why did I get hurt like that? Why was I killed? I didn't do anything wrong." She clutched his suit jacket. "I didn't do anything wrong! I didn't!"

He said softly, "I know. Please, sit down."

"I'm sorry, sir. I just don't understand why any of this happened to me."

As the case officer walked back to his desk he felt a sense of obligation to the girl. I should try to give her an explanation, or at least the best one I can muster. She deserves that. "I understand your frustration. I want to help. Please, sit."

She did.

He leaned back in his chair. "Okay, I don't normally do this, but let me give you a little bit of my personal philosophy. Maybe it might help you. The truth, Miss Watanabe, is that I believe that the game is a kind of simulation, a microcosm if you will, of the kinds of things that happen in our real lives, only placed in a fantasy setting and simplified. Yes, life is unfair. Bad things can happen to us and do happen to us, for reasons we don't understand. They happen even when we don't deserve it and we think that we have done nothing wrong."

"But sir, there's no purpose to it. The whole thing, being trapped in the game, it's so meaningless."

He looked up at the ceiling. "Actually, I personally believe that there is a purpose to everything in life. We just don't know what that purpose is sometimes. That's my opinion, anyway." He leaned forward. "You see, I believe that we were all placed on this earth for a reason. We all have a purpose. You do too, Miss Watanabe. I believe that you were put in that game for a reason. A reason that perhaps you don't fully understand. At least not yet."

She looked at him. "A reason?"

"Yes. There was Kayaba's reason, which we don't know yet, but I think there was also a higher reason. A higher purpose. We know that Kayaba had created this little universe, one that was completely controlled by him. SAO is nothing more than a discrete finite automaton [DFA] consisting of pure information, a system that was actualized on the Argus physical mainframes, all running under well-defined logical rules and controlled from the outside, by him. He remained outside the system. He was controlling and watching the game, watching everything. Watching you.

"Well, I believe that our real universe works that way too. Just like SAO, we live inside a closed finite system, one that also operates under well defined rules and principles. There are many famous people like Isaac Newton, Joannes Kepler, and Albert Einstein, who have helped us to discover those rules.

"And that system is being operated from the outside, at a higher level, a place that we can't see for ourselves. It's just like how you couldn't see outside the boundaries of SAO even though you knew that a much bigger world existed outside of it. Well I believe that there is another place, call it 'Heaven' or whatever you want to name it, that is bigger than our own reality, bigger in ways we cannot possibly begin to imagine.

She was thinking. "I see. So you think someone is watching us even now. From this outside place. This so-called 'Heaven'."

"Yes, I do."

"Really? Can you prove that?"

"Well, it's a complicated philosophical argument. Unfortunately we don't have time for it here. It has to do with quantum mechanics and the act of observation actualizing events by collapsing the wave function into a single well defined state. Events in QM don't come into existence until they are first observed. Sounds weird, I know, but basically observation is the key to everything. The key to existence. The reason is that if something is not observed it literally does not exist in the QM sense. I say, 'I think therefore I am', and since I am aware of myself right this moment then someone must be observing me doing it.

"I admit it's a gross oversimplification, and the argument is far more technical than that. Anyway, we don't want to get off track." He glanced down at a second dossier that was hidden under a folder on his desk. It was for the notorious game 'beater', Kirito.

"The point is, Miss Watanabe, I think that you had a purpose in being in SAO, and together you and I are going to try to discover that purpose." Kikuoka pulled out the second dossier and opened it.

Kirito's real name in the dossier was Kazuto Kirigaya, a VRMMO enthusiast. He also rated INTP on Myers-Briggs (estimated), the same rare category as Watanabe. It was a rather extraordinary coincidence given that less than than 3% of the population was in that particular category.

The dossier contained a summary of the results of previous interviews with VRDPs who knew of Kirito. The interviewees had all reported the same thing: he was a reviled and hated beta-tester, one who cheated by taking advantage of special privileged information that he had gleaned during the beta-test phase. Kirito was the beta-test cheater: The Beater. Because of his reputation he always played solo.

Kikuoka felt that the reaction of the other players was foolish. If they really wanted to escape the game, he reasoned, and if Kirito had the best chance doing that successfully, then logically they should be helping him as much as possible, not ostracizing him.

Jealousy, spite, hatred, fear. All born out of ignorance. The human condition never changes, Kikuoka thought ruefully.

But all the available information that he had about Kirito was only second hand. Nobody with any direct experience with Kirito had been interviewed yet. Either they were still in the game, or they had died but were still too mentally disturbed to give any useful info, or they were just flat out lying. For example, a player named Diavel, another beta-tester according to the dossier, had claimed to have worked directly with Kirito in clearing floor 1, but the information he had given was internally inconsistent.

Kikuoka knew that Sachi Watanabe had died in a TPK during a fight on floor 23 that happened about a week ago. The other players who died were so far either too incapacitated or too uncooperative to give any useful info. But one, named Ducker, did give his interviewer some useful information on Kirito.

Ducker had claimed that Kirito had joined their party, a 5-person group called the 'Moonlit Black Cats'. Sachi Watanabe was the only female member, and Ducker had said that she and Kirito had become close friends. He also said that he spotted them sleeping together and that they had become lovers.

Now, if those claims were true (a big if), then this would be a major breakthrough. It meant that Sachi Watanabe had a stronger personal connection to Kirito than anyone else in the game. If the claims were true then she knew Kirito - the famous game 'beater' who had the best chance of clearing the game and freeing the other victims - so she might be a very important person of interest.

The other information on Kirito was still conflicted. Kikuoka suspected that this young girl might be the key to unlocking the mystery of who Kirito really was. Once Kirito was understood there was a good chance of learning more about Kayaba himself, for surely the god of that world would be very interested in watching the person who appeared to be SAO's best player.

"Now, Miss Watanabe, please listen carefully. Let's figure out what happened to you. And in doing so maybe we can even try to figure out the reason why it happened. Would you like that?"

"Yes sir, I would."

"Good girl. Now, please, this is important. I need you to tell me everything that you know about a beta-test player with the handle 'Kirito'."

She looked down. "Kirito. Yes, I know him, sir."

"Yes, I am aware of that. He's still inside the game."

"I know that too, sir. He is still trapped in the game."

"Yes. I'm sorry."

"Not half as sorry as I am."

"Really? Please tell me why."

She looked up at him. "I.. I was an idiot. I messed up."

"Messed up?"

She looked down. "I left him a note. I was stupid."

"In case you died, yes?"

"Yes. In case I died."

"But you will see him again so you can explain it. You died and left that universe, then you popped up a level and woke up here, and this is your second life. You have a second chance to make things up with him."

"Yes, but.."

He mused thoughtfully, "You know, if more people knew that there was a life beyond this one, they might behave a bit differently towards each other, don't you agree?"

She jumped out of her chair again. "I know! I know I have a second life. But I made a mistake! Oh, that note is going to absolutely devastate him. Argh, why did I do that?"

"It's not your fault, Miss Watanabe. You didn't know. You didn't know that you and he would have second life together."

"A second life..."

"One day he will wake up and find you very much alive. You'll be together again."

She slumped in her chair.

"Wait, doesn't that make you happy?"

"No."

"But why not?"

She looked up at him with pleading eyes.

"Sir, it's going to hurt him so badly. On Christmas Eve he'll be destroyed. I made a terrible blunder."

"I see."

"I have no idea what to do about it. How can I undo my mistake? How can I fix this?"

"Hmm."

"There is no possible way I can make amends to him for what I've done. How could I? What can I do to make up for this?"

He steepled his fingers together thoughtfully.

"Okay, I understand your predicament. Hmm. Well, let's discuss this." He pushed a button on his mic.

"Nurse, please cancel all my other interviews for today."

October 20, 2023 - 13 months ago.

With Sachi's small size she could barely see over the bundle of groceries that she was carrying. Mrs. Kirigaya had her own bundle and walked up the steps in heels. She fumbled with her latchkey to open the front door. Using her shoulder for leverage she started to awkwardly pull open the outer screen door with her elbow, but then it slipped and started to close again.

Sachi jumped forward. She pulled open the screen door with her teeth while holding the huge load.

Mrs. Kirigaya chuckled at her door-opening heroics. "Oh Sachi, you don't need to do that."

Sachi grunted something as she waited for Mrs. Kirigaya to finish unlocking the main door. They went inside together.

Mrs. Kirigaya hummed a pleasant tune as she and Sachi unpacked groceries in the kitchen. After they were finished Sachi said, "Well, I'm going outside to finish the windows."

"Thank you so much, dear."

"It's no trouble at all."

"You know, I really feel like I ought to be paying you for all this."

"No, I won't accept anything."

"But please.. you've done so much. And you've taken such good care of my poor boy. You don't need to feel like you need to replace him too."

"Nope. This is all part of my volunteer work. You're right, you don't have a son to do these chores. So it's my duty to help."

"Honestly, he wouldn't do half the chores you do even if I ordered him. You are really such a dear."

"Oh, it's nothing."

"And thank you for the meal that you served last night. The teriyaki was wonderful."

"My pleasure. You really shouldn't be eating frozen dinners and take-out so much."

Mrs. Kirigaya sighed, "Well, with my work schedule what else can I do?"

Sachi looked around the room. "Now where is that stupid cat? He's overdue for a claw trimming again. We can't have him scratching the furniture."

"Yaya must be with Suguha again. Honestly, the way that girl clings to that cat you'd think they were married. Well, I need to get back to work writing my computer magazine article. I'll be downstairs at the computer probably for the rest of the evening. You can let yourself out with the key when you are done."

"I'll be sure to lock it. Oh, do you still want me to try to buy those tickets using your credit card when the box office opens tomorrow?"

"Oh yes. Thank you for reminding me. That play has gotten such wonderful reviews. The tickets will probably sell out fast. You'll need to get in line early to get seats for the main section."

"Will do."

"And get four tickets."

"Four?"

"Four. You are invited too, of course."

Sachi pleaded, "But Mrs. Kirigaya, those tickets are expensive. I couldn't possibly.."

"No, I insist. Given all you've done it's the least I can offer in return." She smiled, "You don't give me a lot of options to thank you, you know."

Sachi looked down. "Ma'am, if I go to the play with you and your husband then you know that Suguha, well.."

"Yes?"

"Well, you know she won't go if I do..."

Mrs. Kirigaya put her hands on her hips. "Oh Suguha is going to that play all right. I will tell Minetaka to pick up her insubordinate daughter and carry her to the theater under his arm if I have to. I am simply fed up with her."

"Oh ma'am, no, it's better if I don't go..."

"You are DEFINITELY going! Frankly, I am getting sick and tired of Suguha's moody teenage behavior. If she wants to act like a child around you then she'll get treated like one. You are both going. That's final."

Sachi bowed. "Yes ma'am."

"You might want to wear something nice. You can use my card to buy whatever you think you like."

"No, I couldn't..."

"Do it for me. Honestly, you look so pretty when you dress up." She laughed, "Cinderella needs a gown to go the ball, yes?"

Sachi smiled a bit at the mental image of herself.

Mrs Kirigaya mused, "It's a pity that Suguha's been acting like your evil step-sister. It's so childish. And she's been putting on weight. I know she's naturally curvy but she has too much padding now. Look at you, you're so naturally thin, and you are developing such a darling figure."

"Oh ma'am, please. Suguha isn't too heavy. You shouldn't say things like that."

"Well, what do you expect me to say about her? She sits in her room all day with that cat and eats fig newtons. She won't swim, she won't practice kendo, she won't do her chores or help cook. All she does is sit in her room."

Sachi looked down. "I know. Maybe I should just do volunteering at the hospital.."

Mrs. Kirigaya got her dander up again. "No! Absolutely not! I won't have that little drama queen chase you out of my home!"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Well, I need to get to work on that magazine article. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Mrs. Kirigaya."

Kazuto's stepmother went down the stairs to her basement home office and closed the door.

Sachi found the kitty-claw trimmers in a drawer. The next step was to find Yaya, which meant going upstairs.

Sigh. She knocked on Suguha's bedroom door. "It's me. I need Yaya for his trim."

A muffled voice came from inside the room. "Go away."

"Please. You know I can just come in if I have to. Your mother said..."

The door swung open. Sugu was in a bathrobe holding the cat. She raged, "I know what mom said! Here you are, Little Miss Perfect, go take him!" She tossed the tortoise shell cat at Sachi, who instinctively caught it. The door slammed shut.

Sachi went downstairs and wrapped Yaya in a towel for his claw trimming. She sat on a chair in the kitchen and petted the cat.

"She hates me, Yaya. What do I do?"

The cat gave a cheerful meow in reply.

A/N:

One of my concerns in writing this story was that I was uncertain in canon what Kirito's feelings really were with respect to Sachi. He was definitely acting like a father to her in episode 3 but there was no overt romance seen going on between them, and in the LN (Vol 2) Kirito had narrated that their shared bedtime was tender but always platonic (although ironically it was more intimate than was shown in episode 3). So was he ever actually in love with her?

Then I found out that during an interview with Reki Kawahara he had stated that Sachi was in fact Kirito's first love. Although Kawahara tended to reverse himself a lot, it still gave me more confidence to press on with this story.

After much thought, I decided to change the ending. Normally I never do that (I always write the ending first). Originally I had intended the story to go dark, with Sachi declining almost down to Nice Boat territory and then recover in a bittersweet ending with her being redeemed before dying again. But as I worked on chapter 2 her character started to gel in my mind, with her voice yelling in my head "Hey! I'm not like that!" And then in my research I had learned that there is a notable Kirito x Sachi fandom out there. Search Google Images for 'SAO Sachi Kirito' and you will see what I mean. That made me happy that I changed my mind.

As always, thank you for reading.
-HuuskerDu

P.S. A person with the handle 'Akiie-chan' at DeviantArt did a series of drawings entitled "Sword Art Online Sachi's awake" that are simply amazing. The one with Sachi with the longer hair and the nurse volunteer outfit (with a pink sweater!) blew me away. Somebody is reading my miiiiind! The gallery also has an older Sachi wearing a beautiful blue and white dress. (You can assume she wore that to the play.) She was also given a fairy-winged long-eared ALO form that I just love.

P.P.S. Special thanks to Ijustwannahelp for his encyclopedic knowledge in helping me write this story.

A/N Update:

This story follows the stylistic and linguistic conventions of the official English translation of the Light Novels (LNs). Like the LNs, I don't follow the otaku conventions of putting the surname ahead of the given name, appending honorific suffixes ubiquitously (-kun, -san, etc), or inserting Japanese terms everywhere without definitions. I might use a name suffix occasionally for emphasis (e.g., -chan for endearment), and if I use a Japanese word that is relevant to the plot I will translate it (e.g., onii-chan). (By the way I did a search for onii-chan in LN vols 1-4 and the word never appears even once.)

In my stories I am careful to explain the essential background information that you need to know from the original material in order to be able to follow the plot. This might make the story seem a bit pedantic in the early chapters (e.g., explaining who Akihiko Kayaba is), but it can't be helped.

-H