Ryutaro was sitting and watching his friend of two years as the later was lost to the imaginary world looking for his princess. He chuckled a bit at the thought.

'Asuna would have smacked anyone calling her a princess. Though with his luck, she probably is… Poor Kirito is going to have his hands full once he brings her back.'

It was something he noticed about his pal a few months into SAO-Kirito had the skill to get out of difficult situations and the smarts to think cleverly as well as some luck, yes, but he also had the luck to stumble into too many of those…

Klein doubted any of the other Clearers got into troubles half as often. Unless they were accompanying him.

And now that luck seemed to have followed him outside the virtual reality-in the form of friends among both the Garou and the Leeches. And in its latest iteration as a survivor of a Fera going berserk, namely finding himself between the were creature and armed soldiers shooting to kill.

It was probably due to a rat that turned up even dirtier in real life that the Black Swordsman didn't get sucked in and torn to shreds by the World of Darkness-the supernatural that hid itself from humanity.

'And to think that i was supposed to ley low and hide from the attention of the Beast Courts. They will probably end up joining us in a fight against something too big for either to handle alone, the way your luck usually rolls. Maybe one will even end up interested after you come and save the day, like some Shounen anime protagonist…'

At that thought Ryutaro Thought he felt something strange, and turned towards his charge, only to see the kid still motionless in the bed, NerveGear on head.

The werewolf shuddered.

Those things made him uneasy in a way that had nothing to do with them being a Weaver tool of great potential and everything to do with the last two years.

'It's quiet now… I hope it will last.'

"Hello, Schmidt-san, I am sorry to call again, but I'm worried. Still no sign of him?"

"No, Thinker-san. I called the others and the confirmed-there are no signs of the Black Swordsman in ALO. Neither the Salamander nor the other starting zones we kept watch over hear or see anything.

If he is inside for as long as you said he may have been, we probably missed him already.'

"You would know better… But I do hope you will regroup with him soon, it would be bad if we were to miss and come too late to help him."

"You and me both, I was happy to get this opportunity to pay the Clearer back for Ending SAO. Him and Asuna the Flash!"

"Maybe tomorrow we should go to Arrun-see about intercepting him there, near the world tree."

"Kirito would be there before us, wouldn't he…That would mean He was right… Maybe we should've done so from the start, but we doubted the Beater of SAO would get a chance to become a Beater of ALO as well…"

"What?"

"Never mind… Listen, Thinker-san, I'm thankful for your call, but my therapist about to come, so I got to finish the call. Sorry."

"Goodbye."

Yui had a strange feeling. It was something that could be recognized as confusion, but now she cared little for the intricacies of human emotions and their simulation. At that moment all of her processing was trying to handle, to understand just what her Papa did. Trying and failing to compute.

'Papa didn't have any administrator privileges, nor any card or terminal, yet he somehow affected the door coding-did he interface directly with the ALO program? Who? It shouldn't be possible.'

She was so lost in her rerunning of logic routines looking for something, anything she missed, that she didn't notice her Papa calling her at first.

"Yui, Yui!"

"Ah… Yes Papa."

"Is everything okay? You seem distracted. Did the teleport affect you somehow?"

Yui shook her head, to emphasize negative answer, as she refocused her attention on the matter at hand.

She wondered why she found herself in her SAO avatar, but it was irrelevant.

"No, papa! I'm fine, let's go rescue Mama!"

Discovering the logic error could wait for later.

"Yui…where are we?"

The AI turned girl rechecked her connection to the game system, scanning and searching for any useful information.

"I don't know. There is no mapping data."

"Do you know where Asuna is?"

Yui closed her eyes as she focused on her communication with ALO, no longer attentive to the yellow walled corridor they found themselves in. After a moment she found her answer and immediately spoke.

"Yes. She is close. Very close."

Suddenly she opened her eyes, and announced "This way", pointing into a direction, and started running, her papa right behind her.

When she found the way blocked by wall. She put both her hands on it and asked the system to open a passage.

Apparently it was considering her as administrator user, as it complied without checking her identity.

A circular opening appeared in the wall, and she led her papa through it.

They continued until another wall, this one too, opened easily at her command.

Or was it at her dad's? for a microsecond there she thought she felt his… presence within the system, but that was impossible!

This time the entered an outdoor area, and she soon recognized the ground they walked on as what was probably a branch of the World Tree. They reached the world tree! They were almost there!

As her papa looked around and then upwards he started talking.

"There is no grand city here. Some grand quest. Everything was a lie.

"I won't let whoever responsible get away with this!"

While it was not a very strongly expressed, Yui recognized the anger in her father's words. She tugged on his hand to get him to refocus on what was really important. Her Mama!

His next words showed he got it.

"Gotta save Asuna first."

She nodded and then so did he.

As they ran on the branch that was as thick as a sidewalk, they soon saw their goal a giant golden birdcage, with a humanoid figure inside.

Asuna found herself waking to a strange call.

"…Mama."

It sounded just like Yui's voice.

She turned just as the call was repeated.

"Mommy!"

There, on the other side of the bars denying her freedom, stood Yui, just like she looked in SAO.

And beside her…

While the hair was wrong and spiky, and the ears an elfin sharpness, she recognized him immediately, and not just because of his completely black clothing-was…

'Is it really you?'

The little girl placed a hand on bars and as they disappeared into dust which soon scattered, ran towards her, calling for her again as Asuna felt tears of happiness in her eyes.

"Yui-chan!" she exclaimed, and ran forward and hugged the little girl.

"Mommy!" Yui-chan exclaimed.

"Mama! Mama!"

This…this is real happiness. Not what that…creature was trying to accomplish.'

As the footsteps of the other visitor sounded, she turned from the treasure in her hands to the precious person approaching.

She stared at him for some time, trying to burn his image into her mind, to tell her heart that it was about to be over, before wiping the tears from he cheeks and calling her black angel.

"Kirito-kun."

"Asuna."

As he got close and they hugged, and as Asuna closed her eyes, she felt as if some inner voice, inner instinct was guiding her to give a big kiss to the lips of the hero that came to save his lady, and when he put his forehead to hers instead, a bigger part then she would ever admit to anyone was disappointed.

"I'm sorry I was so late…" he quietly said.

"No, I knew… that you would come. That you would find a way to find and help me get free."

"Now, let's go home."

She nodded and said "Yeah", and privately hoped that if this was a dream, she will have the luxury to enjoy it just a little bit longer, before His return.

"Yui, can you log Asuna out?"

The former Mental Health Program shook her head to negative, and replied.

"No, mommy's status is locked down by complicated codes. We'll need a system console to dispel them."

That roused her attention at once.

"I think I saw one in the lab!"

It was at that moment that Kirito-kun turned and gripped tightly on his oversized as usual sword.

Kirito suddenly felt something wrong. He turned to see the source of the danger, used to trusting his instincts from the two years as a Clearer and a solo one, hands on his sword, when it happened.

At that moment there suddenly appeared a strange pull, as if gravity got much stronger suddenly.

Soon the floor beneath them disappeared and the three found themselves standing on some invisible platform, all around them black, with no decipherable depth.

"Mommy, mommy, something bad is coming!" Yui said, panicking, as she held on to Asuna. And then…she disappeared.

Kirito tried to grab asuna's hand, as they reached to each other, and he called her name, but soon she fell to the strange gravity pulling her downward, unable to rise, and he himself barely avoided her fate, leaning on his elbows with all his strength.

"My, what a surprise…I didn't expect to see a cockroach in my little bird's cage."

The two recognized the voice immediately.

"You're… Sugou?"

And indeed, it was he, in the avatar of a green robed alf, with blond hair, large green wings and a crown on his head.

The man smirked in a nasty way.

"I'd prefer you not to use that name in this world. Call me His Highness, Fairy King Oberon!"

The last part was called with emphasize, and the man stepped on the struggling Spriggan as he said it.

Author Notes: First, expect next chapter a lot sooner than usual, like in a day or two. I was planning to do the fight here, but then the chapter got longer than i initially expected, and i figured to split it. while it is still too short, the desicion was thematically sound, as the later part is a change in theme, so you get an extra chapter this month.

Also in case it was not as obvious, Kirito's Avatar is his GGO avatar with a black light devouring shadow in a very certain, familiar shape behind it.

Thanks to all my readers, and especially reviewers. Don't forget to Review this time as well.