Hope this chapter isn't too long. Enjoy!

Chapter 18: Love to Hate

August, one year after launch of Sword Art Online

The mechanisms within the door's handle clicked softly as Hitomi shut it, trying to be as subtle as possible, despite the fact that the person inside would not awake due to the noise. Only fate would bring the girl in the hospital room back. Standing in the dark hall for a moment to contemplate the slight folly of her actions, the nurse shook her head and was about to go back to the front desk when a voice sounded behind her.

"How's she doing?"

Turning, Hitomi saw Gokou, the head nurse, standing behind her. She had to squint slightly to make out the older woman's face; they were both working very late into the night, and a glance at the clock would have told her that it was well past midnight. Despite how long it had been since the tragedy known as Sword Art Online, there were still days when the hospital's resources were stretched thin from caring for all of the local victims. Meaning that somebody had to work late, and she needed the money.

Taking a moment to glance at the door she had just so gently closed, Hitomi shrugged and answered, "As fine as all the rest, I suppose."

Smiling at those words, Gokou turned and headed down the hall, apparently expecting the younger employee to follow. Hitomi obliged her, falling into step besides the fellow nurse until they'd reached a vending machine, its glowing lights bathing that area of the otherwise dark hall an almost blinding white. Taking a moment to adjust to the sudden brightness, she waited while Gokou bent down and bought something from the machine. Popping open a can of juice and taking a brief swig, the head nurse looked over at her and said,

"Does anything about her...stand out to you?"

Knowing the true intent behind the inquiry but choosing to ignore it, Hitomi shrugged a second time and said, "She has pretty hair."

"You know what I meant," Gokou said in exasperation. "Do you recognize her?"

"We've only met once, and at that time even I wouldn't have come up to your knee," Hitomi snorted as she brushed passed the other nurse and knelt to choose her own refreshment from the vending machine. "Why is it so important, anyways?"

Gokou took her turn to shrug and took another sip from her can to get her thoughts in order. "Well, you don't run into circumstances like yours every day. Were you surprised to see her, at first?"

"Naturally. It isn't like I'm keeping contact with that side of the family. We aren't even necessarily related."

Despite her retorts, however, Hitomi knew that she could not deny the connection between herself and the comatose girl in room 20-B. The smooth, angled face, the honey-colored hair that tumbled down her sides in the moonlight...these were all features she had never seen before. Regardless, she had felt some sort of relation to the girl named Yuuki Asuna.

Gokou smirked somewhat at the girl's insistence and finished off her drink, tossing it in the trash. "Have you decided what to do about your father, yet?"

Leave it to her to bring up all the touchy subjects, Hitomi thought as she hid behind her drink for a moment. Older the head nurse may be, but the woman lacked any sort of tact whatsoever.

Though she does have a point. She really didn't know what to do about her father, just yet. After years of living under one's thumb, how does an individual muster the courage and devotion to escape the oppression? On the surface, it seemed simple, even to her; there was nothing left for her regarding her father. Her mother was dead, and her father's immediate family always did their best to maintain a healthy distance, not that their own family had done much to mend this. And her father's half brother...well, that wasn't really an option either.

So there was nothing left for Hitomi with him. Her old man had never been a kind person; rather, someone prone to leaving scars, both physical and emotional. She had to resist the urge to reach up and trace a finger along the lance-like scar running from her collarbone to the edge of her shoulder; a mark, a reminder of the days when there had been no escape from the terror of the man who had helped create her.

But now, there was a chance. An opportunity. Through what felt like an improbable stroke of luck, her father had fallen victim to the SAO crisis; and while Hitomi could in no way celebrate the tragedy, she could at least be glad of her father's effective removal from her life. It had been almost alien at first, being able to return home and not have to fear the strike of a palm against her flesh, the pain of hurtful words from a tongue that yearned to lash at her heart. It was due to these developments that Hitomi had been able to study and become accepted to Tokyo University, somewhere her father would not have wanted her to go, but this act of defiance had been the first step.

She couldn't live under her father's shadow anymore. So the only logical course of action was to disappear. Vanish, while he was still removed from this world, and walking the plains of some virtual reality. Though of course, there was always the fear and hope that he would not even bother to come after her; Hitomi knew that her father didn't love or care for her, after all, so was there really any need to fear pursuit once she had fled? It didn't seem so, but her instincts still felt the need to make assurances.

"It's not such an easy thing to decide," Hitomi said at last, noticing that Gokou seemed impatient to hear her response. Hopefully, this would deter any further discussion on the topic.

The head nurse would have none of it. "You could be running out of time, you know. It's been a year since that death game pulled the string on everyone, and one of the victims might clear the final level at any moment. Which means you won't have the luxury of time."

"Why is it any of your business?" Hitomi snapped at last, resorting to hostility to end the conversational topic. "It doesn't concern you."

Gokou narrowed her eyes at the younger woman's attitude. "I'm just worried about you, is all. I'm sorry if I probed too deeply, but I worry you'll never escape your father's influence. You might not be able to admit it, but he does have a hold on you. Can you truly deny that?"

Hitomi crushed the aluminum can in her can and tossed it angrily at the trash can, just clipping the edge. She watched the drink clatter noisily off to the side of the hall and resolved to pick it up later. Breathing heavily out of her nose, she said, "No, I can't. But I can change that. If I leave him, I can change that. I doubt he'll make much of an effort to get me back; so running is a foolproof option."

"Most wouldn't recommend that you run from your problems."

"But it's the only out I have," Hitomi said in a monotone, walking over to the fallen can and tossing it properly into the trashcan. "I can't change who he is; the man's been twisted beyond salvation. I can't depose him, because he holds all the advantages over me. I can't compromise, because to him, everything is all or nothing. But I don't need to depend on his business, or his apparent acumen. I can make it on my own. So the only option is to run."

Gokou watched the girl's face twist as she spoke those words, feeling the driving sympathy piling up inside her chest. Reaching out to pat her shoulder affectionately, she tried her best to communicate her empathy without words. Stubborn or not, Hitomi was a good person at heart; she was honest to herself and to others.

Glancing behind her and down the hall, the head nurse broke her own resolution and asked, "Do you ever plan to tell her?"

Hitomi followed the woman's gaze and said, "Who, Asuna? No. She doesn't need to know about her connection to such a horrible person."

"She might find out on her own, someday."

"If that's what's meant to be, there is nothing I can do to stop it," The younger woman said. "My father probably knows about her, but I also doubt that he cares. He's never shown much interest in his half brother's family."

Gokou sighed. "Family's do have a nasty habit of tangling in the worst ways though, don't they?"

"Yeah. And in any case, I think she will find out."

"Why?"

"Her brother. He works for him."

"Ah..."

Kazuto was irked awake one morning by the insistence of the doorbell.

It was a cold day in the middle of winter break, some months into the school year, with a light December frost spreading its thin fingers across the windows of the apartment. Grunting something incoherent and cracking his eyes open a quarter-inch, the man shifted and duly noted the newfound roughness of the stubble on his chin which had appeared overnight; a shaving would be in order. Despite the wild tales of success men had had with women when they sported impressive facial hair, Kazuto had never been one to catch onto the bandwagon.

Meanwhile, the doorbell continued its incessant calling, and he sighed into the pillow, briefly considering waiting until the visitor gave up and chose to leave them alone. It was another Saturday morning, with a setting perfect for sleeping in and escaping one's worries for an extra hour or so. The sky outside was gray and oppressive, dotted here and there with the minuscule flakes of premature snow floating about in the atmosphere, the temperature still too warm to keep them from evaporating before touchdown. It was like nature was insisting he go back to the warm embrace of his disturbed slumber.

But the doorbell had other ideas, because its rate of ringing only increased. Groaning in aggravation, Kazuto forced himself to leave the bed, and Asuna, in order to answer it. Taking a brief glance in the mirror to make sure he was at least slightly presentable, he padded down the hall and reluctantly pulled open the door. Sticking his neck through the opening, he was about to demand a hell of a good explanation for the early disturbance, but the words died in his throat.

"Morning," Kirigaya Midori began with an arched eyebrow, arms crossed over her chest and one foot tapping in tested patience. Taking a moment to allow his currently panicking brain to settle down somewhat, Kazuto took a cursory glance at the frigid sky above him and said, "Morning."

After the words passed his lips, he tried briefly to figure out reasons why his mother would want to visit him at seven in the morning in the middle of the winter. To check up on them? To demand something? For recreation? Regardless of how many brain cells he dedicated to the task, Kazuto was still too tired to figure it out completely. Suppressing a yawn for fear of coming off as rude, he was about to admit his mother into the apartment when another pair of footsteps approached from behind him.

"Who is it?" Asuna murmured, her voice still obscured by the affects of sleep. Walking up behind him and reaching up on her toes, she hugged him from behind and peeked over Kazuto's shoulder, trying to see the face of the visitor.

The moment she realized who she was looking at, however, a flush dominated her cheeks and she let go of the visitor's son immediately. Trying and failing to disguise the stammer in her voice, Asuna said, "Ah...ah, welcome, Kirigaya-san."

Midori smiled in amusement at the exchange. "Thank you very much. Now, could I please come inside? It's freezing out here and my bones aren't capable of withstanding it anymore."

"Suguha wanted to come with me too, but some things came up with her schedule, so she'll be arriving later," Kazuto's aunt explained as Asuna prepared the best tea she could manage from the small kitchen.

"You could have called us about visiting, you know," Kazuto complained from his seat next to the older woman at the coffee table. "Then we wouldn't have to greet you like this."

"A great man once said that if you want to know someone, you should drop by when they're least prepared for it," Midori said sagely, closing her eyes and nodding in approval of her own eloquence.

"Which great man was that?"

"The name isn't important, Kazuto. Take wisdom where you can get it."

"I would if there were any."

"Are you insulting your mother?"

"Here's some tea," Asuna sang out as she swept into the area with a tray adorned with small cups of china. Smiling gratefully for the warming drink, Midori took a generous sip before wrapping her fingers around the cup. The older woman waited until Asuna had seated herself beside her son before studying them both with a knowing smile on her face, an expression that made Kazuto remember every bad thing he'd ever done in his lifetime.

"So," His mother said, looking at both of them in even intervals, "How long did it take for you to break the rule about sharing a bed?"

Asuna's ears flamed like she'd just consumed the world's spiciest ramen, and Kazuto choked on the cup of tea he'd just begun drinking. While his partner desperately tried to get rid of the horrid blush spreading over her entire face, Kazuto cleared his scalded throat and said to a skeptical Midori, "I...ah...that isn't a very appropriate way to start out a conversation, is it?"

The older Kirigaya snorted and set her tea on the table. "I'm not intending to persecute the two of you if my assumptions were right. You're both adults capable of making your own decisions. It was just a simple question."

Sighing as the strain on his throat began to subside, Kazuto wondered if the woman was telling the truth. Of course, after being so busy every day with work and business, he supposed she would have developed the habit of keeping interactions short and to the point. However, he also knew that his aunt was notorious for her skill with teasing people beyond reason. Whether it was this side of Midori he was dealing with, or the other, could not be said. Which was why she was such a confusing woman.

"I see...well, not...long?" Kazuto answered cautiously.

Midori smirked at the two of them. "As in, the first night?"

He cursed inwardly when Asuna flushed a second time, wishing the girl was capable of greater composure, not that he felt so poised at the moment, himself. It was almost like his mother had come just for the sole purpose of making them uncomfortable; then it occurred to him that Midori was exactly the kind of person to do that.

Sighing in mock exasperation, the older woman chuckled, "I know I said I wanted grandchildren someday, but I didn't have anytime so soon in mind..."

Now it was Asuna's turn to hack on a drink of tea. "We did nothing of the sort!" She spluttered, trying to speak against the swallow of hot water running down her throat and struggling with it. Midori just arched an eyebrow at her, despite the fact that she herself was trying to keep her laughter at bay.

Kazuto sighed, rubbing his lover's back to help with her recovery. "You came all the way over here just to ask that, didn't you?"

"Well, it was one of the things I was looking forward to," Midori admitted, shrugging with a betraying smile. "By the way, Kazuto, don't you have work today?"

"Not for some hours. It's still quite early, you know."

"The sun's in the sky. It stopped being early a while ago."

"That's just you."

A knock at the door.

"I'll go get it," Asuna volunteered this time, apparently seeking some privacy to recover from her issues with the tea and Midori's words. Still coughing somewhat, she disappeared down the hall to answer the door.

Meanwhile, Kazuto shot an exasperated glance at his mother. The moment Asuna had come out of rehab from both the SAO and ALO incidents, he had expected the older Kirigaya to get her licks in when it came to teasing his partner. Surprisingly, none of that had taken place during their remaining high school days and the subsequent summer. It had only now come to Kazuto's attention that she had been watching, observing, noting the things she could say to put both of them in flustered states.

Laughing now, Kazuto said, "You sure enjoy toying with her, eh?"

"It's no fun to mess with you anymore. You're too used to it. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Bother Sugu?"

She laughed at that. "She's too innocent to understand half of the jokes I'd make."

"True."

Humming in agreement, his mother lifted the tea to her lips and finished the rest of it. Sighing and setting the china back down on the table, the older woman said, "Your sister misses you too."

Kazuto blinked at the mention of Suguha. It had been one of his many regrets that he had been unable to give a proper goodbye to his sister; she had been away for a couple days on a trip with some friends when he'd left for college, and so the farewell had been exchanged over the phone. But how much could you say without the presence of a face and contact? While he knew that he and Sugu would always be close, he had wanted to spend some more time with her in reality after everything that had happened in ALfheim. Even after his issues with Takashi and the many conundrums caused by Rika and Keiko, Sugu had been there for him, whether it was to scold or console. He'd wanted to thank her for that.

Love and friendship was one of the most important things in the world, but there wasn't something quite like family.

"How is she doing?" He asked.

Midori seemed to have to think over the answer to that question. "Well, she's fine overall, just acting a bit...lonely?" She said almost speculatively. "She would always tell me about the things the two of you would do together once you woke up, but when you did circumstances didn't allow for her goals to take shape. It must be disappointing, regardless of how old you are."

Kazuto stared thoughtfully at the table. "I knew, or at least to some extent, that she wanted to spent more time with me. And I feel bad too, for being unable to do that for her. Do you think it's too late for those things, anymore?"

His mother smiled at him. "Well for starters, why don't you take her out for a little while? Maybe not today, with your work, but if you can open up a hole in your schedule it couldn't be too much trouble to have some hours for your sister."

He nodded in affirmation and reached over to collect the tea cups, gathering them up on the tray and depositing the lot in the kitchen to be cleaned later. "Sometime next week, for sure. Is there anything particular she might have had in mind?"

Midori leaned back in her chair and grinned at her son. "Well, she does seem to have great interest in sharing a bed with you, for a night."

The man was so badly startled by the suggestion that his wrists jerked, sending the china tumbling into the sink. Whirling around, he resisted the urge to demand the woman to clarify herself and said, "What in the world makes you think that?"

"When I stopped by her room to say goodnight, sometimes she'd be laying there, murmuring something," The older Kirigaya explained a bit more earnestly, though a smile still tugged at the corners of her lips. "It wasn't very easy to make out, but I could figure she wanted to just fall asleep with you there. Come now, Kazuto. Is that really so horrible? She's your sister, after all."

Down the hall, Kazuto heard the sounds of the door opening and a conversation being exchanged between Asuna and the newcomer. It appeared to be another woman. Midori tilted her head and nodded at the man.

Sugu was here.

"I didn't expect the winters here to be so cold," Kazuto said as he leaned against the railing of the apartment's balcony, looking over at the smaller buildings stretching out before him.

"It was even colder back home sometimes, while you were sleeping," His sister said, leaning against the door to the balcony with her knees drawn up to her chest, forcing her brother to look anywhere but at her skirt.

Once Suguha had arrived, Midori had made an initially confusing suggestion; she and Asuna would stay inside and chat for a little while, so Kazuto should take his sister out to the balcony and have a conversation of his own. Asuna had looked rather terrified at having to speak alone with his mother, a sentiment he couldn't blame her for, after what the older woman had said about their sharing the same bed. Nevertheless, here he stood, on the balcony speaking with his sister.

Slightly concerned about how Asuna's conversation was going.

If he turned, Kazuto knew he would be able to see the two women having their back-and-forth, but he chose not to. Even if he were to look, he had the feeling he wouldn't understand what he'd see.

"Why were they colder?" He asked, turning to face her, leaning the backs of his elbows against the railing.

She smiled back up at him.

"Because you weren't there, silly."

Whether it was known to Kazuto or not, Suguha had had to struggle through her own test of adversity from the SAO crisis. Firstly, she had been forced watch as the boy who had been her lifelong brother grew farther and farther from not just her, but the entire family. What had driven him to force such a great distance between them? Had it been a fault of her own? Was she somehow responsible for Kazuto's actions? Back then, when she hadn't known the truth of their blood relations, Suguha had found nobody to blame but herself. Their mother was a wonderful and hardworking, while she was but a child, prone to mistakes. It had to have been her fault. What other reason could there be?

So she had decided to try. To be the best little sister anybody could wish to have, by becoming better, by improving herself. Yet despite her efforts, the rift had only continued to grow. Before, when their eyes had met his would always warm in recognition of someone he loved. Now they darkened, as if he were seeing a mistake, some sort of failure, what wasn't meant to be.

Despite these developments, she had continued to tell herself to try. It was obvious that the distance between them had grown to great proportions, but her onii-chan was still here, in the same house, under the same roof. SAO had been the final blow to her confidence and hope, really. It had taken her last remaining connection to Kazuto she'd had left; communication. How does one speak with a silent body in a coma? There had been cold mornings and nights where she'd sat in an almost deathly silence by his bedside, trying not to let the horrid fear consume her, the apprehension that Kazuto would die when she hadn't been able to amend their strife. Whether she was at fault for their emotional separation or not, Sugu had wanted her brother back, the one who had done his best to watch over her in times of need. Would he pass away without reclaiming that? Would he die a shadow of what she had known?

The notion had brought tears to her eyes countless times. After humiliating defeats in kendo, she had not shed them. During the lonely nights when both her brother and mother had been too busy for her, she had not succumbed. But in the face of losing Kazuto forever, she had cried like a newborn baby. Simply seeing his inhumanly pale, drawn face, and the eyes that had been closed for what felt like eternity, were enough to drive her over her limit. Yet she still stayed by his side, through some sort of twisted sense of need to protect her brother.

Sighing and watching his breath billow out in front of him, Kazuto said simply, "I'm sorry."

Sugu tilted her head at him. "You apologized a long time ago."

"I know, but...once isn't really enough, is it?"

"Apologizing twice doesn't make you any more sorry," His sister scolded him. She stood up and walked over to his spot on the balcony. "But it doesn't make you less regretful, either. So one earnest apology is just enough."

Kazuto smiled and turned back to face the world outside as Suguha joined him, their shoulders brushing together companionably. "When did you become so smart?"

"When did you become so hairy?" Came the slight retort, as a pair of soft fingers reached out to stroke the early morning stubble which had developed on the man's jaw.

Reaching up to feel at it himself, Kazuto said, "All men have facial hair, you know. And I'm well past eighteen years old now; wouldn't it be abnormal for me not to have stubble?"

"But it makes you look old," Sugu said with a small laugh. Kazuto snorted and lightly slapped his sister's probing fingers away.

"So, how's the college life?" Suguha queried, searching for a shift in topic. "Have you been fined for DUI yet?"

"What kind of a view do you have on college students?" Kazuto asked in dismay. "And I don't even drink."

"Then why do you look so disheveled in the morning?"

He blushed at the question. "Well that's...due to different reasons."

"Making progress with Asuna, eh?"

"Don't speak of things you don't understand."

Suguha snorted at the suggestion. "Contrary to what you might believe, Asuna has confided in me."

"Confided?"

She snickered in self-satisfaction and took a step back, putting both hands on her hips. "Girls like to have their talks, you know? Asuna has chosen to share some of her experiences with me, so you could at least say that I have great understanding of what I'm talking about, Onii-chan."

Of course, Kazuto had learned long ago that he would never and should never attempt to comprehend the things girls talked about in private. For one reason, there were some things he was best off not knowing; and secondly, the topics of discussion were ones he was poorly versed in.

"What aspect of our relationship did she confide with you, exactly?" He said, trying to sound uninterested.

She grinned maliciously at him, and his heart skipped a beat.

"You like it when she bites you under the chin, don't you?"

There was a moment of silence as Kazuto stared, thunderstruck, at his little sister. Then:

"I am going to murder that woman."

"Oh, please..."

After Kazuto had calmed down somewhat, Sugu had both of them sit down against the door to the balcony, staring out at the looming clouds above and allowing the flow of conversation to die out for the time being. Suddenly, it occurred to the girl just how much her opinion on Asuna had changed over the months. At first, she had almost hated the very idea of the girl; her brother was finally awake and free to be with her, but instead he was fretting over someone he'd met in the very game which had separated them to begin with. Her heart had ached every time she'd watched him hurry out the door to go to the hospital, or whenever Kazuto sat silently in his room, preoccupied with the idea of her predicament.

Was she really so little to him? It had seemed almost preposterous to Sugu that a comatose woman had a greater pull on Kazuto than herself. What had Asuna done to possess her brother's heart so? While Suguha had been immensely happy to find that her brother was acknowledging her existence once more, he remained distracted by the sleeping girl in room 20-B of the local hospital.

Her thoughts had first begun to shift when she laid eyes on her. Sugu had taken it upon herself to tag along with Kazuto during one of his visits, intent on seeing what made this woman so special to her brother. Upon walking into the room, she had cast about wildly until her eyes rested on the comatose form on the bed.

And they had remained there.

She was beautiful. Captivatingly, dangerously beautiful. Soft, honey-colored hair cascading down her sides, a graceful face which looked alive, even in effective death. Suguha almost alleviated her brother of all her grievances on the spot; if she were a man, she knew she would have fallen for the woman before her in an instant.

But she had kept her guard up. Appearances were not everything; there were still many things Sugu needed to know before she could even begin to accept it. This defiance had continued until that frigid night where she'd walked out of the bath to find her brother in tears. Shocked at this unprecedented display of weakness, she had fallen to her knees to discover the source of his grievances. And who else but Asuna? She was going somewhere far away, he'd told her. Somewhere he couldn't reach her. It was only then that Suguha realized the extent to which Kazuto loved Asuna. Their connection was strong enough to break down the tough barriers he had learned to throw up around himself after years of terror within the death game. How could she, his sister, stand between such an extraordinary bond?

"Hey," Sugu voiced suddenly, attracting her brother's attention. "I'd like to meet Yui, someday."

Kazuto smiled sadly at her. "Once we get her back, I'll be sure to arrange a meeting between you two."

"What was she like?"

He thought about that for a moment. "Innocent, yet intelligent...earnest, yet childish all at the same time. She'd changed once Asuna and I went back after our VR ban was lifted, though. She wasn't so oblivious to the ways of the world anymore. It hurt to see, really," He admitted with a strained laugh. "But I had to accept it as it was."

Suguha hummed in contemplation. "Do you think you'll ever see her again?"

"Of course I will," Kazuto said without a trace of doubt.

She smiled. "You were never one to give up so easily, were you?"

"I would have died a long time ago, otherwise."

"It disturbs me that you can joke about death so easily."

Kazuto smirked. "Would you rather I was a melancholy schmo with no motivation?"

They both shared a laugh at that, after which Sugu sighed and let her weight fall on her brother, burying her nose into his shirt. Kazuto reached up and rubbed languidly at her hair, accepting the approach as it was. They stayed like that for a while, sibling and sibling, enjoying a rare moment of silence where no words were needed.

"Onii-chan," Sugu said suddenly.

"Mm?"

"I miss you, sometimes."

"Sometimes?"

Shut up," She laughed, punching him in the gut. "Just make sure you visit home a few times, okay?"

"Alright."

"...Thanks."

After the chilly morning he spent with Sugu, Kazuto's daily lifestyle slipped into a relative monotony. There were no more attacks from acquaintances within Aincrad, neither of their families dropped by for any more unannounced visits, and they had finally adjusted to the weather. Kazuto could feel the concept of the daily grind settling into his bones; the only connection he had left to SAO was the research he compiled on a nearly daily basis, searching for a way to bring Yui into reality.

He had long since decided that this was their greatest and only option. Altering her data to conform towards another game format had a ridiculously high chance of backfiring. Asuna did her own fair share of research as well, but she was also aware that her data collecting skills did not even come close to her lover's, so she left most of that field to him. Instead, she used her many connections and friends to search for someone who might have expertise in the ties between virtual and actual consciousnesses, as well as keeping an ear out for any developments in the scientific field regarding the topic.

Despite these efforts, the couple made little progress. Even after what he'd learned about Hideki's cancelled project on memory grafting, Kazuto hadn't found much to take away from the newfound information. The excursion itself had been ended by the higher-ups, and since it had been a top-secret procedure, there was no more information on it available to the general public.

And so he was forced to fall into the slavery of daily routine, tortured by the knowledge that his efforts were making little difference but having no other avenues to pursue. It seemed like the outcome of Yui's fate would be up to, well, fate, something that made him immensely uncomfortable. He had lost all faith in the concept of divine intervention long ago, and relying on it for such a crucial issue was something he absolutely refused to do. He would pass through the kitchen sometimes and find Asuna praying to God about Yui; and while he appreciated the effort she was putting in, he didn't see the point. Neither of them had survived until now through prayer. It had been through self-proficiency.

Their work in college was challenging, but not overwhelming. After all, they could still find the time in the day to search for an answer to their question on Yui. The only objection to this came from Hitomi, who was there to witness how much energy the young couple was devoting to the salvation of their daughter. She herself did not fully comprehend the story of the AI and the Cardinal System's persecution, but she did understand that it was mentally and emotionally taxing on them. There were times when she was telling Asuna a story, and the younger woman would blink and snap back to reality, her mind preoccupied with something else. And despite her denials, Hitomi knew what this "something else" was.

Nevertheless, Kazuto and Asuna did not slow or cease their efforts. For to give up was to lose, and losing had stopped being an option the moment they had awoken within Aincrad. If Kayaba Akihiko had left behind any lasting legacy, it was this lesson, which he had left ingrained within every last survivor of his death game.

Despite this, he knew he couldn't allow his search for an answer to take away from his obligation to the rest of his loved ones. He still devoted as much energy as possible at work, astonishing some of his superiors with his progress and work ethic. Only Hideki could attribute anything to the man's recent increase in efficiency, but he chose to say nothing, trusting Kazuto to do with right thing, who had decided it would be best to keep work and Yui separate. The two had no place among each other, and he had he feeling people wouldn't understand the importance of his research. Due to this, he had never expected the two to clash.

The moment of revelation had come when he'd least expected it. It was his lunch break, a languid Wednesday, and he'd been sitting on an iron bench behind the building when he phone buzzed.

Fishing the device out of his pocket, Kazuto answered the call, which came from an unknown number, and pressed the receiver to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Good afternoon, Kirigaya-san."

His pulse increased. He knew that voice.

"Where are you right now?"

"Who is this, exactly?"

"You are currently speaking to the head executive of the country's financial leader, boy. Now I suggest you listen before you speak."

Kazuto's fingers turned white as they tightened around the casing of his phone. He was speaking to Fuzen? But why? How?

"Come up to my office in one hour. Bring the girl."

"The girl?"

"Miss Yuuki, if you do require a name. Do you have any objections?"

Deciding it wouldn't be best to answer sarcastically to that question, Kazuto said levelly, "I'd like a reason for this."

"Fine, then. It concerns that bastard child wandering around inside the SAO servers at this very moment, so if that isn't enough incentive for you to come willingly, I can do it by force."

His fingers almost crushed the titanium reinforced phone between his palm, but Kazuto forced himself to control the surge of nigh-uncontrollable anger and answer through seething teeth, "I'll see you in an hour, sir."

"Don't keep me waiting."

The line went dead.

Resisting the urge to hurl the cell at the concrete floor, he stuffed the device back into his pocket, mind racing furiously. For whatever reason, the president of the country's financial leader wanted to see him, and his intent seemed malicious.

And he intended to drag Asuna into it as well, it seemed.

Briefly, Kazuto considered going to the office without Asuna. He had absolutely no idea what Fuzen could want with him; he was just grasping at straws here. But he did have the gut feeling that nothing good would come of it, and Kazuto would obviously keep both of them from entering a hostile situation if he could help it.

It concerns that bastard child of yours.

Who was he kidding? Asuna was just as capable as he was. Pulling his phone back out, Kazuto dialed the right number and pressed it to his ear, waiting.

"Hello?"

"What does Fuzen want with us, exactly?" Asuna whispered to him as the elevator continued its ascent.

Kazuto watched the blinking buttons on the wall indicate that they were nearing the top floor and said, "I don't know. He wouldn't say, though I have an idea of what it could be."

"What?"

"Hideki's information leak in his office. He made a joke about the room possibly being bugged, but I think it actually might have been. It would give Fuzen more than enough reason to have an issue with us."

Asuna narrowed her eyes at the topmost button, the one which indicated Fuzen's current residence. "I don't like it, Kazuto. It feels as if we're walking into a trap; we have no idea what the circumstances are, or what we'll be facing. What if we don't come out of this unscathed?"

Kazuto gripped her hand with his. "Don't worry. I won't allow that to happen."

The elevator dinged, the automatic doors hissing open to allow their entry into the top floor. Swallowing thickly, he led Asuna into the hall. The entire floor here belonged to the president; there were three rooms branching off from a long hall, probably containing some sort of living residence. Trusting his knowledge of the layout of the building, Kazuto pulled Asuna towards the central oaken door and raised a fist, ready to knock, but looking at his lover for confirmation first. She nodded at him, and his fisted fell upon the wood three times in quick succession.

"The door's not locked, you know," Came a deep voice from the other side. Tensing up in apprehension, he reached out and twisted the knob open, pushing the door aside.

He was sitting behind a desk opposite the door, the shades pulled down to form a halo around his silhouette where the sun managed to leak through the coverage. Kazuto couldn't quite make out the man's face in the reversed lighting, but he didn't need to, already knowing Fuzen's face very well from his research on the web. Behind him, Asuna gripped his hand even harder and walked up to stand beside him, raising her chin in an attempt to seem confident in herself.

There was an intense moment of silence as Fuzen observed both of them, cooly ignoring Kazuto's attempts to engage him in a staring war. Finally, he cleared his throat, tossing a dead cigar into the trash, and said,

"Goodness, the two of you are nothing more than children. I am almost ashamed to have to devote so much attention to you."

His voice was deep, rumbling, and devoid of empathy. The true incarnation of a businessman who was drunk on his success.

Kazuto gritted his teeth, still seething over the man's comments about Yui. "You called us here, Fuzen. What do you want?"

Fuzen tutted at them, lighting another cigar between his teeth. "Is that such a proper way to address your boss? It might not bode so well for the future of your job you know."

"If you had wanted to fire me, you would have done it a long time ago."

"You make a good point there, Kirigaya," Fuzen agreed, nodding his head vigorously. "And I'll tell you why, too." He gestured at Asuna, who glared daggers back at him. "They say you should keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Well, I've taken my own version of that proverb. It was become a...hobby of mine to make life hell for those who create unsavory difficulties for me, but what is the point of that if you let them get far? No, far more entertaining to keep them close, to watch them struggle and weep and stumble. Do you not agree?"

Asuna, by now immensely irritated by the president's attitude and atmosphere, snapped, "You might be a disgusting human being, but keeping Kazuto in your building doesn't mean he's suffering."

"Asuna," Kazuto warned her, squeezing her hand. "Not now."

Fuzen shook his head. "No, Kirigaya, now. I can see that I am testing the young lady's patience, so I will get straight to the point." Pulling the half-used cigar out of his mouth and turning it a few times between his fingers, the older man made eye contact with both of them and said bluntly, "I am the one responsible for Yui's data alteration."

Kazuto had to restrain Asuna from diving at the desk with death in mind when those words passed the man's lips. He couldn't say he didn't feel the same horrid anger as his lover, but he at least knew that acting out said anger would only result in strife for themselves, and satisfaction for the smug man before them.

"It was a simple maneuver, really," Fuzen said, shrugging as if IT really had been nothing. "I own the rights to the servers, so it only took a few orders to have a cyber attack aimed at your full-dive specs. You did install some firewalls on the system, but those didn't prove too difficult."

Kazuto managed to pull Asuna behind him and spat out, "Why? What do you possibly gain from trapping Yui?"

Again, Fuzen shrugged, slipping the cigar back into his mouth. "You're a smart boy, Kirigaya. So, I will assume that you know about where I was two years ago."

Of course, he knew. When he'd first developed suspicions about Complexity's president, Kazuto had gone out of his way to compile some information on the man. Most notable was Fuzen's history with SAO; he had been one of the ten thousand victims, as well as one of the six thousand survivors.

"I read that article on your court case," Kazuto said, not even bothering to keep the malice out of his tone. "You were accused of being responsible for the deaths of eight hundred players. It's amazing you escape it without any charges. Only one guild in SAO could have killed that many."

"Precisely. I was part of Laughing Coffin," Fuzen said. "Or, more precisely, I was its leader."

Asuna's breath hitched. "PoH...? But...but he disappeared! Nobody knows his whereabouts."

Fuzen rolled his eyes. "When you have the country's best lawyers and friends in the government in your pocket, dear, you'll find it quite easy to make a person vanish from the face of the earth."

"That still doesn't explain your reasons for persecuting Yui," Kazuto growled, beginning to succumb to the urge to attack, himself.

"I'm getting to that. You see, I had great hopes for Akihiko's world. I was able to personally witness the game while it was in its development stages. Imagine, a world without proper laws, where the strong survive and the weak are nothing. That's the way it should be. Although it was only a burgeoning interest at first, once I learned that I would be trapped inside the game forever I began to carry out the building of an empire. If I was to live my days inside this damned castle in the sky, it would be under my own terms. However, the heathens felt otherwise. These fools, these self-righteous airheads, took it upon themselves to eradicate Laughing Coffin, and in effect, my dreams for dominion. You were among them. You ended what could have been destiny, and for that you will pay."

"That is the most immature, unreasonable explanation I've heard in my life," Asuna burst out, breaking free of Kazuto's grip and storming up to the man. Before anyone could stop her, she jabbed two fingers into Fuzen's chest and said, "Only a child would throw a tantrum at not having things go his way, and try to exact revenge for it. You look older than my mother, yet you're not even half as mature! How dare you put the life of our daughter in jeopardy simply to satisfy a personal vendetta that no one else even cares about anymore? Does your life really lack that much meaning!?"

"Asuna!" Kazuto almost shouted, grabbing her shoulder and shaking her. "Nothing good will come of threatening him. Calm down."

"The boy's right," Fuzen said blandly. "What will you do? Sue me? You don't have the funds to keep a court battle going. Will you kill me? You'd receive the death penalty yourselves, for being responsible. Your parents would even be jailed. Don't you fools see? I brought you up here and riled you up purposefully. I wanted to tell you the truth behind it all simply to see the looks of horror and disgust on your faces, because it satisfies me, and I know there's nothing you can do about it."

It was only then that Kazuto realized the hopelessness of their situation. There really was no out against Fuzen's manipulation. The president probably wouldn't fire him or Hideki, since that would be too suspicious, but it also meant that Kazuto would have to work under the older man's gaze with the torturous knowledge that he was responsible for everything that had happened to Yui, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it whatsoever.

The notion made him sick.

"You might think you are invincible to us, Fuzen," Kazuto said, just barely keeping his voice under control. "But I've lived a life of underestimation. And every time an opponent's taken me for granted, I've at least come close to beating them. Don't think it'll be any different this time."

The executive smirked at both of them over the tip of his cigar. "In that case I beg of you, do try," He said. "It will e enormously entertaining to watch."

Asuna scoffed in disgust and whirled around, almost running out of the room. Kazuto was glad she had kept herself from striking Fuzen; that would have thrown everything to hell. Certain amounts of restrain were necessary, even if he also wanted to hit the man's nose until it was no more.

Turning back to look at Fuzen, who was smiling easily at him, Kazuto said without emotion, "Even if I lose, it'll be a hell of a lot of trouble for you."

Then he left the room, leaving Fuzen behind, but not his anger.

Deep inside, Kazuto knew he doubted his ability to thwart the president's plans. But the least he could do was try. For to give up was to lose, and defeat had ceased to be an option long ago.

You've awakened my wrath, Fuzen.

You'd better be damn ready for it.

Hope I've advanced the plot appropriately, here. Do leave your thoughts in the reviews, if you so wish. Thanks for reading!