Chapter 8
Long Awaited Full Dive
I don't own Sword Art Online. Just my OC's. All rights reserved go to Denegeki Bunko and Reki Kawahara.
Friday, May 16 2025 12:20 pm
Kazuto couldn't wait until he finally heard the chime of the bell signaling the end of his previous long and dreary morning class. Even when it soundly oddly akin to the bell in the chapel in the Starting City of Aincrad. He had promise to have lunch with his girlfriend today.
He froze in his path and set his viewpoint on a female student wearing the school uniform. He felt like he had stop at just the right moment.
She was sitting on a plain wooden bench playfully swinging her long slender legs on the pavement beneath her. Her beauty was equally as enchanting as the flower beds that were planted near the sitting area.
She long strawberry-blond hair hung gracefully on her shoulders of her blazer. The rays of sunlight hit her and just the right second, giving her pale skin a such a tranquil and natural glow, that was scary yet satisfying. It looked like something straight from a motion picture or magazine photograph.
He waved to get her attention. As soon as it happened, her female give a warm and genuine grin.
"Sorry for taking so long, Asuna. I hope I'm not too late ." He put his school bag on the ground and sat next to her smiling .
The girl nodded. "I just came about a minute ago. How are you, Kirito-kun?"
He laid his head back and deeply sighed. "Tired and starving."
"You sound like an old name, Kirito-kun." Asuna pouted.
"It's Kazuto, not Kirito. Using your game alias here is considered bad manners." He reminded her.
"I forgot about that." Asuna covered her mouth.
"I'll let is slide this time." He smiled.
He leaned his body in closer to her's, but she unexpectedly pulled slightly further. "You do know that people are able to see us from the cafeteria?" She asked embarrassingly without making any eye contact with him, her face slightly blushed.
Hearing that, Kazuto's heart rate jumped by at he feverishly scanned his surroundings, including the glass windows and the tall trees. In his mind was hoping what she had just said was just an overdecorated fad she had heard from someone else.
"Just for that mistake, no lunch." She crossed her arms in displeasure.
Her boyfriend looked at her with the impression of a lost puppy.
"Oh, alright." She brought out a small picnic basket.
The basket's space was filled by two sandwiches alongside two small plastic water bottles. The sandwiches look nearly symmetrical as the ones she made on the 74th floor in while the pair were partying together in the game.
Kazuto instantly took one of them and began taking big bites.
"So how's your rehab?" He took a sip from a bottle.
"I can finally say goodbye to the cane. But I still need to stay away from running or anything like that, until the doctor says its okay." In order to meet the school's admission deadline, Asuna had undergo severe rehabilitation treatment.
"So how's your dad dealing with you-know-what?" He continued to question.
She let a small sigh. "He's been a little depressed, but once he finds himself a hobby, he'll cheer up. He's practical half-retired already." She shook her head.
"So are you excited for today's offline-meeting?" She waved her hand in front of the face now spaced-out boy. He blinked twice and turned his face to her's.
"So how much homework do you have?" The girl asked.
"It's hard to say right now. I have two classes left. But considering the amount I got right now, I won't able to sleep until Wednesday."
"Oh stop exaggerating." She chuckled and leaned in closer to him.
She rested her head on his shoulder, while he rested his head on hers.
Meanwhile in the cafeteria...
"I can't believe their acting like that on school property." Rika loudly slurped on the straw of her drink. Staring intensely outside of the transparent window looking at the young couple together in the rose garden.
"Lis... Rika-san, can you please stop making all that noise. Spying in a rude hobby." Silica frowned at her elder.
"Well were you looking at them about two minutes ago?" The dark burnette responded in a nasty tone. The younger player's face turned red like a tomato and looked down.
"Well were you that came up with this one-month pact?" The dagger user added.
"If I knew it was going to this hard, I wouldn't have made it in the first place." Rika sat back down at their respective table.
A small silence drifted between them.
"So are you excited for today's offline meeting?" Rika changed her tone of voice.
"Yeah, you bet. I can't wait to meet up with Lyfa... Suguha-chan again." The lighter brunette cheerfully smiled.
"You two have quite a budding friendship going on." Rika commented with a teasing smile on her face.
"You could say that again."
The soft chime of the bell was heard through out the school building, indicating the end of the students' lunch hour.
5:40 pm
The Dicey Cafe's door displayed a sign saying, Reserved for Today. Three school-aged teenagers were standing in the doorway of the packed building. "Hey, we aren't late..." The only male teenager among the trio looked and sounded confused.
Rika stepped forward. "Don't you know that the guests of honor are supposed to arrive later?" She teased and pulled them inside one by one.
The shop had quite a few more people than unexpected. There were stacks of pizza boxes, plates, glasses among other things on the tables.
A bright spotlight immediately landed on Kazuto. His thought his heart was about to jump out of his chest.
Rika had a microphone in her hand and opened her mouth, "1, 2, 3!"
After her obvious cue, everyone else shouted. "Congratulations, for beating the game!" The chant was followed by clapping, cheering and the loud snapping sound of party crackers. The young person in the center of all the commotion couldn't help but look dumbfounded.
After a brief speech by Kazuto, and everyone trying to thank him all at once. The party resumed as usual.
Kazuto found himself at the bar counter. "Bartender, bourbon. On the rocks." He unreasonably requested.
A glass with a bronze coloured liquid inside of it appeared before him. The minor took a small sip. "This is Oolong tea." He looked at the happily grinning shopkeeper with a slight relief.
"Hey, Agil give me a real one." A tall man wearing a cheap red bandana and a suit with red tie that equally bad in taste sat in the vacant bar stool next to Kazuto.
"Don't you have to go back to work, Klein?" The student couldn't help but ask.
"Can't take on overtime without a little drink." The kanata wielder answered.
I can't wait to see how she designs her avatar. Klein was in a dream-like state as a goofy smile grew on his face.
"What's with him?" The teenager oddly asked the man stationed behind the counter.
"He thinking about a certain first kiss that may happen tonight." Agil chuckled.
"Hey, you said that was between me and you."
"Well, now it between me, you and him."
"Hey, listen we're really sorry that we haven't been there for a few days. How is she?" Kazuto couldn't help but sound guilty.
"Yumeko's PDA was on Tuesday. I wish that the damn medicine would have just closed the hole. She was on it for at least four days." Klein furrowed his eyebrows.
Klein puffed his chest and gave a proud grin. "My girl's stronger than a bull."
"My girl huh? Sounds like you three are hitting it off." Kazuto playfully nudged him.
"How's her left foot?" The man behind the counter asked.
"The needle poked her pretty good, but she needed it. It took a few tries though and some time. The scar is permanent." Klein took another sip and swallowed.
"Is there anything we need to know before seeing her?" Kazuto asked.
"Lets not talk about that right now. It's a party." Agil began to polish an empty glass.
A moment later another tall man in a suit sat on the other bar stool next to Kazuto on his left side. Unlike Klein, the other man gave a decent impression of a businessman. It was Thinker, the infinite leader of The Army, the game's largest guild. "Bartender, refill please." he requested for politely.
"Thinker-san, congratulations on your marriage to Yuiler-san. I hope you both have a wonderful life." Kazuto as both of their glasses clinked together. Thinker gave a shy smile. The two clinked their glasses together.
Klein leaned into the conversation. "That's incredible. Man, it would have been pretty sweet to find my partner while I was in there. I guess fate had other plans... Anyway, I'm really happy for you."
"Yeah, now you got two girls in your life." Kazuto snickered.
"Don't take that out of context. I'm dating a single mother."
"I think everyone could take that out of context." Agil joined in.
"By the way, I saw that new MMO Today publication." Klein added.
Thinker repeated showing a shy smile. "Oh, how embarrassing. The concept of it is still quite incompetent... Also with today's current circumstances regarding the genre of MMO's, capture data or even the news seems pretty much worthless. I'm thinking of renaming my webpage, but thinking of the right name is quite challenging."
The black haired boy nodded in agreement.
His view turned to the giant bartender in front of him. "How's The Seed program going?"
Agil gave a scary looking grin. "Fantastic, it's spreading like wild fire. There's already about 50 mirror servers, almost 100,000 downloads and being runned by 300 large servers."
"I can't wait to see what her avatar looks like." Klein said lustily.
"Do you realize we can hear you right?" Kazuto elbowed his friend. Am I really asking about this to the same guy who wanted to know how old Sugu was the day we had first met? He thought.
"So what's Onee-Sensei's avatar race?"
Klein shrugged. "It's a surprise." He took a sip.
Kazuto looked at Agil. "Did the plans for the after-party change?"
"Same time. Same place." The bartender extended his thumb.
Klein sighed, "I'm not so sure if I should try to kiss her tonight."
"Oh come on, you'll be fine. You're just a little nervous." Agil patted his costumer's back.
"I tried a couple of times before, but I keep getting blocked by Fuko or Takato. I swear it's like their taking turns or something. Plus, she's in a vulnerable state of mind right now."
Kazuto interjected. "Come on now, you can't let something that had happened two weeks ago bother you now." You idiot! Why did you say that?! What the hell is the matter with you?! The thoughts screamed in the back of his conscience.
Agil looked at Klein. "If I may add, a kiss can be considered a very important highlight in any kind of relationship. My personal advice is that it should be heartfelt and natural. Regardless that if is in this world or a virtual world."
The three other males nodded in agreement.
Klein tapped Kazuto's shoulder. "Takato's birthday is coming up. I was thinking of taking him out for a little guy time with him for then. You wanna join me?"
Kazuto took a brief pause. "That sounds like fun. I'm free on Sunday." He accepted.
"Great, I'll talk to Rinko about it later."
ALfheim Online
New Aincrad
Yggdrasil City
Kirito and Asuna's Inn Room
"Onee-san, can you please show us the pictures now?" Lyfa, the Slyph warrior begged the older-looking female Salamander avatar Rinko. Rinko's virtual appearance was still similar to her real one, with the expectation of a couple adjustments.
Rinko smiled warmly and gracefully rose from her small wooden chair. She swung her hand downward to access the Menu, tapped on the Options button. As soon as the drag-menu came out, she pressed on Personal Inventory and hit the button saying Real World.
A new feature was just added in the newly revived ALO. The players are now capable of uploading and seeing pictures taken in the real world into the virtual world through the player's AmuSphere. This mechanic was designed to help the players, especially the VR veterans of the SAO Incident, not lose sight on their priorities or relationships in the real world.
Numerous small windows surround the front of her virtual body.
Yui the Navigation Pixie, who was just sitting on her father's shoulder flew around the floating snapshots with an innocent, curious yet befuddled look on her face.
Seeing the AI in slight distraught, Kirito decided to step beside her. "This is called an ultrasound, Yui. Do you know what that this?" The Spriggan asked paitently.
It only took her about a minute to search the internet for the answer.
"An ultrasound is a check-up to see if both mother and child are healthy and safe, Papa." She chimed and sat on the palm of his hand. Kirito patted her head with his finger.
"Mama, papa, what's that thing?" The small pixie pointed to one of the pictures.
"That's a baby, Yui-chan. But most of them don't look the same way she does. At least not right now." Asuna answered her daughter.
"She? That's a girl?" Yui stared intensely at the picture.
"She's very small, but very pretty." The virtual being observed.
"Thank you, Yui-chan. That's very kind of you to say." Rinko responded to the compliment.
The pixie sensed a disturbance in the room, and flew around in small circles until she had found the source of it.
"Rinko-san, why are you feeling sad?" Yui curiously asked.
"Oh, I- I was just, thinking about someone." Rinko pointed to the same picture Yui had just seen.
Klein the other Salamader placed his hands on Rinko's shoulders, only to have Rinko slowly slide away.
"That baby is Rinko-san's daughter. Just like what Yui-chan is to mama." The blue-haired Undine mage gently stroked her daughter's back with a her finger.
"What's her name?" Yui asked curiously.
"Her name is Yumeko." Rinko replied.
"But we also call her Himeko, Yuriko or Yumemi." Lyfa added.
"Oh, how pretty." Yui chimed as her face lit up.
The cheery and pleasant atmosphere of the room was soon interrupted by the sound of something dropping hard on the floor.
In front of a wall, was an avatar dressed in mainly red attire. Her long red hair covered up both sides of her face. Both of her hands were placed on the back of her head. Her forehead was nearly an inch or two off from touching the floor. She had tried to contain her deeply compressed pain inside, even inside a world where masking one's pain was simply impossible. Suddenly large crystal-like streams of water poured from her eyes onto the floor, like freshly fallen snow in the beginning of the winter.
Asuna took a small step forward but was stopped by a stern-faced Kirito.
"The polygons and glass shattering effect were my ideas." She cried out.
"I still have that same damn dream every night. I never felt so helpless or terrified." She continued.
She continued to breathe heavily and wipe her eyes for what felt like what could have been minutes.
"Rinko-san, is it alright if I ask you what your dream was about?" The woman looked up with puffy eyes to see a small pixie in a pink dress and wings.
"It's alright, she's a good listener. You can take as much time as you need." Kirito advocated.
Rinko remember when he had mentioned having to briefly crossed paths with a virtual human representation of a Mental Health Counseling Program , the day they had met for the first time.
The rest of the inn room dwellers left to leave the two alone.
As the room only had two figures remaining, Yui was immersed in a white light and had the body of a little girl in a one-piece white dress replacing her pixie form. "Shall we begin?" She nicely smiled.
The conversation only took a few minutes to escalate until the real-world mother began to feel like her former strong self once again. The talk ended with Rinko ruffling Yui's long dark hair and a gentle squeeze.
"Okay, everyone you can stop trying to eavesdrop now!" Rinko shouted as she stood in front of the room's door and took three giants steps back.
Within a moment's notice, several colourful avatars were gathered on top of each other.
"Why am I not surprise." Rinko tsked and helped everyone up.
"Onee-san you don't have your scar here, correct?" Silica smiled mischievously.
"Yes, that's correct." Rinko looking at the group of young girls suspiciously.
"Group hug!" Lisbeth shouted.
THUD!
All the girls including Yui and Silica's feathery light blue dragon Pina, all jumped up at Rinko, sending them crashing to the wooden floor, all laughing together.
"That wasn't a hug! That was assault!" Klein rushed to help Rinko.
"It was a glomp." Agil clarified and assisted Lisbeth and Silica.
"Same difference!" Kirito rushed to help Asuna, Lyfa and Yui.
"Hey, are you-!" Klein's words were cut off as his lips were covered by hers.
Cheering and howling were coming from the remaining room dwellers.
"Gah! Yui shield your eyes!" Kirito panicked and pulled his daughter closer to him.
Rinko slowly pulled away as her face turned into a rosy pinkish hue. "You worry too much." She looked down giving an innocent, yet embarrassing smile.
Klein looked like he had just become a lottery ticket winner.
"Are you going to get married?!" Yui jumped up and down excitedly.
Hearing the question made the couple's faces flush in a redish shade.
"I-It's still very early for them Yui-chan." Asuna answered in an embarrassed tone.
"You see Yui, in the real world, they've only been dating for a month and a half now." Kirito explained as Asuna still looked slightly embarrassed.
"Onee-san how is her surgery recovery?" Lisbeth sounded worried.
"It's only been three days. She'll be okay."
Lyfa's voice followed. "But she's only 14 days old."
Rinko laid both of her hands on the heads of Leprechaun and Sylph avatars.
Yui hearing the conversation looked very confused and concern. Watching her daughter looking like that, Asuna felt a light tap on her shoulder.
"Show Yui this one." Kirito whispered.
She nodded. "Yui-chan come here please." She paitently requested.
"What is it mama?" The girl asked.
"I think you'll like this one." Kirito dragged the small window in front of her face.
"She has such pretty eyes!" She squealed delightfully.
"Wait what?!" Lisbeth rushed over to see.
"Let me see!" Lyfa joined in.
"Make some room for me!" Silica flew from across the room where she was standing.
"She's quite a looker." Agil merged himself between the fangirls. "She'll be breaking a lot of hearts someday." Lisbeth snickered.
"Don't joke about that!" Three male voices shouted in unison.
"Oh, hit a nerve did I?" Lis continued teasing.
"Yes!" They shouted back.
"Hey, its the bear we bought." Lyfa pointed into the snapshot.
"Oh look, she's wearing the hat I made in home ec." Silica looked closer into the picture. "Hey we should make a quilt or a blanket for her." The Cait Sith suggested.
"But Lis, Lyfa and I don't have a lot of sewing experience." Asuna frowned.
"That's okay. I'm not an expert but I can show you the basics." Silica wore a cat-like smile on her face.
"Well, in that case why not make some socks?" Kirito recommended.
"Why not help us Kirito-kun?" Asuna offered.
"Are you kidding me? I'll die of external bleeding." He responded. "Wait a minute... Didn't you take sewing?" The Spriggan pointed to the kanata wielder wearing a black and yellow bandana.
"Uh, well...it was very low compared to my skill slots..." Klein tried to explain.
"You know, I always thought you'd make a nice househusband once you told me that." Kirito continued to tease his friend.
"He is very good with her." Rinko leaned in closer, laying her head against his forearm.
"If my memory serves me correctly... I believe that you called Yumeko-chan your girl at the party earlier." Agil elbowed the man standing next to him.
Kirito walked to stand beside the Agil. "His exact words were my girl's stronger than a bull." Kirito smiled sheepishly.
"You love my daughter that much?" Rinko's eyes grew.
"Uh... well, uh yeah I mean... I enjoy knowing strong people." Klein responded.
Once again without another warning both their lips were pressed against each others.
"Warn people before you do that!" Kirito covered up Yui's eyes again.
Asuna pressed her hands together. "I think we should log out for now." She accessed the Menu. "We have a very important visit to make after all."
They all nodded in agreement and began to pull up their menus as well.
"Good night everyone. It was great seeing you." Yui chimed as she witness their avatars vanish in the blink of an eye.
I'm terribly sorry for the wait! I've been having piles of homework, social events, personal matters, bad internet and computer problems for a while now, but now it's all good at least for now. (My computer short-circuited and I had to get a new one, and rewrite the entire chapter again from scratch.) I hope you enjoyed that game mechanic and the nicknames that were added. Thank you for those who have read this, especially to a great supporter of mine XDenshaX. If you have any suggestions please put them in my PM box! I appreciate it all of this support very much!