I don't own or have any affiliation with Sword Art Online. Big thanks to the support of XDenshaX, PrincessBunnie and Kirigaya-Asuna54! I apologize for any spelling, missing words or grammatical mistakes.

Chapter 19: Jolly Evening

Wednesday, December 24th, 2025 6:24 P.M.

The young patient reaches out of thin air and looks at what only can be described as optically absent.

"Why does she always do that whenever she spaces out?" Namie asked Rinko.

"Beats me, its been happening for a really long time." The mother answered.

"Is it possible that she can see something that we can't?" Fuko theorized.

"Now that you mentioned it, sometimes when I'm busy and she's crying and I go to her. She stops like something already did it. Then I get this odd feeling that someone already made to her before I did." Rinko went on.

"Didn't you mention that during your pregnancy you pretty much felt this protective shield around you all the time? But even more in your sleep?" Fuko rambled.

"Now you're making it sound perverted." Namie muttered.

"Hey, I'm not the one who brought the topic in the first place." Fuko sounded snippy.

"Geez, someone's a little sharp tongued this evening." Rinko observed the conversation.

Fuko apologized. "I'm still tired from the double shift I had to do to get tonight off. And that boy of mine isn't back yet. I did all of that work just for him and he repays me by not calling but texting me that he's gonna be late with a stupid smiley face." The green haired nurse frowned.

"I'm sure it's just a phase." Rinko gave her a glass of water.

The blue haired doctor laid her hand on the nurse's shoulder. "You're just a little off tonight. I'm sure what he said."

Fuko inhaled a deep breathe. "He's been doing this a lot lately. One time, I had to take away his games for a week because he failed a test because he just stopped studying, didn't finish his chores and ignored the trash. And he's always coming home tired and hungry."

"Sounds like typical teenage behaviour. Stereotypical yet typical." Rinko commented.

"All I told him was to study and do the chores. I have no idea what got into him." Fuko finished her drink.

"If you don't know then I guess he's doing it right." Namie snickered.

The three women got their minds of the subject at hand by the infant who had vigorously began to fitfully flail her small arms reaching for the thin air once again.

"Thankfully, she didn't behave like this during her scans or else the other staff members wouldn't know what to do about it." Namie said while witnessing the act unfold.

"Didn't you find it weird that how much attention she was paying over my shoulder?" Rinko turned her attention to them.

Fuko nodded. "At first I thought that it wasn't a big deal but she didn't look anywhere else besides you or over your shoulder during the breaks."

"I know how this sounds, but...is it possible that...she may have invented some sort of imaginary friend?" The doctor hypothesized.

"Okay, that sounds creepy even for my standards." The nurse criticized the theory.

"Isn't she too young to have one?" Rinko was worried.

"Well, if she's old enough to have dreams. She also may be old enough to have an imaginary friend." The doctor's words continued.

Rinko hissed her daughter tightly clenched on to the folds of her top's shoulder that felt it was chaining into Rinko's sensitive skin, followed by the pressure of tiny fingernails as the infant was receiving an injection in her leg.

Her body did go through a lot of trauma. The mother was thinking as she fought back the tears forming in her eyes as the pain from the tiny fingernails was starting to slowly slip away.

The mother felt a chill crawl down her spine making her body slightly flinched. There it is again. What is it?

"What happened to you?" The doctor stood with the now emptied syringe that the nurse had given.

Rinko hurriedly blinked her eyes as the words became one with her eardrums and looks at the doctor. "N-nothing she dug her nails into my shoulder." She wrapped her daughter in the handmade quilt the girls had gifted months prior.

Her attention returns to the doctor. "You must still be a little jet lagged from the plane back from the conference. Outside might be a better place to sit and chat." The scientist's voice and face were both calm and easy, unlike her blundering mind that was skipping from one unfinished thought to the next, relentlessly attempting to draw a logical conclusion of what is causing her dear darling to behave in such a manner.

8:00 P.M.

Single-filed the group of five teenagers came inside the apartment holding either a dish or a gift bag.

"Your apartment looks just wonderful, Fuko-san." Suguha said as she and Keiko jointly admired the lovely decorations.

"Ya think? I just used what I found in the storage room downstairs."

"You did a good job." Rika looked around the living area.

The nurse smiled as they commented.

Rinko noticed the bandages wrapped around nearly all of Kazuto's fingers. "I didn't know that is was possible to cut yourself while typing on a keyboard. Thank you for showing me that in advance, Kirigaya-kun." She teased.

"These aren't cuts from a keyboard..." He scratched the back of his head while his voice had a mixture of embarrassment and timidness to it.

"Then, what are they?" She asked.

"There..." As Kazuto was about to finish his answer until another feminine voice interjected.

"Onee-san, he hurt himself while trying to help us make a scarf." Asuna stood beside her boyfriend.

"I was about to say that." Kazuto blushed.

"I'll take your word for it." The strawberry blonde patted his back.

Rinko raised an eyebrow at the male youth. "Didn't you say that if you ever took up sewing, you'll die of external bleeding?"

"Are you kidding me? I've never seen this much of my own blood in my life." He exclaimed.

"Thanks again for the effort." Asuna cheerfully smiled.

Rinko and Kazuto's eyes widen simultaneously as they felt an invisible presence next to them.

Asuna's smile went faint. "Is everything alright?"

They turned their attention on her and brushed it off as it was nothing. Asuna joined her friends being with Yumeko.

"So how is the communication probe progress?" Rinko asked Kazuto.

"Research is going great. The class is working on the designing blueprints until we get a better idea before continuing on with the rest of the programming." He answered her.

"Do you have a name for it yet?" The scientist continued to question.

Kazuto took out his phone and wrote it down. The unofficial prototype name from the device was Double-sided Visual and Hearing message Probe.

"That's sounds really long to keep remembering it. Not to mention boring." Rinko's excitement toned down.

Kazuto chuckled. "It's still a work in progress."

"If you need any outside assistance, I'm here for you." Rinko laid her hand on his shoulder.

"Onee-sensei, I can't find the right words to express how much I appreciate you doing all of this for Asuna and I."

"Well thanks to that I wasn't completely bored out of my mind, when I wasn't occupied. It's nice getting a little side work done." She smiled.

Their conversation traveled to the more personal topics of how well the mother was coping with her PTSD nightmares and having the caesarian scar marked on her abdomen. They were the other two topics the woman can truly defy with the student without the knowledge of a third party. Within that time, Kazuto mentioned the 23rd-27th floors of ALO were unlocked, estimating that the game may end in another two years or so, and happily told Rinko he and Asuna bought themselves a forest home identical to the one they got in Old Aincrad on the 22nd floor.

"Onee-sensei..." Kazuto said in a quieter tone.

"What is it?" She copied the volume of his voice.

"It's about Yumemi's actual name." He spoke in a soft audible tone.

"What about it?" Rinko was now oddly nervous.

"Well, that day I visited the hospital alone that day. You mentioned something about her name being meaningful, but you went off topic halfway in explaining it after you wrote the real one down." Kazuto paused to catch a breath. "Now you're saying that she's spacing out and grabbing for something that we can't see for ourselves."

The mother's cool hands felt they were heating up. "You think there's a connection between the two?" She whispered.

Before speaking any furthur Kazuto felt something pulling on his shirt collar and turned his neck and felt the small hand releasing the clothing material.

"Sorry to interrupt, but she a little anxious to see you, while she was with us." Asuna handed the baby over to him and rejoined her friends.

"Merry Christmas Yumemi-chan." The boy whispered very softly into her ear.

The infant made soft noises in response and wrapped her hand in an unbandaged finger.

"Any progress with her treatment?"

"It's only been five days so the results are a little fuzzy for now. She's been very patient through the whole thing." Rinko stroked between her child's eyes. "You didn't tell the girls her true name did you?"

Kazuto shook his head. "My word is my bond. They still think it is what it is, even though they still call her by her nickname."

Rinko sighed. "If you want you can start calling her by that name when it's just the two of us."

Kazuto took a moment and declinced, stating he insists to continue calling her the way he does. "A nickname is a stepping stone towards a good relationship."

Rinko nodded in agreement with the philosophy. "You didn't fully explain your decision to call her Yumemi. Care to elaborate?"

Kazuto pulled away and gave her daughter and they both sat on the sofa. "Well...the story behind that is..."

*Flashback starts*

Monday, April 07th, 2025, 10:32 AM

Kazuto was sitting at his computer desk.

Click! The door handle turned and Suguha intruded the private premises without knocking first. The younger girl was wearing a chipper smile.

"What are you so happy about?" Her older cousin sounded annoyed.

"Did you open your email yet?" She asked in a hyper voice.

"No, why?" He replied.

"Open it! Open it! Onee-san sent a picture to all of us. Asuna-san, Rika-san and Keiko-san and I are texting each other like crazy about it right now."

"I'm not a fan of how you just said crazy..."

"Just shut up and open it!"

Your telling me to shut up? He rolled his eyes and logged onto his email account. In his inbox, he clicked on the unread and bolded piece of electronic mail he had recieved and clicked the on the file link presented on the screen:

[Execute 22WUPjpeg?]

Agreeing to the saving of the image, he waited.

A new virtual window appeared, and revealed itself to be an ultrasound photo.

What the hell?! Kazuto felt his skin crawl and flinched.

"Isn't she the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?" Suguha fawned looking at the screen alongside him.

"The kid looks like an alien." He muttered.

"What?! How dare you even think of something that horrible!" She growled.

"But still cute as a button..." He awkwardly added.

"I'm so telling Mom on you." Suguha turned away but then Kazuto pulled her hand behind her.

"Before you do, last night at dinner, you said that you girls are having trouble deciding on nicknames for when the baby's born, right?"

Suguha turned around and stood still with crossed arms on her chest. "I'm listening."

"Can I join in on it? But I have one condition." He went on.

"And what is it?" She sounded interested.

"Only I get to call her that."

"Hm, fair enough." She agreed. "But I have one too."

"Okay, what?" He slouched in his chair.

"You have to come up with it by the time I leave for the trip us girls are planning to take the trip in Akihabara, so I can tell them personally."

"That seems fair. But I thought you were suppose to leave yesterday, weren't you?"

Suguha shook her head and looked slightly disappointed. "Onee-san felt sick so we moved it to this Saturday, but from the way she sounded on the phone, we think it might be pushed back even futhur."

She was in the doorway. "I'm still telling Mom what you said."

Kazuto sighed and leaned against the back of his leather chair. He remembered at the dinner table the night before, Suguha mentioned that they were planning to make the pet-names to be identical to her 'birth name' and 'as cute as she is'. Yumeko... Yumeko... Yumeko...

While thinking he grabbed a sheet of paper and pen from the drawer, and wrote down the name:

Yumeko

After sitting there for some time, the boy decided to go downstairs for a quick snack.

"How's the nicknaming coming along?" Suguha was filling a glass of water.

"I'm having trouble myself." He looked down to the floor under his feet.

"Hey, since we're both bored, you wanna spar a little?"

Challenged accepted.

In the dogo, both teenagers were fully equipped with protective gear and bamboo swords.

Unlike before, Kazuto had his mindset different from when he was suppose to have at the time. Yumeko... Dream... Dream... Dreams are beautiful... She will be beautiful... A beautiful dream? How will that help? Wait, a beautiful dream... A dream beauty?

"Kya!" Suguha charged at the distracted boy. Taking advantage of the flickering moment, she launches her shinai in front of her and strikes for his armored front and hit the right side of his head.

Kazuto stumbled on his heels and fell while his dropping weapon that clattered onto the hardwood floor. He slowly unattached the head gear blinking until he stopped seeing stars. Looking up at his cousin, a small smile grew on his lips. "Geez, if you still upset about what I said earlier, you could have just said so, Sugu."

"I didn't mean too, onii-chan. Its true I still kind of am...but I didn't expect this." She apologized and helped him up.

Kazuto chuckled at the needless apology. "Don't worry, you actually helped me."

She looked at him confused. "Eh?! How? I could have given you an concussion..."

The two were both at the computer desk together again. Kazuto was using the same paper and pen:

Yumeko

Yume = dream

Mi = beauty

Yumemi

*Flashback ends*

"So she really did attack you with a shinai?" Rinko chuckled lightly at the tale.

"That's besides the point." Kazuto frowned.

"Seems she liked your story. It put her right to sleep." Rinko have him a playful wink.

"Glad I could be of help onee-sensei."

Rinko handed her sleeping daughter over to him and offered the student a drink, which the latter gladly accepted before she left her seat.

"I'm sorry if my story hurt your feelings Yumemi-chan. I didn't mean to say that on purpose." He whispered softly.

Her big dark grey eyes enveil themselves and stares into his onyx irises. Being unable to resist the opportunity of it just being the two of them close together while the rest of the apartment dwellers were distracted by their own activities. The boy cuddled with the small body with great affection while grinning.

When he tickled her stomach, the small mouth didn't release the beautiful laugh he expected to hear, but shrill, high pitched screams, that were making his heart ache. The last thing he ever wanted to do was causing her any kind of strife.

"What happened Kirito-kun?" Asuna asked from her standing position in an anxious voice.

"I...tickled her a little." He answered not taking his eyes of his niece.

"I told you she's not ticklish." Suguha grumbled quietly.

Klein came over to the overwhelmed teenager and gently took her. He stroked her back with his thumb and spoke gently. "Come on, I know your stronger than that. Isn't my girl stronger than a bull?"

Once the noise reduced to sobbing, Klein felt someone poke his shoulder. Then he saw his girlfriend hold a little shrubby green plant over her head. Understanding the unspoken implication behind the action. He placed the infant in between them and the couple as Rinko's lips came in contact with the child's cheek while his lips touch her head.

"So, the party did start without me." A new voice was heard at the doorway.

The owner of the voice was a brown eyed boy with ear length fringed blonde hair. He shedded from his coat, gloves, and yellow scarf. He took of his shoes on the welcome mat and apologized for arriving back late.

"I had to go get a little something." Takato took a black velvet box.

"Merry Christmas." He presented it to his mother.

The inside revealed a sapphire diamond tennis bracelet. Fuko was speechless as she wore the dazzling luxury assessory and looked at her son.

"It's the same one you saw in the display case the day we went out. It was near your birthday but you couldn't get it that time."

"How did you buy this?" His mother's voice was slightly faint.

"The manager of the store is the uncle of a friend of mine and after pulling some strings, I got a better deal. So to help pay it off, I used half of my allowance and was helping out when I don't have baseball practice for the past three months and today was my last day. I wanted to give it to as a birthday present, but there wasn't enough time."

Hearing every one of his word, the nurse's mouth forced itself open. "Why?"

"Simple. You buy what I want so I bought what you wanted." The 13-year-old gave a half-smile.

Without saying anything the absurdly youthful woman wrapped her arms tightly stroking his hair as a tear trickled down her right eye and sniffled. "Thank you."

The small festivities moved on as usual.

Takato was entertaining his 'cousin' with the bell rattle he gave after she was born. "Merry Christmas Yuriko-chan." The young adolescent held in his arms.

The infant was taking pleasure in observing the functioning colouful lights on the tree standing in the corner of the room. She moved her attention as small pure white flakes began to gracefully fall down from the heavens, to engulf the dark city grounds in a soft white blanket.

As everyone else were taking part in the apprectiation of the mystical one-of-a-kind beauty of the weather condition, Kazuto was quietly standing in the back of the crowd.

His mind traveled back in time to a memory from the beginning of year, when the young man was desperately riding his bicycle to see his beloved awake in the real world for the very first time in over two years.

He knew that the things in his life will never be the same or repeat themselves at his own will. Some things he will cherish and remember for years to come. Some things, he will naturally forget as the flowing whispers of passing time that will eventually catch up with him and his friends as well.

He knew it was going to happen as soon as he writes the university entrance exams. Separating himself from his lonesome position to stand next to his girlfriend and his comrades, seizing the moment for as long as he could.

Like every snowfall, each memory was different.

Thank you for reading! Leave a review if you want! :)