I do not own or have any affiliation with Sword Art Online. I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes that I made.
Chapter 20: Compunction
Rinko's body was laying on the ground as her eyes opened up. A spotlight casted its bright, tantalizing shine in the perfect blackness acting as her initial, unknown surroundings. Her eyes felt a sharp sting and were trying to forcefully ignore the strong glow by turning her face away. Why am I dreaming all of this again!? I have to wake up... I have to...
Her eyes enlarged as she recognized a tall, skinny man coming near her from a distance, dressed a shirt and tie, covered in a long white labcoat. Without thinking, the woman ran to him, stopped and crouches down in front of him. The man, kept the usual calm demeanor.
"Kayaba-kun, I knew it you all along. You were my shield. Forgive me for not figuring it out sooner." She looked up to his face.
The mouth of the imaginary figment moved, however the sound of his voice was inaudible. As Rinko was once again standing on her own legs, to embrace him, as it was now the only method to feel him again. The image of her past lover's body disintegrated into blue three dimensional polygons followed by a glass shattering noise effect repeated itself as an echo.
Rinko dropped to her knees, clenching clomps of her short black hair, tears hitting the floor. She slowly and steadily brought herself on her feet and turned her body as a beeping sound was pushing itself near her.
A health gauge popped out of nowhere, the label was styled as if it was glitched, making the letters illegible to read. An isolette appeared as if was summoned by a magical spell. The incubator was surrounded by wires and monitors.
Rinko ran it as hard as she could, but stopped, hissing at the scorching pain on her abdomen as the incursion was newly stitched.
A message box from the Old and New Aincrad interface suddenly came forth to the woman, tapping on it:
Don't forget 05/09/25.
Wallowing and wincing excruciating pain, she fought to walk on her knees screaming her daughter's true name on the top of her lungs, saying not to leave her alone in the world. Her nose was burning as the vision from her eyes turned misty, blinking away the tears of agony.
Each piece of medical equipment disappeared leaving polygons and sounds of breaking glass one by one. Before witnessing the same occurrence to be unleashed on the transparent structure, Rinko's eyesight faded to black.
The woman woke up gasping for air, shivering in cold sweat. Next to her laid, was her daughter, warm and securely covered by the handmade quilt. Rinko touched her forehead with her own as she tenderly pressed her hand on the infant's back as she always did when they co-slept.
The mother grabs her cell phone discovering the time was nearly half past twelve o' clock in the afternoon.
The date May 02nd in the year 2026. According to the chronological age, it has been a year since the scientist entered motherhood. She cuddles with her daughter while still laying next to her. "Happy Birthday, my one true love."
The feeling of the moment had came and passed when the vibration was felt from the night table next to the bed. It was a voice mail sent from Kazuto's phone. Playing it, placed the device on her ear, listening to the harmonized birthday wish message. Smiling, she mass texted the high schoolers that the birthday girl was sleeping for the time being. Then she received messages from her own high school friends saying that they're coming together with the cake and decorations.
So its been a whole year already. Rinko kissed her child's hair. In terms of her actual age, she was now one-year-old. However, her developmental age was 8 months and 19 days.
Today was the day the mother hated with immeasurable anger and guilt. This day last year, robbed her of so many things. Instead of crying tears of joy and happiness, they were tears of distress, pain and hatred.
During the pregnancy, the expectant female couldn't wait to share the same birthday will the one person she'll love for the rest of her life and beyond. Even now, she still blames herself deeply for the untimely event. In those days, the mother always wondered why her precious darling fought so hard night and day to live another day in this cruel yet beautiful world.
"You make me so proud. I'm very blessed to be with you everyday." She whispered and carefully began to slide out of the bed and rolled out the nightstand drawer. She took out three leather bound notebooks, the first during her pregnancy, the second during her everyday visits and the third was used to record each detail of her child's time spending at home up until then.
When Rinko returned every morning she always asked the nurses what happened after she left and copied down every bit of information as she could. After visiting hours were over, the woman would lie down in her room, not speaking very much during dinner. In the first few weeks, she would cry until her eyes turned puffy, pink and lachrymose, sometimes even to the point of becoming light-headed and dizzy, saying that she was crying for someone who unable to do so.
As hurtful as the day was for her, she knew she had to move on. The woman slowly rekindled the philosophy that tears cannot turn back the hands of time. However, on the morning of May 09th, she expected that her entire world to end and nearly destroyed her instantly.
*Flashback starts*
Rinko was walking inside of the hospital lobby and reached for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit wing of the medical care facility.
Once she had just written her name on the sign-up sheet, she put on a brave smile for her little loved one.
The woman stopped in the hallway, feeling a high note singing her chest.
There was a bunch of medical staff members surrounding the incubator. Her curiosity overpowered her and turned to terror.
This fear made her legs wobble but she managed to walk into the large dimly lit room and one of the nurses what was going on.
The young man lowered his head and led her back outside.
Namie and Fuko rushed towards them and wrapped Rinko with a firm grasp, informing that they had now just learned what had happened.
She the patient's mother was about to repeat her question, a loud continuous beeping met her ears.
The woman slowly rotated her body, her eyes set still on the transparent object. Her fingertips glided down the heartbeat monitor. The crystal blue line was rolling horizontally across the black screen. Kayaba-kun, I failed you. I broke my promise. I shouldn't never become a mother.
With some assistance, Rinko was given her daughter to lay on her bare chest for to skin-to-skin care as a final request.
How much time had passed was unknown to her then. She was sitting in a comfortable chair in between her best friends until the mother requested that they would leave her as well, so they wouldn't get in trouble from their supervisors.
Continuing to hold the very small body, she lifted her head to see the clock hanging on the wall, discovering she had been sitting there for nearly three hours.
The luminescent line was still silently rolling along the screen. "I'm sorry, my one true love. I did fail." A long stream of salty water trickled down her face, before she found the strength to wipe it off, the drop fell on the limb, lifeless, one-week-old body.
The mother felt a very slow movement with the tiny hand weakly grasping on her long, slender index finger.
The revived beeping of the heart monitor was like an ingenious musical symphony to Rinko's ears.
She pressed the call button and within a few minutes the same staff members reentered the room with some equipment.
The already wired miniature figure was soon placed back into the incubator.
Observing as much of the work the staff was conducting, the mother noted every detail in the leather journal.
As everything was over, she turned to the back cover of the book, she engraves:
Don't Forget 05/09/25
*Flashback ends*
When closed the book and looks at her now awaken child and picked her up. "Happy Birthday."
It was now nearly one o' clock.
She takes her child outside so can finish with the cleaning and getting the both of them ready for the guests.
After changing herself and her daughter into more suitable clothing her best friends came carrying decorations and a cake. Takato was keeping the birthday girl occupied while the three women were busy pulling everything together as planned.
Later, the high school students came.
Rinko noticed something about the couple.
Asuna had the small dome-shaped monitoring camera mounted on her shoulder. It was the Audiovisual Bidirectional Communication Probe. Rinko remembered seeing the piece of electronic machinery, when all of the girls paid a visit due a fellow ALO player's excitement to finally at last meet their "grey kitten".
It has been nearly two months since the death of Konno Yuuki. The event of losing her friend hurt Asuna very much, but was slowly begin to overcome the loss by being around her loving friends and family whether in the real world or in the digital fairy universe. Since Absolute Sword's account's termination, Asuna felt a small part of her was deleted as well, but coping with the unfortunate turn of events smooth rate.
Rinko walked up to it, waving her hand into the screen. "Hello Yui-chan."
"Hello Rinko-san." The sweet voice escaped through the tiny terminal speaker.
"Yui-chan, what do you think of the way Kirito-kun looks right now?" Asuna moved her body enough so the that the AI could get a full-body visual image of the teenage boy in a giant, pink teddy bear costume with a bow on its neck. The costume also had a head with matching black eyes and black nose.
"Papa looks warm and fuzzy." She laughed. "I think the bow of it is in the wrong place from the picture you showed me, Mama." Yui observed.
"Hm, I'll fix that." Asuna united it from her boyfriend's neck and onto the left ear. "Now it's perfect, thanks to you Yui-chan." She grinned.
"The manliness of it is gone!" Kazuto exclaimed as he was dramatically clutching his chest.
Rinko gave a small chuckle. "Beside's Yui-chan's visit and Kirigaya-kun's amusing choice of attire, what else is there?"
"What else isn't there onee-san?" Keiko called out.
"Birthday beats?" The woman jokingly suggested.
A collective gasp came Takato, Kazuto and Agil.
"H-how could you even think of that?!" Takato cried out to his aunt.
"What are you talking about? I have you one on your first birthday." Fuko grabbed him a put him in a headlock, giving his fringed hair a shaggy look.
"That explains why I keep flinching whenever a friend of mine invites me to a fist bump." He muttered.
"What are birthday beats?" Yui asked.
"Birthday beats are a painful and cruel ritual, that we humans have been punished with for many decades, possibly centuries." Kazuto answered.
Asuna sighed and rolled her eyes. "Birthday beats are when family and friends punch the birthday person as a gesture of good luck. The number of punches depend on how old the person had turned on that day."
"Punch? You mean that you're going to hurt my baby?" Yui's voice was filled with uncertainty and worriment. "I don't want to cry on her special day."
The room felt a small, confused silence as her spread.
Asuna's lips were drying out and she sharply glared at her boyfriend. "See what you did Kirito-kun? You made her upset." She grunted.
"Wait, me!? How!?"
"You said that birthday beats are barbaric and cruel."
"I said painful and cruel." He corrected her.
"Aha, so you do admit to saying those dumb things?" She counter-argued.
The couple went on for a little while longer, much to the amusement of the audience.
"The truth is Yui-chan, is that we we're only going to hit her lightly and then give her a big hug after." Asuna explained.
"You were? Well, in that case, can you give a very light punch and really big hug from me, Papa?" The AI requested.
"W-what!? Why me!?"
"If Mama did it twice, it wouldn't be fair to the others."
Kazuto sighed. "Can I just hug her and forget about the punch?"
Yui shook her head. "If you do, than the punch to hug ratio will be off."
"How about instead of punching her, we give a pat on the back for good luck?" Keiko suggested.
"Or to make it more fun, why not pull on her ear?" Rika added.
Suguha stood near her bear cosplaying cousin. "And if that's too much for you to handle, maybe messing up her hair would be a better option."
Shino decided to speak. "You know, you could poke her face again, only this time she may not cry."
Asuna joined the taunting. "Too bad you can only give her one bear hug."
"I don't get it..." Kazuto's words made him sound confused yet irritated by the number of options being opened to him.
"What don't you get?" His girlfriend spoke up.
"You girls call her your little princess, but you keep playing rough with her. She's delicate, isn't she?"
The girls briefly glanced at one another.
Suguha cleared her throat. "We play rough with her because she's our warrior princess. Her delicateness is an illusion."
"So Yui-chan, which option do you prefer?" Asuna asked.
"I choose the...poking option." She chimed.
Kazuto sighed in great relief.
"But Papa, has to hug and poke only from me." The AI's requested further.
"So many hugs? Someone's getting very spoiled today." Rinko hugged her child a little tighter, letting the infant release a small laugh.
The students decided to give hugs and pokes in alphabetical order by surname starting with Shino and ending with Asuna.
The girls huddled together in a tight knit circle excluding Kazuto, as their eyes sparkled like a shoujo anime.
"I hope those cheeks of hers never lose their softness." Keiko squeaked.
"Her hugs are just as warm as her heart." Shino smiled.
"That laugh of hers is like sunshine on a cloudy day." Rika grinned.
"Her courageous spirit is immeasurable." Asuna happily sighed.
"The depths of her powerful will seem endless." Suguha joined in.
"Wow, that was amazing! What do you think Papa?" Yui's excitement for the answer grew.
How the hell do they come up with all of that!? Kazuto cleared his throat hoping not to disappoint the virtual being. "She has...a heart of gold." He stumbled on his words.
"That was...better than your last one. But you're not quite there yet." Rika teased him.
"How do you remember what I said last time?" He looked suspicious.
"It was recorded." Suguha answered.
"You recorded it!? When?" Panic empowered his voice.
"When you almost getting killed by Asuna-san." Keiko added.
"Can I hear them?" Yui requested in antcipation.
"Yeah, we added it to the video montage and wrote them down in the scrapbook." Suguha laughed.
"Scrapbook?" Rinko looked curious.
"We've been working on it for months." Rika took out the large decorated album and covered the part of the opening page with her hand. "Believe it or not onee-san, the hardest part was coming up with the opening message." She uncovered the small handwriting.
The mother read it aloud:
Given to the beautiful, rare blessing that on this day made us all aunts and an uncle. We will cherish you forever. Please don't forget our love for you.
The tearing mother thanked them wholeheartedly.
"That was a very nice message." Yui admired.
The young child seemed to be reaching out for something over her mother's shoulder, that the other occupants in the living could vividly figure out with their own eyes.
"Is there something bothering her?" Yui's voice was disquiet.
"It's nothing to worry about Yui. She's enjoying the streamers and balloons." Kazuto dishonestly explained.
Rinko felt her sensitive skin being harshly rubbed by her shirt's material, again followed by the pressure of fingernails was inserted in her left shoulder, but tried bravely not to spill tears from her eyes.
"So, who wants to hold her for a while?" She offered the company.
"May Mama hold her for a few minutes? I'd like to talk to my baby." Yui politely asked.
While that was taking place, Rinko excused herself to the bathroom.
She quickly shed her top off her body. Splashed her face with cool water, she then took a damp washcloth, applying it to the affected area hissing as the red skin pores and nearly noticeable bloody spots on her shoulder. The sweat on her forehead re-accumulated.
Spending an unknown amount of minutes in the confided space, inhales and exhales while re-buttoning her dark blue blouse.
There were only two more times where she can recall this frantic feeling.
The first time when she was holding a stick with a positive sign.
The second time, she laid on a gel bed with her hands on her then inflated abdomen.
And at the duration of those times, she only thought of one person, Kayaba Akihiko.
Her eyes returned her mind to the present time.
The time shown on her watch indicated that the woman was in there for nearly a half-hour.
"Why is crying?" Rinko asked the nurse who was pacing back and forth.
"I guess she got a little separation anxiety. Do you want her now or later?"
Rinko decided to wait and left the living room again, this time with her cell phone, wondering why her boyfriend hasn't come back yet and was nearly two hours late for the occasion. He told her that he was working on something and he needed to be there.
Her mind flashbacked to the previous year when she realized her water broke much too early. He was on his way to pick her up for the surprise baby shower. The next place she ended up was in a hospital room. Before the anesthesia took effect, she heard the calm voice from her past thanking her for all she did for him, including his 'miracle' child; a phenomenon he was always skeptic about. An hour post surgery, she woke up, surrounded by four sleeping school-girls and the feeling of something had been torn from her, after she failed to keep it safe for a day longer.
She exited the bedroom.
"How long did she take to stop?" The mother asked.
"Just a few minutes." The nurse gave her back. "That's record-breaking compared to you." She ruffled her son's hair.
"Mom, quit it." Takato muttered under his breath.
Rinko tenderly caressed her daughter's hair. For a long time she was trying to make herself believe that infant didn't contain either a single or a mixture of her own or her father's physical traits. Stroking hair, she couldn't force herself any longer. Her black hair and Kayaba's grey hair intertwined, giving their child a very dark grey colour, and somehow a pair of matching very dark grey eyes.
The party moved on to the guests playing a game where they had to say an adjective that describes the birthday girl and whoever couldn't outshine the previous contestant are unable to advance to the next round.
Words like brilliant, majestic, unique, mesmerising, blessing, exquisite, remarkable and angelic were tossed around like a soccer ball on an open field.
Kazuto was disqualified when he tried used Yui as a thesaurus, even though his answers were acceptable.
When the game came to halt, Rinko was changing her daughter into more comfortable sleepwear.
Takato entered the room offering help which the woman gladly accepted.
*Flashback starts*
August 11th 2025, 2:11 A.M.
The squalling newborn was in her mother's arms while Rinko was about to into the kitchen.
To her surprise, the 13-year-old unexpectedly made his appearance in the bedroom and had her a warm bottle.
"Did she wake you up?"
"I set my alarm so you didn't have to do it."
She smiled and inserted the teat in the small mouth as Takato sat opposite of her, wondrously observing.
"It's hard to believe this is happening in front me." He whispered.
After several minutes of waiting, the boy had in the child nestled in his arms.
The quilt wrapped bundle released a small whimper, but digressed once he massaged the back of her head putting newborn back to her previous slumber, then the fawn was returned to the doe.
Stretching his arms and yawning he laid down next to both females.
He stroked the small hair humming an old song that Fuko would sing to him whenever he took ill and the same one he to non-romantically serenade his 'tiny cousin' during his frequent hospital visits.
Fuko came in rubbing her eyes and sat on the foot of the bed. "I didn't know we were having a slumber party."
"Brings back some good times, doesn't it? Guess what song he was humming to to her." Rinko whispered.
"I have a feeling I already know."
The green haired woman sat on her knees, her lips were closer to his ear as she was reciting the lyrics:
Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty little ball of fur.
Happy Kitty, Sleepy Kitty purr, purr, purr.
*Flashback Ends*
Soon enough the party was slowly coming to its timely demise.
The cake was cut and served much to Rinko's reluctance due to her partner's absence.
The locked door disabled to everyone's surprise.
It was Klein looking both extremely happy yet tired all at once.
He quickly took a seat and a drink followed by an bombardment of questions coming his domestic partner.
Instead of giving her a verbal answer for why he was gone for so long, he took the birthday girl from her mother's arms, cuddling and kissing her like no end.
He reaches for his back pocket, taking out a red velvet box.
There were two rings inside.
I don't own the lyrics! Thank you very much for reading! Leave a review if you'd like!