p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-weight: bold;"I don't own or have any associations with Sword Art Online. I apologize for any spelling and/or grammatical errors and/or missing words that were made into the text./span/p
hr style="margin: 5px 0px; background-color: #cbcbcb; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff)); color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Chapter 28: Kirigaya Yui/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Friday, July 19th, 2031 | 9:30 PM/span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Everyone was gathered around waiting anxiously in Kazuto and Asuna's apartment./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Suguha, Keiko, Rika and Shino were sitting together on the large sofa while a small body, covered by a quilt was laying on top of their laps./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""If she starts to get heavy, just give back to me." Rinko informed the younger women./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""And miss the chance of a lifetime? span style="font-style: italic;"No, thank you/span." Rika whispered./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Geez, how far is this lab, that we have to stay here for span style="font-style: italic;"this /spanlong?" Klein muttered./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I'm not surprised, it takes me almost an hour for me to get there." The female scientist added./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"A key was heard, disabling the golden lock on the door./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"When it opened, three figures carefully stepped inside./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Kazuto and Asuna were holding onto Yui's hands./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yui's face brimmed in sheer delight as she saw everyone again and performed a short bow. "It's so nice to see everyone again./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The virtual reality AI was biogenetically engineered to live like an ordinary human in real world with all of her memories in tact. She was originally going to be Kazuto's present for Asuna in honor of the couple's June wedding. However the sentiment was post-poned due to frequent programming security inspections among many other things that were taken into consideration, during the difficult, pain-sticking progress of the so-called scientific breakthrough could reach its completion and still be safe./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her aunts huddled around her for a group hug, trying not to let tears of happiness spill from their eyelids./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yui then slowly tip-toed herself to the long piece of furniture in the living room. Her viewpoint was sharply focused on the curled-up figure asleep while under an old and colourful comforter./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Rinko laid her hand on Yui's head. "It was passed her bedtime and she couldn't stay awake for much longer. She was exhausted from school and her training."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The mother shook her child gently. "Yuyu, there's someone here that wants to meet you."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The six-year-old under groaned./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yui playfully went up to Yumeko's face and gave her a peck on the cheek. "I finally kissed my baby." She chimed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko rubbed her mine shaft grey eyes opened, blinking them until they got used to the lighting of her prevailing milieu./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I woke her up..." Yui sounded guilty./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko looked at the grinning, blithesome stranger's face after putting on her glasses./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""span style="font-style: italic;"You're/span span style="font-style: italic;"so big now/span." The older-looking girl out of the blue, wrapped her arms around the younger girl followed by a jump./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yui had not seen her via the [Audiovisual Bidirectional Communication Probe] in some years, ever since [ALfheim Online] had concluded its server's public run./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Caught off guard towards the spontaneous alacrity, Yumeko began to nonchalantly slip down the couch cushion as Yui attempted to curl up her body against hers, sending them both to the hardwood flooring but were saved by Kazuto./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""The couch is comfortable then the floor, Yui." Her youthful father lifted by the hand./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Sitting next to Rinko, Yui cuddled with the on-off asleep Yumeko like a doll./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""You like that don't you?" Rinko smiled with her eyes./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""She feels a bit cold." Yui commented./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The scientist smiled and passed the quilt over to her and patted her long black hair. "I think you'll like this a little better." She told Yui to wrap over her daughter's sleepwear./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""This feels span style="font-style: italic;"so/span good." Yui kissed Yumeko's face multiple times./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Guess what." Asuna sat next to her. "She'll be staying with us for a little while."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Hearing the news made Yui's cheerful smile wider. "Does that mean I get to play with her all day?" She chripped./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""But not for too long, she was exhausted after school and training today." Rinko added./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""How's she doing?" Keiko asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""She's getting the hang of it nicely and she's really enjoys it." The mother advocated./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""How long as it been?" Rika asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""It's been...four and half months." The elder sister figured answered./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Kazuto waked in another room and came out holding his personal laptop and connects a wire to the closed flat screen television set. After clicking on some application icons and opening some random virtual windows he pressed the remotes power button./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""What are we watching?" A now awake Yumeko asked her mother./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her mother told her that it was the same video that was shown on her birthday./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"There were multiple snapshots of Yumeko in the hospital. The said imagery made the first grader minor flinching and squirming uncomfortably. Though holding onto her mother's hand drecreased it, but not completely./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Here it comes." Klein whispered into his wife's ear./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"What part is he talking about? /spanRinko wondered./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The screen began to display in what appeared to be some video footage./p
hr style="margin: 5px 0px; background-color: #cbcbcb; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff)); color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"*Flashback starts*/span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Sunday, August 17th, 2025 /span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Rinko was standing in front of a mirror holding a sleek silver camcorder, she was focusing the lense for a few seconds to get a clearer more suitable shot./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"She pans the frame carefully showing the alarm clock the indicated it was only an hour after sunset./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"She walks out of the bedroom and cautiously enters into the living room./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Klein was bouncing a bundled up Yumeko in his arms./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The infant's chronological age was 3 months and 12 days, though her corrected age was only 7 days. She had fallen ill with a very high fever some days earlier, but was treated urgently./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Hi Yuyu, feeling a little better now?" Rinko tenderly smoothed her child's forehead./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her face and voice was off-camera. "Unpacking was a little harder since a certain someone was cranky. Luckily, Ryo took a couple of personal days off, so I starting to get the hang of things around here."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The screen faded to black./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The next shot showed Yumeko covered in a long white towel./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"A running water faucet was heard from being heard in the background./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Is the oven hot yet?" Klein's voice was off-screen./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""It just finished pre-heating." Rinko said behind the camera./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Is my little sweetheart ready for her bath?" Klein kissed her forehead. He turned behind the sink with a reluctant look on his face./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""What's wrong?" His girlfriend asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I think I should check the water again." He replied./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Are you span style="font-style: italic;"serious? /spanThis makes it the span style="font-style: italic;"fourth time a row/span. This isn't the first time you've given her a bath." The woman complained./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Can you check it then?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Rinko rolled her eyes and dipped her hand in half-full sink and patted the moist body part on her boyfriend's face and forehead. "Do you want me to check it span style="font-style: italic;"again?/span" She laughed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I'm good." He grumbled./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The infant's body almost occupied all of the sink's space. "Your weight is...5 pounds. You gained a lot compared to when you were born." Rinko held her daughter's hand with her finger./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The camera lense moved to Klein's face. "Is that the water, or are you sweating?" She teased him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Turning her attention back to her child, the mother felt something drip on top of her short black hair. "What the hell?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Klein shushed and told her to watch her language around his precious first sweetheart./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""If I catch I cold, you're the first one I'm giving it to." Rinko muttered under her breath./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Klein gently wrapped the towel around the wet figure, and held it close to his chest as if it was made from crystal or the wings of a butterfly, caressing and kissing her face to warm her up as she was being dried./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""My turn to dress her." Rinko said in a sing-song voice./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""What? No."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Rinko crinkled her eyebrows. "Do I need to remind you that we have a deal? You bathe her and I dress her, then we switch."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"He turned his back to the camera./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I span style="font-style: italic;"already/span have them picked out." She groaned./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"He continued to resist./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The adjusted newborn on his chest began to wail./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Not wanting his precious to go on crying, he gave her to his girlfriend who gave him the recording device in exchange./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Within the next minute, the infant went silent./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko was lovingly dressed up by her mother in sleepwear and socks./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"She was nestled in Rinko's arms staring at her face. "You can really tire a person out." The woman cradled smoothly after feeding her, then softly kissing her hands and face./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The infant's lips quivered and released a whimper but stopped after Rinko traced a heart on her cheek and softly spoke into her. "Mama span style="font-style: italic;"loves/span her baby. Mama loves her baby girl span style="font-style: italic;"so/span very much. Yumeko-chan is Mama's span style="font-style: italic;"most favourite/span person in the span style="font-style: italic;"whole world/span."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The infant let out a tiny cry when the mother's vocal activity came to a halt. "Mama loves her daughter's beautiful voice." Rinko's soothing voice was soft like a feather made of satin or the cotton blanket she was swaddling her child in. "Mama wishes to be brave and strong like her one true love." She kissed and nuzzled infant's face. span style="font-style: italic;"Even if just a fraction of it... /spanRinko heedlessly blinked away the forming tears./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Laying her little loved one in the co-sleeper next to her side of the bed, with some distance. span style="font-style: italic;"I wonder what Kayaba-kun would think of her/span. She unpreventable contemplated before laying down./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Klein walked in some time later./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"He carefully brushed both his hands on their faces, wishing both of his sweethearts a very well deserving good night's rest./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"*Flashback ends*/span/span/p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The last few parts were not included in the video footage that the others have seen./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"There was a New Year's Party picture and a short video following./p
hr style="margin: 5px 0px; background-color: #cbcbcb; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff)); color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"*Flashback starts* /span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Friday, January 1st, 2027 | 7:30 PM/span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Everyone was gathered in Klein's apartment for a simple get together to celebrate the coming of the new year./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The kids were trying to help the irked toddler to start walking. Her chronological age was 1 year, 7 months and 30 days. Meanwhile, her corrected age 1 year, 4 months and 17 days./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Don't you think we're putting too much pressure on her?" Kazuto worried./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""She needs to learn that she can't crawl everywhere she goes, Kirito-kun." His girlfriend sighed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""If she can stand on her own, then she can move her feet at the same time." Suguha was holding one of Yumeko's hands as Keiko held another./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""She needs to learn to struggle to appreciate hard work." Rika waved the pocket-sized pink bear in front of the tot's face as a motivator./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""If this doesn't work like last time, we should try the ball again." Shino suggested she as was standing some feet away./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Takato patted Yumeko's head. "Just like we practiced yesterday, Yuriko."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Fuko watched the minors with great interest of their current activity./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Having fun?" Rinko stood next to her with Namie./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Someone's span style="font-style: italic;"awfully/span span style="font-style: italic;"observant /spantonight." The doctor smirked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""A little span style="font-style: italic;"walk/span down span style="font-style: italic;"memory lane/span?" The scientist teased./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The nurse rolled her eyes. "I haven't seen this in span style="font-style: italic;"over/span a decade, will you gi'mme a break?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""He was 11 months back then, right?" Namie asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""11 months and a week." Fuko sighed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I can't believe span style="font-style: italic;"mine's /spanover 16 months adjusted... It feels like her discharge was only 3 months ago." Rinko wiped her eye./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""She's come a long way." Namie spoke as she and the nurse huddled with the mother in between./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""It's hard to believe that she didn't get any brain damage after flatlining for so long." Rinko slowly breathed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Your span style="font-style: italic;"love/span brought her back." Fuko pressed her hand on her old friend's back./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""You gave a passion for living." Namie put her arm around the scientist. "Do the kids know about any of that?" She whispered./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I don't have the heart to tell them." Rinko's whispered back./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Only the boy knows about her birth registered name?" Fuko added./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Rinko nodded in response./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The women stopped their conversation and resumed supervising the task before hand./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Okay, I think now would be a good time to let go." Keiko mentioned to Suguha./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The group of minors held their breath and crossed their fingers, hoping the fourth time will be the lucky charm./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Wobbling on her feet, the infant landed on her hands and knees instead, much to their letdown./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""She's crawling again." Rika moaned./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Takato sighed. "Let's take a five minute break."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Another good try, Himeko-chan." Shino patted her head./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko unsteady brought her legs up once again./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""What is she-?" Suguha went quiet./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Is she trying-?" Keiko didn't finish her question either./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"All of their eyes were directed at Yumeko./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Feeling the pressure, the toddler slides her left foot before her right./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"Thwap!/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her hands and face planted onto the floor. Looking up, the girl's face was red her eyes watering as she sniveled./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her mother stepped forward to help her, but was gently pulled back by her fiance./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Klein went to the child, sat her up and stroked her face./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko hugged his hand in return. "Pa...pa." She babbled./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The rest of the apartment's dwellers stood astonished and confounded./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"Did I hear her right?/span Rinko covered her mouth./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her friends pushed her to join them./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I'm so proud of you." Klein gave his first sweetheart a gentle kiss./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Feeling better?" Rinko ran her hand fingers down her child's face./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko instantly grabbed her mother's hand with both of hers. "Mmm...Ma...ma." She babbled again./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Everyone's eyes widen in surprise and bewilderment. Questioning whether or not to believe a child with her of list of former medicative predicaments had reached more than one milestone performance in the duration of sole nightfall./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Perhaps it was going to be a good year for her after all./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"*Flashback ends*/span/span/p
hr style="margin: 5px 0px; background-color: #cbcbcb; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff)); color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"After that, Kazuto smiled a little after seeing one picture of him dressed in a pink, bunny suit./p
hr style="margin: 5px 0px; background-color: #cbcbcb; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff)); color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"*Flashback starts*/span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Sunday, August 10th, 2025 | 1:20 PM/span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"It was the day of Yumeko's elongated release from the hospital's NICU./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The teenager in the bunny suit noticed that no one was around near the bassinet for a collective amount of minutes./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Thinking that she might be feeling a little lonely, he took the convenience of the moment to at long last, go near her without worrying about her former paper thin skin or the distracting beeping coming from the impenetrable equipment, nor the vexatious wires that was attached to her body./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The tangible summarization he gave his comrades were just notes on a medical form that on a clipboard, as he didn't have the heart to see through the red figure through the limpid incubator. He couldn't dare to recall his thinking of that night, expect what was going to happen, or how long it would take, or if she'll get through the entire timespan./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The last question undoubtably terrified him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Kazuto only made the grand total of only three hospital visits./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Suguha offered him to come along with her as the girl tried to make once or twice a week./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The second time, he remembered at the punishment of homework completion failure, his sisterly mentor made him wear black cat ears and paws. Standing behind the incubator concealing it into a digital memory, Kazuto did not look down only at Rinko's playful smiling face when she held the camera./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The truth was he did finish, but lied so he'd see her smile a little after what happened the day before that one./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Although most of time the boy told Suguha that he had to catch-up on some of his studies so he wouldn't fall behind or said he wasn't feeling well to go outside of the house weren't the best excuses he could have ever come up with, in a way she knew that he was scared and didn't want to pester him about it. After coming back home, she would abbreviate as soon as she gotten the opportunity, often ending with wishing to hear the paitent's voice./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"He silently detested when his niece's PDA, ROP, apnea spells, blood transfusions or lack of movement were mentioned and couldn't bare the thought of thinking about the scars that were permanently fixated on her body. Especially, the one on her left foot and on the left of her tiny chest, nearing the middle of her back. Sometime's the teenager's body will flinch./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Here it goes. Kazuto slowly inhaled and exhaled looking into the cradle./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko was laying on back./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Kazuto observed the socks and mittens matching with her dress. Rinko wrote him an email informing him that her discharge weight is 4 pounds and 9 ounces, a great difference from her birth weight of 635 grams and should go easier on himself./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her curled up body made her look a tad bit smaller./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"She's so beautiful. I picked a good nickname for her after all./span Kazuto smiled in awe at what he thought were angelic features from her skin to her brushed hair./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"Do I kiss her? No I should touch her first so she can learn my scent... Or is it the other way around? /span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The adjusted newborn squirmed and stopped./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"I should leave her alone, she deserves to sleep./span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"He looks around the room where everyone is distracted by their own small talk./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"But if I leave right now, she might get lonely. That's why I came here in the first place right? I wasn't there for her and I have to make this right as her uncle. But what do I do? What do I say? /spanHe takes another deep breath and bends down slightly removing his pink gloves. "Yumemi-chan, remember me? It's Kazuto-oji-san." He whispered in a soft-spoken voice./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"Did I really talk and look at her at the same time?!/span He blushed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"Okay, I should touch her right now. Or should I talk to her some more? No, no I should touch her while I still have a chance./span He poked her nose and cheek. "Gah she feels soft and squishy." His whisper was very faint. Then he cupped her pudgy face with his hands and gave them a light squeeze. span style="font-style: italic;"She even feels beautiful... Oh I should kiss her right now before someone starts to notice.../span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Just then Kazuto heard a muffled sound coming from the infant's mouth. span style="font-style: italic;"Oh no! Did I hurt her?! /spanHis palms started to sweat./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her lips quivered and they released a low feeble groaning./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"Wait does that mean she's going to.../span His heart pumped faster as the boy witness her mouth starting to open. span style="font-style: italic;"I'm so screwed!/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"A high pitched squeal came from Yumeko's mouth as her stubby arms flailed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"As it happened for a second time Kazuto already had a heart-ache though her voice didn't contain much overall vocal power./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Your dead." The girls voice drew from behind him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Asuna's fist hit his head, which he felt was deserving./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I honestly didn't mean to do that." He apologized to Rinko./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The woman started at him with a seemingly calm expression and tightly embraced her arms around him. "I span style="font-style: italic;"finally/span got to hear her voice. Thank you."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Uh, you're welcome onee-sensei... I can't...breathe." He struggled to whisper./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"She apologized and released her./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"This was her first cry? So did I finally do something right for her? Does this mean I'm going to be a good uncle after all?/span Kazuto blinked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"*Flashback ends*/span/span/p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The video was over along with the soft instrumental music that were escaping the long narrow speakers./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The room's atmosphere could only be described as bubbly and warm./p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yui opened her bright black eyes and noticed herself in a dark room where the only base of lighting came from the bottom crack of the door./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her hand was holding onto something and realized it was Yumeko's hand, then smiles./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The older girl brushed her other hand over the younger girl's sleeping face. "It will be nice to have someone to talk besides Mama and Papa." She whispered and nuzzled the snoring six-year-old./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"In a lone nighttime, two aspirations had been actualized together./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Someone met the very individual after years of wishful waiting./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"That very individual was had at last gotten the chance of knowing the exposure of a fascinating attachment./p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Thank you for reading this chapter! Leave a review if you'd like!/span/p
hr style="margin: 5px 0px; background-color: #cbcbcb; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff)); color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Chapter 28: Kirigaya Yui/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Friday, July 19th, 2031 | 9:30 PM/span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Everyone was gathered around waiting anxiously in Kazuto and Asuna's apartment./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Suguha, Keiko, Rika and Shino were sitting together on the large sofa while a small body, covered by a quilt was laying on top of their laps./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""If she starts to get heavy, just give back to me." Rinko informed the younger women./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""And miss the chance of a lifetime? span style="font-style: italic;"No, thank you/span." Rika whispered./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Geez, how far is this lab, that we have to stay here for span style="font-style: italic;"this /spanlong?" Klein muttered./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I'm not surprised, it takes me almost an hour for me to get there." The female scientist added./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"A key was heard, disabling the golden lock on the door./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"When it opened, three figures carefully stepped inside./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Kazuto and Asuna were holding onto Yui's hands./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yui's face brimmed in sheer delight as she saw everyone again and performed a short bow. "It's so nice to see everyone again./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The virtual reality AI was biogenetically engineered to live like an ordinary human in real world with all of her memories in tact. She was originally going to be Kazuto's present for Asuna in honor of the couple's June wedding. However the sentiment was post-poned due to frequent programming security inspections among many other things that were taken into consideration, during the difficult, pain-sticking progress of the so-called scientific breakthrough could reach its completion and still be safe./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her aunts huddled around her for a group hug, trying not to let tears of happiness spill from their eyelids./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yui then slowly tip-toed herself to the long piece of furniture in the living room. Her viewpoint was sharply focused on the curled-up figure asleep while under an old and colourful comforter./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Rinko laid her hand on Yui's head. "It was passed her bedtime and she couldn't stay awake for much longer. She was exhausted from school and her training."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The mother shook her child gently. "Yuyu, there's someone here that wants to meet you."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The six-year-old under groaned./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yui playfully went up to Yumeko's face and gave her a peck on the cheek. "I finally kissed my baby." She chimed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko rubbed her mine shaft grey eyes opened, blinking them until they got used to the lighting of her prevailing milieu./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I woke her up..." Yui sounded guilty./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko looked at the grinning, blithesome stranger's face after putting on her glasses./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""span style="font-style: italic;"You're/span span style="font-style: italic;"so big now/span." The older-looking girl out of the blue, wrapped her arms around the younger girl followed by a jump./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yui had not seen her via the [Audiovisual Bidirectional Communication Probe] in some years, ever since [ALfheim Online] had concluded its server's public run./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Caught off guard towards the spontaneous alacrity, Yumeko began to nonchalantly slip down the couch cushion as Yui attempted to curl up her body against hers, sending them both to the hardwood flooring but were saved by Kazuto./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""The couch is comfortable then the floor, Yui." Her youthful father lifted by the hand./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Sitting next to Rinko, Yui cuddled with the on-off asleep Yumeko like a doll./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""You like that don't you?" Rinko smiled with her eyes./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""She feels a bit cold." Yui commented./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The scientist smiled and passed the quilt over to her and patted her long black hair. "I think you'll like this a little better." She told Yui to wrap over her daughter's sleepwear./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""This feels span style="font-style: italic;"so/span good." Yui kissed Yumeko's face multiple times./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Guess what." Asuna sat next to her. "She'll be staying with us for a little while."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Hearing the news made Yui's cheerful smile wider. "Does that mean I get to play with her all day?" She chripped./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""But not for too long, she was exhausted after school and training today." Rinko added./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""How's she doing?" Keiko asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""She's getting the hang of it nicely and she's really enjoys it." The mother advocated./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""How long as it been?" Rika asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""It's been...four and half months." The elder sister figured answered./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Kazuto waked in another room and came out holding his personal laptop and connects a wire to the closed flat screen television set. After clicking on some application icons and opening some random virtual windows he pressed the remotes power button./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""What are we watching?" A now awake Yumeko asked her mother./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her mother told her that it was the same video that was shown on her birthday./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"There were multiple snapshots of Yumeko in the hospital. The said imagery made the first grader minor flinching and squirming uncomfortably. Though holding onto her mother's hand drecreased it, but not completely./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Here it comes." Klein whispered into his wife's ear./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"What part is he talking about? /spanRinko wondered./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The screen began to display in what appeared to be some video footage./p
hr style="margin: 5px 0px; background-color: #cbcbcb; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff)); color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"*Flashback starts*/span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Sunday, August 17th, 2025 /span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Rinko was standing in front of a mirror holding a sleek silver camcorder, she was focusing the lense for a few seconds to get a clearer more suitable shot./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"She pans the frame carefully showing the alarm clock the indicated it was only an hour after sunset./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"She walks out of the bedroom and cautiously enters into the living room./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Klein was bouncing a bundled up Yumeko in his arms./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The infant's chronological age was 3 months and 12 days, though her corrected age was only 7 days. She had fallen ill with a very high fever some days earlier, but was treated urgently./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Hi Yuyu, feeling a little better now?" Rinko tenderly smoothed her child's forehead./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her face and voice was off-camera. "Unpacking was a little harder since a certain someone was cranky. Luckily, Ryo took a couple of personal days off, so I starting to get the hang of things around here."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The screen faded to black./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The next shot showed Yumeko covered in a long white towel./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"A running water faucet was heard from being heard in the background./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Is the oven hot yet?" Klein's voice was off-screen./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""It just finished pre-heating." Rinko said behind the camera./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Is my little sweetheart ready for her bath?" Klein kissed her forehead. He turned behind the sink with a reluctant look on his face./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""What's wrong?" His girlfriend asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I think I should check the water again." He replied./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Are you span style="font-style: italic;"serious? /spanThis makes it the span style="font-style: italic;"fourth time a row/span. This isn't the first time you've given her a bath." The woman complained./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Can you check it then?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Rinko rolled her eyes and dipped her hand in half-full sink and patted the moist body part on her boyfriend's face and forehead. "Do you want me to check it span style="font-style: italic;"again?/span" She laughed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I'm good." He grumbled./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The infant's body almost occupied all of the sink's space. "Your weight is...5 pounds. You gained a lot compared to when you were born." Rinko held her daughter's hand with her finger./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The camera lense moved to Klein's face. "Is that the water, or are you sweating?" She teased him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Turning her attention back to her child, the mother felt something drip on top of her short black hair. "What the hell?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Klein shushed and told her to watch her language around his precious first sweetheart./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""If I catch I cold, you're the first one I'm giving it to." Rinko muttered under her breath./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Klein gently wrapped the towel around the wet figure, and held it close to his chest as if it was made from crystal or the wings of a butterfly, caressing and kissing her face to warm her up as she was being dried./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""My turn to dress her." Rinko said in a sing-song voice./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""What? No."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Rinko crinkled her eyebrows. "Do I need to remind you that we have a deal? You bathe her and I dress her, then we switch."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"He turned his back to the camera./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I span style="font-style: italic;"already/span have them picked out." She groaned./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"He continued to resist./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The adjusted newborn on his chest began to wail./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Not wanting his precious to go on crying, he gave her to his girlfriend who gave him the recording device in exchange./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Within the next minute, the infant went silent./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko was lovingly dressed up by her mother in sleepwear and socks./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"She was nestled in Rinko's arms staring at her face. "You can really tire a person out." The woman cradled smoothly after feeding her, then softly kissing her hands and face./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The infant's lips quivered and released a whimper but stopped after Rinko traced a heart on her cheek and softly spoke into her. "Mama span style="font-style: italic;"loves/span her baby. Mama loves her baby girl span style="font-style: italic;"so/span very much. Yumeko-chan is Mama's span style="font-style: italic;"most favourite/span person in the span style="font-style: italic;"whole world/span."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The infant let out a tiny cry when the mother's vocal activity came to a halt. "Mama loves her daughter's beautiful voice." Rinko's soothing voice was soft like a feather made of satin or the cotton blanket she was swaddling her child in. "Mama wishes to be brave and strong like her one true love." She kissed and nuzzled infant's face. span style="font-style: italic;"Even if just a fraction of it... /spanRinko heedlessly blinked away the forming tears./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Laying her little loved one in the co-sleeper next to her side of the bed, with some distance. span style="font-style: italic;"I wonder what Kayaba-kun would think of her/span. She unpreventable contemplated before laying down./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Klein walked in some time later./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"He carefully brushed both his hands on their faces, wishing both of his sweethearts a very well deserving good night's rest./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"*Flashback ends*/span/span/p
hr style="margin: 5px 0px; background-color: #cbcbcb; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff)); color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The last few parts were not included in the video footage that the others have seen./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"There was a New Year's Party picture and a short video following./p
hr style="margin: 5px 0px; background-color: #cbcbcb; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff)); color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"*Flashback starts* /span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Friday, January 1st, 2027 | 7:30 PM/span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Everyone was gathered in Klein's apartment for a simple get together to celebrate the coming of the new year./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The kids were trying to help the irked toddler to start walking. Her chronological age was 1 year, 7 months and 30 days. Meanwhile, her corrected age 1 year, 4 months and 17 days./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Don't you think we're putting too much pressure on her?" Kazuto worried./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""She needs to learn that she can't crawl everywhere she goes, Kirito-kun." His girlfriend sighed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""If she can stand on her own, then she can move her feet at the same time." Suguha was holding one of Yumeko's hands as Keiko held another./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""She needs to learn to struggle to appreciate hard work." Rika waved the pocket-sized pink bear in front of the tot's face as a motivator./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""If this doesn't work like last time, we should try the ball again." Shino suggested she as was standing some feet away./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Takato patted Yumeko's head. "Just like we practiced yesterday, Yuriko."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Fuko watched the minors with great interest of their current activity./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Having fun?" Rinko stood next to her with Namie./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Someone's span style="font-style: italic;"awfully/span span style="font-style: italic;"observant /spantonight." The doctor smirked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""A little span style="font-style: italic;"walk/span down span style="font-style: italic;"memory lane/span?" The scientist teased./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The nurse rolled her eyes. "I haven't seen this in span style="font-style: italic;"over/span a decade, will you gi'mme a break?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""He was 11 months back then, right?" Namie asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""11 months and a week." Fuko sighed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I can't believe span style="font-style: italic;"mine's /spanover 16 months adjusted... It feels like her discharge was only 3 months ago." Rinko wiped her eye./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""She's come a long way." Namie spoke as she and the nurse huddled with the mother in between./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""It's hard to believe that she didn't get any brain damage after flatlining for so long." Rinko slowly breathed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Your span style="font-style: italic;"love/span brought her back." Fuko pressed her hand on her old friend's back./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""You gave a passion for living." Namie put her arm around the scientist. "Do the kids know about any of that?" She whispered./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I don't have the heart to tell them." Rinko's whispered back./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Only the boy knows about her birth registered name?" Fuko added./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Rinko nodded in response./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The women stopped their conversation and resumed supervising the task before hand./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Okay, I think now would be a good time to let go." Keiko mentioned to Suguha./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The group of minors held their breath and crossed their fingers, hoping the fourth time will be the lucky charm./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Wobbling on her feet, the infant landed on her hands and knees instead, much to their letdown./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""She's crawling again." Rika moaned./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Takato sighed. "Let's take a five minute break."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Another good try, Himeko-chan." Shino patted her head./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko unsteady brought her legs up once again./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""What is she-?" Suguha went quiet./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Is she trying-?" Keiko didn't finish her question either./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"All of their eyes were directed at Yumeko./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Feeling the pressure, the toddler slides her left foot before her right./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"Thwap!/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her hands and face planted onto the floor. Looking up, the girl's face was red her eyes watering as she sniveled./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her mother stepped forward to help her, but was gently pulled back by her fiance./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Klein went to the child, sat her up and stroked her face./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko hugged his hand in return. "Pa...pa." She babbled./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The rest of the apartment's dwellers stood astonished and confounded./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"Did I hear her right?/span Rinko covered her mouth./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her friends pushed her to join them./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I'm so proud of you." Klein gave his first sweetheart a gentle kiss./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Feeling better?" Rinko ran her hand fingers down her child's face./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko instantly grabbed her mother's hand with both of hers. "Mmm...Ma...ma." She babbled again./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Everyone's eyes widen in surprise and bewilderment. Questioning whether or not to believe a child with her of list of former medicative predicaments had reached more than one milestone performance in the duration of sole nightfall./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Perhaps it was going to be a good year for her after all./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"*Flashback ends*/span/span/p
hr style="margin: 5px 0px; background-color: #cbcbcb; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff)); color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"After that, Kazuto smiled a little after seeing one picture of him dressed in a pink, bunny suit./p
hr style="margin: 5px 0px; background-color: #cbcbcb; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 100%, 100% 100%, from(#ffffff), color-stop(0.1, #cbcbcb), color-stop(0.9, #cbcbcb), to(#ffffff)); color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" noshade="noshade" size="1" /
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"*Flashback starts*/span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Sunday, August 10th, 2025 | 1:20 PM/span/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"It was the day of Yumeko's elongated release from the hospital's NICU./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The teenager in the bunny suit noticed that no one was around near the bassinet for a collective amount of minutes./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Thinking that she might be feeling a little lonely, he took the convenience of the moment to at long last, go near her without worrying about her former paper thin skin or the distracting beeping coming from the impenetrable equipment, nor the vexatious wires that was attached to her body./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The tangible summarization he gave his comrades were just notes on a medical form that on a clipboard, as he didn't have the heart to see through the red figure through the limpid incubator. He couldn't dare to recall his thinking of that night, expect what was going to happen, or how long it would take, or if she'll get through the entire timespan./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The last question undoubtably terrified him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Kazuto only made the grand total of only three hospital visits./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Suguha offered him to come along with her as the girl tried to make once or twice a week./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The second time, he remembered at the punishment of homework completion failure, his sisterly mentor made him wear black cat ears and paws. Standing behind the incubator concealing it into a digital memory, Kazuto did not look down only at Rinko's playful smiling face when she held the camera./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The truth was he did finish, but lied so he'd see her smile a little after what happened the day before that one./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Although most of time the boy told Suguha that he had to catch-up on some of his studies so he wouldn't fall behind or said he wasn't feeling well to go outside of the house weren't the best excuses he could have ever come up with, in a way she knew that he was scared and didn't want to pester him about it. After coming back home, she would abbreviate as soon as she gotten the opportunity, often ending with wishing to hear the paitent's voice./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"He silently detested when his niece's PDA, ROP, apnea spells, blood transfusions or lack of movement were mentioned and couldn't bare the thought of thinking about the scars that were permanently fixated on her body. Especially, the one on her left foot and on the left of her tiny chest, nearing the middle of her back. Sometime's the teenager's body will flinch./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Here it goes. Kazuto slowly inhaled and exhaled looking into the cradle./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yumeko was laying on back./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Kazuto observed the socks and mittens matching with her dress. Rinko wrote him an email informing him that her discharge weight is 4 pounds and 9 ounces, a great difference from her birth weight of 635 grams and should go easier on himself./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her curled up body made her look a tad bit smaller./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"She's so beautiful. I picked a good nickname for her after all./span Kazuto smiled in awe at what he thought were angelic features from her skin to her brushed hair./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"Do I kiss her? No I should touch her first so she can learn my scent... Or is it the other way around? /span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The adjusted newborn squirmed and stopped./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"I should leave her alone, she deserves to sleep./span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"He looks around the room where everyone is distracted by their own small talk./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"But if I leave right now, she might get lonely. That's why I came here in the first place right? I wasn't there for her and I have to make this right as her uncle. But what do I do? What do I say? /spanHe takes another deep breath and bends down slightly removing his pink gloves. "Yumemi-chan, remember me? It's Kazuto-oji-san." He whispered in a soft-spoken voice./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"Did I really talk and look at her at the same time?!/span He blushed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"Okay, I should touch her right now. Or should I talk to her some more? No, no I should touch her while I still have a chance./span He poked her nose and cheek. "Gah she feels soft and squishy." His whisper was very faint. Then he cupped her pudgy face with his hands and gave them a light squeeze. span style="font-style: italic;"She even feels beautiful... Oh I should kiss her right now before someone starts to notice.../span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Just then Kazuto heard a muffled sound coming from the infant's mouth. span style="font-style: italic;"Oh no! Did I hurt her?! /spanHis palms started to sweat./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her lips quivered and they released a low feeble groaning./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"Wait does that mean she's going to.../span His heart pumped faster as the boy witness her mouth starting to open. span style="font-style: italic;"I'm so screwed!/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"A high pitched squeal came from Yumeko's mouth as her stubby arms flailed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"As it happened for a second time Kazuto already had a heart-ache though her voice didn't contain much overall vocal power./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Your dead." The girls voice drew from behind him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Asuna's fist hit his head, which he felt was deserving./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""I honestly didn't mean to do that." He apologized to Rinko./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The woman started at him with a seemingly calm expression and tightly embraced her arms around him. "I span style="font-style: italic;"finally/span got to hear her voice. Thank you."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;""Uh, you're welcome onee-sensei... I can't...breathe." He struggled to whisper./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"She apologized and released her./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-style: italic;"This was her first cry? So did I finally do something right for her? Does this mean I'm going to be a good uncle after all?/span Kazuto blinked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; text-align: center;"span style="font-style: italic;"span style="font-weight: bold;"*Flashback ends*/span/span/p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The video was over along with the soft instrumental music that were escaping the long narrow speakers./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The room's atmosphere could only be described as bubbly and warm./p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Yui opened her bright black eyes and noticed herself in a dark room where the only base of lighting came from the bottom crack of the door./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Her hand was holding onto something and realized it was Yumeko's hand, then smiles./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"The older girl brushed her other hand over the younger girl's sleeping face. "It will be nice to have someone to talk besides Mama and Papa." She whispered and nuzzled the snoring six-year-old./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"In a lone nighttime, two aspirations had been actualized together./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"Someone met the very individual after years of wishful waiting./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"That very individual was had at last gotten the chance of knowing the exposure of a fascinating attachment./p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Thank you for reading this chapter! Leave a review if you'd like!/span/p