Disclaimer: Don't own Sword Art Online (I or II), or any of it's characters.

Rating: T

Even with the snowy world out there, life goes on

RL

December 12th, 2030

"Ha! Yah, ha ha!"

"That's it; keep up that movement, Yui, as well as the footwork."

"You got it! Hah!"

Glancing over at their playful sword fight, she smiled, glad to see them so happy.

Even as she listened though, she focused on her own light workout, in particular working on repetition this time - despite that, she had to work to stifle a yawn. Because of an appointment today - which seemed like it'd go overly-long - they had to get things done earlier than usual.

Still, she thought how already, Yui was improving in stamina and getting used to physical exertion. With that, she just might start asking to use the lightest weights next time, to build her strength - already she was imagining it, Yui asking her for permission to do that, hehe. Once Yui grew up a little, it might seem weird being one of the few girls who had muscular (well, more muscular-than-normal anyway) arms-

She jolted, shaking herself out of it; Yui's not there yet, she thought softly. It would take at least five years before she even started to physically grow, yet still, best to enjoy her as she is now.

"Hehe, now I got you, da-! Wah!"

Crash

Instinctively, she stopped and looked over, worried - however, Yui had just tripped, right into her father, both lying on the floor. No one looked hurt, and the two looked at each other in their little dogpile before simply laughing.

Smiling again, it warmed her heart to see them both so cheerful.

Which reminded her; she had to prepare some food that they could take with them... hmm.

/

Later

"Ah, the RECTO building where I was born?"

"Yup" Kazuto answered easily, holding onto Yui's hand; she was making sure everything was in order with their paperwork. Maybe they were already inside, but she wanted to make sure they weren't held up at the front desk and such.

"But why?" Yui wondered.

"Well, they're gonna want regular status updates, to make sure everything works normally for you, Yui. A bit of a hassle, but it's necessary."

"Ahh."

"Okay" she said easily, smiling as she looked up. "I think we're all good to go here."

Yui looked curiously excited, and Kazuto started to say something, but then he noticed something over her shoulder - his expression changed a bit, looking more careful. She wondered, before she turned around and-

"Mom?" she breathed, surprised.

She heard Yui react from just behind her, and realized with a start that, while mom had known about dad's efforts, she'd never met Yui in the flesh.

"Asuna, Kazuto" her mother said. "It takes a happenstance meeting for me to meet my adopted granddaughter now?"

The words made her a little angry, as they weren't helping and gave off the wrong impression, but she reminded herself that mom had high standards; always had, probably always will. Just as she formed an answer in her head though, Kazuto beat her to the punch:

"We were ecstatic that Shouzou brought Yui into the real world, Mrs. Yuuki" he breathed, holding onto Yui closely, who looked up at him with a smile. "It was like a dream come true - so it took awhile to sink in."

His words made her smile for a moment, then she stepped to Yui's others side. "That's right, mom" she continued. "We were so happy, and we wanted to share that with Yui, along with many other experiences. After all, she needs to adjust to the real world, and we'll help out."

Almost all the way through her words, Yui took her hand and squeezed; she squeezed back, happy.

Mom's expression didn't change all that much, but she slowly made a sound. "Well, I didn't exactly intend to fault you for that; just stating a fact" she said, before looking straight at Yui. "So, you were an A.I."

Yui stepped forward a little, hands in front of her, but with a little smile. "Formerly, yes, ma'am" she said gently, but polite.

"Then a question; who am I? Be as detailed as possible."

She felt Kazuto give her a little confused look, but she said it'd be okay; Yui could handle herself. Also, she knew that Yui had heard of her mother through a conversation long ago, so she likely knew a few things.

Yui made a slight motion, likely out of surprise, but it didn't show in her voice. "You're Kyouku Yuuki, age 54, Japanese descent, married to Shouzou Yuuki, mother to Asuna and Kouichirou, and your occupation is a professor" she said gently.

She jolted, surprised; she'd never told Yui about her brother... then she wondered why she was surprised, because Yui was a master at information gathering + remebrance, virtual or real world. She'd also been a little worried about her mom's reaction to her age, as it was true despite the fact that she didn't look it at all - but whatever her reaction was, mom kept it hidden, still looking at Yui.

"All true, but anyone could look those up via the internet."

"Maybe" Yui said, still gentle. "But you were also born to a middle-class family, in a traditional home... you grew up detesting that life, and-"

"Stop."

Yui did so, but out of surprise; she however, knew that Yui had hit upon a sore spot, even after all this time.

Mom retained much of her composure though, as per usual. "So, you've definitely proven yourself" she said to Yui, arms crossed. "No other child of age ten could hope to retain half of what you just said, or even pronounce some of them correctly, all while keeping polite and composed the entire time."

"A little overboard, much?" she thought to herself, a bit surly.

Yui just smiled a little, though after a moment. "Thank you" she said gently, doing a little bow. "Kazuto and Asuna have told me about you - I admit, I want to do so many things here and now, but you have your image to worry about. I'll settle for just saying thank you."

That, she was surprised (and pleased) to see, mom didn't expect. "What for?"

"If it weren't for you, Asuna might not be here" Yui said softly, her hands moving together.

The surprise, subdued as it was, soon went back to normal. "That's not really something you need to thank me for-"

"Yes, I do."

At that, mom faintly raised an eyebrow, most of which was likely directed at Yui cutting her off.

Yui glanced back at her and Kazuto, smiling. "These two mean everything to me" she whispered, her eyes shining-

It made her smile back, touching a hand to her heart; Kazuto took her other one and squeezed.

"I love them, and they love me" Yui continued, before gently stepping forward. "If it's okay, I'd like you to be part of that, grandma."

Mom almost blanched out of sheer surprise; Yui was hugging her, right around the middle. It may have only lasted for two seconds, but still, she stared at Yui as if not sure what to do. Yui herself backed away to a respectable distance, but otherwise didn't move - beside Kazuto, she worried what to say, or do; she knew mom wasn't exactly a hugging type of person, but what could she say about this? Fortunately or otherwise, their appointment chose that moment to interrupt:

"Mr. and Mrs. Kirigaya?"

Yui looked over curiously, while she and Kazuto took that as their cue to start heading further in - on her way back though, she glanced over at mom. She didn't seem to notice, but otherwise had her usual composure, so her true reaction was hard to tell.

"Just like usual" she thought, sighing mentally. "Well, I always knew she wouldn't be the doting grandmother... I just hope she appreciates Yui's hug, even if in her own way."

"Hehe" Yui breathed happily, just listening to the scanning noises; the latest in a series of tests, thankfully many of which were pretty harmless. Asuna and a few other assistants stood nearby, his wife answering a few of their questions and such. No doubt they were fine-tuning the details so they could continue this line of research, even if not exactly the way it worked for Yui. The specifics and implications were likely well above his head though, so he merely smiled, and continued looking over the data numbers coming in.

"If there's been any glitches, overheating, or other such things, we haven't seen or heard any evidence of such" he said lightly, looking at the current picture called up; an x-ray of Yui's head, with particular focus on the metal 'implants' that contained her data. "But I still don't know how you did this sir-"

"Having machinery operate perfectly with bio responses, powered by her own energy instead of batteries?" Shouzou answered, slowly chuckling. "It was not easy, I can tell you that, Kazuto - in fact, about 90% of the time spent was trying to figure out that aspect of it."

"I can imagine" he said, before softening. "But even if it only works once, I'm glad it was with Yui."

"As am I."

"Also sir, while we're on the subject of Yui, here" he said, holding out a flash drive - Shouzou looked at it in faint surprise, before back at him. "It's a copy of some of the pics we've taken of Yui over the last month; I thought you might like a few."

The older man took it with a warm smile. "Thank you, Kazuto; you're a thoughtful son-in-law, no matter what my wife might say."

"Well, I do try" he said, a little sheepish.

Anything else they might have said however, was interrupted when growling audibly sounded from the test subject's stomach, who squeaked in embarrassment.

His wife merely smiled, hand moving inside her bag. "It's okay, Yui, I prepared us some sandwiches" she said gently. "A variety of them at that, including some peanut butter and jelly-"

"Hmm? What are those?"

Still over at the console, he smiled at Yui's question. "You'll find out soon" he called over, waving his hand a bit. "Trust me, they're a simple-yet-delicious combo."

Internally however, he hoped Asuna had saved some of those sandwiches for him... then again, he could imagine her smirk if he so much as 'innocently' asked, with a 50/50 chance that she had planned to or not.

/

Nighttime

Drinking a glass of water, it was nearly time for bed, he observed - sounding pretty good, with how long those tests ran. But he still smiled a little - they could afford to linger for awhile longer; Asuna was downstairs looking at an email (from work, most likely), while Yui-

He hummed a bit, then looked around him, even as he set the glass down; where was she right now?

He didn't have to search for long; she was found by the window, the outside illuminated by the faint light, and it's reflections off the packed snow. She was looking up into the sky, and he smiled again, having a good idea exactly what she was looking at. Seeing a moon might not be new to her, but whether in SAO or ALO, they were essentially computer-made objects... at best, they really existed, but non-interactable; at worst, they were just an image in the world's background. He thought it would be interesting how Yui would take in the knowledge that this world was so much bigger than any computer world could be.

Yui heard his footsteps, and brightened when she saw him, before gently gesturing for him to join her (he planned to) - soon he was sitting down, making him just a little under her height now. In that second, the full moon continued to shine brightly upon them, a little orb in the sky.

"It's so pretty" Yui breathed softly, her hands together. "Just like ALO's - but, it looks much smaller, so it must be really far away."

"Yeah, it is" he agreed, gentle. "If our moon was as close as ALO's, that would cause serious gravity issues."

She nodded, looking at him with a smile as she leaned closer, just leaning against him (he softened even more). "How far away is this moon, daddy?" she asked, perfectly curious.

"Well, I don't have the exact figure" he said, a little sheepish, but smiling. "But if I remember correctly, it's in the low amount of hundreds of thousands of miles."

Yui was surprised, but soon giggled. "That sounds so far on it's own, but I bet it's nothing compared to the star itself" she said cheerfully, smiling again. "Right?"

He chuckled. "You're right about that" he assured. "But Yui, there's more to 'up there' than just our planet, the moon, and the sun. Surely you know that?"

Yui looked down, but she leaned closer against him. "I do, daddy" she said softly. "I mean, I know that there could be more out there, as the real world isn't bound by server limitations. Still, whenever I would siphon information from the Internet, when I was still an AI, I always focused on Earth specifically-"

She looked up at him then, her eyes shining. "After all, one day I would be with you there" she whispered, her grip tightening. "And now I am..."

His smile was warm, and he easily hugged her close to him; she didn't mind one bit.

"These two mean everything to me."

He hadn't shown it much, but he felt just as warm as Asuna did; Yui was adorable, and it was almost impossible not to like her. He was glad to have her part of the family back then, and that's only grown stronger since.

After a few seconds, Yui pulled away from him, enough that she could continue to lean against him. "Still, I have a lot to learn" she said, completely soft. "How big is it out there?"

He glanced up, wondering both exactly how to answer that, and trying to recall all those astronomy figures about the broader aspects. It took him a minute, but Yui was patient, and she didn't mind sitting against him.

"Well, I'd put it this way, Yui" he started slowly, but gently. "Consider how fast light travels: 186,000 miles per second, which is as fast as something can go, currently. It takes eight minutes and some odd number of seconds for the sun's light to reach Earth."

He saw her do some quick little mini-calculations, or so he assumed - he guessed right; Yui was just as surprised when she'd found out the moon's distance.

"Now, how many seconds in a year?" he asked.

"31,536,000, rounding up from decimals."

He knew it was coming, but still had a second of surprise; man, he wished he'd been that good at math in school. "Ehehe... yeah, that's right" he said, a little sheepish. "Now, number of seconds times miles per second - that's what they call a light-year."

He was talking abstract (trying otherwise would make his head hurt), but Yui seemed to visualize the exact results without issue. "It-it stretches out even farther than that?" she asked, a little worried, but mostly curious.

"Yeah" he breathed, hand behind his head. "The universe, and all the things in it out there... well, take a light-year, and uh... times it by 13.8 billion."

Yui actually gasped, staring at him wide-eyed - he started to worry that he'd overwhelmed her with this, until he slowly saw that Yui was just plain taken aback; she still seemed able to envision and accept such a mass, somehow. Must be that mathematical brain of hers-

"In... in all directions?" she asked, with pure surprise, but the curiosity still under the surface.

He slowly nodded. "Length... width... height... all directions" he merely said, his brain threatening to quit on him if he thought about this anymore; even the abstract could be too much to comprehend at times.

Yui looked up at the sky again, particularly the moon, breathing out. "That's impossibly huge" she breathed, her tone between wonder and something else. "So much so that words can't describe it properly.

"The experts agree with that, and they work with math far above the simplified versions I just gave you" he said, putting an arm around her shoulder. "But it's okay to feel a little overwhelmed, Yui."

She touched her hand to his, smiling. "I'm okay though, daddy" she said gently. "Feeling overwhelmed isn't that new to me anymore."

"Hmm?" he breathed, confused.

Then it struck him; as much as Yui would be curious about the real world, and all the included details, no doubt it would be overwhelming to anyone suddenly thrust into it. He had to say though, Yui did a great job not showing that part - if it took her this long ('helped' by the size of the universe fact), that spoke to how strong her curiosity had been. It made him smile after he thought all this, and Yui briefly wondered, before he shook his head and gently kissed her forehead. Yui was surprised, but happy, and a little curious about why.

He kept the smile. "Well, overwhelmed or not, you're here now, and you're learning" he said easily. "One day, Yui, it'll become comfortable."

"I hope it's soon!"

"Me too."

/

A little later

Laying in bed, just looking at the ceiling, he simply felt content.

A pair of fingers gently teased their way up his muscles, making him chuckle a little, slowly turning his head.

Asuna just smiled, very close to him. "I heard some of what you said to Yui" she said softly, then, with a touch of playful: "I'm surprised you remembered that much."

He smirked a bit, but otherwise didn't respond to the baiting. "Well, Yui was curious" he merely said, looking straight at her. "It never ceases to be endearing."

His wife nodded a little, before scooting a little bit closer, resting her head on his shoulder (he held an arm over her form as well). "I know" she whispered softly. "Even after five years. Still, I'm so proud of our daughter... is that silly?"

"I don't think so" he said sincerely, threading his fingers through her hair. "Yui is capable of doing anything she chooses in the future, but until then, it's our job to be the proud, encouraging parents."

Just like that, Asuna's eyes were shining - wordlessly, she held him even closer, shaking, but in all the good ways.

"You say that like normal" she whispered against him, very soft. "But I don't think you know just how warm that made me feel, Kazuto."

Still threading his fingers, he gently leaned her head up, leaving them very close.

He smiled. "Well, now I have an idea" he said gently.

She smiled back, kissed him for a moment, then went right back to hugging him close - he didn't mind one bit, gently stroking her hair. "I love you, Asuna."

"I love you too, Kazuto."

Sorry for any delay.