AN: Damn it! Why is it every time I turn around I realize it's been a month or more since I updated?! Fucks sake, I took a small break because I was struggling to get this chapter started, and before I'd even realized how long it had been, it was June and I'd barely gotten the chapter started. I'm so very sorry everyone. I've got absolutely no reason for this, I literally just lost track of the days. Also, I'm just gonna come out and say it, but yes, this is the Yui chapter, but I mostly chose to go with the light novels version of events, which is why some things may seem out of order, why Sasha was introduced differently.
Review Responses:
Shade Sparda- Back into the basement with you! Back! I'm just joking of course, glad you liked it.
orion0905- Yeah, I know, the rest of the chapter just sort of coasts through, then the end is just like Bang! Emotions! Originally, I was actually just gonna alter the canon Kuradeel death, like, the two would go on the trip with Godfree and Kuradeel at Heathcliff's request to 'patch things up between the KOB and Kuradeel', then when they took that break, Kirito was going to realize what was going on like he did in canon, smack Hanna's water from her grasp before she could take a drink, Hanna would beat up Kuradeel with the intention of killing him like the first PKer she killed because again 'how dare he try to kill her mate!' but freeze up at the last moment because of that shit with Laughing Coffin, and Kirito would have to save her. Then ideas hit me! So you got that overly emotional thingy at the end instead.
fairygirl90- If the fic was real life? Yes. That would be really weird. In fanfiction? Eh. People focus on the weirdest things. Like, seriously, some of the things I get reviews about, I'm just like, 'really? That's what you're going to focus on? Eh. Ok then.'. Like I told orion just above, it wasn't actually what I initially had planned, but my muse was like, "*enormous gasp* NO! DO THAT INSTEAD!" And that's what happened. Well, at least you won't have to worry about being disappointed then (hopefully).
PikaMew1288- I… Actually haven't seen Ordinal Scale yet, so I've no idea what you're talking about.
Gale-of-Time- You're welcome! Hopefully more love than hate.
harlequin320- harlequin! My man! I have no idea what your gender is, I'm just using man either way here because 'My woman' would sound weird. I can always count on you to appreciate the twists. You're one of the only ones who comments on them.
Meiko-chan11- …. Kazuto/Marzanna canon? Slow down there buddy, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but that's going a bit far isn't it?
Merlenyn- I told you when I was writing it that my muse was like, 'oh, oh, oh! Better idea! Better idea!' But good god, the feels man, even as the writer it was intense. Kirito being Protective like that brought a smile to my face while writing it. If Shuraba had hit him in the head it would've hurt like a bitch momentarily before knocking him out. Oh, their sensors were freaking the fuck out, but Kikuoka didn't bother to investigate because there weren't any adverse side effects and her magic settled down pretty quickly.
Yeah, I just couldn't see Katie actually being cursed with a Nephilim so close by. Mike was so internally panicking about carrying Katie! Yeah, Hagrid could tell Mike had a hand on things there, so he figured it was more important that Pomfrey was ready and McGonagall was there to get answers. He made himself scarce afterwards because he didn't want to get in the way.
Hanna does not fuck around when it comes to her mate and friends. That bullshit was not gonna fly. That said, they're already on the 75th floor, and it's not like that stuff will delay them, so while the showdown is going to be a bit different, it's not by much sadly. Unless of course my muse pulls the same thing it did with Kuradeel and decides to change things at the last minute again!
I'm actually kinda bummed out so few people commented on Asuna joining the Moonlit Black Cats. When I was writing it, I was like, 'I'm a freaking genius!' But then basically no one commented on it so I was like, 'sigh, or maybe not...' Sadly, we'll probably not be seeing them actually doing the farming or forging Hanna's new blade, though we'll probably at least see a mention of Hanna's new sword before the end. We are definitely closing in on the end of Aincrad, though how many more chapters until then... I've honestly got no idea.
The funniest part is if Kirito hadn't been right next to her, Asuna would've totally dived straight across that table without a single care to how it would've looked. My muse has another idea for that for when they get back to the real world, so we might just get to see Asuna tackle Marzanna anyway, because while I'm not sure a human girl tackling a Nephilim would work out all that well for the human, I could see Marzanna letting Asuna tackle her for humor's sake. She actually doesn't have anything else the DDA would want, other than the claw and revival item, but the DDA is like, 'she can't be that strong just because of levels! She's gotta have something really good!' That, and while the DDA suspects her claw to be special, they don't have proof, so they're very keen to get their hands on it.
I hope it doesn't disappoint after the intense ending to the last chapter! And yeah, next chapter is totally the Yui chapter. As for the rest of that, well, we'll both just have to wait and see! Because my muse is being a little tight lipped asshat so I genuinely have no freaking clue what's going to happen. Seriously, reviews are like, 'can't wait to see what's gonna happen next!' And I'm over here like, 'Yeah! Me too!' XD
October 30th, 2024- 725 days since SAO launch:
Hanna and Kirito are making their way home when she notices her, and stops in her tracks. There, not even 35 feet away was a little girl. Despite the cold climate of the floor, she was wearing nothing more than a white dress. The little girl looked eight, maybe nine years old, yet she was alone, silently staring at them. She takes all of this in rapidly, then was pulled from her examination as Kirito turns to look at what had caught her attention and sucks in a sharp breath in disbelief, but she ignores him as she slowly approached the child, gently calling out to her so as to not scare her, "Are you alright sweetie? You're-"
However, that was as far as she gets before the girl sways and collapses strangely, the motion looking less human and more like that of a Golem out of magic. Abandoning her slow approach, she rushes over to the downed child. Reaching the little girl, she quickly scans her, looking for the red system effects indicating injury, or the blue effects of hypothermia. It wasn't unknown for such to make mentally weak players pass out. However, she hadn't seen any in her original study of the girl, and she doesn't see anything of the sort now as Kirito gently cradles her against him either. Nevertheless, despite there being no obvious reason for it, the girl remains unconscious, her shut eyes shaded by long lashes, and her arms dangling straight down.
She shifts anxiously, "Do you think she's alright?"
Kirito shrugs weakly, "There's no reason for breathing in Aincrad, neither can you feel other players' heartbeats, but…. She's not shattering, so she should still be alive. It's strange though…."
She momentarily shifts her gaze from the child's face to her mate's, "What is? That she just collapsed?"
He glances at her, "Well… That too, but… There isn't a cursor."
She gives him a startled look, then looks just above the little girl's head. Sure enough, the telling color of the cursor that all players had is missing. She hesitates, "... An NPC?"
He shakes his head, "The only reason an NPC would collapse is if it was part of some sort of quest, but…. If that were the case, a quest window would've popped up by now. No, she's got to be a player… I'm guessing it's a glitch of some sort."
She sighs tiredly and shakes her head, "I've got so many questions right now. Why a girl as young as her is in SAO, why she's alone, what's wrong with her, and just. So many questions, but we aren't gonna get answers just staring at her, and it's way too cold out for what she's wearing, so let's just get her back to the house quickly."
He nods absently as he continues to stare at the little girl in worried confusion.
She stares at the little girl with a frown. Having brought her back to their home, they'd put her in the guest bedroom the house had come with. She was leaning against the doorframe as she watches Kirito tuck her into the bed. She looks away with a frown, "... What's a child as young as her even doing in Aincrad? There was an age restriction of 14, and yes, I know there were more than a few kids who lied, but for there to be a child so young in a world as harsh as Aincrad….."
Her mate sighs tiredly, "I don't know, but I doubt her parents or guardians would've allowed such a young girl to play a game like this on her own, so I would think someone would be here with her, but…"
She shifts her gaze back to her mate to see him gazing at the little girl with sympathetic worry, "But?"
He glances over at her momentarily, "But, if that's the case, where are they? This floor is known for its cold climate, yet she's not dressed warmly, suggesting she either didn't know better or think about it, and since it's clear no one told her to dress more warmly, we can assume whoever should be looking after her isn't nearby, if on this floor at all. It makes me worry that maybe they…." He trails off, but they both know what he's worried about. He's worried whoever the girl was with died. He shakes his head suddenly, "Well, hopefully she simply wandered off. When she wakes up we can ask her if she knows where her guardian is. If she doesn't... we can head down to the Town of Beginnings, and with luck we'll find someone who knows her, or perhaps we'll even find who she was with."
She sighs, then nods warily, "I suppose all we can do now is wait and hope."
Kirito hums faintly in agreement.
Hours later, Kirito returns from a trip into the closest village with dinner and a sad shake of his head, immediately indicating that he'd found nothing about the little girl there. As they curl up on the couch together with dinner, Kirito scrolls through the newspaper to see if anyone is searching for the child that way.
She sighs after reading with him for a bit, then morosely pushes her food around her plate, "Absolutely nothing…. I mean, I know we only found her, what, twelve hours ago at most? But I still thought…"
He tosses the newspaper, an item that honestly looks somewhere between a single sheet of paper and a tablet, onto the table, then slips his arm around her shoulders comfortingly, "Hey, this doesn't necessarily mean that our worst worries are true…. Maybe it just didn't occur to them to use the newspaper. We can still ask her when she wakes up, or take her to the Town of Beginnings."
She sighs again, "Yeah, I suppose so."
He presses a kiss to her temple, then gives her a mock stern look, "Now stop playing with your dinner. I expect you to eat all of that, understood?"
She rolls her eyes with a tiny smile, "Yes ma'am."
Kirito squawks in protest, and Hanna can't help but laugh.
October 31st, 2024- 726 days since SAO launch:
The next day, Hanna finds herself waking up earlier than usual. After watching her mate for a few minutes, she carefully untangles herself from him to go check on their little guest. She's unsurprised, but a bit disheartened to find her still asleep. With a sigh, she moves into the room and sits on the edge of the bed. Reaching out, she gently brushed the bangs out of the little girl's face, "What happened to you sweetheart? What was a little thing like you doing all the way out here on your own?"
Of course, she doesn't get a reply. Turning her head towards the window, she watches the snow fall for a while as her attention once again drifts to the child's guardians. Within minutes she's startled from her thoughts by her alarm going off, having once again forgotten to disable it when she woke up early. With a sigh, she quickly calms herself down from the scare. As she opens her menu to shut the alarm off, something strange happens. The little girl starts to hum along with the music of her alarm, which is strange as fuck, because only the person the alarm belongs to is supposed to hear it.
Kirito comes up behind her as she stares at the child in baffled confusion, murmuring to her, "She's…. humming? What…"
She doesn't actually take her confused gaze away from the girl, but halfway turns her head towards him, "That's… not the strangest thing….. Kirito, she's….. humming along to my alarm…. She started when it went off…."
There's a brief pause, then, "... What?... That's not possible. No one but the owner can hear an alarm."
Wordlessly, she finishes navigating to her alarm. As soon as she shuts it off, the girl stops humming. She opens her eyes, staring at them both for a moment before focusing on Hanna, then in an utterly adorable manner, tilts her head in confusion at Hanna, "Mu..sic?"
In a moment of sheer eloquence, Hanna passionately says, "...Uh… What?" Shaking her head, she quickly gathers herself, "Sorry sweetheart, it's gone. Anyway, I don't know if you remember, but you collapsed in the snow last night. Do you remember what happened to you? How you got there maybe?"
The child shakes her head slowly. She shares a worried look with Kirito, then smiles warmly at the child, "I see. Well, then, can you tell us your name?" She glances at Kirito, then leans toward the girl to stage whisper in a conspiratorial manner, "He's been making up weird names to call you since we didn't know yours. I'm sure you've got a prettier name than Gretchen."
Behind her she hears Kirito sigh. She knows why of course. It was because he had not, in fact, been coming up with names for the child, but he doesn't dispute her claim. Likely because it achieves the desired effect of making the girl giggle. In fact, he even adds a grumbled, "What's wrong with Gretchen? Gretchen is a lovely name."
Without missing a beat, she turns to him and firmly states, "If we ever have kids, you are never naming any of them Gretchen." Then ignoring his sputtering, turns back to the giggling child, "So, what's your name sweetheart? I'm sure you'd prefer whatever it is to whatever weird thing he comes up with."
The girl frowns adorably, "N-Neame….. My…. Name…" She inclines her head with a sudden smile, "Yu...i….. Yui…. That is my name…."
She smiles warmly at her, "Yui, huh? That's a pretty name. Much better than Gretchen, that's for sure. I'm Hanna, and the guy terrible at picking names is Kirito."
Yui giggles again, then tilts her head, ".. Ana… Ki… to…"
She shares a worried glance with Kirito. Given that she looks eight, after two years in Aincrad, she should actually be ten. However, Yui's shaky speech doesn't match up to the level of ability she should have. That said, she seems to understand well enough, so perhaps it was a speech impediment of some sort. In any case, since she seemed to understand well, Hanna won't dumb down her own speech. She'd known a few people with speech impediments, and she knew one of the most annoying things for someone with those was people talking to them like they were stupid because of it. She wouldn't mention it either, as that could be frustrating as well. After all, it was one thing to simply try and help her, and another entirely to make a big deal of it.(1)
She tilts her head with a smile, "Yui, can you tell me what you were doing on the 28th floor? Especially on your own without any equipment. Are your mom and dad here?"
Yui's eyes shift down to the blanket, and for a while, she's silent, then she shakes her head slowly, "I don't…. know…. I don't….. know anything….."
After carrying her into the living room and settling her on the couch with a glass of milk she begins to slowly drink, the two pull away into the kitchen so as to still be visible to Yui, but far enough away that they can have a quiet discussion. She sighs tiredly as she leans back against the counter, "What do you think? The way she talks I could've brushed off as a speech impediment, but with her apparent amnesia as well, it's almost like…"
She trails off, not quite willing to finish the sentence, and Kirito nods slowly, "With her missing memories and those reactions, it almost seems like her mind is damaged."
She sighs again, "So, you think so too?"
He nods, before turning away angrily to lean on his forearms on the counter next to her, "Damn it! That's not fair! It's just not…." He's definitely on the verge of tears as he continues, "In this world... I've seen many horrible things... but this is... the worst. This is just too cruel…"
She reaches over to lay a gentle hand on his arm, "It'll be alright… We…. We'll figure something out…"
He shifts to lay his other hand over her own, "...Yeah."
Giving her a faint but strained smile, he takes a deep breath, then straightens up. Turning back around, he goes over to Yui and sits next to her on the couch with a happier looking smile while she takes to standing in front of him, "Aah, Yui-chan. Can I just call you Yui?" Yui looks up from her milk and wordlessly nods, so Kirito continues, "Then, you can just call me Kirito."
Yui tilts her head at him, "Ki.. to…"
Kirito shakes his head, gently attempting to correct her, "It's Kirito. Ki Ri To."
Yui scrunches up her face in concentration for a moment, "Kiito"
Kirito grins at her, gently placing his hand on her head and ruffling her hair slightly, "Maybe that was a bit difficult. You can just call me whatever you find easiest."
Yui thinks about that for a bit, then looks up at Kirito and timidly states, "... Papa." Then she turned to Hanna, "Ana is… Mama. "
That completely takes them by surprise. She's unsure where Yui is coming from with that, but her best guess would be that because of the amnesia, Yui is mistaking them for, or perhaps simply assuming, that they are her parents. Logically, she knows she should probably correct Yui. Gently of course. She barely knows the child, and it would likely only cause problems later if they manage to find Yui's guardian, but… But Yui looks too adorable and trusting, and her smile is so bright and innocent, something she hasn't seen since the beginning of this death game. She can't bring herself to deny the adorably lovable child.
It's for those reasons that Hanna smiles warmly as she nods, "That's right sweetheart."
Kirito gives her a baffled look, but she temporarily ignores it, as Yui gives her a massive smile full of love and trust as she all but launches herself at Hanna, clinging to her in a tight hug. She's dangerously happy to cradle Yui to her. After all, in the end, she'd have to return Yui to her actual parents.
Once Yui had finished off her milk and had a snack, she became tired. She quickly ushered her off for a nap, following her into the room to tuck her in. She dozes off almost as soon as she's in bed, so Hanna quietly leaves. Coming back into the living room, she sits next to her mate on the couch. There's a beat of silence then she sighs, "Sorry. I realized even before I said anything that I probably shouldn't have encouraged that earlier, I just…. She looked so sweet and innocent…. I couldn't do it."
Kirito slips an arm around her shoulders and pulls her against his side, she happily curls into him as he pressed a kiss to her forehead, "It's alright. I was struggling as well. We've gotta return her to her actual guardians though, I'm just worried that it'll be harder now."
She lets out another sigh then nods warily. It was a bit silly, they barely know Yui, and yet Hanna is already dreading the time they'd part ways. After a moment, Kirito lets out a sigh of his own, "When Yui wakes up, we'll take her down to the Town of Beginnings, see if we can find someone who knows her. If not, the newspaper's HQ is there, and we can have them put something in the paper for us."
Hanna begins to worry as Yui sleeps through the entire morning, but she wakes up just before lunch. Given that neither of them can cook, they tend to just buy pre-made meals and store them in the kitchen, which won't totally stop their durability from going down as time goes on, but it does slow it considerably. Either that, or they con Asuna into cooking for them. And by con, she of course means that it was part of Asuna's payment for her continued silence about the Gleam Eyes incident. She's just retrieved some sort of spicy sandwich things Asuna had made for Kirito, and some regular sandwiches for herself and Yui and was in the process of bringing drinks when Yui comes wandering out, rubbing at her eyes.
Yui climbs up onto the couch next to Kirito, who smiles warmly at her, "Sleep well?" Yui simply nods with a smile, and Kirito chuckles before gesturing to one of the plates on the table, "Here, Hanna got some food out for us."
Yui nods again and grabs a sandwich. Just as she's about to take a bite though, Kirito grabs one of his own sandwiches. Yui pauses and pulls the sandwich away from her face, glancing between it and Kirito's which are rather visibly different.
Noticing Yui's interest, Kirito chuckles again, "You should probably just eat those. These are super spicy."
Yui seems to think that over for a moment, then smiles at him, "I want the same as Papa!"
Kirito nods seriously as he grabs another of his sandwiches, "I see. If you think you're ready, I won't stop you. Everything in life is an experience."
With that said, he gives Yui the sandwich. Yui doesn't hesitate to take a bite, chewing it with a thoughtful expression. Finally she swallows, then smiles happily at Kirito, "It's yummy!"
Kirito smiles back at that, "You've got guts. We can convince Asuna to make something spicy for dinner tonight."
She laughs lightly, "Oi! Don't get carried away now!"
Though, even as she says that, sorrow washes over her. If they managed to find Yui's parents or guardians today, she wouldn't be coming home with them again. She shakes her head then smiles, "Yui, we're going out for a bit this afternoon, ok?"
Yui tilts her head, "Going out?"
She pauses, wondering how to explain, but Kirito quickly cuts in, "We're going to look for your friends."
However, that only seems to confuse Yui further, "Friends…. What are those?"
Hanna shares a glance with Kirito. It was strange, the few things Yui seems to remember and the many she doesn't. Her memory loss doesn't seem all encompassing, but it was still like entire sections of her memory are just gone. She genuinely hopes that Yui's condition will improve if she's reunited with her guardians. It's with that thought that she replies, "Friends are… complicated, they're a lot of things. They're the people you care about and who care about you as well amongst other things, so we're hoping your friends can help you remember. So, let's get ready to go, ok?"
Yui seems unsure, but gets up with a nod anyway. Her short dress is entirely unsuitable for the cold weather in general, but especially for the taiga that makes up the 28th floor. It was for precisely this reason that she had retrieved warmer clothes from their closet for Yui while she was napping, after all, size didn't matter in Aincrad, anything you equipped automatically fits you.
As she gets up to retrieve the bundle of clothes, Kirito asks, "Yui, can you open your menu?" However, Yui tilts her head in question, which isn't entirely unexpected, given her memory problem. Kirito sighs, "Try pinching your forefinger and thumb together and waving down, kinda like you're pulling down on an invisible thread. Like this."
He opens his own menu to show her, then looks at her expectantly. Yui mimics the motion, but no window appears, and she shares a worried look with Kirito, who sighs, "I was afraid there might be a bug given…" His gaze drifts to where Yui's cursor should be, "Not being able to open your window is way too serious an issue. You can't do anything like that…."
Kirito bites his lip in thought, but just then Yui, who had continued to try and was growing frustrated, tries waving her left hand. Immediately a menu appears, and Yui makes an excited sound of triumph and delight, turning a wide happy smile towards them, "I got it out!"
She hesitates in confusion. It was impossible to change which hand you opened your menu with, so how…. She shakes the thought off, it doesn't matter right at the moment. Moving over to stand right behind Yui, she smiles down at her in askance and reaches down to let her hand hover over Yui's own, "Do you mind?"
Yui shakes her head with a smile, so Hanna gently grabs her hand and begins to guide it. Since she can't actually see what was on Yui's menu, the first thing she does is guide it over to right about where the button to make her menu viewable to other players should be. Hitting it easily, she pauses in shock, "What the hell?!"
Yui looks up at her in question, but she ignores it for now to give Kirito a worried look. Without hesitation he moves over to them to see what's wrong, and immediately let's out a startled noise. Normally, a menu had the main 'Summary' screen, where players could see an overview of equipped skills and stats and apply stat points when they leveled up, with five buttons off to the side, one for equips where you'd find both the inventory and skills, one for friends and guild where you also managed parties, a 'communications' button where you sent messages, trades, duel invites and the like from, one for maps and quests, and finally one for settings.
Each of those have smaller sub-menus of the functions in each category for the player to choose from. However, this was not the case with Yui. At the top of the main screen where the player's name should be was 'Yui-MHCP001', but that was about it. There were no stats, no exp bar, no player level, nothing. Even worse, off to the side there were only two buttons, Equips and Options. Upon moving over to items, she realizes there isn't even a Skill tab! The Equips tab only has an inventory option! Honestly, she doesn't know what the hell is going on, but she doesn't like it.
Shaking her head, she uses Yui's finger to start clicking on the clothes and adding them to her inventory, "This system bug is way out of hand. How's she supposed to do anything with her menu like this?"
Kirito leans away from his perusal of Yui's menu with an aggravated huff, "It's strange, but it doesn't really look like a bug. It almost looks like it was designed to be like that…." Then he shakes his head, "That's silly though. I've honestly never wished there was a GM around more than now."
She glances at him as she begins moving Yui's finger to equip the new clothes, "There aren't usually any bugs or lag to speak of though, so we haven't really needed GMs… And there's not really a point in brooding over it, it's not like we can fix it."
He sighs, but nods in agreement at that. Now done equipping Yui's new clothes, she moves Yui's finger to close the window and let the changes take effect. Yui is immediately enveloped by the usual particles that accompany changing equipment, and she lets out a delighted little noise. As soon as the particles are gone, she spreads her arms a bit and looks herself over. She'd put her in one of her own red sweaters, a thicker skirt, a cloak Kirito had gotten for the colder floors to avoid debuffs, and of course, shoes, given that Yui has been barefoot from the moment they found her up until now.
Kirito looks away with a small grin, causing Yui to pout, "Do I look funny Papa?"
He turns back to her still smiling and shakes his head, "No, if course not. It's just, the last time that cloak got used was when I loaned it to a friend, Lizbeth, and it looked a bit too big on her. Resized or not, it just looks adorable on you."
Yui giggles lightly at that. She smiles, then quickly equips her own cloak. It isn't particularly designed for warmth, but it would work. Seeing that Kirito has equipped his jacket, she nods in satisfaction, "Well then, I suppose we're ready to go."
However Yui doesn't move. Instead she reaches her arms towards Kirito in a clear 'carry me' gesture with a smile, "Papa."
Kirito smiles lightly, but turns around and crouches while gently explaining, "The Town of Beginnings is Army territory, so it's probably best if I carry you anyway, but it's better if I carry you like this."
Yui nods with a smile, then immediately moves forward and wraps her arms around his neck. Once he's got her legs supported, he stands up, "Ok, now we're ready to go."
She just shakes her head with a warm smile.
Arriving through the teleport gate, Hanna and Kirito look around in mild curiosity. They haven't been here even once since the first floor was cleared. The Town of Beginnings is actually a good place to have as one's base of operations. The variety of items and equipment, the sheer number of available living quarters in inn rooms for rent and homes and shops one can purchase, as well as the generally low cost of everything make it one of the best places for one to make their base town. However, as far as Hanna knows, no one but the Army and those too scared to venture out of the city are still here. Everyone else has moved on. Likely because the teleport plaza can easily bring up bad memories of the day they were all told they were trapped in this death game, even without bringing up the friends and acquaintances they've lost since.
Shaking those thoughts away, she turns to the other two, "Yui, do you remember any of these buildings?"
Yui looks around, then shakes her head, "I don't know…."
Kirito smiles at her reassuringly, "That's alright. The Town of Beginnings is really big." He turns his gaze to Hanna, "Let's start at the central market."
She nods, but can't help but begin to doubt that they'll find answers here. Normally, the teleport plaza of the main settlement on any given floor was the most active part of the city, however while she knew why the Town of Beginnings was unpopular, actually seeing the fact that there were less than ten people in the plaza began to make her wonder if this was really the place they should search for answers.
She glances at her mate, "Hey, Kirito? Do you know how many players are in the Town of Beginnings? Because I'm really starting to wonder if…"
She glances around, but he seems to understand what she's getting at. Briefly glancing around as well, he frowns, "Hmm, well, about six thousand players are still alive, and around thirty percent are in the Town of Beginnings if we include the Army, so just below two thousand."
She bites her lip thoughtfully, "In that case, doesn't this place seem remarkably empty?"
His frown deepens, "Mhm… I was just wondering the same myself… Perhaps they're gathered at the market?"
He doesn't sound too sure of that, and Hanna quite agrees, but there wasn't much else to do unless they wanted to give up and teleport to the 35th floor to go straight to the newspaper's HQ. However, even as they start down the main street and near the market it stays almost eerily quiet, with only the random bits of dialog from NPC street vendors reaching them.
They do find a man sitting beneath a tree off to the side of the road, so she approaches him, "Ah, excuse me?"
The man is staring up into the tree with a strangely serious expression, and without so much as glancing away asks in irritation, "What?"
She purses her lips at the man's attitude, but pushes on, "You wouldn't happen to know of someplace that people gather in the city, do you? Someplace where one could go if they're looking for someone they got split up from?"
At that, the man finally turns his gaze to her, scrutinizing her, "You're an outsider then?"
She rolls her eyes at that. She doesn't really see how anyone could be an 'outsider' in Aincrad unless one was a PKer, but pushes on, "Yes. We're trying to find this girl's guardian, but we haven't really seen anyone since we got here."
The man's eyes widen briefly as he glances at Yui, but then his gaze returns to the tree branches above him, "A lost child huh? That's rare… There's a church in the town's seventh district to the east, it's right next to the river. There's a bunch of kid players living there, so that's probably a good place to try. They might know her."
She nods, "Thank you." She almost just leaves the conversation there, but the man is still giving the tree branches a weirdly intense look, and she can't see why, which irks her as she's always been the curious sort, "What exactly are you doing anyway? It's just a tree. And for that matter, where is everyone else? We've seen almost no one since we teleported here."
The man grimaces as though incredibly annoyed, but his tone doesn't quite match as he replies, "Well… Seeing as you're outsiders, I suppose there's not really a reason not to tell you… Look, you can see it right? On that high branch all the way up there?"
She looks up, narrowing her eyes as she focuses on the branch in question. The leaves, like those of the rest of the tree, were dyed the vivid colors of Autumn, but in the shadows between the leaves bright yellow fruits are rapidly growing.
The man hums, "Of course, trees are indestructible objects, just like benches and walls, so even if you were to climb it, you couldn't pick any of them. However, the fruits fall a few times a day. There's only a few minutes before they disappear, but if you don't miss the chance and pick it up, you can sell it to an NPC for quite a bit. Not to mention they taste pretty good."
She looks at him in mild disbelief, "Really? I can't imagine fruit selling for all that much, I wonder what makes them so special… How much do they go for anyway?"
The man studies her, likely trying to gauge her intentions behind the question. Apparently realizing it for the mere curiosity that it is, he glances around, "Well… Don't tell anyone, but they go for five Col each."
She's taken aback by that. If the payoff was so low, she doesn't really get why one would hang around all day collecting them, as this man seems to. She shakes her head, "In that case, it's not really worth it. I mean, if you just beat a single boar enemy that spawn near the Town, you'll get thirty Col."
The man looks at her like she's crazy, "Are you serious? If you go and fight monsters, you might actually die."
She isn't quite sure how to respond to that. Worrying over something like that seemed as silly as constantly worrying about getting run over by a car. Maybe it was simply because of how she was raised, around Demon Hunters, training to be one herself, and constantly at risk simply because of her heritage, but worrying so much about dying that you waste your life away was unthinkable to her.
She honestly never really thought about it, it always seemed obvious to her that one would have to leave the Town of Beginnings sooner or later. She's been vaguely aware that there were players still in the Town of Beginnings that thought staying put was the best option, but she's always assumed they at least made livings off the boars and wolves around the city. If these people were too scared to even fight boars, literally the weakest mobs in the game… She honestly doesn't know how they take care of themselves. Were they all like this man, toiling away all day for nothing more than pocket change?
She and Kirito were turning away from Diabel's offer for Kirito's sword, not that they'd known it was him at the time, of almost thirty thousand Col right here on the first floor. And yes, maybe good weapons like the +8 Anneal Blade had been at that time of the game have a significantly higher value due to the whole death game thing, and made them less inclined to sell it, but it was still just shy of thirty thousand.
Even if the tree drops one hundred fruit a day, which she seriously doubts, it would still take this man three hundred days to make thirty thousand. Nine months and three weeks for a labor like that. The boars on the other hand, even if you only killed, say, ten a day for the same amount of time, would net you ninety thousand. Which. Also it isn't hugely worth it, since you'd have to have dedicated almost half of the roughly two years they've been in the game to make it.
But. In fairness, she's literally one of the first two people who left the safety of the Town of Beginnings practically as soon as Kayaba finished his dumb tutorial. The other, of course, being her equally crazy mate. So her thought process undoubtedly doesn't mesh with these people's, who adamantly refuse to leave, though she does still think it's insane that they don't even hunt boars.
Seemingly unaware of the disbelief he's managed to instill in her, the man continues, "Anyway, what was your other question? Where is everyone? They're here, they're just holed up in their rooms. They might run into the Army's tax collection force during the day after all."
Her brows furrow in confusion, "Tax collection?"
The man shrugs, "That's what they call it anyway. It's really just a nicer term for extortion. I'd be careful if I was you. They won't spare you just because you're outsiders."
She growls furiously, "I'd welcome them to try. I quite suddenly find myself with an urge to beat someone up."
The man gives her another weird look, like he's seriously questioning her sanity, but just then one of the fruit falls, "Ah! That's the end of this chat. I'm busy now."
Without another word he begins to frantically collect the falling fruit and place them in his inventory. Shaking her head at the pitiful sight, she turns to Kirito, only to find him gazing at the fruit with the same intensity he gets in battle. Rolling her eyes, she begins to drag him off, despite his protests, "Ah! Wait, no! I just want one! They look so good!"
She shakes her head, "Forget about that, do you remember where the seventh district is?"
He heaves a massive despondent sigh, "... Yeah. It's this way."
Heading southeast down the wide empty streets for ten minutes, they reach a large garden-like area. Looking around briefly, Hanna spots the telltale spire topped with an ankh that all churches possess so as to be easily identified past the trees, "Well, I suppose that's it, isn't it."
Churches weren't exactly useless despite not healing players like in some games. At the altar inside, players can cure the mob exclusive status effect «Curse», as well as have their weapons blessed to do more damage to undead type mobs for a limited amount of time. Plus, as long as Col is regularly 'donated' you can borrow the rooms as a sort of replacement for an inn.
Seeing Kirito begin to walk towards the building, she calls out to him, though quietly enough not to wake Yui, who had dozed off on the way there, "Wait a moment. If we manage to find Yui's guardians, are we really just gonna leave her there? What if she doesn't remember them? What if-"
His eyes soften in empathy and he gently cuts her off, "Hanna." He sighs, "... I don't really want to part ways with her either. Brief though it may have been, with Yui around, the house felt even more like a home, but what about her guardians? They must be incredibly worried about her. Besides, it's not like we'll never see her again. I'm sure Yui will visit. As for Yui remembering them… I don't know. We can't just leave her with people she sees as strangers. She'd probably be terrified. If that happens, well, let's just cross that bridge when we get there. I'm sure we can figure something out."
She sighs, "I suppose you're right. Well, might as well stop putting it off then."
He gives her a brief smile, then leads the way along the path towards the church. Reaching the front doors far too quickly for her liking, she pushes one open, being a public building it's naturally unlocked. Walking inside they glance around. It was your average church, stone room dimly lit by candles, with pews mostly there for decoration.
At first glance, it also seems utterly empty, she briefly glances at Kirito, who has his head tilted as though listening to something, and with a shrug, calls out, "Is there anyone here?" After a few moments of waiting for a reply, her brow furrows as she turns to Kirito again, "There's no one here? Do you suppose we got the wrong church?"
However he shakes his head, "Nah, there's people here. Three in the right room, four on the left…. and more on the second floor. I can hear them."
She raises an eyebrow, "You can tell how many people there are with the listening skill?"
He shrugs, "Once you've got the skill up to level 980 you can. I've told you many times, it's a very useful skill that you should get."
She snorts at that, "No way. Training that skill is boring." She smiles mischievously at him, "I'll just rely on you for that!" Then she shakes her head, "Anyway, why do you suppose they're hiding?"
He shrugs, then steps a bit further into the church and calls out, "I know you're here. We aren't here to cause any trouble, we're just looking for someone."
There's a small pause, then the door on the right opens a tiny bit, and a female voice asks, "... You aren't from the Army, are you?"
She shakes her head, then realizes that the woman probably can't see her, "No. We came from the upper floors."
Neither of them have their weapons equipped, and other than Kirito's coat and Hanna's cloak, they're wearing regular clothes. Given that members of the Army wore their uniforms at all times, it's obvious at a glance that they weren't with them.
She's fairly certain that was why, after cracking the door a bit more to get a look at them, a short brunette steps out with a sigh of relief, "I apologize for that, we thought you were with the Army's tax collection group."
She smiles reassuringly, "No, it's alright. We're looking for someone and just got here from above today, but we've already heard about those guys, so it's understandable. But we are absolutely not affiliated with the Army whatsoever. Actually, we're front liners."
At that, the door behind the woman is thrown open, and a young, red haired, excited looking boy shouted, "Front liners?! You mean you guys are actual swordsmen?!"
With that the door to the left of the room is thrown open as well and there's a rush of excited kids all of them staring at them with fascination. The woman immediately let out a huff of frustration, "Oh honestly! I thought I told you all to stay hidden, didn't I?"
The woman, who appears to be about twenty, tries to herd the kids back, but is absolutely ignored. The redhead from before looks disappointed, "What's with this? I thought you said you're front liners, but you guys don't even have weapons!"
Kirito, flustered with all the kids staring at him, stutters a bit, "N-no, it's not that we don't have any, we just-"
He doesn't get any further though, as the kids grow excited again, most of them demanding to see the weapons in question. The woman huffs again, "Hey now! You can't just go speaking so impolitely to people you've just met!" Turning to them, she gives them an apologetic look, "I'm sorry, we rarely ever have guests here, so…"
She shakes her head with a bemused smile, "No, it's no problem. I just don't understand why they're so excited. Everyone had at least the starting gear, so why…"
The redhead boy pouts at her, "Yeah, but you guys are front liners, your gear has gotta be cooler than the stuff you see down here right?"
She sighs, then glances at her mate, "We've still got those drop weapons right?"
Kirito nods, "Of course. We didn't get the chance to sell them the other day, and then we found Yui."
Moving over to a nearby table, shebquickly materializes all of the weapons in their inventory except for their actual gear and spares. The kids all but swarm over them, picking them up and the like, and things like, "heavy" and "cool" are said to one another. It was a sight that would have overprotective parents faint, but given that no matter how you handled a weapon in a town it was impossible to hurt yourself, none of them are worried.
The woman sighs, "I really am sorry about all that."
Though she says that, and genuinely seems to mean it, a gentle smile gracing her face as she watches the excited kids fawn over 'the front liners gear' says she isn't upset with the kids. She smiles lightly, "It's quite alright."
The woman returns the smile, "Ah, why don't you come make yourselves comfortable. I'll make some tea."
She guides them to a small room, and once the tea is made, sits across the table from them, "You mentioned earlier that you were looking for someone?"
She nods, "Yes. I'm Hanna, this is Kirito, and the child is Yui."
The woman suddenly blushes lightly, "Oh! Forgive me, I completely forgot to introduce myself earlier. I'm Sasha."
She nods, then gestures to Yui who had woken up at the other kids excited shouting and was now drinking a glass of milk, "We found Yui near our home yesterday, she was alone with nothing more than a simple dress, and didn't even possess a weapon, so we thought she might be from around here. She also seems to have lost her memories, so when we heard child players gathered here… Well, we were hoping you knew her or her guardians."
The woman's bright green eyes had widened behind her glasses during the explanation, "Oh my! That terrible!" She looks at Yui for a moment, '... Right now, there are about twenty children living here, and I'm fairly certain that all of the child players from the Town of Beginnings are here…. At the time this game started… Most of the children had panic attacks and began suffering mental problems. Of course, there were children who got used to the game and left the city, but they're the exceptions."
Her thoughts drift to Silica. She seemed to be around the age of the oldest child here, so Hanna supposes that she's one of the 'exceptions'. Sasha sighs as she continues, "It's only to be expected. They're still children, the oldest just barely a preteen when they were told they were unable to leave, perhaps never getting to return to the world, to their parents."
Sasha pauses briefly to collect herself, then continues, "For a month or so after this death game started, I thought about trying to help with the completion of the game, and I leveled up to the best of my ability, but… One day I saw one of the children at a street corner and I just couldn't leave her there all alone, so I brought the child with me and we started living together at the inn. Then I thought of all the other children still around, so I started going around the city, calling out to them. Before I knew it, we were all living here together. I haven't seen a new child in over a year, so I thought I'd gotten them all. For one to be found on the upper floors all alone with memory loss… It makes me feel as though I failed somehow."
She shakes her head, "Don't be preposterous. You seem to be doing a fantastic job taking care of the kids."
Sasha smiles lightly, "Thank you, but I'm not exactly doing this out of some sense of duty. It's been a joy living with the children." Then her smile slips away and she sighs, "That's why, for the past two years we've gone through every building in town, looking for other children who need help. If there was such a small child still around, we would've noticed. I'm sorry to say it, but.. I don't think this child was living in the Town of Beginnings."
She sighs, "It's alright. To be honest, when I heard about the children here, I honestly wasn't expecting an adult to be here as well, so being about to get absolute confirmation is more than I'd hoped for…" She trails off momentarily, then glances at Sasha, "Perhaps this is a bit personal, but… How do you guys get by? The only other person we've talked to since we arrived here made money in the strangest way… I honestly can't see something like that working to take care of so many people…"
Sasha smiles, "Ah, well, aside from me, some of the older kids help take care of the younger ones. They're at a level that makes it completely safe to venture out of the city, so long as they stay in the nearby fields. They make enough off the mobs to keep this place and feed us while I make sure the younger ones stay out of trouble."
Kirito tilts his head at that, "That's kinda amazing, considering going out and fighting mobs seems to be considered a suicidal act that goes against common sense around here."
Sasha nods, "That's basically what the rest of the players in the Town of Beginnings believe, barring the Army. I won't deny that idea, considering there's the danger of dying. However, we're also earning a lot more money than most players in the city, so there's definitely a good reason to go out there, even if you don't go far."
That was certainly true. To reserve the rooms in a church like they have, one would probably need to offer a hundred Col a day, which greatly exceeded what the man from earlier made. Sasha suddenly sighs, "That's why I've been keeping an eye on them as of late."
She tilts her head, "On who?"
Sasha's gentle demeanor suddenly hardens, and she opens her mouth to explain, but before she can say anything, the door bursts open to let the children in, the redhead from before shouting, "Sensei! Sensei! You've gotta come quick! It's horrible!"
Sasha shoots out of her seat with a worried expression, "What's wrong?"
The redhead tears up as he answers, "Gin and the others have been captured by the Army!"
Fury takes over Sasha's features at that, "Where?!"
The boy rubs at his eyes angrily, trying to keep himself from crying, "At the vacant land behind the second-hand shop at the fifth eastern district. The Army is blocking the passageway with a bunch of people. Kotta was the only one who managed to get away."
Sasha nods firmly, "Alright, then I'll go right away. All of you, stay here. I mean it this time, understand?! Stay put!" She turns to them briefly, "My apologies, but it seems we'll have to continue this conversation later."
She shakes her head, "Don't worry about it. Actually, we can come with you if you'd like some assistance?"
Kirito quickly collects Yui, getting her situated on his back as Sasha hesitates briefly then nods, "Normally, I wouldn't involve others with something that doesn't concern them, but I'm not really in a position to turn down such an offer at the moment. I hope you'll forgive me for that, but we need to go now."
As they rush out of the church, Sasha huffs, "Ooh, I've been worried something like this would happen. That's what I was saying earlier. I've been keeping an eye on the Army because I've been getting a suspicion lately that they'd try something, seeing as we make the most money out of everyone in town except the Army themselves…"
She glances at her, "By that, I'm going to assume Gin, Kotta, and the others are the kids who go out hunting?" Sasha simply nods wordlessly, and Hanna purses her lips as righteous indignation burns through her, "I see."
Following Sasha through various shortcuts, they soon arrived in an ally blocked by at least ten Army members. It was a dirty trick that used the game's system to the players' advantage. If you tried to push another player or anything of the sort within a city, the Crime Protection Code activated, not only making it impossible to harm other players but making it impossible to move them against their will as well. Attempting to move someone got you a harassment warning and pushed back instead. It was actually how she'd pushed Kuradeel away from Kirito and Asuna that day, by simply placing herself in his path and 'bumping' him with her shoulder. The system had thus considered Kuradeel to be attempting to push her out of the way. It was, however, sometimes applied for things like this. By simply making a wall of players, it becomes impossible to get away unless you either had a Teleport Crystal or a high enough agility to simply jump over, both of which she doubts the children possess.
She narrows her eyes as one of the men smirks, "Oh look! The babysitter's here!"
Sasha purses her lips, "Give me back the children!"
The man frowns, "You make it sound like we're doing something bad. We're just teaching them how things work around here. This is also one of the Army's key duties."
Another of the men nods with a smirk, "That right, because citizens have a duty to pay taxes."
The men all laugh at that, and Sasha tries to look around them, "Gin! Cain! Mina! Are you over there?"
One of the men moves to block the small opening she was peering through, but they can't block sound and a child's voice calls back, "Sasha-sensei! Please help!"
Sasha ignores the men, "Forget about the money. Just give it to them!"
A young boy's voice responds this time, "That's not good enough!"
At Sasha's confusion, one of the men 'helpfully' explains, "You guys owe a hell of a lot of back taxes."
The first man nods again, "So you need to leave your equipment, along with your armor. Every last piece."
Sasha grits her teeth, placing her hand on the dagger at her waist, "Get… Get out of my way! Or else…"
Tired of the disgusting men, Hanna shares a glance with Kirito, then they both use their agility to simply jump over the Army members. She smiles gently at the kids, "It's alright. Put your equipment back on."
The oldest of the kids, a brown haired boy, nods hesitantly, "O-ok…"
She turns back to the men just as one of them begins speaking, "Hey! What's this? Who the hell are you guys?"
Another takes a step forward, "You're actually interfering with Army business?"
Before they can say anything the first man, who seems to be in charge, makes his way from in front of Sasha to in front of them, "Well, hold on. I haven't seen you around before… You know what it means to defy the Liberation Army, don't you? We could always take this outside the town's safe zone to settle it!"
He draws his sword in a clear attempt at intimidation, and the kids make frightened noises from behind her, but it only serves to make her angrier. She materializes her Falcata from her inventory, and as she passes him tells her mate, "Kirito, take care of Yui." Then to the man, "If you wish to battle so badly, there's no need to go all the way out to the field. We can settle it here and now."
The man, clearly unused to dealing with people willing to put up a fight, takes a step back, "W-What?"
Walking straight up to the arrogant man, she charges a Skill, then slams it into his sword, shattering it and causing the man to stumble back. As soon as the incredibly short cool down on that particular Skill ends, which was why she'd chosen that one to begin with, she charges it again, this time smashing his chest plate into polygons and sending him sprawling onto his back. Charging it once more, she demolishes his helmet, and sends him tumbling away.
She stares down at the terrified man coldly, holding her weapon loosely despite the fact her fury has doubled, "Don't worry. In a town, your HP won't drop, no matter what. Only armor durability goes down with a minor knock-back effect. That said, for a coward like you that goes around bullying children, safe zone fights still leave you with a sense of terror, don't they?"
The man trembles slightly as he understands what she's implying. Within a city, the Crime Prevention Code does not allow players to get injured, it doesn't even allow weapons to pierce players themselves. However, this also means an attacking player does not need to worry about their cursor changing colors. Furthermore, the 'barrier' that stops a player from being pierced by a weapon and throws the attacked player back, makes an incredibly loud noise upon impact. It was usually used by guilds and the like for mock duels as a means of practice, and is also likely the intended reason Kayaba put such a system in place. For a man like him though, who is so scared of dying that he'd rather extort money from children, being attacked in such a manner is likely terrifying.
Tightening her grip on her weapon, it goes from its nearly vertical position dangling point first towards the ground to a near horizontal position. The man, taking it for the threat it is, turns and tries to scramble away in panic, "D-Don't!"
She ignores him however, hitting his back with the skill again, sending him sprawling to the ground once more. The man glances back at her, then turns to his men, "D-Don't just stand there! Do something!"
The men reach for their weapons, and she brings her own up into a ready position, "I will give you all one warning. You said earlier you hadn't seen us around before. Allow me to clarify. The reason you've never seen us in town before is because we're front liners. Perhaps you've heard of us, I am known as She-Devil Hanna, and that man back there is my husband, The Black Swordsman Kirito. Do you truly wish to discover for yourselves why the other front liners, who routinely fight for bosses fearlessly, call me She-Devil?"
At that, more than one of the men takes a step back, and after a small tense beat of silence, one of them breaks and runs away, causing a sort of domino effect. Within seconds every single one of the Army members flee. She glares after them. She's still furious, and is honestly tempted to chase them down, but let's them go.
Sasha approaches hesitantly, "Err… Hanna-san? Y-Your avatar seems to be… I mean, your eyes..."
Glancing at the reflective surface of her weapon, she's utterly astonished to see that her eyes have turned a glowing red. It is only then that she realizes that the things burning their way through her aren't just fury and disgust, but her demonic power restlessly blazing just beneath her skin as well. She immediately reigns it in. Likely, it still hasn't settled fully since the incident with Kuradeel, and thus, easily flares in reaction to her fury.
Sheathing her weapon, she closes her eyes, taking deep breaths. It was a simple trick her grandfather had taught her for when the Devil's battle fury surfaces. Train the body and mind to associate that fury with the weapon, so that simply sheathing it induces a sense of calm. It does, of course, come with the risk of fury jumping to the fore when the blade is drawn for battle, but that was a whole other matter that her grandfather covered in different self control lessons.
Opening her eyes, she smiles reassuringly at Sasha. From the way her shoulders relax and the hesitant smile she returns, Hanna knows her eyes have returned to normal. That said, it wouldn't do to have some woman see something like that and not say anything. She can get in trouble if she doesn't cover her tracks, "How strange. I've never changed the color of my eyes or hair in the menu, so I wonder why…."
Sasha's hesitant smile eases at that, "It must've just been a glitch. They've returned to normal now."
She gives her a relieved smile, hoping that it's believable. Sasha seems to buy it, thankfully, but before she can say anything, one of the kids murmurs, "Wow…" She turns to them quickly in surprise, but that murmur seems to break the kids from their stupor, "That was amazing, Nee-chan!"
The kids quickly approach her, the other boy, who has a silvery looking hair, though likely changed in the menu rather than natural like her family's, proclaims, "I've never seen anything like that!"
The girl of the trio, a brunette with braids, nods emphatically, "Yeah! You were so cool!"
Sasha moves around to the kids with a shake of her head, "Right. Thank you for your assistance."
She blushes lightly as the kids crowd around her, continuing to sing praises. She doesn't really get a chance to say anything, given that the kids are already talking over each other, they're certainly not leaving her any sort of opening to speak, but she listens to them ramble with a smile. At least, until she hears Kirito's concerned voice, "Yui?"
Her gaze immediately snaps to her mate and child. Or rather, Yui. It wasn't right to call her her child, even internally. Yui already has parents. That wasn't important at the moment though, not when there seems to be something wrong, "Yui?"
Kirito was looking over his shoulder at Yui in concern, "Yui, what's wrong?"
Yui, however, doesn't seem to hear him, her hand stretched towards the sky, and her gaze similarly pointed up as she murmurs, "Everyone's hearts…."
He tries to get her attention again, with as few results as the first time, so she rushes over, "Yui, did you remember something?"
That seems to get her attention, as Yui finally lowers her arm, clutching Kirito's shoulders with shaking hands and burying her face into his back, "I… I… I wasn't here…. I was always alone in the dark…."
Her brow furrows as though she was remembering something, but a split second later, she throws her head back with a high pitched shriek that echoes strangely. For the first time since she'd entered SAO, Hanna hears a crackling buzzing sort of noise usually associated with electronics short circuiting, but it was deafening, and everything around them, the buildings, the trees, even Kirito and Yui herself began to glitch as though shown on a bad tv.
Yui goes limp and begins to fall backwards off of Kirito, and Hanna darts forward to catch her, both herself and Kirito calling out her name. Yui trembles in her arms, "Mama, I'm scared… Mama…."
There's a brief pause as she simply holds Yui, then she hears Kirito murmur in astonishment with a shaky voice, "What was that just now?"
Before she can even think of how to reply to that, if there even is a reply to something like that, Yui passes out, "Yui…" Then faintly, she calls out without taking her eyes off Yui, "Sasha… Do you suppose it would be too much of a bother if we brought Yui back to the church to rest?"
Sasha's voice is flustered and worried as she instantly replies, "Not at all! I- I was just about to suggest that myself actually... Do… Do you think she'll be ok?"
She sighs tiredly as she gently scoops Yui up, "... I don't know…. I… I really don't know…" She looks to her mate, silently pleading with her mate to have answers for her, but he just shrugs helplessly, "Then… Do you have any idea what she meant… She said she was always alone, in the dark…"
Kirito shrugs again, this time frustrated as well as helpless, "I don't… I don't have answers…. I don't even have a single idea…."
(1): So, I'm just gonna say this now to get it out of the way. I don't know if this holds true for everyone with a speech impediment, but I actually do have experience with someone who had one. My sister had one when she was younger, and had to go to speech therapy for years. So I'm just going by my personal experience here. Just wanted to get that out of the way so I, hopefully, don't offend anyone.