AN: Ok, I know that in canon there's only three valleys and one corridor in Alfheim to get from the territories of the races into the central area with the World Tree, but when I was reading some general information about Alfheim, I realized that all four of those access points are to the south, leaving the races with territories to the north with no way to get there without traveling halfway across Alfheim (in the cases of the two directly north, the ones to the northeast and northwest get off a bit easier), and that's absolutely stupid. Problem is Legrue doesn't really mean anything, so the other corridors don't really match up with it, thematically speaking. They aren't very clever either, just words that fit with the abilities of the races that have corridors in other languages. Sorry about the lack of creativity, but I didn't have much to work with.

January 19th, 2025

After their spar, he and Suguha go to the washroom to clean the sweat from their faces. Suguha, usually taking more time, allows him to go first, and after he's done, he dries his damp hair, then put the towel around his neck, absently lifting part of it to start drying his face as he thought over the spar, muttering aloud in the process, "That third strike was functional, but it wasn't nearly as smooth as it should've been, and it didn't flow into the next attack as well as it should have… Might've been able to end the spar a couple hits sooner if I hadn't been sloppy there. Definitely going to need to work on that."

Suguha, just finishing up and apparently listening to his muttering, yanks her head up with an expression of poorly concealed hopeful excitement, "Really?! Does that mean you're taking up Kendo again?!" Then she blushes and visibly struggles to rein herself in, "I- I mean, if Onii-chan doesn't want to, that's ok, but… but it'd be fun to train and spar with Onii-chan…"

He smiles warmly at her, "Yeah, I'd like that. As much as I disliked kendo as a kid, a few good things did come from my time in Aincrad, my realization of how much I loved a good fight and genuine enjoyment of learning how to properly do so being one of them. Although, I'll definitely never be able to compete, seeing as my style definitely doesn't follow approved guidelines for actual kendo matches…"

Suguha beams at him, "That's ok! You can still spar with me, I don't mind you using your own style. Who knows, maybe Onii-chan can even teach me a thing or two that I could use in competitions."

He chuckles, "That's a bit doubtful. Marzanna would be more likely to be able to teach you something than I am." His smile slips for a moment, "If she were awake that is…" Then he shakes his head and grins slightly, "Still, it should be fun, and it's something we can spend more time together doing as we catch up on the time we lost. Plus, it's good exercise to get me back into shape."

Suguha, looks down briefly with a slightly contemplative smile, then seemingly spurred on by the conversation, returns her gaze to him looking like she wants to share something with him, "Actually, Onii-chan... I've also…" At the last moment though, she seems to change her mind, shaking her head before turning away, "Nope, I think I'll keep it a secret for now."

He looks after his happy sister in confusion, then shakes his head and follows her back to the house in bemusement. After going back into the house, Suguha glances back at him briefly, "So what are you doing today?"

He stops in his tracks, staring at her back before turning his gaze to the floor, "I'm going to the hospital…"

Suguha turns to him quickly, then looks away again as her mood seems to plummet. He wonders if it's a side effect of his own low mood. Then she sighs, "I see… You're going to see her, aren't you? Marzanna-san, was it?"

Hebsighs in frustration, "Yeah, visiting is all I can do…" And oh how that grates. How he wishes this was just something he can physically attack with a sword. Shaking his thoughts off, he smiles lightly at her, moving to go past her into the kitchen, "Well, it's my turn to make breakfast," He pats her head lightly as he passes her, "so you go ahead and take a shower."

As he opens the door and steps into the kitchen, he hears Suguha faintly reply with a simple, "Yeah…"

Closing the door behind him, he hovers near it with a frown. It had to be his own terrible mood affecting her, and that made him more guilty than ever for pushing her away when they were younger. He'd forced a distance between them, gotten stuck in a death game, then when he was finally free and ready to correct his mistake, it's only just in time to infect her with his own misery.

After eating breakfast with his sister, he takes a quick bath before setting out on his bicycle, which he'd gotten and taken to using whenever he had to go anywhere that wasn't particularly close as another means of exercise.

As much as he wants, needs, to be there for her, being in his mate's unresponsive presence only seems to make the hole in his mind pulsate painfully, seeming to make him crumble away further and further. Lily had assured him that it wasn't tearing apart his mind to visit his mate, but she'd told him it was an understandable assumption, given the immense strain their bond was under. Still, though Lily had assured him that it was understandable if he didn't come, he visits her every other day, barring when he has appointments for physical therapy and the like, and even then, he goes out of his way to try and schedule the appointments on days he knows he wasn't intending to visit.

It was a forty minute trip by bike, but Kazuto doesn't mind, despite the fact it seems to take forever, he also seems to get there all too soon, and it isn't long before he's locking up his bike and heading inside. Hesitating briefly in the elevator, he soon pushes the button for Asuna's floor rather than Marzanna's. He makes sure to visit their friend at least once a week, and it was always best to visit her first, given how quickly he loses track of time with Marzanna. More often than not, it was to such an extreme that he usually had to be told by the nurses that visiting hours were over.

Reaching her room, he quickly enters and pushes the curtain cutting through the room aside, before moving over to Asuna's bedside. He observes his still comatose friend for a moment then reaches down and squeezes her hand briefly, "Asuna… Marzanna and you are two of the strongest people I know, so I have faith that whatever is going on, the two of you will fight it. Still, you guys being like this… it's affecting everyone. Lizbeth hardly ever smiles, Argo always seems unsure of what to do, hell even Klein doesn't seem to know what to say anymore and is silent more often than not…" He smiles faintly, "Though that last one isn't necessarily a bad thing." Then his smile slips and he sighs, "I guess what I'm trying to say is… I know you guys are fighting this, but please… fight a bit faster? I suppose that's an ironic thing to say to someone nicknamed «Lightning Flash», but... None of us can truly come home until we all do…"

Giving her hand one last squeeze, he lets go and straightens up. Staring at her for a few minutes in thought, before he's pulled back to the present by the door opening. Turning he sees Asuna's father and CEO of the electronics company RCT, Yuuki Shouzou, come around the curtain with a bouquet of flowers. He already knew that RCT was one of the best technology companies in the world, but he'd been a bit surprised to learn that it was also the leading magi-tech corporation in the magical world.

Shouzou pauses upon seeing him, though he's smiling faintly, "Oh, you're here, Kirigaya-kun."

He dips his head in apology, "Hello. Sorry to interrupt Yuuki-san, I didn't realize you were visiting Asuna today. I was coming to visit Marzanna and thought I'd stop by and see how Asuna was doing."

Shouzou shakes his head, then moves around the bed to change the flowers there out with the fresh bouquet, "No, don't worry about it. Visit whenever you like. I'm sure it makes her happy." Then he sighs, "I would ask how Sparda-san is doing, but…" His eyes drift from his now complete task of changing the flowers out to Asuna before he sighs again, "Well, I'm sure I already have a fairly good idea…"

He nods slightly, and there's a brief pause before another male voice speaks up from near the end of Asuna's bed, "President…"

He shifts his gaze to the unfamiliar man, and Shouzou glances between them quickly, "Oh, you haven't met before, have you? This is our laboratory chief, Sugou-kun."

Sugou appears to be just past his thirties, and was tall, wearing a dark gray suit and thin glasses, with a pleasant smile giving off a positive first impression of the man. However… Well, maybe his weary mind and two years and SAO were just making him a bit paranoid, but something seems… off about the man, and Kazuto immediately doesn't trust him.

Sugou tilts his head slightly, "I'm Sugou Nobuyuki. Nice to meet you."

He stares at him for a moment, then deciding that regardless of his gut feelings, it was best not to be rude to his subordinate with Shouzou in the room, he politely offers his own name, "Kirigaya Kazuto."

The man gasps lightly, then moving from the end of the bed, he approaches Kazuto and grabs his hand to shake it, "Really? So you're the hero Kirito-kun?"

He glances at Shouzou, slightly confused at how Sugou knows that. Shouzou turns to him fully with mild embarrassment, "Oh, I apologize… We aren't supposed to discuss what happened inside the SAO server, right? He's the son of a dear friend though. He's always been like family, so it didn't even occur to me not to tell him when he asked."

Sugou's still pleasant smile grows and becomes warm at that, but the comment seems to remind him of something, "Oh, president… About that," He turns away from Kazuto to fully face Shouzou before continuing, "I'd like to make it official."

That seems to surprise Shouzou a bit, "I see… But are you certain? You're still young. You could start a new life."

Sugou nods, still giving the older man that large warm smile, "My heart has always been set on one thing." He pushes his sliding glasses back up his nose as he turns his attention to Asuna, "I'd like Asuna-san to wear her wedding dress while she's still beautiful."

His eyes widen in disbelief, unable to wrap his head around the idea of marrying Asuna off while she's in a coma and unable to reject. Surely that couldn't actually be legal? Or at the very least, he wouldn't think it was legally binding… Although, perhaps Asuna had agreed to this in some way before they all got stuck in Aincrad. She never mentioned being betrothed, but that didn't necessarily mean she wasn't. For all he knows, she could actually be in love with Sugou, as like most in Aincrad, she hadn't spoken of her life on the other side all that much, if ever. Somehow though… He seriously doubts that is the case...

Oblivious to the worried turmoil surging through him, Shouzou nods lightly, "That's a good point…. It might be time to decide." Then he seems to remember something as he spots the clock, and begins to make his way to the door, "I'm sorry to end our conversation, but I have a meeting. We can discuss this another time." Pausing at the foot of Asuna's bed, he turns to him, "Kirigaya-kun, I'll see you again."

With farewells out of the way, he quickly strides from the room, leaving Kazuto with Sugou and the comatose Asuna. There's a brief silence after Shouzou closes the door behind him as Sugou calmly walks around Asuna's bed to stand on her other side, "Why do you look so bothered by this? From my understanding, despite all the time you spent with Asuna, it was almost always with your wife as well. Though, I honestly don't know why you'd want to marry anyone else with a breathtaking thing like Asuna around."

He sneers the word "wife" in an unpleasant condescending manner, and Kazuto clutches his fists reflexively. While there had been a general lockdown on info about what had happened in SAO, certain things had been almost impossible to hide due to the consequences. While there probably weren't that many in general who had been married in real life trapped in Aincrad, seeing as the average age of the players had been in the low twenties, there were enough for the media, who already had almost all of their attention focused on the Aincrad players after most of them woke up and three hundred remained in a coma, had quickly noticed when over fifty of those people ended up getting divorced to marry their Aincrad partners.

The media had jumped onto one of the few scraps of information about what had happened in those two years, and soon started talking about how marriage in Aincrad had been just as real for the players as getting married in real life, blowing it totally out of proportion of course. There had been more than one argument about whether or not the government should acknowledge those marriages as just as real as those in this world.

The general opinion however, was that with so many players in a coma, and thus not able to decide for themselves if they wanted to go through with their Aincrad marriages in the real world, and so many more underage, who were treated as children who didn't truly understand what marriage was about and were too young to be truly in love, Aincrad marriages had all been laughed off as a joke.

Receiving both disdain and disbelief for his marriage to Hanna, for being married in general rather than any towards them specifically, was one of the most frustrating and infuriating things Kazuto had to put up with since returning. It didn't help that after having to dull their bond almost as soon as he returned, that it almost felt like they were right, that their connection had only been real in Aincrad, and now that he was back, it had been broken like glass.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he glares at Sugou, "Yes. My wife and I were very good friends with Asuna. I just don't see how it can be deemed unfair to enforce the Aincrad marriages on those in a coma due to them being unable to protest, but ok to marry Asuna off while she's also in a coma."

Sugou leans over Asuna, picking up a stand of her hair, "Oh, she absolutely despises me." Then he unexpectedly brings the stand up to his face, sniffing it like a total creep, and disgusted joins the fury in his glare as Sugou lifts his head to smirk at Kazuto, "She's always been a good, obedient girl though. Even if she was awake, she'd most likely do it anyway, just because she was told to."

His fists clench tighter, his dull short nails beginning to cut into his palm in fury at the injustice being done to his friend, at his complete inability to stop it, and though he's beginning to question if it's actually true, he tries to use the law to protest this treatment of his friend, as though she was just some object to be possessed, "You can't do that… To marry someone properly, they have to give their consent…"

Sugou sits near the head of Asuna's bed casually, "Indeed. It can't be done legally. On paper, I'll simply be adopted into the Yuuki family." He begins to run his finger over Asuna's face, and at this point Kazuto wants to just punch the creep, but he holds his ground, knowing that an assault charge won't help anyone. Simply continues to let Sugou talk, "Like I said, she's always despised me. Though neither of our parents know that. For all her obedience, she hates me so much that there actually is a tiny chance for it to be the first time she rebelled against her parents wishes…"

He runs his finger just under, then over her lip, "So this situation is quite fortunate for me… As I said, it's only on paper that I'll be adopted. I'll be considered Asuna's husband by our parents, which means I'll get all the benefits without worrying about her making a scene and ruining it for me… Of courses they'll likely want us to make it official if she ever wakes up, which is doubtful, but if that does happen it's a simple matter to convince our parents to wait until she's recovered before bringing it up, and that would give me plenty of time to convince Asuna to-"

Kazuto, unable to just stand by and let this creep do that to Asuna, had marched around the bed furiously and now grabs Sugou's arm in an iron grin, all but growing in his fury, "Stop it." Surprisingly, Sugou struggles in his grip for a moment before managing to yank his arm away with a glare. A glare which he returns with an intensity a hundred times Sugou's, "You…. You're disgusting. Taking advantage of the fact Asuna is in a coma… I can see why she hates you."

Sugou's anger turns into a smirk, "Take advantage? No, this is my right. Listen, Kirigaya-kun. Do you know what happened to Argus after they developed SAO?"

He continues to glare furiously, but seeing that Sugou seems to be patiently waiting for it, he bites the obvious bait, "They went bankrupt."

Sugou nods in satisfaction, continuing to smirk, "Yes. The development costs, plus the massive damages they were forced to pay, bankrupted the company. And the maintenance of the SAO servers was entrusted to the electronics manufacturer RCT. It wasn't a coincidence of course, Shouzou fought for the right for his company to maintain the servers, too worried for Asuna to let anyone else handle it. Do you know where I work in that company? I work for its Full-Dive Technology Research Division."

He stands up to smirk down at Kazuto for a moment, "You could even say that I'm the one who's keeping Asuna," He leans down to whisper threateningly to Kazuto, "and that wife of yours for that matter, alive… So I can ask for a little something by way of compensation, can't I?"

Finally he straightens up and moves past Kazuto, but he pauses after only a couple steps, "I don't know how close you were to Asuna in the game, but I don't like it in the slightest, and I'd prefer that you never come back. Or have any contact with the Yuuki family for that matter. I might even be so distraught and accidentally make a mistake with that wife of yours. It would be such a tragedy, surviving two years in that game only to die because of some sort of computer virus accidentally setting off the NerveGear…"

His demands and threat delivered, he begins to make his way to the door, absently adding in a smug tone, "The ceremony will be held in this hospital room in one week, on January 26th. The Japanese calendar has more auspicious days for a wedding, but it's a day that brings misery to friends, so I'll invite you." His footsteps pause briefly, "Cherish this last meeting, Hero-kun."

A moment after his mocking goodbye, Kazuto hears the door open, Sugou leave, and the door close, once more leaving him alone with Asuna, though his heart was full of more despair than it had been since he first took the Dementors Blood, or when he realized Marzanna wasn't simply late in waking, which were the worst moments of his life since he woke up. Marzanna was in danger again and he can't even just stab the problem this time. Well, he could, but he'd go to prison, and neither Marzanna nor Asuna would want that. Even if it was an extremely tempting idea.

He furiously wipes at the tears he finally realizes are streaking down his face, hoping he hadn't unknowingly given that bastard the satisfaction of seeing him cry. He turns to Asuna, hesitating before grabbing her hand after the creepy display from Sugou, then discarding the idea of simply grabbing her hand being creepy as had crossed his mind for the ridiculous notion it was.

For a moment, he just stares at their hands, "... I'm sorry Asuna… I feel like you'd understand, with Marzanna's life on the line, but…" Then he shakes his head, before lifting it to stare at her resolutely, even though she obviously can't see him, "No. No, I'm not going to give in. I'm not going to let that- that creep do this to you. I- I'll figure something out… I will… I- I promise... I won't be able to visit though… But, don't think that means I've forgotten about you. You're still mine and Marzanna's friend, and I won't abandon you."

Giving her hand one last squeeze. He turns and leaves, heading back to the elevator and down to Marzanna's room deep in thought. There had to be something he could do… He supposes the most likely place for him to find answers was within the very laws that Sugou was trying to manipulate, but he didn't really know much about law… Well, it never hurts to know how your government works, now does it, and he supposes now was as good a time as any to learn. He'd certainly never be a lawyer, but if he could find even one thing to help with Asuna…

Entering Marzanna's room, he pulls his thoughtful gaze from the floor as he hears movement, moving around the curtain he sees Lily and Kyrie, the wife of Marzanna's brother-like cousin, are visiting, and Kyrie is changing out flowers, much like Shouzou had done not even a half hour prior.

Entirely used to Kazuto's frequent visits, Lily smiles at him warmly, "Kazuto! I was wondering where you were, usually-" Then she seems to notice something in his expression, or perhaps his body language, and her smile turns into a worried frown, "Kazuto? What's wrong sweetie? Is it the potion?"

Kazuto shrugs, though the usual term of endearment, once jarring and strange, soothes him a bit. Then it hits him, Lily and them were magicals, with direct ties to both societies governments, maybe, but just as he opens his mouth to tell her he realizes what a bad idea that is. He likes Lily, she's kind and caring, but she also has a firm idea of justice, if he told her, she'd go to the police and their magical counterparts immediately. The problem was, it would be Sugou's word, who seems to be a well respected higher up in a prestigious company, not to mention the trust Shouzou, the CEO of that company and Asuna's father, clearly put in the man, against his, a no name teenage boy that the authorities would likely believe was suffering from delusions after the 'traumatic experience he'd gone through', a phrase he'd heard many times since waking up for various reasons, but had grown to hate.

He supposes… but no, that was ridiculous. Ever since waking up and having magic proven to him beyond a shadow of a doubt, not that there was much to begin with, he'd found himself almost automatically assuming magic could do most of the stuff you heard it doing in fictional media. Having not had the time to truly start learning of the magical world, and more than a bit unwilling to do it without Marzanna, and thus being unable to get even a basic understanding of what they could do, he often had to remind himself that the majority of those fictional concepts of what magic was capable of were exactly that. Fictional concepts. It would be really useful right now though, if they really could read minds.

Finally, unable to tell Lily without risking both Marzanna and Asuna's safety if she doesn't give him a chance to explain why it's a bad idea, he simply sighs, "It was nothing. Just… Just a bad day… Though the potions effects… are probably making it worse..."

Neither Lily or Kyrie seem to believe that explanation, but to his relief, they don't push. It was rather true though. Today may have started off fine, but it's become a bad day indeed.

Later that night, he finds himself sitting on his bed, staring blankly at his NerveGear on the shelf across from him as he tries to think of some way to change the situation without risking Marzanna or Asuna. His study of laws hadn't yielded any results so far, and in fact, had worryingly seemed to support Sugou, seeing as he wasn't technically marrying Asuna, and no one but Kazuto knew about his little… performance today.

He barely registers it when Suguha's voice drifts through his bedroom door, "Onii-chan? The bathroom's free." After a few moments of not getting a response, Suguha hesitantly opens the door, "Onii-chan, if you're in here, you should say something." She doesn't seem to immediately notice his mood, stepping inside and closing the door before moving past him, rubbing at her arms and shivering slightly, "You didn't even turn on the heat!"

He hears her turn on the heat for his room, but he can't bring himself to look at her, "Sorry. Could you leave me alone for a while?"

She turns to him with a slight frown, "But it's so cold. Honestly, you should go take a warm bath while your room-" She finally seems to pick up on his mood, cutting off mid sentence before hurrying over and crouching in front of him as she grabs his hands, "W-What's wrong?"

He looks away as he whispers, "It's nothing…"

That only seems to worry Suguha more though, "But… You're freezing… You'll get sick. You really should take a bath."

He can't help the sardonic smile at her worry for him. He was perfectly safe. Marzanna and Asuna though… He lowers his head further, "I… really am hopeless." He lifts a shaking hand to his face, his voice beginning to tremble despite his attempts to keep a hold on his emotions, "I swore I wouldn't show any weakness around you, no matter what happened…"

Suguha stares at him in worry for a moment, "Did something happen to her? To Marzanna-san?"

He shakes his head, "N- No…. but Asuna, my friend…. And I'm so useless I can't even save her from it… And Marzanna… Marzanna…"

Despite his best efforts to keep his little sister from seeing him in such a state, tears start to slide down his face, and it's not long that he loses the battle against his emotions entirely as he begins crying in earnest. His control on his emotions used to be kind of impressive, but between the jarring experience of returning from Aincrad, realizing Marzanna wasn't waking up, and that damnable potion, his control was shot to hell in a heartbeat. That gaping void in his head felt like it turned into a black hole, greedily sucking in every bit of happiness he'd managed to scrape together since taking it that first time, destroying it utterly and completely.

As soon as he starts crying, Suguha lunges up to pull him against her in a comforting embrace. For a moment, she just lets him cry into her shoulder, then she gently murmurs, "Just do your best Onii-chan. You shouldn't give up on the people you love so easily."

He honestly doesn't know how long he cries into Suguha's shoulder, and he doesn't remember stopping, but eventually sleep pulls him into its thankfully quiet embrace, and miraculously, he experiences no nightmares.

January 20th, 2025

Gradually he becomes aware of how warm he is and the sunlight he can see even past his eyelids. Refusing to open his eyes and lose the enjoyment of his first nightmare free sleep in over a month and a half he instinctively hugs the body curled into him before his eyebrows furrow. Marzanna feels weird… probably because it clearly wasn't her.

Shooting up, he twists around to look down in confusion, only to find Suguha curled up in his bed. For a brief instant, his confusion only seems to double, but then he recalls the previous night. He blushes in embarrassment at having apparently cried himself to sleep in his sister's arms, but he is grateful, both for the comfort she'd offered and for apparently keeping his nightmares at bay.

As he gazes at Suguha, he's rather abruptly reminded of Silica, whom he had compared to Suguha and who had also come into his, and Hanna's, room late at night. Though, back then, they'd gotten Silica back to her room, and there hadn't been any crying. He smiles as he remembers. Though he was still worried about both Marzanna and Asuna, he felt better. Like he'd been wrong last night. That, rather than a black hole pulling everything in and destroying it, it had simply been allowed to drain the pressure in it, like an infected wound.

The memories of all of the happier times in Aincrad were some of his most precious memories. It doesn't matter if they were happy or sad, they were still real and his, despite what some people say, so he refuses to treat them otherwise, and that includes Marzanna and his agreement to meet here and be together again. He absolutely would not allow someone like Sugou to ruin that, and he won't betray the ideals of The Black Swordsman. He would find a way to save Asuna without risking Marzanna.

He tilts his head at Suguha, whispering to her sleeping form, "What you said is absolutely right. It's far too early to be giving up. It's not over til it's over."

Looking at his clock, he blinks as he realizes what time it was, and turns back to his sister, "Hey, wake up Sugu. It's morning." She groans and rolls onto her back, so he reaches out to poke her cheek, only managing to poke her a couple of times before she sleepily smacks his hand away and rolls back over, "Wake up…" He pulls her back over though, and pinches her cheek gently and tugs on it lightly, "You won't have time for morning practice."

That seems to wake her, and he lets go of her cheek as she groggily opens her eyes and slowly focuses on him with another tired groan, "M-Morning, Onii-chan…"

He smiles at her, "Good Morning."

She pushes herself up into a sitting position as she rubs at her eyes and yawns, then looks at him sleepily again. His smile turns amused as he realizes it hasn't occurred to his sister that she's in his room, not the other way around, and repeats himself, "Good Morning."

She blinks at him with sleepy confusion, then slowly looks around. After a moment, it finally seems to register what exactly she's seeing, namely his room rather than her own, and she suddenly turns bright red as she quickly glances at him then stubbornly looks away, "Ah! Um… I…"

Without another word, she shoots to her feet and rushes out of his room. He watches her go with mild amusement, though he does wonder exactly why she was so embarrassed, then rubs at the back of his head as he hears her bedroom door slam next door, "Honestly…"

His attention is pulled to his computer by a notification beep. Getting up, he goes over to it, and is soon looking at an email notification. Absently dragging his computer chair over, as he opens his email account, he sits down as he opens the email itself. It was from Agil with an excited 'Look at this!' as the subject. Really excited for Agil to not only use an exclamation point, which was rare for the large man, but in fact use two.

Scrolling down, he sees that there isn't any actual message, but there is a photo attached. One that grabs his attention immediately. It was rather blurry, but it looks like… No, that isn't possible, "What is this?" But when he zooms in on the person's face, he can't help but shoot up from his seat and stumble back a few steps as it's unmistakably their comatose friend. Asuna. She's wearing strange clothes, and seems to be in an enormous cage, not to mention her surroundings look more like game graphics than real life, but it was her without even a shadow of doubt, "What the hell?! Asuna!"

After a moment, he darts forward, snatching his phone up from his desk almost violently, and frantically calls the by now familiar number, it feels like it rings for hours before being picked up, but in reality it was likely only a few seconds before the ringing was replaced by a deep cheerful voice, "Hello?"

Without wasting a second, Kazuto starts in on him, "Hey! What the hell was that picture all about!?"

There's a sigh on the other end, "You know, it's generally considered good manners to introduce yourself over the phone before you start-"

He lets out a growl of frustration. Agil was one of his best friends, but he did not have the patience at the moment, "I don't have time for that crap right now! Just hurry up and tell me!"

Agil hums, "Actually, it's kind of a long story, and I've actually got something I need to give you pertaining to it, so it's better if you can come over."

He nods even though Agil can't see it, "Right away. I'll be there right away!"

He'd never gotten ready so fast in his whole life. From quickly gathering a change of clothes, showering, barely dying his hair and getting dressed, snatching up his backpack seeing as Agil had said he had something for him, he's out of the door and riding his bike in record time. On the other hand, the route to Agil's shop has never seemed to take so long before, despite the fact he was going as fast as he can. Asuna and Marzanna were in the same boat. If Agil had managed to find some sort of information on Asuna, then….

After locking up his bike quickly, he enters the shop, called the Dicey Café, without hesitation. There isn't a single customer inside, and Agil seems to just be absently cleaning cups, until he entered, "Hey. You got here quite fast but I suppose that's to be expected, seeing as it has to do with Marzanna and Asuna."

He pushes the door closed behind him, then approaches the bar Agil is standing behind, making small talk to gather and calm himself so as to not potentially miss anything important, "Does anyone ever come here besides me? Honestly, how on earth has your business survived?"

Agil huffs but he's smiling slightly, "Shut up. It's busy at night."

Dropping his backpack on one of the stools, he sits next to it, leaning on the bar before pinning Agil with a serious look, "So, what was that picture you sent?"

Agil sets the cup and rag on the counter, bending down to grab something from behind the bar, "It's a bit of a long story." Setting the thing on the counter, he pushes it to slide down to him, "Ever hear of this?"

He catches the thing, then looks it over in surprise, the 'thing' was actually a case showing a deep forest under the full moon, with two characters facing the moon and hovering with transparent wings, as the very bottom was a stylized title proclaiming it as Alfheim Online, "A game?"

Agil nods, "It's an MMO for the AmuSphere, a successor to the NerveGear."

Kazuto's serious gaze returns to the case in his hand, "Then it's another virtual MMO like SAO? Alf Heim online?"

Agil shrugs, "Without the death game part, obviously. And it's supposedly pronounced as one word, Alfheim. It means 'Land of the Fairies'."

His brow furrows in thought as he picks the game up off the counter, "Land of the Fairies? Mostly a social game then?"

Agil shakes his head as he pours some coffee for him, "No, supposedly not. There's a heavy emphasis on player skill, and PKing is encouraged."

Lowering the game away from his face, he looks at Agil in confusion, "Player skill? But all MMOs..."

Agil shakes his head, "There aren't any actual player levels. Using skills improves their levels, but the players themselves don't have such a system. There also aren't any sword skills. So combat depends heavily on the player's fighting ability. Of course, without the sword skills or the high stakes we had to learn under in SAO, most players aren't very good at actual combat, so from my understanding, most actual melee fights boil down to who can do the most damage and attack faster. Which makes two of the game's nine races much more heavily used, seeing as the Salamanders have a strength buff, and Sylphs have an agility buff."

He looks back down at the game case with new eyes, "Hardcore."

Agil crosses his arms, "Like SAO with magic, but no sword skills, as I already mentioned. It's really popular. I've heard it's because you can fly."

He lifts his gaze to Agil with slight shock, "Fly?"

Agil nods, "In the game, you're a fairy, so you gave wings. It has something called a 'flight engine', and once you're used to it, you can fly."

He tilts his head, momentarily getting distracted by the prospect of flight and the mechanics of how such a thing would work. When the NerveGear was first released and all those terrible minor games for it were coming out, it was stated that the biggest reason there were none in which you could fly under your own power was because of the fact you moved your avatar the same way you moved your real body, and the NerveGear simply intercepted those signals and used them as input for the avatar. Humans obviously didn't have wings, so controlling them had been considered nearly impossible, seeing as absolutely no one had experience with what muscles to move and how to control flight.

He tilts his head, eyes narrowing in thought, "The concept is amazing, but how does it work?"

Agil shrugs with a grin, "I don't know. But I hear it's pretty hard."

He turns an excited grin towards the fascinating game, "It certainly would be incredibly difficult to control wings considering humans don't have any. Maybe you use the muscles in your back? Probably those near your shoulder blades, given-" Agil pointedly clearing his throat pulls him back to the actual matter at hand. He stares like a deer caught in headlights for a moment, then sheepishly calms his excitement and places the case on the counter, "So what does this popular game have to do with Marzanna and Asuna?"

Agil pulls a photo out from under the counter, laying it in front of Kazuto. It was the same blurry photo he'd received via email from his friend earlier, "What do you think?"

Kazuto stares at the photo with furrowed eyebrows, "It looks like Asuna."

Agil nods, "Exactly like her."

He bangs a fist on the table as his frustration and impatience returns with a vengeance, "Just tell me already! What is this?"

Agil shrugs with a slight frown, "It's from inside the game, Alfheim Online." Picking up the case, Agil turns it over to show an incredibly basic map of the game only really showing the territories of the various races, the neutral zone in the center with a tree surrounded by mountains, and the caves that lead through the mountains to the neutral zone and the tree. Agil taps on the kind of cartoon looking little tree, "It was taken at what's called The World Tree named Yggdrasil. A legendary castle sits atop this tree. Players are divided into nine races, all of them racing to reach the castle first."

He lifts his head from his study of the simplistic map to look at Agil, "Then they're prevented from simply flying up there?"

Agil nods, "Supposedly, there's a limit to how long you can fly, so you can't do it forever. The World Tree is so tall that it's impossible to reach even the lowest branches. And so, five players made a tower, bigger ones on the bottom, and flew up like a multistage rocket."

His eyes widen incredulously for a moment before the idea sinks in and he can't help but smirk just a tiny bit, "I get it… It's dumb, but at the same time it's pretty smart."

Agil nods, "They didn't even make it to the tree's lowest branch though, but they did manage to take a few pictures. And something strange was in one of them."

Agil pulls out another photo, and he looks it over, "A birdcage?"

Agil nods as he leans against the counter, "And when they zoomed in on the cage as best they could," He taps the picture of Asuna again, "they found this. The photos caught my attention when they went viral, seeing as it was not only the closest look anyone has gotten at the top of the World Tree, but also because they found something so strange. It's blown up with debates on what it could be, but the common theory amongst the players is that it's part of some quest once you reach the top. Of course, that's to the players of Alfheim, but to you and I… And if Asuna is there, then Hanna…"

He nods slowly, then picks the game back up with a frown, "But why would Asuna be there?" Turning the case over in his hand, his eyes drift over it, finally noticing the company brand at the bottom, RCT progress. Immediately his mind flashes to what had happened the day before, and his expression hardens as suspicion begins to fill him, "Agil. Do you mind if I take this?"

Agil shakes his head, "Of course not. I got it for you after all, after I found those photos. It's a slim chance of it actually being her, and it's pretty preposterous, but if there's any chance at all… I knew you'd want to check it out."

He quickly puts the game into his backpack then smirks at Agil, "A game where dying is ok is too easy." He chugs his coffee, then gets up to leave, "I'll have to buy the hardware too, but if there's even the tiniest chance… It's worth it."

Agil shakes his head at that, "No, it'll work with NerveGear as well. The AmuSphere may be very different from the NerveGear, but seeing as RCT bought the rights to their patents, one of the things that's still the same is the cartridges."

He grins at that, "Glad to hear it."

Agil smiles as lifts his hand for a fist bump, "Go save our girls. Otherwise, our fight can't truly end."

He nods, still grinning, "Yeah, we'll all meet here someday."

Then he gives him a fist bump, and without another word, turns and leaves.

The sun is already well on its way to setting by the time he arrives home due to the late hour they'd woken up. When he arrives he finds Suguha on the porch, just stuffing a small muffin into her mouth in a very unladylike manner, "I'm home."

She looks at him in a startled manner, then despite her mouthful of food calls out to him, "Onii-chan!"

However her greeting seems to lodge some of the food in her throat as she immediately falls on her back from flailing wildly, and he begins to make his way over to help her. After a moment she seems to actually use her brain and try to reach for the juice pouch she had with the food.

She just ends up pushing it over however, so he quickly picks it up and places it in her hand, "Here."

She immediately starts drinking it, and after a moment she sits up with a deep sigh of relief, "I- I thought I was going to die."

He sighs in slight exasperation, "You're always so careless. Calm down a little." Moving over, he sits down lightly on the edge of the porch, "Sugu, about last night…"

She lifts her head with a blush, "Y-Yeah?"

He stares at the ground, attempting to gather his thoughts, "Um… Well… Thank you. Thanks to you, I feel better." Then he turns to her and grins, "I won't give up. I'm going to get Marzanna, and Asuna, back."

Suguha doesn't seem to quite understand what he's trying to say, which is understandable, since she doesn't know about the lead he just got, but she still nods with a smile, "Yeah. Good luck. I want to meet them too."

He stands up and pats her on the head with a grin, "I'm sure you'll like them." Then he turns to go inside, "I've gotta eat and take my medicine, but I'll probably be in my room all day after that, so I'll see you later."

Heading into the house and into the kitchen, he quickly begins the process of making a few sandwiches. Today he was supposed to take his weekly dose of that hellish potion, which his family had simply been told was medicine to help him recover but might bring mood swings, however he has to eat something first as he can't take it on an empty stomach. Not that he was complaining about eating, he was basically always hungry, especially since he'd returned from Aincrad.

In fact, he was eating so much that he'd be genuinely worried if Lily hadn't explained it to him. It was fairly simple really, not only did he need energy for the increasingly intense physical therapy, and because he was still a growing teenager, but his body had also been burning through his energy at an alarming rate while it was preparing itself to change upon bonding with Marzanna. Since the potion stabilized that, his absurd appetite had decreased, but that was one of the effects it can't fully negate, so he still tends to be hungrier than he should be.

Once his sandwiches are made, he pulls the game case out of his backpack, then leans against the counter, absently reading the basic information about ALO on the back with the map as he eats. Once he's done with his meal, he sets the case on the counter as he takes his plate over to the sink to quickly wash it, before moving over to the cupboard to grab his medicine. With no small children in the house and the fact that Kazuto had to eat beforehand, no one had seen any reason not to store it in the kitchen.

After pulling a vial of the foul drink, which was genuinely beginning to make him hate the color pink, he glares at it for a bit, as reluctant as usual to down it. He hears Suguha enter the kitchen, likely with the plate she'd had her muffins on. Huffing out a breath, he downs the vial quickly, grimacing at the disgusting taste.

Right then though, he hears a sharp intake of breath from his sister. Turning, he blanches when he sees the game case in her hand. She stares at it in shock for a moment, then slowly raises her gaze to him, "Onii-chan… You… You're going back? Into one of those?"

Wary at how she'll react, he's hesitant to answer, but there was no point in lying, she had the game in her hand, "...Yes. "

She simply stares at him blankly for a moment, "Why? Why now? Especially when-"

He doesn't know what that last sentence that she bites back before finishing is, but the most likely thing was why he'd do it now when he'd just had the situation with Asuna and Marzanna laid out to him by Sugou, though she doesn't know the details of that. He moves towards her, and she quickly clutches the game to her chest with a look of determined defiance, clearly intending to keep it from him until she gets her answers. However, he simply ushers her over to the kitchen table and pulls out a chair for her in clear invitation.

She looks at him suspiciously for a moment, then sits. He sits next to her slowly, contemplating how much to tell her, before finally deciding to just tell her the truth, "Can I see your phone really quick?"

She gives him another suspicious look, then reaches into her pocket and dumps it on the table before quickly returning that hand to the game. He sighs a bit sadly at how little she seems to trust him to tell her the truth, then picks up her phone. Opening a popular social media app, at least it was before SAO started, he quickly searches Asuna's name, finds her profile, then opens a photo of her before setting the phone on the table in front of Suguha. Pulling his own phone from his pocket, he quickly opens his email and the photo Agil had sent him.

He stares at the photo on his phone for a moment, then looks at Suguha and nods towards her phone on the table, "That's Yuuki Asuna, the friend from SAO that hasn't woken up." Suguha leans forward in curiosity, studying the photo. When she leans back, he turns his phone to her, "This is a screenshot taken from Alfheim Online."

He lets his sister study it with patience that surprises even him, and her eyes slowly widen as they glance back and forth between their phones before finally shifting to him in total confusion.

He sighs as he turns his phone back to him to stare at the photo that was giving him such hope, "... It's… preposterous, I know, but… The company that owns Alfheim Online belongs to Asuna's father, and the man who runs their Full-Dive division… is Sugou Nobuyuki, he… You know how I came back from visiting Marzanna and Asuna in a terrible mood? It was because of him, he… As he put it, with his job as head of the Full-Dive division of RCT, which is responsible for that side of the players' care, he's basically the one keeping them alive. He… threatened Marzanna and was being a total creep with Asuna, sniffing her hair and rubbing her face in a far less than innocent manner right in front of me. I couldn't go to the authorities though. It'd be my word versus his, and he's a seemingly respectable member of society, whereas I'm just a teenage SAO survivor."

He finally looks away from the photo to his sister to find her staring at him with horror. He lowers his gaze to the game in her arms, "I know it's a long shot, that it's more than a bit preposterous, but if there's even the slightest chance… I have to see for myself." Then he extends his hand, palm up, "So please Sugu, give it back."

She glances down at the game, then shifts her grip so she's holding it in front of her, and stares at it for a minute before glancing at him, "But… You don't have an AmuSphere…"

He sighs, "The AmuSphere may be different, but it uses the same cartridges as the NerveGear did."

She pins him with a furious look, "You're using that thing again?!"

He rests his hand on her head in a comforting manner and smiles, "It's fine. Alfheim Online doesn't have the code telling it to send the signal to the NerveGear if I die. I'll be perfectly safe."

She stares at him a moment longer, then her fury drains away and she holds out the game to him, "I know I said it before our spar yesterday, but… you really have become more open and honest, Onii-chan."

He accepts the same gratefully, then smiles lightly at her, "You can thank Marzanna for that. She's always been firmly of the opinion that if there isn't a good reason to lie, you shouldn't."

She smiles slightly at that, then looks at him in curiosity, "So… How did you get that photo? Where do you think Asuna-san is?"

He glances down at her, then leans over to show her the photo from his email again, "The photos blurry, but do you see those tree branches in the background? It's apparently at the top of something called the World Tree. Apparently there's an overall goal for the players to get there, so this one group decided to try and get there by flying up as a tower, kinda like a multistage rocket. They didn't make it, but they got screenshots and when they zoomed in on one of them, they got this image. The pics went viral pretty quickly, and it drew the attention of my friend Agil, who showed it to me."

Suguha nods absently, "Oh, yea. I heard about those five. Still not sure if it was genius to try and circumvent the World Tree's guardians that way, or the dumbest idea I've ever heard of."

Kazuto stares at his sister. As far as he knew, his sister does not play games, nor does she have any reason to visit gaming discussion boards, so she shouldn't know that, much less details he hadn't give her, like the fact it was five people who had made the attempt, or things he didn't know, like how one is supposed to get to the top of the World Tree.

His sister doesn't seem to realize what she'd said though, so as he stares at her, he responds slowly, "Suguha." She looks over at him quickly, startled by the use of her full name, "How do you know all that?"

She stares at him in confusion for a brief moment before realization sweeps over her expression, her face turning red, "I… Umm… That is…."

He narrows his eyes at her, "Nu-uh. This is open honesty time. Explanation. Gimme."

She turns her face away in embarrassment, "Well… For- For that first year you were trapped. I grew to despise VR games, and I was furious beyond belief when I heard about the AmuSphere, but… then I started to become curious. You seemed to love it when you were in the beta for SAO, I think it was the happiest I'd seen you in years when you heard you got accepted and started playing it. So I began to grow curious, about why you loved it, why it was so amazing or appealing that they'd made another admittedly safer model, or why people would play it despite the disaster of the first."

She glances at him briefly as though checking his reaction, then quickly looks away again in embarrassment, "So I talked to mom and she got me an AmuSphere. She was remarkably ok with it, though that might have been because she'd been trying to convince me that neither the games nor the technology themselves were bad, just what Kayaba had done with them. I ended up asking a classmate of mine that I knew played games on the AmuSphere for advice on what game to pick, and he recommended ALO which had released not long before. In fact, he was so excited at the idea of me trying it, that despite the fact we'd never spoken before, he offered to meet up with me and show me around."

She sighs, "I still don't think I know why you personally loved it so much, but I quickly fell in love with being able to fly around in ALO. Me and Recon met up a few more times, with us mostly just flying around and him showing me cool stuff, but… I never stopped playing, and before I knew it I was actually playing it like everyone else was. Going on raids and quests, grinding for skill levels and materials, and I found that I genuinely enjoyed it. Still do, I even competed in a melee only tournament a few months ago in the game because I wanted to."

He looks at his sister in a new light for a moment, then chuckles, "That's so difficult to believe… My outgoing and athletic Imouto playing a VRMMO…"

She blushes brightly, "S-Shut up! You're my still recovering and weak Onii-chan who took up kendo again after eight years, so you've no room to talk!"

He laughs lightly, then lifts a finger into the air, "Touché."

Suguha huffs, then turns serious, "That aside… I'm not sure if you can do it, Onii-chan. All nine races have thrown everything they could at the World Tree's boss room, and they've been wiped out every single time without fail over the past year since Alfheim started."

He tilts his head thoughtfully, "Really? Then… there's gotta be some key quest that needs to be completed or a key item missing? Or it's set so that one race can't get there by themselves.

Suguha smiles at him, "You really are good at video games, Onii-chan. That's exactly what everyone's been thinking, so for the past month, everyone's been scrambling to find some unknown quest or dungeon. No luck with the World Tree of course, but if it's the latter, no one will ever clear it.

He glances down at her in confusion, "No one? What makes you so sure?"

Suguha tilts her head, "Well… While it's true you can fly in the game, no race can do so for more than a set amount of time. The grand quest of the game, clearing the World Tree and gaining an audience with the king of the floating city at the top, rewards the race to get there first with unlimited flight. It only rewards the first race to get there though, that's explicitly stated. It would make absolutely no sense to help another race reap the reward."

He tilts his head, "Not necessarily. It would be an enormous advantage to give to one race, so there's likely either a side effect of beating the grand quest to balance it out, or they plan to make a new grand quest with another race wide reward, in which case, making an alliance with the idea that one of you gets the unlimited flight and the other gets the next reward isn't such a bad idea."

Suguha looks thoughtful at that, "Hmm, I suppose that makes sense actually… I, and really everyone else in the game for that matter, have been so focused on beating the other races there and getting unlimited flight that I never really thought about what would happen next…." She continues to mull it over for a moment, then shakes her head, "That doesn't matter right now though. The point is, you can't just go to the top of the World Tree, and on your own, or even with a small party, it would be impossible. Especially if it's true that there's some key factor missing."

He shakes his head, "I don't care. I'm going anyway, and once I get there, I'll figure something out."

She stares at him, then she sighs as she picks up her phone, quickly manipulating it, then leaning over to show him a more detailed version of the map on the back of the game case, "As I'm sure you noticed on the back of the case, the World Tree and the territories of the nine races, in which you'll spawn depending on the race you choose, are separated by this mountain range. There's at least one path for each race, and no other path has ever been found, so it's entirely possible that the Butterfly, Dragon, Grootslang, Nymph, and Rainbow valleys, along with the Legrue, Myrkur, Schmied, and Singilu Corridors are the only known ways to get past the mountains."

She points to each of the labeled places in turn as she speaks, then points to the Sylph territory, "As a Sylph, I've got fairly easy access to the Legrue Corridor. It'll take a couple days at least to reach the World Tree no matter which race you choose, so I'll meet you in Arun, the central city at the base of the World Tree, and help you as best I can. "

Then she sighs, pointing at the time, "All that said, I'm supposed to meet up with my hunting party really soon. And since you don't have an account, the system will run you through the tutorial, which takes a while. There's not going to be much time left once you're done with that."

His lips twitch into a grin, then he gives a fake dramatic sniffle, "My Imouto even has a hunting party? Oh, they grow up so fast. I'm so proud."

She blushes again and smacks him on the arm, "Shut up!"

He snickers, then pats her head briefly, "You should get going if you have to meet up with your party. I'm gonna take a bath then go do that tutorial. I worked up quite a sweat hurrying to Agil's earlier, and I'd rather not dive before I've cleaned up a bit."

Suguha nods, then starts to leave the room before pausing at the door, "Oh, I almost forgot. It'll be a few days until we can meet up in the game, but my character is a Sylph named Leafa."

He grins lightly at her, "All my teasing aside, I really am looking forward to meeting up and getting to play a VRMMO with you, despite the stakes."

She smiles warmly at him, "Me too, Onii-chan."

And with that, she hurries out of the room, leaving Kazuto to the task of actually trying to wrap his head around the idea of Suguha, of all people, playing a VRMMO for over a year. He shakes his head, then stands up to go bathe. He supposed it would be difficult for him to believe until he actually met her on the other side. He's definitely looking forward to it.