Considering the transition from virtual reality to the real world was usually almost instant, she comes to surprisingly slowly. Consciousness coming first, her senses slowly returning to her next, and control of her body coming last. It was like her brain had gotten so used to the signals the NerveGear sent her that it was struggling to accept the data from her senses on the world around her. It takes what feels like hours, but is likely only ten minutes, before she can push her eyes open and try to take in her hospital room with blurry sight.

As her vision clears, she slowly pushes herself up into a sitting position. Between her natural healing ability granted by her heritage and the healing potions her mother and Uncle Severus made for the handful of times that process needed to be sped up more, she'd honestly never been to a hospital before. It was a bit different than what she was expecting, but not by much.

Pulling off the NerveGear, she distantly hears a commotion building, from what little she can make out, it was from the nurses realizing the kidnapped players are waking up. Someone would likely be by to check on her soon, but she honestly doesn't care one way or another. Kazuto had saved the other players, it wasn't her concern anymore, and she doesn't much care for the idea of being treated like glass by the hospital staff.

Ignoring the lingering phantom pain from Sugou's daggers, she carefully removes the IV, tugs the heart monitor off, pulls her blanket off, then slides out of bed, stumbling on unsteady legs at first, before regaining her balance. Wandering over to the window and shifts the curtain out of the way to get her first look at the real world in over two years. Seeing the snow outside reminds her of her mate, and she immediately reaches for their connection, wondering if their bond was strong enough for her to feel him getting closer. She instantly drops the curtains as horror creeps in as she realizes she can barely feel their bond. It's dull and muted, like there's a thick wet blanket smothering it.

As the panic begins to overwhelm her, the firm tone of a soothing female voice cuts through her shock, "Mistress. Calm yourself. Your mate is fine. From what I have gathered, it was necessary to mute the bond for your mate's safety. If your mate was dead the bond wouldn't be muted, it would be ragged and torn, a hole in your mind. That it is whole and smooth speaks of his good health, regardless of how well you can feel it."

She jerks at the unexpected voice, then looks around the hospital room nervously. It had been a while since anyone that isn't part of her family has been able to sneak up on her, and the idea that her two years in SAO has dulled her and left her vulnerable to attack makes her nervous.

Swallowing nervously, she straightens her back, then calls out with more confidence than she feels, "Who's there? Show yourself!"

Again, that female voice that feels oh so familiar but she knows she's never heard resonates around her, "There is no reason to be so nervous, Mistress. I would never harm you, but if it will make you feel better…"

There's a ripple in the air in front of her, and then a woman appears. She's rather elegant and beautiful, with her raven black hair pulled into simple low twintails, blood red eyes and lips, and eyes which though firm, shine with understanding, wisdom, warmth. When she graces Marzanna with a small smile, she gets the impression that though not necessarily unhappy the older looking woman tends to be reserved enough that the smallness of the fond smile being given to her is typical of the older woman. Marzanna has never laid eyes on the woman in her life, and yet- And yet she seems so…. familiar. Like an old friend Marzanna hasn't seen in years.

Before either of them can say anything, the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching causes Marzanna to cast a wandless notice-me-not instinctively seconds before a few nurses come hurrying in with a defibrillator. They pause when they see her empty bed before one of them twitches with an irritated expression, "Again? Are you kidding me?! First that little boyfriend of her's and now her?"(1)

She gives an aggravated sigh, then turns to the two other nurses, "If her boyfriend is any indication, she's likely just wandering around looking for him or their friends. Just go start checking on the other players and we'll likely find her. I'll return the defibrillator."

The other two nod before hurrying off, and the last one turns off the heart monitor before leaving with the defibrillator, grumbling all the while.

The woman stares at the closed door with slight amusement for a moment, then turns back to Marzanna and dips her head in a small bow, "As I was about to say, does being able to see me make you more comfortable Mistress?"

Marzanna shifts slightly, not quite sure how to respond to that, "... Why do you keep calling me that? I don't know you, and I'm certainly not your mistress."

The woman's smile slips away sadly, "You truly don't recognize me Mistress?"

Marzanna pauses momentarily, "... You- You seem familiar, I'll give you that, but I don't know."

The woman sighs lightly, her gaze shifting to the floor sadly, "I suppose I should've expected that…"

For some reason, despite being a stranger, the woman's sadness is like a knife to the gut. It leaves her confused and unsure because this woman is a stranger, yet she doesn't feel like one, "I… I'm sorry…. I'm really sorry, but I really don't know you."

The woman lifts her gaze, "Except you do. I've… grown into something... more than I was for the longest time, but we've been together for over ten years. I was there when you were just six and learning how to fight. I was there when you bonded with Aite and Hedwig. I was there when you bonded with Pandora's Box and when you finally received it later. I was there when you finally got to go to a school for magic and began being discriminated against. I was there the first time you Devil Triggered. I came to your aid in defense of your mate against Kuradeel and Heathcliff."

Marzanna's eyes widen in shock as she finally begins to place the familiarity with the woman, "... Shuraba? Is… Is that really you?"

The woman, Shuraba, smiles slightly again, "Mistress. It's… good to finally be able to meet like this. To talk."

Marzanna nods slowly, "Yes. Yes it is…." Finally wrapping her head around it, her confusion and curiosity burst like a dam, "But how?! Grandma never said anything about Nephilim blades being sentient! Semi-sentient, yes, but fully? Not that this is a bad thing, per say, but-"

Shuraba shakes her head lightly, "I honestly don't know, Mistress. It may have just been a secret your grandmother's Nephilim friends never passed onto her, but perhaps… Perhaps I am merely as much of an anomaly as you and your family, Mistress. I wasn't like this from the beginning after all, it was only recently that I began to… grow... I… heard you. Your desperation for your mate, to stop Kuradeel."

"It… changed me. For the first time since I'd been forged, I wanted more than just to be with you. I wanted- needed to stop the pain growing in your heart… And afterwards, I was filled with immense satisfaction I'd never experienced before. It didn't stop though, I continued to grow, slowly but steadily. Then you called on my mental form against Heathcliff, against Kayaba, and the gradual pace ceased. I… snapped, I suppose you could say, into full sentience all at once. It was… very disorienting."

Marzanna flushes, her gaze shifting towards the floor, "I'm sorry…"

Shuraba shakes her head again, "Don't be sorry my Mistress. It may have been disorienting, but I wouldn't give up this, the opportunity to be capable of speaking to you, of being able to help you more than ever, for anything in the world, except perhaps the eternal safety of you and those you care for so you never have to hurt physically or mentally again. The discomfort and disorientation of basically snapping into existence all at once is worth it."

Marzanna nods slowly before something occurs to her, "What about the others? Arbiter, Osiris, Eryx, and Aquila?"

Shuraba smiles slightly, but before she can actually say anything, another female voice cuts through the air from nowhere, "Oh, so now she thinks to ask about us! Not back when Shuraba told her about snapping into existence, oh no, gotta make sure Shuraba is ok first!"

Marzanna flinches at the accusation. She'd like to dispute it, but the truth was that Shuraba did always seem to come first in her mind, being the primary form and the one Marzanna was most familiar with. Shuraba scowls, but she's once again cut off before she even has a chance to say anything, "You can scowl at me all you want, but don't you even think about chastising me! You may be the primary, but you are not my boss! The only one I even vaguely answer to is Marzanna! That said…"

The air ripples again, then another woman, younger looking than Shuraba, but still slightly older than Marzanna, appears next to Shuraba. She's pale as well, with long dark teal hair that's loose in the front and pulled into a high ponytail that's off center and stylishly messy all around, bright ice blue eyes, and an air of arrogance around her.

She scowls, "I may answer to you and you alone, Marzanna, but despite how Shuraba prefers to refer to you, that doesn't make you my master. You seriously suck too much to ever even consider it. Your way weaker compared to the rest of your family despite having the advantage of us, you hardly ever actually think about us, and when you do eighty percent of the time it's 'Shuraba this' and 'Shuraba that'! You-"

Shuraba abruptly smacks her on the back of her head, cutting off her rant. She glares furiously at Shuraba before seeming to notice Marzanna's downcast gaze, the way she's just taking it because she really does deserve her anger. She really hadn't been that great to her blade and its forms, especially the others that weren't Shuraba. They were her partners, yet she'd treated them as just another piece of gear, like her guns.

She's awkwardly silent for a few moments, then crosses her arms and looks away with a huff, "Not that you're the worst wielder we could have, but still, there's definitely room for improvement..." Then she glances at Marzanna and seems to grow angry, "Stop looking so pitiful already! No wielder of mine should ever be so- so pathetic!"

Marzanna tilts her head as she observes the other… personality. She was pretty sure that was supposed to be an apology, despite its backhanded nature, but then again, this one seems too prideful to give a straightforward apology and therefore imply she was in the wrong.

The woman scowls angrily, "Hey! Who you calling prideful, you little-"

Shuraba cuts her off, "You are far too prideful. She's only observing the truth."

Marzanna sighs. She doesn't necessarily have anything to hide from her weapons, but she apparently needs to figure out if it was possible to keep her thoughts to herself, if for nothing else than privacy's sake.

The other woman huffs, "That would be very much appreciated."

Marzanna scowls at her weapons'… personalities. It's not like she had any control over them hearing her thoughts. At least not yet. For that matter though, which one was this? She was fairly certain this was one of the angelic forms, but was it Aquila or Osiris?

Shuraba tilts her head, "Ah, this is-"

The other woman cuts her off angrily, "No. You stop right there. I want to know if she can even tell us apart when we aren't in our weapon forms. Go on then. Try to figure it out."

Marzanna purses her lips at that. That was rather unfair. Her weapons had only been semi-sentient before, and they'd been weapons, not humanoid, so she really didn't have much to go on. The woman before her sneers, clearly picking up on the thought, and Shuraba gives the woman a dirty look.

Focusing, she tries to figure it out on the little information she'd had before. Angelic obviously, so that meant either Osiris or Aquila. Reaching across the bond to her Nephilim blade, she tries to get a feel for the woman in front of her. It doesn't really help much. There's the arrogance and pride she'd already noticed. She feels … hot-headed, clearly has a short fuse. Defiant. A bit bitter, perhaps a touch of jealousy? Then finally, she notices the thing that gives it away instantly. A faint undercurrent of bloodlust. Only one of her weapons had always been eager to hunt.

With confidence, she smiles lightly at the other woman, "Osiris. It's nice to meet you."

The other woman, Osiris, snorts before muttering, "Lucky guess. I mean, it was fifty-fifty."

Shuraba sighs in exasperation, "Why can you not simply accept that our Mistress knows us better than you realize? That we've always mattered to her? She's always been good to us, whether you wish to accept it or not."

Osiris scowls again, "Easy for you to say. You're the primary. The favorite." Marzanna reaches for Osiris pleadingly, wanting to dispute that. Just because Shuraba was the primary it doesn't mean that she means more to Marzanna than the rest of them. She doesn't get a chance to verbalize it though, as Osiris pulls away sharply with a glare, "If you really think that you're delusional."

Without another word, she vanishes as abruptly as she appeared. Marzanna slowly drops her hand, "... Why is she so angry at me… I…. I haven't really favored you over the rest, have I?"

Shuraba sighs, "I don't think so… And neither do the others, but Osiris… She's bitter that it was me you called for both times you needed to defend your mate, and that it was a Falcata you've used these past two years. She knows it will be harder for you to relearn to use all of us, rather than simply rely on me after those two years…"

Marzanna wraps her arms tightly around herself, mentally apologizing to her other weapon's personalities. A snort cuts through her mind before a rough female voice speaks up, "Don't fuckin' apologize for that uppity bitch. You've done nothing wrong, Marzanna. The rest of us fuckin' understand why you picked a Falcata, switching between weapons on the fly just wasn't fuckin' reasonable in that game, and as the primary you've got more experience with Shuraba.'

The voice snorts again, 'Neither do the rest of us blame you for calling on Shuraba, again she's the primary, so unless the situation calls for something else, of course you're going to fuckin' call for her. Granted, that first time you called her into that game, Aquila would've been more suitable as a throwing weapon, but you weren't actively trying to call her that time and Aquila doesn't blame you, do you Aquila?"

There's a small sigh before a crisp no nonsense voice replies, "No, I don't, but would it kill you to act a bit more dignified, Arbiter? Good heavens, you act like an uncivilized barbarian. Cursing every other word it seems like."

There's a wordless offended noise before Arbiter responds, "Barbarian?! I am not a fuckin' barbarian you prissy little-"

Marzanna can't help but sigh at that. Having multiple voices constantly talking and arguing in her head despite not being insane was going to take some serious getting used to. It's weirdly quiet after that before Arbiter mutters, "Sorry. We'll try to keep it down."

Marzanna flushes at having momentarily forgotten that they could hear all her thoughts, "No, no. It's alright. You guys are free to do whatever you want. Talk all you'd like… Just, maybe try and keep it down until we can figure out how to keep you guys from hearing my thoughts or me from hearing you guys talking to each other? Don't get me wrong, though shocking, I'm happy about this development, it's just going to be a bit hard to concentrate if I'm constantly hearing you guys talking…"

Aquila speaks up again, "Of course, Lady Marzanna. We shall endeavor not to distract you."

The address takes her by surprise for a moment, but she brushes it off as merely Aquila's preference. Shuraba called her Mistress after all.

Shaking off the strange revelation and weird conversation, she glances out the window again. She doesn't see Kazuto, but now that the distracting conversion was over, her anxiety and fear were beginning to creep up on her again. Unable to stay put any longer, she quickly reapplies her notice-me-not just in case, then leaves the hospital room, Shuraba disappearing back into her mind as she does.

Following the signs, she quickly makes her way to an elevator, pressing the down button with barely a glance. As soon as the doors open, she hurries inside, then looks over the buttons. Locating the button for the ground floor easily enough, she reaches out to push it, then pauses as she finally notices the appearance of her hand, looking herself over she realizes the rest of her body seems like little more than skin and bones as well.

Of course, she more than most knows that appearances can be deceiving, and can sense the illusion clinging to her body. It was definitely Uncle Virgil's magic. She has no doubt that her own magic, demonic, and angelic powers have been working hard since she got trapped to slow the atrophy of her muscles, which was likely why the illusion had been cast in the first place. It wouldn't do to have anyone questioning why she was withering away at a much slower rate than all the other hospitalized players after all.

Shaking off the minor discovery, she dispels the mildly disturbing illusion then pushes the button and waits impatiently for the doors to close and the elevator to start moving. When it finally stops on the ground floor, she barely waits for it to open enough before slipping through the doors. Quickly glancing around, she once again follows the hospital signs, this time to the lobby, then slips out the front door.

She smiles again at the fact it was snowing and tilts her head back to watch the little white flakes drift down. Kazuto loves the cold. She didn't really have a preference, but since he enjoys this kind of weather, she feels it was fitting that they meet in real life for the first time while it was snowing.

Hearing the sound of running she pulls her gaze away from the sky. A huge smile splits her face when she sees its her mate. However, just as she's about to remove her notice-me-not and call out to him, she sees something move next to a van Kazuto was about to pass. It's a man. As Kazuto goes to pass the van, the man moves out from behind it and makes a sharp movement with his arm towards Kazuto.

Immediately her mate grabs onto his arm, turning towards the man even as he instinctively puts distance between them and lowers his center of gravity into his usual fighting stance despite lacking a weapon. A moment later her enhanced Nephilim senses pick up the smell of blood. It's only then that she notices the man is, in fact, Sugou and that he's holding a hunting knife. A hunting knife that has fresh blood on it. Her mate's blood. Fury immediately floods through her. Human or not, he was dead. With that in mind, she begins steadily moving over towards them.

Sugou starts walking towards Kirito while murmuring lowly, "You're late, Kirito-kun. What if I ended up catching a cold?"

With fury and hatred, Kazuto acidly spits back, "Actually, I'd be quite happy if you'd develop fourth degree frostbite, hypothermia, and keel over dead and then spend the rest of eternity burning in hell and wishing you were freezing to death instead."

Sugou tsks, "So rude and violent Kirito-kun. As if a piece of trash like you ruining all my hard work and plans and stabbing me wasn't enough for you. That was quite cruel of you by the way, I can still feel phantoms of the pain."

Kazuto all but snarls at Sugou, "Good. If you are, then Marzanna likely is as well, but I would bet being stabbed in the eye and brain hurts a hell of a lot more than what you did to her."

Technically true, but the phantom pain had faded by the time she'd finished her conversation with her weapons. Likely a quirk of having a body that tends to heal itself as rapidly as hers does. Sugou grins lightly, "I wouldn't be so sure, I did get her in the heart you know. That has got to hurt. Here, let me show you!"

Immediately, he tries to stab Kazuto, but the movement is slow and sloppy and Kazuto easily grabs his wrist, and twists it up to disarm him. Catching the knife in a reverse grip with his other hand, her mate doesn't hesitate even a second before driving the blade between Sugou's now exposed ribs, then yanks it out.

Sugou stumbles back a couple steps as his hands slowly clutch at the wound in disbelief, "You… You stabbed me!"

Her mate gives Sugou an incredulous look, "I know, such a novel concept stabbing is. I mean, it's not like you didn't just try to stab me mere seconds ago, or that you didn't stab my mate thirty-fucking-three times!"

Sugou coughs wetly, blood appearing between and on his lips, "You stabbed me!"

Her mate sighs in annoyed exasperation, "That's what you're getting caught up on? Funny thing really, people don't tend to just stand by and take it when you stab them unless you tie them up like you did my mate. I may not exactly be The Black Swordsman anymore, but you really should've known better than to hurt what's mine."

Sugou tries to make some sort of noise, likely disbelief, but it comes out as more of a wet gurgle. By now he seems more concerned with staring at his stab wound than with Kazuto, which is fucking stupid considering he still has the knife, and he doesn't seem to hear Kazuto anymore.

By now, she's almost reached her mate, having been frustratingly slowed down by her two year coma. Her healing abilities may have slowed the process of atrophy, but it hadn't stopped it entirely, and she hadn't been able to do more than a jog so slow it was less of a jog and more just walking fast.

Of course, it also just has to be at that moment that she spots something that fills her with dread. Throwing herself forward the last few feet despite the way her body screams its protests and immediately tries to give out, pulling Shuraba from her Devil Bringer in the process, "Down!"

Instinctively, her mate drops down into a crouch before even really registering that she's there. Pressing into his back, she shifts Shuraba into Arbiter. She's far too weak to wield the heavy ax, but while her wand would act as a much better conduit, her weapons, being extensions of her, not only take any magic she applies to them very well, but amplify the spells she places on them naturally. So she can easily just rest the massive blade on its end and cast a protego maxima on it to use as reinforced cover for them.

Arbiter has barely finished shifting and touched the ground before the sound of dozens of pieces of metal ricocheting off the ax and shield in rapid fire cuts through the air. Immediately she winces. Not even an hour after finding out about their sentience and she's back to using them like she always has without even considering how it makes them feel.

Before she even gets a chance to send a mental apology to her ax, Arbiter snorts, "Don't be fuckin' stupid. It's not like we can feel pain in these forms. We're weapons. We're meant to be used to block and attack and all that shit. Just protect yourself and your fuckin' mate and don't fuckin' worry about us."

She sighs in relief at the potential disaster of alienating her own soul bound weapon's personalities resolving itself immediately, but only a second later is yanked back to the present by her mate crying out incredulously, "Marzanna?! What the hell's going on?! Why are you out here?!"

She grunts as Arbiter begins to lose balance and tip towards them under the onslaught and her arm begins to strain, "Not exactly the time for this! But, uh, bare basics? That's a Harpy demon, and yes, I mean an honest to god, actually from the fiery pits of hell demon."

Her mate gapes at her incredulously over his shoulder, then noticing her plight, immediately reaches out to straighten Arbiter, then pushes up against it to brace it. Giving her mate a grateful smile, even though he can't see it with his back to her, she finally turns her gaze to their assailant.

It was very clearly a Harpy demon. Normally they prefer to use the weapons mounted on their arms, which can extend rather far rather fast to spear enemies, but with both her mate and Sugou clumped together, it had probably been too tempting a target. Which explains why she's fallen back on the extremely rarely used ability Harpy demons have to turn their feathers metal and launch them. They don't often use the tactic, as turning their feathers metal forces them to be land bound and slows them considerably. Generally a bad thing for the weak speed reliant Harpys.

It all but proves her suspicion correct though. Sugou had been making deals with demons. He really should've known they wouldn't keep their end of whatever bargain they'd made, and that they'd dispose of him as soon as he was no longer useful. The problem now was that she was physically weakened to the point that she couldn't even run, much less fight, and now she and her mate were under assault by a demon. Even if it was generally a weaker type, she was still pretty screwed at the moment.

The Harpy glares at her in hatred. They both know she can't keep up the assault forever, at the rate she's going, she'll likely run out of feathers in another minute or two, then have to wait another minute before her wings regenerate. At that point though, she can quickly move to a different position to assault them from, whereas Marzanna would have problems moving to different cover quickly, and Arbiter and her shield would be far less effective if the Harpy got higher ground, even if she just got on top of the van.

That's not even mentioning that Kazuto is human and probably still recovering to a small extent and that she had only just woken from her coma and therefore that they'd both tire from having to brace Arbiter against her assault very quickly. She can't even really use her guns right now, because the feathers are too numerous to risk coming out from behind her cover even slightly, and once the feathers are gone, the Harpy would likely be fast to hit. And that's not even mentioning how well her atrophied body would handle the recoil of her guns.

No, she really isn't in any state to even protect herself properly, much less protect herself, her mate, and take care of the Harpy, but that was what family was for. To have each other's backs and not only protect each other, but what's important to your family as well. With that in mind, she thrusts her hand in front of Kazuto, "Phone!"

Without hesitation he shoves his hand in his pocket and pulls his phone out, quickly handing it to her without question. She dials the number by heart, slightly surprised to find it's already saved into Kazuto's phone, but she supposes it makes perfect sense that her mom's been looking after and getting to know her mate.

Hoping her mother will pick up despite the late, or rather early hour, she's immensely relieved when it's answered on the second ring by her worried sounding mom, "Kazuto, wh-"

She cuts her mom off without hesitation, "Woke up! Harpy demon, hospital, Kazuto's here obviously, really appreciate it if you'd apparate someone here! Now would be really nice!"

She hasn't spoken to her mother outside of her mindscape through Kikuoka's device in over two years, and she's been in a mysterious coma for an additional two and a half months past the other players waking, so there's a lot to be said between them, a reunion of sorts to happen, but her mother had married into a family that hunts and routinely gets attacked, both in their own home and out of it, by demons.

She knows what things need to take priority and when they take that priority. So it's entirely unsurprising that her mom snaps into action immediately, only giving a quick indication that they're on their way before hanging up. She hands Kazuto his phone, "Calvary is on the way. Minute tops."

It's just as the Harpy runs out of feathers about thirty seconds later that the large 'CRACK' of a hastily done apparation cleaves through the air, depositing her parents into the parking lot. Her dad rushes to deal with the Harpy immediately, while her mom, after quickly locating them, rushes over to make sure they're ok.

She can tell her mom wants to yank her into a hug and possibly not let go for a year, but once again, she knows her priorities, and possible injuries take precedence over joyful hugs and reunions.

Her gaze flickers past them briefly after quickly scanning them with magic then she moves to deal with the only injury, quickly healing the cut on Kazuto's arm from Sugou along with cleaning and repairing his coat to remove all traces of the injury, before asking, "What happened?"

She glances at where her mother had looked as she'd forgotten about the dying Sugou entirely in favor of her mate's safety, but was unsurprised to see him littered with metal feathers and very dead. He hadn't had any cover from the assault after all. She turns back to her mom and grimaces before responding, "Complicated."

She glances at Arbiter and knows that while she'll need to talk to her family, especially her grandma, about their full sentience, that now isn't the time despite it definitely being important, "Very complicated and I'm tired. So short version? He," She jerks her head at Sugou's body, "kidnapped the player's minds to experiment on them, and kidnapped me as a hostage to keep you guys off his back in case you realized he'd been making deals with demons and was keeping us all in the VRMMO he ran."

She pauses momentarily to figure out how much to tell at the moment while making sure Kazuto doesn't come off as a psychopath before settling on telling the truth, they'd know eventually after all, "He tortured me a bit at the end, Kazuto went in the game and saved us less than an hour ago, but psycho over there tried to kill him for it. Kazuto stabbed him, hence the knife -which you should probably just drop here Kazuto, the magic clean up crew will take care of everything-, then the Harpy showed up, likely to tie up loose ends. Don't know how they knew psycho had failed, but I don't really care."

Her mom nods, willing to accept just that for the moment. Her mom then quickly applies another illusion to her so as to not arouse suspicion at how little she looks atrophied, and glances up at her own mate, who had easily dealt with the Harpy and had simply been standing guard, "Can you call the magicals and deal with the clean up for me? I know you don't really like doing it and I usually do, but…"

Dante nods, "Course I can. You just get Marzanna back up to her hospital room." Storing her weapon back into her Devil Bringer, she gratefully accepts her mate's help up, but before they can head in, her dad reaches out and ruffles her hair with a warm smile, "I'm glad to have you back kiddo. I'd really been planning on giving you a huge hug, but you've had a rather exciting hour for someone straight out of a coma. Go get some rest, but don't think you've wiggled your way out of a massive hug."

She smiles tiredly at her dad, "Looking forward to it."

He nods, then moves away, pulling his phone out as he goes. Despite the fact she's fully capable of walking on her own, her mate wraps an arm around her waist and helps her along. She does appreciate it though, as the past hour has been surprisingly tiring. Or perhaps not so surprising, considering she only just woke up from a more than two year coma.

Entering the hospital, they, or rather, she gets weird looks from the nurse manning the desk. Her mother leads them over to her, knowing at least some sort of explanation, "Hi. I realize it's probably very strange to see someone already dressed like a patient being brought in, but my daughter here snuck out and I need to return her to her hospital room."

The nurse gives them a skeptical look, so Marzanna wordlessly extends the arm with that patient wristband things, which she had honestly thought might just be a thing they did on TV as a little band of paper around the wrist seemed like an outdated way to identify patients in the modern technological world to her, but she really does have one. The nurse looks it over quickly, then types something into her computer.

Almost immediately she frowns sternly at Marzanna, "It's you! Do you have any idea the scare you've given everyone! They phoned the desk just twenty minutes ago telling me to keep an eye out for you because they couldn't find you! How did you even get past me?! You know what, no, that's not important at the moment, you need to get back to your room. Hold on a second."

She leaves quickly, but comes back a moment later with a wheelchair, "You should not have wandered that far in your state even if you by some miracle managed to despite the fact you shouldn't have been able to in the first place and you certainly aren't going all the way back up to your room on your own feet, elevators or not! You're lucky you don't seem to have seriously injured yourself already!"

Though the idea of being treated like glass makes her bristle, but she is extremely tired already, so accepts it with only a glare at the nurse. The nurse huffs at her, then turns to Marzanna's mother, "Can you get her back to her room, or do I need to call another nurse, because I can't leave my station long enough to take her up."

Her mom smiles with a touch of bitterness, "I can get her there just fine. I mean, I have been going up to that room almost everyday for the past two years."

Either not noticing her mom's bitter response, or more likely ignoring it, the nurse simply nods, "Go on then. I'll phone ahead of you so they know she's back. A doctor will be by to look her over shortly."

She sighs in aggravation as her mom pushes her towards the elevators, "I'm not made of glass. I mean, I will admit that I'm rather tired right now despite only having just woken up, but I've had a surprisingly busy hour, and even still I could've walked back to my room just fine."

Her mom hums, "I know sweetheart, but you also have to remember that we're different from other people and they don't, can't know that. Statute of Secrecy and all that. So they're going to treat you like they'd treat most people, and most people would struggle to even get out of bed after two years in a coma."

Marzanna grumbles, "I know that, it's just-"

Her mother sighs, "Frustrating, I know. It won't be for long though. You'll recover much faster than most people would due to our families… oddities. So we'll have to pull you out of the hospital and have you do your physical therapy with private trainers."

By which of course, she and her mother meant she'd just go home and recover by working with her dad and Uncle Virgil and using potions to speed things up even further than her heritage would. She could all but feel her mate's confusion, so she twists around to look at him, "It has to do with those things I need to tell you later."

Kazuto simply nods in understanding, seemingly content to let it go for now as long as he gets an explanation later. Her mom helps her back into her hospital bed when they get there, then glances between them briefly. Sighing, she smiles lightly, "Well, let's be honest here. The nurses will likely make Kazuto leave soon, since it's past visiting hours, and since we're going to have to pull you out of the hospital and keep you at home while you're recovering, you two probably only have a day or two and then it's probably going to be a bit before you'll get to see each other, so I'll just… go get some coffee from the vending machine or something…"

Kazuto blushes lightly, but gives her a grateful smile. After her mom leaves he settles himself on the edge of her bed. He studies her with a peculiar expression, before sighing, "... I was hoping it would be better once you woke up, but it still feels like you aren't really here. It just doesn't feel real. Stupid potion…"

She gives her mate a startled look. She'd noticed that as well of course, but that was because there was something weird going on with their bond, "You… know about the bond? You can feel that?"

It's her mate's turn to give her a startled look, "Yes, your mom had to tell me. She said it was dangerous for me to be on the brink of changing for such an extended period of time. I ended up having to take a potion that stabilizes me at the cost of the bond becoming muted and dull…. But I'm surprised you can feel it. I couldn't until it was suddenly gone..."

She smiles sadly at him, "So that's what happened… I'm a practiced occlumens, which makes me very in tune with what's going on in my mind… So I've always been aware of the bond to some extent, even before we met actually… That's actually why I went down to the parking lot, I woke up and the bond…." She blushes lightly, then shrugs, "I panicked a bit, worried something had happened to you and was just too anxious to stand around waiting…"

Kazuto lowers his head, "... Sorry. I didn't mean to worry you…"

When he lifts his head, he's got that peculiar expression again, likely still caught up on how the muted bond is affecting things. She tilts her head in thought, "I suppose I could…"

Making a decision, she locks eyes with him and lightly brushes against his mind. Her mate draws in a sharp breath and his eyes tear up as he shifts closer to wrap his arms around her and lean his forehead against her own, "You… You're really here… How- How are you doing that?"

She smiles lightly at him, "I'm nowhere near as good at Legilimency as I am at Occlumency, but simply brushing against an unprotected mind like yours is easy, especially since I'm not actually trying to look at any thoughts or memories… A bond is many things, but what the potion is affecting is the connection between our minds. That's still dull, but I'm directly brushing against your mind with Legilimency, so it doesn't matter all that much at the moment…"

He sighs blissfully, and her heart clenches. She feels absolutely terrible for what her mate had been having to go through while she was… absent. She tilts her head up, giving him a chaste kiss in silent apology. He seems to understand though, and simply pulls away briefly to shake his head with a sad smile, brushing it off without a word.

They're silent for a while, simply reveling in each other's presence. After a while she tilts her head up at him, "So… How are things with your family? You were always talking about patching things up with them when we got back."

He smiles warmly, "Really well." Then he laughs lightly, "Actually, believe it or not my sister, the very same outgoing athletic sister I could never have seen even playing a casual game, got into VRMMOs."

She laughs, "You're joking!"

He shakes his head, "No, no! I'm not! I'm really not! Apparently she wanted to see why I loved them so much and decided she wanted to try them herself and rather than going about it like a normal person would and getting an easy game to try out, she grabbed one of the, if not the hardest VRMMOs on the market!"

Some of his good humor seems to leave him, but out doesn't disappear entirely, "Actually, it was the very game you were stuck in. It's called Alfheim Online. She actually helped me save you guys…"

She smiles warmly at him, "Even with the circumstances, it must've been fun to play a VRMMO with your sister."

He grins, "It was. It was actually a lot of fun, circumstances aside."

She lays her head on his shoulder, "What was Alfheim like? I never actually got to see any of it."

He smiles, "Oh, it was fantastic. Gorgeous too… Assuming it doesn't get shut down because of Sugou, I'm going to go back there and play with my sister. We actually managed to find the strongest one handed straight sword in the whole game by accident, but it was in a massive dungeon and we were busy trying to get to you and Asuna, but we made plans to go back there with a party eventually."

Marzanna hums, "Sounds like fun. I'm in."

He pauses, "You sure? After everything that happened there… It'd be understandable if you didn't want to go back."

She lifts her head to gaze at him in bemusement, "Alfheim isn't what kidnapped and trapped me and everyone else. It was where we were held, but it was still all Sugou's doing in the end. If I can still think of Aincrad as home and miss it despite what Kayaba did to it, Sugou didn't really have much to stand on when it comes to ruining Alfheim." Then she pouts playfully at him, "Unless you don't want me there?"

He laughs lightly, "I'll never not want you with me anywhere." He seems to turn a bit thoughtful after that, "Hmm, we could invite Klein, he's been getting bored with nothing but work now that he's mostly recovered."

"Diabel. He's a good fighter, and in the meantime while we're grinding up to be strong enough to attempt the dungeon he'll probably relish the chance to truly go all out in fucking with people now that he doesn't have to worry about killing them. I don't really know how many of our other friends would be up for going back into another VRMMO, even if this one's safe…"

He hums lightly, "Well, we could just tell everyone we're going to start playing and see who wants to join us. While you were… unavailable Kikuoka wanted someone who could tell him what happened at the end. Taking a page out of Argo's book I made a deal with him, special permission to keep my NerveGear and information on all our friends so I could get back in contact with them here."

She grins teasingly, "Argo must've been so proud."

He laughs, "When I called her the first time and told her she sniffed and told me that there was a tear in her eye. It was all very over the top and exaggerated."

She laughs, and there's a slight pause, "Then… Everyone's ok?"

He smiles reassuringly at her, "Yeah, everyone's just fine. It was really just you and Asuna… Everyone missed you guys a lot." He chuckles lightly, "Since there doesn't seem like there will be enough time for everyone to visit you before you're pulled out of the hospital, and since you'll only be allowed six visitors at a time, there's probably going to be fighting over who gets to visit you."

Then he grins, "God, I hope no one tries to tell Argo she can't be one of the ones to visit. With how close you two were in Aincrad, I wouldn't put it past her to try fist fighting anyone who tries to stop her from seeing you. With how she adores you, it's the same with Silica weirdly enough, you'd think from how sweet she'd been in the game that she isn't the slightest bit violent, but..."

She laughs at that, "Oh god, I just got the mental image of Agil being the one to try and tell Argo she can't come visit!"

Her mate breaks down in laughter, trying to talk past his laughing, "The- The worst part is- she- she wouldn't hesitate to- to fight him!"

Her laughter doubles, "Argo and Silica fighting over the last spot!"

Her mate laughs so hard at that he actually falls off the bed, which of course just makes them laugh harder. Of course, it is pretty late, around eleven thirty, so it's then that a nurse comes in with an apologetic smile, "Sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave now."

Kazuto sobers up pretty quickly at that, climbing to his feet and shoving his hands in his jacket pockets before giving her a reluctant look. She smiles lightly at him, "I'll be here tomorrow at least as it'll probably take a couple days for my parents to get this worked out…"

He sighs, "I know, I just…" Her smile turns to one of sad understanding and he sighs again, "I'll see you tomorrow then…"

He reluctantly heads to the door, giving her one last look before he leaves. As soon as he leaves the connection she'd established breaks and it takes everything in her not to cry. Even if she wasn't able to sense his emotions or anything of the sort with the incomplete bond, it was still there. He was still always there, taking up a portion of her mind. Without him, her mind felt achingly empty and painfully lonely. Which was ironic, considering the change in her weapons made her mind fuller than ever.

January 23, 2025

Marzanna has a colossal problem. Namely that it was going to be an absolute bitch to get caught up on all of her schooling seeing as she'd not only missed two years of it, but she had both non-magical and magical studies to catch up on. She'd already attended a school with a heavy combination of magical and non-magical curriculum, but it was even worse when she took into account that pursuing being a Crafter for spells, rituals, and wards had made for an even heavier school schedule.

Though that was almost entirely because of the required classes that she really wasn't all that interested in, barring potions and defense. She'd actually had such a heavy schedule that she'd had to make agreements with her teachers that she wouldn't get in trouble for not attending certain classes in person so long as she stayed on top of her homework and wasn't failing.

She'd always been miffed at how boring being ahead of everyone in her magical classes had made her, but it was finally proving to be a major boon and paying off. Despite having gotten trapped a full year before she should've sat them, with a bit of review she should be able take all of her OWLs and at least pass all of her classes, then drop a little over half of her formerly heavy schedule.

For a handful of them that she was very good at, namely Spell Creating, Magical Theory, Runes, and Arithmancy, she should be able to sit her NEWTS for, which would free up more time for the remaining three magical classes and catching up on her non-magical schooling.

So now here she was, not even a full twenty four hours after she'd woken up from more than two years in a coma and an hour after her parents had left, doing revision for the classes she's preparing to test for with charmed books so that no one without magic will know what they actually are.

She's busy brushing up on Charms when the door to her room is thrown open violently, not even a second later a small bundle all but throws itself on top of her with a shout, "Hanna-nee!"

She looks down at the younger girl in bemusement, "Well hello to you too midget."

The younger girl beams up at her, "You're finally awake! I missed you so much!"

She chuckles lightly, "Well I'm back now."

She nods happily, then suddenly seems to grow downcast, "But Kirito says you're going to be pulled out of the hospital in a couple days and then we won't get to see you for a while. Is that really true?"

She smiles sadly, "I'm afraid so. I…" She sighs, "It's difficult to explain, but I can't recover here like you guys did, I've gotta go home and then I won't be able to go anywhere for a while. It's not like you'll never see me again though, and my mom's going to get my phone hooked back up today or tomorrow, so we can always call each other, yeah?"

Silica perks up a bit and nods, "Right!"

Before anything more can be said Lizbeth abruptly leans into her personal space, grabbing a lock of silver hair with a baffled expression, "... Where are your roots? I mean, you just woke up last night, but I don't see any roots at the top of the red, black, or even the freaking silver. And there's no way you've already gotten to re-dye it."

Marzanna sighs, rather used to the attention her strange hair tends to garner, "You're looking at them, Lizbeth. That's just how my hair naturally is."

The other girl frowns, "No."

She tilts her head, "Yes."

Lizbeth huffs, "No. No, that's not how things work, Hanna. You can't have hair that's just straight up three different colors and you don't have silver hair at all! Gray if you're old, sure, but silver? No."

She raises an eyebrow, then points at her hair, "Right in front of you Lizbeth."

Her friend narrows her eyes, "You had to have dyed it."

She sighs again, "I thought we already went over the whole, 'I've been in a coma and couldn't have dyed it yet' part. Besides, you do realize my twin's hair is exactly the same, barring length."

Lizbeth shakes her head, "Yeah, but how else do you explain- Wait… Wait a freaking second! You have a twin?!"

Marzanna tilts her head in bemusement at her gaping friends, "Yes? Identical in fact. Well, barring the fact that my twin is a guy so he looks like a male version of me, but still nevertheless technically identical. And actually, my parents already visited today, but my brother is supposed to be by soon, so I can actually prove the hair thing."

Very soon, considering she'd been sensing him steadily getting closer and she'd gotten a spike of excitement only seconds before. If he was close enough for her to pick up on emotions without him actively projecting them, he had to be not only in the building already but within a few floors.

Lizbeth waves her hand, "Forget about the hair thing, how come I'm only just finding out you have a twin?! One that's probably cute as all hell if he looks like male version of you!"

She shrugs lightly, "It's not like I was hiding it, I think it just never came up between us. I mean, Kazuto knew. You just never asked about siblings or family. As for him being 'cute'... Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but when my mom stopped by I got the minor update that he's totally got it bad for his best friend, so…."

Lizbeth slumps, "Why are the cute ones always taken? Or gay. And of course I never asked! You know it was considered rude to ask about that kind of stuff."

Marzanna shrugs, not really having a response to that. An idea strikes her a moment later, and she mentally reaches towards her twin in amusement, 'Hey, you're almost here right?'

There's a mental hum of agreement from her brother, 'I'm only a few doors down from your room with Nero now. Why?'

She barely holds back a grin as she answers, 'Wanna mess with my friends a bit? Nothing big, just a tiny bit of amusement.'

She feels a spark of interest from him, '... I'm listening, but be quick, we're waiting outside your door now.'

She rapidly passes the idea off, and her brother agrees with a touch of amusement. It wasn't big in any sense of the word, it was just a little thing that would mess with her friends heads, but it was bound to be at least mildly entertaining.

A few moments after finishing their mental conversation, Mike breaks into the idle chatter her friends had picked up while she'd been focusing on her brother and subsequently spacing off, "So, you finally decided to wake up I see."

Looking up, she sees her brother leaning against the wall giving her an irritated look. He tilts his head, then saunters over to her bedside causing Silica to scramble off and over to Kirito nervously, "Finally decided you'd gotten enough beauty sleep? Not that it's helped any. In fact, you seem to have done the impossible and made it worse."

She gives a sniff of disdain, "Still better looking than you. Not that such a feat is particularly difficult to pull off. Besides, being simple physical atrophy, I can recover. Your distinct lack of functioning brain cells is sadly permanent, you imbecilic troglodyte."

They stare each other down with mild glares, laughing with each other over the bond at how utterly confused her friends look, but trying to keep it in. Mike breaks after only a minute, his glare fading into a wide smile as he picks her up in a hug, "Marzanna! You're awake! About damned time! Do you have any idea how much I've missed you, you silly girl?"

She laughs when he picks her up, and wraps her arms around his neck in a tight hug, "Probably as much as I've missed you, you stupid boy. Now put me down!"

He leans his head back enough to give her a mischievous grin before lightly tossing her back onto her bed. She reaches up to smack his arm with a laugh, "You're a total ass, you know that?"

He just chuckles and grins at her, not repentant in the slightest. He's lightly pushed out of the way by Nero a moment later, and his irritated look is simply met with an unabashed grin, then Nero turns to her with a warm smile, "I'm glad you're back 'Zanna. We all missed you a lot."

She smiles up at him, "I missed you guys too. How's everyone been doing?"

He shrugs casually, "Same old same old for the most part. There was a lot of simply… focusing on the job, letting it distract us and trying not to let your situation cause total breakdowns. Both mentally and in our family's business."

She nods lightly, she'd known that had been how things had been during the two years in SAO, but she'd been too disconnected from reality to even notice if her brother had been in her mind in the past two and a half months. Noticing the curious looks her friends were giving her older brothers, even if one was only brother in heart, she shifts her gaze to them, "Oh, sorry, I'd assumed you'd guys had met before."

Kazuto shakes his head, "I've met them, but by the time everyone had recovered enough to start visiting, it had become obvious something was going on that was stopping you two from waking up, and none of the rest of our friends could bear to visit you and Asuna and see you guys in that state."

She nods in understanding, then gives introductions, though leaves Kazuto out since he already knows everyone, "This is Mike, my twin, and Nero, my cousin who's more of my big brother than anything." Then she shifts her gaze back to her family, "These are my friends Silica, Argo, and Lizbeth."

The girls get warm friendly smiles as they each give some sort of wordless greeting at their names, and soon idle chatter breaks out between everyone as they get to know each other a bit. Kazuto moves over to sit on the edge of her bed, reaching out to hold her hand as they both stay mostly silent, content to just listen to their friends and her family and bask in finally being with each other in the real world.

There were still plenty of things she needed to do. She needed to recover, to finally tell Kazuto the whole truth about her, and she still needed to finish revising so she could take some of her OWLs and NEWTs and have a manageable schedule for when she goes back to school, but that could all wait a while. For the moment, she was entirely content to simply be with some of those she loves.

(1): You cannot tell me that one of the patients that was in a coma for two years just straight up getting out of bed and wandering off in search of his girlfriend wouldn't make the rounds amongst the nurses. They'd definitely be complaining or gossiping about it in the break rooms and shit.