Chapter 18 - Chapter 14: Awakening! A Seed towards the Future!

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"Do you honestly think you won't get any stronger for the rest of your life? Instead of sitting around frustrated, it's better to keep on moving forward."-Saitama, the Strongest Hero.

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November 11th, 2024. Alfheim, a branch near Yggdrasil's top. 18:30…

Yuuki Asuna was many things.

She was the daughter of an important CEO, and as such had lived surrounded by what many would call luxury since she was born.

She was really smart, having been raised since early in her life to be a prodigy student (Though this one may have been greatly affected by her time in SAO).

But what she truly was now, what had truly defined her life, was the result of having been trapped in Aincrad for almost two years. The result of having met a slightly naïve boy that could destroy everything with a single punch.

She was Asuna, the Mighty Flash. The Dual Wielder. Sub-Leader and main battle-guide of the United Heroes Association, a 'Heroine' that could stare things like the Skull Reaper or even Kayaba Akihiko himself in the face and not give in to despair, just find the strength to keep fighting until her body couldn't move anymore.

That was why neither the time in the stupid cage nor Oberon's dark threats about her being brainwashed had affected her in the slightest. Because she had learned from her Sensei, the boy she 'secretly' loved, that the only thing that could really scare you was disappointing others…or yourself. And nothing in this world of fairies could ever do that to her.

Yet…the thing in front of her was clearly NOT of this world. She wasn't even sure it was something that was supposed to exist at all, or at least that was the strangely specific feeling that the thing gave her.

At the same time, though, it also gave her a feeling of…'familiarity', as if a part of her KNEW the thing from somewhere else, yet couldn't recall from where or HIW for the life of her…

Still, the…'Entity' in front of her clearly knew her, for it had called out her name, so she did the only logical thing one could do in such a situation.

"Uhm…hi there? Wh-who are you?"

…did we mention that being so much time around Kirito may affect someone's common sense? But seriously, the point was that, despite all her instincts screaming at her that the thing in front of her was DANGEROUS with capital letters, they were also telling Asuna that it held no hostile intentions…for now, at least.

She was still debating if she should try and make a run for it when the Entity spoke again. Well, saying 'spoke' may have been a bit too much, because the sounds it made were more like strange echoes inside the mind than any real 'voice'.

[…wHo?…ruLEr…adMINistRAtor…dESTroyeR…MAkeR…bROken…beTTeR…]

There was a short pause, in which Asuna called on the best of her ability to keep calm and not show any sign of outward panic at the ominous yet senseless 'answer' to her question, before asking what she was dreading the most.

"…what do you want from me?"

It was clear that, whatever the Entity in front of her was, it didn't have anything to do with Sugou or his stupid plans. The bastard that proudly declared himself as the Fairy King was just a useless idiot trying to play villain, believing himself all-powerful by using technology and 'powers' that weren't even his to begin with, just stolen from the man that he had hated as his 'rival' since they were in school, Kayaba Akihiko.

Contrary to that, the thing staring at her seemed like an otherworldly anomaly, its mere presence seeming to be rejected by the world around them as if it was a wound or an error.

Then, the Entity replied…with a sound that was clearer than anything it had said before.

[…UNDERSTANDING…]

The thing raised one of its 'arms', though the vaguely cylindrical limbs could barely be called that, as if stretching a hand towards Asuna.

The chestnut-haired girl could have done many things at that moment. The one that her brain was inclining towards the most was running like hell…

But she decided to stare the Entity dead on its eyes and raise her own hand, touching the offered one.

She vaguely thought that maybe she shouldn't have thought herself as if she was her invincible Sensei when she felt as if an electric surge spread through her whole being. The feeling was as if, suddenly, something was LOOKING into the deepest parts of her being, watching every corner of her mind, staring into her very soul and examining at the deepest, most basic level, what was 'Asuna'.

And as soon as it had begun, the moment was over, the Entity rearing away from her as if it had been burned. Shocked, the ex-rapier-user saw how its body 'shifted', turning more defined, less alien, more…'human-like'.

As if it was the most fascinating thing in the world, the thing raised the arm with which it had touched Asuna, and the wide-eyed girl saw how now it actually looked like an arm, a perfectly defined and delicate-looking hand with all of its fingers closing into a fist and opening repeatedly.

Then, starting for the very tip of its fingers, SKIN started to appear over the screen-like mess that made the thing's body.

It started to LAUGH, a sound so otherworldly, so WRONG, that Asuna's eyes tore away from the extremely slow process of 'transformation' it was suffering to stare at its 'face', 'something' now seeming to shine in the depths of its 'eyes'.

The most terrifying thing, though, was that it just seemed SCARIER now that the 'sounds' it made sounded much more human-like.

[…YES!…See it!…Can see it!…Everything so clear!…Everything…just a part of the puzzle…so SIMPLE…from the start…]

Interrupting itself, the changing Entity turned its gaze back towards the ex-rapier-user, who had slowly started to back away from it, the girl freezing the moment she felt its eyes on her once again.

"…I was…just going home?" commented Asuna while debating if she should try to run now, cursing not having even her old chair to use as a weapon.

[Thanks…Reward]

The girl was still trying to contain her shock from the unexpected words when the Entity raised its half-transformed arm towards her, a 'beam' of pure data hitting Asuna dead on, sending her flying backward over the massive branch.

For an instant, the girl felt a strange and heavy sensation engulfing her arms and legs, and she could have sworn she vaguely saw as if she was 'wearing' something like a heavier version of her old metallic gauntlets and boots, before the moment was over and she crashed against the wooden surface of the World Tree.

The next second, Asuna was back on her feet, her arms spread to the side as she looked towards where the thing had been, this time ready for anything…

Only to find that it was gone, no trace of it left. Totally confused, the girl looked herself over with worry, but no change was visible even as she put her hands in front of her face, still the same delicate and stupidly underdressed Avatar that Sugou had adapted from her old one.

Shaking her head, the chestnut-haired girl decided to ignore that for the moment, telling herself she would worry about it later. She had already lost too much time with this.

As she started running down the branch towards the path that clearly led to the tree's insides (Yet another proof of Sugou's stupidity, for not just making the place isolated), Asuna never noticed that her feet were making quite a strange sound as they hit the wooden ground.

Like the sound of metal hitting on a hard surface…

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Since he had memory…she had been there.

It was something he had never truly stopped to think about, really, but he had probably been with her since she was born. He was still 1-year-old when that happened, but despite that, if he tried very hard, he could almost see himself on his adoptive father's arms, looking on with curiosity at the crying baby on her mother's arms.

They weren't really siblings, but they didn't know that back then. And like many siblings at their early ages, they were inseparable. They did many things for the first time together. They laughed about many things together. They shared almost everything together.

He could still clearly remember her standing in front of him, vehemently telling their grandfather she would practice kendo for both of them, the day he had decided to quit the hard and, for him, boring sport.

It had made him feel extremely grateful, yet at the same time upset. The older sibling was supposed to protect the younger one, not the other way around, or at least that's what their parents said.

He got his wish in the scariest way possible. One day, sometime after their grandfather's death, she was practicing all by herself, like always, on the garden, near the pond, a concentrated expression on her face as she swung her small shinai. Despite no longer having anyone that forced her to do so, she was decided to keep going with the practice. Such was her determination, something he had never told her he really admired from her.

And then, from a moment to the next, she fell into the pond. He didn't know how or why. It just…happened.

He had never felt as SCARED as he was those agonizing 10 seconds it took him to run screaming towards the pond. Not even when he heard Kayaba's announcement at the beginning and he thought he was doomed had he felt the terror he felt as he dove into the cold water, reaching towards her sinking body, and dragged her out of the pond, crying and calling her name repeatedly.

For his young self, the hours after their mother took her to the hospital felt like the longest of his life. When she was back and resting in her room, he could only sit at her side with extreme worry as she slept, as if fearing something bad was going to happen if he let her out of his sight for even a second.

When she woke up, looked at him and thankfully smiled, he had felt the greatest relief of his whole life.

And yet, despite all that, when he discovered the 'Truth' a year later, he pushed her away, too busy sinking in his own fears to remember how much he cared for her, how much she cared for him…

All of this ran through Kirito's mind on a span of 5 seconds, even as his chaotic thoughts and his screaming mind trying to make sense of what had happened. Suddenly, recent memories gained a whole new meaning.

Her tears when he saw him out of the hospital bed. Her sweet smiles. Her gentle touches. Their happy talks. The cheerfulness filling her when they were together. The support she gave him on everything related to his recovery. The fear and anger in her when she realized he was using his Nerve Gear again. The comforting hugs both in his room and in the hospital…

At that moment, the Spriggan felt that Tank-Top Tiger could have started calling him an idiot and he wouldn't have been able to shut him up.

Being fair, he wasn't the best in those kinds of things. After all, having delved into gaming at the age of 10 to escape his shaken reality, his interactions with people his age had been limited to school, and even there he only opened up the necessary minimum. The boy never had anything similar to a puppy crush or even a female friend, and the whole revolution of Virtual Reality had happened just when he had become a teenager so…well, you get the gist of it.

The point was that Kirito SUCKED in love as much as Genos did in keeping his arms attached to his body. He didn't even properly know how to act around girls his age before getting trapped in Aincrad and learning it from scratch. Oh, he was still a hormonal teenager, of course, nothing could change that, not even getting trapped into a deadly virtual world or gaining Saitama-like powers. He wasn't blind either, and he would be lying if he said he didn't look at his female guildmates with admiring eyes more than once, each one of the girls from his 'second family' having their own kind of charm. In fact, he was pretty sure he had some kind of crush on Asuna, but he had always been too busy dealing with the madness around him and trying to act both like a good friend and a 'teacher' to the girl to try and act upon it, not to mention his own fear of changing or ruining the good and friendly relationship they had.

Despite all of this, he had never even entertained the thought that SUGU, of all people, could feel like…THAT for him. Having been too busy with the 'weird' feelings he got every time they were together since he returned to the real world and blaming them on Asuna's stupid jokes and the 'curse' of being a teenager, the boy couldn't have suspected she felt even the slightest attraction towards him. The mere thought was almost laughable.

After all, she was the one with the brilliant future; SHE was the star of the family. Upbeat girl, as beautiful and cute at the same time as any girl her age would wish, second place on the nationals of kendo…while he was just a boy who liked videogames (And even that had lost most of his charm since he got trapped in SAO), and that was currently missing two years of his normal education.

The only special things he really had in his life were his friends…and the power to destroy everything with one punch on the virtual world. You couldn't exactly get a stable future from just that.

His brain finally snapping back together, the wide-eyed gamer realized that he probably had been standing there like an idiot for several minutes. His gaze shooting to the side, he noticed how Strea and Yui were silently staring at him with worried expressions, as if waiting for him to react.

He called himself idiot several times as he quickly opened his menu and tapped the Log Out button.

"I-I will be right back!" shouted the Spriggan while disappearing.

The moment Kirito's body vanished from their sight, both virtual sisters exchanged another worried glance before nodding to themselves. Many things would depend on what happened now, but…

"…hey, Yui-nee?"

"Yes?"

"…wanna try and rescue Asuna ourselves as a gift for Kirito when he comes back?"

A smile suddenly appearing on her face, the small pixie suddenly shone and was replaced by Yui's human form, softly floating off the ground as she stared at her sister.

That was all the answer Strea needed.

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Looking around yet another corner, Asuna did her best to not let out a scream of frustration. So far, the labyrinthic layout of the place hadn't served any other purpose than to annoy her, and seeing how it seemed that there wasn't ANYONE else around, once again attested to Sugou's stupidity, for the hallways were totally useless if you didn't have the personnel to actually travel through them. Thinking back on the bastard's ramblings, he probably only had a couple of people he could trust (Pay enough) helping him at all, so really, wouldn't it be simpler to just have the needed areas and Log In and Out directly from them? Making a place like this was only asking for someone to sneak around!

"Interesting…it seems the developments today are quite encouraging too…"

Blinking at hearing the voice, the ex-rapier-user turned around yet another corner, gasping at seeing a new massive area filled with strange 'machines' everywhere, all identical, and one big console at the furthest side.

But the thing that got the most attention were the two figures inspecting the 'machines' (Which had very obvious holographic displays of brains in them), probably scientists working under Sugou if their conversation was anything to go by, but what truly bugged Asuna was…

"…why the fuck are they using slug-monsters as Avatars?"

Her question going ignored by the world, the chestnut-haired girl waited patiently for the creepy slug guys to walk (More like 'creep') out of the room before entering and quickly moving through it, her gaze falling in the several screens and the, for her, mostly incomprehensible data that they showed.

One didn't need to be a genius to know that these were the other SAO Survivors that Sugou had captured, and whose minds he was using for his sick experiments.

"It's as if…they're in pain or something…" whispered the girl before clenching her fists as she looked towards the console on the other side of the room, at the side of which some kind of access card seemed to be inserted. "Don't worry; I will get you all out of here!"

That said, Asuna ran towards the console and, with the unreal reaction speed that had given her Dual Blades and her Sensei had helped her train for months, started to scroll down the many senseless options of the complex menus and submenus before her.

Anyone 'normal' would have tried to find a way to get out of there themselves first. The Heroine called 'Mighty Flash', however, decided to first search to see if there was a way to get the people trapped in the 'Brain Lab' out of their prisons.

Sadly, Asuna wasn't really adept with computers or similar things. In fact, besides the usual school-related uses, she never really had any interest in them, and having missed two years of education meant that she currently was even more lost than Kibaou would have been in a competition for nice people.

"…ARGH! Dammit!" angrily shouted the girl while closing her eyes and slamming her fists on the console, her face glaring down. "How is it possible that I can't do anything for them?!"

Asuna never noticed how 'something' seemed to 'pulse out' of her hands, or how the console's holo-screen suddenly turned red for an instant. What she noticed, though, was a sudden beeping sound as a new menu replaced the previous one, her gaze filled with disbelief as she raised it and saw how a progression bar appeared and started to fill itself.

"…what in the world…?"

The girl's words were abruptly cut out when her instincts once again screamed at her, making Asuna jump backward and spin her body through the air, evading the whipping purple-pink tentacles that had been about to grab her. Landing in a crouch, the ex-rapier-user glared forward, seeing that, at some point during her anger, Slug Guy A and Slug Guy B had returned to the lab, and were now looking at her with amusement filling their repulsive eyes.

"Well, well, what do we have here? A little rat sniffing where she shouldn't?"

"It looks like the Boss' pet has escaped from her cage. I told him to put some heavier security after her second attempt, but did he listen to ME? No, of course he didn't…."

"…okay, I give up." deadpanned the chestnut-haired girl, making the scientists blink in confusion. "Why in Hell's name are you two using GIANT SLUGS as Avatars?"

Apparently caught off guard with that question, the Slug Guys exchanged a stare for several seconds before shrugging.

"Why not? It's practical! You don't know how relaxing is to be able to just creep around instead of walking…" vaguely commented the first one

"Plus, we have, like, much better multitasking with these tentacles than with hands!" added the other one while waving his many jelly-like tendrils around. "It was a bit weird at first, but now we can operate like a dozen screens at the same time!"

Several seconds of silence passed while the ex-rapier-user just STARED at them after their 'answers'.

"…I shouldn't have asked." stated Asuna while shaking her head. "Now I can totally understand WHY you two work for Sugou…"

"Well, try and sound cocky all that you want, girl, but it won't change anything." smirking creepily, the Slug Guy A prepared his tentacles as Asuna tensed, realizing that she was outnumbered, unarmed AND without her old strength, only her reflexes and instincts remaining. "You're going back to your cage, now!"

The tendrils shot forward at speeds one wouldn't associate with their slime-like appearance, and, by instinct, the Mighty Flash roared, lashing out with empty hands…

…and cut through them without any effort in a flash of emerald and black, the scientist squeaking in surprise while the other gaped towards Asuna in disbelief. The girl, for her part, was confused, having felt for a moment as if her arms were 'opening' and now…

A simple glance down was enough to confirm her suspicions, the familiar weights on her hands finally registering on her mind.

Fafnir's Fang and Elucidator greeted her; her trusted blades once again on her hands as if she had never let go of them.

Asuna looked back at the men, a predatory smile appearing on her face as she adopted her old Dual Blades-stance.

"Wha-what the hell?! Where did she get those swords?! She shouldn't even have a MENU!"

"For-forget that; did you see what happened to her arms?! Am I going crazy?!"

"Le-let's calm down! We still outnumber this girl, and we have a console that will let us put her on her knees just behind…!"

The bar on the main console finished loading in that instant, a shining 100% on its screen as the message 'Restoring Avatars' Data' appeared on it.

299 bursts of polygons exploded around the massive lab, almost 300 people from all ages and carrying all kinds of weapons and equipment blinking in confusion.

"…us?"

"You were saying?" smirked Asuna while sporting a triumphant smile.

"Uh?! Wha-what just happened?!

"I-I don't know, I remember hearing the game was ending and…!"

"Where the hell are we?!"

"…Asuna?!" her eyes widening, the girl looked to the side and was greeted by the shocked-faced Keita, Sasamaru, Tetsuo, and Ducker around him. "Wha-what happened?! Why do you look like an elf?! And why are you wearing…THAT?"

"Keita…I would love to answer ALL those questions, but first…" pointing towards the surprised and open-mouthed Slug Guys, the Dual Wielder suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs. "SAO Survivors! Those bastards are part of a plot that has kept us all inside the virtual world even after the game was cleared, for stupid reasons!" many eyes turned towards her in shock, most of the presents recognizing the Front Liner and sub-leader of the United Heroes Association despite her 'odd' looks. "GET THEM!"

"…fuck." simply muttered the Slug Guy A before being swarmed by angry players.

"Shi-shit!" screamed Slug Guy B while shooting his tentacles towards the console. "I need to shut down the…!"

A shield blocked his tendrils and a sword cut them down, an annoyed-looking Diavel glaring at him while many more players raised their weapons.

"I don't think so, creepy-face."

"…this is SO…"

Asuna tuned out whatever the man was about to say as he exploded in shouts as the players rained down on him, walking back towards her old guildmates as they looked around in disbelief.

"So…what exactly is going on?" asked a confused Ducker while looking back to her.

"Long story, I will have to explain on the way." answered the chestnut-haired girl while she quickly walked back to the console and started to look through the latest menu again.

"Wait, on the way to where?" confusedly asked Tetsuo while they and other players gathered near Asuna, someone thankfully having been smart enough to not 'kill' the Slug Guys and just leave them pinned to the ground, unable to Log Out. "Can't you just get us all out of there with that console?"

"Tetsuo, this thing was made specifically to monitor this lab. Even if Sugou is a retarded idiot, I seriously doubt he added an option to Log Out anyone 'locked' in here, especially when anyone supposed to 'work' here can just do that from their own menus…"

"Who the hell Sugou?" Sasamaru's confused voice echoed everyone's question even as the Dual Wielder stopped, blinking before grinning softly.

"Hmm, 'Open the Tree's Inner Gate', uh? Yeah, I think this may do…" grabbing her blades again after selecting the strange option, Asuna turned around and looked at the gathered people. "As for your question, he's the most annoying guy who has ever lived. And now, follow me, everyone, we have to get out and contact someone!"

"Eh, what?"

"Hear, we DON'T have time for long explanations, but here is the short story: We're inside another VR game called 'Alfheim Online', and we're inside a giant tree in the center of the world, just above the most populated town in it, so I guess that if we manage to get down and start screaming around, other Players WILL notice, and someone will be able to call the police or something to ACTUALLY get us out of here and arrest that bastard…" pouting for a moment at imagining being unable to maim Sugou by herself before he was detained, the chestnut-haired girl shook her head, reminding herself the freedom of several people was at risk. "SO, we're going to get out of here and do that. Who is with me?!"

A couple seconds of stunned silence passed before everyone started to shout, scream or cry their agreement, everyone more than eager to finally get the fuck out of the virtual world. Asuna, for her part, could just fiercely smile while gripping her blades.

After all, the most difficult part was already over…right?

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Curling into a ball as she hugged one of her biggest plushies, Kirigaya Suguha felt as if each second lasted an eternity, tears running down her blushing face as she screamed in her mind, calling herself an idiot for having done THAT. Vaguely, she could swear she was hearing the sounds of a bicycle bell ringing repeatedly from the house's side closest to her window, but chalked it up to the insanity she felt must have been consuming her.

She had given (More like forced) her first kiss to her Onii-chan, and also stolen his (Or so she 'hoped'). Unable to contain the burning shame and happiness she felt from that, it all seemed to matter little in comparison to what she knew was going to happen now.

Kazuto would probably stop talking to her, maybe even start to actively avoid her; perhaps even more than before they watched One Punch-Man together. That is, if he didn't actively start calling her a freak or something worse. She had probably just ruined forever their relationship, just when it was becoming nicer than ever, and all because she had followed the stupid advice of what was probably the result of a too-much-lively imagination!

The only good part of it all was that she would always have that small and beautiful memory of their lips connecting and the warmth she felt in her heart when doing so, to treasure for the rest of her life…

Several quick and sudden hits on her door interrupted her train of thought, a borderline hysterical but familiar voice calling from the other side.

"Sugu?! Ple-please, tell me you're there! O-open the door, please, we need to talk!"

For an instant, she felt tempted to just stay there, unmoving and silent, a small part of her just wishing to hide herself from the pain for as long as she could.

The other part of her, though, the one that was bigger and that defined her nowadays, shouted for her to stand up.

This was it. This was her 'hopeless battle against the Sea King', the situation she was sure had no way of ending well for her. Unlike Licenseless Rider, though, she wasn't doing it to protect anything but her own feelings.

She stood up anyway, walking silently towards the door, not even bothering to hide her tears.

She was Kirigaya Suguha. She was Leafa the Sylph. She was the Bicycle Girl. She was someone who brought Justice for the innocents.

It wasn't about winning or losing, after all. It was about being honest and showing no hesitation, facing whatever happened without fear.

Opening the door, she was greeted with the distressed and worried face of her brother, who flinched at seeing her tear-stained face. He opened his mouth to say something, but she decided to interrupt him before he could.

"I know it, Onii-chan. I know the truth. I know we aren't really siblings, but cousins. I know mom and dad adopted you after your real parents died, and that THAT's why you pushed us all away." looking down in silence as the boy looked at her in shock, Suguha suddenly felt as if she didn't need to hold anything back anymore. "I have known it since little after you got trapped in SAO…and in a way, that's how…THIS started."

"Su-Sugu…" started to say Kazuto, only to be interrupted again.

"It's stupid, I know, but I just…couldn't stop it, couldn't help it! After all, I…I know you will never see me as anything but your little sister…bu-but I didn't choose to love you. It just…happened." chuckling sadly at that, the young kendoka looked back towards the silent gamer, a hint of empty amusement on her eyes. "The craziest part is that, when I was feeling conflicted and lonely, I also resorted to One Punch-Man, the only thing we had in common, to keep myself 'sane', you know? I…I started going around on my bicycle, wearing a stupid 'costume' and using my shinai to stop petty crimes…" noticing how the boy's eyes widened at this, Suguha couldn't help but feel a bit hurt, but she wasn't going to stop now. "It started as something little, like a crazy relief from my worried life…but, at some point, I was just…unable to stop."

Just like some people practiced parkour or freerunning, she rode her bicycle around and hit criminals with a shinai. The difference was that, as stupid and crazy as it sounded, she never had done it for the thrill of it or to feel important at all…she did it because she felt that it was something that NEEDED to be done. Even the 'distract myself from my worries' part lost its meaning soon, for even after starting playing ALO and embracing her love for flying, she had still continued doing it.

Because, as insane as the idea was in reality, the people needed Heroes. Those who couldn't defend themselves needed someone to save them, to inspire them, to bring Justice in those instances when society failed or was too slow to help them from something nasty.

It was that, that grateful look on their eyes, that small look of happiness on them, what drove her to keep going. Because, as small and useless in the grand scheme of things as her efforts were, she made a small difference for them.

Just like Licenseless Rider had done every time he put on the helmet and rode his bicycle, even against threats he didn't stand a chance against. Because the smallest effort could, in the end, be all the difference that mattered.

"…you're the Bicycle Girl people had been talking about…" whispered Kazuto with total disbelief, breaking the silence that had stretched between them.

"…yes."

The next reaction wasn't something Suguha had been expecting.

"What were you thinking?!" shouted the boy while forcefully grabbing her arms, shocking her with the anger and fear in his voice and gaze. "Sugu, this isn't a joking matter! Do you have any idea of what you have been doing?! This isn't a game, for God's sake; you have been putting yourself at risk! What if you had been hurt or…?!"

"…you can't really tell me THAT without being a hypocrite, you know, Onii-chan?" softly muttered the kendoka, stopping Kazuto dead on his tracks.

Shouts of 'It's different!', 'I was invincible!' or even 'It's not the same in reality than in a game!' almost came out of his mouth, but he quickly realized they would still be very hypocrite. After all, SAO hadn't been a game, just a much deadlier reality. And he had never been truly sure of his 'invincibility', even after accepting it at the beginning. The small, lingering fear that he would lose his 'powers' from one moment to the next and find himself dying in the middle of a battle had never vanished, it had just been pushed down for everyone's sake, and for his wish to return to his family…to her.

In a way, they both had done the same, in very different yet similar situations. Both had been inspired to do something 'good' by their favorite characters from the series that had, ironically, brought them back together after years of distance. Both had put themselves at risk, not without thinking of the consequences, but instead choosing to ignore them both for their sakes and for that of others.

They were way more alike than he had ever thought…but that wasn't really the point now, was it?

"Sugu…what you say…about me…it's…"

"I-it's okay, Onii-chan, I know…" muttered her while forcing her voice to not break, looking at him with a wide smile even as tears threatened to fall from her eyes again. "E-even if you think less of me…even if you don't want to talk with me again…I'm just happy of having told you my fee…"

Suguha wasn't expecting the hug. Of all the ways she had expected him to react, THIS had never really crossed her mind, at least not more than as a passing fantasy. The shock on her face was almost impossible to describe as Kazuto softly caressed her head, looking down guiltily at her.

"Sugu…I would NEVER do that. I…there is no way I would ever think bad of you, or try to push you away from me again. You…you meant too much to me for that. It's just that…I-I just can't understand what…what you could possibly see in…well, ME." looking away from her wide eyes, the gamer felt himself blushing in embarrassment as he tried his best to not let go of the girl and simply run away. "I'm just…an idiot who was unable to come to terms with something that wasn't my family's fault. I have been trying to change that, but that doesn't change that I'm no one special. I…just can't see how ANYONE would ever be truly interested in me…"

At that moment, in several places of the city and on the corridors inside Yggdrasil, several girls sneezed before looked confusedly around.

"…you're being serious." whispered the young kendoka while looking at her adopted brother with total disbelief.

"O-of course I am! It's the truth, after all! Yo-you would never be…ha-happy with me, you could aspire to something much better. Yo-you're cute and an awesome kendoka despite being just barely finishing middle school…you could probably find someone much better and special than me for…"

Yet, the surprised boy realized with sudden shock, every time he tried to form on his mind the image of Sugu being with any boy, the thought always ended with him suddenly Seriously Punching the faceless bastard.

That…that was WAY beyond the 'overprotective older brother'-level…

…Oh God…did he…did he had a crush on his adoptive sister/cousin? Who just so happened to have confessed she loved him not even 20 minutes ago? While he STILL had to save his best friend/'disciple' (Plus every other still 'sleeping' SAO player), who, he was pretty sure, he ALSO had a crush on, from the bastard who wanted to marry her?

Suddenly feeling extremely dizzy, Kirigaya Kazuto could swear he was hearing the Universe laughing at him right then, the power to break even reality with one punch never having seemed more meaningless.

Saitama never had to deal with something like this, dammit!

"Onii-chan?" whispered Sugu while slowly starting to smile, a tiny seed of hope starting to fill her heart. "Do-don't be an idiot, okay? Even if you don't realize it, you're someone really special and…"

"Sugu!" suddenly separating her from him, though still softly gripping her arms, the gamer surprised the blinking girl by looking at her with a VERY nervous smile, his face all red. "Ca-can we…continue talking about this later? We, uhm, we still have to save everyone and, ehm…"

"…heheh…yes, of course we can, Onii-chan." happily answered Suguha, her wide smile making Kazuto's heart skip a beat. "Right now, only knowing that you don't hate me…that you think so much of me…it's more than enough to make me the happiest girl in the world." getting out of his feeble grip, the young kendoka turned around and walked towards her bed…before turning her head to him and giving him a small wink. "But…I want to hear your answer when this is over, okay? No 'I'm not good enough for you…', but your true feelings on the matter…okay?"

Gulping and nodding as he was unable to look away from her shy and blushing face, Kazuto used all of his willpower to turn around and walk almost robotically back to his room.

Yep, this was perhaps an extremely coward move, not saying the 'truth' at that moment, but being honest, he would have preferred fighting Boros in Meteoric Burst WITHOUT Saitama's powers than trying to solve his current emotional mess.

Being an emotionally-repressed teenager sucked WAY more than he had ever thought…

0000000000000000

Sighing, Leafa opened her eyes and took a moment to stare at her hands, before looking towards the virtual sky of Alfheim, Alne opening around her and the shadow of Yggdrasil above. The Sylph had never felt lighter before, and she almost felt as if she would just go flying and never touch the ground again if she wasn't careful.

She had to suppress a giggle at that. Who knew that being open and honest about one's own feelings could do so much good for…?

"LEAFA-CHAN!"

Freezing, the blonde girl turned around to stare in disbelief how a certain Sylph boy flew down near her, panting repeatedly before raising his gaze towards her with a vibrant look, relief apparently flooding his being.

"Re-Recon?!" shouted Leafa while trying to understand his presence. "What are you doing here?!"

"I-I was really worried about you!" clasping her hands with his, Recon seemed clearly on edge as he looked everywhere, confusing the girl so much she didn't try to let go of him. "I suddenly had a really bad feeling and I feared something bad had happened!"

"U-uhm, well, as you can see nothing is wrong, so…"

"Where is that Spriggan boy?! Did he left?!" at the sudden question, Leafa's face burned red and she looked shyly to the side, apparently not noticing that the boy had failed to ask about Strea's presence too. "Ah…did he do something bad to you?!"

"N-no, not really, it's just that, uhm…he should be coming back soon and…"

"Don't worry, Leafa-chan! No matter how scary, he is, I WILL make sure he doesn't do anything you don't want!" 'heroically' declared Recon, or it would have almost sounded like that if he wasn't shaking like a leaf at remembering said Spriggan's words the last time he saw him. "Be-because, no matter what, I will ALWAYS be by your side!"

"Uh?" blinked the Sylph girl in confusion at the choice of words, turning to look back at her whiny friend…only to see how he was inching closer to her face with eyes closed.

Squeaking in shock, Leafa was about to respectfully deny the kiss by slapping Recon down the stairs…when some kind of sonic boom echoed through the area and left her blinking and her hair almost falling off her ponytail, the Sylph boy's hands, still clasping hers, being the only thing that remained of him, a gloved fist replacing the place he had occupied.

She only bothered to look to the side for a moment to see how Recon's Remain Flame was already halfway towards Leprechaun Territory, his hands vanishing into broken polygons, before looking towards the blinking owner of the fist, Kirito's face quickly filling with red as he looked up and started to wave his hands.

"I….uh…! I-I wasn't going to go that far, I swear! I just…was unable to stop, uhm…!"

Chuckling happily at the boy's poor attempts to explain why he had tried to punch even Recon's memory into oblivion, the Sylph girl simply leaned closer and trapped him into a hug, making him freeze as they clearly felt each other's virtual heartbeat.

"Thanks, Onii-chan. Maybe it was a bit overboard, but I'm sure he will be fine." separating from him and putting a hand over the hilt of her happily humming katana, Leafa shot a determined smile towards the Spriggan. "Now, let's go save your friends!"

"…yeah, you're right." softly nodded the boy while taking a deep breath and calming down, any thoughts about his stupidly complicated feelings being pushed down in favor of a serious look for the task at hand, even as he turned around and raised a fist. "Let's do this, Sugu! We will…!"

"Wait, where are Strea-san and Yui-chan?"

Blinking at his adoptive sister's question, the gamer had enough time to realize that neither the Pixie nor the Gnome were anywhere to be seen before the echo of an explosion followed by several shouts reached their ears, coming from the, now that they bothered to pay attention, open door of the tree.

Exchanging a shocked look, both teens rushed towards the open dungeon, Leafa barely bothering to rip out her undone ribbon and let her hair flow freely, not having enough time to redo her ponytail as they entered the hollow trunk and looked in shock at the absolutely chaotic scene unfolding above them.

It was pure CHAOS, with no other way of describing it.

Apparently, some sort of flying metal knights, armed with bows of light or shining blades, were spawning everywhere from the tree's inner walls and unleashing hell against quite a mix of fiercely fighting fairies.

Kirito quickly spotted Strea and Yui, the later in her human form, fighting like two goddesses of war, the little girl swinging her arms to the sides and repeatedly sending flying any enemy that came too close, smashing them against each other, while the older-looking AI screamed murder as she let Gram's edge bite through the virtual flesh of their enemies, chopping them to pieces while protecting her 'older sister' as they opened their way upwards.

More surprising for the siblings, though, was seeing a small army of Caith Siths, ridding deadly-looking drakes, and Sylphs, divided between close-fighters and spellcasters, Sakuya and Alicia Rue fiercely leading their troops as they backed up the virtual sisters against the seemingly endless wave of Guardian Knights.

"So many…" whispered Leafa with a mix of awe and disbelief, absently raising Justice's Wings. "I had heard many stories about it, but I never actually tried it myself…"

"…TOO many." frowning, Kirito let his eyes shot around the chaotic battle for an instant, his hyper-accelerated senses allowing him to SEE what others only suspected or joked about. "…it's impossible."

"Wait, what?" shocked, the blonde Sylph turned to look at her brother, who had a dark and disappointed look on his face. "What do you mean with…?!"

"This 'Grand Quest'…it's made to BE unbeatable. The number of enemies spawning, the constant waves of attacks, the way in which the spawning rate grows exponentially the more they ascend…it's made to GIVE the impression of being very difficult when in truth it's specifically made to end the players. There is no way any normal raid can get through this thing."

"A-are you saying that…the Grand Quest is a lie?" muttered Leafa with a suddenly hollow tone. "There is…no way of getting Unlimited Flight?"

That revelation actually HURT the girl deep inside. After all, since the moment she started playing ALO, her biggest dream (Well…'second-biggest') had been being able to freely soar the sky, the heavens being the only limit she could find.

To know that the thing that promised it had been nothing but a lie was…

The Spriggan, meanwhile, was also furious. His 'Gamer Pride' was roaring this was an insult beyond any other. Of course, it MADE SENSE, in hindsight. After all, whatever Sugou was doing up there, he had been planning to do it for quite some time, if he had been ready to capture Asuna and other 299 SAO survivors the moment the game ended, so it stood to reason that he would need a way to make sure not only not being discovered but also that no one suspected about it.

And what better way to do that than hiding in plain sight? Every player in ALO only thought about the Grand Quest when they looked at the World Tree, their only thoughts about reaching Yggdrasil's top connected with obtaining the ability to fly without limits.

None ever suspected it was all just a massive lie, an illusion to protect a bastard's dark plans.

The betrayed and disappointed look on his sister's face only added to the already many reasons Kirito had to HATE Sugou Noboyuki with all his might.

His angry thoughts, however, were interrupted by the sudden shout of a familiar voice.

"PAPA! LEAFA-MAMA!" seemingly doing an inhuman effort just to look their way as she tried to keep the endless number of Guardian Knights at bay, Yui shakily pointed up towards the 'ceiling' of the hollow trunk. "IT'S OPENING!"

"What?" said the confused Spriggan, quickly shoving down the part of his mind that tried to even start thinking WHY Yui had called his sister THAT (And whose implications said wide-eyed girl was already fantasizing about) in favor to look up, seeing with shock how the half-sphere that acted as the supposed 'gate' at the top of the dungeon opened like a breaking eggshell, revealing a gaping dark hole.

Dozens of confused faces suddenly peered down through it.

Many of the Guardian Knights seemed to freeze in mid-air for a moment, their AIs apparently trying to understand where the hundreds of new 'enemies' had come from, before a good chunk of them simply decided to shot forward and start attacking the shocked SAO Survivors, much to the shock of the confused ALO Players.

"What the hell…?! Wh-who are those guys?!" shouted a confused Alicia while her drake blew down another 3 enemies, she absentmindedly tearing off the face of another with claws very similar to the ones Argo used to use as she looked up with disbelief. "Is this part of the Quest?!"

"No, something like this had never happened as far as I know!" replied Sakuya while using her katana to fend off and quickly decapitate one of the knights that had tried to change objectives. "Besides, LOOK!" the Sylph leader pointed with her blade towards the now fiercely defending and screaming players, shock all over her face. "They're NOT fairies! Their avatars look like normal people! What is this?!"

"They got out! Those are the rest of the SAO survivors!" shouted Strea while hacking away at yet another enemy, the clear disadvantage of her beastly fighting style making itself clear thanks to the lack of allies and how she had to constantly protect Yui. "How did they do it, Yui-nee?!"

"I'm not sure, but I would bet everything that it was thanks to Asuna-ma…!"

Eyes widening, Yui stopped talking and turned to see a volley of hundreds of light-arrows shooting towards her. Too many for her to stop. Even if it was theoretically possible to do so with her 'Gravity Control-Right', the number was just too much for a normal person to do so.

Her old self, empty and emotionless, only running on pre-programmed lines, may have been able to do it….but the current Yui was 'too human'. Even if she still possessed a processing ability that could put most of the world's Search Engines to shame, she was no longer able to process hundreds of them in seconds. She needed to actually look through it all, to properly understand it.

The price for her 'humanity' and all that came with it had been losing the ability to think like a machine. And even if it was something she would never trade back, she could immediately SEE clearly what was about to happen because of it.

She would be hit by the endless barrage and erased from the system, not possessing a proper Avatar making the Cardinal of that world erase her existence the moment it registered her death, like any simple mob on Alfheim. She was going to…

"UAAAAAH!" screaming madly, almost roaring like a beast, Strea shot forward, Gram swinging wildly as she put herself between Yui and the arrows.

The first dozens were crushed by the Demonic Sword. The first hundreds were blocked and deflected by sheer luck, leaving gashes all over the Gnome's body.

And the rest impaled her whole, turning the red-eyed girl into a pincushion before the frozen form of her 'sister'.

"…no…" whispered the old MHCP even as Strea turned to look at her with a smile, her body fading into a Remain Flame.

"Thank God…you're okay, Yui-nee." were her last words she said before she turned completely into the ethereal fire.

...It wasn't logical.

That was the thought running through Yui's mind, even as she was aware of screams coming from the SAO Survivors up there, of shouts echoing from the Sylphs and Caith Siths bellow, of her father JUMPING up and starting to eradicate the Archer Knights that had tried to eliminate her the moment they realized she was the biggest threat.

The feelings swirling inside of her weren't logic. Strea was okay. She HAD a proper Player Avatar, unlike her, so she had turned into a Remain Flame, which was currently landing on her hands. Even if no one nearby resurrected her, when the countdown ended she would just return to her latest re-spawning point, which they had set in Alne the past night.

And yet…yet…

She stared up, terrified as Kayaba prepared to send her back to Cardinal, to the cold and lonely darkness…and with an animal roar, SHE was there to protect her, breaking free of the Paralysis imposed by the System just to stop the madman.

Not because she had 'programmed' her to do so…but because she was her sister.

Her precious sister…

…if anyone had seen Yui's eyes at that moment, they would have seen, besides the tears, how some kind of 'fire' seemed to burn behind them.

Leafa was still making her way after the path of destruction her brother had made through the Guardians to help Yui, flying with her uncanny dexterity as she hacked away at the lucky mobs that had escaped the Spriggan's direct charge, when a SCREAM of outrage made her look to the side in shock.

"HOW DARE YOU HURT MY LITTLE SISTER?!"

Everything SHOOK.

The Sylph wasn't blind, of course. In fact, she had quite a sharp mind. The other night, through her brother's story, she had noticed that, in a bizarre and hilarious way, many of the things going around his life while in SAO had seemed like twisted parallels to bits of One Punch-Man. The little girl called 'Yui', which she had been told was in truth an impressively advanced AI created to be a pseudo-psychologist, and her so-called 'psychic powers' had obviously reminded her of Tatsumaki, aka Tornado of Terror, but she had decided not to mention it to Kazuto because he obviously had noticed it too and seemed to had enough worries at the moment.

Actually seeing her doing all of 'that' before allowed her to see the similarities more clearly, but also the differences. Just like her brother wasn't Saitama, Yui WASN'T Tatsumaki. The little girl could use that gravity-control-thingy to simulate 'powers' similar to the 2nd Ranked S-Class Heroine, but she was not even remotely as powerful as the actual Tornado of Terror had been.

That was why seeing her shining with a pure-black aura surrounding her as she raised her arms, EVERY Guardian in the room being covered by the same phenomenon, left her beyond speechless. On the sudden and shocked silence, she saw that even Kirito had stopped punching through the air and started to fall as he looked wide-eyed at his virtual daughter.

With a roar of pure rage, Yui pointed upwards with her hands.

The hundreds of Guardian Knights SHOT towards the ceiling as if they were a group of flies dragged by a hurricane…by a tornado, the SAO Survivors ducking outta the way as more than a couple got through the hole, before they all shattered into polygons as they hit any solid surface.

Then, the strange aura vanished and Yui fell down like a puppet with its strings cut, seemingly unconscious and letting go of Strea's Remain Flame.

A drake passed under her in time for a mute and wide-eyed Alicia Rue to catch her. Sakuya did very much the same with Strea's flame, even gathering enough concentration to grab a revival item and drop it over her.

As one, both leaders' eyes turned towards Leafa, their eyes asking for an explanation that made sense. The blonde Sylph could only stare back in shock, equally confused.

Then, a voice she had never heard before shouted something from above.

"Was that Yui-chan?!"

An instant of silence passed as Strea rose again and shot towards her older sister, scooping her out of Alicia's arms, before the endless hum of every single spawning mirror on the tree activating again, after the 'bug' that had just occurred, filled the air.

"Everyone…out of the way."

All eyes shot down, seeing how Kirito crouched down and lowered his left arm, his fist pointing upwards as he 'changed' into that inhuman-looking way he sometimes did, his face a carpet of darkness and his eyes two voids of nothingness.

Every single player, both from ALO and SAO, even those who didn't know the Spriggan personally, ran or flew as far out of his path as they could, even as what now seemed like thousands of Guardians started to emerge and prepared to attack again. The only one that didn't do so was Leafa.

Because she wanted…no, she NEEDED to see this.

To see the proof …

"Super Skill…Serious Series…"

…that the limits between reality and fantasy were thinner than anyone thought.

"̲S̲E̲R̲I̲O̲U̲S̲̲U̲P̲P̲E̲R̲C̲U̲T̲.̲"̲

At the same time, Kirito JUMPED and PUNCHED.

Calling the boy a missile would have been an insult. Instead, the closest thing one could have compared the Spriggan with was a meteor, a force out of this world moving at speeds one could imagine but not really comprehend, even as he ascended and everything on his way was DESTROYED.

The Guardians shattered as if their very existence were broken as the boy passed. The mirrors from which they spawned cracked like glass on an earthquake. Every Player inside the tree felt as if they would be sent flying just by being near the unreal and devastating wave of power.

Awed beyond belief, Leafa WATCHED, everything going in slow motion for her as she saw the boy she loved breaking the laws of virtual reality with just a punch, even as he ascended closer and closer to where she was. If she didn't move soon, the absurd shockwaves he was creating would catch her and…

NOW!

The Sylph had just recognized the 'voice' on her mind as Justice's when she MOVED forward and reached out with her hand. In the exact moment, in the impossible instant.

Her fingers closed around the edge of Kirito's white cape the same moment he shot past her, every inch of her virtual Strength and Will used just to keep her grip as she screamed, her half-closed eyes seeing the endless Guardians being destroyed and vanishing as her brother's mighty and unstoppable form shot through them, more and more of the spawning mirrors breaking until none remained.

The moment she saw everything around her become dark, Leafa let go, feeling her wings closing as she fell down and crashed HARD against the ground. Vaguely, she realized that her HP was in the red, that she was now surrounded by a lot of wide-eyed and shocked people and that most of them were looking UP, towards a hole in the ceiling of the impromptu area they were in. On the distance, one could still hear the sound of things that weren't supposed to break being destroyed as Kirito kept ascending through the innards of the World Tree.

Back on the ground, the Sylphs and Caith Siths were still STARING at the absolute ruin in which the until then unbeatable 'Grand Quest' had become, no Guardians spawning again now that the data that made up their spawning points had been totally destroyed.

And all from the power of just ONE simple player.

"…I SO need to get him to work for us." softly declared Alicia in the ensuing silence.

"…like hell I will let you." flatly answered Sakuya in the same low voice.

"Heheh…Kirito is really awesome, uh?" tiredly muttered Strea while caressing Yui's head.

Meanwhile, Leafa had just been able to stop seeing stars and started to try to stand when someone offered her a hand, the same voice she had heard before calling Yui's name speaking to her.

"Ehm…are you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks. I was just…" her words dying on her throat the moment she stood, the Sylph found herself face-to-face with the worried face of Yuuki Asuna, the girl in front of her being identical to the one she had seen in the hospital except for the fairy-like look. "Asuna-san?!"

"Uh? Ho-how do you know my name?!"

"Oh! Uhm, well, you see, I'm O…eh, Kirito-kun's little sister. You can call me Leafa here." clarified the blonde Sylph while scratching the back of her head, only to blink in surprise as the chestnut-haired girl reared back and looked at her wide-eyed, four other boys that she recognized as her brother's other friends blinking in surprise towards her before turning their attention back up.

"Uh…so that REALLY was Kirito…" idly commented Keita while purposefully not looking at the noticeably attractive Avatar of his friend's little sister. "…what are the odds that we manage to escape, suddenly find ourselves facing insurmountable odds and then he suddenly appears to save us?"

"Well, that's just his thing…he's kind of a Hero, remember?" added Tetsuo while Ducker and Sasamaru nervously chuckled.

Finally, Asuna decided to remember that she had the ability to speak.

"EH?! Yo-you are…Sensei's little sister?!" looking her up and down in disbelief, the Dual Wielder suddenly shook her head and let out a nervous chuckle, as if just realizing something, even as Leafa looked at her with confusion. "Ahahah, oh, of course, your avatar in here isn't like the 'you' in the real world, sorry about that…"

"…no problem?" assured the confused Sylph, wondering why she felt a strange sense of Déjà vu from when she met the other girls from her brother's old guild. "…wait a minute; did you just call him Sen…?"

And whatever else she wanted to say was cut off when a crushing weight suddenly fell over her body, making her scream and fall face-first to the ground, everyone else around her suffering the same fate. Leafa was vaguely aware of shouts coming from bellow, probably from Alicia and Sakuya's group, before the gate that had let the Guardians enter and that connected to the 'official' part of the Dungeon closed. The confused Sylph was still trying to understand WHAT had happened when a loud and obnoxious voice echoed through the area.

"Congratulations, Asuna. I have to accept, of ALL the different troubles you could have caused, THIS…far exceeds any of my expectations." anger and annoyance filling his voice, Oberon's 'mighty' form descended over them, the eyes of the SAO Survivors shooting towards him as he walked past them and stopped at Leafa's side, though his eyes never left Asuna's hateful gaze. "Then again, I guess that it's only to be expected from such a crazy girl as you…"

"Shut the fuck up, Sugou!" growled the Dual Wielder while trying to reach for her blades, the crushing weight of gravity impeding her from doing so. "What…what the hell is this…?!"

"Do you like it? It's a new gravity spell I was planning on adding on the game's next patch, though of course a bit 'boosted'. Which reminds me…it's really a shame, you know?" putting his feet over Leafa's head, the Sylph screaming in indignation, Oberon seemed to enjoy Asuna's shocked gaze. "Because of you, this poor girl here and ALL the ALO Players that saw you all here today are going to have…'accidents'. What a pity, wouldn't you say?"

"Wha…?! Cut the crap, you CAN'T do anything to them! You wouldn't get away with it and you know it!"

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong, my dear. For you see, the Sylphs and Caith Siths down there are already finding themselves unable to get out of the World Tree and unable to Log Out. I just need to keep them trapped here for a few hours and call in a few 'favors' to find every single one in real life and then make sure none of them says a word about what they saw…" his lips curving into a maniac smile at the looks of horror and shock on the SAO Survivors, the Fairy King let out a mighty laugh. "HAHAHAHAH! What, you don't believe me? The technology I'm trying to develop and its results are quite desired by a lot of people with power, you know? And doing something like this will be child's play for people like them…"

"…you…sicken me." blinking, Oberon looked down at the girl he was stepping on, only to see how she had turned her head sideways and was sending a look of rage and disgust his way…and the scariest things was that it didn't seem to have much to do with the fact that her very life had just been threatened. "People like you…are the cancer of this world."

"Oh, how kind of you to say that…" cheerfully commented the man before reaching down and grabbing Leafa's katana. "But didn't your parents taught you to…NOT INTERRUPT AN ADULT?! System Command! Pain Absorption, change to Level 8!"

The moment he said those words, with a clearly twisted glee on his face, Oberon trusted the strange-looking katana down, impaling through the girl's back.

A spike of PAIN filled every single fiber of Leafa's brain. It was something so unexpected, a feeling so alien for her, that she immediately screamed in utter pain, everyone shouting out in horror even as the man removed the blade with a dark chuckle, leaving the girl dry-heaving.

"BASTARD!" screamed Asuna while feeling a wave of utter rage overcoming her, several instances in which her Sensei had talked to her about his little sister coming to mind as she saw the girl trying to contain a sob. "You…how dare you?!"

"Cool, uh? Usually one doesn't feel pain in the virtual world, but it's just another setting that can be adjusted by someone with the rights over it…like me." grinning madly towards Asuna, Oberon 'playfully' touched the back of the Sylph's head with the tip of the katana. "Even more interesting, when the Pain Absorber is set under Level 3, the damage will even affect your body in the real world…shall we test how much this girl can take before she breaks?"

"NO! Sugou, you bastard…she has NOTHING to with this!" shouted Asuna while looking on with horrified eyes.

"But thanks to YOU, she HAS to do with this, my dear Asuna! Next time, you should think about the consequences first before trying to escape from you ca…!"

"I…don't fear you…" all the eyes in the area shot towards the weak voice of the shaking Leafa, even as she turned to glare once again at the Fairy King, a strange smile on her face. "You're just…a pathetic man believing himself more than he is…you're not even a 'villain'…you're just trash." a look of anger filled the man's eyes at those words, even as the Sylph released a small chuckle. "And Justice…always deals with the trash…"

"Oh yeah?!" screamed Oberon while grabbing the girl by her long hair, forcing her upwards even as Asuna and many more started to shout and scream for him to stop, especially when they saw him put the katana's edge against her neck. "Tell me, where is you Justice now, little girl?! SYSTEM COMMAND! Pain Absorption, change to level 3!" everyone's eyes widening, the look on Oberon's face turned outright mad as he glared down at Leafa. "Let's see what happens if I cut off your head like THIS!"

"Don't you dare!" screamed Keita while uselessly trying to stand.

"Leave her, motherfucker!"

"She's just a girl, for God's sake!"

"What kind of monster are you?!"

"SILENCE! Here, I'm the King! I have power over everything! And NONE of you can change that!" shouted the man while glaring murder at everyone. "And now…LOOK as my WILL is done!

"NO! STOP! SUGOUUUU!" roaring with an intensity that no human should possess, Asuna stood up, the sound of 'something' being torn off covering the whole area.

But it wasn't that or the sight of how most of the ridiculous 'clothes' the girl wore had been reduced to rags what drew everyone's attention, no.

It was how her arms and legs suddenly seemed to be made of pure silver-colored metal, the white of her eyes having turned an unholy black before Oberon's shocked gaze.

Blinking in disbelief at the scene before her, Leafa wondered for a moment if she hadn't perhaps started to hallucinate from the pain, especially when the blades on the ground shot towards Asuna's hands as if they were magnets before the girl ran towards them like a demon, the Fairy King screaming and sinking part of Justice's Wings' edge on her neck.

Her earth-shattering scream of pain was enough to stop the Dual Wielder dead on her tracks, her eyes shooting from the Sylph's pained face to Oberon terrified, then more calmed, one.

"I…don't know how you did…whatever the hell you just did." spoke the man while trying to pretend he was calm, and failing utterly. "But if you even MOVE an inch I WILL cut off her head, understood? Now…drop those swords, now!"

Asuna stared blankly, shaking, as if trying to calm down some kind of primal urge to just CHARGE at the man and rip him apart. Then, in a dry move, she let Fafnir's Fang and Elucidator fall to the ground, everyone's still shocked stares fixed on her.

"Good…now KNEEL before me." the chestnut-haired girl didn't move an inch, GLARING at him, making the man scowl. "…System Call! Pain Absorption, change to level 0!" seeing the girl's unnatural black eyes widen, Oberon knew he had her. "…now, my dear Asuna?"

Shaking, the girl sank to her knees. From her place on the bastard's hands, threatened by her own blade, Leafa could only curse everything at the scene…

And then everything SHOOK again when something fell down through the hole on the ceiling everyone had apparently forgotten about, all the gazes in the area once again moving like one as a figure clad in black and white landed and, slowly, stood up.

Shouts of happiness, of warning, screams of his name and several more things filled the air in an instant, but for the boy nothing of it seemed to exist as his bottomless gaze swept over the scene.

He saw Asuna on her knees, looking at him in shock, his eyes widening slightly at seeing her strange and 'familiar' look.

"Sensei…"

He saw Sugou frozen in place, staring at him disbelief, the stupid-looking Avatar not hiding the clear disgust his mere presence caused him…

"Yo-you?! What the hell…?! HOW are YOU even here?!"

And finally…he saw Leafa, being held by the man with her own katana, shaking and with tears running down her eyes, but now staring at him with a mix of shame and hope.

"Onii-chan…"

The world STOPPED.

Or that was the closes thing Oberon, Sugou Noboyuki, could think of to explain the strange and sudden feeling he got when Kirito's eyes moved towards him once again, his face a darkness so depth that it put the Void to shame, his eyes such an endless and empty white that seemed to draw all life from the world into them…

And suddenly, he was VERY small, an ant, no, a bacteria standing before a giant, no, a God…something even BEYOND that.

"Don't touch her."

Those three words sent a wave of fear bigger than anything the man had ever felt in his whole life running over him. Suddenly prey of a senseless panic, he turned towards the caped Spriggan and started to scream at him.

"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER! IF YOU DO, I WILL CUT HER HEAD OFF, AND WITH THE PAIN ABSORBER AS IT IS, SHE WILL REALLY…!"

"Let go of my Master, you dirty piece of trash." echoed a disembodied voice inside Oberon's mind.

He didn't even had enough time to wonder if he had suddenly gone mad before the inscription on Justice's Wings' side shone with a blazing fury, the wheel-like carvings on the hilt SPINNING as he felt the katana PULLING his arm away from Leafa's neck, all the way until he was pointing with it on the opposite direction…and then the blade just FLEW out of his hand.

Several things happened in that instant.

First, Asuna got back to her feet faster than what should have been inhumanly possible and then SHOT forward, jumping and catching the shocked Sylph on her arms, both of them rolling away from the incredulous Fairy King.

Second, Justice's Wings 'screamed' as it impossibly turned around in mid-air, shooting back against Oberon and cutting off the hand with which he had held it.

And then, even as he was starting to scream from the burning and unholy pain THAT had caused, Kirito appeared from nowhere just in front of him, the man freezing in place as the Spriggan STARED at him from barely an inch away, somehow looking down at him despite their clear difference in height.

"Wa…!"

Oberon never even started his last plea. The first word was barely halfway out of his mouth when the gamer's punch crashed against his chest and the world stopped making sense.

His body flew backward, at such impossible speeds that his arms and legs twisted and then were torn off from the pressure BEFORE he crashed against the area's wall.

Then he shot THROUGH it. Through the unbreakable wall.

He was vaguely aware that he had somehow ended up out of the World Tree, Alne spreading far away under him, before he CRASHED against an invisible wall, which his mind helpfully supplied was the Flying Altitude Limit.

That cracked too. Luckily for him, his Avatar apparently decided that was more than it could take and it shred itself to pieces from the impact, even as ALO's Cardinal tried to repair the minor damage on its system.

And then the pain kicked in.

Back inside the World Tree, Kirito lowered his fist, feeling conflicted.

That…had felt extremely satisfying. He decided that, for once, he could ignore any moral implications about it and turned around, only to be glomped by a familiar face.

"SENSEI!" shouted Asuna while slamming her face against his chest and starting to hit his chest repeatedly with her metallic fists. "Idiot, idiot, idiot…!"

"…there, there, Asuna, it's okay." awkwardly muttered the boy while patting her head, his eyes looking how everyone was slowly starting to stand, Keita and the others helping Leafa as she looked their way with a pouting smile. "I'm sorry for not having come befo…"

"No…that's not it…I wanted to be the one who beat the shit out of him!" cried the Dual Wielder while looking at him with betrayed eyes, making him blink and many people in the room to facefault. Leafa even let out a happy chuckle.

"Ehhh…I'm terribly sorry about that?" commented the boy while looking hopefully at his disciple and friend.

"You better be." whispered Asuna while looking directly at him.

Then, she grabbed his cheeks and kissed him.

Any trace of humor froze and melted from the blonde Sylph's face in less than a second, Kirito paralyzed as his mind suffered a Blue Screen of Death from what he just COULDN'T accept was happening AGAIN, even as many people on the room exploded in cheers or shouts of 'I knew it!', not really helping matters as his eyes shakily moved towards his little sister, who was looking at Asuna's back with a gaze that would have probably sent freaking Garou running away scared…or attracted him to fight, whatever was worst.

He didn't even dare to move an inch when the chestnut-haired girl separated her blushing face from his, giving him a very awkward smile.

"…I have been waiting to do THAT for two months." happily declared Asuna.

"….ah." was all the answer the boy could give, even as he saw Keita and the others seemingly notice something was WRONG and slowly inch away from Leafa's dark form. "Uh…I…I…"

"ANYWAY! How are we going to get out of here?!" shouted Keita with the loudest voice he could muster, though it wasn't clear if he was really worried about it or was trying to help his friend and leader.

None of the other male ex-members of the United Heroes Association had any hope of it working and were already preparing themselves to stay as far away as possible from the hell about to break loose…when the most unexpected voice answered.

"I can perhaps help you all with that, Keita-kun."

Freezing, Kirito's head snapped around, his brain helpfully and happily kicking any thoughts about senseless emotions and girls that didn't make sense out of his mind (Despite knowing he would regret it later) as he looked at the suddenly appearing figure in the white lab coat.

Everyone seemed totally confused by the unknown man's appearance before the Spriggan walked towards him, stopping 5 steps from his body as he looked it up and down.

"…Kayaba." spoke the boy with a neutral tone, every single person in the room freezing and then GLARING at the man, weapons being tightly gripped as the Hero crossed his arms. "You're alive."

"Technically speaking, no, I'm not. I died the day SAO ended, and the forensic team the government dispatched to check my body will tell you the same."

"…I SO called that you had become a virtual ghost." sighed Kirito while shaking his head, everyone looking on with either confusion or disbelief. "So…is there any reason why you're here besides trying to act like a good guy all of a sudden?"

"Oh, I'm not acting, Kirito-kun. In fact, look." with a wave of his hand, a menu materialized at the man's side and, before anyone could try to stop him, every single person in the room vanished in a wave of polygons, even the boy's shocked friends and his screaming little sister…except for Asuna, who was now looking around with shock. "See? All of them have been Logged Out."

"…you know, the only thing you have shown me with that is that you could have perfectly gotten them all out in ANY moment during these last two months, yet you just sat back and watched without doing anything." scowling heavily at him, the Spriggan had to do a real effort to not just PUNCH the man on the face. "Any excuse for that?"

"…being a 'virtual ghost', as you put it, it's really boring. I have been busy preparing something special, and besides I KNEW you would end up coming to solve the problem." a big smile appearing on his normally calm face, Kayaba managed to creep the gamer out to very unexpected levels. "After all, that's what a Hero does, isn't it?"

"…I'm SO tempted to just punch you right now…"

"Well, if you want to, then be my guest. But first…" reaching into nowhere, the man suddenly pulled SOMETHING out and thrust it towards Kirito, a calm look on his face as he let go of it.

The Spriggan, for his part, STARED in awe at the egg-like thing, a soft golden-orange glow coming from it. He noticed Asuna walking closer to him to stare at it too, even as he saw the strange and endless colors that seemed to swirl around its spherical core.

"So beautiful…" muttered Asuna with absolute awe.

"…what is this?" questioned the gamer while looking back at his old enemy, feeling as if the thing on his hands almost had a life on its own.

"I call it 'The World Seed'. You could say it's my gift to the world, a small way of trying to repay for my sins, by letting the purest form of my dream live on…but it's up to you what happens with it, Kirito-kun. As I said, the world is changing. And it will be YOU who decides how it changes."

"…you're right about the virtual ghost thing." deadpanned Kirito while looking at him. "You have to be REALLY bored, if you can start saying such crazy lines all of a sudden."

"…maybe you're right. This isn't the most comfortable or easy of existences…then again, perhaps if I had someone around me, like Yui-chan and Strea-kun do with you and your friends, then this 'life' would be easier." shaking his head with amusement, Kayaba let his hand fly over his menu once again. "Well then, time to move on. Say your 'goodbyes' for now, Asuna-kun, I'm letting you out…also, that 'new look' really suits you."

"…yeah, I was also wondering about that…" started to say Kirito…before freezing at the suddenly vibrant look the girl sent his way, his mind panicking when she grabbed his hand and reminded him of WHAT had happened before.

"Sensei…maybe it's a bit late, but…will you come to see me? Like you promised?"

Looking at her hope-filled eyes…the boy could only nod.

He wished he didn't feel as if he was digging his own grave when he did so, though.

With a final, happy nod, Asuna looked towards Kayaba with a neutral face before the man nodded and pushed the button, letting her form disperse into polygons.

For an instant filled with a solemn and tense atmosphere, only the man and the boy were left. The Hero and the Creator, who had once clashed in a level beyond what any mortal could imagine, and in doing so had understood each other better than…!

"She's SO going to kill you when she knows about the kiss." innocently commented the man before vanishing, his trolling smile burning itself on Kirito's retinas.

The scream of 'KAYABAAAAAA!' echoed through all of Alfheim, Alicia and Sakuya's group, who had just been able to get out of the tree after the lower door opened again, looking up with confusion even as Strea tilted her head to the side, Yui still sleeping on her arms.

Cursing the virtual Hell from where the bastard had come from and dearly wishing he never saw him again, the Spriggan opened his menu and Logged Out, not caring anymore and deciding that he needed to face whatever came to him as Saitama would, head-on and without fear like…!

He opened his eyes in time to feel someone taking the Nerve Gear off his head, Suguha towering darkly over him as she put the headgear to the side and STARED at him.

…he suddenly understood the sheer terror King must have felt in almost every moment since he 'joined' the Heroes Association. He was very tempted to scream and try to run away or even jump out of his window right at that moment.

Whatever he was expecting, though, it definitively WASN'T for the girl to reach for him and kiss him AGAIN. His brain cheerfully demanded a vacation while his less thinking part felt every single instant of the two seconds their lips were in contact, very different and at the same very similar at how it had been in the virtual world.

Then Sugu let go of him, her face blushing madly as she seemed to be doing a huge attempt to keep her breathing even.

"…okay. N-now…I'm ahead of Asuna-san in both worlds!" boldly declared the young kendoka, her time as a vigilante helping wonders in not showing how she was internally squeaking and rolling over herself like an embarrassed little girl.

"…uuh?" was all Kazuto could say while he started to recover coherent thought, his mind cheerfully reminding him that he had passed from having anything but imaginary contact with the opposite sex beyond friendship to had his first kiss 'stolen' (Twice, if one counted the difference between virtual and real) by his little sister, who apparently was in love with him, and also a second one given by his disciple/best friend/secret crush, who also seemed to feel 'something' for him. All in the span of a few hours.

…was it too late to wish for a sudden attack of subterranean creatures that wished to wipe out humanity?

"O-Onii-chan!" suddenly shouted Sugu while turning towards him, her face still flushed and her eyes shining. "Who-whose kiss was better?! M-mine or Asuna-san's?!"

The gamer didn't need the emotional-awareness of an adult or the screams of that small and nostalgic part of his brain to know that he SHOULDN'T answer that question; especially when the honest answer would have been something along the lines of 'I enjoyed both on their own way as one of the most incredible things in my life'.

That was as stupid as asking the Tank-Top Brothers to take on the entire Monsters Association by themselves.

Luckily, his brain was now able to react and think at speeds beyond what any normal human could, and 'life-threatening' motivation helped a lot too.

"Tha-that's right, Sugu! Asuna! I need to go to the hospital and see if she and the others are okay!" quickly shouted the boy while grabbing his adoptive sister's shoulders and sitting up, making her blink in surprise, as if she had forgotten about the situation, before scowling lightly at him. "I-I mean, I can't fully trust that Kayaba just let her and everyone go like that, I need to make sure of it!"

Not really a lie, seeing as he would be a fool to really trust Kayaba with anything, but not the truth either because he was pretty sure the virtual ghost wasn't lying when he said that before as Sugou being safely Logged Out too should prove.

For a moment, the girl's face seemed to morph into a deep-thinking frown before she just smiled and nodded towards her adopted brother, standing up as he let out a relieved sigh.

"Okay then, let's go, Onii-chan!"

"Yeah, let's…wait, what?!"

"Hmm? Why are you so surprised, Onii-chan? It's obvious that I'm going with you!" cheerfully clarified the young kendoka at Kazuto's shocked reaction. "After all, I also just helped save them, it would be rude of me to not go and greet them now that they woke up from being years in a coma!"

"Bu-but Sugu…" muttered the incredibly nervous boy with a forced smile, really knowing that THAT wouldn't end well for him in any way. "The-there are no buses at this hour and the only vehicle we have is your bi-bicycle, I wasn't planning on just running there, yo-you know?"

When he saw Suguha start smiling even more widely, the gamer realized that he may have said the wrong thing…