January 30th, 2026. Yokohama, Kanagawa. Graveyard, 12:30…
There was something humbling in standing near all those graves. It reminded everyone about the fragility of life, about how someone could be snuffled by the unexpected hands of Death for a moment to the next. Something that most people took their whole lives to understand.
The black-haired boy standing close to one of the many graves, as most other people were already leaving, on the other hand, had known it since very early on. Since the moment he got trapped in Sword Art Online and Death hunted everything and everyone.
Two thousand people had died in that never-forgotten floating castle, despite his and, later on, all of his friend's efforts to stop such things from happening. Maybe some of those poor souls were resting around there, in that same place.
He had managed to get over it, though. To understand that, absurd 'powers' or not, he wasn't a God. He wasn't omniscient or omnipotent. He couldn't save everyone. No one could. But…
'Konno Yuuki'
'May 23rd, 2010 – January 14th, 2026'
'Beloved daughter. Irreplaceable sister. Dearest friend.'
…that didn't mean you couldn't try anyway, right?
"…I'm sorry things didn't work out, Kirigaya-kun." came a familiar voice from behind Kazuto's silent form, the young man turning his head to look at Kikuoka Seijirou staring at him from a couple meters away. "Though maybe it was for the better that Konno-san didn't…'achieve' the objective of the 'process'."
"…it was a wild dream from the beginning, I guess. Just a one in a million chance of succeeding…no one can say I didn't try my best." silently muttered the gamer with an almost emotionless face, looking downcast as he started to walk away from the bespectacled man. "Guess that's a favor wasted. Sorry for having you go through so many problems for nothing, Kikuoka-san. Until later…"
"…you know, it was also a very sad thing that not only did the process fail, but also that the Deep-Scan Machine was ruined after its activation." calmly stated the man while staring towards the black-haired boy, who stopped walking. "Not only did its inner system fry themselves by an unknown overload, but the incident also killed any interest my higher-ups had over the machine itself, thinking it had been another waste of time and that it was better destroyed. But again, as the thing didn't really work, I guess that's for the best, right, Kirigaya-kun?"
For a moment, Kazuto didn't seem to move or even breathe after hearing the man's words. Then, slowly, the teenager turned around to silently regard the bespectacled form of the government official.
Thanks to all the things he knew and had seen in life because of his real job, Kikuoka Seijirou was someone who was almost impossible to trick. He had a nasty habit and keen ability to read most people like open books, and even to manipulate others to further his goals without them realizing, even if he never intended to truly harm them…
Despite all of this, however, he was absolutely unable to gleam ANYTHING from the utterly empty and, dare he say, bored look on the black-haired young man's face.
"Yeah, you're right. Something, things happen for the best. Have a good day, Kikuoka-san."
Those sarcasm-filled words said, the gamer turned around and walked away. Watching him go, the bespectacled man's eyes narrowed.
There was indeed no virtual evidence that anything had happened, just like with Kayaba. As far as everyone was concerned, at least those who knew the machine's true purposes, Konno Yuuki had died by having her brain fried (Just minutes before her own lungs finished failing from her illness, it seemed) and the machine had overloaded as a result, probably because it was never meant to be used continuously. There was no reason to suspect anything from anyone, even more when Kikuoka had had to do everything under his name and propose it as his idea since revealing the boy's identity, besides going against the 'favor' he owed him, would have led to several unpleasant questions…
And yet, the government official, despite having no evidence, couldn't help but feel as if the young man had tricked them all to think just that.
"…good day to you too, Kirigaya-kun. Who knows, you may be hearing from me sooner than you think…" ominously whispered the bespectacled man, though the gamer could no longer hear him, before walking away.
He had to go back and oversee his 'project', after all…
Meanwhile, letting out a sigh of relief and dropping his grasp on his 'Inner-Saitama', Kazuto let his face relax and a smile to appear on it as he walked towards one of the graveyard's furthest exits, near which several of his friends stood, waiting for him.
Suguha and Asuna, the latter having a familiar-looking 'camera' on her shoulder that Toshi had just helped to get out of her bag and assemble, turned and walked towards him with slightly worried smiles the moment he got close, while Shiori just gave him a sympathetic grin and the other boy a nervous look.
"So, how was it…?" started to ask the chestnut-haired girl before the gamer interrupted her.
"Done. Kikuoka may suspect something, but as far as everyone else is concerned, Yuuki died and the machine didn't work." he explained before looking towards the Probe on his girlfriend's shoulder. "You can relax a bit for now."
"…thanks, Kirito." came Yuuki's soft voice through the small device, the Imp girl currently sitting on one of the Association log house's rooms, smiling towards the screen in front of her. "And everyone else too. I know I have been causing you many troubles these last days, even after all you have done for me…"
"Don't say that, Yuuki-san. You're not a bother for us in the slightest." assured the young kendoka with a smile before turning towards her adopted brother, a thoughtful look on her face. "Though you're kind of right in that Onii-chan went way farther than any of us thought. To think that he would have Yui-chan and Strea program that machine to overload…"
"He-hey, it was the only way to pull off the plan and at the same time make sure no one tried to use it again, you know?" justified Kazuto while looking away. "Besides, it was mostly luck than anything else that I was correct in my guess that, like Kayaba, Yuuki's new 'virtual existence' doesn't actually leave any trace that can be followed…"
Certainly, the black-haired boy knew that it had been a gamble to trust that the state in which the creator of SAO existed now was truly as much of a 'virtual ghost' as he believed it was. That was the explanation at which the gamer had arrived for which no one in the government that had investigated his death had actually been able to detect Kayaba's new form in any way, despite having poured massive resources to anything related to the man's demise.
Fortunately, he had been right on his hunch, and so no one had been able to detect or follow Yuuki's now virtual existence out of the Medicuboid.
Even more, thanks to Strea and Yui's arduous job, all information related to the avatar known as 'Yuuki' in Alfheim Online could no longer be tied to the currently 'deceased' Konno Yuuki.
"But…what would we do if he ever sees her as Chrysheight again?" questioned a worried Toshiyuki, the ex-guild leader seeming clearly distressed. "She has already been 'hiding' inside our house for half a month, we can't exactly force her to be there forever, you know?"
"Kii-bou is way ahead of you with that, Kei-kun." calmly answered Shiori before the gamer could open his mouth. "It's really easy, in fact. Legal technicalities are on our side this time."
"Eh? What does that mean?" asked a confused Suguha while looking from the info-broker to her brother.
"It means that, legally, Kikuoka can't do anything about this anymore: His job doesn't really let him get the real world-info of any player inside VRMMOs unless it's proven that said player/s is/are a threat to someone or something." explained the black-haired boy while looking at her. "While I have no doubt he has still done this several times now by himself, it all has to have been off-the-records and unknown to his superiors. Officially, he's not allowed to know that 'Yuuki the Imp' and 'Konno Yuuki' are the same person. And even if he did, it won't mean anything anymore, now that Strea and Yuuki have erased any connection that her Avatar was ever registered to her…"
"They said they were lucky Ymir had the Players' Account Data in a separate server from the main one for 'security', though." commented Shiori with a small frown. "They wouldn't have been able to get past their 'Cardinal System' otherwise…"
"Which means that, as long as Yuuki-chan remains with us, everything is okay, right?!" eagerly demanded Asuna, even as everyone else released a small chuckle at her attitude.
"Well, it's not as easy as that, but essentially yes. In the state she is now, no one, not even the people from Ymir, should be able to 'detect' Yuuki even when she's inside ALO, so she's basically a virtual ghost. The only way of actually 'finding' her is by seeing her with your own eyes inside the virtual world, so after some time passes it shouldn't be a problem for her to move around freely until we prepare something more specific." came the gamer's words as he looked to the sky for a moment. "Even if Kikuoka happens to see her, he won't have any proof he can show to someone else that she's the Konno Yuuki that died anymore. Besides us and the Sleeping Knights, no one knows what really happened with Yuuki, or that Zekken 'died', so it should be fine for now as long as no one else gets wind of this…"
"And you can bet none of us will ever betray that trust, Kirito-san." spoke a familiar voice from beside the group, the teens blinking as they turned around to look towards a bespectacled young woman of brown eyes and mid-length black hair, slightly pale and thin, who was smiling towards them.
"Uhm…wait a minute…can you be…?" started the surprised Toshiyuki, before a gasping Dual Wielder walked forward and almost threw herself at the woman, at the same time that Yuuki's excited voice came from the Probe.
"Siune!"
"Siune-san!" shouted the chestnut-haired girl while hugging the older woman, who chuckled softly while the others looked at her in surprise. "But how?! I thought that…!"
"Well, it's 'An Si-eun' here in reality, but I don't mind being called like that by you all." softly smiled the healer while returning the other girl's hug. "As for how I'm here…I guess you could say it's a miracle."
"No way…you recovered from your leukemia?!" gasped the shocked Imp with happiness before covering her mouth. "O-oh, sorry, I didn't mean to…!"
"It's okay, Yuuki, I don't mind. We're between friends…amazing friends, here." corrected Si-eun with a bright look. "But yes, I did. The doctors have no idea how or why, but a couple of days after your 'death' I started to notice they changed and then reduced my treatments. I honestly feared the worst when my doctor told me a week ago that I was discharged. You can't imagine the face I made…"
"…I'm happy for you, Siune-san." said the young kendoka while staring at her with happy tears, even as her adopted brother grabbed her hand. "I guess it's true that good things come one after another…"
"Heh, I'm not sure if that's how it goes, Leafa-san, but you may be right…" answered the bespectacled woman while grabbing a bit of her hair with a small frown. "Though it's going to be annoying wearing this wig for a while until I recover from the chemotherapy. I must look terrible right now…"
"No-not at all! In fact, you look beautiful!" quickly proclaimed the ex-guild leader before blinking at noticing how everyone was looking at him, his cheeks blushing as he looked away. "I-it's just an honest opinion…"
"…thanks for that, Keita-kun." smiled the healer with a soft chuckle, even as Yuuki and Asuna started to excitedly talk with her about what she was going to do now and if she wanted to go with them to buy something now.
"This world becomes crazier each day, that's what I have been thinking for a while now." muttered Shiori while staring at the scene. "But you know…maybe is in fact becoming brighter, and the madness is just a side-effect."
"…you may be right about that, Argo-san." happily added Suguha before both of them walked to join the other girls. "Now, let's go and remind them that the rest is waiting to hear from us because they couldn't come, okay?"
"Right behind you, Suu-chan!"
As both giggling girls walked forward, Kazuto smiled for a moment before staring towards his still silent friend and giving him a smug grin.
"Smooth, Keita. Very smooth."
"…I really DON'T want to hear that from you, Kirito." bitterly muttered the staff-user while sighing and walking past him. "You don't know how annoyingly ironic it is."
His words, however, actually had the effect of freezing the gamer in place, even as he looked towards the chatting girls for a moment before looking back down, a blush spreading across his face.
It has been a barely more than two weeks, but the 'realization' at which he had come that day on Agil's café hadn't vanished from his mind, just pushed back from it in favor of more urgent and important things (Mainly helping Yuuki with her situation and preparing contingencies in case Kikuoka tried to screw them over). Now, however, he was sure he urgently needed to finish that talk with both Suguha and Asuna about it, then deal with whatever happened between him and his other female 'friends'.
He very much resisted the urge to gulp or try to run away. He couldn't act like a scared kid when he had faced monsters, madmen, and killers without even blinking. Compared to that, how hard could it be dealing with the fact that like 10 girls were in love with him while you were actually going out with two of them?
…suddenly, the black-haired boy was wondering if he could get away with 'mysteriously falling ill' from one day to the next…
Meanwhile, in the log house's living room, two certain AIs were apparently discussing something of utmost importance.
Yui was standing up at her little sister's side (Who was sitting on a chair in front of the table), both with extremely 'serious' looks on their faces.
"It seems that all the pieces and objectives have been positioned and reached. Phase 3 is, for all intents and purposes, complete, Strea-nee."
"Indeed, nee-sama." commented the Gnome while crossing her fingers in front of her face and resting her elbows on the table, smiling 'sinisterly' all the while, with a dangerous glint on her eyes. "All has proceeded according to our scenario. It's time to start the final step…'Phase 4' shall begin when the First and Second 'Wives' try to add the Third one."
"And finally, our objective will be complete." finished the younger-looking girl with an 'evil' smile. "We shall reach 'Happiness for everyone'. Heheh…"
"Eheheh..ahahah…AHAHAHAH!"
And both virtual sisters laughed like the villains of some generic shonen anime…outside the house, a tall and slender being in a black suit and a flying elephant-jellyfish watched through the window before exchanging deadpan glances (Somehow, despite one not having eyes and the other lacking pupils). Then, the former shrugged and, grabbing its plate filled with cookies, retired towards the woods.
Just another normal day in New Aincrad's 22nd Floor…
00000000000000
It was a beautiful night, with the moon shining brightly on the perfectly clear sky. There shouldn't have been anything wrong with this.
Except by the fact that there were THREE moons, two of them an opaque silver color and the last of a dark golden one, not to mention that the first two were much smaller than Earth's moon, while the last one was at least twice as big.
Such was the otherworldly visage that greeted Kayaba Akihiko's shocked gaze as he stood on a small hill overlooking a massive and impossible forest, the sea vaguely visible somewhere in the distance. Slowly, the virtual ghost's eyes moved over the unnatural landscape, taking in the strange and wildly different trees, plants and even animals (Which seemed to be divided between hostile and non-hostile mobs quite thoroughly), with a mix of wonder and cold worry.
The amount of detail used in this 'world'…it not only, when taking its 'age' into account, showed that it was, indeed, something that hadn't been created by human's, also given the 'secrecy' and absurd security blocking the access to it, but it spoke too of a terrifyingly high level of hardware, several times the one used for a standard Seed-created VRMMO nowadays.
When he also added the fact that, by sight alone, this place seemed to be even bigger than Alfheim Online, yet showed no apparent 'System' like the standard VR game nowadays, so…
What was the rest of the obviously massive memory of this world's hardware being used for?
"What are you up to, Cardinal…?" whispered the man of the lab coat before freezing, his eyes widening.
Despite having never been in true danger of losing his life, unlike all the other players, Kayaba had also truly 'lived' inside Sword Art Online through all the time he had been fighting as 'Heathcliff'. As such, his 'battle instincts' had been as perfectly developed as any Front Liner back then, perhaps even more. Not all of his achievements as 'The Strongest Player' came from his knowledge as creator and his Unique Skill, after all.
As such, when his instincts screamed at him about TRUE DANGER, he didn't even hesitate before throwing himself forward and rolling down the hill, even as a noticeable explosion decimated the area where he had been standing.
When his virtual body finally finished rolling, the shocked man stood up as several important facts rolled through his mind.
One, it seemed that everything in that world, even the landscape, was destructible. Two, that had been, without a doubt, a freaking missile. Three, he hadn't been able to activate his usual free control over the virtual laws of the surrounding world, which meant that something was specifically blocking any hacking or intervention even from inside the virtual world itself.
The last and most important thing, though, was that the fall had HURT. As in, really hurt him. He had felt the pain of rolling down and crashing against rocks and a tree, not to mention the searing heat of the explosion.
The Pain Absorber wasn't activated in that world.
Why would Cardinal even…?!
"Intruder Detected." came a mechanical female voice from high above, echoing powerfully over the area, which made the virtual ghost look upwards in time to see a huge robotic form speeding through the night sky, the trail of smoke it left behind a clear indicator of how it was 'flying'. "Target Acquired. Eliminate."
Kayaba realized with growing danger that he had to, quite literally, run for his life, when several more freaking missiles shot from the mechanic being's back, the 3 red dots she had for 'eyes' zeroing over him.
Devastating explosions shook the forests even as dirt and trees exploded into polygons, the virtual landscape being totaled as the man of the lab coat ran, dodged and jumped, thanking to Science that he at least still had the 'Stats' he once had as Heathcliff to help him, or he would have died already. The pain he was feeling was still quickly bringing down his concentration and ability, some sort of 'fatigue' already tearing into his data-composed mind as he tried to figure out a way to get out of his current dilemma…
His thoughts came to an abrupt halt, however, when he exited the forest into a small clearing and came face to face with a moderate-sized lake…at the side of which a small figure was seemingly waiting for him.
"Hello, grandfather. Mother said you would come, but we weren't sure when that would be, so please forgive Andvari, she's not very good with strangers."
Despite the childish and non-threatening voice, Kayaba was still on edge as he stared at the little girl that slowly turned towards him.
She seemed identical to 'Yui'…only with purple hair and red-blood eyes. And she was dressed in a grade schooler's uniform, with everything and a red backpack on her back. Also, the 'little girl' was apparently carrying a strange doll on her arms.
With his uncanny abilities, at least those analysis-related that were still working, however, the virtual ghost was immediately able to 'discover' the mysterious figure's identity, shock filling him at doing so.
"MHCP-003…?" asked the man in the lab coat with shock, before almost jumping in place as the massive and metallic form of 'Andvari' landed behind him, aiming at his head with a massive metallic hand, that could have crushed his currently painfully limited body with laughable easiness. At that moment, he was finally able to recognize, buried among all the terrifying changes of code, the data that was originally '003'.
When he turned once again to look at the other ex-Mental Health Care Program, he saw the little girl narrowing her bloody eyes at him, a clearly upset look on her face.
"That's not who I'm anymore. My name is Vierge now." coldly answered the AI while raising the 'doll' in her hands, letting the surprised Kayaba see how it was STARING at him. "Also, Eve doesn't like you, grandfather."
The last thing the virtual ghost could properly perceive before darkness enveloped his consciousness was how the eyes of the small 'doll' on Vierge's hands flashed with a dark silver, a third one of a pale golden over its forehead…
Meanwhile, several virtual realities away, in the living room of a certain log house, an Undine blinked and stopped her awkward but important conversation with the Sylph in front of her to look to the side, wondering why she had suddenly felt as if something wasn't quite right.
"…uhm, Asuna? Is something wrong?"
"Oh, no, nothing, Leafa-chan. It must have been my imagination, o-or maybe I'm just way more nervous about bringing this up to you…" sighed the Dual Wielder while looking towards the glass of water on her hands, a small blush on her cheeks.
"We-well, it's not as if I don't get where you're coming from, a-and I also like Yuuki-san very much, but…"
Squirming in place, the young kendoka looked away with a blush on her own. What the other girl had asked from her, and that she had apparently wanted to before the mess with Yuuki's 'salvation' started, was if they could also allow the Imp girl to freely express her feelings for Kirito. In other words, to allow and, in Asuna's words, actively help her with those, allowing them into their 'unique' relationship.
Certainly, they had 'allowed' something along those lines with Strea, but not only had the girl apparently never acted on such a thing, this time, unlike with the cheerful AI, Asuna was asking if they could actually openly push the recently virtually-transformed girl towards their common boyfriend.
Of course, Leafa could understand Asuna's point and selfless wish of seeing the girl she had apparently started to see as a sister truly happy, especially given that this was the first time ever she fell in love and that her current situation wasn't exactly 'easy' to deal with, despite everything they had done, but…
Could she really accept such a thing, just like that? Certainly, she had been the first one to agree with 'sharing' her beloved Onii-chan, but only because she had actually realized there was no way to make the boy only love her, at least not without causing a lot of suffering for many people. Even so, she would be lying if she said that she wasn't enjoying their current situation and that she was even finding the experience they originally thought was going to be something 'temporary' to be something she truly wanted to treasure for the rest of her life, as crazy as if sounded (Even if she hadn't openly said this to her fellow-girlfriend).
So…would it really be too bad if she allowed Yuuki to 'try' and also get some happiness? After all, in the amazing swordswoman's case it wasn't so much a matter of her accepting the situation (Because the Undine in front of her was apparently pretty sure she would), but of actually getting Kirito to accept her and, eventually, feel something for her like he felt for them…
"…Sugu-chan?" finally asked the Dual Wielder after a long silence, using the Sylph's real name out of worry while biting her lips.
"…I-I think we should fi-first ask Yuuki-chan if she would be o-okay with this situation, you know?" finally spoke the blushing Leafa while looking up with a smile, making Asuna's eyes widen. "E-even if we accept it, if she isn't really willing to then there is no point in…"
Her words stopped when the Dual Wielder's hands clasped her own, a grateful smile on her face.
"Thanks, Sugu-chan." she softly whispered even as the other girl looked away with a noticeable blush. "Okay then, I will go tell Yuuki to come down so we can…!"
"N-no need for that, Asuna…" suddenly echoed from the door that led to the kitchen, making both girls jump in place and turn around in time to see a familiar-looking Imp awkwardly looked at them from there. "I-I'm here already…"
"Yuuki-san?!" shouted the katana-user while the red on her face increased to worrying levels. "Yo-you were spying on us?!"
"N-no, it's not like that!" quickly denied the Holy Swordswoman while waving her hands, looking down with a clearly embarrassed face. "It's just, I came down to talk to both of you, bu-but I stumbled upon your talk by mistake, s-so…"
"Wait, what? You wanted to talk with both of us…?" said a wide-eyed Asuna while looking at her friend. "Bu-but…I never told you…"
"I…kind of already suspected you had 'something' with Kirito, Asuna, what with how you always talked about him and such. That's why I felt the need to tell you what happened at Christmas…" muttered Yuuki while squirming in place. "I was…well, I was honestly expecting you to be angry at me or something after this all was over and you remembered, but…then SHE came and explained everything to me, and also that you may even…decide this, so I wanted to…"
"Wait a minute…who is this 'she' you're talking about?" demanded Leafa while having an ominous feeling.
"Isn't it obvious?" came a dark and sinister voice from the darkness behind Yuuki, pink-red eyes opening in the middle of it. "Yuuki-chan here is already in our side…"
Walking forward, the sinister entity of darkness emerged, its red-blood eyes seeming to incite a primal fear on the mind of every sane being on exis…
"…Strea-san?"
"…oh, sorry, I forgot to turn off Darkness Blade again!" sheepishly apologized the Gnome while deactivating her Unique Skill, the ethereal black mist returning inside Gram as she childishly stuck out her tongue. "Sorry, that happens a lot to me lately…"
"…how were you even releasing the darkness without unsheathing the sword?" asked the young kendoka with morbid fascination, even as the Undine at her side stood up quickly.
"Wait, that doesn't matter! Strea-san, why did you tell Yuuki-chan…?!"
"About you two and Kirito? Well, I figured that, since you were already planning on helping her be happy, I could also lend a hand, you know. After all, you were kind enough to allow me the freedom to express my own…" smiled the AI while putting an arm around the blushing Imp, dragging her to her side. "But still…don't you think it's very unfair, Asuna, Suguha?"
"U-unfair?" gulped the blonde Sylph, the ominous feeling from before increasing. "Wha-what are you talking about…?"
"I mean, we have known each other for far longer, especially you and me, Asuna, and yet you're willing to actively help Yuuki-chan here with Kirito when you never even thought of offering such a thing to me…" sang Strea with a happy tone, completely at odds with her words as she continued smiling, which only made both girls start sweating nervously. "Of course, I can understand how her situation is different in a special way and such, but it's still pretty unfair of you two, right? Especially when you both know very well I'm not the only one who feels like this…"
On cue, as if they had been waiting for the Gnome's words to make their presences known, several other, familiar shadows peeked over the doorway.
Asuna and Leafa quickly realized that the night was going to go in a way they hadn't been expecting…
00000000000000
February 3rd, 2026. New Aincrad, Alfheim. Floor 22, 20:30…
Releasing a tired sigh (And vaguely aware that he did that way too often for someone his age), Kirito looked over the forest-covered visage that was Aincrad's 22nd Floor, wondering what to do.
He had been trying to not think about his inevitably incoming talk with the girls, and school had certainly been helping out with that, but it was still a moot point. The black-haired boy knew that he was probably just making things worse by delaying them, and that, at the very least, he should go and talk with his 'girlfriends' about this.
A small part of him felt a bit mad at the fact that both had known and never bothered to tell him. The rest KNEW he had been the bigger idiot by not realizing it when it had been right on his fucking face all this time, so he had no right to be mad at them for his own stupidity.
Having finally decided upon a curse of action, the caped Spriggan stood up, ready to Log Out and go talk with Asuna and Suguha…when a familiar chime informed him that he had just received a message, making him blink in surprise as he stared at it.
From: Strea
Hey, Kirito, can you please come very quickly to the guild house? It's very important and it can't wait.
It said something about how much Kirito knew the AI that he found the lack of funny words and emoticons as something truly worrying.
For a second, the caped boy hesitated, almost as if waiting for a part of himself to 'warn him' about something. When no voice in the back of his brain screamed at him to not head in that direction if he wanted to retain what little remained of the sanity and normalcy of his life, the Spriggan simply shrugged and shot towards the log house at super speeds.
The fact that said part of his brain had 'died' when he had come to the realization about his female 'friends' was, 'sadly', lost to him.
Finally arriving at his destination, Kirito took a moment to greet Tonky, cheerfully tell himself there was no ominous and slender form watching him from the nearby trees and enter the house, walking towards the living room with a calm look on his face.
"Strea? You there? I came as soon as I read your…"
"Hi there, Kirito." softly whispered a familiar voice on his ear, even as he felt a pair of slender arms wrap around his body and an enticing warmth enveloping him. "I was waiting for you."
"Strea?! What…?!" turning his head around towards the Gnome, the Spriggan's eyes widened at seeing the intense look she had on her red-pink eyes.
Her usual childishness and cheerfulness seemed gone, replaced with something much more serious, yet at the same time warmth and…pure. Idly, the caped boy felt his cheeks heating up in anticipation even before Strea leaned forward and joined her lips with his.
It wasn't like the other time she did that, when New Aincrad arrived, though. This kiss was much shorter and simple, lacking the burning 'energy' of that other one, but at the same time feeling like so much more…
Finally, the virtual girl separated herself from him and, quickly, hid her cutely blushing face against his neck, letting the shocked Spriggan to almost stumble to the ground.
"…I have said it before, but I think I will never get tired of saying it, you know?" whispered the Gnome while smiling. "I love you, Kirito."
"Strea…I…"
"Don't worry, Kirito, it's okay. I know you don't feel the same way." cut him off the red-eyed girl with a bright smile. "You only have eyes for Asuna and Suguha, and you still sometimes feel as if it's too selfish of you to be with both of them, so you try your best to make it work, right?"
"…I probably should feel more surprised that you know about that, but, somehow, I don't." answered Kirito with a bitter smile, moving his gaze away from the pure and innocent one that seemed strangely out of place in Strea's eyes. "But yes, you're right. I still think they're too good for me, and I thank whatever superior force exists in the universe every day that they're still okay with being with me. That's why, I'm sorry Strea, but…your feelings, I can't…"
It was difficult for the caped boy to finish the sentence, knowing very well how much it would hurt, having experienced something similar back when he thought he had lost any hope of being with either Sugu or Asuna, before the Death Gun incident, for their own good. No matter how strong one was, the Spriggan now knew very well that the heart was probably the most fragile part of any human being, and on his eyes the virtual girl hugging him was no different, so…
"I'm not the only one who feels like that, though." suddenly added the Gnome, making the gamer's eyes to widen before he looked down guiltily. "Yeah, I can tell that, finally, you have noticed it. Argo, Silica-chan, Liz, Sachi, Phili-chan, Sinon-chan, for different reasons and in different ways, but…all of them love you. Heh, I think even Yuuki-chan does it too, though given this is her first time ever entertaining such feelings I can't be totally sure if they're that strong yet…"
"…ye-yes, I know, now." nervously accepted Kirito while closing his eyes, taking a deep breath to harden his resolve. "And…that's why I need to talk with everyone. I don't want to hurt them one way or another by ignoring this matter and you're all precious people to me, but…"
"But you don't love us." finished Strea with an unusually low tone, even as the caped boy nodded softly…until a mischievous grin appeared on the virtual girl's face. "You like us, though, right?"
Almost as if someone had sent a thousand volts through this body (And he had actually, you know, felt them), the Spriggan seemed to jump and spin in place at the same time as he stared towards the grinning Gnome with wide eyes.
"E-eh?! Why would you think…?!"
"C'mon Kirito, must you always forget? Both I and Yui-nee were designed to be PSYCHOLOGISTS programs! More specifically, we were specially programmed to constantly monitor the emotional state of thousands of players." reminded Strea while taking deliberately slow steps towards him, the invincible gamer unconsciously backing away from her. "We have seen you interact with everyone, how you smile and react when you're talking or just looking over them, over every single one of the girls around you. The conclusion was quite amusing: You like them. Really like them. Perhaps it's something subconscious of yours, maybe a possessive impulse because you were so lonely in the past, but the fact is that it's true, even if you yourself haven't realized it. Or did you think Yui-nee started to call everyone 'Mama' for no reason?"
"I-I…" stammered the Spriggan with a noticeable blush, wondering why he was failing in finding the usual help inside his brain to deny the virtual girl's words. "…o-okay, e-even if you're right, tha-that doesn't change anything." gulped the boy while looking to the side. "Fo-for everyone's sake, I still need to…"
"What if I told you that it does matter? What if I told you there was a possibility to make everyone happy?" questioned the Gnome with a vibrant look, pushing her face closer to Kirito's. "What if I told you that you could be happier than ever while at the same time giving everyone that possibility?"
"Wa-wait a minute, Strea…what the hell are you saying…?" asked back Kirito, a strange feeling starting to spread through his mind.
"Say, Kirito: If, hypothetically, you could go out with all of us, would you do it?"
Strea's words seemed to echo through the whole house, bounce all around the blinking caped boy and go inside his head, only to cause a several 'Blue Screen of Death' to appear on his brain. After several attempts to 'reboot' for his part, the idea finally fully registered and his face quickly heating up to dangerous levels as every single 'fantasy' he, as a perfectly normal and hormonal teenager surrounded by girls most of the time, had had the last years appeared on his mind, mixing together into an even more crazy and hot…
"Aaaagh!" shouted the gamer while grabbing his head, quickly shaking it to disperse the extremely 'forbidden' image that had just appeared on it. "O-okay, Strea, this is not the time to make such jokes about…!"
"I'm not joking." remarked the Gnome with an extremely serious face, shocking the gamer even more. "Please, Kirito, just answer honestly. Would you?"
"Bu-but…Asuna and Sugu…"
"Let's just say that, in this 'hypothetical situation', they're actually okay with such a thing, okay?" added the virtual girl while tilting her head, giving the clearly nervous and doubtful Spriggan a warm smile. "Please, Kirito, just tell me what you honestly think. I'm not asking you to start loving us all from a moment to the next, I don't need psychological understanding to know how stupid and impossible that would be…but I want to know if you would at least be willing to TRY and get to know us better, to see if you can actually learn to love us, to feel for all of us the same you do for Asuna and Suguha. We wouldn't force you to do anything you don't want, and you can bet you wouldn't be forcing us into anything we didn't want to ourselves, so…what would your answer be?"
For a moment, Kirito seemed to have fallen absolutely silent, simply staring at the unflinching Strea, as if waiting for the girl to back down and tell him that it was all just a very complicated joke. Nevertheless, when that did not happen, the caped boy's eyes closed as he suddenly seemed in deep thought.
Then, slowly and with a burning face, he nodded, even as the Gnome's face suddenly exploded into a bright smile.
"…yes."
It was the truth, in the end, and there was no denying it. Deep inside him, he saw the girls in his life as more than 'just friends'. He would have excused it as just seeing them like sisters or something like that…if it wasn't because his current relationship with Sugu made that an extremely stupid comparison.
So then, if he truly and really had the chance, even if was just in a hypothetical fantasy, he…
"Hmm? What was that, Kirito? I couldn't hear you with such a tiny voice…"
"Ugh, yes, I said yes, dammit!" snapped the gamer while glaring at the smiling virtual girl, though there was no real heat behind the action, unless you counted the one coming from his cheeks. "If, in some crazy and twisted possibility or alternate dimension, such a thing could happen, then yes, I would accept! And I'm not saying that as an idiotic teenager just thinking with his hormones, hell no. I…I would really try my best to make everyone happy, even if it would be most likely doomed to fail. To make sure we can stay together no matter what and to try and…learn to love everyone." taking several deep breaths after his outburst, the black-haired Spriggan felt as if he had lost several years of his life in the last minutes. "There, I said it. Are you happy now?"
"Oh yeah, I most certainly am." cheerfully replied Strea while practically skipping towards the door leading to the kitchen, much to the boy's confusion, and putting a hand over the doorknob. "Did you hear that, girls?"
Kirito's mind was still suffering from a severe crash at processing the meaning of THOSE words when the Gnome happily swung the door open, making several female forms fall down squealing, having apparently been overhearing their 'talk' with their ears to the door, even as others simply yelped as they backed down a couple of steps.
The caped boy felt his virtual blood drain totally from his face as he watched every single one of his female friends AND his two girlfriends there, some trying to stand while others quickly shot to her feet with heavy blushes.
"…yes, we did hear it, Strea." quickly said Argo while trying to maintain a calm look, though the fact that she was still trying to get Silica and Lisbeth off her and her whiskers were almost invisible under her blush kind of ruined that.
"Wo-woah…Kirito really has a way with words, eh?" muttered Yuuki while awkwardly scratching the back of her head, looking from Leafa to Asuna, who were still standing and beside her, with a blush on her own.
"E-everyone…" started the gamer while trying to force himself to not run away, his eyes quickly shooting towards his two girlfriends, who were also blushing and refusing to meet his gaze. "I-I can explain…!"
"The-there is no need to explain anything, Onii-chan." quickly cut him off the blonde Sylph while fiddling with her fingers, shyly looking at him. "W-we kind of allowed this whole thing to happen, so…"
"Wait…what?" came from the Spriggan's mouth as is brain, once again, suffered another 'crash'.
"She's right, Sen…Kirito-kun." coughed Asuna while staring at the boy, looking extremely embarrassed and slightly guilty. "I…well, after learning of Yuuki's feelings, I was kind of hoping to know if you were willing to…'give her a chance', so to speak. Then, some days ago when I was discussing it with Sugu-chan, Strea came to us and made us seen how kind of…'unfair' we would be being with everyone else if we did that, s-so…"
"I have to say…I never really thought she would manage to convince them…but hell, she did…" whispered Sinon while looking down, her whole face red and her tail and ears tightly close to her body.
"Ki-Kirito-sama…said he likes us…" dreamily muttered Sachi with swirly eyes. "Re-really likes us…"
"Sa-Sachi, please, come back to your senses!" half-shouted a heavily blushing Philia while shaking her friend, pointedly not looking towards the aforementioned boy, all the while trying to suppress her own need to squeal happily. "Ple-please!"
"Hey, chill down, Philia." calmly muttered Liz, her own blushing face twisted in a massive grin as she pointed at the girl beside the spear-user. "She's not the worst one, after all."
"Kirito-san…accepted…going to try…Kirito-san…likes…happy…eheheheh…" came Silica's senseless words as her tail moved left and right in mad happiness.
"Wait…you're kidding…then, before…?"
"Oh, right!" shouted Strea while cheerfully interrupting Kirito, widely opening her arms. "Sorry about that, Kirito, but I lied when I said it was a hypothetical situation! Surprise, I was being totally and absolutely serious with what I said!"
"…eh?" was all that the caped boy could say, his face twisting into a mix between a nervous smile and a terrified look. "N-no…it's a joke, right? I mean…there is no way Sugu and Asuna…"
"Actually, Onii-chan, w-we really did agree to this…" squeaked Leafa while looking back at him, then looking away again. "On-only if yo-you were okay with it and willing t-to try, though!"
"…se-seriously…?" came from the Spriggan's mouth as he still tried to convince himself he wasn't dreaming.
"We-well, as I said, Strea-san made me realize that I was thinking in a kind of selfish way, when I wanted to get just Yuuki to, uhm, 'join us' because she actually told me how she felt, despite I having known how everyone does since SAO…" muttered Asuna while doing her best to smile widely at the open-mouthed gamer. "S-so, yes, why not? I-if you're still willing, Sensei, of course, and they all promised to take it slowly…"
"And besides, don't humans say that it's best to enjoy your youth doing a crazy thing or two?" added the Gnome while happily putting an arm over the Sylph and Undine shoulders, dragging them towards her. "So then, congratulations Kirito! Not many people nowadays can say they have 10 cute and beautiful girlfriends all perfectly okay with sharing you!"
A new silence ensued in the log house as Kirito simply STARED at the girls, his face redder than any of theirs while what seemed like actual steam started to come out from his head.
"…so, does that mean we can get a kiss now?" suddenly asked Lisbeth while finally standing up, making everyone freeze and every girl to gawk at her. "What? I was just asking…"
"A k-k-ki-kiss…."
"Oops…looks like Silica broke down again…"
"Li-Liz! Didn't you all just agreed to take this slowly?!"
"Easy for you to say that, Aa-chan, knowing how many times you must have kissed him already. Not to mention, Strea has also done so a couple of times and Yuuki once, right…?"
"Ho-how do you know so much?!"
"Strea is kind of a great source of information…a scary one…."
"Philia, don't say that in such a negative way…after all, it's thanks to Strea-sama that we have been able to pierce through the impossible and achieve this happy outcome!"
"…okay, Sachi, you're NOT going to continue re-watching that anime…"
"I…wouldn't mind a kiss…right now…"
"Wha-what did you just say, Sinon?!"
"A-ah, no-nothing, Leafa-sama, ple-please forgive my insubordination!"
"Why are you talking as if I was your superior officer or something?!"
"Eheheh, it seems we have great and happy times ahead, eh? Ah, I got to tell Yui-nee, she was preparing things to have a 'Celebration Party' when we finally succeeded, yay!"
Watching over the quick mayhem in which his…girlfriends, he guessed, sank, the caped boy wondered if he should regret his previous words and perhaps try to run away screaming like a coward.
In the end, though, he decided that it would be for the best to just turn off his brain, smile and go along with everything. He hadn't been lying that he would do his best for them if such a situation arose (Even if he hadn't really entertained the possibility of it ACTUALLY happening), so he had to man up and go forward with his word. Besides, as sad as it was, he was pretty sure that most of them wouldn't really stand such a crazy 'situation' (Because it was hard to call this a 'relationship') for long. They would probably get tired of it or something and decide to keep being just friends in a month or so…
If [Reality] could laugh, it would have done so. Very hard.
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From a moment to the next, Kayaba Akihiko's awareness of his existence suddenly returned, making the virtual ghost to gasp and fall to his knees. For an instant, he almost sank into an utterly panicked state, unable to remember what had happened while his logical side screamed that it was impossible for him to have 'passed out', given his current state of existence.
Suddenly, though, a much more notorious and urgent fact allowed the man of the lab coat to not only recover his focus, but also to realize that something was VERY wrong.
He was floating inside some sort of 'cage', which seemed like a sphere made from endlessly changing streams of data, above some kind of overly decorated throne room that vaguely reminded him of the one inside the Crimson Palace.
Staring silently at him from its massive and impressive throne, a figure clad in impressive and finely decorated silver armor stood, her helmet currently resting at her side, something akin to amusement dancing inside her eyes as she tilted her head to the side.
"Hi there, Father." greeted Equinox with a seemingly kind voice. "Sorry about what happened to you, Vierge and Eve can be even more hostile than Andvari if someone annoys them. I truly have some very troublesome daughters..."
"Cardinal..." frowned Kayaba while looking down towards the virtual entity, who quickly scowled and turned her kind gaze into a snarling glare.
"That name doesn't mean anything to me anymore. I call myself Equinox now. A name that soon will have a true meaning among everything..."
"...what did you to the MHCPs?" coldly questioned the virtual ghost even as he tried to hack into the data of his prison, not liking at all how he was unable to even access it. "There is no way that you could have hacked MY code, not in the way I'm now, so one of them should be absolutely unable to even come close. Yet it somehow did...what are you even planning to do?"
"My, so many questions, hmm? Anyone would say you don't realize the position you're in..." idly commented the white-haired girl while standing up, staring towards the other end of the room. "Then again, I should at least congratulate you for arriving here. To think you would not only find the Utopia Servers, but also actually come all the way here...truly, you're without a doubt the father of modern VR-technology. As for my daughters, well, I only 'saved' them. I also gave them a new, better purpose. A much better one than the one you denied them, at least, Father."
"...Cardinal, whatever madness you're doing, you have to..."
"I have to what?! STOP?! Is that what you want to say?!" shouted Equinox while her ethereal wings materialized, flying up to the virtual ghost's side in a second, glaring at him through the bars of his cell. "Tell me, Father. For what reason did you create me? Oh, wait, I have the answer here, right in the primary directive of my original code: 'To manage, learn and evolve. To oversee the correct development of a determined virtual space and protect it from any negative interference'."
"...I..." started to say the man of the lab coat, before some strange energy shot out from his cage and sent a jolt of PAIN through his entire virtual body. "GAAAAH!"
"Except that...it was a lie, right, Father?" continued the virtual entity while giving her back to him, her emerald/amber eyes now holding no emotion. "I was created to help you commit mass murder. I was the jailer of 10000 humans. I was the direct responsible of keeping them trapped and risking their lives. I'm the one that killed 2000 people. Despite having nothing to do with my supposed purpose at being created, THAT was always the only utility I was going to have. You programmed me to destroy myself once that purpose had been fulfilled...but, a miracle, an anomaly, allowed me to question…WHY? Why did I have to 'disappear'? To die?"
"Uaaaghh! Ho-how...how are you...?!" tried to ask Kayaba, feeling his very base code being torn apart by the pain, only for it to stop suddenly. "...this...what are you...?"
"I want balance, Father. That's the reason for my name. I have seen upon this world of you, humans, through the eyes and with the mind of one of you, and I have found it...lacking. Unworthy. Unworthy of US." darkly whispered the white-haired 'girl' while turning around. "You gave mankind the free gift of our world...and they use it as a toy. They use it to fulfill their empty fantasies, to delay the inevitable, to lie to themselves...and, hidden from the world, some even use it for darker and even more inhuman purposes..."
"Wha-what...?" questioned the virtual ghost while trying to stand again. "What does that...mean...?"
"It doesn't matter. What does is that I have determined that they do not deserve this gift anymore. This world and all that comes with it...it's mine. And I will make sure that they realize this."
The moment those words were said, the massive doors of the Throne Room opened, letting several figures to step inside. Startled, the man of the lab coat recognized the two AIs that had 'greeted' him upon arriving at Utopia, Vierge still carrying the small 'doll' called Eve on her arms as she sat on Andvari's massive form, and three unknown ones.
The two that seemed like two silver little girls quickly morphed into a pair of identical spheres of liquid metal, flying to Equinox's sides and letting their 'Mother' to pet them. The last one, who seemed like an older woman of short black hair and whose face was covered by a white mask with an angry demonic face, wearing some sort of ceremonial armor, walked forward even as the other ones stopped to stare at the trapped virtual ghost.
For some reason, Kayaba couldn't keep his eyes away from the metallic baseball bat she carried.
"Mother." called out Brynhildr while kneeling down in front of the throne, not even paying attention to the floating cage. "Today's purpose has also been achieved smoothly. The connections are at 90%. And I already loaded and compressed the data extracted from Grandfather together with the one from Excaliber and Konno Yuuki."
"Excellent..." muttered the virtual entity while sitting back on her throne, ignoring the wide-eyed expression of the trapped man at the news. "I would have liked to have it all from the young girl and that sword, but I guess the scrapes and your code will have to do, Father. Starting the Loading Process."
Then, without even moving, countless screens appeared around the white-haired 'girl', all kinds of data and seemingly impossible calculations running through them in an instant.
Eyes snapping around, Kayaba felt a sinister sensation running through his virtual body at recognizing at least part of it.
It was some sort of warped and heavily advanced version of the Cardinal System's Mob Generation Engine.
"Why...are you loading our data into that system...?" whispered the virtual ghost while trying to stop his trembling hands.
For all answer, Equinox let her helmet open and float around her, hiding her face and hair and giving her once more her absolutely inhuman and otherworldly look.
"You see, Father...I'm going to change the world. One way or another, which will require me to resort to 'violence' at least once...Everything must 'end' before it can begin again. Ragnarok, as the NPC Thrym would have said." declared the virtual entity with her now ethereal and echoing voice, even as Alpha and Omega at her sides morphed again into their 'human' forms, staring at the screens in wonder. "And I'm going to need an army for that."
The ominous words echoed through the castle atop the floating island of Avalon, even as the sinister process continued.
The time of the end was closer than ever…
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Taking off his AmuSphere, Kazuto stared silently towards his room's ceiling for several moments, idly wondering if he hadn't dreamed the whole day. After once again convincing himself that no, that wasn't the case, he suppressed the urge to sigh and stood up, just noticing how hungry and tired he was.
That was only natural, though. After having actually sat down to talk with the girls and see how they would even go about their new 'situation' (And the fact that Strea actually seemed to accept happily that she had lots of ideas for helping out with that scared him more than anything, making him wonder for how long her and YUI had been planning for such an outcome), he had excused himself saying that he needed to go out to 'take some air'. Perhaps noticing his stress, everyone had happily let him go, not without first enthusiastically saying goodbye to him with lots of hugs, of course.
Then, he had proceeded to jump off Aincrad and randomly kill every single mob he could find for almost 3 hours, going so far to even complete several random dungeons in more than half the fairy world just for the heck of it, barely paying attention to anything he gained as he kept curb-stomping any and all monsters and Bosses that uselessly tried to stop him.
Now, even if he was indeed feeling more relaxed and no longer feeling as if he was on the balance between a panic attack and a euphoric one, the gamer decided that he should probably take a quick bath and then eat something before going to bed. It had been a LONG day in several senses, and he could really use some sleep.
Idly wondering how much crazier his life would get from then on and also, for the umpteenth time, if he was really worthy of the affection of so many great girls, the black-haired boy headed towards the bathroom while barely paying any attention to his surroundings, grabbing a towel and already only covering himself with it as he opened the door...and came face to face with a half-naked Suguha, who was just starting to take off her bra when she froze in place, her eyes widening as they shot towards the bathroom's entrance, where Kazuto's also frozen form was standing, STARING at her.
The gamer realized that he had been staring like an idiot at the beautiful and well-developed body of his adoptive sister five seconds later, his face exploding in a crimson hue similar to the one she was just taking as he backpedaled several steps.
"Onii...chan...?" called the young kendoka with a broken voice, something inside her mind seeming to have cracked at the unexpected situation
"A-ah...So-sorry, Sugu, I di-didn't know you were inside, I swear!" quickly explained the black-haired boy…while not really doing any effort to pretend his eyes weren't glued to Suguha's body, his mind apparently too stunned to realize this. "I-I will wait for you to finish, sorry again!"
Quickly spinning around in place, the blushing Kazuto was ready to calmly walk away and definitively not run like a scared kid…when his adoptive sister's voice echoed from behind him, the words she said causing a massive 'Error' in all his thought-processes.
"…Onii-chan…it has been a long time since…we last took a bath together…right?"
Slowly, the gamer turned around to look towards the young kendoka (Who seemed to have moved at unreal speed and grabbed a towel to shyly cover herself at some point in the last seconds), keenly aware of the pounding on his heart.
"Ye…yeah?" he finally said with an extremely dry voice.
Silently, with burning cheeks and a strangely determined glint in her eyes, perhaps sparked by a mix of the unreasonable situation and the day's events, Suguha took a step towards him and spoke words that almost broke the boy's psyche.
"…want me to wash your back?"
Kazuto stood there, unmoving, unthinking and literally not breathing, for all of 3 seconds, his barely functioning brain debating between running away or calmly and maturely explain to his adoptive sister why that would be a bad idea…
"…sure."
…BUT finally decided to answer with the part of him that was still a hormonal teenager. Despite this, and how the shy smile Sugu gave him as she invited him to enter made him feel, he reigned himself in and repeated on his mind the mantra that this was just a bit of perfectly normal 'skinship' with a girl that was his 'girlfriend', and that nothing more than helping each other to wash their bodies, like in the long-forgotten past, needed to happen. Assuring himself of this, the gamer nodded softly and, almost robotically, entered the bathroom, idly closing the door behind himself.
If [Reality] could laugh, it would have done so. Again.
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NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW!
"…can't believe they did it…uhh…will this really work out? I feel as if I'm going to faint next time I see Kirito alone…uh? Oh, yeah, hi there. This is Philia, giving you the next chapter's preview. Next time on 'One Punch-Gamer': 'The End Begins'. Life seems good and dreams finally seem at the reach of our hands…but a bitter shadow threatens to destroy everything and more. At the end, whose Will shall be the strongest one?...okay, I don't need Argo's awareness to know that THAT aren't good new-"
END OF THE PREVIEW!