Railgun Online. Book 1, Never Forget

Yui's Heart

"Hold my hand Yui.."

"Kay Mama.."

The dungeon the group had entered was by far the most surprising Mikoto ever encountered. Like Yulier had said, it was a high level dungeon, but what she didn't expect, was that the dungeon would be located on the 1st floor right under the main landmark of Floor 1, the Black Iron Palace.

The Black Iron Palace wasn't often visited, but sometimes Mikoto would go in to check the Monument of Life.

According to Kirito, where the Monument of Life used to be, was the Room of Resurrection, which would be the respawn point for all dying avatars. But now.. it was replaced by the Monument of Life. It showed all the names of those who had died on SAO so far.. over 4000 names were on that monument, and Mikoto would periodically visit to pay her respects to those who had died in an effort to free others from the game.. She would constantly look for Kurami's name.. but because the monument was so large, and the names so many, she would never be able to narrow down Kurami's name.

Mikoto suspected that the dungeon under the palace must have been unlocked due to some sort of special circumstance on the higher floors.

"The less hostile areas of the dungeon are actually the Aincrad Liberation Force's main headquarters." said Yulier as she led everyone through the dungeon. "It's also the prison where we send orange players like those from Laughing Coffin. The deeper parts of the dungeon though, are filled with very high level monsters.. and the depths have only ever been explored thoroughly by Kibaou."

"I can see why it would be a perfect place for that guy to stage a coup." said Mikoto. "A part of the headquarters only he knows.. and a part where only extremely high level players can go, it's the perfect hostage scenario."

Mikoto, Asuna, and Kirito were all dressed in their normal dungeon clearing equipment now, prepared for the worst.

"Railgun.." said Yulier. "I must apologize, Thinker and I have been trying to find you for the longest time to tell you this, to say we're sorry. We understand ALF is the main reason for your distrust in guilds."

"Yeah, you could say that.." Mikoto muttered.

"Kibaou's faction has often put a bad reputation on us, and often times, whenever one of his plans went wrong, or a situation went bad for us, he would use the Glitch Blade as a scape goat, warning us that you were a glitched part of the game that would eventually turn on all of us." said Yulier. "I found that rather distasteful."

"So that's why so many people have been against Misaka." Kirito said. "Makes sense, Kibaou's been using his large influence to stain her reputation from the beginning."

"How disgusting." Asuna muttered.

"I could care less about that guy." said Mikoto. "The people who aren't stupid know that we're the ones on the front lines, not him. It's okay Yulier, I understand, though, I don't feel any differently about guilds in general."

"That's understandable." said Yulier.

Mikoto decided to turn her attention away from this depressing subject. She smiled at Yui, who was being held against Asuna's waist protectively. "Hey Yui. Wanna ride on my shoulders?"

"Don't get too far ahead, remember, this is still a high level dungeon!" said Asuna as Mikoto sat the cheerful giggling Yui on her shoulders.

"Aww.. come on Asuna!!" said Mikoto with a wink. "Let the Big Sister take care of things."

"Mikoto Misaka!" Yui said cheerfully, playing with Mikoto's hair.

Mikoto froze. "Y-Yui? How did you know my first name? Kirito? Did you..?"