~November 1, 2024 Floor 1: Town of Beginnings~
We were in the daycare and all the younger kids were eating and playing with each other.
Y/n: so many...... it's amazing that you can keep up with them.
Asuna: yeah.
Rina: it's like this every day. How is Kirito feeling?
Y/n: looks like all the little guy needed was a good nights sleep.
Rina: has this happened before?
Asuna: we don't know. When we found him, he was wandering in the forest on floor 22. He seems to have lost his memories.
Rina: oh my.
Asuna: so we came to the Town of Beginnings.
Kirito then handed Asuna a piece of bread and she takes it.
Asuna: we thought someone here might know him.
Y/n: does he look familiar at all?
Rina: I'm sorry, but I don't think he's one of the kids from the Town of Beginnings. When the game started, most of the children suffered terrible psychological trauma. I couldn't just stand by and do nothing, so I started living with them in this church. Every day, I walk around the town to see if anyone needs my help. But I've never seen anyone like him.
Asuna: I see...
We all heard a knock at the door and went open it.
???: hello. I am Yulier.
Asuna: you're with the Army, right? Are you here to protest what happened yesterday?
Yulier: not at all. It's the reverse. As a matter of fact, I wanted to thank you.
Me and Asuna look at each other before looking back at Yulier.
Yulier: I've come to request something of you two today.
Asuna: request?
We sat back down at a table and Kirito was on the verge of falling asleep.
Yulier: originally, we... No, our guild leader, Thinker, never wanted it to be the dictatorial organization that it's become. We just wanted to share information and food evenly among as many players as possible.
Y/n: the Army got too big.
Yulier: yes, there were multiple internal power struggles, and a man named Kibaou ended up with a great deal of power. Kibaou and his faction have become dominant, monopolizing all of the best monster spawn points and have gone so far as to extort people under the pretext of collecting taxes. But people start criticizing Kibaou for neglecting his obligation to clear the game. So he sent the highest-level players under his command to the front lines.
Asuna: Corvatz...
Yulier: because of that fiasco, Kibaou was strongly denounced, and we were close to dismissing him from the guild. Desperate, he resorted to drastic measures, setting a trap for Thinker. Thinker's been stranded deep inside a dungeon!
Y/n: does he have a teleport crystal?
She shook her head.
Asuna: don't tell me he's unarmed.
Yulier: he was too trusting. He believed Kibaou when he said he only wanted to talk unarmed. That was three days ago.
Asuna: three days? What's happened to him?
Yulier: he's in the depths of a significantly high-level dungeon. He seems to be stuck there... As his second-in-command, this is my responsibility. But my level isn't high enough to reach him. And Kibaou is using his influence to prevent the rest of the Army from helping. And then I heard that two incredibly high-powered players had come here. And so I'm asking for your help.
She then stood up and straightened out.
Yulier: Y/n, Asuna... Would you please come and save Thinker with me?
Me and Asuna then looked at each other again and looked back at Yulier.
Asuna: if there's something we can do, we'd like to help you out. But we do need to verify your story...
Yulier: I know that I'm asking a lot of you! But when I think about him trapped in there, I feel like I'm losing my mind...
Kirito: it's okay, Mommy. She's telling the truth.
Asuna K-Kirito, you can tell?
Kirito: Yeah. I can't explain why... But I know.
Y/n: I'd say it's better to regret trusting someone than not trusting them. Come on, let's go. I'm sure it'll all work out just fine.
Asuna: you're always so laid-back. We'll do what we can.
Yulier: thank you.
Asuna: I know how it feels to want to save someone you care for.
Yulier started rubing off her tears and I started ruffling Kirito's hair.
Y/n: sorry bud, but you'll have to wait her for a little bit, okay?
Kirito: no, I'm coming too.
Rina: Kirito, stay here with me, okay?
Kirito: no!
Y/n: his rebellious phase is starting to kick in.
Asuna: don't be silly. Kirito the place we're headed is dangerous.
He then got more fussy and grabbed onto my arm.
Kirito: I'm going too!
~Floor 1: Town of Beginnings Black Iron Castle~
We were walking through the dungeon Yulier was talking about and I was carrying Kirito on my shoulders.
Asuna: to think a dungeon like this was under the Town of Beginnings.
Y/n: well I didn't see it during the beta test. I completely missed out on it.
Yulier: it probably opens further, as the floors above are cleared. Kibaou planned to keep it to himself.
Y/n: VIP access to spawn points could be lucrative...
Yulier: but it's mostly level-60 monsters that spawn here. So he wasn't able to do much hunting.
We then stopped at a stair case and I let Kirito down.
Yulier: this is the entrance.
Kirito then looked down the darkened staircase and back at us.
Kirito: I'm not scared!
Asuna: it's okay. He's much tougher than he looks.
Y/n: absolutely. He'll be fine swordsman like me one day!
I then started laughing and stopped.
Yulier: Let's go then.
~timeskip~
We were walking in an hallway of the dungeon when a bunch of toad mobs appeared.
Y/n: I'll hand this, you guys just watch the show.
I then take Forest Bite and Nature's Wrath out of their scabbards and charged at the mobs slashing through four of them. I then slashed through another 4 and the used Sharp Nail on 4 of them. I then finished the last on off with Vorpal Strike and put both Forest Bite and Nature's Wrath in their scabbards.
Y/n: man, it felt like I was fighting an army!
Yulier: sorry about that.
Y/n: you kidding, that was really fun. Plus I snagged a few items from them anyway.
Asuna: did you get anything good?
Y/n: you bet!
I then opened up my minu and showed her one of the items I got.
Asuna: wh-what is this?
Y/n: it's a piece of scavenged toad meat.
Asuna: y-you mean those frogs?
Y/n: people say the stranger it is, the more the cooked version tastes. Can you wip some up for me later alright.
Asuna: no way!
She then grabbed it and threw it across the hallway.
Y/n: oh what the hell! Why did you do that?
She didn't answer me and I got pissed.
Y/n: damn it! If that's how it is...
I then opened up my minu and selected the rest of the meat then showed it to her.
Y/n: what am I supposed to do with the rest?
Asuna: no! No, no, no, no!
She then started to throw them away too.
Y/n: oh come on Asuna, your wasting perfectly good meat!
Asuna: get rid of it!
Y/n: but it tastes good!
Asuna then grabbed one and was about to put it into my mouth.
Kirito: you smiled.
We then turned our attention to him.
Kirito: It's the first time you've smiled, big sister!
He then giggled and Asuna grabbed his hand.
Asuna: come on, let's go.
We went down another staircase while Kirito was jumping down the last two. We then walked down another hallway and Kirito fell asleep so Asuna decided to carry him on her back. We then see a white light coming from a doorframe.
Asuna: there's the safe zone.
I activated my tracking skill and looked further into it seeing a player inside.
Y/n: a player is already in there.
Yulier then stopped and started running at the light.
Yulier: Thinker!
Y/n: h-hold on a minute...
I looked at Asuna and we started running after her.
Thinker: Yulier!
Yulier: Thinker!
Y/n: heh.
Thinker: stay back! That corridor is...
I looked on my screen and Fatale Death Syth appears in the top right corner. I picked up my speed.
Asuna: Yulier, come back!
Fatale Death Syth appeared and I takled Yulier to the ground while avoiding it's syth swing. The corridor then was covered in a cosmetic glow and Fatal Death Syth disappeared into the wall. I then ran too find it and it appeared infront of me and I took out Forest Bite and Nature's Wrath ready to fight it.
Y/n: Asuna, use a crystal and get the others out of here. I can't see jack about this one, even with my identification skill. It minus well be as strong as a boss on 90. I'll distracted it and buy you some time. So hurry up and run!
Asuna: y-you come with me.
Y/n: I'll meet up with you guys later. Now please hurry up and run!
Asuna: you three should run!
Y/n: seriously Asuna!
Yulier: we can't do that...
Asuna: hurry!
It got ready to attack so I hold my swords in an X formation and Asuna put her reaper in front of them in order to block the attack. The attacks force knocked me into one of the arches and I fell to the ground dropping my swords.
Y/n: damn that hurt...
I tried getting up but I fell back down.
Asuna: Y/n!
Yulier: Kirito, no!
Thinker: it's dangerous... Come back!
We saw Kirito walk infront of the boss and it got ready to attack.
Y/n: what the hell are you doing! Get away from it, Kirito!
Asuna: Kirito...
It then twirled its syth and got ready to swing.
Kirito: it's okay... Daddy, Mommy.
It swung but it got knocked back by a shield of some kind. I looked closer and it said he was an immortal object.
Asuna: immortal object?
He then started levitating to the boss and held out his hand making an Elucidater full of fire appear in his hand. He then goes for a swing and Death Syth block it with the handle of his Syth.
Y/n: no way...
He then cut through the handle and used Vorpal Strike to hit the bosses head making it be engulfed in flame and died. We then got up and looked at him.
Asuna: Kirito?
Y/n: hey Kirito...
Kirito: Daddy... Mommy. I remember everything now.
We walked into the safe zone and she sat down on a slab of stone.
Asuna: Kirito, have you regained your memories? About everything?
Kirito: yes. Y/n. Asuna. This world, Sword Art Online, is controlled by a single, immense system. The system is called Cardinal. This system was designed to operate without any human intervention. It regulates the balance of SAO according to its own discretion. From monsters and NPC AI to drop rates for items and money. Everything is controlled by the processes executed by the Cardinal program. Even the psychological care of the players... Mental Health Counseling Program, prototype 1. Code name: Kirito. That's me.
Asuna: a program? An AI?
Kirito: I was given the ability to emulate emotion, to put players at ease. I'm not real... Nothing about me is.
He then started crying a little.
Kirito: even these tears. I'm sorry, Asuna...
Asuna: Kirito. But you had amnesia. Can that happen to an AI?
Kirito: two years ago, on the day of the official launch... For reasons I never understood, Cardinal forbade me from interacting with any of the players. I was forced to do nothing but continue to monitor the players' mental states. Their mental states... were utterly horrible. Terror, despair, rage. People were overcome by negative feelings. Some of them went completely insane. Normally, I would have gone to them immediately. But I wasn't permitted any contact with them. Gradually, errors accrued within me, and I fell apart. But one day, I saw two players whose mental parameters were very different from the rest. Joy, peace... But it was more than that. I wandered through the field, hoping to get as close to you as I could.
Asuna: that's why you were in the 22nd- floor forest?
Kirito: yes. Y/n, Asuna... I've always wanted to meet you. It's strange, isn't it? It should be impossible for me to think that. I'm only a program...
Asuna: Kirito, you have true intelligence, don't you?
He shook his head.
Kirito: I don't know. I don't know what's happened to me.
I then walked infront of him and got down to his level.
Y/n: one thing I got from that is that your not just some program being controlled by Cardinal anymore. Technically you should be able to say whatever you want to now. So, bud, what do you want?
Kirito: I... I... I want to stay with you forever... Daddy, Mommy!
Asuna ran up and hugged him.
Asuna: together... we'll be together forever, Kirito.
I then hugged them both.
Y/n: Kirito, remember that your our son.
Kirito: it's too late...
We then stopped.
Y/n: too late for what?
Kirito: this console grants the GMs emergency access to the system. I used it to delete that monster. But now it's running a check on my program. Since I disobeyed Cardinal's orders, I'm considered a foreign object in the system. I'll be deleted immediately.
Asuna: no...
Y/n: there's gotta be a way to get around this, right?
Kirito: Daddy, Mommy, thank you. This is goodbye.
Asuna then hugged him while crying.
Asuna: no! I don't want that! We've just started... We've just started living together...
He then started to glow.
Y/n: Kirito, you can't go yet!
I then grabbed his hand with both of mine.
Kirito: everyone smiles when they're with you, Daddy, Mommy. Please... From now on, go and help people in my place. Share your happiness.
Asuna: no... No! I can't smile without you...
Kirito: smile, Mommy.
He then disappeared into golden smoke and Asuna fell to the ground and started crying.
Y/n: damn Cardinal! Correction, Kiyaba! Don't think that things will always go your way you bastered!
I then started accessing the console from the keyboard and was trying to get Kirito back.
Asuna: Y/n, what are you doing...
Y/n: if I speed up... I might be able to use a GM account to get into the system.
A screen pops up and I continue typing. A loading bar popped up and once it was done I got pushed back.
Y/n: damn!
Asuna: Y/n! Are you okay?
I then handed her the item in my hand.
Asuna: what's this?
Y/n: before Kirito's account was denied, I turned him into a game object and split his main program from the system.
Asuna: so this is...
Y/n: right now, you're holding Kirito's heart.
~timeskip~
We were teleporting out of the Town of Beginnings while the children were waving good bye.
~timeskip~
We were walking the path back to the house and I turned around seeing Asuna looking at the sky.
Y/n: everything alright, Asuna?