Published: 4/12/2016; Tuesday; 11:35pm; Unedited
Wow. I am good. Also, BOOK TWO IS OUT.
Epilogue
"I'm sorry, Kazuto," she had whispered just enough for him to hear, her eyes glazed over as she looked at him, a weak smile gracing her lips. "Stay alive and get out of here...Kirito...Asuna..." she breathed, "Goodbye." Her head turned, looking over at Kayaba Akihiko, revealed to be her uncle, "I still love you, Uncle." Her eyes fluttered closed, her glowing body shone brightly before shattering into millions of pixels.
Kirito looked down at his arms, her small body missing from the security of his arms. Dropping his sword, he reached out, trying to grasp the pixels, as if it would bring her back.
The first person he trusted. The first to know his real name, and him to know hers. The girl he had grown fond of, so used to her presence that it was normal to be together, whether it was arguing or bickering over something, laughing about a stupid joke or story, or just sleeping in the shade of a nice day--
Narashi Ume was gone.
He fell to his knees, tears escaping his eyes, a single pixel floated down to his hand, shattering into smaller pieces upon touching him, disappearing as if they were never there.
"...my...what a surprise..." Kayaba called, having covered up his guilt, his horror, his sadness quickly and his mask was on once again. Oh yes, Kayaba Akihiko actually adored his niece, he had looked out for her in the game as much as he could without making it seem suspicious. She was one of the only family members to enjoy something that he loved as well, and they both bonded over RPGs and MMORPGs, and had agreed to help him design some bosses for a game he was working on. Of course, he didn't tell her what the game would be called or the true purpose of the game-- and when he saw her in the game he made, almost dying on his watch, he made it his job to protect her, because this was all his fault. But not only had he let her die on his watch, he had killed her, he's cute, adorable niece. "It shouldn't be possible to recover from paralysis independently. I guess these things happen too."
Kirito clenched his fist, before reaching for Ume's sword, which had ended up next to him, she was probably going to block Kayaba's attack but knew she wouldn't be able to make it, and his own sword as well. He attacked weakly, in a daze from her death. Kayaba closed his eyes, disappointed, and swung his own sword up, knocking the black weapon out of Kirito's hand.
Kirito looked at it, before looking down at the ground, Ume's sword still in his other hand. Kayaba stabbed his sword through Kirito's chest, Asuna shrieking at the sight and action, crying. She had watch a person, one she's know since childhood, though never getting along, it still hit her hard.
Kirito watch as his health slowly went down, his eyes closing, health red and about to hit zero. 'This...this is it,' he thought, his gauge hitting zero, Ume's smiling image, her in his arms, eyes glazed, appeared in his head.
"You better not die better not die on my watch, idiot."
"Stay alive and get out of here, Kirito...Asuna..."
"Hey, Kazuto, when we get out of here, let's meet each other in real life. I've never had any friends, but you're the first I've trusted in a long time."
"You're such an idiot, idiot."
"Don't ever die, Kirito, people need you."
He breathed in, a notification popping up in his view. 'You are dead.'
No. He couldn't let it end like this.
"Not yet." He muttered, glowing, transparent, gripping Ume's sword. The sword, he remembered, that he had gotten for her as a present.
"Hm?"
"I'm not done yet!" he said, louder, willing himself to stay alive, stepping closer. Kayaba gasped in disbelief, stepping back. This had never happened before, this shouldn't even be possible!
Kirito raised Ume's sword, eyes strangely glowing gold, he roared and stabbed her sword into Kayaba. Instead of dodging or blocking, he simply smiled.
'How interesting.' Was his thought, his health falling and hitting zero as well. But he had decided...
He had lost to this strange boy that had caught his nieces heart.
As of November 7th, 2:55 PM, the game has been cleared. The game has been cleared.
~*~*~*~*~
Kirito opened his eyes, finding himself standing on nothing in cloudy sky, the sun setting, looking at his hands. "Where am I?" He pulled down his menu and saw a percentage, 'commencing final phase' is what it said, and was at fifty-five percent now and rising. He closed it, looking solemn.
"Kirito-kun?" He jumped, turning around to see Asuna a few feet away from him. He smiled sadly, not even wondering why she was there as well.
"Sorry, I died..."
"You idiot!" she ran over to him, kissing him.
"Watching you two makes me want to puke rainbows and puppies," another voice interrupted them. They both whip around to see Ume standing a little ways from them, rolling her eyes and looking away from them and gazing at the sunset.
"Ume!" They both gasped, then looked at each other, "You know her name?"
"You're both idiots."
"Never mind that-- what were you thinking?! Jumping in front of me and taking the hit?!" Kirito shouted as they neared her.
"Oh, suck it up, Kirito, Asuna was about to jump in before me," his eyes widened at Ume's words and turned to Asuna who was looking at her feet (seeing as there was no floor to look at, as it was clear and see-through like glass). "I knew you wouldn't be able to live with yourself if she died, so I pushed her back down and saved your ass. But it seems my sacrifice was in vain, gods, you idiot. How did you even die, Asuna?!"
"...that's the funny thing, I didn't die."
"Then what the hell are you doing here?"
"I honestly don't know."
"Speaking of here," Kirito interrupted, "Where are we?"
"Look down there," Ume jerked her head over to something, making them look around, before their gazes locked onto something below.
Aincrad floated in the air, though slowly falling apart.
"Quite the view, isn't it?" The all jump, turning to see a man standing a few ways from them.
"Uncle..." Ume breathed while Kirito said his name.
"Kayaba Akihiko."
"As we speak, on he fifth basement floor of Argus HQ, the memory banks in the SAO mainframe is being purged of every byte. In another ten minutes, everything in this world will be deleted."
"What happened to the players in there?" Asuna asked, worried.
"No need to worry," Kayaba pulled up his menu, the percentage at sixty-two now, "Moments ago, all 6,147 surviving players were successfully logged out."
"What about the dead?" Kirito glanced at Ume, who was just staring at her uncle with an unreadable expression. "What about the four thousand players who lost their lives?"
"They will never regain consciousness. No matter what world we are in, the dead do not return."
"Why? Why do all of this?" Ume finally spoke up, voicing his question.
"Why, you ask?" He frowned, "For a long time, I'd forgotten. I wonder why. When I began developing the Full-Dive Environment System-- No, long before that, I lived longing for nothing but to create that castle-- a world that surpasses the laws and boundaries of reality." He breathed. "And now, I've borne witness to someone who's surpassed even my own world's laws." He looked at Kirito. "I wonder how old I was when I became entranced by that steel castle floating in the sky. I wanted to leave the earth behind and go to that castle. For a long, long time, that was my only desire. You see, Kirito-kun. I still believe. In some other world, that castle truly exists."
"Yeah, it'd be nice if it did." Kirito murmured, Asuna nodding.
Ume walked over to her uncle, and gave him a side hug, "Me too, Uncle." He gave a small smile, wrapping his arm around his niece.
"Sorry about lying like that, Ume."
"Don't worry, I'm your favorite. No way you would do something like that without saying that you didn't mean it. I love you too, Uncle."
"That reminds me," he glanced at Kirito, "Congratulations on clearing the game, Kirito-kun, Asuna-kun, Ume. Now then, I'll be on my way." He ruffled Ume's hair, and began walking away, Ume making no move to stop him. She knew she would never see him again, but she knew the feeling of wanted nothing but to roam free.
In a blink of an eye, he was gone.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The three of them sat, watching Aincrad fall apart, Ume a little bit further away to give them some space.
"I guess this is goodbye," Kirito finally spoke up.
"No, it isn't." Asuna smiled, glancing at Ume as well, "We'll disappear together, and we'll meet up in the real world." Ume sighed.
"Mine and Asuna's family are close, though her and I never got along. I'll keep in touch so we can meet up." Asuna nodded and looked at Kirito.
"Before we part, tell me your name. Your real name." Kirito smiled, while Ume smirked, knowing both their real names already.
"Kirigaya. Kirigaya Kazuto. I think I turned sixteen last month."
'Ah, so he's the same age as me. Nice to know. Though he's a little bit older.' Ume thought, shrugging a bit.
"Kirigaya Kazuto-kun..." Asuna repeated, she giggled a bit, "So you are younger than me. Though you're a couple months older than Ume... My name is Yuuki Asuna. I'm seventeen."
"Yuuki...Asuna... Yuuki Asuna." Then he turned to look at Ume, Asuna bending her neck a bit to look as well. "Narashi...Ume..." Tears pooled, and he let himself cry. "I'm sorry," he apologized, surprising Ume, "I promised myself that I'd send you all back...to the real world... But I... I..."
"Kazuto," Ume stopped him, smiling as they began to shine, signaling that their time was up. "That's where we're going. We're running out of time, so we'll continue this out there. In the real world. Don't think I won't find you, idiot."
Asuna let out a giggle, and Kirito choked out a laugh. Ume had horrible timing when it came to calling him an idiot.
"See you on the other side." Ume closed her eyes, as did they, the light engulfing them, and suddenly, they were all very cold.
Unfortunately, the battle for freedom wasn't over yet.