Hey guys, Firestorm40 here! How are you? Hope you're ready for some unexpected goodiness, because that's what I've got in store for everyone! Please enjoy, and as always, I very much look forward to your reviews!

Opening Theme - No Game No Life

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XXX

Alfheim
Neutral Territory
Central capital, Arun

"Wow!" Haru said in surprise at the sight before her.

"Now that's a city!" Shoto agreed.

Shoto, Kirito, Leafa and Haru had just arrived at Arun. They looked up at all the lights that came from all the buildings in the middle of the night in awe. It was like the whole city was lit up like a Christmas tree.

"It's amazing!" Kirito said.

"Yeah, this is Arun! The center of ALfheim, the biggest city in the world." Leafa said smiling.

"I've never been in such a place like this before!" Yui said looking around in awe.

"Me neither. It's such an amazing sight even looking from here," Haru said looking at the sight amazed.

"I wouldn't mind coming back here later on." Shoto said with a grin.

Suddenly, they all heard the announcement on the speaker that was located on the tallest buildings.

"Attention, players! The server will be down today, 22nd of January, from 4 AM to 7 AM for scheduled maintenance. Players are asked to log out ten minutes in advance. Repeat: The server will be done, January 22."

Hearing the announcement, the group then let out a sigh.

"So, that's all for today huh? From 4 AM to 7 AM..." said Leafa looking at the other three.

Kirito looked at the World Tree intently. "Yeah..." He muttered.

"Well, let's find an inn to rest" Haru proposed stretching her body.

"As long as it's nowhere too pricey." Shoto said. "I kinda blew most of my money."

"That's because you two were showing off by giving nearly all of it to Sakuya. You should have saved your money for an inn." Haru smirked at him.

"Yeah, you're right." Shoto said, sheepishly.

"Ok then... Yui, can you find the cheapest inn here?" Leafa asked looking at Yui, who is sitting on Kirito's shoulder.

Yui looked around for a while and pointed at one inn. "There. That inn is super cheap." She said. 

"S-super cheap huh?" asked Leafa sweatdropping. 

"Well, we don't have much time." Kirito said, before walking into the city. "Let's go."

"Right behind you." Haru said, as she and Shoto followed him.

"No need to tell me twice." Shoto said, with a yawn.

"Ah, wait, you guys..." Leafa said, running to catch up with them. Suddenly, she stopped and looked up at the sky.

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XXX

World Tree

After escaping from the birdcage, Asuna was now running through a path on one of the branches, until she found a metal door on the body of the tree. 

"An opening..." she muttered, before she ran towards it. Once she made it to the door, she placed her hand on a red panel, as it glowed green and the door opened. 

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XXX

Real World

Kazuto was now kneeling at the water faucet, washing his face with cold water to refresh himself. Once he was finished, he turned off the sink and turned to his right, to see Sugu step into the backyard.

"Morning Sugu!" Kazuto said.

"Morning Kazuto" Suguha said tiredly, still rubbing her eyes. Then she yawned loudly.

 Kazuto seeing that decided to ask. "Are you feeling well? You look weary."

"Eh... Stayed up too late last night..." Suguha mumbled as she rubbed her eyes and blinked again. "Now I'm all tired out..."

"Don't you have school today, though?" Kazuto frowned. It was true, it was a Friday, a school day. "What were you doing up so late?"

"Oh, just... internet and stuff," she replied thickly. "And I don't have to go in for classes today if I don't want to- I'm ahead in all my classes."

"If you say so." Kazuto shrugged. "Just don't spend too much time on it." 'Not that I should talk. I am such a hypocrite' He thought to himself.

Not long after, Kazuto looked up at Suguha before his eyes glanced to the sky.

"What in the world is that?" He asked and Suguha's eyes travel up right to where he was looking while failing to notice his hands were cupped together.

"I don't see anything." Suguha said before the back of her jacket was pulled as Kazuto's hands dropped cool water down her back and she screamed loudly at this, that everybody around them could hear.

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XXX

Alfheim
World Tree
Control room

Asuna was now seen moving silently through a long tunnel, illuminated by yellow lights.

'How far does this go?' She thought to herself. 

After walking for a while, she noticed that appeared to looked like a guide map in front of her on the wall. She looked at the map, searching over it. 'Is this a map? Then, there's got to be a console where I can log out.' She thought. 

Soon, her eyes suddenly fell on the room by the name of "Experiments". With that she begin to move to the direction of the room.

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XXX

Real World
Kirigaya's household
Kitchen

Suguha and Kazuto were now in the kitchen cooking breakfast. As Suguha was cutting vegetables, she also had a angry pout on her face.

"For that little water stunt, you owe me a green tea shaved ice with raspberry parfait to apologize." She told Kazuto. "Geez, since when did you become Saito?"

"I guess he's rubbed off on me too much." Kazuto laughed. 

"Then can we go in the afternoon?" Suguha asked hopefully. "We can even invite Saito too!"

"Sorry, but I have something to do in the afternoon. Also I was planning on calling Sai to go to the hospital with me today," Kazuto said.

Suguha looked disappointed at that. "Oh... Hey, can I come with you two to the hospital? I want to see Asuna." She said, before leaving the kitchen.

Hearing that, Kirito smiled. "Sure. I think she would be happy about that." He said looking at the leaving figure of Suguha.

"Yeah...Alright, let's eat!" She called out.

"Okay," Kirito said. "But first, I better call Sai to see if he's up." He then grabbed his phone an began calling his best friend.

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XXX

Hisaki's Household

"Eurgh..." Saito mumbled as he stumbled around the bathroom towards the sink. "Note to self- staying up until three in the morning is a bad idea... Very bad..." He made his way over to the sink with his eyes half-closed and turned on the cold water, knowing that the chill of the winter was going to make this a wake-up he wouldn't forget.

Once the water was running, he cupped his hands together to form a small pool of the frigid liquid in his palms before splashing the icy liquid on his face. "GAH!" he gasped, the frigidity of the water shocking him even more than he had expected it to. "Okay, no more late nights, ever," he grumbled as he shook his head to fling the cold water out of his blonde locks.

Suddenly, he heard a ring from his phone going off in his pocket. "Ugh, I swear. It better not be Customer Service..." Saito groaned, as he took his phone out to see that it was Kazuto calling him. He then answered. 

"Yo Kaz, what's up?"

"Hey, Sai." Kirito said. "I was calling to see if you wanted to go to the hospital with me and Sugu."

"Yeah sure. I was about to call you about that, but I'll be there in a few minutes." Saito said, rubbing his head.

"Alright, cool. See you when you get here."

"Sure thing." Saito said, before hanging up. "Hmm, I wonder if Haru wants to go." He mumbled, as he dial her number.

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XXX

Ishigaki Household

Hana was currently taking a bath, though she appeared be in thought. 'Geez, what the heck am I supposed to do today, since the server's down. I wonder if Shoto has any plans...'

Suddenly, her phone started ringing. She grabbed it and saw that it was Saito. She then answered.

"Hello? Saito?"

"Good morning, Hana. Do you have a moment? If you're not busy, I was wondering if you wanted to go to the hospital with me, Ki and Suguha." Saito said. "We're going to see Asuna."

"Sure, I'll go." Hana said with shrug. "I don't really have anything else to do."

"Okay. I'll swing by your place and pick you up." Saito said.

"Sounds great! See you then!" Haru said, hanging up.

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XXX

Alfheim

'Expeirments' Room

Asuna had finally made it to her destination as the door opened for her. Inside, she saw hundreds of metal cylinders with virtual blue cubes above them. As she walked around, she realised there were brains inside the cubes. To her shock, she remembered Sugou's words of controlling emotions. She placed her hand on her mouth, as tears flowed from her eyes.

 "They're suffering!" she said in horror. She then walked over to one. "I will get you out soon. And I promise, he won't get away with this." she said in determination. However, she heard the doors open and she quickly hid behind a cylinder. Inside, entered two pink slime-like creatures with tentacles and orange eyes. 

"Now how is it going?... He is having another dream of Spica." On of the creatures said.

"B-13 and B-14 fields are off the scale. Same is 16. High excitement." The other one spoke.

"Sure it isn't the coincidence. It's only happened three times."

"No, it due to emotional inducement circuits. If it happened at this rate, he is over the threshold."

"So for now we put him in the list for continuos monitoring."

Asuna, seeing they didn't notice her, decided to move away.

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XXX

Real World

After breakfast, Kazuto and Suguha were now standing outside of their house, waiting for Saito to show up.

"Yo!" Saito called as he drove up to the Kirigaya household, with Hana in the front seat.

"Hey guys!" Haru said, waving at them.

"Hey Sai, Hana." Kazuto greeted back, as he and Suguha walked up to the car.

"Hana, you're coming with us?" Suguha asked, surprised to see her friend.

 Haru nodded. "Yeah, Saito invited me, and I also wanted to meet Asuna." She replied. 

"Alright then," Kazuto began "Let's get going." With that, the siblings got into the backseat of Saito's car and drove off down the street.

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XXX

IRL

As they four made their to the hospital, Suguha started up a conversation. "Hey, are you two planning on going to school once next year starts?" She asked. 

Saito was the first to answer, "If I recall correctly there is a school that is for people who were trapped in SAO, right Ki?"

 Kazuto nodded. "Yeah, and you don't need to take an exam to enter or graduate, but if the students wishes it they can do a test to the university of their wish." 

Suguha was surprised by this, "Really? That's nice. You two should go."

Saito just clicked his tongue and muttered. "More like another prison for the people to monitor and observe us like wild animals." 

Haru looked out the window and folded her arms. "No kidding..." She whispered.

Suguha heard Saito's comment and grew concerned. "What do mean?" She asked.

Kazuto noticed it as well. "What Saito is trying to say, it's more like the people are wanting to see if we can can return to a normal school. Cause if we go to a normal school now, it would be a year's worth of being crammed into said school."

 Suguha made a face that made her understand what was Saito was saying and thought of a way that help them, then an idea came "I know, Hana and I can be your guys tutor." 

Hearing that, Saito, Hana and Kazuto looked at her then looked at each other, showing great concern knowing that Hana never told Suguha that she too was part of the imprisonment of SAO. But they swore that they would never mention it to her about it, so they shrugged and replied "Sure."

Hana looked uncertain. "Yeah, though I doubt I would be of much help." She said.

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XXX

Alfheim

'Experiments' Room

Asuna was sneaking away from the two tentacle creatures, as she quickly moved from cylinder to cylinder. When she looked back, she saw a floating black box in mid-air.

'That's a system console' She thought as she looked back to see if the two creatures had noticed her yet. 'Good, they haven't seen me.'

With that, she made her way to the system console. She saw a card activated it, sighing in happiness, before searching for a log out menu.

"Please!" She whispered. After a few seconds of looking, she finally found it.

*Detach Virtual Laboratory*

'This is it!' Asuna thought, clicking on it and a menu suddenly appeared.

*Logging out will terminate all services. Cancel or Log out*

Smiling, she was about to press a log out button. But behind her there was a shadow of a tentacle monster behind, though she didn't know that yet.

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XXX

IRL

Having reached their destination, Saito parked the car in the parking lot before he, Kazuto, Hana and Suguha all got out and stood in front of the hospital.

"What a big hospital." Sugu said, surprised. "It's just the one your mom works at, Saito."

"It's amazing inside, too. Like a hotel." Kazuto said. 

"Well once Miss Lighting Flash wakes up, you can try taking her to an actual hotel." Saito grinned.

"Nice one." Hana laughed, as they high-fived each other.

"Shut up, Sai." Kirito deadpanned, as they made their way in.

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XXX

Hospital - Asuna's room

The group was now standing in front of Asuna's room, just as Suguha read her name on the tablet.

"Yuuki Asuna? Her character shared her real name. Not many people do it."

"Oh, you know that as well? Asuna's the only person I know that used her real name in the game." Kazuto said.

"If you ask me, she probably lack imagination back then for a cool name." Saito shrugged.

 "What you know about being 'cool', Mr. Always-Slips-On-Banana peel?" Hana smirked teasingly.

"Hey! Those things are evil to the world!" Saito yelled comically.

Then they proceed to go in the room. Once they entered, Kazuto and Saito turned to see Asuna was still asleep.

"There she is." Saito said, gesturing to the bed.

"I'll introduce you. This is Asuna, Vice Commander of Knights of Blood Oath, and Lighting Flash. Saito and I couldn't match her speed and accuracy." Kazuto said. "Asuna, this is my sister, Suguha."

Saito threw an arm around Hana's shoulder. "Also, this is our new friend, Hana." He grinned.

"N-nice to meet you, Asuna-san" Suguha said, smiling a little.

"Hey there, Lighting Flash." Haru said, also smiling.

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XXX

Alfheim

Control Room

Asuna was captured by the tentacle creature and it was now restricting her. She tried to press the log out button, but couldn't as the tentacles restricted her movement and moved her back.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" One of the slugs asked.

"Hey, put me down. I'm a friend of Sugou. He gave me permission to have a look around. I was leaving now." Asuna said.

"No one notified me about this. What about you?" Slime1 asked the other one.

Slime2 shook his head. "Nothing. He wouldn't want outsiders seeing this anyway." He then got a closer look at Asuna. "Wait a second. You're that girl Sugou keeps at the top of the World Tree."

"I've heard about that. It's so unfair that the boss gets to have all the fun with the cute girl." Slime1 spoke.

Asuna tried stretching her leg's on the log out button, but the slime grabbed onto her leg. She then started panicking.

"Come on, keep still." Slime1 said.

"Stop it! Let me go, monster!" Asuna yelled.

"That's so mean... We're in the midst of an experiment on deep-sense mapping."

"You're scientists, aren't you? You aren't ashamed, participating in this illegal, unethical experiment?" Asuna asked.

"I think it's more ethical than sticking electrical probes into an exposed animal brain. They're all just dreaming." Slime1 replied.

Slime2 nodded."That's right. Sometimes, we show them the most wonderful dreams. I wish I could have them."

"You're insane." Asuna said with narrowed eyes.

"The boss is on a trip, right? Get back to the other side, and see what he wants us to do." Slime1 told Slime2.

Slime2 sighed. "Fine... Hey, don't have any fun while I'm gone."

"Got it, got it. Get going." Slime1 said, waving him off. With that, Slime2 had logged off.

"Release me! Let me go! Let me out!" Asuna demanded.

"I can't! The boss would kill me! Just forget it. Why don't we enjoy some electro-drugs? I'm sick of dolls." Slime1 said, as to Asuna's horror, he started wrapping his tentacles all around her.

"Stop it. What are you doing? Stop..." Asuna whimpered.

The moment Slime1 placed a tentacle over Asuna's mouth, she bit down on it hard, as the slime roared in pain.

"Stop! Fine! Fine... I forgot I turned off the pain observer." Slime1 moaned.

Soon, Slime2 logged back in. "What are you doing?" he asked Slime1.

"Nothing. So what did the boss say?"

"He was pissed. He said to return her to the birdcage above the lab, change the pass, and keep an eye on her 24/7." Slime2 replied.

Slime1 groaned. "And I was just about to have some fun... Let's at least walk her back instead of teleporting her. I want to enjoy this feeling a little more."

"You're having fun, aren't you?" Slime2 asked.

Asuna tried to release herself again, until she looked at the console that still had the card.

"Come on, no more struggling." Slime1 told her, as the slugs started taking her back to the birdcage.

"I said release me!" Asuna yelled.

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XXX

IRL

Hospital - Asuna's room

Hana looked at Asuna's unconscious figure and muttered. "She's so pretty. It's a shame that she is still asleep."

"Yeah...the sooner she wakes up, the better." Saito said, as he sat in a chair beside the bed.

Kazuto also looked at Asuna silently. Suguha decided to go out to change the water.

Maybe i shouldn't have come. I don't know how i feel." Suguha thought, as she poured the water out of the vase and put more in it. 'Maybe I shouldn't have come... I don't know how I feel. I thought if I met her, I'd know. But, do I want to be a good sister and friend? Of do I...?'

 Suguha then went back to the others, to see Kazuto was holding on Asuna's hand, while Saito was rubbing her arm. 

"I will be outside of you need me." Suguha said, putting the vase down and then left the room.

 Hana, noticing her voice and mood she silently says thanks to Asuna and the others and left to find Suguha. It didn't take long for she was on a chair near a window, hugging her knees and had her dead down. Haru slowly walked towards her and quietly calls out to her "Sugu?" 

Suguha didn't say anything, "Are you okay?" Haru asked hoping to get something from her, but still; Suguha did not answer. Haru inhaled a deep breath and let it out "Sugu, you and I have been friends for two years now, and I went A-WOL on you during those two years because of a family issue." That was her other excuse for being in SAO, but she didn't want to stop there, she had to know why Suguha was down on her luck. "But I'm here now, and I may know you and your brother-" she was stopped when Suguha's voice broke through, it was quiet but it was heard.

"He isn't my brother."

Hana froze, she heard her quiet well but she didn't understand, "What?" She asked, "What do you mean 'he's not your brother'?" She asked again. 

Suguha without lifting her head to look at Hana, started to talk "About two years ago during the time when Kazuto and Saito were in the hospital. I was told that Kazuto and I were never siblings, but cousins. Kazuto's real parents died, so in the law of family, my mother took Kazuto in and 'adopted' him, hence why I call him 'brother'. But when Kazuto got released from the hospital, I started to have feelings for him." 

Hana froze once again and turned pure white, her mouth wide open and her eyes covered by a shadow. She could not believe what she was hearing, Suguha Kirigaya; Kendo Champion in the real world, had feelings for Kazuto Kirigiya, who happens to be the 'Black swordsman' and 'Beater' In Aincrad and who is happened to be Kirito in ALfheim, who they were helping along with Saito, A.K.A Shoto the 'Yellow' now dubbed 'Red Fang' to get to the tree where Asuna was being held by the phony king of England!

"Okay. I'm not seeing a pro- wait." Haru stopped and realized what was happening "Sugu, are you angry that Kazuto has a girl in his life that isn't you?" Suguha didn't answer, and because of that Haru got her answer.

 "Are you kidding me right now?" Hana asked more loudly "Why? You should be happy for him?" Hana wanted to continue on but Suguha stopped her once again "When we were kids, Kazuto distanced himself into the virtual reality, we became strangers to one another as well with family. I hated him for that, I hated that the technology and the virtual reality were taking Kazuto away from me. So during the time when he was in trapped, I finally gave the virtual reality a go, asking Nagata to teach me. And here I am, when I though that I finally understood Kazuto at last, we are still strangers to one another. So in the end; he will always remain as a jerk."

Hana didn't know what to say, what could she say? She just found out a big secret about the Kirigayas and now she didn't know what to think, but she knew one thing, she may only knew Kazuto and Saito through their reputation in SAO, but what she has seen and heard during the time she was with them. "You can call both of them jerks for all I care Sugu. But if you were to ever understand what is like to be in their shoes, they would do anything to be set free, and to be with their loved ones. None of them didn't hesitate, they didn't exhibit no restraints, they're not standing still, they changed the game to their advantage. Cause to me; they are not jerks, they are the freaking Legends of Aincrad." Hana headed back to Asuna's room, but stopped, "See the world from where Kazuto stands on Sugu. Cause only then can you truly see what he sees."

With that, she went to rejoin the boys, leaving Suguha in her thoughts. 

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XXX

Alfheim 

Birdcage

As the slugs placed Asuna back in the birdcage, they also changed the password, so she couldn't get out again.

"Bye. Let's play play again if we have the chance." One of the slimes said, before they both left. 

Once they were gone, Asuna went at the edge of the cage. 'I won't lose, Kirito, Shoto. I will never give up. I will escape this place!' Ausna thought, as she clutched something tightly in her hand. No one noticed that she grabbed the Console Card.

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XXX

Somewhere else

After the maintence was finished, Leafa opened her eyes and sat up from her bed, she was alone until she heard Kirito, Hana and Shoto log in.

"Hey Leafa." Kirito said, but soon noticed that she wasn't herself, "You okay?" He asked. 

Shoto stepped in to see what he was talking about and added, "Yeah. You look like someone just killed your dog right in front of you and is wearing it like a festive hat." Leafa just smiled and turned to them with tears in her eyes and said, "No. I'm not okay." Kirito and Shoto looked at Hana for an answer, but she only shook her head and grabbed Shoto by his arm.

"We will be outside, just call us when you two are done, okay?" She said as she dragged Shoto to the door and leaving Kirito and Leafa alone.

Kirito watched as the two left the room, then walked over to Leafa and sat next to her, "Is everything okay?" He asked Leafa, but she remained silent for another few minutes "I'm sorry Kirito." She began "We only met, hardly knowing one another, and I'm saying stuff like this to you. It's bad etiquette to bring real world problems here, after all." She felt the back of her head being rubbed "Whether it's the real world or here, it's okay to cry when it hurts." Kirito says as images of Shoto "dying" in his arms, Asuna, Yui, Shoto, and Kirito in a group hug as a bright light took them all. "There's no rule that says you can't express emotions in a game." He continued.

Leafa turned to look at Kirito, her eyes still stinging with tears "Kirito..." she said quietly, leaned on Kirito's arm and let the water works flow.

'I love my brother.' Leafa thought to herself as she cried 'But I can't ever let him know that.' She continued, 'I have to bury these feelings deep inside my heart. So I can forget about them someday.' An hour has past when Leafa finally calmed down, "I'm fine now." She said "Thank you Kirito." She wipe her eyes from any remnants of tears "You're a really nice guy. Both you and Shoto, despite his, umm...short comings" She complimented.

Kirito blushed and rubbed the back of his head, "There are quite a few people who'd disagree with you on that. Do you want to log off for today? Shoto, Haru and I can finish the rest, anyway." Kirito said, Leafa shook her head and said "No. I've come this far already. I'll stick with you until the end." She said, she got up from her bed and faced Kirito. "Come on, let's go." She said as she let out a hand to him, Kirito looked at it for a moment, then reached out for it, "Let's get the others." Leafa said, and Kirito nodded "Yui, you here?" Kirito asked.

 As if on cue, Yui showed herself on Kirito's shoulder and yawned "Good morning Daddy, Leafa." Yui greeted.

 Leafa greeted back. "Good morning, Yui. Hey, I was wondering yesterday...Do Navi-Pixies sleep at night?"

Yui shakes her head. "Of course not. But when Daddy is not here, I shut down my input circuits, and process accumulated data. It could be similar to human sleep." She said.

"But you just yawned..."

"That's what humans do during their boot-up sequence, right? On average, Daddy's yawn lasts for eight seconds." Yui said, smiling.

"You don't have to be strange." Kirito sighed, causing Leafa to giggle. "Let's head out."

"Yeah." Leafa said with a nod.

Yui then looked around and noticed they were short of two people. "Where's Uncle Shoto and Haru?"

The three then heard Har's muffled voice, "Oh come on! Why are you always the one on top?" Leafa and Kirito froze ''On top'?' They both thought, then they heard Shoto's muffled voice, "Sorry but it's how it is." 

Leafa, Kirito and Yui looked at the the door where the two voices are coming from "Besides, I haven't finished" Leafa and Kirito went red ''FINISHED'?!' They both thought/yelled. Yui looked confused and turned to look at Kirito "Daddy? What does 'finished' mean?" Kirito slowly turned his gaze to Yui, he began to stutter "Umm w-well, y-you see Y-Yui." But he couldn't do it so he closed his eyes and yelled "LEAFA PLEASE GO CHECK IN ON THEM!" 

Leafa, still red, turned around and walked to the door like a robot, she slowly placed her hand on the door knob, she swallowed some air and quickly opened the door. She saw Shoto and Hana playing 'Twister' with Shoto's back on top of Haru's stomach and their hands on blue, yellow, red and green, the two looked at up Leafa as she looked at them.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"So..." Haru said awkwardly "Are you two done?" She asked. Leafa's eye twitched and a tick mark was on her head.

 "Shoto." Leafa said in a quiet voice that held a venomous sting to it, Shoto was sweating nervously and answered "Y-yeah?" Leafa's eyes went white as a demonic aura began to circle around her "Get off of Haru, before I rip your groins out through your mouth!" she said with a second voice covering her voice. Shoto quickly got up and stood at attention "Sorry ma'am. We just got bored during your conversation and so we decided to play 'Twister'!" 

Leafa sighed and put two fingers between the bridge of her nose "Play something that won't make us think that you two are doing the Bee's and the Knee's." She then leaned in to the two and whispered "You two placed Kirito in a uncomfortable position." Shoto and Haru looked at each other then looked over Leafa's shoulder and saw him still red as he kept stuttering beyond belief, they then saw Yui looking at Shoto. "Uncle Shoto? What's 'Twister'? And what does 'finished' mean? Cause it made Daddy and Leafa go red and Daddy's heart beat faster than usual."

 Shoto and Haru went pure white, they looked at each other "Well.."

After a few short minutes Shoto and Haru told the three what actually happened, and asked if everything was alright now. "They are." Leafa said with a smile "Good." Shoto said "Cause you know what that means~" Leafa and Haru looked confused, but Haru beat Leafa "What?" She asked, all Shoto did was just smile and let his arms out wide and yelled "GROUP HUG!" And he grabbed all three and hugged them.

---------------------

XXX

At The Center of ALfeim

Once the group left the inn, they were now walking around the center of ALfeim. As they looked around, the same numerous of players from different races there too.

"There are tons of people here." Leafa said, surprised.

"I guess it really is center of ALfeim." Kirito said.

"It seems that all the the fairy races from around the continent are here." Yui said.

"They seemed to be getting along really well to me." Haru said, gesturing to a male Spriggan a female Caith Sith cuddling. 

Shoto rested his hands behind his head. "I guess most can be together, regardless of their race." He said.

--------------------

Once they went threw the crowd of people, they went up some stairs and saw the World Tree very close.

"Hot damn!" Shoto exclaimed in awe.

"That's the World Tree." Kirito said.

"Yeah. Seeing it up close, it's amazing." Leafa said.

Haru raised a eyebrow. "Isn't there a city up there? And also..."

"The Fairy King Oberon lives there with the light fairies, the Alf. And they say the first race to meet with the king will become Alfs." Leafa said.

"You can't climb up it?" Kirito asked.

"The area around the trunk os off-limits, so you can't climb it. And your wings' flight limit would expire long before you'd make it up." Leafa said

"We heard that a bunch of people passed the limit by lauching off each other's shoulders..." Shoto said

"Oh, you heard about that too? They made it close to the branches. But the GMs freaked out and patched it. Now there's a wall just above the clouds." Haru said.

"I see... Let's head to the trunk for now." Kirito said.

"Yeah, got it." Leafa said.

The four of them continued on their way, while taking to pass the time.

----------------------

XXX

Later

"Once you pass through that gate, you're at the world's heart, the central district of Arun." Leafa said, pointing at the entrance.

Once they drew near the entrance, Yui suddenly popped out of Kirito's pocket, and looked up towards the top of the World Tree with a distant look in her eyes.

"Hey, Yui. What's wrong?" Kirito asked.

"You look like you saw a ghost?" Shoto said, noticing her too.

"Mommy..." Yui said, almost as though she didn't hear them.

Kirito and Shoto looked at her with shock, Fire in the eyes of one and the light of hope in the others'. "Say again?" Shoto said. 

"Mommy is here." Yui said, loud and clear.

"You're sure?" Kirito asked.

"You can detect her!?" Shoto exclaimed. 

"Yes! This player ID belongs to Mommy. The coordinates are right above us, in the tree!" Yui said, pointing up at the top of the tree.

"Hey-" Leafa began, before Haru cut her off, by putting a hand on her shoulder. "Haru...?" She asked.

Haru just looked over at the two boys. "Go get her, guys." She said a serious tone.

Shoto and Kirito both looked up, before their wings then appeared. Suddenly, the air around Shoto became noticeably hotter.

"Kirito! Shoto!" Leafa called out to them, but the two of them shot up into the sky very rapidly.

"Wait! Kirito! Shoto!" Leafa yelled out.

The two of them flew up even faster towards the World Tree.

"KIRITO!!!" Leafa cried out. "SHOTO!!!"

To be continued...

(Ending Theme - Light of Hope)

-------------------------

Har: Well, that progressed faster than I thought it would. Kirito! Shoto! Go kick some ass, you two!

Leafa: I think it's sweet! But they really didn't have to leave us like that...

Haru: Did you really expect them not to?

Leafa: That's fair.

Haru: Anyways, next time, we'll finally see the two boys of the Black and Red Blades take on the World Tree. I'm looking forward to it, and I believe all of you are too. (points at the readers) Until next time, see ya!