"So, she isn't a child."

  Drifter, Kirito, and Asuna sat around a coffee table with Sasha, observing Yui and a handful of other kids swaying to Yuna's harp not far away.

  The spearmaster raised an eyebrow at the note of relief on the woman's voice, while Kirito and Asuna, protective of Yui as they were, frowned. Sasha blushed and fidgetted with her glasses.

  "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just... for a moment there, when I first saw her, I was terrified I had missed one. Just thinking of a child wandering Aincrad alone all these years..."

  Sasha shuddered, and Drifter almost mimicked her. The mere thought of it was as terrifying as it was heartbreaking.

  "No harm done, Sasha. What you have done in SAO already makes you a bigger heroine than any of us."

  Asuna grabbed Sasha's hand and squeezed it tightly. She meant every word too. Sasha's work may look, if not easy, than simple. Safe. But that was now.

  Back when SAO just started, in that first month of despair, everyone was only thinking about themselves. Only Sasha had seen the terrified children and taken it upon herself to care for them.

  Sure, Drifter, Yuna, Argo, and others had eventually learned about it and started helping. But in the first half an year of SAO, frontliners barely made enough to sustain themselves. Every cor they had went towards better gear so they could climb faster.

  For all that time, Sasha had cared for over a dozen children, all on her own, in a dilapidated church. Yes, it had been granted by the Cardinal System for this purpose, but the upkeep wasn't cheap.

  And Sasha didn't want the kids to just survive, living on the cheapest bread and free water from the fountains. She wanted them to live. To thrive, even in this death game.

  For months, Sasha had toiled away, to the point where, although she would never be a frontliner or even a clearer, she could hold her own to most of the then mid-level players. And every cor she earned went to making the children's lives better.

  No, Asuna, Kirito, Drifter and all the other Reavers only had endless respect for Sasha.

  "She is still a child in many ways. Most ways, actually. She's lost her memory, or maybe she never even had one in the first place. We were planning on asking if she could stay here, but..."

  Drifter trailed off with a smile, his gaze shifting to Kirito and Asuna, who blushed. One day they would get over their embarrassment, but until them the spearmaster would enjoy getting that reaction out of them.

  "Oh, yeah. Papa and Mama don't want to be separated from little Yui, I'm guessing?"

  Sasha also grinned widely, eyes shining behind her round spectacles. Though not as constantly as Drifter and Yuna, the younger couple were still routine visitors of the church. Asuna always brought snacks from the upper floors to the children, and Kirito gave them swordplay lessons. They were good friends of Sasha, and she too wasn't going to miss her chance at teasing them.

  Drifter leaned back as the children started clapping along to the rhythm of one of Yuna's songs. She looked just like any other child.

  "What a fucked up life we live. Heh."

  Kirito and Asuna smiled wryly, but Sasha grinned.

  "And yet, sometimes so beautiful."

  They couldn't disagree with that. For all that SAO had taken from them, it had also given some things back. Not enough to compensate for all they lost, never enough, but they all knew it could have been much worse.

  "What are you planning to do about her, though? You are frontliners."

  Sasha didn't need to complete that thought, the implications behind it being the same Drifter had already considered earlier. But he didn't respond, instead inclining his head towards Kirito and Asuna, deferring to them. Yui was their child.

  "We are going to take her to the places we think she could have come from, to see if she remembers anything."

  "And if she does?"

  Asuna pursed her lips, and Kirito also frowned at the thought. But the Black Swordsman eventually nodded, even if unwillingly.

  "It will be Yui's choice if it happens."

  He didn't like it, and neither did Asuna, but they would never try to control someone else's life. And Yui, much like Kizmel, as, for all intents and purposes, a real person.

  The caretaker, on the other hand, smiled proudly when she heard their answer. She often wondered how, of all the people in Sword Art Online, it was that so many children - for that was what Kirito, Asuna, and so man others of Reaver's Requiem had been, and some still were - that had become the backbone of the Assault Team. And then moments like this reminded her of the reason.

  "Well, we don't even know if she has a memory to recover to begin with. Yui's situation is fundamentally different from Kizmel. NPC or not, Kiz lived a whole life, or, at least, she had the memories of one. But that was because she was the main character of a chain questline. That might not be the case with Yui. She can very well be one of the basic NPCs that, for some reason, awakened."

  Drifter had spent a long time thinking about it last night and early this morning. Most NPCs only had a simple AI, and no background to speak of. Even their interactions with players, though seemingly fluid on the surface, followed a set pattern. Once you deviated from it, they stopped responding.

  Yui obviously had a much more advanced AI, but that could just as well be a consequence of her awakening, as it could be the reason behind it. They might never find out which it was.

  "Anyway, we will do everything we can to help Yui. And, if in the end she can't recover her memory..."

  "She will stay with us."

  Asuna was already fiercely protective of the girl, and Kirito seemed smitten by the heat in his girlfriend's voice.

  Drifter chuckled.

  "That. We are a big guild, we will find a way to always have someone taking care of her even when Kirito and Asuna are grinding."

  "And on the days of the raids, you can always send her to me. I would be delighted to babysit her for you, then and at any other occasion."

  Sasha smiled as she offered it, her gaze drifting to the girl in question, who was now holding a flute as Yuna tried to teach her how to play it. The sharp whistles that resulted from her failed attempts weren't exactly pleasing to the ear, but the sight of it warmed all their hearts.

  "Thank you, Sasha."

  "Don't mention it. It's my job. And if it can help with yours, that's just two birds with one stone."

  Drifter inclined his head in thanks to the caretaker, while Kirito and Asuna hugged her. Then the spearmaster drained the last of his coffee and got up.

  "That being said, we have to get going if we want to complete our itinerary. We'll see you during the weekend, Sasha. And I'm sure Kirito and Asuna can be convinced to accompany us."

  "Heh, I think Yui will insist."

  After collecting Yuna and a reluctant Yui, they bid farewell to the caretaker. While the younger couple raced ahead with the little girl, Drifter filled his wife in to what they had discussed.

  Yuna sighed and leaned onto hisnside as they walked, wrapping her arms around his.

  "You really think she just had a basic AI?"

  "Dunno. But she isn't part of any questline, unless she somehow came from the upper floors."

  That was a possibility Drifter had entertained, before discarding it, not because it was outlandish, but simply because there was no way to prove it until they had climbed more.

  "For now, we know Yui isn't a threat. Let's just keep doing what we have been doing. Everything will solve itself eventually."

  "Hm."

  -----------------------

  The Broken Spear of Aincrad may have taken a more laid-back approach to the matter of Yui, but in the outside world it was an entirely different case.

  Children had always been a touchy subject in the case of Sword Art Online. That Kayaba would allow teenagers to play the game was one thing, if already nefarious. But children?

  He could have blocked them from playing. He could have kicked them put before starting the death game. No one believed for even a second that the man who could create an entire virtual world couldn't boot put a handful of underaged players if he so wanted.

  Kayaba had chosen not to. And if it hadn't been for the kind soul that was Sasha, SAO's Monument of Life would have two dozen more names on it, and the obituaries outside would read an even more horrifying story.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Such cold and deliberate cruelty was why not even the staunchest of life activists uttered a complaint when others advocated for the death penalty should Kayaba be found.

  It was one of the many reasons why Drifter and every other frontliner fully intended on stabbing the scientist's heart out if they ever came across him - in Aincrad or the real world.

  But while countless people around the globe were first terrified, then shocked about Yui's whole existence, it was the families and those closest to Reaver's Requiem that had the biggest reactions.

  When the little girl had showed up at the Reavers Mansion, they had been confused. Once Kirito and Drifter showed such strong reactions, even identifying her as the cause of their unease over the past few days, they became worried.

  But nothing but complete and utter dumbfounded shock could describe their state when this morning came and Yui called Kirito and Asuna Papa and Mama.

  In SAO, the only places that were truly private were the players' rooms. In there, no matter what was happening, if the players were sleeping, talking, or something else, the broadcast would cut off as soon as the door closed. So, the spectators had been none the wiser to what happened before Kirito, Asuna, and Yui went to bed.

  Watching over the four Reavers and their new charge as they went about the morning, discussing Yui's situation, cleared up some things, but also elicited some mixed emotions on the hearts of their family members.

  Kirito's family had been delighted after they got over the shock. Especially Suguha. She spent the entire day glued to her phone, watching Yui's every move and her interactions with Kirito with rapt attention. She even skipped school for it.

  Her mother, Midori, hadn't even tried to convince her. She just watched with Suguha for as long as she could before having to go to work. And then, when she returned, saw her daughter in the same position.

  "Sugu, you've been in the same position for the entire day. Go take a bath, then let's eat. We can watch them more later, together."

  Midori sighed in fake exasperation, but her tone was soft. She sat next to Suguha and gently wrapped her arms around her. It wasn't like she hadn't spent a good portion of her workday staring blankly at space, thinking of the cute little girl who was now, apparently, her granddaughter.

  "She called him Papa again."

  Suguha's voice was a soft whisper, her eyes shining. Her phone, broadcasting Kirito's PoV, showed the four Reavers and Yui back at the Reavers Mansion after a full, but fruitless, day of visiting Aincrad's most memorable spots to see if they jogged Yui's memories.

  They hadn't.

  Now, the group was siting on the porch, waiting for their guildmates to come back, while Yui sat on Kirito's lap, excitedly pointing out things in the distance to him.

  The swordsman still blushed every time Yui called him that, and Asuna wasn't much better. But it was undeniable that they were bursting at the seams with joy, and Midori found herself forgetting her previous instructions and just sitting with her daughter, Watching the young man who was her son in all but blood.

  "He looks so... happy."

  Suguha nodded, eyes never leaving the screen.

  "He does."

  They didn't know what the first months of SAO had been like for Kirito. The 24/7 broadcast only started after the 10th floor, and by them he had already joined Reaver's Requiem and built a whole support group.

  A family.

  But even then, he had never looked that carefree. Aside from a very few, very precious moments, he had always behaved like a soldier. Focused. Hardened. Always wary, always rigid. Like he was waiting for an ambush even inside a safe zone.

  They all had been like that. A lot of them, Reavers and other frontliners, still were. Even when they smiled, it felt brittle. Fake.

  But now, running his fingers through Yui's smooth black hair as the girl leaned back on his chest and all but purred, Kirito looked, for the first time, truly, unhesitantly happy.

  He looked free.

  "She's not real."

  Midori pressed a finger to her lips, sounding like she was trying to convince herself.

  Yui couldn't be real. She was just a digital construct. Even if she ended up being an awakened NPC like Kizmel, she couldn't be real. Because if she was...

  Then it would break her son's heart the day they left SAO and she disappeared with it.

  "She is! She... is."

  Suguha shot back almost instantly. Too fast. Voice quivering.

  "Maybe... maybe not like us, but she is real. She laughs and cries. She... she is scared. Of not remembering. And--"

  He voice caught as tears started pooling on the corners of her eyes and Suguha bit back a sob.

  "She loves him. She loves Kazuto and Asuna so much, mom."

  Midori pulled her closer, resting Suguha's head on the crook of her neck.

  "If she makes him stronger, then I'm grateful she exists. Real or not."

  Mother and daughter cried that night. For all that had been lost. And for hope.

  ----------------------

  Others didn't have such emotionally grounding moments.

  In a modern mansion that put the Reavers' to shame, at least in terms of opulence, Yuuki Shouzou sat across from his estranged wife, Yuuki Kyouko. The same scene Suguha and Midori were seeing was playing on a TV to the side, though from Asuna's point of view.

  Shouzou hadn't set foot in the mansion in months, nor had he spoken with his wife more than the few words necessary at public functions.

  But this time, he had come here of his own volition, hoping against all hope that Yui might spark something - anything - resembling familial instinct in Kyouko.

  He should have known better. Instead, when he showed the broadcast to her - who hadn't bothered watching it in a long time - and explained the situation and Yui's existence, she had sneered.

  "It's not enough she is disgracing herself and our name on a global scale, marrying that... boy... inside a game, but now she takes on a daughter?"

  Kyouko would have spat in disgust if such a crude gesture weren't below someone of her stature.

  "I don't know what is worse, that this... thing... that she calls a daughter isn't even real, or that she acts as if it is."

  Shouzou listed to her rant without any outward signs of agreement or disagreement. For all he had hoped, he had always known this was how this conversation would go.

  Draining the last of his tea, he placed the cup on the table and got up, giving wife, if the term still fit, the barest incline of his head as a goodbye.

  Then he turned around and left, not needing, nor wanting, to see the disdainful scowl he was sure she had on her face at his abrupt departure.

  This had been the last straw, Shouzou knew. Even if they stayed married, for appearances sake if nothing else, he would have nothing to do with Yuuki Kyouko from now on.

  Not only because he had long since fallen out of love with her, if he had ever been. But because Kyouko, knowingly or not, had just drawn a line on the sand. And he knew in which side he stood on.

  The day Asuna came out of SAO - and he believed, no, he knew she would - he would tell her everything.

  About Kyouko's plans to marry her while she was still unconscious, which he had blocked. About the hurtful, disdainful, and even cruel words she had uttered about their daughter - not that he thought he would need to, he was sure Kyouko would be more than happy to repeat them to Asuna's face.

  Asuna might still forgive all that. She was kind like that.

  But the moment Kyouko brought up her feelings about Yui, regardless of whatever happened, even when Yui disappeared after SAO was cleared, Shouzou knew his daughter would break all ties with her mother there and then.

  Kyouko would sneer and threaten and bluster. And then she would finally see what Shouzou already knew: that Asuna was nkt a porcelain doll to be admired from a glass case or a piece of meat to be sold. She was much stronger, and she would let her mother know it.

  And when that happened, Shouzou would be steadfastly behind her.