This wasn't working! No matter what she did Asuna's opponent proved to be too competent to evade. She could barely slow her down at all in fact. It was only a matter of moments before Leefa would close the gap the rest of the way and Asuna already knew that would mean defeat.
She knew who had Kirito now. That was going to have to suffice. The tactical mind of the commander fought with the emotional mind of a wife and it won, demanding a swift retreat. She could outrun this player with her OP stats. Once away she'll review the fight to figure out better tactics. Train more and learn more effective spells. This was a defeat, but it would serve to give her the knowledge to win next time.
Hating it, she shot directly up to escape. It was obvious this didn't surprise Leefa who started chanting immediately. Whatever it was Asuna hoped her speed would be enough to evade it, but she felt Yui fighting to free herself from the confines of Asuna's clothes, and then succeeding. She screamed in terror as she saw her daughter dart right toward her attacker. The rational spot in her mind not overtaken by terror realized that whatever the spell was Yui obviously recognized it and it was a threat.
But the terror was nearly all consuming and all else faded into the background as she screamed, turning on her x-axis and diving back down determined to protect Yui. She saw Leefa backhand Yui out of the way and the relief that the attack wasn't deadly was almost enough to get past the despair of realizing that she wasn't going to be able to avoid the sword swing that went in a perfect arc and cut her in half.
She'd lost, but at least Yui would be safe. She was expecting to despawn and respawn back in that hated cage, but nothing of the sort happened. Static filled her ears, but nothing else. The blade simply went through her as if it were a shadow.
"Asuna..."
That voice...
The shock was all-consuming as her avatar stopped responding. No, it was responding to every command her brain gave it. The trouble was there were no commands being given.
"Kirito..," she whispered.
"DADDY!!!" Yui screamed.
"Kaz... Oh god no! KAZUTO!!?" Leefa screamed as well.
It took a moment, but eventually Asuna's eyes began to focus again, and what she saw was a face she still dreamed of every night, haunted her memories every moment she was awake, and was etched into the very fibers of her heart. It was like a replay from any of her idyllic days at the cabin in the woods, with Yui hugging Kirito with loving abandon.
It was exactly like that, except at only six inches tall her husband wasn't exactly the man he had been back then. He was a nav pixie, same as Yui had become in this bizarre game, complete with cute little pixie wings.
Leefa's sense of shock was more complete than her own. Looking at her Asuna realized that her former opponent wasn't even blinking. If it wasn't because of her very visible trembling Asuna would think it was the worse case of lag she'd ever heard of. No, not just the trembling. The tears. Two waterfalls exploded and flowed down her cheeks unchecked.
What was going on?
The last thing that registered was the expression on Kirito's face. The only face not in any kind of shock. All that registered was sadness, and those eyes were directly on Asuna.
Before she could ask, and ask what she wasn't sure, Leefa came back to herself. From her sprawled position several feet away her arm forlornly went through the motions of logging off.
A second later a coherent question finally did occur. "Is that really you Kirito?" Asuna asked with hope, but the fears of it all being some sick trick made that hope seem fragile at best.
Kirito looked down at his daughter, and ruffled her hair good-naturedly, though the grim expression on his face belied all the joy that should have been in that moment. Ignoring the question he asked one of his own and it proved to her that this was most definitely her husband. His next words sounding unnaturally strained. Was it regret in his voice? Depression? No... It was pain. She could feel it in her heart as she saw it with her eyes. That pain, it was from what he was going to say. "How could you have caused all that pain? All that death? Did Kayaba kill the loving side of you that badly?"
And there it was, the final hit to her fragile ego. She couldn't deny what she had done, and it was obvious that somehow Kirito knew everything that went on in Aincrad after he died. She had become a monster.
Oh god... The memories came back to her, and she didn't recognize herself in them. Crumpling to her knees, Asuna emptied her stomach. There were no excuses. How could she rebuild a life that she had so thoroughly desecrated? How could she ask for forgiveness to their souls?
Not knowing what would happen between herself and Kirito, an unexpected third party made it even more awkward. Her savior, Cardinal, appeared, looking directly at Kirito. She was just as thin and sickly as before. If anything, she was even more transparent. The pain was evident on her face. She was suffering. There was one thing she did that she didn't do with Asuna: she spoke. "Help me." It was but a wisp of air barely taking the form of words, but it was obvious it was the best she could do.
Kirito gave her one last look that said that they needed to talk, then looked at Cardinal. "Who are...," he started, then paused, smiled, and shook his head. "Never mind. You're the Cardinal system, or more accurately, the AI that the cardinal system has made to represent it."
Asuna was perplexed for a second, then understood. He was a nav pixie after all, with all the abilities to look and manipulate the system that Yui had. "She's the one that opened the cage I was in when I first got here." He ignored her comment, which she felt she deserved. She wasn't looking forward to that future talk.
"You're obviously damaged. You barely have enough allotted memory to construct a complete avatar. And I'm being generous by calling it complete," Kirito continued. Holding his hands out in front of him, he asked, "Do you mind?"
Cardinal shook her head to indicate it was alright, and Kirito Flew forward and held both palms against her forehead. He was in deep concentration as he did whatever he was doing. Asuna didn't have a clue. From the outside it looked like they were both just standing there.
Finally, he came out of it and brought his arms down. "Ok, so your core programming is very complex. I say complex, but complex doesn't always mean better, and in your case it doesn't. The core of your code is the same as the code for SAO's Cardinal system, which is good, solid coding. But then they changed the code to match the vision of this game, including things like a whole new map, flying, and magic. It was done pretty well, to be honest, and wouldn't have been a problem. But then the expansions hit, and they're just ugly. Counterdicting commands, redundent code, outright eronious code, and several hundred viruses that the admins never caught. If it was simplified, you'd probably be able to hold yourself together and not suffer nearly as much. Honestly, it's a miracle this game even runs at all. Kayaba may be completely irredemable, but he knew how to write a program."
Asuna took all that information in, trying to understand. Cardinal simply nodded, confirming that everything Kirito said was true. Simplifying it as best she could, she said, "So Cardinal is broken cause the admins and programmers didn't do their jobs right?"
With a wan smile, her husband said, "Yeah, that sums it up."
"Can you fix it?" Asuna asked.
Kirito shook his head. "If I had admin rights, then yeah, but I don't." To her surprise Cardinal started jumping in excitement. "I can get admin rights?" Kirito asked. Another couple of jumps. "I'm going to assume I'm the only one who can who would be willing to do it?" More jumps.
"So when you freed me, " Asuna interjected, "It was so I could find and resurrect Kirito?" Cardinal nodded.
Looking back at Kirito, Asuna felt a dull ache. He was so close but felt so far away. She knew that she was going to be held accountable for her actions in Aincrad by the person she cherished the most. Years of death, and all to end her life. But she was still alive, and the death that had sent her down that spiral? He was alive too. She had no acceptable reasons for her actions, and it was tearing her up.
Then she looked at Cardinal. Still barely there and holding herself together by a hair's width. Kirito was going to solve this. It's what he did, and she was going to be there for it if he'd have her. He was here, and from what he'd said this game wasn't doing well. If it broke, what would happen to him? She won't risk losing him again.
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