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"Asuna" - Regular Speech

'Kirito-kun' – Thoughts

[Congratulation!] – System Announcement

Beta'd by BigCC

Chapter 20: Kirigaya Yui

A Week After the Defeat of The Gleam Eyes

Joan's House, Kamdet, 74th Floor, Floating Castle of Aincrad

"These idiots aren't going to leave the two of you alone, are they?" the silver-haired girl asked her guests wryly.

Asuna, looking sulky and indignant, shook her head. "Those idiots from The Army blabbed to everyone and their mother about Kirito-kun's [Unique] Skill once that…that…that moron Kobatz was kicked out of the [ALS]."

"It was probably an order from the top brass to divert everyone's attention from the fact that one of their highest-ranking members led his party into a Boss Battle without any preparation or scouting. That kind of thing would have lost them a lot of members, might have even seen the [ALS] disbanded. As it is, they still lost nearly half of their newest recruits and a number of their more senior members." Kirito offered tiredly, trying to force a smirk onto his face at that bit of schadenfreude.

Ever since the news broke, he had been all but stalked by people wanting to know how he'd gotten the [Dual Blades] skill. It had gotten so bad that he couldn't even take his girlfriend out on a date without getting mobbed by belligerent or overeager players.

"I can't believe they followed you all the way to my house." Joan grumbled, eyeing the closed curtains with disfavour, knowing there was a crowd of Mid-Liners and Front-Liners already gathered outside her home. It was bad enough that they were stalking her friends, but now they were making a nuisance of themselves to her. That wasn't going to fly.

"It's more than that though." Asuna bemoaned. "The Anti-Beta Tester faction in the [KoB] is getting ridiculous now, demanding that I break up with Kirito-kun."

"Haaaa? What the hell?! Why?" Joan asked in disbelief.

"I have no idea." the chestnut-haired girl said, a scowl on her face. "I think I heard Godfree-san say something about jealous net gamers or something like that..."

"Ah. Now I get it." the Silver Knight nodded grimly. Net gamers loved getting rare loot and skills, with both of those being doubly important in Aincrad. 'Rare' almost always meant powerful stats and effects, such as Joan's [Divine Stone of Returning Soul], which was unique in all of Aincrad. Possessing such rare and powerful equipment would be a cornerstone for anyone who wanted to survive the Death Game they'd been caught up in, which meant that everyone with common sense wanted as many rare and powerful equipment and skills as possible.

Joan had made it clear from the start that her [Battōjutsu] skill was a [Unique] skill, not just an [Extra] skill, so people hadn't bothered her. In Kirito's case though, even if he claimed that [Dual Blades] was a [Unique] skill, too many people already 'knew' that it was an [Extra] skill, thanks to the loudmouths from the [ALS], for that to do anything but make him look suspicious.

"Stupid [ALS]." Joan muttered. "What you two need to do is disappear for a while until the fuss and feathers dies down a bit. Well, only Kirito needs to vanish, but I doubt you want to separate for any great length of time, right Asuna?"

The steely look in the rapier-user's eyes was all the answer needed. A herd of wild horses couldn't drag her away from her boyfriend.

"I think I should apologise here too." the silver-haired girl said with a sigh. "I shouldn't have insisted that we defeat the boss like that. If we'd just retreated after we got those [ALS] idiots free and clear..."

"What's done is done, Joan." Kirito disagreed with a shake of his head. "Plus, I agreed that defeating [The Gleam Eyes] at that particular point was the best decision to make, and even this hasn't convinced me that we were wrong. It could have gained actual armour or a tower shield or something else ridiculous like that which would've made it even harder to defeat. I'll gladly deal with this nuisance over losing more members of the Clearing Force to one of Kayaba's traps."

The three Front-liners grimaced. That had actually happened with the 61st Floor Boss. [Adam, the Alchemic Being] had gained the ability to transmute himself from metal into other elements, such as stone, fire, water and earth every time he lost half of a health bar after his initial run-in with the recon unit of the [KoB]. That had been more than a slight pain in the ass to fight and it was only due to sheer dumb luck that they hadn't lost anyone in that fight.

"Well, it's a relief that we managed to get that boss out of the way earlier than expected." Joan said with a sigh, looking away from her friends. "I'm honestly worried about our bodies. We can't stay in SAO for much longer without serious health issues springing up."

"How long do you think we all have?" Asuna asked in concern.

"I...don't know." the Swordsaint admitted. "I'm a computer programmer trainee, not a Med student. But I wouldn't bet on us having any longer than another year or so before we start seeing some of the really bad stuff start affecting Players still in-game, particularly those that weren't exactly healthy in the first place. Since the three of us were young, fit, and healthy when this mess started, we might have a bit more time, but even then, I don't think we have more than a year and a half. The human body wasn't designed to be unmoving and fed intravenously 24/7 and have the brain fully active for such an extended period of time. I'd heard rumours that they were going to perform a long-term FullDive program for medical research, but it should have started after we were trapped in Aincrad. We have to escape from here before Player's start dying because their real bodies simply can't keep up anymore."

Kirito and Asuna nodded grimly.

"Anyway, returning to the more immediate matter at hand, you should buy a house for yourselves on a lower floor." Joan continued. "Almost every Front-liner has a house or guildhall above the 50th Floor nowadays, so it'll be the last place people will look for you. Ask Argo for help scouting for a house, she owes you two at least a couple favours by now."

"B-both of us? In the s-same house?" Asuna stammered.

"Oh, come off it! You two spend more time with each other than you do alone nowadays." Joan teased her friends, who were both turning bright red. "You should just get over your embarrassment and get married already! The in-game benefits are too good to pass up and it'll be good practice for when you get hitched IRL."

"JOAN!" the Black and White Duo yelped in utter embarrassment.

"Just make me the maid of honour in the IRL version as thanks for pushing you two lovebirds together." the Swordsaint prodded them, cackling as they both adopted deer-in-headlights expressions and had a hard time looking at one another. By the looks of things, they'd already considered getting married in-game; they were mainly embarrassed by the thought of actually getting married for real.

'Heh. It'll be good for them to get out of this damned death game.' she thought as she ushered the two of them out of her house for the day and threatened dire consequences on the stalkers lurking outside if they showed their faces near her residence again. 'Maybe they'll break up, maybe they'll stay together, who knows? I think they'll be a strong item together; they balance each other out pretty well...they remind me of how Otou-san and Okaa-san got on together before the accident.'

That soured her mood somewhat. She still hadn't gotten over the betrayal of her father by her mother so soon after he had died in that accident. Her mother was truly a weak woman who needed a partner in her life in order to feel whole; Joan, or rather Morisato Ai, was not like that at all. Romance was, at most, a tertiary concern for her; she'd never found someone, male or female, who had ever caught her interest like that. Kirito had come the closest from the male side, but she knew they wouldn't work out as they were both introverts by nature.

An introvert needed an extrovert to pull them out of their comfort zone every so often, something Asuna did on instinct with Kirito. And an extrovert needed an introvert to slow down and appreciate quiet moments in comfort, something which Kirito did for Asuna just by being near her.

'Yin and Yang, all these in balance. Heh, now I sound like some kind of monk.' The Silver Knight snorted to herself as she closed the door behind her.

"Well, I'd better be prepared to run interference for those two." Joan muttered as she headed to the kitchen to make her dinner. "Stupid idiots who can't get their heads out of their collective fundaments because of pride and envy...sheesh."

Three Days Later

Heathcliff's Office, Headquarters of the Knights of Blood, Granzam, 55th Floor, Floating Castle of Aincrad

"Joan-kun, you have complicated matters for me." Heathcliff said bluntly. Dressed in red and white robes marked with the white sword-cross symbol of his guild, he sat behind his desk and looked at Joan neutrally.

"I'm acting in the best interests of my friends, Heathcliff." Joan replied. She was standing in front of the desk, dressed in her usual samurai outfit, with the [Meikyō Shisui] hanging from her belt. "Kirito and Asuna have been harried by a bunch of thoughtless idiots for over a week without rest. They're taking time off to let the furore about Kirito's [Unique] skill die down a bit. It's just a temporary leave of absence that Asuna's requested, not a resignation from the guild."

"Yes, I've heard of some players being pests to Kirito-kun and Asuna-kun." a slight frown crossed Heathcliff's face as he spoke. "Has it truly been bad enough to force them to hide somewhere that they and you won't even tell me about?"

"They're dogged everywhere, even in the field." the Swordsaint replied dryly. "Of course, a couple have tried to forcibly persuade Kirito to 'hand over his Beater knowledge to those who deserve it' to the expected result of being soundly thrashed by a pissed off Asuna."

That made Heathcliff wince. Asuna was usually fairly calm and in control, but when she was aroused to anger, she was very, very scary. She wouldn't PK people, but she would scare her opponents with a flurry of simple stabs that shaved off the target's HP with a sudden appearance of red stab and cut marks across their bodies. They had both seen veteran Front-line Players reduced to quivering wrecks by the infamous Senkō no Asuna. It was not a pretty sight.

"I...see." the Paladin said after a moment. "I shall see about using what influence I can to convince the population that Kirito-kun's [Dual Blades] are indeed a [Unique] skill as opposed to an [Extra] skill. That will hopefully help cool things down a bit faster, as well as assuage Asuna-kun's wrath."

"Please do." Joan nodded. "How are your team leaders taking it?"

"Godfree-kun is supportive of Asuna-kun and Kirito-kun." Heathcliff sighed and leaned back on his chair. "Daizen-kun is, as always, strictly neutral about the private lives of Players, while Uzala-kun is against them as the leader of the so-called 'Anti-Beater' faction. As for myself, I am not against Beta Testers, and consider my subordinates' personal lives to be their own concern and business."

"That's a more slender majority among your command staff than I'd prefer." the Silver Knight frowned. "Still, it's not like the [KoB] has a lot of members; you only have thirty or so who are Front-line level, right?"

"Thirty-five." Heathcliff nodded. "The others are resource gatherers and crafters. None are as good as Lisbeth the Blacksmith, or Ashley the Cloth Specialist. Still, they are good enough to maintain our equipment and make new equipment as and when needed."

Looking at her seriously, the leader of [KoB] frowned slightly. "Joan-kun, isn't it about time you and Kirito-kun joined a guild? The attack patterns of the monsters are becoming increasingly irregular, and the Beta-breakers are becoming more and more common. You are both slowly reaching the limits of what Solo Players can accomplish at this late stage in the game."

Joan grimaced. He wasn't wrong. She was accomplishing less than she liked whenever she went out into the field alone, and she was certain that the same could be said for Kirito. However...

"Until we find ourselves hitting a solid upper limit to what we can accomplish, I think we'll remain Solo." she said diplomatically. "When that happens, likely once we hit the floors in the mid-eighties, Kirito will likely join the [KoB] if you agree to let him be a part of Asuna's Squad. I'll likely join either the [Moonlit Black Cats] or [Fūrinkazan]."

"You've given this some thought." Heathcliff observed, one eyebrow raised.

"I'm not suicidal Heathcliff, regardless of what people say about me." the Silver Knight said wearily. "I am well aware that being a Solo Player carries a hefty risk in a death game, and that there are upper limits to what is possible to achieve while working solo. So is Kirito. We both plan on surviving this death game, so have no fears about our plans."

"Very well." the Paladin chuckled. "I had better get back to this infernal paperwork. Even inside a game, it seems I cannot get away from it..."

Taking the subtle dismissal at face value, Joan nodded and left the room, deciding to get some grinding done for the day before heading to visit the newly-weds down on the 22nd Floor. Before she could leave the fortress that was the [KoB] guildhall though, she was intercepted by the creepy and somewhat emancipated-looking Kuradeel.

"Where is Asuna-sama?" the claymore-user demanded brusquely, blocking the corridor.

"None of your business." Joan responded bluntly, pushing past the annoying idiot.

"Why you low-level Beater...!" Kuradeel growled.

"Is that all? I may not look it but I am rather busy." the katana-user asked barely turning her head to give the man an annoyed glance over her shoulder, sounding utterly bored by the conversation. Kuradeel couldn't be more wrong; she was level 90 and was closing in on 91, while Kuradeel was only level 81.

The look of rage on the man's face grew and he reached back instinctively to grasp the hilt of his claymore, [Tyrant Dragon]. In Joan's opinion, the resources spent of the creation of the weapon could have been better spent on two other, far less ornate and decorative, swords.

"You had better not bother." she informed him lazily as she grasped her katana's sheath and flicked the hilt out slightly with her thumb. "You can't win against me; you simply don't have the speed to keep up and that oversized butcher knife is too unwieldy to compensate."

After glaring at her for a moment or two longer, Kuradeel scoffed and let go of his weapon, turning away to flounce off like the prima-donna that he was. "Watch yourself, oh 'Silver Knight'. You may not always be flavour of the month." was his parting shot.

"That guy has some serious issues." Joan shook her head in wonder. Just another part of people going native inside a Fantasy VRMMORPG; some people were reverting back to a medieval mindset and acting like knights. Not role-playing as knight, actually acting as real, medieval knights with all the petty bullying and pompous posturing that came with it. Just about the best news that Joan had ever heard was when those ninja role-player wannabes, the [Fūma Ninja Alliance], had disbanded; Joan couldn't stand role-players.

Leaving thoughts of idiots and assholes behind her, the Silver Knight headed out to use the Granzam Teleport Gate so she could start her grinding on the 75th Floor.

Several Hours Later

Log House K4, Forests of 22nd Floor, Aincrad

Joan walked up the path to the house and had to whistle at how utterly picturesque it was. Surrounded in a small wooden fence, it sat in its own little clearing amid the forest and was twenty minutes away from the Teleport Gate in Coral Village, the main settlement for the 22nd Floor.

The 22nd Floor had been a very easy floor to conquer; monsters only rarely spawned there, and it was one of the few floors that didn't possess any true Field Bosses either. The landscape was made up of large mountains and sprawling forests, with a massive lake in the centre. Even the Labyrinth and Floor Boss had been comparatively easy to defeat.

All in all, it was a suitably placid and harmless floor to have a quiet little honeymoon in.

After knocking on the door, Joan was greeted by the sight of Asuna opening the door dressed in casual clothing and with an almost visible aura of domestic happiness surrounding her. The wedding ring on her ring finger was very sparkly too, for all that it was a simple band of gold.

"Joan!" Asuna smiled at her happily.

"Hey Asuna. Married life suits you." the silver-haired girl teased.

Ignoring the adorable red-faced pout that her friend wore, Joan breezed into the house to see Kirito sitting in the living room portion of the house, wearing his usual casual black clothes. Seriously, what was with the boy and the colour black anyway?

"Hey Joan." the Black Swordsman greeted her calmly. "Teasing Asuna again, I take it?"

"It never gets old." Joan agreed with a snicker. Sitting down, she eyed Kirito as Asuna comfortably slid next to him on the sofa he was sitting on and started to cuddle with him. "Wow, you two are lovey-dovey. I hope you haven't done anything that requires that you turn the Ethics Code off."

And the two sitting opposite her promptly exploded into bright red blushes, stammered denials and exaggerated body language. Joan let go and cackled out loud at her friends.

"Ahhh...I needed that." Joan wheezed as she regained her breath. "Seriously though, if you have 'experimented' with the Ethics Code off, don't feel bad about it. There aren't any negative consequences to that sorta thing in a game, unlike the real world. No chances of a surprise springing up nine months later, for example."

"Joan!" Asuna wailed as she hid her blushing face behind her hands. Kirito said nothing, looking determinedly out of the window to one side with a face as red as his wife's.

"Hehehe...seriously you two, you're both sixteen and seventeen, aren't you?" the silver-haired girl asked with raised eyebrows. "You shouldn't be so uptight. Anyway, aside from getting entertainment from you, I came to give you two presents as congratulations for your marriage."

"Pres-...oh, Joan, you didn't have to do that!" Asuna protested as Joan opened her menu and scrolled through her inventory.

"Of course I didn't; I'm doing it because I want to." Joan snorted genteelly. "Ah-ha, there you are."

With two jabs of her finger, two small boxes appeared in mid-air, with Joan catching them. One was in black wrapping paper with a silver ribbon, while the other was covered in white wrapping paper with a red ribbon. Tossing the boxes to their intended owners, the girl winked. "Open 'em up."

Looking at one another for a moment, Kirito and Asuna shrugged and ripped the wrapping off. As the paper exploded into blue motes of light and vanished, they revealed identical grey boxes. Opening these further had the pair gasping.

Laid out in each box was a small miniature version of their partner's sword; Asuna held a copy of [Elucidator], while Kirito held a copy of [Lambent Light]. The small swords were exquisitely detailed, to the point that Kirito had to ask something.

"Liz made these, didn't she?"

"Yup. She learned a new type of accessory forging when she MAXED her [Blacksmithing] skill, among other things, and these are the result of her efforts in that regard." Joan informed him. "They're designed to be hung from the hilts of your swords. Try equipping them."

After doing so, Kirito and Asuna were surprised. Kirito's AGI stat was raised, while Asuna's STR stat was raised while they had their new accessories equipped, and it was by a nice little amount as well.

"These are really good." Asuna said, impressed.

"Yup. The practical value aside, it'll be kinda like you two will be close to one another even if you're apart for some reason." their friend said with a genuinely happy smile. "So, do you both like them?"

"We do." Kirito nodded as he unequipped his sword. "Thank you for them, Joan."

Asuna nodded happily in agreement, gently holding Kirito's right hand in her left, with her right cradling the small black sword. "I'll treasure it, Joan."

Of course, the newly married couple were less than please about Kuradeel's words and actions towards Joan; unfortunately, he was a member of Team C, while Asuna was the leader of Team A. Unless he did something in front of Asuna that required her to discipline him, she couldn't punish him.

"Asuna, I want you to watch your step inside the [KoB] with any of the Anti-Beta Tester faction around." Joan said seriously. "The amount of hatred for Beta Testers that Kuradeel showed, at the very least, isn't normal. Now that you're married to a Beta Tester, that hatred could shift to you."

"I'll be fine." the chestnut-haired girl said firmly. "Besides, I have no intention of returning to the front lines until at least a couple of months pass. I haven't rested at all in this entire time, nor has Kirito-kun. A couple of months is the least we can be allowed."

"Hey, you're preaching to the choir here, Asuna." Joan waved a hand negligently. "Honestly, I'm not looking forward to returning to the real world. Here, I'm a valuable comrade and fighter, looked up to by everyone. IRL, I'm seen as a mere gaijin halfblood."

"Joan..." Asuna said softly, concern in her eyes.

"It's fine, it's fine. I got used to it once, I can get used to it again." the silver-haired girl smiled. It was a patently fake smile, one that broadcast, 'I'm hiding my pain, please don't prod any further' to anyone who knew Joan. Kirito squeezed Asuna's hand and minutely shook his head at her when she turned to look at him. She reluctantly nodded and changed the subject, asking about the progress of the Clearing Force as they moved across the 75th Floor.

After the Silver Knight had bid them farewell and headed home, the couple looked at each other in a troubled way.

"Is she that worried about her life in the real world do you think, Kirito-kun?" Asuna asked her husband.

"Probably. She has said in the past that she's led a quite unfortunate life due to being an American-Japanese mix." Kirito said with a frown. "You know how some idiots view foreigners and so-called 'halfbloods' in society."

Asuna grimaced. "Yes, I have seen that happen. Still...to think that Joan went through something similar..."

Halfbloods were not exactly uncommon in Japan, but the ones that stood out were the ones with obviously non-native eye and hair colours. To some people, someone being a halfblood was more than enough reason to discriminate against them, especially if that person was an old (and old fashioned) member of society.

"Once we're out and mobile again, we'll have to track down Joan and see about making sure she isn't being bullied or anything." the rapier-user said with determination.

"Right." Kirito nodded.

The two had already revealed their real names to one another once they had 'married' one another, and they knew Joan's real name from back after the 50th Floor Boss fight. She had come close to dying in that fight and had entrusted her real name to them in case she did die in the future, so they could visit her grave. A morbid reason, but it had just made the two determined to make sure that Joan survived, so that Kirigaya Kazuto and Yuuki Asuna could meet Morisato Ai in person, in the real world.

That was their hope. That was their vow. They would stand together in the real world with their friends.

Six Days Later

Joan found herself feeling somewhat nonplussed as she once more approached Asuna and Kirito's home on the 22nd Floor. She had received a somewhat panicked and garbled PM from Asuna summoning her and for the life of her, the silver-haired girl couldn't think what could make Asuna and Kirito call for her so soon after she'd visited them.

The answer she received as she entered the house (the front door was open) was a shock. Sitting together on the couch were Kirito and Asuna, as she had expected. What she hadn't expected was the petite little girl who looked very much like the child of Kirito and Asuna sitting in between them. She had long, black hair, with a pair of bright black eyes. She wore a pure white dress that made her look like the picture of innocent cuteness and she was barefoot.

"So...congratulations of having a child?" Joan essayed with a small smirk. As expected, both Kirito and Asuna blushed, but not as much as she might have imagined.

"Papa, Mama...who's this onee-san?" the little girl asked with a cute tilt to her head.

"Ahem...This is our very good friend, Joan." Kirito said after clearing his throat. "Joan this...is Yui. We found her in the forest yesterday. Ever since she woke up, she's been calling us 'Mama and Papa'."

"No cursor...an NPC?" Joan blinked.

"We think so, but...she doesn't act like one." Asuna said as she subconsciously hefted Yui into her lap and started to cuddle her. "She's too 'human' for lack of a better term. Plus, we can interact with her without any problems."

"Huh..." the silver-haired girl blinked before looking back at the little girl. "Well, if she was an NPC, you wouldn't be able to cuddle her like that, which is quite cute by the way, Asuna."

The blush on the chestnut-haired girl's face deepened, but she still kept cuddling the little girl in her lap, Kirito smiling at his wife as she did so.

"Hey there, Yui-chan." Joan said, kneeling down and looking the girl in the eyes. "The name's Joan. I guess that if Asuna and Kirito are your Mama and Papa, I'm your Auntie."

"Auntie...?" the little girl blinked. "Auntie Joan?"

"Yup, that's me." the silver-haired girl grinned. "Nice to meet you, Yui-chan."

Spending time with Yui was very easy to do, Joan found as time went on. She was innocent and adorable, as well as completely honest. Generally speaking, Joan had never been particularly fond of children (they were loud, needy, and annoying), but Yui was one she found to be the exception to that.

After Joan taught her the basics of Cat's Cradle, she left Kirito to watch over the little girl and went into the kitchen to talk to Asuna.

"Seriously, she's adorable." Joan said, keeping an eye on Yui through the door. Kirito was showing her how to make Tokyo Tower using the strings, with the little girl focusing with adorable seriousness on her 'Papa's' instructions. "And she's almost exactly like a real child of you and Kirito, physically at least."

"J-Joan!" Asuna whined, even as her hands kept making sandwiches. "Will you stop teasing me already?"

"So what's the plan?" Joan changed the subject with a smirk. "I could go and ask Sasha at the orphanage if she was one of the kids she looked after...the lack of cursor thing could be a bug."

"Mmm...Cardinal doesn't let bugs last long though..." Asuna mused as she started diagonally cutting the sandwiches. "The longest bug I can remember since this entire thing started was that one back on the 30th Floor, the one with the distance warping problem on the cliff? And it only lasted for about eight hours. Yui-chan's been around for longer than that, and that was the longest lasting bug in Aincrad's history."

"Outside of the Beta, anyway." Joan corrected her. "A couple of the bugs in the Beta were ridiculous; I once got caught in a pond that flushed me like a toilet. I had to log out and contact a GM to get my Avatar out of that mess."

Asuna pulled a face at the thought of being flushed like that. "You have weird luck, Joan."

"Tell me about it." the silver-haired girl grumbled. That had been the stupidest way of dying she had ever gone through in any game she have ever played. Talk about undignified.

"So, should we go and visit the [Starting City] to talk to Sasha?" Joan asked after she dismissed her memories of being stuck in a giant whirlpool.

"Not today." the other girl said quickly. "We wouldn't want to upset Yui-chan when she's having fun."

'Be honest Asuna; you just don't want to let her go.' Joan chuckled to herself. The way that Asuna doted on the little girl made it pretty obvious how taken she was with Yui. Kirito was obviously very fond of her as well, which was unusual; the Black Swordsman was usually wary of letting people get close to him, but Yui had somehow bypassed his normal defensive wariness as if it didn't exist.

Truly, moe was a terrifying thing.

"OK, fair enough." Joan nodded, allowing herself to 'believe' Asuna's assertion. "I have things to do tomorrow, so how about the day after?"

"That sounds like an idea." the chestnut-haired girl nodded, not sounding happy with the idea.

"Don't worry, Asuna." Joan pulled the rapier user into a hug from behind. "Even if Yui-chan is someone that Sasha looks after, we can see about adopting her for the duration; there's no way you'd be seen as bad foster parents."

After Kirito and Yui had their (very spicy) sandwiches, and Asuna and Joan had their own, Joan took a picture of the little family with a Recording Crystal that she kept with her for just such opportunities. The sight of all three sitting on the couch and smiling at one another was the very picture of heart-warming.

'Hmm...I can have it copied and made into a proper picture and give it to them when I come back.' Joan mused as she headed away for the day. 'That'll make a nice little present for them. Goodness knows that they could use something that isn't battle related as a gift.'

Nodding in satisfaction with that idea, she headed off to have it made, unaware of a scheming man with a cactus hairstyle in an isolated hut on another floor.

"Heh...let's see ya get through this, Beater Bitch...!"

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Next Chapter: Kibaou's Last Scheme

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