Murderer...

Beater...

Murderer...

You let us die...

Murderer...

Murderer.

Murderer!

MURDERER!

Kirito was sprinting down a hallway, the walls glowing and pulsing in a bright neon red. Both his blue blade and his black blade were drawn and he was hacking and slashing at every enemy that came at him from what seemed like every conceivable direction.

Grunting, he dropped low and slashed upward immediately after rising. His attacker was slashed in two and exploded in a brilliant display of blue light pixels.

MONSTER!

Kirito spun and cut down a Laughing Coffin member as he tried to stab him from behind. The man was joined by three more and Kirito ducked and weaved as he cut down the trio shortly after.

YOU COULD HAVE SAVED US!

A pack of massive monsters descended upon him and he flipped twice backwards before running down the hallway the way he had come. The horde only grew in size and despite how hard he ran they only seemed to gain more ground on him.

Turning right, Kirito bounded down a sloping flight of stairs that led into a smaller room. He turned to face the oncoming horde, hoping to face the horde where he could bottle them into a small passageway.

She stood there.

"You killed me...Kirito-kun...you killed all of us..." Sachi said sadly as she stared at him with dead eyes as the monsters descended upon her.

"No!" Kirito cried out as he ran to save her, only for a shield wall to spring up at the doorway and prevent him from reaching her by mere inches. The girl smiled cruelly as the beasts hacked at her form, knocking her health down to a terrifying red in seconds.

"MURDERER!" Sachi cried brokenly as a brutish monster brought his double-edged axe down upon her form as the shield wall was replaced by a door that slid down from the roof.

"NO!" Kirito wailed as he smashed his fists against the door, but all he got in return was a flashing purple icon informing him the object was immortal.

"NO! NO! NO!" Kirito continued to scream as he beat the wall like crazy. He hacked at both the wall and the door with his blades until both cracked and shattered.

He felt his eyes streaming tears.

Murderer...

Turning in numbed shock, he came face to face with a trio of Laughing Coffin members. Two were the nameless men he had killed during the LC raid.

The final one was Kuradeel.

"You can't save anyone beater...you're just a failure all around..." he taunted as he and the other two Laughing Coffin members drew their weapons and advanced on the defenseless swordsman. "You can't even save yourself..."

The three red players began to attack the black haired boy. He made no effort to resist and barely made any noise other than the occasional cry of pain. They stopped just shy of killing him and Kuradeel leaned in as he drew back his blade. As he moved, his face shifted to take on the features of Sugo.

"Mmm...Asuna-kun is next...mmm..." He whispered darkly into Kirito's ear before plunging his blade all the way in to his chest.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Kazuto screamed at the top of his lungs as he shot upright in bed. His hair was sticking to his eyes and his face. His entire body was covered in sweat and he could tell he had been crying because his eyes felt puffy.

"Kirito-kun!" Asuna whispered brokenly as she pulled him to her and held him tight while stroking his hair. The girl was crying softly as well and was trembling almost as bad as he was as Kazuto slowly realized it really all was a nightmare.

Another nightmare.

"I-I'm sorry..." he whispered in the dark as he leaned into her embrace and wrapped his arms around her frame.

"N-no! Don't y-you apologize to me!" She stated vehemently as she buried her face in the crook of his neck and pulled him closer. "Don't you ever apologize!"

Kazuto just nodded silently into her hair as he rubbed her back and slowly he began to return to the world of the waking fully. His breathing slowed and his body began to dry in the cool night air as he nuzzled Asuna gently and kissed her forehead.

"I'm okay now." He promised her as she nodded her head in response.

"Mommy? Daddy?" Yui called out gently as she materialized in their bedroom. The soft glow of her hologram barely illuminated the room due to the moonlight.

"We're okay baby," Asuna said softly as she lifted her head off Kazuto's shoulder and smiled weakly at her daughter. "Daddy just had a bad dream," she waved her hand towards the wall as Kazuto gave Yui a thumbs up, "you can go back to your power cycle...sorry we woke you up."

Yui shook her head and smiled at them both, "I don't mind! Are you sure you're okay Daddy?" She asked as she moved closer to stare at Kazuto directly in his eyes, her body seamlessly moving up and on to the bed without a single distortion to the image the cameras were projecting.

Kazuto nodded his head and smiled as best as he could while 'patting' Yui on the head affectionately. Thanks to the advanced cameras and hard-light technology that he had helped create, he actually felt a semi-solid head of hair instead of just empty air. "I'm fine sweetie, go power down." He assured her as he and Asuna smiled at her warmly, their tears more or less dried now.

Yui nodded again, though they were certain her mental health prerogative program was trying to fight its way out again. "Okay, good night Mommy. Good night Daddy." She said with a wary look in her eyes before walking slowly back towards the door before vanishing into thin air as quickly as she had come.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes Yui," Kazuto replied with a weary smile as he realized his daughter would be up all night again keeping an eye on him and his wife.

Asuna, too tired to stay awake any longer, merely pulled Kazuto back onto the bed and went straight to sleep. She had to be up early for a meeting and he wasn't one to begrudge her any more sleep than he had already taken from her with his tossing and turning.

Settling in—and fully aware he wouldn't be getting any sleep for the rest of the night—Kazuto pulled Asuna to him gently and stroked her hair as he waited. It only took a few minutes before she began to tremble.

Barely half an hour had gone by before she began to whimper. Kazuto muttered soft words in her ear and stroked her back, but like when she had undoubtedly done the same ministrations for him hours earlier, it had little effect.

After a full two hours Asuna began to calm down and after the third hour had rolled around she finally fell into a happy lull. Her face became serene and she slid her arm unconsciously up to his cheek and curled into him just a bit more.

She was finally sleeping peacefully.

The nightmares had always been a recurring thing. Ever sense they had escaped Sword Art Online, survivors had come out saying the mental trauma of the death game had done a number on them.

One of the first mandatory classes at the SAO school had been an hour long one-on-one therapy session. It had taken a literal army of counselors, but there had been no short amount of volunteers. Some came for the experience of dealing with such a complicated case, others came due to the call of humanity. Regardless, Kazuto had given his life story in SAO more than a few times over the near three years he had spent in the SAO-specialized school.

The dreams came and went. Sometimes they were of bad dungeon bosses like on the twenty first floor. Sometimes they were of earlier in the game when people had died by the dozens. Most of the time the dreams were of the worst moments a player had experienced in-game. For Asuna, it was Kuradeel's attack, Yui's death, Heathcliff's betrayal, and Sugo's attempted rape.

For Kazuto, it was similar.

He watched Sachi and his old guild die almost every night.

He watched as Kuradeel and the other Laughing Coffin members died by his hand.

He watched with eyes shut tight as Yui exploded in his arms.

He watched Asuna die.

He watched Sugo torment the woman he loved.

He watched and watched and watched.

Over and over he relived the hellish two years in SAO and that brief terrible time in Alfheim Online. Asuna still didn't like to talk about everything she experienced, but he knew enough to know her nightmares were as bad as—if not worse than—his own.

After they had gotten married—for the third and finally official time—Kazuto and Asuna had experienced a brief lull in the nightmares. With Yui's cameras installed, they had been able to act like a real family for the first time in nearly ten years.

It had been a happy time.

But like all things in life, that time had come and gone. They were still happy by all means and there was not a day Kazuto was not filled with joy at the life he was living.

But the nightmares persisted.

The death persisted.

The game persisted.

Kazuto felt his eyelids grow heavy and his mind began to empty. As a last resort, he pulled Asuna into his arms closer than before and buried his head in her shoulder as hers was in his. His breathing slowed and he felt sleep take him.

Yui materialized only seconds after she was certain he was asleep and waited.

The trembling came only minutes later.