A/N: Hello everyone. This is a new fic idea I had. It won't be very long, but I hope you'll all enjoy it nonetheless. Here you go readers.

Sugou's cry of pain echoed throughout the room as Kirito's sword pierced his body and destroyed the remains of his avatar. With the parasite gone and out of his hair, he cut the chains binding Asuna. He caught her body in his arms gently.

"I had faith in you. I have faith in you." Asuna told him as tears rolled down her savior's eyes. "Always have and always will. Cause you're my hero."

"No. I'm not a hero." Kirito said. He lifted his head to look at Asuna's face. "But I'll do my best to be one." He swiped his finger down and opened his menu. "Come on. Let's go home."

Asuna smiled. Going home. It felt like a dream to her. Two years in Sword Art Online. And then two months trapped in a birdcage in ALO. Finally. Finally she could go home.

"It's gotta be night by now." Kirito told her. "But I'll come visit you at the hospital as soon as I can. I promise."

"I'll be waiting." Asuna said. "I want you to be the first person I see when I wake up."

Kirito nodded his head and pressed the logout button on his menu. Asuna's body dispersed from the area, her consciousness returning to the real world.

"That's it. Game over." Kirito said. "Or is it? What do you think, Kayaba?"

"Good to see you again, Kirito." Kayaba said, as he appeared in the room out of nowhere.

"So you are alive after all."

"You could say that. Technically speaking, I'm more of an afterimage of Akihiko Kayaba."

"As usual, nothing you say makes any sense." Kirito sighed. "I guess I should thank you though."

"There's no need for that." Kayaba told him. "We aren't exactly friends, you and I. Everything is give and take."

"So what do you want me to do?" Kirito asked.

Kayaba seemed to be deep in thought. "I had something in mind… but plans have changed."

"What do you mean?"

"I have a feeling you're going to be busy dealing with something soon." Kayaba told him. "So for now, I'll be sending you something to help you with that. You'll be able to help me with my favor once you're finished."

"Ok, now you've really lost me. What am I going to be busy with?"

"You'll find out soon enough. I'll be seeing you." Kayaba turned around and began to leave. "And Kirito… Be careful."

Kirito watched as Kayaba vanished in a flash of light. When Kirito could see again, he found himself back in the birdcage that Asuna had been held in.

'Where's Yui?' Kirito wondered, not seeing his daughter anywhere. 'Oh well. I'm sure she's fine. She probably hid herself somewhere.' He opened his menu and logged himself out. 'Right now… I need to go see Asuna.'

Sugou woke up on the bed he was diving from in his lab. He growled in anger as he clenched his fists. That boy. That raven haired pest had ruined everything. Everything was going fine until he showed up out of nowhere. How did he even get to the top of the World Tree? That was supposed to be impossible.

'It doesn't matter.' Sugou thought to himself. 'What does matter is how I'm going to make that brat pay. He's never going to even get the chance to lay eyes on Asuna.'

He got out of the bed and grabbed the knife in the drawer next to it. The pain was still present all around his body, but his right eye was what hurt the most. His vision was a little damaged from the injury. But it would be nothing compared to how he was going to make Kazuto Kirigaya suffer.

"Sugou, sir!" one of the scientists in the room exclaimed, coming over to him. "We discovered something in Alfheim Online."

"Save it for later!" Sugou snapped at him. "I have a little errand to run."

"I think you're really going to want to take a look at this." he told him, handing him a tablet.

Sugou growled as he snatched the tablet from his subordinate. "This had better be good." He looked at the information on it. His eyes widened as he looked at it. When he finished, a grin became stretched on his face. "What's your name?"

"I-It's Reiji, sir. Reiji Nakamura." he stuttered, not knowing whether to take his boss asking his name as good or bad.

"Well, Mr. Nakamura, you might just be in line for a promotion with this." Sugou handed him back the tablet and walked out of the room.

This new information proved very interesting. One thing was certain in Sugou's mind. Kazuto Kirigaya was going to regret ever crossing him.

Kazuto rode his bike through the cold frigid weather as he rushed to the hospital. All he could think about was Asuna, his one and only love, waiting for him in that hospital room.

When he finally arrived at the hospital parking lot, he let his bike fall to the ground and made a breakneck run for the front doors of the hospital building.

Seeing a sudden raven haired boy rush into the lobby, the hospital staff was obviously surprised. "Excuse me. What are you doing here at this hour?"

"It's a long story." Kazuto explained. "I need to see someone here. Her name is Asuna Yuuki."

"Visiting hours are over I'm afraid." the receptionist told him. "And besides, the patient you are speaking of is in a coma. I don't believe it will matter what time you visit her."

"Please. It's urgent." Kazuto begged. "I'm cleared to visit her. My name is Kazuto Kirigaya."

"Kirigaya…" the receptionist said, looking at the records as she scanned for the name. "Here it is. But while you are cleared to visit her, visiting hours are over." She stared at Kazuto and saw the desperation in his eyes. Whatever he wanted, he seemed to need to see the Yuuki girl badly. She let out a sigh. "Fine. I can give you five minutes. Any longer, and I'll have security throw you out."

"Thank you so much ma'am." Kazuto said with an appreciative bow of his head. He took off running towards Asuna's hospital room.

"No running! This is a hospital!"

Kazuto ignored her words as he turned the corner. He got in the elevator and tapped his foot impatiently as it rose up to the floor Asuna was on. As the doors slid open, Kazuto rushed out and made his way to Asuna's hospital room.

'Asuna… I'm coming.'

Back down at the lobby, another person walked into the hospital. He made his way over to the receptionist. He gave a polite smile to the woman. "Hello. I'm here to see Asuna Yuuki. Would that be alright?"

"She seems to be quite the popular girl." the receptionist said. "A boy just came in to see her. May I ask why you wish to see her?"

"Oh the answer to that is quite simple." he answered, not breaking his smile. "I'm her fiance."

Back upstairs, at the door to Asuna's room, Kazuto took a moment to catch his breath. He stared at the door for what seemed like forever. Just beyond that door was Asuna, the girl he had fallen in love with back in SAO and the one whom he had risked everything to save. She was just past that door, awake. She was awake right? She just had to be. Negative thoughts flooded Kazuto's mind as he began to panic slightly. But a soft touch kept him from losing his sanity. He could feel Asuna's hand holding his, bringing him closer towards the door.

"I want you to be the first person I see when I wake up."

That was Asuna's wish that she had told him. And he'd be damned if the first thing he did after freeing her from her prison in ALO was let her down. He opened the door and walked inside the room. He walked to the end of the room, past the curtains separating the two beds in the room. There she was.

"Asuna…"

Her long chestnut hair fell on her body as she stared out at the window. Her hearing was a little weak, but she still heard his voice. Asuna turned her head towards the raven haired boy and smiled at him. Her friend. Her hero. Her lover.

"Kirito…"

Kazuto slowly moved towards Asuna. He sat on her bed and leaned in, the two of them sharing a kiss. He couldn't believe it. She was here. She was with him. The nightmare of Sword Art Online was finally over. When their lips separated, they stayed trapped in each other's embrace. Neither one of them wanted this moment to end. All the fighting was finally over and they could live in peace.

Suddenly Kazuto heard the door open. He sighed, realizing it must have been the receptionist coming to tell him that his time was up. But he was sure that once she saw Asuna awake, things would be very different. When Asuna's eyes looked past him and widened in horror though, Kazuto knew that his guess was probably wrong. He turned his head to see who it was and gasped.

"My, my, what a touching moment."

"Sugou!" Kazuto growled, getting off of Asuna's hospital bed and standing in front of her protectively. Asuna had suffered enough because of this piece of scum and he was not going to let her lay another finger on her.

Sugou smirked at Kazuto. He looked like a mess. His hair didn't have the neat combed style it had when he first met him. In addition, his right eye seemed to be damaged, probably due to the sword that was driven into it back in ALO.

"What are you doing here?" Kazuto glared.

"Why I'm just here to see my beloved fiance." Sugou said innocently. "Is it wrong for a man to lay eyes on his soon to be wife?"

Anger blazed through Kazuto's eyes. "Get out. It's over Sugou. Once everyone knows about what you've been doing in ALO, you'll be lucky to get parole. Turn yourself in."

"Over?" Sugou asked. "I don't think so. No one's going to find out about my research. And neither of you are going to say one word about it."

"And how do you figure that?"

"Simple. Because I have the better hand in this game." Sugou grinned. As Kazuto and Asuna looked at him, wondering what he meant, he played his hand. "When I woke up in my lab after your little stunt Kirigaya, my team managed to find a little program running around that was linked to your Nerve Gear. And after a little doing, that program is now in my possession."

Kazuto's eyes widened in fear when he realized what Sugou was referring to. "No…"

"Oh yes." Sugou grinned. "I believed it was classified as a Mental Health Counseling Program. Codename: Yui."

A/N: And that's it for the first chapter. Sorry it was a bit on the short side, but I can promise the other chapters will be longer. I don't know how often I'll be able to update this story, but I promise to update when I can. And special thanks to Dragondemolition for their support in making this fic.