"You know there's one thing I really don't get," said Kirito. They were celebrating Eri's fifth birthday and were currently enjoying some after-party drinks while Eri came down off her sugar high. Not that it was a real one, but it was pretty damn close.

"What's that?" asked Galahad, carefully undoing the braids in Yui's hair so it wasn't a pain to brush later.

"Why exactly is someone as young as Eri in the game to begin with? I mean she's literally the only player in SAO that's under the age of seven," said Kirito.

Galahad blinked.

"You know that's actually a really good question," he admitted.

Kirito put Eri on his lap, and she seemed to calm down a tad.

"Eri, why did your parents let you play this game?" he asked.

Eri went from sugar high to scared in two seconds.

"The bad men put me in the game. They said I would be in a nice dream for a while," she said quietly.

That got their full attention.

"Bad men?" repeated Kirito.

Eri nodded.

"The bad man who said he was my daddy said that my quirk was really special. So special they couldn't risk me being found by the heroes. So they found a man who made a special game that would let me travel the world without actually leaving them," said Eri.

Galahad and Kirito exchanged alarmed looks. It sounded like Eri was in the hands of villains, and that there was a far more sinister reason for why she was in the game to begin with. They had always assumed she had put on the helmet by accident, but this was starting to feel like she was deliberately put in this death game to keep her docile.

"I know why Eri was put in the game," said Yui quietly.

Everyone looked at her. She was unusual sombre for her normal cheerful self.

"You know the reason, Yui-chan?" said Galahad concerned.

"Kayaba borrowed money from a villain group to get SAO online, because his original investors were angry it took so long to get up and running. But in exchange he had to run a certain experiment for them. When Eri's quirk manifested, adding her as a player in the game became one of the conditions because they needed her blood, but not necessarily the girl herself," said Yui unhappily.

"How do you know about this, Yui?" asked Kirito.

"Because...the reason it took so long for Kayaba to get SAO online is due to me."

"What?" said Galahad.

"SAO isn't just a game. Kayaba designed it to do something most considered impossible...he wanted to create a true artificial intelligence that wouldn't suddenly turn on it's creator. One that could pass for human even in the real world," said Yui.

Galahad was the first to get it.

"You're the person Kayaba wanted to make real, like Pinocchio," he guessed.

Yui was silent, but she quietly nodded. She wanted to see how Galahad, Kirito and Eri would react to the fact she was just a digital entity created by the madman who trapped them in the game.

So you could imagine her shock when Galahad hugged her tighter.

"I don't care what that jerk Kayaba did. You're still my little Yui," said Galahad firmly.

"Yeah, if anyone outside asks us, you're just a girl with a rare quirk that allows you to bypass the Nervegear...but because of that you lost your body since the doctors mistook you for dead," said Kirito.

It wouldn't be the first time an unusual quirk had resulted in someone being mistaken for dead and end up dying for real. It was extremely rare, but it did happen.

Yui could feel the tears well up in her eyes.

"Do you really mean that?"

"Yeah... We won't be stuck in this game forever, but eventually we'll get out. And when we do, I'll try to find a way to give you a real body Yui," said Galahad.

"Is there any way you could attach yourself to our Nervegear?" asked Kirito. "That way when the servers disappear you'll still be here with us."

Yui and Eri were like his nieces, and Kirito would never forgive himself if Yui vanished when SAO was finally taken offline.

Yui perked up.

"Actually, there is. But it might cause a slight lag if I only upload myself to one of them."

Lag could mean the difference between life or death.

"What about if you attached yourself to both of ours?" asked Galahad.

"And mine!" chirped Eri. She liked big sister Yui.

Yui did some calculations...made faster by the fact she was an AI and had been leveling her intelligence stat with regularity...and beamed at them all.

"If I were to split my main data between the three Nervegear, there won't be any lag. And it means that each one could act as a back-up in case something awful happens."

What Yui didn't tell them was that SAO was just the testing ground for a far more deadly plan that would be instigated if no one was made aware that the 'bug' in SAO had been planned in advance to kill off people with quirks.

SAO was just a testing ground for the bug that killed players when their avatars died in the game. The people who put Eri in the game were part of the remnants of the Yakuza and were angry that quirks had ruined what they thought was a good thing. They wanted to 'fix' the world and bring their own group back to their former glory by eradicating them.

Kayaba had only agreed because he was a sociopath who didn't really care about the players to begin with. Then again, he was a programmer and there was only so much nonsense one could put up with before they developed an apathy towards the players in general.

Besides, the bug wasn't even his creation to begin with.

Though the only reason Yui knew about all this was because the people who put Eri into the death game had left their servers unprotected from intrusions inside their own wireless network.

After Yui developed an attachment to the girl, and happened to know about her full situation, she had gone looking into the creeps who held her little sister hostage.

They didn't know it, but the protective AI had full access to their entire network at this point and could expose them whenever she wanted. And there would be no way to stop her since she could evolve faster than they could program.

It was a little known fact, but the players could access the outside world if they were inclined. It was just that most didn't realize this fact, or they pissed off Kayaba by attempting to log out of the game by trying to exploit some sort of weakness in the one link to the outside world he permitted.

Kirito used it to stay in contact with his sister and mother. He left them letters every so often through the private forum he made just for the family to use, so they knew he was alright. Galahad did much the same, but went a step further by continuing his education.

Thanks to the wonders of online courses, the fact they could convert col into real world money (at a ridiculous reverse exchange rate) to buy actual books, and the fact that increasing one's intelligence stat in the game also applied to the real world (not that anyone had figured this out yet)...Galahad had already finished his middle school and high school years and was already working towards a law degree out of sheer boredom and to really get back at the jerks who thought being quirkless made you powerless as well.

And, thanks to help from Yui who kept track of the stock markets, Galahad, Kirito and Eri now owned large amounts of very expensive stock in the company that had taken over the SAO servers.

Yui found playing around with the stock market 'fun' and was already earning a name for herself as one of the major players. Though there had been that awkward incident when someone tried to accuse her of insider trading, when in reality she had simply applied common sense, past market history and her ever growing knowledge of human behavior regarding economics and bartering.

She also might have hacked into a few servers belonging to whatever company caught her interest to see how far along their research actually was and whether they were spending their money properly.

Galahad only asked that she not get caught or in trouble with the white-collar hero groups. Other than that, he told her to have fun.

"So explain to me again how exactly my bank account went from a measly ten thousand yen to suddenly having millions?" said Kirito, twitching.

His mother had been shocked when she discovered that her son's account had been very active of late, and that instead of losing money he seemed to be making it hand over fist in large amounts. Or someone was and using his account to hold it.

"Yui," said Galahad.

"What does my niece have to do with the sudden influx in my accounts?" he asked baffled.

He considered Galahad a brother in all but blood at this point, and Galahad had more or less adopted Yui and Eri as his daughters (though considering the age difference most mistook them for a doting older brother and his two younger sisters). Which made the two his nieces.

"Yui managed to somehow access Kayaba's frozen accounts, or one that the authorities hadn't seized to pay back the dead players of SAO, and has been playing around the stock market with it out of boredom," said Galahad.

"...Are you serious?" said Kirito.

"Either that or she's been stealing money from the jerks who put Eri in the game and has been laundering it through the stock market. I haven't been able to figure out which, but she's been paying for most of my books and college tuition with it," admitted Galahad.

"You're not even fifteen and you're already taking college classes?" said Kirito incredulous.

"The intelligence stat also applies to the real world, and thanks to the one outlet Kayaba has for those who aren't part of the active Assault team, I've already finished high school," said Galahad amused.

Kirito's face twitched.

"Seriously?"

"There's a reason I've been dumping my spare stat points into charisma and intelligence," deadpanned Galahad.

Kirito twitched, before he came to a decision.

"Tell Yui she has my full blessing to use the account, so long as it doesn't dip into the negatives," said Kirito.

He decided to start dumping his spare stats into intelligence as well, and finished high school within six months. At least his mother wouldn't have to worry about college later.

You could imagine Inko's shock when an actual law degree showed up at her doorstep a year and a half after her son was trapped in the death game...and that Izuku had earned it in between trying to beat the game.

Kirito decided to change the subject.

"So what's this I hear about you going out on dates?" grinned Kirito.

"Whoever told you that is a dirty liar," said Galahad, blushing.

"So Yui wasn't telling me the truth when she said she saw you go out with a dressed up Liz on a date last Friday?"

Galahad was embarrassed as hell, but Kirito threw his arm around him in camaraderie.

"Relax dude, every guy goes through this at some point. So did Lisbeth ask you out or were you the one to ask her out?"

Galahad snorted.

"Well after someone wrecked her second best sword, I decided to cheer her up. Besides, I know you and Asuna have been eyeing each other lately," he shot back.

Kirito blushed.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You do realize that Liz had a brief crush on you until she realized you were the one Asuna was wearing jewelry for, right?"

"Oh yeah, and what about the crush Silica has on you?"

"Hey, I wasn't the one who brought her pet dragon back and bravely captured the hag that was planning to kill her in front of her," Galahad shot back.

The two playfully bickered on the subject for several hours, and it only got worse when a passing Klein realized what they were talking about and had to join in with his 'sage' advice.

"Oh, what's this? Kirito and Galahad are actually dating someone?"

"At least we have dates. When the last time you got laid old man?" Galahad was quick to say.

Kirito caught on to what he was doing, because he smirked wickedly.

"Yeah, Klein? When's the last time the forty-year-old virgin had a date?"

Klein sputtered.

"I'm not even thirty, you brats! And for your information I had a date last Thursday!"

"What was his name?" Galahad snarked.

"Her name was Tiffany."

Galahad looked at Kirito, his expression positively evil.

"Didn't Agil mention he sometimes plays as a girl named Tiffany?"

Kirito nodded, his grin even wider with glee.

"And I know Kayaba had a temporary item that allows you to switch genders... it was a pain to get, but it still exists."

Klein's expression was horrified at the idea of going out on a date with Agil. He was a nice guy, but he was absolutely not gay.

"Why are you picking on me?" he complained.

"Convenient target and we're bored," said Galahad promptly. Kirito nodded in absolute agreement. "Then again I'm sure you have plenty of 'material' to work with, isn't that right, BallsDeep69?"

Klein's face was as red as a tomato that Galahad knew of his forum handle. He didn't know what was worse...being picked on by freaking teenagers or the fact he might have accidentally dated Agil thanks to a gender-switching item.