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.
"I know everything that prick Kayaba put you through," he started, his voice sounding unnaturally strained. Was it regret in his voice? Depression? No... It was pain. And it wasn't from what had happened. From all the things that Asuna had endured.
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. "But even knowing that, how Asuna? How could you have caused all that pain? All that death? Did Kayaba kill the loving side of you so thoroughly?"
ns 15.158.61.23da2
