"Mommy!"
Instinctively Asuna grabbed her daughter, hugging her in close. For the first time since Kirito died she cried tears of joy, felt joy, and had true hope. Her daughter was back.
The joy couldn't last though.
"Mommy, where's daddy?"
Intellectually Yui was smarter than any child alive. It was the advantage of being a AI run by one of the most advanced programming and powerful computer in all of Japan. However emotionally she was still a child. The one that Asuna wanted to protect from the truth, but she couldn't.
How could she tell her, when Asuna herself wasn't entirely sure?
"Daddy lost a duel against Kayaba. He said Daddy wasn't dead however. He'd made him into an AI, like you." That was the truth, as far as she knew it. Hopefully it would be enough for both of them.
"He's like me?" Quickly Yui put her hands to her head in what Asuna knew was Yui's way of connecting to the programming about her, then her eyes lit up. "He's here!" She paused, then yelled again "He's here mommy! I did a search for dad's player ID. I don't have admin privilages so I could only search near, and he wasn't there, but I could do a search for items. Kirito's Resolve! It's an unidentified item. Wait, his designation just changed. He's a sword now, Lament Shadow. I can't get anything more than it's name and item type, but it has to be daddy, right mommy?"
The fact that Yui could simply accept that Kirito was a sword was interesting. Perhaps a matter of perspective since all things to Yui, on some level, was a data file.
"Yui, Mommy's stuck. Can you log me out?"
At Yui's sad shake of her head she replied "No mommy. You're log out function is locked out by the system, which I don't have access to."
At that moment Yui started to glow, alarming Asuna as she seemed to disappear within that glow. Once the glow ended a miniature version of Yui floated on a pair of wings.
"Wha... What just happened?" Asuna asked in shock.
Yui seemed disconcerted for a second as well, then a look of understanding. "The system has designated me as a navigation pixie. It's the closest the system could come to matching my programing."
"Can you change back?"
This time Yui gave serious thought, exploring the files that she could access. "No, but this wasn't always true. I can't tell you when, but the cardinal system's AI lost most of it's ability to administer Alfheim Online. When it did that the ability for the system to adapt to changes was lost so there is no flexibility. With the cardinal system I think I could have changed back."
"Does it hurt?"
"Oh no Mommy. In fact I kinda like this form. Look!" She demonstrated her ability to fly, flipping and twirling and laughing in childlike joy.
Looking at her back she contemplated her own wings. "Can I use these too?"
"Of course Mommy." Yui came to a stop in front of Asuna. "Move your right hand like this and act like you're grabbing a controller."
Asuna did as directed and found a controller forming in her hand.
"Now move your hand to go forward, back to go backwards. Left and right control your Y axis, and the button controls your speed."
Knowing she could use her wings Asuna debated using them. Right now there wasn't a lot of reason. The bars made that irrelevant until she could get out.
Given what she knew from Yui she didn't have much hope but asked "can you open the gate?"
"No. I'd need administrator rights. All I can do is identify map data and detect players near by."
That was more than Asuna had expected, and enough to be of help if... "Can you detect GM and Administrators too?"
"Yes mommy," Yui said with rising excitement to match Asuna's.
Her reservation on learning to use her flight was gone. "Are any near right now?"
Yui shook her head, "None."
"I'm going to practice flying then. Tell me if you find anyone coming okay?"
Asuna didn't know how she would get out of her cage, but she could prepare for that eventuality. When she did she could find Kirito. After that she didn't know, but that didn't matter now.
Concentrating the controller again and grasped it. This was her start at making Sugo pay and regain her life.
Flying took a couple of days to fully master. In that time Sugo visited several times, always showing his absolute ability over her. Though she resisted it the constant reminder was starting to bother her. Disgust was the main reaction, but fear was also evident, and growing.
This only fueled her need to escape. He had also made it clear that she should accept him as her husband and lover or he could rewrite her thoughts and feelings with the system to be more to his liking. That scared her the most.
By the end of the second day she had learned to fly without the need of the controller. After that Yui began teaching her how magic in this world worked and several spells. It appeared her race was called an "alf." The most powerful of the races with access to all the other races abilities. She had also maintained the stats from her level in Aincrad allowing her to cast high level spells.
She learned low level spells first simply to understand how the chants worked, but that didn't take long and she quickly switched to higher level spells. After a week she was ready, or as ready as she would ever be.
Waking up the next morning was when it happened. Someone new materialized in the center of the cage. She was wafer thin, obviously suffering, and slightly translucent. She smiled once and tried to speak, then shook her head as nothing left her lips.
Instead she shambled towards the gate. Touching it the gate shattered, but whoever this person was seemed to falter from the effort as her form wavered and then shatter, the pieces disappearing before they had a chance to hit the ground.
Confused, Asuna looked at Yui and saw a dumbfounded expression upon her child's face. "Who was that," she asked, suspecting that Yui knew by that expression.
"That was Cardinal..." she replied, the expression never leaving her face. "But she wasn't right. Cardinal is a program that doesn't have an actual AI component, or she shouldn't at least. And her condition... she's broken Mommy."
Whatever she was Asuna couldn't let this opportunity pass. Using her wings she flew through the exit and to freedom, pushing them as hard as she could. She was free, at least for now.
ns 15.158.61.44da2
