From Swordsman to Assassin

Chapter 7: End of an Engagement

Dark grey-colored eyes open and Kirito looks around to see himself in an unfamiliar room. Focusing his senses, the room around him becomes sharper. He can feel the fabric of his hospital gown against his skin plus hear the beeping of a heart monitor close by. He then, with weak arms, pulls off his Nervegear and his senses sharpen even more. He comes to realize that he is in a hospital. Not in Starting City.

Memories then flash through his mind as he remembers the death of Kayaba and even now, he can feel the pixelated blood on his hand. Guilt surges through him as he remembers the deaths he caused. The one that he remembers most, however, is Sachi's. But then, he remembers his wife and daughter, Asuna and Yui.

'I-I'm back,' he thought, as tears of relief drip from his eyes and onto the fabric of the blanket. 'Asuna, Yui... They are still alive!'

Kirito gets up from his bed, but nearly buckles under his atrophied legs. His muscles are weak from lack of use.

"A-Asuna," he rasps out. "Y-Yui."

He grabs hold of a medical machine and slowly walks out wanting to find them. As he walks, a doctor crosses his vision and he notices something about him: He's colored blue. Shock passes over his face and his vision returns to normal.

'Eagle Vision!?' he thought, shock clearly displayed on his face. 'How? It's a skill in the game and is not usable in the real world!'

"W-What?" the doctor he saw before said as his Eagle Vision switched off. "What are you doing out of the hospital room?!"

"N-Need," Kirito whispered weakly.. "To see... Kikuoka. Then... my daughter and... Asuna. Please..."

Kirito leaned against a wall, but a fire was burning in his eyes. The doctor easily recognized it as it was the protective fire of a father and husband.

"After," began the doctor, "we give you an examination. When that is done, we can see if you can visit this Yui and Asuna."

6 Months later

A lot has happened in the last six months that Kazuto, Kirito's real name, and the other players were returned to the real world. But the best thing that has happened to Kirito in these last few months was that he got half his family back. Another big thing is that he realized that he retained his skills in free-running/parkour, swordsmanship, assassination, and, his favorite, Eagle Vision.

When he told Kikouka about this, Kikuoka questioned him how this was possible and Kazuto replied, "I think it's because our minds were trapped in the game due to the Nerve Gear. And thus, the mind retained those motions and memories. I just need to retrain myself to do those said motions. But Eagle Vision, according to the Assassin's Creed games and according to the lore I read about the skill, is an extra-sensory ability. I retained this because it was part of my senses, just a better part of them."

As such, when his body was strong enough, he began to retrain his body to do those motions he was used to doing in SAO. He also began doing the same to Yui, but only enough so that she'd be able to protect herself from bullies and others if or when it ever happens.

At the moment, however, he and Yui are going to see Asuna in the hospital. As they walked into her room, Kazuto saw two people and he immediately activated Eagle Vision. The room became clearer immediately and the two of them were giving off a blue-colored aura, but for some reason, the taller of the two was switching from blue to red rapidly.

'That's never happened before,' Kazuto thought. Keeping his sixth sense active, Kazuto asked, "And you two are?"

"I am Shouzou Yuuki," the older of the two replied. "I am the father of Asuna Yuuki."