Jealous of Her

Chapter 8

Asuna's POV

As soon as I got home, I ran to my room and shoved my NerveGear onto my head. If anyone could find information on Kou's true identity, it would be my daughter, Yui.

After she had lamented about being tethered to Kirito's NerveGear all the time, he'd figured out a way to detach her from his NerveGear so that she could roam free and even access other devices like our phones. Even so, she was still most comfortable in ALO, where she had access to a physical body.

"Link Start," I muttered, closing my eyes as I felt my consciousness being transferred into the digital world of ALfheim Online. It had been a while since I'd last logged in, or at least, it felt like an eternity.

With all the drama about my love life going around, the last thing I wanted to do was for my experience in ALO to be ruined by internet addicts.

The world loaded in around me to the house that Kirito and I had bought, a replica of the one from the Floor 22 house in SAO. I got up from the bed that my avatar was sitting in.

"Yui?" I called out, holding out my hand. "Are you here?"

"Mama!" That sweet voice exclaimed from the doorway, and she came flying toward me and perched on my hand, nuzzling my fingers. Yui smiled up at me from my palm, her tiny wings flapping excitedly. "I missed you, Mama!"

"Yui, I missed you too... I'm sorry I didn't log in sooner." I rubbed her head using my other hand's pointer finger and she giggled giddily. "Kirito and I... We've been busy in the real world, which brings me to what I wanted to ask you, actually. Yui, do you have access to SAO's player database?"

Yui stopped laughing and peered up at my face.

"Hm? Yeah, I do, Mama. Why do you ask? Did something happen?"

"Many things happened, and... whew. I have some bad news. Kirito-"

"You didn't divorce Papa, did you?!" The words were out of her mouth before I could finish, and she flew up to my eye level. "Mama, that's not true, right?"

"No, no! Of course not! Well, we did  break up for a while and I ended up dating someone else, but-"

"So you did!"

"No, we're not divorced!"

"Are you back together yet?"

"Well, no-"

"Then you're still divorced!"

"Yui, calm down a bit! Let me explain what happened first before you jump to conclusions." Giving me a reproachful look, Yui fluttered back down to my hand and sat down. "Kirito and Leafa went to a restaurant together a few days ago, and Leafa seemingly kissed him."

Yui opened her mouth, but I went on before she could interject again. "The keyword is 'seemingly'. She was pushed onto him by a man named Kou Rosu, and rumors got out of hand quickly. And I... I believed them. It was stupid of me, I know, but... I was in a bad mental state at the time. I thought I was... worthless and that everyone made fun of me behind my back. Again, I know, stupid-"

"You're not stupid, Mama!" Yui burst out. "None of your feelings are stupid, so stop saying that! I understand why you reacted in those ways, and they're all completely valid. Based on the information that you had with the addition of your poor mental state, you made a conclusion that seemingly made sense and believed it. It's a mistake that everyone will make in their lives, and it's just because of human error! So stop blaming yourself for being human, Mama. It was an honest mistake, so in order to move forward, you simply have to accept it and learn from this experience. That way, in the future, you won't take the same actions that led to this outcome."

I sat there for a moment, taken aback by the overly mature advice she'd just given me.

"I know you're about to ask how I know all this," she laughed, breaking her serious expression. "Mama, did you forget? I was originally created as a Mental Health Counseling Program. Yui-MHCP001. If you and Papa were struggling... I've always been here to help. And, not only me, but everyone else. Silica, Lisbeth, Sinon, Klein, Agil- even if they weren't programmed to help like I was, they're still your friends. They'd listen to your problems and give you advice... that's what true friends do."

"You're... you're right." I nodded. A tear rolled down my cheek, and I used my unoccupied hand to wipe it away. "I've... been so blind to everything. But I understand now. I'm not alone... I never was."

"And you never will be. I'm glad we got that straight." Yui smiled up at me again, once again looking as young and innocent as usual, as if she hadn't just given me an important life lesson. "Now, Mama, you can tell me what you were going to say before. I won't interrupt anymore, promise!"

I sniffled once and nodded, then spilled everything to my daughter. And when I was finished, I spared a quick glance at her face, ready for some negative emotion to betray her true inner thoughts about what a despicable person I am.

But she wasn't looking at me with disgust or anger as I had feared. Her eyes were filled with... concern and intense worry instead. She... truly cared about me. Why had I not seen it sooner?

"I understand," Yui spoke as soon as I stopped, then stood up. "I'll try my best to find as much as possible on him! Hold on a second." She opened her tiny window and began swiping across it quickly while I stared at my lap. I felt tears welling up in me that threatened to splash onto my thighs, but I blinked them away quickly before Yui could see.

"Mm... Found him!" She exclaimed, and I looked up quickly. "KoRosu, a former Red player of the guild Laughing Coffin, level 79, and 23 years old when he started SAO... Oh, here's a picture of his avatar! Mama, is this your ex-boyfriend?"

She made the screen bigger and Kou's beautiful eyes stared back at me. I gritted my teeth.

"Yup, that's him," I tried to make my voice sound lighter. "Only good for his looks." Yui glanced at me but made no comment and instead simply shrunk her screen again. She totally saw through me, though.

"Here, I'll send you the information," she tapped a few buttons and I received a message from Yui with Kou's data. "Done!"

"Yui... Really, thank you for everything," I began, but she shook her head and transformed into her human form. She looked me in the eyes, then hugged me with all the force she could muster. "Y-Yui!"

"Never thank me for just looking out for you, Mama," she said into my shirt. "It's basic human decency. I love you, Mama. I love you so much, never forget that. Ever."

"Yui..." All I could manage was a breathy whisper because of the two thin arms wrapped tightly around my torso. "I love you too."

She let go and I took a deep breath in, steadying myself.

"Now go and save Papa!" She held up a fist close to her chest. "You got this, Mama!"

"Hehe," I giggled, letting out my first genuine laugh in the past few days. "I'll call you later, Yui."

"Not if I call you first!"

I logged out of ALO and pulled off my NerveGear. I sat up and stared at the ceiling for a while, resting my head on the wall behind me. My phone buzzed, and I picked it up. On it read a single message from Suguha:

"They've decided the court date. It's in a week."

I clenched my phone.

We couldn't lose this.