Bathed in the white morning light, a gentle tune flowed into Asuna's
drowsy consciousness. It was her wake-up alarm with the sound of an
oboe playing. Enshrouded in the drifting sensation on the edge of
awakening, Asuna plunged herself into the melody, somehow filled
with nostalgia. Before long, the refreshing echoes of string
instruments and the leading rhythm from the clarinet flowed over
each other, along with a faint humming voice—
—Humming?
She was not the one singing. Asuna snapped her eyes open.
Within her arms, the black-haired girl had her eyelids closed...
Humming along to the melody of Asuna's wake-up alarm.
The girl did not miss even a single beat. However, that was
impossible. As Asuna had set the alarm to be audible to only herself,
there was no chance that anyone could achieve a feat like singing
along to the melody within her mind.
In any case, Asuna decided to put aside that doubt for now. Rather
than that—
"Ki- Kirito-kun, geez, Kirito-kun!!"
Not moving an inch, she called to Kirito, sleeping in the bed behind.
There were soon signs of Kirito softly murmuring as he awoke.
"...Morning. Something happened?"
"Hurry, come over here!"
The hushed creaking of the floorboards. Shifting his gaze over Asuna,
onto the bed, Kirito widened his eyes immediately as well.
"She's singing...!?"
"Y- Yeah..."
Asuna lightly shook the girl within her hands and called out.
"Hey, wake up... Open up, your eyes."
The girl stopped moving her lips. Soon, her long eyelashes weakly
trembled, and slowly rose upwards.
With misty black eyes, she peered directly into Asuna's eyes, right
before her. Blinking several times, she opened her almost colorless
lips just the tiniest bit.
"Aa... uu..."
The girl's voice rang out, like the delicate vibrations of silverware, a
fleetingly beautiful sound. Asuna sat up, still holding onto the girl.
"...Thank goodness, you woke up. Do you know anything about, well,
what happened to you?"
When spoken to, the girl kept her silence for several seconds, shaking
her head in small, short motions.
"I see... What's your name? Can you say it?"
"N... ame... M... y... name... "
As the girl inclined her head, a strand of her glossy, black hair fell
onto her cheek.
"Yu... i. Yui. That is... name..."
"So, Yui-chan? That's a pretty name. I'm Asuna. And that person's
