SAO drabbles ~

The extent of Asuna's love ~ chapter 8

As Asuna remains seated in her hospital bed, I watch from behind the window outside her room as her doctor had asked me to step out of the room to consult me. 

"Doctor, is something else wrong with Asuna?"

"With all due respect, I did not want Miss Yuuki to hear this." 

My heart sinks.

What exactly did he not want Asuna to hear?

I had to know.

The doctor clears his throat and looks at me. 

"The results we got from the tests...they show that Miss Yuuki has a low intake of iron in her blood."

"A low intake of iron?" I inquire. 

"Yes, as well as that-"

If there are more results, it means there are more things wrong with Asuna.

As the doctor is talking to me, my eyes widen in fear.

"Can Asuna take any supplements to help with her low iron?" 

"Yes, but it's not just iron which she lacks."

I swallow, hard. 

"W-what else is there?"

"I'm not sure Miss Yuuki wishes you to know..."

I jump slightly, startled at the fact Asuna's hiding something from me. 

"Please doctor, you have to tell me."

"...understood." The doctor nods at Asuna while she nods back from her window slowly.

I guess he was asking permission from her. 

"Kazuto."

"Doctor, what was it that Asuna doesn't want me to know?"

I watch as the doctor re-visits his medical notes, then looks back at me, holding his head in stress, then sighing and continuing. 

"Kazuto, there was an incident..."

"An incident with Asuna?"

"Besides her fainting, yes."

"Besides her fainting?" 

At this point, I had stood up from my seat and was practically leaning over the doctor's notes.

"What else happened to her?"

"Kazuto, are you aware of RATH?"

"R-RATH...yeah, I am."

"This incident...it's not based on RATH, is it?!" I accidentally yell out in a panic. 

The doctor motions me to sit down. 

"While you were within RATH, I believe Miss Yuuki was also involved."

"That's right, Asuna and I both were involved with that system, but what does it have to do with-"

"Mr Kikuoka Seijirou was the one who owned RATH, correct?"

My teeth clench as I hear his name. 

Kikuoka Seijirou, a former government detective, had used artificial technology to do his dirty bidding, he aimed to create an AI that can kill and does not abide to set rules. He did so in his master plan, a project called 'Project Alicization'. Without knowing the truth or his intentions behind it, I used to spend my time as an avatar in a virtual world he created.

My avatar resorted to an eleven-year-old child, where I had grown up with NPC's, thinking of them as humans. For this, Kikuoka used my own soul, better known as a fluctlight, to test if I could abide by rules or not in the world he created.