Upon Broken Wings, I Soar

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When we arrived at Alne, an announcement sounded throughout the game, warning us of a scheduled maintenance. Sighing/yawning, I had Cookie find us an inn with a great reputation. Once we logged out, I got out of my bed and wandered through the house, pausing to take a peek into the room my father had lived in for two full years. Sighing, I continued my walk and shrugged on a coat, walking outside as I did so.

Hearing the fresh snow crunch under my boots, which I had slipped into before walking out, I looked up to see snow softly falling. Blinking when a flake fell onto my open eye, I turned my sight downwards to see a woman silhouetted by the headlights of a parked car.

"Mother."

"Son."

"Like how I've kept the house?" I waved at the building behind me.

"Yes, you've kept it well. So, son, how have you been?" She moved further into the yard, her frosty exterior slowly thawing despite the snow that was slowly wrapping us up in its cocoon.

"Diving."

"Diving?"

"Yes, diving. With an Amusphere. I've been playing ALO for a while, now."

"ALO, huh? What draws you to it?" She was now standing mere feet before me.

"I guess the addiction of flying. When I have my wings, I feel I'm no longer shackled to those around me." My face darkened as I remembered what Sugu told me.

"Have you heard?"

"Hm?"

"Several players in ALO banded together to try and fly up the 'World Tree', whatever that is."

"Oh, yeah. I heard about that. That was the talk of the castle I own in ALO for quite a while."

Mom reached into her blouse for something. "Have you seen the screenshots they took?"

"They took screenshots? This is news to me."

"Well then, can you explain to me what this is? I'm a bit curious." She pulled out a set of photos and handed them to me.

I began to page through them. The first one was the normal screenshot which showed a birdcage on one of the branches of the World Tree. Confused and curious, I continued to page through them and on the last one, I audibly gasped.

"Hm? Do you recognize something?"

"That's-! It has to be-! It has to be the third-in-command, Asuna Yuuki!" I gazed at her in the photo. She looked so broken.

"What? How can you be sure?"

I looked up from the photos. "Mom, who took over the SAO servers when Ki-" I sighed. "When Kazuto and I cleared the game?"

"Well, that would be RECT, I suppose. What are you getting at?"

"Sugou Nobuyuki will be unofficially marrying Asuna Yuuki, even though she's still in a coma. RECT possesses the SAO servers rumored to be holding those 300 players hostage. Sugou... works for RECT's R&D."

Mom gasped. "That's-!"

I lowered my head even more and clenched so hard, my palms began to bleed a bit. "Mom, I ask you. Leave the virtual world to Kazuto and I. You track down evidence against Sugou and clear Dad's name, okay?"

"I-I'll try."

I smiled and raised my head. "Good. You can bet your life I'm not going to let Dad's name be tainted any further. Especially not by that scumbag."

Mom nodded. "Right. Well, I'm afraid I have to return to America soon, but I'll try my best to dig up evidence against Sugou." She then shook her head. "I can't believe he's fallen so much..."

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