Sword Art Online: Faithful Hymn

Chapter 4: You're The One

4 years before the SAO Incident

"Come on Wyatt, that all you've got?" says a boy to his childhood friend, Wyatt. The two of them are practicing their basketball skills and techniques, will they ever become professional basketball players. The young boy dribbles the ball past his opponent, having a huge area for himself to move in. Whether he needs that space though, he's not sure of that. If there is one thing he always wanted to do, it's to dunk the ball into the basket. Professional basketball players do it, and so does he desire to do it someday.

"There's gotta be a first time sometime.." the brown haired boy says in himself. With legs of the wind that soar through the sky, as he levitate off the ground, nearing the opponent's basket, he charges. Wyatt watches the boy from a distance, not being able to prevent him from making himself a point. What Wyatt didn't anticipate however...

Is that the boy failed to succeed. Being one with the air, the boy had no control over himself, thus falling onto he ground on his belly. Knowing his friend is no pushover, he doesn't worry about his safety. Instead, he laughs as the boy shrieks in despair.

"That was a good try, but you're not tall enough yet! I have to respect your attempt though, you truly chase your dream, don't you?" Wyatt tells his friend who gathers the strength to lift his body off the ground. With the ball still in his hands, he turns around and looks at his friend as the sun shines on the right side of his head."Your parents named you Chase for a reason, right?"

"It's almost like they're prophets, I'll give you that much." Chase responds to Wyatt, smiling to him as he lays a hand on top of his shoulder. "Hey, do you want to have dinner with us tonight?" Chase asks him, wondering whether he will approve of his request or not.

"I'm alright. Thanks for the offer though, but my mom will be preparing Twinkies today!" Wyatt says. Wyatt is a rather small boy, with dark hair and brown eyes. He has a tinted color that can represent his country of origin. Chase on the other hand is a boy with an ordinary Canadian appearance. While he is slightly tanned, he also has brown hair together with emerald green eyes. Compared to Wyatt, he is tall. Not tall enough to become a great basketball player though. While Chases' parents are rather wealthy, Wyatt's parents are not exactly on the rich side. They can afford a home, that's for sure, but compared to Chase's family they wouldn't easily give away a dime to a musician on the streets.

"Twinkies? Typically the American way, aren't you?" Chase says to him while he walks to him, scratching his hair. The two are best friends, ever since childhood. The two live in Atlantic City, which is a city in New Jersey.

Never will they ever split apart.

"Mignon!" says a voice behind the two boys. Having no clue what that word means, they quickly turn around. Before realizing that the voice was familiar to them, they already saw a nerdy but beautiful looking girl in front of them. What the two boys are surprised about though, is that she is allowed to be here, on a public basketball area where she can get hurt.

"Aru, what are you doing here? Your dad will kill you if he found out you were here!" says Wyatt to the girl. 'Aru' is a nickname the boys have given the girl. Arushãbin is a girl who is originally from Russia, who was happy together with her mother and sister there. Due to a conflict regarding Aru's signs of being a young genius, the parents divorced. Aru's sister moved with her mother to Japan, while Aru and her father moved to the USA.

Aru's father doesn't like it when she is around her friend, let alone hanging out while she can study. No one really likes Aru's father, but he is a good and hard working man.

"Well, since it's my 10th birthday today, my dad allowed me to stay here for 30 minutes." the girl says to Chase and Wyatt. The two look confused, although Wyatt does not really seem to be himself right now. He starts to sweat, barely knowing what to do.

"C..Congratulations! Sorry but I have to prepare t..those Twinkies! See you two!" Wyatt says, hastily running off to his home. He doesn't even look back, that's how anxious he suddenly became. Both Aru and Chase look at one another with rolling eyes. They both seem to know what's going on.

"He likes you." Chase says, with a monotone voice. Everything that Chase knows, Aru knows as well. Especially since Aru wants to finish university before she hits the age of 13, Chase doesn't expect her to not know why Wyatt behaves so strange around her.

"Yeah... but honestly I'm not into him. I'm too young to have a relationship, and he just doesn't cut it for me. Besides, you've got my dad..." the girl exclaims. Chase seems to exactly know what the girl means. He also wonders if he will be able to find the perfect girl, who would love everything about him. He secretly wonders if Aru would be that girl, but he highly doubts this. Not because of her father, but simply because Chase's and Aru's interests vary a lot.

Maybe in the future, he will meet the one. The one who seems to be made for him.

Present

"The one who seems to be made... for me." Shoji thinks in himself, riding his bicycle while being on his way to Kamura HQ once again.

One month has passed since the deal between Shoji and Tetsuhiro has been made, where Tetsuhiro promises Shoji that his team will make the perfect AI that resembles Yuuna. During this month, Shoji did not have any more nightmares! His stubbornness in believing that he will get to see Yuuna again one way or another has given him strength, incredible strength. His grades in school improved, and his basketball training went way more smoothly than it used to be.

In school, way more people are starting to look up to him. Since Shoji was one of the people who was known of suffering from big traumas because of past events, people start to look up to him. This also gave other traumatized people a shed of hope. At basketball training, Shoji started to play more focused and aggressively. He used to be the guy who gets pushed back, but now he became the guy that pushes.

And today is finally the day where he will be able to introduce himself to his new, living memory of Yuuna. He is aware of the fact that the AI might not be able to remember him, since Tetsuhiro has no full image of what Yuuna has experienced back in Aincrad. He and Shoji did not have all the time of the world to discuss her experiences. But now however, Shoji is able to tell it to the AI herself.

Since it is Monday today, Shoji has school like anyone else. But because he is so eager to meet the AI, he calls himself sick from school. In exchange for the time he usually has to go to school, he now goes to see the futuristic AR Idol in full glory. So he gets early out of bed, brushes his teeth, eats breakfast, puts on his crimson jacket and heads for Kamura HQ. On his way to Kamura, he comes across his school, where he can see some of his fellow students stare at him with their mouths wide open.

"Yeah, that's right. I will be cured from this never-ending disease.." Shoij thinks in himself as he looks at the SAO Survivor School, exchanging gazes with the students that look at him, surprised.