Sword Art Online: Faithful Hymn

Chapter 16: Memory Candy

With an elevator opening its door in front of Shoji, a long hallway that leads towards a huge and secluded room can be seen. Since the floor where Shoji, Yuna and Tetsuhiro are supposed to meet from now on almost never gets visited, it's no miracle to their minds that their footsteps create an echo that goes through the entire floor. It almost feels like a basement, but then far above living ground, to be fair. And indeed, as Shoji predicted, Tetsuhiro stands at the end of the hallway, next to the machine and capsule where Yuna used to be held captive.

"So, I am curious you two. How has progress been regarding Yuna's development?", asks Tetsuhiro with quite the nosy tone. Since Shoji assumes Yuna is able to speak for herself, especially because that will determine whether Shoji succeeded in 'training' her, he lets her do the talking while he stands on the sidelines.

"I wouldn't know when I'd be the perfect human. Throw some questions at me and I'll try to answer them as best as possible!", Yuna tells the former father. Tetsuhiro clearly hasn't thought about any kinds of 'tests'. He scratched his head once after Yuna asked him to question her.

"Ermmm... what is 49 divided by 7?"

"Seven"

"Uhm, what will fall out of the sky when gray clouds get near?"

"Rain"

"Then... give the word that has this definition: The first showing of a movie.?"

"Premiere"

"Last question, what's the name of the protagonist of the film: Alice in Wonderland?

"Alice..?"

Truthfully, Tetsuhiro has no idea how to test Yuna's knowledge compared to two days ago. One thing is clear though, she is able to respond more as a human, instead of an awkward machine, the vibe Tetsuhiro had of her the last time they met.

"Well, I can definitely see from your behavior alone that you have improved a lot. For that alone, I can tell that Shoji definitely succeeded in improving you."

Tetsuhiro, who now walks towards Shoji with a smile on his face, can clearly not thank him enough. The older man raises his hand horizontally, willing to shake Shoji's hand.

"Truly, I can't express my gratitude to you Shoji. I want to speak with the both of you in a private conversation. Please, follow me first Shoji."

Tetsuhiro now moves his other hand towards his pockets, revealing a small remote control. With a single tap on a button on the device, a doorframe gets created in a wall behind him. With the use of nano tech, as far as Shoji can tell, a perfectly shaped door can be revealed behind Yuuna's father.

"Please, follow me inside", demands Tetsuhiro of Shoji. With nothing to lose, he assures Yuna that everything will be fine before entering the room together with mister Shigemura.

Just as Shoji managed to enter the hidden room, the nano tech door behind him starts to disappear. After it fully disappeared, there is no way to escape from the room.

"Don't worry, that door just disappears ten seconds after last interaction. I can just pop it up with a single button click." With at least a little bit of assurance, Shoji has to trust Tetsuhiro into believing that he can still get out of the room. The secluded room appears to be Tetsuhiro's office, a place where he can indeed work privately since no one would be able to enter the place without his handy device.

"So, first of all, I have given you a payment just now, worth of $50,000 for the great efforts you have helped me and Kamura HQ with.". After hearing the word '50,000 dollar', Shoji had to swallow as well as receiving goosebumps over his body.

"F...Fifty thousand dollars? Are you sure you did not add three extra zeros by accident?". Because of his question, Tetsuhiro has to burst out in laughter. It appears that Shoji does not have the fullest idea of what he actually has helped with the last two days.

"Whahaha! Silly man, do you even know what you have helped us with? Thanks to you, Yuna will be able to respond properly to the public around her, greatly admiring the people who question her, thus meaning that more people will buy the Augma on release due to good reviews. Therefore, you deserve this payment." Without having anything to respond, Tetsuhiro continues with his explanation.

"And that is not the only thing you will receive. I've got something amazing hidden under my desk.", says Tetsuhiro proudly. The older man bends down, reaching for the object that is hidden under the desk. Whilst Tetsuhiro is busy grabbing the object, Shoji gets distracted by the ordinary color in Tetsuhiro's office. That ordinary color being green, coming from the cozy looking bonsai plant on the far right of Tetsuhiro's office. It's the exact same plant that Shoji has in his room. Not much later after the death game, SAO, got cleared, Shoji was looking for ways to reduce his pain. One thing that caught his attention one and a half years ago, was the symbolism of this exact plant. Bonsai stands for peace, something Shoji desperately sought. It also stands for harmony, something that would greatly remind him of Yuuna. Seeing this plant again in Tetsuhiro's office makes the boy feel good, proud even of Yuuna's father.

"So, this is the thing I am so excited about for you to utilize.", says Tetsuhiro. From the looks of it, it's a candy box, filled with white/aqua/pink/yellow colored candy. Since Shoji does not know what to think of this, except for it being regular candies, he looks at Tetsuhiro with a strange glance.

"It's... candy?", says the boy with tons of confusion. The father, who has to chuckle a bit, explains as soon as he's done with chuckling what Shoji has to do with these candies. "Don't worry youngster, they're so called Memory Candies with an effect that you will find very pleasing. Please, feed them to Yuna whenever you feel up to it. Just don't waste them, since they are rather expensive to create.", Tetsuhiro clarifies.

"But what about Yuna? Is she able to stay with me?". With Shoji being rather curious, as well as really wondering whether he will be able to be together with Yuna forever, Tetsuhiro is able to answer determined: "But of course! Anyway, I don't have much time left so I will have to switch to Yuna next. I'll contact you whenever I need you or Yuna again!", says the man. With Shoji being absolutely pleased with knowing that he will be able to stay with Yuna, Tetsuhiro reveals the nano tech door once again. Shoji grabs the box containing the candies before going outside.

With both gentlemen walking outside, Yuna eagerly awaits the two, especially Shoji. "Shoji, I got worried when the door suddenly disappeared like that!", whispers Yuna at Shoji with a shiver of fright in her tones. With his hand reaching for Yuna's head, he caresses it, telling her that she has nothing to worry about. The diva then follows Tetsuhiro inside, with the door automatically disappearing again...