Sword Art Online: Faithful Hymn

Chapter 32: Asuna's Cure

I now stand in front of Asuna's front gate, wondering what kind of conversation we could have. I really hope that I will be able to come out of my words, especially because I need to keep up Yuna's false identity. If I recall correctly, the Augma will come out tomorrow, so it also would not be that terrible if I leaked something regarding the Augma, although I keep my promise to mister Tetsuhiro.

I could not immediately enter, since the gate in front of her gigantic, white house blocks the path to her doorstep. Luckily there is a microphone in the wall, which allows me to communicate with the residents of the house. I press the button, followed by me explaining who I am.

"Hello? I'm Shoji, from the SAO Survivor School. I'm supposed to meet with Asuna Yuuki. Am I on the right address?" I explain with the most formal question I could come up with. I quickly got response from the little speaker in the wall. "Yes, it's me, Asuna. I'll open up the gate!" Not much much later, the front gate indeed opens, allowing me to head towards the front door.

Once at the front door, I don't ring the doorbell since I would assume Asuna opens up the door by herself. And indeed, not much later, she opens up the door, with surprisingly enough not a camera on her shoulder. Maybe Yuuki was playing ALO, instead of being with her best friend this time around? Maybe she refused to let her hear our upcoming conversation, since she treasures the privacy I might need with telling my story to her.

"Welcome to my home. Please come in!" she greets me happily. It's good to see that people are positive outside of school, especially after the traumatizing events of SAO that people still suffer from until this very day. I'm pretty sure that Asuna has a lot of great friends to play VRMMORPGs with as well, outside of Kazuto of course. As soon as her greet ends, I nod at her, following her inside.

Once inside, I'm welcomed by a pretty big living room, with all sorts of rooms attached to it. Asuna then invites me to sit on one of the chairs, to make myself comfortable. Right after I settle down on her chair, she asks me with her kindest voice: "Do you want something to drink?" And yeah, since I am pretty thirsty after riding my bike to her home, I really am in need for something to flow through my gullet. "Yeah, of course. Do you have liquorice tea?" I ask to her, with her giving me a strange gaze, as well as a satisfying one.

"Liquorice tea? No soda like the regular teenager? I admire that!" The orange-haired then walks away, likely preparing our drinks. Right after she is out of sight, I could hear a very familiar voice ringing my hearings. "Wow! You also like liquorice?" says a voice coming from the right side of the sofa I am sitting on, instead of a chair. I immediately look at the direction the voice was coming from, seeing that Asuna's shoulder camera was standing on the armrest of the sofa. I did not expect Yuuki to be here as well, although I understand why she would not want to leave her best friend.

"Yeah, my favorite tea actually. It's yours too?" I ask the girl who finds herself on the other side of the camera. I can't tell the girls' expressions, but I assume that she always is happy no matter the reason. Just like... Yuna. "No, not my favorite, but it's definitely in my top 3!" she shouts through her microphone. She really seems excited, and I honestly don't know why. If anything, I'm not excited at all. Although some company always is nice, since I won't have it at my home anymore.

"Yuuki, right? How's life going in ALfheim?" I ask her, just to show interest in how things might be for her. I know Yuuki is a HIV patient, and can't do anything in real life except for laying in a hospital bed. "It's going alright, but that world gets pretty monotonous after a while, you know? That's one reason why I sometimes go to school with Asuna, also to meet cool people like you and Ruby!"

Right, Ruby, that's the name I gave others when they asked for Yuna's name. I did not really feel it before, but it starts to bother me. It bothers me that I have to keep lying about Yuna's secret identity, in front of people who I feel like could get closer to me than just staying outsiders. Whenever someone asks me how 'Ruby' is, or anything regarding the name Ruby, I slightly get annoyed. I know it's not their fault though.