Sword Art Online Aincrad - VOL 2

CHAPTER 2

A gentle melody flowed through Asuna's mind as she dozed in the white light of morning. It was her wake-up alarm, a soft oboe tune. She let herself drift through the familiar melody in the weightlessness of sleep. In time, light strings joined the song, clarinets echoed the primary melody, and a faint humming came in...

Humming?

It wasn't her singing along. Asuna opened her eyes.

The black-haired girl in her arms, eyes still closed, was humming along to the sound of Asuna's wake-up alarm.

She wasn't missing a beat. But that was impossible. Asuna had set her alarm to be audible to no one but herself, so it shouldn't be possible for anyone to hear the song playing inside her head.

But there was something more important than that at the moment.

"K-Kirito! Kirito, wake up!" Asuna called out to her husband, still sleeping in the other bed. Eventually, she heard him rise, murmuring sleepily.

"Morning...What's up?"

"Come quick!"

The floorboards creaked. Kirito craned over Asuna to peer into the bed. His eyes went wide.

"She's singing...?"

"Y-yeah."

Asuna gently rocked the girl in her arms. "Wake up, sweetie...Open your eyes."

The girl's lips stopped moving. Her long eyelashes fluttered, then her eyes slowly came to be fully open.

Wet black pupils trained directly on Asuna's at close range. After several blinks, the girl's pale lips began to open.

"Ah...uh..."

Her voice was fragile and pristine, like the ringing of delicate silverware. Asuna helped her up to a sitting position.

"Thank goodness you're awake! Do you know what happened to you?"

The girl clammed up for several seconds, then shook her head.

"I see...What's your name? Can you say it?"

"Na...me...My...name..." She tilted her head and a lock of that shining black hair fell over her cheek. "Yu...i. Yui. That's...my name."

"Yui! That's a nice name. I'm Asuna, and this is Kirito."

Asuna turned her head to indicate her partner, and Yui's eyes followed her lead. She flipped back and forth between Asuna and Kirito, who was leaning over to get a closer look.

"A...una. Ki...to."

Her lips moved hesitantly, struggling with the sounds. Asuna felt last night's anxiety return. The girl looked about eight years old, and based on the amount of time since she must have logged in, she would actually be closer to ten now. But the halting way she was speaking was more akin to a toddler learning how to talk.

"Yui, why were you all alone on the twenty-second floor? Is your daddy or mommy around?"

Yui cast her eyes down and said nothing. After a moment of silence, she shook her head.

"I don't...know. I don't...know anything..."

They carried her over to one of the chairs at the table and handed her a warm cup of sweetened milk, which she took in both hands and started to sip. Asuna pulled Kirito off to the side to confer, checking on Yui out of the corner of her eye.

"What do you think we should do, Kirito?"

He bit his lip, glaring as he thought, then eventually hung his head.