Sword Art Online Aincrad - VOL 2

CHAPTER 3

"Pass me a roll, Mina!"

"Pay attention or you'll spill!"

"Hey! Miss Sasha, Jin stole my egg!"

"But I gave you my carrots!"

"This is quite an event..."

"Yeah..."

Asuna and Kirito were watching the battleground that was breakfast at the church unfold before their eyes.

They were in the great hall of said church, in Sector E-7 of the Town of Beginnings. Two long tables were jammed with heaping plates of eggs, sausages, and salad. More than twenty children were squashed onto the benches, eating ravenously.

"It seems really fun, though." Asuna smiled to herself, seated at a separate roundtable with Kirito, Yui, and Sasha. She brought her teacup to her lips.

"It's like this every day. Telling them to quiet down has no effect," Sasha griped, but her eyes crinkled with love as she watched the children eat.

"You really like children, don't you?" Asuna asked. Sasha smiled shyly.

"I was taking elementary education classes in college back in the real world. Remember how big of an issue dysfunctional classrooms used to be? I was so pumped up to be a role model to children. But when I came here and ended up living with these kids, I found out that reality is so much different from what I'd heard...I think I get more support from them than the other way around. But that's fine...or natural, at least."

"I think I understand what you mean."

Asuna nodded and patted Yui, who was concentrating fiercely on the task of moving her spoon to her mouth. Asuna was amazed at how much warmth the girl had brought to her life. It was a different sensation from the painful throb in her chest whenever she touched Kirito. It was a gentle ease, a quiet feeling of being enveloped by invisible feathers.

After Yui's spasms the previous day, it was blessedly few minutes before she'd woken up again. But Asuna didn't want to go trekking long distances and using teleport gates after such a disconcerting incident, so at Sasha's insistence, they spent the night in one of the church's empty rooms.

Yui was feeling well in the morning, much to Asuna's and Kirito's relief, but their situation had not changed at all. The fragment of Yui's memory that had returned made it clear that she'd never been to the Town of Beginnings, and apparently she hadn't even lived with a guardian of any kind. That meant the cause of Yui's memory loss and mental regression was still a mystery, and now they had no clues to follow up.

Despite all that, Asuna was certain of one thing.

They would live together until the day Yui's memory returned. Even once their leave period ended and they returned to the front line, there would be a way to make it work...

Asuna stroked Yui's hair absentmindedly. Kirito put down his cup to speak.

"Sasha..."

"Yes?"

"I wanted to ask you about those soldiers. The Army I remember was pushy and arrogant, but fully dedicated to keeping the peace. Those guys yesterday might as well have been criminal thugs...When did things get like this?"

The corners of her mouth tightened.

"It was about half a year ago that their focus seemed to shift. Some of them started extorting money from people and calling it 'taxes,' and others were trying to crack down on that behavior. I even witnessed Army soldiers fighting over it on occasion. The rumors said there was some factional squabbling in the upper ranks."