Sword Art Online: Regeneration (Uprising)

7:

I took a good long gaze at the supposedly Yuuki Kirigaya, her cascade of chestnut that falls down until her waist, her soft pail skin, a delicate snore as she slept. I open my menu to see if I could find her on my friend requests. If you meet a new player and interact with them a fair amount, you can see their player ID, but like what Yui said, nothing.

     We her carried up to Asuna-sensei's bedroom. It's been a few hours since she passed out.

Shivers sent down me. It still appalled me how she could be alive. She was definitely not an NPC or quest giver. Neither Asugaya or mine's quest logs were updated, nor gotten harassment warnings from the system for carrying an NPC away.

      Yui tugged me haori hard I looked down at her, "Nothing?" She shakes her head slightly and I caressed it, "It's okay."

     "She isn't waking up huh." Asugaya enters the room and looks at his resurrected sister.

     "Hang on." I look at Yui, "You're a mental health care program, was she telling the truth the entire time?"

     "She was," Atsuo interrupted, "I raised out my deception skill and I know basically what's a lie and not in two seconds. She wasn't lying. She didn't know who she was or where she was.  Luckily she knows her name...and us."

     We decided to sleep in for the night. Atsuo and Yui took one of the beds and I slept beside Yuuki. I could hardly sleep. The shivering crips cold bit me no matter how much I warmed up. I couldn't share a blanket with her since it she had the entire thing wrapped around her. I curled up as much as I could and tried my best to sleep.

     The next day rolled around and I suddenly felt the warmth of something over me. It was a blanket. I look over to see Yuuki sleeping soundly next to me holding the blanket down for me. It reminded me a lot of the times I shared a bed with my sister, Lucy. How is she doing? In fact what did mom or Kaito do after all I did, shutting myself out from them and only talked to Lucy.

     I never felt the feeling of being the older sister or older sibling. But all this time in SAO, being forced to live a life here of death and fear mongering, I found people like Atsuo and Yui. Even Yuuki. They were people I held dear.

     "Niisan?" I look back and see Yuuki awake she had what looks like Atsuo's left eye, Asuna-sense I'd eye color.

"Yui, Atsuo." I literally parkoured to their bed and accidentally slam myself on Asugaya's back. He let a huge yelp and push me off the bed.

"Whoops." I smirked.

"What the hells your problem?! Wake me up like a normal person!" He infuriatingly demanded and slapped my head with a nearby pillow, "Baka! Screw no hitting girls! That was goddamn assault!"

Surprisingly I took damage from that...you could tell the love he and I shared resonating in the room.

"Yuuki's awake." I point to Yuuki who looks at my messed up position and I murmured, "I though you were a dork not an equal rights activist."

Both Yui and Asugaya jumped off their beds to go closer to her. Yuuki quietly stares at both of them, giving some long thought to about what she was going to say.

"Yui, and Atsuo-niichan...mama." She looks at all three of us, "Where's mama? What happened to her?"

"Do you know your mama's name?" I look at her, she nods.

"Yes, Asuna Kirigaya. My papa's name is Kazuto Kirigaya." She answered with a sweet tone.

"Well she ain't lying that's for sure." Atsuo said, "She knows their names too well...could she be an AI?"

"That makes the most sense. It's not likely she faked her death." I added.

"Well, I took multiple scans of Yuuki-niisan and it says she has the properties of a player, but it could be possible she's an AI." Yui explains.

"Do you know anything else, Yuuki?" I asked her. She shakes her head slowly.

"No."

It hit me slowly though. I asked another question, "Have we met before?"

"Yes, we have. You were an orphan and mama and papa took you in. You played with us and had meals with us too. Then one day you disappeared..."

"Huh." I was confused. I mean technically I was an orphan but I had a foster mother and siblings. I've never met Asuna-sensei prior to the 9th grade and in fact, never met her husband. I don't remember playing too much with other kids. I never played with other children, no one wanted to.

"My real name is Kazuko though, not Raito." I corrected her.

"No, it's Raito. When we first met you, you said that was your name..."

I couldn't argue with her but I have never told anyone my player name and made them think it was my actual real name. Raito was almost a persona of mine, actually, Kazuko was the persona and Raito was the real me. At least that's how I felt. But only one person called me Raito in the real world, Akari.

"Alright, just call me Raito, I'm fine with that." I smiled.

I was thinking quietly. Those dreams I have been having seemed to be what she has been describing. Although I can't prove that because they were only, well, dreams. I must have only made them up. There isn't any solid evidence to whether they happened. In fact, they look like they did but somewhere I can't really remember.

A flash again struck me. This time the pain was crazy. The colors change suddenly and I see darkness. I could hear Atsuo's voice, blurred out and Yui's.

Fifth grade me. I was eleven. During recess one of the teachers group certain kids and got us to a room. There desks for exactly the number of us. I turned around and counted in my mind how many were there...ten children. All of the grades seem to be here.

We were assigned to seats and saw those formal envelopes. Suddenly a man walks in and greets us.

"Good morning, children. I am Jeremiah Müller with the United Nations. It's an organization of all the countries of the world and we find ways to make the world a better place. As you can see there are envelopes on your table. These were the test results of your psychological exams, and your current report cards. Most of you that are here exceeded the expectations of academics but failed psychological wellness. Some close to depression, anxiety, thoughts of suicide, or constant anger. This is sadly the reality for many children who are talented.

"We got the permission of your parents and guardians if we could conduct you all on experiments. Starting April, until September, most likely, you will be taken by us to a research center and we'll do our very best to take care and level your mental health. We call it; Project Regeneration."

I was lying on a metallic bed, a helmet going down my head. A person checking on me. I was scared but could not scream. I didn't know what they were going to do to me. The people outside told me to calm down but I couldn't. The helmet finally sticks to my head and I black out once again.

"Raito!"

I wake up to see Yui looking at me worriedly. The aftermath of the pain was still there. I could see Atsuo passed out on the floor. I crawled over and shook him, "Atsuo!"

He achingly woke up and put his hand in his forehead. Did he also got that too?

"You okay?" I ask

"I'm remembering something...Project Regeneration?" He looks at me eyes wide, "Hey...did you..."

"Yeah, I think we dreamt the same thing."

Without knowing, we didn't know that this was the key to how we were going to escape.