[Chapter 41]

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[ °●12th of January, 2026●°]

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[-•¤Yuuki¤•-]

"You're blinding her with those settings."

"I know what I'm doing."

"Dude, everything in those settings is set to a thousand. She might as well be looking into the future at this point."

"Pf-" I grabbed my lips and pinched them shut.

"Wait, what? I didn't- I didn't set these up, who did this?"

"Oh~ I didn't know you had a concussion and forgot everything that happened for the last seven minutes, my bad. Do you want to go to the infirmary? What are you, a middle school kid who fell off his skates? Want a candy little boy?"

"Pfft-" I giggled, trying my very best to behave on my very first day here. He better stop pulling that sassy attitude or I might burst soon!

"Agh..." The random computer geek in uniform tapped the keys on the board whilst their supervisor, the man in black hair oversaw the progress.

"There, is this good enough for you?"

He inspects them as he grabbed onto the high school technician's shoulder, leaning to get a clearer understanding of the displays.

"All of them are too low now. The lag would be so bad she would end up seeing the birth of the first dinosaurs."

"PFFF- Tahaahahahahaha!" Asuna blurted her laughter out before I could even comprehend his words, grabbing her mouth shut neatly and innocently, containing her manners after hearing the unreasonable humour of her in-game husband as he teases his classmate helping out with the camera quality. Being in a restless state, she kept moving around making it harder for me to see through the lens.

The husband was showing a sort of drowsiness and fatigue in his expression. It fits with his current behaviour. Seeing him now, I doubt he could tolerate any sort of inconvenience, that explains why he's so ruthless!

Akato- wait, ah, Akashi did say Kiri- Um... Kazuto was working a lot on this device for the past few nights, but I didn't realize it was this bad. Tch- AAAAHHH! I'm not used to these new names! I might end up accidentally calling them that and embarrass myself in class!

I slapped my cheeks rapidly, trying to stay focused. Pulling down my red sweater and brushing my dark hair, I did my best to keep myself organized. Even though my appearance doesn't quite matter in this situation.

My chest is pounding over the excitement, but I need to make an amazing first impression! Keep your cool, alright? Calm down~! It's fine~! Everything is normal~! It's just school so, what could 'possibly' go wrong? Right?

Oh, please tell me I didn't jinx myself there.

I puffed up and kept calm, lightly punching my chest to keep the childish antics in.

Asuna glanced over the hemispherical camera on her shoulder, "So~, about Akashi-"

"WaaaAAA!" I screamed and completely broke my posture, rolling across the floor of this empty room with nothing but a screen and audio to turn me into jelly.

My face is going insane, making expressions I never thought I could do. It was steaming all over the place! I can't believe just hearing someone else say his name would make me turn out this way! I'm going mad!

"He-hey, what's happening in there?" She grew concerned.

"Ahem! N-Nothing! I just tripped a bit in here is all!" I gave a quick reply, hoping she couldn't guess.

"Ho? Hehe~" A smirk carved on her, "You know, I get that feeling quite a lot myself." She giggled, "Being all nervous, flustered and tense. It's only natural that you'd be blushing like this. After all, he did leave such a big mark on you."

"N-No, no, no. I wasn't! W-Well... s-sorta, I mean- no! Wait, what do you mean by mark anyway?"

"Ahaha, ohhh~ you know~!" She laughed.

"Heyyy!"

Mmh! How embarrassing, but what can I do? Asuna's voice is so endearing that I can't even stay upset for too long. She sounds so sweet it makes me want to cuddle her~! 

Her hands clasped one another as she waited on the chair of this laboratory. From what I'm seeing, the scenery here is quite dull and plain. It reminds me of a high-tech prison cell of some kind, not that I have many memories of laboratories outside of the hospital, so maybe it's just me.

This is quite surreal. I never thought I'd be here, ever. This odd circumstance I've found myself in is because of Akashi's proposal after hearing my wish.

He told me about how Kir-KAZUTO was working on a sort of mobile camera that can be attached to someone's shoulder, saying something about it being for his daughter? Yui, right?

Ahaha, now that I gave it some thought, this group is a bit weird, huh?

He thought it would be fun to have me take classes in his school temporarily using this gyro as a camera. It fulfilled my wish, in a way. Through this, I can actually attend the classes without leaving the hospital now. With the cost of someone having to carry me around school, that is.

That being said, Akashi couldn't host me currently, saying that his class is too complicated and intense during school sessions. So for today, he insisted that Asuna would be the one to have me around! She was very happy about it, unbelievably so. It's a great opportunity for her to get to know me!

Seeing her smile makes me feel so blessed... it warms my heart~!

She told me her class was known to be the leading class in literature, which is what I'm decently good at... I think???

I have read a few books buuuut I'm not really sure if I'd do well in a REAL test. I won't know unless I try though, so I'm willing to give it a shot.

...

It's been a few hours since school started, and I haven't seen him since yesterday... Huh, I guess I'm still a bit hung up on our reunion last time.

To meet him... was truly a gift. It was one thing for him to be willing to stay with me after knowing my condition, but I can't believe he'd go out of his way to set this up with Kazuto so quickly after hearing my wishes.

Thinking about it made me on cloud nine... Akashi's doing so much for me.

"I was planning to ask," She caught my attention as I was flurried with emotions.

"Hm?"

"How was he when he visited you yesterday?"

?

Oh!

"Ah! He handled it pretty well!" I said with a joyous tone in my voice, making sure it was genuine.

She's worried about him, isn't she? How comforting! That's so nice of her to care!

I couldn't see why, but the camera slightly moved, like she was impressed or somewhat surprised to know.

"Really? Ah, that's good to hear!"

"Yeah!"

Oh, wait.

Ahaha, I still have to tell her the truth though, "Well... he kept it in for long enough, at least."

"Hm?"

She tilted her head, orange lines swayed across my screen.

Her hair is beautiful. It's nothing short of cute, dawning the colour of a sunset sky. It's very different from the light aquatic blue hair she has in ALO.

Hmm, if I had to choose, I'd say her IRL appearance is much more lovely compared to the other. Hehe, a little bit chubby too!

Hah.

Now that I think about it, I haven't been close to anyone in school for my whole childhood. At least, not more than a few days... so I'm quite glad she's the first.

I decided to continue, "He looked calm and open-minded when he first saw me, the doctor took it slow too. Of course, he seemed like he was doing just fine... then we dived into VR to talk and... well... the first thing he did was hold my hands... then, in the spur of the moment, hugged me."

"Hm?!"

"... We couldn't let go. It weighed on him a lot to see me like that, but somehow he managed to hide it enough for the right moment. He ended up crying after that, and so did I."

Her eyes grew wide and it was like she saw the world turn upside down. "... that's so lovely, Yuuki..."

?

OH, HEY, WAIT.

Kazuto and his two computer expert friends looked at me through the contraption, amazed. They were in complete disbelief.

Eh?

"When the hell did Akashi turn out this way...?"

EHHH?

"That bastard Toriyu packed up and left the loner squad, huh? What a massive loss."

EEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH!!!

I SAID THAT WITHOUT THINKIIIING!

The supervisor knocked it off between the two of them, "Right. To be honest, you guys wouldn't want to hear the context of why that happened. Just keep focusing on the work, got it? Let his business be his own, don't tell anyone."

"O-okay, Kazu..."

"W-WELL, it's no-NOT LIKE- well- uh..." I waved my hands all over trying to take back what I said, but I forgot they couldn't see me. The boys tried hard to keep their heads straight and went on with their work.

Embarrassed by my thoughtless words, my hand pushed on my thighs as I sat.

Keep yourself calm Yuuki!

"Ahem... I am grateful that he went so far to comfort me yesterday... but it's not like- that... we... umm."

Asuna looked at the camera straight, smiling gladly, "Akashi's always the type that bottles up everything from everyone. The whole school sees him that way."

"..."

"But, in reality, he was never good at it, you know? I've known him since he was still beating hounds on the first floor of Aincrad, and I can tell you that he's very, very sensitive."

"I see."

"He went through a lot before, and yet he never really showed that side of him to any of us willingly."

"He... didn't?"

"Nope. Somehow, you're the first. I think there's something special about that."

She clapped her hands twice, quietly, "So, what does that tell us?"

My lips trembled and I gulped to hear her answer.

"That means, out of everyone he's ever known, your value tops all else. You're important to him, Yuuki."

My heart flew across the room!

It felt bright in here all of a sudden. As if the screen just lit the place up similar to a sun shining its rays through a window.

"Whaaa-ha-haaat???? Nooo~ that's not it! Sure we're close but no way is h ever-"

"Hehe, it's just a guess, don't worry, but who knows, maybe you should ask him!"

"He-heyyy! Geeez! I could never! Hmph!"

"Hahaha! You're adorable, Yuuki!"

"Hehe, hahaha!" I giggled, still embarrassed but satisfied.

Ah, so this is what it's like to have friends around to talk about these things with. This is just my first half-hour of being here and I already made a new best friend!

Three years.

I've finally made a new friend at school after almost three years!

Eh, wait, is it really half an hour already?

"Tick tick."

"Ah! Oh no! C-can we speed this up? Lunch break is about to end!" Asuna checked her wristwatch and notified the others.

Awww! I wanted to see the place more! Rats.

"We should be about done," They confirmed.

Kazuto made his way to Asuna, checking the stability one last time.

"Alright, Yuuki, your lens is gonna retract and sharpen for a bit, then we're done. Tell me when you're sure you can see crystal clear."

"Got it~!"

"Nichi, lower it," He ordered the geek behind the keys.

"Got it, Kazu."

The frames closed slightly, but the resolution became sharper than before.

"Ooop! That's it!" I alerted.

"Alright, everything's done! Don't make any sudden moves, Asuna, it'll cause problems with the stabiliz-"

The excited high school girl sprung out from her chair.

"Wh-HOah!" I dazed.

"Okay!" She joyed, fist raised pridefully.

[The End of Chapter 41]

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Author's Notes

"Woah, Simon, why so late with releasing new chapters? Bruuuh~". First of all, I humbly apologize for not publishing earlier a few days ago! Gomenasaiii! The 'taking a break' thing felt so good! I planned on making one chapter for the whole school scene, then I realized; "Nope, this ain't gonna fit into one chapter at all!".

I wrote halfway into the part and already, there were 4700 WORDS! I was astonished but knew I had to make this into another sub-arc with 5 chapters. So that took some time to plan out. :'D

With everything going on in the U.S, I thought it would be beneficial if I released chapters in a stable schedule so yall have something fun to look forward to!

Really, stay safe out there, got it! That's all from me, see ya!

~Simon

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