3255/Not Just a Game

Not Just a Game
Date of Scene:	22 October 2015
Location:	Alfheim Online <ALO>
Synopsis:	Asuna can't find Yuuki anywhere in the virtual world, so tracks her down in real life, determined to learn the truth.
Cast of Characters:	9, Yuuki Konno

---

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    After disconnecting in tears, Yuuki hasn't reconnected. Messages sent to her, whether online or offline, haven't been returned. There's been quite literally no sign. As to the other Sleeping Knights who were all there when Yuuki disconnected, they showed dismay but no serious concern. They know what's going on, of course. They know Yuuki's reasons, or at least some of them. They know what none of them can discuss. And while they all remain contactable, and no doubt all are in Asuna's friends list, none will admit to what's going on. They at most will offer to try to get hold of Yuuki, but to no avail. She's not answering *any* messages... something which saddens but doesn't surprise her guildmates.

    If Asuna's going to reach out to Yuuki, it'd have to be from a different world... which is of course impossible, as Yuuki has deliberately not shared any RL information. Her age is obvious enough, and it's reasonable enough to assume her name is Yuuki IRL, but then so's Asuna's. It's not a rare name, and there would have to be thousands of 15 year old Yuukis in the nation.

Asuna (9) has posed:
Somehow, she had gotten the information. The how, the why, everything else didn't matter, but Asuna now stood in the hospital, her long chestnut hair cascading down her back as she approached the desk. A name, she had a name... the Yuuki Yuuki jokes float through her head for a moment, before she approaches and asks, politely,

"I'm looking for a Yuuki-san?"

Asuna, you're in for a world of surprise.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    The hospital staff, professional and somewhat used to distraught friends and relatives coming in, greet Asuna with calm openness. "Ah... do you have any more information? I'm afraid just a single name isn't enough." she says apologetically. Not even Yuuki's age, normally, would be enough.

    The magic key that unlocks this door, however, would be the mention of the Medicuboid. With the right department, and Asuna's name given, a call can be made. Asuna will be told to wait, but the wait won't be long. Soon, a relatively young doctor comes forward. "I'm sorry for the wait." he says. "Aaah then, you are Yuuki Asuna-san?" he asks. "I'm Kurahashi. Konno Yuuki-san's doctor."

Asuna (9) has posed:
"Konno Yuuki..." Asuna lets the name roll around in her mouth for a few moments, before she nodded.

"Yes, I am Yuuki Asuna. It is a honor to meet you, Kurahashi-sensei. Yuuki-san is here, as a patient, with... the Medicuboid?" It's somewhat a question, but also a clarification of what information she has. Asuna looks briefly sad for a moment, but there are some things that are coming together in her brain as the wheels and gears turn, before she gives him a smile.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    The doctor leads Asuna off. This will, of course, be a long conversation. Not something to have in the waiting room. While he seems open and friendly enough, and definitely curious about the girl come to see his patient, he takes his time actually getting to the point, refusing to answer anything of consequence beyond simple acknowledgment of her question until they're both seated in a private lounge, with a coffee before each.

    "I'm amazed you found this place." he finally says, sipping at his drink. "Yuuki-kun said someone named Asuna-san might come to see her, and that if you did I could tell you... well, everything. But she said she didn't tell you about the hospital, so I told her there was no way you'd find us. But... when the front desk called me, I was surprised." he says, sounding both pleased and amused to be wrong.

Asuna (9) has posed:
"I have a very clever group of friends, and... Yuuki-san is... a friend. So we were all concerned for her, that is why there was ... so much time and effort put into finding her. It's true, though, there are a lot of Yuukis, but... there were clues."

"I... suppose I should be forward. I was one of the survivors of Sword Art Online. It may or may not change how you explain or view things, but I thought you should know." She's pretty sure Yuuki knows by now, after all. It's one of those sorts of things. "What... what is wrong with her, sensei?"

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    The doctor gets a look on his face when Sword Art Online is mentioned. It does explain things, a little. In some ways it makes things easier, and in others what Asuna says can only make things harder.

    Yuuki did say he could tell her everything, however. So he smiles, a remarkably sympathetic smile for one in his position. "All she does is talk about you, you know." he says wryly. "And then when she's done, well, she would cry." he confesses. Asuna has to be told... has to know what she's getting into. And also, he has to somehow make her understand that Yuuki didn't hide from her out of some childish whim. "She never complains about her own situation, and she did desperately want to see you, but she couldn't." he explains. "I suppose I ... should begin by telling you about the Medicuboid." the doctor says.

    And so Kurahashi-sensei explains about the device. An offshoot of Sword Art Online's NervGear, one not trusted because of what had happened in SAO itself. He explains what it does, some of how it works, and even gushes a little over the potential it has for treating patients without the use of drugs. He also explains how no one would be willing to risk the trial, because no one knew what kind of damage such strong electromagnetic pulses being sent directly into the brain could cause.

    "But of course..." the doctor says, removing his glasses, giving himself a somewhat melancholy look. "... the Medicuboid does nothing to treat the underlying illness." he explains. "It can only provide relief. And so, it's hoped that it will have the most impact on patients in terminal care."

Asuna (9) has posed:
The look is graciously not commented on.

Asuna pauses from commenting when he goes on, and on, especially details about the Medicuboid. She feels like she should be taking notes for Kirito, except Kirito might as well be developing the darned thing, for all she knows. Instead, she inhales and exhales quietly as she registers his very last statement of words.

She does.. flinch the smallest bit.

"Yuuki-san has a terminal disease?"

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    "You may wish, later, I hadn't said anything." confesses the doctor, polishing his glasses absently with a cloth pulled from a pocket. "But I can see you didn't come all this way to be put off." He puts his glasses back on, beckoning wordlessly to Asuna to follow him.

    He leads her to a nearby department, explaining her situation. Her birth, the c-section, the trauma, the transfusion with tainted blood. That the entire family had become infected even before the virus was detected.

    He stops beside a rather solid-looking door, one without windows. "Here we are." he says gravely. The door slides open when he presses his ID to a panel. Inside is another small waiting room, with nothing but a few benchlike chairs and a large opaque window in one wall. An observation room. "The room beyond this is a clean room, so you can't go in. Please understand." he says, not quite apologetic. Then he turns to a control panel.

    A few taps, and lights come on in the other room, making it possible to see through the windows. Inside, a device that could only be the Medicuboid sits. Lying on the bed, head almost completely enclosed by the medicuboid, with wires and tubes attached to her, is a small girl, her body utterly wasted well beyond that of any of the SAO Survivors.

Asuna (9) has posed:
Dread and fear builds in Asunas' heart. The story just makes it over ridden by something close to guilt, and grief, and when they're finally in the room and she can see the body of Zekken, her friend, her sister, does Asuna let out anything close to a inappropriate noise, and that noise is a startled, pained gaps, before she places her hands over her mouth, one hand flicking up to turn her radio off.

"Oh... Yuuki..."

Her breath comes out slow and careful...

"Sensei... what exactly is Yuuki's condition?"

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Within the Medicuboid, Yuuki watches all this unfold. Not with her eyes of course. Her body is completely motionless save only for the shallowest of breaths, probably not visible from the other side of the glass. No, she's watching from the cameras. Asuna's reaction threatens to break her heart, but still she says nothing. This is important. Asuna sought her out relentlessly, and found her. Yuuki couldn't prevent that, even had she really wanted to. But still, the rest of it needs to come out. Asuna has to hear and see the worst. Sheltering her, distracting her at this point, could only do harm.

    "AIDS." the doctor explains, speaking of the disease. How it's usually treatable, but that this was a resistant strain. Explaining what the family went through, particularly what happens when a child has to take such medication on a regular basis, and some hint of the side effects.

    It's not all grim, of course. The family faced despair and depression, but they all in the end chose to fight, each in their own way. He explains how Yuuki suffered from prejudice, and how her immune system failed when she was in the fourth grade, and how she's been in the hospital ever since, though she never stopped smiling. How she volunteered for the Medicuboid trial upon his suggestion, a little over three years ago. "I still don't know if it was a good suggestion or not. She and her parents both worried over it. But her longing for the unknown of a virtual world was probably the deciding factor." he says, appearing to be weighted down by the burden of the decision. "She's been in this room for over three years now." he says, not quite sighing. "And ever since then, she's lived in the Medicuboid. She almost never returns to the real world, not sleeping or waking."

Asuna (9) has posed:
Asuna stares at the figure that lies there on the bed. Her hand, finally, comes up to the window, pressing her palm against it as she considers the doctors words, everything he's told her, phrases she's heard Kirito say, the way that Yuuki acted in the virtual world... yes, it made sense. Up until now, Asuna would've thought she and the other survivors - especially the three hundred that got stuck - would be the ones that were in virtual world the longest. But here... here was a real swordsman.

"Is there... any hope for her?" She asks, finally blinking rapidly as warmth and tears stung, threatening at her eyes.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    This is probably the question a terminal-care doctor fears the most. The answer, quite clearly, is no. "Even in a clean room, we can't remove the bacteria and viruses from her body." he says heavily, but without any attempt to dissemble. Even if they could cleanse her temporarily, the strain of her body's wasting on her heart alone would eventually be fatal. "Yuuki-kun's condition is terminal. She may survive a few months, but there is no way she can be cured." He pauses, sympathetic but also rather relentless. His patient IS Yuuki, after all. He doesn't know Asuna and while he sympathises with her, he's serving his patient in telling this sad tale. "You can probably understand why she tried to disappear." he finishes.

Asuna (9) has posed:
Asuna blinks away the wet, heavy feeling of tears streaking down her cheeks, her hand still pressed against the glass. "Yuuki-san..."

The complex arrangement of feelings were running through her now, and Asuna was mostly felt with a quiet, steadfast determination, that this absolute swordsman, her friend, the one who helped Asuna brighten back up to life, would not... waste away. She would try to help her friend. Medicine was coming along every day, and this was the multiverse... Asuna drifted away in her thoughts.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki frowns, her own tears threatening to spill. Not the real-life body of flesh of course, but her true self within the machine. She hates this, hates seeing Asuna so upset. But then... she also loves it. Not seeing her dear friend upset, of course, but seeing how much she clearly cares.

    She takes a deep breath, clenching her teeth. Courage. Asuna's shown so much... surely she can show just a little, can't she? "Don't cry, Asuna!" she abruptly cries out. Her voice comes into the observation room, sounding from speakers, while a 'talking' message flashes on the panel of the Medicuboid.

    Once she finally decides to speak, it becomes easier to continue. Her voice relaxes slightly, no longer quite so frantic. "Sugoi... you really do look just the same as on the other side." she says warmly, almost conversationally. "Thanks for coming to see me."

    What more she has to say... well, she's not comfortable like this, unable to express herself, her body immobile. She hopes she's blocked at least some of Asuna's pain. But... what more she has to say, she wants to do it face to face. "Sensei, please let her use the room next door." Yuuki asks, sounding calm and in control.

    "It's okay." the doctor replies, smiling and clearly pleased that Yuuki's done running away. "I have an Amusphere I use to talk with her." he says, turning towards the panel and opening up a doorway into another adjoining room.

    Yuuki's voice comes over the speakers. "ALO is on the startup list. When you log in, come to the tree where we first met." she requests.

Asuna (9) has posed:
"Y-yuuki?!"

Asuna's head jerks around when she hears her friend, although when she realizes where it's coming from, she pauses to take a few deep breaths, wiping at her face. "R-right, I'll meet you there!" She bows swiftly to the doctor before she rapidly walks past him into the room, settling herself in comfortably before she boots up and logs into ALfheim Online.

Asuna breaks a few speed records, she figures, because before she's even had time to adjust being a fairy with wings, she's thrown herself out of the window with flight, bolting towards the main city. In her hurried rush, she pushes through the crowd, gets transported, then flies her way over to the tree... to the special meeting place she shares.

"Yuuki-san?"

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    The place they first met was the place they first fought, of course. It might be an odd sort of meeting place, but then Yuuki's an odd girl. Besides, at this time it's deserted. Other places special to them - the monument, the boss room - they're likely to be crowded or inaccessible.

    The little island is shrouded in fog, and the sky is dark. Not so completely dark as to be impossible to see, but still difficult. Tough to tell if Yuuki is there yet or not. She had to be fairly distant, having last logged in on the first floor. She couldn't have beaten Asuna there... could she? Well, not unless she had a special teleport to near this point, which might explain why she'd chosen it as the stage for all her duelling.

    As the light of dawn begins to break over the island, as the fog begins to part, it reveals Zekken, her back turned, staring out at the misty sunrise. She doesn't turn, not immediately, instead speaking softly, warmly. "I don't know why, but I had a feeling you'd find me in the real world. Even if I knew it was impossible." she says wistfully. She turns to look at Asuna, that wistful half-smile on her face. "And somehow you came." she says, not quite chuckling. "It's... pretty rare for my feelings to come true. I was happy... really happy."

Asuna (9) has posed:
"Of course I'd try to find you. You're my friend." Asuna says, instanteously. She doesn't even think about the words escaping her lips twice, because she means them strongly, and more importantly, /definitely means them/. Asuna is strong willed.

Except in regards to her mother.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    That blurted confession brings a smile to Yuuki, but only for a moment. She's pleased, but she's not sure she deserves a friend like this. "Asuna... I'm sorry I ran away. That I couldn't tell you the truth." she says with obvious sincere regret. "I couldn't even tell you the truth about the Sleeping Knights." she says. Even now, she's not entirely sure she should tell Asuna... but she's promised herself no more lies, no evasions. Asuna has earned the truth, and she knows the hearts of her fellow Knights. They'll accept what she's decided, and no doubt they'll agree with her decision. "The reason we're disbanding... well, it's because two of us have been told we have only a few months to live."

    Emotion floods through Yuuki's eyes, making them shimmer, but no tears fall. Not this time. "We wanted to have one last memory together from this wonderful world. To leave proof that we were here on that huge monument." she says, and at this she sounds excited. Sad, but there's still plenty of that vivaciousness of the girl who *lives* in virtual reality. "One last incredible adventure that we could brag about to my sister and the rest."

Asuna (9) has posed:
Asuna stares at her, before her head tilted to the side, tears glimmering in this world as well as the real one. "I see... I am... glad I could help you, be your friend. Even knowing what I know now, I can't, I won't, regret this experience!"

"I'd still like to join the Sleeping Knights, too..." Asuna, please.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki smiles softly, warmly, and slowly approaches Asuna. Words... they aren't really enough. She's never been much of a talker. Yuuki's always been someone who *does* things.

    Without regret, or at least without many regrets, she leans forward and falls into Asuna, wrapping the older girl into a tight hug. "Yeah." Yuuki says, beginning to weep again. An acknowledgment rather than agreement, but not refusal either. "I'm really happy I could come here and meet you." she says, her voice faltering. "Even more than that fight, even more than anything. What you just said is enough. It's enough for me." she says... sounding like she's also saying goodbye. "Whatever happens... I'm satisfied with everything."

Asuna (9) has posed:
Asuna returns the hug, her grip the tightest she can make it without it actually being punishing. She holds the purple haired girl again, starting to cry again, matching her real world, as it tends to happen for her.

"I want to be your friend, Yuuki-san. Is there anything you can think of that you want, outside of exploring these virtual worlds?"

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    It does her good, hearing that. Yuuki smiles, her tears drying. She's cried a lot, but only because she's free with her feelings. The tears don't last long, because Yuuki can usually find something to make her smile again.

    "You smell like Aiko-neesan." she says, for no reason in particular. "Your hair smells like the sun." Maybe she's trying to cheer Asuna up too, or maybe she's quite serious. Doesn't matter which, really.

    "I... I don't think I really can do anything, other than be in these virtual worlds." she says, not regretfully, just explaining. "I really wanted my last big adventure to be the one we shared. It's okay, there doesn't have to be anything else. I'm happy just with this."

Asuna (9) has posed:
"Well... okay. If you're sure." Asuna says, warmly.

She really doesn't let go of the hug. Nope. Not letting go anytime soon.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki nods, stroking Asuna's hair. "It's okay, really. But I ... I suppose I should say something to your friends too. And... mmm. I'd like to be with you when we can. Nothing big or anything. Just, you know..." she says, smiling.