Floor 22, Kirito and Asuna's Log Cabin January 25th, 2025

A woman wearing a cloak walked up to a log cabin and knocked on the door. Kirito opened it and asked, "Yes Argo?"

"I-I have information on someone," Argo began, her voice having a cautious tone to it. "I-it's about Kayaba Akihiko."

"Come on in," Kirito ordered a look of complete seriousness on his face.

"Asuna!" Kirito shouted. "Argo is here!"

Asuna walked out of the kitchen and Yui ran into the living room from her bedroom.

"Aunty Argo!" Yui shouted in glee as she ran up to the Assassin Informant. "Are you here to play with me? While Mommy and Daddy have a date night?"

"Sorry, Yui," Argo knelt down to the young girl's level. "But I've gotta tell your parents some big news. Go play with your toys while I talk with your parents. Okay?"

Yui nodded and ran to her room to play with her toys. Meanwhile, Argo turned to look at the husband and wife duo, before saying, "I don't know how they found out, but someone told me that Kayaba is playing this game along with the players."

Kirito's eyes narrowed. "Did you happen to see this player's name tag or face?"

Argo shook her head. "They were behind me the whole time. I didn't see their face nor their player name tag. Sorry."

"Kayaba is playing this game," Kirito stated, a look of concentration on his face. "But that makes no sense."

Asuna's face paled as a thought came to her.

"Didn't Kikuoka tell us that Heathcliff is a Red Player?" she asked her husband.

"Yeah he did," Kirito caught onto what his wife was saying. "Kayaba is Heathcliff. It makes sense."

"So how are you going to kill the game's creator?" Argo asked. "He'll see you coming from a mile away!"

Kirito gave a somber smile. "Yeah. He will."

"You aren't expecting to return are you?" Asuna asked, tears beginning to gather at the edges of her eyes.

Kirito shook his head. "I am sorry, love, but I am not expecting to return. But know this, I love you dearly. And I always will."

Kirito kissed his wife and looked to Argo. "I'll be back in a few minutes. I need to tell Yui about this final mission."

Kirito left the room and Asuna turned to Argo, before saying, "I honestly want to hate you, Argo. But I knew that this was going to happen sooner or later. But I swear, if he dies, I will find you in the real world and kill you myself. Understood?" With those last two sentences, Asuna's eyes seemingly became blood red and her hair seemed to be turned into nine appendages.

Argo nodded quickly, her face pale with fear. Asuna then went back to normal and smiled.

"Good," Asuna smiled, "Would you like to help me in the kitchen?"

Argo nodded slowly while making a note to herself about not angering Asuna. A few minutes later, Kirito walks back into the room wearing his gear.

"Goodbye Asuna," Kirito told her. "I'm not sure what would happen after this, so I want to tell you something."

"What is it, Kirito-kun?" Asuna asked.

"My name, my real name, is Kazuto Kirigaya," Kirito replied, Asuna's eyes went wide. "I turned 27 last October."

"My name is Asuna Yuki," his wife told him. "I turned 28 in September. Now please, Kirito, please return to us. To me."

Kirito nodded before walking out the front door and towards his unbeknownst final target: Akihiko Kayaba.

Granzam, Floor 55; a few hours later

"Have you heard?" Kirito heard a player say below him.

"What?" another asked.

"The boss has a target on his back and he doesn't care."

"Yeah right. No one has been able to kill him, no one."

Kirito's eyes narrowed.

'Of course, no one has,' the Assassin thought as he jumped from beam to beam. Following a map that his wife gave him. 'He's the creator of the game itself!'

His legs kept on beating. Each stride felt like his last. To him, he thought that he was heading to his death. That he wouldn't be able to kill Akihiko Kayaba. But he had to, for his family. Thoughts of his daughter Yui and his wife Asuna kept him going.

'For them,' he thought. 'For them, I would walk through hell. This is why I became what I am. Why I became an assassin. I will not fail them. Never.'

He soon arrived, after climbing down a wall to reach the floor, at the chambers of Akihiko Kayaba. Calming his beating heart, Kirito silently opened the door and flicked his wrist out as he silently moved to the bed. But before he could make his move, a hand grabbed his wrist and twisted it before kicking him into a desk.

Groaning, Kirito looked up and saw General Heathcliff, aka Akihiko Kayaba.

"Kayaba," Kirito scowled. "Are you ready?"

Kayaba shook his head.

"I'm not giving up so easily Kirito," Kayaba replied, his voice calm and even. "You will have to catch me."

An item appeared in Kayaba's hands and the two of them vanished from the chambers and reappeared in Starting City.

"You'll have to catch me Kirito," Kayaba stated, "Only then will you have my life."

Kayaba began running and Kirito followed him.

Kirito climbed up a wall, his hands and feet finding ledges that most wouldn't be able to grab hold of, and soon reached the top and started running keeping an eye on the General the whole time. Not too long later, about 15 minutes, Kirito jumped down from the roof. His hidden blade extended and its target clear: the heart of Akihiko Kayaba. But before he could hit his target, Kayaba managed to roll to the left and equipped a sword.

Kirito drew his own blades and the sounds of clanging metal echoed throughout the streets. Kirito, after a few minutes of fighting, disarmed him and used both swords to stab his heart and his lung at the same time. The world went white and Kirito only saw Kayaba, no one else, and nothing else just a wide expanse of white.

"Why?" Kirito asked as he knelt down by the creator of SAO. "Why do this? Why do all of this?"

Gasping for air, Kayaba managed to get out, "Because... I-I wanted to study the way humans interacted and how... And how they would react to certain situations."

Blood started to slip from his mouth.

"And because I was dying, Kirito," Kayaba whispered. "A rare blood disease that has been in my family for generations. There... There is no cure. I-I tried to look for one, The Lord knows I did. But I didn't find one."

Coughing up blood once more, Kayaba managed to get out one more sentence before he slipped away to the afterlife.

"I am sorry for all the pain and suffering I have caused you... Kirito," Kayaba told him.

Kirito closed Kayaba's eyes and whispered, "Yasuraka ni nemuru, Akihiko Kayaba."

Everything then went black.

Chapter 7: The End of An Engagement