Dark grey-colored eyes open and Kirito looks around to see himself in an unfamiliar room. Focusing his senses, the room around him becomes sharper. He can feel the fabric of his hospital gown against his skin plus hear the beeping of a heart monitor close by. He then, with weak arms, pulls off his Nervegear and his senses sharpen even more. He comes to realize that he is in a hospital. Not in Starting City.

Memories then flash through his mind as he remembers the death of Kayaba and even now, he can feel the pixelated blood on his hand. Guilt surges through him as he remembers the deaths he caused. The one that he remembers most, however, is Sachi's. But then, he remembers his wife and daughter, Asuna and Yui.

'I-I'm back,' he thought, as tears of relief drip from his eyes and onto the fabric of the blanket. 'Asuna, Yui... They are still alive!'

Kirito gets up from his bed, but nearly buckles under his atrophied legs. His muscles are weak from lack of use.

"A-Asuna," he rasps out. "Y-Yui."

He grabs hold of a medical machine and slowly walks out wanting to find them. As he walks, a doctor crosses his vision and he notices something about him: He's colored blue. Shock passes over his face and his vision returns to normal.

'Eagle Vision!?' he thought, shock clearly displayed on his face. 'How? It's a skill in the game and is not usable in the real world!'

"W-What?" the doctor he saw before said as his Eagle Vision switched off. "What are you doing out of the hospital room?!"

"N-Need," Kirito whispered weakly.. "To see... Kikuoka. Then... my daughter and... Asuna. Please..."

Kirito leaned against a wall, but a fire was burning in his eyes. The doctor easily recognized it as it was the protective fire of a father and husband.

"After," began the doctor, "we give you an examination. When that is done, we can see if you can visit this Yui and Asuna."

6 Months later

A lot has happened in the last six months that Kazuto, Kirito's real name, and the other players were returned to the real world. But the best thing that has happened to Kirito in these last few months was that he got half his family back. Another big thing is that he realized that he retained his skills in free-running/parkour, swordsmanship, assassination, and, his favorite, Eagle Vision.

When he told Kikouka about this, Kikuoka questioned him how this was possible and Kazuto replied, "I think it's because our minds were trapped in the game due to the Nerve Gear. And thus, the mind retained those motions and memories. I just need to retrain myself to do those said motions. But Eagle Vision, according to the Assassin's Creed games and according to the lore I read about the skill, is an extra-sensory ability. I retained this because it was part of my senses, just a better part of them."

As such, when his body was strong enough, he began to retrain his body to do those motions he was used to doing in SAO. He also began doing the same to Yui, but only enough so that she'd be able to protect herself from bullies and others if or when it ever happens.

At the moment, however, he and Yui are going to see Asuna in the hospital. As they walked into her room, Kazuto saw two people and he immediately activated Eagle Vision. The room became clearer immediately and the two of them were giving off a blue-colored aura, but for some reason, the taller of the two was switching from blue to red rapidly.

'That's never happened before,' Kazuto thought. Keeping his sixth sense active, Kazuto asked, "And you two are?"

"I am Shouzou Yuuki," the older of the two replied. "I am the father of Asuna Yuuki."

"You're my grandpa?" Yui asked innocently, tilting her head to the side. This question caused the taller man to scowl and he immediately became an enemy to Kazuto. It became apparent when he was colored red.

Shouzou raised an eyebrow at the child.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Kazuto sighed.

"In the game," the assassin began. "Asuna and I adopted Yui here as our child. As such, she sees you as her grandfather."

"Even though she never met me?" Shouzou asked.

Kazuto nodded.

"But," the taller man began, "The child can never be with her adoptive mother."

Kazuto's eyes narrowed at these words as Yui began tearing up.

"Why is that?" he asked the man.

"Because she is to be my bride," the taller man told the assassin. "And, as such, will not be allowed to mingle with commoners."

"You act like it's still the middle ages," Kazuto stated. He then placed a hand on Yui's shoulder and Yui looked up at her father.

Kazuto then gave his daughter a small smile that told her that this man in front of them won't get Asuna. He'd make sure of it.

"What's your name?" Kazuto asked, after looking up.

"Sugou Nobuyuki," the man replied. "Now leave."

Shouzou frowned at Sugou but didn't say anything as he knew that Sugou would make sure what he said would come true.

"I think we'd better get going," Kazuto replied. "It was good to meet you, Mr. Yuuki. Not so much your companion, however."

Kazuto and Yui then left and when they reached the parking lot, Yui asked, "Are you going to go after the bad man as you did in the other world?"

Kazuto didn't say anything. "Let's go home, Yui."

"Papa?" Yui asked.

Kazuto sighed. "I will keep Asuna safe Yui, you know it, I know it. I thought that I would be leaving that kind of life behind me, but it appears that I can't."

With those words, Kazuto and Yui entered the car and drove home. Neither saying a word of what happened at the hospital.

That night

Kazuto snuck out when his clock hit 11:00 pm. He had done some research and found that Sugou lived near the waterfront. A perfect place for a quick getaway after he was done. He climbed out his bedroom window wearing dark clothes, tennis shoes, and two bracers under his dark-colored, hooded jacket. A little after midnight, Kazuto arrived at Sugou's home and entered it silently. He knew Sugou wasn't home so he'd have to stay a bit.

When Sugou arrived at his home near the waterfront less than 15 minutes later, he poured himself a glass of champagne and made a toast to his future.

"It is all coming together," he spoke with a smirk on his face. "Soon, she'll be mine and no one else's."

"I highly doubt that," Kazuto scoffed, "Hello, Sugou. It's been a few hours."

"What are you doing here?!" he exclaimed before the person who spoke threw a knife into Sugou's hand and stuck it to the wall.

"I am here to end you," Kazuto stated, his dark eyes burrowing into Sugou's maddened gaze. "You are like the men I hunted in Sword Art Online. Evil, manipulative. You took away her free will! The very thing that makes her human! For that, I will never forgive."

"If you kill me, then people will know," Sugou informed him.

"You are alone," Kazuto told Sugou. "No one will know until the morning when you don't go to work.

"They will get your prints," Sugou told him, panicking now.

"I was smart enough to wear gloves."

"You bastard!" Sugou shouted, before taking the knife out of his hand and the wall, and ran up to the person. A flash of silver, though, ended Sugou's life as it entered his throat.

"Yasuraka ni, rokudenashi (rest in peace bastard)," Kazuto whispered before turning off all the lights and leaping into the ocean and vanishing into the night.

The next day

When Sugou didn't come into work, Shouzou called the police and when they went to Sugou's home, they found him dead. After an hour, Kikuoka arrived at the house after the government called him in as it was similar to what his guild had done to their enemies.

"It was definitely someone who was a part of my old guild or at the very least, someone who looked up to us," the detective spoke, as the medics carried the body out of the house and into the ambulance. "Do you know who Sugou might have angered lately?"

Shouzou spoke almost immediately.

"A young man about 27," Shouzou told him. "He had a child with him."

Kikuoka's face didn't betray the panic he was feeling. He had a feeling that Kazuto had a hand in this, but to think that he would actually do an assassination like this in the real world.

"Thank you," Kikuoka replied, "Just give me his description and I'll see if I can locate him."

"Sir!" a police officer shouted running up to the detective. "We found something that you two would want to see."

Kikuoka briskly walked back into the house followed by Shouzou. Once inside, the officer handed Kikuoka a folder that was quite thick and had a red cross on the front that alone set off Kikuoka's instincts. Upon opening it, his eyes widened upon seeing three words he thought he'd never see... "Apple of Eden," he spoke those words aloud, getting confused looks from the officer and Shouzou.

"No one else is to return here," Kikuoka stated, "I want everything here to stay the same. I have someone who can help me out here. Now leave!"

He barked out those orders and, albeit reluctantly, left the house.

"What I am about to tell you, Shouzou," the detective began, "is a dangerous and deadly secret. Which should stay buried."

Shouzou nodded and thus, Kikuoka began telling him about the Assassin Brotherhood and its enemies as well as allies.

A few hours later saw Kikuoka standing in front of Kirito who was sitting on his bed.

"I know what you did," Kikuoka spoke. "I want to know why you didn't tell me that Nobuyuki knew about the Pieces of Eden and about the Brotherhood."

"Wait what?" Kazuto said. "How?"

"It might be because of the games, but since the Brotherhood does exist due to me building it in SAO," Kikuoka began.

"Then the Templars must be real too," Kazuto finished. "But how would they know if we are real if we only began barely 5 years ago?"

"They probably had people inside the game, or even Kayaba was a part of them and was their Grandmaster," Kikuoka said. "Either way, we need to get the Apple."

"But where is it?"

Kikuoka placed the folder in Kazuto's lap.

"In Alfheim Online," he told him. "And where the last 300 players are. Including one Asuna Yuuki."

Chapter 8: Return to the Virtual World