After a long day at school, Kirito was free for the rest of the day. He was excited to dash home to play some more ALO. He ran past his classmates, then crossed the street while looking twice, he ran up the street, took a hard right, and he was home. He threw the door open, kicked his shoes off, ran up the stairs, and into his bedroom. Slammed his bedroom door shut, jumped on his bed, and put on his VR headset.

"Link, Start!" Kirito shouted.

A spectrum of colors dashed passed his field of vision and he was at the saving point he remembered last. It was a pub in the spriggan territory, the decor was dated, and it smelled of stale beer. That didn't faze him, he was curious if Leafa was playing right now. He dashed out of the bar and looked around.

"I don't see her anywhere," Kirito observed, "Guess I'll see if there's any side quests that I can do to gain XP and some new items."

Kirito walked over to the signpost in the town square. He scanned the quests for a quest that'll give him the most XP and the most new items.

He heard a voice say, "Choose the side quest with the Spriggan King."

Kirito was confused with what was just said to him in his head.

"Huh, what?" Kirito asked, "Well, I think I'll just choose that side quest."

The side quest involved rescuing a Spriggan noble in Undine territory and returning him to the King. The XP was a high number and the items were all ones that Kirito has been looking for days now. Kirito adjusted his compass to the side quest and was on his way. He jumped high in the air and followed the compass' way.

Kirito exclaimed, "This'll be fun! I'm looking to level myself up anyway!"

Kirito went on to do a spiral and accelerated to the land of the Undine. He was still figuring out how to descend without any flaws. He loosened the tension on his wings and he slowly descended. Little by little, he released the tension in his wings. He safely landed in the Land of the Undine.

"What a relief," Kirito remarked, "I thought I would've face planted. Now where's that quest?"

He looked down to the compass on his wrist. It pointed north and it showed the distance between him and the site of the sidequest.

"It's not that far," Kirito stated, "I can just close the distance on foot."

Kirito ran to the direction of the side quest, the wind was blowing in his hair and the air smelled fresh. As he was getting closer, he noticed two Undine soldiers with longswords and what seemed to be a Spriggan hung to a tree by his hands. He moved even faster towards them and pulled out his swords.

"You better leave him alone!" Kirito yelled.

The Undine soldiers looked towards his direction and charged him. Kirito took a slash to the front with the first one, jumped into the air and then slashed him in the back. He crossed his swords and then dashed towards the second. By the time he looked back, they had disappeared into data.

"That was easy!" Kirito affirmed.

He climbed the tree to the branch where the rope was tied. He slowly, little by little, pulled the rope towards his direction. It started to get heavier, but Kirito managed to pull the Spriggan to the branch. The Spriggan had a face covered in bruises, his wrists were purple because of how tight the rope was tied around his hands, and he was unconscious.

"Hey," Kirito whispered,"Are you a noble from the Spriggan tribe?"

He didn't hear a response. He placed his ear towards his chest and his heartbeat was very faint. He searched through his inventory for an item that could heal all injuries. He found what he was looking for, a potion that can heal any and every injury. Pouring the potion, he made sure to get it into his mouth.

Kirito reminded himself, "He will get up, he has to."

A flash of light appeared around the Spriggan noble and his injuries were gone, he was saved.

"Thank you, young traveler," The noble told the boy, "I never thought that anyone would come for me."

A banner appeared in Kirito's field of vision, "Quest complete!"

A ring of light appeared around the two. When Kirito opened his eyes, he was in a throne room. The room had a red carpet on the floor from the door to the throne, there were soldiers on each side of him, and there was the Spriggan king sitting on the throne.

The king spoke,"Well done, my friend."

"No problem, just doing what had to be done," Kirito replied.

"My name is King Midhir, I am the king of the Spriggan race. That person you just saved happens to be a Spriggan Noble that serves in my court. He was traveling through the Undine land to deliver a message to a friend there. From what your face has told me, he was pretty badly beaten up. Am I correct?" King Midhir explained.

"That's correct," Kirito stated, "I'm just glad that now I can go back to playing an-"

"Soldiers, you're dismissed!" Midhir yelled, "Be sure to bring the noble back to his home."

The soldiers left the throne room and then the Spriggan noble slowly followed thereafter. The door shut, it was just Midhir and Kirito.

Kirito sighed, "As I was saying I-"

"Wait." Midhir ordered, "I need to talk to you about something important."

"Come on," Kirito began, "I want to have time to do more side quests. I already did what needed to be done here, so what is it?"

"A talk between father and son," Midhir said to the Spriggan in front of him.

"W-What?" Kirito asked, as he stepped back as if he was struck. "What do you mean by 'a talk between father and son?' My father died not long after I was born!"

"Almost 18 years ago, I had a son," Midhir began. "But we, the mother of my child and I, were told that he died not long after he was taken to get cleaned."

Midhir sighed as he leaned back in his throne and placed an armored hand on his crowned forehead.

"But I did not believe it, for in my eyes, my son was strong," Midhir continued. "And so I searched for him. And along the way, I came to a realization. If I wanted to find my son, then why not build a world that he would enjoy?"

A chill ran down Kirito's spine as he listened to the story Midhir was telling him. Having a feeling of where this is going.

"So I made a world," Midhir stated as he went on, his stygian colored eyes now borrowing into Kazuto's own stygian colored eyes. "A world with a floating castle. A hundred floors to it. And each harder than the last."

"Kayaba," Kirito's eyes widened. "Akihiko. How?"

Midhir, or Kayaba as he was known, ignored the question. Too immersed in his story.

"Only a couple hundred were beta testers to the game," Kayaba remembered, his gaze not leaving Kazuto's. "And it was when the game finally went online to the public, that I realized that my son. My own flesh and blood. Was one of the best beta testers. Of course, I couldn't believe it as by then, I myself believed my son to be dead. Then came the fight. The one that caused you to join the Knights of the Blood Oath."

Kayaba got off the throne and walked towards Kazuto. Each step, sounding like a war drum to Kazuto's ears.

"That day I saw something in your eyes," Kayaba remarked. "And something just clicked in me. I saw my son all grown up. Becoming a man in his own right."

Kayaba was now an arms length in front of Kazuto.

"Kazuto," Kayaba began. "I am your father."

Kirito looked up at Kayaba with wide eyes before he fell over into unconsciousness. With the last thing Kirito saw, being the eyes of a concerned father.

Sylph Territory, capital city

A woman with long blonde hair, slanted green eyes, wearing a forest green shirt that had armor covering her with lime green pants, and green boots.

"Rinko?" a male with long blue hair, wearing a robe that is mostly white in color with some blue, and wears dark blue boots, asks the new Sylph player.

"Yes," Rinko began. "And you are Kikuoka."

"Of course," Kikuoka replied with a smile. "But here, I am known as Chrysheight."

"Take me to my son, Kikuoka," Rinko all but commanded, her eyes narrowed. "Now."

Holding up his hands in surrender, Kikuoka walked towards a teleporter as Rinko followed him.

"Why are we going to a Teleporter?" she asked, confused.

"Well, since you cannot fly, we have to use the Teleporter to get to Floor 22 on New Aincrad," Kikuoka replied.

The two stepped onto the Teleporter and disappeared from the Sylph Capital and appeared on Floor 22 in Coral Village.

"Welcome to Coral Village," Kikuoka commented with a smile.

"And this is where my son is staying?" Rinko asked, looking at the small village. "It's a little small for a home here."

Kikuoka smiled and began walking towards the village entrance.

"It's a long walk, Ms. Koujiro," Kikuoka told her. "But I promise that it will be worth it in the end."

Thirty minutes later, the two came across a log cabin and Kikuoka explained, "Here it is. The in-game home of Kirito and Asuna. You want to knock on the door or do you want me to?"

Rinko was looking at the log cabin with watery eyes.

"This seems like a place to have a family," Rinko muttered, before she reached out with a hand and she hesitated. "I-I can't. You can knock if you want."

Kikuoka looked at her with a sad expression on his face and knocked on the door. They heard a child's voice say, "I'll get it, Mommy!" Before a child with long black hair and dark chocolate eyes, wearing a grey dress and no shoes opened the door.

"Hey Mr. Chrysheight!" the child said. "Are you here for Mommy and Daddy's help?"

Kikuoka smiled softly at the child in front of the two.

"I am not here for them no, but this woman here wants to speak with Kirito," Kikuoka told the child. "Can we come in?"

"Of course!" Yui exclaimed cheerfully.

"Chrysheight?" a young woman's voice asked.

Rinko looked from the child to see a young woman with long aqua blue-hair and light blue eyes wearing a skirt and a long sleeve sweater. Looking the part of a stay at home mom.

"Thank you Asuna," Kikuoka commented. "Is Kirito here?"

"Yes but he's sleeping at the moment," Asuna replied, before looking at Rinko. "And this is?"

"This is Rinko Koujiro," Kikuoka explained. "She has something to ask Kirito."

"And that is?" Asuna asked curiously.

"Nothing too dangerous I assure you," Kikuoka assured with a small smile.

"Alright then," Asuna replied. "But if it is dangerous to Kirito, I will end you."

"And I'll help!" Yui added, trying to look ferocious, but ending up failing due to her adorable face.

'How is my granddaughter so freaking adorable?!' Rinko thought to herself.

"What's with all the noise down here?" a male's voice spoke as a Spriggan walked into the living room.

"Daddy!" Yui shouted, before jumping on Kirito and nearly knocking him over. "Did you have a nice nap?"

"Yes I did," Kirito yawned, "Who's this?"

Kirito pointed to Rinko and her face welled up with tears.

"K-Kenshi?" Rinko asked, walking up to him, "My Son!"

"Um," Kirito began, "You're not my mom, she died years ago."

Rinko continued to cry, she was saddened that something that awful could happen to his adopted parents. She decided to sit down on the couch in the living room to let her tears out. She seemed to not be shaken from this fit of tears.

"Hey, Kirito," Kikuoka began,"You might want to sit down next to her on the couch. You might be interested in what she has to say."

"If you say so," Kirito sighed.

He sat down on the couch next to Rinko. She placed an arm around his shoulder and placed her head on it.

"Kenshi," Rinko coughed, "I am your biological mother and your father is Akihiko Kayaba."

"Wait, what?" Kirito asked, confused, "From my knowledge, he never had any children."

"Listen," Rinko began, "I married Akihiko Kayaba and we had you. We were so excited to take you home, but you never came with us."

Kirito nodded slowly, "uh huh."

"I was so devastated, I thought I would never see you again." Rinko sobbed.

Kirito tried to comfort Rinko the best he could.

'I'm not all that good with consoling people,' Kirito thought to himself, 'how do I figure out that she's lying?'

"Our marriage fell apart and I was heartbroken," Rinko continued, "I ended up moving to California to be a computer science professor at Stanford University."

"Then you found out about Kayaba, huh?" Kirito asked.

"I did," Rinko remembered, "I was in the middle of a lecture and I got a notification on my phone that he died in SAO. I broke down in tears and my students left class early that day."

"Did you also get the name of the player that killed him?" Kirito asked.

"It was Kirito," Rinko recalled.

"That was me," Kirito stated.

Rinko went on, "After that, I spent years trying to figure out where you were until I found out that in my email's trash bin that there was an email about you being our son."

Rinko paused for a moment and then spoke, "I thought it was a scam, until I traced the information of the email back to Akihiko Kayaba."

Kikuoka decided to pick up here.

"After that, she did some digging around and found you," he told them. "Not long after that, she contacted me after moving to Japan and I brought her here to New Aincrad to meet her son whom she believes is you, Kirito."

"How do we know if she's Papa's Mama?" Yui asked, her head tilted to the side.

"We'd have to get a DNA test to really be certain," Kikuoka explained. "But other than that, if you look at them outside the game, there are a few things that are similar between them."

"How about we all log out and then Kirito can take the DNA test," Asuna suggested, "That way we know the results in a few days."

"That sounds like a perfect plan, Asuna," Kikuoka replied with a smile. "What do you guys say?"

"Let's do it," Kirito told them with Rinko nodding in agreement.

Five days later

Kikuoka walked up to the SAO Returnee School with Rinko beside him.

"Are you ready?" Kikuoka asked Rinko.

"Yes," Rinko began. "I want to view the results with Ken... Kazuto."

She fixed her slip up and the two entered the school building.