Chapter 342 - 43: I Can’t Tell Anymore! (Bonus - for 200 Power Stones)

Chapter 342: Chapter 43: I Can’t Tell Anymore! (Bonus Chapter for 200 Power Stones)

There were plenty of uncanny things in this world, but a thing this uncanny was something Yuuki Kyouko, a university professor, was witnessing for the first time.

And not just her—Yuuki Shouzou, who had likewise put his blind faith in science for decades, found himself wondering whether he’d accidentally eaten some mushrooms from a certain province of that great Eastern nation at lunch.

"According to survey statistics, a full hundred of the victims who woke from SAO have exhibited signs of pica; they seem to have grown obsessed with a dish called ’Rat Stewed in Red Wine,’ and are excessively particular about the quality of the red wine."

"Experts speculate this is likely a form of brainwashing torment Kayaba Akihiko subjected them to. Next, our station’s reporter will take us to the scene..."

"Huh? Am I on TV right now? You mean the Rat Stewed in Red Wine."

Klein looked a little bashful facing the camera. "The story goes that when Kayaba Akihiko was little he wouldn’t eat properly, so his mother went to great lengths to develop this dish..."

The television was switched off.

However you looked at it, it was all too real. From what Asuna knew of Sugou Nobuyuki’s abilities, having him reproduce SAO one-to-one would already be difficult; having him create a game modeled on reality was even more impossible.

But she couldn’t tell—she truly couldn’t tell—why she was able to see Yimi, this talking kitten, in reality. Going by Sugou Nobuyuki’s plan, if he’d merely tampered with her memories to conjure a dream like this, was that even possible?

Yet, again by her shallow estimation of Sugou Nobuyuki, even in fabricated memories he’d most likely, out of vanity, have cast himself as some grand and noble figure—at the very least there wouldn’t be the AIDS the news mentioned, or whatever it was he’d done to Kuradeel.

Brought back home, Asuna gazed blankly at everything around her; all of it took on a Schrödinger-like layer of reality, while her mother, correspondingly, quite realistically wore the look of someone whose worldview had collapsed.

"What on earth is with this cat?! And it knows you? How can it talk?" Kyouko pointed at Yimi, who was in the corner pawing at a ball of yarn.

"She’s a child I adopted in the game." Unexpectedly, the words weren’t so hard to get out.

Asuna went on, "A child I adopted together with my boyfriend."

"You said... in the game?"

See—how could this possibly be her real mother? If it were her true mom, at a moment like this she’d surely have demanded in alarm and annoyance, "You’ve been dating some stinking gamer?"

With no idea what her daughter was thinking, Kyouko looked toward her husband, probably the only one who could explain this.

Seeing that he, too, couldn’t get a word out—but for the sake of Yimi being his daughter’s savior—the man who’d always cared only about his career nonetheless bought a little pet bowl, poured some cat food into it, and pushed it toward Yimi.

"Meow."

Yimi set down the ball of yarn in her hands and came over to take a taste of the cat food.

Though it was the priciest kind, she—accustomed to cooked food—found she couldn’t quite stomach it now that she saw it.

Yimi gently nudged the little pet bowl aside and, under the baffled gazes of Kyouko and Yuuki Shouzou, walked into the kitchen, hopped onto the stovetop, cracked an egg, and set about cooking.

"..."

A cat demon!

Yuuki Kyouko was about to do something when, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of her daughter’s trembling shoulders.

Asuna had begun to cry.

"What are you crying for?"

Kyouko wanted to blurt out such a line, but then thought of how her daughter had only just clawed her way out of hell, having suffered who knew what kind of anguish.

She swallowed back the harsh tone she was used to and took her daughter’s hand. "Tell me everything that happened."

Asuna wiped away her tears. "I was just thinking—how wonderful it would be if all of this before me were real."

Kyouko: "?"

Asuna clasped her mother’s hand in return. "Mom, in the game I married a boy I really like. I love him very much, and he loves me too. There we had two daughters, and even with the pressures of reality, we lived very happily."

"You got married to someone in a game?"

Kyouko furrowed her brow, finally seizing on this point. "I can pretend I didn’t hear that nonsense. Now that you’re out, isn’t it about time you woke up from that game?"

Asuna drew a deep breath. "I’ve grown up, Mom. I can decide things for myself now. What makes a person happy, what makes them content—that’s a standard each individual judges for themselves!"

Her ever-submissive daughter suddenly speaking to her in such an emphatic tone—the contrast left Kyouko slightly dazed.

She shot a glance at her husband, who naturally kept up his silent posture; leaving all the child-rearing to her, the university professor, was the rule of this household.

Letting out another breath, Asuna recovered a faint smile and, taking Kyouko by the hand, said, "Come with me, Mom."

She led her mother to the kitchen, letting Kyouko see that the little dumpling she’d fearfully labeled a "cat demon" had, at some unknown point, turned into a little girl with cat ears, standing on a small stool their household most definitely did not own, bustling about with an air of real competence.

A cat demon!

This world must have gone mad—or else she had.

"What is Yimi making?"

"I’m making... fried eggs."

Eggs were the only thing Yimi had been able to find in the Yuuki household, since ingredients were generally brought over by the housekeeper rather than kept in storage.

Asuna clapped softly. "I can already smell how good it is. Wonderful."

"Heh-heh." Yimi proudly straightened up.

Kyouko closed her eyes. "Are you trying to tell me that the way I’ve raised you has been wrong all along?"

As a university professor, she naturally couldn’t fail to perceive her daughter’s intent—even if her questions about this little girl had already piled up enough to reshape her worldview, to the point where she wanted to snap outright, "How old are you, playing at being a mother already?"

But sensing that her daughter’s mental state wasn’t quite right either, she had, for now, to rein herself in and go along with Asuna’s words.

Asuna shook her head gently. "I went through so much in that world, Mom. It was a struggle to survive—and a happiness—that could never be insulted by a word like ’nonsense.’"

"In there, I didn’t dare think at all about the future, about what would happen after I left. How could I ever get you to accept Kirito? Probably impossible. In your eyes, Mom, my world is perhaps just some frivolous game I’m addicted to."

"If I could, I’d really love to let you take one look—but a game like that is, after all, far too dangerous."

Asuna didn’t try to persuade her any further, but simply hugged her gently.

"Even though you’re not real, you’re so much like my mom. If this were reality, I definitely wouldn’t have found the courage to say what I just said, would I? You always made me feel so stifled, and yet I really do miss you all so much."

Kyouko frowned, but didn’t force a correction; instead she returned the embrace. "Then right here, say everything you’ve ever wanted to tell your mom."

Asuna shook her head gently and gave a playful little smile. "No thanks. I think I’ll save all this to tell my real mom instead—I’ll probably get an earful for it. But before that, I still have something important to do."

Kyouko: "..."

Asuna crouched down and hugged Yimi. "Yimi, have you seen Yui?"

"Yui..."

Yimi had all but forgotten about her.

The kitten wiped her little paws and let Yui out of her storage space.

"Mama!" Yui hurriedly threw her arms around Asuna.

A cat demon!

Kyouko’s eyelid twitched twice at hearing that title, but the shock of seeing a person suddenly appear out of thin air hit her rather harder.

Could it be that she herself was actually the fake one? That she was some game program?

"Yui, Yimi." Asuna gathered them both together into her arms.

Just as she’d thought...

The instant Yui appeared before her with no logic to it at all, Asuna finally knew for certain: none of what lay before her was real.

Kyouko looked at this picture of a warm, happy family, then lowered her gaze to her own two hands, trying to detect some faint hint of a clue.

Should I... go?

"Let’s go find Dad together." Asuna took them by the hand and headed for the door.

"Come back here!" Kyouko angrily blocked their way, no longer caring about cat demon this or cat demon that.

"So you won’t let me leave so easily after all?" Under Kyouko’s strange gaze, Asuna grasped the broom from the corner and leveled it at Kyouko in a rapier stance.

She narrowed her eyes. "I don’t want to raise a hand against you—even if you’re a fake mom."

Exasperated, Kyouko looked toward her husband, who was idling off to one side like an AFK player.

Don’t just stand there acting like some bot!

But instead she saw Yuuki Shouzou glance at Yimi, then glance at Yui.

He raised both hands to his head, making the gesture of someone trying to take off a helmet.