Mending Love

Some say that love heals all emotional distress. What about physical or internal problems? Kirito X Yuuki One-shot. AU in which Yuuki's family is still alive and Kirito and Asuna decided to just be friends.

An: This is a little something I thought of in the middle of class. No idea why, but I couldn't let up doing something with this plot so why not make it a one shot?

Yuuki Konno. One thought to have been on death's doorstep. Cause? Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Also known as AIDS, this disease weakens the immune system to a point where death is expected in 3 years even with treatment. She was thought to have never been able to make a recovery.

A year after treatment, she was offered the use of a new machine called the Medicuboid. A sort of "therapy" to make life a little easier on people that are in her condition. This machine simply put patients into the Virtual Realm where they can spend their last moments, living life to the fullest. Now, who was the person to have thought of making such a thing?

Koujiro Rinko, former co-worker of Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of the death game known as Sword Art Online, had created the machine with help from Kazuto Kirigaya, a survivor who has since been studying mechatronics.

The two had met a little after the events of SAO in which they had talked about working on a project to redeem Koujiro because of her affiliation with Kayaba. During this time, she brought up the idea of medical use and Kazuto contributed to the VR as a therapy idea.

Together, they worked for months on end with help from Asuna Yuuki, a friend and former lover of Kazuto Kirigaya in their time of SAO. Once finished with a prototype, the three spread news of their invention, asking for input from others. After a year total of research, testing, and prototyping, they had finished the final model which was to be sent to any hospital that had accepted their latest creation.

It just so happened that Yuuki Konno was the first to use it. She figured that she should just live the last two years of her life having fun and doing whatever she could. The two sub-creators of the Medicuboid were never told the names of the patients that had accepted it, but we're told that people were using it.

It had been a year since Yuuki had started using the Medicuboid, and she had become one of the greatest players of Alfheim Online, a game similar to Sword Art Online in the sense that it was an MMORPG and most people used swords.

About a half a year later was when Kazuto, nicknamed Kirito as a mix of his first and last name and former SAO name, joined the game to play with friends. In the first three months of starting, he had risen to the top 3 being in third place. The two people above him being his friend Shino Asada, known as Sinon in the VR world, and Yuuki Konno being in first place.

He has met Sinon in the virtual world of Gun Gale Online. She had ended up revealing that she was a Medicuboid user to cope with the stress of killing an armed robber when she was younger. They had won the Bullet of Bullets tournament together, ending by a plasma grenade suicide hug, killing both of them.

He strived to surpass both of them and within three months, had risen to second, surpassing Shino by defeating her in a duel. That was how they determined how good a player you were. His only obstacle in becoming the greatest player in this game, was Yuuki.

It wasn't until three weeks before her apparent death date that she started dueling in public to enjoy her final moments with others instead of being secluded.

During her duels, Kirito had started to observe her every moment during each and every fight. She had this sort of nature that wasn't right in this sort of game.

It was this aura that emitted being care free. It was something that he had seen only in SAO. Only the people that were arrogant and scared after like this. They thought that they would never leave, so why not live life to the fullest in that game of death? Her attitude mirrored theirs, minus the arrogant part.

That was when it dawned on him. She had to have actually been dying. But how could that be happening? The Amusphere can't kill you no matter what. He even talked with a man working with the government and they both came to the conclusion that it was impossible to die from the Amusphere. What was her case then?

He equipped both of his swords, The Elucidator and Dark Repulsor.

These were exclusive items that he got from SAO since all games had similar engines, he could transfer his SAO account there. For whatever reason though, the items were not messed up at all. Their stats converted to the Alfhiem equivalent of SAO's by being increased.

Since the game was older than SAO, the stats for newer items were better since it was constantly being updated. For whatever reason, his swords scaled to around 90% power of the current best sword in ALO.

He approached her and asked for a duel. She accepted with a smile and a handshake. Once the duel began, all hell broke loose. The crowds went wild at seeing that the number two was too to be facing the number one in a fight to see who was the better swordsman or woman in Yuuki's case.

3…

2…

1…

Begin!

(AN: Lmao, I suck at fight scenes. It's gonna be short. Very short.

The two quickly dashed at each other, hoping that the other was off guard. They met with a loud clang of metal on metal as they hacked and slashed at each other. They flew up and begun aerial combat, throwing assortments of sword skills at one another.

At one point it looked like Kirito had the upper hand, running through different sets of his custom made sets of skills. He thought to end it with a creation of his own named "Rebirth of a Star", a 10 hit combo which made two separate star slices doing ridiculous amounts of damage.

Just as he was about to use it, she had used her own trump card. Mother's Rosario. An eleven hit combo that decimated opponent, and mobs alike.

It started with five stabs from the right shoulder down diagonally to the left. Then went on to the same thing but instead, starting on the left, then down diagonally right. Then came the last hit, a stab straight in the center of where the two lines created by the stabs were. But something went wrong.

While analyzing their fight, Kirito had finally remembered what was bugging him throughout the entire fight. It all traced back to one thing.

"Medicuboid..." he whispered while awaiting her final strike. She faltered. 'How does he know? C-could he be like me?' As she failed to deliver the final stab, the two collided, falling to the ground. It was at this point that the crowd had gasped in shock as the two hit the ground.

The two landed and Kirito brought her into a comforting hug. "I'm sorry" he whispered into her ear. "I never thought that you of all people could be using that. You seemed to cheerful and carefree, that at first I wasn't suspicious, but I now realized it." She stiffened in his, crying as she heard that.

"Everyone here, please leave immediately. I must speak with her alone." Everyone dispersed at the serious tone of voice.

"How'd you figure it out? The Medicuboid is supposed to be something that only hospitals use." She asked through sniffles.

"I was one of the people that helped make that. We spent a year on it. Based on your stats, I'd bet you're the first one to use it eh?" He asked while still holding her in a protective embrace.

"Yes. They say I only have a couple weeks to live, so I figured, why die being secluded?" She said as she began to break down again.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm right here. There's no need to cry." He said as he calmed her with more comforting and gentle words.

After a couple hours, the two split, seeing as how dark it was getting.

"Thank you… For everything." She said. Kirito then turned to leave, but before he could get anywhere, she grabbed his arm.

"Wait! C-can I stay with you for the night? I don't know why, but I feel so much safer around you. I don't mean to be a creep or anything, it's just that you have this protective aura that seems to just pull me in." Yuuki says

"Well, I don't see a reason as to why you can't stay with me. I get lonely too sometimes." He said with a smile, turning back to take her hand. Who know that a little sleepover could become so much more?

The two hit it off instantly. They became close. Closer than they had been to anyone else. In short, they became lovers in the span of 3 days. It seemed short for some, but to her, it was perfectly reasonable since she was told she didn't have much time left. This though, brought major stress to her, but upon hearing that he would never forget her no matter what, the stress lessened significantly.

She felt that she could just be herself. Show her true colors to the world whenever she was around him. In the outside world however, things were… Changing to say the least. Her condition had dramatically increased since her relationship with Kirito. It was unbelievable to the doctors and to her family. She was supposed to die in less than a week originally. Now, it seemed like she could last another year.

Her body itself began changing to. Starting with the color of her hair. It slowly began to match that of her avatar's own hair color. She physically started becoming more healthy, and her bone and muscle structure began strengthening.

It was a week until she finally decided to wake up. She had told Kazuto of her condition, and he promised that he would come see her right now. Her family was shocked by recent events, and thanked Kazuto for all he had done for their daughter/sister.

Yuuki had woken up to the sight of her family and Kazuto. She had immediately burst into tears of joy at seeing her family after being in the virtual realm for so long. The doctors were utterly confused. Her body was as if she had never had AIDS in the first place. She was perfect healthy.

As of December 25th, Yuuki Konno was in perfect condition and was discharged from the hospital with her family and boyfriend. Years later, at the age of 20, Kazuto had proposed to her saying that no matter the circumstances. He would be willing to give her all of his love and be with her for the rest of his fairly long life. They had been young, but it didn't stop him from being willing to marry her.

Many years later, we find the two in their home with their two children. Kasumi Kirigaya had been born two years into their marriage. She brought joy to her parents, as their first born and they treated her as all parents would to their first child. When her brother Kenshi, named after his mother and father's former lives, was born, she was treated the same. No child had unfair treatment, and in later years, her brother had become very protective of her.

It wasn't until they hit 97 that Kazuto and his wife Yuuki would pass. They left the world, contributing to things that changed to world as a whole. They had successfully created a universal cure for most diseases. They had also made some of the most advanced pieces of tech in the world. From hover boards, to VR that didn't use real time as it's own time, to a machine that is capable of making whatever desired food you wanted, the two contributed greatly to the tech world, and left their children with quite the fortune.

Their tale would be told for centuries. How could such a simple action of a sleepover end up causing world peace and a balanced economy throughout the world?

More importantly though, was the fact that the simple cure to everything, was love.

AN: Alright! Done! Lmao, I did all of this while trying to sleep. I honestly could not get any sleep when I wrote this. Hope you enjoyed! Unlike other one-shots that I might end up doing, this one will not be made into a full story. I honestly can't see myself being creative enough to detail what had gone on in the VR world during their relationship. Until next time guys!