They had their lunch date on a sunny day in the mid afternoon.

Kazuto and Asuna were sitting comfortably on the porch of the Kirigaya estate. Asuna was resting against her boyfriend, her head in the crook of his neck while they ate. Between them was an elaborate spread of noodles and meat, rice, and sandwiches. The lunch date had really turned more into a relaxing time of rest than an actual date due to the fact that the couple had prepared the food together at the Yuuki estate.

"KIYAAA!" Suguha shouted loudly from across the yard. Kazuto's black haired cousin had decided to forgo tradition and was practicing for her upcoming Kendo match outside due to the unusually perfect day outside. Kazuto and Asuna offered cheerful motivating comments between mouthfuls of food.

It had been nearly two years since the events of Alfheim Online and things had almost gotten back to normal.

Well, as normal as it could anyways.

Kazuto and Asuna still attended school with their friends at the facility that had been constructed for the Sword Art Online survivors—though they were preparing to attend high school following the upcoming summer break.

Asuna had started to work for Agil as a waitress at his bar during the mid-afternoon shift. This allowed her to work after school but before the more rowdy crowd began to arrive. Initially, her parents had forbid her to work in such a place at her age. They had only relented after meeting with Agil and learning of their friendship from their time in SAO together. Kazuto was still working with the government agency that had recruited him back during the Gun Gale Online incident. He would generally mention an assignment to Asuna or Suguha before dropping off the public grid, though most of his missions were simple enough that he rarely had to be gone for more than a few hours.

He still hadn't taken a job that had been as dangerous as GGO.

Instead, he had decided to pick up Kendo once more. He and Suguha trained relentlessly after school. Despite the difference in the number of years the two had spent actively practicing Kendo, Kazuto had caught up to and surpassed Suguha after a little over a year. It had astounded the kendōka at first, but once she had thought about it, it really hadn't.

Her brother fighting on that bridge under the mountains or against General Eugene in ALO came to mind. His fight against the Laughing Coffin member in GGO also came to mind. His skills with the sword—honed through his years in SAO and continues use afterwords in other games—had clearly bled over to the real world.

Her first duel against him nearly two years ago should have been her first clue to that.

After Kazuto was certain he was ready to take on a serious bout, he had entered a beginner tournament and immediately swept the floor with both rising stars and novices like himself. It had come as a shock, but Kazuto had continued on and began to rise up through the rosters in the junior league.

Though that was probably about as far as he was likely to go.

After the fight with Yuuki, Sugu had realized her brother would never again fight like he had in ALO or SAO. In either game had fought with the knowledge that either his own life or someone else's life was on the line. He hadn't fought to win for the sake of winning. In the face of a situation where death wasn't an outcome, he had no motivation to fight with all his will.

In the case of Kendo, he was certainly extraordinary, but he would never make it into the championship matches because he had no drive to actually win. He was simply enjoying the exercise of using a skill that had become as much a part of him as his very own arms.

And it wasn't just him either.

Only a short time after Kazuto had started to take up Kendo again, several of his friends had begun attending his tournaments as a show of support. Shortly after, Klein had decided to pick up the art as well and had even joined him and Suguha for several sparring sessions. Following Klein's first surprisingly successful bout, several dozen other students from the SAO school had started to join the first—and ultimately unsurprisingly popular—faculty supported club.

The kendo club.

"Her form is almost flawless," Asuan murmured as she nuzzled closer to Kazuto.

"She's been doing this since she could walk," Kazuto remarked with a prideful grin at his younger cousin.

"So have you, basically anyways." Asuna replied.

The two fell back into a comfortable silence for several moments as they watched Sugu shift through her katas while moving her shinai in an almost effortless display of both skill and long training. The kendōka was sweaty and breathing hard from within the harsh confines of her bōgu, but she showed no signs of slowing any time soon.

"Go Sugu-chan!" Asuna cheered as Kazuto reached for the last sandwich from one of the numerous plates set out on their picnic spread. With a look like a young child on Christmas, he took his first bite and let out an immensely contented sigh. Asuna beamed in both joy and pride at this, glad that her cooking could please her boyfriend as good as it had in the digital world—even if he he had helped her with it today.

Suguha finished up her final kata and happily bowed low to her audience before sheathing her shinai and ripping off her men with haste. Leaving it in the grass, she began to strip off the rest of the bōgu.

Asuna suddenly had an idea.

"You should really put that back on its rack!" Kazuto teased as his phone buzzed. Opening it, he grimaced and typed a response before pocketing the device away.

"Don't care! Too hot!" Suguha panted as she made her way towards the spicket beside the couple.

"Hey, Kirito-kun," Asuna said with a gleam in her eyes as she and Kazuto cleaned up their lunch, "Do you feel like a bout?"

Kazuto paused only briefly before giving her a wide and loving smile. "Absolutely!"

Suguha traded places with the two as she sat down on the porch to cool off with a towel around her shoulders. Asuna began to put Suguha's discarded bōgu on while Kazuto went into the household dojo to gather the secondary set.

Once the both of them were fully kitted out and ready to go did they stand from their seated positions before one another.

"Make sure you come at me with everything you have, Kirito-kun," Asuna warned him as she drew her blade. "I don't want Sugu-chan to think I'm weak or incapable of fighting against an actual opponent."

Kazuto scoffed, "that shouldn't need to be stated," he remarked as he drew his own shinai, "but very well."

The two bowed low to each other and then with a loud yell they both charged as one. Kazuto's blade slashed into Asuna's with a loud thwack. The two remained locked for only a second before parting back just slightly. They immediately re-engaged and traded several blows before parting once more and backing up several paces.

Kazuto began to move to the left just as Asuna lunged forward, her shinai flying towards the opening on the left side of his dō. Kazuto twisted and barely avoided the hit while bringing his blade down to parry and deliver a spectacular counter-move in one smooth motion. The ginger-brown haired girl deftly blocked his counter-move and made another go at his dō before sliding away from the resulting counter.

Kazuto followed after her and they locked blades for the second time as Suguha held her breath in muted excitement. While Asuna had very little time between her studies and work and seeing Kazuto, she had clearly retained some of her skill as a swordsman from SAO. Her form was slightly off compared to Kazuto or herself, but Sugu couldn't help but admire her friend's skill with the shinai.

"Go Asuna-sama! Beat him into the ground good!" Suguha cried out and Asuna managed to give her a thumbs up despite the heated blade-lock they were stuck in.

"I'm ready for you whenever you are," Kazuto teased as he made a loud kissing noise. His girlfriend rolled her eyes and snorted, humored by his affectionate ribbing.

The couple then parted and slowly moved in a half circle before meeting again across the grass of the yard. The loud rhythmic clacking of the fake swords meeting time and time again filled the air as the two traded blow after blow.

Asuna slid her blade low and immediately brought it up at an angle that nearly sent Kazuto's shinai flying. Instead, the kenshi barely managed to shift his blade at the last second and even then he nearly lost his grip on it. Kazuto then—after barely avoiding Asuna's suriage-waza—brought his own blade up over his shoulder and then swung it into her own with devastating force.

The two parted for the third time and preformed another slow circle before coming together again. They repeated this process several more times, their blows still as sharp and their reflexes still as fast as they were at the start.

It was clear that Asuna wasn't just an ordinary female. She was unbelievably talented and even more so beautiful. She had been such an expert gamer that she had risen to the rank of a vice-commander in the most powerful guild in SAO. How he had managed to both fall in love with her and her fall in love in return was beyond him.

The two were still going back and forth for some time and Kazuto wasn't even holding back for any of it—at least no more than he would unless it was life or death—and Asuna was shining so much in her element he couldn't help but smile. He couldn't see her face, but he could tell Asuna was smiling from ear to ear just as he was.

There was no doubt that she had missed sparing with him like they had done on occasion back in SAO. Now they got to relive those memories in the real world and it was just as invigorating and enjoyable as it was then. Perhaps more so now that he was sparring with the real Asuna instead of just a pixelated avatar.

Suguha, for her part, could only continue to watch in open wonder as her cousin and his girlfriend fought back and forth. Just by their movements alone, the kendōka could tell that the two were close. Not like boyfriend-girlfriend close, but more on a deeper level. They moved like they knew what the other was thinking. Their almost teasing touches and exchanges spoke of a long term married couple rather than a newly dating couple.

It was mind boggling, but it was also amazing. There had been a time when Suguha would have given anything to be the one fighting her cousin on such a close basis. But after seeing him laugh and smile despite being covered by the bōgu and being kept on the ropes by Asuna, she knew it was a vain thought. There was nothing she could have had with Kazuto that would have beaten what Asuna had with Kirito.

"Go Asuna-sama!" She cheered as they locked blades once more before backing off only to return to their rapid pace again. Asuna nearly scored a hit on the left side of Kazuto's men, but once again he managed to dodge it. He nearly managed to score a hit on her as well, but Asuna showed the same skill as her boyfriend and avoided his strike too. This only led to more strikes back and forth between the two.

Eventually they began to slow and Kazuto could immediately tell that while Asuna was still giving it her all, she was also completely worn out. Much like when he had first faced Suguha that first time years ago, he knew she would soon make a mis-

THWACK!

"Point Yuuki!" Suguha called from the sidelines with a mixture of both child-like playfulness and somber seriousness in her tone as she played referee for their impromptu match.

Kazuto grinned privately to himself as he realized that he himself was also worn out and likely to make a mistake as well. Now fully aware that neither he nor Asuna were even anywhere close to done yet, Kazuto winked at her and let out a loud yell as he charged towards his girlfriend with his shinai held high once more.