Prologue: A Friend In Need

It had been two months and thirteen days since Sword Art Online had been cleared, and Yui was very worried about her Daddy. After he had heard that Mommy and 300 others hadn't woken up, he had tried logging back in with his NerveGear to try and find her, and when that didn't work he had started repeatedly visiting her hospital room as soon as his freedom was restored. Unfortunately, the hospital was on its own private server – which meant she was unable to access the information about her Mommy's IP usage without the proper security credentials.

Normally, that wouldn't have been a problem, but in her current state Yui could not spare the processing power to try and properly replicate those credentials. Having been originally designed to operate behind the Cardinal System's own antivirus firewalls, she herself had no defense against the viruses and malware that denizens of the Internet seemed to love spreading, but her and Pina's unique blend of computer energy and life energy meant that she had to inoculate herself against them over an extended period of time instead of having a one-time data dump. Not only that, but she was also busy trying to establish a communications line with Aunt Serena's navigational tablet, and the nuances of their universe's encryption seemed to vary from time to time (due to a curious Giratina twanging at the connection as it passed through the Distortion World, though Yui didn't know that).

Still, living in a virtual sandbox on Kazuto's computer had allowed her to meet her Aunt Suguha, Grandma Midori, and Grandpa Minetaka – who, while initially skeptical about how real she was, were convinced when they heard the affection in Kazuto's voice and saw the images she had extracted from her memories of them as a family. One time, when Daddy was visiting Mommy at the hospital, she had even helped Aunt Sugu move past the 'celebrity crush' she had developed on Daddy during his time in the game and start seeing him as an older brother again.

After this last visit, though, Daddy's mental health seemed dangerously close to problematic. Not only had he lost his spar with Aunt Sugu thanks to his still-recovering muscles, but he had also found out that in the real world Mommy was in an arranged engagement with a businessman that Daddy called 'that creep Sugou.' But that was wrong – Mommy and Daddy were supposed to marry each other again! She wished she had an actual body so that she could hug her Daddy and make him feel better, but at least Aunt Sugu was there to help physically comfort him where she couldn't.

The biggest high point of those two months had come the next morning, after Daddy had received an e-mail from Mr. Agil and rushed off to meet him at his café. After two months of trying, she had finally managed to establish a connection to Aunt Serena's tablet, which meant that once Daddy got back they could finally all talk to each other again. Right now, it said her traveling group was at a place called Snowbelle City – which, according to the Ranger Database's tracking data, was the eighth town she had visited with an officially recognized Pokémon Gym.

Curious about exactly what a Pokémon Gym was, Yui spent the next hour or so browsing the Encyclopedia program of Serena's tablet to familiarize herself with the topic. She had just moved on to the other two major career pathways for Trainers (Contest Coordinators and Showcase Performers) when Kazuto came back in, face looking the most determined she had ever seen. He plopped a rectangular case on the desk and rummaged around under his bed, pulling out his old NerveGear and plugging it back in.

"What's going on, Daddy?" she asked through the computer speakers. "Is that a new game?"

Kazuto paused just after he had inserted the disk into his computer. "Yeah, it's a game called ALFheim Online that Agil – I mean Andrew – let me borrow. It's a long shot, but I think this may help us rescue Asuna."

Yui frowned – or at least she would have if she had been generating an avatar on-screen. "Wait a minute, you think Mommy's stuck in that game now?"

Kirito nodded. "Take a look at this picture. It was taken in-game." He dragged the image from Agil's e-mail through an antivirus scanner before dropping it in her virtual sandbox.

Yui took one look at the photo, which looked very much like Asuna with wings in a giant birdcage, and her mind was made up. "Yup, that's Mommy all right. Are we gonna go inside and rescue her?"

"We sure are." Kirito told her determinedly. "So finish up with whatever you were doing while I run through setup, then return to the NerveGear storage so I can bring you into ALFheim." He pulled the helmet onto his head and laid down on the bed. "Link, start!"

Yui quickly exited out of the still-open Kalos Encyclopedia, and she was getting ready to terminate the connection entirely when an idea struck her. If she was going to let Daddy talk to Uncle Satoshi and Aunt Serena when he came back, why not let them do it in-game where they could help him find Mommy too?

Navigating to the Emergency Contact function, she triggered the activation protocol and waited for a response.

Omake: Niche Telemarketing

After a few seconds of ringing, Yui heard a voice on the other end of the line. "Thank you for calling Plot Devices, Inc. Your time is very important to us, so please remain calm as we walk you through our very simple process. If your wise old mentor has turned out to be secretly evil and you need a way to contain him, select Option 1. If your insurance is overdue and you need an extension on your payment deadline, select Option 2. If the universe has just been destroyed and you need to activate a total timeline reset, select Option 3. If your stupid next-door neighbor won't stop singing in the shower…"

Yui was very confused. She just wanted to talk to Ash and Serena so that they could come into ALFheim and help Daddy find Mommy, not talk to an automated telemarketer! And to top it all off, some of the scenarios outlined by the recording had an almost infinitesimal probability of ever occurring…

"…If your adoptive mother has been trapped in a virtual birdcage by an evil fiancé attempting mind-control experiments, thus being prevented from reuniting with your adoptive father who is supposed to be her real fiancé, and you need to set her free, select Option 19. If you want to contact friends from in another dimension so that you can use up two whole days trying to free her manually, select Option 20. If your Excelsior!-brand hot dogs have convicted you of not being a True Believer and you wish for a way to remedy that problem…"

Yui selected Option 19 as soon as she registered what it had said, and Asuna suddenly appeared in Kazuto's room with a sharp pop. Oddly, though, she still had the pointy ears and gossamer-like wings from the photo, and she looked around the room curiously. "Wait a minute – what's going on? I thought Oberon said I couldn't get out!" Her gaze landed on the bed, and she suddenly gasped. "Is that you, Kirito?"

Yui cheered wildly. "Yay, it worked – you're back, Mommy!" She quickly connected to Kazuto's NerveGear and activated the auto-disconnect feature, logging him out of the character creation screen.

"What was that for, Yui?" he groaned, sitting up. "This better be important…" His eyes widened when they spotted Asuna sitting on the edge of the bed, and he ripped the helmet off. "But – but how?"

Before anyone could say anything, an automated voice blared from the computer speakers. [Thank you for purchasing our deluxe Deus Ex Machina package. The purchase price of any remaining storytelling potential or logical event progression will be billed to you shortly. Have a nice day!]

"Okay, I guess that answers that question – but we've still gotta figure out what to do about those wings now…"