I woke up to a beeping monitor, I looked around as I coughed a bit and weakly took off the Nervegear. “I’m…Home…?” I thought as I heard the door open and saw the person who walked in. It was my mom, she dropped a vase of flowers as she covered her mouth in shock.

“M…Mom…?”

I weakly muttered as I turned my head towards the window, I saw the sun outside as all my memories of SAO hit me. “K…Kirin..!” I said as I tried to sit up, “Honey don’t move too much!” My mother said to me as she tried to calm me down.

“M-Mom…Where’s Kirin..!”

I said to her as she asked me confused “Who’s Kirin?” as I looked at her. “R..Ryushin…Where’s…Ryushin..!” I asked her as she said “Stay here, I’ll ask around honey” as she left quickly. I looked at the side of the medical bed as I pushed it down, I then tried to climb out of the bed as I slipped and fell down onto the hard floor. I cried out in pain as it hurt immensely from hitting the floor, “C’mon…You can get yourself back up Kanao…” I thought to myself.

I looked at the medical stand holding the IV cable and leaned myself against it. I moved my bangs out of the way as it was very long, I then took my first step as I felt the weight throw off my balance and almost fell back down.

“C’mon legs..!”

I thought as I tried to walk, A nurse walked in as she saw me trying to walk as she quickly ran to help me up saying “Ma’am you’re not supposed to be on your feet!” as I said to her “I..I need to reach Ryushin…”. The nurse replied “Ryushin? You mean Fukumoto Ryushin?” as I nodded weakly before losing my grip and falling forward.

I was caught from falling by the nurse and my mom as she came in at the right time. “Honey, don't go walking like that…” my mother said as I began to cry a bit, She then hugged me lightly saying “I thought I lost you Kanao…” as she began to cry as well.

After a while and calming down, I was put in a wheelchair with my IV bag and taken down to the 2nd floor by the elevator. The elevator dinged as I looked around and saw the elevator open.

By instinct I raised my hand a bit and tried swiping down as the nurse looked at me confused, she then asked me “What are you doing ma’am?”. I said to her “There…I…” as I realized that I wasn’t in SAO anymore.

“Nothing…”

I said quietly as the nurse pushed me out the elevator and down the west hallway. We then made a turn as we stopped in-front of a room, the room was called “40-A” as the nurse opened the door.

I looked as Ryushin was laying on his bed silently, still hooked up to the heartbeat monitor and had his Nerve Gear headset on. “Kirin…” I muttered as she pushed me in and let me be near his bed, saying “Here you go ma’am, you’ll only be in here for a few minutes.” as she closed the door behind us.

I looked at him as I held his hand, tearing up as I said “Kirin…please wake up…”, I knew I couldn’t stand up and hug him as I put my head on his hand. “Don’t leave me…You promised…” I muttered as I kept crying and crying. Ryushin wasn’t waking up at the slightest as I didn’t want to believe this outcome.

The nurse came in as she said “Sorry ma’am but it’s time to go” as she pulled the chair back, I felt my hand slip away from his hand, I didn’t want to leave, but I had no choice.

We all woke up, even Sato was awake, but the only one who wasn’t able to wake up was Kirin… or Fukumoto Ryushin. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. By the 5th month we all fully recovered from the hospital, but Kirin was still asleep.

It turns out that Kirin was in a coma, he won’t be waking up anytime soon. This shattered my heart, but it didn’t break my determination to see him awake. I visited him for the past year as I was now 22, I was now in college with Sato and Neo. I found out yesterday that Sato’s real name is Damian Kobayashi and Neo’s real name is Asuka Hashimoto.

We all first met up at Agil’s bar as I was surprised to see Lisbeth or Shinozaki Rika’s hair was brown instead of bright pink. She commented on my appearance as she wasn’t fond of our “tanks”. But I then saw Asuna and Kirito, turns out they never really died, they were taken to a different place.

What concerned me the most was that Asuna had actually used her real name, Asuna Yuuki, Meanwhile Kirito’s real name was Kirigaya Kazuto. I was learning so much about them, but I wasn’t learning a single thing about Ryushin… We all went to visit him whenever we could but, slowly each and every one of us lost our hope that he’d wake up.

I didn’t give up hope that he’d wake up, I was determined to see him awake but… eventually I would also give up a little. With college and my own life in my hands rather than Kayaba’s, I felt…Lost…

This didn’t stop me from finding other things to do, My mother and father were less strict on me now than ever. This made them realize that their youngest child would have died if I had lost in-game.

With this, I made sure that they didn’t have to be less strict with me, it made me miss it sometimes, but only when it was needed. With time passing, it was a matter of time before they pulled the plug on Ryushin… Then… He woke up on December 25th… 2025…

I ran through the main entrance of the hospital building as I said to the receptionist “I’m here to see Fukumoto Ryushin!!” as I was gasping a bit and in a little hurry. “Alright, give me a minute…” she said as she was checking as she realized who it was “Oh it’s just you Ms.Gushiken, you can go right ahead”.

“Thank you!!” I said as I bowed and quickly ran through the hospital hallway. “They said he’s awake! I need to make sure he’s awake!!!” I thought as I quickly ran into an open elevator and quickly pressed the 2nd floor button. “C’mon c’mon!!” I muttered as the doors began to close and I went up to the second floor.

The doors opened as I ran out and quickly ran towards the west hallway to 40-A. I quickly opened the door as I was gasping for air and my hair was a little messy from running. I looked at him as he was looking out the window and at the setting sun, he held the Nervegear in his lap as he turned his attention to me.

“Toru..?”

He said lightly as his hair was very long and he was very skinny due to being in a coma and only being fed IV bags. I quickly went over to him and hugged him lightly while tearing up. “Why…Why did you make me go through that…” I said to him crying as he looked at me, smiling a little.

“I’m sorry…very sorry…”

He muttered to me as I felt like the burden of hope was lifted off my shoulders. I sat on the side of his bed as we held hands once again, “Hey Toru…” He lightly said as I turned my attention to him. “What’s your favorite place..?” he said to me as I took a little bit of thought into it, I then said “There’s this coffee shop called Haikyue, It’s where I used to socialize with my friends but I just go there to stay and look at the city.”.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

(Ryushin Fukumoto’s POV)

I looked down at my bony hands as I sighed, I then looked at Kanao as I told her in a light tone “How about we go there someday…” as she looked at me. She smiled after some hesitation as she said “Sure…We can go Ki- Ryushin…” as I smiled. A nurse walked in as she told Kanao “Ms. Gushiken, visiting time is over, You have to leave now”.

Kanao looked at me as she kissed me on the cheek saying “Get well soon” before getting up and walking out of my room. I sighed a bit as I looked out at the starry night sky and thought to myself “These…These are real stars…”. I couldn’t believe it as I saw the city with its lights on, I thought to myself “I…Really missed the city…” as I layed down and waited for my release.

More months passed as my recovery went as planned, by February 2nd, 2025, I had made a full recovery as I was able to leave the hospital. Of course, when everyone heard my news about my release, I was greeted by all too familiar faces.

Everyone was there, Agil, Kirito, Asuna, Kanao, Neo, Klein and even Sato. Kanao ran up to me and hugged me as she smiled saying “You’re finally able to leave!” as she was the most excited out of all of them.

I looked at Sato as I walked up to him and hugged him, he looked confused at first as he asked me “Is everything alright?” as I nodded. My voice was a little shaky at first as I said “I..I can’t believe you made it out too…” as he remembered what I meant. Sato couldn’t help but smile as he patted my head saying “Hey man, as long as we’re alive, we’re not going anywhere” as I smiled a bit and let go of the hug.

Kirito then remembered as he said “Guys we have to let him know our names remember” as they all began chatting between themselves about it. I chuckled a bit as I said “It’s fine, Kanao told me everything within the past two months” as they intently looked over at her.

“Hey! I couldn’t help it okay, I couldn’t leave him behind on our information…” Kanao said, fidgeting her fingers. I patted her head saying “It’s fine either way, So where are we heading guys” as they all had to take a second to think. “We can go to my bar you guys and celebrate Kirin’s return” as they all agreed on that.

We all walked towards Agil’s bar as I walked through an alleyway with them and we all made a left turn. We arrived at Agil’s remote bar as we all walked in, “Don’t worry about strangers coming in, It’s reserved for us for today” Agil said to all of us.

“Thanks Agil, you really thought this through”

I told him as he smiled and went behind the bartender table saying “No problem Ryushin, We wouldn’t have made it out if you didn’t take care of Kayaba”. My warm smile went away to a neutral face as they looked at me a little confused. I looked at them as I told them “I had some time to talk to Kayaba…and…He’s not like we all thought he was…”.

“What do you mean not what we thought? He killed almost 7,000 people with SAO’s release alone!” Rika shouted as they began bickering about the conversation. I took a deep breath as Kanao looked at the group and shouted “SHUT THE FUCK UP EVERYONE!!” as everyone looked at Kanao with silence before she turned her attention to me and said “Go on Ryushin..”.

I took a deep inhale and exhale once more as I then explained to them,

“Kayaba didn’t intend to kill thousands and thousands of people, It was a flaw that his project had… If the last minute changes weren’t implemented then none of this would have happened…But since there were last minute changes and deadlines… He was forced to release the game we all suffered through… He didn’t want to antagonize us or himself, He just did it to make the public think he had thought this entire thing through… but in reality… He was just as scared as we were…”

The entire group was silent after hearing this information as They all felt bad for thinking bad about Kayaba and his motivations. I then said to the group “But don’t let this conversation ruin our fun today!” as they all agreed on it as they also shouted “To our freedom!!” as we all cheered and began drinking soda and eating ordered pizza.

Kazuto had paid for the pizza as he promised as I looked at them and ate my pizza. They all sat at a table as they all laughed and were having a fun time. Damian sat down beside me with his slice of pizza and a can of Fanta as he ate his pizza slice.

“You’re not gonna sit with the others?”

Damian asked me as I shook my head saying “I don’t think I’d fit in” as I drank a bit of my soda. “Why not? They’re your friends too, Ryushin” Damian replied as I cleared my throat and said to him “Well, I’ve done some really ingenious and cruel things in SAO, I don’t want to ruin our group because of my involvement with some SAO purges.”.

“That’s in the past now, Ryushin, We’ve all moved on from it, you need to do the same…”

Damian said to me as I took a bit of thought into it as he smacked my shoulder lightly. I sat up and looked at him before seeing Kanao laughing at the table and sharing her stories from SAO. “See Ryushin, Kanao has also gotten over it” Damian said as I sighed briefly, saying “Yeah, she looks like she’s gotten over it..” as I drank my soda.

He grabbed my arm and stood up saying “Stop being so sad all the time Ryushin” as he pulled my arm towards the group “hey hold it Damian-” as they looked and smiled at me. “Is Ryushin finally done being all gloomy at the corner?” Klein said as Kanao smacked him over the head saying “I’m sure he is, join us Ryushin, we’re just sharing our stories.”.

I sighed a bit as I looked at Kanao and finally accepted it saying “Fine, pull me a chair” as they all cheered saying “now the party’s here!” as we began discussing and sharing our stories from SAO. After six hours of sharing stories, having laughs, and having a great time, it was time for all of us to leave. Klein had to leave to clean his apartment and Rika left with Damian and Asuka.

Meanwhile, Kanao, Asuna, Kazuto and I helped clean up Agil’s bar and make it sparkly clean. “Thanks for the help guys” Agil thanked us as I said “No problem Agil, anytime to help” as Asuna and Kazuto looked at us and said “Well, it’s time for us to go as well”.

I smiled as I said “You two stay safe out there” as we waved goodbye at them as they left through the entrance. I looked at Agil saying “Thanks for everything Agil, wouldn’t have gotten anything done without your restaurant in SAO” as he chuckled saying “We wouldn’t have gotten anything done without You and the rest of the frontliners Ryushin, We’re in your debt”.

I smiled as we shook hands as I waved goodbye to him, holding Kanao’s hand as she also waved goodbye. He said as we left “Don’t forget to stop by sometime-” as the door closed behind us. We began walking down the street as I asked Kanao “Where’s your home?” as she pointed saying “It’s up there”.

We began walking in the direction of where her house is, I held her hand as I said to her “Do you still want to go to the coffee shop?”. She looked at me as she replied “Not today, but we will still go one day” she put on a smile as it made me fluster up a bit with my cheeks and a little bit of my ears reddened up.

Kanao was surprised by this saying “is that how you really blush!” as I shook my head quickly and tried covering it with my hoodie, “Oh come on Ryushin! Lemme see it more!” as I shook my head vigorously.

“Such enthusiasm…”

She thought as I shook my head as I had a fully red face. We arrived at her place as I saw it was a pretty rich house but not very fancy. “Thanks for taking me home Ryushin” Kanao said to me as I bowed politely and said “No problem Kanao” as she grabbed my other hand and kissed me on the lips.

This was my first time ever kissing someone in real life as I embraced the kiss and felt at ease with it. She walked into her house moments later as I began walking off towards the direction of my house. I felt like I was being watched as I stopped and turned around, seeing no-one there. I kept walking as there were two ghostly-like figures standing right where I was.

It was Kirin and Toru as they were smiling and holding hands, fading off from the spot Kanao and I kissed. Two little rings fell from their hands as one landed on the other as both rings had an etching on it saying “Forever Together” in Japanese before the rings faded as well.

“Friends are made from bonds and relationships you have built with those people. But friends are more than just people you can rely on, they are people you can trust, people you can have your back on. They are your pillars of support when you need it the most. That is what friendship is, Trust.”