Cold air swept the room as I stared at a blank white ceiling. I was in a bed, not of my ownership previously, but it was allocated to me for the time being. It was comfortable, softly arcing to the shape of my body as it felt my weight be tested upon it, giving up no sorry fight against my body. Upon my body was a soft, thick, and heavy comforter to keep me warm. It was a strange feeling of bliss that I never often got the chance to feel, as I would usually hop straight out of bed and continue with my day rather than lie like this.
As I continued to stare, I felt boredom slowly crawl upon me. I rubbed my face to wake myself up more than I had before, but this did not affect me–almost to the point of making me want to be asleep again. It was aggravating–wanting to wake up, yet having feelings that made you want to go back to sleep. I felt a subtle urge to be frustrated about it, but I didn’t enact my frustration. Rather, I would go on to simply exhale, and drag myself out of bed, and unto my feet, taking a moment to absorb my surroundings.
There was a shelf. It was empty, except for one potted rose, a letter encased in an envelope, and it. We don’t talk about it.
Next, was a small folding desk that sat alone in a corner, next to an outlet. It hosted a small laptop underneath it, the main thing I used for work and study. Directly on my right side was a nightstand. Well, it was directly on my right, at the head of my mattress. It was as wide as the bed and made of planed and finished bamboo strips. Finally adorning the wall next to the door of this room was a basic closet. It housed my clothes on racks and kept some keep-sakes safe within close reach of myself, but it was all in all–a simple closet.
With my entire bedroom now re-established in my mind, I waded towards the closet, looking to change out of my pajamas, and browsing the few articles of clothing I had, but found nothing akin to my taste at the moment. Somewhat disappointed, I left the room, shutting the door behind me as I went down the traditional Japanese hallway that connected my room to three others.
Making my way past the doors, I stiffly pulled myself down the stairs connecting the two floors of this abode. Once down, I met face to face with a girl about half a foot shorter than me with black hair about medium length and black eyes.
“Oh, good morning, Thomas!” It was Suguha, who had her usual high-collared red jacket and blue short-shorts on. It was the outfit she wore most often at home, only trading it for a grey schoolgirl outfit whenever it was a school day–which it wasn’t. It was a Sunday. June 29th, to be more exact.
June. . . the month of pure unadulterated heat, here in Japan. It would shoot up to almost 25 degrees during the day, hitting 27 on the occasional warm front. That, and the heat would be getting procedurally worse throughout the rest of the summer, expecting to hit the 31 mark. With this fact in mind, I made a snarky comment.
“I’m surprised you’re not burning to death in that jacket.”
“Why would I be? It’s only 20 degrees in here.”
I shrugged. “Summer’s coming up. ‘D be a shame to see you get a heat flash.”
My voice was low for that entire conversation like I didn’t want to speak for the duration of our brief exchange. Still, it was not over yet, as I had at no point seen Kazuto this entire morning, and I felt a need to question.
“Where’s your brother? His door wasn’t open. Is he out?”
“You usually don’t ask about Kazuto. What’s with the new interest?” Suguha was right. I rarely did ask about Kazuto, but I had a strange need to ask. Was he out with Asuna? The rest of the group? Or maybe he was full-diving?
I looked away, at the table as I set myself adrift towards it, replying, “I dunno. Just felt like asking. He’s usually spry by now, but he’s sedentary this morning. Do you want me to check on him? See what he’s doing?”
She’d respond with a more positive tone as she continued to look at me with a soft smile grazing her lips.
“If you’d like to, you’re more than welcome to check on Kazuto. You are technically a part of the family now.”
I’d simply nod in response, drifting past her and up the stairs once more before stopping halfway, with my left foot up just one step more.
“Still doesn’t feel like it. I’m out of place here. You know it, I know it, the rest of your family knows it. I’m foreign.”
“It’s okay,” she’d simply state. “Just because you’re not from Japan, or related to us in any… meaningful way doesn’t mean we don’t care for you. We all do.”
She’d smile at me again, reassuring me the fact that I was cared for. I’d simply nod in response, with a near-silent “thanks” and continue up the stairs until I reached the room owned by Kazuto.
I reached my hand up to be just below my eye level, turning it into a somewhat uncoupled fist, and softly knock-knock’d onto his door.
“...”
A minute would pass before nothing happened. I peeked down the stairs to look at Suguha, shrugging.
“Probably out by now,” I’d go on to state, setting myself en route for downstairs once more.
“Have you made breakfast, or is that something we’re going to have to do?”
“Well… you slept like a rock, so your breakfast is waiting on the table.”
What time did I sleep too? I had no recollection that it was this late in the day already, so I glanced at the nearest clock in the room with only my eyes to see “9:21” written all over it.
To this, I softly went “Huh,” before continuing to the table again and sitting down to eat.
It wasn’t long before I had finished the morning breakfast and pleased my stomach. Enjoying myself for another moment in blank-faced bliss. I looked at the same clock I had read before, now reading “9:29.” One minute till the clock would strike the halfway mark till the next hour. In a brief moment of exhalation, I would rise to my feet as I did in my bed, and begin a journey adrift to the house bathroom located on this floor. Once at the door, I raised my hand as I did with Kazuto’s door, knocking. Once I confirmed it was empty, I entered, closing the door of wood with metal handles behind me.
It was elegant, to put it lightly. Elegant in a way that modern housing in 2025 was not usually, considering the droughts of natural material within the past half-decade or so. Bamboo strips akin to my nightstand lined almost every corner of the primary area of the bathroom. The only exceptions of this material were the shower and bath. Of which were tiled in beautifully stained porcelain, but hidden behind a door of wood and paper, shown only by a light inside said room.
After taking in the room, I walked to the bathroom sink, looking down into the bowl topped by a modern stainless steel rectangle pour-over faucet, resembling bamboo taps only in design.
Just beyond taking in the bathroom, I leaned down and turned on the faucet, cupping some water in my hands. Once I had a fair amount in my palms, I scrubbed it onto my face, looking up into the mirror, and seeing just how wet my face had become.
I scoffed like I was looking at a fraud.
My face looked only a bit like the rest of the Kirigayas, yet I had their last name. My face was of Western descent–more specifically Canadian–and I had little to no features resembling the Kirigaya bloodline besides my black hair.
My irises were red, almost pure red. It was a weirdly special feature of my bloodline, the Trenor bloodline. Every single family member who got married and had kids only did so with someone with beautiful red eyes, just like mine.
But aside from my eyes, was the occasional scar from scratching myself too much, and the blank expression I wore constantly. That expression, or lack thereof. It never went away, even if I forced myself to smile, frown, or anything. I don’t even know why I didn’t react to anything, in the past, or now.
"Hey, I'm back!"
Kazuto. I didn't know what he had, but I might as well see him. So I dried my mug exponentially quicker than I had walked in and stepped out to see him.
He had a couple of bags in his hands, with the occasional grocery peeking its head out.
"Thomas, hey! Help me out, will ya?"
I nodded, going on to help Kazuto with putting away the groceries.
During our chore, I decided to speak up, commenting on his absence earlier. "You were gone when I woke up. What were you up to?"
"We needed groceries, Trey. What else was I supposed to do, grow them?"
He made a fair point. We didn’t have a specific garden here. To get food, one of us had to get our groceries at a store nearby to us.
"...Fair enough."
Polygons fly in hundreds of directions as an ugly creature explodes into thin air. What was once there–a weak boar with a brick wall for a face–was gone, likely to never come back to this exact same spot as another mob for hours, maybe days.
The system that governed Sword Art Online's monsters is the exact same as it is here. ALfheim Online. Well, that wouldn’t be entirely true. I was in ALfheim Online, but I was staged inside the fields of Floor 15, with waving wheat plants glowing in the orange sun.
It was late in the afternoon. The sun was just starting to become visible through the tall ceiling and farmed grounds of Floor 15 of New Aincrad. It was a sight I relished. I hadn’t seen it in over half a year–the strange beauty of digital sunsets. That perfect color pallet of orange faded into an estranged yet perfect pink, the “heat” of the sun setting onto my face, and warming up my clothes a little.
My face was like my usual self–basically exactly as I did in Sword Art Online–and my outfit was the same too.
A tight black shirt accented with a line of gold in the middle, going all the way down until the end of the shirt. Three golden X stitches kept the shirt tight against my polygonal skin and toned chest, and a bit more golden linework at my collar, which almost hid the full extent of my neck.
Behind my back, was a low, average-length scabbard of gold on a black background, which staged a sword of a mythical black material . The blade was black, darker than the night sky. The handle and guard were black and nearly annoying pure red, respectively.
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A pair of black pants with golden lines on the front and back of my legs were hidden at my waistline by a thick black leather belt with my solid black item pouch. On the bottom of all of that, was a pair of simple black boots with nothing fancy on them.
But that's just what was underneath. Atop my entire outfit sat a lengthy red cloak that when wrapped around me showed only my head and boots, leaving everything else under it a mystery to most.
Oh, right, my head. I chose Cait Sith as my race. Surprising, isn’t it? The guy who doesn’t display emotion decides to be a catboy in a video game. …It wasn’t for the ears. It was for the movement abilities. Cait Siths have the highest movement state in ALfheim Online, and the ability to wall-run for lengthy periods made it my optimal choice for my play style.
“Zenith!”
I heard my avatar's name being called out, feeling the oddity of a cat ear pointing in the direction of my caller. I swore I could recognize the voice, but I looked behind myself just to double-check.
As my torso to my head twisted to look behind the direction my feet were pointing in, my gaze met with Kazu- Kirito’s eyes. The black nothingness within his irises called out my name as they continued to gander at me. His flat black hair just on top and a wide grin made almost everyone seem to smile.
“Hey. What do you need?”
“Nothing, I just wanted to see what you were up to. You seem lonely all by yourself, anyway. Wanna change that?”
“Maybe another day,” I uttered, declining his obvious offer to have digital drinks tonight.
“Besides. It’s’a school night.”
Kirito sighed, slumping his shoulders like I was the biggest party pooper in all of Japan.
“Right…” He’d only whisper.
I looked at him as he walked up to me. Shoulder to shoulder now as we faced the falling sun–like watching an angel fall from their graceful podium.
To break the silence of brothers that weren’t meant to be, I asked Kirito a question of reflection.
“What do you think, about all the stuff you and I have gone through?”
“Stuff happens. Some people make the best of it, some people don’t.”
I snorted at his response.
“You make a fair point. But you made significantly better of what happened."
"..."
A moment of silence passed. Kirito standing next to me as the Alfheim moon rose from its hidden chambers. The light glimmered showing blue onto our backs, setting in with the cold.
It was strange to stand with a man I called my brother. My real brother was dead–a mere memory now,–but both shared qualities of one another.
For example, their proficiency in computers was unbridled by anyone else I had known within the past while. Another thing was the appearance. Sometimes if my vision was fuzzy, I'd see Kazuto as my own related flesh and blood. But when I'd rub my eyes to clear my vision, I would come to see that he was the same Kazuto I remembered seeing daily for the past three months, instead of my brother.
"You got any plans, bro?" Kirito asked me, putting his left arm over my shoulders and neck, and pulling me in.
"Go back to my spot and sleep. That's about it, really."
"Hey, you do you! I'll catch you on the flip side!" He waved his hand around a little at my shoulder before pulling me in closer and just under his head, digging his knuckle straight into my skull, between these stupid cat ears.
After finally escaping his grasp, I pushed him away, blowing a bit of wind out my nose.
"See you later, Kirito."
He smiled at me, waving as the black-grey wings on the back of his avatar began to flutter. Soon enough, he was granted flight, and his body shot away to the North where the town was, and I was alone again. All alone in that field.
Having suckered up myself to finally move, I began to feel a little part of my back begin to twitch and move. As I continued, I felt the golden wings of Cait Siths emerging from my upper back, moving ever so slightly. Knowing that the wings were finally there, I twitched those areas more and more until my body lifted from the ground and set my feet dangling amid the air.
"And…"
I shifted my body forward ever so slightly. The weight of my figure began to point my chest down to the floor when all of a sudden…
"GO!"
FWUSHHHHHH!
The wind blew past my face and wriggled my hair as I forced my acceleration to the maximum. The feeling was oddly immense. I could look down and see a blur of blue wheat blades until I reached the end of Aincrad, flying just outside that big, dark gray egg-shaped castle. It was always a weird feeling to see Aincrad–or rather New Aincrad–from beyond the floors. You would have never really truly understood the scale of that castle until you looked at it from the outside.
"I'll see you soon, kid," I uttered to myself.
About 10 minutes would pass before I saw the resemblance of my player home–a white, rectangular concrete house topped with a torch-lit patio-style roof–among a short string of other houses akin to it, but varying in complexity. It was a little crop that myself, Asuna, Lizbeth, Kirito, and Klein had purchased as we lay in wait for the rest of the floors of New Aincrad to open up so we could attain our original player homes. Not to mention the fact that we couldn’t even bait the castle by flying up the side. When you’d reach the ceiling of the final unlocked floor on the outside, you’d have your wings disabled for a minute, sending you into freefall. It was needless to say, but every time I entered that freefall, I swore I felt warmth on my pants from the other side.
I finally closed in on the lawn of my current in-game abode and being about 25 feet overhead, I called my wings away, sending me into a brief fall. I managed to catch myself on the balls of my feet, putting a hand down to relieve a bit more of the fall. Players in Alfheim are lighter than they are in the real world, but it was still instinct at play. The human mind always tries to anticipate a fall with your hands first, anyway.
I put my body up into a vertical position once again and began to go step by step to my front door, hearing the subtle crunching of grass blades under my feet. Once I had arrived at the entrance–a brown wooden door with a golden handle–I put my hand on the doorknob and opened it to a room of simple furnishings.
The first thing of note was the layout. It was essentially two connected squares, with one being ever so slightly smaller than the other, and is designated to the kitchen.
So, I slept in a bed in the common space.
The house was small, and kind of cramped when Lisbeth, Silica, Kirito, Asuna, and the others were all here, but it was still comfy. I never really offered any parties, they’d just come over to hang out. I didn’t really have a reason to kick them out, either. They’d usually just ask me questions or crash out at my place when they’d sleep log out.
To start on the furnishings, there was a simple living room setup that sat in the middle of the common space. The couch on the back side of the house was black, and a wooden coffee table with a single book sat in front of it. Pale Fire. One of my favorite novels. I had managed to import the asset into the game with the permission of both the GM and Yui–Kirito’s AI daughter..thing. It was a hell of a task, transcribing every single printed word into a file format, and into Japanese, just in case my friends had a sudden knack for reading.
Oh, and not to mention, the one black recliner that sat opposite on the right corner of the table.
Directly next to the door, pushed against the wall, was my bed. A simple, white-sheeted bed sat low on the floor. It was comfortable, rather obviously. I had already put in the exact parameters I liked for my sleeping experience. Every single thing in this house was simple but tailored exactly to my liking. I was numb, sure, but I still had my complexities.
I groaned, whipping open my menu, putting my cloak away to leave my normal-ish appearance, and simply splayed myself on my bed.
A groan escaped from my throat. Exhaustion that had been piling up from the past hours of hunting and killing mobs over and over again.
I felt my tail softly whipping itself around my left side, before it then came to stop, resting on the bed.
I stared up into my clay-like concrete ceiling just like I did this morning in real space. It was like coming back to that exact moment once more. And there, I breathed out a sigh.
But my peace was short-lived.
Knock-knock, knock.
“Zenith? It’s Asuna.”
That sweet voice rang throughout my ears as it had done so many times before. It was like listening to the sounds of morning birds. Pure utter bliss. But as to why she came to me, instead of going to Kirito… It’s beyond my reasoning, maybe hers too. So, I suckered myself up, and let her in.
“It’s unlocked. I just got here,” I announced, not bothering to get up to look at the door as it opened, then closed. That brief moment of moonlight that entered my home, cast a shadow of Asuna on the back wall.
I looked at the shadow, then at her. Asuna’s hair was a perfect aquatic blue, which seemed to never end unless you looked at her waist. Her eyes were the same color, large and welcoming as always. She had a gentle face, elf ears on either side, and a smile that caressed even my black heart.
She had an outfit reminiscent of a dress, with separations on her arms and wrists, and everything accented in blue on a white background. She also had dark blue thigh-highs, with a simple white band around the top. And, a pair of white boots with basic accents to finish. She was–to most–the definition of pure beauty back in Sword Art Online. And that was still true, even two years after she could see her 17-year-old face in the mirror now.
“I see you’re being as lazy as ever,” Asuna teased, turning on one of the lights with a purple menu that appeared with a wave of her left middle and index finger.
“I’m not lazy. I just didn’t feel like going out for drinks.”
She scoffed, smirking in response.
“Yeah right.”
She then set herself adrift towards me. Well, more accurately, my bed. She took herself and sat directly next to the pillow that my head lay on, looking down at me.
“You look so different as a Cait Sith, you know that? Like a completely different Thomas.”
“Is that supposed to mean something, Asuna?”
She only smiled and planted her left hand on my head, which made my ‘ears’ instinctively move to accommodate her.
“Nope. Nothing at all.”
I stayed exactly where I was, almost letting her do as she pleased, but all she did was smile at me and rub my head. Not even bothering to interrupt this estranged silence for three minutes straight.
“Why’d you come here anyway? To talk my head off while I stare in jealousy, to admire my weird look as a Cait Sith, or… something else?”
“Well… no. I had a question. A more serious one.”
She stopped, almost as if contemplating if she should even ask what could come next out of her mouth. As if it would cause something in me to go ballistic–which she has seen before.
“What happened to your parents?”
I looked at her for a moment of pause before uttering another sound from my mouth.
“That’s it? That’s all you wanna know?”
She nodded, witnessing me get up from my bedded shackles and pace over to a ladder connected to a wooden hatch. I grabbed the sides of the ladder, stepping up, and up, and up, until…
“You comin’ or what?”
Crickets chirp in the dark moonlight. Some 10 miles away, Alne–the main city of Alfheim–shows its nighttime lights. It was practically a beacon from here, tracing rays for miles and miles more, with its iconic tree sitting in the middle. Another two miles away, was a small player-run renegade village where I’d often go for my simpler needs, or just to take in the air.
I was sitting on a couch on the top of my patio-like roof. My hands were simply cupped together in my lap as Asuna took her seat in front of me–another couch exactly like it, and the one downstairs.
“How much do you want to know?” I simply asked, staring at her with a blank expression.
“As much as you’re willing to tell me…”
It was surprising to see this request from her. She’d often never ask me much of anything. I always thought she was just afraid to tick me off in the wrong manner, but this? This was new.
“Alright, but I'll only say it once."
She simply nodded, priming her ears for listening.
I looked at the floor, trying to find the correct words to start my story, before…
“You know I’m not from Tokyo. Neither were my parents. We all came from this spot in northern Canada called Yellowknife. It was nice. Some nights in Winter, you could watch the northern lights, like… God had summoned tendrils of light to grace my eyes on those cold-ass nights.”
I felt a wink of a smile, but it was futile, as my face returned to stoicism.
“But we had to move when I was ten because my father got an offer from Kayaba. I didn’t want to go away. I remember sobbing as I watched my friends turn to ants in my mom’s back window. All my friends were gone at that moment. Never to see my face again.”
“And when you got to Japan..?”
“I was kinda like I am now. Quiet. Self-kept."
I shifted a little on that couch, leaning over to rest my head on the armrest, my body lying on the cushions.
“I woke up from Sword Art Online with no one at my side."
She seemed to shriek at how calmly I said it. Like she had expected me to be shocked or at least distraught, but… nothing came to my face. Just the simple, continued stoic expression.
We both sat there for what seemed to feel like a literal eternity, exchanging the occasional glance. Asuna looked distraught like she was talking with a completely different person than the one that she had become friends with.
“Chilling, isn’t it?”
She nodded in response.
“You can leave now. I've got to go to bed, anyway."
I rose to my feet, rolling my head along my shoulders as I made my way to the open hatch in the corner of the roof. But before I could make it, I felt a hand tug on my wrist, forcing me to a stop. I looked at the hand, then the person connecting to it. It was Asuna, looking up at me with an almost begging face.
“Please… Let me help you…”
I was stunned. I casually told her a story of how everything I had was gone and now, she…
“I want to protect you, Thomas… You’re the final pillar of your family! I can't let you go…"
I felt this idiotic face of surprise rub onto my face. My mouth was agape and her eyes glimmered in moonlit tears. She was moved, ever so clearly.
To this, I only smiled ever so slightly and spoke once more.
“Alright. Just don’t forget about the man you dedicated yourself to, okay?”
She smiled, practically dragging me into her arms. The embrace she pulled me into was warmer than anything I had ever felt. Warmer than a midnight campfire, warmer than the sun, warmer than any conceivable indoor heater. And during the embrace, amidst gold-blue moonlight, she spoke two words.
“I won’t."