“Pain... Funny, I thought I would get used to it by now.”

A weak, trembling voice of a young man filled the silent hospital room. To be more precise, it was the intensive care unit of the hospital which he had been accepted some time ago...

”Come to think of it, how long has it been since I’ve been here?” His tired voice reverberated inside, talking to no one in particular...

The voice belonged to none other than one Kirigaya Kazuto, or Kirito for short which he adopted from his old SAO character, using it in real life thanks to one persistent former second-in-command of the Knights of the Blood back in SAO who was adamant in calling him ‘Kirito-kun’, even in real world...

Oh how he missed her calling him that with his own ‘real’ ears... The full-dive just wasn’t enough to perfectly produce her real voice, but nevertheless, full-dive was everything to him now... So it was only natural for him to all the more dedicate himself to VR...

It didn’t bother him in the slightest when his confident and boyish voice once full of life was long gone and his complexion, even worse — white as a sheet was not enough to describe it— and the dark circles under his eyes... Not to mention his once black unruly hair; all gone.

And the reason for all of this? Terminal cancer.

He learned that it was too late on the day that he was diagnosed as colon cancer, the most common cancer among males in Japan and therefore strictly regulated by the government.

If he had not been shy about the symptoms early on, the cancer could be cured in it’s early stages with a high success rate, but he just didn’t see the reason to, he even kept it from Asuna until the symptoms became that much evident.

While many people around him were none the wiser, Asuna surely knew something was wrong with him for a while. He seemed to be tired all the time, spacing out a lot...

It wasn’t that obvious, Kirito managed to hide it well, but when he was in his comfort zone, in other words, when he was with Asuna and Yui in their home in the 22’nd floor of Aincrad, he sometimes acted odd. He even fainted one time when they were shopping for clothes for Rika for her birthday, making Asuna worried enough to make her insist for him to see a doctor immediately on multiple occasions, which he refused, reassuring her that everything was fine, that “he was just playing too much games.”

He didn’t know exactly why he would say something like that. Even though he had promised Asuna that he would be truthful to her... Perhaps it was because he was just that much worried about making her worry. Because if he told her, then she would definitely become anxious... He didn’t want to see her like that ever again, even for a brief moment... Not after what happened with the Ordinal Scale a year ago...

And then there was the the undeniable truth that he didn’t consider himself to be in anyway weak. He never expected to be defeated by a disease of all things... He had beaten far too many formidable enemies in the past to acknowledge a ‘thing’ such as cancer as a threat, until that day that is...

When Asuna just couldn’t put up with his ‘bullshit’ anymore right after he had another episode where he fainted right next to her as they were on a trip... So, despite his protests after regaining his consciousness, she forcefully took him to the hospital with his bike which he had taught her how to ride in their spare time.

Later in the local hospital, after they’d done the necessary tests, the PET-scan revealed a much dreaded result. There were multiple metastasis all over the abdomen. The liver and the surrounding lymph nodes all showed increased activity in certain parts which suggested a very real possibility about the malignancy of a tumor originating from the distal colon.

What the doctor was saying about the chemotherapy choices was irrelevant to Asuna as she was sitting there, devastated, all the while holding both her hands to her mouth, neither her silent tears nor her terrified face were enough to express her misery that she was feeling at learning the terrible truth.

Kirito just sat in disbelief after hearing what the doctor just said. He — was cancer? He couldn’t be... How? Why?

They didn’t know just how they had left the hospital that evening. It was a nightmare... It has to be!

Asuna was blaming herself on their ride back to Kirito’s house. She was cursing herself for not being persistant enough to take her Kirito-kun to the hospital sooner while Kirito just held onto Asuna from behind like a lost lamb...

The doctor’s voice was completely etched inside Asuna’s head, playing again and again, “Even if the cancer was fully treated, I’m really sorry to say, due to the cancer’s prognose, he has very little chance to live past five years, but I as a doctor assure you that I will do whatever I can to...”

Behind her, she could feel Kirito’s body slightly trembling... His cold, shaking hands that held onto her as if she was his lifeboat along with his silence, only worked to further her determination and strengthen her resolve;

[I will save him! My Kirito-kun... I will protect you, just like I promised that time, just you wait!]

Asuna at that time had no idea what that resolve would cause and what tragedies it would bring. She only had one thing in her mind at the time, “Kirito-kun, I will definitely save you!”