"Forever together?" Asuna was momentarily stunned, but a large hand gently grasped her delicate one.
She looked up and saw Yusei smiling at her. Feeling reassured, she also smiled and nodded.
"Yes. Together forever."
The three of them held each other even tighter in that moment.
After a brief, warm moment together, Yusei got up, equipped his gear, and prepared to head to Lizbeth's shop on the 56th floor.
Seeing this, Asuna looked at him puzzled.
"Yusei-kun, where are you going? The Capture Group shouldn't have found the Boss today, right?"
Usually, Yusei only went to the front-line Capture Group when there was a Boss to raid.
Seeing the eyes of both mother and daughter on him, Yusei smiled.
"I'm going to see Lizbeth for weapon maintenance. It's about time to end this game."
"Asuna, I look forward to formally meeting you in reality."
…
56th Floor.
At Lizbeth's shop, it wasn't just Yusei, Kiriko and Kaguya had also come.
The three had agreed to meet here. Lizbeth initially thought a big order was coming, but it turned out they just wanted to talk, so her enthusiastic demeanor vanished.
She left them to their own devices and went back to her forging.
Yusei looked at the two young women, his expression formal and serious.
"It's time to end this game."
"End it?" Kiriko, already confused by Yusei's sudden summons, was even more puzzled now.
If she remembered correctly, they should only be on the 68th floor. There were still 32 floors left.
Kaguya, however, seemed to have thought of something, looking at Yusei with an expression of disbelief, but she didn't say anything.
Yusei nodded gravely, "That's right, end it. I already know where Kayaba Akihiko is."
"The game requires clearing 100 floors, but given Kayaba's twisted tastes, I believe the boss on the 100th floor is none other than himself."
"And he is currently hiding among us players, observing our behavior within his game. I suppose that's another one of his twisted pleasures."
Kiriko still hadn't fully processed it, "Wait a second... you're saying... you've found Kayaba Akihiko?"
"Correct. His in-game avatar is Heathcliff, the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath."
"The leader guiding players, who has led the clearing of so many floors... is actually Kayaba Akihiko? That's indeed quite ironic." Kiriko felt a chill, as she hadn't noticed at all.
Kaguya, however, looked deeply at Yusei and didn't voice any objection. Instead, she asked, "So what do you plan to do? Confront him?"
Yusei smiled, "Naturally, defeat him, this final floor's boss."
After their conversation, the three left Lizbeth's weapon shop.
Kiriko left first, as she needed to prepare some things before they could tackle the 100th-floor boss together.
Kaguya, however, pulled Yusei into a small alley. She looked at him questioningly and got straight to the point.
"Did you have a falling out with Kayaba Akihiko?"
"No. It's just that I have some guesses now. Things are no longer within my control."
"What do you mean, not in your control? But you don't actually think we can defeat him if we confront him directly, do you?"
"You need to understand, Kayaba Akihiko is the system administrator. He can modify data. If he slaps a paralysis status on all of us, wouldn't that be waiting for death?"
Kaguya's idea was to wait until the 100th floor, then everyone would challenge him together… that would be much safer.
If just a few of them went now, it might make Kayaba overly cautious, and he could just use his system privileges to eliminate them.
Yusei had naturally considered this problem, but his trump card wasn't just the few of them.
As Kaguya said, he himself was also just a bunch of data now, subject to Kayaba's administrator control, easily killed off by the system.
Yusei just smiled and didn't say anything.
"Don't worry, it's fine. Actually, this time, I just want you to accompany Asuna and Yui. You don't need to help me confront Kayaba Akihiko-"
Hearing Yusei's words, Kaguya froze on the spot. After a long moment, her expression turned angry.
"Are you joking?! Are you going to your death? I absolutely won't allow it!"
Kaguya's usual impression was that even if the sky fell, she would face it with her usual composure.
But her current state was something Yusei had not anticipated at all.
Kaguya also seemed to realize her own loss of composure. She closed her eyes, trying hard to regain her emotional control.
When she had mostly stabilized, she looked at Yusei with a cold expression.
"If you want to die, I don't care. But you still have Asuna and Yui. How do you think they would feel if they knew you died?"
Having said that, Kaguya coldly walked away, leaving Yusei alone in the alley.
Walking on the main street, looking at the players and NPCs on the road, Kaguya felt extremely restless inside.
Thinking about Yusei saying he would go find Kayaba alone, she couldn't help but feel fear and dread.
That's why she had used anger to conceal herself.
But... at the same time, she had genuinely been angry at that moment. She didn't want Yusei to go.
Was the reason really only because of Asuna and Yui? Only she herself knew the answer to that question.
One of Kaguya's core tenets was not to care about a man's opinion and to do what she believed was right.
But now... she...
"What an idiot I am."
She couldn't help but grit her teeth and curse herself quietly. She really didn't know why she was so concerned about him.
Time came to the night of the third day. Yusei and Asuna were in one bed. Sleeping between them was Yui. In another bed nearby were Shiro and Kanna.
That's right, the five of them slept in one room. It wasn't because the room was small, but because Shiro and Kanna didn't want to sleep separately from Yusei.
Regarding this, Asuna naturally agreed. She just treated it as her little sister-in-law being clingy to her brother.
…
(Author's Note: Regarding the setup for Kayaba Akihiko, what Kayaba was under wasn't Kotoamatsukami, just ordinary hypnosis through Sharingan, so it can be said to be a foreshadowing.)