Two days after Sugou Nobuyuki's arrest, Seiya was at home, eating breakfast that Suguha had brought him. He was watching the news on television and couldn't help but click his tongue. Shouzo Yuuki had acted much faster than he had expected. He had set a trap for Sugou right after Seiya left.
For the past two days, headlines had been dominated by SAO. The game, which was fading from the public's memory, was back in the news and on everyone's minds. Two days ago, it was about the SAO players being freed, and now it was about the main person in charge of ALO trapping players' consciousnesses again and using them for forbidden experiments. The rage of the families of the 300 players who were trapped for a second time was unimaginable. The families had no one to vent their anger on since Kayaba's whereabouts were unknown, and Sugou just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now, many of the families had signed a petition to demand a severe punishment for him. His actions had crossed everyone's bottom line.
Because of Sugou, ALO and the company RECT were also affected. ALO was ordered to undergo a comprehensive restructuring. To prevent a similar incident from happening again, the government created a new department to supervise games and try to prevent such crimes. Although Shouzo, as RECT's CEO, was not at fault and had exposed the bad apple, he had to resign out of principle since he had promoted and trusted Sugou. He was now just a member of RECT's board of directors.
"That Sugou is a scumbag! It's a shame ALO is a good game, but now it's been tainted," Kirigaya Suguha, who was wiping the table, said. She hadn't been into games until Seiya and Kirito were trapped in SAO, but over the last two years, she started playing full-dive games, and ALO was her favorite. She was even a high-level player, so she was disappointed by what had happened.
"What Sugou did has nothing to do with ALO itself. The game's players and ratings have always been good, so it'll probably restart soon," Seiya said.
Hearing this, Suguha looked at him with anticipation. "If ALO restarts, will you play with me, Seiya-ge?" ALO was a game with a fairy-tale setting. The main race was "elves," which were subdivided into wind, fire, dark, and beast elves. Suguha had a plan: if Seiya played with her, they would be able to spend more time together. ALO even had a couple system...
"Let's see. I need to visit Kirito today. I also have something to do tonight, so I probably won't be back for dinner." It had been two days since he was freed from SAO. As a close friend, it would be rude not to visit Kirito. Seiya had already arranged with Suguha to visit Kirito at the hospital. The reason he wouldn't be back for dinner was that Shouzo Yuuki had invited him to dinner at his home. To be more precise, the whole family had invited him. Shouzo wanted to thank him for saving Asuna, and his wife, Kyouko Yuuki, was curious about her daughter's friend. Kyouko was a college professor with a very strict personality. Even though she knew Seiya had saved her daughter, she wasn't so quick to approve of him. She believed she couldn't judge a book by its cover, especially after what happened with Sugou. While she was grateful for Seiya, there were many ways to express that. She wanted to judge for herself whether he was worthy of being her daughter's friend. Shouzo wanted to tell her about Seiya's incredible abilities, but he was worried Seiya would get angry, so he decided to stay quiet. However, Kyouko was confused by her husband's strange behavior.
Seiya didn't refuse the invitation. It would be rude to visit Kirito but not Asuna. He had also promised Asuna that he would visit her in the real world. If he didn't, she would be upset. When Seiya arrived at the Yuuki family home, he was greeted by Shouzo and Kyouko. As for Asuna, although she had been looking forward to his visit, she refused to let him into her room. The reason was simple: like Kirito and most of the other players, she had become thin and frail after two years of being bedridden. As a woman, and a beautiful one at that, she didn't want Seiya to see her like this. However, she still wanted to hear his voice, so she asked him to talk to her from outside her room. They talked for hours until she finally fell asleep from exhaustion.
Kyouko, the college professor, was displeased by Asuna's rude behavior. As someone who had given her daughter an elite education, she felt this was a disgrace to their family name. She was about to stop Asuna when her husband, Shouzo, stopped her. Shouzo was moved to see a person like Seiya patiently talking to his daughter from outside her room for hours. Seiya had said they were friends, and Shouzo had assumed they were just normal friends. But now, it seemed their relationship was much closer than he thought.
"Kyouko, what do you think of Asuna's friend?"
Kyouko didn't immediately respond to her husband's question. She just gave her honest opinion: "He seems like a well-mannered boy. He's impeccable on the outside, but I don't know what his family does... Wait, are you saying..."
"Ever since the Sugou incident, I no longer trust my own judgment. From now on, I'll let Asuna decide on matters like this herself."