In the morning, sirens blared throughout the cities. People scurried away from the airports, from the shipyards, from any crevasse that consumed them, like mice fleeing a hungry cat. Everyone ran to their homes, apartment or mansion, slum or a fancy family house, fearing not for their lives, as they knew that they would either die before the area became safe again, or survive through the cataclysm. They simply hoped not to be among the ones who were going to die.

Such was the mentality when the crisis came upon the coast of Tokyo. Hope, rather than fear. Not that it would save anyone who'd get infected. The Plague was deadly, quick to incubate, quick to kill, quick to spread. If you were unfortunate enough to get sneezed on in a morning, you'd die by the next. There was no known treatment, no vaccine, nothing to ebb the tide. Alternative medicine likewise proved to be useless against the relentless virus.

It was one-of-a-kind, free from caste binds and fearsome in its lethality. Spreading through all bodily fluids, it was cruel and traveled by air and freshwater as well. In only eight hours it would incubate, spreading through the host's entire body. At this stage, it was asymptomatic in the infected. After eight hours, the victim would develop darkening of the skin and necrosing of the organs. Blood would be consumed, bile and lymph ducts would be reduced to dust, and the victim’s bones would deteriorate by the minute. The disease ate at the muscles, eventually turning the victim into nothing more than a walking bog mummy - decrepit and charcoal with skin as taut as a prune. After all of this had passed, the victim would die, taken by spasms and violent coughs that helped to spread the epidemic. It was deemed the “Reaper Plague”, as it left none alive in its wake, making no distinction between the poor, the rich, the old, the young, women or men, the faithful or the nonbeliever.

So, when it finally broke out in Japan, people fled the urban centers, where contamination was most likely to occur. The virus could survive a long time outside of a host, so the region would remain dangerous for at least an entire month. The island of Honshū was deserted, the roads were locked. Most people, including the government, fled to Kyushu or Shikoku, to the south. Some went to Hokkaido, to the north. Then, there were those who stayed back. They were too mad to understand the danger, did not care about their own life, or were too sane to give in to panic, knowing that since people were fated to die someday, it was not useful to tempt fate by trying to avoid it. Noone lived too long once they got infected. Madness spared the mind from the pain, but not the body. Nor did sanity, for all it mattered. And those who threw their lives away did so knowingly - they all died, one day or another.

From a rough billion inhabitants on the 1st of October 2038, the Tokyo metropolis was left with a mere three thousand on the 6th of the same month. Among those who stayed were the "lucky few", those who had the ironic chance of being infected, but by the minor strain of the virus. They'd die, all the same, but without being infectious, and without a single bit of pain. Put simply, the virus would age their insides to the point of death in the span of a single day, and then they'd meet the Reaper as if she'd been a life-long friend – which she was, some say. Kazuto and Asuna were two of those lucky few.

***

I felt tired as I was about to lie down in our bed. No, not tired… I felt completely worn out, spent, drained… Empty in the body, and empty in the soul… I knew I had been infected by the Reaper plague… I had not lost hope. I still had one life left. I glanced one last time at the mirror, seeing the figure of an emaciated young adult, with unkempt black hair, and the face shadowed by large eye bags. With all this black, I couldn't even see my own eyes… Not that I really cared. Black on black, I always liked this combination of colours. I walked away from the mirror, slowly, wearily. One step after the other. I wasn't wearing much apart from my usual black pyjamas and a pair of black fluffy slippers. I really liked their shade of black when Asuna bought them for my twentieth birthday. Over the years, I had… "customized" them. I had added velvety claws and fangs to the decoration rabbit, and demonic-looking eyes. Another chuunibyou phase, now that I looked back on my life. "Edgy", I said, "and really dumb." I let out a small laugh, that quickly turned into painful coughing. Damn you disease, let me contemplate my errors in peace! Ah… I could be such an idiot at times. I smiled, and went to bed, lying on my back, the sheets providing a soft comfort that almost instantly made me fall asleep. I forced myself not to succumb, and waited for Asuna to arrive. Soon after, a minute, maybe two, she was here, in her white gown, and she lay down by my side. We shared a tired, but passionate kiss, and we finished our preparation.

I put on my old NerveGear, the first-ever full-dive device, the one I played SAO with. Some considered it a cursed tool, having been designed as a killing machine by Kayaba Akihiko, the developer of SAO. To me, it was the thing that made me win. I defeated Heathcliff with that NerveGear. Over the years, I didn't use it much, but I always kept good care of it. It was like a knight's favourite piece of armour. So worn, so fitting, that it might as well be a part of the body. I plugged the NerveGear, and started to upload my consciousness into my computer. When I'd be moments away from death, I'd only have to put the headset back on, and the last spark of my dying physical self would ignite my virtual existence. Truly, another life. But I had no merit for this method. I stole it entirely from Kayaba's personal data. Well… I hacked it, anyway. I infiltrated his database and copied all of the contents. It took me two whole years to even understand some of the programs. But after that, it all became a piece of cake. I completed some of the minor programs and updated some of the oldest. It was like a treasure, a trove of code and numbers. I made it mine, I explored the deepest reaches of the manifestations of Kayaba's genius. I'm fairly sure he knows I infiltrated his database. He's still very active on the internet - in all discretion, that is. He manages the SEED and regulates many other things. But I'm sure he found the time to check on me.

He's Kayaba Akihiko, after all. He's the man who made the SEED, who designed SAO. Ah… Every time I put it on, memories flood back… I saw Asuna put on her AmuSphere – she never liked the NerveGear, it reminded her of Sugou Nobuyuki. That creep… I guess he got his retribution, he died in prison twelve years ago. I don't know how he managed to hang himself while on suicide watch, but I couldn't care any less. I powered up my headset. "Link Start". The lights flashed around, and I arrived in the lobby of the NerveGear system. It was a white place, with very few things. In fact, it was only a white floor, a white sky, and white light. There was only the menu in my visual interface. With a flick of my right hand, I opened it and started the consciousness uploading sequence. I did not linger there anymore because it was a pretty boring place, and even if I didn't really fathom it yet, my time was counting down. I left the virtual world and came back to reality. I removed the visor of the NerveGear and saw that Asuna was ready too. I leaned towards her and we kissed. It was very brief, but it was all we could afford. "Good night", she told me. And we both fell asleep for the last time of our human lives.

***

When I woke up on the 7th of October 2038, I saw that Kazuto was still sleeping beside me. His breath was cold and almost unnoticeable. His chest was rising and falling in rhythm. He was still wrapped in the sheets. I did not wake him up, I knew he'd enjoy those last moments of tranquillity. Instead, I rose from the bed, put on some clothes, and started preparing breakfast. For my last day, I chose clothing that brought back my memories; A red skirt falling down just above the knee, a white sleeved shirt, all held together by a yellow belt. It was simple, and a bit out-of-date, but it fit me quite well… Memories, memories… It was the outfit I wore at the time of Ordinal Scale… Twenty years had passed, and I still wore white and red… There’s a saying, that only idiots do not change; maybe I am an idiot, but I lived happily my whole life, or so I believed. I shook away those thoughts and came back to my senses. I didn't do my hair, I only combed it quickly. Nobody would be there to see me anyway. I took a quick peek into the mirror and I saw myself more tired than ever. My hair had dimmed a lot and looked like white with a pale shade of orange… I thought it looked like wilted cherry blossoms. It made me smile… That's what was left of me, a wilted cherry blossom. I heard a sound and turned back to see Kazuto awake and ready. As always, he'd chosen to wear black. His clothes matched perfectly his hair and were in stark contrast with his skin. I still couldn't believe he had fairer skin than me. He chuckled as he saw that I was examining him. "Do I look like a ghost?" he said.

- “Yeah. You do. You're spectrally pale as always, and your clothes aren’t helping by being pitch-black. Sheesh. Can't you ever vary your habits sometimes?"

He snarked back at me, with that little smile of his I'd learned to recognize. It meant that he was proud of himself for the joke he was about to spew. "Why? No, I can't change my habits. That's why they're habits. If I could slip out of them and fit into others, I'd be some kind of weirdo with schizophrenia." Then he blinked a couple times. "Wait, wait… I AM schizophrenic. Damn, is that why I'm always grumpy on Thursday mornings? No, that sounds like a complete asspull…" He ranted about for at least five minutes, and I had to tell him that breakfast was ready for him to snap back to his senses. He's got that habit… going headlong into a particular train of thought, and brushing away everything else, focusing so hard on one particular thing as if there was nothing else beyond. It was the only thing I did not like about him… That and his habit to hack national governments for the heck of it.

When he finally sat at the table, I could see just how tired he looked, how hollow he had become in the last few days; I could not even see the sparkle in his eyes – they were just sunk in the darkness of his face. For a split second, I was terrified. I feared that he'd come and sit down only to die in front of my eyes. Then I saw the corners of his mouth go up, curve and turn into a tiny smile, making me sigh in relief. I think I shed a tear because he rose up and came to hug me. "Yo, Asuna? What's wrong?" I said nothing, hugging him back, laughing a little, faint tears streaming down my cheeks. I don't know how long we stayed in each other's embrace, cold flesh against cold flesh, yet so warm… "Nothing," I told him, "There's nothing wrong… I'm just glad to be with you." My voice was merely a whisper, and so was his when he replied. "Yeah", he said, "Me too."

We stayed like this for what felt like another eternity, and I had a thought. Outside, the world had become hell. There was no hope there, only despair and certain death. The idea coursed through my mind that what we had prepared for ourselves was an escape route to heaven. But, I thought, it felt like going into virtuality wouldn't be as great as reality was. It sounded silly, but I feared that I could never experience as many feelings from a virtual hug as opposed to a real one. And suddenly, I wasn't so sure anymore; did I really want to live forever after death? Did I really seek a second life that much? I didn't know. And I heard Kazuto's voice calling me back to reality. "…na? Asuna? Oi, don't fall asleep on me, please." He looked mildly worried, mildly amused, and he smiled at me. I looked at him seriously, and his expression changed.

He knew that the following discussion was going to be important. We both sat down at the table and ate breakfast while talking. I opened the conversation. "Should we really do this? I mean, is it right to do so? To have a second life? To exist forever?" I think he wasn't prepared for THIS conversation, because I saw his eyes shoot wide open as he stared at me. His eyes were so wide open that I could see the white in them, and the black lining of the irises. He was incredulous.