In the next two years in the time chamber, John and Nesiara trained even harder than before as Asuna and Kirito mostly watched how merciless both pushed each other.
Asuna and Kirito became a couple after being a year inside the time chamber after a couple of debates about why they weren't as close as they used to be. Kirito made his point clear as well as Asuna making each other see why both were walking a different path.
Now that they were together they were thinking of buying a house once they returned. The only problem was that Asuna wanted him to join the Knights of the Blood so they could be together all the time while Kirito still liked his freedom.
Once they returned from Paradise they left together as Asuna got a message from Heathcliff to bring Kirito to talk about something important.
John and Nesiara, on the other hand, heard a rumor from Kirito and Asuna about a ghost haunting the forest around where they live and they wanted to investigate it.
They were watching the forest for someday not leaving the floor until they found the ghost since if it was an irregular mob like Kirito and his former guild met before it could be dangerous for the players living around them.
They missed the duel between Heathcliff and Kirito that Kirito lost making John and Nesiara become suspicious about it since Kirito improved much over the two years but didn't say anything since they didn't have any evidence to prove that something was wrong about Heathcliff.
Kirito was now forced to join the Knights of the Blood because he lost. Asuna was happy while sad at the same time since Kirito joined her guild even if it was forced unto him.
"What do you think about that Heathcliff?" asks Nesiara as she was walking with John around the woods.
"As I told you before. He was fishy when we first met him but I left it be because he was motivating people to climb the floors so they all could free themselves. But that he always appears out of nowhere was my worry but since floor 25th he was more stressed out as if he lost control of something," says John as Nesiara was looking confused when they hear a weeping coming from the forest.
They take their weapon out as they expected a mob ghost and rushed towards the location. They see some light coming from the direction they heard the weeping.
John then sees something and swings his sword at it. He stopped the swing the moment he saw that it was only a girl with long black hair.
She panicked as the sword was over her head. She wanted to retreat but fell down on her butt. Nesiara pushed the sword away from the girl's face as she stretches her hand out to help the girl up.
The girl took her hand and suddenly collapses there. Nesiara looked angry at John and says, "You really couldn't first verify if it was really a monster before attacking."
"I'm sorry," says John as Nesiara wasn't done yet becoming quite loud about what happened when it started to rain and John then picks the girl up and says, "We should go home and ask her some questions about where her parents are."
"We aren't done yet," says Nesiara as she follows John angry.
They arrive at their house and John places her in his bed after Nesiara changed her wet clothes. John was suspicious about the girl the moment she could enter the house without a problem and when Nesiara could change her clothes into one of her gi's.
It was quite big for the girl but it was enough to keep her warm for the night until her wet things dry up beside the fire when John and Nesiara were again in the living room alone John says, "Don't you feel that something is wrong."
"What do you mean?" asks Nesiara angry as she was now really pissed about what John said.
"How could she enter the house and how you could change her clothes. Remember there is a system that prohibits interactions of changing someone's child's clothes without absolute consent of the child or their parents so nothing can happen to the child. Also normally a window would open for players that want to enter remember how Kirito and Asuna always have to pass through the system before entering our house," says John as Nesiara suddenly calmed down hearing John's arguments.
"But that doesn't mean she is some evil spawn that is plotting something against us," says Nesiara as she went into the kitchen to prepare porridge for the girl to eat once she wakes up but before that she says, "You will sleep on the couch for a week."
"Wait a second we can discuss that can't we," says John as he follows her into the kitchen.
"That depends on your attitude once the girl wakes up. See it as training for our own children," says Nesiara as she was cooking.
"Fine," says John as he was about to leave.
"You will still sleep on the couch tonight," says Nesiara with a smile as John gave up and went back into the living room to sleep on the ground because the couch was too small for him to sleep on.
Nesiara was looking over the girl as John took the clothes of the girl away from the fire since they were dry and brings them into the bedroom as he sees Nesiara sleeping on a chair watching the girl.
He takes a blanket and puts it around her while making sure the girl was properly covered by her blanket before leaving the room and Nesiara opens her eyes and smiles while whispering, "He really has a heart of gold when no one sees him."
Then she crawls into the bed and hugs the girl from behind and falls asleep. The next morning she wakes up and doesn't find the girl in the bed as she jumps out of the bed and looks around the room and comes out of the bedroom while saying, "John have you seen th-"
She then sees the girl eating the porridge she made while sitting beside John who was feeding her when Nesiara says, "Forget it. I see you found the little rascal."
The girl suddenly stood up and walked towards Nesiara and hugged her while saying, "Mom."
Nesiara was surprised and wanted to correct her when she sees John putting his finger over his mouth telling her to ignore it for now when the girl says, "Dad was feeding me the porridge you made me. I didn't want to wake you up."
"Don't worry darling. Did Dad treat you well," says Nesiara with a smile as the girl nods showing her a heartwarming smile.
"Yui is a good girl now come and finish your food so your mother can make your father something nice too," says John as he was holding the plate and a spoon when Yui walks back to the table and sits on her chair and continues eating.
"I will change real quick. Then I will fix us something for breakfast," says Nesiara as she returned to the bedroom and put something fresh on before joining the other two in the living room.
They were living like a little family until John says to Nesiara, "We can't keep her forever. We should visit Jack tomorrow. He should know more about this."
"Yes, the frontline didn't move one bit since we began taking care of Yui," says Nesiara as she looked sad.
"You are sad that we have to give her away, aren't you," says John as he was also quite sad about it since Yui did grow to his heart.
"Yes, can't we keep her?" asks Nesiara as she really wanted to adopt her.
"And who will look after her once she is out of here? You know that they are only game characters here. She might have family outside the game and even if not we are still stuck in here," says John as he was telling the cold truth about their situation.
"*sighs* You are right. We can't look after her the whole time either with us going to the front. No one can look after her either since all the people we know are front-liners as well," says Nesiara quite sad about the situation.
"Let's talk with Jack tomorrow first thing in the morning. He can help and maybe my suspicion about her real origin is true," says John as if it was really true they could really adopt her.
"What do you mean?" asks Nesiara when John waves his hands in surrender.
"If she is what I think she is we can adopt her and even take her with us once we are done here," says John as Nesiara was shining in happiness after hearing that.
They went to bed to find a sleeping Yui in bed. They slept beside her from both sides making sure she won't fall off the bed.
The next morning they went to the Town of Beginnings to talk to Jack who recognizes Yui immediately and says, "Sasha how about you take the girl with you for a moment to play with the other children. I need to talk with those two for a moment."
"Yes, sir," says Sasha as she bows and takes Yui by her hand when Yui fights to stay with John and Nesiara.
"Papa and Mama need to talk for a moment after the talking is done we will get you again," says Nesiara as she pets Yui's head.
Yui became obedient after hearing Nesiara as she left with Sasha to play with the other children staying there.
"You know what she is, do you. You, after all, were raised amongst them," says Jack as he looked at John.
"I had an assumption that she was an A.I. but couldn't be completely sure since she was behaving like a child," says John as Nesiara didn't understand anything about what they were talking about.
"What's an A.I.?" asks Nesiara as Jack explains it to hear using the NPCs as an example comparing them to Yui.
"So she is just data?" asks Nesiara sad when both John and Jack laugh.
"No, an A.I. can feel and behaves as a real human would. They can love and hate someone and even have children if you are in the right universe," says Jack when he asks, "But the real question here is, do you want to keep her?"
"Yes," says John before even Nesiara could answer as Jack smiles.
"The little girl melted your heart, didn't she. Well how about this you bring me a person that is right now under the city and I will do you the favor of making her a real human. Do we have a deal?" asks Jack as he was serious about it.
"Deal," say both and Jack explains to them what they have to do.