1A/N: This is a short omake that I wrote for "Halkegenia Online" which is what inspired me to write "Aincrad Realized." It has helped get my creative thinking process working again, so that I can get more chapters for my work done. Also, "Halkegenia Online" is my number one favorite fanfiction I`ve ever read, on top of being one of THE best as well. It is possible that, in the future, I will write more omakes so that I can get myself out of writer`s block.
And so, without further ado, please read and enjoy.
The gentle, golden light of a glorious sunset shone through a window. Inside, it fell upon the scene of two parents proudly and joyfully fawning over the newest member of their family, wrapped in soft blankets and sleeping peacefully in the arms of his mother.
While this kind of scene is commonplace, one can never deny the pure magic it holds, as the love of mother and father for child grows stronger and more powerful, as the parents finally behold their child in all of his innocent and adorable wonder. Alone with each other for the first time, they would revel in the time-old tradition of bonding together as a family.
That they were one of the first Faerie families ever only added to the enchantment.
"Precious. Just so… precious."
The father, a Puca named Ken "Treble" Hamasaki, cautiously brought a hand forward to his son, softly touching his puffy cheeks and stroking his light blue hair off his face.
"Yes. He`s amazing. I can`t find the right words for him."
The mother, a mature-looking Undine named Iku "Maira" Hamasaki (formerly Koizumi), drank in the picture of her son in her arms, her eyes alighting on his delicately pointed ears.
The son, an Undine like his mother, newly named Kazuki, very suddenly sneezed.
Briefly startled, Treble quickly drew his hand back, but as he and his wife shared a look between them, the two of them could not help but quietly giggle together at the unintentional antic.
Right then, he noticed his wife trembling. He could see her eyes getting watery. "Maira? … Iku?"
Treble knew that he and she had come together under VERY unusual circumstances. By real world standards, anyway.
The day of the Transition, the two of them had inadvertently bumped into one another at an inn where Treble had been consuming some of the only wine there was to be found anywhere in Arrun at the time. She had joined him, and the two only fully comprehended their situation after they woke up in the same bed together without key pieces of clothing and massive hangovers. They chose to part ways after that and promised not to speak of it to anyone.
Two months later, while visiting the hospital to get help with some unusual symptoms, Maira learned that she was pregnant.
For the rookie player and 18 year-old former Japanese human girl, the news was nothing short of devastating. Ever since the Transition, she had been struggling on a daily basis to find her way in the world, before finally finding a place for herself in the mob patrols and finally settling into a sense of normalcy. However, this news brought back the despair she had felt on that awful day, as she feared that news of her pregnancy would cause the mob patrols to kick her out. If she couldn`t go on the patrols to support herself, she didn`t know of any way in which she could.
She had come into ALO alone, without useful reference or knowledge about, well, anything. She bought the game wanting to fly away from mediocre school grades, annoying brothers, an absent father, and a too-sweet-for-her-own-good mother. So, after she left the hospital, she ran straight back to the inn where she had rented room.
And literally ran straight into Treble. Spilling the iced tea he`d just bought all over the both of them.
Sitting them both down at the same café where he`d bought the iced tea, Treble talked with Maira and learned her story. He apologized to her then and there, and as an apology, immediately offered his help.
It turned out that he was a college graduate with a degree in geology, which had landed him a job at the recently established TRIST. Using what little influence he had, he was able to get Maira into TRIST`s magical research division, which was always in need of new volunteers for testing and measuring the different effects of various spells, as well as testing out the language to see how to make new spells. It also didn`t hurt that TRIST, in cooperation with Dr. Shouichi,
While she was thankful for the new opportunity, she still found being around him awkward, considering he was the father of her child. Over time, however, she found herself growing fonder of him, as he presented himself as nothing less than an absolute gentleman. Every time the two crossed paths, he showed her nothing but kindness and consideration for her. Not too long after, the two started dating. By the time she was six months pregnant, the two of them married each other.
Now, three months later, their son was born.
Treble lifted her chin up to see not only crying eyes, but also a beatific smile.
"I`m home," she choked out.
Treble was slightly confused. "Huh?"
"I was just thinking about all the different things we said we were looking forward to when he grows up. Not just his first word or his first step, but the first time he pops his wings and flies, his first magic spell, even his first weapon and what he will choose to be his own handle."
She looks back at Kazuki, who is now stirring in her arms. "His childhood will be filled with literal adventures of flying, magic, and monsters. It will be unlike anything like the lives we had. It`s just made me wonder what he would think, when he learns his parents used to be humans from another world, where everything he`ll know was a fantasy and a video game?"
Just then, Kazuki grew more still, and Maira`s voice caught in her throat as she something happen:
The infant cracked open his right eye. Then closed it. His left opened and closed as well. Then, he got both eyes open, revealing orbs the color of a calm sea on a cloudless day.
Mother and father alike were once again transported with joy, as Treble wrapped both wife and son in a warm embrace. He then said to her, "I think that we will love our son all the same. And I think he will too.
Gazing up at his mother and father, Kazuki smiled for the first time.
