“Ermm... Kirito-san. Can I ask about your little sister...” “Wh-why all of a sudden?” “You said that I reminded you of her. So, I was just curious...” Talking about the real world was one of the greatest taboos in Aincrad. There were a lot of reasons, but the biggest one was that if the thought ‘this world is virtual and therefore fake’ embedded itself deep within the players’ minds, then they wouldn’t be able to accept the «death» in SAO as real. But she wanted to ask about Kirito’s little sister, whom he said was like her. She wanted to know if Kirito wanted something from her as a little sister. “...We weren’t...all that close...” Kirito started talking. “I said that she was my little sister, but she’s actually my cousin. Because of some circumstances, she grew up with us ever since she was born. She doesn’t know this though. Well, maybe it’s because of this... but I kept distancing myself from her without really meaning to. I even avoided running into her at home.” A small sigh came from Kirito. “...On top of that, we had a strict grandfather. He forced me to go to a kendo dojo when I was eight, but I couldn’t really get into it and stopped after two years. My grandfather had hit me pretty hard... but when he did that, my sister started crying and protected me by saying that she’ll do even my share to make him stop hitting me. After that, I began playing on the computer and lost myself in it, but my sister really devoted herself to kendo and even made it pretty far in the