Author's Note: If this story gets a bit too steamy and it is taken down from FFN, it will be up on ArchiveOfOurOwn under the same title. My account's name on there is the same, too.

Chapter 1

Link Start

An inhale from the nose sounded off.

The world of Sword Art Online was virtual. The feeling of your foot meeting the stone pathway as one walked. The taste of fresh mochi prepared in a shop in a city. The sound of the breeze rushing through the grassy plains. The scenery of beautifully calibrated colors beyond imagination. The smell of flowers carried on the wind.

Sword Art Online was virtual, so why did it feel so real? The answer was obvious, really. The NerveGear, a piece of hardware used to access the virtual world, intercepted the tiny electrical signals the brain would normally send to muscles and mapped them to actions in-game. In turn, the hardware sent signals back to the brain to trick it into experiencing the unreal.

Kazuto Kirigaya, or Kirito as his in-game avatar was called, stood on the edge of a cliff with his arms spread wide while the wind danced around him.

Damn it was good to be back.

Kirito had enjoyed his time during the game's beta test where he was one of a thousand lucky people to test the latest gaming sensation that was Sword Art Online. It was a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, or a VRMMORPG for short.

There were other VR games that took advantage of the NerveGear's unique sensory override capabilities, but nothing was as ambitious as this.

"Kirito," said a voice from behind followed by three quick snaps of a pair of fingers. "Hello? Earth to Kirito?"

He shook his head, finally registering the noise. He lowered his arms and turned to see Klein.

Klein's avatar had a handsome face with a stubble of red on his chin. He had long red hair held down by a thin bandana. Like all starting characters, he wore thin clothes under a simple leather chestplate.

Since it was still launch day and Kirito hadn't even gotten a chance to leave the Town of Beginnings yet, his own avatar wore the same clothes, though of a different color, and similar leather armor. Unlike Klein, he had long black hair and a clean face.

In real life, Kirito had to deal with people telling him he looked like a girl thanks to his soft face, but in the game he could make himself appear older and give himself narrower eyes which gave off a cooler look.

Klein, after checking that Kirito was all there and listening, turned around and pulled out his sword. It was a curved iron shortsword he had equipped to his side.

"I thought you were going to teach me how to play, not stare off into space."

Kirito forced a smile. He didn't normally talk with others. He preferred to keep to himself, enjoying the virtual beauty of the game on his own time, but he was too ecstatic to be back when Klein spotted him near the central plaza and asked for a few pointers.

"Sorry," Kirito said, "just feels good to be back, you know?"

Klein raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "Can't say I do. This is my first time experiencing a FullDive."

"I see." Kirito stepped toward him and followed. "Well, I'm sure you'll understand sooner or later."

Klein nodded in agreement. He hardened his grip around the sword in his hand when he caught sight of a large blue boar. The creature's red eyes pierced into him, but it refused to move.

It was what was called a passive monster. Passive monsters had to be provoked before they entered combat, making this field of low-leveled monsters even better for new players.

Kirito stopped just to the right of Klein and raised a hand to point at the boar. "This here is a Frenzy Boar. You can figure that out by ordering the system to 'Inspect' it. Just kind of think the word while focusing on it."

Klein furrowed his brow and narrowed his eyes. He had never seen a boar in person before, but this one was bigger than he imagined they would be normally. He executed the mental command and to the side of his field of vision opened a window that was empty save for the title of the monster at the top.

"All it says is the thing's name. Why is this useful?" Klein asked, dismissing the window.

"I wanted you to see the window before and after. There will be a lot more information learned after you successfully kill one. Stats, level, attacks. There are variants of the boar, of course, and those will still have some unknown attributes, but for a single area killing one is usually enough to learn all you need to know."

Klein's eyes shot open and a grin covered his face. "I get it! So all I have to do is kill this dumb thing and I'll have like an encyclopedia page on it."

Kirito raised an eyebrow and studied the other man. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Here I go!" Klein said with a scream as he rushed forward, raising the sword high above his head. He came down hard, striking the boar's cheek. "Got it!"

Kirito couldn't even tell him how ineffective it was before it was apparent to all.

Upon striking the boar, Klein initiated combat with it. A health bar appeared next to the boar's head filled up with green except for a sliver of vacant space.

The boar squealed and dug a hoof into the ground before ramming its flat snout into the front side of its adversary.

Klein fell to the ground from the force and dropped his sword. In his peripheral vision he could see his health bar dip by roughly the same amount as he had dealt to the boar. He almost rolled around in pain out of instinct, but all he felt was a light tingle that acted as feedback of the hit more than anything.

Kirito jumped next to the boar and kicked it away. He could see the boar's health bar from the beginning because he had formed a party with Klein. That meant their combat instances were linked, among other things.

"Regular cuts and stabs like that aren't going to do very much damage, you know. Didn't you talk to the Tutorial NPC at the plaza?"

Klein picked up his sword and got back to his feet. "It was boring," he said lamely.

Kirito rolled his eyes. When the boar came charging toward him, he merely stepped out of the way. "Fine. You'll notice the boar did about as much damage as you. That's because all it can do is basic attacks, but players and most creatures aren't limited to just those."

He bent down and picked up a small pebble from the ground. He tossed it up in the air and caught it to test its weight.

"The game has something called combat skills. They're the same as abilities that you would put on a hotbar in more traditional games. They'll do much more damage, but they come at a cost. To initiate a combat skill, you just have to meet the pre-motion requirements."

The boar repeated the motion of kicking the dirt with its front right hoof and took off in a charging sprint.

Kirito brought the pebble up next to his ear. With his other hand, he pointed at the boar and the pebble began to glow red. Moments after the glowing started, his arm shot forward and the pebble was thrown like a dart with a red streak chasing behind it until it came to an abrupt stop against the boar's head, interrupting the charge.

The health bar around the boar's head shrunk until it had just less than half health.

"You can find out each skill's pre-motion requirements in your skills menu. Once the system recognizes the initiation of a skill, the attack will begin. The system will assist you in the actions, but those actions can be changed based on your skills, too."

Klein opened his menu to the left of his field of view and looked through his known skills. He only knew one for a one-handed curved sword. Reaver, a basic skill that involved a dashing slash. He read the pre-motion requirements carefully and then closed the menu.

He moved one foot back and faced the boar with his front knee. The creature had shifted its attention back to him now and was preparing another charge. He rested the backside of the sword on his shoulder and felt a mysterious energy overwhelm him.

He couldn't see the sword, but he knew this feeling meant it was glowing. He had initiated a combat skill. His muscled moved on their own. His hand moved the sword off of his shoulder and pointed the tip at the boar. His legs kicked off the dirt and his body shot forward, leading the pointed tip of his curved blade.

A deep slash cut into the boar's side. The wound didn't leak blood, it was just data, after all. However, the wound was outlined in red and the inside showed a grid texture instead of meat.

Klein turned around just in time to watch the boar's health bar disappear completely before it shattered into a pool of polygon particles.

"Combat skills are risky if abused, though." Kirito walked over and offered Klein a high-five. "There is a brief period of time between the system recognizing the initiation of a skill and the actual execution of the skill. The system locks you in a rigid state so you're unable to move during that time. That means you're wide open to attacks unless you wait for your opponent to have an opening, too."

Klein looked down at his free hand and flexed it. "So that's what that was. It felt… odd. Like my free will was stolen from me."

"That's not all. If you avert your eyes to the bottom of your view, you should see a symbol for the skill and a timer. That's the cooldown of that ability. You'll still be able to use other skills, but any skill on cooldown will not be initiated by the system."

"I think I'm starting to get what you meant," Klein said. He sheathed his sword and placed his hands onto his hips. The field they were in was pretty big. There were other players fighting boars, too, and some of them even looked to be having more trouble than he was. "This game really is incredible."

Kirito studied him more while he wasn't looking, wondering how old the man was and how different he was to his avatar.

Klein stood a full head above Kirito. Of course, their faces and hair could have been changed to make them unrecognizable, too. With the game's on-the-fly voice changer, it was even possible play as the opposite sex convincingly.

Kirito would never admit it, but he had actually been the victim of catfishing on a single occasion during the beta. He only found out thanks to an enchanted mirror he found that reflected one's true appearance rather than the avatar.

He played the rest of that day as an orange player. It was probably the source of his refusal to play with others during the beta as well now that he thought about it.

After a few more hours of cutting down boar after boar, Kirito and Klein found themselves staring at the game's sunset.

System time moved twice as fast as time in real life, so 12 hours outside of the game was a full day and night cycle inside it.

A box opened on Kirito's screen telling him he had a friend request from Klein. He hesitated, but accepted.

He had laughed when he saw Klein was navigating the complicated player menu with gestures. It could be done, but there were so many drop-down menus and listings that it was a chore. Since the NerveGear was already intercepting the signals from the brain, it was easy to configure the game to run off of mental commands instead of gestures or verbal orders.

"I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got a pizza coming at 5:30," Klein said.

Kirito shifted his eyes to the bottom right of his vision. 5:24 PM. "Yeah, I should be getting off soon, too. If I'm not downstairs for dinner, I might not be able to play later tonight."

Klein raised an eyebrow at that. "I'll probably be on later. I've got some friends who got the game, too, so I was going to hang out with them some later. If you were interested, I mean."

Kirito wanted to smile because Klein seemed just as awkward when it came to goodbyes as he was, but the offer had thrown him off guard. "Maybe," he lied, "I'm not sure what I'll be doing."

Klein was his very first contact. He didn't get along with people in real life and he tended to repel people in games even more. Maybe someday he would take Klein up on his offer, but for the time being it was baby steps.

Klein gave a thin smile and a nod and then disappeared in a column of blue light as his avatar was logged out of the game.

Now alone, Kirito looked down at the ground and kicked a loose rock. He quietly logged himself out of the game.

A blue column of light surrounded him now. After the light had fully encompassed his vision, it broke apart and disappeared into a void. He opened his eyes slowly and saw his bedroom ceiling.

It was the first break he had taken since the game went live four and a half-hour ago. His chest rose and then fell with a sigh. He removed the NerveGear and got out of bed.

He shuffled over to his computer and hovered over the desk. With a few clicks, he had brought up a news article about the game. Apparently, it was a massive hit. NerveGear sales had doubled and the game itself had already peaked at 200,000 players concurrently.

The sound of feet running up the stairs broke him away from the screen. There was a silence of maybe a couple seconds. Tap. Tap. Tap. Three knocks echoed from his door.

"Onii-chan, I made you some dinner. Can I come in?"

It was the voice of Suguha, his cousin whom he had grown up with thinking she was his sister. He opened his mouth but his words escaped him.

"Onii-chan, are you awake?"

He rubbed his eyes. Engaging in a FullDive was very similar to a deep sleep and it always left him feeling like he had just awoken when he got done, even if it was only for an hour.

"Come in," he said finally. He turned his chair around and sat down into it. His room was small, but he didn't need much. He had his bed, his computer, his NerveGear, and some shelves with old books stacked neatly.

The handle twisted and opened. The bowl came first. It was a white bowl with chopsticks sticking out of it. Without seeing it, he could tell by smell that it was some kind of pasta with a meat sauce.

Then came Suguha. She was shorter than him, but not by much. Her face was arguably just as soft as his, perhaps even less so. She had on a pair of shorts that stopped above the middle of her thigh.

While he had stopped practicing kendo, she promised to train twice as hard for the both of them. Her progress showed she took that vow seriously. Even the slightest movement showed her toned body that was only possible with a dedication to physical conditioning.

If he ever had any muscle definition, he had lost it long ago when he started to stay inside more. He wasn't fat. Not even close. If anything, it would do him some good to put on some weight.

Suguha extended the bowl to him and a big smile covered her face. "Here you go, Onii-chan."

He thanked her and took the bowl, resting it in his lap. The bowl was warm to the touch. He dug around with the chopsticks and grabbed a clump of noodles, bringing them closer to his mouth and blowing on them. They tasted delicious.

They lived there with Suguha's mom. For Suguha's sake, he still referred to her as Mom, but he had known for years that he was secretly adopted. They were still family, but instead of Suguha being his sister, she was actually his cousin.

Suguha put her arms behind her back. Her toes pointed inward awkwardly and she took a few unnecessarily long strides to get to his bed. She sat down and put her hands together in her lap. She was quiet, but she watched him eat.

When he first found out the truth about being adopted, he had pushed everyone away. They may have been his family, but they weren't his family.

Nothing really changed between him and his aunt. Her busy schedule meant they already didn't see each other very often. Suguha, on the other hand, he had started to ignore. Looking back, he was probably far too cruel to her. She probably didn't even know herself.

"It's good," he said without looking up. From his peripheral vision, he could see her staring at him. He shifted in his chair slightly. He didn't hate her, really.

"Great!" she cheered, a grin spreading all the way across her face.

Suguha's eyes looked around the room, but they rested on a single thing. The NerveGear on his pillow. She brushed her fingers across it and traced the letters.

"Is it fun?"

He stopped eating. He swallowed what was left of his mouth and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Is what fun? SAO?"

She looked at him and said, "Oh, is that what you call it?" and then returned her attention to the device.

"Yeah," he said after a brief pause. She had never shown any interest in technology like he did, so it was odd to see her even acknowledge it. "It's great. It's way better than this stupid world."

They were innocent words directed at the fact that this world expected you to study from the time you could talk to the time you were starting your career. Fun wasn't allowed to exist in this world if you wanted to be someone worth anything. Sword Art Online was different, though.

There he could be a swordsman who slew monsters and completed quests. It was a fantasy in more ways than one.

Suguha tilted her head down and a shadow obscured her eyes. "Oh," she mumbled, little more than a whisper.

Suddenly he found himself wondering how exactly she had taken it. He wasn't the greatest at reading people, but he was smart enough to know she was troubled by the answer.

"Sugu, I didn't mean it like that," he said. He looked down at the bowl of noodles in his hands. There was nothing wrong with what he said. That's what he wanted to tell himself. There may have been no ill intent, he corrected, but she had definitely taken it the long way.

To his surprise, she appeared to get over it rather quickly. She looked back up at him with a smile. He raised his head to meet her eyes, any sign of sadness gone from her dark gray irises.

"That's good to hear, actually. I bought one today on my way home." She put her hands back into her lap and stared at him with the smallest smile on her lips.

He tilted his head and studied her. "You bought… what, exactly? A NerveGear? SAO?"

"Mhmm."

"Huh." He took another bite of the noodles as an excuse to not say anything. "I didn't think you were a fan of video games. That had always been my thing."

He missed it, but her cheeks grew hotter as a light shade of pink overcame her.

"I just thought it was worth a try is all," she said quickly. "Some friends from school mentioned that they were looking to get it, so I thought I might as well give it a try, too. Besides, I can play it while I sleep, right? That means it doesn't even need to interrupt my daily schedule."

He chuckled to himself. "You shouldn't say that until you play it." He had every intention of growing addicted to the game. He did his classwork and any chores he was assigned. He even cooked for Suguha once in awhile. That didn't mean he wasn't playing the game every single second that he could and thinking about it when he couldn't.

"It's that incredible?" She leaned back on the bed. She was short enough that her head was still an inch or two from the wall.

He took a few more bites, finishing the bowl. "Incredible is a good word, but I'm not sure it's strong enough. Just wait until you see it. It'll blow you away."

Suguha stared at the ceiling. He may have thought he was being discreet in his efforts to push her away, but they didn't go unnoticed. She had taken note of it pretty early on, and it cut deep.

"So why don't you show me?"

The room was quiet. Silence was too loud of a word for what they were in.

He forced a laugh. "Show you what? SAO?"

She forced her lips shut while she formulated her thoughts. The last thing she wanted was to blurt something out. "Yeah, blow me away. Unless you have plans tonight."

He shut his eyes and sat back in his chair. He let out a long sigh. "What about your friends? Couldn't they show you around?"

She fidgeted with the sheet. "Actually, they don't have the game yet. They said they were going to get it next weekend. Besides, you've played the game."

Sound was sucked from the room again. She waited patiently for an answer and he was regretting ending his session early.

"Fine," he said finally.

—

Suguha sat on her bed. Her fingers were shaking as she held the NerveGear headset in her lap. She usually let Kazuto do what he wanted. When she noticed him starting to push her away, she blamed herself. She was too afraid to ask why. Was it something she did?

After years of being ignored, she had enough. She still wasn't ready to ask what she had done, but she was going to get back into his life.

It was true that some of her friends had been mentioning the game to her. It was even true that they were planning to get it soon.

The only fib was that it wasn't them that had convinced her to buy it. She got it as a possible way to hang out with her big brother again. They hadn't done it much since they were little. When Kazuto quit practicing kendo, they stopped hanging out as much.

It wasn't too long after that when he started to actively push her away. Even when she asked to do something like going to get an ice cream, he would claim he was too busy on his computer.

It was always technology. Why was technology so much better than her? Why was Sword Art Online better? Was it because this dumb world had her in it?

She shook her head, mentally tossing the thoughts into a trash can.

Thinking like that wouldn't get her anywhere. Besides, he agreed to play with her tonight. She was nervous and excited.

She told herself she was ready. She placed the NerveGear on her head and lay on her bed. She shifted her bed and got comfortable, a tip Kazuto had given her. She pulled the cover to her chin to keep her warm. She wasn't sure how long she would be.

She pressed a button on the side of the NerveGear and she could hear a very low hum.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

"Link Start!"

The black of her eyelids erupted into a rainbow of colors. The best way she could describe it was speeding through a tunnel if the walls were lined with assorted colored lights and no other source of light as in the tunnel.

A small white circle was impossibly far away, but it drew closer by the second until it was all she could see.

If nothing happened for even a moment longer, she would have thought she had broken it.

"Initial startup detected."

The voice was feminine. It spoke as if it was in Suguha's head like her own thoughts.

A popup window appeared in front of her. No matter where she looked in the empty white void, the window was always directly in front of her begging for attention.

Initial startup detected. Would you like to download an existing account or create a new one?

Suguha stared at it for a few seconds before tapping the space where it offered to create a new account. Her finger met the window and pushed against it. It was solid. The button turned green and the window disappeared.

"Please enter your desired system name," said the feminine voice from before. It must have been the system assistant voice of the NerveGear, similar to how her phone had an assistant built in for setting reminders or hands-free control. "Warning, this name is visible to all players online, so it is advised against using your real name or any other identifiable information."

Suguha watched as a screen with a keyboard grew from nothing into view. She lifted her hands up and typed on it. The feeling was similar to typing on a phone screen if the screen was big enough to fit a real keyboard.

Leafa.

"That system name is available. Are you sure you want to be named 'Leafa'?"

Suguha didn't give it a second thought when the dialog box opened up. She pressed the yes button before even looking at the "no" option.

"Account creation complete. Signing in as… Leafa."

The room returned to its featureless white void. She looked down for the first time and saw she wasn't wearing her pajamas. The skin she was looking at was as close to hers as she could imagine. She found out quickly that what she was looking at was an accurate recreation of her own body.

The muscles in her arms and legs were the same that she had spent hours looking at in the mirror. She didn't hate being stronger than she looked, but she was worried that some people would start to think she looked more like a boy than a girl. Most girls she knew had little definition.

She, or her avatar, was wearing a pair of cream underwear and a matching bra. She didn't have anything like that, but she figured the NerveGear couldn't detect what she was actually wearing. From what she understood, the hardware worked by creating a bridge between the machine and her brain, so having subconscious information about her body made sense.

That must have been why the boobs looked just as pathetic as her own.

If her muscle definition didn't make people mistake her for a boy, her small chest might.

Her thoughts only lasted for a handful of seconds before a new window popped up. It was a list of installed games. Of course, she only had the one, so she lifted her hand and pressed on the words "Sword Art Online."

A column of blue light surrounded her. She felt a rush and her heart started to beat faster.

"Welcome to Sword Art Online."

The voice was the exact same. Despite the column of light, she once again found herself in a room devoid of anything of note until a new window popped up showing that she had no character data tied to her account. She pressed the button for creating a new character and she finally got something other than pure white.

Directly in front of her was an exact copy of herself, but it was rigid in a pose with both arms extended to each side. The figure had an emotionless face that didn't move no matter what she tried.

"This will act as your avatar in game. Interact with it to customize it to your liking. Warning, changing the weight or height of your avatar could have adverse effects both in-game and in the real world. Playing as the opposite sex may have psychological impacts that affect everyone differently."

Suguha raised her hand to her chin and thought. She could theoretically make her ideal body. Her lips curled into a mischievous grin.

Interacting with the body, she found the controls incredibly user-friendly. In situations like her hair, there was a window with a list of premade hairstyles, but there was an option to work with the hair herself. For things like her hips, she could change the shape by moving her hand around the body like she was sculpting it.

As she changed the avatar, her own body changed as well. It helped get the balance right, at least.

When she got to some of the more intimate parts, she knew that some people would have way too much fun with that. Especially perverted guys who changed their avatar to a female and spent time making their ideal woman. Disgusting.

Those thoughts of disgust turned to a hint of fear as she thought about what it was like in-game. If the game was just like real life, then what were the limits? Could someone… feel themselves? Would that feel real?

She tested her theory by bringing her hands up to her own breasts and lifting them an inch before letting them fall back into place. She shuddered. Of course it felt real.

Shaking her head to dismiss the thoughts, she went back to her avatar. She was able to preview clothes on it. She put the starter clothes onto the avatar and stepped back to take a look.

Leafa looked much older than Suguha, but retained the same height. The weight was different, but close enough that she was confident it wouldn't change her actions too much.

Despite looking older, Leafa kept a soft face. Rather than the black hair Suguha had, Leafa's hair was blonde and tied in a ponytail. The hair reached all the way down to her lower back. If the hair was down, it would probably even brush against her butt. Her bangs were loose, but well-kept. On either side of her head was a long braid that reached past her neck and framed her face.

Suguha was a particular fan of the emerald eyes she gave her avatar. They stood out from the blonde hair nicely.

The starter clothes were pretty basic. Conservative, too, which actually surprised her a bit. The shirt was covered by leather armor which hugged her features tightly. Unlike Suguha, Leafa had larger breasts and curves.

Her legs were mostly bare thanks to the short skirt which only went halfway down her thighs, but she hoped she could find something to cover up as soon as possible. Finally, leather boots that reached her shins brought the whole thing together.

She stood motionless. There were no instructions on what to do when she was finished. Had she missed them? She started to look around but as she turned her head, a new box popped up asking if she was finished like it read her mind. She pressed the "Yes" button.

Again she was surrounded by a column of blue light. This time, instead of reappearing in a room of white, a city that looked like it had come straight out of a fantasy novel came into view.

She was in a large circle with a monument at the center. She looked around and saw other people walking around. She wondered how many were other players. She quickly looked down to confirm that her avatar was wearing the starting clothes and not just her undergarments.

Immediately she was taken aback. The world looked so lifelike. It wasn't quite photorealistic, but it certainly left room for immersion if she suspended her disbelief even a tiny bit.

"Wow."

The word escaped her lips before she could stop them. The voice, which she had picked out herself, was different from her own. When she went through the voices, she closed her eyes and imagined hearing them from someone she had never seen before. This one happened to sound the cutest to her.

Suguha took her first step in Sword Art Online. There was a long pause between her first and second step as she gushed over the first. The sound of her boot hitting the stone bricks. The weight of her new body supported by her legs.

A new popup appeared in front of her. It told her how to open the game's menu with a gesture.

She held her right hand in front of her and put her index and middle finger together and swiped down on the air in front of her. The popup disappeared and was replaced with a list of buttons.

Character. Inventory. Skills. Friends. Options.

She pressed the button for friends and followed the subdirectory to add a new friend. She typed on the keyboard that appeared the name her brother had told her before she went to her room to start playing. Kirito.

She sent the request. There wasn't even time for her to consider that he had given her a fake name, or that he would just ignore the request and pretend he never got it. The request was accepted almost immediately and she was greeted by a message in her peripheral vision.

She tried to turn her head to see it easier, but found the interface moved with her head. It was annoying, but she directed her eyes over to the message before it faded away.

Kirito is now Online.

She looked around, but nothing popped out to her. She wasn't sure if he was anywhere nearby or not, and she was too embarrassed to ask aloud with so many potential strangers about.

She decided that he knew the game better than her and that he would find her no matter where she went. She started to walk toward some stands on the outer edge of the circle she spawned in. Between all the stands, there was a variety of options.

One stand sold food, but there were only two options: black bread and cheese sauce. A single look at the poor, dry excuse of bread convinced her that stand wasn't worth a second look.

Another stand sold jewelry. Another sold weapons. One advertised itself as a crafting stand. It sold thread and needles, a large hammer, a carving knife, and other tools whose purpose she wasn't even sure of.

One stand did have clothes, though. There was a green cloak that caught her eye. It was hooded and long enough that she could cover more of her legs. She approached the stand hesitantly. She wasn't even sure how much money she had. Hell, she wasn't even sure what the currency of this world was called.

"Hello, ma'am," said the vendor. He rested his arms on the cart. "Something catch your eye?"

Suguha looked at the different options, but her eyes kept going back to the green cloak. "How much for this cloak?"

The vendor pursed his lips and moved his mouth from side to side, putting on a show of thinking up a price. "I'll tell you what, for you, let's say 20 Cor."

Cor. That must have been the currency of this world. She hesitated. She put her fingers together and opened the menu. She found it without needing to click on any of the buttons.

Total Balance: 0 Cor.

She closed the menu and awkwardly looked away from the vendor. She wasn't sure if the man was real or not, but it was still embarrassing. "I'll keep that in mind. I might return for it," she said.

She walked away quickly, afraid that someone had overheard and might judge her for being so stupid.

"Sugu," came a voice from behind. She turned to it and there was a boy standing there with the green cloak she was just looking at extended toward her. He had long black hair and his face looked like some handsome high schooler than every girl would fawn over.

She took the cloak and put it around herself in a hurry. It reached past her knees and she could tie it at the front to stop it from blowing up. She smiled brightly and then looked back up to meet the man's eyes. "Onii-chan."

Author's Note: So there are a couple changes to the SAO we all know. They aren't trapped, as it turns out. Sugu is here, too. I really like her character, but I want her to have her time without Kazuto needing to be in a death game for two years, so I introduced her now.

Character avatars will mostly be what they showed in later VR games. For some characters, like Kirito and Klein, they had their avatars displayed before SAO became a death game, so I used those designs for them whereas Suguha's avatar is essentially Leafa from ALO.

This story is going to be pretty drawn out. I won't detail going through every floor, because that's absolutely insanity, but it will focus on their adventures in-game. While the players aren't trapped in SAO, the majority of the story will still take place in there.

Some things about the game are going to be different. I want SAO to be more like a real game. Since limiting everyone to close-quarters-combat is pretty limiting from a game perspective, there will be more ranged players using weapons like bows. I kind of want to add magic, because I can't think of a good way to add healing without it and an MMO without healers is pretty garbage. The problem is I'm not sure I want to go full ALO for the magic or if I want it to be expressed more conservatively. I'm open to suggestions.

I'm not sure if I want to include Asuna in the story. Technically, she only tried SAO on a whim. It's very out of character for her to play it, but perhaps I can say that she enjoyed it enough her first time to keep playing? Still seems kinda OOC for her, but if people want her in the story I have no problem rolling with it. I do like her character.

Romantic feelings and sexual scenes will be exchanged between several different characters. I don't want to call it a harem because Kirito's goal isn't to make every girl on the main cast his girlfriend, but that doesn't mean feelings can't be built up and reciprocated.