Authors Note:
Very first thing, I would like to apologize for this horribly maligned, bastard child of a "chapter."
I might not be the greatest writer, but I generally take pride in my work. I'm not proud of this, but it's not really a finished product. It's not a preview really, since nothing else is written or available elsewhere. It's not a pre-release, I'm not really trying to gen-up a bunch of readers or something of that nature. Like it says, this is a beta test.
I'm trying to figure out how to put this story together and decide what does and doesn't work before I finalize the plot. Plus, I want to fit into the fandom. I don't want to write something no one is interested in reading. Not so much the story itself, but how I tell it.
For the story, I expect that anyone who likes the Aincrad arc will like the overall plot of my story. Since basically my plot is that the game isn't cleared on floor 75 but they have to play though to floor 100 and challenge heathcliff. I think basically anyone can get on board with that ending. I also plan on sticking to canon as much as possible. Because of this I'm introducing a whole cast of original characters and sub-plots. Also, I'm planning on inventing a whole bunch of backstory for the main cast. Which, of course, means I'll break continuity with say Gun Gale (which I haven't read/seen yet anyway.) but also means I can have interesting interactions and basically makes any of Reki's characters I write about 10x more interesting to read and write.
Which is really where I need help, advice, an editor… Something. Headcanon is not my speciality. I really don't want to go OOC but I'm just not capable of writing 10+ characters that aren't entirely faithful to the later adaptations but also fit comfortably into a headcanon I don't have any experience with. I'm not a native of the Fandom.
This story has been kicking around for at least six months after I watched marathoned the entire first season. I then puked after finishing ALO and in a drunken, (or probably drunken. I could have been too stoned (ahh seattle) to remember that it was a drunken rant. But I'm going with drunken rant. It at least sounds fun and exciting!) anyway, ranting*
"Oh My God. That was so bad. Fuck. I need to fix this. I'm going to fix this! goddamn it. I hate fairies. THEY MUST DIE. Actually, forget the fairy fuckery. Who needs fairies? I can just write my own ending without the fairies…. I CAN FIX THE ENTIRE THING. I will make everything better and happy :) yay! I'm writing fanfiction, again. yay!... Oh god why?!"
*I imagine my rant sounding something like this. In truth it was probably whinier than this. And even less intelligible. anyway, I sat down and wrote like 4-5000 words. Kinda figured out the basics of the story and promptly, (thanks Apple, iOS 8 is a piece of shit), deleted all my notes and writing materials I had accrued over the past 5+ years. Thankfully I recovered most of it because I have backups of my backups, backup. but I lost the notes for the SAO ffic I was playing with. As you know, no notes and writing is like a caterpillar making a cocoon and transforming into a butterfly. It might be amazing at the end, but the entire time it's just. WTF am I doing.
This all got re-kindled when Monty Oum died and I sent a friend links to SAO:Abridged as an anti-depression token. My story concept came up during the ensuing discussion and I've been developing it into a fully fledged conceptual outline almost daily during all of february. You have no idea how many notes I have, like, over 30,000 words. I think I'm maybe half way done with that before I start serious writing. So this is a big project, probably around 250,000 words. I do, and really would like some help with it.
Thanks and stuff.
Anyway, without further adieu (albit, there was a lot to start with), The Monstrosity, a Gorganic Titan, my Bastard Child and Sun of Cthulhu:
Beta Test Edition! Kenjutsu Online: Chapter 1
PS: The main character is massively in flux right now, I really don't like him that much so if you don't like him don't worry he will be a better character when I write the real story.
PPS: If for some strange reason you DO like him, don't worry he will only get better and more likable as time goes on and I further develop the story.
PPPS: My introductory credits are totally sarcastic.
Baai ni nomi no baai to
場合にのみの場合と
IfandOnlyWhen Presents
In Association with:
Lame-O-Rama Drama Productions
Based on the Series by Reki Kowakara
剣術のオンライン
Kenjutsu Online
**"Link Start!"**
I felt a sudden a gradual weightlessness come upon me and then nothing. Floating without senses for a single instant, I waited a single heartbeat before falling headfirst into the void. Entering the virtual world, lights began flashing past my eyes in bright colorful polygons before suddenly resolved themselves into….
«The World of Sword Art Online»
«-剣術のオリジナル章オンライン-»
With a sudden pop my world turned white, then blue as my avatar began to form, a faint tingling forming in my chest and and spreading out across my body. After a momentary peak of feeling my body resolved itself into being as the world of Aincrad came into focus around me. A wave of warmth flushed over me and I found myself born into the avatar I had created at login.
As the body formed itself, the warm glow changed into a thumping heartbeat. In the same moment my eyes blinked open, blurry splotches of color becoming the outline of the columns and walls surrounding the central plaza. I looked down below me to see cobblestones, my shoes and finally the partially gloved palms of my hands. As I clinched my avatar's fists, sculpted muscles contracted, rippling the bronzed skin of the powerful Axeman I had created.
I took my first breath as the the audio-engine kicked in filling in the environment, and after a burst of static, music fell upon my ears. A happy renaissance themed tune composed with, violin, long-drum, and lute. Behind the melody I could hear the background of voices, cheering, the creak of leather and lastly, my own intake of breath. The air tasting faintly of the sunlight pouring down upon us from the marbled stone floor floating above.
I, Hideaki Mori, had just logged into the Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game: «Sword Art Online». I looked around, and seeing a cluster of players heading off in one direction, made my way after them.
"Hey!" I called out, approaching them. "Where are you heading?"
"We doth sojourn yonder toward ye olde northern gate." The grin on the over-enthusiastic boy showed that despite his exaggerated manor of speech, he wasn't actually taking the medieval theme seriously. Another member of the group stepped forward and hit the grinning boy on his shoulder.
"Cut it out Indigo." The speaker had the most orange colored hair I could imagine the character generator allowing. "Stop teasing Hondakun." He continued, gesturing toward a nerdy and slightly agitated looking man at the back of the group.
The boy turned and faced his friend.
"Sure thing Ichisaki! I'll be nice!" Indigo started to giggle, reaching up he placed his hand on the tall, orange haired Ichisaki's shoulder. Indigo then chuckled.
"I really like how you Bleached your hair. It really suits you."
He then broke down into laughter, clutching his stomach.
One of the members walked up toward me and grabbed Indigo by the ear.
"Come on, lets get going." He ordered, before calling back to me over his shoulder.
"See you out on the fields, stranger."
"Why don't we form a party?"
After wandering deeper into the city, my attention was drawn by two players talking in front of a market stall displaying all sorts of jewelry. Clad in tan and and green, a player of about seventeen and a girl of maybe fifteen were in the midst of forming a new party.
"Well I don't know, maybe."
Replied the girl to his question, clutching her hands in front of her in mock shyness. Instead of appearing reserved however, this just made her breasts look bigger. I was only half watching where my feet were carrying me and nearly crashed into a player sprinting down the street with a very determined look on his face. He acted like one of the thousand beta testers that already knew everything about the game. I was about the chase after I him to ask him to teach me some of his skills when a player with a red bandana broke off ahead of me and dashed down the alley after him. So much for that.
Instead I turned to the NPC shopkeeper next to me and asked her, "What can you tell me about that weapon."
I reached my arm out, pointing at the weapon I coveted; a solid looking two-bladed axe, the largest weapon in her shop. She smiled and then dropped into a subroutine, explaining flatly.
"The «Great Axe» is a Slashing type weapon with strength based modifiers. It is a two-handed weapon and requires the «Two-Handed Battle Axe Skill». It's price is 1050 cols."
"Right." My deep, masculine voice punched out. Thats more than the amount of gold I started the game with. I turned away, disappointed. The great axe was the perfect weapon for my avatar starting the game, I just had to have it. Thinking about it, maybe I could haggle her down a bit. Clapping my hands together with a loud clop, I spun around on my heal and came back to face her.
"Are you sure? Do you really want that axe to hang up there all day? None of the players here have enough to buy it. By the time the players who have made money come back through the gate it's going to to be late. No one will go shopping, they will just head to the nearest inn and log out. I'll give you 900 col for it now." I offered. Intentionally bidding low. She looked non-plused. I tried to continue, shifting my bid slightly.
"You can use the 950 cols I give you now to buy a new axe and sell that at a better markup tomorrow." She still didn't seem to pick up what I was laying down and just stared at me.
"I'll even tell everyone who asks me where I got your axe how to find your place. It'll be good for business…"
She cocked her head to the side slightly, and looked confused. I looked closely at her facial expression, hoping to see any hint of understanding. The sunlight filtering down shifted like waves of wheat across her freckled cheeks. Every detail of her face popped into focus in a stunning display of graphics realism. At first I was surprised until I realized it was the «Digital Focusing System» which activates when you focus on an object. It came to mind that she was reasonably pretty, for a computer generated character.
Alas, nothing on her face changed. She just looked confused. I sighed.
"Can you give me anything? A deal? 1050 cols is more than I have."
I was beginning to think that, no matter your personality or what you knew about trading and negotiation, the NPC store price was fixed by the game. Haggling is impossible. Except, in all likelihood, there's a skill for that, «Price Negotiation» or something. Finally she spoke.
"Oh. You want money?" She asked before continuing. "If you do me an errand, I'll pay you 150 cols."
It turns out there's a technique to running in Sword Art Online. Depending on how you angle your body and focus on the speed of your steps, it is actually possible to move faster than the natural speed limit of the game. I learned this interesting fact racing through a completely deserted corner of the «Town of Beginnings». I was slightly annoyed that I couldn't talk the shopkeeper down to a better price. With any human sales girl I could have easily charmed her down to something nearly 15% off. Because I was annoyed I wanted to be completely done with the quest and on my way. Since I wanted to be done, I figured out how to run faster. But, running wasn't the only thing I learned during the quest, however it was the most fun.
Now I had my axe, and my first «Primary Skill», the skill for using weapons of the «Two-Handed Battle Axe» class. I wasn't running for a quest anymore, but instead heading for the plains just outside the city gates. I heard players were already heading out of the city to try their luck on against the «Frenzy Boar» that could be found in close proximity to the city. I didn't want to get left behind.
Dipping my head as I passed through the gate, I determined to run out from the city until I aggroed a monster and fought and defeated it. This was my plan. However, I came to a sudden stop when I recognized the bright orange hair of the player I met at the beginning of the game. I could see the same group around him and raced over. Now here was an opportunity, with all of them being beta testers I could become skilled at this game in no time. As I came up to them I determined the best way to introduce myself. However I was somewhat breathless from running, and it came out wrong.
"My Hideaki Mori- is name. Wait. I mean, I'm Kenobi-san." It came out all jumbled up, but I managed to struggle out my in game username. I smiled and waved at everyone. "Shazai," I apologized, bowing down slightly.
"It's weird controlling a body that feels so real. I almost forgot this is a network game." I mock complained.
"Don't you know it brother, my name is Tarbot." Seemingly their leader, Tarbot reached his arm out and I shook it. He looked somewhat older than the average player and had an experienced poise about him.
"You can call me Tarby, if you want. I'm the leader of this lot." He rolled his eyes, but smiled, pumping his thumb back towards his companions.
"It seems you did find us on the fields, after all. Stranger."
"We're the guild, «Bug Catchers»!" One of the members exclaimed, the boy Indigo I knew from earlier.
"It's not the official title. Guilds can't form until the third floor is reached." Deftly dropping down from his perch atop a few rocks nearby, a member I hadn't met yet answered darkly. In fact his entire figure was dark, clothes, boots, armor and hair. His face was pale, but even it had deep shadows darkening it. Only his eyes were different, they were a crimson red and almost seemed to glow in the afternoon sunlight.
"It doesn't matter what the game says, XaXa. If we say that we're a guild then we are a guild. We are playing as a full party of six, anyways."
I quickly picked up on the implications of what he mentioned about party size and jumped right in. "Hey. I know you guys are already a full party, but I was hoping you could give me tips. I trained at Aikido and Sumo in middle school. I could easily fight along with you, and with someone as awesome as I am, its impossible for me get in the way."
I did my best to look impressed with myself, jutting my jaw out proudly.
"Oh really? Aikido?" One of the members replied. "I train in a karate dojo in Okinawa prefecture. I can take you, or anyone."
Tarbot looked like he was about to step in, instead he merely cautioned. "Ok Parallax, just go easy on him."
I shrugged and beckoned with my hands, inviting my aggressor to come at me while dropping back into a classic fighting stance. As he came at me I slipped into the familiar but hated state of clarity and focus that always came to me in the midst of combat.
His first move was a feint high. Chopping downward at first, parallax swiftly changed his balance, kicking out. His right boot slammed directly into my kidney making me wince in imagined pain. However I smiled, fluidly catching his leg and jerking it upward, I had him. Then he moved.
I had forgotten about the in game assist, or more importantly the boost that strength and dexterity give your avatar. Actually there didn't seem to be any martial arts skill in the skill tree, so what he could do was explicitly limited by the stats in the game. However, he somehow managed to leverage an awe inspiring amount of velocity, jumping up and driving a powerful roundhouse at my temple. Reflexes kicked in, releasing his leg my left elbow flew up and managed to block his strike. He backflipped off my shoulder and made a smooth three point landing a few meters away. Even with my high «Strength» stat there was no way I could jump that high.
His head jerked up and he rose. "Wow you are actually good. Nice defense. I am impressed."
"Thanks. Dad." I muttered before answering clearly. "Yeah, but you. How are you moving so well? Our stats can't be so different."
He jumped again, this time bringing his heel directly downward, a finishing move. As we began to clash he shouted.
"«Acrobatics Skill»!"
This time I was ready. Opening my bag of tricks, I shifted into a more hybrid stance and twisted my head and chest out of the way as I slipped to the side. In one fluid motion I grabbed his left hand just as his plant foot touched down and pulled. As he came down his body turned as if in slow motion. When his eyes met mine while he passed me, I unleashed the torque coiled in my torso and drove a blow from my left hand directly into his throat. Before he completely past me I slid into where he had originally landed, stopping at the moment he crashed to the ground.
He gasped for a moment before remembering that a blow that would have broken his larynx in the real world merely did damage to his HP in this game. Instead of choking on the ground he stood up and chuckled loudly, watching as a third of his health dropped away. In the top of my vision a small dialogue window opened, informing me I had landed a «Critical Hit». You could do damage, even without a «Martial Arts Skill» to provide a «Sword Skill» based attack. Actually, you could do a good bit of damage just by landing a solid hit.
"Not acrobatic enough." Indigo teased. "You landed on your back."
That rounded out the party of six I had just joined. There was «Tar-bot» the experienced leader. Then, «Indie-goemon» who was a young medieval enthusiast and gaming forum user. «Parallax» it turns out is actually a «computer programmer» who works in the virtual reality industry. «Hondakun» I found out was a friend of Indiego in the real world, and they went and bought copies of the game together. Finally «Ichisaki» & «XaXa» both met the first day of the beta and were invited to the guild by Tarbot, or «Tarbu-san» much later, in the second month. Together they called themselves the «Bug Catchers» and were mildly famous for finding a bug that allowed players to easily reach higher floors. They reported it, but only after abusing it to reach higher floors than any other players. At least that was the rumor, between members of the group at least.
However after meeting Honda I had a suspicion the «Rumor» could actually be true. Hondakun-san knew every detail and trivia about the game and could answer any question about the development and history of the game. Maybe his parents worked for Argus, like my mother. Something I hadn't told them after introductions was that my mother actually worked on the game. Specifically, she was head of the NerveGear hardware and avatar control interface and feedback development team. The programming team testing the combat and swordskills realism during the early phase of the «Alpha Project». I was playing Sword Art Online using the company issued NerveGear she had in her study at home. She somehow got her hands on a early release copy and gave it to me to play, as a gift.
I posed, «Great Axe» over my shoulder while receiving Ichisaki's exceedingly specific instructions.
"...The best possible angle to swing a «Devastating Strike» sword skill is exactly 83 degrees. You want to aim at your opponents ear to have the maximum chance at a «Critical Hit». Now Kenobi-kun, swing and remember to drive it home."
Aim at the opponents ear? It didn't make sense but I charged my attack anyway. Soon the axe head glowed, bright green light arched through my vision. My attack wiffed through empty air without a target to strike, but the motion itself felt extremely powerful.
Indiego jumped in, "Sweet! Now try it on the «Ruin Kobold Scout»." he shouted excitedly.
After joining forces we immediately set out across the plains to the east until we began to near a ruined stone keep partially collapsed into the lake it encroached upon. During the entire trip Ichisaki explained every detail, advantage, disadvantage, technique to maximize the benefit of «The battle-Axe Build». It mostly fit into what I expected based on my experience in other games using a heavy power-attack weapon. However, there were a few idiosyncrasies you wouldn't normally think of for an axe-type weapon. For example, the axe is actually a slashing weapon which means there is bleed-off damage from the attack. Damage delivered from a normal attack are slow to drain an opponent. Only special moves like «Flaming Decapitation» would do instantaneous damage. Another example is when the axe makes a «Critical hit» and makes a «One-Hit Knock-Out» it can take over 30 seconds to drain off all the damage on a high level monster.
After arriving Ichi gave me a "quick" tutorial on «Sword Skills» and attack combos. The ending of which, just now, agroed the lvl. 1 scouts camped out at the nearby broken tower. As the first Kobold came charging down the hill at us I charged forward and let out a great roar.
"GGAAaaarRRRGGGHGHHH!"
Raising my axe high I charged the «Devastating Strike», hauling downward I aimed my blow right at the humanoid monster's ear. The scout saw the attack and began to dodge, jerking it's head aside and leaning it's torso. The wisdom of Ichisaki's instructions became clear the instant the kobold's neck opened up at the exact spot my axe-head was heading. Red polygons splashed everywhere as the strike drove home. Cutting deep into the creature's throat my attack continued through cleanly, slashing across its chest and finishing out through it's waist. Over half it's HP was gone in one hit.
Unlike every other axe skill I had available to me, «Devastating Strike» was a «Piercing-Type» skill and would deal quickly draining damage and could bypass armor. The downside to using «Devastating Strike» was that it had a very long cool down. I realized how this could be a problem as the Kobold recovered before me and landed a two stroke skill with its knife. Maybe this particular attack was better suited to finishing a combat, not starting one?
As I un-froze after my attack, instinct took over. Blending into the third, incoming stab, my left hand slipped off the shaft of the axe, darting into the reddish glow of its attack my fingers locked onto its wrist. The creature was over extended and quickly tripped when I pulled. I began to really wish for a «Martial Arts» skill as the Kobold stumbled past me dazed and confused. In it's impaired state the Kobold scout was easily dispatched with a second «Devastating Strike». This time my blade buried itself in the creatures shoulder, I had to remove it like a woodcutter chopping firewood after the delay wore off. My axe rose, cutting through the glittering polygons radiating from the dying «Ruin Kobold Scout's» disintegrating corpse. A few seconds ticked by.
"Kenobi! Dude! That was f**king awesome!"
Indiego shouted as he raced past me, drawing his «Curved Sword». Following his example everyone in the group charged forward, weapons high...
After defeating all the Kobold we explored what was left of the ruined keep. The player dressed in all black, XaXa, found a «Small Storage Chest».We were about to open it when Indiego complained from down one of the passageways.
"Hey guys, uh. What happened to the logout button?"
"Why?" Tar-bot asked as Indiegoemon emerged from his tunnel into the crumbling courtyard surrounding us.
"Because, like, mine is not there, Tarbs. My mom is going to tear this thing off my head if I'm not down to dinner by five."
Tar-bot's right hand gestured briefly, pulling open his own menu.
"Yeah, it's not there." He looked around at the rest of the party. "Anyone else? Check your menus. I'm messaging the GM about the bug right now."
As everyone, including myself, waved our arms at the air, "Tarbs" already had a dialogue box open and was typing rapidly on the floating keyboard it provided. Each of us affirmed the logout option was blank.
"S**t, maybe it's affecting everyone. I bet the GM's drowning in complaints right now."
«Parallax» added. Pausing before continuing, he shook his head.
"Still this doesn't really make sense. The software package that manages accounts and login authentication runs on the NerveGear itself and also on the central server. Even if the button is missing it should be easy for the admins of the game to log everyone out automatically…"
His brow furrowed in concentration, thinking hard. As he did I came upon my own realization. My mother had been called in to work today because of some bug with the NerveGear. It wasn't a great leap of imagination to connect the two. Whatever this bug was, my mother would be at the center of fixing it. I thought about saying something, but decided to keep my peace when Parallax continued.
"Since we haven't been logged out yet I would suspect this is much bigger than just a simple bug." He looked around at everyone conspiratorially. "I bet its corporate sabotage."
Indiego immediately rebuffed.
"Bulls**t! You're just f**king with us. I bet it's just a simple mistake. Some idiot programmer like you just wrote a line of code wrong. Now the whole thing's broken."
Parallax began chuckling. "You're probably right Indiego. Now lets take a look at that chest Mr. yoyo foun-"
"Wait." Indiego interrupted. "How would you logout if the main button doesn't work."
Stopping mid-stride Parallax froze and looked troubled. I thought I saw something from the corner of my eye and turned. I noticed XaXa smiling slyly from where he stood, arms crossed next to the slightly ajar lid of the chest he secretly opened. Stepping away from the chest, XaXa spoke.
"You could up and a-hero. Kill yourself and suicide. Try to logout... in the re-spawn menu. You know that logout should work."
Everyone immediately started arguing about whether or not suicide would allow you to logout. With a simple bit of misdirection the entire party was walking away from the chest and marching up the stairs of the keep. Indiego took the lead, he wanted to jump to his death from the parapet of the decrepit tower. I watched XaXa closely, seemingly I was the only one in the group who noticed he had raided the chest without telling anyone. He had an almost sadistic half smile playing about his lips as he watched Indiego reach the summit of the steps. Just as he was about to jump.
"Halt!"
It was Hondakun, pushing past Tarbs and reaching out toward Indiego as he windmilled at the edge, about to fall. Their arms locked and Hondakun pulled Indiego back to safety.
"What dost yo-"
Indiego's body froze and then slumped. A few seconds passed and nothing happened.
"What hath happened?" Asked Hondakun in surprise, completely slipping into his medieval accent. As everyone looked around in confusion I offered.
"I think that maybe his mother did come in and rip his helmet off."
Someone laughed. It was XaXa, his chuckle sounding slightly disturbed. The body avatar of Indiego began to disintegrate, polygons spreading from his glowing body like flower petals.
"I know it can't happen, but I wish that helmet would scramble his brain. One of these days, that asshole."
To my surprise it was Ichisaki speaking.
"He's really not that bad." Hondakun responded, breaking character. "Once you get to know him."
"Yeah, easy for you to say. You know each other in real life. I bet you're both playing in the same room right now."
"Are not!...fucker." The last word was growled out through clenched teeth. Hondakun turned away and started walking back to the chipped and tilted staircase. Wood creaked as he made his way down. First Ichisaki, then Tar-bot followed him. I waited, watching XaXa. Over nearby, crouched Parallax, with a speculative and concerned look on his face, angled toward where «Indiegoemon» used to be.
Finally, XaXa as turned away, his eyes flashed a deadly crimson in the rays of the setting sun. Turning after a few seconds, I followed him. As I reached the landing, Parallax closed in behind me and spoke, almost whispering, over my shoulder.
"Why did his avatar disappear?"
I almost stumbled down the final flight.
"If he only got disconnected by helmet removal shouldn't his body just be collapsed until he logs back in to control it?"
He was really onto something, possibly serious, going on on release day. Then Ichisaki yelled at us from the courtyard.
"Quit it with those conspiracy theories in the back! «Indiegoemon» isn't here, its a perfect time to open the chest and divvy up the loo-"
As Ichi stopped dead staring at the lid of the chest, XaXa turned to look at me. His maroon eyes meet mine before his head shook once. I really didn't know these guy's very well. It really wasn't my business who was cheating who. Thus, I held my peace for three minutes of frantic searching. Finally XaXa hinted that it had been another guild that had snuck in, possibly the Fuumaningun ninja clan from the beta, and stole the contents of the chest after we raced upstairs. The remaining five members of the bug catchers looked back and forth for a second and began running back toward the plains and the town, shoutinh. I followed them.
There was, (Obviously), no sign of any thieves and we slowed to a trot and after few more meters, started walking. It was then that XaXa spoke up.
"Since «Indiegoemon» isn't in the party. We should add Kenobi."
"That's a good idea." Ichisaki added. "Six is the most efficient party size, it will make fighting any monsters we find on the trip back easier."
"I doth concur, verily." I could see why Indiego was joking about Hondakun's accent when I first met them. It was obnoxious. Tarbs opened the dialogue and sent the invite. After joining I turned back and looked at the sunset winking at the rim of the first floor disk. A bell rang.
Each of us was surrounded by glowing blue light. I felt weightless, and then my surroundings and companions disappeared in a flash of white. In the second that followed my companions returned but we found ourselves near the back wall of the central plaza in the «Town of Beginnings».
-剣術のオリジナル章オンライン-
Looking up, I saw that the sky was bleeding. Red goo oozing from between the «System Warning» message tiles. A singularly impressive voice projected through the courtyard, drawing every player's nervous attention.
"Attention, players. I welcome you to my world."
The phantasm spoke in an almost, but not entirely, robotic voice.
"My name is Akihiko Kayaba. And as of this moment, I am in control of this world."
Parallax jerked perfectly straight and gasped.
"I knew it."
I barely heard him, his lips moving just inside my peripheral vision.
"I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menus - the logout button. Let me assure you, this is not a defect in the game."
He paused for a second. The entire plaza was dead silent.
"I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how "Sword Art Online" was designed to be."
Several of the players around me, including Hondakun, gasped in surprise. A player near us complained loudly.
"Hey! You can't do that. We have lives to…" He never finished as the voice boomed through the courtyard.
"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the "NerveGear" from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."
Hondakun looked around, tears beginning to form in his eyes. Obviously taking the line of reasoning to it's end. His suspicion was soon confirmed by the monotone voice.
"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear, an unfortunate decision, to say the least.
As a result, the game now has two hundred thirteen less players than when it began.
They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world."
Hondakun screamed in horror. Each member of the bug catchers reacted in varying degrees of horror and surprise. Realizing like Hondakun did, that, if what Akihiko is saying is true, that the player, no, the person they knew as «Indiegoemon» was in fact dead. Killed by the NerveGear frying his brain when his mother ripped it off.
Several system dialogue windows appeared, circling the massive, faceless figure in the center of the plaza.
"As you can see, international media outlets have round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game."
Clear the game?
"It's important to remember the following:"
It stated, before listing off the most important guidelines of Aincrad.
"There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game.
If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system... forever. And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain."
If you die in the game, you die in real life.
"There is only one way for a player to escape now - you must clear the game."
Clear the game!
"Right now, you're gathered on Floor One, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor."
Despite the impact of what he was saying, Akihiko's voice betrayed no emotion as he listed the final guideline.
"Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game."
Clear. The. Game. His words echoed through my head. As he paused for a bit words of dissent began to echo around the plaza. I heard some someone in the crowd ahead of us shouting.
"We can't clear all 100 floors… That's freaking impossible... even the beta testers never made it that high!"
The puppet began speaking again. Continuing in it's monotone.
"Last but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player.
Please have a look."
Every person in the plaza moved as one checking their item storage and materializing the new item placed there. A mirror? I looked down at it, my Axeman's brawny, weathered face reflected back at me. A slightly older, but not entirely inaccurate rendering of my own visage I had made at login. The world turned blue then white.
*Pop*
Something went wrong as I heard a very distorted electronic sound and lost my vision and then all my other senses. The real world began to fade in from around me and for a brief second I could hear the sirens outside our front door. My eyes blinked open momentarily, I was lying down, a uniformed figure leaning over me. Before I could act the NerveGear restarted and I was pulled back in.
I could see the system dialogue option for logout. but I couldn't interact with it because of the popup asking if I wanted to «Load Alpha Data». Due to some strange error I returned to the real world for a moment. Now I could see the logout option but couldn't choose it. I was that close and logging out was impossible. Without any other options offered to me, I clicked «Ok» and soon reappeared in the square in a burst of light. Everyone else in the party had just finished transforming and were staring into their mirrors in disbelief.
The very first thing I noticed was how much shorter I was after whatever just happened, happened. I looked down at the mirror in my hands, to see, reflected back at me, the face of a girl. She looked about 16 or 17, only a little older than me. I took me a long second to realize the female avatar staring back at me was actually, me. My heart stopped and my blood froze.
What the?
Someone spoke from nearby, their words just barely registering on my ears. Regardless of volume I could barely hear anything. "How does the NerveGear know what I look like?"
But this girl I've become... Looks nothing like me.
I'm a male, Hideaki Mori. 15 years old, 182 centimeters tall, 120 kg and starting my first year of highschool.
What happened, could it be something related to the «Load Alpha Data» I saw when the NerveGear rebooted?
I was confused, emotionally and mentally. Tears began to form in my eyes, something I couldn't control. I could still hardly hear anything, almost as if there was something wrong with the calibration of the NerveGear.
"Hey! Kenobi." This time it was a person wearing the same gear Tar-bot had on earlier, however the person was a young teenager not a thirty-plus war veteran. "You're really a girl?" He said in a slightly awestruck tone, reaching out his arm for a shake. I automatically reached out for it but somehow missed and nearly fell over in the process.
Something was seriously wrong with my body, no, the new female avatar I was now controlling. Everything was wrong and bad. I fell to my knees, unable to articulate speech, my jaw hung open crookedly as I looked around the square.
Tar-bot was only maybe slightly older than I was and generally unremarkable except for a strange look of experience about him.
Parallax looked exactly as you would expect a japanese computer scientist to look like. In fact his face was somewhat similar to that of Akihiko Kiaba, except narrower and with more stubble. His hair was long and pitch black. The contours of his eyes looked like they were naturally suited to glasses.
Next Ichisaki, who's hair was a redish black, was frozen looking up at the figure preaching to us all. On his chin was a scruffy goatee, tending more to the red hues, his eyes a sharp blue. XaXa changed barely at all. Actually he looked exactly identical to what he did before. Hondakun… was a girl. Definitely on the nerdier side of things, she had occasional freckles and her face definitely needed glasses.
Across the square players were twisting right and left, pointing at their mates and strangers, doubtless realizing that they had all been transformed into their real world selves. Here I was, of course, dazed and confused. Struggling to control a body that wasn't even mine.
"Dude, what happened to you." It was Parallax approaching. "Your name tag says Mayonaka, it was Kenobi before."
Surprised, I looked up into the upper right of my vision and saw that my playername was in fact changed to «Mayonaka», not the «Kenobi»-san I created a login. Something really was wrong with me, with this avatar.
I had to get away from whatever was going on in the plaza. I stood up and stumbled toward the columnade encircling the plaza for support. Tar-bot was trying to help me up but I pushed him away clumsily. Staggering, I stood up fully and walked along the wall, using it to prevent myself from falling. As I left he said something, all I heard was gibberish,
All i heard was. "...cool you're a girl." As my hearing faded in and out, it wasn't clear what he wanted as I staggered away. But I responded with some form of explanation.
"That's not... I'm not... I think something went wrong."
I glanced back and forth at the other members of the party.
"I-I need to go, I'll b-be right back."
The only sound I could really hear was the booming voice of Kiaba as he continued.
"Right now, you are probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this?"
Why? Why?
"Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design."
Slowly circling the plaza, I made it to the gateway into the rest of the city, but it was blocked by an invisible barrier.
"As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online."
Sword Art? All my muddled, disoriented brain could think was. Art of Swords? Swordplay? Kenjutsu?
"Players, I wish you the best of luck."
A girl of 12 or 13 cried out nearby. "My god... No!" The barrier collapsed and I began stumble-running away from the plaza, figuring out proper balance as I went. As I left I could hear the cries of the thousands behind me, but couldn't make out a single word. Something was seriously wrong with this avatar.
As I reached the final gateway, I stopped next to the iron hinge of the gate and gazed out over the entire first floor. I dropped to the avatar's knees and tears splashed from my eyes, streaking down my now softly curving cheeks. Shit.
...I blinked, my vision ablur, streaks of color slashing through it around the edges. My skin seemed to almost burn. The distorted, hard to hear sound of my panting breath dissipated, replaced by an excruciatingly sharp static. I screamed as all my senses began to twist and distort wildly. My hands flew to my face, trying to shield it.
It was gone. Whatever had been happening was no longer affecting me. I opened my eyes and saw a painted canvas landscape. Somehow my vision was clearer and even more detailed and colorful than even before Kiaba's announcement. My hearing was fixed but extremely sensitive. As my arms fell down I felt the coarse, cottony fabric of the purple shirt I was wearing sliding across the skin of my narrow forearms.
I heard footsteps and turned around. The shirt fabric riding against my chest, catching on my… the avatar's breasts. Nearly tripping on my shoulder, the same player I had almost crashed into at the start of the game shot past me. I wasn't entirely sure it was him, since his face was different, however something about the determination in his eyes was completely identical, powerfully reminiscent.
Every one of my senses felt amplified and almost painfully so. Howeverm after several seconds, as if some force of the universe heard my thoughts, the gain lowered and my senses mellowed out enough to not actually hurt. Every one of my senses felt sharp and crisp, but no longer painfully so. The loose ends of the shirt drifted across my stomach in the crosswind, but it no longer scratched and prickled. The material of the pants, somewhere in between cloth and leather, slid across my thighs.
Skinny, narrow thighs that no longer had anything between them, I might add. I was, in truth and detail, 100% completely a girl now. In this world at least, I was a true girl in this avatar.
Fresh tears welled up in my eyes and I felt my face pickle up at the realization I trapped in this world. Not so much that I wanted to be back in the real world, but because in this world I was free from my father, but completely unable to form my own identity. As long as I was in the game I was away from his controlling, traditionalist, rules, but despite that I still had to become someone I wasn't. This, Mayonaka, who's avatar I had somehow found my way into.
The words of Akihiko Kiaba echoed through my head again,
Clear. The. Game.
How was I supposed to do that? Trapped in a body that wasn't mine, I would have to figure out a way to play and fit in with the other players, or always play alone. I could be a solo player, like the kid who just ran past me. But I didn't know enough about the game to quest by myself safely. I would have to figure out how to use the axe skill in someone so short, some of the larger axes were likely taller than me.
The only solution to the height problem was using something like the «Acrobatics» skill I had learned about from Parallax. With that thought I opened my menu to add the «Acrobatics» skill in my second «Primary Skill» slot. I gasped in surprise. The high, very girly sound I made caused me to gasp a second time, like hiccups. In my two skill slots were filled in very different skills than were supposed to be there. I had the weapon-type «Archery» Skill and also a healing-type skill called «Weak Regenerate».
I was more than just in another player's avatar. Archery wasn't even in the list of weapon skills you could choose on the first floor. They're weren't even any bows or arrows in the entire game as far as I knew. The weak regenerate skill looked like an extremely high level skill, an ability only the highest level players in the game would obtain near the end. Something extremely weird was going on with me.
Another player passed me, heading out into the growing darkness. He had a plan to beat this death game. Because that was what this was, a death game. He had it figured out, developed a plan. I too needed a plan for how to clear this Death Game… However, unlike the two players who had already passed me, indeed every player in the game, I would have to clear the game in an avatar that was in no way similar to the person I was in the real world. This was going to be a challenge.
…. To be Continued.
Author's Further Notes:
Yay! You made it this far. Kudos.
If you want to reach me, email: onlymaxy