It happened to be somewhat of a sunny day on her way home from school. On a patch of grass just beside a bus stop sat a lone girl with oddly-colored hair. Her natural light blue hair had common streaks of purple in it. She also wore her hair up in a bun, as if she was playing some sort of sport. She looked oddly young, for what type of clothing she was wearing, that being a high-schooler's uniform. She had the body of an early Junior High student, looking about thirteen. This, however, was not the case.

The girl had been sitting in the most shady part of said patch of grass, just tinkering with a smartphone and sipping on an iced tea. She hadn't been waiting for much, other than a package to arrive at her house. It wasn't set for delivery until later that night, so she had time to kill. What better way to kill time rather than to sit in the shade, and drink iced tea?

Well, if you asked any other person with at least an ounce of common sense, they'd disagree.

Once the girl had finished her iced tea, and threw away the plastic cup it was stored in, she decided to catch a bus, and go straight home. Sitting around wasn't working out the way she had planned.

Once on the bus, she had started to stare out the window. Just something to look at on the short way home.

Soon, the bus pulled up at another stop. This, being very close to a residential area. The girl hopped off the bus, and started to walk back toward a light green house surrounded by a small yard. The girl hurried up the front steps, and quickly went inside.

"I'm home, mom!" The girl called out.

"Kiristina!? Where have you been?" An older woman called out to her, before walking out to her. "It's past five o' clock!"

"Er.. I just wanted to run some errands." She lied.

"Hmmm... Alright. There's a package for you on the table, honey." The girl's mother said to her before walking back to the kitchen, where she had been doing laundry.

The girl's eyes opened widely, almost instantly. Oh HELL yeah! She thought to herself. She almost tripped over herself while she took her shoes off, and ran toward the table, noticing a rather large box. This had been it- the great wonder she had been waiting for. She carried it down the hall, and into a rather small bedroom with a desktop computer and a few figurines on a desk in the corner, and a single bookshelf full of manga. She tossed the box onto her bed, and dug through a pile of things on her desk, finally finding a small pocketknife to open the box with.

The girl sliced through the tape sealing the box quickly, and almost ripped out the contents. Inside was a headset-looking thing, and a video game. She set the game on her desk, and looked at the headset. -NerveGear- it read on the outside of the headset. She grinned a bit, and sat down on her bed, pressing various buttons on it. Nothing happened, of course. She plugged all of the necessary cords into the necessary spots, that being into several USB slots on her computer, and into an outlet for a power source.

She then set the headset on her forehead, moving over to the box she had set on her desk. She had read that this was a famous MMORPG, capable of literally putting the player inside the game, with the help of the NerveGear. It was supposed to cut off all sensory in your body, and manipulate your body into thinking you were actually inside the game's world.

On the cover of the box, a castle-like structure was seen floating in the sky, with only a few words written in the center of the box.

Sword Art Online.

The girl's heart skipped a beat, being so excited to finally play this seemingly revolutionary game. She set the disc into the disc tray on her PC, and installed the game quickly. She then pulled the NerveGear over her head now, and leaned back in her chair. A window appeared on the inside of the NerveGear's screen, asking for a language. She inputted her language, and logged in. She had registered for an account the day she purchased this game and the NerveGear.

Text then appeared on the screen, along with sounds. For this girl, she was already seeing all of this with her own eyes, rather than on a screen. "Welcome to Sword Art Online!" It read. Another bit of text came up, saying "Link Start." Now, the girl's body went limp. She had no control over her body in the real world. This was only a normal feature of the NerveGear, however. The girl closed her eyes until all of this noise stopped. At the very end of this noise, just before it stopped, she could have sworn she had heard static, and then some sort of voice.

The next thing she knew, she was waking up in the middle of a field. Is this normal? She asked herself. She thought she'd supposed to have spawned in some sort of town. She shrugged it off, and started to look around. She looked down at her hands, which already had gloves on them. The clothes she was wearing certainly looked different from her school's uniform, but kept the same coloration. A nice touch, to put it.

She noticed a broadsword on her back, which she then tried to unsheathe. The sword had a weight to it, but it barely seemed like it'd hinder her performance. She had looked around, and only noticed a small road, a tree, and a cabin. She slowly moved toward the tree. She then noticed a male laying under it's leaves and branches. He had black hair, and wore all black, especially with a black trench coat.

Footsteps.

The girl then knelt down behind the tree as she saw a girl with bright, orange hair and some sort of red and white military uniform approach the boy. She had a greenish-blue rapier sheathed to her left hip, as well.

"Kirito-kun~?" The redhead spoke, leaning over the sleeping boy.

Kirito-kun? Are they friends? The girl thought to herself.

The boy stirred, and sat up slowly. "Ah.. A-Asuna-san!?" He seemed startled. The girl had to hold in a laugh.

"What're you doing, sleeping out here? I've been looking everywhere for you!" The redhead, apparently named Asuna said toward this boy, named Kirito. She hadn't known these two prior to entering this game. She tried to lean over, and get a better look, but slipped on a patch of leaves, and landed on her side, just over to the left of where she originally hid.

This drew the attention of the other two. The eyes of the other two met the girl's, and she knew that they were taken back by an eavesdropper.

It was in that moment, that the girl had only two words on her mind, and the only two that could describe every emotion in her mind at this particular moment.

Oh shit.