There's no way back. That's all he could think. Just 10 seconds ago, Kayaba Akihiko announced the truth behind Sword Art Online. If a player were to die in this game, they would die in real life through destruction of the brain. Kazeshi stood there, bewildered at the news. Never did he suspect that he and every other SAO player would be put in this position.
1 hour earlier...
"C-can you please teach me?" she said with her head bowed. The girl had approached him when he was out in the field fighting some boars, just outside the Town of Beginnings. Kazeshi stared at her. She wore standard beginner's equipment, the only noticeable difference being the short black cape she wore down her back. She had fair peach-colored skin, brown eyes, had bangs hanging to ear level and wore her black hair to her shoulders.
"Your name?" he replied.
The girl looked up and had a confused look on her face. Then, realizing her mistake, blushed and said, "Oh, sorry. My name is Suku. Nice to meet you."
Kazeshi held out his hand and said, "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Kazeshi."
After a moment's hesitation, she took his hand and shook it. "So, um, can you please teach me how to fight effectively?"
She seems kind of shy, thought Kazeshi. Must be her first fulldive.
"Sure, I guess. But why ask me?"
"Well, you looked like you knew what you were doing. You haven't lost much health while out here, and I've seen you fight four of those boars at once. I figured a beginner would find that difficult, but you seemed to beat them with ease." Suku averted her eyes for a second and said, "I've already dropped to the yellow zone after three fights."
Kazeshi went into his inventory and materialized a health potion. He threw it underhanded to Suku and she caught it. "A potion, just in case you drop into the danger zone."
"Th-thanks." Suku stuttered as she put the potion away in her inventory. "Were you by chance in the beta testing for SAO?"
Kazeshi scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I've had more experience than most. But I'll be glad to teach you if you want."
Suku bowed her head again. "Thank you, I'll try my best to learn."
"First off, you don't need to bow your head like that. We're equals, I just have more experience," Kazeshi said with a smile. Funny, he thought, how she considers herself weaker when her handshake actually hurt a little.
Raising her head and blushing again, Suku replied with, "Alright, teacher."
Kazeshi opened up a menu and scrolled to the Social tab. While sending her a party invite, he stated, "And don't call me that either. I hate teachers to begin with, and it makes me sound superior. Just call me Kaz and that's fine."
Hitting the accept button, Suku said, "Okay, uh, Kaz."
Grinning, Kazeshi said, "Ah, much better. Now, I need to see how you fight. You know how to use sword skills, right?"
"Sword skills?"
Kazeshi stared at her, saying nothing.
"Wh-what? Is that bad?"
A few more seconds of silence, and Kazeshi broke out into laughter. "No, that's actually amazing!"
"But, didn't you ask if I knew how to use them?"
Kazeshi finished laughing and said, "The main aspect of this game is the sword skills, yes, but not using them is more impressive because that means you're fighting with your own might. You would probably surpass me easily if you used them."
"R-really? Then, how do I use them?"
"It's easier to show than explain. Let's find some monsters and train."
Half an hour later...
Suku cut a boar in half with a sword skill and sheathed her longsword at her hip. A window opened in front of her, stating the items she had gained and that she had leveled up to level 4. Kazeshi walked towards her, clapping his approval. "Very nice. You're getting the hang of this fairly quickly. People are going to start confusing you for a beta tester soon."
Once again, Suku blushed and said, "You think so?"
"Definitely. So, have you found a shield yet in a drop?"
Suku checked her inventory and scrolled through everything. "No, I haven't found much except for some junk items and ingredients for food and weapons."
Kazeshi lowered his head for a moment, in thought. "...Give me a month from now, and I promise I'll give you a shield that can surpass any drop you can get by then."
Suku stared at him. "Eh? But how?"
Kazeshi smiled. "I've got some ideas. But we should probably log out for today. I'm starting to get a little tired."
"Aw. Do you really have to go? I was just getting used to everything."
Is this the shy girl from 30 minutes ago? I guess this is what she's like when you get to know her. "Don't worry, I'll give you a friend request so we can meet up later."
"Alright, I'll see you later then."
"Right, it was nice to meet you, beautiful."(Author's Note: This is a joke as "ut'suku'shi" is Japanese for beautiful.)
"Be-beautiful?" (Author's Note: She doesn't get it.)
Kazeshi turned away and grinned. "Anyway, see you tomorrow."
Still blushing, Suku nodded. "Bye."
Kazeshi opened up the menu and went to the log out option. Or at least, where it should be. "What the hell?"
Suku turned back around. "What is it?"
Kazeshi kept staring at the menu. "The log out, it's gone!"
"What?!" Suku opened up her own menu and checked. "Wh-?! How?! They're practically obligated to put one here, right?!"
After closing the menu, Kazeshi said, "Yeah, it was definitely there during the beta. How could they screw that up? Could there have been a hack or an accident in the coding?"
"If the log out isn't there, then we can't leave this world right?"
"Yeah, our consciousness will be stuck in the characters until the admin force log us out. But I doubt that absolutely no one has tried to log out, so the game masters must know about-" Kazeshi stopped as a bell began to read in the distance. "Is that an announcement bell?" Kazeshi said.
Suku frowned a little, but then they both started to glow blue. "Eh? Kaz? What's going on?"
"Don't worry, I think it's just a forced teleport. We're going for a ride, apparently."
And with that the two teleported to the plaza in the Town of Beginnings, where Akihiko Kayaba made his announcement, and Suku realized how close to death she had been an hour ago.