This is my First ever Fanfic. I do no own this Sword Art online and other formal stuff. Just enjoy the story!

Sword Art Online – Hollow Reminiscence

Part 1

A memory is a precious thing. Even without a soul, a one can know what kind of a person they used to be. Living without memories alone can be difficult, difficult to find an objective, a motivation, and most importantly the will to keep living. The other thing that bothers him is his identity. The doubt crosses his mind: Do I actually exist? Not knowing the answers to these questions can mislead a person, and can drive him crazy, especially if that person is living in a world ridden with monsters and swords.

The first thing I saw when I came into this world was the sky. The beautiful night sky filled to the brim with glimmering stars. Almost made me think that this place was harmless. Until an inhuman roar rang through my head like a bell. I instinctively bolted up from my previous laid back position and quickly glanced around. Once again, the roar echoed, clearly coming from the nearby forest. Maybe I was a curious person, because the next thing I know, I was headed for the forest, while a normal person would hightail it out of here. As I approached the source of the roar, something leapt through the trees, too fast for my eyes to apprehend. Following it was a clawed hand, which suddenly popped out from the bush in front of me, nearly taking my arm of if I hadn't dodged. As all humans did when they sense fear, I ran as fast and far as I could from the hand and its owner, until I reached a wide open clearing that almost seemed to be conveniently placed for a fight. Suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck stood, warning me of the impending threat.

"Get out of the way!" a voice cried out from somewhere in the trees. I didn't have enough time to look for it since a pillar of fire erupted from between the trees in front of me. Once again, I narrowly dodged it, only having the tip of my sleeve singed. But the extreme level of heat was obvious. It felt as if it could easily melt through three 10-foot thick steel plates. Just as I was thinking nothing else could surprise me anymore, a lumbering four-legged serpent-like creature stomped out of the dark forest, ground trembling with each step. From between its closed jaw, flames seeped out. And adding to its intimidation were rows of razor sharp teeth that shone as the creature roared at the sky, letting loose another pillar of flame and torching the unlucky trees. Finally, it looked down at me, eyes white as milk. As for me, I could barely move. My heart however, could right now easily beat a drummer at his own game. The creature inhaled, building up its flames, ready to cook me medium rare. But just as the pillar of flame was about to hit me, I felt something grab my collar and pull me away from fiery doom.

"Did I make it in time?" the same voice that I heard just now said again "You didn't get roasted, right?"

"I-I'm fine….I think…." I replied, checking if all of my parts were still there. They were. I turned around to look at my savior, but the creature's roar forcefully grabbed my attention once again.

"We'll talk later, this Drake is a threat right now." The person who saved me stood up and produced a dagger from the back of his waist. Then he looked at me. "Come on, put that sword on your back to good use, I can't do this alone."

Sword? I reached for my back and wrapped my fingers around a thin cylindrical object. I pulled it out, finding a long glimmering silver blade attached to it. It really was a sword.

"Good. Now do your best to distract the Drake." the person said, twirling his dagger in his hand. "I'll hit it from the side, and oh yeah, don't die."

"Wha-Wai-!" but before I could say anything he was already halfway to the Drake. If my job was to distract it, I should do it, even if I had no idea what was going on. So I just bolted straight towards the Drake, sword in hand. Once I was in front of it, it roared at me again. But this time, it received a nice slash from me. The impact left a bright red scratch on its skin, making it bellow in pain. The Drake then hefted its foot and brought it down on the spot I was standing a second ago. I again swung my sword in a horizontal arc across the Drake's leg, forcing another roar of pain. It was then I spotted a green bar above the Drake's head, which was down to half. Something then told me that the fight was just beginning. I heard the other person shout out something, but I only heard some inaudible speech. Instead, I found myself staring at the Drake's eyes, which were starting to give of a red glow. Then it threw its head back and roared, but this roar was powerful enough to shake the space around it. Its scales suddenly stood straight, like a porcupine.

"Not good! Hey you, get back! This is not an ordinary Drake!" the other person shouted, panicked. "We have to go back, this wasn't included in the data I got."

It's too late to retreat. The Drake's attacks probably got multiplied in all attributes, so it could do much more damage in addition to further range. The only way to escape this alive was to kill it. I clenched my sword and jumped towards its head, pierced its milk white eye. Then I planted my feet on the top of its skull, and took my sword into both hands. I don't know where I got this knowledge, but I planted my sword into its head, and felt the power of the Drake flow into my veins. Once the absorption process was complete, I leapt of the head and faced the Drake. I clutched my sword in both hands and let the Drake's power merge with my sword.

"Ignis Draco Forum!" I let the stored Drake energy loose into a horizontal swing, which in turn released a flame cloaked shockwave that tore through the Drake, leaving nothing but data shards that shattered and dissipated into the starry night sky. Once the silence enveloped the forest again, I sighed and planted my sword into the ground and slumped down. Glad that's over.

"What was that?"

I looked up, seeing a person approaching. It was the person that saved me from being medium rare cooked. So I guess we're even now.

"Don't worry, the Drake is dead." I said. I looked up at the person, and that's when I noticed that my eyesight was a bit blurry. Probably the ash. I rubbed my eyes and looked back at the person. Standing there was a girl with shoulder length auburn hair, front bangs swept to the left. She was wearing a button-up collared shirt and a brown coat over it, along with brown pants and boots. And she looked as if she had just seen a ghost. "What?"

"I have never seen a Sword Skill like that! Did you use an item?" she asked excitedly. "Or is it your sword? If it is, I have to do a better job at collecting."

"Stop. Wait a second." I rubbed my temple. Her onslaught of questions suddenly gave me a headache. "I'll ask the questions first, if you don't mind. Where am I?"

"Hmm? Are you serious?" she said as if I was crazy. "This is the 35th floor, more specifically, the Forest of Wandering."

"35th…..Floor….?" those answers seemed to just brew more questions in my head. But before I could ask any more questions, the girl stopped me.

"Look, it's cold out here, can we talk back in town?" she said, grabbing her arms. Now that she mentions it, snow seems to be covering the ground, and I do feel as if I was going to freeze. "My name is Akari."

She held out her hand. But I just stared at her. A name. What was my name?

Part 1 End

Thats it for the first part. But the Storys far from over...