Virtual Expectations (Chapter 1: The Neighbours Club)
Date: Friday 8th September
Time: 10:53
Place: School Bulletin Board
"What's with this?" I questioned myself, looking at a poster as I had felt a presence nearby. "Whoever's out there, come out."
"Crap..." I heard as I could see a blonde girl creeping away.
"I know you're trying to get away, I can see you right now." I stated, making her stop. "I mean with those big pillows, it is way too obvious." I thought to myself, as I felt my face become warmer. "What am I thinking?"
"Don't mind me, I'm just passing by." She replied, with a little chuckle at the end, clearly trying to get away.
"You're not fooling me." I thought to myself as I let out a sigh. "Sure." I replied, playing along
"So you're the transfer student right?" She quickly turned around, focusing her attention towards me.
"Yeah, Kazuto Kirigaya, ready for duty." I say, as a little joke to warm up to this person.
"Oh? Then lick my feet." She replied with an unusual command. No a completely bizarre command.
"I said it as a greeting and what kind of request is that?" I questioned, seemingly increasing her temper.
"What do you mean? Commoners like you would kill to lick me feet, or even tap me." She looked down on me, despite her being shorter.
"Weird." I sighed, not allowing her to hear my comment.
"What'd you say?" She asked as I looked at the poster again.
"Ever noticed that?" I asked her as she looked over to the poster. "The attention is drawn to the picture, clearly obvious that this club is about making friends."
"Crap. That's a terrible drawing."
"Yeah it is, although, look here." I pointed to 5 Kanji characters, in a diagonal motion.
"'Recruiting Friends'." She had read out loud.
"Correct. I guess anyone with keen eyes would be able to point that out." I smiled, hopefully being able to join the club I saw in front of me. "By the way, do you know where this club is located? You're from this school so you should know."
"Yes. I go to it." She replied with an unexpected comment.
"What, someone like you, needing friends?" I replied with shock, each word gradually becoming harder to say.
"Yes, despite my popularity, I'm hated among the girls." A silence was left between the two of us.
"I see." I replied, still the silence lingered until she said.
"You know the men hate you?"
"What? What did I do?"
"Your looks, you're quite the attractive man." She smiled to me, completely changing the atmosphere.
"Eh?" I began to feel warmth towards my cheeks again, my face went entirely red as she let out a chuckle.
"I'm Sena Kashiwazaki; it's nice to meet you Kazuto!" She smiled brightly as I blush even harder.
"Calling me by my first name already? Okay. Um, it's nice to meet you too. S-Sena..." I replied, being unable to say her first name without stuttering.
"C'mon, I'll take you to the club room." She smiled as her cheeks became rosy. She grabbed my hands and had led me to the school's public chapel.
"I've been going for a couple of days myself." She stated as I nodded.
"Are there any qualifications?" I asked as she stopped.
"Well, at first they didn't accept me. But when I gave them a reason why I wanted to join, they seem to have accepted it. I guess they only want members who are desperate to join." She explained in enough detail for me to understand.
"Alright, I'll just tell them my reason then. Seeing as I'm hated by the men, I'll say that I want a friend that's a guy." I suggested as Sena smiled.
"That's a good reason. Let's go!" Sena kept dragging me until we reached the chapel.
After coming inside, we had walked through it to get to the other side.
"This is it. Be prepared." Sena told me as I wondered why. "Um, I'll open the door." She said, looking embarrassed, as if she was hiding something. She opened the door to reveal two people sitting down.
"Who's this Meat?" The girl with long, black hair asked. The 'romantic' mood set between me and Sena had disappeared as the word 'Meat' came out.
"Shut up you cockroach." Sena replied, as I saw her blush, avoiding eye contact with me.
"Is that a new member?" The boy with failed blonde dyed hair, questioned.
"Yeah, I'm Kazuto Kirigaya. I manage to decode your secret message. 'Recruiting Friends' and I wanted to join bec-"
"Go away." The scary girl interrupted, playing with her hair.
"Why?" I asked as I began to get mad.
"You're a popular person. Popular people can go die in a hole." She stated, angering both Sena and I.
"Hey! I'm popular too you know?" Sena yelled as the girl kept her cool.
"Yeah, popular people can go die." She stated once again, making Sena, the boy and I sigh.
"Look, I said it once already, don't judge a book by its cover. Why do you want to join Kirigaya?" The boy said, following actual logic.
"Thank you. I wanted to join because as you may know, I'm famous among the girls, but hated by the men. Not being sexist or anything, but I just want a guy friend you know? Having just girl friends is a bit embarrassing and odd." I reasoned as the boy allowed it.
"Alright then, you can join, only because you saw the secret message and because you want friends." She told me.
"Yes, you can join!" Sena cheered as I smiled.
"That's great." I replied as the girl stood.
"I am Yozora Mikazuki." The girl, Yozora greeted.
"I am Kodaka Hasegawa. It's nice to meet you Kazuto." The boy, Kodaka greeted.
"Oh it's a club thing." I thought as I looked at Sena, remembering she called me by my first name.
"Alright, with a new member at our side, perhaps we should think about playing some more games." Yozora stated.
"Kazuto, do you have a PSP?" Sena asked as I nodded.
"Yeah I do." I told her as she had another bright smile on her face.
"Awesome! How much do you love games?" She asked as her eyes began shining greatly, never have I ever seen eyes so beautiful.
"I only play games every day." I smirked as she awed at me.
"Yes! I have a gaming buddy, say, you have internet right?" Sena asked as my smirk grew stronger.
"I have only the greatest internet. Let me guess, you want to play online?" I asked her.
"Yes!" She cheered. I never expected someone as beautiful as her to be playing games.
"Oh right, you've heard of Nerve Gear right?" I asked the girl as she suddenly looked confused.
"Nerve Gear? What's that?" She asked me as I started to feel confused.
"Nerve Gear is blowing up right now, 1,000 people are going to get picked to Beta Test a game called 'Sword Art Online'." I explained as she still seemed to be puzzled.
"What does it do? Who created it?" She asked me as I thought to myself.
"Alright I'll tell you. It sends signals to your brain and back, using an interface built into the rig. It intercepts all your commands you tell your body to do, and it moves your avatar." I explained as the three seemed very eager to hear this from me. "To make things easier to understand, it basically puts you into the game."
"So we can move our bodies in the game without a controller?" Sena asked, getting closer and closer.
"Well the controller is basically our brain. Our bodies in the real world won't move while we play, which is amazing." I explained further as they seemed to get it.
"Let's hope that we get picked for the beta then." Kodaka said, standing up and looking out the window. "Honestly, it sounds amazing."
"By the way, who created it?" Yozora asked me as I took my time to think about it.
"'Akihiko Kayaba'." I replied as Sena suddenly looked really happy.
"I know him! My dad is friends with him, how about this, you all come to my house and we can talk to him in person!" Sena cheered as I was shocked.
"Meet him... Akihiko Kayaba? This is like a dream come true..." I thought to myself.
Later on that day...
Date: Friday 8th September
Time: 17:02
Place: School Front Gates
"Maybe we should just do it today, it'd make things easy." Sena suggested, looking at me.
"Good idea, I'm glad I met you Sena." I smiled at her, making her blush.
"Do you even realise what you just said?" She asked me.
"Yeah I do! I can't wait to meet Kayaba." I held in my excitement, being ready to play this new game.
"Let's go then." Sena stated as she walked up to a limo.
"This is yours?" Yozora asked, all of us besides Sena being in shock.
"Yes, let's go then!" She cheered.
"I'll follow you guys." I said as I rode on my motor bike, which I had left next to the school gate. It was locked with a special system I had made so no one but me can take it.
Date: Friday 8th September
Time: 17:34
Place: Sena's House
"That is indeed great Kayaba." I overheard a voice, quickly getting excited.
"Hi father!" Sena happily greeted, as I looked at the genius himself, Akihiko Kayaba.
"You must be Sena right?" Kayaba greeted.
"And you're Akihiko Kayaba?" Sena asked, happily shaking his hand.
"Are these your friends? Hold on, Kodaka and Kazuto, it's odd to see you both here." Sena's father greeted the two.
"Is that you Pegasus?" Kodaka and I asked in shock.
"No! Don't call me that name!" Sena's father, Pegasus shyly stated as his face grew red.
"You know my father Kazuto and Kodaka?" Sena questioned.
"Yeah, he and my father were friends." Kodaka answered.
"He's a friend of my aunt." I told her as my attention drew to Kayaba. "Hello Kayaba. I am Kazuto Kirigaya, it is a pleasure to meet you sir. I've been a huge fan for ages." I greeted as he smiled at me.
"A fan eh? You have very good manners despite you looking like a very anti-social person." Kayaba analysed me.
"How'd you know?" I asked him as he smiled once again.
"Your body structure, tone and voice tells me all about what you do. You play games am I correct?" Kayaba asked as I nodded. "Pegasus, perhaps these four would like to beta test for my game." He told him as I hold in my excitement.
"That's a good idea. In fact, my daughter Sena has been interested in these 'games' so perhaps this should be a good experience."
"Good, in fact the beta is coming out tomorrow, and you four filled up the last spots. Pegasus, please look after them. I need to be in the game to check on all the bugs that I need to fix." Kayaba told him as he nodded.
"Alright then, also stop calling me Pegasus!" Sena's father yelled as he stormed off.
"Kazuto, I'm assuming that you really want to play SAO no doubt. So perhaps I'll let you and your friends get early access. Remember that the beta lasts for a month. So you get a month and 2 days." Kayaba told the gang as they all began cheering.
"Kayaba, you have my gratitude." Yozora spoke as we all bow.
"No no, drop the act. Just treat me as a friend as well." Kayaba smiled as he gave us four separate packages.
"I was going to have Pegasus hold these until the beta was finished but it looks like I can finally give the last ones away. Perhaps it was a miracle that there was four left for the four of you." Kayaba finished, about to leave until he stopped.
"Before you play, get familiar with the game. A little tip for you all, keep the same height from you real world into your game avatar." Kayaba said nothing more, leaving the four with their own Nerve Gears.
"Why keep our same height?" Yozora questioned.
"It's to stop our changed height from hindering our ability to play." I answered as Sena held my hand again.
"Let's go play guys! I'll take you to my room!" She told us as the four of us ran into her room.
"This is a bit odd isn't it?" Kodaka asked as we all looked at him.
"What's odd?" Yozora asked as he smiled.
"You know, the fact that we've only just met and it feels like we've been friends for ages." Kodaka commented, making everyone smile including me.
"Let's go into the virtual world. I've seen trailers for the Nerve Gear so I know how to launch it. I'll set it up."
After setting it up, we all turned our devices.
"Link," We all said in sync, "start!"