I will be using the 12 hour clock format for this story, as I have hard time using 24 hour format, because I'm very bad at math and also lazy. I hope no one minds. Hope y'all enjoy!
"A video game? You want me to sit outside a store all night in a rainstorm to buy a video game?" Emiri asked, rubbing her eyes as she held the phone up to her ear. On the other end, her little sister, Sachi, was practically screeching with excitement.
"You don't get it, Emiri!" She exclaimed. "It's a one time offer, and the others and I have been waiting for this to come out for a long time now, but Mom won't let me log on unless someone else dives with me. She said she doesn't want me to encounter any bad people in the game. Please, Emiri?"
Emiri sighed heavily, glancing across the room at her desk, where her clock sat displaying the time. 5 in the afternoon, and this supposed wait began that evening. She rolled over in her bed, closing her eyes. "Fine," she exhaled. "I'll go, but I don't know what you expect me to do in this game."
"Oh, thank you! Thank you, thank you so much, Emiri! Since none of us can drive yet, would you pick us all up later?"
"Sure. How many of your friends are coming?"
"Everyone's coming; me, Tetsuo, Ducker, Keita, and Sasamaru. Is...that too many?"
"No, it's fine, Sachi. I'll see you guys then."
"Alright. Will do. Thanks again, Emiri!"
The line beeped, and Emiri set her phone down on her nightstand, rolling over and curling into her blankets with a sigh. Her sister could be annoying, but she was much too sweet to say no to, at least for Emiri. Of course, Sachi wasn't really her blood-related sister, not that she knew that. Emiri had been adopted into the family when she was just a year old after her birth parents died in an accident. She'd found out the truth when she was 14, three years prior, but Sachi had no idea they weren't actually related, and Emiri had never had the heart to tell her.
There were still a few hours left until she would have to go and pick up Sachi and her friends, so she decided to take a small nap. After all, she would be awake for a while that night. So she reached over to set her alarm and laid back down, closing her eyes and letting herself drift off to sleep.
The next day, Emiri couldn't stop yawning. She was utterly exhausted, but somehow Sachi and her friends were still wide awake, even after staying up all night to buy copies of the games each of them now held. According to them, the game would officially be available to play that afternoon, and all of them planned on heading in as soon as that happened. Emiri would be staying at the house where she'd lived with Sachi and her mom before beginning college that year so that she could accompany her in per their mother's request.
Once they had dropped Sachi's friends off at their houses, Emiri started for the house. Sachi was rambling excitedly about what the game was about. It was an MMORPG game, or massive multiplayer online role-playing game. Most of it was completely lost on Emiri, but she couldn't let Sachi know that; she was too happy to hear her excited about something.
Once they arrived, Sachi retreated to her bedroom to get some rest before the opening of the game. Emiri took her old bedroom, which had been cleaned out except for the bedding. The room brought back a lot of memories, not all of them good, but she was only there for Sachi. Besides, their mother wasn't even home, as she had already left for work.
It felt like she had only been asleep for a second when Sachi was suddenly at her side, shaking her violently to wake her up. "Emiri! Emiri! Emiri, come on, wake up, it's starting!"
"Sachi..." Emiri groaned, rolling over, but she was relentless and decided to jump on top of her to get the point across. Emiri gasped, shoving her now giggling sister off of her chest before sitting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
Sachi leaned up and handed her a huge device that looked like a motorcycle helmet. "Put this on." She said. "I'll do the rest." Emiri took the helmet and, after looking it over for a moment, put it over her head of long, wavy brown hair. She laid back on the bed just as Sachi put on her own and laid next to her.
"When you're ready, just say 'link, start!'" she said before closing her eyes and repeating the words herself. Emiri took a deep breath before saying them too. Immediately, her vision went dark and streams of colors replaced her old bedroom.
A series of startup processes flashed in front of her before it gave her a prompt asking for a name and avatar. After scrolling for a minute, she picked the avatar that looked the most like her, except with blonde hair instead of brown. Then, for a name, she decided to just go simple, and typed in Emiri.
After she had finished, a bright light flashed around her and she found herself standing in front of a huge fountain. Next to her, five other people spawned. It was easy to tell immediately who they were, especially since Sachi ran over, grinning, and threw her arms around Emiri the moment she appeared.
"Isn't this amazing?" She exclaimed. "We should go check out the gear stores!"
"I think there's one this way!" Keita led them over towards a large tent filled with other players. Emiri was shocked to find she was enjoying herself, and before she knew it, it was five thirty in the afternoon.
Emiri started and reached over to tap Sachi on the shoulder. "Hey, Sachi, it's getting late, and Mom is probably back by now."
Sachi's face fell as she looked at her own clock. "She's right, guys, we should go."
"Aw, it's okay, don't worry about it." Keita assured them.
Emiri went through her menu until she found the place where the logout button should have been. "That's weird." She muttered. "It's...it's not there."
"Mine isn't either." Sachi added.
The others all frowned before checking theirs too. "The logout button's gone." Sasamaru stated. He sounded slightly scared.
Keita took the initiative to try and make them feel better. "It's probably just a bug. This is the first day, remember? I'm sure there's lots of bugs. Hopefully the GM can get it fixed soon."
Emiri frowned, unable to shake that weird feeling from that morning. She put her menu down and sat on a crate nearby. Sachi plopped down next to her.
It wasn't too much longer before things started to go awry. Another bright light, like the one from when they'd spawned, flashed around them, and the six of them found themselves standing in the middle of a huge courtyard with thousands of other players.
"What's going on?" Sachi asked, grabbing onto Emiri's arm.
Emiri shook her head, craning her neck up to the sky as she caught a glimpse of a red light above them. "I have no idea."
The red light multiplied, getting larger and larger until it covered the entire area, closing them in a blood red colored dome. Sachi pressed herself into Emiri's side and Emiri put her arm over her shoulder, still watching the sky.
A series of startled gasps sounded as red liquid, like blood, started dripping through the top of the dome and formed a figure in a red cloak. Sachi was practically trembling now. "Who is that?" She whispered.
"Maybe it's the game master?" Keita tried to reassure the group, but it didn't work. Emiri felt her stomach drop as the figure began to speak.
"Attention, players." It said. "I welcome you to my world. My name is Akihiko Kayaba and, as of this moment, I am in control of this world."
Emiri vaguely remembered reading about him on the back cover of the game; he was the game's creator, and the creator of the Nerve Gear itself. What was all of this about?
"I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menu; the logout button. Let me assure you, this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be."
"What?" Emiri mumbled. "What is that even supposed to mean?"
"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the Nerve Gear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the Nerve Gear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."
Sachi whimpered. She was trembling all over now, and Emiri did her absolute best to support her while also trying not to collapse herself. Was this guy serious? If someone tried to take that helmet off of her head...she would die?
"Despite my warning," Kayaba continued. "The families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the Nerve Gear, an unfortunate decision to say the least. As a result, the game now has 213 less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world."
"Oh my God..." Sachi pressed her face into Emiri arm, and she could feel the tears starting to stain her avatar's clothing.
"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 Nerve Gear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. Its important to remember the following; 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 Nerve Gear will simultaneously destroy your brain. There is only one way for a player to escape now. You must clear the game."
On her opposite side, Tetsuo shook his head furiously. "He's crazy...we can't clear the game! It's impossible!"
"Right now, you are gathered on Floor 1, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game."
"This is insane." Keita mumbled.
"Last but not least," Kayaba kept going. "I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please, have a look."
Sachi lifted her head and swiped down to get to her menu. "It's..a mirror." She seemed confused as she took it, and then a bright light enveloped her. "Sachi!" Emiri shouted, afraid something was happening to her, but when the light faded, Sachi--the real Sachi--stood before her instead. She looked like she did in the real world, except she still wore her avatar's clothes.
Emiri let out her breath before going into her own inventory and grabbing the mirror. The same light flashed around her before it faded and suddenly the blonde hair of her avatar was replaced with her actual brown.
"What the hell?" Ducker asked, looking at himself in his own mirror. "What's going on? Why did he do this?"
Keita put a hand on his shoulder, nodding at the figure of Akihiko Kayaba still hovering above them. "I think he's about to tell us."
"Right now, you're probably wondering why." Kayaba said. "Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and Nerve Gear, do this? 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. As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck."
With those final words, the cloaked figure dissolved back into the red liquid, and disappeared, taking the red dome with him. For a split second, the entire courtyard was dead silent. Then somebody screamed, and suddenly everybody was shouting, demanding Kayaba let them out of the game. Sachi collapsed against Emiri's shoulder, and Emiri went down with her, holding her as she cried.
"What are we going to do?" She cried out between her sobs. "We-We're going to die here!"
"No." Keita knelt down next to them. "No, we're not going to die." He was still staring at the sky, as if he expected Kayaba to reappear and tell them it was all a joke and they were free to go home.
"We're not going to die." He repeated. "We're going to build up our skills, and we're going to survive."