Character Introductions:
Zane: A robot ninja with the power of ice. He is one of Sensei Wu's ninjas.
Sensei Wu: The teacher of the ninjas.
Kirito: The online persona of Kazuto Kirigaya, and one of the 10,000 players trapped in the VRMMO Sword Art Online.
Chapter One: The Game of Swords
May 21st, 2027
It was a beautiful day in Ninjago. The sun was out, and birds were singing. Zane's screen was full of warnings from his anti-virus software. Zane blinked several times, trying to make sense of his current location. His last thing he remembered before this deep slumber was updating his operating system to Windows 10, but a fatal error message popped up, and then there was darkness.
His calendar read... No, that couldn't be! Surely ten years hadn't passed since that update! The calendar read May 21st, 2027. Zane got out of his bed, wiping away ten years worth of dust from his body. The bedroom of Destiny's Bounty remained unchanged in his area, but small differences could be seen in his fellow ninjas' bunks. However, dust had seemed to have covered his friends' belongings as well.
Zane walked over to his wardrobe, his joints creaking every step he took. He found his ninja robes covered in a thick layer of dust. He geared up and exited to the deck of the ship, and found Sensei Wu gazing longingly into the horizon.
"Sensei! Have I truly been incapacitated for ten years?" Sensei Wu turned around, preparing for combat, but then slacked as he saw it was no attacker approaching, but Zane.
"Yes Zane. I've been patiently awaiting your return."
"Where are the others?"
"Here, come to my study." Sensei Wu beckoned for Zane to follow him to his room in which he meditated. However, in the room, the walls and tables were filled with printed news articles about a game called Sword Art Online. "Two years ago, in 2025, true, full-dive virtual reality was created. A game was made for the Nervegear, the name of the console. The game was an VRMMORPG, a virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The game was called Sword Art Online.
The company making the game only shipped 10,000 copies of the game, so demand was high all around the world. However, as the world soon found out, there was a catch. There was no logout button! Players couldn't log out, and removing the Nervegear from the players' heads caused microwaves to destroy their brains." Zane gasped in horror. "Whatmore, when a player dies in the game, they die in real life too."
"Why would anyone create such an awful game?" Asked Zane.
"Nobody is really sure, as the director of the game has died from what seems to be a suicide."
"So, what does this have to do with the whereabouts of Kai, Cole, Jay, Lloyd, and Nya?"
"After this incident began, Jay felt compelled to save those poor souls trapped in the game. He found a way for someone without a copy of Sword Art Online to log onto the servers of the game. However, if you logged on through Jay's hack, you would also be stuck. That soon became apparent when all of the ninjas, except you of course, logged into the game."
"So they're all trapped in the game?"
"Well, seven months ago, we suffered the loss of Jay." Wu's eyes began to tear up. Zane could only sit there in shock. After a few moments, Zane spoke up.
"I cannot just sit around while my friends may be getting killed in some death trap of a video game. I shall avenge my fallen comrade!"
"I can't ask you to put your own life on the line."
"What good is a ninja if they can't protect the innocent. Where is this 'Nervegear'?" Wu pointed his wooden cane towards a crude looking helmet in the corner of the room. Zane pulled the helmet over his head, waving goodbye to a sad looking Sensei Wu. Once the helmet was secured to his head, the world around him faded into oblivion.