"It's beautiful," I sighed, hugging the new nerve gear helmet, all the while staring at the cover of 'Sword Art Online' in awe. Sword Art Online, or SAO for short was the first ever VRMMORPG, and thanks to our rich dad living far away in America, we had one of the 10,000 copies released. By 'we,' I mean myself and my older sister, Yumiko.
"I can't wait to play it!" I squealed, hugging the helmet tighter. Then, with one last squeeze, I sat it next to the game case to admire.
"Yeah, that's if you don't break it first," Yumiko said, not even half heartedly. Her eyes were still glued to her smart phone.
"I would never!" I gasped, gently kissing the top of the nerve gear.
I saw her roll her eyes. "You know how we are with electronics," she commented with the same lack of interest in the conversation. Then I saw, as if to prove her point, her phone freeze.
She tapped the screen and pressed all of the buttons, but to no avail.
"Speak of the devil," I sighed.
"Yeah," she stood up and semi-gently tossed her phone onto the couch. "You hungry?" she asked walking towards the kitchen.
"Yeah!" I said immediately. "When aren't I?" I followed her into the kitchen.
"Why did I even ask," she sighed rhetorically.
"We should start setting up the nerve gear. SAO starts in a few hours," I informed her.
"Go ahead." She started rummaging through the cupboard.
"Can you at least act enthused?" I complained, pouring a glass of water.
"Go ahead! Yooh!" She cheered exaggeratedly. Then she scowled.
"Ba-de!" I said, sticking my tongue out at her.
We both laughed and she sat two bowls of cereal on the table.
"Who's going first?" I asked, taking a bite and nearly spitting out the spoonful of stale food.
"Doesn't matter to me," she said, taking her own bite, "but I have to work at three." I started laughing. Before she could ask why, the awful tasted registered in her mouth and she spat it out. She scratched her tongue against her teeth for a few moments. "Want some pizza?" she asked, getting up and heading towards the fridge.
"Then I guess you can go first," I sighed. "And definitely to that pizza." I scraped our nasty cereal into the garbage and put the bowls in the sink.
"You can go first. This is something that means a lot more to you than me," she said, pulling the box of pizza out of the fridge. "How many?"
I chuckled slightly at how we could have multiple conversations at once and still understand each other completely "4. And I really want you to try it. Who knows, you might get hooked." I sat a plate next to her.
She plopped the cold but nonetheless appetizing pizza onto my plate and I headed over to the microwave with it.
"Alright," she agreed. She retreated into the living room, likely to check up on her unresponsive phone. "Put mine in when you're done please," she called over her shoulder.
I nodded in her direction, shoved my plate into the microwave, and set the timer for 60 seconds. I stood and waited until the timer went off, twisting my blonde hair mindlessly. I half-listened to the constant hum of the microwave, waiting for my thoughts to be interrupted by the beep. Coming out of my trance, I glanced at the timer, and noticed it displayed 'ERR' instead of numbers, and was still cooking.
Sighing, I reached for the handle to pull the small door open. The second my hand made contact, a loud pop made me jump away. After taking a moment to recover from the sudden sound, I looked through the small window and frowned. There sat my pizza.
..
..
..
On fire.
..
..
..
Frowning, I ripped the plug out of wall, and grabbed the fire extinguisher from the floor next to the microwave stand. I popped open the door, and the smell of flaming pepperoni invaded my nostrils. I squeezed the handle of the giant red can and put out the fire. Sighing again, I dumped the foamy pizza into the garbage, letting the burnt plate go with it.
Just as I was pulling a bag of chips out of the cabinet, my sister pranced back into the kitchen.
"What happened?" she asked, taking in the smoke in the air.
"Fire," I sighed, plopping into the kitchen chair.
"Again? You pyro," she teased, moving over to the center of the smoke.
"Oops," I teased back.
"Looks like we'll be needing a new microwave. Again," she said, peering into the box.
"Sorry," I said half-sincerely, picking a chip out of the bag.
"You know," she said, sitting across from me, "I think this is a sign."
I stopped the chip headed for my mouth. "That we shouldn't eat?" I asked, looking at her in horror.
"No," she rolled her eyes and I started munching away happily. "A sign that maybe we shouldn't play SAO..." I raised a questioning eyebrow that spat 'explain'. "Well, first my phone, and now the microwave. Maybe it's a warning."
"Seriously?" I asked, my brow still furrowed.
"Yeah."
"Paranoid much?" I teased.
"Pyro much?" she winked back.
1 o'clock, Sunday, November 6th, 2022 was almost here. Ten minutes away to be exact.
"Done!" I exclaimed contently as I looked at the completed set up of Sword Art Online. The NerveGear was prepared, and the game itself would be online the second it could connect.
"Yay," my sister sighed.
I rolled my eyes. Shaking it off, I started again "Ok, let's go over this one more time." Since this was her first VRMMORPG, MMORPG, and RPG in general, I wanted to be sure she knew what she was doing.
"I know, I know. Name the avatar whatever I want, make it look nice, but how I like because that's changeable, set the age to 16, try not to get killed too fast, keep a good reputation, don't spend too much money, the weapon is sword, and log out by two." She recited it perfectly before I could even begin to tell her again.
Stunned by her perfect recital, I shook my head and hugged her. "Exactly!"
She smiled sweetly in return.
2 minutes.
"Thank you for doing this for me," I smiled. After all, she was more into socializing than gaming, and I was the only reason she agreed to try this.
1 minute.
"Have fun!" I exclaimed as she slid the NerveGear on, and laid down on the bed.
She nodded.
"Link start!"
Her face went placid as her eyes closed and she went into the game.
I smiled and watched her for a few minutes before deciding to go watch some anime.
I was halfway through an episode of my favorite anime when the TV did something strange. The picture disappeared and was replaced by a screen with broken up colorful boxes, accompanied by an obnoxious beeping.
I glanced at the clock. 1:50. Yumiko should be out of SAO soon.
Sighing, I went up to the TV, and reached for a bundle of cords, hoping that if I yanked the right one properly, it'd work again. The second my hand touched the black wire, the TV started playing loud dramatic music.
Out of curiosity, I crawled over and plopped onto the floor in front of the TV. "BREAKING NEWS" was flying across the screen in big bold red letters. I waited as the scene changed to a reporter with puffy red eyes, and a pink nose standing in front of what looked like a cooperation building, a sign reading 'Argus'. Wow, she looked like crap.
"Breaking news," she sniffled. "It has recently been discovered that the popular new VRMMORPG, 'Sword Art Online' is actually... a death trap!" I jumped at her next actions: she dropped the microphone and burst into tears.
Wait.
What did she say about SAO?
I watched intently waiting for more information, hoping this was just some cruel joke, or that I had misheard her. A death trap? This couldn't be real. How stupid did they think we were?
Seconds later, the screen went black. Slowly letters appeared on the screen, and I read them carefully.
"Consumer Alert!
It has recently been discovered that players of the popular VRMMORPG, 'Sword Art Online' are not able to log out. The situation was first thought to be a bug, but moments ago, a note was found in the office of Kayaba Akihiko, creator of Sword Art Online. It said that the game is not a mere game, and that if players in the game die in game, they die in real life too. The situation is under investigation. Until then, do NOT attempt to remove the NerveGear of a player, since forced removal will cause the same result. So far, 213 deaths have been reported related to the game. Since all copies of Sword Art Online were requested to be registered with an address, an emergency dispatch team should be arriving at the locations of all players soon. But if you do know anyone currently in game, please call 911 regardless. Please act quickly, because it is unknown how long players' physical bodies will remain stable. Once again, do NOT remove the NerveGear, and contact 911 immediately."
I stared at the TV, shocked beyond belief. No, it couldn't be true. Could it? No, there were regulations on this kind of thing. This was impossible. Any moment, Yumiko would come into the room, and we'd laugh it off. Right. Right?
In disbelief, I stood up laughing and headed to my room, where Yumiko was playing.
Entering my room, I sat on my bed. I looked at her placid expression for a minute, then shook her shoulder, telling her it was time to log out.
2:20. She'd be back any minute now.
I waited, then I shook her again, telling her she had to go to work soon. Man, she must be having a lot of fun.
2:30.
Angrily, I shook her a bit harder, yelling that it was time for her to come out, it was my turn.
2:40.
The sound of sirens filled my ears.
2:45
Everything was hazy, it sounded like someone was pounding on the door, but everything was too foggy to know for sure. I laid down next to my sister. This was all just a dream. I heard people shouting. I heard beeping. Then I heard nothing.
..
..
Where was I?
I looked around, only to see blackness.
Oh wait, were my eyes closed?
Mentally laughing at myself, I opened my eyes. Or at least tried to. They felt like they weighed a hundred pounds. I tried again, and saw some light peek through. Again, and more light.
As my eyes slowly started to obey me, my memory did too. I was in Yumiko's room, waiting for her to come out of SAO.
"It looks like she's waking up," I heard someone say.
Yumiko?
No, that voice was deeper.
"Yukiko?" I heard my name.
I started to notice a steady beeping sound. I tried to sit up but could only twitch.
"Here," the voice said.
I felt a ton better as something cool hit my forehead. My eyes opened more and I looked around. The room was bright, almost all white. I was on a bed. The beeping seemed louder. The lights on were on the ceiling and had an industrial look.
"Where am I?" I tried to say, but only a soft 'whh' came out.
"Yukiko, you're at the hospital. You passed out. When the paramedics came to retrieve your sister, they found you on the floor. After you passed out, you hit your head on the floor," the voice informed me. "Can you hear me?"
I nodded the best I could, but it still didn't make much sense. Why did the paramedics come for Yumiko?
"Get some rest."
I couldn't really do much, so I listened to the strange voice, and let myself slip back into the blackness.
..
..
"She woke up once, but she was out again in a few minutes" he trailed off.
"What incident?" I asked again.
This time the other man spoke. "It was discovered that everyone in 'Sword Art Online' is trapped there. It has been dubbed 'The Death Game,'" he said somberly.
"..." I said nothing. There was nothing I could say.
"How do you feel?" Dr. Mei asked after a minute of silence.
"Where's Yumiko?" I asked, the information still setting in.
"Calm down, Yukiko," he said.
"Where is she?!" I demanded frantically, sitting up and looking around.
"She's right over here. Do you want to see her?" the older looking man asked.
I nodded and he motioned for me to stand. I stood up, and he quickly reached out to steady me. Slowly he guided me to the other side of the curtain that had kept me from seeing what was on the other side of the room.
As we rounded the corner, I became aware of several things:
First, was the steady beep of a heart monitor.
Second, was my sister laying in a hospital bed, NerveGear on, and the same placid face as before.
Third, this wasn't a joke. At all.
And lastly, that it was my fault my sister was trapped in the Death Game.
A/N
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and please review, favorite, and follow. Also, I understand this chappie was a bit choppy, but it will get better, I promise!
Also, a thanks to my beta animeawesomenesslover !