So first things first, I have to shout-outs to make. The first is to IF-HBomb for giving me the idea for a worm to allow people to watch SAO from the outside. The other is to Tobias Kitsune for allowing me to use the character dynamics from his story Paper Cuts which I highly recommend, best modern AU of RWBY I've read. I do not own SAO or RWBY. Now as this is fanfiction expect multiple things to be different from the originals.
Chapter 1- First day in a virtual world.
Jaune's POV
"GET OUT OF MY WAY LOSER" thud. That would be Weiss Schnee shoving me out of her way. My name is Kiiro Aku. I'm 15 and a sophomore.Weiss a girl who goes to my school, Beacon High, and one of my four personal tormenters. Weiss is a transfer student from Germany, I asked her out once and now I'm a perverted loser apparently. Then we have Blake Belladonna she apparently thinks I'm some kind of stalker because I looked at the books she reads to get recommendations. Yang Xiao Long is next, I don't even know what I did to her. And last but not least Pyrrha Nikos, I became her friend years ago when her family moved next door from America. Yet as soon as we reached High school she ditched me and acts like I don't exist unless it's to make fun of me. With those four being the most popular girls here I soon became the outcast of the whole school. As soon as I stand back up an arm is wrapped around my shoulder and I turn to see Yang grinning at me.
"So Aku, I have a paper on the life cycle of a Cherry Blossom tree due on Wednesday and I don't have time to deal with that so you get to do it." This isn't the first time she's had me do her homework and it won't be the last. I simply sigh and nod and Yang 'thanks' me by only knocking my books out of my hands. How I hate this place so much, sadly it's one of the best high schools in Japan. At least the day is over. I then begin my walk home. I hurry home for once because today is the day Sword Art Online launches.
SAO is the most awaited game for VR systems ever. Its graphics, processing, AI, and maps are some of the best ever. I should know I was a Beta, it's how I met my only two friends. Well we don't know each other IRL, in real life, but they are the closest thing to friends I've had in a long time. Sure I was friends with Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie before freshmen year but they started dating at the end of the previous school year and I became a third wheel that was slowly forgotten. Anyway back to my beta buddies, Kirito is a tech genius who had the fastest reaction time in the Beta. The third part of the trio is Ruby, fastest player in the Beta and the only scythe wielder. Me, I went by Jaune Arc. Yeah, not real original but Kirito let it slip his name was his IRL family name and his name put together. I had the best defense and HP recovery time, together the three of us were the only people to beat a last week event.
Kayaba, SAO's creator, felt that as Beta's we should have a chance to transfer some of our skills over to the actual release so he made a dungeon where if you made it to the end you could transfer two stats and two skill levels of your choosing. It was agonizingly hard and near soul crushing but the three of us made it to through the fifty floor dungeon. I went with my defense, strength, battle healing, and shield skills. Ruby went with her speed, strength, scythe, and tracking. And Kirito went with strength, agility, one-handed sword, and hiding. Before the Beta ended we promised we would meet up when the game actually came out. With this in mind I'm practically running home. When I arrive at my house I notice all the lights are out, once inside I find a note. Alright let's find out the excuse to ditch me this time.
I have seven sisters who are a mixture of track, baseball, kendo, and swimming stars who go to a special girl's only school that lets out earlier then my school, it costs so much that I can only go to Beacon due to scholarship which didn't help once Yang found out and made it public. I may be exceedingly bright but compared to the laurels my sisters bring home I can always expect to be eighth place. "Kiiro we all went out for a spa weekend to celebrate Furora (Flora) getting offered a place on the Japanese track squad for the next Olympics. Please water the plants and don't stay up to late." I crumple the note and throw it in the trash. Of course a whole weekend away from me, the failure of the Aku family. How grand for them.
Putting my stuff away I head upstairs and set up my Nervegear. In about five minutes SAO launches and I can head back to the only place I feel I can belong. It's agonizing to wait but I put the Nervegear on my head as soon as it's ready and sign in. I black out for a few seconds and when I come too I'm in a field of flowers. In the distance I can see the town of beginnings, I'm torn from the view when someone calls out to me. "Hey Jaune is that you?" turning around I see a tall, blue-eyed, red headed girl (Kallen from Code Geass), a black haired boy that looks like a typical anime hero, and a red headed shady looking Them I'm a brown haired ,red eyed boy, I made sure my avatar looked nothing like me. Respectively their Ruby and Kirito, I don't know the other guy though. "Hey you two. Who's the extra?" Kirito is the one to answer me "His name's Klein, he realized I was a Beta and begged for tips. It would have felt like turning away a lost puppy." I get a good laugh at Klein's reaction and then the three of us proceed to teach Klein the basics while working on regaining the skills and stats we didn't bring over from the beta. Ruby really wasn't happy that items couldn't come over and she had to use a beginner scythe, a gift from Kayaba. He apparently felt it would be a shame to take away the weapon of choice of one of the top three betas and scythes aren't available till the 6th floor.
"Just how are the three of you so good instantly, I understand having knowledge from the beta but your stats?" we share a look before Kirito answers for us. "There was an event that happened at the end of the beta. If you completed it you got to transfer over the levels of two skills and two stats. As you can tell we succeeded." Klein nods his head in understanding before slapping his hands together "Hey you should come meet my buddies I bought the game with." All three of us are uncomfortable with that idea. Just because we hang out together doesn't mean we like hanging around others. I don't know Kirito's reason but Ruby once mentioned an overprotective big sister leading to her having no friends.
Sensing how uncomfortable we are Klein says it's okay if we don't and then mentions logging out to eat but when he pulls up his menu he freaks out. "Where the hell is my log out button?" we check out his screen and see that his log out button is missing. Pulling up our own menus we see ours have disappeared as well. Ruby is the first to freak out. "Oh my god, where's the log out? How do we get?" I get her to calm down while I hear Klein and Kirito discussing this mishap. We then hear a bell chime and we're teleported to the plaza in the Town of Beginnings. Looking around it appears all of the ten thousand players are here. Everyone is chattering and I notice that when some people try to leave a barrier is keeping them in. I'm entirely on edge now. Suddenly a giant robed figure appears in the sky.
"Hello players of SAO, I'm Kayaba Akihiko. This is too announce the new conditions of SAO. I've locked every one of you in here. This a true death game now, the only true rule now is to survive. All deaths are permanent and will occur IRL as well should you fall in game." He pauses to give the crowd time to digest this and I here Klein ask if he could do that. Kirito answers his question without even looking at him. "Locking us in would be child's play for him, as for killing us the battery in the Nervegear could do it." Kayaba then begins to speak again "I have already alerted the authorities and explained that attempts to remove the head gear will end in death. Sadly some people didn't listen and now 218 players are no longer with us." Ruby lets out a gasp and I clench my fists. "Also I have given you all a gift to begin commemorate this event." A mirror then appears in everyone's hand and a flash of light occurs. When it's over I turn to see Ruby is now a short girl with silver eyes and black hair with red tips. Kirito and Klein have also changed into what I can assume is their real appearance. After some momentary confusion Ruby speaks up.
"I understand how he could get out faces due to the Nervegear but our bodies?" the answer hits me soon after "Calibration." They all turn to look at me and I explain "The calibration tests, we had to touch ourselves in order to calibrate the Nervegear." A look of understanding crosses their face and we look to see screens have appeared in the sky showing ambulances carrying off people with Nervegears on their heads. Kayaba begins to speak again. "As you can see I have allowed a brief period in which to transfer people to hospitals, for those whose records indicate they live alone I alerted the authorities to your whereabouts." I begin to curse and they turn to look at me. "My family is gone for the entire weekend and I'm home alone, I'll probably be dead by the time they get back." Ruby begins to tear up and Kirito has a shocked look on his face while Klein begins cursing Kayaba. My eyes are then drawn to a screen and I let out a sigh of relief. "Never mind I don't know how but that's me up there" they turn to see a body being put in an ambulance. I swear I see my four tormenters on the screen, probably heading to Pyrrha's house. I bet they're so thrilled I'm stuck in here. Ruby suddenly tackles me and squeezes the life out of me shouting out how she's glad I won't die.
We're hear Kayaba start up once more. "So the only way to be free is to clear the one hundredth floor. Good luck." The cloaked figures disappears and Kirito grabs Klein and motions for us to follow him. When we arrive to the gate to leave town he stops and turns to us. "Alright things will get hectic soon. I say the four of us head to the next town and begin to get our resources built up before everyone else comes to their senses." Ruby and I agree, we both know resources are limited and some of the best quests are only one time only, but Klein declines. "I've got my buddies in there, I can't just abandon them." This is bad, even with the three of us we can't guarantee the safety of a large group. Klein sees how we're troubled and reassures us he'll be fine. "Don't worry I was a guild master in my last game, I'll teach my friends what you taught me and make sure we're careful." All three of us share a look and agree with him but we put him on our friend lists. Saying our goodbyes the three of us run off and we soon see three wolfs charge at us. We don't even have to look at each other to know the plan. A sword strike, scythe slash, and shield bash respectively kills the wolves and we move on. I may have nothing to actually return to but that isn't true for Ruby and Kirito. Kayaba I swear I'll kill you for this, not only have you placed my only friends at risk but you took this beautiful world and warped it. It's gone from being a place I could escape to and become a gilded cage. So I'll shatter this cage you've built and see to it my friends get home.
So where my Dark Knight of Zero story has moments in Remnant this story will have moments IRL.
Pyrrha's POV
I'm heading back to my house with my friends Blake, Yang, and Weiss. I enjoy hanging out with them but I've begun to regret my choice to stop hanging out with Kiiro. I had a crush on him before and I think I still do, he's always been so kind to me. Yang suddenly smacks herself in realization and turns towards us. "Hey guys we got to stop at Aku's house. I told him the wrong time my paper is due, its due Monday not Wednesday." We agree to stop at his house only to find it locked and for Kiiro not to answer yet we can see lights on in the house. Pulling out a key from under a fake rock that his parents told us I open the door and we go up and find his room. Yang bangs on the door and shouts into it but when that doesn't work she opens the door and we find Kiiro with a Nervegear on his head lying in bed. Weiss immediately begins to insult him. "Of course that dork would be wasting time playing games. Someone just take it off, a few minutes away from his game won't kill him." I move to take it off but Blake stops me.
"I read the Nervegear intercepts signals heading to the brain, we should read the manual and figure out how to safely unplug him or we might cause brain damage." Yang and Weiss surprisingly agree with Blake. Yang says it's simply so he can do her work while Weiss says he's dumb enough already. We find the manual and Blake eventually finds out how to safely disconnect Kiiro, during this time Yang stepped into the hallway to take a phone call from her father. We all here her scream what and assume her sister Rusu (Ruth) took her hidden stash of sweets again. Blake move to take off the Nervegear when Yang enters again with tears flowing down her face, upon seeing Blake she tackles her away from Kiiro. Blake is understandably upset.
"What the hell Yang! I thought you wanted to get him out of that thing." Yang then stammers out an explanation but she's too hysterical for us to understand. Our phones then ring to alert us to an emergency broadcast. "This just in Kayaba Akihiko, creator of SAO, has trapped the ten thousand players in the game. All attempts to remove the Nervegear console have resulted in the battery frying the victim's brain. To all people with friends and family playing SAO do not attempt to remove the Nervegear. Please alert the authorities to their location and assure power is not lost to the Nervegear." Blake, Weiss, and I look at each other in shock. A few seconds later and we would have killed Kiiro. Blake the calls the police and they tell us to wait for the ambulance to arrive.
While we wait Blake tries to calm Yang down, apparently Rusu is trapped in SAO as well. I also attempt to call the Akis but not one of them picks up. The paramedics arrive and take Un away commenting on how he's lucky we were around. Yang's uncle Karasu (Crow) soon shows up in his car and takes us to the hospital where most of the SAO victims are. On a bed is Rusu lying there with a peaceful look on her face. Yang bursts into tears upon seeing her and we're all tearing up when Un is rolled in and placed on a bed in the room, a black-haired boy soon follows. From what I can tell from his sister, I think, crying out to him his name is Kazuto. I can only pray these three and all the others make it out alive but I know it's naive to think that's possible. I can only hope I don't have to apologize to Kiiro's grave for abandoning him.
So what you think. Please review I really do like hearing peoples thoughts and opinions on my work.
