I do not own Sword Art Online or any of its characters.
I do however, own Alyssa and Joran, and the story.

Chapter 1: Wrong Gender

"Whew! I didn't expect this many boars!" my sister complained with exasperation, while slicing yet another boar into mincemeat. It was true though, as there were more than twice the number of boars than when we had seen since the game's release. Alyssa swung her sword at a boar, and watched it disappear in front of her eyes. A dagger clattered noisily to the ground, even in the grassy hills of the first floor. She glared at me for yet again, stealing another kill. I shrugged and slung another dagger behind me. The same clattering noise. This time, it was a sword. I turned to my sister, who gave me a smug smile before turning to yet another boar. Seriously? Where are the wolves?

Sword Art Online, the first Virtual Reality MMORPG to exist, had gained popularity even in places not conquered by Japan, namely, the United Kingdom, as that is where we reside. Kayaba Akihiko, the man who created SAO, had e-mailed me to be one of the one thousand beta testers to represent my country. Naturally, I accepted, but to this day I still do not know what made him approach me. When the official game was rumoured to release, I grabbed at the chance again. It was not until I arrived home where I realized I would already have a copy of the game, which I had pre-ordered due to my status of a Beta Tester. So, I bought a new NerveGear and gave the copy I bought to my sister.

Several more minutes passed by before the alarm I set rung. I glanced at the clock on my HUD, nearly time for dinner.

"Hey sis, we need to leave for dinner!" I shouted to the ever-increasing mass of boars. A spear flew past my head. "I shall take that as a yes." I threw several more daggers into the pile to clear a path, before turning towards the safe zone which coincidentally happened to be behind me. I started moving to the safe zone, until I could not move anymore. A cold feeling gradually spreads from my chest. My eyes twitched, working its way to take a look at the origins of the cold feeling. A really huge boar tusk, protruding from me. The hit points bar on my HUD slowly depleted before stopping at what would seem like one point of health, which in this case was actually one point, judging from the numbers under the bar that read 1/200. The last thing I heard was a cry of my name and the sound of sweet metal grinding against leather.

A/N: This is the only section in the story to be narrated in first person.


Kirito stared at the boy he saved. The person who he suspected was his sister had immediately rushed to his side to force a health potion down his throat. Wondering why they looked so familiar, Kirito asked them for their names, before realizing he could just read the username on their cursor for himself.
"My name's Alyssa, and this is Joran."
Never mind, they were not Japanese. This would make remembering their names harder. Or not, as he remembered his sister introducing them to him through Skype. This brought up a strange question, though.
"Did you customize your characters?" he asked, the answer already obvious to him. He introduced himself as Suguha's cousin, Kazuto, instead of his username, Kirito. He trusted his sister had a good sense of trust.
"Well, I did. But my brother didn't, so that is his real face."
It's these moments that really remind me I'm not the smartest person, but it's unmistakable that this is the head I saw in Suguha's laptop. Speaking of which, she did mention they were in cosplay. Who was she dressing as again?

"Seeing as you already know me, nice to meet you, Kirigaya-san. Suguha-chan told me a lot about her stick in the mud brother."

Ah well, this was to be expected. Now to just wait for Klein to finally catch up.

A groan was heard, from my mouth. I slowly inched my eyes open, to see three faces staring at me. One with pink hair, definitely my sister's avatar. One with red hair, who the heck is that? And one with black hair with the username of 'Kirito'...
"Pardon for asking, but are you Suguha's brother?" He gave a nod, almost expecting another person to come by and introduce themself as a friend of Suguha. He was immediately followed by "Were you the one who saved me?" and "What nearly killed me?" At this point, Alyssa filled me in the details. The field boss had respawned within moments after he turned around, which just happened to be right in between me and my sister. Kirito took off running when he heard my sister scream and distracted the boss long enough for Alyssa to drag me into the safe zone I intended to log out in.

"Oh, that's right! Mum should be calling us for dinner by now!" I exclaimed. Alyssa and Kirito glanced at each other, grim expressions on their faces.
"A-about that..." my sister muttered, "well, see for yourself." I did just so, remembering where the 'Log Out' button was in the beta.
"What... why is it blank?!" I shouted. Karma decided to be an ass, and the toil of bells ripped across my eardrums.
"A warning tone? What's going on?" I heard Kirito mutter before we were all engulfed by a blue fire. The next thing I knew, we were in the plaza.


[Cue the reveal until just before the mirror incident]


"And lastly, I've prepared a present for all of you in your item storages. Take a look."

Kirito opened his inventory, and after accounting all the items he had grinding boars, took a look at the new item. "A mirror?" he muttered, before pressing the 'Materialize' button to see what it was, along with everyone else in the plaza. Just then, Klein's cry could be heard as he was swallowed by a blue light. When more and more people started glowing, he realized he was still holding the mirror, just as the light enveloped him as well.

When he came out, he knew something was wrong. A person approached him, wearing the gear Klein had on him moments before, asking if he was alright. He nodded, and took a look at the people in the Plaza. Everyone looked different than they just were just a few seconds ago. Well, mostly everyone, as he stared at the two people he had saved from the field boss. The two did not change. That meant he had changed as well, as he stared at his hands. They had appeared slightly smaller than he was used to, but he dismissed that as the sudden change from his avatar to his real life looks. However, everything around him had seemed a lot smaller than he was used to, even in real life.

Height changes were not a wise choice when making an avatar you would control with your body, as it meant not correctly estimating your steps and, in most cases, lead to a fall until you got used to it. The same thing had happened in the beta tests, and Kirito noticed that halfway during the beta, Kayaba had restricted height changes to half an inch either shorter or taller. However, Klein appeared to be a good inch taller than he was now, when he could have sworn they were about the same height.

"Sugu.. ha?" was heard from Alyssa, which Kirito did not catch as he wondered about the causes for his noticeable height change. It was not until he processed what Alyssa said that everything clicked.

Suguha had used the Nerve Gear on the final day of the beta tests.
He vaguely remembered accidentally launching SAO with Suguha's account.
In other words, he looked like his sister.
And a quick look at the hand mirror confirmed his thoughts.