So this is my first fanfic for SAO. I had a dream about this the other night, then decided it would make for an interesting story, so I set to writing it before I could forget the details. I hope you enjoy what I have to offer.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online. Just my character.
What would you do if one day you were given the opportunity to change whom you were? To get a fresh start, in a new world, where no one knew your real name, what you looked like, or your personality traits? You could alter yourself to the point which looking back, you could not even recognize yourself.
Sword Art Online was that opportunity for me.
Offline I was shy, glasses wearing, workaholic, bookworm, Sora. Online, I was sword wielding, arrow shooting, witty, badass, Akiko. I liked my avatar more than I liked myself. Mostly because people didn't pity Akiko. People pitied Sora. She lost her mom at an early age. She had no friends. She was blind in one eye. All she did was work; she got excellent grades, but what were grades outside of school?
The people that didn't pity Sora didn't even know who she was.
That was why when Sword Art Online was first released I tried to become a beta tester – and I got accepted. I didn't have any siblings, and my father was never home, so no one would miss me if I disappeared into a virtual world for a few hours. I would log on as soon as I finished any schoolwork, and I would remain there until it was time for me to eat dinner. Then I would usually log back on for a few more hours before going to sleep for the night.
My avatar started out blonde. Blondes have more fun, they always said. She was petite; her hair was long and her skin was flawless. She was curvy in all the right places. She was beautiful. Most importantly, she could see out of both eyes. I might have had a bit too much fun customizing my avatar, but I wanted to be someone special for once.
I leveled up fairly quickly. I had even made it to floor 11 by the end of the beta testing period. People respected me online.
Then everything changed the day the 10,000 new players logged on. The game master trapped us inside the game. We couldn't log out. We had to beat the game if we wanted to survive – we could die in the game.
The worst part though was the mirror. When my appearance changed to reflect my real world body, I was devastated. Not necessarily because I would miss the way my avatar had looked, but because now others could see me as I truly was. I was too tall, all limbs and no curves. My hair was short, a shoulder length bob – I had cut it when I was young and regretted it ever since – and a dull, dark brown color with blunt bangs. One of my eyes was a forest green color; the other (in which I was blind) was a greyish silver. I had lost my sight in that eye in the same car accident that had taken my mother's life.
I snuck out of the town center as soon as the game master finished his speech. While everyone was panicking, I was looking for cover. I knew others from my school were part of the game, and I did not want them to see me. I ran through the streets of markets, eventually finding a black sheet hanging from a railing above a vendor's cart. I wrapped it around my hair and across my mouth, hiding most of my face. It wasn't much, but it was a start.
Thus began my almost 2 years trapped in the world of Sword Art Online.
You might now be thinking, almost two years, but weren't those poor people imprisoned in Aincrad for two years? If you are, then yes, I was only in Aincrad for a year and 11 months.
I never returned to my real life.
I died in Aincrad. I died in Aincrad a month before Sword Art Online was beaten.
End of prologue. I hope this turned out as well as I hoped it would. I will try to update it as often as possible, but it is one of three stories I am currently working on (the other two are Ouran High School Host Club stories, so if you know that anime, you should go check those out too END OF SHAMELESS STORY PLUG).
But let me know what you think so far, if you are interested, and if I should keep it going or not.