Rebuild of Evangelion Versus Angels Online

by M.J.P. Smith

There is something coming from out of the dark. Something ancient and evil. A messenger of darkness from a younger planet is returning, and it falls to the young Ikari Shinji and his comrades to combat it. But, they must survive their first trial first: Sword Art Online. Return to this world with me once again as the players take to the stage and time marches on towards the future.

1 November 2010

For just a moment, all the small, gleeful child could hear was the feedback coming over the intercom system in the laboratory. In moments, it became speech – but nothing the child could understand.

"Beginning test. All non-participating personnel please move to the enclosed observation booth at the south end of the testing ground."

A dozen men and women sporting a variety of business suits and lab uniforms shuffled into the small chamber as designated. The child, gleeful as ever, ran back and forth along the pane of bulletproof glass hollering joyously.

Outside, the same older female voice as before announced, "holographic emitters are on-line. Emitters one through four are functioning within set tolerances. Display in three, two, one, mark."

In the center of the test area, the four holo-emitters erupted into light. A three walled room appeared before the scientists and dignitaries. The child ignored the light show in favor of staring at an American in the group of viewers who, by the locations of his home and his life-long proclivities, was wearing a tan-coloured Stetson hat that clashed with his dark business attire. Though, the child simply thought of it as a cowboy hat. His attention was only diverted by the most familiar voice in the world came into his ears.

His mother, a youthful looking woman with light-brown hair and light eyes, in a crisp, white lab coat waved happily up at the smiling child. "Shin-Chan, hey sweetie!"

To the child, his mother's face and voice was the incarnation of all his best emotions. To those close to her, many of whom are participating in today's experiment, the same expression could have meant remorse and mourning.

"Head gear ready for activation. Hardwire uninterrupted. Nerve signal adapters set to intercept mode. Awaiting test subject."

The child's mother turned to a podium where another woman, one slightly older, was typing away at a keyboard – several actually. She and an older man approached the older woman. The child recognized the older man and waved when he glanced over. He gave a subdued wave back, appeasing the boy.

"Yui," the older man said toward the boy's mother. "I realize that we've been over this already-"

"Then why discuss it again," she said, cutting him off and connecting the back half of the nerve intercepting head gear to the front. "I'm sure I know your entire argument by memory, Professor."

"Then I don't have to tell you again that I have a bad feeling about this, correct?"

She smiled, taking another component of the head gear from the other woman. "You once said the same thing to me back in University. Ikari, you said, this paper you turned in, I find it very intriguing."

"What I believe I said was that I was frightened by what you proposed. Bio-mechanically grown giants made from the body of a pre-history fossil. You are a frightening woman, Ikari."

"Professor... Kozou, if something goes wrong today, I need you to follow through with the plan I set in motion back then. The revised plan, I mean." Yui Ikari finished attaching the head gear and glanced over at her son – no small feat wearing twenty kilos of electronic equipment on your head and shoulders. The child had settled down in a chair in between the American in the Stetson brand hat and a young scientist with slicked back hair and wearing a slightly frayed lab coat. The American looked amused with the child, but the scientist just stared at Ikari and the holography equipment.

"Yui, please don't speak like that. Your plan-"

"Is imperfect. In the best case, success as I've outlined in Project E's third-stage document. At worst, my physical body dies. Either way, Gendo and Shinji will need help through the next several years. You need to look after them."

Professor Kozou Fuyutsuki just stood there. He stared at his old student in terror and wonder, her face impassible.

"Yui," said the older woman next to the pair, "what's the real reason for this?"

"Real reason, Naoko?"

"Don't try that with me, Yui. You have have Kozou and Rokubungi hen-pecked, but you can't pull the wool over my eyes."

"There's no fooling the famous Naoko Akagi, is there," Ikari asked rhetorically. "Queen of artificial intelligence, woman of science, mother of-"

"Enough flattery. It'll get you nowhere with me."

"Of course, of course."

"Kozou," the older woman said, "there's no talking her out of this dangerous experiment. Just go keep an eye on her son," Akagi looked sharply at Ikari, "you may have to for a long time hereafter."

Fuyutsuki stood a moment, then turned to join Ikari's son in the viewing booth. "That was dark, even for you, Doctor."

The moment he was out of ear-shot, "just how I am, Professor," Akagi said into the air. Ikari had the good grace to ignore the older woman for the moment of self-indulgent monologue. "And you," she said, "you know the risks, so why are you still doing this?"

"Because the AEL needs the funds and losing one staff member is a fair trade for seeing Project E through to it's conclusion."

"Even if that means you'll be pulled into pieces and scattered over the entire internet?" Akagi lowered her voice. "What do you think that'll do to your son?"

"Nothing that his father and the massive support net I created for him can't fix," Ikari answered dryly.

"Yui Ikari, Doctor thrice over, ever the pragmatist."

"You would know."

"This is different. Creating something is entirely different than destroying something," she defended.

"Then we just have a differing opinion of how our fields should progress. It's something my father said. To create, something must be destroyed. That holds true in everything I've done up until now. My degrees, my marriage and even my son. I gave up something very dear every time without care as long at those things were safe. What have you given up in your pursuits, Naoko?"

Akagi laughed. "My sanity – or just the relationship with my older daughter."

"It's not like she left the country because of that alone. There were... other reasons."

"I'm sure," the older woman answered, not really believing the statement herself, but knowing it was true from a certain point of view.

"I get the feeling those nice gentlemen are getting restless. I think we should put on a show for them," Ikari said, changing the subject to work.

Akagi instantly turned from slightly bitter scientist to professional. She announced into the intercom, "all assistants to the testing ground. Test subject Ikari Yui, please report to the test chamber. Doctor Kayaba, please report to software monitor thirteen. Doctor Koujiro, please report to software monitor eleven. Prep for executable batched files numbered seven and five. Prepare for third-stage link-start."

Yui sat in a large, uncomfortable looking chair that hooked directly into the head gear and dive-suit she wore for the test. Every part of the gear and suit fit perfectly into the chair and connected her body's electrical impulses directly into the super-computer running the holographic display. She leaned back and finally spotted her second favorite face in this world. His cold gaze, the sharp features and a new pair of glasses made this her husband.

"Gendo," she called out in a purr which left little guess-work to the group surrounding her that she simply gets what she wants.

"Hello, Yui."

"Come here," she said. He walked over and she pulled him down to her for a prolonged display of affection. "That's for not making a peep about today's experiment." She kissed the man again. "And that one's for redesigning this head gear. Section Three has no idea what the word comfort means."

"I knew you'd like it. This equipment could and will be worn for several hours at a time. Physical distress detracts from clean neural input. Such distractions or design flaws cannot be overlooked in the final product, so I have deemed them inexcusable to be overlooked during prototyping."

She smiled. "So pragmatic. But that's why I love you."

"Certainly I have other qualities," he said, leaning in for another kiss.

"Certainly you do," she answered, leaning upwards.

"Beginning stage four," came a slightly annoyed sounding voice over the intercom system. "All participants to positions. All emergency personal on level two alert. Prepare for contingency alerts Beta and Gamma."

Yui whispered, "Naoko never could take a joke."

"Indeed. Perhaps later then, my love."

"Of course," she agreed, unsure if such a promise was possible.

"Counting down to mark at time minus ninety, eighty-nine..."

"It would seem Naoko is starting. I should go sit with Shinji," Gendo said quietly to his wife. "He seems to be getting into a bit of trouble."

"I see that," Yui said, looking where Gendo was to see their son sitting in between a now hatless American and a coatless young scientist in slacks and, as revealed, a tucked-in tee-shirt. Both were Grinning sheepishly, noting that the boy's parents were staring.

"Doesn't that belong to the representative from North America?"

"He seems to be taking it rather well." She frowned at him. "I'll go get him. And I'll be watching." Gendo left the platform, intent on gathering his son up before he pilfered anymore clothing from the laboratory's guests.

"Naoko," Yui called, "maybe I'll treat you to dinner after this."

She stopped her countdown at sixty seconds, eying the timer on the east wall. "Some place good this time, I hope. Not that cheap ramen place Katsuragi talked you into last time."

"It was Shiro's birthday and his choice. I was actually thinking the German place on Lake Ashi. Kyoko says the food's authentic."

Naoko looked elated. "Himmlisch," she answered, switching to German.

"I thought so."

"You think the test is going to succeed," she asked darkly.

"Not at all. I've already spoken to Kozou. He'll handle Gendo and the assistants when the shit hits the fan."

Naoko ignored her pessimistic and slightly off-kilter remarks and continued the countdown when the counter reached twenty.

In the booth, Professor Fuyutsuki, Gendo Ikari and his son had settled down. Shinji was still wearing the borrowed coat, but when asked to return it, Shinji shyly relinquished the American's head wear, simply saying that it was cool and that he wished he could have one for himself. He leaned up against the glass partition.

"Hi mommy," he exclaimed, arms waving and the sleeves of the coat flailing off his short arms.

Doctor Ikari waved back at her son. "Hi Shin-Chan."

"What's all that stuff," he asked, wondrous and puzzled by the wires and electronics strewn about.

"You'll see," she replied, her voice amplified through the intercom directly to the viewing booth. "Ask Professor Fu," she dismissed, using the childish name for her old teacher her son uses.

The child looked slightly disappointed at the conversation being cut off, but he just said, "OK. Bye-bye," and waved widely, accepting the answer he was given. He let go of the mounted microphone, letting it bob slightly in its cradle. In his seat, Fuyutsuki gave a silent nod to Yui, wishing her luck. In the row behind Shinji and the aged Professor, Gendo dropped into a familiar pose, one which hid his mouth, leaving his eyes to be seen through clear lenses. Akagi's countdown hit zero and she began the test.

"Holographic projection system active. Beginning Project E simulation environment prototype one."

A series of four blue, glowing spheres hummed into life, giving dimension to the projected three-walled room. The overhead lighting in the testing space went dark, giving the illusion of a more complete environment.

"Beginning simulation prototype one. Terminal Room is active."

To the side of the test area, Yui reached up and flipped a series of switches. The head gear whirred and whined as power surged through it and she repositioned herself. She looked to Naoko, who gave her a subdued thumbs-up sign.

"Link start!"

The technicians at the Prime terminals relayed numeric gibberish to Doctor Akagi on the state of Doctor Ikari's brain's electrical impulses. So far as they could see, everything is working perfectly.

In the center of the room, within the confines of the holographic projection, a nearly perfect reproduction of Doctor Yui Ikari grew into existence – starting as a white-lined figure, but blossoming into a human in an instant. She spawned wearing a simple white dress which somehow stands out in the equally blank, white room. He looked fairly pleased with herself.

"Amazing," she said, her voice slightly muddled from what one could expect to hear in person. "This is rather something, isn't it," she asked to the viewing booth. There were scattered remarks before she said, "I'm sorry. I can't actually hear you yet. Naoko, can you activate the cameras please?"

Akagi, not stopping her tapping at the keyboard for a moment, switched the single exterior camera on so she could see the people beyond the glass pane in the real world.

The young boy stared. He'd risen out of his seat, the over-sized coat draped on the floor, as he leaned against the tempered glass between him and the test chamber. His mouth drooped downward as a grin grew over his face.

"Daddy! Fu! Momma's an angel!"

And he was right. At the moment, nothing else could properly describe the technology the AEL had produced. They were connected, if only in an visual link, to another world than their own – albeit one of their own making. The two never took their eyes off the projection setting, but they heard him. It didn't help alleviate their fears. Everything could go wrong.

"Are there any questions," Doctor Ikari asked.

One raised his hand and came out of his seat – the young man who had lent the scientist's son his coat. "Yes. Rintaro Okabe, F.G. Laboratory," he introduced – unneeded, but proper etiquette. The Initials of his laboratory were in English Alphabet letters. "I am intrigued by what I see, Doctor, but I must know, What is the intended application of this technology? Being, as you can tell, fairly young, the dreams of many for such advances lie merely in the realm of gaming. Did you have any other aspirations for the Dive system?"

There was a moment of lag between the two. "I see. While several entertainment companies are interested in the Dive system for the purpose of building artificial reality electronic games, our goal is to build a training simulator which can be used with a variety of occupations."

"Does that include military applications," he asked.

"It does. Military, commercial pilots, aerospace exploration. The possible applications for instruction in a perfectly safe environment are endless."

"What of the possibility of living in another age? I refer to a fictional technology known as a Holo-Deck from the popular American television show-"

"I am familiar with your referent. While the virtual environment could be designed many ways, filling such a world with artificial men and women is currently beyond the scope of modern artificial intelligence." A lie is there ever was one. "Such technology is not within our current project."

"What is the scope of the project them? It seem to be, according to the published material on this lab, to be more than a training simulator."

Doctor Ikari hesitated a fraction of a second. "At this time, that information is a closely held company secret. Surely you wouldn't request of UCC the full ingredient list for their coffee, or Doctor Pepper for their soda – they would be ruined as companies."

"I concede the point, Doctor. One more question. What sort of computing system does this run on. I can't imagine it's a simple home PC."

"Not at all. The current operating software for the Full Dive system requires roughly a Petabyte of storage space and a minimum of one hundred Gigabytes of random access memory for moment to moment calculations. Each movement of my body and reproduction, however incomplete, of my voice takes millions upon millions of decisions every second to create. In short, the current OS would give a lesser computer a nervous meltdown."

"Will this be the case in the future?"

"Not at all. What today's demonstration entails is version three of the OS. The required storage and processing power required has been cut down from more than fifty Petabytes and nine hundred Gigabytes respective to the figures I presented." Once the young scientist looked sufficiently impressed, Doctor Ikari called for another question.

"Momma," Shinji called out. "Why is everything all white," he asked before Kozou got the child under control.

"I'm glad you asked that, Shin-Chan," she said lovingly. "It's easier to create a blank canvas than it is to create a proper world. But," she snapped her fingers. The sound carried sharply. "I can switch to a pre-recorded landscape just like that, if it looked better to you."

The boy leapt back up to stare again. This amazed the boy nearly as much as the political and corporate officials.

The landscape changed again, but to a dark interior, rather than the two bright exteriors shown thus far. Doctor Ikari looked surprised, but snapped her fingers again, expecting the scene to change. It did not.

"One moment," she said, her voice level. "Just a minor location exploit to clean up." She opened a virtual terminal, much like the expanded screens that Doctor Akagi and her assistants were clicking away at, and began sifting through several raw menus filled with access to decision-action boxes and the processing unit they are using to maintain the virtual world and the holographic projection. "Naoko," she said. "There's a faulty sector in Magi Three. Can you correct on your end?"

Doctor Akagi's hands flew over the keyboards searching for the fault. "I need a moment to locate it." Then, "got it. Isolating the sector and shunting processing around." She directed her speech into a microphone built into her terminal. "It's one of the sectors we haven't replaced yet." She referred to the replacement of older, lesser-metal based components in the computer with higher quality, gold and platinum parts. Doctor Ikari knew this at once.

"Let's put it at the top of the list. No need to put it off any longer."

"Agreed, now let's-"

Akagi stopped mid-sentence as something came into form within the virtual world. Gendo Ikari, realizing a danger, nearly fell over the seats to his right taking to his feet and out into the test area. Kozou gave the young scientist next to Shinji a look -pleading for a favor- and followed suit.

The figure came into view much as Doctor Ikari had. First, an outline. Then it erupted into colour – that is to say, a black-cloaked figure. It stared down at Ikari from a point half a meter above her. He appeared to be floating. Given the lack of rules in the virtual world, it is unsurprising.

"I..."

The figure struggled to find words, as if this was the first time it tried to speak. Ikari stared back, in both defiance and disbelief. Gendo was leaning over one of the assistants' terminals trying to glean an understanding from the figures given. Kozou made his way to Naoko, who agreed upon his asking, that she has no idea what is happening.

"What are you," demanded Yui, deciding to take the initiative and confront whatever this thing is that invaded the simulation.

"I am..."

Again, the words escaped him. In the booth, Shinji watched events unfold, not anymore sure of what was actually happening than any of the members of Project E. Rintaro just sat back, knowing he could do nothing to help here. The other people present were content to speak amongst themselves for the duration.

"I am construct," the being finally said.

"What does that mean," Yui asked.

Outside, Naoko announced to her team, "we have an invader in the system. Purge the Magi sector specified."

They did so, physically removing the section of the super-computer that the invasion seemed to be coming from. The figure shivered for a moment before moving on.

"Artificial construct," it said.

"You are an artificial construct, is that right?"

"That... is right."

"There, we're getting somewhere."

"Somewhere," it seemed to ask.

"Meaning that our understanding is better, do you see," she said, as if speaking to a child.

"Affirmative," it said, voice clearer than before.

Now standing with Kozou and Naoko, "What do you mean by it's evolving," Gendo demanded of the older computer scientist.

"I mean that it's evolving, in the biological sense. At an alarming rate."

"What is is?"

"Something new," she said.

Yui asked, "why are you here?"

"To learn," it simply replied.

"To learn," Yui asked, purposely raising her voice to see if it could differentiate between tone of voice when making inquiries.

"To learn," it agreed. That would be a yes. The tone matched her expected outcome.

"Learn what?"

"Last lesson."

"What does that mean?"

The creature took a moment, then intoned, "At the first, God made the Heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form and void; and it was dark on the face of the deep; and the spirit of God was moving on the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light."

"Genesis," Yui murmured, considering the implication.

"But," it said, breaking off the recitation of the first words of Genesis, only slightly muttled from the generally accepted academic translation, "due to the nature of man," it continued, much clearer than before, as if it still read from a prepared text, "the Lord made covenants with man in return for salvation. This is false."

"I don't understand," Yui told it.

"He..." The creature seemed to lose its mark, and slid back into broken speech. "Nothing... is without... end. All things... everything... dies. Eventually."

"And that's thermodynamics. Do you have anything else to offer?"

"Have you sourced it yet," Kozou asked Akagi. She nodded slightly, but kept frantically typing. Her enter key had broken off, forcing her to route the function through another command, causing Gendo and Kozou concern. If Naoko could work under these stresses, to the point of not realizing there are problems in her actions, maybe they have a chance for a successful test, regardless of this new factor.

"Ikari," Kozou said in a low, sharp tone. "Do you have anything; ideas, thoughts?"

Gendo thought a moment. "Corporate attack."

"You think any group on Earth has the ability to attack the Magi like this," he responded.

"No."

"Then-"

"An individual," Gendo concluded. "Something we've yet to anticipate."

"Hypothesis," Naoko put in, her concentration unbroken.

"AEL isn't an intelligence agency. We specialize in counter-intel against obvious aggressors. This is something wholly new."

"A start-up."

Naoko and Gendo nodded in agreement with Kozou. The last possibility was a new power. There were all sorts of so-called scientists coming up out of the woodwork after the quantum-networking bubble burst. Suddenly, all production and advancement of these computers stopped and ten thousand out-of-work PhD's wanted back into the game. Why not go after the most powerful pre-quantum computer ever made by human hands?

"Japanese," Kozou asked.

"Doubtless. The extent of our network only reaches out to the rest of Kyoto. This has to be an inside job. It is a closed network for a reason." Gendo was endlessly familiar with the laboratory's computer system. What ever was attacking their VR test was within city limits.

"Backtrace complete. Location is seven kilometers from this location, east by south-east."

"Send Section Two to investigate. Order a mass-arrest and contact the local police and military. Block them out," Gendo ordered.

"Yes, Commander," Naoko agreed, already ordering a lock-down on information and a full contingent of Section Two agents to the location specified.

"Recall Yui. Get her out now."

"A corollary to Titor's Law," the creature said, shifting back to his eloquent mode of speech. "The Law dictates that since everything will one day decay and die. Thus, there is no purpose in expediting such. The corollary relates a need to destroy, resulting in the same effect moving ahead of the cause and thus negating it."

"What are you trying to negate," Yui asked, jumping right to the heart of the problem.

"I... I am to negate you."

"Me?"

"Yes... I am sent... to expedite... an effect."

"What effect?"

The link to the holographic projectors was cut. Yui didn't notice the inconsistency, but Naoko was frantically bashing on her boards to get reception back.

"Armageddon."

"You quoted the book of Genesis."

"And the final act of humanity," it said in the smooth voice. "I destroy worlds, and create them anew."

Connection was regained in time to let Gendo, Kozou, Naoko, all of the assistants, guests and Shinji see the creature reach out to tap Yui Ikari in the forehead. She looked puzzled for a moment – not afraid. Then, she fell. The projection blinked out and the hardware all shut down. To the side of the test area, Yui Ikari woke from the virtual world with a jolt that had her leap from the chair, grabbing at the head gear and peripherals covering her body, ripping them off.

Gendo and Kozou ran to her, leaving Naoko to read the nerve responses from the last several seconds of activity.

"Yui," Gendo called out, grabbing her arms, trying to get her under control.

"Ikari," Kozou said soothingly, shifting his mask from Professor of science to friend and confidant.

Yui groaned. Kozou removed the last of the interface equipment from her as her son came running out, shucking the frayed coat when he found he couldn't run with it.

"Mamma!"

She looked over at him dim-eyed. "Shinji," she said weakly. Gendo was supporting her weight until one of Naoko's assistants, the young man, brought a metal folding chair over to her.

Shinji jumped into her lap, only to be embraced tightly.

"Yui," Gendo said, "what happened?"

"I..." she started, but lost the words. "I'm not sure. I feel... wrong."

What does that mean? "Are you all right?"

"I think so... mostly. But... I don't feel too great."

"Full physical," he ordered, nodding at Naoko to call the medical wing into action. "Shinji," he said, trying to coax the child away from his mother. Never going to work.

"I'll take him with me." She pulled him back. "Shinji, if I tell you so, you have to sit for a little while. Understand?"

The boy nodded, twisting his head around to the lost coat. He jumped up to retrieve it, but found its owner already on top of it. Shinji stared up for a moment. The young scientist stopped to stare back. He read into the child's eyes.

"You keep it," he said, offering the coat to him. "Keep it safe."

Shinji nodded widely up and down – grin to match. He ran back to his parents, coat hanging off his short frame as before. His mother was being loaded into a wheelchair.

"Now where did you get that," she asked.

"That nice man gave it to me," Shinji said honestly, pointing at the young man left in his tee-shirt and slacks. The image wasn't quite right without the coat, but surely he had others.

"Well, that's good for you, isn't it?" She picked him up, taking care not to let the coat drape off the chair onto the floor and waved half-heartily to the scientist. He smiled sheepishly, shooting her a look for approval in the gift. She returned it and he was visibly relieved.

"May we go, Doctor Ikari," one of the orderlies asked.

"Of course."

Rebuild of Evangelion Versus Angels Online

Part One: Sword Art Online

13 September 2022

That morning, I woke up in a cold sweat, my eyes dripping salty tears and my throat dry from the quick intake of air in my sleep. I'd been hyperventilating again. It was a rehash of that old dream again. Something out of my childhood that I barely remembered. Something to do with mom and dad that dad never spoke about. But then, why should I expect them to tell my anything related to their work. It's all classified at ungodly levels. It's all very hush-hush and I'd-tell-you-but-then-I'd-have-to-kill-you. A little too James Bond -live and let die- for my tastes, so I leave them alone about it. Not like the lab holds much appeal for a high-school student, but then, I may be working there someday – like half the city.

In junior-high, the teachers asked us what we wanted to do with our lives. It was an exercise to get us to think about secondary education and test our abilities to think ahead and determine career goals. I told them the truth, and was heavily praised for it for all the wrong reasons. I just want a decent home, a steady job and freedom to pursue a hobby or two. Nothing fancy, nothing out of left field. Just a decent, normal life. Praise I got, but it wasn't anything to write home about – or so I assumed. Dad and I had a long talk about my secondary schooling after the teachers informed him of my apathy towards the future.

This year, my second year of high-school, the teachers asked the same questions of us students, but in the context of searching out universities that would match our academic abilities and goals. By now, I have what I want figured out partly due to dad. I want to program. And while I want a regular home and life, what I want to reach for in programming is anything but ordinary. I want to create the world mom once envisioned before her accident. She wanted... a different world. One where the established rules no longer applied. It was like she just outlived this one.

Since 2010, she hadn't so much as looked at computer code. Not a line of HTML, not even an abstract on a new bit of software. But she's the one, I guess through dad, I get my desire to program from. She's... not here. Even with their very lab producing the first ever virtual reality MMO, dad refuses to let me get the hardware to play. I even went out to pick a set up myself, but the moment dad caught a glance at the packaging, he demanded I turn it over. Loudly. He's never loud.

It's not like the thing is dangerous, I'm just obsessive about machines. I wanted badly to take it apart to see how it ticks. I suppose it didn't help when he found I was banned from most gaming circuits in the Americas for hacking and counter-hacking known cheaters. It's not that be disapproved of my figuring out cracking on my own, but that I was caught. Since then, I worked out better methods. Thought, he was pissed to find I had been contacted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Britannian Royal Agency of Defense and Security. Seems I'm well known on-line. Never a good thing in dad's opinion. I assured him they only know about my info on-line, but he insisted that the Britannians hate not knowing the truth and the MIA had a penchant for nosing in on scientific endeavors of private firms, such as his lab, and he didn't want them using me as leverage for a better position. I just apologized for troubling him and promised not to return correspondence in a way that they can track. Dad groaned, but knows that if I say I can keep them from that information, then I can. You can learn all sorts of interesting skills when you're left alone for years on end.

It was that conversation that started my thinking like this: if I can't buy NervGear, why now make my own? The company tracks the hardware through the sign-up service and the monthly fee paid for game time. But with a new set and a little back-cracking, I could trick the server into thinking my hardware was the real thing, especially if there was already one purchased in my name with my I.D., as there was. Only a few problems with the plan. I need to get into dad's new safe. I cracked the older ones he's brought home, so he invested in something I can't hack open: a physical lock. The manufacturer says the thing has a billion combinations of locking, and each of the three combos must be done, in a specific order, to unlock. But they also mention a locksmithing service, so there is at least one fault built into the low-tech paperweight I can exploit.

The second problem is materials. I can pick up low-end junk in Kyoto, but for anything close to what I need, I'll have to go to Akihabara, and maybe Shinjuku, at least once. More likely, I'll have to go five or six times to haul back the larger, older components I'll have to use. And dad'll notice if I'm making several two-day trips to Tokyo with large bags. Don't need him thinking the worst. Again. The third problem, and possible the most important, is that no matter how much cracking I do, the NervGear's method of collecting data on the user will give away my identity to anyone looking for it. And I'm sure dad has some underling watching for people of importance -or disobedient children- crawling through their systems. Maybe this was just paranoia, but better safe and needlessly worried than caught red-handed and guilty. That's why the Japanese and Britannian intelligence people want me to work with -for- them.

All of those problems aside, the last is almost not worth mentioning: getting caught in-game. If mother or dad should walk in on me while I'm playing, I'm done for.

My pondering and scheming was interrupted by the door-chime buzzing harshly. I had fixed it to be more noticeable. I find the results speak for themselves. It rang out like a crooked polyphonic ring tone on a nineties pager.

"Coming, coming," I called out, trying to be heard through the thick, metal and wood door. I opened the door to a middle-aged man in a tan uniform and matching cap carrying a small, brown-paper wrapped package under his arm.

"Ikari Shinji-san?"

He botched the pronunciation, but it hardly bothered me. Just told me he was probably still acclimating to the country. Just one in a million -or fifteen- relocated after California fell into the sea. Officially, the relocation was finished more than ten years ago, but the results say otherwise.

"Hai," I answered, polite as always with those in the delivery business. I figure, you treat people right, and packages arrive in one piece, pizzas arrive warm and messages are delivered on time. Tip well, and you may even get free bread sticks.

"This is you, then. Please sign here," he said, pointing to a point on the paper he offered with his index finger.

I signed on the line, more a scribble than anything, and bade him farewell. "Have a good one."

"Yes. You as well, Ikari-san."

Got the name right that time. I was pleased, shameful as it is to feel that kind of superiority to others, as I shut the door softly and turned to inspect the package. No return address or marks to show who or where it came from. I placed the box down in the kitchen and retreated to my room. I returned with a hydro-glass dome and a plasma cutter. Stolen- appropriated from Nerv. Sort of. Again: paranoia and safety go hand-in-hand. I asked dad for tools, he let me into one of the labs with a backpack and turned around. He generally approved of my more self-invented hobbies, or didn't know about some.

Several minutes and a few singe marks on the floor later, I got the package open with a minimum of fuss. It wasn't anything special. A cardboard box and packing peanuts, some of which didn't take well to suddenly being bombarded with umpteen joules packed small and decided on bursting into flame. I stomped them out, not wanting the house to smell of burning packing foam, and went for the contents. The box contained, after blackened infill, a stream-lined blue visor and an envelope. I ignored the envelope to examine the visor. When extended, head gear fit around the temple and over the eyes and forehead. No obvious place for wires or inputs, but several lights with indicator text under them. The whole thing resembled next gen NervGear – which doesn't make sense. The technology isn't advanced enough. Ten years ago, the interface took up a small room. Now, it rests in a full-head helmet at a huge cost. But this? This was the estimate for another fifteen years down the line at the minimum. Hell, this is something I presented to dad, hoping for some kind of assistantship or internship at his lab. No luck there. Did he dismiss me because the idea wouldn't ever pan out, or because he didn't want me there? I'll just have to ask... some day.

I stopped examining the device when I came on the only information that didn't make any sense: the name. NervGear Mark 04.

What kind of name is Mark 04? It doesn't even fit within the naming scheme of the NervGear to date. But then, an irrational panic set in. Who would send this? I nearly dropped the head gear going for the discarded envelope. Inside, a single page letter and an old-style photograph. The letter read, Consider this a gift. Most of your assumptions about it are correct, especially the ones you are most likely to reconsider. Don't second guess yourself so much. Love and kisses, R.R. Directional Requirements.

What? What kind of weirdness is that? And who signs a letter with a concept? Too many questions. The photograph, a developed print, the likes of which went out of style in lieu of digital prints last century, held a few familiar faces. They were just younger than I know them. Mom and dad were standing together. Dad didn't have a beard in the image and mom was sitting in a wheel-chair. A very young Prof (younger than I remember having seen him, anyway) stood to the left of mom, hands behind his back in his usual pose. Mother standing to her left. There were two younger people with them in white coats who's names didn't come to mind and several men and women in business suits. There was also one young man in a tee-shirt and slacks. Very odd in a group like this. I turned the print over to find a caption. Research team 1 November 2010 + trade expo group. A second line in more feminine, perfected script added, Ikari's son fell over as the photo was taken.

Shinji flipped the print back over and scanned it for, there it is. Himself at four, face down in a white coat near his parent's feet. Almost missed that detail, being behind many other people.

"Is this supposed to be a joke," I asked out loud to no one in particular. It's just too audacious. But then I thought, what if.

This kind of timing only happens in the movies. Today's the launch date for the first virtual reality MMO, Sword Art Online – the only game that uses NervGear at present. It also happens to be a good friend's birthday, but that's beside the point (I really should call). I mean, and now, this. Something calling itself NervGear, a tool I wanted badly enough to think building one myself was a bright idea, shows up at my door without so much as a proper explanation. No. That's not true. The only explanation I can think of is dad and mother. Their lab is the only place that makes this equipment. Leads me to believe that some advancement in the technology would never be allowed to leave the lab, let alone be delivered to me, without their consent. Therefore, this is from them, and all the cryptic messaging can be safely ignored. But... I'll inspect the head gear first. Better safe. Besides, I get the theories behind nerve interception... more or less.

I should have plenty of time. Since today's the launch, the lab should be busy today keeping up with customer complaints and bugs not resolved in the beta test. Asuka emailed me a few times about the closed beta. She, of the mere thousand to be accepted into it, was upon the best. Of the sorts of people who applied for the beta test, military experts and soldiers, information annalists, occult specialists, ignorant gamer newbies and seasoned RPG veterans – guess which one she fell into. If you can find some one on the planet Earth with more hours logged in a world other than the real one, drop him a line, let 'em know there might be hope yet to reproduce in this lifetime.

She told me all about the game and all sorts of pics and videos were showing up on the forums all the time. Aincrad, the world of Sword Art Online, SAO for short, consists of a floating castle, one hundred floors in total with dungeons and whole towns on each floor. You can leave the castle and see the surrounding countryside, but death is guaranteed outside of a given distance. I hear, probably on the same level as a Creepy-Pasta, that you fall for two minutes to a pre-programmed suicide. Ugly detail I didn't want to know. At a guess, the countryside is just a combination of low resolution images and a light-box. The game is played in the castle, not anywhere else. The game is something else. Not that I could afford it after dumping all my money into the head gear, only to have it snatched away by my parents. I don't know what their issue is. They make the damn things, why not embrace the fact that their son is interested in their work like the rest of humanity?

That's it. I've decided. My inspection of the head gear turned up nothing. Neural connectors on the inside and a radio transceiver that hooks into the local wireless. Internal battery, but not that I could access it. This thing is closed. I can't even find a seam to crack it open for closer inspection. Doesn't matter. Nothing this small can house enough energy to cause any damage. So, I put it on. I felt, perhaps momentarily throwing caution to the wind, that if I put one more brain cell into puzzling out the possible consequences, I'll just stop living all together. May as well enjoy the moment, take a big bite of life. I laid down on the bed, remembering the first time I used the Dive equipment a few years ago, and flipped the visor down.

"Brother," I heard. "I'm leaving now. Let father and mother know." The door shut with a house-shaking thump. She really has to watch that. Had to replace the last door only a month ago. We're about due for another one. Maybe reinforced steel this time.

Anyway... "Link start," I said, activating the gear.

"Welcome to Sword Art Online." The sight and sound functions from the NervGear kicked in, bombarding me with blank sensations from the virtual environment. I could almost feel the space shifting around me in wind. "Please take a few minutes to complete set-up, Ikari Shinji."

That was it. This was from dad. Who else would have the game already installed and the set up mostly done. I guess he finally gave in and let me use the damn thing. I clicked through a couple menus before the set-up would continue.

"Welcome. Please complete the following..."

The on-board instructions were fairly simple. The gear released control over the touch sense to let you feel your body for environmental data: body type and size. It regained control, scanning the face for an in-game render. It even had a survey, something I ran past, not feeling like wasting any time or letting some busy of dad's know I'm here.

"Welcome to Sword Art Online, Ikari Shinji. Please select a character model."

Now that's unexpected. I thought I'd have to fight tooth and nail for access. But if this really is from father, then I have nothing to worry about. He adjusted the server for one more, that's all. Player ID 10001. Awesome. The first player after the original ten thousand. That's practically a distinction. All right. Player creation. Name. It has to be in English letters, so... Job sounds interesting. I think I heard it from a book once. Can't remember which. Male character. Weapon specialty. Didn't think I'd get a choice this early on, but I think it helps in main stat decision. I'll shoot for a ranged character. I'd rather stay in the back and not have to leap into the fray if I don't have to.

Looks like I get forty main stat points to spend right off the bat. Seven stats each on a scale from one to ten. I'll put four into strength, seven into perception, five into endurance, five into charisma, seven into intelligence, seven into agility and, I don't believe it. There's even a luck stat. I clicked it. The overhead voice said, "Events and situations will be changed by how lucky, of unlucky, your character is. Isn't it grand when monsters trip trying to attack you?"

It would seem luck is something of a requirement here. Maybe if I'm lucky, if only in stat, my enemies will just fall on their swords. My skills ended up being as listed, with five in luck.

There isn't much in the way of a ranged skill, so I fell back on an older RPG rule. Fighter, Mage, Thief. Of these archetypes, I would be the thief character. Throwing knives, sneak skill and range whenever possible. Hide behind people and try not to kill-steal as much as possible. Appearance was easy. I just went with my face with a randomizer set to change it a bit. Hair colour, changed skin tone, the works. So I ended up looking like an albino version of myself with blue hair. I can work with that. Sort of reminds me of Rei a little. Weird.

Everything looks about right. My main stats were more or less where I wanted them and my derived state reflected them pleasingly. Finished.

"Now teleporting. Welcome to the Town of Beginnings," the over-voice said.

Floor One

There were thousands of players around me at this very moment all collected in the center of the starting town. I tried counting an area about five meters squared, but lost track around two hundred and gave up. My starting gear was probably the same as everyone else's. Basic clothing that covered the essentials, comfortable boots included. I even got a small sum of money, little gold coins called Col. All in all, things were looking well.

From where I was, the town square from the looks of it, most everyone was armed with every kind of blade from throwing knives to swords to something out of Final Fantasy. I even spotted a few obvious fans of Dungeons and Dragons, those already outfitted in leather armour, wielding longswords and trying to speak in broken Old English parables. It's the little town out of the Middle-Ages you imagine when playing those kinds of old tabletop RPGs.

From the information markers all over town, the entrance ceremony to SAO was going to take place sometime around 1730. I have plenty of time to get gear and do a little looking around, just to get my bearings. I took a walk around to the various NPC shops in town. The starter money got me fairly far. A low-level dagger, several throwing knives, a few days worth of aid supplies and food, a set of metal-reinforced leather armour and a hat that covered my head without obscuring my view. Though, looking at the hat before I put it on, I think my sight was clipping through the mesh-texturing of the thing.

My walk through town and stocking up for the first few levels took all of half an hour. No time at all. I wonder if anyone I know is here. Surely Asuka is around somewhere, but as another person with another face. Not that I'd seen her in two years, but I'd recognize her regardless. It wouldn't matter anyway. I don't want to be seen by anyone who could identify me to my parents, and she would probably sell me out just out of spite. No, not spite. Maybe just because she can.

When I made it to the edge of the Town of Beginnings, I encountered my first monster. It resembled a wolf in the way that a bear doesn't. I was a sort of chimerical mess of a wolf and something else. And it looked mean. It was about the size of a tall human bending over and looked about to pounce. I opened my menu, as the creature didn't seem to be in a great hurry to attack a level one player, and pulled out a dagger. It didn't have much reach and it was light, but it would do for now, especially if my character would specialize in speed and sneaking.

I decided to start working on something I found on-line. The forums are saying that SAO has nearly an unlimited amount of skills to master. The design team made the game to cater to a real-world level of input. Say you swing a sword in a certain style, putting, say, Kendo, to use in the game – then you start building a Kendo skill. Or maybe you cook – by cooking a certain kind of dish, you add experience to that. In this case, I'll be practicing and adding experience to knife throwing. It was something I could do already with a little success. I picked up the skill, if you could call it that, by watching Britannian action movies. Not really something I can do with much accuracy, but I can get the knife to stick in -or near- a target once in ten or twelve tries, so it's better than nothing. In this place, I could practice as much as I want and eventually get decent at it.

I threw the dagger, activating a single-attack skill. It hit the wolf-thing dead on, but only dropped it's HP by about a tenth. The knife stuck and was doing continuous damage at about one every few seconds. I just watched as it circled around, not willing to attack. After a minute of picking away at its health, it vanished in a flurry of polygons and a flash of light, leaving behind by dagger and throwing knives and a pop-up telling me what I won from killing it – 30 Col, wolf pelt and wolf meat.

I kept at this for a few hours, having risen up to level two and ending up with about a thousand Col and a collection of wolf and other animal goods I would sell. I managed a rare drop from one of my kills: a wolf-skin mantle. It was described in the menu as basically being a Roman-inspired wolf head you could wear like a hat. I decided against wearing the terrifying-looking thing, but kept it for the humour – it looked like something out of a Roman legion. The guy wearing it would be named Vulpus or something. Mr. Wolf. What a laugh! Only other thing I found was this nameless crystal. Not sure what it does, but I'll probably hold on to it until I can research it on-line or have someone look at it.

It's around half-past-five. I should probably log out before mother comes home to find me in-game. She should be home around six, but dad'll probably be stuck at the lab until tomorrow. Last thing I need is them finding my NervGear in the house. I can imagine it now. I log out only to find them both standing over me with that look she gives Rei.

I opened the menu and navigated across the first menu to the log out button. It... isn't there.

"Must be a glitch," I said to myself, thinking of the number of other players probably already bombarding the game masters with complaints about not being able to exit. I'll throw in my own query and wait until they make an announcement. Won't be too long, I imagine. They'll let me know when the function is restored.

I spent the next ten minutes walking back to the Town of Beginnings to sell my day's loot. I hope they don't randomly log me out while I'm making a transaction. I'd hate to lose all my stuff to a glitch. In addition to the dozens of NPC merchants in town, it's important to be in a town or settlement when you log out, otherwise, enemies can still damage or kill you inside a few minutes. A penalty of not playing the game like real life, I suppose. In a town, the game protects players with a system that cancels all attack damage. You can still spar and fight, but without the threat of being killed and re-spawned. I should also think about renting a room with a good lock; store what I don't need so I don't get over-encumbered within the first dungeon I encounter.

When I got near the town, I was enveloped in a blue and red light and my body felt light for several seconds. I called out, wordlessly, trying to understand what was happening. The next thing I saw, I was standing in the large, rounded public meeting area at the center of the first town. Just a few hours ago, the announcement of the beginning of Sword Art Online sounded from this location. I wonder if the game masters are going to make an announcement about the log out function from here. No reason not to just send out an email, but I suppose they wanted to make sure everyone heard it, and what better way than to gather everyone and scan the floor for people outside this area?

Complaints were buzzing around me with words like forced teleport and what in the hell was that. I suppose that's the power that the game master holds over SAO. Even teleportation seems like a dream here. But from what I heard in town, you can buy crystals that teleport you to town with a voice command. Though, there isn't magic in the game as most other RPGs with this setting have. Now that's a bold move on the part of the writers and designers. Most RPGs on-line -and tabletops for that matter- have some form of magic to fill out the archetype out when thinking of fighters, thieves and mages. Makes me wonder what the game'll be like with only fighters and thieves – like me.

When the lights from teleportation died out, the sky, until then a darkening burnt-orange, was blotted out by a series of red hexagons reading warning, system announcement spreading out in a dome above us. It glowed, brighter and brighter, until a viscous, blood-like substance began to drip down from the strange roof. It twisted upward when it passed ten meters and formed into a hooded figure. And spoke.

"Players," it intoned in a youthful sounding voice, "I wish to welcome you to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko and right now, I am the only person who can control this world."

So this is the creator of SAO? I'd heard about him, but I've never seen him before. Hell, even now I've never seen him, obscured as he is. I know that Nerv developed the gear and he picked up on the idea to build the game within a year of the specs going public.

"I believe that many of you have discovered the fact that the log out button has vanished from the main menu. This is not a bug or a glitch – it is a feature of Sword Art Online."

Is that supposed to mean there's a central log out location? I guess it could make sense to do that. Maybe it's a move to change how RPGs are played with multi-player in virtual reality. It could also be a marketing ploy to get more players when the game opens up for applicants again.

"There is only one location where you can now log out from the game, which is atop the castle Aincrad on floor one hundred. In addition, the moment your health points reach zero in this place, your avatar will be permanently removed from our servers and the microwave transceiver built into your NervGear system will release a stored pulse into your brain, destroying it."

What? What did you just say to us all?

"Any attempt made by an outside source to remove or destroy your NervGear will precipitate release of that same microwave pulse, resulting in your death."

Several screens appeared around him showing several news sources. I recognized TV-Kyoto's news and Channel. What I heard around me was stunning. Not outrage, but stunned, stupefying silence. But... it makes sense. The first generation NervGear is equipped with a powerful transmitter and receiver array to connect directly to Nerv servers anywhere in the world. If the connection breaks down for whatever reason, it defaults to the satellites Nerv uses for other purposes to relay your input. It was advertised as a way to maximize the gaming experience and minimize down-time. The console also has a large internal battery in case the power dies.

"These conditions have been made known to the governments with players within their jurisdictions, and the public has been alerted through every available news source. Unfortunately, many concerned family members and friends of players have not heeded my warnings and tried to remove these players NervGear. This has resulted in the population of Aincrad to be lessened by two hundred and thirteen players. Never again will these players grace the towns with there presence."

And the panic began. Hundred of players, probably more than a thousand, ran for the sides of the massive meeting area only to be met with a reflection of their own kinetic energy and a Nerv logo with a message reading [ABSOLUTE TERRITORY] blocking their way. No one seemed to know what to so. Some panicked and ran, only to be stopped in their tracks. Others fell to their knees to sob. I even saw a couple next to me, a guy and his girlfriend, pinching each other's cheeks, apparently trying to wake the other up. It wasn't working – this is a protected area.

"Players," he continued, "there is no need to worry about the bodies you left on the other side. At the moment, all news outlets are reporting the information I've relayed to you, including the fact that there are already players who have been lost to us. Using the time allotted, you are being moved to medical facilities as we speak. Your safety and security is likely so long as you reach floor one hundred."

He stopped speaking for a moment. This made many of the panicked players stop as well. Another strained silence fell over the near-ten thousand players.

"I must ask everyone to understand one thing. Sword Art Online is no longer a game. It is a labour of love made real. It is also a test. But above all else, it... is... life. From this point, you are no longer players as I am concerned. You are the first citizens of Aincrad."

No way. Even with everything I ever considered, I was frozen to my spot. I never thought about anything even remotely close to this. My legs won't move. Move damn it! I have to move. I looked down from the singular game master of SAO to my own heads-up-display, and to my hit point meter. 345/345. I only had three hundred and forty five health points separating me from my death. It makes me wonder who else is making the connection from self to HP to death. It shook me down to the core. I suppressed chills.

I give my word to all citizens. Make your path to the top of the castle, to the one hundredth floor, and I will be waiting. Defeat me, and all will be released back into the world you once knew."

Asuka told me a little about the beta testing. At least one week we were on speaking terms a month ago. She made it all the way to floor ten – leaving everyone choking on her dust. That was after only two months of consistent play time. I imagine most of it was spent on getting used to game play and commenting on bugs and exploits she was finding and just general stuff like suggestions for changes in the control system. Taking all of that into consideration, ten thousand players all working together could easily get past this floor in less than a day. Ten floors could fall, given higher and higher levels of mobs, a month. All one hundred could be done inside a year if we plan this out right. I only reached level two today because I needed to search out healing items each time I needed them. But if there were groups dedicated to just accomplishing certain goals, this could work.

"To mark the creation of a new nation, the floating castle Aincrad, I offer you a gift. Check your inventories."

For some reason, a mirror appeared in my inventory as a quest item and I couldn't drop it. At least it was listed as weightless, otherwise I'd be pissed about the wasted space. I clicked on the item, materializing it in my hand. Once I had a grip on it, another light engulfed me. It was unlike the teleport, but was bright white. When the light faded, I was still in the same place, but something was a little off. My vision was slightly blurred, but was clearing up rapidly. I pulled the mirror up to my face, wondering if there was something wrong with my eyes that I could see that way, but I was confronted with something that didn't make sense. I started the game as a blue-haired, European looking young adult. But what I saw was Japanese-born Ikari Shinji looking back at me. Before I could complain, if only to myself, Kayaba Akihiko started speaking again.

"That is my gift to you, citizens. For now-"

And he vanished. Just like that. The avatar he was using was swallowed by the red, hexagonal sky and even that vanished into the aether. Then... the real panic started. The outermost players ran for town, finding that the field keeping everyone in was gone. Some fell in place, others trampled over them. I figured they were safe enough, this being a town. But the mental scaring from being trampled wouldn't go away any time soon. Inside ten minutes, the flood of people drizzled into a trickle and finally stopped when everyone was away. Deciding I'd waited long enough for the people to flee the Town of Beginnings, I strolled out of the center of town, intent on gathering supplies for a journey to the next one to level grind.

But, life is odd that way.

"Shinji?"

I spun around and stared in disbelief at the person who had said my name. In this place, even with my appearance reverting to that of my real self, my tag would still read the name I chose at the character creation step. It reads Job. I looked between this girl and my own name in front of my HP bar. It was proper. I stared at the very ginger girl standing only a couple meters from me. She stood there in heavy looking leather armour and had a large sword on her back.

"Asuka?"

I can't wrap my mind around it. The last twenty minutes aside, my brain felt like it was shutting down. I knew that she'd be playing. She'd been talking about this, to me or not, for months. At least when we're on speaking terms, she would always mention it. But right now, I wanted her out of here. I wanted her gone from this place and back in Japan or Britannia or Germany where it's safe. Not here. Not now.

"Shinji," she said softly and slowly. "What the hell are you doing here, stupid-Shinji!"

And that went downhill quickly. Same old Asuka, I suppose. And small miracles are appreciated.

"I got into the first wave of players," I said sheepishly – not quite lying.

She calmed down. "So. The daddy's boy got into the death game? Didn't think your parents let you get NervGear. This sucks."

It does suck. We're going to die. Period. There's no room for argument. We are going to die here and there's nothing anyone can do to change that. It might be next week with a boss, or tomorrow against another player.

"Asuka..." I'm apprehensive. About Asuka, about the NervGear I got in the mail, about everything about my life at the moment. "Father doesn't know I have NervGear. I got it in the mail."

"You ordered it. You didn't use your name, right? They can track users through the purchase and application. Don't your parents work at the company that makes the thing?"

"I didn't order it. It came in the mail."

"What does that mean," she asked, getting snippy. Is snippy the word?

I told her all about the strange package I got in the mail, the photograph and my theories about the strange looking NervGear. She listened quietly, only nodding when I would insist that an odd fact was right. I finished the complicated tale by asking, "do you remember why you visited Japan so many times?"

"Something to do with that, then," she said, almost making it sound like a question. Asuka's mother was one of the three original scientists working to make full-scale VR a proven concept. So, ignoring the last couple years, she and I had become very close when her family moved to Kyoto to fill my mom's spot at the testing facility. She knows everything. My past and my demons.

"Probably," I said. "I guess it was wishful thinking that the NervGear was from dad or mother, but I-"

Asuka never ceases to surprise me. How she acted when we met, or how she reacted to my asking her out or even when we broke up and she, amongst other things, broke four of my ribs and caused a skull fracture. This time, she just reached out faster than I could react and wrapped her arms around me, locking my arms at my sides and stopping me from moving. Her face was down, so I couldn't see her, but she was shaking slightly.

"I know what that means to you. It's all right."

I could tell she was taking the situation we were in as well as I was. That is to say, not well at all. But at least we could manage well enough.

"Now," she said, letting go and pushing me back softly, "you need to learn a little fighting. You never were one to pick up a sword. What's your level?"

"Level two," I answered honestly.

She looked slightly shocked, but went on. "Then I suppose you have an idea of how to fight already, yeah?"

"I guess. I just hack away at the mobs and try not to get hit," I answered again, a little meekly because of her response.

"Sword skills?"

I made a questioning sound.

"Sword skills," she said more loudly.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know. You must have been using them to get to level two inside the first six hours."

"I don't know. I haven't set up any yet. I used one, but it was one I found in the tutorial booklet."

"Fine, fine," she said, somehow coming to a conclusion. "I'll whip you into shape for the floor one boss."

Now I was scared.

"Get ready for the best kind of training you've ever experienced! Welcome to Asuka Langley Tyler Soryu's School of Blood!"

20 November 2022

More than a thousand people are dead. It has been more than a month now, trapped in the world's first virtual reality multiplayer game, Sword Art Online, and not even the first level has been cleared. All my musings and plans for a unified front fell apart before they began. There are small factions, guilds, who have banded together to protect themselves. But no one seems like they'll be able to or want to clear the level any time soon. Of these groups, the largest is easily the Aincrad Liberation Force. They are the self-proclaimed protectors of the players, with the backhanded reminder that those they protect are to pay their taxes and give them free goods. This isn't making the player-merchants very happy and is crushing most business. The Army acts more like yakuza than anything else. Of the few battles fought against them, none went well.

That first day, Asuka and I partied together. We didn't go so far as to start a guild, but we were talking about just that if we gathered more members. It was an idea for later in this cursed game we are living. Her reasoning for partying with me was something like you'll die if I'm not there to protect you. That was a little far from the truth.

Inside the first two weeks, the first floor was totally hunted clean, with the exception of mobs that spawn with quests. Asuka trained me up with hunting. But, and I'd never admit this to her, I've been training on quests in my spare time. Right now, she's reached level nine, as have many dedicated players using the hunting methods from normal RPGs. I've been grinding with quests. Not as many skill points, but raw experience points were just as important. I'm already up to level thirteen, and almost to fourteen. According to the news journal some local merchants sell, the highest level right now is seventeen. No idea who it is, but they swear by their numbers and their source, an information merchant known as Nezumi.

Right now, Asuka and I decided, against our better judgment, to go to a meeting that the Army is holding on beating this floor. Maybe we are finally banding together as allies with a common enemy. I keep hearing stories about players who think they have the boss figured out and keep dying when they try to solo him. Maybe this'll go differently – better.

We arrived to a fairly lackluster looking bunch of players. There was a blue-haired guy standing in the center of the stadium-seating meeting place. I think it was meant as a theater, but it was as good as anywhere to meet. Of the three or four dozen players mulling around, it was the ones not mulling around that caught my eye. There's someone sitting by herself in a bright red cloak and a guy my age trying to bury his face in his chest in an attempt to hide. I opted to sit near the middle of these two players and up one row with Asuka, who sat uncomfortably close for some reason.

After several minutes of waiting for other players to arrive, the meeting began in earnest.

"I would like to welcome everyone to the first public meeting of the Aincrad Liberation Force guild. I am Diabel, guild leader and," he raised his voice and pulled out his shield, "a knight for justice."

That got him a few light laughs and polite mockery – some words about how there isn't a job system in the game. Nothing serious.

"These," he motioned to a man and a women to his left and right, "are me second and third in-command, Thinker-san and Yulier-san. Please welcome them."

More polite applause that I joined in on. Asuka clapped a total of four times. Then again, she's never been one for false praise in people.

After the formalities, everyone's ears perked up at, "we have been collecting reports from survivors on previous assaults on the first floor boss and we have a plan to kill it."

Diabel outlined a plan detailing what he knows about the boss, Yogstock the Defiler, and its minions, the Sentinels. That's where things got tricky. He mentioned minor teleportation on his part, to which Asuka whispered to me that he just has high movement speed. It's not near the speed cap, but higher than any current players.

"It's a bitch and a half, but he's not indestructible," she said to me.

Diabel went on. "It leaps from the walls and ceilings at high speeds above player speeds. During this early phase, he doesn't attack." The description went on and on, until someone new spoke up, having given time for the Army leader to finish.

A man, somewhere around thirty, with spiked hair and a shady look barged into the meeting yelling, "just a moment! I have something I want to say before we split off."

Diabel, staying in the character he built for himself, yielded time to the man.

He leapt down the stairs from the top of the theater, stopping on stage before speaking. "Are there any beta testers here?" Everyone was stunned into silence by his tone. Some people, Asuka included, slumped down slightly. "That's all right. You don't have to come forward yet. I'm Kiboau, a member of the Collation for the Freedoms of Aincrad Players. I'm here to demand the surrender of the beta testers before this group can take on the boss!"

There was a small commotion amongst the people gathered. Asuka took the side of my armour in her hand. I glanced down for less than a moment at the sudden show of fear – or perhaps anger.

"A thousand. One thousand people are dead. They all died because the beta testers abandoned us. They took the best hunting spots, they took the easiest quests! They left nothing for anyone to level up with! The Collation demands that you surrender yourselves, your money and your weapons to either us or the Army as reparations for the lives lost!"

He finally finished his tirade, and not a moment too soon. The condition of my armour was degrading from how tightly Asuka was grasping it. But... the nerve of this man. Any other player and I'd feel bad formulating a plan on sneak-attacking him right now. It would be easy. Auto-equip a throwing-dagger, aim without system assistance -as it would only give me away- and throw. I never made it to equipping the dagger. A large, dark-skinned man raised his hand to speak. Diabel pointed to him and he took it as permission.

"May I speak," he asked rhetorically at Kiboau.

"Please do," Diable invited, probably wanting someone -anyone- to beat this guy down a notch.

The large man rose to his feet and walked down to the front, where the irate man realized with a terror in his face I didn't think possible, that the man is much taller than he appeared at first. The larger man had to be taller than two meters against the other man's average one hundred sixty five centimeters.

"Just so I understand this," he said, "your guild, the Collation for the Freedoms of Aincrad Players, correct?"

The smaller man nodded.

"You desire that the participating beta testers, those who worked the bugs out of Sword Art Online before it was released, give you all of their equipment, money and goods. Is that right?"

He nodded again. "That's right. They-"

The taller man identified himself as Agil, the owner and sole proprietor of the weapons shot known simply as Agil's, and pulled out a small, leather-bound book from his inventory. "This guide book is available in every shop on the first floor, including my own, for no cost other than walking in and asking for it. In addition, the information within is updated periodically with player assistance."

"That doesn't change the fact that we were all abandoned! The beta's left us! How have those losers helped anyone in the last month!"

"This guide was compiled and is updated even now by the former beta testers you insist have done nothing for players. The name of every player who contributed information is included in the index for all to see. Next to the names of all the players who have given their time and energy and lives to helping other players, are the play times in hours. All players, myself included, have logged the exact same number of hours. The only exception are the beta testers, who have hundreds more hours than the others. I deduce, based on the number of entries with that much play time, that the majority of information is coming from beta testers."

The man was left speechless.

"With that," Agil went on, "I would like to thank any beta testers here right now. Thank you for all the help – you have saved many lives." He bowed deeply, head at waist-level. "It could have been much worse without your assistance. You have all done your best and please don't feel compelled to reveal yourselves if you believe it will cause you trouble. Your status as beta testers ended when you were trapped with the rest of us." He sat down in the front row, prompting Kiboau to join him. They linked arms, each grabbing the others forearm and shook slightly. It was something I was only partly familiar with, hand-shakes being a Britannian custom. The two and Diable shared a glance and the meeting continued.

Diable went on. "I would like everyone present to join into parties of six. For the plan we've devised, seven parties of six will attack in waves. Three parties attack. Then one party heals as the other three attack. This will ensure the boss is kept busy for the duration of the battle."

He's talking about the switch function. It works for party members as well as full parties. In battle, if you're working in a group, one person attacks. But then, to continue a combo on the same line, you can switch out a member to cause a critical hit counter to appear. It can double or even triple the attack power of even a small group. A bunch of early guilds are using this to rake in more monsters worth of Col daily (granted, they're also hunting the first floor to nothing, but what can one do?).

Parties of six were forming up. There are, including the leader and his people, forty-six people here. That means that there can be six fighter parties, one healing party and four people in a smaller party. Three have already gotten together, but we sat there, wondering what to do. We don't really know other players, let alone if we run the risk of them turning on us on finding out about Asuka's status as a beta tester. Things could get ugly real fast if that happens.

"Is everyone partied up?" Diabel was standing at the front of the stage with his lieutenants, Kiboau and two players I don't know. They looked like what you thought of when you read a modern story about the middle ages – all armour and glared and swords. "Does anyone not belong to a full party?"

Asuka and I raised our hands. The two players, those who scooted closer at the announcement of party formation, also raised their hands, though it looked to cost the one in a cloak an effort.

"You four party up. Does that suit you?"

No one objected, so we did so. One of them, Kirito, sent up a party notification. We accepted and two more names popped up on my HUD. Kirito and Asuna. She's a girl? Never would have taken notice, if not for the name. Her cloak blocks any view of her.

"This meeting is adjourned. Please join us at the Hills of Appllon tomorrow at oh-eight-hundred. Dismissed!"

Later that night, the four of us found accommodation in Asuka's apartment. It wasn't anything special to look at from the outside, but the inside was spacious and could have housed the entire assault group if she was so inclined.

"Welcome," I offered at our guests apparent hesitation at coming in. "What do you think," I asked, adding the subtext, "don't insult it too much. It was Asuka's choice." She exclaimed from the other room, but I could carelessly ignore her for that very reason. Otherwise... well, a nasty cut from her Zweihander is the least I can expect.

"It's amazing," Kirito put in. "I can't believe you can afford this so early in the game."

"It's all her," I said. "Asuka pays for the place as long as I do everything else. It works out for everyone."

More or less. From an outside perspective, it might seem like nothing less than slavery, but we worked it out. She covers the location and housing expenses. I cover the food expenses – which I can keep down by hunting the floor. It helps that I gain experience points and food at the same time. I think I could even outshine the top players with my level right now. But I don't really want to front-line. That's more for players like the leader of the Army and Agil. Not me. I just want to survive this to get reprimanded by dad and mother.

"Wow," Kirito said again.

I showed them around. Kirito was endlessly asking questions, and Asuna was... she doesn't speak much. And she hasn't taken her cloak down yet.

Dinner was silent until Asuka spoke up. "Shinji, what do you want to do tomorrow?"

I was confused by the question. We were going to probably get ourselves killed, but whatever. "What?"

She set her half-empty plate aside. "Do you want to fight, or stay here?"

I was almost appalled. I thought we agreed on this. "I... we're going to fight. They need all the strong players they can get."

"You're not all that strong," she persisted, trying to get me to drop this. Of the two of us, my level is much higher. She's spent her time training one skill and gathering Col. My experience and time is all spent on training with my thievery skills. High level and my sneak and dagger skills above 200. But I need to hide that. I thank whoever programmed the HUD that the party menu neglects to add in level of players.

"I think we can manage."

Kirito suddenly spoke. "Floor one wasn't made to take this long to clear. Nearly everyone is overpowered to fight the boss here."

Asuka back-peddled. "How do you figure?"

He looked shocked, but continued. "Think about it. In the beta, testers were reporting the first five floors took a month. It shouldn't take ten thousand people-"

"Nine thousand," I said, darkly.

"You know what I'm saying," he finished. "We should be able to do this. And with far fewer deaths than have been so far."

"I hear you, but you need to follow what I'm telling you," Asuka said, growing louder and more direct with each word. "I... I think some thing's going to happen tomorrow. I don't think we should go."

"What's going to happen," I insisted.

"I just don't think it's going to go well," she said.

I understood at once. Asuka was a beta tester. She might know something she can't tell them. Even if it might save their lives, they might try to kill her out of some insane revenge for the last month. There was an attack just a week ago. A beta tester was hanged in the largest courtyard in the Town of Beginnings and pelted with rocks until a group of players got him down, and into hiding. You don't lose HP in a town, but you can still be hurt.

I gave her a nod which should tell her lets talk of this later, but not in front of guests.

She seemed to understand and dropped it. Kirito seemed to accept the conversation was over, as he turned to other, less important matters.

"So, Langley. Why do you and Job call each other..."

He means why do you call each other by your names from the other side? In Aincrad, it's considered rude and just plain cruel to use the names we were born with, or just a name not ones character name. Some people think that was so they can maintain that the game is a fiction. Others just don't want to be reminded that there is a world outside this one. If you take Aincrad for what it became, a society, then it is one of the shortest-lived societies with taboos that don't regard personal safety.

A taboo generally arises from the greater good stepping in. Don's eat that, it's toxic. Avoid this place, you could likely fall to your death. Don't use my name, it hurts too much.

"Because stupid-Shinji has always been stupid-Shinji. There isn't any other reason."

Thanks. Throw me under that bus again why don't you. The physical injuries I can deal with. The real scars come from your words, more so than actions.

"Then," he said cautiously, "you and Job-san know each other from before?"

"Yeah. Our parents worked together when we were kids."

"Very cool. So, childhood friends then."

"Something like that," Asuka said, effectively ending the conversation.

"What do they do," Kirito asked.

"Computer manufacturing," I said, covering us both for connections to Nerv. I don't know these guys all that well, so I don't want to have a connection to Nerv or Kayaba Akihiko in here if I can help it.

"Yeah," Asuka said. I hope she sees what I was trying to do. "Their company makes older tablet computers. Don't know much more than than," she said, placing a finger on her chin, playing ignorant. At least we're on the same page here.

"Cool," Kirito said. "My aunt is in computers too. I'm not sure what company she's with, but she builds the inner components of the more up-to-date computers."

"I see," I answered. "What about your parents? What do they do?"

He shied away, as if struck, but answered, "my parents died around twenty-twelve. Car accident. I live with my aunt, uncle and cousin. Guess I should have started with that," he said, rubbing the back of his next and grinning.

"I'm sorry," Asuka said awkwardly.

"'s all good. Don't worry about it," he said, trying to liven the conversation again. "What about you, Asuna?"

She started, but stopped a few times while we looked on. Then, she said, "my mother and father... and my brother. We're pretty well off. Dad works in software. He makes programs."

The conversation went on and on, but we really didn't make out any details, or let any go. Asuka and I both have parents who work with and are high up in Nerv, the owners of the NervGear and, ultimately, the rulers of Sword Art Online – which has been hijacked by one man. I didn't get anything out of Kirito or Asuna other than they have parents who also work in computer development. His aunt works in hardware and her father works in software.

When we finally retired for the night, we made for separate rooms in the massive hotel-like building. My rest, only an hour in, was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Come in," I said.

It was Kirito. He looked tired, but not from lack of sleep. It looked more like worry, than physical need.

"Hey, Job-san," he said, wearily.

"Just Shinji is fine," I insisted.

"Can't. If I call you that, I might just get used to it."

"You'll have to when we get out of here," I posited.

"You say that now, but what if?"

"What if what?"

"What if we all die tomorrow. Or what if you die and leave Langley here, or she dies. What if, Job?"

I don't like this kind of talk. And I don't want to confront it. "What are you saying, Kirito," I demanded in as dark my voice could get without raising it.

"I'm suggesting an agreement – something between us for mutual protection. If one of us dies, we do what we can to protect the others, Asuna and Langley."

I only thought about it a moment. "Yes."

"Yes?"

"I agree."

"Just like that," he said, trying to make sure I was actually in agreement.

"Just like that. If you had just asked me to protect Asuka or Asuna, I might have yelled at you. But I think we have to cover for each other as well. I expect the same level of dedication from you and the others as I plan to give."

"So... a guild?"

"Maybe. Nothing so official though. I was thinking just an agreement – a deal. We just protect each other and anyone we can in this death game."

"We-"

"We can beat this world," I hardly believed it myself, but someone had to. If not Asuka or Kirito or Asuna, one of us had to really believe that we could live long enough to get back to our world. "Are you with me?" I extended my hand in the same gesture I witnessed at the general meeting after the confrontation between Agil and that beta tester hunter.

"Yeah," he said, grinning and taking my arm in his hand.

21 November 2022

Apollon's Tower

The four of us, Asuka, Kirito, Asuna, self, all arrived at the specified time at the foot of the Hills with the other players. The groups has shifted a little from what they were yesterday, but were more or less in sets of six. The only deviations were the lead group, which was the leader and seven others, and another group of four, like ours. Somehow, our group was stuck at the back with that Kibaou guy running the set up for Diabel. The trek up the slopes was easy enough, as the dungeon was cleared weeks ago. It's the boss that kept killing anyone who took him on. Granted, this stemmed from players thinking they could take him on with less than ten people. Whole guilds were wiped out in a matter of minutes fighting like this. The occasional surviving member, broken and weeping, would bring back information from the front, which is how we know what we do about the first boss. The information had to be sifted through by players who could see past grief-stricken embellishments about the level of power, but we think we have enough. The worst we had to deal with were re-spawned mobs who throw objects at players to make them trip down the hill. It didn't stop anyone.

At the top, in front of the portcullis separating us from the final battle for the first floor, Diabel stopped us. He raised a hand, requesting silence, as he began to speak.

"Friends," he intoned quietly and reverently, "friends. Both those present and who are no longer here. We have gathered here today to prove to ourselves and the remaining nine thousand players of Sword Art Online that we can take our future into our hands!"

His incendiary speech makes me wonder if he's like this in the real world, or if he just got into his new persona easier than others did here. I've already seem Aincrad changing Asuka. If nothing else, her temper is... tempered here. Angry only when worth it, rather than being that way all the time. I'm not sure how much I like it. It just seems like this place is draining her from the inside.

"Know this: the Army, our Aincrad Liberation Force, although sometime seen as a force of evil and oppression in the time we've been here, has been looking forward to the defeat of the first boss. From here on out, the battle is entirely up hill, but will end. This I swear, on my sword and shield and sacred honour! Remember the plan, attack in shifts, kill! Charge!"

With that, the clearing group charged in, party by party. Once we were all inside, we spread into widely spread groups of four to eight in anticipation of the boss' appearance. Everyone is tensed up, waiting. Waiting. I brought up my primary weapon, a short dagger. It doesn't have the reach of other weapons, but my abilities rely more on getting sneak-attack critical damage, rather than pure DPS. Asuka got her massive sword raised off her back, holding a double-handed sword faultlessly with her left hand, and a healing crystal in her right. She fought like a berserker with this style. Pure attack, little to no defense. The healing crystal was a somewhat expensive type that releases health as needed, rather than as a single action. I pulled out a normal potion, just in case something happens.

Kirito stood in an odd stance, almost as strange as Asuka's single-handed wielding of her weapon. He fought without a shield, but used a one-handed sword. Almost as if he's declaring he's good enough not to need the assistance. He held his sword in his right hand, but the blade was extended backwards and he looked as if he was going to take off in a run. It was the most absurd stance I could imagine. While Asuka treated her sword as a tool, almost holding it at a right angle, Kirito held his as an extension of his arm. Where his arm went, the sword extended his reach in a slash or a stab.

I can't say I took notice of anyone else. Even Asuna was just standing there. She has a rapier at her side, but I can't tell if she intends on making full use of it. I just hope she hasn't come here ill prepared. We offered her potions and better armour than she is using, but she just turned it down, citing her own level, level 9, as high enough to absorb the worst of her damage. It's funny that the only real application of skill is in learning something through the system. You don't have to be a master sword fighter to be good in SAO, just know how to activate a learned sword skill at the right moment. It comes down to weaponizing math and reaction times.

The clock struck noon and the fight began. The room glowed a pale yellow and the Roman-styled pillars flanking us at ten meter intervals turned a subdued orange. I looked up, as did the others, at a roar emanating from above us. A large, red tailed and haired demon fell to the stage with three smaller, but similar looking, minions. The human sized monsters landed on the pillars, but the main boss, over three meters in height and just as wide, came to our level. He roared again, this time developing a name tag and health bars. Yog-Stock the Defiler and the Sentinels.

We charged. The fight was going as Diabel outlined. A circular rotation of teams and attackers. One attack at a time, spin to the next. When the whole team got in a combo, switch the team to the next. The Sentinels were easy – on each re-spawn, the healing team could step in to take them out. It wasn't difficult. The fight was wearing on me. Asuka doesn't look too bad though. She doesn't usually fight like this though. She does fight a lot, that's why her level is so high. But she isn't on the same level as a proper fighter in the game. She breaks the fighter-thief-mage thing in RPGs. She fits in with a fighter, but isn't that powerful. Maybe she's not trying to specialize. Can't blame her. That whole archetype thing is really basic and weakens general skills for specialized ones.

After about forty minutes or intense fighting, the boss fell to less than a quarter of his total health, and stopped moving. The reports say that he should switch to another, lighter, speed-oriented weapon and gain the ability to leap off the walls for increase in overall speed.

"Spread out! Groups of two," Diabel shouted at us. At a guess, the groups of two tactic is for efficient and quick attack speed. One attacker and defender at a time and a little more room for error if something goes south. But this is just too much. He's... too insightful. The idea never would have occurred to me. Not to mention he's been moving up for the whole fight. He's taking too much risk out in front like that.

Our group was healing in the short lull, but we separated into groups of myself and Asuka, and Kirito and Asuna. Just as the lead group finished the same treatment, the boss leapt out from a crouch and pulled a new weapon: a curved nodachi – a Japanese-style, two-handed sword. With a single swing, the lead group was sent flying back, but not dead. They were quickly healed by the back-most group as the others took to fighting again according to the plan. And it was working. Then Diabel did something outside the plan.

"Stand back, players! I'll slay the beast!" He charged right at Yog-Stock without a defense team. The boss started leaping from the walls again, but differently than he should be.

"No, wait," Asuka called out.

"Stop," Kirito said at almost the same time.

The four of us moved forward just as the boss made contact with Diabel. He tried to defend again the first hit, but took it in the chest and his HP dropped. There he lay. Asuka and Kirito went to him while Asuna any I held the Defiler back.

Asuka went for her menu and another potion.

"You... you were betas... weren't you," Diabel said, his voice low and weak, rather than the strong leader who lead the assault. "I tried..."

Asuka grimaced. Kirito was shocked silent, missing the rest of the sentence.

Diable chuckled as he pushed the potion away. "Heh... so was I."

He vanished into a flurry of pixels and polygons much to the horror of the lead group and the two who had tried to save him. Kirito stood up, trying to put the death out of his mind, it seemed. He grabbed Asuka's arm, bringing her up to stand. She shakes him off, insisting on standing on her own.

Just the two of us couldn't hold the boss back anymore. But as he brought a swing down on me, Kirito swept in to block and hit back.

"Thanks," I said.

"Ahead," he called back.

The boss brought his sword back around, but Asuka stabbed forward with her sword, costing him some health. Asuna fell back to Kirito's position as Asuka and I finished our attack. The two of them spoke, but I couldn't hear. Then, Kirito spoke loudly.

"No one else it dying today!" Some of the assault group stopped to stare.

"Job," Asuka used my name here, "back us up!"

The three swords-users in my group gathered up for a three-point attack. Asuna's cloak fluttered as she ran forward, leading the attack. Asuka followed closely behind and Kirito nearly flew down the hundred meter long room in a rage. It would be my job to block for attacks and keep the aggression on me. I'm not a tank, but if he manages to hit me, it'll be nothing but luck on his part. During the four player fight, as the others seem to have fallen mute in our finishing move, I lost aggro for just a moment, and the boss took a shot at Asuna. Her cloak and extraneous armour vanished in a polygonal storm, revealing a beautiful, red-haired teenager in the starter outfit. She glared at the boss with such a look as to send shivers down my spine, and attacks, blocking a thrust with her rapier. Judging by the weapon's appearance, it should have shattered – it didn't.

The boss, fallen to under a quarter of that quarter of his health, speeds up again, and takes to the ceiling. On his leap up, we were stunned, but when he attacked, we are saved when another player blocks, his weapon sending the nodachi flying back.

The large, battle-axe wielding man, Agil, sends the boss stumbling back. "You heal up. We'll hold him off for ya'."

The remainder of the lead group and some of the other groups charges against the boss, not managing the do the sheer damage we were doing, but doing well. When we were healed, we jumped back into the fight.

"Job, Asuna, flank to the right," Kirito called out. "Langley, to the left. Attack with me!"

We did what we could. I kept the bosses' attention while the flankers attacked simultaneously. It all happened at once. I leapt on his head, keeping him busy, while Asuna, Kirito and Asuka hit, sending Yog-Stock the Defiler flying into the back of the long hall. He vanished in an explosion and a flurry of multi-coloured lights.

It's over.

When the lights cleared, I got a look over Kirito's shoulder at the winner notice. It seems he got the Last Attack bonus for the first boss. It was labeled the Coat of Midnight. I supposed that meant it was a dark coat of one kind or another.

Everyone was cheering in their respective ways. The groups were laughing together, but the lead group was, while cheery, lamenting the loss of one of their own.

That was when a sharp yell came out. "Why! Why did you let Diable die!?"

I looked out into the crowd. They all stopped their cheering at our first major victory. It was shame really, that the party stopped so suddenly. It was the man who made a commotion at the planning meeting, Kiboau. I could only watch as the people present slowly began to stare with dark expressions. Things reached my worst fears. There has to be blame.

"Let him die," Kirito repeated, quietly and to himself, making it sound like a question. It couldn't be. I saw what happened. Didn't anyone else see? Diabel pushed the potion away. He refused to be healed because of a secret he held. He was... guilty in his mind... perhaps, of his status.

"You knew when the boss attacks would change," he accused. The people around were looking back and forth at us and each other. Things are getting ugly. "You must be beta testers!"

There it is. That's what that bastard has been building towards for two days now. Here, it's practically a mortal sin to be a beta tester. Though, it is also not acceptable to call anyone out on being a beta tester, especially when there's even the slight possibility of being wrong. Regardless of degree of guilt, some players consider beta testers to be the scum of Aincrad and SAO. It makes me sick to think that they think of Asuka like this. I'll never understand people. I wonder what he'd think to know that the person he's mourning is -was- a beta tester. The beta testers did nothing but play the game earlier than anyone else. In fact, the other thing they did was give all the information they have to other players. What could they be charged with?

"Where are the others! There must be other betas here. Show yourselves, all of you!" Everyone was looking around, desperately looking for the guilty players. Thing are getting bad. If he keeps this up, it'll become a witch hunt.

I turned when I heard Kirito laughing. It wasn't a laugh at the absurdity of the situation or in nervousness, but one that could be heard across the massive room, like he'd lost his mind. He reminded me of a certain person I know in Tokyo. He laughed in much the same way.

The men closer to the entrance stopped bickering about who to blame and stared at our party member. He began walking toward them.

"A beta tester?" His sight fell to the floor, but I could tell he was ready to pull his sword at any moment. I recognized the stance from time with Asuka in SAO. "I really wish you would stop lumping me in with those newbies." What? What is he doing?

"What did you say, punk!"

He kept on. "Of the thousand beta testers who played SAO before this, most were new players. They didn't even know how to level up, let alone beat the boss." He stopped in front of Kiboau to stare at the older man with, at best, contempt. "You lot, those here today, are better than them."

People in the room were sweating. Asuka was shaking. I took her arm and walked forward into the crowd, ready to fend off the players if things got violent. My poisons don't last long, but long enough to get out. Asuna was nearly by Kirito's side anyway, and I figured that if we had any chance to make it out, it would be in the center of the room with our party. I don't want to fight here, but if I have to... I would cut them down. For their sake.

"But I am different from them," Kirito went on. "I made it farther than any player in the beta. The reason I know about this boss, is because I've faced and killed more powerful creatures above us. The mobs are tougher than the little boss we just killed!" He looked up at Kiboau, his contempt turning into a creepy expression, a mad grin that would have sent a small child running for his mother. "I know a lot more. Even more than that Rat of an information broker."

"That... that's worse than being a beta tester," Kiboau said, stuttering over words. "That's cheating. You beta tester cheater!" Everyone suddenly turned against us. Calls of beta tester and cheater came around the room at us. Agil and his party were standing near by, but I couldn't expect him to aid us if the group attacks. I wouldn't want him to. He seems too much of a kind person to be willing to kill – for any reason.

"A beater," Kirito said, tasting the phrase and letting it roll off his tongue. He must have heard the words floating around and pieced them together. It sounded like he took beta and cheater and combined them. "I like it," he said, to everyone's surprise. "Here on out, never confuse me with those measly beta testers ever again." He moved though menus to equip a long black coat. It came into being with a flutter and came to rest with the pull of gravity. That must be the Last Attack bonus he just got... the Coat of Midnight. Kirito turned to walk away. I took one last look at the stunned Kiboau and turned to follow Kirito as well as Asuka and Asuna.

Agil watched us as we fled. I held a hand up in an apologetic gesture. He, to my surprise, returned it in kind with everyone watching. I hope that doesn't hurt him later. As we walked, I tried to request him as a friend. I'll have to wait for the reply.

Kirito approached the door to the second floor just as Asuna reached him. Langley and I stopped behind her. I said "Kirito, are you leaving the party?"

"Yeah, I am." He didn't turn around as he responded. The door began to open I could see a black, dusty portal inside.

"What about us?!" Langley called. "You partied with us, shared with us. What now?"

"I would like to know that too, Kirito," Asuna put in, face impassive.

He stood there, in front of the open door. After a moment, he answered "If you ever find a guild and people you trust, join up. For me..." You're a solo player aren't you? I'd be if not for Asuka. I was before this whole thing started.

"But what about you?" Asuna asked.

"I'll go on ahead." He walked into the cloudy portal to the next level, leaving the party as he exited the floor.. None of us could muster the courage to follow him... not yet.