Sword Art Online

The first ever VMMORPG that officially started server service at 1 PM of November 6, 2022.

It obtained infamy when Akihiko Kayaba succeeded in trapping 10,000 people in the game, and making it so that death in-game would mean actual death for the player.

During the two-year period the game remained active, the total number of players in «Sword Art Online» has dropped all the way down to one.

Even now, that one lone player kept climbing up.

"You always knew it would end like this, Kirito. Your friends dead, your wife is dead, Aincrad's on crashing down. You're a failure."

As his mental voice went silent, Kirito made his way up the steps and into the tower. A pristine fountain continued to work as the Last Player passed. He enters the lobby, sharks and other exotic sea creatures swimming in massive tanks around him. The weary boy with dried, hollow eyes noticed several silhouetted figures standing in two lines on either side of the elevator at the end of the hallway as he followed the red carpet toward them.

"Squad, ten-hut!" a stern voice snapped, and the figures stood taller and more proud than the rest.

Kirito entered the hall to find himself surrounded by fifteen Royal Guard NPCs in tattered armor, the very NPCs he killed too many of to count. "Adventurer Kirito, we're all that's left of the Aincrad Royal Guard." Reports the tallest one with his chest upright. He and the other defeated guards saluted, "We congratulate you for clearing all 100 Floors, victory is yours, you have our word."

"Where. Is. Kayaba?" Kirito hissed in a hoarse voice, there is only hatred and anger left in his tone.

"Doctor Kayaba never changed his venue." The man said, "He's upstairs, waiting for you."

As the armored man finished, the doors opened. Kirito limped past the still saluting Royal Guards and entered the door. As the Last Player ascended several stories in what seemed to be a crystalline elevator, the exhausted boy collapsed against the side of the crystal.

"Well done, Kirigaya Kazuto. You've done what Ainz Ooal Gown couldn't; you destroyed Aincrad. Do you feel like a hero yet? Please, come in,"

The educated tone of a man invited as the elevator doors opened and Kirito shuffled out into a luxurious hotel suite. As the boy made his way into Kayaba's room, the voice echoed through the hallway again.

"Now that you're here, I wanna ask you a question. What did you think when you arrived in Aincrad for the first time? When you heard what I'd done to all 10,000 of you? Did you think it was the work of a...mad man?"

"Yeah," Kirito growled, "I thought you'd lost your fucking mind. Or I hope that's what happened."

"Yeah, that would make things easier, wouldn't it?" Kayaba asked, almost kindly, "But I wasn't that lucky, and neither were you."

Kirito stopped short at the comment. Now standing in a living room of sorts, Kirito looked for any trace of Akihiko Kayaba. He noticed light coming from the upper floor and moved toward the stairs. As he moved around the coffee table, the boy noticed a piece of paper with neat writing, he picked it up.

"To whoever individual skilled enough to clear this masterpiece. Use the terminal in this room and key in the following address to switch on the camera that directly links to me in the Real World. Asides that, I'm-"

"I'm upstairs, Kirigaya," the voice said impatiently, "I want to show you something."

Stuffing the scrap paper into a pocket on his now tattered Coat of Midnight, Kirito climbed the stairs to see what appeared to be a meticulously cared for sand garden, a huge canvas, and a very familiar man wearing a ponytail standing with his back to the boy.

Heathcliff continued to add small touches to his painting as Kirito approached.

"No matter how hard I tried, I could never escape the reality of what happened here," Heathcliff said without turning around. "That was my downfall."

The man added one final dab of paint and backed away. "There, finished!" he announced proudly. He finally turned to Kirito as he gestured toward the painting. "I hope you like it."

"What the hell is going on?" Kirito asked, glancing at the disturbing portrait.

"Your eyes are opening for the first time in two years." Heathcliff explained, "It hurts, doesn't it?" The man, wearing a white lab coat, black shirt and baggy khaki pants, gestured to his masterpiece encouragingly, "Go on, what do you think?"

Kirito hesitantly stepped up to the side of the older man and looked at the nightmarish image –

Men and Women desperately clawed at fences and each other trying to escape as they were burned alive and in the background, an elaborate, jet-black academic gown adorned with gold and violet edges donned by a nightmarish skeleton shoots lightning bolts from his bony hands fighting two silhouettes – Kirito and his white armored wife with flaming orange hair.

In the center of it all, a mother cradled her daughter, trying to comfort her precious child in their last moments.

''You did this. Satoru Suzuki. You gave him access to fucking Cash It-"

''But you, did worse," Heathcliff countered, stepping away from Kirito, "Your cowardice and silence killed forty-seven innocent people, and now sent Aincrad crashing to the ground in flames. Somebody has to pay for your crimes, Kirigaya. Who's it gonna be?"

With that said, Heathcliff stepped behind the portrait.

Kirito followed, only to find there was nobody.

Looking around, the boy spotted an illuminated terminal under the dim spotlight.

"Kayaba?" Kirito grunted, tentatively stepping toward the panel, ''I'm done playing games."

''I assure you, this is no game."

Eventually reaching the terminal, Kirito fished out that piece of paper, and began typing in the address written on it. Having used a similar virtual keyboard he used to salvage Yui before, it took only seconds for Kirito to finish, a screen soon flashed to Kirito's eyes.

The mummified husk was dressed in Heathcliff's current clothes and still had a NervGear strapped to his head.

Akihiko Kayaba had been dead since Day One.

Kirito's bloodshot eyes bulged as he stared dumbly at the body.

"It seems that reports of my...survival, have been greatly exaggerated,"

Kirito spun around to see a living Kayaba standing behind him, frightened, he took a tumble and fell flat on his buttocks. Around the two men, everything had gone dark.

"…This is impossible."

"Oh, I assure you, it is."

"How!?"

"Not how, why," Kayaba calmly explained, "You were NEVER meant to come here. You were NEVER meant to play this game."

"What happened here was out of my control!'' Kirito insisted.

''Was it? None of this would have happened if you. Just. Stopped. But on you marched. And for what?"

"W-we, we tried to save everyone." Kirito almost pleaded.

"You, just you sir, you are no savior," Kayaba scoffed, "Your talent lies elsewhere.''

Kirito blanked out as an avalanche of sand flashed before his eyes and engulfed most of Laughing Coffin.

The 1st Raid Boss of the Man-made Dungeon: Nazarick's Mausoleum, Cocytus, viciously snapped Kibaou's neck because Kirito wouldn't let Sinon take her shot.

Kirito reached his hand out as Silica screamed, at first for help, then in pain as she incinerates under the vicious Floor trap that pinned her down.

Kirito screamed with adrenaline as he pelted the 3rd Raid Boss, Demiurge, with Starburst Stream.

''This is your fault goddammit!"

A voice shrieked in the next flash as Kirito got punched in the face, amongst the mountain of charred bodies of NPCs all around the Players.

''Stop right there, Klein!" Agil screamed at Klein.

"He wouldn't listen!"

"We didn't have a choice!"

"My boys are dead because of him! He turned us into FUCKING killers! I TRUSTED YOU KIRITO!"

The instant Klein's finger pointed at Kirito, it turned into a flicker of light that pierced over Kirito's shoulder; he flings around, and there stands Asuna with gaping holes in the waist, her breast and her forehead.

"…Klein?" Kirito weakly calls out. As he cradled the space Asuna was in seconds before she shattered like glass.

"You left me to die!"

Wielding an automatic shotgun and wearing the exact same getup as Death Gun, Klein hysterically screamed in Death Gun's altered voice as he fired another shot-

"NO! No, that isn't my fault!" Kirito now lies on the verge of tears.

"It takes a strong man to deny what's right in front of him," Kayaba quotes.

The darkness lifted and Kirito now stood in a ruined throne room, alone.

"…and if the truth is undeniable, you create your own."

Now Kirito stood and looked up at another familiar pair hanging from a highway sign.

"Sinon! Eugeo!''

"Kirito! What the hell happened?" asked Agil frantically. "Snap out of it!"

"…What happened to Kirito?!"

"I don't know Asuna, he just stopped moving! What's goin' on, Kirito?!"

"The truth," Kayaba echoed through the darkness, "…is that you're here because you wanted to feel like something you're not. A Hero. I'm here because you can't accept what you've done."

Less than an hour after Ainz Ooal Gown sent the lower 50 Floors to oblivion with the powerful World Level Magic - ''Fallen Down'', Kirito gasped as he stared down towards the crumbling objects falling down towards the empty skies; NPCs, Monsters, innocent Players that were grinding in those Floors, Kirito even spotted Fluffles, a real cat which learned to play SAO, falling to his doom.

"It broke you."

"It's Heathcliff," Kirito answered bitterly "…he did it, all of it. Because he is Kayaba."

"You needed someone to blame, so you cast it on me. A dead man."

Kirito follows his deceased idol to the window, he could see his own disheveled self and Kayaba's reflections in the glass.

"I know the truth is hard to hear, Kirigaya, but it's time. You're all that's left, and we can't live this lie forever." When the older man spoke again, his tone had finally softened, only to raise the sword sheathed in his shield he used to duel Kirito all those months ago.

"I'm going to count to five," Kayaba coldly declared, "Then I will kill you."

"You're not real," Kirito trembled as he raised his hand to reach Elucidator, "This is all in my head."

"Are you sure?" Kayaba asked with a coy shrug, "Maybe it's in mine. One."

"All of this, everything, it was YOUR fault!" Kirito, managed to grasp Elucidator, snarled in pain.

"If that's what you believe in, then draw that sword." Kayaba challenged, "Two."

"I... I never mean to hurt anybody." Tears began to stream down Kirito's cheeks.

"No one ever does, Kirigaya. Three."

Kirito sniffled and wiped his face clean furiously.

"Four."

The image of Akihiko Kayaba, Heathcliff in SAO, waited longer before the final number, as the broken and hopeless Kirito hesitated.

"Is this really what you want, Kazuto Kirigaya? So be it. Five-"

A flash.

Everything stood still for a moment.

"…It takes a strong man to deny what's right in front of him." as Kayaba spoke his weapons fell and shattered like glass.

"…stronger than you were." Kirito said as he pushed Elucidator further through Kayaba's neck.

"Whatever you say, Kazuto Kirigaya,"

Cracks appeared and spread all over Akihiko Kayaba,

"Whatever happens next, don't be too hard on yourself. Even now, after all you've done, you can still go home."

Kayaba reached out his arm, with the other one shattered and the fragments of him fell to the distant ground, he strokes Kirito's head before pushing him closer to him.

"Lucky you."

Asuna whispered into his ear with nothing but malice in her voice.

Kirito was left huddled on the ground and crying his loudest over the blank, white horizon of data.

"Say, Onii-chan… did you know, that Sword Art Online… has been on TV for over two years... until you cleared it? Until you came back to us?"

Suguha Kirigaya, now skinning apples for her dear adopted brother, was simply overwhelmed with joy when the hospital contacted her, now the sole family member to Kazuto Kirigaya, that the latter has finally cleared the game: thus safe enough to remove the NervGear. Nowadays, Suguha is juggling between her studies and earning money to pay for Kazuto's hospital fees, thankfully earning her wages at Kazuto's IT Company.

"…There were actually some Godtubers streaming videos of them playing Sword Art Online, and there are also an TV crew there too for interviews, and through them, Papa, Mama and I… we've seen things."

Seeing Kazuto acting like some third rate antagonist on a crap Reality TV was what lead to him getting disowned by his adoptive parents, during his battle with Satoru Suzuki: ''Self-made Overlord'' Ainz Ooal Gown.

In Kazuto's own understanding: his uncle and auntie simply disowned him after learning how their nephew turned adopted son turned out to be a selfish sociopath who kept quiet about too many things. Be it Sachi, Diabel or even Sinon, Kirito kept too much cards in his hand, and never bothered to play them at all.

''…If you don't mind me asking, what was it like? How did you survive all this?''

Kazuto looked coldly at the buxom, adopted sister who disowned her parents to stay with him.

''...Who said I did?''