Sachi: November 6, 2022

Sword Art Online! Oh! I love video games! I climb to the top of the highest building I can find, for a king of the world moment. Scratch that! I'll be queen of the world! With my cute blond haired blue eyed avatar, I look like a queen anyways!

"Sword Art Online! Here I come!" I yell at the top of my lungs. I hear my echo respond to me.

"Here I come!"

"Yeah right! Here I come! I'm going to beat this game! Woo hoo!" I giggle back at my echo. My echo seems to get a deeper voice.

"Haha, Sachi? Is that you? What are you doing up there?" I look down at my echo.

"Tetsuo! How are you?" I jump off the building, not taking any damage. I don't recognise the red haired man in front of me, but I'd know that voice anywhere.

"Good Sachi! Have you seen Sasamaru, Keita, or Ducker?" Tetsuo asks me.

"Ducker? Is that what he's calling himself?" I giggle. "No, I haven't seen any of them!"

"Well, if it isn't my good friends from our local nerd club! Sachi? Tetsuo? Nice names!" Keita comes up to us.

"You're one to talk. Besides, we all just used our family names!" Tetsuo pointed out.

"Except 'Ducker,'" I remind him.

"Please don't tell me that's what Kyo called himself!" Keita laughed.

"Yup! I totally did! And don't use my IRL name here! I didn't use my real name like you guys!" Kyo's avatar looks awesome. He has black hair going down to his chest, and it's pinned up on one side.

"Okay, Ducker!" We all laugh. Keita may seem rude, but he always puts his friends first. I love him for that.

"Hey, let's go hang out in the town! See what cool weapons we can get!" Tetsuo suggests. "And maybe find Sasamaru while we're at it!"

We all express our agreement. We all laugh and joke around as we run to the town's shops and marvel at the amazing world we've entered. After about an hour of being online, we all notice the red sky.

"Hey, do you feel that?" Keita asks us.

"Yeah! Wha-" Ducker gets cut off. We're all being teleported. We happen to all be in the same area once we're at our destination.

"Sachi? Keita? Kyo? Oh my goodness! You all look so different here!" Sasamaru is here!

"Sasamaru! Do you have any idea what's happening here?" Tetsuo asks him.

"And it's Ducker here! Not Kyo!" Kyo protests.

The sky starts dripping what looks like blood, but really it turns out to be a giant person. No, I don't think that was a person. No person would do what he did.

I stop listening once he shows that people are dying from the game. I run towards the edge of the town.

"Sachi! Wait!" Keita runs after me. I curl up into a ball and stare at my reflection. It's the real me now. That stupid item! I hate the way I look.

"You know, that was going to be the most beautiful avatar in the game…" I mutter to Keita.

"You're fine the way you are. Now let's go level up some. We're going to die otherwise," Keita offers his hand. All around me. My friends. Keita, Kyo, Tetsuo, Sasamaru. I take Keita's hand.

"Just a little bit of training. But after that, we stay in the town for a while. Deal?" I'm scared of this place. I don't want to die in this facade of a world.

"Deal!"