I rushed to get home with my older sister, Asuna Yuuki, to be able to try out the new Nerve Gear that we got from our parents. I watched as my sister ran into the house first looking over her shoulder, "Go set everything up and I'll make us something quick to eat before mom and dad get home" I nodded running up to the second floor of our home and into the room where Asuna and I set up any of our games so we didn't disturb our parents and I began hooking up all that we needed for the Nerve Gear. By the time I finished I heard Asuna call me to come eat, after I ran down and we finished eating we went back up to our room and started up the game and laid down after putting the Gear on. I started making my character making sure I had a good amount of stealth skill, strength and health before entering my name, Akari, into the system and confirmed the character.

Once I opened my eyes again I saw I was surrounded by a large group of people in the middle of a town square, I looked down at myself seeing I was in a pair of black pants and boots along with black fingerless gloves and a black shirt that had a red outline on it. I grinned as I reached to my back feeling the handles of twin daggers and I looked around seeing Asuna appear nearby and I ran over to her grinning when I saw the rapier resting on her hip, "Asuna!" I called out as I ran over to her making her look up and smile lightly chuckling, "Akari, you really had to try to be my opposite, didn't you?" I smiled at her teasing, "I've got to be useful to you, besides you and I have completely different styles, the stealth is for later, you know I love the frontlines." She shook her head as she grabbed my hand, "Come on, let's try to kill some of the monsters in the field before we have to get back home." I nodded grinning as I ran off ahead, my grin faded as Asuna easily sped past me, "You forgot I focus on speed." She laughed as we reached the field that held low level monsters such as boars, wasps, or the occasional bear that was out deeper towards the more wooded areas of the floor.

I reached back unsheathing my daggers and charged forward when I saw a boar that was nearby, as I got close I swung my right arm across slashing it before bringing my left arm up with the dagger running it across the boar's throat watching as it dematerialized. I smirked before it faded as I heard a second boar roar and charge at me from behind I turned quickly to try and defend myself from the attack only to see the boar stuck and a rapier stabbed through the body as it dematerialized as Asuna looked at me, "You should try to be more careful." I nodded and went to say something before we were teleported back to the city center we were at when we first got in the game. I frowned as the area grew dark and overshadowed with red as warnings signs showed up along the sky and a cloaked figure appeared in the sky, I stumbled as Asuna grabbed my arm pulling me next to her as the figure spoke about how logging out was no longer an option and that if we died in the game, we would die in the real world, until somebody could clear the final floor of the game.

Once the light went back to normal everyone around us started checking for the logout option but Asuna grabbed my hand dragging me into the town with her, "How much money do you have Akari?" I shrugged checking my inventory as she pulled me along, "Enough for a room for a few days." She nodded as she went inside an inn, "Good, you handle the room for now and I'll use my money to get us equipment, alright?" I nodded as I went to the NPC that ran this inn and paid for a room for the few days I could afford taking the key before following Asuna back outside into the market area of the town, "We'll need better weapons but for now we should stock up on potions and food to restore health, we can't let that reach zero." She stopped and looked at me sternly, "You need to be careful, use the stealth skill to your advantage, no risky frontline charges by yourself like you usually do." I nod, I wasn't going to argue like usual, I knew this was going to be serious so I followed her quietly as she bought what she could and set aside a little bit of the money to start saving it for weapons. I followed her back to the inn and went into our room with her as we split the resources as evenly as possible between the both of us. Asuna folded down the blankets on the bed and laid down motioning for me to do the same, I laid down and closed my eyes as she spoke, "Get some sleep, we'll work on leveling up tomorrow." I fell asleep after she turned the lights off in the room.