This is my fourth story, but my first time writing for SAO, similarly, it is also my first time writing in the first person, so just a warning. Anyways, thanks for clicking on the story! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: Blades

"SAO!" That was the first thing I shouted as I ran into my Katana instructor and surrogate father's home. I was holding two copies of the extremely coveted game, two of only ten thousand. Normally you would only be able to get one copy per person, but thankfully Sensei and myself both knew the store owner well, that way I could go by myself and save my teacher the aches of an older body.

However, despite the fact that he was my senior by fifty years, he dashed into the warm living room as if he was racing Usain Bolt. I saw him smile from ear to ear at what I held in my hand, obvious child-like excitement springing from his eyes. This, in turn, forced the corners of my mouth up in an imitation of him, Sensei hadn't shown this much emotion in a while; a normally reserved and frugal man, I had been surprised when he had asked me to tell him more about the brand new VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online.

I wasn't a full-blown Otaku, Sensei stressed that school and sword lessons were of more importance, but I was well versed in the online world. In fact, I had my own Nervegear before SAO was even announced, courtesy of a brief summer job, specifically for the full-dive technology. Sensei's only true cares were those of his Katana and swordsmanship, but a big regret was that he didn't have a real reason to use it to its full potential, so when he heard about the new game and its Katana sword type, he was instantly drawn in. He had quickly purchased his own Nervegear in anticipation.

"They're all set up and waiting for us." I slightly flinched when his wrinkled, yet strong and calloused hand snatched a copy of the game from me, and began the trek out to the dojo. I trailed behind him, gazing at the graying ponytail bouncing with each step. He stood much taller than I did, and those extra inches always bore down on me with such ferocity in lessons, kinda frustrating.

I personally thought using the Nervegear in a dojo was an odd idea, but Sensei had looked me dead in the eyes when I had inquired about the reason. "It is the most respectable place to wield the finest pieces of metal. Whether it be digital or physical, I intend to honor the blade." The look he had given me then sent chills down my spine, it had been so intense. Like gazing into a blazing inferno. From the day I knew him, he would never relent as to why he cared so deeply for his swords.

"Ok Sensei, do you remember your login? And how to start the machine?"

The response I received was one of amusement, "I may be old and decrepit Kaito, but I can recall basic instructions."

I returned the smile and laid down on the wooden mats, readying myself for the trip back into VR. I had helped Sensei create his account for the machine, but he had kept his in-game name a secret, just as I had. Needless to say, I was curious about his taste in nicknames.

We each slipped on the comfortable gray helmets, snapping the chin harness in place, and with an uncanny precision we both said the startup phrase, "Link start!"

Both my teacher and I closed our eyes, letting our minds drift off to the digital world with the help of microwave signals. The first thing I saw was a rainbow tunnel rushing at me, reminding me of an American movie where a man traveled to other worlds using a rainbow bridge. Then I was assured each sense was working by a series of spinning displays. And finally, the words I'd been waiting for appeared, 'Welcome to Sword Art Online.'

I experienced a quick bout of disorientation as my feet made contact with solid ground. My vision was filled with a bright white light for a few seconds, before fading away and revealing the most intricate online world I'd ever seen. I was standing near the center of a circular plaza, the architecture revealing that it was based on medieval or possibly the renaissance time period. I looked around, quickly spotting a new player spawn in and I knew right away that it was my teacher. His hair had banished all the gray, becoming completely black, his height and size looked about the same, but he had fewer wrinkles. The one thing that truly told me it was him, was when we both locked eyes.

The Nervegear had an extremely advanced tracking system built into the helmet, so that way people could emote in game. Although I had heard several times that it tended to exaggerate the emotion. So I was incredibly surprised when I saw those intense eyes staring at me as if we had been engaged in a duel. They were basically perfect, and as I walked over to Sensei, I could tell he was puzzled by my choice of avatar.

"You look… like you."

I sighed, my slim lithe body slouching forward at his disappointment, "And you look thirty years younger Sensei."

His smile returned and he jumped around frantically, "I feel thirty years younger!"

"Oh? Is that why you're suddenly acting much more like a child?" Normally most students regarded their teachers with the utmost respect, but I had a special connection with mine, he was basically my father at this point. As such, our jesting was commonplace outside our training, and even sometimes during training.

I intended this as a joke of course, but I instantly noticed his form become more rigid, and his face lost some of its emotion. I knew he hadn't taken offense at the statement, rather he had remembered that this was a public space and he liked to uphold the stoic, warrior type facade in these settings.

My teacher took a small breath, "Well, now that we are done with that, how do you invite people to a… group?"

"Guild," I corrected, "Guilds don't form until the third floor I hear, but I can make us a party." I raised my index and middle finger, tapping on his cursor. The green diamond had appeared before him when I stared for long enough. "Now you can just hit the accept button and we will be able to see each other's names."

I watched the upper left corner of my screen, eagerly waiting for the reveal. Of course, I should've expected the word that appeared below mine, "How did I know you were going to choose a name involving a sword, Masamune?"

Sensei shrugged, "I couldn't help but use it Kaito."

I shook my head, "In-game names only. Remember?"

He slightly frowned at my demand, "Do I have to Kai- er…" I saw him direct his eyes to our life bars, then with pride in his eyes he uttered my name, "Daisho… very well, from here on out, we are Masamune and Daisho!"

I chuckled at his enthusiasm and began to lead him from the town plaza. Masamune had been one of the finest sword makers to ever exist, no surprise as to why the name had been chosen. As for myself, Daisho was a style I excelled in during lessons, it was normally regarded as unorthodox, consisting of a normal Katana, named Daito, and a shorter sword named Shoto. Sensei had laughed when I told him my ambition to train with the swords in such a way, but he quickly accepted the fact that I wanted to try it. He accepted it so quickly, in fact, that the same day I had a Daito hanging from the left of my waist, and a Shoto on the right. Unfortunately, as far as I knew, no such skill existed in SAO, you were only allowed to use Sword Skills, the games special moves, while holding one of your weapon types. I didn't mind it too much, however, I usually began the fight with the Daito and only pulled out the Shoto when it was required.

"First things first," I said while grinning wide, "We're gonna need some swords." Each player was given a small amount of col, the game's currency, and wasn't allowed to leave the Town of Beginnings until it had been used for a weapon.

The marketplace was overcrowded with players, all gathering together beneath the multicolored overhangs. It didn't matter what weapon shop we found, in the Town of Beginnings there were only two options for each weapon type in each NPC store, but at the moment we only had enough money for the basic level Katana.

My transaction passed within seconds, allowing me to secure the sword to my belt, but Sensei was causing quite the scene. He had bowed his head low, arms outstretched to accept the blade as if it was some holy ceremony. "I promise to treasure and upkeep this Katana to the best of my ability."

I began to burn red with embarrassment as the players around us laughed at his display, especially amused by the fact that he was talking to an NPC, "Sensei it's just the starter sword, by the time we reach the second floor you'll need a stronger one… hell, you'll probably need a better one before we even beat this floor."

"Then I will treasure its usefulness for as long as it is needed."

I sighed, I don't know why I expected any different, "Let's just get going to the fields, I wanna fight some monsters."

Now I wasn't one of the beta testers, I had almost no previous knowledge of the game, aside from what I could find online, but I was quite adept at finding my way around game worlds and as such, we made it out to the first monster location in no time. I looked across the beautiful green expanse, still in shock of how amazingly real it felt. I had experienced full-dive before, but nothing as advanced as this. I could feel the cool breeze on my skin, feel the burn of overly fresh air enter my nostrils, and smell the faint grass fragrance.

"It truly is beautiful."

I felt relief at Sensei's declaration, I had been afraid he would be disappointed at the small touches that could occasionally leave you knowing you were in VR. SAO didn't seem to have these at all, everything was perfectly rendered, all senses a perfect imitation.

"BEHIND YOU!"

I could feel Sensei spin at my side, reacting to the sudden scream, unsheathing his sword and slashing through the air. I knew he had connected with something because of the awful cry of pain that came from whatever had attacked them. As I turned around I saw the origin of the noise, a wild hog, one of the first enemies in the game.

Sensei's slash had sent the monster backwards, leaving me enough room to ready my own weapon. I held it in both hands, angling it downwards at the hog's forehead. As it recovered and charged at us once more, Sensei dashed ahead, slashing at a leg, causing it to fall at my feet. I drove the entire blade, all the way up to the hilt, straight through the enemy's body. At that point I had noticed the red bar just to the left of its body. The red disappeared pixel by pixel and finally as the last of the blood-colored health bar vanished the hog exploded into hundreds of glowing polygons, which began to slowly blink out of existence.

I felt the familiar rush of adrenaline fade from my body as a white display appeared at chest level, signaling col, exp, and any items that may have been earned. It was then I suddenly remembered the voice that had called out a warning. My eyes rose slowly to gaze at the pair who had saved us some hit points. One had red hair and a similarly colored bandana, his face was rough, with a small patch of stubble on his chin. He seemed to be in exceptional spirits, a grin covered his face. The second was more reserved, looking around eighteen or twenty, he had dark blue hair, and from what I could tell, he was not the best with social encounters.

This was almost certainly not helped by the fact that Sensei had bowed low in front of them, "Thank you very much for alerting us to the hog! I am Itaru Endo and this is Kaito Endo, my student!"

I sighed in exasperation, "Sensei, remember what we said about our names?" I took a step closer as he rose back to full height.

"But they helped us, I can't simply thank them without telling them my name!"

I just shrugged at the two other men, one still amused, the other still awkwardly standing away from the conversation. I pointed at myself, "Daisho," Then to Sensei, "Masamune."

The redhead laughed heartily, "Those were some slick moves!" I was personally surprised neither had inquired about our relation, sharing the same last name alongside being teacher and student. "I'm Klein by the way, and Mr. Social over here is Kirito!"

I saw Kirito shoot Klein an exasperated look as if he was already used to this kind of banter, "You guys got started just as quick as us huh?"

Klein scratched the back of his head and hitched a thumb at his companion, "This guy was a beta tester, he knew what he was doing, so I asked him to help me out. Especially with those pesky Sword Skills!"

A sheepish smile split my face, "Yeah, about that."

Several hours later we were richer and far more experienced in the ways of SAO. Sensei could sling a Sword Skill just as fast as the beta tester and while I was slower, what I lacked in speed, I made up for with precise critical attacks. As I gazed out onto the epic expanse of the first floor of the castle known as Aincrad, plains covered in the orange light of sunset, a feeling of deep sadness came over me. "Too bad this isn't real."

Kirito turned to me, a somewhat puzzled look on his face, "That would be a dangerous world."

I continued on, "The view I mean, eventually you have to take off the Nervegear and instead of this it's our reality."

Sensei grunted in agreement, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, "I do believe it is time to return to reality. Five twenty-five is about dinner time and I'm getting hungry."

I nodded, "Well, it was good to meet you both, and thanks for the help! Hopefully, we'll see each other again." I turned to my right, "Do you know how to logout?"

Sensei shook his head, and I began to try and instruct him to the correct area, however, he was having a bit of trouble with menu navigation it seemed, "I still don't see what you're talking about!"

During our intense debate, I could tell Klein and Kirito had a conversation, something involving pizza, ending in Klein pulling up his own menu.

"Sensei, just click-"

"It's not there!" My teacher threw his hands in the air exasperated beyond belief.

"Well that just can't be ri-" It seemed there was no end to the interruptions I was facing, as Klein turned around, a grave look on his face.

"It really isn't there."

Kirito and I pulled out our menus, I scrolled over to the logout button. It wasn't that it absent, rather it had been grayed out. An unrelenting sense of foreboding settled over me, "It's just a bug, no need to freak out."

Klein seemed to read my mind, "It's just a bug right?" He sat back down on the grass, suddenly relaxed, "It is the first day after all, I'm sure the GMs are trying to fix it right now."

"I don't-" I growled in frustration as a bell began to go off, interrupting me for the third time. Before I could finish the thought or air my grievances, however, a pillar of blue light enveloped me in its glow.

When my vision cleared I realized we were right back where we started, the town plaza. And from the looks of it, so was everyone else in the server, yet despite the fact that this was obviously some sort of announcement, I couldn't shake the sense of dread from my body.

And then the sky turned red. I looked up to see dozens of hexagonal patterns covering the sky, all reading 'Warning,' or 'System Announcement.' It covered us in an eerie red light, to unnatural to be dusk or dawn. I stifled a scream of panic when suddenly, the gaps between the panels began leaking blood. However, instead of simply falling to the ground, it seemed to coalesce into a singular ball of red liquid, floating above the crowd. It started to take shape, forming a huge red robe, with a hood that revealed no face.

The arms of the robe spread, white gloves splayed wide, "Welcome to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko." The hood finally tilted up and that's when I realized it wasn't hiding a face, there just simply wasn't anything there, like the robe was the body itself. "As of now, I am the only one who can control this world. I am sure you've all noticed the logout button missing from the main menu."

I saw Klein and several others breathe sighs of relief around me, but Sensei was still rigid, his face a hard mask of concern. It was at that moment when I truly knew something was wrong, my teacher always had a good nose for trouble, but when it came down to it, he almost never looked concerned.

Then the Game Master uttered words that would be ingrained in my brain until the day I died, "This is not a defect in the game… this is a feature of Sword Art Online." I could practically feel a ripple of panic sweep the crowd. "You cannot logout yourselves, and should anyone on the outside try to remove it, the microwaves inside the helmet will remove their safety limits, and fry your brains… you will die."

I couldn't breathe, this couldn't be right. No, part of that was a lie, I could breathe, but I was doing it much quicker than I should've. Sensei turned to me, putting both hands on my shoulders as Kayaba continued on about permadeath. I would only find out later that he had said we needed to clear all one hundred floors to escape. "Kaito, take a deep breath, clear your mind." He looked directly into my eyes, "You're not in a cramped space, you have plenty of room, we may be trapped, but don't let it get to you."

Claustrophobia, the extreme or irrational feel of confined spaces. While this certainly wasn't the case with SAO, I could still feel the anxiety of helplessness creep up my back. I wanted to get out, I needed to get out. It felt like a vice was pressing me into nothing, all I could hear was Sensei's voice. "We're in the dojo, we are not in a small space, whether in here or out there. Now listen to me! Calm yourself!"

I took a few stuttering breaths, trying to work feeling back into my limbs, but before I could move them myself, Sensei took both my arms and lifted them. I gasped and looked around, the fear slowly leaving my body like I was dispelling a poison. My breathing was still heavy as I looked back up our captor. "I've added a final gift to your inventory. Please take a look."

I shakily moved my hand to open my menu and materialize the item in my hand, "A hand mirror?" That's when blue light covered everyone once more. It took several seconds and my panic almost returned when I thought I may be trapped inside it, but thankfully it passed quickly. But, I was confused when I realized I was still at the plaza, nothing had changed.

"You're Klein?!"

"And you're Kirito?!"

My eyes flicked over to the two shouting. It was Klein and Kirito, only it wasn't, their clothes were the same, but Kirito's hair was darker, and he was shorter. On the other hand, Klein didn't look much different, same red hair, same stubbly chin. I jumped as a wrinkled hand was set on my shoulder and I turned to see Sensei, not the game version, but the real version. "Now you really look like you Kaito."

"Wha- How can you be so calm?!"

Sensei shook his head, "We don't gain anything from panicking."

A sense of shame coursed over me, I had freaked out worse than anyone else up to this point. "Of course." I clenched my fists to stop the shaking and took slow breaths to relax.

"You're probably wondering why I, Kayaba Akihiko, did all of this. I created this world for one reason, to make this scenario a reality and intervene in it. That goal has now been completed. This concludes the tutorial for the launch of Sword Art Online. Good luck players."

With that, we all saw the robe disintegrate back into blood and leave through the ceiling of red. Then the system announcement and warning panels disappeared, bringing us back into 'natural' daylight. That's when the crowd collapsed into pure anarchy, no one could be heard over the other, I looked around and saw Kirito and Klein disappear from my view, entering the crowd.

Sensei grabbed my wrist, "I believe it's time to make our own escape."

I nodded, he had come to the same conclusion as me and Kirito, if we were going to survive, we needed to be stronger, or else we might never escape. It was time to become the swordsman I had always trained to be.

First of all, thank you for reading all the way through, I'm still trying to get better at writing so I apologize if this is lacking. I really like this fic so updates should be common, however, I'll be quite busy this upcoming week with essays and other annoying assignments. Any comments or reviews are appreciated!