The Last One Standing

"Talking"

'Thinking'

Ch 1

What is reality? For the longest time I thought I knew till a string of incidents occurred that changed my views on reality. Through the years I've had many things happen that made me grateful for the rock in the stormy seas of my life. He is known to me by many different names, Brother, The Black Swordsman, and his most spoken title, quietly said in reverence because, No matter the odds. No matter what he faced. He ultimately was, The Last One Standing.

OOooOO

I along with everybody else standing in the central plaza within the town of beginnings, was staring up at the red sky a set of giant game masters robe materialized over our heads.

"Players welcome to my world."

Standing dumbfounded I looked around catching sight of my brother. Who fortunately didn't recognize me due to the long blond hair my avatar had, not that he was paying attention to me anyways, my attention like his returned to the game master as he began speaking again.

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba and I'm the only one that can control this world."

I like everyone else stood shocked at this looking back at my brother. I noticed he was mumbling something, so I moved closer to better hear what he was saying.

"By now you have discovered that the log out button is missing from the main menu. This is not a bug it is part of Sword Art Online's programming. Until you arrive at the top of this castle you can not log out of your own volition."

'Can't mom just take the Nerve Gear off disconnecting us?" I thought.

"...also, the discontinuation or dismantling of the Nerve Gear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these things are attempted..."

A moment of rapt attention followed. The silence of ten thousand people was overwhelming. The next words came slowly.

"The signal sensors in your Nerve Gear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain and stopping all of your basic functions."

It was as if my mind shut down and refused to believe what had just been said. But Kayaba's short statement pierced through my body with a foreshadowing that was both hard and dense. Destroy our brains. In other words, kill us. Any user that turned the Nerve Gear off or unlocked the clasp and took it off would be killed. That is what Kayaba had just stated. People in the crowd started muttering, but there was no one shouting or panicking. It was either that everyone, like me, couldn't understand it yet, or refused to.

The red head standing next to my brother appeared to be attempting to remove the nerve gear himself before asking my brother. "Haha...what's he saying? That man, has he gone nuts? He's not making any sense. The Nerve Gear... It's just a game. Destroy our brain... How is he going to do that? Right Kirito?" The red head asked, voice breaking.

"Essentially all the Nerve Gear is, is a microwave so theoretically it's possible Klein, but...he must be bluffing. Because if we pull the plug on the Nerve Gear, there's no way it can emit that sort of a strong pulse. Unless there's some form of battery with a huge storage capability...inside..." Kirito stopped talking then as if he thought of something and the same thought must have entered mine and Klein's mind's as well.

"There...is one." Klein said, his body freezing in realization accompanied by a hollow expression on his face. "Thirty percent of the gear's weight is in the battery. But...that's totally crazy! What if there was a sudden power outage or something!?"

Kayaba started explaining, as if he had heard what Klein had shouted. "To be a little more specific, dislocation from an outside source of electricity for ten minutes, being cut off from the system for more than two hours, or any attempt to unlock, dismantle, or destroy the Nerve Gear. If any of these conditions are met the brain destruction sequence will start. These conditions have been made known to the government and the public through mass-media in the outside world. On that note, there have been several cases where the relatives or friends have ignored the warnings and tried to forcefully get rid of the Nerve Gear. The result-." The voice gave a short pass as if to take a breath at this point as live news feeds popped up next to Kayaba. "-regretfully 213 players have already exited this game, and the real world forever.'

I gasped in shock and almost collapsed as the gravity of the situation fully registered itself in my mind.

"I don't believe it. This can't be happening." A girl, that I had met earlier whose avatar appeared to be the same age as mine, said as she sat on the ground hugging herself.

"Players you don't have to worry. The danger of having your Nerve Gear taken off has already all but disappeared. In a moment, using the two hours I have given, all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutes and will be given the best treatment available. So you can relax...and concentrate on beating the game."

"What are you saying?! You... you want us to play around in a situation like this?!" Kirito yelled as he glared at Kayaba.

"This isn't a game anymore!" Kayaba declared before continuing. "The minute your HP reaches 0 your Avatar will disappear and your brain will be destroyed by the Nerve Gear.

I looked up at the green bar in the upper left corner of my vision, 400/520 were the numbers flashing back at me. "Crap I need to get some potions." I mumbled as I had taken some damage while I practiced leveling up a little bit earlier. This was my first time playing but now there was no way I could practice.

As if reading my mind and the mind of everybody else Kayaba stated. "Players, there is only one way to be freed from this game. As I have said before, you must get to the top of Aincrad, the one hundredth floor, and defeat the final boss that resides there. All players still alive at that time will immediately be logged out of the game. I give you all my word."

9787 players stood in silence.

It was then that I realized what Kayaba had meant when he had said "Get to the top of this castle." This castle meant the huge monstrosity that had imprisoned all of the players on the first floor with ninety nine more floors stacked on top of the others, towering into the sky while floating in it. He was talking about Aincrad itself.

"Clear...all 100 floors!?" Klein suddenly shouted. He got up quickly and raised a fist up to the sky. "And how do you want us to do that!? I heard that beating the floors was crazy hard even during the beta testing!"

Kayaba ignored him as he continued. "I'll show you evidence that this is your new reality. In your inventories, there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this.'

As soon as I heard this, I pressed my finger and thumb together and pulled downwards just like I had been shown earlier that day. All the players did likewise and the plaza was filled with the ringing sound of bells. I pressed the item button on the menu that had just appeared and the item was there, at the top of my belongings list. The name of the item was hand mirror. 'Why did he give us this?' I wondered, I tapped on the name and pressed the "make into object" button. Immediately afterward, there was a twinkling sound effect and a small rectangular mirror appeared. I grabbed it hesitantly but nothing happened. All that it showed was the face of the avatar that I had gone through a lot of trouble to make. I cocked my head and looked at Kirito. My brother was also looking at the mirror in his hand with a blank expression on his face. Then suddenly Kirito and the avatars around us were engulfed in white light.

As soon as I took this in, I was surrounded too and all I could see was white. Almost 2, 3 seconds later, the surroundings reappeared just as they had been. No. The face in front of me wasn't the one I'd come to think of as my brother but Kirito's face in the real world. His eyes widened in shock as he looked and pointed a shaky finger at me. "Suguha what are you doing here!?"

Stuttering a second I answered. "It was supposed to be a surprise Kazuto. Mom wished for us to be on better terms with each other so her idea was for me meet in your world so to speak." I mumbled out an answered as I looked at my feet. "Though having been here for the last few hours it's more literal than I first surmised." I finished, looking up with a weak smile.

"P-pardon me but how did the Nerve Gear know our body type?" The now young girl standing beside me asked looking up at me.

The person who answered this question was Klein. "Ah- wait. I bought the Nerve Gear just yesterday so I remember, it was a part of the set-up. What was it called, calibration? Well anyway, during that bit it had you touch your body in a few locations, maybe it was that?"

"Ah, right that's what it was." Kazuto mumbled like he has done in the past when thinking of unnecessary information.

Calibration was where the Nerve Gear measured how much you had to move your hand to reach your body. This was done to reproduce the sense of touch accurately within the game. So to say, it was almost as if the Nerve Gear had data about our exact figures saved inside itself. It was possible, making all the avatars of the players an almost perfect polygon replica of themselves. The purpose of this was made all too clear now.

"Reality." I heard Kazuto mutter. "He said that this was reality. That this polygon avatar...and our HP was our real body and our real life. In order to make us believe this, he's produced a perfect copy of us."

"You're probably wondering 'why.' Why am I, the creator of both the Nerve Gear and SAO, Kayaba Akihiko, doing something like this? Is this a sort of terrorist attack? Is he doing this to ransom us?"

It was then that Kayaba's voice, which had been emotionless up till now, seemed to show some signs of emotion. "None of these are why I am doing this. Not only that, but now for me, there is no longer a reason or a purpose in doing this. The outcome of this situation itself was my purpose in doing this. To create and watch this world is the only reason I have created the Nerve Gear and SAO. And now, everything has been realized. Furthermore there is video feed set up so that your family and friends can see your progress. So do your best. Wouldn't want to embarrass them." Then after a short pause, Kayaba's voice, now emotionless again, stated. "Now I have finished the official tutorial for Sword Art Online. Players I wish you luck." This last sentence trailed off with a faint echo.

The huge robe rose soundlessly, and started sinking, hood first, into the red sky, as if melting. Its shoulders, then its chest, then its two arms and finally the hem of the robe merged into the red surface, and then a final red stain spread briefly. Right afterward, the crimson sky disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.

The crowd suddenly erupted after a minute of shocked silence.

"It's a joke right...? The hell is this? It's a joke right!?"

"Stop kidding around! Let me out! Let me out of here!"

"No! You can't! I've got to meet someone soon!"

"I don't like this! I wanna go home! I want to go home!"

Yells. Clamors. Shouts. Curses. Begging. Screaming. The people that had changed from game players to prisoners in a matter of minutes crouched clutching their heads, waved their arms about, grasped each other or started to swear loudly. In the midst of all this noise, strangely my mind became calm. 'This is our reality.' Was my one thought.

"Suguha, Klein come on we've got to get out of here." Kazuto said as he grabbed mine and Klein's hand and proceeded to drag us to the edge of the plaza. I grabbed the hand of the brown haired girl that I had become acquainted with earlier as I passed but Kazuto didn't appear to notice.

A minute or two later Kazuto came to a stop in a back alley where players were scarce. Turning toward his passengers he sighed. "Seriously you had to bring her?"

"She's coming with us and nothing you say is going to change that." I told him as I defensively held the know sobbing girl.

"Fine." My brother said hanging his head in defeat before looking back up. "Anyways we need to hurry up and get to the next village and stay in small groups."

"Hey Kirito remember those friends I mentioned earlier?" Klein asked before continuing without receiving an answer. "The thing is if you think it'll be better to be in smaller groups. Then it would be best if we split up here."

"If that's the way you feel about it I won't stop you." Kazuto said as Klein turned to leave.

"By the way Kirito you look way better with your true face than that fake avatar." Klein said with a grin on his face.

"That scruffy mug look 100% better on you as well." Kirito answered also with a grin.

"Hey Leafa it's nice to have met you. This guy obviously knows you so do me a favor and take care of him." Klein said giving Leafa a smile. To which she answered with a nod. "Well see ya later." Klein shot back as he left.

"Message me if you need any help or anything." Kirito called as Klein got to the end of the alley.

"Will do." Klein called as he turned the corner and disappeared out of sight.

"Alright Leeefa who's your little friend?" Kirito asked drawing out Suguha's screen name playfully.

"At least I put some thought into my name Kirito." Leafa shot back heatedly. "This is Silica." Leafa answered before looking down toward the weeping girl in her arms. "Please stop crying everything is going to be alright we'll be fine."

"Thank you Leafa." Silica said smiling at the encouragement, wiping the tears from her face as her pig tails bobbed with her change of mood.

"Alright let's go." Kirito said sighing. "I want to get to the next village by nightfall."

"Then let's go." Leafa yelled excitedly, throwing her fist into the air.

"Yea let's." Silica called, the excitement being infectious.

OOooOOooOO

Chapter one is done