Brothers

Things were supposed to be so simple. Why is it that it never turns out to be that way? Why is it that whenever I want things to go a certain way, they turn out all wrong and disoriented. It was supposed to be so simple. Make my brother happy for once in my life, get him something he wanted for once in his life so that way we could finally make up for all the wrongs we'd done, or more correctly the wrongs that I had done. I never was a good brother, or a good role model. I never once told my brother that I loved him and I never once told him how much he meant to me and now he's stuck in a death game to where I can't reach him…. or can I?

My name is Kiritsu Kaizer. I'm a recent high-school graduate with a part-time job at a Seven-11. Not really much a care in the world. I'm lean, I'm fit, I got a nice body and a damn good smile if I do say so myself. But I've always had one problem; I'm never there for my family when I need to be. Most especially my brother, I'm never there for him when it counts. I missed his last birthday, I missed out on his choir performance and I never even bothered to call him even when I had time to do so. It's clear as day in my mind that I never really understood how much he meant to me until that day I finally decided to do something about it and get him a NervGear and a copy of Sword Art Online. I wanted to do right by doing this for him but it didn't exactly turned out as planned.

I'll admit, I was a little scared about the whole concept of "Full Dive" when I first heard about it. I was scared of being completely immersed in a whole new world that looked and felt real. The whole point of a game was to know that it was a game and not an actual life and it just felt too real for me to get used to it. My brother on the other hand loved the whole kit and caboodle. The second he heard that a game called "Sword Art Online" or better known as "SAO" was coming out he bugged me so many times for me to get it for him since Mom and Dad were short on cash and didn't want to spend it on something so frivolous. And of course me being who I am, I decided to not even bother with it... At least, at first I didn't. As the new game release was nearing it's time to come to fruition, I realized that I never once had gotten a gift for his birthday. And it just so happened that the game would be releasing 1 day after his birthday… so what better way to get on his good side than to get him a late birthday gift? Boy, was I oh so very wrong.

After I had given him the new game and told him to "go with god and have fun" he propped himself on the bed and linked up with the system. I didn't know that things went wrong until 12 hours later… 12 hours… how stupid could I be? Questions started flooding my brain.

"How stupid could you be Kiritsu?! You sent your brother into a death game and you can't do anything now to protect him! You call yourself a brother? What a load of bull crap." I insulted myself in my own stupidity and rage.

But then… it hit me. All the voices in my head shut off and only one thought remained in my head… "I've got to go there." I said to myself.

Without a second more, I got my car keys, picked up my phone and headed over to my friend's place. He was an insane gamer but he knew he had to work until late so he wouldn't be able to get in the game until after work. It was my only chance to get into the game and save my brother.

"Hey man, do you still have your NervGear and copy of SAO?" I said with a forced tone.

"Yea I still got it. I almost got rid of it but I wanted to keep it as a reminder to never try this crap ever again-" I cut him off.

"Look bro, I need that NervGear" I said again with a serious tone.

"What the hell are you talking about? You're not thinking of going in that hellish game are you?!" He couldn't believe what I was saying. It was like I had a death wish.

"MY BROTHER'S IN THERE DAMNIT! I can't just leave him to die in there!" I couldn't hold back my anger. I was so furious with myself and the fact that my friend was trying to be an obstacle in my insane quest wasn't helping me calm myself.

"*Sigh* Look man, what you're basically telling me is that you want ME, to give YOU my NervGear so you can go into a death game where literally 10,000 people have been held captive by an insane madman and genius just so you can save your brother? Do you honestly think I'll let you throw your life away just because you think you can save your brother? You're not even as good a gamer as I am." He was right. I wasn't a great gamer. I wasn't even that great at the MMORPG type games. I could barely get past anything with challenging difficulty and anything that was too challenging I'd just give up on. I couldn't even remember the last time I played an RPG.

"You're right. I may not be good at games but I'll tell you what, tell me someone who is better at wielding a kendo stick better than me. Just name one-" I had to retract that last bit of my statement. "Okay name someone other than Kazuto who is better than me." There now we were good to go.

I heard only silence at the other end of the line and I got impatient. "See I told you! I'll be over there in the next 5 minutes. Don't do anything stupid and I won't kick your ass alright?" I hung up the phone. I knew what I was doing was very selfish but I had to do something. I couldn't live with myself anymore if I couldn't even protect my only brother. With a hardened resolve I sped up to my friend's house. If there was ever a time where I felt like throwing up from pure fear, it was definitely my final moments in the real world and entering the world of SAO.

I finally got to my friend's house and I had rushed in through his front door without even knocking. I ran up to his room and opened the door.

"Do you have it ready?" I said nearly out of breathe.

"Yea… It's on the desk." He said with a sullen look on his face. I knew he was sad. He didn't think I had a snowball's chance in hell of coming out of this alive. Even I had trouble thinking I could go into this and come back out, but I had to what choice did I have? Without a second more on the subject, I walked past him and put on the headgear. With a deep sigh I turned around to face him.

"Well, I don't know when I'll wake up from this but…" I couldn't find the words. I couldn't find out what exactly to say to him. I wanted to say everything was going to be fine but even I didn't know if I was going to be okay. 'Oh well.' I thought in my head. I knew there was nothing that could be done about the situation. I had to get my brother out of there.

I lay down on the bed and with one deep breathe and a sigh, I started the system up with my last two words. "Link, Start!" And with that, I bid farewell to my corporeal body and dove into the system. 'No turning back now' I thought again before dozens of menus pulled up in front of me. {[Welcome to Sword Art Online!]}