[Aki]

Chapter 1 – 2

[November 6th, 2022; 14:15]

I slowly stepped into my house that sat on the corner of a small street. To my left, in the kitchen, my mother stood fixing dinner.

"Hey, Aki, sweetie. Welcome home," she said, looking over at me with a smile. To my right was my father sitting on the cough watching a game show.

"Welcome back, Aki," he said, raising his hand up and waving slightly. I giggled.

I smiled over at my mother, taking off my shoes and nodding. "Hello, mom." I stood up, grabbing my school bag and walking down the hall toward the stairs that led to my room. "Hey, dad."

"You heading to play that new game? What was it called 'Sorta Online'?" she asked.

"Sword Art Online, mom," I corrected her. She chuckled.

"Well, have fun. Remember, dinner will be ready in about an hour."

"Okay. I'll be down then," I told her, walking up the stairs and opening the door with a wooden sign on it; the words "Aki" painted across it.

I set my school bag down at the foot of my bed and sighed. I slipped off my skirt and got into a pair of short athletic shorts. I unbuttoned the white shirt of my uniform and slipped into a black shirt, the letters "MWAM" across the center, a wolf's head printed under it.

I stretched, pulling my arm over my head, and exhaled. I walked up to my computer, pressing the power button and seeing the loading screen. As the fans whirred, echoing through my room, I looked around. My eyes focused on the newest generation of consoles that sat on my television stand under a relatively small flat screen. Bookshelves of games sat against a wall, the controllers for each on top of the shelves.

Posters were taped on the walls all around my room for various video games and rock bands. I traced the poster that shows the floating castle and the date of 10/31/2022. I smiled as the jingle for my computer sounded, and walked over, opening a case and placing a disk inside the tower.

The auto run process initiated, and I sat on my bed. I grabbed a white, rounded helmet and stared at the words printed on it. "NVE: Nervegear". I placed the helmet on my head, and lay down on the bed, closing my eyes.

As my clocked beep, I smiled.

"Link Start!" I shouted.

And my vision was filled with colored beams of light.

The Nervegear checked my senses and automatically logged me into the user interface.

As the login screen disappeared, a sentence appeared in the center of my vision.

Welcome to Sword Art Online!

The words faded, and I found myself in black and orange room, a console in front of me. I quickly made a character that looked like any others I made and hit accept, being sent into the world.

The room faded away, leaving me in a large open area surrounded by a city. I raised my arms, seeing them move perfectly, and grinned. On my back was a lance, and a shield was attached to my left arm. I slowly walked down the large street in front of me, toward the gate at the end of it.

To both sides of me, multiple vendors selling all types of items sat, people crowding around them. In some of the smaller streets, people were planning to party up, talking about their plans for leveling and skills.

My excitement took hold of me and I giggled a bit, running out to the gate, only stopping as I stepped into the grass of the plains outside of the city.

A light breeze blew over the fields, the grass swaying back and forth. A few clouds that dotted the sky floated by gracefully. I giggled again, running toward the hill that was to the left of the gate and collapsing on my back, my arms out to my side.

I lay there, the wind blowing over me, my bangs being lifted off my forehead and the grass tickling my wrists. I closed my eyes, feeling a happiness I've never felt before.

A half an hour passed and I opened my eyes, staring at the small cloud above me. I sat up, seeing a few monsters in the distance, and nodded. I unsheathed my lance and started toward a small boar.

The boar charged, slamming its tusks into my shield. I slammed the side of my lance into its face, seeing its health finally drop mid-way. I sighed as it backed up. I took a low stance, my lance reared back. The tip of lance started to glow a light green, and then the whole weapon was lit up.

I felt a power grow in my arm and I unleashed it, charged forward and slamming the tip of my spear right between the boar's eyes. It roared, then stopped all motion. The model started to expand, and then shattered into particles of light. The particles of light floated for a moment until disappearing upwards.

I smiled, seeing a battle result screen and level-up confirmation. I hit accept, allocating my stats to how I wanted them: defense and health.

As I sheathed my weapon, the bell in the city tolled three times, and I felt a tingling sensation take over my body. I was surrounded in a blue light, and saw the sight of the plains change.

As the light faded, I found myself standing in the center of the starting town in the middle of all the players. I looked around.

To my right was a teenage boy, who started up at me. I smiled, cocking my head to one side, and I saw him smile. His face looked awfully familiar.

As he looked away, a beeping noise filled the air. Above us, a blinking red hexagon with the words "WARNING" written across it appeared. The hexagons expanded in the sky, covering the whole town. Red fluid seeped down through the slats between each hexagon, forming a humanoid figure. White gloves formed, a long red cape with nothing inside.

"What is that?!" someone yelled, pointing up

"Welcome to my world, dear players," the man said. "My name is Akihiko Kayaba. At this moment, I am the only human being alive with control over this world. You have likely noticed by now that the log-out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug-it is a feature of Sword Art Online."

He paused, letting people shout his questions at him.

"From this point on, you will not be able to free exit Sword Art Online. The NerveGear cannot be removed or shut off externally. If someone attempts to remove the NerveGear from your head in real life, it will emit a high-power microwave, destroying your brain. Questions were thrown at him by players, and he held up his hand. "Sorry, I should have been more specific. The brain-frying sequence will commence if any of the following circumstances are met: ten minutes of no external power, destruction of the NerveGear, two hours of network disconnection, removal, dismantling, or destruction of the NerveGear. The media of the outside world have been informed of this, and the family and friends of many players had ignored this warning. Sadly, two hundred and thirteen players had been erased from the Aincrad and the real world.

"Finally, if your HP reaches zero, the NerveGear will destroy your brain."

I stood there, staring at the floating figure. Destroy our brains? Killing us?

My stomach churned and I felt extremely nauseous. The world spun around me.

Kayaba continued. "At the summit of this world sits a castle, and in it, the final boss of Sword Art Online. Defeat it, and all players shall be logged out. You are right now at the first floor of the Aincrad. Proceed up ninety-nine floors and defeat the boss to beat the game. Finally, I have added an item to every players' inventory." He held out is hands, waiting for people to get the item out.

I opened my menu and saw one item in my inventory, labeled "Mirror". I tapped it, a hand mirror appearing where the menu was.

I stared at my tall, manly player model, not realizing what this was for.

A yell echoed through the center of the city, and white lights started to engulf players all around. As I glanced at my mirror again, a white light surrounded me.

As the light faded. I looked into the mirror again, though this time the face of my player model had disappeared and was replaced a model of my face.

I looked down at my body, seeing my skinny legs and form, along with the small scar on my right wrist.

It was me. I was in the game.

Next to me, the teenager's appearance had barely changed besides his hair getting slightly longer and his face being more rounded.

Well, players," Kayaba said through the chaos, "good luck." He slowly faded away, leaving the town square in silence.

Thoughts ran through my mind as everything spun around me.

What was he trying to accomplish? Killing off innocent citizens like this is horrible.

A little girl screamed, and everyone began to panic, trampling each other on their way out into the field. I felt my legs slowly give out, and I stumped behind the crowd toward a small side street.

A sign with "Inn" written across it hung over a door, and I slowly walked in, handing the man at the desk some money for a few nights' stay.

I felt any happiness for this game die inside me as I walked onto the first step leading to my room.