Chapter 1: It All Began Here

Akashi slowly opened his eyes, squinting has he did so his eyes could adjust to the light that seeped down from the trees above. When did I get here... he thought as he now fully opened his eyes to see that he was laying underneath a large and very familiar tree. What is the place? he asked himself as he sat up and brushed some tufts of grass off of his head before looking around. All around him were other people as well, all of them with looks of confusion and bewilderment on their faces as well.

"Hello? Hello? How did we get here?" called out a few voices to no one in particular as Akashi stood up and gave a look around at his environment. For the most part, Akashi was more perplexed rather then concerned with his current situation. It was almost entertaining for him to find himself in such a predicament as to not know anything about what was going on.

"From the looks of it we're in Elder Tale," called out a voice as soon as Akashi had started to examine his body, finding that he wasn't in his body, but instead in someone else's body. Maybe he wouldn't call it someone else's body, but it was definitely not his. At the suggestion being called out, Akashi shrugged to himself at the thought of being stuck in the game. I mean it was the last thing he could remember doing and besides that, a lot of events had occurred leading up to this that, now looking back at, could not have been coincidences.

Like the fact that the update for Elder Tale was today. It came with new zones, new items, new bosses, a new level cap, and a whole lot more. The environment as well was very familiar. The trees hanging over the seemingly abandoned city that surrounded the "players" as well as what the "players" looked like. Each of them wore recognizable armor or equipment from Elder Tale. It was almost as if... well... someone took a bunch of people and dropped them into this game.

Akashi scratched his head as he mulled through what he called evidence before deciding to go for the ultimate test. If this really is Elder Tale... then the menu should- He swiped his hand across in front of him and a menu opened up, but this wasn't just any menu. It was exactly identical to the one in Elder Tale.

"It is..." he gasped to himself as he took his other hand and start swiping through the menu, looking for the "log out" button, but after a few minutes he couldn't find it.

"That's weird," he grumbled as he continued to sift through the menu, but something suddenly caught his eye. It was coming from his contacts list. A name was shaking back and forth, signalling that there was a call incoming, but that wasn't what really caught his eye. It was the name that made him stop to remember. That name was Nami.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Akashi blinked his eyes open as he heard his phone ring.

"Is it already time for class?" he mumbled sitting up and yawning before picking up his phone to check the time as well as shut off the alarm. But once he'd picked up the phone he noticed that there was some kind of mistake. The clock read 2:00am and the ringing wasn't his alarm, but was actually someone calling him.

"Who would bother calling me at a time like-"

His phone buzzed this time, notifying him that a text message had just been received. Scrunching up his eyebrows in irritation, Akashi opened his phone to see who in the right mind needed him at this hour.

Hey there Akashi, it's your good ole friend Nami! Remember me? Ah but let's skip the introductions and cut to the chase. I need your help. Log onto Elder Tale right away and get that expansion pack! I'll contact you as soon as you log on! Cya in a few! Nami~

Akashi blinked at the message a few times, his lips slowly turning into a frown as he re-read the message a few times. He glanced at the clock once more. 2:05 am it read. He sighed in exasperation before crawling out of bed, dragging his blanket along with him. After successfully getting out of bed, Akashi shuffled his way towards his computer and turned it on before plopping himself on the swivel chair, his blanked on top of him. He listened as the computer hummed to life before quickly entering in his password to login to his user.

After doing so he promptly opened Elder Tale and began to update it with the expansion pack, waiting for his phone to ring. A few minutes passed before his prediction was correct. His phone started to ring right as the clock hit 2:08am. He picked up and prepared for the worst, knowing all to well what was going to happen.

"GOOOOODMORNING SLEEPYHEAD!" blared the speakers as Akashi stretched his phone away from his ears to keep from going deaf, "HOW ARE YOU DOIN-"

The line went dead for a moment, which wasn't unusual since that wasn't actually Nami on the line. A few moments passed before the sound of the phone being picked up again was heard.

"Hello?" said Akashi as he squeezed his eyes shut, ready for any screaming to come out, but what he received the absolute opposite.

"H-hello?" said a softer voice from the other end in response to Akashi.

"Nami? Thank god it's you," asked Akashi as he gave a sigh of relief, glad in knowing the person he actually wanted to talk to was on the line, "You really must stop allowing your sister to pick up your cellphone. One of these days it's going to be an important call and-"

"That's besides the point," said Nami as sharply as she could, "I called you up so we could play Elder Tale right?"

"Well... yes, but I mean why at this time? Why so sudden?"

"I dunno, I just feel like there's something special about this expansion."

"You mean the level cap being raised?"

"Hmmm maybe?"

Silence fell upon the call after that comment for a minute or so. Akashi didn't bother responding, knowing that if Nami needed something she'd just say so. Instead he watched the progress bar slowly climb up the percentages. It was at 95% when Nami spoke up once more.

"Alright I'm going to start playing now. I'll invite you to a call once I'm all set up."

"Okay, see you on the other side," replied Akashi as he hung up and stretched. The progress bar had hit 100% and there but a few disclaimer question to answer before it allowed him to log in. Quickly breezing through the question, Akashi found himself at the login button, browsing around his small band of characters he had created over the years.

"Mmmmm I guess I can play this account," he said as he clicked on his original character, a level 90 Guardian named Akashi who was almost the spitting image of Akashi in real life. No sooner then when he'd clicked the button, Akashi vision started to blur and he found himself slowly nodding forward onto the table, unable to control his body he struggled in vain to keep up awake. Nonetheless he soon closed his eyes and blackness enveloped him.

Nami walked through the streets of Akiba, still slightly puzzled at how or why she'd all of a sudden appeared in the world of Elder Tale. She pouted a bit at the thought of that before smiling to herself that at least she'd successfully gotten contact with Akashi.

"I'm sure he'll have something to say about all of this," she mumbled as she looked left and right at all the equally confused people that were now starting to move about, trying to find out what exactly was going on. Nami continued to walk for a bit, trying to find her and Akashi's meeting spot, but she found it quite difficult to locate since walking to a destination was much different from clicking to one.

Not only were the surroundings and transportation different, Nami also found that she was in fact, her avatar from Elder Tale. In her case she was an average height level 90 Assassin with straight long dirty blonde hair.

Could've been much worse. she giggled to herself as she looked down at the Ranger outfit she currently had her Chameleon's Cloak set to. Another significant aspect Nami noticed was that she also had her weapon from the game as well although this really wasn't a surprise to her then after all she'd seen so far. Pulling her bow free from across her shoulder, she examined the blue-like longbow with reverence.

"I'd never thought I'd be holding a bow this beautifu- oof!" Nami was knocked to the ground she suddenly as she accidentally bumped into someone.

"Oye! Shiroe! Watch where your going!" sighed a voice from above as Nami opened her eyes and looked up to see two men and what she thought to be a young girl, looking down at her.

"Ah, sorry," mumbled the one man in glasses, whom Nami assumed to be Shiroe, as he bent down and held out his hand, "I'm sorry for being so clumsy. I'm still getting used to being so tall."

Nami blinked at him in utter confusion before taking his hand and standing up. Besides her the young girl seemed to glower at the fact she had held onto Shiroe's hand.

"Uhm... thankyou.. I suppose," replied Nami as she smiled at the three of them, unsure of what to say, "Ah... my name is Nami, what's yours?"

"I'm Shiroe, Naotsugu is the guardian to my left, and Akatsuki is the Assassin to my right," said Shiroe as he smiled kindly at Nami before perking up his glasses. Nami examined the trio, noticing immediately that all three of them were level 90 and seemed to be experienced players.

"Ah.. It's been a-"

"Nice to meetcha!" exclaimed Naotsugu as held out his hand for Nami to shake, abruptly cutting her off, "I like panties, but I hope that doesn't get in the way with me being friends with ya!"

Nami was taken aback by his forwardness and was rendered speechless at his remark. Beside her Akatsuki seethed with an aura of anger, which just proved to further confuse her. And to top it all off, Shiroe was acting as if all of this occurred commonly, ignoring it as if it was nothing.

A few seconds passed before Nami shook his hand and nodded as well. As soon as Naotsugu pulled back, she heard Shiroe say "Why must you do that to everyone we meet?"

"You know I can-"

"Because there are two types of perverts Shiroe!," he replied in a not so hushed voice, "There are the open perverts and the closed up perverts. You, Shiroe, are sadly the latter!"

Nami blinked a few more times as he mind registered what Naotsugu had just stated to Shiroe. It was official, this small trio was quite... different to say at the least. Checking the time as well, Nami also realized that if she waited any longer she'd be making Akashi wait.

"Ah, well it's been a pleasure to meet you all!" exclaimed Nami as she clapped her hands together and smiled, "But I must get going now. I have someone to meet up with, but I'm sure we can chat later."

With a quick wave goodbye, Nami scurried away, only bothering to add Shiroe to her friend's list since he seemed to be the only competent one of the three. My my, such odd people... she thought to herself as she once again made her ways through the streets of Akiba.

"So we're stuck here?" asked Akashi as he leaned against the ledge of the building, sharpening his sword the a rock he'd found. The pair were now atop their usual hideout in Akiba. The place where they almost always stopped before and after quests or missions or raids. It wasn't anything special though, just an empty roof they'd found of a still standing building. It served as a nice place to overlook the city and it wasn't owned by anyone so the two decided to purchase the area as their own.

"Essentially," replied Nami as she plucked at the strings of her bow, her eyes gazing over the city itself which was now bustling with people racing back and forth, trying to find their friends and fellow guild members.

"Pick up any clues as to what's going on?"

"Not really... I did meet a trio of people though."

"Oh really? You catch their names?"

"Mhmmm... Shiroe, Akatsuki, and Naotsugu. All level 90 and all seemingly competent as far as the game itself even though that Naotsugu seems like a pervert..."

"Already making friends I see," laughed Akashi as he put down his sword and stretched a bit before leaning back and staring up at the sun, "You do know ho Shiroe is... right?"

"Wasn't he some kind of important strategist? I don't know... I wasn't really one to pay attention to the gossip."

"A girl? Not paying attention to gossip? Well that's a surp-"

"Just cut to the chase."

"Well you see... he may be our ticket out of here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well... What can I say? He's an amazing strategist and overall player. I heard he's an engineer in the real world too. Some smart stuff if you ask me."

"Well that's not helpful currently..."

"Hey you never know."

"Well..." replied Nami once more before letting out a sigh, "We're stuck here in this game and that's that. There's nothing more, nothing less. I mean there are still many things to figure out about... well everything. This Shiroe guy too... he seems like someone that we should stick with, but for now we can say this for sure. We're not in our own world anymore."

A/N: End of Chapter 1. Sorry if it's so repetitive and like... you all know what the anime is like as well as the manga. I just wanted to do this so as to not really hit the ground running. Chapter 2 will get into more of what I like to call my story since this chapter was all introduction, but until then have a nice night everyone. Also, if I made any contextual, grammatical, or just any errors in general, please do tell me since I'll gladly fix them.