A month earlier.

Ruby felt herself tumble to the floor, a stone-coated road. She immediately bounced back up to her feet, then looked around, her gaze wide at the sight of a very large plaza she found herself in. Behind her was a tall obelisk-like monument, right in the middle of the square and, farther back, a pathway that lead to a black castle. The girl couldn't help but be confused as her gaze swept the area above her. What looked like a roof felt more like a blue ceiling with little-to-no sun showing. Like the place they were in was artificially lit by something.

She looked to herself, to see she still had her usual red hood on, her combat skirt, corset and other pieces of uniform, but there was one addition... She had a grey steel breastplate over her chest. She patted it, hearing the clang and sighed, before her eyes were taken aback by what seemed to be a Heads-Up Display. She looked to the top-left corner, to see a green bar and a smaller, blue one below it.

"Wait, what?" The girl questioned herself, squinting at the Health Bar. It said she had well over some 1900 HP?! And below it must've been the Aura... 400 Aura. Interesting. She didn't know it was so weaaaait~ a second... A Health and Aura bar, an odd place... Could she be in some kind of prank Yang made? The girl had an innate ability of pulling this kind of stuff, but it didn't make sense. She looked ahead, to the sight of a pair of people walking through the square and chatting. Both of them were dressed in what seemed to be leather chest plates, colored sweaters, grey pants and some odd shoes. The two stopped and turned toward her, a guy and a girl, the former with dark-red hair and the latter with dark-blue bangs, both seemingly friendly enough.

"Hey there." One of them said, a relaxed smile on his face. Ruby smiled and said "Hi. Can I ask you two a question?"

"Sure." Nodded the other, arms crossed. Ruby tapped her chin, then asked promptly "Where are we? I... Haven't seen this place before."

The two glanced at each-other, then looked to Ruby and the guy answered happily "What, you serious? You're in Aincrad. The main setting of the best VR game ever, SWORD ART ONLINE!"

Ruby gasped. She was in a Virtual Reality game THIS REAL?! This wasn't good... She nodded to them, then saw one of them open his menu. He slashed his hand down into the air and the menu, white blobs and pages, appeared before him. Each button had a symbol. Menu, Guide, Settings, Character, Inventory... Ruby nodded to them, then said "Well... Thanks, you guys. Must've had a hard one yesterday that I can't even remember this... That and my friends must be playing a prank on me."

"Oh." The boy said, nodding with a smile as he looked at Ruby. "Alright. Gotcha." And he extended his hand toward her "I'm Keita. Girl beside me is some random friend I picked up here in the market." To which Ruby shook his hand, Smiling "Call me Ruby."

"Pleasure to meet you, Ruby." The girl beside him gave Ruby a warm smile. "I'm Sachi."

"Pleasure to meet you too, Sachi, Keita." Ruby nodded. Might as well have some fun in here if this was a game. She nodded to them, then said "Well, you guys, I kinda have to run off, try and find a group of my friends, since they're probably already online. Maybe we can talk another time?" And the two nodded, Keita giving Ruby a mocking salute, then saying "Sure thing, Ruby. See you 'round." And the two walked off. Ruby exhaled, then thought to herself "Yang, I'm a game geek. Whatever you just did won't work!" And she smirked, then started running out of the Plaza and into the crowded streets of the town, laughing. If this was a very advanced VR game, Yang wasn't pulling a prank. She must've actually bought Ruby the game and set her up for it while she was asleep! AWESOME!

As she moved through the streets, she stopped for a moment, then took a corner into one of the alleyways and decided to quickly open up her menu. Moving her hand down, the little white dots with symbols inside rolled ahead of her. She moved her hand and pressed the character 'button' (Metaphorically speaking, since this seemed to be a hologram) then gasped, staggering back as she saw her character.

"Super-high stats, a load of money... Some 210.000.000 Col, the money of this place, OHMYGOD..." The girl whispered to herself with a grin as she had a bit of a nerdgasm relating to this all. "Yang must've gone and bought me a Premium account!" And her smile widened, seeing her rank SO BLOODY EARLY into the game was THIS HIGH. "Rank 85!" She squeaked in silence, pumping her fist in the air. She smiled, then closed the menu and grabbed her cloak, before banging her hand on something metallic behind her. She stopped, then looked back to see Crescent Rose... In its IDLE form...

"What?" The girl asked herself in muted surprise, eyes widened beyond belief. She tried to grab the weapon, but received a warning in her Menu, to which she looked. It was written in bold WEAPON INACCESSIBLE UNTIL LEVEL 100, making the girl roll her eyes. Okay, so it was probably also something Yang had brought the little girl with her own, hard-earned(From Dust knows where) Lien. Still, a bit unfair to the other players she was 85 and had close access to the weapon, but then again, the lower dungeons of this game are probably just cannon fodder with little XP to actually give upon killing. Even the bosses... Great, so that'd take her a whole lot of endless grinding to get to use this virtual version of Crescent Rose... Bollocks.

Beh... She'd have plenty of time to grind, she guessed. She walked back out into the light of day, then to a shop to buy a weapon. Possibly a sword or heavy bladed weapon. She smiled as she originally brought a shortsword to use early on. It was a relatively light weapon and very bland in its design. The pummel below it had a bit of cloth hanging by it, red like her robe and, of course, the weapon's guard was rounded and made of steel, a pretty interesting design choice. Meanwhile the blade curved a bit as it reached the top and it looked really sharp. She twirled it, then struck forward and smiled. The girl then sliced upward, turned the weapon around and, holding onto the sheath that was attached to her hip, she slid it in, locking it in place, then nodded to the vendor, an NPC and waved goodbye, walking away.

Of course, the next few hours were spent in the outer fields of the Town of Beginnings, as known by everyone inside. The girl had read the guide and everything about Sword Skills and such. Specifically, Rosebud Blades, a skill she'd discovered in her skill tree. Her sword turned red as she faced four boars, then attacked at top speed. One strike cut through the first boar, then another and another, making the creature's health drop to -145. Wow. She was quick. She swiveled around and vivisected the second boar, then stabbed a third one through the mouth and, finally, kicked the fourth one in the air and jumped, slicing across it harder than Raiden from MGSV. The four aggro'd boars vanished into sparkles, to which Ruby smiled widely.

"AWESOME!" She yelled, jumping continuously. She smirked, twirled the blade and sheathed it, then looked back, to be greeted by a human body and... The face of a CAT?! She gasped, jumping back at the sight of a black cat's head with a golden eye and a blue one. She looked on, horrified, as it meowed at her, then staggered back, chuckled and said "Wow... A cat that can play video games... That's... Toooootally~ NOT weird! Hehe..." And she laughed weakly, then turned around and started walking away, placing her hood on her head and still wanting to wipe that thing out from her head.

Of course, dusk had come and the night began to fall. The sky turned crimson, then orange as the 'sun' set upon this place, so she wanted to call it a day... Sliding her hand to open the menu and going over to the 'System' part of the menu, she looked for the 'Logout button'... But instead found but an empty button in its stead. No words or anything. She pressed it, trying to log out, then saw it didn't work, and staggered back.

"A glitch? This early?" The girl wondered aloud... A blue aura surrounded the girl and she felt herself vanish and reappear... Back in that plaza. She looked up to the sky as people began talking around her, fear in their voices, then saw it. A red hexagon with WARNING blaring on it... Then it suddenly spread, covering the entire sky and frightening everyone. What the heck was going on?!

"What's going on?!" Yelled a girl from beside Ruby, before a guy comforted her. She sighed, then wondered that herself as she stared up at the sky... From where blood or, something similar started to drip... It was a strange event to say the least... But the blood-like crimson goop soon formed and molded itself into a humanoid form, in a cape, with smoke emerging from the face. She heard an idiot in the crowd said "Oh, it's a person!" From afar, then sighed, planting a palm on her face. The man flying above them, some sort of giant, extended his hands, then said loudly "Ladies and Gentlemen! I am Kayaba Akihiko, head programmer. Welcome, to the unparalleled online experience that is Sword Art Onli-" And he got cut off by people starting to yell at each-other. "Uh. Hel- Hello. Um, hello! People! Kinda talking here? Focus!" Kayaba whined, then he sighed, raising his hand and saying something about muting the group chat, but muting himself by mistake. Ruby chuckled, seeing the MUTE Symbol above the man's head.

"Alright... I just realized what happened there, very funny. Now, onto the serious business. How many of you have seen TRON?"

Silence... Not what Kayaba wanted, but it made Ruby chuckle.

"Really? No one? I was kinda betting on that but..." Akihiko sighed "Alright, it's fine, I can wing this..." and he cleared his throat "Much like the World of Warcraft, none of you are here by choice anymore. Unlike WoW, though, you're being held here by me, not by your need to escape your empty f*BLEEP*ing lives. There's no longer a way to log out of Sword Art Online and if someone on the outside attempts to log you out by removing your NerveGear, well..." He paused "Has any one of you seen 'Scanners'?" And yet again, uneasy silence. Kayaba sighed, then said "Alright, fine..." And he pulled up several internet tabs, of which one was a videoclip of a man in a suit... WHOSE HEAD EXPLODED IN A SHOWER OF BLOOD AND GORE, WHAT?!

The entire crowd gasped in shock and fear at that. Ruby struggled to swallow, sweating profusely from her palms, head and the rest of her body... This wasn't home anymore... How'd she wind up here?! Kayaba continued his monolgue "Finally. Some gears are turning! Glad to see we're making some progress!"

"Why would you do such a thing?!" Asked a guy from the crowd, to which Kayaba chuckled, then asked "Steven? Is that you, Steven? How're you enjoying the advanced copy we sent to you!"

"I'M PLAYING WITH MY FAMILY!" The man yelled back.

"Ah, that's right!" Kayaba chuckled again. "Happy birthday, Timmy!" And, to that, a young boy cried in the crowd. "Ah, they grow up so fast. Cherish these moments, Steven. Cherish these moments. So, as I was saying, the only way to keep the NerveGear from going all Gallagher on your grey matter is to make your way through Castle Aincrad's 100 floors and complete Sword Art Online!"

"So..." Another guy in the crowd started, to which Ruby sighed. Why'd she have a feeling this was gonna go on for a while. "You want us to beat an MMO?"

"Essentially." Kayaba deadpanned.

"F*BLEEP*CK YOU!" the same guy yelled and things were becoming clearer and clearer for Ruby. She was definitely not home anymore. Kayaba commented something about hostility, but Ruby was too worried as she scanned her immediate surroundings for Weiss, Blake and, most importantly, Yang, to clarify to her what the hell was going on out here. They weren't home is the only thing she could tell...

"Well, honestly, when was the last time you heard of someone beating EverQuest?!" Barked that same guy. Kayaba retorted smugly "When was the last time you heard of someone actually PLAYING EverQuest?"

"Touche..." Ruby chuckled, a bit out of her moment of panic.

"Anywho, for all you guys playing as girls, you know who you are, I've prepped a little surprise for you!" Kayaba said with a bit of joy to his talk. Ruby saw mirrors appear in front of her and every other player, then gasped, seeing her Avatar flash blue and show HER OWN FACE AND HAIRCUT there. She set the mirror in her pocket, then looked around at the guys and some of the gals showing up post-situation.

Everyone gasped, making Kayaba chuckle. "As you all can see, I've peeled away your petty facades and revealed you for what you truly are:" He paused, then smiled behind his mask "Fairly attractive 20-somethings... Apparently... Kind of undermines the whole 'cold light of day' thing I had planned. But still, way to break the stereotypes!" And he looked to a guy in the far back "Except for you, fatty... Way to bring down the curve... Oh, oh oh!" He excitedly started "One more thing! I should probably mention that if your Health Points reach ZERO in the game, your real body will also perish!"

Ruby gasped. She didn't need no explanation for that, but someone in the background snapped her out before she was able to panic and burst into a sprint, by yelling "WHAT?" Like a retarded hawk. "Okay... If you die in the game, you die for real." Kayaba clarified, making RUby all the more scared. Yet again, same idiot "WHAT?" Making Kayaba sigh deeply, then say "SOMETIMES. THINGS ARE BORN. THEY LIVE AND THEN THEY STOP, FOREVER..." "WHAT?" And Kayaba replayed the guy's head exploding. And someone blurted out the obvious "OHMYGOD! IF WE DIE IN THE GAME, WE DIE FOR REAL!" And Kayaba sighed, with Ruby in unison. "Alright ,I'll just keep that tabbed and, with that, I BID YOU ALL ADIEU." And the man started turning into smoke, but he chuckled and said "Oh, oh, one last thing, I swear! I turned off the profanity filter... Have fun with that!" And he finally vanished, with the red sky.

Silence settled in the plaza, with Ruby staring up above at the darkened sky. She sighed, then turned toward the barrier, before she heard someone yell loudly "WE'RE FUCKED!" To which she chuckled, then walked away and out of the Plaza, while every one of the 10.000 players scrambled out of the place, hood on her head, cape covering her body and weapons and nothing else but her clothing and armor on. She was gonna live through this even if it ki... That didn't make sense at all, but okay. A saying to go with this was that and that only.


Aincrad. Present Day. Second Floor. Urbus.

That all, of course, had happened nearly a month ago, as Ruby reminisced it today. She'd found out from both Kirito and other players that this was an interesting turn of events. These people came from a planet named 'EARTH' and were stuck in this game. She'd never mentioned Remnant or anything, so she'd be okay for now. The girl had been tailing Kirito throughout the remaining night as he walked through the streets of the village. The place was a little mountain-carved village, that was Deppressing as all hell to walk through, what with the music that was playing... She decided to cut off the music in sound settings, just so she wouldn't wind up jumping off a fucking cliff.

Kirito stopped ahead of her, then said "I know you're back there, R053. Stop trying to hide." And he swiveled about, crossing his arms. "Christ, a Stalker already."

"Oi." Ruby said, glaring at him as she reached for her sword. She became tense from him turning about, but she lowered her hands beside her body and sighed, becoming less tense as she walked past him. "It's just Ruby. Not the 1337 Speak stuff, Kirito." She then finished off. Kirito nodded, then said "Alright, alright... What do you want? Why chase me up here?" He asked, receiving a shrug from Ruby, to which she continued "Well, I'm not in the mood to see even people like you die, so... I'm trying to keep you safe. Kind of an oath I made waybackwhen."

"Oh, god..." Kirito sighed, rubbing his forehead "You aren't some Sister of Battle, are you? Those girls usually make oaths like that and it never ends well..." And he walked beside Ruby, arms crossed. He looked above as night fell, then said "Well, do you want to know what's with this floor?"

"Sure thing, Mr. Beta Tester." Ruby smirked, making Kirito back off and ask "How the FUCK did you know that about me?!"

"Form, knowledge of weapons... Snarky remarks about this whole mess of a game?" Ruby answered nonchalantly with a question "It'd take a blind, paraplegic baby with mental impairment only a second to figure out you were a Beater, to call it short." She gave out a wide, shit-eating grin to Kirito, who blushed and growled "OI! NOT SOMETHING MALE GAMERS ARE PROUD OF, SO I DON'T NEED A NICKNAME FOR IT!"

Ruby looked at him, confused, then asked "Uhh, what? I was just saying that you got pretty far as a Beta Tester, beating a lot of floors, so you got the nickname Beater from me... Problem with that?"

Kirito's face became red, then he sighed and said "No... No problem, Little Red Ridinghood..." And he mumbled "You and your fucking innocence scare me..." He sighed, then continued as they walked "ANYWAYS. This place has mobs that are just cows and ox's. Easy kills, right?" To which Ruby smiled, then nodded and said "Yep. Sounds easy enough to me."

"Yeah, well, rookie mistake." Kirito said, walking beside her with his hands in his pockets. "These things are fucking assholes on so many levels, it makes you completely wish you were fighting Skeletons or some shit."

"Oh..." Ruby sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Okay... One question."

Kirito nodded "Shoot."

"The Heck's a 'Little Red Ridinghood?'" She asked worriedly, to which Kirito planted a palm on his face, then screamed internally, nearly bursting out as he shuddered. "Oh, Christ save me..." He then whined, running his hand down his face angrily. He looked to Ruby, head crooked and said "Your parents never did read you bedtime stories, did they, Red?" To which Ruby looked away, pouting and said "They did. And this Little Red Ridinghood never came up anywhere!"

"Christ, you can be such a child." Kirito sighed. "What, your mom doesn't know it?" And he saw Ruby flinch and become red. The girl angrily stepped ahead and said "I'm done with this conversation!" And he stopped "Wait, what happened to your mom if you're like this?" To which Ruby said "She died when I was young..." making Kirito Flinch. "Jeez... Wow... I'm... I don't even know anymore. Sorry, I guess..."

"Eh..." Ruby waved it off. "Compared to the 2.000 that died live in front of me in this Video Game, it's a bit odd... But yeah, she died real early..."

"Alright, alright, Ruby, no... Let's not go into depressing shit here..." Kirito sighed.

"Too late, that ship has long sailed, buddy!" Ruby smirked, to which Kirito groaned and yelled "WHY ME!?" making little Red Ridinghood Scythe Monster laugh. It was just too fun not to mess with this guy.