No feedback on the last couple of chapters. I didn't expect much, since this story is kind of weird, but it would still be nice to see something, you know? Maybe I'm just posting chapters too quickly. It hasn't been that long since I posted the first chapter after all. Oh well. Deliberately slowing down posting would be mean.

Didn't have great dreams last night, to put things lightly. I bring them up because after work, I took a nap, and ended up continuing them! I hope they don't do like this story will and continue tonight. That wouldn't be fun. (Edit: OH MY GOD THE DREAMS CONTINUED WHYYYYYY)

Chapter 7: The Waking World

I lay in bed, motionlessly thinking about my dream. Holy crap, that was realistic. I was able to read my menu and everything! Reading was getting easier in my dreams, but it was still worth noting. Actually, the whole dream was worth noting; I had to write this down. Luckily, I still had two hours before it was time to get ready for work, so I had enough time to be as detailed as the dream itself.

An hour later I had finally finished writing everything down on my phone. That gave me another hour to kill before I had to get ready. Hm…chores, games, or anime?

Work was long and tiring, as I was too busy thinking about last night's dream to pay proper attention and kept making mistakes. By the time my shift was over I was ready to go home and forget the whole day had happened.

Once I got home I didn't even bother changing out of my work clothes, simply flopping onto the mattress. I was out before I knew it.

Wireframes once again made the framework of my surroundings. I payed them no mind. Something so normal was not worth paying attention to—and they were normal; I was playing a game after all.

But wait, what game was I playing? How did I get here? All the games I knew about were handheld or console, not VR.

…who was I?

It took me a minute to remember all the answers, as if the memories were still loading. My name—or my screen-name anyway, according to my HUD—was Kyou. If I was remembering right, I was a decently skilled swordsman playing the game Sword Art Online. Everyone had been trapped in the game with the cliche condition that if you die in the game, you're dead for good.

I tried to remember more than that, but was at a loss. Maybe the nervegear did something to my brain already? Whatever the case, my memories from outside the game were lost to me.

I opened my menu to check my map to see where I was. I was in a field, which could honestly be anywhere on the first floor. It was weird that I couldn't remember what I was doing up to this point to get here.

There was a dot on the map next to me…

"Please tell me you found an early teleport crystal." A familiar voice caught me off-guard.

I whirled around in surprise before giving a big grin. "Kirito!"

"Do I know you?" Said swordsman was looking at me rather suspiciously. What was with that? Of course we knew each other. Right?

"Didn't we hunt little nepents together?" Or had I imagined that? Was that a dream? I couldn't remember. Why couldn't I remember?

Kirito narrowed his eyes at my honest confusion. "…Nanako…?"

Familiarity struck a chord within me at the name, but that only brought more confusion. That's right! I was Nanako. But I was Kyou? We weren't even the same gender. How could I be Nanako if she was a girl?

My head began throbbing as two dreams fought for dominance in my head, though I didn't know that's what was going on. I gripped my head in an attempt to alleviate the pain, but, being an avatar in a game, this did little to help.

"Nanako?" Kirito asked again, this time sounding worried.

"Call me Kyou," I gasped out. The pain receded, and I was able to think straight again. Thank god. "I thought you weren't supposed to feel pain in this game," I complained once it was mostly gone.

"I think you're the exception," Kirito hypothesized. "Do you remember what you told me in the forest?"

"I don't remember a lot of things," I gave a wry smile, "You're going to have to tell me."

"You—that is, if you really are Nanako—were convinced that you were dreaming. I'm not sure I believe you, but there are not many other explanations for your situation."

"My situation?" Was he talking about my memory problems? Dreaming would explain that at least.

"The way you appear and disappear. I checked my friend list once you left yesterday, and you weren't even on it. I checked the Monument of Life just to be sure, and you weren't on that either." He opened his menu to check his friends list again. "But you, Kyou, are on my friends list now even though I haven't added you yet. Nanako's name is still gone, so I can only assume you replaced her."

Well, dreaming would certainly explain all that. It didn't explain how he could check his friends list while I was awake, but if my memories of doing the Secret Medicine of the Forest quest were so realistic then I supposed that it could just be another thing my subconscious was using to be more convincing.

"If this is a dream, then I don't remember anything from real life right now," I admitted. "This world is as real to me as it is to you."

"Hm," Kirito acknowledged.

"And what are we doing out here again?"

"I'm grinding for experience. You just appeared out of nowhere," Kirito explained. "You're free to join me I guess; we should earn more experience if we party."

"Awesome." I unsheathed the sword that had been hanging at my side. Conveniently, a pack of at least five wolves spawned around us. I took a moment to gape at Kirito as he lunged for the first one; had he been taking these on alone until now?

Who was I kidding? Of course he had. This was Kirito we were talking about.

"Switch!" He called out, and I rushed to take his place with the ease I had developed in the forest. My first attack did not do as much damage as I thought it would—just how high-leveled were these things?! Jesus, Kirito, you're going to get yourself killed!

I quieted my indignant thoughts and focused on the battle at hand. One of the wolves I was engaging lunged to bite me and I had to jump back, ending up bumping into another wolf behind me. Out of desperation I shifted my momentum into a backflip, ending up on my feet on the other side of the wolf I had nearly tripped over. I froze for a moment as the change in orientation and location processed before calling out, "switch!" to take advantage of the wolves' confusion.

We eventually settled back into the sync we'd had last time we fought together. I charged another sword skill. "So," I started after downing a wolf, "I was a girl last time?"

"Yup," Kirito confirmed, felling another.

"Weird."

"Only as weird as you being a guy this time," he pointed out.

"I dunno, feels pretty natural to me." I dodged an incoming bite before retaliating, taking the "life" of the last wolf.

We stood for a moment to review our inventories for spoils from the fight. Nothing interesting; just meat and fur. Perhaps if either of us had picked up the cooking or tailoring skills they were be of use, but as it was they were only good for mats or selling.

The day continued in much the same fashion; by the time the sun went down we were halfway to level four. The levels were going by much faster than I imagined, considering Kirito was only level ten after a month in canon. Perhaps they'd slow down as time went on.

Kirito led me back to the nearest settlement, Horunka Village. I'd thought the small village was merely a two-day pitstop, but apparently the monsters around the next one were too high-leveled for a solo player.

"With your help, we should get there by tomorrow night," Kirito declared.

Well, at least he thought I was good enough to rely on.

A/N: I know the gender-swap thing is weird. I wanted to include it because that happens in my dreams. Some of my favorite dreams are the ones where I'm a guy. Since this story is largely self-indulgent, I didn't see the harm. Kyou and Nanako are the same person, but have some differences that will become apparent later.

I wanted to call this chapter "Meanwhile, in the Real World…" referencing the original Tron, but the title I used here made more sense. Starting with "Meanwhile" would be misleading. I also wanted to call it "The World of Awakening," referencing Fire Emblem, since that's my other SI story, but meh. This worked better.

As you can tell by the title, I was originally planning to have the entire chapter take place in the real world. There's not much to say about it however, so I moved on to the next dream. I left the title because wynaut.

Last thing since this author's note is getting kind of long: I really don't want to look up a whole lot of things for this. If I get things wrong, like what mobs appear on specific floors or what the terrain is like on other floors, that's why. I can, of course, fix most of this if it bothers anyone, but seeing as I've only gotten one review so far (and thanks so much for that, by the way) I figured I kind of have free reign? If there are any glaring errors that disrupt the ease of reading then let me know!