Prologue

In a turbulent world, an ounce of solace is worth its weight in gold.

The midday sun streamed through the windows, tickling my face with its familiar warmth, catching the streams of water as they were carried up and down the stocky wooden wheel peeking just over the windowsill. The gentle trickle of the creek as it flowed past my shop was complemented by the intermittent, lively chirping and trilling of the sparrows that sat in the shade of the nearby oak tree, watching curiously as us humans, wingless and shackled to the dirt, scurried around the town and went about our day.

I lazily cast my glance to the interior of my store. Upon the beige walls were mounted rows upon rows of swords and maces, daggers and scimitars, halberds and axes. More weapons lined the glass display cases that gleamed as the pool of sunshine from without slowly traced its path across the sky. Each and every one of them was my pride and joy, painstakingly made with careful love and meticulous detail, from the simplest steel shiv to the most ornate mithril broadsword. I could remember the processes by which they had been made, the materials I had collected to create them, and the pride I had felt when they had been completed.

It was strange, to be proud of such a thing. Not least because I knew that, when this game was finished at long last and we were emancipated from our virtual incarceration, these weapons, these works of art, would simply vanish from existence, gone like the blustery afternoon wind. Yet I was sure that even if I ended up spending countless hours on something that would – at least, I hoped and expected it would – inevitably cease to be, the memories I made and the experiences I went through would become valuable in their own right.

Why did people expend so much time and effort playing games when, at the end of the day, they were nothing more than façades? What was that sense of achievement and fulfillment worth if one figured that it had no bearing on their actual lives? Why did I pick up my copy of Sword Art Online that fateful day if I presumed that what I did in this place would not matter in the long run?

The answer, of course, was because this wasn't all just a façade. The game would come to affect my life in a profound and irreversible way, even if it ended up being something entirely different from what I had expected. And above all, everything I did here mattered. The things I learned, the friendships I forged, and the changes I myself underwent – I would not trade them for anything else in the world, real or virtual.

I had arrived in Aincrad as a naïve, helpless, innocent teenage girl. When I departed – if I departed – I would be far from the person I once was.

Needless to say, it had not been easy. It is often said that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I wish there was a proverb that could motivate a large group of miserable, wretched teenagers who were being told that unless they passed a seemingly insurmountable set of tribulations, they would be doomed to spend the rest of their lives in purgatory. It was impossible to try and put a positive spin on the whole state of affairs when, by the first month, thousands of people had already been killed just trying to get their feet off the ground.

But steel can only be annealed by the lick of the searing fire, and blades can only be shaped and molded under the relentless beating of the hammer. I had been fortunate to ultimately find myself strengthened, not shattered, by the many pressures placed upon us as a community, and upon each of us as individuals. Now that I had come this far, I was fully determined to see this game through to the bitter end.

The bell tinkled, and the door swiveled open. My already elevated spirits were lifted further as I saw who had entered.

"Hey, Liz. Nice to see you looking so chipper today." The greeting was followed by a warm smile, an expression that I gladly reciprocated. "Something good happen?"

"Not really. Just remembering some things." I sighed contentedly and lifted my elbows off the countertop. My reminiscing could wait. For now, there was work to be done.

"Now, how can I help you today?"

Chapter I: A Warm Welcome

Nobody wants to die. But not everybody has it in themselves to live. I knew that the moment I realized what was happening to me, and to each and every one of the ten thousand people gathered here.

"Players, I wish you the best of luck."

With that sardonic parting statement, the red-eyed, black-robed reaper hovering in the sunset air retreated into the underworld whence he had come, his judgment still ringing in our ears, his afterimage burned into our retinas. Around me were cries of fear and wails of sorrow, and the sight of people disbelievingly clutching the hand mirror which had been cruelly gifted to every player present, reflecting their respective realities in all their undesirable detail. Some, having let the mirror fall from their grip and splinter into infinitesimal pieces – as I had just done, after briefly catching sight of my original short brown hair and freckled cheeks – were holding their face in their hands, waiting to awaken from the nightmare.

It was all a blur, swirling around me, trapping me in its vortex. The stone tiles paving the ground beneath my feet turned to quicksand, and I sank into them, my legs giving way and thudding onto the floor as the strength deserted my body. The only contemplation that pierced through the haze clouding my mind was the absence of the pain I had expected to feel in my knees as they scraped against the broken shards of mirror glass, giving me the slightest of inklings that this was not the world I was meant to inhabit. Of course, that modicum of information could only break my reverie for the most fleeting of moments.

Seconds stretched into minutes. I knelt there, my head racing, my limbs trembling, my virtual blood pumping.

The first thing that came to mind, after the shock that had captured me was lifted sufficiently to allow me to think, was my situation in real life. What would happen to my real body? If I managed to survive inside the game, how would I survive outside of it? My family's faces swam into view – what would they think? Would they be fine? Would they weep, cry, pray for my safe return every day? What would my friends do upon hearing the news? Would they, too, despair?

Even as the players around me slowly came to terms with their predicament, I continued to agonize over questions that would likely never be answered, trapped in an incessant loop of my own thoughts. Before I knew it, the crowd had slowly thinned, eventually leaving only me and a number of others who still lingered, perhaps in the vain hope that in staying we might somehow be freed from the realm which had now become our prison. No such luck was to befall us.

It had already been dusk when the reaper's edict had been cast down upon us, and the last vestiges of sunlight were fast vanishing behind the low mountains that ringed the town from which we would be forced to venture forth. The stars, twinkling faintly in the distance, were beginning to take their place in the night sky.

The sight of them was sublime. Serene. Awe-inspiring. And as fake and artificial as the body I was now condemned to inhabit, simultaneously my own and not my own.

I opened my right palm and stared down at it. I had a thin crease running – in fits and starts – all the way from the base of my middle finger to the cushion of flesh below my thumb. Mom had always said that it was a sign of good fortune. That line had been reproduced on my virtual body in astounding detail, yet there was clearly nothing lucky about having it on my hand right now.

Glancing up, I noticed that one of the few others who had remained in the plaza was staring at me. She seemed to be only slightly older than me, around eighteen or nineteen years of age, though she looked considerably more assured of herself than I did. She immediately rose to her feet, having sat cross-legged the whole time, and it took me what little energy I had left for me to do the same.

Coming over to me as I steadily regained my footing, she wrapped a hand around my elbow and hoisted me upright, only relinquishing her grip when I was able to stand on my own.

"T-thanks," I said breathlessly, as though I had just run a hundred-meter race. It certainly felt as though my brain had been going through a marathon of its own for the past half an hour or so.

"Anytime. Y'looked like you'd be here all night if I didn't help ya up."

I laughed weakly. "Yeah, well, that's just about all I feel like doing."

"Don't we all. What's the name?"

"My name? Ri… Lisbeth. What's yours?"

"I'm Rimi. Nice t'meet ya." She flicked back the long, snake-like ponytail that had fallen over her shoulders as she had helped me up. "Don't got any friends here with ya?"

I shook my head. "They didn't make it in time, unfortunately, so I'm on my own for now. Same for you?"

"Yup. Looks like yer stuck with me fer now. We should follow the other fishies and look fer an inn t'stay the night."

Rimi immediately turned on her heel and marched towards the warm lights of the town center. I hurried after her, still unsure what to make of my newfound acquaintance, who spoke with a Kansai accent heavier than any I had ever witnessed and acted as though she had everything figured out. On the one hand, I was relieved to not have to be alone in my troubles, which still ate at me like a freshly opened wound. On the other, I had an inexplicable premonition that Rimi's brisk, almost breakneck pace in doing things would gradually leave me struggling to catch up.

"You… don't seem that bothered by what's happening," I said as we weaved through the throng of people who were standing outside the rows of houses, chatting, comforting each other, starting friendships that they hoped might serve them well in the days, months, and maybe even years to come. As a city girl, it was hard for me to reconcile the conspicuous lack of skyscrapers around this settlement, and the unencumbered view of the night that was now afforded to me, with the curtain of offices and apartment complexes that I had long since been accustomed to seeing during my walks home from school. The medieval, pastoral vibe of the place only added to that burgeoning sense of misplacement. "Aren't you worried?"

"Does it look that way t'ya?" Rimi abruptly stopped in her tracks, and I almost bumped headfirst into her surprisingly broad back. She turned to look at me, her expression as enthusiastic and confident as it had ever been in the few minutes I had known her. "Way I see it, if I put all my thinkin' into this game, and into what we gotta do next, then I won't be havin' space t'worry about everythin' else. Ya hear me?"

"I get that, I guess." She was right – sitting around and feeling sorry for myself wouldn't get me anywhere. Yet it seemed impossible in the moment to simply throw that crushing burden off my chest, pull up my sleeves and get to work. "But it's just so hard. I feel like just walking around is taking up all my energy. I wish I could be like you."

"D'ya really? I don't think ya want t'be like me," Rimi replied cryptically. "Y'look like you have the world ahead of ya. Y'wanna be keepin' it that way, if I were ya."

"I-I suppose so."

We didn't speak again until we had pushed through the door of a tavern at the end of the street, one which appeared relatively less occupied than the others. Nestling into a table near the corner, away from the hubbub of those who had somehow managed to stave off the concerns weighing heavily on everyone and were currently enjoying themselves as best as they could, I finally had a chance to try and relax myself. I put a hand to my chest and inhaled deeply, but the boulder that had formed there would not be so easily dislodged.

Rimi watched me with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. After I had a few goes at attempting to still my heart – which only seemed to beat harder with every breath – she held up her hand and, curling her index finger behind her thumb, reached over and flicked my forehead.

"Ow!" I flinched, rubbing my forehead and glaring at her. "What was that for?"

"Yer thinkin' too hard on what the guy in the sky said earlier this afternoon. I can tell. Forget about it – focus on the present, and on the future. Think about what gotta be done, not what's already been done."

"Far easier said than done," I retorted. "If it were so easy, we'd all be doing it."

Rimi gestured at the crowd of people at the center of the inn, most of whom were conversing happily, laughing at each other's jokes, and perking their neighbors up. "What's all this seem like to ya?"

"Yeah, but they're… they're different. I can't just do that, act like everything's okay."

"Bullshit. If everybody else's doin' it, yer the one who's different. Here, lemme give ya a leg up." She leapt off her seat and, to my horror, strode over to the biggest cluster of people present and slapped her hand on the table. "Hey folks. Mind if me and my bud join ya?"

"Not at all," said one of them. They turned their gazes to me, and I felt my face instantly flush red as I averted my eyes. "C'mon. We don't bite."

"Yeah," said another. "Don't worry. We're all in the same boat, aren't we?"

A chorus of agreement rang in the air, and I hesitantly forced myself up from my bench and pattered over to them, still unwilling to meet their stares. A couple of them shuffled over to make room for us, and Rimi promptly sat down in the open space, pulling me down alongside her.

"I'm Rimi, and this cutie here is Liz," Rimi explained to the eagerly listening crowd. They were mostly boys, as would be expected in a video game, though there was one girl several seats away who, somehow, looked as comfortable as Rimi did being around so many members of the opposite sex.

"I'm Lisbeth," I hurriedly added. "Nice to meet you all."

"Lisbeth's too long." Rimi winked. "Liz is fine. Gotta make sure people remember what yer called."

"At least it isn't the full name, Elizabeth," I replied before I could even process what I was saying. "If you thought Lisbeth was long, you would have nightmares about that one."

The others guffawed and cheered approvingly, and a small piece of the stone in my chest was chipped away. It wasn't much, but any meager alleviation of my anxieties was to be celebrated, and a relieved smile crept over my face. Rimi, seeing this, flung an arm around my shoulder and pulled my ear close to her mouth.

"Y'know what would be a good thing t'do right now?" she whispered?

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Whaddya think I mean? Y'never been to a party?"

"No? I'm fourteen. I can't drink."

"Lemme let ya in on somethin' then. In a gatherin' like this, if ya wanna get on everyone's good books, ya pay for a round of drinks. Then, if ya get in a pickle later down the line, they'll remember ya and help ya out. It's a good trade – y'do people a favor, and they pay ya back. Whaddya say?"

The logic seemed sound, though I wasn't exactly sure how much a drink actually cost in this game, or how much money – or Cor, as the currency was called – I had in the first place. Nevertheless, I was in the mood to take a leap of faith. "Alright," I said with a nod.

"Hey!" Rimi called, drawing everyone's attention again. And this time, everyone meant quite literally everyone inside the inn – even those who weren't sitting at our table. She pointed at my head, and I felt the gazes of several dozen people descend upon me in unison. "Lizzy here says she'll buy y'all a round!"

A deafening roar went up, and people began to crowd around our table, pushing past each other so they could thank me by patting my back or ruffling my hair. I didn't even have time to question Rimi's wisdom when the first mugs of ale were slammed onto the long countertop by the NPC innkeeper at the far end of the tavern, swiftly picked up and downed by those nearest to the bar. My hand had been forced – I could hardly back down now, especially in the face of those I might end up relying on in the foreseeable future.

Whatever. Better to do what I could to forget my ordeal, even if only for a few hours.

A mug was placed in front of me, and I half-heartedly lifted it up. Another roar, one even louder than the last, almost shattered my eardrums.

The rest of the night was spent in something of a daze. I talked with more people in one evening than I had ever done in my entire life. Knowing that the laws of Japan ostensibly did not apply here, I even deigned to imbibe a few drinks of my own, though the unpleasantly bitter taste of the liquid meant that I could not stomach more than a couple glasses. I had no idea what being drunk was actually supposed to feel like – given I'd never actually touched booze, let alone drank any – but time seemed to progressively slip away from me as the night wore on, and with it went most of my consciousness.

Maybe it was merely the atmosphere of this place that was making me woozy. Maybe not. But if Sword Art Online had accurately reproduced the sensation of tipsiness in the real world, then being intoxicated really wasn't such a bad thing, especially since it helped me forget the horrors I had been thrust into just for those few precious hours. Little wonder people got drunk so often, especially amidst the mundanity of the real world.

All good things had to come to an end, and so the festivities were wound up as the clock drew near midnight. While the partygoers began to filter out of the door, I was duly handed the bill by the innkeeper. Trying not to think too hard about the price scrawled at the bottom, I accepted the invoice and watched with some trepidation as the Cor in my inventory trickled down to a fraction of what it had initially been.

No matter, I told myself. I would soon earn that money back, and I would have the goodwill of the players I had met to prop myself up if need be.

The last thing I remembered was, at Rimi's insistence, me checking myself into one of the inn's rooms and plopping onto the soft cotton mattress. Then, slumber claimed me into its embrace, and so passed my first night in Aincrad, a world whose beautiful yet patently false reality had somehow become my own.

A/N: I have a lot of crazy ideas for grand, large-scale stories flying around in my head (some of which you might have seen before I deleted them) but in the end I decided to just take it easy and try writing a spin-off, re-imagined origin story for my favorite SAO girl. There's probably already been a ton of fanfics similar to this, at least in terms of the premise, but at this point I'm long past trying to be quirky and original. Something nice and comfy to write - and hopefully to read as well - is pretty much all I wanna do right now, especially considering how busy and stressful my postgrad studies can get.

I'll try to stick to canon as best as I can, but if there are any inaccuracies or deviations I apologize for them in advance. Thanks for reading!