-Episode 1: Fate's First Step-
("Italic" - Narration)
"People process grief in different ways..." A female voice said before the screen cut from black, before showing a boy with rugged, messy blonde hair, A girl in adorned in pink and a mysterious woman in purple are seen fighting against a monstrosity. All three of them are accompanied by a young girl with lavender hair and dark purple eyes, who is seen glowing white as she fends off the attacks from the monster, along with the others.
"Some of us heal...while others, allow their hearts to fester with guilt or jealousy..." the female voice continued, as the four began to struggle against the monster.
"Sometimes...we are our own worst enemy..." she said as the crew started to falter in their fight against the monster.
"Sometimes...our enemy hides in plain sight..." she continued. The monster is then seen charging up a blast from it's mouth, before it fires a blast at the blonde boy, before the screen then cuts to black.
"This...is the story of that struggle." the female voice said.
-GUN GALE ONLINE-
The scene then cuts to a sunny, normal-looking suburb in Japan. The camera cuts to a young man, who is seen fast asleep, while the clock reads '8:22am'. He had dark brown, rugged hair, with one side of that hair almost covering his eye. His eyes tense as he heard a knock on the door. A girl's voice called him.
"Hey, Yuji! Wake up! I need you to walk me to school!" the girl said.
"...Piss off.." the boy, named Yuji, grumbled to himself as he buried his face in his pillow, the frustration clear in his tired eyes.
We then cut to Yuji walking downstairs, wearing a black hoodie and black jeans, before greeting a girl with black, short hair, brown eyes and wearing a school uniform. She looks at Yuji with an annoyed expression, an expression the boy gave in return.
"It's about time! I'm gonna be late for school and it's all your fault!" the girl said, giving a "hmph" after she finished speaking.
"Yeah yeah..." Yuji said, his attitude annoying the girl further. Before she can say anything, an older woman is heard calling out.
"Himari, dear! You'll be late for school!" Himari's mother called out. Himari Sato, this family's only child and a second-year high school student. Yuji Takamaki, the boy, was adopted by them shortly after a tragic incident known as the Sword Art: Origin incident, which involved an early version of Sword Art Online being used without the knowledge of Akihiko Kayaba. Yuji, along with many other orphans, was an unwilling participant of the death game.
The scene then cuts to Himari's school, where Yuji walks up to it with her with his hands in his hoodie pockets. He looks at the school, with the strong desire to leave as soon as he dropped Himari off. She noticed this and decided to speak to him. However...it wasn't what he expected. She began by sighing.
"Look, Yuji...I get that you don't trust anybody...but I want to get along with you. And I try, but...Your heart is just so closed off..." Himari said, before she walked into her school gates.
"I'll see you later...Oh, and don't touch the AmuSphere in my room!" Himari said as she is seen walking towards her school. Yuji just simply watched her, before starting to make his way him. He put on his earphones and took out his phone. Just as he was about to put on some music, he gets a call. He tisks in annoyance before answering the phone.
"Hello?" Yuji said, sounding a little annoyed.
"Hi Yuji!" a female voice, a familiar one to him said.
"Hey Momiji." Yuji said, his tone remaining the same.
"What's up? You sound annoyed." she asked him.
"The sky." Yuji said, before being greeted by an "Ugh" by Momiji.
"Very funny...I'm calling because I wanted to ask you about something." she continued.
"What is it?" he asked as he walked.
"See...there's this tournament in this game...have you heard about Gun Gale Online at all?" Momiji asked.
"No, but it sounds like a dumb name." Yuji said as he continued walking, the camera showing this from a distance.
"Well, it's this VR ga-" Momiji was explaining before she was cut off.
"Not interested." Yuji said, before lifting his phone to his vision to hang it up.
"No, wai-" Momiji was about to say before Yuji hung up.
"Tch...VR...Why the hell would I wanna go back there?.." Yuji thought to himself as he put on his music. All of a sudden, Yuji clutches his head in agony, stumbling towards a nearby wall as he tried to endure the pain. The world around him looked like it was a static blur, showing various flashbacks of him fighting monsters in Sword Art: Origin and him holding a girl in her dying moments. He grunted in pain as he clutched his head.
"H...Are y...ay?" an older female voice could faintly be heard saying. All of a sudden, the static blur stops and Yuji starts regaining his vision. After a bit, he sees a woman standing in front of him, checking up on him.
"Are you alright?" the woman, who was seen standing in front of him with a hand on his shoulder, asked him in a concerned tone. She had black hair that rests on her left shoulder, worse glasses and formal attire. Yuji simply responds that he is fine before pushing her hand off his shoulder and walking away. walking away. As she watched him leave, what was seen on her chest was a name tag that said: 'Hoshiyama'.
The scene cuts to Yuji's house, where he is seen walking in, before taking off his shoes and clearly in a hurry to get upstairs.
"..." Yuji grumbled, sounding unenthusiastic. Suddenly, a familiar voice was heard.
"Hello, Yuji-kun!" the mother said, greeting him in the hallway.
"I take it she got to school safely?" she asked.
"Yep." Yuji simply said, before he proceeded to walk upstairs to his room, his foster mother slightly reaching out to him, before looking down as Yuji can be heard slamming the door.
"He hasn't adjusted to the house yet..." the mother thought to herself.
The scene then cuts to Yuji, who is seen taking some medication, before laying down harshly on his bed and then looking up at the ceiling. Thoughts start racing through his head as he starts to slowly drift off into a nap.
We cut to later, as the clock shows that it is 2:39pm. Yuji slowly opens his eyes, before sitting up quickly and rubbing them, his body still aching a little from sitting up so quickly. All of a sudden, a thought occurred to him. He sits up from his bed and walks over to his door, opening it and walking out, before making his way to Himari's room.
Her room was what one would call a room of a typical girl her age. Boyband posters adorn the walls and her room was a mess. His eyes looked around, letting out a small laugh under his breath as he searched for something.
And then...he found his sister's AmuSphere on her bedside table. He walked over to it before picking it up and looking at it. He looked rather unimpressed by it's design, in comparison to the bulkier NerveGear, it looked plastic and flimsy.
"...It doesn't look like much." he thought to himself, before he started walking out of Himari's room with it, heading back to his own room with it, then shutting the door behind him. He walked over and sat down on his bed, inspecting the device further...until he heard his phone ring. He quickly picks it up and answers the call.
"Hell-" Yuji said, before being interrupted.
"First off, that was extremely rude what you did this morning! Secondly, why did you hang up on me?!" Momiji said, sounding very annoyed.
"Sorry, I just wasn't interested this morning." Yuji simply said.
"What do you mean "wasn't"?...Wait, are you coming around?" Momiji asked, as the camera focuses on Yuji inspecting the AmuSphere.
"So...Gun Gale Online, was it? Turns out Himari's been playing it." said Yuji, to which Momiji gasped in surprise.
"Himari has an AmuSphere?! Wait...did you steal it from her room?" Momiji asked.
"What were you gonna ask me about it?" Yuji asked, sounding a little more eager, though he hides it with an annoyed-sounding tone.
"Well, it's a tournament and...I was wondering if you would help me out with it. I know you're a good gamer. We used to play MMOs on the PC together and you learn quick, so...Can you help me out?" Momiji asked, sounding as if she really wants him to.
"Fine." Yuji said, to which Momiji can be heard jumping for joy in the background.
"...I need to figure out how to use this thing first, and...I gotta pick up Himari in about an hour, so I gotta put it back." Yuji explained, cutting Momiji's celebration.
"Oh...well, when you do...can you meet me in the game as soon as you drop her off tomorrow?" Momiji asked.
"...No promises. I'll try." Yuji said, an answer Momiji was satisfied with.
"Well, see you tomorrow Yuji!" Momiji said happily before hanging up. As soon as she does, Yuji puts on the AmuSphere and is greeted by a boot-up sequence.
"DIFFERENCE IN BRAINWAVE LENGTH FROM DEFAULT USER DETECTED. REGISTER AS NEW USER?" the text on the visor screen said.
"Yeah." Yuji said unenthusiastically, before the text then disappears, then replaced with new text.
"NEW REGISTER AS USER-02. WELCOME TO AMUSPHERE." the text now said. After running through a series of diagnostics and updates, the device was finally up to date for his user data. This new version of the AmuSphere seemed to support multiple users of the device, to Yuji's relief. After switching back to USER-HIMARI, He is then seen walking over to Himari's room with the AmuSphere and returning it to her bedside table. He looked at the clock and realised that the day for her was already over.
"Kh...shit...I'm gonna get a damn earful.." Yuji said to himself before walking out. The scene then cuts to Yuji arriving at Himari's school gate, before the girl is seen stomping her way over to him.
"You're late! Did you nap again?!" Himari said, her face in his own and sounding clearly annoyed.
"Sorry." Yuji said sarcastically, which Himari clearly doesn't buy. She stomps off ahead of him, before Yuji places his hands in his hoodie pocket and starts walking. While the two of them were walking, he began to have flashbacks of his time in Sword Art: Origin, where he watched all of his friends die in front of him at the hands of a masked figure.
"You're too weak to protect anyone...Even yourself.." a mechanical voice said, as Yuji is seen holding a girl in his dying moments, crying out and begging her not to die, before the scene flashed back to the present. Yuji is simply seen walking with an expression of anguish on his face.
The scene cuts to the next day, where after he drops Himari off at School, he arrives home and goes to her room to get the AmuSphere. Luckily, he finds it at the same place he found it yesterday before picking it up and taking it into his room. He lays on his bed and puts it on before saying the words...
"Link Start."
A series of colored graphics are seen heading towards the screen as the game booted up. Yuji ends up looking at the avatar creation screen. He made the avatar look pretty much like himself, with the only changes being to his hair and eye color. The avatar wore a short blue jacket with a blue collar, black pants with metal knee pads. Satisfied with this, he accepted his avatar. The name he went with was "Yato". A name that carries an air of misfortune to those who try to get close to him. A sign of the guilt in his heart.
The scene then cuts to a large city hub area, which resembled something from a Sci-Fi movie. Out of the main portal emerged Yato, who looks at his hands before folding them into fists. He looks up to see his surroundings around him. His expression is one of both amazement and of horror. Amazement because of how the place looks and horror because of his traumatic memories with VR. After he takes his first steps down the small set of stairs, a familiar voice calls out to him.
"Sorry I'm late!" the voice said, a voice that belonged to the girl running over to him, whom Yuji looked in the direction of. She had pink hair with a single ponytail to her right, blue eyes, wore a black tank top with a short pink and white jacket and a white and pink skirt. As she reached Yato, she put her hand on her hip.
"It took way too long to register for the tournament!" the girl said, before we cut to the credits.
-To Be Continued-