"Sis, I'm off to practice!"

Her younger brother called through the door, distracting her from the magazine she was reading. There wasn't a chance to respond before he ran down the stairs and out of the house.

"Tsk!"

She flinched slightly, looking at a cut on her thumb as her mind wandered off. As she sucked on the wound she looked down at the picture of the widely renowned creator of the new VR software that was sold out everywhere.

Kayaba Akihiko…

She thought to herself, as she received a notification from her phone, signaling that the servers were now online. She smiled to herself in excitement, closing the magazine and towards the new game sitting on the edge of her desk. In a few swift moves, she placed the disk in the slot and placed the Nervegear over her head as she rested her back on the bed. She took a moment to take a deep breath, trying to still her rapidly beating heart.

"Link start!"

The device recognized her voice as it booted up, there were flashes of screens all syncing her bio information to the software just before entering the game, and soon enough she saw it, the tile of the first deep dive VRMMO.

WELCOME TO SWORD ART ONLINE

Floor 1: Town of Beginnings

Various players spawned around her with the same excited aura surrounding them. Charging forward she mapped out the quickest route to the hunting grounds. Already filling up the town distracted by the merchandise from the first level shops. The low-level weapons and talismans weren't of any interest to her, it was better to get a head start, gain as much easy experience before it became more people began flooding the servers.

As she ran through the streets she couldn't help but stop as she caught a glimpse of herself in the reflection of a shop window. She smiled at her avatar before running off again; Her character had male build with a handsome face equipped with the generic beginner armor and weapon. The game was so immersive that anyone could bypass as any gender they wanted and actually get away with it. Which worked in her favor as playing men in games like this were far easier as no one would bother a man playing-

"Hey, You there!"

Her feet scuttled against the stone pavement to a halt, looking back, she saw a man running towards her with red hair and a crimson bandana. He grasped his knees catching his breath.

I didn't think that physical fitness translated to the gameplay…good to know.

"Me?" She asked as a deeper voice came out of her, one of the generic male voices that she had set rather than taking the time to edit one.

"You run around as if you know the place. You were in the beta test weren't you." He asked much to her surprise. She didn't think that she was being that obvious, so the fact that someone could recognize it... Today's my first day." He pleadingly grabbed her shoulder. "Show me the basics, okay?!"

"Huh?" She was taken aback by the sound of desperation in his voice.

"I'm begging you!" He slapped his hands together bowing his head slightly.

"…can't you just access the tutorial?" She asked, waiting for a moment as the man looked up to her with a blank expression on his face.

"Is there a tutorial?"

"…I…don't know…" She admitted, if there was one then she would be the last person to try it out as she was more of a; out of the frying pan and into the fire, kind of player.

There was a brief silence between them before she sighed. "Alright, I'll help you out."

"Really?! Thanks man!" His head shot up in excitement and aggressively shook her hand. "My name's Klein, nice to meet you."

She smiled slightly as she felt a little out of her element as she wasn't used to people talking to her so forwardly.

"I'm Kirito."

Floor 1: Town of Beginnings; West Field

It was amazing how many times Klein was pushed around, by a level 2 boar no less. Kirito tried not to laugh as he was rammed over and over again by the same boar, dealing little to no damage as he kept missing.

He gasped in pain, kneeling over. "R-right in the crotch…"

"Seriously? You're not supposed to feel pain you know." She pointed out.

"Huh, oh yeah." Klein stopped rolling around upon realization. "I guess it was just a habit."

Lending him a hand up, Kirito guided his attention towards the boar."Like I said before, what's important is your initial motion input."

"Easier said than done, this guy keeps running around like crazy. " Klein sighed.

Kirito looked around for a second, picking up a small stone. "It's not that hard once you get the timing right. Once you have that down and you activate your sword skill." She placed all of her focus on the boar flinging the pebble at the last second and from her hand, a red laser damaged the boar slightly. "The system will ensure that the technique connects, all you have to do is power on through with your attack."

"Motion input…motion input…" Klein mumbled to himself as he prepared his weapon again just as the boar began to charge at Kirito.

"It's kind of like, when you're prepared to attack and you feel your skill activate, add a slight pause, then let it explode," Kirito added as she then moved as few feet away.

"Explode? WAIT HOLD ON-" Klein mumbled to himself, he suddenly stood in a battle stance hanging his sword over his shoulder. A few seconds later it started to glow just as the boar was in striking distance.

"Hyyyaaaa!" Klein cried out, and in one hit the boar's health was depleted and it exploded into data leaving behind a screen that listed the experience gained.

"HECK YA!"Klein raised his arms in victory, yelling out in glee.

"Congrats."

The two took a step towards each other and shared a high five.

"But, that boars about the equivalent of a slime in other games, so you won't get much exp." Kirito added, causing Klein to become disheartened.

"Whaat?! I thought it was a mid-level boss or something."

"Heh, of course not." She smirked in amusement, hoping that he was joking about that as a few more boars respawned. "These boars have little to no experience so they'll respawn at the drop of a hat. It's the higher level monsters that'll have sporadic respawn patterns, so those are the ones you need to go for before everyone else does."

"Pretty exciting, isn't it? Leveling up in a world like this." Klein said as he practiced a few moves with his sword with a big smile stretched across his face. "Hey, there're a lot of skills in this game right, like blacksmithing and stuff?"

Kirito nodded. "I've heard there are an unlimited number of skills available, except for magic."

Klein built up his sword skill, "No magic huh, that's a pretty bold decision."

"It's a risky decision." She muttered under her breath, as she always used to main as dark mages or an equivalent to them in every other game she played.

Klein glided forward in one move, leaving a fading red trail in his wake as he destroyed another boar.

"But it's fun isn't it, fighting with your entire body? I could get addicted to this!"

Kirito turned towards him in surprise, looking at how much fun he was having before a wry smile broke out on her face. "Yeah, I guess so."

They both glanced out towards the setting sun in the distance, blazing beautifully against the fields and wildlife after they slaughtered a number of boars.

"You wouldn't even know that this is a game." Klein sat near her enjoying the view. "Seriously, I'm glad that I was born in this time."

"You make a big deal out of everything in this game. Are you going to praise every blade of grass next?" She joked as Klein stuck his tongue out at her.

"This is my first time using full dive, Mr. Beta tester. Not all of us are going to play it as cool as you are." He pointed out.

Kirito slightly turned her head, "Then this is your first time playing a game with Nervegear overall?"

"Yup, I rushed out and bought the hardware to play SAO. I was lucky to even get a hard copy; but you're were ten times as lucky, after all you were in the beta. How many people got into the final version one thousand?" Klein asked eagerly.

"I guess." Unease grew in Kirito's chest, she rubbed the back of her neck out of habit.

"So how far did you get in the beta?"

"Over a couple of months I got onto floor 8, but this time, it'll only take a month."

Klein smiled at Kirito's charisma. "You're hardcore into this aren't you?"

Kirito unsheathed her sword lifting it in front of her against the sunlight as it seemed to glow under its rays. "To be honest, during the beta test, SAO was the only thing on my mind, day and night. In this world a single blade can take you anywhere you want to go. It's a virtual world, but for some reason, I feel more alive here than I do in the real one."

"Yup, hardcore to the extreme." Klein chuckled under his breath.

"You wanna hunt more?" She offered.

"Of course, I'd love to!" Klein lifted his body to his knees, "But.." he fell back onto his butt grabbing his stomach in mild embarrassment as his stomach growled. "I'm really hungry, so I think that I'll log out."

"Eating food here quells your appetite so it doesn't make you feel hungry anymore." She informed.

"Heh, I already ordered a hot pizza for 5:30."

"You've already thought ahead." She lightly praised as Klein stood up brushing the grass off of his pants.

"Once I've eaten I'll be back, don't get lonely without me." He joked.

"Alright." Kirito smirked slightly and turned her head away looking back towards the setting landscape.

"Hey, after this I'm meeting up with some other people I know from another game, you wanna meet them?"

"Huh?"

"But- You don't have to if you don't want to, I'll introduce you another time." Klein said reassuringly.

"Sure, sorry. Thanks for the offer." Kirito was slightly amazed that he was even offering.

"Hey hey, that's my line, I need to repay you for this sometime, mentally. Thanks for the tutorial man."

Kirito chuckled to herself, slightly surprised that he held out his hand, accepting his handshake. "If there's anything else you want to know just ask. I'll be in this area for a while gathering exp."

"I'll take you up on that offer soon!" Klein gripped her hand tighter in appreciation, giving her a goofy grin.

"Oh, before I forget!" Klein said as he opened up his menu and sent her a friend request. "Friend me alright? This whole first level is massive."

"Sure." She said and quickly accepted. "I'll catch you later then." Kirito turned her back to him, but stopped when Klein spoke again.

"That's odd, there's no log out button."

"What?" Kirito turned back, noticing the confusion on his face.

"Yeah, it's not there." He said again after re-opening the menu.

Kirito mirrored his motion, pulling up her own personal menu. "It should be at the bottom of the main menu…eh?"Her heartbeat quickened at the empty panel, where the log out button should be.

"See? I'm sure it's nothing though, it's a few days after the beta, there are bound to be a few bugs. I'm sure the server people are freaking out though." Klein reasoned, brushing off what he believed was a bug.

"In a second you will as well."

"huh?"

"It's 5:25." Kirito pointed out as they both had a clock at the top of their menus.

"...MY TERIYAKI MAYO PIZZA AND GINGER ALEEEE!" Klein slightly spazed out in defeat.

"Let's just contact the admin" Kirito recommended trying to calm him down. She pulled up the help option, scrolling down to a direct contact line consisting of an FAQ, an in-game counselor, and a direct line to the servers. However, even that option was voided as she saw the options quickly disappearing from her menu.

"What the hell..." She said aloud, exchanging a glance with Klein who was equally as spooked.

This isn't right, there shouldn't be any reason to not have a log out sequence on the menu...

"Is there any other way to log out?" Klein asked, but Kirito shook her head.

"No, everyone has to go through the menu, it's the standard in any type of game."

"There has to be a way!"

"Log out!"

"Escape!"

Klein shouted out, but nothing happened.

"I'm telling you, there isn't any way to manually log out without the option being available. Why would there need to be?"

"Y-You're kidding, right?" Klein was stunned for a few moments before another idea came to mind. "I know; I'll just rip the Nervegear off my head!"He tried to pull at what he thought was an invisible helmet but it was to of no avail.

"It's no use, remember, the Nervegear intercepts any kind of motion and translates it to a motion in the game."

"So what, we wait for them to fix the bug?"

"Or for someone in the real world to remove the Nervegear from us. "

"But I live alone…what about you?"

"I have a younger sibling and my mom, but I think that they'll notice before din- "Suddenly Klein grabbed her shoulders.

"Y-You have a younger sister? How old is- "

Klein was significantly taller than her, but that didn't stop Kirito from kicking him in his manhood. Sending him sprawling to the ground without mercy.

"OWOWOWOWOWO-Oh wait, it really doesn't hurt."

"I have a little Brother, creeper! And more importantly, don't you find this weird?!"

"Sure, I do, it's a bug."

"This isn't just a bug; what kind of developer overlooks such a serious problem. And the fact that we're still here is a red flag as well."

"Huh?"

"The administrator has control over the source code and everything else keeping us here. If they wanted to they could shut down the server and log out everyone manually if they wanted to. But they haven't, and there haven't been any notifications either to let us know that they're doing something about this.

The server has been up for hours, a few people should have already noticed the missing log out option and notified the game master. The moment that they realized that they made a mistake should have been immediate notification letting everyone know what was wrong. But that hasn't happened yet.

Her eyes widened as she didn't dare speak her inner thoughts aloud, not wanting to freak out Klein more.

Is someone keeping us here?

Suddenly a ringing of bells reached her ears, she and Klein turned toward the direction of the noise; only a few seconds later a bright light transported them and the next thing they knew they were in the town square.

Surrounding them were thousands of other players all with confused expressions and a few were huddled together whispering amongst themselves.

A forced teleport?

Above them was a warning panel that overtook the sky in a crimson red. From the sky fell blood that gathered together to form a red hooded figure.

"Attention, players, welcome to my world."

"My world?" Kirito questioned as she looked around, seeing that every other player's attention was grabbed by the figure floating before them.

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko, as of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world. I'm sure that you've all noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. "Kayaba waved his hand down similar to what Klein did earlier, pulling up a menu. "This is not a defect in the game, this is the key feature of Sword Art Online."

"F-Feature?!"

"You cannot log out of SAO yourselves, and no one on the outside can shut down or remove the Nervegear, any attempts to do so will activate a transmitter that will emit a security function that will destroy the brain."

To prove his point, several articles were pulled up that were then sent to every player's inbox; news stations, internet posts, anything pertaining to the news of people dying because of the Nervegear. Kirito's eyes immediately darted to the date and times, seeing that almost every article was sent out at least an hour ago.

There were a few voices of outrage gathering strength in seconds. While Klein became concerned, he turned towards her placing a hand on Kirito's shoulder. She was pulled out of the information she was reading and turned towards him.

"This guy's full of crap, isn't he, the Nervegear doesn't have that kind of function?" Klein asked, with an expression on his face that practically begged her to agree with him.

Kirito hesitated for a moment. "There is hardware within the Nervegear that uses microwave tech theoretically powerful enough to kill someone… "

There has been proof of microwave radiation killing people, but did the Nervegear have the capability?

"But what if someone shut off the power or disconnected the wifi?"

"The Nervegear has an internal battery, and if these news articles are real…"

"Unfortunately several families and friends have ignored the warning and have attempted to remove the gear, as a result, two hundred and thirteen players have already been removed from Aincrad and the real world."

What?!

"Two hundred and thirteen?" Klein murmured as Kirito's eyes widened in disbelief, quickly looking back at the articles, confirming what the figure before them was saying. There was a chance that this entire article was fabricated but...she didn't believe that someone would go so far for a practical joke of this magnitude.

"I don't believe this; I don't believe this!"

"There are already live reports of players dying because of the Nervegear removal, thus, the chances of removal are now minimal. I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game. But I want you to remember, the moment that your hp drops to zero, your avatar will be lost forever, and you will be destroyed. There is only one way to clear the game; you are now on Floor 1 the lowest level of Aincrad. If you make your way through the various dungeons and defeat the floor boss you may advance to the higher floors. Defeat the final boss on Floor 100 and you will clear the game."

"Clear 100 Floors...? That's impossible, the beta testers never made it anywhere near that high!" A random person yelled aloud. "How do you expect anyone to clear a game like this?!"

But their cries were ignored.

"Finally, I've added a present from me to your item storage, please see for yourself and experience true VR."

Kirito narrowed her eyes as she opened the newest message, pressing on a new item in the inbox. Once she clicked on it, a small mirror fell into her hands, reflecting the face of her handsome avatar.

"A Mirror?" She asked aloud and then flinched back as Klein screamed right next to her. Bursts of light suddenly engulfed every single player, screams of confusion reached Kirito's ears as the light engulfed her as well.

As the light faded every one of the players came around looking at each other in confusion, causing more commotion.

"Kirito, are you alright?" Klein asked with his hand still on her shoulder.

"Ah, Yeah- huh?" Kirito said, first noticing that her voice was a higher pitch, and then standing next to her was a man with a mess of red hair and a bandana wrapped around his forehead.

"Who're you?" He asked her in a daze but then quickly drew his hand back as his face turned her. Unlike her avatar, Klein's voice remained the same which made her quickly realize-

Kirito held up her mirror again shocked at what she saw; her former male avatar was now replaced with a female one. Her clothes were the same for male avatars, but her hair was longer reaching waist length just like in real life.

"That means…you're Klein?!" She exclaimed.

"You're Kirito?! How the heck?!" Klein stammered.

"The Nervegear has a face scanner, it can recognize your face, but the body type-"

"It was the first thing to be calibrated when everyone downloaded it right?" Klein pointed out as the two of them, and everyone else freaked out.

"You're probably wondering 'why', why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of sword art online and the Nervegear do all this? My Goal has already been achieved, I created Sword Art Online for only one reason; to intervene with the story that will unfold! Soon, this goal will be complete; this ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch."

"Good luck, players." Were the final words Kayaba said just as the form he used disintegrated into data.

The world turned back to normal, but for only a few solitary moments before screams erupted the coliseum.

"This can't be real...this can't be real..." Klein murmured to himself over and over again, catching Kirito's attention just before she would have spiraled just like everyone around her. She looked around, trying to ignore the screams of terror, and noticed the barriers that were keeping all the players within were lifted.

"Klein, come with me!" Kirito said grabbing his arm and guiding the two of them out of the sea of panicking and confused people.

"H-hold on a second!" Klein said as Kirito dragged him towards the exit of the town, the two still able to hear the pandemonium of the square even so many hundreds of yards away.

Kirito frowned as she looked at him seriously. "If what he said was true, then the first 24 hours with be critical."

"Huh?"

"Our strength in SAO depends on how many resources we can take in. Right now, everyone is in a panic but they'll realize that they'll need those same things as well. The spawn rates in this game differ from other mmo's; each monster type has their own respawn time limit, the higher the level, the longer it will take; but in this situation, the hunting fields will soon be wiped clean. The closest village is the best place where we can start a few mini quests and gain extra exp, but we need to do so right now. " She explained while Klein looked at her apologetically.

"The journey would normally take a few hours on the normal route, but luckily there was a hill pass that cut the time in half...Klein?" Kirito said as she noticed his silence.

He looked disheartened, "T-the thing is, I spent an entire night in line to buy this with a bunch of my friends from another game. They're probably out there with everyone else in the plaza losing their minds, I can't leave them behind."

Kirito's eyes widened as she took into account what Klein was going to ask.

If it was just Klein it would be fine…but two more…even one…

"Don't worry about it."

Shock lifted Kirito's head from her thoughts, as though he already read her mind.

"I'm in no position to ask you for any more favors, don't worry about it go on ahead to the next village. I used to run a guild and with everything you've taught me, I'll get by somehow. "

There were a number of things she wanted to saw to him, ranging from; Are you crazy you'll die without me! To; I understand, let's go meet up with your friends, and we'll get through this together.

However, she didn't say any of those things.

"All right, then," She turned her body towards the road but still facing him. "let's part ways here. If something happens send me a message."

"I will."

"Then, goodbye Klein." She walked down the alleyway towards the darkness, the sun was setting, eventually, the night would overtake everyone as well and monsters.

"Kirito!"

Klein's voice stopped her.

"Ah..." There was no immediate response, the two were at a loss for words. "Hey, you know, you have a super cute face!"

Kirito turned her head towards him, "You're exactly my type, it suits you! Let me repay you by taking you on a date sometimes!" He smiled at her half-jokingly.

She smiled at him in return, wanting to say something witty but... "Once night falls, the stronger monsters will come out, be careful!" She yelled out, not wanting to hear his response as she sprinted just past the town limit and towards the field. She slowed down, feeling a sadness well up in her chest much to her annoyance and confusion.

Why…?

She gripped her fist tightly turning back, yelling out. "Klein!"

However, the only thing that greeted her was an empty alleyway striking a cord that made her freeze for a moment.

Before she could react, before she could process, she ran.

You wanted this, no regrets…not this time.

The spacious empty field welcomed her as Kirito ran down the path. A bright blue slight a good distance ahead spawned a wolf and her sword reflexively fell into her hands.

She positioned her weapon, in a split second taking a sprint forward as the wolf jumped at her, fangs bearing.

Now!

The wolf was defeated in one swift motion, landing on her feet again she starting running again without stopping, growing angrier at the image of Klein's stupid smile that kept popping up in her mind.

I won't allow myself to die! I won't allow this game to defeat me!

a/n note:

So Sword art online, it's, it's not that good. But I'm a gamer, I love mmo's, I love anime, and I actually do like it. And recently I watched the second season, and I couldn't help myself.

I will be doing the first half guaranteed, maybe the second hald (if I can manage to find an angle where it wont suck -_-)

Reviews help improve my writing so please don't be shy! :)

A/N Note after edit:

-CHRIST THIS WAS SO BADLY WRITTEN AND BARE BONES