Kazuto— Kirito, now— took a moment to inspect his surroundings. He was sitting in the middle of a vast meadow, and no one was around him. In the distance, he could see the semi-conical platforms that held areas only accessible via teleport crystal. The sun was rising, painting the landscape a pleasant pink-orange, and Kirito slowly rose to his feet.

He was immediately caught off guard as simply standing felt entirely different. He wobbled left and right on his legs before shakily steadying himself.

"Okay," he said as he began to straighten up again, "New body, new balance. This'll take a little getting used to."

In the upper right corner of his vision, a small text box told him to get a good look of the surrounding area and get used to moving. He groaned at the necessity of a tutorial for a game he's already played extensively in beta, but was secretly thankful for the extra time to get used to the new form.

At first, walking around was shaky, and every step made him look like a newborn fawn. He tried running, only to fall flat on his face. He felt each blade of grass drag uncomfortably against his skin as he fell, but the pain was more or less negligible. "Good," he muttered, his words muffled with his face in the dirt, "Pain dampeners still work."

He rose again, and kept trying to get his balance. With a frustrating amount of effort, he was more or less able to sprint in one direction without completely tumbling, but it would take a while to get used to the mobility he would need at higher levels. Nonetheless, he summoned the game's menu with a flick of the wrist and advanced the tutorial.

He felt his waist grow heavier as a sword filled the baldric at his hip, and he eagerly drew it. The blade was a simple rapier with an ebony wood hilt, and a simple, inelegant crossguard. It rasped as he pulled it from the sheath. Kirito's silver orbs examined the blade up and down, admiring his highly feminine reflection in the gleaming blade.

With another quick flick of his wrist, Kirito progressed the tutorial. A boar, wild and menacing, materialized from thin air before him, oinking aggressively as it dropped to the ground. It sniffed the air, and turned its tusked snout to Kirito.

A hard edge took over Kirito's gentle features as he dropped into a low stance. He stumbled a little as he had to adjust his new body to his usual fencing stance, but the boar charged him before he could properly set his back foot.

Kirito hopped backwards, narrowly dodging the vicious tusks of the boar, and swung the rapier down, cutting a clean line across the beast's snout. Kirito's new body proportions threw him off, causing him to stumble and fall backwards onto his bottom. The boar squealed and huffed, charging towards the downed swordsman (or, as any passers by would see, swordswoman) with a renewed fury. Kirito thrust forward from his sitting position, and the boar was too late to adjust its charge. The black boar ran viciously into the raven-haired fencer's rapier, driving the point of its blade through the front of its skull, and deep into its brain. For a few moments, Kirito could see the life leaving the monster's eyes. He could see each memory dripping down the blade of his sword. Fabricated memories of a family, a mother, children, a familiar home. All gone. The boar shattered into crystals.

Kirito shifted and exhaled, gently sheathing his sword. He shifted on his bottom, trying to find a comfortable position to rest, but the constant discomfort persisted in his rump.

"Chikuso. Should've fixed the butt slider."

Kirito huffed as the next notification for the tutorial popped up. "I already played through this, goddamnit. Baka-ass game."

Kirito progressed quickly through the tutorial. As he encountered various movement and combat challenges, he got more and more control with his feminine figure. He stopped stumbling around, and began using his notably more lithe form to execute moves he'd only dreamed of. The introduction to sword skills came and passed quickly, with Kirito already being deeply and intimately aware of how to perfectly execute each and every sword skill from his year of nigh-daily practice in the beta.

With a flourish, Kirito landed behind the enemy he'd just executed, sheathing his rapier with a little flurry as the tutorial boss crumpled and shattered into crystals. "Yatta," he muttered, his eyes closed so that he could fully bask in the cool moment.

"What'd ye say, lass?"

Kirito's eyes opened immediately, and his jaw locked. He looked around frantically. He was no longer in the tutorial, he was in the first open area of the game. An open field, just like the tutorial, but he could see the starting city on the horizon.

A man, likely not a day younger than 60 (or at least that's how his avatar looked) had approached him. The man's hair was stark white, long and tied into a bun in the back, with a few stray wisps of hair springing out and some longer strands framing his face. He had a light stubble, with a more prominent and sharp moustache that tapered out near the corners of his lips. His eyes were a soft lavender, set in dark sockets with crow's feet beginning to show from the corners. He wore a white doublet and loose black pants tucked into shin-high leather foldover boots.

Kirito stuttered and tried to answer, but he could feel the gaze of the older man on him, and it made his breaths shallow. "U-uh, I mean, I, uh..."

The older man held out a hand, and spoke in a lightly Scottish accent. "Name's Hokori. I'm new to the whole 'gaming' thing, don't quite know 'ow to go about it. Just got this 'eadset, actually. You seem experienced, would ye mind givin' an old fool some tips?"

Kirito still stood stock-still, failing to even register the offered handshake. "Well, I was, uh..."

Horoki gently placed a hand on Kirito's shoulder. "Lass?"

Kirito recoiled violently away from the hand. His eyes were wild. "Yes! Yes, I'm fine!"

Horoki didn't look convinced.

Kirito found his voice after a few more moments, the constriction around his chest making it hard to speak. "I was just gonna go, uh, power-level. Gotta... get my levels up. Yeah."

Horoki raised an eyebrow. "Power-level?"

Kirito's eyebrows drew up in surprise. "Yeah, power-level! It's where you get as much experience in as short a time as possible. For this area, the most efficient way to power-level, measured by time spent grinding versus XP gained, is to kill boars untill level 6, then sell the loot to the first city," Kirito pointed to the horizon where the city lie, "Then buy an alchemy setup, do serving work for some cash to pay for roots which will give enough XP to carry you to level 10, then just coast past all the mobs 'till you kill the first boss!" Kirito was out of breath after the explanation.

Horoki's soft lavender orbs expressed his surprise, and his eyebrows were almost challenging his hairline.

Kirito realized that the crushing grip around his chest had eased, but it was slowly seeping back into his awareness.

"Kill boars until level 6, you say?"

Kirito's voice trembled. "Uh, yes. Boars. Six."

Horoki huffed. "Well, that sounds boring. Thank you very much for the information, lass, but I won't result to using such underhanded tactics to ruin the fun of the game! This game was crafted to be played, not played! "

The feeling in Kirito's chest was now like a vice. "W-well, I'm, uh, sorry. I'm sorry."

Horoki's face softened. "Don't be sorry, lass. Didn't mean to spook ye. It's just not my style, y'know?"

The vice loosened its grip, but only slightly. "Okay."

A few awkward beats passed before Horoki spoke again. "Well, I'll be off. Sorry for scarin' ye, lass. Here," he opened his menu and sent Kirito a friend request, "If you ever need help, shoot me a message. Good day."

Horoki walked off into the direction of the city, leaving Kirito to stand and stare at the friend request that just popped up in front of him. The waves of anxiety were no longer crashing against Kirito, and he actually thought about the friend request. With a flick of his wrist, he dismissed the message, neither accepting it or denying it, merely saving it for later. For now, he had some boars to kill, and that conversation had majorly dampened his potential boar/minute ratio.

A/N : Ohaiyo! Hope you cuties have been doing well, i really enjoyed writnging this chapter and i hope you like the neew character, therell be more soon! 3! Love all of you, pls fav, review, & follow if you like this fic! Sayonara, loves!