Outlier Chapter 1: Prologue: Outlier, a sword art online/ソードアート・オンライン fanfic

A/N: Hey, everyone! Welcome to my first "Sword Art Online" fic! ...Well, technically it's the second one. I wrote the first one waaaaay back in 2014, when the second season of the anime was in full swing. I forgot what it was all about, but it's obvious that I didn't like the way it was panning out since it's now deleted (a practice that I no longer do anymore).

Anyway, a little backstory before we begin: "Sword Art Online" was one of the first anime I ever watched, outside of stuff like "Pokémon" and "Yu-Gi-Oh!". It was the third or fourth one, I believe. At the time, I was hooked, even when its flaws became apparent. I thought it was one of the greatest things that I ever watched, honestly. But as the years passed and I discovered more anime, I dropped out of the loop at around the anime's Calibur arc. Not out of real dissatisfaction with it, mind you, but by that point, I had become aware that there were bigger and better things than "Sword Art Online". I did keep myself updated from time to time, and I occasionally kept listening to the anime's killer soundtrack. One of the big pluses of the anime, in my opinion.

Then, 2021 came to a close, and 2022 came along. The year where the story of "Sword Art Online" begins. I guess that piece of trivia occurred to me, because I started listening to more and more of the anime's music at that point, and then I decided to check out the "Ordinal Scale" movie that I had heard about for a while, just to satiate my curiosity. And then I just wouldn't stop checking out "Sword Art Online"-related material again, and that was when I got hooked onto it once again.

And then, I came up with this story. You will learn more about its background in the ending Author's Note, since I do not want to burden you with reading walls of text full of behind-the-scenes exposition just before we get on with the fic. But, let's just say I'm pretty excited to write this and see it through to the end, because it explores what I think was a hugely missed opportunity to make the story of "Sword Art Online" MILES better than it is right now. Because yes, even as a fan who's been engaged with it two times, I'll admit that "Sword Art Online" isn't one of the best works of fiction, objectively speaking. (But I also think it's not one of the worst either, and that there's WAAAAAY too much hype over it being such, because believe me, I HAVE seen stuff that's objectively a whole lot worse.)

Alright, I think I've rambled long enough! On with the story. ENJOY!

P.S.: For updates regarding progress on my writing and just life in general, please check out my profile! I try to update it as often as I possibly can with any status update!

P.P.S.: Due to the slowly improving situation regarding the coronavirus outbreak, I am going to have to remind you all about the basic steps you should take if you want to stay healthy, courtesy of my university's reminder emails:

-Wash hands often with soap and water for 20-30 seconds at a time, and/or use hand sanitizer
-Avoid close contact with people who are sick
-Keep your hands away from nose, eyes, and mouth (I can't imagine how difficult this part is probably going to be)
-Eat well, get adequate rest, and exercise regularly
-Get a flu shot if you haven't already and are able to
-Stay informed on the COVID-19 vaccines, get shots if you're able to, and try to get a booster shot if you're eligible

And if you ARE sick (I hope you get better if you are), please be a good sport and save other folks the trouble of getting sick. You can do this by:

-Covering your mouth and nose with your sleeve, elbow, or a tissue whenever you sneeze or cough
-Not sharing food and drinks with others
-Avoiding touching your mouth, nose, and eyes (Again, I understand this is probably going to be difficult)
-Avoiding close contact with others
-Cleaning and disinfecting surfaces and objects
-Staying at home if you're unwell (PRIORITY NUMBER ONE!)
-Staying calm and keeping yourself well-informed (My personal advice)

If you already know this, then great! If you didn't know any of this beforehand, please keep that information in mind as we all go through this trying time. It's a realm of unknowns at this point, and I wish myself and all of humanity well.

Disclaimer: All forms of "Sword Art Online" DO NOT belong to me in any way! My only right to ownership is this specific story. All rights of ownership automatically go to Reki Kawahara, ASCII Media Works, Dengeki Bunko, and A-1 Pictures!

Longer Summary: A seemingly minor flaw in the design of some of the NerveGear has allowed one out of every 250 players who die in the death game, Sword Art Online, to safely return to the real world instead of dying for real. When Kirito clears the game at long last and returns to the real world, he is surprised to see a familiar girl of blue waiting for him, a girl who he thought he'd never, ever see again. "Sa...Sa...chi...?"

"Welcome back, Kirito."

Meanwhile, Asuna is among the 300 SAO survivors who are still mysteriously trapped, and when Kirito receives a tip on her whereabouts involving another VRMMORPG, ALfheim Online, he mounts a search party to investigate. All the while, he struggles with his unresolved past feelings for Sachi, which now conflict with his present love for Asuna.

"Sorry... Sorry... I swore, I promised I'd save you, get you back to the real world, but I...I couldn't..."

"It's okay. It's okay. I'm happy I got to meet you, Kazuto, and to be with you, and to live with you. This is the happiest I've ever been in my whole life. Thank you for that. And I love you."

The only thing that he could feel was her.

Her, as she was wrapped around him, in the warmest, most loving embrace one could possibly imagine.

Her, as she leaned her smooth, silky forehead and met it with his rough, weathered own.

Her, as everything else around them no longer mattered, now rendered meaningless by the codes and algorithms that continued to drive their world in its last moments.

Just her. A tender feeling. There was nothing else in this world that he wanted to feel.

So, he continued to hold on to her, even as the blinding, unrelenting white light consumed them, signaling the end of the past two years of their lives. And once it did, he heard six words, which would soon be drowned out by white noise, and then, finally...

"I love you, so very much."

Beep...

The first thing he saw upon returning from the dark oblivion was white. It assailed his eyes as soon as he opened them, forcing him to narrow them into slits. He wanted to moan and wince and move his face away from the light and back to the darkness he had long sought refuge in, but his body stubbornly refused cooperate with him. Not like it did in the past two years. It felt strangely lightweight and yet so weighed down. The only control that it would generously grant him was over his own eyelids.

Beep...

He spent a few moments of stillness, with nothing but the beeping noise keeping him company. Then, he abruptly felt his finger give the slightest but most defiant twitch. Then, life slowly but surely trickled back into his body, every last neuron reactivating and desperately firing and channeling signals.

Beep.

With a feeble whimper, he briefly looked away, letting his eyesight adjust itself. It didn't take long for the white to recede like a tide and reveal what was behind it.

First, nothing but gray.

Then, shapeless objects of white, placed atop the gray.

Beep.

Then, the objects found shape, until he could easily identify them as lights.

Then, more shapes emerged, undefinable at first but eventually taking the form of walls and corners and windows.

And finally, a person. A girl.

Beep!

It was something out of a classical painting. She was sitting contently beside the window, longingly looking through the cool, clean glass like she had been waiting for something to happen for a very long time. Her whole body was bathed in gold sunlight, her chestnut hair and hazel eyes absolutely angelic. The sight of her was enough for his body to draw more life in.

He lifted his right arm and reached out to her, ignoring just how lightweight it truly was, and how ghastly it truly was in its bony, emaciated appearance. All he wanted to feel was her again.

"My name is..."

"A...su...na..."

Beep!

The name came out of his mouth in a weak, almost indiscernible croak, and yet, in his recovering voice, he channeled all of the power and all of the love that he had long associated with that name. And he made sure to do it again.

"A...su...na..."

His desperate, longing call caught her attention. She looked away from the sunlit window and stared straight at him, and when she did, the burning hazel in her eyes transformed into a soft blue.

Beep!

Beep.

Beep...

It wasn't the girl that he was expecting. Her chin-length hair was sleek and black, though the reflecting sunlight gave it a familiar muted shade of blue. She was wearing a plain, loose-fitting beige shirt; a baby-blue, long-sleeved winter jacket with a furred hood; and a dark-blue, pleated skirt. It was a far cry from the clothes he last saw her in on that fateful day in June.

The day when he thought he had lost her for good.

They stared at one another disbelievingly, their respectively minds processing the sights and initially concluding them to be nothing more than ghosts. The stunned, awkward silence lasted for over a minute before being broken by the soft but overjoyed exhale the girl made. Her lips curved upward into a sweet, captivating smile that melded well with the peering sunlight.

To him, reality slowly overcame his first conclusion. As he realized that he, undeniably, was finally back in the real world, and that he was not seeing an illusion, he managed out another croak, his voice tinged in incredulity.

"Sa...Sa...chi...?"

The girl approached his bedside, her features becoming even more defined and tangible. Her smooth, silky hand clasped his cold, skeletal own.

"Welcome back, Kirito."

Beep...

Beep.

Beep!

– X-Y-X –

– November 7, 2024 –
Sekimoto Memorial Hospital

"Some people managed to escape Sword Art Online when they died. Some of them...managed to cheat the death game."

A middle-aged, dark-haired man stood alone at the polished wooden podium, facing his audience from his position at the front of the conference hall. The expansive room was full, to the point where some extra guests had to line the walls and take notes from there. The man soon left his station on the podium and started pacing around the front stage, his white lab-coat fluttering softly. His nametag, boasting the kanji for Hidetaka Hayami, briefly glinted from the shining lights on the ceiling.

Behind Hayami, a banner hung, silent and grim even as an image was being projected on it, commanding the audience's attention. It was of a bedridden, emaciated player removing his NerveGear, revealing an unkempt mat of brown hair. The image had a caption reading, "Survivor 9, Daisuke Eto, returning to the real world. Photo dated December 4, 2022."

"Before he disappeared," Hayami explained, "the creator of SAO, Argus game developer Akihiko Kayaba, explained to the world that the only way for 10,000 trapped players, 10,000 patients, to survive SAO was to clear it. Clear the main quest by reaching the top floor, the 100th floor of the game's setting Aincrad, and defeating the final boss. Only then would any of them be allowed to log out of the game safely. Otherwise, when one dies in the game, the NerveGear would emit high-powered microwaves that would destroy the user's brain and kill them. Unfortunately, numerous records and testimonies of feedback from the game's beta testers deemed completing the main quest to be an impossible task. So impossible, in fact, that it bordered on improbability given the circumstances.

"So, when a select few were simply able to log out of SAO following their in-game deaths, as opposed to dying in real life like they were supposed to, JDSF and RECT Inc.'s Progress division were both quick to investigate the phenomenon. After analyzing the NerveGear of the surviving patients, a single commonality was found: their microwave transceivers."

Hayami raised a hand, which held a remote, and pressed a button, which took him to the next slide of his presentation. It depicted several images of a NerveGear before and after it was taken apart, like a dissected frog. The familiar logo of RECT Inc. was stamped all over them. The post-dissection images focused on the disassembled transceivers in particular, with arrows and captions denoting appropriate places of focus.

"All of the survivors' NerveGear had a mild design flaw. It weakened the transceivers, preventing them from emitting the high-powered microwaves once patients died in the game. After the patients were first trapped on November 6, 2022, all efforts were made to seize Argus's records on NerveGear production. But only a few scraps of paperwork were found, the rest of them gone just like Kayaba. The JDSF is still trying to sort through them and fill in the blanks.

"There are two things that we do know. The first is that, despite the uplifting possibility that a loved one can still survive even if they die in the game, the aforementioned scenario is extremely, extremely rare. As of today, we have recorded a total of fifteen people who returned to the real world after dying in SAO. With over 3,800 deaths and counting, that is a one-in-250 probability of survival, or 0.4 percent. You have a better chance at having heterochromia or seeing a shooting star than surviving SAO by dying in the game.

"And, the second thing that we do know is, unfortunately, it is currently impossible to determine which of the remaining trapped patients are wearing the faulty NerveGear and which ones aren't."

The next slide was of two different videos showing mechanics attempting to disassemble and remove the NerveGear, with medical personnel on standby, only for the NerveGear to activate themselves and instantly kill the wearers.

"As we all know, Kayaba had installed safeguards that rendered absolutely every effort to remove the NerveGear null, no matter how careful and methodical we are. The transceivers are extremely sensitive to movement. Any attempt to safely extract them will trigger a defense system of sorts and automatically activate the microwaves instead. We can't just take apart the NerveGear of patients who're still trapped, if only to check whether they have the same faulty defects that had saved those few others. As responsible doctors, we just cannot take that risk.

"The only thing we can do now is to take care of those who managed to defy the odds and return to the real world earlier than Akihiko Kayaba expected. As expected, it is going to be a difficult task. Just because those NerveGears' transceivers were prevented from emitting high-powered microwaves to kill the wearers, it doesn't mean the NerveGear did not emit microwaves at all."

The next slide was a photo of an SAO survivor facing sideways from the camera. Behind her ear, near the brainstem, was a burn mark taking the shape of an O.

"As mentioned before, the transceivers were merely weakened, and to a substantial degree. As such, the attempt on the wearer's life leaves these distinct burn marks near the area over the brainstem. We believe that, coupled with the trauma of being told they survived SAO regardless, a brush with death itself, has led to the negative psychological effects these survivors continue to face. Most of them suffered from mental breakdowns, but there have also been cases of psychotic breaks and catatonia. A couple have even committed suicide over the trauma. Mental health problems continue to persist for them to this day.

"And there's also the social stigma that these survivors are facing. When news broke of the first survivors, it led to hope that the death game wasn't what Kayaba made it out to be, or that the chances of survival were higher than anticipated. The survivors were celebrated for cheating a sociopath out at his own game. Then, as the death toll rose and the incident stretched on and on with no relief in sight, society was quick to turn on the survivors. The grief-stricken families of those that died, and the impatient families of those still trapped, have directed their anger upon them, followed by the rest of Japan. They have been accused of cheating to survive, threatened, and assaulted by mobs. A slur referring to them was eventually formed by the court of public opinion.

"Outlier."

Hayami finally stopped pacing around and shook his head in disgust.

"Outlier," he said, his voice lower this time. "As if they're aberrations in Kayaba's mission to create the perfect, foolproof death game. But they're not." He stared at his colleagues with firm compassion and determination. "They're living human beings. Living, breathing human beings. They've been through the unimaginable, something no human should've had to go through, and yet they managed to defy the will of Akihiko Kayaba and persevered. They lived. The least that we could do for them is tell them they still have a place in this world, and to help them feel like they belong again.

"It's the least we can do..."

– X-Y-X –

"Sachi!"

"Kirito!"

"Sachi!"

– June 22, 2023 –
Labyrinth, 27th Floor

The only thing that she could feel was pain.

Indescribable pain.

Pain that she never thought she'd feel in her lifetime.

Pain that rendered everything else around her meaningless, even as the codes and algorithms continued to drive the cursed world that she was trapped in even in her last moments.

Even before her health bar reached zero, she knew that the end had come, no matter how frightened she was of it, no matter how much she hoped to avoid it. And if the end had finally come, then there was nothing else in this world that she wanted to see one last time other than him.

So, with all of the strength that she could muster, she pried her eyes away from the dwindling health bar and looked at him as she continued to fall. There was so much that she wanted to say, to let him know how much he meant to her and how she felt about him. But she knew that it would do more harm than good and that the message she left for him would be enough. Even so, she had to say something, to pour her heart out before she knew nothing.

Before the blinding, unrelenting white light could consume her, signaling the end of her life, she said three words, which would soon be drowned out by white noise, and then, finally...

"Thank you. Goodbye."

[You are dead]

The first thing she saw upon dying was the three words, as crimson as blood. It blinked in her face, large and bold, like a mocking, victorious taunt from Akihiko Kayaba himself.

Akihiko Kayaba.

She had never held white-hot, burning hatred towards anyone in her whole life. And she most certainly won't do so now. But she knew, deep down in her heart, that if anyone were to confront him, beat SAO, get the answers behind why this all happened to her and so many others, it would be the one she had always believed in. The one she had always loved, even when she didn't know it. It would be...

"Kirito."

She suddenly felt warm, embraced by a gentle and compassionate sensation. As if in response to that warmth, the three words vanished, receding away into the dark oblivion. Then, all of a sudden, the warmth started to grow, turning into an increasingly hot sensation. She felt that sensation concentrating behind her ears, becoming prickly and getting hotter by the second, and then, finally...

Beep...

The first thing she saw upon opening her eyes was white. It assailed her eyes as soon as she opened them, forcing her to narrow them into slits. She wanted to moan and wince and move her face away from the light and back to the darkness she had long sought refuge in, but her body stubbornly refused cooperate with him. It felt strangely lightweight and yet so weighed down. The only control that it would generously grant her was over her own eyelids.

Beep...

She spent a few moments of stillness, with nothing but the beeping noise keeping her company. Then, she abruptly felt her finger give the slightest but most defiant twitch. Then, life slowly but surely trickled back into her body, every last neuron reactivating and desperately firing and channeling signals.

Beep.

With a feeble whimper, very much like the ones she used to emit in SAO, she briefly looked away, letting her eyesight adjust itself. It didn't take long for the white to recede like a tide and reveal what was behind it.

First, nothing but gray.

Then, shapeless objects of white, placed atop the gray.

Beep.

Then, the objects found shape, until she could easily identify them as lights.

Then, more shapes emerged, undefinable at first but eventually taking the form of walls and corners and windows.

And finally, a person. A woman.

A nurse clad in a silver uniform...

Beep...

Beep.

Beep!

She was never one for religion. But even then, she knew something was wrong. The homely feeling, the familiarity of her surroundings, the tangibility of everything around her, it was all wrong.

Her suspicions were confirmed when the nurse overheard the increasing rate of beeps that filled the room. She looked at her, only for her eyes to widen in shock at the sight, the fresh tears dissipating. The clipboard in her hand slipped out of her grip and landed on the floor with a loud clatter that sounded all too real.

"O-Oh, my God..." the nurse said with a shaky, stunned voice. "I...I don't believe it... A...A survivor!" Immense joy and relief started to wash over her face. "I just don't believe it... It's a miracle..."

"Sur...Survivor...?"

Her mind was at a blank. She didn't know what to make of what she had just heard.

Beep!

In fact, she suddenly couldn't remember much of anything now, except...

"Sachi!"

"Kirito..."

Pain.

Beep!

"Sachi!"

"Kirito!"

And fear.

Beep!

"Ki...ri...to..."

The nurse gasped at the feeble whimper. "D-Don't worry! You're going to be just fine, sweetie! Please, just let me-"

At that moment, the nurse mutated and transformed into a monster. A tall, thin, asymmetric monster made of rocks. Its arms were long and lanky, yet they were more than enough to kill someone. It had no face, but rather a sun-like symbol instead.

A Granite Elemental.

BEEP!

Her voice came out hoarse and weak, but as the Granite Elemental closed in on her, her vocal cords found more strength.

"Kirito... Kirito... Kirito! Kirito! KIRITO!"

BEEP!

"KIRITO!"

She vaguely heard someone shout "Code Red!" repetitively, just before more Granite Elementals materialized beside her, along with a gang of shorter yet fearsome humanoid creatures armed with simple pickaxes. Dark Dwarf Miners. And they all advanced on her as she lay bare and defenseless. The gray of the room was replaced with a horrible, sickly shade of glowing red.

She tried to raise her spear and shield, but some of the Dark Dwarf Miners held her arms and legs down, preventing her from flailing about. Meanwhile, a particularly tall Granite Elemental towered ominously over her, its arm slowly raising to reveal a long, jagged rock of a hand.

"KIRITO! HELP ME!"

But it was too late. It swung its arm down on her, and in the milliseconds before she knew no more, she heard a voice in the distance, calling out to her.

"Sachi!"

PROLOGUE: OUTLIER

– November 7, 2024 –
Sekimoto Memorial Hospital

"How are you feeling now, Kirito-kun?"

A few soft, rhythmic gulps, and then...

"...Like I woke up after two years, only to see a ghost..."

Sachi giggled softly and sat down on the bedside chair, the half-full bottle of water clasped in her hands. Kazuto Kirigaya remained still on his bed, gawking at her with a mixture of awe and lingering disbelief. His movements were less sluggish as he adjusted his position.

"At least you're a lot calmer now," Sachi said, her soft blue eyes gleaming with passion. "You recovered quicker than me, that's for sure. Then again, you've always been strong, Kirito-kun."

Kazuto slowly wiped a trace of water and saliva from the corner of his lip. "Thanks..."

"Oh! And don't worry about how you feel. You're still adjusting. Getting re-acclimated to your old surroundings. It'll take some time, but your body will soon be good as new." Then, Sachi noticed the lingering expression of doubt flickering on Kazuto's face. "And yes, what you're seeing in front of you is real, Kirito-kun. I'm...I'm alive..."

Kazuto cracked a weak smile. "Yeah, I figured, after all those doctors and nurses kept addressing you by your name. It's just..."

His voice trailed off, and confusion filled his now-distant dark eyes.

"And what about the 4,000 people who died? What about them?"

"They'll never return. In any world, real or virtual, once you're dead...you're gone."

"It's just..."

"Sachi!"

"Kirito!"

"Sachi!"

"I saw you die..." He refocused on Sachi, who had now become slightly tense. "I saw you die."

Uncomfortable, she clutched at her skirt. "Yes, I did. I did die...in the game..."

"Then...how are you here?" He fidgeted in his bed, equally uncomfortable. "N-Not that I'm not happy to see you, Sachi."

A flicker of excitement momentarily burned in Sachi's eyes. "Yeah, I figured too."

"But...Kayaba said...once you die in the game, you die in real life too..."

"Yes, that's true. But..." Her grip on her skirt loosened. "Something happened, Kirito-kun. Something didn't go according to Kayaba's plan."

Sachi hesitated for a moment, and then, she turned her head away from Kazuto. He weakly straightened up in worry, but his concerns were unfounded when she lifted her hair away from the back of her right ear, exposing it to him. At first, he didn't understand. Then, he saw it.

A scar over the area where her brainstem was, taking the shape of an O.

"My NerveGear malfunctioned and failed to kill me, Kirito," she said. "I survived SAO, just as you did."

"Sachi..." Kazuto whispered, half in awe and half in...something else.

"Sachi survived!" he thought, inwardly rejoicing. "The NerveGear couldn't kill her! That's...That's just great! I...I wonder if Kayaba knew about that, the flaw. But then again, he never did bring it up when I asked about the people who died..."

He spoke louder. "Was it just your NerveGear? O-Or did it also happen to other people?"

Sachi nodded. "Mm-hm. I'm not the only one who survived this way. But it was a flaw that affected just a small number of NerveGear. Very, very few people besides us got out."

"Oh." Even though those numbers didn't sound heartening at all to him, Kazuto nevertheless felt excited. "We-Well, that number should be growing right about now."

"Y-Yes, I'm already hearing the commotion outside." Sachi stared at the door to Kazuto's room, overhearing the muffled noises of overjoyed exclamations and relieved weeping. It was as clear as day what was happening, but she still had to know. "Did...Did you do what I think you did...Kirito-kun...?"

"Yeah." Kazuto smiled fondly and warmly at her, as she turned to face him again. "We won, Sachi. SAO is over. Everyone is free."

Sachi's eyes glittered with tears of joy, and she sprung out of her seat and towards him. But a stunned, almost terrified wheeze stopped her in her tracks and allowed her to regain her sense of rationality. So, she sat back down, the whole of her body squirming with delight as she took Kazuto's hand as gently as she possibly could.

"I knew you could do it, Kirito-kun." She held her other hand right over her heart. "All this time...I knew that if there was anyone who could put an end to Kayaba's death game, it would be you."

Kazuto chuckled weakly and humbly. "Well...I'm glad I didn't disappoint you..."

Sachi giggled, sounding like a little schoolgirl in that moment. Then, she let go of his hand and procured a cellphone from a pocket in her jacket.

"Well," she said as she started texting, "I gotta let your mom and sister know that you're awake. They are going to be so glad to hear what happened." She suddenly pursed her lips, mildly and ambiguously. "Suguha in particular."

Meanwhile, Kazuto blinked in surprise. "Wait, you know my mom and Suguha-chan?"

"Yeah, I've met them many times while coming to visit you."

"Many times? To visit me?" He blinked again, as more questions started to form in his head. "H-How long have you been visiting me, Sachi?"

"How long?" She stopped texting and looked at him with her soft smile, teeming with nostalgia. "Since Christmas."

"Since Christmas?" Kazuto vaguely heard her humming a familiar tune before shaking it from his mind. He then wrinkled his brow at her. "Ho...How'd you even find me? We didn't know each other before SAO... I think..."

"O-Oh." Sachi briefly looked at her text, then put her phone away and sat back down again. "Well, you are recovered well enough. I guess I can tell you the whole story."

"The...The whole story?" Kazuto repeated, his mind beginning to crawl at a sluggish pace.

"Yes. I think you should know why I'm here, and what sort of events put me on this path to meeting up with you again." She clasped her hands together and took a deep breath. "But we are gonna have to start from the very beginning. First off, I need to properly introduce myself. My real name...is Sachiko Hamaguchi." She gave him a warm, sweet smile. "It's so nice to meet you, Kirito. Or should I say...Kazuto Kirigaya?"

Kazuto blinked in surprise. Then, he reciprocated her smile with one of his own, no matter how weak it seemed.

"Nice to meet you too...Sachiko."

"Hi there! It's me. If you're reading this, then I'll probably be dead. How can I explain this? Let's see. Well, first off, you might be thinking, why write a letter? Why not make a voice recording or something? Well, the last time I made a voice recording for someone, it actually didn't wind up the way I was expecting. Fate is a strange thing. A very strange thing, indeed."

Next Time: Causality

A/N: And that marks the end of this prologue! I think it went well. What do you guys think? Don't be afraid to share any and all sorts of feedback that you might have! As long as the criticism is constructive, I'll take it. But no flaming, please. It isn't exactly helpful for the improvement of my style, and I'm not intentionally out to make anyone mad.

And speaking of making people mad, yes, your eyes are not being deceived by the fic's summary. The main pairings are Kirito/Asuna and Kirito/Sachi, and yes, you guessed it correctly: both pairings are going to be vying for supremacy in this fic. Now, I already know how I want to end this fic. I know what the relationship is going to be when all of this comes to a close. And unfortunately, there's very little that can be done about it right now. It might depend on how the story goes along, because I'm still working on portions of the second act, but don't get your hopes up.

However! I have absolutely no intention of giving any of the characters a bad ending, except for a certain molester of a villain. Whoever winds up drawing the short stick will still have a happy ending of their own. Yes, there'll be a lot of tears and a lot of drama, but everyone's making it through this, I can assure you. So please, don't grab the torches if you feel your favorite isn't getting their dues! That wasn't, isn't, and never will be my intention! :D :D :D

Anyway, as to how I came up with this story, well, it came from my long-lasting reaction to the third episode. As I'm sure many others can attest to, I was absolutely heartbroken when I first watched Sachi die. She was so sweet, innocent, and relatable; and she had the potential to be such a great female protagonist with superb character development that would have been a good contrast to Asuna's. But unfortunately, she got a cut from a rock arm.

Over the years, I'd read fanfiction that sought to fix that issue, and two fics stood out to me in particular: "SAO: Nobody Dies" by HuuskerDu, and "A Second Chance" by PlainStoryTeller. After reading those, I wanted to try my hand at a story like that, right away. At first, it was a little difficult to come up with a premise that followed the same line as HuuskerDu's and PlainStoryTeller's stories but was also capable of standing out on its own. Then, I read a news article that discussed salad products being recalled because of E. coli, which made me think about news articles that I'd previously read about automobile recalls, which then made me think about what would've happened if there had been some sort of design flaw with a few of the NerveGear that would've gotten the whole product recalled before "Sword Art Online" got launched. An important design flaw aside from the microwave transceivers, that is.

And then, the gears in my brain turned, the rest of the story just sort of pieced itself together, and here we are!

Anyway, I look forward to continuing with posting this fic! I am enjoying the writing process immensely, and I've already got several more chapters prepared in advance already. The enthusiasm truly is real with this one. :D

Well, hope you enjoyed this prologue! TheCartoonFanatic01 is out. PEACE!