A/N: Hello readers. As I mentioned a few months ago, I decided to try my hand at doing my own SAO Alternative story similar to SAO Alternative GGO and Clover's Regret. As such, it will be a story involving solely OCs with no anime or light novel characters having any role other than a potential mention here and there.

Deciding to go with a style similar to the SAO light novels, I'm going to write primarily in first person for this story, only using third person every once in awhile for chapters focused on a character that isn't the MC. It's been a long time since I've done first person so there's a chance the quality won't be as great as I would like in the beginning, but I will do my best.

I am also using an original VRMMO world of my own design for this story. There are two main reasons for this. The first is that I don't want the story based in ALO in order to avoid any reason for Kirito and co to potentially be be directly involved with any parts of this story, since like I said I want to follow SAO Alternative's rule of not directly involving any canon characters. The second is the other two main VRMMO worlds from the series, GGO and Asuka Empire, are already used in the other two Alternative series out right now. So taking that into account, I decided to go with an original VRMMO. As such, there will be various mechanics of the game to explain during the early chapters. I apologize ahead of time if some of the explanation gets boring, but it is necessary. I will be doing my best to space it out decently through the early chapters so you don't have too much information thrown at you at once.

Now as much as I would like to keep up a semi-frequent update for this story right away, real life and other fics have me a bit busy. So for now I am uploading the first three chapters of this story both as a little Christmas/New Years present to all my loyal readers and to show that I am indeed working on this story as promised. For the time being, I am hoping to update this story with a new chapter every couple months or so. Once Bonds Beyond the Cosmos is finished though, I should have more time to work on this and be able to update roughly once a month like with my Progressive and My Hero Academia stories.

And now with that long introduction out of the way, here is the first chapter of the starting arc of SAO Alternative: Broken Wings - The Event.

One last thing. As always, I do not own Sword Art Online, just the OCs of this story (obviously). All rights go to their respective owners.

Life was strange sometimes.

Often it was busy, hectic, and even downright aggravating sometimes. But at the same time, the smallest thing could have the biggest impact. A child getting a piece of candy. Leaving your house five minutes earlier causing you to meet an acquaintance on the road and letting time tick away chatting with them. A split second burst of inspiration allowing an artist to create a masterpiece.

For me, that small thing that made a huge impact was my sister's grilled cheese sandwiches.

I can't explain it, but she seemed to have some sort of secret to creating the absolute perfect grilled cheese sandwich. Maybe she had been visited in a dream by the goddess of grilled cheese and gifted her wise knowledge that was beyond what normal mortals were capable of or something. Regardless, I always looked forward to her making them each Sunday for lunch.

I sat at the kitchen table of my family's house, finishing the last bite of lunch, the cheesy goodness melting on my tongue. Normally I would have spent a few minutes longer savoring the delicious meal my sister had prepared, but today I was in a bit of a hurry. So once I was finished, I wasted no time in bringing my plate to the sink, washing it, and then throwing it in the dishwasher.

With lunch out of the way, I made my way upstairs. Some people would see a beautiful outdoor Sunday afternoon and question why a teenager wouldn't spend it outside. Well I was doing that. Technically. Sort of.

An outdoor setting in a virtual world counts as "outside", right?

After reaching the top of the stairs, I quickly made my way towards my room. Along the way however, the door one room before mine opened and my sister walked out. I stopped short to avoid colliding into her.

Maybe it sounds weird for a guy to compliment his sister's looks, but even I knew my sister Akari had a rather nice figure. Curves in all the right places. Smooth skin. Brunette hair tied up in a long ponytail. It was no wonder she had plenty of people that asked her to the school dance her last year in high school. She stayed in good shape, and it showed.

I knew what was coming the second she locked eyes with me. A mischievous grin quickly showed on her face as she reached out and grabbed me into a headlock.

"Hey, Takeshi! How's my favorite little brother doing?"

"I'm your only brother."

"Doesn't matter. You're still my favorite." Akari teased. "So where are you going?"

"My room."

"Don't tell me you're going to spend all afternoon on that virtual thing again."

"It's called an AmuSphere, and yes I am."

"Did you finish your homework?"

"Yes."

"Do all your chores?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Are you just going to keep saying 'Yes'?"

"Yes."

"Do you love your big sis?"

"Meh."

I instantly regretted my sass as Akari's grip around my neck tightened. "Oh you think you're cute, don't you?" she asked. She quickly took her free arm and gave me the annoying noogie that all little siblings like me were forced to suffer through. "Feel like changing your tune now?"

"Akari! Come on, knock it off!" I complained.

"Not until you say you love your big sis."

"Alright! Alright! I love my big sis and all her annoying head noogies that she's way too old to be giving out!"

"Good enough." she said, finally letting me out of her grip.

I grumbled to myself as I tried to fix my hair, the same color that Akari's was. "I mean it though. Haven't we outgrown noogies?"

"Aw, you'll never be too old for my noogies, little bro." Akari giggled. "Just wait. One day when you're eventually married and living away from home, you'll long for them, calling your big sis in the middle of the night to come over and give you one."

"Hard pass." I replied in a dry tone before continuing to my room.

"Dinner's at six!" Akari called from the hallway. "Make sure you're off that thing by then!"

"Got it." I called back before closing the door to my room.

Despite what that exchange may lead you to believe, my sister and I actually got along pretty well. She was definitely slightly annoying in her own quirky ways, but what older sister wasn't? Akari loved to tease people close to her - typically me - but she was always there for you when you needed her.

My room wasn't anything special. Other than my bed, there was a desk for me to do my homework at, with my personal laptop sitting on it, a cabinet, and a dresser. At the edge of my bed was a small stand with a lamp on it, as well as the device I had saved up quite a bit of money for. The virtual reality device that was probably one of the most popular items of the market.

An AmuSphere.

It had taken a few months of saving up cash on top of the savings I already had, but I finally managed to buy the VRMMO hardware that had succeeded the infamous Nerve Gear. I had been a VRMMO gamer now for roughly six months, although I only had one game that I played.

Making sure the game was inserted properly, I turned my AmuSphere on and laid down on my bed as I fit the device over my head. Closing my eyes, I entered the virtual world that I had come to love.

"Link Start!"