My(Virtual) Reality

by Tricksterverse

(AU)Kazuto Kirigaya-a woman born with the body of a man-views Sword Art Online as a chance be be her truest self. But when all of that is taken away and SAO becomes a death game, she is left with nothing but a burning will to survive. Might as well put it to use trying to clear the game! Transgender Kirito; Kirito/multi.

1. In this world, a single blade'

My(Virtual) Reality Chapter 1: 'In this world, a single blade can take you anywhere.'

12:54. November 6th, 2022.

I stared reverently at the bulky grey helmet resting on my bed. The Nerve Gear was its name. What I know is that it's the world's first full dive virtual reality console. It was created by Kayaba Akihiko, who also created the launch title for the console; a VRMMO-again, the world's first-called Sword Art Online.

What it is-to me, anyway-was a key.

A key that would open a gateway which would take me far, far away from my home in the Saitama prefecture. Kayaba had said something in one of his interviews that really resonated with me. 'It's not a game that you play. You'll feel like you're really alive there.'

I was lucky enough to have been one of the thousand people who got to beta test Sword Art Online(or SAO for short)and after a month of doing so I agreed with him. When the beta had finished and I couldn't play the game anymore, I felt like there was a part of me that was missing from the real world. I had slept, ate, talked and gone to school, but there was a dullness to my actions that I couldn't hide.

That would all wash away soon enough, I was sure. In just six-wait, no it was five minutes until the launch now. Well, whatever, the point is the SAO servers were live at one and I don't think I've ever anticipated something more in my entire life. "Ouch!" I yelped. In my excitement, I had gotten a paper cut from the magazine I was holding. I sighed and wiped it away on my pants. Well, that's karma for you.

"I'm going to practice now! I'll be back later!" the voice of my sister called from downstairs. I didn't bother saying anything back; it felt like a waste. Since I didn't hear anything after that, I can only assume she left.

I occupied myself for the next few minutes by tapping a rythemless beat on my desk. Finally, the clock rolled around to one. Since I had already gone through the calibration process when I played the beta, I didn't have to go through the awkward process of touching myself all over in my room and could jump straight into the game.

It took me a second to smooth my long hair into a comfortable position, but once that was done I put the Nerve Gear on my head and laid down on my bed. I couldn't keep the smile from my face as I closed my eyes and shouted the start-up phrase. "Link start!"

Immediately, an ocean of colors assaults my mind, but it passes after a second and I'm presented with the menu. It asked me whether I wanted to use my character data from the beta, and I answered in the affirmative. A second screen showed up displaying my avatar's name, Kirito, with a sub-menu below asking for my gender. It kind of annoyed me that there was no 'other' option, so I just selected female. It was who I was, after all, even if I'd been born with a male body.

There was one last hurdle to clear before I could play SAO proper: the character creation screen. Since I had decided to reuse my data from the beta, the mirror which showed me my appearance already had the setting the way I wanted. In that instant, however, everything clicked for me. This was the reason I had felt listless upon leaving SAO. It was… indescribable, looking in a mirror and seeing a body which perfectly reflected who I was in my heart.

My hair fell to my back the same way it did in the real world, but it was fuller and more lucious. My features were soft, delicate, feminine; but I retained my angular chin, and my lips were puffy and painted red with lipstick. I could say much the same about my figure. My curves were more pronounced, but my body held an undeniable power within it. If I was being totally honest, my body in SAO and my real body were about ninety percent the same. But it was that last ten percent that left me feeling far more comfortable in this world than I ever had the real one.

Before I got too entranced, I hit the 'is this okay?' prompt at the bottom of the menu, and soon found myself being swallowed by blueish-white light. When my vision cleared, I was standing in the plaza of the first town in SAO. It was called the town of beginnings, and it was the first floor of Aincrad; a massive floating castle of one-hundred floors that served as the setting of the game.

The town of beginnings was basically every village you had ever seen in a fantasy story. It was a near perfectly circular space made up of cobblestone roads, cobblestone buildings and cobblestone vendors. In other words, completely boring. The real fun starts outside of the town. My face broke into a grin and I clenched my fist in front of my face. "Hello world… I'm back!" I declared.

I broke into a sprint and raced through the town, passing by vendors and crossing through alleys in my rush to make it outside. I didn't exercise much in the real world, so running this fast and for this long would've been a pipedream for me there. Here, however? My body was virtual even though I had all five of my senses, so I didn't tire or slow down, even with the hefty longsword attached to my back. The only things that could affect my performance in SAO was hunger from my real body and mental exhaustion.

"Hey you, wait up!" I heard a voice call from behind me. Since I was the only person around running, I could only assume they were talking to me, so I stopped. When I turned around, I was met with a scruffy looking man who wore a red bandana over his neck-length pink hair. There was stubble on his chin and his eyes were alight with energy, almost like a kid. He had a scimitar sheathed behind his back and approached me with a friendly grin.

However, his eyes widened a fraction when we were only a few feet apart. "H-holy-you're gorgeous!" he exclaimed, the words seeming to tumble unbidden from his mouth. I had been told similar things a few times before, but I wasn't any good at dealing with compliments. Instead of saying anything, I waited a couple seconds for the guy to realize what he said, freak out, then regain his composure and try again. His facial expressions were pretty funny, and I had to hold in the chuckle that threatened to escape.

"I-I mean, you seem to know your way around here. You were in the beta test, weren't you? I was hoping you could maybe show me the ropes, if it's not too much trouble…" he requested. Ah, so this guy was hoping I'd give him the tutorial? Honestly, it didn't sound so bad. It was only the first day of the game, so I'd have plenty of time to fight and quest later, and something like this only came around one in a blue moon, so why not? I didn't have the most rich social life back in the real world, but it's not like I hated talking, and he didn't seem like a bad guy.

"Sure, I'm game," I told him, the hint of a smile crossing my face. The guy returned it with ten times the energy of my own.

"Great! My name's Klein, by the way. Nice to meetcha!" Klein introduced, offering a hand.

I took it and introduced myself, saying, "Kirito. Let's do this thing." With Klein now following, I continued my mad dash to the fields outside the town of beginnings. It took a little longer, but we still made it out before most of the other players. After that, it didn't take long for the first enemy to spawn. It was a stalwart little boar with sharp tusks and a study body. Even with its appearance, however, I knew it was the weakest enemy in the game.

"Take point," I told Klein, shoving him toward the boar apathetically. Klein sputtered and tripped, falling in front of the boar on his butt. The enemies A.I. immediately started aggro-ing him, and he hilariously scrambled to his feet. The boar scuffed it's foot twice; that was the start up animation for its charge attack. By the time Klein had removed his scimitar from its sheath, the boar was already racing toward him. He tried to parry it's tusks with his blade, but failed and received the boar's attack between his legs.

He crumbled like a house of cards and started rolling around on the ground, clutching the spot between his legs. The boar, having achieved its goal, decided to leave Klein lying there and do it's own thing. Through a herculean effort, I managed to keep my reaction to only a smirk. Despite all that, Klein was displeased. He cried out, "For such a beautiful lady, you're pretty heartless!"

I just shook my head. "Relax; you can't feel any pain in here."

Klein immediately stopped his writhing, as if just remembering that. "Oh, right. Still, how am I supposed to kill that thing! I just can't wrap my head around it…"

I crouched down and picked up a pebble, tossing it up and down a couple times. I guess it's about time I fulfilled my role as a tutorial. I drew the pebble back as if to throw it as I started my explanation, "If you do your initial motion right…" The pebble started to glow a pale blue in my hand, "And wait a couple seconds." I could feel the cardinal system that ran the game directing my actions as I threw the pebble. It shot forward and struck the boar on it's butt. "The system will take over, and you just have to drive it forward."

Sword skills; they were the main draw of SAO's combat system. Sword skills were basically kata's that cardinal would help the player run through. They did more damage than normal sword strikes and looked super flashy, but using them consecutively was draining on the mind, and they had a cool-down that could prove detrimental if it was long enough. Every weapon in the game had a list of accompanying sword skills.

The pebble I had thrown earlier drew the boar's attention to me, and it predictably scuffed its hooves before charging. I drew my long sword and caught the boar's tusks on the flat of my blade, parrying it properly unlike my companion. I twisted to the side and delivered a swift kick to its rear, sending it back toward Klein. He drew himself into a more ready stance and repeated my instructions to himself.

He drew his sword up over his shoulder, waiting a second until the scimitar started to glow a pale orange. It could see in his eyes exactly when everything clicked in his brain, and it was gratifying. Klein surged forward while looking like a proper warrior. His scimitar tore out a chunk of the boar's side as the sword skill took him past it. The boar shuttered a couple times before exploding into little polygonal shards. A window appeared in front of Klein telling him the experience and rewards he'd received, but I could tell he was too excited about his victory to care.

"Alright!" he cheered, throwing his arms in the air. I shared in his victory, albeit silently. I was actually having fun with Klein.

"Yeah, hate to break it to you, but that thing was about as weak as slimes are in other games," I informed him.

Klein immediately-and hilariously-deflated. "What?! You've gotta be kidding me! I thought that was like a mid-level boss or somethin'."

"Not even."

Klein started practicing a bit with his sword, running through different stances and slashes. "So, these skills… there's a whole bunch of them in the game, isn't there? Like blacksmithing and stuff, right?

"Yep. There's a near infinite amount of them. All except for magic."

"An RPG without magic… that's a bold decision, man…" Klein tried another sword skill out, looking elated when he pulled it off successfully.

I smiled at him. "What do you think? It's pretty fun to move your body while you're fighting." I understood all too well what Klein was experiencing. Combat in SAO was addictive, and I remember losing hours in the beta to the simple act of clashing swords with an enemy.

Klein turned to me with a smile. "Aw hells yeah!" he exclaimed.

"You ready to move on?" I asked. After watching him, I was starting to feel the itch for a fight myself.

"Yeah, man! Let's keep going!" Klein replied, his voice bursting his passion. Watching him was like looking through a mirror into the past. I'm sure I acted just as enamored as he did now back during the beta. Honestly, I'm a bit of a poser even now. For all my calm mannerisms, there was an undercurrent of excitement running hot through my body. Klein and I made our way through the fields outside the town of beginnings, dispatching any enemies that got in our way with relative ease. By the time we decided to take a break, the sun was starting to set over the horizon.

SAO ran on a full twenty-four hour day-night cycle, so the sun and the moon would react accordingly to whatever time it was. I had managed to find a nice spot on a hill near the edge of the fist floor for us to relax. We could look out over the edge and see a number of mushroom-like platforms holding other parts of the first floor. It made for a rather picturesque scene, and even I was affected by how much more beautiful the game was now compared to the beta.

"When I look around I can't believe it; we're inside a game, bro!" Klein remarked to my left. He was sitting down and enjoying the view; an undeniable whimsy in his voice. "Whoever made it's a genius…"

That, we could most certainly agree on Klein. Kayaba had a full team working with him on the game-obviously-but the Nerve Gear and the Cardinal system which runs SAO were all born from his mind. It didn't feel like it was possible for all that innovation to come from one man, but then again I'm sure that had been said about every past genius.

"This thing is amazing… makes me glad I was born when I was, ya know?" Klein continued to extol his virtues.

"You've got no idea…" I muttered under my breath, looking down at my body. With modern medicine, it was easier than ever to correct my body and make it reflect how I felt in my heart, but being able to appear as my proper gender filled me with so much relief I could cry.

"It's only my first full dive, but you must've felt this a hundred time by now."

"You've never used a Nerve Gear before today, huh? This is your first time ever?"

"Uh-huh. As soon as I got the money together, I rushed out and bought all the hardware to play SAO. Stood in line and scored one of the ten-thousand hard copies; guess you could say I was pretty lucky. Although… you, miss, were ten times as lucky gettin' to beta test it!"

"Hm?"

"Dude, only ten thousand people got a chance!"

"Yeah, I guess I was lucky," I commented while rubbing the back of my head. I was starting to have trouble keeping up with Klein's seemingly boundless energy.

"Hey, mind if I ask how far you got in the beta?"

Collectively, the thousand beta testers had cleared nine floors of Aincrad, but… "Eh, two months and I couldn't make it further than floor eight…" I trailed off, and a grin came accompanied by a flood of determination. "But now I think I can make it there within a month, easy."

"Sounds to me like you're really into this…" Klein said with a teasing tone.

I couldn't bring myself to care though; my drive was overflowing, and I couldn't keep my next words inside. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. 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 wanna go. And even though it's a virtual world, I feel more alive in here than I ever did in the real one." During my monologue, I had drawn my longsword, as if the steel in my hands held the secrets of the universe in it. But who could blame me? In the real world, all the effort you put in could end up being for nothing due to something totally outside your control, but SAO was a world that was completely, one-hundred-percent fair and equal. As long as you put in the effort you were guaranteed to see results. The only limitation was a player's individual ability.

It occured to me that I may have said too much just now, so I sheathed my sword and awkwardly said, "Anyway, you wanna go do some more hunting?"

Klein either didn't notice or chose to ignore my obvious attempt at deflection, because he just turned to me and exclaimed, "You know it! But the thing is… I'm really hungry." As if to prove his point, his stomach grumbled at that moment. "I have to log out."

I smirked at him. "Too bad the food you eat here only satisfies your hunger virtually." I meant that sincerely too. It was entirely unnecessary, but the food sold in shops here was genuinely super tasty. It got better as the floors increased, too.

"Yeah, for reals. That's why I ordered a pizza for five-thirty!" Klein told me, sounding entirely too proud of himself.

I looked at him with mirth in my eyes. "Wow, you're so prepared."

"You know it! Besides, the game can wait until I get my pizza on."

Hearing that brought my mood down just a bit. I was suddenly reminded of the stark difference between Klein and myself. I couldn't know for certain, but I was ninety-nine percent sure he was an average guy who hadn't struggled with his identity the way I had. To him, SAO was just a game to keep him entertained, not a way to finally experience his truest self. And that was fine; I wasn't so petulant as to tell him he was wrong for thinking that way, but I couldn't deny my envy at being able to have such an earnest outlook on the game.

"Hey…" Klein started, drawing my attention back to him. "I was gonna go meet up with some people I know from another game; I don't know what you're up to after this, so… if, uh, ya know if you want you can friend them and hang with us."

I was taken aback by his offer. This guy was entirely too nice, I was starting to realize. I enjoyed Klein's company, but even with him there the idea of meeting a whole group of established friends made me feel anxious. I hated feeling like an outsider, it was way too painful. When I was alone, I was fine because that was my choice. But feeling alone when I'm with other people is simply unbearable.

My hesitation must've shown on my face, because Klein was quick to say, "No, it's cool if you don't want too, no pressure. I can always introduce them to you another time or somethin'."

I heaved a silent sigh of relief and told him, "Yeah, sorry…" I trailed off and looked at the ground. "Thanks anyway," I said, hoping to relieve some of the awkwardness.

"No way! I should be doing all the thanking. Hey one of these days I'm gonna pay you back for all your help. Virtually, that is," he offered with a grin, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I felt a smile tug at the corner of my lips in the face of his consideration. "Yeah right," I said.

"Thanks for everything, man. Really." Klein offers me his hand, saying, "Guess I'll see you around then."

After a second, I take it, telling him, "If there's anything else you wanna know, message me."

"Ah sweet, I'll do that."

After that, Klein backs away from me, offering a wave before swiping his right hand downward; the motion for opening one's menu. I turned away from him with a smile on my face. I didn't want to log out for at least another couple hours. In that time, I could probably make my way to the first major town and accept the quest for the Anneal blade. I might even be able to finish it if I got lucky with the spawn rates. But before I could think any more on that, I heard Klein speak from behind me.

"Huh? Where'd the log out button go…?"

"It should be there," I replied patiently, figuring he'd missed it due to his inexperience.

"Hm… nope, it's not there," Klein reported again.

Confused, I took a couple steps closer to him. "It should be at the bottom of the main menu," I explained while opening my own menu. I was surprised, however, when the button that would normally say 'log out' was instead completely blank. It wasn't just a visual bug, either, when I tapped the button to experiment, nothing happened. It was totally broken.

"See, not there."

"You're right, it's not." That was annoying. If it stayed broken for too long I'd get hunger pangs and need to use the restroom. There was a rumour about a guy in the beta who'd played SAO for three whole days and nights without logging out. I shuddered at the thought of his body's state after that.

"Oh well. It's what, the first day outta beta? There's bound to be some bugs. I bet the server people are freakin' out right now," Klein joked.

I sneaked a peek at the time and had to hold in my mirth as I said, "You will too. Look, it's five-twenty-five."

Klein's response to that was amusing. He took his head in his hands and shouted, "Oh my god! My teriyaki-mayo pizza and ginger ale!"

"Why don't you just contact the game master?" I asked with a chuckle.

Klein stopped freaking out and said, "I already tried that, but he's not picking up. Do you know if there's another way to log out of this thing?"

I looked to the side, mentally reviewing everything I knew about the Nerve Gear and SAO. When I reached my conclusion, however, I was concerned. "No, there's not. When someone wants to log out of SAO, the only way to do it is from the menu."

"That can't be right. There's gotta be some other way out. Return! Log out! Escape!" Klein started striking poses and shouting in a desperate attempt to exit the game. My annoyance with the situation was starting to give way to fear. All of the sudden, the beautiful scenery of Aincrad felt very suffocating.

"See, told you so. And there was no emergency log out in the manual either."

"No way, you're kidding me. I know! I'll just pull the Nerve Gear off my head!" he exclaimed, and tried to do just that. I sighed at his fruitless attempts.

"Don't bother. Once you're logged in you can't move your body in the real world. The Nerve Gear intercepts all the signals into the game using an interface built into the rig," I explained.

After I told him that, it seemed even Klein's limitless reserves of energy gave way to fear. "Seriously? So we just gotta wait until someone gets around to fixin' the bug!"

"That, or until someone in the real world takes the Nerve Gear off us," I informed him.

"Well I live alone…" Klein muttered dejectedly. "You?"

"I got a mom and a sister… and I'm pretty sure they'll notice by dinnertime and come look-" I was forcefully interrupted when Klein took me by the shoulders and gave me a good shake.

"Y-you got a sister? How old is she? What's she like?"

Faced with his rapid-fire questions, I spit out the first thing that game to mind. "S-she's super into sports and hates games and is totally not your type, man! She wouldn't date a gamer if he was the last guy on earth!"

"Who cares?! I wanna-"

I interrupted him with a knee between the legs. As he fell back and started rolling around-once again forgetting he doesn't feel pain in this world-a thought occured to me. "Hey, wait a second! How come you didn't try to flirt with me like that! You were going on about how pretty I was a little while ago." Granted, I would've shot him down all the same, but I liked to think I was more than desirable enough for a man as seemingly desperate as him.

Klein froze like a deer in headlights; he was rightly afraid what'd I'd do to him if he answered poorly. "Ah, um, well… I just figured you were so out of my league it wasn't worth it?" He sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than me.

I just sighed and decided to ignore that for now. "Get serious. Don't you think this is weird?"

"Well yeah, but it's just a bug, right?"

"This isn't just a bug. If we can't log out, It's going to cause some serious problems for the game."

"Yeah… I guess you're right."

I frowned while looking back to the horizon. "I don't get why the admins don't just shut down the servers and force everyone to log out. Why haven't they made an announcement?" I was trying to keep calm and not give into my paranoia. Let's apply Occam's razor; it was totally possible that the admins simply weren't aware of the issue yet, or maybe that Klein and myself were the only ones having this problem. Although that one was a bit too coincidental in my opinion.

All of the sudden, the loud, deep ringing of the town of beginnings bell could be heard. My head snapped in it's direction, but before I could gather my thoughts I was enveloped in a blinding white light. When I could see again, I was back at the plaza in the town of beginnings. There were players all around me, with more teleporting in by the second. "Someone forced a teleport…" I thought aloud.

The other players were murmuring in confusion, wondering what the hell was going on, and I was right there with them. After a couple seconds, someone pointed upward and asked 'what's that'. I followed their finger, and saw a flashing red hexagon in the center of the sky that read WARNING in all caps. A second after that, more hexagons appeared that read system announcement. Soon enough the entire sky was comprised of bright red hexagons.

Then, to my further shock and confusion, blood started pouring from the edges of the hexagons. It coalesced in midair until it made a shape resembling a heart, until finally the smoke and mirrors fell away and a giant figure in a red hood towered above us. "What the hell is that thing?" Klein asked to the side of me.

More hushed questions and startled exclamations from the crowd. I was totally silent, looking at the figure with fear coursing through my heart. "Attention, players. I welcome you, to my world," it bellowed.

I finally managed to find my voice again, and asked, "What's he mean by that?"

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba. And as of this moment, I am in control of this world. I'm sure many of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menu. The log out button. Let me assure you this is not a defect of the game; I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was meant to be played."

I was floored by this revelation. What was he talking about? What kinda game was designed without a way to stop playing it? "He's kidding, right?" Klein asked, putting my thoughts to words.

"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from outside will be able to shutdown or remove the Nerve Gear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the Nerve Gear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."

I started shivering after he said this, but the other players were dismissive. One guy even tried to leave the Plaza, only to find himself unable to do so. From my side, Klein said, "Are you listening to this crap? He's gotta be nuts, right Kirito? "

"He's not," I told him immediately. "The transmitter signals in the Nerve gear work just like microwaves. If the safety's disabled it could fry your brain…"

"Well couldn't someone cut the power, or-"

"That won't work," I interrupted. "The Nerve gears got an internal battery."

It seems like I pushed Klein to his limit, because he lost all pretense of calmness and shouted, "This is crazy! Totally crazy!"

"Despite my warning, the family and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the Nerve Gear. An unfortunate decision to say the least. As a result, the game now has two-hundred thirteen less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world."

"Two-hundred thirteen!" the number pulled the rug out from under me. That was over two-percent of the game's entire population. They hadn't even been given a chance. They're bodies would've been lying completely motionless while a careless observer ended their life. I felt nauseous just thinking about it.

"No way… I don't believe it!"

"As you can see, international media outlets have round the clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a Nerve Gear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game."

Multiple windows displaying various news channels had appeared around Kayaba while he was talking. On one of them, I saw what looked like a mother and daughter grieving the loss of someone close to them. I imagined my mother and sister in their position and felt my heart dislodge and fall out of my chest. Worse still, I had a feeling Kayaba wasn't done throwing me for a loop.

"It's important you remember the following. There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game; if your HP reaches zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system, forever. And the Nerve Gear will simultaneously destroy your brain."

My eyes widened. I was one of the strongest players in the beta, having fought on the front lines constantly, and yet I had died countless times on my way to the eighth floor. Now I was being told to do that and more without ever letting my health run empty. It was an insane expectation.

"There is only one way for a player to escape now; you must clear the game. Right now you're gathered on floor one, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you can advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on the hundredth floor, and you will clear the game."

The crowd's animosity was growing, with many of them shouting their dissatisfaction at Kayaba. Beside me, Klein murmured, "We can't clear all hundred floors, that's freakin' impossible. Even the beta testers didn't make it that high!"

Kayaba couldn't care less about our concerns, however. I hated to admit it, but he wasn't speaking in hyperbole when he said he was in control of the world. "Last but not least, I have placed a little gift in the item storage of every player. Please, have a look."

I was suspicious, but ultimately relented and followed his instructions. I wasn't a psychoanalyst or anything, but I had followed Kayaba's career extensively. Based on what I could gather of his personality, whatever was currently sitting in my item storage wouldn't kill me. If I was lucky, it might even be something Kayaba had given us to make clearing the game easier.

I found the item he was talking about soon enough. "A mirror?" I questioned aloud. I had no idea what this was gonna do, but I equipped it anyway. It appeared in front of me and I grabbed it. From what I could tell, it was just an ordinary hand mirror, nothing special at all. A second later, however, I was blinded with white light for the third time that day. I grumbled something unpleasant while I waited for my vision to return. When it did, I heard Klein's voice off to the side. "You okay, Kirito?" he asked.

I turned toward his voice, but was taken aback by what I saw. From the clothes and stuffy chin, I could tell I was talking to Klein, but aside from that his appearance had totally changed. His straight pink hair was now a wild auburn. "Yeah… wait, who are you?" I asked to make sure I hadn't mistaken somehow.

"I'm me, who are you?" he asked in turn, and I knew for certain now I was talking to Klein. I looked back to the mirror in my hand only for my stomach to drop. Same long hair, same lips painted red with lipstick, same angled chin, but everything else was gone. With a growing sense of dread I realized I was staring at my body. My real body. I looked down, and was relieved to find the other parts of my body that had transitioned weren't taken away from me by this game.

Still, I felt betrayed by Kayaba and the world. I just wanted one thing, but it seemed like SAO no longer had any intention of giving me what I wanted. "Wait a second, is that you Kirito?!" Klein asked me. I had to clamp down on my initial reaction to that question. I hated it, and had for a long time, but I knew Klein wasn't asking it in the context those who had persecuted me would. "Eh, but how?"

I understood immediately. "The scan. There's a high density signal device inside the Nerve Gear rig. It can see what my face looks like, and the calibrations where you have to touch your own body gets the data for your height and body type." To make my point, I touched my chest only to pause. "...well, mostly. I'm a bit bigger IRL."

Klein wisely decided to ignore the last bit of what I said. "But, this is… what's the point?! Why would anyone do this to us?!"

I raised a finger to Kayaba. It was trembling with rage. I was trembling this rage. I wanted to hurt this man for defiling my body like this. "I think he's about to tell us," I ground out.

"Right now, you're probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and Nerve Gear, do this? Ultimately my goal was a simple one: the reason why I created Sword Art Online, was to control the fate of a world of my design."

"Kayaba!" I spit the name out like the curse it was.

"As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial, and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck."

Smoke started to rise from Kayaba's hooded figure, and after a couple seconds it faded from existence entirely. The sky returned to its proper collar, and even though there were nine-thousand seven-hundred eighty-seven other people with me, I felt completely alone. I can only guess everyone else did too, because you could hear a pin drop in the plaza.

I looked down at my right hand. Before I logged into the game, I got a papercut on my thumb that had bled a little. I could see that blood again now, dripping down my palm before dropping onto the floor. Of course, that was only my imagination. It helped me understand exactly what was happening, though.

SAO isn't a game, it's real. Akihiko Kayaba created a virtual world; he designed the Nerve Gear rig. The man's a genius, and a right bastard if my experience with my avatar was any indication. Still, I'd been a fan of his for a long time, so I know… Everything he just said, is the truth!

If I die in the game, I'll die in real life!

Someone dropped their mirror; it shattered on the ground and disappeared into polygons. That noise seemed to be the catalyst that broke everyone from their silent state. It was total chaos after that. People were pushing and screaming in a panic, and some of them were begging the open air to release them from the game, as if Kayaba was listening in. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the translucent barrier which was keeping us trapped had fallen away, letting us leave the Plaza.

"C'mon, Klein!" I urged my companion. I took hold of his wrist and started dragging him away. He followed limply, but I didn't stop until I was sure the two of us were alone in some alley. I turned to Klein and told him my plan. "Okay, listen. I'm heading out now for the next village. I want you to come."

"Huh?"

"If what he said is true-and I think it is-the only way we're gonna survive in here is by making ourselves as strong as possible." I opened my menu and pulled up my map as I was talking. The first village was called Horunka, and it was a fair distance away. "In an MMORPG, the money you can earn, the EXP; there's only so much of that stuff to go around. Look, the fields around the town of beginnings are going to be hunted clean soon. If we head to the next village now, we'll have an easier time collecting cash and points. Don't worry, I know all the paths and places we should avoid. Even if we're level 1, I'll have no problem getting there."

Klein was struggling to keep up with me, and it was starting to have me concerned. We hadn't spent much time together, but I liked Klein, and I wanted to do what I could to help him survive. "Wha… thanks, but ya know those friends of mine I was tellin' you about? We stood in line for a whole night to buy this and… they're back at the Plaza somewhere." As he continued to explain, I felt my heart drop. "I can't leave 'em."

I took a quick glance at my HP bar, as if it was suddenly gonna gain more levels and health. If it were just Klein… but two more, or even one more, and our odds of survival dipped far too low for my liking. Why couldn't things ever be simple? Why did it feel like I had to fight the whole world to gain even the tiniest bit of happiness? It was way too cruel… "Sorry." Klein's voice cut through the haze of my emotions, and I raised my head to look at him. The easygoing smile he'd held all day had returned in full force.

"Can't ask some lady I just met to risk her life for a bunch of strangers, can I? So don't worry about me. Get your ass to the next village." He offered me a winning smile and a thumbs up. "I'll be fine. In the last game I played I ran a guild so I'll be more than prepared. And with all the stuff you taught me I'll get by, no sweat!"

This guy… he really was way too nice. I didn't trust myself not to do something stupid if we kept talking, so I started to walk away. As I did, I told him, "Okay… if that's what you want I'll get going. But if you're in a jam, message me okay?"

"Sure."

"I'll be seeing you Klein. Take care." I turned away from him fully, trying to force my legs forward. Before I took more than two steps, however-

"Kirito!"

I waited a couple seconds, but Klein didn't say anything more, so I started walking again. For a second time, Klein called out to me. "Hey, Kirito." I stopped again, but a large part of me was considering that I should just bail so I wouldn't have to hear what Klein said. "Uh, you look better like this…"

I froze, and turned to face him.

He probably didn't know I was trans, and so couldn't realize what those words meant to me. "You're even more beautiful than your avatar! Honestly, I'd feel scared to take you on a date, because all the other guys would be giving me jealous looks!"

That…

My heart clenched, and my throat choked up. I wanted Klein to survive more than anything in that moment. He wasn't just trying to flatter me. I could tell he really meant it, and that in turn meant the world to me. He really thought I was okay just like this.

"Yeah, and I think that scruffy face suits you way better too!"

With my piece said, I started to jog away. I only made it a few steps before I stopped though. Damn my traitorous heart, I was so half-assed! I turned around again, only to find the alleyway empty. I felt like a hole was torn open in my torso after seeing that, but I wasn't going to go back.

It was done; Klein had made his choice. I needed to stick to mine.

I raced out of town, ever more fervently than when I had done so this morning. I didn't see a single other player on my way out, which left me to assume everyone was still in the Plaza panicking. I refused to let myself be like that. I wasn't going to be held down by this death game!

As I left the Town of Beginnings and started racing through the fields, I started thinking about that phrase. What makes a death game a death game? Most games have an element of danger to them, Things like rock climbing and racing… but they aren't death games, just dangerous ones. I could search to the very center of my soul to try and find the answer, but I had a feeling I would only know if I survived Sword Art Online.

A dire wolf spawned on the path ahead of me. It was a stronger enemy than what I'd been facing, but I still charged it with complete confidence. My longsword exploded from its sheath with a flourish, and I started to charge a sword skill while the dire wolf and I darted toward each other.

I got this! I can do this! This world can't beat me!

I shouted as my sword glowed a pale blew and I sailed forward. I tore through the dire wolf, not even bothering to turn around as it exploded into polygons behind me. With my emotions washing out of me, I jumped. I roared, and it was a challenge fit to pierce the heavens.

I will survive!

A.N.: Let's do this. Just to make things crystal clear, this is an AU where Kirito is trans. I'll be hitting the same beats as a lot of SAO canon, but this change to Kirito's character will have an impact on how these moments play out. Also, I haven't read the Progressive light novels but I really want to. I plan to use some of the characters from them, and I'd also love to see what's new so I don't end up accidently retreading through Canon in my attempts at original stories.