A/N: Okay, so it's been years since I last posted in this fandom (or posted at all really), and I should really be working on though the stars walk backward, but I've kind of hit writer's block and lost interest in Fairy Tail, so I'll be temporarily taking a break from it. Plus, Alicization has dragged me back to SAO, so I thought I'd go back and see if I could dig up some old works. This idea is, like, super-old (like three years I think? thereabouts), but I had several chapters written so I figured I might as well post them.
These chapters should be a little shorter than those of though the stars walk backwards, and I tried making my writing less dense and just, flow better, I guess. Hopefully it worked.
A quick note on the title: "Aliferous" means "having wings" or "winged," which I thought was fitting.
November 6, 2022
Suguha stared at the Nerve Gear in her hands uncertainly. She glanced at the clock. 12:58, the display read. Was she really going to do this? Was she really going to try Sword Art Online with no prior gaming experience whatsoever? She bit her lip. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…
But then she thought about Kazuto, about the distraction in his voice and the excitement in his eyes whenever he talked about SAO, one of the only times he ever opened up around them anymore. About how animated he was during dinner yesterday, as though he'd forgotten to distance himself in his excitement. About how Kazuto had practically been a ghost during the weeks he'd beta tested the game.
She shoved away her uncertainty. She had to do this. If she could understand just what about gaming so enraptured Kazuto, maybe… maybe they could start bridging the gap between them. How long had it been since Kazuto and her actually spent time together?
12:59. Sure, she'd only gone out and bought the Nerve Gear solely on a whim, on the flash of maybe if I do this, I'll be able to get closer to Kazuto again. But she'd already set everything up—all she had to do now was put the Nerve Gear on. So, she might as well give it a shot.
1:00. This was it. SAO was officially launched. With trembling hands (excitement, or nerves? Suguha didn't know) she slipped the Nerve Gear on over her hand and settled back down on her bed. She closed her eyes.
"Link start!"
Suguha had to admit the number of character customization choices SAO had were a bit overwhelming. Almost every aspect of facial structure could be manipulated (as well as elements such as height and body structure), and though the hair colors were mostly natural colors, that still left dozens upon dozens of choices.
For simplicity's sake, she let the system randomly generate an avatar for her, and was pleasantly surprised by the result. While she ordinarily never would've thought to choose blond hair and green eyes, she found that she quite liked it—after changing the height back to her normal one, of course. She wasn't sure if muscle memory would carry over into SAO, and she'd rather not have to get used to a different height. With her luck, she'd end up tripping over her feet and falling flat on her face.
A holographic keyboard popped up next, prompting her to choose her username. Suguha moved to input her name, then hesitated. She wasn't sure what the proper procedures for gaming usernames were, but it probably would be better not to use her real name, for anonymity's sake if nothing else.
But then what should she choose? She was pretty bad at coming up with names, and she knew Kazuto was too (maybe it was a family trait?). Maybe something in English; she might as well, given the romanized keyboard.
In the end, it was the bright green of her avatar's eyes that prompted her to carefully type in L-E-A-F-A into the bar, then she entered a password in the field below it.
The character customization room faded to white around her. «Welcome to Sword Art Online!» the display read. Blue swept across her vision.
Suguha—no, Leafa—opened her eyes. She fought to keep her jaw from dropping at the sounds and sights around her. She stood in the midst of a large plaza, surrounded by various other players from all sides; every now and then, a blue flash would appear, marking the appearance of another player. She spun around, taking in the bright blue of the sky and the incredible detail in the buildings she could see from here, marveling at the sights, sounds, smells.
Sure, she'd known that this was a virtual reality—Kazuto never stopped talking about it in the months before the release. But the level of detail, the level of sensation was almost surreal—consciously, she knew this was just a game, but it looked just as vivid, if not more so, than the real world. She would've felt more embarrassed about her reaction, but a quick glance around her confirmed that almost everyone else had similar expressions of awe on their faces.
There was a light pressure on her avatar's back—the weight of her hair. It was a rather novel sensation; it had been a long time since she'd had hair that long, she reflected. She twirled a lock between her fingers—blond, just like what she'd chosen in the avatar customization screen. She couldn't see her face, but she'd bet her eyes were the same vibrant emerald-green as well.
It was pretty amazing. Leafa thought she kind of understood why Kazuto had been so obsessed about SAO when he'd been beta-testing it now. I was right. Logging into SAO did help me understand Kazuto better. For that, if nothing else, she'd definitely made the right decision in deciding to try out the game.
Of course, she was horribly confused too—what did people even do in games like these? (What had Kazuto called it again? An VRMMO or something?) Where was she supposed to go from here?
Leafa wasn't really sure, so she just decided to just go explore the town. After all, there was certainly going to be time for everything else later—once she figured out how to play for real, of course.
She wandered around town for what seemed to be only a few minutes. A quick glance at the display in her vision—what was it called again? She thought it might've been an HUD, if she remembered correctly—revealed that it had actually been about an hour. A flash of panic overtook her—she'd missed her Kendo practice! But even if I did log out now, practice would already be over by the time I got to the dojo. She grimaced. Sensei was not going to be happy with her. She could already feel the phantom aches from the exercises she'd no doubt be made to do.
...Speaking of logging out, just how do you log out? She'd seen some players make a strange swiping motion with their right hand; she didn't know what that did, but she figured it probably served some purpose, or else they probably wouldn't be doing it. She mimicked what she thought she saw them do, resulting in a holographic screen of sorts popping up.
The system menu, she thought, remembering Kazuto's not-so-quick lecture when she'd asked him what he was talking about and actually explain more about the basics of a game. Not that it'd helped. He'd spent hours rambling on about SAO without ever clarifying what the acronyms or gaming terms actually meant. I guess the log out button would be here, somewhere. She tapped on the first of the floating circles, emblazoned with a gear, which opened up three options: «Options», «Help», and a blank one, with the icon of an arrow and an open door.
She tapped the third one—it had an open door, so that was probably the log out button, right?—but nothing happened. Or maybe not, I guess. Oh well. The log-out button's probably a different one then. She tapped the «Help» button instead.
She definitely needed all the help she could get. Reading the manual would probably be her best bet of not only learning how to play the game better, but also just where, exactly the log-out button was located. If that failed, she'd just ask another player.
This is not going to be fun, she thought, settling in to read the manual.
Her prediction was right. She soon found herself completely and utterly bored. The manual was incredibly dry, and chalkful of technical gaming jargon that she couldn't even hope to understand. Maybe someone like Kazuto would find it interesting, but for her part, Leafa thought the manual seriously needed to be improved. As it was, it was more as though Kayaba and the other developers just decided to shove everything they could think of in there, with no regard for whether or not it was understandable to a beginner. She stuck to it, of course, since she was aware that she needed to learn more about how to play this game.
Still, the interruption, when it came, was welcome. She was more than a little grateful for an excuse to stop reading.
"Excuse me." Leafa glanced up at the unfamiliar female voice, closing the manual window with a flick of her wrist. An older girl with dark hair and striking blue eyes approached her, looking hopelessly lost and confused. Her eyes seemed to be taking in everything around her all at once, an air of bewilderment and wonder hanging around her. "Sorry to bother you, but I'm, uh, kinda lost, and you were the only one who didn't look busy rushing around or already talking to somebody else." Embarrassment tinged her cheeks.
"It's no problem," Leafa assured her, feeling a surge of empathy, recalling her own complete and utter confusion upon logging in. "The manual was dry as dust anyway; really, you did me a favor. What do you need?"
"I—" The other girl blinked. "Wait, there's a manual?"
"Yeah, it's in the menu." Upon seeing the confusion in the other's face, Leafa elaborated, "You know, the place where all the options are? You just swipe down with your right hand like this," she demonstrated, opening up her menu again. The other girl copied her. "—and the manual should be right under «Settings», and then «Help»."
"Oh. Huh." Her eyes drifted down, and she read silently for a few moments, before snapping upright. "I'm so sorry, I'm being rude!" She bowed. "Thank you for all of your help."
Leafa waved it off. "No worries. I get how confusing this is. This is actually my first time playing a game like this too. My brother's the gamer of the family."
The other girl giggled. "Same here. This is actually my brother's Nerve Gear, but he had a conference today, so he couldn't log in. I wanted to see what he was always going on about, so I decided to give it a try."
That… almost directly paralleled her own reasons for playing SAO. Leafa was about to comment as much, when a glance at the clock made her curse internally. How is it already 5:20?!
"I'm so sorry, I've got to go," she said in a rush. "I promised my mom I'd help her make dinner and make sure my brother actually takes a break to eat."
"I get it. Real life is calling. Thank you for all your help…"
"Leafa," she supplied.
"Thanks for all you help, Leafa." The other girl flashed her a bright smile.
"It was no problem. See you around!" she called, already darting off, clicking through her menu as she did so. Seeing as logging out didn't work earlier, and that was almost certainly the log out button according to the manual, she figured maybe there was some rule to it. Maybe she had to log out in the plaza where she'd first logged in or something.
It wasn't until she reached the plaza that she realized she'd forgotten to ask for that other girl's name, not to mention that she hadn't "friended" her.
Oops. What were the odds of running into her again? Low, she decided. It was going to be near-impossible to find one person out of ten thousand.
She reached forward and tapped the log out button. Nothing happened. What? Maybe it's a glitch or something. Although that's a pretty serious bug… I'll try again outside the plaza then.
She'd barely made it five steps into the nearest street before a bright blue light flared around her, and she found herself standing back at plaza again. As she watched, more and more flares of light marked the arrival of dozens upon dozens of other players, until what she presumed to be all ten thousand players of SAO were in the crowd. What is going on?
Above her, a red hexagon popped into existence in the sky, spreading until instead of blue, the sky was covered in an eerie red instead. Thick, viscous liquid resembling blood poured from the cracks in between the hexagonal grid, coalescing in a vaguely humanoid shape—well, more like an empty hooded robe—more than a hundred feet tall that towered above them.
The figure spread his—its?—arms dramatically. "Welcome, players. I welcome you to my world. I am Akihiko Kayaba, and as of this moment, I am in control of this world."
Leafa felt her horror grow as Akihiko Kayaba continued to speak. So it hadn't been her ignorance or just a bug—the logout button really was missing, and it was designed that way. And not only that, but the Nerve Gear couldn't be removed either. She swallowed thickly. Two-hundred thirteen people were already dead. How many more were going to die before this game was over?
Then another thought occurred to her as she watched the news feeds flickering around Kayaba. Oh god, what about Mom? If Kazuto and I are both trapped here…
And what was she going to do? She wasn't like Kazuto; she didn't know anything about gaming other than the few bits she managed to absorb from Kazuto's geek-outs. If she left the Town of Beginnings, would she even survive?
I have to. I can't die. Kazuto's here.
Kazuto's here, and I'm going to find him.
November 9, 2022
Asuna hugged her knees to her chest, gaze staring ahead at nothing in particular. She'd long since exhausted her tears, and by the third day of her life in this now-hellish world, she mostly just felt numb.
It hadn't sunk in, at first. She'd thought it was a joke, that maybe there was just something she was missing, new as she was to RPGs. But she'd looked around, and no one was smiling. No one was laughing, no one was reassuring everyone that it was all just some developer's idea of a prank. Instead, there was an almost-palpable tension among the crowd, the fear in the air so thick as to be nearly tangible.
The denial faded quickly after that.
Oh god, what was she going to do? She could remember her wonder at this virtual world, the joy of just three days ago. It seemed like a distant memory now. She'd spent the past few days wandering aimlessly, sometimes locking herself up in a room at a random inn. Any thought of leaving town was buried by her terror. She couldn't do it; it scared her out of her mind.
The bench was hard under her, and the sun was shining brightly despite the pallor of feel enveloping the town. Maybe on the first day, she would've marveled at the way Kayaba had almost-perfectly recreated the grainy feel of the wood, or the sensation of sunlight on her skin, but now, all she wanted to do was go home.
She saw very few players out and about despite the hour. Some of them might've been out of the fields, while others, like her, locked themselves inside, hiding out in the hopes that this would just all be over.
"Are you okay?" Asuna lifted her head at the question. The voice belonged to a young girl, maybe two years or so younger than her from the looks of it, with dark hair cut in a loose bob and onyx-black eyes. She was wearing gear not unlike what Asuna herself wore—though some pieces were of noticeably higher quality than the starter gear. A sword was slung across her back, the tip of the handle visible over her shoulder. From the looks of it, she was one of the ones who'd actually left the town.
The girl quickly backpedaled. "I'm sorry, that was a stupid question, considering we're all stuck in this death game."
She slid into the seat next to Asuna. "Here," she said, offering up a piece of bread. "It's not much, but I think you could use some food. You looked like you'd been sitting on that bench for a while."
Numbly, Asuna took it. "...thanks," she said quietly, voice a little hoarse from disuse. She nibbled at it. It was hard, and didn't have much flavor, but there was a dull ache where her stomach would be. Now that the other girl had pointed it out, she realized she was pretty hungry. She hadn't eaten the past few days, at first stuck in shock and then reasoning that it wouldn't even matter, since this world's hunger was just a product of her mind, anyway. Who knew how her real body was doing.
"My name's Leafa," the girl said.
Asuna paused. Something about that name seemed familiar. Through the dissociative haze of the memories of her first day, she recalled flashes of blond hair and green eyes, and an explanation of how to use the menu. Looking at her now, she looked completely different from the blond she met on the first day. "Leafa?"
Leafa tilted her head. "...yes?"
Asuna shook herself. Maybe it was the fact that she was actually interacting with someone after three days of silence, but the numbness was fading somewhat. She felt a little more awake, stronger, than she had in ages. Come on, Asuna, just make it through this conversation. You can have your pity party later. "I'm Asuna," she said, voice as cheerful as she could make it. It still came out as mostly flat, to her chagrin. "I'm sorry, I never introduced myself when we met the first day."
"The first day?" Leafa repeated. Then her eyes lit up in recognition. "You're the girl I helped with the menu! Sorry, I didn't realize it was you. Your avatar looked pretty different back then."
"Yours was too," she pointed out.
"Yeah," Leafa agreed. She looked wistfully at Asuna's long hair, and then back at her own short locks. She sighed. "Well, it was nice having long hair while it lasted. Maybe I should grow my hair out…"
"You've been out questing, haven't you?" Asuna asked.
Leafa blinked at the seeming non sequitur. "I have," she answered carefully. "What of it?"
Asuna pulled her knees closer to her chest, curling in on herself. "...How are you not scared? You could die every time you leave the Town of Beginnings."
"I am. I'm terrified," Leafa admitted. "I might've mentioned this before, but I'm no gamer—I've never played a MMO before this one, and I wouldn't have even known what EXP was if it weren't for my brother."
"Then why go out?" Why, when it might mean death? Why risk it?
"Because I can't just lock myself up here. I'd go crazy if I did." She paused, then added, "And besides, Kazuto's here somewhere in SAO. I have to find him."
"Kazuto?" Asuna started at the unfamiliar name, then recalled their first conversation. "Your brother, right?"
"Yeah." A fleeting expression of melancholy flashed across Leafa's face, but it was gone as fast as it came. Asuna wondered if she'd just imagined it. "He doesn't know I'm here. I never told him I bought a Nerve Gear too."
Suddenly, Asuna was glad Kouichirou had had that meeting and hadn't been able to log in. Sure, it meant that she was stuck here now (though really, that was her own fault for being so curious), but at least her older brother was safe. At least her parents wouldn't have to deal with having both of their children stuck in SAO, the way Leafa's parents did.
Leafa stood up, stretching both arms up above her. "Anyway, I was just coming back to town to get my items repaired. I'm going to head out again. You wanna come with?"
Asuna shook her head. "...I can't." Part of her was chiding herself for being a coward, but another part trembled at the thought of leaving the safety of the Town of Beginnings. She'd told the truth; she didn't think she could do it.
"Okay, then." Leafa shrugged. "It's not like I'm going to force you to." She paused, then added, "But I think you should consider it. You can't just stay in the Town of Beginnings for however long it takes us to clear SAO—it could take years, for all we know." Her voice gentled. "You know, the Frenzy Boars in the fields immediately surrounding the city are all very low level. Even if they hit you, none of their attacks really do much damage. We could go together, if you want. I can watch your back, and you'd be able to practice fighting in relative safety, get some experience."
"I'll… think about it," Asuna answered, even though the idea was absolutely terrifying. Sure, maybe the Frenzy Boars, as Leafa called them, didn't do much damage. But they still did damage, and even they could kill her if she wasn't careful. Especially since she didn't have the slightest clue how to wield a weapon.
At least if she stayed in the Town of Beginnings, she was safe. She didn't understand how Leafa could be so willing to take that risk. Or anyone else, for that matter.
"That's all I'm really asking. In the meantime, do you want to friend me?" Leafa asked, already flicking her menu open. Fingers tapped away at her menu.
"Yeah… I'd like that," Asuna said, hitting «accept» when the request window popped up in front of her.
Leafa smiled. "Let me know if you change your mind. I'll be in the fields around here. I won't be moving on to a different town for a while yet."
"How?" Asuna asked. Did the game have a messaging system or something? It probably did, right?
"Well, according to the manual, players can track their friend's locations on their map." Upon seeing Asuna reflexively cringe at the idea of wandering out around the fields alone to look for Leafa, the other girl added, "But you can also just message me, and I'll come back to town so we can go together."
Asuna nodded. "Okay."
"Great! Well, see you around, Asuna."
Asuna watched the other girl go until she disappeared around the corner and vanished from sight.
She uncurled herself from her position on the bench. If she remembered correctly, she'd passed a weapons shop when she'd wandered around town. She didn't think it'd been too far from here, and she still had all the starting money the game provided. Even if the idea of leaving town terrified her, it couldn't hurt to have a weapon, right? It wasn't like she was agreeing to anything…
It took her a couple of tries, and she had to stop to ask for directions three times, but she finally managed to locate the weapons shop. She pushed open the wooden door, and took tentative steps inside.
There was a multitude of weapons out on display, from small daggers to broadswords to heavy maces and everything in between. In fact, the only weapons she could think of that she didn't see were bows and guns, both of which, she supposed, provided too much range. But by far the most common weapon was the sword, taking up three walls all by itself and ranging from thin, light blades to heavy two-handed swords. Which made sense, she supposed. This game was called Sword Art Online, after all.
There weren't any other players in the shop besides herself and the person manning the counter. On closer inspection, though, the bald man at the counter had a white, not green, cursor hanging over his head. What had the manual called them? NPCs? She was pretty sure that was right.
She ran her eyes over the weapons. Nothing immediately jumped out at her, not that she expected it to. She'd never held a weapon in her life, not including the cooking knives she'd worked with in the kitchen. In fact, she was fairly certain she didn't even know what all of these weapons were. She didn't even know where to begin choosing one to buy.
Hesitantly, she opened her menu, and typed out a message. She didn't want to bother Leafa if she was busy, but she could freely admit that she needed the help, and Leafa, at least, looked like she knew what she was doing. Even if the other girl had professed to be new at games too.
Leafa's reply was quick. «What kind of weapon to choose? Well, it depends on what your stats are. Do you lean more towards speed or strength?»
«Speed I think.»
«In that case, I think you'd want something lighter. Using a heavy weapon would just slow you down. Maybe a dagger?»
Asuna cringed at the thought of having to be so up close and personal with the monsters. «Something with a little more range, maybe? What do you use?»
It took a little longer for Leafa to get back to her. «I don't know. I guess I'd suggest a light, one-handed sword then, preferably with a thin blade. Maybe something that pierces instead of slashes. I'm using a one-handed katana. You could try that, if you want.»
Hmm… a light, thin sword. Asuna looked over the selection of weapons, dismissing those that were obviously too heavy, and ignoring the maces and axes altogether. She highly doubted she would even be able to pick those up, nevermind swing them around.
That's when she saw it.
It was perfect.
Five minutes later, she walked out of the shop, rapier in hand and down a significant amount of Col. But for the first time since Kayaba's tutorial, she was smiling.
November 14, 2022
Asuna's blade flashed out, another «Linear» reducing the last of the Frenzy Boar's HP to zero. As the boar shattered into pixelated shards and dissolved into the air, she sheathed her rapier. The sound of clapping reminded her of her companion.
"Wow," Leafa commented, drawing closer. "You're a natural at this Asuna!"
Asuna blushed. "Oh come off it. You're far better than I am with a sword."
"I mean, maybe, but I've got years of Kendo to back me up." She surveyed the fields around them, hands on her hips. "Anyway, it looks like that's the last one. We picked this field pretty clean."
Asuna nodded in agreement, feeling a surge of pride despite herself. Looking back at herself, she thought she'd grown quite a bit from the girl who was too terrified of dying to even set foot outside the Town of Beginnings. Now… well, she wasn't any less scared of dying, but she thought she saw what Leafa meant, now. She wasn't going to let that fear hold her back from living her life here.
She closed the results window, informing her of the increase in EXP and Col she got from killing that Frenzy Boar. It wasn't much, but when she put all the EXP and Col she'd earned that day together, it was far more than what she'd started out with.
In the corner of her vision, she glanced at the two HP bars displayed there—hers, and then Leafa's underneath it. Neither one had even dropped more than one sixth.
"I think we should move on," Leafa said, pulling out the guidebook that'd been put together by the beta-testers. (Her party member's reaction had been amusing, to say the least, when the books had been distributed. "Oh thank god!" Leafa had exclaimed, rifling through it. "This is so much better than the official manual.") "We're not going earn enough EXP if we keep farming here."
A week ago, she wouldn't have so much as left the safety of the Town of Beginnings. A week ago, the thought of the mob-packed journey between villages would've sent her cowering in fear. A week ago, she wouldn't even have considered traveling to another town.
Now, she just smiled at her friend and party member.
"Let's," Asuna agreed.
A/N: An explanation of names. I know this is going to be an issue next chapter, so I decided to explain it here. Basically, I'm using the usernames for the perspectives, since that's what they're starting to think of themselves as. When Kirito comes in, he'll use Suguha instead of Leafa at first, mostly because he either didn't know her handle or was still getting used to calling her "Leafa" and not "Suguha" in his head. Rest assured, though, that all of them will switch over to the usernames soon to minimize confusion. Therefore, I'll try to keep it consistent and refer to Suguha as "Leafa," even from her perspective, until they make it back to the real world.
Also, I know Asuna is kinda OOC here. It's intentional. In episode 2, she said that she was fighting so that she didn't lose who she was—implying that before, she did momentarily lose who she was, else it wouldn't be her main motivating factor. Plus, she's literally being thrown in the deep end here—she doesn't know anything about games. I mean, Leafa's in kind of the same situation, but at least Leafa has years of kendou backing her up so she's pretty confident with the sword.
