Author's Note: This is a rewritten of my first fanfiction. I've added more detail in this chapter and plan to add more in later chapters.


A few weeks of Takeshi and Mitsuko leaving to a different world. Ryu and Yumi head to that world. The world was another earth. The location was Japan, Tokyo, on November 2, 2022. They looked around to find them but couldn't find them. The two rented an apartment. After a few days of searching with the same result, the two walked around the city.

"Don't worry Ryu, I'm sure they're fine," said Yumi.

"I know. I'm just curious where they are," said Ryu.

"I'm sure I know where your brother might be at," Yumi points at a game store.

They head to the store and see a long line. They see headgear and a game.

"Sword Art Online. Seems like that's what everyone is here for," said Ryu.

"It's a VRMMORPG," said Yumi.

"VRMMORPG. Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Play Game," said Ryu.

"That's right," an employee walked up to them. "The NerveGear is the second generation of a FullDive technology."

The employee introduced himself as Tomozaki.

Ryu and Yumi knew how VRMMORPG works since they have it in their world. "The NerveGear sends fake signals to the brain to the five senses of the user. It also blocks movement, so the body doesn't move on its own," said Ryu.

"You know a lot about the headgear," said Tomozaki.

"I've done some reading about it. Where can we get the NerveGear and a copy of SAO?"

"You'll have to wait in line."

Ryu and Yumi waited in line and eventually purchased two Nervegears and two copies of SAO. Before leaving the store, Yumi grabbed a picture and asked Tomozaki if he's seen Takeshi and Mitsuko. Tomozaki saw Takeshi a few months ago when he purchased the NerveGear but luckily for them, he saw Mitsuko working at a cafe called Dicey Cafe. He gave them directions, and the two thanked him and left.

They take the directions and head to Dicey Cafe. The front door had two dices and a sign that said Dicey Cafe. They entered. The place had four tables and a counter with several stools. There are shelves filled with glass bottles behind the counter. There was a massive, bulky African man with a brown goatee.

"Welcome." The man greeted them.

The two take a seat and order 9up. Ryu asked if Mitsuko was here. The man told him she had a day off.

"Are you friend with Mitsuko?" the man asked.

"I'm her older brother. My name is Ryu, and this is Yumi."

"Nice to meet you two. I'm Andrew."

"How's my sister doing?"

"She's doing fine."

"That's good I'm glad to hear that."

Andrew noticed the two bags.

"What's in the bag?"

"A video game."

"Sword Art Online."

"How did you know?"

"Got myself a copy. The official server starts tomorrow."

"I see."

"We should get going," said Yumi.

"I'll let Mitsuko know you drop by," said Andrew.

"Thank you."

By the time they got home, it was dark, and they went to bed. The next day Ryu was reading more about the SAO. He was planning to drop by at the cafe, then realized the Sword Art Online was about to start and thought that he might find Takeshi. He sets up the game. He placed the NerveGear on his head and laid down. "Link Start."

Before entering the game, he customizes his avatar.

"Let's see. Default, customize, or scan?"

He selects scan then a menu popped up.

"By selecting scan, your real appearance will be applied to your avatar. Do you wish to continue?"

He selects continue and selects a sword as his weapon. Before entering the game, he needed a name for his character. Since he went with his actual appearance, he named his character Ryu. After finishing customizing his character everything white. His vision returns to normal and sees that he was in the Town of Beginnings. Before exploring the town, he heard a familiar voice. He turned his head to see Yumi.

"You changed your hair."

"I wanted to try a new hairstyle. What do you think?"

"The shade of blue looks nice and the ponytail makes you look cute."

"Thank you," Yumi blushed a little. "Where are we?" said Yumi.

"This Anicrad, it's a floating castle. From what I read, it comprises a hundred floors stacking upwards. You battle bosses and go up a level. We're on the first floor, The Town of Beginnings."

"This place feels like home."

"It kind of does."

"Besides the Town of Beginnings, I wondered what other places are there to visit."

"That girl over there, she looks like she knows her way." Ryu pointed at a blond-haired girl.

"Hey, excuse me, miss," she called out.

The girl acknowledges them. "You two are new," the girl declared.

"Yes, I'm Yumi, and that's Ryu," said Yumi.

"You're a beta tester," said Ryu.

"Yes, the name is Argo. Argo the rat," said Argo.

"With those painted whiskers, I can understand where you got the name. Do you know any other places we can visit," said Yumi.

"There's another town called Tolbana and two villages, the Horunka and Medai," said Argo.

"And where we can fight monsters," said Ryu.

"I've heard that two players are heading to the west field to fight Frenzy Boar," said Argo.

She points to the two males leaving the town. Ryu and Yumi follow the players to the west field. The monsters spot them and charge at them. They draw their swords and engaged, suddenly a dire wolf charges at Ryu. He notices the wolf behind him. He puts his blade towards his waist. The blade glowed bright blue, and thus with one slice, he killed the wolf and it shattered into pieces.

"I see you learned a sword skill."

They turned their heads and met the two players that they followed. One with black hair, brown eyes, and the other guy with a red bandana around his forehead, with light purplish hair.

"Sword skill?" said Yumi.

"Sword Skills are combat movements supported by the system, there like special attacks," the black hair boy added.

"Impressive," said Ryu.

"Yeah, Kirito was just lecturing me on how to maintain this game. I'm Klein, nice to you," said Klein.

"Are you a beta tester," said Ryu.

"Um, yes," said Kirito.

"Are there other skills," said Yumi.

"Yeah, there's blacksmith, beast tamer, acrobatics, cooking, and many skills. You can look at them in the player's menu," said Kirito.

They open the menu by using their right hand, extending an index finger and swinging downwards, and opening the main menu. Ryu checked the skills and saw many types of skills, all were level one except his one-handed skill; it was level four, then noticed that he leveled up to two.

"Impressive your sword skill seems good. You are also a beta tester," said Klein.

"No, this is my first time playing, but I've used a sword before," said Ryu.

"You take kendo class," said Kirito.

"Something like that," said Ryu.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm still up for monster hunting," said Klein.

"Mind if we join," Ryu asked. Kirito and Klein looked at each other and nodded. They charged to the field and fought many monsters.

After the fight, they take a break and head to a field where no monsters are at.

"That was fun," said Yumi.

"Yeah, it was. Whoever created this game is a genius, which makes me glad to be born here," said Klein.

"You must love this game," said Ryu.

"It's my first time playing a VRMMORPG game. I've never used a NerveGear before so when it came out I used up my savings to get both the gear and game I gotta say it's worth it. Can't believe I'm lucky," said Klein.

"Lucky what do you mean by that," said Ryu.

"They only sold ten thousand copies of the game so not everyone can get it," said Kirito.

"Kirito was lucky to get the beta."

They turned their heads to see a girl with long blonde hair and green eyes.

"Oh, I was wondering where you've been," said Kirito.

"Sorry I got lost. Lucky some girl with painted whiskers told me where you traveled and pointed me the directions," said the girl.

"Yo Kirito, who's the hot chick," said Klein.

"That's Leafa, she's my sister," said Kirito.

Klein puts his arm around Kirito and takes him far from the group."What's your sister like?"

Kirito gets weirded out by how Klein seems excited that his sister is here. "She's into sports, she didn't start gaming too long but she doesn't like other gamers, she's not your type."

"Who cares, I want…" Kirito knees Klein in the crotch. Klein reacts, then realizes it doesn't hurt.

"Is something wrong?" said Leafa.

"No everything is fine," said Kirito. He introduces Leafa to the rest of the group.

"She's right, you know only a thousand people got the chance, so you sir were very lucky," said Klein.

"Yeah, I guess I was," said Kirito.

"How many floors did you pass in the beta," said Ryu.

"I got to the tenth floor in two months, but now I'm determined to get there in a month," said Kirito.

"You're really into this are you," said Yumi.

"Yeah, I guess I am. During the beta, SAO is all I can think of both day and night. In this world, a single blade can take you anywhere you want to go. And even though it's a virtual world, I feel more alive here than I ever did in the real one. Anyway, shall we continue hunting," said Kirito.

Ryu looks at Yumi and she nods.

"We're in," said Ryu.

"I haven't fought any monsters since I got here, so I'm in," said Leafa.

"Count me in, but um…." Klein's stomach growls. "I'm starving," said Klein.

"Yeah, I'm a little hungry, too. Does this game have food we can eat," said Yumi.

"It does, but virtual food doesn't satisfy your hunger in the real world," said Kirito.

"Luckily my roommate is getting pizza so the game can wait," said Klein.

"I guess you'll be leaving then," said Leafa.

"Yeah, but I'll be back. Hey after I get my pizza, my roommate and I were going to meet some of my friends from another game you guys could join if you want," said Klein.

Kirito looked a little nervous.

"Hey it's alright, you don't have to. No pressure, I could always introduce you to them another time."

"Yeah, maybe another time thanks anyway."

"No way I should be the one thanking you. You helped me a lot and one of these days I will pay you virtually, of course. Thanks for everything." He reaches for a handshake to Kirito. Kirito responds by shaking Klein's hand.

While they were talking, Ryu was looking at the main menu. He checks all five categories: inventory, friends, communication, map, and settings. He sends a friend request to Yumi, Kirito, Leafa, and Klein, and when he checks the settings. "That's strange," said Ryu.

"What is it," said Yumi.

"The logout button is not in the main menu," said Ryu.

"It should be there," said Kirito.

"He's right. It's not there," said Klein.

Everyone checked the main menu, and there was no logout.

"Kirito did this happen in the beta," said Leafa.

"Nope, never had this problem," said Kirito.

"Well, the game got released today, so there's going to be some bugs," said Yumi.

"I bet many people are freaking out now," said Klein.

"Try contacting the game master," said Ryu.

"Already doing that and he's not responding," said Leafa.

"There should be another way to logout," said Ryu.

"No, there isn't when a player wants to logout they would do it through the main menu," said Kirito.

"What about an emergency logout?" said Yumi.

"There isn't one," said Kirito.

"What about removing the NerveGear," said Leafa.

Klein tries to remove it, but Kirito tells them it won't work. He explains that transceivers block every movement to the brain, preventing the player to move their body, cutting the connection to the physical world.

"Don't you guys think this weird," said Ryu.

"I agree. If no one can logout this can cause problems for the game," said Kirito.

"What about the developers? They should be able to log us out," said Leafa.

"They would've done so by now," said Kirito.

The town bells began ringing, then suddenly they're transported to the town of beginnings. They realize every player was here. Everyone grew curious and wondered what's going on. The sky turned red. They looked up and saw it said "Waring System Announcement." then red liquid began dripping and formed into something.

"What the" Ryu mumbled. It formed into a giant robe man. He was floating in the air. The color of the robe was mostly red, with yellow outlines. Nobody could see his face.

"Attention players, welcome to my world," said the giant robe man.

"I know that voice that's…"

"Kayaba Akihiko," said Kirito.

"The creator of SAO," said Klein.

"Most of you are aware of the logout button, I assure you, that's how Sword Art Online was designed to be," said Kayaba.

"What does he mean by that," said Yumi.

"Hold on, what about the people outside in the real world, they can take the NerveGear off," said Ryu.

"Yeah, you 're right, I just hope Johnny didn't login," said Klein.

"Johnny? Your roommate," said Kirito.

"Yep, what about you guys?"

"Leafa and I live with our mom," said Kirito.

Ryu and Yumi had worried looks on their faces. "It's just us at the apartment, nobody else," said Ryu.

"Just tell us where you two live and well get you out of here."

Kayaba then tells them they can't logout nor can anyone shut or remove the NerveGear. If the NerveGear is removed it will destroy their brain, killing them in real life. Confusion grew more in people, and some getting scared.

Klein doesn't believe a thing, but Kirito assures him that what the game master is saying is true.

"Unfortunately, two hundred thirteen players had been killed due to the family and friends trying to remove the NerveGear," said Kayaba.

"No way two hundred thirteen players are dead," said Leafa.

They also learn that if their hp goes to zero, they die in the game, and the NerveGear will destroy the brain, killing them.

Kayaba opens a screen and shows everyone a player getting killed by a massive legless skeleton. Seeing the player's hp go to zero, the player shattered into pieces. After seeing that, it shocked Kirito and Ryu. Yumi wrapped her arms around Ryu's arm. Leafa was scared and got closer to Kirito.

Kayaba explains that the only way to leave the game is to beat the game by beating every floor.

"That's impossible. No one can reach the hundredth floor. Even the beta testers never got that closed," said Leafa.

"One more thing I left present for every player," said Kayaba. Everyone checks their inventory and sees a mirror, then a huge blinding light flashed everyone.

Ryu looked at the mirror, nothing changed but when He looked at everyone most people changed. Then he saw Kirito, Klein, and Leafa.

Kirito's face doesn't have masculinity, he has slightly long black hair. The hair was much neater than before. He looked about fourteen years old.

Klein's appearance didn't change that much besides the hairstyle. Instead of having purplish, long hair, he had red spiky hair.

As for Leafa, she looked more like a child than an adult. She had short, black hair and dark grey eyes.

"Wow, you look even cuter than ever," Klein burst.

Kirito punches Klein in the arm. "Really, Klein," said Kirito.

"Sorry, man," said Klein.

"Um is everything okay?" Ryu asked.

The three looked at Ryu and Yumi.

"You guys haven't changed well except Yumi's hair," said Leafa.

Ryu had dark green eyes, black hair similar to Kirito, and is a couple of inches more than him. Instead of having a dark blue ponytail, Yumi had long black hair down to her neck, dark blue eyes, and both Ryu and Yumi are white skin. She was the same height as Ryu.

"I didn't see the point in changing my appearance, anyway. How would the gear know about your guy's appearance, height, and body?" said Ryu.

"The NerveGear has a scan that can see my face, and not only that, it asks to touch your body," said Kirito.

"That explains how it knows your body type," said Yumi.

"What's the point," said Klein.

"Something tells me he's going to explain," said Ryu. They looked at Kayaba.

"You might wonder why would Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all this? Ultimately, my goal was simple. To create the fate of the world that I've designed and as you can see, I've achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial, the official start of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck."

Red smoke was coming out of Kayaba. He vanished, and the sky turned back to normal. Everyone was silent. Ryu looks at Kirito, seeing anger in his eyes.

"Kirito."

"It's not a game, it's real," said Kirit, clenching his fist.

"No, it can't be this, gotta be a big joke," said Klein.

"Akihiko Kayaba created a virtual world and designed the NerveGear. He's a genius," said Kirito.

Klein can see that Kirito had a serious look on his face.

"Kirito has been a fan of Akihiko, so he knows everything," said Leafa.

"So everything he said is true," said Ryu with a serious look.

"Yes, if we die in the game, we die in real life," said Kirito.

Ryu looks around and sees a girl dropping the mirror and begins panicking. After that, everyone started panicking. He sees another girl down to her knees, tears in her eyes.

"I can't believe it. It's not the first time I've been trapped in a world, but the virtual world definitely the first time I just hope Takeshi and Mitsuko aren't here," he thought.

"You guys this way," said Kirito. He sees Kirito, Leafa, and Klein leaving. They follow them, leaving the area heading somewhere quiet. Kirito explains the monsters will be strong and that there won't be that much resource here. He suggests they head to the next village. While Leafa didn't agree with the plan, Klein had something else in mind.

"I appreciate the offer, but you guys know the friends I spoke about there here in the game. They're still in the plaza I have found them," said Klein.

"What about everyone else? You're just gonna leave those people back there. I understand this is for survival but it's not right to abandon those people," said Leafa.

"I understand what you're saying, but your safety is my top priority. We need to worry for ourselves instead of others."

"I understand what Kirito is saying. Family is important if my brother or sister were here I make sure I do anything for them to survive," said Ryu.

"I'm glad someone understands."

"But I also agree with Leafa as well. We can't just leave everyone on their own. We have to help them."

"We can at least help Klein find his friends," said Leafa.

Kirito was thinking about how many people he can protect since he's level two, he can only protect one person so that means if Ryu, Yumi, Klein, or his friends died they would blame him for their deaths. Klein and Ryu can see that Kirito was worried. Klein assures him they should go without him. "I've been in guilds so don't worry about me and besides the things you taught me I'll fly by so don't sweat it."

"What about you two?" said Kirito.

Ryu wanted to help the other players, but he doesn't want to abandon Kirito and Leafa. He knew he couldn't convince him to change his mind. "We'll join you."

Yumi was shocked by his decision but said nothing.

"Alright then. Klein, if you need any help message me okay," said Kirito.

"Got it," said Klein.

"We'll be seeing you take care."

"I hope our paths cross again," said Ryu.

They were walking away until Klein called out to Kirito. He turned his back to him.

"You look better this way, cooler than your avatar."

"Yeah, I say your scruffy face fits you ten times."

They were leaving again, but Kirito stopped and looked back to see Klein gone.

"Come on, Kirito," said Leafa.

He caught up to them and ran through the town and outside the gate. Traveling across the fields, they see a dire wolf charging at them. Kirito drew his sword out. "I got this. I can do this. This game won't beat me. I will survive," Kirito thought to himself. With one swift move, Kirito took out the wolf.

Ryu was determined not only to protect Yumi, but to protect his new friends. In the back of his mind, he was hoping his siblings were safe. This is only the beginning of Sword Art Online.


I had fun rewriting this chapter. If you guys have opinions or anything about the story, let me know. I would love to know what guys think of the story.