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Chapter 1: End of the Line
Day 0 - 2300hrs JST
Zeta Attractor Field
Chiba International Airport

"Real life is like VR but with more data," Kirigaya Kazuto had told a certain Yuuki Asuna on a bench beside the Imperial Gardens, the same chestnut-haired girl who was staring daggers at him and Alice from the row behind.

Sighing, he could only bemoan his luck as the android knight had insisted on the seating arrangements. None of them could deny her request after all, not when it was thanks to her persistence with RATH that they could be on a sponsored week-long trip to Europe to attend a series of VR and AI conventions.

Not that this was a good idea by any measure.

"Kirito, the plane in front of ours has taken off!" she exclaimed, holding his hand in unrestrained excitement. For some reason, despite having flown countless times on the back of dragons, she had found the first-hand experience of flying in a metal bird no less exhilarating.

"We'll be next, I guess," he muttered half-heartedly as he felt a kick to the back of his seat.

"Onii-chan, ask your girlfriend to stop," Suguha groaned on his right - who, in contrast to the bouncing bubble of elation to his left, was trying to catch some sleep. Not that she had needed to take Asuna's seat. Or be so close to him.

"Kirito, I really think we should swap," the freckled, brown-haired girl behind him helpfully offered.

"I-I don't think they'd allow us to switch when we're about to take off, Rika," he laughed nervously as the blonde knight and his little sister tightened their grips around his arms, "You'll have to hang in there with Asuna, Keiko and Shino, at least till we're in the air or something."

"Kirito!"

"Bye, Yui," he turned to speak to the avatar on his phone, choosing to ignore the others for a while, "We'll be offline for at least a day or two, so take care of yourself and the Log Cabin while we're away, okay? I promise we'll find some time to log in when we're free at night."

"Yes papa, I'll be waiting to see you again!"

With that, he shut the device to prepare for take-off, taking a quick look around as he made himself comfortable. The surrounding rows were mostly occupied by youths around their age on their last legs of summer break - a security measure implemented by RATH to reduce the risk of hostile elements coming into contact with their precious asset, not that Kirito would complain. If anything, it provided him with some peace of mind as Alice had insisted on being around her friends instead of her usual pair of bodyguards, who were seated a few rows ahead.

Yawning, he checked his seatbelt for the last time before closing his eyes. Sleeping was the best course of action on a night flight, and by the time he wakes up, the drama would be over, and all would be well again.

Hopefully.

Hikigaya Hachiman sat along the aisle, toying with his fingers as he looked around at his fellow passengers, occasionally sneaking a peek at the two girls who were seated beside him. The pink-haired airhead was by the window, gazing at nothing in particular, while his girlfriend was beside him, engrossed in a book under the pale illumination of the reading light amidst the darkness.

Fifteen hours - that would be how long he and Yukino would be sitting next to each other. Side-by-side. As a couple.

That was how they had sat after all since Third Year began, when their dear junior Isshiki Iroha had come to the Service Clubroom before Summer Break, asking for a favour and handing the three of them with all-expenses-paid tickets to London which she had apparently won at a lucky draw for a family of four. Yukino had politely turned down her offer, telling her that she would not mind tagging along but could very well pay for herself, and had suggested that she give it to someone else instead - like his one and only little sister Komachi, who was watery-eyed with gratitude at receiving the gift of a lifetime from her mischievous senior.

And that was how the five of them had found themselves in a plane, in the middle of the night, in the final week of summer break, on a flight to a faraway capital that they were expected to reach in the pre-dawn hours of local time.

Checking on his little sister once more to see that she was soundly asleep beside Iroha, he settled into his seat and rested his head on his pillow, allowing the beckoning drowsiness to take over.

I'll really need some MAXX coffee after this.

"Kirito, what are those lights?" Alice whispered beside him as he rubbed his eyes, unsure of the time, "Are they fireworks? They look so beautiful."

"Probably just lightning," he mumbled, peering at the flashes high in the night sky, a little puzzled but otherwise unperturbed as he struggled to focus his mind on remembering the dream he had of the elusive blonde boy in blue, who he somehow knew but somehow did not.

Who was the boy who had been there with him in the village of his other childhood, the young man who was by his side as he trained in the academy and ascended the steps of the church to fight the great evil?

Kirito did not know, no, he could not tell. A fog had been placed in his brain like the thick clouds in the firmament, to hide and conceal the lifetime of memories, no, reality that he had endured and experienced in that world - a lid that, for some reason, seemed to lift a little whenever he was close to her, like he was in the dim cabin of the plane.

"Shooting stars," she motioned at the streaks of phosphorescence in the distant skyline, clasping her hands together in a prayer, "Make a wish, Kirito, and it'll come true."

"I-I don't–" he stammered, unsure of what to make of the sight, "I–"

He was interrupted as the announcement system abruptly crackled to life.

"This is your Captain speaking. We have received reports of–"

And at that very moment, as if a switch had been flipped, it ended.

A blinding burst of light flashed through the glass, followed by pitch-black darkness, as if time had stopped and the world had frozen over. Not even the emergency lights were on, the sounds of the engine having completely disappeared, and nobody moved, talked or breathed in the eerie quiet.

In the cold, deafening silence, Kirito felt light on his feet and a lurch in his stomach as the plane descended, hurtling through the air on but the residual lift of its wings. Stirred from their sleep by the strange and sudden sensation, passengers had begun to mumble and whisper amongst themselves, which quickly grew into a chaotic, discordant chorus of frantic cries and panicked screams.

"W-What's going on, onii-chan?" Suguha spluttered beside him, woken from her slumber, grabbing his arm as she gasped in confusion and disbelief.

"I-I don't know–" was all he could utter, unable to find the words as an overwhelming sense of dread loomed over his head.

No. This can't be real. This can't be happening.

Wake up, Kirito, this must be a game, a nightmare.Yet as his heart raced, adrenaline coursing through his veins, the innate fear of death gripping his soul proved that he was alive. And as he shouted at his little sister and his friends to brace for the inevitable, the sheer, absolute horror written on their faces could only have been so very real.

"Alice!" he yelled at the figure beside him who had not moved a single inch since disaster struck, only to see her paralysed in state, her eyes wide open as if petrified in absolute shock even as he grabbed and shook her before hurrying back to his seat for the final impact.

And that was all he could remember before the resounding explosion of metal crashing on rock plunged him into a world of painful darkness.

Hachiman opened his eyes, his vision a hazy blur and his mind a spinning mess. All that he could see were flames, smoke and blood gleaming in the night, and for a moment he wondered if he had died and gone to hell. All around the fiery wreckage and burning debris was a desolate purgatory of ice and frost, and in the numbing cold under the layer of snow, he could only shudder with a pathetic whimper.

It took him a while to realize that a weight was pressed against his shoulder, and he instinctively turned to see Yukino slumped against him, still and motionless. Jolted awake by the sight, he hurriedly unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to steady her, only to cry in surprise and alarm when he felt the sensation of slippery liquid on his trembling fingers.

Is this Yukino's or Yui's? He found himself asking when he saw the pink-haired airhead similarly frozen in her seat, but stopped himself from trying to guess the answer.

Inhaling deeply, he closed his eyes and slapped himself, only to return to the same haunting scene of death, destruction and devastation under the glowing cinders and waning moonlight, the abject helplessness, haplessness and hopelessness in the final seconds resurfacing in his mind as he remembered the shrieks of mortal terror echoing in the metal cage that had become a mass grave. Yet, he had somehow survived and here he was, in the broken tail-end of the aircraft that had been torn, no, ripped and detached from the raging inferno ahead - stuck, trapped, lost on a mountain in the middle of nowhere.

"Onii-chan," a soft plea interrupted his wallowing self-pity, and he instantly sprung from his seat, pushing past figures that he could only hope were unconscious but still alive as he rushed to the side of his little sister.

"Komachi!" he almost cried as she pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Are you hurt?" he asked as she shook her head, breaking down on his shoulder. Nonetheless, he checked her just to make sure, satisfied to see no visible wounds, not that he could spot any hidden or internal injuries at first glance.

Let's not go there, Hachiman. Not now.

"Onii-chan, take care of Yukino-senpai and Yui-senpai," she stammered, turning on her flashlight to light up the ugly gash on Iroha's forehead, "I-I'll handle her."

"She'll be fine, don't worry," she quickly added as he hesitated, "Just go!"

Clenching his fists and gritting his teeth, he turned and ran back for the two girls, only to find Yukino awake upon his return, attending to Yui who was bleeding from the side of her face that had apparently smashed into the screen ahead.

"Yukino!" he called out as she tried to stand up, grimacing in pain as she fell back to her seat, "Take it easy, you're injured!"

"Hikigaya-kun," she muttered, still a little groggy from her bout of stupor, "Stop worrying about me and start helping her."

Grunting, he gently lifted Yui from the cracked glass, only to find jagged shards cruelly lodged and embedded in her flesh, including the left eye that was an unsalvageable mess. Yet, much to his relief, she was still breathing as blood continued to trickle and flow, and there was hope - if they acted fast.

"W-We'll have to clean up those injuries somehow," Yukino stammered as she gave way for him to lay Yui across the cushion, carefully staunching the wounds that he could reach between the sharp fragments.

In the cold, speechless silence, Hachiman did not reply. This was the best-case scenario after all - one that he had not even dared to dream of, where the five of them had survived and were still alive.

For now, at least.

Kirito woke up to a blast of cold wind and ash, and for a moment he could not help but wonder if reality itself had somehow warped to the icy depths of Jotunheimr. Yet he could not remember diving into a simulated world as real as the one he was in, where the agony and excruciation engulfing his very consciousness and existence was far more than he had ever experienced, more so than the time he had fought the wretched creature Sugou in ALfheim.

Out of habit, he pulled out his phone to ask Yui, his trusty navigation pixie, only to find that his phone was completely and utterly dead. Cursing, he threw the useless device away, realizing that he was once again stuck in a nightmare that he was unable to log out of. His friends - he turned to find Alice still and motionless as ever, her eyes frozen in a blank, glassy stare, and he quickly looked the other way, sighing in relief at the warm breath of his little sister lying on his shoulder.

Thank heavens, Sugu, you're alive.

Carefully prying her away, he crawled to his feet and turned around to check on the others, crossing his quivering fingers as he reached out in the dim light. In the eerie, unnerving quiet, Keiko was sobbing in shock and agony while Shino was fully conscious and awake, her face pale with fear and stricken in horror as she stared mortified at the bloodstains on her hands, paralysed and shaking amidst the trauma of her past. Alarmed, he followed the gleaming trail to find the open wound on Rika's head, which had caked her brown hair in a layer of dripping wet crimson and dried vermillion.

"Kirito-kun," Asuna cried, the only one who was awake and functional, "We've got to help Liz!"

Nodding, he laid the brunette across the seats to maintain her internal circulation as Asuna scrambled to staunch the bleeding with a clean handkerchief and packets of tissue paper. Though her breath was shallow, Rika was still alive, and that sliver of hope was all that mattered and all that kept them going to preserve her weak but steady pulse and prevent her life from spilling away on the cold cushion.

Liz, Rika - please don't die on us. We need you. I need you.

A/N: I've chosen to use the real names of the SAO characters, where:
Shinozaki Rika = Lisbeth/Liz
Ayano Keiko = Silica
Asada Shino = Sinon

Kirito is a bit of an exception as he seems to go by that name even in real life, except when addressed by close family such as his little sister Suguha.

For ease of reference, this story takes place post-canon ending of Oregairu (3rd year) and after SAO's Alicization arc (replacing Unital Ring which happens to be a survival game).