"An Innocent Act"
Sword Art Online Launch Day
Ayako thought her eldest brother's fascination with games was annoying. Sure, she liked video games herself but Tsugumi took it to another level. There he was laying in bed, motionless and with that ugly-looking NerveGear strapped to his head.
She watched his motionless form from the ajar doorway, seemingly dead except for the rise and fall of his breathing chest.
Maybe this was her chance to pull a prank on him!
She could imagine it now, him rising from his bed all grumpy and yelling about how she pulled him out while talking to some online girl who was probably a dude anyway. Oh, how hopeless her dear brother was!
Forgoing her silent observation, Ayako rushed over and kneeled at her brother's bedside. She didn't much care for reading any instructions. Her brother said if anyone needed him to just shake the game helmet or something along those lines.
Ayako would do more than that.
She unfastened the chin buckles and yanked at the gaming helmet, pulling it from his bed-headed skull. She made it a few centimeters before the surface shocked her!
Dropping the NerveGear without fully disengaging from Tsugumi's skull, there was a great crackling noise and white smoke erupted from the machine. The teenage boy's body abruptly, spazzing about before settling back into rest.
Tsugumi's fingers curled on themselves as his muscles seemed to knot tightly.
"Tsu? You okay?" Ayako called out, suddenly very concerned. And very scared.
Her brother didn't answer.
Ayako called her brother's name again.
Same result.
She got closer. The NerveGear was still sparking, cooking with white smoke rising into the room. Any moment the home fire alarms would go off.
Ayako looked to her brother's face and found the strangest of grins. His left eye clutched shut, his right eyebrow crushing down on a wide-open eye. A broad-toothed, unsettling smile. His open eye was still and graced with a thousand-yards look.
The sister shook her brother in desperation, then screamed.
A/N: Randomly inspired while assembling a review for TwistedFilms's Against The Darkness We Stand; this story is a micro fiction piece about those that died before Sword Art Online's death game could begin. What was supposed to be an innocent act ended in tragedy. I hope people enjoy this, I haven't written an SAO fanfiction in years but encouragement from SAO Fanfiction Central and my friend Agent 94 brought me back.
If this short story proves to be a surprise success, maybe I can comeback and write a follow up exploring the experience of abrupt death from the perspective of within the virtual world.