Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online

My name is Tanaka Niten, and I am eighteen years old now. I used to repeat this every day, just to remember the real world. But no more. It's been three years since I logged into this death game Sword Art Online and couldn't log back out. Three years I've been fighting digital monsters and strengthening myself, just to hold onto a hope built on nothing. Three years since Kayaba cruelly let us believe we could escape his grasp.

It was all for nothing. The man we had all followed blindly, who we believed was the strongest among us, was really our enemy. Like a wolf in sheep's clothing, he walked among us, pretending to be one of us, earning our trust, only to stab us in the back. It was all a lie. We never had a chance. We should've known that Kayaba Akihiko wouldn't let us escape. We are all trapped within this virtual hell, doomed to be the puppets of a madman playing God until our bodies in the real world wither away.

I've forgotten why I bothered to fight. In the face of all that has happened, what does it matter? We were all deceived. We never stood a chance, not against the one who put us all here. What hope do prisoners have against a jailer who is all-powerful, who can paralyze us with a glance, disguise himself as anyone, and control the very fabric of our virtual reality?

Today is my eighteenth birthday. November 6th, 2025. It is also the third anniversary of the day ten thousand people were sentenced to death. Happy fucking birthday, Naitama. That's all I am now. Tanaka Niten is dead. He died the moment he put on that Nerve Gear and logged into his brother's game. The Lone Archer is dead. He died when he trained fifty others in his signature ability.

A surge of resentment swells within me. Stupid Kichiro, always playing video games and never focusing on real life. It should've been him here, fighting in the front lines. Instead his punishment fell to his younger brother. Where's the justice in that?

And those archers. What good did any of it do, teaching them to use a bow and arrows to fight in a war instigated for Kayaba's sense of twisted fun? It didn't get us any closer to beating this death game. Not that we would've gotten that far to begin with.

Most of all, I'm angry at myself. Angry for allowing myself to hope, to believe that I could get out of this mess, to see my family again. Mom, Dad, Aiko, even Kichiro. I miss them.

I realize now that I've been running away from this moment. For three fucking years, I've thrown myself into the front lines, fighting constantly. I told myself it was to grow stronger, to beat this game, but really, I've just been trying to put off the realization of how much I lost. I came close when I nearly died fighting PoH, if that was really him and not a bot that Kayaba programmed, but now that I've hit rock bottom, it all comes crashing down.

My arm moves of its own volition, and a glass bottle shatters against the wall of the tiny apartment, prompting the message Immortal Object. It's sparsely furnished, my home, just a single room with a small bed and a desk. It's one of the default living quarters located in the Starting City that was given to every player at the start of the game. Other players moved out of theirs, purchasing better apartments or even houses on the upper floors, but I never saw the point. I rarely ever left the front lines, why bother spending money that could be used to buy better gear or crystals?

Speaking of which, I should really go shopping. The glass bottle I'd chucked against the wall had been my last sleeping potion. Sword Art Online doesn't have any alcohol, and even the strongest poisons on the market can't kill me, so I've resorted to sleeping as much as I can, by natural means or artificially. I pull myself off the floor, and stumble out the door and into the street. That's when the screaming reaches my ears.

Oh yeah, there are monsters in the cities now. After Kayaba revealed the unpleasant truth to us, he sent us home. After an hour of sulking in my room, I'd finally gone outside to find that the game's monsters spawned within the city limits now. And as if to rub salt in our wounds, the ghosts of dead players have begun haunting us. I don't know if those are real, but others seem to be able to see them, so I guess they are.

"Help!" A child's voice cries out. Looking over, I can see a tiny Player cornered by several snarling wolves. He must be one of the kids who snuck into the game despite the warning against players under thirteen.

I heave a deep sigh and equip my bow. Four arrows with dark green fletching fly straight and true, and the wolves shatter into pixels. "Hey, kid." I saunter over to the child. "Don't you know it's dangerous to be out in the streets?" I see that his health bar is half empty, so I snap my fingers, transferring Eternal Life's healing balm to him. "C'mon, I'll take you home. Where do you live?"

"I-i-in the c-church." The little boy stammers. I take a moment to orient myself, and set off toward the Monument of Life. To my annoyance, the little boy latches onto my hand.

"Mister, are you a Clearer?" The kid asks after several minutes of walking through deserted streets. "The way you defeated those monsters so easily- only a Clearer could be so strong."

Don't I wish. I open my mouth to deny it, to say that I am just an ordinary guy trapped in SAO like him, but the look on the boy's face stops me. He's staring at me with wide eyes, with an expression that I can only describe as absolute hope. "... Yeah... I'm... my name is Naitama. What's yours?"

"Tetsudoku."

I stifle a laugh. What a funny name. "Tetsudoku, eh? That's an... interesting name."

"Yeah, my older brother told me not to use my real name for a gaming ID, so I used my nickname. My friends called me Tetsudoku because I was so slow at sudoku." Tetsudoku smiles. "They'd say I was slower than a tortoise. But I'd always finish the puzzles when they couldn't."

"Perseverance, huh?" I pat the kid's head. "That's an important thing to have." I feel like such a liar saying that, when I've given up hope of ever beating SAO.

"Mister Naitama?" Tetsudoku asks suddenly. "Is it scary, being on the front lines fighting monsters?"

"Oh yeah." I reply. "Absolutely terrifying. But you get used to it after enough time."

"Wow!" Tetsudoku's eyes are sparkling. "I wish I could be strong enough to fight!"

I say nothing for the rest of the journey, while Tetsudoku rambles on about how cool Clearers are. I don't want to crush his hopes, to tell him that we're only human, that his heroes have given up the fight.

"Looks like we're here, Mister Naitama!" Tetsudoku points at the church. "Thank you for saving me! Good luck with clearing the game!" He waves and runs off to the door of the church.

"I'm sorry." I touch the letters engraved into the stone. A white line is crossed through Barton's name, marking him as dead. Despite this, he's standing right next to me, albeit glowing slightly. "I've failed you. All of you."

Barton's ghost smiles and pats my arm, as if to reassure me. I can't feel anything though, and keep talking. "I rescued a kid today. His name's Tetsudoku, if you can believe that."

"Dunno what he was doing outside on his own, but he was lucky I came out of my apartment when I did, otherwise he'd have been killed by a pack of wolves. I'll be honest with you, Barton. I wonder now why I saved Tetsudoku. The way things are, it might have been more merciful to let him die now than later when his body in real life expires."

Barton gives me a disappointed look, but says nothing. I'm starting to think that these ghosts can't talk. No one's bothered to try speaking with one, so who knows? Still, the glowing image of my friend looks so real, right down to the crease in his brow.

"Why am I still talking to you?" I wonder out loud. "I gotta say, Barton, this conversation is feeling really one-sided. Maybe I'll hop off the edge of the world and join you. Maybe then you could actually talk back to me."

Barton rolls his eyes as I turn away. "Don't be a dumbass, Naitama. You're better than that."

My heart skips a beat, and I whirl back around to find the ghost of my friend with a shit-eating grin plastered all over his face. "You can talk?!"

"You done feeling sorry for yourself?" Barton smirks. "You've still got a job to do."

"I must be dreaming." My knees give out, and I sit down on the floor, stunned. "Is this even real?"

"Real enough." Barton kneels down in front of me. "Look, Naitama, I may be dead, but I'm still here. In fact, all the dead players are. We've always been here, you just haven't been able to see us until now."

"How?!" I demand. "What changed?"

"I don't know." Barton admits. "We deceased were standing alongside you when Heathcliff revealed his identity. It was as much a shock to us as it was to you. But when he teleported everyone out of the dungeon, we saw something in the split second of light. A girl with lavender hair and red eyes."

"Oookayyy..." I file away the information for later. Whoever this mysterious girl is, she can wait. "But wait, if the game's suddenly allowed the dead to speak to us-"

"Then it might be fighting Kayaba." Barton nods. "Some of us have been analyzing the differences between the current SAO and the version that was the beta test. There are very few features that changed, such as this room being turned into a memorial instead of the respawn point. Kayaba may be the administrator, but it could well be that the game itself is reacting against him. The beta test had very strict anti-cheat protocols."

"So then he's not all powerful?" My eyes narrow. "But why would the game fight against Kayaba? It makes no sense, he's the creator."

"Who can say? If you ask me, it makes about as much sense as not being able to leave the game just because the logout button was removed." Barton shrugs. "None of us have any experience as programmers, and even if we did, SAO is revolutionary, unlike anything else that came before it."

"Then we have a chance." I rise to my feet, heart pounding. "It might be slim, maybe nothing at all, but we owe it to ourselves to try." My thoughts turn to Tetsudoku, the child I had rescued, whose eyes had brimmed with hope and awe that there were heroes who sacrificed themselves to win the game. Heroes like me, like Barton. "No, not just ourselves, for everyone who is counting on us!" I shout. "I know what I need to do!"

"Urian!" I must look like an absolute madman, pounding on the door of the largest house on the street, but I don't care. "Urian, open this fucking door right now!"

I'm standing on the doorstep of the Searcher's Manor. It's one of the biggest houses in the game that can be purchased by a single player, essentially a mansion. Urian bought it not long after he got Extra Sensory, using the Unique Skill to loot high-yield dungeons and amassing a ridiculous amount of wealth. One of the many reasons I dislike the man. He uses his special ability for selfish reasons.

"What do you want?!" The door flies open with a loud bang, revealing my least favorite Clearer. "Go home, Naitama. It's over. Enjoy what time you have left. Or go kill yourself. Just leave me be."

"Yeah, I tried." I grab a fistful of Urian's long golden hair and drag him out into the street. "Didn't work. No poison's strong enough to kill me, and jumping off the edge might just result in me falling endlessly, and that sounds boring."

"Ow! Stop that, you ruffian!" Urian squeals. "Okay, okay, I'll do whatever you want, just let go of my hair!"

I look at the cowering fool on the ground with disgust. "Help me find Kirito."

Urian stops sniffling for a second to look at me. "What?"

"You know, Kirito. Dresses in all black, uses two swords at once?"

"I know who Kirito is!" Urian snaps. "But why?"

"I don't like you, Urian." I snap. "And I'm well aware the feeling is mutual. You and I both know that there are many rivalries within the Clearers like ours."

"Please. As if I'd ever consider you to be my rival." Urian scoffs, then yelps when I whack him over the head.

"See, this is exactly what I'm talking about!" I yell. "I don't give a damn, but there are too many players like you who like to measure dicks like it's a fucking sausage festival."

"How dare-"

"Shut up!" I bellow. "There's only one player in this entire game who stands above everyone else, who only Kayaba himself could beat, and you're gonna take me to him!"

Urian's eyes widen in understanding. "You want Kirito to unite the Clearers again."

"Finally!" I throw my hands up in the air. "Now, where is he?!"

Urian's eyes begin glowing their familiar eerie gold. "The 22nd floor. Coral Village. Forest House K4."

A/N: Sorry about the incredibly long wait. It's been a long journey for Naitama and co. as well as myself. But the curtain will fall soon, and I will try my best to bring it about much sooner than later. I'd like to say I've learned from the experience of trying to write multiple stories at once, but clearly I have not, judging by the fact that I am still juggling four projects at once.

Kudos if you know who or what the mysterious girl with lavender hair is. Is she a player? An NPC? Something else entirely? More importantly, what did she do? And how come there are so many ghosts, which the players can only see now? All very important questions.