November 6, 2022

5:37 p. m.

Rushing to her bedroom, she took out the Nerve Gear and game from the bag. Heart pounding, she put the game in and strapped on the Nerve Gear. By the time she was laying on her bed she could hear her parents running up the stairs. Her entire body felt like ice now and her heart was thudding faster than ever.

Shizuka closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Time stopped.

"LINK START!"

'Sorry mom and dad. I'm on my way Katsu!'

As soon as she uttered those words, she first saw a white void, but a moment later her vision was filled with several different colors darting past her, giving Shizuka the illusion that she was falling. Then is stopped and before the teen was the language she wanted while using the Nerve Gear. She picked Japanese and because she had never used the Nerve Gear she had to enter in some personal information and create a password.

She expected a menu to appear so she could create and customize an avatar for SAO. Strangely, all Shizuka could do was chose her username (Kiraka), the color of her armor (purple) and what weapon she wanted to start with (one-handed sword). The white void was replaced by darkness. A loud heartbeat thumped loudly in her ears. 'Okay, this is weird. Where am I now?' It took her a few moments to realize her eyes were still closed, and slowly opened them while simultaneously the heart beat faded. Everything was blurry at first, and the noise around her was muffled. Her senses cleared soon enough, and Kiraka was beyond shock at what she saw. She stood in the center of a plaza at where she guessed was in the Town of Beginnings.

All hell was loose.

She twisted herself around and saw nothing but other players, crying and screaming in disbelief or collapsed on the ground in silence. Most pushed and shoved each other while others appeared to be desperately trying to pull their heads off. 'Probably trying to pull of the Nerve Gear on their real bodies, but doesn't look like it's doing any good.' Ominous questions were looming over her; why are they all in chaos? Did they somehow know of the deaths caused by the Nerve Gear? Was Katsu okay?

It would be near impossible to find her brother in this turmoil, but she had to try. Kiraka shoved her way through, calling her brother's name. The problem though was she could barely hear herself over the yelling of frantic people, and upon pushing through the crowds she was met with the sight of more unfamiliar faces. They cursed and sobbed, looks of hopelessness hung on their faces. After about 20 minutes of tremendous effort she finally broke free from the confusion within the plaza. Among the narrow cobblestone streets in between buildings a couple of players here and there were pacing the dark alleys or running in the opposite direction of the mass of people shoulder to shoulder within the plaza.

"Katsu! Can you hear me?! Where are you?!" Kiraka shouted while she searched desperately for her younger sibling. So far there was no sign of him. Katsu could be lost in the crowd or already on his way to the next town. Nevertheless, she persisted onwards around the outside of the plaza, calling for her brother. Then she heard someone cry out her real name.

She halted in place and went quiet. Out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed a figure pacing back and forth in a dark alleyway. She turned and, as luck would have it, Katsu was there. He had hands up to his face before brushing over his black hair, then rested them on the back of his head. The younger sibling's quick pace was staggered as he continued to mutter to himself.

Kiraka wasted no time and ran up to her brother. "Katsu!"

Her brother swiveled around to face her, his face full of relief and on the verge of tears. "Shizuka!"

They tackled each other into a bone crushing hug, both thankful that the other was alive. They stood like that while catching their breath but only for a few seconds. It was Katsu that spoke first, but his voice shook. "I-I thought y-you were dead. I l-looked everywhere b-but couldn't f-find you."

Kiraka broke away the hug to look him in the eye. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. The truth is, I just logged in not even half an hour ago." Katsu was astonished by her words.

"What?! Do you even know what's going on in here? Shizuka, we're in a death game and we can't log out! The creator of the game made it so that if we die in the game our brains are fried," her brother rambled so fast she could hardly keep up. His words became scrambled and the sentences he formed weren't very intelligible.

Eventually she placed her hands on Katsu's shoulders. "Stop. Just calm down a moment and explain to me slowly what's going on. But first, let's find a place quieter and talk privately." The younger sibling nodded and led the way through the deserted streets of the town until they were at the edge of town. Before them were open grassy hills and a dirt road leading to another town. The sun was setting in the west, giving the landscape a reddish-orange hue. In the distance Kiraka could see trees, mountains and lakes. There were even a few free-floating islands hundreds of meters above the ground.

The older sibling let out a sigh. "Okay, now fill me in on what happened from the beginning. It seemed like every player in the game was gathered in the center of town. Why is that?"

Katsu looked at his feet and sat down on the grass and explained to her, "Well, a few hours after the game started a lot of players noticed that the logout button was missing from the main menu. A few players died and for some reason didn't try to log back in. That's when everybody was teleported back to the plaza. This huge guy wearing a red cloak with no face appeared and said that he was Akihiko Kayaba. He told us that the missing logout button in this game was no bug in the system, and that already over two hundred people had died already, mostly from friends and family members taking the Nerve Gear off the user. The only way to escape SAO is by defeating the game."

Kiraka nodded, acknowledging what she had heard. She already knew of the players that have died in the past few hours, but decided to keep her mouth shut until Katsu was finished.

Her brother took in a shaky breath before continuing. "Then he told us all to check our item inventory 'cause he gave each player a mirror. After that, there was a huge flash of white and everybody looked different. A lot of girls became guys, younger players became older, and vice versa. All the players looked just like they did in real life. Then Kayaba disappeared and everything went downhill."

Kiraka leaned back a little on one foot and looked up to the darkening sky. A few things started to make sense, but she didn't understand something. She muttered darkly, "Why the hell would that bastard do this? It's just supposed to be a game; now it's a fight for survival."

Katsu answered her question hesitantly. "He said that he wanted to be able to control our fates, and a world of his creation." There was a pause between them. Then he asked, "Wait, you said you logged in not too long ago right? Do people in the real world know what's happening to the players in Aincrad?"

His sister closed her eyes for a moment. "Yeah, sort of. That's why I just logged in."

The younger sibling stood up, dumbfounded. "Why? If you knew this what was happening than why did you log in?! The only way we can get out is by beating all one hundred floors, and that's impossible! We're stuck here!" He ran his hands through his scruffy hair and shook his head, growling at himself.

The older teen grabbed her brother by the collar of his shirt and pulled him up to her face, her furious violet eyes staring into his dark blue ones. "Because it's my fault your trapped here and I'll make sure we get out alive! Did you honestly think I would leave my little brother in a death game and do nothing? I knew the risks but that didn't stop me!" She sighed again, letting go of his shirt. Katsu hung his head, a little flustered at his sister's words.

She took another glance at their surroundings. Kiraka spotted a group of small, dragon-like creatures flying in the distance. "It's going to get dark soon. I don't know about you but I plan on beating this game, and I hope you don't plan on giving up right away. You got a head start in front of me, so you decide. Wanna stay here and head to the next town in the morning or go right now?"

Katsu looked up at him, slightly surprised at her quick mood change. He thought to himself, then declared with a bit more confidence in his voice, "We should head out now. That way we can get ahead of the players still at the plaza and level up fighting monsters. Plus, I can show you a couple tricks I picked up from other players."

Kiraka nodded, a smile graced her lips and her eyes lightened with confidence. Together they ran side by side down the road to the next town. In between breaths, the sister told her brother, "I almost forgot - to remind you - now that we're in the game - call me Kiraka, 'kay?"

Her brother nodded. "Yeah, kinda forgot about that actually. I don't think – many people use – their real names. Oh well! Guess I'm special."

His sister snorted, amused. 'He's usually full of himself, but I'm used to that by now.'

Time passed quickly as the siblings worked as a team to fight off wolves, boars, and other monsters as they came closer to the next town. It was nearly 8:30 p. m. by the time they entered the next town, which appeared empty besides MPCs wandering around. They were both exhausted and had used up the rest of Katsu's healing crystals. They found a cheap hotel and crashed in their different rooms immediately, not bothering to eat dinner. As tired as Kiraka was, she couldn't fall asleep easily at first. It was only now that she was finally absorbing in the shock and the consequences of logging into Sword Art Online.

'God knows how long it's gonna take to beat this game, or if I'll live long enough to see through to the end. But it doesn't matter. There's no way I would abandon my little brother here alone.'

The teen thought back to the thousands of players that had friends and family worrying about them. Kiraka knew that her parents were probably frightened over her and Katsu's wellbeing. Or more likely furious at her; she was the one that bought the Nerve Gears and disobeyed their parents by going after her brother. It didn't matter at the time, the girl eventually grew too tired to think about it and fell into a dreamless sleep.

If you find any errors in this chapter let me know, I would appreciate it :)

Thank you!

I do not own SAO