This is a non-profit fan-based work. Sword Art Online is owned by A-1 Pictures, Aniplex USA, and Reki Kawahara. This is just me dabbling in their playground.

A/N: If anyone is interested, I am currently looking for a beta reader for my SAO work.

This is a rewrite of my SAO fanfic, The Primordials. Originally, I had planned to simply edit through my original Primordials story to get it up to snuff. The story was written when I was out of practice and it shows. Through eight chapters I never managed to get solid, separate personalities for my main characters. For that, and other reasons, I will be taking that story down as soon as this one catches up. This is going to be the story I meant to tell the first time. For anyone who read my old story, I hope you enjoy this one just as much, to everyone else, there's no real need to read the old version. Thank you all in advance for reading, and please, review, let me know what you think, and what your thoughts are on where this could go.

November 6, 2022

Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture

". . .The first people in line were camped out for three days! But if you're a hard core gamer, that's what you do. . . "

Kazuto wasn't paying much attention to the computer screen. The news coverage of Sword Art Online's launch wasn't too terribly interesting. It did strike him as surprising that anyone would have the wherewithal to wait three days for a video game, or that they'd have the stamina to attempt a full dive after camping out that long. Then again, he wondered what he would have done to get a chance to play on launch day if he hadn't been one of the beta testers. He probably would have just waited for the second batch of games. Most games had enough day one patches anyway. No use playing something bugged.

Not that the game was bugged, by any means. It was extraordinary. The time he'd spent playing it had been the coolest experience he'd ever had. It was literally a whole new world out there. The beta testers had only barely scratched the surface of it.

He heard a knock at the door and his sister's muffled voice could be heard through it. "I'm going to practice now. See you later, okay?" He glanced over at the door. Part of him wanted to say something. Every once in awhile he'd even entertain the thought of going with her. Still, that chapter of his life had closed a long time ago. He felt guilty for not being much of a brother to Suguha, but it had taken him a long time to think of her as a sister again after he'd discovered his adoption. That revelation, and the beating his uncle had given him when he dropped out of Kendo, kept him from ever going back to practice.

He heard the door close as she made her way out to practice. He sighed. This particular pattern was starting to get old. He needed to do something with her, aside from finish her homework when she gave up on it. He needed to be a better brother. It was his fault she was so hard on herself, his fault she pushed herself so hard where her Kendo was concerned. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He'd do better. If only to stop this guilt from hitting him every time she went to class. He looked back down at the article he'd been reading. He'd spent a lot of time studying up on the information surrounding SAO, its development, its developers, but mostly its creators. Akihiko Kayaba was a visionary. His Nervegear technology was going to open up an entirely new wave of games. Kazuto had even started to wonder if it wouldn't do to screen-based games what color television eventually did to black and white.

His reading was eventually interrupted by a stinging pain in his finger. He instinctively brought it to his mouth, sucking on it to help relieve the pain. A paper cut. Just great. He looked at the cut, which didn't seem to be too bad, and was surprised to see a small, but steady trickle of blood. He shook his head again and made his way off to the bathroom to bandage it. At least he wouldn't be needing his hands to play Sword Art Online.

He checked the clock on his computer as he came back into his room and groaned. He'd missed the launch. Not that it mattered much, but he'd hoped to be one of the very first players online. He'd only missed it by five minutes, but it was the the little things, sometimes. He picked up his Nervegear and placed it on his head. He toggled through the menus quickly enough. Finally, when the voice command was needed, he uttered the familiar words. "Link Start!"

November 6, 2022

Setagaya City, Tokyo Prefecture

"Mom? Dad? I'm home!" Asuna announced as she slipped in through the house. She kicked off her shoes and started towards her room. Nobody responded, so she assumed she was home alone. Father was probably still at work and Mother. . . well, Asuna was just glad she didn't have to talk to her right now. Still, that did leave her brother. Maybe he'd already started playing Sword Art Online. They'd been hoping to try it out together, but Father hadn't been very supportive of their playing and they'd only been able to get one Nervegear and one copy of the game. Kouichirou had always been more of a gamer than her, so they decided he'd play it without her for a while and help her find her footing once she could find a copy.

She moved through the house quickly, grabbing a quick bite to eat before heading to her room. It had been a long school week, and she did have homework to do, but it was Friday, and she refused to make homework her first priority. Tomorrow it could be, but not today. Today, she'd just lay down and relax. Maybe pester her brother into doing something when he got out of his game, whenever that was. She didn't really want to be home, but she didn't have that many friends. Real ones, anyway, once they learned she wouldn't buy their friendship and company. The Yuuki name had some frustrating baggage that came with it, but she definitely could think worse lives.

She was surprised to find a note on her bedroom door, written in her brother's handwriting. "I had a last minute business trip. Sorry Asu, I know how much you hate being stuck with just you and Mom in the house. I put the Nervegear and our copy of SAO on your bed - and don't worry, I didn't touch anything. Hopefully it'll make the weekend easier for you. See you soon. Love, Kouichirou."

She sighed. He was right, she hated having to deal with Mother on her own. Still, it was rather nice of him to let her play instead of just leaving it in his room to gather dust over the weekend. He may have been trying to get her into video games through SAO, but he was still pretty protective of his electronics.

She entered her room and sat down on the bed. Everything was unboxed and ready for her to set up and get going, though she'd have to take a few minutes to familiarize herself with how everything worked. She didn't exactly need to read the manual, the device itself seemed straightforward enough, but she did glance through it. She had everything set up and ready to go in less than fifteen minutes, and now found herself sitting on the bed, staring into the visor of the device. This would be the first time she played an MMO, so she had no idea what to expect. She was looking forward to the experience of anonymity as much as she was looking forward to experiencing a new world. Both would be novelties for her.

She placed the device on her head and started going through the menus. It asked to be calibrated, and part of that involved patting herself all over. The process was awkward and she was glad there wasn't anyone around to watch. It wasn't bad, she was just sure she looked crazy by that point. When she was done, she lay down on her bed and continued the process. After a few more tests, to make sure everything was running properly, she was prompted to activate the machine. She tried activating it the same way she activated everything else, which didn't seem to do anything. It took her a moment, but she remembered that there was a vocal aspect to turning the device on, which could be toggled from one of the setup menus. "Link start." She commanded it, and the world burst into streams of light.

November 6, 2022

Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture

Shino Asada glared into the mirror with disgust as she wiped her mouth. She hadn't even touched the fake gun this time. She couldn't even bear to look at it. She shook her head. What she was feeling went beyond frustration. She thought she was getting stronger, but things were going downhill again. She closed her eyes for a moment, unable to hold her own glare. She was weak. It was almost disgusting.

She stormed out of the bathroom and stood over her bed, glaring holes into the cover of her copy of Sword Art Online. Would this really help with anything? It would be a world where she fought with swords, but maybe it would be a stepping stone towards guns. Knives and such didn't give her problems, but she'd never wielded one as a weapon, either. If she could get used to holding a sword, maybe it would help her towards holding a gun without losing her lunch. Maybe it would help get rid of the dreams. The mocking faces, the righteous hatred everyone felt towards her. Murderer, murderer, murderer, the word rang over and over in her mind. Sometimes she even joined in the mocking chorus.

She didn't question why she did it. She'd already lost her dad, and there was no way she was going to let someone take her mom from her too. She didn't really remember how she ended up with the gun. She just remembered pulling the trigger. And pulling it again. She'd just wanted to protect her mother, and now she was a complete outsider. Her mother paid for her to live out here on her own. She'd said she'd rather that than have to deal with living with a murderer. No one wanted to be around her. Even her therapists just reminded her that it was her fault for pulling the trigger.

At least in SAO she had some hope of being someone other than "Shino Asada - Murderer." And maybe, just maybe, fighting in that world would help her get stronger in this one. And maybe she'd play the role of someone who wasn't a murderer for long enough that she might be able to lose herself, at least for a time, in that other person. Even if this didn't work, it was braver to try than not. She was tired of her own cowardice.

She focused on the chance at friendship, letting her thoughts of death drift to the back of her mind. She'd managed to make at least one friend on SAO, and while she'd been playing, she had been getting better. She'd been able to grab the gun before throwing up while the beta was still ongoing. Today was a bad day. She was going to have those. She didn't have to like it, she just had to deal with it.

She sighed, laying down on her bed with her Nervegear on her head. She let herself breathe in and out for what felt like minutes, stabilizing her mind so she could get into the game without any issues, since it wouldn't let you log in with a heartbeat that was too extreme. Once she'd managed to calm herself down, she cycled through the menus with a practiced ease. She was going to make herself stronger. She was going to do this. She'd already agreed to meet up with one of her friends from the beta. Maybe they could start with one of the more difficult quests. She'd make it work. "Link start!"

November 6, 2022

Floor 1

Online Users: 10,000

All thoughts of the outside world vanished from Kazuto, now Kirito's, mind as soon as the world of swords materialized around him. He stretched, getting used to the brightness of this world and slightly different height of his new body. It was a small thing, but it was still important in a game like this to know how long your reach was before you ever needed it. He was ready to get out and start farming, but he'd made a promise to a friend during the beta to meet her on launch day. He darted off into the city, trying to make some quick purchases before he met up with her.

"Hey man, wait up!" Kirito heard someone calling out behind him. He stopped, looking around, trying to identify the source of the voice. He turned to see an unfamiliar man in a bandana running after him.

"Uh, sure. What's up?" was the extent of Kirito's response. He was quite certain he'd never met this guy before.

The man stumbled his way forward, almost gasping for air as he finally caught up to Kirito. "You seem like you know your way around here already. Were you in the beta test?"

Kirito couldn't keep the surprise off his face. He hadn't thought it'd be quite that obvious who the beta testers were, though he doubted it was that big a deal that he'd been part of the program. "Uh, yeah, I was."

The other man finally seemed to catch his breath, and confidently strode over to where Kirito was standing, placing a hand on Kirito's shoulder. "Cool. I'm new here, you think you could give me some pointers on the first few floors?"

"I don't know. . . I promised someone-"

The stranger didn't give Kirito a chance to finish his sentence, clasping his hands and interjecting, "Come on man, I'm begging you!" Kirito guessed that his face must have changed, because the stranger changed tones almost immediately. "Look, my name's Klein. It's good to meet you."

Kirito shook his head slightly. There was just no saying no to this guy. He'd make it quick. He didn't need Sinon getting cranky on him. Besides, the guy seemed nice enough and it wouldn't hurt to shake the rust off a little bit. And it wouldn't hurt to be nice to the newbies. He remembered how shaky he was when he first started playing. "Alright. The name's Kirito, come on."

He grimaced inwardly as, as he turned away, he heard Klein shout "Yes!" and could imagine the fist pump without needing to look back. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

November 6, 2022

Floor 1

Online Users: 10,000

Where was that idiot? Had he forgotten about her in just a month. Sinon was running through the square like a chicken with her head cut off, her blue hair whipping back and forth as she kept glancing back and forth. He wasn't hard to miss. He always dressed very blue. Not that her light green was much better, but at least she had some variety to it. She finally came to a stop, realizing he might not even have logged in yet. It seemed unlikely, since the two of them probably logged more hours in the beta than anyone, but there was always a chance.

She swiped open her menu, checking to see what all had carried over from the beta. Nothing. She frowned, but started typing in the names of the few people could remember from her friends list the last time around. And, as it turned out, Kirito was online. She sent him the friend request and, figuring he'd gotten sidetracked since she hadn't logged in exactly at launch, started off to hunt him down. He couldn't have gotten too far.

She didn't hurry too much, though, making sure to pick up some supplies with her starter money before she headed out of the city. She wasn't incompetent with a sword, she just preferred to keep her distance. It led her to fight using a relatively unique style, but one that had served her well so far. She picked up enough throwing picks to last her a while and a couple of daggers in case she really needed it, opting to wait to pick up a sword later. She also picked up a cloak, something that she noted she saw surprisingly little of, given that most people early in the game just picked up stuff that they thought would look cool on them.

Once this was accomplished and her equipment was set up to her liking, she made her way out of the Town of Beginnings down a very familiar path. Once Guilds had been unlocked, a lot of people had spent their time on the first floor testing out everything that entailed, leaving the floor clearers with the uppers floors. Of course, since player made items were better than those made by the AI, this meant a lot time was spent backtracking to pick up equipment.

Once she escaped the stone walls of the city, she found that it took her absolutely no time to find Kirito. Tall and blue, just like always. Her gaze shifted from annoyed to curious as she noticed that he was with somebody. Ostensibly training the man, since he was getting manhandled by a. . . seriously? Who had trouble with boars? She felt almost embarrassed for the man as the pig tossed him to the ground. The pig seemed to share her embarrassment, trying to turn and leave the engagement and spare the dignity of everyone involved.

She just stood there, unnoticed by the two, as Kirito seemed to explain how to use sword skills to the man. Sinon could only shake her head. Guys. Just read the manual. It actually does help. The poor boar continued its undue suffering, with Kirito pegging it from behind with a rock. Klein readied himself then charged the thing, finally putting the poor swine out of its misery. Now that they'd finished with that little farce, she felt her annoyance returning. The two men just stood there for a few minutes as the stranger continued to spar with the air. She sighed, readied one of her picks, and slung it right in front of Kirito, embedding it in the ground just past where he was standing.

Kirito jumped back as the pick embedded itself in the ground just past him. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he turned to see who had thrown it at him. Yep, Sinon, and she seemed cranky. Why was she angry at him? He blinked visibly as he suddenly remembered.

"Oh, man! I can barely beat a boar and suddenly we're being attacked by hot ninja girls? There's no way I can handle this!" Klein's words broke into his thoughts.

"Wait. . . what? That's a friend of mine, not a ninja. Why would you even think that was a ninja?" Kirito found himself once again befuddled by how this man even managed to find a copy of Sword Art Online and get it working.

"Wait, that's a friend of yours?" Klein ignored the second half of the question. "She's kinda cute." He paused for a moment, then yelled back at the blue haired lady, "Watch where you're throwing things, you could have put someone's eye out!" He was assuming that was true, since he'd heard a lot about the localized damage people could receive. They'd said that, in addition to a life point system, individual body parts could be destroyed or crippled if they were hit often enough, but would heal with hp.

"If I wanted to hit him I would have, trust me," she called back to him, walking angrily towards the pair. "What on earth happened? Did you just forget that we were supposed to meet up or something?"

Klein could sense that he didn't want to be involved in this part of the conversation. Kirito had his hands up defensively as he tried to explain. "I was looking for you as soon as I logged on, I promise!" He glanced over at Klein. "He begged for help with the lower floors. I didn't think it would take that long."

Sinon sighed, but her anger was gone. "I could see that. That poor boar." Klein shot her a look at the comment, but had admit that his first fight hadn't exactly been the most dignified. "You're hopeless, you know that?" The relieved look that crossed Kirito's features told Klein that the danger was over.

"So, Kirito, this your girlfriend?"

"What!?" Sounded in chorus from the two. Sinon glared at Kirito, who was back on the defensive, "I never said anything about dating. No, no, no, this is a friend from the beta test. We worked together quite a bit, that's all."

"Cool, in that case. . ." He walked over to Sinon, who suddenly had bad feeling about where this was going, "my name's Klein, I'm single and-" Kirito cut him off my shoving him to the ground.

"Come on man, really? This is why women don't play video games," Kirito yelled at him. Sinon could only laugh as Klein made his way back to his feet, grinning sheepishly.

"Sorry guys. Sometime I need to learn to filter things. What I meant to say was, my name's Klein, nice to meet you."

Sinon was starting to understand why Kirito had been training with this guy. She smiled as she shook his hand. "My name's Sinon. Good to meet you. Now that that's settled, how about we go off and hunt down some more boar? You look like you could use the practice."

Klein didn't even acknowledge the jab, just started running off with an affirmative yell. Kirito and Sinon glanced at each other with a sigh. The man was nothing if not earnest.

November 6, 2022

Floor 1

Online Users: 10,000

Asuna found herself surprisingly alone for a game with ten thousand players. She hadn't expected to befriend anyone immediately upon entering the game, but she hadn't expected this. She'd logged in a bit late, to be sure, but that small couple of hours had seemed to be enough for everyone to segment off into their own little groups. Still, she didn't exactly help things with her unwillingness to talk to strangers on here. She was shy around people she didn't know, which was a huge part of why Kouichirou had been planning to play along with her.

She started her day by shopping, picking up a cloak and a rapier. She'd always thought they looked regal, and maybe that was part of her upbringing. Besides, she'd always found European fencing more interesting than Japanese Kendo, though that could easily be the appeal of it being foreign. She'd never practiced with any of them before, so she just picked the one she liked.

That done, she started wandering through the town aimlessly, deciding what she should do next. People watching had some appeal, if only for the beauty of the world that surrounded her. And it was beautiful. She'd noticed that when she arrived. Everything looked real. It managed to look old without looking ruinous, and had a distinctly European feel to it. The sky, the grass, the stone, the breeze, it all felt real. The only give away that she hadn't been transported deep into the past, aside from the ever present menu system, was the runic halo surrounding the sun. It was amazing to look at, but she wondered if they wouldn't have been better served by leaving it off.

She enjoyed the atmosphere of joviality that permeated her surroundings. Everyone seemed to be laughing and chatting away. She wondered how many of these people knew each other prior to the game and how many had just met.

She found herself making her way slowly towards the edge of the city, ready to experience the combat system that was supposed to be the heart and soul of this game. It had taken her by surprise that the game would not include magic, but if they felt it would break the immersion of it, maybe that was a good thing, even if it was disappointing. The game was immersive, she had to give it that. She could feel the cold of the hilt of her weapon, the warmth of the breeze, the smells of fall day. And it was massive. She'd known it would have to be, but having never played an MMO before, found herself unprepared for the true scale of it. If this was just one city, she had to wonder at the size of the whole of the game.

She was finally outside of the city, and she saw a number of wild boars littering the countryside. One of them saw her and charged at her, but she managed to dodge it cleanly. She rolled along the ground and rose with her sword drawn, trying to remember what the manual said about sword skills. It came after her again, but it was moving so slow. She sidestepped it and gouged its side, noting that the boar only lost a fifth of its health. She'd obviously messed the skill up. As the boar came around for its third pass, she readied her rapier and felt something flowing through it. The skill, she assumed. It charged her, and this time she didn't try to dodge. She just drove her rapier through the beast's face and watched as it dissolved into red pixels. She let out a cheer at her success. The sword skill system hadn't been nearly as complicated as she'd worried, and the combat had certainly been fun. Ready to throw herself wholeheartedly into the game, she started off to find more boars to slay.

November 6, 2022

Floor 1

Online Users: 9,968

Hours later, Kirito, Klein, and Sinon were all admiring the sunset, Sinon laying on the ground, her hands behind her head, Klein sitting with one leg parallel to the ground, one leg perpendicular, resting his hands on his knees, and Kirito standing above the two. The game was truly beautiful. The floating pools that flowed into nothing, the forested platforms, and massive spectre of the dungeon tower in the distance, it all felt so real.

Klein broke the silence. "I still can't believe it. We're inside a game, guys! Whoever made this is a genius. It makes me glad I was born when I was. It's sometimes hard to believe there was period where we didn't even have video games."

"Or T.V." Sinon chimed in.

"This is just the next step in technology. It's not that big a deal," Kirito said, though he could remember how he felt the first time he'd set foot in Aincrad. It was truly impressive. It hadn't struck him as that big a deal.

"Come on guys, it's my first Full Dive! Let me enjoy it."

"You've never used a Nervegear before?" Kirito responded, Sinon having lapsed back into silence.

"Nope. Soon as I could get the money together I rushed out and got all the hardware I needed to play SAO. My friends and I got in line to pick up some of the hard copies. We camped out for days, man, but it was worth it."

"Wait, was that you on the news?" Kirito asked.

"You bet! They didn't come around until the third day, after we'd all picked up our copies. But enough about that, you guys were ten times as lucky. You got to play the beta!" This didn't elicit much more than embarrassment from the other two, so Klein decided to change tacks. "How far did you guys get, anyway?"

"Floor eight," was Sinon laconic answer.

"In two months we could only get to the eighth floor. We'll do it in half the time this time," Kirito boasted.

"You seem pretty into this, man," Klein observed, enjoying the other man's enthusiasm.

"You bet. During the beta, SAO was the only thing I could think about, day or night." Kirito unsheathed his sword, fixing his gazed upon it. "Here, your will and single blade can take you wherever you want. In this virtual world, I feel more alive than I've ever felt in the real world. I don't have to deal with being weighed down by things outside of my control. I can be who I am, and take myself as far as that will go." He replaced his sword in his sheath.

"What about you, Sinon? Why do you game?" Klein asked the second of his new friends.

Sinon didn't answer immediately. She kept her eyes fixed on the sky, ostensibly staring near the rune-rimmed sun. "I have power here. I can be strong. I don't have that on the outside. Here I can be someone different. Someone I can be proud of. I'll take that over real life."

Kirito's expression shifted closer to that of concern. He'd known her for a couple months now, and even with the unspoken taboo of talking about the real world while you were in the virtual one, it surprised him that he never picked up on this before. Sometimes all you had to do was ask, he supposed.

"We all deserve somewhere we can go to be ourselves," Klein responded. A smile softened his scruffy features. This was what he loved about the internet. You could meet and befriend people you'd never meet otherwise. Sometimes those people wouldn't have any friends otherwise. And now here they were, bonding like a trio of old friends.

Kirito broke the following silence. "You guys want to see if we can't pick off a few more boars before it's time to log out?"

Klein leapt to his feet. "Oh yeah! But, you see, the thing is. . ." the growling of his stomach finished his explanation for him. "I'm really hungry. I think it's time for me to head out for the day."

"Too bad virtual food only satisfies virtual hunger," Kirito responded, a little disappointed to see the weirdo go.

"Yeah, for real. That's why I've got a pizza being delivered at five-thirty."

"Wow. You're so prepared," Sinon deadpanned as she stood up.

"You know it! Got to treat myself on launch day. The game can wait for just a little bit." He started to turn away from them, then looked back, returning to his more serious mode. "I was going to meet up with some friends I know from another game in a bit. I don't know what you guys are up to later, but if you want, you can friend them and hang out with us later." He looked back and forth between the two. They both seemed a bit reluctant. He'd expected that out of Sinon. She'd been fairly quiet most of the day, her jabs aside. Kirito was probably just going to hang with her until she logged off. He'd have to check back in with Kirito later. "It's cool if you guys don't want to. We can try again later. Thanks for everything you guys did for me today," he made a point of making eye contact with both of them. "I'll make it up you guys later. Virtually, I mean." He offered Kirito his hand.

Kirito gave it a firm shaking, "If there's anything else you want to know, shoot me a message," he offered the man. Klein nodded in acceptance.

Klein did the same with Sinon, who also shook his hand. "Sorry about earlier," he said, making no excuses. He was who he was.

She nodded at him. "No problem, I've had worse greetings. It was good to meet you."

Klein turned and started to walk away, bringing up his menu. "Uh, guys, there's no logout button."

"Yeesh. It's at the bottom of the menu. I thought you were a gamer," Sinon said from behind him.

"Hey! I may not have known how sword skills work, but I know how to operate a stinking menu screen! Look for yourself." Klein sighed when he heard Kirito laughing at him.

"He's right, Sinon, the button's not there," Kirito's tone had shifted almost instantly to one of worry. He and Sinon both knew how serious this was, and the latter suddenly went silent.

"Oh well. It's the first day out of beta. We knew there'd be a few bugs. I bet the server people are freaking out right now," Klein brushed it off.

"Why don't you contact the game master? He should be able to help." Kirito tried to keep the worry out of his voice for the moment.

"Yeah, but he's not responding. Isn't there another way to log out of this place? A control-alt-delete type approach?"

"No. If you want out, you have to go through the menu," Kirito replied somberly.

"No way! That can't be right!" Klein proceed to dance around yelling out common computer terms in the hope it would do something, anything. Sinon and Kirito almost found themselves laughing despite being trapping in the game.

"There's no emergency logout. We can't even move our bodies to try and remove the Nervegear. We're just going to have to wait this out. I'm sure they're working on it. Maybe someone will come by and remove the Nervegear for us. Otherwise we're stuck here."

"But, I live alone. What about you guys?" Klein asked, now genuinely concerned.

"I've got a mom and a sister, so they should notice by dinner time. . ."

Klein rushed over and grabbed the other man by the shoulders, "You've got a sister? What's she like? Wha-"

"Not now, Klein," Sinon's voice came from behind the two. "We need to escape Aincrad first. Then you can worry about finding a girl."

"Hey! A guy can multitask!" a swift kick from Kirito dropped him to the ground, writhing in pain, cupping his groin. It took him a moment to remember that he didn't actually feel any pain. "Oh, right, no pain. Okay, girls later, got it." The three of them kept discussing what to do from here for some time, with Sinon contributing minimally, before a shimmering blue light transported them back to the Town of Beginnings.

November 6, 2022

Floor 1

Online Users: 9,787

The whole of SAO's playerbase found themselves suddenly assembled in the central square of the Town of Beginnings. Sinon, Kirito, and Klein stopped their bickering. Asuna, elsewhere in the square, had been about to finish her fighting for the day, and had just finished off a boar. The teleportation caught her off balance and she nearly fell into the person in front of her. "Hey! Watch where you're going!" She flinched at his words, muttering apologies as she backed away.

There was a buzz in the air. Asuna overheard a number of different conjectures as to why everyone had been gathered. Some people thought it was some rare, limited time quest. Some people thought it was just a party of some sort. She heard a couple people guessing that they were announcing some fix to the logout system. Wait. The logout system? She was about to open her menu when suddenly the sky started to fill with red hexagons. The hexagons themselves alternated between displaying the words "Warning" and "System Alert". Something weird was definitely happening. She gasped as the sky seemed to start to bleed, a red ooze pouring from the cracks between the hexes. It slowly began to pool in midair, then congealed into some sort of hooded form. A massive, red-cloaked wizard emerged in a game that was supposed to be devoid of magic. Asuna had a very bad feeling about all of this.

"Attention players," a voice boomed out above them. "Welcome to my world. I am Akihiko Kayaba, and from this moment, you are trapped in my world." The crowd had fallen silent, though murmurs of disbelief were starting to course through it. Kirito, Sinon, and Klein had a feeling what he was going to say next.

"You'll notice that the logout button is missing from your menu. This is not a bug. This is the nature of Sword Art Online. You have crossed over from Earth to become citizens of Aincrad. This is the way the first fully digital world was meant to be. You cannot log yourself out of the game and you cannot be taken out of the game from the outside. If removal is attempted, your Nervegear will microwave your brain and kill you."

That got the crowd stirred up. Asuna couldn't believe it. She just stood in shock at the revelation. She opened her menu, checking for the logout button, and, sure enough, it wasn't there. But could he really kill them with their Nervegear? How could Father not know about this? Did he mean for this to happen? Is that why he didn't want her or Kouichirou playing this game?

Klein was looking desperately at Kirito and Sinon. "He can't really do that, can he? He can't kill us with Nervegear, that's insane!"

"He's not lying. Microwave is an oversimplification, probably assuming most players haven't done any research on how the device works, but we are wearing very powerful equipment that's sending impulses into our brain. If you take the safety off of that, you could certainly do some harmful things with it."

"Couldn't someone cut the power to keep that from happening?" Klein asked, knowing he was reaching for something, anything, at this point.

"No. Remember the charge status when you put your Nervegear on? It has an internal battery," Sinon cut in this time, her face suddenly looking hard as steel.

Kayaba resumed talking, silencing the listeners for fear of their missing some part of this that might reveal it to be a joke. "Unfortunately, several families have ignored my warnings and attempted to remove the Nervegears of their family members. Because of this, the game now has two hundred and thirteen fewer players than it did at launch." The figure flicked its wrist and suddenly windows appeared around him, each showing a different nation's news coverage of the events. "As you can see, the press has already begun giving SAO around the clock coverage. The risk of sudden death due to outside forces should now be minimal, at best. I hope this lets you sleep a little easier as you attempt to complete the game. Never forget, there is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your health hits zero, you are deleted and your brain will be fried."

The whole square was deadly silent. No one quite knew how to process this new information. Asuna was still grasping the fact that her father had financed this atrocity. What did that mean for her? Did she really have any right to go on when other people had died for her father's negligence? At best? No. No, it didn't indict her. It gave her a reason to get out. To demand answers. To know whether he knew what was going to happen or not, and to know how he planned to make things right. But was there really any way out? He'd said they were now citizens here. But he'd also said something about trying to clear the game.

"There is only one way to escape now: Clear the game." The figure brought up a display of all one hundred floors of Aincrad, highlighting each as it motioned towards the final, one-hundredth floor. "Once the boss on the final floor has been defeated, everyone will be safely removed from the game." Murmurs of panic began to spread through the crowd again. Any hope for a quick resolution to this was gone. Most people had some understanding of this, but those that were here for the quest to floor eight had a very clear idea of just how difficult this was going to be.

"One final detail. I've given each of you a present. It's in your inventory. Take a look." The chiming of over nine thousand people would have been headache-inducing at the best of times. Right now, it was even worse, given how light and cheery the noise sounded with everything that had just been revealed. Within moments, everyone in the crowd had retrieved the item that Kayaba had given them. A mirror. Before they could question the item too intensively, the whole of the crowd seemed to glow with the same light that had brought them here. When the light vanished, everyone looked different.

Klein blinked, looking where his friends had been. Sinon had been replaced by a brunette in the same clothes, but seemed about the same aside from her hair and eyes. Kirito, however, was suddenly much shorter, and much more effeminate. "Kirito? Is that you?"

Kirito looked as confused as Klein did, the longhaired man he'd gotten used to over the course of the day had been replaced by one who looked significantly rougher. "Klein?"

"This is your world now. You all wear your true faces and bodies. I know you're wondering why someone like Akihiko Kayaba, who has everything the world could give him, do something like this. I wanted to create my own world. You are the final parts of my masterpiece. Fight for your lives here. I wish you good luck. Go out and show us that power of the human will is transcendent between worlds. If you wish to return to your own world, you must fight for it. You must grow and change. Prove to me that my world is inferior to the original, and you will have your freedom. This marks the end of the tutorial."

November 6, 2022

Floor 1

Online Users: 9,787

Kirito was still in shock. He'd let Kayaba become one of his heroes. He'd thought him to be a great man, and Kayaba had proven to be a monster. Trapping ten thousand people in his game for no reason other than his own amusement was unforgivable. He grabbed Sinon and Klein and dragged them away from the main group. If he wanted to survive, to get back at that monster, he had to start acting now. There wasn't any time for them to stay behind and help the newer players. He couldn't even think about that right now. His rage and his refusal to let Kayaba beat him overrode any other logic that might otherwise temper his actions. This was life and death, and he chose life. He glanced over at Klein and Sinon. Klein seemed to be recovering already, but Sinon looked out of it. Her face still looked like it was suddenly made of steel.

Her mind wouldn't stop. This was all real now. The image of the gun jumped back into her mind, the first time it had while she was online. But she didn't throw up. The images flooded through her. Her shooting a man. The life passing out of him right in front of her. The fear on the employee's face. The hate everyone had shown her. She was here to escape death. She was here to make herself strong. Maybe she couldn't do both of those at once, though. Maybe she had to stare death in the eye to be able to overcome it. She vaguely registered that Kirito and Klein were talking. Her body was frozen. She hadn't thrown up. She hadn't been thrown from the game. That was a start, but she had frozen up. No guns. No guns. No guns here, she kept repeating to herself. No need to hurt people. To escape, they only needed to fight animals. She was trying to regulate her breathing. Calm down. This was her chance. She was here to be stronger and this, this could make her stronger. The steel on her face had become mirrored by her resolve. She was going to clear this game. That would make her strong enough. It had to. She finally came back to reality. Kirito and Klein were staring at her.

"You okay?" Kirito asked her, his concern evident.

"Oh yeah, never better," she said with a vicious smile.

"Kirito going to the next town. I'm staying behind here to help some buddies of mine. We were in a guild together in our last game. I can't leave them like this," Klein informed her. He hoped she'd stay, but her expression made it clear what her decision was.

"Sorry. I'm going with Kirito. I have to get stronger. I have to clear this game." Both men were taken aback by the anger in her voice. Kirito thought it sounded even more intense than what he felt. Her now brown eyes held the same ferocity that their old bluish shade had given them.

"Alright then. I can't ask a couple of people I've only known for a few hours to risk their lives for strangers. We'll meet up in the next town." He started to leave, then turned, deciding on one last comment. "You guys look better this way. Your real faces suit you a lot better. Sinon, you're a lot prettier with your natural hair color."

She gave him a half smile at the compliment. "Thanks," was all she could muster. Her mind wasn't on appearances right now.

"Yeah, yeah, and you look better with that scruffy face of yours." With that, the three of them parted ways. Sinon and Kirito forged their way into the night, ready to cut down anything this new world could throw at them. They were going to survive. More than that, they were going to win.

A/N: I hope to at least have this caught up to where the old version was by the end of the month. Once I get to having to do new material, things will take a bit longer. This will also be sharing time with my other fic. Thank you all for reading.