It was the beginning of Kazuto's second year in high school and he still hadn't really made any friends since first year. At the beginning of his first year he stopped some bullies from targeting a group of gamers that he knew but in doing so he put a target on his back. No one had approached him which was probably a good thing since anyone who would try to associate with him would get ostracized in school too.

One of the people that had been bullied, a third year named Ryoutarou, had tried to thank him and be friends with him but Kazuto decided it would be better to ignore him. He thought it would be better this way, but he always felt a twang of guilt whenever he saw him. Ryoutarou was a tall guy with red hair and always wore a bandana. Many people thought he was a delinquent but really he was just a gamer.

Kazuto had spent most of his time during first year at home alone, but he didn't mind since he was a huge fan of the new game that was out called Sword Art Online (SAO). What no one at school knew was that he was ranked as the number one player in that game thanks to all of the hours he had logged. Since SAO was well known around Japan everyone knew about the lone black swordsman named Kirito.

Kirito only had a few contacts inside the game. One was a samurai named Klein who was the leader of a small guild. Another was Agil, a large man who ran the store Kirito would sell all his items at. Kazuto had heard Ryoutarou at school mention SAO and that he was Klein in game and all of his friends were in that guild. The guilt he felt in real life is what pushed him to become friends with him in game.

Kazuto walked to school in the morning with his little sister Suguha, who was starting her first year at school, and her friend Keiko. They were both in the same class together. They were chatting away about how excited they were for their first day of high school when Kazuto ran into something. He was on the ground trying to get up when he noticed that the something he ran into was none other than Asuna Yuuki. Asuna is the most popular beautiful girl in the whole school. Every guy has a crush on her. Although Kazuto doesn't particularly have a crush on her he cannot deny her beauty.

"Sorry about that. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." Kazuto helped her up.

"That's alright I was distracted too. You are Kazuto right? You are in my class."

"Yeah that's me." She looked over to the two girls who had been quiet during the whole exchange. "I should introduce you! Asuna this is my little sister Suguha and her friend Keiko. They are first years."

"Nice to meet you two." She shook their hands and smiled at them.

"Asuna! Let's go we are going to be late!" The group looked over and saw another girl who was in Kazuto's class. Rika was Asuna's closest friend and those two were always together.

Asuna ran off and waved.

"Does brother have a crush?"

"Don't be ridiculous! She is the most popular girl in school and you two are the only two in the school I talk to."

"You need some friends. There have to be other weird gamers who play that sword game you play so much."

"Sword Art Online?!" Kazuto turned around to see Ryoutarou standing behind him beaming. "Why didn't you say you played!? You should join our guild!"

"Actually I am already in a guild." He lied.

"What guild?"

"The Army." He chose the largest guild so as to have a good reason why he could just blend in.

"Damn. If you ever want to leave the Furinkazan guild!" He left to rejoin his friends to go to class.

Kazuto turned back to his sister. "Thanks for that. Now he is going to keep bugging me about it. I don't want people knowing I play SAO."

"Why? Aren't you like the best player in the world! That is cool."

"Whatever." Kazuto left the two girls to go to class.

Kazuto sat down in his seat in the back of the class and saw the Asuna and Rika up front chatting away. Everyone got quiet as the teacher walked into the classroom. He was huge! More than 6 feet tall, bald, muscular, and scary looking.

"Everyone to your seats. I will be your homeroom teacher this year. My name is Andrew Mills. Let's get the questions out of the way first. I am really tall. No, I am not a criminal. No, I am not Japanese. Anything else?"

Several students raised their hands to ask questions which Kazuto didn't really pay attention to until something caught his attention. "Even though I am an adult I like to play video games in particular SAO. My character name is Agil and I actually own a shop in the game and I expect you all to become my customers if you play."

Kazuto was surprised. Agil. The only other person in the game he talked to was his homeroom teacher? 'Just how many people do I know that play this game?' he thought.

"Does that mean you are the guy that talks to Kirito!? What is he like?"

He got bombarded with questions. Of course that was going to happen since he revealed his player name IRL. Kazuto felt a little bad though since most of the questions are about him. Agil became pretty popular since he sold Kirito's items which were more valuable since Kirito is further in the game than anyone else. Everyone went around the room and announced their names and what guild they were in. None of the names were well known but some were part of large well known guilds. Kazuto and Asuna were the only two that said they didn't play. Kazuto obviously was lying, but for Asuna that wasn't surprising. Kazuto didn't really see her as a gamer type.

Later that day after class Kazuto went home to play SAO. He had some level grinding planned for the day and went deep into a dungeon a spent hours there. Suguha wasn't home because she had Kendo practice. The High school team scouted her since she was in the national tournament last year as a middle schooler.

Kazuto had the whole house to himself. After grinding in the dungeon for a long time he realized how late it was. He went back to town to see if Agil was still open but instead while rushing around a corning he ran into someone by accident.

He looked up and saw a beautiful young girl with white hair that even a solo player like him recognized. "Snow Princess?" Snow Princess was considered one of the top players. She was at the head of a highly ranked guild called Knights of the Blood Oath and was considered almost and idol of the game. Everyone knew her.

"Kirito?" Sometimes Kazuto forgot how famous his character was since he always avoided people.

"Sorry I was in a hurry. I was in the dungeon longer than I thought and I was trying to hurry to the Agil's."

"I just came from there. He said he was going to be open for another hour so you don't need to hurry."

"Thank you."

"Can I come with? I want to see some of the stuff you got."

"I guess it really isn't anything interesting." They walked through the town together which was definitely earning some stares. Kirito was used to this treatment but it felt more awkward now. The most mysterious solo player walking through town with the SAO idol.

Kazuto tried to keep small talk going but since he barely ever talks to anyone in or out of game it wasn't going so well. "Do you normally go to Agil's?"

"Sometimes. He runs a good store."

"I see." More awkward pause between the two with more stares as they get closer to the center of town.

The two finally reached the store. When they entered it was packed and after listening a little bit he could pick up a few words like teacher or school. Kirito walked forward and spoke above the sound of the crowd. "Agil you should be careful about IRL information being told in the game Mr. Teacher."

The store grew quiet and stared at Kirito and Snow Princess together. Kazuto looked at them feeling awkward under their stares. He assumed they were his classmates and it made the game he used to escape school feel awkward as well.

"Didn't you just leave Snow Princess?" The shop owner was talking to the girl beside Kirito

"Kirito mentioned he had been in a dungeon all day. I wanted to see what kind of items he picked up considering he is probably 5 levels further in the game than anyone else."

The shop owner turned to the black swordsman. "What do you got for me?"

The video game confidence came back to Kirito. "Just some junk I found lying around." While saying that he opened his window and showed him what he wanted to sell.

"SERIOUSLY! I don't even know what most of this stuff is but there are weapons and armour in here that top players can't even equip!" Everyone was looking back at Kirito.

"Well do you want to buy it? I don't need it and you can probably make good money off of it. I will give you the usual deal?"

"Done."

"What's the usual deal?" The two of them stopped and turned around looking at Snow Princess. They had forgotten she was even there.

"That's a secret." Said the solo player.

The two made their deal and Kirito left the store promising to stop by tomorrow.

Snow Princess followed Kirito out of the store. "Hey do you want to team up tomorrow?"

That surprised him. It used to happen all the time that people wanted to team up with him, but recently people have left him alone. "Sorry I am a solo player."

"It could be for only a little bit. I am pretty highly ranked myself. It could be fun."

He knew he wasn't going to be able to leave until he agreed. "Fine, but you better not drag me down."

"Yay!" She bounded off into the night.

Kazuto logged off after he got back to his in-game apartment. "Why did I agree to this?"

A/N: This was pretty fun to write. I plan on continuing the story but I have no idea how long it may go or where it will lead. I hope you enjoy it and give any feedback you can think of since I don't know where I want to go with this your comments may help give me ideas on what to do.