The first thing Rachel noticed was a dark silence. Then the game's white loading screen appeared before her eyes playing its loading sequence in front of her. She couldn't help but watch in wonder as little circle's of information flashed before her eyes. She couldn't help but think in wonder.

' is this what Ketaro got to see when he played the game?' If that wasn't enough she found herself then brought into a dark haze room where she could look around. And move in.

" Please pick your character's features."

From what she had learned in any game, a good character requires a good look. But then again, so does any of the places you play games. Once she had picked her character's looks she gave herself the name.

" Rachel"

players appearing around her by electric blue lights. The lights would disappear moments after the players body appeared in existence. She couldn't help but watch in awe as these players, these people appeared before her. After a minute of watching the players appear around her she found herself looking at the building she was standing within.

She was within the walls of an tan stone amphitheater. The amphitheater had a Roman style look much like the Pula Arena in Pula, Croatia. The differences was that instead of having multiple artches stacked into a tall wall around them; there was only one. That one did have the same curving arches but they were at least twice the size of a normal arch from the Pula Arena and did not have a roof of any sort over the area inside its walls whats so ever. Not only that; but the Arena was also a plaza.

The plaza was very large and was at least a thousand feet in diameter from one end to another. The courtyard had been built with sandstone bricks. The stones on the ground were given the look of being ground flat and dull with its yellow beige color. within the arena was another structure.

Within the middle of the plaza was a medium sized platform where there were four columns standing around a statue in a square statue within the middle was a huge Blue mirror like glass with golden rims. It shown with a blue light and was at least the length of a large dining table.

While looking in awe at the arena around them she found herself noticing the style of the sight censer. within the middle of her vision she was able to see clear and well, something she wasn't used to. From the middle of her vision it was slightly not as clear and well and then around the edges of her vision was a somewhat blurred vision. Yet while she had looked at the blurred part of her vision she then noticed the clearly displayed health bar within her vision.

The Bar was in the upper left corner of the screen. The bar was given the look of an extremely long half trapezoid. Beneath her health bar shown her game name in white words and also shown the level of her character in the same white letters. Her stats along her health bar shown the name Rachel and a number of 250/250 ratio and her lvl being 1.

It was not a surprise to find herself at level one. What interested her more was the fact they had managed to create the health bar in such a clear manner. Over all the vision system was interesting and intriguing to her. Having noticed her vision system to the degree she had; she was now curious about how she looked within the game and decided to look at her hands.

She looked at her hands and found that she was wearing some skin tight leather gloves that she had create with a light beige look. Her long tunic was a simple grass green. She decided to touch her arms and to her surprise felt a sensation similar to touch in the outside world. She could feel the coarse sensation of the cloth against her fingertips and could feel the pressure as well as the slight tickle of the cloth to her arm. But She noticed that it was not quite the same due to the sensation being less sensitive than what she was used to. That specific detail made her frown slightly.

' I suppose that means that I can't do serious textile work here.' She thought with a little disappointment. Rachel thought that since this game was so new for its kind that it would be detailed on that aspect of the game. It was a little shocking to find that such a game didn't have that detail since she had heard from others on the internet that there was so much ' detail' and that there was so much ' free roam' abilities for those who didn't want to follow the quest line.

She could hear a lot of the players voices but to her surprise she couldn't hear a lot of what most players around her were saying even though there were alot around her by now.

"Hm..."

' Perhaps the game has a stat system?' She had been familiar with games that allowed her to raise stats, something she rather enjoyed. Yet this was not something she was used to. Due to the fact that she had never played an MMO like this before. yet the game was bringing a good opinion from her so far.

Overall the system was something she liked a lot in spite of the fact there were a few discrepancies with the information she found and the actual game. In spite of that she found it rather fascinating that they had thought of creating the game to such whole place looked like it was another world and it was something she was hoping for and it began to show on her face.

Her look of awe turned into excitement. With her lips turning into a wide and bright smile; her eyes began to light up with eagerness and anticipation of the game and what it had in store for her.

" This is it!" she whispered excitedly. " I get to explore an entirely different world! The world of Sword Art Online!" She had begun to notice the general populace of the game began to grow into a massive crowd making her a little uncomfortable. In response she moved away from the middle of the plaza and walked quickly away from the crowd. She found a spot close to one of the many arches in the area wall. In response to the less claustrophobic spot of the arena she began to watch the crowd with a remembered purpose.

She had been so involved with the awe of the game that she had nearly forgotten that she was waiting for a friend of hers to appear within the game as well. Though as she kept looking into the crowd and seeing the variety of characters she found herself quickly realizing there was no way she was going to be able to find him. Especially since,

" I can't remember what Ketaro said he looks like." She found herself stating in worry.

' Great...I hate my memory sometimes..." She was already leaning against the wall facing the center of the arena plaza. and was easy to see for her friend. The problem was that she knew that he didn't look like himself and neither did she.

She was taller than most girls within this game. She preferred the muscular build and she also went for a somewhat masculine face. Yet she was sure her kind eyes and expression was still on her face. She had dark beige skin and was given blue eyes and given herself short red hair. She wore the same simple tunic and leather pants that the others started out with. Except that her tunic was a simple grass green and her pants were a light leather tan color. She had the strange one sided shoulder patch that was strung with a leather strap around her other shoulder and her side over her chest. She was definitely not like she was in real life. Something that she had wanted but didn't realize was going to be a problem.

" Okay...how in the world do i find friends? or people? or my menu for that matter..." She closed her eyes for a moment in thought and remembered opening the box and reading the game instructions. But then she couldn't remember anything else...

" Damn it... Stupid memory..." Rachel mumbled with irritation written in her voice and face. She looked around and found herself realizing that she was more than likely going to have to ask someone to help her open the player menu.

She scanned for the crowd for someone she would be able to ask. There was a young girl who was talking with another man that piqued her interest. But those two were more than likely flirting with each other so she didn't mess with them.

There was a group of boy's she saw that were going through the same trouble. But because it was a crowd in itself she didn't want to go ask. So she continued looking. Then she saw another person who piqued her interest.

The person was alone and was already within what appeared to be a menu. The person was a male. He stood about 6 foot with somewhat lean muscles like herself. He had dark black hair that was feathered into a spikey layer. he was wearing a lot of black cloths in fact the only thing that wasn't black was the trim of his tunic and the boots he was wearing.

' Okay, I can ask him for help.' she stated to herself. She decided to stand up from the wall and walk through the thinner parts of the crowd to the tall man. She stopped at least three feet away from him and asked for his attention.

" Excuse me," She asked with a neutral tone and manner. The man stopped what he was doing and closed his menu.

" How can I help you?" His somewhat friendly tone was a little bit of a surprize to her. But she continued on with her question thinking: ' As soon as I get my information I will leave him alone then.'

"can you show me how you opened the menu?" She asked with a more friendly tone as well. The man smiled at her and then stepped next to her.

" You just take your right hand and swipe your pointer and middle fingers down in front of you like this." He took his right hand and pointed his first and middle finger and then swiped his fingers down in the air and his own menu appeared.

" Oh, so like this then?" She mimicked him and found herself unable to make sure if she remembered everything. In fact she found herself still drawing a blank on her memory.

" Yes that's right."

" Thank you."

" You're welcome! Is there anything else I can help you with?"

" Well, I don't remember if there is a button in the menu that allows you to find people within the game or not but I don't know where to look." The guy seemed to get a surprised look

" Honestly you just go to friends list and you type in the name of the player you are looking for and then send them a friend request, right?" Rachel found herself giving him a confused look.

" Well, yes in normal MMOs you do that but I don't know if its the same in this one."

" Oh...I'm sure it is then!"

" Why do you say that?"

" Because you said it's normally in there right?"

" Yes..." She drew her word cautiously.

" You haven't played many of these games have you?"

" Well, not exactly. My friends play these types of games a lot." He replied. " I was actually kind of dared to play it, so I don't know much about the game either."

" So that makes the two of us huh?" Rachel said with a smile. To her surprize there was a slight blush on the guys face.

" So..." he drawed out. " Since you and I are new to the game...would you...like to team up for a while?" Rachel honestly found herself flattered and began to think on her answer for a moment.

" Well, I am waiting for a friend."

" O-oh..."

" But I'm sure he has my information. So you and I can team up for a while. Just understand that I do need to find him at some point." The guy lit up with joy.

" I understand completely. How about we play until say...sunset?" Rachel found herself frowning a little.

" Sunset is a long time..."

" Well then...How about until noon? Then if you decide you like my company we can...add each other as friends?" She smiled at him and nodded.

"That's something i can do." Rachel thought it was interesting that he was shy. She knew that she was a well looking character and all. But that didn't mean it still wasn't a surprise. In fact, from what she had seen within her school she had found his actions saying that he might be attracted to her. While she did see this she decided to not let it bother her and act like she wasn't seeing it. She knew that while she was observant and hyper aware of these things; she also knew that she easily read into things too much.

" So... You don't mind fighting with someone who doesn't know how to play MMOs?" In a way she found it to be a silly question. But she nodded.

" You seem to be the type to learn fast. And you look more informed than you give yourself credit for." Listening to him be unsure of himself made her kind of pity him. So she replied in this manner. The guy nodded.

" T-thank you." To her surprise he bowed to her. " I hope that we can become friends." She found it kind of strange for him to bow to her, let alone be so eager to be his friend.

' I normally don't just add any random stranger to my friends list.' she thought to herself. ' but i guess if i feel like i enjoy his company i will.'

" I'll tell you what, We'll see at noon okay?" He nodded with a smile on his face.

" Alright."

" So...I need to check what equipment I have and then see what you have." Rachel stated.

" Why do you need to do that?

" Well, it will help me understand what you and I are going to be able to do."

" Oh, okay." So she looked through her menu at the equipment tab and found her list of equipment slots.

She was allowed to equip chest armor, leg armor, boots, gloves, a shield, a sword, a helmet, apparently a set of clothes that might go underneath the armor and a cape. While looking at the sword and shield slots she found that she owned what they called a " dull short sword" she clicked on it and found its stats.

It didn't do anything for the strength and the stamina bars. But the attack itself was not good. Her sword had a endurance bar that read 25/25 and her sword did 1-2 damage. She couldn't help but frown.

" Well, this isn't good." The guy she had met looked at her with a curious expression.

" What's wrong?" He asked. Rachel ushered him over.

" My sword has an extremely low attack." He also frowned.

" That's not good is it?" She found herself shaking her head.

" No its not. Not unless it was intentional."

" Well, didn't the game have different classes?" Rachel was taken aback.

" There were?" She found herself asking.

" Well, I think there were. But that's because I actually found an option to change my character's class choice."

" I see." Rachel replied. She closed her equipment page and began to look through the menu.

" What are you doing?

" I'm going to the character page to see if what class I chose." As she replied she opened up her character profile.

She was Level 1, had 250 hp, had 10 strength and 10 speed. The profile shown that she had no bonuses, no health regen, no pets, and then she found there was no class stat whatsoever.

" There isn't any..." The guy was taken back and looked into his own screen.

" Hm...I could have sworn..." Rachel found herself watching him look through his menu and he found the same thing on there.

" That's strange, I don't have a class either."

" I remember reading that this is a stat raising game, not a level raising game."

" Well if that's the case then why did I have a choice in class?" Rachel found herself puzzled for a moment... They both stood there quietly. With the noise of the crowd becoming more overwhelming in their silence; Rachel found herself asking.

" Why don't we go somewhere else to figure this out? The noise is starting to get to me." The guy nodded and then he replied.

" I agree." Rachel internally decided to lead them out.

" Come on, we'll find a place with less people if we leave." She then began to walk away. The guy was a little surprised by her initiative.

" H-Hey!" She looked back at him.

" Is there something wrong?"

" N-no, just i wasn't expecting you to just suddenly leave like that." Rachel gave him a look of slight surprise.

" Oh, well I thought it wouldn't be an issue to just get us out of here so."

" Do you even know where you are going?" Rachel shook her head.

" Just going where I feel is the best place too. Also." she pointed outwards towards one of the arches.

" Out that arch seems to be a big street with trees and some water. I'm not really sure if anyone is going there yet. Since i'm sure people are trying to look for their friends." The guy got this little guilty look on his face that rachel saw.

" Don't worry, we'll find each other eventually. We always do." But it didn't seem to cheer him up.

" I'm sorry for taking you away from your friend... To be honest my friends dared me to be in the game for one day. And...I honestly don't know what I'm doing and when you walked up to me I thought that maybe I could work with you for the day until my deal is up." Rachel honestly didn't mind. The guy was nice, and shy, and not super confident from what she could tell. She wasn't necessarily up to being game friends with a complete stranger, but if she was convinced she would add him to her friends list. Either way, she wasn't really all that concerned.

" Well, if you really need help playing the game for a day I will do my best. But I'm not a beta tester so there's not a lot I know about this game in particular. Okay?" The guy smiled and nodded.

" I understand!" She then turned back.

" Let's continue walking, its really loud here." She was not aware of the look of disappointment on his face. and while she did her best not to get into a tight group of people she found herself taking his hand and walking through a huge crowd. Honestly the act made him blush again but she didn't really know about that one.

They were able to quickly get out of the area and found herself within a wide open area for the most part. While there were tall trees standing at a point along the sandstone road, and a huge body of water with a huge fountain in the middle of it. It wasn't all that crowded yet. In fact there was a good spot next to the water that looked really nice to sit.

And yet she stood there with a thought on her mind. ' I don't do well with crowds.' she thought. ' I know fully well that when they get over the awe of the game like I did that they are going to flock in this direction the most. I don't like that. I'm sure Sora wouldn't like that either...Then there is the fact that he mentioned a lot to me so far on the life he has outside and himself.' It was a cause of great concern to her and she found that she wanted not to go there on the off chance he said some sensitive information in front of looked around for a moment. She found herself looking back at the arena and found a little secluded area where there were some trees. And it looked rather appealing to her.

then to his surprise she walked with her hand in his and was bring them almost back into the same direction. The guy was confused.

"Um I thought we were trying to get away from the noise." Rachel easily replied

" The other people will probably follow the main road outside the arena where we left. Not many people are going to really leave to go back to the place unless it's necessary." The guy questioned her logic and voiced his opinion.

" Isn't that contradicting what we were trying to do?" Rachel stopped walking and stood in silence, pondering her words and his words.

" You know you do make sense. But I do think differently than most.

" You do know i have no idea what you mean by that right?" she found herself struggling with her words for a moment.

" You are making sense is what I mean. I honestly thought that going away was a good idea originally."

" You thought that originally huh? Then why did you start bringing us back to the place?"

" Well, I thought that the place would be better; because we wouldn't have to worry too much about people passing by us too much. That while it is somewhat loud, it is out of the way from traffic is all." She found herself kind of curious of her own thought process once more.

He found himself a little confused with her choice of language. While he did listen to her reasoning; he didn't really agree with it. He thought that it didn't make sense because they were trying to get away from people and the noise, not go back to it.

" I think you kind of lost the point of us getting away from the noise and the people." Rachel found herself blushing slightly in embarrassment.

" Well, where do you want to go then?" He blinked blankly for a moment. ' Wasn't she leading us a moment ago?' He shook his head and then replied.

" Well I want to be able to be away from the huge mob of people without being to isolated since honestly I don't like being alone with strangers." Rachel found herself taken aback from his answer.

" I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. Sometimes I do things without considering the other party's feelings." He honestly thought that she became a completely different person. ' God' he thought, ' she's being pretty bipolar.'

" No no," he replied. " I'm the one who should have said something. Believe me this is not something i usually forget."

" In my defence, you did say you wanted to spend time with me. I assumed that because of the crowd and the sound that it would be better to be away from people because-" She stopped herself with embarrassment. ' I said too much again...' He found himself confused.

" Honestly I have only a few questions for you and we can be in public for them. Look I don't know where exactly you got the idea you wanted to be alone with me; but I would appreciate if you didn't assume that." She nodded.

" I will ask you next time."

" Honestly I don't think there will be a next time."

" Honestly? You had prompted me to spend the day with you, then you agreed for noon. Now you are deciding to change your mind?" Her response was a surprise that he was a little speechless.

" If you don't want to spend the day with me, tell me now. I will leave you alone and you can go on your way. But I do not mind you spending time with me if it means you keep your bargain. If a friendship comes about from it fine, if it does not find. Quite frankly I did go out of my way to spend time with you. But If you decide to keep your word. You can't just back out of it because I do something I don't know isn't okay. We may be strangers; but if you want me to respect you for the time we are spending time with each other tell me what makes you uncomfortable and I will respect your wishes." He did not know what to say.

" Honestly..." He started and then closed his mouth. He had no idea what he was doing. He had no idea who this person really was. He didn't know she liked listening to his wishes on respect. He honestly didn't think about it and in away expected her to know what was okay and what was not. But he did not expect her to be serious like this. He honestly felt a little guilty. She had mentioned that he did ask for her time, to spend a day with her to make the bargain happen. He honestly felt a little offended that she was saying this to him; but he had not expected her words to be honest.

" I am not going to stand here all day sir. Please make your decision." He had not expected that response. He didn't want to have her hate him. He was honestly wanting to spend time with her. He just didn't like she had done something that made him uncomfortable.

As they stood in silence she became more and more irritated. She knew that her thinking process did not make sense to him. She didn't really quite know why she didn't listen to her first response. But then again, she has second guessed herself before and she knew that. She was starting to not really care and was deciding to leave if he didn't answer soon.

No one said anything and she said to him after a few minutes.

" Look, I got stuff to do make your decision now or I'm going back to what I was going to do before."

' Believe me I want to say what I want.' He thought in his head. ' but i don't think you'll take my answer well...'

Her reply was.

" Well, if you are not going to make a decision i am going." She had left him but he didn't have the guts to say that he wanted to stay with her. Honestly he didn't know if he would ever see her again. He did have enough courage to ask.

" Can I least have your name?" He asked as she was leaving. She paused and then replied.

" Its Rachel. Now, I'm going to leave." she was then about to continue and he said.

" My name is Sora." He had once again made her stop. For a moment he thought that she had changed her mind. But she surprised him with her words.

" If you plan on sending me a friend request keep in mind that I am not going to put up with you not setting boundaries with me." He had not expected that, but he acknowledged it. Then Rachel left his presence.

Sora watched her walk off with an irritated attitude. He also found himself irritated with her behavior. ' Note to self, she is bipolar and I probably shouldn't try to contact her.' He found himself pushing her words away in his mind and deciding to find ways to figure things out himself.

Rachel had walked back to the plaza and found that the people who were appearing stopped appearing with such speed and such quantities. In fact there were only a few popping up at a time at most now. The many people who had been there had already been leaving in big groups and was quickly becoming deserted. She was now pretty sure that her friend was going to be able to find her with how the mass of people was quickly diminishing. So she sat against the inner wall of the arena and waited for someone to approach her.

The waiting game however was beginning to annoy her once a few people had been left and she was literally about to abandon the arena.

" Ketaro Jurushima I did not get into the game to waste what little time I have to play it..." She said loudly. Honestly she had then remembered that she could call out his name to find him.

She gave herself a palm to her face for the fact that her memory and logic was getting bad again. ' I thought this wouldn't happen while I was in the game...Yet another thing that is a little under developed...Then again, it was supposed to be realistic and it was supposed to use your brain so this is happening because of that." She concluded.

To her surprise a guy walked up to her, he had green hair and brown eyes. his nose was big and he had a scar on his face. He didn't have any armor that wasn't a brown color. She looked at him with confusion and weariness.

" Are you Abigail?" She found herself giving him a face of shock and she asked him.

" Ketaro, Ketaro Jurushima?" He smiled and said. " Well Looks like we finally found each other." She stood up and whipped at dust on her pants automatically and smiled at him.

" Well it's time that we found each other." He nodded. " You know you look way off from you original idea." She nodded with a somewhat sheepish smile. " You know me, my mmo persona is like this you know. I see you made a character to not attract attention." He actually looked proud of his look.

" Well I don't need players fawning over me in game. I just want to play the game in peace."

" So do I."

" What took you so long to find me anyway?" He asked her.

" Well a guy named Sora had helped me open my menu and he happened to ask me for help with a bet he made to stay in game all day. He got mad at me because I was taking him to a secluded spot. I wanted to be able to hear him and not have a huge crowd passing by. He didn't really give me an answer of staying with me or being on his own. So I made the choice for him and left."

" Wow Abigail your harsh."

" You know me Ketaro, I can be blunt and an ass sometimes."

" You know that doesn't remind me of the abigail I really know."

" Yeah Yeah, you can say all you want that I'm hiding behind my characters looks. But in my defense people respect me more with this look and my attitude i put on helps me not get run over."

" Honestly you just need to be upfront with people within real life too."

" Believe me Ketaro I am."

" Honestly you keep saying that, and while I hear you doing that with gaming people I know you don't do that well within real life." She was now getting angry and knew they needed to change the subject before it turned back.

" Ketaro let's not get into this right now. I really just want to enjoy the game before I have to go back to America." He looked to be a little grudging about it but he nodded.

" Alright, I'll drop it but this ain't over."

" Okay fine, drop it."

" So..." he said with some irritation in his voice. " what do you know how to do?"

" Well I don't know how to fight. I know how to use the menu. don't know how to friend people. I didn't check the skills page, and I didn't like how weak my sword is." He furrowed his brow.

" Can I see your sword?"

" Yea sure." She opened up her menu and showed him the stats of the sword.

" This is the normal weapon for beginning players. Like I said before I was a beta tester."

" I know Ketaro. Anyway I want to go fight some monsters."

" You don't want to do any quests?"

" I don't do quests very much in games like this."

" That's right you like to grind levels."

" Well you did tell me that you level up skills. In all honesty the fact that its free roam makes me want to just do what I want, and not what the story line says."

" Okay fair enough." He began walking away.

" Come on, I will show you where your first monsters are."

" Sounds good to me!" Abigail found herself following him directly around the big fountain pool and directly down the sandstone street and directly out of the gates.

Once they arrived at the gates Ketaro stopped.

" Okay Abigail here is how it's going to be out there. You are fair game to certain monster out there. Right now most of the monsters around the Town of Beginnings are not hostile automatically. But when you attack them they become hostile. You cannot attack them like you would in real life. You have to charge up a skill. To do that you have to set yourself in a certain stance. But I will show you how to fight first before you fight. Okay?"

" Ketaro I want to say that if you get crafting materials please give them to me. Other wise after I am done with the ' Tutorial' I'm going to go off a little to get my own supplies from these monsters."

" Well if you do need me during that you can always run to me."

" Thanks bro." He smiled warmly

" Your welcome Abigail." They then walked out of the gates. The environment outside of the gates was a vast grassy plains. There were some trees in the far distance as well as little islands that were not only hovering in the air but were also giving a waterfall of water from itself.

Nearby them were some brown furred boars with yellow ivory tusks and red eyes. They seemed to graze quite contently as if there was nothing wrong and no impending doom on their lives. She found herself getting a little nervous now. She had not really fought in her life. In fact she never took a fighting class let alone participated in violence within reality.

" Okay there is one boar pretty close to us. Let me show you how to fight monsters." Ketaro began to lead Abigail to the boar with confidence. She on the other hand, despite showing a great deal of confidence earlier had began to shake a small bit and became very nervous instinctively. once they got within ten feet Ketaro stopped and held a hand up.

" Wait here so that I can show you what to do without you getting attacked." she confirmed his request and stood in her spot as he walked up to the boar.

The boar did not do anything when he had walked within five to three feet of it. In fact it simply kept grazing as if no one was there. Ketaro pulled his sword from his hip. He was using a very tarnished and very dull metal sworld it was at least as long as his thighs and hips length. Its tip was dull and its blade had been given a light beige tint to its metal blade. The sword's hilt was not very fancy either. It was a simple oak wood base that only covered a few inches of the blade and then stretched down into a inch thick neck and had no bottom piece. The blade had a metal band around the wooden base holding the blade and there was no basic cushion on the neck of the hilt. Abigail didn't know what kind of sword it was, but it was not looking like a very good weapon of choice.

" Okay so here is what you do." He began. " You can hold your sword in front of you with both hands, or you can hold your sword at your side blade facing behind you for a stealth attack, or you can hold your sword with the sharp part of the blade in towards the enemy with the tip pointing to either side of you like this." He held his sword in a defensive stance.

" These stances are the first ones that you automatically start with for skills. Each one builds a skill that you have in game. Now keep in mind that while you can level your skills pretty high you need to have some sort of strategy to keep yourself from being overwhelmed by monsters later in the game, should you train a lower level stat." He then went to the offensive stance.

" Now while in this stance my skill charges. When the skill is ready the sword turns a different glowing color." His sword then began to turn into a dull orange.

" Now with my skill charged up I run up and launch my attack!" He ran up and gave a harsh down stroke of his sword onto the Boar. The boar squirmed and squealed as a red slash appeared with digital light rose squares showed from within its body.

The boar turned around furiously and snorted in rage. It scratched the ground with its back left leg and then charged at him.

" When they are coming at you, you can use your weapon to indirectly block their attacks." He demonstrated by holding is swords flat side and held it in front of him in a braced stance. He caught the charge and skid back a little from the force. The boar pushed against him with strongly though he handled its strength with practiced ease.

" You can parry without using a skill and while you can block like this, it's better to use your Defense Stance. I'll show you why." He pushed the boar back and kicked it away from him about five feet. It landed on its side though it took no damage. It quickly scraped its way back up and then charged at him. He waited for the right moment as his sword turned orange and then when he got at least a half a foot away he launched a counter and pushed the boar back once more and slashed it while it was down. He did a number on him and was almost boar struggled to stand and once it got its bearings it once again charged at him.

" Draw your sword Abigail!" Abigail was startled and and looked at him with panic and confusion. The boar quickly hit his sword and she fumbled to draw her sword.

" Abigail Hurry Up!" He yelled she brought her sword out and with shaking arms brought her body and sword into the defensive stance.

"Alright it's coming to you now." He kicked the boar into her direction and not seeing it coming didn't have the reaction time to strike and it hit her.

Her health dropped as she was launched back. She lay there grimacing for a moment expecting pain,only to feel none. She heard a glistened shatter and found herself looking at Ketaro. He had a somewhat disappointed look on his face. She sat up looked around for the boar and asked.

" What happened to it?"

" You failed the last attack so i finished it off." She looked down at herself in anger and disappointment.

" But you know you did do well for a beginner." She looked up at him curiously. " The new players probably wont know how to fight because they don't understand the system.

" but I do know we are the ones who can beat SAO together WITHOUT having lots of help." She smiled

" Thanks Ketaro."

"No problem!" He held a hand out to her.

" Need a hand up?" She shook her head. And got herself onto her knees.

" For once, I can get myself up." She then managed to push herself up on her right leg and wobbled slightly. He was silent for a moment and then asked in a serious tone.

" Your independance really matters to you right now huh?"

" This is the only place i'm going to get it so…"

" That has to suck…"

" Well, we are all given different cards, its just a matter of what you do with them."

" But why can't you do that where you're from?"

"...There are many reasons…" She turned away. " Reasons I don't really want to talk about, again."

" Believe me, I hate hounding you but you've got to tell me everything one day, Abigail."

" Ketaro, just because your my best friend doesn't mean I need to tell you everything right now." She chuckled somewhat got this hurt look on his face. She didn't see this because she was turned away.

" Anyway let's get to another one of those boars. I want to be able to farm them and start my dream carrier in SAO!"

" Which is?"

" Become a Blacksmith!"

" Well, now that I know you have an ambition who am I to stop you? Come on, lets go get another one." She realized what she had been saying and found herself frowning slightly.

' It happened again didn't it?' She found herself unable to remember some of the things that had happened in their conversation. Like many times before she had lost her memory. And she was most likely young and perky like they who have noticed her lose time said.

' honestly that really annoys me…' she looked at ketaro and asked him.

" What did we talk about?" He turned around and looked at her.

" Honestly you only said you wanted to be a Blacksmith. Are you really losing your memory that bad?"

" Look, you know what I mean."

" Look I don't, you know that I can't read you mind Hikaru." She frowned.

" That's my not game name."

" And that's also the name of the personality I'm talking to isn't it?"

" You know I am different from rachel then?"

" You do realize I am very observant right?"

" Yes, I suppose I do."

" So then who was the one you were asking about?"

" You know I don't know your name or her name right?" He sighed.

" Its Ketaro, and quite frankly that was abigail who talked to me. She's the owner of the body after all." Hikaru frowned.

" I am, not her."

" You know you're right. But Right now you are her. But you won't be for long." Looking around he found another boar nearby."

" Alright Hikaru! Lets see your stuff. You know how to attack right?"

" Honestly I can't remember much of our conversation so your going to have to tell me again." He sighed.

" Okay." He not only did the same thing as before but he also showed her the sneak attack. He then launched the boar at her once again and then she launched at it with a sneak attack and destroyed it. He was quite frankly a little impressed.

" So this is the famous Hikaru Yami i've heard so much about."

" You haven't seen anything. You know as well as i do that i have more abilities than this game can actually give me." She had held hand and looked to concentrate on it and for a moment she found herself angrily flicking her hand once and placing it down.

" Hmph. there isn't any chakura abilities here." He couldn't help but chuckle a little.

" Hikaru this is a sword fighting game. There are no magical abilities or this chakura your speaking of."

" Before you berate me understand that I already knew about SAO and what it is like here. I honestly didn't think that i would be conformed to the-" A loud bang echoed through the game. And the people around them and themselves started to teleport to the town square.

He and her got separated and found themselves surrounded by others who they didn't know.

Abigail's personality Hikaru had looked for him in the crowd with elite calm but couldn't find him. She found herself threatening to switch but she had no idea she had no control over when it happened. She had been unable to hold it back and switched.

" Ketaro!" She had yelled. Listening into the crowd she hoped to hear him but the noise proved to be too much.

" To be quite frank, this is ridiculous." Het, another of her personalities, had stated.

" To be fair Hikaru and I were not expecting this."

" You guys not a good time…" Abigail had once again Rachel had then taken back over.

" Okay I'm going to take control and then you guys stay in until everything's fine."

" I'll have you know we can handle things too!" Het replied.

Then to her amazement in the sky where the holographic sky was flashing with warning notices a ooze began to fall from the top of the screen an became a hooded being floating in the air.

" Welcome to Sword Art Online."

" You have probably noticed by now that there is no log out button in you menu. I assure you that it was no accident."

" You guys are now apart of this world, and you must complete the game in order to leave. Now, if you die while playing the game… you die in the real world. There are already a few people who have died, and one of them by trying to take off the helmet. The helmet has a radioactive chip that will produce radio waves and kill you should you die in the game, or someone tries to take off your helmet."

He then started to raise is hand.

" There is something in your inventory. I suggest you take a look." Looking into her inventory she then opened the new item. And found herself looking at herself in game. Then she watched her form change to her face and for a moment she saw what she looked like.

She was heavy faced and had brown hair and green eyes, she had freckles on her face. Then she fell to her side. She landed with a thud and looked at herself when she sat up only to find…

Her right leg was gone.