Disclaimer: Sword Art Online and all of its related characters belong to their respectful owners.

Copyright warning: Original characters, meaning characters that appears in this story besides those that comes from SAO belongs to me (BadLuckExpert) any use of the characters without my notice can and will be dealt with.

Just once, I gazed at the night sky.

It doesn't have any deeper meaning whatsoever; I saw it from the roof of my house. It was late December. I was bored that night and a blackout occurred to the whole city for temporary maintenance because of the snow. I lied down with my hands behind my head and fixated my gaze to the night sky.

On normal occurrences, stargazing is probably not a special thing. However, living in a big city of Tokyo on this modern era; you hardly had the time to stop your legs and looked up. That's why on that night, my eyes saw what could be considered a breathtaking view.

Blanket of darkness that is the night sky sprawled as far as the eyes can see. The stars that scattered on it made a path of light that twinkled brightly. Rarely got the opportunity to do so, I used that chance to test my astronomical knowledge. I spotted Perseus quite easily, and after some time I finally found the Canis Major and slightly wondered how can two stars look like a dog? Laughing quietly at my thoughts, I continued my nightgazing; spoiling my eyes with the view of the sparkling white powders.

Not long after that the maintenance finished much to my likings. First the street lights blinked a few times then the shops on the streets started lighting up their neon signs; the office buildings' floors lit up one by one and just like that, the light pollution done it's job, covering the lights from the sky with its own. I sighed a puff of white cloud and jumped to my balcony, as I slide the door I looked back; wondering if I'll ever see such view again.

Two years later I saw it, only it's not from the roof of my house nor through my naked eyes; I saw it through the Nerve Gear, the world's very first virtual reality machine; from the white grassy hill on the top of a snowy mountain.

...

I was someone you'd never notice.

Well, 'never' is a big word. Surely someone would recognize my existence when they saw a figure of a young man walking on the streets or sitting on a bench, but the chances of that happening are quite slim. I was that type of person who just sat on the corner of the class, looking through the window with my hand supporting my head while the teacher wrote our assignment on the board. Despite my appearance I am actually pretty smart, science is my strong subject. I probably got it from my parents whom both were scientists. Because of my grades and records the teachers basically let me do what I want in class, not that there's much to do anyway so I tend to just look outside the window to admire the weathers or the bustling views from the town.

'What about friends?'

Ah, about that. I don't have any. It's not because I'm being bullied or that I'm a bad guy. I just...avoid people, because of personal reasons. Also my cold demeanors prevent my classmates from talking to me, I once heard a girl saying that I looked scary but I just ignored her. It's probably because of this that I don't go outside much. The only time that happened was when my mom or my older sister asked me to go shopping with them or when I needed to buy school materials; besides that I pretty much locked myself in my room.

One day, I overheard several of my classmates talking about a new game developed by Kayaba Akihiko, a scientist I admired. They were talking about a closed beta tester applications to fill out and a thousand from them would be chosen to test the said game. When I got home that day, curiosity piqued me. I quickly turned on my computer and filled out the entry form with my hopes a bit higher than usual. Then, a month later I received a package in my mail box; wondering what it is I picked it up and made my way to my room. When I got there I noticed a blinking light from one of my monitors indicating a new mail is present. I opened it right away and surprised to see that I was chosen to be one of the beta testers, my heart is filled with joy and when I opened the brown package I discovered a transparent box with a cover that says 'Sword Art Online' with a little 'Beta Version' scribbled under it.

Without further ado I opened my closet and took out a helm-like object along with a cable and a small compact laptop about the size of an old, previous era Nintendo DS. These are the Nerve Gear hardware, I bought them the first day it was sold to figure out how it worked and ended up tinkering with it instead of using it to play, I guess my blood just won when it comes to things like these. After setting it up on the head of my bed I read the rest of my e-mail and found the instructions manual. Then, I put on the helmet and lay still on my white mattress; looking at the battery indicator on the upper right and an analog clock on the upper left. I closed my eyes and spoke clearly.

"Link start!"

And with that, my journey began.

...

It was amazing.

The first time I played it I ended up logging in until 3 in the morning. At breakfast I was scolded by my mom for missing dinner, but all I could think about was the virtual word that I visited last night, along with the other 999 players. I was so hooked up that when at school I couldn't stop thinking about it, in class instead of taking notes I was planning on my next «quest» and the amount of «drops» I need to enhance my equipments. That day was the first time I wanted the school to end early so I could go home and visit that magical world again. Although I'm a newcomer in this type of thing I finally managed to figure out the gist of it. In the game, I traveled by myself or a «soloer» as they tend to describe it. It was hard, and the fact that this is the first time I played an MMORPG makes it even harder; but I just couldn't bring myself to converse with the other players let alone ask them for a favor.

For days all I did was training alone. Scouring through the dungeons and labyrinth. Completing various «quests» here and there. The only time I ever interact with other people was when the Boss fight was issued and I, along with the other «soloers», had been called for the meeting. Although I said 'interact' all I did was basically lean on a stone wall while hearing the tactics that's being discussed along with a few nodding here and there when I was told about my role in the battle.

Speaking of other players, I actually did manage to make one friend. We met a few times on the boss fights but the first time we spoke was on the 8th floor's. He used a shiny, clear, black metal sword named «Anneal Sword» that was strapped on his back like I did to my weapon. He wore a grey leather jacket and a black jeans. His hair looks weird, not that I would say it out loud. The first word I said to him was "Dodge!" I know it seems strange but at that time the other raid groups were already annihilated and the two of us were the only ones who still fought while some were recuperating using their potions. In the end both of us worked together and managed to beat the boss with me delivering the last attack. After that the other players clapped and cheered for the clearance of the floor, and the «Anneal Sword» user walked closer to congratulate me. We shook our hands and I, being the person I am, immediately made my way to the next floor only to be stopped by him. He told me not to rush things out and he introduced himself to me. I, not knowing what to do, also did the same. Ever since then he frequently visited me and after a while, we formed a two-man party to train ourselves. I still remember his name. If I'm not wrong it's...

Ah yes, it's 'Kirito'. That was his name.

...

2 months have passed.

Being a beta tester, we got another advantage besides the experience and the honor, and that is the ability to pre-order the game before the official versions are launched. And today, on 6th november 2012; I was browsing through a discussion forum while waiting for the time the server would be up at 13:00 PM. The Nerve Gear hardware has already been set up and for the tenth time that day I glanced at the clock on the wall only to see that it was still 11:35 PM. I sighed again and without anything to do I decided to watch the news; I flipped through the channels and finally found one that covered about SAO. I left it at that and while listening to the news I opened up my notes and started to plan my actions once I logged in, or «Full Dived» in this case.

Time passed. I glanced once more at the clock and this time it says 12:55. I closed my notebook and turned the TV off. I grabbed the helmet object and lied down on my bed. At that time it was silent. All my focus was directed towards the analog clock on my upper left view. The ':' symbol kept blinking until finally it says 13:00. I closed my eyes and said two set of words that's now familiar to my lips.

"Link start!"

At that time I didn't know. That the two words I grew to love for the past 2 months would change my whole life forever.

...

«Town of Beginnings»

Just like its namesake, the town was set as the first stage for the tutorial of 'Sword Art Online', the world's very first VMMORPG. The town was bustling with players, males and females, in which both parties were doing various activities such as chatting, browsing through the stores, selecting weapons and equipments, or just simply walk to enjoy the view of the virtual world made of data. On the outside, just a few meters from the busy town lays a meadow that's covered with grass and a few trees which numbers could be counted by one hand. The wind that blows frequently made the grass sways back and forth and some was ripped and flowed through the sky, following the path of the moving air. It was a peaceful place, in which there weren't any-

"Ouch!"

It was a peacef-

"I'm hit! I'm hit! That thing hit my crotch!"

Not far from the outskirts of town a profile of a man with flowing red hair can be seen rolling on the grass while holding his private parts. Beside him stood another figure with his hand on his face and a sigh flowed from his mouth.

"You're exaggerating. You can't feel pain in here, the worst you could experience was probably a sting like you just got electrocuted by an electric outlet; and by the worst I do mean the worst." The young man with blue clothes and grey pants along with black shoes equipped with a silver chest plate and a sword on his back commented.

It was a funny situation actually.

The red-haired man whom just now rolled on the ground cringing in pain was being rammed by a «Frenzy Boar», a low-leveled monster that could be encountered at the beginning of the game. Just like its name the form of it resembles that of a boar in real life only in this case, instead of a brown fur it got a blue one and a pair of menacing red eyes.

"..Oh yeah it doesn't hurt. Just a habit I guess." The red-haired man noticed and jumped to get back on his feet then proceeded to pat his pants to dust it off the dirt. Now that he stood up, his clothing could be identified more accurately. He has a long red hair that was kept in place by an also red bandanna on the fringe. He wore a white-brown get up consisting of white clothes equipped with a copper chest plate. He also wore a brown pants with brown boots strapped to his ankles.

"What kind of person has a habit like that? Seriously.." The blue-clothed man sweatdropped. This is actually the first time they met. It al started when he dived in and made his way through the town as fast as possible; being a beta tester he had already chosen his weapon and uniform, all that's left is to hunt and raise his level to unlock some skills. Meanwhile the bandanna-man was browsing through the store, looking at the blades and daggers displayed when he noticed one person running on the street as if he was familiar with the surroundings. Figuring he's a beta tester, the bearded man chased him and when he finally catch up he asked to be trained the basics of the game. The black-haired man, not knowing what to do, accepted and that's how it all happened.

"But Kirito, that boar is so strong even though I sliced him a few times.."

"That's because you didn't use any «sword skills» Klein, «normal attacks» aren't bad but the damages that's inflicted are smaller." The now named Kirito fellow picked up a small pebble. He raised his hand until it was on his eye level and aimed carefully. Then the pebble was glowing with orange light and he throws it, creating a 'Bam!' sound when it hit the boar.

"How should I put it, to activate them you need to mimic a certain pose, a «motion» as they call it. When the «motions» are in place your weapon would be charged and when you felt it was ready, just release it like 'Boom!'." As he explains this the boar was attacking back for revenge; but Kirito just hold it off with his sword and fending it like playing with a pet cat.

"«Motion» huh?" Klein muttered, then he remembered the info he received when he chose his weapon and raised his curved sword to his shoulder; then he lowered his stance and with that the «Cardinal» system recognized the pose and the blade glowed with the same orange light. Seeing this Kirito smiled and then kicked the boar so it would charge at Klein. When the glowing stopped Klein shouted and move forward with his blade on front, slicing the boar in progress. It cried out a little 'Gukiii!' and shattered into polygons. Klein cheered on his first kill and Kirito congratulated him with a high-5; in which Klein responded with vigor.

...

"But still, no matter how many times I look at it I still can't believe this is inside a game." Klein voiced his thoughts while sitting on the grass.

The view was what could be considered dreamy. Waterfalls falling from the edge of a stone hill reflected the light from the evening sun. The sky was filled with purple-orange clouds and a few mythical creatures could be seen flying together with their families. The wide plains stretched as far as the eyes can see. There should be many players training nearby, but because of the enormous size of the plains they were barely visible.

"Well even if we were «inside» it's not like our soul got sucked in. The Nerve Gear intercepts all brain signals right here" Kirito pointed to his nape "So instead of our eyes doing the seeing or our ears doing the hearing it's our brain that does so." He finished his explanation with a satisfied smile.

"Hey cut me some slack over here. This is the first time I've ever «Full Dived»"

"So SAO was the first Nerve Gear game you have ever played?"

"Heh, it's more like I bought the hardware just to play this game. I'm so lucky I managed to get one out of the first 10.000 batch that was sold; it was worth waiting 3 days in front of the store." Hearing this Kirito looked around him once more. The view from before was still present, but now on the clearing he could see a pair of «frenzy boar» munching the grass while behind them there's a pair wrestling with each other. Seeing this he smiled.

"Yeah.. It sure is.."

"But you got chosen to be a beta tester, which makes you 10 times luckier than I am. How is it by the way? I heard all beta tester said it was awesome."

"It was. To tell you the truth, for that 2 months; SAO was the only thing I could think about. In this game, you can go anywhere with a single sword" As he spoke of this, he pulled the sword out of the scabbard on his back and points it to the sky "Even though it's just a world made of data, I feel more alive here than when I am in the real world." His voice trailed off, and his gaze contains emotions that couldn't be put by words.

"I see.. Speaking of which, how far have you guys gotten on the beta test?" Klein asked. Kirito sheathed his sword back and scratched his cheek.

"We only made it to the 10th floor in 2 months. But now I'm sure we could reach it in 2 weeks."

"Hee.. It's that hard huh?"

"To tell you the truth I only managed to hold my grounds until the 8th floor. If it wasn't for that guy we wouldn't have even reached the 9th."

"'That guy'?"

"Ah I forgot to mention him have I? He's one hell of a swordsman in my opinion. Truth to be told he was always present in all boss fights, but I only recognized him on the 8th floor's. At that time I was careless and almost got killed, if only he didn't tell me to dodge I would have started back from the «Town of Beginnings»'s revival portal. It was a tense situation, all of the other players were either dead or still healing themselves using «potions» and the boss still had one HP bar left. The only ones who still fought were me and him. It was a tense battle but in the end we managed to defeat the boss by only the two of us." Klein whistled at this, astounded by the strength of the so called mysterious player.

"So what did he look like? Any unique characteristics" Hearing this question Kirito smiled.

"He's a «Chain Sword» user." Kirito stated, putting the emphasis on the weapon's name. As soon as Klein heard it he sat up from his previous sleeping position with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.

"Seriously?! THAT almost-impossible-to-use hardass weapon?!" He shouted unbelievably. But Kirito's smile only widens as if he already expected his reactions.

When you talk about RPG or anything that's related, the first thing that comes to your mind would be «equipments», «monsters», and of course «weapons». In SAO the rules were not that different, however, as daring as it was, there are no magics available in the game. To make up for the lost, Argus, the company who created SAO, replace them with countless numbers of «sword skills» in which the types of «weapons» are also vary from one another.

For example, the sword Kirito uses, the «Light Sword» is one that's included in the «one-handed sword» type whereas the «Cutlass» that Klein uses belongs to the «katana» category. There are also «axe», «two-handed sword», «spear», «rapier», «dagger», and many more. However, of all the weapons that could be chosen there exists one type which hold a tremendous strength or STR stat that allows it to deal the same amount of damage as «sword skills» even if you only use its basics one; that weapon was called«Chain Sword». Of course there are also downsides of using it, but the most popular one would be it's difficulty to handle.

«Chain Sword», as it name suggested, consist of a regular sword but coupled with chains on its handle that connects to the right/left arm of the user, and the opposing arm would be equipped with a gauntlet that could be used to deflect oncoming attacks when the sword is unavailable for the defense. Of course you could use it like a regular sword, however because of the chains wrapping the hand; resulting in an extra weight and a restricted movement of the hand by the chains, complete control and maneuver of the sword movement would be very difficult as the intended use was to throw the sword and control it from distance using the chains like a whip. The problem lies on the time the sword was returned. If timed correctly, the user could instantly perform a «sword skill» while the opponent was still stunned from the long distance attack; but the chances are slim, if it was timed wrongly, the result would be the user got stabbed by the sword or got tangled by the chains and rendering the movements unable until they were released, and releasing the metal chains that was weighed by a sword at its end is NOT an easy matter.

"He must be one hell of a guy for managing to pull it off." The tone of admiration can be heard easily from Klein.

"He is. I once tried it for a while and ended up dying 10 times in just an hour." Both of them laughed, and Kirito was reminded of the time the «Chain Sword» user shook his head with a smile when he picked Kirito up at the revival portal.

"Is he an outgoing type?"

"Nope, far from that. He doesn't talk much to people, in fact the only person I knew he ever talked to was me. The only time he responded to others was if it was absolutely necessary. He wore an all black get up which made other players think of him as a ninja or an assassin."

"What's his name?" Klein asked curiously.

"I'm not sure.. The official version of the game has a function to continue your beta avatar, but most people started from scratch because they wanted to try different looks including their name. I myself used my beta avatar though."

"Well, it's better than nothing right?" To this Kirito put his hand under his chin and pondered for a while. Trying to remember the black swordsman he fought alongside with.

"...It's 'Kazuya'. That was his name."

A/N: Hello everyone, BadLuckExpert here. After browsing through the SAO archive on FFN i decided to make my own story as well. Feel free to criticize my work. For more info about my OC, look at my profile.