"Sis, I'm off to practice!"

Her younger brother called through the door, there wasn't a chance to respond before he ran down the stairs and out of the house.

"Tsk!"

She flinched slightly, looking at a cut on her thumb from the article she was reading.

Kayaba Akihiko…

Closing the magazine, she looked at the new game near her PC setup.

In a few swift move she placed the disk in the slot and placed the Nervegear over her head, smirking slightly to herself. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath to calm her nerves.

"Link start!"

There were flashes of screens that she accessed to work towards the main screen.

WELCOME TO SWORD ART ONLINE

In a second a familiar scene appeared before her eyes.

Floor 1: Town of Beginnings

Various players spawned around her with the same excited aura surrounding them. Charging forward she mapped out the quickest route to the hunting grounds. Already filling up the town distracted by the merchandise from the first level shops. The low level weapons and talismans weren't of any interest to her, it was better to get a head start, gain as much easy experience before it became more difficult.

Catching a glimpse of herself in the glass she smiled at her avatar. A male build with a handsome face equipped with the generic beginner armor and weapon.

"Hey, You there!"

Her feet scuttled against the stone pavement to a halt, looking back, she saw a man running towards her with red hair and a crimson bandana. He grasped his knees catching his breath.

I didn't think that physical fitness translated to the gameplay…good to know.

"Me?"

"You run around as if you know the place. You were in the beta test weren't you."

She nodded.

"Today's my first day." He pleadingly grabbed her shoulder. "Show me the basics, okay?"

"Uh?"

"I'm begging you!" He slapped his hands together bowing his head slightly.

"…can't you just access the tutorial?"

"Is there a tutorial?"

"…I…don't know…"

There was a brief silence between them before she sighed. "Alright, I'll help you out."

"Really?! Thanks man!" His head shot up in excitement and aggressively shook her hand. "My name's Klein, nice to meet you."

She smiled slightly.

"I'm Kirito."

Floor 1: Town of Beginnings; West Field

It was amazing how many times Klein was pushed around, by a level 2 boar no less.

He gasped in pain. "R-right in the crotch…"

"Seriously? You're not supposed to feel pain you know."

"Huh, oh yeah." Klein stopped rolling around upon realization. "I guess it was just a habit."

Lending him a hand, Kirito guided his attention towards the boar.

"Like I said, what's important is your initial motion input."

"Easier said than done, this guy keeps running around like crazy. "

Kirito looked around for a second, picking up a small stone. "It's not that hard once you get the timing right. Once you have that down and you activate your sword skill."

She placed all of her focus on the boar flinging the pebble at the last second and from her hand a red laser damaged the boar slightly.

"The system will ensure that the technique connects."

"Motion input…motion input…"

The boar charged for Kirito but she maneuvered around it, blocking it's second attack to keep it in place.

"It's kind of like, when you're prepared to attack and you feel your skill activate, add a slight pause, then let it explode."

"Explode?" Klein mumbled to himself, he suddenly stood in a battle stance hanging his sword over his shoulder. A few seconds later it started to glow.

Kirito smiled, kicking the boar off balance and sending it towards Klein.

"Hyyyaaaa!"

In one hit the boar's health was depleted and it exploded into data leaving behind a screen that listed the experience gained.

"HECK YA!"

Klein raised his arms in victory, yelling out in glee.

"Congrats."

The two took a step towards each other and shared a high five.

"But, that boars about the equivalent of a slime in other games, so you won't get much exp."

"Whaat?! I thought it was a mid-level boss or something."

"Heh, of course not."

In the distance a few more boars re-spawned.

"Pretty exciting, isn't it?"

Klein practiced a few moves with his sword with a big smile stretched across his face.

"Hey, there're a lot of skills in this game right, like blacksmithing and stuff?"

Kirito nodded. "I've heard there are an unlimited number of skills available, except for magic."

Klein built up his sword skill, "No magic huh, that's a pretty bold decision."

"It's a risky decision." She muttered under her breath.

He glided forward in one move, leaving a fading red trail in his wake.

"But it's fun isn't it, fighting with your entire body."

Klein turned towards her with a smile, "Yeah."

"Let's keep moving on."

"Right! "

The sun was setting in the distance, blazing beautifully against the fields and wildlife.

"You wouldn't even know that this is a game." Klein sat near her enjoying the view. "Seriously, I'm glad that I was born in this time."

"You make a big deal out of everything, drama queen."

"This is my first time using full dive, Mr. Beta tester."

Kirito slightly turned her head, "Then this is your fist time playing a game with Nervegear?"

"I rushed out and bought the hardware to play SAO. I was lucky to even get a hard copy; but you were ten times as lucky, after all you were in the beta. "

Kirito turned her head slightly towards him.

"Only a thousand people got that chance."

"I guess." Unease grew in Kirito's chest, she rubbed the back of her neck out of habit.

"So how far did you get in the beta."

"Over a couple of months I got onto floor 8, but this time, it'll only take a month."

Klein smiled at Kirito's charisma. "You're hardcore into this aren't you?"

Kirito unsheathed her sword lifting it in front of her against the sunlight as it seemed to glow under its rays. "To be honest, during the beta test, SAO was the only thing on my mind, day and night. In this world a single blade can take you anywhere you want to go. It's a virtual world, but for some reason, I feel more alive here than I do in the real one."

"Yup, hardcore to the extreme." Klein chuckled under his breath.

"You wanna hunt more?" She offered.

"Of course, I'd love to!" Klein lifted his body to his knees, "But.." he feel back onto his butt grabbing his stomach in mild embarrassment as his stomach growled. "I'm really hungry, so I think that I'll log out."

"Eating food here doesn't make you feel hungry anymore."

"Heh, I already ordered a hot pizza for 5:30."

"You've already though ahead. "

He stood up brushing the grass off of his pants. "Once I've eaten I'll be back, don't get lonely without me. "

"Alright." Kirito smirked slightly and turned her head away looking back towards the setting landscape.

"Hey, after this I'm meeting up with some other people I know from another game, you wanna meet them?"

"Huh?"

"But- You don't have to if you don't want to, I'll introduce you another time." Klein said reassuringly.

"Sure, sorry. Thanks for the offer." Kirito was slightly amazed that he was even offering.

"Hey hey, that's my line, I need to repay you for this sometime, mentally. Thanks for the tutorial man."

Kirito chuckled to herself, slightly surprised that he held out his hand.

"I'll see you around."

Kirito accepted his handshake.

"If there's anything else you want to know just ask. I'll be in this area for a while gathering exp."

"I'll take you up on that offer soon!

Klein gripped her hand tighter in appreciation.

He walked away a few steps, "See you!" waving his hand down to open the menu.

Kirito turned her back to him, but stopped when Klein spoke again.

"That's odd, there's no log out button."

"What?"

"Yeah, it's not there."

Kirito opened up her menu, "It should be at the bottom of the main menu…eh?"

Her heart beat quickened at the empty panel, where the log out button should be.

"See? I'm sure it's nothing though, it's a few days after the beta, there are bound to be a few bugs. I'm sure the server people are freaking out though."

"In a second you will as well."

"huh?"

"It's 5:25."

…

"MY TERUYAKI MAYO PIZZA AND GINGER ALEEEE!" Klien slightly spazed out in defeat.

"Just call the game master." Kirito recommended trying to calm him down.

"I tried but there's no response."

This isn't right, there shouldn't be any reason to not have a log out sequence on the menu.

"Is there any other way to log out?"

She shook her head. "No, everyone has to go through the menu, it's the standard in any type of game."

"There has to be a way."

"Log out!"

"Escape!"

Nothing happened.

"I'm telling you, there isn't any way to manually log out without the option being available. Why would there need to be?"

"Y-You're kidding, right?" Klein was stunned for a few moments before another idea came to mind. "I know; I'll just rip the Nervegear off my head!"

He tried to pull at what he though was an invisible helmet but it was to of no avail.

"It's no use, remember, the Nervegear intercepts any kind of motion and translates it to motion in the game. "

"So what, we wait for them to fix the bug?"

"Or for someone in the real world to remove the Nervegear from us. "

"But I live alone…what about you?"

"I have a younger sibling and my mom, but I think that they'll notice before din- "Suddenly Klein grabbed her shoulders.

"Y-You have a younger sister? How old is- "

Klein was significantly taller than her, but that didn't stop Kirito from kicking him in his manhood. Sending him sprawling to the ground without mercy.

"OWOWOWOWOWO-Oh wait, it really doesn't hurt."

"I have a little Brother, creeper! And more importantly, don't you find this weird?!"

"Sure, I do, it's a bug."

"This isn't just a bug; what kind of developer overlooks such a serious problem. And the fact that we're still here is a red flag as well."

"huh?"

"A game master has control over the source code, if they wanted to they could shut down the server and log out everyone manually if they wanted to. But they haven't, there haven't been any notifications either to let us know that they're doing something about this."

The server has been up for hours, a few people should have already noticed the missing log out option and notified the game master. The moment that they realized that they made a mistake should have been immediate, and the notification would have come directly after; But that hasn't happened yet.

Is someone keeping us here?

Suddenly a ringing of bells reached her ears, she and Klein turned toward the direction of the noise; only a few seconds later a bright light transported them and the next thing they knew they were in the town square.

Surrounding them were thousands of other players all with confused expressions and a few were huddled together whispering amongst themselves.

A forced teleport?

Above them was a warning panel that overtook the sky in a crimson red. From the sky fell blood that gathered together to form a red hooded figure.

"Attention, players, welcome to my world."

"My world?"

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko, as of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world. I'm sure that you've all noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. "Kayaba waved his hand down similar to what Klein did earlier, pulling up a menu. "This is not a defect in the game, this is the key feature of Sword Art Online."

"F-Feature?!"

"You cannot log out of SAO yourselves, and no one on the outside can shut down or remove the Nervegear, any attempts to do so will activate a transmitter that will emit a microwave function that will destroy the brain."

Several articles were pulled up, news stations, internet posts, anything pertaining to the news of people dying because of the Nervegear.

There were a few voices of outrage gathering strength in seconds, Kirito's head lowered in though while Klein turned towards her.

"This guy's full of crap, isn't he, the Nervegear doesn't have that kind of function?"

Kirito hesitated for a moment. "There is hardware within the Nervegear that uses microwave tech but to be powerful enough the kill someone… "

There had been proof of microwave radiation killing people, but did the Nervegear have the capability?

"But if someone shut off the power?"

"The Nervegear has an internal battery, and if these news articles are real…"

"Unfortunately several families and friends have ignored the warning and have attempted to remove the gear, as a result two hundred and thirteen players have already been removed from Aincrad and the real world."

What?!

"Two hundred and thirteen?"

"I don't believe this; I don't believe this!"

"There are already live reports of players dying because of the Nervegear removal, thus, the chances of removal are now minimal. I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game. But I want you to remember, the moment that your hp drops to zero, your avatar will be lost forever, and you will be destroyed.

"There is only one way to clear the game; you are now on Floor 1 the lowest level of Aincrad. It you make your way through the various dungeons and defeat the floor boss you may advance to the higher floors. Defeat the final boss on Floor 100 and you will clear the game."

"Clear 100 Floors...? That's impossible, the beta testers never made it anywhere near that high!"

"Finally, I've added a resent from me to your item storage, please see for yourself."

Kirito opened the items option pressing on a new item in the inbox.

"Mirror?"

"AAAHHH!"

"Klein?!"

Bursts of light suddenly engulfed every single player, screams of confusion reached Kirito's ears as the light engulfed her as well.

The bust faded as players came around looking at each other in confusion.

"Hey, you alright Kirito?"

"Ah, Yeah- huh?"

Standing in front of her was a man with a mess of red hair and a bandana wrapped around his forehead.

"Who're you?" He asked her

Kirito held up her mirror again shocked at what she saw; her former male avatar was now replaced with a female one. Her clothes were the same, but her hair was longer reaching waist length.

Around her, everyone's avatar changed form.

"That means…you're Klein?!"

"You're Kirito?!"

"How….?"

"The Nervegear has a face scanner, it can recognize your face, but the body type-"

"It was the first thing to be calibrated when everyone downloaded it right?"

"You're probably wondering 'why', why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of sword art online and the Nervegear do all this?"

"My Goal has already been achieved, I created Sword Art Online for only one reason; to intervene with the story that will unfold!"

Kayaba!

"Soon, this goal will be complete; this ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch."

The body began to disintegrate into data.

"Good luck, players."

The world turned back to normal for only a few moments before screams erupted the coliseum.

This is real...if we die in this prison…it's the end!

The limits were lifted from the exits of the plaza, catching Kirito's eye.

"Klein, come with me!" Kirito harshly whispered, grabbing his arm and guiding the two of them out of the sea of pankicking confused people.

"IF what he said was true, then the first 24 hours with be critical."

"Huh?"

They stood in an alley that wasn't too far from the plaza the rest of the players were still in pandemonium.

"Our strength in SAO depends on how many resources we can take in. Right now, everyone is in a panic but they'll realize that they'll need those same things as well. The spawn rates in this game differ from other mmo's; each monster type has their own respawn time limit, the higher the level, the longer it will take; but in this situation, the hunting fields will soon be wiped clean. The closest village is the best place where we can start a few mini quests and gain extra exp, but we need to do so right now. "

The journey would normally take a few hours on the normal route, but luckily there was a hill pass that cut the time in half.

"…"

"Klein?"

He looked disheartened, "T-the thing is, I spent an entire night in line to buy this with a bunch of my friends from another game. They're out there with everyone else in the plaza, I can't leave them behind."

If it was just Klein it would be fine…but two more…even one…

"Don't worry about it."

Shock lifted Kirito's head from her thoughts.

"I'm in no position to ask you for any more favors, don't worry about it go on ahead to the next village. I used to run a guild and with everything you've taught me, I'll get by somehow. "

"All right, then," She turned her body towards the road but still facing him. "let's part ways here. If something happens send me a message."

"I will."

"Then, goodbye, Klein."

She walked down the alleyway towards the darkness, the sun was setting, eventually the night would overtake everyone as well.

"Kirito!"

Klein's voice stopped her.

"Ah..." There was no immediate response, the two were at a loss for words. "Hey, you know, you have a super cute face!"

Kirito turned her head towards him, "You're exactly my type, it suits you!" He smiled at her half-jokingly.

She smiled at him in return, "That scraggy face of yours suits 10 times better!"

Kirito sprinted a few steps ahead down the alley.

Why…?

She gripped her fist tightly turning back, "Klein!"

The only thing that greeted her was an empty alley way striking a cord that made her freeze for a moment.

Before she could react, she ran away.

You wanted this, no regrets…not this time.

The spasious empty field welcomed her as Kirito ran down the path. A bright blue slight a good distance ahead spawned a wolf and her sword reflexively fell into her hands.

She positioned her weapon, in a split second taking a sprint forward as the wolf jumped at her, fangs bearing.

Now!

The wolf was defeated in one swift motion, landing on her feet again she starting running again without stopping.

I won't allow myself to die!

a/n note:

So Sword art online, it's, it's not that good. But I'm a gamer, I love mmo's, I love anime, and I actually do like it. And recently I watched the second season, and I couldn't help myself.

I will be doing the first half guarenteed, maybe the second hald (if I can manage to find an angle where it wont suck -_-)

Reviews help improve my writing so please don't be shy! :)