"I'm going to my friend's now," The young girl called, slipping into her shoes as she headed for the door of her family's small apartment.
"Wait a second, young lady," Her aunt called back, coming into the front room, arms crossed. "Did you finish your homework?"
"Yesterday, Auntie. Of course," She said with a proud smile, "And I already made sure the boys are working on theirs, can I please go? She wants to show me this really cool new game," The girl replied, inching closer and closer to the door.
Her aunt sighed, giving in, "Fine, fine. Be back before it's time for bed, alright? Show me I can trust you, Kimiko," She warned, "I have to go make sure your mother gets home from the train stop... Hope she doesn't get lost again..." She muttered, shaking her head.
Kimiko excitedly bounded out the door and a few blocks away from central Tokyo. Natsume didn't really live all too far away, but she actually had a house. Sure, it was smaller than one would imagine, but... a
house. Nobody else lived there but her family - there was nobody upstairs banging on the floors or in the next apartment making noises all night. Natsume was the coolest. Her family, too, was always happy to greet Kimiko at the door and make her feel right at home. Today, however, it was just her friend and they shot straight to her room - the servers would be online any minute.
"No, no, Natsume-chan, I can't go
first! It's your game, you go..."
"My parents said I can't touch it till I finish my homework," the other girl replied sullenly, clearly just as put off by having to wait to play her own game. "You go ahead, and when I'm done, I'll let you know. It's real easy. Plus, I can watch an episode of one of my shows while I do homework - I don't want anybody to spoil it at school tomorrow," She decided with a nod. "Go ahead, I played a little bit of the beta too, it's so cool."
Kimi was a bit uneasy about taking her friend's first turn on the full server, but finally ceded her argument and accepted. "Let me know if you need help on any of it - tonight's is a little tricky," She warned, putting on the helmet and laying back on the bed. Some of the information questions seemed... personal, but she answered them for her character anyway. Oh shoot... she hadn't thought of a name for the character - she spent all day excited and now she couldn't even think of a name! With a sigh, she decided to just fuse her given and family names. It's not like it would be a permanent character anyway, right?
She smiled as it prompted her to say those magic words and start the game - "Link... Start!"
The girl's entire body fell limp in the real world as her vision flashed white with a small loading symbol in the corner. She looked at her hands, at the city around her... It was all so
real. Her starting equipment was nothing too flashy - some basic leather armour and a no-nonsense rapier with no decoration. Bland, sure, but she was actually
wearing it.
-----
'Nero' loosed his tie and haphazardly kicked off his shoes. "Ugh, thank God that's over..." He muttered, untucking his shirt and walking into his apartment. "I'm home!" He called out. The dark-haired university student came from the kitchen, a smile on her face.
"We'll have dinner in a bit, but I've got homework, so I won't be able to play tonight..." She said with a mockingly sad tone in her voice. She couldn't be too upset, considering her marks in school were high and she still got to enjoy games with her husband on the weekend. Today, however, was special. SAO was going online and both of them were incredibly excited to try it out - particularly him.
"Thank you, honey," He said, greeting her happily. It was as though the whole stress of his dead-end, stupid job melted away the moment he saw her at the end of it. "I'm really happy to see you, but... Uh... Can I..."
The girl sighed and rolled her eyes, "Go, start it off, let me know how it is. Be at the table by six-thirty and not a minute later. You're not skipping a meal for a video game - I don't care how good it is. You can sacrifice some time if I have to sacrifice my whole night," She warned. He beamed and nodded, like a child who was just told he could skip school and play all day long. He kicked off his game without hesitation back in the bedroom.
-----
Yari shut her books and leaned back in her desk chair. This was exhausting. Every day, all night she studied... Do well on your entrance exams, do well on your unit test... Why couldn't she be like some of the other kids and just be satisfied with good, or passing? Why did it have to be excellent and outstanding on everything all the time? Nobody was perfect, why did she expect herself to be? Or her parents for that matter? Sitting on her end table, in a box, still unopened was the new NerveGear. She wanted to just play it for a little bit... Just take a quick break from her studies. I wouldn't hurt, right? She'd stay up afterward to play anyway, why not break now, and after some relaxation get back to work? The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Just a taste, then she'd know what to look forward to after she was done preparing.
She opened the box, placed the helmet on her head, and laid back on her bed, preparing the game to start. She ran around a bit, getting used to how she controlled a spear - a weapon choice she'd never really made in a game before - and how the Sword Skills worked. After an hour, which was what she initially allotted herself, she opened the menu and scrolled to the logout button right... about... there.
Oops, no, it must be under this... option... Strange. She furrowed her brow, sifting through the different menus - every single one of them. There was only one option in the whole list which had no words labeling it but none of them said log out. And that button didn't do anything. Just as she was beginning to think that maybe logging out required a safe point or an inn or something of the nature, she and everybody else in the field was teleported into the center of Starting City for that fateful moment of disbelief and chaos...
Hours Later...
Kimi sat at the gate leading out of the city, hugging her knees. What would Natsume think when she didn't get up? That person had said that the news was out, so... she knew, but now she was a burden to their family, wasn't she? What about her brothers and aunt and mother? What would they do? They had to make exceptions, she had to
leave - she couldn't stay here. You can't
beat an MMO! It's not supposed to be possible.
"Hey, are you okay?" A voice asked from behind her. She looked back and furrowed her brow.
"Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be? Oh, I know, because I'm trapped here and I have to get home right now," She said angrily.
The other girl sat next to her, placing a spear on the ground, "Yeah, but sitting here's not gonna get you there. It's probably some joke or something... I have a test tomorrow, but you don't see me getting all worried. They wouldn't really keep us here..."
Kimi shook her head, "But what if they do..?" Her voice was small and she dared not turn her head as she stared at the field.
Yari shrugged, "Then how does this help at all? Wouldn't it be better if you were out there getting stronger? Don't let anything push you around, let alone that jerk in the red robes. Just because he calls himself "Administrator" doesn't mean he can control you. You can always fight," She said confidently, rising to her feet, "C'mon, let's not waste any more time. I haven't gone out there since they told us either, maybe we can help each other out for a bit."
"Yyyyyah!" Nero shouted as he skidded to a halt, several feet beyond the wolf he was fighting. It shattered behind him and he slashed the air with his blade, a proud grin on his face. Holy hell this was awesome. He felt every bit of it. He shook himself off and opened his menu, scrolling down... Dammit, it still wasn't there. This wasn't funny - they ruined his Avatar, which he spent at least twenty minutes designing, and now they were playing this 'trapped' game. What a stupid joke. Yuna was going to kill him - hopefully the news thing was real enough that she'd forgive him when he logged out. It was already seven o'clock... And it had smelled so good when he logged in, he didn't want to reheat it. It always tasted better fresh from the pot she made it in.
Whatever, he'd check again in thirty minutes and keep grinding it out until then. He'd picked up a few lucky, rare drops already. But he was also grinding his way through the areas around the second city - every beta tester knew that those first fields were going to be full, so only a few people were actually out here now. Thank God he'd had that advantage... He dared not let his health drop below the yellow, so he spent a great deal of time waiting for the right moment to flank a monster or waiting to heal after a particularly difficult fight. He had a knack for it, but he wasn't going to take his chances on this death thing. If it was true, which it
definitely wasn't, he was going to want all the power he could get. The best way to get that? Have the highest number next to the 'Col' symbol in his inventory.
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