Chapter 2: WELCOME TO SAO

[WELCOME TO SWORD ART ONLINE]

The screen disappeared. He was blinded by another bright light. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in, what he believed to be, the Starting City of Aincrad. He squinted when he looked up to the sky. When he looked at his hand, it was covered in a fingerless black leather glove. He clenched it, grinning when he could actually feel the touch of his skin. He wore a red long sleeved shirt with a leather armor back and chest plate and pants were black to match his boots.

"HELLO Aincrad! Arthur is BACK!" he shouted. More blue flashes appeared, signaling the arrival of more players. "Well, more are starting to show up. I guess I showed stick around and wait for Yui and Kurogasa."

Two minutes later, he spotted a familiar face in the crowd. It was Yui, dressed in a white long sleeved shirt with a red vest and skirt with a steel breast plate. Her legs were covered in white pantyhose and there were red boots on her feet.

"Yui!" he shouted. When she turned to him, he was surprised to find her avatar looking no different than her actual self. "Really?" he laughed. Not just her avatar looks like her in real life but her in-game name is also the same.

Yui laughed at Akio. "What? Is that you, Akio?"

Akio felt his face get warmer as he was embarrassed. "Hey. It's a game where you can make yourself look like anyone you want! And you stayed the way you are?!"

"Of course! I think I looked fine enough to be my own avatar. But you! Aside from the hair color, you don't look like you at all!" Yui continued to laugh, causing him to laugh even more.

"Hey, you two!" They turned to see someone that, like Akio, only looked slightly familiar. It was Kurogasa, except his hair was longer, his height was shorter and his light green eyes were now blood red. His outfit looked like Akio's, except his shirt was white and his pants were blue. "Finally caught up!"

Akio looked at Kurogasa's in-game ID. "Edward? Where'd that come from?" he asked.

"Like you're one to talk, Arthur," Kurogasa teased. If his friend's face got any redder, he'd mistake him for a tomato. "Well, now that we're all acquainted, I think it's time we buy weapons. Crucial, no?"

"Very," the two replied. The group made their way out of the main circle plaza to find the street lined with shops that sold many things from jewelry to food. It was hard finding a weapons shop in the hustle and bustle of the crowd.

"Here we are!" Arthur/Akio announced. The trio perused the assortment of weapons that hung upon the walls like prized trophies. Arthur decided on a katana , Kurogasa chose a one handed sword and Yui went with a rapier.

"Now this feels cool!" Arthur said as he equipped the sheath. Shame I couldn't have my Hidden Blades. Then, I'd be a true Assassin in Aincrad!

"Well, since we're here," Arthur said, sheathing his katana, "I think we should go outside of town. Plenty of boars for leveling up."

"And how would you know that?" Yui asked, arms crossed.

"he's a Beta tester, remember?"

That's right, Edward remembered. He'd be telling us almost every day about how great the game was and couldn't wait to hop in. But, when it comes to knowing his way around the game, he's one I can definitely trust. "Well, then show us the way," he said, gesturing with his hand.

"Mmm, with pleasure, sir," Arthur replied with a butler-esque accent.

The fields were very large with a length stretching as far as the eye could see. Grass tickled their boots as the group made their way through the field. "I can't believe this is virtual," Yui said, shielding her eyes from the sun.

"It's almost too lifelike," Edward agreed.

Arthur smirked as he spied a small mob of wild boars not too far away from where they currently were. "Okay, follow me," he said to his friends. "So, I'm guessin' you two have some idea of swordplay, correct?" They nodded. "Great, so I don't need to teach moves. However, you need to be aware of Sword Skills."

"Sword Skills?" his friends parroted.

"That's right. For example." He approached a boar and took a normal slash at it, attracting its attention. The boar in its rage charged at Arthur, narrowly landing a hit on him. "Now that we have its attention, I'll show ya what I mean." He drew his katana back, activating a red gleam on the blade. "If you wish to use a Skill properly, you need to time it just right." The boar charged again, but was cut down as Arthur streaked towards the lower level creature in a red blur. It exploded into blue pixels, a victory screen taking its place. He turned back to the two, smirking in victory. "Get the idea?"

"Y-Yeah, I think so," Edward said. He grabbed a small stone from the ground and tossed it at the boar, gaining its attention.

"Then let's see what you're made of," Yui said.

Edward drew his sword, leveling it back for a swipe. The blade was shining with the same red gleam Arthur used. The boar charged, Arthur following suit. He tried to activate the Skill, but it didn't respond correctly, allowing the boar to slam him to the ground. He closed his eyes, thanking Kayaba for keeping the pain sensors on because he just had the wind knocked out of him. "Why didn't it work?" he grumbled.

"With all Skills, timing is crucial. Be off by one second and you'll find your health bar down a few points."

"Here. Let me try," Yui said, drawing her rapier. Like the other two, she activated the same red gleam and charged at a boar, taking its health down to the orange. With another few swipes, she took the boar down, its body exploding into blue pixels. "Top that!" she teased.

Edward felt his face heating up. Not wanting to be showed up, he decided to try again, going for the same boar. He took a couple of swings to get its health down. "Okay, let's try again," he said to himself. He ran at the boar with his skill active. This time, the sword met its mark, killing the boar. His smile grew wider at the appearance of the victory screen. "I did it!" he shouted.

Arthur clapped for Yui and Edward. They're catching on quickly, he thought to himself. But they'll need to fight and train more to make it further in the game. "Okay, you two. What say we continue to level up?" They nodded in reply and continued to attack the boar mobs.

After a few hours of leveling up and a quick trip to the central market for supplies, Arthur, Yui and Edward found themselves in a field near a cliff edge. Yui was sitting with her legs stretched out and her arms supporting her. Arthur was laid back on the ground, feeling the soft grass under his fingers. "It's hard to believe that this is virtual. The only thing that sucks in the virtual world is you can't satisfy hunger in real life."

"Although the food isn't too bad," Yui said with her eyes looking at the setting sun. "That restaurant in town was very good."

Edward picked at a few blades of grass, letting them fly away with the breeze. "Kayaba is a genius, but I do have to side with Arthur on this one." The other two looked over at him. "The food may be good, but it never beats the real stuff. What time is it, anyways?"

Arthur swiped open his menu, sitting up in shock. "Crap! It's five twenty! I'm supposed to be going down to dinner!"

"Now that I think about it," Yui said, "dad wanted to take me out tonight to eat."

"As for me, Mom said she was making shrimp, my favorite. So," he said, standing up, "I think we'll all have dinner and meet back in say…three, four hours?"

"Four. If I know dad, he'll wanna be out for a while."

"Aw, man. But I wanted to play sooner!" Arthur grumbled. Yui gave him a pleading look. "B-But, I guess I can wait." He remembered Yui spent very little time with her dad; he was a very busy executive who played a part in the VRMMORPG world in terms of sales and distribution, at least for one of the smaller corporations. He scrolled through the menu to reach the Logout button, but found it wasn't there. "Huh. That's odd." He scrolled his menu again.

"What's that?" Edward asked.

"The Logout button is gone. I can't find it anywhere."

"Should be in the main menu."

Yui opened her menu to also find the button was missing. "Nope. It's gone on my menu, too."

Edward tried to deny their claims by opening his. "Look, it should be…" Now he couldn't find it. "What the hell?"

"I've heard of first day bugs, but this is ridiculous," Arthur said, looking up at his friend.

"Guys, I've got a bad feeling about this," Yui said in a quivering voice.

Shit, she's spooked, Arthur thought. That's saying something; she's never scared.

A low bell rang through the skies. It drew their attention to the city. "What?" They vanished one by one in a blue light only to find themselves in the Starting City.

"Forced teleport?" Arthur asked in shock.

Arthur felt a hand gripping his shoulder. He found Yui with an uneasy look in her eyes as more and more players started appearing like the group had.

A warning sound came from the skies along with a red hexagon, saying WARNING. More appeared with the phrase SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT inside of them. "Maybe it's gotta do with the logout problem," Arthur heard one player say. A thick red liquid, equivalent to blood, leaked from between the spaces of the hexagons. It pooled and formed a large robed figure with no visible face under his hood. It reminded Arthur of pictures he had been shown of what the typical Templar Grand Master wore, so naturally, he felt on edge at seeing this giant being.

"Is that the Game Master?" asked a random voice in the crowd.

Game Master? Edward wasn't sure who or what that meant; he had only played a couple RPGs and none contained a being.

The giant raised his hands as if he were giving a greeting to his guests. "Attention, players," the GM announced, "I welcome you to my world. My name is Akihiko Kayaba." Kayaba? The game creator? Arthur was amazed that the man behind the amazement would appear before everyone in such a form. "And, as of this moment, I am in control of it."

"What the hell does that mean?" Yui asked himself.

"I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your menus- the Logout button. Let me assure you: this is not a defect in the game." The GM swiped open his menu, pressing a few buttons to disable the Logout feature. "I repeat: this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be." Arthur's blood felt colder at this announcement. "You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the NerveGear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."

The crowd was less than pleased to hear this announcement and voice their displeasure. "What the hell does that mean!?"

"Are you serious!?"

"This can't be real!"

"Let's get out of here!" A boy and girl attempted to leave the arena, but were blocked off by an invisible wall. "Hey! I can't get out!"

"That's not possible. The system can't really do that?"

Arthur listened in on one player's conversation with his friend. "…transmitter signal in NerveGear works just like a microwave. If the safety's disabled, it can fry your brain." Arthur was feeling more and more uneasy about all that was happening right now. The increased grip on his shoulder suggested that Yui was in agreement

"Couldn't someone cut the power?" the player's friend asked him.

"That won't work. The NerveGear has an internal battery."

Edward couldn't stop his hand from shaking. There's no way, he thought. This can't be happening, not right now. What's gonna happen to the real me?

"Despite my warning," the GM continued, "the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear…an unfortunate decision to say the least. As a result, the game now has two hundred and thirteen less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world. As you see, international media outlets have 'round the clock coverage of everything, including the deaths." With that sentence came several screens of popular media websites, displaying the headlines about the two hundred and thirteen fallen players. "At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game."

Arthur's ears picked up sobbing from several of the players. "Akio…" He turned to face Yui, whose face looked pale as a sheet. "This…is real, isn't it?"

He drew in a shaky breath and looked back to the GM. "Unfortunately."

"It's important to remember the following: there is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system forever and the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain." The trio felt their blood turn to ice in an instant. Arthur and Edward exchanged worried glances at the thought of losing each other or even Yui. The crowd grew deathly silent; not a word was said. "There is only one way to escape now: you must clear the game."

"That's impossible," Shouted someone. "Even I in the beta with friends couldn't make it past Floor 3."

"Right now, you are gathered on Floor 1, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on Floor 100 and you will clear the game." The crowd grew uneasy at the thought of having to advance all the way to the most difficult boss in the game without dying just to get back to the real world alive. "Last, but not least, I've placed a little present in the Item Storage in the menu of every player. Please have a look."

Everyone swiped open their menus and found the item. "A mirror?" Arthur, Yui and Edward took the item out. It was a small mirror the size of a tablet, showing nothing but the reflection of their avatars…well, at least in the case of Arthur and Edward. Then, a bright blue light surrounded each individual player.

When the light faded, Arthur looked again in the mirror to see his family's hazel eyes looking back at him. His hair was back to its usual short cut form and he shrunk back to his normal height. Edward reverted to his short messy hair and grew back to his height. Yui…didn't change at all. Arthur resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Now's not the time, he thought to himself.

There were good amounts of confusion as everyone had reverted back to their actual selves, some wondering who the other was, others complaining about them being the wrong gender. "Why would anyone do this!?" one shouted.

"Right now, you're probably wondering why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear do this? Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design." You wanted to play the part of a god, you sick monster, Arthur thought, clenching his hand in rage. "As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck." The avatar slowly dissipated into a cloud of red smoke, leaving the players' sight.

Except for Arthur's. The GM had appeared in front of him, standing only a few inches taller than he himself was. Around him, the world had seemed to temporarily slow down. "So, the Assassin has come."

Arthur went to draw his sword, but couldn't feel the grip. The blade on his back was gone. "What do you want, Grand Master?" he growled.

"Grand Master?" Kayaba laughed. "You think I am one of those silly Templars." He drew in a breath before continuing, "I can understand your confusion of me seeming like the Grand Master, but I can assure that it is not I you seek. Oh, no. He is here, just like he said he would be."

"And how can you be so sure?"

"I know the profile of every player here, even yours, Akio Fujimura." Arthur's eyes grew wide when he heard his name. "You see, I've had several conference calls with the one who claimed to be the Grand Master who said he could help me claim my vision of what I want here in this world." Kayaba turned to face Arthur. "But, of course I turned him down, saying I didn't need his help to achieve my goal. I told him I could do it on my own, and I have. Now, it seems he is possibly here to take my position and control of this world." Even if he couldn't see the man's eyes, he could still feel a strong glare from beneath the hood. "I cannot allow him to do so. This is my world, not the Templars', to rule."

"Are you saying you want to help me? After you decided to hold nearly ten thousand people hostage for your own entertainment?! Why should I?"

"Would you rather be released from the game or remain a prisoner in it your whole life?" Arthur's face remained tense. "I have designed the game to be beaten, not to be an eternal prison. You know, as well as I, that the Templars would see to it that everyone in here is trapped and under their control. Me? I am no king dictating what my subjects can and cannot do. I let you do your own thing here in this world. The Templars would see that you would all corralled into one single farm to be treated like cattle. So, you know why you need my help. The question is…do you accept?" Suddenly a blue light shines behind Arthur and from the light emerge a man with a broken black clock and hood with a bow on his back.

"KAYAKBA!" Shouted an angry voice. It the man with a black cloak and hood. "SO THIS IS YOUR REAL INTENTIONS! TO COMMIT A MASS MURDER FOR YOUR OWN ENTREATMENT?!"

Charlie Grey?! Kayaba answer in a surprise tone. "You actually logged on? Well hello! How's my lovely assistant."

"It Häyhä and you lie to me!" He snapped "I helps you to build the NerveGear but this is how you repay me?! Abstergo and the Templars was right about you."

"You know about Abstergo and the Templars?" The hooded man then turned to face Arthur with a confused look as he didn't know who this boy is, "Excuse me but who is this young man" Arthur stared at the man for a few long minute until he found a Red Cross that resembles the one of the Templar order On the man left shoulder. 'He's a Templar.' Arthur try's to grab his sword but on realising that the sword disappeared because of Kayaba. he prepared himself for a fight.

"Häyhä this is Akio Fujimura aka Arthur, a member of the Assassin brotherhood and Akio this is Charlie Grey aka Häyhä, he's my British assistant during SAO development and a member of the Templar order."

"I knew it!" Arthur sword reappeared and he drew his katana out and aimed it at Häyhä's face while Häyhä retract a hidden blade from his left wrist aiming at Arthur's face. "I'm no Templar mate!" Protested Häyhä "But if you willing to fight me then you got a fight."

"Calm down gentlemen." Shouted Kayaba which effectively force Arthur and Häyhä to put his sword back to it sheath. "We all know that every single one of us have one thing in common.... and it that we don't like the Templar. Arthur wanted them all dead, I want them out of my game and Häyhä here also want them dead."

"It true lad. I want them dead than anyone here." Häyhä interrupted.

"And as I was saying before Arthur, I have designed the game to be beaten, not to be an eternal prison. You know, as well as I, that the Templars would see to it that everyone in here is trapped and under their control. So do we have a deal?"

Arthur thought about this situation. He knew Kayaba was right about the Templars wanting control over all people, and taking Kayaba's position would be easy pickings. He really had no choice; he was caught between a rock and a hard place. He needed his now enemy's assistance to remove the enemy he had trained to kill all of his life. "They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend." He looked at Kayaba or at least the darkness in his hood. "The Templars have been my enemy all of my life. I have trained to kill them. While you want them dead for your reason, I want them dead for the real reason: to avert the enslavement of everyone. So…" His next words tasted bitter on his tongue. "I accept."

"Splendid!" Kayaba swiped open his menu, pressing a few buttons to transfer items to Arthur's Item Storage. "Now, see what I have given you. Check your Skills menu as well."

Arthur opened his menu and scrolled to Items. In it he found:

Assassin's Outfit x 1

Hidden Blades x 2

Sword of Altair x 1

Hidden Blades Recipe x 1

Under his skills, he found this:

[Levantine Approach- User wields both Hidden Blade and One Handed Sword if he/she so chooses during battle. Can be used in Duels.]

[Assassination- Kill a target instantly if remains undetected. Works on players and monster. (Except bosses). this ability lets the use to kill a target no matter where they are, even in safe zones.]

Arthur could feel the smile under the hood. "And now, you have the tools required to be a true Assassin. Of course, any and all Assassin techniques you've learned in the real world can also be used in Aincrad. This goes for you as well Häyhä. And remember this: you are the only Assassin in SAO. There's no others like you; rely on Häyhä help. Häyhä will assist you on any need of you what him. Now, go forth and free this world…if you can survive." Kayaba vanished and the world returned to normal speed and Häyhä felt his bow reappear on his back.

The crowd had become silent once again. A mirror dropped and shattered. A girl screamed. Panic had set in and everyone was rushing out. He spotted his friend and when up to them, Arthur grabbed Yui and Edward and ran for the nearest exit. From there, Edward took over and led the two into a safer part of town, well away from the crowd. They all slumped over, panting. "So…now what?" Edward said in between breaths. "It's practically every man for himself! This isn't how it was supposed to be! Shit!"

Arthur felt worried about the threat surrounding all of them. It seemed like Yui had snapped out of her daze. She slumped to the ground, hands shaking. Arthur knelt in front of her and laid a hand on her shoulder. Tears leaked from her eyes as she threw her arms around him, crying into his shoulder. "I-It can't be! I c-can't lose you two. You're my best friends! Y-You can't die…"

"Then that will be some tough shit then." said a mysterious voice, but to Arthur it was a voice of a Templar. The hooded figure jumped of the roof and landed on the ground next to the group. "Who are you?" Asked Edward.

"My name is Häyhä and I'm Arthur's friend from the Beta test." He lied sarcastically, "and I'm not fond of crybabys"

"Hey!" Arthur shouted. He tightly hugged her in return. "I don't intend on dying. We have to get out of here. A greater threat is at work." He looked at Edward. "I'm making sure you two leave with me!" He held out his hand to his friend, keeping one arm around Yui. Edward smiled and gripped his friend's hand tightly. He gently brought Yui out of their embrace. "You in, Yui?" She wiped her eyes, a smile and look of determination now on her face. Her hand gripped the top of her friends'. "Now, let's get the hell out of here! Häyhä, lead the way!" Häyhä could only role his eyes in embarrassment, "Bloody Hell" he said in English.