Chapter Text
With the kind of timing that came from hours and hours of activating abilities in a computer game the second they came off cooldown, Kazuto Kirigaya flicked on his NerveGear and initiated the next big thing in entertainment: Sword Art Online. In a whirlwind of pops and hums, smelling of lilacs and chocolate and vomit, tasting like orange blossoms and burnt popcorn and grass- the machine on his head calibrated the wave analysis and interception to match his specific mental patterns and fold him into a new reality.
Before anyone could go gallivanting across the new virtual world they just paid for, first they had to build their character. Unlike most MMORPGs, SAO only allowed two points to be spent into the various stats that determined a character’s ability to do things. Even more restrictive, they couldn’t be stacked. All level one players, noob or pro, would have 1’s in every stat except two, which had two points. This lack of player choice was offset by an incredibly robust character creator, featuring literally thousands of sliders and subtle tweaks. It also allowed for subtler design options that were more than cosmetic- like player height. A player’s height would determine their reach- longer arms meant swings farther away- but also a larger hit box.
Keeping all of this in mind, Kazuto built his first character with a fine tooth comb- helped along by his saved avatar from the game’s closed beta. While most of the time, a player's first character was a guess at how to build for the game, and likely ended up being poorly optimized, SAO’s restrictiveness made it hard to build a ‘bad’ character. That meant that most players would not feel the need to build a second character shortly after playing with their first. That, combined with the two week embargo on making a second character, meant that Kazuto was not alone in meticulously crafting a look and tweaking hundreds of variables to make the perfect persona. When he was happy with his creation, Kazuto quickly typed his preferred screen name and started the initialization.
Unbeknownst to him, Kazuto hadn’t been left alone while entering the virtual world. No, someone had gotten curious about this new technology and how it left him defenseless. His cousin, though he called her sister because she didn’t know he was adopted (honestly, he wasn’t supposed to know either), after watching him lie perfectly still for half an hour, got bored and started poking him. Kazuto, buried in the NerveGear didn’t feel a thing. But his body, despite the machine intercepting his conscious movements, reacted.
It wouldn’t be discovered until long after the units were confiscated and set to be demolished, but the NerveGear had a unique flaw. Autonomic reactions, like a heartbeat or a sneeze were allowed to pass from the brain to the rest of the body. But, these messages were also picked up by the machine and used as inputs. The designers had screened for heartbeats and breathing, but not sneezing. (Nor farting, burping, or yawning, but they weren’t important in this instance.) In the moments where he was finalizing his character, the additional inputs got carried through. Too quick for him to notice as the design room flooded with light, and alongside a minor spelling mistake when inputting his name, something changed that would alter his life forever.
His first moments back in the world of Aincrad felt like coming home, were home scorching hot and filled with the smell of spiced meat and sweaty bodies. Fighting to see through the overbearing midday sun, Kazuto looked around and stumbled to the side of the initial load zone where all new players were dropped into the game. Finding a patch of shade, he finally got his eyes to adjust and sighed contently at the cooler air. Somehow, being in the city this time, in the full game, felt different. It felt more real, more impactful. Like his life would never be the same again.
The plaza was full of players in all shapes and sizes, some glowing as they materialized in, while others looked around in a stupor. Some set off immediately toward the shops, stepping around awestruck players with irritated looks, while others shifted nervously, unsure of where to go or what to do. Kazuto pulled up the map, grateful to see that the devs had given everyone a completed map of the city instead of making them map it themselves. Most of the locations were familiar to him, but there were some changes from the Beta. An extra church, the castle had been expanded, and an entire section of the city had been added. Which made sense, given the player population had more or less pentupled.
Picking a shop he had gotten familiar with before, Kazuto marked it on the map, but didn’t see a navigation aid in his view. Another change from the beta, one that many new players would miss, but would adjust to in time. He pulled up the map again and mentally created a list of directions, then set out at a brisk pace. He had noticed the stares and looks as he left, but his social anxiety kept him from confronting any of them. It wasn’t until he walked into the shop that he got his first sign that something had gone horribly wrong.
“Greetings Miss! How may I be of assistance today?” The NPC was friendly and open, despite the store being empty and tucked away in a back alley. The reason Kazuto picked this store, besides his familiarity, was that he knew they carried leather longcoats. It was an unusual item, not available at most starting stores, but still firmly in the tier of starter gear. Kazuto, at this level, needed to give himself as much extra weight as he could spare. Col, the coin of the realm, and primary currency of SAO wasn’t going to be plentiful enough for him to rebuy armor more than once or twice on this floor. He needed both lightweight and sturdy, which meant a longcoat.
After he selected his purchases, and sold off anything he deemed unnecessary, Kazuto adjusted to the new weight of all his gear and opened his menu to the equip screen, where he froze. The avatar on his screen was not the avatar he had spent what felt like hours making. She- a girl!- was short and dainty looking. Long black hair and wide lilac eyes, skin pale but free of marks. Nothing like the man he built who was pale, and lacked marks on his skin. With shaggy black hair and onyx eyes. Who was admittedly, slightly shorter than average. Thinking it through, this avatar was a lot like the one he built, just female instead of male.
Assuming that avatars in SAO operated on different sizing standards for male and female bases, then the variables he painstakingly calibrated were still there, just applied to a different baseline. All he needed to do to fix his avatar was change the base sex. While not something easy for a player to access, any GM should be able to flip the toggle with little to no effort at all. Unwilling to try and call a GM directly, Kazuto filled out the help request form and submitted it. Then, with nothing better to do, he left.
As he departed, the shopkeeper shouted a canned farewell that he automatically responded to and was shocked at the light, female sounding voice that came from his throat. Flushed, Kazuto stalked toward the city gates, trying to ignore his reflection in the windows he passed, but unable to ignore it completely. He looked devastatingly cute, his frustration showing as a mild pout on his face as he stormed through the light crowd, drawing eyes but moving too quickly for anyone to be able to stop him. This was certainly a change from his planned persona of a gruff and stoic swordsman who communicated more in grunts and grumbles than real words. Everything about him was cute, and he hated it.
As with the launch of any new MMORPG, the initial mob, or monster, spawns were crowded to all hell. Standing right at the gate out of the city, all Kazuto could see were players, interspersed with brief flashes of light as another monster spawned or one was defeated. Already drawing eyes just standing there, and knowing that if he showed even an ounce of talent he’d be pounced on by someone- a noob trying to find a teacher, a recruiter for one of the guilds that would pop up, or some idiot thinking a long girl was the perfect opportunity to find romance. The thought of anyone chasing him down like that made his skin crawl, so Kazuto did what he did best- he booked it. Between his nascent hiding skills, his avatar’s celerity, and the gathered crowd, he vanished from the gates.
The initial fields of the first floor stretched from the walls of the Town of Beginnings to the forest in the distance. During the day a unified zone, at night the rolling fields and paths split into a quilt of spawn zones with scattered, but still beginner, levels. This meant that, while inconvenient to walk all the way back to the city if one needed to, there was no real difference in testing out the game close enough to spit on the walls or so far out that the city itself looked small.
Kazuto, as a returning player, did not fear the scattered boar, wolves, and wasps that made up the daytime spawns. He was confident in his skills against anything under level 3 and controlled by the most rudimentary of AI. Underneath his confidence was pragmatism that told him to test the skills and tricks he learned in the beta before he needed to rely on them to save his life. Not that running out of HP would do any real harm, but having to start over again, or pay for a resurrection, was annoying. Some boring testing now could save his bacon later. Alone this far out, Kazuto ran through the list of skills in his head that he needed to test and picked a target, one of the wolves that had come sniffing around. He drew his sword and took a pose, lining up his movement and waiting for the right moment before lunging forward with a bright flash.
Kazuto didn’t know how long he’d been testing his skills and tricks, but it had to have been a while. The sun had moved from being almost right overhead halfway down the horizon, meaning it was now late afternoon in Aincrad. The testing had been boring, but he learned some important things. Most of the skills had stayed the exact same, but some of them had clearly gotten hit with a balancing patch. Some tweaks to damage or cooldown, but one or two had changed drastically. A lunging attack that ended with an overhead slam had been retooled to travel a shorter distance and had the post motion delay extended. It was a powerful move, so it made sense, but if he used it like he had in the beta there was a chance he could have ended up short of the monster and caught defenseless longer than planned. A few of the tricks had been patched as well, one of which was a real disappointment. In the Beta, if you timed it right you could swap swords in the middle of an attack. This allowed you to hit a monster twice with the same move. It was hard to pull off, but worth it for that extra squeeze of damage. Now, no dice.
His testing complete, Kazuto found a rock to sit on and started sorting his drops from the many monsters he’d killed. Quite a bit of it was junk, but even the starting enemies had a chance at dropping some rare materials.When he was about halfway through, the distant sound of shouting caught his attention. While it started faint, as he listened it got louder and louder as the source got closer. Standing on the boulder, Kazuto saw what the ruckus was about- a player was running from one of the boars. It was almost painful to watch as the man ran down the path barely staying in front of the enraged boar. Clearly, whoever this was, they had no idea what they were doing. Normally, running away from someone as low level and simple as a boar would cause it to lose interest, but the screaming kept triggering its search protocol. If the guy would just shut up he’d be fine, but he didn’t know that. It looked like he would run right past Kazuto, but there was a rock in the path. A little pebble, but that was more than enough for the man to trip and go flying, scrambling back around to watch the boar get closer and closer, bracing for impact.
But impact never came. Kazuto hopped off the rock and dispatched the boar in one clean strike before it could touch the moron.
“You know, they track by sound. If you hadn’t been screaming it would have left you alone.” Kazuto said almost without thinking. His new voice was jarring to hear coming from his mouth, but it was pleasing to the ear.
“Really? The guy exclaimed, standing up and dusting his pants off. “How’d you even figure out something like that- the game’s only been live for a few hours.”
“It’s kind of obvious if you watch.” Kazuto deadpanned, mentally dropping the fool a few more rungs on the intelligence ladder.
“And the way you killed it- what was that? Some super high level attack?”
Kazuto sighed, “You saved him, he’s your responsibility now.’
“Do you know anything about how combat in this game works?” he starts, assuming nothing.
“Not a thing! I logged in about an hour ago. I don’t like spoilers, so I avoided any beta reviews and pre-launch information.”
“Right. Well, first- Wait, what’s your name?” Kazuto asked, realizing he can’t keep calling the man doofus in his head.
The man bows, extending his hand, “Hello, my name is Klein, I’m 24, single, and look-”
“You realize asking me makes you look like a pedophile, right?” Kazuto interrupts.
“What? How old are you then?” Klein asked.
“Internet safety 101, I’m not telling you. But this avatar looks 14 or 15. Half your age plus seven still says you’re half a decade off, Mr. Creepy.”
“I’m not a pedophile!” Klein insisted, grumbling about kids these days.
“Anyway, combat in this game is a little more involved than ‘stick them with the point end’. There are hundreds of different weapons with different skills and combos, all of which are influenced by your stats. The simple attack skills are only one or two movements, but as you unlock more powerful abilities they’ll require more complex movements, often chaining multiple moves together. Then there are the monsters. Different monsters use different senses to find and attack prey, meaning other monsters and you.
In this field, Boar hunt by sound, Wolves by smell, and the Wasps by movement. Not exclusively, as all three can see you and attack that way, but knowing how they primarily find their targets means you can exploit it. Boars are easy to sneak past. Wolves struggle to follow you over water. If you accidentally trigger a wasp swarm instead of one of two ads, standing still might save your life.”
“Wow, you sure know a lot about this game, assuming you’re not pulling my leg or something.” Klein said.
“If you don’t want my help…’ Kazuto teased.
“No, no! Please, stay. Teach me. I was only joking.”
“Monsters are all unique and interact with the world in a sensible manner. Pay attention, listen to the NPCs when they’re explaining stuff, or at least buy a guide from a reputable information broker. If you run around without paying attention or disregarding everything, then this game is going to be the opposite of fun. I’ve found hidden items, monster weaknesses, avoidance tactics, even a quest or two just by keeping my ears out and reading the flavor text.” Kazuto explained.
“So, how do I fight back? You took out that boar in one hit. It took me ten minutes to kill one on the way out here.” Klein inquired.
“Right. So, sword skills are activated by motion input- do the right movement and the system picks up on it and executes the assist. Skills do better damage than straight whacking the monster, but they have a cooldown where you can’t move afterwards. Stronger skills have longer motion delay as well as cooldowns before they can be used again. Make sense?”
“Yeah.” Klein nodded.
“You should have two basic sword skills with that thing- a slash and a thrust. For the slash, start from over your shoulder and bring it down diagonal, like you’re going to touch the opposite hip. The thrust, you want the sword comfortably drawn up by your rib cage, then twist your shoulders to drive it forward and extend the arm. All the more advanced skills operate under similar conditions and functions. Some intermediate or advanced skills work by chaining additional actions on the initial movements. Try it a few times on the air.”
It took him a few tries, but eventually Klein managed to activate a sword skill and got dragged by the motion. When the paralysis ended he fell to his feet.
“You have to anticipate the movement and work with it. Fighting it will reduce your damage and leave you open, like this.” Kazuto said, kicking Klein’s boot.
“Right, right.” Klein grumbled, climbing back to his feet and trying again.
When it seemed like he had a handle on things, Kazuto picked up a rock, “This is something the NPC teachers wouldn’t mention; anything can be used for a basic sword skill, so long as it fits the shape and size. This is one of the basic skills for throwing knives, but it works for rocks or any other small object.” Kazuto selected a boar and threw the rock. The boar’s health dropped a chunk and it squealed, wheeling around and charging them.
“You’ve got this Klein!” Kazuto shouted, stepping back to allow the swordsman to work, but close enough to step in if anything went wrong.
After Klein dispatched the boar, Kazuto continued, “Anything the right size and shape can be used- though durability matters. On the 4th floor, I-”
“I heard rumors that on the fourth floor, someone won a duel with a baguette.” he finished awkwardly.
“That’s really cool.” Klein praised, letting the admission go.
After some more grinding, making sure Klein had truly learned how to properly execute his sword skills, Klein joined Kazuto on some simple quests. Nothing more than the introductory fetch quests, but these ones were the most lucrative. Beta knowledge did come in handy. Now, Kazuto and Klein were taking a break. The last quest had taken them almost to the edge of the forest and the rim of the floor. Looking off the side, they could see water spilling into the abyss from a small stream.
“So, your name is Kiriko?” Klein asked in the quiet. Kazuto jumped and looked up from his menu to find Klein leaning over his shoulder and reading his stats. Kazuto quickly closed the menu and took a few steps away.
“Don’t do that. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you didn’t know, but looking at another player’s menu, unless they offer, is seriously rude. That kind of behavior can get you kicked from parties and taken off the loot list. Never do that to someone again.” Kazuto impressed, then sighed, “But yeah, I’m Kiriko. I thought I told you already, but I guess not.”
“No sweat, it happens to the best of us. And I am sorry about looking at your menu- I had no idea it was such a big deal. I promise, I’ll never do it again.”
“Yeah, don’t.” Kiriko said before letting it drop and stretching in the evening light. “Anyway, we should start heading back soon. The spawns change after it gets dark, and this close to the forest we might run into something nasty.”
“They do? That’s cool, but I’m glad you said something. I would have had no idea and probably gotten myself in trouble.” Klein said.
“Like I said, listen to the NPCs. I heard them talking about it on my way out of the city.”
“Getting close to when I need to logout.” Klein commented midway through the walk.
“Well, you better wait until we’re back in the city. It’s not safe out here.” Kiriko cautioned.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m pretty sure that when you disconnect from the game your avatar doesn’t despawn right away. And it sticks around longer depending on where you are. Out in the wilds, it’s a five or ten minute timer. Which is plenty of time for just about anything to hunt you down and kill you. There are also zones that aren’t actually safe zones, just places where no monsters spawn. Then, of course, there are true safe zones like cities and towns. There, your logout timer is 30 seconds in public and instant in private, like an inn room.” Kitriko explained.
Just when the walls of the town of beginnings came into view, both Kiriko and Klein were teleported. When the world rematerialized, they looked around to see the main plaza of the Town of Beginnings. It was crowded already, but more and more players were being teleported in. Then, the sky started to bleed.
“Players! My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and I am your god.”
Kiriko looked around the plaza at the other players, momentary hesitation preventing him from checking his own inventory. Bright lights were erupting around the players and returning different looking people in their place. Klein was swallowed up and came back a few inches shorter, not nearly as fit, and more scruffy looking. His hair was darker, not as shiny or red.
This was his chance! Kiriko pulled out his mirror and looked at it, allowing the light to swallow him up and for him to be returned to his normal, male body.
“Yes! I’m- I’m still a girl.” he shouted, only for his joy to turn into bitter disappointment. Eyes pricking with tears, Kiriko turned and ran, shoving his way through the crowd and vanishing into the dark alleys once the barrier breaks.
“Kiriko! Kiriko! Slow down!” Klein shouted from behind him, but Kiriko didn't stop until he’s at the gates of the city.
“What- what’s the- what’s the big rush?” Klein panted, hands on his knees.
“This is a MMORPG, Klein, the most advanced and interactive in history. All of the Loot, XP, achievements, all of it is maintained in a controlled balance by the system that runs this world. There’s a cap on power in this world, and each of us are going to be chasing shares of that pie. Our HP is our life now- our skills and our wits are all that will keep us alive. Either we clear this game fast enough, or the government pulls the plug because it’s too many resources. Come with me, Klein, I was in the beta. I know the best quests, the best mobs, the best way to level and stay ahead of the curve.”
“Kiriko… I can’t. I came here with friends, and they need me to guide them and keep them alive. I know you’re scared, and I’m sure there’s more going on here than just the announcement. You sure freaked out when you used that mirror- though it doesn’t look to have done much. I’m going to stay here and help my friends, but you go ahead. I know you can survive this world. I’ll send you a friend invite in a bit, once things have calmed down. And Kiriko, if you need a friend, or anything, reach out to me, okay? You let me get too close, you’re mine to look after now too.”
“I-” He paused, debating whether to say anything, but then caved. Someone had to know- he had to say it so that someone would know. “Klein, I’m a guy. Not in a transgender way, but in the there-is-a-male-body-lying-in-my-bedroom-that-I-woke-up-in-this-morning way. I don’t know what’s going on with the mirror, or why it didn’t work on me, but I’m not a girl.”
Next thing he knew, Klein had wrapped his arms around Kiriko and was hugging him, “I’m sorry dude. I can’t imagine what it must be like for you to be stuck like this, on top of everything else going on. But I want you to promise me something- when it gets to be too much, when you can’t stand the body you’re in and it gets dark, send me a message. No matter when or where you message me.”
Klein sighed, “I had a friend. He was assigned female at birth. It got to be too much for him with his family and the world, so he- he jumped. I was one of four at his funeral. Don’t make me do that again, okay? Whatever you need, you have me. Now go!”
Klein gave him a gentle push and Kiriko gave one last grin back, eyes red from crying, then ran off into the night.
Things had gotten so complicated and hard, but it was okay. She could handle it.