Sword Art Online - Astrophel Altair -

Chapter 1

"Mfmm.. hey! Did you hear about that new game? What was it called again.."

"Can you not speak with your mouth full?"

"Sorry! Anyways.. It's called Sword Art Online! You like fantasy things, right? Are you gonna get it?"

"I'm not particularly into video games."

"Yeah, but it's nothing like you've ever seen before! Who wouldn't pass up an opportunity to live in a fantasy world?"

---

Mafuyu walked down the sidewalk, holding her bag in front of her. It bumped against her knees as she walked, but she was too focused on thinking to notice. As she walked by a local game store, she noticed a group of people gathered up by the entrance. She stared at the group of gamers patiently waiting to raid the game store for the release of 'Sword Art Online'. She stopped behind the huge crowd and tried to see over all the tall people.

"..."

"That's right.. today is November 6th."

Mafuyu checked her phone. 12:58. The doors for this game store open in exactly 2 minutes. She hesitated to walk forward and spend the money to get this, but it also intrigued her. She thought about what she had told her friend Himiko.

"'I'm not particularly into video games..'" She whispered to herself, then finally let out a huge sigh. "Whatever. Maybe it'll be fun." she played with a strand of her hair. When the clock struck 13:00, the group of gamers all flooded into the game store. Mafuyu waited for a bit until the entrance finally cleared out. She walked through the doors and immersed herself into basically a whole new world. She'd only ever been in a game store for Christmas presents for her brothers and had never spent more than 5 minutes inside one.

Luckily, she managed to grab a copy of SAO as well as a whole nervegear. She had never felt so lucky before, to be honest. With all the monsters flooding the store and ripping each others hair out to get a copy of the game, she didn't think she'd make it past the doorway without being shoved and knocked down. When she finally got to the cash register, the girl who checked her out seemed speedy. Mafuyu noticed a reserved nervegear behind the counter as well as a copy of the game with the name "Ritsuka." The cashier caught her looking at it and smiled.

"I can't wait to get out of here and log in for myself," she grinned. "I've had this reserved for months in advance."

"Seriously..?" Mafuyu questioned. "Are you really big into stuff like this?"

"You could say that, yeah. My mom isn't too happy about it since it takes up my study time, but I keep my grades up," The girl pointed to the school logo on Mafuyu's vest. "Say, you go to Hoshime?" Mafuyu looked down and then back up at the girl. She nodded, grabbing her bag with the nervegear and video game. Hoshime was short for Hoshi Megumi Girl's Academy. It was a high school prep academy for ages 12-15, and it's in relation to a prestigious all girls high school. It seems Mafuyu and this cashier went to the same school. "That's cool. I'm a third year, class 3-C."

Mafuyu nodded once again at the girl and spoke quickly so she could get out of there faster. It seems the gamers behind her were getting impatient.

"3-A. I've never seen you."

"Well, now you have. Hope to see you in the game, noobie." The girl waved at Mafuyu as she walked out of the game store. She groaned quietly and took the game out of the bag as she continued her walk down the sidewalk.

"I can't believe I spent ¥129,800 on this.." she sighed. "I could've spent that on the cost for college entrance exams." she pondered, despite college entrance exams being many years away for her. Her daily commute back home was just as uninteresting as usual, but this time, she had a bag full of wasted money. She kept thinking about why she spent so much on something like this when she wasn't a hardcore gamer. Or a gamer at all. She decided not to dwell on it for much longer as the deed was already done. When she walked into the doorway of her house, she ran into her younger brother Yoichi. His eyes lit up at the faint logo of the Nervegear through the bag.