Her Mission To Save Them All || Sword Art Online Fanfic

Chapter 1

POV: Kayoko

It's finally here.

The excitement in my heart pounds as I slowly get up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. Every nerve in my body screams to move, to take the box that sits on my desk and open the flap, just to feel the plastic of the nerve gear between my fingers.

It takes more effort for my hands to not stray towards that box than it does to reach for my phone. The screen flashes as I turn it over, the light of the screen blinding in the dim winter lighting.

November 6th 2022

A smile spreads onto my lips. For months I have been dreaming of this day. This day when all the interviews and the nights spent sleepless, waiting in anticipation, disappear like fragments of memory.

And it's all because of this day. The day the first virtual reality game is released, created by my own uncle, Kayaba Akihiko. It's the day Sword Art Online stops being a brain child and becomes enjoyment for all 10,000 people who were lucky enough to snatch copies for themselves.

I'm lucky enough to have 3 copies, hand delivered by my uncle. One for myself, one for my friend, and well, the other one is the forfilling of a promise.

I trace my hand over the cover, following the lines of Aincrad, a hovering castle of game code that has taken 10 years to create. I slip the other two copies into my bag, placing the other on top of the nerve gear box.

Soon, I promise myself. I will be back in that world of swords and excitement and battles again. Soon.

************

Slamming my door, I step out into the chill November air, the winding path so familiar to me that I could walk it with my eyes shut. I brush my hand down the wall blocking the street and the houses beyond, feeling the rough brick dig into my skin.

I make use of the feeling to cap the bubbling excitement of my soul. I can't stop the smile that rises with every fragment of thought anymore than I can surpress the butterflies beating their wings against my stomach.

I approach the two story stilted building, taking the rickety steps up the side and come face to face with a worn door, the blue paint peeling off. I curl my fingers into a fist, knocking softly.

After a few minutes without an answer, I don't bother repeating the knock. Rather, I sigh. Of course he's going to be like this on the day I've been waiting forever for. I pound my flat palm against the wood, calling out in irritation,

"Kyo? Open up!"

I hear two thumps from inside, then the slide of the latch and the click of the door.

"What?" He asks me flatly, pushing aside his warm brown hair for where it covers his eyes. One end sticks up at the back, almost in defiance of the early hour. I roll my eyes, pushing him straight back into the house.

"Honestly," I shut the door behind me, not bothering with welcoming myself in and head straight into the living room. As I take a seat at the square table in the middle, I point back to his figure in the doorway, "You're not going out like that."

"You're not my mother, Kayoko." He tries a small smirk, something that was once so difficult at ease on his features. It took me months to realise after he moved schools half a year ago that he has dimples between his cheeks.

"If I was, I wouldn't be half way across the country, would I?"

His expression falls flat, eyes roving over me in his expressionless way he does when something gets too much to talk about. I seize my tongue, scolding myself for letting something like that slip.