Sword Art Online: The Demon In White

Imprisoned

"Hey Akira, Akira~"

Sleepily, the white-haired youth turned his head to face Sakuya. She had her black hair tied into low ponytails around her neck and her big blue eyes glaring down at him.

"Sakuya... leave me alone, I want to sleep..."

Instead, she gave him a great shove which sent his arm off the desk.

"Ryuuno Akira! It's after school already! You slept like, the ENTIRE time! C'mon, move your lazy ass and let's get going!"

Yawning, Akira got up and followed Sakuya out of the school with stares following him. That was normal, because his white hair and red eyes made him stand out so much. Luckily, he didn't seem to mind; he merely yawned and let his thoughts drift about while Sakuya babbled.

After parting with Sakuya at the gates of his house, he opened the door to see his mother cooking in the kitchen. She didn't see him; she was putting a pot in the oven and setting the temperature. Akira swallowed the lump in his throat and muttered.

"I'm home."

His mother turned around and smiled.

"Welcome back Hayate, how was your part-time job?"

"It's fine... Mum."

Akira quickly disappeared into his room and shut the door. Ryuuno Hayate disappeared years ago during his camping trip and ever since then, his parents forgot the existence of the younger brother, Akira. Because the two brothers looked similar, they dealed with his loss by pretending that Akira was Hayate, and it was Akira who died. However, Akira didn't really care about this treatment. Or rather, he couldn't even care anymore.

He turned on the television, where news of the new game <<Sword Art Online>> was being featured. He had heard of the game before, he even bought the Nervegear to play it. The idea of another reality intrigued him. If it could help him escape his own right now, why not? And so Akira placed the Nervegear onto his head and yelled out the words.

"LINK START!!!"

Those two words marked the beginning of everything, the beginning of Akira's new life under the name 'Akise'.

******

<<1st Floor, Town of Beginnings, West Field>>

The <<Frenzy Boar>> had only a tenth of his HP left, so all Akise had to do was to give it a nice jab to end it. The pig then disappeared into polygons of blue. Dusting off nonexistent dust on his basic armor and clothing, the green-haired youth flexed his fingers slowly. His avatar had messy green hair and green eyes, looking quite the opposite of his original appearance in real life. At least, he didn't attract too much attention in this game than in real life.

"Well that was easy, I wonder what other skills can I use... For an RPG with no magic in it, this sure is a nice game..."

Akise commented as he looked around. On a vast meadow which looked endless, there were other people just like him, trying their best to level up. Some had no idea how to activate a skill though; he watched a red-haired guy being tutored by a black-haired guy. He remembered this very clearly because what the black-haired guy did next was unexpected. He simply picked up a stone and threw it at a pig. That enough could activate a skill because Akise himself witnessed the red trajectory of the stone. It had to do with the pose; that guy had to pause in his stance or something for the skill to activate. After a couple of tries and errors, Akise finally learned <<Slant>> and got to level 15.

"Well then, time to head to town I guess for an equipment change..."

Akise teleported to the Town Center, where lots of other players were either hanging around with friends or running about. Some of them had found friends themselves and chatted away. Feeling a little left out, Akise decided to head to the marketplace. However, he walked straight into a wall. An invisible wall. Confused, Akise placed his hand on the wall. It wouldn't budge an inch, like it had been there this whole time. Was this a glitch in the game? A barrier? Akise then motioned his hand downwards to bring out the window. Maybe if he logged out and back in again, the barrier would be gone.