Sword Art Fanfiction Online

Black. Pink. Blue. Yellow. Red. Green.

Long ago, the six colors lived in harmony, giving power to a legion of warriors who defended the Zeo Crystals. Then, everything changed when the witch Bandora attacked. Only the Red Ranger, leader of his team, managed to live long enough to stop her evil. In their battle, the Zeo Crystal vanished.

64 million years have passed…

………………………………….

Yuuki Kouichirou was a perfectly ordinary company executive working for his father's company, of the sort you could find anywhere in Japan. He put on appearances, worked hard, let his life be decided by his parents long ago, and was well on his way to passing on this passive-aggressive abusive childhood to the next generation. The only thing that might have marked him as anything but an automaton was a fondness for video games. In truth, he was a casual gamer at best, and rarely managed to play games all the way to the end, but he found games relaxing and enjoyable, and as vices went it was certainly more circumspect and socially acceptable than, say, putting on body armor, getting into his sports car and going out to beat muggers unconscious with his fists. He'd just managed, with some help from some connections, to get hold of a new copy of a new game, the first of it's kind. A virtual reality game that immersed the player in a virtual world that they experienced with their whole body.

No phone call requiring hero overstated a meeting interrupted his setup and preparations. The next day, which he had used on of his rarely utilized days off to secure, nothing interrupted him as he finally got the hardware calibrated and set up the game. Slipping into a comfortable pair of pajamas, he placed the Nerve Gear on his head and booted up the game.

Hours later, his sister found him.

………………………………….

Shinozaki Rika was a perfectly ordinary hot gamer chick, of the sort you could find anywhere. She was not, as it were, a hardcore gamer, and neglected to pre-order a copy of Sword Art Online, deciding to leave it to chance by lining up on release day to try and acquire her copy then. Sadly, it was not to be. Of the ten thousand first issue copies of the virtual reality game, not a one made it to her hand. She sighed, and resigned herself to get it later when it eventually became available for download. Ayano Keiko, who at birth had been dangerously close to being named 'Rutherford', found herself in much the same situation.

Senou Kaede, who'd been a Beta Tester for Sword Art Online, would have remembered to pre-order the game if being a Beta hadn't come with the benefit of getting a copy of the finished game as thanks for her work, and had been all set to spend opening day seeing what changes had been made in the finished version and how many had been influenced by her comments. However, her mother had run out of rice for lunch and had asked her to go to the grocery to get more. By the time she'd returned home, the news was running stories about those trapped in the 'deathgame' and Kayaba Akihiko's warning not to attempt to remove them. The rest of the day was spent calling in a tip to the police and her new Nerve Gear and copy of SAO being carted away as evidence, which she was unlikely to ever see again. Kaede became the only player who'd actually gotten a copy of Sword Art Online to not actually be caught in the game

This is how 9999 people became trapped in Sword Art Online. This is how the boy called Kirito would meet the man called Kou and helped him survive his first Boss Battle. How, without the Argo guides to help those who were not Beta Testers keep from getting killed, Kibaou died horribly from ignorance, arrogance, and wanton stupidity. How Kou and Kirito stayed in touch and eventually became good friends. How Kirito discovered the Hollow Area and met the Treasure Hunter Philia. How they somehow had a daughter named Yui. How he met the Spriggan Yuuki, and learned of the existence of Alfheim Online, running parallel to SAO's servers. How he discovered the conspiracy of Nobuyuki Sugou experimenting on trapped players. How, after defeating the boss on the 100th floor, everyone was freed two years and eight months later.

This, however, is not their story. This is the story of Yuuki Asuna and Kirigaya Suguha, who lost their brothers. This is the story of Shinozaki Rika, Ayano Keiko and Senou Kaede, who dodged losing almost three years of their lives. This is the story of those left behind… and the reminder that no matter how horrific a game may be, reality is always far, far worse because it doesn't have to worry about things like internal consistency, fairness, loot drops and programmed variables.

It just has to happen.

………………………………….

February 21st, three months after the beginning of the Sword Art Online incident

Yuuki Asuna sat on the bus, listening to to her classmates chatter and wondering about her school's sensibilities. Most schools, when going on a field trip, went to either Tokyo Tower (as was traditional, and school administrators are nothing if not traditional) or Kyoto (if they had more money). If they had a lot more money, they went to Hawaii. This was Traditional.

So Asuna had to wonder why, of all places, they would be going to see a rock quarry. Not even an active rock quarry, which would at least have things to look at. An abandoned rock quarry, with was just, basically, a hole in the ground. A big hole in the ground, but still a hole. Apparently, local television stations used the site for filming shows and movies, but as there wouldn't be anyone filming, Asuna really didn't see the point. She had to wonder if someone had run off with the school's fieldtrip money or something.

The quarry wasn't far outside Tokyo, and when they arrived, Asuna was surprised to see that other schools seemed to have gotten the same idea (or possibly also had their field trip money stolen), as there were several buses in a level field that seemed to have been decided upon as a parking lot, with at least 7 different school uniforms in view. People were milling around but, due to the lack of anything like a convenience store or even a bus stop (or even a road. They'd been traveling on dirt for some time), most were staying close to their buses.

“What's happening here?” one of Asuna's classmates asked.

“I heard that the MEXT issued some kind of decree to move focus away from computer-related subjects and towards more practical fields,” another of her classmates answered. “It's just another kneejerk, pointless reaction to that Sword Art Online thing. You'd think they'd want people to learn more about computers so they can undo this sort of thing.”

“Government,” the first girl sighed. “What a pain.”

Someone shushed her, and though Asuna didn't turn to look, she was sure a significant glance was being directed her way. Yuuki Asuna, whose brother was one of those trapped in Sword Art Online. Which she ignored, of course, because this was Japan and one had to conceal, not feel.

After they disembarked, their teacher handed them a printed sheet and told them to 'look for and identify different kinds of rock to be found in the quarry'. At which point Asuna had to wonder if someone really had stolen the field trip money, or no one could think of anything else to do.

………………………………….

No one knows how the explosion at the quarry happened. Only that some girls from several different schools had found an excavated cave-like section near the tree-line and and had somehow triggered the blast. Many fingers were pointed, accusations were leveled, and though thankfully no one was badly hurt, threats of some kind of legal action were made. Accusations were leveled, by teachers, by parents, by students themselves. Some people blamed boys from Nerima, who were infamous trouble makers and seemed to have gone into the cave to fight. Other blamed those weirdos from Ourai, who had been making out and were annoyed people had crashed their make-out spot, as if pent up sexual frustration had caused the explosion. Others, quite loudly, blamed Sousuke Sagara who everyone knew was a military nut and might have even had explosives on his person at the time. That he testified all his explosives were accounted for didn't help matters.

No one suspected Ayano Keiko and Senou Kaede, who had run to get the teachers. No one suspected Yuuki Asuna, who had organized the students in the cave to tend to anyone injured and dig out the students that had been caught in the blast. By some miracle, the rocks had fallen in large, sheetlike sections that had somehow held together when they fell, leaving the students trapped buried in hollows between them. No one suspected Shinozaki Rika and Kirigaya Suguha, who had frantically helped students get out, lifting what rocks she could and helping people shimmy out of where they'd been trapped. After all, they were the least injured people there, so clearly they had been furthest from whatever blast had happened, surely drawn to the location by the sound of the explosion.

And if anyone remembered that the five had been huddled against the wall where the blast had occurred, then clearly they were wrong.

This was, of course, all later, as the teachers and various student council members of several schools quite sensibly saw to making sure that the affected students where sent to the closest hospital.

No one knows how the explosion at the quarry happened. Only that girls from several different schools had found an excavated cave-like section near the tree-line and had somehow triggered the blast. Many fingers were pointed, accusations were leveled, and though thankfully no one was seriously hurt, threats of some kind of legal action were made. Accusations were leveled, by teachers, by parents, by students themselves. Some people blamed boys from Nerima, who were infamous trouble makers and seemed to have gone into the cave to fight. Other blamed those weirdos from Ourai, who had been making out and were annoyed people had crashed their make-out spot, as if pent up sexual frustration had caused the explosion. Others, quite loudly, blamed Sousuke Sagara who everyone knew was a military nut and might have even had explosives on his person at the time. That he testified all his explosives were accounted for didn't help matters.

No one suspected Ayano Keiko and Senou Kaede, who had run to get the teachers. No one suspected Yuuki Asuna, who had organized the students in the cave to tend to anyone injured and dig out the students that had been caught in the blast. By some miracle, the rocks had fallen in large, sheetlike sections that had somehow held together when they fell, leaving the students trapped buried in hollows between them. No one suspected Shinozaki Rika and Kirigaya Suguha, who had frantically helped students get out, lifting what rocks she could and helping people shimmy out of where they'd been trapped. After all, they were the least injured people there, so clearly they had been furthest from whatever blast had happened, surely drawn to the location by the sound of the explosion.

And if anyone remembered that the five had been huddled against the wall where the blast had occurred, then clearly they were wrong.

This was, of course, all later, as the teachers and various student council members of several schools quite sensibly saw to making sure that the affected students where sent to the closest hospital. The Ousai Student Council was exceptionally helpful in that regard (it turned out their vice president's family owned a property nearby and volunteered the use of one of the family helicopters to get some of the more seriously wounded students to the nearest hospital, which it turns out they also owned), despite a rather jarring tendency to sudden attacks of dirty jokes and innuendo. Several girls had heavy bruising, with one having difficulty breathing because of cracked ribs, and two more had broken legs. Several more needed stitches, and more than one uniform was ruined because of torn fabric and blood.

Eventually, everyone went home. People who probably didn't deserve it were scolded. Several school uniforms had to be replaced, so added inconvenience and expense. Some girls bonded while waiting in the hospital, developing at least seven life-long friendships and a sudden lesbian relationship between a nurse and student. At least three girls bitching about it at home discovered the joys of mutually safe, sane, and consensual incest. One developed a crippling agoraphobia and claustrophobia and led a very interesting life unable to live both indoors or outdoors, resorting to a weird camera-mounted VR headset to function. We're not sure how that worked, but it let the girl get on with her life, and that's probably what matters? Don't look at me like that, this is Japan.

And some people… some people went home with kind stalker-y pet rocks.

At least they were very pretty rocks.

………………………………….

Many kilometers (because this was Japan and they had no truck with that silly ‘miles’ nonsense some countries still insisted on despite clearly being a really stupid and hard to convert unit of measure) away from Japan, in International waters, the fishing vessel Kintaros pitched and rolled in a heavy sea.

“Hikaru! Pull up the nets!” the captain shouted over the rising storm. The weather had changed fast, and they needed to get out of there before the nets fouled and they lost their catch.

The nets rose out of the water, wriggling with fish that gleamed in the boat’s spotlights that they'd tuned on when the clouds had moved in. The winch boom swung over the deck and released the nets. Their catch flopped into the hold. Something in the middle of the pile of fish hit the deck with a heavy thud. It was hard to see what it was until they got closer.

“What is that?” Hikaru asked.

Inside the boat’s hold there seemed to be some kind of frozen body. The captain and the rest of the crew stared down at it. It seemed like the naked corpse of a woman, and despite what the Internet might say about the sexual habits of the Japanese, it wasn't looking attractive to anyone in the crew. It was that ugly.

“Boss, I've seen this horror movie,”another member of the crew said nervously. “We should toss that back into the water and get the hell out of here. It's probably a vampire or a ningyo just waiting to wake up and kill us all.”

The captain sigh. “Soujiro, stop messing around. This is real life, it's not going to do anything of that.”

“You don't know!” Soujiro said. “We live in a word where some crazy guy can trap you in virtual reality! I know how this goes, soon we’ll have terrorists with super powers, American billionaires in capes and power suits, and then it's all over except for the alien invasions!”

“And that's the last time we let you pick what movies we’re going to watch,” the captain said. “Someone set this aside so we can show it to the police. Everyone else, get back to work!”

The other crew members, despite casting wary looks at the corpse, moved to comply. One smacked Soujiro and called him a dumbass.

The luckless crew member who had to wrangle the corpse aside so it wasn't on the fish noticed the corpse seemed to be clutching something. It was round and seemed to be made of green glass or rock. Curiously, he reached for it, then froze. Did that corpse’s fingers just twitch?

Hastily pushing it was far back as it would go, he through a plastic sheet over the corpse and got the hell out of there, wondering if going to a temple would exorcise this, or if he should become a monk just to be safe. After all, he'd seen those movies to…

………………………………….

Keiko turned the disk over in her hand. It was a curious, almost unnatural (in the sense of 'unlikely to have been formed by nature left to its own devices) thing, a round, disk-shaped transparent yellow crystal, thickest in the middle and thinner at the edges. A finger-wide band along the edge on both sides seemed covered in gold, or at least pyrite, giving the impression of of a gold-framed glass coin. There was a subtle pattern of lines in the center that looked kind of like a cat in 3/4ths profile. Very odd. It almost seemed to glow with it's own inner light, and–

Keiko frowned, then walked over to the light switch and flicked it off. The room plunged into darkness, light only by the light coming from her window and the soft golden glow coming from the crystal in her hand. Even as she watched, the glow seemed to intensify.

With a yelp, Keiko dropped the disk, rubbing her hands on her shirt. Which clearly wouldn't do anything if she had, as she suspected, been handling a radioactive substance, but she couldn't help herself.

Yet even as she watched, the glow seemed to fade, almost disappearing entirely. The slight glimmer could easily have been reflected light from the window.

…

Yeah, Keiko didn't believe it for a second. She knew 'glowing' when she saw it.

Eyeing the rock in question, Keiko edged around it towards the door, as if afraid it would jump on her. No need to panic just yet. Her dad had a Geiger counter from her grandfather and she knew how to use it, she'd just check to see if her new rock was radioactive before she panicked. Who knows, it might be some new luminescent phenomenon that she could study and have it named after her.

Nodding to herself, Keiko left the room and headed for the part of the garage where her dad kept his personal tools and assorted knick-knacks.

She nearly dropped the Geiger counter when she turned around and saw the yellow crystal sitting innocently on his workbench. She definitely screamed.

Forget radioactive, she was in a horror movie! Ah, she was too young and cute and a virgin to die!-!-!-!-!-!

………………………………….

Kaede arrived home to find her parents out, with a note on top of a covered bowl on the table saying they might not be back that evening. She sighed a bit in exasperation at her parents, who after all this time still acted like horny newlyweds, if not teenagers. She'd never accidentally walked in on them, but she sometimes had nightmares about it. Fortunately, at a very young age her mother had taught her to never enter a room with a sock on the door and weird noises coming from inside. As she grew old enough to find porn on the internet, she had been very thankful for her mother's teaching and foresight.

In the bathroom, she stared woefully at her school uniform. Most of the dust had come off, but the jacket was still torn in places. Fortunately there were no stains. She'd ask her dad to sew it up later, after she'd beaten the dust out of it.

After a quick bath, she sat in front of her computer in just her sleepwear, logging in to her Elder Tale account. There had been a strange drop off of players in the weeks after the Sword Art Online incident, as if people where afraid they'd be trapped in Elder Tale too if they kept playing. Which she couldn't really blame them for, since she'd gotten leery about games herself immediately afterwards. For about, say, two hours, at which point she decided to put things behind her.

As she guided her summoner character along a field, following up on rumors that some old, commercial tie-in quests had stealthily been put back in place with the serial numbers filed off, she idly toyed with the strange pink rock that shed found in her uniform pocket, nimbly dancing it over her fingers like an over-sized coin. So far she had confirmed the [Variant Excalibur] quest, the [Returning Mighty Shield] quest, the [All-Killing Revolver] quest and the [Orange Armor] quest had been returned, renamed and likely with some slight cosmetic changes to the final item so that they wouldn't have to pay royalties. She had even finished the [Returning Mighty Shield] quest since she'd luckily had the right items in her inventory, coming away with a nice new round shield whose special property let it be thrown around like a boomerang, even if she couldn't equip it. Right now she was off to confirm that, yes, the [White Cat-Rabbit Thing] NPC that gave the variant [Mahou Shoujo] subclass– the one that gave you strange stats more in line with the vampire subclass than a spellcasting class– was to be found in one of the 5 random locations after activating the quest when she received an message.

[Kona Kona]: Hey, Argo-chan, got a minute? Do you still have that map for the [Raith Deeps] quest?

[Argo]: Sure, but it'll cost you. That should be public knowledge by now, should you just check a wikia site?

[Kona Kona]: Too lazy! Besides, Argopedia is better!

[Argo]: Again, my services aren't free Ko-chan.

[Kona Kona]: Map please!

As Argo checked through her items to check if she still had one of her scribed maps, she wondered what kind of rock this was…

………………………………….

Shinozaki Rika eyed the shiny black rock suspiciously from behind the sofa as it sat innocuously on the floor in front of the TV. For one thing, it was black, and not to by rockist or anything, but everyone black rocks were bad news. The shiny golden trim on the edges wasn't helping. It was totally giving off 'cursed object of the Evil Overlord' vibes. “Okay bud,” she said, adjusting the pot that was acting as an impromptu helmet on her head and holding the tenderizing mallet like she meant business. “Let's try this again.”

With the arm holding the frying spatula at full extension, she gently wiggled it under the rock and, with a deft flip, sent it flying out the open window of her family's apartment, hopefully not to land on some poor person's head several floors below. As soon as it was out of the room, she quickly rushed over and slid the window shut, then hurriedly closed the blinds just to be sure. Satisfied, she nodded to herself and turned around.

The black rock sat innocuously on the sofa.

Rika sighed. This was the fifth time she'd tried this, and she was starting to sense a trend. “Okay, stop following me!” she said at it accusingly, wondering if she'd make it to a temple if she started running now. So far, the light in the apartment hadn't failed, the temperature hadn't dropped, no creepy voices had started sounding and no one had crawled out of the TV, so maybe she still had a chance to foist this off on someone else. She was pretty sure she hadn't bullied anyone lately, and none of her relatives had died recently, so there was a chance this wasn't directly related to her? Unless this was one of those 'general an non-specific hate against all humanity' things, in which case she was royally screwed no matter what.