SAO A Different Story

A slightly different Kirito deals with the death game that is SAO. Along the way, he picks up a following of girls who adventure with and fight beside him. Kirito x harem.

AN: Relatively AU in regards to a few characters. Sinon and Yuuki will make an appearance in SAO because I want them to be in the story from the beginning. The story is Kirito x harem, but as they are all still young teens, don't expect anything much from that department until much later. The majority of the early story will be sped through, mostly as observations from Kirito. The story will slow down in a few chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own SAO, wish I did.

A Different Story

Chapter 1- Link Start

Kirito stared up at the sky as the oversized avatar of Kayaba Akihiko vanished into the ether. He was understandably upset. He had been looking forward to experiencing in person the massive leap forward in both programing and gaming that was Sword Art Online, but it ended up being a whole lot more than he expected. He elbowed Klein, who was still standing next to him, and took off for the city's exit gate. When he was halfway there, he slowed to a stop and addressed Klein.

"We need to get to the next town, before the others start making their way there. All of the good mob spawns and quests will run dry around the starting town, so we should head straight to the second town. I know the quickest and safest way to get there."

Klein looked indecisive, and Kirito was soon informed why. "I dunno, Kirito. I can't just up and leave my friends. We all waited in line together to get this game, and I won't abandon them."

Kirito didn't want to have more people slowing him down. He could probably make it with three of them, but four would be pushing the limit, and more than that was all but impossible. More players with them would mean more mobs would spawn, and things were dangerous enough in the fields at night. Klein saved Kirito the trouble of finding a solution by speaking up again.

"It's alright, you've already helped me out a bunch, I can't expect you to hold back just for me. Go off and do what you need to, I'll find my friends and we'll survive this thing together. But don't you die, you hear me? I expect to see you again Kirito," Klein said with a smirk.

Kirito smiled in return, and added Klein to his friends list before taking off for the next town.

Slinking through the forest, Kirito spotted another Little Nepent, this one with a red flower on its head. He quickly dashed up to it and slashed through it, marking his third acquired Little Nepent's Ovule. Kirito had spent much of the morning trudging through the forest and slaying the plant creatures left and right. Truthfully, he could have stopped hours ago after acquiring just one, which would have been enough for him to get an Anneal Blade from the Secret Medicine of the Forest quest. But just doing the minimum was not how Kirito did things. The second and third ovules were part of a deal that Kirito had made with his favorite-read only- information broker, Argo- more commonly known as Argo the Rat.

She had messaged Kirito the first night, knowing he would most likely run off early on. She had been the only player he had added to his friends list during the Beta, and it turned out that since Argo was also a Beta tester, she carried over onto his friends list. Argo had offered him a deal that was too good to pass up: in return for bringing her two Little Nepent Ovules, she would use one to acquire him a second Anneal Blade. She was more than well compensated, as the second ovule would sell for a high price. The offer was a no-brainer. As each player could only do the quest once, he should only be able to acquire one of the powerful (for the first few floors) swords. But Argo used claws and throwing weapons during the Beta, and thus was willing to give Kirito her quest reward as long as he made it worth her while.

Kirito was brought out of his thoughts as he saw another person enter the clearing. Kirito realized he had been so focused on the enemy mob that he failed to notice as one player and several more Little Nepents filled the small clearing. Kirito watched a bit detachedly as the player struck one of the fruit bearing plants and summoned a swarm of Little Nepents. Kirito didn't have time to contemplate the fact that someone it appeared players were already trying to kill each other; the rapidly growing sea of green around him demanded his attention. Thinking fast as he watched the player who was attempting to MPK him dive into a bush, Kirito ran past several mobs and to a relatively tall tree. He ran up as far as he could and drove his sword into the trunk. Kirito was quite thankful that this trick form the Beta still worked as the swarm rushed by harmlessly beneath him. Kirito had managed to avoid an almost certain death. His would-be killer wasn't so lucky. Kirito shivered as the player's death screams filled the air.

It took nearly forty minutes for the swarm of Little Nepents to disperse. Kirito dispatched the few stragglers and walked over to the bushes where the MPKer had died. There was a small cloth bag on the ground that opened a pop-up when Kirito touched it. Coper's Remains was the title of the window, informing Kirito as to the identity of his attempted murderer. Among the items remaining were a few hundred Col and some healing potions, as well as miscellaneous crafting materials. Kirito surmised that it was another Beta tester who had tried to kill him, as only a fellow Beta player would know of this quest and be out here already.

As Kirito trekked his way back to the village to speak to the quest npc and a waiting Argo, he reflected that he didn't feel as bad as he should have with Coper's demise. Coper had tried to kill him, and had failed. Kirito understood that it was either himself or the murderous player, and easily made peace with himself. It's not like he did anything to hasten his death in any event. He had just climbed a tree as Coper's actions backfired upon him.

In another life, Kirito may have felt guilty about the death of another player, or even at the fact that he couldn't save everybody who was trapped in this death game. This Kirito didn't have such thoughts. The Kirigaya Kazuto of this world had read far too much when he was younger. Novels about wars of epic scales, books where the anti-hero rained destruction on the world; Kazuto had come to realize that in the grand scheme of things, lives were just drops of water in a vast ocean. His thinking followed similar paths as the ancient Greek gods; the few loved ones or favorite people that he had would be protected and valued, but the majority of people were unimportant to him. If seen by a psychiatrist, they would probably have quite a bit to say about him. Kazuto was fully aware of that, but didn't rightly care. He had kendo, he had his computers and video games, and he had his family and a friend or two. Other than the items on that list, he didn't care about much.

Kirito was almost back to the village Secret Medicine of the Forest quest was located. He was truly thankful to Argo for offering him such a good deal. Being his friend from the Beta, she was the only player who knew why he needed a second sword for anything other than a backup.

Flashback

Kirigaya Kazuto grunted as he took another hit to his right arm, dropping his bamboo sword as he felt intense pain along his forearm. The sharp *crack* that had echoed throughout the dojo appeared to have been from more than just the impact of bamboo on skin. As he dropped to his knees and clutched his arm to his chest, His grandfather stalked over.

"Pathetic," the aged man said. "I will say it again, boy; you lack what it takes to truly succeed in the art. Stop wasting my time."

Kazuto stared the old man in the eyes, teeth clenched in both anger and pain. It was always the same with his grandfather, he could never satisfy him. Even training daily and lasting significantly longer in a spar than he had when he started hadn't changed the way he was treated. But Kirito refused to give up. AS he stood back up, his grandfather gave him a disdainful look.

"What do you plan to do, hmm? You can't even use your arm anymore."

"Then I'll just use the other one," he replied in monotone, none of his anger leaking out. Showing anything but passive stoicism just earned him beating, as he had learned early on.

His grandfather just gave him a dismissive wave and walked off.

The next morning found the boy swinging a shinai awkwardly with his left hand, while his right arm was in a cast. His grandfather didn't acknowledge anything as being different, and training continued as if one of the sparrers wasn't suffering from a temporary handicap.

'At least it taught me to be ambidextrous', Kirito thought to himself as he arrived at the house where his current quest started from. His whole purpose for gaining a second Anneal Blade was so that he could dual wield. While not an explicitly stated skill in the game, it was possible to use two weapons at once, but the trade-off was the lack of system assist with most attacks.

He entered the building to see a short girl with auburn hair and whisker marks sitting to the side of the room, her hands swiping at the air. Upon seeing him, she stopped firing off messages long enough to ask, "What took you so long Ki-bou?" before going back to her work.

"An MPKer tried to get me with a swarm of Little Nepents, and I had to wait until the swarm dispersed before I could leave," he replied while opening a trade menu.

Argo accepted the trade, then stood and said, "Well, whoever they are should've known better than mess with my Ki-bou!" she stated with a teasing grin as she jumped and glomped him.

Kirito gave off a tired sigh at her antics, before leading Argo upstairs to acquire their Anneal Blades. Argo sent him her blade through the trade menu, before leaving with a "Don't be a stranger, Ki-bou!" as she was off to some other meeting or errand. Kirito couldn't recall a time during the Beta where she wasn't busy doing something or other, and it seemed she was only working harder now that they were stuck in Aincrad.

Kirito shook his head at his friend's antics as he left the house.

Kirito wondered how he had gotten himself into this situation. It had all started when he stopped to talk with a hooded figure in the Labyrinth, and now his quiet apartment had been invaded by a trio of girls.

It had started innocently enough; he had simply tried to talk another player out of their depression. The player had been grinding in the dungeon for almost four days, and was asleep on their feet. Kirito had provided a healing potion to the player, and then said his goodbyes and headed back to town. Then he had visited to blacksmith to get his Anneal Blades upgraded, as he now had enough materials to get the pair upgraded to his liking. He was almost home free when his least favorite stalker- ahem, information broker, appeared out of nowhere.

"Oh Ki-bou! I just heard the most interesting little thing. Do you wanna hear?" Argo said with a certain edge to her words that made Kirito shiver. He had a not insignificant feeling of dread that suddenly overcame him. Before he could reply, the girl continued.

"Do you remember that house from the Beta? The one with the Bath?" The way she said the word made the mundane object sound as if it was a holy object. "I tried to rent it, but it was already taken. I would have thought that nobody was aware that little place even existed. But then when I go to check up on my best customer, I learn that someone saw him exiting that apartment this morning. You wouldn't be holding out on Argo-chan now, would you?"

Her eyes glinted in a dangerous way, one which promised violence against him if he answered poorly. Again before he could reply, he sensed another presence approaching from behind. He glanced over his shoulder to see the blacksmith, who was also female, approaching with the same evil glint in her eyes as Argo. He then glanced left, and saw the player from earlier had her hood down and was approaching him as well. He gulped audibly, and resisted the urge to run as fast as his stats could carry him.

And now he lay here on his bed, listening to the sounds of running water and groans of satisfaction coming from his bathroom. The girls had practically dragged him back to his apartment before throwing him onto the bed and racing off into the master bathroom. If the way Argo and the girls had been whispering was any indication, they planned to appropriate a large portion of his residence for their own use, which included the bath. Kirito couldn't bring himself to put up a fight. Argo was one of his very few friends, and even then he had never been able to say no to her. To have her alternating usage of the evil glare and puppy dog eyes be joined by two more girls proved his undoing. His sister, cousin really, had used that ability on him countless times, and she had no shame in abusing her power over him.

Back in the real world, a teen with her head laid on the hospital bed of her newly revealed-to-be cousin sneezed in her sleep, before shifting to get comfortable and resuming her nap alongside her beloved onii-chan.

Kirito looked around the amphitheater at the gathered players. A group of scouts had discovered the Boss Room for the 1st floor, and several of the stronger players had set up a raid meeting. The player who called the meeting, Diavel, had just suggested that players form parties. Asuna, Argo, and Lisbeth just shot shim a collection of smug looks, before resuming their conversation about different weapon types. Kirito gave a long, suffering sigh. Most guys wouldn't understand why he was complaining about his situation. He had three admittedly cute girls staying in his apartment and joining as members of his party. The fact that he had been relegated to the couch and the girls had strong-armed him into even starting a party for them to join was overlooked by the majority of observers.

But Kirito had to admit, the company was somewhat enjoyable. Having been a loner so long he had all but forgotten the pleasant sounds of background conversation and the quiet assurance of companions around oneself.

Kirito stood and motioned to the girls, who rose to follow him. They were going to the dungeon to get some last minute training in before the boss raid the next day. With any luck, the second floor would be open to them before they went to sleep tomorrow.