Code: SAO-S-CH.01

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the featured media, the rights go to their respected owners

Media: Sword Art Online

Title: Switch

Notable Sub-genres: [Yuki Asuna | Asuna/ Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito] Genderbender. A fix-it of sorts. Snapshots.

Rating: "T" for some Crude Language and Mature Themes such as: Prejudice/ Bigotry, mild Sexism/ Sexual Harassment, mentions of Sex, Prostitution, and Miscarriages. Murder; the Genocide that is SAO, Depression, PTSD, Physical Therapy and vague Politics.

Request by Shiranai Atsune: "Genderbend Male!Asuna x Fem!Kirito"

Status: In-Progress.

1# Her Beginning_

Kirigaya Kazuko has never quite been able to connect with the people around her. She's awkward with how withdrawn she is; never sure were she fits and struggling to talk with the people around her. Elementary and Junior High School were and are very lonely experiences, with her classmates thinking she's stuck up. They likes to talk behind her back, like she couldn't hear them.

(She always hears.)

Kazuko's detachment was partially responsible for her attachment to gaming though she'd had help with that. Her Mum is the editor of an electronics magazine, so technology is always a huge part of their household. Computers, Macs, gaming consoles and the like are scattered around their traditional dentoutekina ie home, free for Kazuko to use.

It drives Grandfather mad but he's never more than mildly disapproving, although he puts his foot down in allowing any gadgets in the dojo. He hadn't wanted Kazuko or her brother distracted while they were training, though that didn't really matter anymore.

While she was studying the sword, Kazuko familiarised herself with HTML, read through her Mum's CSS from her projects, looked at Metadata until Kazuko was playing around with JavaScript. She loved to learn and play and then she started to like to create. By ten Kazuko had built her first computer out of recycled parts and had made an alias online for reviewing tech and games; following Mum's lead without conscious thought she was doing it.

She had enjoyed both facets of what her family gave her, both new and old age. Swordsmanship felt natural in some aspects and difficult in others. Applying herself to technology was much the same. For swords, it was instinct and tech was thinking. They challenged her, gave her balance.

Kazuko pushed herself in both, especially when she was bored. Boredom had enabled her to complete her first circuit. It was what had her looking through Juki Net and discovering through erased records her adoption. It was how she discovered the truth; that everything she'd thought she'd known about her family was wrong. That she really had no idea where she came from. Kazuko's birth certificate said she was born to Narusaka Aoi and Narusaka Yukito. She'd been born Narusaka Kazuko.

(Kazuko always knew that Kirigaya Midori had lost a sister but Kazuko had done little more than glance at the shrine dedicated to the woman. A woman who had in actuality given birth to her. Mum had always made sure that Kazuko paid her respects, had always -)

Aoi - Kazuko's birth mother - died in a car crash when a vehicle ran a red light on a crossing. In the news report Kazuko dug up from the bowels of the internet, the CCTV footage of Aoi's last moments were played in a report dispassionately recounted in a plea for information. Aoi's final moments; the last thing she did, was push the pram out of harm's way.

The niconico video Kazuko unearthed after hours of desperate searching was gory despite its awful resolution. It was a complication of "heartbreaking acts of humanity" but all Kazuko could feel was numb. If breaking the repeat button was possible, she would have as she couldn't bring herself to turn away. Watching how Kazuko's stroller rolled away before crashing into the curb as her mother was hit, ploughed into and her body was flung in the opposite direction.

Searching Aoi's name, Kazuko eventually finds her Mixi account, swamped with RIPS and messages of sadness years old. The newer ones were from Mum, mourning a sister and yet still talking to her like she would be able to respond. They were updates, most of which were about Kazuko, like they could still reach her.

| Kirigaya Midori 2011年 10 月 7日

| Kazuko just turned three! ヾ(^ ^ゞ) She's a menace but we had a good day. It was lovely.

| Kirigaya Midori 2012年 6 月 9日

| Very smart girl, definitely takes after our side of the family lol (ᗒᗨᗕ).

| Kirigaya Midori 2013年 3 月 2日

| Sugu and Kazu just had the most adorable fight ()/.

| Kirigaya Midori 2014年 4 月 1日

| Kazu's first day of big people's school! (=^-ω-^=)

| Kirigaya Midori 2016年 5 月 12日

| How am I meant to tell her?

| Kirigaya Midori 2017年 7 月 20日

| She's growing so quickly..

| Kirigaya Midori 2018年 1 月 19日

| Our girl has a bright future ahead of her °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°. First computer nearly finished! So impressed!

| Kirigaya Midori 2018年 7 月 20日

| Just saw Yukito. Nearly punched the man.

It's a downward spiral and Kazuko has no control over how she crashes, compelled to look into Narusaka Yukito afterwards, Kazuko knows she should feel - something, knowing he isn't dead. Better, she was meant to feel better with the realisation that her biological father isn't dead. Instead, he's alive and sharing a house with a new family having moved on from his first wife, without an apparent care to Kazuko.

Instead, she found herself wondering what was wrong with her, for her own father not to want her. Had she done something? Was he angry that she had survived when Aoi hadn't? Did he think it was her fault?

Why doesn't he want me? soon turned into how could they?

(Like most things, it gets worse before it can get better. Or, it just gets worse.)

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2# Drifting_

Momotarō had been found and picked up and nurtured by people who had loved him instantly. But things like that - hadn't Mum just taken her in out of obligation? Kazuko was just another mouth to feed, another burden to carry for two working parents with a child of their own. And her mother - Aoi, she's dead. She's dead because Kazuko was alive. She can't look at her skin without knowing its healthy colour was at the cost of someone else's. How could Mum look at Kazuko and not see the reason she lost her sister?

Did she? Kazuko wonders with a twisting stomach as she sinks deeper and deeper into her own mind. Does she blame me? It torments her because she doesn't know what to do with the knowledge. Kazuko can't bring herself to ask, or speak of it and she isn't strong enough to put it behind her. Who moved on from something like this?

Instead, she finds herself growing distant from the family who gave her their name. Being around them makes her feel even more uncomfortable and guilty. She ate in her room, stopped training with her grandfather in swordsmanship after months of lacklustre attempts of following through with at least that. She didn't know how to act, how to belong, so she avoided them and buried herself in fantasy.

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3# Ko_

Kazuko didn't realise the choice she made when she created her online persona - "Kiriko" on niconico, but it wasn't something she could stay ignorant about for long. Gaming while being a girl - or not being a boy - caused problems she hadn't been able to imagine when she was allowed access to the internet, but it wasn't until she was playing her first MMORPG that she experienced difficult attitudes towards who she was.

The headset was new and she was seven with a silvery voice. It hadn't taken a moment after saying hello into the mic for the hollering to start. Kazuko didn't even get through the dungeon doors when she was bombarded with with messages in the chat.

'You hear the tonsils on this bitch?' one had crowed.

'Hello, baby!'

The attention had been overwhelming and her cheeks heated. Kazuko hadn't understood it but she hadn't liked it either and her sense of stubbornness was the only thing that had allowed her to preserve through and finish her session. She tried to keep her silence despite attempts to get her to speak again, and if it wasn't for her need of a healer because she'd aggro'ed a group of mobs that had surrounded her party, she would have made it.

'Aw, you hear this girlie trying to play it like the big boys?'

'Hey, Kiriko, I've got a big boy that you can "play" with since you seem to like it so much!'

Mun, after hearing about Kazuko's experience and how put off she felt afterwards, had been quick to talk about the issues surrounding media, the troubles with gamergate and the controversy that entailed. She'd been young but she got the gist even if she hadn't understood the issue.

'Don't let it intimidate you,' Mum had told Kazuko afterwards, 'I know it's a lot to take in but you enjoy what you enjoy and you shouldn't let them stop you from that. You're strong and capable and have an incredible future ahead of you. You are you before you are a little girl or a young woman or feminine or masculine. Don't let things like that define you; it shouldn't. You are so much more.'

Kazuko had taken that to heart. She had kept her handle with its feminine "子" instead of changing Kiriko into its masculine form with a "ト". She kept it and used her voice more and more. She grew an audience on the internet - a large one, and she had even starts to earn money from it with the success of reviewing things like Mum did, or by making tutorials and staying present in forums and discussion boards.

She learnt how to take the "criticism." The more educated would say she was too young, that her opinion wasn't valid. They would say comment on how she didn't know what she was talking about, that she was ignorant or that her parents were using her, that she was some kind of puppet. How expressing herself was exploitation.

The trolls would sneer that girls didn't know games, that they weren't made for them. That she was a bitch. That she didn't belong, that she needed to shut the fuck up. Really, no matter the words used, they all sounded the same. They drowned themselves out in the white noise they created.

No matter what account she made, becoming Kirito would never be an option for her. It would be betraying herself and all the strong people around her; all their faith they had put in her, in her identity.

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4# With Regards_

It starts with an email to Kiriko's public email address she had attached to Kiriko's accounts. Kazuko would get enquiries for sponsorships or collaborations occasionally, not all of them were real and Mum had originally helped her sort through them though now she was slower to respond, allowing them to stack. Sometimes, she'd have a company send her a free code to their new game so she could review it, this would be such an email.

| Dear Kiriko,

| I am Kayaba Akihiko, I don't know whether you have heard of me but I am the creator of the technology known as the NerveGear. It has past trials and so far has been implemented into hospitals to work with in-patients. The NerveGear is new to the market of medicine but has so far been very successful in aiding with trauma or terminal illness through virtual reality.

| In collaboration with Argus, we have been developing for the gaming market and have started to create a launch title that is nearly ready for players to trial. We are looking for talented people to join only one-thousand, hand selected betas to aid us in making the first VRMMORPG of its kind.

| I, personally, thought you would be a brilliant part of the team with your platform and experience. We would be very glad to have your input on this project.

| I look forward to hearing from you.

| With regards, to the future we build beyond us,

| Kayaba Akihiko.

Kazuko reads the email twice before she opens a new browser.

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5# Correspondence_

Kazuko hadn't been all that interested in the advancements in virtual reality and comes to understand the stupidity in that after reading up on it. It's fascinating. People suffering from mental health issues, PTSD or patients stuck in bed, were able to be treated in a whole new way. The reports from doctor's said that the technology is a positive change. Thinking of how virtual reality could be applied to a game is interesting, never mind in the skin of a RPG. Needless to say, she responds to Kayaba after a few days of research and deliberation.

From there, a number of emails are shared between her and Kayaba. She's surprised at the amount of time he gave her, no doubt he was a busy man and Kazuko's merely one of a thousand, literally. But he takes time in composing and replying to her without a hint of impatience or irritation at their continued correspondence, even if the emails stayed professional and to the point. Kayaba was certainly eccentric. The tone of his emails did, however, morph from your typical white-collar businessman to theatrical, poetic, almost Shakespearian. It certainly hinted at why this game would be an RPG though it probably also married up well with the technology and the current market.

It's only throwaway sentences, one or two out of many but Kazuko remembers them, could pick them out easily and learnt to recognise them.

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6# Headset_

The NerveGear arrives in the post with a hardcopy of the game. Mum signs for it and gives it to her with a grin. 'Just stay safe,' Mum says as she handed it into Kazuko's hands. She read the instructions for the device more carefully than she has ever read anything. After opening the letter attached where Kayaba's last passing line had been: 'in the direction of the future, where we strive for advancements'.

Kazuko reads up on it and is exceedingly careful while installing both the headset and the game. This technology would be directing her very brain so she had a right to be intimidated by it. Kazuko respects it, marvels at it as she calibrates the NerveGear, following its directions on her visor diligently until she's allowed to properly set her account details.

Her handle: Kiriko, had been the first thing she had filled in before she chooses her password, language settings and then begins character customisation. This was particularly fun and she spends a good three hours simply designing different avatars, from flamboyant to stylish to sporty until she settles for something plainer which was more her. Aged up, taller but nondescript because although Kiriko was a known name on the internet, she liked her privacy. She liked just being able to get on with things, to simply experience the technology she tested without an audience.

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7# Amazement_

Kazuko had had her expectations but nothing compares to the reality. It's buggy, unfinished and kind of messy but the foundations are there and they are incredible. The grass felt like hair and the wind sounded like the a door slamming shut but the sensations seemed - real.

It's like she's in this world, there and living and that - that was priceless. This is an experience. The other's playing - well, her reputation proceeds her with most of them. Some are friendly, some aren't interested in speaking with her, others outright didn't like her. She didn't mind all that much; she wanted to explore this place, to experience it.

Kazuko was amicable enough with a majority as they fail tested this world of the future, and that was enough to earn her a position on some beta's friends lists. A few Kazuko even knew which made the exploration of Aincrad that much easier as information and tips are passed back and worth.

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8# Glitch_

It was odd, is her thought when she logged back in after being killed. The process of dying is - strange. Kind of foreboding, but maybe that's because Kazuko was playing more than a first-person perceptive. She was her avatar here. There was no longer a screen to create distance or ambiguity.

Still, Kazuko can't shake the feeling like something was wrong with it. The text that appeared as she died, how her sensors had become numb, how sound had faded. More worrying though is how Kazuko could swear she'd blacked out for a second before she's staring back at the loading screen, how it felt like she had received some kind go feedback from her NerveGear unit.

She adds it to her report and one of the many developers working on the currently untitled game tell her that they would be looking into it, but that there is no cause for concern. They still send her a new headset though the problem continued until the alpha finished and the beta began.

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9# Reputation_

Kiriko covers the development of "Sword Art Online" on her accounts, sharing details of the game and footage from her time there; she even hosts a stream or two. Many other betas' are doing the same but Kiriko is perhaps the largest online name attached to the game. Kazuko has even been featured on Argus' website a few times, but it isn't until it really developed its in own fan base after SAO's first convention that she really sees a spike in her viewership.

SAO was a relative secret outside the industry until Kayaba unveils it to an excited public. Kazuko gets more attention than she truly knows what to do with, and she can't exactly say she's thrilled with the prospect.

There's crazy anticipation surrounding SAO and while Kazuko understands, the spotlight it puts her under issn't exactly something she wants. It brings Kiriko a new level of harassment but also a strange admiration she finds herself disliking just as much. Even people at school are talking about Kiriko and that hadn't really happened before.

Listening to people talking about her, but not her, was very disquieting. She weathers it quietly, if only because she doesn't know what to do about it. She can't complain or speak out as Kiriko other than a few educational videos on online bullying, it wouldn't make a difference. Kazuko just counted her luck that she's never revealed her face.

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10# Gratitude_

There are many ups and downs in regards to being a beta taster but Kazuko found, overall, she enjoys it. The game's launching soon - mere days away and Kayaba finds the time to email her. How many other beta's he does this for, she doesn't know and she doesn't ask.

| I want to thank you for all the hard work you have put into the development of Sword Art Online. You have been an invaluable team member and I have been very grateful for your help. I do hope you enjoy the final release of Sword Art Online and that it changes you as much as you have changed it.

| Flying in the face of tomorrow and choosing improvement,

| Kayaba Akihiko

Strange as usual, Kazuko thinks.

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11# The night before_

Kazuko goes to bed with barely a word to anyone in the house. She got home after school, went straight to her bedroom and when called her dinner, only emerged to collect her plate. It was normal; a routine by now. She can't hate herself for it more than she already did but she isn't sure what to do about it. If anything. Kazuko isn't sure if it wasn't for the best, maybe it is.

She would still come to regret it.

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12# Sister_

Kazuko begins FullDrive like she has many times before, into a world she has come to love. She spawns into Starting City and as soon as she exits the Room of Resurrection, she runs out into the plaza without bothering with the menu. Textures have been added and changed, colours altered but the skyline looks the same from the beta and she was confident that they wouldn't have moved any of the buildings so she shouldn't get lost.

There were things she wanted to do, like getting herself armed since her account had been reset though she'd been able to keep the cosmetic changes. The devs wanted to keep things fair so Kazuko no longer enjoyed her Cartography Skill but she didn't mind having to start again, especially now she had a stronger understanding of SAO's mechanics.

Kazuko hurries to the market and buys herself a Bronze Broadsword. SAO, while seeming to favour swords from its titled has a whole host of weapons though Kazuko had fallen in love with the former. A sword just feels safe in her hands - virtual or not - and while it may just be her grandfather's influence, it just wasn't right with anything else. (Kazuko has been trained with both her shinai and a bokuto while she had practised. She only made it to her first dan before she stopped and Suguru picked up her slack, but Kazuko had enjoyed it, while she had gone. She had taken pride in it.)

The starting amount of Cor given to each player wasn't exactly excessive, but it's enough for Kazuko to get a Transport Crystal though it would be useless until she had travelled by foot to every settlement, and then again, until the Floor's Gate was opened. She also splurges on three Potions before she was ready to head out of town. Avatar's came equipped with the very basic of armour and although it doesn't hold up to anything on the second floor, it would be fine here. Kazuko is almost tempted by a shield but her stats weren't - well, anything now and she wouldn't be able to utilise it properly. No point on wasting coin.

With this in mind, Kazuko just turned away from the stall she had been eyeing, when she comes almost face-to-chest with a couple of guys blocking her path. She immediately takes a step back, disliking the smirks on their faces.

'Hey cutie,' the one on the left begins.

'You have some free time to show a couple of guys around?'

'We'll make it worth your while.'

Kazuko frowns as a ball of irritation builds in her chest that she's going to share when an arm is thrown around her shoulders and a voice is addressing her. 'There you are, sis! You shouldn't rush off like that!' Flummoxed, Kazuko's gaze snaps up to see a woman whose wearing a grin of someone far younger than her voice implies.

The stranger's avatar has wild pink hair pulled back with a bandana, appearing to be in her early to mid twenties with a curvaceous figure even with a rather square chin. The first thought that popped into Kazuko's mind was "roguish" with how brazen and cheeky the woman seems, draped over Kazuko.

'Ah…' Kazuko stalls, not sure how to respond but the woman barely blinks.

'Our friends are waiting for us, get a move on yeah?' the woman prompts as she starts to lead them away from the other two strangers, who seem to understand they're not wanted, even as they mutter unflattering things under their breath. Kazuko is more than used to blocking that sort of thing out. 'Let's go.'

'Right, sure,' Kazuko replies uncertainly as she allows herself to be guided back towards the Square.

They get a good distance away from where they had left the strangers when the woman sighs and relinquishes her hold on Kazuko, stepping to a more appropriate distance away. 'Sorry about that, I saw you running by and was going to say hello but those two sort of got there before me.'

'Why…? Do I know you?' Kazuko asks in confusion. A thousand betas weren't that many in principle but when trying to keep track of every individual one? Well, Kazuko's brain just wasn't up to the task.

'Ah. No,' the woman says awkwardly as she rubs the bCK of her neck sheepishly. 'It just looked like…well, I saw you moving about and, I dunno, I couldn't help but wonder if you were a beta?'

Oh, Kazuko thinks before smirking lightly. 'Wanted a guide?'

The woman laughs. 'I'm that transparent, huh?' She smileS and slows her stride to offer her hand. Even with Kazuko's enhanced height in her avatar, the woman was still taller. Kazuko wonders how tall she was in real life. 'I'm Klein,' she says.

Kazuko hums, knows that that's an unusual ID since not only was it foreign but it sounds male. The woman was obviously not a player who hid her gender so it was a bit confusing but to each their own. It probably made sense to her; usernames usually held meaning to the person who wore them. That, or they just thought it sounded cool.

'…Kiriko.' Kazuko offers and takes Klein's hand to shake. 'Do I have to be saved from you too?' she asks in jest, looking around mockingly.

Klein snorts. 'Yeah, a bit hypocritical, sorry,' the woman acknowledges with a chastised shrug of her shoulders. 'You, er…wouldn't happen to belong to any of the SAO communities, would you? Your name just sounds awfully familiar.'

Kazuko finds herself shifting. 'Um, yeah. I make niconico videos and run a blog. I review a lot of games and tech,' she responds uncomfortably as she watches as Klein's eyes gradually bulge. Kazuko tries to think about how well the devs have incorporated their Kinect MOCAP onto their 3D models instead. (At the beginning the face tracking had been off and while the results could be hilarious, it had also been a really huge distraction.)

'Wow. That Kiriko, huh?' Klein laughs clumsily while trying to play the whole thing off which Kazuko - liked. Prefers this type of awkwardness to the other attitudes she had faces when players realised who they were talking with.

'The one and only,' Kazuko responded with as much humour as she could since Klein wasn't going to be a creep about it.

'So - I really did dive with some friends of mine. We were some of the idiots waiting in line for the game to be released. Got our dumb faces into a magazine and everything.' Klein grins and the expression is seamless, the sparkle in her eyes almost realistic. 'I haven't found them yet but, hey, if you don't have plans - or anything better to do, you could come along? We're all new to SAO but we're a pretty nice bunch.'

The offer…wasn't something that Kazuko was fully expecting as she's not used to someone really wanting her company. 'And this has nothing to do with me being a beta, sis?'

Klein flushes lightly and Kazuko notes in appreciation that the devs have finally gotten the skin colouration right. Embarrassment was one of the harder emotions for the game's sensors to perceive and adapt. 'You don't have to do anything. I won't even tell the other's if you don't want.'

Huh. Kazuko smiles and settles to link an exaggerated arm around Klein's. She's seen girls do this before but Kazuko still hopes it's taken in good humour. 'Ah, but what are sisters for?'

Klein snorts but her smile is so wide it's a white slash breaking her face. 'I think we'll get along just fine,' she states with confidence as her eyes get squinty with the force of her smile.

You'd be the first to say so, Kazuko thinks. 'If we need to find your friends then it's best to look around the Room of Resurrection, it's where everyone first Spawns in from.'

Klein blinks but it doesn't take the edge of her sunny disposition. Kazuko isn't sure if much could. 'Eh? Well then, lead on, sis, lead on.'

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13# Tour Guide_

Kazuko hadn't ever been in a party full of girls before, though with the conversation she's having with Klein as they reach the Room of Resurrection it clues her in of the wide range of friends such a person may have. Friends who has already found each other and seems to be forming a search party, which is where Klein decides to interrupt with a running glomp sent towards the lady standing nearest them.

'What -' the woman seems to sputter as a harassment warning clashes in-between them. It's closed quickly as they barely bother to read it before they dismiss it. Her stern face is reddening something fierce when she turns enough to see Klein. 'Klein! How old are you?!'

'You know the answer to that,' another responds with a more mischievous tone, a smirk on her face, slouched and appearing to be the easy going, smart aleck sort.

'Where the heck have you been?' demands another, the shortest out of the group.

'Meeting my sister!' Klein exclaims as she releases her friend, stepping back and away from the first woman and falls back into step with Kazuko, who had hung on the side lines. 'This is Kiriko!' the older woman announces with an extravagant gesture.

Five sets of eyes blink down at Kazuko before the words settles in and a cloud of exasperation permeates the group. At least two of them knew Kazuko's handle. 'Right,' the smart aleck snorts. 'You get lost for what - twenty minutes and you manage to get yourself adopted? What even, Klein?'

'What? I'm loveable.' Klein pouts.

'As loveable as a mutt, sure.'

'Do we want to know how this happened?' The strict one sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. Kazuko wonders how long they had known each other for, wondering at how this dynamic was built.

'Well…' Klein trails off and glances towards Kazuko for permission or reassurance, she's not sure. It's nice all the same.

'Klein was looking to recruit a tour guide,' Kazuko says because honestly? There were worse ways she could spend her first day here. Even if they are a bunch of noobs, there was nothing wrong with that. 'I can take you out of the Safe Zone for some grinding. If you've all bought your equipment, that is.'

At the dead stares Kazuko gets in response, she shrugs. 'We'll head to the market first, then.'

'Wait, hold on,' the shortest one says. 'Nice to meet you and everything, but are you sure you want to?'

'Dawn -'

Kazuko flounders for a second before she's lightly bowing in embarrassment. 'Er, nice to meet you,' she responds, somewhat awkwardly straightening again. It'd been so long since she had spoken with anyone new, she was honestly very out of practice. 'But, it's fine, if you're okay with my intrusion.'

'Hey now,' Klein says as she pats Kazuko's shoulder. 'No need for formality. You're practically our senpai here, too.'

Kazuko tilts her head. 'Is that so?'

'Jeez,' the smart aleck sighs, rubbing the back of her neck as she saunters forward. 'Where'd you manage to find such a cutie, Klein?'

Kazuko feels a blush heat her sensors as she tries to ignore that. Her avatar had been created to be as boring as possible, aged a couple of years older, though still young enough for these women to have seniority.

'Just lucky, I guess.' Klein shrugs.

The smart aleck looks down at Kazuko, gaze direct. 'What Dawn was tryin' to say back there is we don't wanna force you into babysittin' us. Can't be too fun for you.'

Yeah, this one definitely knew of her but Kazuko just gestures mildly, she could by the kind of regard she's been given. 'I don't have any other plans.'

'The market it is, then,' the strict one aserts.

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14# Start of the End_

Well, it does turn out to be babysitting. Klein and her friends, they're sort of hopeless but they're are a nice sort of hopeless and make tackling mindless, slime-level mobs like the Frenzy Boars entertaining. Kazuko goes through the mechanics of Sword Skills and how to best utilise their states and weapons with them and - it wasn't as tedious as it could be. Their attempts at mimicking her are patient and concentrated. They know they're lucky, not a lot of betas would bother teaching beginners the ropes in an actual game setting, much preferring to just be able to play. But, hey, this was fun. The parties Kazuko's usually a part of typically has a lot of shouting and a level of antagonism which just wasn't in this bunch, it was relaxing.

They aren't demanding of her even when they asked questions, and are kind to her without the desperation of wanting to keep her around because of her usefulness. Kazuko has even been able to do some levelling up herself, so it wasn't a complete loss outside of the company. She was, after all pretty determined to get further than she had in the beta. Dawn, Dynamm, Issin, Harry One, Kunimittz and Klein are all added to her Friends List, as she wouldn't mind to keep in contact with these people after today. They take her advice seriously and Kazuko feels - appreciated in their company. She doesn't overly mind keeping the party open, depending on how they wanted to play the game.

Spawn rates were slowing down with the constant slaughter and after hours of ripping through the boars, their party had settled on the side of one of the taller hills, kipping there in the cool down time, with the sky dying itself a ocean of oranges and reds as the sun started to sink in the horizon. Kazuko relaxed and stretched out, pressing herself onto Klein's lap with a cat's satisfaction. Klein didn't mind and instead, had grinned at her, ruffling her hair affectionately.

Then everything shattered with the tingle of a forced transportation.

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13# Monologues_

'With the end of this tutorial, I usher in a new world. Something that will have the power to change everything. To this end, to you Players of Aincrad, I wish you goodbye and good luck. I will be with you, always,' Kayaba says without the decency of showing his face. Betrayal was bitter with the shock that numbed her system. She had read up about ritual reality; she knew the NerveGear intimately. Kazuko had thought she had known Kayaba. Thought that he had seen her as an asset for his project, and instead he had chosen her to die. Selected her.

She was -

But then…what would her family-? Kazuko thinks of this evening, how she'd eaten in her room, door shut. She thinks about how that may be they last memory they have of her now, that that's how they'll remember her; silence and a cold shoulder they'd tried everything to thaw. Kazuko thinks of the news segments Kayaba had shown them. Thanks of the trouble she'll have left in their laps by her decisions.

The silence of Kayaba's announcement did not last long, before hysteria sets in and people are screaming, shoving. Kazuko can almost taste the fear as people either start to break down, run or desperately fiddle with their menus. Kazuko does not know if she appreciates this, because while it shoves those thoughts temporarily out her head, it also leaves her to this new reality where she knows she's going to die.

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14# Running_

'We need to run!' Kazuko is snapping, grabbing handfuls of these new friends she had made, people that are good and nice, and desperately truing to pull them along with her, and away from the square. The panicking crowd was chaotic and Kazuko wasn't about to rely on the cardinal to keep them safe. Warnings and notices were about as far as it was able to go. They couldn't stay - they had to leave - they had to - with SAO now a death game.

Aincrad still seemingly idyllic from the beta where it's flaws were all taken in stride because it hadn't been trying to hurt them. It was like the events were taken straight from a plot to a YA light novel. This type of stuff happened in books and in anime.

This couldn't be happening.

But it is, Kazuko tells herself as her panic cools into something more controlled, into something less human and more functional. It was happening. It was real, the more she kept that in mind, the higher were her chances for survival. Kazuko couldn't afford delusions here.

She knew this game; Kazuko knew SAO and however dire the consequences it has, it's still a game, with mechanics and rules structured in coding. Stuff like that - stuff like that gave them a chance. So.'We have to move!' she shouts as she corrals them out of the Square.

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15# On The Way_

Kazuko directs them into the Deep Forest and makes sure that the pace was as fast as they could manage with how varied their stats were now after all that level grinding. It's late, on SAO's time, and mobs spawn rate sped up during the night. The dark puts them at a bigger disadvantage, especially without the Night Vision Skill. Kazuko needed to get them to a Safe Zone. Horunka Village was closer although it was smaller than Tolbana Town, but the Lake Region they'd have to pass through to make it there was harder. Navigating through there, without light and not trip and drown or to have one of the mobs pull you in -

No.

Horunka was their best bet.

'Kiriko, are we close?' Klein asks with a voice thin with fear and concern.

Kazuko frowns and glances back at them. She was outpacing them due to gaining a few more levels, and the difference in her allocation in her stats to theirs. 'You can't feel fatigue in SAO.' As far as she knew, anyway. There was a certain pressure that a player experienced when their HP was low, but you wouldn't feel muscle ache or anything like that.

Klein nods but it's jerky. 'We're nearly out of Potions, though…'

Kazuko swallows on instinct and almost grimaces at the hollow, automated feeling that follows. It was an action programmed purely for eating in-game but the over lap with what happened physically and what occurred here was strange. She hadn't been overly fond of it before, in the beta, though she had experimented with foods and drinks, and she likes it less now.

'Right. Yeah, we're…close,' she responds numbly. They are, too; approaching the City Wall which encircled half of the first floor; it's the last barrier between them and the Safe Zone. 'Keep in a tight formation, make sure no one gets separated,' she calls behind her.

They can't get to Horunka fast enough.

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16# Sleep, So Far_

They have just enough Cor for two nights in the one Inn they came across if they paired up. Klein volunteers to share with Kazuko after an exhausted "goodnight" to the others, who look more or less the same after their avatars were replaced with choice differences. The biggest dissimilarity between avatar and player was Kazuko herself and she honestly wasn't looking forward to having confront the consequences. She was too tired to care about it now though she knew it was going to bother her later.

They all but fell into bed when she and Klein made it to their room. She couldn't even be bothered to really look at it before flopping down onto the nearest mattress. Kazuko considers taking off her armour, it's a public place but no one would have the necessary skill to be able to break in yet -

'…do you think they'll be able to do something with the servers?' The voice is small, so unlike how it was earlier that Kazuko almost doesn't recognise it, but ringing in the silence though it doesn't bridge the gap - the sudden distant, even with how close they are in the small space which was this room. 'Kiriko.'

'There was an incident early on, where a person's Nerve-Gear was hacked so a lot of money was invested into the security of the game in the alpha testing, before the beta started,' Kazuko says lowly. It had been a serious breach and was kept quiet with an NDA but everyone working on SAO knew, betas included as they had been a huge part of the workforce. (Mum was hesitant to allow Kazuko to continue, but Argus had done its part to assure betas it wouldn't happen again and she had believed them. She wished she hadn't). The NerveGear was a revolutionary piece of technology, endorsed by the government. Japan and their allies were using it for their armies for training, with the inclusion in other industries like hospitals, made the need for security even more prevalent.

'Kiriko.' Klein's voice wavers after Kazuko hesitates for too long but she doesn't particularly want to have to say it. It isn't good news.

'We're trapped,' Kazuko forces herself to say, knowing that without a doubt. 'They can't just shut down the servers, the Nerve-Gear's would still be active. They'd need to find some kind of back entrance for the headsets and even if they could, the time it would take…' It goes without saying that Kayaba could also have put some kind of fail-safe in place. Kazuko doesn't add that though, Klein's sobs are already clear, whether it was a huff of shocked laughter or not. She closes her eyes, hands fisting into her duvet. She's awful at comforting people.

'I was meant to be going on a date tomorrow,' Klein says and her voice sounds thick, muffled in her mic. 'It was just a guy from work, but he was - sweet. Gave me a rose and asked me to dinner.'

Kazuko swallows awkwardly. 'Sounds nice.'

'Yeah. I haven't been in a relationship in awhile, I'm not - well, it's just never…worked out, you know?'

Kazuko stares at the shadows on the ceiling. Words for this are lost to her, because no, she doesn't - wouldn't know. That wasn't the kind of thing she had ever had. Interest had been pretty low on the ground, especially once they found she wasn't half as quiet as she was around people she didn't know well, or as timid as they first assumed.

'Or not. You seem really young, younger than I thought - well,' Klein says and there is discomfort there, sadness. 'Do you…?'

'No, nothing like that. Just have family,' Kazuko answers falteringly, but…would this matter to them? Would her dying affect them? She had been avoiding them for so long, disappointing them and so insincere with all their interactions, would she -

No, she wouldn't think about it. she had made her bed, she'd have to lie in it. 'No friends, just my parents, a little brother and a grandfather.' Did she even deserve to claim them after everything?

'Well, you have us now, too,' Klein says, stronger than before but with an edge of something that's desperate, almost needy.

'…I always did want a sister,' Kazuko allows even as her mind betrays her, remembers how her biological father and the half-sister he had conceived with his new wife.

Klein laughs but it's pained. 'I have a feeling you're not going to allow me to get away with anything.'

Kazuko snorts but she is numb as they both fall quiet. Klein's breathing eventually evens in sleep, leaving Kazuko alone with her thoughts until she can't stand it anymore. She gets out of bed and silently creeps out of the room to take her fears out on some mobs.

It doesn't do much.

Con/textual vomit:

#1 Dentoutekina ie: a traditional Japanese house.

Juki net is a resident registry. Why would Kiriko be looking at something like that? Heck, I don't know. It's cannon.

niconico: Japanese equivalent to YouTube. I think.

Mixi: Japanese social networking site.

2011年 10 月 7日:I googled it and it seems like this is how Japan sets out their dates? "年" is year. "月" is month and "日" isday. I don't think anyone will be confused, but the date isn't current to ours because Kirito was canonically born in 2008, with SAO launching in 2022.

#2 Momotarō: story of Momotarō is a popular Japanese folklore story. About a boy who had been found in a peach and raised but an old couple. He became a hero, fighting oni.

#3 子 (ko)/ ト (to): ko and to are gendered suffixes, sort of. Kazuko/ Kiriko is the feminine forms of Kazuto/ Kirito. Genderbenders, amirite?

#12 shinai and a bokuto are weapons, both wooden and used for training. While the " first dan" is in reference to the ranking system in Japanese material arts. Kinect MOCAP onto their 3D models, is how I reckon SAO would apply a user's face onto their avatars.

(Originally uploaded: 06/04/17) (Updated: 29/06/18) (Updated: 03/07/18)

OZ