Sword Art Online and The World Ends with You are not owned by me, but this is a work of my own creation. Please do not take any ideas without permission.

A quick notification, this story uses information from SAO Progressive for some of the initial chapters. This information is not seen in the anime or the manga. While it is not necessary to know what happens in SAO Progressive to understand the story, knowing what does will help you grasp the plot better.

-§-

Sword Art Online, SAO for short. The first MMORPG for the full drive system. The chatter about it and the upcoming beta test was everywhere. On the trains, on the internet, on the streets. It seemed like every other word out of people's mouths were something about the upcoming RPG.

Neku clicked his tongue in annoyance and turned up the volume on his music player as he heard yet another person gossip about SAO. He was tired about all the hype about the newest revolutionary game. When things got popular, people freaked out about it, making them even noisier and more annoying than before. A group of students nearby started to loudly clamor as another advertisement prompting people to sign up for the SAO beta aired. Neku scowled and turned up the volume yet again. It would be so nice if people would just shut up for more than two seconds at a time. Finally, the train he was riding got to the appropriate station and Neku got off as fast as possible. As he started his walk home his thoughts started to wander.

Personally, Neku was a bit interested in SAO, besides the obvious flaws. One flaw was that it was an MMORPG, meaning that if he were to play, he would need to, unfortunately, deal with other people. While it was possible to be a solo player, Neku really didn't find much appeal in role playing games to begin with. Another negative was that due to the full drive system, he would not have a convenient mute button to block out all the background noise that would constantly be there. No, none of this interested him. However, there was one major factor that perked his interest. Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO, had gotten the legendary CAT to work on the project with him. The company had created songs for BGM as well as made many artistic details to enhance the digital world to its fullest extent. Neku supposed that it was also to try to reach out to a wider demographic by including the famous artist in development.

Supporting Neku's theory was a currently ongoing contest. In one CD case of CAT's newly released album there would be a code to turn in to get a spot in the SAO beta test. While the CD contained some CAT music, there was some BGM from SAO included as well as one BGM composed by CAT. Neku internally scowled at this. Due to the inclusion of the potential SAO beta test spot, these disks had been snapped up much quicker than usual. It had taken himself a train transfer and a mile walk to finally find a copy, albeit the only one in some rundown shop.

Neku breathed out a sigh as he opened the door to his house. He called out a faint, "I'm home." before walking to his room and setting his purchase down on his desk. He slid off his backpack and dragged out his textbooks and notebooks before setting them on his desk to start on his homework. Before he could put pencil to paper however, his gaze fell on the plastic bag haphazardly thrown onto the desk. He shrugged, might as well listen to it while working, if it was too distracting he could always turn it off. He reached over and grabbed his purchase. After getting rid of the plastic covering, he popped open the CD cover only to be met with a piece of paper with a code on it. There were also instructions guiding to the official SAO website to plug in the code.

Neku shrugged as he turned on his computer, while there was almost no chance that he would get the copy, he might as well enter and if he did get it he could just sell it to the highest bidder. He navigated to the website and typed in the code as well as his address to enter the contest. He shrugged and turned back to his homework after starting his CD player. As he solved equation after equation for Algebra, he had to admit, the songs from SAO weren't half bad.

-§-

Around a month later, Neku opened the door to his room to curiously find a package on his desk. His mother must have brought it in for him. Walking forward he grasped it and after a few seconds he had the opened box in his hand. Inside found one copy of SAO. Neku's eyebrow's rose slightly, he certainly was not expecting this. He picked up the game and turned it around in his hands, only to spot something else was in the box, a small white envelope. Intrigued Neku picked it up and opened it.

Scrawled in a very distinct handwriting was the following: Congratulations for winning this special prize, but that is not all. On the first floor of Aincrad, at these specified coordinates, you can find a unique item made by CAT that any adoring CAT fan would want. This item however will not be implemented in the beta. We of CAT wish you the best of luck in your future SAO endeavors.

Signed at the bottom was the CAT logo as well as the phrase "enjoy every moment with all you've got."

Neku smirked, a rare item, designed by CAT that he would actually want? Sign him up. Neku looked down at the beta disk and shrugged, he might as well get some practice in before the real thing. He would need to get a Full Drive gear… but he had around a month before summer, and the beta, he had time to spare.

-§-

Neku dashed forward with an unnatural speed maneuvering his sword for a thrust, the wolf couldn't dodge in time and was thrown back. After the digital animal picked itself up, it howled and started to run toward Neku.

Neku smirked and raised his sword above his shoulder, causing it to start glowing in a bluish green. When the sword skill had charged he released it causing him to jump up and smash down on his opponent. The sonic leap sword skill left a red slash mark on the wolf causing it to freeze and finally shatter into blue shards that eventually dissipated. The rewards screen popped up telling him about the exp and col that he had gotten. Neku closed it and started to look for his next target.

Sword art online was much more enthralling than he had originally anticipated. The movement of his body, the reactions, the feel of vivid reality even though he was in a game. Currently he was just outside the Town of Beginnings on the first floor getting used to the motion activated system of Sword Skills. At first it had been a bit jarring, positioning yourself in a stance and letting the system take control from there. Now though, after a few days of trying it out, he was getting the hang of it. The first day he had gone out to the exact place that the letter had pointed to, but as expected, he found nothing there. Also as expected, as a level 1 in a level 4 area, he had suffered major damage when trying to backtrack out. He learned potions in this game had a heal over time effect rather than an instantly replenishing health all at once. Since then he decided that if he was going to play, he would play less recklessly.

A boar noticed him and rushed him. Smirking, Neku readied another stance, this time for the sword skill vertical. As the boar came into range, Neku swung down causing the boar to collapse into the ground. Neku waited as the post-motion delay wore off before initiating another sword skill, Horizontal, to finish the job. As the boar shattered into blue shards, A level up sound was heard above him causing him to smirk.

"That was incredibly wasteful," said a voice from behind.

Neku frowned, so far he hadn't needed to deal with others while playing. Sure, he had gotten the occasional party invite, but that had been ignored resolutely. Some over enthusiastic people had tried to talk to him in the city, but he had evaded them pretending that they were calling out to someone else and had slipped into the crowds. But here on the open plains, there was nothing to do but face the person.

Neku turned to find a boy with hair growing down to his neck. If he had to describe it, his face reminded him of the typical faces of fantasy protagonists that girls would swoon over.

"What are you talking about?" Neku asked as he sheathed his sword.

"That boar could have gone down with a few normal swings, you didn't need to use another sword skill to finish it off."

Neku crossed his arms, "Thanks for the tip, I guess, but did it ever occur to you that I was just trying out as many sword skills out as possible? I may just be new to the system and I am getting used to it."

The player raised an eyebrow, "Even still, using sword skills take concentration, if you use too many in such a short timeframe you may develop a headache, which is detrimental in battle."

Neku put on a thoughtful expression, he hadn't known that, considering he was a new. He scratched the back of his head, "I see… thanks"

The other swordsman waved it off, "No need to thank me, you looked like you were getting the hang of sword skills at a fairly decent rate, and I thought that you might have wanted some pointers. Though if I am honest that is only half the reason."

Neku raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Oh? And the other reason?"

The other swordsman placed his hand under his chin as if choosing his words carefully, "You're good, the way you utilize the system is very sharp, precise. Your awareness to things around you and your reaction time keep you out of danger and will help you get far in this game. Currently some other players are trying to fight this floor's boss, but they are having trouble, think you can give them a hand?"

Neku scoffed, "Sorry, although, I can get money and exp from defeating the boss, that small positive does not outweigh the fact that I don't like dealing with other people. I see no real incentive to join your little merry raid group."

The player across from him nodded sagely, "I know that feeling, so how about this? I know a quest that will help you get the strongest one-handed blade on this floor. I will help your through that quest, as well as give you pointers on playing SAO more effectively. In exchange, you help us with the floor boss."

Neku considered the pros and cons. It was not like he would need to join them for every boss fight, and he would get to learn more about SAO. There was no real disadvantage to taking up his offer. So Neku shrugged, "sure, you have yourself a deal."

The player held out his hand, "The name is Kirito, what is your name?"

Neku smirked held out his hand, "Neku."

Kirito opened his menu and sent Neku a party request which he promptly accepted.

Kirito smiled, "glad to have your help, Neku, though I should ask, what level are you?"

Neku frowned, "Level 4, why?"

Kirito smirked, "You'll see why."

-§-

Neku soon figured out why Kirito asked about his level. It was a difficult time trying to get the item needed to complete the quest, Little Nepenthes' Ovule. Both players hacked and slashed at the monster Little Nepenthes, defeating them by the hundreds to force them to respawn only to be cut down again. Kirito had informed him that the monster they needed, a special one with a flower on his head, had a less than 1 percent spawn rate. On the plus side, Kirito really knew his way around this game. Neku was introduced to the "switching" system as well as other techniques about fighting in parties. While Neku was not eager to learn, it was something that he had to learn eventually if he was going to participate in a raid. Kirito promised that he would teach him others things too, such as pot rotation and other gaming terms.

Eventually the monster finally spawned and was taken out. After Neku got the item they beat a hasty retreat back to the quest giver's house.

Neku was breathing heavily, while Kirito just stood by with crossed arms. This was another problem of VMMORPGs, no matter how fit you were in the real world, your stats in this one determined everything, from your stamina to your strength. Later in the game it was an advantage, but now in the beginning, it was only a massive pain. Neku looked up at him, "That was insane… you could have warned me that that I should have been at least level six for that."

Kirito shrugged, "Technically you could do it around level 3-4, it was only difficult at the rate we were hunting at. I killed more, forcing more to respawn in another location. But I will admit, you still had a large amount of HP left at the end of it."

Neku rolled his eyes, "I had a rather rough learning experience the first time I played, wandered too far out of the safety zone and took a huge amount of damage against monsters when I tried to return, and since I would rather not die, I have started to try to dodge attacks that I can."

Kirito tilted his head, "Trying not to die? This is only a game, even if you die you will respawn back at the Town of Beginnings."

Neku frowned, "Is there any negatives for dying like losing exp, col or items? I remembered those from other RPGs I have played, and I instinctively tried to no die."

Kirito laughed, "No punishments that I am aware of, except the fact of being teleported all the way back to the beginning towns on the first floor."

Neku gave a low hum of acceptance before continuing on, "Anyway, I should go complete this quest."

Kirito nodded, "Do you need my help or?"

Neku scowled, "I told you I learned my lesson."

Kirito laughed as Neku walked away silently remembering the slight confusion that had happened while accepting the quest. In SAO, it was required to speak to people directly with finality. You could not be vague with words like, "Sure, whatever," or even use odd sayings like "Whatever floats your boat." You needed to speak definitively, and only this would allow the NPCs to respond. Neku walked into the house and after a long conversation that honestly he could not care less about, he was finally given the Anneal Blade. Kirito waved as Neku exited the house, new blade already in its sheath along his back.

Kirito smiled, "it is getting late, do you want to meet tomorrow to upgrade your sword?"

Neku shrugged, "Sure, if you don't mind helping me harvesting the materials."

Kirito nodded, "I don't mind, the next attempt at the first floor boss in in two days anyway. Want to meet here around 8am?"

Neku nodded, "Sounds like a plan, though I might do a little hunting before I log out, I am almost at level five."

Kirito nodded, "alright well then see you later." He opened his menu and logged out with a wave.

Neku stretched above him before smirking, he had never thought he could get this sucked into an RPG. It was fun seeing things with your own eyes rather than a computer screen, as well as moving your own body instead of clicking on a mouse or a controller. Heck, even smelling the nature around him, albeit fake, was more exciting than just watching your character on screen move through some forested area. Neku shook his head to clear it of miscellaneous thoughts. He had a level to get before logging out.

-§-

And so Neku's beta experience continued. He crossed paths with Kirito a few more times after that, sometimes joining together on quests, sometimes meeting up to exchange information. The two became tentative allies on the battlefield. Kirito had enough respect of Neku's antisocial nature to not try to get him to open up, and only speak when necessary, not wasting time talking about pointless subjects.

The frontline players of the beta fought valiantly trying their best to get as high as possible, to learn as many secrets as possible to use when the main game came out. They had succeeded in getting to the tenth floor but they could not get to the dungeon in time to find out the main boss.

As messages streamed across the sky, telling people that they would be forcefully logged out in around 5 minutes, Neku sat in the tenth floor main city looking out to the horizon.

"What's up?" came the familiar voice behind him.

Neku glanced back before returning his gaze forward, "Kirito, what brings you here?"

Kirito shrugged, "Just want to spend as much time in this game until the official one comes out."

Neku raised an eyebrow, "whatever you say."

Kirito laughed, "So, you going to buy the official copy?"

Neku glanced at him, "are you?"

Kirito nodded, "Obviously, you can't get this experience from any other game."

Neku shrugged, "I guess, though you will be starting over from the beginning."

It was Kirito's turn to shrug, "While that may be a bit annoying, it is not that bad, but you never answered my question."

Neku gave a dry chuckle, "Yeah, in fact it is something that I cannot miss out on."

-§-

Around a month later, Neku watched a newsfeed about how fast the game was sold out. Online copies sold out in a day, while the store copies were snatched up by people waiting in outrageously long lines. It made Neku happy that he was able to pre-order his copy without much hassle. It would soon be the date to log into the long-awaited game of the century. While admittedly the beta had not been that bad, that had only contained one tenth of the players that was now going to be roaming around. The also might be a hassle of his obtaining of the hidden unique item that CAT had hidden within the game. He was sure that people would harass him for days if not weeks about how to obtain it. Neku supposed that he could log on, get the item, then log off immediately, he was not too worried about being left behind.

Neku sighed and turned back to doing his homework, it would not do for him to get distracted. While that should have been the case, he started to absently wonder about how different everything would be out of the beta. In such a large world, there had to be some number of bugs or glitches, though Neku never experienced any himself. He shrugged, there was much more beneficial stuff he could be doing rather that thinking about patches to a game that would come out soon.

-§-

When the servers finally started on November 6th, Neku hit the ground running. He burst out of the starting town and charged into the fields. Using his beta knowledge, he estimated that he could get to the unique item around level 2 as he would have enough HP to take a few accidental hits. He slaughtered boars at an astounding rate, drawing other attentions. Some called out to him, others sent him a party request, but he ignored all of them. When it became obvious that he would not respond, the other players eventually left, muttering under their breaths. As soon as the level up screen was shown to him, he dashed out towards the coordinates that he had long ago memorized. He killed the monsters nearby as he approached the forest where the item was hidden. As soon as he got to the place, he looked all around, trying to spot a chest, or any other indication that there was a hidden item lurking somewhere. His sharp eyes spotted a small moss covered chest at the base of a tree. Neku ran over to it and opened it in excitement. A screen came up informing him he had obtained the item "CAT Headphones."

Neku smirked and opened his equipment window and looked at it. The headphones did not look spectacular, but familiar. Being a CAT enthusiast, they were the CAT Headphones labelled simply as "My Phones." It was thought that these were the type that the head of CAT wore and had gained some popularity while it was on market. Neku could not see any other buff that he could get from it. Confused he equipped them. He felt them materialize on his head. Immediately, a window popped up prompting Neku to look at it. After looking at it for a bit Neku gave a small laugh. The headphones had one function. Instead of listening to the BGM of Aincrad, one could simply listen to CAT music instead. It was certainly an item that any CAT fan would love. To activate the headphones, one simply needed to tap the headphones on the side to open the window. Neku supposed that it would not hurt to play a bit more, people would not be as jealous of him if he explained that the headphones only changed the background music. He decided to listen to Twister for a bit, and after changing the music, he retreated out of the forest and started to farm monsters in an undisturbed corner of the fields. After some hours of fighting he decided that it was enough for the day, just as he was going to open his menu to log out, a voice called out to him.

"Oi Neku right?"

Only one person knew his character name, so he turned his head as he watched Kirito and an unknown player run up to him.

"Kirito, fancy meeting you here, I thought for sure that you would be in the next town already."

Kirito laughed and scratched the back of his head, "No… I was helping this guy get the hand of using Sword Skills."

The player grinned widely and held out his hand, "Nice to meet you then name is Klein!"

Neku rolled his eyes, "Yeah… sure… nice to meet you I guess."

Klein looked confused for a moment before dropping his hand, "Not the social type are we?"

Kirito waved his hands, "now, now, no need to get angry, that is just his style. He really is a great guy, just takes some time to get to know him is all."

Neku shook his head, "Moving on, what's up? I was just about to log out."

Kirito looked disappointed, "Oh sorry… I was wondering if you wanted to help out with the Anneal blade quest since Klein here was about to log out, but I guess I can do it tomorrow."

Neku thought for a second before nodding, "You know what? It will be better for me if I get it sooner than later, yeah, we can go get it."

Kirito pumped his fist in the air, "Nice, alright then, Klein, if that is everything…"

Klein shook his head, "Not so fast, what are those?" he said as he pointed to the headphones on top of Neku's head.

Kirito turned and looked at what Klein was pointing at, "I don't know, willing to explain Neku?"

Neku shrugged, "Sure why not? These are the unique item CAT headphones. The coordinates were given to the winner of the CD competition in collaboration with CAT. There are no effects except being able to listen to CAT music instead of normal BMG."

Klein looked disappointed, "That's all?"

Neku nodded, "yeah, CAT did promise something that CAT fans would enjoy, and I can say that I am not disappointed. Besides, do you think Akihiko Kayaba would willingly include a broken item for one person?"

Klein rubbed his chin, "I guess… well then it is time for me to head out." With a wave to Kirito and Neku, Klein turned around and opened his menu. Neku motioned for Kirito to follow him, and started to walk away when he heard a "Eh? Where is the logout button?"

Kirito looked back while Neku just sighed. The log out to was one of the easiest features to find, it was a simple concept.

Kirito was more helpful in that aspect, "It is at the bottom of the menu."

Klein scratched his head, "It is not there."

Neku groaned and opened his own menu to direct Klein, "It is under the settings option, at the very bot…tom."

His finger hovered over a black space. Every time in the beta it had been as easy as a snap to find it, hell, Neku had taken time to read the manual and it was supposed to be right there, but it was just gone. A bad feeling started to grow in his chest.

Klein sighed, "Guess it is just a bug."

Neku shook his head, "Can't help but wonder what happened though, I mean, I would think some people from Argus would have had to log in at some point to see how the game felt. You would think they would notice this kind of thing."

Kirito shrugged, "Well for now, just call a Gamemaster."

Klein pointed a blurred window in front of him, "What do you think I have been doing this entire time? Nobody is picking up."

Neku frowned, "And there is no way to get out either, unless someone pulls the Nerve gear off your head or they just shut down the servers."

Klein froze, "Seriously? There is no emergency escape?"

Kirito shook his head, "Nothing in the manual mentions anything like that."

Their conversation was cut off by the bells ringing from the Town of Beginnings. Neku looked over and suddenly was blinded by a white light. The next thing Neku knew, he was in the main square of the Town of Beginnings with Kirito and Klein by his side. Soon after Neku's bad feeling gave way to reality. They were trapped in here. The remaining players of SAO had to fight and conquer all 100 floors of Aincrad to escape. Neku looked to his side to see the new, or rather original, faces of Kirito and Klein. Klein looked like a middle aged worker instead of the 17 year old he had chosen to look like. Kirito looked like a younger teen. Neku looked at the mirror in his hand only to see his face from the real world reflected back at him. He scowled, he had played this stupid game for a single unique item, and now where had it led him? To a death game of massive proportions.

As players yelled, screamed, cried and despaired, Neku glanced at Kirtio, "Oi, come on! We need to get out here! There are only so many resources that can be harvested!"

Kirito looked at him, "But Klein!"

Neku grit his teeth, Kirito was too soft in this situation, only so many people could get resources in SAO, once they ran out, it that was it. If Kirito and himself got those resources, they would be able to survive, and eventually use them to clear the game. As beta testers, they could utilize any resource much more effectively than any of the new players. Yes, it would be cruel to just leave people here, but in this situation, the ends justified the means.

Fortunately, Klein came to his aid, "Kirito, Neku is right, I still got friends here that need my help, you to go on ahead and do what you need to. We are all trying to clear this game, and you two will be powerful assets to do so!"

Neku nodded to Klein while Kirito clenched his fist but nodded as well. The two then turned and ran from the central plaza, out into the fields. As it was nearing nighttime, the monsters got more ferocious and attacked more frequently. Two wolfs spotted them and charged, two glanced at each other nodded. Both of them charged up sword skills and when the wolfs were in range released them on their foes. Both wolfs howled in pain before shattering into blue shards. As Neku recovered from the post-motion lag, he caught a sight of the sun setting just over some nearby hills. He had always thought that the scenery was wonderful, something that he had never bothered to witness in the real world, but now, after learning that this was a death game, he only had one thought.

What a Terrible World.

-§-

Just a small note on names. Yes, I know in Japanese culture there are things called honorifics that one would attach at the end of one's name to denote respect and/or familiarity, but I will not be using them in this fiction. While I do know the proper usage (then again it is not a difficult concept) I base my decision on a solid reason. SAO is, for all intents and purposes, a game. A screen name is a name you call other players. While you are behind a screen, technically you are all equal in status, even if level and equipment will most likely be different. Yes, in the anime honorifics are still used as seen by Kibou to Diabel and Asuna to Kirito, but to make this fiction more concise, and flow better, I have decided to cut them.