Sword Art Online/ソードアート・オンライン Sword Art Online: White Reaper

_**A/N: **_**I yawned loudly, and stretched my arms – My spinal cord lets out three cracks in quick succession. "Ahhhh…" I let out a relieved sigh and smirks and clenched my right fist, after hearing a series of loud pops I unclenched the fist and followed up by doing the same with the left before resting my hands on the keyboard and quickly churned out words to write a terribly put together author's note just to give an extremely short chapter some fluff and extra words. "Well, I hope they like it." I mumbled, mostly to myself with a slight and smug smile on my face while Gabriel and Caleb loom over my left and right shoulders. Gabriel stared emotionlessly at the screen, his eyes unblinking as he softly pressed his cheek to mine to see what I was looking at.**

"**Hope, is the first step on the road to disappointment." He seemed to mumble, his eyes ran along the words and down the page.**

**Caleb in the meanwhile seemed to giggle as he dropped to his knees, wrapped his arms around my tummy and quickly glanced at the story. "Gel-chan always puts together amaaaazing pieces of writing!~" He stated, his voice was sing-song and actually changed tones, opposed to his twin brother… Gabriel - though I probably should have known that already – because I created them, like the author I am.**

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Introduction: Before ICEFALL AGE OF WAR ONLINE, there was a huge castle made of stone and steel floating in an endless sky which was all that world was.

It took a vagarious group of craftsmen one month to survey the place; the diameter of the base floor was about 10 kilometers — large enough to fit the entirety of Setagaya-ku within. Above, there were 100 floors stacking straight upwards; its sheer size was unbelievable. It was impossible to even guess how much data it consisted of.

Inside, there were a couple of large cities along with countless small scale towns and villages, forests and plains, and even lakes. Only one stairway linked each floor to another, and the stairways existed in dungeons where large numbers of monsters roamed; so discovering and getting through was no easy matter. However, once someone made a breakthrough and arrived at a city of the upper floor, the «Teleport Gates» there and of every cities in the lower floors would be connected making it possible for anyone to move freely through these levels.

With these conditions, the huge castle had been steadily conquered for two years. The current front line is the 78th floor. At the front is the White Reaper and the Black Swordsman. Both of whom were deemed two of the best players in the game, and saviors. This is their story.

The name of the castle was «Aincrad», a world of battles with swords that continued floating and had engulfed approximately ten thousand people. Otherwise known as...

«Sword Art Online».

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Chapter One: The Beta

**Gabriel**

Roughly 2 Years after the release of Sword Art Online.

As I lay there in the lush grass that gently caressed my cheek like dozens of pieces of tiny fabric, more comfortable than any bed I've slept on, with the bronze light of Aincrad's sun reflecting off of my insanely white hair, I began to think of home, the home my family lived in and awaited my return – I let out a deep sigh as I try to remember my twin brother's face but can only see a shroud with piercing blue eyes and white hair with arms outstretched towards me, reaching for me as the distance between us continued to grow, I opened my mouth to try to call out to him – only to see a smile form on his face and his lips parted to whisper a word that pierced my heart like a dagger. "Murderer." It echoed through my ears and beat against the inside of my head. I felt the urge to cry, with tears that no longer existed, I continued to try and call out to him, only to let out a choked gag as the darkness entered my body through my mouth and filled my stomach, tearing outwards with hot claws and sunk it's way into my very soul – suddenly… pain smashed into my side and I woke.

I was on my feet as quickly as I had fallen asleep, arming myself with the [Shining Light] and pointed the tip of the white-bladed dagger directly at the throat of my unknown assailant, whilst I instinctively enter a defensive stance.

They blinked their eyes and a bead of sweat formed above their brow, he wore an innocent but also nervous smile, staring directly into my deep blue eyes with his bright gray eyes. His fringes were still as long as ever and he had changed very little – if at all over the two months since I had last seen him. He was still wearing all black, but his coat was newer and more ornate – just like mine.

"Well this is the most excited I've seen you in the past two months," Kirito seems to state in a voice that was like a whisper. With that, it is made obvious that he is nervous because he swallowed slightly, and his vocal chords sounded tensed up more than usual… he also sounded out of breath… maybe he didn't feel like breathing because the blade was pointed directly at his throat and was glowing a dangerous magenta with a sword skill known simply as: [Puncture]. The ribbons of light wrapped around the blade, licking the cold steel in preparation to attack – but then gradually faded to non-existence as I quickly withdrew it.

"Kirito?" I ask, my eyes widened slightly with surprise and I slammed the dagger into its sheathe located on my right hip and I exited the defensive stance – ultimately letting my guard down, but only because I full-heartedly trusted Kirito with my life, not a statement I make lightly. Although, I knew why he was here, and despite having travelled, spent col, and searched simply to find me – I would have to respectfully decline.

"If you're here to make me fight again, then I'm not going to do it… I only go solo from here on in, I don't want to let anyone else… die." I mumble, avoided making eye contact and let my head hang as I stared at the ground for a few moments, I had just been reminded of the shame I had to bear for the rest of my life.

His answer was not what I had been expecting, he simply let out a soft and understanding sigh as he reached to the back of his head and rubbed his neck, he had also lost somebody and nobody had nobody I knew of that he could return to in the real world, Asuna excluded. Of course, he told me a bunch about his life: his real name was Kazuto, Kirigaya Kazuto, he was adopted by family after his biological parents were killed in an accident, he now had a younger step-sister name Suguha. Finally there was Asuna, the most esteemed female Sword Art Online player in the game with a cult following, and one would even say that she was Kirito's lover.

"Come on Garost," He used my username, because even despite the deep trust we both had in each other – I didn't tell him anything about my life or where I came from, why I was here, or even why my hair was white… and yet… he didn't seem to mind. "I know that even the great 'White Reaper' of Sword Art Online's beta-stage won't shy away from saving the lives of everyone else who is still alive." Kirito said, with a calm smile that stated he was trying to convince me.

"I…" I hesitate, unclenching my fist and staring down at the palm of my hand – just then a flash of that day plays through my head - the boy's terrified eyes stared up at me as I tried to used health potions on him, only to find the poison slowly eating away at his health bar for the next seven minutes. He shivers uncontrollably the entire time as I go through over fifty-seven health potions, until I ran out and he closed his eyes, giving me one final thank you for saving his friends then leaving both worlds – forever.

"I can't help you!" I shouted clenching my fist once again and as I tried to push the memory away, though all that filled my vision was the expression his parent's must've been wearing when their child's brain was fried right before their eyes.

"I killed a dozen player-killers, each of which had friends and family in the real world who wouldn't be able to understand the reason as to why their son or daughter suddenly died after surviving nearly two years in a death game. As a matter of fact, they may have just walked into the hospital to bring their buddy, child, or parent some flowers – only to find that they died over night by an inexplicable cause!" I growled and my eyes filled with heat, my entire body gave off a blue aura, angry flames of aura clawed their way out of my dry eyes and I stared at Kirito for a few moments. "And I did it to save six kids… one of which died in my arms as the others cried, clinging to my coat as I walked away, asking me why I couldn't save him… it was statistically impossible… and I knew it the moment I tried… the rest of you… you all just stood and watched." My normally blank expression turned to rage as the scene replayed right before my eyes.

Kirito suddenly drew his blade with what sounded like an annoyed sigh, "That poison was an unknown variant, player-made, that boy died to protect you… 'White Reaper' from the attack that you didn't see coming." Kirito stated bluntly and entered his trademark stance, his sword held behind his back – he could also very easily use a variety of sword skills from that stance. "One way or another, I'm taking you back…" He opened his menu and equipped his blade with a paralysis poison and I watched him do it. "Because it's what that boy would've wanted… he knew that you were the only hope we had left…" Kirito whispers and the aura surrounding my body gradually dissipated.

"Stop trying to put your ideas into my head, if that was the case then I would've remembered!" I shouted in response drawing my dagger and charging a sword skill, with that I made a [Diagonal Downards Slash] at him, which didn't bother blocking. My weapon bounced off and he stared at me – a message appeared before my eyes, telling me that he was an immortal object – being in a safezone must have had something to do with that.

He lunged his weapon toward my chest, tapped it and I was paralyzed – falling onto my back. "You know, maybe if you hadn't completely lost it and killed all of those Player-killers you would've noticed what the boy had done… what were you thinking? Jumping into a swarm of twelve Player-killers all armed with one form or another of paralysis." He asked me with a sigh as he grabbed me by the collar of my White trench coat and in a single movement slung me over his shoulder.

"Yew-oo-dun-tuh-unner-stan-duh." Was all that I could say as I couldn't really feel my pain, it felt like pins and needles, all throughout my body… discomfort.

"Whatever." Kirito adjusted my on his shoulder and jumped off the edge of a small drop, my abdomen slammed into his shoulder but I didn't feel anything. As I stared in the opposite direction of the sky, I slowly started to fall asleep once again.

"Stop," I muttered, over and over again to the second voice in my head – constantly calling me a murderer with its smug amusement made obvious in the tone of its voice, I felt my head rock back and forth but couldn't move a single muscle… Kirito had replied to my mutters but I didn't care enough to hear him…

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_**A/N: **_**Gabriel continues to stare at the screen for a few moments, his cheeks were slightly red and his eyes blinked rapidly a few times. "U-uhm... delete this - my acting his horrible." He states and turns away from the screen, trying to hide his embarassment.**

**"What?" I ask and turn to him, "Come on... it wasn't that bad." I state, and am too slow to catch Caleb... pressing the publish button when I had my back turned.**

**I simply glare at him, to which he replies with an impish grin and a giggle. "What're you going to do to me now... Gel-Sama?" He asked.**

**My left eyebrow twitched and I placed both hands on the keyboard...**

**"UNTIL NEXT TIME, 3 GEL-SAN!"**


End file.
