[h1]Fujiwara[/h1]
Hideki sighed, tapping his fingers as he waited impatiently for the deliveryman to arrive. Waiting for a game to arrive was one thing, but having to import the damn console from Japan? Now THAT was a pain in the ass. It was almost 12:00 over there, so the fact that it hadn't come in yet was a pain. That being said, though, he should've seen it coming- after all, it was an overseas flight to bring the things here and all that.

As soon as he thought that, though, Hideki heard his doorbell ring. Probably a relative coming over to visit or something; they always seemed to like coming at the most inopportune times. Leaving his copy of SAO on his desk, Hideki stood up and walked over to the front door of his home. Looking through the peephole, he noticed it was someone in a deliveryman's outfit. Well, what were the chances? Opening the door, Hideki quickly signed off for the item and paid the money before thanking the deliveryman and closing the door. Was this it? It had to be. Wasting no time at all, he quickly cracked open the box. There it was- a NerveGear in all of its factory-mint glory. The kind of hoops he had to go through to get this thing... Insurmountable probably wouldn't begin to describe them. But that was then and this was now. It occurred to him, though, that he had to go through all of the installation and configuration. Shoot.

One hour and a bowl of rice and fish later, Hideki finally slid on the NerveGear and laid down on his bed. His parents were off doing overtime work, so he probably had a few hours to kill. Two or three at most, but hey, time was time.

"Link... Start."

The character configuration was simple enough; black hair, lean body... Nothing too unusual. Though he didn't wish to idealize himself, Hideki found the end result looking strikingly similar to his own body.
Oh well. Nothing to be done about that. With that completed, Hideki brought up the virtual keyboard and typed his character's name.
Fujiwara. The Fujiwara clan had always been an interesting part of history for him, and the era seemed to fit...

And immediately after, he was thrown into the world on Aincrad. He took a few seconds to take in his surroundings- the new atmosphere, the people, the novelty of it all- before his "gamer instincts" kicked in, so to speak. Grinding. Now.

A few hours of grinding later, Fujiwara slumped down next to a tree. The curved sword he had been messing around with after a drop from one of the monsters roaming around was pretty fun to swing around. It wasn't quite a machete, but the way it moved certainly made it feel like one.

Not like he had use one before, though. But it was getting a bit late... He had lost track of time grinding, which happened more often than not, and it was probably past midnight by not back home. Opening up the interface, Fujiwara looked down where he assumed the logout button would be. None? Huh. Maybe it was nested in another subfolder. Shrugging his shoulders, he began to dig through the menus.

And just like that, he was suddenly standing in the middle of the town square. Some sort of GM-initiated teleport, if anything. Sheathing his blade, Fujiwara looked around. Everyone else seemed to be shocked, but wasn't it common to have some sort of grand opening event?
Then Akihiko appeared. Well, if he was gonna make an entrance, might as well make it grand, right? Fujiwara's smirk slowly turned into a stone-faced frown as the creator explained everything. 100 floors. No easy way out.

Well. Shit.

Noting a little chime in the lower right hand corner of his field of vision, Fujiwara opened up his inventory and pulled out the item that was supposedly delivered to every person there right now. The subsequent flash of light blinded him for a moment, but when he recovered from the disorientation he found himself looking at... Well, himself. At least he didn't waste time on developing an appearance. But now everyone was scrambling about the square, running around like headless chickens. Fujiwara let out a small laugh before turning away from the square and walking away from the town. If he was stuck here, then he might as well make the most of it.

Time to kill some pigs.

[h1]Ayame[/h1]
Ayame sighed, pandering over the books stacked up on her table. College entrance exams were floating around the corner, which meant she had to go all-out to study. Of course, schools at home weren't the only option- she always had the chance to go overseas to America for college, and given her grades it probably would find a way to work itself out. But that wasn't guaranteed- right now, she had to focus on getting into a college here in Japan. Maybe if she could find a way...

Glancing furtively at the NerveGear sitting on her table, Ayame sighed. To be fair, she did need a break from all of this work, and reading might make her relapse into more studying. She had been wanting to check out what Hideki found so enticing about the world of video games, so it was better now than not at all. Notifying her parents of her usage of the NerveGear, Ayame carefully placed the device on her head. It was roughly 16:00 on the clock. An hour or two would probably be enough for now.

"Link start."

Ayame was taken aback by the sudden change in scenery, the abruptness of it all shocking her for a moment. The world itself felt markedly surreal, but before she could muse any further a screen came up, prompting her for a name. Well, her name WAS Ayame...

Then she was presented with another screen- one designated 'character creation' or something of the sort. Would this be the body she would be playing in in the future? It would feel strange for sure, walking around in someone else's skin... Or, rather, a body of her choosing. A sense of strange curiosity washed over her, but she immediately shook that off. She would take a design from a character from a book- yes, that would work- and model her appearance after that.

Half an hour later, Ayame looked at the end result of her work and smiled. It looked quite like how she perceived the character to be, which was all that mattered at the moment. Completing the character creation form, Ayame waited for a moment before the world went black again. But only for a moment.

Ayame was immediately bathed in a bright light, with the city bustling with energy. She saw other players running to and fro, a sight which reminded her of how she envisioned a town in a fantasy novel would appear to be. It was a nice change of pace from the usual panicked vigor that people in the city usually gave off. Instead of heading out of town as everyone else seemed to be doing, Ayame began to walk around it instead. The NPCs- as she heard they were called- seemed quite humanlike and friendly, an interesting thing to note. The progression of AI truly had progressed in the last few years...

Just as she found herself getting completely lost in the town, Ayame (and many others, apparently) were moved to the town square. Though it was convenient, the spontaneity of it all was shocking. The giant robed figure floating above everyone was just as jarring, but not more than what came after.

Ayame's face immediately went pale. No. Nononononononononono. What about her classes? Her college? Her future? What would this mean for all of the effort she had put in for the last few months? Was it all for nothing? The figure mentioned something about a 'present'. Though afraid to look at it, Ayame felt as if she didn't ahve a chice in the matter- as if she would have to use it one way or another. A mirror. What good would that do?

The sudden flash of light caused her to flinch, and when she recovered Ayame found herself looking at her as she was normally. That was just plain mean- after all the work she had spent setting up the character, too...

Everyone else seemed to be walking about, looking for someone else they knew or trying to make new acquaintances. Maybe it was best if she did the same. Immediately, a picture of Hideki popped into her head.

Right. She had to find him. But where was he in this dense crowd? She didn't know how he acted in games, and she couldn't predict where he would go or what he would do now. Looking around the crowd, Ayame searched (in vain) for any sign of Hideki.

Could he be here at all...? Was she stuck here alone...?