Umiko kept toward the back of the large crowd that had formed so quickly, the amount of people making her uneasy and nervous. So she merely stood there by herself, twirling a strand of her strange yet pretty navy blue hair. The NerveGear was truly something else, allowing her to take on an appearence and be whoever she wanted to be. That was the hope, anyway. Even though looking so different made her feel a little less like herself, that was exactly why she loved it. She could be stronger, more confident, anything. She could be anything she wanted to be here...

Several gasps draw her out of her strange chain of  thought, looking about everyone began to look to the sky. Umiko, followed there gazes until she saw the strange sight; a man in a strang cloak floating over the area , his face hidden in the darkness under  his hood. As though on queue, large red warning signs appeared above the area and stretched out to cover the sky, forming an ominous crimson dome. What was happening? Was this some sort of game event of something? Umiko began to step back slowly, every fiber in her body telling her to run, though the barrier was a mere few feet away from where she stood near the exit. She peered back to the strange barrier, as though there may be a sign of escape behind her. The sight she saw was truly sickening, though, a thick and oozing red liquid pouring out from the seams of the barrier and flowing to the ground like streams of... blood... Oozing streams of blood.

Umiko merely shook her head slowly, inching back slowly in disbelief. She could barely hear the voice that boomed over the entire area, only catching every phrase in bits and pieces as she attempted to process the situatiion she found herself in. '... cannot log out...' '... powerful microwave...' '...ending your life.' She could her legs begin to give out and buckle beneath her as it all settled in her brain. Why was this happeneing? This wasn't supposed to happen, this couldn't be possible. Umiko burst into a sprint, running toward the exit as fast as her weakening legs could take her. She couldn't stay there any longer, she didn't want to hear any more of this. SHe just had to get away. Regardless of her efforts, she came into a hard impact with the barrier, sending her tumbling back with a yelp. She doubted she could actually make it through, but she couldn't just sit there and listen to this... this madness.

At first she merely lay there, her eyes wide and filled with desperation as she stared at the barrier. At first, it was like her body had just shutdown, or maybe it just realized it was useless to even try anymore, but as more of the man's words sunk into her, she found herself finding her strength back, slowly hoisting her upper body at the very least to sit on the ground. Her legs had officially become useless at the moment, so she had no choice but to simply sit there with her knees together and hands on the ground. She listened as he went on. This Kayaba man, painting an even darker picture with zero escape and what would happen if your HP went to zero, but then... he offered a gift. What sort of gift was he-

Without any sort of warning she saw as people began to change, birght blue flashes of light altering their appearence in strange ways. Still, Umiko opened her inventory and waited as what looked to  be a mirror appeared in her hands. She looked into the mirror to see her faux appearance of a woman with long navy blue hair and seafoam green eyes before the sudden flash of blue light, almost blinding her. She opened her eyes slowly only this time seeing a young woman with long  blonde hair and bright... blue eyes... and fair skin... Her eyes began to fill with tears, every last ounce of confidence she had left leaving her in that instance, any sort of hope that maybe she could get through this strange world. Gone. The girl that looked back at her was not her avatar, not the Umiko that could be whoever she wanted to be, but the cowardly, weak, crybaby Aoi Umikaze, and she knew there was no way that Aoi could ever make it through this ordeal...