WORLD: EARTH
BRANCHED WORLD: SWORD ART ONLINE: FAIL SAFE TIMELINE – VR WORLD
POSSIBILITY OF EVERYTHING
LOCATION: TOWN OF BEGINNINGS
Blood red. Expressions of hopelessness. Breakdown. Every kind of negative expression flashed across the plaza in minutes.
"What do you mean we can't log out!?"
"Yeah! What do you mean we're trapped!?"
Above them, the sky blazed with crimson warning banners, blotting out the blue skies, flashing the same cruel message again and again.
In the Town of Beginnings' central plaza, nearly ten thousand avatars packed the space shoulder to shoulder.
No,
They were not ten thousand anymore.
Already, several hundreds had triggered the Fail Safe Protocol.
"....This is rather cruel."
"Honestly, I'm tempted by his genius."
Laurel and Lux both rested their backs against the pillar stationed at a few sides of the plaza to form a circular pillar at large.
Both casually lounged there, unbothered by the chaos on stage.
But then,
There was something Laurel said that prompted his friend to look over with a long, drawn gaze.
"See." Laurel shrugged. "Most of my so-called bs is just my powers and knowledge. You think too highly of me."
Lux parted his lips to speak. In the end, he decided not to humor Laurel and kept his silence.
"[Yes. As I've said, there are those who met their end like this... and those who had the NerveGear forcibly removed. See how they ended.]"
Kayaba continued,
A flood of images and headlines spilled across the sky, displaying posts, news clippings, and footage about the tragedy SAO has caused many families.
Desperation, hopelessness, regret.
Each passing second squeezed the crowd tighter, crushing them under the weight of their own fear.
[Finally... let me prove to you that this world is now your one and only reality. I've prepared a gift for you all. You'll find it in your item storage.]
The Game Master, cloaked in blood-red robes streaked with bright yellow lines, raised two fingers.
His index and middle finger across air, opening the Interface of the SAO system Menu.
The movement was slow, as his fingers stopped over the Inventory tab.
Seeing this gesture, a lot of others, curious despite all he had said, did the same motion, summoning their inventory.
"Is that a trap, Laurel?" Lux asked quietly.
"No. Doesn't matter what skin we're wearing, our real-life bodies are already here, rendered as avatars. This won't change anything."
Lux nodded, mind racing. So everyone's using an appearance different from their real self... which means...
Thinking that...
He reached out for his own inventory too.
[Inventory]
- [HAND MIRROR]
So the item was there. Lux squinted his eyes and wasted no time. He used [Analytic Analysis] on the mirror.
"Ahh."
He kept a thoughtful expression.
But as he did,
Light erupted. Blue fragmented light that seemed like it was constantly breaking down enveloped players.
One by one, they were engulfed.
"What's going on?"
"What the hell is happening now!?"
"Guh—!
"Quick, throw the mirror away!"
However, they were too late. The moment they clicked on the mirror and it fell into their hands...
It had begun.
The process of simulating their real-life appearance into the virtual world before they could play SAO.
Every player was to scan their bodies using the NerveGear to get the measurements.
As for the face, the NerveGear entirely covers that, so it wasn't impossible. And thus, people emerged with...
Their real life profiles.
"Who are you?"
"Fuck, you look chopped!"
"You said you were a girl, not a fat man!?"
"Kyaaa! Pervert!"
The plaza erupted, a fit of anger, shame, and betrayal.
Kayaba's earlier announcement had already sown panic in them and this just poured gasoline on it.
Laurel's gaze swept the crowd. Dozens had collapsed to their knees, the fight drained from them, shoulders sagging in defeat.
And then—
"Even a child..."
A few steps away was a child, a little girl. She had been roped into this. This child probably had just wished to try this game...
But was now roped into a death game.
Well, if she stayed in the Town of Beginning, she would survive. But thinking about it again....
"Laurel?"
Lux turned over, seeing his friend walk over; he let out an exhale through his lips, following behind.
"Hmm...?"
The girl turned over as Laurel got closer.
She had raven-black hair in a ponytail, not in the back, but to a left-side ponytail, tied with a star-like accessory that glinted red against the red-tinted light.
Give or take, she would be around nine or ten or even eleven or so.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
The girl paused, then looked at Laurel for a moment, as though contemplating whether she should talk or not.
Not only that, she had that expression, one that was caught between the border of hopelessness and clinging.
Her eyes especially.
Eventually,
"Well, I'll not bother you any—"
Laurel stood up, turning back, about to leave, when the sleeves of his shirt were tugged.
It was the girl.
Nodding slightly, he knelt down to look at her, who nodded.
"Uhm... my parents bought it... they wanted to play, so I joined them... and..."
Her voice trailed off, and Laurel didn't need her to finish. He let out a look of understanding; so, they were probably "dead".
At her age, she must have probably understood what Kayaba was ranting about.
Yet. Even the game master didn't seem to know the Fail Safe Protocol existed in his system..
But it was better that way.
But... for this girl...
"What's your name?"
With a tilt of his head, along with a pure smile that would make 'Luminous choke on disbelief for eternity',
he addressed the girl.
"Yume. Nakiri Yume."
"Yume, huh?" Laurel held his smile. "I'll tell you something. Your parents aren't dead. They're safe."
"You're lying."
She returned the stare with disbelief. Her stare was sharp for someone so young. He couldn't blame her.
And of course, Laurel's expression didn't change.
Naturally, he wasn't going to go around telling people about the Fail Safe protocol. However, he just felt like breaking the news to the girl.
[Fail Safe Protocol System Ver.Alpha]
[Protocol Preserve Consciousness through inactive state of mind].
[User list]:
☆ [Hokuto]
☆ [Bishoujou]
☆ [Lion Knight]
☆ [Gustav]
☆ [....]
☆ [....]
☆ [....]
☆ [....]
☆ [....]
[System Note: Includes the username of every user that has activated protocol due to loss of avatar.]
Names went on and on like that, displaying the usernames of those who had triggered said protocol.
"See? I used my awesome powers to make a Fail Safe Protocol. I knew about this in advance. Yes—"
He raised his head, his nose pointing high with mock drama.
"—I am a warrior of justice who fights for the helpless."
Unbeknownst to Laurel, Lux was capturing every detail of their interaction.
It was like... he was trying to lure a kid to an ice cream truck.
But he had no bad intentions.
Still, Lux kept recording while sniffling laughter that threatened to burst from his mouth.
"...."
The girl on the other hand deadpanned at Laurel, this time, looking at him, judging him.
It stung.
Being looked down on by a ten-year-old hurt.
"Seriously, I'm not kidding—"
"Although this guy is weird," Lux said mildly, "he was probably just trying to cheer you up."
"Oi, Lux, don't misplace my good intentions."
"Good intentions, you call it? I find that extremely funny."
"Kuh! What do you mean by that!?"
In a place, a plaza with thousands of people who had given in to despair, these two seemed alien to it.
Bizarrely out of sync with the mood.
The girl looked between them, then lingered on Laurel. If he had said all that just to cheer her up, then—
"Thank you."
Politely, she bowed her head slightly, which prompted him to shake his head.
"Just do your best. Stay alive, and you'll reunite with them."
Laurel said that, as he was then pulled by Lux, who took that as a cue to pull him away.
As Lux did, Laurel couldn't help but glance back.
In the end, with new changes come much newer changes. In the original timeline he knew, there was no one notable with that name.
Ignoring the fact that her username was her IRL name, still or regardless. He was sure, especially with what he saw.
Perhaps it's not because of that.
After all, even the authors that narrate the world they were inspired from don't fully write everything.
Given such,
Yume might be one of those unrecorded fates, someone who, without intervention, would have faded quietly into the SAO death toll.
But now, perhaps something was bound to change. Yes. The 'Threads of Fate' had begun swirling around her.
She's bound to change things.
"Fail Safe, huh?"
Laurel glanced over his shoulder, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"I'm starting to look forward to how different this branch of the timeline might be."
"Anyway, our assignment here is done."
Raising his hands up high as he let out a brief yawn.
He and Lux stopped dead in the middle of the crowd, with Lux giving him the sternest look he could muster.
"You did something to her, didn't you?"
Laurel rolled his eyes dramatically. "Come on, have you started falling for Luminous's propaganda about me...?"
Since Lux too could see the 'Threads of Fate', rather, anyone with the 'Singularity' skill will be able to see it.
He'd probably seen the apparent changes.
"You marked her, didn't you."
Laurel winced. Seriously, it was in things like this he hated Lux for. Nothing ever passes his eyes.
"Screw you, Lux."
He spread his hands as if to say guilty, so what?
"It's nothing big. Yeah, you could say she's been recognized by me."
Lux didn't believe. "If I remember correctly, only people like Ms. Aiz, and Hayes have that mark."
In the end, Lux shrugged.
"Don't worry, I won't hold you on for it. But that one is still a child."
"It's just for extra protection. Nothing that warrants the Dragon Knight glaring daggers at me."
To Laurel's statement, Lux raised his hands in surrender.
"Fine. But she's still a child."
"Hah!? What do you mean by that!?"
WORLD: EARTH
BRANCHED WORLD: DATE A LIVE
LOCATION: JAPAN, SORAI
[Note: It is a few years before canon, and before that, it has been speculated that Kurumi,]
[prior to about 5 years before canon lived in other cities. As such, one was derived through picking a name from thin air.]
Kurumi Tokisaki.
The beautiful, deranged Spirit whose new obsession was to become the True Spirit of Time.
Yes, yes—
she believed every word Laurel fed her.
Her targets had shifted.
The Spirit of Origin could wait. First, she would claim the title she now craved.
Why did she believe it so easily?
After listening to world-ending topics every day, in addition to powers, skills, or machines that could destroy the world...
Why wouldn't she believe?
Regardless,
From what she'd gathered, she already understood the hierarchy surrounding Laurel's little circle.
Officially, Luminous wore the crown of 'Strongest,' followed by the Thunder Queen, then Laurel and Knight.
But Kurumi knew that Laurel stood above them all. Even 'Knight', who always placed himself last, hid far more than he showed.
"Still, it's not so easy to speak with them face-to-face like this~"
Perhaps, if she had moved sooner, while they were still chasing their so-called World Conquest
she might have slipped in among them.
"Haah... too late for regrets."
She sighed, crossing one creamy leg over the other as she lounged on her bed.
For someone like her, no one would expect such a beautiful girl to be living in a place so... run-down.
Yet, even with that—
The way she sprawled across her bed, dressed in nothing but sleek black lingerie, her body curved like a lazy cat,
her head swaying idly from side to side... it was more than enough to short-circuit the thoughts of any man.
"Haah..."
Another languid sigh slipped from her lips. She flicked her fingers through the air, scrolling deeper into the archive of her past conversations with Laurel.
Power—
yes, that was the topic she lingered on.
It seemed the three older members of his circle could, in their own way, sway his decisions.
Not easily, but enough.
Or at the very least, he considers them in all his decisions.
"So... he's the type who bends, ever so slightly, for those closest to him~"
Her lips curved into that familiar, honeyed smile. Things might not be so difficult after all, she mused.
"Ufufu~"
Naturally, such thoughts had crossed her mind before. To devour him, literally, by consuming him.
However, her instincts warned her not to try that. Instead, she would be the one assimilated into him.
Immediately, she gave up the idea of consuming him to devour him.
Her favourite tactics.
By devouring him through seduction, little by little, until he placed her somewhere of value.
From there, power would come naturally.
As for dealing with her rivals, she didn't need to compete with them, nor did she feel the need to.
Of course, while it may seem cheap.
It might seem cheap, but she hadn't forgotten her mission, nor her ultimate goal.
If he spared her, she would kill. That was the entire truth of it.
Still, she could see the advantage in keeping friendly ties with them.
Especially the females of the group, and luckily, the numbers between males and females were balanced out.
"Not to mention... they're quite the beauties, kihihi."
The thought made her smile, but she pushed it aside. More pressing matters awaited.
Her date with him.
Well, "date" might be generous.
It was more of a proposal she'd forced upon him, solidified after that risqué remark she'd thrown at the group.
It seemed Laurel was careful not to cross Mei. A wise choice, as incurring her wrath will do him no good.
Kurumi tilted her head, eyes half-lidded as a wicked idea bloomed.
"Now... how do you make a man like that cheat~?"