An Englishman in Castle Aincrad

Prologue - Finding the Integral Factor

Prologue

August 21st, 2022 - Naha, Japan

For all intents and purposes, Michael Edmondson was a normal British teenage boy.

It was everything around him that wasn't.

His mother and father had divorced only a few years back, in 2019, and his mother, for reasons he'd never figured out, had gotten the idea to move to Japan in her head. Luckily for him, her grandiose ideas were rarely ever followed through on, but this time... he'd tempted fate one too many times. The company she worked for were looking for someone to sell their newest products in Asia, and so, they'd chosen Japan as the launch region, and his mother had gotten the job in their Japan office. Given he was still in school, undertaking his GCSEs at this time, he'd figured he'd stay with his father until he'd got his GCSEs and A-Levels, then move to Japan in a few years time, hopefully with the grades to go to University there.

As with everything in his life, that wasn't how it was actually going to go.

Fast forward to July 2021, and he'd received his GCSEs, and as he'd passed with flying colours, he'd been accepted on some sort of exchange program, at a school in Okinawa. It was here that his geography knowledge had failed him - Okinawa is not the Japanese mainland, nor is it particularly close by. As a result, his mother had chosen to send him to live on the island on his own. Sometimes, he felt vaguely offended that they'd all agreed that was the best option... did they want rid of him that much?

The exchange program itself had been fine. That was all he could describe it as. Not amazing, but he couldn't say he hated it too much either. He'd met some interesting people, and that was always good. The American kid, Cody, a guy with far more confidence than he'd ever had or would have, had become one of his closest friends here. It took balls to ask the British kid if they were still annoyed at 1776, after all...

/-/

One lunchtime, September 2021

''You heard about that Sword Art Online game?''

''Just a bit, yes.'' That was an understatement. Sam had been messaging him constantly for nearly two days fanboying over the idea, and never mind the actual NerveGear itself. He'd lost count of how many times it'd come up in conversation, but it was easily into the low hundreds...

''You gonna get it, or?''

''Maybe. I'll apply for the beta test, never know what it'll bring.'' Michael shrugged, poking at his food. He'd always been one to bring his own food, but that had usually been made by his mom... his attempt at a sausage and egg sandwich was something to behold, for the wrong reasons.

''Oh yeah, we've got a new girl in class today, she's-'' That was where Michael tuned out. Cody was an actually decent person, but by god, did he go on a bit about the fairer sex. He had to admit that some of the jokes he used as icebreakers were pretty good though. He quite enjoyed the one about a man named Mari Nade. So called, because he left his wife overnight.

/-/

Despite all of this, he was able to get his hands on a NerveGear only a couple of days after launch, and apply for the beta test for the first proper game for it - Sword Art Online. Admittedly, it wasn't his sort of thing, too few airplanes for his liking, and the year of Baritsu training... or at least what Gabby had described as Baritsu anyway. He'd have described it as having the snot kicked out of him with a brolly repeatedly, instead. Either way, it hadn't really helped develop any sword fighting skills, other than with an umbrella, but he definitely wasn't missing a chance to lord this one over Sam. He still owed him for nearly dropping a model shop on his head, a few years back after all...