April 22nd, 2026
"Here's your Augma," one of the staff members said while handing Kaito the device.
Kaito sat in his office room dumbfounded for a moment. The device rested on the round table where Kaito was reading his student's work.
He called out to the staff member, "Wait, isn't this for the students only?"
"I dunno kid, they're telling me that everyone gets one so there you go."
The door slammed closed and Kaito was left with one of his students. Kaito turned his attention to the student and apologized for the disruption. Kaito didn't like the feeling of these new Augmas. He felt like the development time for such a device was too short. The student looked at Kaito and asked why he looked so worried.
"It's nothing..." Kaito assured them.
"This thing is great, you know? There's a lot of features inside of it but it also has this new game called Ordinal Scale," the student lectured while taking his own Augma out.
"Really?"
"Yeah! My friends and I were playing it together this weekend. There are locations where you fight bosses together as a raid group."
"Must be nice having all the new trinkets. Anyways, back to the material."
Kaito tutored the student until 1630 hours. When the student left, Kaito stared at the Augma. It worked by projecting an interface into your left eye. A series of brainwaves read by the device dictates the action that is projected onto the eye. A lot of people were skeptical of this but the introduction of Ordinal Scale seemed to put those worries down. Still, something was bugging Kaito about the sudden introduction of such a device. The creator was also handing it out to SAO Survivor School students for free, another red flag of something. Kaito grabbed the device and placed it on his head. The device activated and displayed the start-up screen. He proceeded with the set-up process before he could access the device properly. When Kaito accessed the downloaded services, it came with Ordinal Scale loaded in. He needed a controller in order to access it, however.
"I'll pick that up on the way home," he thought to himself.
He closed up his office space and left the school. All of the students were gone for the day. Kaito grabbed his helmet and placed it over his Augma. It was an uncomfortable fit, so he took out the Augma and placed it in his backpack. Kaito opened the navigation app on his phone and looked up the closest game shop. The location and directions appeared on the phone while Kaito revved the bike. He released the handbrake and left the parking lot. He followed the directions to the game store and parked the bike in a nearby parking lot. He chained the bike to the post and walked into the shop. Kaito noted the feeling of deja vu while looking at surrounding buildings. Then he realized that he was at the same store where he bought the official version of SAO. A chill ran up his spine as he stepped into the store. The feelings of excitement would turn into feelings of terror when he learned about SAO becoming his new reality. He browsed through the shelves and saw the section for the Augma. The old man working the register watched Kaito as he did his shopping. He grabbed two-controller boxes before walking to the cash register. On his way there, he caught the glimpse of a rolled-up poster. He grabbed the poster and revealed the lower half. It was the advertisement poster for SAO.
"You're looking at that old thing?" the old man asked.
"Oh yeah, sorry," Kaito apologized while rolling it back up.
"No, it's okay. We've been trying to get rid of it but no one wanted to have it. So we'd have it rolled up in the corner."
"It's a tragedy for sure. I'm sure not many people would want that in their homes."
