T R A P P E D

Chapter One - Akiko

"Okay, so class! Listen up plea-AKIKO AND UKIYO, DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO SHARE?" Ms Kyoko yelled, glaring at me and my best friend who were secretly engaged in a conversation about one of our favourite games. My face turned red as I meekly shook my head. After giving us one last condescending glare, she continued. "You are one of the few lucky classes all over the world which have been picked to participate in this social experiment. You will be sent into a virtual reality world, SAO, for a few hours, with no rules at all, to see how you will hold out in that environment. If need be, you might even need to stay overnight."

With that, the class erupted into a noisy buzz of excited murmurs with a shout every now and then (most of which were from me. Ahem.) Ms Kyoko tried to quieten down the class but to no avail. "QUIET!" She finally shrieked. "The other classes do not know about this for a reason. You will be having this activity during curriculum time in the student common room, which will be out of bounds to students then. Please report to school as usual tomorrow but to the SCR instead of the classroom."

Gazing around at the flushed, eager faces, Ms Kyoko sighed, "Ok, you are dismissed now. Try not to let any of the other classes hear about this. And by the way, you are not required to bring along your normal school things. Food will be provided before and after the activity."

Ringgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

The ear-piercing school bell rang directly after, signalling the end of the school day. I hastily grabbed my jacket and my bag and dashed out of school. Ukiyo and I had planned a sleepover that night and the fact that there was the activity tomorrow just made it all the more fun.

"Akiko-chan! Wait up!" Ukiyo's voice came from a short distance behind me. I grinned a little and slowed down so that she could catch up. After a second she appeared beside me and we walked to her house in comfortable silence, her playing games on her iPad and me watching anime.

After dinner, when Ukiyo and I were going to go to bed, something hit me and I blurted out, "I remember where I've seen SAO before."

Ukiyo's head whipped up from her plate of cookies in front of her and raised an eyebrow, "Where did you see it? It sounds familiar, but I can't remember where I've heard it before."

"Remember the whole list of recommended books our teacher gave as? It was mentioned in one of the history books in there. The game Sword Art Online had actually been developed quite some time ago, but it was destroyed. That time, the players who were in SAO really died in real life if their HP hit 0 in the game. Around four thousand died."

My words were left hanging in the air. I had mixed feelings about this. One, I was excited as I have never been in a virtual reality world before, but at the same time, I was afraid.

Afraid that it might happen again.

Afraid of being trapped in an unknown world where everything wasn't real.

But most of all, I was afraid of death.

I decided to do some research and learn tips about SAO, so that I won't look like a complete failure and can probably get Ukiyo and me to a higher level than the rest. Ukiyo might not know it, but I can tell she'll do great in SAO. I just hope that she'll stick with me and hopefully save me if anything happens.

I trust her.