My Anime Game Life! - Sword Art Offline

Chapter 1: Black, Kuro, Noir. What's the Difference?

16th September 2018, Kawagoe, Saitama. Kirigaya Household

Suguha Kirigaya knew without a doubt that she was a normal girl. Well, one that had a deep admiration for the arts of kendo, and one that liked her time to be spent with her brother―though it seems that he's far more distant as of late, much to her worry―but still normal in most regards.

She had a father, a mother, and an older brother by one year. They were a perfectly normal Japanese family.

But... if she were really being honest, there was something that worried her. Most specifically, it was her brother.

No, he wasn't a siscon. No, he wasn't a creep. It was just that... she really liked him, she does. And who could blame her? He had shown, time and time again, just how smart and cool he was, to the point where she sometimes thought that he was secretly a superhero in disguise―as childish of a thought it is, she still thinks he is.

But nowadays, he seemed to have mysteriously gotten more distant from her, acting so much more aloof. It... felt so odd, it scared her to be honest.

It started, one day, when he suddenly just shut himself in his room, away from his parents and away from her. He never spoke to her more than necessary, he was not being so nice to her as always, and he just felt so different, so... cold.

She's gotten too used to it, and though it was a bad thing to be accustomed to something like this, what other option was there?

So when she came to wake her brother up, she was ready to expect the same, bland response she always got whenever she went up to wake him up. And for the first time in her life, she was surprised.

Instead of anything she had expected, he just... stared at her.

He looked at her, wide-eyed, as if he was looking at a ghost. And, for some strange reason, it felt as if he was trying to make sense of whatever was going on. And certainly enough, there must have been nothing wrong, right? She didn't look weird, right? She was pretty sure she looked the same as always, right?

And then, he just told her that he would be downstairs soon enough, and using such a... well, it was a weird way he talked, and that certainly spelt something wrong.

"So, is Kazuto awake?" Her mother, Midori, asked as she finished serving all the dishes on the table.

"He is," young Suguha nodded, taking a seat beside her father, Minetaka, who was busy sipping his morning coffee as he read the newspaper―probably about politics and whatnot.

"Well, the young man is certainly taking his sweet time to get ready," snorted the mother, putting on a hand on her hip. "What could he possibly be doing?"

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Back with Kazuto, however, he was very much trying not to freak out. A lot.

Sure, he had acted quite casually to this one simple knowledge just earlier, seeing that he had initially believed this to be some elaborate dream that which was created out of a moment of desperation for wanting to be one of the most coolest anime protagonists he has ever known.

Sure, he wouldn't have minded becoming an Eren Yeager nor did he want to discount the possibility of becoming Sora, but those two weren't always on the top of his mind.

But right now, it was taking every ounce of his willpower to not freak out.

'Okay Ender, just take deep breaths...' He did as he told himself, looking at himself in the mirror and visibly shaking. 'This isn't a dream, and there's no changing that. All you could do now is... is...'