Sword Art Online: Faithful Hymn

Chapter 1: Aftermath

A droplet that's coming from Shoji's eyes is falling into his breakfast.

Half an hour has passed since Shoji woke up from his recollection of the most heartbreaking event in his life. It was from that moment that Shoji said to himself that he had to man up, that he can get through this day just like he could yesterday. Behaving like a sad, 18 year old boy will not bring Yuuna back. Even though he knows this truth, it's hard to accept it.

Technology has gotten this far, so why hasn't it been able to bring back the dead? This is what Shoji is wondering himself while he is eating his breakfast.

Now that the sun starts to rise above the clouds, it is time for Shoji to start off his regular day. His life is nothing special compared to other's lives however. The only difference that you could come up with, is that he has survived the death game, Sword Art Online, the place where his beloved friend died, the friend he was certainly willing to grow old with.

Since he survived SAO, he is able to go to a special college where other SAO survivors get to study. In school however, he does not really have any friends. It's tough, to let go of your past, and that's what a lot of other students think as well. Just like Shoji, they are isolated, left alone, to try to live with their burdens. And one day, everyone hopes they are finally able to get over their losses. That however, is something that's almost impossible to achieve.

Furthermore, not much special happens at school. Sometimes a special thing happens that would catch Shoji's attention.

For example, around one month ago on January 12th, a famous girl in school as well as back in Aincrad took a camera and microphone with her to school. Everyone around her wondered what it was for. Some expected her to become some kind of vlogger, while others expected her to hold some kind of interview. In reality, she befriended a girl she met in ALfheim Online who was seemingly diagnosed with HIV.

Yuuki, the person in question, had as wish that she would love to visit school someday. She managed to visit school together with her friend, Asuna, however she was not able to visit it physically. For that reason, Asuna carried a camera with a microphone attached to it with her. That was one of the sweetest moments Shoji could remember of what had happened in school this entire year. For the rest, nothing special happened, really.

Brrrrinnngggg!

That appears to be the last school bell ringing for today, and thus Shoji is done for the day. The only things that are left for him to do today are to make his homework, go to basketball training and eventually fall asleep. Shoji thinks that it's best for him to go to basketball first, then make homework and after that go to sleep. He still has something to do that will surprise himself..

Once Shoji comes home, no one is there to greet him. He lives on his own, since he has no brothers or sisters. His parents on the other hand are still alive, although they got divorced while Shoji was trapped in SAO, though none of his parents had the intention of taking care for the boy once he would return from Aincrad.

Shoji sometimes contacts them, but not that much since he has no reason for it. Just like many young men and women, he prefers to be alone. At least just away from his parents, that's all. Especially after getting to know that neither of his parents were willing to take care of him.

Not much later, he grabs some snacks and a drink and heads upstairs to watch a streaming service that provides a lot of different movies and series. He enjoys this sort of thing much more than the joy he would get from playing video games. Especially virtual reality is the thing that he wants to avoid, since it would remind him too much of the events from SAO. For that reason, he does not own an AmuSphere either. He still owns his NerveGear, although it's left in dust behind his closet where no one would be able to see it.

After he finished a movie that he wanted to see for so long, it's time for Shoji to head to basketball training. Shoji knows when it's time for him to depart in this time of the year, since the lanterns on the street would start to light up. After he turned off his TV, he heads outside and gets ready to go towards his basketball training.

If there is one place in the world where Shoji could find a shiver of joy that would not remind him of Sword Art Online, it would be his basketball training. In here, there are a lot of people that have no connection to gaming, and they also prefer sports over any type of social media. The people in here know what Shoji has gone through, and they respect him for it. Sometimes Shoji even invites one of the basketball players over to his home to watch a movie they would like. That's one way to kill the big amount of spare time Shoji has.

He also might not be the best in basketball, but at least he has a lot of fun while playing it. Shoji is not the kind of person who likes to sit still either. He adores the suspense that could play in various situations. No one would expect any less from him, because if he disgusted suspense, he wouldn't have bought the NerveGear together with Sword Art Online in the first place.

Once the training is over, Shoji prepares to leave the place and he heads home once again. A short moment after he returns to his place of residence, he grabs his school books and starts to study for today's homework. It took him one hour to finish all of his work, and just like that he could call it a day.

There is one more thing Shoji wants to do though. It's something he has thought of before, but he never felt the kind of motivation to do so. He thought he'd be too weak to attempt it, but as of this morning he decided to man up, and to take action once again. Shoji reaches for one of his drawers, where he could see his diary. He once received a diary from his parents when he was still a young boy, but he never used it since he thought a diary was only a thing girls would use. Now that he's a grown up student, he respects the choice for carrying a diary with you and he's willing to start using it now. Shoji grabs a pencil, he moves his chair closer to his desk, and starts to write in it.

15 minutes pass, and Shoji finally finished writing everything down he wanted to. He thinks it'd be best to review it once more before he goes to sleep:

'Dear diary. Today was a day just like all else, in other words, nothing special has happened. I feel like ever since the SAO incident has happened, there is a part of me that got killed in the entire process. That being my lack of trust that I put in others. Since I had trusted Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of Sword Art Online, in that he would create a game that all of is could enjoy, his betrayal in it has been killing me from inside ever since. If all of my beloved ones in that death game would have been able to survive, my life surely would have been all different. And because I lack in trust, I also don't trust myself anymore to find happiness in life. Ever since Yuuna sacrificed herself for me, I have not been able to recover entirely, and I wonder if I ever will. My love for Yuuna was extraordinary, but in the end it does not matter who you love, it'll hurt you in the end.

Even before the SAO Incident, I kept telling this to myself, yet this one boy managed to introduce me to the one girl I've come to love so much. I practically broke my moral code.

I believe that my lack of trust is making me say such things, and for that reason I am willing to visit Yuuna's family, especially her father. I believe that there is a way for Yuuna to return to life somehow. One way of succeeding such an accomplishment, has to be via technology. I want to convince him to develop a way so that not only I, but Yuuna's father as well, are able to get to see Yuuna once more in her full glory. As of tomorrow, I will start my 'Quest' to find a way to bring Yuuna back to life. Starting with the key to all solutions: Yuuna's father.'

Shoji then closes his diary, puts it back in the drawer he got it from, and goes to sleep. He feels confident in the fact that he is going to take action again, after one and a half year, ever since what SAO has done to his life. How it influenced him, how it impacted him, how it killed him...