Sword Art Online: Faithful Hymn

Chapter 10: Before and After

November 6th, 2022. The day of the SAO Incident

"I know it is a little late to apologize to you my son, but I hope you will accept our gift to you as a start of our redemption." Shoji's father tells him, before handing him a new piece of technology. It is a helmet that is awfully familiar to him. It greatly represents those new helmets that you can't ignore around Japan, especially Tokyo.

The NerveGear. It has been advertised across the news, advertisements in kid shows, flyers in newspapers, promotional planes, and many more forms of advertisement. Together with its launch, the game: Sword Art Online, would be released. Shoji is unaware whether he would like its genre or not, but the one thing that he'd care about regarding Virtual Reality is that he wants to try it for once.

Shoji has never been the kind of guy that was into video games. He played games, in the forms of sports and board games. But video games could never take a toll on him, since he has barely touched a console or a computer. The NerveGear however, would be the start of something new for him. Basketball has been his favorite thing to do each and every time he would get bored, but it also would remind him greatly. It reminded him of Wyatt, his childhood friend that he hasn't seen in four years. And he also wonders if he will ever face him again. The Russian girl that he had feelings for, Aru, disappeared before him without leaving a trace, too.

If there was anything in the world that he would love to attend to, it would be escapism. He had a wonderful life back in New Jersey, but it had to be thrown away. And he still knows little regarding why he had to leave. His parents won't open up to him, no matter what he would do. But redemption? Would this be the start of something new? Would his parents finally realize he is old enough for the truth, no matter how harsh it could be?

"Redemption, are you going to tell me why we had to leave Atlantic City?" Shoji asks his father. He has no idea where his mother could be, but he supposes she is just off to the grocery store. To his relief, he can see that his father is nodding his head.

"Yes my son. Your mother will come back in half an hour, so if you play with this for half an hour, we will tell you. You deserve the truth, and it was wrong of us to just drag you away from your childhood." his father admits. Whether Shoji wants to forgive his father for doing this to him, he doesn't know. However, they must have had a really good reason if they had to change their full names. Once being named Chase Goldheart, he now bears the name of Sasaki Shoji.

"I... don't know what to say dad. Thank you and thank you, I guess." he tells his dad. Father knows why he hesitates with thanking him. He still thinks back to those events that played four years ago, and whether father deserves forgiveness or not. He doesn't blame the boy for being angry, even after all those years. But it seems like that Shoji's isolation from the outside world will come to an end soon, when he is able to embrace his new life, and being able to let go of the past.

"You don't have to thank me. You are right to hate me, and I fully acknowledge your reason for it." Shoji father tells him, before handing him the NerveGear, as well as a copy of Sword Art Online. The man then leaves the room, wishing him a lot of fun with the game and device. Shoji didn't hesitate to turn the power on of the helmet, as well as inserting the game inside of it. Since the NerveGear runs on a battery, there is no need for Shoji to connect it to an energy source. He then shoves the helmet onto his head, followed by some instructions that appear in front of Shoji's transparent screen.

"Touch certain parts of your body to proceed with the tutorial." Shoji reads. He obeys the device, thus touching his arms, legs, chest, back, everything. These are probably some measures to ensure your height and width can be calculated correctly, he thinks in himself. Once that procedure is done, he is able to enter Sword Art Online.