#Aincrad | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thegayfromrulid · 2 years

Note

I hope you'll like this fanfic Reader/Kirito idea. The Reader is walking around in the town of Algade, then he/she noticed a heavily pregnant Kirito struggling carrying his supply of food. The reader offers to help Kirito with the food, and he's thankful for your assistance. The two walk together to Kirito's home, and then after putting away the food, the two become friends, and the Reader gets to feels the baby's movement from Kirito's huge pregnant belly before the Reader says his goodbye.

This was very wholesome! I'm getting a lot of reader-insert practice this go-round, which is pretty fun! I will note for the sake of the tags, I was unsure if this was meant to be cis mpreg or trans mpreg, so I'm choosing to leave that up to your own desired interpretation. Both will be tagged for filtering purposes, and so that readers can have their own choice in how to read it. AO3 Link if desired!

One shot below the cut!

The air is particularly cool in Algade. All the same, the crowds in Algade are the same as ever, completely unbothered by temperature or weather. And why should it be any different? Algade is the second-largest city in Aincrad, and it’s your home. It’s such a vast city that you can honestly say you haven’t explored all of it, even though you’ve lived here practically your whole life. There are always new people and tourists; there’s no way to know them all. That’s a part of why Algade is such a great place, after all. It never gets boring. There’s always something new to see when you’re out wandering around the city.

Today’s outing had no real purpose to it aside from stretching your legs. It was easy to get cooped up in the small living spaces dotted throughout the city. Since you don’t mind the crowds, having grown up in the midst of them, taking an aimless walk around for exercise and fresh air has always been more refreshing than suffocating. Other people may have seen it differently, but this was a sense of freedom for you. This is a chance to see the people of Algade at their liveliest. Walking down the main street of Algade, you can see so much going on. There are vendors lined up all down this street, selling anything from food to weapons at their stalls. It’s just a normal day in the big city.

Something stands out to you, though, as you slip through the crowd. There’s someone you’ve never seen before struggling to make his way through the crowd. The cause for concern is almost immediately apparent; his arms are quite burdened by a food supply that could feed a small family for a week or so. This may have been a more simple task for this person ordinarily, but there’s an added layer of burden atop the likely heavy bags of food—it isn’t difficult to tell that he’s very heavily pregnant. Normally, you wouldn’t dash out of your way to speak to someone in the middle of the main street. However, this feels different. This person needs your help. You can’t just sit there and watch him struggle on.

So, gathering up your courage, you make your way over to him, and just in time, you step in front of him just as he drops one bag. You drop down to the ground and make sure it doesn’t fall on the cobblestone. Nothing spills out, to your relief. When you look up, the stranger is glancing down at you from the side, blinking in apparent surprise. You stand up and give a slight bow to him. He has dark hair that is cropped just to the base of his neck in the back. Bangs sit between his black eyes, which match his overall black outfit. Embarrassment is written all over his face. He reaches a hand out to grab the bag from you.

“Oh, thank you,” he says, awkwardly laughing. “I thought I had a good hold on that.”

You tell him it’s no bother. Instead of handing the bag back to him, you offer him some help. He’s taken aback by the offer. You give him your name and tell him that you don’t mind. After all, it seems that you’re both neighbors in Algade, even if you live rather far apart. He seems slightly reluctant, but it doesn’t take long before he glances down at his swollen belly and sighs as he nods at you, handing over a couple more bags with a look of defeat on his face.

“My name is Kirito. I appreciate the help, (y/n),” he says. “I honestly thought I could handle this by myself, but it is getting tiresome handling chores by myself lately.”

Casting a worrisome glance at his belly, you wonder why in the world he chose the wording “is getting tiresome” instead of “has been tiresome.” By looking at him, he could likely go into labor at any moment. There was no way he was only just now getting tired from these chores. Still, in an effort to be polite, you give him a smile and try to give an understanding nod. You ask him how far away his home is.

“It’s quite a hike, admittedly,” he says, giving you a sheepish grin. “It took me a good thirty minutes just to get here.”

Your eyes practically bug at this revelation. He had managed to waddle all of the way down here, buy all of this food on the main street, and needed to get back home. You ask him if he needs to sit and rest for a while. He hums and looks around. There’s a little bench in the middle of the street a couple of meters ahead. He gives in with a nod.

“It wouldn’t hurt to let my feet rest for a moment,” he admits.

With a chuckle, you walk with him over to the bench. He awkwardly eases himself down onto it, and you help him set down the remaining bags he’s carrying. He leans back against the back of the bench and lets out a deep exhale. You don’t want to say it, but sitting seems to make him look even rounder. This Kirito definitely shouldn’t have had to walk this far—not in his current condition. He frowns down at one of the bags set down by his feet. Without saying anything, he starts to lean forward to reach for something. You quickly intervene, asking him what he needs.

“Oh, I just wanted one of those apples,” he mutters. “I can’t help but feel a bit hungry.”

He laughs quietly and places one hand on top of his belly. You pick up an apple and offer it to him. Kirito mumbles a thanks and eagerly starts to consume his snack. A part of you wonders if he’ll need more than just an apple. Another part wonders if he can even fit a single apple in his belly this far along. Nevertheless, he appears rather content as he eats. He keeps one hand on top of his belly as he eats, gently rubbing it. There’s a curious flutter in your chest as you wonder if the baby might be moving. It’s always been a fascinating thing to you; with no siblings of your own, you’ve hardly ever felt a baby kicking inside of its parent’s womb. The memory of the sensation was distant. It had been one of your aunts. It might be odd to ask to feel Kirito’s belly, though. You’ve only just met. For now, you keep the thought to yourself.

When he finishes up his apple, you offer to dispose of the core for him. He’s grateful for the help, and by the time you’re back, you catch him trying to pick himself up. Shaking your head, you offer him a hand. His face turns a bit red, but he takes it. Lifting him up to his feet is trickier than you expected. It only makes sense; he’s quite heavy with all of that weight to the front. You do the job of picking up the bags. You only let Kirito carry two of them, insisting that he needn’t burden himself with all of that extra weight right now. He blushes again. You do have to wonder; is he embarrassed by his state? Changing your tone, you remind him that it’s natural to receive help from friends while expecting a baby. His expression softens.

“Friends, huh?” he says.

Now, it’s your turn to feel embarrassed. You’ve only just met, and you’re already calling yourself his friend. No wonder he’s looking at you funny. But he just nods and gives you a gentle smile.

“I like that,” he says. “Let’s be good friends, (y/n).”

His words are comforting. You give him another slight bow and return his smile.

“Okay, I guess I’ll lead the way to my place, then,” he says.

It’s not long before you realize that the journey back home is worse for him than the journey to the vendors in the first place. The path he takes you on is uphill. Even if the incline isn’t too much, you still feel worried for your new friend. You take pauses when it seems necessary. Kirito keeps shifting his two bags to one hand or the other to put a hand under his belly while he walks. You offer to take at least one of the bags the rest of the way several times. He doesn’t seem to want to let you do it. At one point, he finally gives in and lets you take one more bag. His hand remains glued to the bottom of his belly for the remainder of the walk. He only moves it to pull out his key and open the door to his home. You usher him inside first, then close the door behind you both.

“The kitchen is this way,” Kirito says, sounding a bit out of breath.

You tell him to go sit down. He insists that he wants to put his food away. You reassure him that you’ll put everything away so long as he tells you where it goes. The solution winds up being that he pulls a chair into the kitchen to sit on while he walks you through where to put everything. You’re very careful to listen to his instructions. When everything is put away, you can see the relief on Kirito’s face. He gives you another grateful smile from his chair.

“I really do appreciate this, (y/n),” he says. “If you don’t mind, I can treat you to some tea in a moment. Just let me find the energy.”

Once again, you’re drawn to his belly as he rubs the top of it. He hardly fits into the chair. Kirito leans his head back, closes his eyes for a moment, and moves his hand to the side of his belly. Your eyes widen just a bit as you see the baby moving. It feels like conclusive enough proof that he’s nearing the end of his pregnancy. Kirito exhales deeply again, and then he pushes himself up out of the chair. You insist that he doesn’t need to treat you to anything, and that he should probably rest. He just chuckles and pats the side of his belly.

“Don’t worry about me,” he says. “I’ve got energy left to spare.”

You can’t be too sure that you believe him. He was so winded before. Either way, he waddles over to a cupboard and starts to pull out things to make tea with. You insist on tossing wood into the stove and lighting it for him so that he doesn’t have to bend over. He still keeps at preparing tea, even though you remind him that you’re either there to help or don’t need to be treated for anything. You wind up giving up on getting him to sit back down until it’s done. It seems to be his way of thanking you for helping him out. You stand by him and keep him company while he brews the tea. One hand supports his back while he stirs. His belly is pressed up against the counter to get him close enough to mind the stove. He doesn’t prep just tea; he gets out some cookies and pastries to serve as well. You take care of setting the table, and before you know it, you’re both sitting there, sipping away at your tea.

“It’s nice to have someone to spend time with today,” Kirito says. “I hope I didn’t take you away from anything important.”

Shaking your head, you reassure him that you were already free today. He hums, seeming pleased to hear that, and he leans back in his chair again. In order to reach his plate of pastries, he sits as close as he can to the table. His swollen belly is practically pressed up against the edge. You wonder how comfortable he must be. He packs in more pastries than you think should be possible. Once he’s had his fill of tea, you suggest that he sit somewhere more comfortable. He agrees, and he asks you to follow him into his bedroom. You help him get propped up with some pillows on the bed, and then you sit a ways away from him just to be polite. He situates himself, and then he looks over at you.

“Oh, don’t worry about sitting so far away,” he says, patting the space next to him. “You can sit closer if you want.”

Nodding, you move closer. There’s a strange smile on Kirito’s face. He’s leaned back, as comfortably positioned as he can be, and he’s placed one hand on top of his belly and the other down at the base of it. He gently taps his fingers against the top of his belly. He turns and smiles at you.

“You wanna feel?” he asks.

He’s read you like a book. You glance down at his belly and remember how it looked as the baby moved earlier. You give Kirito another nod, and then you place your hand against his burgeoning belly. He’s quite warm. For a moment, all you can feel is the steady rise and fall of Kirito’s breathing. But then, you can feel the baby moving against your palm. The movements are strong, and you can see them beneath your hand as well. The joyous feeling of a new life brings warmth to your chest. You look up at Kirito share a smile with him. You finally comment that it looks like it won’t be long before his baby is in his arms. He chuckles and nods.

“I hope so,” he says, the tiredness in his face looking all the more apparent for a fleeting moment. “I feel like if the baby stays in much longer, I won’t be able to get out of bed in the morning.”

You both laugh at that statement. You let him know that, should that happen, you’ll come by to help him out. He gives you a nod.

“I’d like that very much,” he says, “but I really hope it’s soon. I feel so huge already. Could I handle much more?”

Somehow, you don’t think he would have much of an issue handling a bit longer. If he was only just now getting tired, he could likely handle it. You keep that to yourself, though. You let him know that you’ll come by every so often to check on him, at least until the baby arrives. He rubs the furthest point of his belly and lets out a full laugh this time.

“Don’t forget to come by after the kid comes,” he tells you. “We’re friends now, after all.”

Smiling, you nod and touch the side of his belly once more before you head home. The baby graces you with a little more movement. You tell both of them good-bye, and you promise that you’ll be by again soon. So that he continues to rest, you make sure to lock up his place behind him. Only those with a key can get in now. You smile up at his door for a moment before turning around and heading back home. You’ll be back by soon. And with any hope, you’ll remain friends for a good, long while.

#fanfic requests #one shot requests #one shot #sword art online #sao #aincrad #kirito #kirigaya kazuto #reader insert #sao fanfic #aj_linguistik #cw pregnancy #mpreg #tmpreg #anon

8 notes · View notes

regarding-stories · 1 year

Text

The Ever-Changing Story (Part 1): About Sword Art Online's (lack of) continuity

I'm a big fan of Sword Art Online (SAO), and I came to the series through watching the first three seasons on Netflix. It was on a whim, basically, but I became hooked, and in the last 2 1/2 months I have watched four seasons, one movie, read 28 books, and even several mangas - all works (or based on works) of Reki Kawahara, the original author.

Let's start with a simplified synopsis of the story, and from hereon there will be spoilers.

The plot of the original SAO story is set in an MMORPG world called Aincrad, composed of 100 floors. After the first 10,000 players have logged in, they are told that they can't log out anymore and that the game will kill them if they die in game or somebody removes the VR gear that completely immerses them in this world. Their only choice is to beat all 100 floors, after which the survivors will be automatically logged out.

The story then skips forward to floor 74, there's a fast-paced romance between the protagonist and a girl, and after some dramatic reveals after a battle against the boss of floor 75, our hero Kirito unmasks one of the most prominent players in the game to be the genius/villain that trapped them there to begin with, there's a final showdown with several tear-jerking twists, and then the game is beaten. All survivors get logged out.

Seems like I must've missed something? If you've watched the anime, I seem to have left big chunks out, right? But that's the "original story" as published as a light novel ("Sword Art Online 1 - Aincrad"). I put "original" in quotes because the true "original story" was first published on the web, then edited and lightly rewritten before being published as an actual book.

And it has changed ever since.

Retcons on top of retcons

From here on it gets weird. Even in the anime series, Aincrad gets a comparatively short treatment, 14 episodes of the 25 episodes comprising the first season. This is because the story of beating Aincrad is dispersed over many books by now, and most of it was written as stories inserted into an existing but also vague and largely empty timeline, typically involving some form of retconning.

The story I provided the synopsis for was SAO volume 1. Volume 2 added side stories, introducing several characters not seen before. Further side stories were added in volumes 8 and 22, and Kawahara started a series describing beating Aincrad floor by floor, called Sword Art Online Progressive (SAOP), which now comprises its own 8 volumes. In addition there are various side stories, published online, in magazines, as bonus material for example for other media including manga and anime, plus computer games. (But as far as I can tell you can largely ignore the computer games - they willy-nilly change canon anyway to attract as many players as possible.)

In other words, if you'd watched the anime, you would have seen, roughly in this order:

SAO 1 - Aincrad

SAOP 1 - Aria of the Starless Night

SAO 2 - Aincrad

SAO 8 - Early and Late

SAO 2 - Aincrad

SAO 1 - Aincrad

SAO 2 - Aincrad

SAO 1 - Aincrad

So, the anime is basically woven from four different books, one written in response to flesh out the anime a bit (SAOP 1). If you liked Yui, Liz, or Silica, they were all late additions.

The retcons in the anime are sometimes nice little details. For example, when Kirito publicly displays his Dual Wielding unique skill, he hides out in Agil's shop. In the anime, Liz walks by and teases him about letting out what was their secret. This actually happened in the second volume, while the scene actually stems from volume 1, so Liz did not exist to feature in that scene. But she fits like a glove here.

Retro-continuity

So, as a viewer of the anime, or using the anime as timeline, you come to a continuous, coherent story. This is not true for the novels, though, as Kawahara readily admitted whenever he published a new one. Each volume contains apologies for the inconsistencies he introduced when shoving new stories in.

His approach, however, is very pragmatic. Whatever he wrote last is basically true. This can be minor, like his admission from Volume 8 regarding his short-story "The Safe Haven Incident". So, for example in an earlier volume he wrote that Kirito had never taken Asuna to a restaurant run by an NPC before. This is exactly what Kirito does in this story, which in turn is set - but only within the world chronology! - before the story it modifies.

By the way, that's exactly the same detail Kawahara then contradicts again in SAOP, but SAOP is special...

You see, whenever somebody asks (on social media) if SAOP is a rewrite or reboot, there's a lively discussion where people go to great lengths to say that's it is not. I wholeheartedly disagree - SAOP is a huge reboot camouflaged behind lip service to existing continuity. And it heavily depends on which SAO or SAOP book you've read or media you've watched last as to what your conclusion might be.

And mine is - yes, the story has been rebooted. We might never see absolute proof for this as the story will likely never be finished. It took eight volumes to describe the beating of seven floors so far, casting doubt on the doability (or desirability) of doing this for the total of 75 floors mentioned in the original outline. But the longer the story progresses, the more heavily it deviates not only from the original plot points, but it also starts to rewrite characters - at least regarding their motivations and traits. And then they no longer fit their roles assigned to them in plot points alluded to in earlier novels.

A concrete example of how retro-continuity works

SAO Volume 22 contains the short story "The Day Before" - an account of what happened shortly before Kirito and Asuna got married in-game. It barely carries on for a page before it introduces us to what Kirito knew of Asuna or had experienced so far:

He had her as "impromptu party member".

She joined the Knights of Blood guild and took part in "our boss raids".

She "helped investigate mysterious safe-zone murders"

She "cooked S-ranked ingredients into meals for me".

The way he describes these events, including the connecting words, imply they happened in this order. This implies they were taken from the following books:

SAO Progressive Volume 1 onward.

Not actually depicted in any books, but mentioned since SAO volume 1. (When Asuna appears in SAO Vol. 1 she's the sub-commander of the KoB and takes part in the two boss encounters featured in the novel.)

SAO Vol. 8.

And back to SAO Vol. 1.

It is heavily implied that the term "impromptu party member" refers to SAOP Vol. 1 because she joined KoB after. (Not to be confused with them partying up in the middle stretch of SAO Vol. 1.)

In other words, within this story, published as Vol. 22 of the main line, events happening in some early SAO Progressive novels are confirmed as canon that overrides earlier canon. Whenever this volume or side stories introduce additional facts or change them, they are treated as if they had always been true. (You could say the new "normal" is whatever Kawahara wrote most recently, no matter if the information stems from the SAO or the SAOP series.)

This becomes especially noticeable if you actually read the light novels last, in a reverse order, after watching the anime, etc. There wasn't a grand master plan later novels slot into. Each new one is crammed in, and as that is done, it displaces some of the original story.

More things are then casually introduced: "Field bosses," a concept only present in SAOP. Further along, it is established that "we" (Asuna and Kiroto? The frontrunners?) typically ignore side quests - which is funny as this will be later contradicted again and overridden by further SAOP installments to follow, and quite drastically so. (In SAOP it becomes imperative to do quests to get potential info about floor bosses and how to beat them. It probably helped filling these books and making them the entertaining reads they are.)

We also get to meet Argo, who is characterized pretty much the same as in SAOP throughout. (And Argo existed only as a name drop before SAOP was written.) So Argo didn't exist until SAO 2, gets fleshed out as character much later in the SAOP novels, and she "returned" to the mainline novels volume 21 and forward. In 21 she only appears in the final scene, and in 22 we get side stories supposedly telling events from Aincrad - featuring Argo, probably so that main series readers can get used to her, she technically being an addition to the cast of that series.

We're also told about the great tragedy that befell Kibaou and the Aincrad Liberation Squad - which is greatly expanded on (in SAO 1 the "Aincrad Liberation Force" simply "got burned" on the 25th floor. In the SAO mainline novels before that Kibaou was only mentioned once, as a villain. Now he's made sympathetic. This is a major change, but if you've read SAOP you'll find that Kibaou is a character you can empathize with more and more the longer that series progressed. This change will be discussed further in part 2 of this article.

Growing backwards in time

Additions from volumes 2 onward fall into two categories: Those taking place before the main events of floor 74 forward in the first novel. And those taking place within the period between Kirito proposing to Asuna and their return to the frontline to fight the boss of floor 75.

In the first category we find:

The Black Swordsman (SAO 2)

Warmth of the Heart (SAO 2)

Red-Nosed Reindeer (SAO 2)

The Safe Haven Incident (SAO 8)

The Day of Beginning (SAO 8)

Day of Beginnings (in a tweet)

Hopeful Chant (bonus story as backstory for "Ordinal Scale" movie)

All "Sword Art Online Progressive" novels (SAOP 1-8)

In the second category we find:

The Girl in the Morning Dew (SAO 2)

Sugary Days (online side stories)

The Day Before (SAO 22)

Now that I went to the trouble of listing also "Hopeful Chant", it's another wonderful example of a retcon. Here Asuna meets Kirito during his darkest days in Aincrad - and suppresses her heart-felt wish to partner up with him again. (Which of course can only be an again at this point in time if everything within the SAOP series is canon.)

The original SAO 1 was the story of a girl who chased a boy she'd fallen in love with, until he wizens up and they become a couple. This point was reiterated in SAO 2 where Asuna talks to Lisbeth about her supposedly unrequited love for Kirito (without naming in). By the time "Hopeful Chant" was written, however, it has become the story of a girl that had a deeply trusting partnership with a boy that somehow (we don't know exactly how nor has this part been written) got torn apart and the mysterious magic happens and this somehow leads us back to the events from floor 74 forward. More recently written things invalidate things written earlier in SAO.

So it would be wrong to say SAO "grows backwards in time." SAO grows on top of SAO. It's like one of these ancient cities where you dig out layer that rests on top of another layer, or like Terry Pratchett's Ankh-Morpork which is described on having been built on, well, Ankh-Morpork.

If these were just "facts" or "factoids" this might not be so important. In fact, most people ignore this altogether and go with the assumed continuity, or with a continuity that exists in their own heads after having consumed the various SAO media in whatever order suited them (and ignoring any contradictions as long as they are not too glaring). In fact, if you read SAO novels in their publishing order, you might not notice it so much. Each story in itself seems consistent, and you tend to forget the exact details of former stories.

And so the ground shifts beneath you and you don't notice that you're now in a different story than you started with. This becomes apparent if we less focus on the supposed outlines (the top-down aspects of the story, its plot point framework) and focus more on the characters, their traits, arcs, values, etc, and what stories derive from them (the bottom-up aspects of the story).

Which we'll do in the second part of this article, to be posted soon.

#sao #sword art online #light novels #anime #sword art online progressive #aincrad #retcon

4 notes · View notes