Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito | Done

Kirigaya Kazuto
Kirito

PERSONALITY

Very sarcastic and often silly, Kirito comes across to most as a goof ball and with very little cares or concerns. Of course, this is often a face that he hides behind to keep his true feelings for those who care about him. In truth, he is someone who holds many regrets and fears, but does his best to keep them within and away from display. There are very few people in which he displays these emotions to, and its only recently that he had come this far in doing so. Five years ago, before playing SAO, Kirito was distant and often very direct when having to speak to other people.

Closing himself off to people, even within the real world, he had very little friends and many would see him as rude by the way he would simply shun those around him. But at his core, he has a kind hearted nature, just simply misunderstood. He avoids others as to not place his burdens upon them, though over time, he has learned to open himself up and to trust those that can do things better than he can. Of course, he isn't completely without his faults. While often seen as a hero, he would be the first one to say that he isn't one.

Over-confident in his abilities to play the game, Kirito will quickly take on takes on his own in the belief that he is the only one capable of doing it. He can also be emotional, especially when angered, causing him to throw strategy to the wind and attack in a blind rage. Along with this, he can at times be naive, willing to help others without too much concern about the task that they are asking of him. These qualities often place him in dangers that could be avoided, but thankfully he isn't a complete fool. Behind the gamer is a mind that is very much intuitive and insightful with an eye for details.


With a love for technology that started at a young age, Kirito is highly intelligent, yet often doesn't use it in some situations. He can also be very playful as well, teasing others as a means to get them to open up and somehow manages to do it. While there are times that his tactics can be untruthful, he is very quick to apologize for his mistakes and does his best to make up for them. Loyal, dependable and trustworthy, if asked to complete a task, he does not falter from it, even when it may seem impossible. Kirito carries a strong resolve and is willing to put his life on the line for the things he sees as important.

HISTORY

Born on October 7, 2008, Kirigaya Kazuto was adopted by his aunt and uncle a year after his birth when his biological parents died in an accident. Raised by his foster parents as a son, he originally trained with his cousin in the neighborhood kendo dojo under their grandfather's tutelage. Due to his aunt's influence as an editor for a computer systems magazine, Kazuto fell in love with computers and dropped Kendo after two years. As time went on, the young boy grew in skill with understanding programming and computer technology, even going so far as to build his own computer during elementary school and finding his own erased birth records within National Security at age ten. It was at this point that he learned that his relationship with his cousin,Suguha, wasn't that of brother and sister, having only known her as such since the day he was born. With this knowledge in hand, he grew distant from his family, preferring the virtual world over enacting with anyone else.

As he grew older, he began beta testing games for most companies as a means of enjoyment, even becoming one of the lucky 1000 to be part of the closed beta testing of Sword Art Online. The game enthralled him, causing him to put hours into his character and time online. In the end, he as well as the other top players were capable of reaching the 10th floor boss before the closed beta trial had ended. By the time it had ended, he knew that this game was something he wanted to be apart of, especially after putting so much time into playing it. So upon it's full release, Kazuto, along with many others logged into the MMO.

Aincrad Arc




Shortly after logging in to the fully released SAO, Kirito was stopped by a stranger. Klein, a new guy, asks for his help in learning how to play. After befriending each other and training in the fields for several hours, they were forcefully teleported back to the Town of Beginnings, to receive an announcement from Kayaba Akihiko. He revealed that the lack of a log out function, which they had recently realized, was a "feature" of his new game, and that forced removal of the Nerve Gear head piece from the other side would fry the person's brain using microwaves.The only means to escape was to clear the game, in other words, to successfully defeat all 100 levels of Aincrad and defeat the final boss. Kirito immediately took Klein and ran off, and after hearing that Klein would remain with his friends here, left him and headed off to the next town.

Kirito spent the first day making his way to the next village. He decided to complete a quest, which he knew of from the beta period, to obtain a new sword. During this quest he encountered another player, a beta tester named Coper, who proposed forming a party and completing the quest together. After killing many Little Nepents, two more Nepents, one with the required item and another with a fruit, appeared. Kirito killed the one carrying the flower while Coper intentionally kills the one with the fruit while triggering the fruit, which caused many Little Nepents to swarm on their position. Kirito managed to escape, but Coper, who did not know that his «Hiding» skill would not work against monsters that did not rely on sight, died. This caused Kirito's mortality to weigh heavily on him.

One month into the game, 2,000 people have died, and the 1st Floor had yet to be cleared. Kirito encountered a player in the 1st Floor's Labyrinth and realized that it was a female player. The player fainted, and Kirito carried her outside of the Labyrinth they were in. He insisted that he only saved her in order to save the map data she had, which she later gave to him. But before she departed, Kirito suggested that she should go to the First Floor Boss Strategy conference at Tolbana rather than going to the Labyrinth. Reluctantly, the player agreed and the two traveled to Tolbana together, only to part ways upon arrival. Though their separation was short as they managed to run into each other once more within the town.

In their reunion, the two decided to have a small meal together, Kirito gave her a pot of cream and later explained how he had obtained the item and offered to give tips on how to gain the item efficiently. But the female player quickly rejected his offer, stating that she did not come to the town to eat good food. Kirito questioned why she was in the town and listened to her explanation. After the clarification, Kirito began to apologize but was interrupted by the clock bell. The player realized that the meeting was about to start so they both headed to the conference.

The meeting was organized by a player named Diavel. Forty-four people go to the meeting and decide to try to defeat the 1st Floor boss, discovered in Argo's strategy guide to be Illfang the Kobold Lord. During the boss fight Kirito is put in support for the E group along with the mysterious player. He and Asuna, the mysterious female player, were in charge of clearing the mob monsters that accompany the boss. All went well until Illfang's last HP bar reached its last third. Instead of a talwar, as he originally carried in the Beta, he now carried a nodachi. In this turn of events, Diavel was heavily wounded and subsequently died, after Kirito realized that Diavel had been a beta tester as well. Kirito then reorganized the shocked players and, with Asuna, worked together to take down the boss. After an intense battle, one of the tanks made a mistake and triggered Illfang's Tsumujiguruma. Kirito quickly countered the attack with Sonic Leap, causing the boss to tumble and allowing everyone to attack in full force while the boss was recovering. However, just as the boss's HP neared depletion, it recovered while the tanks were still recovering from their post-motion delays, prompting Kirito and Asuna to finish off the boss themselves.

Kirito finally managed to deal the Last Attack on the boss and gained a unique item from it, the Coat of Midnight. However, as the raid party celebrated their victory, someone from Group C brought up the death of Diavel and blamed Kirito for withholding information which led to Diavel's death. Kirito then realized that the beta testers needed to make peace with the regular players before the beta tester hatred went out of hand. Therefore, Kirito created a new category of players, called Beaters, who were the only ones withholding information for their own benefit and dubbed himself as one them, so that all of the hate and rage would be focused on him rather than upon all beta testers. Asuna and Agil were the only ones that realized why he intended to call himself a Beater.

Time passed after that event, and while venturing out into the world Kirito visited the town of Urbus looking for a blacksmith to enhance his «Anneal Blade» to +7, he found Asuna and the two of them watched a discussion between two players because one of them, the blacksmith Nezha, failed four consecutive times to enhance the other's weapon. Kirito decided to help Asuna gather more materials to enhance her Wind Fleuret, so they made a bet, which Kirito lost and had to treat her to dinner. Asuna chose a restaurant that he knew, and after exiting, they found out that they had received a luck buff, so he took Asuna to the blacksmith to try to enhance her weapon. Although it had a 97% success, the enhancement failed and the weapon seemingly dissipated.

After calming Asuna and taking her to an inn, Kirito returned outdoors and followed Nezha into a bar, where he encountered him talking to some friends about business and saying that it was good. Kirito noticed something and returned running to Asuna's inn and entered her room abruptly, made her materialize all her items, and at the end, he uncovered her Wind Fleuret. Despite the fact that he was clearly meeting new people, individuals who were also going through the same trials as he was, he continued to venture off alone, working on the lines alone and even going so far as to avoid the people that he had met along his journey. The only person he remained in contact with was Agil and it was simply due to the fact that the man owned a shop of his own and was also a Beta tester like himself.

Though his idea of being a loner soon changed when he came across a small guild known as the Moonlit Black Cats within a labyrinth on the lower levels of the game.After rescuing them from the labyrinth, he hid his higher level from them and was invited into the guild. He helped them reach higher levels, taught Sachi how to fight and, had fun with them. One day, Sachi, a member of the group, ran away from the group and Kirito used his Tracking skill to find her. He talked with her and made her forget her fear of dying, while she helped him clear his conscience of lying to the other members of the guild. One day, the group decided to hunt for treasure while their leader, Keita, was off to buy their guild base. In a Labyrinth on a higher floor, they activated a trap, causing a bunch monsters of a higher level to spawn. The members were all killed one by one, except for Kirito. He returned to town to tell their leader, Keita, who was shocked at the loss of his friends and committed suicide.

Distraught over the loss of his friends, believing that if he hadn't hidden his levels from them that they would have still been alive, Kirito isolated himself even further. Yet as the holidays came around, there began to form rumors of a special item that could possibily resurrect members. However, nobody could find a good lead, as the NPCs said that it would spawn at "a certain fir tree". After looking deeper into it, Kirito eventually did find the spawn location and he was not the only one. Klein and his guild Fuurinkazan appeared, with Klein stating that he had followed him so that they could fight the boss. But it wasn't only them. Moments later, the Divine Dragon Alliance, who had followed Klein and his guild, showed up. Klein then told Kirito that the alliance would do anything to obtain any rare items and then ordered Kirito to defeat the boss while they distracted the DDA. Kirito then arrived at the correct spot, and when the bell announced midnight, the event boss, Nicholas The Renegade, spawned and was about to begin its speech, but Kirito attacked it without listening to him. After a long struggle and barely surviving, Kirito defeated the boss and obtained the Divine Stone of Returning Soul. But, to his disappointment, the item only revived players up to 10 seconds after they had died. After several minutes of mourning, Kirito then gave the item to Klein and slowly walked back to his inn. He stayed up until early morning, planning to die trying to solo the floor boss once dawn broke. However, at seven o'clock, when he was about to leave, he heard a strange alarm ring in his ear and noticed an item left in his shared inventory with Sachi. Once he took out the item, a recording crystal, he heard a message left to him by Sachi before her death, urging Kirito to survive.

So thats what he did, Kirito continued onwards. Yet he made a promise to himself that he would never endanger anyone like that again, and that he would never be part of a guild after that. Soon the months began to pass once more and as time seemed to flow by, so did the world itself. It experienced all the seasons and celebrations of the real world, even though it was all far from real. Though there were still troubles within the game, players that believed that it was just that. There were even reports of individuals killing other players just to get their stuff. One such report got his notice and he took it upon himself to investigate the deaths of a guild party under the request of it's leader.

His investigation led him into the Forest of Wandering, where he came upon a young girl under attack by a group of Drunk Apes. After seeing her tamed pet destroyed during the attack, Kirito quickly stepped in to aid her. Silica, the young tamer, was devastated over the loss of her pet and he could only apologize that he wasn't able to save it as well. But then he quickly remembered that it was very much possible to revive the animal, which seemed to bring the girl back to good spirits.After explaining the item needed, and that she needed to come with him, Kirito gave her new equipment to supplement the level needed to clear the quest. After having dinner with her and showing her the location of the Pneuma Flower, they slept and departed to the floor the next day. Kirito revealed that he was helping Silica because she reminded him of his little sister, Suguha.

The next day, they departed to the 47th Floor to find the Pneuma Flower. On their way back, after retrieving the flower, they were ambushed by Rosalia and the Titan's Hand guild. They attacked Kirito but were forced to surrender due to his higher level. Finally Kirito revealed that he was looking for them because of a request from a leader of another guild, whose members were all killed, with the exception of the leader, by the Titan's Hand guild.Kirito then threatened the bandits until they agreed to voluntarily go to The Army's prison. After returning to Floria, Kirito and Silica promised to meet again in the real world.

Shortly after, Kirito returned to the front lines, assisting in the completion of the levels. While he was still a solo player, he was allowed to be part of strategy meets and to even give his own opinion on certain tactics involved. Of course, he wasn't the only familiar face to be spotted there.Asuna, now a vice commander within the Knights of the Blood Oath, debated with him over the use of drawing the creature into town as a means to distract it with NPC. Kirito objected to this idea, stating that they would cause the deaths of the NPC's there, to which she coldly reminded him of their status as just objects within the game,thus they would simply respawn after being killed, unlike the players. She also reminded Kirito of her status and as thus he was forced to comply. Though annoyed by this course of action, he was confronted by Agil who spoke to him of his constant bickering with Asuna and how it didn't help their cause. Even so, he couldn't help but admire the young woman for having grown so much over the course of their time here, especially with her having joined a guild.

Yet while taking some time away from the linesKirito was taking a quick nap while enjoying the day because of the good weather, until he was interrupted by Asuna, who scolded him for wasting time while the other front liners were clearing the Labyrinth. However, Kirito convinced her to lie down next to him. Later, Kirito woke up and noticed that Asuna was completely asleep, so he remained near to protect her. When she woke up, she became angry but then recalled what had happened and she realized that he had been waiting for her to wake up and protected her from any potential orange players. She then offered to buy him dinner at a restaurant of his choosing.

While having their dinner, they heard a scream from the courtyard only to find a player being killed within the safe zone using a new unknown PK(Player Killing) method.Generally speaking, it was impossible to kill someone within the «Area». Two exceptions to this rule were known to exist: one was to challenge a sleeping opponent to an all-out duel, and to move their finger to accept the duel. The second was to drag a sleeping opponent outside of the safe zone using a «stretcher» where they could be targeted normally. After witnessing a man being hung by a noose and then dying from being impaled by a piercing weapon which caused damage-over-time, Kirito and Asuna began to investigate how such a thing could have happened if it was not a duel, and why it happened. This mystery touched upon the past of a long-forgotten guild, Golden Apple, and the reason behind the death of its female guild leader, Griselda.

They first ask around for the witness who first spotted the crime and a girl, named Yolko, stepped up and revealed that she was a friend of the killed player, called "Kainz", and that they were planning to meet up for a meal. After seeing what had happened to her friend, she began to believe that someone within their guild had been attempting to kill off the remaining members who had a disagreement over an specific item that they had gained as a team. When the party had come to an decision to sell it, Griselda had been the one to take it as a means to do so, only to be murder. Eventually, they took the murder weapon to Agil, who appraised it to be that of a custom made item, one crafted by Grimlock, a member of the Golden Apple Guild and husband of Griselda. Kirito attempted to test if the weapon could harm him inside the city, but Asuna stopped him before he could stab his hand. They exited the shop after leaving the weapon with Agil.

The next day, Kirito and Asuna met up with Yolko at the restaurant they had been to the day before, and learnt that Yolko, Caynz, and Grimlock were former members of the now defunct «Golden Apple» guild, which had lost their leader, Griselda. Yolko told them that after obtaining a rare ring from a monster, they voted whether they should keep or sell it and came to the decision to sell it with five people voting to sell it and only 3 voting to keep it. Griselda then went to the front lines to try and sell it, but never came back at all. Yolko mentioned that Grimlock was the leader's «in-game husband», and that the killer may possibly be after the three Golden Apple members who were opposed the selling of the ring: Caynz, Yolko, and Schmitt. By Yolko's request, Kirito and Asuna brought Schmitt to have him meet with Yolko. During their conversation, Yolko told Schmitt that she believed that the killer was the vengeful ghost of their deceased female leader, Griselda, since no normal player could kill another inside the safe area. Suddenly, as Kirito, Asuna and Schmitt are watching the panicked Yolko, she was murdered in front of them, stabbed in the back from a dagger through the open window. As she fell from the second floor window, Kirito rushed to the window to call her name, but she shattered into blue polygons in front of his eyes.

After witnessing Yolko dispersing into polygons, Kirito spotted the hooded murderer fleeing from the crime scene and attempted to capture him. During the pursuit, the hooded murderer took out a teleportation crystal. When Kirito noticed this, he used his blade throwing skills to attempt to distract the hooded man, but the attack was blocked by the AREA effect while the murderer was not surprised by the attack. The hooded murderer then began to use his teleportation crystal, and, while Kirito was chasing him, the bell suddenly rang, preventing him from hearing where the murderer was teleporting off to. Upset at his failure to capture the murderer, Kirito returned to the room to find a anxious Schmitt, who truly had come to believe that it was the vengeful ghost of Griselda out for their lives.But Kirito still believed that it was not a ghost, as ghosts could not use teleportation crystals, and believed that there must have been a logical explanation to the two murders within the safe areas.

After sending Schmitt back to the «Divine Dragon Alliance's» headquarters, Kirito and Asuna contemplate about the recent events. Asuna begins to believe that the black robed player really is Griselda's ghost by having seen it twice. But Kirito still insisted that it was not a ghost, because a ghost would not be able to use/need a teleportation crystal. It seemed Kirito had an explanation regarding the teleport crystal, but he quickly disregards it after. After a moment, Asuna gives Kirito a sandwich. Kirito praises the sandwich, thinking that the sandwich was bought, but he is then told that it was handmade by Asuna. Kirito jokingly suggests to auction Asuna's handmade food, in order to get rich. This angers Asuna, causing Kirito to lose grip of his sandwich. As he witnesses the sandwich shattering into fragments, he falls to the ground, at first seemingly upset with the disappearance of the sandwich, but in reality, he realizes the truth about the crime, exclaiming that what they had seen was something else and that there have never been any weapons or logic that could make murders possible in safe areas.

Coming up with a plan, Kirito explains to Asuna that Yolko and Caynz were in fact still alive, stating that within safe areas, a player's HP could not be lowered under normal circumstances, but the durability of objects, on the other hand, could still be decreased, like the sandwich which lost its durability and shattered into fragments. The spear that pierced Caynz's armor did not lower Caynz's HP, but the armor's durability instead, which explained the dispersing shards, and that by timing for the moment the armor broke, Caynz teleported away resulting an effect, similar to the death special effect. As for Yolko, Kirito guessed that she had the dagger piercing the back of her clothing, as she had never shown them her back while talking with them. When her clothing was about to shatter, she acted as if a dagger from the outside had hit her and fell off the window, teleporting out at about the moment that it would shatter. Kirito also presumed that the hooded murderer was Caynz, who imitated the appearance of a hooded murder to make it look as if Yolko was killed by him.

With that, Kirito goes to confront the group, only to find them surrounded by the murder guild, Laughing Coffin. Using the threat that he is not alone and that reinforcements were on their way, Heeding his warning, the members of the murder guild leave, much to the relief of Schmitt and the others. It is then that Kirito questions them about the weapon made by Grimlock, learning that Grimlock was not willing to help them at first, but eventually gave into their request. Kirito tells them that Grimlock didn't oppose their plan for Griselda's sake, surprising Yolko and Caynz. From there, Kirito recalls the conversation with Asuna before his departure. Asuna ask Kirito, what he would do if he got a legendary drop. Kirito responds that he hates that kind of situation, that is why he went solo. Asuna responds, that in her guild, they have a rule that the item belongs to the person who received it. She continues saying that in SAO, it's up to the player to announce what he or she received after a battle. That's why, it is better to set a rule like that to prevent having secrets and lies between the party members and that this rule would make marriages mean something in SAO, explaining that once you're married, the item storage is shared with the significant other. After getting married, the player cannot hide anything anymore. Asuna thinks that it was romantic and realistic, while Kirito, out of curiosity, asks if Asuna was ever married. Asuna misunderstands the question and is prepared to attack with a fork. Kirito quickly clears up the misunderstanding and realizes something about the storage sharing. Kirito asks what would happen to the items if one of the couple died.

Asuna then tells him that they would likely be sent to the spouse's inventory instead of being lost. Both then quickly realized that when Griselda died, due to her in-game marriage status with Grimlock, the ring had ended up in his inventory, and that he had stolen it from his own storage. Caynz questions if it was Grimlock that sent the memo and killed Griselda. Kirito explains that Grimlock hired the Laughing Coffin to commit the murder. Kirito also explains that Grimlock helped with Yolko and Caynz's plan so that he could use their plan to bury the ring case forever, by getting all three of them to get together and exterminate them for good, thus explaining the appearance of the Laughing Coffin. Asuna then arrives with the captured Grimlock, the client of the Laughing Coffin who was watching from a distance. After being cornered, he admitted that he was the mastermind behind the death of his wife, whose real name was Yuuko. His actual motive was that he did not want her personality to change from what it was originally in the real world. Believing that his Yuuko had vanished and wanting to keep Yuuko as she appeared in his memories forever, he decided to kill her, convinced that he killed his wife out of love. Asuna corrected him, saying that it was not love, but a feeling of possession. Startled by Asuna's words, Grimlock fell to the ground, shaken. Schmitt and Canyz then went to Grimlock, thanking Kirito for helping them, and asked if they could take him, to which Kirito agreed.

As the case draws to a close, Asuna asks Kirito what he would do if he was to get married and noticed a side of his partner that he had not known before. Surprising Asuna, he replies that he would feel lucky to be married to someone because that would mean that they would love every side of their partner that they already know and would have another part of them to love. Before leaving, Kirito grabs Asuna's arm to show her Yuuko's ghost and feels that Yuuko can now rest in peace. Asuna suddenly asks if they can add each other as friends and, even Kirito still insisted that he is a solo player, Asuna urges him to think about while they get some food as they head back to town.

Despite everything that seemed to be happening, there were still those that continued to live within the world as if it were the real thing. Two years passed, and even Kirito had begun to believe it as well. With things starting to settle, venturing out and exploring had become part of a normal routine. Yet even with the people he had met along the way, he still managed to keep his distance, though wasn't afraid to take their advice every now and then. Such as his venture to a place suggested by Asuna to get better gear. It was here that he met Lisbeth, a talented blacksmith who was able to craft a new blade for him. Gaining a friendship as well in the process. Things were changing, as more and more people seemed to be less interested in leaving SAO. Many even seemed happier there. Of course, Kirito still continued to work within the front lines, along with the remaining forces that continued to fight to complete the game. On one such reprieve, Kirito found and killed a Ragout Rabbit, the meat of which he later gave to Asuna to cook. He was then forced on a mapping run with Asuna. After defeating Kuradeel, Asuna's bodyguard, the two departed for the Labyrinth. Together they found the boss room.

While resting at a nearby safe zone, they encountered an elite unit of «The Army», whom Kirito and Asuna assumed would try to challenge the boss. They chased after them in case the platoon did something unreasonable, but «The Army» platoon started fighting the boss before they could reach them. Kirito told them to teleport out, but one of the soldiers told him that their crystals would not work in the boss room as it was an Anti-Crystal Area.Upon arriving, Asuna impulsively ran in to help them, and Kirito quickly followed her. He was forced to activate his "Dual Blades" secret skill to save Asuna and the others. After the boss fight, word about Kirito's ability spread throughout Aincrad. Asuna asked for a temporary leave of absence from her guild and Heathcliff, the leader, said that he would only allow permission if Kirito defeated him in a duel. If Kirito lost, he would have to join the Knights of the Blood guild.

Kirito accepted the challenge and was on the verge of winning, but, at the last moment, Heathcliff moved with impossible speed. The duel ended with Kirito's loss, forcing him to abide by their deal. He was given an KoB outfit, and after a few days, sent to a mandatory training session with Kuradeel. After the latter killed Godfree, the vanguard who wanted to see Kirito's skills, and revealed his plan to kill him, Asuna quickly came to Kirito's aid. After Kuradeel successfully feigned a surrender, he attacked Asuna after she lowered her rapier, and almost killed her. Kirito quickly intercepted, and though he lost his left arm in the process, he killed Kuradeel using the ability Embracer.After this, Kirito announced his feelings for Asuna, and the two asked for another leave after the incident, which Heathcliff accepted. They get married and go on a honeymoon on the 22nd floor.

Married life was certainly different, and with Asuna it was change for the better. While Asuna and Kirito were on their honeymoon on the 22nd Floor, they heard of a rumor of a ghost in the forest and decided to go check it out. In the forest, they found a young girl who went by the name of Yui, who they suspected was a traumatized player who had regressed into a baby. However, they were unable to find a Color Cursor on her, meaning she was not a player, NPC, or monster. Despite this finding, they deduced that it was most likely that she was a player. After taking her to their home and reading the Lost & Found/Q&A section of the newspaper for possible people searching for this mysterious player with no luck, they decided to go to the «Starting City» to find her parent/guardian, if they were still there. Upon their arrival at the «Starting City», they travelled around town in hope of finding her parents and were eventually led to a nearby church, serving sort of like an orphanage for kids who were trapped in SAO. Even here, there were no signs of Yui's parents.

Then they went to a Hidden Dungeon to save Thinker who was trapped in it. Yui watched Kirito easily handle the Scavenger Toads and was amazed by his fighting skills. After reaching the safe area in the dungeon, Kirito told Yulier to take Yui into the safe area. The safe area contained a GM module, and after touching it, Yui suddenly remembered what she was. As the boss, The Fatal Scythe, was about to land the scythe on Kirito, she went in front of him, and to both his and Asuna's shock, they find out that she was actually an AI, a Mental Heath Counseling program. When the Cardinal System attempted to delete Yui, Kirito used the still active console to save her data into his NerveGear in the form of Yui's Heart. Kirito and Asuna planned to recreate her as Yui once they escaped from SAO.

After the second week of their honeymoon Kirito and Asuna received a call: the boss room of the 75th Floor had been found. They returned to the front lines and participated in the battle. During the battle, Kirito, Asuna, and Heathcliff managed to hold back the incredibly powerful boss while the rest of the players attacked it. Afterwards, Kirito had an intuitive realization; he first attacked Heathcliff, revealed his "Immortal Object" status, and concluded that Heathcliff was none other than Kayaba Akihiko himself. Kayaba lauded Kirito and announced that he would be waiting on the 100th Floor as the final boss. A KoB member attacked Heathcliff, prompting him to paralyze everyone in the room. After that, Heathcliff offered Kirito a chance at a one-versus-one duel.

Kirito agreed despite Asuna's pleads to fall back. After a few minutes of fighting, Kirito became enraged and used a Sword Skill, and Kayaba, knowing the system all too well, took advantage of the post-motion delay to finish him off. However, Asuna intercepted the blow, despite her paralysis, and died from the attack. Kirito, filled with despair, attacked Kayaba thoughtlessly and was quickly struck down.Through a final push of his will, before his body was deleted by the system, Kirito stabbed Heathcliff in the chest with Asuna's Lambent Light. Heathcliff and Kirito both vanished and were transported up to an area located above Aincrad, along with Asuna. Akihiko explained his reasons as for why he created SAO before vanishing along with his castle. During these final moments, Asuna and Kirito revealed their names: Yuuki Asuna and Kirigaya Kazuto, to each other. Shortly after, Kazuto woke up in a hospital bed, his body frail and weak. He rose from the bed, and vowed to find Asuna.

Fairy Dance Arc

After SAO was cleared and Kazuto woke up in a Tokyo hospital, he wandered off to find Asuna, but failed. Soon after, he was visited by Kikuoka Seijirou, a representative of the «SAO Case Victims Rescue Force». Kazuto inquired about Asuna's whereabouts in exchange for sharing information about the SAO incident with him. After knowing Asuna's condition, he later attempted to return to the world of SAO via his NerveGear to find her, but the SAO servers had shut down. Two months after SAO event ended, Kazuto returned home to his family and had completed his rehabilitation, which allowed him to move freely again. Thus, he started to visit Asuna on occasion. One day, during one of such visits, Asuna's father, Yuuki Shouzou, and Sugou Nobuyuki came into the hospital room. After Nobuyuki was introduced, he told Asuna's father that he planned on having Asuna wear her bridal gown the next week. After Asuna's father's departure, he started stroking Asuna's hair and then stated that he had the right to marry her, as he was in charge of maintaining the servers that hosted her conscience. He invited Kazuto to the wedding, leaving the boy helpless to do anything.

That evening, Kazuto's sister Suguha found him alone in his room in a state of deep despair and self-loathing. After telling his sister that Asuna was out of his reach and how useless he felt, he began crying like a child in front of her. After closing the window, Suguha comforted her brother and encouraged him not to give up so easily, and then gently lowered him onto his bed, where awhile later, his cries ceased.The next morning, Kazuto woke up to find Suguha sleeping next to him in her pajamas. He then recalled what had happened the night before and, due to Suguha's encouragement, had renewed his resolve to save Asuna. Shortly after, he received an e-mail from Agil that contained a picture of a virtual world, where a bird cage could be seen in the foreground. In that cage was a girl who looked exactly like Asuna. Kazuto immediately left to meet Agil, or Andrew in real life, at the Dicey Cafe. Andrew brought out a package of a client for the new VRMMO game called ALfheim Online, and told him about the AmuSphere, the successor of the NerveGear, and the game.

He then told Kazuto that the picture with the girl that looked like Asuna was taken inside of the game, at the top of the World Tree. After noticing that the game was designed by RECT Progress Inc. and remembering that Sugou, who worked there, said that he was in charge of the SAO servers, he realized that it could not have been just a coincidence. Thinking to himself that contacting the Ministry of Internal Affairs without concrete evidence was a bad idea, Kazuto asked Andrew to let him have the game client to personally confirm whether Asuna really was trapped in ALO. Upon returning home, Kazuto inserted the ALO client into his NerveGear and dove into the game. At the character creation screen, he inserted his character name, but after realizing that Sugou was aware of his character name, he changed Kirito from its romanized form into its kana form and then continued to choose his character's race. Due to being pressed by time and not planning to play the game too seriously, he selected the Spriggan race because of its initial black-themed equipment rather than based on the race's strengths and weaknesses. Kirito was then sent into a vortex of light and entered the game world, floating in the air above the Spriggan capital. However, while free-falling towards the Spriggan capital, a glitch occured, and the area below Kirito collapsed into darkness.

After a seemingly endless decent and landing on his face instead of his feet, he found himself in the Ancient Forest. Due to some bad feeling, Kirito tried to open the main menu, and finally realized that commands in ALO were controlled with the left hand, instead of the right hand as it was in SAO. While the logout function was available and his HP and MP values were normal for a starting character, his avatar had over 8 skills already learned, most of which were nearly or fully completed. However, those skills seemed strangely familiar to him, and he realized that all of the skills he had were identical to his SAO skills, save for his Dual Blades skill.

Hoping to find more clues about what was happening, he checked his item window, only to find dozens of lines consisting of enigmatic numbers and characters. That being said, all the items that he had in SAO, though no longer usable, confirmed that his SAO save data was brought over to ALO for some reason. Realizing that, Kirito hoped that one specific item would be among the various unusable items and soon found the item he was looking for: MHCP-001, in other words, Yui's Heart. After the crystal was tapped twice, Yui, his in-game daughter with Asuna, appeared. After checking the system, Kirito learned from Yui that the ALO server was a copy of the SAO servers, using the same graphics engine, but an older version of the Cardinal System and different game components, and that the game used an almost identical save data and skill proficiency format to the one SAO used, which was why he was able to inherit his skills, with the exception for data denoting HP and MP. She also warned him that his items were corrupted and should be disposed of before the system's error detection protocol detected them. As for his abnormal skill values, Yui told Kirito that he should be fine unless a GM checked them directly. Kirito asked Yui what was she supposed to be in the game, and she took the form of a Navigation Pixie. Later, Kirito learned how to fly with a controller from her. Soon after, they found that some other players were approaching, one being chased by three others. Hearing that, Kirito decided to go take a closer look at it and used his controller to fly to the scene of the battle.

Once there, due to not having practiced landing, he crash-landed near the 3 Salamanders and the Sylph, named Leafa, who the Salamanders were hunting. While Leafa told Kirito to run away as she noticed that he was using starting equipment, he only reproached the Salamanders for ganging up on the girl, angering the Salamanders. Two of them moved in to sandwich him, but Kirito easily stopped the first strike and threw the Salamander into his teammate who was still airborne. After confirming with Leafa that it was alright to kill the Salamanders,Kirito drew his sword, and charged at one of the Salamanders and killed him in one swing. The other Salamander was mercilessly bisected shortly after. Looking up at the leader of the party, Kagemune, Kirito relaxed and asked whether he was going to fight as well, but Kagemune only smiled as he refused.

As soon as Kagemune had flown away and the Remain Lights of the two other Salamanders disappeared, Leafa asked the boy about what he expected her to do now, to which he responded by joking about her hugging him. Before Leafa was able to retaliate, Yui emerged out of Kirito's breast pocket, telling Leafa that she would only let Mama and herself stick to Papa. Kirito reacted by wrapping both of his hands around the Pixie, not knowing how to explain what she was to Leafa, who then asked whether Yui was a Private Pixie, a prize of a lottery that took place at the launch of the game, which Kirito confirmed to cover Yui's true nature. Leafa, who had already loosened up after the encounter with Yui, then found out that Kirito got lost and decided to thank Kirito by treating him to a drink, which Kirito planned to use as an opportunity to find out more about ALO, especially about the World Tree. At Kirito's request, the duo decided to travel to the nearest town, Swilvane. Before they depart, Kirito noticed that Leafa was about to take flight without using the controller and asked her how she was able to do it, therefore she showed him the trick to Voluntary Flight.

Kirito then asked Leafa about the World Tree, as he wanted to get to the top of tree, and learned that it was the Grand Quest of ALO, as the first starting race to reach the top of the tree would be turned into the legendary race of ALFs and that nobody had managed to complete this quest yet, even though the game had been online for a year now. Surprised by Kirito's determination to reach the top of the tree as soon as possible, no matter how difficult of a task it was, and seeing the familiar despair in his eyes despite his smile, Leafa volunteered to take him to the capital of Alfheim, Alne, where the entrance to the World Tree lay. As there was no method of instantaneous travel in ALO, they had to fly to the city, which would take hours. As Leafa had to log out already, they agreed to meet up again the next day and Leafa told him that he can use the inn room to log out, as logging out instantly can only be done inside the player's home territory, by using a tent, or an inn if outside of the player's home territory.

Puzzled by Leafa's actions, though grateful for her help, Kirito decided to follow her advice and use the inn room to log out. As a sudden change from standing to a lying down caused a strong sense of vertigo, he decided to use the "sleep off" approach to log out, literally falling asleep, which would automatically log him off. As he laid in bed, Yui returned to her original form and asks whether she could sleep with him before he logged out. Although surprised by the request, understanding Yui's wish to be exposed to new data, he agreed and made room for her. He fell asleep as he promised to Yui that, as soon as Asuna was safe, they would purchase a house in-game and live as a family again.

Thus began his new adventure within ALO, which held more challenges than SAO. Yet in the end, he finally did manage to find Asuna, reuniting with her at the top of the world tree. But, they were not the only ones there. The scene then transformed into a black space, and Oberon(Sugou) appeared, binding them both with gravity magic. Oberon then stabbed Kirito with his sword, and then sets the Pain Absorption level to 8, causing Kirito to feel some of the pain.As Kirito watched Asuna helplessly, Kayaba appeared and let him re-think of that human could overcome the system and give him his admin ID and password. Kirito then came to his senses and got back up. When Oberon tried to kick him back down, Kirito stopped the blow midway and accessed Kayaba's ID "Heathcliff" and then revoked Oberon's admin privileges. Enraged, Oberon tried to spawn an Excalibur, but the system ignored his request. Kirito then repeated the same command to spawn one and gave it to him, while setting the Pain Absorption level to 0, which made Oberon panic. Kirito then told him not to run, as Kayaba had never ran from him during their fight. Oberon cursed Kayaba for interfering with him, even after his death, and he tried to attack Kirito, but Kirito parried his attacks with no effort and then quickly sliced and dismembered him which let Oberon started trembling from the pain and tossed him up to stab him in the right eye, killing him, and then freed Asuna.

Promising to go and see her, Kirito then logged Asuna out, and after he was the only one left, Kayaba came out and talked with him again. Kayaba gave Kirito «The Seed», and then told him he could do whatever he wanted with it. He then disappeared, and Kirito called for Yui and promised her that the two would come back to ALfheim and start again. Kirito quickly logged out, and was met by Suguha, who was worried about him. Then he told Suguha that Asuna was back in the real world and Suguha let him went to the hospital so that he could meet her again, which he quickly agreed to. He got his bike and started biking toward the hospital where Asuna was being taken care of.As Kazuto was heading towards the hospital, he rand towards the entrance, and was cut by an attacker. He then realized that his right arm was bleeding, and identified his attacker as Sugou, who, despite feeling a lot of pain, decided to kill him. As Kazuto was helpless to defend himself from Sugou because of his bleeding arm. Sugou tried to kill Kazuto, but missed because of his eye being blurry. As Sugou tried to do the finishing blow again, Kazuto's thoughts of Asuna gave him the willpower to stop him, and turned the situation in his tide. Kazuto then smashed Sugou into a van, and had the knife pointed towards his neck. Thinking of all the things Sugou has done to him and Asuna, Kazuto almost killed him but, in the end, let him live.

Kazuto headed towards the hospital, where he reported Sugou and got some of his wounds treated, before grabbing a guest card so that he could go to Asuna's room. He then met Asuna for the first time in real life, and both hugged each other, and then shared a kiss.

Months later, things began to return to normal for Kirito and the remaining survivors of SAO. After gathering together to celebrate the completion of the game and their own surivial through it, Kirito checked on the status of the Seed, which he had given to Agil to develop. Within time, it had expanded, connectiong many different MMO's together across the internet and the world. They all shared similar information so that each one could be presented to the other, even apart from the other. It allowed for a whole new world of adventure for everyone, even though many feared a repeat of the events of SAO. Yet for that moment, things were content and Kazuto could finally be at peace. At least for the time being.

Phantom Bullet Arc

Time had passed since the events of ALO, but Kazuto reputation had far from faded from memory. When Kikuoka Seijirou, who is in charge of net crimes division, called him to a pastry shop to chat, Kazuto learned about the «Death Gun» incidents. After hearing about the potential threat to MMO game security Kazuto agreed to investigate GGO for a fee. Seijirou then set up a hospital room for Kazuto to FullDive in, and Nurse Aki, the same nurse that took care of him during the SAO incident, to observe any abnormalities in his heart rate and everything related to his health and mental stability during the dives. Before he performed the first FullDive, he told Nurse Aki how he had killed three Laughing Coffin members - one of whom was Kuradeel in order to protect Asuna, while the other two were killed in a raid where he and fifty other front line players had attacked Laughing Coffin's secret base to stop this killing guild from action. He was then comforted by the nurse reminding him of his right to save others and himself.

Upon converting to GGO, he was stunned at his avatar appearance being extremely feminine. He encountered Sinon while asking for help. She offered to help him get started. Kirito, with minimal funds and against Sinon's advice, participated in a bullet dodging game. Kirito, using his previous experience with NPC targeting, successfully won the game and gained a large amount of funds. Kirito used all his funds in buying a photon sword, a Kagemitsu G4, an FN Five-Seven and some equipment to participate in the 3rd Bullet of Bullets event. After a rush through the city, he and Sinon entered the tournament. During the tournament, Kirito used an original battle style of deflecting incoming bullets with his sword. Kirito and Sinon managed to get into the finals held the next day, although Kirito was shocked by his encounter with Death Gun.

The next day, Kazuto was confronted by Suguha, who discovered that he was mentioned in a video games news site as one of the participants of the Bullet of Bullets tournament. Kazuto waited for the afternoon and entered the game, where he saw Sinon and asked her to tell him more about the finals. In the tournament finals, while trailing Pale Rider by hiding underwater, he was able to avoid the Satellite Scan and thus unintentionally sneak up on Sinon. He and Sinon then witnessed Death Gun dispatching Pale Rider despite their efforts to stop him. Afterwards, they trailed Death Gun to the central city on the stage, where Kirito took out Musketeer X, mistaking her for Death Gun, and returned just in time to save Sinon from the real Death Gun, who had been hiding with a Metamaterial Optical Camouflage Mantle. They somehow escaped and hid in the desert, where Sinon told him her past, which Kirito responded to by comforting her.

After talking for a while, they figured out the secret behind Death Gun: he attained the addresses of some of the players by using his mantle to peep on them while they were using the in-game terminals and inputting personal details. His accomplice would then kill the selected targets in the real world by injecting a lethal dose of a drug. Realising this, Kirito and Sinon prepared a plan to defeat Death Gun, using Kirito as bait. Initiating their plan, Kirito stepped out of the cave while Sinon prepared her equipment. Trusting Sinon to take care of their other opponent, Yamikaze, Kirito focused on sensing for Death Gun's location. After Sinon defeated Yamikaze and destroyed Death Gun's sniping equipment, Kirito engaged with him in battle, in which Kirito discovered the identity of his opponent. During the battle, Kirito had a difficult time gaining the upper hand. However, he later sensed Asuna's hand which reminded him of the existence of his pistol, which he then used to imitate the «Double Circular» Sword Skill with the gun and his sword, finally killing Death Gun. Once they were the only two competitors left, Kirito and Sinon exchanged personal details and planned what to do next. The tournament then ended when Sinon used a gift grenade to have them both killed at the same time, thus ending the tournament as a tie.

After logging out, Kirito hurried over to Shino's house and arrived just in time to save her from one of Death Gun's accomplices. Two days later, he visited Shino's school and took her to meet Seijirou. After discussing the recent incident, he brought her to the Dicey Cafe, where they met with Asuna and Rika, as well as a woman Shino had saved during the incident in the post office.

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With the matter of Death Gun finally being put to rest, Kirito returned to his regular life within the SAO survivor academy. Though things began to once again shift upon gaining the information that Sword Art Online was to be born once again. While many speculated a return of the death game, it had been ensured by the new party involved that they had set up security and means to prevent such an incident from happening again. For months since it's opening, it ran normally as told. Players were having fun and it's popularity was only increased by the rumors of it's previous design. Even Kazuto found himself somewhat relieved that it was just a normal game that others were enjoying. But as peace of mind came, so did the return of the Game Master himself. Revealing the return of the prevention of logging out, many players were once again trapped inside of the MMO, stuck in the game with no way to escape. Yet, there was strange difference this time. While the rule of logging out was being enforced for some, there were others that still could remove themselves from the game itself, preventing the massive panic of the first time. Upon learning this, some of the former SAO players began to feel compelled to join the game as a means to help those trapped inside.

Kazuto was one of them, but his reasons were not only to aid those inside. From speaking to Kikuoka Seijirou, he learned of the sighting of players that had died within the previous game revealing themselves. While still trapped themselves, these individuals were fully aware of their surroundings and were capable of independent thought. It meant that not only were many of the ones he had killed still remained, but also his friends as well. Sachi and the other members of the Moonlit Black Cats. Asked to look into this as well, Kazuto logged himself into the game to try and figure out the mystery behind the return of the Death Game and that of it's formerly deceased players.