Hosaka Carina Tomo

Hosaka Carina Tomo (帆坂 カリーナ 朋), known as Argo (アルゴ) in «Sword Art Online» (SAO), is a supporting character in the Aincrad Arc and the Unital Ring Arc. She was an SAO beta tester and is one of the 10,000 players who were trapped in Sword Art Online, where she worked as an information broker and was known by the nickname Argo the Rat (鼠のアルゴ) due to the whiskers painted on her face in the beta test that eventually became her trademark. Although she was infamous in the game as a person who sold almost anything that could be given a price tag, Argo also distributed both strategy guides for less experienced players to help them survive the game, and information on bosses from the beta test free of charge with money she earned from selling her guidebooks to Clearers. Aside from her information broker business, Argo also worked as a messenger between players.

Sword Art Online
Argo is a nimble-looking player who has brown eyes and curly golden-brown hair. She wears full-body cloth and leather armour, a hooded cloak and also has whiskers on her face, which were originally a mark from a quest, but now a makeup of her choice. Her weapon of choice are claws, which she hangs at her left waist. She also uses Throwing Picks, which she hangs on her right waist.

ALfheim Online (Lost Song)
In the non-canon game adaptations Sword Art Online: Lost Song and Accel World VS Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight, Argo plays ALfheim Online as a Cait Sith. Her avatar has blonde hair and yellow-green eyes, a new outfit similar to that worn by her SAO avatar, and a pair of wrist-mounted blades as weapons.

Personality
Argo is a completely business-focused person, with people saying that she would sell her own stats or grandmother for Cor. Nonetheless, Argo has certain principles: she refused to provide anyone with the names of SAO beta testers as it would endanger the players, and she has been known to honor her debts, as was the case with Kirito saving her from the ninja clan. She is so focused on completing her field guides that it sometimes gets her into trouble.

Background
Argo's whiskers were originally a mark written on her face when she tried to complete the quest that awards the «Martial Arts» Extra Skill. Unable to complete the quest, the mark remained on her face throughout the entire «SAO Closed Beta». She reapplied a similar makeup on the official server service.

Aria of a Starless Night
Argo was first introduced as the beta tester who served as a middleman between Kirito and a prospect buyer of his «Anneal Blade +6». She was later revealed to have assisted players by creating the guide book, «Strategy Guide by Area», a pamphlet freely distributed in NPC shops. Inside were hunting locations and other useful information pertaining to staying alive in the death game.

After the 1st Floor boss battle, as Kirito declared himself a Beater and took the hate towards beta testers, which was re-sparked by Argo's information guide on the boss having been incorrect due to changes before the official release, upon himself, Argo promised that she would disclose any information with him for free. He then asked for the reason behind her whiskers.

Reason for the Whiskers
When Kirito opened the gate to the 2nd Floor, he noticed Argo running away from two players. He ran after them, using his Tracking Mod to stay close behind. After catching up, he realized that the two players were dressed in a ninja-like outfit. They were asking Argo about a quest on the 2nd Floor that she refused to sell.

At this time, Kirito revealed himself and jumped in-between Argo and the two players. The two eventually ran away after they realized that a large cow mob was behind them which chased after them for some distance. Argo thanked Kirito for helping her, and said that rather than telling Kirito about why she wears the make-up, she would show him, which will also show Kirito the quest that the two "ninjas" wished to have. After Kirito promised that he would not hold a grudge against her no matter what happens, Argo showed him the quest NPC and he accepted the quest given, which was to break a rock that was near unbreakable. However, as he had already accepted the quest, the NPC was prompted to mark his face with whisker-like markings until he could successfully split the rock in half and thus complete his quest. He realized that the reason why Argo kept the markings, even after the Beta test period, was because it had become a part of her image. He eventually broke the rock after three days and three nights.

Concerto of Black and White
At around 11:55 P.M. on December 18, 2022, Argo met with Kirito at the staircase connecting the 3rd Floor to the 2nd Floor. After accepting his payment for her services, she disclosed that Morte was the only player who had joined the Dragon Knights Brigade (DKB) since the opening of the 3rd Floor. Argo added that the Dragon Knight lineup at the 3rd Floor strategy meeting had not changed since the 2nd Floor boss fight. Thus, Morte had been absent from the debate, though Argo had been unable to determine the reason for this.

When Kirito inquired how Morte had managed to enter the guild, Argo divulged that Morte had contacted Lind directly to request this, and was subsequently introduced to the other main guild members the day after the 3rd Floor was opened. She also revealed that she had not actually seen Morte in person, nor had she seen anyone matching his description while watching the pub the Dragon Knights Brigade was using as a base in Zumfut. Speculating that Lind was using Morte as a secret weapon against the Aincrad Liberation Squad, she promised to observe him if he appeared at the 3rd Floor boss raid.

Before leaving, Argo requested Kirito to disclose what lodging place he was using with Asuna since their arrival on the 3rd Floor. Upon him refusing this request, she noted that he had not immediately denied that he was sharing living quarters with Asuna, though she assured him she would not be selling that bit of information.

Barcarolle of Froth
Shortly after the 4th Floor was opened at 14:12 on December 21, 2022, Argo received a message from Kirito requesting the location of all quest NPCs in the main town of Rovia. The info broker spent the next three hours gathering and compiling the necessary data into a map scroll, whereupon she met with Asuna and Kirito in the Teleport Gate plaza at 18:00. The map helped them discover a quest that had not been present in the beta test. As this quest could be critical for their endeavors on the 4th Floor, the girl offered to purchase all relevant knowledge thereof from the duo after they had completed it, before taking her leave.

Having been continually informed of Asuna's and Kirito's progress on the Shipwright of Yore quest throughout the next day, Argo personally met with the pair on December 23 to discuss how information to release, as the latter stages of the Shipwright of Yore involved sneaking into a dungeon populated by Fallen Elves. Since the ALS and DKB were on opposing sides of the Elf War campaign and infiltrating the hideout had a strong risk of fighting a high-level Fallen Elf NPC, the information broker decided to publish only the shipbuilding quest details not connected to the Fallen Elves in her strategy guide that afternoon. With the guide's publication, the Clearer guilds were able to construct enough gondolas by December 24 for the boss fight against Biceps Archelon, the Field Boss guarding the caldera that granted access to the southern half of the 4th Floor. Once Biceps Archelon was defeated, the young woman used floater sandals with water-walking properties to quickly join Asuna and Kirito en route to the nearby village of Usco.

Red-Nosed Reindeer
About the time of Christmas Eve, 2023, Argo provided information on the possible location of Nicholas The Renegade, the Christmas event boss, to Kirito. Afterwards, she sold the information about Kirito purchasing the information about the boss to Klein, while, later, Kirito also bought information about Klein buying information about his recently purchased information.

The Day Before
While investigating newly appearing quests of a mysterious nature, Argo picked up a quest on the 22nd Floor. A key character in the quest was a dog, which Argo had problems with, so she out-ran the dog, and proceeded to a log house. The house was then pulled up by a tornado, and was suspended near the top of floor. She was trapped there for two days, before Kirito and Asuna came by looking for the house that she was trapped in. Asuna was the first to become aware of the house floating above the ground, and Kirito realized that someone was waving their hand out the house. They were unable to determine if the person was a player, or NPC, until Argo tossed out a used healing potion, which indicated that the person trapped above was a player.

Deciding to help whoever was trapped above, Kirito and Asuna attempted to reach the point that was directly beneath the house. They came upon a tall tree. A dog then appeared, and Asuna picked it up, causing the two to be swept up by a tornado, and end up inside the house with Argo. Argo complained that they were not supposed to come up there with her, but explained her situation, and the two were pulled into a quest that she was doing. Kirito realized that she out-ran the dog, as she was bad with dogs, but that caused the quest to become stuck. Argo realized that the house they were in was moving, and eventually came upon an area on the 22nd Floor that was unreachable by foot. After meeting three NPCs: a tin-man, a lion, and a scarecrow, Argo and Asuna realized that this quest was based on the «Wizard of Oz».

Deciding to skip the sub-quests, Argo and Asuna decided to go straight to the Witch's Castle, which they managed to pass through easily, due to their much higher levels than the quest was made for. After defeating the Witch and returning from the quest, Argo promised not to tell anyone about Kirito and Asuna's marriage, which she figured out on her own.

November, 2024
Argo was among the remaining 6,147 players logged out of the death game after Kirito killed Heathcliff, prematurely clearing the game.

Gallery

 * See: Hosaka Carina Tomo/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * Argo nicknamed Asuna as Aa-chan (アーちゃん) and Kirito as «Kii-bou» (キー坊) or «Kiri-bou» (キリ坊).
 * Argo usually refers to herself using one of two first-person dialectal masculine pronouns: Orecchi (オレっち) or Oira (オイラ).
 * Argo was Kirito's second-ever contact on his friend list (after Klein).
 * Argo ends her sentences with a special nasal inflection.
 * Argo is afraid of dogs.
 * Argo is the first canon Sword Art Online player to be included in Lost Song without having been confirmed as an ALfheim Online player in the canon timeline.
 * Tomo was confirmed to be half-Japanese by the author.

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