Premiere

Premiere (プレミア) is a game adaptation-original character in Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization. Unlike the other main characters, she is a Non-Player Character (NPC), born from the creation of Sword Art: Origin.

Hollow Realization
Premiere was first seen staring unwaveringly at Kirito from among the other players in the main plaza of the Town of Beginnings on the day of the beta opening of Sword Art: Origin. When Kirito noticed and tried to reach her, Premiere turned away while speaking some inaudible words and disappeared into the crowd.

The next day, Premiere was encountered by Kirito again, who discovered that she was a quest giving NPC. However, Premiere's quest of bringing her outside the town only rewarded one Col on completion. After Yui revealed that Premiere was an NPC with no original coding telling her how to act, Premiere was given her name by Kirito's group and taken under their care until they could learn her original settings.

Some time later, when Kirito met with Asuna to complete a special event quest, Premiere appeared and silently gave them the impression that she desired their assistance with her quest line, thus the two agreed to forgo the special event. Along the way to their destination, the trio stopped to eat some homemade sandwiches, which Premiere enjoyed as she had felt hungry in a sense. After the meal, Kirito suggested taking a scenic detour from Premiere's usual route, during which they decided to explore a cleared cave.

However, upon reaching the end of the cave, the group was surprised to find a path existing in the place of a wall. Wondering what could have caused such a change, they proceeded further into the dungeon and defeated a skeleton miniboss, before finding themselves in a long hall with a mysterious stone on a pedestal at the end. As they approached the stone, Premiere folded her hands in a praying gesture. At that moment, the stone began glowing, only growing doubly brighter when Kirito and Asuna directly handed it to Premiere, who simply commented on its beauty. Stunned at the turn of events, Kirito and Asuna decided that the stone's reaction to Premiere's touch was part of her true quest, and allowed her to take possession of it before returning to the Town of Beginnings to report their findings to their friends.

At a later time, when players were misinformed that killing NPCs would earn them great rewards, Premiere was assaulted by another player, who was only stopped due to the intervention of Kirito and Argo, outside of town. After the player was forced to retreat by an attracted monster, Premiere was warned by Kirito of the possibility that other players might repeat the stunt on her, thus she was asked to allow him to protect her, to which she agreed.

Later, while Kirito, Asuna, and Sinon were discussing how to advance Premiere's quest further, Premiere unexpectedly approached them and personally requested Kirito to teach her how to protect herself. After Kirito hesitantly agreed to train her, Premiere was taken to the fields outside the Town of Beginnings, where she was taught how to wield a rapier, though she initially experienced difficulty performing Sword Skills. She offered to terminate the lesson, as it was merely a personal request, but Kirito encouraged her to continue. With a little more persistence, Premiere finally executed a successful Sword Skill, much to her satisfaction, and they proceeded to practice her techniques on several boars. After the lesson, she was allowed to join Kirito's party in battles outside of town.

A while after Lisbeth's Blacksmith Shop opened up, Asuna and Kirito were discussing a dungeon Asuna had encountered called the Shrine of the Stone that was possibly linked to the glowing stone they had found earlier, when Premiere appeared and greeted them with a line she had learned from another player. Initially surprised at her choice of words, they related their findings to her and invited her to join them, to which she agreed with another line she had heard. Just then, Asuna realized Premiere's name had been officially registered into the system next to her hit point gauge, and recalled how she had asked her how to write it the other day. As the trio left for the field, Kirito pondered on how Premiere's acceptance of her name on her own could have been an unique action coming only from a null NPC like her.

About halfway to their destination, Asuna and Kirito were considering where to stop for lunch when they suddenly noticed a quest marker above Premiere's head. While Asuna was confused over their distance from the cave, Premiere requested to take a detour to another location. As they agreed to do so, the quest cursor changed color to signify the quest had been accepted, and Premiere winced as if it hurt her. Kirito checked the quest log to see they now had to receive protection from the Divine Tree, and theorized it was a subquest requisite they needed to complete during their journey. The three followed their directive and found the tree, where they were intimidated by its solemn sanctuary-like atmosphere. Premiere walked past them toward the tree and bowed her head and folded her hands in prayer. Kirito and Asuna quietly observed her, remarking on her serenity and peaceful and divine aura. Then the quest cleared sound issued, and Kirito and Asuna decided to check the shrine anyway for any clues. Premiere had no objection to the resumption of their travels, though she insisted on having lunch before anything else.

Upon reaching the dungeon, they discovered they had wandered further than the map data they had purchased from Argo had suggested. Deducing they had entered another secret area like last time due to Premiere being in their party, they continued deeper into the cave and faced a ram miniboss. After dispatching it, they found themselves in a hall similar to the first, with a second mysterious stone on another alter at the end. As Asuna cheered over the accuracy of her finding, Premiere reached out and briefly hesitated before taking the stone into her hands, whereupon it began to glow like the first. Asuna saw an inscription, which described the item as one of six sacred stones bestowed by the Goddess. As she and Kirito speculated on the identity of the Goddess, they remembered Premiere's action under the Divine Tree, but their expectations were amusedly dashed when Premiere announced she had eaten more than her share of Asuna's lunch, prompting them to laugh. After confirming Premiere's possession of the stone, they returned to town.

After the opening of the Jeweled Peak Lakes area, Premiere subtly manipulated Kirito into escorting her to another location when Leafa, Silica, and Lisbeth informed them of a place in the swamps that was potentially related to the former's quest. The latter three led them to the area in question, where they located an ancient dungeon holding the third Sacred Stone in a secret room at the back. As Premiere retrieved the stone, which began to glow upon contact, and thanked the others for coming with her, they searched the site for clues as to the direction of the next quest destination, but to no avail. After they discussed how the questline felt as though it was unfinished, Premiere was requested to help Silica acquire materials for a quest, to which she assented.

However, upon obtaining the fourth Sacred Stone, the lore inscribed on the stone spoke of "two" goddesses that would descend should "the world descend into chaos". This brought Premiere's place in the lore into question, having previously believed Premiere to be the goddess herself.

Gallery

 * See Premiere/Image Gallery