Kirigaya Kazuto

Kirito (キリト) is the protagonist of the Sword Art Online Light Novel Series. He was chosen as one of the 1000 beta testers for the Closed Beta of « Sword Art Online », the first ever VRMMORPG for the Nerve Gear. His real name is Kirigaya Kazuto (桐ヶ谷和人).

Real Life / Sword Art Online Avatar
During the beginning of the game and during the beta-testing phase, Kirito's avatar had the appearance of a ridiculously handsome protagonist. After Kayaba Akihiko gifted the «hand mirror» to all the participants, his appearance changed to his appearance in real life.

Kirito has slightly long but neat black hair and black eyes. His delicate face has no trace of masculinity, making people mistake him for a girl.

After the initial stages, he became well known in SAO as the «Black Swordsman Kirito» due to his tendency to wear black. He uses two swords after his Unique Skill « Dual Blades » was revealed, the black «Elucidator» and the white «D ark Rep ulser ». He later donned the red and white uniform of the «Knights of Blood» after being defeated by its leader Heathcliff in a public duel.

In actual life he has a tendency to gravitate towards dark colored clothes, and his appearance is the same as in SAO.

ALfheim Online Avatar
Kirito's initial appearance was that of a default «Spriggan», which he chose because of the race's black-themed equipment. Instead of the normal black forelocks hanging from his head, his black hair stood in natural spikes. His large eyes appeared mischievous, and he had dark grey-ish blue wings. He is equipped with a large broadsword intended for larger players like Imps. He has also dual wielded like in Sword Art with Lyfa's katana.

After converting his avatar back from his brief stint in «Gun Gale Online», his previously unkempt hair stayed down, though his michievous black eyes remained the same.

At December 2025 he obtained the «Holy Sword Excaliber» in «ALfheim Online»and uses that to dual wield in dangerous situations.

Gun Gale Online Avatar
Kirito's avatar in GGO is the rare M9000 type that can only be obtained if you have a large playing time recorded. His hair flows smoothly down to his shoulders and retained its original black color. He has pale skin and crimson lips, and his shining black eyes were fringed by long eyelashes. If you didn't know better you'd say he was female.

He is equipped with a 5.7mm FN Five Seven handgun and « Kagemitsu G4 » photon sword. He later leaves those in the care of Sinon upon returning to ALO.

Background
Born 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, however, Kazuto fell in love with computers and dropped kendo after two years.

Kazuto has immense skill as a programmer, managing to build a computer from parts during elementary school, finding his erase records in the national registry in at the age of ten, as well as managing to stop the server from deleting Yui by converting her program into an object and storing her into his Nerve Gear as environmental data.

He currently lives with his family, adopted by his aunt and uncle after his parents died. He was raised as their son with his cousin as his sister. He was originally trained in kendo by his grandfather but had little interest in it, and as a result his sister began to cover for him. He is a skilled programmer, as shown when he stopped the SAO server from completely deleting Yui's data.

Sword Art Online Beta
In the beta Kirito was challenged to a duel and his opponent, lost on purpose. They also were able to clear upto the eigth floor before the final version was released.

Sword Art Online
In SAO, he was one of the 1000 people selected to be a beta tester to SAO, recieving six months extra time to learn the game than the remaining 9,000 people who recieved the game on its release. Early in the game he befriends Cline, who asks for help in learning how to play. They return to the city after training on low level monsters to recieve an announcement from Kayaba Akihiko, that they are trapped and unable to log out and leave the game until either the game is cleared or they die. He suggests that he and Cline go to the next city in order to get a better chance of leveling up. Cline refuses, and a hesitant and shaken Kirito leaves Cline behind to go to the next village.

Fairy Dance
When Kazuto fails to rescue Asuna and falls into despair, by chance he encounters a picture of «ALfheim online»'s screenshot of a woman with Asuna's appearance. He then dives in the game to save her. He selects the Spriggan race since the schema matched his tastes, yet instead of spawning at the starting city of the Spriggan, he appears in midair falling to the ground in Sylph territory. He later finds out that Yui can be a part of the ALO system. He ends up right in the middle of a conflict between Lyfa and two salamanders. After which he easily defeats them. He then asks for help from Lyfa after introducing Yui to help him get to Aarun.

Phantom Bullet
When Kikuoka, who is in charge of net crimes division calls him to a pastry shop to chat, he finds out about «Death Gun». Hearing about the potential threat Kirito agrees to investigate, GGO for a fee. Upon converting, he is stunned at his appearance being extremely feminine. He encounters Sinon asking for help. She offers to help him get started. Kirito with minimal funds and against Sinon's advice participates in the bullet dodging game. Kirito using his previous experience successfully wins the game and wins a large amount of funds.

Mother's Rosario
He challenges «Absolute Sword Yuuki » to a duel and loses, though he didn't dual wield. He later appears to fend off a clearing guild and give the Sleeping Knights a chance to challenge a boss, he also brings out the «Holy Sword Excaliber» and dual wields in this battle, he also reveals his outside system skill <>. He along with Cline hold off the guild for three minutes before succumbing to the overwhelming numbers. He again faces Zekken in the ALO sword tournament, where he loses but doesn't dual wield.

Alicization
Appearing in the underworld, at age 10 he helps as a woodcutter trying to fell Gigas Cedar.

Sword Art Online (SAO)

 * Level: 96
 * Main Equipment:
 * ​「Elucidator」 (One Handed Straight Sword - monster drop)
 * 「Dark Repulser」 (One Handed Straight Sword - player-made by Lisbeth)
 * 「BlackWyrm Coat」 (Leather Coat, player-made by Ashley) - last black coat
 * 「 Coat of Midnight 」 (Leather Coat, monster drop from floor 1 boss) - first black coat
 * Skill Slots: 12
 * Equipped Skills:
 * One Handed Sword - 1000 «Mastered»
 * Dual Blades «Unique Skill» - 1000 «Mastered»
 * Blade Throwing - 967
 * Parry - 1000 «Mastered»
 * Battle Healing - 944
 * Searching - 1000 «Mastered»
 * Tracking - 963
 * Hiding - 1000 «Mastered»
 * Night Vision - 908
 * Extended Weight Limit - 949
 * Sprint - 870
 * Fishing - 604

One Handed Sword Skills

 * Horizontal Square
 * Flashing Penetrator
 * Reaver
 * Slant
 * Vertical Square
 * Vorpal Strike
 * Weapon Break
 * Deadly Sins

Unarmed Skills

 * Embracer
 * Meteor Break

Dual Blades Sword Skills

 * Double Circular
 * Starburst Stream
 * The Eclipse

Outside System Skills

 * Arms Blast (from SAO) - destroys a weapon by attacking the weakpoint of one with a powerful blow.
 * Spell Blast (from ALF) - intercepts a spell using a sword skill.
 * Skill Connect (from ALF) - allows Kirito to chain his sword skills.

*Note: Many of his skills have been demonstrated in ALF and GGO, except they mostly function without system assist and depend on Kirito completely.

Notable Achievements

 * cleared the cursed death game, «Sword Art Online»
 * reached the top of the World Tree, «ALfheim Online»
 * 2nd Place in «ALfheim Online» Cross Territory Race
 * 2nd Place in «ALfheim Online» Swordsman Tournament (without Dual wielding)
 * co-winner of the Third «Bullet of Bullets» (alongside Sinon), «Gun Gale Online»