Yuuki Asuna

Asuna (アスナ) is a heroine and the partner of Kirito in the Sword Art Online series. She is the sub-leader of the «Knights of the Blood» guild in «Sword Art Online». Her real name is Yuuki Asuna (結城明日奈), and she is the daughter of the former CEO of RECTO Progress Inc.

Reality/Sword Art Online Avatar
She has long orange-brownish chestnut hair and hazel eyes. In the early levels of SAO, she wears a dark red leather tunic with a lightweight copper breastplate and leather pants with boots up to the knees as well as a hooded cape. After joining the «Knights of the Blood», she wears a red and white uniform that all KoB members wear and wields a rapier made by Lisbeth, called the «Lambent Light».

ALfheim Online Avatar
Her original avatar in ALfheim, was as Fairy Queen, Titania. She wore a white outfit, with a white long skirt, tube top showing her belly, along with a red ribbon that goes around the top part of her top that comes together to make a bow. She goes barefoot, and wears a white strip around her ankles.

After being rescued by Kirito and returning to the game, she creates a new avatar, which is an Undine. She has light blue hair with an appearance that otherwise slightly differs from her SAO avatar. Her class is a healer, later known as «Berserk Healer» due to the fact that she enjoys fighting in the front line with her rapier occasionally, despite her role as a healer. Her Undine avatar is from her main account that was transferred from SAO. She also made a new account and trained a new character from scratch: the Sylph «Erika». The reason she created a new character was extremely simple: Sometimes she wanted to change her appearance too. «Erika» specialized in melee and had most of its ability points devoted to dagger skills, so it was more suited for duels than Asuna which was a half healer.

Personality
Asuna originally didn't care about dying in the game, before meeting Kirito. That meeting drastically changed Asuna's personality and outlook on life. She soon takes most things Kirito says to heart and looks to him for help, using him as somewhat of a lifeline. She acts as a tsundere towards him for most of Volume 1, even when married.

Asuna is a kind and helpful young woman who, similar to Kirito, cannot abandon another in trouble. She takes the game very seriously and is very focused on clearing it before Kirito tells her to enjoy SAO a bit. Asuna is also somewhat proud and is not afraid to get physical with those that challenge her authority or brag about her abilities such as cooking. She even challenged Kirito to a duel after an argument over how to handle a Field Boss. She isn't afraid to act out on her own and will take matters in her own hands from time to time.

Asuna, once again similar to Kirito, is someone who can be controlled by her emotions many times. This is best shown in moments with Kirito where she jumped in front of an attack meant for him by Heathcliff and appeared to be killed. She also can't handle the deaths of others well and will lose control, attacking The Gleam Eyes after seeing the Liberation Army players get slaughtered.

In ALO, after being saved by Kirito, Asuna's personality hasn't changed a bit except she's not as proud as she was in SAO. Her personality begins to develop further after meeting Yuuki. Seeing how, despite knowing she will die, Yuuki can still move forward, Asuna takes after her and resolves after her new friend's death to keep moving forward. She is also either dense to the fact that other girls having feelings for Kirito, or she knows that Kirito is only in love with her, and so it doesn't bother her.

Background
She logged in SAO after she borrowed her brother's NerveGear when he had a sudden business trip and could not play on the opening day. When she discovered all the players were trapped in SAO, she held herself up inside her room in «Starting City» for a week, before resolving to take fate into her own hands. This led her to kill monsters at an incredible rate and level up in a quick fashion, even risking her life in the process. It also earned her the title as «The Flash» (閃光)? for performing as astounding «Linear».

She's the wife of Kirito in-game and his girlfriend in the real world.

Aria in the Starless Night
Asuna had spent 3 to 4 days battling in the first floor's Labyrinth, having taken 5 Iron-Rapiers with her, and planning to return as soon as her last one was at half durability. When Kirito came upon her he saw her elegant «Linear» attack. After explaining that using Linear on an enemy with nearly no health was «Overkill». Asuna said there was no problem with it, as even if it exhausted her, she expected to die eventually, anyways. She fainted shortly afterwards, and rather than leave her behind, Kirito carried her out of the Labyrinth, and waited for her to wake up outside. After 7 hours, when she woke up, she claimed that his actions were unnecessary, but he insisted that his reason for saving her was for her map-data, that she must have collected after having been inside the dungeon for 3 days straight. Asuna gives Kirito the map data. But before she could leave, he informs her of the First Floor Boss Raid Strategy Meeting in «Tolbana» that afternoon. She decides to go with him, and after reaching town, the two split up briefly.

The two eventually meet up again, when Asuna is buying bread. Kirito decides to share cream that he obtained from a quest, with Asuna, which gave the bread a surprisingly better taste. Asuna thanks him for the bread, but explains she isn't here to eat food. She explains her reason for coming, and Kirito apologizes. At this point, Asuna mentions it's time for the meeting, and the two go. The meeting was to organize a large raid, to explore the dungeon, and find the entrance to the boss room. The next day, the Boss Room was found, which prompted another meeting. After discussing the information they knew, they were informed that Argo's guide had information regarding the boss from the beta period. They planned to attack the boss the next day, and Asuna and Kirito decided to party up as they where the only ones with no other to form a party, seeing as Kirito invited Asuna. During the planning, their party was decided to be a support group for attacking the smaller mobs in the room. Though Asuna disagreed with this, Kirito explained that it made sense, as they were only 2 people.

After the meeting, Kirito and Asuna were to have a conversation regarding something he said during the meeting, but Asuna didn't want to have it in public. Kirito let it slip that he had a floor in a farmer's house, with a view and a bath, which Asuna wished to see. After agreeing, he guided her to his home, and allowed her to take a bath. In the middle of her bath, Argo came to visit Kirito, regarding a client who wished to buy his sword. Kirito tried to hurriedly rush Argo out, but eventually became caught up in thought, in that same instant Argo decided to enter the bath-room to change her clothes. Humorously, Kirito heard a scream, and only remembered someone running out of the bath-room that was not Argo, before blacking out.

The next day, the two join the raid group, and head for the boss room. After reaching the battle, the players go into the formation planned in the meeting, and everything seems to go well, until the boss's health drops below a quarter! At this point, the boss pulled out its secondary weapon, which, unexpectedly was a katana, and not what was originally predicted. This resulted in sword-skills everyone was unfamiliar with, and caused the death of Diabel. In his last words, he called for Kirito to defeat the boss. Along with Agil, she assists Kirito to finally beat the boss.

Kirito alone climbed the stairs to the second floor, and after reaching the top, Asuna came behind him, and spoke with him briefly. Kirito advised her to join a guild if someone she trusts invites her, before heading to the nearest town to activate the gate there.

Rondo of the Transient Sword
Asuna finds Kirito 4 days after clearing the first boss, watching a scene of a player arguing with SAO's first known blacksmith, Nezuha, because he failed a weapon enhancement 4 times in a row. After the commotion is cleared, they talk and Kirito decides to help her gather more materials for enhancing her Wind Fleuret.

On the field she makes a bet with Kirito and wins, so he invites her for dinner, and she chose a restaurant recommended by Argo, after eating they find out that they got a luck buff, so Kirito takes her to the Blacksmith from earlier and try for the upgrade, despite the 97% success rate, the blacksmith fails and her Wind Fleuret disappears due to a new penalty in the game.

With tears in her eyes, she walks with Kirito, they sit on a bench and later checks in an Inn. Minutes later Kirito abruptly enters her room and makes her materialize all her items and finds under the big pile the Wind Fleuret. She asks Kirito to explain how he got her beloved weapon back and he explains her about the dropping weapon system and the scam that the blacksmith named Nezha was committing.

Year II
Asuna became sub-leader of the Knights of the Blood guild in SAO, shortly after the 25th floor was cleared, after the main raiding party (Aincrad Liberation Force) was nearly wiped out. After joining the guild, she constantly disagreed with Kirito in the meetings on how to beat the floor bosses. Kirito disagrees with her plan but she enforces it. One day Kirito convinced her to take a break since they were alive at that moment in Aincrad, reluctantly she leans on the grass and fells asleep. Hours later she wakes up from the grass embarrassed and then offers Kirito a dinner so they would be even, for watching after her while she slept. While ordering they see a murder in a safe-zone, and knowing that it might get dangerous in the future they both decide to leave the front lines. They solve the mystery and become closer. Then Asuna's best friend Lisbeth realized Asuna and Kirito had feelings for each other and painfully backed off after making him a sword. When she was shown offering to cook Kirito's Ragout Rabbit, She parties with Kirito for a day and together found the 74th floor boss before retreating to a safe area where they encounter Klein and his guild, «Fuurinkazan» and troops from «The Army».

When «The Army»'s troops leave to battle the boss, their group follows behind, worried, but are stalled by a group of lizardmen. Upon arrival at the door, they discover with horror that the troops are unable to escape and Asuna rushes in to help, only to be rescued by Kirito. Together with Klein, she attacks the boss while Kirito prepares his «Dual Blades», then watches with worry as the two clashed with Kirito barely scraping a win. She heals him with a potion before resting on his shoulder and declaring her intent to take a break from the guild and party with him. When she returned to «Grandum», to apply for leave, Heathcliff tells her that he wishes to duel Kirito and she rushed back to inform him whereby on return to Grandum, the challenge was accepted and Kirito lost, having to join the KoB. When Kirito confides in her his dark past, she comforts him before heading to receive a mission, only to be sidelined when Kirito has to go for a test. She watched the map anxiously and upon discovering Godfree's disappearance, rushed to save Kirito with speed supposedly exceeding the stats. She saves Kirito from Kuradeel, but was unable to deal the finishing blow, and was almost attacked before Kirito killed Kuradeel. In despair, she almost left before Kirito comforted her and kissed her. That night, she misunderstood Kirito's intent to stay with her and was greatly embarrassed. Once things were cleared up, they slept with each other and Kirito proposed to her that night. They moved to the 22nd floor of Aincrad to have a peaceful honeymoon which led to encounter of Yui, their adopted AI daughter and save Thinker, the CEO of «The Army», in the end, Yui was transferred into a necklace for her protection which Asuna wore with her.

Two weeks later, they were called back by Heathcliff who explained that the next floor boss had been found. Fearing for Asuna's safety, Kirito asked her to stay behind in the guild hall where it was safe. However, she refused and stated that she'd kill herself if she found out that Kirito was killed in action, being unable to forgive herself for not going. After a short conversation about what their real life bodies must be going through, Asuna began to cry as Kirito braced her in his arms. She told Kirito that she wished to be with him forever, to date in real life and to truly get married.

Later on, they joined the guilds in attacking the 75th Floor Labyrinth's boss where, after defeating the boss, Kirito deduced and exposed Heathcliff's true identity as Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO. Before challenging Kirito to a final duel, he put the other players in a state of paralysis. However, as Kirito was about o be struck down by Heathcliff, Asuna managed to move herself in front of th fatal blow, causing her character to die. Strucken with pain, Kirito continued fighting on, despite his HP reaching 0, and he managed to deal a clear blow to Heathcliff with her rapier. After the battle, when Aincrad began to break down, Asuna and Kirito met once again and told each other their real names. Afterwards they decided to kiss and fade away from the world as one.

Fairy Dance Arc
Imprisoned by the fiance her parents chose for her Sugou, instead of being released from SAO, she and 300 others are trapped in the World Tree. Originally, she makes her escape into the lab facility within the World Tree, stealing an admin card to log out, only to be caught and returned to her prison. Upon Kirito's arrival and as he flies up to the top, only to be stopped by the barrier, Asuna hears Yui's call and throws down the admin card she obtained to Kirito. She is saved by Kirito with Sugou going to jail after being defeated by Kirito.

Phantom Bullet Arc
After Kazuto's meeting with Kikuoka, Asuna is waiting for him in front of Otemachi Station, the Chiyoda Line on December 7, 2025, almost one year after her return to the real world. As she waits she wonders about the "real" things around her, made up of atoms and not data, yet she felt that what had happened in virtual reality also was "real". As she muses this topic she asks out loud, what were the differences between virtual reality and reality. To her surprise Kazuto answers her saying that it is just the difference in the quality of data.

Mother's Rosario
Asuna met a person who goes by the nickname of «Absolute Sword» in ALO. Absolute Sword ("Yuuki"), invited Asuna to join her to defeat a boss with her guild the «Sleeping Knights». Asuna later learns Yuuki and other members of the «Sleeping Knights» were terminally ill patients who have been under FullDive for longer than even the SAO survivors. To Asuna's shock, Yuuki has only a few remaining months before she dies. She decided to help Yuuki to experience life to its fullest with the help of Kirito's VR probe that can be operated by Yuuki through the Medicuboid she was using in the hospital, to attend school and walk amongst the streets. In the end, after Yuuki dies, Asuna reflected on her attitude and way of life. She commits that no matter what hardship she will face in life, she will continue to fight for her happiness and refuse to give up just like Yuuki.

Alicization Beginning
Asuna learned about the part-time job that Kirito was doing, an imaginary virtual world that accelerates time from many generations in a matter of minutes through computer-programmed artificial intelligence. Soon after she found about this information in detail at Dicey Cafe, Kirito and she leaves to her home. However, a vengeful former player of Sword Art Online from the guild Laughing Coffin, Johnny Black, unleashes his anger on Kirito, severely injuring the latter.

Alicization Running
Asuna quickly takes him to the hospital, and while they return him back to life in a comatose, he disappears the next day. With her deductive reasoning, she figures out that he is kidnapped to an turtle-like laboratory in the middle of the ocean. Finding out, in horror, what Kikuoka Seijirou is up to with his project, she soon is able to see Kirito again, before expressing her regret of the former memories of Sword Art Online.

Sword Art Online

 * Level: 94


 * Main Equipment:
 * 「Wind Fleuret」 (One-Handed Rapier)
 * 「Lambent Light」 (One-Handed Rapier)

One Handed Rapier Skills

 * Linear
 * Shooting Star
 * Star Splash
 * Flashing Penetrator

Original Sword Skills

 * Starry Tear (from ALO) - A 5 hit sword combo.
 * Mother's Rosario (from ALO) - An 11-hit sword combo. (inherited from «Absolute Sword» Yuuki)

Trivia

 * Asuna placed second in the Top 10 Female Characters in the Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! 2012? and 2013 awards. She placed sixth back in 2011.
 * Asuna is one of the two known players using their real name as an In Game Name (IGN), the other being Yuuki.
 * Included in the first Blue-ray/DVD package, is a character song CD sang by Asuna (Tomatsu Haruka), titled "Independent Destiny". This is the 1st Character Song available for this series.
 * In the original "web-novel", Asuna did not hesitate to kill Kuradeel, when he began to beg for his life, and in-fact stabbed through him. This was changed in the Light Novel, Anime and Manga, so that it was Kirito who killed him, after Kuradeel attacks Asuna for her hesitation.
 * The Anime depicts Asuna and Kirito having met at the Meeting in «Tolbana», rather than in the dungeons, where Kirito informs Asuna about the meeting. Given this, the battle was on the very next day after the meeting, instead of 2 days after. This means that Kirito never showed Asuna his house, nor offered her the bath, as in the Light Novel.
 * In the anime, after the boss battle on the 1st floor, Asuna runs up to Kirito while he is still climbing the stairs, but in the LN, she actually caught up to him while he was sitting idly on the second floor.
 * The design of her KoB uniform in SAO was actually chosen by other members, who kept it a secret from her until it was ready. When she first saw her KoB uniform, she rejected it, saying that she couldn't wear something like it, but after Daizen told her with tears in his eyes that the price of even a single set of the uniform was colossal, she reluctantly agreed to wear it.
 * Asuna gets freaked out by astral-type monsters and had used numerous excuses to avoid clearing Labyrinths on horror-theme Aincrad floors.
 * Asuna as an Undine in ALO may allude to Kirito's lie about the existence of a Spriggan-Undine alliance along with Kagemune's lie about Kirito defeating his party with the help of an Undine.