Sword Art Online Episode 12

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Yui's Heart (ユイの心) is the twelfth episode of the Sword Art Online anime adaptation and its first season, as well as the twelfth episode in the Aincrad Arc. It aired on September 22, 2012.

Plot
On November 1st, the 1st Floor main settlement, «Town of Beginnings»; Kirito and his family were having their breakfast at the guestroom of the church where Sasha and the children players reside in, being amazed at how much children players there were in the church. Yui seems to have recovered from her panic attack earlier. Sasha explained to Kirito and Asuna that ever since the announcement of the death game, she felt it was her duty to look after the children trapped in the game and thus she went on daily walks in the town in search of children players, but informed them that she had never seen Yui. Just then, they received a visit from Yulier, a female player from «The Army», and thought that she was here to complain about the earlier incident. Instead, Yulier thanks Kirito and Asuna for punishing her fellow «Army» members who were causing trouble, she tells them that she came to ask for their assistance.



Yulier explained that the «The Army» became more corrupt and irresponsible thanks to the efforts of its former sub-leader: Kibaou, who was trying to overtake leadership from a player named Thinker. The guild became corrupt when Kibaou came into power and enacted upon collecting taxes from people in the Town of Beginnings, and people were led to believe that he no longer cared about clearing the death game. As an attempt to dissuade this, Kibaou sent Kobatz and his men to challenge Floor Boss of the 74th Floor by themselves, which resulted the deaths of Kobatz and two of his subordinates, thus the guild planned to exile Kibaou for this reckless action. Desperate, Kibaou lured Thinker into a high-level dungeon without any equipment or crystals, under the guise of apologizing to him for the incident. Once Yulier heard about two high-level players that had come to the 1st Floor, she went to find them. Kirito and Asuna had doubts about Yulier's story, as it could have been a trap. However, after Yui stated that she somehow knew that Yulier was telling the truth, Kirito chose to believe in her story, instead of later regretting not helping her, and thus they agreed to help. Kirito and Asuna then told Yui to stay with Sasha for safety, but Yui showed a rebellious side as she wanted to come with them, forcing them to take her along.



As they entered the dungeon, Yulier explained to the group that Kibaou wanted to have this area for The Army's personal benefit, however the monsters were too strong for him, so he couldn't use it as much. The dungeon is speculated to have been unlocked as the clearers made progress on the higher floors. During their progress in the dungeon, Kirito was enjoying himself by defeating a group of Scavenger Toads they had come across, with Asuna and Yui cheering on, but Yulier felt bad about him handling all the monsters, though they assured her that Kirito did not mind. Yulier then checked her map and discovered that Thinker remained in one spot, most likely a safe zone. After the battle, Kirito told the others that he had collected items from the monsters, revealing that those items were Scavenger Toad Meat that he was hoping Asuna would cook. Instead, she threw them all away in disgust, to Kirito's dismay and despite his protests, the scene making Yulier smile, something that Yui noticed and expressed joy about.



They finally arrived in a corridor with the safe area up ahead, where Kirito used his detecting skill to confirm that Thinker was trapped in there. Yulier began running towards him, but Thinker yelled to her to stay back. As Kirito was wondering why Thinker was telling them not to come closer, he detected an enemy named «The Fatal Scythe» hiding in the shadows. As The Fatal Scythe was about to land its scythe on her, Kirito jumped right on time and pushed her out harm's way. Kirito then asked her and Yui to run to the safe area and teleport out, which she agreed, though Yui was concerned. Although he also asked Asuna to go with them, she refused and stood by Kirito. Even though Kirito was unable to identify the boss, he presumed that it was as strong as a boss on Floor 90 or above. As the boss attacked, Kirito and Asuna blocked it, but were blown away from the hit and lost half their HP in the process.

The blow from the scythe was very hard on them, and both were unable to get back up. As the boss was about to deal the finishing blow on Kirito and Asuna, Yui left the safe area, just as Thinker and Yulier were teleporting away, and stepped in front of The Fatal Scythe. The monster then attempted to attack her, but just after she told the couple that they do not need to worry about her, The Fatal Scythe's attack was repelled by an «Immortal Object» shield, which left Kirito and Asuna in shock. Yui then levitated, changed to the clothes she originally had when Kirito and Asuna found her and generated the «Object Eraser» in the shape of a huge flaming sword which she used to remove the boss with a large flaming sphere. Yui then told Kirito and Asuna that she had recovered her memories.



Back in the safe area, Yui, finally pronouncing the names of her so-called parents correctly, explained that the Cardinal System, which regulated the entire SAO server, created an AI called the «Mental Health - Counseling Program Prototype 1», codename Yui, who was given the ability to emulate emotion to put players at ease with her. She explained that she was intended to take care of the player's mental health, but, for reasons she never understood, Cardinal prevented her from interacting with the players, effectively forcing her to monitor their emotions without a way to interfere. She only saw hate, rage and desperation in the players until she saw Asuna and Kirito, who were enjoying themselves despite being trapped in the death game, and decided to get as close to the two. Yui, crying in happiness, wondered how it was possible for a mere program to think like that until Kirito told her that she was no longer being controlled by the Cardinal System, and thus she could think whatever she wanted. After Kirito asked what Yui wanted, she replied that she wanted to stay with them forever, and the family shared a tearful hug. Although Kirito and Asuna assured Yui that she would be with them forever, Yui sadly explained that she used a GM Console, the large black cube in the safe zone, to delete The Fatal Scythe, resulting in the Cardinal System detecting her presence and, due to her disobeying its orders, the system now recognized her as a "foreign object" and proceeded to remove her from the system. Yui thanked Kirito and Asuna and requested them to help other players in her stead and to continue smiling before she turned into particles of light that vanished into thin air.



Kirito, after cursing the Cardinal System and Kayaba Akihiko, took the keyboard of GM console while Yui's credentials were still active and managed to save Yui's program by transforming it into an in-game object, «Yui's Heart», which Asuna then wore as a pendant, while Yui's data was stored into his NerveGear's local memory. On the way home, Kirito and Asuna talked about recreating Yui after they escape from SAO. Yui's particles then floated by and her voice said "Mommy, good luck."

New Characters

 * Yulier
 * Thinker

Named Monsters

 * Four Eyed Frog
 * The Fatal Scythe

Guilds

 * Aincrad Liberation Force

Inventory

 * Kirito
 * Dark Repulser
 * Elucidator
 * Asuna
 * Lambent Light
 * Yulier
 * Teleport Crystal x 3
 * Thinker
 * Teleport Crystal - given by Yulier

Locations

 * Aincrad Floor 1:
 * Town of Beginnings
 * Church
 * Black Iron Palace
 * Hidden Dungeon
 * Teleport Gate Plaza
 * Aincrad Floor 22

Adaptation Notes

 * Adapted from Volume 2, Morning Dew Girl


 * In the novel, Asuna herself accessed the shared inventory with Kirito and deleted the Scavenger's meat from the inventory without taking it out, while in the anime, Kirito takes out all of the meat from the inventory and Asuna literally throws it away.
 * In the novel, when Thinker tells the group to stay away from the corridor, Asuna spots a yellow cursor and discovers that it is a boss called The Fatal Scythe. In the anime, Kirito detects the boss instead, without the cursor appearing in his screen, although the name of the boss is shown.
 * In the novel, it is mentioned that Kibaou used a Corridor crystal to send Thinker into a dungeon. This is omitted in the anime.
 * In the Light Novel, Kirito fought against crayfish-like monsters. The crayfish-like monsters are not seen in the anime.
 * It isn't mentioned in the anime that The Army found a very large boss in the Hidden Dungeon, nor was it mentioned that they had teleport out of the dungeon in panic.
 * The part about Thinker exiling Kibaou and his followers after his rescue was omitted in the anime.

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