Sword Art Online Episode 16

The Land of the Fairies (妖精たちの国) is the sixteenth episode of the Sword Art Online anime adaptation. It aired on October 20, 2012.

Plot
Kazuto comes and visits Andrew (Agil) at his cafe, Dicey Cafe and teases him about his business with his Cafe before questioning him about the photo that he has sent. Andrew shows Kazuto a video game called ALfheim Online, the successor to SAO, and explains that Alfheim means "Land of the Fairies".

Andrew then tells Kazuto that the game's system is not the same as SAO. It encourages Player Killing and emphasizes on the player's skill which means that there are no actual levels; combat is dependent on the player's athletic ability. He also explains that the game is popular mainly because it gives the players the ability to fly; the player is able to fly by using the flight engine but Andrew said he heard that it is hard to control. Kazuto is very enthusiastic to try to control the wings but realizes he was getting off topic and asked what the game had to do with Asuna. Andrew showed Kazuto the pictures again, and explains that the photo was taken inside ALfheim at the World Tree which is a castle at the top of the tree.



Players are divided into nine races and the goal of the game is to see which race reaches the castle first. Five players attempted to reach the top by lining up and flying but failed eventually, though they managed to take some pictures. In the picture they found a cage and inside the cage was the girl whom Andrew showed to Kirito. Kazuto questions why Asuna was in the game then seeing RCT progress at the back of the game, he recalls the conversation he had with Nobuyuki which could be the answer. Andrew tells him to go save Asuna before Kazuto leaves with the game.

Back at home, Suguha is thinking about what happened last night with Kazuto but quickly tries to forget and ate a muffin but with the sudden appearance of Kazuto, she chokes on her food and tries to reach her juice. Kazuto gives her the juice and thanks her for making him feel better before leaving to his room. Kazuto looks at his NerveGear, recalling his encounter with Sugou before putting it on.

The voice of the system welcomed Kazuto, telling him to enter his character name and gender. Kazuto typed in "Kirito", though he hesitated a bit knowing that Sugou is aware of his SAO avatar's name. He then chose Spriggan as his race for its black color theme while ignoring the pros and cons of each race. Kirito was then transported to the Spriggan's home town and found himself free falling, but a glitch occurred, surrounding Kirito in pitch black darkness, and he ended up crash landing head first in a forest. After getting back on his feet, Kirito opened the menu and was relieved to find the "Log Out" option. He then looked at his status window and found out that he had abnormally high skill values, but quickly realizes that they were all his skill values from SAO that were somehow transferred into ALfheim, aside from his Dual Blades skill which had illegible text (due to ALfheim not having such a skill). Kirito then looked at his items, which also had illegible text, and, at that moment, remembered something and tried to locate a specific item as he scrolled down the item list. He found the item called MHCP001 and clicked on it, materializing Yui's Heart. As the crystal appeared, Kirito taps the item, and a blinding light is gleaming from the crystal. A figure begins to form and it is Yui. Yui opens her eyes and immediately recognized her "papa", the two reunite and share a hug.

After explaining that they were in ALfheim Online, Yui ran an analysis and informed him that ALfheim was a copy of SAO and thus all of his skills common to both games had been transferred, though the Cardinal System version used in ALfheim was a bit outdated. Yui noted that most of Kirito's items were corrupt and recommended that deleting them before the error detection program found them, though Kirito had regrets about deleting the items due to the hard work involved in getting them, he managed to press the confirmation button. Yui then informed him that his abnormal skill values were fine unless a GM checked them directly. Yui also discovered that the outdated Cardinal System considered her as a Navigation Pixie and so she transformed into one and, although she did not have any GM privileges, Yui was able to access the map databases. Kirito then told Yui what happened to Asuna.

Kirito noticed his wings and wondered how to fly. Yui told him that there was an assist controller. Pulling the controller toward his body would make him elevate, while pushing would make him descend. As Kirito was preparing to take off, Yui told him that he could accelerate by holding the button and could decelerate bu releasing the button. She also told him that he could fly as long as his wings were shining, but once they reached the limit, he needed to let the wings rest. Kirito practiced his flying and tried to go to the closest town but Yui sensed nearby players.

Two players named Leafa and Recon are trying to escape to the Sylph Territory while being tailed by a group of Salamanders. Leafa is prepared to fight back, but Recon disapproves. Leafa tells Recon to try to kill one while she tries to draw in as much attention as she can. Leafa attacks the group and is able to kill one player. Recon is fighting with a player and kills him before getting himself killed. While Leafa was distracted, she gets hit by a fire cannon and falls to the ground.



Leafa was out numbered by 3 Salamanders. Kagemune told her to give all of her money and items to him in exchange for her life. But Leafa was not giving up and was ready to fight. As the two factions prepared to attack, they were interrupted when Kirito crashed landed right next to them. Leafa told him to run, but Kirito insulted the Salamanders and they turned their attention to him. One of them tried to attack Kirito, but he stopped the lance with his hand and pushed the opposing player back. Getting the OK from Leafa to kill the players, Kirito took out his sword and ran it through the Salamander, killing the player. As everyone was astonished by his speed, Kirito turned around asking "Who's next?"

New Characters

 * Recon
 * Kagemune
 * Leafa

Location
Real World ALfheim
 * Dicey Cafe
 * Ancient Forest, Neutral Territory

Adaptation Notes

 * Adapted from Sword Art Online Light Novel Volume 03 Chapter 1,2


 * In the novel, after Kazuto recalled Sugou knowing his in-game name, Kazuto changed "Kirito" from its romanized to its kana form. In the anime, Kazuto simply leaves it in its romanized form.
 * After landing, Leafa doesn't use magic to hide from the Salamanders, which she actually used in the novel.

Quotes

 * "A game where you can die is too easy." - Kazuto
 * "Go save Asuna. Otherwise, our fight can't really end." - Agil
 * "Miracles really do happen." - Kirito
 * "I'm not a beater anymore. I'm just a cheater." - Kirito
 * "You should do something useful once in a while." - Leafa
 * "Three heavy fighters attacking a single girl? That's kind of lame." - Kirito
 * "Who's next?" - Kirito

Episodio 16