Sword Art Online Episode 21

The Truth about ALfheim (アルヴヘイムの真実) is the twenty-first episode of the Sword Art Online anime adaptation. It aired on November 24, 2012.

Plot
Kirito and Leafa finally arrived at Aarun. While admiring the city, a voice of the system announced, "The servers will be down today from 4:00 AM to 7:00 AM due to a maintenance had been scheduled,  and that players are were asked to log out 10 minutes before then." Leafa suggested to log out at an inn. Kirito agreed but nowhere that is too pricey because he was out of cash. Leafa teased him and says that it was because he had shown  off by giving it all away to Sakuya. Leafa asked Yui, if there is a cheap inn nearby. Yui pointed to the inn's direction and they began to walk into the city.

Asuna was running through the branch pathway and sees a cave-like entrance. Inside the cave, Asuna put her hand on the keypad and the door began to slide open. The sudden movement frightened Asuna, causing her to run and hide. After a few seconds, she took a peek at the door and sees a long and brightly-lit hallway.

Back in the real world, Kazuto was washing his face and greets Suguha in the morning. Noticing Suguha's drowsiness, he asks when she went to bed. Suguha told him, she went to sleep at 4:00 AM because she had been on the Internet. Kazuto tells Suguha to turn around. She did what he said, resulting her in getting cold water down her back.

Asuna cautiously walked through the hallway when she noticed the map of the floor. She was looking at the map and tried to find where the console to log out could possibly be until she notices a label that said "Experiment". She recalled Sugou Nobuyuki's plans.

Kazuto and Suguha were making food. But Suguha was still mad at Kazuto's prank, so she demanded that he should buy her shaved ice and a parfait to apologize which Kazuto agreed to. Kazuto told Suguha that he is going to visit Asuna in the morning. This saddens Suguha but she asked if she could come, which surprised Kazuto but he accepted the idea.

Asuna went to the "Experiment" room, and in the room there were many pillar like objects and each object was projecting the hologram of a human brain. Realizing that the "brain" was suffering, she vowed to save everyone by making Sugou Nobuyuki pay. Suddenly two slug-like monsters entered the room and began to monitor the projections. Asuna hided behind one of the pillars and tired to sneak away.

While getting on the bus, Suguha asked Kazuto about school. Kazuto told her that they were planning to use one of the city schools for students from SAO, Kazuto believed that they did this to observe them. He also states that even if he wanted to go to a regular school now, he would have to spend a year at a cram school. Suguha encouraged Kazuto and offered to tutor him.

Asuna noticed a floating black cube that is the system console. She runed to the console and slided the card slot before many windows began to pop up. Asuna looked through the window menu and notices "Transport" and the window asking to log out. Before she is able to confirm the log out, she got caught by the two slugs. After some struggle, Asuna managed to obtain the card from the system console without the two 'scientists' noticing and was later taken back to the birdcage.

After Kazuto introduced Asuna to Suguha, she commented on Asuna's beauty and how unfortunate it is that she was still sleeping. Suguha then feels regret for coming with Kazuto and began to question her own feelings towards her cousin as she was changingthe water in the vase of flowers.

When Asuna was locked in her cage once again, she promised to Kirito that she would never give up and that she shall eventually escape, revealing the card in her hand.

Leafa logs into ALfheim Online, in the inn they logged off prior to the server maintenance. Kirito soon logged in after her, greeting a sorrowful Leafa who reveals that she was heartbroken. Kirito then consoled her, saying that whether or not it is in a video game or in the real world, you cry when you were hurt. Leafa cried on his shoulder, hoping to bury her feelings and forget them. After  she regained her composure, Leafa, Kirito and Yui walked towards the base of the World Tree until Yui locates Asuna right above them, resulting in Kirito blasted off into a rapid ascension towards the World Tree.

Locations

 * Aarun City
 * World Tree

Adaptation Notes

 * Adapted from Sword Art Online Light Novel Volume 4


 * In Volume 4, Chapter 5: Kirito and Leafa's adventure in Jötunheimr was omitted.

Quotes
Episodio 21