Kirigaya Suguha

Suguha Kirigaya (桐ヶ谷直葉, Kirigaya Suguha) is the cousin and sister of Kazuto Kirigaya. She is raised along with him as his sister. She is an accomplished kendo practitioner following in her grandfather's wishes.

She later takes up VRMMORPG playing in «ALfheim Online», as Leafa (リーファ), a Sylph warrior.



Appearance
Real Life

Suguha has short black hair and dark grey eyes, almost blackish. Her breasts are also much larger than the rest of the female characters shown so far although it is mentioned that she has grown a lot recently. She also has a cute childish look and is often seen with an embarassed expression, especially when around her brother.

ALfheim Online Avatar
In the game ALO, Suguha appears as a more grown up person than a child. She has bright green eyes and wears white and green clothes. She also has a white and green collar on her neck. She has long blond hair, often tied up with a flower like hairband. Her hair bangs, however, are not tied up with her hair. Like all of the other players in ALO, her ears are quite long and pointy. Her display name in the anime is spelled as "Leafa" and on the light novel is "Lyfa".

Background
Kirigaya Suguha is raised with Kazuto as his sister since her parents took Kazuto in after his parents died in a traffic accident. Kazuto is Suguha's first cousin; his mother was Suguha's mother's sister. They were taught Kendo by their grandfather, who was a former policeman and a Kendo champion. Kazuto gave up after two years and embraced the world of technology, leaving her behind. The truth is, Kazuto found out he was not her real brother around this time and their distance became further and further apart, until they were practically strangers before the SAO Incident. She continued with Kendo and became a national quarter-finalist. Suguha originally disliked VRMMOs for the reason it hid people's nature and reality. She took up ALO in order to understand Kazuto better when he was trapped in SAO. She won the Sylph tournament earning the title as strongest Sylph before Volume 3. She learned how to play ALO from her classmate, Recon. Suguha has become very good at ALO, because of the many years she has practiced Kendo and the skills learned there were very effective for fights in ALO. She enjoys flying in the game, Recon nicknamed her

"Speed Holic" due to her joy of flying.

Personality
Unlike her cousin Kazuto, Suguha is upbeat and outgoing. She is much more social and converses easily with others. Even when Kazuto began to push her away after finding out they weren't really siblings, she still treated him with good spirits and tried to get back in his life. She can be very aggressive towards those that annoy her or cross her and can lose her temper. This is demonstrated in one case when Recon attempts to kiss her after confessing to her; she punches him and then beats him up. Despite treating Recon most of the time with annoyance, she cares for him as a good friend, although she does not seem to return his feelings. She did, however, say she enjoyed seeing "this side" of him when he confessed, and was shocked and motivated by his sacrifice at the battle at the World Tree.

Despite her positive outlook and slightly aggressive behavior, Suguha can be somewhat fragile and delicate due to her young age especially when her cousin, Kazuto is involved. Once finding out Kirito and Kazuto were the same person, she locked herself in her room away from her cousin and went into a slight depression. In addition, after seeing Kazuto comatose from being locked in SAO, she broke down crying for the first time in years. Most of the time she is quick to rebound from these moments and be the same upbeat girl she always is. She also is, besides Asuna and possibly Sinon, the only girls Yui will allow to interact with Kirito, most likely because the two are family. She also developed feelings for her older brother (which actually is her cousin), Kazuto.

Sword Art Online
In the first episode of the anime, she was telling Kirito that she was heading to club activities before Kirito started playing SAO. Throughout the arc, she was mentioned a couple of times. She was mentioned a lot to Silica (Ayano Keiko) during Episode 4: The Black Swordsman.

ALfheim Online
She first is overjoyed to find Kazuto returning home, and tries to be respectful of his temporary weakness. She is also saddened by her brother's new found attachment to Asuna. A couple of months after Kirito's return, Kirito challenges Suguha to a kendo duel. Though she wins after hitting Kazuto on the head, she is surprised at Kirito's unorthodox skills, and even more because he can keep up with her even though she's very good at kendo, yet she is also happy that Kirito once again shows interest in kendo.

After logging in on ALO, while flying with her party they are attacked by a Salamander hunting squad. As the battle progresses, she becomes the last survivor fleeing from three pursuers. She encounters a Spriggan after being forced onto the ground, she then helps the Spriggan in its journey towards Aarun. Later, Suguha learns that the Spriggan she had encountered was actually her brother. At the same time, Kirito realizes that Leafa was Suguha.

Caliber
She comes to Kirito to inform him that other players have found Excaliber's location. They then talk about the new quest that has appeared, where players are requested to kill the beast-type Evil God monsters. Kirito then decides its time to get the Excaliber, and forms a party of seven consisting of himself, Leafa, Asuna, Klein, Lisbeth, Silica, and Sinon. The party then proceeded to Jotunheim, and proceeded to the dungeon holding Excaliber and successfully obtained it.

Trivia

 * As Leafa, she is one of the 5 fastest Sylphs and has won the Sylph fighting tournament various times.
 * Suguha is set to appear in the PSP game, Sword Art Online -Infinity Moment-, with an SAO version of Leafa.

Suguha Kirigaya