Nezha

Nezha (ネズハ) is a supporting character in the Progressive series of the Aincrad Arc and one of the main characters of the Rondo of a Fragile Blade story. He is one of the 10,000 players who were trapped in Sword Art Online, where he was a member of the Legend Braves. He was the first player to ever open a player blacksmith shop in the game during its official service, but later abandoned his shop in favour of joining his friends in battle.

Sword Art Online
Nezha is short and squat, with a young honest face, appearing to be in his teens. He has slightly drooping eyes and plain parted bangs, making him look like a perfectly typical crafter. Kirito described Nezha's voice as young and boyish.

During the 2nd Floor boss battle, Nezha wore a bronze breastplate, gauntlets of the same material, and an open-faced helmet. According to Kirito, his short, stocky build and round, dour face accentuated his image of a beardless dwarf.

Rondo of a Fragile Blade
On December 8, 2022, Nezha attempted to enhance Ryufior's «Anneal Blade +4», but failed four consecutive times. After passively accepting his client's outraged vituperation and timidly apologizing, he offered to buy the spent weapon for 8,000 Cor, a generous amount considering the inability to upgrade the sword any further. The offer was accepted by a stunned Ryufior and his friends.

That evening, Nezha was visited by Asuna and Kirito, who wished to upgrade the accuracy of the former's Wind Fleuret. Receiving the rapier, as well as the maximum amount of materials for the upgrade, Nezha seemingly melded the materials with the blade in his portable furnace, then carefully hammered the sword on the anvil. However, on the tenth and last strike, the weapon completely and irreparably shattered.

The blacksmith and his clients remained motionless in shock for several seconds as the shards disappeared, after which Nezha stood and began profusely apologizing. When he offered to refund the enhancement fee, he was instead requested an explanation on the witnessed phenomenon, as weapon destruction was not a possible outcome of enhancing a weapon during the beta test. Nezha revealed that the destruction of the enhanced weapon may have been added as a possible penalty in the official service, as he had suffered the same incident before. After the explanation, Nezha offered an Iron Rapier as compensation for the lost weapon, or to at least refund fee of his service, but both offers were rejected, thus he apologized once more as the two left.

Less than an hour later, Nezha closed his shop and carried his equipment to an inn, unaware that he was being followed by Kirito. After some hesitation, Nezha entered the inn, where he was greeted by the other members of the Legend Braves. Nezha reported the results of his business for the day but expressed his concern over their usage of the weapon enhancement scam, stating that continuing it would risk exposing them, while they had already made enough money to cover the cost. Unbeknownst to them, parts of their conversation had been overheard by Kirito. The Wind Fleuret disappeared from Nezha's inventory minutes later due to Kirito's intervention.

After Lind and Kibaou's groups defeated the Bullbous Bow, Nezha moved his shop to Taran to avoid having the scam unearthed in Urbus.

Trivia

 * Nezha's name is based on a deity from Chinese folk religion and a Ming dynasty Chinese fantasy novel, Fengshen Yanyi. The deity's name was pronounced as Ne-zha or Na-ja in Chinese and as Nataku (ナタク) or Nata (ナタ) in Japanese.

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Nezuha