Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-71.82.164.213-20150409225706/@comment-38120486-20190221172829

Per Word of God (Reki Kawahara himself), she does get a boost to her in-game ability from the Medicuboid. Kawahara also does provide specific reasons why Yuuki was stronger than Kirito, unrelated to the Medicuboid. It helped her, but per Kawahara himself she was also just better than him in that time and place.

Would that be true in all circumstances? What would the trajectory of Yuuki's skill level have been? We won't, alas, get to find out. There are plenty of scenarios I can picture where this would have been a lot of fun to watch. A recurring rival/friend with strength that at bare minimum challenges Kirito's, sufficient for us to have this discussion, would have been awesome. Kirito certainly gets challenged in the story plenty often, but by antagonists. They get defeated and then leave the stage, by and large. Anyway, enough out of me on that point.