Kashiwazaka Hiyori

Kashiwazaka Hiyori (柏坂 ひより) was one of the 10,000 players who were trapped in Sword Art Online (SAO), where she went by the name Lux (ルクス). She was one of the few surviving SAO players who joined ALfheim Online (ALO) after the release of New Aincrad. Her new avatar in ALO was named Kuro (クロ), though she later imported her SAO avatar, Lux.

ALfheim Online Avatar


Although Kuro was randomly generated by the system, it greatly resembles the appearance of Kirito's Spriggan avatar: slightly long black hair and a delicate, feminine face with long elf ears. After noticing the similarity, Kuro chose to wear similar clothes to Kirito's: a black leather coat with a black shirt underneath and matching black gloves, pants and boots. She also uses two swords, similarly to how Kirito used Elucidator and Dark Repulser. Although the two swords that Kuro uses have similar features and colours to Kirito's swords, their design is much more plain.

Hiyori later changed her avatar in ALO to a version imported from Sword Art Online, Lux, whose appearance is nearly identical to her real life appearance, except for her long elf ears. Lux is a Sylph who has long, bright hair and wears a coat with an emphasis on the chest area, and boots. Her avatar also had a tattoo on her leg, which resembled the mark used by the Laughing Coffin, but the tattoo faded soon after her avatar was imported.

Personality
During her time in SAO, Hiyori was a person who was reluctant to trust others, until she met a girl named Rossa, who befriended her. However, after Rossa sacrificed herself to shield Hiyori from a lethal attack, Hiyori began to avoid people again, feeling that she did not want to lose anyone else precious to her. Though when she forgets about her decision to stay away from players, she is shown to enjoy the company of other people.

Hiyori is a protective and caring person, as shown by how she shielded Leafa, Lisbeth and Silica from a monster's attack and the first thing she asked them was whether any of them were hurt. It is also made apparent by the fact that she wishes to become stronger just so that she could protect everyone with her own strength.

Background
Hiyori was once a player in Sword Art Online, where she lost her best friend, Rossa. Hiyori greatly admired Kirito, who eventually cleared the death game, and looked up to his strength. After New Aincrad was released and she decided to play New ALfheim Online, she noticed that her avatar was really similar to Kirito's, thus she decided to get similar clothes and even attempted to imitate his dual wielding style in the game out of great admiration for him, though she could only use her second sword for parrying and reproduced One-handed Sword Skills with both swords to imitate Kirito's style.

Girls Ops
Kuro first appeared fighting a monster in an abandoned tower for the Ring of the Angel quest in New Aincrad. As the boss's HP bar closed to depletion, she was found by Leafa, Lisbeth and Silica, who had also come to defeat the monster for the quest. As the boss attempted to attack the girls with an Area of Effect (AoE) attack, Kuro blocked the attack and finished off the boss by using the monster's post-attack delay to deal the final blow.

While on their way back to the Angel's Rose Garden, Silica accidentally fell onto her after an earthquake, causing Silica to get embarrassed. Realising that she had not yet introduced herself, Kuro told the trio her name and revealed that she was actually a female.

After reaching the Rose Garden and finding it in ruins, Kuro realised that she had gotten too close to the trio of girls and said that she would be heading on her own from that point on, as she had decided on not partying with other players.

Gallery

 * See: Kashiwazaka Hiyori/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * Hiyori's newly created ALO avatar's name was derived from the first kanji in Kirito's title, The Black Swordsman (黒の剣士), where Kuro means "black" in Japanese.
 * Hiyori will be introduced to the non-canon game Sword Art Online: Lost Song as a playable character, in which she will be voiced by Akasaki Chinatsu.

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