Nanairo Arshavin


 * This character's name is alternatively translated as Rainbow Arshavin (English localisation).

Seven (セブン) is a new game-original character featured in the game adaptation Sword Art Online: Lost Song. Her real-life name is Professor Nanairo Arsharvin (アルシャービン). Nanairo's ALfheim Online (ALO) avatar is a Pooka, a type of fairy who uses songs to boost her allies' stats in battle. Her in-game weapon is a large staff that she wields with both hands.

Background
In her early childhood, Nanairo Arsharvin was the younger sister of Karatachi Nijika (Rain), and they lived together in their home in Russia. It was from her older sister that Nanairo learned many of the greetings she uses in the present, such as "privyet". Since an early age, Nanairo displayed her genius and this caused her parents to argue about her future, which eventually led to their divorce. Using his authority, her father obtained custody over Nanairo, and took her to America, while Nijika returned to Japan with her mother. Until Nanairo, as Seven, later met Nijika, as Rain, after the game's main story, Nanairo remained unaware that she had an older sister and lived with her father, who made her pursue her capabilities as a genius. As a result, she graduated from university at the age of twelve.

On top of her real life career as a scientist, Seven presents herself as a idol singer in the virtual world, and her songs promote peace. According to her fans, she writes the lyrics to her own music.

During an interview, Nanairo revealed her admiration for the achievements Kayaba Akihiko made when he created Aincrad; however, she stated that this did not justify the incident he caused. When speaking alone with Kirito, she mentioned that she wanted to play Sword Art Online (SAO) but was not able to. Despite the crimes Kayaba had committed, she wanted to use his idea for virtual reality as a springboard for her own research, as she desired that the players of ALfheim Online had a peaceful future, where no fighting would occur, despite of the competition between races.

Lost Song
Soon after Kirito and his friends logged into ALO, which had recently been updated, word about Seven's popularity and fame spread throughout town. She was first spotted by Kirito and others when she and Sumeragi entered the town plaza and were immediately surrounded by fans, some begging to join Shamrock. Her cuteness eventually won over Klein, who become one of her fans as well.

Seven made her first major appearance in the story when she bumped into Kirito in town while trying to hide from Sumeragi, after the rest of his party logged out for the day. Seven started to seek out Kirito to talk with him more, all the while still being followed by her fellow Shamrock members and Sumeragi. When the two met at Agil's shop, Kirito asked Agil to keep the fact he met her a secret from anyone else for the time being. Seven and Kirito enjoyed talking with each other, and Kirito started to learn more about how her research stemmed from Akihiko's work with Aincrad.

When asked by Kirito if she knew Rain at the time she was dismissed from Shamrock, Seven claimed that she had not met her. Seven later made an appearance at Kirito's group's party after defeating the boss at Flosshilde, and Seven met Rain in person, lightly punishing her for her reasons for joining Shamrock via deception.

As Kirito's party continued clearing the game, eventually reaching Niflheim, the Dark World, Kirito began questioning the kind of affection and loyalty Seven's fan club and the members of Shamrock showed her. To verify the extent of this, the group attended one of Seven's concerts, and discovered that her words seemed to affect the viewers, making them motivated to complete her wishes. When Kirito's group managed to beat the boss outside the central tower and entered the final dungeon, they discovered an empty room full of Remain Lights of fallen Shamrock and Seven fans, who were undoubtedly used as sacrifices for Seven's advancements. After having cleared the boss in the next room, Kirito met Seven and Sumeragi. Seven apologized for the unfair tactics her guild members had used against them previously, and declared that she wished to speak with them at Agil's cafe.

At the cafe, Seven explained that her reason for joining ALO was to run tests on her latest creation, the Cloud Brain. Having gathered emotional data from the other players, the Cloud Brain was meant to unify the emotions of many players around one single point, essentially the same as what Kirito's group had witnessed at the concert. She then extended an invitation to join Shamrock to Kirito to clear the game and complete the final stages of the Cloud Brain. Despite being impressed with her songs and research, Kirito refused the invitation, as he believed that fighting hard with his loyal friends was his way to enjoy the game. Seeing as words would no longer work, Seven took her leave, but not before telling Kirito that they would be waiting for his group in the final dungeon.

After defeating Sumeragi in a duel, Kirito arrived at the final boss's room, only to find Seven having already defeated it on her own. It was explained that she had used the special badges given to the other Shamrock members, as well as her fans, to be able to transfer complete control of their Original Sword Skills (OSS) to her. Using these, she was able to slay the boss on her own, despite the majority of remaining players having fallen. Without any care for the state of her guild mates, she proclaimed that word of her accomplishments would spread all across the game, as she declared the beginning of "Ragnarok's Pastoral". The thought of her only achieving victory through stealing her fellow guild mates experience angered Kirito. As Seven started to ponder about the results of her experiment, which were being recorded by Sumeragi, Rain slapped her.

Rain was angered as well, as seeing what Seven had did to her allies made her believe that her own job as an idol was a joke as well. Although Seven claimed that it had only been a simple "business transaction" she was doing, Rain retorted that Seven had only progressed thus far due to the people who supported her spoiling her out of love. Despite her outbursts, Seven declared that she would not stop, her experiment would be finished, and she would be recognized for it. This led to the beginning of Kirito and Rain's battle against Seven, who was armed with countless Original Sword Skills at her disposal. Despite this giant advantage, Kirito's party still defeated Seven.

Following her defeat, Seven's uncontrolled rage erupted, and she began claiming she would be the one to be worshiped as a goddess for clearing Svart Alfheim and defeating the «Hero of SAO». However, at that moment, Seven's avatar became corrupt and mutated from the stress of commanding a large number of Original Sword Skills, and thus it transformed into a monstrous form, which confronted Kirito's party one last time as the final boss. Throughout the fight, Seven's rage continued to grow as she lost rational thought. However, as the fight continued, Rain became unwilling to fight, as realized that Seven was merely having an emotional outburst, and thus could not hurt her anymore. The battle ended with Kirito's victory, and Seven's avatar returning to normal.

Defeated and on the verge of losing her hit points, Seven ultimately broke down and started bawling, as she could not understand her failure. Sensing that it was the weight of expectation collapsing on her, Rain opened her arms and embraced Seven without a second thought, letting her cry to her heart's content. At the same time, uproars began to spread as the video feed of Seven's activity flooded the forums. Eventually, Seven's avatar lost all her hit points and her avatar disappeared.

Days later, in the aftermath of the event, not only had Seven practically stopped having concerts in ALfheim Online, but Shamrock's activity had practically halted, as her fans began dwindling away, some even unwilling to help her organise concerts. Despite such circumstances, Seven returned to her normal cheerful self, became a regular at Agil's cafe and began spending time with Kirito and the others.

After meeting Rain in real life, Kirito thought of a scheme to bring the sisters together again. After Kirito's duel with Rain, Seven arrived on the scene in time to learn the truth. Hearing everything Rain had to say, the memory of her childhood in Russia came flooding back, and she recalled her older sister, embracing her once more. Kirito watched on as the separated sisters were happy to be reunited.

In a short post-game scene, Seven invited her older sister to come join her to perform on stage at one of her concerts. Despite Rain having stage fright at first, Seven gave her older sister a mask to help ease her worries. The concert was a success, as the fans approved of the sisters singing together, prompting Rain to continue pursuing her dreams.

Seven joined the party for one final post-game event battle, where the entire group headed to Niflheim to challenge a new event quest boss. Throughout their journey in the dungeon, a voice spoke to them telepathically, asking how the players had managed to reach the point that they were at that day. Upon reaching the end, Rain and Seven both speak about how their lives had changed for the better after meeting Kirito and friends. The voice then introduced itself as «Lost Song», the most powerful event boss of the game. After defeating it, the group returned to Agil's cafe, where Seven revealed that Rain and her mother were coming to visit her in America very soon.

Gallery

 * See Seven/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * Seven is unlocked as a playable character after the defeat of the event boss «Lost Song».

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