Premiere

Premiere (プレミア) is a game adaptation-original character in Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization. Unlike the other main characters, she is a Non-Player Character (NPC), born from the creation of Sword Art: Origin.

Hollow Realization
Premiere was first seen staring unwaveringly at Kirito from among the players in the main plaza of the Town of Beginnings on the day of the beta opening of Sword Art: Origin. When Kirito noticed and tried to reach her, Premiere turned away, saying something inaudible, and disappeared into the crowd.

The next day, Premiere was encountered by Kirito again, who discovered that she was a quest giving NPC. However, Premiere's quest of bringing her outside the town only rewarded one Col on completion. After Yui revealed that Premiere was an NPC with no original coding telling her how to act, Premiere was given her name by Kirito's group and taken under their care until they could learn her original settings.

Some time later, when Kirito met with Asuna to complete a special event quest, Premiere appeared and silently gave them the impression that she desired their assistance with her quest line, thus the two agreed to forgo the special event. Along the way to their destination, the trio stopped to eat some homemade sandwiches, which Premiere enjoyed as she had felt hungry in a sense. After the meal, Kirito suggested taking a scenic detour from Premiere's usual route, during which they decided to explore a cleared cave.

However, upon reaching the end of the cave, the group was surprised to find a path existing in the place of a wall. Wondering what could have caused such a change, they proceeded further into the dungeon and defeated a skeleton miniboss, before finding themselves in a long hall with a mysterious stone on a pedestal at the end. As they approached the stone, Premiere folded her hands in a praying gesture. At that moment, the stone began glowing, only growing doubly brighter when Kirito and Asuna directly handed it to Premiere, who simply commented on its beauty. Stunned at the turn of events, Kirito and Asuna decided that the stone's reaction to Premiere's touch was part of her true quest, and allowed her to take possession of it before returning to the Town of Beginnings to report their findings to their friends.

At a later time, when players were misinformed that killing NPCs would earn them great rewards, Premiere was assaulted by another player, who was only stopped due to the intervention of Kirito and Argo, outside of town. After the player was forced to retreat by an attracted monster, Premiere was warned by Kirito of the possibility that other players might repeat the stunt on her, thus she was asked to allow him to protect her, to which she agreed.

Later, while Kirito, Asuna, and Sinon were discussing how to advance Premiere's quest further, Premiere unexpectedly approached them and personally requested Kirito to teach her how to protect herself. After Kirito hesitantly agreed to train her, Premiere was taken to the fields outside the Town of Beginnings, where she was taught how to wield a rapier, though she initially experienced difficulty performing Sword Skills. She offered to terminate the lesson, as it was merely a personal request, but Kirito encouraged her to continue. With a little more persistence, Premiere finally executed a successful Sword Skill, much to her satisfaction, and they proceeded to practice her techniques on several boars. After the lesson, she was allowed to join Kirito's party in battles outside of town.

A while after Lisbeth's Blacksmith Shop was opened, Premiere approached Asuna and Kirito while they were discussing a dungeon, which was possibly linked to the glowing stone they had found earlier, and greeted them with a line she had learned from another player. Premiere was informed of their findings and invited to join them, to which she agreed with another line she had heard.

About halfway to their destination, a quest marker appeared above Premiere's head just as Asuna and Kirito were considering where to stop for lunch, and at that moment, Premiere requested to take a detour to another location. As the two players agreed to do so, the quest cursor changed color, signifying that the quest had been accepted, and Premiere winced as if it had hurt her. The three followed the quest marker and found the Divine Tree that they had to receive protection from for the quest. Premiere walked past her companions toward the tree, bowed her head, and serenely folded her hands in prayer for several minutes. Once the sound indicating the completion of the quest resounded, Premiere had no objection to the resumption of their journey, though she insisted on having lunch before proceeding.

At the dungeon, the three discovered they had wandered further than the map data they had purchased from Argo had recorded. Deducing they had entered another secret area, similarly to their previous adventure, due to Premiere being in their party, they continued deeper into the cave and faced a ram miniboss. After the monster was dispatched, the group found themselves in a hall similar to the first, with a second mysterious stone on another altar at the end. As Asuna cheered over the accuracy of her finding, Premiere extended her hands and briefly hesitated before taking the stone, whereupon it began to glow like the first one. An inscription described the item as one of six sacred stones bestowed by the Goddess. As the two players speculated on the identity of the Goddess, Premiere confessed she had eaten more than her share of Asuna's lunch, prompting them to laugh. With Premiere in possession of the stone, the group returned to town.

While Premiere attempted to subtly manipulate Kirito into escorting her to another location after the opening of the Jeweled Peak Lakes area, Leafa, Silica, and Lisbeth informed them of a place in the swamps that was potentially related to the former's quest. Premiere and Kirito were led by the girls to the area in question, where they located an ancient dungeon holding the third Sacred Stone in a secret room at the back. Premiere retrieved the stone, which began to glow upon contact, and thanked the others for coming with her. The group searched the site for clues to location of the next quest, but to no avail. After they discussed how the questline felt as though it was unfinished, Premiere was requested to help Silica acquire materials for a quest, to which she agreed.

Once enough materials were gathered, Premiere followed Kirito's group as they trailed a large party that was using NPCs as bait to distract a powerful dragon boss, and joined them when they volunteered to take the NPCs' place. After the other party left at the conclusion of the battle, Premiere wondered about Kirito's pleased expression and the reason for the argument among the other players before the start of the fight. After discovering that Kirito was glad about the avoided casualties and conflict with the other party, Premiere pondered on Kirito's wish to protect lives, including those of NPCs, as they began returning to town.

Some time later, Premiere accepted the invitation of Kirito, Asuna, and Yuuki to visit a large tree, similar to the one she had prayed to earlier. However, nothing indicating any advancement on Premiere's quest occurred when they reached the tree. Thus, the group decided to return, encountering Genesis along the way.

Premiere was later invited to investigate a place potentially relevant to her quest with Kirito and Asuna. Having defeated a lion miniboss in the dungeon, the trio found the fourth Sacred Stone held in a secret room in the back. After taking the stone, Premiere thanked her companions for their assistance and patience. At that moment, she discovered an inscription that spoke of two Goddesses, who would descend when the land was covered in chaos to eradicate the darkness.

After Kirito's group uncovered that Premiere's quest would lead to the recreation of the events of The Great Separation, followed by the destruction of the newly created Aincrad, Premiere approached the group, requesting to be escorted to the desert.

After observing Kirito's battle with Genesis in the Temple of Prayers, she attempted to talk the Other Goddess, known now as Tia, out of going through with the quest. Tia proved to be unshaken, however, and decided to activate the final stages by herself, recreating Aincrad with only half the required power. Later, Premiere strangely went missing and was found by Kirito in the grasslands outside of town. Forced by Tia's will, which had been infused into the system, Premiere had been forced to seek Tia out so they could complete Aincrad. With help from Kirito, however, she managed to overcome and shatter the control over her before crying in his arms, stating that her true wish was to stay with Kirito forever. She later joins the party in raiding the incomplete Aincrad in an attempt to stop Tia and prevent it from destroying Ainground. When the battle was over, Tia attempted to kill herself as she believed the weak must die. However, it was Premiere's speech about all she had experienced with Kirito and the others that prevented Tia from killing herself. Following this, Premiere went with the group on a picnic to celebrate their victory.

Gallery

 * See Premiere/Image Gallery