Rainbow Bridge

Rainbow Bridge (虹の橋) is a Sword Art Online anime Blu-Ray/DVD bonus side story, written by Kawahara Reki. It was initially released as part of the limited edition version of the Extra Edition Blu-Ray/DVD on April 23, 2014. For the Sword Art Online light novel series' 10th anniversary, Rainbow Bridge was re-released as part of a side story collection titled Kiss and Fly (Volume 22) on October 10, 2019. It was also adapted into manga format by Bekkou Rico. The manga adaptation of Rainbow Bridge was released in parts. Part 1 was released on March 10, 2020 as part of the first volume of the Kiss and Fly manga. Part 2 was released on July 9, 2020 as part of the 10th volume of the Sword Art Online Magazine and has yet to be compiled into a manga volume. Part 3 has yet to be released.

Rainbow Bridge is a sequel to the story of the Extra Edition and chronicles Kirito and his friends' investigations of the «Deep Sea Plunderers» quest in an attempt to find a possible continuation to the quest's story.

Part 1
At the end of the «Deep Sea Plunderers» quest the seven member party of Agil, Asuna, Klein, Kirito, Leafa, Lisbeth and Silica, along with Yui and Pina were brought back to Alfheim by a whale. After being dropped off at a beach in Sylph territory, the group pondered about the quest. As there was no way to look up the dialogue lines of NPCs in the game, Yui repeated the conversation between Kraken and Leviathan, and then Leafa explained that the Æsir were a family of gods in Norse mythology, but no one understood what the «The Child» was. While the group talked about the overwhelming power of the gods, Kirito got lost in thought about how Kraken and Leviathan seemed as if they had their own volition, comparing them to an NPC that he had met on the 3rd Floor, Kizmel. Just as Kirito decided to halt his train of thought, Klein remembered that he had ordered pizza, which would arrive in three minutes, while flying to Swilvane for a safe log out would take at least ten minutes. Kirito then offered to watch over his avatar until it disappeared so that he could log out on the spot. He then also offered the same to anyone else in a hurry to log out and everyone aside from Leafa decided to accept the offer. After all of their avatars disappeared, Kirito and Leafa took off towards Swilvane.

Part 2
Fifteen minutes after logging out from ALfheim Online, Kazuto and Suguha were eating udon. While eating, Kazuto looked up information about Norse mythology, but when Suguha checked what he had found, she remarked that he was only reading a bare outline of it. Suguha was about to begin explaining about it in detail, but Kazuto stopped her, thinking that he had no need for such details. As they continued eating, Kazuto got lost in thought about whether the quest that they had completed would have follow up quests. Kazuto's train of thoughts was interrupted by Suguha, who reminded him to go to bed early, as they were planning a major cleanup of the dojo the following morning. However, Kazuto only promissed that he would go to bed in two hours and immediately left the room. In his own room, Kazuto put on his AmuSphere and initiated the command for FullDive.

Part 3
Once Kirito logged in to ALfheim Online and appeared in the inn where he had logged out, he wondered how to reach his destination without attracting too much attention, as it was rare to see a Spriggan in Swilvane. He decided to put on a hood an use a low-level illusion-attribute spell, «Moonshade Lurk», which made the player invisible while they were within the cover of a shade created by the moon. After navigating the city while avoiding being seen, he reached his destination, the Lord's Mansion of Swilvane.

The entrance to the mansion was guarded by NPC guardians, which only allowed those who were registered in the manaion's register of names to pass. Kirito was not registered in this list, but he wanted to meet with someone inside the mansion without rumours about his visit spreading, so he decided to use the cover of an artifcial lunar eclipse created by the floating castle Aincrad as it revolved around the fairy realm to infiltrate the mansion without being seen. As flight and magic abilities of outsiders were both nullified within the territory of the Lord's Mansion, Kirito tried jumping across the moat of the mansion. Barely making the jump with the help of his sword, Kirito proceeded to the top floor of the mansion.

There, Kirito entered Sakuya's room. After confirming that he did not mean any harm and explaining why he had infiltrated the lord's mansion instead of just sending a message, Kirito asked Sakuya for information about the quest that he had completed earlier that day, promising to tell Sakuya the secret of infiltrating the lord's mansion in return. To Kirito's surprise, Sakuya did not encounter Kraken nor Leviathan and she was transported by a squid instead of a whale, as she had given what she believed was a pearl to Nerakk. After settling the divergence of the quest's route, Kirito explained that what he really wanted to ask was about the «New Home» that Leviathan had mentioned. As Sakuya could not remember such a place, she activated a special map of Alfheim, with various points of interest marked on it. Using the map's search function, Kirito and Sakuya tried to find the so called «Home», but to no avail.

As Kirito tried analising Kraken and Leviathan's dialogue for clues again, he stopped his thoughts at the mention of a ruler of the sea and sky. He then asked Sakuya to display the lowest location in Alfheim on the map, which turned out to be the temple where the «Deep Sea Plunderers» took place. Kirito then asked for the opposite - the highest location in Alfheim. Without even checking the map, Sakuya revealed that it was the summit of the World Tree.

Error

 * The story claimed that New Aincrad was implemented in ALO back in April 2025, but multiple other materials stated that it was implemented in May 2025.

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