Honda Koharu

Honda Koharu (本多 小春), also known as Koharu (コハル) in Sword Art Online (SAO), is an original Sword Art Online game character and is the deuteragonist of Sword Art Online: Integral Factor. She was a Sword Art Online beta tester and is one of the 10,000 players who were trapped in Sword Art Online.

Sword Art Online
Like her real life appearance, Koharu's SAO avatar has straight, shoulder-length black hair and bright green eyes. Throughout Integral Factor's main campaign, Koharu wears a slightly upgraded version of her starting equipment, consisting of a dark magenta tunic with dark green features on the neck and wrists, a black mini-skirt, as well as a chest plate protecting her upper body. Her starter appearance also features a red belt accompanied by a red item pouch on her waist. Her canon choice of weapon type is a dagger.

Koharu features an upgraded armor in the first anniversary celebration pictures of Integral Factor. While the new outfit has not been incorporated into the main story yet, limited time events showcase Koharu in this new armor. Her first anniversary equipment features a similar color palette but is a lot more detailed with its patterns and design compared to the starter armor. It features a cut on the side of her mini-skirt, as well as cuts on both sides of her tunic showing Koharu's skin. In addition to the more detailed design, Koharu also wears black, thigh-high socks compared to her starter armor.

Personality
Koharu was initially afraid of fighting even when it was necessary, yet she overcame this fear after meeting the Protagonist.

Integral Factor
After Koharu reunited with the Protagonist on the day of SAO's official launch, the duo travelled outside the Town of Beginnings to refresh the former's combat skills. After spending some time practicing their combat skills alongside Kirito and his associate Klein, the group discovered that the logout button had mysteriously disappeared from their menus, at which point they found themselves abruptly teleported to the Town of Beginnings' Teleport Gate plaza. <!-- There, they learned {The topic of the article cannot be treated as a background character! Avoid been-there-did-nothing structures! -Gsi} from Kayaba Akihiko that all the players were now trapped in SAO until the game was cleared, as well as how the NerveGear would kill any player whose hit points were reduced to zero. Though initially stunned and disheartened by the news, Koharu was comforted at seeing the others' refusal to idly wait for help, which gave her the resolve to do her part in facilitating their escape from SAO. Their determination attracted the attention of Argo, who approached her and the Protagonist with advice on how{Not introduced properly! -Gsi} to strengthen themselves, which the two accepted.

Having become more self-confident from successfully following Argo's advice, Koharu and the Protagonist began helping lower-level players with their quests, hoping that setting smaller goals of aiding others would acclimate themselves to their eventual aim of reaching the 100th Floor. Their actions garnered the attention of Kibaou, who revealed he was assembling people to defeat the Floor Boss. Though Koharu agreed with Kibaou that they needed to work together to clear the game, she was reluctant to join his group if it meant abandoning all the other players too afraid to leave the Town of Beginnings. Nevertheless, the girl resolved to continue contributing to escaping SAO in her own way one step at a time.

{Missing proper transition - Gsi}

While attempting to eat lunch in the Teleport Gate plaza sometime later, Koharu's loud complaints over the quality of her food attracted the attention of Sachi, who offered her and the Protagonist part of her own lunch. In return, the duo gathered information on the monsters in the fields surrounding the Town of Beginnings on behalf of Sachi's friends, so the others could more easily acquire a spear for the girl. Their actions garnered the notice of Diavel, who invited them to join him in Tolbana for the eventual fight against the Floor Boss. Interested in learning more about the man's plans before making any further decisions, Koharu and the Protagonist said their goodbyes to Sachi with the promise of surviving the boss raid, upon which they traveled to Tolbana. There, the girl was inspired by the self-proclaimed knight's explanation that his group intended to vanquish the Floor Boss to show the other players SAO could be beaten. Thus, the girl and her partner followed Diavel's instructions in facilitating travel to the Labyrinth and procuring healing items for the raid members.

Having finished their assigned tasks, Koharu and the Protagonist attended the strategy meeting the next day in the Tolbana amphitheater, where they learned Diavel's party had located the boss room in the Labyrinth. However, the convention was interrupted by Kibaou's public condemnation of all former beta testers for the 2,000 players that had already died. Though indignant at the man's accusation, Koharu was persuaded by Argo to not intervene, instead letting Agil deescalate the situation. After the meeting, the pair were approached by Diavel for some last-minute preparations for the boss battle. Throughout the mission, the girl felt tempted to inform their leader of her and the Protagonist's statuses as former beta testers, but could not find the right opportunity to do so.

With the completion of their final errands, Koharu and the Protagonist joined the rest of the boss raiding party the next morning in traveling to the Labyrinth via the Teleport Monuments, where they eventually faced Illfang the Kobold Lord and his Ruin Kobold Sentinels. Although most of the boss fight proceeded without complications thanks to a guidebook created by the former beta testers, everyone was caught off-guard when Illfang switched to a different weapon than they had expected and unleashed a devastating attack that critically injured Diavel. Stunned by the new development, Koharu could only watch as the Protagonist managed to rescue the raid leader but was galvanized by Kirito's and his partner Asuna's resolve into continuing the battle until the boss was defeated. However, their victory was interrupted by Kibaou accusing Kirito of deliberately withholding important information about the boss's changes, inflaming anti-beta tester sentiment among the group. Though Koharu and the others attempted to placate the crowd, the situation was only defused by Kirito proclaiming himself a Beater to focus animosity towards beta testers on himself. Feeling her own inability to help save Diavel contributed to Kirito needing to scapegoat himself, the girl vowed to become braver and stronger so such an outcome would not have to happen again.

Having reached the 2nd Floor, Koharu and the Protagonist spent some time gathering materials for Asuna and Kirito to upgrade the latter's weapons, in appreciation of everything the swordsman had done for them. The upgraded weapons the pair earned for their assistance attracted Kibaou's notice, who revealed that many of the frontier players had divided themselves into two rival groups ever since Diavel resigned as their leader following Illfang's defeat: Kibaou's Aincrad Liberation Squad (ALS) and the Dragon Knights Brigade (DKB) headed by Diavel's teammate Lind. Though hesitant to involve herself considering the man's anti-beta tester stance, Koharu agreed to his request of collecting upgrade materials to help the Liberation Squad remain on equal footing with the Dragon Knights. Once Kibaou took his leave after the girl and her partner completed their tasks, they were approached by Kirito, who had sensed the escalating tensions between the factions and entreated the two for their aid in keeping the rivalry under control.

After Koharu and the Protagonist joined Argo, Asuna, and Kirito in a prearranged location, they learned there was a quest that detailed how the 2nd Floor Boss had changed from the beta test. By completing this quest before the ALS and DKB could hastily rush into the boss room, Kirito's group hoped to prevent a repeat of what had happened on the 1st Floor. Though the girl and her partner were forced to take a short detour to reunite a separated Sachi with her friends, they were able to finish their portion of the quest in time to meet with the others, whereupon they learned a new Floor Boss with a paralyzing attack had been added. Barely managing to relay the information to the boss raid party who had already entered the Labyrinth, Koharu and everyone else participated in the fight against Nato the Colonel Taurus, Baran the General Taurus, and Asterius the Taurus King. Although the bosses were vanquished without incident, the girl and the Protagonist were accused of manipulating the battle so as to steal the Last Attack bonus, but Asuna, Kibaou, and Kirito forced the instigators to stand down. Grateful for their intervention, Koharu and her partner accompanied the swordsman and the fencer to the 3rd Floor.{Requires more focus on Koharu and style cleanup -Gsi}-->

Trivia

 * Unlike other SAO players, Koharu's avatar at the beginning of the official launch resembled her real life appearance due to it being converted from a virtual reality (VR) shopping mall account. Having used this avatar throughout the beta test, she retained its appearance at the start of SAO's launch date to facilitate reuniting with the Protagonist.
 * Koharu makes a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation “Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night” during the meal at BLINK & BRINK. She can be spotted beneath Kirito's jaw.

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