Sword Art Online Light Novel Volume 10

Alicization Running (アリシゼーション・ランニング) is the 10th book in the Sword Art Online Light Novel series, published on July 10, 2012.

Summary
After Kirito is attacked by Johnny Black, an old player of SAO, he is rushed to the hospital. He falls into a coma due to his injuries, and then mysteriously disappears from the hospital. Asuna tries to find his location with help from her daughter Yui and Koujiro Rinko (the deceased Kayaba Akihiko's lover).

They discover that he is currently in the custody of Kikuoka Seijirou and Takeru Higa, who is currently experimenting with Soul Translator, the fourth generation FullDive technology.

Meanwhile, Kirito and Eugeo journey south to the town of Zakkaria in order to find the location of the abducted Alice.

Chapter 2 (Project Alicization, July 2026)
Asuna, Sinon and Leafa discuss Kirito's situation in ALO  after he is attacked. Kirito is transported to the hospital in order to receive emergency treatment for the poison that was injected into him. The doctors are successful in removing any lingering poison from his body and restore his heart beat. Soon afterward, he's transferred to a different hospital for better treatment, the ambulance leaves from the hospital but never arrives at the new one.

Asuna tries her best to search for his location with the help from Sinon, Lyfa and her "daughter" Yui by trying to figure out why he was kidnapped. They eventually reached a breakthrough, and determined that he is on a secret facility in the middle of the ocean - The «Ocean Turtle».

With the help of Koujiro Rinko, Asuna infiltrates the Ocean Turtle. They managed to track down Kirito, who is currently under custody of Kikuoka Seijirou. Kikuoka Seijirou transported Kirito's body to a place where the fourth generation FullDive technology, Soul Translator, is being experimented with. Kikuoka explains that Kirito's heart and body have recovered from the poison, but that he has incurred brain damage by decrease in the amount of oxygen that reached to it due to his heart stopping. Kikuoka explains that they are currently trying to recover his mind, which was damaged, through the Soul Translator.

The workings of the Soul Translator is further explained. Kikuoka's goal of creating a highly adaptive «bottom-up» artificial intelligence to substitute front line soldiers is revealed. This is done through duplicating the "souls" of infants in "Light Cubes" and growing them in an accelerated virtual environment. Kikuoka further explains that the soul translator can accelerate a person's sense of time by 1,000 times. (1 hour in real time = 41 days in accelerated reality)

Nurse Aki is revealed to be working under Kikuoka, and is taking care of Kirito in his comatose state.

Chapter 3 (Zakkaria Sword Arts Tournament, 8th Month of Human World Calendar 378)
5 UW months after leaving Rulid Village, Kirito and Eugeo woke up in a barn in the outskirts of the town of Zakkaria. They had been working as stable boys for a family of farmers for several months until that day and were getting ready for the Zakkaria Sword Arts Tournament, which was going to be held later that day. The two boys were greeted by the twin daughters of the farmers who brought pies to the boys before they headed off to town.

Kirito and Eugeo participate in the tournament, where the top two performers would be able to receive positions as guards in Zakkaria. After they are assured to be in different blocks, Kirito must become the top winner in the west block and Eugeo in the east. There was only one performer that Kirito kept an eye out for, as he suspected that the performer, Egome Zakkalight, secretly tried attacking the two before they could register. Egome used the Sword Skill «Vertical» in an attempt to defeat Kirito, but the latter quickly countered Egome's skill with the twin-consecutive Sword Skill «Snake Bite», and won the match by breaking Egome's blade, with the tip breaking off and then stabbing into the floor. This was a stepping stone on their way to reach Centoria's Central Cathedral.

Chapter 4 (Master Sword Academy, 3rd Month of Human World Calendar 380)
Kirito has now spent almost 2 years in the Underworld, which is considered to be about 18 hours in the real world. Kirito and Eugeo are now in a swordsmanship academy, training themselves to be the top students.

Kirito became a valet to a senior elite-swordswoman named Sortiliena Serlut. He has trained with her on most days, and has a great respect for her and her family's Serlut style of combat, which consists of using unorthodox weapons such as whips. One day after a sparring session, Serlut asked Kirito to show her everything he has, and so he promised that he would show her his true skills in the Aincrad-style the next day and told her to consider it a present. The reason for postponing this was because he intended to show her Sword Skills consisting of consecutive strikes, but the wooden sword he currently had would be unable to do anymore than 2-hit combos. He planned to ask Eugeo for his sword, but when he got around to that, he was reminded that the Gigas Cider branch, should be carved into a sword by the next day.

Early the next day, the duo went to Sadore's shop, the man who they were told by Garitta to take the branch to. The previous year, they had left the branch with him to make it into a sword, and since that day, Sadore had completed the one-handed straight-sword at Kirito's request. He allowed him to keep it for free, with a custom name of his own, and told him that he intends for the sword to be his shop's signature. Later that day, Kirito decided to travel to a secluded area in the woods near the school, and attempted to see how many consecutive strikes he could manage. He discovered that like with Eugeo's Blue Rose Sword, he could only make 4-hit moves successfully. When he attempted to exceed that limit, Kirito's pose was thrown off balance, and the sword struck the ground, sending mud flying in Uolo's direction, who had been standing there the whole time watching. Uolo, being the head student of that year, told Kirito that he would be punished for staining Uolo's uniform, but rather than forcing him to clean on a rest day, he said that they would spar in the practice arena. On reaching the arena, about 50 students had gathered and his senior, Serlut told him that she believes in him and told him to win. The spar began, and the two exchanged blows, but before either could hit the other, Miss Azurika, the dorm supervisor, halted the battle with the authority of being the first Swordswoman Representative of the Norlangarth Empire, during the Four Empire Unity tournament, 7 years ago. Uolo told Kirito that his punishment is complete, and left the arena.

Later, Kirito, Eugeo, and both their seniors went to Serlut's room and celebrated. After taking Eugeo to their shared room, Kirito went to water the Zephyria Flowers that he had been attempting to grow the whole year, in order to prove that The Underworld had parameters guided by "imagination". Upon arriving at the garden, he spotted 2 boys, Raios and Humbert, nobles whom had harassed Kirito and Eugeo for most of the year. He discovered that they had cut away all the Zephyria flowers he planted, and realized that though the Taboo Index protected property, the law did not claim these flowers as his property, due to being grown on soil that "belonged to nobody." However, a voice in his head told him to ask the Sacred Flowers in the garden, to help revive the life of the fallen Zephyria, and just like that, they all grew before his eyes.

In the graduation test of the Academy, Sortiliena finally defeated Uolo, graduating as the best student of the year. During the final graduation of Kirito's senior, Kirito gave her the pot of flowers as a gift, to which she happily accepted.

Interlude II
Kirito and Eugeo are now Elite Swordsman trainee with their own valet. Ronye, with tea colored hair, as Kirito's valet and Tieze, with red hair, as Eugeo valet. Tieze informs that she has finished cleaning and Eugeo is about to dismiss her, though he wonders where is Kirito, since Ronye has finished already, but she can't leave before Kirito dismisses her. In that instant Kirito enters the room through the window, with a bag filled with honey pies. He takes one for himself and gives one to Eugeo, giving the rest to Ronye and tells her to share it with her roommates.

Then Eugeo asks Kirito if he remembers what their goal was, and he reassures that they'll defeat the other 10 elite swordsmen in the academy, become Integrity Knights and continue to move forward to achieve their goal, finding Alice.

Adaption Notes

 * Much of the events within Volume 10, were not present within the Web Version of the story. All of Chapters 3 and 4 were only added within the Light Novel adaption. This was likely to provide more information about Underworld, and the schools both Kirito and Eugeo had to go through.

Volumen 10 Sword Art Online (Ранобе, Том 10)