Kashiwazaka Hiyori

Kashiwazaka Hiyori (柏坂 ひより), known as Lux (ルクス) in «Sword Art Online» (SAO) and «ALfheim Online» (ALO), and temporarily known as Kuro (クロ) in ALfheim Online, is one of the main characters in the Girls Ops spinoff. She was one of the 10,000 players trapped in «Sword Art Online», where she lost her best friend, Rossa.

Lux greatly admired Kirito for clearing the death game and thus looked up to his strength. After New Aincrad was released, Hiyori decided to play New ALfheim Online with a newly-created avatar, Kuro. The randomised avatar had a remarkable resemblance to Kirito's Sword Art Online avatar, she decided to get similar clothes and even attempted to imitate his dual wielding style in the game out of great admiration for him. Although she mostly used her second sword for parrying, she was able to reproduce One-Handed Sword Sword Skills with both swords to imitate Kirito's style.

When the Angel's Ring quest from Sword Art Online was implemented in ALfheim Online, Kuro immediately initiated the quest to obtain the Ring of Angel's Whisper due to a promise she had made to her friend Rossa in Sword Art Online. During the quest, Kuro encountered Leafa, Lisbeth, and Silica and became friends with them throughout the course of the quest. In the aftermath of the quest, Hiyori began attending the SAO Survivor School and started meeting her new friends in real life. She also decided to import her Sword Art Online avatar, Lux.

ALfheim Online Avatar


Although Kuro was randomly generated by the system, it greatly resembles the appearance of Kirito's Spriggan avatar: slightly long black hair and a delicate, feminine face with long elf ears. After noticing the similarity, Kuro chose to wear similar clothes to Kirito's: a black leather coat with a black shirt underneath and matching black gloves, pants and boots. She also uses two swords, similarly to how Kirito used Elucidator and Dark Repulser. Although the two swords that Kuro uses have similar features and colours to Kirito's swords, their design is much more plain.

Hiyori later changed her avatar in ALO to a version imported from Sword Art Online, Lux, whose appearance is nearly identical to her real life appearance, except for her long elf ears. Lux is a Sylph who has long, bright hair and wears a coat with an emphasis on the chest area, and boots. Her avatar also had a Laughing Coffin tattoo on the front of her upper left thigh, but the tattoo faded soon after her avatar was imported.

Personality
During her time in SAO, Hiyori was a person who was reluctant to trust others, until she met a girl named Rossa, who befriended her. However, after Rossa sacrificed herself to shield Hiyori from a lethal attack, Hiyori began to avoid people again, feeling that she did not want to lose anyone else precious to her. Though when she forgets about her decision to stay away from players, she is shown to enjoy the company of other people.

Hiyori is a protective and caring person, as shown by how she shielded Leafa, Lisbeth and Silica from a monster's attack and the first thing she asked them was whether any of them were hurt. It is also made apparent by the fact that she wishes to become stronger just so that she could protect everyone with her own strength.

Girls Ops
Kuro first appeared fighting a monster in an abandoned tower for the Ring of the Angel quest in New Aincrad. As the boss's HP bar closed to depletion, she was found by Leafa, Lisbeth and Silica, who had also come to defeat the monster for the quest. As the boss attempted to attack the girls with an Area of Effect (AoE) attack, Kuro blocked the attack and finished off the boss by using the monster's post-attack delay to deal the final blow.

While on their way back to the Angel's Rose Garden, Silica accidentally fell onto her after an earthquake, causing Silica to get embarrassed. Realising that she had not yet introduced herself, Kuro told the trio her name and revealed that she was actually a female.

After reaching the Rose Garden and finding it in ruins, Kuro realised that she had gotten too close to the trio of girls and said that she would be heading on her own from that point on, as she had decided on not partying with other players.

Gallery

 * See: Kashiwazaka Hiyori/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * Hiyori's newly created ALO avatar's name was derived from the first kanji in Kirito's nickname, The Black Swordsman (黒の剣士), where Kuro means "black" in Japanese.
 * Hiyori, as her ALO avatar Lux, was introduced to the non-canon game Sword Art Online: Lost Song, where she is voiced by Akasaki Chinatsu, as a playable character.
 * The two swords Hiyori used with her Spriggan character Kuro, and the sword Lisbeth gave her after she created her new Sylph character Lux were all included in the non-canon game Sword Art Online: Lost Song.

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