Kirigaya Kazuto

Kirito (キリト) is the protagonist of the Sword Art Online light novel series. He was chosen as one of the 1000 beta testers for the Closed Beta of « Sword Art Online », the first ever VRMMORPG for the Nerve Gear. His real name is Kirigaya Kazuto (桐ヶ谷和人).

Real World / Sword Art Online Avatar
During the beginning of the game and during the beta-testing phase, Kirito's avatar had the appearance of a handsome antagonist older than he actually was. After using the «Hand Mirror», the item which Kayaba Akihiko gifted to all participants, his avatar changed to reflect his real physical appearance.

Kirito has slightly long but neat black hair and black eyes. His delicate face has no trace of masculinity, allowing people to mistake him for a girl.

After the initial stages, he becomes well known in SAO as the «Black Swordsman» (黒の剣士) due to his tendency to wear black clothing. He uses two swords after his Sword Skill « Dual Blades » is revealed, the black «Elucidator» and the white « Dark Repulser ». He later donned the red and white uniform of the Knights of the Blood after being defeated by its leader Heathcliff in a public duel.

In the real world he has a tendency to gravitate towards dark colored clothes.

ALfheim Online Avatar
Kirito's initial appearance was that of a default «Spriggan», which he chose because of the race's black-themed equipment. Instead of the normal black forelocks hanging from his head, his black hair stood in natural spikes. His large eyes appeared mischievous, and he had dark grey-ish blue wings. During Mother's Rosario his hair is down rather than his normal spikes. He is equipped with a large broadsword intended for larger players like «Imps». He will occasionally dual wield using his experience from SAO.

After converting his avatar back from his brief stint in Gun Gale Online, his previously unkempt hair stays down, though his michievous black eyes remain the same. He also receives a new coat and switches his broadsword with a new longsword.

In late December, 2025, he obtains the «Holy Sword Excaliber», and uses that for his dual wielding weapon.

Gun Gale Online Avatar


Kirito's avatar in GGO is the rare «M9000» type that many male players dream of having one day. His hair flows smoothly down to his shoulders and retains its original black color. He has pale skin and crimson lips, and his shining black eyes were fringed by long eyelashes. If you didn't know better you'd say he was female. This causes great confusion to Sinon, who helps him under the belief that he is a female only to find out in the changing room that he isn't.

He is equipped with a 5.7mm FN Five Seven handgun and « Kagemitsu G4 » photon sword.

Personality
Kirito is someone who isn't good with words as said by Klein and can be quite direct. This is due to him not having many friendships and closing others off, because of his love for computers. As such he can come off as a rude person to others such as Lisbeth and Sinon. He sometimes actually seems to enjoy angering people as well.

However, Kirito is actually a kind person who just is misunderstood. Despite the general population opinion towards Beta Testers in SAO, he refused to abandon another player in trouble. This is only strengthed after the Black Cats of the Full Moon demise. He also comforts others who are scared or down such as Silica after she lost Pina. He claims to help some female players in SAO beacuse they remind him of his sister, who he feels guilty for believing he forced her into kendo. These kind acts have earn him respect and affection from many girls. Kirito, unlike usual male heroes, isn't very dense as he was able to tell Lisbeth was going to confess to him before Asuna interrupted.

Kirito is also a very emotional person and lets his emotions control him from time to time. The deaths of Sachi and Black Cats of the Full Moon haunted him until his marriage with Asuna. He snaps when Asuna's character was killed by Heathcliff. This worries his friends and allies as Kirito is someone who would let guilt ruin his life if not comforted. He also tries to hide his abilites not wanting uneeded attention.

After escaping SAO, Kirito attempts to repair his relationship with Suguha, his cousin. This shows Kirito is now attempting to make up for his past mistake of ignoring her, showing a sense of maturity. Kirito, later in the series, is shown to be a calm and mature player who can be teasing as well (something that annoys Sinon to no end being his main target).

Background
Born October 7, 2008, Kirigaya Kazuto was adopted by his aunt and uncle a year after his birth when his biological parents died in an accident. Raised by his foster parents as a son, he originally trained with his cousin in the neighborhood kendo dojo under their grandfather's tutelage. Due to his aunt's influence as an editor for a computer systems magazine, however, Kazuto fell in love with computers and dropped kendo after two years.

Kazuto has immense skill as a programmer, managing to build a computer from parts during elementary school, finding his erase records in the national registry at the age of ten, as well as managing to stop the SAO server from deleting Yui by converting her program into an object and storing her into his Nerve Gear as environmental data.

He currently lives with his family, adopted by his aunt and uncle after his parents died, though his uncle is often not around. He was raised as their son with his cousin as his sister. He was originally trained in kendo by his grandfather but had little interest in it, and as a result his sister began to cover for him.

Sword Art Online Closed Beta
One of the lucky 1000 players accepted into the beta, Kirito logs hundreds of hours of playtime. He, along with the other top players, were able to reach the eight floor before the beta had ended.

Sword Art Online
Shortly after logging in to the now fully released SAO, Kirito is stopped by a stranger. Klein, a new guy, asks for his help in learning how to play. After befriending each other and training in the fields for several hours, they are forcefully teleported back to the Town of Beginnings, to receive an announcement from Kayaba Akihiko. He reveals that the lack of a log out function, which they had just recently realized, was a "feature" of his new game, and that forced removal of the Nerve Gear head piece from the other side will fry the person's brain using microwaves. The only means to escape is to clear the game; that is, to successfully defeat all 100 levels of Aincrad and defeat the final boss. Kirito immediately grabs Klein and runs off, and after hearing that Klein will remain with his friends here, he leaves him and heads off to the next town.

Following a two year time skip, Kirito is a clearer and is currently on the frontlines which are now located on the 74th floor. He goes on a mapping run with Asuna, a friend of his and sub-leader of the Knights of Blood guild. Together they find the boss room. On the way back they encounter a unit of "The Army," who they assume will try to challenge the boss. They chase after them to try and convince them to stop, but the Army ignores their warnings and continue on. Once inside the boss room, the Army players realize that the room is an "anti-crystal area" so they can neither heal or escape. Upon arriving, Asuna impulsively runs in to help them, and Kirito quickly follows her. He is forced to activate his "Dual Blades" secret skill to save Asuna and the others.

After the boss fight, word about Kirito's ability spreads throughout Aincrad. Asuna asks for a temporary leave of absence from her guild and Heathcliff, the leader, says that he will only allow permission if Kirito defeats him in a duel. If Kirito loses, he will have to join the guild. Kirito accepts the challenge and is on the verge of winning, but at the last moment Heathcliff moves with impossible speed. The duel ends with Kirito's loss, forcing him to abide by their deal. A few days after joining the KoB, he is sent on a mandatory training run with some other members. During this exercise, he and the two others are betrayed by Kuradeel. Kuradeel kills the others and saves Kirito for last, but Asuna barely manages to save him. She lets Kuradeel live, but he attacks them again and Kirito is forced to kill him.

After this, Kirito announces his feelings for her, and again they ask for leave. They get married and go on a honeymoon on the 22nd floor. After 2 weeks they get a call: the boss room of the 75th floor has been found. They return to the frontlines and participate in the battle. During the battle Kirito, Asuna, and Heathcliff manage to hold back the incredibly powerful boss while the rest of the players attack him. After the long battle Kirito has an intuitive realization that Heathcliff is none other than Kayaba Akihiko himself and proves that fact by attacking him, revealing his "Immortal Object" status. Kayaba applauds Kirito and tells him that he will be waiting on the 100th floor as the final boss... unless Kirito wishes to have a duel right now. Kirito agrees despite Asuna begging him otherwise. After a few minutes of fighting, Kirito becomes enraged and uses a sword skill, and Kayaba, knowing the system all too well, takes advantage of the delay to finish him off, but Asuna quickly intercepts the blow for him, despite her paralysis, and dies from the attack. Kirito, filled with rage, attacks Kayaba thoughtlessly and is quickly struck down. Through a final push of his will, and even delaying his death, he stabs Kayaba in the neck with Asuna's blade. Kayaba and Kirito both vanish, ending up in an area located above Aincrad along with Asuna. Kayaba explains his reasons as to why he created SAO before vanishing along with his castle. Kirito wakes up in a hospital bed, his body frail and weak, and vows to find Asuna.

The First Day
Kirito spends the first day making his way to the next village. He has decided to complete a quest to obtain a new sword (of which he knows about by participating in the beta). During this quest he encounters another player, a beta tester named Coper, who proposes they form a party and complete it together. After a while, a trap monster appears and Coper purposely trips it. Kirito quickly realizes that Coper was trying to kill him and take the rare quest drop himself. Kirito manages to escape, but Coper, who does not know that his «Hiding» skill will not work in this situation, dies. This causes Kirito's mortality to heavily weigh on him.

Aria in the Starless Night
One month into the game, 2000 people have died, and the first floor has yet to be cleared. Kirito encounters a player in the first dungeon and realizes that it was a female player. The player fainted, so Kirito carried her outside the dungeon they were in. After saving her, they return to the village, where she reveals her name, Asuna. The next day, they both go to a meeting organized by a player named Diabel. Forty four people go to the meeting and decide to try and defeat the boss of the first floor. During the boss fight Kirito is put in support for the E group along with Asuna. They are in charge of clearing the mob monsters that accompany the boss. During the fight, Diabel dies, causing everyone to panic and Kirito to recognizes Diabel from the beta test. He reorganizes everyone to attack the boss again, with Asuna's help he gets a last attack and is awarded the Coat of Midnight. After the fight, many grieve the loss of Diabel and say that this is all the beta testers fault. Kirito then realizes that normal players must make peace with the beta testers and declares himself as a Beater, thereby isolating the hate directed at the beta testers onto himself. Asuna and Agil, two of the clearers, were the only ones who understood his intention.

Red Nosed Reindeer
With the approach of Christmas eve, all of the NPCs start talking about a mysterious monster which will appear on Christmas and drop rare items if defeated, causing players to look for clues regarding its future location but nobody finds a good lead. Kirito found Klein and talked to him for a while. They did not care about the boss until they learned that it will drop a resurrection item, so Klein started looking for Kirito for help on defeating this boss.

With the news, he remembers his time with Sachi and the Black Cats of the Full Moon and remembers how it all began, how he hid his higher level from them and helped them reach higher levels. One day Sachi ran from the group, Kirito used his Tracking skill to find her and formed some kind of relation with her, he made her forget her fear of dying and she helped him to clear his conscience from lying to the other members of the guild. One day the group decide to hunt for treasure while their leader, Keita, was off. They ignored Kirito's advice and activated a trap, causing a bunch monsters to surround them. Kirito survived due to his relatively high level, but the others were killed. He returned to the town and told everything to their leader, and the shock of the death of his companions caused Keita to commit suicide.

Kirito managed to find the area, but was followed by Klein and his guild, and then by the Divine Dragon Alliance guild. Klein and his guild stopped the other guild while Kirito fought Nicolas the Apostate. At the end of the fight, Kirito was barely holding off. He had not ever been so close to dead, but he won and obtained the resurrection item. However, to his surprise and frustration, the item only resurrected people within 10 seconds of their HP reaching 0, so it was useless for him. He gave the Divine Stone of Returning Soul to Klein and slowly walked back to the town. Klein tells him that he must not die, that he must beat the game and save everyone.

The Black Swordsman
Upon encountering Silica in the Forest of Wandering, he saves her from a party of attacking « Drunken Apes ». He apologizes for being unable to save Pina her dragon, but tells her that it is possible to revive Pina. After explaining the process he gives some equipment to Silica and takes her back to the town. He talks with Silica during dinner and before sleeping, which is when he explains that he is helping Silica because she reminds him of his sister.

The next day they depart to the 55th floor to find the Flower of Pneuma. On their way back, after find the flower but are ambushed by the members of the Titan's Hand Guild, who want the same flower. They attack Kirito but are easily defeated by his overwhelming skill. Finally Kirito reveals that he was looking for them because of a request from a leader of another guild those members were all killed, with the exception of the leader, by the Titan's Hand guild.

Kirito sends the bandits to The Army's prison and he and Silica promise to meet again in the real world.

A Murder Case in the Area
Generally speaking, you cannot kill someone within the safe zones (AREA). Two exceptions to this rule are known to exist: One is to challenge a sleeping opponent to an all-out duel, and move their finger to accept. The second is to drag a sleeping opponent outside of the safe zone, whereby they can be targeted normally. After watching a man be hung by a noose, then die from being impaled by damage-over-time, Kirito and Company begin investigating. This mystery touches upon the past of a long-forgotten guild, Golden Apple, and the reason behind the death of its female guild leader.

Warmth of the Heart
Kirito charges into Lisbeth's store after being introduced to the place by Asuna. He wants Lisbeth to create him a sword that is on par with his «Elucidator». After allowing Kirito to see her best sword, he breaks it during a test run. Thus, the two embark on a journey to obtain a «Crystalite Ingot» to forge what would eventually be known as «Dark Repulser».

Morning Dew Girl
While Asuna and Kirito were on their honeymoon on the 22nd floor, they receive a rumor of a ghost in the forest and decided to go check it. In the forest they found a young girl goes by the name of Yui, to their surprise, she is an AI whose purpose was to monitor the mental health of SAO players. Asuna and Kirito decided to adopt Yui as their daughter. Yui's programme was saved into a crystal necklace, with the help of Kirito who excels at programming skill, to prevent the SAO operating system Cardinal from deleting Yui as a purge against interference by foreign object. This data is saved as environmental data within Kirito's NerveGear in hope of reviving Yui in the future.

ALfheim Online
When Kirito learns that Asuna fails to wake up he falls into despair. A few days later Agil shows him a picture of «ALfheim Online»'s screenshot of a woman with Asuna's appearance. He then dives in the game to save her. He selects the Spriggan race since the schema matched his tastes, yet instead of spawning at the starting city of the Spriggan, he appears in midair falling to the ground in Sylph territory. He later finds out that Yui can be a part of the ALO system. He ends up right in the middle of a conflict between Lyfa and two salamanders. After which he easily defeats them. He then asks for help from Lyfa after introducing Yui to help him get to Aarun.

Gun Gale Online
When Kikuoka, who is in charge of net crimes division calls him to a pastry shop to chat, he finds out about «Death Gun». Hearing about the potential threat Kirito agrees to investigate, GGO for a fee. Upon converting, he is stunned at his appearance being extremely feminine. He encounters Sinon asking for help. She offers to help him get started. Kirito with minimal funds and against Sinon's advice participates in the bullet dodging game. Kirito using his previous experience successfully wins the game and wins a large amount of funds.

He uses all his funds in buying a laser sword, a five-seven handgun and equipment to participate in the Bullet of Bullets event. After a rush through the city Sinon and him enter the tournament, in it Kirito uses a never before seen battle style in which he deflects the bullets with his sword. Kirito and Sinon manage to get into the finals held the next day, although Kirito is shocked by his encounter with Death Gun.

(incomplete summary)

Mother's Rosario
He challenges «Absolute Sword Yuuki» to a duel and loses, though he didn't dual wield. He later appears to fend off a clearing guild and give the Sleeping Knights a chance to challenge a floor boss, and he brings out the «Holy Sword Excaliber» and dual wields in this battle to do so. He also reveals his outside system skill «Spell Blast». He along with Klein holds off the guild for three minutes before succumbing to the overwhelming numbers. He again faces Zekken in the ALO sword tournament, where he loses but doesn't dual wield.

Project Alicization
Recruited by Kikuoka for an experiment with a new form of VR system, developed by the mysterious company RATH, Kirito awakens in a fantasy style forest with no memory of how he got there. There, he meets a teenage woodcutter named Eugeo, who seems too life-like to be a NPC.

Relationships

 * See Kirito's Relationships

When Kirito starts to love computers, he does not like to interact with other people, including his cousin Suguha. But after completing SAO and ALO, he maintains his relationship with his friends and acquaintances from SAO and ALO. He continues to make relationships with other people as the series progresses.

In the real world he has problems establishing relationships with people, especially women, but in the games he easily makes friends even more so with women than men.

Although Kirito is focused on Asuna, he is unaware that there are other girls who have feelings for him.

Sword Art Online (SAO)

 * Level: 96
 * Main Equipment:
 * ​「Anneal Blade」 (One Handed Straight Sword - «Secret Medicine of the Forest»'s reward)
 * 「Elucidator」 (One Handed Straight Sword - 50th Floor Boss drop)
 * 「Dark Repulser」 (One Handed Straight Sword - Player-made by Lisbeth)
 * 「BlackWyrm Coat」 (Leather Coat - Player-made by Ashley) - Last black coat
 * 「Coat of Midnight」 (Leather Coat - 1st Floor Boss drop) - First black coat
 * Skill Slots: 12
 * Equipped Skills:
 * One Handed Sword - 1000 «Mastered»
 * Dual Blades «Unique Skill» - 1000 «Mastered»
 * Blade Throwing - 967
 * Parry - 1000 «Mastered»
 * Battle Healing - 944
 * Searching - 1000 «Mastered»
 * Tracking - 963
 * Hiding - 1000 «Mastered»
 * Night Vision - 908
 * Extended Weight Limit - 949
 * Sprint - 870
 * Fishing - 604

One Handed Sword Skills

 * Horizontal Square
 * Flashing Penetrator
 * Reaver
 * Slant
 * Vertical Square
 * Vorpal Strike
 * Weapon Break
 * Deadly Sins
 * Sonic Leap

Unarmed Skills

 * Martial Arts
 * Embracer
 * Meteor Break
 * Escape «Mastered»

Dual Blades Sword Skills

 * Double Circular
 * Starburst Stream
 * The Eclipse
 * Snake Bit

Alfheim Online (ALO)
New Equipment:
 * Black Sword - Large Black Sword bought in Sylvania, Kirito's default Sword. Replaced by a new Long Sword in the 7th Volume
 * Excaliber (from ALO) - The strongest sword known in the SAO/ALO Universe
 * Long Sword - A Long Sword that replaced the Black Sword as his main default sword.

Outside System Skills

 * Arms Blast (from SAO) - Destroys a weapon by attacking the weakpoint of one with a powerful blow.
 * Spell Blast (from ALO) - Intercepts a spell using a sword skill.
 * Skill Connect (from ALO) - Allows Kirito to chain his sword skills.
 * Bullet Deflect (from GGO) - Allows Kirito to deflect bullets with his sword

Gun Gale Online (GGO)

 * Kagemitsu G4 - A blue light saber created by GGO developers on a whim to imitate a classic movie
 * FN Five-seven - A semi-automatic pistol use to close in distance between the enemy

*Note: Many of his skills have been demonstrated in ALO and GGO, except they mostly function without system assist and depend on Kirito completely.

Underworld (UW)

 * Sword of Blue Rose - Shared for a brief time with Eugeo untill he got his own equivalent sword made out of a Gigas Cedar branch that received the most life from the Gods Solus and Terraria.
 * Wooden Sword - Kirito's own sword that is made out of a branch of the Gigas Cedar. It is equal to Eugeo's Sword of Blue Rose. It is black in colour.

Notable Achievements

 * Cleared the cursed death game, «Sword Art Online»
 * Reached the top of the World Tree, «ALfheim Online»
 * 2nd Place in «ALfheim Online» Cross Territory Race
 * 2nd Place in «ALfheim Online» Swordsman Tournament (without Dual wielding)
 * Co-winner of the Third «Bullet of Bullets» (alongside Sinon), «Gun Gale Online»
 * Owner of the legendary sword «Excaliber» in «ALfheim Online»

Trivia

 * Kirito rides a bike which has also had a multitude of passengers including Asuna, Suguha, and Asada.
 * Kirito is the first place winner for the Top 10 Male Characters in the Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! 2012 awards. He placed third back in 2011.