Kirigaya Kazuto

''The Black Swordsman redirects here. You may be looking for the light novel chapter or the anime episode.''

Kirito (キリト) is the main protagonist of the Sword Art Online light novel, anime and manga series. His name, Kirito, was taken from his real name Kirigaya Kazuto (桐ヶ谷 和人). "Kiri--" from Kirigaya and "to" from Kazuto. He was chosen as one of the 1,000 beta testers for the Closed Beta of «Sword Art Online», the first ever VRMMORPG for the NerveGear.

Personality
Kirito is someone who is not good with words, as said by Klein, and can be quite direct. This is due to him not having many friends 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. Sometimes, he actually seems to enjoy angering and teasing people as well. Also, from time to time, Kirito can be quite overconfident thinking he can do things others can not.

He is almost always a calm and collected character, rarely showing any signs of distress. When Kayaba Akihiko appeared in SAO and announced that it has become a Death Game, Kirito showed only a slight reaction and was able to quickly accept the new conditions of the game, while many others panicked. He has shown different moods throughout the series; at times being rather cheerful, while being gloomy at others. When in a battle, he becomes incredibly fierce and aggressive. Sometimes, his fierceness is up to the point where he loses control of himself and is even unable to recall what he had done.

However, Kirito is actually a kind person who is just misunderstood. Despite the general population opinion towards Beta Testers in SAO, he refused to abandon another player in trouble. This is only strengthened after the Moonlit Black Cats's 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 because they remind him of his sister, who he feels to have forced into kendo and feels guilty for that. These kind of acts have earned him respect and affection from many girls. Kirito, unlike usual male heroes, is not very dense as he was able to tell that Lisbeth was going to confess to him, before Asuna interrupted them.

Kirito is also a very emotional person and lets his emotions control him from time to time. The deaths of Sachi and Moonlit Black Cats had haunted him until his marriage with Asuna. Sachi's death in particular had a huge affect on his personality, and motives; making him very distant from others for a while. This worries his friends and allies as Kirito is someone who would let guilt ruin his life, if not comforted. Kirito temporarily loses his will to live when Asuna's character was killed by Heathcliff. He also tries to hide his abilities, not wanting unneeded attention.

A person with incredibly strong resolve, Kirito will do anything and everything in his power to accomplish something that's important to him, without any hesitation. When Asuna was being held in ALfheim, Kirito was bound and determined to set her free and, when Yui confirmed that she detected Asuna being at the top of Yggdrasil, he immediately tried to fly up to the tree, which had already been found to be an impossible task, and tried to fight his way to the top by himself.

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, her being his main target).

Real World / Sword Art Online / Project Alicization Avatar
During the beginning of the game and during the beta-testing phase, Kirito's avatar had the appearance of a ridiculously handsome protagonist from some fantasy animation, looking noticeably older than he actually was. In the light novel, it was stated that he (and probably Klein, too) had set his in-game height equal to that of his height in the real world to prevent the extra height from hindering his movements.

In the full version of the game, a few moments after Kayaba Akihiko informed the players that they were given a gift from him, which turned out to be a «Hand Mirror», all player avatars were changed to reflect their real life appearances. After this change, Kirito's SAO avatar had slightly long but neat black hair and black eyes. His delicate face showed no trace of masculinity, allowing people to easily mistake him for a girl.

In the beginning of Project Alicization, he wore a hand-sewn pale blue short sleeved shirt with a V-shaped cut on the chest which was tied with a light brown cord along with trousers and hand-sewn leather shoes. Two years later, after he became a valet in the Sword Mastery Academy, he wears the standard gray uniform, like all first years and non-elite swordsmen do. In the second year of the academy, after he becomes one of the 12 elite swordsmen in the academy and is allowed to choose a color for his uniform, he wears a pitch black uniform.

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 pointy ears and dark grey-ish blue wings. He is equipped with a large broadsword, intended for larger players, like «Imps». He will occasionally dual wield using his experience from SAO.



On June 23, 2025, he changed his previous spiky hair style into his old SAO style due to Yui's request. The reason for the request was that it was hard for her to sit on the spiky hair. Later, he also acquired a new coat and switched his broadsword to a new long sword, with an extra one in his inventory.

In late December, 2025, he obtains the «Holy Sword Excaliber», and uses it as his second weapon when dual wielding, but only in extreme cases, as he promised to himself not to use the sword for personal gain.

Gun Gale Online Avatar


Kirito's avatar in GGO is the rare «M9000» type, which is speculated to be the result of an extremely rare occurrence of the system misinterpreting the player's brain waves (the system identifies the gender of the player via their brainwaves, but, on rare occasions, due to some impulse, it chooses the appearance of the opposite gender). It is an avatar that many male players dream of having, due to its female appearance. He retains his black hair, which now flows down to his shoulders. He has a pale skin and crimson lips, and shining black eyes, fringed by long eyelashes. If one did not know better, it would be easy to confuse him with a female. This often causes great confusion to people, such as Sinon.

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

Background


Born on 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, 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 erased 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 at Kawagoe City in the Saitama prefecture 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 closed-beta, Kirito logs hundreds of hours of playtime. He, along with the other top players, were able to reach the 10th Floor before the beta had ended.

Aincrad Arc


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 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.

The First Day
Kirito spent the first day making his way to the next village. He had decided to complete a quest, which he knew of from the beta period, to obtain a new sword. During this quest he encountered another player, a beta tester named Coper, who proposed forming a party and completing the quest together. After killing many Little Nepents, two more Nepents, one with the required item and another with a fruit, appeared. Kirito killed the one carrying the flower while Coper intentionally kills the one with the fruit while triggering the fruit, which caused many Little Nepents to swarm on their position. Kirito managed to escape, but Coper, who did not know that his «Hiding» skill would not work against monsters that did not rely on sight, died. This caused Kirito's mortality to weigh heavily on him.

Aria in the Starless Night
One month into the game, 2,000 people have died, and the 1st Floor has yet to be cleared. Kirito encounters a player in the first Labyrinth and realizes that it was a female player. The player fainted, and Kirito carried her outside of the Labyrinth they were in. He insisted that he only saved her in order to save the map data she had, which she later gave to him. But before she departed, Kirito suggested that she should go to the First Floor Boss Strategy conference at Tolbana rather than going to the Labyrinth.

They arrive to Tolbana, but they momentarily part ways. Kirito soon met up with Argo the Rat and learns that the buyer of his «Anneal Blade+6» had raised his price to 29,800 Col; however Kirito again refuses the offer and wonders why the Argo's client was so persistent.

Kirito later finds and join the player from the Labyrinth, they both began to eat their bread. Kirito gives her a pot of cream and later explain how he obtain the item and offer to give tips on how to gain the item efficiently but was quickly rejected by the player, stating that she didn't come to the town to eat good food. Kirito questioned why she was in the town and listened to her explanation. After the clarification, Kirito begins to apologize but was interrupted by the clock bell. The player realizes that the meeting was about to start so they both head to the conference.



The meeting was organized by a player named Diavel. Forty four people go to the meeting and decide to try to defeat the 1st Floor boss, discovered in Argo's strategy guide to be Illfang the Kobold Lord. During the boss fight Kirito is put in support for the E group along with the mysterious player. He and Asuna were in charge of clearing the mob monsters that accompany the boss.

All goes well until Illfang's last HP bar reaches its last third. Instead of a talwar, as he originally carried in the Beta, he now carried a nodachi. In this turn of events, Diavel was heavily wounded and subsequently died, after Kirito realized that Diavel had been a beta tester as well. Kirito then reorganized the shocked players and with Asuna, work together to take down the boss. After an intense battle, one of the tanks makes a mistake and triggers Illfang's Tsumujiguruma. Kirito quickly countered the attack with Rage Spike, tumbling the boss and allowing everyone to attack in full force while the boss was recovering. However, just as the boss's HP was nearing depletion, it recovered while the tanks were still recovering from their post-motion delays, prompting Kirito and Asuna to finish off the boss themselves. Kirito finally managed to deal the Last Attack on the boss and gained a unique item from it, the Coat of Midnight. As someone from group C brought up the death of Diavel and blamed Kirito for withholding information which led to Diavel's death. Kirito then realized that the beta testers needed to make peace with the regular players before the beta tester hatred got out of hand. Therefore, Kirito creates a new group of players, called Beaters, who were the only ones withholding information for their own benefit and dubbed himself as one them, so that all of the hate and rage would be focused on him instead of all the beta testers. Asuna and Agil, the two clearers who assisted in the boss fight, were the only ones that realized why he intended to call himself a Beater.

Rondo of the Transient Sword
Kirito visits a town looking for a blacksmith to enhance his «Anneal Blade» to +7, he finds Asuna and both watch a discussion between two players because one of them, the blacksmith, failed four consecutive times to enhance his weapon.

Kirito decides to help Asuna to gather more materials to enhance her Wind Fleuret, so they make a bet, which Kirito loses and has to treat her dinner, she chooses a restaurant that he knew, and after exiting, they find out that they got a luck buff, so he takes Asuna to the blacksmith to try to enhance, and although it had a 97% success, it failed and the weapon dissipated.

After calming Asuna and taking her to an Inn, he returns and follows Nezuha into a bar, where he encounters him talking to some friends about business and saying that it was good (contrary to all those failures). Kirito notices something and returns running to Asuna's Inn and enters her room abruptly, makes her materialize all her items, but at the end, he finds her Wind Fleuret.

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, as the NPCs say it spawns when at the "correct" fir tree. Kirito finds 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 Moonlit Black Cats 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 of a higher level then the members to spawn. The members were all killed one by one, except for Kirito (who had sneaked out when everyone was sleeping to maintain his level). He returns to town to tell their leader, Keita, who is shocked at the loss of his friends and commits suicide.

Kirito then meets up with Klein and his guild Fuurinkazan, with Klein stating that he had followed him so they could fight the boss. Moments later, the Divine Dragon Alliance showed up, who had followed Klein and his guild. Klein tells Kirito that the alliance will do anything to obtain any rare items, and asks Kirito to find the boss. Klein and his guild then hold the guild off, while Kirito searches for the special boss. Kirito finds the correct tree, and the event boss Nicholas The Renegade spawns and attacks him. Kirito easily defeats the boss and obtains the Divine Stone of Returning Soul, but to his disappointment, it only revives players 10 seconds after they have died. He gives the item to Klein and slowly walks back to town, and upon reaching his rented room, finds a special gift in his inventory.

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 item needed, and that she needs to come, he notices that her gear is of low level, and gives her new equipment. After having dinner with her and showing her the location of the Pneuma Flower, they sleep and depart to the floor the next day. Kirito reveals 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, whose members were all killed, with the exception of the leader, by the Titan's Hand guild.

Kirito then threatens the bandits until they agree to voluntarily go to The Army's prison and he and Silica promise to meet again in the real world.

A Murder Case in the Area


Kirito was taking a quick nap while enjoying the day because the weather was very good, but was interrupted by Asuna, who scolded him for wasting time while the other front liners were clearing the Labyrinth. However, Kirito convinced her to lie down next to him. Later, Kirito woke up and noticed that Asuna was completely asleep, so he remained near to protect her. When she woke up, she got angry but then recalled what had happened and she realized that he had been waiting for her to wake up and protected her from any potential orange players. She then offered to buy him dinner at a restaurant of his choosing. While having their dinner, they hear a scream from the courtyard only to find a player being killed within the safe zone using a new unknown PK method.

Generally speaking, it was impossible to kill someone within the «Area». Two exceptions to this rule were known to exist: one was to challenge a sleeping opponent to an all-out duel, and to move their finger to accept the duel. The second was to drag a sleeping opponent outside of the safe zone using a stretcher where they could be targeted normally. After witnessing a man being hung by a noose and then dying from being impaled by a piercing weapon which cause damage-over-time, Kirito and Asuna began investigating how could such a thing happen if it was not a duel and why. This mystery touched upon the past of a long-forgotten guild, Golden Apple, and the reason behind the death of its female guild leader.

They first ask around for the witness who first spotted the crime and a girl, named Yolko, stepped up and revealed that she was a friend of the killed player, called "Kainz", and that they were planning to meet up for a meal.

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 unintentionally breaks it during a test run. Thus, the two embark on a journey to obtain a «Crystallite Ingot» to forge what would eventually be known as «Dark Repulser».

October, 2024
After two years within SAO, Kirito is a clearer and is currently on the front lines 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 an elite unit of "«The Army»," who they assume will try to challenge the boss. They chase after them to try to convince them to stop, but «The Army» starts fighting the boss while they do so. Kirito tells them to teleport out, but one of the soldiers tell him their crystals won't work in the boss room.



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. He then is given an KoB outfit (to his displeasure, the colors and design don't suit him well), and after a few days, sent to a mandatory training session with Kuradeel. After the latter kills Godfree, the vanguard who wanted to see Kirito's skills and reveals his plan to kill him, Asuna quickly comes to his aid. As Kuradeel feigns a surrender, he attacks her after she lowers her rapier, and almost kills her. Kirito quickly protects her, losing his left arm in the process, but kills Kuradeel using the ability Embracer.

After this, Kirito announces his feelings for her, and the two ask for another leave after the incident, which Heathcliff accepts. They get married and go on a honeymoon on the 22nd floor.

Morning Dew Girl


While Asuna and Kirito were on their honeymoon on the 22nd Floor, they heard of a rumor of a ghost in the forest and decided to go check it out. In the forest, they found a young girl who went by the name of Yui, who they suspected was a traumatized player, having regressed into a baby. However, they were unable to find a player cursor on her, meaning she was not a player, NPC, or monster. Despite this finding, they deduced that it was most likely that she was a player. After taking her to their home and reading the Lost & Found/Q&A section of the newspaper for possible people searching for this mysterious player, and after having no luck, they decided to go to the «Starting City» to find her parent/guardian, if they were still there. Upon their arrival at the «Starting City», they travelled around town in hope of finding her parents. After asking around, they were eventually led to a nearby church, serving sort of like an orphanage for kids who were trapped in SAO. Even here, there were no signs of Yui's parents.



After Yui wanted to come to the Hidden Dungeon where Thinker was trapped in, she watched Kirito easily handle the Scavenger Toads and was amazed by his fighting skills. After reaching the safe area in the dungeon, Kirito told Yulier to take Yui into the safe area. The safe area contained a GM module, and after touching it, Yui suddenly remembered what she was. As the boss, The Fatal Scythe, was about to land the scythe on Kirito, she went in front of him, and to both his and Asuna's shock, they find out that she was actually an AI, a Mental Heath Counseling program.

When the Cardinal System attempted to delete Yui, her program was saved into a crystal necklace by Kirito, who excelled at programming. He succeeded in doing so and created the item, Yui's Heart, which was saved into Kirito's NerveGear. Kirito and Asuna planned to recreate her as Yui once they escaped from SAO.

November, 2024
After the second week of their honeymoon they get a call: the boss room of the 75th floor has been found. They return to the front lines 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 chest with Asuna's blade. Kayaba and Kirito both vanish, ending up in an area located above Aincrad along with Asuna. Kayaba explained his reasons as for 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.

Fairy Dance Arc
After SAO was cleared and Kazuto wakes up in a Tokyo hospital, he wanders off to find Asuna, but is discovered by nurses and returned to his room. Tens of minutes later, he is visited by a representative of the «Ministry of Internal Affairs — SAO Countermeasures Division» who Kazuto inquires about Asuna's whereabouts, as a condition to share information about the SAO incident with them. After a short call, the representative informs him that 300 players, including Asuna, had not yet woken up from their comatose state. At some point, Kazuto, leaving a note of his plans, attempts to return to the world of SAO via his NerveGear to find his lover, but, unfortunately, receives the error message «Error: Cannot connect to server».



By the time two months have passed after the incident, Kazuto returns home to his family and has completed his rehabilitation, which allowed him to freely move again. As soon as he was able to move freely, he started visiting Asuna, at the hospital she was admitted to, every 3 days. One day, during one of such visits, Asuna's father, Yuuki Shouzou, and Sugou Nobuyuki, the latter being a person who Kazuto had not met before, come into the hospital room. After Sugou is introduced, he tells Shouzou that he plans on having Asuna wear her bridal gown the next month. As soon as Shouzou leaves the room, Sugou reveals his true self to Kazuto. Sugou starts stroking Asuna's hair in front of Kazuto and tells the boy that he plans on marrying Asuna, who is still in a comatose state, even mentioning that he has the right to do so, because his department at RECTO is responsible for maintaining the SAO servers and, in turn, keeping Asuna alive. Just before leaving the room, he invites Kazuto to the wedding, leaving the boy helpless to do anything.



That evening, Kazuto's sister (actually his cousin, but they act as if they are brother and sister) Suguha finds him alone in his dark and cold room in a state of deep despair and self-loathing and, after telling his sister that Asuna was out of his reach and how useless he felt, he begins crying like a child in front of her. After closing the window, Suguha comforts her brother and encourages him not to give up so easily, before supporting him and gently lowering him onto his bed, where after awhile, his cries turn into a peaceful sound of sleep.

The next morning, Kazuto wakes up and finds Suguha sleeping next to him in her pajamas. He then recalls what had happened the night before and, due to Suguha's encouragement, has renewed his resolve to save Asuna. Shortly after waking his sister up, who runs out of the room in embarrassment after realizing what had happened, he receives an e-mail from Agil, that contained a picture of a virtual world, where a bird cage could be seen in the foreground and in that cage was a girl who looked just like Asuna. Kazuto immediately calls Agil to ask him about the photo and agrees to meet him at the Dicey Cafe. After the shortest shower in his life and drying his hair in a rush, he quickly heads out to the cafe by bike.



Once there, Agil, or Andrew in real life, brings out a rectangular package, a client for the new VRMMO game called ALfheim Online, and tells him about NerveGear's successor, AmuSphere and the game. He then tells Kazuto that the picture with the girl that looks like Asuna was taken inside of the game, at the top of the World Tree, when a group of players came up with the idea of using a multi-stage rocket flight formation to propel themselves, which allowed them to reach the lowest branches of the tree, where they took the screenshot. After noticing that the game was designed by RECTO Progress and remembering that Sugou, who worked there, said that he was in charge of the SAO servers, he realized that a girl who looked like Asuna in a game designed by a RECTO subsidiary couldn't have been just a coincidence. Thinking to himself that contacting the Ministry of Internal Affairs without concrete evidence was a bad idea, so he asks Andrew to let him have the game client to personally confirm whether Asuna really was trapped in that game.



Having returned home, he returns to his room, where he inserts the ALO client into his NerveGear and dives into the game. At the character creation screen, he inserts his character name, but after realizing that Sugou was aware of his character name, he changes it from its romanized to its kana form and then continues to choose his character's race. Although, normally he would read about the strengths and weaknesses of each race, due to being pressed by time and not planning to play the game too seriously, he selects the Spriggan race because of its initial black themed equipment and completes the initial setup procedure. He is then sent into a vortex of light and enters the game world, floating in the air above the Spriggan capital. However, while freefalling towards the Spriggan capital, a glitch occurs where the area collapses in darkness.

After a seemingly endless decent and landing on his face instead of his feet, he finds himself in a deep forest (later it is revealed that the forest is close to the Sylph capital, which is on the other side of the map from the Spriggan capital). Perplexed about the mysterious anomaly and relocation and having a bad feeling, he quickly checks whether the ability to log out is actually available. Though at first he couldn't open the menu, even after several attempts, he soon recalled that the in-game menu and flight controller in ALO are controlled with the left hand, instead of the right, as it was in SAO, and is greatly relieved when he sees that the log out button is present and functioning.



Now feeling secure about being able to log out, he decides to check the map to find out where he was, but then notices something else strange. Although his HP and MP values were normal for a starting character, the fact that he had at least 8 skills already learnt, even though he had just entered the game for the first time was out of the ordinary. Feeling that something was wrong, he checks the skill window for a more detailed view of the listed skills and is surprised to see that most of the learnt skills were nearly or already mastered, which shouldn't be possible without putting in a lot of time in training the skills, while all the skills in the window seemed strangely familiar to him. That's when he realizes that all of the skills he had were identical to his SAO skills, minus Duel Blades, which didn't exist in ALO.



Hoping to find more clues about what was happening, he checks his item window as well, only to find dozens of lines consisting of enigmatic numbers and characters, along with pictures, all mixed up together, in other words, all the items that he had in SAO, though no longer usable, which confirmed that his SAO save data was brought over to ALO for some reason. Realizing that, Kirito hoped that one specific item would be among the various unusable items and, sure enough, he soon found the item he was looking for - MHCP001 (Mental Health Counselling Program version 1), in other words, Yui's heart, which once taken out of the inventory took the form of a tear-shaped crystal. After the crystal was tapped twice, it turned into a girl with long black hair and dressed in a white dress, named Yui, the self-aware AI who Kirito and Asuna met in the world of SAO and had adopted as their in-game daughter.



After checking the system, Yui tells Kirito that the ALO server is a copy of the SAO servers, using the same graphics engine, but an older version of the Cardinal System and different game components. Yui also checks the data of Kirito's avatar, since he asks her why his SAO data appeared in ALO, and tells him that the game uses an almost identical save data and skill proficiency format to the one SAO used, which is why he was able to inherit his skills, but, as the data denoting HP and MP was in a different format, he was not able to inherit his SAO values for them (though there was no MP in SAO anyways). She also warns him that his items are corrupted and should be disposed of before the system's error detection protocol detects them, though his abnormal skill values should not be a problem, unless a GM checks them directly. After Yui takes the form of a Navigation Pixie, when Kirito asks her what was she supposed to be in the game, Kirito asks her about flying in the game and she tells him how to call out and use his controller for flight. After getting the hang of how to use the controller, he asks her where the closest town was and was told that the closest town is Swilvane and that other players are approaching, one of them being chased by 3 others. Hearing that, Kirito gets excited about the battle and decides to go take a closer look at it, using the menu to take out his initial sword, which he calls lousy and too lightweight, and uses his controller to fly to the scene of the battle.



Once there, due to not having practiced landing, he crash lands near the 3 Salamanders and the Sylph, named Leafa, who the Salamanders were hunting, right before she charges at the Salamanders. Even though Leafa tells Kirito to run away, after noticing that he was using starting equipment, he only reproaches the Salamanders for ganging up on the girl, angering the Salamanders. Two of the Salamanders move in to sandwich him, one of them charging Kirito, while the other waited for a few seconds longer to kill him as he dodges the first attack. However, Kirito easily stops the first attack by casually sticking out his left hand and activating «Guard», which he uses to grab the tip of the lance aiming at him and using the momentum to throw the attacker at his companion, who was approaching him from behind, and the two Salamanders sink to the ground after colliding.



After confirming with Leafa that it was alright to kill the Salamanders, he draws his sword, gets into his attacking stance and charges at one of the Salamanders with incredible speed. Because the damage done in ALO depends on the speed the blade is swung at (which in turn depends on how fast the player's brain is able to receive, process and react to the signals sent by the FullDive system, which can be trained through extensive playtime), among other things, the speed of Kirito's attack does sufficient damage to kill the Salamander in one swing. He then gets into position and mercilessly charges at the other Salamander, whose attack Kirito had dodged and who was still trying to find where the boy had disappeared to, and slices the guy in half at a speed that even the effect flash isn't able to keep up with, easily killing the Salamander. Looking up at the leader of the party, Kagemune, he gets into a relaxed posture and asks whether he was going to fight as well, but Kagemune only smiled as he refused.



As soon as Kagemune had flown away and the Remain Lights of the two other Salamanders disappeared, Leafa asks the boy about what he expects her to do now, to which he responds by joking about her hugging him. Before Leafa is able to get back at him, Yui comes out of Kirito's breast pocket, telling Leafa that she would only let Mama and herself stick to Papa. Kirito reacts by wrapping both of his hands around the Pixie, not knowing how to explain what she was to Leafa who then asks whether Yui was a Private Pixie, which was the prize of a lottery that took place at the launch of the game, and Kirito uses confirms this to cover Yui's true nature. Leafa, who has already loosened up after the encounter with Yui and finding out that Kirito got lost, she decides to thank Kirito by treating him to a drink and Kirito decides to use the opportunity to find out more about the game, especially about the World Tree, from Leafa, so they decide to travel to the nearest town, Swilvane. Before they depart, Kirito notices that Leafa is about to take flight without using the controller and asks her how she is able to do it, therefore she shows him the trick to Voluntary Flight.



After a humorous first attempt at flying without aid, with Leafa's help he soon gets the hang of flying without the assistance of the controller and they proceed with flying towards Swilvane at high speed. Unfortunately, due to Kirito being a new player in ALO, he is unable to land and crashes at the Tower of Wind. At the city, after a brief encounter with Recon, they enter a cozy inn and pub where they order their drinks and deserts.



Kirito then asks Leafa about the World Tree, as he wants to get to the top of tree, and learns that it is the grand quest of ALO, as the first starting race to reach the top of the tree will be turned into the legendary race of ALFs and that nobody has managed to complete this quest yet, even tough the game has been online for a year now. Surprised by Kirito's determination to reach the top of the tree as soon as possible, no matter how difficult of a task it is, and seeing the familiar despair in his eyes, despite his smile, she volunteers to take him to the capital of Alfheim, Alne, where the entrance to the World Tree lies. As there is no method of instantaneous travel in ALO, they would have to fly to the city, which would take hours, so, as Leafa had to log out already, they agree to meet up again the next day and Leafa tells him that he can use the inn room to log out, as logging out instantly can only be done inside the player's home territory or by using a tent or inn outside of the territory.



Puzzled by Leafa's actions, though grateful for her help, he decides to follow her advice and use the inn room to log out. As a sudden change from standing to a lying down causes a strong sense of vertigo, he decides to use the "sleep off" approach to log out, literally falling asleep, which would automatically log him off. As he laid in bed, Yui returns to her original form and asks whether she could sleep with him before he logs out. Although surprised by the request, understanding Yui's wish to be exposed to new data, he agrees and makes room for her. He falls asleep as he promises to Yui that as soon as Asuna is safe, they will purchase a house in-game and live as a family again.



As Kirito and Leafa go to the World Tree, under Leafa's advice, Kirito decided to buy some new equipment to replace his starting equipment. He replaces his beginners sword (stating that it was too light), and purchases a sword as large as him. Both departed Swilvane by the Tower of Wind to gain an altitude boost. After fighting some aerial monsters, both eventually took a rest after their wings got worn out from flying. They then decided to «rotate» to have one of them protect the other's body while they were taking a short break in the real world.

Kirito and Leafa fought through many Orcs while heading towards the neutral mining town of Legrue. As Leafa explained to Kirito about Spriggan magic, she also told him to remember the chanting, as it could save their lives one day. Yui detected many players coming behind them, and so both fairies hide in a gap in the wall, and Leafa casts an Concealment to cover the gap up. After a short time of waiting, Kirito noticed a bat coming towards them, and Leafa realized that it was a high-level tracer. She quickly destroyed it and told him to run, stating that the bat was fire-attribute, and therefore Salamanders were pursuing them.

As the two try to reach Legrue, the Salamanders cast a high-level Earth Wall spell to block the entrance of the town. Kirito asked Leafa to be support to heal him when he was hit while engaging the enemy head-on. The Salamander party, consisting of 12 players (3 tanks and 9 mages) cornered them. Kirito tried to attack the tanks, dealing some damage, but the mages quickly healed them. The other mages then cast offensive fire spells on Kirito, greatly hurting him. As the fight progresses, he tried to get close to the tanks and tried to move their shields, to the soldiers' shock, but was forced to jump back after the mages cast another set of fireballs on him. As Leafa provides Kirito a magic-protection shield, under Yui's advice, Kirito transformed into a Gleam Eyes-like creature.



Being the monster, he easily killed the soldiers, and left one under Leafa's advice for interrogation. After being bribed him with the items Kirito had got for killing the other Salamanders, the mage told them why they had gone after the two. After the mage was given the items and happily left, Leafa wondered why Recon was sending messages and under Kirito's advice, logged out. After logging back in, she told him what the problem was, and that he should work for the Salamanders, but he refused and decided to assist Leafa with her problem.



After rushing past ten groups of Orcs, both Kirito and Leafa exited the caves, and headed towards the alliance treaty's location to try to stop the Salamander attack force from killing the two leaders. As the leader of the Lancers was about to order the lancers to attack them, Kirito lands with a boom, and expressed a wish to speak with the commander of the attack force. After Kirito told the commander that he was an ambassador to the Spriggan-Undine alliance, being there for "trade" reasons, and that the Salamander attack would be considered as a war declaration against the four races, the commander thought that he was bluffing because of his gear and having no guards with him. The commander was revealed to be General Eugene, the strongest player in ALO because of the weapon he used, Demonic Sword Gram. Eugene challenged Kirito, which he accepts and both began to fight.



Kirito tried to block Eugene's sword, not knowing the special ability of the sword, and got hit in the shoulder as a result, but quickly attacked him again. As both fight, Kirito realized that he was unable to defeat Eugene because of him taking advantage of his sword's ability, so he used a Smokescreen spell to distract him and during the distraction, grabbed Leafa's katana. After the smoke dissipated, Eugene believed that he had ran away from the battle, but Kirito had gained altitude while Eugene could not see him. As Eugene rushed to attack Kirito, the latter blocked with the great sword, and right before the sword slashed his neck, he grabbed the katana and blocked the sword, nullifying the sword's special ability, which had a cooldown before it could be used again.



Taking advantage of his Dual Blades proficiency in SAO, he quickly went on the offensive on the general, who was unable to defend himself from his speed and attacks. After defeating Eugene, the players who watched the battle were in a state of shock at the fact that a Spriggan had managed to defeat the strongest player in ALO with weapons inferior to Eugene's. Under Kirito's request, Eugene was revived, and, after being revived, he contemplated on Kirito's statement of the Spriggan-Undine alliance. Kagemune then came out from the Salamander ranks and lied about Kirito having ties with an Undine, "confirming" this alliance, thus Eugene and his troops left on good terms, as they did not want to wage war on 4 races simultaneously.

After the fight, the two leaders tried to seduce Kirito into joining their respective army, however he declined their offers, stating that he needed to get to the World Tree to see someone. As the alliance had just started and the group was low on money to buy gear, he gave them 100,000 Yurudo, which they gratefully accepted. He quickly left with Leafa and both flew towards Alne.

After reaching Alne, Kirito and Leafa decided to take a rest. After being notified by the system that maintenance was shutting the servers off for three hours, they decided to log off at an inn not too expensive, as Kirito was now broke. He asked Yui to find a cheap inn, and she pointed them to one and they both logged off.

In the morning in the real world, Kazuto greeted Suguha, who was sleepy from playing too much ALfheim yesterday. He then told her to turn around, and when she did, Kazuto poured cold water down her back. Suguha was angry at this and told him to buy her shaved ice and a parfait as an apology, which he agreed to. The two then decided to go the hospital together, and Kazuto paid for the tickets on his phone. Kazuto then told his sister that the government plans to use a local school to hold the students from SAO, and thought that they were doing this to observe them. He wanted to go to a regular school, but he cannot because doing so would result in one year of cram school because of the SAO incident.

The two later arrive at the hospital that Asuna was being cared for in. After visiting the hospital, the two go back to ALfheim. While walking through a street of Alne, Yui told Kirito that Asuna was right above them. In a desperate act to reach her, he blasted off to the World Tree, hoping to find her there.

As Kirito was flying towards the World Tree, Leafa tried to warn him of a barrier the admins had put after several players nearly managed to reach the top of the Tree that way. He tried to attack the barrier but to no avail. Yui then used her Warning mode to contact her, and Asuna eventually heard her voice. She then dropped an admin card, and Kirito caught the card, not knowing what it was but knowing that Asuna had heard them. As Kirito went to the base of the World Tree to get to the top, two Guardian statues blocked the door and asked if he was willing to challenge the Grand Quest.



Kirito quickly accepted the challenge, and ascended towards the top of the tree. As he flew upwards, multiple Guardian Knights spawned and tried to stop him. After killing several of them, he tried to speed up and reach the top, but got hit by a ranged guardian. More ranged guardians appeared and tried to stop him, however he ignored the arrows and tried to get to the top. The melee guardians then started throwing their swords at Kirito, successfully hitting him and causing him to stop and bleed out from the damage, turning into a Remain Light.

He began to doubt about his strength, having flashbacks from SAO. He was then rescued by Leafa, who revived him outside the World Tree. As he apologized to Leafa and told her that he needed to rescue Asuna, Leafa suddenly realized that Kirito was actually Kazuto, and called him big brother. Kirito then realized that Leafa was actually her adoptive sister, who logged out in disbelief. Kirito quickly logged out of the game and tried to comfort his adoptive sister, but it was not working. Afterwards, Kazuto leaned against the door before falling in sorrow.



After some thinking, Kazuto got back up and told Suguha that he would be waiting for her in the north terrace of Alne. Suguha logged in shortly after, and met up with him. They quickly had a duel to express their feelings. During the battle, Suguha fell and let her sword go, intending to be slashed by Kirito, but instead he caught her, shocking both of them. Kirito then told Leafa that he wanted to apologize to her, but he did not know what to say and wanted her to have a free hit on him. After both quickly apologized to each other, they met up with Recon and the three begin their second attempt on the World Tree.

As Yui told Kirito that he could reach the top because of his speed, he decided to be the attacker, while he told Recon and Leafa to be support healers. Guardian Knights began to spawn again, and Kirito easily killed many of them, amazing Recon in the process. As Kirito tried to reach the top, a large amount of Guardians blocked him, and while healing Kirito, a few Guardians began to target Recon and Leafa. Recon quickly took some out, and then used the Sacrifice spell to remove a large amount of Guardians. Kirito then tried to get to the top again, but another large group of Guardians blocked him and they quickly refilled the gap caused by Recon's Sacrifice spell. The Guardians began to charge towards Kirito, impaling him multiple times and prompting Leafa to heal him.



As Leafa was about to be attacked, the Sylphs and a squad of Cait Sith Dragoons arrive on time. They stated that they had come to help Kirito as he had helped them with their preparations greatly earlier. The combined forces destroyed many Guardians, and Leafa tossed her katana to Kirito. Kirito then used the two swords to wipe out many Guardians with his slashing speed and ended up at the top of the World Tree. As Kirito tried to open the door, he was unable to because, as Yui told, the door was not locked by the quest, but by admins instead. As the Guardians spawned and surrounded him, he suddenly remembered about the admin card Asuna had dropped to him earlier. He gave it to Yui, who transferred the code to open the door, and both are teleported into the upper levels of the World Tree.



As Yui and Kirito explored the area, Kirito realized that the Floating City atop the World Tree had been a lie along with the quest. Yui then found Asuna's location, and, after they reached the location, removed the gates, allowing Kirito and Asuna to meet again. Kirito suddenly drew his sword as he sensed an enemy coming, and Yui disappeared after sensing that evil was approaching. The two were sent into a black space, and Oberon appeared, binding them both with gravity magic. Oberon then stabbed Kirito with his sword, and then sets the Pain Absorption level to 8, causing Kirito to feel some of the pain.

As Kirito watched Asuna helplessly, he thought to himself if this was his punishment for being believing to have been the strongest player in the game and that he could can overcome the game system. Kayaba appeared afterwards and told him that if he submitted to the system, then their battle had been a lie. Kayaba told him that in their battle he learned that the human will could overcome the system. Kayaba told him to get up, and also tells him his admin ID and password, as the game was copied from the SAO servers, thus Kayaba's admin ID was also transferred over to ALO.

Kirito then came to his senses and got back up. When Oberon tried to kick him back down, Kirito stopped the blow midway and accessed Kayaba's ID "Heathcliff" and then revoked Oberon's admin privileges. Enraged, Oberon tried to spawn an Excaliber, but the system ignored his request. Kirito then repeated the same command to spawn one and gave it to him, while setting the Pain Absorption level to 0, which made Oberon panic. Kirito then told him not to run, as Kayaba had never ran from him during their fight. Oberon cursed Kayaba for interfering with him, even after his death.



Enraged, Oberon tried to attack Kirito, but he parried his attacks with no effort. Kirito quickly sliced him on the cheek, and Oberon started trembling from the pain. Kirito then quickly dismembered his body from the legs, and then raised him from his hair and tossed him up. Kirito then stabbed Oberon in the right eye, killing him, and then freed Asuna. Kirito then logged Asuna out, and after he was the only one left, Kayaba came out and talked with him again. Kayaba gave Kirito «The Seed», and then told him he could do whatever he wanted with it. He then disappeared, and Kirito called for Yui. He was delighted that Yui was safe, as when Oberon was coming, she hid in Kirito's NerveGear, since Kirito had put her system in his local NerveGear's memory. He then told her that he had logged Asuna out, to her disappointment, but promised her that the two would come back to ALfheim and start again. Kirito quickly logged out, and was met by Suguha, who was worried about him.



Kazuto then told Suguha that Asuna was back in the real world. Suguha told him to go to the hospital so that he could meet her again, which he quickly agreed to. He got his bike and started biking toward the hospital where Asuna was being taken care of.



As Kazuto was heading towards the hospital, he rand towards the entrance, and was cut by an attacker. He then realized that his right arm was bleeding, and identified his attacker as Sugou, who, despite feeling a lot of pain, decided to kill him. As Kazuto was helpless to defend himself from Sugou because of his bleeding arm. Sugou tried to kill Kazuto, but missed because of his eye being blurry. As Sugou tried to do the finishing blow again, Kazuto's thoughts of Asuna gave him the willpower to stop him, and turned the situation in his tide. Kazuto then smashed Sugou into a van, and had the knife pointed towards his neck. Thinking of all the things Sugou has done to him and Asuna, Kazuto almost killed him but, in the end, let him live.

Kazuto headed towards the hospital, where he reported Sugou and got some of his wounds treated, before grabbing a guest card so that he could go to Asuna's room. He then met Asuna for the first time in real life, and both hugged each other, and then shared a kiss.



Months later, in school, Kazuto had just finished a class and headed outside to meet up with Asuna. Kazuto told her about all the recent news, also mentioning the arrest of Sugou and his inhumane experiments. After awhile of chatting, Kazuto quickly spaced out while thinking about Kayaba and his seed. After Asuna got Kirito out of his train of thoughts, the two enjoyed the sandwiches Asuna had made for lunch.



After school, the two and Suguha head towards the Dicey Cafe to attend the Aincrad Capture Commemorative Party. As they opened the doors of the cafe, they were surprised that everyone was already there. Shortly afterwards, everyone congratulated Kazuto for completing SAO. Kazuto then went to the bar, where he was joined by Klein, Thinker and Agil. Agil showed the progress of «The Seed» to the three.



Kazuto later got back on ALO, which was now owned by a new company to get her for the afterparty. After he caught her falling from the sky, Leafa asked him to dance with her. Later, Kirito grabbed Leafa and took her near the World Tree, where he showed Leafa the Floating Castle New Aincrad, and told her that they were going to clear all 100 floors this time. More players showed up, heading towards New Aincrad and Kirito muttered something that surprised Leafa and Asuna, before encouraging them to start moving.

Phantom Bullet Arc
When Kikuoka Seijirou, who is in charge of net crimes division, called him to a pastry shop to chat, Kazuto learned about the «Death Gun» incidents. After hearing about the potential threat to MMO game security Kazuto agreed to investigate GGO for a fee. Seijirou then set up a hospital room for Kazuto to FullDive in, and Nurse Aki, the same nurse that took care of him during the SAO incident, to observe any abnormalities in his heart rate and everything related to his health and mental stability during the dives. Before he performed the first FullDive, he told Nurse Aki how he had killed 3 Laughing Coffin members, one was Kuradeel in order to protect Asuna, and the other two were when him and 50 other front line players had attacked their secret base to stop this killing guild from action. Upon converting, he was stunned at his avatar appearance being extremely feminine. He encountered Sinon while asking for help. She offered to help him get started. Kirito, with minimal funds and against Sinon's advice participated in the bullet dodging game. Kirito, using his previous experience with NPC targeting, he successfully won the game and gained a large amount of funds.

He used all his funds in buying a laser sword named Kagemitsu G4, a five-seven handgun named FN Five-Seven and some equipment to participate in the 3rd Bullet of Bullets event. After a rush through the city, Sinon and him entered the tournament. During the tournament, Kirito used a never before seen battle style, using which he deflected the bullets with his sword. Kirito and Sinon managed to get into the finals held the next day, although Kirito was shocked by his encounter with Death Gun.

The next day Kazuto was confronted by Suguha, who discovered him in a video games news site. Kazuto waited for the afternoon and entered GGO, where he saw Sinon and called her to talk. In the tournament finals, he while trailing Pale Rider by hiding underwater, he was able to avoid the Satellite Scan and thus unintentionally sneak up on Sinon. With Sinon, they witnessed how Death Gun dispatched Pale Rider, even though they tried to stop him. They then trailed Death Gun to the central city on the stage, where Kirito took out Musketeer X, mistaking her for Death Gun, and returned just in time to save Sinon from the real Death Gun, who had been hiding with a Metamaterial Optical Camouflage Mantle. They somehow escaped and hid in the desert, where Sinon told him her backstory and Kirito comforted her.

After talking for a while, they figured out the secret behind Death Gun: he got the addresses of some of the players by using his mantle to peep on them while they were using the in-game terminals and inputting personal details, and his accomplice would kill the selected targets in the real world by injecting a lethal dose of a drug. So they prepared a plan to take him down, using Kirito as a bait. During the battle Kirito sensed Asuna's hand which reminded him about the existence of his pistol, which he then used to imitate the «Double Circular» Sword Skill with the gun and his sword, finally killing Death Gun. Once they were the only two competitors left, Kirito and Sinon had a talk, during which they exchanged personal details and planned what to do next. The tournament then ended when Sinon used a gift grenade to have them both killed at the same time, thus ending the tournament in a tie.

After logging out, he hurried to Shino's house and arrived just in time to save her from one of Death Gun's accomplices. Two days later, he visited Shino's school and took her to meet Seijirou. After discussing the recent incident, he took her to the Dicey Cafe, where they met with Asuna and Rika, as well as a woman Shino had saved during the incident in the post office.

Mother's Rosario
He challenges «Absolute Sword Yuuki» to a duel and loses, though he did not dual wield, but discovers her secret as a MediCuboid user. 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 hold off an opposing Guild for three minutes before succumbing to the overwhelming numbers. He later points Asuna to the hospital Yuuki is at when Asuna tells him she wants to meet Zekken again. He helps the Sleeping Knights clear the 28th floor along with his friends, then faces Yuuki and loses again, but this time in the ALO Sword Tournament finals, though he once more did not fight with dual blades.

Alicization Arc
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 lifelike to be a NPC.

Alicization Beginning
He meets Sinon at the Dicey Cafe, where they talk while waiting for Asuna to arrive, when she arrives, they show Sinon the GPS and monitoring devices created by Kirito for each of them to monitor each other. They proceed to talk about Kazuto's half-time job, that he does not remember anything about the time he full-dived and the system based on the acceleration of time perception for the user. Later they depart and Kirito insists to accompany Asuna to her house, but just before arriving he turns back and faces Johnny Black who was following them, he defends Asuna but is injected with Succinylcholine and is later taken in an ambulance.

Kirito wakes up in a forest in an unknown place, while wondering where he is, he hears a strange noise and when he finds the source he meets a boy called Eugeo who explains him the basics of the world and takes him to his town, In the town he meets other people, and decides to stay there. Kirito unintentionally causes Selka to run into a certain cave and get captured, causing Kirito and Eugeo to go after her. They defeat the Goblins, but Eugeo got heavily wounded. Kirito wakes up Selka, who was lying in a cart, and Selka, with Kirito's assistance, saves Eugeo. They all go back to the village. Eugeo finishes his current Sacred Task and chooses his next, being a swordsman.

Alicization Running
It is explained that he is immersed in the Underworld to reconnect his neural pathways that were destroyed when his heart stopped as a product of Kanemoto Atsushi's attack.

Meanwhile in Underworld, several months have passed since he and Eugeo left Rulid Village and have been working as stable boys for a family of farmers. On the 28th Day of the 8th Month they participate in the Zakkaria Sword Arts Tournament, where he faces Egome Zakkalight, a sixth class noble, who uses a stronger sword to get an advantage over Kirito, but Kirito turns the tables by using his «Snake Bite» sword skill to break Egome's sword and win.

Months later he, along with Eugeo, enrolled in the Norlangarth Sword Master Academy, and became valets for the elite swordsmen. One day, Kirito is training with his mentor, Sortiliena Serlut, and after the practice, he returns to his dorm and talks to Eugeo, who reminds him that the next day, after a complete year, he'll receive the sword that was carved from the branch of the Gigas Cedar.

When he returns to the Academy with his new sword, he practices his Sword Skills to show them to Sortiliena later, but, when he attempts to perform a 5-hit Sword Skill in the forest to challenge the limit of his new sword in secret, he loses control and stains the shirt of Uolo Levanteinn, the head elite swordsman who was watching him, with mud. As punishment, he must spar with Uolo, who tries to win in one hit as always, but Kirito stops him with the 4 hits of «Vertical Square». A supervisor intervenes and declares a tie, thus, ending the duel.

Alicization Turning
Kirito has become an elite-swordsman in the academy, and thus, he now has a valet. One and a half months in the new school year, on the 17th of the 5th Month, he enters his and Eugeo's room from the window with a bag of honey pies, takes a pair for Eugeo and him, and gives the rest to their valets, Ronye and Tieze. Eugeo reminds him that they have a test about a Sacred Art that he isn't good at, so he stays in his room studying while Eugeo practices.

Days later, he goes to a picnic with Eugeo and their valets, where they tell Kirito and Eugeo about Humbert's mistreatment of Frenica, his valet. Since Eugeo gets flutered, Kirito accompanies him to Raios and Humbert's room, to talk to them, they played dumb and the matter was left as such.

Days later, Kirito's maintaining his sword with Eugeo, and both are waiting for their valets to arrive. They get worried when it turns out that the valets are running late and Kirito decides to look for them, exiting through the window. When he returns to his room, Frenica tells him that Ronye, Tieze and Eugeo are in Raios and Humbert's room. He arrives at the scene just in time to stop Raios from killing Eugeo. As they face each other, he somehow transforms his sword from a one handed to a two-handed one and uses Whirl Current to beat him, and, at the same time, cutting his arms off.

Kirito and Eugeo get arrested for breaking the Taboo Index and are given into Alice's (now an Integrity Knight) custody the following day. They are then taken to the prison under the Central Cathedral by Alice.

They manage to escape from the prison and arrive at the courtyard of the Cathedral, where they face the Integrity Knight Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-one. After an intense battle, Eugeo recalls that Eldrie was the winner of the Four Empires Unity tournament held the previous month. Noticing that this revelation could highlight some peculiarities in Eldrie's memory, Kirito joins Eugeo in awakening Eldrie's memory, which causes the Knight to enter a state of shock. As more and more of Eldrie's life details are revealed, a purple prism begins to protrude out of Eldrie's forehead. However, at this point, another Integrity Knight attacks the youngsters by firing arrows at them with a bow from atop a flying dragon. Kirito and Eugeo then begin to retreat into the Cathedral's garden, while getting directions from Charlotte pulling Kirito's hair in a certain direction at every crossroad. Once they arrive at what seems to be a dead end, they are called by a young looking girl to escape through a door which Kirito hadn't noticed before. Thus they enter the Great Library Room, where the girl introduces herself as Cardinal.

In the library he is separated from Eugeo by Cardinal for her to tell him her story and what has happened in Underworld before requesting his help to overthrow Quinella.

Alicization Rising
After Cardinal finishes her story, he said that he wanted to save her and the people of Underworld. After reuniting with Eugeo, Cardinal helped the two swordsmen create their own Full Armament Control Arts, before the two head out to the Central Cathedral again.

Once they were back in the Central Cathedral, they made their way to the Equipment Vault where the Blue Rose Sword and the Kirito's black sword were being kept. Upon finding their swords, they were then found by Deusolbert, whom they then fought against and defeated.

After Deusolbert was defeated, he asked them to kill him, as he had failed his task, and therefore he would be punished accordingly. However, they rejected his request, until Eugeo heard the knight's name, and remembered that he was the one that took Alice away. Eugeo then wanted to harm him, however he was then stopped by Kirito.

They then continued on their way up to the top of the Cathedral. On the way to the 29th floor, they met Fizel and Linel, who claimed to be "Sister Apprentices" which is soon proven to be false, as the girls paralysed Kirito and Eugeo with poisoned daggers, while revealing that they were in fact Integrity Knights. The girls then make their way up to the 50th floor, dragging the paralysed two boys with them, so that they could be executed in front of the other Integrity Knights.

Once they reached the 50th floor, it was revealed that Kirito discovered that the girls were lying before they paralysed Eugeo and himself and noticed that they were carrying blades made from «poison steel from Ruberyl», so while Eugeo was chatting with them, he had chanted an antidote Sacred Art to counter the effects of the poison. He paralysed both Fizel and Linel, and then requested to battle with Fanatio Synthesis Two in an individual duel, which Fanatio declined, making Kirito verse four other Integrity Knights while Fanatio recited her «Armament Full Control Art».

Kirito defeated the four Integrity Knights, and leaped at Fanatio with «Sonic Leap», however as he reached the peak of his jump, she finished her «Armament Full Control Art» which upset the trajectory of Kirito's Secret Move as it hit him with a powerful ray of light. Kirito continued to defend against Fanatio, and after getting an upper hand, he found out that Fanatio was a woman. Eugeo took a hand in the fight, and used used his Blue Rose Sword's «Armament Full Control Art» to freeze Fanatio. Even though Fanatio was frozen for a few moments, she broke through the ice with her Heaven Piercing Sword. She activated her «Armament Full Control Art» once again, which Kirito countered with his own «Armament Full Control Art».

Due to the fight, Fanatio was mortally wounded, so Kirito decided to use the dagger, which Cardinal had given to him to use on the Administrator, on Fanatio to save her life. After Cardinal took Fanatio to save her, Kirito and Eugeo made their past the door that the knights were guarding, where, instead of stairs, they found the Cathedral's equivalent of an elevator and met a young girl who was known by the name "Elevating Operator". She took Kirito and Eugeo to the 80th floor where they met Alice, sitting at the tree waiting for them.

Alice spoke to the two boys, telling them that she had thought that Eldrie would be sufficient to cope with the two prisoners in the off chance that they escaped, however, they had surprised her by defeating him, as well as Deusolbert and Fanatio who had possessed Divine Instruments. Alice placed her hand on the tree, stating that she would have to fight them, and her Fragrant Olive Sword appeared in her hand, revealing that the tree was her sword in its original form.

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 and 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 aware that there are other girls who have feelings for him.

Sword Art Online (SAO)

 * Level: 96
 * HP: 18500
 * Main Equipment:
 * 「Anneal Blade」 (One Handed Straight Sword - «Secret Medicine of the Forest» Quest's reward)
 * 「Queen's Knightsword」 (One Handed Straight Sword - Dark Elf Queen's 9th floor Quest's reward)
 * 「Elucidator」 (One Handed Straight Sword - 50th Floor Boss drop)
 * 「Dark Repulser」 (One Handed Straight Sword - Player-made by Lisbeth)
 * 「Coat of Midnight」 (Leather Coat - 1st Floor Boss drop) - First black coat
 * 「Blackwyrm Coat」 (Leather Coat - Player-made by Ashley) - Last black coat
 * 「Throwing Pick」 a type of weapon that is small, easily concealed.

One Handed Sword Skills

 * Horizontal Square
 * Vertical Square
 * Vertical Arc
 * Slant
 * Vertical
 * Horizontal
 * Vorpal Strike
 * Deadly Sins
 * Sonic Leap
 * Rage Spike
 * Snake Bite

Martial Arts Skills

 * Flash Hit
 * Embracer
 * Meteor Break
 * Escape

Dual Blades Sword Skills

 * Double Circular
 * Starburst Stream
 * The Eclipse

ALfheim Online (ALO)

 * HP: 400
 * MP: 800
 * New Equipment:
 * Black Iron Great Sword - Large Black Sword bought in Swilvane. Replaced by a new Long Sword in the 7th Volume.
 * Long Sword - A Long Sword that replaced the Black Iron Great Sword as his main default sword.
 * Holy Sword Excaliber - The strongest sword known in the SAO/ALO Universe.
 * Equipped Skills:

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)

 * Equipment:
 * 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)

 * Unit ID: NND7-6355
 * Life: 3289 (Chapter 1)
 * Object Control Authority: 38 (before the battle with the goblins) 48 (after the battle with the goblins)
 * System Control Authority: 1 ( before the battle with the goblins)
 * Sword styles:
 * Aincrad style - a style that Kirito invented due to his knowledge of Sword Skills in SAO. Moves used so far:
 * Sharp Nail - (3-hit combo)
 * Sonic Leap - (1-hit strike) a charge-type sword skill that dashes toward the enemy to deal a downward strike
 * Horizontal - (1-hit strike) a simple sword skill slashing horizontally
 * Snake Bite - (2-hit combo) two left and right swings that target the opponent's weapon, with a chance of breaking the weapon.
 * Vertical Square - (4-hit combo) a mid-level sword skill tracing the shape of a square.
 * Spining Shield - (defensive skill) a skill that makes the player's sword be spinned at such a fast rate that it creates a transparent shield out of the sword.
 * Note: He is able to use any of his Sword Skills from SAO, but, currently, he can only use up to 4-hit skills.
 * Serlut Style - a style that Kirito learnt from his mentor, Sortiliena Serlut:
 * Whirl Current- a two-handed Sword Skill capable of performing two hits.
 * Equipment:
 * Goblin Sword - a sword that Kirito stole from an unnamed goblin and used in the fight against «Ugachi».
 * Blue Rose Sword - Shared for a brief time with Eugeo until he got his own equivalent sword made 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 of a branch of the Gigas Cedar. It is equal to Eugeo's Blue Rose Sword. It is black in color.
 * Spirit Iron Chain - (only during Chapter 6)

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»

Gallery

 * See Kirito/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * Kazuto rides a bike which has also had a multitude of passengers including Asuna, Suguha, and Shino.
 * Kirito is a two-time first place winner for the Top 10 Male Characters in the Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! awards (for 2012 and 2013). He placed third back in 2011.
 * Kirito/Kazuto usually refers to himself using the personal pronoun ore (俺).
 * Kirito likes calculating random things, like the volume of the cake that he is going to eat.
 * Kirito has a tendency of using a window instead of a door to exit the room more quickly, usually when he senses danger or in awkward situations, though sometimes just for convenience.
 * Kirito's favorite skill is fishing. He even continues raising his fishing skill in ALO.
 * Kirito has attempted to climb Aincrad via its outer wall. However, his ascent was halted by a system barrier, nearly causing him to fall to his death.
 * Kirito uses a self-made PC with a 24 GHz octa-core CPU.
 * If Kirito were to be an animal, he would be an orange wolf.
 * Kirito's favorite food is Teriyaki chicken burgers.
 * Kirito used to dislike spring onions until Asuna cooked it for him.
 * Kirito said he would have went after Asuna sooner, if she had not been cute, and also regretted not going out with her sooner, as he only ate good food in SAO after getting along with Asuna.
 * Kirito tried wielding three swords but gave up since. Apparently, it felt like his teeth would fall out.
 * Kazuto/Kirito likes to pick on the cheeks of sleeping girls. He has already done that with Asuna, Yui and Suguha.
 * Kirito said that it seemed that everyone in SAO, including Asuna, viewed him as being older than he really was and, since he had never denied it, he had trouble admitting it to her at some point in the story.
 * Kirito suspected Asuna to be older than him but thought she probably viewed him older than he really was.
 * Kazuto got an extremely average IQ score in the test he took during middle school.
 * Ever since the second year in SAO, Kirito has been known to sleep a lot. His sleep also seems to be an "AOE" skill, as people looking at him sleeping, with Pina and Yui sleeping on him, get sleepy themselves. He himself states that sleeping when one can is the 2nd most essential point of the Aincrad-style.
 * Kirito was an ideal person whom Kawahara wanted to become. Kawahara commented that he always hesitates to act, pointing out that it took him seven years to finally apply for the Dengeki Award.
 * Kirito's preference for black clothing began with the first rare item he obtained from a boss drop: the black coat called the «Coat of Midnight». After that, he began to like colour black and, by the end of the game, all of his clothes were mainly black.
 * According to Yui, Kirito's in-game yawns last about 8 seconds on average.