Sachi

Sachi (サチ) was a supporting character in the Aincrad Arc. She was one of the 10,000 players who were trapped in «Sword Art Online» and a member of the Moonlit Black Cats guild. Along with the majority of her guild, Sachi was killed in the 27th Floor Labyrinth on June 22, 2023, after they ventured into a trap in a secret room inside the Labyrinth.

Background
In the real world, Sachi, along with all the other original members of the Moonlit Black Cats, were in a computer club at their school. She also happened to live fairly close to the leader of the guild, Keita.

Sword Art Online
Sachi was a petite girl with shoulder-length black hair and a small mole right under the corner of her right eye. She wore a light blue tunic with a chestguard, a knee-length short skirt and grayish boots. In battle, her weapon was a two-handed long spear. Although she temporarily tried out wielding a sword and shield to help Tetsuo tank monsters, she eventually had to switch back to using a spear due to her fear of fighting monsters at close range.

Personality
Sachi was a timid, apprehensive girl, who feared dying in Sword Art Online. Due to this fear, she had never intended to leave the Town of Beginnings and hated going into battles. She only felt the peace of mind to sleep soundly when she discovered Kirito's true level, which made her feel safe in his presence.

Red-Nosed Reindeer
While exploring a dungeon on April 8, 2023, Sachi and the other members of the Moonlit Black Cats encountered a large group of armed goblins that slowly forced them to retreat. As they only had one tank among them, the guild experienced severe difficulty in handling the monsters until they were assisted by a passing swordsman named Kirito. Once they defeated the goblins, the girl tearfully thanked their savior for rescuing her and the others, accepting his offer to escort them out of the dungeon. Afterwards, the Moonlit Black Cats guided Kirito to a tavern in Taft for a drink as thanks for his intervention. Upon hearing the solo player was only a few levels higher than them, the guild requested Kirito to join them and help Sachi convert from a spearwoman to a sword-and-shield user, to which the boy agreed.

Despite the Moonlit Black Cats leveling up at a rapid pace over the next few months thanks to Kirito's help, Sachi's fear in engaging monsters in close combat hampered her weapon usage conversion. Combined with unspoken pressure from everyone except the swordsman, this eventually culminated in the girl running away from the guild's temporary headquarters on the night of May 16, using an invisibility cloak to conceal herself in a waterway on Taft's outskirts. Surprised when Kirito located her, the girl confessed her terror of dying, wondering why she had to be trapped in Sword Art Online. Comforted by the boy's assurance that he would protect her until the game was cleared, the two returned to the inn, where they convinced the rest of the Moonlit Black Cats to discontinue her transition into a swordswoman. From that night onward, Sachi would come to sleep in Kirito's room, claiming she would be able to sleep peacefully if she remained in his presence while hearing him repeat his vow of protection.



However, Kirito was not able to keep his word. On June 22, 2023; the guild leader went out to buy a home for the guild, the other guild members decided to head to a dungeon to get enough money for a celebration. The group decided to head to a Labyrinth just three floors below the current front line. Although the hunting was proceeding smoothly and the guild managed to acquire enough funds, Ducker found a treasure chest and opened it, triggering a trap which locked down the area, made multiple monsters spawned around the trap, and prevented the use of teleportation crystals. At exactly 5:45:13 PM, Sachi died.

On Christmas morning that year, a time-delayed message left by Sachi opened up in Kirito's inventory. The message told him that she had already known of his higher level and also told him not to blame himself for her death, which she had predicted would happen due to her nature. She requested Kirito to survive in the world of SAO, and to find the reason why such a world was built. Finally, Sachi sung "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and her final goodbyes gave Kirito the strength to live.

The Day After
On June 22, 2025, at 5:45:13 PM, exactly two years after Sachi's death, her emotions preserved by the Cardinal System temporarily interfered with Asuna's avatar in ALfheim Online. The former vice commander of the Knights of the Blood experienced a vision, in which she witnessed an image of Sachi slowly and lovingly singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. After finishing the song, the apparition turned to Asuna and requested her to tell Kirito for her that she was happy, before the vision ended.

Hollow Fragment
A Hollow version of Sachi was encountered by Kirito while he was exploring a dungeon in the Alevaste Otherworld section of the Hollow Area. Despite being unable to recognize the swordsman, the girl had a vague recollection of having met him before and thus felt oddly comforted by his presence. When the boy expressed interest in her being within such a dangerous place, Sachi explained that she was certain about having an important task to accomplish, despite being unable to recall what it was, and thus she refused to leave the room until she could remember it. When Kirito acquiesced to her resolve and instead offered to stay with her for a while longer, the girl declined as she sensed that the boy had other business to handle, but she promised to wait for him until he was finished with it.

Upon Kirito's return, Sachi learnt about his relationship with her and the Moonlit Black Cats. Although she herself could not remember the details of his story, she did recall that her current goal was to fight monsters in the Driogeer Skycaves. With Sachi agreeing to have Kirito accompany her due to his concerns about her safety, the pair traveled to the girl's destination, where they found a secret door to a hidden chamber. Once they entered the room, the door closed behind them, forcing the duo to fight multiple high-level monsters that immediately spawned in front of them. After the battle, the girl admitted to being aware that she was only a copy of a deceased player; nevertheless, she thanked Kirito for helping her fight despite her fears, explaining that the real Sachi felt the same way. In the end, Sachi promised to accompany Kirito if he ever wished to adventure with her in the Hollow Area.

The Diva of the Snow Fields
Shortly after the events of the Death Gun incident and the case of stolen NerveGear units, a Non-Player Character (NPC) version of Sachi was created based on her leftover data. This NPC was unexpectedly encountered by Afasys, Asuna, Eiji, Kirito, the Protagonist, Sinon, Yui, and Zeliska, while they were searching for a particular person deep inside a dungeon within the White Frontier. Due to a mysterious growing anomaly in her NPC coding, Sachi failed to recognize Kirito and gradually became unresponsive as a result of her Artificial Intelligence (AI) functionality apparently being consumed. Despite her condition, she passively accompanied the others as they attempted to halt the process, which eventually resulted in her fully regaining her memories once they defeated a quest boss responsible for her deterioration.

However, Sachi's recovery also allowed the system to detect that the original Sachi had died in Sword Art Online, which prompted it to begin erasing the data for her avatar. As the quest reward item the Protagonist had received from defeating the boss allowed saving character data, the girl decided to record her player data on the item as a memento for Kirito to remember her and alleviate his despair over losing her again, before her avatar dispersed into fragments of light.

Several days later, Sachi's character data was implanted into a blank ArFA-Sys unit by a recently-recovered Lievre. Once the unit was activated, the girl was able to accompany Kirito and the Protagonist on their adventures.

Gallery

 * See: Sachi/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * In the light novel, Sachi and Kirito had a shared inventory page separate from their individual inventory, which either one could access at anytime, mainly used to put common items such as potions and crystals for their convenience. The creation of this slot was requested by Sachi under the guise of being able to share potions between them, even though the guild inventory could be used for this purpose. The real reason why she wanted this slot was to be able to leave a comforting goodbye message to Kirito, in case she died before Christmas.
 * Sachi's death was one of the driving factors for Kirito's refusal to join another guild, and re-embracing the path of a solo player, until over a year later, when he was comforted by Asuna and joined the Knights of the Blood.
 * In the Blu-ray/DVD package volume 2, the character song CD featured Sachi (Hayami Saori) singing "Memory Heart Message" as the 2nd Character Song for this series. This CD is bundled along with the 3rd Character Song, which is sung by Silica (Rina Hidaka).
 * In the web novel, Sachi was Kirito's first love prior to Asuna. In addition to this, Kirito's and Sachi's relationship was depicted as being more intimate, and close in the web novel version of the story. However, subtle changes in the text of the published version imply that Kirito and Sachi were not as close as in the web novel.
 * In Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment, Kirito's inventory contains items from Sachi (and Asuna) separate from other items. The shared inventory contains a message record crystal that can only be activated in Kirito's room.
 * In Accel World x Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight, a dummy account of Sachi is available as a playable DLC character from the Launch Edition.

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