Sword Art Online The Movie -Ordinal Scale-

Sword Art Online The Movie -Ordinal Scale- (劇場版 ソードアート・オンライン -オーディナル・スケール-) is a Sword Art Online movie that was released in about 1,000 theatres worldwide on February 18, 2017. The movie is set after Mother's Rosario, but before the Alicization Arc and has an original story written by the author, Kawahara Reki. The theme song of the movie is Catch the Moment, a new song by LiSA.

The stage of the movie is an Augmented Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (ARMMORPG) titled «Ordinal Scale» (OS) for an Augmented Reality device called the «Augma». A feature of Ordinal Scale is a «Ranking System», according to which, each player is assigned a rank, indicated by an ordinal number instead of a cardinal number. The game is set in the real world, and players can increase their rank by gathering items that appear in various places of the real world, or by defeating monsters. Higher-ranked players are granted overwhelming power and this is commonly a major factor in deciding the outcome of Player versus Player (PvP) battles.

Prologue
In 2022, the world of virtual reality was upended by the arrival of a new invention from a genius programmer, Kayaba Akihiko.

Called NerveGear, it was the first full-dive system and with it, came endless possibilities to VRMMORPGs.

In 2026, a new machine called the Augma is developed to compete against the NerveGear and its successor, the AmuSphere.

A next-gen wearable device, the Augma does not have a full-dive function like its predecessors. Instead, it uses Augmented Reality to get players into the game. It is safe, user-friendly and lets users play while they are conscious, making it an instant hit on the market.

The most popular game on the system is «Ordinal Scale», an ARMMORPG developed exclusively for the Augma.

Asuna and the gang have already been playing OS for a while, by the time Kirito decides to join them.

They’re about to find out that Ordinal Scale isn’t all fun and games…

Plot
One day on the 22nd Floor of Aincrad, Kirito and Asuna made a promise to see meteor showers in real life. Kirito additionally promised to have a gift for Asuna that day.

In 2026, an Augmented Reality (AR) device named Augma and its games, especially a game called Ordinal Scale, were quickly becoming popular among the masses. Given its MMORPG nature and its idol character Yuna, the AI singer who was announced to hold an AR concert at the New National Stadium in Tokyo. Students of the SAO Survivor School were granted a free Augma and a ticket for said concert.

Upon learning about the appearance of Aincrad's floor bosses in Ordinal Scale, Asuna persuaded Kazuto to drive her to one of the spawn locations, where they met with Tsuboi Ryoutarou (Klein) and his guild, the Fuurinkazan. The moment the clock struck 21:00, Kagachi the Samurai Lord, the boss of Aincrad's 10th Floor, spawned.

At that moment, Yuna entered the scene via a drone. Announcing the start of the battle, she began singing, which provided buffs to the players for the battle. During the fight, when a player fired a rocket at the boss, the rocket strayed from its course and began flying towards Yuna. At that moment, Eiji, the second-ranked player of Ordinal Scale, suddenly entered the battle and deflected the projectile, which then hit the boss instead. As the fight continued, Asuna saw an opening, thus she assaulted the boss. The moment Asuna passed by him, Eiji whispered the term «Switch». A moment later, the boss was defeated by Asuna's attack.

After the fight, one of the members of Fuurinkazan noticed a pop-up, which led him to a collectible in an underground parking lot. Just as he retrieved the item, the man was confronted by Eiji, emanating hostility towards him, thus he drew his sword in preparation for a battle.

The following evening, Ryoutarou invited Asuna to join them for a boss battle near her home. However, at the venue, she discovered that one of Fuurinkazan members was unreachable. Since the guild decided to remain outside the battlefield to wait for him, Asuna proceeded to the boss fight by herself.

As the battle with the boss and an impromptu Yuna concert began, a second boss suddenly spawned near the Fuurinkazan members. Although guild was faring well against the boss, they were suddenly assaulted by Eiji, who disabled all of Ryoutarou's guildmates with martial arts. At that moment, Ryoutarou dropped his Augma and attempted to punch him, but Eiji soon caught and broke his arm. After putting Ryoutarou's Augma on him again, Eiji presented the injured man to the boss while holding him by the neck, thus allowing the boss to defeat him.

At the venue of the boss fight the next morning, while waiting for Asuna to arrive for their date, Kazuto was convinced by Yui to trained for upcoming Ordinal Scale battles. While he was practising, he suddenly noticed an intangible, hooded girl right next to him. The girl pointed to a specific direction, murmuring something inaudible, which Yui later interpreted to be a request to search a place, before disappearing.

Asuna realised that Eiji could have been Nautilus, a lower-ranking member of the Knights of the Blood in Sword Art Online.

Yui noticed that the spawn locations of the SAO bosses were similar to the layout of the dungeons from old Aincrad.

In the evening, Asuna, Lisbeth, and Silica met Eiji again at another boss fight. While trying to avoid an attack, Silica bumped into Eiji, who pushed her back. Due to using herself to shield Silica from the monster's attack, Asuna was hit by a monster and lost all of her hit points, mysteriously fainting as a result. Having seen Eiji's actions from the sidelines, Kirito attempted to confront Eiji in rage but was halted when Eiji suddenly entered close range, pointing his sword at Kirito's throat.

The next day, Asuna noted that she was losing her memories of her time in SAO, and told Kirito about it who decided to go to a hospital. Receiving the diagnosis, they learned that her brain had been scanned for SAO memories, that the scan could affect further brain functions and that similar incidents had also happened to others, with all victims being SAO Survivors. In order to find out what is happening in OS, Kirito then urged the community not to play the game so he could investigate.

Sinon joined Kirito in investigating the OS mystery. When another SAO Survivor was defeated, Yui attempted to hack into an Augma drone to trace his memories, but was blocked by the system. Kirito later noticed that the hooded girl was pointing to a specific location. The location was the Touto Technical University in Ookayama, the workplace of Professor Shigemura Tetsuhiro, Eiji's mentor and the developer of Augma. Kirito went to Touto Technical University to question Shigemura about the incidents, but the professor denied any connection or knowledge about Eiji and the memory losses, however Kirito spotted that Shigemura was building robots and had a photo of a girl resembling Yuna.

Upon analysing his findings with Kikuoka Seijirou, he discovered that Shigemura Yuna, the professor's daughter, had also played SAO, but died in the game. As Asuna's home was near Touto Tech in Setagaya, Kazuto visited and promised to get her memories back after realizing the full extent of the ordeal she was going through due to her memory loss.

Kazuto met the hooded girl again, who then revealed herself as Yuna and informed him that he can not defeat Eiji with a rank as low as his. Following this revelation, Kirito decided to continuously solo bosses to rank up, supported by Kirigaya Suguha and Asada Shino.

On the day of Yuna's concert, Kirito headed to the stadium's basement to confront Eiji. Kirito eventually defeated Eiji, leading him to reveal that the reason behind his actions, namely him being close to Yuna while in SAO, as well as the concert being a trap. According to him, Shigemura planned to capture the SAO memories of the survivors gathered there to rebuild Yuna as an AI using the SAO boss monsters and drones placed throughout the stadium, employing wireless energy transfer from the drones to the Augmas of those present to trigger a NerveGear-like pulse, killing everybody inside.

Kirito managed to get into the arena and fought the monsters with his companions. Asuna's condition worsened, as the bosses triggered the survivors' fear needed to activate the microwave pulse when a certain amount would be reached. Hooded Yuna appeared and defended them from a monster, informing Kirito that the Augma has a FullDive function and that they needed to use it to defeat Aincrad's 100th boss. Kirito gave Asuna a ring as promise before entering FullDive.

Kirito, Agil, Silica, Lisbeth and Sinon entered the Ruby Palace on level 100 in Aincrad, where they began to fight «An Incarnate of Radius», the true final boss of SAO. As they were about to be overpowered by the boss, Asuna dove in and joined the battle, together with Leafa, Klein, the spirit of Yuuki, as well as other players from ALO and GGO coming in later. Yui restored the saved game data of the SAO survivors, allowing them to turn the tables on «An Incarnate of Radius». Kayaba's voice congratulated the players, and Kirito was rewarded a powerful sword.

Kirito returned to the stadium as his Aincrad character, combined his newly achieved position as the number one player of Ordinal Scale with wielding the sword to one-hit kill the boss monsters. The hooded Yuna sang to motivate the survivors and the monsters were eventually eliminated. Meanwhile, Kikuoka and his squad moved in to apprehend Shigemura, who was found in Argus' server room.

Hooded Yuna returned the memories of the survivors and, as she was made of data from Aincrad, she disappeared as well with Aincrad's final boss defeated.

Some time later, Kirito and Asuna fulfilled their promise to see the meteor shower. Asuna returned the ring to Kirito, asking him to put it properly on her ring finger this time.

It was later revealed that Kikuoka did not arrest Shigemura, who was shown to be the mentor to Kayaba and Sugou Nobuyuki as well; rather, Kikouka saw potential in Shigemura's AI system and recruited him to help work on Rath.

New Characters

 * Yuna
 * Doctor Shigemura Tetsuhiro
 * Eiji (Nochizawa Eiji)

Preview
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Trivia

 * A text showing "SAO will return" was shown at the end.

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