Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25908228-20141222101442/@comment-25908228-20141222125455

TUSF wrote: You can either say that it's because Kirito got rusty, XaXa got stronger, or from the beginning XaXa was already stronger, and Kirito only beat him in SAO because of the massive level difference. It could be either of those 3 options.

Gsimenas wrote: As for your comments on XaXa, if you compare a person who has pretty much laid back for an entire year and a person who has been specifically practicing his skills in the virtual world, of course the one who was laid back will do worse. One's skills are only sharp as long as they are used. XaXa specifically commented that Kirito was awfully rusty after a year and that his SAO self would have been ashamed of him.

Ah, yeah, both of them raise valid points. Thanks! Except it makes it even worse as one hit from Kirito KOing XaXa meant he even had the superior weapon. Also, Kirito still played ALfheim online regularly, so it doesn't make sense that he is so extremely rusty. However, I'm not talking merely virtually. In ALfheim arc, Kirito kicks Sugou's ass irl (which is actually somewhat reasonable as the pain resistance was set at zero in their battle earlier online, which in theory would have affected his real body as according to the man himself). On the other hand, Kirito was likely still suffering from muscle atrophy and wasn't at top physical condition. But after the BoB, when he goes to Sinon's house, he gets beaten by Shinkawa, a medical student that devoted all his time to grinding and farming in GGO, well, the times he isn't hitting on Sinon that is. In the very beginning, Kirito caught him by surprise and kneed him full force in the face at the beginning of the fight. Out of all the fights in this series that Kirito should have lost, this is the one fight that it makes little sense that he did lose. This was a fight in which he had determination and was at theoretical physical peak. Kirito was decent at Kendo, as Kirito's spar with Sugou, the latter who was a Kendo practitioner while Kirito had only done it very long ago, not counting his virtual swordsmanship skills, shows. This shouldn't be possible unless a part of system-assisted skills translate to actual physical skill, which is entirely plausible. Thus, Kirito's "Martial Arts" Extra Skill from SAO should have given him at least some degree of close-combat knowledge/instinct. Sure, this may not be relevant to the original question, just an offhand comment on the trend.

Gsimenas wrote: You missed the part where Yuuki specifically said that she did not choose Kirito because he figured out her secret. So, your assumption is entirely misguided.

She did? I didn't know that haha. So I can assume Kirito is at least stronger than Asuna, perhaps.