Sword Art Online Light Novel Volume 02


 * Warmth of the Heart and Morning Dew Girl redirect here. You may be looking for Episode 7 or Episode 11.

Aincrad (アインクラッド) Part 2 is the 2nd book in the Sword Art Online Light Novel series, published on August 10, 2009.

Summary
This volume consists of four short stories that took place before and during the events of Volume 1.

Prologue
Aincrad and Sword Art Online are briefly introduced.

Part 1
After a quarrel with a party member over the distribution of healing items, Silica the Beast Tamer left the party and soon got herself lost in the «Forest of Wandering». She was later attacked by multiple Drunk Apes, resulting in the death of her Tamed Monster, a «Feathered Little Dragon» she had named Pina. After she killed the monster responsible for the death of Pina, she was rescued by Kirito who happened to be passing by.

Part 2
Kirito offered to help her obtain the «Pneuma Flower», an item that could revive a familiar within three days of its death, and explained his desire to assist her because she reminded him of his sister from the real world. Silica and Kirito then went to a inn for the night, where they encountered Rosalia, the same party member Silica had an argument with. They talked about the concept of Color Cursors, Player Killing and roleplaying in massively multiplayer online games. Later, Silica visited Kirito's room to discuss their plan to retrieve the Pneuma Flower, but they learned someone had been eavesdropping on their conversation.

Part 3
The next day, both Silica and Kirito then journeyed together to the «Hill of Memories» on the 47th Floor. Along the way, Kirito discussed how his sister, who actually was his cousin, had started practicing kendo in his place whem their grandfather punished him for quitting the sport. After retrieving the «Pneuma Flower», they were stopped by the orange guild Titan's Hand, revealed to be led by Rosalia. During the encounter, Kirito revealed that his intention was not only to help Silica, but also to lure out the orange guild and trap them at the request of one of their victims. Titan's Hand, though initially dismayed at the discovery that Kirito was the «Black Swordsman», a prominent member of the Clearing Group, began assaulting him, but were stunned to learn that his level and skills were high enough to negate any damage they could deal to him. After successfully sending the orange guild to the Black Iron Castle, where they would be imprisoned and in the custody of «The Army», Kirito and Silica returned to the inn, where they promised to meet again in the real world, and revived Pina.

Part 1
The story introduced a female blacksmith named Lisbeth, who spent her days running her own smith shop in the town of Lindarth. One day, Asuna, who was visiting for maintenance on her rapier Lambent Light, revealed to Lisbeth she was having a meeting with another player. The blacksmith, surprised that the aloof, work-oriented vice commander of the Knights of the Blood would be interested in a boy, briefly teased her about her interest, but afterwards could not help wondering if she could have a boyfriend as well. The next day, Kirito entered her shop to request for a new weapon, one equal to or superior to his current blade, the «Elucidator». When she presented her best sword, he struck it with Elucidator to test the durability of Lisbeth's sword, which resulted in the sword breaking. Enraged that her best «Player Made» sword had been destroyed by a Drop weapon, when the former type of weapon was usually superior to the latter, she demanded to form a party with him and go on a quest to obtain a Crystallite Ingot to forge a sword that could rival the Elucidator.

Part 2
After briefly explaining the details of the quest and the attempts of the players who had failed to obtain the Crystallite Ingot, Lisbeth left with Kirito for the 55th Floor to try their hand with the quest. At the top of the mountain where the target of the quest, X'rphan the White Wyrm, lived, Kirito was on the verge of defeating it when Lisbeth, assured that the monster would soon be dead, disregarded his orders and left her hiding spot too early, causing the creature to blow her into a giant hole in the ground. Kirito rushed in and managed to save her from fatal fall damage, but the two found themselves trapped at the bottom of the hole, with no way of climbing or teleporting out of it, or communicating with the outside. As they resigned themselves to staying the night, Lisbeth inquired why Kirito had risked his life to save hers, to which he replied that he believed dying together with someone was better than dying alone. Before they fell asleep, Lisbeth asked to hold his hand, to which he complied.

Part 3
The next morning, Kirito dug around the bottom of the hole and found a Crystallite Ingot buried under the snow. He deduced that the hole was actually the dragon's lair and the reason behind no other player finding the ingot was because it was actually the monster's excrement, to Lisbeth's disgust. Realizing that the dragon, nocturnal by nature, would be returning soon, Kirito used his reflexes to trick the dragon into flying them out of the hole. After returning to the shop, Lisbeth used the ingot to forge a new sword, named the «Dark Repulser», for Kirito and was about to confess her feelings for him when Asuna rushed in, relieved to find her friend after being unable to contact her the previous night. Recognizing that Kirito was the one Asuna was interested in, and that the latter had recommended the former into visiting the shop, Lisbeth was heartbroken, but Kirito comforted her and promised to clear the game and free everyone.

Part 4
Five months later, Lisbeth was working in her shop and ruminating over her adventure with Kirito when the Non-Player Character (NPC) tending the shop suddenly disappeared. Running outside, Lisbeth heard a loud voice announcing the clearing of the game. Deducing that Kirito had kept his word, Lisbeth cheered with the other players and shouted her feelings for Kirito toward the upper floors.

Morning Dew Girl
During Kirito and Asuna's honeymoon period on the 22nd Floor, Kirito suggested venturing to a site described in a rumor of a wandering ghost. There, they found an unconscious young girl named Yui, who the couple soon cherished as their own daughter. Seeking to find the child's origin, they journeyed to the 1st Floor, where they learned about the tyranny and corruption of «The Army». Along with Yulier's help, they later went on a quest to locate the founder of The Army, Thinker, who had been tricked and trapped by Kibaou, founder of the original Aincrad Liberation Squad. In the end, after eliminating the Hidden Dungeon's secret boss, Kirito and Asuna soon discovered their departing daughter's true identity as a «Mental Healthcare Counseling Program». Before her complete elimination, Kirito accessed the game's system with the hidden console unit to save Yui from the «Cardinal System».

Red-Nosed Reindeer
Christmas Eve was approaching fast and the special event boss, Nicholas The Renegade, arrived with the promise of dropping a revival item. Kirito set out to claim this item in hopes of reviving Sachi, his dead guildmate. Klein encountered the distraught and despairing Kirito and tried to talk him out of engaging Nicholas alone, but to no avail. Kirito then recollected on how he met his former guild, the «Moonlit Black Cats», how he had gotten close to Sachi, and the demise of the guild. Kirito found the place where Nicholas would appear, and noticed that he was followed by Klein and his guild, while they in turn were followed by the Divine Dragon Alliance (DDA). Klein told Kirito to take on Nicholas alone while he and his guild fought off the DDA. At the end of the battle and on the verge of death, Kirito collected the item he wanted, only to discover that it could not save Sachi. Devastated, he gave the item to Klein and returned to Myujen. After waiting until morning, when he planned to go on a suicide attack against the next Floor Boss, Kirito was alarmed by an item in his inventory. There he found a message recording crystal left behind by Sachi in their shared inventory space tab. Sachi's message told Kirito that if he was listening to the recording, it meant that she had died. She told him that she never blamed him for her death. Sachi told Kirito to survive and see the world end, and to find out why this world was created. Sachi then sang the song «Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer», while her final goodbyes gave Kirito the strength to live on.

Adaptation Notes

 * The whole part from Silica receiving Kirito's equipment to Kirito carrying Silica back to the main city area with his arms was entirely omitted in the published version.
 * There were some changes in Kirito's conversation with Silica, as Kirito was not aware that Suguha was his cousin rather than his sister in the web novel.
 * In the web version, it was clearly stated that Silica loved Kirito and wanted to be his girlfriend. However, this is not the case in the published version.
 * In the Web Novel, Lisbeth had asked to be with Kirito in his sleeping bag, claiming to be cold. Once she entered his sleeping bag (after already removing most of her clothes in the process, being left only in a camisole), she asked him to hold her as they fell asleep. The published Light Novel omitted most of this scene and instead, Lisbeth asked to hold Kirito's hand. Discussions about the Moral Code were also removed from these paragraphs.
 * "Morning Dew Girl" was originally named as "Four Days" in the web novel version.
 * "Warmth of the Heart" had the "Heart" in its title written in Katakana in the web novel version.

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