Sword Art Online - Comic Anthology Volume 01

The Sword Art Online Comic Anthology (ソードアート・オンライン コミックアンソロジー) is the first volume of the Sword Art Online-themed comic anthologies. The first volume was published on May 27, 2013 under the Dengeki Comics imprint. Some of the manga included in this anthology were first published in Dengeki magazines, while others were published for the first time.

Content

 * Colour illustrations by Yuuki Tatsuya (結城辰也), Matsuryuu (松竜) and karory.
 * Asuna's SECRET (アスナのヒミツ) - written by Shinozuka Atsuto (しのづかあつと)
 * The Secret in the Depths of the Forest (森の深奥の秘密) - written by Sagami Rin (相模琳)
 * Don't Lose, Lisbeth! (負けるな リズベット！) - written by Akada Anmitsu (あかだアンミツ)
 * Kitty Cat Asuna (ニャンコなアスナ) - written by Fukuya Manaoto (復八磨直兎)
 * Today's Weather Setting is Also Good (今日も良い気象設定日和) - written by Puyo (ぷよ)
 * MAID iN AINCRAD - written by Hiten
 * Asuna, Do Your Best! (アスナ、がんばれ！) - written by Hisasi
 * Nekoneko Quest Online (ねこねこ・クエスト・オンライン) - written by YASUDA
 * Uncertain Argo-rhythm (不確定アルゴリズム) - written by Kogorō (こごろー)

Asuna's SECRET
Kirito, who has been worried about Asuna hiding from him and collecting items on the middle floors in secret, came to Klein and then Lisbeth for consultation. After being told by Lisbeth to trust Asuna and wait for her to reveal what she had been doing herself, Kirito returned home to wait for her. After finishing gathering all the needed ingredients, Asuna returned home and went to the kitchen to prepare something. Some time later, she brought a cake to Kirito and told him that she wanted to surprise him by baking a wedding cake to celebrate their marriage. However, when Kirito suggested eating the cake, Asuna stopped him and told him that they had to cut the cake together to always be together.

The Secret in the Depths of the Forest
One day, while navigating a forest outside of a town, Silica and Pina encountered several monsters. As Silica's HP was too low to continue fighting, she ran away. After getting away from the monsters, Silica noticed that Pina had gone missing. Although she wanted to look for her lost Tamed Monster, she returned to town to first resupply. In town, she ran into Kirito and asked for his help in finding Pina. Just when they were about to turn back and choose another path to search, they heard noises nearby. After tracing the sounds, they found a place where a lot of Feathery Dragons were gathered, including Pina. After Silica reunited with Pina, Silica asked Kirito not to tell anyone about the place so that the Feathery Dragons could live there in peace. The two then went on their way back to town.

Don't Lose, Lisbeth!
One day, the newlywed couple, Kirito and Asuna, came over to Lisbeth's Smith Shop. Although Lisbeth tried to act hospitable, she was secretly depressed about the marriage. However, having decided to not to interfere with Kirito and Asuna's relationship, Lisbeth tried to treat the couple, despite her emotions still bubbling on the inside. Lisbeth tried to prepare a meal for her guests, but due to not having a high Cooking skill, her success rate for cooking was rather low. Thus, Asuna came to help, telling Lisbeth that for she had already mastered her Cooking skill for Kirito, unintentionally causing Lisbeth to get jealous. Although Lisbeth thought that Asuna was trying to cook for Kirito, she was actually trying to thank her dear friend instead. After the meal, the trio took a commemorative picture. Several days later, a customer came to Lisbeth's store for a custom-made sword. While Lisbeth was crafting it, the customer noticed the photo taken a few days ago. Although Lisbeth was happy with having Kirito and Asuna as her friends, who were using swords crafted by her. But, noticing that the two looked very happy and that Asuna had managed to hold hands with Kirito in the photo, Lisbeth accidentally broke the sword with a strong hammer strike.

Kitty Cat Asuna
After clearing an area of monsters, Kirito and Asuna found a treasure chest, which contained a cat ear headpiece. After some insistence, Kirito convinced Asuna to put the headpiece on to show him how she looked with it. However, after Asuna put on the headpiece, Asuna grew a cat tail and started acting like a cat. Moreover, the headpiece became stuck and the tail could not be removed. In the evening, Kirito decided to ask Argo about the item the next day and, seeing as Asuna could not control her behaviour, tried teasing her. The next day, after speaking with Argo, Kirito told Asuna that the headpiece could only be removed by reciting an incantation while performing an embarrassing dance. Left with no choice, Asuna performed the dance and the headpiece came off. However, after seeing that Kirito was recording the dance with a recording crystal, she demanded that they exchanged their items. Although Kirito rejected the idea of wearing cat ears, Asuna forced him to put it on and used his recording crystal to record his behaviour. Some time later, Kirito could be seen asking Asuna to delete the recording.

Today's Weather Setting is Also Good
One day, Asuna discovered Kirito carelessly sleeping by a tree. Asuna decided to make use of the situation and lie down on Kirito's lap. However, she soon realised that what she lied down on was not Kirito, but a fluffy animal, while Kirito was snatched away by two masked thieves, Lisbeth and Silica, who introduced themselves as a phantom thief guild, «Pillaging League». Asuna wanted to save Kirito, but she was warned that if she moved, they would use an ear pick on Kirito. However, Silica and Lisbeth then got into an argument on how to share Kirito. Using the opportunity while the two thieves were in disorder, Asuna made her move and knocked them out cold. Some time later, Kirito woke up, only to find Asuna on his lap with an ear pick in her hand.

MAID iN AINCRAD
After Asuna and Kirito moved out of Agil's Item Shop, his shop began attracting less customers. Thus, Agil came to Kirito and Asuna's house to ask for help in distributing leaflets to advertise his shop. Asuna agreed to help and began organising the effort: Asuna gathered Yui, Lisbeth and Silica and had all the girls dress as maids to make the leaflet distribution more impactful. That was when Kirito found out that Asuna planned to have him dressed as a maid too. After Kirito was forcefully dressed by the girls, Yui felt that something was off and discovered that Kirito was not wearing the appropriate underwear. Fearing the enthusiasm of the girls, Kirito ran out of the shop, but accidentally bumped into Klein. Mistaking Kirito for a girl, Klein requested Kirito to go out with him and even marry him. Shocked by the misunderstanding, Kirito knocked Klein out cold, but was then found by Asuna and dragged back to the shop. The next day, Klein came to Kirito and Asuna's house to ask whether they had seen the mysterious girl that he had bumped into the day before. After Kirito saw Klein's screenshot of the "girl", he threatened Klein with his sword to forget ever seeing "her".

Asuna, Do Your Best!
One morning, while polishing his swords, Kirito was lost in thought about how one's equipment weight affects the player's sword swing speed. While he was unintentionally thinking out loud about how having no equipment on would affect the sword's swing, Asuna overheard him talking to himself, but misunderstood him as saying that he wanted to see her naked. Thinking that Kirito wanted her to be more bold, Asuna first tried serving breakfast with only her underwear and an apron on, but the surprised Kirito averted his eyes and told her to put her clothes on. Kirito then suggested going outside and the couple found a place to lie down. As Kirito wanted to take a nap, Asuna decided to impress Kirito by being his sunshade and thus giving him a sight of her breasts. However, as that idea backfired and caused the couple to not say a word to each other until they got back home, Asuna decided to go for a frontal attack and waited for Kirito in their bed with only her underwear on. Shocked by Asuna's actions, Kirito asked her why she had been acting strange that day and Asuna told him about overhearing his monologue in the morning. After Kirito explained the misunderstanding, Asuna grew ashamed of what she had done that day, but Kirito cheered her up by saying that, although she was acting weird that day, he thought that she was cute and expressed the feelings he felt for her.

Nekoneko Quest Online
Some time after the 1st Floor boss battle, Asuna was waiting for Kirito, who was running late, in a city on the 2nd Floor. When Kirito showed up, she found out that he had come across a lost cat while exploring the town and the cat kept following him. Kirito then asked for Asuna's help in finding the owner of the cat and was surprised that she agreed. After some time of fruitless searching, Kirito noticed that Asuna had been overly interested in the cat and asked her if she had been asking the cat things like where was its home. At that moment, Kirito remembered that if they wanted information, the best person to ask would be Argo. However, as it was too late to look for Argo that day, they decided to part ways for the night, with Asuna bringing the cat with her. The next day, Kirito came over to Asuna's inn, only to find her acting strange. Some time later, while walking through town, Asuna brought up that they should give a name to the cat and suggested naming it «Kirito» due to it being pitch black. Although Kirito did not want to accept such a name, after Asuna started making cute nicknames out of his name as alternatives, he gave in to calling it Kirito. After a short conversation about how the cat had affected Asuna, Argo showed up and snatched the cat from Asuna and then explained that the cat was her familiar, named Kii-bou after Kirito. Argo then revealed that Kii-bou had been recording everything it had heard and seen the past day with an animal-type recording crystal. The recording revealed Asuna's various embarrassing moments, including how she was taking a bath with the cat. Argo then asked what to do with the recording and Kirito offered to buy it for 100,000 Cor. Despite Asuna asking to delete the recording, Argo accepted Kirito's offer, causing Asuna to unsheathe her rapier and break the crystal.

Uncertain Argo-rhithm
One day, on the 2nd Floor, Kirito gave Argo his latest map date for the Labyrinth. After accepting the map data, Argo told Kirito to pass her regards to Asuna. Kirito then brought up that Asuna had been acting strange lately and asked if Argo knew anything about it. Argo informed him that such information would cost 5,000 Cor and, although Kirito thought that it was expensive, he decided to buy the information. Asuna then told him about how Asuna had come to her three days ago and wanted information about the existence of a Cooking skill. This request did spark interest in Argo and she began teasing Asuna, but, when Asuna started doubting her informant skills, Argo told her that she did know something, but she wanted to come with Asuna instead of getting paid for this information. Argo explained that she had word about a quest at a small village that was rumored to grant a Cooking skill. Although Argo doubted that the information was true, she wanted to verify it just in case. However, the quest involved going through a dangerous route, thus Argo wanted a bodyguard.

The quest was to retrieve special mushrooms that grew next to a waterfall in a forest. While traversing the forest and talking about the quest, Argo noticed a monster behind Asuna and took care of it with a swift strike. After Asuna thanked for the help, Argo took the opportunity to tease Asuna by saying that Asuna had showed her breasts. Later on, after arriving at the waterfall, they heard a strange noise. The noise turned out to be caused by a monster that neither Asuna, nor Argo had seen before. Argo advised retreating, as challenging an unknown monster was dangerous and that they should not risk their lives for what she thought was a worthless quest. However, Asuna claimed that she did not think that the quest was worthless, since she had already decided that she wanted to live in that world and that cooking was an important thing to her. Asuna then insisted on Argo helping her, but Argo said that they should return to town and get Kirito to help them. Asuna rejected this idea, as she did not want Kirito to find out about her intentions.

Hearing this, Argo started laughing, saying that Asuna was being very cute. Saying that Kirito was being insensitive because he was a timid person, Argo wished Asuna to do her best. The shocked Asuna then decided to charge at the monster and asked Argo to provide cover. After a dangerous battle, Argo told Asuna off for being unreasonable and told her that she would charge her for the help. She then decided to tease Asuna again by saying how Asuna had acted out of love and that Kirito was a fortunate person. Although Asuna tried denying that she had any feelings for Kirito, Argo continued teasing her by saying that they had found the mushrooms that Asuna wanted to get for Kirito.

Back in the present, Argo told Kirito that they found out that the quest did not actually give a Cooking skill. Argo then said that Asuna would likely continue looking for a way to get such a skill for the sake of a certain someone. Kirito then asked Argo if she did not have thoughts about doing something like cooking for someone herself, but Argo claimed that this information cost 10,000,000 Cor. The two were then approached by Asuna and Argo told her that she had sold Kirito some information, prompting Asuna to ask whether it was about their adventure.