Sword Art Online Episode 04

The Black Swordsman (黒の剣士) is the fourth episode of the Sword Art Online anime adaptation, as well as the fourth episode in the Aincrad Arc. It aired on July 28, 2012.

Plot


On February 23, 2024, within a field dungeon called the Forest of Wandering, Silica, a mid level player and Beast Tamer, decided to leave her current party and return to Mishe on her own after getting into an argument with one of its members, Rosalia. However, due to the field dungeon's design, she became lost and encountered the local monsters multiple times. After hours of navigating the forest, she encountered several Drunk Apes; however, she had left her party without taking extra healing items and her remaining stock of healing items were soon depleted. While Silica was distracted looking for any leftover healing items, the Drunken Apes used the opening to attack Silica. As she was about to be hit with a final blow, her Tamed Monster, the Feathered Little Dragon Pina, intercepted the hit, sacrificing itself in the process. The shocked Silica was then nearly killed by the apes, but was saved by Kirito who had come across her by chance. After being saved, Silica grieved over the loss of her pet and dear friend.



Silica regained some hope when Kirito explained about an opportunity to revive her partner with a special flower at the 47th Floor. However, she is soon discouraged when she realized that the difficulty would be too high for her current level as well as having a three day time limit to revive Pina. Feeling obligated for not being able to save her Tamed Monster, Kirito provided her with some sturdier equipment to increase her protection, and partnered with Silica to retrieve the flower. Kirito would have gotten it himself; however, the presence of the deceased pet's owner was required for the item to appear. Silica asked him why he was helping her so much. Though she promised not to laugh at his response, she ended up laughing anyway after Kirito replied that she reminded him of his sister.



Silica returned with Kirito to Mishe, the main town of the 35th Floor, to discuss their plans for retrieving the flower. While in town, Kirito dealt with some troublesome encounters with some of Silica’s fans and Silica's ex-party member, Rosalia. At the inn, Kirito explained to Silica about the concept of «Player Killing» and Color Cursors: players who have attacked and/or killed someone are indicated by the cursor above their heads being orange, while a green cursor indicated that the player was not hostile to others. After having dinner, the two went to their own rooms. Silica, in her undergarments, was thinking about visiting Kirito's room, when she heard the latter knocking at her own door. After Silica barely remembered to get dressed before letting her new party member in, Kirito took out a «Mirage Sphere» to show the known data on the 47th Floor to Silica. As he was continuing with his explanations, he suddenly stopped and detected someone eavesdropping on them. He ran out to see who was there, but the player quickly fled. When Silica asked Kirito how someone was able to eavesdrop on them, Kirito explained that players with a high-level Straining skill did not have to knock on the door to hear what was going on in the room.



After spending the night at the second floor of the «Weathercock Pavilion», Kirito and Silica began their journey to the southern section of the 47th Floor from the main town on the floor, Floria. Before going to the location of the Pneuma Flower, Kirito gave Silica a teleport crystal just in case something went wrong. After defeating multiple plant monsters along the way and conversing about Kirito's sister, Kirito and Silica were able to make it to «The Hill of Memories» and retrieve the Pneuma Flower. Kirito asked Silica to revive Pina in Mishe as there were strong monsters around the area.



However, when returning with the item, Kirito sensed a group of players waiting to ambush them, and told Silica to get her teleport crystal out. Rosalia, who Kirito revealed to be the leader of «Titan's Hand» guild, appeared, and demanded them to give up the flower. When Silica wondered how Rosalia could be a member of an orange guild if she had a green cursor, Kirito explained that this was a simple trick, where players like her find targets for the orange members of the guild. Kirito then told Rosalia that he was looking for her, under the request of a leader of the fallen guild, the «Silver Flags», who wanted her and her guild to be sent to jail. The other members then came out of hiding, with their weapons at the ready.

One of the members, after hearing Silica call Kirito by his name, recognized him as the Black Swordsman. The member warned Rosalia that Kirito used a one-handed sword with no shield build, was a «Beater», and a member of the «Clearers». However, Rosalia rejected such a claim, believing that if he were a Clearer, he would not be wandering on the lower floors. She then ordered her members to attack him.



As the orange players attacked Kirito, he did nothing. Silica began to worry that he would die, and was almost ready to attack them. However, as she looked at his hit points (HP) bar, she suddenly saw it rising again. The orange players continued attacking Kirito for awhile, but eventually got exhausted from attacking, annoying Rosalia. Kirito then told the orange players that they did around four hundred damage to him in ten seconds, before revealing himself to be at a much higher level than them. In addition, his battle healing skill would heal six hundred points within ten seconds; thus, they could be fighting him all day and he would not die.



At that moment, Kirito took out a rare «Corridor Crystal», bought by the fallen guild's leader, and planned to send them all to the prison on the 1st Floor governed by «The Army». All the orange guild members seemingly gave in to Kirito’s supremacy except for Rosalia, who told him that if he attacked her, he would go orange. Kirito, with his speed, rushed up to Rosalia and threatened to kill her, stating that as a solo player, a few days of being orange meant nothing to him. Rosalia then dropped her spear, and all of the members were sent to the Black Iron Palace's jail.

Afterwards, Kirito and Silica returned to the «Weathercock Pavilion». There, Kirito apologized for ending up using her as bait to lure the orange guild, revealing that he was afraid that if he had told her the truth beforehand, she would have been scared. Silica rebutted this, stating that he was a good person. Though Silica wanted to join him, their levels were too far apart, and Kirito needed to return to the front lines. With Kirito's encouragement, Silica used the flower on Pina's Heart, thinking of how she would tell Pina about her one-day adventure with Kirito.

New Characters

 * Silica
 * Pina
 * Rosalia

Known Monsters

 * Garish Gerbera
 * Giant Venus Fly Trap
 * Land Anemone

Named Monsters

 * Feathered Little Dragon
 * Drunken Apes

Guilds

 * Titan's Hand
 * Silver Flags (mentioned)

Inventory

 * Silica
 * Pina's Heart
 * Ebon Dagger - Given by Kirito
 * Silverthread Armor - Given by Kirito
 * Moon Blazer - Given by Kirito
 * Fairy Boots - Given by Kirito
 * Florit Belt - Given by Kirito
 * Teleport Crystal - Given by Kirito
 * Pneuma Flower
 * Popping Corn
 * Sekiren
 * Fullmelon Skin
 * Manbaad
 * Samep Tail
 * Tough String
 * Worn-out Meal
 * Gem Bottle
 * Rominel Water
 * Pretty Fragment
 * Potion
 * Hi-Potion
 * Antidote Crystal
 * Minemurg
 * Bombom
 * Blue Soda
 * Tricoll Juice
 * Minicase
 * Lemming Bell
 * Cacacocori Fruit
 * Kirito
 * Mirage Sphere
 * Corridor Crystal - Given by Unnamed Silver Flags Guild leader

Locations

 * Aincrad Floor 1
 * Town of Beginnings
 * Black Iron Palace's Prison (Mentioned)
 * Aincrad Floor 35
 * Forest of Wandering
 * Mishe: Weathercock Pavilion
 * Aincrad Floor 47
 * Floria
 * Hill of Memories

Adaptation Notes

 * Adapted from Volume 2, The Black Swordsman.


 * In the light novel, three Drunk Apes appear, however Silica was dealing with two of them before a third one appeared. In the anime, the three apes simply surround her, with no surprise attacks.
 * When Pina was killed in the light novel, Silica became enraged and defeated the ape responsible for Pina's death. She was also about to engage the other two apes in a suicidal charge when Kirito appeared and swiftly killed the two apes. In the anime, Pina's death sent Silica into a state of shock, which almost resulted in her being killed by the apes, but Kirito was able to save her.
 * Although the light novel illustrations depict Kirito in his Blackwyrm Coat during this story, the anime depicts Kirito in a different coat, named the Pale Rider's Jacket.
 * The scene involving Silica in the Inn room is altered in the anime. In the novel, Silica visits Kirito's room and falls asleep on his bed, resulting in Kirito sleeping on the floor. This happens again to him at the beginning of the Fairy Dance story arc, when Suguha falls asleep in his bed, reinforcing Kirito's impression that Silica reminds him of her.
 * Due to this alteration, Silica and Kirito sleep in separate rooms in the anime, as opposed to sleeping in the same room in the novel.
 * In the light novel, ten Titan's Hand members revealed themselves, but only nine attacked Kirito, as one member was the guild's eavesdropper and thus needed a green cursor. In the anime, only seven players reveal themselves and attack him, including the eavesdropper.
 * In the light novel, after the orange players stopped attacking Kirito, they made confused faces until Rosalia ordered them to continue their attack, which they did. In the anime, the orange players were exhausted after attacking Kirito and did not continue attacking him even when Rosalia told them to.
 * In the light novel, Kirito warned the orange players that if they did not go through the portal, he would paralyze all of them with a knife coated with level 5 poison. The conversation nor the dagger is not mentioned in the anime.
 * The scene where Kirito opens a portal and jails the Titan's Hand guild members is omitted in the anime.
 * In the anime, Rosalia did not carry a teleport crystal.
 * In the light novel, while Kirito throws Rosalia into the portal, she attempted to plead to him for mercy and even attempted to persuade him to join forces with her.

Errors

 * While Kirito and Silica were waiting for dinner at the inn in Mishe, they discussed about Player Killing and Silica saw Kirito's and several other players' green cursors. However, according to Sword Art Online Material Edition 06, Color Cursors do not show up inside buildings at all.
 * A Titan's Hand guild member is depicted to be dual wielding a pair of hand-axes, and even using a Sword Skill involving the pair of weapons. However, Kirito is the only one able to make use of the Dual Blades Sword Skills, so this error may be on part of the animation team.

Quotes

 * "Don't leave me, alone, Pina"- Silica
 * (While being attacked by a Garish Gerbera) "Kirito, save me! Don't look, but save me!" - Silica
 * '"I don't think that your sister hates you. You can't work that hard for someone who you don't like" - Silica
 * (To Rosalia) "Just so we're clear, I'm a solo player. One or two days of playing while orange mean nothing to me. - Kirito
 * "In this world, strength is just an illusion. There are more important things" - Kirito
 * (Before the revival of Pina) "Pina...I'll talk to you lots and lots, okay? About my amazing adventure today...and about the one day in my life that I had a big brother." - Silica

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