Koujiro Rinko

Professor Koujiro Rinko (神代 凛子) is a supporting character in the Alicization Arc. She is a scientist, as well as the former love interest and co-worker of Kayaba Akihiko. She studied at the Toto Institute of Technology in Japan, where she was a part of Shigemura Lab in the institute's Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department.

Appearance
Koujiro Rinko is a petite young woman with short, straight, black hair.

Personality
Koujiro Rinko is a loyal and caring person, having taken care of Kayaba Akihiko's condition during his two-year dive into Sword Art Online and never left his side as she had feelings for him.

Background
Koujiro Rinko met Kayaba Akihiko in her first year of college at the age of eighteen, when she invited her senior to go swimming. Akihiko was nineteen years of age at the time and a second year.

Soon afterwards, Koujiro Rinko began working on the SAO project, unaware of Akihiko's mastermind plan. Ten years later, the first VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online, was released.

Aincrad Arc
Rinko initially helped in the development of SAO. When the SAO incident occurred, she was the only person who guessed where Akihiko was. Without telling anyone and avoiding the police, she decided to confront Akihiko in his hidden mountain cottage with the intent to kill him, but she was not able to do so and instead helped maintain Akihiko's physical condition, when he dived into the game for long periods of time. After the incident, the police found the cottage where both of them stayed. While Akihiko had already died after digitizing his brain to the network permanently, Rinko was arrested by the police and awaited her trial.

Fairy Dance Arc
Before the SAO incident ended, a fake long-distance micro bomb was implanted to the left of Rinko's sternum by Akihiko to make the world think that she was forced to help him during the incident. According to Rinko, that was the only gift that Akihiko had given her.

In March 2025, after Rinko was released on bail and later acquitted, she was contacted by Kirigaya Kazuto via email, asking to talk with her. A week later, Rinko visited Kazuto's house, where they decided to go to a coffee shop near a Tokyo station to talk.

Alicization Running
Two years after the SAO incident, Rinko had apparently moved to San Francisco, California. She had been invited by Kikuoka Seijirou to participate in top secret research on FullDive technology, but had been reluctant to accept the offer. But on July 1, 2026, she received an unexpected, long email from Yuuki Asuna. Learning about Asuna's situation, Rinko agreed to help the girl find Kazuto, thus she contacted Seijirou about accepting the invitation. Four days later on July 5, Rinko and Asuna, the latter disguised as Rinko's assistant Mayumi Reynolds, traveled to the hidden base of Rath, the «Ocean Turtle». There, they witnessed Rath's research on the «Soul Translator» and learned the reason why Kazuto was secretly transported to this facility.

Gallery

 * See Koujiro Rinko/Image Gallery

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