Kirigaya Suguha (桐ヶ谷直葉,Kirigaya Suguha?), known as Leafa (リーファ,Rīfa?) in «ALfheim Online» (ALO), as well as «Project Alicization», where she had temporarily used the Terraria (テラリア,Teraria?) account, is the deuteragonist of the Fairy Dance Arc, one of the main characters of the Girls Ops spinoff, and a reoccurring character throughout the Sword Art Online series. Suguha is the cousin of Kirigaya Kazuto, but was raised along with him as his sister. In order to protect Kazuto from the wrath of their grandfather when he decided to quit kendo, Suguha became an accomplished kendo practitioner in his stead. While Kazuto was trapped in Sword Art Online, she became interested in seeing the virtual world that he loved, thus she began playing a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called ALfheim Online as a Sylph warrior, after consulting Nagata Shinichi (Recon), the person with the most experience on games in her class. Her obsession with flight in the game has earned her the nickname «Speedaholic» (スピードホリック,Supīdohorikku?) from Recon.
Suguha has short black hair and dark grey eyes, almost blackish.[citation needed] Her breasts are very large, compared to other members of the female cast, although she has grown a lot recently.[9] She also has a cute childish look and is often seen with an embarrassed expression, especially when around her cousin.[citation needed]
Due to her kendo training, Suguha has strong and defined muscles that show up even when she makes small movements.[9] Kazuto has described her as monstrously muscular and although he claims to be exaggerating, he does state that she is heavier than she looks.[10]
ALfheim Online
In ALfheim Online, Suguha appears more like an adult than a child. She has bright green eyes and wears white and green clothes. She also has a white and green collar on her neck. She has long blond hair, often tied up with a flower-like hairband. Her hair bangs, however, are not tied up with her hair. Like all of the other players in ALO, her ears are quite long and pointy.[citation needed]
Project Alicization
Suguha as Earth Goddess Terraria in Underworld.
Suguha's avatar maintains her long blond hair and green eyes from ALfheim Online, and her skin is pure white. She wears a grassy-colored outfit and shiny silver armor.[11]
Background
Kirigaya Suguha was raised with Kazuto as siblings, since her parents took Kazuto in after his parents died in a traffic accident. Kazuto is Suguha's maternal first cousin, as his mother and Suguha's were sisters. They were taught kendo by their grandfather, who was a former policeman and a kendo champion. Kazuto gave up after two years and embraced the world of technology, leaving her behind. Kazuto found out he was not her real brother around this time and the distance between them became further and further apart, until they were practically strangers before the SAO Incident. She continued with kendo and became a national quarter-finalist.
Suguha practicing Kendo as a child.
Suguha originally disliked VRMMO games for it hid peoples' nature and reality, as it did with Kazuto. She took up ALO in order to understand Kazuto better when he was trapped in SAO. She won the Sylph tournament, earning the title as the strongest Sylph before the events of the Fairy Dance Arc. She learned how to play ALO from her classmate, Nagata Shinichi. Suguha has become very good at ALO, because of the many years she has practiced kendo and the skills learned there were very effective for fights in ALO.
In an obscure part of her childhood, she fell into the pond in her home's backyard trying to catch a water strider. She was saved by Kazuto a few seconds after falling in, but she was afraid of water until her cousin and his friends taught her how to swim.[12]
Personality
Unlike her cousin Kazuto, Suguha is upbeat and outgoing. She is much more social and converses easily with others. Even when Kazuto began to push her away after finding out they were not really siblings, she still treated him with good spirit and tried to get back in his life. She can be very aggressive towards those that annoy her or cross her and can easily lose her temper. This is demonstrated in one case when Recon attempted to kiss her after confessing his love to her and she punched him.
Despite her positive outlook and slightly aggressive behavior, Suguha can be somewhat fragile and delicate due to her young age, especially when her cousin, Kazuto is involved. After seeing Kazuto in a comatose state due to being locked in SAO, she broke down crying for the first time in years. In addition to this, once she found out that Kirito and Kazuto were the same person, she locked herself in her room away from her cousin and went into a slight depression. Most of the time she is quick to rebound from these moments and return to being the same upbeat girl.
On November 6, 2022, just before Kazuto logged on to Sword Art Online, Suguha told him that she was heading to club activities. When Kazuto became trapped, she learned of the news, and was struck by grief. Soon after, her mother explained to her that Kazuto was not her real brother, and in fact her cousin, which Kazuto himself had already known about.
Eventually, Suguha began to wonder about the world which captivated her cousin, thus a year after the Sword Art Online incident began, she asked her classmate Nagata Shinichi to help her with virtual reality games. She selected ALfheim Online, due to the focus on physical ability and the lack of a need for large amounts of playtime.
On October 7, 2024, Suguha visited Kazuto in his hospital room to celebrate his birthday. Concerned at the pitiful state of his body, she remembered being notified that her cousin's level was among those of the top players in the game, and thus she wished him the best of luck before he could fall behind her in education. At that moment, they were visited by Midori, who had snuck away from work. While the two were discussing how Kazuto had discovered the truth of his parentage, Suguha wondered if the incident was responsible for Kazuto's tendency to play online games. However, she was informed that he had inherited the tendency from Midori, much like Kazuto and Suguha had inherited their family's patience and resolution, thus Suguha was reassured that he could still return. After her mother left, Suguha held Kazuto's hand with hers for a long while, pondering on his whereabouts and activities in Sword Art Online, as well as hoping her encouragement would reach him.
A month later, on November 7, Suguha and her family received an urgent report from the hospital that Kazuto had awakened.
Suguha was first overjoyed to find Kazuto returning home, and tried to be respectful of his temporary weakness. She was also saddened by her cousin's newfound attachment to Asuna. On the morning of January 19, 2025, Suguha was challenged by Kazuto to a kendo duel. Though she won after hitting Kazuto on the head, she was surprised at Kazuto's unorthodox skills, and even more because he could keep up with her even though she was very good at kendo, yet she was also happy that Kazuto once again showed interest in kendo.
That evening, Suguha found Kazuto quietly crying in his room, seemingly unmindful of the room's cold temperature. Upon learning that his sorrow was due to being separated from Asuna for some reason unknown to her, Suguha encouraged him not to lose hope regarding those he truly loved. Tucking her cousin into bed, the girl joined Kazuto as he fell asleep, grappling with her own feelings towards him.
The next day, on January 20, while returning to the Sylph territory from an expedition with Recon, Sigurd, and two other Sylphs, Leafa and her party were attacked by an eight-man Salamander hunting squad. After two midair battles, Leafa and Recon were left as the only survivors, managing to lose their five remaining assailants by hiding in the forest. As they resumed their escape to Swilvane, however, they were ambushed by the Salamanders again. Although the Sylphs were able to eliminate one opponent each, Leafa lost Recon in the process. Forced to land, she attempted to hide in the trees with a concealment spell but was discovered by the enemy's Searchers.
As Leafa prepared for her final stand, she and the Salamanders were interrupted by the sudden crash-landing of a Spriggan beginner right next to them. Stunned at the appearance of a Spriggan wearing only beginner's equipment so far from his territory, the girl ordered him to run. To her shock, however, all but one of the Salamanders were easily defeated by the Spriggan instead. After the surviving Salamander chose to withdraw and the Remain Lights of the vanquished Salamanders disappeared, the Sylph offered to treat the Spriggan, who introduced himself as Kirito, to a meal at the Sylph capital Swilvane for saving her.
After arriving at Swilvane, Leafa brought Kirito to the Lily of the Valley inn for their meal, where the girl answered the boy's questions concerning the World Tree and the Grand Quest focused on it as they ate. Upon learning of Kirito's desperate desire to find someone at the top of the World Tree, Leafa felt compelled to offer to help him on his journey to Alne at the World Tree's base and agreed to meet with him at the inn the following day to escort him to the city.
When the pair reached Alne, Leafa attempted to stop Kirito from recklessly undertaking the Grand Quest after Yui detected the person they were looking for was at the top of the World Tree. Upon learning of Kirito's resolution to find a girl named Asuna regardless of the cost, Leafa realized at the mention of Asuna's name that Kirito was actually her cousin. Suguha felt rather hurt that the Spriggan turned out to be her cousin, as she had already developed a crush on him and was going to overcome her feelings for Kazuto through getting to know the Spriggan. They had a duel, which ended in a draw as both parties discarded their weapons to allow the other to strike, ending with them embracing in midair. With the help of Recon and the Sylph and Cait Sith forces, she helped clear the way through the World Tree, enabling Kirito to clear the Grand Quest and waited for him to log out.
Several months later, on May 16, Suguha met every one of Kazuto's friends from SAO in ALO and, later, in a party held to celebrate the clearing of SAO. That night in ALfheim Online, she was depressed because she felt out of place with the survivors of SAO. Kirito talked to her and cheered her up before showing her the New Aincrad and asking for her help to clear it this time.
On July 25, 2025, Suguha went to the SAO Survivors School to learn to swim from Asuna, Shinozaki Rika (Lisbeth) and Ayano Keiko (Silica) whilst Kazuto had what they thought was an emergency meeting. During breaks between learning to swim, she recounted meeting Kirito in ALO, as well as learning how the girls had met her cousin. She later participated in the «Deep Sea Plunderers» quest.
On December 14, 2025, after the preliminaries of the Bullet of Bullets, Suguha talked to Kazuto after finding out that his name had disappeared from her friend list. She then expressed her worries to Kazuto about him leaving her and transferring his character data to Gun Gale Online, but was reassured that he would return after he had finished his business with Kikuoka Seijirou's request. Later that night, Leafa joined Asuna and the others in Asuna and Kirito's rented home in Yggdrasil City in ALO to watch Kirito's performance in the Bullet of Bullets finals.
On December 28, 2025, Suguha came to Kirito to inform him that other players had found the Holy Sword Excalibur's location. They then talked about the new quest that has appeared, where players were requested to kill the beast-type Evil God monsters. Kazuto then decided that it was time to attempt to get Excalibur, and formed a party of seven consisting of himself, Leafa, Asuna, Klein, Lisbeth, Silica, and Sinon. The party then proceeded to Jötunheimr, and then to the dungeon holding Excalibur and successfully acquired it.
As a sylph, Leafa specialises in using wind-attribute and stealth magic, though she also knows several healing spells to use when she is acting as the support for her party.
Shield magic - A spell which covers the target in a shield that blocks attacks at the cost of the caster's mana points.
Suguha/Leafa usually refers to herself using the feminine personal pronoun atashi (あたし,atashi?).
The author conceived the name Suguha (直葉,Suguha?) from a katana blade term for straight temper line (直刃,suguha?). The kanji blade (刃,ha?) was replaced with the kanji leaf (葉,ha?) via wordplay. The English translation for the kanji 葉 then served as inspiration for Leafa, Suguha's in-game avatar name.[15]
Leafa is one of the five fastest Sylphs and has won the Sylph fighting tournament various times.
Suguha was originally meant to be flat-chested, and Kawahara did not care much for the size. However, his editor suggested the change in her chest size.[16][17]
As a child, Suguha would often ask Kazuto to read her stories from Greek mythology.[18]
Suguha's English voice actress Cassandra Lee Morris stated on her Youtube channel that she shares the same birthday with Suguha.[19]
In an official character popularity poll hosted by Dengeki Bunko for the cover of abec Art Works, Suguha ranked eighteenth and Leafa ranked twentieth.[20]
