Sword Art Online Episode 16

"Land of Fairies"
Episode Information
Kanji	妖精たちの国
Romaji	Yōsei-tachi no Kuni
Original airdate	October 20, 2012
English dub airdate	October 15, 2013 (DVD/BD) November 16, 2013 (TV)
Arc	Fairy Dance
Episode Navigation
Previous	Episode 15
Index	Image Gallery
Next	Episode 17

Land of Fairies (妖精たちの国, Yōsei-tachi no Kuni^?) is the sixteenth episode of the Sword Art Online anime adaptation, as well as the second episode in the Fairy Dance Arc. It aired on October 20, 2012.

Plot

Kazuto comes and visits Andrew (Agil) at his cafe, Dicey Cafe and teases him about his business with his Cafe before questioning him about the photo that he has sent. Andrew shows Kazuto a video game called ALfheim Online, the successor to SAO, and explains that Alfheim means "Land of the Fairies".

ALfheim Online.

Andrew then tells Kazuto that the game's system is not the same as in Sword Art Online. It encourages Player Killing and emphasizes on the player's skill which means that there are no actual levels; combat is dependent on the player's athletic ability. The game is popular mainly because it gives the players the ability to fly; the player is able to fly by using the flight engine, but Andrew says he had heard that it is hard to control. Kazuto is very enthusiastic to try to control the wings but realizes that he is getting off topic and asks what the game had to do with Asuna. Andrew shows Kazuto the pictures again, and explains that the photo was taken inside ALfheim at the World Tree, which is a castle at the top of the tree.

Kazuto promise to bring Asuna back.

Players are divided into nine races and the goal of the game is to see which race reaches the castle first. Five players attempted to reach the top by lining up and flying but failed, though they managed to take some pictures. In the picture they found a cage and inside the cage was the girl whom Andrew showed to Kirito. Kazuto questions why Asuna was in the game. Seeing RECT progress at the back of the box, he recalls the conversation he had with Nobuyuki which could be the answer. Andrew tells him to go save Asuna. Kazuto leaves with the game.

Back at home, Suguha is thinking about what happened last night with Kazuto. She tries to forget by eating a muffin, but with the sudden appearance of Kazuto, she chokes on her food and tries to reach her juice. Kazuto gives her the juice and thanks her for making him feel better before leaving to his room. Kazuto looks at his NerveGear, recalling his encounter with Nobuyuki before putting it on.

Kazuto creating his character.

The voice of the system welcomes Kazuto, telling him to enter his character name and gender. Kazuto types in "Kirito", though he hesitates a bit knowing that Nobuyuki is aware of his SAO avatar's name. He then chooses Spriggan as his race for its black color theme while ignoring the pros and cons of each race. Kirito is then transported to the Spriggan's home town and finds himself free falling, but a glitch occurs, surrounding Kirito in pitch black darkness. He crash lands head first in a forest. After getting back on his feet, Kirito opens the menu and is relieved to find the "Log Out" option. He then looks at his status window and finds out that he has abnormally high skill values, but quickly realizes that they are all his skill values from SAO that were somehow transferred into ALfheim, aside from his Dual Blades skill, which has illegible text (due to ALfheim not having such a skill). Kirito then looks at his items, which also have illegible text, and tries to locate a specific item. He finds the item called MHCP001 and clicks on it, materializing Yui's Heart. As the crystal appears, Kirito taps the item, and a blinding light gleams from the crystal. Yui's figure forms. Yui opens her eyes and recognizes her "papa". The two reunite and share a hug.

Yui and Kirito reunited again.

After explaining that they are in ALfheim Online, Yui runs an analysis and informs him that ALfheim is a copy of SAO and thus all of his skills common to both games have been transferred, though the Cardinal System version used in ALfheim is a bit outdated. Yui notes that most of Kirito's items are corrupt and recommends deleting them before the error detection program finds them. Though Kirito has regrets about deleting the items due to the hard work involved in getting them, he presses the confirmation button. Yui then informs him that his abnormal skill values are fine unless a GM checks them directly. Yui also discovers that the outdated Cardinal System considers her a Navigation Pixie and so she transforms into one. Although she does not have any GM privileges, Yui is able to access the map databases. Kirito then tells Yui what happened to Asuna.

Kirito notices his wings and wonders how to fly. Yui tells him that there is an assist controller. Pulling the controller toward his body would make him elevate, while pushing would make him descend. As Kirito is preparing to take off, Yui tells him that he can accelerate by holding the button and decelerate by releasing the button. She also tells him that he can fly as long as his wings are shining, but once they reach the limit, he needs to let the wings rest. Kirito practices his flying and tries to go to the closest town but Yui senses nearby players.

Leafa attacking the Salamander players.

Two players named Leafa and Recon are trying to escape to the Sylph Territory while being tailed by a group of Salamanders. Leafa is prepared to fight back, but Recon disapproves. Leafa tells Recon to try to kill one while she tries to draw in as much attention as she can. Leafa attacks the group and kills one player. Recon is fighting with a player and kills him before getting himself killed. While Leafa is distracted, she gets hit by a fire cannon and falls to the ground.

Kirito defeating one of the Salamander players.

Leafa is outnumbered by three Salamanders. Kagemune tells her to give all of her money and items to him in exchange for her life, but Leafa does not agree to the proposed trade. As the two factions prepare to attack, they are interrupted when Kirito crash lands right next to them. Leafa tells him to run, but Kirito insults the Salamanders and they turn their attention to him. One of them tries to attack Kirito, but he stops the lance with his hand and pushes the opposing player back. Getting the OK from Leafa to kill the players, Kirito takes out his sword and runs it through the Salamander, killing the player. As everyone is astonished by his speed, Kirito turns around asking "Who's next?"

New Characters

• Recon
• Kagemune
• Leafa

Location

Real World

• Dicey Cafe

ALfheim

• Ancient Forest, Neutral Territory

Adaptation Notes

Adapted from Volume 3, Chapters 1-2

• The anime omits the scene where Leafa used magic to hide from the Salamanders.

Quotes

• "A game where you can die is too easy." - Kazuto
• "Go save Asuna. Otherwise, our fight can't really end." - Andrew
• "Miracles really do happen." - Kirito
• "I'm not a beater anymore. I'm just a cheater." - Kirito
• "You should do something useful once in a while." - Leafa
• "Three heavy fighters attacking a single girl? That's kind of lame." - Kirito
• "Who's next?" - Kirito

Errors

• In all instances that Kirito accesses the Main Menu, "Alert" is misspelled as "Alart."
• The welcome message shown to Kirito when he logged in said "Alfheim Online" without capitalising the letter L, even though ALfheim Online is officially stylised with the letters A, L and O capitalised.
• Kirito's skills displayed in his menu are based on Material Edition 2 and are thus outdated, as the novel also mentioned a Martial Arts skill which was not part of the Material Edition.