List of Sword Art Online characters

The following is a list of characters from the light novel, anime, IDW comics and manga series Sword Art Online. Most of the characters are introduced as gamers who play and consequently become trapped in a virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game (VRMMORPG). The series chronicles their interactions in multiple online worlds: Sword Art Online (SAO), Alfheim Online (ALO), Gun Gale Online (GGO), and Underworld (UW).

SAO players

Kirito

Kirito (キリト, Kirito) / Kazuto Kirigaya (桐ヶ谷 和人, Kirigaya Kazuto)

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese), Bryce Papenbrook (English)^[1]

The main protagonist of Sword Art Online, Kazuto, who uses the portmanteau "Kirito" as his character name, is a "solo" player who has been branded a "beater" (a combination of beta tester and cheater) by the players in Sword Art Online. When Kayaba announces that the players of SAO can no longer log-out without clearing the game, he quickly overcomes the shock. He power-levels to improve his odds of survival in the game and emerges as a frontline floor-clearer known as the Black Swordsman (黒の剣士, Kuro no Kenshi), during this time Kirito experiences great trauma following the destruction of a small guild he had joined for some time, causing him to avoid guilds until he was forced to join the Knights of the Blood Oath. It is later revealed that he possessed the unique «Dual Blades» skill for being the player with "fastest reaction time" as well as the player that will supposedly beat the 100th floor boss. During his 2 years of being trapped in SAO, he fell in love with a female player named Asuna and even went as far as marrying her in-game.

After the Sword Art Online incident, 300 people have yet to wake up, including Asuna. Kirito receives a picture from another virtual reality called Alfheim Online, in which Asuna was trapped in a cage on the legendary World Tree, which no ALO player has ever reached directly. Kirito decides to get a copy of the game and rescue Asuna nonetheless. Shortly after joining ALO, he befriends another player called "Leafa" (who is actually his cousin Suguha). Leafa helps Kirito grasp the game and offers to help him reach the World Tree. After a long journey and many adventures, Kirito manages to reach the World Tree and overcomes its obstacles to reach the top. He rescues Asuna and discovers Leafa's true identity. As ALO and SAO share the same game engine, among other features, a bug allows Kirito to retain most of the skills and money he obtained in SAO upon playing ALO with the same NerveGear, already beginning his journey with an advantage over other players. Despite this, he ends up being forced to discard all of his items (except the one containing Yui, which reformats itself as a navigation pixie), as they were not recognized by the system. Kirito obtains the game's administrative ID from Kayaba's digital ghost during his battle with Oberon, granting him full control over the game's systems. Kazuto enrolls at the SAO Survivor School with Asuna and the other heroines in the real world.

He is later asked to register in Gun Gale Online in order to investigate real life murders that are somehow linked with assassinations in-game. It is soon revealed that the murders are committed by ex-players from Sword Art Online, who were part of a player killing guild known as Laughing Coffin. His actions result in the capture of two out of the three culprits. The last member escapes and is not heard of until the events of volume 9 and is responsible for an attempted murder of Kazuto.

In the Alicization Arc, he has been assisting in the development of the fourth generation full dive interface, Soul Translator, by testing its thought acceleration functions. However, he has no memory of what he has been doing as a result of his memories being suppressed, voluntarily, by the system. He is attacked and poisoned by Johnny Black (The third culprit who escapes) in the real world and wakes up in UnderWorld with his memory of playing the game erased. He meets up with Eugeo and helps him out of some tough situations, during which he partially remembers his time with Eugeo and Alice during his "childhood" in UnderWorld. He then decides to aid Eugeo in finding Alice while he searches for a way out, back to reality.^[2]

In the real world, he lives with his foster mother and aunt, Midori, and younger sister, Suguha, in a family of three. In fact, he was actually adopted by Minetaka Kirigaya and Midori Kirigaya when he was just a year old, due to his real mother and father dying after an accident, and practice Kendo under his strict grandfather. However, Kazuto did not know this until he discovered the truth at the age of ten, and Suguha, being in fact the Midori's own daughter, was also unaware of Kazuto's adoption and is actually his cousin. This drove him into online playing: quitting Kendo and having a distant relationship with Suguha until his 2-year experience in SAO then makes amends.

Asuna

Asuna (アスナ, Asuna) / Asuna Yuuki (結城 明日奈, Yūki Asuna)

Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu (Japanese), Cherami Leigh^[1] (English)

The main heroine of Sword Art Online and main protagonist of the seventh volume, Asuna is a friend and later to be wife of Kirito and a sub-leader of the "Knights of the Blood Oath", a medium-sized guild acknowledged as the strongest guild in Aincrad. Being one of the few girls that play SAO and extremely attractive, she receives many invitations and proposals. Asuna is a strong-willed, accomplished player known in-game as the "Lightning Flash" (閃光, Senkō) for her extraordinary fast sword skill.

Later, she falls in love with Kirito and they marry in-game. Towards the end of the SAO arc, she saves Kirito from a killing blow by Heathcliff at the cost of her life. However, her death was only in-game and she is shortly reunited with Kirito shortly after the death of Heathcliff.

Despite the completion of SAO, Asuna remains unconscious and is instead detained in another virtual reality called Alfheim Online. She is forced to play the role of «Titania the Queen of Fairies», with Nobuyuki Sugō, the man responsible for imprisoning her, playing as Oberon the Fairy King. This is done so that Sugō could marry Asuna in the real world, while she is unconscious and thus take over RCT Progress Inc. She attempts to escape the World Tree where she is imprisoned and manages to steal a GM card which she throws out of the window when she hears Yui's voice. Upon being released she creates two avatars for Alfheim, Asuna (being the healer of the team) and Erika (a battle type avatar) and went on to continue living together with Kirito. She enrolls at the SAO Survivor School with Kazuto Kirigaya in the real world after everything ended.

In the real world, Asuna's parents want her to follow in their footsteps. However, after living in SAO and meeting Kirito, she gains a different perspective and looks back on her past with disgust. She officially becomes Kazuto's real life girlfriend and dreams of marrying him and having a family with him in the future.^[3]

Yui

Yui (ユイ, Yui)

Voiced by: Kanae Itō (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh^[4] (English)

Originally a side-story character in SAO, Yui later becomes an accompanying/support character in ALO. At first thought to be a lost child in SAO, she is an artificial intelligence. Her full designation is «Mental Health - Counselling Program», MHCP version 1, codename, «Yui». Yui is shown to have a human form and a Navigation Pixie form where she is always barefoot in both forms. She was designed to monitor the emotions of players and appear at their sides to hear and help them out. However, since the moment everyone was imprisoned in Sword Art Online, she was forbidden to come in contact with the players and complete her prime directive. Unable to do anything but suffer as she monitored the emotions of the trapped players, she came upon Kirito and Asuna whose emotions stood out as a beacon of joy and peace in a sea of fear and despair. She sought them out, appearing to them as an amnesia child whom they adopted. In the end she was nearly deleted by Cardinal, the management system of SAO. But Kirito saved her by converting and storing her data into his own NerveGear. Yui later shows up in ALO as a Private Navigation Pixie and helps Kirito along with Leafa to find Asuna. She refers to Kirito as "Daddy" and Asuna as "Mommy" and gets very annoyed if any girl other than Sinon, Leafa or Asuna gets close to Kirito. Kirito uses his skills and resources in the real world to construct a device for Yui to view the real world even while she is in virtual reality and gives her the ability to communicate with them.

Klein

Klein (クライン, Kurain) / Ryōtarō Tsuboi (壷井 遼太郎, Tsuboi Ryōtarō)

Voiced by: Hiroaki Hirata (Japanese), Kirk Thornton (English)

A friendly player that meets Kirito at the start of the game, who quickly befriends and learns the basics from Kirito. They go their separate ways shortly after when Kirito leaves for another town to power level, while Klein remains behind to help out his less experienced friends, although he has concern feelings for Kirito due to his solitude and recklessness. Klein uses a katana to fight and later becomes a leader of his own guild, Fuurinkazan. He regularly meets with Kirito and his friends and occasionally joins them in quests in ALO, especially after the release of the World Seed.^[5]

Agil

Agil (エギル, Egiru) / Andrew Gilbert Mills (アンドリュー・ギルバート・ミルズ, Andoryū Girubāto Miruzu)

Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto (Japanese), Patrick Seitz (English)

A bald axe wielder who owns a general shop in SAO, along with having a hand in Blacksmithing. Agil is 244 cm (8.01 ft) tall with a muscular build. Despite his intimidating appearance, he is kind-hearted and spent most of his earnings to help players in the middle floors. Kirito is a regular in his shop and they are friends. Agil runs a bar named "Dicey Café" in the real world, which was run by his wife during his two-year coma. The café later becomes Kazuto and company's meeting place in the real world.

Heathcliff

Heathcliff (ヒースクリフ, Hīsukurifu) / Akihiko Kayaba (茅場 晶彦, Kayaba Akihiko)

Voiced by: Tōru Ōkawa (Heathcliff), Kōichi Yamadera (Akihiko) (Japanese), Kevin M. Connolly (Heathcliff), Marc Diraison (Akihiko) (English)

Akihiko Kayaba is the director and founder of the NerveGear and Sword Art Online, as well as the main antagonist of the SAO arc. He traps all the players within SAO by using the NerveGear to cease sending signals to the users' body. Any in-game death or attempt at removal of the NerveGear would result in the real-life death of the user. Later, it is discovered that he has been posing as Heathcliff, the leader of the major Knights of the Blood Oath. Although he has the admin authority to make his avatar immortal, he is shown to be a powerful player even without his in-game immortality due to his intimate understanding of the SAO game mechanics which he himself had designed. His only goal in life was to make the Aincrad a reality. He is destroyed by Kirito at the end of Volume 4, leaves behind a program that grants Kirito the World Seed. His death is his own doing since he has also rigged his own Soul Translator device to kill him when he is destroyed and transferring his soul into a digital form onto the Internet.^[6]

Silica

Silica (シリカ, Shirika) / Keiko Ayano (綾野 珪子, Ayano Keiko)

Voiced by: Rina Hidaka (Japanese), Christine Marie Cabanos (English)

A side-story character in SAO. One of the rare beast tamers in the game. Very early in the game, she was able to tame a small dragon, Pina (ピナ), who is named after her real-life cat: this feat gave her immense fame, but she was just a mid-level player. Due to her fame, many tried to get on her good side, causing her to get a bit of an inflated head. She usually stays away from the males, who try to marry her despite the fact that she's only 13 or their mascot. After getting lost in a forest, Pina is injured by a monster attack (later on, it is revealed that Pina was revived). Kirito rescued and helped Silica revive Pina, as she resembled his sister. She gained feelings for him, but once she discovers his skills, she realized that they cannot be together in the game but promise to meet again. Keiko befriends Rika at SAO Survivor School. She joins Kirito and his friends in ALO right after they meet in the real world: they often go together in quests.

Lisbeth

Lisbeth (リズベット, Rizubetto) / Rika Shinozaki (篠崎 里香, Shinozaki Rika)

Voiced by: Ayahi Takagaki (Japanese), Sarah Williams (English)

A side-story character in SAO, who is a blacksmith with her own shop and takes great pride in her abilities. Lisbeth or "Liz" is a close friend of Asuna who recommended her to Kirito. Kirito commissioned Liz to forge a custom-made sword for him and accompanies her in a quest for the special ore required for the job. During the quest, she also develops feelings for Kirito. She is devastated when she finds out that Kirito is Asuna's crush. However, she finds some solace after Kirito thanks her for giving him a renewed determination to fight on and clear the game. She requests to be Kirito's exclusive blacksmith. Rika is almost very well teasing Asuna about her relationship with Kirito afterwards. At SAO Survivor School, she and Keiko get irritated when seeing Kazuto and Asuna together. Liz later becomes a regular player in ALO and frequently joins Kirito and his friends in quests and takes up the task of upgrading their equipment.

Sachi

Sachi (サチ, Sachi)

Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Japanese), Xanthe Huynh (English)

A side story character in SAO. She was a member of "Moonlit Black Cats" which was the first guild Kirito joined. Kirito was especially attached to her. Sachi, along with the other members were in a computer club at their school. However she died along with the majority of her guild members which led to Kirito wallowing in despair and self-loathing until he read the time delayed message she left for Kirito on Christmas Eve. Even after the message gave him the strength to live, he never joined another guild until he parties with Asuna.

Kuradeel

Kuradeel (クラディール, Kuradīru)

Voiced by: Kōji Yusa (Japanese), Doug Erholtz (English)

A Two-Handed Sword user. Publicly a member of "Knights of the Blood Oath" and secretly a member of the red guild "Laughing Coffin". He was officially assigned as Asuna's bodyguard and despite his grudge develops an obsession with Asuna and begins secretly following her everywhere. When he sees that Kirito and Asuna are developing a relationship, he challenges Kirito to a duel over who can protect her. Kirito wins and Kuradeel is forced to leave. He later tries to murder Kirito and then Asuna, but is instead killed by Kirito using an unarmed skill.

Other players

PoH is the leader of the SAO "Red player" guild, Laughing Coffin. He created the guild for the sole purpose of killing other players. His catch phrase is "It's showtime". His fate after SAO is unknown, but it is assumed he is still alive (with at least ten more LC members), since he was not listed as one of the deceased players. PoH's real name is Vusago Casals. PoH stands for Prince of Hell and he worked for a terrorist/mercenary group during this arc. He is an illegitimate child of a Korean after a rape incident. The two migrated to Japan, and a certain CEO fell in love with his mother and took them in. This led to his hatred against people. He is voiced by Tsuyoshi Koyama.

Argo (アルゴ, Arugo)

Voiced by: Shiori Izawa (Japanese), Cassandra Morris (English)

Argo is a friend and fellow beta tester of Kirito in SAO. Known as "Argo the Rat" she works as a Knowledge Broker and messenger.

Sasha (サーシャ, Sāsha)

Voiced by: Kyouko Fujii (Japanese), Erika Harlacher (English)

Sasha is a caretaker of the younger SAO players in Town of Beginnings on the 1st floor.

Yolko (ヨルコ, Yoruko)

Voiced by: Nozomi Yamamoto (Japanese), Natalie Hoover (English)

Yolko is a member of the Golden Apple guild. Her boyfriend is Caynz.

Yulier (ユリエール, Yuriēru)

Voiced by: Ryoko Shiraishi (Japanese), Amanda C. Miller (English)

Yulier is second-in-command of the Liberation Force Army. She is devoted to aiding Thinker with his duties as leader. Thinker married her in real life.

Hollow Fragment

Philia (フィリア, Firia) / Kotone (琴音, Kotone)

Voiced by: Yui Ishikawa

An "Orange player" and treasure hunter. Kirito met Philia immediately after being suddenly teleported to the Hollow Area region of Aincrad then fight a weakened version of the Skull Reaper. Philia's orange player status was actually a system glitch. She has grown a romantic interest in Kirito when saving her from the clutches of PoH.

Strea (ストレア, Strea)

Voiced by: Misawa Sachika

An unknown player who started tailing Kirito after the events of the 75th Floor's boss fight. Throughout the story, Strea would be seen in the Labyrinth searching for «something». Strea was later revealed to actually be a mental-health program, similar to Yui, who was somehow able to appear using an unused avatar that was still registered in Aincrad. However, the near-death experience had slowly altered her data and resulted in her fusion with the «Hollow Avatar». Yui absorbed Strea's program and assured the rest of the group that she was still alive.

ALO players

Leafa

Leafa (リーファ, Rīfa) / Suguha Kirigaya (桐ヶ谷 直葉, Kirigaya Suguha)

Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu (Japanese), Cassandra Morris (English)

Suguha, also known as Sugu, is Kirito's adoptive sister (actually younger cousin) in the real world. She is a diligent worker and has been practicing Kendo for 8 years. After Kazuto gets trapped in Sword Art Online, she begins playing Alfheim Online as a Sylph in an attempt to try and understand him better. While Kazuto is stuck inside SAO, Sugu's mom reveals to her that he is not her biological brother, but is actually her cousin and was adopted into their family when he was young. This causes Sugu to develop feelings for him that she doesn't really understand, since they are related, however because he is trapped inside SAO, she never acts on them. That being said, when Kazuto awakens after his three year ordeal, those feelings come back, but she realizes that he is already in love with someone else, namely Asuna.

Coincidentally, she meets Kazuto's avatar, Kirito, in Alfheim Online after he saves her from an attack by player killers. Unaware of his true identity, she decides to help him on his quest to find somebody which eventually leads them to the world tree. After understanding the depth of Kazuto's love for Asuna, she resolves to give up on him and instead becomes attached to Kirito in ALO. However, when Kirito's true identity is revealed, she is heartbroken and the two of them have an awkward exchange in the real world where Sugu reveals her feelings for him. Not knowing how to respond or comfort her Kazuto tells her he will be waiting for her in game. When they meet up they engage in a fight which culminates with both of them letting down their guard expecting the other one to kill them, however that only leads to them hugging and apologizing to each other. Leafa lets go of her feelings for Kirito and after pulling herself together she helps him rescue Asuna from the top of the world tree.^[7] She regularly plays ALO together with Kirito, Asuna, Silica, Klein and the rest of their group. In Girls Ops, Leafa forms a team with Lisbeth and Silica.

Oberon

Oberon the Fairy King (妖精王オベイロン, Yōsei-ō Obeiron) / Nobuyuki Sugō (須郷 伸之, Sugō Nobuyuki)

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese), Todd Haberkorn (English)

Nobuyuki Sugō is the main antagonist of the Alfheim Online arc. He is the one responsible for keeping 300 NerveGear victims, including Asuna, prisoner even after SAO had ended. He did this by transferring them all into ALO for experiments on human subjugation via fulldive technology. He also attempts to take over RCT Progress Inc. by marrying Asuna while she is unconscious. He displays a perverse interest in consummating this marriage while Asuna is still comatose. In ALO, he takes on the identity of Oberon the Fairy King and makes Asuna his queen, Titania. When he and Kirito finally meet, he flaunts his GM status as well as the results of his research by critically damaging Kirito after increasing Kirito's pain limit and impaling him. He is destroyed when the "Ghost Program" of Akihiko Kayaba reminded Kirito how he was defeated by Kirito's determination, before aiding him in overcoming Nobuyuki's GM status. Kirito then blinds and dismembers him after setting Sugō's pain limit to the maximum. All 300 victims are released from ALO, but Nobuyuki makes another attempt to attack Kazuto while he is making his way to Asuna in the real world, now blind in one eye and insane after his defeat. However, he is once again subdued by Kazuto, who puts the unarmed combat skills he had learned in SAO to useful effect. Nobuyuki is then arrested and charged for his crimes.

Sakuya

Sakuya (サクヤ, Sakuya)

Voiced by: Sayuri Yahagi (Japanese), Lauren Landa (English)

She is the leader of the Sylph. During a meeting with the Cait Sith, she is attacked by Salamanders led by General Eugene. At the same moment, Kirito flies in to challenge the general to a duel. After Kirito wins the battle, she attempts to seduce him to join the Slyphs, but Leafa smothers their attempt, saying that she is accompanying him to the World Tree. At the end of the arc, Lady Sakuya leads a combined force of Cait Sith and Sylph against the World Tree's Guardians in an attempt to aid Kirito with the battle. After Kirito reached the top of the World Tree, she ordered her forces to pull back. Sakuya is later seen with Alicia and Sylph warriors and a few Cait Sith flying towards New Aincrad.

Alicia

Alicia Rue (アリシャ・ルー, Arisha Rū))

Voiced by: Chiwa Saito (Japanese), Cristina Vee (English)

She is the leader of the Cait Sith. She was elected for the position of leader by popular vote. She is capable of using the high-level magic «Moonlight Mirror». She forms an alliance with the Sylphs to finish the «Conquer the World Tree Quest».

During the Cait Sith meeting with the Sylph at the Butterfly Valley, the groups were attacked by Salamanders led by General Eugene. Kirito dived in to save the day and fought off Eugene, even though Kirito had inferior equipment. After the Salamanders left the area and Kirito revealed that he was not working for anyone, Alicia tried to seduce Kirito into coming to the Cait Sith territory and working for them, but he declined her offer by saying that he had to go to the World Tree. The next day, along with Sylph reinforcements, she and her squadron of Cait Sith riders, on tamed dragons, aided Kirito's ascension of the World Tree after using the collected funds to purchase armor of at least Ancient grade for all of her warriors. After Kirito managed to get through to the top of the tree, she withdrew her forces from the area. Alicia is later seen with Sakuya and a few Cait Sith and Sylph warriors flying towards New Aincrad.

Recon

Recon (レコン, Rekon) / Shin'ichi Nagata (長田 慎一, Nagata Shin'ichi)

Voiced by: Ayumu Murase (Japanese), Marianne Miller (English)

Suguha's classmate in the real world. He introduced ALO to Suguha who asked him about VRMMO. In ALO, he is a Sylph dagger wielder and dark mage. He also displays an obvious romantic interest in Suguha, although the feelings are not mutual.

Eugene

Eugene (ユージン, Yūjin)

Voiced by: Kenta Miyake (Japanese), Joshua Tomar (English)

General Eugene intended to disrupt the Cait Sith and Sylph alliance conference. Earlier, Recon manages to learn of the attack and warns Leafa. She and Kirito rush to stop the confrontation, but Eugene challenges the Spriggan to a one-on-one duel. At first, Kirito was forced to defend himself against the onslaught of the Earth-style weapon of Eugene, but Kirito takes Leafa's katana to prepare for his notable «Dual Blades». With this extra blade, Eugene could not breach Kirito's defenses and was quickly defeated. After the duel, he was revived by Sakuya and leaves the scene with his forces on good terms. Before the duel, Eugene was considered the strongest player in the game.

Yuuki

Yuuki (ユウキ, Yūki) / Yuuki Konno (紺野 木綿季, Konno Yūki)

Voiced by: Aoi Yūki (Japanese), Erica Mendez (English)

One of the main characters from Volume 7. She was an Imp in ALO, she started dueling anyone promising an 11-hit OSS if she's defeated: due to her undefeated status she's given the title "Absolute Sword". Eventually Asuna fights her but loses. After the fight Yuuki asks her to help defeating the 27th floor boss with her guild the "Sleeping Knights" in desire to etch all their names on the Monument of Swordsmen to make a memory. After certain events, which include the defeat of the boss it is revealed that Yuuki has HIV/AIDS and the guild members are patients in terminal state: to test the Medicuboid device, designed supposedly by Rinko Koujiro, in care for future patients. Yuuki forms a strong bond with Asuna, in reminder of her late elder sister Aiko Konno. With the time passing Yuuki's condition deteriorates and after she entrusts her OSS «Mother's Rosario» to Asuna before she dies peacefully in ALO, surrounded by over 1000 players from every tribe in the game, including her guild members, Asuna and her friends.

Chrysheight

Chrysheight (クリスハイト, Kurisuhaito) / Kikuoka Seijirō (菊岡征二郎, Seijirō Kikuoka)

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), Matthew Mercer (English)

Kikuoka Seijirō is a member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After the SAO incident, he interviewed Kazuto for information regarding the events that transpired during the game, in exchange for information on Asuna's whereabouts. After the events of the Fairy Dance arc he has another meeting with Kazuto, to recap the events of SAO again, as well as the events of ALO. He began playing ALO under the name Chrysheight and later contacts Kirito to investigate the Death Gun deaths in GGO.

After Kazuto is attacked in the real world by Johnny Black, Kikouka abducts Kazuto from the hospital and transports him to the Ocean Turtle in order to give him medical treatment for the brain damage he received. It's revealed that Kikouka also is head of RATH, a company under the Ministry of Defense, that is trying to develop AI suitable for replacing humans on a battle-field.

Thrym

Thrym (スリュム, Suryumu)

Voiced by: Iizuka Shōzō (Japanese), John Snyder (English)

The King of the Frost Giants and final boss of the Calibur sidestory, Thrym is an artificial intelligence that ALO's Cardinal System created from the actual Norse myth. But in a departure from usual NPCs, Thrym is one of few whose core programming is connected to ALO's language engine to be a more realistic character. In the game storyline, Thyrm emerged from Aflheim and used the stolen Excalibur to conquer the Hill Giants' realm of Jötunheim. With Jötunheim turned to a frozen wasteland after losing the World Tree's blessing, Thrym created his fortress Thrymheim from the frozen spring of the Hill Giant leader Urðr, after its waters were lodged in the tree's receding roots. Thrym then uses his forces, and players he recruits on a false quest, to slaughter the native beasts to cripple the power of Urðr and her sisters so he can reach the surface of Alfheim and obtain the golden apple growing on top of the World Tree. But as Kirito and his party realize upon taking Urðr's quest to stop him, Thrym's actions would cause a chain of events that would result in the Ragnarok scenario and ultimately reset ALO. The group find Thrym and manage to defeat him with the help of a NPC named Freyja, who was revealed to be Thor in disguise.

Lost Song

Seven (セブン, Sebun) Nanairo Arshavin (七色（なないろ）アルシャービン)

Voiced by: Hisako Kanemoto

Nanairo Arshavin, nicknamed Seven, is a Russian scientist who is playing ALO to research VR. She graduated from MIT at the age of 12 and is a pop idol,^[8] performing concerts in-game^[9] as a Pooka.^[10] Considered "the light" to Akihiko Kayaba's "darkness", she is the leader of the guild Shamrock in the game.^[11][12] Unlike her guild members, she is of a lower level, and lets them fight for her.^[13]

Rain (レイン, Rein) Nijika Karatachi (枳殻 虹架, Karatachi Nijika)

Voiced by: Miyu Takagi

A Leprechaun girl^[10] who follows Kirito during the events of the game.^[11] She is Seven's older sister, and works at a maid cafe when not playing ALO. Like Kirito, she is an SAO survivor and can duel wield. After the events of the game, she meets Kirito in real life, where she reveals the rift between her and Seven; after SAO was cleared, she talked with Kikuoka Seijirō about it, and decided to join ALO.^[14]

Sumeragi (スメラギ, Sumeragi) Yota Sumeragi (住良木 良太, Sumeragi Ryouta)

Voiced by: Ryota Takeuchi

An Undine^[10] and Shamrock leader who is in charge of protecting Seven. A strong swordsman, he defeated General Eugene in combat prior to the events of the game.^[12] Outside of ALO, he is Seven's research partner in America.^[15]

During the story, Kirito and Sumeragi encounter each other at various times, and the two challenge each other to a duel, which is interrupted. At the final dungeon, Sumeragi and Kirito resume their duel, where the former reveals his Original Sword Skill, which is inspired by the Norse god of war Týr and has the power of a two-handed sword compressed into a one-handed sword.^[16]

Sumeragi works as a quantum neurology researcher, and his affiliation with Seven prompted Kikouka to request him to perform surveillance on her while experimenting.^[17]

GGO players

Sinon

Sinon (シノン, Shinon) / Shino Asada (朝田 詩乃, Asada Shino)

Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro^[18] (Japanese), Michelle Ruff ^[19] (English)

Shino, also known as Sinon, in game, is a skilled VRMMO player whom Kirito first meets in Gun Gale Online. She is the owner of the rare sniper rifle PGM Ultima Ratio Hecate II which she uses as her main weapon in GGO.

When she was 11 years old Shino and her mother were the victims of a robbery at a postal office near where they lived. During the robbery, in an attempt to protect her mother, Shino bit the robber on the hand, which caused him to drop his gun. She then picked his gun up and while fighting with the robber, accidentally shot him several times, killing him. This event caused Shino to develop PTSD and an intense fear of guns, making her freeze up and tremble in fear every time she sees a gun.^[20] A few years after the incident, she decided to move to the bigger city of Kawagoe to try and get away from the memories of the event. There, her only friend, Kyoji Shinkawa introduced her to GGO, as a means for her to fight her fear of guns. Playing as a sniper she quickly became one of the best players of the game, finishing in the top 3 in the second Bullet of Bullets championship.

While on her way to sign up for the third Bullet of Bullets championship, she encounters Kirito. After mistaking him for a girl, because of his avatar having long hair, she agrees to show him around as he is new.^[21] After she helps him pick out his weapons and gear, they sign up together for the BoB. While in the dressing room in preparation for the qualifying rounds, Kirito reveals to Sinon that he is in fact a boy and apologizes for his deception. This however angers Sinon and she punches him. As they enter the qualifying round of the championship, Sinon tells Kirito to make it to the final, so that they can settle things. They both make it to the last round of qualifying, however Kirito refuses to fight her since his only goal is to make it to the final in order to confront Death Gun. This angers Sinon thinking that he is mocking her, which causes her to miss her shot. She forces Kirito to fight her, and loses, which makes her log out since Kirito doesn't want to kill her.

After she logs out she meets up with Kyoji since she is upset. During their conversation he reveals to her that he likes her and asks if they can be together, however she says that she won't be ready for a relationship until she stops being afraid of guns. She asks him to wait for her to do that and he agrees.

As the final stage of the BoB tournament begins Sinon quickly defeats several opponents. She soon stumbles upon an encounter between two players and is about to try and kill one of them when Kirito appears and stops her explaining to her that he wants to see how the battle progresses. It is revealed that one of the two players they are observing is in fact Death Gun. Sinon agrees not to shoot Kirito, but only until the battle they are watching finishes. However when Death Gun kills the other player, which also kills them in real life, Sinon teams up with Kirito in order to defeat him so that he doesn't hurt anyone else.

They try to track him down, but since they don't know his player name that turns out to be very hard. However they reduce the possible targets to 2 people, but as they attempt to ambush one of the players, who turns out not to be Death Gun, the actual Death Gun attacks Sinon. She is barely rescued by Kirito, who comes at the last second and saves her life.^[22] As they escape they deduce that Death Gun must have a partner in real life who murders the victims at a predetermined time just as Death Gun shoots them in the game. Kirito also tells Sinon that she is most likely a target, but is safe as long as she stays alive in the game. They devise a plan to draw out Death Gun and defeat him, which involves Kirito using himself as a decoy while Sinon snipes from a distance. Their plan succeeds and Death Gun is defeated, leaving Sinon and Kirito as the last two remaining players in the BoB. Since the tournament won't end until there is only one player left standing, Sinon arms a grenade while hugging Kirito and kills them both, which makes them joint winners of the BoB.

After she leaves the game, Kyoji shows up at her house to celebrate her victory, or so it seems. He however attacks her and reveals to her that he is the creator of Death Gun together with his brother and tries to molest her and subsequently kill her. Once again however Kirito shows up and saves her life while nearly losing his.

With Kyoji in jail and Death Gun no more Kirito takes her to Agil's café where she meets Asuna and Rika, as well as a woman named Sachi Osawa who was a victim at the post office when Sinon was young. She and her daughter thank her for saving their lives, which makes Sinon get over her fear of guns and she moves on from her past, while no longer being vulnerable to her classmates' threats of using a gun on her. Asuna gives her the nickname 'Sinonon' and she starts playing ALO with the rest of the gang as a Cait Sith archer. She wields a long bow made by Lisbeth that is capable to shoot arrows accurately to a max distance of 100m, though in the Calibur story arc she shows that she can shoot it even further, when she shoots an arrow in order to retrieve the legendary sword Excalibur as it is falling into the void; this is probably because of her previous skill as a sniper in GGO. Sinon is shown to be admired by the other female members, but she and Kirito constantly tease one another, much to their jealousy. Sinon also may be one of the few girls Yui likes in the beginning of Volume 10.

Death Gun

Death Gun (死銃, Desu Gan) / Sterben (ステルベン, Suteruben, German for "to die")

Death Gun is the main antagonist of the GGO arc, a player killer whose victims somehow die in the real world after being shot by his signature gun, a Type 54 "Black Star" he named «Death Gun». In reality, Death Gun's actual user name is Sterben and is an alternate account created by Kyōji Shinkawa in the image of his brother's SAO avatar. He and his brother, a former member of the red SAO guild Laughing Coffin, used the Death Gun account to commit murder: Kyōji normally posing as Sterben and uses a «Metamaterial Optical Camouflage Mantle» to spy on other players inputting their real life details so his brother can make his way to the house of a potential victim to inject the person with succinylcholine, a drug capable of stopping the heart, at the exact moment the victim's player is shot. By the BoB registration process, the brothers switched roles while enlisting another Laughing Coffin member to assist them due to the multiple victims they selected.

Shōichi Shinkawa (新川 昌一, Shinkawa Shōichi) / Red-Eyed XaXa

Voiced by: Ryōta Ōsaka (ALO), Sōichirō Hoshi (GGO) (Japanese), Ben Diskin (English)

One of Laughing Coffin's elite members, XaXa is a sadist who believed in PoH's principles as he became the red guild's second-in-command. In real life, Shoichi's father did not have any expectations for him due to him being frail and sick. After SAO ended, having met Kirito during the Inner-Area incident to neutralize Laughing Coffin, Shoichi aided in Kyōji's Death Gun scheme before he eventually starts playing GGO under the Sterben account. Shoichi entered the Bullet of Bullets tournament to prove his "true" killing ability to the rest of the world, only to be defeated by Kirito before he and his brother are arrested after the GGO arc.

Atsushi Kanemoto / Johnny Black

Voiced by: Ryōta Ōsaka

One of Laughing Coffin's elite members, Johnny Black is a cold-blooded killer who likes to play with his victims as he once suggested to XaXa and PoH to have a fight-to-the-death with their captives Schmitt, Caynz, and Yolko for fun. Sometime after SAO, Atsushi helped Shoichi and his brother in their Death Gun scheme and was the only member of their gang to escape arrest. But six months later, Atsushi returns and attempts to kill Kazuto and Asuna in the real world. Though arrested, Atsushi came close to killing Kazuto with a succinylcholine syringe.

Kyōji Shinkawa (新川 恭二, Shinkawa Kyōji) / Spiegel (シュピーゲル, Shupīgeru)

Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae (Japanese), Johnny Yong Bosch (English)

Shino's friend both in the real world and GGO, in fact he was the one who introduced Shino to GGO in the first place as a form of immersion therapy for her fear of guns. Having been forced to bare the pressure of taking over his family's hospital while bullied at school, Kyōji was more fascinated with Shoichi's murderous exploits in SAO while becoming disillusioned with the real world. Kyōji finally snaps after a famous GGO player tricked him and others into creating weak, agility focused avatars knowing that there was going to be a patch that would give his strength focused character an edge in the upcoming Bullet of Bullets tournament. This resulted with Kyōji creating the Sterben account in XaXa's image and committing murders as Death Gun. Kyōji is also revealed to be romantically obsessed with Shino, having Shoichi be Death Gun during the BoB so he can personally kill her in a murder-suicide and be "reborn" with her in a new world where their modern worries won't exist. But Kirito manages to save Shino and Kyōji is placed in police custody.

Underworld residences

Alice Schuberg

Alice Schuberg (アリス・ツーベルク, Arisu Tsūberuku) The mysterious girl who was Kirito's "childhood friend", along with Eugeo, in UnderWorld. She is captured and supposedly taken away to be executed by the Integrity Knights for breaking the rule by "entering" the Dark Territory. She contacted Kirito, in spirit form, as well as aided in Eugeo's healing, showing that she is still alive and remembered both of them. She also implored them to come find her. It is later revealed, first in a short story, that she had become an Integrity Knight and is confirmed in Volume 11 of the light novels. Her name as an Integrity Knight is Alice Synthesis Thirty (アリス・シンセシス・サーティ, Arisu Shinseshisu Sāti)..

Eugeo

Eugeo (ユージオ, Yūjio) A young lad who was also Kirito's "childhood friend" along with Alice in UnderWorld. Has his memories of Kirito purged, along with the rest of the villagers, but recovers them later on, to a certain degree. He has a strong desire to find Alice and in order to do so, Kirito teaches him his "Aincrad-style" sword skills.

Selka Schuberg

Selka Schuberg (セルカ・ツーベルク, Seruka Tsūberuku) Younger sister of Alice and an apprentice of Sister Azariya. She is capable of wielding the Sacred Arts but dislikes being compared to her sister. She does not remember Kirito, but is put in charge of him upon his "return".

Cardinal

Cardinal (カーディナル, Kādinaru) The Cardinal System, the one with complete control and authority in SAO, it controls everything. In ALO, the only other VRMMORPG to have it, it has partial control. During the Alicization Arc, in the Underworld, it takes the form of a scrawny 10-year-old girl, who lives in the Great Library Room. Cardinal does not have any control of the Underworld and only has powers in the Library because Quinella used the System Control Authority to revoke Cardinal's rights.

Quinella

Quinella (クィネラ, Kwinera) The true ruler of Underworld, the highest minister of the Axiom Church and the main antagonist of the Underworld arc. 350 years before Kirito would enter the Underworld, Quinella was born. She was given the sacred task of studying the Sacred Arts. Soon, she learned that by killing others, one's stats could be raised, so every night she snuck out and killed the animals of the forest, which would respawn everyday anyways. She raised her stats to a ridiculously high level and decided to take control over the Underworld. Fooling people into believing she was a goddess, she created the Axiom Church and made laws to control the people. She studied the Sacred Arts intensely, trying to find a way to transcend the limit of that world, the <<life>> of that world. She finds the System Control Authority command on the brink of death and immediately uses it to heal herself, restoring her beauty and <<life>> to her former appearance as a youth.

Ronye Arabel

Ronye Arabel (ロニエ・アラベル, Ronie Araberu) Kirito's valet in the Sword Mastery Academy. She ranked in the top 12 of her year, thus qualifying her to be a valet of an elite swordsman. Since she was of the lowest Noble Class, along with Tiese, she was not chosen by any of the elite swordsman except for Kirito who opted to take the last remaining valet.

Tiese Schtrinen

Tiese Schtrinen (ティーゼ・シュトリーネン, Teīze Shutorinen) Eugeo's valet in the Sword Mastery Academy. She ranked in the top 12 of her year, thus qualifying her to be a valet of an elite swordsman. Since she was of the lowest Noble Class, along with Ronye, she was not chosen by any of the elite swordsman except for Eugeo who opted to take the last remaining valet. She entered the Academy in order to raise her family's social status.

Other UW residences

The following is a list of all other known Integrity Knights:

• Bercouli (ベルクーリ, Berukūri) / Bercouli Synthesis One (ベルクーリ・シンセシス・ワン, Berukūri Shinseshisu Wan)
• Fanatio (ファナティオ, Fanatio) / Fanatio Synthesis Two (ファナティオ・シンセシス・ツー, Fanatio Shinseshisu Tsū)
• Deusolbert (デュソルバート, Deyusorubāto) / Deusolbert Synthesis Seven (デュソルバート・シンセシス・セブン, Deyusorubāto Shinseshisu Sebun)
• Linel (リネル, Rineru) / Linel Synthesis Twenty-Eight (リネル・シンセシス・トゥエニエイト, Rineru Shinseshisu Touenieito)
• Fizel (フィゼル, Fizeru) / Fizel Synthesis Twenty-Nine (フィゼル・シンセシス・トゥエニナイン, Fizeru Shinseshisu Toueninain)
• Eldrie Woolsburg (エルドリエ・ウールスブルーグ, Erudorie Uurusuburuggu) / Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-one (エルドリエ・シンセシス・サーティワン, Erudorie Shinseshisu Sātiwan)

Other characters

Midori Kirigaya (桐ヶ谷 翠, Kirigaya Midori)

Voiced by: Aya Endō (Japanese), Caitlin Glass (English)

Midori is Suguha's mother, as well as Kazuto's aunt and foster mother in the real world. She cares deeply for both her children. In Volume 10, she is assured by the authorities of Kazuto's safety. In reality, Kazuto's comatose body was kidnapped by Kikuoka Seijirou. When Asuna and Suguha tried to tell her their suspicions, she did not believe them.

Shōzō Yuuki (結城 彰三, Yūki Shōzō)

Voiced by: Kazuhiro Yamaji (Japanese), Keith Silverstein (English)

Shōzō is Asuna's father and the former CEO of RCT Progress Inc.

Silver Crow (シルバー・クロウ, Shirubā Kurou) / Haruyuki Arita (有田 春雪, Arita Haruyuki)

Voiced by: Yuki Kaji (Japanese), Erik Scott Kimerer (English)

Silver Crow is the main character of Accel World, another of Reki Kawahara's light novels who appears to confront Kirito in a crossover side story. As he is the sub combiner of Takumu, he forms into a two combined gestalt Gene-Linker Silver Crow.

Endou (遠藤, Endō)

Voiced by: Yoko Hikasa (Japanese), Olivia Charles (English)

Endou is a manipulative person who approached Shino and pretended to be her friend just to be able to use Shino's home for personal use and as a place to stay overnight after getting drunk. She uses Shino's phobia to make her scare to her. After the Death Gun incident, she was surprised to see Shino can overcome her phobia.

Kyouko Yuuki (結城 京子, Yūki Kyōko)

Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara (Japanese), Johanna Luis (English)

Kyouko is a professor who is Asuna's mother. She attempts to take Asuna under her wing to become a woman with a rich husband, denying her wishes to stay with Kazuto. Though she initially does not understand the fascination of the virtual world, Asuna has her mother visit ALO. There, Kyouko discovers that Asuna's home in ALO looks like her childhood home, a forest-house. The experience inspires Kyouko to tell her daughter to work hard to get the husband she wants.

Rinko Koujiro (神代凛子, Kōjiro Rinko)

Rinko is a professor, co-worker and also a former love-interest of Akihiko Kayaba. In the SAO arc, She initially helped in the development of SAO and when the 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.

Apparently, she was released on bail from her trial. In the Alicization arc, she has been invited by Kikuoka Seijirou to do a top secret research on the «Soul Translator» technology, but has been reluctant to accept the offer. Until, one day, upon learning Asuna's situation, she agreed to help the girl find Kazuto, so she contacted Kikuoka about accepting the invitation. Rinko and Asuna, traveled to the hidden base of Rath, the «Ocean Turtle».

References

1. Kawahara, Reki (2009). Sword Art Online 1: Aincrad. ASCII Media Works
2. Kawahara, Reki (2009). Sword Art Online 2: Aincrad. ASCII Media Works
3. Kawahara, Reki (2009). Sword Art Online 3: Fairy Dance. ASCII Media Works
4. Kawahara, Reki (2010). Sword Art Online 4: Fairy Dance. ASCII Media Works
5. Kawahara, Reki (2010). Sword Art Online 5: Phantom Bullet. ASCII Media Works
6. Kawahara, Reki (2010). Sword Art Online 6: Phantom Bullet. ASCII Media Works
7. Kawahara, Reki (2011). Sword Art Online 7: Mother's Rosario. ASCII Media Works
8. Kawahara, Reki (2011). Sword Art Online 8: Early and Late. ASCII Media Works
9. Kawahara, Reki (2012). Sword Art Online 9: Alcization Beginning. ASCII Media Works
10. Kawahara, Reki (2012). Sword Art Online 10: Alcization Running. ASCII Media Works
11. Kawahara, Reki (2012). Sword Art Online 11: Alcization Turning. ASCII Media Works
12. Kawahara, Reki (2012). Sword Art Online : Progressive 1. ASCII Media Works

External links

• Characters at SAO official website
• Characters at SAO wiki
• List of characters at IMDb

Works by Reki Kawahara Main series Accel World Episodes Characters Sword Art Online Novels Episodes Season I II Characters The Isolator Video games Accel World Awakening of the Silver Wings (2012) The Peak of Acceleration (2013) Sword Art Online Infinity Moment (2013) Hollow Fragment (2014) Lost Song (2015) Hollow Realization (2016) Book:Reki Kawahara