Kirito (Sword Art Online)

Kirito is a male anime and manga character who features in Sword Art Online.

Biography

Kirito and Asuna in Sword Art Online.

Kazuto Narusaka (Japanese: 鳴坂 和人, Hepburn: Narusaka Kazuto) was a Japanese male who was born on October 7, 2008 where his biological parents were noted to had died in an accident. This led to the young boy getting adopted by his aunt and uncle a year after his birth. Raised by his foster parents as a son, Kazuto was originally forced to train with his cousin in the neighborhood kendo dojo; however due to his aunt's influence as an editor for a computer systems magazine, Kazuto became more interested in computers and dropped kendo after two years. This decision earned him a heavy beating from his grandfather, prompting Suguha to defend him by promising to practice enough for both of them. At the age of ten, Kazuto discovered that he was adopted from erased Juki Net records and since then unintentionally began distancing himself from Suguha. He came to be one of 1,000 testers in the closed beta of Sword Art Online (SAO) that was the first ever Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) which used NerveGear. Kirito logged hundreds of hours of playtime. He, along with the other top players, were able to reach the 10th Floor before the beta had ended. Shortly after logging in to the fully released SAO, Kirito was stopped by a stranger. Klein, a new guy, asks for his help in learning how to play. After befriending each other and training in the fields for several hours, they were forcefully teleported back to the Town of Beginnings, to receive an announcement from Kayaba Akihiko. He revealed that the lack of a logout function, which they had recently realized, was a "feature" of his new game, and that forced removal of the NerveGear headpiece from the other side would fry the person's brain using microwaves. The only means to escape was to clear the game, in other words, to successfully defeat all 100 floors of Aincrad and defeat the final boss. Kirito immediately took Klein and ran off, and after hearing that Klein would remain with his friends here, left him and headed off to the next town.

At around 04:00 on December 2, 2022, nearly a month since the start of the official service of the game, Kirito encountered a hooded player fighting a Ruin Kobold Trooper on the nineteenth level of the 1st Floor's Labyrinth. While amazed by the player's brilliant skill with a rapier, the former beta tester hesitated before revealing himself to the fencer after the fight to comment on the inefficiency of using Sword Skills on a nearly dead enemy. During his conversation with the hooded player, Kirito realised that he was speaking to a girl based on her voice, and was astonished by her disregard for her self-preservation, the time she had spent in the Labyrinth, and the condition of her equipment. When the player collapsed just before she could leave, the swordsman carried her to the forest outside of the Labyrinth and waited for her to recover. Seven hours later, the girl awoke, desiring to return to the Labyrinth again, thus Kirito suggested going to the First Floor Boss Strategy conference at Tolbana instead, if she truly wished to beat the game, instead of just dying pointlessly. Having arrived at Tolbana, Kirito informed the hooded player that the meeting would take place at the town square at 16:00, before they momentarily parted ways. Immediately afterward, Kirito encountered the Argo the information broker, who notified him that the person interested in his «Anneal Blade+6» had raised his offer to 29,800 Cor; however, Kirito again refused to sell his sword, wondering why Argo's client was so persistent. Kirito spent the first day making his way to the next village. He decided to complete a quest, which he knew of from the beta period, to obtain a new sword. During this quest he encountered another player, a beta tester named Coper, who proposed forming a party and completing the quest together. After killing many «Little Nepenthes», two more Nepenthes, one with the required item and another with a fruit, appeared. Kirito killed the one carrying the flower while Coper intentionally kills the one with the fruit while triggering the fruit, which caused many Little «Nepenthes» to swarm on their position. Kirito managed to escape, but Coper, who did not know that his «Hiding» skill would not work against monsters that did not rely on sight, died. This caused Kirito's mortality to weigh heavily on him.

At around 04:00 on December 2, 2022, nearly a month since the start of the official service of the game, Kirito encountered a hooded player fighting a Ruin Kobold Trooper on the nineteenth level of the 1st Floor's Labyrinth. While amazed by the player's brilliant skill with a rapier, the former beta tester hesitated before revealing himself to the fencer after the fight to comment on the inefficiency of using Sword Skills on a nearly dead enemy. During his conversation with the hooded player, Kirito realised that he was speaking to a girl based on her voice, and was astonished by her disregard for her self-preservation, the time she had spent in the Labyrinth, and the condition of her equipment. When the player collapsed just before she could leave, the swordsman carried her to the forest outside of the Labyrinth and waited for her to recover. Seven hours later, the girl awoke, desiring to return to the Labyrinth again, thus Kirito suggested going to the First Floor Boss Strategy conference at Tolbana instead, if she truly wished to beat the game, instead of just dying pointlessly. Having arrived at Tolbana, Kirito informed the hooded player that the meeting would take place at the town square at 16:00, before they momentarily parted ways. Immediately afterward, Kirito encountered the Argo the information broker, who notified him that the person interested in his «Anneal Blade+6» had raised his offer to 29,800 Cor; however, Kirito again refused to sell his sword, wondering why Argo's client was so persistent. Kirito later found and joined the player from the Labyrinth, they both began to eat their bread. Kirito gave her a pot of cream and later explained how he had obtained the item and offered to give tips on how to gain the item efficiently, but the player quickly rejected his offer, stating that she did not come to the town to eat good food. Kirito questioned why she was in the town and listened to her explanation. After the clarification, Kirito began to apologize but was interrupted by the clock bell. The player realized that the meeting was about to start so they both headed to the conference.

The meeting was organized by a player named Diavel. Forty-four people went to the meeting and decide to try to defeat the 1st Floor boss, discovered in Argo's strategy guide to be Illfang the Kobold Lord. As the members gathered themselves into parties at Diavel's suggestion, Kirito and the mysterious fencer found themselves without a group. Kirito offered to form a party with the female player and was accepted, upon which he learned her name was Asuna. They were assigned to support E group, charged with clearing the monsters that accompanied the boss. After the meeting, upon learning of Asuna's complete ignorance of MMO game mechanics, Kirito offered to explain MMO terms and strategies to her in detail so as to improve her chances of survival, but she requested the lesson to take place where they would not be seen. As Kirito considered several possible locations, Asuna revealed she had been sleeping in cheap inns that made sleeping less than ideal. Kirito disclosed that there were other rooms outside of inns that could be rented and described at length the details of his own rented room, but was suddenly seized by Asuna when he divulged that it had a bath. Confused at her response, he finally realized her intention when she requested the location of other such rooms with baths, but he had to reveal that there were no others, as he had rented the entire space and he could not cancel his transaction. At that moment, he was asked to lend his bathroom. At the farmhouse where Kirito had rented his space, he showed the bathroom to Asuna and warned her that the NerveGear could not adequately recreate a liquid environment. As he waited for Asuna, he focused all his willpower to not look at the bathroom door and tried to read Argo's strategy guide. At that moment, he was visited by Argo, from whom he learnt that her client had raised his offer for Kirito's Anneal Blade to 39,800 Cor. Shocked at how the buyer was willing to spend so much money on his sword when it would easier and cheaper to acquire a similar sword, Kirito requested the name of Argo's client, and was surprised to learn it was Kibaou. Pondering on the reason behind Kibaou's actions, Kirito was late to realize that Argo intended to use the bathroom to change her equipment. A few seconds after the info broker entered the bath and Asuna exited, Kirito lost consciousness.

The next day on December 4, when the boss raid party gathered in Tolbana for the upcoming boss battle, Kirito was approached by Kibaou, who gruffly ordered him and Asuna to only engage stray Ruin Kobold Sentinels during the battle. As Kibaou was walking away, Kirito suddenly noticed that Kibaou had not spent the money offered for the former's Anneal Blade to upgrade his equipment instead, causing Kirito to become suspicious, but his thoughts were interrupted when, at that moment, Diavel began his speech to the raid party. Several hours later, the raid group finally reached the doors to the boss room. Before the battle began, Kirito reminded Asuna to aim her Sword Skills at the throats of the Ruin Kobold Sentinels after he secured an opening. Resolving to ensure Asuna's survival, he faced the doors and followed the other raid members as they charged into the boss room and commenced battle with Illfang and his guards. All went well until Illfang's last hit point (HP) bar reached its last third. Instead of a talwar, as he originally carried in the Beta, he now carried a nodachi. In this turn of events, Diavel was heavily wounded and subsequently died, after Kirito realized that Diavel had been a beta tester as well. Kirito then reorganized the shocked players and, with Asuna, worked together to take down the boss. After an intense battle, one of the tanks made a mistake and triggered Illfang's Tsumujiguruma. Kirito quickly countered the attack with Sonic Leap, causing the boss to tumble and allowing everyone to attack in full force while the boss was recovering. However, just as the boss's HP neared depletion, it recovered while the tanks were still recovering from their post-motion delays, prompting Kirito and Asuna to finish off the boss themselves. Kirito finally managed to deal the Last Attack on the boss and gained a unique item from it, the Coat of Midnight. However, as the raid party celebrated their victory, someone from Group C brought up the death of Diavel and blamed Kirito for withholding information which led to Diavel's death. Kirito then realized that the beta testers needed to make peace with the regular players before the beta tester hatred went out of hand. Therefore, Kirito created a new category of players, called Beaters, who were the only ones withholding information for their own benefit and dubbed himself as one them, so that all of the hate and rage would be focused on him rather than upon all beta testers. After this announcement, Kirito decided to open the 2nd Floor and activate its Teleport Gate. However, while he was enjoying the view of the floor, Asuna followed him to show her gratitude, as well as to relay two worded messages from Agil and Kibaou. After Kirito parted with Asuna once again, he received a message from Argo about his infamous speech. She wished to compensate him for the trouble she had caused by allowing a one-time free offer on any piece of information, thus Kirito mischievously replied by asking for the meaning behind her painted whiskers.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Kazuto Narusaka had slightly long but neat black hair and black eyes where his delicate face showed no trace of masculinity allowing people to easily mistake him for a girl.

Typically, he was known by the portmanteau of Kirito (キリト, Kirito). Through gaming, he came to gain a reputation and was called the Black Swordsman (黒の剣士).

With the advantage of previous VR gaming experience and a drive to protect other beta testers from discrimination, he isolates himself from the greater groups and plays the game alone, bearing the mantle of 'beater', a portmanteau of 'beta tester' and 'cheater'.

Kazuto was also a very emotional person and lets his emotions control him from time to time. The deaths of Sachi and the Moonlit Black Cats had haunted him until his marriage with Asuna in Sword Art Online. Sachi's death, in particular, had a huge effect on his personality and motives, making him very distant from others for a while. Kirito also temporarily lost his will to live when Asuna was killed by Heathcliff.

Powers and abilities

At his home, he had a virtual reality headset known as a NerveGear. The helmet stimulated the user's five senses via their brain, allowing players to experience and control their in-game characters with their minds.

Notes

• Kirito was created by Reki Kawahara where he featured in the setting of Sword Art Online.

In other media

Television

• In Sword Art Online, Kirito appeared in the setting of the anime adaptation where he was voiced by Japanese actor Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and by English actor Bryce Papenbrook in the dub.

Appearances

• Sword Art Online:
• Sword Art Online: Alicization:

External Links

• [https://swordartonline.fandom.com/wiki/Kirigaya_Kazuto Sword Art Online)
• Wikipedia Entry

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