Suguha Kirigaya

* IRL
* ALO

“
What's the point of playing a Princess if people are still gonna tell me what to do?
”

—Suguha, Episode 15

**Suguha Kirigaya** (桐ヶ谷 直葉, *Kirigaya Suguha*), also known as Princess **Leafa** (リーファ, *Rīfa*), is a player of ALfheim Online. She is the sister and bully of Kazuto Kirigaya and the Princess of the Sylphs.

## Appearance

Suguha has short black hair and dark grey eyes, almost blackish. She tends to wear sporty clothing, most notable a red tracksuit jacket and blue short shorts, which was a bold choice considering she wore it during winter, but she has also been seen wearing more feminine attire. She also has a cute childish look and is often seen with an embarrassed expression.

In ALfheim Online, Leafa appears more like an adult than a child. She has bright green eyes, long pointy ears, and long blond hair, often tied up with a flower-like hairband, but she lets her bangs hang down in a wild fashion. She wears green and white clothes with a brown corset, a white and green collar around her neck, and long brown and white boots.

## Personality

Suguha has been shown to be a very aggressively sporty and a very sarcastic person, possibly more than her brother, Kazuto. She is depicted as outright cruel, as she treats Kazuto like a punching bag and would make sarcastic remarks about his sex life, to the point of ridiculing him for having an "online wife" while downplaying it as him groping a comatose patient, as well as initially refusing to believe that Asuna was actually Kazuto's girlfriend. She didn't even show gratitude when Kazuto goes out of his way to lend her a juice while she was choking on a muffin, and immediately starts mocking him as soon as she caught her breath.

In addition to her jabs, Suguha is merciless when it comes to beating Kazuto in a kendo sparring match, to the point it can be viewed as domestic abuse. She's so used to bully Kazuto that even had a mild breakdown when she realizes she was accidentally nice him. She also seems to be somewhat egotistical, as when Kirito started playing ALO, she immediately assumed it was because he wanted to blackmail her and couldn't even consider any other possibility. It's shown that Kazuto despises and fears her, to the point of contemplating letting her choke on the aforementioned muffin, and it's implied that Suguha's abuse is the cause of Kazuto's sociopathic personality.

However, much like her brother, this is all an act. Suguha's narcissistic and borderline sociopathic behavior stems from severe abandonment issues that originate from Kazuto quitting their kendo lessons, leaving her to be abused by their sexist grandfather. This abuse resulted in deep feelings of resentment, as well as self-hatred, regarding her own femininity, resulting in an aversion to traditional feminine traits, such as kindness and sensitivity, which she conflates with weakness. This means her attitude is defense mechanism to seem more manly in order to avoid more abuse.

According to Yui's psychological profile of her, this lifelong repression has also bled onto her other relationships, causing her to belittle anyone she considers weaker than herself. This also affects her love life, as she refuses to admit that she likes Shinichi, instead keeping him at arm's length by claiming that they are barely friends IRL and that Recon is Leafa's "fuccboi", trying her best hide anything that claims the contrary. This is shown when Leafa was thinking about Kirito potentially finding out about her relationship with Recon, as she seemed more worried about him finding out that she made Recon cupcakes, rather than finding out she gave him a handjob.

Also like her brother, Suguha's overall personality changes when playing as her Sylph avatar, Leafa. Due to the roleplaying aspect of the game, Leafa takes the role of a warrior princess, preferring to talk in proper sentences and almost never speaking casually. She tried to portray Leafa as a damsel in distress once, but she wasn't very good at playing the victim and had to interrupt her RP session in order to put her sword down. While she claims that she takes the roleplaying seriously for the sake of the other players, it's implied that she likes doing as well.

Unlike her brother, however, Suguha is not very bright. When she was choking on the muffin, she tried to eat a second one to "dislodge" it, seemingly unaware that this would just make the problem worse. She also once started daydreaming about food after confusing the word "delegates" with "delis". She also seems to be very gullible, as she seems to believe ALO's dodgy curriculum, and mocks anyone who doesn't.

## Equipment

* IRL
* ALfheim Online

### IRL

#### Weapons

* **Shinai:** (竹刀, *Shinai*) As a kendo practitioner, Suguha is often seen carrying her shinai, and is quite skilled with it.

### ALfheim Online

#### Weapons

* **Joyeuse:** (ジョワユーズ, *Jowayūzu*) Leafa's main weapon ALO. It is a medium length sword, similar to a katana.

## Skills & Abilities

* IRL
* ALfheim Online

### IRL

#### Skills

* **Kendo:** (剣道, *Kendō*) Suguha is a skilled kendo practitioner, able to defeat adequate combatants, like Kazuto.

### ALfheim Online

#### Skills

* **Flight:** (飛行, *Hikō*) As a Sylph, Leafa has the ability to fly, like the other fairy races.
* **Stealth:** (ステルス, *Suterusu*) As a Sylph, Leafa has the ability to use stealth spells that allow them to hide from monsters and other players.
* **Enhanced Speed:** (強化された速度, *Kyōka sa Reta Sokudo*) As a Sylph, Leafa is incredibly fast and agile.
* **Wind Magic:** (風の魔法, *Kaze no Mahō*) As a Sylph, Leafa is capable of being a master of Wind Magic.
* **Wall Run:** (ウォールラン, *Uōruran*) As a Sylph, Leafa is capable of temporarily running on walls.

#### Magic

* **Healing Magic:** (癒しの魔法, *Iyashino Mahō*) Leafa is capable of using several types of healing spells.
* **Wind Needles:** (風の針, *Kaze no Hari*) A spell that allows Leafa to launch twenty small projectiles at an enemy.
* **Butterfly Shield:** (バタフライシールド, *Batafuraishīrudo*) A spell which covers the target in a shield that blocks attacks at the cost of the caster's mana points.

## Differences from the Original

Suguha comes off in stark contrast to her original series counterpart, who is a kind girl who feels distant from her brother, and has even developed romantic feelings for him. This Suguha, however, is a brash, overly aggressive girl who takes out her frustrations on those around her because she hates her own femininity and doesn't want to appear weak to anyone.

In original, her relationship with Kazuto is strained due to the lack of communication between the two, after Kazuto discovered they weren't really brother and sister. In the abridged version, their bond was strained because he unknowingly left her to deal with their grandfather's sexist abuse after he abandoned their kendo training.

This means that Suguha she doesn't try to get back at Kazuto by bully to Kazuto, who ends up disgusted and horrified when she realizes she accidentally flirted with her brother. That being said, she does mock him for having an "online wife", but not to that extent, and she is actually jealous of Asuna for how deep her bond with Kazuto is.

Suguha's relationship with Shinichi isn't a complicated sexual one in the original, he has feelings for her, but she isn't sure if she likes him back.

## Quotes

"*DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR!!!*"
—Suguha refusing to let Kazuto yield.

"*Hey, all I know is you leave the house for hours at a time and then come home crying. You know, like bitches do.*"
—Suguha refusing to believe her brother.

"***\*Noble voice\*** No! I am but a humble maiden, taken from the streets and adopted into the Royal Court by the kind Queen Sakuya! I have never held a blade in my life! I am but a* fair *dandelion about to be* blown away *by the... th- the- the flippin'...* dude *blowing on that dandelion of fate.*"
—Leafa trying to roleplay.

"***\*Noble voice\*** Oh, sir? Are you a newcomer to our realm? Have you not heard tell of... the en- ...the* enchantment *placed upon this island which... halts the... forbidden tongue?*"
—Leafa trying to explain the profanity filter in character.

"*Son of a horse dick fucking shit weasel! Fucking bitch whore... AAAAASS!!! What is that fucking cock-sampler doing in* MY *GAME?!*"
—Suguha's reaction to finding out Kazuto is in ALO.

"*Don't get the wrong idea about us, okay?! You and I are barely friends!* Recon *is Princess Leafa's* fuccboi*! Got it?! Don't confuse a game with real life, you perv! Now, meet me in the janitor's closet after practice. I got another quest for you.*"
—Suguha sending Shinichi mixed messages.

"***\*Crying\*** So, what...? Was it me? Was I just not worth the effort? We used to be so close, but maybe that was all in my head... **\*Sniffle\*** So how* dare *you accuse me of hating you when you* CLEARLY *never gave a shit about* ME*!!!*"
—Suguha questioning if her bond with Kazuto was real.

## Voice Actor

* In the Japanese dub, Suguha is voiced by Ayana Taketatsu.
* In the English dub, Suguha is voiced by Cassandra Lee Morris.
* In the abridged series, Suguha is voiced by LennonDrake.

## Trivia

* Reki Kawahara conceived the name Suguha from the Japanese swordsman term for a straight temper line (直刃, *Suguha*), with the kanji for blade (刃, *Ha*) replaced with the kanji for leaf (葉, *ha*). The English translation for the kanji 葉 then served as inspiration for Suguha screen name, Leafa.
* Suguha has seen/read The Lord of the Rings, although she appears to be on Sauron's side.
* Whenever Something Witty Entertainment thinks that they've written something that's too dumb for Suguha, they remind themselves that she ate a second muffin to dislodge a muffin she was choking on.
* Her ringtone for Shinichi is an 8-bit rendition of WAP.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Episode 12
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Episode 13
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Episode 14
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Episode 15
5. ↑ Episode 17
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Episode 16
7. ↑ Suguha's name origin