Episode 15

## Video

This is the fourth episode of the Fairy Dance Arc, and the fifteenth episode of Sword Art Online Abridged overall.

## Plot

One day, in the real world, Suguha is confronted by Shinichi Nagata, Recon's player, outside their school for ditching him in ALfheim Online. Suguha reminds Shinichi not to mention the game in public, which he apologizes for, but she becomes hostile when he accidentally calls her by her screen name. Shinichi then tells her that, when he told Prince Cazmer that Leafa was not coming to the engagement party, he was "less than pleased". He then decided to take his frustration out on Recon by tying his hands together, preventing him from logging out, and crushing his nuts in his vice, all while the band were forced to play their music. Suguha isn't moved by Shinichi's plight, although she is disappointed that she missed hearing some renditions of her favorite band. Regardless, she then tells Shinichi to let Cazmer know that she doesn't care what kind of story the latter has cooked up, pointing out that it's no fun being a Princess if people are still going to tell her what to do. Shinichi accepts the request but is disappointed by Suguha's lack of care for his safety.

With the matter settled, Suguha tells Shinichi to get out of her way, as he's making her late for kendo practice. This makes Shinichi excited and asks if her brother, Kazuto, will be joining her now that he's out of the hospital, stating that he'd love to meet the "Hero of Aincrad". Annoyed by her brother's nickname, Suguha tells Shinichi that Kazuto hasn't practiced kendo in years, remarking on his preference for "screens than swords". Hearing this, Shinichi voices how ironic it is that the Black Swordsman doesn't like swords. Annoyed, Suguha demands Shinchi to move, threatening to use her shinai. Shinichi says he will but has something to ask Suguha first, much to her annoyance. Shinichi then plucks up the courage and asks Suguha if they could go on a real date, instead of the "quests" they go on as Leafa and Recon. Flustered by this request, Suguha jabs Shinichi in the stomach with her shinai. As Shinichi writhes around in pain, Suguha reminds him that the two of them are barely friends and that Recon is Leafa's "fuccboi", nothing more. She then tells Shinichi not to confuse a game with real life, before almost immediately inviting him to meet her in the janitor's closet after kendo practise for another "quest".

Sometime later, Suguha's in her bedroom and starts having an inner rant about her frustrations with Kazuto, wondering what makes him so great. While logging in to ALO, she comes to the conclusion that Kazuto's playing the game because he's planning to blackmail her with the fact that she's playing such a girly game, to get back at her for all her years of torment. After imagining what he'll say when exposes her, she convinces herself further that Kirito's seriousness to get to the World Tree was just a clever ruse to gain Leafa's sympathy. Retaliating against him, Suguha decides to mess with her brother on their journey by taking him to the "dark corners" of ALO that would annoy him the most.

In ALO, Leafa meets up with Kirito in Sylvaine, who has bought himself some new gear, and takes him to the Fairport, a fairy airport. As Leafa drags him through the building, Kirito voices his astonishment at the fact that there are players who log into the game just so they can pretend to run an airport. Just then, the duo is stopped by Cazmer and two Sylph bodyguards. Cazmer confronts Leafa for failing to attend their engagement party and chastises her for gallivanting with "detestable Spriggan trash", much to Kirito's annoyance. Finally caught, Leafa bluntly tells Cazmer that she doesn't want to fake marry him, having only agreed to it because Sakuya, her fake mom, told her to in order to end a civil war, something Cazmer needs to remind her of. She then tells Cazmer that she has become bored with the ordeal, opting to hang out with Kirito for a while instead. Cazmer tries to insist that Leafa should reconsider the engagement, but Kirito interjects, reinforcing Leafa's decision. He then tells the Sylph Prince to have some self-respect, stating that a respectable gentleman like Cazmer must have plenty of cousins that could replace Leafa as his wife.

Offended by this comment, Cazmer draws his sword and tells Kirito to know his place. He then states that, while he doesn't know how Kirito managed to seduce Leafa, something that makes Leafa gag in disgust for obvious reasons, events have been set in motion that are beyond the Spriggan's comprehension. Kirito isn't fazed by such a vague statement, however, and continues to poke fun of Cazmer's storyline, referencing the movie Stardust in the process. Cazmer, who catches the reference, tells Kirito that he doesn't have time to explain his motivations to him, claiming that all that the Spriggan needs to understand is that his actions are for the good of everyone.

One of Cazmer's bodyguards then recommends that they should have this conversation somewhere private, as they are drawing the attention of bystanders, such as the pretzel guy. Cazmer blames this on Leafa, telling her that she's making a scene. Angered by this, Leafa threatens to tell Sakuya about Cazmer's actions once she's back from the peace conference at Butterfly Valley, which would result in Cazmer getting banished. Hearing this, Cazmer suddenly sheaths his sword, claiming that he has been intimidated by the threat, and leaves along with his bodyguards, telling Leafa to "enjoy slumming it". Leafa then apologizes to Kirito for the incident, as players like Cazmer take the game too seriously, a sentiment Kirito agrees with. Kirito then asks Leafa if he's going to be subjected to "additional screening", giving the other players' attitudes towards his race. Leafa doesn't answer this, however, and shoves Kirito into the hands of a Fairport Security Guard, who gives him full body cavity search.

Having passed the screening, Kirito voices displeasure over the whole situation, stating that you wouldn't see something like that in Lord of the Rings. Leafa agrees with this, although she voices her contempt for Sam and Frodo disrespecting Sauron's borders, comparing them to Spriggans. Kirito asks Leafa if she just doesn't care if she hurts his feelings, since he's a Spriggan, but she ignores him and comments on the beautiful view, just as the skybox starts glitching out. Getting back on topic, Kirito tells Leafa he's in a hurry to save his wife and asks her about the army she promised. At first Leafa's unimpressed by Kirito's "excuse" for getting to the top of the World Tree, but she then gets confused and asks what Kirito means by "army". Kirito then reminds Leafa that she told him she had hordes of subjects who could he help them the previous night. Backed into a corner, Leafa suggests that they could ask Sakuya for assistance, stating that she might be cool, "for once".

Luckily for Leafa, the subject is changed when Recon arrives. Leafa tells him that she's glad to see him, which makes Recon happy for a second, but the moment is ruined when Leafa admits that she would've taken anyone, something that Kirito takes offence to. Recon then wonders if Kirito and Leafa were going on a quest, although he changes the word to "mission" at the last second after realizing the unintentional subtext, before asking if he could tag along. Internally, Leafa becomes worried that, once Kirito and Recon talk to each other, Recon will realize who Kirito is, which would in turn cause Kirito to find out that she gave Recon a handjob, or worse, that she made him cupcakes. To prevent this from happening, Leafa tells Recon that she has a "super special mission" for him, ordering him to keep a close eye on Cazmer, who she claims has been "acting real sus lately", a statement that disgusts Kirito. Recon states that he's willing to do so, but asks if Leafa's sure that Cazmer's weird behavior isn't because he's mad that she's not going along with his wedding storyline. Leafa denies this, however, and assures Recon that Cazmer's "def into some sketch shiz". Kirito then gets annoyed by Leafa's vocabulary and asks her to stop.

Convinced that Cazmer's up to something, Recon declares that he'll get to the bottom of this no matter what. However, he then gets deflated when Leafa reacts to this nonchalantly. Regardless, Recon wishes her luck on her mission before asking Kirito to watch Leafa's back, as she has a habit of getting into trouble. Kirito agrees to Recon's request, but admits that he was going to keep an eye on her anyway, since he doesn't trust her. Recon then states that he trusts Kirito but doesn't really understand why, commenting that there's something really familiar about him. However, before Recon can piece together who Kirito really is, Leafa stomps on his foot, breaking his concentration, and takes off with Kirito following her, leaving Recon behind yet again. As they're flying, Kirito tells Leafa to be nicer to Recon, calling the latter her boyfriend. Despite Leafa trying to deny that she and Recon are together, which makes Kirito laugh, Yui tells Leafa that both her and Recon's heart rates increased upon seeing each other. Leafa tries explaining this away by claiming that her heart elevation could've been out of fear, as Recon has a big knife, but Kirito and Yui laugh this excuse, much to Leafa's embarrassment.

Meanwhile, at the top of the World Tree, Oberon is talking to Asuna in her cage, who has apparently escaped a considerable amount in the last 24-hours, wreaking havoc and torturing her guards. Oberon asks Asuna to refrain from her constant escape attempts, as he's disappointed that he's the only one planning out their wedding, asking her to at least help pick a china pattern. Asuna then sarcastically claims that her escape attempts are her trying to get enough exercise to fit into her wedding dress. Oberon then comments on how violent Asuna has been to his minions, stating that the bills for their psyche evaluations are starting to pile up, particularly for one man named Shoji. He then states that he has no idea why she's so hard on Shoji, but Shoji's starting to take her attacks personally. Asuna admits that she is pretty harsh with Shoji and asks if he's in the game today. Hearing this, Shoji, who has been secretly listening to the conversation, pipes up out of fear and tries to convince Asuna that he's off sick.

Oberon chooses to let all this go, however, since Asuna's violent tendencies will be erased once the project is complete. He then tells Asuna that his minions are making progress on her new personality, which so far is a mixture of Leave it to Beaver and hardcore porn. Asuna then asks how the brainwashing is going to work, asking if she's going to be like an Alexa or if it's going to be "a full Stepford". Oberon doesn't answer this, unfortunately, as he knows that Asuna's trying to find a weakness in the programming. Oberon then compares Asuna's annoying actions to Kazuto, which catches Asuna off guard, as she didn't know that Oberon knew him. Oberon reveals to Asuna that Kirito has logged into ALO, and that he's probably going to try and rescue her. He admits that he could easily ban Kirito's account to prevent him from making further progress, but Oberon finds that idea boring. Instead, he decides to allow Kirito to continue, allowing him to gather enough forces to climb his way to the top of the World Tree, only to find that the doors are impregnable, all so Oberon can watch the hope die in Kirito's eyes. Oberon then giggles with anticipation, stating that it will be "quite the show", before asking Asuna what she thinks of his plan.

In response, Asuna tells Oberon that, if he were to ever harm Kirito, she will wear his guts like her mother's pashmina. When Oberon asks her to repeat herself, Asuna elaborates that she'll have him experience pain and torment beyond his imagination. She then states that she will tear his body apart piece by piece, all while he begs for a mercy that will never come. She will then add Oberon's screams to her Spotify before mounting his head on a pike. Oberon tries to brush off Asuna's threats, commenting that the profanity filter is making her sound silly, only to see the fury still present in Asuna's eyes. Feeling intimidated, Oberon tells Asuna that he is her King, and he will not let her disrespect him like this. He then reminds Asuna that she can threaten him all she wants, but at the end of the day she's powerless to stop him, and she will still end up spending the rest her life in "blissful, mindless servitude" as his wife. This falls on deaf ears, however, as Asuna somehow manages to escape during the rant and launches another bloody rampage on Oberon's minions, starting with Shoji. Annoyed by this, Oberon picks the china pattern by himself.

Back in the Ancient Forest, Kirito and Leafa land in a clearing, with Kirito asking why Leafa was in such a hurry to get there. Leafa claims that it's a "Safe Zone", where the two can recharge their wings, when in actuality it's the territory of a group of feral roleplayers called the "forest folk", who will mug him. Kirito isn't quite convinced by her claim, as the area is surrounded by unconscious players, but Leafa dismisses them by claiming they were outside of the Safe Zone. To make sure Kirito is defenceless when the forest folk attack, Leafa tells him to log out and get a snack, claiming that she'll guard his body. Kirito tries to decline this order, as he's too worried about Asuna, but he reluctantly accepts when his stomach starts growling. After Kirito logs out to get a sandwich, leaving his avatar in sleep mode, Leafa uses this opportunity to find evidence of Kirito's "plot" before the forest folk do their work.

However, before Leafa can do anything, Yui emerges from Kirito's pocket. Leafa immediately tries to deny any wrongdoing, but Yui calls her out on it, revealing that she knows who Leafa really is. This causes Leafa to realize that Yui isn't really a pet, to which Yui reveals that she's an AI. However, Leafa doesn't know what that is. This makes Yui realize that Leafa wasn't as smart as she thought and decides to dumb down her vocabulary to talk to her. Leafa then asks Yui what Kirito's planning, but Yui reveals that Kirito doesn't know who she is, admitting that she discovered Leafa's identity by hacking into her AmuSphere, as well as a few other things, and found her account information. Shocked, Leafa asks what Kirito's doing in the game, to which Yui explains that Kirito's goal is to rescue Asuna from the game's admin, and that it was pure coincidence that he ran into his sister. Leafa doubts that the two of them really met by chance and continues to believe that Kirito logged into the game to enact his vengeance upon her.

Disappointed that Leafa still won't listen to reason, Yui decides to take more drastic methods by removing her face, causing her to briefly suffocate. Having been terrified into submission, Leafa agrees to stop messing with Kirito and will do whatever Yui wants. It is at this moment that Kirito logs back in and gets confused by Leafa's outburst, startling Leafa. Kirito then asks if something happened when he was gone, which Yui tries to explain, but Leafa cuts her off before she can say anything. Though perplexed by Leafa's behavior, Kirito asks her if she wants to log out too, only for Leafa to say that they should get going. Though glad that they're making progress again, Kirito asks why Leafa's suddenly in such a rush. Yui then forges a story that Sakuya sent Leafa a message telling her that the peace conference will be ending soon. She then claims that Leafa came up with a plan to take advantage of the situation and recruit both the Sylph and Cait Sith armies to help raid the World Tree, meaning they'll need to hurry before the delegates leave. However, since Butterfly Valley is blocked by a mountain range that surpasses their wing's altitude limit, they'll have to take a shortcut through a Dungeon called Kandy Kane Kavern in order to make it in time.

Kirito doubts this claim, however, since Leafa herself starts daydreaming about food after confusing the word "delegates" for "delis". After Yui snaps her out of it, Leafa tries to convince Kirito that he can trust her. However, as she's saying this, Leafa spots a member of the forest folk hiding in the bushes and scares him off. She then takes off before Kirito can ask any questions. Kirito flies after her, confused about what really happened while he was away, wondering if this was one of Yui's "jokes". As Kirito and Leafa fly away, they are secretly followed by a bat with red eyes.

## Cast

* **MrBuddyVA:** Shinichi Nagata/Recon
* **LennonDrake:** Suguha Kirigaya/Leafa
* **YamatoSFX:** xVx\_K1r1t0\_xVx\_KillMe, Forest Folk
* **Jesse Inocalla:** Cazmer
* **Cole Jackson:** Cazmer Guard
* **Dizzasta:** Pretzel Guy
* **KaniDay:** Fairport Security Guard
* **redasatomato:** Yui
* **KaiserNeko:** Oberon
* **xbubblemunkyx:** Asuna
* **Grimmjack69:** Shoji Yanai
* **Mezmoreeyez:** Soldier

## Music

* **Greek Fire:** "A Real Life"
* **Sword Art Online Original Soundtrack vol.2:** "In Time of Peace", "Oberon"
* **Sword Art Online II Original Soundtrack vol.1:** "Daily Life, You and Me"
* **Beastars Original Sound Tracks:** "My True Self -reprise-", "Confused"
* **Memoria (Original Daedalic Entertainment Game Soundtrack):** "Underneath Fasar"
* **Your Lie in April Original Song & Soundtrack:** "Shikai ga Akai!?", "Haha no Yume", "Jikan Nanka Tomareba ii noni"
* **The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Original Sound Tracks:** "Outset Island"
* **Angels with Scaly Wings Soundtrack:** "Threat"
* **Ori and the Blind Forest (Original Soundtrack):** "Down the Moon Grotto"
* **Busou Renkin Original Soundtrack:** "Giwaki?!"
* **Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Original Game Soundtrack):** "Theme for Unknown"
* **Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Original Soundtrack 1:** "Interlude", "Home ~en route to Resembool~"
* **Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game (Original Videogame Soundtrack):** "Love Rising"

## Differences from the Original

The following is a list of differences *only* from this episode. To view any differences for the characters, view their pages, or if you want to see more click here.

* The scene where Suguha explains to the audience why she started playing ALO is skipped.
* Sigurd doesn't torture Recon for failing to bring Leafa to him.
* Suguha and Shinichi's conversation about high school entrance exams is skipped.
* Shinichi informing Suguha that Sigurd has invited her to go hunting, which she declines, is skipped.
* Kazuto isn't mentioned during Shinichi and Suguha's conversation, nor is it revealed that Shinichi is a fan of his. As such, Shinichi doesn't point out how ironic it is that the Black Swordsman doesn't like swords.
* Shinichi doesn't ask Suguha out on a date. He questions Suguha's decision to help Kirito, and she jabs him for thinking about Kirito and Leafa sharing hotels rooms.
* The scene where Suguha looks at her body while in her underwear is skipped.
* The scene where Kirito and Leafa meet up at the bar, followed by the montage where Kirito buys his new equipment, is skipped.
* Kirito and Leafa go to the Tower of Wind because it was the best place to take off from, not because they needed to go through customs.
	+ Kirito doesn't go through "additional screening".
* In the original, Sigurd gets angry because Kirito and Leafa are becoming "renegades", and because Kirito accused him of treating people like items. In the abridged version, Cazmer gets mad because Kirito suggested that he can marry one of his cousins instead of Leafa.
* In the original, the situation is defused because one of Sigurd's guards suggests that attacking Kirito would make the Sylphs look bad. In the abridged version, the conflict is abruptly halted when Leafa threatens to get Sakuya involved.
* The sky above Swilvane doesn't glitch out.
* In the original, the conversation at the top of the tower is about how the players restrict themselves to their own territories. In the abridged version, it's about how they plan to climb the World Tree.
	+ Yui criticizing how humans hide their emotions, followed by her kissing Kirito on the check, is skipped.
* A brief scene of Leafa looking back at Swilvane, questioning her decision to leave, before being reassured by the sight of Kirito is skipped.
* Oberon groping Asuna and chastising her for being so rigid, as it doesn't count if they're in a virtual world, to which Asuna tells him that she's been in a virtual world so long that her boundaries are the same for her ones in reality, is skipped.
* In the original, Oberon tells Asuna about how he met Kazuto in her hospital room, and how he doubts that he has the guts to enter another VR game after SAO. Oberon did this to crush Asuna's hopes, but it ended up reassuring her that Kazuto was alive. In the abridged version, Oberon tells her that they detected Kirito logging in, but he isn't concerned because the gates to the top of the World Tree are impregnable, only letting him continue his quest so that he can watch Kirito's hope die.
	+ Asuna doesn't threaten Oberon to not harm Kirito.
* The scene where Kirito and Leafa kill some Evil Glancers is skipped.
* The clearing that Kirito and Leafa land in isn't filled with "forest folk".
* The scene where Leafa logs out first, makes Kazuto a sandwich and takes a shower is skipped.
	+ Suguha thinking about how being with Kirito makes her excited to explore ALO is skipped.
* A weird scene where Kirito gives Leafa a spicy item is skipped.
* In the original, the conversation between Leafa and Yui is about what liking something means, and Leafa's explanation a makes herself think of Kazuto, which gets her flustered. In the abridged version, Yui reveals that she's an AI and gets Leafa to stop messing with Kirito.
	+ Yui doesn't hack Suguha's AmuSphere and finds out who she is.
	+ Yui doesn't comment on how coincidental the whole situation between Kirito and Leafa is.
	+ Yui doesn't remove Leafa's face to get her to comply.
* The plan to go through the mountains is Leafa's idea, not an elaborate lie told by Yui to get what she wants.
	+ Leafa doesn't start daydreaming about food after confusing the word "delegates" for "delis".
* Kirito detecting that they're being watched, causing Leafa to explain that it's probably a Tracer and to ignore it for now, because they don't know what form it's taking, is skipped.

## Errors

* When we see the shadow of the skybox error message, we can see that it says "Skybox Runtime Error Please Stand By". But this would mean that the message was backwards in the sky. However, this could be explained by saying that was also a glitch.

## Trivia

* The cut scene mentioned above, where Kirito and Leafa go shopping, was going to be in this episode, and Kirito was going to tell Leafa why he wanted to get to the World Tree during it. This was cut because they realized that it wouldn't make sense for Leafa to stick with Kirito if she didn't believe him.
	+ This scene would have revealed that ALO's currency is "Manoogles", instead of Yrd, like in the original. This is an inside joke of Something Witty Entertainment, as it is their name for the currency of Gallifrey in Doctor Who.
* Originally, the pretzel guy was going to have a long speech about the mystical shape of the pretzels, causing players to burn him for being a witch. This was changed for the preview of the episode, and people loved it enough for Something Witty Entertainment to keep the change. It was also changed to save time.
* The gag of the clouds above Sylvaine was not in the script. YamatoSFX originally planned to rotoscope the sky, in order to prevent the sky from freezing during Leafa's lines, which would've taken a month to do. Coffinjockey suggested the joke to save time, which they accepted because it added to ALO brokenness.
	+ If you pay attention to the sky during this scene, the infamous brain technicians are hidden in the glitches.
* Originally, Leafa was going to lead Kirito on a wild goose chase, claming that she was going to take him to her friend "the Vulture", who supposedly worked on the game. But when Yui set her right, she then claimed that he was killed by a group of bears that broke into his apartment. Shockingly, Kirito didn't believe this.
* Originally, the thing that was going to force Leafa to cooperate, after Yui removed her face, was Yui hacking into her computer and reading her diary.

## References

1. ↑ Manoogles
2. ↑ Pretzel's popularity
3. ↑ Skybox error
4. ↑ The Vulture
5. ↑ The Vulture's demise
6. ↑ Suguha's diary