Ayano "Silica" Keiko

**Ayano Keiko**, also known as **Silica**, is a character from the *Sword Art Online* anime and light novels.

A young dagger wielder who befriends Kirito. She was able to befriend an NPC dragon that became her familiar, earning her the title of "Beast Tamer". She later joins ALO as a Cait Sith beast tamer.

In the XP4 fics, Silica debuted in the XP4 Heroes Coalition - AKB0048.

## **Appearance**

In both the real world and Sword Art Online, Keiko's hair is light brown and tied into two tails by red ribbons, as well as two red ring baubles for her SAO avatar. Like her hair, Keiko's eyes in the real world are light brown; however, her SAO avatar had red eyes. Before meeting Kirito, she wore a yellow robe with a dagger and pouch strapped to her waist at the back, a silver breastplate and pauldrons, brown leather gloves with metal bands, black shorts, and yellow boots. Afterwards, she wore a red robe of a similar design that exposed part of her shoulders, a short black skirt, fingerless red gloves, and black, asymmetrical shoes with long black socks.

Keiko's ALfheim avatar is very similar to her SAO avatar, except for having an overall blue color, as well as possessing the cat ears and tail of the Cait Sith race.

## **Personality**

Silica is very kind, bright, cheerful, and supportive of her friends.[citation needed] She also has developed a deep attachment to her Tamed Monster Pina to the point that she was heartbroken to see it die and overjoyed when told that there was a way to revive it.

At some point, Silica had become arrogant due to her fame, but realised her mistake after this led to her getting lost in the Forest of Wandering and losing Pina.

Silica is also easily embarrassed and flustered, especially when it comes to a romance scenario, such as grabbing Kirito's hand, spotting many couples around her, or having her skirt flipped by a monster.

## **XP4 Fanfics**

Silica is a member of the Heroes Coalitions and is part of the Fairy Knights as an honorary member. She also attends the Vanguard Academy as a student.

### **XP4 Heroes Coalition - AKB0048**

In Chapter 5, Silica took part in a mission at Lilimstar which ended in a success. Afterwards, Silica and her team came across the ALPHA SQUADRON whom aided them in their mission.

In Chapter 15, Silica, alongside Mayl Sakurai, Yai Ayanokoji and Yuuki Konno, are having a conversation and a drink at the same time inside the lounge area of the Great White Shark. She is present in the living area of the dormitory where Tsubasa Katagiri announced the mission at Lancastar.

In Chapter 20, Silica is present during a meeting instigated by Kazeyoshi Imai and Tsubasa Katagiri.

In Chapter 24, Silica witnessed Kazeyoshi Imai's announcement all across the universe.

In Chapter 28, Silica, alongside everyone, are seen approaching Kasumigastar and upon arriving at one city, they were confronted by Noboru Takizawa and his cohorts, demanding them to leave but they refuse. They then later witnessed the arrival of thousand of AKB-fans, much to their shock and awe.

In Chapter 29, Silica, alongside everyone, are seen backstage of the concert hall in a city somewhere Kasumigastar with a look of awe at the large number of crowd gathered for the concert and later witnessed the return of Atsuko Katagiri and the rest of the missing idols, and had a great time watching the performances afterwards. They then learned that Noboru Takizawa escaped which prompted Kazeyoshi Imai and Mace Wyndu to go after him.

In Chapter 32, Silica took part of paying respects for Mace Wyndu's death by attending his funeral via burial at sea in Atamistar before witnessing the arrival of a fleet of Dimensional Defense Union ships whom paid their respects for Mace by gifting him with a Heroes' Tribute.

In the Epilogue, Silica, alongside the heroes and the idols, is present in the AKB-exclusive space terminal in Akibastar where they said their goodbyes to the members of Unit W and Alpha Squadron. Afterwards, everyone decided to take a break for the rest of the day.

## **Abilities**

In Both SAO and ALO she works with dragons. Her skills are good enough that she can even befriend non-hostile animal mobs like deer. Ayano uses a dagger as her main weapon.

In the first anime episode of Alicization, when the whole cast has converted to GGO, she's seen firing a giant turret machine gun on top of a Humvee. And she seems to be having a blast while firing it.

## **Trivia**

* With her avatar in SAO, she reminded Kirito of his sister, Kirigaya Suguha, despite looking very different.
* As a Cait Sith, when Kirito grabbed her tail, she described the sensation as a "super weird feeling".
* In the Blu-ray/DVD package volume 2, character song CD features Silica (Hidaka Rina) singing "☆Lovely Super Idol☆" as the 3rd Character Song in this series. This CD is bundled along with the 2nd Song, which is sung by Sachi (Saori Hayami)
* Even though «Sword Art Online» is advisable for gamers above age 13, because of the age restrictions associated with the NerveGear, Silica started playing the game when she was 12 years old.
* Keiko's family follows a tradition when naming their children. Since Keiko's grandfather was a chemist, he named his son Tetsuhiko after iron (*Tetsu*) due to Tetsuhiko being born on February 6 (2/6) and the 26th element in the periodic table being iron. Tetsuhiko continued this tradition and named his daughter Keiko after the 14th element, silicon (*Keiso*), as Keiko was born on the 4th of October, but Tetsuhiko could not make a girl's name after the 104th element, Rutherfordium, thus resorting to merging ten and four to get fourteen.
* Keiko's display name, Silica, means Silicon Dioxide (SiO2). She chose this name for her character due to her real name being based on silicon. The reason why she chose "Silica" instead of "Silico" was because "Silica" sounded cuter. She even ties her hair with two red ribbons to have two ring baubles which symbolize two oxygen atoms bound to her.
* In a 4-koma non-canon spin-off, she had been stalked by Aaaa.
* Keiko's Japanese voice actress also voices Kozuki Yuniko (Scarlet Rain) from Accel World.