Shinichi Nagata/Synopsis

#### Pre-Episode 14

Not much is known about Shinichi's history, other than the fact that he was one of the roleplayers who flocked to ALfheim Online, a children's edutainment VRMMO set in a land of fairies, where he played as a Sylph character named Recon. However, rather than buying an AmuSphere to play the game, he purchased a NerveGear from the family of one of the players who died in Sword Art Online, believing it would be cheaper. If it wasn't bad enough that Shinichi had to clean the brains off the NerveGear, he would soon discover that it had another problem. After logging ALO, the NerveGear would randomly pulse the fear center of his brain, causing him to be randomly ambushed by his deepest fears while playing the game. Despite the side effect, Recon didn't let this bother him and he continued playing the game.

After a while, the players began to wonder what was at the top of the World Tree, a massive tree in the center of the game, as it was heavily guarded. As they speculated what kind of prizes awaited beyond such a quest, a rumor began to spread that whoever got to the top of the tree first would get their wish granted by the Fairy King, Oberon. With this incentive, the players divided themselves into nine factions and began fighting in a "war" to see who could do this first, dubbing this competition the "Race War".

However, at some point, two of the original founders of ALO, Brian and Becky, broke up, and the fallout was so messy that the two of them ended up stealing each other's characters. With Brian now in control of Sakuya, the Queen of the Sylphs, he decided to use the Race War as an excuse to get the players to pick a side in his fight against Becky, which Becky, now in control of the Salamander King, Eugene, perpetuated. Recon tried his best to go along with the violence, even though it went against his very nature.

Recon later befriended the Sylph's Princess, Leafa, whose real name was Suguha Kirigaya. The two later developed feelings for each other and entered a sexual relationship, where she would give him handjobs and the occasional cupcake. However, Suguha refused to admit this meant that they were dating, instead keeping Shinichi at arm's length by refusing to go past a last name basis, claiming that they were barely friends, and insisting that Recon was Leafa's "fuckboi" and that their rendezvous were "quests".

On November 7, 2024, SAO was prematurely cleared by a player named Kazuto Kirigaya, who was Suguha's brother in real life. As the news heralded Kazuto as a hero, Shinichi became a fan of his and was captivated by his exploits.

Eventually, civil war broke out in the Sylph Kingdom of Sylvaine, led by a player named Cazmer, in an attempt to take the throne for himself. To appease Cazmer, Sakuya deemed that the only solution to end the civil war was to have Leafa marry Cazmer, earning him the title of Prince, which Recon didn't seem to mind. Soon after, the Sylphs and the Cait Sith arranged to have a peace conference in an unknown location, and Sakuya left to attend it, leaving Leafa to fulfil the arrangement with Cazmer. Cazmer then arranged an engagement party for himself and Leafa in his abode, with gifts and a band that played songs from Leafa's favorite band.

#### Episode 14

Recon was one of the Sylphs who attended Leafa and Cazmer's engagement party and was surprised when she didn't show up. After waiting for five hours, Cazmer orders Recon to go find Leafa, threatening to hunt him "like a common Cait Sith" if he failed. Recon soon spots Leafa in the streets of Sylvaine and approaches her. Leafa greets Recon, inquiring what has brought him before her royal countenance this fine evening, but Recon doesn't follow along her roleplaying and simply asks how she is. Annoyed, Leafa chastises Recon for making her look bad in front of another player. Recon apologizes for embarrassing Leafa, only to suddenly become hostile when he notices the other player is a Spriggan. Trying his best to roleplay, Recon states that the Spriggan has some nerve entering the Sylphs' territory before asking Leafa if she wants the Spriggan killed. Leafa tells Recon to stand down, however, assuring him that the Spriggan's "one of the good ones", a statement that offends the Spriggan.

No longer hostile, Recon declares that any friend of Leafa's is a friend of his and introduces himself to the Spriggan, shaking his hand. However, during his introduction, his NerveGear short-circuits and he's confronted by the image of a tentacle monster teaching a classroom, causing him to scream in terror and crush the Spriggan's hand. When Recon finally snaps out of it, the Spriggan asks him why he would keep using the NerveGear. Recon states that, while he agrees that being ambushed by his deepest fears isn't "ideal", he tries to take the good with the bad. He then states that he bought the NerveGear cheap for $600 and only had to clean the brains out. However, the Spriggan reveals to Recon that the NerveGears were actually $500 when they were new. Recon is completely shocked by this revelation and tries to convince himself that the family was probably too busy grieving to think about the math. The Spriggan then sympathetically states that Recon is too precious for this world.

Changing the subject, Recon asks Leafa if she's going to attend her engagement party with Cazmer, telling her that, while it's fashionable to be a little late, everyone's looking for her and the band has been playing her entrance music for about five hours now. Leafa pretends that she forgot about the party, but admits that she's not going, since she's helping the Spriggan with the game. Recon is shocked by this and tells Leafa what Cazmer will do if he doesn't bring her back to the party. Leafa ignores this, however, and drags the Spriggan off to the bar, leaving Recon behind.

#### Post-Episode 14

When Recon returned to the party and explained that Leafa was not coming, Cazmer was "less than pleased". He then took his frustrations out on Recon, by tying his hands together, preventing him from logging out, and crushed his nuts with his vice, all while the band were forced to play their music.

#### Episode 15

The next day, in the real world, Shinichi confronts Suguha outside their school for ditching him in ALO. 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 tells Suguha what Cazmer did to him. 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, Recon finds Leafa on the roof the Fairport with the Spriggan. 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 the Spriggan takes offence to. Recon then wonders if the Spriggan 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. Hearing this, 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 the Spriggan. 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". Thr Spriggan 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 the Spriggan to watch Leafa's back, as she has a habit of getting into trouble. The Spriggan 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 the Spriggan but doesn't really understand why, commenting that there's something really familiar about him. However, before Recon can piece together who the Spriggan is, Leafa stomps on his foot, breaking his concentration, and takes off with the Spriggan following her, leaving Recon behind yet again.

#### Episode 16

True to his word, he followed Cazmer and his bodyguards with the help of his Hollow Body spell. After a while, he saw them wander into the sewers with invisibility cloaks on. This delighted the bodyguards, and they started loudly humming the Harry Potter theme, much to Cazmer's annoyance. Suguha reminds Shinichi that just because they don't want to be seen doesn't necessarily imply that Cazmer's doing anything shameful or illegal, as the sewers was one of their rendezvous spots. Shinichi then elaborates that, as he followed Cazmer and his bodyguards into the sewers, he saw them meet up with two Salamanders named DeezGunz and Keith, who Cazmer berates for failing to kill Princess Leafa like he ordered them to. The Salamanders try to explain that they were fought off by a very powerful Spriggan, but Cazmer couldn't understand what they were talking about due to their southern dialect.

Despite being annoyed with their failure, Cazmer resigns his frustrations and tell the two that Leafa's death will no longer be necessary, informing them that the Sylph Queen will be in Butterfly Valley to sign a peace treaty with the Cait Sith. He then tells the two to let their King know that, if his army hurries, they can hunt a few Cait Sith as bonus if he wishes. DeezGunz tells Cazmer that he wishes he told them sooner, as they just sent thirty Salamanders to kill Leafa. Just as he says that, a Salamander named RamRod calls DeezGunz to inform him that, not only are they about to enter the tunnel, but their pet bat Squeaker's wife just had her babies. He then told DeezGunz not to tell Squeaker, as they want to surprise him after the mission. Unfortunately, while listening into this conversation, Recon's defected NerveGear short circuits again, causing him to scream in terror. With his cover blown, Recon is shot with several poisoned arrows, leaving his avatar paralyzed, face down in the sewer with a few dollops of mayo thrown onto his butt.

With his avatar out of commission, Shinichi logged out of ALO and tries calling Suguha ninety-six times. When Suguha finally picks up, Shinichi starts panicking about things being bad and says he doesn't know where to start. Suguha then tells Shinichi to take a deep breath and "pour that tea", which he literally does. Having finally calmed down, Shinichi reveals to Suguha that her suspicion of Cazmer being up to something was actually correct. This shocks Suguha, making Shinichi realize that she just wanted to get rid of him. Suguha tries to brush this aside, however, telling Shinichi to focus on the good job he did, instead of what she "may or may not have done".

After telling her what happened, Suguha doesn't see the problem with the Salamanders invading the peace conference, as she's glad that this means they'll stop hunting her now. Shinichi tries to tell Suguha that the Salamanders ruining the treaty will result in them pillaging Sylph lands, but she doesn't care, stating that, as a Princess, she'll "bounce back". She then considers starting her own country, where all the guys will wear thongs and all the fat people will be banished. Shinichi then wonders who told Cazmer about the peace conference's location, as that was top secret information, stating that Sakuya will want the culprit's head on a pike. This makes Suguha realizes that she was the one that told Cazmer, and begins worrying what will happen to her once Sakuya finds out.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Episode 14
2. ↑ Episode 13
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Episode 16
4. ↑ Leafa and Recon's "quests"
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Episode 15
6. ↑ Episode 11