Misaki Sakurai

**Misaki Sakurai** (櫻井琴音, *Sakurai Misaki*?) known as **Misaki** (美咲, *Misaki*?) in «Sword Art Online» (SAO), «ALfheim Online» (ALO) and «Project Alicization» is a recurring character in Sword Art Online is a deuteragonist through the Sword Art Online series. Misaki is the younger sister of Ryoken Sakurai the current CEO of Vrains.

Misaki was chosen to be one of the ten thousand beta testers for the closed beta of Sword Art Online, the first-ever Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) for the NerveGear, and later joined the official version of the game. she thus became one of the 50,000 players who were trapped in Sword Art Online she was one of the 50,000 players who were trapped in Sword Art Online where she acts as Shuto partner throughout Sword Art Online and later became a Sub Leader the Guild Warrior of Hope founded by Shuto.

After Sword Art Online was cleared, Misaki transferred her SAO avatar to ALfheim Online and began playing the game as a Spriggan. In «Project Alicization» she used where she had temporarily used the **Vitaria** account when logging into the Underworld.

## Appearance

### Real World / Sword Art Online / Project Alicization Avatar

Misaki has straight, black hair and bright green eyes wears a slightly upgraded version of her starting equipment, consisting of a dark magenta tunic with dark green features on the neck and wrists, a brown mini-skirt, as well as a chest plate protecting her upper body. Her starter appearance also features a red belt accompanied by a red item pouch on her waist.

## Personality

Misaki is overall a very pleasant person who is kind, caring, and thoughtful. As she progresses in SAO she grows from being shy, scared, and uncertain, to a more confident fighter and an even more confident friend. She puts others before herself and listens to others' problems without a second thought.

Misaki holds great care and affection for Shuto, but won't hesitate to reprimand him if he steps out of line or says something uncalled for. She has a bright sense of humor and a great amount of empathy for other NPC, and even animals and monsters.

Misaki's bright nature made her able to befriending many people and became closed friends with Asuna and Shizuna and they share a tightknit bond and they are similar in various ways and often hang out with each other during their time in SAO.

## Background

Misaki originally lived in a town in Nagano Prefecture when her mother passed away in an accident. She and her family moved to Tokyo when her father was transferred to the Tokyo Police Department after her mother's death. Misaki's father later died on duty while trying to stop a criminal. This happened when she was only 12 years old, two years before the SAO Incident. This left Ryoken and Misaki alone, with Ryoken solely responsible for providing a living for Misaki and himself. He worked extremely hard for both of them, causing Misaki to feel extremely guilty for her brother having to shoulder the burden of supporting the whole family on his own.

## Trivia

* Misaki share the same English Voice Actor as Kuroyukihime of Accel World, another light novel written by Kawahara Reki.
* Misaki is one of the few known players using their real name as an In Game Name (IGN), the other being Asuna Shizuna and Yuuki.