Kayaba Akihiko/Relationships

## Family

### Yui

Yui is Kayaba's creation. Not much is known about their relationship, but for some reason Kayaba locked Yui away and prevented her from interacting with the players when the death game started, effectively preventing her from doing her job.

## Allies

### Knights of the Blood Oath

Originally, it was shown that Heathcliff treated his members fairly and with respect (with the exception of Fluffles). Some members saw him as a charismatic leader and treated him with mostly equal respect.

However, it was later revealed that he had an intense sense of frustration and hatred towards them, like all the other players, even saying "Fuck all y'all", due to the members barely listened to his instructions, if not listening at all, and getting themselves killed in stupid ways. What more, they blamed all their issues on him, whether to Kayaba, or Heathcliff. This sheer stupidity was enough to drive Kayaba insane.

### Kazuto Kirigaya

Kirito and Kayaba have an interesting relationship. Out of all the players in the game, Kayaba connected with Kirito the most, as he knew "what it's like to grow up a genius in a world that just can't keep up with you". But, he was confused why such a smart player wouldn't form a Guild, and so was inspired to make his Heathcliff character.

The two of them met when Heathcliff tried to recruit Kirito into the Knights of the Blood Oath and almost immediately butted heads when Kirito refused to go along with Heathcliff's plans. Kirito then challenged him to a fight to show he was better than him. After Kirito lost, Heathcliff viewed him as a risky asset, and so tried to hide Kirito "the biggest rock [he] could find" when there was a looming peace talk with the King of Ashes.

When it was revealed that Heathcliff was Kayaba the two of them found common ground with their love of movies, and even connected due to their mutual suffering as intelligent people surrounded by idiots. However, at this point Kirito had grown as a person and disagreed with Kayaba's philosophy on how to deal with idiots, and fought him so the other players could go free.

After he was defeated, Kayaba stated that, despite their differences, Kayaba was going to miss talking with Kirito. He then revealed that the whole thing was an accident, which disappointed Kirito, as he suspected that Kayaba was a Machiavellian schemer with a plan so brilliant even he couldn't figure it out. Kayaba then tried to connect with Kirito once more, but when that failed he left the game in a mixture of annoyance and disappointment, believing that he really was alone in the world, not knowing if any of the players would survive the system purge.

### Asuna Yuuki

Not much is known about the relationship between Heathcliff and Asuna, but there seemed to be some tension between them. When Heathcliff was trying to recruit Kirito, he used Asuna as an incentive, and when she got offended Heathcliff said that "it's a compliment".

When Kayaba was exposed, he paralysed everyone including Asuna. Asuna tried to convince him that she wasn't going to try anything, but Kayaba knew Asuna well enough to not believe that. Despite whatever problems they may have had, Kayaba said that he considers both her and Kirito "the dictionary definition of 'lesser of two evils'".

### Godfree

While interaction between Godfree and Heathcliff is not shown at all, it is implied that Heathcliff hates Godfree's Shakespeare impression and roleplaying as much as Kirito and Kuradeel does. It also implied that Heathcliff sent Godfree to train Kirito to humiliate him after defeating him.

## Enemies

### Fluffles

While Fluffles and Heathcliff's relationship is not very clear, it is safe to assume that both parties are not on friendly terms. Despite Fluffles being a Captain and Council Member of Heathcliff's Guild, Heathcliff showed frustration at his inability to understand Fluffles's constant meow and showed outright disrespect toward him, stating "Why'd I agree to put a friggin' cat on the council?". When Fluffles betrayed the Guild, Heathcliff mentioned that it was rather unsurprising and felt like he should have seen it coming.

### King of Ashes

The King of Ashes was one of SAO's unexpected obstacles, as he and his army of bandits were stopping further progress in the game. As such. Heathcliff tried to form a peace treaty with him, and became a prisoner of his as a result. After rounds of torture and other activities, the relationship was apparently cordial and friendly after Heathcliff managed to work out a deal including taking pictures of Asuna supposedly for making a calendar for Charity to fight cancer. This cordial relationship was immediately broken, after Kirito insulted the King of Ashes.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Episode 10
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Episode 9
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Episode 11
4. ↑ Heathcliff's message