Kazuto Kirigaya

* RL
* SAO
* ALO

> "*I have a final request for you. I do not feel like losing against you. However, on the off chance that I fail to defeat you here and I die... I would like you to make sure Asuna and Shiranami can't kill themselves for a while.*"
> ― Kazuto's words to Heathcliff before their duel.
>
>

**Kazuto Kirigaya** (桐ヶ谷 和人, *Kirigaya Kazuto*?) known as **Kirito** (キリト, *****Kirito*****?) in «Sword Art Online» (SAO), «ALfheim Onine» (ALO), «Spell Blade Online» (SBO), and «Ordinal Scale» (OS) is the main male protagonist of the ***Sword Art Online Alternative: Spell Blade Online*** series.

Kazuto was chosen to be one of the one thousand beta testers for the closed beta of «Sword Art Online», the first-ever «Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game» (VRMMORPG) utilizing the «NerveLinker», and later joined the official version of the game. He thus became one of the 10,000 players who were trapped in SAO, where he remained a solo player for the majority of the game, willingly taking on the role of a «Beater» to reduce discrimination against other former beta testers, as well as actively taking part in Boss battles as one of the «Clearers». Kirito temporarily became a member of the «Moonlit Black Cats» after helping them safely escape a dangerous dungeon, but returned to being a solo player when a fatal error resulted in the death of the other guild members. At some point in the game, Kirito became known as the «**Black Swordsman**» (黒の剣士, *Kuro no Kenshi*?) due to his tendency to wear black clothing. In the closing week of October 2032, Kirito joined the «Knights of the Blood» due to being defeated in a duel with its leader, Heathcliff. Kirito eventually became one of the more than 3,000 casualties after he revealed Heathcliff to be the creator of *SAO*, Akihiko Kayaba himself, on the 75th Floor and failed to defeat him.

However, Kirito was, in fact, extremely lucky as he had avoided death by a hair when a massive server-wide glitch tore through SAO, trapping both himself and his wife, Asuna, who had died just before he did in a hidden dungeon on the 100th Floor and was able to survive until the game was cleared. He was unable to properly return to the other floors of «Aincrad», however, both he and Asuna were successfully let out of the dungeon when the «Clearers» reached the 100th Floor; he was one of the major contributors in the defeat of SAO's final boss. After undergoing rehabilitation, both Kazuto and Asuna were hired by Hemerides in order to test out the capabilities of a newly invented fourth-generation FullDive machine, «Soul Translator», unknowingly contributing to the creation of the virtual world, «Underworld»; Kirito's persona within «Underworld» was deified as **Katachthonios** (カタクトニオス, *Katakutoniosu*?), who served as the King of the Gods in the mythology of the aforementioned virtual world.

Later, Kirito joined the playerbase of «ALfheim Online» until he, alongside several other SAO survivors were forced to solve a twisted mystery involving trapped SAO players and a rogue game master; *ALO* was then converted into «Spell Blade Online». Simultaneously, the release of the «Augma» shook the gaming community once more with its flagship game, «Ordinal Scale», which Kirito was invited to play as a beta tester. Several months following the events of the «Great Separation» and «Grand Quest» of *SBO*, Kazuto, with Asuna and Yuuki in tow, embarked on a manhunt for Ayanami who had disappeared from the hospital she was admitted into following an attack by a former «Lauging Coffin» member. Tracking her down to La Grande Bibliothèque, Kazuto confronted Seijirou Kikuoka on his motives and proceeded to dive back into «Underworld» in order to check on Ayanami under the alias of **Kieran Domhnall** (キーラン・ドムナル, *Kīran Domunaru*?).

## Background

Born **Kazuto Narusaka** (鳴坂 和人なるさか かずと, *Narusaka Kazuto*?), he was raised by his parents until ten months after his birth, a tragic incident killed his parents. He was adopted by his aunt, Midori Kirigaya, the sister of his deceased mother, and her husband, Minetaka Kirigaya; as such, his name was changed to *Kazuto Kirigaya*. Raised by his foster parents as if he was their own son, he was forced to tag along with his sister, Suguha Kirigaya, and attended the local area's *dōjō* that taught Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū from the age of five. However, due to his foster mother having a job as chief editor for a magazine that deals with computers, Kazuto quit kendo after three years; this earned him the ire of his grandfather who relentlessly beat him but was pacified by Suguha, promising that she'd practice hard enough to cover for her brother.

At the age of ten, Kazuto stumbled across deleted records from the *Juki Net* and discovered that he was, in fact, an adopted child. This caused Kazuto to begin unintentionally distancing himself from Suguha as he now knew that they weren't as closely related as he initially thought. Due to this realization, Kazuto also distanced himself from his adoptive parents and drew into a shell. While he was a talented student in school, Kazuto would always get weird looks due to his stereotypical lone wolf behavior; he practically refused to make friends, always burying himself in nerd-like actions that would help him further understand how computers work.

In the spring of 2030, Kazuto heard rumors of a game in development that garnered his full interest. He signed up for the Closed Beta hoping to be lucky and get a spot; fortunately, his prayers were answered and he became one of the lucky 1,000 beta testers. There, he met another player named Shiranami and formed a party with her. Kazuto, who used the player name of *Kirito*, and Shiranami then proceeded to rise to the top as one of the two strongest players in the beta before it ended in August.

## References

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Material Collection 01: Kazuto Kirigaya's character profile.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Material Collection 10: Kazuto Kirigaya's second character profile.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Material Collection 19: Kazuto Kirigaya's third character profile.
4. ↑ Volume 1, *Memories of Evil*, Part 4
5. ↑ Volume 1, *Memories of Evil*, Part 3
6. ↑ Volume 1, *The Torch's Inheritance*, Part 6
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Material Collection 01: Kazuto Kirigaya's in-depth background check.
8. ↑ *Origins of the Silver Flower*
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Volume 1, *Memories of Evil*, Prologue
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 *Moonlit Sorrows* Part 1
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 *Moonlit Sorrows* Part 5
12. ↑ Volume 1, *Memories of Evil*, Part 2
13. ↑ Volume 1, *The Torch's Inheritance*, Part 4