After agreeing to get married, Kirito and Asuna once again request to take a leave of absence from the guild. Understanding their situation, Heathcliff grants it to them. Kirito and Asuna purchase a cabin on the 22nd floor of Aincrad. Asuna admires the grand view of the lake from the balcony. Kirito follows her.

“Hey, Asuna,” asks Kirito, “Does our relationship only exist in this world?”

“You’re making me angry, Kirito,” responds Asuna, “Even if this is a virtual world, my feelings are real. If we make it back to the real world, I’ll find you again, no matter what, and fall in love with you again.”

The Girl in the Woods

A few days into their honeymoon, Asuna wakes up Kirito and asks what he wants to do today. After three straight days of playing, Kirito is starting to get tired of vacationing, but Asuna is still full of energy. They decide to go for a stroll along the lake, and then through a forest, all with Kirito carrying Asuna on his shoulders. (I don’t know, couple things.)

While waking through the forest, Kirito recounts to Asuna the stories he heard from the villagers. They say that ghosts tend to wander around through this forest. Out of the corner of her eye, Asuna sees something moving through the trees. Asuna turns her head, and to horror, she sees a white figure moving in the distance. She hops of Kirito’s shoulders and activates a vision skill to get a better look at the object. She points in the direction of the object, and Kirito is shocked. Suddenly the white figure drops to the ground.

“That’s no ghost,” cries Kirito, and rushes in after the figure.

Asuna follows, and when she catches up, she sees Kirito holding a girl in a long white dress who appears to be no older than six. Asuna asks if she’s a player, but Kirito doesn’t see any cursor above her head, so he thinks it must be a bug. They take her back to the cabin and let her rest in bed. Kirito observes that since they were able to move her, she isn’t an NPC, and she isn’t a quest giver because the quest log didn’t get updated, meaning that she is a player after all. They decide to let her rest and ask about her parents when she wakes up.

The next morning, Asuna wakes up to find the girl’s eyes completely open, in kind of an eerie way. Asuna calls for Kirito to come quick. She asks if the girl remembers anything. The girl says her name is Yui, but can’t remember anything about her parents or why she was in that forest.

Kirito and Asuna introduce their names to Yui, but she has a hard time pronouncing them, so Kirito tells her to call them whatever she likes.

“Papa, Mama,” says Yui.

(Oh, the cringe)

Well, right after she says that Kirito and Asuna pretty much accept it right away.

The Town of Beginnings

Kirito and Asuna take Yui to the Town of Beginnings to find any sign of Yui’s parents. This is the first time that they have been to the town since Akahiko Kayaba’s harrowing announcement that made this world a death game. Currently, the town is under the tyrannical control of the Army.

While strolling through the streets of the town, Kirito and Asuna hear someone screaming, so they rush to check out the commotion. The Army is demanding a daycare lady to pay her share in taxes or they will take the children away. Our two heroes arrive on the scene and use their enhanced jumping skills to position themselves between the Army and the kids. Asuna uses her powerful sword strikes to scare the Army away.

Suddenly, Yui reaches for the sky and says, “Everyone’s hearts.”

Yui apologizes and says she was never in the Town of Beginnings, but she remembers being alone in the dark. Then, out of nowhere, Yui lets out a blood-curdling shriek. Static appears around the girl and the other players, then she falls to the ground. (I always forget how creepy this episode is.)

Kirito and Asuna take Yui to the daycare for more rest and food. They explain their situation to the daycare lady, but she doesn’t recognize Yui. Suddenly, they hear a knock at the door. Kirito and Asuna cautiously open it. A lady with long grey hair in a green and black uniform named Yulier stands there to greet them and has come with a special request.

Yulier sits down in the daycare and explains her situation to Kirito and Asuna. She says that Thinker, the leader of the Army, never wanted the guild to become dictatorial, but the Army got too large. There were multiple power struggles, and a man named Kibaou ended up with a great deal of power. Kirito and Asuna remember Kibaou from their first boss battle, way back when SAO first launched. Kibaou’s faction became dominant within the guild and started monopolizing all of the best monster spawn points and extorted people under the pretext of collecting taxes. Some people started criticizing Kibaou for neglecting his obligations to clear the game. So he sent the highest-level players under his command to the front lines. Kirito and Asuna realize she is referring to Corvatz and his troops. Because of that fiasco, Kibaou was strongly denounced, and they were close to dismissing him from the guild. Desperate, he resorted to drastic measures, setting a trap for Thinker, stranding him deep inside a dungeon.

Kirito asks if Thinker has any teleport crystals or weapons. Yulier explains that Thinker was too trusting of Kibaou, so he believed him when he said he just wanted to talk unarmed. That was three days ago. Thinker is now trapped in a significantly high-level dungeon. Yulier pleads with Kirito and Asuna to help rescue him.

Asuna says they would like to help, but they will need to verify Yulier’s story first.

“It’s okay, Mama, she’s telling the truth,” says Yui.

“You can tell?” asks Asuna.

“Yeah, I can’t explain why, but I know.”

Trusting Yui’s word, Kirito and Asuna decide to help Yulier. Kirito tells Yui to wait at the orphanage, but she refuses. So Yui comes along to the incredibly dangerous dungeon. (Such responsible parenting.)

The Deadly Dungeon

The four heroes proceed to the dungeon underneath the Town of Beginnings where Thinker is being held prisoner. Kirito fights a hoard of red-eyed toads. Asuna asks if the frogs dropped anything good, so Kirito presents a piece of scavenged toad meat.

“They say the stranger it is, the better it tastes,” says Kirito, “Cook it up later.”

“No way!” cries Asuna and tosses the meat away.

“Fine then, how about these?”

Kirito holds up an entire armful of toad legs. Asuna tosses out every one of them. Yulier can’t help but chuckle.

“You smiled,” says Yui, “It’s the first time you’ve smiled, big sister!”

The four heroes proceed through the dungeon until they come to an entrance into a room filled with white light. Asuna identifies it as a safe zone. Kirito uses his detection skills to identify one player inside.

“Thinker!” cries Yulier, and runs towards the room.

Kirito warns her to stay back, but Yulier doesn’t listen. As Yulier gets closer to the safe zone, she sees and hears someone cry out to her.

“Yulier, stay back!” cries Thinker, “That corridor is…”

Before Thinker can finish his sentence, Kirito sees the text of a monster appear. It reads, “The Fatal Scythe”. Kirito manages to pull Yulier away before a massive scythe comes crashing through the dungeon wall. Asuna asks Yulier to take Yui to the safe zone, then she goes to assist Kirito. The monster that appears is a massive grim reaper draped in a long, black cloak with a skull face. Kirito detects that the monster is as strong as something on Floor 90. He tells Asuna to use a teleport crystal and get Yui and the others out of here, but Asuna refuses to leave Kirito’s side. Asuna tells the others to teleport out of the dungeon.

Kirito and Asuna triple block the monster’s attack, but it is still not enough. With one swing of his scythe, the monster sends Asuna and Kirito flying back. When they land, they realize they have both lost half of their health. They struggle to get up, but they can’t take another blow from the monster’s scythe.

Suddenly, Yui stands in front of the monster. (Yulier and Thinker have already teleported out.)

“Don’t be stupid!” cries Kirito, “Get out of there!”

But Yui turns to them and says, “It’s okay, Daddy, Mommy.”

The scythe moves in to strike Yui, but when the it makes contact with the girl, a wall of purple hexagons appear in front of her, along with a message that reads, “Immortal Object.” Yui levitates and returns to her original white dress attire, then she draws a flaming sword twice as big as her from thin air. She swings the sword once clockwise and strikes The Fatal Scythe. The grim reaper monster defends with his weapon, but he cannot outmatch her as he slowly disintegrates into a ball of fire.

Asuna and Kirito find the strength to stand up, then Yui turns to them and says, “I remember everything now.”

Yui’s Memories

Yui sits down on a large stone table inside the safe zone where she begins to explain who she is.

“Kirito, Asuna,” begins Yui, whose articulation skills have suddenly improved, “Sword Art Online is controlled by a single, immense system called Cardinal. This system was designed to operate without any human intervention. It regulates the balance of SAO accordingly to its own discretion. From monster and NPC AI to drop rates for items and money. Everything is controlled by the processes executed by the Cardinal program. Even the psychological care of the players.

“Mental Health Counseling Program, prototype 1, codename: Yui. That’s me.

“I was given the ability to emulate emotion, to put players at ease. I’m not real…nothing about me is. Two years ago, on the day of the official launch, for reasons I never understood, Cardinal forbade me from interacting with any of the players. I was forced to do nothing but continue to monitor the player’s mental states. Their mental states were utterly horrible. Terror, despair, rage. People were overcome by negative feelings. Some of them went completely insane. Normally, I would have gone to help them, but I wasn’t permitted any contact with them. Gradually, errors accrued within me, and I fell apart.

“But one day, I saw two people whose mental parameters were very different from the rest. Joy, peace, but it was more than that. I wandered through the field, hoping to get as close to you as I could.

“Kirito, Asuna, I’ve always wanted to meet you. It’s strange, isn’t it? It should be impossible for me to think that. I’m only a program.”

“You aren’t just a program that the system controls anymore,” assures Kirito, “So you should be able to say what it is that you want.”

Yui thinks for a second and says, “I want to stay with you forever, but it’s too late. This console grants the GMs access to the system. (She is referring to the stone table she is sitting on.) I used it to delete that monster, but now it’s running check on my program. Since I’ve disobeyed Cardinal’s orders, I’m considered a foreign object in the system. I’ll be deleted immediately.

“Daddy, Mommy, thank you. This is goodbye.”

Asuna breaks down and gives Yui a tight hug. Kirito begs her not to go.

“Everyone smiles when they’re with you, Daddy, Mommy. Please, from now on, go and help people in my place. Share your happiness.”

Yui glows and disintegrates into a thousand golden sparkles.

“Cardinal!” cries Kirito, “No, Kayaba! Don’t think things will always go the way you want them to!”

Kirito starts pounding keys on the stone table. He does it until he gets knocked back by the system. He hands Asuna a small trinket in the shape of a teardrop. Kirito explains that before Yui’s admin credentials were denied, he split off her main program and turned it into a game object.

“That’s Yui’s heart,” he says.

Asuna and Kirito return to the Town of Beginnings and bid farewell to the people they met. With Yui’s heart secured to a necklace, Asuna asks Kirito something about Yui.

“Hey, Kirito,” says Asuna, “If the game is cleared and this world ends, what will happen to Yui?”

“Yui’s data is set to save to my NerveGear’s local memory,” explains Kirito, “When we get back, recreating her won’t be easy, but I’m sure we’ll find a way.

Thoughts

Sword Art Online takes the concept of characters getting trapped in a video game, as depicted in many kids cartoons, and portrays it in a way that makes it feel very real. In kids shows, characters never die, and they usually never portray them going through severe mental trauma.

The way that the real world is progressing in the realms of virtual reality, a Massively Multiplayer Online game as big as Sword Art Online may be possible in the near future. As for the concept of Full Dive – the part where the VR helmet intercepts the user’s brain signals – that is more likely to come in the more distant future. When that day comes, this story will hopefully be remembered as a warning of the dangers that such technology can create and will encourage people to use it responsibly.

If in reality, people were to get trapped in a video game where dying in the game meant dying in real life, they would certainly undergo some severe mental trauma. In Sword Art Online, after Akahiko Kayaba’s announcement that made SAO a death game, we see many of the players giving terrified reactions. We see a cameo of Silica who screams and wraps her arms around her chest. A cameo of Lizbeth shows her falling to the ground in a daze. The other players all scream and demand to be let out. In episode 3, when Kirito joins the Moonlit Black Cats, guild member Sachi shares with Kirito her fears of losing her life to the game. She talks about wanting to run away from the guild and from Sword Art Online. Kirito reassures her that she won’t die as long as she has her guild to protect her. In episode 2, Asuna expresses her fears of losing her personality to the game. In episode 5, when she sees Kirito resting under a tree, she learns how to relax and live within the moment.

My thoughts for this review are similar to my thoughts on the last one – that the main theme of Sword Art Online is that people can find happiness and purpose in life despite all of the sadness and loss surrounding them. This theme was witnessed and stated by Yui. She witnessed all of the players going through severe mental trauma and could do nothing but watch them, but one day, she saw two players whose mental parameters were very different from the others. They weren’t suffering like the rest, they were happy and full of joy because they had each other.

In a world that seems to ever be plunging into chaos, this theme can help remind each and every one of us to look for the good in life and to find happiness despite all of the darkness and despair that may be surrounding us.