Two months have passed since Kirito cleared the game of Sword Art Online. Most of the players managed to log out, but 300 of the survivors are still trapped in their NerveGear. No one knows why. Asuna is one of them. Kirito visited her hospital room, where he learned that she is to be wedded off to a man with distasteful desires. Sugou Nobuyuki, Asuna’s groom-to-be, forbids Kirito from returning to visit her.

Kirito returns home feeling helpless until his friend Agil sends him a picture that gives him some hope. He rushes over to Agil’s bar where he learns that Asuna was spotted inside a VR Game called Alfheim Online, at the top of a place known as the World Tree. Kirito boots up his NerveGear and enters the virtual world once again. After creating his character, Kirito is surprised after discovering that all of his stats in Alfheim are the same as they were in Sword Art Online. He opens his inventory and sees that all of his items have disappeared, except for one. Kirito activates the item called Yui’s Heart and respawns the mysterious girl in the white dress. Yui scans the world they are in and determines that Alfheim Online is a copy of SAO’s servers. She also discovers that the game is reading her as an information pixie, and transforms into a tiny fairy complete with wings and a floral dress.

Yui soon identifies two players in the distance in need of help. Kirito rushes off to rescue them and stumbles upon a girl getting ambushed by three players wearing red armor. He steps towards one of the red-armored players and suddenly disappears. They don’t realize until too late that he is right behind them.

Kirito slays one of the enemy players and says, “Who’s next?”

Leafa

Kirito slashes his sword through a second red-armored player. He turns to the third and asks if he wants to fight too, but the player declines because he doesn’t want the death penalty. So Kirito lets him go.

Afterwards, the girl Kirito rescued turns to him and says, “So what should I do now? Thank you? Run away? Or fight?”

“Crying and running into my arms would be a good start,” laughs Kirito.

Yui pops out of Kirito’s shirt pocket and says the only ones who can hug Kirito are her and Mommy. The girl asks what a Spriggan (Kirito’s chosen race) is doing in the forest.

“I got lost,” says Kirito.

The girl chuckles and asks how someone can be that lost. She sheathes her sword and thanks Kirito for saving her. Then she says he name is Leafa.

Kirito introduces himself and his fairy companion. Yui bows in Kirito’s palm.

Leafa offers to buy them a drink as a way of saying thank you. (This seems faintly familiar.) Kirito accepts the offer and says he is looking for someone who can tell him about the World Tree. Leafa agrees to help him and offers to take him to a neutral villge far to the north.

“Isn’t the town called Sylvein closer?” asks Kirito.

“You really don’t know anything, do you?” Leafa says. She carefully explains that you can’t attack someone in their home territory, but they can attack you.

“They wouldn’t just start attacking all of a sudden,” says Kirito, “And I have you with me, Leafa.”

With his confidence assured, Leafa sprouts her wings and prepares to take off. Kirito asks how she can fly without an assist controller. She places her hand on Kirito’s upper back and tells him to imagine he has virtual bones and muscles spreading out from that place. Kirito focuses really hard and raises his wings. Before he has time to react, Leafa gives him a friendly nudge. The Spriggan takes off zipping through the air uncontrollably, like a fly missing a wing. Leafa and Yui can’t help but laugh.

Being the fast learner that he is, Kirito quickly gets the hang of it. Then Kirito asks if they can go faster, so Leafa flies as fast as she can. After flying fast for a long distance, she turns around and sees Kirito right behind her.

“You might be the first other person who can handle this speed,” says Leafa.

The two fairies eventually arrive at Sylvein, a town glowing fluorescent green, like a swarm of fireflies in a forest. I have to take a moment to say that if there’s one thing that Sword Art Online does right throughout the entire series, it’s the majestic and grandiose appearance of the locations they visit.

As soon as they enter the town, Leafa realizes she forgot to teach Kirito how to land.

“Sorry, it’s too late,” she says, as he crashes into a pillar.

The Grand Quest of ALO

Leafa heals Kirito back to full health. Afterwards, she hears a familiar voice calling out to her. She turns around and sees the boy who fought with her back in the forest.

“You’re great, Leafa-chan,” says the boy, whose name is Recon. Then he notices the guy next to her.

“A Spriggan?!” cries the boy, as he grabs his sword.

“It’s okay,” explains Leafa, “He saved me.”

Recon shakes Kirito’s hand, but quickly snaps back into his skepticism.

“Are you sure he isn’t a spy or anything?” he asks.

“He’s a little too dim to be a spy,” says Leafa.

Recon invites Leafa to join the guild at their usual tavern, but Leafa says she will pass today.

(I can see what’s happening, and they don’t have a clue.)

“I promised Kirito-kun a drink for saving me,” says Leafa.

(She’ll fall in love, and here’s the bottom line: Their guild is down one girl.)

Leafa says goodbye to Recon as she drags Kirito to the cafe.

Once seated, Kirito asks Leafa if Recon is her boyfriend. A bit startled, Leafa says he’s just a party member that she knows in real life. Kirito then asks about the players who attacked her, and if something like that is common.

“Salamanders and Sylphs don’t get along, to begin with,” explains Leafa, “But an organized PK like that is pretty new. I’m sure they’ll start trying to clear the World Tree soon.”

Speaking of which, Kirito says he came to ALO to get to the World Tree.

“I think that’s true for all the players,” explains Leafa, “That’s ALO’s grand quest. You know how you’re limited in how high you can go, and no race can fly continuously for more than ten minutes? But the first race to reach the Floating City atop the World Tree, and hold an audience with the Fairy King Oberon, will be reborn as an advanced class known as Alfs. And they’ll be able to fly as much as they like.”

“How do you get to the top of the World Tree?” asks Kirito.

“The base is a big dome. You can reach the Floating City from there. But the NPC guardians that defend the dome are really powerful. The game’s been around for a full year. Would you believe no one’s beaten the quest yet?”

Kirito suspects that there must be a missing quest somewhere, or some sort of technicality preventing them from getting to the top. He suggests that maybe one race can’t get there by themselves. Leafa explains that everyone is searching for something they missed, and unfortunatley, it doesn’t make sense to help another race get to the top because only one of them can be reborn. She turns to optimism and says she is sure they will get to the top someday, even if it takes years. Kirito interrupts and shouts, “That’s too long! I’m sorry, but I need to reach the top of the World Tree. I’m looking for someone.”

Kirito doesn’t explain further, but Leafa can see from the look in his eye that this is really important to him. Kirito thanks her for the information and gets up to leave, but Leafa quickly grabs him by the arm and asks if he’s really going to the World Tree. Kirito says he is, but Leafa warns about the dangers ahead. Just as Kirito is about to leave the cafe, Leafa says, “I’ll take you there. Can you log in tomorrow? Then be here at 3:00pm. I have to log off.”

Before she logs out, Kirito thanks her, and after she logs out, we get to see who Leafa is in real life.

It’s Sugu!

“What a weird guy,” she says.

Asuna im Kaefig

At the top of the World Tree, Asuna is sitting at a table, trapped in a bird cage with a melancholy expression on her face, when she hears a voice call out to her.

“I love that look of yours more than anything, Titania. I want to freeze it and hang it on a wall.”

“Then go ahead,” responds Asuna, “You can do whatever you like, right?”

The man enters Asuna’s cage and once again calls her Titania. Asuna tells him to stop calling her by that name and addresses him as Sugou-san, who has assumed the role of Fairy King Oberon in this world. His plan is for Asuna to become his bride in this world, and she will be called Queen Titania.

“There are tens of thousands of players enjoying this game right now. But they don’t understand the true value of the full-dive system,” claims Sugou. He continues talking about the possibilities of using the system to control thoughts, emotions, and even memories. Asuna claims that kind of research would never be allowed, but Sugou rebuttals that many nations are already researching it. He reveals that he that he is already using the 300 SAO survivors as his first batch of subjects.

Asuna threatens to contact the police, but Sugou reminds her that he is in control of this world. Sugou says he hopes Asuna will be more submissive the next time they meet. As he leaves the cage, he enters a code on a keypad. Asuna tries watching the keys he presses, but the keypad is pixelated.

After Sugou leaves, Asuna drops to her knees and pleads for Kirito to save her.

Thoughts

So this is where most people start to have problems with this arc. Asuna goes from being a tough and powerful swordswoman to being reduced to a sexualized damsel in distress. I hope I don’t come under fire for saying this, but I think this argument might be a bit unjustified. Reason why is because Asuna is being held against her will by the main villain. Anyone can get captured, and in this case, Asuna isn’t accepting her fate, but instead, is always trying to find a way to escape. Her first attempt to read Sugou’s code as he typed it into the keypad failed, but maybe she will find another way.

Asuna’s condition alone isn’t enough for me to toss this arc into the dumpster fire…yet. As for now, the main purpose of this episode is to formally introduce us to the character of Leafa, whose true identity in real life is…surprise, surprise…Kirigaya Suguha! (Would you believe me if I said I called it moments before it was revealed?) Remember when I said Suguha would be an important character for this arc? Well, now you know why!

Will Sugu be able to guide her brother to the World Tree and help him rescue Asuna? Find out in the next review of Sword Art Online!