Characters / Citadel Of The Heart Sword Art Online Cast And Affiliates

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Protagonists (Canon)

General Tropes

• Can't Catch Up: Averted; Kazuto, Asuna, Ryotaro, and Suguha get access to Phase 7 forms just like Chronicler does. Everyone else not from the canon cast not named those four get access to Phase 6 forms so long as they desire to make use of it, considering Phase 6 forms are not that bad to be limited to, considering Phase 7 forms are to Super Saiyan 3 that Phase 6 forms are to Super Saiyan 2.
• Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: How some of them first met each other, until...
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Kazuto implies he has spades of this, but it's not very noticeable. The others to as well to varying degrees, but it's more prominent in Kazuto's backstory.
• Touched by Vorlons: Suguha, Ryotaro, Kazuto, and Asuna all have this due to being directly virtualized and materialized by Chronicler at least once, although it takes a while for the supernatural abilities the four now have to begin to surface.
• True Companions: How everyone progressed or are still progressing in the cast.

Kirigaya Kazuto

Debut: Sword Art Online: Special Edition

Voice Actor: Bryce Papenbrook

Kirigaya Kazuto

The seemingly lead protagonist of the fic until it becomes clear his younger sister is the true lead protagonist, Kirigaya Kazuto is around his early twenties and has moved up in the world since he started playing the now ancient by today's standards Sword Art Online. Having gained a job as an active beta tester for the game, he is begrudgingly having to work alongside his bastard of a father, Kirigaya Ken, despite the restraining orders he and his fiance Asuna have filed against Ken. Despite this, aside from a few exceptions, his strained relationship with his father is oddly sympathetic despite how heinous of a man his father can be at times. While it is true that Ken is a Jerkass to everyone, Kazuto is a Hypocrite regarding his complaints about his father by comparison; whenever he makes said complaints, he's often no better than his father if not worse in some areas no matter how hard he tries to be the better man of the two. For as much as Kazuto is thankfully not beating Asuna at all in private, Kazuto at least is serious when he says he hates how Ken treats women like trophies; even Kazuto is consistent with his genuine love for Asuna.

Not only that, but there are times where Kazuto can truly show he is a kind person, even with the genuine life troubles he has to deal with. Kazuto, when interrogating Chronicler in their first meeting, asked if he has any reason to believe Chronicler is indeed a legitimate threat or not. While Chronicler went overboard with the demonstration even if nobody was harmed, he at least treated Chronicler like an actual human being and not an "AI monstrosity" as his father claims him to be. Kazuto even seems supportive of Chronicler's relationship with Suguha as well, considering it's clear that he sees the potential in Chronicler for him to be a good man for his sister when previous suitors have failed her before. Not only that, but while Kazuto is currently having to live away from him for a while, he keeps a wolfdog as a personal guard dog who he had successfully tamed since it was a pup he had found abandoned on the streets, and despite the wolf heritage, he has managed to keep perfect control of the dog at all times when he's present with him. Currently he's fighting the law to get his dog back to his side, since Ken framed the poor canine into having attacked him on purpose.

While Kazuto stays somewhat consistent with his canon self, he does diverge a bit in having noticeable flaws in his characterization; the fact he kept the wolfdog and raised it properly would've been one thing, but he did not legally have a license to keep such an animal in the first place and had the dog taken away from him the moment Ken framed it, and now he's fighting for his right to have his canine companion back. Much like Ken, Kazuto has a smoking habit which occasionally makes him sick, his occasional drinks with alcohol whenever he's severely stressed, sometimes being too aggressive in the bedroom with Asuna by accident, and even being somewhat morally dubious like his own father. Still, he tries as hard as he can, no matter how much his life can be a living nightmare, to be the better man of the two, and improve himself to places his father never could.

Tropes relating to Kirigaya Kazuto

• Adaptational Badass: His form of Kappa Noir is designed to make his canon counterpart look like a complete joke by comparison. Averted otherwise when it comes to the fact Kazuto is otherwise anything but his canon counterpart, and didn't even acquire the Kappa Noir form by choice anyways.
• Anti-Escapism Aesop: Part of his Foil aspects to Asuna; Asuna does use Escapism for her coping, but Kazuto much more prefers his real world down time with Asuna on a nice, relaxing evening and generally cuddling her, watching a movie together, or having sex. Despite all of the shit Kazuto has to put up with otherwise in real life, Asuna in his life makes everything worth it for him.
• Big Brother Instinct: To Suguha, and to Chronicler as well.
• Broken Ace: He was once a high level player in SAO, but he stopped being active for a while and the raised level caps made people surpass him by a long shot. Dismotivation was the reason, but now that his character avatar is now necessary for stopping a potential crisis, he had began power leveling like no tomorrow at work because of it.
• Broken Pedestal: He clearly once worshiped his father, and even had a respect for his work; whatever happened that strained their relationship was rendered permanent once Ken was ousted for his abuse of Chronicler.
• Canine Companion: Fenris, his wolfdog, once he gets the legal rights to him back in the second arc.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Implied to have been the case with him and Asuna; the two knew each other since they were kids, and the two of them bonded incredibly close to each other as the years progressed. Eventually it led to them being engaged prior to the story's beginning, and eventually married later in the story.
• Curse Cut Short: Just before he witnesses Chronicler's runic laser attack in the real world.
• The Cynic
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • He was a victim of bullying and drug abuse when he was younger, which is when he also began to learn to stand up to bullies as well as when he first met fellow victim Asuna and began to fall in love with her over the years. When Kazuto learned his father was abusing an AI just for his own pleasure, with Ken calling an AI "non-human", Kazuto viewed him as a Broken Pedestal because of the fact Kazuto knew too well that A.I.s these days were advanced enough to be considered truly alive.
  • The scar he has on his face? That's a fresh scar from the past three months; Nobuyuki got too cocky and tried to manipulate Asuna into sleeping with him by making her think Kazuto was cheating on her, and when she refuses and Kazuto shows up to kick Nobuyuki out of the house, Nobuyuki draws and knife to attack and cuts part of Kazuto's arm and face, before Kazuto quickly overpowers him and Nobuyuki was arrested afterwards. It didn't last for long, as Ken bailed him ultimately, but Nobuyuki is an incredible wimp when it comes to the remote thought of trying to cross Kazuto again. Even Ken, after he bailed Nobuyuki even, took a baseball bat and knocked Nobuyuki out cold for a day for the troubles of having to pay to even bail the bastard out, especially since Ken now has respect for his son that was short lived.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Decoy Protagonist: He's a major character, there's no denying that, but it's actually his sister who's the lead of the story over him outside of any Original Characters.
• Descent into Addiction: What led to his smoking habit.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Nearly kills Grandis when his real world body is taken over by Kirito.
• Dual Wielding: A skill not unique to himself all things considered, but he can still utilize this skill here. Here, though, he and Chronicler both has access to a special technique involving this based off of Mabinogi's Final Hit skill. Kazuto does admit he works better with a two-hander, though.
• Emo Teen: Subverted in that he's an adult but he still looks and acts the part.
• Everyone Has Standards: Only tends to actively engage in sex with Asuna if he's home alone with only her around.
• Fatal Flaw: His Hypocrisy is definitely this; while he views his father as being wrong on many things, somehow it's completely mundane and ordinary when he's casually doing the same things he shuns his father for.
• Foreshadowing: Something appears amiss when he reappears in Chapter 20, noticeably his eyes, and the trend continues with Ryōtarō in Chaptger 21. Both of them were one of four people who were virtualized by Chronicler to enter SAO with, and the other two being Asuna and Suguha all but states that those two are next to have something happen to them...
• Fusion Dance: With Eageldrei into Kappa Noir.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Normal, white cigarettes he has at hand due to his stress in real life ending up gaining the habit, but only partially influenced by his father since he never buys the classy cigars his father uses, and instead sticks to more mundane cigarettes.
• Happily Married: Engaged for the early parts of the story to Asuna and eventually marries her.
• Hard Light: Perpetually becomes this state as of Chapter 20 of Sword Art Online: Special Edition, although currently nobody is aware of it, be it himself, Chronicler, and even though Grandis does technically know, he's glossed over it without realizing how big of a deal it is for the time being.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Most of the times, because swords have a very fast attack rate and thus a very high DPS to counterbalance having a weaker damage stat than other melee weapons.
• Hypocrite: To varying degrees, such as sharing his father's smoking habit, to calling some people in SAO "edgelords" when he himself isn't any better at times and can equally be such a thing both in-game and in real life.
• Misery Builds Character: What ultimately led to his engagement to Asuna.
• Nerd Glasses: Not stated in the story he has them, but they're definitely there in his redesign.
• Oh, Crap!: See Curse Cut Short above.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the reasons he hates his father is because of his abuse of A.I.s, due to the fact Ken can comprehend them actually being alive. What is this a Shout-Out to? The Broken Base aspect of Creatures.
  • His Gryphon mount is a Composite Character of the Gryphon from ARK: Survival Evolved and Mabinogi.
  • Kappa Noir is basically Jesmon designed to resemble Garudamon's body type.
• Speed Blitz: Kappa Noir is among the fastest entities in the entire Series Fic, having such a blistering fast speed that he has extreme difficulty standing still and not in some capacity traveling trillions of lightyears faster than the eye can comprehend.
• The Stoner: Implied; while nowhere near as bad as his father, whenever the fic implies anything about Kazuto's past, he seems to have developed a smoking habit partially out of both stress and pressure in his life, but also due to an addiction at the same time.
• Super Mode: Kappa Noir, a Phase 5 Ultrarian that Kazuto can become as early as Chapter 20 of Sword Art Online: Special Edition, due to the Re: Materialize process mutating him with Ultrarian VNA to restore him to his former self personality wise.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Kirito, whenever his avatar is used in the real world that is. Kirito is an alternate personality of himself based off of his in-game avatar's tendencies to slaughter just about every major enemy in sight to gain experience and loot, and is rightfully The Sociopath because of it. Despite Kazuto debuting as Kirito earlier in the story, it isn't until the Grandis fight that he shows that Kirito has a mind of his own here.
• Super-Speed: As Kappa Noir, can move so blistering fast he can technically traverse the distance of several dozen multiverses in mere seconds flat. He moves so extraordinarily fast that even he himself has difficult comprehending his own speed.
• Walking Spoiler: His Hyper Evolution into Kappa Noir is a HUGE spoiler towards the end-game of Sword Art Online: Special Edition.
• Wham Shot:
  • Suddenly having the same exact type of eyes as Chronicler and Grandis when he appears in Chapter 20, meaning something about him is not quite right, but nothing is immediately hinted at in this regard.
  • His Hyper Evolution into Kappa Noir when confronting Mirror M while Chronicler and Stormcloud are away.
• You Don't Look Like You: The current, and first version, of the cover artwork for the story shows Kazuto looking completely different from his artwork above. While one could pass this off as this being his Kirito avatar, it's noted even his Kirito avatar is essentially modeled after an "Edgelord version of his normal self". Considering the artwork above for his real life appearance makes him look edgier than his placeholder avatar in the cover, his avatar isn't finalized in design anymore.

Kirigaya Yuuki Asuna

Debut: Sword Art Online: Special Edition

Voice Actor: Cherami Leigh

Kirigaya Yuuki Asuna

Yuuki Asuna, or later known as Kirigaya Yuuki Asuna as her eventual full name, is the fiance of Kirigaya Kazuto and has been engaged to him for a few months now, with the two having been part of a Childhood Friend Romance for a very long time. Noticeably taking a level in Adaptational Wimp and being a Non-Action Girl in real life, Asuna uses the MMO Sword Art Online as a means of Escapism to be the Action Girl she could only otherwise dream of being. Physically out of shape for one reason or another, no training in combat in real-life, and having been very poor at physical education classes in the past, Asuna used to be a popular bully victim for Fat Shamming tactics, until Kazuto stood up for her to pick on someone their own size, with Asuna befriending Kazuto as he was the only one nice to her at a young age. Ever since then, it had led to the two becoming engaged with Asuna expecting a child before their planned marriage will take place. Despite her Non-Action Girl role, she's the Team Mom of the group with her, Kazuto, and all of the other main protagonists in Sword Art Online: Special Edition.

• Action Girl: As her Sword Art Online avatar of the same name only. Or alternatively, as Alpha Crimson.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: She's more pudgier than she is in the canon, though admittedly this is subverted once she reveals to Kazuto she's pregnant with what'll eventually become Yui. Although Double Subverted with the fact Asuna used to be very overweight when she was younger prior to becoming more physically active and eating healthier to ensure she lost weight and stayed a healthy weight ever since.
• Beneath the Mask: House-wife by day, Gamer Girl by night.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Action Girl trope; she's in a world where she's an ordinary civilian with no desire to seek out a combat orientated role, and thus she becomes a Non-Action Guy in real-life who can't fight worth a damn, but in the fictional world of the Sword Art Online MMO, she uses Escapism as a means of playing the role of an Action Girl that she otherwise lacks the ability to do in real life. As a result, not only is this where her Action Girl tendencies are limited to, but it's also why she names her avatar after her own real world name.
• Decoy Protagonist: Much in the same vein as Kazuto, Asuna is introduced alongside her fiance and Ryotaro and as lead character, when neither of the three are intended to be anywhere near as important as Suguha and Chronicler, who are the actual leads.
• Fatal Flaw: My Beloved Smother. Even towards people that aren't her children, she treats everyone younger than her that she personally knows as someone she needs to care for and be overprotective of whether they want or need this reaction from her at all or not.
• Faux Action Girl: Justified in the real world, since she's a Non-Action Guy there. If she loses a fight in Sword Art Online, it's either because of The Worf Effect, or going up against someone who is higher level than her.
• Happily Married: To Kazuto.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Sometimes she insults herself with various Stay in the Kitchen remarks because she wants to make it clear to people who don't recall that she's a Non-Action Guy in real-life.
• My Beloved Smother: Can be incredibly overprotective of anyone younger than her without taking into consideration the feelings or preferences of those she shows protective care for.
• Official Couple: With Kazuto.
• Player Versus Player: Her specialty; despite not being in the highest level possible, she uses the "Risk System" of Sword Art Online as to earn large sums of experience and in-game currency which pits her against higher level players in which if she wins, she'll gain a huge sum of experience points and currency which increases in yield with each successful victory. However, if she loses, she loses 75% of her currency she has on hand and has to restart anew.
• Sex for Solace: How her recent adventures with her sex life with Kazuto has been; Kazuto comes home from work incredibly stressed out, Asuna does what she can to make Kazuto's daily life worth the hard work and effort by often simply beginning with foreplay, and depending on Kazuto's prompting, leading into full on sex proper. In general neither of the two treat sex as a big deal; being relatively casual about it as to how long they've been sexually active with each other.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Often because everyone knows she's not a fighter in real-life, to the point they're concerned she might endanger herself if she goes into a real-life combat situation. Even Asuna uses this against herself at one point.
• Supreme Chef: One of the traits from her canon counterpart left unchanged. She even teaches Chronicler how to cook as well when he's interested in the idea.
• Team Mom: How she behaves around some of the younger members of the cast, and is heavily concerned for Chronicler's health considering how poorly he keeps himself in shape regarding being well fed.
• Through His Stomach: How she ended up securing her childhood friendship with Kazuto which eventually turned into engagement in the present.

Kirigaya Suguha

Debut: Sword Art Online: Special Edition

Voice Actor: Cassandra Lee Morris

Kirigaya Suguha

Kirigaya Suguha recently turned 18, and begins the story celebrating her 18th birthday with her prized present, the MaterialEye VR hardware. Having had some minor experience with SAO in the past, she makes a new avatar to go along with her MaterialEye hardware so that she could properly adjust herself to the new play style. She quickly learns that not only does the MaterialEye have an unfair advantage for anyone using it towards the normal in-game mobs and other players who lack it, but she's immediately the target of interaction with a mysterious "edgelord" who contacts her in private and asks for her to show up at a tavern and meet him. When she does, she doesn't know of it at the time, but she is meeting her soon to be boyfriend in regards to who exactly this renegade male is. Or, at least, so she thought he was a renegade.

Receiving gifts after gifts from the man, she was surprised yet also suspicious as to why this man was helping her get useful items and a mount for the game earlier than one would normally be able to afford. The man, named "Chronicler", simply wanted companionship with a friend who wouldn't "disappear" like all of the others he had known. As Suguha spends more time with him until she has to go to bed, she ends up getting herself involved with a situation that has the man reveal himself as an AI who can utilize Hard Light to translate himself to and from the virtual and real worlds on a dime. Suguha, now meeting both the semi-confident and nervous sides of Chronicler, known also as his real name "Damion", Suguha gives him a Declaration of Protection after she sees just how badly of a Dark and Troubled Past Chronicler has because of him having been used as a lab rat by her and her older brother's abusive father, Kirigaya Ken.

Most stories within Citadel of the Heart tend to avoid OC and canon character pairings; Suguha and Chronicler are one of the few exceptions in a major cast role. This is primarily done to prevent Suguha's infamous Incest Yay shipping with her brother from ever occurring in this story, and their blood relationship as siblings in this continuity only further solidifies that Suguha will never trying to hit on her brother here. Another noteworthy trait regarding Suguha is that whereas her canon avatar and some of her real life avatar has a Fanservice Pack, Suguha here does not have those traits too overtly much like her canon self. While she does have a modest, BB Cup bust size, and small but shapely hips, she's not exaggerated with her Fanservice traits like her canon self was. Leafa, in addition, is modeled more closely after her real life aspects in this regards, and lacks much of her sexualized traits from the canon.

Tropes relating to Kirigaya Suguha:

• Action Girl
• Adaptation Personality Change: Is essentially an In Name Only version of her canon self, complete with the Kissing Cousins desire she had for Kirigaya removed entirely.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Doesn't have an exaggerated assets as she shows in the second arc onward in the canon.
• Beneath the Mask: While an innocent Gamer Girl on the surface, she's a Hormone-Addled Teenager who refuses to admit or hint she's actually as horny as Chronicler at times until she actually has herself alone with Chronicler to show this side of her.
• Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: Her relationship with Chronicler in a nutshell considering Chronicler's origins.
• Fatal Flaw: Being Not So Above It All when she criticizes her female friends for being openly discussing sex around her during break at college, and when Suguha is asked about her own ventures she can't help but fabricate lies about Chronicler's ability to please her even if they haven't done anything she's talking about yet. In other words, she's just as much of a Hormone-Addled Teenager as Chronicler can sometimes be.
• Hidden Depths: Apparently has a larger appreciation of animals and nature than she lets on, considering during Chronicler's attempt to get her mother's blessing for taking her to the dance, Chronicler botched things up initially and has to earn her approval by taking Suguha to a zoo per her mother's instructions on the assignment she gave him.
• Lethal Chef: Apparently doesn't do a good job cooking for herself when home alone.
• Morality Pet: Is this to Chronicler to varying extents.
• Power Perversion Potential: The sprite she gets which she models after Chronicler, while initially viewed as a Replacement Goldfish until further notice, soon becomes the target of various Loophole Abuse including but not limited to sucking off Chroniclersan's cock while the real Chronicler ends up forced to feel the same as what his AI doppelganger is feeling. Since this was merely a test to see if her idea was Crazy Enough to Work, Chronicler responds by giving Suguhasan similar treatment.
• Related in the Adaptation: She is indeed Kazuto's younger sister here; in the original they weren't at all.
• You Need to Get Laid: She doesn't like the fact she's the only virgin of her circle of friends, not including Chronicler of course considering her plans to go against her mother's plan and try and have sex with Chronicler while they're on their trip away from home. Thankfully for her, Chronicler's restraint snaps like a twig the moment she learns exactly what buttons to press to get Chronicler to do what she wants for both of them sexually. The feeling is already mutual as is, but Chronicler showcases too much restraint which annoys Suguha a little.

Ayano Keiko

Debut: Reflection Code

• The Alcoholic: Often prone to drinking a lot of beer in a good sized amounts. Originally she was very similar to Ruki with a soda addiction, until her debut flat out emphasized the beer in her drinking behavior.
• Artificial Limbs: Her "SOUL Gauntlet" for her left lower arm.
• Bait-and-Switch: She fills Jérémie's role from the canon, leading to Jérémie's prior role being a Red Herring for anything initially Lyoko related.
• Establishing Character Moment: Her incredibly crass behavior and drunken nature sticks out harder than it does for Grandis of all people.
• Expy: Her real world design is modeled parts after her canon self, and parts after Kobayashi. Partially justified due to both Keiko's Age Lift and Adaptation Personality Change into The Alcoholic.
• Fatal Flaw: Her Alcoholic tendencies; she drinks so much she's had a bad history with medical health. While she may still be capable of drinking now because this story takes place in a future where it's easier to reverse negative effects of such substances (to the point the legal age to drink is 18 now in the US for example), she's notorious for behaving completely irrational when it comes to her own selfish need to drink when it's not the day of the week she's allowed to go have any alcohol for her, and often times drinks all of what she can have in a single week in a single day.
• Foreshadowing: Anything that involves her and having been in France studying until coming back home to Japan for a while.
• Hidden Depths: The biggest reason she's in France to begin with is because she was deemed far too intelligent to remain at Suguha's university in Japan, so Keiko took it upon herself to study abroad as to further her school life. Yet despite that, when she's first officially introduced, she's an alcoholic loser who puts people like Grandis to shame in terms of how severe her alcoholic tendencies tend to be.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: Her role in Reflection Code in a nutshell. True, Nobuyuki and Ken also appear there, but Keiko is actually a part of that story's main cast despite originating from the source material of Sword Art Online: Special Edition. Justified in that not only is she spending much of her time studying in France, but she's also obligated to live there because she was deemed too intelligent to keep around Suguha's university, which she believes Kadic university will be a much more proper learning experience.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Didn't know of the Shared Universe aspect of Sword Art Online: Special Edition and Reflection Code? Keiko's appearance in her home turf doesn't bother shying away from the details the reader hasn't seen yet from the latter, nor does her debut proper in Reflection Code.
• Mysterious Past: Reflection Code first shows her as already having had the SOUL Gauntlet long before the story began, albeit in a rather mundane version of it in comparison to what it is now. Question is, if she already had a severed arm and it wasn't to blame on Naotolis or Mirror M or anything else like them, then what did sever her arm in the first place?
• Obligatory Swearing: She's a Sir Swears-a-Lot type of character after how once Truth and Ideals had ended, the author would actively attempt to shy away from this trope, but in terms of the characterization he has in mind for Keiko, the trope comes back full circle since when anyone else swears it's a lot more mild or toned down unless it's an O.O.C. Is Serious Business or a Precision F-Strike moment.
• Poor Communication Kills: Had she been a lot more open with herself regarding what she had been doing in France... well...
• Refuge in Audacity: Flat out calls William Dunbar a Dobber and it flies over everyone else's head except William's.^note "Dobber" is Scottish slang for "dickhead".
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Another flaw in her character is that she has uncontrolled swearing issues, in addition to her often immature behavior. Noticeably she's the first example of major Obligatory Swearing since Truth and Ideals had ended.
• Walking Spoiler: While in terms of her introduction in Sword Art Online: Special Edition isn't all too noteworthy by the time it happens, what she had been doing and where the whole time until her debut is what actually is a huge spoiler though.

Tsuboi Ryōtarō

• Chewing the Scenery: "Klein" is a big fan of this, although when it's first shown it's not exactly in a pleasant context...
• Cowardly Lion: While he is a coward, he doesn't really hesitate to get himself into a dangerous situation to protect his friends, especially when it comes to dealing with Chronicler.
• Demonic Possession: "Klein" tries to take over Ryōtarō during a vulnerable state the moment Chronicler draws too close and allows Klein to take advantage of Chronicler's ability to traverse the virtual and real realm barriers.
• Digital Avatar: "Klein".
• Happily Married: With Rika, even when the duo first appear in the fic; this is kept secret from literally everyone else due to Rika's parent's prior attempts at a Parental Marriage Veto.
• Hidden Depths:
  • He seems to have an Undying Loyalty complex to Kazuto and will do literally anything that benefits him or his family, hence why his cowardice is nowhere to be seen when talking to Chronicler in Chapter 21.
  • He seems much more acquainted to talking to Chronicler in a calming sense, to the point he comes across as a sort of father figure to Chronicler in Chapter 21. It's hinted that Ryōtarō and Rika are significantly older than Kazuto and Asuna in this fic, although while that's not saying much since everyone got Age Lifted, Ryōtarō and Rika are almost in their 30s.
  • Unlike Kirito, who is implied to be more of a Virtual Ghost alone, Klein seems to imply that he was there since the beginning for Ryōtarō, meaning he's the result of a Split Personality within Ryōtarō.
• Foreshadowing: Ryōtarō trying to come across as a father figure in Chapter 21 to Chronicler is because Rika had asked him prior as to whether or not Ryōtarō finally wants to try and have a child with her, to which Ryōtarō has been trying to do his best to prepare himself for what he knows will be inevitable.
• Official Couple: With Rika.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He keeps his composure when talking to Chronicler in Chapter 21, practically being completely unfazed by Chronicler and Stormcloud at this point. While true he's a coward, he's not stupid; he's fully aware if his panics at any time right now around Chronicler, he could accidentally provoke Chronicler and cause him to lose control of his powers, which is something Rika also takes into consideration on her end.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Screams in terror at a giant horse appearing before his face when he's virtualized into SAO directly by Chronicler for the very first time.
• Secret Relationship: Rika's not his girlfriend; she's his wife, to which he and Rika have been downplaying this fact as to not make themselves look selfish compared to their best friends Kazuto and Asuna, who have both been struggling with getting married after their engagement began months earlier. Kazuto already knows that Ryōtarō and Rika are married, but he doesn't bring it up unless Ryōtarō or Rika are okay with it.
• Split Personality: Klein is a separate personality who according to "Klein himself", existed "all the way back since the beginning". Ryōtarō knew about this, Rika sort of knew about it prior but never saw it firsthand, and Klein meanwhile is suddenly taking surface for "the first time in nearly 20 or so years" due to Chronicler's half-deity origin catching his attention as a means of escaping from Ryōtarō's body.
• Wham Line: "̵̨͈̳͓͉̯̜͚̼̻̠͔̜̠̣̌͒̆̾̓̎͠ͅL̴͙̣̘͔̝̰̠͔̥̣͚̖̀̈́̏͊́̽̈́͗̏̎̏͑͝E̴̻̼̱̰͓͗͑̓̎͛̌́̉͜T̴̘̣̮̝̪̓̎̇͆̋̀͛̏̋͆͗͒̋̏͘̚͠͠ ̴̢̘̞̤̠̺̱̺̜̭͕̰͓̪̾͑̄̑͐͐͒́̈́͝͝ͅM̴̫͍̅̾͝E̵̢̡̖͕͍̥̹̭͙͕̬͉̓̊͐͑͑̈͆̊̔̆͌͌̾̎̅̋͂͜͠͝ ̸̻͛͑̕O̶͕̲̤̭͕̤͇̙͚̜̗̐̅̒͝ͅỬ̵̡͎̤̝̳̉̉̉̓́̈́͊͐̋̐̚̕T̴̢̡̥̦̯̖̦̳̯̮͎̾̓!̵̧̡̧̢̧̢͖̙̮̺̼͓͍͚̄̈́́̂̅̈̈́̏̐͒̉͑͛̉̿̉̈̚͠!̷̛̼̭̻̝̠̣̤̺̜̠̥̜͇̗̲̳̓̈́͂͒̐̓̏̎̑̔͝!̷̡̛̻̗̘̬͙̠̺̤͙̘̗̳̳͙̤̯̗̽̓̀̋̂͂̅̊̓"̶̮̯͚͎̞̮̤̳̣͓͎͈͉͇̯͔͌̇̑͜͝ͅ - Klein

Shinozaki Rika

• Alt Itis: In-Universe; she has many in-game avatars on SAO of very high level of different races, because she can't just stick to a single main because she loves to try the diversity of the game's other racial customization and combat options.
• Crazy Cat Lady: Has a ton of ferrets she just sort of adopted that stay at Ryōtarō's house with her.
• Digital Avatar: "Lisbeth".
• Official Couple: With Ryōtarō.
• Our Orcs Are Different: Her first avatar she's seen using in the fic is an Orc, styled much after World of Warcraft's own rendition of Orcs.
• Parental Marriage Veto: She defies her parent's authority over her love life by marrying Ryōtarō in secret, due to her having been in a relationship with him for many years prior, having known him since childhood, and very much wanting to have his child as she's been trying to ask of him patiently. Overall, as a Deconstruction of this trope, Rika has disowned her parents in the process after the marriage was finished in secret.
• Secret Relationship: She is actually already married to Ryōtarō; she just keeps it secret because her parents do not approve of Ryōtarō due to his affiliation with Kazuto's family, but Rika doesn't care because she despises the fact her parents are basically calling Kazuto just as guilty as Ken himself is, despite the sins of the father not translating to the sins of the son.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Causes one in Chapter 22, in which she and Ryōtarō are just moments away from full on sex in view before she shuts off the lights, and the narration shuts up about describing the two's appearances or actions. Apparently the author wasn't interested in writing a full on sex scene for AO3's version of the fic, so he had this apply to both versions of the fic.
• Shrinking Violet: She has to have Ryōtarō introduce Chronicler to her in her place, as she's rather timid with meeting new people, especially scared about Chronicler's abilities.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Why she sought out Ryōtarō for a relationship in the past and eventually married him in secret against her own parent's thoughts on him.
• The Stoic: She is very calm, very serious about things compared to most others around her; doesn't mean the mere prospect of provoking Chronicler by mistake scares her a bit.

Kizmel Eriksen

• Adapted Out: Inverted; the anime didn't include her despite her being a prominent character in the original Light Novels, considering she was an NPC which displayed sapience, but didn't really talk a whole lot. Here she has a much more prominent role than she ever did considering she has the Gateway Protocol, is Chronicler's mother, and most importantly one of the biggest contributing factors to why Grandis tries to be heroic still after all of the shit he had been put through despite being a massive Jerkass.
• Artificial Intelligence: Designed as an AI to be the first true interaction between mankind and the virtual world. She couldn't have been far more accurate as to what would ensue in the light of her creation.
• Bat Out of Hell: Her true form resembles a bizarre hybrid of an Elf and a Bat in the form of a cosmic entity that's about the size of Mars.
• Death by Childbirth: Her previous body was destroyed by her having to birth Chronicler at the end of her pregnancy, considering Chronicler's DNA at the time was completely unstable and prone to unpredictable reactions. Kizmel herself was brought back as an AI after her bio-patch was stolen and her mind and memories placed into an AI body.
• In Name Only: She actually has no actual surname, nor is she actually even related to Ken or Enric at all; her Eriksen surname exists because Kizmel didn't know any better when Enric Eriksen was basically branding her the name of a demon, considering Enric is pretty much Satan, Grandis is a Deity, and Ken's only suffering more because of Enric's continuing actions as he still lives.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning
• Race Lift: NONE of her different bodies shared the same race as the other did, but all of them were half Japanese in composition.
• Uncanny Valley Girl: Her real life bodies were never exactly perfect at looking human, as they always looked somewhat off.
• Walking Spoiler

Kirigaya Yui

• Adapted Out: Subverted; as an AI she's non-existent, but currently as of the time of writing, she's developing inside the pregnant Asuna so she's instead a real world entity rather than an AI like in the canon.
• Cuteness Overload: Kazuto ends up bowing to the whim of his daughter solely because of how cute she looks at times. Yui has no idea of what's going on, though, since she's just a newborn when she's introduced for the first time.
• Irony: Her existence as an AI is what inspired the creation of Sword Art Online: Special Edition with a heavy focus on AI life-forms, but she isn't an AI in this incarnation despite that. Word of God confirms it has to do with the fact Yui was a poor excuse for an AI considering she existed solely to be an adoptive child for Kirito and Asuna, and thus her original role was more or less gutted out and replaced with the alternate Become a Real Boy scenario that is Chronicler.

Kirigaya Midori

• Death Glare: Has one so perpetually strong when used that she can cause Chronicler to cower in her gaze and force him into a state of calmness after having just been ticked off mere seconds ago.
• Establishing Character Moment: Her overprotective nature of Suguha is all the more prevalent with her track record of cockblocking Hormone-Addled Teenager type boys from having her blessing for Suguha's date, as she more or less does with Chronicler in their first actual conversation. That aside, she's at least willing to compromise due to the unorthodox circumstances of Chronicler's upbringing, but she still is trying to enforce the fact Chronicler needs to learn on his own to improve if he truly wants her blessing at all.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Considering Chronicler's resume of being a Lustful, Hormone-Addled Teenager, and having No Social Skills as to be able to properly control this fact, she legitimately has every reason to be suspicious of him when he attempts to ask for her blessing and fails to get a good first impression on her.
• My Beloved Smother: She seems to be actively taking charge of the boys Suguha brings home at times, and when Chronicler at first seems like he's serious with asking for her blessing to take Suguha to the dance she's been looking forward to, she's able to quickly determine Chronicler's other motives and his overall difficult to restrain sense of Lust that paints Chronicler in a tad bit of a negative eye to her until Chronicler attempts to save face with his side of the reason as to why. Considering the circumstances that Chronicler has had no positive father figure in his life to teach him control over crucial social cues, Midori is more willing to compromise with him but still tasks him with an assignment first in-order to ensure that Suguha and Chronicler now have an actual date to have in their resume as a couple.
• Named by the Adaptation: As her canonical husband either doesn't exist or doesn't appear at all, her maiden name here is Kirigaya by virtue of a plot point regarding her husband in this fic, Kirigaya Ken. Kirigaya Ken specifically took her surname when they married, and kept it even after the divorce because he eternally hates his own original surname.
• Pet the Dog: She is having Suguha and herself pay for the zoo trip that Chronicler is assigned to take Suguha on as a Secret Test of Character, primarily because as Chronicler does not legally exist, this is kind of very much Justified. Also justified is the fact due to the nature of his birth and growing up, he never had a true father figure so his uncontrollable Lust he had no chance at all to learn to control, and she's more willing to give him a slight pass when he flat out admits this to her.
• Related in the Adaptation: She is Kazuto's biological mother in this fic, and likewise has no connection to her canonical husband due to the fact an O.C. Stand-in was needed for the type of role the author had in mind in regards to Kirigaya Ken.

Asada Shino

• Abled in the Adaptation: Inverted: In the real world, she's wheelchair bound, due to paralysis on her legs knees down. She has prosthetic lower legs to allow her to actually walk, but they're out of date models that can only enable her to walk for so long before she needs to sit back in a wheelchair.
• Cat Girl: She has a humanoid lower body, lower arms, and ears of a snow leopard, and aside from small amounts of fur covering a majority of her skin, she looks otherwise fairly human-like in appearance.
• BFG: Her signature weapon in SAO.
• Horrible Judge of Character: She goes back and forth on what she ultimately thinks of Chronicler in her first few appearances, ultimately incapable of making friend or foe out of him.
• Loud of War: Her sniper rifle is absurdly loud, and the sound of which can be devastating to Ultrarian entities that wander too close to her.
• Related in the Adaptation: Defied: She's in the adoptive care of Dalton, but she isn't related to him, and had only actually met him sometime after turning 19.
• Shout-Out: To the Media Hunter in terms of both her class and her bestial attire in regards to the former's pet.
• Skewed Priorities: Considered pre-ordering the MaterialEye a bigger concern than affording for more up to date prosthetic lower legs, and doesn't seem to realize the full consequences of it. Then again, as she lives at her adoptive father's home, she doesn't mind it.
• Sword of Damocles: Her unnamed sniper rifle; it's a rare drop reward from a very high level, event only, raid that, unlike most older equipment in SAO, scales in stats to the current level of the user; in other words, it's a future-proofed weapon should the level cap be raised higher than 150, meaning she never has to worry about ditching it in favor of a better weapon of the same type. It's also very, very loud; when fired in direct proximity of an Ultrarian, their heads practically explode without even needing to be in line of sight fire.

█████

Most players of SAO or any other MMO encounter the dead zones as literally what they're named; they cause instant death upon contact, due to being an out of bounds region of the game under normal circumstances, even despite their dubious history of existence. However, even fewer are the claims that something actually exists in the dead zones which cannot be identified by anyone; perhaps it's somebody who someone might actually know? Perhaps its another AI and nothing more. Still, the call for investigation is at hands upon a fateful encounter with this entity and the Champion of SAO...

Antagonists (Canon)

Sugou Nobuyuki

Sugou Nobuyuki

• Adaptational Badass:
  • When he's hijacked Chronicler and uses him as a vessel for the final bits of the first arc.
  • Even more so when he ascends through Hyper Evolution into "Fairy King Oberon", which according to Ultima's response is his true form instead of being merely his virtual avatar.
• Adaptational Wimp: Defied; he just has nothing to hide behind this time around, meaning whereas in the canon he could act like a Smug Snake all he wanted, here he risks his job, wealth, and everything else even remotely attempting to try and be like that because he's constantly surrounded by people or things either against him or trying to kill him.
• Beneath the Mask: Seems to be just as big of a gaming nerd as Kazuto except apparently went even further than he did in terms of progress on SAO. In his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Kazuto, he goes on a huge tangent as to why he's infuriated Ken views Kazuto as being superior to him whereas Nobuyuki had been with the game since the very beginning, reached the level cap fair and square with each new update, participated in many competitive PVP tournaments as an undefeated champion, and has built a castle with various Bragging Rights Reward as decorations. Everyone knows Nobuyuki used to be a famous player of the game over the past seven years, but ever since a sexual scandal with trying to steal Asuna way from Kazuto, suddenly all of that fame and reputation he gained was destroyed in a single incident which resulted in Nobuyuki becoming Overshadowed By Controversy.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Nobody likes him anymore ever since his sexual harassment scandal involving him and Asuna, and he's forever had to live in Kazuto's shadow because he lost the respect of everyone he grew to know. His boss fully assures Nobuyuki that if he tries the stunt again he will flat out murder him on the spot.
  • All of humanity basically abandons him to Ultima's mercy once he outs his plan aloud to destroy the Earth as an act of spite against Ultima.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Much like in the canon, except for a different reason.
• Death by Adaptation: After finding himself thrown out of his safe zone, he's killed by Mugen Grandis who at first contemplates what to do with Nobuyuki, before simply turning the bastard into paste with a slam of his giant tail.
• Deity of Human Origin: Inverted; he's the reincarnation of a deceased God who was killed off due to very similar circumstances as to what led him down the path to shame in his current mortal life; he was at the top of his game when one minor fuck up was all that was needed to be his ultimate undoing.
• Dirty Coward: Immediately hauls ass with running when Stormcloud begins flying his way after having thrown insults his way.
• Evil Is Petty: Goes without saying for a Psychopathic Manchild.
• Fallen Hero: Who his original identity of Oberon was.
• Fatal Flaw: Sore Loser; he's so egotistical that he can't truly blame himself for all of the minor failures he has in life. Even with his past self's Deity life, he was also this as well; him being demoted to a mortal was already humiliation enough, but the fact he kept ranting to Ultima to where Ultima struck him down is what he felt like he was truly insulted for. Once he possesses Chronicler's body, he desires to destroy the world all out of spite so he can have a second chance at godhood, and when he's yet again being defeated, he's so immensely sore about his lose that he's left to rot in the Ultimorian Multiverse as his eternal reward.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • His constant torment at the hands of the A.I.s leave him an increasing sanity losing wreck to where he becomes driven by madness to end the conflict so long as he survives it.
  • Secondly, the lose of all of his fame due to a sexual assault scandal against Asuna in which Alcohol-Induced Idiocy caused him to feel up Asuna against her consent, as well as get into a violent fight with Kazuto and Ken to get him off of her. This, in addition to his prior Deity life's lose of godhood due to trying to sleep with Ultima's daughter Centauri under similar circumstances, leads to him vowing revenge against those who he feels wronged him with no ability to blame himself for his own actions.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Everyone has it out to make this guy's life miserable no matter what their reason for keeping him around is.
• Hate Sink: Considering what all he did in the past, his current reputation among Ken as well as others is pretty much justified.
• Hijacked by Ganon: His entire plan to use Chronicler's body as the perfect weapon of mass destruction has him suddenly trapped within it as Chronicler Prime takes over control entirely and Mind Rape Nobuyuki for the duration of him still being in Chronicler's head. He then proceeds to become a complete joke when compared to Chronicler Prime's actions... Until he Hyper Evolves into Fairy King Oberon and reclaims his original Deity status, because Ultima deemed him worthy enough of having it back.
• It's All About Me: His goals are very selfish and egotistical about his plans, but often times he's too scared shitless to show this side of him.
• My Greatest Failure: He used to be a highly respected and famous player on SAO under his Oberon avatar; every time he logs in anymore he's greeted with jeering everywhere he goes, all because of news breaking public of him being involved in sexual harassment scandals against Asuna that Kazuto and Ken both stopped him from ever getting any further. Ken may have bailed him out, but the man who was once beloved and famed by the community is no more than a memory that if he even shows himself in public again, he gets nothing but negativity from those around him. He apparently bottled up this frustration against Kazuto for a long time as their showdown goes to show in the final moments of the first arc.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When Ken and Nobuyuki are discussing their plans to hijack Chronicler, Nobuyuki at first thinks he's going to be involuntarily carrying it out, only for Ken to correct him that Ken is going to pull it off; Nobuyuki, without much warning after a brief pause, takes the MaterialEye helmet from Ken and puts it on, with Ken quickly noticing how solemn in tone Nobuyuki has become as he tries to activate the prototype MaterialEye to no avail. In short, after having been having way too many brushes with death and torment, Nobuyuki Stopped Caring about behaving cowardly; he knows for certain that no matter what happens next at that very moment, he will be dying within the next few days or sooner, and he's going to do something about it regarding an ominous acquaintance of his...
• Psychopathic Manchild: Absolutely petty and pathetic in nature, feels entitled to everything good in life whether he deserves it or not, and threatens to destroy the Earth as a means of provoking a God solely out of spite.
• Revenge: What his former Deity side of his personality wants; he wants vengeance for being betrayed by Ultima when he only did one minor mistake under his service before not only being killed, but reborn in a mortal coil as punishment. Considering his mortal coil as Nobuyuki had also been at the top of his game until one minor mistake that led to him being ostracized by the public, Nobuyuki isn't planning on allowing this to happen a second time so he's going to forcefully get Ultima's attention by using Chronicler's body to destroy the world to prove his loyalty to Ultima.
• Sanity Slippage: When a Naotolis confronts him he's screaming bloody murder as Naotolis hunts him down all the while tearing through anything that gets in her way, with Naotolis killing nearby employees that get in her way of killing Nobuyuki. Nobuyuki ends up noticing, though, that the specimen is taunting him, and when Nobuyuki recalls he has Ken's revolver, he immediately begins firing shots at Naotolis before just barely avoiding getting mauled severely as he shoots her head to pieces dead. The aftermath has Nobuyuki at Ken's house cowering in fear within a bunker and gorging on several well cooked meals out of sheer stress.
• Smug Snake: He still shows signs of it, just not as prominent considering how quickly he begins to become cowardly as the story progresses.
• Spoiled Brat: Shares a lot of the same wealth as Ken and is a Psychopathic Manchild.
• Sore Loser: He doesn't exactly take losing very well, even when at odds that are heavily against his favor. Averted, oddly enough, when it comes to his last words as he's atomized by Chronicler's Ryujin Nova.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Whereas his canon self barely posed a threat but wanted to rape Asuna, Nobuyuki here wants to flat out wipe out the entire planet the moment he learns of the fact he is a god reborn in mortal form and wants a second chance to regain his godhood by proving himself worthy by destroying the Earth.
• Villain Has a Point: When he says he got away with what he did because of Ultima's lack of action, Ultima acknowledges he's in the right by proceeding to immediately rectify his own mistake. Ultima is never allowed to live down the fact all three times he is what allowed Oberon to get as far as he does in the end before his death.
• Warrior Poet: If his last words are to go by.
  "I have seen the Deities path in the past,"
  "my human life is done at very long last."
  "I have no more regrets,"
  "I am no longer of threats,"
  "So now I can perish into the past."
  Beat
  "Adieu, mon ami et camarade."

Kayabe Akihiko

While a villain in the canon, Akihiko is placed here solely because of his canon self's reputation; not only is he not a villain here, but he barely qualifies as an antagonist. A former business partner of Kirigaya Ken, he was murdered during the breakout to which Ken only got away with it because of a Naotolis specimen being in the room at the same time as his sudden death. Before anybody can truly question how he died, the threat escalation at the facility causes everyone's attention to go elsewhere instead, and Ken escapes scot-free because the alarm called for armed staff; he happened to be both armed and staff, so he quickly made his escape without further question, and thus because of the fact some of the employees in the same room died in the aftermath, or only barely survived, they long forgot about Akihiko's suspicious death and Ken successfully got away with acquiring Ken's company for himself, and thus his wealth alongside it. Akihiko faded into obscurity, if merely because his death is not well documented.

• Adaptational Heroism: Isn't even a villain in this one, but he's more along the lines of Morally Ambiguous Doctorate here.
• Boom, Headshot!: How he dies.
• The Cynic
• Death Seeker: He hated his job after 20 years of holding it; he didn't care how he died as to finally be rid of it, as he would hold no regrets for his own death, nor would he wish ill intent on anyone who decided to murder him because Akihiko would only consider his own murder as a Mercy Kill he so badly wants.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: See Your Head Asplode below.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Heavy emphasis on the ambiguous here, since he's no longer a villain, but he's not a hero at the same time.
• Mr. Fanservice: Apparently was quite the looker.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Kickstarts the events of Reflection Code and Sword Art Online: Special Edition with his death.
• Only Sane Man: Why he took his job at the laboratory in the first place; he was one of the few presidents of the company to not suffer a Sanity Slippage over the course of his career, which he had held for 20 years prior to his own murder, and by that time he honestly didn't care how he died; whether it be murder like how it actually happened, or an accident, or a murder conveniently made to look like an accident, he just wanted to die knowing he wouldn't have to be the guy in charge anymore.
• Posthumous Character: Any major role he has in the story? He's already dead by the time he's the subject of any importance.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Is the creator of the MaterialEye, and one of the most noteworthy staff for SAO and AI research and development before his untimely death.
• Your Head Asplode: Gets killed by a revolver bullet to his head.

Protagonists (OC)

Minor Roles

Jed

A wolfdog hybrid between a German Shepherd and a Timber Wolf. Kept in an abusive lifestyle since birth, Kazuto found it after he heavily lost a fight against an, at the time, stronger dog as Jed was kept in a dog fighting lifestyle since he was very young, and bred specifically with a cruel sort of Min-Maxing in mind for combat. When an inspector found Kazuto illegally keeping the dog, and after Ken had framed it as a "vicious beast", Jed was taken away from Kazuto's custody before the first arc began, and by the time the second arc begins, Kazuto had legal ownership of Jed and thus the dog is returned to him as Kazuto, as well as Asuna, now live back in Kazuto's family home now that Ryotaro had worked on expanding it and made it possible for both Kazuto and Asuna to live there as well as Ryotaro. Naturally the sight of an intimidating dog partially unnerves Ryotaro, but since Ryotaro had long grown used to the much bigger Stormcloud, he isn't as afraid of Jed as he used to be.

Tropes that apply to Jed

• Canine Companion: For Kazuto.
• Emotionless Dog: Very, very quiet and tame even during his time away from Kazuto; in fact, the handlers for him until he was given back to the Kazuto just wanted to Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! and just give him back to Kazuto, since they knew a little too well from how much self control Jed had that he is an innocent soul who was framed, since otherwise he would've long since attacked someone had Ken's audacious claim been true.
• Morality Pet: Why Kazuto worked as hard as he could to save him and restore his own custody of him.
• Shout-Out: Explained more in-depth below, but aside from the fact this Jed is part German Shepherd, he gets his name and hybrid nature from a real life Malamute based Wolfdog known as Jed, who was used to depict the disguised form of the Kennel-Thing from John Carpenter's The Thing.
• Shown Their Work: In the behind the scenes to John Carpenter's The Thing, the dog used in the movie as the initial host of the titular alien is a wolfdog named Jed, from which this Jed gets his name from. Jed was pointed out behind the scenes to have acted his parts eerily well, and was extremely quiet and well-behaved on the set, indicating a fairly good amount of training in him. This particular tribute to Jed, due to his training from Kazuto both before being taken away and after being returned, is noted to be The Stoic for the exact same reasons his real life namesake was, to the point both in the film and in real life, the dog gave a very Uncanny Valley type of performance, because of how much the Malamute's genes were subdued by the Wolf genes. Malamutes are normally very energetic and prone to being loud at times, but Jed, despite being part Malamute, was dead silent even during the opening chase scene.
• The Stoic: Doesn't emote very much, barely barks, and only makes vocalizations at all when prompted to or when he knows an intruder is on the property. See Shown Their Work and Shout-Out above as to why this is how he's portrayed.

Matthew

A former friend of Kazuto's who is a modern hardcore gamer with the MaterialEye who fails to understand the appreciation for vintage games such as SAO, and always looks into more relatively modern genres and doesn't like to look back on his past shames. Grandis notes the name and attitude of Matthew sounds familiar, but he can't put his finger on it; Matthew lives in the United States, and has in contact with Kazuto due to the fact Kazuto briefly had to work overseas in the United States for several months about two years ago. Things went sour between the two when their differences in interests became more clear over the years they had known each other.

• Beneath the Mask: Jerkass bully online due to G.I.F.T, but in real life a Jaded Washout who is miserable outside of his internet lifestyle.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Comes to realize this when he meets Grandis in person and asks him about the complaints he had about the ferrets, in which Grandis shows him newspapers, reports, and other statistics showing that the ferrets living in Aokigahara have been there for 10 years prior to Grandis showing up approximately 3 months prior. Not only that, but government officials, due to an increase of human death toll to Saroa when trying to remove the ferrets, it was stated that a guardian entity was preventing humans from trying to remove them by force, so they are protected by government law after that discovery was made. Matthew doesn't even criticize Grandis as being the guardian in question because Saroa, the actual guardian entity keeping the ferrets safe, had already made its presence known to everyone long before this particular chapter.
• The Bully: Is this to Chronicler. Unlike most examples of this trope, Matthew is actually fleshed out quite a lot.
• Canine Companion: His mother and daughter now own an older golden retriever he used to have as well, but now Matthew himself states he now has a Jack Russell terrier under his ownership.
• Decomposite Character: Chris from Digimon Re: Adventure in a sense could be considered his Shadow Archetype; Chris is a Hate Sink who has some of the same Jerkass characteristics as Matthew, but unlike Matthew, isn't a Jaded Washout as he actually has an actual job and life outside of his home, even if what he decides to do with it is far more heinous by comparison. Matthew, despite his Jerkass behavior and shut-in nature, actually has the moral high ground compared to Chris, as Matthew isn't actively performing criminal acts such as rape like how Chris does.
• Digital Avatar: A skeleton in the form of a Sharp-Dressed Man wielding an SMG.
• Everyone Has Standards: Calls Grandis out on his ferret keeping in a region where they can easily become invasive species.
• Foreshadowing:
  • His intrigue in technology and engineering seems to indicate his Digital Avatar to have modern day or otherwise futuristic equipment in some way or form.
  • Apparently he and Shino are neighbors in real life; Shino mentions a guy who is a shut-in at one point, who seems to refer to Matthew based off of what else is mentioned about him here.
• The Ghost:
  • Is only known by his Digital Avatar outside of old photos and videos he has that friends can still access through social media. Grandis can easily recall what he looks like, but everyone else only seems to see him nowadays by his virtual avatar; even Ryōtarō does as well, though this is only because he hasn't seen Matthew in nearly a decade so he can't remember what he looks like.
  • Shino apparently does know what he looks like; she's his neighbor, so of course she would know this.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Seems to have an intrigue in architecture and engineering, which explains his former interest in a Minecraft Expy. Even then, though, he seems to have had prior knowledge of Grandis, but seems out of the loop regarding his Deity nature, only mentioning him briefly as "an old friend who remains stuck in the past", indicating Grandis to be another former friend of his.
  • While friends with the main cast, he seems more acquainted with Ryōtarō than he does the other major characters, to the point Ryōtarō is still one of his friends to this day.
  • Matthew's bedroom as seen when he's out of the house when Chronicler accidentally warps into it shows a lot of things unusual with Matthew to say the least; various posters for movies and video games from the 80s and 90s, as well as the early 2000s. In addition, he has a wide screen TV which from Chronicler's remarks looks ancient, and then a similar remark about some unnamed gaming systems describes them as dusty, but appearing "recently used"...
• In-Series Nickname: TechNerd1169.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Once was a nice kid with a naive view on the world and games, and grew up to become The Cynic.
• Jaded Washout: His Fatal Flaw. He started off doing very, very well in high school and upon graduating even held a fairly well paying job for a few years. However, eventually he lost his job and is still searching for a job, all the while he now lives alone with his now divorced father between a family that once consisted of his mother and daughter, who have since moved out along with the dog he used to love and cherish. With almost none of the joy or income of his Glory Days keeping him afloat, his descent into cynicism only grew worse and worse, leading to him losing friendships as time progressed because he believes his former friends never grew up like he did.
• Jerkass: Part of what he became as he grew older. Ends up being what causes him to drive off Kazuto, Asuna, and Grandis from being friends with him.
• More Dakka: Wields an SMG.
• Most Wonderful Sound: In-universe example; Kazuto, Asuna, and several others note that Matthew's tutorial videos online has Matthew with an oddly soothing voice, due to a combination of the accent, the sound of his voice, and his calm and professional demeanor. When Chronicler first hears him speak, he and the narrative (Grandis) notes his voice, while being that of a Jerkass, has this unusual "soothing quality" to it.
• Shown Their Work: He's not wrong about his criticisms with Grandis' ferrets; animals from the same family have been notorious to be invasive species in many regions of the world, most prominently with Hawaii during an attempt to curb a rat problem in the region by introducing mongooses. Rats were nocturnal, mongooses were diurnal, so not only did the two species never meet, but mongooses just became an invasive species all the same.
• Slut-Shaming: Almost got into a bad situation with Kazuto's friends during his 18th birthday when Matthew accused Asuna of having slept with every guy in the room at one point. No fight occurred since Kazuto didn't want his birthday ruined, and the night Matthew and Ryōtarō stay over to visit after everyone else leaves has Matthew still being on good terms with the two after the tension had calmed down. Kazuto admits behind his back that he would've punched him had this been stated years later rather than back then.
• Troll: How he can behave at times towards his friends and enemies. While being The Bully, he's relatively harmless as he's very affable about his antics. When he's actually not affable, however, it's much more obvious to tell if he's outright antagonistic.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Criticizes Grandis' decision to have ferrets and polecats kept in his shack of a house, considering Matthew knows that ferrets would be an invasive species if their population numbers increased further than the number of them that Grandis owns. He doesn't care that Grandis is only allegedly keeping them as pets, since he has information of reports from officials about ferrets being found alive or dead in the Aokigahara region that were either killed by diseases, or killed via Shoot the Dog because of their invasive nature to the ecosystem.

Antagonists (OC)

Kirigaya Ken

Kirigaya Ken is the father of Kazuto and Suguha and the disowned member of the family ever since the family began to learn the truth about what his business ventures usually have led to. Now viewed as a murderer with no heart by most of his family, even Kazuto, despite him being amicable towards Ken, doesn't like Ken at all, which in and of itself is surprising considering Ken's shown a surprising amount of best interest for Kazuto's well-being, considering he so badly wants to make sure his oldest son doesn't grow up the same, fatherless background he himself had because of how his origins began with Mirror M killing off his father before his eyes in what everyone else thought was a complete accident, but Ken knew too well it was done out of spite by Mirror M, since Mirror M later confirms this to be the case. Driven mad by a desire to terminate the various A.I.s he was surrounded by at one of his old work locations, among many other reasons, he has made a name for himself as the "Knight Templar" of his group, considering he only really showed to have care for himself and seems to showcase no remorse towards the A.I.s until he quickly learns that perhaps maybe he needs to learn how to considering what will unfold if his methods of dealing with them continue unchanged...

• Abusive Parents: Deconstructed; Ken suffers heavy emotional turmoil over what he had been through and what he ends up doing himself, to the point he suffered many a Sanity Slippage in the aftermath of trying to cope with each incident being the murder of his father at his own hands, and his Shell-Shocked Veteran behavior making him unable to determine friend from foe at home with his wife and son, causing him to put a bullet into his now ex-wife's shoulder and leave a knife scar on Kazuto's cheek. He was able to be bailed by his family, but he had to undergo mandatory rehab in which Silver Naotolis ended up ruining his legs in the process, and he took his own rage out on Chronicler and constantly demeaned him by referring to him as his father, and his missing sister's, surname of Eriksen, and it wasn't until much later on that he realized he is slowly becoming the very thing he hated and he had no means of recognizing it, and ends up crossing the Despair Event Horizon during his last encounter with Silver Naotolis before Chronicler destroys her.
• An Arm and a Leg: He has robotic legs by the present day, due to an incident during the breakout involving the Silver Naotolis pouncing him and tearing his legs asunder.
• At Least I Admit It: Whenever somebody is no longer fooled by the lies about how Ken's old man really died, he openly admits to having killed him because once people know the truth as to what Enric was really like, those who confront Ken don't have a hard time also believing Enric was a Grade A Asshole Victim.
• Breakout Villain: The author didn't plan on Ken being anything more than a Foil to Nobuyuki as to whom ultimately would be the Big Bad. Said plans to make Ken the Big Bad fell through when the author's attempts to flesh him out more instead transformed him into a Tragic Villain whose uprising to evil can be sympathized to a degree considering his absolutely hellish father whom he had been under a Toxic Friend Influence that helped forge Ken into who he is now, and also the fact Ken's hatred of A.I.s is because of his original legs getting mutilated by the Silver Naotolis, forcing him to get prosthetic legs.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: You could say that, yes.
• Fat and Skinny: Skinny to Megalodon's Fat. Downplayed in that both of them are actually physically fit as can be for their given ages, and Megalodon's "fat" is actually him being a very huge muscleman whose muscles bulge out of his suit very easily, whereas Ken's wardrobe is very loose fitting despite him being significantly thinner than Megalodon. Ken's legs are the weird part; even with their humanoid design, they are still fairly large, making it appear as though Ken has giant feet much like a typical Digimon design.
• Fiction 500:
  • The first half of the explanation is a Deconstruction of the trope, the second half is a reconstruction of it. Essentially he started off poor and had to cheat the system in which monetary value worked in-order to get to where he is now. He always had a partner with him whenever it came to these schemes, and any chance of him getting caught, he'd off the partner as a Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit, cover any potential tracks that could be linked to him, and continue on with a poor sap who doesn't know any better as his next partner. No guesses as to who his current partner is.
  • Something that the publicity had died down immensely by the time Reflection Code happens is that Ken used a gigantic materialization ray to rebuild virtually every territory to reside within direct proximity of the Pacific and even the missing glaciers in Antarctica, all in direct response to damages caused by the Legendary Light Dragon trio and or Mirror M. Considering he asked for virtually nothing in return except for all of the money he could ever ask for, it's no small feat in hindsight why he's truly as rich as he is. Heck part of the reason he's still earning money isn't because of his more mundane office job, but because he still has the damned satellite and is being funded to have it used to colonize the Moon, Venus, and Mars, as well as a prototype for a hyperspace drive.
    Ultima: So you wanted to get my attention, but didn't use the matter creation ray your boss unwittingly made because...?
• Foil: To Nobuyuki; whereas Nobuyuki was more paranoid and quick to be a coward in a situation, Ken could actually put up an actual fight and only retreated when he knew he was already outgunned, even if he also has his own paranoid situations. Ken generally knows how to remain The Stoic as well in day to day appearances, whereas Nobuyuki constantly borders on Nervous Wreck whenever he's out of his home.
• Foreshadowing:
  • His revolver hints rather well as to what he's going to do to Nobuyuki sooner or later if nothing else kills him first that is, as well as hinting towards how exactly Ken became rich in the first place.
  • Considering his knowledge on the A.I.s, and his current work with Sword Art Online and the MaterialEye, there's a minor implication he used Akihiko as the fall-guy for another scheme simply having Gone Horribly Right due to Ken getting what he wanted, but actually not escaping freely so easily due to inadvertently causing the breakout to occur because of something he didn't know at the time.
• Freudian Excuse: Take your pick between Silver Naotolis severing his legs, or his old man's Toxic Friend Influence from when he was still alive.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Not so much evil more so antagonistic, but he does share his son's smoking habit regardless. Although it's much less subtle with Ken with whether or not this lead to him being The Stoner.
• Greed: His Fatal Flaw; he was so driven by it that he ended up murdering people in the past because of it, and not only that, he's almost universally what is the biggest cause of the breakout to occur due to him, his revolver, and his scuffle with Akihiko at the facility Mirror M and many others were being contained. He tried to murder Akihiko to use as another fall-guy, but Akihiko was more of a challenge of a fight and disrupted his chance to shoot him in the head, and when the gun was finally fired, the bullet struck a device keeping the locks on Mirror M's containment online and thus Mirror M stirred just enough to cause the remainder of the breakout at large. Considering that he's got a huge My God, What Have I Done? reaction to the A.I.s even existing in the real world, he took his pent up frustration with the lack of ability to do anything out on Chronicler since he feels he's no different from any other AI, only to have to learn the hard way that ultimately his own desire to seek money and fame has already been his own undoing; he caused many dangerous life-forms to escape even though the blame was successfully pinned on Akihiko, and even if the actual breakout was an accident in the first place, Ken still at the very least wanted at least Akihiko dead for use as another fall-guy only for the plan to not work into place exactly as he wanted it.
• Hidden Depths:
  • The fact he gets along well enough with his son despite the hostile encounter in SAO to determine Chronicler's threat potential, as well as silently attending his son's wedding to Asuna while remaining unseen for the most part and even having a personal talk with Kazuto regarding some advice he has for Kazuto among other things. Tl;dr, it implies Ken isn't so much an evil person so much as a gray area where he's the antagonist, true, but he's not an actual villain meant to be defeated.
  • He had once attended Kadic 15 years ago and was while an average student in terms of grades, he seems to be the one responsible for awakening the supercomputer as it is now and having left notes about it in a non-lethal Apocalyptic Log style of letters detailing his plans to make the world a better place and try and reverse everything bad that has ever plagued humanity. A later note has him point out he had given up on the project since he realized he would've resulted in humanity trying to run away and pretend their mistakes never happened, rather than acknowledging them and fixing them to improve from there. At first, he seems to be referring to his Materialization Satellite, but that doesn't explain what he means by pretending the mistakes never happened, as everyone's memory of the damages caused from anything prior to restoring them using his satellite would still be intact, as is ultimately the case. Instead, as the notes are further investigated, apparently he's referring to an attempted plan to build a time machine using the supercomputer's energy source and Return to the Past capabilities, which actually does match up with a crucial plot point regarding Ken's pre-existing immunity to the Return to the Past as demonstrated in Chapter 7 of Reflection Code and witnessed a few times in Sword Art Online: Special Edition.
• It's Personal:
  • Mirror M killed his old man in World War II before he was born, and thus he blames Mirror M and the other A.I.s as to why he developed into such a failure of a father due to the lack of the presence of his own father there to guide him.
  • Comes up again when Naotolis ambushes Ken on a hunting trip in Russia in which he's forced into Sanity Slippage by staying out in the cold weather for several days solely because Naotolis can't stand the cold environment, hence he knows he'll be a goner if he goes back into his cabin.
  • Mind you the above was before the breakout, so he'd again have to deal with Naotolis for Round 2 with the Silver Naotolis shredding his legs off and forcing him to replace them with robotics by the present day. Heck in general it's pretty much confirmed Naotolis is the only AI he truly hates for real after what she had done to him throughout his life.
• Karma Houdini: In terms of his money making schemes anyways; anything else... not so much.
• Kill Sat: Technically it creates stuff from fiction to reality since it's a gigantic satellite with a built in materialization ray, which is his sole prized invention because it's the only one he'd ever need to become as rich as he'll ever want or even need to be. He used it to basically terraform all of the Pacific coasts to be able to be habitable by humans again, rebuilding entirely destroyed cities as though the destruction was completely reversed, generated viable DNA from which to clone endangered species which is capable of being used to create entire breeding populations, and is currently being commissioned by all of the world's governments to try and terraform the Moon, Mars, and Venus for colonization purposes as to deal with overpopulation.
• Kill Steal: Oddly enough, Grandis was going to kill off Enric but ended up arriving late only to discover Ken proceeded to have already done the job for him. Grandis simply congratulates Ken for the sheer fact someone else dealt with Enric instead of himself, considering Grandis goes out of his way to avoid having to kill these days.
• Make It Look Like an Accident:
  • How he gets away with murdering Akihiko scot-free. A Naotolis specimen entered the room while everyone was distracted, so one could say he was trying to shoot the Naotolis and missed, or the Naotolis forced him to hit Akihiko if not flat out killed him on her own.
  • His old man didn't actually die to Mirror M in World War II; Ken hacked into government databases long after killing his own dad himself to make everyone else think Mirror M is what killed Enric.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: How he was designed and characterized.
• Multiple-Choice Past: What exactly his actual history with Mirror M seems to be inconsistent from both individuals, especially since by the present, Mirror M has no issues with directly confronting Ken, and Ken likewise doesn't seem fazed by Mirror M given the circumstances. That said, the two do sort of have a mutual hatred of each other, and regardless of the status of said hatred may be in the present, there's no denying that whatever their hatred was for each other in the past was far worse than it is now. By how much, however, is the ultimate question.
• Pet the Dog:
  • When he and Nobuyuki are visiting Asuna in the hospital alongside Kazuto, Nobuyuki claims that since his job is the wealthiest pay, he'll be able to take care of Asuna more than Kazuto ever will as one final attempt to try and win Asuna over. Ken basically is the final nail on the coffin considering Ken rigged the whole scene just so he could have a reason to cut 90% of Nobuyuki's paycheck into Kazuto's paycheck as a permanent arrangement sooner than he would have otherwise.
    "To be fair, Mr. Sugou, you're still earning above minimum wage."
  • Also quite literally when he's reading the newspaper and casually pets Jed. Unlike Awkward Zombie's case with Ganondorf and Duck Hunt, it actually is Jed here.
  • A flashback to a surprise entry to Kazuto's meeting with Asuna's mother for her blessing in which Asuna's mother insists on Asuna marrying a wealthy man in hopes of financial security. Ken's words are priceless.
    Ken: Madam, if I may even though I'm not supposed to be here; my company is for various online related purposes, be it gaming, communication, or AI development for the better of the entire globe as well as the lower, middle, and upper classes and has been a financially successful company for the past 50 years since I inherited it from my mother. The company makes an average of over 1.115 quadrillion yen per year and has been on the rise ever since it had began. My son is scheduled to inherit the company and earn 10 times more than the current 1.115 trillion yen he currently earns per year. If it'll satisfy your sick as fuck search for gold, he'll inherit the company the moment the marriage happens between him and my future daughter-in-law. Any questions?
• Relative Error: Inverted and Played for Drama... as well as a tiny bit of Played for Laughs. Ken and Kizmel are constantly mistaken for being siblings because of their shared surname, but said surname is an In Name Only insult Ken had repeatedly called Kizmel and Chronicler in the past because of their AI nature, and the fact Ken himself only bore the name until he married in which he took his wife's surname as to no longer be associated with whom he considered the Devil. Grandis, as well as anybody actually involved in Kizmel's creation, would consider you a laughing stock if you ever seriously believed Kizmel was even remotely related to Ken in any way at all, noting how due to Kizmel's AI mind inhabiting android bodies, she's not related to anyone but herself and Chronicler.
• Self-Made Orphan: His dad actually doesn't get killed because of Mirror M, but rather by Ken himself. At least Ken openly admits it once somebody is too convinced of the truth, and also the fact everyone agrees with him In-Universe with how Enric was an Asshole Victim.
• Shed the Family Name: Why he still ultimately has some affection for his ex-wife; she sympathizes with his entire reason for why Ken wanted to change his surname to hers. Not that hard considering Ken's father was effectively Satan himself.
• Silver Fox: Nobody really points it out too much, but Ken has aged rather well compared to a lot of men his age, especially when one considers Ken's prosthetic legs. Sure, he does look like a lot like Lurch^note (specifically the version of him played by Ted Cassidy, whom Ken best resembles), but that only just goes to showcase that Ken's appearance is not just handsome, but also physically intimidating just like Megalodon, albeit in his own way.
• Unexplained Recovery: He provides the explanation of an event for something else's case. In Digimon Re: Tamers, it's not made clear how Japan recovers so quickly after the D-Reaper and Cobaldramon are dealt with. As we learn by a casual reference made by Ken in Reflection Code, he developed a technology would could allow him to craft entire cities using a massive materialization ray which while at the immense benefit of making him filthy rich and a Villain with Good Publicity, has him a wanted man by the Royal Knights to where he's only safe in the real-world, and the moment he steps foot on Digital World turf himself...

Other

AI#069 GEMINI

Debut: Sword Art Online: Special Edition

Voice Actor: Varies.

An AI designed for benevolent purposes for usage mostly popular with couples who are in long distance relationships. With this in mind, Gemini can split into two halves and take the form of the opposite of the couple depending on which half appears before who. Because of their popularity with couples, they were given the ability to adapt and learn to match their copied form's behavior and sexual preferences, meaning any couple who were Hormone Addled Teenagers could use them as a means of lovemaking without having to meet up in real life with expensive traveling fees to worry about. While at first glance this could seem unethical, the designers behind Gemini have long since verified that Gemini itself has no actual mind of its own and whatever mental programming it has is next to non-existent until it takes on someone's form. Due to how these entities worked, selling used versions of them is strictly prohibited due to a design flaw that makes it impossible for them to be recycled. Sales were not very strong initially due to initial controversy, and while the controversy had died down to a distant memory, so to do the Gemini units to the point even though they're still in usage, the general consensus appears to have them dead despite the fact younger couples have a much better time with them anew as if nothing was wrong, but often acquiring one was difficult since vendors were notoriously difficult to track down.

• A Form You Are Comfortable With: One half takes the form of a person or entity that the initial user wants to use for their half, and then the other half, before corresponding to the desires with the other half, asks the person or entity in question if they want to have this half take the form of the user who initiated this half seeking out the other's copied form.
• Meaningful Name: While its two halves aren't twins, the separate halves end up becoming twins for whomever they take the form of. Not to mention the Power Perversion Potential between the two.
• Mythology Gag: What becomes of the units used by Chronicler and Suguha after the second arc mirrors an older incarnation of Chronicler in which his actual name was Takuya and his Love Interest was named Sierra.
• Power Perversion Potential
• Shock and Awe: All versions of Gemini possess an incredibly high ranking electrical spell, but no version has the same type of spell.
• Wham Line: In the aftermath of the second arc in which the real Chronicler gets his ability to be in the real world back, Suguhasan asks and refers to her counterpart as Chroniclersan specifically if she can live the rest of her functioning days with Chroniclersan now that she knows that the real Chronicler no longer requires her. Chroniclersan likewise asks the same of the real Suguha, to which the duo both agree and give the two A.I.s freedom, in which they take on alternate renditions of the duo and become known Takuya and Sierra respectively.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Due to the type of being the replicant of Chronicler had to adapt to, and with Suguhasan's adaptations being transferred from Chroniclersan's immense increase in abilities, this specific model is dubbed "Gemini Phase 5" because of the ability they gained due to a mutation that allowed them to actually make the real Chronicler and Suguha physically react and see what their copied Gemini counterparts can do.

Stag

A very large ferret hob, and a highly aggressive and dangerous individual at Ryōtarō's household. Having survived a gunshot to the head which for all intents and purposes should've caused his head to explode open and kill him, instead what did explode was his overall sanity, causing him to recklessly kill jills at random, and even orphaned a much younger ferret after having killed its mother and the rest of its litter. Under the right circumstances, Stag can be an eerily calm individual at times when nothing is going on; as a very old ferret, he doesn't tend to do much aside from eat and sleep, and his hearing has degraded to the point of relying on his sense of smell to detect things and tell when feeding time arrives.

• Beyond the Impossible: His Establishing Character Moment from his backstory; he survived a gunshot to the head which should've caused his head to explode and kill him, but instead the only thing that exploded was his own sanity from that wound.

"Unknown"

The light elemental obscured by a black cowl encountered in Chapter 1 of Sword Art Online: Special Edition. It hasn't been encountered again on-screen since then, though some of the key observers of its initial onslaught suspect that perhaps it and Chronicler are one in the same. Regardless, it possesses crucial ability to move like an actual player using the MaterialEye, as the type of attacking and evasion movement it pulls against Kirito is not possible for an NPC character to pull off. It was last observed at Level 60, and is capable of inflicting status ailments that are normally not caused by actual combat alone.

• The AI Is A Cheating Bastard: It has somehow managed to replicate the movement of a MaterialEye player within SAO assuming it even isn't human to begin with, and it is also capable of forcefully inflicting just about every single type of status ailment to ensure its own escape by forcing any would-be pursuers into a massively debuffed state.
• Continuing is Painful: When it vanishes, it leaves an immense cloud of smoke that causes the "Deathly Ill" status, which is basically the Resurrection Sickness debuff from World of Warcraft but one that is under normal circumstances earned through repeated amounts of death and revival in a short manner of time. Hence why it lasts an hour instead of 10 minutes, and how virtually every major stat is given an absurd debuff as a consequence; the only way to cure this version of Deathly Ill is to wait out the timer.
• Leitmotif: "Twilit Battle"

SPOILER CHARACTER

UD-X CHRONICLER-PRIME/Ryusei Takato

Debut: Sword Art Online: Special Edition

Voice Actor: Sarah Natochenny

• Abusive Precursors
• Adaptational Badass: He's exactly unchanged from his abilities from Crazy Carousal, so he immediately blows the current Ultimorian Deities out of the water.
• Ax-Crazy
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Can perfectly survive in vacuum just fine.
• Big Bad: Of the first arc of Sword Art Online: Special Edition.
• Brainwashed and Crazy
• The Casanova: Tries to seduce Jeri, Ruki, and Suguha both with the temptation of giving all three of them their hidden desires for sexual activity. The only reason he doesn't actually sleep with either of them is because someone interrupts him from doing so.
• Demonic Possession: Of Chronicler and even Nobuyuki.
• Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal: He clearly thinks so, at least.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Is destroyed by the sheer power of emotions that fuels the Soul Link.
• Final Boss: Of the first arc of Sword Art Online: Special Edition.
• Freudian Excuse: Defied; he wants to purge the world of the Z.E.R.0. Materia, but he outright shows to be far worse than the dormant Z.E.R.0. Materia by actively being an antagonist monster during his whole debut. Chronicler Prime even admits he'll just torture you as you die in his grasp if you remotely sympathize with him.
• Hard Light
• Hero's Evil Predecessor: The original incarnation of Chronicler, and the prior owner of the Temporal Deity Rune.
• Knight Templar: Wants to prevent the Z.E.R.0. from having a second chance by completely destroying any possibility of it even existing, even if it means taking the whole multiverse with him a second time.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The mere instant he takes control of Chronicler's body is when the jokes end with the fight proper.
• Mind Rape: Abuses Nobuyuki cruelly with this even beyond the standards of what anyone else would do to him.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He allows for present Chronicler to achieve Phase 4 effortless because by possessing him, Chronicler-Prime stabilized Present!Chronicler's VNA to allow for him to access his Phase 4 form without any further issues.
• Omnicidal Maniac
• Physical God: Even more so than the current Ultimorian Deities.
• Purple Is Powerful: His entire body glows with a magenta glow to it once he takes over control of Present!Chronicler's body.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: Completely immeasurable by the standards of a normal Phase 4 Ultimorian Deity form.
• Superpowered Evil Side
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: He knows full well what powers his new would be vessel has, so him hijacking the control of the body from Nobuyuki and immediately displaying more competency in the battle showcases just how absurdly dangerous he is. Word of God even states he was designed to completely make absolute jokes of the canon villains.
• Wham Episode: His entire presence in the story completely changes everything. Just knowing alone that there are two Chroniclers is enough to make this noteworthy of him.
• Wham Shot: Any moment in which Chronicler's body glows magenta is a hint that Nobuyuki is being forced into a Mind Rape session while Chronicler Prime takes over.
• Would Hit a Girl: Violently tosses around the female leads like they were rag dolls, if he doesn't flat out try and choke them instead. Flat out kills Kazuto and Suguha's mother, which then proceeds to get Ken absolutely riled up against him.
• Would Hurt a Child: DEFINITELY has Mirror M angered at him for this factor.

UD-?? EXODUS

Debut: Sword Art Online: Special Edition

Voice Actor: Paul St. Peter

"God from the Machine"

EXODUS, AKA AI#999, is the most powerful AI ever recorded on the international database. Having a file size of 999 yottabytes, the AI would be incredibly dangerous if it ever materialized into reality like the others; due to its sheer size and programming function, it already has the ability to do so, but it appears to be oddly dormant. It takes the form of an absolutely gigantic, humanoid figure with a halo forged of pure energy in the form of a giant serpent. If Vishnu is stated by many to be the destroyer of worlds, than EXODUS lives up to the title of being based on the Mythological Shiva the Destroyer. The biggest mystery is that nobody knows who created EXODUS; perhaps EXODUS is a literal God in the machine; a Deus ex Machina that desired to create itself into the perfect, ideal incarnate form for itself to use and wield into the real world as a means of bringing about its own chaotic order to the real world and every known life-form to exist in the process.

Tropes relating to UD-?? EXODUS

• A God Am I: The mere instant it awakens it declares itself this, as it materializes into the real world and leaves a gigantic, several mile wide sinkhole where he stands.
• Arc Villain: Of the fifth arc of Sword Art Online: Special Edition, and also the True Final Boss of the story at the same time.
• Beyond the Impossible: Exodus was designed for usage in SAO Special Edition as for the developers to have bragging rights by claiming that they have ownership of the absolute strongest, most invincible boss in all of MMO gaming history; comparisons to other A.I.s given the stats of other contending bosses led to Exodus demolishing them in a single hit just by existing. Actually slaying Exodus himself takes well over 10 million players all gathering and waging war on Exodus' mortal coil, with the four Phase 7 protagonists restraining his omnipresent body from being able to intervene.
• Blasphemous Boast: He declares himself an Ultimorian Deity when he's clearly just an immensely supped up Ultrarian.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of God Mode Sues, Villain Sues, and Generic Doomsday Villain. While it is true that EXODUS is an incredibly powerful, immense God of a life-form, there's also the consideration that due to the interference with the natural order of the network world within the fic, that it was inevitable that the AI life-forms would emerge a champion to serve as their ultimate soldier; a very, VERY literal Deus ex Machina incarnate into physical form, as due to Ultimorian Deities already being a part of the story prior, its evolution into its current form was accelerated immensely to respond to what it perceived to be a threat to itself. In addition, the sheer incredible prowess it developed can be blamed on two things; the No-Nonsense Nemesis nature of EXODUS, and the fact Sixth Phase Ultimorians were already a thing long established in this story. Not only that, but Kazuto, Asuna, Suguha, and Keiko should never had access to such forms for themselves to begin with, it perceived that the threat was further intensified as the Ultimorian Deities infecting the local life-forms, so not only did it rise to power beyond what is currently known. As a result, it deemed itself an Ultimorian Deity because that was the only known name it could take for itself as it had risen to Phase 7; Phase 7 Ultimorians, by technicality, are always Ultimorian Deities official or not.
• Destroyer Deity: Based off of Shiva.
• Deus ex Machina: The trope personified.
• Eldritch Abomination: Jesus Christ...
• Expy: Of Deusmon, and God Grade Appmon and Ultra Level Digimon as a whole. In terms of his MMO physical coil, it's without question Kerafyrm.
• Foil: To Ultima; both of them are to varying degrees Deity of Human Origin, but rather than an egotistical asshole with a hidden heart of gold, EXODUS is a heartless monster with an even bigger ego.
• The Giant: 555 METERS TALL, GOOD LORD.
• Hard Light: A unique version in that it doesn't even need it; it can freely traverse all realities to and back because its sheer power by the time it's able to function allows it to essentially become The Omnipotent.
• Kaiju
• Lord British Postulate: 1 million players each per every server of the game gather to battle Exodus' mortal coil within SAO, reviving themselves en masse to evade instant death from Exodus, all the while the four Phase 7 protagonists restrain Exodus' omnipresent body outside of SAO.
• Metaphorically True: In terms of the continuity overall, he has never been the first actual Phase 7, because drastic situations often caused the Big Three to enter their Phase 7 forms like it wasn't a big deal; in Sword Art Online: Special Edition alone, however, he is indeed the first Phase 7 to appear in that story, but the same three deities who appeared in prior fics to achieve the state also appear in this one, but don't typically go any higher than Phase 6 because there's at least a reason they can't go Phase 7 or won't.^note Ultima prefers to not interfere at all unless It's Personal, and even then won't even go Phase 7 unless his life is in danger. Dragora needs to perform a fusion dance with another Ultimorian Deity or Kagubot to access his Phase 7, and then Grandis can go Phase 7 any time he has access to an Ultra Card, but due to how much bigger than average Exalted Grandis is, he barely uses it because while he can purely melee someone just fine with only the most mundane of collateral damage, he can't use any of the special moves on it without risking destroying an entire galaxy.
• Omnicidal Maniac
• Our Gods Are Greater: Has Ultima's ego, but here it's justified for his debut; he's the first-ever Phase 7 Ultimorian Deity known to have existed.
• Physical God: Comes with the job resume for this guy.
• Reality Warper
• Shout-Out: To Kerafyrm in terms of overall intent with his role in the Special Edition of SAO.
• Shown Their Work:
  • The guy's file size, in the yottabytes, in modern day computers would require SD cards occupying roughly twice the size of the Hindenburg to store for a single yottabyte. Considering EXODUS is a Kaiju nearly 555 meters tall, its sheer file size is translated into a gigantic, real life body to properly store its ungodly amount of data.
  • The slaying of EXODUS basically fictionalizes the real life events of the demise of the seemingly invincible Kerafyrm from EverQuest.
• Story-Breaker Power: Had he existed any earlier in the story, he would've been beyond stupidly overpowered. Justified with his power though considering he's the True Final Boss of Sword Art Online: Special Edition, and thus his immense power is justified.
• Square-Cube Law: Why this guy took so long to materialize and construct itself prior to establishing itself as a major threat.
• True Final Boss: Of Sword Art Online: Special Edition, due to the fact literally nobody else possible outside of the Primordial Deities could remotely pose anywhere near a threat as it can.
• Ultimate Lifeform: His debut IMMEDIATELY dethrones ALL of the prior Ultimorian Deities in terms of his sheer power; he's the first ever Phase 7, and it definitely shows how he bridges the gap between Phase 6 Ultimorian Deities, and Phase 8 Primordial Deities, indicating that the two different types of deity once shared a missing link only just now being reborn.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: He makes every other villain in the canon or otherwise in Sword Art Online: Special Edition into nothing more than specks in an eternal void of an ocean by comparison.
• Voice of the Legion: It's voiced by Paul St. Peter after all.
• Walking Spoiler: Its existence throws everyone for a loop and makes everyone realize that they need to act fast to deal with this guy.
• Weaksauce Weakness: The only way to actually kill him is to battle his mortal coil in SAO, which upon the death of his mortal coil practically shatters the defenses of his omnipresent self elsewhere.
• Wham Line: "I am a Seventh Phase Ultimorian Deity; EXODUS! Prepare for Judgment!"