Fanfic / The Moon's Flash Princess

The Moon's Flash Princess is a Sword Art Online/Sailor Moon fanfiction series Crossover that posits the potential of what could happen if the Sword Art Online game was created in a world where the Senshi fight daily to keep the evil Dark Kingdom at bay.

The story itself begins in a similar way to the Progressive canon light novel: Kirito, going into the First Floor Labyrinth, encounters Asuna as she fights the local monsters and her own despair over being trapped in a deadly world. As the two forge deep bonds within the deadly virtual world, it becomes obvious that there is more to both of them, their friends and Aincrad that what is immediately apparent.

So far, this series is formed by the following stories:

Stories

• Book 1: Surviving Aincrad (Complete): The players of the virtual world of Aincrad, led by Kirito and Asuna, fight to free themselves from the trap they have found themselves in because of the actions of the Dark Kingdom, while Akihiko Kayaba attempts to aid the players as best as possible and the Senshi seek the one who can truly lead them in their war against the Dark Kingdom: the reincarnation of Princess Serenity. SpaceBattles Link, Archive of Our Own Link.
• Book 2: Waltz of the Unseelie Court (Complete): Aincrad's Final Boss has been defeated, and the Sword Art Online veterans have earned their freedom - save for three hundred players who mysteriously remain connected. Now, the veterans, their allies and their leaders, Princess Asuna and Commander Kirito, look for the reasons why their three hundred companions remain asleep while they prepare themselves for the war against humanity's greatest enemy. SpaceBattles Link, Archive of Our Own Link.
  • The SpaceBattles thread has two canon sidestory arcs that occur between the events of Waltz of the Unseelie Court and Black Sniper.
    • The Mars Sidestory, Fallout: Mars Edition, was compiled and posted on Archive of Our Own and can be found here.
• Book 3: Black Sniper (In-progress): With the Dark Kingdom having been destroyed, Kirito and Asuna think they can settle back into something that resembles a normal life. Yet when Kirito goes to investigate some suspicious deaths involving the American Game Gun Gale Online, it becomes the beginning of bigger problems for there is a reason why time travel causes headaches… SpaceBattles Link, Archive of Our Own Link.

This Fanfiction series has examples of the following Tropes:

Tropes A-H

• Actually Pretty Funny: Lind acknowledges that Kirito (who begins the story as a fourteen year old) reading the riot act to him and Kibaou during one of their pre-boss fight meetings was fun, and requests a friend to get a recording of the next time it happens.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Kazuto's parents died in one of the first Youma attacks, instead of a car accident - and he not only witnessed the attack, but only survived thanks to a few magical words he had learned from his brother Akihiko.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: LLENN and Pitohui are originally from Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, but they're part of the group working to clear Sword Art Online here.
• Adaptational Heroism: Kayaba is a good guy in the story and created SAO and ALO to train people up to assist the Senshi, and Lila Rossi is confirmed to be a superheroine.
• Adaptation Dye-Job:
  • Rather than looking almost identical to Usagi, Minako is pretty much an older and fitter Asuna, as befitting of her duty as the double of Princess Serenity and her reincarnation.
  • Did result in a minor panic when she was seven, as her hair and eye colors suddenly changed to be the same colors that Asuna has, on the day that Asuna was born.
• Affectionate Nickname: Kebechet is regularly called by a diminutive of her original name, Skuggi, by Rameses. Only family is allowed to call her that.
• All There in the Manual: The forums have a great deal of expansion on elements of the story, with explanations of magic, characters, and general world building.
• Artificial Intelligence:
  • Cardinal, Yui and Strea, like in canon.
  • Averted with Kizmel. When her actions begin to become way too advanced for her expected limitations, Kayaba began to suspect that her real life counterpart (Princess Serenity's bodyguard, on whom he had modeled said character) was still alive. She was, and the Senshi bring her and her sister Tilnel out of their cryogenic pods in the Moon.
  • Also Camilla, the main AI of ALO. She aids Kirito and Asuna in helping free the players trapped in ALO as well.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Kirito, being a bit of a Pretty Boy, and can pull this off to Wholesome Crossdresser levels.
  • Rameses, at least in Silica's eyes. Granted, those times tend to also coincide with him being Dragged into Drag by people who know how to dress him up and make him look good doing it.
• Badass Adorable:
  • Silica, of course. Made more so since she was recruited into the DDA by Lind and learning their own brand of fighting.
  • Umi, despite being only ten, killed a Youma without using weapons or active magic and later captured on of the DD Girls. Granted, she's Half-Spriggan and Half-Youma, which helped.
• Badass Normal: Kathy Mills, Agil's wife, kills a Youma just with an axe.
• Badass Preacher: Boxy, a former Youma that becomes a Catholic priest, acts as a Good Shepherd to anyone that requests his help (no matter their religion) and is not afraid to fight with his bare hands in defense of others.
• Bare-Fisted Monk:
  • Boxy, if he has to fight, prefers to fight without a weapon in his hands, despite carrying a mace on his person, due to the fact that none of the weapons he's tried ever felt right in his hands.
  • Sailor V may have a sword at home, but prefers killing youma with her considerable martial arts skills.
• Battle Couple: Kirito and Asuna.
• Berserk Button:
  • Kirito's is players in SAO killing other players even though they have been warned that it would kill them in real life. Of course, there's also threatening Asuna.
    • Jadeite is also one for him as he was the one that killed his parents, to the point where he will focus his efforts on killing the Shitennou any time he appears in Kirito's sight.
  • Go ahead, threated to harm one of Rameses' family. That worked out ''real'' well for you, didn't it, Zoicite?
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: The Silver Empire had a Venusian Pepper, now grown on Aincrad, known as the Narakada Pepper. A pinch of dried and ground pepper is often used by Rameses to add some spice to meals he cooks, and Silica, who tried a pinch of it straight, compared it to eating actual fire.
  • During an SA visit to Aincrad, some who were staying Persephone's manor on the nineteenth floor, had a little challenge of eating a small plate of a Venusian dish covered in the sauce. The winner? LLENN, who says that it isn't quite as spicy as a ghost pepper, which she had tried on a visit to Aomori once.
• Breather Episode: Chapter 43 of Surviving Aincrad, aptly titled A Day of Rest. After several floors of tough battles, the Clearers take advantage of the snowy weather of Europa to have snowball fights and build snowmen, allowing everyone to decompress at long last.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe:
  • Inverted. Kayaba's warning about players dying in Real Life if they died in the game was fundamental to prevent said deaths from happening. This is because the virus that caused SAO to become a Death Game had such a loophole.
  • The SAO survivors' capacity to use their Sword Skills in real life seems to stem from this. The fact that Asuna and Kazuto got married in SAO is enough for magic to consider them married in real life.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • Kirito has no problem with attacking opponents from behind, as shown by him killing Kunzite and Jadeite in this manner.
  • This is the standard MO for members of the DDA, who tend to not fight nice or fair.
  • Silica and Minako: the former once downed Sailor Uranus with a surprise Groin Attack, and the latter reacted to that incident by declaring her a natural... And that she'd teach her how to really fight dirty.
• Composite Character: Asuna is also Sailor Moon.
• Contrived Coincidence: Suguha Kirigaya, while seeking a VR game to help her understand her brother Kazuto's love for such games, meets Kouichirou Yuuki, who not only is part of the company that is creating Alfheim Online (and can thus provide her with a beta version of the game), but also has access to his sister Asuna (Kazuto's Love Interest)'s streaming of what's going on within Aincrad.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: How Asuna has a thing for dressing up people who annoy her. It's all in good fun though and everyone knows she's just taking the piss out of them.
• Crossover: Aside the obvious, we have a few:
  • In real life, Sasha and Ashley are actually Sakura Kinomoto and Tomoyo Daidouji.
  • At one point Minako got a phone call from a friend from abroad, namely Lila Rossi. Thankfully, a number of omake imply she never Took a Level in Jerkass as a teen, and instead became nicer, with a side story confirming she's a superheroine.
• Crush Blush: During their first weeks together, Kirito and Asuna blush whenever they look at each other, particularly if they are looking cute or adorable.
• Cunning Linguist:
  • Rameses and Kebechet are fluent in three languages (Graelic, Alvarin and Lunarian) even before they come to Earth, having both learned Lunarian due to it being the Lingua Franca of the Silver Millennium and having taught each other their own native languages when they were kids. Both are working on adding Japanese to that list.
  • Minako is known to be fluent in French, English and Italian alongside Japanese due growing up abroad, and may know other languages.
  • Aside for her first language, Lila Rossi is fluent in at least English (as a diplomat and daughter of a diplomat, a necessity), French and Japanese (though she has a bit of accent in the latter), and possibly other languages. Her fluency in Japanese is good enough to improvise some Spoonerism on the fly for a joke's sake.
  • it is implied that being bilingual was common during the Silver Millennium due to Lunarian being the Lingua Franca of the empire, meaning that many people spoke that on top of their own native language.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: A Youma attempts to attack Rinko while she's out and about with Ēkate. The Sabercat pounces on it and kills it in two seconds, top.
• Cute Kitten: Thalia, a sabercat kitten and is the only remaining kitten from Queen Serenity's last litter.^note Turning into a sabercat and having had litters was a known kink of hers. She also likes to be in Kirito's hair and does a good job at it, despite her silver fur.
• Damsel in Distress: Played with in Silica's case, as she breaks free from the trap she is in, evaded most of Sugou's assistants and is well on her way to finish her escape before she is recaptured - and even then she manages to arrange a way to send a message to her friends so they know where she is.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique:
  • Rameses knows one and is ordered by Asuna to never use it again when he does against Mistress 9 and nearly kills himself in the process.
  • Using magic, particularly when one is not used to the strain it, can also qualify. The overuse of magic has pain as the least significant potnetial consequence, with serious injury or death being likely ones if the person doesn't take the hint and stop.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Dark Magic is a thing here and it is one of the magical affinities in the story, with several characters having it as their primary affinity. At the same time, the converse can be true.
• Decomposite Character: Usagi is still around, she just isn't Serenity's reincarnation.
• Dragged into Drag: A favorite punishment of Asuna's when it comes to males under her who get on her bad side, as Rameses and Kirito have learned.
  • Kirito can also pull it off to Wholesome Crossdresser levels due to his rather effeminate figure and his ability to act feminine.
• Defictionalization: In story, at least. Aincrad and Alfheim were actual places in the story's past. The locations of where both were are known and Alfheim's implied to still be there. It is later discovered that Aincrad is not only still there and functional, but still inhabited.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • Among the Aincrad survivors, the ones who went out of the City of Beginnings and tried to beat the game, or at least adapt to the new world, have been changed by the experience and started acquiring a different and more aggressive set of values, including finding personal strength more important. They also find weird the idea of no-contact Karate.
  • Having spent much of her childhood in Europe, Minako is more in line with European values than Japanese ones.
  • Lila Rossi is Italian and proud of it, and acts accordingly.
• Despair Event Horizon: Saturn's being Awakened in her Bringer of Silence role by the other Outer Senshi is heavily implied to be a result of this and it is the reason why Setsuna hasn't told the current Senshi of Uranus and Neptune just how the Silver Millennium came to an end so that she can prevent the two of them from passing it in the modern era. A reason that Asuna agrees with, though she is keeping that knowledge in reserve to use if necessary.
• The Dreaded:
  • Jadeite is this for the whole of Minato Ward, to the point that his death causes ward-wide celebrations.
  • Healer Hakonia Fjensdottir is this on Aincrad, mostly because of her tendency to give the third-degree to those who end up in her care with severe injuries that were the result of what she sees as recklessness and stupidity.
  • Sword Wraiths for the population of Aincrad due to their being apex predators, their ability to shapeshift, and being very hard to kill under normal circumstances. To be clear, whenever just one makes its presence known, an entire squad of elite soldiers is dispatched and they are lucky if the result is half the squad only being hospitalized afterward.
• Due to the Dead: Boxy and Rei are brought on the expedition to the Moon, specifically to properly lay the dead there to rest.
  • A sidestory after Waltz of the Unsellie Court has this done in Thessonia on Mars for the thousands, and implied to be tens of thousands of dead initial survivors of The Fall who died when their stasis pods failed.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Kyouji Shinkawa (Shino's friend from the Gun Gale Online arc), appears during the SAO incident in the Youma attack on the Dicey Cafe.
  • LLENN and Pitohui make an early appearance, with the latter not having foregone playing SAO on the opening day like she did in canon.
• Elemental Powers: Magics are divided into seven affinities, with some talents not linked to affinities themselves. All the characters have a primary affinity, with many having a secondary affinity as well. A few have two primary affinities.
  • Light Magic
  • Dark Magic
  • ShadowMagic
  • Water Magic
  • Fire Magic
  • Earth Magic
  • Wind Magic
• Everyone Can See It: Just about everyone who ran into Kirito and Asuna could tell that they were sweet on each other long before they made their relationship official, to the point that they were placing bets as to when the two would get married in SAO.
  • Rameses and Silica get a bit of this as well, though it is less blatantly obvious as it was with Kirito and Asuna that there is something there.
• Everyone Is Armed: The real Aincrad is a downplayed example due to the ability of nearly everyone outside of children to pull them out of Hammerspace means that if they do have a weapon in it, they can easily go from unarmed to armed in short order. Given how dangerous the wildlife can be outside of the settlements, this is necessary.
• Famous Ancestor: The sabercats Ēkate, Rājakumāri, and Thalia are descended from Queen Serenity, a descent that is noted by a crescent moon pattern on their fur somewhere on their bodies. Thalia is from the last litter Queen Serenity gave birth to.
• Faster-Than-Light Travel: Played straight with the Senshi teleportation, so long as they have been to a location before or already have a strong connection to it and it isn't too far away. Averted with magitech teleportation, though the teleport is brief enough that it may seem instantaneous to those being teleported.
• Foreshadowing: Early in the story, Cardinal asks Kayaba about the second SAO GM account, and Kayaba states it was meant for his brother, should he find him. A few months into the game, Kayaba finds out that Kirito is actually his brother Kazuto.
  • The discovery and elimination of Persephone's possession early on in Waltz and her observations that Mugen gives her a bad vibe means that they do a cursory investigation on it and run into a ward that alerts them that something is going on there, even if they have to shelve finding out what until after the Dark Kingdom is taken care of.
• Gender Bender: One aspect of Shadow Magic is the Metamorphosis spell, which allows the caster or the target to change form. One of the capabilities of it is to change gender, which Rameses has had done to him by his sister for an as yet specified reason and left that way for two months. The change is also a complete change, meaning that if one's gender is changed, they are fully functional in that gender. Because of this, homosexuality was less stigmatized during the Silver Millennium due to one of the primary issues, the inability to produce children from such unions, not being a factor.
• God in Human Form: The Sailor Senshi's past lives were at the origin of many mythological divinities. Most notably, Haruka's past life was Hathor, Egyptian goddess of femininity (though their reincarnations haven't picked up on that yet).
  • Hinted that Minako is well aware of her past life's name of Inanna due to her being the Senshi of Venus, and thus is aware that many Goddesses of Love were often Goddesses of Love and War, which fits her role as leader of the Inner Senshi.
  • Several rulers of the Silver Millennium have been deified posthumously for deeds that are exceptional even by the standards of the time, which usually killed them in the process, and are worshipped as Goddesses. Yes, even the only male who was deified is a Goddess in their religion.
• Guns Are Worthless:
  • Downplayed with current Earth firearms. Guns do work, but require either applications of a lot of bullets or are overpowered, and thus dangerous to use in a crowded urban environment, limiting how useful they can be due to the fighting happening in Tokyo. Silver Millennium-Era firearms are more effective, able to kill weaker Youma in one shot and cause damage to stronger ones, but there is only one.
  • Rameses, the owner, also only used it once and doesn't do so again due to the fact that there is too much risk of bystanders getting caught in the crossfire as well as how using one would draw unwanted attention from the authorities. He also won't let anyone use it until they have been specifically trained in its use for their own safety and the safety of others, which he is not qualified to give.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Well, Half-Faerie, but Umi Yorohoshka is Half-Spriggan and Half-Youma.
  • The Guardians (Senshi) of Jupiter have traditionally been Half-Human, Half-Faerie during the Silver Millennium after the Faeries of Alfheim were made genetically compatible with humans. There have been exceptions, with one Human, and three Faeries, having held that position due to the office not being traditionally held by a single family.
• Happily Adopted:
  • Yui and Strea are adopted by Kirito and Asuna.
  • Kebechet, the sister of Rameses, is a Spriggan who was adopted by his parents in the aftermath of The Fall due to her parents being killed and her brother being missing and presumed dead.
• Heel–Face Turn: Several Youma have turned their backs on the Dark Kingdom.
  • Heel–Faith Turn: One of them, Boxy, got ordained as a Catholic priest. Grandpa Hino is a Shinto Priest.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Princess Serenity killed herself to screw with the Dark Kingdom's plans.
  • Averted with Rameses, who used a spell to increase the amount of magic he can use beyond safe levels and it would have killed him had Persephone not Awakened as Sailor Saturn and used her healing powers on him.
• Human Subspecies: The Silver Empire had four extant subspecies of humans spread throughout it, with all of them represented on Aincrad: Humeri (Homo sapiens), Andallin (Neanderthals), Syveri (Denisovans) and Elves.
  • Another subspecies, the Erenni (Homo heidelbergensis) that existed in the Empire's past, has died out. Though due to the Elves being so very closely related to them, it is possible that the Erenni became the Elves.

Tropes I-Z

• I Hate Past Me:
  • Variation. Several of the reincarnated characters have "zombie" versions of their past lives running around, working for the Dark Kingdom, and they all hate them. Reincarnated!Beryl, in particular, hopes to be able to destroy Queen Beryl.
  • Asuna dislikes her memories of Serenity because they interfere with her own life.
  • Sailor Pluto with respect to her previous incarnation, due to her role in ending the Silver Millennium and is deliberately withholding that knowledge from Uranus and Neptune, who don't remember their prior lives roles in that tragedy.
• I Have Many Names:
  • Kirito's real name is Kazuto Kirigaya formerly Kazuto Kayaba. His partner/girlfriend/wife Asuna calls him "Kirito-kun" and "Dark Sun", his main in-game nickname is "The Black Swordsman", but his most important title is "The Commander".
  • Asuna gets quite a few of her own. Kirito calls her "Asuna-hime" and "White Moon", her nom-de-guerre is "The Lightning Flash", but for the most part she is "The Princess". She also uses Cerridwen, the name of Princess Serenity's grandmother, when she's out on patrol as a Senshi.
  • Kebechet has a few. One, her current name, which she received upon being adopted by the Soulfires, her birth name of Skuggað Ljós Næturvalla, and the Affectionate Nickname of Skuggi her adoptive brother uses.
• Inspired by…: Ami, as Sailor Mercury, has been shown to to design magic spells to use in combat inspired by Bullet Hell type games.
• Ironic Name: The Senshi of Neptune during the Silver Millennium was named Nakama, which means Companion in Japanese and was well known to be antisocial and undiplomatic during that era, only doing the bare minimum required for social niceties. Her reincarnation, on the other hand, is far politer and more diplomatic, though still a private person.
• Irony: Sugou chose the name Oberon for his ALO avatar, since Oberon is supposedly the King of Fairies. When the real Oberon appears... he's the chief of security AND a subordinate of Heathcliff.
  • The Senshi of Uranus and Neptune from the Silver Millennium when compared to their reincarnations.
• It's Okay If It's You: The only person allowed to call Asuna "Asuna-hime" or "Princess" (to her face, at least) is Kirito.
• Lady and Knight: How the relationship between Asuna and Kirito plays out.
• Language Barrier: Subverted with Rameses and Kebechet as several characters, know one of the languages (mainly Lunarian) they are fluent in and are thus able to communicate with and translate for them until they can learn Japanese.
  • Downplayed with Elerin, as by the time she enters the main story, several months have passed and she is learning Japanese.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Akihiko Kayaba reveals to Kirito that they are siblings.
• Meaningful Name: Yomi, a youma who has turned from the Dark Kingdom, took this as her name.
• Mega Neko: Sabercats, which are a breed of cat that is descended from Aincrad's Sabertigers, with small adults being about the size of a fully grown Maine Coon. They are also highly intelligent and are notably loyal to any humans they have bonded with and live longer than domestic cats do. Ēkate, a Sabercat-domestic cat mix, has been called a small tiger and is at least thirteen years old, given that Kirito adopted him (or he adopted Kirito) when he was still being raised by his parents.
• Miko: Silica is training to be one under Rei Hino as part of her official reason for why she is residing at the Hikawa Shrine, rather than living with her family due to them having to keep Pina's existence a secret.
• Mercy Kill: Rameses, in a sidestory accompaniment to Chapter 27, has to do this when he fights an undead family member and performs the equivalent of Last Rites at the end of the battle to send him on his way.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Kirito and Asuna get married and buy the log cabin in Aincrad's 22nd Floor.
  • Usagi's SAO name is Luna.
    • She is also confused by the Senshi save for Minako, for being Princess Serenity's reincarnation at first glance due to her looking very much like the long dead princess. Which is fair, considering that most of the Senshi look similar to how they did in their past lives except for Minako, who could be confused for being Asuna's older sister on first glance.
• No Biochemical Barriers: Played straight with the Faeries and humans due to genetic engineering of the former in the distant past. Their ancestors were an aversion, however.
• Noodle Incident: Rameses muses on one, likening things going well until the world decides to mess with people by remembering an incident where a stampede of Ragout Rabbits knocked out a dragon, scattered its hoard, and caused it to wake up in a bad mood. As he remembers, it was a ''fun'' month that required half the Tamers, three full militias and an entire regiment of the Royal Guard to get things back under control.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Persephone, as Sailor Saturn, tends to bring this reaction out by those who know what she's capable of. Rameses is frozen in fear when she heals him as he knows what her powers are capable of.
  • Rameses has this again when he kills Zoicite and the possibility that what they have been fighting are considered The Dreaded on Aincrad, and for good reason.
• Our Elves Are Different: Elves on Aincrad are a subspecies of human (scientific name: Homo dryadalis), with the Faeries (scientific name: Nerida magiea) of Alfheim taking the role of elves due to not being a subspecies of human. Albeit, one that has been willingly genetically modified from their archaic ancestors thirty thousand years in the story's past to be genetically compatible with humans due to having reached a population bottleneck where the population was dangerously close to becoming unsustainably low.
  • Ironically, the very thing that made them genetically compatible with humans resulted in an increase in fertility that lasted for generations and resulted in a population rebound without necessitating them interbreeding with humans.
• Past-Life Memories:
  • The reincarnated characters have memories of their past life. Some of them adapt better than the others - for example, during the Tenth Floor (a reconstruction of the Moon during the times of the Silver Empire), Asuna struggles to keep Serenity's memories from overwhelming her.
  • Heavily implied that all reincarnations have to deal with this at some point and most don't take it well but learn to cope.
  • Those with such memories don't have access to all of them immediately, with most having to be triggered by some outside event. This is played both for laughs and for drama depending on the context.
    • On the drama side of things, Persephone had to be talked down from committing suicide when her memories began to hit her.
    • For hilarity, Asuna learning of how Princess Serenity became the mother of several of Aincrad's Fethered Dragons, with Pina being a descendant of the late princess.
• Performance Anxiety: Kirito states multiple times that he feels uncomfortable when talking to large groups of people. Unfortunately, events in Aincrad conspire against him, forcing him into the spotlight as he begins to take on the role of Commander.
• Poor Communication Kills: Had Akihiko paid more attention to his aunt Midori, he would have discovered that his brother Kazuto had survived the attack that killed their parents and been adopted by Midori.
• Power Incontinence: Rameses, after he survived using a Dangerous Forbidden Technique, has to practice controlling his magical output to using only just enough, rather than too much due to an increase in his magical reserves.
• Reincarnation: Several characters are reincarnations of people from the past.
• Reincarnation Romance: Averted. Asuna does not even consider the possibility of getting together with the reincarnation of Serenity's lover, Mamoru - which is good, because he's engaged with Beryl's reincarnation.
• Related in the Adaptation: Akihiko Kayaba is Kazuto's older brother.
• Reluctant Ruler: One thing Asuna and Kirito have in common is their reluctance to take the leadership positions pretty much everyone else knows they are fated to take.
• Rescue Romance: Kirito helps Asuna when she faints in the First Floor Labyrinth. This kickstarts their mutual attraction.
• The Scapegoat: Kirito willingly takes this role to get the hatred away from the beta-testers.
• Scars Are Forever: Rameses has several on his body, including two on his shoulders where, in one case, he had to have an arm reattached afterward.
• She Is the King: Well, Queen in this case, but every ruler of the Silver Empire has still been called Queen or Empress depending on age, with the heir still being called the Crown Princess, even if they were male. With the requisite regalia that implies. This is explicitly due to tradition, and the fact that male rulers or heirs were a rarity.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Heavily implied with the Senshi due to the constant fighting against the Dark Kingdom. This is an important plot point, as it is what prompted Kayaba to create SAO and ALO and implied to be the reason for which Project Alicization was created.
• Shipper on Deck: Pretty much every character that meets Kirito and Asuna cheer on them getting together - the only difference of opinion is on when it will happen.
  • In the second, many people who see them seem to think that Rameses and Silica would make a cute couple. Both of them are also aware of it and their denials of anything going on would have more basis were they not so obviously attracted to each other. Though Rameses' sister also ships them for reasons other than the fact that she thinks they would make a cute couple.
• Ship Tease:
  • Kirito and Asuna from pretty much the beginning.
  • Starting in Book 2, Rameses and Silica.
• Shout-Out:
  • Numerous ones to Star Wars.
    • Beryl called Klein a nerf-herder.
    • When forced to fight on the beach, Kirito says "I hate sand. It gets everywhere", quoting Anakin from Attack of the Clones.
    • During the raid to rescue any surviving prisoners, Kirito is shown running away, saying it was a boring conversation anyway and that they have company, referencing Han's lines from when he was stalling the Imperials over the comms in the cell block.
    • During the Silver Army's exploration of the Moon to find still working spaceships, they encounter one that is almost identical (if bigger in size) to the Millenium Falcon - which is in fact introduced with What a Piece of Junk.
    • Even better, that's actually it's name. When they all lampshade it afterwards and use quotes from A New Hope, the recently recovered Oberon Nyx admits that those words are very much like how the ship's pilot talked about it.
    • During the rescue mission to save those who were captured during previous Black Moon Clan operations, the Black Moon Clan coins on to their presence. Demand responds with "Send the Droids" referencing The Phantom Menace.
  • The Droid that Kirito fights at the beginning of Black Sniper has a roar similar to the Regi Line.
  • Silica outright muses to herself that she has a strange sense of fun, but that's to be expected if you live in Nerima.
  • Some of the mobs that appear are Land Dragons and sandworms.
  • When facing a crystal hydra on the quest for the [Crystal Crafting] skill, Persephone says, "Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?"
  • While helping Luna on a quest for materials that are a Rare Random Drop, Silica says the experience is starting to feel a lot like shiny hunting.
    • The Floor 17 boss is Kyurem, with it becoming White Kyurem in the final phase.
• Sick Episode: While in Aincrad, there's one chapter where Kirito suffers an illness that affects him in the game, and another where the same happens to Asuna.
• Side Bet:
  • Multiple characters join in a bet on when Kirito and Asuna will get married.
  • Another one gets started by Lind, Schivata and Silica with regards to Umi, on how long it will be for her to wrap the rest of the guild around her little finger.
• Sleep Cute: From the day they met, Asuna and Kirito have shared a bed. There's even a Running Gag about Asuna complaining that "her pillow" (Kirito) was not there.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Merida, who died before the Mother's Rosario arc of SAO, has her tumor treated and healed by Persephone. Yuuki and her sister, who had AIDS in canon, have it reduced to "merely" HIV and research is being done to see if they can be cured before resorting to Persephone simply eliminating their disease and their immune systems to rebuild the latter from the ground up later.
  • Outside of the 213 who died on the first day, most of those who died in SAO canon survived dying inside SAO, though many were adversely affected. Most of those who still died in reality died because they didn't believe that death in SAO would kill them, that belief being the escape clause necessary to not'' die from Zoicite's curse.
• Supreme Chef: Asuna, which is both played straight and for laughs. Rameses is also quite a good cook, though more familiar with cooking up military rations and using anything he's scrounged to make good meals.
• Symbol Motif Clothing: Kirito and Asuna's combined symbol, the White Crescent Moon over the Dark Sun. Asuna makes a scarf for Kirito with that symbol (which gives him a stat boost), and Argo gifts them a pair of earrings made by Usagi (one for each of them) with the same symbol.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted, but most of them have either already formed their own opinions on the survivors or plan to put them through a medical regime that will prevent them from being able to act normally. This results in Kayaba working on attempting to bring in therapists who have experience with potential PTSD cases to take care of the SAO Survivors' mental health.
• Those Two Guys: Asuna and Kirito are barely seen separated in Aincrad.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Kibaou and Lind, the leaders of SAO's main guilds in the first floors, can't spend a pre-boss fight meeting that does not have them arguing with each other.
• We Will Wear Armor in the Future: Asuna, as many of her soldiers as possible, and the Silver Millennium survivors wear armor that was brought from Aincrad by Persephone when in combat. They begin with reinforced kevlar armor, which is something they could potentially acquire via the black market or through contacts that their members have due to even the comparatively poor protection it offers being better than nothing.
  • Zigzagged with the Senshi: after Asuna's first transformation modified their outfits based on her own they all found themselves in armor, but before that most were unarmored, the exception being Mars' full suit of armor and and Venus' armored pauldrons-something of a pet peeve for Venus, as she would have wanted more armor from the start (and is surprisingly knowleadgeable when it comes to chainmail types).
• Wham Line: In Chapter 33 of Waltz of the Unseelie Court, Kirito captures one of the D.D. Girls due to suspicions he has about her identity and after Titania finishes a scan of Kirito, Heathcliff, and the Youma:
  Titania: The results are in, and yes… this Youma is, or at least was, your mother.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Rameses gets slapped and royally chewed out by Rei after his use of a Dangerous Forbidden Technique to fight off Mistress 9, as he knew full well what it would do to him when he used it, knows better than to draw on and use that much magical power, and had others present who were powerful enough to deal with her. He explains why he used it and is unrepentant about it, but he accepts the order from Asuna to never use that technique again as well as her punishment.
• Worf Had the Flu: The Sailor Soldiers are nowhere near their best due the stress of the decade-long fight against the Dark Kingdom.

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