BACKSTORY
In the year 2022, a new VRMMORPG was introduced to save the dying MMORPG genre of games. This game was Sword Art Online (SAO), created by one Kayaba Akihiko. Using a piece of technology called the Nervegear, the user would completely immerse themselves in the game, utilizing their senses to control their ingame character. Naturally, SAO become a big hit during the Beta Test. On November 6th, 10,000 players log into SAO to find out that they are unable to log out, and that in order to escape, they must beat the boss of Floor 100 of Aincrad. There was also another, deadlier twist: If a player dies in-game or has the Nervegear forcibly removed, the Nervegear will fry their brain, killing them.
Amongst these 10,000 trapped players was one Kirigaya Kazuto, going by Kirito in-game. He was a Beta Tester for the game, and, to avoid other Beta Testers getting discriminated against for the actions of ones who hope only to benefit themselves, he isolates himself and dons the title 'Beater' (A mix between Beta Tester and Cheater). The players progress through the game and Kirito eventually ends up befriending one Asuna Yuuki, who he eventually falls in love with and marries in-game.
On Floor 75, Kirito outs the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath, Heathcliff, to be Kayaba in disguise, and defeats him in a duel, clearing SAO and freeing the survivors.
However, 300 players had not woken up, despite the fact that they should have, including Asuna. Upon seeing an image of someone who appears to be Asuna in another VRMMORPG, Alfheim Online, Kirito heads there to investigate, eventually uncovering and foiling the plot of one Nobuyuki Sugou to create mind-control technology, which was being tested on the 300 trapped players, who were all freed, as well as reconciling with his adoptive sister/cousin Suguha, who he had begun to isolate himself from due to learning they weren't actually brother and sister.
Some time later, Kirito agrees to assist in the investigation of the 'Death Gun' incident, which had a player in the VRMMORPG Gun Gale Online named Death Gun shooting players in-game only for them to die in real life. Assisted by a female player called Sinon, Kirito eventually uncovers the truth about the case, and two of the three culprits are arrested. The third manages to escape.
This proves to bite Kirito back hard, as at some point after this, Kirito is attacked by that very same person, and injected with a lethal injection. Medics manage to save his life, but his memory is damaged, so he is put into the Soul Translator's new VRMMORPG, Underworld, to recover. He eventually recovers his memories and puts a stop to Johnny Black (His attacker), and PoH (One of his accomplices) who had been terrorizing Underworld.
PERSONALITY
Kirito is not good with words. He's blunt and not afraid to speak his mind, and sometimes enjoys teasing others and being somewhat rude. He is also susceptible to the occasional bout of overconfidence. He's most often calm and collected, but he is a fierce opponent in battle- sometimes fierce enough that he doesn't remember what he did in battle, once the battle ends. Kirito, however, is a kind person and refuses to abandon those in need, only strengthened with the demise of the Moonlit Black Cats, his first guild. Kirito is also prone to letting his emotions control him. Most notably, the deaths of Moonlit Black Cats haunted Kirito until he married Asuna, and this worries his friends, as Kirito is someone who would let their life be ruined by guilt if not comforted.
Above all else though, Kirito has an incredibly strong resolve, and will work to do anything he sets his mind to, even if it's impossible. Most notably when Yui, his in-game adoptive daughter (who's also an AI) with Asuna, confirmed that Asuna was at the top of the World Tree, Kirito just rushed in and attempted to reach the top, despite finding the task to be impossible.
ABILITIES
Due to the nature of Kirito's abilities, and him being inside video games for most of his feats, The best way to look at his abilities is by game, but first the constants should be what he carries in between games. Most notably his Outside System Skills, which are techniques performed outside the usual means of the games. Kirito's first Outside System Skill is Arms Blast, with which he can break an opponent's weapon by striking its weak point. Next, there's Spell Blast, which allows Kirito to cut through magic. Bullet Deflect allows Kirito to stop Bullets with his sword, Distinguish allows Kirito to isolate sounds in a VR space, focusing only irregular sounds. Hypersense is a skill which allows Kirito to sense peoples' presence through their killing intent. Lastly, in order to make up for the fact that the <Dual Blades> skill doesn't exist in ALO, he created Skill Connect, which allows him to chain multiple One-Handed Sword Skills together while wielding two swords. Kirito is also capable of using Sword Skill Imitation to recreate Sword Skills from SAO and ALO without assistance from the system, as he demonstrated in GGO with <Horizontal Square>.
Next, let's look at his Sword Skills from SAO. Kirito has a wide variety of Sword Skills,
Kirito, having a complete mastery over 1-Handed Straight Sword skills, likely knows any and all known Skills of said Category. He also has some skill in Martial Arts, Battle Healing, Stealth and... Fishing?
In SAO, he also has the Extra Skill Dual Blades, with which he can use dual-wielding Sword techniques.
Here is a list of the skills that Kirito should know, although he has not demonstrated all of them:
Vertical, Horizontal and Slant: A simple vertical, horizontal or diagonal slash respectively.
Uppercut: An upwards slash meant to sent foes skywards.
Vertical Arc: A two-hit combo of slashes in a V-Shape. Kirito uses this to defeat Illfang the Kobold Lord. There is also Horizontal Arc, which is the horizontal variant of it.
Serration Wave: An AoE Sword Skill meant to hinder movement. It does very little damage.
Lightning Fall: An AoE Sword Skill where the user backflips before thrusting their sword into the ground, creating a wave of electricity to stun foes.
Rage Spike: A swift Sword Skill where the user leaps at the foe and performs an upwards strike.
Sonic Leap: A Sword Skill similar to Rage Spike where the user leaps at the foe. This one performs a downwards strike and has a shorter range, but it can be aimed upwards.
Snake Bite: A two-hit combo going from right to left then back again, which is effective at shattering weapons.
Savage Fulcrum: A three hit combo which looks somewhat like the number 4.
Vorpal Strike: Another Charge-type Sword Skill, in this case a single high-speed thrust with a range over twice the length of the blade used.
Sharp Nail: A three-hit combo going right-to left diagonally upwards, then left-to-right, then right-to-left diagonally downwards.
Howling Octave: An eight-hit combo starting with five thrusts, then a downwards swing, then an upwards swing, then a final overhead swing.
Horizontal Square and Vertical Square: Four-hit comboes that trace the look of a square.
Embracer: A simple martial arts technique performing a thrust with the user's hand. Kirito uses this to kill Kuradeel.
Senda: A swift, single-strike uppercut, given by the Martial Arts skill. Kirito uses this in Progressive.
Meteor Fall: A two-hit combo making use of both a One-Handed Sword and Martial Arts skills. The user throws their sword up in the air, then delivers a terribly fast punch to the target's chest, knocking them backwards, before jumping, catching their sword and slashing with it. Kirito uses this in Versus, in a battle against Accel World's Silver Crow.
Meteor Break: A seven-hit combo making usage of One-Handed Sword and Martial Arts skills.
Deadly Sins: A seven-hit One-handed Sword combo making featuring various directional slashes and backwards flips. Kirito uses this in the Caliber Arc in conjunction with Spell Blast to protect Asuna and the Sleeping Knights.
Battle Healing: A passive skill that Kirito has, which regenerates his HP during battle. He demonstrates this when protecting Silica from the Titan's Hand guild, regenerating off any damage they inflicted on him.
Flight: In ALO, Kirito is capable of flying. This used to have a time limit, but this was removed after the Fairy Dance Arc.
Illusion Magic: As a Spriggan, Kirito can create illusions using his magic. Most notably, he used an advanced form of Illusion Magic to temporarily become the Gleam Eyes to take down a group of Salamanders who were previously stonewalling him.
Armament Full Control Art: In Underworld, Divine Intstrument Type Weapons can have their full power released by this ritual, which comes in two phases: Strengthening and Releasing. The second part is the part Kirito uses most often, as it comes out very quickly (The way to trigger it is to say "Release Recollection".).
These last two deserve links of their own.
Starburst Stream: A 16-hit Dual Blades combo. Kirito most famously uses this against the Gleam Eyes to defeat it in a single go.
The Eclipse (Timestamp 0:57): The ultimate Dual Blades Combo, clocking in at 27 hits. Kirito used this against Heathcliff, but due to Heathcliff being Kayaba, perfectly predicts and blocks every last one of Kirito's attacks.
EQUIPMENT
Kirito's equipment varies with what game he's in. In Sword Art Online, Kirito Dual-Wields the Elucidator, a Demonic Boss Drop from the 50th Floor, and the Dark Repulser, which was made by Lizbeth, one of Kirito's friends. Both the Elucidator and Dark Repulser boost Kirito's Strength and Agility. He also wears the Blackwyrm Coat, which enhances his Stealth Skill.
In ALO, he wields a Black Iron Long Sword (Again made by Lizbeth) and the Holy Sword Excaliber (The strongest weapon in ALO).
In GGO, He wields a Kagemitsu G4 Photon Sword (Basically a Lightsaber, except a bit weaker) and a FN Five-Seven Pistol.
In Underworld, He has wielded multiple swords, but his main weapon is the Night Sky Sword, a weapon crafted from a branch of the Gigas Cedar tree. While it has a variety of abilities credited to it, he has two main powers from it, the first is to fire off an energy blast from it, via a Armament Full Control Art, But it also allowed Kirito to, in the climax of the Alicization Arc, turn PoH into a tree, imprisoning him in Underworld for eternity. Ouch.
His other weapon in Alicization is the Blue Rose Sword of his dead buddy Eugeo. Its Armament Full Control Art allows Kirito to freeze foes nearby while also draining their HP over time. Kirito can also absorb the energy drained from his enemies into his Night Sky Sword.
FEATS AND WEAKNESSES
Kirito's got some pretty damn impressive feats inside the games. Even without the prediction lines of GGO being effective, he's capable of stopping bullets, and sniper rounds at that. Most notably, in his fight with Sinon. He's powerful enough to one-shot the Gleam Eyes with Starburst Stream, tough enough to survive being impaled, can move at supersonic speeds in Alfheim, and his fight with Alice in Alicization was so intense it blew a hole in the battlefield which Kirito and Alice were promptly sucked out of. And of course, with the Blue Rose Sword and Night Sky Sword, Kirito can immobilize most anyone (As 30,000+ Korean and Chinese players found out the hard way) or of course, just turn 'em into a tree (As PoH learned the hard way. He's still trapped as a tree).
However, Kirito is not perfect. As stated, he is controlled by his emotions a lot. If he's angry, he'll rush in blindly swords swinging. If he's upset, he might completely lose the will to fight and become sloppy. While Kirito, without a doubt, has the highest DPS of the entirety of Sword Art Online, he's also kind of frail compared to tanks- although this may or may not be the case. He was capable of blocking the attacks of the Skull Reaper when dedicated tanks weren't. On top of this, he's kind of helpless without his weapons. He does have Martial Arts skills, but he doesn't use them much. He's best using a sword.
OVERVIEW
+Very fast.
+Very strong.
+Fairly intelligent. He's not stupid and does have strategic competence, even if he doesn't always display it.
+Underworld Kirito is HAXXY AS HELL. He can just turn people into trees! With that, he could beat people who are MILES STRONGER THAN HIM. The Blue Rose Sword also helps with a massive AoE freeze that also drains life.
-Ruled by his emotions first. This can put him in a bad spot.
-Kirito is mostly helpless without his swords. While he does have Marital Arts skills, he is best using a blade.
-Sword Skills have a bit of a delay after them depending on how powerful they are. The motions cannot be cancelled either, so missing with one leaves Kirito wide open.
+Granted, he can use this to his advantage.
So yeah. Read, feel free to send feedback, if I missed anything, please let me know.
