Japanese name:	桐ヶ谷 和人
Nickname:	Kirito, The Black Swordsman, Beater

Kirito is the protagonist of the series. He is a "solo" player as well as a beater (stands for beta tester and chea-ter), a player who hasn't joined a guild and usually works alone. Kirito is also one of the clearers in SAO. When it is announced that the players of Sword Art Online can no longer logout, he is surprised like everyone else, but unlike everyone else he quickly gets over it and accepts it, to an extent. He mainly uses a one-handed sword "Elucidator" and usually wears all black in-game, as it adds to stealth, and gives him his nickname "The Black Swordsman".

In SAO, he is the possessor of «Dual Blades», a unique skill which he only uses in emergencies to avoid attention for being one out of the two people to have unique skills. His game alias is Kirito, which is created by taking the syllables of the first and last Kanji of his real last and first names respectively: (Kirigaya Kazuto).

In the real world, he lives with his mother and younger cousin in a family of 3. He was adopted by Kirigaya Minetaka and Midori (Suguha's parents). His mother (who is actually Midori's sister) and father passed away after an accident when he was about 1 year old. When he was 10 years old, he found out the truth. He treats playing in a VRMMO the same as living in the real world (a result of living in SAO for two years).

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka

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