茅場晶彦
from Sword Art Online
Age
28
Kayaba Akihiko, known as Heathcliff in Sword Art Online, was the main antagonist of the Aincrad Arc and a supporting character in the Fairy Dance Arc and Alicization Arc. He was the development director and Game Master (GM) of «Sword Art Online», as well as the designer of the «NerveGear», the Cardinal System, and «The Seed». As his avatar Heathcliff, Akihiko eventually founded what later became Sword Art Online's strongest guild, the «Knights of the Blood». He was the owner of the first «Unique Skill», named «Holy Sword», and was considered to be strongest player in-game. He wielded the collective one-handed sword and tower shield called Liberator. He also was able to engage the boss of the 50th Floor in battle for ten minutes by himself, which earned him the title «Man of Legend». It was also rumored that Heathcliff's hit points (HP) had never reached the yellow zone. Kayaba Akihiko wore a white shirt with a necktie underneath and a long, white lab coat on top. The contours of his face were fine and sharp. He had metallic eyes and short hair. Kayaba Akihiko was the only player in Sword Art Online whose avatar did not match his appearance in the real world. As a result, Heathcliff, Akihiko's avatar, bore no resemblance to his true skinny body at all. Significantly idealized, Heathcliff was muscular, tall, and physically strong, with sharp scholarly features and steel-gray hair that had a strand hanging over his forehead. He was almost always seen wearing the colors of the Knights of the Blood, though the background and foreground colors were reversed. At the start of Sword Art Online, Akihiko appeared to the trapped players as a huge faceless, hooded person with a cloak as his Game Master avatar. Although Kayaba Akihiko appeared as his true form only a few times throughout the series, he was always very calm, soft-spoken, and had a cool demeanor. Despite being incredibly skilled, Akihiko was not boastful or arrogant, as when Kirito defeated him and cleared Sword Art Online, he humbly accepted defeat. Akihiko seemed to be very sincere and thoughtful, as shown when he told Kirito of his dream about creating a floating castle as the basis for creating Sword Art Online. Kayaba Akihiko had little to no empathy, with a complete disregard for human life, including his own, and instead was completely taken in by the virtual world. When he accidentally struck Asuna, which caused her apparent in-game death, he showed no remorse, and instead seemed rather amused, even though it caused Kirito an incredible amount of grief at the time. He chose to fulfill his dream by making a death game which cost thousands of lives, and simply noted that their minds were gone from both worlds. His fascination with computers was very much like Kirito's, with the major difference being Akihiko having no regard for the lives of others, and Kirito doing everything he can to protect them. In spite of this, Akihiko had a level of honor and fairness. He designed Sword Art Online to be a beatable game by anyone who had the skills. He never interfered with the players' progress to keep them from advancing through the game; in fact, as Heathcliff, he was actually fighting on the players' side, helping them clear floors. The one exception to this was the fact that he made himself invincible until his battle with Kirito, although this was necessary to survive the game until the 95th floor was reached, where Heathcliff planned to reveal his true identity and become the final boss on the 100th floor.
Sword Art Online
In 2022, a virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online (SAO) is released. With the NerveGear, a helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. Both the game and the NerveGear was created by Akihiko Kayaba. On November 6, 10,000 players log into the SAO's mainframe cyberspace for the first time, only to discover that they are unable to log out. Kayaba appears and tells the players that they must beat all 100 floors of Aincrad, a steel castle which is the setting of SAO, if they wish to be free. Those who suffer in-game deaths or forcibly remove the NerveGear out-of-game will suffer real-life deaths. The main character, Kirigaya "Kirito" Kazuto, was also one of 1,000 testers in the game's previous closed beta. With the advantage of previous VR gaming experience and a drive to protect other beta testers from discrimination, he isolates himself from the greater group and plays the game alone, bearing the mantle of "beater", a "beta tester" and "cheater". As the players progress through the game Kirito eventually befriends a young girl named Asuna Yuuki, who form a relationship that later turns into in-game marriage. After the duo discover that Akihiko Kayaba was playing the game as the leader of the guild Asuna joined, they confront and destroy him, freeing themselves and the other players from the game.
