Forum:Kirito, the Black Swordsman

"The Legendary Black Swordsman of Aincrad, the boy who cleared the death game called "Sword Art Online," the hero who saved Asuna, and the man who murdered Zavala, Kazuto Kirigaya now leads the notorious legion of villains who call themselves the Shadowkeepers as the Shadow King. His ascension over the Solar System could spell the destruction of the Light and everything we fought for."

- Official Description

Kirito, the Black Swordsman is the Black Swordsman of Aincrad, the husband of Asuna and father of Yui Narusaka, Tatsuyi Kirigaya, Yuji Kirigaya, and Konno Yuuki, and a teenager who was chosen as one of 1,000 beta testers for a new state-of-the-art virtual reality MMORPG called Sword Art Online, a game that he and Asuna completed on November 7th, 2024. Raised by his foster parents as a son, he originally trained with his cousin in the neighborhood kendo dojo under their grandfather's tutelage. Due to his aunt's influence as an editor for a computer systems magazine, he fell in love with computers and dropped kendo after two years of training. He has immense skill as a programmer, managing to build a computer from parts during elementary school, finding his erased records in the national registry at the age of ten, as well as managing to stop the SAO server from deleting Yui by converting her program into an object and storing her into his Nerve Gear as environmental data.

As the dark leader of a notorious legion of time criminals and villains known as the Shadowkeepers, he commands the Shadow Army, an elite faction of various enemies that lingered in the atmosphere of the Solar System, infecting the surfaces of humanity's worlds with the Darkness. While the minions of the Darkness looked up to him, the elite commanders of said army have devoted themselves to carrying out his mission of bringing the Traveler under the influence of the Darkness.

He is the main antagonist of the Paradox expansion, having formed a dark army consisting of all the enemies the Guardian faced, killed heroes such as Zavala, Emperor Calus, Leafa, Benjamin Florian, and Evie Grimhilde, and destroyed Auradon, all of which earned him both the favor and respect of the Darkness as its champion.

Childhood and Past
Although not much is known about Kirito, except for his childhood, all the Guardians know are that he was one of the players who were trapped in Sword Art Online and that he fell in love with a girl named Asuna.

Birth of the Shadows
Some time after the Guardians' victory of The Dimensional Wars, the Darkness, having found a still-open portal, sent the Black Fleet into the dimensional gateway to recruit its new allies: Kirito and Asuna. Having known firsthand about how they had seen what it saw and mourned for the deaths of their friends and of innocence, the Darkness not only gave them back their powers from Sword Art Online, but also granted them permanent access to its Pyramids, knowing that they can succeed where its previous forces failed.

Between the events of Season of the Chosen and The Witch Queen, upon accepting the Darkness's gift, after stepping out of their dimension and into the Guardian's universe, Kirito and Asuna would go on to recruit various villains from numerous dimensions, including Totomaru, a former member of the Phantom Lord guild and the manipulator of the Solar element; Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash and a speedster who murdered Nora Allen, the mother of Barry Allen; Malcolm Merlyn, the Dark Archer and the man who orchestrated the destruction of the Queen's Gambit and played a role in Sara Lance's apparent death; Damien Darhk, the leader of HIVE and the man who murdered Laurel Lance; Tobias Whale, a crime lord and the man who murdered Jefferson Pierce's father; The Doctor, a Framework persona of Leopold Fitz and HYDRA's ruthless second-in-command; Anton Ivanov, the leader of the Watchdogs and a powerful mercenary known as Omega; Hiram Lodge, a powerful businessman and the leader of a notorious criminal empire responsible for the emergence of the Ghoulies; Morgana le Fay, the Mother of Monsters and a powerful wizard who was betrayed by Merlin and allied with Gunmar and his army in her quest for revenge on the Trollhunters; Uldren Sov, the Prince of the Reef who was presumed dead during the Battle of Saturn; Djin, the leader of the Numeros and a former member of M.A.T.A.; Sasuke Uchiha, the lone surviving member of the Uchiha clan who acquired the Sharingan and the Rinnegan; Phoenixaro Uchihamaki, the leader of the Akatsuki and Kakashi Hatake's estranged brother; and Ruby Hale, the Destroyer of Worlds and the daughter of General Hale, who had been genetically engineered by HYDRA's leader Daniel Whitehall, forming a notorious organization unlike anything the world had ever encountered known as the Shadowkeepers. They would also resurrect Sachi and Eugeo by implanting the respective memories of Reign and Fikrul, the Fanatic into their vessels' bodies.

At some point in time, Kirito and Asuna would also rally numerous enemies of both the Traveler and its Guardians, instilling into them a profound sense of freedom and purpose, promising them that they would be the one to save them and those cast out and left for dead by their own people from the Traveler's lies. During the course of the impending war between the Guardians and the Witch Queen's armies, many key leaders of various Fallen houses, Hive sects, Vex collectives, and other factions would pledge their allegiances to the Shadowkeepers.

Attack on Auradon
Upon traveling to Auradon from a few weeks after the Jewel-bilee, the Shadowkeepers and their newly-assembled Shadow Army, led by Kirito and Asuna, breached the gateway to Auradon, eager to lay waste to its hierarchy and destroy everything that symbolized its kingdom. Being the first to respond to the civilians' evacuation from what appeared to be an escape attempt enacted by Maleficent, Zavala and Leafa would rendezvous with Ben, Evie, and Merlin to detain her and send her back; however, by the time they got to her, she was already killed by Mal, who became corrupted by the Darkness. Unbeknownst to them, the Ghosts of Nagasaki, led by Magda Peterson, had already freed the son of Yzma known as Zevon from the frozen prison on the Isle of the Lost, which led to a full-scale assault between the Auradonians and the Shadowkeepers.

While Zavala and his crew of allies fought valiantly, they would be slaughtered by the Shadowkeepers, including Kirito and Asuna. Petra Venj and the Awoken Techeuns - Shuro Chi, Kalli, and Sedia - attempted to kill the Shadowkeepers in retaliation for Zavala's death, but Kirito and Asuna activated the codes for Lightfall, a corruptive-matter system created by the Darkness to destroy every representations of Light, and used it to summon waves of malevolent Blights that destroyed everything that Auradon stood for, killed all living beings of Light and civilians of Auradonian blood within it, and turned the entire city into a realm of Kirito and Asuna's ideal birth worlds, forcing Petra and the Techeuns to retreat as unfathomable armies of Shadows begin to appear across the system in larger numbers, officially beginning the Shadowkeeper Apocalypse.

A New Aincrad
"For years, the world had been bound by aspects of a failed past, full of lies that the Traveler brought upon this universe. But, we knew the truth. In Light, there was only weakness. Only failure. Only subjugation. Only death. But where the Light took, the Dark gives. No longer will we be pawns of the Light's lies. No longer will we stand by and let those monsters and so-called heroes abuse our people. No longer will we watch the lives of those we care for be lost. In Darkness, there is only strength. Only power. Only victory. Only freedom. Only life. And we shall rise forever!"

- Kirito, rallying the forces of Darkness.

Moments after taking over Auradon, Kirito and Asuna set up countless programs and SIVA networks from his computer that the Pyramids used to rebuild Aincrad as they saw fit and split up the Shadow Army into its six respective groups: the House of Shadows, led by Kotrik, Bloodcrafter of Kirito, the notorious Fallen Kell of Shadows who formerly worked with the House of Devils; the Shadow Swarm, led by Zharves, Shadowcaster of Kirito, a surviving Hive Deathsinger who formerly served Crota and his father; the Shadow Divisive, led by Hydrax, Mindkiller of Kirito, a massive Vex Axis Mind Hydra who possessed the ability to stop time; the Shadow Legion, led by Gha'arn, Crownforger of Kirito, a powerful Cabal warlord who helped restore the Cabal Empire to its full glory; the Reborn, led by Thu'urg, Blightmaker of Kirito, a Taken Cabal commander who sought to seize control of Oryx's army; and the Cult of Shadows, led by Vayeriks, Fatesmith of Kirito, Fikrul's right hand and a commander of the first Scorn.

Hoping to further weaken the Traveler, they sent their forces across the system to launch countless waves of devastating attacks against its forces. On Earth, the Shadowkeepers led a series of invasions against valiant heroes, including the Justice League, Simon Templar, Milo Murphy, and Legends of Tomorrow, and successfully managed to slaughter them and their fellow allies, including Cisco Ramon, who was killed by Tatsuyi, who fused his gauntlets and Thorn with Vibe's metahuman powers. Across the Sol System, the Shadow Army attacked various factions, including the Dusk Splicers, the Houses of Emperors, Vipers, Dragons, and Time, and other enemy factions, which led to some of the members of these aforementioned factions to pledge their loyalties to Kirito and Asuna, while those who survived the attacks would depart to another worlds.

Family

 * Yukito Narusaka, biological father
 * Aoi Narusaka, biological mother
 * Midori Kirigaya, aunt and adoptive mother &dagger;
 * Minetaka Kirigaya, uncle and adoptive father &dagger;
 * Suguha Kirigaya, cousin and adoptive sister (formerly) &dagger;
 * Asuna Yuuki, wife
 * Yui Narusaka, daughter
 * Konno Yuuki, daughter
 * Tatsuyi Kirigaya, son
 * Yuji Kirigaya, son

Appearances

 * Destiny 2
 * Paradox
 * The Void Within