Asuna Yuuki (結城 明日奈, Yūki Asuna), better known by her username «Asuna», is the deuteragonist of Sword Art Online.
Prior to being trapped in the game, Asuna was known to be somewhat stuck-up and proud of her position in a well-to-do family. However, she was terrified by the thought of being unable to leave the game, but eventually found the resolve to take charge of her own fate, recklessly slaying hordes of monsters on her own and leveling up at a rapid pace to the point of gaining infamy within the community.
Nicknamed "The Flash" for her nearly unparalleled speed, she crossed paths with Kirito numerous times, eventually becoming one of his closest allies and later his betrothed.
Powers and Stats
Tier: At least 9-C, possibly 9-B | 9-A | 9-A | At least 9-A | 8-C | At most 8-B
Peak Human Physical Characteristics, Accelerated Development (Leveling; Physical Stats, Abilities), Skilled Swordswoman (Has fencing experience. By one month into the game, her skill with a blade is already comparable, if not superior to most other players on the front lines. Comparable to Kirito by this point, with Kirito only being ahead because of his game knowledge and experience), Information Analysis (An extremely quick learner. Able to learn things by just seeing or experiencing it once), Regeneration (Low-Mid over time (All VR Avatars can regenerate entire limbs within 2-3 minutes)), Damage Boost (All attacks have either a low chance of critically hitting the opponent or hitting a weak point to critically hit them, dealing even more damage. The two forms of critical hits can stack), Statistics Amplification (Sword Skills amplify the user's speed and power, with the downside of having a post-motion stun for a brief period of time afterwards), Status Effect Inducement (via Sword Skills. If one can directly land a Sword Skill on an opponent towards a vital point such as the head, the opponent will be stunned for upwards of 10 seconds), Healing (Accelerating recovery via Recovery Potions over a period of 5 minutes), Status Effect InducementNullification (via Antidote Potions. Only works against debuffs on Asuna's power or below), Immortality (Type 2), Hypermobility (VR Avatars do not have muscles and insides like real people do. Thus, they are able to do impossible motions that people in real life would not be able to do), Limited Reality Warping (via Proto-Incarnation. In times of extreme brain activity reaching to one's Fluctlight, or soul, the user can temporarily enact change on the world to an extent via their willpower or imagination. Usually, it has been displayed to enact improbable feats, such as delaying death, breaking out of system paralysis, bypassing system-enacted rules, and more that can be described as "surpassing the system"), Resistance to Pain (All virtual reality avatars have a pain absorber, which lessens the amount of pain one feels to negligible amounts, even with injuries such as decapitation)
Same as previous but to a greater extent, with the addition of Healing (Accelerating recovery. Should be comparable to Recovery Potions) and Status Effect InducementNullification via Meditation (Provides healing, as well as the ability to ignore debuffs such as stuns and paralysis even stronger than Antidote Potions for a few minutes), Status EffectNullification (via Antidote Crystals), Healing (Healing heavy injuries via Healing Crystals. Healing Crystals act instantly and can immediately bring one back to full HP, even when near-death), Teleportation & BFR (via Teleport & Corridor Crystals)
Same as previous but to a greater extent, with the addition of Skilled Hand-to-Hand Combatant (Has shown skill in martial arts by this point), Regeneration (Mid-Low via Battle Healing. Only works in-combat. The stronger the enemy is, the less effective the in-combat regen is), Enhanced Senses (via Hypersense and Distinguish)
Same as previous but to a greater extent
Same as previous but to a greater extent, with the addition of Shockwaves (via Mother's Rosario. Comparable to Kirito)
Attack Potency: At least Street level, possibly Wall level (Superior to level 1 players, being able to face monsters much stronger than Dire Wolves) | Small Building level (A party of 6 are able to take down the 2nd floor's Field Bosses, Bullbous Bow, a 4 meter tall bull who can cross a distance of five-hundred feet in two seconds. Along with a raid party, Asuna and other players were able to damage the Field Boss of the 4th floor, Biceps Archelon, a two-headed 20 meter long turtle. Biceps Archelon itself is able to charge at speeds difficult to escape from in a gondola and create whirlpools) | Small Building level (Leveled up since the 5th floor, boosting her stats) | At least Small Building level (Every 5 and 10 floors the difficulty on that specific floor spikes, and every 25 floors it spikes even more. The Floor Boss of the 25th floor nearly wiped out the entirety of the Aincrad Libration Squad, the guild with the highest player count with comparable levels to each other, even with reinforcements) | Building level+ (Stated by WoG to be Kirito's equal, only losing their duel on the 56th floor because of Kirito's own cunning and Asuna's mental state at the time) | At most City Block level+ (Was able to harm An Incarnation of the Radius)
Speed:Peak Human, possibly Superhuman (Much faster than level 1 players) with Subsonic attack speed (Kirito stated that he wasn't able to see Asuna's attacks at all) | Superhuman, higher reaction speed (Was able to catch the after-effects of Flashing Penetrator shooting past her, a Sword Skill that breaks the sound barrier and causes a sonic boom), Subsonic attack speed | Superhuman, higher reaction speed, Subsonic attack speed | Subsonic (Should be comparable, if not superior to Kirito, as Asuna focuses more on agility than strength), Supersonic reaction speed (Should be comparable to Kirito, who would be able to react properly to Flashing Penetrator by this point), higher attack speed | Subsonic travel speed, Supersonic+ combat and reaction speed (Fights at speeds where players that could see Flashing Penetrator would only see a blur), higher attack speed (Even at this stage in the game, Kirito cannot see her attacks) | Subsonic travel speed, Supersonic+ combat and reaction speed, higher attack speed
Lifting Strength: At least Peak Human (Superior to level 1 players, who were already stronger than any normal human) | Superhuman (Stronger than before) | Superhuman | Possibly Class 5 (By this point, Asuna should be vaguely comparable to Kirito's later feats) | Class 5 (Comparable to Kirito) | Class 5
Striking Strength: At least Street level, possibly Wall level | Small Building level | Small Building level | At least Small Building level | Building level+ | At most City Block level+
Durability: At least Street level, possibly Wall level (Greatly stronger than level 1 players) | Small Building level (Comparable to players who can take hits from Bullbous Bow. Able to take hits from the 2nd floor Floor Bosses, humanoid bulls nearly 5 meters tall) | Small Building level | At least Small Building level (Was able to survive the 25th floor) | Building level+ (Comparable to Kirito) | At most City Block level+ (Comparable to Kirito)
Stamina:Infinite physically (Virtual Reality Avatars can never get physically tired; limited only to the mental power of the person themselves), Superhuman mentally (Comparable to Kirito. Broke out of admin paralysis through sheer willpower)
Range:Standard Melee Range when unarmed, Extended Melee Range with a sword, Several Meters with dash-type Sword Skills | Same as previous | Same as previous | Same as previous | Same as previous | Same as previous, with the addition of up to Tens of Meters with strongest attacks (Comparable to Kirito when she uses Mother's Rosario), Varies from Tens of Meters to possibly up to a Hundred of Meters with shockwaves
Lambent Light: A one-handed rapier forged by Asuna's friend Lisbeth, who said that it is of a quality that she can only forge once every 3 months. This became her primary and endgame weapon in Sword Art Online.
Intelligence:Gifted (Asuna is a brilliant tactician as she was the Vice Commander of the strongest guild in Aincrad, the Knights of Blood Oath; leading the way against field bosses and raid bosses alike in the front lines. She is a masterful rapier user, to the point that she became known as "The Flash" for her speedy and dexterous strikes that even Kirito noted that he cannot follow. In addition, she always had the highest grades in school for most of her life, making her amazing academically, and she is quick to grasp concepts new to her, becoming adept at them within seconds)
Weaknesses:
Sword Skills have a slight post-motion stun at the end of them in exchange for increased power.
Meditation requires at least sixty seconds of remaining in a "Zen" pose to activate.
Because of Incarnation's passive nature based on the imagination and willpower of the individual, at worst, if the user thinks a situation is hopeless or impossible to succeed, Incarnation will instead have a negative effect and make that situation true.
Notable Attacks/Techniques:
All VR Avatars
Incarnation: A secret skill passed down by Integrity Knights since ancient times, and one of the most important concepts in the Sword Art Online franchise. Incarnation refers to the ability to change the state of the world through pure willpower and imagination. For any other virtual reality world, it is a system glitch, usually activated in times of extreme emotion or during extreme brain activity, allowing closer access to one's Fluctlight, or soul, to temporarily change the world around them. For residents of the Underworld, it is a constant passive that dictates whether they succeed or fail in anything. The more confident one is in their abilities and the more of a positive reputation they have, the more the world shall bend in their favor. It is the power which Sacred Arts derive from. Its effects are versatile, as the power has been used to wield invisible blades, create swords from the user's blood, transmute objects, increase the chances of an event happening, and much more. However, the power of an Incarnation ability can be matched by another Incarnation ability, and the use of Incarnation is mentally exhausting, requiring a lot of concentration and energy to perform. If the user is in a state where their will is not strong enough, they become unable to use Incarnation. There are a limited amount of people who can use Incarnation to its full potential, and much practice and experience are needed to be able to use it. This ability is most prominent in the Underworld, as this ability is one of that world's core mechanics. However this ability has also been shown multiple times throughout the series before the Alicization arc.
Outside System Skills
Outside System Skills (OuSS): As its name suggests, are skills that are the users own, unlike Sword Skills and magic that are provided for by the game engine.
Switch: A technique where two Players switch positions in-between an enemy's attack to recover Hit Points, chain attacks together without worrying about a post-motion delay, and/or burden the learning abilities of enemies if they are AIs.
Hypersense: The act of sensing hostile intention or killer intent, allowing the user to somehow react to attacks done outside of their field of vision.
Distinguish: Allows the user to eliminate background noise to focus on unnatural or certain sounds around her.
Sword Skill Imitation: Imitating the user of Sword Skills without the system's assistance, removing the post-motion delay, but sacrificing the power and speed of the actual skill.
Star Splash
Flashing Penetrator
1/2
Sword Skills
Sword Skills (SS): A series of movements that allows the user to attack much faster than they normally could, but the movements required to perform the Sword Skill are fixed and cannot be canceled by the user after they begin performing it. Contrary to their name, Sword Skills do not have to be used with a sword. Also note that these may not be all of Asuna's Sword Skills, but simply most of the ones she has been shown to use.
Linear: A single, quick thrust forward. The skill has a remarkably short post-motion delay after usage, allowing multiple Linears to be chained in together at a very short amount of time.
Oblique: A low thrust skill. Its range is shorter than Linear's, but the power is higher due to the user's weight behind it.
Shooting Star: A charging rapier skill.
Flashing Penetrator: A high-powered charging attack that makes a sonic boom and leaves a trail not unlike the tail of a comet. Although the skill only really hits one target, anyone caught in its charge gets blown away. It is typically unused in a 1v1 situation due to requiring the user to sprint to build up speed but is a good attack to disrupt enemy positioning. It has long post-motion.
Parallel Sting: A 2-hit Sword Skill.
Triangular: A powerful 3-hit skill.
Quadruple Pain: A 4-hit combo that Asuna used against Yuuki's Mother's Rosario. Though she lost, it was notable that it brought Yuuki down to yellow health.
Neutron: A powerful 5-hit skill.
Star Splash: A high-level 8-hit combo that begins with 3 short thrusts to the chest that are notably low-damage but extremely fast, followed by two slashes at the legs, two jabs, high and low, and finally, a strong jab to the chest.
Original Sword Skills
Original Sword Skills (OSS): Sword Skills made by or is inherited by the user from another. It is done by recording the creator's movements while the skill is being done. It is very difficult as it requires the user to do it perfectly as speeds above how they normally do, at speeds of that of Sword Skills. Cannot be used in Old Aincrad normally.
Mother's Rosario:
Asuna's Mother's Rosario
An 11-hit combo she inherited from Yuuki. The skill begins with five consecutive stabs in a straight line from the top right to the bottom left. The user then draws their sword back and performs another five consecutive stabs in a straight line from the top left to the bottom right, perpendicular to the prior five. The two lines together form an X shape with their third hit overlapping. Finally, the user tilts their body and uses their entire strength to perform a last stab directly at the intersection of the cross-shape created by the former ten strikes. Asuna was able to use this Sword Skill, even though it would have normally been impossible in Old Aincrad, through sheer willpower.
