Kayaba Akihiko

Kayaba Akihiko (茅場晶彦 Kayaba Akihiko?) is the development director and GM (Game Master) of «Sword Art Online». He is also the designer of the virtual reality game console «NerveGear» and the game engine «VR Seed», as well as the main antagonist of the Aincrad Arc of Sword Art Online.

In Kayaba's childhood, Kayaba expressed an interest in reading books. He was not particularly engrossed in games in computers, but he participated in the Mathematics Club of his high school. Later on, in university, he did not participate in any circles because he frequently worked in and out of laboratories.

When he began developing Sword Art Online, Kayaba toiled for years to develop the game software. His main goal and dream was to create his dream fantasy world, the floating castle of Aincrad, but after he did so, he wasn't entirely sure what his dreams, aspirations, or purpose was.

It can be deduced that Kayaba began working on Sword Art Online before his third year in university. His love interest was Koujiro Rinko, who assisted Kayaba for ten years of the game's development, and took care of his body during the course of SAO.

In 2022, Akihiko releases a limited production of 10,000 copies of his game and console in Japan. Unknown to anyone else, Akihiko added deadly extra feature, an high-powered microwave generator would kill the user in real life if they died in game, or if someone tried to remove or tamper with the Nerve Gear headset.

Akihiko succeeded in trapping ten thousand people in Sword Art Online, including Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya. Over 200 were killed on the first day due to attempted removals before Akihiko sent out a warning to media outlets and governments not to do so. At the same time, he informed players in game of the "rules" by forcibly teleporting all of them to the "Starting City" and addressing them through a large floating avatar that looked like a cloak with no one inside. Within two months, there had been over 2000 casualties, but the first floor had still not been cleared.

His avatar, Heathcliff (ヒースクリフ Hīsukurifu?) is the leader of what is considered to be the Sword Art Online's strongest guild «Knights of the Blood». He is the owner of the «Unique Skill» «Holy Sword» and is considered to be strongest player in-game. He wields the one-handed sword and a tower shield collectively called as Liberator. He also was able to hold off the boss of the fiftieth level for ten minutes by himself, which earned him the title «Man of Legend» (伝説の男 Densetsu no Otoko?). It is also rumored in SAO that Heathcliff's health has never gone into the yellow zone. This is due to his identity being Kayaba Akihiko and being able to make himself invincible or otherwise making his character into an «Immortal Object» after his health reaches 50% or is about to surpass it.

As a leader of the Knight of the Blood, Heathcliff was quite renowned for his general tendency to stay out of guild affairs, preferring to allow his subleaders to develop plans and advance the game. Apart from guild paperwork and battles, Heathcliff rarely interfered with the choices and actions of his sub-leaders. The only exception to this was when Asuna expressed her wish to leave the guild, and Heathcliff refused to allow her do so without challenging Kirito to a duel.

Kirito first suspected his true identity during his match against Heathcliff when Kirito sees that Heathcliff's speed exceeded the system limits. However, Kirito figures out his true identity in the seventy-fifth floor. Kirito and Akihiko fight, and Akihiko seems to kill both Kirito and Asuna, however unknown glitch occurs allowing Kirito to launch one final attack after his HP ran out, Kirito manages to defeat Heathcliff and free the trapped players, at which point Akihiko dies, at least physically, though he is later seen again in Alfhiem Online Arc, revealing that he created a sort of artificial intelligence version of himself that possessed his memories and personality.

Shortly before his death, Kirito asks Akihiko why he created the "death game", and Akihiko replies that he forgot why he did it long ago. It is hinted at several times that it may be related to a sort of "god complex" on the part of Akihiko, possibly related to some form of psychological disorder.