First name : Keiko [Song]
Last Name : Ayano [Episode 1]
Alias : Silica [Silica]
Gender : Female
Birthday : October 4, 2010
Height : <<Unknown>>
Voice actors : Rina Hidaka [日高 里菜] (Japanese), Christine Marie Cabanos (English)

Ayano Keiko , otherwise known as Silica , is a supporting cast member in the Sword Art Online series. She was only 12 years old when she was trapped with the 10,000 players of Aincrad during the first arc of the series. Her popularity in the game is attributed to her accomplishment as a Beast Tamer, as it is not a selectable class in the game, making players with Beast Tamer status quite rare.

Silica's avatar in Sword Art Online matches her real-world appearance, with light brown hair tied with ribbons in short twin tails. However, her online avatar has red eyes, whereas they are normally brown in the real world. Upon porting to ALfheim Online, Silica's avatar retained most of her appearance, but since she had chosen the Cait Sith as her playable race, most recognized as the class suited to beast taming, her avatar also sports a set of cat ears and tail.

Pina

Pina [ピナ] is the name of Silica's pet dragon, the first recorded tamed monster in Sword Art Online. It can be identified by its light blue appearance and long, feathered wings. Silica named it after the real-world Munchkin cat of the same name.

Pina's Abilities

• Healing - Pina can heal targets, though she only restores a small amount of HP.
• Bubble Breath - Pina fires a stream of bubbles at an enemy target.

History

A relatively young child, Silica was only 12 years old when she entered Sword Art Online, the first VRMMO she played. She became the world's first beast tamer after feeding peanuts to a small feathered dragon, becoming the focus of attention for many players, both good and bad, as it was a technique that wasn't well-known throughout Aincrad. Many groups attempted to use her fame and glory for their own gain, teaming up with her for bragging rights and treating her as a mascot for the group.

Silica had a dispute over healing items with one of these groups. Rosalia, who also leads the Titan's Hand guild, thought it best for Pina to have adequate healing abilities for Silica. Due to this dispute, Silica left the group and went off on her own. Finding herself lost in the Wandering Forest, her supply of healing items had been depleted due to long battles with dungeon monsters, and she had become fatigued. Unable to fight to the best of her abilities, her health had reached critical levels. During an encounter with several drunken monkeys, she was pushed to her limits. Seeing that she was about to die, Pina sacrificed herself by taking a deadly attack meant for Silica.

Furious, she went on a rampage and managed to kill the monkey, but was hopelessly outclassed by the remaining monsters. At this point, Kirito, the protagonist of the story, intervened and saved her life by killing the remaining monsters. As she mourned the death of her companion Pina, he informed her of a rare revival item, the Pneuma Flower, located on the 47th floor. It allows beast tamers to revive their fallen monsters, but there is a three-day time limit for this action to be completed. She despaired that she was not strong enough to make the journey with her current level of strength, but Kirito offered to accompany her. Together, they managed to obtain the revival item and promised to meet one day in the real world.

Relationships

• Kirigaya Kazuto [桐ヶ谷 和人] / Kirito [キリト] - The two first met in the Wandering Forest. He saved her from a swarm of drunken monkeys.
• Kirigaya Suguha [桐ヶ谷 直葉] / Leafa [リーファ] - Kirito's cousin who plays in the same party in ALfheim Online.
• Shinozaki Rika [篠崎里香] / Lisbeth [リズベット] - Sword Art Online player and blacksmith.

Statistics

Sword Art Online

References

Ayano Keiko - SAO Fan Wiki
Pina - SAO Fan Wiki