Rika Shinozaki (Liz), Keiko Ayano (Silica), and Suguha Kirigaya (Leafa) go looking for a magic ring inside ALfheim Online, get in over their heads, and are bailed out by a black-clad swordsman who turns out not to be Kirito at all, but a girl named Hiyori. The trio's search becomes as much about helping Hiyori work through her own trauma from surviving SAO as it is about the ring itself. Neko Nekobyou illustrates this spin-off, which ran for eight volumes and, unusually for the franchise, centers its cast entirely on the women around Kirito.