Afterword

Kawahara here. Thank you very much for taking the time to read “Sword Art Onine 13 Alicization Dividing”.

The Alicization that started from the 9th volume had already sped on to its fifth volume, but with a boss-like person finally making an appearance, I can breathe a… no, I suppose it’s not time to relax yet, huh… Continuing on from the previous volume, this 13th volume is basically about climbing up too. The kanji used are “climbing up” for walls and “going up” for stairs; a real strain for proofreading as the author! And my apologies for the additional trouble, proofreader!

I digress. In any case, it’s not quite the last boss battle yet, but Alice Synthesis Thirty-san, also the reason for the subtitle, is finally featured as the third protagonist in this volume. Just how would the girl confront the system that binds her and open a path up to her fate of her choice… that would be the main theme in the text, so I would be glad if you could cheer on both Kirito and Eugeo.

And Eugeo-shi there had ended up class changing into an advanced job right before the end… Whether Kirito would have a chance at victory while he remains a swordsman, or if he would have to undergo a class change as well; it just had to get pushed onto the next volume after things got to that point, so despite how often as this happens, I’m very sorry! Volume 14 would truly be the fight against the last boss, Administrator-san, so please have a little more patience!

…Or so I wrote, but I’m truly sorry to say that the next SAO is planned to be the 2nd volume of Progressive. Kirito and Asuna, left separated in the real world and Underworld in the Alicization arc, would be joining together to clear Aincrad’s third floor, so I hope for your support on that end as well.

 
And a little advertising here. I believe it would be mentioned on the wrapper for this book as well, but a special program for the television anime edition of SAO will be broadcasted at the end of this year (2013). It would basically be a summary of the Aincrad and Fairy Dance arcs televised in 2012, but there should be a short, new segment as well. Kirito and the rest would be moving on television screens again after a whole year, so please, take a look.

 
To the illustrator, abec-san, the supervisor, Miki-san and Tsuchiya-san, and everyone who had read this far, I apologize for troubling you with the delays in my schedule which are practically the norm now, and thank you very much. Let’s meet again in the next book!