Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly 2 Prioritizes Yuuki, Aiko, and Merida 

The Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly manga volumes focus heavily on relationships in the SAO series. For example, much of the first volume focuses on Kirito and Asuna. While we do see the two of them and their closest allies featured heavily in a continuing story in the first part of the second volume, I feel like another one really steals the show. Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly volume 2 marks the debut of the manga adaptation of the Sisters’ Prayer storyline, doing a wonderful job of telling Yuuki, Aiko, and Merida’s story and showing another side to FullDive VR games and experiences.

Editor’s Note: There will be some spoilers for the first part of the Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly manga volume 2 “Sisters’ Prayer” storyline and the characters Yuuki, Aiko, and Merida below.

In the main Sword Art Online series, we hear about the life-threatening SAO incident that resulted in real-world deaths, but the “Sisters’ Prayer” tale looks at another way in which the FullDive VR games can affect people’s lives. The second half of volume 2 of the Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly manga introduces the new retelling of this story. Yuuki and Aiko are terminally ill sisters who essentially live in the hospital, with Aiko having sacrificed a chance to experience more advanced, experimental Medicuboid FullDive technology so her sister can be in a safer environment. The two inhabit a Serene Garden hospice VR world. It’s peaceful, with no combat or risk. 

So as we’re first introduced to the situation, we’re seeing these two young women dealing with the knowledge that the person behind the systems they are using and experience they’re enjoying also was tied to the deadly SAO incident. So there is this moment where the sisters, and us as the reader, need to reconcile the notion that Akihiko Kayaba could be responsible for villainous, criminal behavior, could also be responsible for technology that gives suffering individuals a chance to be free, to live, and to make more memories. 

In so doing, we also get to start to bring up the relationships between Yuuki and Aiko, and later Merida, in Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly. The three girls  living with a terminal illnesses meet in Serene Garden, bonding over bug-catching, crepes, and VR games. It’s heartening to see this immediate connection. It’s like the reasons they are able to be in this VR world take a backseat. They can instead form a real and meaningful bond together. They get to make plans to spend time together, something they probably would never be able to do otherwise.

It means we also get to see the Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly manga’s “Sisters’ Prayer” storyline touch on a different issue. Are these VR games valuable? Is it something that should be used for these hospice patients? Are they missing out on final, real-world experiences and “wasting time” here? I appreciate how it is tackled, even briefly.

Given the nature of the Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly manga series, what we see of Yuuki, Aiko, and Merida here is more of a teaser. It’s a first part of a larger piece that will be explored more later. But what is here is very valuable. In a short period of time, it establishes important relationships and gets the reader thinking about interesting questions regarding the creator of certain VR technologies and the usage of them.

Volume 2 of the Sword Art Online: Kiss and Fly manga is available now from Yen Press, and volume 3 will debut on January 21, 2025. It also handled the light novels and outside Japan. The anime is streaming on Crunchyroll.