Sinon

Shino Asada aka Sinon is a character from Sword Art Online.

Profile
Sinon is the deuteragonist of the Phantom Bullet Arc and one of the main characters in the War of the Underworld sub-arc of the Alicization Arc. She is a skilled Virtual Reality game player, who began playing Gun Gale Online based on the suggestion from her friend, Shinkawa Kyouji, in an attempt to overcome her trauma concerning guns. After the events of the Phantom Bullet Arc, she began playing «ALfheim Online» as a Cait Sith archer, capable of hitting targets two hundred meters away with a bow that should only be able to shoot arrows accurately at a maximum distance of one hundred meters.

Background
When Shino was less than two years old, she was involved in a car accident. By the time anyone noticed the accident, it had been six hours. During the six hours, Shino's father slowly died from internal bleeding while her mother watched. Her mother was traumatized by the event and became very frail and was hurt easily. This resulted in Shino becoming overprotective of her mother. Nine years later, Shino was traumatized after she attempted to protect her mother during a robbery at a postal office, and ended up killing the robber with his own gun. As a result, she developed an intense fear of guns and a slight fear of men. She also was bullied up until high school for this reason. After being introduced into GGO, she fell into a trap, while navigating a dungeon alone, and faced an extremely powerful boss. By sniping it for countless hours from outside its attack range she received the rare PGM Ultima Ratio Hecate II, a .50 caliber anti-materiel sniper rifle, after which she was later nicknamed «Hecate». Her only reason for joining GGO is trying to relieve herself from her trauma with guns.

Phantom Bullet Arc
On December 13, Sinon encountered Kirito in SBC Glocken and, mistaking him for a girl, offered him help. After Sinon helped him buy his equipment, the two found themselves with little time till the deadline for registering for the Bullet of Bullets (BoB) tournament. By using a three-wheeled buggy, the two arrived at the Governor's Office with time to spare and registered for the tournament. Afterwards, Sinon led Kirito to the changing room to prepare for battle by equipping their attire and equipment. When Sinon started changing her attire, she learnt from Kirito that he was actually a male, and thus she slapped him in embarrassment. Irritated at being deceived, the girl had him promise her that he would survive until the final match in the preliminary rounds of their block, where she would defeat him on the battlefield.

When Sinon returned from her first battle, she noticed that Kirito had already defeated his opponent, but he was hiding his face between his knees. When she tried to greet him, she noticed that Kirito appeared to be shaken. As Sinon slammed her fist on his shoulder, he unconsciously grabbed her hand and dragged it to his chest. They stayed like this until Kirito was teleported to his next match.

In her semi-final match, Sinon defeated her opponent, Stinger, and gained the right to participate in the main tournament the next day. She was then teleported to the «Inter-Continental Highway» stage to face off against the other victor of the semi-finals, Kirito, for a friendly match. In a bus, she planted herself near an open window, scoped with her Hecate, and saw Kirito, but, unlike himself, Kirito was walking with his head down straight down the road, displaying no will to fight her. Sinon, angered by this, shot at Kirito several times, but missed each shot. She then ran out to meet him and demand an answer as to why he would not fight her. After remembering how he disliked his opponents dropping the fight, Kirito asked her for another chance and proposed to have a duel version battle, which Sinon accepted. Sinon and Kirito lined up and got ready, with Kirito throwing a bullet into the air, waiting for the bullet to hit the ground. As soon as the bullet hit the ground, Sinon shot, but Kirito was able to slice the bullet in half and get to her, asking her to resign as he did not like to cut girls.

The next day, on December 14, three and a half hours before the start of the Bullet of Bullets finals, Shino complained to her friend Shinkawa Kyouji about Kirito, stating that Kirito infuriates her. Kyouji commented on how she was acting, saying that he had never seen her bad-mouth someone so much, as she had never really taken interest in anyone. Later on, she returned home and Dived into GGO before the BoB finals started. After she Dived in, Sinon noticed the betting area, and, looking at both hers and Kirito's odds of winning, noticed that both hers and Kirito's odds were quite high. She then met Spiegel, Kyouji's GGO avatar, who started to confess his feelings for her. She stopped him from doing so, telling him she needed to concentrate for the finals. She then met Kirito, who was also on his way to register for the finals, and then gave him information on how the BoB finals worked, and how the thirty participants had to work with it. Kirito also asked her which of the players in the finals she did not know, to which she named «銃士Ｘ» (Jūshi X?), «Pale Rider» and «Sterben». While they were talking about Kirito's reasons for wanting to know who they were, Sinon worked out that Kirito is one of the survivors from Sword Art Online. As they left to get ready for the tournament, Sinon told Kirito that she would repay him for the humiliation he caused her in the Semi-Finals with interest, pointing her finger into his back as if holding a gun to him before she left Kirito.

Nearly thirty minutes into the tournament, Sinon was in a sniping position, watching a player run, noticing the he had no weak points due to his heavy armor. But she then noticed he had Plasma Grenades on his belt, which she calmly aimed at and shot, reducing the opponents Hit Points (HP) to zero. Sinon then picked her Hecate up and ran into shrubs due to her position most likely having been given away after her shot. When she stopped to check the Satellite Scan Terminal, she noticed that there were three other players nearby: «Dyne», «Pale Rider» and «Lion King Richie». She chose to leave Richie alone, and watch Dyne and Pale Rider who were nearby and were most likely running towards the river.

As Sinon watched Dyne and Pale Rider, she felt a presence behind her, and turned around to see Kirito, with his gun held up to show that he wouldn't shoot her. He stated that he wished to watch how the fight between Dyne and Pale Rider ended to see if either was «Death Gun». Sinon and Kirito then watched as Pale Rider was stunned by an unseen enemy, who turned out to be «Death Gun», hidden under a «Metamaterial Optical Camouflage». Sinon tried to shoot «Death Gun» at Kirito's urging, however when she shot him, her bullet passed right next to him, not harming him at all. She then came to the conclusion that «Death Gun» had known where she was and had kept checking on her location. As she was thinking whether to shoot «Death Gun» again, he shot «Pale Rider» with his pistol. Sinon then watched as «Pale Rider» jumped up after the Stun Bullet's effect wore off, and waited for his counterattack, which never happened, as «Pale Rider» was disconnected. Sinon then spoke about how «Death Gun» had cheated as he had forcefully disconnected «Pale Rider», but Kirito told her that he had not been forcefully disconnected, but in fact killed in real life.

Sinon told Kirito to watch the bridge so that she could check Death Gun's name, as the third satellite scan was about to take place. However, when she looked at the map, the player did not appear on the scan, thus Kirito and Sinon guessed that he was hiding underwater. As Kirito began pursuing Death Gun, Sinon trailed the former and insisted on coming with him, sharing her disbelief that he would survive the battle, and thus would not fulfil his promise to her. When Kirito warned her of the danger involved, Sinon argued that the danger was present regardless of whether she was with him due to Death Gun's position being unknown, a fact that Kirito reluctantly agreed with. At that moment, the two were ambushed by Kakouton, thus Sinon was ordered to shoot the attacker while Kirito covered her. Sinon watched as Kirito parried Kakouton's bullets and found herself longing to understand his strength. After the opponent was defeated with one shot from her Hecate, Sinon and Kirito assumed that Death Gun would favor cover as a sniper, and thus he would head for the Lost City to the north.

As they reached the outskirts of the abandoned city without seeing any sign of their target, Sinon reminded Kirito that they were still ignorant of Death Gun's actual character name. While they reviewed their remaining suspects, Sterben and Jūshi X, Sinon hypothesized the latter to be the most likely candidate, as the name Jūshi X had a kanji that was a homonym of the Japanese word for "death", while the X vaguely resembled a cross. With no other ideas, they decided to focus on Jūshi X if both suspects were in the city, with Sinon providing covering fire while Kirito drew their target's attention.

When the satellite scan began one minute later, the two found only two users in the city: Jūshi X in a stadium and «Licolo» slightly to the west of it. This seemingly confirmed their suspicion, thus they headed closer to the stadium, where they managed to catch a glimpse of Jūshi X's sniper rifle. At that moment, Sinon was persuaded by Kirito's to provide supporting fire with her sniper rifle while he attacked Jūshi X from the rear.

However, while Sinon was approaching her sniping position, she found herself collapsed on the road due to being hit by a stun bullet from her blind spot. As she bewilderedly attempted to determine what had occurred, she discovered that Death Gun, who was revealed to be Sterben, had been using an Metamaterial Optical Camouflage Mantle to conceal himself to ambush her. Realizing that Sterben had been using the mantle to snipe his quarries and avoid the satellite scan, Sinon could only listen as he drew closer to her and declared that he would kill her.

Having recovered from her shock, Sinon struggled to move her right hand to her H&K MP7 submachine gun on her waist before Sterben could fire. However, just when she managed to draw her sidearm from her waist, the girl noticed to her horror that Sterben's handgun was a Type 54 "Black Star", the same gun she had used to kill the bank robber five years prior. Losing her grip on her submachine gun in shock, the sniper hallucinated the bank robber under Death Gun's cloak, which resulted in her resigning to death. To her surprise, however, Sterben was abruptly shot by another player, who also threw a smoke grenade in-between her and Sterben. Under the cover of the smoke, Sinon's petrified avatar and her equipment were retrieved by Kirito.

When Kirito carried her to a nearby buggy and horse rental point, where they commandeered the only serviceable buggy, and drove some distance from the rental point, the sniper finally removed the stun bullet from her avatar. Under Kirito's request, Sinon attempted to destroy the only other vehicle at the rental point to prevent Death Gun from using it to overtake them, but found herself unable to pull the trigger.

Calibur
Shortly after the «Death Gun» incident was solved, Shino was invited by Lisbeth and Asuna to join «ALfheim Online». She created a new account and chose a Cait Sith as her avatar, due to the race having the best eyesight of the nine races which would be very useful for using a bow for long-range attacks. Two weeks later, when the location of Holy Sword Excalibur was found by everyday players, Kirito decided that it was time to retrieve the sword. Sinon was one of the five players invited to join Kirito and Leafa on their quest to recover the sword. When Klein demanded Kirito to help him acquire the «Spirit Katana Kagutsuchi» in return for his services, Sinon in turn requested Kirito for his aid in obtaining the «Light Bow Shekinah», as, despite the excellency of the bow Lisbeth had crafted for her, she desired a weapon with more range.

In the tunnel leading to Jötunheimr, Sinon had her tail pulled by Kirito as a joke, to which she responded by threatening to attack him with a fire arrow. When they entered the dungeon, she was relegated to the back lines due to having low health and long-range attacks. After Kirito was forced to drop Excalibur, Sinon retrieved it using a Retrieve Arrow. She returned the sword to Kirito, but jokingly gave him the condition that he had to always think of her when using it.

Girl OPS
Some time after the start of 2026, Sinon joined Silica, Lisbeth, Leafa, and Lux to enjoy some tea and sweets with Sakuya and Alicia Rue in Swilvane. When the girls started talking about the Excalibur quest, Sinon interjected to remind them of her role in retrieving the sword. After Sakuya received a message about recent fanatical player killers in the middle of the conversation, Sinon and the other girls expressed shock when they learnt the extent of the damages engendered in Sylph territory, as well as the failed efforts to stop them.

A few days later, due to Sakuya having been attacked by the player killers the other day, Sinon was requested by Alicia to act as her bodyguard while the Lord discussed with the other Fairy Lords how to handle the problem. En route to meet with Sakuya, the pair encountered Silica, Leafa, and Lisbeth. The archer informed them that the attack on Sakuya had recently inspired more players to participate in player killing.

SAO Game Appearances
Sword Art Online: Twin Blades

Sinon is one of the characters of the game.

Crossover Appearances
Dengeki Bunko vs. Sega

Sinon is one of the characters from Dengeki Bunko side.

2K10 Anime Battle Coliseum

Sinon is one of the characters from SAO side.

Project X Zone 4: Fate at Hands

Sinon appears as a Solo Unit.

Super X Dimensions

Sinon appears as a Solo Unit.

Cartoons Vs. Animes: Infinite Heroes

Sinon is one of the DLC characters from Wave 2 (Anime).

Trivia
In an official character popularity poll hosted by Dengeki Bunko for the cover of abec Art Works, Shino's GGO avatar ranked third, her ALO avatar ranked sixteenth, while her real life persona ranked eleventh.
 * The glasses Shino uses do not have any prescription and are not meant for correcting eyesight. Instead, the lenses are made from an NXT polymer which is said to make the glasses able to withstand even the impact of a bullet. This gives her a modest sense of security and allows her to stay calm despite her trauma from the past.
 * The visual acuity rating for both of Shino's eyes in real life are 2.0, which is twice as good as the average person.
 * Asuna has nicknamed Shino as "Sinonon".
 * Sinon's avatar in ALfheim Online was originally supposed to be a Sylph archer. This was changed with the creation of the Calibur side story.
 * Sinon appears in the Sword Art Online game adaptations: «Infinity Moment» and «Hollow Fragment», as an archer, even though she was not an SAO player and archers did not exist in SAO in the original story.
 * Shino aspires to become a policewoman.
 * Shino's motto is "One Shot, One Kill". In the real world, this saying is popularly known as the "Sniper's Creed", and is often quoted by real-world military snipers.
 * While discussing about the designs of the series heroines, the light novel illustrator abec felt that the glasses factor in the series was too low at the time and suggested making Sinon a glasses girl. This idea ended up being adopted.