Synopsis
Seijirou Kikuoka is a recurring figure across the Sword Art Online series, publicly presented as an investigator with the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Telecommunications Bureau who plays ALfheim Online under the name Chrysheight for research purposes. In reality, he is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force who transferred to civilian oversight specifically to advance Project Alicization, keeping his true rank and motives hidden from nearly everyone around him.
During the Sword Art Online incident's aftermath, Kikuoka works as an investigator for the SAO Case Victims Rescue Force and is the one who tells Kirigaya Kazuto which hospital Yuuki Asuna is being treated in. He later draws on Kazuto's sense of obligation, repeatedly pulling him into official investigations and treating him as a de facto asset for monitoring the VR industry. A former SAO beta tester himself, Kikuoka chose not to play the finished game once he recognized how the full-dive technology could be applied to far more than military simulation.
