Iyoku Seiko

Iyoku Seikō (意欲 性向, Iyoku Seikō), known as Claire (クレア, Kurea) in «Sword Art Online» (SAO) is the main character of the fanfiction Tales of Aincrad: Claire and a supporting character in the overall Tales of Aincrad verse. She is one of the 10,000 players who were trapped in Sword Art Online, where she became a blacksmith and went through many journeys, whether it was as a member of the guild Serenity, a solo player, a public blacksmith in the Town of Beginnings, or a Clearer wanting to help complete the death game in her own way.

Appearance
Claire never changed her avatar at the beginning of the game, making it look like her real life self simply because she wanted to experience the game first-hand; being a self insert in a fantasy setting and getting to save the world as ‘her’ instead of a character she's controlling. Claire has raven-black hair that goes to her waist with dark brown eyes that are practically black. She comments that her looks are "completely average-looking" and nothing special.

In the beginning of the game her equipment consisted of the standard beginner equipment with a greatsword as her primary weapon. As the game continued she began to use a long dark blue cloak to conceal her gender and to avoid social interactions. She also began to equip heavier armor, but not a full set to retain her speed in battle, as she wanted to focus more on a balance between offense and defense (a bruiser build) rather than pure tanking. By the end of the game, Claire's armor consisted of a smoky grey heavy metal chesplate, shoulderguards, armguards, and shinguards. While she began using the cloak less to conceal herself, she still had it equipped as more of a decorative cape all the way until the end of the game. Though she restitches it as much as she can to not have it break, the cloak still continued to become more worn as the game progressed, eventually becoming tattered and old-looking by the game's completion. Underneath her armor and cloak she wears a dark grey t-shirt, a dark blue skirt, and black thigh-high stockings.

Personality
Though Claire lived a normal life before joining Sword Art Online, because of pressure to do good in school by her teachers and peers, as well as a growing lack of self-confidence, Claire became someone who frequently locked herself in her room after-school and either slept, played games, or delved into the internet with little social interaction. That is— she's an introverted nerd.

Though she does not enjoy talking often and would rather stay locked in her room and use the internet for the entire day, Claire is still the kind of person who wants to make friendships with others. This is mostly because of her lack of lasting relationships for most of her life. She wanted to actually experience what having a best friend or even a boyfriend was like. However, as friend after friend kept on leaving her either through circumstance or a lack of common interests, Claire began to lose hope in ever finding lasting relationships, becoming less confident in herself as a result.

However, because she's been so distant from everyone she meets (barring her parents), Claire began to observe people and how they interact with each other, developing a keen sense over time to detect how other people are feeling, as well as their intentions. Sometimes this sense is so overwhelming to her that she will experience the exact same emotion that other person is feeling. Though she is extremely keen on knowing how others feel, she only begins to realize her own feelings throughout her journey in Sword Art Online.

In addition, though Claire wishes to suppress it, she is an extremely emotional person. She can get worked up simply by losing once in a game, or second-guessing herself on a quiz question and getting it wrong. She can tear up extremely easily in a sad scene, or yell in utter hype in an epic scene, even if everyone else isn't as sad or as hyped. Because she bottles up her emotions so often, when there's an event that would normally make someone just regularly emotional, Claire will amp her emotions up to 10 and go all out on them.

Claire's lack of self-confidence and care for her life, emotional and introverted nature, and observant and analytical tendencies are all shown on full display during her time in Sword Art Online. When Kayaba Akihiko announced that the game became a Death Game, Claire did not fear for her own life, but instead her party and the people around her, stating that their lives held more value than hers. She knew exactly how players were feeling, to the point where some characters joked that she could become the best counselor on Aincrad. When one of her party members betrayed her and killed everyone but herself, all the while surrounded by enemies, Claire went into a fit of rage and desperation, slaying every monster in the way. Her fierceness and lack of self-control especially in the middle floors of Aincrad gave her the title «The Blacksmith of Rage» by some; a title she eventually becomes embarrassed by in the later floors of Aincrad when she learns how to control her emotions.

The intense emotions Claire displays could also translate to her willpower. Though it is buried under a lack of self-confidence, when she actually puts her mind to it and focuses, she can achieve great feats of perseverance and determination when trying to achieve something. Her willpower eventually grew along with her confidence as the floors progressed and as she experienced more and more things that changed her as a person, such as gaining relationships, losing them, coping with loss and guilt, cherishing what she has, and much more. Her drive and will grew so much to the point where she resisted the influence of the most notorious manipulators and PKers, PoH, as well as have the determination to try and stay alive in a fight with a group of Laughing Coffin members, including PoH himself, even though that was her lowest point in terms of loss in the entire game and she had little incentive to live.

Because of Sword Art Online, Claire changed, and to her, it was for the better. She learnt to have more confidence in herself, losing her inferiority complex. She became less prone to get out of control with her emotions while also not falling for apathy at the same time, allowing her to keep who she was as a person intact and increasing her mental fortitude. She learnt from her experiences in the game, becoming more wise as a result.

Though she may harbor guilt over not being able to save or be with everyone she cared about in the game, she continues to move on in any way she can... because that's what they would've wanted her to do.

Background
Born on May 22, 2000, Iyoku Seikō grew up in a relatively normal household. Her parents were not too strict, but still pushed her to do good in her studies, and because Seikō wanted to make her parents proud, she tried her best in school. This and the combination of her teachers having high expectations of her at a young age resulted in Seikō being quickly overwhelmed with pressure in school, seeking an outlet to cool down. This led Seikō to consume plenty of games, manga, anime, and internet culture, growing more nerdy as a result. However, because nobody at her schools— elementary, middle, and high school— shared the same interests as her, she began to feel distant from everyone she met; thus becoming more introverted.

Though she felt distant, Seikō still longed for relationships, which allowed her to make a few friends throughout all of her years in school. However, either through circumstance or simply not having the same interests, those friends eventually drifted away. That combined with a growing inferiority complex because of her better peers in class, especially in high school and college, resulted in Claire dropping what little confidence and value she had in her life as the years went on.

Throughout high school and college, Claire took part-time jobs to fuel her hobby for games and manga, eventually gaining enough to buy a NerveGear after college.

A World of Swords That Was Supposed To Be An Escape From Reality
WIP

The End of the First Day
WIP

The Private Blacksmith
WIP

Relationships
WIP

Combat Capabilities
Claire's only real exposure to fighting before Sword Art Online were a few karate and kendo classes that she took between 6 to 13 years old. During that time, Claire just learnt the basics, such as positioning, movement, grapples, sweeps, and light sparring. However, despite quitting karate and kendo when she turned 14, Claire continued to develop her fighting instinct and reactions from time to time because of some inspiration from games, anime, manga, and videos. She began to learn what's practical and what's impractical for combat, methods to incapacitate her enemies instead of killing them, etc.. Eventually these actions became so natural to her that she just does did them on instinct whenever she was alone, such as opening/closing doors by kicking them, or immediately putting her hands up and blocking when someone's play-fighting or trying to hug her. Despite having these instincts though, it is not until Sword Art Online when Claire begins to gain actual combat experience.

After hundreds of combat situations and experience fighting, Claire eventually became a skilled warrior in her own right. Because she was usually behind in levels compared to the average Clearer, Claire developed her build and fighting style to outlast or survive against burst-type builds and those that are higher level than her for an extended period of time. To achieve being able to fight opponents stronger than her, Claire developed a fighting style where she would either counter the opponent through tricking them into doing what she wanted (This was mostly only used against AIs though unless she knew her opponent well) or playing defensively, using anything in the environment or her own positioning to her advantage and eventually whittle down the enemy that way.

However, if a situation is dire or if Claire becomes emotional, she will go completely on the offensive. At first, this fighting style would almost get her killed most of the time. However, as she continued to gain more fighting experience against those stronger than her as the game went on, as well as temper her emotions more, Claire began incorporating her previous defensive fighting style along with this offensive fighting style. Eventually, it even came to the point where she was naturally figuring out her opponents' strategies and weaknesses, tricking them, using the environment, her positioning, and any opening she could get; all the while fighting on the fly and being completely offensive.

Though Claire was not that high of a level compared to other Clearers, she was able to make up for it with sheer skill, experience, and repeatedly learning from her past mistakes to improve in any way she can.

Outside System Skills
An Outside System Skill (システム外スキル, Shisutemu-gai Sukiru) is an ability, usually referred to as a skill, that either involves unconventional use of system-controlled skills, the exploitation of loopholes in the system, or the use of the player's human abilities to enhance their gameplay. Although such abilities are referred to as "skills", none are regulated by the system, though some involve making use of system skills in ways that were not intended by the developers of the game.

These skills are developed through a player's capability in game and are acquired through experience and practice put in by the player themselves throughout playing time. In Claire's case, because she's behind in levels compared to most other Clearers, as well as because of other experiences, Claire decided to adopt and develop some of her own Outside System Skills to keep up with those that are higher level than her.
 * Switch - A technique where two players switch positions in-between an enemy's attack to recover Hit Points, chain attacks together without worrying about a post-motion delay, and/or burden the learning abilities of enemies AIs.
 * Sword Skill Imitation - Imitating Sword Skills without the system's assistance, removing the post-motion delay, but sacrificing the power and speed of the actual skill.
 * Distinguish - Eliminating background noise by concentrating on an unnatural or certain sound to detect any movements.
 * Precognition - Knowing precisely the user's own positioning and movements to gain a better control of their body.
 * Insight - Predicting a monster's next attack from long range via their attack pattern.
 * Mislead - The ability to trick monsters' AI's learning function to burden them.
 * Innate Understander - Claire has an uncanny ability to either figure out quickly or know exactly how other people are currently feeling, even subconsciously. This eventually applies to herself, boosting her own mental defenses.
 * Instinct - Born though Claire's «Innate Understander» Outside System Skill, Claire developed a new skill over time that is a superior version of Hypersense, but requires Claire to stop overthinking and self-doubting herself; simply using her instincts to use the skill effectively. The skill allows Claire to sense the intentions of another player, good or not, even outside of her field of vision. She can sense whether the enemy wants to feint, use a ranged attack, use the environment to their advantage, be unpredictable, etc..
 * Determined Learner - Claire may not get something at first, but she will dedicate a lot of time and effort to figure out that something and learn it, being almost one-track minded on that single thing until she figures it out.
 * Excessive Planner and Procrastinator - Claire will excessively plan for nearly anything she deems important or high stakes, even if it’s not needed. However, if she thinks that important thing has a deadline pretty far away, she will still plan, but not actually enact on that plan and instead procrastinate until the last minute to do said plan in a much shorter time frame.

Sword Art Online

 * Level: 84
 * HP: 14700 (18628 w/ armor set)

Sword Skills

 * Avalanche
 * Description : A high level two-handed dash skill that consists of a single, powerful downward vertical slash. Grants Super Armor during the attack-motion. Avalanche's pre-motion has the user bend their lower body a little, assuming an overhead position with their sword.
 * Number of Hits : 1
 * Back Rush
 * Description : A two-handed technique to spin around anticlockwise and diagonally slash from right to left when an opponent is at your back. Back Rush’s pre-motion has the user holding their sword with both hands parallel and in-front of their stomach. Black Rush’s post-motion has the user holding their sword with both hands at the left above their head.
 * Number of Hits : 1
 * Cascade
 * Description : A two-handed overhead slash. Cascade’s pre-motion has the user holding their sword with both hands above their head. Cascade’s post-motion has the user holding their sword with both hands in-front of their stomach.
 * Number of Hits : 1
 * Cyclone
 * Description : A two-handed spinning sword slash that consists of a single upwards diagonal slash from right to left with two hands holding the sword. Cyclone’s pre-motion has the user holding their sword with both hands at the right of their waist. Cyclone’s post-motion has the user holding their sword with both hands at the left above their head.
 * Number of Hits : 1
 * Blast
 * Tempest
 * Eruption
 * Scooped
 * Lightning
 * Fight Blade
 * Astral Hell
 * Calamity Disaster
 * Catastrophe Eraser
 * Hollow Silhouette
 * Furious Destroyer
 * Ray Brandish

Notable Achievements

 * Survived through the death game, «Sword Art Online».
 * Survived a fight with Laughing Coffin's most deadly, including PoH, Johnny Black, and Red-Eyed XaXa.
 * Can compete with Clearers and players higher level than her.
 * Developed and learned a variety of Outside System Skills.
 * Notable for being one of the better blacksmiths in SAO for her high quality bladed weapons and heavy armors.

Trivia

 * Claire only makes weapons that do slash damage and heavy equipment in her blacksmithing shop, however because she's so good at making said equipment, it more than makes up for her lack of variety.
 * Claire prefers dogs over cats.
 * Claire is terrible with remembering names.
 * Claire can forget important things rather quickly, but still remember the most stupidest of stuff.
 * Claire stutters a lot when she talks unless she planned out what she wanted to say beforehand.
 * Claire feels more confident when she plans something out, and when she doesn’t plan something out or something unexpected happens, she has a hard time making things up on the go.
 * Claire feels more confident when on the internet or in text.
 * It's difficult for Claire to refuse or lie to someone, and even if she does lie, it'd most likely be a half-truth instead.
 * Claire's Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is INFJ.
 * Claire is often reserved and quiet in real life, but she can become social whenever she’s around friends or when the situation calls for it. She can also get quite hyper and passionate if the situation’s right.
 * Even though Claire may seem like a disorganized person (especially considering the state of her apartment room), she's actually a really organized person; keeping multiple planners and always leaving stuff categorized in areas where she could easily obtain them in real life.
 * Claire can become sleepy rather easily, and will become even more sleepy when cuddling with someone or something.
 * Claire likes to keep everything she thinks written down, as she would likely forget it otherwise.
 * Claire loves writing characters and stories, especially the fantastical and impractical.
 * Claire loves drawing and animating, however because of the low pay animators get, she decided that she would simply keep those as a hobby and instead focus on computer programming.
 * Claire's dream job that she would stay at before retiring would be a video game company as a programmer, however if the pay was higher for animators, she would be an animator instead.
 * Claire tries to give the best advice and counselling that she can, though she’s more comfortable with giving emotional support than practical support (Though she tries to give practical support. It just takes a while for her to think of something practical unless it’s something she’s familiar with and she can help well with).
 * Claire gets embarrassed extremely easily.
 * Claire's top 5 favorite anime so far are (in no particular order): Violet Evergarden, Log Horizon, Assassination Classroom, A Place Further Than The Universe, and Steins;Gate.
 * Claire's top 5 favorite video games/video game franchises so far are (in no particular order): The Devil May Cry series, the Soulsborne Series, the Elder Scrolls series, Undertale/Deltarune, and the NieR and Drakengard series.
 * Claire's childhood was mostly Nintendo and Sega titles, such as Mario, Legend of Zelda, and Sonic. Even now she has a sweet spot for games made by these companies, especially Sonic games.
 * Claire thinks of herself as a fast sprinter, but a slow marathoner.
 * Claire has quite a bit of experience with parkour, doing it in secret from her parents ever since she was 14. This was because of her Assassin's Creed addiction at the time, and even when she grew out of that franchise, the part of herself that liked to do parkour still stuck.
 * Claire thinks that she's horrible at keeping secrets, however when it really comes down to it, she can keep important secrets pretty well, and possibly even lie to keep that secret if it's really that important.
 * Claire's favorite kind of traditional jokes are puns, specifically bad ones. She also likes dirty jokes. Also memes. Lots and lots of memes.
 * Claire mostly prefers boy stuff rather than girl stuff, making her a tomboy.
 * Claire rarely uses makeup.