Ishi

Ishi is an alpa tester for Sword Art Online.

Appearance
Ishi wears a black shirt with black pants that have wing shaped guards on the bottom of each leg. He also wears a white jacket with multiple smaller blades fastened around it. He wears a white fingerless glove on his right hand and wears black shoes that have chrome guards on them.

Background
Ishi Haseo was friends with one of the developers of Sword Art Online, and therefore got a spot for the first alpha tests of the game, where he was allowed to design his own weapons along with the other few alpha testers. He designed his custom sword, Arondight, and personal gauntlet, Gilgamesh, which are designed to scale up to his level as he progresses through the game. On the day Sword Art Online was released, he was one of the first players to enter the game, and soon discovered he couldn't log out. After the Game Master adressed the players, he was one of the first to take action, vowing to beat the game and kill the Game Master, both in game and in real life.

Personality
Kind at heart, but headstrong and rebellious, Ishi prefers to do things his own way and usually doesn't accept help and almost never joins or hosts parties. He tends to stick with just two other players, Jackel and Dainsleif, who are his greatest friends both in game and in real life. Despite not liking teams (save for with his friends), he is a strong team player, supporting his allies with his skillful abilities. He refuses to let anyone die before him, and will risk his life to save another, no matter the danger. He has claimed that once he beats the game he will personally murder Kayaba Akihiko for what he's done.

Abilities
Ishi is an incredibly skilled master swordsman, fighting with his personal sword, Arondight, and gauntlet, Gilgamesh. He is undefeatable in close quarters, using his deadly skill and variably graceful and brutal fighting style to eliminate his enemies. He focuses mainly on speed and skill, finding that the best way to fight is to simply not get hit, developing a unique ability, Zero Shift, specifically for this purpose. It allows Ishi to dash around the battlefield at incredible speed, crossing large distances in extremely short times, looking almost like teleportation. His ultimate one shot skill, Infinity Blade, has him launching multiple blades into the air and dashing around, picking them up and slashing the enemy with them individually, before coming up and delivering one final and extremely powerful slash with Arondight.

Trivia

 * Ishi's last name, Haseo is a reference to Haseo, the main character .hack//Roots and .hack//G.U., a player of The World R:2, another online MMORPG.
 * Ishi's unique ability, Zero Shift, is a reference to the Zero Shift ability used by Orbital Frame Jehuty in Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner.
 * Ishi's ultimate skill, Infinity Blade is based on the Sword Storm ability of the Blade Master class in Dungeon Fighter Online.