Suguha Kirigaya's Feelings

In the Fairy Dance Arc, we find that Suguha, or Leafa in the virtual world, realizes she is in love with Kirito (Kazuto Kirigaya). On the surface, this is probably not the most popular romance among fans, myself included. However, I believe that many reasons brought her to feel this way.

When Kirito found out Suguha and her mother were actually his cousin and aunt respectively, instead of his sister and mother, he felt he did not fit in anymore with them at home. He felt like an outcast, which brought him to online gaming and a growing distance from his adoptive family. During this time, Suguha was hurt by Kirito's distance from her. She was young and did not understand, and she did not yet know the truth about Kirito's birth parents. After Kirito ended up stuck in Sword Art Online (SAO) for over 2 years, he really opened up and tried to find his place back within his family. While he was trapped and bound in the hospital, Suguha learned the truth about his parents and that he was really her cousin. She was very happy to see him back when he finally awoke from SAO. This was also when she described she loved him.

I believe these feelings of love (as Suguha tells herself) come from the return of her big brother into her life. Kirito was not very involved with her for a long time after he learned about his parents, but he tried to amend it after SAO. Suguha was so relieved Kirito had come back, but she told herself it was a more romantic-type love. When she learned about Asuna and Kirito's love for her, Suguha had a hard time dealing with her own feelings. She knew her feelings would never become a reality. She was completely heartbroken when she learned that the "Kirito" she adventured with in ALfheim Online (ALO) was actually her brother, Kazuto. The two ended up making amends, and they agreed to try to work it out as siblings again.

Suguha's immaturity may have caused her to mistake her feelings for a romantic love, but she was actually longing for her older brother to come back into her life. She was subconsciously searching for that need to be fulfilled. Suguha was looking for her brother to come back to her, and she agreed to help him readjust to life back at home and find where he belonged. As a sister, she tried her best to be there for her brother, no matter how much it hurt. We can see that she grew out of her feelings of "love" as the series continued, and Suguha looked out for Kirito as her brother. They went on many adventures together with their friends in the VR world as well as the real world.