BAKIBAKIBAKIBAKI!!
What rang through the world in that moment was a strange tremor, like countless metal clumps grating against each other.
The fresh morning sunlight flowing in from the front entrance degenerated into a creepy yellow.
The surrounding floor and walls were covered with biological-looking slime everywhere from Haruyuki’s feet, and with creased and rusted metal. The support pillars had joints like the abdomen of an insect and were twisted, and there were many strange eye-like bulges visible on the ceiling.
It had only taken a few seconds for the interior of the cutting-edge hospital that had been so clean to be covered with organic metal-like pollution like something from the nightmare of a classic cyberpunk author.
As he held his breath and stood stock still, Haruyuki’s body began to be covered by shining silver armor from the tips of his limbs and at the same time was squeezed and thinned down like a wire.
Everything from his lower back to his abdomen and chest also changed into smooth silver, and at the end his head was wrapped in a round helmet.
At nearly the same time as Haruyuki transformed from the pink avatar to the duel avatar «Silver Crow», two physical strength gauges extended out in the upper corner of his vision with a screeching sound.
In between the gauges were the numeral digits of 1800.
And then finally, a flame burst out with a roar in the middle. The characters of «FIGHT!!» that appeared inside the flames shined a deep red, and then scattered with an explosion.
After quickly looking at the countdown that had started to decrease and letting out a breath of relief as he thought ‘I made it in time’, Haruyuki looked towards the end of the slimy hallway, where Takumu had been standing.
Standing there while facing towards the side in the exact same place was a duel avatar with an unexpected form.
That…was Takumu!? «Cyan Pile»!?
Haruyuki unconsciously moved back half a step with his right leg in astonishment.
He was gigantic, no, his height wasn’t that big. He was only about five centimeters taller than Takumu, who was one-hundred-and-seventy-five centimeters in his first year of middle school—but even so, Silver Crow, who was at most one-hundred-and-fifty-five, had to raise his eyes to look up at him.
However, more overwhelming than that was how incredibly thick Cyan Pile’s entire body was.
It was different from being fat. Limbs and torso with rugged muscles bulging on them like a pro-wrestler’s. And that was all wrapped in metallic-blue snug bodysuit-type armor.
Dark blue rough boots on the feet, and a similarly colored giant glove on the left hand.
He looked like a macho hero from some American comic book. This image was a full 180 degree reversal from the actual slender and slim Takumu.
While Haruyuki was inescapably overwhelmed and stood stock still.
Turning his body to the left slowly, Cyan Pile’s gaze poured straight forward at him.
Cyan Pile’s head was covered by a stylish tear drop-shaped mask. Several long and narrow slit-like gaps were opened horizontally on the face, with points facing downward vertically at the center of each slit. Looking at it, it reminded one of a kendo mask.
Inside one of the slits, two bluish-white eyes suddenly flashed and shined sharply. He slowly lifted his left leg and stomped the floor heavily. The piled up slime there went flying left and right with a splash.
While he took another step with his left leg, Haruyuki’s eyes were drawn in by Cyan Pile’s exposed right arm. What—was that!?
There was no arm-like glove on his right arm. It was connected to a pipe from the elbow onwards.
The pipe had a diameter of fifteen centimeters and a length of one meter. Furthermore, the sharp tip of a rod, which stuck out from an aperture on it and seemed to be installed in the pipe, was emitting a glaring and dangerous radiance.
Cyan Pile’s attribute, based on the color of the armor that wrapped around his entire body, was «Close Range Blue». Moreover, according to Kuroyukihime, this was exceedingly close to the pure color of blue. So, that sharp rod shouldn’t be a projectile weapon.
But even as Haruyuki thought that, he couldn’t help moving back another step.
As if he was tormenting the stock-still slender Silver Crow, Cyan Pile took one slow step, then another down the organic metal hallway. Then, his movements suddenly stopped.
That mask with parallel slits turned to look at the surroundings.
The voice that flowed out from inside that was—darkly warped, but that was certainly the refreshing voice that he had heard for so long, of his best friend Takumu.
“Hmm, so this is the «Purgatory» stage. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it. What were its attributes again?”
In the face of that carefree chatting, Haruyuki unconsciously opened his mouth.
“Ta…Taku…”
SUGYAAAAAH!!
Suddenly swinging it, the steel rod of Cyan Pile’s right arm ate into the metal wall of the hallway, and unseemly tore it up. Scattered metal scraps, slime and crushed unknown bugs fell and dripped down onto the floor.
Haruyuki gulped back down his words and cringed in fear with a ‘HIKUN!’.
Fleetingly looking at his reaction, Cyan Pile continued speaking further in a cheerful voice.
“As expected, it’s hard. Destroying this stage may be a little difficult.”
Thud. He resumed walking, and his big blue frame approached before Haruyuki’s eyes as if leaning over him.
“Haru…Haru. As usual, the way you operate a virtual desktop is so fast. Though all I had left to do was pull the Duel button, you broke in just before that.”
“Ta…kumu…”
—So it really is you. Why? Since when?
Since when on earth have you been a Burst Linker?
Before Haruyuki could give voice to the questions swirling in his chest, Cyan Pile uttered more words.
“To think you would become a Burst Linker…I’m shocked. Yesterday, I couldn’t keep myself completely calm as expected. I never thought that my best friend would betray me like that, right, Haru?”
“Ta…kumu…N…No, that’s not it. That was…”
The words that Haruyuki blurted out in a hoarse voice were drowned out by the loud sound of the steel rod hitting against the wall again.
“…How was it, Haru? How did it feel to direct connect on Chii-chan’s bed? How did it feel to hug her? How did Chii-chan’s body feel as you touched her while thinking about me?”
—That isn’t Takumu. Haruyuki cried that out without saying it.
That isn’t the Taku I know. Taku wouldn’t say such things. Always bright and refreshing, never showing any negative feelings at all, that is Takumu.
Cyan Pile was someone else. Surely, he’s put a Backdoor in Takumu’s Neuro Linker as well and is connecting from somewhere far away.
Haruyuki desperately tried to tell himself that.
But, at the same time, the presence that he had felt back then.
Haruyuki was strongly aware that the presence he had felt when he had direct connected with Chiyuri and discovered the virus in her Neuro Linker, of someone lurking deep inside there, watching and listening intently, was exactly the same as the presence he felt densely rising up from the blue duel avatar in front of him.
And, possibly, it might have been the same as the fleeting glances that Takumu had given towards the playing Haruyuki and Chiyuri since long ago, from the time that the three of them had been small children.
“Taku…It was you.”
The words that Haruyuki emitted from beneath his silver helmet resounded so sharply and strongly that it surprised even himself.
“It was you that put that virus in Chiyu’s Neuro Linker. You secretly connected to Chiyu, and peeked through her memory, sight and hearing as you pleased!”
“Please don’t call it a virus.”
Stopping just five meters away from Haruyuki, the huge avatar lightly spread out his left hand in a stylish manner that was the only thing like Takumu.
“Chii-chan is my girlfriend. So it’s only natural that we direct connect. And direct connecting is the same thing as presenting your Neuro Linker to your partner. Things like circumventing password authentication, exposing the deepest parts of one’s local memory, looking at any file and installing any kind of program, it’s all acceptable. Am I wrong? Haru, even you …”
Haruyuki felt that, inside the thin slits cut across Cyan Pile’s mask, there was a warped smile on the face that he couldn’t see.
“Even you direct connected with Chii-chan, and secretly looked through her memory, didn’t you? What’s more, you’re not even her boyfriend either. The one who took advantage of Chii-chan’s kindness and pretended to be pitiful was you, wasn’t it?”
“Th…That’s…”
“You’ve always been like that since long ago, Haru.”
As Cyan Pile began to speak in a calm voice, a big metallic bug with a weird shape tried to pass by on the wall to the right of him.
Cyan Pile lifted the giant needle of his right arm with a casual gesture, and lightly pierced the back of the bug with it. Stopped on the wall and making squeaking noises, the bug furiously waved its countless legs as it tried to escape.
“Always, always since long ago, you kept saying to Chii-chan, ‘Aren’t I pitiful? Aren’t I pathetic? That’s why, be kind to me. Care for me more.’ Even if you didn’t use words, in your behaviour, in your eyes…No, it could be seen in your existence itself.”
Making a wet squishy noise, the needle sank further into the shell of the bug. Grew fluid scattered around, and the virtual bug began to wriggle and struggle even more.
“Girls sure are incomprehensible. Compared to when she holds hands with me, Chii-chan seems to be enjoying herself more when she’s pulling your hand while grumbling and complaining. She always looks so much happier by looking after you and meddling in your business, since long ago…Did you know? Whenever she goes anywhere, she always carries a huge toweling handkerchief. For the sweaty you.”
BACHA!!
And with a horrifying noise, the bug was crushed, and its dark green shell and legs scattered about along with slime.
As the bug’s fluids dripped from the needle, the half-dumbfounded Haruyuki asked Cyan Pile.
“That’s why…? That’s why you confessed to Chiyu two years ago? Looking like you were impatient…?”
“It wasn’t ‘like’, I was impatient. If things were left as they were, Chii-chan would have tried to keep looking after you for the rest of her life, you know? Like one of those old-fashioned manga that you have archived. ‘Since you’re no good without me around, I’ll marry you.’ —Ah, could it have been your plan to induce Chii-chan into that as well?”
‘Hahahaha’, Cyan Pile gave a seemingly pleasant laugh, but which contained a distorted echo that made one shudder.
No. That’s not it—
Takumu, you’re wrong. Chiyuri definitely didn’t enjoy looking after the pitiful me. She was seriously worried and suffered.
But, Haruyuki didn’t know how to express those thoughts in words to Takumu. Because when looking at everything from the surface, what Takumu said was true to some extent.
Cyan Pile’s foot took another step towards the stock-still Haruyuki.
“When Chii-chan chose me two years ago, I was so happy. I thought that Chii-chan also finally understood. That it was much better to be happy at my side, than going through hardships by looking after Haru. That…was the pragmatic decision after all.”
“Pragma…tic?”
“‘We can’t stay children forever’, right?”
Those were the words that Haruyuki had told Chiyuri yesterday. Cyan Pile lifted the tip of his green-dyed metallic needle in the air as if asking for agreement.
“Even Chii-chan is a girl…no, a woman. She eventually realized that having a boyfriend you can boast about to your friends, a happy marriage, and a satisfying life is what true «happiness» is. That’s why I also worked hard. I studied desperately to enter my current school, and trained my body by running every day. While you were playing worthless games and spent time fast asleep, Haru.”
“You…do you seriously mean that?”
Still unable to gather his thoughts, Haruyuki cried that out almost reflexively.
“Do you seriously believe that Chiyu chose you over some calculation like that!?”
“I don’t like how you call it ‘calculating’. It’s looking at everything from an impartial point of view.”
‘Fufufu’, Cyan Pile laughed once again.
“Chii-chan has the right to be happy. The right to go out with me, who has the first place results among the first years at school and is the municipal tournament champion in kendo.”
“……”
Haruyuki sharply drew in a breath, and took in even more.
As I thought, this isn’t Takumu.
I don’t believe, I don’t want to believe at all that this is Takumu’s true nature. Something has warped him.
Certainly, Haruyuki and Chiyuri were also partly to blame for it. While going out with Takumu, Chiyuri putting feelings towards Haruyuki. That was also part of what drove Takumu into a wall.
But—what changed Takumu far more greatly than that was, most likely.
“…You’re wrong, Taku.”
Haruyuki lifted up his silver mask and stared straight at the sharp eyes of Cyan Pile.
“The first place position, the championship, those aren’t your power. That’s Brain Burst’s…«accelerations»’s power. Since when? Since when did you become a Burst Linker?”
For a short while, silence filled the Purgatory stage.
A group of small bugs passed by their feet, and steam like that of a living being’s sometimes rose from the creases that opened up along the wall.
Since it had started from 1800, the countdown had already passed through 200 seconds. At the same time as the hundred-digit column became ‘5’, Cyan Pile spoke out.
“It’s my power.”
He pointed his right arm’s needle straight at Haruyuki.
“«Acceleration» is my power. My power, from fostering my aptitude by immersing myself in intellectual training software in my Neuro Linker to the point of hating it ever since I was an infant! It’s only been a year since I became a Burst Linker. The captain of my kendo club is my «Parent»…and a close-aide of the «Blue King». He had great expectations for me. I became a cadet for the elite guards. But…”
GAGYAAAAAN!!
He greatly swung his right arm and engraved several scars into the wall.
“It’s too late!! You’ve only recently become a Burst Linker, haven’t you!? And you think you’ve become my equal with just that, Haru!? Since you have confidence in your «acceleration» power, you think you can get back Chii-chan again!? It’s no good, Haru. You can’t win against me. Whether it be in studying, sports, Chii-chan’s feelings…and of course, even in this Accel World. I’ll make you understand. Understand my power…against that weak duel avatar of yours.”
SHINE!! Both of Cyan Pile’s eyes emitted a dreadful light.
He’s serious. Takumu seriously intends to fight.
Inside Haruyuki, there were still feelings like, ‘If I exhaust all my words, he’ll understand. I want to explain Chiyuri’s and also my true feelings. I don’t want to fight like this.’
But, if Haruyuki lost here.
Cyan Pile would duel with Black Lotus again. And would hunt while she’s unconscious. At that instant, Kuroyukihime would lose all her points, and also lose her acceleration ability at the same time.
Just that. Whatever else happened, he had to prevent just that.
“…Taku. You certainly are amazing. You can study, play sports, and are so cool. You have all the things that I don’t have.”
Looking down, Haruyuki murmured in a subdued voice.
But, immediately after, he stared straight at Cyan Pile and shouted sharply.
“But, you’re an idiot. You’re a great big idiot!”
“…What? I’m an idiot?”
“That’s right, because you can’t win against me! Have you forgotten? Since long ago, in just how many games were you able to win against me?”
“…Haru. Haru.”
There was a laugh mixed in there, but it was a fierce-sounding voice.
“Then, right here and now…I’ll make you lose the last of your pride!!”
BANG!! Cyan Pile’s boots kicked off from the floor.
With that, he shortened the two-meter distance between them with an amazing speed that didn’t suit his huge body.
But, as expected, compared to the charge of Ash Roller’s bike, it was slow.
I’ll slip past him. And then move to somewhere more spacious. The entrance hall…no, the rooftop.
Haruyuki concentrated his focus on Cyan Pile’s right hand. The opponent was a close-combat type, so as long as he didn’t enter the range of that needle, he wouldn’t receive damage.
After seeing Cyan Pile’s movements as he drew back his right arm in preparation, Haruyuki also dashed in order to escape to the opposite side of him.
Silver Crow’s speed, which nearly his only redeeming feature, seemed to be unexpected for the opponent as well. With a hint of a little surprise, the right arm drew an arc and stuck out towards Haruyuki.
—I can dodge it!!
While predicting the attack trajectory, Haruyuki lowered his posture and tried to cut across right next to Cyan Pile’s left leg.
GASHUN!!
At that moment, an unexpected sound rang out.
In the corner of Haruyuki’s wide-open sight, flames spouted out from the tail end of the thick pipe attached to Cyan Pile’s right arm.
From the pointed end at the front, a shining and thick steel needle shot out at a speed he couldn’t follow.
It seemed to be a device that extended out double its original length instead of a firearms-type weapon, but that range was enough to catch Silver Crow.
CLANG!! Haruyuki heard an unpleasant breaking noise go through his body.
At the same time, an impact. And a numb-like dull pain.
Haruyuki saw the tip of the steel needle cut pierce through and cut off his arm from the left elbow.
Haruyuki belatedly remembered that «pile» meant «stake».
Falling on the floor while emitting sparks from its end, his arm immediately smashed into thousands of small fragments and vanished.
His health gauge in the left corner of his vision also suddenly decreased by almost 30% from that single attack.
But, Haruyuki didn’t have the time to regret receiving such great damage so quickly right at the start. While his posture was destroyed and he endured having his back noisily strike the hallway’s wall and falling down, Haruyuki saw the still-extended brutal steel needle—no, steel stake be stored back into Cyan Pile’s right arm.
It was clear that, the instant the sake was reloaded in the launcher tube, it would fire that terrible attach attack again.
Its attack attribute was most likely «piercing».
The metal-color Silver Crow should have resistance against that. For it to have torn apart his arm with a single blow despite that, was it because the place that was hit was bad, or because there was a difference of three levels between them, or was it more simply Cyan Pile’s strength?
Even as he instantly considered those things, Haruyuki readjusted his posture and created distance between them by jumping far.
Like that, he dashed in the direction of the entrance hall at full power without looking back.
“Hahaha! What, are you going to suddenly run away, Haru!!”
Plunging into the hall as if urged forward by that warped laughter which sounded behind him, Haruyuki quickly ran his gaze over the surroundings.
The long benches that were lined up in the waiting space had changed into cast iron with thorns poking out of them like some medieval torture device, and the reception counter to the right had rusted barbed wire twined around it. Naturally, there were no signs of people.
And behind the counter was the thing he was looking for. Elevator doors.
In the «End of the Century» stage, you couldn’t enter inside the buildings and so naturally the elevators wouldn’t function either, but if it was the «Purgatory» stage where the indoor was reconstructed in such detail, it may function.
Rushing over to it, Haruyuki hit the skull-shaped button next to the door, which had turned into ferocious-looking iron grill bars, while praying. Sure enough, with a grave metallic thud and clang, the iron grill opened up left and right. He clutched his right hand while thinking ‘Alright!’.
From behind him, the thudding footsteps of Cyan Pile approached moment by moment.
Plunging into the prison cell-like elevator box, he slammed his right hand into the button engraved with an ‘R’. Quickly, move quickly.
Just as the iron grill closed with a frustratingly slow speed, something hit the door with a loud clang. Sticking through the space of about five centimeters between the grills was a shining sharp tip.
“…!!”
Stopping himself from nearly letting out a scream, Haruyuki sprang back at once and pressed his back against the wall.
GASHUN!!
The steel stake, which was launched while pushing and bending the grill a little, stopped just barely a few centimeters in front of Silver Crow’s thin abdomen.
At the same time has that brutal radiance was pulled back out, the box finally shook with a clattering and the elevator began to rise.
“Hahaha! Hahahahaha!!”
As that howling laughter continued to stick close from below his feet, Haruyuki stamped his right foot down hard and tore it away.
Getting out on the rooftop, Haruyuki turned his gaze around while taking a rough breath.
“……”
His eyes widened unconsciously.
The sky of the «Purgatory» stage was filled with a creepy yellow light, and darkish clouds were swelling up there like living creatures. The surrounding streets, which should have originally been at the center of the Sugunami area, had uniformly changed into a strange living creature-like form, and shined in a slimy dark-red rusty color.
The group of lance-like spires that could be seen over that way seemed to be the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office in Shinjuku and the skyscrapers that surrounded it.
Just how far did this stage spread? As Haruyuki thought that, he suddenly noticed something and held his breath.
There were people.
No, those silhouettes were too strange to be called human. Lined up in small groups on the surrounding buildings that were taller than the hospital, they looked down at Haruyuki. They were unknown Burst Linkers—spectators.
Why!? After a moment of astonishment, Haruyuki finally realized.
Haruyuki was currently cut off from the Global Net, but the other person in this duel, Takumu, was probably globally connected just before the match had started. The reason why he would go so far as to risk the danger letting others intrude was unknown, but in any case this stage was opened to the outside and Burst Linkers who had registered Cyan Pile and Silver Crow in their automatic gallery had appeared as a result.
However, even if there was a gallery, there was no great difference to the situation.
The light blue arrow cursor that was visible in his vision began to change direction slowly as it slightly trembled, indicating that Cyan Pile had also gotten on the elevator and was heading towards the roof.
After moving about ten meters across the vast roof, Haruyuki turned around to face the elevator door. In this place, there was plenty of space to dodge and evade unlike the hallway.
I’ve already grasped the range of Cyan Pile’s steel stake with my body. If I’m careful and pay attention to the direction of his right, it should be possible to dodge it. Don’t be afraid. I have to do it.
As Haruyuki told himself that, the elevator stopped with a clang ahead of him, and the door slowly opened left and right.
As his huge figure rubbed against the box that fully enclosed him, Cyan Pile stepped out onto the roof, and the eyes within his slits glowed weakly.
“…I see. If it’s here, you’ll be able to use the strategy of hit-and-run by darting about, Haru…no, Silver Crow.”
“And your body build must have been getting hot down there.”
“Ahaha, to think you of all people would say such a thing.”
While letting out deep-throated laugh, Cyan Pile slowly began to move forward.
Haruyuki lowered his posture and measured the distance between them.
He shouldn’t have been able to see through Silver Crow’s speed yet. A chance to win lay only there. Before his eyes can get accustomed to it, seize victory no matter what.
Just before his heavy-looking boot took its fourth step and connected with the ground, Haruyuki kicked off the ground with all his strength.
The air range in his ears with a swishing sound, and he instantly got close to that huge blue figure.
Cyan Pile’s right arm followed the straight-rushing Haruyuki while aiming.
—Here!!
Haruyuki unexpectedly took off from his left leg, and swung his course to the right. The steel stake then shot out at ultra-high speed along with a yell. It was nearly impossible to react after seeing it launch, but if you anticipate its collision path beforehand—it’s possible!
The tip of the steel stake stopped just short of Haruyuki’s left cheek as he drew an arc and circled around to Cyan Pile’s left side. While feeling heat on his cheek as if it burned, Haruyuki kicked off the ground with his right leg using all his strength, and—
“U…raaah!!”
Haruyuki’s right fist drive into Cyan Pile’s virtually open flank. A strong reaction. The huge blue body shook.
More—Keep going!!
Running after Cyan Pile’s back as his body spun and turned around, Haruyuki dashed forward with another step and this time lodged a right spin-kick into the enemy’s left calf. As Cyan Pile lost his balance, Haruyuki sent a final left knee-kick to the middle of his back.
BANG!! A heavy impact. His huge figure bent forward in a ‘く’ shape.
Staggeringly making some distance between them, Cyan Pile groaned hatefully.
“Guh…as…as expected, you really are good at games, Haru. But, such weak attacks have no effect… at all!!”
WHOOSH, just barely avoiding the left fist that was swung at him, Haruyuki rolled his body with that momentum and buried his right heel into the back of Cyan Pile’s defenseless protruding neck.
“Gguuuuuh!!”
Blocking his ears to the crushing scream from Takumu’s voice, Haruyuki continued his rush further.
He unleashed a combo without pause using not only both his legs and right arm, but even his torn-up left arm too.
Before he knew it, scream-like shouts also started coming out from his own mouth as well.
“You… idiot!! You great big idiot!! Chiyu!! Chiyu didn’t want for you to be first place among the first years, the metropolitan tournament champion, or anything like that!!”
Jumping high using a front kick he desperately fired as a kick-off point, Haruyuki grabbed Cyan Pile’s mask and hit his own silver helmet against it with all his strength.
CRACK, with a breaking sound, part of the blue mask broke and fell.
As Cyan Pile lost his balance and fell to the ground on his back, Haruyuki sat on top of his chest and kept repeatedly hitting with his right fist.
“Chiyu only wished for you to stay as you were!! The one making her see only the past, who is making her think ‘I want to return to the old days’, is you, Takumu!! The only one that changed among us is you!!”
Without thinking of anything, he cried out those words in a violent fury.
But, just as Haruyuki’s voice resounded, both of Cyan Pile’s eyes let out a shudderingly cold and strong light beneath his fissure-like slits.
“Don’t…get…”
Suddenly, both of Cyan Pile’s thick arms crossed together with a jerk as if protecting himself.
But, Haruyuki didn’t immediately realize that this wasn’t a defensive movement.
“Don’t get cockyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”
At the same time as he fully expanded his two arms to the left and right, the sharp tips of over ten stakes rose to the surface of Cyan Pile’s bodysuit from chest to belly with a ‘HOGOGOGOGO’ noise.
What!? This is bad—Dodge—
But, the instant that Haruyuki tried to kick off the ground with both legs and jump away.
“—«Splash Stingeeeeeeeeer»!!”
ZUDODODODODO!!
Along with a rapid-fire sound like a heavy machine gun, the many stakes were shot straight at Haruyuki from close range.
“Kkuooo!!”
He somehow managed to avoid the stakes flying towards his head and the middle of his chest. However, immediately after, Haruyuki received dreadful impact to his left shoulder, left flank and right knee, and was blown high up like scrapped garbage and then fell back down to the floor of the rooftop on his back.
“Guh…hah…!!”
A gasp mixed with a shout was squeezed out from his throat. His vision flickered, and a dull and heavy pain coursed through his whole body. He couldn’t believe that this was virtual damage being transmitted from his Neuro Linker.
What on earth—was that just now!?
As Haruyuki supported himself on his right arm and somehow lifted up his upper body, Cyan Pile sluggishly stood up first in front of him.
“Ku…fu, fufufufufu.”
As if some screws had come loose in him, laughter slowly leaked out from beneath Cyan Pile’s blue mask.
“Kufufufu. You’ve…pushed me around quite vigorously, haven’t you? I was just a little surprised. But…after all, you are an annoying little bug. It seems you even expressly built up my special technique gauge.”
“Special…technique…”
While murmuring that, Haruyuki checked the gauges in the upper part of his vision once again.
Of the thick health gauges that extended left and right, Cyan Pile had 60% left. He had received damage beyond words during Haruyuki’s rush. But Haruyuki’s, due to directly receiving those blindly fired stakes just now, already had only about 30% left.
And, another light green gauge extended beneath each of their health gauges.
Cyan Pile’s was shining clearly close to 70%. In comparison, Haruyuki’s was nearly full to the tank.
“Hey, hey, don’t tell me you’re only hearing about it for the first time, Silver Crow.”
While letting out ‘Kukuku’ laughter, Cyan Pile slowly began to move forward.
“The exchange of special techniques is the essence of «duels». The «Splash Stinger» just now was my Level 2 special technique. It’s an ideal attack for shooting down noisy little bugs, right? Oh, speaking of which, your gauge should have also built up a lot. Please, by all means, use it as much as you like as well.”
Haruyuki clenched his teeth hard.
The only special technique provided to Silver Crow, «Headbutt», couldn’t hope to oppose Cyan Pile’s technique that had a much long range than his. Furthermore, its motions were long and obvious, as though clearly saying that he was preparing to attack.
…Damn it, I don’t need something like a special technique. I have my fist, feet and speed.
At the same time as his swaying vision settled down, Haruyuki threw all his strength into his right leg in order to quickly stand up.
But.
He heard a horrible cracking noise.
And a metallic clanking noise from his body falling back onto the ground.
As he confusedly looked down, what lay in front of him was a thin silver leg, which had been pierced by a stake shot and broke off from the knee—
“Aha, ahahahahaha!!”
Cyan Pile’s piercing loud laughter.
“Your leg came off!! How fragile!! And yet you’re a metal-color!?”
That voice didn’t reach Haruyuki’s consciousness.
Damn it. Damn it!!
Without my leg, I can’t run anymore. Let alone dodging or dashing, even just moving is unreliable.
The creeping signs of panic quickly chilled the bottom of his body.
This is bad. I can’t lose here. I have to protect senpai no matter what.
THUD.
A boot stepped down on Haruyuki’s torn-off leg and shattered it like glass.
As Haru looked up, two bluish-white eyes narrowed quietly.
“…In the end, this is how you are, Haru.”
A faint whispery voice.
“Being like that suits you. Though, you really said whatever you wanted to say earlier, didn’t you? As if only you understand Chii-chan?”
“…I do, at the very least more than you.”
“Then, what about me? Did you ever think about me? When me and Chii-chan are together just the two of us, she’d suddenly show a sorrowful face…When I know that it was because she was thinking about you, did you consider my feelings, Haru?”
Momentarily pausing his words and bringing his face closer, Cyan Pile—Takumu spoke the decisive words.
“Because you’re like that.”
It was a tone that even seemed to be gentle in some way, but those words pierced Haruyuki’s chest far more deeply than the giant steel stake.
“Because you’re like that, me and Chii-chan are held back by you, as if we’ve fallen into a muddled swamp and can’t get back out. Just disappear already, Haru. And free me and Chii-chan.”
THUD.
This time, he stepped down on Haruyuki’s still-intact leg with the sole of his foot.
Emphatically raising his upper body and putting his right hand’s launcher tube up high, Cyan Pile drew a complex trajectory with its tip. With that, everything from the launcher tube to his shoulder was wrapped in a vivid blue light.
Suddenly, the launcher made a deep noise and expanded to about three times its original thickness.
Sticking out from inside that was a tip that had become flattened, like a huge hammer.
The striking edge of the hammer was suddenly pointed at Haruyuki, who couldn’t even consider moving anymore.
“Now then—Let’s end it Haru. Everything.”
This battle, and our pretend friendship. Cyan Pile’s eyes said that.
Immediately after, the tip of the hammer emitted a dreadful light.
“—«Spiral Gravity Driver»!!”
GYUAAAA!!
As the hammer shot out while spinning and making mechanical sounds like countless gears turning, Haruyuki desperately tried to avoid it. But his leg was being steadily held by the foot, and he couldn’t escape. Immediately after, Haruyuki was crushed by giant steel.
An instrumental duo with a high-pitch screech from his silver armor being smashed and a heavy bass from the floor beneath him being crushed.
Without being able to even cry out, Haruyuki was knocked through the floor and crashed into the hospital floor of next floor below.
But the hammer didn’t stop there, further digging into both Haruyuki and the floor, and then—
BOGOH! BOGON! BOGOAH!!
While making continuous breaking noises, it finally stopped moving after going through all five floors of the hospital and embedding Haruyuki into the ground of the first floor.
CHIKA. CHIKA.
Something red flickered within the darkness in the upper left corner of his vision.
It took several seconds for Haruyuki to realize it was his health gauge, which had decreased to less than 10%.
As if regretting that it couldn’t finish shaving off the gauge, the tip of Cyan Pile’s hammer ate into Haruyuki’s chest for a while, but soon enough it started spinning in the opposite direction and returned back up.
After the hammer left while rubble clattered down, what remained before Haruyuki’s eyes was a small hole leading up to the distant rooftop. From inside that hole, Cyan Pile’s voice resounded faintly.
“Ah, there’s still a little left. Well, it’s fine, there’s only five or six minutes left anyway, the time will run out before I can go look for him and deliver the finishing blow. Besides, I still have to have to challenge the true «final boss» after this. —Now then!”
The tone of his voice changed. It sounded boastful—or somehow fawning.
“Did you see that, ladies and gentlemen within the gallery! And everyone from the Blue Legion in particular!! I’m still useful! I can fight properly even in the «Unlimited Field» above this! It’s a waste to throw me away, just because I used up points a little too much, right!?”
Taku—Takumu…You…
While rolling over like a broken doll at the bottom of the hole, Haruyuki felt hot liquid go down his cheeks. It was tears. But, he didn’t understand very well what he was crying over.
Probably, the tears were flowing because something precious had been broken and completely damaged without his noticing.
Even thought it was a battle he couldn’t lose. Even though he had to absolutely win, for Haruyuki’s own sake, for Chiyuri’s sake, for Takumu’s sake—and for Kuroyukihime’s sake.
While holding that pain of huge regret, Haruyuki slowly raised his body. Fragments of cracked armor spilled from his entire body like rain, and scattered onto the ground.
There was no meaning in standing up anymore. In order to accept this decisive defeat and return to his previous self before he knew about Brain Burst, Haruyuki held his knees where he lay and tried to wait just for the moment when the time count reached zero.
He began closing his eyes—just before he did that.
In the corner of the dimly-lit room.
That person’s form emerged like an illusion.
There was a bed braided with thorns.
Encircled by countless jet-black petals in full bloom, a delicate form was laying down on it.
A dress blacker than darkness. Silver frills. A parasol placed beside her. And, spread-out beautiful black hair, and skin shining whiter than snow in the dim darkness. Her long eyelashes were quietly turned down.
Am I hallucinating?
While thinking that, Haruyuki dragged along his severed right leg and slowly, slowly approached the thorny bed. But, no matter how much he approached, there were no signs of Kuroyukihime’s avatar vanishing.
After propping his right hand on the edge of the bed as if falling down on it, Haruyuki finally realized.
Here, this place is the micro-machine room of the ER, where Kuroyukihime is receiving medical treatment.
And Kuroyukihime was connected to the hospital’s network. So, as soon as Haruyuki began an accelerated duel, automatic-spectator mode was activated and she was also invited to this stage.
“…Senpai.”
While murmuring in a hoarse voice, Haruyuki extended his worn-out right hand and gently touched Kuroyukihime’s cheek.
Words gushed out of him one after another as if a dam had broken. At the same time, his tears also returned.
“I…I couldn’t protect you. I couldn’t protect your dream, your wish. I couldn’t respond to your expectations.”
A tear, dripping from a crack of his half-broken helmet, fell down onto Kuroyukihime’s cheek, and then scattered into a miniscule blaze and vanished.
“‘I can change’…that’s what I thought. I can change through your words, your kindness, and your feelings…But, it’s useless. It’s not my avatar’s fault…probably, this avatar was created as the embodiment of my «resignation». The reasons that this, that Silver Crow was made like this is because of me. I who, without looking at the sky and only facing the bottom, lives while groveling.”
Haruyuki softly turned over his body, and clung to the tip of Kuroyukihime’s shoulder.
“I wanted to go there. To the place where you were…To that distant and high sky, where you easily flapped your wing. Higher…faster…escaping this bog-like reality…together with you…”
With a sob, Haruyuki squeezed out the last words.
“I wanted, to fly.”
—TOKUN.
At that time, as if responding to his voice, a faint sound was heard.
TOKUN. TOKUN.
The source of the sound was Kuroyukihime’s chest, which Haruyuki’s cheek was lying on top of. A rhythm that was small and fleeting, but certainly ticked away in the center of her chest. A heartbeat.
Right now, within acceleration, it was impossible to hear the actual beating of a heart in reality. But it was impossible that it was an auditory hallucination. Desperately straining his ears and listening, Haruyuki suddenly understood.
This was a sound being issued from Kuroyukihime’s will. Right now, Kuroyukihime was desperately fighting. On the edge of life and death, she was desperately resisting in order to hold on. That strong will had become a heartbeat, and was resounding in the virtual battlefield.
“…That’s right…”
Haruyuki murmured. At the same time, new tears flowed out, dripping hot. Inside his ears, he faintly heard the words Kuroyukihime had told him once again.
—The meaning of strength isn’t about the result of winning.
I didn’t know the meaning of being strong at all. Without knowing it, I simply envied and gave up.
“Strength is about simply «winning»…”
Even if I’m unsightly. Even if I look ridiculous. Even if I am defeated at the end, fall to the ground, and am covered with mud.
Kuroyukihime—Black Lotus, after surviving a life-and-death battle with the other Kings, held her breath and continued staying hidden in a small network. But, that wasn’t because she was cowardly, or afraid. It’s because she never gave up. Because she never looked down.
“…To simply «resist». To still keep looking towards the sky even after falling down…that is the only proof of strength. Isn’t that right…senpai?”
There was no response.
But, Haruyuki clearly felt a powerful beating being born deep within his own chest as well.
His heart’s pulse became a signal and was transmitted to his brain.
And then once more, the soul, the will, the spirit that confronts adversity accelerated.
As long as there was this beating in his chest—
“I can still stand…I can still fight!”
Haruyuki cried that out to himself, and to Kuroyukihime.
He grasped the edge of the bed with his right hand, threw all his strength into his left leg, and stood up while staggering.
Minute fragments fell from his entire body while glittering. But, the beat that had been born from his chest flowed heat all the way to his wounded limbs, and trembled intensely.
Suddenly—
Intense white light was emitted from the many cracks in his armor.
At the same time, the armor on his back crumbled greatly, and a feeling of blowing away came on him. Haruyuki opened his eyes wide and bent his body backwards as he threw back his head.
There was a big mirror on a wall that was a short distance away in front of him. Perhaps it was a magic mirror that connected with the monitor room next door in the real world. Right now, like the bed, it had changed into a huge full-length mirror bordered by black cast-iron thorns on its edges.
In the middle of that mirror, the form of Kuroyukihime lying on the bed of thorns, and of himself standing up was reflected.
His entire body’s armor was in very bad condition. His left hand and right leg were torn off from the middle, and his chest had deep cracks radiating across it. The cracks also reached to his back, and a cracking sound seemed to be resounded from there. Every time a thin spark ran out, small pieces of broken armor scattered about, and—
“……!?”
Dumbfounded, Haruyuki watched as some white and shining things started extending out slowly, slowly from the left and right side of his back.
They seemed to be two sharp oblong and thin pieces of metal. Swords—?
The instant he thought that, the two extending metal fragments made a clear swishing noise and spread out like a semi-circle. Nearly ten thin folded-up metal fins also respectively unfolded from the tip of the first sword-like protuberance.
These—weren’t weapons, but…
——Wings.
Haruyuki remained dumbstruck for less than one second.
Hot!!
Feeling a terrible heat along his entire back, Haruyuki raised his body as if to repel it.
He staggered back several steps on his knees while writhing, and shrunk his small body by embracing his shoulder with his arm.
Rather than hot temperature-wise, it felt more like a cluster of pure energy was crammed airtight inside his back, swirling as it wanted to go somewhere.
“——!!”
It’s no good. I can’t hold it down any longer.
As he bent his body like a bow and faced above, ahead of Haruyuki’s gaze was—
He saw the huge hole that had been drilled through the building by his body only tens of seconds ago. And also a small yellow light that looked isolated on the other side of that black and deep hole. A corridor leading to the far away sky.
It’s calling me.
Moving unconsciously, Haruyuki raised his broken left arm up high, and drew his intact right arm to his side. He felt the energy raging at the tip of his shoulder blades suddenly increase in density and compress.
After returning his gaze just for a moment to catch sight of the stretched-out form of his beloved person.
Haruyuki fixed his gaze above once again.
“——Goooooooooooo!!”
He stuck out his right arm straight ahead along with that shout.
DOOO!!
Along like an explosion-like impact sound, a silver light cut through the darkness.
In an instant, Haruyuki’s entire body flew straight up like a fired arrow.
GOH, GOGOGOH….
Each time he passed by one of the hospital’s floors, the air twisted in his ears.
Going through the dark corridor in just a few seconds, the silver avatar flew out from the drilled hole to the roof, and then kept flying higher and higher. The metallic fins on his backs vibrated loudly at high-speed. That energy accelerated his small body with overwhelming momentum, easily cutting off the virtual gravity and persistently, persistently pushing Haruyuki upwards.
Immediately, the swirling black clouds drew near in front of him.
The instant he touched the thick cluster with his raised right fist, the clouds were pushed away like mere coins with a loud whoosh.
After having gone through and moreover ascended out of a black tunnel, a pale yellow and dazzling light filled Haruyuki’s vision.
Immediately after going through that sea of clouds, Haruyuki expanded both his arms and legs, reducing his acceleration. The high-pitched vibrating sound lowered in pitch, and a soft floating sensation like when an airplane has finished taking off came upon him.
While gently hovering, Haruyuki spun his body around.
“…Aah…”
Unconsciously, he leaked out a voice mixed with a breath.
A view beyond imagination was spread out beneath his eyes. From the breaks in the sea of clouds that flowed and swelled, he could see an unbroken view the huge dull-colored city that continued on as far as the eye could see. The Shinjuku urban center which had changed into leaning spires was there, and a deep forest was over there, and the building that looked like a towering magic fortress was perhaps the Imperial Palace.
When he looked in the other direction, streets that continued from Suginami to Mitaka to Hachiouji[1] extended out as far as he could see, and over there were the mountains of Okutama, and the steep high peak next to them that towered through the sea of clouds was probably Mt. Fuji.
Finally looking to the south, Haruyuki caught sight of a grey level surface that shone brilliantly.
The sea. The Tokyo Bay. And—the Pacific Ocean, which spread on endlessly.
Infinite.
“This world…is infinite…”
While murmuring that, Haruyuki slowly, slowly began to descend.
Sinking back through the clouds from behind, he went through to the bottom of them and approached the ground.
Once he had descended to a height where he could start seeing the details of the streets below, he made his fins vibrate strongly again, and hovered once more.
Just thirty meters below Haruyuki as he regained his posture, was the roof of the hospital.
That battlefield that he had thought so large and wide now looked small, as if he could pick it up with his hands. And the form of the blue giant, standing at the edge of the big hole in the center and looking up towards him, was still there as well.
Cyan Pile gazed up at Haru for nearly a full three seconds, as if his soul had fallen out.
He weakly raised his left hand, and leaked out a hoarse voice.
“Ha…Haru…”
But those words were erased by the loud commotion that suddenly arose.
Voices. The gallery people, that stood on the roofs of the buildings surrounding the hospital and watched the duel between Silver Crow and Cyan Pile, all simultaneously raised their voices in a squall.
“He isn’t…he isn’t falling!? He’s completely stationary!!”
“It isn’t a jump…he’s flying!? No way!?”
“A «Flight Ability»…it’s finally appeared. Look at those wings!! That’s a «Flight-type Avatar»!!”
Haruyuki didn’t understand why the gallery was in such a clamor. As he stared down in mute amazement, among the the duel avatars came up to several tens, some moved towards higher positions, while others drove their finger to their consoles.
“There’s no data on him! Where is that guy from!? What legion does he belong to…who’s his «Parent»!?”
“F-For now, let’s contact headquarters! You, log out and go tell them!!”
“Don’t joke around! As if I’m going to miss what happens next!!”
What calmed down this uproar that was like a prodded beehive—was a terrible shout that was suddenly released.
“Oo…Oooooooooh!!”
Spreading his arms and legs, Cyan Pile bellowed. The tremor that rocked the atmosphere like an electric shock reached even Haruyuki far up in the sky.
“No!! Nononononooooooooo!!”
As it made a mechanical ‘GASHUU!!’ sound, he pointed his right arm’s launcher tube straight at Haruyuki.
“Don’t!! Don’t you!! Look down on meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”
A scream as if spitting up blood.
At the same time, a metallic clang resounded, and the loaded steel stake scattered out many lines of light.
As Cyan Pile struck a stance of spreading out both legs, dropping his waist and supporting the launcher tube with his left hand, the remaining 40% of his special technique gauge suddenly vanished with a jerk.
As Cyan Pile aimed what was likely his final attack technique at him, Haruyuki quietly lifted up his right hand while hovering in place and clenched his fist hard.
Haruyuki now finally realized the true «special techniques» that was giving to him.
«Punch». And «Kick».
At the same time as those were normal techniques, there were also special super-attacks.
Greatly drawing back his clenched fist, Haruyuki fully expanded all his fins and changed his body’s direction. Straight towards Cyan Pile beneath his eyes.
“Fa…aaaall, dooooooown!! «Lightning Cyan Spike»!!”
At the same time as Cyan Pile screamed out the technique name, the steel needle, having changed into a long beam of light, shot out from his right arm.
Facing it, Haruyuki released all the propulsive power of both his wings while preparing just a punch.
“Uu…ooooooooo!!”
DOGOOO!!
As if igniting a rocket engine, Silver Crow’s body charged forward as a bullet of light.
In the left-hand corner of his sight, the green special technique gauge quickly began to decrease. At the same time, the white light wrapped around his right fist endlessly increased its radiance.
“Haruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!”
Takumu cried out.
“Taku——————!!”
Haruyuki also cried out.
KIIIIIIIIIIIN!!
A «hyper-acceleration» beyond the acceleration of Brain Burst surged from his back and wrapped around Haruyuki.
The color of the world changed.
Haruyuki certainly saw Cyan Pile’s blue lance rushing up from the ground, and the glare of its single tipped point. Its predicted trajectory stood out like an illusion in his vision.
The speed of Haruyuki’s mind surpassed the speed of the attack that was certainly like the lightning the technique was named for. This was the power of a true «accelerated person» that Kuroyukihime found and believed in.
I can see it…I can see it, senpai!!
Haruyuki shouted that out in his thoughts.
The speed of the lance fell.
In comparison, Silver Crow’s speed increased endlessly, as if he had become light itself.
Both of them closed in and blended—in that instant, Haruyuki slide his charging trajectory a little to the right.
ZASHUUU!!
The lance grazed the left side of his helmet, passed through and scattered fierce sparks.
Immediately after.
Haruyuki’s «Punch» deeply, deeply went through the center of Cyan Pile’s chest.
Along with a roaring ‘SUGAAA!!’ sound, their two bodies were blown off together while carving a deep rut in the roof’s floor.
They crashed into the steel fence of the roof, smashed it into pieces and sprung out into the open air.
“…Oooh!!”
Haruyuki cried out and made his metallic fins flap.
The intense and powerful lifting power wrapped around his entire body. While embedding his right arm all the way into Cyan Pile’s body, Haruyuki pointed his trajectory upwards and rose higher, higher.
He pierced through the sea of clouds in several seconds and flew out into the yellow sky.
After he reduced acceleration and shifted to hovering, Cyan Pile, who seemed to have lost consciousness at the moment of impact, made a coughing noise under his mask from where it lay on top of Haruyuki’s shoulder.
“Go…fuh…”
After his huge figure quivered for a bit, he raised his head.
Immediately after, he let out a thin scream that made his angry voice of resentment until now seemed like a lie.
“U…wah…!? F…fly…ing…!?”
While shaking his mask left and right, he cried out further.
“Stop it, Haru…! D…Don’t drop me!! If I fall now…I’ll l-lose…”
Both of their health gauges were dyed deep red together, and their width had decreased to the point of being thing like a thread. Cyan Pile’s entire body was still from the fear of falling from struggling, and he changed his voice to a tone of begging.
“If…if I lose…if I lose against to a Level 1 like you, my points will become zero…but it’s fine for you, you’ll only lose 4 or 5 points anyhow! Please, please surrender here, Haru! I can’t lose Brain Burst now!!”
“Taku…Takumu…”
While murmuring as if groaning, Haruyuki strongly clutched his right fist that was still pierced through Cyan Pile.
What—What are you saying after all this time!! You tried to take away all of Kuroyukihime’s points…You tried to erase that person’s Brain Burst, and her one and only wish!
Right now, with just the smallest change of his arm’s angle, he could deprive Cyan Pile’s huge body of support and make him fall to the ground far below. Takumu would lose about 40 points and at the same time have Brain Burst forcefully uninstalled. And then—he wouldn’t be able to attack Kuroyukihime-senpai from beyond the local network again.
Haruyuki gritted his teeth to the point of breaking them.
His whole body trembled, and then the momentary urge passed from his head to his toes and left him.
The voice he pushed out from the space between his clenched teeth was cracked, as if it wasn’t from himself.
“…Do you acknowledge it, Taku?”
“……W-What…?”
“You can never win against me anymore in this accelerated world. Do you acknowledge that, Taku!!”
An instant of silence.
The words that were returned through the body glued to him were quiet, as if something had collapsed.
“……Yeah. That’s true…As expected, I can’t win against you. Just like in the various games we played together in the past…”
Haruyuki inhaled deeply, and then exhaled. Then, he spoke in the same quiet voice.
“Then…me and you are the same.”
“…!? W-What……?”
“In the real world, I can never win against you. But, in this world, you can’t win against me. We are the same. That’s why…that’s why.”
Pausing in his speech, Haruyuki looked at the bluish-white eyes within Cyan Pile’s mask, and then continued.
“That’s why…become my ally…my comrade, Taku. Just like me, fight as that person’s subordinate from now on.”
Takumu became speechless and gasped sharply. After a short time, a hoarse groaning voice leaked from beneath his thin slits.
“…Don’t be stupid, Haru, you should know as well. Your parent…«Black Lotus», who tries to hide and hunt the legion I belong to as well, is Accel World’s biggest traitor! In other words…to fight together with her would mean…”
“That’s right. We would have to beat the «Six Kings of Pure Color». That’s nothing to feel frightened about. Let me tell you something good…Something like that is how a game essentially is.”
After Haruyuki declared that, Takumu responded with a long silence.
The words he let out several seconds later seemed to be dinged with a self-derisive smile.
“…Haru, do you still believe in me? Even if I say yes here, do you intend to believe in my words without any basis at this late hour? The words of me, who broke the laws of my legion, broke the rules of Brain Burst, and betrayed my only two friends?”
“After this, the two of us will tell Chiyu everything.”
As Haruyuki immediately retorted back, Takumu let out an astonished breath for the nth time today.
“Eh…!?”
“About Brain Burst, about our battle, and also…about the feelings you and I kept hiding, we’ll confess it all to her.”
Haruyuki turned his gaze towards the sky that continued on far away into infinity, and slowly spoke.
“We probably have to start from there. Until now, all three of us kept hiding the things we shouldn’t have hidden. We doubted the things we shouldn’t have doubted. We have to start over…from somewhere.”
“……Start over…do you really think that, Haru? I…I, to Chii-chan’s Neuro Linker…”
As Takumu said that with a trembling voice, Haruyuki hit his back lightly with his broken left arm.
“She’s be mad enough to die, alright. She’ll yell, she’ll rage…but in the end, she’ll forgive, if it’s her.”
Haruyuki said that with a laugh in his voice as they slowly began to descend.
Returning to the roof and freeing himself from Silver Crow’s right arm, Cyan Pile staggered back several steps and then sat on the floor with a thud.
Haruyuki briefly confirmed the remaining time. After two minutes and a little more, this long duel would end.
Just in case he clicked on the gauges to confirm them, but their remaining health had both the exact same numerical value. If the time ran out like this, the result should be a draw and an exchange of points shouldn’t occur.
Looking at Cyan Pile once again, who was hanging his head between his knees and wasn’t moving, Haruyuki thought in his mind.
Am I…making a mistake?
Should I have mercilessly thrown Takumu to the ground back them, and made the possibility of him breaking his promise afterwards and attacking Kuroyukihime completely zero?
No—that’s wrong. To doubt in others, or to believe in others, it’s the same as to doubt myself, or to believe in myself.
I believe in myself who has decided to believe in Takumu.
It’s fine like this, right…?
He called that out with the voice of his heart—immediately after that.
The elevator door opened behind him, resounding with a grave metallic clank.
In the instant that his whole body stiffened and quickly looked back, Haruyuki guessed which form would appear before his eyes here, and believed once again.
It’s impossible for it to be a new enemy. Since the only ones who could fight on this stage were Haruyuki and Takumu.
And it couldn’t be an unknown duel avatar. There was no reason for an unrelated spectator to appear from the hospital.
But, the instant he actually confirmed it with his own eyes, Haruyuki’s breath stopped, his chest was filled with something hot, and tears flowed from both his eyes.
A pure black, as if the essence of darkness was condensed. The clear silver which colored its edges.
The cold wind which blew too much shook her long rolling hair and the hem of her skirt, and lightly chimed the bells that decorated her parasol.
“Sen…pa…”
His squeezed-out voice trembled thinly like a small child’s.
Looking at Haruyuki as he dragged his broken leg and went forward one, two steps—
Kuroyukihime tilted her head to the side and at the same time smiled pleasantly.
“Senpai!!”
Finally calling out with a decent voice, Haruyuki ran up to her at maximum speed while letting out irregular clanking sounds.
Kuroyukihime also ran up to him with her high-heels clicking furiously.
There was neither hesitation nor nervousness at all as he stretched out their arms and dive into the other’s opened arms.
Hugging her soft and sweetly fragranced body with all his might, Haruyuki cried out in a voice mixed with sobbing.
“You’ve…you’ve regained consciousness! Thank goodness…I believed…I believed that you’d definitely be saved…thank goodness…truly…”
Holding Haruyuki in her arms as if wrapping him up, Kuroyukihime pressed her cheek near while remaining silent for a while.
Finally, the whispery voice that resounded in his ear was wet like his.
“…Within the darkness that was neither heaven nor earth…I heard only your voice. You…protected me, didn’t you? Getting this hurt…”
Her right hand gently stroked Silver Crow’s crack-covered body.
“Becoming so torn-up…Thank you…thank you, Haruyuki-kun.”
“No…Senpai was the one who protected me. Because I heard you say…that you believed in me, that’s why…I was able to fly.”
Kuroyukihime nodded several times in silence, and gently stroked the thin wings stretching out from Haruyuki’s back with her extended hand.
“They’re beautiful…This is your power, the potential that was hidden within Silver Crow. Until now…there has never been a single duel avatar that possessed a true flying ability. As I thought, my premonition wasn’t wrong. You are the person who will change this world.”
Kuroyukihime softly lowered Silver Crow’s small body onto the ground with her hands.
Inclining her head and looking down at Haruyuki with a smile, the fairy princess with her ephemeral silhouette spoke in a tone that possessed just a little strength in it.
“It seems the time has come…The time for me to also leave my peaceful cocoon and aim for the sky once more.”
She then turned her gaze to look behind him. Cyan Pile, who was sitting at the place he had been left at, had only raised his eyes a little while still hanging his head and was looking at the two of them.
“To you as well…I should apologize, Cyan Pile.”
The words from Kuroyukihime were unexpected.
“I also disgraced the duel which should have had honor with you many times. I will show it now, my true form. And if you so wish, I will face you with my full strength.”
Raising her right hand, she quickly operated her virtual console.
BACHI. BACHIBACHI!!
Black lightning that was suddenly released wrapped around the avatar of the fairy princess over and over again.
Before the eyes of Haruyuki as he hurriedly took several steps back, the form of the silhouette that was wrapped in purple light changed little by little, little by little. The skirt that nearly grazed the floor quickly shortened, and split into sharp serrated edges. Her arms and legs became perfectly straight lines, and the tips contracted like needles.
The long hair melted into the light and vanished, and in its place a mask shaped like a bird of prey with wings at the back appeared—and finally, after still more lightning soared, all of the effects disappeared.
What stood there, as if cut out of black crystal, was a beautiful, extraordinarily beautiful duel avatar.
The form of its entire body was somewhat similar to Silver Crow’s.
But its height was quite tall, over a hundred-and-seventy centimeters. Elegant, though mainly a straight line, and wrapped in black armor that gave a feeling of transparency, the body was thin like a doll and connected to an armored skirt similar to a black lotus flower which surrounded the waist.
And the characteristic that stood out above anything else were the limbs. Both arms and legs were chillingly long and sharp swords. Looking as if they would immediately cut in half anything they touched, the blade edges that emitted a bright radiance faintly resounded coldly, coldly against the stage’s breeze.
The front part of the head, which was shaped like a V tilting towards the back, had utterly black mirror-like goggles. Within that, two bluish-purple eyes shone with a vibrating ‘VIIIIN’ sound.
Haruyuki stood stock still for a short while as if his soul had fallen out. Cyan Pile also gave off the same speechless feeling from where he sat. To the two of them, more than that violently beautiful form—they were overwhelmed by the bottomless potential that rose out from that entire slender and jet-black body.
Haruyuki was certain that, if he «battled» that, he would be minced up without even having a few seconds and would disappear while crumbling into pieces.
Eventually, Haruyuki squeezed out a voice from his chest that was similar to a sigh somehow.
“It’s…beautiful. Very…beautiful…Senpai said it was ugly before, but…it’s not like that at all…”
“Hmm…is that so…”
Only the voice that came out was still like Kuroyukihime.
“Even though I have no hands to hold someone with…”
Those words didn’t continue to the end.
D O O O O O !!
Suddenly, fiercely loud voice of shock burst out once again from the surrounding buildings.
“U, uooo! Oooooo—!?”
“That’s…That duel avatar is…!!”
“«Black Lotus»!! The «Black King»!! She was in such good health——!!”
The shouting voices of the gallery were at a volume that was clearly more than double than when they had seen Silver Crow take flight.
Kuroyukihime looked at the surroundings and then spoke while lightly shrugging her shoulders.
“Now then…Silver Crow. Will you take me along and fly?”
“Eh, ye…yes.”
No matter how high her potential may be, her actual weight couldn’t be greater than Cyan Pile’s. But, even if she said ‘take me along’, how should he…?
Moving with a hover while emitting a faint vibrating sound right up to the bewildered Haruyuki, Kuroyukihime turned her body to the right and raised her arms with a casual gesture while lowering her waist.
As if inviting him to give the so-called «princess carry».
Though thinking ‘Eh!?’, Haruyuki knew he could under no circumstances run away and escape here. While dripping sweat drops from his helmet—or rather while experiencing the illusion of that, Haruyuki awkwardly held out both his arms and put them around Kuroyukihime’s back and waist.
“Please take care of me.”
Saying that in a somewhat playful tone, Kuroyukihime entrusted her body to Haruyuki’s arms. While being poured on by Takumu’s gaze, which might have been his imagination that it seemed teasing, Haruyuki resolved himself and carried the avatar of black crystal. Fortunately, it wasn’t that heavy like he thought, and Haruyuki then made the fins on his back vibrate strongly and kicked off the floor with his one leg.
With ‘Gyuuu!’, he moderately accelerated and aimed for the sky.
From within his arms, Kuroyukihime cried out in a whispery voice while craning her back and neck in order to survey the streets below.
“This is…incredible! It seems I could get addicted to this…Next time, I want us to direct connect duel and fly for the whole thirty minutes…oops, this is high enough.”
“Yes.”
Nodding, Haruyuki switched to hovering.
They weren’t that high up. Below, the countless duel avatars gazing upwards from the scattered roofs could be clearly seen.
Kuroyukihime inhaled a single, big, breath, and—
She shouted in a dignified and swelling voice, seeming to reach out to the other side of the horizon.
“Hear me!!”
Just then, everything within the stage turned silent.
“Hear me, you Burst Linkers of the Legions of the Six Kings!! My name is Black Lotus!! The one who opposes the rule of the tyrant kings!!”
The swelling black clouds shrunk back, and even the hard-blowing wing held its breath. The only thing that moved was the timer, which had only ten seconds left. In this silence, the loud declaration echoed through the world.
“I, and my legion «Nega Nebulous», will now emerge from the depths of the net that we have hidden within, and destroy this false peace!! Take up your swords!! Alight the fires!! The time to fight — Has come!!”
BAKIBAKIBAKIBAKI!!
What rang through the world in that moment was a strange tremor, like countless metal clumps grating against each other.
The fresh morning sunlight flowing in from the front entrance degenerated into a creepy yellow.
The surrounding floor and walls were covered with biological-looking slime everywhere from Haruyuki’s feet, and with creased and rusted metal. The support pillars had joints like the abdomen of an insect and were twisted, and there were many strange eye-like bulges visible on the ceiling.
It had only taken a few seconds for the interior of the cutting-edge hospital that had been so clean to be covered with organic metal-like pollution like something from the nightmare of a classic cyberpunk author.
As he held his breath and stood stock still, Haruyuki’s body began to be covered by shining silver armor from the tips of his limbs and at the same time was squeezed and thinned down like a wire.
Everything from his lower back to his abdomen and chest also changed into smooth silver, and at the end his head was wrapped in a round helmet.
At nearly the same time as Haruyuki transformed from the pink avatar to the duel avatar «Silver Crow», two physical strength gauges extended out in the upper corner of his vision with a screeching sound.
In between the gauges were the numeral digits of 1800.
And then finally, a flame burst out with a roar in the middle. The characters of «FIGHT!!» that appeared inside the flames shined a deep red, and then scattered with an explosion.
After quickly looking at the countdown that had started to decrease and letting out a breath of relief as he thought ‘I made it in time’, Haruyuki looked towards the end of the slimy hallway, where Takumu had been standing.
Standing there while facing towards the side in the exact same place was a duel avatar with an unexpected form.
That…was Takumu!? «Cyan Pile»!?
Haruyuki unconsciously moved back half a step with his right leg in astonishment.
He was gigantic, no, his height wasn’t that big. He was only about five centimeters taller than Takumu, who was one-hundred-and-seventy-five centimeters in his first year of middle school—but even so, Silver Crow, who was at most one-hundred-and-fifty-five, had to raise his eyes to look up at him.
However, more overwhelming than that was how incredibly thick Cyan Pile’s entire body was.
It was different from being fat. Limbs and torso with rugged muscles bulging on them like a pro-wrestler’s. And that was all wrapped in metallic-blue snug bodysuit-type armor.
Dark blue rough boots on the feet, and a similarly colored giant glove on the left hand.
He looked like a macho hero from some American comic book. This image was a full 180 degree reversal from the actual slender and slim Takumu.
While Haruyuki was inescapably overwhelmed and stood stock still.
Turning his body to the left slowly, Cyan Pile’s gaze poured straight forward at him.
Cyan Pile’s head was covered by a stylish tear drop-shaped mask. Several long and narrow slit-like gaps were opened horizontally on the face, with points facing downward vertically at the center of each slit. Looking at it, it reminded one of a kendo mask.
Inside one of the slits, two bluish-white eyes suddenly flashed and shined sharply. He slowly lifted his left leg and stomped the floor heavily. The piled up slime there went flying left and right with a splash.
While he took another step with his left leg, Haruyuki’s eyes were drawn in by Cyan Pile’s exposed right arm. What—was that!?
There was no arm-like glove on his right arm. It was connected to a pipe from the elbow onwards.
The pipe had a diameter of fifteen centimeters and a length of one meter. Furthermore, the sharp tip of a rod, which stuck out from an aperture on it and seemed to be installed in the pipe, was emitting a glaring and dangerous radiance.
Cyan Pile’s attribute, based on the color of the armor that wrapped around his entire body, was «Close Range Blue». Moreover, according to Kuroyukihime, this was exceedingly close to the pure color of blue. So, that sharp rod shouldn’t be a projectile weapon.
But even as Haruyuki thought that, he couldn’t help moving back another step.
As if he was tormenting the stock-still slender Silver Crow, Cyan Pile took one slow step, then another down the organic metal hallway. Then, his movements suddenly stopped.
That mask with parallel slits turned to look at the surroundings.
The voice that flowed out from inside that was—darkly warped, but that was certainly the refreshing voice that he had heard for so long, of his best friend Takumu.
“Hmm, so this is the «Purgatory» stage. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it. What were its attributes again?”
In the face of that carefree chatting, Haruyuki unconsciously opened his mouth.
“Ta…Taku…”
SUGYAAAAAH!!
Suddenly swinging it, the steel rod of Cyan Pile’s right arm ate into the metal wall of the hallway, and unseemly tore it up. Scattered metal scraps, slime and crushed unknown bugs fell and dripped down onto the floor.
Haruyuki gulped back down his words and cringed in fear with a ‘HIKUN!’.
Fleetingly looking at his reaction, Cyan Pile continued speaking further in a cheerful voice.
“As expected, it’s hard. Destroying this stage may be a little difficult.”
Thud. He resumed walking, and his big blue frame approached before Haruyuki’s eyes as if leaning over him.
“Haru…Haru. As usual, the way you operate a virtual desktop is so fast. Though all I had left to do was pull the Duel button, you broke in just before that.”
“Ta…kumu…”
—So it really is you. Why? Since when?
Since when on earth have you been a Burst Linker?
Before Haruyuki could give voice to the questions swirling in his chest, Cyan Pile uttered more words.
“To think you would become a Burst Linker…I’m shocked. Yesterday, I couldn’t keep myself completely calm as expected. I never thought that my best friend would betray me like that, right, Haru?”
“Ta…kumu…N…No, that’s not it. That was…”
The words that Haruyuki blurted out in a hoarse voice were drowned out by the loud sound of the steel rod hitting against the wall again.
“…How was it, Haru? How did it feel to direct connect on Chii-chan’s bed? How did it feel to hug her? How did Chii-chan’s body feel as you touched her while thinking about me?”
—That isn’t Takumu. Haruyuki cried that out without saying it.
That isn’t the Taku I know. Taku wouldn’t say such things. Always bright and refreshing, never showing any negative feelings at all, that is Takumu.
Cyan Pile was someone else. Surely, he’s put a Backdoor in Takumu’s Neuro Linker as well and is connecting from somewhere far away.
Haruyuki desperately tried to tell himself that.
But, at the same time, the presence that he had felt back then.
Haruyuki was strongly aware that the presence he had felt when he had direct connected with Chiyuri and discovered the virus in her Neuro Linker, of someone lurking deep inside there, watching and listening intently, was exactly the same as the presence he felt densely rising up from the blue duel avatar in front of him.
And, possibly, it might have been the same as the fleeting glances that Takumu had given towards the playing Haruyuki and Chiyuri since long ago, from the time that the three of them had been small children.
“Taku…It was you.”
The words that Haruyuki emitted from beneath his silver helmet resounded so sharply and strongly that it surprised even himself.
“It was you that put that virus in Chiyu’s Neuro Linker. You secretly connected to Chiyu, and peeked through her memory, sight and hearing as you pleased!”
“Please don’t call it a virus.”
Stopping just five meters away from Haruyuki, the huge avatar lightly spread out his left hand in a stylish manner that was the only thing like Takumu.
“Chii-chan is my girlfriend. So it’s only natural that we direct connect. And direct connecting is the same thing as presenting your Neuro Linker to your partner. Things like circumventing password authentication, exposing the deepest parts of one’s local memory, looking at any file and installing any kind of program, it’s all acceptable. Am I wrong? Haru, even you …”
Haruyuki felt that, inside the thin slits cut across Cyan Pile’s mask, there was a warped smile on the face that he couldn’t see.
“Even you direct connected with Chii-chan, and secretly looked through her memory, didn’t you? What’s more, you’re not even her boyfriend either. The one who took advantage of Chii-chan’s kindness and pretended to be pitiful was you, wasn’t it?”
“Th…That’s…”
“You’ve always been like that since long ago, Haru.”
As Cyan Pile began to speak in a calm voice, a big metallic bug with a weird shape tried to pass by on the wall to the right of him.
Cyan Pile lifted the giant needle of his right arm with a casual gesture, and lightly pierced the back of the bug with it. Stopped on the wall and making squeaking noises, the bug furiously waved its countless legs as it tried to escape.
“Always, always since long ago, you kept saying to Chii-chan, ‘Aren’t I pitiful? Aren’t I pathetic? That’s why, be kind to me. Care for me more.’ Even if you didn’t use words, in your behaviour, in your eyes…No, it could be seen in your existence itself.”
Making a wet squishy noise, the needle sank further into the shell of the bug. Grew fluid scattered around, and the virtual bug began to wriggle and struggle even more.
“Girls sure are incomprehensible. Compared to when she holds hands with me, Chii-chan seems to be enjoying herself more when she’s pulling your hand while grumbling and complaining. She always looks so much happier by looking after you and meddling in your business, since long ago…Did you know? Whenever she goes anywhere, she always carries a huge toweling handkerchief. For the sweaty you.”
BACHA!!
And with a horrifying noise, the bug was crushed, and its dark green shell and legs scattered about along with slime.
As the bug’s fluids dripped from the needle, the half-dumbfounded Haruyuki asked Cyan Pile.
“That’s why…? That’s why you confessed to Chiyu two years ago? Looking like you were impatient…?”
“It wasn’t ‘like’, I was impatient. If things were left as they were, Chii-chan would have tried to keep looking after you for the rest of her life, you know? Like one of those old-fashioned manga that you have archived. ‘Since you’re no good without me around, I’ll marry you.’ —Ah, could it have been your plan to induce Chii-chan into that as well?”
‘Hahahaha’, Cyan Pile gave a seemingly pleasant laugh, but which contained a distorted echo that made one shudder.
No. That’s not it—
Takumu, you’re wrong. Chiyuri definitely didn’t enjoy looking after the pitiful me. She was seriously worried and suffered.
But, Haruyuki didn’t know how to express those thoughts in words to Takumu. Because when looking at everything from the surface, what Takumu said was true to some extent.
Cyan Pile’s foot took another step towards the stock-still Haruyuki.
“When Chii-chan chose me two years ago, I was so happy. I thought that Chii-chan also finally understood. That it was much better to be happy at my side, than going through hardships by looking after Haru. That…was the pragmatic decision after all.”
“Pragma…tic?”
“‘We can’t stay children forever’, right?”
Those were the words that Haruyuki had told Chiyuri yesterday. Cyan Pile lifted the tip of his green-dyed metallic needle in the air as if asking for agreement.
“Even Chii-chan is a girl…no, a woman. She eventually realized that having a boyfriend you can boast about to your friends, a happy marriage, and a satisfying life is what true «happiness» is. That’s why I also worked hard. I studied desperately to enter my current school, and trained my body by running every day. While you were playing worthless games and spent time fast asleep, Haru.”
“You…do you seriously mean that?”
Still unable to gather his thoughts, Haruyuki cried that out almost reflexively.
“Do you seriously believe that Chiyu chose you over some calculation like that!?”
“I don’t like how you call it ‘calculating’. It’s looking at everything from an impartial point of view.”
‘Fufufu’, Cyan Pile laughed once again.
“Chii-chan has the right to be happy. The right to go out with me, who has the first place results among the first years at school and is the municipal tournament champion in kendo.”
“……”
Haruyuki sharply drew in a breath, and took in even more.
As I thought, this isn’t Takumu.
I don’t believe, I don’t want to believe at all that this is Takumu’s true nature. Something has warped him.
Certainly, Haruyuki and Chiyuri were also partly to blame for it. While going out with Takumu, Chiyuri putting feelings towards Haruyuki. That was also part of what drove Takumu into a wall.
But—what changed Takumu far more greatly than that was, most likely.
“…You’re wrong, Taku.”
Haruyuki lifted up his silver mask and stared straight at the sharp eyes of Cyan Pile.
“The first place position, the championship, those aren’t your power. That’s Brain Burst’s…«accelerations»’s power. Since when? Since when did you become a Burst Linker?”
For a short while, silence filled the Purgatory stage.
A group of small bugs passed by their feet, and steam like that of a living being’s sometimes rose from the creases that opened up along the wall.
Since it had started from 1800, the countdown had already passed through 200 seconds. At the same time as the hundred-digit column became ‘5’, Cyan Pile spoke out.
“It’s my power.”
He pointed his right arm’s needle straight at Haruyuki.
“«Acceleration» is my power. My power, from fostering my aptitude by immersing myself in intellectual training software in my Neuro Linker to the point of hating it ever since I was an infant! It’s only been a year since I became a Burst Linker. The captain of my kendo club is my «Parent»…and a close-aide of the «Blue King». He had great expectations for me. I became a cadet for the elite guards. But…”
GAGYAAAAAN!!
He greatly swung his right arm and engraved several scars into the wall.
“It’s too late!! You’ve only recently become a Burst Linker, haven’t you!? And you think you’ve become my equal with just that, Haru!? Since you have confidence in your «acceleration» power, you think you can get back Chii-chan again!? It’s no good, Haru. You can’t win against me. Whether it be in studying, sports, Chii-chan’s feelings…and of course, even in this Accel World. I’ll make you understand. Understand my power…against that weak duel avatar of yours.”
SHINE!! Both of Cyan Pile’s eyes emitted a dreadful light.
He’s serious. Takumu seriously intends to fight.
Inside Haruyuki, there were still feelings like, ‘If I exhaust all my words, he’ll understand. I want to explain Chiyuri’s and also my true feelings. I don’t want to fight like this.’
But, if Haruyuki lost here.
Cyan Pile would duel with Black Lotus again. And would hunt while she’s unconscious. At that instant, Kuroyukihime would lose all her points, and also lose her acceleration ability at the same time.
Just that. Whatever else happened, he had to prevent just that.
“…Taku. You certainly are amazing. You can study, play sports, and are so cool. You have all the things that I don’t have.”
Looking down, Haruyuki murmured in a subdued voice.
But, immediately after, he stared straight at Cyan Pile and shouted sharply.
“But, you’re an idiot. You’re a great big idiot!”
“…What? I’m an idiot?”
“That’s right, because you can’t win against me! Have you forgotten? Since long ago, in just how many games were you able to win against me?”
“…Haru. Haru.”
There was a laugh mixed in there, but it was a fierce-sounding voice.
“Then, right here and now…I’ll make you lose the last of your pride!!”
BANG!! Cyan Pile’s boots kicked off from the floor.
With that, he shortened the two-meter distance between them with an amazing speed that didn’t suit his huge body.
But, as expected, compared to the charge of Ash Roller’s bike, it was slow.
I’ll slip past him. And then move to somewhere more spacious. The entrance hall…no, the rooftop.
Haruyuki concentrated his focus on Cyan Pile’s right hand. The opponent was a close-combat type, so as long as he didn’t enter the range of that needle, he wouldn’t receive damage.
After seeing Cyan Pile’s movements as he drew back his right arm in preparation, Haruyuki also dashed in order to escape to the opposite side of him.
Silver Crow’s speed, which nearly his only redeeming feature, seemed to be unexpected for the opponent as well. With a hint of a little surprise, the right arm drew an arc and stuck out towards Haruyuki.
—I can dodge it!!
While predicting the attack trajectory, Haruyuki lowered his posture and tried to cut across right next to Cyan Pile’s left leg.
GASHUN!!
At that moment, an unexpected sound rang out.
In the corner of Haruyuki’s wide-open sight, flames spouted out from the tail end of the thick pipe attached to Cyan Pile’s right arm.
From the pointed end at the front, a shining and thick steel needle shot out at a speed he couldn’t follow.
It seemed to be a device that extended out double its original length instead of a firearms-type weapon, but that range was enough to catch Silver Crow.
CLANG!! Haruyuki heard an unpleasant breaking noise go through his body.
At the same time, an impact. And a numb-like dull pain.
Haruyuki saw the tip of the steel needle cut pierce through and cut off his arm from the left elbow.
Haruyuki belatedly remembered that «pile» meant «stake».
Falling on the floor while emitting sparks from its end, his arm immediately smashed into thousands of small fragments and vanished.
His health gauge in the left corner of his vision also suddenly decreased by almost 30% from that single attack.
But, Haruyuki didn’t have the time to regret receiving such great damage so quickly right at the start. While his posture was destroyed and he endured having his back noisily strike the hallway’s wall and falling down, Haruyuki saw the still-extended brutal steel needle—no, steel stake be stored back into Cyan Pile’s right arm.
It was clear that, the instant the sake was reloaded in the launcher tube, it would fire that terrible attach attack again.
Its attack attribute was most likely «piercing».
The metal-color Silver Crow should have resistance against that. For it to have torn apart his arm with a single blow despite that, was it because the place that was hit was bad, or because there was a difference of three levels between them, or was it more simply Cyan Pile’s strength?
Even as he instantly considered those things, Haruyuki readjusted his posture and created distance between them by jumping far.
Like that, he dashed in the direction of the entrance hall at full power without looking back.
“Hahaha! What, are you going to suddenly run away, Haru!!”
Plunging into the hall as if urged forward by that warped laughter which sounded behind him, Haruyuki quickly ran his gaze over the surroundings.
The long benches that were lined up in the waiting space had changed into cast iron with thorns poking out of them like some medieval torture device, and the reception counter to the right had rusted barbed wire twined around it. Naturally, there were no signs of people.
And behind the counter was the thing he was looking for. Elevator doors.
In the «End of the Century» stage, you couldn’t enter inside the buildings and so naturally the elevators wouldn’t function either, but if it was the «Purgatory» stage where the indoor was reconstructed in such detail, it may function.
Rushing over to it, Haruyuki hit the skull-shaped button next to the door, which had turned into ferocious-looking iron grill bars, while praying. Sure enough, with a grave metallic thud and clang, the iron grill opened up left and right. He clutched his right hand while thinking ‘Alright!’.
From behind him, the thudding footsteps of Cyan Pile approached moment by moment.
Plunging into the prison cell-like elevator box, he slammed his right hand into the button engraved with an ‘R’. Quickly, move quickly.
Just as the iron grill closed with a frustratingly slow speed, something hit the door with a loud clang. Sticking through the space of about five centimeters between the grills was a shining sharp tip.
“…!!”
Stopping himself from nearly letting out a scream, Haruyuki sprang back at once and pressed his back against the wall.
GASHUN!!
The steel stake, which was launched while pushing and bending the grill a little, stopped just barely a few centimeters in front of Silver Crow’s thin abdomen.
At the same time has that brutal radiance was pulled back out, the box finally shook with a clattering and the elevator began to rise.
“Hahaha! Hahahahaha!!”
As that howling laughter continued to stick close from below his feet, Haruyuki stamped his right foot down hard and tore it away.
Getting out on the rooftop, Haruyuki turned his gaze around while taking a rough breath.
“……”
His eyes widened unconsciously.
The sky of the «Purgatory» stage was filled with a creepy yellow light, and darkish clouds were swelling up there like living creatures. The surrounding streets, which should have originally been at the center of the Sugunami area, had uniformly changed into a strange living creature-like form, and shined in a slimy dark-red rusty color.
The group of lance-like spires that could be seen over that way seemed to be the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office in Shinjuku and the skyscrapers that surrounded it.
Just how far did this stage spread? As Haruyuki thought that, he suddenly noticed something and held his breath.
There were people.
No, those silhouettes were too strange to be called human. Lined up in small groups on the surrounding buildings that were taller than the hospital, they looked down at Haruyuki. They were unknown Burst Linkers—spectators.
Why!? After a moment of astonishment, Haruyuki finally realized.
Haruyuki was currently cut off from the Global Net, but the other person in this duel, Takumu, was probably globally connected just before the match had started. The reason why he would go so far as to risk the danger letting others intrude was unknown, but in any case this stage was opened to the outside and Burst Linkers who had registered Cyan Pile and Silver Crow in their automatic gallery had appeared as a result.
However, even if there was a gallery, there was no great difference to the situation.
The light blue arrow cursor that was visible in his vision began to change direction slowly as it slightly trembled, indicating that Cyan Pile had also gotten on the elevator and was heading towards the roof.
After moving about ten meters across the vast roof, Haruyuki turned around to face the elevator door. In this place, there was plenty of space to dodge and evade unlike the hallway.
I’ve already grasped the range of Cyan Pile’s steel stake with my body. If I’m careful and pay attention to the direction of his right, it should be possible to dodge it. Don’t be afraid. I have to do it.
As Haruyuki told himself that, the elevator stopped with a clang ahead of him, and the door slowly opened left and right.
As his huge figure rubbed against the box that fully enclosed him, Cyan Pile stepped out onto the roof, and the eyes within his slits glowed weakly.
“…I see. If it’s here, you’ll be able to use the strategy of hit-and-run by darting about, Haru…no, Silver Crow.”
“And your body build must have been getting hot down there.”
“Ahaha, to think you of all people would say such a thing.”
While letting out deep-throated laugh, Cyan Pile slowly began to move forward.
Haruyuki lowered his posture and measured the distance between them.
He shouldn’t have been able to see through Silver Crow’s speed yet. A chance to win lay only there. Before his eyes can get accustomed to it, seize victory no matter what.
Just before his heavy-looking boot took its fourth step and connected with the ground, Haruyuki kicked off the ground with all his strength.
The air range in his ears with a swishing sound, and he instantly got close to that huge blue figure.
Cyan Pile’s right arm followed the straight-rushing Haruyuki while aiming.
—Here!!
Haruyuki unexpectedly took off from his left leg, and swung his course to the right. The steel stake then shot out at ultra-high speed along with a yell. It was nearly impossible to react after seeing it launch, but if you anticipate its collision path beforehand—it’s possible!
The tip of the steel stake stopped just short of Haruyuki’s left cheek as he drew an arc and circled around to Cyan Pile’s left side. While feeling heat on his cheek as if it burned, Haruyuki kicked off the ground with his right leg using all his strength, and—
“U…raaah!!”
Haruyuki’s right fist drive into Cyan Pile’s virtually open flank. A strong reaction. The huge blue body shook.
More—Keep going!!
Running after Cyan Pile’s back as his body spun and turned around, Haruyuki dashed forward with another step and this time lodged a right spin-kick into the enemy’s left calf. As Cyan Pile lost his balance, Haruyuki sent a final left knee-kick to the middle of his back.
BANG!! A heavy impact. His huge figure bent forward in a ‘く’ shape.
Staggeringly making some distance between them, Cyan Pile groaned hatefully.
“Guh…as…as expected, you really are good at games, Haru. But, such weak attacks have no effect… at all!!”
WHOOSH, just barely avoiding the left fist that was swung at him, Haruyuki rolled his body with that momentum and buried his right heel into the back of Cyan Pile’s defenseless protruding neck.
“Gguuuuuh!!”
Blocking his ears to the crushing scream from Takumu’s voice, Haruyuki continued his rush further.
He unleashed a combo without pause using not only both his legs and right arm, but even his torn-up left arm too.
Before he knew it, scream-like shouts also started coming out from his own mouth as well.
“You… idiot!! You great big idiot!! Chiyu!! Chiyu didn’t want for you to be first place among the first years, the metropolitan tournament champion, or anything like that!!”
Jumping high using a front kick he desperately fired as a kick-off point, Haruyuki grabbed Cyan Pile’s mask and hit his own silver helmet against it with all his strength.
CRACK, with a breaking sound, part of the blue mask broke and fell.
As Cyan Pile lost his balance and fell to the ground on his back, Haruyuki sat on top of his chest and kept repeatedly hitting with his right fist.
“Chiyu only wished for you to stay as you were!! The one making her see only the past, who is making her think ‘I want to return to the old days’, is you, Takumu!! The only one that changed among us is you!!”
Without thinking of anything, he cried out those words in a violent fury.
But, just as Haruyuki’s voice resounded, both of Cyan Pile’s eyes let out a shudderingly cold and strong light beneath his fissure-like slits.
“Don’t…get…”
Suddenly, both of Cyan Pile’s thick arms crossed together with a jerk as if protecting himself.
But, Haruyuki didn’t immediately realize that this wasn’t a defensive movement.
“Don’t get cockyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”
At the same time as he fully expanded his two arms to the left and right, the sharp tips of over ten stakes rose to the surface of Cyan Pile’s bodysuit from chest to belly with a ‘HOGOGOGOGO’ noise.
What!? This is bad—Dodge—
But, the instant that Haruyuki tried to kick off the ground with both legs and jump away.
“—«Splash Stingeeeeeeeeer»!!”
ZUDODODODODO!!
Along with a rapid-fire sound like a heavy machine gun, the many stakes were shot straight at Haruyuki from close range.
“Kkuooo!!”
He somehow managed to avoid the stakes flying towards his head and the middle of his chest. However, immediately after, Haruyuki received dreadful impact to his left shoulder, left flank and right knee, and was blown high up like scrapped garbage and then fell back down to the floor of the rooftop on his back.
“Guh…hah…!!”
A gasp mixed with a shout was squeezed out from his throat. His vision flickered, and a dull and heavy pain coursed through his whole body. He couldn’t believe that this was virtual damage being transmitted from his Neuro Linker.
What on earth—was that just now!?
As Haruyuki supported himself on his right arm and somehow lifted up his upper body, Cyan Pile sluggishly stood up first in front of him.
“Ku…fu, fufufufufu.”
As if some screws had come loose in him, laughter slowly leaked out from beneath Cyan Pile’s blue mask.
“Kufufufu. You’ve…pushed me around quite vigorously, haven’t you? I was just a little surprised. But…after all, you are an annoying little bug. It seems you even expressly built up my special technique gauge.”
“Special…technique…”
While murmuring that, Haruyuki checked the gauges in the upper part of his vision once again.
Of the thick health gauges that extended left and right, Cyan Pile had 60% left. He had received damage beyond words during Haruyuki’s rush. But Haruyuki’s, due to directly receiving those blindly fired stakes just now, already had only about 30% left.
And, another light green gauge extended beneath each of their health gauges.
Cyan Pile’s was shining clearly close to 70%. In comparison, Haruyuki’s was nearly full to the tank.
“Hey, hey, don’t tell me you’re only hearing about it for the first time, Silver Crow.”
While letting out ‘Kukuku’ laughter, Cyan Pile slowly began to move forward.
“The exchange of special techniques is the essence of «duels». The «Splash Stinger» just now was my Level 2 special technique. It’s an ideal attack for shooting down noisy little bugs, right? Oh, speaking of which, your gauge should have also built up a lot. Please, by all means, use it as much as you like as well.”
Haruyuki clenched his teeth hard.
The only special technique provided to Silver Crow, «Headbutt», couldn’t hope to oppose Cyan Pile’s technique that had a much long range than his. Furthermore, its motions were long and obvious, as though clearly saying that he was preparing to attack.
…Damn it, I don’t need something like a special technique. I have my fist, feet and speed.
At the same time as his swaying vision settled down, Haruyuki threw all his strength into his right leg in order to quickly stand up.
But.
He heard a horrible cracking noise.
And a metallic clanking noise from his body falling back onto the ground.
As he confusedly looked down, what lay in front of him was a thin silver leg, which had been pierced by a stake shot and broke off from the knee—
“Aha, ahahahahaha!!”
Cyan Pile’s piercing loud laughter.
“Your leg came off!! How fragile!! And yet you’re a metal-color!?”
That voice didn’t reach Haruyuki’s consciousness.
Damn it. Damn it!!
Without my leg, I can’t run anymore. Let alone dodging or dashing, even just moving is unreliable.
The creeping signs of panic quickly chilled the bottom of his body.
This is bad. I can’t lose here. I have to protect senpai no matter what.
THUD.
A boot stepped down on Haruyuki’s torn-off leg and shattered it like glass.
As Haru looked up, two bluish-white eyes narrowed quietly.
“…In the end, this is how you are, Haru.”
A faint whispery voice.
“Being like that suits you. Though, you really said whatever you wanted to say earlier, didn’t you? As if only you understand Chii-chan?”
“…I do, at the very least more than you.”
“Then, what about me? Did you ever think about me? When me and Chii-chan are together just the two of us, she’d suddenly show a sorrowful face…When I know that it was because she was thinking about you, did you consider my feelings, Haru?”
Momentarily pausing his words and bringing his face closer, Cyan Pile—Takumu spoke the decisive words.
“Because you’re like that.”
It was a tone that even seemed to be gentle in some way, but those words pierced Haruyuki’s chest far more deeply than the giant steel stake.
“Because you’re like that, me and Chii-chan are held back by you, as if we’ve fallen into a muddled swamp and can’t get back out. Just disappear already, Haru. And free me and Chii-chan.”
THUD.
This time, he stepped down on Haruyuki’s still-intact leg with the sole of his foot.
Emphatically raising his upper body and putting his right hand’s launcher tube up high, Cyan Pile drew a complex trajectory with its tip. With that, everything from the launcher tube to his shoulder was wrapped in a vivid blue light.
Suddenly, the launcher made a deep noise and expanded to about three times its original thickness.
Sticking out from inside that was a tip that had become flattened, like a huge hammer.
The striking edge of the hammer was suddenly pointed at Haruyuki, who couldn’t even consider moving anymore.
“Now then—Let’s end it Haru. Everything.”
This battle, and our pretend friendship. Cyan Pile’s eyes said that.
Immediately after, the tip of the hammer emitted a dreadful light.
“—«Spiral Gravity Driver»!!”
GYUAAAA!!
As the hammer shot out while spinning and making mechanical sounds like countless gears turning, Haruyuki desperately tried to avoid it. But his leg was being steadily held by the foot, and he couldn’t escape. Immediately after, Haruyuki was crushed by giant steel.
An instrumental duo with a high-pitch screech from his silver armor being smashed and a heavy bass from the floor beneath him being crushed.
Without being able to even cry out, Haruyuki was knocked through the floor and crashed into the hospital floor of next floor below.
But the hammer didn’t stop there, further digging into both Haruyuki and the floor, and then—
BOGOH! BOGON! BOGOAH!!
While making continuous breaking noises, it finally stopped moving after going through all five floors of the hospital and embedding Haruyuki into the ground of the first floor.
CHIKA. CHIKA.
Something red flickered within the darkness in the upper left corner of his vision.
It took several seconds for Haruyuki to realize it was his health gauge, which had decreased to less than 10%.
As if regretting that it couldn’t finish shaving off the gauge, the tip of Cyan Pile’s hammer ate into Haruyuki’s chest for a while, but soon enough it started spinning in the opposite direction and returned back up.
After the hammer left while rubble clattered down, what remained before Haruyuki’s eyes was a small hole leading up to the distant rooftop. From inside that hole, Cyan Pile’s voice resounded faintly.
“Ah, there’s still a little left. Well, it’s fine, there’s only five or six minutes left anyway, the time will run out before I can go look for him and deliver the finishing blow. Besides, I still have to have to challenge the true «final boss» after this. —Now then!”
The tone of his voice changed. It sounded boastful—or somehow fawning.
“Did you see that, ladies and gentlemen within the gallery! And everyone from the Blue Legion in particular!! I’m still useful! I can fight properly even in the «Unlimited Field» above this! It’s a waste to throw me away, just because I used up points a little too much, right!?”
Taku—Takumu…You…
While rolling over like a broken doll at the bottom of the hole, Haruyuki felt hot liquid go down his cheeks. It was tears. But, he didn’t understand very well what he was crying over.
Probably, the tears were flowing because something precious had been broken and completely damaged without his noticing.
Even thought it was a battle he couldn’t lose. Even though he had to absolutely win, for Haruyuki’s own sake, for Chiyuri’s sake, for Takumu’s sake—and for Kuroyukihime’s sake.
While holding that pain of huge regret, Haruyuki slowly raised his body. Fragments of cracked armor spilled from his entire body like rain, and scattered onto the ground.
There was no meaning in standing up anymore. In order to accept this decisive defeat and return to his previous self before he knew about Brain Burst, Haruyuki held his knees where he lay and tried to wait just for the moment when the time count reached zero.
He began closing his eyes—just before he did that.
In the corner of the dimly-lit room.
That person’s form emerged like an illusion.
There was a bed braided with thorns.
Encircled by countless jet-black petals in full bloom, a delicate form was laying down on it.
A dress blacker than darkness. Silver frills. A parasol placed beside her. And, spread-out beautiful black hair, and skin shining whiter than snow in the dim darkness. Her long eyelashes were quietly turned down.
Am I hallucinating?
While thinking that, Haruyuki dragged along his severed right leg and slowly, slowly approached the thorny bed. But, no matter how much he approached, there were no signs of Kuroyukihime’s avatar vanishing.
After propping his right hand on the edge of the bed as if falling down on it, Haruyuki finally realized.
Here, this place is the micro-machine room of the ER, where Kuroyukihime is receiving medical treatment.
And Kuroyukihime was connected to the hospital’s network. So, as soon as Haruyuki began an accelerated duel, automatic-spectator mode was activated and she was also invited to this stage.
“…Senpai.”
While murmuring in a hoarse voice, Haruyuki extended his worn-out right hand and gently touched Kuroyukihime’s cheek.
Words gushed out of him one after another as if a dam had broken. At the same time, his tears also returned.
“I…I couldn’t protect you. I couldn’t protect your dream, your wish. I couldn’t respond to your expectations.”
A tear, dripping from a crack of his half-broken helmet, fell down onto Kuroyukihime’s cheek, and then scattered into a miniscule blaze and vanished.
“‘I can change’…that’s what I thought. I can change through your words, your kindness, and your feelings…But, it’s useless. It’s not my avatar’s fault…probably, this avatar was created as the embodiment of my «resignation». The reasons that this, that Silver Crow was made like this is because of me. I who, without looking at the sky and only facing the bottom, lives while groveling.”
Haruyuki softly turned over his body, and clung to the tip of Kuroyukihime’s shoulder.
“I wanted to go there. To the place where you were…To that distant and high sky, where you easily flapped your wing. Higher…faster…escaping this bog-like reality…together with you…”
With a sob, Haruyuki squeezed out the last words.
“I wanted, to fly.”
—TOKUN.
At that time, as if responding to his voice, a faint sound was heard.
TOKUN. TOKUN.
The source of the sound was Kuroyukihime’s chest, which Haruyuki’s cheek was lying on top of. A rhythm that was small and fleeting, but certainly ticked away in the center of her chest. A heartbeat.
Right now, within acceleration, it was impossible to hear the actual beating of a heart in reality. But it was impossible that it was an auditory hallucination. Desperately straining his ears and listening, Haruyuki suddenly understood.
This was a sound being issued from Kuroyukihime’s will. Right now, Kuroyukihime was desperately fighting. On the edge of life and death, she was desperately resisting in order to hold on. That strong will had become a heartbeat, and was resounding in the virtual battlefield.
“…That’s right…”
Haruyuki murmured. At the same time, new tears flowed out, dripping hot. Inside his ears, he faintly heard the words Kuroyukihime had told him once again.
—The meaning of strength isn’t about the result of winning.
I didn’t know the meaning of being strong at all. Without knowing it, I simply envied and gave up.
“Strength is about simply «winning»…”
Even if I’m unsightly. Even if I look ridiculous. Even if I am defeated at the end, fall to the ground, and am covered with mud.
Kuroyukihime—Black Lotus, after surviving a life-and-death battle with the other Kings, held her breath and continued staying hidden in a small network. But, that wasn’t because she was cowardly, or afraid. It’s because she never gave up. Because she never looked down.
“…To simply «resist». To still keep looking towards the sky even after falling down…that is the only proof of strength. Isn’t that right…senpai?”
There was no response.
But, Haruyuki clearly felt a powerful beating being born deep within his own chest as well.
His heart’s pulse became a signal and was transmitted to his brain.
And then once more, the soul, the will, the spirit that confronts adversity accelerated.
As long as there was this beating in his chest—
“I can still stand…I can still fight!”
Haruyuki cried that out to himself, and to Kuroyukihime.
He grasped the edge of the bed with his right hand, threw all his strength into his left leg, and stood up while staggering.
Minute fragments fell from his entire body while glittering. But, the beat that had been born from his chest flowed heat all the way to his wounded limbs, and trembled intensely.
Suddenly—
Intense white light was emitted from the many cracks in his armor.
At the same time, the armor on his back crumbled greatly, and a feeling of blowing away came on him. Haruyuki opened his eyes wide and bent his body backwards as he threw back his head.
There was a big mirror on a wall that was a short distance away in front of him. Perhaps it was a magic mirror that connected with the monitor room next door in the real world. Right now, like the bed, it had changed into a huge full-length mirror bordered by black cast-iron thorns on its edges.
In the middle of that mirror, the form of Kuroyukihime lying on the bed of thorns, and of himself standing up was reflected.
His entire body’s armor was in very bad condition. His left hand and right leg were torn off from the middle, and his chest had deep cracks radiating across it. The cracks also reached to his back, and a cracking sound seemed to be resounded from there. Every time a thin spark ran out, small pieces of broken armor scattered about, and—
“……!?”
Dumbfounded, Haruyuki watched as some white and shining things started extending out slowly, slowly from the left and right side of his back.
They seemed to be two sharp oblong and thin pieces of metal. Swords—?
The instant he thought that, the two extending metal fragments made a clear swishing noise and spread out like a semi-circle. Nearly ten thin folded-up metal fins also respectively unfolded from the tip of the first sword-like protuberance.
These—weren’t weapons, but…
——Wings.
Haruyuki remained dumbstruck for less than one second.
Hot!!
Feeling a terrible heat along his entire back, Haruyuki raised his body as if to repel it.
He staggered back several steps on his knees while writhing, and shrunk his small body by embracing his shoulder with his arm.
Rather than hot temperature-wise, it felt more like a cluster of pure energy was crammed airtight inside his back, swirling as it wanted to go somewhere.
“——!!”
It’s no good. I can’t hold it down any longer.
As he bent his body like a bow and faced above, ahead of Haruyuki’s gaze was—
He saw the huge hole that had been drilled through the building by his body only tens of seconds ago. And also a small yellow light that looked isolated on the other side of that black and deep hole. A corridor leading to the far away sky.
It’s calling me.
Moving unconsciously, Haruyuki raised his broken left arm up high, and drew his intact right arm to his side. He felt the energy raging at the tip of his shoulder blades suddenly increase in density and compress.
After returning his gaze just for a moment to catch sight of the stretched-out form of his beloved person.
Haruyuki fixed his gaze above once again.
“——Goooooooooooo!!”
He stuck out his right arm straight ahead along with that shout.
DOOO!!
Along like an explosion-like impact sound, a silver light cut through the darkness.
In an instant, Haruyuki’s entire body flew straight up like a fired arrow.
GOH, GOGOGOH….
Each time he passed by one of the hospital’s floors, the air twisted in his ears.
Going through the dark corridor in just a few seconds, the silver avatar flew out from the drilled hole to the roof, and then kept flying higher and higher. The metallic fins on his backs vibrated loudly at high-speed. That energy accelerated his small body with overwhelming momentum, easily cutting off the virtual gravity and persistently, persistently pushing Haruyuki upwards.
Immediately, the swirling black clouds drew near in front of him.
The instant he touched the thick cluster with his raised right fist, the clouds were pushed away like mere coins with a loud whoosh.
After having gone through and moreover ascended out of a black tunnel, a pale yellow and dazzling light filled Haruyuki’s vision.
Immediately after going through that sea of clouds, Haruyuki expanded both his arms and legs, reducing his acceleration. The high-pitched vibrating sound lowered in pitch, and a soft floating sensation like when an airplane has finished taking off came upon him.
While gently hovering, Haruyuki spun his body around.
“…Aah…”
Unconsciously, he leaked out a voice mixed with a breath.
A view beyond imagination was spread out beneath his eyes. From the breaks in the sea of clouds that flowed and swelled, he could see an unbroken view the huge dull-colored city that continued on as far as the eye could see. The Shinjuku urban center which had changed into leaning spires was there, and a deep forest was over there, and the building that looked like a towering magic fortress was perhaps the Imperial Palace.
When he looked in the other direction, streets that continued from Suginami to Mitaka to Hachiouji[1] extended out as far as he could see, and over there were the mountains of Okutama, and the steep high peak next to them that towered through the sea of clouds was probably Mt. Fuji.
Finally looking to the south, Haruyuki caught sight of a grey level surface that shone brilliantly.
The sea. The Tokyo Bay. And—the Pacific Ocean, which spread on endlessly.
Infinite.
“This world…is infinite…”
While murmuring that, Haruyuki slowly, slowly began to descend.
Sinking back through the clouds from behind, he went through to the bottom of them and approached the ground.
Once he had descended to a height where he could start seeing the details of the streets below, he made his fins vibrate strongly again, and hovered once more.
Just thirty meters below Haruyuki as he regained his posture, was the roof of the hospital.
That battlefield that he had thought so large and wide now looked small, as if he could pick it up with his hands. And the form of the blue giant, standing at the edge of the big hole in the center and looking up towards him, was still there as well.
Cyan Pile gazed up at Haru for nearly a full three seconds, as if his soul had fallen out.
He weakly raised his left hand, and leaked out a hoarse voice.
“Ha…Haru…”
But those words were erased by the loud commotion that suddenly arose.
Voices. The gallery people, that stood on the roofs of the buildings surrounding the hospital and watched the duel between Silver Crow and Cyan Pile, all simultaneously raised their voices in a squall.
“He isn’t…he isn’t falling!? He’s completely stationary!!”
“It isn’t a jump…he’s flying!? No way!?”
“A «Flight Ability»…it’s finally appeared. Look at those wings!! That’s a «Flight-type Avatar»!!”
Haruyuki didn’t understand why the gallery was in such a clamor. As he stared down in mute amazement, among the the duel avatars came up to several tens, some moved towards higher positions, while others drove their finger to their consoles.
“There’s no data on him! Where is that guy from!? What legion does he belong to…who’s his «Parent»!?”
“F-For now, let’s contact headquarters! You, log out and go tell them!!”
“Don’t joke around! As if I’m going to miss what happens next!!”
What calmed down this uproar that was like a prodded beehive—was a terrible shout that was suddenly released.
“Oo…Oooooooooh!!”
Spreading his arms and legs, Cyan Pile bellowed. The tremor that rocked the atmosphere like an electric shock reached even Haruyuki far up in the sky.
“No!! Nononononooooooooo!!”
As it made a mechanical ‘GASHUU!!’ sound, he pointed his right arm’s launcher tube straight at Haruyuki.
“Don’t!! Don’t you!! Look down on meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”
A scream as if spitting up blood.
At the same time, a metallic clang resounded, and the loaded steel stake scattered out many lines of light.
As Cyan Pile struck a stance of spreading out both legs, dropping his waist and supporting the launcher tube with his left hand, the remaining 40% of his special technique gauge suddenly vanished with a jerk.
As Cyan Pile aimed what was likely his final attack technique at him, Haruyuki quietly lifted up his right hand while hovering in place and clenched his fist hard.
Haruyuki now finally realized the true «special techniques» that was giving to him.
«Punch». And «Kick».
At the same time as those were normal techniques, there were also special super-attacks.
Greatly drawing back his clenched fist, Haruyuki fully expanded all his fins and changed his body’s direction. Straight towards Cyan Pile beneath his eyes.
“Fa…aaaall, dooooooown!! «Lightning Cyan Spike»!!”
At the same time as Cyan Pile screamed out the technique name, the steel needle, having changed into a long beam of light, shot out from his right arm.
Facing it, Haruyuki released all the propulsive power of both his wings while preparing just a punch.
“Uu…ooooooooo!!”
DOGOOO!!
As if igniting a rocket engine, Silver Crow’s body charged forward as a bullet of light.
In the left-hand corner of his sight, the green special technique gauge quickly began to decrease. At the same time, the white light wrapped around his right fist endlessly increased its radiance.
“Haruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!”
Takumu cried out.
“Taku——————!!”
Haruyuki also cried out.
KIIIIIIIIIIIN!!
A «hyper-acceleration» beyond the acceleration of Brain Burst surged from his back and wrapped around Haruyuki.
The color of the world changed.
Haruyuki certainly saw Cyan Pile’s blue lance rushing up from the ground, and the glare of its single tipped point. Its predicted trajectory stood out like an illusion in his vision.
The speed of Haruyuki’s mind surpassed the speed of the attack that was certainly like the lightning the technique was named for. This was the power of a true «accelerated person» that Kuroyukihime found and believed in.
I can see it…I can see it, senpai!!
Haruyuki shouted that out in his thoughts.
The speed of the lance fell.
In comparison, Silver Crow’s speed increased endlessly, as if he had become light itself.
Both of them closed in and blended—in that instant, Haruyuki slide his charging trajectory a little to the right.
ZASHUUU!!
The lance grazed the left side of his helmet, passed through and scattered fierce sparks.
Immediately after.
Haruyuki’s «Punch» deeply, deeply went through the center of Cyan Pile’s chest.
Along with a roaring ‘SUGAAA!!’ sound, their two bodies were blown off together while carving a deep rut in the roof’s floor.
They crashed into the steel fence of the roof, smashed it into pieces and sprung out into the open air.
“…Oooh!!”
Haruyuki cried out and made his metallic fins flap.
The intense and powerful lifting power wrapped around his entire body. While embedding his right arm all the way into Cyan Pile’s body, Haruyuki pointed his trajectory upwards and rose higher, higher.
He pierced through the sea of clouds in several seconds and flew out into the yellow sky.
After he reduced acceleration and shifted to hovering, Cyan Pile, who seemed to have lost consciousness at the moment of impact, made a coughing noise under his mask from where it lay on top of Haruyuki’s shoulder.
“Go…fuh…”
After his huge figure quivered for a bit, he raised his head.
Immediately after, he let out a thin scream that made his angry voice of resentment until now seemed like a lie.
“U…wah…!? F…fly…ing…!?”
While shaking his mask left and right, he cried out further.
“Stop it, Haru…! D…Don’t drop me!! If I fall now…I’ll l-lose…”
Both of their health gauges were dyed deep red together, and their width had decreased to the point of being thing like a thread. Cyan Pile’s entire body was still from the fear of falling from struggling, and he changed his voice to a tone of begging.
“If…if I lose…if I lose against to a Level 1 like you, my points will become zero…but it’s fine for you, you’ll only lose 4 or 5 points anyhow! Please, please surrender here, Haru! I can’t lose Brain Burst now!!”
“Taku…Takumu…”
While murmuring as if groaning, Haruyuki strongly clutched his right fist that was still pierced through Cyan Pile.
What—What are you saying after all this time!! You tried to take away all of Kuroyukihime’s points…You tried to erase that person’s Brain Burst, and her one and only wish!
Right now, with just the smallest change of his arm’s angle, he could deprive Cyan Pile’s huge body of support and make him fall to the ground far below. Takumu would lose about 40 points and at the same time have Brain Burst forcefully uninstalled. And then—he wouldn’t be able to attack Kuroyukihime-senpai from beyond the local network again.
Haruyuki gritted his teeth to the point of breaking them.
His whole body trembled, and then the momentary urge passed from his head to his toes and left him.
The voice he pushed out from the space between his clenched teeth was cracked, as if it wasn’t from himself.
“…Do you acknowledge it, Taku?”
“……W-What…?”
“You can never win against me anymore in this accelerated world. Do you acknowledge that, Taku!!”
An instant of silence.
The words that were returned through the body glued to him were quiet, as if something had collapsed.
“……Yeah. That’s true…As expected, I can’t win against you. Just like in the various games we played together in the past…”
Haruyuki inhaled deeply, and then exhaled. Then, he spoke in the same quiet voice.
“Then…me and you are the same.”
“…!? W-What……?”
“In the real world, I can never win against you. But, in this world, you can’t win against me. We are the same. That’s why…that’s why.”
Pausing in his speech, Haruyuki looked at the bluish-white eyes within Cyan Pile’s mask, and then continued.
“That’s why…become my ally…my comrade, Taku. Just like me, fight as that person’s subordinate from now on.”
Takumu became speechless and gasped sharply. After a short time, a hoarse groaning voice leaked from beneath his thin slits.
“…Don’t be stupid, Haru, you should know as well. Your parent…«Black Lotus», who tries to hide and hunt the legion I belong to as well, is Accel World’s biggest traitor! In other words…to fight together with her would mean…”
“That’s right. We would have to beat the «Six Kings of Pure Color». That’s nothing to feel frightened about. Let me tell you something good…Something like that is how a game essentially is.”
After Haruyuki declared that, Takumu responded with a long silence.
The words he let out several seconds later seemed to be dinged with a self-derisive smile.
“…Haru, do you still believe in me? Even if I say yes here, do you intend to believe in my words without any basis at this late hour? The words of me, who broke the laws of my legion, broke the rules of Brain Burst, and betrayed my only two friends?”
“After this, the two of us will tell Chiyu everything.”
As Haruyuki immediately retorted back, Takumu let out an astonished breath for the nth time today.
“Eh…!?”
“About Brain Burst, about our battle, and also…about the feelings you and I kept hiding, we’ll confess it all to her.”
Haruyuki turned his gaze towards the sky that continued on far away into infinity, and slowly spoke.
“We probably have to start from there. Until now, all three of us kept hiding the things we shouldn’t have hidden. We doubted the things we shouldn’t have doubted. We have to start over…from somewhere.”
“……Start over…do you really think that, Haru? I…I, to Chii-chan’s Neuro Linker…”
As Takumu said that with a trembling voice, Haruyuki hit his back lightly with his broken left arm.
“She’s be mad enough to die, alright. She’ll yell, she’ll rage…but in the end, she’ll forgive, if it’s her.”
Haruyuki said that with a laugh in his voice as they slowly began to descend.
Returning to the roof and freeing himself from Silver Crow’s right arm, Cyan Pile staggered back several steps and then sat on the floor with a thud.
Haruyuki briefly confirmed the remaining time. After two minutes and a little more, this long duel would end.
Just in case he clicked on the gauges to confirm them, but their remaining health had both the exact same numerical value. If the time ran out like this, the result should be a draw and an exchange of points shouldn’t occur.
Looking at Cyan Pile once again, who was hanging his head between his knees and wasn’t moving, Haruyuki thought in his mind.
Am I…making a mistake?
Should I have mercilessly thrown Takumu to the ground back them, and made the possibility of him breaking his promise afterwards and attacking Kuroyukihime completely zero?
No—that’s wrong. To doubt in others, or to believe in others, it’s the same as to doubt myself, or to believe in myself.
I believe in myself who has decided to believe in Takumu.
It’s fine like this, right…?
He called that out with the voice of his heart—immediately after that.
The elevator door opened behind him, resounding with a grave metallic clank.
In the instant that his whole body stiffened and quickly looked back, Haruyuki guessed which form would appear before his eyes here, and believed once again.
It’s impossible for it to be a new enemy. Since the only ones who could fight on this stage were Haruyuki and Takumu.
And it couldn’t be an unknown duel avatar. There was no reason for an unrelated spectator to appear from the hospital.
But, the instant he actually confirmed it with his own eyes, Haruyuki’s breath stopped, his chest was filled with something hot, and tears flowed from both his eyes.
A pure black, as if the essence of darkness was condensed. The clear silver which colored its edges.
The cold wind which blew too much shook her long rolling hair and the hem of her skirt, and lightly chimed the bells that decorated her parasol.
“Sen…pa…”
His squeezed-out voice trembled thinly like a small child’s.
Looking at Haruyuki as he dragged his broken leg and went forward one, two steps—
Kuroyukihime tilted her head to the side and at the same time smiled pleasantly.
“Senpai!!”
Finally calling out with a decent voice, Haruyuki ran up to her at maximum speed while letting out irregular clanking sounds.
Kuroyukihime also ran up to him with her high-heels clicking furiously.
There was neither hesitation nor nervousness at all as he stretched out their arms and dive into the other’s opened arms.
Hugging her soft and sweetly fragranced body with all his might, Haruyuki cried out in a voice mixed with sobbing.
“You’ve…you’ve regained consciousness! Thank goodness…I believed…I believed that you’d definitely be saved…thank goodness…truly…”
Holding Haruyuki in her arms as if wrapping him up, Kuroyukihime pressed her cheek near while remaining silent for a while.
Finally, the whispery voice that resounded in his ear was wet like his.
“…Within the darkness that was neither heaven nor earth…I heard only your voice. You…protected me, didn’t you? Getting this hurt…”
Her right hand gently stroked Silver Crow’s crack-covered body.
“Becoming so torn-up…Thank you…thank you, Haruyuki-kun.”
“No…Senpai was the one who protected me. Because I heard you say…that you believed in me, that’s why…I was able to fly.”
Kuroyukihime nodded several times in silence, and gently stroked the thin wings stretching out from Haruyuki’s back with her extended hand.
“They’re beautiful…This is your power, the potential that was hidden within Silver Crow. Until now…there has never been a single duel avatar that possessed a true flying ability. As I thought, my premonition wasn’t wrong. You are the person who will change this world.”
Kuroyukihime softly lowered Silver Crow’s small body onto the ground with her hands.
Inclining her head and looking down at Haruyuki with a smile, the fairy princess with her ephemeral silhouette spoke in a tone that possessed just a little strength in it.
“It seems the time has come…The time for me to also leave my peaceful cocoon and aim for the sky once more.”
She then turned her gaze to look behind him. Cyan Pile, who was sitting at the place he had been left at, had only raised his eyes a little while still hanging his head and was looking at the two of them.
“To you as well…I should apologize, Cyan Pile.”
The words from Kuroyukihime were unexpected.
“I also disgraced the duel which should have had honor with you many times. I will show it now, my true form. And if you so wish, I will face you with my full strength.”
Raising her right hand, she quickly operated her virtual console.
BACHI. BACHIBACHI!!
Black lightning that was suddenly released wrapped around the avatar of the fairy princess over and over again.
Before the eyes of Haruyuki as he hurriedly took several steps back, the form of the silhouette that was wrapped in purple light changed little by little, little by little. The skirt that nearly grazed the floor quickly shortened, and split into sharp serrated edges. Her arms and legs became perfectly straight lines, and the tips contracted like needles.
The long hair melted into the light and vanished, and in its place a mask shaped like a bird of prey with wings at the back appeared—and finally, after still more lightning soared, all of the effects disappeared.
What stood there, as if cut out of black crystal, was a beautiful, extraordinarily beautiful duel avatar.
The form of its entire body was somewhat similar to Silver Crow’s.
But its height was quite tall, over a hundred-and-seventy centimeters. Elegant, though mainly a straight line, and wrapped in black armor that gave a feeling of transparency, the body was thin like a doll and connected to an armored skirt similar to a black lotus flower which surrounded the waist.
And the characteristic that stood out above anything else were the limbs. Both arms and legs were chillingly long and sharp swords. Looking as if they would immediately cut in half anything they touched, the blade edges that emitted a bright radiance faintly resounded coldly, coldly against the stage’s breeze.
The front part of the head, which was shaped like a V tilting towards the back, had utterly black mirror-like goggles. Within that, two bluish-purple eyes shone with a vibrating ‘VIIIIN’ sound.
Haruyuki stood stock still for a short while as if his soul had fallen out. Cyan Pile also gave off the same speechless feeling from where he sat. To the two of them, more than that violently beautiful form—they were overwhelmed by the bottomless potential that rose out from that entire slender and jet-black body.
Haruyuki was certain that, if he «battled» that, he would be minced up without even having a few seconds and would disappear while crumbling into pieces.
Eventually, Haruyuki squeezed out a voice from his chest that was similar to a sigh somehow.
“It’s…beautiful. Very…beautiful…Senpai said it was ugly before, but…it’s not like that at all…”
“Hmm…is that so…”
Only the voice that came out was still like Kuroyukihime.
“Even though I have no hands to hold someone with…”
Those words didn’t continue to the end.
D O O O O O !!
Suddenly, fiercely loud voice of shock burst out once again from the surrounding buildings.
“U, uooo! Oooooo—!?”
“That’s…That duel avatar is…!!”
“«Black Lotus»!! The «Black King»!! She was in such good health——!!”
The shouting voices of the gallery were at a volume that was clearly more than double than when they had seen Silver Crow take flight.
Kuroyukihime looked at the surroundings and then spoke while lightly shrugging her shoulders.
“Now then…Silver Crow. Will you take me along and fly?”
“Eh, ye…yes.”
No matter how high her potential may be, her actual weight couldn’t be greater than Cyan Pile’s. But, even if she said ‘take me along’, how should he…?
Moving with a hover while emitting a faint vibrating sound right up to the bewildered Haruyuki, Kuroyukihime turned her body to the right and raised her arms with a casual gesture while lowering her waist.
As if inviting him to give the so-called «princess carry».
Though thinking ‘Eh!?’, Haruyuki knew he could under no circumstances run away and escape here. While dripping sweat drops from his helmet—or rather while experiencing the illusion of that, Haruyuki awkwardly held out both his arms and put them around Kuroyukihime’s back and waist.
“Please take care of me.”
Saying that in a somewhat playful tone, Kuroyukihime entrusted her body to Haruyuki’s arms. While being poured on by Takumu’s gaze, which might have been his imagination that it seemed teasing, Haruyuki resolved himself and carried the avatar of black crystal. Fortunately, it wasn’t that heavy like he thought, and Haruyuki then made the fins on his back vibrate strongly and kicked off the floor with his one leg.
With ‘Gyuuu!’, he moderately accelerated and aimed for the sky.
From within his arms, Kuroyukihime cried out in a whispery voice while craning her back and neck in order to survey the streets below.
“This is…incredible! It seems I could get addicted to this…Next time, I want us to direct connect duel and fly for the whole thirty minutes…oops, this is high enough.”
“Yes.”
Nodding, Haruyuki switched to hovering.
They weren’t that high up. Below, the countless duel avatars gazing upwards from the scattered roofs could be clearly seen.
Kuroyukihime inhaled a single, big, breath, and—
She shouted in a dignified and swelling voice, seeming to reach out to the other side of the horizon.
“Hear me!!”
Just then, everything within the stage turned silent.
“Hear me, you Burst Linkers of the Legions of the Six Kings!! My name is Black Lotus!! The one who opposes the rule of the tyrant kings!!”
The swelling black clouds shrunk back, and even the hard-blowing wing held its breath. The only thing that moved was the timer, which had only ten seconds left. In this silence, the loud declaration echoed through the world.
“I, and my legion «Nega Nebulous», will now emerge from the depths of the net that we have hidden within, and destroy this false peace!! Take up your swords!! Alight the fires!! The time to fight — Has come!!”
