The Binary Stars of Destiny

  However, once she had heard all the details about the ISS kit from the two more experienced Burst Linkers, after thinking about it for mere seconds, Chiyuri screwed her face up in an exaggerated fashion. “Could it be…those guys again? The Acceleration Research Society.”

  Unconsciously, Haruyuki and Takumu looked at each other, and when they turned their gazes back to Chiyuri—who was flopped over on the last of the three mattresses pushed together—they nodded simultaneously.

  “Y-yeah, we were thinking the same thing…”

  “Y-you’re amazing, Chii. It took me and Haru way more time to get to that conclusion, even though we had two heads working on it.”

  “But, I mean, you know…” Face still puckered up, Chiyuri lowered her voice a bit. “It’s really the same as the way he did things. Like, they don’t attack straight on, they sort of eat into things from all sides.”

  The “he” Chiyuri was referring to was Dusk Taker, a former member of the Acceleration Research Society, now banished from the Accelerated World. By the time he appeared before Haruyuki and named himself, he had already dug up all the information on Nega Nebulus and held Haruyuki’s fatal weakness in his hand.

  And now, the kits had started circulating from the so-called empty areas of Setagaya, Ota, and Edogawa. There was most likely a large number of people among the Burst Linkers who made their home in the city center who still didn’t know what was happening.

  The matter of the kits would very likely be taken up on the agenda at the meeting of the Seven Kings scheduled to take place four days from now, on Sunday, but there was at least the possibility that the situation would have already progressed at that point to a pandemic state impossible to get under control.

  Forcing himself to swallow such stinging anxieties, Haruyuki tightened his crossed arms and legs and opened his mouth.

  “So, like, in the Accelerated World, there’s something like a formula, right? Built into powerful techniques and items is always a risk or a weak point to balance them out. I mean, all the other abilities of my avatar have basically been sacrificed for my flight, and with Taku’s Pile Driver or Master’s Gale Thruster, once they use them, they can’t use them again until they recharge.”

  “That’s…” Chiyuri nodded. “You’re right. The activation movement for my Citron Call is huge, and since there’s no homing function, you can avoid it pretty easily.”

  “Even the Incarnate System, which is technically outside the game system, is the same,” Takumu followed, pushing up his glasses. “You basically can’t learn Incarnate that goes against your avatar’s affinities, and if you use it too often, there’s the risk that your heart’ll be swallowed up by darkness and you won’t be able to control the power. Oh, right, so what you’re trying to say, Haru, is…”

  “Yeah. I have no idea right now how they came up with the principles of the ISS kit, but at the very least, from what the Brain Burst program will allow, in exchange for that terrifying power and boundless infectiousness…I think it has some massive vulnerability. So big that if we push down on it, the entire network it’s built up will just crumble.”

  “True. That’s really plausible.” His usual intellectual gleam back in his narrowed eyes, if only temporarily, Takumu continued, gradually picking up speed as he spoke. “The creator of the kit—probably someone near the top of the Acceleration Research Society—I thought they must have included some kind of suicide program. I was going to die fighting for any details I could get. But it is possible that some vulnerability had to have been part of the kits right from the start…In which case, if we can find out that secret, we might be able to force the kits to self-destruct even if we don’t have any kind of activation key.” Here, he yanked his face up and took a deep breath, mouth about to open again.

  “No, Taku.” Chiyuri thrust the index finger of her right hand out before him.

  “Huh?”

  “You were totally thinking you could use yourself as a test subject and get Kuroyukihime and Big Sister to investigate the weak points of the kit.”

  “Oh…Well, y-yeah…but, I mean, Master and the others would be able to shut me down before I lost control or some—”

  “Noooo! Our Legion totally does not let anyone sacrifice themselves and suffer all alone to achieve whatever goal!” Having made this blunt declaration, Chiyuri looked at her friends once more. She knew what she was talking about; she had, in fact, sacrificed herself and suffered to save both of them when they went up against Dusk Taker.

  But she was basically saying she’d already forgiven them for the whole thing as she shut down Takumu, and after thinking for a moment, she opened her mouth again. “Hey, Taku? Maybe I can get rid of that…the ISS kit that’s possessing you with my Citron Call Mode Two?”

  Haruyuki inhaled sharply the instant he heard this. Her proposal was the very idea he himself had been warming to for the past several hours.

  Citron Call, the special attack of Chiyuri’s avatar, Lime Bell, had the rather impressive effect of rewinding time for the targeted avatar. It also had two different modes, depending on the motion and the amount of her special-attack gauge she used.

  Mode I, which used half her gauge, rewound the receiving avatar a few seconds. It was a powerful technique to replenish HP and special-attack gauges, which in reality allowed her to fulfill a Healer role, one of very few in the Accelerated World.

  And Mode II, which used up her entire gauge, was even more impressive. This technique rewound the condition of the target avatar, in increments of status changes. Status changes mainly referred to equipping and removing Enhanced Armament, losing parts, and—in the case of transforming avatars—transformations. Equipping Enhanced Armament left an avatar open to attack during the process, and a lot of equipment could be summoned only once in a duel, so if it was forcibly removed during battle with this technique, all the opponent could do was retreat.

  However, the preposterousness of this Mode II was the fact that even the obtainment of Enhanced Armament was canceled. Status couldn’t be rewound infinitely—at present, Chiyuri was up to four steps back—so the phenomenon was essentially limited to immediately after the item was obtained, but when the timing was just right like this, Mode II canceled even a direct handover of Enhanced Armament, while Armament bought with hard-earned points popped back up in the storefront because of this enforced cooling-off period. Although, naturally, in that case, the points spent would also be returned.

  With all this information popping into his head, Haruyuki counted the status changes that Takumu had been through.

  His innate Enhanced Armament Pile Driver was always equipped, so there was no need to count that. And the transformation of the Pile Driver into Cyan Blade was Incarnate and therefore outside the system, so he didn’t include that, either.

  Which meant that Takumu shouting the command to activate IS mode and equipping the ISS kit in the fight before was one step. And he would have done the same thing in the battle with the PK group Supernova Remnant, so that was two. Before that, he had the bout the previous night with Magenta Scissor in the Setagaya area and accepted the ISS kit in that fight in a sealed state. That made three steps. The maximum Citron Call Mode II could rewind was four, so they could still make it.

  “Taku,” Haruyuki called to his friend quietly, knowing that Takumu had also traced out the same line of thinking as he just had.

  His friend turned to look at him, a faint light of hope in his eyes. But then he quickly lowered his gaze and slowly shook his head. “No…It’s true I’ve had fewer than four status changes, but it’s probably impossible to remove that thing with Citron Call.”

  “Wh-why, Taku?! We’ll smash that thing to pieces and send it back to Magenta Scissor, COD!”

  Takumu smiled slightly at Chiyuri’s threatening declaration. But he soon shook his head once more and spoke calmly, as though admonishing her. “Chii. That thing…part of that thing, or maybe the main part of it, is already in not just my Neurolinker, but in my h
ead. The only thing that could possibly allow that to happen is the Incarnate System. Remember? When you tried to bring back Raker’s legs with Citron Call?”

  Both Takumu and Chiyuri lightly bit their bottom lips.

  “Raker’s ‘part loss’ was still within four status changes,” Takumu continued, “but her legs didn’t come back. Because she had been rejecting her own legs through an unconscious Incarnate. I’m pretty sure the ISS kit will always refuse to be removed through its own Incarnate.”

  “Then! Then me, too!” Chiyuri shouted, looking at both Haruyuki and Takumu. “I’ll train in the Incarnate System, too! However many years it takes in the Unlimited Neutral Field, I will get the power to at least remove the ISS kit from Taku!”

  “You can’t, Chii!” Takumu shouted instantly.

  “Why not?!” Chiyuri shouted back without a moment’s hesitation. “Kuroyukihime and Big Sister said the time would come when I’d find my own Incarnate and nurture it! So why can’t that be now?!”

  Takumu started to open his mouth to keep fighting, but cut himself off.

  Having a pretty good idea of what Takumu had been about to say and why he’d stopped himself, Haruyuki leaned forward and placed a gentle hand on Chiyuri’s slender left arm.

  “Chiyu.” He stared into the large catlike eyes she turned on him and spoke slowly. “Chiyu, your Citron Call is an incredible technique. In a certain sense, it may be the strongest power in Nega Nebulus. But, like, it’s definitely…the power of longing for the past. I don’t know if you noticed this, but the sound of the bells you can hear when you activate the technique…it’s exactly the same as the sound of the after-school bell at the elementary school we went to.”

  She had probably noticed this, too. Her eyes opened wide, and she quickly lowered her face.

  As she sank into silence, Haruyuki kept talking. “Of course, my Incarnate attack and Taku’s are both strongly tied to our past memories. But Taku’s at least is the materialization of his will to cut away from the past and move forward. Which is why I—and I’m sure Taku’s the same—want you to look to the future when you train in the Incarnate System. I don’t know what kind of power it’ll end up being, but…I just think it’d be pretty great if it was a power that came totally from you stretching out your hands toward the future.”

  For a while, no one moved a muscle, much less opened their mouths. Only the slender hands of the wall clock moved along smoothly, marking their approach to ten o’clock. The built-in air conditioner hummed softly on dehumidifier mode, while on the other side of the noise-reduction windows, the faint sound of EV tires coming and going on the nighttime Kannana reached them.

  Finally, Chiyuri slumped back with a heavy sigh and smiled gently, eyes still wet. “I guess so,” she whispered, nodded once, and then moved her lips again. “I guess. I mean, a technique set by the system’s one thing. But a technique I find and cultivate in my own heart…something that comes from a hand stretched out toward hope is better, right? Like yours, Taku. And like yours, Haru.”

  “Oh no, my Incarnate attack’s not a big deal like that.”

  “Nuh-uh. I love Laser Sword just as much as Cyan Blade.” Smiling broadly, Chiyuri continued in her usual cheerful voice, “Oh, I got it! Maybe I’ll do some kind of sword so we can all match! A really great one that could knock you both flying!”

  “Uh…” The two boys met each other’s eyes again. The truth was, they didn’t know the depths of Lime Bell’s potential yet. It wasn’t impossible for her to awaken an Incarnate technique that would easily surpass either of theirs.

  “G-go easy on us,” Haruyuki said, and now it was time for Chiyuri and Takumu to exchange looks before bursting out in laughter together.

  Of course they had school the next day, and the mission to get out of the Castle was waiting for them after that, so they decided it was about time they went to sleep. They lay down on the three springy mattresses laid out on the floor in order of Haruyuki, Takumu, and Chiyuri, from east to west. Ever since they were little, whenever they napped together at any of their houses, Chiyuri was always in the middle, but the star tonight was Takumu.

  If interference from the ISS kit while Takumu was asleep was that much of a concern, then they would all stay up all night. They had examined this possibility, but Takumu had rejected it immediately, since it would affect the Castle escape mission the next day. The kit was an urgent problem, but Haruyuki’s other self, his duel avatar Silver Crow, was sealed away in the Unlimited Neutral Field. If he didn’t somehow manage to escape with Ardor Maiden, who held the power of purification, and get her to purify him of the Armor of Catastrophe before the meeting of the Seven Kings on Sunday, he would end up with the biggest bounty in the Accelerated World slapped on his head.

  “It’s okay. If you guys are right here next to me, I’ll be able to relax, and sleep until morning,” Takumu said, head resting on his pillow.

  “Hey, if you do feel like you’re going to have scary dreams or something, say so,” Haruyuki replied. “I’ll hit you and wake you up.”

  “I appreciate that, but if I’m sleeping, how am I supposed to tell you?”

  “Uh, umm…sleep-talk?”

  Haruyuki felt his eyelids growing heavier and heavier as they chatted, until Chiyuri, on the other side of Takumu, snapped her fingers.

  “I got it! So, like, if you can’t avoid the interference if you take off your Neurolinker, how about we go to sleep directing with one another?”

  “Huh?!” Haruyuki blinked hard.

  Chiyuri popped her head up before continuing. “If we’re directing, then we’ll be able to talk in neurospeak even when we’re sleeping, right? If something’s weird with Taku, we might be able to notice it.”

  “Ohh…right, I didn’t think of that.” Takumu sounded impressed, and after a momentary exchange of looks, the threesome agreed to give it a try.

  They got up and put on their Neurolinkers, which were in the middle of wireless charging on the coffee table. After pulling out two XSB cables, they lay down again, this time with Haruyuki in the middle because Haruyuki’s Neurolinker was the only one equipped with two direct terminals.

  Direct connection with Chiyuri on the left terminal and Takumu on the right. The second wired connection warning disappeared, leaving only the small CONNECTED icon in his field of view.

  Pulling the blankets up to his neck, Haruyuki felt a mysterious sensation.

  A direct connection, no matter who it was with, always brought with it varying degrees of nervousness. The feeling of defenselessness, at deliberately removing the protective walls of his Neurolinker, and of immorality, from physically connecting consciousness itself—it always made his heart pound.

  But at that moment, Haruyuki simply felt nothing more than a quiet peace. The sensation that he and his childhood friends, the people he had spent more time with than anyone else, were protecting and being protected by one another. It was almost as if, through the two cables, their sense of security was pouring into him and filling his own heart.

  At some point, he had closed his eyes. The AI of his home server detected that its owner had gone to sleep and automatically dimmed the panel lights. From the other side of the gentle darkness that visited him came two voices.

  Night.

  Good night.

  Unable to tell whether their voices were real or neurospeak, Haruyuki also mumbled, “Night…”

  4

  ……Haru.

  …Hey, wake up, Haru.

  Haruyuki slowly lifted his eyelids, prodded by the sense that someone was calling him. The world around him was a dense charcoal color. Beyond it, a hazy human figure.

  “…It’s still dark out…Let me sleep a little longer,” he mumbled, and started to go back to sleep.

  But then someone was shaking his shoulders. “Wake up, Haru.”

  The voice contained an urgency of a sort, and this poked at his cotton-ball consciousness. He reluctantly opened his eyes once more. It was indeed still dark
. Given the season, it was probably still barely four o’clock.

  “…What’s wrong, Chiyu…?” he asked hoarsely, blinking hard and then forcing his eyes open again.

  It was indeed Chiyuri before him, hand on his right shoulder as he lay there. Slender silhouette sitting firm, short hair with a large pointed hat on top, entire body encased in a semitransparent light-green armor. On her left hand, a large bell–shaped Enhanced Armament…

  “—Huh?!”

  His brain finally more than half-awake, Haruyuki sprang up out of bed. His own body immediately screeched and clanged. Rather than striped, short-sleeved pajamas, he saw shining, mirrored silver armor. Hurriedly, he looked at his hands and touched his face. He didn’t need to feel the smooth mask beneath his fingertips to know that this was his duel avatar, Silver Crow. And the yellow-green avatar before him was Chiyuri’s Lime Bell.

  Why? Did I challenge Chiyuri in my sleep or something?

  That being his first thought, he turned his gaze upward to check the health gauges and countdown timer that should have been in the upper part of his field of view. But there was nothing. No green bar, no numbers ticking down from 1,800 seconds, no other display of any kind.

  But that wasn’t possible. If they were duel avatars—if they were in a full dive in a duel stage—he would definitely be able to see his own health gauge at least, Normal Duel Field or Unlimited Neutral Field; you couldn’t get rid of that in the settings.

  In which case, this was a dream.

  Still sitting with his legs splayed out before him, Haruyuki tried to pinch his own cheek with his right hand. But his hard helmet got in the way, and he couldn’t touch it. His brain still half-asleep, he started to stretch out a hand to the avatar sitting immediately to his left, thinking to use Chiyuri’s cheek instead—only to remember that the face masks of all duel avatars were hard. So what else could he pinch? Now that he was thinking about it, what were the breasts of the female-shaped avatars like anyway?