The shock of ‘What was with this poor treatment by a shop employee of a cake shop and who moreover looked like a maid-san!?’ that he felt was amplified dozens of times by her next words.
“We’re going out from the back. Follow me, Silver Crow.”
“……Wha…!?”
While screaming “ThisisbadI’vebeendiscoveredinreallifeeeeeeeeee” in his mind, Haruyuki reflexively tried to run away, but because his collar was being held tight it only strangled his neck further. Despite her slender figure, she had a frightful grip.
“You don’t have to escape, and it’s too late even if you run away now.”
As she said that with a thinly-pitched husky voice, Haruyuki reluctantly gave up on escaping and turned around.
The maid-san stared down at Haruyuki while completely expressionless, and then after finally letting go of the collar of his blazer, she spoke in a completely casual tone.
“Scarlet Rain told me to cooperate in your investigation. My name is «Blood Leopard». When addressing me, call me Leopard not Blood. If you shorten it, use Pard not Leopa.”
“Wai…t, plea…se wait a moment.”
Haruyuki somehow managed to get just those words out and tried hard to understand the situation.
—Ask the person who knows more about it.
The Red King Niko had certainly said that to Haruyuki just before he logged out. But, Haruyuki had naturally assumed that he would only meet that person in Accel World.
But, it seemed that the maid-san here that had exposed her real form before him in the real world was the Burst Linker belonging to the Red Legion that was the «knowledgeable person» that Niko had spoken of and moreover was a shop employee here at the same time, so in other words, this place was not only a cake shop but also something like the base of «Prominence»…
As he somehow thinking up to that point, the maid-san that was changed to being called «Blood Leopard» which was abbreviated to «Pard-san» spoke as if growing impatient.
“I waited two seconds. Think about the rest while moving.”
Then, her long skirt softly waved as she turned around and began to walk unflaggingly towards the door that was visible at the end of the dark hallway.
Haruyuki no longer had any other choice but to follow the command of the mysterious older woman.
The door seemed to be a back entrance, and it came out next to a garage that was built at the back of the cake shop.
The maid-san operated something with her fingers in the air, and the shutters that faced the road began to open automatically. «Blood Leopard» seemed to be quite a hasty character, and she stuck out one finger at Haruyuki as if the time to wait was also precious.
“The only information that I’ve heard from master is this. There is a Burst Linker who connects to a local network yet doesn’t appear on the Matching List. You want to see through the method he uses to do that. That’s how it is, K[19]?”
As she asked for confirmation using a shortened phrase that reduced the already short word «OK» by half, he nodded in response.
“Ye…Yeah, that’s exactly it.”
“Although this is my first time hearing of list interception, I’ve also recently heard a rumor about a «Local Net Troll».”
When the maid-san suddenly said that, Haruyuki reflexively leaned forward and asked impatiently.
“L-Local Net Troll…? What kind of person is that?”
“I don’t know much about it. It seems that, in a certain network, a Burst Linker that intrudes into there but disappears before anyone can think of challenging him to a rematch has appeared.”
“W-Where is that «certain network»!?”
“Akihabara[20].”
This time he pulled his body backward when he heard that brief response that was returned immediately.
“…A-Akihabara is, if I remember right, the territory of the Yellow Legion…”
“Yes.”
Looking at the maid-san who nodded as if it were nothing, he gulped deeply.
It was three months ago that the Red King Niko had fallen into an instant predicament due to the vicious plot of the Yellow King that controlled the Legion «Crypt Cosmic Circus», «Yellow Radio». Haruyuki and the others of Nega Nebulas who had been accompanying her had also been dragged into the ambush by dozens of other players and went through a tough time, so you could say that currently Nega Nebulas was strongly opposed to the Yellow Legion the most out of the six great legions.
Although he very much wanted to go collect information, Haruyuki also lacked a little of the courage to enter the territory of such an enemy, and so he bit his lip.
—But, this isn’t a situation where I can afford to be scared here. It’s also fortunate that I was told that there is a clue in Akihabara. Besides, if I go into the gallery of an ordinary duel there and indirectly heard about that rumor, I may not have to encounter such a scary sight…
While thinking that, Haruyuki tried to muster a tiny amount of courage.
Then, Blood Leopard, who has been silent for several seconds, said a short sentence.
“K. We’re going now.”
“Heh?”
…By “going”, did she mean to Akihabara? This person is also coming along? Surely not with that appearance…?
Once again grabbing the nape of the surprised and blinking Haruyuki’s neck and saying nothing as if to say she didn’t intend to say anything further here, the maid-san walked into the garage as her half-boots resounded on the ground.
Enshrined within there while releasing an overwhelming presence was—
A huge electric motorbike whose full length was more than two meters.
It could only be thought of as «something» completely different from an electric scooter that ran about peacefully. Its entire body was wrapped in a glossy black and red cowl, and the front and back wheels with their own in-built motors were astonishingly thick. Even though the active suspension arms were already so rugged that the armor could be seen, its whole form was so smooth and low that it seemed to crawl on the ground.
“Ama…zing……”
As Haruyuki unconsciously spoke out in awe, Pard-san threw something round at him from a rack on the wall. The thing he reflexively caught and looked down at was a red open-type helmet.
“……Yes?”
Staring fixedly at him and approaching at a brisk pace as he didn’t understand the meaning of this, Blood Leopard picked the helmet up again from him.
*GAPO* She put the helmet on Haruyuki’s head. Continuing, she skillfully fastened the harness under his jaw with a single hand.
After also putting on her own black full-face helmet over her Katyusha and shaking out her overflowing braid, she once again grabbed the nape of Haruyuki’s neck and made him sit down on the large bike’s tandem seat with a thump.
…Impossible. No way. Wait. Wait a minute.
Soon after he shouted that out in his mind, the maid-san straddled the bike while still in her maid clothes and grabbed the rough handles with delicate hands that had leather gloves on them.
“Starting.”
As she seemingly muttered a voice command, the bike’s meter panel dimly lit up. The suspension arms that extended out the front and back preloaded.
As Haruyuki’s Neuro Linker was also connected to the bike’s CPU, the speed and battery meter windows opened up in his vision. At the same time, he heard Blood Leopard’s voice, not through speech but through wireless communication.
‘Grab on.’
‘Eh, umm, no, but.’
Immediately after he thought about it, her two hands extended from in front of him and grabbed onto Haruyuki’s arms. His arms were then pulled and made to wrap around her thin waist over her apron. This woman seemed to follow the principle of never repeating the same command twice.
Though he had already hallway given up as escape from here appeared impossible, Haruyuki still persisted.
‘Ah…umm, are you going to drive with that appearance?’
> ‘Taking time to change clothes is pointless.’
‘Al…Also, will the shop be okay?’
‘My shift is till 5:00. If you have any other questions, say them all at once.’
‘………I don’t have any more.’
‘K.’
And then, the maid-san casually opened up the throttle.
*RYUUN* Along with a motor sound which felt like a bottomless torque within the silence, the huge bike easily slid out from the cake shop’s garage.
The time display at the lower right of his vision read 5:08 PM. The rain had stopped without him noticing it and the gaps between the clouds that flowed towards the west were dyed in a magnificent orange.
Ah, I left my umbrella in the store. Well, Taku will collect it later.
As Haruyuki faintly thought of that in an escapist manner, the electric bike they were riding smoothly came out from the Sakuradai town area at a nearly silent low speed pace. It seemed that Blood Leopard drove safely despite appearing to be an impatient person—
Just when he let the tension out of his shoulders, the bike turned right at the larger intersection and went onto the Loop 7.
*KYUIAAAAA!!* The in-built motors of the front and back wheels roared out, and the needle of the holo-meter suddenly jumped upwards.
*BATABATA* Her long skirt fluttered at the edge of his field of view. The wind pressure beat into his face over his helmet’s shield.
“…Ah—————!!”
Haruyuki screamed out using his real voice.
The large motorbike that was carrying a rider in maid clothes and a middle school student in a school uniform entered Mejiro Street from the Loop 7 and was flat-out speeding determinedly towards the east.
—Be that as it may, in this era, cases of bikes and automobiles breaking the legal speed limit didn’t occur. This was because the vehicle’s control system automatically places a limiter at the road’s maximum speed. If you wanted to break that limit, you would have to illegally remodel the system, or you would have to order it to enter emergency mode and temporarily stop and suspend the control AI. Of course, since it was also illegal to suspend the AI without a justifiable reason, you would have to be prepared for a policeman’s handcuffs either way.
The bike that Blood Leopard drove naturally had not been modified through either method and its limiter was placed at 80 km/h which was the exact legal speed limit of Mejiro Street, but the time it had taken to reach the maximum speed from initially 0 km/h was uncommonly short. Inevitably, huge Gs that he had never experienced before in the real world were pushing down Haruyuki’s round body and his screams rose each time, but in addition the slender body of Pard-san who he was clinging to was being pressed ‘GUNI—— ’ against his stomach, so he was already at his wit’s end.
…Thank goodness I’m sitting in the back. If our positions were reversed, I’d be feeling her front instead of her back. No, isn’t the reverse fundamentally impossible in the first place?
Which he considered such things with his dizzy-feeling head, the bike entered Sotobori Street in Iidabashi[21]. The little road they were on right in the middle of the city during the evening was filled with traffic, and the drivers of the surrounding electric automobiles and scouters were noticing the Pard-san’s and Haruyuki’s bike and widening their eyes while blinking.
That was only natural, as a dazzling maid in a snow-white apron was driving during dusk on a huge sports-bike that people almost never saw these days. Moreover, there was a fat middle school student sitting snugly behind her.
Unable to bare the numerous looks that were concentrated on them as they waited at a red light, Haruyuki spoke with thought-speech while ducking his head down.
‘…U-Umm, it’s amazing, how much we stand out.’
‘Yes.’
Without being disheartened by Pard-san’s reply that seemed to say it was inconsequential, no, that she really thought it was inconsequential, Haruyuki continued.
‘…I-It seems a little dangerous to plunge into the headquarters of the CCC[22] like this.’
This time her words were a little longer.
‘NP[23]. Conversely, we’re not conspicuous.’
‘Heh?’
But she didn’t answer any further, and when the light turned blue[24], she fully opened up the throttle. The motor short them out like lightning. Haruyuki choked.
He understood the meaning of her words after the bike entered into a multi-level parking lot that was adjacent to the westernmost edge of the Akihabara district and they walked on foot for several minutes.
As soon as they went into the main street that pierced through the electronics district from north to south, at least three maids jumped into Haruyuki’s sight. Of course, even if one said that, they weren’t actual maids, though speaking of which Blood Leopard wasn’t a real maid either, but anyway—they were handing out holo-papers that seemed to advertise a shop somewhere to those that passed by while smiling. Certainly, the only outward difference between those girls and Pard-san was their smiling faces.
“…I see…”
Deeply understanding it, Haruyuki looked up once again at the majestic appearance of the Sleepless Town, Akihabara.
This district, due to redevelopments at the beginning of the 2000s, seemed to be have been reorganized thoroughly as an intelligent-looking street. But after that, the price of land fell into decline while the center of consumer electronics sales shifted to Ikebukuro and Shinjuku, the banks that became strength-deficient during the depression of those times quickly backed out, the landowners were sub-divided, and chaos covered this district in the 2020s once again just like back in the last century.
And so, in the current year 2047, innumerable small scale shops of every industry related to electricity, networks and sub-culture were crowded together in this district. Since self-indulgent neon lights shined along all the windows of the buildings that lined down the street, there was no uniformity of color, and it was like standing in the middle of a galaxy where stars of pure color were crowded together.
If Haruyuki connected to the Global Net right now and moreover accepted advertisement information without restrictions, bargain holo-leaflets like custom parts for Neuro Linkers or deferment PCs and various applications softwares would flood his vision and prevent him from seeing anything.
“How nice…”
As he let his mouth slack in bliss at the chaos of information that could no longer be thought of as reality but as the virtual world, his nape was suddenly grasped hard.
“This way.”
Blood Leopard, who did not seem to have any especially strong emotions, began to walk northwards along the sidewalk that was overflowing with shoppers while dragging along Haruyuki.
The place she led him to was a particularly noisy building that was built at a place where you had to enter it a little towards the back from the main street.
He didn’t really understand what kind of shop it was at first glance. A neon sign that read «QUADTOWER» blinked on and off at the entrance, and the interior was dim with narrow lighting. Also, countless electronic sounds of great volume overlapped and leaked out from within.
“…Quadtower? What is this shop…?”
The slightly scared Haruyuki asked that,
“A ga-cen.”
With that short answer, Pard-san unflaggingly headed towards the interior of the shop without any hesitation. While thinking ‘Ga-cen, what’s that?’, Haruyuki went after her at a trot.
The meaning of those words became clear the instant he went down the short stairs and stepped into a dark floor.
The things that were tightly lined up on the naked concrete floor were prehistoric game machines, which were embedded with outdated CRT monitors and stick-type control panels on huge units. Striking sounds, explosions and BGMs were being discharged into the air from each speaker without reservation, and the players that were sitting on oblong chairs were absorbedly striking their panels with ‘GACHAGACHA’ and ‘PASHIPASHI??
? sounds.
As he watched dumbfounded from next to the wall, a player gave a victory pose on one side of two units that were lined up back to back, and the gallery people in the back suddenly sprang forward in a commotion. On the opposite side, a mortified-looking young man stood up. It seemed that they had battled each other through the two machines.
One of the gallery people immediately sat down at the vacated machine. That girl, who also had a showy appearance like an actual game character, took out a silver 100-yen coin from her pocket and dropped it into the slot in the center of the panel.
“I…I see.”
Haruyuki mumbled with a parched mouth.
“Ga-cen means game center…Those machines are the old-fashioned so-called «arcade games», aren’t they!”
He continued speaking excitedly, but Blood Leopard merely answered “Yes” as usual and began to walk forward again.
Although he understood the importance of the situation surrounding him and his goal in coming to this district, Haruyuki himself could not help but want to sit down at that battle machine while thinking ‘Just once is fine’. He hadn’t touched one of those large-type controllers before, but he had played 2D hand-to-hand combat games that were controlled with a pad on a household machine at his home so many times he was tired of it.
However, most regrettably, he didn’t have any old-fashioned material money like 100-yen coins in either his pockets or his backpack. He might find an electronic money change machine somewhere if he looked around the shop, but if he got separated from Pard-san in this dark and large shop, it might turn out terrible—rather than that, he’d probably be scolded, so he tearfully gave up on that.
While the far too late question ‘In the first place, why did this person bring me here?’ finally went through his mind, he chased after the swaying braid on the back of her maid clothes, and they eventually arrived at an elevator on the wall that was the farthest back inside the shop.
The scarily old-fashioned lift carried the two of them and went upwards while rattling. It stopped on the fourth floor.
What was on the other side of the opening door was completely different from the basement floor and was as silent as the grave. What were lined up here weren’t game machines, but narrow booths that were divided by solid-looking panels. Next to the right wall, there were drink vendors set up in a row.