Accel World: Flight Towards the Blue Sky

  When caught up after three, no, two more jumps, Rust Jigsaw turned around and displayed an action that was different from what he had done until then.

  After drawing a big circle in the art with his right hand, he swung it straight at Haruyuki and Leopard.

  *JIIII!* That vibrating sound. It was a «Wheel Saw». But Blood Leopard, who was in the middle of a jump, could not avoid it—

  “I leave it to you.”

  Hearing that from the body below him, Haruyuki reflexively responded with a “K”.

  The cutting power of the circular saw was overwhelming, but even so it had a blind spot. That is, since what was flying towards Silver Crow’s neck right now was a jigsaw in the form of a ring, the inside of the ring should not have a jagged edge. And most importantly, it was slower than a bullet.

  Of course, if he couldn’t see the motion of the projectile, he probably wouldn’t be able to get the timing right. But, Haruyuki’s eyes caught the super-thin line at the last moment as it crossed the color-filled nightscape. Just before it touched Blood Leopard’s right shoulder—he stuck out his right hand with all his strength into the inner portion of the ring from the side.

  *CHUII!* A sharp sound resounded, and sparks flashed from his fingers. But, without cutting his thin fingers, he caught the ring that was probably fifty centimeters in diameter, changed its trajectory and parried it off to behind him. A hint of slight shaking and agitation spread through Rust Jigsaw at having his great technique parried away at hitting distance.

  “GJ[30].”

  Giving just that brief comment, Blood Leopard then gave one last jump through the air.

  She pounced on Rust Jigsaw from the front as he was spreading out his arms in order to set another jigsaw in the air, and then—

  She opened her jaw wide and deeply embedded it into his shoulder.

  Thrown off from Blood Leopard's back from the shock of the crash, Haruyuki watched dumbfounded at the spectacle of the battle, or rather hunt, that was unfolding before his eyes as he lay on his backside.

  “Guh……”

  While letting out a low groan from his avatar whose form was joined together with its steel frame, Rust Jigsaw desperately pummeled the deep crimson Leopard bending over him with his left fist. However, the huge fangs that were deeply eating into his right shoulder firmly dug into him like a vise and wouldn’t let go.

  If Jigsaw were a close-range type, he might have been able to reverse this situation as well. Leopard’s HP bar also definitely decreased whenever his punches hit their mark, but the pace at which Jigsaw’s HP was disappearing was far faster. A damage-generated light effect was periodically emitted from his bitten shoulder, looking red like real blood. Even when Jigsaw forcibly twisted his body and escaped from her fangs, Leopard, as if having already decided that on no account would she let him escape, immediately jumped froward and thrust her fangs back into the exact same place.

  Immediately after receiving the biting attack for the nth time—

  “U…GUA!!”

  That cry of pain was emitted from Rust Jigsaw’s mask, as if he could no longer hold it back.

  At the same time, a terrible metallic ‘BAKIIN!’ sound resounded, and Jigsaw’s right arm was torn off from his shoulder and rolled onto the floor.

  His HP gauge itself was also blown away from that body-part loss damage. Along with a familiar sound effect like breaking glass, Rust Jigsaw’s avatar turned into countless fragments and disintegrated. Even as the flaming characters of [YOU WIN!!] blazed up in the center of his vision, Haruyuki was not able to stand up.

  …Too strong!!

  That was the only thought that whirled through his numbed mind. The huge leopard that had slaughtered the enemy with a single bite quickly raised her head, look at Haruyuki with her golden eyes, and spoke a brief comment.

  “GG[31].”

  And then, the accelerated world ended.

  Even when the momentary dizziness passed and the sensation of his entire body returned, Haruyuki was not able to immediately remember where his real self was or what he was doing.

  Therefore, right before he tried opening his eyelids, he was unable to guess what on earth the sensation that was rich in elasticity and was squished against his face actually was. Reflexively closing his eyes once again, he stiffened his body as he thought ‘What was that just now?’, and then the nape of his neck was pulled back along with a sharp voice.

  “Get up.”

  He immediately jumped up and found himself, of course, on top of the reclining chair in the single-person booth within the Dive Café on the fourth floor of the Quadtower. Since Brain Burst, in its default settings, also canceled the Full Dive along with the acceleration once a duel ended, they had naturally returned to the real world instead of the Akihabara BG’s bar.

  The girl in the maid outfit that had Dived in the same seat as him had already stood up and disengaged the booth’s lock. As soon as the door opened, she poked her head out slightly and quickly checked left and right outside.

  Getting off from the chair while thinking ‘What is she doing?’, Haruyuki felt his consciousness go cold at once as he heard her next words.

  “We’re leaving the store. If it’s now, we may be able to identify him.”

  Identify. Identify who? —Of course, it’s Rust Jigsaw’s real self.

  But, he shelved aside the question ‘How on earth do we do that?’ and followed after the braid which swayed on the back of her maid outfit.

  Blood Leopard headed towards the elevator at a fast walk while paying close attention to their surroundings. As soon as she pushed the Down button and they got into the lift, she talked on rapidly in a low voice.

  “Earlier, I inflicted continuous damage to the right side of Jigsaw’s neck. When the sensation of pain has been stimulated on a single point for such a long time, its effect will remain for a long time even after doing Burst Out. We’re looking for a person who is displaying behavior that indicates such pain in the vicinity of the shop’s entrance.”

  “……U-Understood.”

  That was a very terrifying marking method. But certainly, that may be the only possible method to strike some kind of mark onto an enemy’s real body while within Accel world.

  Once the elevator stopped on the first floor, Haruyuki walked out while gulping among the boys and girls amusing themselves with realistic battles on arcade machines. His gaze flew left and right with minimum motion, but he didn’t see any such behavior. Everyone was engrossed as they stared at the old-fashioned screen monitors.

  Haruyuki and Pard-san escaped from this floor, and stepped outside of the building into the busy congestion of people on the street. After quickly exchanging glances, they silently separated left and right.

  Heading left down the street, Haruyuki concentrated all of his nerves on the dozens of people passing by in his field of vision.

  A woman distributing holo-leaflets and dressed up as a game character. Three young men stopping at the roadside and absorbed in their chatting. A man carrying many multi-colored paper backs and walking hurryingly—

  Haruyuki’s eyes were drawn to the back of a boy that was visible just for a moment on the other side of the crowd.

  The reason for that was because he could see the boy’s white neck without a Neuro Linker equipped to it. As Haruyuki focused his eyes on him with a start, the boy strongly pressed his raised left hand down on the right side of his neck.

  —Is that him!?

  Quickening his pace, Haruyuki ran after the boy who was receding away from him. A gray stadium jacket. Faded-colored jeans. A leather cap on his head. Overflowing hair that was a dark brown.

  The boy was hanging his head downwards and heading in the direction of the station at a quick pace. While applying his left hand to his neck, he suddenly swiped out his right hand through the air in order to push aside a passerby.

  Haruyuki looked over his shoulder for an instant in order to call out to Blood Leopard, but her maid outfit was bloc
ked by the crowd and couldn’t be seen. The instant he reluctantly turned to look forward again—

  “Please come to our shop[32]!”

  Along with that cute-sounding voice, a palm was thrust out right before his eyes and his path was obstructed. As he raised his head with a start, he saw in front of him an onee-san wearing a full-blown smile who was advertising a shop somewhere. She was probably distributing holo-leaflets, but Haruyuki couldn’t see any of them since he wasn’t connected to the Global Net.

  Haruyuki shook his head with a ‘No thank you’, and pushed forward in order to avoid her palm. However.

  “Ah…Huh…?”

  He couldn’t see him. The back of that gray stadium jacket had disappeared.

  He picked up his pace while biting his lip with the thought of ‘Damn it!’ going through his mind, and desperately ran his gaze in every direction. But, the boy appeared to have turned down some corner, and no matter how far Haruyuki went, he couldn’t see him. He retraced his steps in a panic and this time looked down the narrow alleyways on either side, but he couldn’t find him as expected.

  “……”

  As Haruyuki reluctantly stopped and bit his lip, the passerbys pushed him aside as if he was in the way. But their expressions didn’t register in Haruyuki’s eyes either. Only the self-reproach and regret of having lost the clue that he had finally grasped spread bitterly through his chest.

  “It’s still a good job even if you only saw his back.”

  Although Blood Leopard told him that once they joined up together, Haruyuki was not able to raise his face for a while as he leaned against the wall of a building.

  “…I’m sorry, after all that hard work…even though you did so much, Leopard-san......”

  Self-loathing over not being useful at all during both the duel and the subsequent pursuit weighed heavily on Haruyuki’s shoulders.

  Then, Haruyuki felt a hand get placed on top of his ruffled hair.

  “You also worked hard.”

  “…Eh…”

  As he unconsciously raised his head, this older woman, who had worn a perfectly expressionless face until now, gave something similar to a very slight smile on her face, and whispered to him.

  “That was a splendid battle…I’ll tell the characteristics of the person whose back you saw to the Matchmaker. If we can identify his real self when he comes next time, we may be also to find out the secret of the list interception through surveillance of him after that. Once we confirm the logic of how it works, I’ll immediately send the information to you as well.”

  “…Y-Yes…”

  If I consider it like that, a ray of hope has been connected…Is it okay to think that?

  While comforting himself in this way, Haruyuki also finally returned a smile, though it was perfectly pitiful. Pard-san moved her hand from Haruyuki’s head to his shoulder, and then returned his expression and added something else.

  “Jigsaw will definitely not appear again today. Besides, it’s time for children to go home soon.”

  Though she said that, Pard-san also had to be in the eleventh grade at the most, but he still obediently nodded.

  “Yes.”

  Then, Blood Leopard brought this night’s adventure to a finish with her usual abbreviated way of speaking.

  “K, let’s return.”

  The time had reached 8 PM, and after they left the electronics district which getting increasingly bustling and got onto the bike in the parking lot, the two of them headed west along the same route they had taken coming here.

  After suddenly returning to the Loop 7 from Mejiro Street with her usual dynamic driving, Pard-san then took him all the way to Suginami.

  After he got her to let him off by saying “Here is fine” once they could see the overhead structure of the Chuo Line[33] and he returned the helmet to her, Haruyuki once again bowed deeply.

  “Umm…Thank you very much, really…I made you come with me this far for the problem of another legion…”

  Then, Blood Leopard similarly removed her own helmet, and lightly shook her head.

  “Since Akihabara BG is an important place to me, this is already my problem as well. Also…”

  After she stopped speaking and looked away for an instant, the Burst Linker wearing a maid outfit continued with a somehow shy-looking expression.

  “…I wanted to give my thanks to you at least once. For protecting Rain during the Chrome Disaster incident…for protecting my «King», thank you…”

  “Eh……”

  “I want you to always stay as her friend from now on as well.”

  And then, Blood Leopard gave a clear smile for the first time since they met, before quickly covering herself with her helmet. As the motor groaned with a ‘KYUIII!’, the large bike suddenly made a U-turn to the opposite lane and left towards the north with a frightful energy and vigor.

  After seeing her off until her bike’s taillight was indistinguishable from the other cars, Haruyuki bit his lip hard with a welled-up feeling that had been delayed by a time lag, and once more bowed very, very deeply.

  When he returned to his empty home, Haruyuki dropped his bag on the floor of his room and laid down on the bed as if throwing himself down.

  —I wonder how things went on Taku’s side.

  As he thought that, he considered moving his right hand to make a call, but moving it was also tough. The physical and mental fatigue that was gushing through him heavily weighed down on his back.

  He remained motionlessly like that for a while, but his eyelids were becoming heavier and heavier, so he shook his head hard and got up. He couldn’t sleep here. He needed to talk with Takumu while memories from Akihabara were still clear, and the homework he’d been given today was completely untouched as well.

  For the time being, after removing his uniform and taking a shower while he was at it, he warmed up a frozen seafood casserole in the microwave. While waiting for it to cook, he connected his Neuro Linker to the Global Net, and made a Voice Call to Takumu.

  ‘Hey, Haru.’

  The voice that replied back was no different from usual, so Haruyuki let out a relieved breath for the time being.

  ‘Hi…Are you okay? Did perfectly learn and acquire the thing today?’

  When he timidly asked that with thought speech, a hint of a bitter smile flowed through the connection.

  ‘Hey, hey, whatever the circumstances may be, I couldn’t Dive there for such a long time. Although I say that, I did stay there for a full week, though…’

  ‘T-Then, did you successfully acquire mind power…?’

  ‘Hmm.’

  A short mumble.

  ‘It's still far from enough to use in actual battle, is what the Red King said. Even so, I’ve grasped the gist of it.’

  ‘I see. Since you follow the principle of perfection, you would probably dive into the Unlimited Neutral Field alone and self-train for many years!’

  Haruyuki said that while letting out a sigh of relief, and Takumu also smiled again.

  ‘I really don’t have that kind of energy left. More importantly, what about on your end? Did you manage to grasp something about the secret of Dusk Taker’s list interception?’

  ‘There was kind of an unexpected development on that…’

  Haruyuki recounted the series of events that occurred after he left the cake shop’s radio-wave interception room, while summarizing the portion concerning Blood Leopard as simply as possible. Even so,

  ‘……Hm-mm. So while I was training all by my lonesome, you were once again on a date with an older woman.’

  After Takumu said that as his first words, Haruyuki protested agitatedly.

  ‘I-It wasn’t like that at all! B-Besides, even you were together with Niko for an entire week…’

  ‘Sorry, but she only coached me at the beginning and the end, and after making me go through great pain, she told me to earn points by hunting the Enemy and then disappeared on me.’

  ‘Is…Is that so…’
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  Before the conversation went in an even stranger direction, Haruyuki forcibly returned to the subject at hand.

  ‘More importantly, back to the topic of the list interception. Since I blundered in those circumstances and missed seeing the real form of «Rust Jigsaw», now we can only wait for information from «Akihabara BG»’s manager.’

  ‘The holy place of duels…huh. I’ve heard rumors about it, but it really exists, that underground playing field.’

  ‘Neither the amount of money nor the fight money are at very high underground prices, though.’

  ‘If it weren’t for this situation, I’d also like to go there and fight, but…’

  Pausing a little, Takumu then sent over a sympathetic voice.

  ‘Regardless of the result, I think you did well, Haru. Good job today. Now, we just have to hope that the manager over there will identify the method Jigsaw uses soon.’

  ‘That’s…right. Thank you.’

  ‘Since I brought Haru’s umbrella home with me, right? Then, see you at school tomorrow.’

  Letting out a sigh as the communication was cut, Haruyuki took out the casserole that had finished heating and ate it by himself.

  He then tidied up the table and began doing his homework in his room, but as usual he wasn’t able to concentrate on it right away.

  After having defeated Noumi’s list interception system in a single day yesterday and then dueled right away the next day, he was completely crushed and exhausted along with Takumu who had mastered mind power. He had expected—no, anticipated such a development somewhere in his heart.

  However, regrettably, taking time to rest was impossible. If he neglected the situation for a single day, just that would increase the time that Noumi was connected with Chiyuri. It was unbearable for him to imagine those two conversing with each other, even if it were only a conversation of a few words.