“……Wh…at…?”
Haruyuki clenched his teeth hard.
—Just how much foul play does he intend to do!
At the same time as that fury pierced through his brain, Haruyuki was even more confused by Chiyuri’s intentions in confessing those instructions to him and Takumu.
As if sensing that, Chiyuri continued in a thin voice.
“…But, that’s impossible. Even if I said such a thing now, it wouldn’t be persuasive at all. That’s why, I…thought that I would tell you two the truth and ask you two.”
“Ask us, you say……”
Looking at first Haruyuki and then Takumu with wide eyes wet with pale tears, Chiyuri clearly spoke.
“Please take me there. I have to go. If you say it’s impossible…if you say that, it can’t be helped, so instead I’ll Dive into the Unlimited Neutral Field right here and now, and wait on the other side until you two come. No matter how many months or years it takes, I’ll wait.”
“…Chiyu, you……”
Those words were squeezed out from his blocked throat. Chiyuri may have declared that, but he felt a deep shock at hearing words like the «Unlimited Neutral Field» coming out smoothly from the mouth of a girl who should have been a beginner that didn’t know the basics of Brain Burst only a week ago.
Haruyuki had held dozen, hundreds of questions within his chest since this incident began.
—Why!
—Chiyu, just what on earth are you going so far for! For what purpose are you continuing to so insistently and foolishly earn points in the Brain Burst that you denied until now!!
Yes, Haruyuki wasn’t able to stop himself from thinking even this.
What if even Chiyuri’s words now are a trap? What if this is a strategy where she betrays us two-fold, interrupts during the duel and steals away the points of me and Takumu?
Honestly, although it was a battle against Dusk Taker where they didn’t know what would happen in the match even if it’s one-on-one, their chances of victory would almost entirely disappear if Lime Bell’s healing ability was added to the mix. It would become just like the battle on Tuesday.
Haruyuki couldn’t understand. He couldn’t grasp Chiyuri’s true intentions at all.
The one that broke the heavy silence was Takumu’s quiet voice.
“…I understand, Chii-chan. We’ll go together.”
“T-Taku…”
Takumu turned towards Haruyuki, smiled quietly and spoke.
“Haru. Half a year ago, you saved me during our first battle in that hospital. You surely wavered about it, right? There was plenty of possibility that my pleading was just lip-service and that I would try to hunt the comatose Black Lotus immediately after our duel finished. But…you forgave me. No, you believed in me. I will never forget that time……That’s why.”
Taking a deep breath through his trembling throat, Takumu resolutely declared.
“I will also believe in Chii-chan. It’s frustrating that I can’t understand Chii-chan’s real intentions no matter how I think about it…But, whatever may happen due to Chii-chan’s actions, I will accept it.”
Within the silence that once again filled the room, Haruyuki saw Chiyuri’s lips move silently.
It was a minute movement like the shaking of a tree, but the clear words reached his ears.
…Thank you, Takkun.
The instant he heard that, Haruyuki shut his eyes tightly. On the screen of his eyelids, the tears that he had seen Chiyuri shed yesterday in her room were recalled.
I’m acting according to my own will.
Chiyuri had said that while crying. In that case, the small details of the situation already didn’t matter. Just as Takumu had said, it was about believing, or not believing. The problem was only that. And the answer to that was decided. Since many years ago, since the time when Chiyuri and Haruyuki could satisfyingly talk to each other, it was already decided.
“Alright.”
Haruyuki also nodded.
“Let’s go together. The three of us.”
At the same time as it reached 8 PM, Haruyuki sent the first typed email to Noumi. The specified Dive time was 8:30. The location was in front Kouenji Station within the Unlimited Neutral Field.
Of course, these would both be changed from now on again and again. Since they would only send the new directions a few seconds before the arrival of the previous designated time, even if Noumi had someone set up in ambush, it was impossible for Noumi to transmit a postponement to them. Only, there was a danger of Noumi and his ambush accomplice Diving at the same time if they met up with each other in the real world like Haruyuki and the others, but Haruyuki didn’t believe that Noumi had a comrade he trusted that much. Furthermore, Haruyuki and Takumu had also considered the idea that the accomplice would Dive after also meeting with Noumi on this side in order to eliminate that possibility, but they dismissed they because it was even more dangerous to leave one’s unconscious body in front of Noumi.
While randomly changing the time and location, Haruyuki continued to send mail after mail.
The feeling of tension while on standby was unpleasant like when being left alone for a long time in the waiting room of a dentist’s office. But, thinking that the irritation that Noumi must be feeling right now was incomparable to his nervousness made him able to endure it. On Noumi’s side, he wasn’t able to predict just how long and how many times they were going to extend this.
9:12 PM.
After amply repeating the extension more than 15 times, Haruyuki finally spoke.
“All right…We’ll Dive in one minute.”
“Roger.”
Takumu gave that answer, while Chiyuri also nodded.
The one-match battle which bet all the points of three people. Despite how long it had been prolonged, it would start in one hour. In other words, everything would be over after only three to six seconds in the real world.
Within his heart, Haruyuki called out ‘Senpai’ to Kuroyukihime who was in the far away Okinawa.
…Senpai, if I lose, you’ll probably be extremely angry, and also sad. But, I believe that you’ll definitely understand in the end. It is exactly because I aim to be your knight that I have to do this.
Five seconds before 9:13.
Haruyuki pressed the transmit button for the last email.
The contents were—[Location: Umesato Middle School grounds. Time: Now.]
“Let’s go!!”
Right after Haruyuki shouted that out, the three of them gathered their voices together and cried out the command.
“““Unlimited Burst!!”””
Chapter 10
Night.
A huge pale disc shone brightly in the black sky.
The ground, the buildings, everything was a white stripped of color. It wasn’t colorlessness, but the color of dry bone. Square houses casted distinct shadows over the wide road. Over there, the Shinjuku sub-center, which had changed into a spiral-formed chalk spire, rose so high it seemed to pierce the sky.
“…The «Moonlight» stage, huh.”
Takumu—Cyan Pile murmured that after looking around at this virtual world’s Western Tokyo.
Haruyuki also quickly listed the features of this stage that he remembered.
“It’s bright, but you can see almost nothing within the shadows. Sound carries over a far distance. There are few Enemies. Trap-type terrain effects also don’t exist…”
“In open spaces, unexpected attacks from hiding places are almost impossible. Using the school campus was a correct choice after all.”
After nodding to each other, they glanced behind them.
In this empty white space whose basis was the living room of the Arita home, the vivid emerald and shining «Lime Bell» stood silently as well beneath the moonlight.
There was no change in her outward appearance since they had seen her on Tuesday. However, by doing an enormous number of duels over only two days and winning completely in all of them, she had a
lready reached the same Level 4 as Haruyuki and Takumu.
Though, because there had been an interminably long time since they had become Level 4, there was probably a wide difference in total point acquisition between the two of them who would soon reach Level 5 and Chiyuri, but her potential at least must be equivalent to theirs.
While catching up that close to them in a short period of time, Chiyuri who served as Noumi’s healer/bait had surely been exposed to all kinds of attacks from countless Burst Linkers. Haruyuki also understood just how painful those harsh, difficult experiences must have been.
However, Chiyuri stood right in front of the two of them with movements that didn’t betray her fatigue at all, and she spoke only a short sentence.
“Let’s go.”
And then, without hesitating, she jumped down from the high terrace that corresponded to the 23rd floor of the original apartment building. She descended from slightly lower terraces and decorated scaffolds to the ground. There was not a fragment of newbie awkwardness in her movements either.
Haruyuki and Takumu looked at each other once again, and after reflexively smiling bitterly, they also jumped down in the same way.
The three of them avoided the main road they usually used when commuting to school, and instead went by back roads at a half-run. While paying attention to their surroundings, Haruyuki and Takumu destroyed suitable objects and filled up their special technique gauges.
They didn’t go straight into the school, but first came out onto the roof of the family restaurant on the other side of Oume Street, and confirmed the status of the dual location from behind cover.
Umesato Middle School had changed into a form like a European palace from the Middle Ages. In what could be described as Gothic-style, huge pillars were placed in a row in the front, and many statues of angels or demons protruded out from the surface of the walls.
After concentrating his eyes to see that there were no other duel avatars there and confirming that everything there was made of stone, Haruyuki looked at the schoolyard once again.
The large grounds had become a garden intricately covered with small tiles. There were no objects there at all, and only a spear-like tower that stood at the southern end—originally the support pole of a ball fence had a long and thin shadow that stretched over the ground.
“…There doesn’t seem to be anyone hidden there.”
Haruyuki murmured that, and Takumu nodded.
“Yeah…But, Noumi isn’t there either…His Dive should only have been delayed by half a second…”
“If he doesn’t come after five minutes, let’s temporarily retreat away from Koenji Station…No, wait.”
At that moment, a very faint wind noise reached Haruyuki’s ears. Since the stage was completely still, something must be moving the air. A flying-type Enemy—or, a flying-type avatar.
As Haruyuki quickly looked up to the sky in the southwest, his whole body hardened the instant he looked.
A silhouette was approaching in the night sky filled with small twinkling stars while being palely illuminated by the moonlight.
A thin body. Claws on his hands. And devilish wings extending out on his back.
“Nou…mi…”
As Haruyuki groaned that name out unconsciously, the avatar started descending as if being pulled by his voice. He folded his arms, drew a graceful spiral through the air and alighted down in the center of the schoolyard.
His landing was almost silent. Just by seeing that manner and posture, Haruyuki could tell that Noumi had already completely mastered the operation of flight ability.
This avatar with the attribute of «robbing» slowly folded his wings and stopped moving there.
Once again, complete silence filled the world.
Haruyuki’s sense couldn’t grasp any changes either. No movements of stealthy approach, no footsteps creeping in at a blind spot, nothing.
After waiting more than a full minute, Haruyuki whispered.
“…Let’s go.”
After Takumu nodded next to him, they rose at the same time and jumped down to the road. Hearing their footsteps, Dusk Taker quickly turned his face towards them.
While he gazed right at them, Haruyuki and the others entered the grounds of Umesato Middle School through the gate, and then went around the end of the school building and headed towards the schoolyard.
The footsteps of the three of them make a hard sound on the tiles. The moonlight clearly etched their shadows into the ground.
Chiyuri did not go into the schoolyard, but instead walked along the southern wall of the school building and then stood quietly within its shadow. Haruyuki and Takumu headed straight towards the center of the wide space.
Stopping about 20 meters away from Dusk Taker who was standing in the center, Haruyuki threw a silent look at him.
After taking that look for a few seconds, Noumi unfolded his arms in front of his chest and lightly spread them out left and right.
“…Just like I said you could extend the time as many times as you wished, I’m definitely the only one here!”
The boy’s voice, which was tinged with a metallic effect, resounded lightly through the pale world.
“I didn’t think you would prolong it so long, senpai! Is that being cautious, or distrustful, I wonder…?”
“It’s because we’ve already learned that we can never be careful enough against you.”
After letting out a short ‘Kukuku’ laugh at Haruyuki’s retort, Noumi stuck out his right hand in front of him.
There was a card in between his fingertips. It looked similar to the item that the Yellow King, Yellow Radio had used before to replay a video of the past, but this one was red like blood. Haruyuki had heard that the special items sold at the «shops» within the Unlimited Neutral Field were mostly in the form of cards like that.
Noumi showed it to Haruyuki and Takumu, and then spoke.
“This is, just as its names says, a «Sudden Death Duel Card». It cost a fairly high price, but consider it my treat.”
He gave another ‘Kuku’ laugh.
“…First, I charge all of the points I have into this. The remaining two dueler frames are set as a team, so you two need to bet your respective points as well. If both of you have survived by the time my HP gauge reaches zero, all of the points charged into it will be equally distributed to you two. If only one of you remains, the winner takes it all. And when I beat the two of you, I’ll get all your points.”
“In other words, in the case that the two of us survive together, we won’t have to fight each other, right?”
“Exactly. Well, this is a little bit of consideration. It’s important…”
Noumi brandished the card around once again, and spoke.
“This duel won’t end until someone dies. And those that die will definitely lose Brain Burst. There is no exception to this at all. I’ll say this now, but if you «retreat» through a portal, it will be treated as your loss at that moment. At the same time as you return to reality, the forced uninstall will activate.”
“…I see.”
Nodding, Haruyuki looked at Takumu.
Cyan Pile’s eyes shined strongly behind the slits on his mask for a moment, and he firmly nodded his head.
“All right, that’s fine.”
Noumi slowly nodded to Haruyuki’s words, and then touched the card with the fingertip of his left hand. After he operated it a bit, the card shined a bright crimson for a moment.
He then threw the card to Takumu, who caught it and touched it the same as Noumi had done, causing it to shine again.
Takumu threw the card to Haruyuki, who then held it between the fingers of his right hand.
After taking a big breath, he clicked on it with his left hand. A holo-window was displayed in the center, and he touched the charge button.
After the explanation of the Sudden Death rules in a blunt font flowed down the screen, a confirmation dialog of Yes/No appeared. Yes.
When the exceeding
ly blunt Brain Burst system then once again asked the usual ‘Is this really okay?’, Haruyuki finally understood the reality that this was the edge of the edge of the point of death. Though he should have been detached from his real body, his back quickly grew cold. At the same time as his limbs became numb, virtual adrenaline was released into his blood vessels.
However, of course, he chose Yes.
The card shined an even more dazzling blood-like color and—it lifted up from Haruyuki’s hand and floated up to a slightly higher position.
The digital numbers of a countdown slowly rotated around it.
If this duel was made widely known in Accel World, an amazing number of gallery viewers would surely gather here. Although half a year had passed since Haruyuki had become a Burst Linker, he hadn’t heard any talk about something like a Sudden Death Duel where you betted all your points.
—No.
That’s not right. He had heard of it.
The king of swords who Haruyuki respected and admired more than anyone else, The Black King «Black Lotus». As part of the special rule that was imposed only on Level 9 Burst Linkers, she was always fighting while carrying the possibility of sudden death. That’s right, for example, in the weekly territory battles, if the other kings were to arrange meticulous preparations and appear there. If she were to lose to one of them. That person would immediately undergo the permanent loss of Brain Burst.
……Senpai. You must always be living under this kind of pressure.
One second after he murmured that within himself—
The countdown reached zero.
The blazing letters that flared up said ‘Duel Start’.
Dusk Taker widely hoisted up the claws of his hands.
Haruyuki also lowered his waist and prepared his hand-swords in front and behind him.
Noumi’s wings remained folded, and he didn’t show any signs of taking out his purple wave motion attack. He must first wish to have a ground battle of incarnate techniques.
—That’s just fine with me!