“Some hello. And after I came straight here from Haneda to bring you a souvenir.”
The expression on the face of the older student—Kuroyukihime, cheeks puffed out adorably—made Haruyuki jump to attention. Quickly, he swept his right hand back like a traffic control robot. “Oh! C-c-come in! Please come in!”
“Thanks. I’d be glad to.” Nodding crisply, Kuroyukihime walked into the entryway, left her shoes and carrier bag there, and stepped up into the hallway. She moved briskly past Haruyuki and went into the living room.
Chasing after her, feet tangling underneath him, Haruyuki no longer had any idea of what he should do and shot his eyes around and around his apartment before saying, “Uh, um, my mom never gets home until late.”
“I know. That’s why I came.”
“Y-you did? Uh, so…R-right, t-t-t-tea!”
Calm down! Calm down and deal with this! he told himself as he started toward the kitchen, and Kuroyukihime reached into the paper bag with a quick “Oh yes.”
“Perhaps you could also warm this up in the microwave for me.” She pulled out an enormous yellowish-brown sphere. Haruyuki accepted the object that was maybe fifteen centimeters in diameter and stared at it intently.
The characters printed on the clear packaging in a somehow Okinawa-like font read ANDAGI BOMB.
“Is this sata andagi?”
“Mmm. You did put in a request, didn’t you, saying you’d like one thirty centimeters round? As expected, there were none that big, so you’ll have to make do with this.”
“N-no, this is plenty big. I’m kind of surprised.”
“Right? I was surprised, too, when I came across it.”
Ha-ha-ha!
Haruyuki stared long and hard at Kuroyukihime’s laughing face, and finally felt his nervousness dissipate. At the same time, his eyes got a little misty, so he hurriedly whirled around and escaped to the kitchen.
He pulled the enormous Okinawa-style doughnut from the bag and warmed it in the microwave. He brought a bottle of oolong tea and two glasses to the table, rolled the now-heated andagi onto a plate, and after a moment’s thought, took it and a small knife out with him.
Already seated at the dining table, Kuroyukihime took the knife from the plate, and as adroit with a blade as would be expected, she split the andagi into two perfect halves. “Here.” She pushed one half toward Haruyuki, steam rising up from the golden cross-section.
“Th-thanks.” He took it from her and bit into the edge. Enjoying both the crunchy surface and the moist insides, he thought to himself, I get it. There’s a reason it’s this big.
“I-it’s delicious. Really delicious.”
“Is it? Good.”
Here, Haruyuki finally stumbled onto the question of why he had even asked for a giant andagi in the first place. Munching on it, he tried desperately to remember his own actions, as the smile on the face of Kuroyukihime across the table from him grew even broader, beautiful like a narcissus.
“Now then, Haruyuki,” she said.
“Y-yes?”
“Shall I tell you what I’m feeling right now?”
“O-okay.”
“Forty-nine percent the desire to praise you for a job well done. Fifty percent the desire to punch you.”
And the last one percent?
This was perhaps not the time to ask such questions, and he straightened his back. A rather large lump got caught in his throat and after somehow managing to swallow it, Haruyuki thrust his head downward.
“I-I’m so sorry! I take responsibility for everything. I didn’t want to bother you on your trip, but then I ended up relying on you in the end…And, I mean, I made you run fifteen hours from Okinawa and everything…”
“Look, you.” The smile changed to a dangerous look suddenly, and Kuroyukihime produced an extremely displeased voice. “I’m not mad about having to fight. Just the opposite. Why didn’t you call me right from the start? If you had said even a word about the situation, I would’ve flown home from Okinawa right away!”
“Th-that’s…I mean, you only get one school trip your whole life, don’t you—”
“Either way, it wasn’t that much fun! And I suppose you won’t understand the reason for that, either, unless I tell you!” She said it with such force that if she had been her duel avatar, there was no doubt she would’ve sliced the table in two with the sharpness. She frowned sullenly, but, fortunately, she soon sighed, dropped most of the swords in her voice, and continued. “Well, that’s fine. In any case, you’ll tell me now. Everything from start to finish—don’t leave out a single byte of information!”
And then Haruyuki told her everything as he chewed on the giant doughnut. The long, long story from the appearance of Seiji Nomi to the first battle with Dusk Taker, the training in the Unlimited Neutral Field, and the events leading up to the previous day’s battle.
When he had finished the nearly hour-long explanation, Kuroyukihime lowered her long lashes and sighed softly. A few seconds later, she opened her mouth. “Haruyuki. When you summoned that Enhanced Armament—Gale Thruster—I thought my heart would stop.”
Drinking his oolong tea, Haruyuki jerked his face up. However, no words came out.
Sky Raker, the recluse of the Accelerated World, had given Haruyuki the Gale Thruster. She had been a core member of the initial Nega Nebulus and also Kuroyukihime’s friend. Seeking the sky as if possessed, Sky Raker had asked Kuroyukihime to cut her own legs off for her. Kuroyukihime had agreed—and after that, she had apparently thrown herself into the bloody battle with the other kings.
But right now, Kuroyukihime’s face was calm, a somehow plaintive smile rising to her lips. “So unexpected…that she would be the one to initiate you into the Incarnate System.”
“…I’m sorry. I didn’t get your permission. I just went off on my own.”
“No.” Kuroyukihime shook her head gently at his apologies. “She’s likely more qualified for it than I am. Of all the high-level Linkers who have mastered Incarnate, Raker is probably the one who most believes in the possibilities of that system. And…I no doubt could not have been that complete of a demon toward you.”
A giggle tumbled from her lips and Haruyuki gave her a big nod.
“Sh-she was amazing. She pushed me off of the top of the old Tokyo Tower.”
“Ha-ha-ha! That’s so like her.” She laughed fondly for a moment before abruptly falling silent.
She dropped her gaze to fix it on a single point on the table, but then finally stood up, chair clattering slightly. She moved to the front of the large window on the southern side of the apartment and stared wordlessly at the night outside.
For a while, Haruyuki watched her back with the long black hair flowing down it, but then resolved himself and stood up as well. He walked over to her and looked outside with her.
“The Incarnate System is extremely enormous,” she said slowly, after a few seconds. “Thus, it enthralls everyone who touches it. They master the depths of the power, charging forward to make it their own. But, well…this is what I think. If it were a simple program bug, the administrator wouldn’t just leave it, they’d do something about it. Thus, the power is not an irregular system generated accidentally but rather…part of Brain Burst from the start. Perhaps as some sort of trap.”
“A-a trap…?”
“Mmm. To lure us Burst Linkers in and draw our minds to another dimension somewhere…”
The meaning of her words was a complete mystery to Haruyuki. Still, he furrowed his brow and tried to understand somehow. Kuroyukihime glanced at him and then touched her left hand gently to his cheek.
“No, don’t bother yourself about it. All you need to do is simply move straight ahead the way you are. Mmm…Perhaps you…You might be able to surpass that deep darkness and approach the true light at the heart…”
Laughing softly, Kuroyukihime brought her right hand up to his face as well. Her expression and tone shifted. “Now. Shall I tell you the remaining one percent of
my feelings?”
Haruyuki’s entire body stiffened with a gasp. Something more than punch?! So then, some kind of leg technique?! Or maybe a submission hold?!
As Haruyuki’s mind raced with absurd thoughts, Kuroyukihime wrapped both arms around his neck and pulled him firmly toward her chest. Held tightly, his brain quickly over-revved at the pressure from all directions and the sensation of contact against his face; the gears whined and shrieked.
A voice arrived at his no doubt burning red left ear from so close that the lips uttering it were practically touching him. “I wanted to do this. Ever since I got Chiyuri’s mail telling me you had had your wings stolen…and that despite that, you were trying so hard to stand up to your enemy. All this time, I’ve wanted to do this.”
Kuroyukihime hugged Haruyuki even harder, with a power that seemed impossible for those thin arms, and whispered in a trembling voice, “You really did do great. It must have been so hard…I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you. I…I’m a failure as a guardian.”
A hot droplet touched his left cheek with a plop.
Haruyuki opened his eyes. The glossy hair swinging in his field of vision blurred and mixed with the light. Unconsciously, he raised his arms and wrapped his hands around her slim waist. He forced out shudderingly, “M-me, too. I’m sorry for making you worry.”
“I was worried,” she told him, half shouting, and her shoulders shook in tiny earthquakes. “I was so worried. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I had lost you…I was scared. I was really scared!”
Throat blocked, Haruyuki couldn’t say anything more. So he chanted in his heart earnestly, I’m here. I’ll always be with you. I’ll never disappear.
For the next minute or two, thin sobs escaped her, but at last, she took a deep breath and finally relaxed her hold slightly. “I have to give you your reward,” she said suddenly.
“Huh, re…?” Haruyuki blinked repeatedly.
“You defended wonderfully in the Territories, didn’t you? I told you, if you ferociously defended Suginami, I would let you ask me for anything as a reward.”
Having such a thing whispered in his ear, Haruyuki’s consciousness was plunged once again into the red zone.
However…
Rude thoughts like directing with a thirty-centimeter cable or bathing suit pictures were instantly swept away.
Being here like this right now.
This person continuing to exist for him in this world. What else could he want?
I’m going to get a lot stronger and someday become a knight who can protect you from any enemy. So until then, please be by my side, watching over and guiding me.
The instant he made this wish, his mouth began to move half automatically.
“Then please be with me.” He gave voice to the feelings welling up deep in his heart just as they were. “Please be with me forever. That’s it…That’s all I want.”
Even after you graduate. As my mentor. As my Legion Master. And as my guardian, he was about to add in the back of his mind when Kuroyukihime’s body, so gentle against Haruyuki’s head, stiffened intensely with a snap.
She suddenly ended the embrace, dashed back nearly two meters, hit the sofa, and fell onto it. Although her face was kind of a mess with the tears, she had opened her eyes wide as if she’d forgotten all about that, and was flapping her mouth. Finally, her face burst into rapid flames from her neck up to her forehead. Her voice, turned inside out, rang out at a high pitch.
“Wh-wh-wh-what are you even talking about?!”
“Huh? Um, what? I—I. Just. It’s. Nothing.”
Not understanding what was happening, he opened and closed his own mouth at the same high speed, and after a full ten seconds or so had passed, Kuroyukihime’s face started to return to its usual paleness, from the top to the bottom. Haaah. Letting loose a very long sigh, she shook her head back and forth repeatedly.
“Understood,” she murmured suddenly. She stood and walked over to Haruyuki once more, placing her right hand on his head. “I promise you. I will be by your side. Forever and into the future.”
So said Kuroyukihime, brushing aside her hair, the biggest smile slipping onto her lips.
12
“Arita, hit me!! Please, hit me!!” The shaved head in front of him cried for the nth time as it was thrust forward.
The owner of both head and voice was Ishio from the basketball team, the same student who had called Haruyuki up to the roof a few days earlier and punched him.
“N-no, it’s fine. I get it.” Haruyuki also repeated the same words for the nth time as he desperately looked for a way out.
But the place was the teacher’s podium in grade eight, class C, the time Monday morning homeroom, and with forty students filling the room on his right, there was no escape route. On top of that, his homeroom teacher was standing on the other side of Ishio, arms crossed with a meek look on his face. So this was what it meant to have your back pushed against the wall.
Ishio brought his face even closer and, making an upside-down V of his eyebrows, argued vehemently, “No! I’ll never forgive myself unless you hit me!! I just jumped to the conclusion that you were the one who tried to take the secret video, even though I had no proof of that. And on top of that, I even hit you! Seriously, the school should be kicking me out or something! But you didn’t say anything to the teacher. I can’t leave things like this!!”
Then go and hit yourself! Haruyuki yelled inwardly and, looking for rescue, glanced at Chiyuri and then Takumu. But the two merely grinned. They were thoroughly enjoying this. That the “secret camera incident,” in which a small digital camera had been discovered in a locker in the girls’ shower room, had reached this sudden turn was all due to Kuroyukihime.
The strategy she had implemented with the skill and sagacity of nothing other than a networking wizard was simple and immediately effective. She had slipped into the school’s lost and found list a record with the exact same manufacturer, product number, and serial number as the discovered camera.
Naturally, Haruyuki asked if it was okay for her to do that, but Kuroyukihime was quick to reply that a camera that had, from the start, had nothing to do with him would now have even less to do with him.
When even the serial numbers matched, there could be no room to doubt that that camera was actually one that had turned up lost two years earlier. And Haruyuki hadn’t been at the school two years earlier. The suspicion that he had set it up and turned it on was instantly erased. The moment Sugeno made this announcement during homeroom, Ishio had stood up and dragged Haruyuki in front of the podium—and that was how he ended up in this situation now.
“C’mon, hit me! Please!” Ishio shouted again.
Haruyuki stared, groaning in his heart, You’re saying all this here, but you know, the classroom is totally covered by social cameras. You’re just making new proof that you broke the school rules. And you, Sugeno! You should be stopping him! Why are you just watching with that weird look?!
But Ishio seemed to already be resolved not to shut it down unless Haruyuki threw a punch at him.
Swallowing a sigh, Haruyuki whispered, “O-okay, if it’s not your face. Your stomach.” And from this angle, the cameras won’t pick up a body blow, he added to himself mentally.
Ishio grinned broadly, as if delighted, and got up with an “All right!”
Carefully measuring the visual field of the cameras, Haruyuki clenched his right hand. He launched an awkward punch, and his round fist slammed into toned stomach muscles and bounced back.
After a momentary grimace, Ishio was quick to grin again. “You’re a good guy,” he said, and returned to his seat.
The punch hadn’t even been close to payback, although Haruyuki had put pretty much all he had into it. Grumbling in his mind, he heaved a sigh of relief and also went to sit down.
“Arita.” He heard Sugeno’s solemn voice from behind. “I’m really sorry. Come and hit me, too! It’s okay!”
Give me a break!!
Haruyuki yelled, not quite out loud.
However…
This did not bring the whole matter to a conclusion. A bigger and much weightier task still awaited Haruyuki: the negotiations with Seiji Nomi. Until he took care of the secret video of the shower room that Nomi had saved, Haruyuki wouldn’t be able to attend school with any kind of peace of mind.
It was no sooner lunch break than he was headed up to the third floor, where the seventh-grade classrooms were. He waited near the stairs, and a few minutes after he arrived, he saw the familiar longish hair in a group that was no doubt headed toward the lounge. Seiji Nomi was walking with several classmates, chatting cheerfully. As they approached, Haruyuki’s palms started to sweat and his heart raced.
Three days ago, I fought the ultimate battle with this guy, all our hatred going up against each other. And I mercilessly took his Brain Burst. I completely wiped out the power of acceleration when he was so fixated on it.
Nomi grew steadily closer as these thoughts raced through Haruyuki’s mind. He batted eyelashes long like a girl’s, and his eyes caught sight of Haruyuki standing in a corner of the hallway.
And then he passed right on by.
Haruyuki stopped breathing. He had been expecting to be glared at or cursed out, but to be ignored…
No, this was different from being ignored. It was almost like Nomi didn’t know him. As if he were just another student at the same school, one of hundreds.
Haruyuki unconsciously took a step forward and called out to Nomi as he passed. “Uh, um!”
Stopping and looking at Haruyuki again, Nomi cocked his head with a puzzled look on his face.
“Um…Nomi…right?”
“Mm-hmm. Did you need something?”
What? What is going on?
Working hard to contain his confusion, Haruyuki moved his mouth stiffly. “Um, I, uh, wanted to talk to you.”
A suspicious look came over the other boy’s face again, and then Nomi turned to his friends and told them to go on ahead to the cafeteria. He looked once again at Haruyuki.