Accel World: Floating Bridge in Starlight

  While frantically blinking strongly several times and rubbing his face against the top of his right hand, Haruyuki apologized in a blurred voice.

  “Ah……Umm, s-sorry. I…err, I, I…”

  But no matter what he did, even his voice trembled greatly, and he sobbed like a child between his words. Desperately withstanding it, he managed to continue.

  “……T-That’s the first time since I was born that anyone…has ever said they’re proud of me.”

  Hating the idea of exposing his ugly tearful face any further, Haruyuki tried to push his face into the sheets.

  But, Kuroyukihime seized Haruyuki with all her strength, and while gently caressing his head with her right hand, she pressed her own face against his tear-streaked cheek and whispered again.

  “Then, I’ll say it proportionally to the fourteen years that you’ve lived. You are my…the Black King Black Lotus’ only child and greatest partner that I take pride in above all others.”

  As she gently touched his head, something crammed in his chest seemed to comfortably lessen. Haruyuki let out a long breath, and quietly closed his eyes.

  A very faint voice reached his ears.

  “No, that’s not all. Your self in the real world, Arita Haruyuki, is also…my, the Black……’s……”

  But, he couldn’t hear the rest of it.

  Because Haruyuki had probably committed his greatest error this night right here.

  The fatigue of fighting with all his strength in a duel, the sweet pain that had melted into overflowing feelings, and the sensation of that gentle hand and the warmth of the body touching him all fused together and sucked his consciousness into a smooth darkness…

  In other words, he fell asleep. Out like a light. Just like a child.

  At the very end, he felt like he heard a single short phrase mixed with a smile.

  ——Goodnight, Haruyuki-kun.

  Chapter 7

  *PIN, PON*

  A light chime resounded in Haruyuki's brain, and disturbed his deep sleep.

  Thinking “Oh” as his mind woke by about 10%, he realized it didn’t carry the tone of the alarm clock he always used to get out of bed. And since his clock was placed on the headboard, he should have heard it from above him. It felt like the sound didn’t pass through his ear, but rather directly reached his consciousness. Ah, that’s right, he had carelessly fallen asleep while still wearing his Neuro Linker. He hoped that nothing had gotten into the cracks within the shell casing…

  *PIN, PON*

  That chime once again. Finally, he realized that this sound wasn’t from his alarm clock. It wasn’t the confirmation sound of receiving a mail, nor the ring tone from a call either. It was the chime from the inter-phone telling him that there was a visitor at the door. He reluctantly opened his half-closed eyes, and looked at the clock on the wall to the left of his bed. 9 AM.

  His mother should have come home at midnight, so it was probably a morning express home delivery package that had arrived. For a moment, he thought of feigning ignorance and letting them put it in the mail box, but he had to get up now anyway. Takumu and the others would be arriving at 11:00.

  After closing his eyes tightly one last time, Haruyuki lifted his body up from his bed.

  Suddenly, he felt a small resistance on the right side of his head as he did so. Lazily turning to look, he saw a silver XSB cable attached to the outer connection port of his Neuro Linker. Shining in the morning sunlight that came through the gaps in the curtains, the other end of the cable disappeared beneath the thin blanket—

  And, a little further way, a head covered with glossy black hair peeked out slightly from the edge of the blanket.

  “……Uwa-”

  As he was about to shout out ‘-waaaaah!?’, he covered his mouth with his hands and desperately held the scream back. His mind woke up completely in an instant as he was hit with such a strong shock, it felt as if the blood flow within his entire body had been reversed. He stared at the sight before him while blinking at high speed, but the small head didn’t disappear. On the contrary, the outline of a slender body could be clearly seen lying sideways beneath the blanket. There was no longer any room for doubt; someone was sleeping on Haruyuki’s bed with their back turned to him, only 50 cm away from him.

  “Uu…nn.”

  That someone, as if sensing Haruyuki’s shocked movements, turned over towards him while letting out a small breath.

  “……Ku-”

  He once again managed to somehow hold back the shout of ‘-rororororo!?’ that followed his words. This beauty, who he knew very well and yet who he never seemed to get used to seeing, was without a doubt Kuroyukihime.

  After he cried out ‘Why am I in this kind of situation!?’ in his mind, he finally remembered everything that happened last night. Kuroyukihime had visited his room late at night and talked with him for a while, and then they had Direct Connected to duel each other. He didn’t really understand well what happened after that, but in short, Kuroyukihime had gone to sleep on his bed soon after, and furthermore, Haruyuki couldn’t remember any of the circumstances that brought about that result. What a blunder. What a predicament.

  As he hardened himself like a stone, he strained his will power to absolutely, absolutely not look at Kuroyukihime’s slovenly form as her pajamas were turned over quite showily, and—

  *PIN…PON*

  He heard that chime once again, this time lasting longer than before. He looked at the visitor window on the right-side of his vision while thinking that it must be a very patient delivery person, and realized that they weren’t at the first floor entrance, but had already come all the way up to the twenty-third floor. Reluctantly deciding to postpone dealing with this situation, Haruyuki quietly extracted the Direct Connect cable and slowly got onto the floor. Walking through his room with stealthy footsteps and opening the door, he dashed toward the front door entrance while quietly answering, “Yes, yes, I’m coming right now!”.

  “Sorry for making you—”

  Haruyuki swallowed back the “—wait” at the end of his sentence.

  On the other side of the opened door, there wasn’t a delivery man standing there with a smile. A wide snow-white hat. A bolero jacket of the same color[36], and a light-blue chiffon dress. Over-knee tights with border designs, on slender legs that peeked through a skirt. With long puffy hair that flowed down her back and a small bag hanging from her hands, the visitor was without a doubt—

  “Ma…Master!? No, rather, Raker-san!?”

  After Haruyuki called out her name in a dumbfounded voice, the girl before him nodded lightly at him in greeting and responded in a clear voice even softer than the darkness across the net.

  “Good morning, Karasu-san[37]. You can just call me Fuuko when we meet in the real world.”

  After hearing these words from the girl two years older than him, the sub-leader of the legion «Nega Nebulas», «Sky Raker», whose real name was Kurasaki Fuuko, Haruyuki hurriedly nodded back in greeting.

  “Ah, y-yes. Good morning, Fuuko-san. Ah, sorry, please do come in!”

  “Thank you, sorry for intruding.”

  Closing the door and preparing slippers for Fuuko as she removed her sandals, Haruyuki spoke out with his head still feeling slightly absentminded.

  “E-Even so…you’re early. The time to meet up is still a while away…”

  “Ufufu, I’m sorry. I also worried that I might trouble you by doing this, but I couldn’t bear it when I thought of being able to visit your home for the first time. Just in case, I sent you a mail early this morning, but…”

  “S-Sorry. I was actually sleeping until just now.”

  After responding like that with an embarrassed smile—

  Haruyuki finally realized that this wasn’t the situation to be smiling like this at all.

  At this very moment, on the bed in Haruyuki’s room just a little ways down the hallway, his Legion Master, Kuroyukihime, was soundly sleeping! Moreover, she was compl
etely dressed in pajamas!

  —W-W-W-W-What should I do? No, this isn’t the time to panic. Think, think. That’s right, first, I’ll bring Raker-san to the living room. And then I’ll secretly recover senpai’s bag and have her change clothes in my room, and then have her to pretend to come in from the entrance once again. This is the only thing I can do.

  Drafting this secret operation in an instant, Haruyuki led Sky Raker to the living room as soon as she changed into slippers after carefully arranging her sandals in front of the door.

  “P-Please come this way, please, please, head straight this way, please!”

  “Su…Sure. Sorry for intruding.”

  Giving a dubious smile and starting to walk into the hallway with him, Sky Raker whispered as if singing from right next to Haruyuki.

  “Actually, the truth is, I came this early because there’s something I wanted to talk to you about with just the two of us after so long, Karasu-san. There hasn’t been any opportunities to meet with you besides in territory battles, so…I wanted to properly give my thanks to you at least…once……”

  The reason why her words slowed down and then broke off at the end was clear. But he didn’t have the time to discern that. Because, at this moment, Haruyuki had also frozen up with one foot in the midst of stepping forward.

  A person in warm-gray pajamas had appeared with a gliding-like gait from around the hallway corner just two meters in front of them, and looked first at Haruyuki and then at Fuuko with an absentminded expression.

  Her long eyelashes blinked. Her lips moved and the voice of someone who had just woken up flowed out.

  “Good morning, Haruyuki-kun.”

  And then.

  “Good morning, Fuuko.”

  Haruyuki reflexively bowed in greeting with a “Good morning” of his own, and Sky Raker also responded back as if caught up in the flow of events.

  “G-Good morning, Sacchan[38].”

  “Unn[39].”

  With her mind and body still 80% asleep, ‘Sacchan’, or Kuroyukihime, nodded and returned to face the direction she was originally heading in. She once again crossed through their field of vision with a gait that resembled her hovering movement in avatar form, and then disappeared to the left. After several seconds, the sound of the bathroom door opening and closing was heard.

  *SHIIIIIIIIIIN*

  What broke the extremely dense silence wasn’t a voice, but a movement. A white hand came at Haruyuki from the right and grabbed his ear, before pulling it back hard.

  Forced to turn around from being pulled while his body shrunk back in pain, Haruyuki saw Fuuko’s face right in front of him, wearing a smile he had never seen on her face before. He vaguely felt like he had seen that expression somewhere before, and then he suddenly recalled. It was the exact same smile she had worn in her duel avatar form once before, when she had pushed him off from the top of the Old Tokyo Tower within Accel World’s Unlimited Neutral Field, in order to train Haruyuki.

  As Haruyuki ducked his head down in terror, Raker kindly asked him.

  “Karasu-san. What is the meaning of this?”

  “……I-It’s not what it looks like.”

  Haruyuki could no longer think of any operation plan besides shaking his head now.

  Ten minutes later.

  Fuuko put a tea cup to her mouth in silence as she faced Kuroyukihime, who had changed back into her Umesato school uniform, and Haruyuki in a similar loungewear as the two of them sat side by side on a sofa.

  She placed the cup back on its saucer with a small tap, and then raised her head. Although she wore her usual tranquil smile, Haruyuki was sure that, if this were in the VR world, there would probably be an angry emotion sign flashing on her brow.

  “…Well, I understand the situation. To confirm, there was an unpredicted storm of heavy rain last night, right? And there also seemed to be a network failure in the 23rd western district, right? So, it might have made going home difficult, right?”

  “E-Exactly. It was really raining hard, Fuuko. The clouds looked just like that time that damn Purple[40] flipped out in rage…”

  As Kuroyukihime gestured to demonstrate her point, Fuuko continued smiling at her. But, that smile maintained an offensive power equal to Kuroyukihime’s own special technique, the “Extreme Cold Kuroyuki Smile”. If it had to be given an attribute, it would probably be wind. That’s right, it should be called the “Vacuum Destruction Raker Smile”. Thank goodness Chiyu wasn’t here. If this was combined with her “Super-Fiery Chiyuri Beam”, this room, no, the whole apartment building would be destroyed by the annihilation energy…

  As Haruyuki thought those escapist thoughts to distract himself, Fuuko’s next attack reached his ears.

  “Like I said, I understand. However, if you two didn’t do anything you should feel guilty about like Lotus said, there’s no reason for me to help you cover up this incident, is there? If Bell and Pile find out, they will surely be impressed by the intimacy between the Legion Master and Silver Crow…”

  “T-T-T-That’s…!”

  As Kuroyukihime started protesting, Haruyuki’s scream overlapped her voice.

  “W-Waah, m-m-master, anything but thaaaaaat!”

  “Then, this is what we’ll do.”

  Fuuko gave another Raker Smile.

  “Please invite me to a sleepover meeting sometime this month as well. If you can meet this condition, I’ll be willing to remain silent on this matter, understood?”

  “Wha…W-W-W-What are you saying, Fuuko!?”

  “Oh my, Karasu-san has already stayed over at my place once before, you know? Including meals and bedding as well.”

  “Wha…W-W-W-What’s the meaning of this, Haruyuki-kun!?”

  “T-T-T-That’s not it, that happened in Accel World not in the real world, and furthermore I slept on the floor!”

  As he quickly shook his head at high speed—

  Haruyuki thought inside his mind.

  Until now, had he ever seen Sky Raker seeming to enjoy herself so much, and Kuroyukihime looking so defenseless? As he thought, these two are connected on a deep spiritual level. As two true best friends, with a history together different from what they had with Haruyuki.

  That bond between them was once severed due to an inescapable fate. And three years later, they reunited once again due to a similar guidance of fate, and now their bond had been completely restored. He wanted to believe that. He wanted to believe that—but.

  Haruyuki understood after continuing to intently and yearningly gaze at Kuroyukihime since autumn last year. No matter how much it seemed like the wall around her heart had been removed, there were signs of a pain he couldn’t understand inside Kuroyukihime’s eyes as they looked at Fuuko in the flesh before her. Most likely, Sky Raker was also hiding an equivalent amount of self-reproach behind the screen of her smiling face.

  The «Incarnate System» sought to make the players who tried to master it to the end face the scars in their hearts. That was because a strong imagination could only be born from a strong wish, and the reverse side of a wish was, in other words, a lack of something. They had to face the dark hole in their heart that was the basis of their duel avatar and that they greatly wanted to forget, and if they turned away from it at any point, they wouldn’t be able to obtain sufficient power for causing a greater «override».

  Three years ago, Sky Raker had done that. In order to raise her «Boost Jump» power that she had received from the system to the level of true «flight» with mind power, she had both her legs cut off and purified the “lack” inside her. For Haruyuki as well, if he wanted to seek power beyond his basic fighting techniques someday, he would probably have to tear back open the scar in his heart that had finally managed to close up now, and make blood flow from it again. Haruyuki’s scar was his self-hatred. His hatred towards himself that was ugly and fat, unable to talk, move, or study well.

  —No, that might not be the actual truth.

  —After all, back then, I wasn??
?t as fat as now. Back then, I would stand beyond the door of this living room, and eavesdrop on the private talk going on inside. And yet…Those people, while quarreling in whispers would…about me…No, that’s wrong. That’s not it. It’s because I was fat. It’s because I always cowered away. That’s why those people didn't…anything about me[41]

  “…yuki-kun. Haruyuki-kun!”

  His arm suddenly being struck, Haruyuki raised his head with a start. Then, his eyes met with Kuroyukihime’s, who was wearing a puzzled expression. He reflexively cast his eyes down.

  “…What’s wrong? You suddenly sank into silence.”

  “Your face…doesn’t look well. Karasu-san…?”

  Sky Raker also questioned him, making Haruyuki frantically shake his head.

  “N-No, it’s nothing! U-Umm…I was just thinking about the Incarnate System…”

  After he unconsciously muttered that out, he realized that this was a very inappropriate subject in this situation and immediately closed his lips, but he couldn’t cancel the words he’d already let out. Kuroyukihime and Fuuko both widened their eyes for an instant, and after several seconds of silence, the two of them gave similar smiles.

  “…I see. Was there something you wanted to ask about?”

  Kuroyukihime lightly placed her hand on Haruyuki’s, as if reading what he was truly thinking. Her fingers, which had always felt cool, were now just slightly warm, and Haruyuki let out a small breath. The look Fuuko gave him was also filled with a gentle light, and so the words unwittingly spilled out of him bit by bit.

  “E-Err, umm…I was just wondering. When I thought about the structure of the Incarnate System…in the end, is it something meant to allow Burst Linkers to become stronger the more the “lack” in their hearts grow…in other words, the more they become unhappy in the real world…?”

  “No.”

  “That’s not it.”

  The two of them answered him instantly. They locked eyes with each other, and as if having decided who would have the role of continuing to speak just with that, Kuroyukihime on his left directly faced Haruyuki and continued first.