When Haruyuki turned his eyes back to the front, he could see the speedometer at the right end of the windshield break through its limit and reach 650 km/h. The rain of bullets from the No.2 shuttle had already broken off, and the red machine was rapidly becoming small in his right starboard mirror.
Stopping the wave of admiration that was trying to overflow from his chest, Haruyuki concentrated on driving. If his posture was disturbed even slightly when they were moving at these speeds, the machine would instantly crash. There had been no obstacles along the surface of the Hermes Cord until now, but he couldn’t afford to tread on even a small gap.
However, after only half a second. Haruyuki knew that his fears had become real.
Strange objects had appeared on the path ahead. Several rings of light that glowed a rainbow color were lined up along the surface of the tower with large interval between them. The rings’ diameter was probably at least three meters, and if they went right on through one like this, they would surely hit one of the others located behind it.
“…I-I’m dodging it! Raker-san, return to your seat!”
Haruyuki frantically shouted that. However, before he could finish speaking.
“No, plunge straight through it, Crow!”
Kuroyukihime issued an unthinkable order.
“Eh…B-But!?”
“It’s okay, go!”
Either way, the energy gauge of «Gale Thruster» seemed to be exhausted now, so Sky Raker once again borrowed Chiyuri’s hand and returned to her original seat. After confirming that, Haruyuki made up his mind and grasped the steering wheel hard.
“U-Understood, we’ll plunge through it! Everyone, hang out tight!”
Just two seconds after that.
Without decreasing its speed at all, the No.1 shuttle plunged straight through the middle of the rainbow-colored ring.
Chapter 9
A flash, an impact and then an explosion—didn’t occur.
Instead, a miraculous phenomenon wrapped around the machine. The dark blue sky around them disappeared, and a burst of rainbow-colored radiating light the same color as the mysterious rings spread out around them. At the same time, the roar of the linear wheels stopped and only a high-resonance sound filled the space around them.
While feeling a strange feeling in his ears due to the explosive and vibrating sounds of the race disappearing, Haruyuki spoke out timidly.
“Ah…umm, senpai, what is this…?”
“It’s a Warp Zone.”
In response to the decisive answer that Kuroyukihime immediately gave, he let out a “Heh!?” and turned around.
“W-Warp!? There’s such a thing in a race!?”
“I see…No, rather, it’s only natural that they exist here, Haru.”
This time Takumu nodded. Holding up one finger, he explained in his mastered “professor” mode.
“After all, think about it. Remember, the Hermes Cord is in total 4,000 km long, right? And the maximum speed of this shuttle is 500 km/h. Therefore, using math, even if you jam down on the accelerator, it would still take at least 8 hours to reach the goal. That would be nothing more than an endurance race. It’d be unreasonable to cross that entire distance with only a single driver.”
“A-Aah…I see, when you put it like that…”
While quickly coming to understand, Haruyuki looked at the remaining distance meter, and saw that the four digits on the counter were rapidly going down. It seemed they were able to take a shortcut through this space until a point around 1,000 km away from the goal.
“Then that means, it would have turned out pretty bad if we hadn’t entered the ring back there…”
Chiyuri said that as her three-cornered hat trembled, and Kuroyukihime spoke back to her with a smile.
“Hey, hey, Bell, wouldn’t it have been fine if we just did a U-turn at such a time?”
“Ah, that’s right…Muuh, but, if we ran back in this sort of game, it feels like we’d be admitting defeat somehow!”
“Well, I completely agreed with that opinion.”
A short burst of laughter erupted between the two, and then, with that settled, Kuroyukihime said,
“…Raker, thank you. And…I’m sorry. You were troubled for a long time because of my terrible cowardice…”
However, her motion to bow deeply along with her apology was stopped by Sky Raker’s right hand.
“Lotus. I also…I also have many things I must apologize to you for. But, we probably can’t transmit it all to each other with just words. That’s why…one day, when I once again become able to «duel» with you at full power, let’s say a whole, whole lot to each other then.”
“……Yeah. Let’s…Let’s do so…”
Kuroyukihime also replied back in a whispered voice, and then, after closing her eyes, she continued with a slight smile.
“If I remember, my total battle record against you is 1213 victories…and how many defeats was it again?”
“Ah, so you intend to forget only the inconvenient numbers!”
Quiet laughter once again spread through the Warp Zone, and while immersing himself in that gentle reverberating sound, Haruyuki murmured in his mind.
—In the end, there might have been no need for me to butt in. These two are definitely connected somewhere in the depths of their souls. Yes…that bond was something nurtured because of Accel World, where time flows 1,000 times faster.
He closed his eyes and was going to properly reflect upon these thoughts—
But, at that instant.
The center of his back ached with a sudden pang. At the same time, cold words from a voice that wasn’t Haruyuki’s and had an alien-quality to it somehow appeared in his mind.
—Then, the reverse is also surely true. Right? —There should also exist ugly hatred bred and enlarged over the course of those 1,000-times accelerated hours in Accel World. Perhaps in me as well.
—That’s right. A seed of hatred that doesn’t disappear has taken root in you too. Patiently waiting for when its bud blossoms.
—Have you already forgotten about the people that used to oppress you? Have you already forgotten the pain they inflicted on us with their irrational violence and malice? Respond with malice for malice. Power for power. The «seed» for doing so is always inside you.
At the same time as that dark and twisted voice whispered to him, several faces appeared behind his firmly shut eyelids.
The classmates who mocked and were unkind towards Haruyuki in his elementary school days. The delinquents who bluntly demanded money and goods from him and showered him with violence as he rose up in the grades. When their faces disappeared, this time, the masks of duel avatars replaced them. Although they were few, all the Burst Linkers who he unreservedly hated in Accel World looked down on him from somewhere high, and laughed mockingly.
—Can you understand those guys too? Can you connect with them? No. Impossible.
—Yeah, that’s true. After all, I’ve already banished one of them away forever. That’s why I can’t connect with them. But, that…can’t be helped. It was only natural to do that to someone like him!
He shouted out as if moaning, and the throb on his back rapidly became stronger. However, strangely, that pain was no longer merely unpleasant. The larger it became, the more comfort he could imagine feeling when it was all released. As if hurrying him, as if tempting him, the voice continued.
—That’s right, it’s only natural to crush them. You already possess the power to do that. You just need to call out one word, one name. With just that, you can crush them all without leaving a single one alive. Cut them apart, tear them to pieces, and completely devour them. Devour. Devour. Devo…
“Ka…Karasu-san!?”
Haruyuki’s left shoulder was tightly gripped at the same time as a sharp shout, and he suddenly opened his eyes. After stiffening his entire body for an instant, he turned around with an awkward motion.
The one that had placed their hand on him was Sky Raker sitting
on the left side of the middle row. Concern burned in her dark red eye lenses, and she was staring at Haruyuki intently. She thinly let out a dry voice.
“Karasu-san…What did you do just now…?”
“Eh…w-what…I didn’t do anything…”
While feeling guilty for having held such disturbing thoughts, Haruyuki desperately shook his head. But he wasn’t trying to lie. His body had been merely sitting in the driver’s seat and grasping the steering wheel. When he said he didn’t do anything, he was telling the truth.
However, even Kuroyukihime spoke in a low voice next.
“…I also…saw it. For an instant…your body was shining with the «Over-Ray» of mind power…!?”
“……!?”
This time Haruyuki was shocked from the bottom of his stomach and gasped.
He definitely hadn’t used the «Incarnate System». He could assert that at least. In the first place, Haruyuki shouldn’t have been able to do something like unconsciously activate the «override» ability with his level of training.
“Tha…That’s not it! I didn’t use mind power! I’m telling the truth!!”
He shouted while frantically shaking his head. Fuuko gripped Haruyuki’s shoulder even harder, but eventually removed her hand while letting out a small sigh.
“……Yeah. That…couldn’t have been it. Karasu-san’s Over-Ray is a silver color. But…the light just now was…”
As Fuuko’s voice lowered into silence, Kuroyukihime continued after her.
“…That’s right, it was a mistake. Most likely, the shifting of the surrounding light effects reflected off Crow’s metal body. —Really, sorry for startling you. But, it’s also your fault for having an avatar with that kind of color.”
After she said those words with her usual tone returned by 70%, the atmosphere in the car going at super high speed warp relaxed. Chiyuri and Takumu both let out a breath together in the rear seats.
“Geez, don’t surprise us like that, Nee-san! …Well, it’s true that Haru’s avatar sometimes flickers in the eye.”
“It really does. I know, how about we smoke him in sulfur and oxidize his silver armor?”
“Ahaha, that’s a nice idea, Takkun!”
Haruyuki unconsciously gave a bitter smile at the conversation between his two childhood friends. He felt the tension in his strained body clear away slowly now, but the cold thing that sank into the depths of his heart wouldn’t go away easily.
He had heard that voice several times over the past several months. Haruyuki thought of that voice with its metallic effect as something that was emitted from deep inside himself. His other self, which produced the negative feelings that accumulated inside him. As someone who had a lot of time to pass by himself since a young age, Haruyuki had the peculiarity of talking like that with himself inside his mind.
But—what if that wasn’t it? What if it wasn’t just some mental metaphor, but an actual voice emitted by someone other than Haruyuki?
But in that case, the owner of the voice wasn’t in Accel World, but in Haruyuki’s Neuro Linker. Because that voice also whispered to him even when he wasn’t Dived in. Then, was it some kind of virus or AI program? Or…someone's consciousness that was lurking somewhere in the Linker’s memory? That was impossible, right…?
Feeling as if someone was chuckling somewhere far away, Haruyuki blinked hard and shook off the thoughts in his head. This wasn’t the time to worry over such things. They were finally rushing into the climax of the «Hermes Cord Traversing Race», and they had to win no matter what.
When he opened his eyes wide, he saw a ring of blue light ahead of their machine. That was probably the Warp Zone’s exit.
“Everyone, we’re returning to the course! Hold on tight!”
He sucked in a deep breath and shouted that, and four crisp replies were shot back at him from the backseats.
Gripping the steering wheel firmly, Haruyuki aimed the nose of the shuttle towards the center of the blue light. The exit rapidly approached, and barred their field of view completely—and the instant their machine touched it, everything was swallowed into a whirlpool of light.
“……Waah!!”
The one that shouted first was Chiyuri.
It was followed by exclaims of awe from everyone else, including Haruyuki.
The whole sky was perfectly jet-black. An infinite number of tiny dots of light gathered and drew beautiful lines against the background of it. It was the Milky Way—the galaxy. However, both the number of stars and their vividness were completely different from the night sky seen from the Moonlight or Deserts stages. Although it was a cold and still world, it was as if a clear melody played by the cluster of stars could be heard.
The huge steel pillar, the orbital elevator «Hermes Cord» pierced through that world of stars and extended straight upwards even further. Intense sunlight from the left illuminated its gently curved surface. The light came down on the body of the speeding shuttle, sparkling off its silver surface, and created a deep shadow off the right side of the car.
“……So this is space…”
Murmuring that, Kuroyukihime held out her right hand sword straight towards the Milky Way. She continued in a quiet voice.
“Is this scene digitally painted by the BB server…or is it…”
“…They’re probably using the actual footage of it caught by the social cameras. The positions of the stars are too precise…”
Fuuko answered in a similar quiet whisper.
Of course, even if this image was the real thing, it was all passing through the cameras, the network and then the Neuro Linker, so it was likely different from the view seen by astronauts and tourists looking at it with their naked eyes. Even so, Haruyuki, and probably his four other friends as well, continued staring up at the galaxy with deep emotions in each of their chests.
‘If possible, I would like to marvel at this silent, cold and yet bustling world forever’—although Haruyuki wished that, regrettably this solemn moment in time did not continue for long.
The sounds of many engines resounded from behind them. Of course, it shouldn’t have been possible to hear any sound if this really were space, but it seemed that priority had been given to small conveniences in Accel World. Turning around frantically, he saw various machines jump out from the Warp Zone exits.
At the front was the dark red shuttle driven by Blood Leopard. Slightly behind it was the gunmetal shuttle ridden by Ash Roller’s team. And further behind them was the Yellow Legion shuttle.
After a short pause, two shuttles from medium-sized legions appeared behind them. It seemed there were six teams left including Haruyuki’s. Apparently, in addition to Frost Horn’s team, two more had dropped out, with the rusted shuttle removed from the beginning.
At this point, a loud sound that surpassed the roar of all the shuttles shook space. Above their heads, the three huge spectator stands warped out. The over six hundred Burst Linkers there flung up their hands all at once and stamped their legs down. While being bathed in cheers, the six shuttles ran across the tower in a line.
“All right! There are only five rivals left!”
Kuroyukihime’s voice suddenly changed and became commanding as she shouted.
“Although we face a formidable set of enemies, we will be the ones to win! All right, let’s leave them in the dust!”
Haruyuki and the others also struck out their fists and responded with cries of “Yeah!”. Checking the meter, he saw that there was a little less than a 1,000 km left to the goal. Although he calculated that it would still take two hours if they continued at 500 km/h, weekend territory battles were twice the length of that. That kind of time went by in practically an instant when you were engrossed.
—All right, we can’t make a single mistake from here on! I won’t let us get caught in the shooting range of Pard-san’s team again!
Shouting that inside his mind and re-gripping the stirring wheel, Haruyuki glared at the complicated topography visible
far ahead that was like an obstacle zone.
However—
Immediately after.
A completely unexpected phenomenon occurred right next to their shuttle’s right side.
The pronounced shadow of their shuttle that was created by the intense sunlight. From the center of it, a quiet watery sound was emitted, and something strange came floating up from it.
It was a huge, thin plate sheet. The rectangular plate, with a length and height equal to the shuttle’s, quietly ran parallel two meters away from their No.1 shuttle. Although it had to be moving at 500 km/h, it emitted not a single sound or even vibration. Its color was a lusterless black that sucked in all light.
Its appearance and texture intensely stimulated Haruyuki’s memories. He didn’t even need to try hard to remember.
Two months ago—immediately after the new school term started, a mysterious Burst Linker had intruded into their «duel» taking place in Umesato Middle School within the Unlimited Neutral Field. It was definitely that avatar, who possessed the ability to change his body into an ultra-thin plate and slip into and move through all shadows. But, why was he here now?
Haruyuki’s shock and questions burst forth from his throat in the form of a single name.
“«Black Vise»…!!”
And as if responding to his shout—
The huge plate soundlessly split in half. It became two plates and spread out, and then quickly disappeared as if melting away into the vacuum of space.
The thing that appeared there in its place hit Haruyuki with even further shock.
It was a shuttle. It had the exact same shape as the one the Nega Nebulas team rode, but its color was different. It was reddish like powder that irregularly spread across it. In other words, the color of rust. It was clearly the rusted No.10 shuttle that had been deserted at the right end of the starting block. However, despite looking like it wouldn’t be able to move at all, the machine was emitting dazzling lightning from its four linear wheels and was running at maximum speed.