What am I saying? he thought, but the words poured out of him and he couldn’t stop talking. His expressionless, mirror-like avatar was some consolation, at least. “Even so, you reached out to me, you directed with me, and I know it’s just because I was kinda good at that game, I know you didn’t have any other reason, but I—I wouldn’t even, I mean.”
Seriously, what am I saying here? Get it together before you talk. Aah, this is exactly the kind of time you need to accelerate. Except you’re already accelerated.
Spiraling deeper into panic, Haruyuki felt compelled to bare everything in his heart. “So…so I want to live up to your expectations. I want to properly repay the…m-mercy you showed me. I don’t know what I can do, but if you’re having some trouble, I want to do anything and everything to help. So I…I won’t uninstall Brain Burst. I’ll fight…as a Burst Linker.”
What the—? I should’ve just said that last part! How could I have said all that other stuff?
Having finished vomiting words, Haruyuki made his thin avatar even smaller and stared down, acutely embarrassed. He braced himself for the fact that there was no doubt she was thinking that Mr. Self-Conscious here had gotten the wrong idea about things somehow when the staccato pace of her response shook his sense of hearing.
“Mercy? Don’t use words like that.”
Lifting his eyes slightly in shock, he saw her face twisted with more obvious emotion than he had witnessed in her these few days. “I’m nothing but a foolish, helpless junior high student. I’m a human being, the same as you, standing in the same place, breathing the same air. To say nothing of the fact that at this stage, we are both Burst Linkers, exactly equal. You’re the one creating a distance. Do these two virtual meters feel that far to you?” Silently, she extended her pale right hand.
They do, Haruyuki murmured to himself. You have no idea how terrifying it is for someone like me to even be seen by someone like you, who has everything. I’m happy to be your servant. Just being a pawn to be moved on your orders is an unexpected happiness. If I take your hand now, you’ll end up with expectations of me you shouldn’t have. Poisonous expectations you’ll definitely end up regretting several times over.
It’s the same with Chiyuri and Takumu. I’m satisfied being their happy, fat friend. If they would just quit pitying me and sympathizing with me, I couldn’t ask for anything better.
The voice that came out of Haruyuki’s mouth was dry, like the trees in the virtual twilight. “You rescued me from hell. That’s…For me, that’s a life’s worth of happiness. I don’t need anything else. Nothing at all.”
“Is that so?” Kuroyukihime murmured, lowering her hand. A hard, heavy silence ruled the stage for a brief while. It was her voice that broke the tension, smooth as if nothing had changed at all. “I gratefully accept your aid. It is true that I currently have the tiniest, troublesome problem. I’d like your assistance in resolving the matter.”
Haruyuki nodded, holding his breath momentarily. “I’ll do whatever I can. What do you need?”
“First of all, I need you to learn how Duels work. Go ahead and click on your name displayed below your health gauge. Open ‘Help’ and check what all the normal and special attack commands are for your duel avatar.”
“S-special attack?” he parroted, staying the hand about to reach up.
“Mm. When the program creates your duel avatar, it allocates your already fixed potential according to your attributes. Some excel at attacking, others have solid defenses, and peaky types aim to settle battles in a single move with a special attack. But the overarching principle is that the general potential of duel avatars at the same level is exactly equal. You were crushed in your first fight, but it’s not because your opponent was stronger. You simply didn’t know how to fight.”
That bike guy (Ash Roller) was level one just like Haruyuki. Did he really have the same battle ability as Silver Crow, even though he had seemed so overwhelming? If he did, then this small, slender robot avatar definitely had to have an incredible special attack. Heart pounding, Haruyuki stretched out a silver finger and clicked on his name.
A semitransparent window popped open.
The movement of his body was depicted by a simple, human-shaped animation with the name of the technique displayed to its right.
First up, a motion readying the right fist against the upper thigh before being thrust forward. Normal attack: Punch.
Next. A motion pulling in the right leg and jamming it forward. Normal attack: Kick.
And finally, the special attack. Cross both arms, open them to the left and right, and thrust the head out. This one was called Head Butt.
That was it. There was nothing else.
“Um,” Haruyuki muttered, dazed. “Normal attacks, Punch and Kick…and all I have for a special attack is a Head Butt.”
“Oh?” Hearing this, Kuroyukihime put the fingers of her right hand to her lower jaw and tilted her head. Her expression didn’t seem to change, but, unable to face her any longer, Haruyuki quickly hung his head. Just imagining a tinge of disappointment floating up in those black eyes made his whole body suddenly hot.
Before he knew it, his mouth was opening on its own. “No, it’s fine. I mean, I expected this. Take one look at this avatar, and you can clearly see it’s no good. I’m sorry I can’t live up to your expectations. It’s fine if you kinda leave me be. Just think of me as a lottery you didn’t win.”
“You…idiot!!”
Haruyuki lifted his face, his whole body shaking with a start. Before he knew it, Kuroyukihime was standing in front of him, beautiful eyebrows raised, looking down at him with eyes like raging fires.
“I won’t tell you how to live your life; as junior high students, we’re on the same level. However, when it comes to Brain Burst, I have more than six years more experience than you. Were you not listening? When I told you that all the duel avatars have equal potential? Or have you already forgotten?”
“B-but it’s just that my only attacks are Punch, Kick, and Head Butt…”
“In which case, you most certainly have some strength somewhere to compensate.” Her gaze softening slightly, Kuroyukihime continued as if admonishing him. “It was your heart that gave birth to this duel avatar. If you don’t believe in it, then what does that say?”
“That the person who is least able to believe in me is me,” Haruyuki murmured to himself as he nodded. “I’m sorry. I believe…maybe not in myself, but at least in what you say.”
As she listened, Kuroyukihime’s face opened up slightly—although just into a bitter smile—and Haruyuki’s shoulders relaxed a little.
“It seems you need to learn something else before how to fight. Strength—” For a brief moment, the bitter smile became faintly melancholy. “Strength is by no means simply a word indicating victory. I spent a fair bit of time learning this. And by the time I learned the lesson, it was already too late.”
Haruyuki couldn’t understand the meaning behind the words she quietly spun out. He tilted his head and started to ask, but she didn’t give him the chance, suddenly changing tracks.
“Time’s almost up.”
Looking, he saw that the counter with its original 1800 had just barely twenty seconds left.
“So shall we make the next lecture a hands-on lesson?”
“Y…es? What do you…?”
Haruyuki stared, puzzled, and Kuroyukihime flashed him a bold smile.
“Of course, you’ll go and get them back. Your ten points.”
At the time that the Duel ended with a draw screen, the acceleration released.
The moment they returned to the real-world lounge, Kuroyukihime yanked out the direct cable without giving Haruyuki a chance to say anything. “Now then! Let’s eat, Arita. It’ll get cold on us.” She grinned and picked up her small spoon off the table.
Having no other choice, Haruyuki reached out to the plate of curry rice in front of him. In his perceived timeline, he’d brought it over from the counter mor
e than thirty minutes ago, but as it was still steaming hot, his stomach clenched.
The same critical looks from the surrounding tables that he’d gotten the day before shone a spotlight on Haruyuki, and he wanted to abscond with his curry to some corner of the cafeteria. But he couldn’t combat his empty stomach. He’d shoveled three quick bites into his mouth when he heard one of the seniors at the same table start talking to Kuroyukihime, and his throat clamped shut.
“Kuro, isn’t it about time you told us? We’re seriously dying of curiosity here. We really want to understand exactly what your relationship is with the young man here.”
Haruyuki lifted his head with a start to recognize the fluffy-haired student council member he’d seen there yesterday. He was pretty sure she was the eighth-grade clerk.
“Mm.” Kuroyukihime placed her spoon beside the gratin dish and gracefully lifted her teacup, looking rather thoughtful. The students around her fell instantly silent. “To be blunt, I told him I liked him, and he blew me off.”
The world was full of shrieks and cries of surprise.
Spoon in mouth, curry in hand, Haruyuki fled.
“Uh…um, the thing is!!”
After spending the two remaining hours of the afternoon under laser-like scrutiny, Haruyuki diagonally behind Kuroyukihime objected somewhat awkwardly as they headed toward the school gates. “What were you thinking?! Everyone’s going to pick on me now!! They will totally be picking on me!!”
“It was a proud declaration.” After a quiet laugh, Kuroyukihime continued, her expression composed. “I didn’t go so far as to tell the truth, did I? And I don’t think you were as displeased as you’d have me believe.”
As she spoke, she swiftly gestured over her virtual desktop, allowing the flicking of her fingers to be seen. A file promptly arrived through the local net, and an icon started blinking in Haruyuki’s field of view. Clicking on it, a large image opened up in front of his eyes.
It was a picture of himself, curry spoon in mouth, exposing his idiotic, gaping face.
“Gaaah!” he shouted, seeing it and immediately throwing the file in the trash. “Wh-wh-wh-when did you take this camera screenshot?! Even speed has its limits!!”
“What? It was just to commemorate.”
While they were having this back and forth, eyes seemingly capable of actual murder and maiming bore holes through Haruyuki. Too late, he pulled his shoulders in but couldn’t completely hide himself in the shadow of Kuroyukihime’s slim body.
“Stand up a little taller. Not that many boys in this school have blown me off. You are, in fact, the only one.”
“But exactly when did I do that?!”
“You’re so harsh. You’ll hurt me all over again…Anyway.” With a single word, she put the issue on hold, and, recovering her center, she said in a low voice: “Once you leave the school gates, your Neurolinker will be connected globally. Which means that any Burst Linkers in Suginami area number three, which includes here, will be able to force you to fight. Before someone jumps you, accelerate, find Ash Roller in the matching list, and challenge him.”
“A-area? Does that mean that there are limits on the range where you can fight?”
Kuroyukihime dipped her head slightly at his question. “There are. You might start a Duel with someone on the opposite side of Tokyo, but thirty minutes will pass before you can even meet them. At any rate, you might one day set foot on a group field where any number of people can connect without limits, but that won’t be until you get past level four. Right now, focus on the battles in front of you.” She brought the lecture to a close in a slightly sharper voice. “I’ll just say this: If you lose, you can’t ask for a rematch right then and there. You can only fight the same opponent once a day. I’ll be in the Gallery, but unfortunately, I won’t be able to help you…Don’t look so disheartened. If you just fight like I outlined in the mail I sent you, you won’t lose.”
“O-okay.” His throat issued a gulping sound, and he nodded. He copied and pasted the content of the text she had sent him during sixth period to his brain.
“This is your real debut battle, Silver Crow. Good luck.”
She pushed his back lightly, and Haruyuki stepped out onto the road leading to the battlefield.
4
The battlefield was a Century End stage again, dotted with a nightscape of abandoned buildings lit up by fires. Haruyuki made his small avatar even smaller and concealed himself on the pedestrian bridge running over Kannana.
During the previous fight, he had been too freaked out, so he hadn’t noticed that in addition to the remaining time and the health gauge, a small light blue triangle was displayed in his field of vision. It was a guide cursor roughly indicating the direction of the enemy.
The triangle merely wavered as it hovered due north Haruyuki’s position along the wide road. Even so, Haruyuki knew his enemy, Ash Roller, was definitely not just twiddling his thumbs somewhere off over the horizon. He was most likely making a beeline right for him. The cursor didn’t go so far as to tell him the distance.
In his head, he went over the walkthrough Kuroyukihime had sent.
After going over the information you gave me, I’ve determined that Ash Roller has two significant weak points. The first is that he makes a great deal of noise when he moves.
That was definitely true. If he had been paying proper attention to his surroundings last time, he would’ve been able to hear the enormous roar of the gasoline engine from a ways off. He couldn’t make that mistake again. He held his breath and strained his ears.
There it was!
An overbearing, thunderous sound made its way into his head, although the cursor still didn’t waver. Ash Roller sounded like he was racing down deserted Kannana Road with the engine open full throttle. No doubt he was enjoying himself. If he rode a bike in real life, too, it was probably a low-powered electric scooter that crawled forward in the usual heavy traffic on this road. And if his challenger happened to be the newb he had completely crushed that same morning, all the better.
But this time, you at least won’t get a perfect win. Because the first attack is mine.
Haruyuki gritted his teeth and glared at the blue cursor.
As before, it was still pointing due south, but he could tell how close his enemy was by the sound of the engine. However, his opponent shouldn’t have been able to do the same. Given that he was approaching at a high speed in a straight line, the direction of Haruyuki’s cursor would only change the instant they were already entangled.
Flat on his stomach against the pedestrian bridge, Haruyuki stared intently at the hill leading down toward Koenji Station. The explosive noise gradually grew louder until he could feel it shaking his body.
And then Haruyuki saw him.
The bike’s headlight was off, of course, but he was sure he saw the red reflection of the bonfire flames shimmer across the chrome. Fifteen—no, ten seconds until he made it to the intersection at the top of the hill.
Haruyuki would only have this one chance for a surprise attack. But the only weapons he had were his normal Punch and Kick attacks. Which meant he had no choice but to jump from the bridge and slam his entire body into the rider.
Too scary. I can’t actually do that. Haruyuki cursed in his heart the version of himself who allowed this thought to flicker through his head. Don’t be stupid. The me right now isn’t overweight, thirteen-year-old Haruyuki Arita; I’m the Burst Linker Silver Crow. And this isn’t the real world, it’s a virtual game field. I’ve given this world everything, all my time, my passion. To the point where this basically is reality for me. In which case, I can’t lose. Better—this time, the easy win’ll be mine, you stupid skullhead!
“Aaaaaah!” Haruyuki screamed and yanked himself to his feet, taking the iron rail in one step to leap over the edge.
The task of jumping from high up and landing a kick on the rider of a motorbike flying along at more than a hundred kilometers an hour was next to impossible, probably e
ven more impossible than Haruyuki thought.
But given that Haruyuki had spent so much time so focused on hitting a nearly invisible ball in virtual squash, Ash Roller’s skull helmet was too big a target to miss. Thrusting his right leg out into the air and controlling his posture with his arms splayed, Haruyuki became a silver arrow, shooting forward.
“Ohwaa?!”
He thought he heard a faint voice beneath the helmet’s visor, but at that moment, Haruyuki’s silver-armored heel slammed into its mark, right in the center of the skull.
Crrrrrrunch!! With an incredible detonation, cracks pierced the center of the visor shooting outward. The rider’s head snapped back, and Haruyuki slid over his face before crashing into the asphalt and tumbling forward. His head spun momentarily, but he was quick to raise his eyes and check the damage behind him.
The motorbike careened off diagonally to the right, large sparks flying from the front and rear brake rotors, before finally crashing to a stop in a pile of rubble on the shoulder. The rider’s body slammed into the tank, while the engine shut off with a pathetic clicking noise.
“…I—I did it,” Haruyuki murmured, clenching his fist before checking their health gauges.
Silver Crow’s was down about 5 percent, appropriate damage for a drop from high up. In contrast, Ash Roller was naturally seriously hurt; with both the flying kick and the crash, it looked like he had taken considerable damage. More than 20 percent had been shaved off his gauge, which was now slightly purple.
His first attack was basically a total success. But this wasn’t the time to sit and bathe in the lingering sweetness of the critical hit.
Standing up, he set his sights on the five-story building on the left side of the road that he had scoped out in advance, and he started running. According to Kuroyukihime, since the road was the main field in the Century End stage, you couldn’t enter the buildings. But that didn’t mean you couldn’t use a building’s external stairs.