Most likely because of her perception that she had been the initial trigger, Fuko’s avatar had remained without legs until a little while after she came back to the second Nega Nebulus. Normally, damage from missing parts was healed the instant the duel ended, and what had made it permanent in this case was Fuko’s “negative will,” convinced as she was that she did not deserve to get her legs back. Put another way, it was basically a curse she had cast on herself.
However, in the Hermes’ Cord race, when she flew with Gale Thruster in the sea of stars that she finally reached, she got her legs back. The curse that had bound her for over two years—several times that, when time spent in the Accelerated World was included—had been released.
“You can just get back the things you’ve lost bit by bit,” Haruyuki murmured suddenly, abstractedly.
With Fuko and Kuroyukihime’s eyes on him, he would normally shrink into himself and be unable to say anything further, but at that moment, he earnestly put his thoughts into words.
“You get lost, you lose, you make mistakes…But if you just go back a little, I’m sure you can find the things you’ve lost again. And then you can just start walking from there. I mean, you, Master, and Shinomiya did actually come back to the Legion. I’m sure the other two members of the Elements, and the rest of the Legion members, too—they’ll come back to you soon enough, Kuroyukihime. That’s what I think…”
It definitely wasn’t a long speech, but here his vanishingly small speech engine overheated, and Haruyuki hung his head, closing his mouth. But even after waiting a few seconds, there was no reaction from the other two, and he started to think that maybe he’d made some kind of terrible mistake and that maybe he should use a So-Sorry Dash and escape to the washroom.
“Honestly, Corvus. Here you are, the younger one, making us ladies tear up. It’s not fair.”
Hearing this, he got flustered—“ladies”?!—as he gingerly lifted his eyes. It was just when Fuko lowered the finger she had up at the corner of her eye. Before he knew it, the look on her face had returned to the usual Raker Smile, and the legs she had tucked neatly underneath her slid out to one side inexplicably—until she stretched them out in front of Haruyuki.
“As a reward, you’re allowed to touch them, just a little. ” The paleness of the legs stretching out from the hem of the negligee, and the super-destructive force of this line easily smashed Haruyuki’s mental powers.
Not noticing the unnaturalness of the situation or Kuroyukihime’s hard eyes on him, he said, “O…kay,” and gradually advanced the fingers of his right hand.
The instant his fingertips made the contact with her surprisingly thin ankle, Haruyuki gasped. The nanopolymer had an overwhelmingly smooth texture, and the faint warmth surprised him. When he thought about it, it was probably only natural that the electricity of the battery inside was continually converted into heat, but this “body temperature” definitely didn’t seem like that of a prosthetic leg. He finally moved his fingers up. The elasticity produced by the artificial muscle fibers covered by the polymer skin was indeed natural and had a suppleness of trained muscles that was far from the pudginess of his own legs. The connection area from the shin to the knee was apparently a combination of many motors, gears, and dampers, so here alone was a slightly mechanical feel.
The instant his fingers moved around to the back of the knee, an “Mmm!” slipped out of Fuko, and her leg moved slightly.
“Uh, um, you can feel that?” Haruyuki asked in surprise, hoarsely.
“Yes. Well, it’s just on the level of a rough sense of pressure. The skin sensation sensor elements are still under development. But when they’re touched gently like that, I feel a little tickle.”
“I-I’m sorry,” he hurriedly apologized, and he started to pull his hand away.
But Fuko pushed on his hand and grinned. “It’s all right. I want you to really know my legs, Corvus. Please, continue.”
“…O-okay…” As he was told, Haruyuki returned his fingers to the artificial skin. He moved around from the back of the knee to the top of the round kneecap and arrived at the faint connection line. From there down was completely prosthetic, but from what Fuko said, the top was also the connection attachment and socket, and on top of that, the nanopolymer skin and her own skin were fused at the cellular level. But he couldn’t tell at all at a glance how far the polymer went. Admiring the high level of cutting-edge cybernetics technology, he slowly traced his fingers along the slender thigh. He advanced five, ten, fifteen centimeters above the connection line, and the instant he was fairly near the hem of the negligee—
“Ah!” With a faint voice, her whole leg twitched back again.
“Fr-from that area, it’s my own skin. Original human sensors are indeed amazing, hmm? The sensation of touch is totally different.”
“Huh? Th-this is the border? I totally can’t tell from the feel or the look of it. They really are fused, huh?”
“Mmm! C-Corvus! If you touch me like that, it tickle—”
Gnyaaaaang! There was a sudden assault on his left cheek, and Haruyuki took his fingers off Fuko’s leg and flew up.
“O-owhowhowhowhahaha!”
“Just. How. Long. Are you going to do that?!” The one shouting was, naturally, Kuroyukihime, yanking as hard as she could on Haruyuki’s cheek with her right hand. “Normally, a person pokes a little and stops! And you, Fuko! You! Why would touching your leg be a reward?!”
“Goodness! It’s just that Pard from Promi told me that Corvus was apparently quite weak to legs.”
“What?” Kuroyukihime’s voice held a dangerous edge.
“Wh—N-no!” Haruyuki jumped a little, left cheek still pinched. “I definitely don’t have a leg fetish or anyshing!”
“Setting aside the veracity of the information, why would Blood Leopard know something like that?!”
“I—I—I don’t hnow! I jush rode behind her on the motorshaicle and on her avatar’s back!” he protested, totally absorbed in his defense, and now it wasn’t only Kuroyukihime, but also Fuko’s eyes that suddenly grew cold. Without even the time to think, Crap—
“That reminds me, Fuko. There’s still something we have to do, hmm?”
“That’s right, Sacchi. We forgot our responsibility to give Corvus special training in the Unlimited Neutral Field, didn’t we?”
Held tight on either side, Haruyuki was dragged over to the glass table.
“Uh, um, it’s late already, and we have school tomorrow.”
“Not a problem. We took care of homework a while ago, didn’t we?”
“B-but we have to do the Space-stage training, too.”
“Don’t worry. We can do as much of that as we want later.”
“B-but it’s getting to be time to go to bed…”
“It’s fine, Haruyuki. The night is long in the Unlimited Neutral Field.” Kuroyukihime had no sooner said that than she was inserting a cable into his Neurolinker. The other two cables were quickly connected to each of the girl’s Linkers, and three indicator lights flashed on the hub on the table.
“All right then, we’ll go on the count of five. Corvus, for each minute you’re late, the special training menu will go up a level, hmm? ” Fuko announced this with a smile even kinder than the one she had flashed him earlier, and there was no way he could not shout the command and just run away somewhere instead.
Sweat oozing down his forehead, Haruyuki was still secured on both sides as his Legion Master and Submaster began the countdown together.
“Five, four, three, two, one…”
“““Unlimited Burst!”””
Shouting in unison with the girls, Haruyuki thought, It’d be great if the Space stage happened soon. Then I could tag-team with Master, and we’d win all over the place with the combo of Gale Thrust’s propulsion and Crow’s maneuverability. I won’t ever let anyone call Master “Icarus” again. I mean, Master’s—Sky Raker’s—wings have finally arrived, glittering sky-blue.
In th
e world of the stars—that world she’s wanted more than anyone else…
END
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Reki Kawahara, The Red Crest
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