The Red Crest

  Once they had placed their orders and had all taken a drink of water, the eyes of the other three focused on Haruyuki.

  “…So, Haru, what exactly happened? And why?” Inside the café, there were only two older customers at the counter and a group of three women who looked to be housewives at a table near the door. Age-wise, they couldn’t have been Burst Linkers, but just in case, Chiyuri lowered her voice.

  “Ummm…” Haruyuki reflected on the earlier duel. “Until ninety percent of his health gauge was carved away, it was just like you guys saw. But…a little after he went down…the visor on his original head closed, and the armor on his left shoulder opened instead. And then…maybe you won’t believe this, but the left shoulder talked. It said, ‘So it’s finally my turn.’”

  It took about five minutes to explain how it all had gone down, and just as Haruyuki finished, their orders arrived with perfect timing. The woman had no sooner placed the dishes on the table and urged them to take their time than the four Burst Linkers were reaching for their spoons.

  Simultaneously scooping up rice dumplings and cream and anko beans in a miraculous balance on her spoon, Chiyuri opened her mouth and filled her cheeks. Pure bliss overtook her for about five seconds before she could get herself together again. “Mmm, mmmmm…It’s like, the more I hear, the more this is, like, for serious, you know? If he’s switching between personality extremes, I guess we have Niko for precedent.”

  “No matter how you look at it, Niko’s angel mode is a performance.” Haruyuki grinned wryly around a mouthful of chocolaty gelato. “The way Cerberus switched was definitely not on that level. And the way he talked—he’s Cerberus because there are three of him. I mean, he was named after that mythological dog, so it’s kinda like that, I guess? And actually, when it was his left shoulder, the abilities he used changed, too.”

  “So then, on top of the Cerberus I that you fought first and the Cerberus II of the left shoulder, there’s a III, too?” Takumu asked as he scooped up mamekan with a lacquerware spoon.

  Haruyuki thought a minute and then nodded. “When you think about it, the right shoulder’s probably Cerberus III, huh? Cerberus I talks politely, II is rougher. No clue what III will sound like.”

  “My vote’s for old-school style,” Chiyuri remarked.

  “L-like a grandpa character? That’ll be hard to fight.”

  “So then his ability’ll definitely be Drunken Fists,” Takumu asserted. “The traditions of the fighting game.”

  The three of them kept talking, wandering further off track, and Utai followed along, eating her fruit anmitsu with a serious look on her face until she carefully set down her spoon before typing on her holo keyboard. UI> IT IS INDEED SURPRISING TO HEAR ABOUT A SINGLE DUEL AVATAR HAVING THREE PERSONALITIES, BUT THERE’S SOMETHING ELSE THAT IS OF MORE CONCERN TO ME.

  She turned wide eyes on Haruyuki and his friends as she continued. UI> THAT CERBERUS REFERRED TO SOMETHING C HAD SEALED AWAY. I BELIEVE THERE IS ONLY ONE THING THAT FITS THAT DESCRIPTION.

  “…Yeah, I think so, too…,” Haruyuki said, looking at the slightly dark silver of the spoon he held in his right hand. “…The Armor of Catastrophe…The Disaster. If what Cerberus II said is true, then he was born to equip that armor.”

  “Just thinking about what would happen if he were able to do that sends chills up my spine,” Takumu said. “If he had the multiple defensive capabilities of the Armor on top of his own hard tungsten armor, it would be a bigger deal than just Physical Immune.”

  “It was a giga GJ you guys did in purifying the armor, Ui, Haru,” Chiyuri said, mixing Ash-speak with Pard-speak, and the other three laughed involuntarily.

  Haruyuki was getting absolutely nowhere with obtaining the Theoretical Mirror ability, the key to the attack on the Legend-class enemy Archangel Metatron guarding the Tokyo Midtown Tower, but the reason he could deal with all this without getting too serious, even as the situation grew more chaotic, was that he had his Legion comrades by his side. Haruyuki was silently grateful.

  However, immediately after this, he thought that maybe that wasn’t the whole story. The way his mysterious and powerful enemy had managed to reproduce his flight ability, albeit for a short time, was very much like when the “marauder” Dusk Taker had appeared three months earlier. But this time, Haruyuki hadn’t felt that same heavy pressure crushing him, like he couldn’t breathe. The reason for that had to be…

  “…I think Cerberus is definitely an opponent to be on guard against, given that he switches personalities and knows about the Armor and stuff. But…I dunno. I don’t hate him. Not Cerberus I…and probably not II either.”

  “Even though he ate one of your arms?” Chiyuri blinked rapidly. “It looked like that seriously hurt, though?”

  “Well, it did hurt, but I mean…it’s a proper ability. It’s not like he has a BIC, like Dusk Taker or Rust Jigsaw. When he destroyed me yesterday, I hated it so much, I wanted to cry. But I didn’t hate him. And I’m sure Cerberus feels the same after losing to me today. I mean, at the end, he said it was fun.”

  While Haruyuki earnestly searched for the right words as he spoke, his chocolate gelato got fairly soft, so he hurriedly scraped the rest of it together with his spoon.

  Chiyuri abruptly slapped him on the back.

  “Pwah! Wh-what’re you doing?! You made a piece of almond go flying!”

  “I’m giving you a compliment, so don’t be so stingy!”

  “Normally, you don’t compliment people by slapping them on the back.”

  “Then you want me to bop you on the head?”

  “N-no thanks!”

  Listening to their exchange, Takumu and Utai erupted simultaneously in laughter. Soon enough, Chiyuri and Haruyuki got on board, too, and the back room at Enjiya was filled with gentle merriment.

  I just know that Wolfram Cerberus has more secrets. And I still can’t decide if he’s the artificial metal color Kuroyukihime was talking about. But if I just keep fighting. If I go up against him in duel after duel where we smash up against each other, whatever plan he has’ll burn up into nothing. I mean, above all else, we’re Burst Linkers, after all.

  Haruyuki digested this thought together with the last bite of gelato. Just as the last of the bittersweet flavor was disappearing, he turned toward his friends and announced, “At the very least, it seems like the Metatron operation is not moving this week. I’m going to go to Nakano Area Number Two after school tomorrow, too. Whether he challenges me or I go and challenge him, I’m fighting Cerberus again. I probably won’t be able to win again like I did today, though. But I’m fine with losing. Winning and losing—that’s the nature of the duel, after all.”

  Chiyuri and Takumu grinned and nodded, while Utai alone had a slightly worried look on her face as she set her fingers into motion across the tabletop.

  UI> I ADMIRE YOUR MINDSET, ARITA. BUT ARE YOU SURE? CONSIDERING THE LEVEL DIFFERENCE, THE SAME NUMBER OF WINS AND LOSSES WILL MEAN A SERIOUS EXPENDITURE OF POINTS.

  “Ugh!” When she put it like that, it really hit home. Haruyuki realized that the basic rules of Brain Burst had completely flown out of his head, and he stiffened up.

  Chiyuri slapped his back one more time. “…Just let us know when you’re going to go hunting Enemies to replenish your points. If we’re free and full of energy, we’ll come along with you, ’kay?”

  “If it’s a day when my kendo practice ends early,” Takumu said.

  UI> ME TOO. IF YOU’RE OKAY WITH GOING AFTER I’VE DONE MY HOMEWORK.

  “…Thanks, guys.”

  This was all that was left to Haruyuki to say.

  After they departed Enjiya with Utai, Haruyuki left Takumu in the entrance hall of their condo and got on the high-speed elevator with Chiyuri.

  “That reminds me. What’s going on with the Theoretical Mirror?”

  Suddenly faced with the question, Haruyuki unconsciously let his gaze drift. “Y-yeah…I guess I’ve gotten a hint, if you could call it that. Or maybe
I haven’t quite gotten it…”

  “What? You’re not making sense. I know you’re concerned about Cerberus, but, like, isn’t the Mirror a higher priority for you, Haru?”

  “…I mean, when you say priority, it’s, like, a priority,” he mumbled, and two fingers stretched out from beside him to yank on his right cheek. “H-hut’re you hooin’?”

  “I hate leaving a bunch of conditions to pile up unresolved,” she said. “When I get more than five items on my to-do list or something like that, I get really annoyed.”

  “Really…? I basically never get it under ten items.”

  As he spoke, Haruyuki casually opened the to-do list app on his virtual desktop and found twelve items clearly listed. Items one through three were the homework they had been given that day, but number four—request tickets, if needed, for guests to the school festival—had been languishing there since the previous week. But, well, it was precisely because he hadn’t immediately replied that he lacked guests to invite that he had been able to invite Rin Kusakabe the previous day—

  “…What’re you getting all dreamy about?” Chiyuri yanked even harder on his right cheek.

  Haruyuki hurriedly shook his head back and forth. “N-nohhing!”

  Fortunately, the elevator had reached the twenty-first floor at that point, and the door in front of them slid open.

  “’K-kay, Chiyu, see you tomorr—”

  “We’re not done talking,” she said with a frown as she stepped out into the hall, Haruyuki’s cheek still pinched between her fingers. He was forced to follow her.

  “H-hey, I’m on twenty-thr—”

  “I know that! Another thing I hate is ending a conversation in the middle of it. We’ll finish up in my room.”

  “Wh-what?!”

  Haruyuki reeled as the elevator door closed behind him.

  Since the hands of the clock had moved around to six PM, the instant they set foot in the entryway of the Kurashima home, captivating sounds and smells crashed into his senses.

  And what makes this mellow and yet invigorating sour smell is—yeah, sweet-and-sour pork! he guessed, when the door on the left side of the hallway opened and Chiyuri’s mother, Momoe, popped her head out.

  “Welcome hom— Oh! Haru!” she cried, clutching a ladle in her hands.

  “Th-thanks for having me.” Haruyuki bowed his head.

  A smile split her face in half, and her words came fast and furious, like machine-gun fire. “Thank goodness! I cooked too much food, and I was just worrying about what to do with it all. It’s always like this with sweet-and-sour pork and chop suey. I just know it’s because the wok is so big. Right, you’re okay with pineapple in the sweet-and-sour pork, aren’t you, Haru? It’s not Chii’s favorite these days, but I’m the cook, so she doesn’t get a say.”

  “I’m glad to be home…Mom, you keepin’ an eye on the stove?”

  Chiyuri asked the question quietly, and a hand flew to her mother’s mouth. She ducked back into the kitchen with an “Oh, shoot!”

  Letting out a sigh, Chiyuri stepped up from the entryway, grabbed some slippers with a blue bear appliqué, and set them before Haruyuki. She slipped pink rabbit slippers on her own feet and took a step forward to make space for him.

  “…Eat the pineapples in mine, okay, Haru?”

  “……Okay.” He put on the slightly too-small slippers and followed Chiyuri to the room at the end of the hall.

  The furnishings were simple, and the room was basically unchanged from the last time he’d visited—there were several large cushions of various colors on the floor and bed.

  After setting her bag down next to her desk, Chiyuri undid the ribbon at her throat and sighed again. “Aaah. It’s so humid. I get tired of being so damp every day.”

  “Well, it’s the rainy season, after all. If you think about a Primeval Forest stage…” Haruyuki said, settling himself down on a starfish cushion on the floor.

  “I hate that stage,” Chiyuri said curtly, and then she peeled back the thin terry-cloth blanket on her bed as if having thought of something. She abruptly tossed this over Haruyuki’s head and announced, “If you move an inch, I’ll feed you to a giant snail in the Primeval Forest stage.”

  “Huh? Wh-what’re you doing?”

  “Come on! Don’t move!”

  His field of view closed off by the creamy white fabric, Haruyuki had no choice but to freeze. Soon, he heard the soft sound of fabric rubbing against fabric. This went on for about five seconds before he realized finally that Chiyuri was changing out of her uniform.

  Wh-what are you thinking?!

  And then:

  Just you? No fair! I want to change, too!

  While he was struggling to decide which of these he should shout, the blanket covering his head, through some deviation in weight, began to slip forward bit by bit. If it had been sliding backward, he could have grabbed onto the fabric in front of him to stop it, but given that it was sliding forward, his task was hard to accomplish with only small movements at his disposal. On the other hand, if he made any significant movements, it would fall completely and he would be dinner for an enormous snail.

  Sounds like snap, snap continued to come from the outside world, and he had no idea what exactly was going on. The edge of the blanket finally reached the back of his head; it was only a matter of time before it passed the top of his head.

  It’s not my fault. It’s Chiyu’s for not balancing it properly when she threw it on me! Crying out in his heart, Haruyuki waited for the final moment. After about five seconds, the fabric flopped to the ground with a loud fwup, and waiting on the other side of it was Chiyuri in white shorts, with a green T-shirt pulled down to just above her stomach.

  His childhood friend’s arms snapped to a stop, and she looked at his exposed face with cold eyes. “I’m looking forward to the next Primeval Forest stage,” she announced, yanking down her shirt.

  “…So to get back to what we were talking about,” Chiyuri said, sitting on the edge of her bed. “You think you can get the ability?”

  Haruyuki, sitting on the starfish cushion formally for some reason, started to offer up the same ambiguous answer as he had in the elevator. But he stopped himself and cocked his head slightly instead. “I-it’s like…I’m surprised you’re asking about this. You’re that interested in the Metatron mission?”

  “What? I am a member of Nega Nebulus, you know.”

  “I know, but, like, it’s not Dusk Taker and the Armor of Catastrophe. This isn’t just about Negabu, you know? From your usual thinking, I thought you’d actually get mad at the Six Kings for pushing this on us…”

  For a moment, Chiyuri seemed to be deciding whether or not to get angry at this, but then, for some reason, her cheeks turned red. “Qu-quit it. I mean, talking like you’ve seen right through me…But, well, you’re right.”

  “Huh?”

  “When I heard about the meeting of the Seven Kings, I was actually a little annoyed. You worked so hard and had just finished purifying the Armor, and here they were pushing you to take on this serious role in the vanguard of a mission to take down a Legend-class Enemy! But, like, I…I saw it with you, and Taku too, and all.”

  Rather unusually, Haruyuki immediately understood what the pronoun “it” meant: the main body of the ISS kits they had seen in the Brain Burst central server, also known as the main visualizer. The jet-black brain eating into a corner of a beautiful galaxy. Even if he tried, he could never forget the way it reached out with countless blood vessel–like circuits to connect with all the kit users, including Takumu, to carry out its abominable parallel processing.

  “It hasn’t even been three months since I became a Burst Linker,” Chiyuri said. “And there’ve been all kinds of hard things, but I like the Accelerated World. The duels are fun, and I’ve made lots of friends. So…I hate that something evil is eating away at that world. If you want to get rid of the ISS kits of your own will, then I’m rooting for you. And I’m sure there’ll be s
omething I can do. Although I can’t use light techniques.”

  “…Chiyu…” Something abruptly pushed up in his heart, and Haruyuki desperately swallowed it back. Blinking both eyes rapidly, he took a deep breath before bowing his head. “…Thanks. I…I love the Accelerated World, too. And yeah, I’m scared of Metatron, but I figure if I’ve got a chance at defending against that laser, then I’ve got to give it a try.” He lifted his head and grinned.

  “I mentioned this before, but I’ve got kind of a hint at least. I learned some stuff from Izeki and Shinomiya. And even in the duel with Cerberus, I feel like I realized something important. It’s probably no good to think only about repelling the laser. The ultimate mirror can’t just be a slab with a high reflectance.”

  Speaking as though in a dream, Haruyuki didn’t notice Chiyuri’s gaze cooling sharply halfway through.

  “Hey, Haru?”

  “Rather than a physical presence, it’s actually a passage— Huh? What?”

  “Ui’s one thing. But why is Izeki coming up here? You’re just in the Animal Care Club together, right?”

  “Huh? Oh, well, um. Sh-she showed me a mirror. She’s got this hand mirror that seems super expensive, you know? It’s so different from the ones they sell at the canteen, I was actually surprised. Ha-ha-ha!”

  “If you’re looking for a proper mirror, I have one, you know!”

  “I—I guess you would.” Haruyuki twisted his index fingers together, and Chiyuri suddenly stood up from the bed, stomped past him, and left the room. She’s not actually going to get a mirror from somewhere, is she? But there’s a huge full-length mirror in the room already, he mused, before she returned less than a mere minute later.

  In her hands was not a mirror, but glasses of barley tea set on a tray. She placed one in front of Haruyuki. “Mom says it’s another fifteen minutes until supper. That should be plenty of time.”

  “S-sorry? Plenty of time for what?”

  “I was thinking about stuff yesterday, like maybe there was some other way to practice repelling a laser. I mean, you can’t just get Niko to hit you with her guns every time, right? And I thought up something good.”