Fortunately, the Beast was still lightly dozing, leaving Haruyuki’s body to himself. As long as he didn’t fight any more than he already had, it wouldn’t wake during this duel. As he set himself down on the left side of the wide hood, swinging his legs a little, Haruyuki very patiently waited for Ash to speak.
Finally.
“So like, this is just Master Raker’s guess, ’kay?” The slightly abrupt nature of the words shook the gloom of the Century End stage. “Like, maybe the memories us Burst Linkers have of fighting and talking like this in the Accelerated World, like, none of ’em are stored in our actual brains.”
“H-huh?! If our memories aren’t saved in our brains, then where exactly do they…?!” Baffled, Haruyuki shouted out this much before clamping his mouth shut. He opened it again and ever-so-timidly gave voice to his thoughts. “Is it…in the Neurolinker…maybe?”
“Yup. ’Course, not the lock, stock, barrel, everything. Just, like, a part like the key, something you need to replay the whole pile of memories, that’s not in your brain but in your Neurolinker. Or that’s what Master’s thinking, anyway.”
Haruyuki took a moment to digest what Ash was saying, and then immediately shook his head back and forth. “B-but that doesn’t make sense. I mean, then we wouldn’t remember anything about the Accelerated World when we took our Neurolinkers off.”
“Take our Neurolinkers off? But, Crow, where does it come off?”
“Y-your neck, of course.”
“Ding, ding! Your neck. Not your head, not your brain. Those little machines, they’re wirelessly connected to our brains.” Ash Roller stopped and tapped on the crown of his own head, the top of his helmet, with leather-gloved fingers. “Totally true, it won’t start or signal or anything unless you got it strapped to your neck, right? But, like, that’s ’cos it measures distance from your brain or your spine and locks up. You know something? I didn’t know until Master came and told me. But before the Neurolinkers went on sale, this big experimental machine, Soul—something or other…But that thing could connect to a brain ten meters away.”
“T-t-ten meters?!” Stunned once more, Haruyuki flapped his mouth beneath his silver mask.
If that were true—and if that capacity existed in the current Neurolinkers, there was no need to equip the machine neatly at the medulla oblongata. Couldn’t you just put it on your arm or your chest or even just in a pocket or bag, somewhere easy to carry around, take it on and off?
I mean, for someone sweaty like me, it’s so hot in the summer, I hate it. I keep putting all those inner pads in the mesh, but they just get soaked, and when I was in elementary, they used to call me “Ari-duh the Sweat Cloth” and tease me so hard…
“N-no, not just that.” Kicking the sad memories out of his brain, Haruyuki earnestly set his thoughts back on track. “Umm. So, so, then that means— Is this what you’re saying, Ash? Even when we take our Neurolinkers off our necks, they’re secretly communicating with our brains, and so we can replay our memories of the Accelerated World? Is that it?”
“That’s Master’s theory, at least. But, like…There’s no other real way to explain why I’m here like this as me right now, y’ know.”
Haruyuki swallowed hard and timidly confirmed in a hoarse voice. “So then…you really aren’t Ri—I mean, Rin Kusakabe’s older brother, the former ICGP rider, Rinta Kusakabe…are you?”
The answer took at least a full ten seconds to come back to him.
“Dunno.” Ash Roller stared down at the leather gloves on his hands, studded with dull silver rivets, finally opening and closing them, backs turned up, as if testing out how they felt. “Like they say, ‘I got no clue.’”
This was a slightly unexpected reply. Because hadn’t he definitely referred to Rin as his little sister before? Haruyuki’s doubtful eyes upon him, the rider connected his words in faltering groups.
“At least…I got no memory of being a charmed, cursed GP rider in the real world. Actually, I have zero memories of anything before I became a Burst Linker. My very first memory is…watching this duel avatar fight awkwardly.”
“Huh? W-watching? From the outside?”
“Yup. In that first duel, the one making this thing move was definitely my baby sis, that kid Rin. And then I watched her from close up. Not the Gallery, man. Whaddayacallit, like a guardian spirit? I was right up close, all see-through, kinda floaty.”
Unconsciously, Haruyuki froze with a start. As he glanced at Ash Roller’s skull face, the sort of thing that would make a kid cry if they saw it, a hoarse voice slipped out of him. “A—a ghost?”
“N-no way, man! I’m no legless ghost! I got two long and hella cool legs, don’t I! I mean, if I didn’t have no legs, I couldn’t brake or shift or nothing!!” The heels of the black riding boots kicked at the front bumper of the American car that doubled as their bench, and the rusted license plate peeled off and fell to the floor before shattering into polygonal pieces and disappearing. “A-anyway. In the first duel, I was just floating there, thinking, what the hell’s this kid Rin fumbling around like that for? That was the very first thought of me sitting here talking with you now. I watched her control the bike, just awkward as hell, and, y’know, I could hardly stand it. I came up and got on behind her, like, I was gonna tell her, this is how you ride a bike, man. But then before I knew it…”
“You became one?” Haruyuki asked timidly, and Ash shook his helmet slowly.
“I…Honestly, I don’t actually get what exactly I am, man. All I know’s the one who made this duel avatar is my ‘little sis’ Rin Kusakabe. So that prob’ly means I’m Rin’s ‘big bro,’ yeah? But like, what the hell is his deal, y’ know? Is Rinta Kusakabe, sleeping in a hospital somewhere all this time, connected to her Neurolinker super-long-distance, talking to you like this? Or am I, like, a virtual personality the kid Rin made up to fight in this world? I think about it all the damned time, and I get nowhere…” A small sigh.
Swinging tough boots back and forth like a little kid, the mysterious rider continued his monologue. “If the virtual personality thing’s right, then, like, that means this person I am doesn’t really exist. But, like, Crow. I think that way’s seriously better, y’know?”
“Huh? Th-that’s—I mean, if that’s—then, at some point…” The Ash Roller of this moment might disappear.
Haruyuki swallowed the words in his mouth, but Ash seemed to have heard them loud and clear.
“That works,” he said, almost whispering as he nodded slightly. “I mean, look, if I am the real Rinta Kusakabe…then, like, that means that even though my dream of being a champion rider burned up and vanished in an accident, I can’t give up on those tires—the ashes, they gotta roll, so I’m, like, using my baby sis Rin’s mind—nah, man, her soul, right? Like, age-wise, I totally ain’t qualified to be a Burst Linker, but here I am taking my sis over, wheeling around all super caz on my bike in the Accelerated World, yeah? And that’s craptown, man. Like, she…she should have her own road to race down, y’know.”
Ash started to bring a tightly clenched fist down forcefully onto his own knees. But Haruyuki reflexively caught his wrist with his right hand.
“No. That’s not it, Ash.” He shook his silver helmet from side to side several times. “It’s not like…we’re fighting here in the Accelerated World to make up for things we lost or dreams we gave up on in the real world. We’re doing it to face our own scars and weaknesses, and accept them so we can move forward again. That’s what we’re here for. Regardless of whether or not you’re the real Rinta Kusakabe, you exist right here, right now! You exist, and you’ve had hundreds of duels with me and other Burst Linkers! That alone…Those memories at least can’t be fantasies or illusions!”
Although he was the one talking, Haruyuki wasn’t too sure of the point he was trying to make.
Maybe this Burst Linker Ash Roller was a sort of miracle produced by the combination of Rin Kusakabe, a girl who adored her comatose older brother, and the Neurolinker th
at the older brother Rinta had used. In which case, because of the inherent instability of the miracle, he might at some point stop being the him he was now.
But…be that as it may, that didn’t change the fact that his opponent in his first fight, his first loss, his first win as Silver Crow, was Ash Roller. That at least was absolute.
Not knowing how to further put into words the things filling his heart, Haruyuki simply held tightly on to Ash’s wrist.
The motorcycle rider didn’t pull his arm back or push him away, but just silently stared at the hand of Silver Crow holding his own wrist. The hand that no longer had the slender, weak fingers of the past, but evil talons instead.
“I…Before, in the Unlimited Neutral Field, I was ready for total point loss.” Abruptly, a quiet voice. “The attack power of Olive Grab and those other five guys was overwhelming. I mean, even if I’d been up against Olive alone, I prob’ly wouldn’t have had a chance. I was trying to at least let Utan get away somehow, but I couldn’t do that, either. And I was thinking, Are we both gonna disappear from the Accelerated World here?”
“But, like, it’s one thing for me to disappear, when I don’t even know, like, whether I existed to begin with. But when I thought about U finally waking up, and even Rin, who’s somewhere in this avatar disappearing, I just hated it, y’know. But, like, then you came along. Even though you had to know that if you summoned the Armor of Catastrophe, who knew what’d happen to you…Still, you called that armor and rescued me and U with that power. That time, man…It was like, however it happened, me getting to be a Burst Linker, getting to fight in this world, I was lucky, yeah…”
The century-end rider had never once before dropped his wild and easy attitude before, and seeing him faltering however slightly here, Haruyuki felt a sharp pang in his heart again.
Ash swiped his right hand across the nose area of his skull mask, seemingly embarrassed, and his tone was back to normal as he continued, “That kid U, he said the same thing before we left through the portal. Said to say thanks to Silver Crow. And…‘Sorry, ya get me?’ Looks like he finally gets it, too. That, like, strength isn’t something someone can give you, yeah?”
“That’s true. Strength only comes from the process…losing over and over, forced to crawl, but never giving up and always looking up at the sky…the proof of strength,” Haruyuki murmured, as if sucked in.
Then Ash Roller twisted around the hand held captive by Silver Crow to catch hold of Crow’s wrist. Unwilling to have his own hand stared at now that it was transformed into those talons, Haruyuki reflexively tried to shake it off. But the black leather glove held fast, not budging an inch. Ash Roller stared at Haruyuki with serious eyes from behind the skull shield.
“Right. Master taught me that, too. But, like, Crow, I could say the same thing to you right now, man.”
“Huh? Me, right now?”
“Yeah. You’re thinking you can’t cut the Armor of Catastrophe from your duel avatar anymore, man. Just charging in to finish things off by finishing yourself off with it. Yeah?”
Ash’s words were so on the mark that all Haruyuki could do was nod slightly. Even while they were here like this, his spine tingled with the premonition that the Beast would wake up from its light sleep and try to run wild. If he awoke as the Disaster, Haruyuki might furiously attack Ash Roller. The only reason he was able to hold it in check and keep that from happening was because this was not the Unlimited Neutral Field, the Beast’s true hunting ground. And because there was no desire to fight in Haruyuki’s heart.
However, this precarious equilibrium could break down at any moment. If, hypothetically, Ash Roller launched just one serious punch filled with real enmity, Haruyuki—no, the Beast—would likely react. And each time he became the Disaster, the fusion grew deeper. He didn’t know where the point of no return was, but he had seen the example of the former Disaster, Cherry Rook; he knew it wouldn’t be too long before the Armor started to interfere mentally with Haruyuki Arita in the real world.
Which was exactly why Haruyuki had locked the door of his house and run off by himself. If the real Ash Roller, Rin Kusakabe, hadn’t caught him in the middle of the shopping mall, he would be flying into the Unlimited Neutral Field from some dive café somewhere right about now.
Perhaps picked up on Haruyuki’s thoughts, Ash hung his head for a moment. But he soon lifted his face again. “Crow,” he uttered in a quiet, but firm voice. “It’s not like I don’t get you thinking like that. But, like…It’s more like this? Like, turning into Chrome Disaster is one part of the process, man. I mean, the Armor lives in you, sure, but I can’t help thinking that it’s only part of the process, right? ’Cos you can break this curse going on forever in the Accelerated World. So, like, that’s why you were chosen. You could think of it like that.”
The instant he heard these words, deep in his ears, someone’s voice came to fleeting life from off in the distance.
It’s all right. I know you can do it, you of all people. You’re the one I’ve been waiting for all this time…
But Haruyuki closed his eyes beneath his silver mask and tried to wipe the voice from his memory. It was a baseless hunch, but he felt like the girl who had once spoken those words to Haruyuki didn’t appear when the Beast was excited. Which meant that unless the Armor of Catastrophe could be returned to its seed state, he wouldn’t see her again. And that was probably already impossible.
I betrayed her expectations, too.
Chewing on this bitter awareness, Haruyuki murmured, “It’s too bad, but…I don’t think I’m the one who can break the curse of the Catastrophe. I…When I saw you and Utan being attacked by Olive Grab and them, I felt this intense rage at your attackers, more than any desire to go help you. And, filled with that rage, I summoned the Armor. I moved on without waiting for you guys to regenerate because I probably would’ve attacked you if I had stayed there. Being able to talk with you normally like this is probably a one-in-a-million miracle.”
Even after Haruyuki closed his mouth, Ash Roller showed no reaction for a while. After nearly ten seconds, he released Silver Crow’s wrist and brought the leather gloves of both hands together between his knees.
“Just like how my sis—how Rin doesn’t have any clear memories of the Accelerated World, I only have this hazy idea of what the real her’s doing or thinking in the real world.” The words spilled out from the mouth of the downcast helmet.
Haruyuki couldn’t even begin to guess at what logic allowed the two minds of Rin and Rinta to coexist, so he stayed silent and opened his ears to that voice.
“So, like, I don’t actually know what Rin was thinking—what she wanted, challenging you to a direct duel. And she prob’ly didn’t expect this, either. I mean, she shouts the acceleration command, and the instant she lands in the duel field, control of the avatar shifts to this personality—to me. So basically, there’s only one thing I can do right now.” Ash Roller cut himself off here and turned his entire body toward Haruyuki, on the hood of the car.
With his right hand, he slowly raised the skull-patterned helmet shield. The “bare face” of the duel avatar that appeared from within had narrowish, pale-green eyes and a design somehow reminiscent of a delicate boy. With that face before him again, Haruyuki could indeed see a faint resemblance to the real-world Rin Kusakabe.
Haruyuki’s eyes shouldn’t have been visible from that side, but Ash stared into them with his own unmasked eyes, and then lowered his head deeply. “C’mon, you damned Crow,” he said quietly. “Silver Crow. Don’t go vanishing from the Accelerated World. You’re…hope. For Master Raker, who entrusted you with her dream of flying in the sky, and the members of Nega Nebulus, restored and growing stronger bit by bit, of course…but also for the hundreds of Burst Linkers who’ve dueled you up to now. Win or lose, they looked up at you flying forever like a bird in the sky of the stage.”
“Hope,” Haruyuki repeated in a voice that was not quite a voice.
“Yeah, hope.”
Ash nodded, head still lowered. “Still, I mean, it’s not like we’re putting all this…whatever, expectations, on you—like, you’ll prob’ly get to level nine, you’ll beat a king or whatever. Your wings are a unique power in the Accelerated World, but, like, no one thinks it’s some cheat, or a fake-out or whatever bending the rules of ‘same level, same potential.’ You…I dunno…”
His hoarse voice paused for a moment, before quickly continuing again. “We’re the same, you know. We started at level one, not knowing left from right, gradually getting stronger, sometimes on the verge of total point loss, sometimes getting crushed…And then when we’re totally kicked down and we sit down on the ground, we look up at the sky and there you are. Barely avoiding snipers or missiles or whatever, hands thrust out in front of you, you’re up there flying as hard as you can. And, like, in the evening, the light of the moon reflects on that shiny silver body, and it’s all…glittering brightly up there…Heh-heh, what am I even talking about?”
Ash Roller clenched his right hand and rubbed his own face roughly. Head obstinately still hanging, he continued to speak, albeit falteringly. “Anyway…When I see you up there flying, I feel like yeah, I can still fight a little. And it’s not just me, man. In the Hermes’ Cord race that time, all those hundreds of people in the Gallery who saw you Disasterfy, the reason they all decided not to say nothing, it’s ’cos everyone believes in you. They believe that you…you won’t be beaten by something like the Armor of Catastrophe, you’ll break free of the curse and all that, and then you’ll get back up in the sky, all happy like you do. So…so, like…”
Here, the biker finally lifted his face. The pale-green eyes were a little wet with drops of hazy light, and he could see that those eyes were very much like those of Rin Kusakabe staring at Haruyuki about to cry in the real world.