Accel World: Dusk Robber

  A few seconds later, he felt that Chiyuri's body leave him momentarily to check outside.

  She soon returned, and after turning towards Haruyuki's face, said with only her lips moving.

  —Right now, get out!

  Haruyuki held his breath, and nodded without even able to say thanks to Chiyuri's quick wit, then unsteadily stepped out of the booth.

  He only glared at the exit, and desperately moved his tense body in a half bent posture one step, two step forward. If he fell here— or some other girls came in....

  That kind of thinking almost made him faint, but miraculously his feet did not tangle, and Haruyuki succeeded in escaping from the shower room. After a short run past the U-shaped bend, he reached the separation area between the boy's and girl's sides, then leaned his lost strength back on the wall.

  Strength left his legs, and he was going to sit down like that, but the sudden eruption of anger prevented that.

  "...Bastard...!"

  After that shout in his mouth, he lifted his head, and charged towards the actual male shower room on the opposite side of the hallway.

  —However. In the pale bluish grey colored space, there was no one there. There was no sign of the shower booths being used. Probably, at the time of Haruyuki's intrusion into the girl's side, Noumi had already left.

  "...Shit."

  With that groan, Haruyuki hit the wall behind him with a *bang*.

  About two hours later, in his apartment's 22nd floor's Kurashima house, in Chiyuri's room.

  Haruyuki pushed his forehead directly onto the floor.

  "Excuse me, sorry, my bad, really sorry!!"

  Not sure how many times the words of apology, that he kept repeating.

  The owner of the room, while sitting on the edge of the bed in her school uniform with arms crossed, continued to release intense killing intent. After letting in Haruyuki, who came visiting to apologize, she had not said anything, but that was even more fearful.

  What he had done, was really too true to be funny level of atrocity, he had fully realized that— or supposed to. However, the true size of the shock on Chiyuri was something a male like Haruyuki could not fully share or understand.

  Anyhow, her stark naked body, was seen at a very close distance of at most one meter.

  Needless to say, this is already a bigger crime than last year's Takumu putting a virus in Chiyuri's Neuro Linker. It was different than going into the bath at the same time when they were young. Yes, everything was different. The collarbone that clearly stood out, the line of the greater pectoral muscle that connected her shoulder and chest, and the unexpectedly voluminous pure white—

  "...You are remembering it, right."

  That sudden low sound echo, made Haruyuki jumped about 1cm up while in his kneeling position.

  "No, I haven't remembered, didn't remember!"

  "You're lying, your ears are all red. Let me warn you, if you use that for something weird, then till your memory is gone, in that... what was it, oh yeah, «Unlimited Neutral Field», I will make you dive there. About 100 years worth."

  Haruyuki jumped again with that.

  "I-I won't use it, I won't!"

  —To tell the truth, if Haruyuki was forced to use «Unlimited Burst» command here, and he was monitored for 1 hour like that, then over 40 days would have passed inside. The picture stored inside his brain would have been mostly distorted without a doubt.

  However, over that time he would be chased around by other Burst Linkers or «Enemy», and other than loss of memory, he would have succumb to exhaustion, so Haruyuki desperately shook his head.

  "Forgot it, super forgot it!"

  "...Well, what kind of penance I want from Haru, I will think about that deeply later. That, I will put it on hold for now."

  With a snorting sound from her nose, she threw something fluffy at Haruyuki's head. When he glanced up, he saw that it was a large doll cushion.

  "You can stop kneeling, just sit."

  "Ye...Yes."

  With a nod, he picked up the cushion. He thought it was an elephant, but the nose was short, and there were three pairs making six legs.

  "Wh-What's this?"

  "It's a waterbear. The strongest living thing on earth... Hey, instead of that! The reason why you sneaked into the girl's shower was a virus's fault, and the person who put it there was some kid named Noumi, that talk... Is it true?"

  Haruyuki hurriedly sat properly on top of the strange living thing, and kept nodding.

  "Wi-Without a doubt. For sure I went into the male marked side shower. No matter what kind of goofy alien I am, I would not have mistaken pink and blue markings."

  "But, when did he put that in you? You did not even talk to Noumi right?"

  "Ye...Yeah."

  He slowly nodded.

  Actually, the route the virus was put into him was all a mystery. It would be contact with his Neuro Linker in the one week between the school entrance ceremony and today, but Haruyuki himself could not think of any chance for that.

  If he was able to examine the virus itself, then he might be able to find the time that it was put there, but no matter how much he checked the physical memory, he could not discover any strange program. After looking at the Neuro Linker activity log, he found out that right after he entered the female shower room, a trace was left of an unknown file automatically erased. Since he did not remember doing that himself, then probably, the virus was activated and reached it's goal— that meant after filling Haruyuki's view with those markings, it was set to self destruct.

  "But then..."

  Chiyuri's thick eyebrows wrinkled, and she tilted her head.

  "If he could do that, then why did he not totally destroy Haru's Neuro Linker OS, or erase the «Brain Burst» program? If his goal is to stop you from «duels», then wouldn't that be more effective?"

  "No matter what, viruses cannot destroy system files. The most it could do is use functions for pranks. And also, for the Brain Burst program itself, once a person becomes a Burst Linker, he could download it from anyone else. Without that, upgrading the Linker would not be possible. Of course, you would have to put the core card in the new Linker..."

  After that rebuttal, Haruyuki also wrinkled his face.

  "No, but... to tell the truth, if he could use high level skill of replacing sight and sound, then instead of prank level, he could have used more wild methods... For example, like replacing the road crossing red signal with blue signal, and full sensory masking of the racing cars, then he could even kill me...?"

  "Ki-Kill...?"

  After that involuntary shout, Chiyuri held her mouth with her hand to prevent her mother that should be in the living room from noticing, and once again said.

  "Kill, hey you, what are you saying!? Th-That's not game talk."

  Here, Haruyuki could only weakly smile and shook his head.

  "Brain Burst is a game but not a game. For guys like Noumi who use «Acceleration» for status in the real world, they will do anything to protect their power. Think about it, if it was not you who came out of the shower booth there, and it was some other girl, then now I..."

  "...Would be in the police station, right."

  With a belated shiver on her back, Chiyuri whispered.

  "But... Then, from now on, that Noumi guy would set more traps for us like that? Not only Haru... Ta-kun, Kuroyuki-senpai, and me also would be targeted...?"

  "No, I won't let him behave like that."

  Trying to sweep away Chiyuri's unease, Haruyuki interrupted with unaccustomed tone.

  "After understanding that guy's attitude, we will no longer just wait and see. Maybe tomorrow, Taku and I will go after that guy. Though it's not my choice... if necessary, even with forced direct connection, we will expose the secret of why he did not appear on the matching list."

  "...Haru..."

  However, Chiyuri still looked depressed as she bit her lips, and her face lowered.

  "I... somehow, don't like it. I feel some
thing is wrong. It's just a game... but Haru, Ta-kun, and Noumi also, don't seem to be having fun at all."

  "Th-That's not true."

  He hurriedly shook his head, but at the same time thought that it was not unreasonable for her to think like that.

  Since Chiyuri is a rare avatar, that is «Recovery Type», she had not even once experienced the normal «Duel». That field's width and detail, the battle's excitement and the exhilaration of winning, he wanted a lot to show her that quickly, but that would have to wait till Kuroyukihime returned to Tokyo one week later.

  "At-At least for me, I changed after meeting Brain Burst... I also had a heart to heart talk with Taku, and I feel that my slavishness parameter had gone down a little..."

  After hearing those non-connecting words, Chiyuri quickly blinked, then showed a smile with deep meaning.

  "...Well, that might be true. If it was Haru from before, after seeing me naked, you would have surely ran away for a month without even apologizing to me."

  Ugh.

  At the end of those words, that problematic picture again reappeared inside his brain, so to hide his heated face, Haruyuki again kneeled down.

  "Excuse me, sorry, my bad, really sorry!!"

  "Stop that already!"

  Again another cushion came flying, hitting his head.

  Continuing after that, what a returned sharp tongue, Chiyuri announced in a low tone.

  "Also, let me warn you. That shower room incident, if you tell Ta-kun, then this time for sure I will blow you away. I will also tell Kuroyuki-senpai afterward."

  "Wha?"

  Haruyuki suddenly froze.

  To be truthful, he did not plan to leak this to Kuroyukihime, but he thought about reporting this to Takumu after this apology.

  "Ta...Taku also?"

  "Of course, what were you thinking of?!!"

  While getting hit with the third cushion on his head, Haruyuki thought, So it's matter of course.... But, if it's like that, how would he explain Noumi's attack? No, he should only report that he had been mislead to the female shower room, then he would not have to say anything about running into Chiyuri there.

  While feeling somewhat shameful for keeping a secret from his best friend and comrade, Haruyuki took a deep breath, and shook that away.

  Right now is not the time to drag that shower room incident out.

  That, was a declaration of war from Noumi. In the war that was going to begin, they would need all of their concentration. And then if possible, he would like to have this problem solved before Kuroyukihime returned from Okinawa. He would not want to expose that level 9 person to danger.

  While listening to himself saying that, Haruyuki left the Kurashima house, and returned to his home two floors above.

  However, Haruyuki was mistaken. He did not see that he was already in a situation with no way to turn around.

  Before he realized that, the war had already begun, and it also ended.

  Chapter 7

  "It's game over, Arita-senpai... no, Silver Crow."

  Those were the first words from Noumi Seiji when Haruyuki first met him.

  The front entrance of Umesato middle school was on the east side, with the north side shaped like the top of 工 character. The north section was the special classes building, and the south section is the normal classes building, with two empty blocks divided by the sports building in the middle. The east block is the «Front Courtyard», and the west block is called the «Central Courtyard».

  That central courtyard has many old camphor and oak trees stretching their branches profusely to all sides, so it is dim even at noon. Without any bench or grassy area, most students don't go near there, and it was not setup with social cameras.

  When Haruyuki received the call to go there by Noumi using type email, it was right after the ending of the first class on Monday morning. After seeing at the end of the short message composed with small font saying "Come alone", Haruyuki looked at the back of Takumu that sat to the right front of him.

  Haruyuki hadn't conveyed the shower room incident from yesterday to Takumu, after all.

  It was fine to explain up till having a virus put into him, and rushing into the female side, but to explain how he managed to survive that, he would have to touch on the fact that he had encountered Chiyuri. But Chiyuri herself had forbidden him to speak about the incident, so no matter what he said to hide that would be a lie.

  He did not want to lie to Takumu at all.

  But he also understood why Chiyuri would not want to be shamed more than she already had been.

  While he was moaning, due to being caught in the dilemma of the two opposing situations, that was when he got Noumi's message.

  Unavoidably, Haruyuki decided that he would have to leave reporting to Takumu till after the direct meeting was over. Since the email clearly said to come alone. If Takumu was with him, Noumi might not appear.

  The time specified was from the start of the 20 minute break between the 2nd and 3rd period class, which was when Haruyuki stood up from his seat and jumped out into the hallway. He went down the stairs, reclaimed his sneakers from the shoe box, and from the gravel path beside the gym, stepped into the central courtyard.

  It was not a place with good memories for him. Since it was outside the social cameras' range, so while he was in first year, he was called here many times by groups of bullies. After being pushed, he would fall on his behind on top of the damp fallen leaves, with nothing else other than being miserable.

  —But, that was all in the past. The me right now, is different from the me of those days.

  While whispering that inside, he walked towards a big Mongolian oak standing in the center of the gloomy woods.

  With a *crunch* small footstep sound, a human shadow appeared in that direction, and faced Haruyuki.

  Haruyuki who thought that he would absolutely be the first the arrive, was slightly taken aback by the opponent at that moment, and his right foot took half a step back.

  Seeing Noumi Seiji face to face, he noticed that he definitely had a very small build. Compared to Haruyuki who was somewhat shorter than the class average, he was another 10cm shorter. His limbs, trunk, and his dark grey Neuro Linker equipped neck was small like a child's. Their difference in weight were probably near two times.

  His face too, was so childlike that you would mistake him for a girl. Haruyuki should have remembered this face from the photo that Takumu sent him, but for a moment, he doubted whether this really was the opponent that set that ruthless trap for him.

  With clean cut soft looking hair waving, Noumi made a slight bow. On his eyes with long eyelashes, and his small mouth, a smile appeared—

  "It's game over, Arita-senpai... no, Silver Crow."

  Noumi Seiji said that.

  "Wh...Wh-What?"

  Being caught on the wrong foot, Haruyuki could only inquire with those words.

  While still smiling, Noumi shook his delicate shoulders, and said once more.

  "That is, winner decided. It's my win, senpai."

  "Wi-Win what...?"

  After taking a large breath, and revived his thought, Haruyuki glared at his opponent.

  "We haven't had a «Duel» yet. That's because you used some kind of trick to not appear on the matching list."

  "That is no longer necessary, the duel. Since I have this."

  Noumi took his right hand out of his pocket, and lightly manipulated his virtual desktop. In Haruyuki's view, an accept file confirmation holo dialogue lit up.

  "Please don't worry, I haven't put a virus or anything like that in it."

  "..."

  Even being told that, Haruyuki could not believe it immediately, so he glared at Noumi with doubtful eyes, and slowly asked.

  "...You, how did you put a view masker into my Neuro Linker?"

  "Hmm, you noticed that much, huh? Then, I will tell you the spoiler as a reward. The photo, it's the photograph! Mayuzumi-senpai sent it to you right?"

  "Ph...Photograp
h?"

  After being told, Haruyuki belatedly realized it. It was the kendo club first year student group photo that he got from Takumu yesterday. Right before he opened the file, he clearly remembered that the data size was relatively large.

  "That, embedded in my nametag. The Neuro Linker's photo viewer, and the Augmented Reality information display use the same engine. Hiding a program that does a bit of view manipulation with it is easy."

  Noumi explained while smiling, but for Haruyuki who finally had a bit of a grasp on programing, he did not think that was possible to make with just shallow skill level.

  Probably Noumi is also similar to Kuroyukihime and «Red King» Niko, with an outer appearance not matching mental age level of veteran Burst Linker. He could not be underestimated for being younger.

  While listening to his inner self saying so, Haruyuki this time started virus checkers other than the default ones, and fearfully accepted the file that Noumi sent over.

  What was instantly sent over, seemed to be a short video. Before playing, he checked that there were no inconsistencies in the file size with the video quality and length. Then with stiff lips, he tapped the icon with his fingertip.

  A rectangle replay window opened up fully in his view.

  The video that was shown, was crisp even with a bit of noise. It was capturing a place that seem like a school hallway from a high viewpoint.

  It seem to be underground, with no window on left and right sidewalls. The hallway did not seem to be too long, and on the left side of the wall right in front, was an entrance and exit with no door.

  The inside of that area was soon split left and right, with two markings on the wall in between. Blue color for male use, and pink color for female use. That was—

  The entrance to the shower rooms below the gym.

  After realizing that, Haruyuki could clearly predict the scene that the video would show. At the same time, goose bumps rose on his two arms and back.

  One second later, from the lower right portion of the view, a stubby male student came into the frame. Shaggy and poorly organized hair. Aluminum silver Neuro Linker.