Exchanging a glance, the silent pair heard—
“Allow me to answer that question.”
—the clear, bright voice, like the wind blowing across the autumn sky, of a young boy.
4
Hearing this voice, Haruyuki was simply surprised and merely turned his head in the direction of the source—farther toward the north side of the two pedestals.
However, Utai Shinomiya’s reaction was different. She had no sooner released the hand she had been holding than she was pushing Haruyuki back with her palm. Stepping forward, she dropped into a stance with one leg in front and the other behind, raised her left hand slightly, and turned toward the gloom filling the depths of the hall.
An orange veil of light added a thin layer to the entire body of the slender shrine maiden avatar. Overlay—proof that she had activated the Incarnate System. But Utai had been one of the Four Elements of the former Nega Nebulus; there was no way she didn’t know the number one rule of the Incarnate System: that it must not be used unless you yourself have been attacked with Incarnate.
Utai manifesting the ultimate power of a Burst Linker at the stage when they couldn’t even see their opponent was perhaps to signal her firm intention to protect Haruyuki, even if she had to violate taboos. And the pressure being emitted by Ardor Maiden, which threatened to scorch even the air, made overwhelmingly clear the difference in actual power between her and Haruyuki.
If, hypothetically, it did turn into a fight on this level, he was only going to be in the way. Even as he acknowledged this, Haruyuki also raised his hands and focused his imagination, albeit belatedly. A silver overlay took up residence in fingers stretched out into the shape of a sword, and he somehow managed to make it cover the lower half or so of his arm.
As they braced themselves, completely prepared for battle, the voice came at them again. “I apologize for my rudeness. But please believe me. I haven’t the slightest intention of fighting you.”
He felt like there wasn’t any malice in the voice—somehow more refreshing now—just as it proclaimed. However, Utai didn’t drop her guard even slightly.
“Then you should first show yourself,” she responded firmly, and enhanced her overlay as if trying to push aside the darkness beyond. Remembering that this light flickering in the red spectrum became, with the shrine maiden’s dance, a conflagration raging through the field, Haruyuki held his breath.
“Understood. I’m coming toward you now,” the owner of the voice replied, and they heard the high-pitched sound of footfalls.
From the depths of the hall, a stride that seemed to deliberately sound against the floorboards drew nearer. The flames of the candles lined up along the walls on either side flickered in unison, despite the lack of wind.
Tak, tak. The approaching steps couldn’t have been more than fifteen meters away from them. Completely within range for a long-distance or a nimble-type duel avatar. Yet the other person stepped forward at a steady pace, the atmosphere around him tense.
Finally, his figure appeared in the light of the candles.
Blue. A perfectly clear azure, the depths of a lake, the heavens seen from above the clouds. Just like the boy Haruyuki had imagined from the voice, the duel avatar was fairly small, perhaps a little taller than Ardor Maiden. But there was no hint of her delicacy.
Limbs covered in a thick armor reminiscent of kimono sleeves and hakama pants, long, bound hair parts stretching out from the back of his head to below his waist. The face mask peeking out from beneath a front fringe was immature and imposing. The overall impression was Japanese; if Ardor Maiden was a shrine maiden, then he was a young samurai.
As if to own that particular description, a short-range Enhanced Armament hung from his left hip. It had an elliptical guard and a slender hilt. While you would call it more katana than sword, there was essentially no curvature to the blade itself. The whole thing was silver like a mirror, and the way countless lights flickered in the reflection of the blue of the avatar made it seem like the infinite starry sky had been compressed into the shape of a katana.
The young samurai stopped about ten meters from them and placed his left hand on the katana’s scabbard. Utai’s readied hands did twitch, but the next instant, he removed the Enhanced Armament, complete with scabbard, with a light metallic clink. Placing the katana at his feet on the floor, the unarmed samurai spread out both hands in the air and indicated Haruyuki and Utai.
“As you can see, I do not intend to fight.” A quiet voice.
If the boy who lived inside that duel avatar was equipped with the personality of the swordsman he appeared to be, then laying the katana—his soul—down on the ground was a definite display of his nonhostile intentions.
At basically the same time Haruyuki had this thought, Utai slowly lowered her hand. The overlay blanketing her body abruptly melted away into the air.
“We shall trust that,” Utai responded, so readily that Haru almost cried out in surprise behind her. Haruyuki hurried to similarly release his readied hands. He had felt it when they were up against Bush Utan as well, but this girl was apparently fairly quick to decide whether or not she trusted someone.
The young samurai avatar softened clear eye lenses brimming with blue light and let out a small sigh. A voice that was even calmer flowed out from him. “Thank goodness. The truth is, I was incredibly nervous about what I should do if you intended to fight.”
“What?” This time, Haruyuki couldn’t keep a cry of surprise from slipping out and continued with an impression that was the slightest bit rude. “S-someone who could make it all the way to a place like this…even now, acting like a newbie…”
The young samurai grinned before offering new surprises. “No, I am a complete newbie. I mean, from the time I became a Burst Linker until now, I’ve never once fought a normal duel.”
The navy samurai, having picked up his katana from the floor and attached it to his waist once more, led Utai and Haruyuki to one of the candle stands lining the wall to the left.
On both sides of the flickering candles, thick wooden bars protruded from the wall in the shape of benches. The samurai sat on one, while Haruyuki and Utai sat on one across from him, and a brief silence fell upon them.
Haruyuki muttered, “Excuse me,” and touched on his own HP gauge to call up the main window. The continuous dive time was more than seven hours. An hour and a half had already passed since they infiltrated the inner sanctuary of the Castle, and if Kuroyukihime and the others in the real world were in fact waiting thirty seconds before they cut Haruyuki’s and Utai’s global connection, then they probably had about an hour left.
At the same time as he closed the window, the samurai-like boy avatar seated before him shook his head slightly. “To be honest, I feel like I still can’t believe it. That the time would actually come when I would meet someone in this palace…”
Haruyuki was just as surprised. But there were too many things he wanted explained, and he didn’t know where exactly he should start asking questions. Who are you, where did you enter the Castle, how did you get to this hall, and what do you mean you’ve never dueled even though you had the power to make it this far…
While an infinity of words whirled around in his mind, Utai next to him lowered her head in a bow. “My name is Ardor Maiden. I belong to the Legion Nega Nebulus.”
R-right, first introductions! Haruyuki hurriedly bowed. “Also a member of Nega Nebulus, Silver Crow.”
“Nega Nebulus…” The young samurai blinked exaggeratedly as though it were the first time he was hearing the name, before abruptly snapping to attention. He seemed to fumble for words for a moment. Before Haruyuki had the chance to frown in puzzlement, the other avatar bowed awkwardly and offered his own name. “Oh, excuse me. I should have introduced myself sooner. I’m Trilead Tetroxide. Please call me Lead.”
“Trilead…” Rolling the name around in his mouth, Haruyuki mentally cocked his head. According to the rules of duel avatar naming, that should have
been a word describing the armor color, but was that actually a way of saying navy or indigo? He glanced at Utai next to him.
She appeared to be considering the name as well, but she soon nodded crisply. “Well then, we will call you Lead.” A beat later: “Lead. You were the one who broke the Suzaku seal on the south gate from the inside of the Castle, weren’t you?”
Haruyuki threw his head back in surprise after the extremely heavy question slipped smoothly from the shrine maiden’s mouth.
The young samurai Trilead was equally surprised. His deep blue eye lenses flickered several times before he looked up, abashed for some reason, and quietly asked, “Why would you think that?”
“To destroy an object with such a high level of endurance as that in a mere two blows, even more than the technique of the person who did it, an appropriately high level Enhanced Armament would be necessary. Such as, for instance, the Seven Arc that you have on your hip right now, Lead.”
“Whaaat?!” This time, a fairly loud yelp of surprise snuck out of him, and as he hurriedly snapped his mouth shut, Haruyuki stared intently at the mirror-silver straightsword shining on the boy’s left hip. When he first saw it, he had figured it was no ordinary weapon, but he never dreamed it was one of the most powerful arms in the world. “Th-that’s an Arc? So then, the one that was on that pedestal over there, you—?” Haruyuki blurted, looking at the straight sword and each of the empty pedestals a dozen meters to the right in turn.
The young samurai turned his face to the ground, seemingly even more embarrassed. “Y-yes,” he replied in a small voice. “Please excuse me. Someone like me truly isn’t qualified to have this sword, but…
“The first time I saw it, I couldn’t restrain myself. I reached a hand out toward it…”
The boy, who was probably younger than Haruyuki, turned his entire body into an expression of apology, and Haruyuki, turning toward him, hurriedly waved his right hand back and forth as he shook his head.
“Oh! No! You totally don’t need to apologize. It’s only natural that the first person to find it would take it. Sorry. That came out all weird.” Haruyuki bowed his head neatly as he finished, and Lead timidly raised his face again to meet his eyes. The instant Haruyuki saw something like a shy smile rise up on that crisp face mask, a type of emotion that was extremely rare for him welled up in his heart.
He’s a good guy, this one.
The only other people he had felt this kind of sincere affection for upon first meeting were his childhood friends Takumu Mayuzumi and Chiyuri Kurashima. And despite the fact that this young samurai, Trilead, was, at the moment, an unknown Burst Linker encountering an unusual situation, Haruyuki got the feeling that if their selves in the real world were exposed, they’d definitely be good friends.
Abruptly feeling eyes on him, Haruyuki turned his gaze and met that of Ardor Maiden, also smiling faintly, and was suddenly embarrassed. He quickly gave voice to a very unassuming question. “Oh, um, Trilead…Which pedestal was that sword on? I think the one on the left was the fifth star of the Big Dipper, and the one on the right was the sixth.”
“Please, Lead is fine, Silver Crow.”
Lead grinned before replying, and Haruyuki hurried to add, “Th-then just call me Crow.”
But Lead bowed his head, noting that he was too much younger than Haruyuki to use a nickname. And before the silver avatar could protest, he began to explain. “This sword rested on the pedestal to the left, the epsilon star, gyokusho. It bears the inscription THE INFINITY.” Haruyuki and Utai shifted their eyes toward the center of the great hall, and Trilead continued, looking in the same direction. “Further, when I found this sword, the neighboring zeta kaiyou pedestal was already empty.”
“Huh.” Haruyuki nodded.
Utai spoke up. “I heard that the Arc Destiny appeared in the Accelerated World in the very beginning, before a full year had passed since Brain Burst was distributed to the first-generation Burst Linkers.”
“Huh? That long ago? So then I guess that means…the Burst Linker who got Destiny was the first person to enter the Castle? And Lead’s the second?” Unaware that he had unself-consciously used the younger Linker’s nickname, Haruyuki bent the fingers of his right hand. “Mei and me, we’re third and fourth? I dunno. For how impenetrable it’s supposed to be, that’s a lot of people getting in.”
The three exchanged glances and grinned at the same time.
But Lead’s face quickly became serious once more, and he shrank into himself apologetically. “It’s an honor to be counted among their number. But I’m sorry, I didn’t come in through the four gates like everyone else.”
“What? That’s…So then, that means you came over the moat or the cliff or…?” Haruyuki cocked his head to one side, but before he could ask what Lead actually meant, Utai opened her mouth.
“If that is so, then C and I were able to come inside precisely because you cut the seal for us, Trilead. That seal was likely set so that in the event that four squads assaulted the Four Gods simultaneously, as the former Nega Nebulus did, as long as the group could break through one of the gates, they could let the other squads in from inside the Castle. That is to say, if the seal had been intact, the door would not have opened, and we would definitely have been roasted alive by Suzaku.”
“Oh, I get it. So that’s it, huh?” He nodded deeply as his body shuddered at the memory of the molten flames pressing in on his back. He forgot his previous question and lobbed a new one at the young samurai. “So then, you broke the seal because you were going to escape from the Castle through it?”
“No, that is not…the case.” He denied Haruyuki’s suggestion in a voice tinged with a faint loneliness and answered with a shy smile. “In fact, just the opposite. I thought that perhaps if I broke the seal, then someday, someone might come in through it for me…”
“Come in? For you?” Lead was supposedly an intruder, and yet it was almost as though he had completely given up on escape; it was a slightly curious turn of phrase. Haruyuki blinked furiously beneath his silver mask and pressed the question. “But, Lead, you’re here in the inner sanctuary of the Castle, so you have to be stuck in a pseudo–Unlimited EK like we are. I mean, you’re locked up in here, right? Ah, no, wait…”
Without noticing the expression flitting across Trilead’s face—as if he were trying to conceal something—Haruyuki dropped his gaze to the silver straight sword glittering on the young samurai’s hip. “Infinity. When you got that Arc, wasn’t there a portal that activates just one time? When you took the sword, you should’ve been able to get out normally.”
It was a simple question, with nothing especially behind it. But Lead lowered his face as if abashed once more. As Haruyuki stared dumbfounded, Utai placed a small hand gently on his left knee.
“Even if there is a portal, that doesn’t necessarily always translate into a smooth escape, C.”
Instantly, he realized that his own question might have sounded like he was reproaching Lead for his actions, and he reflexively bowed his head deeply. “Oh! S-sorry, Lead, I wasn’t trying to blame you or anything. I mean, the same kind of thing’s happened to me tons. The reason we’re even here now is that we couldn’t follow the strategy, so…”
The young samurai finally lifted his face. “Excuse me, Crow, Maiden.” He placed his hands on his hakama -like legs and bowed again. “I will tell you that story when the time comes—how I came to be in this place.”
There was a nobility to Lead’s voice and expression, in his entire being, that almost took Haruyuki’s breath away. On behalf of the speechless Haruyuki and not to be outdone when it came to proper manners, Utai bowed lightly in return.
“I understand, Lead. Then we will tell our story. Of why we stepped into the territory of Suzaku, one of the Four Gods, and how we came to break through the south gate into the Castle.”
For the following five minutes, Haruyuki and Utai went over it briefly. The challenge and destruction of the Legion Nega Nebulus two and a
half years earlier. Ardor Maiden sealed away immediately before the south gate in order to secure the escape of the others. The plan for rescue by the current Legion members to bring that avatar out alive, and the result.
Taking it all in with wide eyes, Trilead let out a long sigh when the pair closed their mouths. “Such things happened,” he murmured finally. “That there would be such people who attempted to challenge those Four Gods and crush them…”
Haruyuki got the sense that he heard a faint note of longing somewhere deep in that voice and opened both eyes wide. Something in a place deep within his own self resonated with it, and that vibration turned to sound and attempted to crawl up his throat.
You are one, too.
On the verge of saying this, nonetheless, he closed his mouth. Because he couldn’t find the words that should come after that.
Perhaps noticing the movement, or perhaps not, Lead allowed a faint smile to cross his face before speaking in his calm voice again. “Given that that is the situation, I would be delighted if you would allow me to aid you in your escape from the palace.”
“Huh?…Th-thanks.” Haruyuki dipped his head before leaning forward to ask with some urgency, “Do you know a way to get out normally?! Is there a portal somewhere we can still use or something?!”
“I personally use an automatic disconnection via a timer to leave, but I have confirmed the existence of just one portal. However…” Although Lead nodded, he interrupted himself as though dropping into thought for a moment. He soon raised his face again and opened his mouth, looking at Haruyuki and Utai in turn. “It would perhaps be best if you were to see it yourselves. At the same time, I will be able to accomplish the matter I first promised.”