The Carbide Wolf

  “What? Why? That’s—” Haruyuki cried out unconsciously. That was awful. It was just too much, dragging a child into the world of entertainment whether she liked it or not, with no choice of her own, and then forcing her to quit after a few years.

  But Utai smiled again as if to reassure him, and moved her fingers calmly. UI> IT CAN’T BE HELPED. BECAUSE KABUKI AND KYOGEN…AND NOH ARE THE WORLD OF MEN. DID YOU KNOW, FOR INSTANCE, THAT THERE ARE NO WOMEN KABUKI ACTORS?

  When she said that, he realized the actors who played women in Kabuki were called onnagata precisely because they were not women.

  UI> IN RECENT YEARS, THERE HAVE BEEN MORE THAN A FEW WOMEN NOH PERFORMERS, BUT THAT DEPENDS ON THE SCHOOL. IN THE SCHOOL THAT OUR SHINOMIYA HOUSE BELONGS TO, WOMEN ARE NOT ALLOWED. NATURALLY, I WAS VERY SAD WHEN I LEARNED THIS. GIVEN THAT I WOULD AT SOME POINT NO LONGER BE ABLE TO STAND ON THE STAGE, I CONSIDERED GIVING UP MY LESSONS. BUT FROM THE TIME I WAS LITTLE, THIS IS ALL I’VE EVER KNOWN, SO I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT ELSE THERE WAS FOR ME. IT WAS THEN THAT MY BROTHER KYOYA SHOWED ME ANOTHER SPIRIT WORLD. HE WAS ALREADY A BURST LINKER AT THE TIME, AND HE GAVE ME BRAIN BURST.

  She paused for a moment, and then her lithe fingers began to dance again.

  UI> THE MENTAL SCARS THAT ARE THE ORIGIN FOR ARDOR MAIDEN…I MYSELF CAN’T PUT THEM CLEARLY INTO WORDS. BUT THERE’S SIMPLY ONE THING: I BELIEVE THAT MAIDEN WAS BORN CLAD IN THE TWO COLORS OF LIGHT CRIMSON AND WHITE BECAUSE THERE WERE TWO WORLDS, TWO SELVES WITHIN ME FROM BEFORE I BECAME A BURST LINKER. IT WAS THE SAME WITH KYOYA’S MIRROR MASKER. HE POSSESSED SILVER AND WHITE.

  The “light crimson” in the middle of the text caught Haruyuki’s eyes. Because the scarlet coloring of Ardor Maiden’s lower half was actually a dark red. But the second half of her statement quickly pulled his attention away from that. “Silver…and white. So then…just his lower half was a metal color? So that can happen too, huh…”

  UI> I ALSO HAVE NEVER SEEN IT ON ANYONE OTHER THAN MY BROTHER.

  Utai’s agreement sent him into thought. If Mirror Masker, the avatar with the Theoretical Mirror ability, was such a special avatar, then it seemed uncertain as to whether or not Silver Crow—who was also silver, but just a regular metal color overall—could actually acquire the ability. Just when he was about to hang his head dejectedly, Haruyuki shook it off. He had to focus on Utai’s story at that moment, not himself. When he brought his attention back to the ad hoc window on his virtual desktop, the cursor began to move again with perfect timing.

  UI> UNTIL THEN, I HAD ONLY HAD MY LESSONS EVERY DAY, SO I HAD NO FRIENDS WITH WHOM TO PLAY. SO FOR ME, THE ACCELERATED WORLD, WHERE I COULD MEET SO MANY BURST LINKERS, WAS A FUN, THRILLING PLACE. EACH DAY, THE PART OF ME THAT IS ARDOR MAIDEN COULD PUT ON THE OMOTE AND DANCE TO MY HEART’S CONTENT.

  “Um. At the time, you were in first grade, right, Shinomiya? Weren’t you…scared of dueling?” Haruyuki unconsciously interjected, and the girl, currently in fourth grade, grinned.

  UI> IN NOH, THERE ARE A GREAT NUMBER OF PROGRAMS WITH HAUNTINGS AND KILLINGS AND TRANSFORMATIONS AND DISAPPEARANCES.

  “I—I guess so.”

  UI> THE DUELS WERE FUN, AND EVERYONE I MET WAS SO KIND TO ME. BUT…CONTRARY TO MY BROTHER’S IDEA, THE MORE I DANCED IN THE ACCELERATED WORLD, THE STRONGER MY THOUGHTS ABOUT ANOTHER DIFFERENT WORLD, THE NOH STAGE, GREW. FOR ME, THE TWO WORLDS WERE THE SAME IN A CERTAIN SENSE. MY DESIRE TO EXPRESS ON THE NOH STAGE THE THINGS I NOTICED IN THE ACCELERATED WORLD, THAT I LEARNED, THE MENTAL STATE I REACHED, SIMPLY GREW.

  “Right…In a way, your duel avatar is a perfect match, huh?”

  UI> YES…I SUPPOSE SO. KYOYA ALSO SEEMED TO HAVE NOT ANTICIPATED IT WOULD BE TO THAT EXTENT. HE HAD GIVEN ME BRAIN BURST TO MAKE ME FORGET THE STAGE, BUT HE SAW THAT IT HAD THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE EFFECT. AND HE TRIED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THAT. IT WAS A SUMMER DAY A YEAR AFTER I BECAME A BURST LINKER…SO IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THREE YEARS AGO NOW…

  Here, Utai’s fingers froze.

  At some point, the sky beyond the window had grown red, and the color of the evening sun sneaking into the room also bled into her white uniform. The light wasn’t on, so the room was increasingly gloomy, and the trees in the yard rustled like the sound of waves.

  Head hanging deeply, Utai didn’t so much as twitch for a long time, but then abruptly, she lifted her head and stared at Haruyuki with those eyes with traces of red running through them. Her ten fingers danced loosely, followed by black shadows.

  UI> MY BROTHER KYOYA. HE WENT TO THE MIRROR ROOM I SHOWED YOU EARLIER TO ASK OF MY GRANDFATHER, THE HEAD OF THE SHINOIYA HOUSE OF THE KANZE SCHOOL, THE SEVENTH SEIGORO SHINOMIYA, TO PLEASE ALLOW ME TO FORMALLY WORK TOWARD BECOMING A NOH PERFORMER. BUT…THE RESPONSE WAS OBVIOUS. MY GRANDFATHER SHOOK HIS HEAD, SAYING IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE, AND MY BROTHER CONTINUED TO PLEAD WITH HIM, CRYING. EVEN WHEN I TOLD HIM IT WAS ENOUGH, TO STOP HIM, HE DID NOT WITHDRAW. HE WAS PUSHED ASIDE BY OUR OLDER BROTHER, WHO ALSO HAPPENED TO BE THERE…AND THEN THERE WAS AN ACCIDENT.

  “Acci…dent?”

  UI> KYOYA FELL ONTO THE FLOOR, AND ON TOP OF HIM…THE LARGE MIRROR OF THE MIRROR ROOM FELL ON HIM. THE MIRROR SHATTERED…AND THE SHARDS… Utai’s fingers stopped again.

  But Haruyuki could easily imagine it. Utai had said that at the time, her older brother Kyoya had been eleven, just a year older than she was now. If that enormous mirror fell on a child like that, the kind of disaster it would invite—yes, in fact, the worst result had indeed happened. Three years ago, Kyoya Shinomiya/Mirror Masker had lost his young life in that room. That was what Utai was saying.

  At some point, she had dropped her head again, and her hands were clenched into tight fists. He saw that those small hands were shaking, and Haruyuki felt like he had to say something. But no matter what he said, it would just be a shallow, superficial comfort, and his mouth remained glued shut.

  Instead, he reached his right hand across the desk and touched the fingers of Utai’s left hand. Her tightly clenched fist shook, loosened, and finally opened to let the slender fingers gently wrap around Haruyuki’s. Like this, Utai inscribed words one by one with her right hand alone.

  UI> KYOYA’S LAST WISH…I MYSELF RUINED THAT IN THE END. EVEN AS A KOKATA, I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO STAND ON THE STAGE AGAIN. Two transparent droplets fell soundlessly to the top of the desk, beautiful seams running through the wood. UI> BECAUSE EVER SINCE THAT DAY, I HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO SPEAK EVEN A SINGLE WORD. MY CONDITION CANNOT BE TREATED EVEN USING A BIC.

  Utai had told Haruyuki the day they met that she couldn’t talk because of expressive aphasia. But until today, he had never once even wondered why she had ended up like this. He had simply imagined that, like a cold, it would naturally get better one day.

  Tortured by the desire to punch himself in the face for being so thoughtless, Haruyuki just bit his lip hard. The Burst Linker abilities of the girl known as Utai Shinomiya had reached terrifying heights, so perhaps he should have realized sooner that it was possible that she had lost something of equal importance in the real world. Although there was probably nothing he could have done if he had, but…even still, he should have given thought to it.

  “Sorry. I’m sorry…I…I didn’t…” He managed to somehow squeeze a hoarse voice from his tight throat, and Utai once more gently gripped his hand.

  UI> YOU HAVE NOTHING TO APOLOGIZE FOR. IN FACT…I’M GLAD YOU WOULD LISTEN TO MY STORY. UNTIL NOW, I’VE NEVER TOLD ANYONE THE DETAILS OF MY BROTHER’S ACCIDENT…NOT FU, NOT SACCHI EVEN…

  “I think…Master and Kuroyukihime, they would…they’d be able to say the right thing, but…I can only listen…”

  UI> THAT IS A WONDERFUL TALENT YOU HAVE. Utai smiled, although her eyes were still a little teary, so Haruyuki also managed to loosen his mouth slightly.

  With that, he mustered up just a little courage and asked, “Um…So maybe Hoo being taken care of at Matsunogi Academy…was there some kind of situation…?” It was a fairly sudden question, but knowing how hard she had worked to find a place that would take Hoo, Haruyuki co
uldn’t believe that it was unconnected with her “scars.”

  Utai blinked once and then nodded, a faint smile on her lips. She removed her fingertips from Haruyuki’s hand and began to type again with both hands.

  UI> THAT’S EXACTLY RIGHT. THIS IS A GOOD OPPORTUNITY, SO I’LL ALSO EXPLAIN THIS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE ANIMAL CARE CLUB. ARITA, DO YOU KNOW THE REFORMED ANIMAL WELFARE ACT?

  “Uh. Um. The duty to microchip all pets…right?”

  UI> YES. ALTHOUGH, MORE PRECISELY, PETS LARGER THAN A CERTAIN SIZE. AT ANY RATE, BY MAKING IT MANDATORY TO INSTALL MICROCHIPS, THEY MADE IT SO THAT PEOPLE COULD NO LONGER EASILY ABANDON A PET SIMPLY BECAUSE IT HAD BECOME A HASSLE, LIKE THEY COULD IN THE PAST. THE NEW CHIPS HAVE A FUNCTION THAT CONNECTS THEM TO THE GLOBAL NET, SO IT’S ALSO NOT POSSIBLE TO SECRETLY DISPOSE OF A PET IN YOUR OWN HOME.

  As the characters advanced in the chat window, the look on Utai’s face grew pained. But the fingers of both hands continued to tap resolutely on the desk.

  UI> BUT THERE IS ALSO A LOOPHOLE THERE. HOO WAS MOST LIKELY LEGALLY SOLD IN A PET SHOP, BUT…AS YOU KNOW, IT IS NO SIMPLE TASK TO TAKE CARE OF A WHITE-FACED OWL. YOU NEED A CAGE LARGE ENOUGH FOR THE OWL, AND THE FOOD IS ALSO SPECIAL. ALTHOUGH THE PREVIOUS OWNER PURCHASED HOO, THEY LIKELY COULDN’T TAKE CARE OF HIM PROPERLY. IN THAT CASE, YOU EITHER HAVE TO PAY THE SHOP A CONSIGNMENT FEE TO HAVE THEM TAKE THE ANIMAL BACK, OR FIND A NEW OWNER YOURSELF.

  After taking a deep breath, Utai typed out the rest.

  UI> BUT HOO’S PREVIOUS OWNER CHOSE THE EASY LOOPHOLE. THEY REMOVED—NO, DUG OUT THE MICROCHIP EMBEDDED IN HOO’S RIGHT LEG AND RELEASED HOO OUTSIDE.

  “That’s…” Haruyuki murmured, dumbfounded.

  The smile on Utai’s face grew sad, and she nodded. UI> BIRDS ARE NOT GOOD WITH BLEEDING, AND GIVEN THAT HOO HAD NEVER CAUGHT HIS OWN FOOD BEFORE, HE COULD NOT SURVIVE ON HIS OWN IN TOKYO. WHEN WE FOUND HIM WEAKENED AND COWERING ON THE PREMISES OF MATSUNOGI’S ELEMENTARY, THE ANIMAL CARE CLUB TOOK CARE OF HIM. WE TOOK HIM TO THE VETERINARIAN RIGHT AWAY AND GOT EMERGENCY TREATMENT, BUT IT WAS TRULY A MIRACLE THAT THEY MANAGED TO SAVE HIS LIFE. AND…PERHAPS BECAUSE HE HAD SUCH A TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE, HE BECAME EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS OF PEOPLE.

  “Well, of course, with his owner doing something like that to him.”

  UI> THE VETERINARIAN SAID THEY WOULD HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO PUT HIM TO SLEEP. BUT I…I SIMPLY COULDN’T ABANDON HOO. IT WAS TOO ABSURD THAT HE SHOULD HAVE TO DISAPPEAR FROM THIS WORLD SOLELY BECAUSE THEY SAID NO ONE NEEDED HIM.

  Although Haruyuki could imagine Utai’s state of mind as the characters popped up in the holo window, he wouldn’t dare give voice to that. Instead, he put his own feelings into words. “Like, lately, I’ve been thinking that even if a hundred people say they don’t need you, if there’s just one person who does, that’s plenty of reason to stay in this world. I wonder if maybe it’s not like that for Hoo, too.”

  Utai turned damp eyes on Haruyuki and finally nodded sharply. UI> FORTUNATELY, HOO FINALLY ATE THE FOOD I KEPT OFFERING HIM. FROM THEN, HE GOT BETTER BIT BY BIT. ONCE THE WOUND ON HIS LEG HAD HEALED, WE GOT A NEW MICROCHIP, AND I THOUGHT HE WOULD LIVE FOREVER AT MATSUNOGI ACADEMY. BUT THEN THE ISSUE OF ELIMINATING THE ANIMAL CARE CLUB WAS BROUGHT UP, AND YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY, ARITA.

  “Huh. I’m gonna work to make sure that Hoo can finally relax and find a home at Umesato.”

  UI> I’M COUNTING ON YOU, MR. PRESIDENT, she typed, a slight smile on her lips. Haruyuki could basically guess at that expression. They weren’t dueling or even accelerated, but that look said that the purpose for which Utai had invited Haruyuki to her house had been accomplished, that he had been told everything he needed to know at the present stage.

  Several mysterious, quiet metallic noises sounded in succession somewhere in the house. What?! he thought, but Utai said, IT’S ALREADY SEVEN THEN, so he assumed it was some kind of clock.

  Indeed, the clock in the lower right of his field of view read 19:02. If the noise before was a clock, it was a little late, but he decided not to worry about it and started to stand from the floor cushion. “S-sorry. I didn’t mean to stay so long. I should…”

  Utai cocked her head as if considering something, and then quickly typed, UI> ARITA, WILL YOU BE GOING DIRECTLY HOME THEN?

  “Um…I might just duel a little somewhere.”

  UI> THEN MAY I JOIN YOU?

  “Huh? Th-that’s, well…,” he mumbled, and then finally he realized that the evening sky beyond the window had basically disappeared. Although it was midsummer, he did hesitate to bring an elementary school girl out onto the streets when it was past seven. “Actually, you know, it’s already dark, so I’ll give up on that for today. Your family will get mad at me.”

  Utai’s slight smile turned sad. UI> AS LONG AS I RETURN HOME BY NINE PM, NEITHER MY FATHER NOR MY MOTHER HAVE ANY INTEREST IN WHAT I DO OR WHERE.

  “O-oh.” However advanced the social cameras, however dramatically crime rates had dropped in the city, this seemed to him to be too much of a hands-off educational policy. Although given that he himself didn’t have a curfew to begin with, he wasn’t one to talk. He shook his head resolutely one more time and smiled. “Even if your parents don’t get mad at me, I know Master and Kuroyukihime will be furious. So let’s duel tomorrow.”

  Utai blinked rapidly and smiled more broadly than she had all day before making her fingers dance nimbly. UI> YOU’RE RIGHT. IF WE WERE FOUND OUT, YOUR PUNISHMENT WOULD BE BUNGEE JUMPING FROM THE SHINJUKU GOVERNMENT BUILDING WITHOUT A ROPE.

  Utai came out to the passage that faced the road to see him off with a wave, and Haruyuki selected the nearest bus stop along Kannana Street in his navigation app. He followed the line in the AR display in his field of view and started walking east through the dim residential area.

  He had walked for about fifteen minutes, various pieces of the story Utai Shinomiya had told him drifting through his brain, when the dazzling light of the main road came into view ahead of him. Looking at his map, he saw that he was apparently close to the Honancho intersection. The bus stop toward Koenji was a little farther north. Haruyuki started to head that way, only to stop again.

  His current location was basically on the eastern edge of Suginami Ward. If he kept going another three hundred meters or so down Honan Street, he would reach Nakano Area No. 2. Unlike Naka-1, which was controlled by the Red Legion, Prominence, Naka-2 was a blank space that was no one’s domain. A so-called buffer zone bordering the Leonids to the east and Great Wall to the south, it was thus a mecca for free dueling, and even at this time on a weekday, there would be more than fifty Burst Linkers connected.

  “M-maybe I’ll just go,” he murmured, and since no one objected, he took the crosswalk across Kannana Street at a trot.

  Since the Suginami area was currently Nega Nebulus territory, even if Haruyuki left his Neurolinker connected to the global net, he could refuse incoming challenges from other Burst Linkers. But the instant he took even one step into the empty area of Nakano No. 2, that privilege disappeared. He straddled the ward border line that floated red in his field of view. The current location address in the edge of the navigation map changed from 2-choume Honancho, Sugiyama Ward to 6-choume Yayoicho, Nakano Ward. The majority of people were likely unaware of crossing borders between the twenty-three wards while they were in transit, but for a Burst Linker, they held basically the same meaning as national borders. These days, Haruyuki could roughly fill a blank map of central Tokyo with the shapes of the twenty-three wards off the top of his head.

  In that moment, the name Silver Crow was already appearing on the matching list for Nakano Area No. 2. He could be challenged at any time, so he walked along the edge of the sidewalk, ready for the automatic acceleration. Although it would only be for 1.8 seconds of real world time, he wanted to avoid stopping in the middle of traffic.

  Spotting a small park for children about fifty meters ahead of him, Haruyuki decided that if he wasn’t challenged by the time he got there, he would challenge someone him
self, and kept walking. He would choose an opponent who used powerful red-type light attacks, in order to give shape to the image of a mirror that was being born in him thanks to Utai showing him the mirror room and telling him the story of her brother.

  A true mirror was not just a panel that repelled light. It was actually maybe similar to an entrance that took in light. Now that he was thinking about it, despite the fact that the Destiny, the Enhanced Armament Haruyuki had owned until just a few days earlier, was a mirrored armor with the property of nearly total resistance to light, it also had the capacity to factor in the user’s attributes. The armor was somehow gentle and warm, which was exactly why it hadn’t been able to reject Chrome Falcon’s rage and despair, its own shape in the end being warped by those…

  Considering all of this, Haruyuki was about ten meters from the park when Skreeeeee!!—the familiar roar of acceleration filled his hearing, and his back straightened. His consciousness would be cut free from the real world and carried off to the Accelerated World, where time was accelerated a thousand times.

  However, the flaming text that burned red in his field of view was not the expected HERE COMES…, but rather A REGISTERED DUEL IS BEGINNING!!—somewhere in Nakano Area No. 2, a duel he had registered to watch was starting.

  It wasn’t his own duel, but the Gallery was fun, too. Excitedly wondering who the duel was between, Haruyuki slipped through the rainbow-colored gate opening up beneath his falling self.

  9

  Silver Crow’s hard feet stepped onto a metallic floor. At the same time as he stood himself upright, he first checked the two health gauges shown in the upper part of his field of view. The player challenged was on the left, and it was a name he knew well: Frost Horn, level five. An ice user who belonged to the Blue Legion, Leonids, he was the one for whom Haruyuki had registered on his automatic Gallery list. Unusually, he wasn’t in a tag team with his partner Tourmaline Shell that day.