The Carbide Wolf
At this very obvious challenge, Haruyuki and Fuko took a half step forward. But Kuroyukihime replied, as cool as ever: “Similarly, your special smoke screens and bribes won’t work either, hmm? Now sit back and listen. Grandé has no doubt thought of something, given the fact that he’s gone out of his way to bring along someone to explain.”
Radio narrowed his eyes unhappily, but he simply adjusted his position on his seat without saying anything further. Once again, all eyes were turned to Pound in the center of the plaza.
Indeed, if it were just an explanation of the situation, it would have been enough to simply send a text mail to the anonymous addresses that served as the contact for each Legion. The fact that the Green King had not left it at that and had instead brought along additional personnel he had not brought to the previous meeting surely meant he had some kind of proposal.
Haruyuki swallowed his breath and waited for Pound to continue.
However, in the next instant, the steel-colored boxer-type avatar turned his gaze straight ahead, so Haruyuki threw his head back unconsciously. He whirled his head around, looking to the left and the right, but it did appear that Pound was indeed focusing his attention on Silver Crow.
Oh, I have a bad feeling about this.
Pound nodded gravely, as if reading Haruyuki’s mind. “We do actually have just one plan to break this deadlock. Silver Crow…I know you’ve just gone through purifying the armor, but could you do a bit more work for us?”
“Huh?! Um! B-b-b-b-but—” Haruyuki shook his head quickly as he inched back. “M-M-M-Metatron’s laser has perfect range in the air too! I-i-i-if I fly in, I’ll just get shot down! For sure!”
“Mmm, that’s true,” Pound agreed readily. “But this time, we’re not counting on your flying ability. It’s your other uniqueness…your silver metal color.”
“C-c-c-color? I-it’s true, I am silver, but there’s nothing really special about that…Basically, strong against poison, at most.”
“Right now, that’s true. But you are the only person here with a certain possibility.” Here, Iron Pound stopped once more and then continued in an even more serious tone:
“The possibility of acquiring a legendary ability that once existed in the Accelerated World…one that has an absolute resistance to all kinds of light techniques: Theoretical Mirror.”
3
“Unh, I ate so much, I’m so full. I ate so much, I might just turn into a yellow type.” Groaning, Niko set her spoon down.
Having finished eating a few minutes earlier, Haruyuki waited for their score from the Red King with sweaty, clenched hands. The curry was Chiyuri’s mother’s own original recipe, and while Chiyuri and Utai had been in charge of preparation for the most part, with Haruyuki’s role simply being to peel the potatoes he had bought, he was still feeling nervousness on par with opening mail containing the results of an academic aptitude test.
In the silence that filled the living room, Niko closed her eyes for a while, but then finally opened them with a snap. “Eighty-five percent!” she shouted. “Just barely passed!”
Instantly, the members of Nega Nebulus let out a long sigh of relief. Pard added a brief “GJ” to the rating.
They quickly cleared away the dishes, moved to the sofa set, and then all eight of them faced one another once more.
The sofa was really only meant for six people, but since Niko and Utai had less than half the mass of Haruyuki, they could all fit if they squeezed in a bit. The sight of the sixth-grade girl and fourth-grade girl sitting alongside each other and drinking iced tea was actually rather charming. Haruyuki had been an only child for fourteen years, and he absently daydreamed about how it would be nice to have little sisters like this. But in the Accelerated World, one of them was a powerful king, while the other was the Shrine Maiden of the Conflagration, controlling super-high-temperature flames. Now that he thought about it, they were both red types specializing in long-distance attacks, and if, hypothetically, they were to go up against each other, it would surely be a spectacular duel.
“So, ah…? Is this maybe your first time meeting Niko, Shinomiya? Oh! Of course, in the real, but even in the Accelerated World?”
The two elementary school girls glanced at each other and shook their heads at the same time. Niko opened her mouth first.
“I became a Burst Linker just a little bit before the first Nega Nebulus disappeared, but I did see Maiden any number of times in the Territories back then.”
Next, Utai tapped nimbly at her holo keyboard. UI> ALTHOUGH, BECAUSE WE’RE BOTH RED TYPES, WE BASICALLY ONLY SHOT FIREPOWER AT EACH OTHER FROM A DISTANCE.
“But this one time, big sister Strong Arm there, she threw Maiden right into the middle of our base, okay! She fell down right in front of me.”
UI> I DO VERY MUCH APOLOGIZE FOR THAT.
Even during this exchange, Fuko simply tilted her glass to one side, feigning ignorance. A chill raced up Haruyuki’s spine.
“Right,” he said, musing aloud. “Back then, we must have fought in the Territories against Promi like we do everyone else. It’d be great if we could get to the point where we can do that again.”
Currently, the new Nega Nebulus that Haruyuki belonged to had a cease-fire of unlimited term with Niko’s Prominence and thus did not fight them in the Territories. Given that Negabu had only six members at the moment, they had their hands full with the Leonids, who came faithfully to attack them every week, and Great Wall, who sent in smaller teams about every other week, so the cease-fire agreement was a huge help. But at the same time, it did get in the way of the fun of Brain Burst as a game.
A series of complicated expressions flitted across Niko’s face before she turned her gaze toward Kuroyukihime, sitting to the left. “…Lotus. This prob’ly isn’t for me to say or anything, but…to be honest, shouldn’t your priority be getting your Legion back to full strength instead of joining the Midtown Tower mission just ’cos Knight and Grandé asked you to? I mean, your other two Elements haven’t come back yet, right…?”
After a moment’s pause, the Black King nodded. “Yes. Both Aqua and Graph are still sealed inside the four gates of the castle. Naturally, I would also like to set out on a plan to rescue them right away. However…the fact that we were able to bring Maiden back from the altar of the God Suzaku was essentially a miracle. It would have been no surprise if we had lost even Crow along with her.”
Her words were certainly true. Although Haruyuki had succeeded in recovering Ardor Maiden, they had failed to escape and had plunged into the castle. If they hadn’t met the mysterious avatar Trilead Tetroxide deep within the main building, escape from that place would have been impossible.
Of course, they hadn’t explained all of this to Niko, but she got the basic idea. She didn’t push the issue any further, but simply nodded and added, briefly, “That so? Then I’ll just say this. Pard and the others in the Triplex are waiting for the day when they can go head-to-head with Negabu in the Territories, just like in the old days.”
Pard also nodded shortly.
“When that time comes, I’ll be sure to drop Maiden on your head once more, Red King,” Fuko responded, smiling.
Instantly, Utai faced downward, and Haruyuki and Takumu shrank back with a small “Eep.” But Chiyuri laughed boldly and said, “Ah-ha-ha, sister Fuko! Throw me with her! Being tossed into the base, that sounds super fun!”
“Hee-hee, you’re so hard, Chiko, it would probably be worthwhile to throw you.”
“But in that case, we won’t have much fun all by ourselves in the base. How about it, Haruyuki? Want to carry me in a special attack on the enemy camp?”
“M-Master, if you do that, there’ll only be me left to protect our base!” Takumu cried out, and everyone laughed together.
Once the laughter subsided, Kuroyukihime composed herself and cleared her throat once. “I believe that day will become reality at some point—perhaps even in the near future. But to that end, naturally, Nega Nebulus will ha
ve to recover its strength, but first, we must kick these evildoers out of the Accelerated World.”
“The Acceleration Research Society, right,” Takumu murmured.
Kuroyukihime nodded. “The ISS kits both grant the user a dark Incarnate technique and control their mind. It’s only been a week since they appeared in the Accelerated World, and yet the kit infection is spreading at a terrifying rate. Right now, we’ve managed to just barely contain it within the borderlands of Setagaya, Koto, and Adachi, but when it reaches the city center, all the rules of the Accelerated World will no doubt break down. I’ve been called the destroyer of order, but I cannot accept sullying even the spirit of the duel, absolutely not.” Her words held a deep anger and anxiety.
Niko picked up where she left off: “I am one hundred percent in agreement. We’ve confirmed that the kit infection has spread from Adachi Ward to Kita Ward these last two days. After that, it’ll be Itabashi, and then Nerima. If we don’t smash the source this week, we won’t be able to avoid seeing some people infected in Promi, too.”
“The situation is the same for Suginami, coming after Setagaya,” Kuroyukihime said, and then paused.
Actually, Nega Nebulus had already had someone infected with the ISS kit the previous week: Takumu—Cyan Pile. He had gone off to the Setagaya area in order to make himself a guinea pig for the kit destruction and was given an ISS kit by a Burst Linker known as Magenta Scissor. Although the kit was still in the form of a sealed item at that point, Takumu was almost immediately attacked in the real by Supernova Remnant, the most ferocious PK group in the Accelerated World, and to fight them off, he had opened and equipped the kit.
The power of the dark Incarnate was incredible, and Takumu defeated Remnant in a single blow, but due to the intense mental interference, his will was pulled to the dark side. Understanding that he might turn his sword on his friends if he continued like that, he went to try to get information from Magenta Scissor about the kits, prepared for her to strike him down as well.
However, Haruyuki had seen Takumu’s crisis and raced home from school. They had a direct duel where they pitted their Incarnate and their wills against each other, and Takumu had managed painfully to come back to himself. That night, Chiyuri had joined them in this very room, and sleeping together in a huddle, the three of them had had a mysterious dream.
Waking up inside the Brain Burst central server—also known as the Main Visualizer—the whereabouts of which were completely unknown, Haruyuki and Chiyuri chased after the sleepwalking Takumu and witnessed a strange sight:
In one corner of the central server (which resembled a swirling galaxy), a large object—an inky-black brain—had been constructed, and countless ISS kit owners were connected to it with blood vessel–like cords. Understanding that thing was the kit main body, Haruyuki manifested a long-distance Incarnate attack, Laser Lance, and severed the blood vessel connected to Takumu. They then returned to the real world with the now-awake Takumu. When they opened their eyes, the ISS kit lodged in Takumu had completely disappeared.
That fact indicated if they destroyed the ISS kit main body, all the terminal kits would also disappear. But to infiltrate the central server while still themselves, they would need to meet the extremely difficult condition of sleeping while directing with a kit user. In reality, that was impossible. But the kit main body that existed inside the server was a shadow. The ISS kit main body existed somewhere in the Accelerated World’s Unlimited Neutral Field as a “real” object.
Haruyuki had chased after a mysterious luminescent body that had escaped when the kit terminal was destroyed within the Unlimited Neutral Field. Its destination had been that tower soaring up into the air, Tokyo Midtown. Haruyuki had tried to charge in, but he was stopped by the Green King and his subordinate, Iron Pound. They had long been monitoring the tower from the roof of the relatively nearby Roppongi Hills Tower. It was they who had told Haruyuki that Midtown Tower was guarded by the Legend-class Enemy Archangel Metatron, completely invincible outside of a Hell stage…
Having taken a brief moment to reflect on the situation thus far, Haruyuki held his breath and waited for Kuroyukihime to continue.
“Already, last week, in Suginami Area Three, Crow and Maiden fought Bush Utan and Olive Grab, both equipped with ISS kits. Utan apparently managed to break free of the kit’s control after that, but Olive appears to still be connected. If we’re seeing infected within the ranks of even GW, then we have less of a grace period than we imagined. Taking part in the tower mission is to protect our Legion and territory, while also responding to the call at the meeting of the Seven Kings.”
“…Well, Promi’s basically the same there. We owe you for the whole Fifth Disaster thing, and we got no problems with helping Negabu. But, like”—Niko crossed her arms and stared hard at Haruyuki with eyes that shone green in the light—“say your plan works, this crow here turns into a serious joker for us, you know! Promi’s got the most light technique users of any of the seven Legions.”
“Which is why we mobilized everyone to carry out the incredibly difficult mission you indicated! After taking a second helping, now you say you don’t want to—”
“Got it! I get it! And I said you passed, didn’t I? But, Lotus, if you’re ranking curry as incredibly difficult, you’re not much of a cook, huh?” the Red King said, grinning.
A look of anger still on her face, Kuroyukihime’s cheeks flushed, and Utai and Fuko had a strange coughing fit.
“Y’know, Niko…if it’s Kuroyukihime you want to know about, she peeled the onions—” With an easy smile, Chiyuri began to divulge top-secret information, but fell silent halfway through at the activation of the long-dormant Super Cool Kuroyukihime Smile.
Niko cackled with laughter for a while longer before composing herself and nodding once. “Well, I promised, anyway. I’ll go along with you for three bowls of curry—on this plan of yours to get the Theoretical Mirror ability for Silver Crow.”
Right.
At the meeting of the Seven Kings the previous day, the kings had requested that Haruyuki act as the first lance in the strategy against Archangel Metatron. According to Iron Pound, if he managed to acquire a certain rare ability, he might be able to resist the absolute, insta-death laser emitted by Metatron.
To obtain this ability, Theoretical Mirror, the assistance of a Burst Linker with a very powerful light technique was essential. But there were no light users among the other five members of Nega Nebulus. If Haruyuki had to say, at first glance Takumu’s level-four special attack Lightning Cyan Spike appeared to be a light attack, but according to the owner himself, it was a “technique that changes the pile to plasma and launches it,” a physical attack categorized as heat/piercing.
Of course, Haruyuki still hadn’t learned the definitions of plasma or lasers in his science class in the real world. But in the Accelerated World, a plasma technique was an attack manipulating a flow of super-high-temperature particles (a companion to flame attacks, as it were), while a laser technique was at best an attack using light concentrated into a straight line. A sword could cut through plasma, but it couldn’t cut the massless laser.
Ultimately, Takumu’s technique was a counterfeit laser, so if they were going to look for the help of a light technique user, they would have to look outside of Nega Nebulus. After the meeting of the Seven Kings was over, the six Legion members had a heated discussion in a dive call before finally making a decision. They would get the help of the Burst Linker with the most powerful laser technique they knew of: the Immobile Fortress, Scarlet Rain.
To this request, the Red King had put forth an unexpected condition: “You make me happy with homemade curry, and I’ll help you out.”
By the time the glasses in front of them were empty and everyone had taken turns going to the washroom, the time was seven thirty PM.
Of the eight of them, Niko had the strictest curfew, given that she lived in a dorm at her elementary school. But as usual, she had apparently given them a s
tory of some kind and gotten permission to spend the night elsewhere, so there was no problem. Next was Utai, but her curfew was nine PM, a relatively—almost impossibly—late hour for an elementary school student, so they still had an hour before they had to think about moving. The master of the house, Haruyuki’s mother, wouldn’t be home before the date changed.
When they were all seated once more on the sofa set, they used the multicolored cables Chiyuri and Takumu had brought from home to connect their own Neurolinkers to the XSB hub that was connected to the Arita home server. Kuroyukihime had brought said ten-port hub, which was sitting silently on the glass table. If anything happened, someone just had to turn off the power on the hub, and all of them would instantly burst out.
“…Huh? But why a safety when we’re dueling?” Haruyuki belatedly asked, and looked at Kuroyukihime as he was on the verge of inserting the end of the cable into his own neck. He had assumed that at that moment, he (seeking the ability) and Niko (provider of the light technique) would duel, and the other six would be in the Gallery. If it was a one-on-one duel, then it would end in thirty minutes of inside time, 1.8 seconds of real time, so there shouldn’t have been any need for an emergency disconnection safety.
But Kuroyukihime stared at him blankly before blinking slowly, as if she had realized something, and then broke out into a grin. “Well, it’s obvious, Haruyuki. We’re not going to a normal duel field. We’re diving into the Unlimited Neutral Field.”
“Huh? Up there? It’s not going to be a normal duel?” Haruyuki asked, brushing aside a creeping bad feeling.
The answer to this was also extremely simple.
“Mmm, that won’t do. One death likely won’t be enough for this mission. In my estimation, it will take five at minimum—no, perhaps ten.”
Without missing a beat, Pard remarked, “You do it in twenty, GJ.”
I don’t waaaaannaaaa.
Haruyuki kicked and screamed, and Takumu and Chiyuri grabbed hold of him from both sides.