Chapter 1“Welcome home, Onii-chan!”
When he got home, took off his shoes, and ploddingly walked half way down the hall to his room, he heard that sound coming from his left side, the direction of living room.
Haruyuki automatically responded with a slur.
“...I am back...”
He walked another one, two steps, then, on the third step he suddenly put on the brakes.
‘- Huh?’
‘What was that just now?’
In Haruyuki’s awareness, for Arita Haruyuki’s 13 years and 10 months of life from birth up till now, he should be an only child. Instead of feeling displeasure, he was supposed to be thankful for being lucky, was he actually unconsciously very lonely, and started hearing things?
Even so, it would not be ‘Onii-chan’. Even in a cute girl’s voice. Is this an urban legend of «Imouto» or what?
While Haruyuki was having self doubts in an unnatural pose, he again heard an improbable sound.
‘Funfuun’, kind of humming. Pitter-patter kind of light slipper sounds. Not just those, somehow a sweet fragrant smell too. Illusion... smell? Do such words exist?
He dropped his school bag from his shoulder, turned 180 degrees, and then stiffly walked towards the living room.
Then he saw a mirage too.
At the left side upon entry, usually, its original purpose was not put to much use, at that kitchen s.p.a.ce.
Around 10 years old. A surprisingly slim and slender body, wearing some elementary school uniform that consisted of a white blouse and a navy blue skirt with shoulder straps, and above those was a pink ap.r.o.n. Reddish hair with small pigtails on both sides, under a smooth and round forehead, the face could only be said to be «innocent». Maybe of slight mixed blood, the milky skin was covered with small freckles, and the large eyes were reddish-brown. To say the full impression in one word - .
‘...Angel? Spelled like that?’
Having lost his thinking ability, Haruyuki was just staring while s.p.a.ced out, the girl glanced at him then said with a cute smile.
“I am baking cookies right now, please wait a bit more, Onii-chan.”
“...Uwaa!”
Haruyuki did a delayed scream, then hid his round body behind the living room door. While unable to understand the situation, he just poked the top part of his face out.
The girl tilted her head in wonder, soon after she gave another smile, and turned around to peek into the oven. Her red hair with two pigtails swung softly, and shone from the winter light coming from a window.
After coming this far, Haruyuki finally determined that this was not a mirage.
For daydream, or delusion, the girl’s existence was way too real. This means - this could only be a malicious program in the Neuro Linker. Ultra high detailed model layered on Haruyuki’s view, information like sounds and smells were fed to him. It is unknown who did this imitation for whatever reason - .
Since, there could not be an «Imouto».
There was no need to be afraid of a polygon fake. While Haruyuki was thinking that in his mind, he stepped into the kitchen, and extended his right hand to the «Imouto» who looked up smiling.
Then, he pinched the freckled cheek, and pulled.
For the Neuro Linker that communicated with human consciousness using quantum signals, at sight and sound level limit, virtual reality that’s hard to tell from reality can be made. Due to the limits in memory and CPU power, creating the whole human is the best it can do.
However, for the other senses, especially the sense of touch, it is hard to digitize, or research is slow. Something like a «Human cheek», the skin texture, muscle resistance, and contraction in reaction type of complicated virtual sense is impossible to perfectly recreate. So, if he did that, then his fingers will return a lifeless gum like feeling -
“Wh, wha ar yo doin ~”
“...Uu, uwaaaaa!?”
Haruyuki shouted, let go of his hand, jumped back and his behind hit the refrigerator.
It’s perfect.
Soft, smooth, also young and vivacious, that can only be said to be perfect «feeling of pulling a 10 year old girl’s cheek» - up till now he had never experienced this - occurred on his fingers.
While being stared at by the suddenly outraged girl with round cheeks, Haruyuki extended his right hand towards the Neuro Linker at his neck, removed the lock and pulled it right off.
From his view, time, calendar, application icons and AR information disappeared.
The girl did not disappear.
‘Haruyuki, sorry.’
That starting message from his mother, he finally noticed that it was left in the home server, he put the Neuro Linker back on, and stood there listening.
[- sorry, but we will be taking care of a relative’s child for two or three days. You know right, Nakano’s Saitou-san, my cousin. He went on an emergency overseas trip, like I just said, I too will be going to Shanghai today. I will return three days from now, please look after that girl. If anything happens, send an email, see you.]
His mother, Arita Saya, worked for an American bank in the dealing department. Every night she wouldn’t be home till around midnight, once in a while she flew overseas and left him home for a few days and things. For that, how many parts for work and how many parts vacationing with the man she went out with, he did not know. If the divorce 7 years ago wasn’t because his father cheated on her, Haruyuki would have thought that it was strange that he was left in her care.
So, since Haruyuki was in elementary school, he was continually left in the care of the Kurashima house two floors down in the same apartment complex - that is Chiyuri’s home.
Chiyuri’s mother and father always kindly welcomed him, on the other hand, if they had shown being bothered even once, he would have felt very bitter. Without any place to go, he would have grown up and become a child ten times more bullied than he was now.
While thinking about those, Haruyuki peeked at Saitou-san’s child moving busily in the kitchen.
After the oven timer gave a light sound, the girl opened its door and pulled out a metal tray. A sweet smell drifted by strongly. It seems the source of the fragrance were cookies.
She carefully moved with tongs around ten cookies onto a large plate covered with cooking paper, then she relaxed with a sigh.
Holding the plate with both hands, she turned around, and looked up at Haruyuki.
“Umm... sorry for using the kitchen without permission. I thought Haruyuki onii-chan would be hungry when he returned... so...”
A much lower volume voice than earlier, Haruyuki thought.
‘I see, this child too, felt uneasy about whether the «onii-chan» she was left in care of showed a bothered face or not. I am so helpless. Even though the opponent is a girl I met for the first time, there’s no reason for me who is older to feel scared.’
While feeling some pain inside, Haruyuki tried his best to put up a smile and said.
“Th... thank you. I am starving.”
Doing so, the girl too, smiled happily like ice melting.
“Umm, I am, Saitou Tomoko. Elementary school 5th year. We haven’t seen each other for many years, so you might have forgotten... I think onii-chan and me are second cousins. Umm... I am unworthy, but please look after me.”
While holding the plate, she bowed, that made Haruyuki’s heart beat rocket up and his sweat glands open wide.
However he soon remembered his earlier thought, and managed to return a barely understandable greeting.
“Yes, err, I... I am Arita Haruyuki, h-here also, p-please take care of me, Saitou-san.”
The instant reply of ‘Tomoko is fine’ and smile caused Haruyuki to desperately pull his thoughts going far away back to normal.
Nakano’s Saitou-san, about that, all he remembered was having this kind of relative. For a parent’s cousin, that was normal.
“...Y, you are also a single child?”
Hearing that, Tomoko nodded.
“There is just father and me in my family. He suddenly had to go on a business trip, I said I was fine by myself, but he was worried. Earlier, he brought me here from school, and then left for Narita.”
Tomoko answered while placing the plate of cookies on the table, which confirmed something for Haruyuki.
“Ah, then, you haven’t met my mother.”
“No. I have only been given an instant key for onii-chan’s house.”
That was very fortunate. If it was that mother, she would have shown Tomoko a 100% bothered face without hesitation.
- However.
‘Then, if it’s like that. That means for the next three days, I will be living alone with this girl.’
‘No no, you don’t need to panic, you fool. The opponent is just an elementary 5th year child. She and I are a whole two years apart... Two years... Whole? Is that whole?’
Without noticing Haruyuki’s panic attacks, Tomoko said ‘Please wait till it cools’, then after another smile, turned around. She quickly washed the bowls and things in the sink, at the same time boiling some water, and after just a few minutes, she returned with a tea tray. Clearly, she’s already more familiar with this kitchen than Haruyuki.
Girls are incredible, after thinking that, Haruyuki shook his head. A child, the opponent is just a child.
However the cookies, were so delicious that they could be sold just like that in a shop.
After eating nine of the so-so big cookies, Haruyuki wondered how many years it had been that he had eaten someone’s handmade sweets, and sipped the tea Tomoko poured for him.
On the other side of the table, his red-headed second cousin blew on her cup with a serious face. Each of those gestures, were simple and cute, just looking at it gave him a warm and snug feeling.
“...Thanks for the food. They were... d-delicious.”
Haruyuki somehow managed to say that normally, it made Tomoko show a huge smile of relief.
“Really, I am glad! Since you did not say anything, I was worried.”
“S-sorry. I was eating in a daze...”
“That’s true.”
With ufufu laughter, she extended her hand in a half-raised posture, and took a cookie crumb that was stuck to Haruyuki’s cheek.
Then she threw it in her mouth, and laughed again.
Zing, noticing a strange sound effect in his brain, Haruyuki wiped around his mouth in panic.
“W, well then, err... th, that is, what should we do now? Wa, want to play games? I have mountains of them, a collection of games starting from 40 years ago...”
After saying so, he remembered that most of them are the b.l.o.o.d.y and h.e.l.lish graphic type.
However fortunately, Tomoko smiled and lightly shook her head.
“Well, I don’t play too many games. I have a bit of trouble with Full Dive...”
“I, I see.”
Haruyuki looked at her after saying so, on her small neck above the top blouse b.u.t.ton, he belatedly noticed that the current era"s absolutely necessary social tool, the Neuro Linker, was not there.
Indeed, there are families who avoid having elementary school student wearing the Neuro Linker permanently. The unlimited Global Net is a hothouse for many different kind of crime. Even with the parental control functions, it’s difficult to block 100% of the harmful information.
If they only use sight and sound mode for daily school cla.s.ses, it’s reasonable for them to be scared of full dive that cut all five senses. Then what should they do, while desperately thinking, his eyes finally stopped at the large panel monitor in the living room, Haruyuki pointed to that.
“Th... then, want to watch a movie on that? Even for old 2D software, they are pretty fun.”
However, this time too, Tomoko shook her head slightly, and shyly said.
“Umm... Instead of that, can we talk? I want to learn about onii-chan’s middle school.”
She then stood up, walked around the table, and sat beside him.
A milk like sweet smell tickled his nose, his long nurtured anti-female field activated at that moment, and Haruyuki moved back in reaction. His chair leaned, about to make him fall to the left, he flapped both arms to balance himself.
Tomoko laughed while looking at Haruyuki returning to his original position with a bang.
“Onii-chan, you have a pretty cute side to you.”
‘- Uwaa.’
While blowing bubbles from his mouth, Haruyuki lowered himself deeper into the bathtub.
On his mother’s whim, the Arita house bathroom is very big. The bathtub is big too, so Haruyuki’s huge body fit in it with no problem and he was able to extend his hands. He breathed in a big whiff of the bathwater soap scented steam, kept it in his his lungs, then exhaled it slowly.
Even though his speech was awkward, his rare long speech made his throat hurt a bit. Along with the curry rice dinner Tomoko cooked, he calculated that he had spent four hours total speaking. He was strangely impressed that he had so many stories to talk about from his everyday life.
In the end, starting with the Umesato middle school’s different systems, various episodes with his two childhood friends, to his «most important person», that is the black clothed uppercla.s.sman as well, were completely talked about. The only things he did not mention, was the bullied incident that continued till a few months ago, and - the «other world» related information.
To those talks that he thought certainly were not interesting, Tomoko seriously listened, and once in a while laughed with a comment.
Is this the feeling of having a sister? Haruyuki tried to get a hold on it.
At the same time, he hated himself for maintaining a certain doubt.
It’s just - too perfect. One day after returning home from school, a little sister suddenly appeared, baked cookies and made curry, and even used the killer move of ‘Wanting to talk with onii-chan’. Beyond that, they will be living with just two of them for three days?
Haruyuki was not brought up in such a pure way that he could accept this rare event that fell on him.
However, even if this incident had a back side to it, who would have done it and for what reason? And how should he go about to check it?
After thinking for a while, Haruyuki raised his top half from the bath, and took the aluminum silver Neuro Linker from the corner rack.
Even though it was water proof, he wiped his neck of water just in case, and put it on from behind. The U-shaped parts swung together, and locked around his neck.
After turning it on, the start-up logo shone in front of his eyes, and after twenty or so seconds of brain connection check, the virtual desktop opened. Moving his right hand finger quickly, he opened the Arita home server window.
In the data storage, Haruyuki thought of going into the family alb.u.m, but he hesitated. In recent years they haven’t taken any family photos, but in there before Haruyuki became so rounded - when his father and mother were still happily together, there were lots of their family pictures. Those things, he would rather die than look at.
Going back up to the home server lobby, he opened the connection to the external net.
A few solid access gates popped up. These were all of the Arita relatives’ home nets. Of course you cannot fish for data as you like, but you can leave messages or check the relatives’ public schedules.
However, the access gate with «Nakano’s Saitou-san» home net did not exist. Most of the home net top pages only showed recent reports of family gathering pictures, he checked them out, but the only connections were from his mother’s family, a few uncles and aunts, it did not cover their cousins.
For a moment, Haruyuki looked away from the desktop towards the bathroom door and listened. He could hear slight sounds from the panel TV in the living room. Tomoko was probably still watching family oriented variety shows. Since she strongly urged him to take a bath first, he should finish quickly and go out. If the reason for his long bath was due to doubt if she was his real second cousin, even more so.
He looked back to the desktop again, the access gate that was floating in the center - his mother’s family home net, he opened it.
He ignored the family picture taken in a mountain village, and clicked on the gate connecting to the internal net. Of course a login confirmation appeared, Haruyuki quickly moved his fingers.
There, he entered the ID and pa.s.sword he got from mother. Since this access will be logged, if the other side asked his mother about the login reason, he would be in big trouble after his mother found out that he stole her ID, but he did not think that his village born grandparents would check their home net access logs.
But of course, he must quickly finish what he had to do. Haruyuki hurriedly dived into his mother’s family home net, and opened the alb.u.m folder.
He was overwhelmed by the number of pictures from all the years, but he found the era and number of people from the folder data. If his vague memory was right, five years ago for his grandfather’s birthday, a lot of Arita family gathered. He might have greeted «Nakano’s Saitou-san» at that time. If it’s like that, then five years or so old Tomoko should be there.
His search was soon over, and a few thumbnails were stacked.
He flicked each with his finger.
Not this, not this either... ah, around here. The next one was bingo.
“Onii-chan♪”
Suddenly, a song like voice came from his right side, Haruyuki turned his head in reaction.
Then, he froze with his right finger in the air.
Not sure when, the bathroom door was opened a crack, on the other side, Tomoko peeked in with her face and right shoulder shown.
From the reddish hair head that was warped in a towel, to the slightly shy looking face, then the slender neck and shoulder skin, his view moved down - .
“Wha... wh, wha...”
To Haruyuki who was moving his mouth quickly, Tomoko returned a slightly pink smile.
“Onii-chan, can I join you?”
“To... gether... that...”
“Since, onii-chan is taking so long. I got tired of waiting.”
With an ehehe smile, Tomoko entered the bathroom without waiting for an answer. Haruyuki lowered his body in panic, and shout with his eyes shut tight.
“S, sorry, I am getting out now! I am getting out soon so wait a bit more!!”
“It’s okay, we are second cousins.”
‘It’s absolutely not okay - !!’
While his brain screamed, Haruyuki’s biological optical observation system, that is his eyes, betrayed his command and opened. When the small bare feet on the ivory tiles entered his view, his breath stopped.
Both of his eyes’ focus automatically moved up. Surprisingly slender calf drawn with slippery lines. Small round knees and supple lower legs.
The end of the legs were barely covered by a pink bath towel, Haruyuki momentarily thought, ‘fool, what are you doing’, he blamed himself as his eyes moved further up. The towel covered a body that did not have too many b.u.mps, his eyes moved pa.s.s the cloth that could come off at any moment, and saw smooth skin covered a delicate collarbone.
“B... but, please don’t stare at me so much.”
And finally, the shyly lowered face.
Haruyuki compare that to the large Arita gathering picture shown on his view’s left side.
The front line was a group of children including himself. Now, he would not know who was who, but fortunately, the pictures in this era used technology that contain embed data.
Moving his focus, made names appear and disappear in front of the children.
This name, appeared on the 6th person. «Saitou Tomoko».
When he stared at it, the child’s face automatically zoomed in, becoming the same size as the Tomoko in front of him.
Five years old then. It is said that girls change, but becoming this face in five years...
No way.
Haruyuki took a deep breath, held it, then let it out.
He faced the girl that said she was his second cousin with a vacant expression, and called with a sad smile.
“Tomoko-chan...”
“What is it, onii-chan?”
“...You, are a «New Burst Linker» right?”
The reaction was immediate and real.
Tomoko’s cute face, instantly became blank with a surprised look.
That face probably was dyed red with some other reason than embarra.s.sment, and the right eye jerked.
But what was impressive, was the around 10 year old girl, tilted her head and said with a normal cute voice.
“What, onii-chan, what did you say? Bu..rst? What is that?”
“Tan line.”
Haruyuki replied with a murmur.
“What?”
“Around your neck, there’s a nice tan line. Similar to mine. To that degree, you could not get it unless you often worn it since birth... the Neuro Linker.”
Tomoko - probably not her name girl, covered her neck with both hands. Then, Haruyuki continued.
“There’s a picture from five years ago in my grandfather’s home server. Saitou Tomoko-chan was there... even though I am saying it in this situation, you are 10 times cuter.”
The girl’s face jerked again, showing a complex expression.
Eventually that multi-faceted face, settled on a sulky face that was one light year from the naive face till now.
“Geesh.”
With her hands on her waist around the bath towel, she clicked her tongue strongly.
“I checked the family alb.u.m here. To dig around in your grandfather’s home net, you have too much distrust.”
The sharp dig made his eyes spin, but Haruyuki somehow managed to retort.
“Y... you are too unreasonable. You probably faked an email from Saitou-san to my mother, what would you do if my mother checked with them?”
“The email and call from your mother’s Neuro Linker to Saitou-san were all interrupted and redirected to me. It took three days of preparation.”
“That... must be hard work...”
While holding the edge of the bathtub, Haruyuki let out an amazed sound.
To put a virus in someone’s Neuro Linker, it could only be done with a cable direct connect. Probably this girl checked his mother’s movement, and connected their Neuro Linker in the changing room of the sports gym that his mother frequent.
Of course, having a family member subjected to that did not feel good, but before that, he was impressed. This world has many self proclaimed Linker hackers and wizards, but to leave their safe home and go to the outside for «Social engineering» - meeting others to do offline extreme hacking - there are not many strong ones like that.
Hearing Haruyuki’s words containing admiration, the girl’s face showed a strong smile.
Seeing that, Haruyuki continued to voice his guess.
“...For you to go this far, you must be trying to hack my supporter, «that person», that’s too naive. For that person, one look and she will know you are a fake, unlike me who took 5 hours. ...I can understand that you cannot win fighting face to face as a Burst Linker... since the opponent is that «Black Lotus»...”
‘Would you hurry and leave’, while thinking that he said up to that point -
At that moment.
The girl’s presence, again changed sharply.
Her eyes shot out strong light, with a hint of red like her hair. Her glossy lips twisted into a bend, showing pure white teeth.
An expression that can only be described as arrogance looked down at Haruyuki, and the girl said in a low voice.
“...Hey you, what did you say?”
“...Eh? Th, that is... even if you challenge her face to face...”
“Cannot win? Me? That’s why I sneak around and go about this bothersome real hack?”
‘- That’s not it?’
At the same time Haruyuki asked that question with his eyes, the girl’s right hand moved, and took off the towel that was around her head. She threw that towel to the floor with a loud thud, then pointed her index finger at him.
In the foggy air, he seemed to see that her near deep red hair stood up on ends. With her short hair waving like flames, the girl let out a threatening voice.
“It’s too bothersome, I will force you to listen to me. I will have you pay dearly for looking down on this «Scarlet Rain»-sama, wait right there till I get my Neuro Linker!!”
With her index finger waving, she stuck out her thumb, then turned it down and wiggled it, turning around in a big move.
Then, her right foot that took a step, stepped on the towel that she threw earlier, and slipped.
“Nyaa!?”
A high pitched scream. Looking at the girl falling in an almost perfect back flip, Haruyuki also shouted.
“Uwaa!?”
He hurriedly opened both arms, and caught the girl before she hit the bathtub’s edge. However his feet slipped inside the bathtub, so he also fell backward.
Splash.
With a huge splash sound, a water pillar went up high, that blew up most of the bath towel.
When Haruyuki hit the wall behind, he shut his eyes to wait for the pain to pa.s.s, then lifted his head to check the situation.
He was sitting in the wide bathtub.
A red haired girl was riding his flabby stomach as cushion. Her slender body was held by both of his arms.
And also, both of them were completely naked.
“U, uwaaaaa!?”
Haruyuki shouted that, then,
“Ugyaaa - !!”
The girl’s scream overwrote his shout. She stumbled around, then from her foot’s bounce on Haruyuki’s stomach, she somehow managed to escape out of the bathtub. She picked up the bath towel on the floor, fled to the change area in high speed, then showed just her face.
“...I will beat you to death.”
When he heard her footsteps head towards the living room, Haruyuki thought in a daze.
‘- I saw and touched.’
‘- Not that. That girl was probably an a.s.sa.s.sin from the one of the six kings. With that word and action, she will probably be back later to challenge him to a duel.’
Then, should he remove the Neuro Linker to prevent that? However, she is probably an enemy they will meet again, so it might be better to obtain information early. Since he is just level 4, losing once won’t cost him too many points, also - since the opponent is just a child, he might not lose that easily.
With about 80% of his thinking processes in confusion, the remaining 20% reached that conclusion, then the name that girl said earlier pop up in his brain.
«Scarlet Rain». He probably hasn’t heard of it. For the color circle, it’s probably «Long range red» type, with that, he thought she might be a Burst Linker belonging to the red legion. He would find that out when they duel, but he wanted a bit more information.
It will take some time for the girl to put on her Neuro Linker, start the OS, and finish the quantum connection check. While he sat in the bathtub, he issued a voice command.
“Command. Voice Call. Number 01.”
At that moment, [Voice call for registered address number 01. Is that okay?], that holo dialogue appeared in front of his eyes. He instantly answered ‘Yes’.
With two rings, the opponent answered.
“It’s me. What’s wrong, Haruyuki-kun, calling at this time.”
With that smooth voice, a background sound like musical accompaniment of splashing water was heard.
‘Ah, is senpai also taking a bath...’ While thinking that and other things, Haruyuki talked to the person he called - one of the strongest Burst Linkers, Black King «Black Lotus», also known as Kuroyukihime.
“Sorry for calling this late. I want you to tell me about something...”
“Oh, what is it?”
“Well, senpai, do you know of a Burst Linker called «Scarlet Rain»?”
The answer to his question, was a bit long silence.
“...A, ah, what’s wrong?”
“...Nothing, sorry. You are seriously asking that right?”
“Seriously... of course. I won’t make a prank call at this time.”
“I see. Hmm, this should be my omission. I used the common calling only so haven’t told you their names. However, «Silver Crow», you are also a bit short on study.”
“Eh...? What, does that mean...”
Haruyuki’s tilted head heard running footsteps in the hall, on top of that was Kuroyukihime’s cool voice.
“- «Scarlet Rain». That person is also called «Immobile Fortress» and «b.l.o.o.d.y Storm»... is the second generation Red King.”
...Huh?
In a daze, with both eyes and mouth wide open, Haruyuki’s thoughts stopped.
Right after, the bathroom door was pulled open hard, and the red haired girl again appeared.
She must be really furious, since she only wore underwear on top and bottom. However she did not seem to be hiding anymore, her pure white body was held high, and arms crossed in front of her chest.
He moved his view on reaction, and noticed the only other thing she had on other than underwear, then stared at it. Around her slender neck, a glossy pure red shone.
The girl showing a violent smile, shouted with a cute yet forceful voice.
“Burst Link!!”
Viiiii!!
- That familiar, yet always hair-raising sound reverberated in his world.
Instantly, his five senses were cut, in the darkness «HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!» words burned. Right after, his view returned.
However, there was no longer his home bathroom with ivory makeup panels. Unbelievable that it was high up in a apartment floor, it was a huge open s.p.a.ce.
Haruyuki had already accelerated his thought with the Neuro Linker, and fully dived into the virtual world created by the duel fighting game application «Brain Burst». The surrounding world, was made up of images from Social Camera Net all over j.a.pan, a virtual «Duel Field».
However, normal residences including Haruyuki’s home did not have a social camera, so this was supplemented with guess work - that is the software built it up with the structure. This time, the apartment was returned to while it was being built. The concrete littered floor had steel pillars here and there.
In this bleak s.p.a.ce, Haruyuki and the girl faced each other in their real form for about half of a second.
However soon, both their body color and shape started changing. Towards their other self, the combat use «Duel Avatar».
Haruyuki’s round limbs were covered with silver from the tips and at the same time twisted smaller and smaller. What appeared was silver armor covered robotic hands. The change reached his body, and his stomach shrunk by more than half in one go. When the slender metallic body was finished, the white light covered his head, and became a slippery round mirror helmet.
While he was transforming to his duel avatar «Silver Crow», Haruyuki continued to stare at the girl a few meters in front of him.
The doll like delicate arms and legs were covered by a deep red shine. As the light circle moved up, the places it pa.s.sed were transformed to a ruby colored armor. The flat stomach and chest were also changed to be covered by dark grey and ruby mixed half transparent armor, and with a last flash, an android like head appeared.
A mask that only had bead like eyes. Front hair shape metal extended from both sides of the head, like pigtail shaped antenna.
The twin pigtails wiggled, and a deep red light shone from both eyes.
‘- This is the «Red King»?’
Haruyuki stood still and looked at the Duel Avatar a few meters in front of him.
Small. Height only around 130cm. For weapon-like items, only a toy-like handgun on the right waist.
“...E, err.”
He unintentionally opened his mouth, and under the mirror helmet, a metallic effect voice leaked out.
“Are you really...”
‘Accelerated world’s only seven level 9 Burst Linker, highest commander of huge legion, one of the «Pure Color Six Kings»?’
He wanted to ask that, at that moment.
Suddenly, the s.p.a.ce behind the cute girl avatar became twisted.
Four brusque blocks shining pure red appeared from the void, and warped around the girl’s arms and legs. Then thick armor surrounded her from left and right, fully covering the elegant body.
“What the...”
Haruyuki looked with a daze at the red avatar that became several times bigger than him in one go.
However, the addition of armaments did not stop there.
With low Gon Gon sounds reverberating, huge hexagon pillars, cylinders, and plates kept appearing behind and connecting. The height soon reached for the ceiling, compared to the panicky retreating Silver Crow, its height was 2 meters more, 3 meters more...
A few seconds later.
When silence finally returned, what stood in front of Haruyuki’s eyes, was a tank, or might be a thing better called a fortress.
Like an extension of its original arms, two huge cannons were slowly lifted up, and white steam came from various heat release valves.
In the center of the armor container, two shining red eyes peeked out just a bit.
“...No way...”
At the same time as Haruyuki’s whisper, in front of him in burning font, «FIGHT», shone, then blew apart.
‘I should run away first!!’
That was the first thing Haruyuki thought of, he wanted to turn around and quickly dash away behind, but stopped when he thought that would be dangerous.
The enemy’s type is «Long range red». This huge fortress like duel avatar, no matter how you look at it, is a demon of long distance attacks. In addition to the main cannons on the left and right side, the containers on both shoulders were probably missile pods, and the short tubes in front should be some kind of machine gun. Against this type of opponent, trying to distance himself would be foolish.
With that determination, he gathered courage to stand still, then the fortress avatar «Scarlet Rain»’s red eyes focused on him.
“...Hmm, not running away. You have guts.”
The metallic yet cute voice, was released by the Red King.
“I, I am so scared that my legs won’t move.”
Haruyuki replied with a pitiful sound, then he desperately looked at the Red King’s different parts.
Normally in games, the strategy against this kind of huge armored boss enemy, is to attack the thin area weak point in a blind spot. Attacking from the front is out of question, left and right is probably covered by those movable main cannons. That leaves right behind. If he could dash at full speed around to the back side.
Unknown if she knew of Haruyuki’s thinking or not, Scarlet Rain laughed.
“You said a cute thing♪ But, you didn’t forget, right?”
“Eh? About... what?”
“That I will...”
Guin! With that sound the right main cannon moved, pointing right at Haruyuki.
“- beat you to death, you hentai[1]!!”
“That was beyond my controlll!!”
While shouting back a reply, Haruyuki kicked the ground hard. He moved towards the enemy’s left side at lightning speed, then made a sharp turn for the back side.
Scarlet Rain who turned while chasing Haruyuki, was surprisingly quick for such a huge size, but even so, Silver Crow - is a very specialized speed type duel avatar, so she could not catch up to his dash.
“And you were the one who came into the bathroommm!!”
With another shout while turning, Haruyuki finally saw the enemy’s back and rushed forward.
As he had predicted, the back side had large heat releasing fins and vernier like things lined up, but he did not see any armaments. The armor looked thinnest at the connection between the missile pod and fin, his right fist aimed for that - .
‘...Vernier?’
At the same time he thought of that, four black exhaust holes let out fierce jets of flame.
“Uwaa hot -!!”
He had a strong feeling of heat when he was covered by the flames, so he screamed. In his view’s upper left, his own HP gauge dropped.
However, Haruyuki did not stop moving forward.
The damage to him, was not an amount to be feared. The metal color Silver Crow has heat attack resistance.
“Fire won’t work against this Silver Crow!!”
‘- It’s decided.’
While thinking that, Haruyuki put all his strength behind his punch against the back armor in front of him. However.
“It’s not that easy, brat!!”
Fuhahaha, with a roar that he could almost see the words, at the same time the containers on Scarlet Rain’s shoulders opened their covers.
From those, numerous small missiles flew out, Haruyuki opened his eyes wide on seeing that.
‘Wait... here, the building... inside...’
Right after, the concrete ceiling, floor, and steel pillars were all covered by red rose like explosions.
Haruyuki desperately ducked when a missile headed straight for him, it hit the concrete ceiling above his head, breaking it up mesh like, and it started falling.
“No way...”
He dangerously dodged a huge slap of concrete that fell down, it hit near his feet and the floor abruptly sank.
“No way - !!”
With that shout, Haruyuki dashed fiercely. This was no longer the time to worry about keeping distance with the enemy or not. This was the 23rd floor above ground. If he was caught in the collapse, his HP would be gone in an instant.
The originally Haruyuki’s home apartment was now a building with only floor and pillars, so tens of meters ahead he could see the outside s.p.a.ce. He jumped around the broken floors and used his fist and head to break falling concrete fragments, while checking the special attack gauge below his HP gauge.
The damage that he dealt and received did not amount to much, but maybe due to the stage destruction points, his gauge was at about 20% with a green shine. With this -
He could fly!!
Haruyuki took a deep breath and exerted force on his shoulders.
On his back, folded metal fins started to make a crisp sound.
With the fins’ high frequency vibration, Haruyuki’s dash speed also increased.
“Fuooooo - !!”
With that shout, Haruyuki aimed for the grey s.p.a.ce coming up in front of him and dived head first.
Haruyuki’s home was very high up in the building. That meant, the moment he jumped out from the building, he could see all of the streets from Kouenji to Shinjuku.
The superb panoramic view - was there, but all the buildings were similar to his apartment, becoming stark segments with steel pillars. This is probably the «Weathered» stage. Its properties are: easy to destroy, dusty, and occasional gust blowing...
While thinking of many things, Haruyuki controlled his metallic wings" speed and hovered in the air.
He checked his special attack gauge, there’s still a little left. With that, he should be able to fly continuously for three minutes.
He turned around - .
That was about the same time as the huge high-rise building split almost in half and collapsed.
“Ah, ah... My home...”
He whispered unconsciously. Of course that was just polygon data created by the system, but this was the first time his home was destroyed in a «Duel».
“That was reckless.”
While shaking his helmet head, Haruyuki looked down at the rubble mountain that his apartment had become. The Red King seemed to be buried in her own destruction, and could not be seen. At that rate, probably even a fortress avatar won’t escape unscratched.
‘What was she thinking’, he shook his head and started to descend, right after.
Haruyuki noticed something and became horrified.
Scarlet Rain’s HP gauge - did not decrease. To be exact around 3% was lost, but that could not be called damage.
And then, her special attack gauge, was flashing at 100%.
It would be like that. With the destruction of that huge environmental object, a huge bonus must have been added. That meant, her reckless missile fire, was not to prevent Haruyuki from attacking behind her, nor was she trying to trap him in the destruction...
Suddenly.
From under the rubble, muscle like red light appeared from cracks. At the same time, a sharp shout.
“- «Heat Blast Saturation»!!”
With a sharp squeal and explosion sound, a crimson flame extended from the wreck of the apartment, Haruyuki who saw that screamed.
“Hiaaaa!!”
He moved his right wing as fast as he could, and tried to avoid with a spin dive. However.
The flame was way too huge. He was unable to completely avoid the flame with a diameter about the same as his height, and the wavering hot column touched Silver Crow’s left hand, and below his elbow came a burning sound.
His HP gauge lost one fifth, at the same time a non-virtual hot feeling attacked him, but Haruyuki almost did not notice it.
Because, the heat ray that went by him head east of the stage, hit Shinjuku city far away, and blew up everything above 300 meters in that area.
“No way...”
The not sure how many time in this battle, shocked voice leaked from Haruyuki.
While his mouth flapped under the silver face plate, he moved his view to look at his home’s wreckage.
At that moment, from the huge hole in the rubble, the Red King’s majesty appeared.
The full body beautiful ruby armor, didn’t seem to have a single scratch. The back and lower verniers glowed red from exhaust, and white steam came from the slits on the left cannon.
“...Ooh, he’s flying♪”
From between the front armor, the Red King’s two round eyes looked up at Silver Crow and said in a sing song voice.
“I wanted to try it once, like anti-air cannon fire? In SF movies and others, when they let it all out seems to be very fun.”
Clink.
With that clear metallic sound, the missile containers on both shoulders all opened, the right main cannon was lifted up, and the four machine guns in the front changed angle.
While trembling, a certain anime movie scene played in Haruyuki’s brain. A small robotic weapon, trying to infiltrate an enemy fortress filled with anti-air weapons - however, he was shot down like a small bug, and he shouted his lover’s name before exploding.
‘Ah, then it would be Kuroyukihime for me. But that’s just a nickname. Even though, it’s embarra.s.sing to say her real name.’
While repeating escapist thinking, the enemy’s main cannon started charging with a rumbling sound. From the containers, around 100 small missiles appeared, their seeker head lenses shining.
Compared to the again full special attack gauge from destroying a city, Haruyuki’s own gauge only had less than 5% left. He only had tens of seconds of full strength flight probably. It was not his habit, but he might have to bet on a simple banzai attack in this situation.
“...I have to say this, huge war ship is supposed to be shot down by a single robot, it was decided in the past!”
With a loser like retort, Haruyuki took a dashing form in the air.
“As if a robot piloted by a hentai can be that active, idiot!”
The Red King shouted those very nasty words, then continued with a loud shout.
“ - «Hailstorm Domination»!!”
Giyudoaaaapapapapaundaridaridari, those three attack sounds reverberated, main cannon, missiles, and machine guns fired at the same time.
This is truly, a huge manifestation of «Long range anti-air attack» that Haruyuki was having long time trouble with. The previous week, and the week before that as well, Haruyuki was chased by one tenth of that firepower and was shot down.
Then why did he now, have no wish to give up, or feel any fear?
Since the enemy is so much stronger, he might just be having a ‘so-what’ att.i.tude. However Haruyuki, for once in a long while, his whole body was covered by the heat of his boiling blood. That was, the excitement of «Duel».
“...Zuoriyaa - !!”
With that roar, Haruyuki first dashed to the right in the air, avoiding the main cannon’s high heat beam. If he was directly hit with that, he would be burn to a crisp instantly. The beam dangerously pa.s.sed by him, this time it opened a huge hole in park tower and NS building.
However, the enemy seemed to have predicted that move. Numerous small missiles came after him from the front with their seeker shining.
Taking a deep breath, Haruyuki started full body ultra high speed movement.
He flew straight and pulled a group of missiles behind him, then did a more than 90 degrees sharp turn. While he wavered from the explosions of missiles that lost their homing target, the next group of missiles closed in, and he again dodged.
He zig zag in the air like an UFO, and left numerous explosions as Silver Crow continued to fly.
Strangely, he could clearly see the missile and machine gun bullet paths. If this was result from the training in that white room, he could not tell.
While doing unlimited high speed flight, Haruyuki felt a strong resentment against himself.
Why couldn"t he do this kind of movement in the weekly territory battle? Why did he always get shot by just one rifle and his legs - no wings shun and he stopped flying? If it was because of pressure, then his one on one fight with the one called «Red King» should be way more fearful.
‘- I am this fast. I can fly this way. Then, why in the moment when it matters I was so clumsily hit by bullets? I should be a lot stronger. Become strong, raise my level, then that person...’
“...!”
While he strongly ground his teeth under his helmet, his flight speed slowed just a bit, and the only dodge route trace was missed.
In front of him was the remaining around 30 missiles group. Behind him was the machine gun bullet shower. And below him Scarlet Rain’s left main cannon finished charging, and started tracking him.
“Sh... it!”
Haruyuki right kicked the missile that came in front of him. It flew away and blew up. From the reaction, he changed his angle and dived straight below. However, in front of his eyes, the left main cannon’s hole waited -.
At that time, a fierce wind blew in the battle field.
It was the «Weathered» stage’s geological effect. From the concrete buildings to the ground, a large sand storm blew up, his view was temporarily filled with grey. The surrounding missiles lost their target and exploded one by one.
‘...This is it!!’
Haruyuki opened his eyes, aiming just for the ruby color in the sandstorm, and did a rapid spiral dive.
In the middle of his path, the main cannon’s beam pa.s.sed by, burning just air.
“Oooooo!!”
With that roar, Haruyuki changed his position, the sharp front of his foot moved forward like a spear of light. His all or nothing left kick, aimed between Scarlet Rain’s twin missile containers. If this could be a critical hit, there might be a chance for him yet -
- However.
“...!?”
Right before the sword sharp feet hit, the huge fortress avatar broke apart at once.
The containers and main cannons split apart, and the armor plates too opened up all around.
From the center, an elegant girl avatar appeared, and looked up at him.
With an unbelievable speed, she slid one step, and dodged Silver Crow’s kick.
Blam! Silver Crow made a big hole on the ground, he fell clumsily, and something was stuck on his helmet. Looking up, he saw a small gun hole. Scarlet Rain’s main body, the small girl avatar, held a crimson handgun in her right hand, and ‘hold up’ Haruyuki.
‘- When that kick was easily dodged, I lost.’
Even acknowledging that, Haruyuki said while not knowing when to give up.
“...Do you think that toy like gun can penetrate my armor?”
Then, on Red King’s mask that only had two lens like eyes, a bright smile showed.
“If I said this gun was my strongest weapon, would you believe it, onii-chan?”
Haruyuki took a deep breath, then blew it out, with both hands - his left hand was mostly gone - held up.
“...I believe you. You win, Scarlet Rain.”
Then, the Red King smiled once more, and said.
“Then, will you listen to my wish?”
“Eh? Wish...?”
It wouldn’t be betraying the Black legion right? That would be impossible negotiation.
While he panicked inside, the answer was beyond his expectation. With a sudden threatening tone, the girl haughtily said.
“- I want to meet your «Parent». In the real world... with our real selves.”
References↑ pervert, etc, I like the j.a.panese version.