Chapter 5
“…Uwaah! W, we’re falling..!”
While yelling, Haruyuki abruptly picked himself up.
Just at that moment, both sides of his neck were lightly pulled.
“Eh…what…”
While feeling his heartbeat ringing like an alarm bell, he looked several times left and right. An off-white wallpaper. A super-thin panel TV. A large dining table and a kitchen counter beyond it.
It was his living and dining rooms, which he was accustomed to seeing. He had been sleeping on the mattresses laid on the ground.
The home server, which had sensed the motion of Haruyuki raising his upper body, illuminated the ceiling panel lights at a low lux1 setting. In the dim gray light, he looked at what had pulled his neck; it was two XSB cables extending from his Neuro Linker, which he had been wearing. He traced the cable on the left side with his eye; only fifty centimeters from his side, the sleeping face of his childhood friend—Kurashima Chiyuri, who had peeled off her blanket and was sleeping with her tummy sticking out from the hem of her pajamas, dived into his view.
—Surely, it wasn’t all a dream?
Becoming a duel avatar in a strange place; pa.s.sing through a long tunnel and seeing the light of the galaxy; meeting that bright golden yellow girl again there…it was all just a dream..?
While Haruyuki was taken with that bewilderment, at almost the same time Chiyuri lifted her eyelids with a momentum that nearly made a sharp sound.
Chiyuri exchanged glances with him for only a mere second, then shouted in a hoa.r.s.e voice.
“Haru…where’s Takkun!? Was he able to come back safely from there!?”
Those words indicated she had also shared the same experience as Haruyuki.
That was right; there was no way it had been just a dream. What they had experienced in that world, what had happened was all real. The two had pa.s.sed through «imagination circuits» and had entered the Brain Burst central server, had discovered the «main body of the ISS Kit», and had awakened Tak.u.mu, to whom it had been trying to connect, with Haruyuki’s Incarnate technique, and then…
“—Taku!”
While raising his voice Haruyuki turned his body toward the mattress laid on his right side.
In the dim light, in contrast to Chiyuri, Mayuzumi Tak.u.mu was in a proper upward-facing position with a straightened back and was closing his eyelids.
“Takkun..!”
While Chiyuri also shouted thinly, she climbed over Haruyuki’s two legs and knelt at Tak.u.mu’s immediate side. At the moment when her extended hand tried to touch his shoulder, Tak.u.mu’s eyes opened with great momentum.
His slightly brown pupils caught sight of Chiyuri and Haruyuki in order, who were holding their breaths and had stopped still. His left hand came out from beneath the blanket and touched the Neuro Linker equipped to his neck and the cable extending from his direct connection terminal connecting him to Haruyuki.
At last his childhood friend spoke in a distinct voice that did not seem like that of just having woken up.
“…It wasn’t a dream, was it. No, it’s different. Haru and Chii-chan destroyed my nightmare for me. That’s how it was, right?”
And then he wore the exact same unchanged gentle smile he always had on his lips.
That moment, Haruyuki extended his right hand; while seizing Tak.u.mu’s left shoulder with all his might he shouted.
“Taku, you, you…if we tell you to run away, then run away! There it’d normally be impossible to counterattack!”
“That’s right! If you got caught by those nasty tentacles, what would you have done!”
While also drawing near Tak.u.mu as if to lean on him, Chiyuri too raised a shrill voice.
Tak.u.mu, who, at the last scene of the «dream» a moment ago, far from escaping from the raging main body of the Kit had counterattacked with his Incarnate technique immediately after having escaped its mind control due to Haruyuki’s Incarnate technique and was being reproached for that, answered while changing his smile to a seemingly regretful one.
“W, well you see, I thought of it right off the bat…That thing’s to blame; it’s the root of all evil. And I had the feeling that I had to return the favor with a blow by any means…”
“W, well, as for me too, if I could’ve then I would’ve liked to give it a hard knock with all my might though…”
After unconsciously nodding, Haruyuki abruptly raised his face and inquired hurriedly.
“Th, that’s right, besides that…what happened? How’s ‘the thing’ inside you..?”
Inside the «dream», with his new Incarnate technique «Laser Lance» Haruyuki had definitely pierced through and destroyed the ISS Kit, which had broken off from Tak.u.mu’s right arm. However, if that were an occurrence in the imaginary world, even if it weren’t an actual dream he still did not know how much influence he had exerted.
The questioned Tak.u.mu lowered his eyes and then tightly closed his eyelids.
His right hand rose up and touched the area around his brow. His furrowed eyebrows trembled little by little. Tak.u.mu, who was in that state for a while, at last lowered his hand, and with his snapped-open eyes he stared straight at Chiyuri first, then at Haruyuki—.
He emitted a subdued voice.
“…It disappeared.”
“Eh..?”
“It disappeared, Haru. That thing, which had been staying in a place deep inside my head since yesterday night and had always been whispering to me…it disappeared…”
At the same time as his words were petering out, the home server, which had judged that the inhabitants had risen from bed, raised the degree of illumination further.
The daylight color of the panel lights shone on the face of the widely smiling Tak.u.mu. It was no different than his smile since they had become the power forwards of Nega Nebulas—no, than the smile of his old friend always at his side if Haruyuki looked there while they played as if in a trance since their childhood days.
—It was Taku. He had returned. To my side. To a place I could reach if I extended my hand out.
The moment he believed that, the smile of Tak.u.mu before his eyes was covered in a boisterous dance of white light and became blurred.
The instant he was aware of a hot something overflowing from his own eyes, out of embarra.s.sment Haruyuki b.u.mped his forehead into Tak.u.mu’s broad chest with a thump.
“Y…you caused us to worry..!”
While shouting roughly on purpose, Haruyuki tried to hold back his tears with all his might, but on the contrary they welled up endlessly. With clenched teeth, from his throat he leaked out something, a sob like that of a child.
“Uh…nn…kk…uh..!”
A large, warm hand gently slapped the back of Haruyuki, who, unable to stand it all, was causing his shoulders to tremble.
“Just…just a moment, Haru, no matter how you think about it that’s my role, isn’t it!”
The voice of Chiyuri, who, aghast, had shouted that, was however also clearly wet. Immediately after, around Haruyuki’s left shoulder Chiyuri also heavily b.u.mped her body with a thump.
While feeling the body warmth of his two childhood friends with his whole body, Haruyuki only continued to be filled to the brim with hot tears.
And then, suddenly, in the far depths of his head he heard a faint voice.
…I’m glad for you. That you were able to save your friends.
That was unmistakably that strange bright golden yellow girl avatar. While bearing his sobs, Haruyuki replied with his thoughts.
—Thank you, it’s all thanks to you.
…Fufu, I didn’t do anything. The light of your heart shone upon the darkness. I want you to keep walking the path in which you believe. If you continue to gather lots of light, one day for sure the time when that person’s deep despair will also be healed will come…
At this time he did not really understand the meaning of those words.
However, as if being led by something Haruyuki murmured.
—Unh. I promise. One day, I will definitely free you…free you and him from the cycle of the «Disaster»…
…Thank you. I believe in you…
With those final few words, the voice faded and disappeared.
With the sleeve of his pajamas, he roughly wiped his tears, which he had finally begun to get under control, and he lifted his head; to hide his embarra.s.sment Haruyuki shouted with great force.
“It…it seems like after running till we were about to die my stomach’s hungry. I’m going to see if there isn’t anything in the fridge…”
Chiyuri’s stunned voice overtook Haruyuki, who had pulled out the direct connection cable, had stood up, and was running with heavy footsteps toward the kitchen.
“Hey there, even if you’re talking about running, wasn’t it in the middle of a dream!”
Following her was also Tak.u.mu’s laughing voice.
“Ha ha ha…Haru, I’m counting on you for my share too!”
After heating three people’s rations’ worth of frozen cubes of clam chowder and pouring equal amounts into their soup cups, Haruyuki carried them to the dining table.
He looked at the wall clock; it was already close to six in the morning. If he released the window gla.s.s’ light shielding mode, the morning light from the east would probably shine in. It was an hour earlier than his regular waking time, but he considered getting up today as he was and stretched enormously.
At the same time the two who had cleaned up their beds came to the table, they first took a sip of the soup from which steam was rising. After puffing out their breaths, their gazes met.
The first to open her mouth was Chiyuri, whose expression had become serious.
“Takkun. Um…with this, it’s okay to think of the problematic «ISS Kit» as having completely disappeared, right?”
“Unh, I believe so. I don’t have data backing me up, but my intuition says so.”
There was no hesitation in the voice of Tak.u.mu, who had come to that conclusion immediately. Haruyuki also nodded and spoke while thinking.
“It’s not about reducing its degree of endurance in the duel stage, how do you put it…we destroyed some save data in the server. If it survived that, on the other hand that’d be surprising…”
“«Server». —Haru, basically that place was Brain Burst’s..?”
To Tak.u.mu’s inquiry, he nodded softly.
“Aah. The «Brain Burst central server»…That person had said so…”
To Tak.u.mu, who had awakened on the brink of leaving the server, Haruyuki and Chiyuri alternately explained what they had experienced in that world.
The long, dark tunnel and the infinite s.p.a.ce in its depths. The wavering light of the galaxy and the jet black lump of meat. And then, the strange bright yellow golden avatar who had appeared from inside Haruyuki and explained various things to him—.
“…I see…”
Tak.u.mu, still with his gla.s.ses removed, was silent for a while with his completely regular «professor mode» expression. After probably having had his head revolve furiously for a number of seconds, he lifted his head and emitted some words crisply.
“Haru, do you remember? What we discussed regarding the vulnerability of the ISS Kit, last night, before sleeping.”
“V, vulnerability…um sure enough, what we said about since it has a power that formidable, it must also have a weakness to counterbalance it?”
“That’s right. At first, you had struck that very vulnerability. While its equipper is sleeping during the night, the ISS Kit automatically opens its imagination circuits and connects the equipper’s consciousness to the central server. There, with other equippers, it executes a so-to-speak…«nightmare parallel processing»-type of operation, strengthening the Kit’s main body as well as its terminals…”
At Tak.u.mu’s words, Haruyuki and Chiyuri simultaneously caused their bodies to shudder.
“Some…somehow, that’s absurd…Isn’t a thing like that already out of the limits of what players can do..?”
To Chiyuri’s whisper, Tak.u.mu lightly bit his lip.
“Aah, truthfully, I also have no clue how one would be able to make an Enhanced Armament that could do that kind of thing. But…if I could say one thing, then it would be that the Brain Burst program undoubtedly had that function from the outset. The one of «opening the imagination circuits as a dream and connecting to the central server».”
“Eh…that means that..?”
“Haru, you remember too right? What had happened the night of the day you installed Brain Burst.”
“Ah…”
After lightly raising his voice and exchanging glances with Chiyuri, Haruyuki deeply nodded.
There was no way he could forget it. He did not remember the details, but in the fall of last year, Haruyuki, who had received the program from Kuroyukihime, had seen a long, long nightmare. The program had filtered that dream and created Haruyuki’s other self, the duel avatar «Silver Crow». The avatar data must have also been registered simultaneously in the central server—rather than that, it was more natural to think of that process as having occurred in the interior of the central server. That night, sure enough Haruyuki had communicated with the server while sleeping. It was basically completely the same as what had happened to Tak.u.mu’s self tonight—.
Taking a sip of his soup, while being lost even further in thought Tak.u.mu continued.
“The nightly parallel processing, that’s the very heart of the strength of the ISS Kit, but…however, at the same time it also has a humongous opening. Because no matter what, it’ll call Burst Linkers right up to the side of the main body. Although if everyone’s under its control like I was, it wouldn’t become a problem…”
To Tak.u.mu, who had lifted his head and had laughed meaningfully, Haruyuki also returned a wide laugh.
“The guys who created the Kit also probably sure didn’t imagine there were Burst Linkers who make direct connections and sleep with its equippers in real life.”
“On top of that, all the more because it’s a user who can attack with the «range expansion Incarnate technique» outside the sphere of influence of the Kit’s main body.”
Watching the two boys laughing together with a “fufufufu,” Chiyuri shook her head with an “oh dear,” but she spoke immediately in a half-smiling, half-displeased manner.
“In short, this time’s the victory of our bonds! That’s what it is! Aah, enough already, I want to meet the mastermind right now and say ‘Serves you right!’ to him!”
Gulping down her soup to the last drop, she vigorously returned her cup to the table, and after a shake of her short hair disheveled from sleep she opened her mouth again.
“…Hey, Takkun. At the end of that «dream», you chopped up the Kit’s main body with «Cyan Blade» right. With that, were you able to destroy the main body..?”
“…No.”
The interrogated Tak.u.mu changed his expression and slowly shook his head.
“It’s unfortunate, but it didn’t have the effect of being able to destroy it completely. —However, I ought to have dealt some adequate damage to its acc.u.mulated «malice» and its transmission circuits. The clones belonging to the same cl.u.s.ter as I do probably lost quite a bit of power.”
The «cl.u.s.ter» of which Tak.u.mu spoke was a group consisting of the same ISS Kit’s source of reproduction—in Tak.u.mu’s case, «Magenta Scissor»—shared by some Burst Linkers and from there the people who possessed further copies of the Kit. At the last of last night’s duel, if they had not been able to stop the Kit, which had broken off from Tak.u.mu and had tried to parasitize Haruyuki, Haruyuki also would have become a member of that cl.u.s.ter.
While remembering the figure of the gra.s.s green avatar walking next to Tak.u.mu’s side inside the nightmare, Haruyuki murmured.
“…That means, if we think about releasing «Bush Utan» and «Olive Glove» from the Kit, then now’s our chance.”
“Unh. If it’s now, then even if we don’t enter the central server, we might be able to destroy it in a normal duel. Of course, with normal techniques it’s of no use, but if we use Incarnate techniques I think there’s a possibility.”
“Understood. Convey this matter to that guy’s «big brother». If we could do something we would, but today we can’t make a move…”
At Haruyuki’s words, Chiyuri and Tak.u.mu looked at the clock on the wall.
The date and time displayed was June 20th 2047, Wednesday, 6:30 A.M.
At seven tonight—that was to say, after twelve hours and a little bit later, Haruyuki would have to challenge a mission of high difficulty. Namely, the «Imperial Palace escape strategy».
Currently, his other self Silver Crow had been left behind in the depths of the «Imperial Palace» existing in the center of the Unlimited Neutral Field together with the purification ability user «Ardor Maiden». If the two did not slip through the fierce attack of «Suzaku, one of the Four Divine Beasts» and return alive from there once more, as a Burst Linker Haruyuki had no future. As for why, if he were not purified of the «Disaster Armor» lurking in the depths of his avatar, at the next Seven Kings’ meeting a bounty of the highest price would be placed on his head.
The night before the mission when he was really supposed to have slept soundly and fully he had braved an unexpected adventure, but on the contrary Haruyuki unusually felt br.i.m.m.i.n.g with energy. He had a real sense that the duel with Tak.u.mu, who had been violated by the ISS Kit, and the experience in the central server after that had given him a definite something.
The three, who had turned their faces back from the clock, nodded firmly and deeply at one another. Chiyuri, who was at his left, with a smile slapped Haruyuki’s back with great force.
“Haru, you own that bird easily and come back right away!”
“That’s right, Haru, compared with fighting me on IS mode, that’s easy isn’t it?”
“Oh, look who’s talking Mayuzumi-sensei2.”
At the point where the two boys again grinned widely, this time’s spontaneous sleepover event was wrapped up for the time being.
Chiyuri, the brave warrior who was going to return to her home two floors downstairs in her pajamas, proceeded to the door first, and Tak.u.mu, who had changed into sweats, followed afterward. Haruyuki, who had gone out to see the two off, noticed by chance Tak.u.mu’s small gesture.
He was holding up his right hand and was softly holding the area of the outside of that wrist with his left arm. It was the exact spot where the ISS Kit had parasitized Cyan Pile.
Approaching a step, from behind Haruyuki called out to Tak.u.mu in a small voice.
“Taku…I have to apologize. For destroying your «power»…”
His old chum who had looked back smiled, but in its depths Haruyuki felt there was a faint plaintiveness after all. However, Tak.u.mu greatly shook his head and spoke distinctly.
“—To be sure, if I said I didn’t feel any attachment to that terrible power altogether, it’d be a lie. However, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Because I want to be how I am now after all. No matter how much I worry or hesitate.”
“…Taku…”
“Besides that, I obtained something much bigger than that power. That’s why there’s no need for you to apologize, Haruyuki.”
At Tak.u.mu’s words he blinked his eyes; while tilting his head to the side he inquired.
“Eh…does that mean some amazing special technique-like..?”
Whereupon quicker than Tak.u.mu could reply, Chiyuri, who had finished wearing her shoes, turned her head round and shouted.
“Ah—enough already, why are you so dull! What Takkun wants to say is…”
There for some reason Chiyuri cut her words short and grinned broadly.
“…You should think about it yourself after all. It’s your homework for tomorrow!”
Haruyuki, who had tidied the table to its original state, bolted down a breakfast of cereal and milk, changed into his uniform, and left the house.
While riding the elevator down, he typed a short text mail to his mother. The content was a report saying that he had properly gotten up and went to school and thanks for having let Tak.u.mu and Chiyuri stay over last night. Now that he thought of it there was also the plan tonight to a.s.semble all legion members at the Arita residence, but they ought to disperse before his mother returned home, so he omitted that. When he had descended to ground level he sent it.
Some seconds later the reply was the single word 【Understood】, but precisely five hundred yen’s worth of money code was attached. Haruyuki smiled in spite of himself and gratefully charged it into his own account.
Haruyuki’s mother, the person Arita Saya, was a rather mysterious woman even from the view of her biological child. She would be thirty-seven this year, so she had given birth to Haruyuki when she was twenty-three. He had not asked the person herself the particulars about her personal history, but at that time she still must have been a student attending a graduate school in the Tokyo metropolitan area. While at school, with a man three years older working at a network-related enterprise she had entered her name in the family register and had borne a child. However, the details of that area’s time series were unknown, and no wedding ceremony had been held either. That seemed to be the reason why they were still estranged from his maternal grandparents’ house in Yamagata.
While rearing a baby—granted, she had depended considerably on the Neuro Linker—she had completed her master’s coursework, obtained her MBA qualifications, and had secured a post in a j.a.panese subsidiary of an investment bank whose head office was in America. Distinguishing herself by being a.s.signed to the training department and working on some large-scale projects, in a number of years she had been promoted to a.s.sociate—.
In truth, Haruyuki had heard that story from Chiyuri’s mama Momoe-san. She and Haruyuki’s mother seemed to have been fellow friends since their university years. However, Momoe-san also would not tell him about certain matters. Namely, regarding why Haruyuki’s parents were divorced.
Their divorce establishment was seven years ago. His mother was thirty, his father thirty-three, and Haruyuki seven. He hardly remembered anything at the time.
However, there was one scene that had stained a corner of his memory and would not disappear by any means.
The young Haruyuki, feeling that he had heard voices talking in the middle of the night, had woken up. Straining his ears, sure enough from the other side of the door he could hear some conversational exchange. Why he did not fall asleep again there was because the two voices were sharp with disquiet.
Alighting from his bed, he softly opened the door. Back then, it was not his current eight-tatami-sized room3 but a 4.5-tatami-sized room that was Haruyuki’s room. Dead ahead in the dark corridor, the gla.s.s door shone dimly. Haruyuki moved so as not to raise any footsteps and squatted at the side of the door.
His parents’ voices, which leaked through and could be heard, were restrained in low tones, but it was clearly a venomous quarrel. The two were violently arguing about something. He could hear words like “looking after,” “promise,” and “been used,” but he didn’t understand their meaning. However, the young Haruyuki intuitively realized his parents were arguing over himself…
There, suddenly as if running into a wall with a clash, his memories were interrupted, and Haruyuki blankly lifted his face.
Before he realized it he had cut across the apartment house’s s.p.a.cious front garden and had come to right before the Loop 7 road. He lightly shook his head and switched his thoughts. He did not like to remember things of the past too much.
At any rate, the person Arita Saya was a woman who kept advancing only forward, forward as if driven on by something. Showing the depths of her heart to no one, not even looking back at her immediate feet—.
He had sometimes thought that was lonely, but right now he didn’t particularly mind it. She didn’t find fault with his grades; without forgetting she gave him his five hundred yen lunch money; she also let his friends stay over at home. With this if he complained, he would incur divine punishment.
He took a deep breath, replacing the air built up in his chest; Haruyuki glanced at his virtual desktop’s AR display.
Today’s weather forecast was cloudy, and around noon a drizzle would sprinkle but would end by evening. The forgotten item warning hadn’t come out either; thanks to having left the house considerably earlier than usual, his estimated time of arrival at school was thirty minutes before the bell. He probably had the leeway to complete one of his missions before going to school.
Haruyuki, who at present had come out onto the Loop 7 line sidewalk, swung his shoulder bag around to his back and began to walk briskly heading south.
At the intersection under the central line overpa.s.s to where he would normally turn right, he went straight today. Climbing the south slope of Koenji, he rode the elevator-style pedestrian bridge crossing Ome Highway. At its apex he turned left and stopped directly above the wide main highway with four lanes on one side. While looking down at the flow of coming and going EVs, he muttered inside his mouth.
“Burst Link.”
A roar of thunder resounded, and the world froze blue. He promptly clicked the letter B icon wrapped in flames in the lower left hand corner of the virtual desktop. From the launched «Install Menu» he opened the Suginami second area matching list, and after running his eyes over the not-too-many avatar names he touched a name somewhere around the middle. Without hesitating he pushed the DUEL b.u.t.ton in the small window that had popped up.
The blue transparent Blue World transformed while emitting a creaking sound. The road became a gravelly dry valley. The buildings became reddish-brown rocky mountains. The sky became a dusty light yellow. It was the «Wilderness» stage.
Haruyuki, who had confirmed that the guide cursor was pointing to the south side of Loop 7, vaulted his body, which had transformed into his duel avatar, from the pedestrian bridge. He landed swiftly and awaited the rumble of the gasoline engine approaching from the far distance.
Just the morning the day before yesterday as well, Haruyuki had «intruded» at the exact same time and same place on the same opponent. For that reason this time as well his opponent had probably surmised his intention—not a duel, but the desire for a conversation. Having come to that conclusion, while raising one hand while facing the silhouette that was coming into view,
“Ah, h.e.l.lo, good morn…”
Haruyuki, who had begun his greeting, halfway through changed those words into a scream.
“Now just wait a momennnnnt!?”
Narrowly throwing his body to the right, he dodged the hunk of iron rushing at maximum speed—the last-century large-cla.s.s American bike.
Before Haruyuki’s eyes, the bike, which had settled its pistons while magnificently scattering sparks from the disk brakes of its front and back wheels, left a rut that smell burnt in the gravel-mixed ground and came to a stop. Haruyuki jumped up, and facing the rider on the vehicle, he shouted while being fl.u.s.tered.
“Uh, um, excuse me, today I also have something to say in «closed mode»…”
But the rider—«Ash Roller», the level 5 Burst Linker belonging to the green legion «Great Wall», waggled a finger on his right hand and cut off Haruyuki’s words.
“I understand that. I got it, but today let me start today with my turn!”
“Uh, unh…”
Ash Roller pointed the index fingers of both his hands straight at Haruyuki, who had been completely overwhelmed.
“All right, got it you Crow b.a.s.t.a.r.d, duel with me today for real! And then, if I lose, I’ll listen to what you have to say. But if I win, you listen to one of my requests! That’s a mega even condition!”
“What? R, request?”
“Besides that, if we continue two times in a row with no duel, the boys and girls of the gallery who took the trouble to register to watch our duels will be mega let down!”
To the remarks emitted from below the skull design shield of the helmet, suddenly cheers of “That’s right, that’s right!” and “Today we want to see something exciting!” followed. Hurriedly Haruyuki looked around at his surroundings and saw the silhouettes of spectators sprinkled on the roofs of the buildings along Loop 7.
He couldn’t say there were very many, but almost everyone registered on the matching list seemed to have appeared in this stage. Among the Burst Linkers whose homes where west of Shinjuku, there were many who knew that Silver Crow and Ash Roller were closely connected fellow rivals, and since their fights tended to become showy due to the fact that both of their avatars’ performances were too peaky and extreme, a duel of the two seemed to be treated as quite a good match. To add, both were level 5.
Giving a glance at the time count, which showed that sixty seconds had already elapsed, Haruyuki thought quickly.
Different from the day before yesterday when they had fully talked for close to thirty minutes, today what he had to transmit to him was just the single message «If we want to remove Bush Utan’s ISS Kit, now’s our chance». Surely it would not take thirty minutes. If so, in order also to make the most of his one point that he had gone to the trouble of spending, it wouldn’t be bad to duel with Ash Roller in earnest for the first time in a while. Besides that, at tonight’s «Imperial Palace escape strategy», or depending on how Sunday’s «Seven Kings’ meeting» unfolded, this would become his last duel with him, which he could not deny…
“—Understood.”
Nodding deeply, Haruyuki opened his mouth.
“I will accept it on a condition. If I win, listen properly to what I have to say – just a momennnnnt!”
However, without being able to speak to the end, he changed the end of his sentence into a scream and jumped aside to the left. The reason was that Ash Roller’s large-cla.s.s bike had charged ferociously without warning.
“Ah, isn’t that dangerous! I’m still chatting…”
“Quiet shut u—p! The duel’s already begun bo—y! My bad but today, you’re gonna let me have a giga co—ol victory!”
While shouting that, Ash Roller made another spin turn. While being aware that his rotation radius had become far sharper than that of the time when they had met, Haruyuki also indomitably retorted back.
“I, I’m going to get a tera gorgeous perfect win myself! Rather than that, to begin with even if I win you’ll only listen to what I have to say, while if you win I have to listen to your request; somehow the conditions seem unbalanced…”
“Su—ck it! If you’re fussin’ over the details you won’t get used to the wind!”
Spouting exhaust flames from its fat m.u.f.flers, the American bike made its third mad dash.
Ash Roller was an abnormal Burst Linker who had invested the majority of his duel avatar’s potential in his Enhanced Armament, his large-cla.s.s bike.
The rider himself had almost no fighting power regardless of whether it was close-range or long-range. In return, his bike was furnished with both high mobility power and high endurance power. A «Vehicle Enhanced Armament» itself was relatively rare, but within them one could probably say its capacity was top-cla.s.s.
If one were forced to name its weaknesses, it would be that it was less adaptable than a living avatar and that it lacked covertness due to its size. If one were to attack the latter point, a «long-distance firepower concentration attack» would be effective, but Haruyuki did not possess red-cla.s.s attack power at all.
Therefore, if he were to fight with Ash Roller on the ground, he would carry out «life-risking close-range attacks». Concretely, he would dodge the bike’s charge by a paper-thin margin to the right or left and shower either Ash the person himself or his bike’s engine parts with attacks.
It would be best if he used Silver Crow’s mobility power to jump straight overhead and to aim for the head of the rider himself, but the other party knew that. The instant Haruyuki entered a vertical jump position he would make the bike wheelie and with a high-speed revolution of his back wheel would use his «anti-air technique». His jump attack and the anti-air attack, like the game of rock-paper-scissors, had one-way compatibility; if he took the hit he would not be able to avoid great damage. An unmeasured dive would be suicidal action.
“Yeeee—haw—!”
Haruyuki concentrated all his nerves on the huge front tire of the onrushing bike, whose rider was coming with a sharp war cry. The other side was also estimating Haruyuki’s dodge; he would probably minutely adjust his path left or right just beforehand. It would be all right if Haruyuki attacked in the opposite direction; if he evaded in the same direction, he would unmistakably meet an accident with bodily injury.
—Which one…right, or left… It’s not the tires but the incline of the bike frame I have to watch…
Activating his «super-concentration power limited to the middle of gameplay» that had been polished from the time before he had become a Burst Linker, Haruyuki focused on the actions of the entire body of the bike with all his nerves.
—And then, at that time.
The winker on the side of the bike that was on the right from Haruyuki’s view flickered with an orange color.
“Heigh…”
While leaking out his voice, he reflexively dived left.
However, at the same time the bike had also tilted to the left, and the rugged tire pressed in before his eyes—.
A fearsome impact as if he had been whammed by a humongous hammer. His entire view of the stage whirled round. No, the one revolving round was Haruyuki. While exhibiting a high-speed backward somersault body stretch not acted out nowadays even in gag anime, Silver Crow was blown off several dozen meters and pierced one of the craggy mountains on the east side of the Loop 7 road headfirst.
Knocked unconscious for a bit, he thrust his arms against the bare rock and deeply pulled his helmet out. As soon as he jumped down on the road, beside himself with rage, he shouted.
“Y, y, you turned in the opposite direction of your winker! Violation of road traffic laws! Two hundred million yen fine!”
After Haruyuki had done so, while chasing him and charging at him even more, the scarface rider roared with loud laughter.
“Hyahahahaa—! I, Ash-sama! My existence itself is a violation of road traffic laws—!”
That was the truth. Currently in this age, if one burned fossil fuels on public roads and tried to emit even a cubic centimeter of carbon dioxide, one would be handcuffed on the spot. Furthermore, the explosive roar from the m.u.f.fler easily broke safety standards, and there was no number plate on the rear. However, of course in the field of the Accelerated World, there were no motorcycle cops who would crack down on him.
While being showered in the magnificent cheers given off by the surrounding gallery instead of a siren, Ash Roller came rushing, no doubt to knock Haruyuki flying again.
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d…”
While raising a cursing voice, with a glance he checked the upper left hand of his field of vision. Silver Crow’s health gauge had two-tenths sc.r.a.ped away with the damage of a little while ago. In opposition, his special technique gauge had acc.u.mulated to the extent of three-tenths, but it was still undependable to activate his «flying ability» and claim a win.
He would fly after clashing one more time on the ground. Resolving to do that, Haruyuki dropped his waist and lay in wait for the large-cla.s.s bike. He had involuntarily fallen for the feint using the winker since it was the first time he had seen it, but he would not fall for the same trick again. In his mind, he shouted that this time for sure, he would barely dodge the charge and hammer him with a special technique counter.
However, somehow it seemed that Ash Roller also thought that the same feint would not work twice. Instead of causing his winker to blink—
“Tuo!”
With that shout he jumped vertically from his bike and stood upright with his seat and handle as footing. Like that, while manipulating the bike just like a surfboard he charged. It was Ash’s so-to-speak «hidden secret», also by the name of «V Twin Fists».
Its naming as well as its appearance could only be thought of as a joke, but as a matter of fact it had a concealed power that could by no means be belittled. Even if one dodged the bike’s front tire, the kick of the rider himself would come, so it was difficult to get the right timing for a counter. Although Haruyuki had already experienced this technique a number of times, he was still unable to find an effective countermeasure.
“Yaaaaahoo—!”
Haruyuki stared as hard as he could at the incoming bike slaloming left and right and the rider on it raising a war cry. It was possible to evade him with a large jump, but with that he would not be able to counterattack. Sky Raker, Ash’s master and parent, had destroyed that V Twin Fists with the superhuman feat of «gripping the bike’s brake lever while making a back dash», but imitating that was still impossible for Haruyuki.
Were there no other weaknesses, something, somewhere, someplace—
“..!”
Abruptly, a flash of insight.
Would Ash Roller be able to make the bike wheelie from that stance as well? No, it was probably impossible. If he did that, he would tumble from the bike. Basically, what he had to aim for was,
“The top!”
The instant the huge tire drew close, filling his vision, Haruyuki stooped over and immediately kicked the ground with all his might and leaped up.
“Towaa!?”
The minute he slammed into the rider himself, who had let out a strange voice, he held on for dear life. The two were separated from the bike and dropped to the road with a thud. The American bike, which had lost its proprietor, ran away as it was to Loop 7.
“You, you, hold-me-tight…no, let go of me you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”
With all his might, Haruyuki tried to pin Ash Roller down, who was kicking and struggling while bellowing. He could not miss this chance.
“No way! Ash-san without his bike is f.u.kujinzuke4 without curry!”
“What did ya just say! I’m a hardcore fan of j.a.panese leek with curry!”
At the sight of the two rolling on the ground and grappling, the gallery again became excited. However, in a hand-to-hand battle between their fellow main bodies, Ash Roller did not have the power to pierce Silver Crow’s metallic armor at all. Without even minding the fists flailing around hitting his face and chest, Haruyuki forcefully got behind him and tightly held his chest from the back.
“Gyah! Wait, y-y-y-you, don’t hug me!”
“I-it’s not that I want to hug you that I’m hugging you!”
“Don’t say hug you suck-it b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”
“You’re the one who brought it up first…right!!”
At the same time he shouted back, Haruyuki deployed his wings in one go. Investing in his special technique gauge, which had been charged to the extent of another tenth with the hand-to-hand fighting of right now, with all his strength he made his ten metal fins vibrate.
With a doh! impact sound, Silver Crow and Ash Roller took off vertically like a rocket.
“Gya—! What the heck, we’re flying hi—gh!”
No longer keeping company with his emitted strange scream, with all his energy Haruyuki continued to ascend. In an instant, he pa.s.sed the rocky mountains where the gallery was standing, and at that rate he reached an alt.i.tude as high as one hundred—two hundred—three hundred meters.
“No, nooooo! I can’t be high up, don’t like it, no thank you—…”
The shrill shouting voice suddenly broke off into a mumble. Ash Roller stiffened his body, which had been thrashing about in Haruyuki’s chest, and he asked something in a hoa.r.s.e voice.
“Uh, um, Crow-san? Surely not me from here? Not like a streak of a shooting star twinkling in the night sky?”
“Yes. Like some s.p.a.ce debris whose trajectory has fallen.”
Nodding, Haruyuki released his hands mercilessly.
By making use of Silver Crow’s flying ability in combat, Haruyuki had devised some tactics. What he had continued to use from the very beginning was a kick or punch at an extremely high speed from a high, high alt.i.tude—«Dive Attack». Furthermore, recently he was also in the middle of practicing the technique «Aerial Combo», which applied the use of his wings’ instantaneous thrusts in close-range hand-to-hand fighting on the ground.
However, in reality, rather than those two a more surefire and effective way of using it existed. Holding his duel opponent, carrying him as far as the high skies, throwing him, and dealing damage from a high-alt.i.tude fall. It was difficult to use on large-cla.s.s avatars, and he would not be able to hold opponents with a high fighting capacity in the first place, but once fixed, a large amount of damage was almost certain. Why Haruyuki did not really use this technique was because on the contrary he tended to suffer a regrettable counter when his opponents realized he was aiming for close contact, and since there were plenty of avatars who had high resistance against falls even if they couldn’t fly, there was no way not to aim for the situation like this time where it had become a scuffle with the spontaneous flow of things. If Ash Roller fell from this height, the largest value of fall damage would probably be applied to him, whose avatar’s main body’s armor was without the ability to lightly hover or to move in three dimensions.
Haruyuki had completely forgotten that day’s goal and had become set on victory, but Ash Roller, who was in a desperate plight, was also not a manly opponent to the extent where he would be done in without a peep. On the brink of being separated from Haruyuki’s hand, he grabbed it and at the same time shouted.
“If it’s gonna be like this, then me and you are goin’ to h.e.l.l in tandem! «Flying Knucklehead»~!!”
—A special technique!?
Haruyuki reflexively stiffened his body. He had surely not thought that Ash Roller’s main body would have a special technique.
However, even after some seconds pa.s.sed nothing happened. Judging that it was a bluff simply to gain time, Haruyuki had been opened his mouth and had been about to say a complaint out of Ash’s not knowing when to give up, but he immediately changed his words to a shout of surprise.
“Wait a moment Ash-san, there’s limits even to useless struggling—awaaaaaaah!?”
What had surprised Haruyuki was not Ash, whom he was still embracing in his arms—it was two rays of light rapidly approaching from directly below. Narrow, long cylindrical objects closing in while spurting orange flames. Four small wings near the area of their tails and a red lens on their heads. No matter how he looked at them, they were:
“M-m-missilesss!?”
With a scream, he rapidly launched forth in the air. However, the two missiles somehow seemed to be equipped with homing functions; they made their aims follow him. No matter how much he flew zigzag, he couldn’t outrun them at all.
Come to think of it, before Ash Roller had certainly said something like “I loaded missiles on my bike.” Basically what had fired those was the American bike supposedly fallen on the ground of Loop 7. Even if he were separated from his Enhanced Armament, instructions through voice commands were possible. However.
“A-a-at this rate you’ll be blown up too right!”
“Heh, it’s better than just being dropped right booooy!”
Sure enough there was that too. Haruyuki tried with all his might to discard his burden, but Ash, who was aiming for a double kill, at that critical moment was also clinging on with his two hands and feet. Due to that, he couldn’t even put out half his normal speed, and within a few seconds the missiles were barely closing in on his toes—.
“Key Shoooo—p!”
At the same time as Ash Roller’s yell of unclear meaning, they exploded spectacularly.
What was fearsome about the explosion-type attack was even more than its power and range, if one took its blow, for a while «one wouldn’t be able to understand anything». From an alt.i.tude of three hundred meters, Haruyuki, who was falling head over heels while being knocked unconscious, had his ability to think restored right before piercing the ground, spread his wings, and suddenly applied a braking motion.
Where he crashed simultaneously with Ash Roller, who was still tangled up with him, was originally the center of the intersection between Loop 7 and Ome Highway. Peeling off Ash Roller, who was clinging to him even more, he thrust him several dozens of centimeters away and then asked without delay.
“…Um, Ash-san. What’s the «Key Shop» you just mentioned?”
The bike rider, who seemed to have regained consciousness slightly more slowly, answered in a subdued voice while shaking his skull helmet bit by bit.
“Well, um…when there’s fireworks, you shout «Tamaya» and «Kagiya»5 right. For the moment I tried translating them to English…but maybe you’re better able to understand «ball shop»?”
“…From the bottom of my heart I don’t care either way. In fact, either one’s impossible to understand.”
While mumbling, he checked both their health gauges. Before the missile had directly hit, Haruyuki’s had been less, but his metal armor seemed to have somewhat reduced the explosion damage; at present either one of them only had a trifling ten percent left.
If one side dealt two, three more clean hits, it would be a situation where a conclusion would be reached, but as they lay on the road surface their faces met, and without knowing it both spoke.
“…Do you want to call it a draw?”
“…Let’s make it a draw, shall we.”
Mutually nodding, they simultaneously stood up with a heave-ho.
Looking round at the surrounding gallery, whose members were silently riveting their gazes on the two, Haruyuki strained his voice and shouted.
“Excuse me, we’re sorry! With this, please let us call this match a draw!”
He had thought that voices of discontent would come, but contrary to his expectations—.
“Good game!”
“Next time also entertain us again~~”
The spectators individually shouted that, left a grand round of applause, and burst out. While gazing at them, Haruyuki was abruptly self-aware of some sort of deep emotion filling his chest.
This was a «duel». Even if there were thrill or excitement, hatred and anger did not exist. Even if the duelists were vying rivals, they were not enemies to be hated.
If one considered the cool-headed Brain Burst system, perhaps this world’s creator had envisioned a much more savage survival. However, the players had refused the creator’s intentions with their own will. Undoubtedly that feeling had been put into the name «Burst Linker», which had not been prescribed by the system. They were «comrades».
The ones trying to destroy that world were the «ISS Kit» and the Acceleration Research Society.
Both Bush Utan, who had fought with Haruyuki some number of days ago, and Tak.u.mu, whom he had fought yesterday, did not seem to be enjoying themselves at all. No, the Research Society’s members Dusk Taker too and even Rust Jigsaw were people to whom the enjoyment of duels was irrelevant.
That was wrong. Absolutely wrong.
With a slap, a hand wrapped in a leather glove tapped the left shoulder of Haruyuki, who was clenching his fists and standing still.
“Good fight, you Crow b.a.s.t.a.r.d. The weakness of my «V Twin Fists», you saw through it nicely.”
“…I’m sure, next time the same trick won’t work anymore though.”
To Haruyuki, who had replied, Ash Roller let out a laughing “heh” voice.
“Of course. You’d better watch out, ‘cause next I’ll be doing a wheelie while standing.”
The scarface, which seemed to have boasted that, glanced upward. He had checked the time count. Six hundred seconds remaining. It wasn’t enough, but there was some leeway to talk.
Ash Roller, who had sat down on one of the handy-sized rocks dotting the inside of the intersection, jerked his chin up in a way that seemed to be telling him to start talking. Haruyuki sat on an opposite rock, nodded, and opened his mouth.
“Um…what I have to say is about Bush Utan.”
He was unable to say as far as the details concerning Tak.u.mu to Ash, who tentatively belonged to an enemy legion, but despite that Haruyuki made his maximal efforts to convey information to the limits of what he could convey.
That the ISS Kit possessed a colony-like nature and linked with so-to-speak «genetically close» Kits. That the equippers were guided to that link each time they slept at night and connected with the main body of the Kit. That Haruyuki and his legion comrades had attacked that main body in a data-like way and had dealt it considerable damage—.
“…That’s why, if we do it now, it might be possible to destroy the ISS Kit parasitizing Utan in the middle of a normal duel. However…to do that, there are two problems.”
Staring straight at the face of Ash Roller, who was listening attentively and mutely, Haruyuki spoke.
“The first is that we probably can’t deal damage to the ISS Kit without Incarnate techniques. And then the second is that Utan experienced firsthand the large-scale Incarnate technique of «Rust Jigsaw», who was riding in the tenth vehicle in the recent «Hermes Cord Race», and has been harboring a large distrust of the veteran Linkers, who have been hiding the existence of the Incarnate system…what he calls «IS Mode». And then I believe that feeling has given birth to the impatience that even if he relies on whatever dubious power, if he becomes stronger that’s fine with him; if he’s not strong there’s no meaning. If that’s not resolved, even if his current ISS Kit is destroyed, he’ll undoubtedly search for a new Kit again…”
“…Aah, that’s true. I think that too.”
Nodding, Ash Roller tipped up his skull-design shield with his right hand.
The face mask within that in some way gave the impression of a science boy looking at the yellow-tinged sky of the «Wilderness Stage». A voice with a faded voice effect and an unexpectedly delicate tone flowed quietly.
“I already talked about how that guy Uu’s «parent» lost all his points right. It’s probably obvious, but it seemed to have been a big shock to him. Since then, there’s been a huge frightfulness and…something like discontent or irritation always staying inside his heart. Doing something about him was probably the responsibility of me, who acted as his older brother…the losing-all-your-points system, I still haven’t, how d’ya put it…come to terms with it. What I should’ve done for Uu, I didn’t know…”
“Come to…terms with it?”
Ash nodded slowly at Haruyuki, who had asked that back, and turned his pale green eye lenses at him.
“«If your Burst Points become zero, the Brain Burst Program itself will be forcibly uninstalled, and you can’t return to being a Burst Linker again.» I was taught straightaway by Master Raker that that was the Accelerated World’s biggest rule. Crow, the same goes for you right?”
“Uh…yeah. I was distinctly warned as well by senpa…Black Lotus the first day I became a Burst Linker.”
“I know right. Now that I think very closely about it, until now I’ve never once really been cornered to the brink of losing all my points. If I were forced to say it, maybe just the time I rose to level 2 my margin was kinda small, and losing immediately afterward to you, level 1 at the time, made me somewhat get the chills.”
At his sharp glare, Haruyuki reflexively shrank his neck.
Now that he looked back, this Ash Roller was the opponent with whom Haruyuki had first fought as a Burst Linker and to whom he had first lost. After that, he was lectured by his parent Kuroyukihime about various things, and after having preparing all his tactics when he challenged him again, somehow in just in one day Ash had become level 2 and with the thanks of his newly acquired «wall climbing ability» his tactics had gone to waste.
Though he had given up on the match there for a moment, he had desperately used his head; that one fight where he had pinpointed the old-type bike’s weakness that «only the rear wheel had motive power» and had achieved a come-from-behind victory became Haruyuki’s starting point of tactics.
The «margin» in Ash’s remark was a word arising from the uniqueness of the «level up» in the Brain Burst game.
In regular RPGs, at a point where one’s experience points reached a certain value one would automatically level up. However, in this Brain Burst, in order to raise one’s level, one must exhaust one’s acc.u.mulated experience points, namely Burst Points. Concretely, the required amount of points to rise from level 1 to 2 was no fewer than 300. Basically, if one carried out the level up operation from the system menu called the «Install Menu», at that instant one’s points would drop by 300 in one go. Therefore, one would need sufficient leeway—namely, a «margin»—just to settle the matter so that when one leveled up, even if one lost a number of times continuously after that one would not fall into the pinch of losing all one’s points. If one thought about it a little, it seemed obvious, but—.
In response to Ash Roller’s words, while making a pitiable smile Haruyuki confessed.
“In, in reality, in the past I too got worked up when I had barely saved up 300 points and accidentally leveled up, nearly losing all my points.”
“…Are you serious, really? At that time Suginami wasn’t Nega Nebulas’ territory yet right? Until you recovered it as a safety zone.”
In response to his stunned voice, he shrugged.
“Uh, yeah that’s true. My buddy…Cyan Pile saved me, somehow…”
Though he had begun to speak, he was unable to remember well at the time how in the world he had recovered his points. Instead, Haruyuki corrected the topic beginning to stray away to its original route.
“By, by the way, what did you mean by «coming to terms with losing all your points» a little earlier?”
“Aah…basically, well. To me, the system in which you lose all your points and have it forcibly uninstalled, it seems like a ridiculously harsh and cruel rule…however in one respect, there’s the feeling too that as a Burst Linker if you’re gonna receive the blessing of «accelerating» that much is probably a due risk. Frankly, I can’t make head or tails of either one. Because you see, it’s easy to say that it’s harsh, but…behind the scenes while you and I are becoming as far as level 5 like this, there also must be a number of guys who’ve had that number of points stolen from them and have lost all their points. You could also say that indirectly, the points I acquired and spent nonchalantly are the points that somebody stole from that guy Uu’s parent the time when he lost all his points…”
“…”
Hearing remarks whose image differed slightly, no, quite a bit from the usual “hyahahaa” end of century rider, Haruyuki was involuntarily speechless. Possibly having read his thoughts, Ash snorted, turned away as if embarra.s.sed, and continued.
“However, on the other hand I think that if you’re a Burst Linker, from the start you should at least be prepared for someone to lose all their points. Both the side who’s causing it and the side who’s getting it. In that sense, I respect your parent…the Black King Black Lotus. It’s quite something for me, who’s entered the green legion Great Wall, to say, but…that person’s amazing. In the way of her countenance of resolution, without question she’s number one in the Accelerated World. I want to carry things through mega cool like that too, but…but you know…for instance Crow, when I’m dueling with you, if I were let known that you’d lose all your points with one more loss, whether I’d be able to strike the final blow mercilessly and in a cool way then…honestly I have no idea. At the least, I’m not confident that I wouldn’t hesitate…”
“—Ash-san.”
Being truly surprised this time, Haruyuki staringly turned his gaze at him, and the bike rider returned a slightly dangerous voice.
“Oi you, you look like you’d say ‘I’d normally cause you to lose all your points though,’ don’t you.”
“N, nonono, no way! I’d hesitate too, I’d super-hesitate!”
“Oi hey there, you look like you’d say ‘Even if I hesitated I’d really cause you to lose all your points after all though,’ don’t you.”
“W, well Ash-san weren’t you saying that you’d just look like you were hesitating!”
After causing his two hands and face to undergo furious high-speed horizontal exercise and evading Ash Roller’s cross-examination, Haruyuki added something quickly.
“I mean, it’s natural to hesitate to do that. My parent…Black Lotus is surely hesitating. Because no matter how spiteful her opponent is…at their roots they’re similarly Burst Linkers. —Back then, I troubled you too, Ash-san, but…I was irreconcilable with the guy who stole my «flying ability» this spring to the bitter end…from the bottom of my heart he was an «enemy» whom I thought I loathed. Despite that, when I beat him in the «sudden death duel», I hesitated a little. I thought, wasn’t it perhaps possible to have met him differently and dueled with him differently…Now, I also have the feeling that as long as we’re Burst Linkers, that hesitation might be something that’s absolutely indispensable…”
“…”
This time Ash Roller was silent.
At last, while dropping his gaze to the reddish-brown ground between his legs, he murmured in bits.
“That’s possible. But well…, due to that hesitation, I wasn’t able to say anything to that guy Uu. If I were acting as his older brother, in truth I should’ve plainly said one or the other. ‘I’ll never forgive the guy who caused your parent to lose all his points; I’ll definitely get revenge on him.’…or, ‘Everyone’s fighting with the risk of losing all their points; don’t keep blubbering,’ one of those two… However, I was unable to say either one. That’s why only anger and fear grew inside Uu…he yearned for «power» other than his own. I’m the one who created one of the reasons for him to run to the «ISS Kit»…”
To Ash Roller, whose feet had trampled the ground with a sharp tap, Haruyuki could not immediately find the words he should have said.
Before he opened his mouth, there was something blinking red in the top of his vision. The time count had dropped below the remaining one hundred seconds.