Accel World:Volume SS1 Chapter 3
Chapter 3[edit]
“……‘That is your strength,’ so my master said. Perhaps at that time, he was already foreseeing it…… How I would stain this sword with blood at the Seven Kings’ conference……”
Haruyuki stared without a word at the both fierce and elegant figure of the Black King Black Lotus, who had finished speaking thus in a murmuring manner.
Before they had begun their direct connection duel, Kuroyukihime had said that they would «talk with their swords», but fortunately she had not struck at him with her swords as soon as they had alighted on the stage. After she had Haruyuki help her in arranging the topological objects in the shapes of chairs and they had sat on them facing each other, she had told him a somewhat lengthy story.
She had not mentioned any proper nouns, but she had told him about how there was a Burst Linker who qualified as Kuroyukihime’s master within the sub-leaders of the «first Nega Nebulas», which had been extinguished about two years ago……in the summer of the year 2044. About how that person had advised her to aim not for an all-around type but a concentrated type.
There were a heap of parts that had not been retold that he thought strange—for example, why it was not her «parent» but another Burst Linker who was her master, and so forth—but right now Kuroyukihime’s air of seeming to bear pain bothered him; Haruyuki leaned forward from his improvised chair.
“Uh, um, Senpai. I also said this a little earlier, but……I think that choosing the path of fighting against the other Kings was natural. Because you see, Brain Burst is a versus fighting game; we dive into this world in order to fight……”
After he had somehow put that into words in driving his verbal aptitude to its limit, Kuroyukihime raised her downcast face mask and stared straight at Haruyuki with the blue-violet eye lenses shining in the depths of her half-mirror-surface goggles.
“Ahh…… —That’s true, it is as you say.”
Nodding, with the tip of the toes of her right foot she caused the floor’s building stones to ring with a clink as if for a change of mood, and she stretched her slender body straight. The blue-white moonlight pouring down penetrated the interior of her piano black armor that had a sense of transparency and caused her avatar’s whole body to glitter faintly.
The two had accelerated on the rooftop of the Asagaya hospital, so where they had descended also had the same coordinates. However, the sight below their eyes had changed completely. All the building was made of white stone adorned with Gothic-style decorations, the sky was stained a blue-tinged black, and an extraordinarily large full moon floated above their heads. The beauty of this «Moonlight» stage stood out from the crowd even within the countless stages that existed, and since no dubious topological effects or critters existed either, it was the most suitable place to have a conversation. Of course, since it was a direct connection duel, there were no figures of members of the gallery in their surroundings.
“……A stage made for fighting, and a duel avatar made for fighting. My teacher was the Burst Linker who embodied that simple concept more than anyone else.”
With her eyes still meeting Haruyuki’s, Kuroyukihime began to speak again quietly.
“And then I too yearned to be like that; I cultivated Black Lotus to be specialized in one-on-one close quarters combat. It was not just because I was told to do so by my master. It was because I felt that this avatar itself desired it.”
“Your avatar itself……desired it……?”
Haruyuki, who had not considered that thing even once since having become a Burst Linker, repeated after her while slightly widening his eyes. Whereupon Kuroyukihime affirmed that it was so with a nod while showing a hint of a smile.
“That’s right. Duel avatars are one with us and form a pair of existence with us…… Before, I expressed this Lotus as being «the height of shamefulness», but that did not mean I just hated my own avatar. Because this hideous figure, the embodiment of «cutting», is surely me myself. How about you, Haruyuki-kun? Isn’t it about time you’ve become able to hear the voice of Silver Crow, with whom you’ve fought together until you became level 2?”
Asked that question abruptly, he unconsciously looked down at both his hands. His slender fingers wrapped in silver armor were quite far from having the strength of a hand-to-hand fighter type.
When he had seen this avatar reflected in the window glass of an abandoned building in his first duel after becoming a Burst Linker, against his better judgment Haruyuki had thought that it was «shrimp-like». No, even now that impression had not disappeared, but even if he were told to exchange Crow with another avatar design he would probably refuse. It was not because his unparalleled «flying» ability had manifested itself. The awareness that this smooth-headed metal-color was he himself had firmly taken root in his heart before he had known it.
“Um……I haven’t heard his voice yet, but I don’t dislike him either. Because Crow was born within my heart……because he came from my heart.”
Haruyuki said that while tightly clenching his sharpened fingers, and Kuroyukihime, who seemed happy for some reason, nodded two, three times.
“Mm, that’s true, it is exactly so. The very words you just spoke are the point of departure for a duel avatar’s growth; by no means should you forget them. —Well, now then, based on that awareness, shall we start soon.”
“Huh? By start, you mean……what exactly?”
“……Excuse me, but I made sure to say it before we accelerated, didn’t I? That we would talk with our swords.”
Shaking her head as if she were dumbfounded, Kuroyukihime stood straight up from her chalk chair. With a glance, she turned her gaze upward,
“Ten minutes left, huh. Well, it’ll suffice.”
“……B, by suffice, you mean, what exactly……?”
What was placed at the throat of Haruyuki, who had asked that in a refusing-to-accept-it manner, was a jet-black sword so sharp he could not make out its tip. While involuntarily throwing his upper body backward, he leaked out a hoarse voice.
“Uh, um, surely, you’re not going to……d-d-duel with me……”
“Fufu, by all means I desire to wish for a bout with you, but right now our level difference is too great. I’ll look forward to our one-on-one duel one day when you have matured more.”
With a voice pregnant with laughter, Kuroyukihime answered in that manner and slightly drew her sword back from before the eyes of Haruyuki, who was relieved, and she continued.
“As a major principle, there exists no unique answer to the way of bringing up a duel avatar. Whether it’s aiming for an all-around type equipped with all the long-range/close-range/indirect abilities or specializing in one ability like my master and I did……ultimately, the one to choose is you. It would be simple for me to say ‘Choose this level-up bonus,’ but I do want you to feel it by yourself after all. What Silver Crow desires and what path he wants to advance on, that is.”
“What he……desires……?”
“That’s right. That is also namely the desire of you yourself concealed in the innermost depths of your heart. ……Now then, stand, Haruyuki-kun.”
Kuroyukihime’s voice resounded in an unusually gentle manner, and as if drawn to her Haruyuki got up from his improvised chair. He tried to approach a step closer, but conversely, with a hand gesture Kuroyukihime made him step back. At the same time, she also moved backward by hovering in a gliding manner, and when both of them were separated by a good ten meters—.
“Now then……let’s go, Silver Crow! With all your body and soul, show me how you’ll cope with this one blow!!”
A thunderous voice so severe it made him want to say “What was that gentle voice from just a moment earlier” rang throughout the tranquil stage.
Her violet-blue eyes glittered intensely. Her left and right swords were swiftly opened up diagonally backward, and her slender avatar leisurely bent forward.
A heavy doh! impact was released from her feet and made cracks run radially on the roof of the hospital. Immediately after, a ferocious charge resembling an obsidian arrowhead released from an enormous bow. Without the time for him to blink even once, the figure of the Black King closed in on Haruyuki before his eyes.
When the sword of her right hand had begun its slashing attack motion from an overhead position, Haruyuki’s consciousness also finally switched a gear over. Together with a feeling as if every sound had dropped a pitch, time slowed down just slightly. Even so, Black Lotus’ attack came at an unbelievable speed; her exceedingly sharp blade rapidly pressed in before his eyes.
If Silver Crow had been given a long-range offensive-type special technique or Enhanced Armament, suppressive fire before she drew this close might have also been possible. For instance, Cyan Pile, the avatar of his close friend Takumu, could have checked Lotus’ approach with his «Splash Stinger» special technique, which fired a large number of needle missiles from his breastplate armor.
However, the current Crow did not possess even a single long-range technique. It existed in his level-up bonus options, but test-using it before acquiring it was not possible.
What he could do in this situation was only defend in making use of his metal armor, the characteristic trait of metal-colors. Sure enough, Kuroyukihime had said it. That metal-color avatars possessed resistance to cutting- and piercing-attribute attacks.
If so, if he tightly strengthened his gauntlet-shaped arms, guarding should be possible. Haruyuki was a fledgling who had just finally become level 2, but even among the many duel avatars that he had fought up until now, there were none who had been able to use swords to cut apart Crow’s arm armor.
After momentarily thinking that far, Haruyuki braced his legs firmly and crossed his arms in front his face. Even in seeing Crow’s solid defensive stance, Lotus did not attempt to change the trajectory of her slash attack. Till the very end, she came slashing down in a straight line from directly overhead.
—Right here…………guard!!
At the moment of contact, Haruyuki put all the fighting spirit he had into both his arms and prepared for the impact.
However—.
Haruyuki did not feel sound, weight, or even any other impact. All that happened was that orange sparks trickled across the edges of his vision. When he opened both his eyes, before him a hard-to-believe phenomenon was in progress.
Her thin jet-black blade was severing his thick silver armor without much of a feeling of resistance.
It was an unrealistic sight just as if «collision detection» had been lost for both of them. However, the chilly sensation of cold running through his arms and his health gauge, which had begun to decrease in the upper left hand of his vision, were definitely real. At this rate, if he continued to guard, before the moment was up his arms would……no, the very body of Silver Crow would be bisected.
“Kk……!”
Haruyuki held his breath and bent his body backward with all his might. However, there was no way he could surpass the speed of her slash. In the blink of an eye, the blade cut his armor apart and touched the interior of his avatar’s core body. Perhaps because it was so sharp, a sense of pain was not even produced.
—This is a level 9’s……a close-range concentrated-type avatar’s actual ability.
—There’s no way I could guard……Senpai knew from the start that it would turn out like this……if so, why did she tell me to try to defend against it……
When he had thought that far in a half-resigned manner, Haruyuki finally recalled something.
Kuroyukihime had not said to «prevent» the attack. She had said to «cope» with it. That basically meant that even the current Silver Crow had the ability to deal with this slashing blow.
In that case……there was only, one possibility.
“Wh……oa……!”
While tilting his body even more deeply, Haruyuki unfolded the thin metal fins equipped on Silver Crow’s back……namely, his wings.
Her blade had already reached the center of his arms; its tip was cutting into the left side of Crow’s helmet. If he used his wings from here to try to fly forward or up, it would be equivalent to cutting up his avatar of his own accord.
Till now, Haruyuki had used the wings on his back……his «flight» ability for charging, ascension, and sudden descent……namely, only advancing. To be precise, he had thought that there were no ways of using it other than those. However, Crow’s metal wings did not flutter and fly like those of a bird. Its ultra-thin blade fins vibrated at high frequency and gained thrust in striking the air.
If so—he could do it. He could fly straight backward from a state of rest.
“…………Fly!”
From a stance with both his legs bent and his upper body inclined, Haruyuki made his wings quiver with all his might.
Lotus was hit by the air current produced all of a sudden; the speed of her slashing attack slightly was slightly dulled. Not letting his only chance escape, Haruyuki kicked off from the ground.
A gwa! sound resembling an explosion thundered, and with a momentum as if Silver Crow had been slapped by the hand of a giant, he soared backward……rather, he was blown backward. While trailing a tail of sparks, her jet-black blade was pulled out from his arms. Although he had escaped from two equally large tragedies, his stance rapidly fell apart due to the maneuver to which he was unaccustomed, and while both his legs scraped the ground over and over again, he barely manage to take off. At the point where he had ascended over ten meters with a blue-white full moon in the background, he finally switched over to hovering.
“…………Hah, haaaah…………”
While letting out a long breath, as he looked down, his eyes met with those of Kuroyukihime, who had already lowered her sword.
Her gaze seemed satisfied and placid as if her thirst for blood a moment earlier were an illusion. She nodded deeply, and she shouted while facing Haruyuki, who was in the skies.
“You’ve grown, Haruyuki-kun!”
Knowing that he seemed to have been tentatively able to «cope» somehow or another, Haruyuki breathed another sigh of relief and descended leisurely. He landed right before Kuroyukihime and looked anew at the scars on the armor of both his arms. They were slits so perfect they seemed impossible to make in the real world no matter what tools one used. The cross sections that slightly peeked out shone like a mirror.
“In that one moment, you did well in noticing that my sword was «impossible to guard against». The speed with which you dealt with things from there too was splendid.”
Since Kuroyukihime expressed those thoughts with a composed face, Haruyuki lifted his face and unintentionally talked back in a slightly complaining-like manner.
“If you had told me first, I wouldn’t have thought about guarding from the start……”
“Then I wouldn’t be giving you guidance, would I.”
After briefly chortling, Kuroyukihime stretched her spine straight.
“Now then. How was it……did you hear Crow’s voice?”
“Uh, um……I think, I did hear it……but……”
Haruyuki made an inarticulate reply despite the actual combat guidance she had gone to the trouble of giving him; however, without becoming angry his master nodded magnanimously in response to him.
“It’s okay; if you were able to perform that movement you just did, then the answer is already inside you. Just bring your avatar up straight as your heart proceeds.”
She said that and nimbly manipulated her instant menu. Before pressing the OK button in the draw request window that had appeared in his field of vision, Haruyuki clutched both his fists and deeply lowered his head with a “Thank you very much!”
Parting with Kuroyukihime before the elevator of the hospital’s highest floor, while he was walking in the direction of Koenji in order to return home, in his head Haruyuki was repeating and replaying the couple of words he had heard right before the end of their duel.
—Just bring your avatar up straight as your heart proceeds.
Though he had nodded vigorously in response, in truth he still had doubts remaining.
Even though in the Moonlight stage he had barely coped with the Black King’s strike against which it was impossible to guard, if Crow had a long-range-type special technique like Cyan Pile’s, he might have been able to stop the very first charge. And «Radial Shot», a special technique that fired three metal arrows radially from his gauntlet armor, was included among the four level-up bonuses that he could currently choose anytime.
There was only information consisting of a brief explanatory note and a simple silhouette motion, so without actually selecting it he wouldn’t know how to use it in a duel. However, to Haruyuki, who till now had always continued to fight bare-handed, the so-called «projectile» was the power for which he longed. If he had that, maybe he could literally return the blow……no, three blows[1] to red avatars, who fired at him as they pleased from far away.
Besides that, wasn’t that right; hadn’t Kuroyukihime herself said it? To choose the power that he desired the most.
“…………Uhhh~n……”
While walking, as he moaned in the same manner as he had several dozens of minutes ago, Haruyuki opened the Brain Burst console on his virtual desktop. He switched to the bonus selection screen tab, which he had become completely used to by now.
The upper left of the four bonuses was «Rapid Knuckle», a close-range-type special technique that involved slide dashing across the ground, shortening the distance to his opponent, and barraging him with punches at high speed. The upper right was «Radial Shot», which had seized Haruyuki’s heart and from which he could not detach himself. The lower left was «Hard Armor», an Enhanced Armament that increased the defensive power of his torso part. And then in the lower right was performance reinforcement of his existing «flight» ability.
Since Enhanced Armaments were not weapons, they did not attract him, and ability reinforcement was kind of plain too. If he were to choose, it would be a special technique after all, and as for which of the two, it would be the projectile weapon…… His thoughts did drift in that direction after all.
“……Despite having become level 2 at great pains, it’d also be a waste to keep fighting forever without acquiring a bonus……”
Taking advantage of the fact that he had stopped at a red light along the central line overpass, Haruyuki murmured that in a small voice and stretched his finger out to the upper right hand of the window.
“All right, I’m going to go with this one already! Projectile weapon plus flight, now that I think about it isn’t that the strongest combo. With this technique, I’ll win and win and become level 3 before Senpai’s discharged from the hospital!”
Unconsciously, he spoke words meant to forcibly convince himself and drew his trembling finger close to the «Radial Shot» button.
However, a few millimeters away, for some reason his hand stopped. Although he had supposedly resolved in his head to push this button, wholly just as if he had received a debuff that made movement impossible, his body refused to listen to what he said.
“………………Whew…………”
Exhaling in order to disillusion himself of the fact that there were limits to indecisiveness, Haruyuki suspended his bonus selection this time as well and looked with a glance at the opposite side of the road. The waiting time AR[2]-displayed next to the red pedestrian light was twelve seconds. It was enough.
“Burst Link.”
In murmuring that, together with the whoosh! sound of acceleration he was used to hearing the world froze blue. Haruyuki, who had descended to the Blue World, a.k.a. the Initial Acceleration Space, in the figure of his pink pig avatar, switched his still-open console to the matching list.
After the list passed through the search display for a moment, the names of close to ten Burst Linkers were lined up in it. The Suginami area where Haruyuki was now had been a neutral zone for a long time, but coinciding with the return of Black Lotus, the Black King, to the Accelerated World, it had been proclaimed the reborn Nega Nebulas’ territory.
Within a territory, members of the legion that controlled it had the privilege of being able to reject other Burst Linkers’ «intrusions». Therefore, as long as one was in one’s territory, it was possible to choose to duel only opponents over whom one had an advantage.
However, Haruyuki, who had checked the list from top to bottom, extended his pig avatar’s right hand out to the only name there that he was seeing for the first time. Unlike earlier, without stopping right before it, his black hoof touched the list. He slapped the 【DUEL】 button that had immediately appeared with the sound of a whack.
—In this one fight, I’ll ascertain it this time for sure. What kind of power I……and then what kind of power Silver Crow desires.
Strongly praying for that, he entrusted his body to the transformation effect into his duel avatar.
References
- ↑ The expression in Japanese is 一矢を報いる, which figuratively means “to return a blow” but literally means “to repay with an arrow.”
- ↑ Augumented Reality, where vision of the real world is supplemented with images displayed by the Neuro Linker. Which is to say, if Haruyuki removes his Neuro Linker now, he won't see the time remaining.
