Accel World - Volume 11 - Chapter 13

13

Battling drowsiness, he managed to get through his two afternoon classes and the short homeroom after that. When he stepped outside after it was all over, a drop of rain hit him smack on the nose.

He looked up at the sky to see thick gray clouds hanging there, as dense as any in the Thunder stage. The weather report on his virtual desktop said 2.5 millimeters of rain every hour starting at three thirty PM. It was enough rain that outdoor practice for the sports teams would be canceled, but of course, that had no bearing on the work of the Animal Care Club.

Moving at a trot to the rear yard, Haruyuki first said hello to Hoo before getting to work on the hutch cleaning at 1.2 times his usual speed. Unfortunately—he supposed—his colleague Izeki had sent him a colorful text saying that she had to get ready for the school festival, so she couldn’t come to the hutch that day; she definitely wasn’t just skipping because of the rain.

Around the time he had finished washing the water bath, he heard light footsteps behind him. When he turned his face that way, a girl approaching him at a trot, carrying a red umbrella, came into his field of view. It was the Animal Care Club super president Utai Shinomiya, but something was different from usual. He squinted his eyes and realized that her feet were in red boots.

“H-hello, Shinomiya,” Haruyuki greeted her, still carrying the bath, and accidentally stared at the boots, which were made of breathable, waterproof fabric. That reminds me—I used to wear boots like that when it rained. When did I stop, I wonder… His thoughts drifted away.

UI> HELLO, ARITA. IT’S A LITTLE EMBARRASSING TO HAVE YOU LOOKING SO CLOSELY. The words popped up in the semi-transparent chat window, the two boots squirming on the other side of it.

“Oh! S-sor— I’m sorry!” he cried out, slightly panicking at the possibility of him getting tagged a leg fetishist. “Um! I—I just thought your boots were cute!”

Silence.

Quiet filled the rainy courtyard. Utai’s face turned bright red, and she hung her head. Belatedly realizing what he had said, Haruyuki froze, until he was finally rescued by the protesting flapping wings of a hungry Hoo.

After polishing off one of the thin slices of meat from Utai’s hand, the white-faced owl gave them a little show of flight around the hutch to improve his digestion before returning to his perch.

Haruyuki watched as Hoo instantly switched to nap mode, and said, quietly, “Looks like he’s gotten pretty used to this hutch, huh?”

Utai removed the protective glove from her left hand and nodded, her fingers flashing. UI> YES. I ALSO NEVER IMAGINED HE WOULD SETTLE DOWN TO SUCH AN EXTENT IN ONLY A WEEK. IT’S THANKS TO EVERYONE IN THE ANIMAL CARE CLUB WORKING SO HARD FOR US.

“Oh, no, I mean…All I do is clean…And Hoo seems to like Izeki better and all.”

Maybe because he sounded somewhat jealous, Utai giggled as she typed, UI> THAT’S NOT TRUE AT ALL. HOO TRUSTS YOU QUITE A BIT, ARITA. A LITTLE LONGER, AND I WAS THINKING THAT I’D ASK YOU FOR YOUR HELP IN FEEDING HIM.

“Huh? But you said Hoo would only eat from your hand,” he began reflexively, only to snap his mouth shut. A second later, he changed his tone and asked, “Shinomiya, is the reason for that…because Hoo was hurt by his previous owner?”

Utai’s hands stopped cleaning up the feeding kit, and she looked straight at him. She nodded slowly, blinking her large eyes. UI> IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY AT HOO’S LEFT LEG, THERE IS STILL A SCAR FROM THE MICROCHIP BEING GOUGED OUT.

Haruyuki read this and lifted his gaze with a gasp. He focused on the left leg of the owl—whose ears were flattened and who had both eyes closed—and indeed, there was a horizontal scar about two centimeters wide that looked like it had been sliced opened with a blade.

“…So awful…Such a big cut.” He bit his lip and clenched his hands.

It was true that keeping a northern white-faced owl as an individual was hard. The food was special, and a fairly large cage was required. But all this would have naturally been explained at the stage of buying him in the pet shop. And no matter what the situation, gouging out the microchip with a blade and then tossing the injured pet outside like that, all to avoid additional expenses, was inexcusable.

The fact that Hoo had not lost his life and was here now, safe and sound, was something of a miracle. Recognizing this all over again, Haruyuki murmured, “I just know it was because you were so serious about taking care of him that you saved him.”

After a moment’s pause, the cherry-colored font was falteringly displayed. UI> I NEVER AGAIN WANT TO SEE ANYTHING LOSING ITS LIFE IN MY HANDS.

After a few seconds, he grasped the meaning of this and swallowed his breath. That meant that a life had been lost in Utai’s hands. And it hadn’t been a pet like Hoo. A person—no doubt her own older brother and her parent as a Burst Linker, Kyoya Shinomiya.

According to what Utai told him the day before, Kyoya had lost his life in an accident in the mirror room of the Noh stage after being caught under the enormous three-paneled mirror there. Utai said she had been there with him, but that probably wasn’t all of it. Maybe the young Utai had tried to stop the bleeding from the wound inflicted by a fragment of the broken mirror with her own hands. But it had been useless. Kyoya had passed on.

Envisioning this tragic scene in the back of his mind, Haruyuki suddenly realized something, and his eyes flew open.

Utai Shinomiya’s duel avatar, the Shrine Maiden of the Conflagration, Ardor Maiden. That figure, upper body white as snow, lower body clad in true scarlet. That pure, yet heavy, deep red, perhaps…

He took his eyes off Hoo and looked at Utai standing beside him. At her small form wrapped in the snowy white uniform of Matsunogi Academy, wearing the red boots.

Perhaps reading all the thoughts in his mind through his eyes, Utai smiled slightly and nodded sharply. UI> EVER SINCE THAT DAY, THE SATURATION OF THE HAKAMA TROUSERS OF MY DUEL AVATAR CHANGED, ALBEIT SLIGHTLY. From a pale pink…to a deep scarlet. PERHAPS IT IS THE COLOR OF MY BROTHER Kyoya’s blood.

After that, they continued to work wordlessly for a while. Once they had finished cleaning the hutch and dealing with the garbage, Haruyuki submitted the log file. But even after all their duties were complete, Haruyuki couldn’t really bring himself to open his mouth.

Every duel avatar was clad in a color symbolic of their nature, and more than a few had a design with a two-tone color. In fact, Haruyuki’s Silver Crow was split into the silver armor elements and matte-gray body elements.

So even given an avatar with a white upper body and a pink lower body, no one would think that level of color difference strange. Categorizing them on the color wheel, they would fall into the “slightly long-distance white type.”

What was unique about Ardor Maiden was that she had two very different colors of unbleached cloth and scarlet. The previous day, Utai had explained it as being because of the two aspects of herself, the original her and the Noh kokata her. But that definitely wasn’t the whole story. Ever since that day when she had held her deeply injured brother in her young hands, desperately trying to stop the flow of blood, Utai’s lower half had been dyed a deep red.

So the color of her duel avatar’s hakama had changed—and that was probably also why Utai had lost her physical voice.

“I’m sorry, Shinomiya,” Haruyuki apologized suddenly, and Utai turned around, pulling her backpack on in front of the bench, cocking her head to one side. “Yesterday, you told me so much. All so that I could learn the Theoretical Mirror ability. But my head’s been full of other things since last night…”

If only he had gone straight home from Utai’s the night before. If only he hadn’t thought of dueling a little in the Nakano Area. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have encountered Wolfram Cerberus, he wouldn’t have been defeated in such an ugly way, and he would have been able to focus on the mirror again that day. In order to repay Utai’s feelings after she had sincerely shared what was likely her most painful and sad memory—her brother’s death—he had to learn the mirror ability as soon as possible. And yet, ever since his loss the previous evening, Haruyuki had only been able to think about that.

“I’m really sorry. But…But I…” Unable to say anything more, Haruyuki hung his head deeply.

After setting her backpack neatly on her back, she stepped in a pool of water with her red boots and walked over to him. She stopped in front of him and grinned as she typed. UI> THERE’S NO NEED TO APOLOGIZE. BECAUSE I’VE BEEN SO LOOKING FORWARD TO IT, I CAN HARDLY STAND IT, YOU KNOW?

“Huh? Looking forward to it? To what?”

UI> TO MY BOX SEAT FOR YOUR REVENGE MATCH WITH THIS WOLFRAM CERBERUS, NATURALLY.

“…S-sorry?”

UI> IT’S GETTING TO BE TIME. NOW THEN, SHALL WE HURRY IN THAT DIRECTION?

And then she opened up her umbrella before a now-speechless Haruyuki. Half on autopilot, he picked his bag up from the bench and pulled out his folding umbrella. He opened it with a shk, and almost as if that were a signal, the drizzle turned into real rain.

“Um, that’s— Did Kuroyukihime tell you about Cerberus?” he asked, speaking slightly more loudly so as not to be drowned out by the louder sound of the rain.

Utai nodded as if it were obvious. UI> YES. IT WAS DECIDED THAT ON BEHALF OF SACCHI AND FU, I WOULD CAREFULLY WATCH OVER YOUR FIGHTING STYLE.

“O-oh, really…”

So then, if I don’t put up a good fight all the way today, the special training tomorrow will be double—no, triple. Tremors of fear shook his heart, while the reluctance that still hadn’t disappeared made his feet heavy. When Haruyuki made no move to start walking, Utai looked up at him from under the brim of her umbrella, and the fingers of her right hand danced.

UI> ARITA, THIS IS WHAT I THINK. THAT PERHAPS YOU MET CERBERUS WHEN YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO MEET HIM, C.

“When I was supposed to?”

UI> YES. THE THEORETICAL MIRROR ABILITY, WITH THE ABSOLUTE RESISTANCE TO LIGHT-TYPE ATTACKS, AND THE ABILITY PHYSICAL IMMUNITY, WHICH COMPLETELY REPELS ALL PHYSICAL ATTACKS, ARE VERY SIMILAR POWERS, DUE TO THEIR EXTREMITY. IT FEELS THAT WAY TO ME. IN WHICH CASE, FIGHTING CERBERUS IS SURELY NECESSARY FOR YOU TO REACH THE MIRROR STATE OF MIND.

“I…guess so…,” Haruyuki murmured, and in that moment, Hoo—whom he had thought was sleeping after filling his stomach—flapped his wings loudly in the hutch, and added a bonus cry of “Gwee!”

And of course, Utai noted, UI> SEE? HOO IS WISHING YOU LUCK.

Haruyuki could only grin wryly at this. He looked first at the white-faced owl in the animal hutch and then at Utai beneath her red umbrella. “Right. If I don’t go now, it’ll be like I’m running away from another fight with him, using the Theoretical Mirror as an excuse. Kuroyukihime said I had to concentrate my whole self, too.”

UI> THAT’S EXACTLY RIGHT!! Hitting her virtual enter key with force, Utai took that hand and squeezed Haruyuki’s left wrist once. Then she turned around and stepped out into the rain falling at her booted feet.

They departed the rear yard for the front, slipped through the gates, then turned left. After they’d walked a ways, the wide street of Oume Highway spread out before them.

The day before, Haruyuki had entered Nakano Ward from Honan Street far to the south, but since Nakano Area No. 2 bordered their current location of Suginami Area No. 2 along the north-south edge, if they just went east, they would reach it from some point or another.

As he walked in that direction alongside Utai on the sidewalk of Oume Highway, Haruyuki opened a navigation map on his virtual desktop. He adjusted the magnification and made it show him the area around Nakano Station where he had fought Cerberus the previous day. Half to himself, he muttered, “If we just keep walking this way, we’ll get to Naka-Two in about a kilometer and a half. But if we’re going to Nakano Station, maybe it’s better to take the train from Koenji. But then that’s the opposite direction from your house, Shinomiya.”

Then he heard a relaxed voice from behind. “It might be faster to get a bus on Oume Highway rather than the train. There’s one coming in three minutes for Nakano Station.”

“Oh, there is? So there’s a bus on this road, too…I don’t usually use it, so I forgot.” Scratching his head, his eyes still on his map, he now heard an exasperated voice.

“Now, look here. You see any number of these buses on your way to school every day. Honestly, Haru, you’ve always been like this. It’s like you don’t even see things you’re not interested in.”

“Th-that’s not true! I already know about eighty percent of the faces of the people in the same class— Wait.”

Here, Haruyuki finally realized that he was having a conversation with people with his real voice and jumped up into the air. The umbrella in his right hand spun around a hundred and eighty degrees on its axis, and he looked back and forth at the two very familiar faces there.

“Huh? Takuchiyu?! Why are you here?”

“Look, Haru. I won’t say don’t stick our names together, but shouldn’t you at least do ladies first?”

“O-okay, then Chiyutaku…But that kinda sounds like tsuyudaku.” At his own words, he started to imagine the gyudon pork bowl with extra miso soup before abruptly shaking it off. “S-seriously! Why are you here?!”

The tall boy carrying a wooden sword case over his left shoulder and a blue umbrella in his right hand—Takumu Mayuzumi—replied, in the most matter-of-fact way, “With this rain, Chii and I got out of practice early, so we figured we’d come cheer you on. We were waiting for you at the gates.”

The girl with the short hair walking next to him, large gym bag slung across her chest—Chiyuri Kurashima—grinned as she opened her mouth to speak. “While we were waiting, Taku and I made a bet. About whether or not you’d notice us when your head’s so full of the duel. And the result is a clean pass without stopping! See, told you, you didn’t even see us!”

“Uh! S-so then who won the bet?”

“Obviously, Taku and I won, and you lost, Haru! Treat us to a soy milk banana au lait with tapioca on the way home!”

“Hey—wh-what’s this, so one-sided…” Haruyuki was flustered.

Chiyuri turned her eye beam on him lightly. “You totally ignored your two best friends when we were trying to come and cheer you on in this rain. That’s the least you could do!”

He was forced into silence here, and Utai, having listened, grinning, to the exchange thus far, struck the killing blow.

UI> NATURALLY, I NOTICED BOTH OF YOU.

“I’m so sorry.” Haruyuki pressed his hands together and rubbed them up and down as he apologized when Takumu, with his usual impeccable timing, sent out a life raft.

“Look, the bus is here, guys.”

“Oh! It is! Run! Run!” Haruyuki started running toward the bus stop straight ahead without a moment’s delay.

“Don’t you go running away!” Chiyuri shouted out behind him.

They scrambled onto the EV bus, where, happily, the last row was completely empty. They sat with Haruyuki on the right, then Utai, Chiyuri, and Takumu, before letting out a collective sigh. Compared with the deeply uncomfortable June rain, the air-conditioned interior of the bus was basically heaven.

“That reminds me, did you guys hear about this from Kuroyukihime? That I was going to Nakano today?” he asked Chiyuri, who was sitting on the other side of Utai.

“No.” His childhood friend shook her head slightly. “I heard from Taku. And Taku…”

“Maybe a guess from knowledge and experience. Judging from how down Haru was yesterday, I figured he might get back to his feet sometime today and go get revenge,” his other childhood friend said, pushing his glasses up with a fingertip.

UI> YOU REALLY ARE QUITE THE COMBINATION, Utai typed with an admiring look on her face.

“Haru’s just easy to figure out!” Chiyuri commented bluntly.

While this exchange was going on, the bus soon passed the Koenji Rikkyo intersection—where Haruyuki dueled Ash Roller every other day—and approached the border with Nakano Ward. Two more traffic lights until the area change.

Chiyuri composed her poker face and quietly checked with Haruyuki. “What do you want to do? Should we find somewhere to sit near Nakano Station? Or…”

“It’s raining and all. Inside the bus like this is good. We’ll start as soon as we get into Nakano.”

His friends all nodded at this from Haruyuki. Together, they leaned back in their seats and got ready. The bus, racing along Oume Highway slick with rain, passed the first light, and when it was approaching the second, Haruyuki took a deep breath. He had come this far; no point in kicking and screaming now. All that was left was to do everything he could.

After waiting a second, Haruyuki whisper-shouted the command with all the fight he had in him: “Burst Link!”