Accel World - Volume 11 - Chapter 2

2

Flanked by two beautiful women. Haruyuki wondered if he could actually say that in his current situation.

His duel avatar, Silver Crow, had been made to stand alone atop a raised circular stage, tiers of stairs leading up to it, while two imposingly beautiful female-type avatars stood sharply at attention to either side, one step lower. Unfortunately, however, rather than Crow’s guards or attendants, they were there in the role of police officers monitoring a criminal.

“…Um, were you initially equipped with those blades? Or did you find them somewhere?” he asked Cobalt Blade quietly, unable to stand the tension. She was the senior executive of the Leonids, standing to his right.

“The swords are our souls,” the female warrior replied in a whisper that sounded slightly indignant, indigo-blue armor clanking as she looked at Haruyuki. “Of course they were initial equipment!”

And then from the left, Manganese Blade—looking almost like Cobalt Blade’s twin, her armor having only slightly more green to it—said, “I can’t allow that ‘find them’ to pass. I’ll strike you down for your insolence!”

Trembling, he hurried to make his excuses. “Th-th-that’s not it. It’s just, I saw a sword that looked a lot like yours in the Unlimited Neutral Field earlier, so I just thought…”

The two warriors looked at each other and then whispered in perfect unison, “Where in the Unlimited Neutral Field did you see it?”

“Uh, um, it was…” Naturally, Haruyuki’s recollection was of the straight sword carried by the mysterious blue avatar he had met in the absolutely impenetrable castle towering over the very center of the Unlimited Neutral Field. Its inscription: “The Infinity.” The fifth star of the Seven Arcs, the group of the most powerful Enhanced Armament in the Accelerated World.

He couldn’t exactly leak such classified information to the executive of an enemy Legion so readily, so Haruyuki brought the index fingers of both hands together to make an X. “Uh, heh-heh,” he chuckled nervously. “That’s a secret.”

Instantly, the eyes of both Cobalt and Manganese flashed, and their hands grabbed hold of the swords plunged into the earth before them like staffs.

But fortunately, a clear voice rang out then, a lazy tone, but still full of a fierce dignity. “Come, come, Cobal, Maga. Don’t send him out of here before the investigation’s finished.”

“Sir!!” the warriors shouted, retaking their original positions.

Haruyuki flinched and pulled his head back. However, he still peered at the owner of the voice from beneath the mirrored shield that made up his own avatar’s face.

The platform on which Silver Crow had been made to stand was in the center of a circular plaza about thirty meters in diameter. On the outer circumference of the plaza, seven improvised seats, made by cutting down thick pillars, were arranged in a semicircle. Seated there were the level niners, the rulers of the Accelerated World—the Seven Kings of Pure Color.

From Haruyuki’s perspective, on the far right was the leader of Great Wall, the Legion headquartered in the Shibuya area: Nicknamed “Invulnerable,” it was the Green King, Green Grandé. This week, like last week, he brought no attendants.

Sitting next to him was Haruyuki’s swordmaster and the leader of Nega Nebulus, which held Suginami as its territory; apparently once called “World’s End,” she was the Black King, Black Lotus. Behind her stood the beautiful Sky Raker, her deputy.

On the third chair was Scarlet Rain, Legion Master of Prominence, who controlled the areas from Nakano to Nerima. Given that she had—naturally—not summoned her army of an Enhanced Armament, her cute little-girl avatar dangled its legs over the edge of the seat. Beside her was the silhouette of Blood Leopard, reminiscent of a leopard standing erect.

And then fourth in line—directly facing Haruyuki—the Blue King sat with an air of composure, acting again as chair for the meeting this time. “Vanquish,” aka Blue Knight, was the head of the Leonids, which held as its territory Shinjuku to Bunkyo; the two girls flanking Haruyuki were his executives. This was the very Blue King who had chided them a moment earlier.

Farther to the left, on the fifth chair, sat an avatar with a noble silhouette that immediately brought the word queen to mind: the ruler of the Ginza area, “Empress Voltage,” the Purple King, Purple Thorn. Behind her, the whip user Aster Vine stood at the ready, a female military officer and the king’s close aide. Neither of them so much as twitched, but the pressure they exuded was more obviously focused on Haruyuki than anyone else there.

Occupying the sixth seat was a clown avatar with armor so vividly yellow, it was almost sickening. The head of the Legion Crypt Cosmic Circus, which held Akihabara to Ueno as its territory, the man known as “Radioactive Disturber,” the Yellow King, Yellow Radio also hadn’t brought attendants, as far as could be seen. His smiling face mask wobbled slowly from side to side like a pendulum.

And then on the far left, in the seventh seat, there was again no sign of the king who should have been there. Instead, there stood an avatar with a tall and thin silhouette that tapered at the end like a pole, one Ivory Tower. That avatar was the proxy for the White King, who ruled over the Legion Oscillatory Universe, which was based in the Roppongi area. Haruyuki had thought that today might be the day that he would meet the only remaining one of the level niners he had not yet seen with his own eyes, but perhaps the White King was surprisingly shy…Or perhaps they had no interest in someone like level-five Silver Crow.

Probably the latter, huh. Even though I’m so curious about them, he murmured to himself, a little dejected, as he moved his eyes even farther to catch a glimpse of the massive palace soaring up beyond the thick fog within this Demon City stage. Naturally, that was the majestic castle, the center of the Accelerated World, but rather than the Unlimited Neutral Field, this was a normal duel field generated by Cobalt and Manganese, so the castle couldn’t actually be entered. System-wise, Haruyuki and the kings and everyone else were only connected to this space as the duel Gallery for the two warriors.

In other words, Cobalt and Manganese could not directly attack Silver Crow with the swords they carried, but they could eject him from the space as a Gallery disturbance. Or—and this was unlikely—if everyone present agreed, the duel rules would change to Battle Royale mode, allowing everyone to be everyone else’s enemy.

No, wait. I would totally never press the YES button. As if I would press it. Haruyuki hardened his resolve, completely forgetting that he had had the same thought at the last meeting of the Seven Kings, and concluded his examination of the situation.

Ultimately, this place was the grand bench of the Supreme Court, there to pass judgment on the defendant Silver Crow. For the time being, if Black Lotus was his lawyer, then the antagonistic Purple Thorn would have been his prosecutor. If Blue Knight was the judge, then the other four kings were jurors.

Although these players were all lined up, there was a uniform silence as they awaited the appearance of the last player in the case—the “witness” who would check whether Silver Crow was clean or not with a special ability. At one word from her (or him), the fate of Haruyuki’s life as a Burst Linker would be decided.

Of course, Haruyuki was certain of his innocence.

The immediate reason that he had been made to stand in this place as a suspect was that in the Hermes’ Cord race, he had summoned the cursed Enhanced Armament, the Armor of Catastrophe, Chrome Disaster. Haruyuki, the sixth owner—no, host—of the armor that had caused enormous calamity over and over since the dawn of the Accelerated World, had been permitted a week’s deferment. If he hadn’t managed to purify the armor from his avatar in the seven days since the last meeting of the Seven Kings, an enormous bounty would have been placed on his head. Given that he was still only (and finally) at level five, this was equivalent to a death sentence.

Thus, Haruyuki and his Legion comrades had made every effort during that week to get rid of the armor parasitizing Silver Crow. They rescued Ardor Maiden—who had the Purify ability—from the altar of the God Suzaku, faced the memories of the two Burst Linkers who had generated the armor, untangled the logic hidden in the presence that was Chrome Disaster, and finally succeed in removing the entire curse.

The two Enhanced Armaments that were the armor’s original form—the great sword Star Caster and the full-body armor the Destiny—had already been cut away from Silver Crow through Maiden’s purification power and left to rest forever in a certain place in the Accelerated World. With nothing parasitizing Haruyuki’s duel avatar anymore, there was no reason for anyone there to censure him.

Or that’s what he believed, but he wasn’t completely free of worry about whether or not that would be easily recognized. Because he didn’t really know what kind of Burst Linker this witness everyone was waiting for was. Kuroyukihime and Fuko talked as though they had some idea, but they really didn’t seem like they trusted this person completely.

In other words, if, for instance, in the worst case, the witness had been brought over to the public prosecutor’s side, the witness might ignore the results of their own analysis and declare him “Dirty!” and Haruyuki would have no evidence to deny this. If he simply stood there silently thinking about this, he would only get more and more worried, so he felt the sudden urge to talk to the warriors on either side of him.

“Um, Manganese?”

His interlocutor turned annoyed eyes on him. “…What is it now?”

“Are you and Cobalt sisters in the real, too?” he asked in a whisper. “Or are you maybe even twins?”

“…We’re twins.”

“W-wow! But then, you each have different ‘parents’? Is that it?”

“Oh, that’s a good question, kid,” Cobalt muttered from the opposite side. She brought her face in closer and continued in a somewhat self-satisfied tone. “You know that Neurolinkers identify the user based on characteristic brain waves. So then what do you do when you have two people with essentially the same brain waves?”

“Huh? Shared Neurolinker?” He cocked his head. “B-but you both accelerate at the same time like this…”

“Heh-heh-heh,” Manganese Blade laughed quietly. “If you want to know the rest of the story, transfer to Leonids and perform your devotions. If you’re not useless, we might make you our spear carrier.”

“That actually depends on the direction of today’s meeting, though. Heh-heh-heh.”

“Huh? Um! No, I’ll pass this time…”

“What?!” The two grabbed the hilts of their swords again, and Blue Knight (seated directly in front of them) shook his head in exasperation, about to chide them once more.

Just as he was on the verge of doing so, a strangely bright voice echoed through the foggy circular plaza:

“Hey! Sorry I’m late, yo! I accidentally came out on the total other side of the castle!”

The tapping of fleet feet against the hard ground of a Demon City stage. Judging the sound to be from behind, Haruyuki quickly turned around. A second or two later, the warriors flanking him followed suit.

Through the thick veil of fog, he could make out a single silhouette: a small, slender, female-type avatar. Her head alone was disproportionately large, making her look unbalanced, but she came straight toward them, seemingly unconcerned with the glares she was getting.

“She’s here, Maga.”

“Don’t let your guard down, Cobal.”

Sensing the excessive tension in the voices of the warriors in this brief exchange, Haruyuki was confused. If this had been the Unlimited Neutral Field, an approaching duel avatar would have required the greatest amount of caution, but this was a normal duel field. It was true that at the present moment, the restriction preventing members of the Gallery from coming within ten meters of the duelers had been turned off in the options, but even so, the basic principle of the Gallery not having any attack power whatsoever was unchanged.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get the chance to ask them what on earth they were on guard against. The visitor casually cut through the fog, passing immediately by Haruyuki, and stopped before the Seven Kings.

Her armor was a very light lavender. She had no distinctive parts on her limbs or body, and her form was supple like a female type. But, indeed, what stood out more than anything was her head. Of her approximately 160 centimeters, her head took up more than thirty. Haruyuki couldn’t immediately determine from behind whether the fan shape was hat-type armor or her actual head.

She put a hand on her right hip and bowed slightly, while the Blue King stood up from his seat.

“First, a word of thanks for responding to the sudden request, Argon Array.”

“Whaaat? No biggie. I got my reward and all. Ha-ha-ha!” The reply from the Burst Linker—apparently named Argon Array—was relentlessly bright. Haruyuki couldn’t sense even a hint of nervousness at being before the Seven Kings. “Anyway, it’s been aaaages, this scene. How many years has it even been since I saw all you kingies lined up together!”

“Oh my!” The first one to react was Yellow Radio. “You do say the strangest things, Quad Eyes. As I recall, after we started to be called kings, there was just the one time we all came together…that time when the previous Red King was caught in a surprise attack and exited this world. And yet you speak as though you happened to be present there?”

He spoke as though he were interrogating Argon, but it was obvious to anyone there that his actual intention was to challenge the Black King. Haruyuki gritted his teeth hard, but Kuroyukihime and Fuko both let it slide, pretending not to recognize Radio’s words for what they were; in the end, he managed to endure it somehow.

Argon was also not perturbed. She cocked her head exaggeratedly and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess yer right. My memory’s real terrible, y’know? ’Cos I’ve known little Radio since you were just a wee one this high, huh?” She indicated the level of her own chest with her right hand before answering herself: “Obvs, that’s not true, though!” When even the Yellow King fell silent, she struck the final blow. “Aah, it’s no good!! Just for ages, every time I see little Radio, I end up wanting to go eat some o’ them little fried radio balls. Whaddaya think? Join me? There’s a tasty little place in Iidabashi. ’Course, they’re only good in Tokyo! Ha-ha-ha!”

“…Always the fast talker,” Yellow Radio muttered, baffled and shifting in his seat, before Blue Knight began to speak once more.

“All fine and good to renew old friendships, but it’s about time to get to the point. We’ve got other matters on the agenda after this, after all.”

“Ah, yeah, I came to ‘look’ an’ all. ’Kay, I’ll just take a peek, then.” Having had her back to Haruyuki all this time, Argon Array now whirled around.

So it’s a hat was Haruyuki’s first thought. The top half of the face mask with its exposed mouth—as sometimes happened with female types—was covered by lens-shaped goggles. And above those, he could see two round parts, but they were hidden by a cover. The abnormal size of her head was apparently a result of the additional armor sitting on her actual head.

These thoughts absently racing through his mind, Haruyuki stared hard at Argon as she approached him. Paying no attention to Cobalt and Manganese stepping back bit by bit to either side of him, he simply continued to stand there.

Argon slowly climbed the first, then the second step of the dais staircase before stepping onto the third step, where Haruyuki stood, all seemingly without hesitation. Once she had climbed that far, there wasn’t even twenty centimeters between them; her large lens-shaped goggles gleamed immediately before him. Unconsciously, Haruyuki peered into them, but they were filled with darkness, and he couldn’t see through to the other side.

“…Hmm. So this boyo’s the Corvus of legend, huh?” As she spoke, she turned her face toward him, and the reflection of light made it look like her two lenses blinked. “So the story I heard is you went an’ cut that armor out your own self? My buddies and me, we’re all high-fiving you, boyo. So, like, this’ll be great, y’know.”

“O-okay,” Haruyuki replied, shrinking back, and Argon Array laughed throatily.

He didn’t know much about this Burst Linker acting as the witness. He’d only heard that she had the power to see everything about another duel avatar’s status, and that she was able to determine the existence of a parasitic object; her nickname was Quad Eyes Analyst.

From the way she spoke, he could imagine that she was a fairly old hand, but since he had only just learned her actual avatar name that day, it was of course his first meeting with her. From her nickname, he’d thought she would have four eyes, but there were just two lenses covering Argon’s face. He wondered where the other two were as he stared intently at her petite form.

Snap.

Somewhere deep in his mind, he felt a small spark bounce up. If he had to say, it was like the circuit was connected for a mere instant to a memory that shouldn’t normally have been there. Somewhere…, he thought, but he couldn’t call up any more information. A hazy silhouette flickered on a screen filled with noise.

As he stood there stock-still, Argon pulled her body back and looked back and forth between Cobalt and Manganese on either side of him. “Right! You wanna get started? Boyo and me are Gallery now, so if I’m gonna use my ability, I’m gonna need you ladies to pull us into your duel.”

“…We’re aware of that,” Cobalt replied in a hard voice, opened Instruct, and made some quick movements. Soon enough, a small window opened before Haruyuki and Argon. The message in English read YOU HAVE BEEN INVITED TO BATTLE ROYALE MODE. YES/NO.

Argon said “Yaap” and quickly hit YES, but Haruyuki couldn’t stop his head from spinning. Participating in Battle Royale mode meant that he would be raised up—or maybe lowered?—from safe spectator to dueler, complete with health gauge. If the samurai sisters Cobalt and Manganese got it into their heads, they could carve Haruyuki to pieces in minutes with their two swords—

For the first time since they had arrived at the meeting space, Black Lotus spoke, albeit quietly. “It’s all right, Crow. If it’s a trap, I’ll kill everyone in the place.”

Behind her, Sky Raker followed up with, “Naturally. We’ll hang them all from Skytree.”

At this not-insignificant utterance, the temperature started to drop to about minus one hundred, when the Red King, Scarlet Rain, sitting beside them, dropped an additional bomb:

“Whoa, whoa, Lotus. Lemme just say this, Promi’s just an observer! If you’re gonna hang anyone, just do those sickly-looking kids over there.”

“Those sickly-looking kids” clearly indicated blue and purple and the rest, and even if the adult Blue King stayed calm, the auras around Purple Thorn and Aster Vine flared up. If this kept up, a second super war among the Seven Kings was certain to break out.

Haruyuki hurriedly reached his right hand out to the window. “I-it’s fine! It’s to prove my innocence, after all!” Firming up his resolve, he pushed the button.

A message flashed saying he was taking part in a Battle Royale, and his own health gauge dropped into existence with a metallic tink in the upper right of his field of view. The gauges of the other three were compressed and displayed to the upper right.

Cobalt and Manganese were both level seven, a rank befitting the close aides of the Blue King. However, a new surprise was that the level inscribed to the right of ARGON ARRAY was eight. She really was quite the veteran, and powerful. With this, he could understand the familiar tone she took with the Yellow King, as though she had known him forever.

However, Argon herself was relentlessly light. “Wohkay! Time for work. Gonna take a real hard peek at you. You ready, Corvus?” She sidled up to him.

Reflexively, Haruyuki stood at attention. All he could say in response was “Please.”

“’Kay, here we go.” Two round panels equipped on Argon Array’s hat—which he had thought of as a part of her head until then—opened up with a klak.

Inside were lenses about one and a half times the diameter of those in the position of her actual eyes. The four lenses—no, the four eyes—peered at Haruyuki from extremely close up.

Next, he heard a whining from inside her large head. Warm air was vented from the slits on the side, and then all the lenses lit up a dazzling purple. The light shot out straight ahead like a searchlight or a laser, penetrating Silver Crow’s body in four places.

“…!!” Unconsciously, his body froze, but there was not the slightest sensation of damage. When he glanced up at his health gauge, it was still full. That said, he did definitely have the strange sensation of something piercing through to the core of his avatar.

“…Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Your storage is totally empty, yeah?” Argon said abruptly in a quiet voice. Her words meant that she had seen into his item storage, which, as a general rule, was invisible to other people. “And you don’t have any Enhanced Armament equipped, either. No sign of fraud with some kind of buff or item, either…”

The sunshine of Argon’s voice had faded at some point, and in its place, a businesslike cool had appeared. Her voice had not a shred of interest in the subject individual; it was at best analyzing as an object of observation.

Snap!

Another spark in his head, this one a little stronger than the last. In his actual field of view, another scene floated up to overlay it.

Many human figures standing around the edge of a steep cliff, looking down at him. They were not real humans, but duel avatars. He was sure this was a scene he had seen somewhere a long, long time ago. No, not a long time ago. A dream. A scene he had seen in a dream a few days earlier?

Haruyuki held his breath and tried desperately to call up the hazy memory. The chronology was confused because the scene was from a distant past he had witnessed only in a dream. And it was not even his own memory, but one etched into a certain Enhanced Armament that no longer existed. The memory of the lone Burst Linker who had generated that Enhanced Armament in the first place and who had long since left the Accelerated World.

He mustered every ounce of his concentration and, bit by bit, cleared away the noise that filled the screen. What he had thought was a cliff was actually a curved surface, a large craterlike hole. One of the avatars standing on the edge had four eyes shining in an excessively large head. A faint, halting voice jumped into his ears.

“…ge full recovery…No depletion…attack gauge…about it, it’s Main…overwrite through…circuit.”

A voice he’d heard somewhere. A cold voice, as if reading off data, followed by a voice responding.

“It seems…deepening of concentra…indeed…phenomenon…fast. Although…controlled…different issue.”

The source of these words was a tall, thin avatar standing beside the large-headed avatar. But “tall and thin” wasn’t quite right. More like several thin panels lined up vertically. The first voice began again:

“True, true. And…with a Mental-Scar Shell strength…beyond…into metal…”

As Haruyuki almost squeezed out his own soul to somehow replay the information up to that point, he heard a quiet voice in the real world around him:

“Hmm, just like a metal color, y’know. Mental-Scar Shell’s thick; I can’t see too easy beyond that.”

Instantly, an incredible impact shook his consciousness, and the screen of his memory shattered into tiny pieces. But right before it did, all the noise disappeared, burning into his mind a scene so sharply defined, it was like a photograph.

They were the same. The silhouette with four eyes looking down from the top of the cliff in his memory, and the female-type avatar analyzing Haruyuki with four eyes in that very moment—they were the same.

And the layered avatar of thin panels that had been standing next to the four-eyed avatar had appeared before Haruyuki three times to torture him and his friends with strange abilities. It was the vice president of the Acceleration Research Society, the “Restrainer,” Black Vise.

Which meant—

Which meant…

Haruyuki froze, as the voice continued, getting back a little of its sunniness. “So then, not a single parasitic object. You kin relax, boyo. You’re not possessed by that armor no more. Quad Eyes here’ll swear it!”

Instantly, Cobalt and Manganese relaxed slightly on either side of him. Before him as well, Kuroyukihime and Fuko nodded at each other, their huge relief apparent, and Niko slapped a fist into her open palm. Pard gave him a slight thumbs-up as if to say “GJ,” while the Green King dipped his head faintly.

The Yellow King, seated on the opposite side, spread his hands in a sort of “oh well” gesture, and the Purple King merely shrugged, but Aster Vine (behind her) snapped her coiled whip. The White King’s proxy, Ivory Tower, showed absolutely no reaction, while the Blue King, seated in the center, nodded deeply before standing up, cloak flapping.

But Haruyuki could hardly focus on the reactions of the kings and their aides. In the back of his mind, a single phrase was repeating over and over like a siren: It’s her. It’s her. It’s her!

The Quad Eyes Analyst aka Argon Array was—

Black Vise’s comrade.

A core member of the Acceleration Research Society.

Beneath his slightly downturned helmet, his teeth chattered in fear and horror. If that had been the real world, rivers of sweat would have been pouring out of his entire body and his eyes would have even been blurred with tears.

“Naaaah, were you that nervous, boyo?!” He heard a smiling voice. From the top part of his field of view, Argon’s four eyes, the light almost completely gone from them, were peering at him. “Relaaaax. No one’s gonna be putting any bounties on yer head—” She cut herself off there.

The light in her four lenses, which had started to disappear, increased slightly in intensity. Blinking them like actual eyes, she got close, closer.

He couldn’t let her notice. She couldn’t find out what he had realized. If she saw through him, Argon would go against her previous words and declare that Haruyuki was still parasitized by the Armor of Catastrophe. Silver Crow would be found guilty and would be chased through the field as a wanted man— No, Cobalt and Manganese would undoubtedly take his head off before he had the chance to run. He had to somehow make it out of that place and tell Kuroyukihime and the others the knowledge he had gained.

Intently fighting the urge to fly back, Haruyuki stood quietly as Argon stroked his helmet with a gentle finger. And then, ever so faintly, so quiet that only the two of them could hear her voice:

“Boyo…you. Know me…?”

If Silver Crow’s face hadn’t been entirely hidden by his mirrored helmet, she might have seen through the look on his face. But he forced himself to turn his stiff head toward her, cocking his head questioningly.

Perhaps it was fortunate he didn’t—couldn’t—speak, because Argon didn’t push him any further.

“Nah. Just my imagination, I guess,” was all she said before pulling her face away. She patted the top of his helmet and stepped down the stairs.

He couldn’t let his relief show. He mustered up the last of his mental strength and pretended to stand there blankly. As expected, Argon turned around when she got to the bottom step and favored him with one final laserlike look. But he apparently passed this test as well, because the light in her four eyes disappeared.

The Analyst put her hands on her hips and turned to face the Blue King as he stood. “I said it before, but no parasite stuff is attached to Corvus there. Plus he’s totally naked of anything like an Enhanced Armament. Which means he can’t be the Disaster, basically.”

“I’m relieved to hear it, Quad Eyes. To be honest, I was concerned I’d have to fight that thing again.”

The Yellow King laughed at the Blue King’s straightforward words. Knight sent a glare his way that said “you’re no different,” before making the heavy armor covering his body creak as he loudly declared, “And that is the first item on the agenda resolved—”

“Er, may I speak?” The owner of the interjecting voice was the representative of the White King, Ivory Tower. They had been entirely silent, their miniature tower body motionless, until that point. The avatar raised its long and slender right hand, like a second tower, and continued in a flat, featureless voice, “I understand the matter of Chrome Disaster being detached from Mr. Silver Crow. However, in that case, wouldn’t the Armor then be sealed in an item card once more? Where did that card go, pray tell?”

Haruyuki’s head was full of the truth about Argon Array, but he could not fail to turn his mind to this observation. The cards for the two items that had been removed from Silver Crow through Ardor Maiden’s purification ability were currently resting safely in the home of the two Burst Linkers who had been the items’ owners in the past. Because he had left the key to the house inside with the cards, no one would be able to see the house, much less enter it.

But he couldn’t explain all that in this place. Because there might have been a secret way of breaking into another person’s house in the Accelerated World that no one in Nega Nebulus knew about. If the Yellow King or one of his ilk managed to get hold of the Enhanced Armament again—although there should no longer have been any way to fuse the two into the Disaster—he had no idea what they would get up to.

Bathed in the stares of the kings, Haruyuki was at a loss for words, but the Black King stood up on his behalf.

“The item cards were sealed in a form that will not allow anyone to get them ever again. Even I and Crow can no longer touch them. Are you dissatisfied with this answer, Ivory Tower? Or…do you wish to know the method of sealing and the place?”

At her cool voice, the avatar patterned after a tower and the color of an elephant’s tusk moved their head from left to right. “No, no, your answer is sufficient, Black King. I apologize for my interjection, Blue King.” And then they brought their hand down and fell silent, an ornament once again.

When Black Lotus sat down, she waved her right hand lightly, as if to encourage Blue Knight to continue. The Blue King nodded and then began speaking again. “That resolves the first item on our agenda. Quad Eyes, good work. And apologies, but now that you’ve become a dueler, you can’t burst out right away. Could you wait a bit until the end of the meeting?”

“No big, no big. I’ll just watch from a corner.” Argon Array moved to the left side of the plaza.

Haruyuki followed her quietly with his eyes. He was now certain that the girl, also known as Quad Eyes Analyst, was a member of the Acceleration Research Society, a disturbance to the Accelerated World…and at a senior-enough level to be able to stand alongside the vice president Black Vise. But since his proof was the extremely vague “I had a vision,” even if he did say something here, he couldn’t expect that he would be able to make the kings believe him.

Unfortunately, there was only one thing for him to do in that moment—to not make Argon suspicious again. He would have to somehow make it through the rest of the meeting and then report to Kuroyukihime and Fuko as soon as they burst out.

Haruyuki steadied himself and took a deep breath. “Um,” he said, raising his right hand. “Is it okay if I get down from here, too?” Miraculously, his voice came out without shaking or stammering.

The Blue King glanced at Haruyuki and nodded, signaling the direction of the Black King with his thumb. After Haruyuki bowed in return, he stepped down one stair and then also bowed neatly to the sister guards behind him. Turning around, he leapt down to the ground and trotted over to the Black King’s seat, being careful not to fall or break into a run.

He felt sure he had managed to move fairly normally, but even so, the instant he was standing by Fuko’s side, he felt such an enormous sense of relief that his knees threatened to give out under him. But this was not the time to be letting his guard down; he snapped his back straight and glanced at the opposite side of the meeting area—at Argon Array, standing behind Ivory Tower.

The Analyst had already closed the two eyes on her hat. Hands on her hips, toes tapping out a rhythm, she didn’t look anything like one of the leaders of an evil organization. But he couldn’t be careless. Just like Silver Crow’s mask, Argon Array’s lens-shaped goggles hid the direction of her gaze. Although she looked like she was standing lazily, she might have been secretly observing him.

Keep it together, keep it together, he chanted to himself.

Sky Raker, to his left, brought her face close to his and murmured, “Welcome back, Corvus.” The brief statement held all the kindness of the master whom Haruyuki adored, and his heart filled to the brim.

Without a moment’s delay, Black Lotus, who was sitting right in front of him, looked back at Haruyuki. “Nice work, Crow,” she said kindly, and real tears threatened to pour out of his eyes.

But the human being known as Haruyuki Arita was finally learning that it would be a huge mistake to lose his focus here; he simply nodded two, then three times. During this exchange, Cobalt and Manganese also descended from the dais, cut across the plaza, and took up their positions behind the Blue King.

“Fifteen minutes left, hmm? I’ll hurry, then. The second item on the agenda, the information provided by Great Wall about Midtown Tower.” He cut himself off there and glanced over at the Green King, who was sitting calmly on his chair at the far right end. “Maybe you could explain, Invincible?”

All eyes turned to Green Grandé, who—naturally—maintained his silence, moving his right arm only the slightest bit. As if this was a signal, a silhouette slid out of the fog behind him. Dark green armor with a metallic luster. Round headgear up top, large gloves on both hands…

“Oh, it’s Pound,” Haruyuki murmured.

The level seven who occupied the third seat of the Six Armors—the executive group of the Green Legion—“Fists of Steel” Iron Pound nodded at Haruyuki. He walked past his leader and approached the center of the plaza without the slightest hesitation. “I will be explaining the situation on behalf of our king.”

Given that he had once been a rival of “Strong Arm” Raker, Pound was himself a fairly old hand. And it seemed that he had already met basically everyone in the venue, as he began to talk without bothering to introduce himself. “I’m sure some Legions have already confirmed this themselves, but at Tokyo Midtown Tower in the west of the Akasaka area in the Unlimited Neutral Field, the Legend-class Enemy Archangel Metatron has appeared. Judging from this and other information we’ve obtained, we believe an object corresponding to the main body of the infectious ISS kit Enhanced Armament that has been plaguing the Accelerated World is on the top floors of the tower.”

For the next three or so minutes, Iron Pound neatly summed up a great deal of information for the kings: The fact that if you got within a range of two hundred meters of Midtown, you would instantly be evaporated by the super-powerful laser that Metatron released. That the only way to cancel out Metatron’s invincibility was to wait for the Unlimited Neutral Field to change into a Hell stage. And that they had waited for several months of inside time for that chance, but in the end, no Hell stage had appeared.

Once Pound was finished explaining the situation, there were a few seconds of silence, broken first by the Purple King, Purple Thorn.

“Well, that’s quite understandable. I could count the number of times I’ve seen a Hell stage in a normal duel field, much less in the Unlimited Neutral Field.” Her voice was a little boastful, and if he had to say, on the sweet, cute side, but it hid a will like a super-high-voltage current. She sounded as though, if she only got the chance, she would most certainly take the Black King’s head.

“Hell in the Unlimited Neutral Field really is hell, after all. All the Beast-class monsters turned into Devil-class Enemies? No, thanks.” This from the Blue King. The other kings and retainers nodded, as if in absolute agreement.

“Hmm, I just have an eensy question?” The high-pitched voice of Yellow Radio cut into the heavy silence. “I’ll accept that you can’t approach Midtown Tower from the outside. But in that case, what about from the inside? If you go up to the top floor of the tower in the real world and use the Unlimited Burst command, couldn’t you slip past Metatron’s attack range and infiltrate the tower?”

“Oh!” Haruyuki cried out unconsciously. It was just like the Yellow King said: Since the coordinates where you appeared in the Unlimited Neutral Field were based on your location in the real world, if you went up the real Midtown Tower and accelerated, it made sense that you would be instantly inside the enemy camp.

However, the idea Haruyuki thought was so brilliant was rejected out of hand by the Red King, sitting to his immediate right. “Now look, Radio. Grandé thought about that ages ago already. If the enemy base were inside Roppongi Hills, that might work. ’Cos you can ride to the very top floor for five hundred yen if you’re in junior high. But, like, I checked into it, too. A large part of Midtown Tower is a fancy hotel. Anyone not staying there is totally shut out.”

“Oh!” Haruyuki cried again.

In the center of the plaza, Iron Pound also nodded and added, “And the cheapest twin room is thirty thousand yen for one person for one night.”

There was a collective gulp. Even though the most powerful warriors—the Seven Kings of Pure Color and the senior members of their Legions—might have been Burst Linkers in the Accelerated World, in the real world they were a group of junior high and high school students whose only income was their allowances. Thirty thousand yen was not a sum of money any of them could casually shell out. At the very least, if they had a guarantee that they would definitely be able to destroy the ISS kit main body on their first infiltration, they might have been able to pool their money to scrape together the cost of staying there and send in attack personnel. But the first visit would probably end with reconnaissance. And thirty thousand yen for just that was tight. So tight it hurt.

A ponderous silence filled the venue once more, cut through this time by Black Lotus’s swordlike voice. “Trying to do something about problems in the Accelerated World with real money is heresy. It can’t possibly be that those fellows in the Acceleration Research Society saved up their money to move Metatron out of the Contrary Cathedral. We, too, should face this situation as Burst Linkers.”

“Oh-ho! Quite impressive, wonderful!” The Yellow King clapped his long, thin hands together. “That said, Black King, are you saying you have some sort of plan? Your specialty of surprise attacks won’t be effective on Metatron, I’m sure?”

At this very obvious challenge, Haruyuki and Fuko took a half step forward. But Kuroyukihime replied, as cool as ever: “Similarly, your special smoke screens and bribes won’t work either, hmm? Now sit back and listen. Grandé has no doubt thought of something, given the fact that he’s gone out of his way to bring along someone to explain.”

Radio narrowed his eyes unhappily, but he simply adjusted his position on his seat without saying anything further. Once again, all eyes were turned to Pound in the center of the plaza.

Indeed, if it were just an explanation of the situation, it would have been enough to simply send a text mail to the anonymous addresses that served as the contact for each Legion. The fact that the Green King had not left it at that and had instead brought along additional personnel he had not brought to the previous meeting surely meant he had some kind of proposal.

Haruyuki swallowed his breath and waited for Pound to continue.

However, in the next instant, the steel-colored boxer-type avatar turned his gaze straight ahead, so Haruyuki threw his head back unconsciously. He whirled his head around, looking to the left and the right, but it did appear that Pound was indeed focusing his attention on Silver Crow.

Oh, I have a bad feeling about this.

Pound nodded gravely, as if reading Haruyuki’s mind. “We do actually have just one plan to break this deadlock. Silver Crow…I know you’ve just gone through purifying the armor, but could you do a bit more work for us?”

“Huh?! Um! B-b-b-b-but—” Haruyuki shook his head quickly as he inched back. “M-M-M-Metatron’s laser has perfect range in the air too! I-i-i-if I fly in, I’ll just get shot down! For sure!”

“Mmm, that’s true,” Pound agreed readily. “But this time, we’re not counting on your flying ability. It’s your other uniqueness…your silver metal color.”

“C-c-c-color? I-it’s true, I am silver, but there’s nothing really special about that…Basically, strong against poison, at most.”

“Right now, that’s true. But you are the only person here with a certain possibility.” Here, Iron Pound stopped once more and then continued in an even more serious tone:

“The possibility of acquiring a legendary ability that once existed in the Accelerated World…one that has an absolute resistance to all kinds of light techniques: Theoretical Mirror.”