Accel World - Volume 11 - Chapter 8

8

Roughly speaking, Tokyo’s Suginami Ward was a diamond shape that leaned downward to the right. The Koenji area, where Haruyuki’s condo and Umesato Junior High were located, sat on the eastern corner of the diamond. If you went west from there, you reached the Asagaya housing complex where Kuroyukihime lived. To the southwest was the Matsunoki area, where the elementary school Utai attended was. He was pretty sure that the Omiya area, to the south of that, was Utai’s home address.

Walking alongside her in her white uniform on the brick promenade that stretched south from Umesato, Haruyuki remembered that they had done the same thing on the day they first met. That time, when they entered the Omiya area, they sat down on a bench placed along the promenade and had a tag-team duel. Their opponents had been Bush Utan and Olive Grab from the Green Legion. In the middle of the battle, Utan had activated the power of the ISS kit, pushing Haruyuki to his wits’ end, but Utai had repelled Olive, who was using the same power, and emerged completely unscathed before calling up an enormous storm of flames and burning Utan to a crisp.

The same thing couldn’t possibly happen again today. The thought flickered through his mind, but fortunately, that day, she didn’t say PLEASE SHOW ME YOUR ACTUAL ABILITIES, but instead continued walking. Haruyuki was carrying the bag with Hoo’s dinner set in it, but even taking that away, Utai’s pace was so quick you almost couldn’t feel the difference in their heights. Her back was perfectly straight, and the way she moved her feet smoothly forward, it looked as though she had had some kind of footwork training.

The address display on his virtual desktop’s navigation map changed to Omiya 1-choume, and once they had gone another two hundred meters or so, they veered east off the promenade. Around them was a residential neighborhood full of old houses, and marks indicating shrines and temples popped up all over the place on the map.

“This…is totally different from around Koenji,” Haruyuki murmured unconsciously, and Utai nodded sharply.

UI> WHEN I WAS LITTLE, I USED TO BE AFRAID TO WALK AROUND HERE BY MYSELF AT NIGHT.

And now that Utai, who was currently around ten years old, had said this, Haruyuki, being four years older, couldn’t very well say, “It’s scary walking with even the two of us.” However, the way the ancient trees rustled in the warm breeze beyond the walls running along both sides of them—the noise of the treetops honestly made him nervous, like in a Graveyard stage.

Even though it was still only six, there wasn’t a soul on the road. If there hadn’t been the evenly spaced row of streetlights, which doubled as social camera pillars, he would have wondered if he hadn’t been sucked back fifty years in time. The pair walked silently along the road that wasn’t quite straight, and finally, right around the time when Haruyuki’s sense of direction was starting to get screwed up even with the navigation map, ancient-looking sukiya-style gates appeared on the right side of the road.

Made of dark, natural wood, the gates had traditional clay tiles on their roof. The doors were closed tightly, so that there was no way to peek inside. But as proof that this was no ordinary citizen’s home, a large sign hung on the pillar on the right side. Since Utai stopped in front of the gate, Haruyuki also came to a stop and looked up at the sign. The characters, in a magnificent black block style, read SUGINAMI NOH.

“Suginami…Noh?” he read aloud, and Utai nodded sharply.

UI> THIS IS MY HOUSE. PLEASE COME THIS WAY, she quickly typed out, before she walked over to a metal inset-door apparently for general use and waved her left hand. Naturally, she was operating her virtual desktop, but it looked almost like she gave an order using supernatural powers; the heavy sound of the door unlocking echoed in the air.

She pushed open the door and urged Haruyuki through it. Getting nervous at this late stage, he slipped through the door with a quick “Thanks for having me”—only to have his first glance at what lay on the other side make his jaw drop.

It was almost like the Castle inside the Unlimited Neutral Field. Well, of course, it wasn’t on the same scale, but the way the stately Japanese-style mansion spread out beyond massive trees that were who knew how many hundreds of years old seemed highly otherworldly. And there were even two buildings! On the right was a bungalow residence. And on the left, a great hall soared up, one that at first glance looked like a shrine. That was probably the Noh stage noted on the sign out front.

The door locked once more, and Utai came up beside him.

“Shinomiya—so, like, ‘Noh’…um…is that like Kabuki and stuff?” Haruyuki asked reverently. The question was exceedingly vague, but Utai smiled and nodded.

UI> IT IS INDEED SIMILARLY A TRADITIONAL ART LIKE KABUKI. I’M SURPRISED YOU KNOW IT.

“S-sorry, that’s about all I know,” he apologized, shrinking into himself, before timidly asking another question. “So what’s the difference between Noh and Kabuki?” Obviously, if he secretly searched online from his virtual desktop or something, he could have found a page explaining this, but pretending to know anything using this sort of stopgap information would have been deeply pathetic if he was found out. Or rather, he had no doubt he would have been found out by Utai, and right away at that. Better to simply confess his ignorance, he decided.

UI >THE BORING ONE IS NOH, AND THE SILLY ONE IS KABUKI, IS WHAT FU SAYS. Seeing Haruyuki’s dumbfounded expression, Utai exploded into soundless laughter like a gentle breeze and quickly continued typing. 

UI> I’LL PROPERLY EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE ON THE STAGE. COME THIS WAY.

The “stage” she mentioned was indeed the wooden hall standing on the west side of the site. As they approached, he saw that it was actually a fairly strange structure. The two different-size buildings were connected by a passageway, but the larger building was open on three sides, and there was a magnificent painting of pine trees on a wooden wall directly to the back. Overall, it was quite old, and it gave the impression of not being used very often. A passageway with a roof stretched out about ten meters diagonally from the left inside the building and connected with the smaller building.

They passed through the garden, which was like a deep forest, and then went around to the back of the small building, where there was a sliding door entrance. Utai took an old-fashioned metal key out of the pocket of her uniform and unlocked it. She quietly pulled it open using both hands and nodded at Haruyuki.

“Th-thanks for having me,” he said for the second time, and slipped through the entryway. Utai followed him and firmly closed the old-fashioned sliding door before turning on a light switch on the wall.

The instant the white incandescent lights—also old style—on the ceiling came on, Haruyuki gasped. It was such a luxurious space. It couldn’t have been more than ten square meters, but the ceiling, walls, floor, and all the furnishings were polished natural wood. Perhaps this had been normal back when the building had been built, but if someone wanted to build the same room new now, it would have cost some real money.

Taking her shoes off at the step up into the room, Utai took two pairs of slippers out of the shoe caddy to the side and offered one pair to Haruyuki. He thanked her and stepped up into the room.

The furnishings included an old-fashioned bureau against the right wall and a backless seat on the floor; and directly in front of him, a large piece of furniture, the true nature of which was unknown to him. To the left, there was a stand of closed-up folding-screen panels, and it seemed that it alone was fairly new, when compared with the other objects.

As he whirled his head around the room, text flowed slowly across the chat window. UI> THIS IS THE STAGE’S KAGAMI NO MA, OR MIRROR ROOM.

After staring at this one sentence for a while, Haruyuki turned to face Utai and asked quietly, “Mirror…room?”

UI> YES. I’LL SHOW YOU NOW. PLEASE HAVE A SEAT ON THAT CHAIR.

He did as she urged and took a few steps to lower himself onto the round wooden stool. Immediately before him was the large mysterious furnishing. Utai walked toward this, undid the metal clasp on the side surface, and then pulled the panel immediately in front from the right to left, opening it. Next, she opened the panel beneath—from the left to the right—and stepped back behind Haruyuki.

So that’s not furniture; it’s a door, maybe? he wondered for a brief moment. He understood it wasn’t a door the instant he locked eyes with the junior high school boy with a round face sitting before him. Reflexively, he threw his head back, and the boy in front of him tilted his body in exactly the same way. Both of them simultaneously were supported from behind by an elementary school girl, thus narrowly avoiding falling off their chair.

There couldn’t have been more than one of these stupid, round-type junior high students. Which meant that what Haruyuki was looking at was also Haruyuki. The mysterious furnishing was an absurdly large, three-sided mirror.

Although normally he couldn’t stand to look at his own self in the mirror for more than a second, at that moment alone, Haruyuki was so surprised that he continued to stare intently. He had never before seen such a large, impressive mirror. The biggest mirror in the Arita household was the full-length mirror in his mother’s room, but this was easily more than ten times as large as that. It was almost like a small room where three of the walls were made of mirror.

“……”

After staring soundlessly for more than ten seconds, Haruyuki finally realized that its size wasn’t the three-sided mirror’s only distinct feature. Its quality as a mirror—the clarity of the surface glass, the reflectance of the silver layer substrate—was incredible. The quality was greater than even the high-precision mirror that Reina Izeki had lent him at school. In fact, rather than a mirror, it seemed like an entrance to another world, one where left and right were reversed.

UI> THERE ARE A VARIETY OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOH AND KABUKI, BUT… The text appeared soundlessly in the holo window, the only thing this mirror didn’t reflect. UI> ONE OF THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCES IS THAT WHILE KABUKI ACTORS PAINT THEIR OWN FACES TO PERFORM, IN NOH, THEY WEAR A MASK CALLED AN OMOTE.

After taking a few seconds to digest this text, Haruyuki murmured, “Oh, really? So then that’s the Noh mask you hear about, huh?”

UI> THAT’S EXACTLY RIGHT. THE NOH ACTOR WEARING THE OMOTE BLENDS HIS CONSCIOUSNESS WITH THE MASK TO BECOME SOMETHING NOT HUMAN AND DANCES AND SINGS. TO REACH THAT STATE OF MIND, THEY FOCUS THEIR MENTAL ENERGIES HERE IN THE MIRROR ROOM. THE LARGE MIRROR YOU’RE LOOKING AT IS THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN THIS WORLD AND THE OTHER WORLD.

“The boundary…” That sensation assaulted him again, the certainty and impatience that he was getting quite close to something important. Unconsciously, he stood up from the chair and took one step, then another toward the mirror.

The figure of himself approaching in tandem shimmered like the surface of water. Before he knew it, standing there was his other self, body wrapped in silver armor, face hidden by an opaque helmet: Silver Crow. Haruyuki raised his right hand, and Crow similarly moved his. The tips of their fingers gradually drew near each other, and just as they were on the verge of touching, his shirt was yanked from behind, and Haruyuki came back to himself with a gasp.

During the time it took him to blink once, the duel avatar in the mirror disappeared and the pudgy junior high boy returned. Turning around, he saw Utai smiling as she clutched his shirt. She deftly typed with just her right hand.

UI> YOU’VE LOOKED AT THIS ENOUGH. WE’LL CONTINUE THIS CONVERSATION IN MY ROOM.

Leaving the mirror room, the two of them slipped through the grove of trees once more and headed for the main building on the east side of the site. While they walked, the spacey feeling in his head faded, but in its place, he felt the sharp pain of tension in his stomach. If they ran into Utai’s family, how on earth should he introduce himself? A fourth grader and an eighth grader were separated enough in age that if they were understood in the worst possible way, he could be reported or even arrested.

As he ran various simulations in his head, Utai noted, as if seeing through him, UI> IT’S ALL RIGHT. GRANDFATHER AND FATHER ARE BOTH OUT. WHEN THEY HAVE A BIG PERFORMANCE, THEY DON’T COME HOME VERY OFTEN.

“P-performance? A Noh play?”

UI> YES.

At this response, he belatedly understood. Given the fact that she had a large Noh stage at her house and that her grandfather and father were both Noh performers, Utai Shinomiya wasn’t simply taking Noh lessons or anything; she was the child of a Noh house. And her late brother—Mirror Masker—was, too.

Haruyuki fell silent once more, and Utai didn’t attempt to say anything else, but rather silently opened the door to the main house.

The room she led him to didn’t actually have wooden walls and floors, but it was still a rarity, a Japanese-style room with tatami mats. The furnishings were basically a wooden Japanese-style writing desk, a bureau, and a bookshelf; there was no bed. Which probably meant that Utai spread a futon out and slept on the floor. For Haruyuki, it was a completely unknown sleep environment.

Utai set her backpack down on the shelf and offered him a floor cushion before saying—well, writing—PLEASE EXCUSE ME A MOMENT and leaving the room.

When he thought about it, he probably hadn’t used a proper floor cushion for the last few years. Although he tried to take on the challenge of sitting formally on his knees, he got the sense of serious damage in his legs after ten seconds. Distributing his weight to the left and right, he endured the pain, but fortunately, Utai returned in about three minutes with a tray.

The moment she saw Haruyuki’s posture, she appeared to stifle a laugh. She first set down the tray on the desk and then moved both hands. UI> PLEASE MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE.

“R-right. Well, then I’ll gratefully accept your…kindness— Ow, ow…” His numb legs quickly crumpled into a cross-legged posture, and he let out a sigh of relief. Before him, Utai sat neatly in the formal kneeling position. Her movements were also neat and contained as she set out the cold tea poured into faceted glasses and the small plate of mizuyokan sweet bean jelly.

“Th-thanks.”

She urged him on with a gesture, so he brought the cold tea to his mouth. Apparently, it was green tea made with real tea leaves and then cooled; there was a faint sweetness to the drink even in the midst of its crisp bitterness. He enjoyed the flavor, so totally different from tea from a plastic bottle, for a while before he realized something.

The calm that this girl Utai Shinomiya possessed, very uncharacteristic of her ten years of age, was not something that was only cultivated by her being a Burst Linker. The fact that she had been born and raised in this large, traditionally Japanese house had given form to the girl now and to the duel avatar Ardor Maiden. Once he understood this, there was only a single thing this house had in common with his own home on the twenty-third floor of a skyscraper condo in northern Koenji: It was quiet. The lonely silence of no one to say “welcome home” when the child returned from school.

“Um…Shinomiya. What about the other people in your house?” he asked timidly.

After taking a sip of her own tea, Utai typed on the desk. UI> I MENTIONED THIS BEFORE, BUT MY GRANDFATHER, FATHER, AND OLDER BROTHER ARE CURRENTLY RESIDING IN KYOTO FOR A PERFORMANCE. MY MOTHER ALSO WORKS, SO SHE DOESN’T COME HOME UNTIL VERY LATE AT NIGHT.

“Huh…So then it’s just you right now?”

UI> THERE IS SOMEONE WHO TAKES CARE OF THE HOUSE, BUT THEY’LL BE GOING HOME SOON.

“Th-they will?” He had been totally swallowed up by the atmosphere until that point, but putting aside all the various special circumstances, this was basically nothing other than being alone in a house with a girl, wasn’t it? As he belatedly realized this, his breathing and heart rate started to accelerate, but he managed to summon his fighting spirit to maintain the status quo. The night before, not only had he been alone with her, but Niko had snored softly in the bed right next to him. And a few days before that, he had also stayed over at Kuroyukihime’s house. He should have accumulated enough experience points not to panic here and now. Probably.

Unaware of this turmoil within him—or if she was aware of it, she didn’t show it on her face—Utai brought some mizuyokan to her mouth with a bamboo teaspoon. When Haruyuki did the same, the chilled, smooth jellied dessert slipped down his throat and cooled his thoughts.

In her explanation before, Utai had typed older brother. Which meant… “Do—did you have two older brothers?” he asked quietly, and the ponytail swung lightly.

UI> YES. THE OLDEST IS NINE YEARS ABOVE ME, SO WE DIDN’T REALLY PLAY TOGETHER VERY MUCH. AND THE YOUNGER ONE…MY BROTHER KYOYA, WHO TAUGHT ME ABOUT THE ACCELERATED WORLD, HE WAS FOUR YEARS OLDER THAN ME. HE PASSED AWAY THREE YEARS AGO…I WAS SEVEN AND HE WAS ELEVEN.

A typing master far beyond Haruyuki, Utai still tapped her fingers at the desk, awkwardly this time. Her head was hanging, and he couldn’t see the look on her face. He tried to stop her with a “that’s enough,” but before he could, her slender fingers started moving again.

UI> IN THE WORLD OF NOH THEATER…AND IT’S THE SAME IN KABUKI AND KYOGEN AS WELL. CHILDREN BORN INTO FAMILIES WHO PERFORM ARE NOT GIVEN A CHOICE.

“Choice?”

UI> WHETHER TO GO INTO THE WORLD OF ENTERTAINMENT OR NOT. THE CHILD CANNOT CHOOSE THIS. FROM THE TIME YOU CAN REMEMBER, YOU ARE IN CONTACT WITH THE ART OF YOUR PARENTS AND SIBLINGS AND RELATIVES. IT’S CLOSE TO YOU, YOU STUDY IT, AND THEN AT A MERE FOUR OR FIVE YEARS OF AGE, YOU FIRST STEP ONTO THE STAGE AS A KOKATA CHILD ACTOR. EVERYTHING UP TO THIS POINT IS ALREADY DECIDED WHEN YOU ARE BORN INTO A NOH FAMILY.

“F-from the time you’re that little?” Haruyuki asked, dumbfounded. He tried to remember what he had been doing when he was four years old, but he only had a hazy memory of racing around the playground of his kindergarten.

Utai lifted her face for a mere instant and showed him a faint smile before continuing. UI> NATURALLY, NOT ALL CHILDREN PROCEED LIKE THIS DOWN THE PATH OF NOH PERFORMER. IN FACT, THE CHILDREN WHO CONTINUE ARE ACTUALLY IN THE MINORITY. YOU CAN PERFORM AS A KOKATA UNTIL AROUND THE TIME YOU START JUNIOR HIGH, BUT I THINK MORE THAN HALF THE CHILDREN LEAVE THE STAGE BEFORE THAT TIME. BUT MY OLDER BROTHER DID NOT STOP. AND KYOYA AND I ALSO HAD NO INTENTION OF STOPPING. ACTUALLY, MY BROTHER AND I LOVED THE WORLD OF NOH. THE TINY UNIVERSE OF THE STAGE….

Haruyuki continued to silently look at the cherry-pink characters spelled out haltingly. It wasn’t as though he had immediately understood the world of Noh. He hadn’t seen a play live, and he felt like he had glanced at a 2-D image in his social studies class, but maybe not. That was about it. And although it was quite belated at this point, he realized something:

When the shrine maiden of the conflagration, Ardor Maiden, activated her Incarnate technique, and therein danced and sang, that figure was itself Noh. Utai Shinomiya’s form and abilities in the Accelerated World were intimately linked to the Noh performances she had been learning since before she could remember.

Once his thoughts had proceeded to this point, Haruyuki ran straight into a huge question. The duel avatar was the manifestation of mental scars. In which case, the crimson-and-white shrine maiden that was Utai’s avatar had to have been generated from her own wounds. So that meant Utai’s wounds were linked to the world of Noh that she so loved.

UI> WHEN I WAS THREE YEARS OLD, I STEPPED ONTO THE STAGE AS A KOKATA FOR THE FIRST TIME. I WAS STILL AN AGE WHEN I WAS MORE A BABY THAN A CHILD, BUT EVEN SO, I CLEARLY REMEMBER THE TENSION AND EMOTION OF THAT DAY.

Utai resumed her typing, and Haruyuki chased the text wordlessly.

UI> FROM THEN ON, I BELIEVED THAT I WOULD BECOME A NOH PERFORMER LIKE MY GRANDFATHER AND MY FATHER, AND I WORKED HARD IN MY LESSONS EVERY DAY. HOWEVER, THE DAY I STARTED ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, MY FATHER TOLD ME THAT I COULD ONLY BE A KOKATA. That once I GREW UP I COULD NO LONGER ASCEND TO THE STAGE.

“What? Why? That’s—” Haruyuki cried out unconsciously. That was awful. It was just too much, dragging a child into the world of entertainment whether she liked it or not, with no choice of her own, and then forcing her to quit after a few years.

But Utai smiled again as if to reassure him, and moved her fingers calmly. UI> IT CAN’T BE HELPED. BECAUSE KABUKI AND KYOGEN…AND NOH ARE THE WORLD OF MEN. DID YOU KNOW, FOR INSTANCE, THAT THERE ARE NO WOMEN KABUKI ACTORS?

When she said that, he realized the actors who played women in Kabuki were called onnagata precisely because they were not women.

UI> IN RECENT YEARS, THERE HAVE BEEN MORE THAN A FEW WOMEN NOH PERFORMERS, BUT THAT DEPENDS ON THE SCHOOL. IN THE SCHOOL THAT OUR SHINOMIYA HOUSE BELONGS TO, WOMEN ARE NOT ALLOWED. NATURALLY, I WAS VERY SAD WHEN I LEARNED THIS. GIVEN THAT I WOULD AT SOME POINT NO LONGER BE ABLE TO STAND ON THE STAGE, I CONSIDERED GIVING UP MY LESSONS. BUT FROM THE TIME I WAS LITTLE, THIS IS ALL I’VE EVER KNOWN, SO I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT ELSE THERE WAS FOR ME. IT WAS THEN THAT MY BROTHER KYOYA SHOWED ME ANOTHER SPIRIT WORLD. HE WAS ALREADY A BURST LINKER AT THE TIME, AND HE GAVE ME BRAIN BURST.

She paused for a moment, and then her lithe fingers began to dance again.

UI> THE MENTAL SCARS THAT ARE THE ORIGIN FOR ARDOR MAIDEN…I MYSELF CAN’T PUT THEM CLEARLY INTO WORDS. BUT THERE’S SIMPLY ONE THING: I BELIEVE THAT MAIDEN WAS BORN CLAD IN THE TWO COLORS OF LIGHT CRIMSON AND WHITE BECAUSE THERE WERE TWO WORLDS, TWO SELVES WITHIN ME FROM BEFORE I BECAME A BURST LINKER. IT WAS THE SAME WITH KYOYA’S MIRROR MASKER. HE POSSESSED SILVER AND WHITE.

The “light crimson” in the middle of the text caught Haruyuki’s eyes. Because the scarlet coloring of Ardor Maiden’s lower half was actually a dark red. But the second half of her statement quickly pulled his attention away from that. “Silver…and white. So then…just his lower half was a metal color? So that can happen too, huh…”

UI> I ALSO HAVE NEVER SEEN IT ON ANYONE OTHER THAN MY BROTHER.

Utai’s agreement sent him into thought. If Mirror Masker, the avatar with the Theoretical Mirror ability, was such a special avatar, then it seemed uncertain as to whether or not Silver Crow—who was also silver, but just a regular metal color overall—could actually acquire the ability. Just when he was about to hang his head dejectedly, Haruyuki shook it off. He had to focus on Utai’s story at that moment, not himself. When he brought his attention back to the ad hoc window on his virtual desktop, the cursor began to move again with perfect timing.

UI> UNTIL THEN, I HAD ONLY HAD MY LESSONS EVERY DAY, SO I HAD NO FRIENDS WITH WHOM TO PLAY. SO FOR ME, THE ACCELERATED WORLD, WHERE I COULD MEET SO MANY BURST LINKERS, WAS A FUN, THRILLING PLACE. EACH DAY, THE PART OF ME THAT IS ARDOR MAIDEN COULD PUT ON THE OMOTE AND DANCE TO MY HEART’S CONTENT.

“Um. At the time, you were in first grade, right, Shinomiya? Weren’t you…scared of dueling?” Haruyuki unconsciously interjected, and the girl, currently in fourth grade, grinned.

UI> IN NOH, THERE ARE A GREAT NUMBER OF PROGRAMS WITH HAUNTINGS AND KILLINGS AND TRANSFORMATIONS AND DISAPPEARANCES.

“I—I guess so.”

UI> THE DUELS WERE FUN, AND EVERYONE I MET WAS SO KIND TO ME. BUT…CONTRARY TO MY BROTHER’S IDEA, THE MORE I DANCED IN THE ACCELERATED WORLD, THE STRONGER MY THOUGHTS ABOUT ANOTHER DIFFERENT WORLD, THE NOH STAGE, GREW. FOR ME, THE TWO WORLDS WERE THE SAME IN A CERTAIN SENSE. MY DESIRE TO EXPRESS ON THE NOH STAGE THE THINGS I NOTICED IN THE ACCELERATED WORLD, THAT I LEARNED, THE MENTAL STATE I REACHED, SIMPLY GREW.

“Right…In a way, your duel avatar is a perfect match, huh?”

UI> YES…I SUPPOSE SO. KYOYA ALSO SEEMED TO HAVE NOT ANTICIPATED IT WOULD BE TO THAT EXTENT. HE HAD GIVEN ME BRAIN BURST TO MAKE ME FORGET THE STAGE, BUT HE SAW THAT IT HAD THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE EFFECT. AND HE TRIED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THAT. IT WAS A SUMMER DAY A YEAR AFTER I BECAME A BURST LINKER…SO IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THREE YEARS AGO NOW…

Here, Utai’s fingers froze.

At some point, the sky beyond the window had grown red, and the color of the evening sun sneaking into the room also bled into her white uniform. The light wasn’t on, so the room was increasingly gloomy, and the trees in the yard rustled like the sound of waves.

Head hanging deeply, Utai didn’t so much as twitch for a long time, but then abruptly, she lifted her head and stared at Haruyuki with those eyes with traces of red running through them. Her ten fingers danced loosely, followed by black shadows.

UI> MY BROTHER KYOYA. HE WENT TO THE MIRROR ROOM I SHOWED YOU EARLIER TO ASK OF MY GRANDFATHER, THE HEAD OF THE SHINOIYA HOUSE OF THE KANZE SCHOOL, THE SEVENTH SEIGORO SHINOMIYA, TO PLEASE ALLOW ME TO FORMALLY WORK TOWARD BECOMING A NOH PERFORMER. BUT…THE RESPONSE WAS OBVIOUS. MY GRANDFATHER SHOOK HIS HEAD, SAYING IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE, AND MY BROTHER CONTINUED TO PLEAD WITH HIM, CRYING. EVEN WHEN I TOLD HIM IT WAS ENOUGH, TO STOP HIM, HE DID NOT WITHDRAW. HE WAS PUSHED ASIDE BY OUR OLDER BROTHER, WHO ALSO HAPPENED TO BE THERE…AND THEN THERE WAS AN ACCIDENT.

“Acci…dent?”

UI> KYOYA FELL ONTO THE FLOOR, AND ON TOP OF HIM…THE LARGE MIRROR OF THE MIRROR ROOM FELL ON HIM. THE MIRROR SHATTERED…AND THE SHARDS… Utai’s fingers stopped again.

But Haruyuki could easily imagine it. Utai had said that at the time, her older brother Kyoya had been eleven, just a year older than she was now. If that enormous mirror fell on a child like that, the kind of disaster it would invite—yes, in fact, the worst result had indeed happened. Three years ago, Kyoya Shinomiya/Mirror Masker had lost his young life in that room. That was what Utai was saying.

At some point, she had dropped her head again, and her hands were clenched into tight fists. He saw that those small hands were shaking, and Haruyuki felt like he had to say something. But no matter what he said, it would just be a shallow, superficial comfort, and his mouth remained glued shut.

Instead, he reached his right hand across the desk and touched the fingers of Utai’s left hand. Her tightly clenched fist shook, loosened, and finally opened to let the slender fingers gently wrap around Haruyuki’s. Like this, Utai inscribed words one by one with her right hand alone.

UI> KYOYA’S LAST WISH…I MYSELF RUINED THAT IN THE END. EVEN AS A KOKATA, I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO STAND ON THE STAGE AGAIN. Two transparent droplets fell soundlessly to the top of the desk, beautiful seams running through the wood. UI> BECAUSE EVER SINCE THAT DAY, I HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO SPEAK EVEN A SINGLE WORD. MY CONDITION CANNOT BE TREATED EVEN USING A BIC.

Utai had told Haruyuki the day they met that she couldn’t talk because of expressive aphasia. But until today, he had never once even wondered why she had ended up like this. He had simply imagined that, like a cold, it would naturally get better one day.

Tortured by the desire to punch himself in the face for being so thoughtless, Haruyuki just bit his lip hard. The Burst Linker abilities of the girl known as Utai Shinomiya had reached terrifying heights, so perhaps he should have realized sooner that it was possible that she had lost something of equal importance in the real world. Although there was probably nothing he could have done if he had, but…even still, he should have given thought to it.

“Sorry. I’m sorry…I…I didn’t…” He managed to somehow squeeze a hoarse voice from his tight throat, and Utai once more gently gripped his hand.

UI> YOU HAVE NOTHING TO APOLOGIZE FOR. IN FACT…I’M GLAD YOU WOULD LISTEN TO MY STORY. UNTIL NOW, I’VE NEVER TOLD ANYONE THE DETAILS OF MY BROTHER’S ACCIDENT…NOT FU, NOT SACCHI EVEN…

“I think…Master and Kuroyukihime, they would…they’d be able to say the right thing, but…I can only listen…”

UI> THAT IS A WONDERFUL TALENT YOU HAVE. Utai smiled, although her eyes were still a little teary, so Haruyuki also managed to loosen his mouth slightly.

With that, he mustered up just a little courage and asked, “Um…So maybe Hoo being taken care of at Matsunogi Academy…was there some kind of situation…?” It was a fairly sudden question, but knowing how hard she had worked to find a place that would take Hoo, Haruyuki couldn’t believe that it was unconnected with her “scars.”

Utai blinked once and then nodded, a faint smile on her lips. She removed her fingertips from Haruyuki’s hand and began to type again with both hands.

UI> THAT’S EXACTLY RIGHT. THIS IS A GOOD OPPORTUNITY, SO I’LL ALSO EXPLAIN THIS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE ANIMAL CARE CLUB. ARITA, DO YOU KNOW THE REFORMED ANIMAL WELFARE ACT?

“Uh. Um. The duty to microchip all pets…right?”

UI> YES. ALTHOUGH, MORE PRECISELY, PETS LARGER THAN A CERTAIN SIZE. AT ANY RATE, BY MAKING IT MANDATORY TO INSTALL MICROCHIPS, THEY MADE IT SO THAT PEOPLE COULD NO LONGER EASILY ABANDON A PET SIMPLY BECAUSE IT HAD BECOME A HASSLE, LIKE THEY COULD IN THE PAST. THE NEW CHIPS HAVE A FUNCTION THAT CONNECTS THEM TO THE GLOBAL NET, SO IT’S ALSO NOT POSSIBLE TO SECRETLY DISPOSE OF A PET IN YOUR OWN HOME.

As the characters advanced in the chat window, the look on Utai’s face grew pained. But the fingers of both hands continued to tap resolutely on the desk.

UI> BUT THERE IS ALSO A LOOPHOLE THERE. HOO WAS MOST LIKELY LEGALLY SOLD IN A PET SHOP, BUT…AS YOU KNOW, IT IS NO SIMPLE TASK TO TAKE CARE OF A WHITE-FACED OWL. YOU NEED A CAGE LARGE ENOUGH FOR THE OWL, AND THE FOOD IS ALSO SPECIAL. ALTHOUGH THE PREVIOUS OWNER PURCHASED HOO, THEY LIKELY COULDN’T TAKE CARE OF HIM PROPERLY. IN THAT CASE, YOU EITHER HAVE TO PAY THE SHOP A CONSIGNMENT FEE TO HAVE THEM TAKE THE ANIMAL BACK, OR FIND A NEW OWNER YOURSELF.

After taking a deep breath, Utai typed out the rest.

UI> BUT HOO’S PREVIOUS OWNER CHOSE THE EASY LOOPHOLE. THEY REMOVED—NO, DUG OUT THE MICROCHIP EMBEDDED IN HOO’S RIGHT LEG AND RELEASED HOO OUTSIDE.

“That’s…” Haruyuki murmured, dumbfounded.

The smile on Utai’s face grew sad, and she nodded. UI> BIRDS ARE NOT GOOD WITH BLEEDING, AND GIVEN THAT HOO HAD NEVER CAUGHT HIS OWN FOOD BEFORE, HE COULD NOT SURVIVE ON HIS OWN IN TOKYO. WHEN WE FOUND HIM WEAKENED AND COWERING ON THE PREMISES OF MATSUNOGI’S ELEMENTARY, THE ANIMAL CARE CLUB TOOK CARE OF HIM. WE TOOK HIM TO THE VETERINARIAN RIGHT AWAY AND GOT EMERGENCY TREATMENT, BUT IT WAS TRULY A MIRACLE THAT THEY MANAGED TO SAVE HIS LIFE. AND…PERHAPS BECAUSE HE HAD SUCH A TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE, HE BECAME EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS OF PEOPLE.

“Well, of course, with his owner doing something like that to him.”

UI> THE VETERINARIAN SAID THEY WOULD HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO PUT HIM TO SLEEP. BUT I…I SIMPLY COULDN’T ABANDON HOO. IT WAS TOO ABSURD THAT HE SHOULD HAVE TO DISAPPEAR FROM THIS WORLD SOLELY BECAUSE THEY SAID NO ONE NEEDED HIM.

Although Haruyuki could imagine Utai’s state of mind as the characters popped up in the holo window, he wouldn’t dare give voice to that. Instead, he put his own feelings into words. “Like, lately, I’ve been thinking that even if a hundred people say they don’t need you, if there’s just one person who does, that’s plenty of reason to stay in this world. I wonder if maybe it’s not like that for Hoo, too.”

Utai turned damp eyes on Haruyuki and finally nodded sharply. UI> FORTUNATELY, HOO FINALLY ATE THE FOOD I KEPT OFFERING HIM. FROM THEN, HE GOT BETTER BIT BY BIT. ONCE THE WOUND ON HIS LEG HAD HEALED, WE GOT A NEW MICROCHIP, AND I THOUGHT HE WOULD LIVE FOREVER AT MATSUNOGI ACADEMY. BUT THEN THE ISSUE OF ELIMINATING THE ANIMAL CARE CLUB WAS BROUGHT UP, AND YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY, ARITA.

“Huh. I’m gonna work to make sure that Hoo can finally relax and find a home at Umesato.”

UI> I’M COUNTING ON YOU, MR. PRESIDENT, she typed, a slight smile on her lips. Haruyuki could basically guess at that expression. They weren’t dueling or even accelerated, but that look said that the purpose for which Utai had invited Haruyuki to her house had been accomplished, that he had been told everything he needed to know at the present stage.

Several mysterious, quiet metallic noises sounded in succession somewhere in the house. What?! he thought, but Utai said, IT’S ALREADY SEVEN THEN, so he assumed it was some kind of clock.

Indeed, the clock in the lower right of his field of view read 19:02. If the noise before was a clock, it was a little late, but he decided not to worry about it and started to stand from the floor cushion. “S-sorry. I didn’t mean to stay so long. I should…”

Utai cocked her head as if considering something, and then quickly typed, UI> ARITA, WILL YOU BE GOING DIRECTLY HOME THEN?

“Um…I might just duel a little somewhere.”

UI> THEN MAY I JOIN YOU?

“Huh? Th-that’s, well…,” he mumbled, and then finally he realized that the evening sky beyond the window had basically disappeared. Although it was midsummer, he did hesitate to bring an elementary school girl out onto the streets when it was past seven. “Actually, you know, it’s already dark, so I’ll give up on that for today. Your family will get mad at me.”

Utai’s slight smile turned sad. UI> AS LONG AS I RETURN HOME BY NINE PM, NEITHER MY FATHER NOR MY MOTHER HAVE ANY INTEREST IN WHAT I DO OR WHERE.

“O-oh.” However advanced the social cameras, however dramatically crime rates had dropped in the city, this seemed to him to be too much of a hands-off educational policy. Although given that he himself didn’t have a curfew to begin with, he wasn’t one to talk. He shook his head resolutely one more time and smiled. “Even if your parents don’t get mad at me, I know Master and Kuroyukihime will be furious. So let’s duel tomorrow.”

Utai blinked rapidly and smiled more broadly than she had all day before making her fingers dance nimbly. UI> YOU’RE RIGHT. IF WE WERE FOUND OUT, YOUR PUNISHMENT WOULD BE BUNGEE JUMPING FROM THE SHINJUKU GOVERNMENT BUILDING WITHOUT A ROPE.

Utai came out to the passage that faced the road to see him off with a wave, and Haruyuki selected the nearest bus stop along Kannana Street in his navigation app. He followed the line in the AR display in his field of view and started walking east through the dim residential area.

He had walked for about fifteen minutes, various pieces of the story Utai Shinomiya had told him drifting through his brain, when the dazzling light of the main road came into view ahead of him. Looking at his map, he saw that he was apparently close to the Honancho intersection. The bus stop toward Koenji was a little farther north. Haruyuki started to head that way, only to stop again.

His current location was basically on the eastern edge of Suginami Ward. If he kept going another three hundred meters or so down Honan Street, he would reach Nakano Area No. 2. Unlike Naka-1, which was controlled by the Red Legion, Prominence, Naka-2 was a blank space that was no one’s domain. A so-called buffer zone bordering the Leonids to the east and Great Wall to the south, it was thus a mecca for free dueling, and even at this time on a weekday, there would be more than fifty Burst Linkers connected.

“M-maybe I’ll just go,” he murmured, and since no one objected, he took the crosswalk across Kannana Street at a trot.

Since the Suginami area was currently Nega Nebulus territory, even if Haruyuki left his Neurolinker connected to the global net, he could refuse incoming challenges from other Burst Linkers. But the instant he took even one step into the empty area of Nakano No. 2, that privilege disappeared. He straddled the ward border line that floated red in his field of view. The current location address in the edge of the navigation map changed from 2-choume Honancho, Sugiyama Ward to 6-choume Yayoicho, Nakano Ward. The majority of people were likely unaware of crossing borders between the twenty-three wards while they were in transit, but for a Burst Linker, they held basically the same meaning as national borders. These days, Haruyuki could roughly fill a blank map of central Tokyo with the shapes of the twenty-three wards off the top of his head.

In that moment, the name Silver Crow was already appearing on the matching list for Nakano Area No. 2. He could be challenged at any time, so he walked along the edge of the sidewalk, ready for the automatic acceleration. Although it would only be for 1.8 seconds of real world time, he wanted to avoid stopping in the middle of traffic.

Spotting a small park for children about fifty meters ahead of him, Haruyuki decided that if he wasn’t challenged by the time he got there, he would challenge someone himself, and kept walking. He would choose an opponent who used powerful red-type light attacks, in order to give shape to the image of a mirror that was being born in him thanks to Utai showing him the mirror room and telling him the story of her brother.

A true mirror was not just a panel that repelled light. It was actually maybe similar to an entrance that took in light. Now that he was thinking about it, despite the fact that the Destiny, the Enhanced Armament Haruyuki had owned until just a few days earlier, was a mirrored armor with the property of nearly total resistance to light, it also had the capacity to factor in the user’s attributes. The armor was somehow gentle and warm, which was exactly why it hadn’t been able to reject Chrome Falcon’s rage and despair, its own shape in the end being warped by those…

Considering all of this, Haruyuki was about ten meters from the park when Skreeeeee!!—the familiar roar of acceleration filled his hearing, and his back straightened. His consciousness would be cut free from the real world and carried off to the Accelerated World, where time was accelerated a thousand times.

However, the flaming text that burned red in his field of view was not the expected HERE COMES…, but rather A REGISTERED DUEL IS BEGINNING!!—somewhere in Nakano Area No. 2, a duel he had registered to watch was starting.

It wasn’t his own duel, but the Gallery was fun, too. Excitedly wondering who the duel was between, Haruyuki slipped through the rainbow-colored gate opening up beneath his falling self.