Accel World - Volume 13 - Chapter 3

3

The Nega Nebulus strategy meeting room and frontline base—in other words, the Arita living room, situated on the twenty-third floor of wing B of a mixed-use, high-rise condo north of Koenji Station. By the time Haruyuki, Kuroyukihime, and the girl in glasses who was apparently Aqua Current arrived there, the time was six forty-five PM.

For Haruyuki, who boasted a high-fuel-consumption physique that ran counter to the times, now his hunger meter was approaching the red zone. However, until at least half of the mountain of questions and mysteries that had piled up were resolved, even if he ate dinner, he wouldn’t be able to taste it.

Thus, after showing the girls to the sofa set, Haruyuki poured three glasses of cold tea in the kitchen and piled some roasted-plum mochi rice cakes, wrapped in seaweed, on a wooden plate for a meager source of provisional sustenance. But on his way back to the sofa with the tray, he stopped short.

For some reason, the sight of Kuroyukihime and Aqua Current sitting across from each other lanced his heart. The two of them were staring at each other silently; it was as though they each deeply wanted the other to interact, while at the same time they were trying to distance themselves. This mood very strongly reminded him of Kuroyukihime and Fuko Kurasaki/Sky Raker in the period right after they were reunited.

“…Sorry to keep you waiting,” Haruyuki said, and he set the tray down on the glass table before placing a mug of cold green tea in front of each girl. The room was a little dim, so he went to turn the lights higher, only to change his mind and open the south curtains all the way instead. The light of the evening sun pushing through the rain clouds departing to the east, dyed a golden color, filled the window, making him recall the last scene of the Ice stage battle, whether he wanted to or not.

“…The rainy season will be over soon, hmm?” Kuroyukihime asked.

Haruyuki nodded. “The latest weather report said July fifth.”

“One more week, then? There are a few things I’d like to take care of before that…Thanks for the tea.” Kuroyukihime took her glass in hand, and the girl opposite her also thanked him before putting her glass to her lips.

Haruyuki sat down at the foot of the table and took a drink himself, with Current on his right. Once all three had had a chance to breathe, Current casually remarked, “Right, we’ll start, then.”

From the bag beside her, she brought up a portable XSB cable with a round cord reel. She pulled out one of the plugs and offered it to Haruyuki.

“Huh…? Um, uh.”

“Direct connection’s easiest. Hurry.”

Left with no other choice, he took the plug and then glanced to his left, where Kuroyukihime gave him a faint, wry smile. “If it’s necessary, then you have no choice. See you in a bit.”

“O-okay. I’ll be just a minute, then.” Haruyuki inserted the plug into his direct terminal.

However, Current, who had already connected the other end, spoke immediately.

“Burst Link.”

In subjective time, it had been an acceleration of about ten seconds—so not even one-tenth of a second in reality. So short that the instant they returned, Kuroyukihime murmured as if dumbfounded, “That was a quick trip.”

To speak of what had happened in the direct duel, Aqua Current, having appeared at the minimum distance from Silver Crow, briskly walked over to him and placed her water-covered hands on his helmet, pushed her forehead up against his, and said simply, “Memory Free.”

That was all. So even after the acceleration was over, it was hard for Haruyuki to believe anything had changed. Current wound the recovered XSB cable back up and tucked it away in her bag, so the thing that was to be done had been done, he supposed. But…

Pssh, pssh, pssh.

Haruyuki could hear the sound of water flowing, and he looked back, wondering if he had forgotten to turn off the tap in the kitchen. But when he thought about it, if that were the case, a warning would have been displayed in his vision already. And what he was hearing wasn’t the noise of flowing water roughly splashing against the bottom of the sink, but rather the light murmuring of a small brook deep in the mountains. When he listened carefully, he came to realize that the source of the sound wasn’t outside himself, but rather inside. The cool, clear water flowed through his head and brought back routes that had been blocked.

“……Huh? What?” Haruyuki’s jaw dropped, and he stared at the (probably) girl in glasses sitting to his right. “…Aqua Current…So you’re that Aqua Current…aren’t you? Just like Raker and Maiden. One of the Four Elements—a senior executive of the first Nega Nebulus.”

Why had he forgotten something that important until now? Hadn’t he just heard Aqua Current’s name during the mission to rescue Ardor Maiden that had taken place a mere nine days earlier? And in this very living room?

Nega Nebulus, which two and a half years earlier had ranked in power alongside the current six Great Legions, had dared to attack the Castle that sat at the center of the Unlimited Neutral Field. But they had been routed by the Super-level Enemies that guarded the four gates—known as the Four Gods—and destroyed. At that time, the leader Black Lotus and the wind elemental, Sky Raker, had fought Byakko, the guardian of the west gate, and just barely managed to escape, but the three senior members who had attacked the other gates had all been trapped in Unlimited EK.

On Suzaku’s altar at the south gate was Utai Shinomiya, aka Ardor Maiden, the fire elemental. On Genbu’s altar at the north gate was earth, Graphite Edge. And on Seiryu’s altar at the east gate was water, Aqua Current.

It was true that at the time, his head had been full with the mission to rescue Maiden, their top priority, but even so, it was pathetic that he would forget the name of an Element so easily. Haruyuki held his head—and its meager memory-storage capacity—in his hand and groaned.

But surprisingly, that wasn’t the end of it. In his mind, another route opened up, and a new, large-volume memory flowed into his mind:

Aqua Current. Also known as “The One.” The reason she was called that was because she was a particularly special level-one Burst Linker. Despite the fact that normally, level-one newbies had their heads full of earning points for themselves, Current had made a name for herself as “the bouncer,” accepting requests to guard newbie Linkers who were on the verge of running out of points.

Specifically, she took requests from level-one and -two Burst Linkers and fought in a tag team with that Burst Linker until their remaining points were back up to fifty. Her remuneration for this protection was not points, but rather exposure in the real. When the Burst Linker went to the café where they were to meet, they entered their avatar name in a tablet terminal left at the specified seat, and a camera app took a photo of their face. This photo was sent to the terminal belonging to Current, who hid herself nearby.

As for why Haruyuki had such detailed knowledge of the procedure, it was because he had been Aqua Current’s client. Last fall, back when he was still very much a little chick, he had gotten so carried away in his delight at having finally gotten over three hundred points that he’d completely forgotten to leave himself a safe margin when he’d gone up to level two.

As a result, his points had dropped down to a mere eight, putting him in the desperate, perilous situation of having Brain Burst forcefully uninstalled if he lost even one duel. The person who rescued him from this tight spot was the mysterious One, Aqua Current. In the Jimbocho area, they had fought a succession of level-three and -four opponents in tag-team matches to bring Haruyuki’s points up to seventy. If she hadn’t guarded him, he might have lost Brain Burst long ago—no; he almost certainly would have.

“…Curren.” When Haruyuki lifted his head, he called her name with a totally different feeling than he had up to that point. He stared into the eyes of the faintly smiling, silent girl, eyes reminiscent of the shimmering surface of water. “Curren. I—I…all this time, I’ve…wanted to see you.”

The instant he said this, a wave of a certain kind of Incarnate was launched at him from the left, like something catching fire; but as if in a trance, he continued on without noticing it. “I wanted to see you and say thank you. Because you were there for me, because you saved me, I’m here…” He was unable to put the rest into words; instead, something hot welled up in both eyes.

Aqua Current turned to Haruyuki and nodded slowly before replying gently, “I wanted to see you again, too. I wanted to meet you and hear all your stories.”

More flames. A second wave of emotion came at him, and Haruyuki finally turned his gaze toward the source. Instantly, his entire body tensed up: Behind the quietly smiling Kuroyukihime, he saw an attack-power overlay.

“Haruyuki?”

“Y-yeah?!”

“Sorry to interrupt when you’re having fun, but perhaps you could explain? I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Y-y-yeah!” Bobbing his head up and down, Haruyuki told her the sequence of events of meeting Aqua Current, half in a daze. Kuroyukihime listened quietly, nodding occasionally, and Haruyuki wrapped it all up with, “So that’s the story.”

“…You idiot!!” Her thunderous roar ripped through him for the first time in a while. Kuroyukihime leaned forward on the sofa, pinched his left cheek tightly, and started ranting without pause. “You were near death at the point when you reached level two?! …No, I won’t reproach you after all this time for leveling up without leaving a margin of safety. That’s my fault; I didn’t teach you well enough. But why did you not come and tell me immediately?! If you had just told me, I would have given you however many points you needed!”

“B-but back then you were in the ICU in the hospital, and you weren’t allowed visitors—”

“This game isn’t some demo or off-the-shelf product! Even if we couldn’t direct, we could have dueled via the hospital net, couldn’t we?!”

“B-but back then, your remaining points were—”

“I got them back in no time at all hunting Enemies!”

…Kee-hee.

Abruptly, there was restrained laughter, and both Kuroyukihime and Haruyuki turned their heads at the same time.

Aqua Current, who had remained essentially expressionless this whole time, had covered her mouth with a hand, and her shoulders were shaking in tiny increments.

Huh, Haruyuki thought simply. So Curren can really laugh.

But Kuroyukihime, Haruyuki’s cheek still pinched between her fingers, opened both eyes wide in surprise. After blinking several times, she let slip in a completely different tone, “…Curren, I’ve never seen you laugh like that before…Well, this is the first time we’ve met in the real, so maybe that’s to be expected, though…”

Aqua Current continued her stifled laughter, but finally, she cleared her throat and said, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t laughing because it was funny. I was just happy…I mean, Lotus, it was like back then, back when you used to fight with Raker and Graph in front of me and Maiden…”

As she touched the red frames of her glasses, the young woman closed her eyes, and when she lifted her head again, her face was composed again. She sat up straight and set her hands on the knees of her jeans, then focused her transparent gaze on Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime. “I’ll introduce myself once more. I’m Aqua Current. My real name is Akira Himi.”

After a slight pause, the girl with the name Akira—at once a girl’s name and a boy’s name; very fitting to the neutral air around her—turned toward Kuroyukihime and dipped her head. “Lotus. Silver Crow had no choice but to keep quiet about his connection with me, because I locked away the relevant part of his memory.”

Five minutes later.

Once Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime had also finished introducing themselves and they were mostly settled on what to call each other in the real, Haruyuki confirmed with Akira once more. “Um, so then, eight months ago, you sealed my memory with the Incarnate technique Memory Leak, and you unlocked it with the Memory Free you used when we direct dueled just now. Is that it?”

“That’s exactly right.”

“B-but why would you…?”

“You already know half the reason. Because you saw my real face, Haru.”

“Oh? And how did you crack Akira in the real, Haruyuki?” Kuroyukihime asked, mildly surprised.

“No,” Haruyuki said, scratching the back of his head. “It wasn’t like I cracked her on purpose—I’m just always clumsy…I tripped when I went to the washroom in the designated café, and Akira just happened to be nearby…” The memory of slamming into her, knocking her down, and then accidentally touching her inappropriately finally came back to life, and Haruyuki slammed his mouth shut. Body frozen, he moved his eyes and saw the Akira in question picking up a plum rice cake, looking as though there was nothing at all to tell, so he omitted that detail as he finished the story. “…Akira’s bag fell, and the tablet we saw before came out, and my picture was on it…”

“I see.” Kuroyukihime nodded, albeit with a slightly doubtful look on her face. “So even Aqua Current was done in by Haruyuki’s powers of carelessness, hmm?”

“N-no, I mean, they’re not that great.”

“I wasn’t complimenting you…So, Akira, what was the other reason?”

Their eyes turned on her, Akira pointed the rice cake between her fingers squarely at Haruyuki. “I also explained that to Haru at the time.”

“Y-you did? …Um…” He replayed the memories he had only just recovered and finally arrived at the relevant scene. As she was on the verge of using her Incarnate technique on him, Haruyuki was pretty sure she had said something like, “…‘For me and you to meet—in other words, it is still too early for Curren, one of the Four Elements, to get involved with the newly restored Nega Nebulus…’ Was that it?”

“Exactly. I thought the first one to rejoin you should be Sky Raker. And anyway, Maiden, Graph, and I…”

“You’re in Unlimited EK…yes?” Kuroyukihime finished with a pained look, and Akira nodded softly, lowering her eyes.

As he looked at each of them in turn, silent for the time being, Haruyuki realized—no, remembered—something and took a sharp breath. He had felt it in the middle of the Battle Royale earlier, but this conversation highlighted one massive contradiction for him:

Akira’s duel avatar, Aqua Current, was sealed at the east gate of the Castle in the Unlimited Neutral Field. In this condition, Akira was active in the normal duel field as The One, a level-one bodyguard. But.

“…B-but, um, you can only go into the Unlimited Neutral Field from level four,” Haruyuki said, finally blurting out the conclusion his brain had come to, and the two girls turned their eyes on him. They blinked together several times before Akira touched the bridge of her glasses and opened her mouth.

“That’s a natural question. In fact, I wondered when you’d ask it, Haru.”

Next, Kuroyukihime nodded slightly, her brow furrowed. “The answer to that question is simple. When Nega Nebulus took on the challenge of the Castle attack, Curren was level seven.”

“S-seven?! That’s the same as Maiden now! So how did she get to level one…?” Completely baffled, Haruyuki gaped, only to have a voice come to him from deep in his mind. Refreshing like a breeze parting tall grasses, clear like a polished sword, this voice was that of the mysterious young samurai avatar he’d met inside the Castle. A precious friend, he had first introduced himself as “Trilead Tetroxide,” and when they were parting, he’d revealed his real name: Azure Air.

Haruyuki was pretty sure that when they were considering the route for Haruyuki’s and Utai’s escape, Azure Air had said he couldn’t recommend the east gate because the God Seiryu, the Super-level Enemy guarding it, had a terrifying special power.

“…Level…Drain,” he murmured.

Kuroyukihime shrugged lightly. “…So you know it? That’s exactly right. In order to allow for all of her subordinates in the east-gate attack squad to retreat, Curren stepped up onto Seiryu’s altar to bravely fight. She was hit with the enemy’s unique attack several times, and as a result—”

“My level dropped all at once.” As a Burst Linker, this was probably the greatest possible damage you could think of—excluding total point loss, of course—but the words came smoothly from Akira’s mouth. She took a small bite of the rice cake pinched between her fingers and a sip of cold tea, and then she smiled faintly at Haruyuki and his wide-open eyes—as well as at the tense look on Kuroyukihime’s face. “But I don’t think of that as me being more severely injured than Maiden, Graph, Raker, or you, Lotus. There is no difference in the strength of the Four Gods, the fearsomeness of them. When I was hit with the painless Drain attack, Maiden was being roasted in the flames of Suzaku, Graph was being crushed by a super mass, and you and Raker were being ripped apart by Byakko’s claws and fangs. In terms of simple pain and suffering, you all had it much worse.”

“…But, Curren—pain in the virtual world disappears once the battle is over…But the damage you took…”

“Of course, immediately after my level dropped, I was a little—more than a little—shocked, but it hasn’t been all bad. As the bouncer, I’ve been able to help lots of kids in trouble like Haru, and because of that…There’s no need to make that face, Lotus.” Akira’s intonation didn’t change much, but her voice was still full of emotion. She paused for a minute before starting again. “…But setting aside the Level Drain, the fact that if you go too deep into their territory, you will indeed end up in Unlimited EK is the same for Seiryu and all the other Gods, so…even after I found out that Nega Nebulus had reformed, I couldn’t make up my mind to contact you before now. Of course I wanted to come back. The truth is, I wanted to come back so badly, I could hardly stand it. But if I rejoined the Legion, Lotus, you…” She closed her mouth there and hung her head.

In her place, Kuroyukihime slowly nodded. “Right after we were reunited two weeks ago, Maiden also said the exact same thing. If she rejoined, the new Nega Nebulus—no, its master, me—I would once again challenge the Four Gods to rescue her from the seal at the Castle. As a result, there might end up being more people sealed there. She was afraid of that.”

“It’s only natural to be afraid. I mean, you finally come back, Lotus—Sach—to plant the Black flag in Suginami. I don’t want that tragedy to unfold again.”

The nickname “Sach” that Akira used for Kuroyukihime was an abbreviation of the “Sacchi” he had heard Fuko Kurasaki and Utai Shinomiya use. With her simple tone, the bookish girl was clearly from the planet Impatience—although not to the extent that Pard was—and she opened her mouth again before Kuroyukihime could say anything.

“But, Sach, Haru…you pulled off a magnificent rescue of Maiden from Suzaku’s altar. When I heard that rumor on the wind, I was just so happy. I kept thinking the day would definitely come when I’d meet you again and release the seal on Haru’s memories…”

“…And so that was today, then?” Kuroyukihime remarked with a smirk.

Akira nodded once, but then shook her head lightly. “The truth is, I was planning to wait a little longer. But a situation came up that won’t allow me to bide my time.” The sepia-tinged eyes on the other side of her glasses were colored with a sharp light. “…As you know, ever since the former Nega Nebulus was destroyed two and a half years ago, I’ve been protecting low-level Linkers as the bouncer. There are several reasons for that, but one of them is to gather information. The Burst Linkers I help convey to me critical information they learn in the Accelerated World even after they reach the middle zone…insofar as this doesn’t interfere with the activities of the Legion they belong to, naturally.”

Haruyuki nodded at this, with a powerful understanding. If his memory hadn’t been deleted—no, sealed—he, too, would no doubt have felt at least some obligation to return the favor and would have stayed in contact with Aqua Current.

“So even while I’ve refused contact with the new Nega Nebulus,” Akira continued, her voice strained somehow while still calm, “I’ve managed to get a grasp of sorts on the series of events happening over the last while in the Accelerated World. Specifically, the large-scale terrorist incident due to a fourth-quadrant Incarnate technique in the Hermes’ Cord race and the revival of the Armor of Catastrophe, the order to purify the Armor made at the meeting of the Seven Kings, the plague of ISS kits and the Archangel Metatron appearing at Tokyo Midtown Tower, and…the purification and sealing of the Armor by Silver Crow.”

The words she uttered so smoothly traced out the general course of the majority of events that had happened over the last month and a half, and it wasn’t just Haruyuki opening his eyes wide in surprise; Kuroyukihime also stared as if stunned.

“Just like always, I suppose I should say. Your usual information-gathering powers show themselves once more, Curren.” Spreading her hands, Kuroyukihime explained to Haruyuki, “In Nega Nebulus before, Akira was in charge of information gathering and analysis. Her ability to pick up on fragments of rumors that we wouldn’t even notice and follow them to some key chunk of information was really magnificent.”

Praised by her former master, Akira murmured, slightly embarrassed, “Information is like water flowing through the pipes of a city. There’s always some leaking out of the seams and cracks, bit by bit, but no one’s paying attention.”

“W-wow…Is there really that much leakage in the water system?” Haruyuki asked, glancing back suddenly toward the kitchen again.

Akira nodded with a serious face and revealed an unexpected nugget of knowledge. “The leak rate at the beginning of this century within the Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks was around five percent. Even now in the 2040s, one percent of the water flowing through the system in Tokyo disappears as leaked water. In terms of volume, that’s about fifteen million cubic meters.”

“F-fifteen. Million…So, like, in two-liter soda bottles, um…”

Before Haruyuki could launch the calculator app on his virtual desktop, Kuroyukihime quickly did the arithmetic in her head. “Seven and a half billion bottles. Even so, apparently, the amount of loss is fairly small compared with major cities in other countries…But, Akira, back when I was still level eight, I’m sure I remember you telling Graph, also level eight, to try leveling up first in order to get information on the level-nine sudden-death rules. Wasn’t that quite the strong-arming way of gathering information?” Kuroyukihime noted, a playful smile slipping across her face.

“Graph was in charge of sacrifices, so there was no problem,” Akira responded coolly.

“Ha-ha-ha! …Well, it’s true there really aren’t too many people as sour as Graph.”

Watching Kuroyukihime laugh with delight, Haruyuki reflected on the powerful warmth he felt.

Although some pressing circumstances had apparently pushed Nega Nebulus with their backs to the wall, now that Akira/Aqua Current was back, three of the Four Elements who had made up the senior executives of Nega Nebulus had returned. Of course, Current’s so-called real body was still sealed on the altar of the God Seiryu at the east gate of the Castle in the Unlimited Neutral Field, but he had a feeling that the day when all four of them were completely restored, including Graphite Edge—who he still only knew by name—was definitely not far off. And it wasn’t just the Four Elements; the other Burst Linkers who had belonged to the old Legion would also come around one after another at some point.

That was when Kuroyukihime would be able to reclaim what she had lost. Once Nega Nebulus returned to being one of the seven Great Legions in both name and substance, Haruyuki wouldn’t be able to monopolize her the way he did now. It wasn’t that he wasn’t sad about that, but the fact that he was her sole child wouldn’t change. Plus, more than anything, it was still true that, in order to reach level ten—the objective of Kuroyukihime, and of Haruyuki himself—beefing up the Legion was a must.

He considered all of this as he bit into a plum rice cake, and Kuroyukihime abruptly reached out to stroke his scalp. “Hasty as always, hmm?”

He glanced at her kind smile, which looked as though she had been reading his thoughts, and shook his head quickly from side to side. “Uh— N-no, I wasn’t sad or anything. Not at all.”

“Well, you say that, and you’re basically confessing. Believe me. You and Takumu and Chiyuri are just as precious—if not more precious to me—than my old comrades. No matter how big the Legion might get, the you inside of me could never get smaller.”

“O-okay…” Haruyuki desperately pushed back the teary feeling welling up inside him.

“It’s okay to cry when you want to cry,” Akira said from his right, smiling. “If water isn’t always flowing, it gets stagnant.”

The Haruyuki from a little while before might have let his tears fall, unable to stop them here, but he resisted and responded, “Um…I’ll save them up until you formally rejoin the Legion, Akira.”

“You will? Then you should remember what you said to me immediately before I sealed your memory.”

“Uh, um…What did I say again…?” Even as he gave voice to this, the scene from the time was replaying in the back of his mind, as though Akira’s words had pumped it up. After Haruyuki had agreed to the direct duel with far too little in the way of wariness, Aqua Current had told him, “I’ll take all the points you have now as payment.” And to this, the words Haruyuki had said in reply…

“…I won’t fight you. I like you, and—”

Kree, kree. A fierce pressure assaulted his head, interrupting him. The source was Kuroyukihime’s five slender fingers still resting on his head. Even as she displayed a power on par with a duel avatar specializing in hold techniques, the smile on her lips did not disappear. Of course, this was her special attack: Ultimate Cool Kuroyukihime Smile.

“…I didn’t quite hear you. What did you say the reason you didn’t fight Curren was?”

“Uh, um…That, it’s…l-like…um, very ladylike?—no, not that. Oh, I got it. What I meant was, in all likelihood, I could never beat you in terms of skills.”

Kuroyukihime refuted Haruyuki’s ever-so-masterful evasion with a cool, “There might be abilities in Brain Burst, but there aren’t any skills.” And then her face relaxed, as though that was the end of that. After finally bopping him lightly, she pulled her hand away from his head and took a rice cake between her own fingers. “But, well, you being like that, it’s probably why Akira appeared like this in the real…”

She tossed the rice cake into her mouth and crunched on it, making a satisfying sound, and then drank down the rest of the tea in her glass. Haruyuki rose up in his seat to refill her glass, and Kuroyukihime checked him with a wave of her hand. She looked at Akira seated across from her with a serious expression and said:

“…I still have a number of things I’d like to ask, but let’s set aside talk of the past for the time being. What’s more important is the present and the future—the reason why you visited Suginami and contacted us today, Akira. Judging from the timing, I believe it’s connected with the ISS kit or the Acceleration Research Society…So?”

Faced with this question, Akira nodded as she touched a fingertip to the bridge of her glasses. “As insightful as ever. The reason is both…Plus one more.”

“Oh? And that is…?”

Haruyuki waited for Akira’s response with the attitude that he’d already had too many surprises to count that day, so nothing he heard at that point would give him a shock. But the words she uttered had a power that easily blew away that resolve.

“…The Armor of Catastrophe.”

“…!!”

Kuroyukihime simply inhaled sharply, but Haruyuki reeled violently and very nearly flipped over the back of the sofa.

He somehow managed to regain his balance and, after taking a deep breath, shouted, “Th-that’s—! Th-the Armor—that curse has been completely purified. It’s supposed to be gone!!”

It had been a mere six days since Haruyuki had returned “The Disaster,” the Enhanced Armament known as the Armor of Catastrophe, to its original form, the Arc Destiny and the sacred sword Star Caster, and then sealed them away forever in a corner of the Unlimited Neutral Field. No matter what this Acceleration Research Society was, they wouldn’t have been able to lay a hand on that place now, and they absolutely must not be allowed to.

To begin with, scant minutes earlier, Aqua Current had said it herself, hadn’t she? That the Armor had been purified and sealed by Silver Crow.

As if to ease the shock Haruyuki had taken, Akira nodded once before continuing. “I don’t think the society will be able to bring back the Armor of Catastrophe itself. But they’re probably not planning recovery. Rather, they’re after rebirth.”

“R-rebirth? You mean…make it again?” Even Kuroyukihime’s voice was colored with fear as she asked this question.

Akira shifted her eyes directly forward and nodded once more. “The Acceleration Research Society was involved in the birth of the Armor of Catastrophe seven years ago…or so I’ve surmised. Is that correct?”

Question answered with a question, Haruyuki exchanged a look with his Legion master before they both nodded. This was extremely confidential information, but there was absolutely no reason to hide it from Aqua Current, a former Element.

“Y-yes…I only have the super-vague proof of a dream I had while I was parasitized by the Armor, but I believe it. The ones who set a trap for Chrome Falcon and Saffron Blossom seven years ago and forced Fron into total point loss with an Unlimited EK were the vice president of the Acceleration Research Society, Black Vise…and senior member Argon Array.”

He felt like Akira’s eyes were shaken for the merest instant when she heard the names of Falcon and Saffron, but the orange light coming in through the windows reflected off the lenses of her glasses and hid her expression.

“They did…” Her voice was quiet, her head hanging slightly. “Then we must assume that it was also the Society’s intent to have the armor handed down over successive generations and so much blood spilled in the Accelerated World.”

“But I’m sure the one who gave the armor to the Fifth Disaster, Cherry Rook, was the Yellow King, Yellow Radio.” Kuroyukihime furrowed her brow. “That banana-head can’t possibility be an ally of the society?”

“I don’t think that’s it.” Akira lifted her face with a wry smile. “Radio loves traps and schemes, but he’s basically a ham who wants to be noticed.”

“A-a ham…” Haruyuki was stunned by this vicious cut of a single stroke, but Kuroyukihime only giggled.

“That’s definitely true. Radio’s not satisfied unless he climbs up onto his own stage. His color’s simply too different from the secret maneuverings of the society. But then, was it Radio’s own intent to obtain the Armor during the subjugation of the Fourth Disaster and use it as a key to entrap Scarlet Rain?”

Haruyuki nodded, pulled in. “And the fact that the armor was transferred from the Fifth, Cherry Rook, to me, the Sixth, was a completely coincidental series of events. No one could have predicted that Niko would come to us in Nega Nebulus for help, or that I would be the one to strike the final blow on the Fifth Disaster. Even the guys in the Society.”

Akira accepted these remarks with neither agreement nor denial and then dropped her voice. “…In other words, I think it’s like this: It doesn’t matter to the Society who transfers the Armor to whom or what kind of tragedy is brought about. What they’re after is the continuation of the cycle of calamity for as long as necessary—the Armor being inherited and strengthened. And then they recover it once it’s sufficiently strong and use it for their final objective…”

“Oh…!” The instant he heard this, Haruyuki had a memory flash to life in the back of his mind. He screwed up his face and tried to replay the scene. “Um…Nearly a week ago in the Unlimited Neutral Field, we split the armor into the two Enhanced Armaments it was made of, but right before that, the society’s vice president, Black Vise, appeared and said something to me. I’m pretty sure it was something about how it was earlier than scheduled, but they were going to have to recover and analyze the Armor. And that, unfortunately, I would have to leave the Accelerated World.” The memory was hazy because he had been very much on the edge in terms of his mental state at the time, but he was sure of the overall idea of it.

Hearing Haruyuki’s—well, Black Vise’s—words, the two girls looked at each other and then nodded, their looks turning serious.

“I knew it.” Akira opened her mouth first. “They have a long-term plan. I think they have some final target for use of the Armor. This is just my supposition, but they were going to take the Armor recovered from Haru, equip it on someone who would be the Seventh, and then complete Chrome Disaster. Or perhaps this is even just one part of a larger plan…”

“The Seventh? That’s quite the number, hmm?” Kuroyukihime said, annoyed, and looked at Haruyuki before softening her mouth and continuing. “So then by purifying and sealing the Armor, the Sixth, Haruyuki, ruined the grand plan the Acceleration Research Society had been working on for seven years—though, when you think about acceleration in the Unlimited Neutral Field, ten times, a hundred times that long. Once again, giga GJ.”

“Are you speaking Ash or Pard now?” Haruyuki replied with a grin, and Kuroyukihime laughed, too, but Akira for some reason stopped moving entirely for a moment. A little later, a faint smile rose up across her lips. Haruyuki was about to ask her if something was the matter, but before he could, she said:

“…The Armor of Catastrophe is gone, thanks to your hard work, Haru. I said this before, too, but the Society doesn’t have the option of bringing the Armor back. But that doesn’t mean they’re the type to quietly give up.”

“Right,” Kuroyukihime murmured. “So then that’s where the ‘rebirth’ you mentioned comes in.”

“Yes.” Akira slowly nodded. “The Acceleration Research Society is trying to repeat now what they did seven years ago…is what I think. They’ll call up an explosive hatred and sadness, pour this negative energy into the Enhanced Armament that will be the vessel, and give it a cursed power. I feel that several of the incidents taking place in the Accelerated World right now strongly hint at this possibility.”

“Hmm…I don’t doubt your analytical abilities, Akira, but it’s not a phenomenon that can be reproduced as simply as that, is it? As I remember it, Chrome Disaster was born from a fusion of several different elements…Isn’t that so, Haruyuki?”

She turned her eyes on Haruyuki, who nodded deeply. “Yes.” Counting off on the fingers of his right hand, he listed the factors that made up the Armor of Catastrophe. “Um…First, the initial Disaster, Chrome Falcon. And his partner, Saffron Blossom. The Legend-class Enemy that brought Saffron to total point loss. The Enhanced Armament, ‘the Destiny,’ which took in Falcon’s sadness and hatred and transformed into the Armor. And I don’t know if this was a requirement or not, but the greatsword Star Caster with Saffron’s heart in it…At the very least, these elements were required to produce the Armor of Catastrophe…”

“And of course, they’re all relatively rare,” Kuroyukihime murmured. “It goes without saying that there are few metal-color avatars, and fewer still if you’re looking for one with a fixed partner. And rarest of all is the Destiny as the vessel…It is, after all, one of the Seven Arcs.”

Haruyuki and Akira were silent for a moment, and then Haruyuki reached out for a rice cake, the mountain of which had dropped by half at some point, and grabbed one before setting it on the edge of the wooden plate. “The Arcs confirmed to exist in the Accelerated World right now are…the alpha, which is the Blue King’s greatsword, ‘The Impulse.’” He put a new rice cake to the side. “And the beta, the staff of the Purple King, ‘The Tempest.’ The Green King’s large shield, ‘The Strife,’ the gamma. And…the epsilon, ‘The Infinity,’ the longsword of Trilead, who we met in the Castle.”

He had lined up four rice cakes by this point. Lifting his head, he looked at each girl in turn. “It’s just these four, isn’t it? The whereabouts of the delta, ‘The Luminary,’ are unknown. And the theta, ‘The Destiny,’ is of course sealed away, while the eta, ‘The Fluctuating Light,’ is in the deepest part of the Castle, where no one can touch it.”

When Haruyuki closed his mouth, Kuroyukihime offered a slight, wry smile and shrugged. “When you list them all like that, it does seem like there are a lot. But it’s true that there are currently four—no, perhaps three—the society might be able to move on. No matter how powerful they might be, they can’t touch Trilead, who lives in the Castle with the epsilon.” She reached out her right hand, picked up one of the rice cakes sitting on the side of the plate, and bit into it with a crunch.

Akira stared for a while at the remaining three, until she finally shrugged, too. “I think the remaining three are equally difficult to interfere with. None of the kings would ever part with their Arc, and the only way to take their Enhanced Armament would be to make the king lose all their points. And even the Acceleration Research Society shouldn’t have that kind of battle power,” Akira said, taking another rice cake.

Haruyuki recovered the remaining two cakes and tossed them into his mouth together, munching on them for a while before speaking. “Um…So just to cover all the bases, there’s no Enhanced Armament in the Accelerated World as powerful as the Seven Arcs, right?”

Akira and Kuroyukihime blinked twice, quickly, and then shook their heads simultaneously.

“I don’t think there are.”

“There shouldn’t be. I mean, to begin with, the Seven Arcs are called that because they have exceptional capacities. You only came up against Grandé’s shield the one time, but you felt the ridiculous defensive power it holds, yes?”

“Y-yeah, that was…”

“Although in his case, well, his body is so hard it almost breaks the rules, too. Mmm, so then that means, conversely, if a Burst Linker born with the majority of their potential given over to an Enhanced Armament were to pour all of their level-up bonuses into increasing the performance of that armament…Hmm, hmm…I wonder how that would go.” Kuroyukihime cocked her head to one side as she pulled on this thread of reason, and one Burst Linker popped into Haruyuki’s mind, whether he liked it or not.

“So, like, if Ash just kept focusing on bringing up his bike, that machine would become an Arc-level Enhanced Armament. Is that it?”

They looked at each other for a moment or two and then erupted in laughter at the same time. Apologies, Ash, but no matter how many missiles and machine guns and rocket launchers are added on as equipment, it’s a little beyond belief that your beloved machine would ever join the ranks of the Seven Arcs.

Thinking about this led his brain to another thought, though, and Haruyuki furrowed his brow. But before his thinking could get anywhere, Kuroyukihime cleared her throat and turned to Akira.

“Mmm…Sorry for the digression. In short, even if the Acceleration Research Society is planning the birth of a second Armor, there isn’t an Arc they could use as a vessel…”

“Yes. I’m in agreement on that.”

“And there are other elements missing. The true nature of the Armor’s strength was built up and cultivated through the long years of generations of wearers until it built up an aggregate of negative Incarnate to the point where it had a pseudospirit. That was the strength of ‘the Beast,’ as Haruyuki put it.”

At this remark from Kuroyukihime, Haruyuki set aside what he was trying to remember and nodded deeply. “Yeah. He was really amazing. He could predict the enemy’s attack from start to finish, even Incarnate techniques, and then he’d display the attack trajectory and type of technique even in my field of view. On top of that, he learned all of the special techniques of the previous Disasters, so I could just use them as much as I wanted. Like the combo of Laser Sword after Flash Blink, seriously the strongest…” Haruyuki rattled on and on, both hands clenched tightly.

For a while, Kuroyukihime simply stared with wide eyes before finally chuckling dryly, as though fondly exasperated. “The way you talk sounds like you are quite firmly in support of the Beast.”

“Oh! N-no, that’s not it…”

“But, well, I understand what you’re trying to say. It was precisely because the Beast was so strong that Chrome Disaster was strong. That’s it, hmm? In other words, even if those kids in the Society succeed in producing an Armor of Catastrophe Mark Two, with parasitic abilities and the power to control the mind, to build up the negative incarnate to that extent and raise it up until it exhibits the same level of performance as the Mark One, it will be years—and actually, we can probably assume it will take even longer when we consider that they can’t use an Arc as a vessel. Are they planning something so long-term at this late stage?” This final question was directed at Akira.

The executive in charge of intelligence in the first Nega Nebulus didn’t answer right away, but rather turned her sepia-brown eyes toward the evening sky beyond the windows. She narrowed her eyes almost as if she could see something there, and after a few seconds, began to speak in a hushed tone. “…The aggregate of negative Incarnate. There is one other thing in the Accelerated World that description applies to. And it continues to grow even now, with every passing second…”

“…!!”

Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime both inhaled sharply, having finally realized what Akira meant. The negative will of hostility and hatred of many Burst Linkers, i.e., something that absorbed and accumulated negative Incarnate. The same growth logic as the Beast that lived in the Armor of Catastrophe, but much more blackly sinister.

“…The ISS kit main body…,” Haruyuki murmured hoarsely.

“Curren, have you…seen it?” Kuroyukihime asked. “The ISS kit main body in the Tokyo Midtown Tower?” But here she pinched her lips closed and then quickly bowed her head. “Sorry. There’s no way you could have seen it. You’re still sealed at the east gate of the Castle in the Unlimited Neutral Field…”

“No need to apologize, Lotus. The attack on the Castle was the will of all members, including the Four Elements. And whatever the result, that night when all of us in the Legion marched toward the Castle together is a precious memory to me, even now,” Akira replied gently. Then her tone returned to normal as she continued, “…I haven’t seen the ISS kit main body myself. A Burst Linker I was guarding a little earlier equipped the kit. That kid sent me information on the kit performance and the structure of the enhancement and amplification. From that, I inferred the fact that the kits have a centralized power structure.”

“…Um, is that person…?” Are they okay? Haruyuki’s eyes asked.

“Not a word in three days.” Akira shook her head slightly. “The mental control of the ISS kit has probably increased beyond the relationship with me.” Her tone and expression were as controlled as ever, but even still, Haruyuki caught a flicker of sadness in the eyes behind the glasses.

It was only natural. For Aqua Current, The One, the sole bodyguard in the Accelerated World, all of the newbies she accepted work from, tag-teamed with, and saved from the danger of total point loss were, in a certain sense, something like her children.

“Three days…If it’s only been three days, then maybe if we use Lime Bell’s special attack…,” Haruyuki said unconsciously. What came to mind, of course, was the Legion Petit Paquet in the Setagaya area. This Legion was made up of Chocolat Puppeteer with her unique chocolate armor, together with her parent and her child, but the latter had been contaminated with the ISS kit.

However, through Chocolat’s desperate cries and Lime Bell’s Citron Call Mode II—an ability to reverse time—they had been able to remove their kits and return them all the way back to the sealed-card form. In principle, it should have been possible to do the same thing for Aqua Current’s client.

Akira stared at Haruyuki for a moment, and then quickly shook her head once more. “Thanks. But the situation can no longer be resolved by dealing with each individual terminal. Putting together all the witness information, the number of kit users is increasing by more than ten people every day. Most likely, once it surpasses a certain number, I think this will become something like a pandemic.”

“…Then the objective of the ISS kit multiplication is to collect massive amounts of negative Incarnate and pour that into the Armor of Catastrophe Mark Two. Is that what you think, Akira…?”

Akira pulled her jaw back slightly at the serious look on Kuroyukihime’s face. “I don’t know if that’s the entire objective. But I do think there’s no doubt this is one way of using it.”

“Mmm. And the reason?”

“The reason is why I appeared today in Suginami…before you and Haru, Sach.”

Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime gasped slightly in tandem at these unexpected words and waited for the rest of the explanation.

“‘A new metal color has appeared in the Accelerated World, unexpectedly strong, despite his parent being unknown and him not belonging to a Legion.’ Ever since I heard that rumor a week or so ago, I’ve been gathering information. I’ve sat in the Gallery myself any number of times, although I’ve been using a dummy avatar for viewing.”

“…Wolfram Cerberus…?”

“Yes.” Akira nodded lightly at Haruyuki’s hoarse question. “He…Everything about him, from the way he appeared, to the extraordinary strength, the fact that he’s a metal color, and even the overall air he has about him…called to mind a Burst Linker who disappeared a very, very long time ago. The Second Chrome Disaster, Magnesium Drake.”

“…!!”

Haruyuki gasped. He had only just heard that name the day before from Kuroyukihime over lunch break. This Burst Linker had appeared at the dawn of the Accelerated World and had become exceedingly popular, but then was suddenly swallowed up by the Armor, became the Second Disaster, and was subjugated after a great deal of blood was spilled.

“…Did you know Drake personally, Curren?” Kuroyukihime asked.

Akira nodded neatly. “We dueled and spoke any number of times. And because my power was water and his fire, we saw each other as rivals. This was before I joined Nega Nebulus, though.”

She lifted her head and looked outside once more before continuing with eyes that seemed to peer into the distant past.

“…I didn’t get to spend very much time with my parent, so there are more than a few things Drake taught me. How to use my own power; duel techniques; mental preparation as a Burst Linker…So I saw us as rivals, but also friends. However, Drake suddenly disappeared one day, and when he came back, he had already become a different person. Wrapped in the Armor of Catastrophe, he took out a lot of Burst Linkers in normal duels, and in the Unlimited Neutral Field, too. He didn’t so much as hesitate when he burned me up with his flames, too, several times more powerful than they had been before.”

“…Curren…” Haruyuki unconsciously called her name.

Akira smiled at him as if to say she was okay. “This was already a long, long time ago. But this past Sunday, when I saw Wolfram Cerberus for the first time, for a moment, I thought he was Drake, although Drake was much bigger and his coloring’s different. But overall, he’s very similar. Not just his appearance, but the air about him, too. His strength: the fact that his origins are unknown. So my conjecture—no, I had a hunch. That the same thing might happen again.”

“The same thing…You mean the appearance of Chrome Disaster?”

“Yes. Of course, I knew that Haru had sealed the Armor away. But…it was like that back then, when Drake became the Disaster. The First had been subjugated, and everyone living in the Accelerated World believed without doubt that the terrifying berserker would never again appear there. And yet…”

“…The Armor appeared, and massive amounts of blood flowed once more…”

Akira nodded deeply at Kuroyukihime’s hushed voice. “This is just a hypothesis, but if Wolfram Cerberus is playing the role of the one to equip the Armor like Drake did, then somewhere in the Accelerated World, there has to be the one trying to produce the armor. With that in mind, I’ve been in the Gallery as much as possible for Cerberus’s duels this week. Unfortunately, however, the timing was bad, and I didn’t get to see his duels yesterday and the day before with you, Haru.”

“Y-you didn’t?” Haruyuki pulled his head back into himself.

His former tag-team partner smiled faintly. “I was set on finally seeing it today, but you didn’t show up. But it seems Cerberus was also waiting for you, and today he didn’t start a single duel himself, and then after a while, he disappeared from the matching list. So I thought maybe he was going to head toward Nega Nebulus territory himself. I couldn’t decide at first, but eventually, I took a train from Nakano to Suginami. I got off at Koenji, connected globally on a bench at the station, and just in case, I turned Battle Royale standby mode on…”

“So then you were pulled into the BR stage Cerberus initiated.”

“Yes. But naturally, I wasn’t going to participate in the duel. I was planning to just watch Cerberus and Haru duel and then go home, as long as nothing happened. But I never dreamed she’d jump into the stage, and then interfere with the duel on top of that…”

“…Quad Eyes Analyst…Argon Array, right?” Haruyuki asked.

Akira assented with an unusually strong nod. “For the sake of my original objective of gathering information, I should have stayed hidden and observed her, but…When I saw her attacking you and Ash Roller with total disregard, I got so angry I could hardly stand it, and I just butted in. I couldn’t even be much help to you for all that.”

“N-no, that’s not true at all!!” Haruyuki shouted forcefully, and he leaned forward toward the girl. “Argon Array’s laser attack had me totally pinned down. I was so frustrated I wanted to cry. I couldn’t even stand up. And then I saw you on the building, and I was so moved. My memory couldn’t have returned yet, but I just felt this strength surge up in me…It’s because you were there, Curren, that I was able to get up and fight again.” The words spilled out of Haruyuki as though from a dream, and a smile gentler than anything he’d seen on her face so far came across Akira’s lips.

“…Silver Crow, you’ve become much, much stronger than I imagined. Seeing the player I guarded grown up into such a fine Burst Linker makes me happier than anything else. The flow of events is unexpected…but I really am glad that I could meet you again like this today…”

The two stared at each other quietly, and Kuroyukihime’s three-point throat clearing passed between them.

“Oh, Haruyuki, I’m really sorry I couldn’t help you when you were in that bind. At any rate, I was in the Gallery! And Akira, it sounds as though your reunion with me was an afterthought?”

Haruyuki naturally flinched and pulled back, but Akira shifted her gaze to Kuroyukihime and giggled, with a look on her face like that of an older sister looking at her spoiled baby sister. “Sach, you haven’t changed a bit from the old days.”

“A-are you saying that I haven’t grown?!”

“I meant it as a compliment, of course. The Legion Master I dedicated my sword to waited for me, without anything changing. There’s no way I wouldn’t be happy about that.” She closed her mouth for a second and recomposed her face, posture, and tone into something crisp and correct. “This is surely also the guidance of the endlessly circulating water. Sach—no, Black King, Black Lotus—I, Aqua Current, from this second on this day, would like to return to Nega Nebulus. Will you allow me to?”

Kuroyukihime blinked several times, clearly caught off guard by the sudden declaration. But soon enough, her jet-black eyes sparkled, and she stood up forcefully from the sofa. She walked around the glass table to stand before Akira and extended her right hand. When Akira took it and stood up, Kuroyukihime stared into the sepia-brown eyes at the same height as her own and murmured, “Of course. Of course I will…Welcome home, Curren.”

“…Glad to be back, Lotus.”

And then the two of them simultaneously took another step forward and wrapped their arms tightly around each other.

Haruyuki didn’t weep and sob like he had two months earlier when Kuroyukihime had embraced Fuko Kurasaki at the Shinjuku Southern Terrace, but he did indeed clearly feel their hearts touching, resonating, and spreading out to fill the room with waves of warm light.

June 27, 2047. Two years and ten months since the destruction of the former Legion. Following in the steps of the wind, Sky Raker, and fire, Ardor Maiden, another of the Four Elements, water, Aqua Current, had made it home to Nega Nebulus.