Accel World - Volume 17 - Chapter 6

6

The sky stayed fixed in the same slightly overcast pattern until after lunch, but by sixth period, the clouds had gradually woken up, and by the time homeroom was over, those clouds were shedding tiny water droplets.

The hourly weather report said it would continue to rain until evening, but for Chiyuri’s sake, Haruyuki prayed it would keep drizzling like this for the time being as he headed for work behind the old school building, given that she was likely on the track prepping for her meet. And naturally, rain or shine, he didn’t get a day off from his Animal Care Club duties.

When he arrived in front of the animal hutch, he said hello to his small coworker on the other side of the chicken wire. “’Sup, Hoo?”

The northern white-faced owl had recently, and finally, started to acknowledge Haruyuki as his caretaker, and he flapped his wings a couple times to return the greeting.

Haruyuki figured he’d better take care of Hoo’s health check while he was sitting on his usual perch, so he tapped on the Animal Care Club icon on his virtual desktop. When he pushed the weight measurement button in the management app, the weight sensors built into the perch connected wirelessly so he could record Hoo’s weight. Compared with when he’d first moved here, he’d come pretty close to his ideal weight.

“Yup, looking good,” Haruyuki commented. “But it’s gonna get hotter out. Make sure you don’t get heatstroke.”

Hoo whirled his head around and complained about his empty stomach. But no one except the “super president,” aka Utai Shinomiya, could feed him.

“Shinomiya will be here soon. Just hang on a bit longer.”

It wasn’t as if the owl could understand Haruyuki, but still, hopes dashed, Hoo lowered his ear feathers and turned away.

What would Metatron say if she saw this guy? His thoughts roaming, Haruyuki opened the door to the hutch and stepped inside, picked up the bathtub and waterproof paper on the ground, and stepped back out. He blasted the dirty paper clean with water and filled the tub—which was properly called a birdbath—with fresh water before returning to the hutch.

He stepped outside once more, and as he brought out a bamboo broom and dustpan with the deck brush of the toolshed in the courtyard, he heard footsteps coming from the direction of the front gate.

“Prez, ’ssssup!” Animal Care Club member Reina Izeki walked toward him, her wavy long hair billowing behind her. She was in her gym clothes that day. Plus, she had a colorful sports towel around her neck.

“’S-sup. You’re all fired up, huh?” Haruyuki remarked.

“I had gym sixth period, so I came from there.” Reina pursed her lips slightly, as if embarrassed. “I don’t care about getting these dirty, so I can clean, no probs. So like, I’ll do the sweeping up.”

“Th-thanks.”

Is this the same Izeki who was all “Seriously?!” and “I don’t even get this!” from the first day in the Animal Care Club?! Inwardly impressed, Haruyuki handed over the broom and dustpan. He took the deck brush himself and scrubbed the dust away from the hutch’s exterior, finishing it off with a spray of water from the hose. He was mostly finished when he heard the light trot of footsteps.

Before he could look up, a request for an ad hoc connection popped up in his field of view. He had no sooner pushed the OK button than letters began to scroll across the chat window.

UI> I’M SORRY I’M LATE!

Approaching at a brisk pace from the front courtyard was Utai Shinomiya, in the white dress that was her school uniform, reddish-brown backpack, large tote bag hanging from one hand. She’d apparently run over from Matsunogi Academy without an umbrella; her bangs were stuck to her forehead, and her uniform had also absorbed a fair bit of water.

“Super Pres, no need to rush like that!” Reina called out in a hurry. “Hoo’s being a good boy; he’s waiting nicely! And like, you’re soaked!” She dropped her broom to run over to Utai. Pulling the younger girl under the eave of the school building, she took the towel from her neck and wrapped it around Utai’s wet head, rubbing it to collect the moisture with a practiced hand.

Utai looked surprised but let Reina have her way, and once she was freed from the older girl’s hands, her left hand flashed UI> THANK YOU VERY MUCH, IZEKI. SOMEHOW

The last part of the chat sentence was erased.

“Somehow what? Go on and say it,” Reina urged her with a smile, and this time, Utai’s fingers moved hesitantly.

UI> SOMEHOW, YOU ARE LIKE A MOTHER.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha!” Reina laughed brightly—perhaps it was the first time she’d been told that—and wiped down Utai’s back. “I’m sorry for treating you like a kid when you’re the super prez. I got a little sister in kindergarten, y’know? So it’s like I just instinctively wanna dry you off when you’re wet?”

Huh. But isn’t that a pretty big age difference?

It wasn’t as though she could actually read Haruyuki’s mind, but Reina shrugged and turned around as she hung the towel around her neck again. “I mean, she’s my kid sister, but we only have the same dad. She’s got toooons of energy; she always runs around naked when she gets out of the bath…Why am I talking about this? Like, Hoo’s belly’s rumbling. Prez, get ready for feeding time!”

“R-roger!”

At this order from his subordinate, Haruyuki ran over to Utai and took the big bag from her. The three moved inside the animal hutch, and he got ready to help Utai put on the falconry glove that was more like a leather gauntlet. Meanwhile, Reina took the cooler out of the bag and opened the lid.

As soon as Utai raised her hand up high, Hoo flew down from the perch like he’d been waiting impatiently for this very moment and did a circle around the inside of the hutch before settling on Utai’s wrist. Utai took a slice of dark-red meat from the container Reina was holding and gave it to Hoo. The white-faced owl caught the meat in his pointed beak and lifted his face up to swallow it with relish.

The feeding was a repeat of essentially every one of the twenty days since they’d taken Hoo in, but even now, when he watched Hoo eating, all kinds of thoughts popped up in his mind. Something about being alive, about being made to live, that he couldn’t really put into words welled up from the bottom of his heart.

Abruptly, his lunchtime conversation with Mayu Ikuzawa came back to life in his memory: “…Rather than regretting something I didn’t do…it’d be better to lose and be disappointed.”

He thought Ikuzawa’s way of thinking was pretty great, but to be honest, even the thought of running for student council made him hyperventilate. Although he’d gotten carried away at lunch and basically agreed to do it, he had absolutely no interest in campaign speeches or public debates or any of that.

To begin with, he couldn’t help but feel that he was not qualified to run given how freaked out he was by the very idea of it. The student council was for people who were passionate about trying to make the lives of all the students better. And no matter how deeply he dug into his heart, he couldn’t find an inkling of desire for such a lofty mission. He’d always had more than he could handle with his own self, and that probably wouldn’t change going forward…

Utai was about to take the final piece of meat out of the container, but her hand froze in place. Cocking her head to the side, she tapped at her holo keyboard with one hand. UI> ARITA, WOULD YOU LIKE TO GIVE HOO DINNER?

“Wh-whaaat?! But I thought Hoo wouldn’t eat unless it came from your hand, Shinomiya?”

UI> THAT’S HOW IT’S BEEN SO FAR, BUT I HAVE A FEELING THAT IT WILL BE OKAY.

“Y-you have a feeling…?”

UI> MY HUNCHES ARE ALWAYS RIGHT!

Even as they were talking, Hoo was clacking his beak as if to say, “Hurry up and give it to me.” Reina could also see Utai’s chat window and jabbed Haruyuki in the side.

“Go on and try! If you’re not gonna, I’ll do it.”

“G-got it,” he replied in a small voice, and firming his resolve, he took the piece of meat. It was more elastic than he’d expected, and he ever so timidly offered it to Hoo on Utai’s wrist.

The owl first bobbed his head and looked at Haruyuki. Then he looked at the piece of meat, brought his face in closer, pulled it back, and came in again. And then, almost anticlimatically, he grabbed hold of the meat in Haruyuki’s hand and swallowed it.

“Ah…He ate it…”

UI> HOO SAYS IT’S DELICIOUS! Utai smiled as she raised her hand up high, and Hoo lightly lifted off. After taking three turns around the hutch, he returned to his perch. The three looked up at him, smiling; the instant his stomach was full, Hoo immediately switched to nap mode.

On the owl’s left leg, there was a clearly defined scar from when his former owner had violently dug out the individual identification microchip embedded there and then abandoned Hoo. Bleeding to death, he had flown to Matsunogi Academy, where Utai had taken him into her care after finding him lying on the ground.

Since then, Hoo had been fiercely on guard against anyone who wasn’t Utai, but today, for the first time, he had eaten food from Haruyuki’s hand. That said, Haruyuki doubted that Hoo now trusted him implicitly. But it was true that he was gradually changing. Hoo and Haruyuki and probably Reina, too. And maybe even Utai.

Would he be able to change even more? Enough so he could speak his own thoughts in front of a large group of people?

If Metatron were here, she’d probably yell something like “Why do you quail in the face of something so insignificant?!”

Haruyuki looked up at the dozing bird, this thought wandering through his mind.

“’Kay, see ya tomorroooow!” Reina Izeki waved after changing back into her uniform and heading back to the classroom. Now alone, Utai and Haruyuki both exchanged a glance.

Utai stared firmly at Haruyuki, her large eyes shining, a hint of scarlet running through the irises, and inclined her head slightly as if to encourage him. Apparently, she’d seen right through to the troubles in his heart.

“Um. Do you have a minute, Shinomiya?”

UI> OF COURSE.

The response scrolled through the window immediately, so Haruyuki glanced up at the sky. The rain was still a drizzle, and it didn’t look like the weather would get any worse for the time being.

“How about we sit over there?” He pointed to a bench under a large camphor tree, and Utai nodded with a smile. She pulled a pack of hand wipes from her bag and cleaned a place for each of them before sitting down.

“Oh! Thanks. Sorry.” Haruyuki sat next to her, apologetic.

Utai might have had the biggest heart while being the youngest member of Nega Nebulus, and the chance to talk with her alone was surprisingly precious. They saw each other pretty much every day, taking care of Hoo, but Reina always seemed to want to take care of Utai for some reason—although the reason for that had become clear that day—and often walked part of the way home with them. So they hadn’t really been able to have a private conversation lately.

For a second, he had the thought If only Izeki were a Burst Linker, but then he remembered the glittering Neurolinker decorated with rhinestones and shook his head. And anyway, what he wanted to talk to Utai about had nothing to do with the Accelerated World.

After clearing his throat, he explained the gist of the whole student council thing and asked Utai how to get Ikuzawa to give up on the idea.

The girl, four years his junior, cocked her head adorably before typing rapidly on her holo keyboard. UI> I THINK THERE’S SOMEONE BETTER SUITED TO DISCUSS THIS MATTER.

“Huh? Wh-who?”

UI> PLEASE WAIT A MOMENT. Utai operated her virtual desktop, invisible to Haruyuki, for a while before nodding firmly. UI> WELL THEN, SHALL WE GO DISCUSS IT NOW?

“Huh? G-go where?”

Instead of answering his question, Utai jumped up from the bench and tugged on his sleeve. Haruyuki obediently stood up, and she picked up her bag, shouldered her backpack, said good-bye to Hoo, and then walked in the direction of the main gates.

He chased after her, wondering if they were leaving school grounds, but once they came out into the front courtyard from behind the old school building, Utai turned 180 degrees to the right and headed for the entrance. She changed into the slippers set out for school visitors and proceeded in the opposite direction from the cafeteria through the first floor of the new school building, where a number of students still lingered. Haruyuki looked up at the door Utai finally stopped in front of. The characters on the metal plate hanging there said STUDENT COUNCIL OFFICE.

It’s true that if I’m going to get advice on the student council election, there’s probably no one better than her for it! But I’m still not mentally prepared for that!

By the time Haruyuki had this thought, Utai was knocking loudly on the door.

“You’re late!” the student council vice president snapped, after she sat Haruyuki and Utai down on the sofa set.

“I-I’m sorry. We were at the animal hutch, so we had to go all the way around the old school building to come here…,” Haruyuki hurried to explain.

“That’s not what I meant.” Kuroyukihime pierced him with a below-freezing gaze. “I’m saying you’re late in explaining what was happening in the lounge.”

“Oh! I-is that it…? I’m really sorry…”

Kuroyukihime had indeed told him before the meeting started at lunch to explain everything in detail later, and he had said he would. He’d had class after lunch, and then his club duties, but it was negligence on his part not to have sent mail. On the other hand, the truth was that this was not a matter that could be clarified fully via mail.

“O-okay, so I’ll explain why Ikuzawa invited Takumu and me to lunch.”

Haruyuki cleared his throat and then spent a little over ten minutes once again recounting the tale of Mayu Ikuzawa’s terrifying request.

“I see.” Kuroyukihime crossed her arms and leaned back against the sofa. “So that’s what she wanted.”

“Yes,” he said. “And I wanted to ask you about how to politely refuse.”

“Mm. Well, why don’t you?”

“…Huh? Why don’t I what?”

“Run for council, of course,” she replied. “Go on and do it. Everything is experience.”

He couldn’t respond at first. “Sorry?! You say it like it’s no big deal!!”

“With something like a mere council election, it’s best to think of it as no big deal. It’s not as though you’ll lose your life, after all.”

“Th-that’s true, but it’ll definitely shorten my life!”

Utai listened to the back-and-forth between Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime with a grin. She had apparently anticipated Kuroyukihime’s reaction.

“I’ll put on some tea, so just calm down,” Kuroyukihime said, standing up. “Is decaffeinated coffee good for both of you?”

UI> I’D ASK FOR PLENTY OF MILK, PLEASE.

“I-I’d like that, too, please,” Haruyuki seconded.

Kuroyukihime headed toward the simple kitchen counter in one corner of the student council office. With a surprisingly practiced hand, she returned with three cups, a coffee pot, a sugar bowl, and a milk jug.

“How about this?” she said. “If you’re on the council, you can have all the drinks you want after school.”

“But Secretary Wakamiya, the president, and the treasurer are not here, though…”

“Well, finals are two days away,” she noted. “On a normal weekday, Megumi is usually sitting there, elegantly reading a book. The president and treasurer are busy and don’t often come to the office, though.”

“Uh…uh-huh. Anyway, thanks…” For the café au lait Kuroyukihime poured for him—three parts coffee, seven parts milk—he selected a reddish-brown sweetener from the multicolored mix in the sugar bowl and dropped it into his cup. He stirred briefly before taking a sip, and a fragrant nutty flavor permeated his mouth.

To his left, Utai put a milky-white tablet into her cup—one to nine, coffee to milk—and took a sip before tapping at her keyboard. UI> IT’S VANILLA FLAVOR.

“I think mine was almond…”

“I like the cinnamon one,” Kuroyukihime remarked as she brought her eight-to-two adult-flavored coffee to her lips and then returned to the topic at hand. “Haruyuki. You seem to have forgotten, but a mere month ago, you were talking with me about the student council election.”

“Huh? W-was I?” He did a high-speed search through the file of his every conversation with Kuroyukihime, which he had archived in his mind. He got a hit in about three seconds. The place was the VR space on the Arita local net, and the time was two days before the Hermes’ Cord race.

Kuroyukihime had suggested he run for the next student council, and Haruyuki had replied, “N-n-n-n-n-no way, no way!” The conversation promptly transitioned to an explanation of low-earth orbit space elevators, and the problematic bits had fallen from the surface of his memories. Because he could only assume she had been joking.

“I remember, but Kuroyukihime, you can’t…You couldn’t possibly have been serious?”

“Of course I was serious. About as serious as the percentage of milk in your café au lait.”

Which meant that she was 70 percent serious? Terrifying. Nervously, he asked for her true opinion again. “B-but…setting aside the question of whether I could get elected, um, why me? I don’t think I’d be a proper fit for president or vice president or secretary or treasurer.”

Mayu Ikuzawa had indeed referenced his work in the Animal Care Club and on the class exhibit for the school festival when she said that Haruyuki was suited to run for office. But when push came to shove, he’d been selected for the Animal Care Club because his usual scatterbrained powers had been on full display, and the level of technical expertise required for the class exhibit hadn’t been as high as all that. He could not understand why Kuroyukihime and Ikuzawa were suggesting he run, no matter how he tried.

His head hung low, and Kuroyukihime smiled gently across from him, while her mouth said something that was nearly the total opposite of the kindness playing on her lips.

“Whether you’re fit for office is a secondary matter. The reason I suggested running was of course because of the various advantages as a Burst Linker.”

“…Huh?”

“I’ve said any number of times before that that’s the reason I ran for vice president to begin with, yes? If you’re on the student council, you have greatly expanded access privileges on the in-school local net. You can reference the register with every student in the school, and it’s even possible to open a secret, external access gate like I’ve done. Also, you can use the council office as the operation room for the Legion. But, well, I would recommend staying away from the presidency, at least. What with the specialized committees and club activities and negotiations with school administration and what have you, the current president, Kamioka, seems quite swamped.”

“Um, so the vice president doesn’t have to do those kinds of things?”

“When I consented to Kamioka’s request to join the candidate team, I had him make it so that the main part of my job would be behind-the-scenes office work and processing. Incidentally, as secretary, Megumi puts together all the notices and publicity, and Nishi’s job as treasurer is actually to support the president in all aspects. I do the accounting.”

“Y-you do?” Haruyuki asked. “So then, could I make my real role be cleaning and shopping and making tea and things?”

“If you request that right off the bat, Ikuzawa or whatever her name is might very well lose faith in you.” With a wry smile, Kuroyukihime returned her cup to its saucer with a clink. “But on that point, it’s fortunate for you that Ikuzawa wants to be president. If you look elsewhere for a vice president, who is generally as busy as the president, then Takumu can run as treasurer and you as secretary. So for another year at any rate, we can relax in the defense of Umesato as the base for Nega Nebulus.”

“Wh-why am I secretary?”

“Well, you like books, don’t you?” she asked. “In this day and age, there aren’t too many students with bookshelves in their bedrooms and paper books lined up on them, you know. Well, though, in your case, you also have the retro games there…”

“My father left those books behind. But yeah, I guess I don’t hate them…But what does that have to do with the secretary job?”

“When it comes to writing, if you haven’t read a lot of books from childhood, you can’t really write. That’s what Megumi says. And I would also like to read the releases that you would write.”

Haruyuki didn’t have the least bit of confidence that he could write something like that, but he swallowed back the words of denial that tried to reflexively leap out of his mouth like they always did.

The ambition to be better, Ikuzawa’s desire to grow closer to Kuroyukihime as a person. Public spirit, the desire to be useful to the students of Umesato Junior High. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find either inside himself.

That said, however, to defend his headquarters as a Burst Linker…Could that be his motivation in running for council? It was one thing for Kuroyukihime to say that when she so wonderfully fulfilled her duties as vice president, but Haruyuki had no talents whatsoever. If he was to run on this basis, wouldn’t he be lying to Mayu Ikuzawa and the entire student body? Haruyuki bit his lip, and a small hand gently touched his arm.

With a smile, Utai Shinomiya tapped away, using Haruyuki’s skin as a keyboard. Cherry-colored letters rose up slowly in his field of view.

UI> ARITA, I THINK WHAT’S IMPORTANT IS WHETHER YOU’RE TRYING OR NOT.

“Huh…”

UI> WHATEVER YOUR MOTIVATION, IF YOU DO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE STUDENT COUNCIL, I’M SURE YOU WILL CARRY OUT YOUR DUTIES DILIGENTLY. JUST LIKE WHEN YOU WORKED SO HARD TO CLEAN UP HOO’S HOUSE. AND I THINK THAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.

“…I dunno,” he muttered, taking his eyes away from her smiling face.

He quickly got fed up with anything that was hard or a struggle and ran away. That was the self-assessment of Haruyuki—of the human being known as Haruyuki Arita. If Kuroyukihime hadn’t found him hiding away in the squash-game corner of the local net, those miserable days would still be happening. And the time he cleaned the animal hutch—if Utai had come along a little later, he might have thrown in the towel in the middle of it.

But was Utai saying that was okay, too? Did she mean that just trying to accomplish something was the most important part even without a grand motivation or mission, even if he couldn’t make it all the way to the end?

“Is there any meaning in work without results…? That’s what you’re thinking right now, yes?” Kuroyukihime hit unerringly on the question he was asking in his heart, and Haruyuki lifted his face with a gasp.

The current student council vice president turned her jet-black eyes toward the courtyard beyond the window and continued smoothly, “It’s still drizzling, but right about now, Chiyuri is training hard on the track for her meet. But if she doesn’t win at the meet or if she doesn’t reach her target time, does that make the work she’s doing now meaningless?”

“……!”

That was definitely not the case. The thought bounced in his mind, but unable to voice it, Haruyuki simply clenched his hands.

“Haruyuki, I’ve said a number of things, but I have absolutely no intention of pressing you into running for council. If it’s hard for you to refuse, I can talk to Ikuzawa for you. However…you say that it’s because you don’t have any talents, but is that really the reason?”

“Huh…?” Haruyuki unconsciously opened his eyes wide.

Kuroyukihime gazed directly at him as if to drill a hole into his head. “If it’s that you’re afraid of losing the election and having a miserable experience…I don’t want you to turn tail for a reason like that. Because even if you do lose, I think the experience of forming a team and working hard on the campaign will certainly be very formative for you.”

“…And if a guy like me runs and everyone laughs and makes fun of me…even then?”

“They won’t laugh,” Kuroyukihime declared crisply. “Umesato is not the sort of rotten school where everyone laughs behind the backs of people who are standing up and giving an honest effort. Even if there are one or two misguided souls, well, laugh right back at them.”

“……”

Kuroyukihime’s words echoed strongly in his heart.

She loves Umesato. She said before that she ran for council for the sake of the Legion…But I’m sure that’s not the only reason. I know she really does have a desire to make the school a better place. So what about me? Do I love this school? I came here because my mom decided I would. When I was being bullied, I regretted coming here every single day…But now, maybe…

“Um.” Haruyuki took a deep breath. “I…can’t decide yet. I don’t really know what I want to do, either. But…I’ll think about it. I’ll think seriously about it.”

“Mm. Good.” Smiling, Kuroyukihime nodded slowly. Beside him, Utai also bobbed her head. “The registration period for candidates is after summer break. Talk it over with Takumu, too, and then decide. Still, Ikuzawa also has to solicit candidates, so things won’t move that fast. I said this before: I won’t force you. It’s enough that you think seriously about it before giving your answer.”

UI> IF YOU WANT TO DISCUSS IT AGAIN, YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME! Utai added.

“With me as well, of course!” Kuroyukihime chimed in competitively, and after glaring at each other for a moment, the two girls broke out in bright laughter.

His mouth unconsciously loosened as he watched them, and he murmured deep in his heart, Of course I like this school. I mean, I got to meet Kuroyukihime and Shinomiya.

“Okay, I’ll take you up on that. I’ll discuss it with Taku, too. I’d like to decide during this term—no, during the next week.”

Kuroyukihime flashed him a grin. “Then once you make it through the finals with good grades, you’ll have a little less to worry about, hmm? And I’m not opposed to joining you in another study camp, you know.”

“N-no, you’ve already shown me plenty!” he protested.

“Mm, really? Then I suppose you don’t need this, either?” Shrugging, Kuroyukihime twirled a compressed file icon around on the tip of her finger.

“…What is it?”

“A list of predicted questions for all the subjects I took when I was in eighth grade, based on the past ten years’ worth of test problems. Incidentally, if you get every question correct, you get a bonus of two hundred butterfly points.”

“T-two hundred?!” He gasped.

Butterfly points were a strange system in which a point was added to your total when you caught one of the small butterflies who appeared in the app Kuroyukihime made; supposedly, something happened when you collected a thousand. He was doing his best, but he’d just barely, finally managed to get three hundred points. But if he could get two hundred points here, he’d jump up the cliff to five hundred all in one go.

“I-I’ll do it! Please! Please let me have that!”

“Well, challenge yourself then.” Kuroyukihime flicked her finger and sent the file through an ad hoc connection. Haruyuki chuckled as he pressed the button to accept it.

Utai pursed her lips unhappily. UI> SACCHI, DON’T YOU HAVE A PROBLEM SHEET FOR FOURTH GRADE? I’VE ONLY COLLECTED FIVE HUNDRED POINTS, SO C WILL OVERTAKE ME.

“Mm. T-true. I’ll make something for summer break.”

UI> YES! I MEAN, THANK YOU! After clapping her hands together, Utai cocked her head slightly and tapped hesitantly at her keyboard. UI> ALTHOUGH NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT, THAT JUST MEANS I WILL HAVE MORE HOMEWORK OVER SUMMER HOLIDAYS…

Now it was Kuroyukihime and Haruyuki’s turn to laugh out loud.