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Accel World - Volume 18 - Chapter 1




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1

A jet-black star falling from the bloodred sky:

The duel avatar plunged straight down from the roof of Shibuya Ravine Tower, a magnificent 230 meters aboveground.

Cloaked in a super-dense aura, the slender silhouette seemed many times larger than it actually was. Haruyuki found himself thinking that this overwhelming presence was on par even with that of the indomitable Green King and his cross-shaped great shield Strife, one of the Seven Arcs.

If the avatar crashed into the ground like this from that height, he would be killed instantly. The other duelists near the epicenter would also be unable to escape the impact unscathed.

But the starters for this duel/meeting were Iron Pound, the third seat of the Six Armors—the Green Legion’s executive branch—and Viridian Decurion, likewise Great Wall’s second seat. Which meant that the black avatar plummeting toward them had to be a member of the Gallery, like Haruyuki and his comrades, so he couldn’t die no matter what height he fell from, and no harm would come to the surrounding avatars.

Nevertheless, the thirteen people gathered in the Twilight stage cried out in surprise together—although Haruyuki actually screamed—and leapt back from the impact zone. The only ones who did not so much as flinch were Green Grandé and the Black King, Black Lotus.

Bearing two longswords crossed on his back and overcoat armor spread out, the black avatar continued his dramatic descent, arms tightly crossed in front of his chest, face mask raised triumphantly. He shot toward the marble floor of the Ravine Square rooftop plaza, and just when it seemed he would plunge into it face-first, the avatar abruptly spun around to face forward. Like an acrobat, he flipped forward at dizzying speed, arms still crossed, and in the last moment, he thrust his hands out and bent his knees.

Boom! The sound effect was rather intense for the fall of a Gallery member.

Once the dust settled, Haruyuki saw that the black dual swordsman avatar had managed a perfect landing a mere two meters in front of Black Lotus.

Actually…although the avatar’s timing and physical control were impeccable, Haruyuki wasn’t entirely sure that his touchdown had been perfect. Because the dual swordsman had landed not on his feet, but rather with hands and knees on the ground, head bowed deeply. There was only one way to describe it—he was prostrate. He had landed in an apologetic bowing position from a height of 230 meters after fifteen somersaults.

“Sorry, Lota!” the avatar cried, his voice strong and resolute, his forehead practically scraping the floor.

“………”

Each of them gathered there was speechless for their own individual reasons.

Haruyuki—and probably Takumu and Chiyuri—was simply baffled at the incomprehensible development, but Fuko, Akira, and the other Nega Nebulus veterans slumped their shoulders, while Pound and the Great Wall executive shook their heads in exasperation.

The Black King moved her shoulders up and down several times as if struggling with her choice of words before speaking, her voice just slightly chilled. “How many times have I told you to stop calling me ‘Lota’…Graph.”

Graph. This was apparently the name of the swordsman. Haruyuki felt like he’d heard it somewhere before, and after quick rumination, he finally remembered where. Akira, Fuko, Utai, and Kuroyukihime had all mentioned it any number of times. A nickname taken from the first part of the avatar’s full name: Graphite Edge. The final member of the Nega Nebulus executive Four Elements.

“Wh-wh-what…?” Haruyuki gasped, taking a half step back.

Like Akira and Utai, Graphite Edge had fallen into an Unlimited Enemy Kill at the north gate, which was guarded by the God Genbu, in the mission to attack the Castle three years earlier, and he was supposedly still sealed away there. While it was impossible to dive regularly into the Unlimited Neutral Field once you were stuck in Unlimited EK, you were, however, free to come and go in normal duel fields, including this meeting space. That said, Haruyuki had thought the whereabouts of Graphite Edge were unknown—so what was he doing here?

The endless questions began clamoring for space in his mind. As he stood there, consumed by confusion and shock, Utai slid over to him.

“C, it seems you understand who this is, yes?”

“Y-yes. It’s the Element Graphite Edge…right? But why…?” He tried to express any one of the vortex of questions coalescing in his brain, but Utai got the jump on him and shook her head briskly.

“If you are surprised or panicked each and every time Graph does something, there’ll be no end to it. The trick is to simply think of him as that sort of person and accept it.”

“R-right…”

This should have been an emotional reunion with an old comrade for Utai, but Haruyuki didn’t get the slightest hint of that in her him and that, causing further gaping from him. Opposite Utai, Fuko and Akira also bobbed their heads.

Kuroyukihime was similarly not unperturbed. She heaved an enormous sigh before addressing the still-prostrate avatar once more. “And what exactly are you sorry for? You grovel before me and apologize at our first meeting in three years, and I’m supposed to know why?”

“Nah.” The double swordsman lifted his head slightly. “Well, aah, what can I say? Truth is, I’m sorta staying somewhere other than Negabu right now.”

“Oh?”

“And I kinda got this title.”

“Oh?”

“So basically, okay, well…Ah…” This half-baked meandering finally evoked anger not in the black camp, but in the green’s Viridian Decurion.

“Would you behave yourself and stop with that embarrassing posture already?!” the gladiator in the deep-green armor and helmet yelled, stomping on the ground. “Whatever the circumstances, you are here as our representative! Stand tall, chest out, and name yourself!”

…Our representative? What exactly does that mean? Haruyuki cocked his head once more.

“I see,” Takumu, beside him, murmured hoarsely. “Is that it, then?”

Is that what, then? But Haruyuki didn’t need to ask.

Graph hung his head in resignation after this public scolding and did a sudden handstand from his prostrate position on the way to flipping his body back to standing.

Although they were both black, while Black Lotus’s semitransparent armor glittered like smoky quartz, Haruyuki noticed that Graphite Edge had semimatte armor with a soft texture as he turned the masculine design of his face mask toward the seven members of the black camp and introduced himself.

“’Kay, I’ve never met some o’ you, so I guess I’ll do the intro thing. I’m Graphite Edge. Used to be one of Nega Nebulus’s Four Elements…and now, I’m what ya call the first seat of Great Wall’s Six Armors. Lota, Rekka, Careent, Denden, been a while. You three new faces, nice to meetcha.”

Utai groaned slightly at the casual greeting—most likely because he had called her the cutesy nickname Denden, but Haruyuki didn’t have enough parking spots in his mental garage for that sort of thing right now.

The first seat of the Six Armors. So then, that meant he was above Viridian, the number-two spot in the Green Legion.

It wasn’t just the members of Nega Nebulus who were surprised. Everyone other than Grandé and Decurion on the Great Wall side all reeled in unison and cried out.

“The first seat is…ex-Negabu?!” from Iron Pound.

“The…Anomaly…,” whispered Lignum Vitae.

“You beat Veri and got a draw with the boss?!” Suntan Chafer gasped.

“I’m gonna kick that guy in the nuts!!” shouted Ash Roller.

Haruyuki finally remembered what Pound had said a few minutes earlier, that only the Green King and Decurion had ever met the first seat. The other Legion members didn’t even know his name, much less what he looked like.

“Anomaly, huh?” Graphite Edge did a one-eighty to face the members of Great Wall and scratched the side of his helmet. “Haven’t heard that name in a while. I guess none o’ya but G and Veri knew ’bout me, but—well anyway. I’m Graphite Edge. I’ve been the first seat for two years and eleven months now. Nice to meetcha.”

Pound and the others were frozen, seemingly at a loss for how to respond to the sudden appearance of the Legion’s number two, but finally, they managed brief greetings.

“…Hey.”

“’Sup.”

Haruyuki watched over this, growing increasingly baffled, as Utai murmured from beside him, “Two years…and eleven months…”

He immediately flipped back through the calendar pages in his mind. It was July 2047 now, so two years and eleven months ago would have been August 2044. The month in which Kuroyukihime took the head of the first Red King, Red Rider. And in which the first Nega Nebulus was destroyed due to the colossal failure of their Castle attack.

In other words, Graphite Edge had transferred to Great Wall right after the annihilation of the Legion. That switchover was way too fast.

“So.” The black swordsman shrugged lightly, as though he didn’t feel the least bit of pressure from the eyes of some dozen people focused solely on him. “Jumpin’ in like this, I’m eating up our time. Twenty minutes left? We gotta get moving, or this’ll go nowhere…So, like, it’s up to you, Lota.”

“…If you’re just going to dump everything in my hands, then why did you even come…?” Kuroyukihime no doubt had many, many other things she wanted to say to him, but she pushed them back with a brief sigh and took a step forward. “But, well, it’s true that we don’t have time for that. A surprising face has joined you, Great Wall, but both sides do now have seven members, so let’s begin.”

She walked over to one of the two benches facing each other in the center of the plaza. Green Grandé also moved silently, cross-shaped shield on his back, and the two kings sat down firmly in the middle of their respective benches. Fuko, Utai, and Akira sat down to the right of Kuroyukihime, so Haruyuki hurriedly set himself down to her left. This put him directly across from Graphite Edge, and Haruyuki quickly lowered his face.

The only male Burst Linker in Nega Nebulus’s Four Elements. A warrior so powerful, he had managed a draw in a one-on-one fight with the Green King and even challenged the Sun God Inti, a Legend-class Enemy feared by all. He was a genuine high ranker, his color name “graphite” infinitesimally close to pure black.

Unable to understand how to process his arrival, Haruyuki snuck a glance at the dual swordsman. Graph’s sharp goggles hid his eye lenses, just like Silver Crow’s mirrored goggles hid his own, and he could get no sense of the avatar’s inner workings.

Friend? Foe? Was he planning something? Or not?

If he called Metatron and got her to “look” at Graph, he could learn all kinds of things, but if the Great Wall side took notice of the icon and demanded an explanation, they could use up all the remaining time talking about her and still not be done with the conversation. All that Haruyuki could do at the moment was watch and take careful notes on his own.

Once everyone had found a seat on the benches, Kuroyukihime began to speak again.

“First, I would like to express my gratitude once more to all of you in Great Wall for accepting our request. I started to say this before, as well, but our purpose today is to discuss measures for the Acceleration Research Society. At the meeting of the Seven Kings last week, the destruction of the ISS kit main body and the inactivation of all the kit terminals were confirmed, but we do not believe this is the end of the Society’s activity. They will no doubt use the negative Incarnate energy transferred from the kit main body to bring about destruction and chaos in the Accelerated World on an even greater scale. I wish to prevent that before it happens.”

Her words held a quiet yet resolute will, and not only the black side, but the green as well—excluding Graph and Grandé—sat up straighter.

Iron Pound raised the iron glove of his right hand. “That there’s exactly why we were waiting for months on end for the chance to knock that damned Metatron out of the sky. To get rid of the Midtown Tower guard, so we could destroy the ISS kit main body inside.”

I’m so glad I didn’t summon Metatron! Haruyuki threw up a silent prayer of gratitude.

“If those Society jerks are planning some big thing,” Pound continued, “we won’t hesitate to crush it. But, Black King, seems like you sussed out the deets of what they’re gonna do next. How? And why’re you coming to us with this instead of the Red Legion Promi? They’re Negabu allies.”

These were only natural questions. At the last meeting of the Seven Kings, Haruyuki and his comrades had reported basically none of the things they’d seen and done at the Acceleration Research Society headquarters. The only thing they’d been able to disclose to the other kings was that an enormous amount of Incarnate energy had been transferred from the kit main body. They’d been forced to keep secret the fact that the vessel that accepted that energy was Wolfram Cerberus, the Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II, produced from the Red King’s stolen Enhanced Armament, as well as the specific location of the headquarters themselves.

If it became public knowledge that the Red King was missing one part of Invincible, they ran the risk of the Yellow King getting up to no good again. And revealing the location of the headquarters was the same as announcing that one of the Seven Kings’ Legions was a front for the Society without any proof at all.

That situation had not changed since the meeting of the Seven Kings. Haruyuki held his breath and wondered how on earth Kuroyukihime would respond.

“Fisty— No, Pound,” Fuko began, “the answer to your question is simple. But unfortunately, there is no proof that this answer is correct outside of our experience and your faith in us. In other words, if you hear it, you will have to make a choice. Will you believe us and work with us on all fronts? Or will you not and cut off all ties?”

“…Those are pretty extreme choices,” Decurion said in a low voice from where he sat beside the Green King. “There’s not an option for partial trust and cooperation with limits?”

“There is not,” Fuko replied immediately. “And when you hear what we have to say, you’ll understand why.”

“……”

Decurion fell silent and narrowed his eyes, while Pound crossed his arms, as if also deep in thought. The Legion’s number two and the first seat of the Six Armors, Graph, didn’t so much as twitch, and Lignum and Suntan remained quiet.

When the time remaining displayed in the upper part of his field of view was down to nine hundred seconds, Haruyuki heard a kawhunk!

Ash Roller, at the end of the bench, had dropped the heel of his sturdy riding boot down on the marble tile. “This is getting seriously giga-annoying, yo. We’re all here now. If Negabu says squat, we’ll never get started. If GW don’t listen, we’ll all just get bone-broke tired, yeah? Being all undecided like this’s a waste of time.”

“And I’m extra-annoyed that ‘waste of time’ was the only part of what you just said that could be considered human speech, Ash,” Fuko remarked coolly, and the fin de siècle rider slid both his feet together and snapped up straight in his seat.

Grinning wryly, Decurion shot a glance at his Legion Master and nodded as though reading something in the profile of the ever-silent Green King. “Fine. I don’t know what kind of bomb it is, but it’s true that this will go nowhere unless we hear it. Much ado about nothing…So what’s this ‘answer’?”

“I’ll tell you, then,” Kuroyukihime responded, almost inaudibly, turning her gaze in the direction of the twilight sky over Minato Ward. “We already determined the destination of the Incarnate energy transferred from the top floor of Midtown Tower.”

“Then why didn’t you report that at the meeting of the Seven Kings?!” Iron Pound demanded, and the Black King didn’t immediately respond.

Instead, she brought her gaze back down to glance at her left—at Haruyuki and his comrades. “This is not from my own personal experience, but rather that of Silver Crow, Cyan Pile, and Lime Bell. They went after the members of the Acceleration Research Society who fled Midtown Tower and succeeded in penetrating their headquarters. At essentially the same time, myself, Sky Raker, Aqua Current, and Ardor Maiden destroyed the ISS kit main body and witnessed the transfer of the Incarnate energy. This energy poured down in the very spot where Crow and the others were fighting…There, it corrupted an existing Enhanced Armament and produced a most evil monster.”

“A monster?” Suntan Chafer parroted.

Kuroyukihime nodded. “What name should I give that monster…? Please tell us again, Silver Crow.”


“R-right.” Suddenly called by name, Haruyuki nodded nervously. “It’s…the new Armor. The…Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II.”

“What…”

“…the…?”

Decurion and Pound groaned different syllables. Lignum and Chafer clasped their hands together in front of their chests simultaneously, and even Graph moved his face mask a tiny bit.

“O-oh, but…I know we’re talking about those Society jerks, but can they really make something like that just because they decided to?!” Pound cried. “The original Armor possessed however many Burst Linkers over any number of years and ended up with some serious specs because of that!! How could they simply…?”

“I don’t think it was simple.” Haruyuki caught Pound’s gray eye lenses firmly. “The Society barged into the Hermes’ Cord race and showed off the power of the Incarnate System to the spectators. Next, they infected dozens of Burst Linkers with the ISS kits and poured their negative Incarnate into the kit main body. That was all to create a new Armor of Catastrophe. The Mark II they produced as a result goes far beyond the original in terms of sheer power alone. I know…I was the last Chrome Disaster.”

“……”

Pound had once fought the Disasterfied Haruyuki and been broken. He fell silent now, his right hand over the place in his chest Haruyuki had smashed through then.

Shifting his gaze from Iron Pound to look at each of the green executives in turn, Haruyuki continued. “The newly born Mark II just lashed out like an Enemy. I couldn’t sense anything like intelligence. Even so, we couldn’t touch it…But we had some serious help, so we managed to check its movements, at least.”

It hadn’t only been Haruyuki, Takumu, and Chiyuri on that battlefield; Niko, Pard, and the Archangel Metatron had been right by their sides. And if Metatron hadn’t gone so far as to drain her own life force to protect him, Haruyuki would have taken a direct hit from Mark II’s nihilistic laser and been evaporated. But he couldn’t let their names slip yet. Offering a silent thanks in his heart once again, he brought his story to a close.

“But when we tried to revert it to the original Enhanced Armament, the Burst Linker that was the vessel had his global connection cut from the outside. Mark II is still in the hands of the Society. I don’t know what they’re planning to use it for, but the Mark II’s probably not their end goal, but a means to it. The Society’s leader said so. That for her, it was ‘hope.’” Having managed to fulfill his role, Haruyuki finished his speech with a small sigh.

“Hold on.” Decurion quickly raised a hand. “The Acceleration Research Society leader…Her? Silver Crow, you encountered their boss?”

“It wasn’t just Crow. She appeared before all the members of Nega Nebulus.” Kuroyukihime’s voice was hard and cold. The Black King thrust the sword tip of one leg into the marble with a clang, as if to say that this was the turning point for the meeting. She looked carefully at the seven members of Great Wall with her bluish-purple eye lenses.

“The Acceleration Research Society’s headquarters are located in a school in Minato Ward Area Three. And their leader is the White King, White Cosmos…The Acceleration Research Society is an organization within the White Legion, Oscillatory Universe.”

This time, even the Green King reacted, albeit barely. His thick armor creaked, and his emerald-like square eye lenses blinked slowly.

The first to break the sudden and fearful silence was Lignum Vitae, who had spoken the least of all the members of the green camp at the meeting. Patterned after a tree, the F-type avatar pulled her slender body up straight as she murmured, “And this name…You say you have no proof?”

“We don’t. If we had any evidence, I would’ve hit Ivory Tower at the meeting of the Seven Kings last week,” Kuroyukihime replied evenly, crossing her sharp arms and staring at Grandé before her.

“We don’t have proof, but after fighting the Acceleration Research Society any number of times, we don’t need any. Nega Nebulus will attack Oscillatory Universe before the Society brings about a new catastrophe. Specifically, in the Territories, we will take down Minato Area Three, where their headquarters are, and make the other kings confirm the names of Society members that appear on the matching list. If we do that, then the conditions for launching a general attack decided on at the meeting by the Seven Legions—no, Six Legions—will be more than amply fulfilled.”

Taking in this decisive declaration of the Black King’s will, the Green King blinked his eye lenses once. He nodded, thick armor creaking, and broke his long silence. “If those conditions are fulfilled, then we have no objections personally to attacking white. However…”

Grandé switched back to silent mode, and in his place, his apparent spokesman, Iron Pound, announced, “However, Black King, you say you’re going to challenge Oscillatory in the Territories, but you can’t actually do that right now? Your Suginami and white’s Minato aren’t adjacent.”

“That’s exactly right. Thus, the reason I petitioned for this meeting today.” Nodding, Kuroyukihime let the second bomb drop in a smooth, silky voice.

“In order to attack the White Legion, Nega Nebulus requests the return of Shibuya Areas One and Two, currently territory held by Great Wall. I’d like to discuss the amount of compensation points another day.”

Whaaaaa—?! Haruyuki just barely swallowed the scream that had been trying to claw its way out.

Takumu and Chiyuri, at his left, had both frozen. Fuko and the others on Kuroyukihime’s right, perhaps having heard something about this beforehand or perhaps because they’d expected it, showed no signs of surprise, but the severity of their auras increased.

Kuroyukihime hadn’t said “transfer,” but rather “return.” He remembered hearing somewhere before that the headquarters of the first Nega Nebulus hadn’t been in Suginami, but Shibuya. Kuroyukihime moved to Suginami when she started at Umesato Junior High. Before that, she had lived with the White King at their family home in Minato, so it wasn’t unnatural that her initial base was in the adjacent Shibuya.

But up until that point, Haruyuki had thought that Great Wall, with their headquarters in Meguro and Shinagawa to the south, had taken Shibuya of their own will once it became empty after the annihilation of the first Nega Nebulus. But based on the fact that Kuroyukihime had used the word return, did that mean there had been some kind of negotiation, a contract?

The conversation between the black and green kings from a week earlier returned to life in the back of his mind. Once the meeting of the Seven Kings was over, Kuroyukihime had asked Grandé in parting, “Grandé. Do you remember our conversation two years and eleven months ago?” The Green King had responded with just “Of course.” Kuroyukihime had then continued, “You do? Then…the time to choose will come soon.”

And it was two years and eleven months ago, August 2044, when everything had begun and ended. The black and green kings must have had some kind of negotiation regarding the transfer of control rights for the Shibuya area. So then, what exactly was “the time to choose”?

Haruyuki had been holding his breath, watching over the scene, but now he heard a familiar, distinctive voice.

“Wait…Wait, wait, wait—just hang on un momento!” Ash Roller groaned, his butt hovering above the bench, as clueless as Haruyuki about what was even happening. “R-return Shibuya to Negabu?! No chance in Hell even a middle rank Legion’d do that!”

“Of course, I’m not suggesting you return the territories for free. We will pay the appropriate compensation, Ash,” Fuko—master and parent to the man—explained soothingly.

“B-but, Master…Even still, I mean, territory’s not a thing you can just change in Brain Burst…”

This argument was surprisingly free of Ash speak, and it wasn’t Fuko who checked it, but rather an unexpected interjection from the green camp leader.

“We’ve already received compensation.”

The Green King’s declaration was apparently a surprise to Kuroyukihime as well. “What?” Her eye lenses flashed sharply. “And who did you receive that from, Grandé?”

“Me.” Graphite Edge broke his recent silence.

“Graph, you?” Kuroyukihime asked, indeed sounding surprised. “I did wonder if you joined Great Wall because you offered yourself as a hostage…”

“H-hostage?! What does that mean?!” This time, Haruyuki cried out in panic.

Kuroyukihime glanced at him and pondered her words. “Ten minutes left?” she finally said. “Well, that’ll have to be enough. So then, let’s take a few minutes here to talk a bit about the past. About what happened two years and eleven months ago in the Shibuya area…”

Naturally, Haruyuki, Chiyuri, and Takumu, the three youngest members of the black camp, didn’t know the details of what had happened back then, nor did it seem that the green camp’s Lignum, Chafer, or Ash did. The tale Kuroyukihime told went uninterrupted, her voice playing in harmony with the gentle breeze of the Twilight stage.

“After the devastating defeat at the Castle, I decided to disband Nega Nebulus. Of course, I did consider naming someone to succeed me as master and having the Legion continue, but three of the Four Elements were in Unlimited EK, and the fourth had announced her intention to step back from the front lines, so that was also difficult. In which case, I would swallow that bitter pill and disband the Legion to allow the members to choose their own paths forward…But there still remained one unresolved issue—well, one bit of ego—inside of me.

“If I was to simply disband the Legion and leave the Accelerated World, Shibuya, our territory at the time, and the majority of my Legion members would have been absorbed into Oscillatory Universe. I wanted to avoid that situation at all costs. I couldn’t stand the idea of my comrades being made to dance like I had been by the White King, used up like pawns, and then selfishly thrown away. Thus, before breaking up the Legion, I met with Grandé and asked him to please be a home for the Shibuya area and the Black Legion members.

“A mere ten days earlier, I had tried to take the heads of the five other kings, including Grandé, in order to achieve level ten. So this was nothing short of scandalous…But I was that desperate. I threw myself down onto the ground the way Graph did earlier and pleaded with him. And Grandé said that the time to choose would come again at some point. And if I vowed not to run away then, he would accept my territory and my warriors…

“Of course, all I could do was promise. But I was still in elementary school at the time, and to be honest, I didn’t really understand what he meant. My only option was to abandon everything and hide away in the local net, so I couldn’t imagine what on earth he was asking me to choose…But although it’s hard for me to say, Grandé’s prophecy did come true. I met Silver Crow, I reformed Nega Nebulus, and I reached out to my old friends one at a time. And then the ‘time to choose’ came to me: whether to re-challenge the White King, when two years and eleven months ago all I could do was run away with my tail between my legs.”

As if to let the listeners know she was approaching the end of her long tale, Kuroyukihime slowly uncrossed her legs.

“When I learned that Cosmos was the mastermind behind the Acceleration Research Society, I was indeed surprised, but I also felt like it could have been no one else. Now that I think about it, I may have even been expecting this somewhere deep in my heart, ever since I found out the ISS kit main body was in Tokyo Midtown Tower in the Minato area. Cosmos is the person I fear most in the Accelerated World. I don’t believe I could beat her if we fought one-on-one. Thus, I was naturally worried I’d be forced to decide if I should fight the White King. I worried that if I did challenge her, I might lose everything I love once more…But fleeing hasn’t been on the table this time. Because I made a vow to you, Grandé, that I would not run.”

Here, she let out a sigh that sounded like a faint laugh, but of course, the Green King didn’t so much as twitch. In the silence, the Black King continued.

“You heard my pleas, Grandé, and immediately after Nega Nebulus abdicated the Shibuya area, you made the declaration of territory and accepted into Great Wall all former members of Nega Nebulus who wished to join. But those who went to you and those who welcomed them must have felt a great deal of worry. Because the Legion Master has that powerful privilege of Judgment Blow. If, for instance, you had so desired, Grandé, it was possible system-wise for you to bring together all the players who transferred from Nega Nebulus and send them all to total point loss. Meanwhile, the native Great Wall members must have voiced their objections to accepting more than twenty people who until the day before had been their enemies.”

“They did,” Decurion assented. “At the time, I was first seat and Pound was second, and we were the very first to oppose the idea.”

“As you might expect.” Pound shrugged lightly. “That was something that would, for all intents and purposes, rip the Legion apart.”

“But in the end, the transfer took place, and Shibuya became green territory,” Kuroyukihime remarked. “I assumed that this was because of Grandé’s leadership…But it seems that this wasn’t the only reason. You were working behind the scenes back then, Graph.”

“Nah, it wasn’t such a big thing as all that.” The dual swordsman pulled back with a frown. “It was more like I met G—I mean, the Green King—and said ‘Hey, lemme join GW, please and thanks.’”

The way he talks like he had nothing to do with anything, that’s some fancy footwork.

But Haruyuki suddenly realized it wasn’t as simple as all that. Just as Kuroyukihime had said, Legion Masters had Judgment Blow, an ability to unilaterally push Legion members to a forced uninstall. Graphite Edge had basically offered Green Grandé his own life. This was precisely what Kuroyukihime had meant by “hostage.”

“Graph!” Utai had apparently realized this some time ago, and now her voice was the most emotional he’d ever heard it. “You are always doing this! You never talk to the rest of us Elements; you just go and do whatever you want. And maybe we come to understand later that you’ve done it to help us, but that still doesn’t make us at all happy!”

A month ago, Utai had said to Haruyuki at the Castle, “My power didn’t work on the God Suzaku at all. At the time of the previous Castle attack, I was the one who asked to lead the squad against Suzaku. I foolishly believed that if it was flames, then whatever the power, I would check it.”

Utai had failed in the Castle attack and ended up in Unlimited EK together with Aqua Current and Graphite Edge, and she was convinced this was her own fault. Thus, she had developed under her own efforts the wide-ranging annihilation-type Incarnate technique in preparation for the mission to rescue Graphite Edge. Naturally, Graph was still sealed away at the Castle’s north gate in the Unlimited Neutral Field, but Utai also no doubt never expected to meet him again there that day.

“And indeed, while we may have both been Elements, there was a significant gap between my power and yours, Graph!” she shouted, as though things she had pushed down and hidden for a long time were finally breaking free. “If you’d wanted to, you could have gone up to level nine at any time and become a king—so perhaps it’s no wonder you treat us like children. But even so, we were supposed to be comrades coming together under the black flag. Why did you not at least talk to us before exposing yourself to danger?!”

Showered in the small shrine maiden’s scorching hot censure, the double sword user grabbed his knees with his hands and threw his head down. “Sorry, Denden—Maiden. And to you, too, Raker, and you, Current.”

This time, Decurion kept quiet about the first seat potentially embarrassing himself and the Green Legion.

Graph kept his head down for a full three seconds before finally pulling himself up and continuing in a more serious voice. “I’m sorry for not talking to you about transferring to GW. But if this became public, I figured, I dunno, it’d like upset the balance of power in the Accelerated World, y’know? So I asked G and Veri to keep me joining GW a secret.”

“I did wonder at first what you were up to,” Decurion interjected, shaking the large horns of his helmet from side to side. “Back then, I was pretty hot-blooded, you know? And then you said you’d do this if you could beat me in a duel.”

Now Pound shook his headgear in something like exasperation. “When you came and told us the Five Armors were now Six, and we were each going down a seat, Veri, I was seriously wondering what the hell was up.”

“Me too,” Lignum agreed.

“I was, as well,” Chafer chimed in.

“Aaah, man, I been nothing but trouble for you guys, too, huh?” Scratching his head, Graph shifted his gaze upward. “Whoa, only five minutes left? We’d better hurry up…Um, Denden said I coulda gone up to level nine anytime, but there’s no way I can now. You’re probably going to get mad at me for going off on my own again, but as compensation for Shibuya, I paid all my extra points to G.”

“…What?” Kuroyukihime managed, sounding frightened. “Incidentally, how many points was it?”

“You’d be freaked, Lota, so I’m not telling. Anyway, G split ’em up into tiny pieces and fed ’em to the Enemies. So, like, now’s your chance! Double bonus Enemy appearance, limited time only! Ha-ha-ha!”

“…Seriously?” Ash muttered.

Wow, Haruyuki thought before refocusing on the matter at hand.

The price that Kuroyukihime had intended to pay for the return of Shibuya Areas Nos. 1 and 2 had apparently been paid by Graphite Edge. In other words, the Green King had already accepted this payment and spent it—although not for his own self-interest, but rather for the sake of the continued existence of the Accelerated World—so Haruyuki supposed he could take this to mean that the return of Shibuya was only a matter of time.

Huh…Is Shibuya really Nega Nebulus territory now? Just temporarily? Permanently? Unable to keep up with the situation, Haruyuki looked absently at the surrounding skyscrapers.

“But, like, it’s not as simple as all that,” Graph said, as if reading Haruyuki’s mind. “Great Wall occupied Shibuya bloodlessly three years ago. Snatched it right out from under the nose of Oscillatory Universe when they were seriously after Shibuya. As for the deets about what actually went down…Right after Negabu got knocked down in the Castle attack, Oscillatory showed up to attack Shibuya One and Two in the Territories. If a war had started then, both areas would’ve definitely fallen.”

Kuroyukihime nodded wordlessly. One eye on her, Graph continued.

“But a mere five seconds before four PM, the start time for the Territories, Lota unleashed her clever scheme to abandon Shibuya. The instant the area was unoccupied, Oscillatory’s registered attack was automatically canceled, and then GW registered an attack on both areas right away. Oscillatory couldn’t reregister before the start time, and since the only attacker was GW, they took control without a fight. You already had the mutual nonaggression pact between GW and Oscillatory, so Oscillatory couldn’t attack Shibuya again. And now it’s been three years like that. And there’s been this weird tension between the two Legions ever since. Of course, they weren’t clashing in the Territories, but in normal duels around Ebisu and Aoyama, more than a few members of GW no doubt slammed up against Oscillatory’s Seven Dwarves.”

Graph paused there, and Pound snorted.

“They didn’t take me down fifteen times in a row or anything, but I did get my ass handed to me.”

“Yup. Can’t chicken out against that gang,” Chafer agreed.

It was true that the antagonism between green and white seemed out of the ordinary. But was that actually a factor in backing the return of the Shibuya to Nega Nebulus? After all, the whole point of the return was a direct attack on Oscillatory, something Great Wall couldn’t do.

As if he once again had read Haruyuki’s mind, Graph quickly shook his head. “It’s exactly because of this cold war that returning Shibuya right now would be taken as an obvious act of aggression on the part of GW toward Oscillatory. They’d see it as breaking the mutual nonaggression pact for all intents and purposes. Oscillatory might even go so far as to attack Meguro or Shinagawa. It’s just like Raker said before—GW has to choose total cooperation with Negabu or break off all contact…Nah, just breaking off contact prob’ly wouldn’t do it. If GW refuses to return Shibuya, you’re planning to take them down in the Territories, yeah, Lota?”

“Of course,” she responded immediately.

Decurion and Pound flashed their eye lenses sharply. But Grandé maintained his usual silence, and Graph also only nodded lightly before turning his face mask upward again.

“Three minutes…Well, at any rate, we’re at the heart of it here. I said it before, but I already paid the price for Shibuya Areas One and Two with my savings from the old Negabu days. But that alone’s not gonna convince Veri and the gang here, much less the other Legion members. And me, too. I gotta go through the proper channels one way or another as the first seat of Great Wall’s Six Armors. That’s why, Lota—Lotus. I won’t say you gotta go through the formality of the Territories. But we’re gonna need you to show us the power you got now.”

The ink-black swordsman of the dual blades turned the masculine lines of his face mask toward the seven members of Nega Nebulus and, in a voice as weighty as that of the Green King, declared, “We’re shifting to Battle Royale mode. Fight with everything you’ve got— Show us your resolve. That’s the other condition for the return of Shibuya.”



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