Accel World - Volume 20 - Chapter 2

2

Burst Linkers inevitably felt a sense of joyous luck or ominous foreboding the moment they saw the duel stage with its diverse characteristics, attributes, and idiosyncrasies. For instance, the Purgatory stage, with metal insects wriggling around organically twisted buildings; the Primeval Forest stage, its pools of purple poison welling up in forests of withered trees; and the ultimate dark type, Hell stage, which Haruyuki had never seen himself, were all ominous; while conversely, the Sacred Ground stage, with its countless crystals floating in a snowy white field; the Moonlight stage, where a full moon hung in the night sky; and the Heian stage, in which madder-red torii gates rose up in the midst of red and yellow autumn leaves dancing through the air, were thought by pretty much everyone to be fortunate stages.

Praying that the setting for the all-important general meeting with Prominence would please be a lucky stage, Haruyuki slowly opened his eyes.

A strangely yellowish-green sky and damp, gray earth filled his field of view. The brilliantly leafy green beeches of the real world had been transformed into massive lopsided and twisting trees with trunks as white as bone, while the buildings of Central Park that he could see on the south and east sides were half-rotted, reddish-brown rusty liquid coloring their walls.

“Gah. A Corroded Forest stage?” Haruyuki muttered.

Before he could reject the idea in his head, a chocolate-colored, chocolate-flavored young lady poked his back. “What ridiculous nonsense are you speaking here? There aren’t any buildings in a Corroded Forest stage!”

“R-right…”

Choco, you’re still wildly different on this side! Unable to voice his thought, Haruyuki searched the list of stage data in the back of his mind. Scenery-wise, it seemed like a natural type with wood affiliation, but this poisoned atmosphere could also mean it was a dark type.

Before Haruyuki could reach a conclusion, however, a slender F-type avatar whose entire body was wrapped in reddish-purple film-type armor muttered in a rough voice, “We got another rare stage here, huh?”

It was Magenta Scissor. She shrugged.

“Honestly.” Black Lotus nodded, her onyx-colored crystal armor shining. “And it’s a somewhat—no, a very annoying one, too.”

“Huh? What do you mean, annoying?” Haruyuki asked his mentor, giving up on remembering the name on his own. “It looks a lot like a Corroded Forest, but at first glance, there don’t seem to be any poison swamps or insects.”

It wasn’t Kuroyukihime who answered him, but rather Fuko, the duel’s starter. “Come now, over there, Corvus.” Seated in her wheelchair, the avatar in the white dress pointed off to the north.

Squinting, he saw a sinister pink mist seeping out of the school-like building on the opposite side of the road. At last he succeeded in extracting the data and slapped a fist into the palm of his other hand. “Oh! This is that one. Um…A Plague stage!”

“Correct. And it does seem like that poisonous mist is coming this way,” Kuroyukihime murmured, narrowing her bluish-purple eye lenses.

Categorized as a mid-level dark type, the Plague stage was not exempt from the troublesome field gimmicks that characterized a dark stage. The poison mist before Haruyuki now was one of these, gushing up from the ground at random. If you touched it, you were “infected” with the plague. Depending on the color of the mist, you would be hit with slip damage, nullification of special attacks, visual impediments, aural impediments, or loss of balance, among other de-buffs. Not to mention that since the mist was no simple poison, but rather a pathogen, the duel avatars who came into contact with it also became a source of infection, bringing about the same symptoms in nearby avatars. In a normal duel, a player would actively try to use these to take down their opponent, but drawing this stage in the Territories was basically the worst. And it wasn’t much better if you were using the stage as a meeting venue, as they were doing now.

“And I’m pretty sure a pink mist is slip damage, right, Lotus?” Fuko said. “Pard and I will be the only ones infected, since we’re the duelers, but it won’t be much of a meeting if the deputies keep losing health.”

Kuroyukihime groaned. “I suppose we have no choice. Shall we discuss with the Prominence side and try for a new stage? That reminds me. Where are they?”

The entire party looked around. When the duelers were so far apart that they could not visually confirm each other’s presence, a guide cursor indicating the enemy dueler’s position was displayed in each one’s field of view. Given there were no guide cursors in view for either Fuko standing before them or the other player, Pard had to be somewhere nearby at least, but there was no sign of anyone in the desolate park or the rotted buildings.

“Are the Promi peeps really logged in?” Plum Flipper, aka Yume, cocked her head and its round hat to one side quizzically.

“Whoa, whoa!” Mint Mitten, aka Satomi, jabbed her with a mittened fist. “Leopard’s health gauge is displayed right there.”

Just as she said, the avatar name BLOOD LEOPARD was neatly inscribed beneath the right-hand health gauge. And if Pard hadn’t been there, Fuko wouldn’t have been able to generate the duel stage in the first place.

But then why hadn’t anyone from Prominence shown up despite the fact that it had already been over a minute since the start of the duel? Maybe the enemy forces were obstructed by…some kind of unexpected situation? Haruyuki began to wonder beneath his face mask.

“SRY. Late.”

A quiet voice echoed from above, and the entire party hurriedly turned their heads to see a silhouette slipping soundlessly down the trunk of a twisted tree. The slim torso, four powerful limbs, and long tail belonged to none other than the Prominence deputy “Bloody Kitty,” Blood Leopard.

“Oh. Um. How long have you been up there?” Haruyuki asked when Pard reached the ground mere seconds later, neglecting to say hello.

“Start, basically,” Pard responded briefly.

“Th-then why didn’t you come down right away?” Haruyuki frowned.

“Minor situation,” she said, with a sigh for some reason, and raised a hand to point toward the building on the east side of the park, Central Park East.

“……”

Haruyuki and the other ten people silently turned their attention in that direction. The half-rotted East building fell back into silence. Nothing moved. And then suddenly a loud voice thundered overhead.

“Sorry for the wait, Nega Nebulus!!”

Two silhouettes—both fairly large, arms crossed tightly in front of their chests—appeared on the roof of the East building. For some reason they stood far apart. They were followed by two new figures from behind, and then another two behind them, and then, in the blink of an eye, a couple dozen silhouettes had formed a long row on the roof until finally a small duel avatar appeared with some force in its center.

This middle avatar raised a silent hand and pointed at the yellowish-green sky. As if this were a signal, the thirty-odd people took on poses from ancient tokusatsu masked-hero TV shows and shouted in unison, “We are Promineeeennnce!!”

Four or five sparks were launched from the rear and exploded together with a pa-pa-pa-pum! sound that was a little lacking in impact.

“……”

The eleven members of Nega Nebulus found themselves at a loss for words.

“SRY,” Pard muttered with another sigh.

“…Leopard,” Fuko said. “Are you saying the reason it took a while for them to appear was because they were…getting that ready?”

“Yes.” The crimson cat avatar nodded apologetically. “Rain says stuff like this is decided in snap judgments right at the start.”

“Ha-ha-ha! That does totally sound like something Niko would say.” Haruyuki waved a hand at the Red King, “Bloody Storm” Scarlet Rain, posing smartly in the center of the duel avatars lined up neatly on the roof of the East building. “Heeey!”

After about two seconds, Niko released her pose somewhat awkwardly and kicked off the edge of the roof to jump down to the ground. While her comrades jumped one after another, she trotted over to the Nega Nebulus group and jabbed Haruyuki in the side.

They were both members of the Gallery, so naturally he took no damage, but even so, he reflexively groaned before protesting, “Wh-what are you doing?”

“Now look!” the smaller girl snapped. “Don’t ‘heeey’ me there! Ruins the whole impression!”

“Th-then what should I say?”

“Time like this, you all gotta snap to attention and give us your poses in return!”

“Wh-what? Like, how?” Haruyuki was honestly baffled.

“Like, you’d be all ‘Nega Nebulus on the scene!’” Niko suggested. “‘Nega Nebulus unite!’ or something.”

“We absolutely will not,” Kuroyukihime responded extremely curtly. Shaking her head in exasperation, she cleared her throat loudly before continuing in a slightly louder voice. “At any rate, I appreciate that you are here participating in today’s meeting with all your Legion members as promised, Red King. We don’t have much time, however, so I would like to get to the central issue soon.”

Niko took a step back from Haruyuki, and her voice when she responded was so dignified, it made him realize all over again that whatever else, she really was a king. “Oh! And you, Black King, coming all the way to Nakano One. Sorry for the hassle. I’d like to suggest we get right to it, but…”

She cut herself off and glanced toward the north side of the park, so Haruyuki also turned his eyes in that direction and saw that the problematic pink mist was already on the verge of crossing the road and drifting into the park.

“Dang. We really drew an annoying piece of work here. Plague stage.” She shook her head. “Can’t let Pard and Raker get poisoned, so maybe we should restart this jam?”

Before anyone on the Nega Nebulus side could react, a fairly intimidating voice rang out from the Prominence side. “I’ve got a good idea, boss!”

“Yeah?”

As Niko turned around, a smallish duel avatar jumped out from the group. From the timbre of the voice, it was probably an M-type, and that was about all Haruyuki could say about him. Because he was wearing a hat with an excessively large brim, and the cloak wrapped around his body was so long that it dragged along the ground.

“Mm. This guy,” Kuroyukihime muttered.

“Do you know this person, Kuroyukihime?” Haruyuki asked in a low voice.

“Probably. But let’s hear him out now. Although I have a feeling he won’t say anything particularly helpful.”

Kuroyukihime’s prediction immediately became reality.

“And what’s this good idea, Dine?” Niko asked.

“Make the stage a Battle Royale!” Dine called back confidently, as if that were the smallest deal in the world. “Then I can sterilize that poison mist in a flash!”

The only ones who could currently take or deal damage or interfere with the stage were Sky Raker and Blood Leopard. But the instant the rules switched to Battle Royale mode, Haruyuki and every single person in the Gallery would become a dueler, and the likelihood of an unforeseen situation occurring would certainly increase, the most extreme possibility being that either Kuroyukihime or Niko would be retired through total point loss, according to the level-nine sudden-death rules. Naturally, Niko would reject the idea out of hand—or so Haruyuki thought.

“Hmm.” The small crimson girl avatar turned her large eye lenses up at Kuroyukihime. “So we got this proposal. Whaddya wanna do, Lotus? Quitting the duel and accelerating again’s a whole hassle on its own.”

“Mm.” Kuroyukihime also didn’t immediately reject the idea, but rather turned toward Fuko. Apparently, some instantaneous telepathic communication took place there, and when she turned back to the Red King, she was nodding. “Well, I suppose. And going back to the start would mean you’d have to perform your ultracool appearance sequence again, which would be, well, you know.”

“Hey! What d’you mean by that?!” Niko erupted, but soon reined her outrage in and sent Pard a signal with her eyes.

The leopard avatar deftly moved a finger down her Instruct menu, and a duel mode change confirmation window appeared before all the members of the Gallery. Haruyuki had a vaguely bad feeling about this, but given that Kuroyukihime had already agreed to the change, he couldn’t exactly object. Not to mention that Takumu and Chiyuri were nonchalantly tapping the YES buttons in the windows before them, along with Chocolat and her friends, who were below Silver Crow in terms of level. So Haruyuki sent a brief prayer up to the gods of the Accelerated World that the meeting would end without incident as he pushed his own YES button.

The word “god” called to mind the thirteenth member of Nega Nebulus. She would normally have been present, but there was no way he could summon her today, unfortunately. If anyone on the red side questioned him and demanded to know her true identity, the inevitable ensuing commotion would take up the whole thirty minutes of the duel.

I feel bad for Metatron, but I’ll introduce her to the red people once the meeting is over.

While he was thinking this over, all the YES buttons had apparently been pressed, since the flaming text A BATTLE ROYALE IS BEGINNING!! blazed up before his eyes, followed by the start of a ten-second countdown. The readout quickly hit zero, and the health gauge in the top left changed from Sky Raker’s to Silver Crow’s own. In the top right, the gauges of the other Burst Linkers were displayed vertically in a compressed format.

As soon as the duel mode switchover was complete, a figure started to run toward the northern side of the park, the Prominence avatar in the hat and cloak who had proposed the change to Battle Royale. Niko had called him Dine, and Haruyuki looked to the right again to find the avatar’s official name. But there were far too many gauges there for him to be able to pick out which one was Dine’s.

Dine stopped about fifteen meters from the group and shouted, “All riiiiiight!” He thrust slender arms out from beneath his cloak. Ahead of him, the poisonous pink mist writhed like a living creature. Dine had boasted that he would make the mist disappear with a single blow, but how exactly would he do that?

With forty-some pairs of eyes focused on him, Dine struck a pose like he was about to launch a special attack and froze like that for about two seconds before turning just his head to say, “Sorry. Someone charge up my special-attack gauge.”

“““……”””

Once again, everyone on the Nega Nebulus side was speechless.

Niko let out a long sigh. “We don’t have a lotta time, so I’ll charge you up quick and simple!” She drew the small pistol Enhanced Armament from her left hip. Shk! She rotated the cylinder, froze in position, and nonchalantly pulled the trigger.

The energy bullet shot mercilessly through the long, brown cloak but seemed to only graze the avatar body hidden within it. Dine simply shook slightly at the hit. His special-attack gauge now apparently charged from the damage, he called the technique name in a loud voice: “Here we go…Antidote Mist!!”

His hands shone a vivid yellow, and a light of the same color sprayed outward. The instant it touched the pink mist, the poison began to melt away with an effect perfectly befitting his technique’s name. Mere seconds later, the twenty-meter mass of poison mist was completely gone.

“And that is that!” Dine turned around, clapping his hands together dramatically.

Cheers and applause erupted from the Promi camp.

“Nice! The king of poison killers!”

“Gimme some detox, too!”

They’re setting the rhythm here, Haruyuki thought as he also clapped along.

“So that is Stronger,” Kuroyukihime murmured. “He’s still in Prominence then, hmm?”

“Stronger? Is that that Dine person’s nickname?” Haruyuki asked.

“Mm.” She nodded. “More precisely, Stronger Name. Take a look at his health gauge.”

Haruyuki obediently turned his gaze toward the column of gauges once more. Since only one had taken any damage, he was quickly able to spot what was presumably Dine’s gauge. The avatar name inscribed below it was IODINE STERILIZER.

“I-Io…How do you pronounce that?”

“It’s Iodine Sterilizer, Corvus,” Fuko said from the other side of Kuroyukihime.

“Whoa,” he said. “Sounds like two super-robot names stuck together.” Unconsciously reeling slightly, he stared again at the avatar in the broad-brimmed hat. He couldn’t fathom what was inside the cloak, and he didn’t know the meaning of the English word “iodine” or “sterilizer,” but at the very least, the name was the coolest of all the avatar names he’d seen so far. “Oh! So that’s why his nickname is Stronger Name, then, huh? But why just ‘Stronger’? With an incredible name like that, I think it should be the top level, ‘Strongest.’”

Kuroyukihime and Fuko exchanged a look and then giggled in unison.

“If your thinking’s made it that far, then you’ll arrive at the answer in another second,” Kuroyukihime assured him. “At any rate, it seems that the meeting is finally starting.”

He turned and saw Niko heading toward them, twirling her pistol on one finger.

“That stupid poisonous mist is gone,” she said. “So how ’bout we get right down to business? Lotus, you okay with deciding on the chairperson like we discussed in advance?”

“Yup. No problem,” Kuroyukihime replied.

“Wohkay. So then, Pard, Cassi, Pokki, step forward.” Niko snapped her fingers, and three avatars stepped forward out of the Prominence group.

One was the familiar Blood Leopard, but the other two were new faces: a superlarge M-type avatar with massive horns growing from both sides of his head, and a medium F-type avatar whose back was covered in long, fluffy fur. Even though they weren’t acting the least bit aggressive, Haruyuki felt a pressure on par with that caused by the executive branch of the Green Legion, Great Wall, the Six Armors.

“Oh,” he murmured. “Is that maybe Prominence’s…”

“Yes. The remaining two members of the Triplex.” At some point, Takumu had come to stand to his right, and now he explained quietly, “The big one’s Cassis Moose, and the small one is Thistle Porcupine. They’re both high rankers with abilities on par with Leopard’s.”

“That’s some aura they got. But our Elements are no slouches, either,” Chiyuri murmured from his other side. And indeed, as they stepped forward from the Nega Nebulus side, Sky Raker, Aqua Current, and Ardor Maiden showed absolutely no fear and stood tall in front of the Triplex.

With the six members of the executives of both Legions facing each other, the entire stage snapped to attention. And rightly so—this was the intimidating Battle Royale mode. If this tension reached its ignition point, a catastrophe large enough to rend the heavens and split the earth was inescapable. Haruyuki nervously watched over the six high rankers squared off between the two Legions.

“One, two!” Niko shouted from behind the Triplex. “Rock!”

All six Burst Linkers thrust their right hands up with astounding speed before bringing them back down again. The six fists froze in midair, and the shock wave that was generated beat at the earth and caused clouds of dust to rise up.

Before the dust had settled again, Kuroyukihime yelled, “Paper! Scissors!!”

Whp! The air shook even more fiercely, and bolts of pale lightning crackled in the space between the two sets of hands. Two of the six were eliminated after two more throws, and the process was repeated three more times until only Thistle Porcupine and Ardor Maiden were left standing.

While Haruyuki wondered if it was mere coincidence that the two smallest avatars remained or if speed worked as an advantage for rock-paper-scissors in the Accelerated World, the pair threw out their last hands inhumanly fast, and after an instant of stasis, the white-and-crimson shrine maiden avatar slowly raised her scissors hand above her head.

Shrugging, Cassis returned to her own camp, while Ardor Maiden stood up tall and announced in a clear voice, “Now then, I, Ardor Maiden, shall assume the role of this meeting’s chair.”

“No objections,” Niko stated.

“Please and thank you.” Kuroyukihime nodded, and the two leaders stepped back to their respective camps.

Even with the gazes of the forty or so people gathered there turned on her, Utai showed no sign of shyness as she operated her Instruct menu to make some massive object materialize. Looking closely, Haruyuki saw that it was a single white wood panel about two meters tall and one meter wide. A square peg stretched out from the bottom to push into the earth.

“Wh-what is that?” Haruyuki muttered.

“Notice board, extra large,” Magenta Scissor leaned forward to reply. “Use it for notices and stuff just like you’d expect.”

“H-huh. So they sell stuff like that in the shop?” Haruyuki said.

“But looks like Maiden’s using it for a different purpose,” Magenta added.

And indeed, Utai next produced an excessively thick and long brush, which was apparently automatically charged with black ink, before brandishing it like a sword and dragging it quickly across the new board. The words she spelled out across the top right were:

PROMINENCELEGION MERGER MEETING

NEGA NEBULUS

“Ooh…,” came the excited murmuring, mainly from the Prominence side. And with the agenda written down in black and white, the merger, a relatively rare phenomenon in the Accelerated World, instantly took on a feeling of reality, and the tension at the venue increased palpably.

But Utai, the youngest of all of them, showed no signs of shrinking and instead set her brush to work once more. After dividing the space on the left side of the board into three large sections, she wrote at the tops of the sections YEA, CONDITIONAL YEA, and NAY.

Utai then put the brush down and turned around to speak, her voice carrying across the meeting space. “As you are all aware, Prominence and Nega Nebulus concluded a truce approximately six months ago, in January of this year. But this was at best an agreement not to attack the other’s territory, and essentially no large-scale exchange has taken place between the Legions. More than a few members are seeing each other for the first time here at this meeting, and I believe that some among us will not immediately be able to agree to the merger of our two Legions, even for the sake of the greater mission of a united front against the White Legion. Thus, I would first like you all to consider whether you are in favor of the merger, if you have conditions, or if you are opposed.”

Utai managed to get this frighteningly lengthy speech out without stumbling even once, which so deeply impressed Haruyuki that he very nearly missed what she had to say next.

“I ask that all members of Nega Nebulus in favor of the merger please raise your hands and give your names.”

Everyone around him swiftly raised their hands, so Haruyuki hurriedly thrust his own into the air. When he gave his name—“I’m Silver Crow!”—after Kuroyukihime, Fuko, and Akira, there were some exclamations from the red side—“What?” “That guy?”—but Chiyuri drowned them out with her own cheerful voice. Then the three members of the Petit Paquet group—Shihoko, Satomi, and Yume—stated their names, but that’s where the naming ended, so he hurriedly looked back and saw that Takumu and Rui had not raised their hands.

Before he had the time to be surprised, Utai had finished writing down the names of nine people, including her own, in the YEA column. “Now then, those of you who agree conditionally, raise your hands.”

Now Takumu and Rui swiftly lifted their hands into the air and gave their names—“Cyan Pile,” “Magenta Scissor.”

While Utai was writing these down, Haruyuki asked quietly, “H-hey, Takumu. What’s with the conditions?”

“Simple stuff,” his childhood friend responded briefly. “I’ll tell you later.”

Takumu’s reply left him no opening to pursue the question, so he was forced to turn to the front again just as Utai was lowering her pen.

“That’s everyone from Nega Nebulus, then. With myself included, that’s nine yeas and two conditional yeas. Next I’ll ask the members of Prominence in favor of the merger to raise your hands and give your names.”

The instant she was done speaking, Niko thrust her right hand into the air. “Scarlet Rain.”

She was followed, thankfully, by all three members of the Triplex.

“Blood Leopard.”

“Cassis Moose.”

“Thistle Porcupine.”

Haruyuki focused on trying to remember all the duel avatars who shouted their names one after another.

“Mustard Salticid!” A slender F-type with a vivid mustard color.

“Moss Moth.” A dull-green M-type with large antennas.

“Navy Lobster.” A shrimplike M-type covered in heavy dark-blue armor.

“Carnelian Alpheus.” This was a similarly shrimplike M-type, but he was more stylish, and only his right hand was excessively large.

The next duel avatar was an opponent known to Haruyuki. “Peach Parasol!” A light-peach F-type carrying a large umbrella-shaped Enhanced Armament. She was one of the group of three who had come to attack Suginami in the Territories at the end of the previous month. Although he was pretty sure she was a veteran member from the days of the previous Red King, Red Rider, he guessed that she was agreeing to the merger because of that fight.

Even while his mind wandered, the hands kept going up.

“Persimmon Monk.” A tall M-type in a long robe.

“Carrot Turret!” A small F-type the color of carrots, just as her name suggested.

“Aconite Archer.” An M-type equipped with a crossbow the same bluish purple as his armor.

“Hypericum Cheerer.  ” A pale-yellow F-type with small wings on her back.

“Ochre Prison…” A yellowish-brown M-type with massive claws. He had attacked Suginami with Peach.

“Malachite Hex.” A dark-green F-type with a marble-like pattern on the surface of her smooth armor.

“Cantal Tank!” A midsize M-type with fibrous brown armor.

“Elinvar Governor.” A slender M-type whose head was a complicated machine.

“Brick Block!” A reddish-brown M-type whose entire body was made up of square bricks.

Here a white smoke suddenly erupted from the Promi ranks, and colorful laser lights flashed, so Haruyuki gulped in surprise at what appeared to be a sneak attack. But it wasn’t. From beyond the smoke, three dazzling avatars had no sooner bounded forward than they were giving their names in adorable voices.

“Freeze Tone!”

“Cream Dream!”

“Blaze Heart!”

And then in unison, “““We aaare…Heliosphere!”””

Snap! The instant they settled into their respective poses, the lasers danced and flashed even more brilliantly, and Haruyuki reflexively started clapping. To his right he heard Satomi clapping too and shouting, “Amazing! Helios!”

He took a few steps over to her. “H-Helios…What’s that?”

“You don’t know, Corvus? They’re basically the second- or third-most-popular idol group in the entire Accelerated World! Their song cards sell like hotcakes!”

“…Second or third…” Which meant there was at least one idol group even more popular, but he decided not to follow that thread at the moment and turned his gaze forward again.

Blaze Heart, striking a pose on the right side of the group, was the fire user who had challenged them in the Territories with Peach Parasol and Ochre Prison, and at the time he’d actually thought she seemed sort of “idol-ish,” but he’d had no idea that she really was an idol.

I’ll have to grab one of their song cards. But wait. Where do they even sell song cards? As he ruminated on this new puzzle, the threesome released their poses and stepped back, and with that, the yeas had spoken.

Utai neatly jotted down every name. “Thank you very much. That’s twenty-one yeas. Now I’d ask for the conditional yeas to speak.”

Immediately a new voice carried across the stage. “Spruce Brevis!” A brown M-type with enormous eye lenses.

“Cinnamon Palaemon.” A light-brown F-type with excessively long arms.

“Paprika Capriiiice.” A small vivid-orange F-type.

“Beet Beat.” A reddish-purple M-type with roundly swollen arms.

“Lavender Downer…” A light-purple F-type equipped with a costume that looked exactly like a school uniform.

“Amber Captor.” A small F-type about the same size as Niko with semitransparent armor in an amber color, just as her name suggested.

“Straw Barrier.” A large M-type in armor like bundles of thin, pale yellow tubes.

“Furs Stick.” An M-type that resembled Straw Barrier in form and texture, but his entire body was wrapped in even thicker brown sticks.

Three duel avatars raised their hands together, looking very much like a team somehow. He sensed a faint ripple in Akira’s flowing-water armor when they appeared, but he didn’t get the chance to ask her why.

“Vermillion Vulcan.” An M-type with dark-red armor carrying an Enhanced Armament like a large auto-cannon in both hands.

“Carmine Cannon.” A tall F-type whose armor was indeed a very pure red.

“Maroon Motor.” An M-type with purple-red armor and a massive cylinder on his back.

Here the hands stopped, and Utai turned around. “Thank you very much. We have eleven conditional yeas. Now, finally…those of you who are opposed to the merger, please.”

Haruyuki thought there wouldn’t be anyone opposed at this late stage. But one person pushed aside his long cloak and thrust his hand up high into the air. There was no mistake—it was the boy in the wide-brimmed hat who had proposed the change to Battle Royale mode and gotten rid of the Plague stage’s poison mist with a single shot.

“Iodine Sterilizer!! Even if I am entirely alone, I am opposed!” The hat-wearing owner of the cool nickname Stronger Name proudly announced his dissenting opinion and then lowered his hand.

Utai scribbled his name in the NAY column. “Thank you very much, everyone. Totaling the votes from both Legions, we have thirty yeas, thirteen conditional yeas, and one nay. Which means that the majority agree to the merger, but as the chair of this meeting, I believe it would be best to discuss all objections thoroughly so that we can all come to an agreement. Is there anyone who objects to the proceedings thus far?”

“I object!” The hand that immediately snapped up was that of the lone nay voter, Iodine Sterilizer.

“Please go ahead, Iodine.”

The small boy sprang forward and spoke loudly, his voice surprisingly adult. “Just as I said before, I am opposed to the merger of Promi and Negabu, and I have no intention of being turned through discussion! Or rather, if any opinions are swayed here, it will be that of the conditional yeas!”

“Well, yeah, I guess it would be,” Chiyuri muttered, and a few people around her nodded, including Haruyuki.

“If you don’t mind,” the meeting chair replied calmly, “could you explain why you are opposed, Iodine?”

“I have every intention of doing so! Listen! The sole reason that I am opposed…” Here, Dine paused, and then for some reason he snapped a finger and pointed at Haruyuki. “…is because not only will the ceasefire not end, but we will merge, and then I will never be able to truly fight Silver Crow and at last stop his bid for the throne of Antidote King!”

Silence fell over the venue, and Haruyuki whirled his head around, as if to confirm that he was the only Burst Linker there named Silver Crow. “Wh-whaaaaat?! I-I’m not making a bid for anything like that! No one’s ever called me Antidote King, not once!” he shouted, sounding a bit put out.

“Shut uuuuuup!!” Dine roared back immediately, brandishing a fist as he whirled around. “Now, I have always despised silver antibacterial goods, antiperspirants, and the like! They say the antibacterial spectrum is broad, despite its having essentially no germicidal properties—they’re just selling a stylish image!”

“I-I’m telling you, I’ve never made a selling point of germicidal power or anything!”

“You! Are! A! Liar!!”

This kid will probably really hit it off with Ash when the Legions merge. Or hate his guts. One of the two, Haruyuki thought, half in an attempt to escape from the reality before him.

Dine snapped a finger out at him once more before making an unexpected claim. “Don’t tell me you forgot your declaration when we fought before in Chiyoda Ward! ‘Poison doesn’t work on me,’ you said! ‘I’m silver!’ you said!”

“Wh-what?! I—I said that?! I dunno.” Haruyuki frantically rummaged through his memory.

“You did say that,” Aqua Current whispered.

“Huh? H-how do you know that, Curren?”

“Well, we were on a tag team together.”

Haruyuki’s memory finally cleared. “Oh!”

It had been last November, back when he’d just gone up to level two. Due to a careless level-up, he’d been in a seriously tight spot, his points very nearly exhausted, so he’d hired the lone bouncer in the Accelerated World, The One, aka Aqua Current—although he hadn’t known at the time that she was one of Nega Nebulus’s Four Elements—and had gotten her help in tag-team matches in Chiyoda Ward so he could get his points back up into the safe zone.

The first of those fights had been a Corroded Forest stage, covered in poisonous bogs, where Haruyuki had taken on the formidable electricity user Nickel Doll. After he had dragged her into the poison bog with him, he had indeed said, “I’m silver. Poison doesn’t work on me!”

“Oh…S-sorry, Dine.” Haruyuki hung his head. “I did say that.”

“So you finally remember!” One hand still aimed squarely at Haruyuki, the avatar in the wide-brimmed hat waved his other hand around and around. “Once I heard about this little incident, I decided that in a duel one day, I would make it perfectly clear which of us was fit to sit on the throne of the Antidote King! And yet, before I got my chance, we suddenly had a ceasefire with Negabu! And now, after I’ve waited a full six months to be free of these terrible chains, I’m faced with a Legion merger?! What about my disinfectant soul? What about the fire that burns so brightly within me?!”

It was a powerful speech, befitting the mega-mech name of the avatar, and Haruyuki was dumbstruck for a moment.

“Uh. Um.” He raised one hand. “You can have your Antidote King throne…I never wanted it to begin with…”

“Don’t! Mesu! Wizu! Me!!” Setting the question of pronunciation aside, Dine’s English was at least more grammatically correct than Ash’s. “In the Accelerated World! You can win nothing without a fight!! I must trounce you utterly in a fierce duel before I can stand tall and claim the title of Antidote Kiiiiiiiing!!”

“So what do you want me to do?” Haruyuki muttered.

Kuroyukihime and Fuko shook their heads in exasperation.

“Stronger hasn’t changed a bit, hmm?” The girl in black sighed.

“Not a bit,” the girl in white agreed. “Looks like he still hasn’t let go of that fight.”

“Um, Master? What do you mean, ‘that fight’?” Haruyuki asked in a small voice.

Fuko rolled her wheelchair back a little. “Iodine lost his nickname after losing to a certain Burst Linker way back when.”

“Huh? You mean Stronger Name?”

“Yes and no.” Fuko frowned slightly. “To be precise, he became Stronger after losing that fight. His opponent at the time also said they would let him have whatever nickname he wanted.”

“Uh…uh-huh…” He didn’t get the whole story, but it was painfully clear that Iodine Sterilizer had always been this kind of character, and Haruyuki sighed.

The chair then offered him a life raft. “Iodine, if your objective of fighting Silver Crow is achieved, will you also agree to the merger?” asked the shrine maiden with black hair, one of the top-five cutest duel avatars as far as Haruyuki knew.

“W-well.” Dine stiffened up for a moment before cocking his head at an uncertain angle. “That’s more-or-less fine, I guess.”

“I understand. In that case, how about we do this?” Utai turned to face Haruyuki directly. “C, I do realize this is a bother, but since the mode is Battle Royale, could you possibly fight Dine right now?”

“Wha…whaaaaat?!” he squealed, and he looked around at his comrades. But from Kuroyukihime to Chiyuri to Choco to Magenta Scissor, they were nodding in agreement without exception.

In that case, he thought, and he turned to Niko and Pard, but here, too, all he got was a shrug from the leopard avatar as if to say SRY and a sword hand slashing through the air from the Red King.

Meanwhile, the remaining thirty-two members of Prominence—the yeas and the conditional yeas—banded together.

“Oh! That’d be great!”

“I totally want to see the Antidote Battle!”

“I came all the way to Naka-One, after all. Gotta get a little bang for my buck!”

They were all cheering.

This is why I didn’t want to switch modes! Haruyuki groaned inwardly, but he knew there was nowhere for him to run now. He wasn’t the least bit interested in the nickname Antidote King—in fact, he’d only heard of it that day, so there was no need for him to win the duel in that regard.

The real issue was that the place was brimming with the powerful warriors on the Prominence side, beginning with the Triplex across from him. If he went easy and tried to lose, they’d see through that right away and condemn him—You dishonor the spirit of the duel!—and then the Legion merger would fall apart. Or at least it was certainly possible that things could go that way. In other words, if he accepted the duel, he would have to fight with everything he had, in a way that wouldn’t embarrass Nega Nebulus, given that he would be its proxy in front of this large crowd.

He stood frozen to the spot, feeling the virtual cold sweat on his avatar body beneath his armor.

Kuroyukihime took a step back next to him and raised the sword of her right hand. The sharp tip was enveloped in a warm light, and then with a faint snapping sound it separated into five fingers. She gripped his hand tightly with this Incarnate hand and brought her face mask in close.

“Just have fun with it, Silver Crow. Not a single person here bears you any ill will. Iodine simply wants a real fight with you, since he considers you a rival. And you are a Burst Linker; you have accepted a challenge in the Accelerated World. In which case…”

“The only thing to do is give it all I’ve got, right?” he replied to his swordmaster, and the tension in his body melted gently away.

Right. The eleven members of Nega Nebulus, the thirty-three people in Prominence, they were all the same: Burst Linkers. They all truly loved the game Brain Burst, the duel, and they were all there because they wanted to protect it. Haruyuki was no different. In which case there was no reason to be afraid.

All he had to do was give the fight everything he had, just like always, and be happy if he won and annoyed if he lost—that was enough.

He squeezed Kuroyukihime’s hand for a mere instant before releasing it and taking a few steps forward, away from his comrades. “I understand, Iodine!” he called. “I accept your challenge!”

“All right! That’s how it’s gotta be!” Dine shouted energetically, and he grabbed the brim of his hat with his right hand and the collar of his cloak with his left. Fwp! Fwp! These were peeled away to reveal Iodine Sterilizer’s true form.

“Huh?!” Haruyuki cried out the second he saw this.

Because Dine’s duel avatar was absolutely nothing like a mega mech. The torso was cylindrical, with a few indentations, and thin limbs and a tapered tube of a head were attached. The body was a rich brown, while the head and limbs were a vivid red. The coloring was that of a long-range type, but Haruyuki hadn’t the first clue about what kind of attack would come. Plus, he got the feeling that the torso and head looked a lot like something he was very familiar with, but he couldn’t remember exactly what that was.

I should’ve asked someone what iodine and sterilizer mean, he said to himself, but that was crying over spilled milk at this point. He would just have to suss out his opponent’s strengths and weaknesses during the battle.

The members of both Legions retreated to the walls of the buildings around the park to get some serious distance from Haruyuki and Dine facing off against each other. Only Utai remained.

She cocked her head to one side as if realizing something. “That reminds me, Iodine. You took that blow from Rain earlier so that you could eliminate the poison cloud from the stage. Do you really want to start in that condition?”

She was exactly right. Narrowing his eyes, Haruyuki could see where the energy bullet had grazed Dine’s shoulder armor.

But Stronger raised his thumb in a theatrical gesture. “It’s! No! Problemo!”

“I understand. Well, then…” Utai nodded and held her right hand above her head. “In this corner, Iodine Sterilizer of Prominence. In the opposite, Silver Crow of Nega Nebulus. And now…begin the duel!!”

Fwsh! Utai brought her hand down.

Dine instantly closed the distance between them, defying Haruyuki’s expectations. He was a red type, so his coming to challenge a metal color—fundamentally suited to close-range combat—to a fistfight meant that either he was excessively confident in his fighting abilities or he simply didn’t think too much of Haruyuki’s abilities.

Even as these thoughts flickered in a corner of his mind, Haruyuki instinctively dropped into a ready position. Picking up on the state of hostilities, the system automatically displayed a larger version of Dine’s health gauge in the top right of his view. The level beside his name was six, the same as Silver Crow’s. This made the idea of losing even more unpalatable.

But Dine’s first attack caught him off guard nonetheless.

“Take! Diss!!” he shouted in English as he thrust out his right hand, five fingers splayed. He was too far away for his fist to actually hit Haruyuki, but then a brown mist jetted from the nozzle in the center of his palm.

Haruyuki had no way to dodge and took the mist squarely in the face. Suddenly he was blinded, and an intense odor took his breath away. Duel avatars did not require oxygen, and they could fight underwater or in outer space, but the naked body of the avatar beneath the armor had the sensation of breathing. So when that sensation was obstructed with a scent or an attack, the body reflexively stopped moving momentarily.

Recovering from his momentary stiffening, Haruyuki hurried to wipe his mirrored goggles clean and tried to leap back, but Dine had already slipped in close.

“Smash!!” He launched a middle kick together with an American-style cry and caught Haruyuki squarely in the right side. Without pausing for breath, he followed with a right overhand punch.

Haruyuki just barely slipped past this and kept moving to the right diagonally before somersaulting to put some distance between them.

As he looked back, he checked that he hadn’t been hit with some kind of de-buff when he was showered in the brown mist, but he found no ongoing damage or disorder in any of his senses. His health gauge, however, was down over 5 percent from the kick.

So then what exactly was that brown liquid with the painful scent Dine was shooting? The question popped up in his head, but the answer came to him from an unexpected place.

Dine’s torso, which had indeed been a rich brown at the start of the battle, had turned a semitransparent gray around the shoulders. Haruyuki could make out the hazy shape of the very slender avatar body inside. And the border between the brown and the semitransparent areas rippled with Dine’s movements.

Is it a liquid?

Was the semi-transparent cylindrical body filled with liquid? And the level dropped when he shot it out of his hand?

“Ah…Ah!” Haruyuki finally remembered what Dine’s torso reminded him of. The old-school gargle in the first-aid kit at home. The painful stench when he’d been showered in the liquid was exactly what the gargle smelled like.

“You look like…Isodi—”

“Stooooooooop!” Dine thrust out a hand to check Haruyuki, and he snapped his mouth shut. The “Antidote King” held up an index finger and waved it back and forth in an affected manner. “That is the brand name; you’re not allowed to say it. If you really must, use the ingredient name: povidonyodo.”

“P-povidonyodo…?” Haruyuki stumbled over the unfamiliar term.

“In English it’s povidone-iodine.”

“Huh…So then…” Haruyuki stared at Dine’s head, which looked exactly like the cap of the gargle bottle. “Iodine…The tincture…That’s the element?!”

“Yes!” Dine was triumphant.

“S-so then sterilizer means…” Here, Haruyuki faltered again.

“I’ll do you a big favor and help you out,” Dine offered smugly. “A sterilizer is basically a disinfectant. In other words!” Da-da-dum! He struck a cool pose before announcing with panache, “Under the name Iodine Sterilizer! I disinfect all with this fine element! I am the most powerful antidote in the Accelerated World! Ha-ha!”

Ha-ha, okay, but still…Dumbfounded for the nth time, Haruyuki somehow managed to rouse his battle spirit once again. He had absolutely no interest in the Antidote King title, and Dine was apparently less obsessed with the result of the duel than with the process of the fight itself. Whatever his reasons, now that Haruyuki had accepted the duel as a representative of Nega Nebulus, he had to muster 100 percent of his strength and fight.

“Uh, um…Iso—I mean, povidone-iodine gargle’s been good to me in the past. But my color name is silver, so I can’t be beat when it comes to natural disinfectant power! I’ll have you yield the title of Antidote King right here and now!!”

The challenge that left his mouth was somewhat random, but it seemed to hit home with Iodine. The horizontal eye lenses embedded in the cap-shaped head shone with yellow light, and the brown fluid inside his body shuddered and shook.

“Well said.” Dine nodded appreciatively. “It appears we’ll finally go head-to-head for real…but there’s also the meeting to consider. So I’ll settle this in five minutes!”

“Then three’s plenty for me!” Haruyuki shouted as he leapt forward.

Dine’s basic battle strategy was probably striking techniques mixed in with the blindfold of the disinfectant. It was hard to evade or defend against a liquid sprayed over a wide range, but as long as Haruyuki could just put up with the smell, the spray itself caused no damage. And if the amount of liquid in Dine’s body decreased every time he jetted the disinfectant, he could use the technique only a limited number of times.

“Disinfect!” Dine shouted, and he shot iodine from his left hand.

Haruyuki held his breath and guarded his goggles with one hand as he charged into the mist.

“Hah!” He launched a left mid-kick, as if in retaliation for the earlier hit, and connected with Dine’s torso.

His opponent was unsurprisingly determined and threw out a right straight punch in a counterattack, but Haruyuki could see clearly this time, so he was able to block this with ease. Dine immediately shot iodine from his right hand as well, but Haruyuki spun around and took this with his back, then moved into a backhanded blow from there. His fist hit hard along the side of Dine’s cap head, and although he didn’t quite make it spin round and round and fly off his body, the small, lightweight avatar did stagger back.

Now! Haruyuki charged, intending to decide this contest right then and there with a rush attack.

Still reeling, Dine shot off a front kick in desperation, but a kick with no weight behind it was nothing to fear. Haruyuki brushed this away with his left arm and closed in on his enemy.

Bomf! He felt an unpleasant shock in his arm. He’d completely guarded against Dine’s kick, so at first he thought this was damage to the other avatar’s leg. But that wasn’t it—the strong metal armor that covered Silver Crow’s left forearm was cracked and deeply dented. And the silver gleam had disappeared at some point; now it was so dull, it looked rusted…

“Wha—?!” Baffled, Haruyuki once again got some distance with a somersault. Standing up, he hurriedly checked his entire body and found that his arm wasn’t the only part of him that was black now. Any part of his armor that had been exposed to Dine’s disinfectant—chest, shoulders, probably back—had changed color.

“I-it’s rusted?! How…?” Haruyuki was stunned.

“Well, of course,” Dine replied evenly. “You were showered in my spray, after all.”

“Hey!” he yelled back. “Y-you said that this was just some regular gargling fluid!”

“It is. It’s just a little concentrated.” Grinning, Dine continued, “So, Silver Crow, you’re still in junior high?”

He frowned. “Why do you ask?”

“Because you don’t appear to have studied iodine in school. Remember this well. Iodine, the main ingredient in my disinfectant, is a powerful corrosive to most metals. It can melt iron and silver, of course, but also even titanium and gold.”

Haruyuki groaned involuntarily. Indeed, he had not yet learned that in school, and even if he had, he probably wouldn’t have been able to deal with the situation on his first go. Dine’s disinfectant was not a simple stinky, blinding spray, but rather a terrifying jet to exterminate metal colors. The offensive and defensive power of the blackened parts of his armor was already essentially zero. He would have to evade the spray and any blows completely while he dealt damage with his unharmed right fist and legs. And was that even possible against a fellow level six?

He unconsciously touched a hand to his hip and then yanked it away. He hadn’t completely mastered that yet. He had plenty of other tricks up his sleeve before he was forced to turn to an immature technique. Even against an opponent who was apparently a metal color’s natural enemy.

Given that he was so ill equipped to fight this enemy, the old Haruyuki would have accepted that loss was inevitable, and there was a little of that in his head now. But now he had a conviction like a precious gem in his heart thanks to Kuroyukihime and the Four Elements, who had given him firm guidance when he dragged his feet; Takumu and Chiyuri, who never failed to cheer him on in hard times; Niko, Rin, and all his comrades; and the countless friendly rivals who’d joined him in fierce battle over and over…It was still small, and from time to time he nearly lost sight of it, but this gem was always there shining deep in his heart, and its name was courage. The courage to reveal his ugly, weak, awkward, pathetic self.

It was all right to lose. But he couldn’t lose until he had squeezed out every drop of strength and wisdom in his bones and brains, until he’d layered struggle on top of effort.

He took a deep breath and readied himself once again, and perhaps sensing this change in Haruyuki, Dine suddenly grew serious and raised one hand. The spray nozzle in his palm caught Haruyuki in its sights like the barrel of a gun.

It seemed about 10 percent of the disinfectant in his torso was used up with every shot, so he had about 70 percent left. Meaning the tank would be emptied if he fired another seven times, but of course Dine already knew that. And then there was the pressing question of whether Dine’s disinfectant would run out before Haruyuki’s armor was completely corroded.

“It ends here!!” Haruyuki shouted, and he kicked at the ground. He closed the distance with a high-speed dash straight at his opponent.

Judging in an instant that this was not a feint, Dine thrust out his other hand as well and shot mist from both nozzles simultaneously.

Haruyuki was definitely not going to be able to evade this double cloud. Instead he abruptly decelerated as he deployed Silver Crow’s greatest weapon, tucked away on his back—his silver wings. The vanishingly thin metal fins were flecked with black, perhaps because some bit of the disinfectant had penetrated his armor, but the damage was not such that they had lost their function. Bracing his feet firmly, he faced forward and released his propulsive force for a counterspray of sorts.

Pwah! The air twisted violently, and the brown mist was instantly pushed back before Haruyuki’s eyes.

“Hyoya—?!” Dine let out a shriek that was maybe English, maybe Japanese, as he tried to protect his face, but he was a touch too late. The disinfectant glommed on to his eye lenses. “It buuuuurns!!” he yelped, rubbing his eyes.

Of course, Haruyuki did not let this opportunity pass. “Unh…Yaah!” Reversing the thrust of his wings, he came into a full-speed, low-level dash. He stabbed at Dine’s torso with a left toe kick, digging into him. He heard the dull roar of impact and saw the semitransparent armor buckle inward over five centimeters. The intense shock finally did real damage to his enemy’s health gauge.

The way Haruyuki usually fought, he would normally bring it home here with an aerial combo using the wings on his back, but it was too dangerous to fight this opponent with his wings left deployed. Hurriedly storing them on his back, he once again put some distance between them.

“As if I would let you get away!” Dine crossed both arms and then, his eyes shining bright red, cried out, “Acid Mist!!”

Special attack!! Haruyuki tried desperately to escape the range of the technique, but it was a waste of his energy. The bright-red mist that shot from Dine’s hands spread across the stage with a force several tens of times greater than that of his regular spray to swallow Haruyuki completely.

From far, far away, he could hear the members of Prominence shouting.

“Hey! Whoa! Don’t drag the Gallery into this!”

“Get back! Get out of the way! You’ll take damage!”

But Haruyuki didn’t have the mental leeway to pay the voices any mind. Before his eyes, his armor darkened as it touched the red mist, and his health gauge dropped vigorously while a burning pain danced across his nerves.

He assumed from the name that the technique scattered a powerful acid over a wide range. Even if he wanted to try to outrun it, the mist was steadily melting away even the ground, which was as a rule indestructible, leaving behind a viscous sludge that trapped his feet. The special attack was simple, but the effect was great and terrifying. His only remaining means of escape was his flight ability, but if he deployed his wings in this mist, the already injured metal fins might very well take decisive damage.

So what would the high rankers of Nega Nebulus do at a time like this?

Kuroyukihime always moved by hovering, so the viscous sludge wouldn’t affect her. She would escape the acidic cloud in an instant and rain painful counterattacks down on her enemy.

Fuko’s wheelchair might not be able to move because of the sludgy earth, but she had the Enhanced Armament Gale Thruster. All she would have to do was fire those boosters with their sturdy armor to break free of the mist.

Utai had no particular special means of movement, but she did have an incredibly powerful fire attack, befitting her nickname Shrine Maiden of the Conflagration. With one shot of her special-attack Flame Torrents, she could make anything evaporate, including this mist.

For Akira, the acid mist most likely would have no meaning. Her flowing-water armor could purify impurities, although it might take a bit of time, so she would have been able to neutralize the acidic mist without any problems.

Unfortunately, Haruyuki couldn’t copy any of those strategies. In which case, what would the final member of the former Four Elements do—the Anomaly, Graphite Edge?

The dual swordsman had poured all the potential of his duel avatar into his two swords, to the point where Fuko had declared that he was more sword than person. As far as Haruyuki knew, the avatar himself had absolutely no special abilities. His armor was also thin, and it didn’t seem that he would have any particular way of handling this mist, but Haruyuki absolutely could not picture a scenario in which Graphite Edge just stood there and let his health gauge drop until he eventually collapsed. He would casually, lazily come up with another way of escaping that no one else would even dream of.

Right. Graphite Edge’d probably…

A chemical reaction flashed in his mind, a mix of his own knowledge and this idea, and fireworks went off inside his head. If the sky was no good, then he had to go…

“Down!!” He lined up the fingers of his right hand and stretched them out straight before plunging them down at his feet with everything he had. Silver Crow’s sword hand, sharp like an actual sword, stabbed deep into the acid-softened earth of the stage, up to his elbow.

Of course, he couldn’t escape the acid mist like this, and his health gauge continued to drop steadily. However, the instant he yanked his arm back, something gushed forcefully out of the hole he left behind—a brilliant blue gas, the poison mist of the Plague stage.

The stage’s terrain effects were random jets of poisonous mist from the earth below. So then, if you made a hole in the ground, you could maybe make it happen on purpose. And then maybe you could get rid of Dine’s acidic mist in a few seconds with the force of that jet. This was the basic idea of Haruyuki’s plan.

He was right on the mark, and the red of the acidic mist was replaced by the blue of the new poison one. His armor was rusted, so the silver’s antidote effects were not activated, meaning this mist would no doubt de-buff him in some new way. If it rendered his special-attack gauge useless, his gamble would end in total failure, but what came over Haruyuki was the sensation of all sound receding. The mist most likely caused an aural obstruction…which likely wouldn’t have any effect on what he was about to do.

“—!!” Letting forth a soundless battle cry, he fully deployed the wings on his back. Now that the corrosive mist had been pushed back, there was no risk of damage to his metallic fins. The poison mist was too thick for him to see the sky, but he turned his head back in the opposite direction of the ground and vibrated his wings with all his might. The viscous gray liquid holding his legs stretched out like rubber, impeding his takeoff, but only for an instant. The adhesive power of the half-melted ground was no match for the thrust of the silver wings Haruyuki had so carefully cultivated, and his avatar shot up into the sky.

He cut through the concentration of poison mist and ascended with ever-greater speed. He couldn’t hear the wind in his ears or the voices of the Gallery below because of the obstruction to his hearing. In a silent world, he raced up toward a yellowish-green sky.

Once he was over a hundred meters up, he spread his wings and abruptly decelerated, shifting into hovering mode as he looked downward. On the east side of the park, the crimson acid mist that had shot from Dine’s hands started to mix with the blue poisonous mist that had jetted up from the ground in complex patterns, giving shape to a chaotic situation.

The silhouette whirling his head around on the edge of the doubly poisoned area had to be Iodine himself. Apparently, he didn’t take damage from the acid mist he produced, but because he could no longer hear after touching the blue mist, he hadn’t noticed Haruyuki shooting up into the sky.

In contrast with Dine’s robust health gauge, still at 70 percent, Haruyuki’s was at 30. This was his last chance to turn this fight around.

“Here…we…gooooooo!!” He could barely hear his own voice, but he shouted with all he had anyway as he plummeted like a shooting star. The tip of his right leg, extended like a lance, compressed the air, making it glow red. Even his blocked ears could faintly pick up the high-pitched sound.

On the ground, Dine finally noticed it, too. He turned his head up. But a millisecond later, Haruyuki’s fully powered dive kick stabbed into the body of the “Antidote King.”

He wasn’t aiming for the head, nor for the arms equipped with spray nozzles, but rather for the lower half of his body, where the armor had been dented by his earlier toe kick.

Haruyuki could hardly hear anything due to the intensity of the impact racing through his body. Silver Crow’s sharp toes brilliantly cut through Dine’s sturdy but damaged semitransparent armor, and the force of the collision sent the small avatar soaring high into the sky.

Having managed to land on his feet, Haruyuki immediately started running to the rear in order to escape the ever-expanding poison mist area as he looked up at Dine in the air.

Dine was spinning around, likely screaming, while the remaining disinfectant spilled dramatically from the large hole in his body and fell as a brown rain. Haruyuki sped up to avoid the droplets, and once he passed under Dine, he turned and waited for his opponent in the place where he expected him to land.

After the direct hit from Haruyuki’s drop kick, Iodine’s health gauge had dropped to 50 percent, and he hadn’t even touched the ground again before Haruyuki started in with his special attack Aerial Combo.

“Aaaaaaah!!” With a force that used up the remainder of his special-attack gauge, Haruyuki propelled himself with a short-distance thrust to assault the other avatar with a flurry of punches and kicks, showy techniques he normally didn’t get to use in succession like this. Every last drop of disinfectant had spilled out of the hole in Dine’s torso while he was ragdolling through the air, so Haruyuki had no need to worry about getting hit with the spray attack again. He charged Dine with all his pent-up frustration multiplied fivefold.

Naturally, Iodine wasn’t simply allowing things to continue in this fashion; he tried to counterattack with sharp punches that showed he was accustomed to close combat, but because Haruyuki was floating in midair, he couldn’t land a hit. Haruyuki perhaps should have been on guard against the special attack Dine could use regardless of how much disinfectant he had left, but he had no intention of giving his opponent the luxury of an opening to shout the technique name.

Around the time when the other avatar’s health gauge was down to 20 percent, the auditory block vanished, and he heard Dine groaning above the din of his machine gun–like blows.

“I—I won’t be done in so easily!”

“Save it! This is my win!!” Haruyuki shouted back and began punching even faster to eat up the remainder of Dine’s gauge.

“That’s enough!!” A cool voice cut crisply through all the noise of the fight, and Haruyuki reflexively stopped his attack with a backward leap.

Dine dropped heavily to the ground, then quickly looked to the center of the park.

Raising one hand straight up into the air from the base of a large withered tree was Ardor Maiden, the referee for their match. The small shrine maiden brought her hand down. “That shall be the end of the fight. Both of you, please stop your attacks.”

“O-okay.” Haruyuki lowered his readied hands.

Dine also stood up slowly and then shook his head as if in disbelief. “Aah, you totally turned that around in an incredible way. Never dreamed you’d escape my Acid Mist like that.”

“Uh. Th-thanks…” Haruyuki dipped his head in an unconscious bow, then looked to the rear, remembering something.

Although Dine’s Acid Mist had essentially disappeared, the blue poison mist was still swirling around on the east side of the park. It would soon be picked up by the wind and start to move, and if anyone touched it, they wouldn’t be able to hear anything anymore. The cloud would be quite an annoyance in the sense that it would obstruct the meeting.

Haruyuki was the one who had made the hole, so he felt a responsibility to dispose of it, but even his wings couldn’t blow away a mass on that scale. As he panicked about what to do, Dine stepped up beside him.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it with my special attack, since you were kind enough to charge my gauge for me there.” He casually pushed his hands out. “Antidote Mist!”

Yellow liquid jetted from the nozzles in his hands and touched the blue poisonous mist. The area of contact glittered brightly as Dine’s special attack purified the enormous cloud of poison in mere seconds.

“Nice fight!!”

“That was a great duel!!”

“Next time, you gotta fight me, too!!”

Cheers erupted from all sides, and Haruyuki hurriedly turned around to see the members of Prominence and Nega Nebulus standing chummily alongside one another on the second floor of the Central Park East building, which stretched out from east to west.

Iodine immediately raised both hands and responded to the cheers, so Haruyuki nervously followed suit as he asked the question that just now nagged at him. “Um, Iodine, so…what happens with the title of Antidote King?”

Dine glanced up to check both their health gauges and then shrugged dramatically. “No way around it, your gauge has more left in it. It’s unfortunate, but I’ll have to leave the title with you until our next duel.” Then he abruptly raised his voice to twice as loud and announced, “Silver Crow! As of today, you are the Accelerated World’s Antidote Kiiiing!!”

Whaaaa—?! Haruyuki screamed inwardly as Dine grabbed his hand and held it up high in the air. He hurriedly tried to yank it back down, but it was already too late. Waves of applause poured down from the East building, and all Haruyuki could do was bring a stiff smile to his face.

Once the impromptu duel was over, and the members of both Legions had assembled in the center of the park once more, they had fifteen minutes left on the clock.

The first to speak was Iodine Sterilizer himself. He turned toward the chair, Utai, and smoothly declared, “Oh, I change my vote from nay to yea.”

Even Utai froze for a moment before responding with a short “Understood.” She sent the brush racing across the white wooden board, putting two lines through Dine’s name in the Nay column and moving it to the Yea column before turning neatly on her heel. “So we have thirty-one yeas and thirteen conditional yeas. I would now like to hear the opinions of the conditional yeas…Could someone stand as your representative?”

“All right. I will,” Haruyuki heard someone from the Prominence side say. He couldn’t tell who the speaker was from the voice alone.

He stared curiously and saw an M-type avatar stand up hard enough to make the ground shake. He was easily the largest of any of the thirty-three members of Prominence. His fiery scarlet armor was thick, but didn’t appear to be cumbersome, while the Gatling gun Enhanced Armament mounted on each arm looked quite powerful. Haruyuki was overwhelmed by the large avatar’s obvious strength.

“That’s the head of Prominence’s Triad, V-Three, aka Vermillion Vulcan,” Akira murmured in his ear.

“Tr-Triad?” he parroted. “There’s more than just the Triplex?”

“They’re the only members of the first Prominence executive branch who stayed in the Legion after the change of kings,” she explained.

“So then they’re close friends…of Red Rider?” He gulped hard, and almost as if sensing Haruyuki’s gaze, Vermillion Vulcan turned his sharp eye lenses on him. Fortunately, “V3” soon shifted his gaze to look down at Utai before speaking in a dignified voice.

“I stand as the representative for the Prominence conditional yeas,” he said, his voice grave. “Allow me to explain.”

“Please go ahead, Vermillion.” Utai ceded the floor.

“Well, then. To get straight to the point, the questions that concern us are who will be the new Legion Master and whether the Legion name will live on after the monthlong period of merger preparation.”

“In other words, do you mean who will have the right to the Judgment Blow?” Utai asked, and when Vermillion nodded wordlessly, tension in the venue rose.

Haruyuki had reviewed how the system handled a Legion merger in Brain Burst just in case. When two Legion Masters with adjacent territory made a formal agreement and the merger was concluded in the system, a merger preparation period of thirty days began. During that time, it was possible to change the new Legion’s name and the new Legion Master, and the two former Legion Masters both held the right to Judgment Blow. In other words, for thirty days, Kuroyukihime and Niko would both be able to Judge all members, which was a kind of fairness in its own way. But the instant the preparation period ended, the right to Judge would belong to the new Legion master alone, and the members of the Legion that person—most likely either Kuroyukihime or Niko—had not belonged to would be left with significant dissatisfaction and unease.

Vermillion Vulcan looked around before speaking again. “Of course, given that we have agreed to the merger, albeit with conditions, we don’t suspect that this merger proposal is a trap or something similar. Hypothetically, if the Black King is the new Legion Master after the end of the preparation period, we don’t expect that she will blindly Judge the members of the old Prominence. However…we never want to lose the master to whom we swore our loyalty ever again. We don’t want to create the possibility that such a thing could happen, even in the worst case.”

His words were calm and rational…and therefore dug deeply into Haruyuki’s heart. The Black King standing in front of him now had been the one who took the head of the first Red King, Red Rider, the former master of the Triad’s Vermillion Vulcan, and banished him for all time from the Accelerated World. Vermillion hadn’t called her out by name, but there had to be some among Prominence’s veteran members who didn’t trust Kuroyukihime—or perhaps even held a grudge against her.

Blaze Heart, Peach Parasol, and Ochre Prison, who had attacked Suginami in the Territories at the end of the previous month, were among those who didn’t trust her. Through the intense battle with Haruyuki, Utai, and Akira and the trading of blows, they’d been able to communicate something to each other—and maybe that was why the three of them had agreed to the merger with no conditions, but he was sure they were still anxious about it.

Furthermore, in the middle of the fight with the ISS kit main body at Tokyo Midtown Tower, Kuroyukihime had apparently had a chance meeting with Red Rider’s residual memory. She had accepted a message from him there and given it to Niko: “Thanks, it’s up to you now.” Hearing this, Niko had pressed her face to Pard’s chest and sobbed like a small child. As he witnessed this, Haruyuki had felt that the succession of kingship from Red Rider to Scarlet Rain was completed, and this also facilitated Prominence’s reconciliation with Kuroyukihime.

But at best that had been a moment shared among only the three of them. He couldn’t imagine that Niko had told the Legion members the details, so it was no wonder that the veteran members still had reservations.

When he thought about it like that, it was practically a miracle that Iodine Sterilizer was the only one who had voiced any opposition to the merger (and the reason for that had had nothing to do with Red Rider). Even the conditional yeas had stopped at eleven people, with the other twenty-one announcing their unconditional agreement. Most likely, Niko and Pard had used every bit of persuasive power they had to win their comrades over.

If that was the case, then Haruyuki and his friends had to do whatever it took to win over Vermillion Vulcan and the other ten. But no matter how desperately he wanted to speak and persuade them, his feelings simply swirled formlessly inside him, never coalescing into words. There was no way Kuroyukihime would Judge the former Prominence members, especially Niko, after the Legion merger. It was easy to say that, but Vermillion and the others were probably looking for something more than words. Something they could believe in, a promise that would make everything all right.

Haruyuki was clenching his hands tightly as he stood rooted to the ground when a firm voice came from directly behind him.

“Please allow me to respond to Vermillion and the others.” Takumu stepped forward without waiting for the chair’s response and stopped about two meters away from the group. He turned his avatar, which was nearly as large as Vermillion’s, directly toward the group of conditional yeas.

“Go ahead, Pile,” Utai urged.

Takumu nodded slightly. “First of all, I’ll state my own condition for agreement. I will agree to the merger only if all Prominence members agree to accept me as a member of the new Legion once you all hear what I’m about to say. If even one person refuses, then I will leave the Legion.”

“Wh…” What are you saying, Taku?! Haruyuki very nearly shouted the real name of his best friend. But a hand reached out from behind and grabbed firmly onto his shoulder.

“Crow, hear him out,” Magenta Scissor whispered in his ear. Her voice was quiet but very tense, and Haruyuki could only nod in response.

In the motionless Plague stage, the air itself stagnant, the only sound was Takumu’s voice. “Nine months ago, when I belonged to Leonids, I used a backdoor program—a cheat tool given to me by my parent—and hid myself from the matching list while I attempted to hunt the Black King, Black Lotus.”

It appeared there were some who hadn’t known about the incident; a low murmuring rose up on the Prominence side. But Takumu stood tall and continued to speak clearly.

“Once this was revealed after Silver Crow defeated me, my parent was Judged by the Blue King and left the Accelerated World, but due to the mercy of Silver Crow and the Black King, I transferred to Nega Nebulus and have continued on as a Burst Linker, as you can see…And that was not my only crime. When I was caught in a real attack by a PK group, although it was to protect myself, I equipped an ISS kit and brought them all to total point loss with that power. I still have not atoned for these crimes. If there is even one person who thinks I should not be allowed to join the new Legion, I will gladly withdraw. That’s my condition for agreement.”

“……”

No one spoke for a while. The first to move was Magenta Scissor, another conditional yea. She put some strength into the hand that still rested on Haruyuki’s shoulder and pushed forward, stepping away from the group to stand alongside Takumu.

“Will you let me say a few words, too?” she asked.

Utai nodded after a moment. “Please. Go ahead.”

The tall avatar slowly bowed at the waist and then made her husky voice carry. “I’m sure some people know, but…I, Magenta Scissor, was the one who spread the ISS kits in southwestern Tokyo, centered in Setagaya. I gave Cyan Pile the ISS kit he used, and I sliced open the armor of many, including Mint Mitten and Plum Flipper, and forcibly parasitized them with the kits. If Cyan Pile’s gonna make you question his crimes, then naturally, I gotta do the same.”

Once again, excited chatter broke out on the Prominence side, louder than before.

This merger was being made so they could fight the Acceleration Research Society. The Society had stolen Niko’s Enhanced Armament and created the ISS kits, and naturally, the members of Prominence had to be aware of this. Although Magenta had done what she had because of her own beliefs, the end result was that she had acted as a member of the Acceleration Research Society. It wouldn’t be any wonder if the reaction she received was one of rejection.

But Haruyuki would never accept a scenario in which Takumu and Magenta had to leave Nega Nebulus in order to make the merger happen. He resolved to throw himself down on his hands and knees or do whatever he had to if there was even one person who raised their voice to say they should leave, and he waited for what would happen next with bated breath.

“Why would you tell us that? You didn’t have to.” The voice, severe like steel, was that of Vermillion Vulcan.

“That’s…” Takumu tried to answer somehow, but then closed his mouth and hung his head slightly.

Vermillion’s voice came again a few seconds later, and this time, it contained the hint of a smile. “You are absurdly serious, Cyan Pile, just like they say.” The auto-cannon user, likely more of a veteran than either Niko or Pard, shrugged lightly. “Whatever crimes you and Magenta Scissor might have committed, if the people involved have forgiven you and welcomed you as comrades, then there’s no need for us to say anything. After all, we’re about to merge with the Legion led by the Black King, and she drove our former Red King to total point loss. So when you look at it that way, there’s no point in reproaching you for such modest mistakes.”

As he took in the silent Takumu, Vermillion’s eyes shone sharply all of a sudden. His voice was powerful once more, shaking earth and air.

“However, the condition we put forward is still not fulfilled. In the event that the Black King becomes the new Legion Master, she could hurt our king once again to achieve her supreme goal of reaching level ten. We want you to show us proof of some kind that this will absolutely never happen.”

Takumu now responded to the difficult problem Vermillion posed. He used his Instruct menu to materialize a silver card item, and this he held out to the other avatar. “This card is charged with all the Burst Points I got in the sudden-death duel with the PK group Supernova Remnant, along with the points Magenta Scissor collected using the ISS kit. There are enough points for a Burst Linker who just hit level eight to go up to level nine.”

The Red members erupted into whispers and murmurs louder than anything so far, and even Kuroyukihime, Fuko, and the others let out faint cries.

Although there were more than a few level eighters in the Accelerated World, there were a mere seven level niners. That was exactly why they were called kings, and everyone knew that the path to this place was endlessly long. Given the current ongoing peaceful stagnation of the mutual nonaggression pact among the major Legions, in practical terms, level nine was nearly impossible to reach. And yet the card before them was charged with enough points to topple the power balance of the Accelerated World; it shone so strongly even in the weak sunlight of the Plague stage that it was almost ominous.

Card still held out to Vermillion, Takumu opened his mouth again. “Those Remnant guys attacked a ton of Burst Linkers in the real world and built up this stock of dirty points through threats and violence. I definitely didn’t want to use them, but I couldn’t think of a safe way to get rid of them. So I decided to have Master—Black Lotus—hold on to them, but she told me that at some point, she was sure I would find the correct way to use them. So I should hang on to them until then. And now I’ve finally found that way.”

Takumu took a few slow steps forward to stop in front of Vermillion.

“If Black Lotus or any of the members of the current Nega Nebulus betray you, please use these points and Judge their crime. They’re dirty points, but…I think it would be acceptable to use them for righteous vengeance. And I’d ask…I want to be the first one you Judge.”

“Of course, second would be me.”

An almost grim determination bled into the calm voices of both Cyan Pile and Magenta Scissor, and Vermillion didn’t open his mouth right away. Takumu and Magenta’s proposal couldn’t guarantee the safety of the Red King with utter certainty. But although it would never happen, if Kuroyukihime decided to betray Niko and take her head, in that moment she would have to think little of Takumu and Magenta’s lives.

Eventually, the auto-cannon user turned, armor clanging, and looked at Niko behind him, who had her arms crossed.

The Red King nodded without a word, then spoke in a voice that made her kingly majesty felt. “You hold on to that. And if you think the time to use it has come, use it.”

But Vermillion shook his head ponderously. “No. If we were to seek vengeance for our king…there’s someone more suitable than me.” He took the silver card from Takumu’s hand and walked over to the deputy standing at Niko’s side, Blood Leopard.

“Leopard. Keep this safe.” Vermillion spoke as though he was ceding a privilege to her and asking if she was prepared to accept it.

But Pard nodded evenly and took it with zero fuss. Spinning it around with the fingers of her right hand, she opened her Instruct menu with her left and tossed it into storage. “K.”

Hearing this simple reply, Vermillion turned back toward Takumu. “Cyan Pile, Magenta Scissor, and the Black King, Black Lotus…you have indeed shown us your intentions. We shall deem our condition fulfilled with this. I and the other ten members change our conditional yea and leave the matter of the provisional Master and Legion name to the two kings.”

Takumu also stood up tall. “Similarly, our condition has been fulfilled. I also change my vote to yea.”

“I’m on board, too,” Magenta added.

All three nodded at each other slightly and then turned on their heels and returned to their respective camps.

Standing at the white wooden board, Utai lifted the massive brush and quickly crossed out the names of the thirteen people in the CONDITIONAL YEA column before rewriting them all in the YEA column.

“With that, all forty-four people gathered here are now in agreement!” Utai sounded proud somehow, and the sound of applause rose up out of nowhere to instantly melt together and fill the stage.

Haruyuki earnestly clapped his own hands together while he glanced over at Takumu standing a ways off. There was no expression on the face mask with its narrow slits, but even so, it looked to him like the face of his childhood friend was shining with relief and satisfaction. Magenta Scissor, on the other side of Takumu, looked the same, and he wondered when exactly the two of them had met to set this up.

As Haruyuki’s thoughts slid in this direction, Kuroyukihime began to hover soundlessly, and Niko took large strides forward from the Prominence side. They stopped in front of the wooden board and opened their Instruct menus at the same time.

“…Finally…” The word slipped unconsciously from Haruyuki’s lips.

Fuko, beside him in her wheelchair, picked up his thought. “Finally the time has come, hmm?”

Akira nodded on his other side without a word, and the three members of Petit Paquet locked their hands together in front of their chests. As for Chiyuri to his left, even now she moved on her own time in her own way.

“I wonder if they’ll make it in time.” She gave voice to an entirely practical concern. “Only three minutes left.”

So Haruyuki unconsciously grabbed her hand. “It’ll be fine. Niko and Kuroyukihime just have to press the button, that’s all.”

“I know,” Chiyuri replied, annoyed, but she still squeezed his hand warmly.

Haruyuki held his breath and watched over the two kings. Soon…in a few mere seconds, the two Legions would vanish and a new great Legion would be born.

In the LEGION tab that only Masters had, Niko and Kuroyukihime nimbly flicked around the screen, but their hands soon stopped. Their gazes clashed for a mere three seconds before they suddenly started to yell.

“Here we go, Rain!!”

“Come at me, Lotus!!”

Huh?! This can’t be the start of a king-versus-king battle?! Haruyuki nearly fainted, but after an instant of silence, the two raised their voices and shouted as one.

““Rock!!””

Niko’s small fist and Kuroyukihime’s Incarnate-generated one swung down at top speed, and the compressed air became a sudden gust that reached even Haruyuki.

““Paper!! Scissors!!””

The two fists shot out with even greater force, and a shock wave, the aftermath of some kind of explosive-type special attack, shook the entirety of the stage. The energy generated was far greater than from the rock-paper-scissors competition of the six candidates for meeting chair, causing the members of both Legions to reel backward. Haruyuki braced himself to ride out the shock wave, determined to see the results of this contest.

Niko had thrown paper.

Kuroyukihime had thrown scissors.

The two kings remained motionless for about three seconds, and then the Red King slowly roused herself and raised her still-open hand in submission.

“Aah, I lose. Which means…” Niko turned back to the forty-plus Burst Linkers watching with bated breath, her small avatar radiating dignified authority as she announced, “For the monthlong prep period, it’s gonna be Black here doing the Legion Master thing! And we’ll inherit Nega Nebulus as the provisional Legion name! The official new master and Legion name’ll be discussed again in a month! Anyone got any complaints about this decision?!”

Haruyuki looked over at the members of Prominence, his heart in his mouth. Naturally, the ten on the Nega Nebulus side had no objections, but for the thirty-two on the Prominence side, even if it was just a provisional master for a single month—and even if it was the Red King’s decision—he thought it would still be a pretty tough thing to accept.

“No objections!!” the head of the Triad, Vermillion Vulcan, shouted loud and clear. The other members nodded one after another at the authoritative words of the one who had first voiced concerns about the Black King becoming Legion Master.

“So then, once again…” With a flourish that was suddenly lacking in dignity, Niko tapped away at her Instruct menu, and Kuroyukihime similarly moved her right hand. In front of each of them, a clear window of shining gold appeared, looking like no ordinary thing.

The two kings nodded at each other and raised their hands high. Moving so fast that he could hear the sound of the air ripping, they hit the centers of the two windows.

At the same time that both windows disappeared, a sublime sound he’d never heard before rang through the stage, and a brilliantly dazzling golden light enveloped the duel avatars gathered there. Haruyuki saw the system message YOUR LEGIONS HAVE BEEN COMBINED!! before it was enveloped in flames and disappeared. At last, the merger between Prominence and Nega Nebulus was done.

Haruyuki hung his head low, slammed with all kinds of feelings he couldn’t quite name, and saw the shadow of someone walking up to him. He hurried to lift his head and found Iodine Sterilizer there, wearing his hat and cloak once again. He couldn’t see the other avatar’s face mask, hidden as it was by the wide brim, and he braced himself, wondering what on earth he was planning to say.

“Looking forward to fighting together, Antidote King.” The voice was curt, but also embarrassed somehow, as Dine stuck a hand out.

“Right. Let’s fight again one of these days. I’m looking forward to it.” Haruyuki shook the hand of his new friendly rival and reassuring friend.

When he returned to the real world’s Nakano Central Park and lifted his eyelids, the first thing that leapt into Haruyuki’s field of view was Kuroyukihime sitting across from him. She was looking at her open hand with a complicated expression on her face.

“K-Kuroyukihime,” he started. “Is something the matter with your hand?”

She smiled as she shook her head. “No, nothing. I just feel as though that little Niko went and lost the final rock-paper-scissors to me on purpose…Anyway, isn’t there someone you have to report to right away?”

“Huh?” Blinking in confusion, Haruyuki looked to his right for some reason, and there was the face of Rin Kusakabe sitting on her knees, leaning forward to the very close range of approximately five centimeters. “Whoa! …S-sorry for the wait, Rin.” He threw his head back reflexively.

“Wh-what happened, Arita?” Rin brought her face in ever closer. Her extremely thin voice was filled with an anxiety that threatened to spill over any second, and Haruyuki hurriedly put a smile on his face.

“It’s okay. The Legion merger went off without a hitch…Well, I also got a weird title— Whoa?!” He wasn’t able to finish because of the arms that were suddenly flung around his neck.

Rin threw herself at him, large tears brimming in her eyes as she murmured, “Thank goodness!” and squeezed tightly.

“Hey, hey, heeeeey! Slow down! Too close there!!” Chiyuri grabbed Rin’s collar and tried to peel her off, but her arms showed no signs of loosening.

“N-no! Um.” Haruyuki flapped both hands and hurriedly started talking to the small ear immediately to the left of his face. “W-we still have a ways to go! I mean, we gotta go through the whole entry procedures for Ash, Utan, and Olive!”

The statement led him to imagine what would happen if he accelerated like this and met Ash Roller, and Haruyuki grew even paler.