Accel World - Volume 21 - Chapter Pr

What was strength for a Burst Linker? The answer to this question, of course, depended on the person. If you took a thousand Burst Linkers, you would find a thousand kinds of strength.

The Black King had cutting power, the Red King, fire power, and the Green King, defensive power. Sky Raker had flight power. Blood Leopard had running power. Ardor Maiden had purification power. And while there were some with idiosyncratic powers such as Ash Roller’s motorcycle power and Chocolat Puppeter’s chocolate power, every single Burst Linker worked and fought every day toward a strength that was theirs and theirs alone.

For Haruyuki, speed was his strength. His only focus for a period after he first became a Burst Linker was moving faster, flying faster. He believed he would be stronger if only he were faster. But from his fights with powerful enemies and friendly rivals, he had learned that speed came in different forms, too.

When it came to simple duel avatar movement speed, he could probably hold his own against Kuroyukihime and Pard, who were also fighting types. But he was under absolutely no delusion that he could beat either of them in close combat. In the do-or-die moment, both displayed extraordinary reaction speed. Even if Haruyuki glued himself to them, throwing punches with his full weight behind them, they could easily handle his attacks and hit him back with powerful counterattacks.

And then there was a kind of speed that was more big picture, fundamental. This was the speed of thought—instantaneous force and reaction speed. For all the high rankers Haruyuki knew well, no matter how unexpected the situation, they would never freeze in surprise for more than a fraction of an instant. Where Haruyuki would gape for a full three seconds, they were able to reassess the situation and take appropriate action immediately. Of course, this was partially due to the many long hours they had spent fighting in the Accelerated World, but more than anything, Haruyuki felt the difference was in their mental readiness, an awareness that anything and everything could happen in Brain Burst and that if they didn’t handle things right in the moment, it could bring about fatal results.

If Haruyuki had had that readiness and power of instantaneous thought, he might have been able to deal with Dusk Taker’s special attack Demonic Commandeer the first time he’d seen it, managed to not be parasitized by the Armor of Catastrophe, and rescued Ardor Maiden from the Castle’s Suzaku gate according to plan.

Looking back on it all, though, he could see that his many failures had turned into the seeds for his growth. But that was only because so many people had helped him, and he’d managed to solve those problems in the end. It was plenty possible for it to have all turned out in the worst way and for him to have never gotten the chance to learn from and move past his failures.

Which was exactly why Haruyuki had decided in his heart that the next time he was in an unexpected situation, no matter how surprising and how impossible the phenomenon confronting him, he wouldn’t let the gears in his mind stop turning. He wouldn’t stand there dumbfounded and wait for someone to give him instructions. He wanted to be the fastest; he needed to move instantly and do what had to be done.

And that “next time” was this moment.