Accel World - Volume 23 - Chapter 11

11

Smelling disinfectant and flowers, he slowly opened his eyelids.

The first thing he saw was a pair of obsidian eyes peering at his face from a mere thirty centimeters away. Unable to say anything, he simply met her gaze.

The pale lips moved, almost trembling, as their owner cried faintly, “Haruyuki.”

Tsubomi and Haruyuki had been in the Unlimited Neutral Field for just under an hour. Given that they were prepared initially to spend over three days there, they had been able to achieve their objective surprisingly fast, but the three and a half seconds since they dived had no doubt been painfully long for Kuroyukihime.

“Kuroyukihime.” Feeling something hot welling up in his chest, Haruyuki was about to continue. But he didn’t manage to get any words out, because Tsubomi leapt to her feet and yanked out the XSB cable in his Neurolinker. He pulled the other end out of his own as he quickly stood up.

Tsubomi leaned over the bed as though the other two didn’t even exist and stared intently at Megumi. Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime stood next to her.

She continued to sleep.

There was no expression on her face, which was beautiful enough to elicit a gasp. Her breathing, too, was extremely quiet, and if the flimsy blanket hadn’t moved faintly up and down, it would have been easy to wonder if she were alive at all.

Five seconds. Ten seconds.

Megumi still did not wake up.

Rose had definitely leapt into the portal holding Oracle. At that point in time, Megumi should have burst out and her consciousness been freed from the quantum circuit. And yet. Why?

“Megumi,” Kuroyukihime murmured and gently held the hand that was poking out from under the blanket. “Come back, Megumi. You saved me in Okinawa. So this time I want to save you. I want you to be free of everything that’s torturing you so we can laugh together again. So…” Perhaps having no other words, she bent over and pressed her forehead to Megumi’s hand.

Meanwhile, Tsubomi slowly straightened up from where she was leaning over the bed and took a step, then another back. As if unable to accept the fact that Megumi was not waking up, she shook her head slightly.

In a trance, Haruyuki stepped in between them and placed one hand on Kuroyukihime’s back and grabbed Tsubomi’s hand with his other. “It’s okay. I’m sure she’ll wake up. I just know it was Wakamiya who called Rose’s divination flower petals… So, so… I know…”

Then he felt the air in the hospital room shudder gently. Someone’s voice echoed from a distance, quietly, kindly.

Come on now, Orkki. It’s time to wake up…

Haruyuki saw the long lashes lining the closed eyes tremble.

Slowly, so slowly, the eyelids lifted.

The dappled light streaming through the lace curtains shimmered in her light-brown eyes. They blinked once, twice… and one more time.

A glance, to Kuroyukihime. From barely parted lips, a breathless voice spilled out. “… hime…”

Head hanging low, Kuroyukihime’s shoulders jumped. Slowly, bit by bit, she lifted herself up. The instant she saw Megumi’s face, she shuddered once more. “Megumi.”

The other girl smiled like a flower coming into bloom. After nodding gently, she shifted her gaze. She looked straight at Haruyuki and said, “Thanks,” as though she understood everything that had happened in the Accelerated World.

Moving further, the eyes turned to Tsubomi. A puzzled look came over her pale face. But that, too, was only for an instant.

“Milady… Rosie?” Megumi said, and then repeated it as though she had gained an absolute confidence. “Rosie. We finally meet…”

Haruyuki shifted his gaze to look at Tsubomi standing to his left. Her face was blocked by her hair, so he couldn’t see her expression. But from the hint of jaw that he could see hung a transparent tear. It fell soundlessly to the floor. Followed by another. And another.

“… Orkki,” she said finally.

Tsubomi stepped over her fallen tears to throw herself onto the bed. She pressed her face to Megumi’s chest and howled weakly, quickly turning into the wails of a child. At some point, Megumi’s face had also become wet. Holding the weeping girl tightly to her, Megumi nodded repeatedly through a teary smile.

Haruyuki wiped roughly at his own eyes with a clenched hand and looked out the curtained window.

Although the weather report said the day would be overcast, he could see a slice of blue sky peeking through a gap in the clouds.

Taking a step back, Kuroyukihime placed a hand on Haruyuki’s shoulder. It seemed there was no need to say anything, so he simply enjoyed the gentle warmth of that hand as he gazed intently at the turquoise-blue sky.

To be continued.