Accel World - Volume 25 - Chapter 6

6

The moment Haruyuki dived into Fuko’s VR space, transformed into his pink pig avatar, he let out a cry just like he had the last time: “He-hyeeee!”

He’d anticipated appearing on top of the massive whale swimming through the sky—her name was Thalassa—but he’d landed on the very edge of the wooden deck on the whale’s back, in a spot where he would plunge into the virtual sky if he took a single misstep. He waved his arms wildly to try to regain his balance, and a hand stretched out from behind to pinch his pointed pig ear. He was suddenly yanked up into the air and wrapped in soft cushions.

“You’re all right, Corvus. Even if you did fall, the space is set to teleport you back after you’ve fallen a hundred meters.”

Haruyuki turned his head at this to find he was being held by the host of this VR space, Fuko. Like last time, she was dressed up like a teacher in a white blouse and rimless glasses. Which meant that it wasn’t cushions pressing up against his back, but rather—

No, no, no, VR, VR, VR, he chanted to himself while he said aloud, “Wh-why is it set like that? If you just made a transparent wall around the deck, no one would fall in the first place.”

“I’ve always hated invisible walls in 3D games.”

“W-well, me too, actually, but,” he replied, still held to her chest.

“Hmph. You look quite comfortable, hmm, Haruyuki?”

“Y-yeah, well, I mean, of c— Whoa!” The instant he saw the owner of the voice, he shuddered with his whole body.

Standing to the right, in front of Fuko, Kuroyukihime was clad in her usual black-spangle-butterfly dress. She thrust her closed parasol into the ground with both hands like a sword, a smile on her face that was one step away from the ultimate chill of the Kuroyukihime Smile.

“Goodness! Did you want to hug him, too, Sacchi?” Fuko asked, and Kuroyukihime turned her face away with a sniff.

“My avatar does not have the same cushioning as yours, Fuko. Even if I were to hold him, it would not be comfortable.”

“Huh? It’s an avatar, though, so can’t you customize however you—” The instant Haruyuki started to speak, her left hand shot out at lightning speed, and she clamped onto his pig nose with her thumb and index finger.

“Oi, Haruyuki. Is it that a boy cannot understand the pointlessness of bestowing a chest on your avatar more generous than that of your real-world self?”

“Hh-hyah.” With extreme pressure on his nose, Haruyuki nodded slightly, and laughter rose from the group around them.

The Petit Paquet group of Shihoko, Satomi, and Yume were giggling alongside Utai and Niko, who had dived at the same time as he had, together with Chiyuri and Rin; while even the ever-cool Rui, Pard, and Akira in her otter avatar, were breaking into grins.

Her face slightly red, Kuroyukihime released his pig nose, and Fuko moved—still holding Haruyuki—to the front of Thalassa’s deck, before setting him down on top of the podium-like desk there.

Even while she was doing this, new avatars were appearing one after another in the VR space. The boy in the black suit with the deer head was Cassis Moose, one of the former Prominence’s Triplex; the girl in the red dress with the porcupine head was Thistle Porcupine, also Triplex; the cute idol-like girl in the red bolero and miniskirt was Blaze. The old-school robot avatar was Takumu, the masked avatar in an eboshi hat and the noshi dress of a Heian-era noble was Trilead, and the last to appear was an animal avatar about a meter tall in a blue kimono and black hakama trousers. The long, slender body resembled Akira’s otter, but the muzzle was tapered, so maybe it was a weasel.

Who is that? Haruyuki racked his brain, trying to remember.

Walking over to the podium, long kimono swinging, the weasel looked up at him and raised its whiskers in a grin. “Oh-ho. This is thy VR avatar, then? Fairly endearing, is it not?”

“M-Maestro!” he cried out, and when he looked with that thought in mind, he realized that the blue of the kimono, with just a little purple mixed in, was the color of Centaurea.

Even though this was the first appearance of the newest member of Nega Nebulus, Seri Suzukawa, on the back of the flying whale, she showed absolutely no sign of panic whatsoever as she looked back at the group lined up from edge to edge. “Oi, Crow. Are you not going to introduce us?”

“Oh. R-right. Um, except for Rain and Pard, I think this is your first time meeting the members of Prominence. And Lead, too. This is Centaurea Sentry. She joined the Legion today.”

“Whaaa—?!” Cassis Moose and Thistle Porcupine leapt back immediately, so forcefully that they dropped off the level deck. Watching as they tumbled down the slippery slope of the whale’s back, Haruyuki sent up a silent prayer.

They waited for the two Prominence members to be restored, and then the first Legion meeting in two days began.

After a few quick words from Kuroyukihime, Haruyuki was given the floor. It wasn’t an accelerated meeting, so their time was limited. He had to communicate as efficiently and truthfully as possible the situation into which Silver Crow had been placed and everything the White King had told him. He closed his eyes briefly and got his head sorted before beginning to speak from the top of the podium.

Seven minutes later.

“Um, so having said all that,” he finished, “there’s a possibility that part or all of what the White King told me about the Accelerated World and Tezcatlipoca is a lie. I think we have to keep in mind that this is maybe false information to manipulate us.”

“Mmm. You’re exactly right.” Kuroyukihime stepped forward and thanked Haruyuki gently, “Nice work, Crow.” She turned to look at the group. “White Cosmos would not disclose information out of the goodness of her heart, with no ulterior motive. We should assume that the majority of what she says is to manipulate. On the other hand, I can’t see any obvious contradictions to the information we’ve obtained ourselves up to this point.”

Fuko and Pard nodded to back this statement up.

Tezcatlipoca was an execution device to end this world. For those in the group who had experienced firsthand the singular power of this giant, it was impossible to completely denounce the White King’s words.

“Tezcatlipoca, hmm?” Centaurea Sentry said, casually, as if to try and ease the tension and break the silence that fell over them, being the only one there who had not taken part in the battle. “So that flaming ball held such a thing inside of it.” The kimono-clad weasel stepped out in front of the podium and crossed her arms. “Well, it must be faced now that it has come out of its shell. The question of the meaning of its existence is secondary at the moment. What must be done now is not to untangle the mysteries of the Accelerated World but rather regain the stolen Crow, yes?”

“That’s true.” The first to respond was Blaze Heart of the old Prominence. A member of Heliosphere, the second or third top idol group in the Accelerated World, she had a fierce and passionate soul in contrast with her adorable appearance. She had also broken the cease-fire between the Legions and attacked the Suginami area. At the last meeting, she had announced to Kuroyukihime that she hadn’t forgiven her for sending Red Rider to total point loss, so she likely had ill feelings in her heart about the merger of Nega Nebulus and Prominence, and yet she let no sign of that show in her attitude as she continued speaking.

“Our ultimate objective is to kick the White King and her minions to the curb and ensure that Oscillatory and the Acceleration Research Society don’t cause any more chaos in the Accelerated World. And make them pay for all their evil deeds. For that, we definitely need Silver Crow. We gotta get him out and move onto the next stage!”

“Yeah!” Niko slapped her fist into her open palm and made her princely avatar take a step forward. “No matter how strong that big thing is, they can’t bring it into normal duels or the Territories. Once we can get Crow back, we attack the White territory with the combined forces of the six—no, five—Legions and bring the Legion to its doom. Meeeeaning we gotta start focusing on rescuing Crow and think!”

These were truly the words of a king, rousing the spirits of all those who heard them, and cries of “All right!” and “Yeah!” rose from the meeting participants.

The instant this clamor died down, a calm voice came from the rear of the group.

“In that case, there’s only one way to proceed.” Takumu stood up, his voice cool but girded with a hidden fire. “It’ll be difficult to destroy Tezcatlipoca with a direct attack. If we make one mistake, someone else—maybe several someones—might end up in Unlimited EK. But the White King faces the same basic danger there.”

Chiyuri, in her cat-eared avatar, had listened silently up to that point, and now she cried out, “Right! We just have to release the taming! Then Tezcatlipoca’ll stop listening to the White King’s orders, and we can create an opening for Crow to escape!”

“Mm-hmm, exactly. But…” Takumu trailed off, and Trilead, beside him, picked up the thought.

“To undo the taming, we have to destroy the Luminary crowns that bind the Enemy. But on top of the fact that there are now six of them, we must also assume that as with Inti, they have been enhanced to nullify flame and physical attacks. Essentially.”

The assembled Burst Linkers began to whisper and murmur at this.

It was true that Tezcatlipoca would no longer obey the White King’s orders if they could destroy the crowns. And judging from their experience thus far, once freed from the Luminary’s control, Enemies were rendered immobile for at least three seconds. If Haruyuki flew at full speed, that was plenty of time for him to escape the range of the gravity attack.

But just as Lead noted, destroying the crowns after they’d been enhanced by the blacksmith would be no easy feat. It was exactly because they hadn’t been able to do this with Inti that Haruyuki had cut into the main body with Omega style. How were they supposed to destroy the crowns when they repelled both physical and flame attacks?

“And we can’t say for sure about electrical attacks or ice, either,” Teacher Fuko noted, standing to the right of the podium, and several people nodded deeply.

“So then there’s only one answer. We’ll just have to use Incarnate techniques. We couldn’t with Inti because just approaching to cut the crown with Incarnate would have burned up both the Enhanced Armament and the user of the technique, but Tezcatlipoca has no damage field. If we could approach at super-high speed and destroy the crowns in a single blow…”

“However, Raker.” The weasel jumped up onto the podium, pulled out a miniature traditional metal tobacco pipe from the breast of her kimono, and waved it lightly like a sword. “It is not such a simple matter as you say to cut with Incarnate an object that is impervious to physical damage. Additionally, from what we are hearing here, we must cut these six crowns or what have you simultaneously, yes? Are you able to bring together six such skilled swords?”

“There’s one right here,” Kuroyukihime said immediately, thrusting her parasol down onto the deck with a loud sound, and everyone stared at her.

“Y-you can’t!” Haruyuki cried out, and several other voices of the same opinion joined his.

“Lotus, the Inti mission was originally to free you from an Unlimited EK,” Fuko said in a reprimanding tone. “If you end up in Unlimited EK once again, we’ll be going around in circles.”

“So then it’s fine as long as I don’t, yes? I’ve seen Tezcatlipoca’s gravitational wave attack already. I won’t be done in by the same technique twice.”

“Nooooo!” Fuko protested. “We will choose our six attackers from those who are not kings!”

“Hmph.” Kuroyukihime was still not entirely convinced, but Utai in her shrine maiden avatar gently patted her hand, and thus pacified by their youngest member, even the Black King had no choice but to agree.

Haruyuki let out a sigh of relief as a husky male voice reached his ears.

“In that case, we can’t put Vanquish—the Blue King—into consideration.”

The speaker was Cassis Moose, massive horns growing from his deer head. He walked as he continued, his shiny black leather shoes clacking against the deck. “The best sword user in Promi is Tranquil, aka Lavender Downer. But it’s unclear whether she wields an Incarnate technique powerful enough to cut through physical immunity. Of the other Legions, the first ones that come to mind are the Leonids’ Dualis, GW’s Viridian Decurion, Oscillatory’s Platinum Cavalier…who is obviously not an option. And then…”

Cassis Moose crossed his arms and groaned.

“But like, there’s the three right in front of us here,” the porcupine-headed Thistle Porcupine interjected.

Her finger was first pointed at the Heian noble avatar in his porcelain-like mask, Trilead Tetroxide. Now that she mentioned it, she was exactly right. Although Trilead didn’t have a nickname yet, with his Arc, Infinity, and his Incarnate technique, Heavenly Stratus, he was one of the most powerful sword users Haruyuki knew of.

Thistle’s finger next turned to the very person who had spoken up to propose the destruction of the crowns, Takumu.

“H-huh?” he said, stunned.

“I totally saw you in the mission this morning.” Thistle began to speak at top speed in a super-squeaky voice. “Your technique with that sword you borrowed from Crow was bananas! You’re always clanking along with that Pile Driver, but your real calling is as a sword user!”

Which reminded Haruyuki—Takumu still had Lucid Blade. What exactly was going to happen there?

“N-no, my true calling is the Pile Driver,” Takumu protested in a panic. “Just producing a sword is my limit with Incarnate techniques.”

“That’s plenty good enough!” Thistle snapped and pointed at the weasel avatar next to Haruyuki. “And then you! Ruthless, Asura, Omega Weapon, aka Centaurea Sentry! I got a million things I wanna ask you, like where you been all this time and when exactly did you join Nega Nebulus, but when it comes to the sword, you’re tops in the Accelerated World. In other words, these three plus Coba-Manga and Decurion, and we got our six!”

“Ooh!” The Petit Paquet group, Chiyuri, and Rin let out a cry of admiration and clapped.

That group could actually get the job done, Haruyuki said to himself.

“A moment.” Seri spun the pipe in her hand and pointed the silver bowl at Lead and Takumu in turn. “We shall have a look at the skills of these youngsters in due course. But Dualis and Decurion cause some concern.”

“Oh? And why is that?” Kuroyukihime asked, and the weasel shrugged lightly.

“Coba-Manga follow in the Infinite style of Blue Knight, yes? As far as we know, Knight is cautious when it comes to Incarnate. Even if he were to guide his apprentices in the way of Incarnate, there’s a strong possibility that he would stop at the first level.”

“That may be,” Kuroyukihime replied. “Blue Knight hates the dark side of Incarnate more than anything.”

Fuko and Akira nodded their agreement.

“Next, Decurion.” Seri gave her frank opinion of the second seat of Great Wall’s Six Armors. “Given that he is indeed a fine sword user, his Incarnate technique level will be more or less adequate. But he is somewhat incompatible with this mission. Because his sword technique has the counter as its foundation, as Green Grandé does.”

“Aah,” Fuko murmured.

“Decurion’s technique has its origin in the buckler on his left hand. Guard, swing, guard, swing—he creates a rhythm in this manner and then launches the killing blow. We have not ever seen him launch a full-powered attack at first swing,” Sentry said, and given that she was perhaps the most veteran of all the powerful warriors gathered there, no one could say a word in argument. Only the sound of the wind whispered faintly.

“But,” Utai said, finally, in a quiet voice, “is there anyone else who might be appropriate?”

Seri turned her tapered muzzle to the left. “Lavender Downer, mentioned by this moose head earlier. Although we were unaware they had joined the Red Legion. Tranquil is good for the fourth attacker.”

“Wh-what?” Cassis Moose cried out in surprise. “Are you saying quiet, reserved Lavy’s a better fighter than Coba-Manga or Decurion?”

Seri grinned at him. “Dear boy, are you in love?”

“N-no!”

“Well, either way. If it is the same Lavender we once knew, then she is in a different dimension from Coba-Manga. Arrange for us to meet in the coming days. We turn to the fifth attacker.” Seri looked at Fuko to her right. “That twisty little fellow who was in Aurora Oval—Strongest Name, is he still alive?”

Fuko raised an eyebrow at this question. “Strongest…Crikin? Err, I feel like Lotus mentioned that name a while ago.”

All eyes turned to Kuroyukihime, and she nodded with the same curious expression on her face.

“Mmm. I saw him six months or so ago. I’d just assumed he went off and lost all his points somewhere, but he apparently moved quite far away from Tokyo because of family circumstances.”

“Aha, retirement due to relocation.” Seri nodded knowingly. “For all intents and purposes, normal duels and Enemy hunting can really only be done in the twenty-three wards of Tokyo and their environs. Normally, a player gradually uses up their points and ends up at total loss, but Crikin was still in good health?”

“Mmm. It seems he made the cousin he lives with his child and then had her make her own child. The three of them have been hunting Enemies ever since.”

“Ha-ha-ha!” Seri laughed with delight. “Tenacious. Very much like him.”

“Um, what’s this Crikin person like?” Haruyuki asked timidly. “I feel like I’ve heard Strongest Name somewhere before.”

Fuko smiled. “Corvus, you fought someone with a similar nickname at the Prominence merger meeting, didn’t you?”

“Huh? Oh! Stronger Name! Iodine Sterilizer!” he shouted, before replaying the memory from three days earlier. “Right, you said so then, Master Fuko. Iodine fought with another Burst Linker over a different nickname and lost. And he became Stronger because he lost. So then the name he was fighting for was Strongest Name…He was up against this Crikin?”

Fuko and Seri both nodded at the same time. But right away, a doubtful voice came from among the meeting participants.

“But the name Crikin doesn’t sound strong at aaaalll.”

The speaker was Yume Yuruki of the Petit Paquet group, Plum Flipper. Satomi Mito/Mint Mitten and Shihoko/Chocolat Puppeter standing to either side of her also bobbed their heads up and down. Instantly, the senior Linkers burst out laughing.

Once this died down, Pard explained, “Crikin’s a nickname. His full name is Crimson Kingbolt.”

Cool. And it sounds strong. Just on the strength of his name alone, that fight with Iodine Sterilizer must have been a good one. Haruyuki nodded to himself.

“But, like,” came a voice from the center of the front row—it was Niko in her prince costume. She took two steps forward, the heels of her boots clacking, and stared hard at Seri. “I’ve heard the name of this Crikin guy at least. He used to boast he had the most powerful long-distance firepower in the Accelerated World ’fore I came along? Dunno if that’s true, but strongest firepower means he’s a pistol-type or whatevs? C’n he use a sword?”

“Yes, that’s it right there,” Kuroyukihime agreed. “I’ve fought against and alongside Crikin any number of times, but when he turns into a robot, he goes blast on the long-distance firepower. I’ve never once seen him use a sword. Sentry, are you sure you’re not thinking of someone else?”

“R-robot?”

Ignoring Haruyuki’s question, Seri turned her pipe on Kuroyukihime. “Oi, Lotus, do not treat us as though we are old simply because of the way we speak. How could I be mistaken? Crikin, you see, he was troubled.”

“Tr-troubled?” Kuroyukihime raised an eyebrow. “That carefree twist top?”

“Insofar as we are Burst Linkers, we all have some angst hidden in our hearts,” Seri pointed out in a ponderous tone, and Kuroyukihime pursed her lips and lowered her eyes.

It was exactly as Seri said. Duel avatars were generated using mental trauma as the mold. Thus, every time a Burst Linker accelerated, they were forced to confront their own weakness, their own ugliness. There were no exceptions to this, no matter how cool or beautiful the avatar might be.

Turning toward the silent assembly, Seri began quietly, “Crikin put forth tremendous effort and located our home in the Unlimited Neutral Field and waited at length before the front gate for us to appear. When we finally did, he revealed the depths his heart. He had always felt some lack in himself when he became a robot.”

“Lack?” the Black King asked. “When he had such tremendous firepower?”

“Silence,” the weasel commanded. “To wit, the main armament of a Japanese super-robot should have been a massive sword. He said that no matter how he wielded lasers and missiles and cannons, he was too embarrassed to name himself a super-robot without a giant sword. Having said this, he wept manly tears.”

“…”

Once again, the entire assembly was silent.

After a full five seconds, Kuroyukihime looked at Fuko. “Raker, which way is southwest?”

“What? Um. Thalassa is set to always fly due west, so that way…I suppose.”

“Thanks.” Kuroyukihime turned in the direction that Fuko had pointed, took a deep breath, and leaned back as far as she could go. “Soooooooo stuuuuuuupid! Crikin, you idiot! That is sooooooo duuuuuuuuumb!!”

Seri’s monologue had drained the life out of everyone present, causing knees to buckle in exasperation, so Fuko generated enough chairs for them all and served drinks while she was at it before the meeting recommenced.

Seated next to Haruyuki by the edge of the podium, Seri took a sip of tea from her weasel-sized cup and resumed her telling of the legend of Crimson Kingbolt.

“Well, all of that is to say, I too thought Crimson was deeply ‘stupid,’ so we refused to accept him as an apprentice with every bone in our body. But I did impart to him the technique for changing a firearm into a sword with Incarnate alone. Transforming the shape of an Enhanced Armament is an Incarnate technique of the first quadrant, Attack Power Expansion, and thus, if one does not stint on time and effort, it is possible to acquire under one’s own power. That said, however, well, I did assume it was impossible. But a few months later, Crikin visited our home once more and revealed the Incarnate technique he had learned. He transformed all the robot weapons into one absurdly massive sword and split one of the maddeningly hard buildings of the Demon City stage in one stroke. Although immediately after that, he was ripped apart by Enemies drawn to the scent of Incarnate, since he was unable to move because of the massive energy expenditure this required. At any rate, that kind of power should be able to cut the Luminary crown. And so long as he has enough time, he could transform safely into a robot in the Unlimited Neutral Field. Which is to say, Crikin would be a good fifth attacker.”

“I see.” Kuroyukihime now nodded with a serious look on her face. “If he could cut a building in the Demon City stage, then it does indeed seem hopeful. But, unfortunately, he moved to Okinawa. We can’t exactly invite him to drop by with a quick message.”

Hearing this, the entire party let out a sigh as one.

Starting at the beginning of the 2040s, space planes had been introduced to fly above the atmosphere at supersonic speeds on international routes connecting major cities internationally. But domestic routes, including Tokyo–Naha, still only used conventional jets. Haruyuki did a quick search and found that flights were two and a half hours and cost just under twenty thousand yen for a return trip, even with a discount carrier. Just as Kuroyukihime noted, this wasn’t a distance or financial investment that allowed them to give him a quick shout to come over.

He remembered the fierce battle with Dusk Taker three months earlier. Kuroyukihime had been in Okinawa on a school trip at the time, but she had taken part in that final battle by unexpectedly traveling through the Unlimited Neutral Field. He was sure that this school trip was also where she had been reunited with Crimson Kingbolt. In which case, couldn’t they do the same thing here?

“Um. What about having Crikin come to Tokyo through the Unlimited Neutral Field?” Haruyuki proposed timidly.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Kuroyukihime said with a groan. “Coming from Okinawa, however, you have no choice but to cross the ocean. And even if he reached the island of Kyushu somehow, it wouldn’t take days but rather months to reach Tokyo on foot.”

“What if we tamed an Enemy that could fly like Cavalier did?” Fuko suggested.

Kuroyukihime groaned again. “While there are flying Enemies that can be ridden in the Okinawa area, taming one requires a rare Enhanced Armament. I have one, so there’s the possibility of readying a flying Enemy here and sending it to pick him up. But the trip takes three hours each way, and bird-type Enemies will come to attack en route. The majority are lesser class, so disposing of them alone is possible, but even a high ranker risks dying if tangled up with several of them.”

“Um.” Rin raised her hand. She was wearing a leather jacket with tons of rivets and ripped jeans with holes all over the place. She spoke in a timid tone that did not match the punk look at all. “For this mission. The other. Four Legions are. Going to help, us right?”

Kuroyukihime and Fuko exchanged a glance and then nodded at the same time.

“They should,” Fuko, Rin’s parent, replied. “I don’t think that even Yellow Radio would say he doesn’t care what happens to Corvus, when he put in the most work, so long as he is safe.”

“So then how about. All the Legions split the cost of. Crikin’s travel expenses? Even if it’s thirty thousand yen, including money for his stay, if we divide that among a hundred people. It’s three hundred yen. Per person, and we could probably. Take that from. Our allowances?”

“Mmm. Well, I suppose so.” Fuko sounded unusually evasive. “For the attack on Tokyo Midtown last month, a similar proposal was made, that we rent a room at the top of the tower and dive into the Unlimited Neutral Field from there. Now that I’m thinking of it, one night there was also thirty thousand yen, hmm? But in the end, the proposal wasn’t adopted. It’s long been seen as taboo to resolve problems in the Accelerated World with real money, for Legions to extract real money from members, no matter how small the amount, or to earn real money in the Accelerated World.”

“Well, every veteran and master is just a schoolchild once the avatar is peeled away, after all,” Seri said, and the entire group sighed. “Naturally, there’ve been some among the Burst Linkers who tried to earn spending money with the power of acceleration, but in most cases, this invites unfortunate results. Regrettably, we may have to abandon the idea of Crikin as the fifth attacker.”

If only I could do the flying, Haruyuki couldn’t help but think.

It was entirely pointless, given that he was in an Unlimited EK, but if he could fly in the Unlimited Neutral Field, he could make it all the way to Okinawa, however hard it might be, and return with Crimson Kingbolt on his back. Even if he exhausted his flight ability gauge, with his Incarnate power and the wings he’d gotten from Metatron, he could make the trip of 1,550 kilometers each way without having to touch down on the ground once.

“Aah!” He let out a small cry. Seri, Kuroyukihime, and Fuko turned to look at him.

“Oh. Um,” he started, looking at each of them in turn. “I was just thinking that it wouldn’t be hard for Metatron to fly back and forth to Okinawa. She talked about going to Mount Fuji like it was just around the corner.”

“Metatron?” A suspicious look rose on Seri’s weasel face. “Is there a Legion member with such a name?”

“Oh, right. You haven’t met her yet, have you? She’s not a Burst Linker. She’s a Saint, the last boss of the Shiba Park Underground Labyrinth. Some stuff happened, and now she’s a member of Nega Nebulus.”

“…”

Seri opened her eyes ever so slightly wider and was silent for about two seconds before grinning ruefully. “Is that so? This makes several points come into focus, then. So you were the contractor then, Crow…”

“C-contractor? What’s that?”

“Leave that for now. At any rate, you can summon the main body of the Archangel Metatron in the Unlimited Neutral Field, then? Rather than ask her to play the role of taxi, we may simply have her as the fifth.”

Seri’s words shook Fuko, Kuroyukihime, and the other Legion members.

Haruyuki was stunned for a second, too, before he hurriedly flapped his hands. “N-no! But Metatron doesn’t have a sword or anything! And I don’t think she can use Incarnate attacks.”

“We will lend her a blade. And if she is a Legend-class Enemy, then she can implement an attack equal to our own third-quadrant Incarnate techniques, should she so desire. Because she and her kind are connected to the Highest Level.”

“…!” He gasped sharply as a scene from the past came back to life in his mind.

When Graphite Edge had been lecturing them on third-quadrant Incarnate techniques inside the Castle, Metatron had said that the third quadrant was nothing more than directly interfering with information from the Highest Level. If she could see through the logic, then it might actually be possible for her to use it. But there was one other major issue in asking Metatron to be an attacker.

“Um, that’s…,” Haruyuki said, taking care not to accidentally link to her. “In the fight with the White Legion, Metatron lost everything except her core information. Right now, she’s recovering at Master Raker’s in Fufuan in a state of total sleep. If I called her, she would wake up, but if possible, I’d rather not do that until her recovery is one hundred percent complete.”

“Hmm,” Seri said, a thoughtful look on her face.

“Crow, I feel the same way,” Kuroyukihime announced crisply. “Metatron has saved the Legion in crisis several times now. Even if it is for a mission to rescue you yourself, I don’t want to push her to that extreme again.”

“Okay!” Haruyuki said.

“Crow, when is this recovery expected to be complete?” Seri asked.

“Huh? Um. She said three days, during the evening two days ago. So maybe around tomorrow evening?”

“Well then, there is no issue, is there? The preparations for the mission will likely take that long.”

“Oh.”

Now that she mentioned it, that was exactly right—to get the six attackers together, pin down the details of the strategy, and set up the support troops would require coordination with the other Legions; they couldn’t exactly just charge off that very evening. In fact, the next evening was almost too soon.

Haruyuki bobbed his head up and down, and Seri nodded slightly in return, spinning the pipe in her hand.

“In which case, the fifth attacker will be the Archangel Metatron. At last we come to our final selection. It’s already a foregone conclusion that it would be him.”

Normally, he would reflexively ask “Who?” but this time, at least, even Haruyuki understood who. If they were talking about sword users in the Accelerated World, then the one name that should have come up straightaway still had not been mentioned.

Apparently having long assumed the same, Kuroyukihime and Fuko sighed together. But neither of them moved to speak, so Haruyuki was about to give the answer when a voice came from ahead of him.

“My master,” Trilead said. “The Anomaly, Graphite Edge, yes?”

“Oh-ho!” Seri said, surprised. “Did Graph take a student other than Lotus? Trilead, was it? Then you are also a user of Ain style?”

“No.” Trilead lowered his white mask and shook his head. “I am unable to completely master two swords.”

“Mmm?” Seri raised an eyebrow. “There are also single sword techniques in Ain style, however?”

“Yes, my master also told me that, but two sword techniques are truly the essence of the Ain style. I would prefer to hone my techniques with one sword.”

“We see, understood. At any rate, if that is the case, even Graph would not refuse the role of attacker. After all, his student is risking his life to save his grandchild.”

Grandchild?

Haruyuki almost furrowed his brow at this, but then realized she was talking about him. The dual sword technique Ain style that Graphite Edge used had been passed onto Kuroyukihime, and Haruyuki was Kuroyukihime’s child and student, so that essentially made Graphite Edge his grandfather in terms of sword school generations. But then would Haruyuki also have to equip himself with two swords in order to study the Ain style?

He glanced over at Kuroyukihime, but her face in profile, lips tightly pursed, looked as though she were far away, perhaps peering into the distant past, and he couldn’t bring himself to say anything to her.

“However.”

Haruyuki heard Trilead’s voice and brought his mind back to the world in front of him.

“To ask my master to take on the attacker role, we must resolve an issue as difficult as that with Metatron—no, perhaps even more so.”

“And that is?” Seri replied.

After a moment’s hesitation, Trilead straightened up and said, “At present, Graphite Edge is locked in the Castle.”