Accel World - Volume 26 - Chapter 11

11

When he returned to the Lowest Level—aka the real world—Haruyuki was unable to immediately understand the positioning of his body, and he froze in place. Eyes still closed, he tried to process the vast quantity of information pouring into his nervous system: a sweet scent, warmth, suppleness, and a softness touching his lips.

At last, he remembered that he and Kuroyukihime had kissed, or rather that they were currently kissing at that moment.

He very nearly threw himself backward, but then he realized at the last second that doing that from this position would put his full weight onto Kuroyukihime. He turned his focus to controlling his clumsy real-world body and ever so slowly pushed himself upward.

When he had created a distance of about thirty centimeters between himself and Kuroyukihime, he finally opened his eyes to find that she was already staring at him. After a moment of silence, her cherry-pink lips broke into a faint smile.

“Hmm. Even I didn’t expect to be sent to the Highest Level in my real body during my first kiss.”

“Uh. Um. I’m, um, sorry,” he stammered.

“You’ve nothing to apologize for. Thanks to this little detour, I’ll likely never forget this moment,” she said, and slid backward a bit. She grabbed on to the hand he held out and sat up. She spun herself ninety degrees, dropped her legs over the edge of the sofa, and tidied her slightly mussed hair and rumpled dress.

Haruyuki was absently entranced by this movement, and then came back to himself hurriedly. “Um. I’ll get drinks! Is tea all right?”

In the kitchen, he filled new glasses with ice, poured some chilled green tea, and returned to the living room, where Kuroyukihime was leaning back into the sofa, twisting from side to side, deep in thought.

So as not to disturb her, he set the tray down gently on the low table, then placed the glasses on ceramic coasters and slid one in front of Kuroyukihime.

She noticed this a few seconds later. “Thank you.” She picked up the glass and took a sip before saying, “A portal inside of Tezcatlipoca. Where could it possibly lead?”

“Right?” He sat down next to her and put his own thinking on the matter into words. “If we’re looking at it from a game theory kind of view, then it’d be something like the portal becomes usable when Tezcatlipoca is defeated. But I don’t know if there’s any place you’d want to go so badly that it’s worth the risk of challenging an Enemy even stronger than the Four Gods.”

“Hmm!” Kuroyukihime said, in a little cry of realization. “So if we’re thinking along those lines, then wouldn’t the portal exit into the Castle? Defeat Tezcatlipoca and you get a free pass inside without having to deal with the Gods?”

“O-oh, I guess maybe.” He nodded. “If it exits into the Castle, then the risk and the benefit maybe just barely balance out.”

They looked at each other and then sighed in unison.

“Well, given our current situation, it’s all the stuff of dreams,” she said. “I don’t have the first hint of an idea on how to defeat that giant.”

“Me, neither,” he replied. “But the thing that kind of bugs me is that thing Enju—I mean, the White King—mentioned before, the E-Excer…”

“Exercitus,” she offered.

“That’s the one. This Exercitus, does the fact they sent a scouting party to follow Tezcatlipoca mean they’re maybe planning to attack it?”

“I’d like to say that’s absurd, but I honestly don’t know. If they really do have five hundred members, we can assume that at least half are level four or higher and thus able to enter the Unlimited Neutral Field. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were working on an attack strategy, at the very least.” Kuroyukihime brought her iced tea to her lips once more.

Haruyuki also felt thirsty and gulped cool liquid from his own glass. He crunched down on the ice that tumbled into his mouth and then sighed.

“Overall, I think it’s a good thing,” she said, out of the blue, and Haruyuki turned to look at her.

“Huh?” He frowned. “What is?”

“Exercitus,” she replied simply. “For a long time, the Accelerated World has stagnated under the control of the six Great Legions. When I revived Nega Nebulus last fall, it was with the intention of overthrowing that status quo. But not only did I not take the heads of the Kings of Pure Color, I merely changed the system of six Great Legions to that of seven Great Legions.”

“That wasn’t your fault, though,” he protested. “There was so much that was totally beyond your control. The whole Chrome Disaster thing was in January, and then the fight against the Acceleration Research Society’s been going on since April, so.”

“Well, hmm. At any rate, if the small and midsize Legions have formed an alliance to upend the stagnation created by the seven Great Legions, then the Accelerated World might begin to move in big ways again. And then a flood that not even Enju can control will come rushing in and sweep us away. I have to say, I’m a little looking forward to it.” She murmured the last part as if she were more talking to herself, raised her glass to eye level, and made the ice rattle in a gesture that seemed to celebrate those who would challenge her.

Haruyuki watched this with a pain in his heart. Even if the Legions under the Exercitus umbrella did attack the Suginami area, he wouldn’t be able to stand and face them alongside Kuroyukihime, Chiyuri, Takumu, and everyone else. In fact, next Saturday, he would definitely be added to the attack team in the attempt to take back Minato Area No. 3 from Nega Nebulus. If only Exercitus would attack Minato and upset these plans for a showdown between Oscillatory Universe and Nega Nebulus…Haruyuki shook his head firmly to shake off such thoughts.

“What’s the matter?” Kuroyukihime asked gently, and he shook his head once more.

“Oh. It’s nothing. Anyway, um, Enju’s kind of an unusual name, huh?” Even he was aware that this was a rather obvious subject change, but Kuroyukihime only nodded with a smile.

“Yes, and it feels all the more so, given how common my own name is.”

“I-it’s not, though!” he cried. “I love your name!”

“Heh-heh, thank you. I like it now, too, you know. And it has a character in common with your name.” She smiled brightly, and a faint light flickered in her eyes as she continued. “The truth is, there’s a story behind both of our names. I told you before that my mother was born into the Kamura Company family, yes?”

“Uh-huh.”

“The Kamura family has long had a curious custom,” she said. “Girls born into the main family are given a name derived from a tree species, while girls born into the branch families are named after herbaceous plants. My mother left the Kamura main family, but since she married into a branch family, the Kurobas, she should have given her girl children names derived from plants. My name, Sayuki, is from a species, Hemerocallis, called ‘early snow.’”

“Hemerocallis,” Haruyuki murmured, and Kuroyukihime moved her fingers in the air to send a file to his virtual desktop. He opened it to find a flower with petals as white as snow, and stared at it for a while before tentatively saying, “It’s incredibly beautiful, a lovely flower. Um. It really suits you.”

“Hee-hee, thanks.” She moved her fingers in the air again. “And this is the plant my sister’s name comes from.”

He opened this new image file and saw another snowy white flower. But it was blooming from the branch of a magnificent, large tree. He furrowed his brow in confusion. “Huh? This isn’t a plant. It’s a tree.”

“Mm-hmm.” She nodded slightly. “It’s a pagoda tree. In kanji, it’s ‘enju,’ written with the tree radical next to the character for demon. It’s quite the impressive tree. It can reach up to twenty meters.”

“B-but why is your sister named after a tree?” He didn’t get it.

“Why indeed? When I learned of the Kamura family custom, I also thought it strange that I had a plant’s name while my sister had a tree’s. But for some reason, this was one question I couldn’t pose to either my sister or my mother,” she said, with a faraway look in her eyes.

Haruyuki wanted to comfort her somehow, but he didn’t know what to say. Instead, he reached out a hand, and after hesitating for a few seconds, he touched it to her back. When he did, she leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder.

After a little while, she said calmly, “You’ve gotten stronger, Haruyuki.”

“Huh?” He blinked rapidly in surprise. “I—I don’t think so at all, though.”

“Have more faith in yourself,” she told him. “You managed to become my boyfriend, didn’t you?”

No, no! I mean, I couldn’t actually be—! he very nearly shouted and just barely managed to hold the cry in. They’d told each other how they felt and even kissed, so seen through the lens of society, that meant they were dating—and that made them none other than boyfriend and girlfriend.

“Um. Thanks for having me,” he somehow managed to say.

Kuroyukihime chuckled before clearing her throat and saying, “Ah, I’m sorry. Thanks for having me. But if you’re going to date me, there’s one mission that you absolutely must clear.”

“Huh?!” he yelped. “I-in the Accelerated World?”

“No, in the real world.” She sat up and turned her gaze on him directly, glaring slightly. “Listen, Haruyuki. From what I’ve seen, Rin, Niko, and Chiyuri consciously like you. And although they themselves may not be aware of it, Fuko, Utai, and Choco are extremely suspect. Aah, and Metatron, too. I’m not sure about Lead yet, though.”

“Whaa?!” This time, he couldn’t hold his baffled cry in. He set his glass of iced tea back down on the coaster before waving trembling hands in the air. “R-Rin did actually, um, tell me that she likes me. But Niko’s the same as always, and Chiyuri won’t even talk to me lately. Master Fuko, Shinomiya, and Choco totally don’t have that vibe at all, Metatron’s a Being, and Lead’s actually a guy, so.”

“Boy or AI, they nonetheless have the right to love you,” she declared. “You have to square off with all of their feelings and tell each of them how you actually feel.”

“Um. Okay.” What she was saying was absolutely correct, and he could only agree with her. At the very least, he had to take the time to give Rin Kusakabe a proper answer, given that she had gone so far as to put her feelings into words for him.

“Understood,” he said, finally. “I’ll try calling Kusakabe tomorrow.”

Kuroyukihime shifted her glass to her left hand and then patted his shoulder. “Good luck. Sorry to rush you, but the more you put things like this off, the harder they actually get.”

“Right.” He nodded again, and Kuroyukihime smiled as if to cheer him up.

“Now then,” she said, getting to her feet. “I should be on my way. It wouldn’t do for me to listen to you discussing this and that with Fairy.”

“I…guess not.” Shaking off his sadness, Haruyuki also stood up.

It had already been a long day, but he still had so much left to do. He had to put together a team as per the orders of the White King, but he also wanted to call Niko and Utai to check in on how Hoo handled the move. Plus, he needed to talk to Reina about the student council election, and do at least some of his summer homework. And he was also very curious about the movements of Exercitus.

Thinking he’d accelerate to finish that day’s homework, Haruyuki headed for the front door to see Kuroyukihime on her way.