Accel World - Volume 5 - Chapter 10

10

The Gallery, Rust Jigsaw, even the stars fell silent.

In the stillness, a black lightning poured down from out of nowhere to strike Haruyuki, and in the upper right of his field of view, a purple system message glittered.

YOU EQUIPPED THE ENHANCED ARMAMENT…

The cursor at the end blinked twice, three times. Almost as if the Brain Burst system itself were afraid to note the name. However, after flashing for a fourth time, the cursor flowed to the right and carved out a single row of text.

…THE DISASTER.

The darkness overflowed.

A muddy black/dark-gray aura spurted out in several lines from the base of the tail to wrap thickly around his entire body. These immediately condensed, grew thicker, and wiped away the silver of Silver Crow.

Finally, a glassy metallic luster appeared on the surface of the concentrated darkness. A shining dark metal, blackened like the tail. A myriad of armor parts, all with sharp edges, materialized at high speed from his back out to his extremities. These covered his chest, his stomach, his legs, and even the two arms he had supposedly lost, leaving no gaps, creating a perfect blackish-silver full-body armor. At the same time as his arms regenerated inside the armor, his HP gauge was completely restored. Finally, there came a heavy metallic clanking, and a thick helmet covered his head from the rear.

His field of view changed color. A light gray layer was added to everything, leaving only the figure of Rust Jigsaw in the center to stand out vividly.

Haruyuki slowly raised his arms and looked at the ten talon-fingers glittering brutally at the ends of them. Worlds away from the slender hands of Silver Crow, even if they could hold nothing, he was easily convinced that the talons alone would be fearsome weapons.

And it wasn’t just his hands. It was also the torso covered by the thick armor. And the legs, drawing out sturdy, supple lines. And the three enormous claws on his feet.

His entire avatar had turned into a crystal of pure power.

Unable to bear the force racing through his entire body, Haruyuki clenched both hands ferociously, turned his head back to the sky, and—

Howled.

“Gng…Yurooooooooo!!”

Released from his throat was the metallic roar of a beast.

Standing in the shuttle a little ways off, Rust Jigsaw reeled for a moment before quickly recovering himself. Even Jigsaw couldn’t have anticipated this scenario, but the voice he spoke in was filled with the same cool contempt as it had been up to now.

“Heh-heh, interesting. The Armor of Catastrophe? Fine. Recognize that this so-called most evil power is, in the end, an embellished pretense.”

This utterance also felt to Haruyuki like nothing more than a single drop of water falling into incandescent flames. Emotional thoughts were completely blocked. Only a high-speed, calculating logic filled his consciousness—in other words, the question of how to most efficiently render inactive the enemy before his eyes.

He could no longer hear the voice that had whispered to him so many times before now, nor did he feel the anger the voice had led him to. The reason for this was clear. Haruyuki himself had now become completely one with them.

So that’s it?

I’m already…the sixth Chrome Disaster.

I’m sorry, Kuroyukihime. I’m sorry, Master. Sorry, Taku, Chiyu…

These thoughts created a tiny ripple on the surface of his consciousness and disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a purified bloodlust.

Rust Jigsaw moved first.

On top of the parked shuttle, he raised a leisurely right hand and spread out five angular fingers. The hand was wrapped in a dull red light.

Instantly, something strange happened in Haruyuki’s field of view. Several English words were displayed at high speed in the newly added gray layer. From what he could understand: PREDICTED ATTACK/INCARNATE ATTACK; RANGE/POWER ENHANCEMENT/CORROSION TYPE; THREAT LEVEL/ZERO.

“Rust Touch!”

Following the attack name, Jigsaw’s hand released an enormous phantom hand, which grabbed tightly on to Haruyuki’s body. Armor that glittered a dark gray immediately began to cloud over—however…

“Gaaar!!”

With a short roar, Haruyuki flung his arms out. He casually ripped the phantom hand off, and it dissipated into the void. The chrome silver armor also immediately regained its original, almost wet luster.

He took a heavy step toward the cockpit and laughed curtly. “Heh-heh…You said before I should be stainless steel.” His voice was tinged with a metallic edge and twisted strangely. “You were wrong. The reason stainless steel doesn’t rust is because the chrome it contains is passive. It’s the chrome that doesn’t rust.” Once again, a suppressed laugh slipped out. “Your Incarnate is useless against me now.” As he made this sneering declaration, Haruyuki pushed off with both legs like an animal.

In the air, he spread the wings on his back with a flap. They bore not the slightest resemblance to the original simple metal fins. His wings had transformed into something with a weapon-like silhouette, and Haruyuki shook them with all his might.

He simply raised his right hand, and without having to particularly focus his mental energies, a dark overlay spilled out, almost overflowing. This immediately concentrated into the shape of a dagger, like the katar used by Middle Eastern soldiers, as he closed in on Jigsaw.

To meet this, Jigsaw extended a long saw tinged with the red of his overlay from his right arm and went to meet the dagger. Instantly, detailed information raced across Haruyuki’s field of view. PREDICTED ATTACK/INCARNATE ATTACK; POWER ENHANCEMENT/AMPUTATION TYPE; THREAT LEVEL/20. This time, the information even included the trajectory the jigsaw would likely carve out.

“Yurooo!” Haruyuki barked and slid his body about fifty centimeters to the right in midair.

The jigsaw, having the longer reach, attacked first. However, the tip was tracing with incredible fidelity the predicted line Haruyuki had been shown. As a result, he was able to dodge it, despite the fact that normally, even without the relative power difference, the strike was precise down to the millimeter and should have been impossible to evade. He immediately thrust the black katar into Jigsaw’s left shoulder.

Skrrinng! A painful ringing filled the air, and Jigsaw’s body was sent flying from the top of the shuttle. However, displaying impressive control, he was able to tuck into a roll and land on his feet on the surface of the tower.

His body tilted back toward the Earth. A sort of pseudogravity in the direction of the Hermes’ Cord pillar was at work on the interior of the shuttles, but the instant any avatar stepped outside, the ground was no longer the ground, but rather a precipice continuing vertically for several thousand kilometers.

Jigsaw instantly stabbed the saw in his right hand into the surface of the tower to support his body and keep from falling.

Touching down right in front of him, Haruyuki similarly pierced the tower with the talons of his feet and assumed an imposing stance.

“Heh-heh-heh. What kind of acrobatics are you going to show me next?”

Here, finally, concentrated hatred came from Rust Jigsaw’s eyes. “You……ret. Gret. Regret. Regret. Regret regret regret regret!!” The muttered order turned into a scream, and as if guided by that hatred, his left arm began to shine with the largest overlay he had mustered so far.

Shiink! The jigsaw came flying. Red light streamed off it, countless teeth glinting. His arm drew a circle, fast like smoke, and the jigsaw transformed into a giant ring. He then fired it off somewhere; the saw whined as it flew away. It was Rust Jigsaw’s long-distance attack, Wheel Saw. This technique, which involved throwing a rotating saw with extreme cutting power, had previously caused Haruyuki no small amount of grief.

However, it wasn’t moving in a straight line now. The saw completely disappeared from Haruyuki’s view and came at him along a curve like a boomerang. At first glance, he shouldn’t have been able to handle it.

But the detailed information in his field of view appeared once more. PREDICTED ATTACK/INCARNATE ATTACK; RANGE/POWER/MOVEMENT EXPANSION; THREAT LEVEL/40. And then an estimate line stretching from the top of Jigsaw’s left hand, flying over Haruyuki, and coming around again from behind.

Without even looking over his shoulder, Haruyuki waved the tail attached to his back, once, broadly.

Cliiiink! The earsplitting sound of impact rang out, and the rotating saw of the special attack bounced harmlessly away, disappearing into the starry sky.

Haruyuki vaguely understood what the various information displayed in the gray layer was. It was a prediction of the future calculated from vast battle experience accumulated by the Enhanced Armament The Disaster, which was the true form of the Armor of Catastrophe. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how many duels this armor—born at the dawn of the Accelerated World, inherited by five Burst Linkers—had passed through. That data, essentially infinite, were being used to predict with terrifying accuracy every attack from his enemy.

“How? Explain. What is this power?” Rust Jigsaw moaned hoarsely.

Haruyuki glanced at him through his thick visor. “Are we done already? Then disappear.” And he attacked, artlessly, dead-on.

This was not a duel on which the pride of Burst Linkers rested. Nor was it even a simple battle. It was better called a slaughter—no, work.

Unable to use his right hand, Jigsaw went to greet Haruyuki with the saw in his left arm wrapped in Incarnate and kicks from both legs. However, Haruyuki completely saw through each and every one of these attacks with the predictions of the Enhanced Armament and his own inspiration. He moved only the bare minimum distance with his wings and tail as he simply slashed at the enemy avatar.

In a certain sense, this fight was perhaps the perfected form of the Aerial Combo Haruyuki had worked so hard on. Yet there was not one speck of excitement or beauty or pride in it. It was simply nothing more than an ugly atrocity unfolding in the empty sky three thousand five hundred kilometers above the Earth.

First, he cut Jigsaw’s right arm off. Then his right leg. His left leg. And finally, only the left arm supported the avatar.

A minute or so later, having dissected his enemy, Haruyuki grabbed tightly on to the head and torso of the ruins of the avatar that had been Rust Jigsaw, now a lump about to fall to Earth, and yanked them upward.

He should have been feeling absurd levels of pain, but Jigsaw still maintained the energy to smile thinly. “Heh-heh…heh. Praise yourself now. But…my objective’s already been achieved.”

Haruyuki had almost no interest in this, but still he cocked his head and listened to what Jigsaw had to say.

“And in a certain sense, we benefit even from the restoration of the Armor. Tremble with fear. From this moment, this world you believe in will begin to transform. It will lose this show of order, and the original confusion will cover everything. Before the revolution we bring about, despa—”

Gashhuk.

Without bothering to listen to the end, Haruyuki crushed Rust Jigsaw’s head. The avatar threw off a red light and scattered; the Burst Linker who had ruined the Hermes’ Cord Race departed from the Accelerated World for the time being.

No.

Maybe the destroyer in the truest sense was already Haruyuki himself. This race that he had wanted so desperately to save only a few minutes earlier no longer mattered either way to him.

It’s not enough. Something like this, it’s totally not enough.

Muttering in his heart, Haruyuki swiveled his head around. Naturally, there was no one. But the energy like a vortex throughout his body and the destructive urge, rather than subsiding, seemed to burn even more brightly.

I want to fight. I want to beat down more enemies, more and more, one after another, with this power.

He threw his head back, seeking new enemies, and the last remaining spectator stand jumped into his field of view.

The hundred or so members of the Gallery leaning forward in their seats wore uniform expressions of bewilderment. Whispered conversations flew back and forth through space.

“Isn’t that…the Armor of Catastrophe…?”

“No way. I heard it was completely annihilated a little while ago.”

“But, you know…That kind of crazy performance, the Armor’s the only thing that could do that…?”

“But, come on, the look’s totally different from when I saw it in the Unlimited Neutral Field…”

If you want to know so badly. Confirm the truth of it with your bodies. The truth of the legendary berserker, the overwhelming power of Chrome Disaster.

A mad smile bled onto Haruyuki’s face below the visor. He slowly deployed his wings. The long tail folded up into an S and concealed itself in his body. As he was on the verge of kicking off the ground and heading toward the myriad prey there—

Something gently touched the wings on his back.

It was a memory. The memory of the countless duels that had permeated the metallic fins that were supposed to be mere propulsive devices. In particular, the wings, colored with darkness, flashed back for the merest of moments to the memory of the lone fight against the Black King Black Lotus, which had taken place the previous night in Haruyuki’s bedroom.

Far, far away, a fleeting voice was revived within him.

…I’m proud of you…

Abruptly, the talons on his feet held firmly on to the iron plate in an unconscious movement. His body, so ready to soar up into the sky, was yanked heavily back down.

…I.

A single thought trickled down like a drop of clear water in the middle of that consciousness seething for battle.

The strength I’m looking for…shouldn’t be…this blind slaughter…

The white ripple spread out in his head. Instantly, a part of his blackly lit armor shook unstably.

DO NOT FIGHT IT. DO NOT FEAR. THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT YOU SOUGHT, SOMEONE SAID IN THE BACK OF HIS MIND, SOUNDING IRRITATED. NOW, RELEASE EVEN MORE OF THAT ANGER. DESTROY EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU. AND THEN EAT IT. EAT IT ALL. IF YOU DO, YOU WILL OBTAIN MORE, MORE, MORE, UNLIMITED STRENGTH.

Eat? I…I don’t want that…I don’t want to be strong…for myself. It’s for the people I love…To protect my meager but still warm family…And for that person more important to me than anyone, to keep chasing after the same dream, I…

Abruptly, several hazy faces popped up before his eyes. Smiling faces, with their gentle gazes, began to paint over the black waves crowding in on him from all sides.

IN THAT CASE, EAT THEM, TOO. EAT THEM AND MAKE THEM YOUR POWER. NO NEED FOR ANYONE ELSE. DESTROY. SMASH. I AM THE PERSONIFICATION OF CALAMITY. I AM A SYMBOL OF TERROR. I AM THE TRUE CHROME DISASTER!!

This voice echoing like a broken bell.

Haruyuki mustered all the mental strength he could and shouted in return, No! No!! I…I…!!

“I am Silver Croooooow!!”

The instant the cry burst forth from under his visor—

The heavy armor over his body lost its hardness, like liquid metal. Drip, drip. It flowed toward the bottom of his feet, revealing Silver Crow’s original helmet. The dark metal did not disappear, however. It coiled around the silver plating and tried to return.

“Unh…Ah! Aaaaah!”

Clenching his hands so tightly they threatened to break, Haruyuki resisted it. He worked with every fiber of his being to distance himself from the dark fluctuation trying to take control of both his avatar and his consciousness. But after only a few seconds, his resistance proved to be in vain; the evil shining began to return from the tips of his limbs.

This power of control far surpassed the domain of a simple item, stepping even into the realm of a true curse. Not some digital code written by the server, someone’s consciousness itself. And it was trying to fuse with Haruyuki’s own.

He had absolutely no idea what kind of logic would allow this sort of phenomenon to occur, but in fact, although it had only been a few minutes, Haruyuki’s own thoughts were already encountering serious interference. While fighting Rust Jigsaw, Haruyuki had been more than half not-Haruyuki. If he fell into that state again, he might very well turn this fearsome power on his companions, on that someone most precious to him.

Exactly. Just like Cherry Rook, the fifth Chrome Disaster, who had tried to hunt his own “child,” Scarlet Rain.

“Go away…Go away…Go awaaaaaaaay!” He pushed a desperate voice from between gritted teeth. But the Armor had already restored itself to his arms and up to his knees. It didn’t seem that he would be able to stop this force.

In that case, there’s one thing I can still do.

Sharp claws glittering, he raised his right hand and turned the tips of those talons toward the center of his own chest. Five fingers dripping with dull black Incarnate aura, he went to pierce the heart area, the most critical point of a duel avatar—

“Haruuuuuuu!!”

He heard his name in the distance. Jerking his head up with a gasp, he looked down along the space elevator and found there an unexpected sight.

A fresh green avatar with her right hand stretched out toward him as far as it would go. Lime Bell. Carrying her, the sky-blue avatar Sky Raker, flying toward him in a straight line, glittering flames jetting out of her booster. And then far behind, shuttle number one, running along intently on its lone remaining linear wheel.

“S-stay away! Bell! Raker! You can’t come any closer!!” Haruyuki shouted in a daze. Instantly, his mental focus weakened, and the armor increased the pace of its reclamation of his body.

“Run! I…I can’t…hold it back…anymore…!!”

Pwaah! A dark aura erupted from his entire body.

A sharp metallic sound echoed and reverberated as the Armor of Catastrophe climbed up his chest from his shoulders and covered his stomach. All that was left were his neck and head. The heavy metal collected there in the blink of an eye, and began to build back its sinister headpiece. A light gray film lowered itself over his field of view. If the visor of this helmet came down, Silver Crow would without a doubt completely disappear.

However, Sky Raker’s charge did not waver. She began to go even faster, flying straight at Haruyuki.

On her back, Lime Bell lifted her left hand straight up. She spun the enormous bell, dazzling in the sunlight, around once, twice, counterclockwise. Three times. And then a fourth time.

Finally, she brought it down, pointing it straight at Haruyuki, and shouted loudly, clearer than the din of the stars.

“Citron Caaaaaaaaall!!”

Majestic bells, an orchestra of angels, echoed throughout the space. Riding the beautiful sound, a ribbon of light shining a clear green flowed toward him.

Text flickering irregularly popped up in the thin added layer covering his field of view. PREDICTED ATTACK/NORMAL SPECIAL ATTACK; RANGE UNKNOWN/POWER UNKNOWN/EFFECT UNKNOWN; THREAT LEVEL/100.

Haruyuki’s left arm moved on its own to release a dark fluctuation on the ribbon. However, Haruyuki mustered whatever willpower he had left, so much so that it felt like his brain would catch fire, grabbed his left arm with his right, and pushed it back down.

Immediately after that, the clean lime-green light wrapped around Haruyuki’s body.

As if sliced up by the ribbon of light, the dark armor broke into parts all over. The heavy metal once again melted into a fluid, and the tail on his back was even pulled in at the base. The power of Chiyuri’s special attack Citron Call mode two, to forcibly rewind the status of an avatar, was trying to cancel out the equipping of the Enhanced Armament.

Geh…Yuroooooo!

The ferocious howling of a beast filled his head. Echoes of overwhelming anger and frustration. And then in the middle of that—the tiniest bit of fear.

Go away! Go away! I don’t need you! I’m going to get stronger; I’m always going to have the right power now! So…you have to go awaaaaaaay!!

As if repelled by Haruyuki’s cries, the metal abruptly disappeared, leaving only the tail that had appeared first. In the fresh green light, Haruyuki raised his now-freed arms, grabbed hold of the tail extending from his own back, and then put every drop of strength he had into ripping it off.

His entire avatar creaked, and a terrifying pain pierced his back. But he didn’t let up. Skrrk, skrrk. The unpleasant sound of destruction filled the air, and the thick tail in his hands flailed as though it were a separate living creature.

FOOL.

The weakened voice whispered as his back.

IN YOUR HEART, YOU DO WANT TO FUSE AND BECOME ONE WITH ME AND MY POWER. BECAUSE YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE, OTHER THAN MY CREATOR, WITH WHOM I HAVE BEEN IN SUCH POWERFUL ALIGNMENT.

Haruyuki replied firmly to the voice. Even still. Even if that’s true, I reject you. I refuse you. And I do this for the people who gave me the power to be able to do it!!

At the same time, he concentrated the remainder of his will into the hands, gripping the tail. Haruyuki changed that to light and released it.

“Laser…Sword!!”

A clear metallic clang filled the space, like the clashing of pure silver swords.

The snow-white swords of light gushed forth, crossed each other, and sliced halfway through the heavy metal tail. The raging cry of an animal rang out just one final time, and then in the top left of his field of view, a system message flashed: YOU DISARMED THE DISASTER.

The final remaining fragments of the tail melted and crumbled away into nothing, as if wiped out by the light of the sun.

Having used up all his energy, Haruyuki slowly began to fall toward the Earth, but four arms belonging to the flying Chiyuri and Fuko gently caught him.

Apparently, he was out for longer than he thought.

When Haruyuki opened heavy lids, the jet-black mirrored visor of the Black King, Black Lotus, was before his eyes.

“Kuro…yukihime…” Murmuring, he lifted his head. He was in the front row of the crew seats of shuttle number one, parked now. They had laid him down on the bench seat, with his upper body resting on Lotus’s lap.

When Kuroyukihime realized Haruyuki had regained consciousness again, she nodded once slowly. A gentle voice trembled slightly as it came out from her mask. “You came back to us, Crow. Well done…You really…came back to us…”

“Kuro…yukihime…” Haruyuki’s voice began to shake implacably. “I…I’m sorry…I…I…”

“Don’t talk now. You used all your strength and fought an opponent who needed to be fought. That’s enough for now…”

“That’s right, Corvus.” Sky Raker looked back from the cockpit and stretched out a hand to stroke Haruyuki’s helmet tenderly. “You saved the race from its would-be destroyer. No one in Nega Nebulus—no, in the Accelerated World, would reproach you for that fight.”

“……” His heart was suddenly full and he started to drop his head when Takumu spoke to him from the rear seat, his tone his usual one.

“Exactly, Crow. And I’ve known forever that you snap and do crazy stuff. When you went flying after shuttle number ten, it was more like, Ah, here we go again.”

“A-ha-ha! It’s so true! And then it’s always us cleaning up after you!” Chiyuri, next to Takumu, laughed delightedly.

Haruyuki felt he had to stand up for himself. “W-well, I never asked you to clean up or anything!”

“Oh, ohhh. So that’s your story? And after big sister Raker and I worked so hard, that’s all you have to say for yourself!”

“Unh…S-sorry…You really helped me out…”

His four teammates laughed at once at the back-and-forth. After a slight delay, Haruyuki added his own laughter to the mix.

They chatted harmoniously for a while, and then Chiyuri whirled her head to look around the shuttle.

“Aaah. But it totally sucks we can’t make it to the finish line after you worked so hard for us, Haru! And it’s just a little farther, too.”

At this, Haruyuki pulled himself up from Kuroyukihime’s lap and checked the condition of shuttle number one. It was just as Chiyuri said; the machine didn’t look like it was going anywhere anytime soon. The rear, which had taken the full force of Rust Jigsaw’s Incarnate attack, was rusted and crumbling, while the right linear wheel in the front had blown off completely, and the left had crackling sparks popping out of it. It was actually a wonder they had managed to get from where Haruyuki had flown off from to where he had fought Jigsaw.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it.” Kuroyukihime waved the sword of her right hand. “We should simply be glad that the victory was not carried off by that villain…At any rate, after this, it probably won’t be the time or place for any further events in the Accelerated World…”

She trailed off, and Haruyuki opened his mouth to ask her what she meant.

At that moment, a shout rang up from below them on the tower.

“Hey, hey, heeeeeeeeey! Too early for the giving of it up, meeeeeeeen!!”

“Waah?!” Haruyuki cried out, turning around. There in his sights were two shuttles laboriously climbing the tower, weak sparks shooting from the linear wheels. There was no mistake, these were the machines of the green and red teams he had assumed dropped out long ago.

Ash Roller sat in the cockpit of the machine, which was in the lead. But Haruyuki could see neither hide nor hair of Bush Utan and the other Green Legion members, who should have been riding in the rear.

And driving the shuttle behind Ash was the deep crimson, leopard-headed avatar, Blood Leopard. But she, too, was alone; there was no sign of the shooting squad.

The extent of damage on both machines was not much different from that of number one. As Haruyuki and his companions watched, stunned, the two machines staggered toward them and came to an awkward stop alongside them. Instantly, all the linear wheels on both shuttles flew off with a pathetic noise.

“Ah. Aaaah. Mega-solid work getting this far.” Ash Roller patted the side of his shuttle, and Pard, too, gently stroked her steering wheel and murmured, “GJ.” And then they both lifted their faces and looked at the five members of Nega Nebulus.

Cocking her head to one side, Kuroyukihime spoke for all of them. “Well, I suppose I should first say, ‘Well done’…How on earth did you manage to chase after us, even after losing your team members? It’s definitely no longer possible to continue the race.”

“Oh, yeah, right. I kinda just talked with Miss Panther Head here for, like, a minute, right?” Ash Roller said, scratching the back of his skull helmet. “So then the whole team dropped out, yeah? Just took the hits too hard, you know—”

“You talk too much. And I’m not a panther, I’m a leopard,” Pard interjected curtly and picked up the explanation. “Currently, none of the shuttles is drivable. But if our three teams work together, there’s a very small possibility we could reach the finish line.”

“Wh-what do you mean, Leopard?” Sky Raker leaned forward and Pard met her gaze.

“One step outside of the shuttle and you’re on a vertical cliff. But my Beast Mode and Bike Guy’s motorcycle can run up walls.”

“B-bike guy…,” Ash Roller muttered in a complicated tone, but was ignored as the unfaltering explanation continued.

“But that will deplete both of our special-attack gauges. So Bike Guy and I run to that limit carrying Crow and Raker. Then Crow carries Raker on his back and flies to his limit. Finally, Raker flies as far as she can with the energy remaining in Gale Thruster. Although I don’t know whether or not she’ll be able to make it to the finish line.” Pard spread both hands as if to say, Only the gods know that.

At the unexpected proposal, Haruyuki and his friends fell into a dumbfounded silence. The first to break this quiet was Kuroyukihime.

“I see. Interesting. There’s merit in trying. But…naturally, you aren’t offering your help free of charge?”

“That is totally of coooooourse! The prize points for coming in first get cut up three ways! And you guys nick ’em all and it’ll totally giga suck—”

“That’s rude, Ash.”

On behalf of Ash Roller, who fell instantly silent at Raker’s voice, Pard cocked her head slightly to the side. “So?”

“Of course we accept,” Kuroyukihime replied immediately, and the leopard-headed avatar responded with her usual “K” and smiled faintly.

After Blood Leopard transformed into a beautiful four-limbed beast with the Shape Change command, the lightweight Sky Raker climbed onto her back, and then Haruyuki sat himself on the back of the American chopper that Ash Roller summoned.

“Well then, I wish you godspeed. We will be cheering you on from here.”

Takumu and Chiyuri nodded at Kuroyukihime’s words.

“It’s up to you now, guys. Give this event a happy ending for all of us!”

“You can do it, Crow, big sister Raker! And you, too, Leopard, and bike person!”

After dropping his head momentarily, Ash Roller shouted with his usual enthusiasm, “Okay, here we goooooo! Grab on and hold! Me! Tight! Corvus, man! Aaaah, I’d rather be saying that to Master!” The roar of the engine partially drowned out this somewhat pathetic line. Ash Roller spun the rear wheel exaggeratedly before sending, almost shooting, the motorcycle sprinting up the vertical wall.

Following them, making almost no noise, Pard started to run with Raker on her back. The large paws of the cat beast stuck firmly to the surface of the tower, looking for all the world like a cat running up the trunk of a tree.

After they started to move, a loud sound abruptly and wholly unexpectedly poured down from above their collective heads. Cheering. The multicolored avatars of the last remaining floating spectator stand were raising their voices all at once.

“All riiiiiight! Show us that Burst Linker spirit!”

“You can do iiiiiit, Leopaaaaard!”

“Crow! You totally kicked butt back there!”

Some of the cheers were directed at Silver Crow, and Haruyuki unconsciously looked up. They had to have seen him summon the forbidden Enhanced Armament, the Armor of Catastrophe. And he had even thought, just once, of massacring the more than one hundred members of the Gallery with that power. But he heard no voices of reproach. Maybe it was just that they still hadn’t realized the truth of the matter. Either way, the cheers they flung down on them brought a warmth to Haruyuki’s heart.

Apparently, the ascension of the spectator stands was synced to the lead shuttle; the Gallery did not chase after them. In the blink of an eye, the enormous stand and the figures of Kuroyukihime, Takumu, and Chiyuri waving below it grew distant, finally melting into the exterior panels of the gleaming silver elevator and disappearing.

The throaty roar of the engine and the faint footfalls echoed through the space three thousand and some hundreds of kilometers above the Earth. Almost as if the massive destruction only moments earlier had never happened, the silver Hermes’ Cord stretched out endlessly, beautifully, and continued up toward the Milky Way, where the rivers of stars flowed.

No one spoke, and there was no need to. The four headed for the peak of the tower with their own emotions and a single shared thought in their hearts. That’s what Haruyuki believed as he sat quietly, entrusting his body to the bike’s vibrations.

Immediately before he had been discharged from this world, Rust Jigsaw had talked about a “revolution.” So that no doubt indicated that the next large-scale act of destruction would be carried out with the clear intent of his organization, the Acceleration Research Society. But no matter what kind of changes they brought about in the Accelerated World, there were definitely precious things in this world that would never change. Because here and now, the members of three enemy Legions were combining forces and aiming for a single goal.

“As long as I keep this fact in mind, I’ll never give in to the temptation of the Armor again,” Haruyuki murmured, and no voice came back in response.

How far did they race like this?

Eventually, ahead of them, a row of tiny lights that were not stars popped up, creating a beautiful, shining blue ring that wrapped around Hermes’ Cord and disappeared into inky black space.

“Guess that’s the finish line, the top station,” Ash Roller said, slackening his cruising speed. “Managed to run a fair way thanks to the weak gravity, but this is the end of the line for this cool dude. How ’bout you, Miss Leopard?”

“Me, too.”

The two nodded at each other lightly and looked back over their shoulders at their respective passengers.

“It’s up to you now, Crow,” Ash Roller said awkwardly. “And, y’know, however the chips fell back there, you had extreme guts in the battle against that rust dude. Maybe things’re gonna get for-real serious later, but don’t go getting all bummed out, got it?”

Haruyuki nodded deeply and somehow managed to squeeze out a reply. “Th-thank you.”

“Yup. And you better not forget our share, Corvus man!”

“Raker.” To their right, Blood Leopard offered a very brief farewell to Sky Raker. “One thing…Welcome back, ICBM.”

Raker stroked her back gently and replied, equally briefly, “I’m home, Bloody Kitty.”

Once their respective farewells were finished, Haruyuki deployed the wings on his back. Thanks to the Incarnate battle with Jigsaw, his special-attack gauge was nearly charged to the maximum. He flapped his fins lightly and soundlessly rose up from the passenger seat of the motorcycle. He reached out his hand and grabbed tightly on to the outstretched hand of Raker. At this, the lightweight avatar was pulled up from Leopard’s back and drawn close to Haruyuki.

Here, finally, the special-attack gauges of the bike and the leopard appeared to be spent; they both began to slow down rapidly. Haruyuki turned to fly backward and see them off.

“Okay, then! You make sure you get Master there, Crow!”

“CU.”

Tires and legs stopped and rested momentarily on the wall before gently peeling away. Pulled by the gravity of the Earth spreading out blue far below them, Ash Roller and Blood Leopard began to drop leisurely. If this had been the real world, there would have been absolutely no air this high up, but the Accelerated World was apparently set to inflict damage from friction with the atmosphere, and an orange light encased the two avatars. Their silhouettes receded, drawing out vivid tails like falling stars, until finally they released a powerful burst of light and vanished.

“…Thank you.” Haruyuki bowed his head deeply toward the two avatars, who had returned to the real world and once again set course for the peak of Hermes’ Cord.

There was still a fair ways to go before the top station, colored by its blue rings. It was right on the edge of how far they could reach by combining both of their flying abilities. However, Haruyuki felt that making it to the finish line was no longer the key part of this. Three teams had joined forces and done their utmost to reach a difficult goal. That was the most valuable part of this race.

“Let’s get going. Master, maybe on my back,” he said to the sky-blue avatar whose hand he held, and Fuko smiled quietly.

“If that’s how it is, then please hold me in front. We are finally alone, after all.”

“Huh?…R-right.” Flustered, he nodded and brought both arms around the back with the boosters equipped and the thin legs amputated from the knee down. Raker held on as well, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“O-okay, here we go!” he announced to hide his embarrassment and vibrated the wings on his back.

To curb the depletion of his special-attack gauge, he stopped at the bare minimum–strength thrust. Furthermore, there weren’t any other opponents to fight. The two avatars began a gentle ascent, leaving a hazy trail of silver light.

They flew through the silent world, watched over only by the countless stars. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but it seemed like the light from the sun shining above them, off to the left, was gentler than it had been before. Only their small shadow raced along the smoothly curving surface of Hermes’ Cord.

For a while, neither of them said anything.

However, eventually, Fuko, her forehead buried in the right side of Haruyuki’s chest, murmured, deep-red eye lenses half closed, “This sight…I’ve seen it for so long in my dreams…But at the same time, I’ve come to fear it somewhere in my heart…”

The infinitely rarified atmosphere still managed to bring about a bit of a breeze, ruffling her bluish-silver hair. She gently brushed away her fringe with the fingers of her right hand and continued.

“The other side of the sky was an impossible dream. And to make that dream come true, I sacrificed anything and everything. My fighting power…responsibility as the deputy head of Nega Nebulus…and Sacchi’s friendship. I threw everything away, committed an enormous crime, and still my hand did not reach the sky…When I understood this…perhaps I was just a little relieved. With that, I was freed from the deep delusion that had moved me. All that was left for me was to sit secreted away at the top of a tower, forgotten by everyone, and gaze out at the changes in the Accelerated World.”

A faint smile spread across her lips, and she closed her eyes. Her expression was perfectly calm, but Haruyuki saw in the corner of her eye a very tiny particle of light, glittering like a diamond—a tear welling up.

“My dream was too heavy for my shoulders. But even after I dropped it, unable to completely bear that weight, I could not entirely abandon it. This dream that I held in both hands like I was shielding the embers of a flame about to die out…When one day, a little crow appeared in my garden and took it over for me…You have no idea how happy I was…Now, here, I will say the thank you that I haven’t been able to all this time. Thank you, Crow—no, Haruyuki.”

Fuko opened her eyes and lightly caressed Haruyuki’s cheek with an outstretched hand before abruptly declaring in a clipped tone, “You’ve gone to the trouble of holding me in your arms to carry me all this way, but…I don’t have the right to visit the real other side of the sky at the finish line of this race. We’ll switch places. I’ll carry you as far as I can fly. From there, please head to the finish line yourself. This is my duty after giving up on my dream, and your right as the one who has always sought the sky, with so much more strength and so much more seriously than I did…Now, Corvus. Let me down here.”

“No.” At this instruction, Haruyuki shook his head in a gentle yet definite motion. “You’re wrong, Raker.”

“What…?”

“You haven’t given up on your dream. The sky you aimed for is so much higher, much, much higher than mine. I’ll prove it to you now. I…I came to this place now, to the top of Hermes’ Cord, just to tell you this.” Saying only that, Haruyuki suddenly flapped his wings with all his strength.

The ten fins on each side were wrapped in a dazzling white light. The high-pitched ring of resonance echoed in their ears, and an intense propulsive power enveloped them. The stars on either side became long lines and flowed by. But…

This full-power charge only lasted a few seconds.

The sound of his wings vibrating rapidly faded, and the light also disappeared. It wasn’t that his gauge had been exhausted. Despite the fact that the fins were still fluttering fiercely, they were not generating any thrust. Finally, even their forward momentum vanished.

“My wings can’t fly any farther than this,” Haruyuki said to the woman in his arms once they stopped ascending, grinning as he did. “The air’s too thin. My flying ability propels me forward through the vibration of those fins beating at the air. So this high up, I can wiggle them all I want, but I won’t move forward. This game really does get a little too hung up on the details, doesn’t it…”

Fuko opened her eyes wide and listened without saying anything. Staring at her beautiful rose-red eyes, Haruyuki finally turned into sound the words he had kept warm in his heart a long, long time, all this time.

“But…But your wings are Gale Thruster, a booster, a jet pack. In this world without air, even you…only you can fly. So why the booster…That’s because right from the start, you saw not the sky, but only something beyond that. Higher than the clouds, than the stratosphere, and higher still…You’ve been wanting the world of this star. You, this avatar…” Here, he closed his mouth for a moment, and after taking a deep breath beneath his helmet, Haruyuki told her in a shaky but clear voice, “You were born to fly in this world. Sky Raker, the one who looks out on the sky. You’ve always been a duel avatar meant to fight in space.”

This sentence spread out in the rarified atmosphere, melted, and disappeared.

Fuko opened her glittering red eyes even wider. But, saying nothing, she simply held tight to Haruyuki’s gaze with her own. Finally, she lightly shifted her head and looked down at her legs. Haruyuki moved his own gaze in the same direction.

A massive blue planet sprawled there, as if supporting the steel pillar soaring up endlessly—Hermes’ Cord.

The Earth. Illuminated by the sun from the right, it was colored with a beautiful gradation, moving from blue to indigo before sinking into black. Against this backdrop, snowy white clouds drew out complicated patterns, while the continents carved out complex edges around them.

Fuko raised her right hand lightly and pointed at the border between the right half of the lazy arc of the planet and the inky black of space.

Straining his eyes, Haruyuki saw a thin light blue veil there, wrapping up the Earth’s surface as if to protect it from the chill of space. Compared with the scale of the planet and space, this glittering was extremely modest.

“…That ephemeral sky-blue line…” Fuko’s whisper caressed Haruyuki’s consciousness like thought itself. “That’s all of it, the sky that I’ve aimed for, dreamt of, occasionally hated…and then given up on…”

This time, a large tear really did spill from her sunset eyes, falling to drift idly in empty space. Eventually, that drop of water was pulled down by the minuscule tug of gravity, to return to the blue oceans of the planet it came from.

Fuko looked up at Haruyuki again, raised her left hand, wrapped both her arms around Silver Crow’s neck, and squeezed tightly, fiercely. Words played in his ear, engraving themselves into his mind.

“Thank you, Corvus. It’s so wonderful that I could come here…that I could see this sight. I finally understand it now: The reason my legs remain gone…is not because of my attachment, but rather my fear. I was afraid that if I knew the size of the sky…my dream would end. But there’s no need for that to happen. Because…”

Unconsciously, Haruyuki also gave voice to the words that came next.

“This world is infinite.”

Fuko laughed softly in his ear and abruptly planted her lips on the side of his helmet. Like this, she slid over to his mouth before pulling away slowly.

“Huh! Ah! Um!” Forcefully enough to ruin the whole moment, Haruyuki shook his head frantically, and Raker’s smile changed into something playful.

“It was through your helmet, so I’m sure Sacchi will forgive it.” Regaining her usual cool, she said firmly, “Really, thank you, Corvus. I’m…going now.”

“Right!!” Nodding decisively, Haruyuki supported her body with both hands, letting it flow gently in space. Raker stretched out a finger to stroke his arm, touch his hand, and pull away. They nodded at each other wordlessly, and then the sky-blue avatar turned her face to the peak.

The blue rings coloring the top station of Hermes’ Cord, now only a scant distance away, could be seen perfectly clearly now. Along with the artificial lights glittering faintly beyond it. There was no doubt that it was the station in geostationary orbit, floating off thirty-six thousand kilometers in the distance.

Fuko brought her slim hands down to her sides and lit a tiny flame in the jet opening of the streamlined Enhanced Armament attached to her back, Gale Thruster. Due to the almost total lack of gravity here, even with this hint of thrust, her avatar began to slowly ascend. Without looking back, Sky Raker gradually picked up speed. Growing distant. And more distant.

And then, Haruyuki was sure he saw it.

Particles of blue light collecting, condensing, and drawing out a beautiful line at the ends of Raker’s legs, where they had been amputated. This surface, transparent like glass, gradually took on the same color as the main body of the avatar from the knees down. Modest calves, long and slender shins stretching out. Heels equipped with wedge lifts and pointed toes. All of this shone and sparkled in the sun.

“…Ah, ah…” A quiet voice escaped from Haruyuki’s throat. At the same time, a hot liquid filled his eyes.

In the center of his vision, blurred, too, with the light of the stars, Sky Raker, now returned to her original form finally, after three years—no, after many times that in the Accelerated World—pierced the inky dark and flew forward. As if she were dancing, as if she were swimming, she soared endlessly upward, graceful in her acceleration.

Here, finally, the energy that had allowed Haruyuki to continue hovering against the pull of gravity was exhausted.

Fighting against the virtual gravity that tried to pull his avatar gently downward, Haruyuki reached his right hand out as far as he could. Between his outstretched fingers, the light of the thrusters became a large blue star, drawing out the shape of a cross.