Accel World - Volume 7 - Chapter 5

5

The very first thing Haruyuki was aware of upon his return to the real world was not the weight of his physical body sinking into the sofa nor the cool of the air-conditioning, but rather supple fingertips touching his cheek.

His eyes flew open. And stared into the beautiful starry sky he had looked up at in the Castle garden only moments earlier. Except, wait—that wasn’t it. Jet-black eyes filled with particles of light like stardust?

When those eyes blinked once, slowly, the tiniest droplet of water bounced off long eyelashes and disappeared into the air. At the same time came the whisper of a voice. “So you’re back, Haruyuki.”

After staring for a bit at the clear, crisp beauty of Kuroyukihime—swordmaster, leader of the Legion Nega Nebulus, Black King, Black Lotus—who he respected and adored more than any other, Haruyuki replied hoarsely, “Yes, Kuroyukihime. I just got back now.”

The place where Haruyuki awakened was number 2305 on the twenty-third floor of the mixed-use skyscraper condo in northern Koenji, Suginami Ward, in the real world—in other words, the living room of the Arita home. He sat in the center of the sofa set near the southern windows, and directly before him, Kuroyukihime was leaning forward, left hand pushing up against the backrest of the sofa, the fingertips of her right hand gently resting on his cheek. In her palm, she held the plug for the XSB cable, the silver cord that stretched out to the connector panel on the wall.

The panel was for wired connections to the Arita family home server. For this dive, Haruyuki and his friends had connected globally via a wired connection to his home server, rather than wirelessly. Haruyuki and Utai had returned to the real world without using a portal because Kuroyukihime had pulled this cable out of Haruyuki’s Neurolinker.

“That was a long thirty seconds, you know,” Kuroyukihime murmured, fingers still touching his cheek. “While we sat here like this, you and Utai were perhaps being chased by Enemies inside the Castle. Or maybe regenerating and dying over and over and over. I could hardly stand it.”

The instant he became aware that this voice contained the slightest hint of a tremor, something burst open in Haruyuki’s heart. He sat up straight, took a deep breath, and opened his mouth. “Kuroyukihime…That time—When Suzaku shifted its target to me, I’m sorry for disobeying the order to retreat. But—But I had to…” Even though he had so firmly decided that he would apologize properly when he got back to the real world, when it came right down to it, his faculty with words lagged far behind the intent in his heart.

He bit his lip, opened his mouth, and then bit down again. Over and over.

Kuroyukihime took her left hand off the sofa and dropped the cable in her right hand to wrap now-empty hands gently around his shoulders. A smile like the bud of a water lily bled onto her pale, glossy lips. “It’s fine, Haruyuki. It’s precisely because you do such things that I believe I can entrust myself and the future of the Legion to you. You shook off even Suzaku’s flames and simply flew forward. There’s no way I could fault that kind of bravery.”

“…Kuro…yukihime…” Choking back all the things welling up inside him, Haruyuki simply stared wholeheartedly into her eyes. He clenched both hands tightly and tried to turn the emotions overflowing within him into words. “Kuroyukihime. Th-the reason I could fly was because you told me to fly—han-huh-hee-hoo-ha!”

Ruining the tail end of his so carefully crafted speech were two hands stretching out from either side of him to pinch his cheeks and yank hard.

“Okay, look! Exactly how long—” Chiyuri yelled, pinching his left cheek.

Fuko, yanking on his right, picked up where she left off. “—are you two going to keep this up?!”

Three minutes later.

Once they had switched locations from the sofa to the dining room, with Haruyuki and Utai settled into the chairs on the south side, Takumu and Chiyuri across from them, Kuroyukihime to the left and Fuko to the right, they all checked the current time.

7:35 PM.

Not even ten full minutes in real-world time had passed since the start of Operation Rescue Ardor Maiden. However, in Haruyuki’s actual perception, it seemed like yesterday already when they had called out the “unlimited burst” command to dive into the Unlimited Neutral Field. And actually, given that he had napped for six hours inside the Castle, it was only natural he’d feel that way. Not to mention that during that nap, he’d had a very long dream, vicariously lived through memories that spanned no mere six hours but several days—and really, several years of experience.

“First of all, nice work, everyone.” Kuroyukihime’s voice interrupted Haruyuki’s thoughts. He hurriedly added his voice to the chorus of “nice work!”

After taking a sip of the café au lait Chiyuri had made for her, Kuroyukihime looked around at them and continued. “The second phase of the plan to purify the Armor of Catastrophe, Operation Rescue Ardor Maiden, was unfortunately not a total success on all fronts. All the fault for that lays squarely with me and the fact that I could not keep the god Suzaku focused on me and me alone. I’m sorry.”

At their Legion Master’s contrite words and deeply bowed head, her five subordinates cried out together, “That’s not true!”

“Sacchi.” The Legion’s second in command, Fuko Kurasaki—Sky Raker—quickly spoke out for all of them. “Suzaku changed its target despite the fact that Corvus had not attacked in any way. No one could have predicted that behavior. Most likely, it’s set to add more Hate for people intruding deep into its territory than people causing it the most damage.”

Kuroyukihime raised her head briefly, then lowered her eyes as though she were deep in thought again.

Haruyuki timidly raised his right hand and broke the short silence. “Um, Master? About the Hate-adding just now…”

Hate was, put simply, a word to explain numerically the logic by which Enemies selected their attack targets. Naturally, Hate increased for Burst Linkers directly attacking them, but also for Burst Linkers who were only supporting other Burst Linkers with their abilities, such as with indirect interference attacks. The Enemy attacked whichever opponent had the maximum Hate value at that moment. Or so it was generally assumed. Suzaku may have been a top-level inhuman Enemy, one of the Four Gods, but it still should have selected its targets based on the Hate principle. The fact that it had turned from Kuroyukihime to Haruyuki on the big bridge meant that Suzaku was set so that people approaching the Castle’s south gate earned more Hate than people attacking it directly—that was the general gist of Fuko’s remark.

“What is it, Corvus?” Fuko cocked her head to one side, setting her long, airy hair swinging.

“So, Suzaku.” Haruyuki pushed his question out with some difficulty. “No, the Four Gods, including Suzaku, don’t actually have AI more advanced than any of the other Enemies, right? Wait, maybe not AI, I dunno…Umm…” Vexed at being unable to clearly put what he wanted to say into words, he flapped his mouth open and shut.

Utai Shinomiya, seated to his right, was the only one among them holding a mug of hot milk, and she set this down on the table before making her hands dance through the air. Cherry-pink font scrolled by shockingly fast in the semitransparent window displayed in the lower half of Haruyuki’s field of view.

UI> ARITA IS LIKELY TRYING TO SAY THAT PERHAPS THE FOUR GODS HAVE A TRUE INTENT OF THEIR OWN THAT GOES BEYOND THE REALM OF AI.

“R-right! That’s exactly it!” Bobbing his head up and down, Haruyuki was suddenly and belatedly self-conscious about the absurdity of this idea, and he flinched in preparation for the beams of eye-rolling power sure to snap into laser focus on him at any second.

Unexpectedly, however, not a single one of his comrades gathered around the table laughed or sighed or did anything else to indicate exasperation. Even Takumu, who hadn’t actually seen Suzaku directly, narrowed his eyes behind frameless glasses, as if he was thinking hard.

In the silence came once again the light sound of Utai’s fingers tapping on her keyboard. UI> AT THE VERY LEAST, IT’S CERTAIN THAT THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE IN SUZAKU’S BEHAVIOR ALGORITHM SINCE THE FOUR GODS OPERATION THAT LED TO THE DOWNFALL OF THE FIRST NEGA NEBULUS. THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT TWO AND A HALF YEARS AGO, SUZAKU GAVE PRIORITY TO TARGETING THE PERSON DOING THE GREATEST DAMAGE TO IT. HOW WAS IT WITH BYAKKO AT THE WEST GATE WHERE YOU FOUGHT, SACCHI, FU?

“Just as you say, Uiui,” Fuko murmured, nodding. “I recall that in the previous battle, Byakko also seemed to set its sights on the main attack squad alone, regardless of the position of the attack subject.”

“Mmm. I’m certain of it. That’s exactly why I was able to act as bait to allow the other members to retreat in the end,” Kuroyukihime affirmed from the opposite end of the table, narrowing her eyes sharply before continuing. “But this time, there was indeed a part of Suzaku’s behavior that I can’t believe was the Enemy simply obeying increases and decreases in Hate. That said, there was no sign of remote operation by a third party or a simple algorithm anomaly.”

Takumu, seated directly across from Haruyuki, brought his right hand to his chin and opened his mouth. “But, Master, it’s almost as if Suzaku saw that our objective this time was not to defeat it, but rather to rescue Shinomiya. In which case, that’s no longer within the realm of AI. It’s as Haru said: It has powers of insight, perhaps intelligence.”

Again, silence fell for several seconds. Finally, Kuroyukihime smiled softly. “We’re not going to be able to get an answer to that now. But I will add just one more piece of information. When Suzaku was responding to my Incarnate Attack and advancing, immediately before targeting Haruyuki, I think I saw that bird open its beak as though it was sneering at me.”

Yes.

Haruyuki was sure he’d heard it. Suzaku, on the verge of releasing its flame breath, in a voice that was not a voice. Small one, become ash.

“But, like!” The very first of their downturned faces to pop up was Chiyuri, speaking forcefully. “Whether that bird’s got a will or intelligence, or if maybe it’s actually a real god, it only half got us, right? The operation wasn’t a total success, but it wasn’t a total failure, either, Kuroyukihime. I mean, like, Haru and Ui are alive, aren’t they? They’re alive, and on top of that, they flew right through those gates. Right, Haru?” she shouted, catlike eyes glittering as she leaned across the table, hands clenched. “I seriously can’t take it anymore! What’s it like in the Castle?! Did anything happen?! Hurry up and tell us everything, start to finish!”

Haruyuki darted his eyes about, flustered and bewildered at the abrupt interrogation.

To his left, Kuroyukihime raised her voice in laughter. “Ha-ha-ha! Hard-hitting as ever, Chiyuri. I’m sure that many Burst Linkers would pay ten, no, a hundred points if they could hear that story. I was even restraining myself here.”

“Hee-hee, it’s true. Just thinking that Burst Linkers who have set foot in that impenetrable Castle and succeeded in returning with information about the inside are sitting before my eyes has had my heart pounding this whole time.” Fuko made a show of pressing a hand to her chest.

The right side of Haruyuki’s face turned upward in a somewhat complicated smile, and he exchanged looks with Utai. The fourth grader and one corner of the Four Elements of the former Nega Nebulus tilted her head to the side as if to say, I’ll leave this to you.

And when he thought about it, if she tried to explain everything that happened in the Castle via chat, she’d have to type out so many characters her hands would cramp up. I’ll just have to do what I can here! Stepping up to the plate, Haruyuki looked at his clock once more before giving a bit of an introduction.

“Umm, I think it’ll take a relatively long time if I tell you everything from start to finish. Is everyone okay for curfew?”

The time was just shy of eight o’clock on a Tuesday night, but there wasn’t a single person who shook their head, including elementary student Utai.

The main cobblestone road stretching out straight to the north from the south gate of the Castle and the groups of terrifying Enemies patrolling it. The massive inner sanctuary with its successive layers of connected fusuma doors adorned with brilliant paintings. The great hall at the center and the two pedestals placed there. The names DESTINY and INFINITY carved in plates with the Big Dipper.

When Haruyuki got to this point in the story, Kuroyukihime and Fuko seemed to suddenly exchange a look with each other. However, neither of them tried to interject, and since the real center of the story was from this point, Haruyuki didn’t dwell on it and continued speaking.

The young azure samurai avatar that suddenly called out to them in the hall. The enormous underground space at the bottom of the stairs he guided them to. And the golden light flickering off in the distance. The seventh Arc, the Fluctuating Light.

By the time he had finally managed to finish telling the story—with occasional comments from Utai—up to the point where they left the Unlimited Neutral Field because their companions cut the connection, a full thirty minutes had passed.

While Haruyuki expelled a long breath and drank the rest of his second café au lait, no one made a move to speak. A few seconds after he placed his mug on the table, Kuroyukihime finally said, almost muttering, “The owner of the fifth Arc, Infinity. Trilead Tetroxide…Fuko, have you ever heard that name before?”

Fuko, the most senior Burst Linker there alongside Kuroyukihime, quickly shook her head. “No. This is the first I’m hearing of the Enhanced Armament and the Burst Linker. I don’t even know these English words trilead and tetroxide. Although it has the sound of a molecular formula…”

If the sole high schooler among them didn’t know the words, then the other five—still in junior high and elementary—could hardly be expected to.

“Shall we look them up?” Takumu said, pushing up the bridge of his glasses and running a finger along his virtual desktop. Naturally, his search skills were impressive, and in less than ten seconds, he had found the terms. He lifted his head and nodded once. “Raker is correct. It is a molecular formula. Three lead, four oxygen.”

Even with this information, it was hard to suddenly picture what exactly it was. Haruyuki furrowed his brow. “Taku, so, lead, that’s a metal…right?” he asked in a small voice.

“That’s right.” A ridiculously kind smile spread across his good friend’s face.

Haruyuki cleared his throat to hide his embarrassment at having apparently asked a dumb question and put a serious look on his face. “But he—Trilead didn’t look like a metal color at all. He was this clear, pretty indigo, or maybe navy. Even his weapon—all of him was a solid blue type.” Haruyuki cocked his head to one side, remembering the crisp presence of the young samurai.

Kuroyukihime, to his left, folded her hands together on the table. “At any rate, at present, our urgent business is not to solve the mysteries of the Castle but to get Utai and Haruyuki out. If we can’t purify the element of the Armor of Catastrophe parasitizing Silver Crow before next Sunday, Haruyuki will become the second-biggest bounty in the Accelerated World.” Here, she glanced at him, and a momentary smile slipped across her lips. “Although, naturally, if that were to happen, I wouldn’t allow you to be hunted so easily as that.”

“…Kuroyukihime…”

“Okay, cut! Cut!” Chiyuri slapped the table with both hands as they were about to slip back into stare-at-each-other mode. “That reminds me, Kuroyukihime, there’s something I’ve been wondering about ever since I heard about this bounty thing.”

“Wh-what is it, Chiyuri?” Kuroyukihime cleared her throat.

“How are the Seven Kings going to check whether or not the Armor of Catastrophe parasitizing Haru has actually been purified in the first place?” Chiyuri asked, spreading out both hands. “You can’t see another person’s item list, and doesn’t the armor not show up in the item list anyway?”

“Oh! N-now that you mention it.” The words slipped out of Haruyuki. Even though this was about his own self, he had never once even entertained this most basic of questions. He couldn’t actually be more careless.

Seeing him like this, Kuroyukihime grinned wryly, but soon regained her serious expression. “Most likely, a Burst Linker with the ability to see other people’s statuses will show up at the assembly on Sunday. The kings probably intend to have this person examine Silver Crow’s purification.”

“I suppose so.” Fuko nodded slowly on the other side of the table. Her normally gentle, smiling eyes were cut by a hard, sharp light. “The quad-eyes analyst. I expect we’ll be seeing her appear for the first time in a long time.”

The instant he heard this name—a nickname rather than the Burst Linker’s particular name—something inside him clicked. It was definitely new to him. He knew he had never heard it before; he hadn’t even known there was an ability to see a person’s status in the first place. And yet something deep in his memory itched and throbbed. This sensation spilled out to his central nervous system, ran up his spine, and arrived at a single point on his back.

Thmm. Thmm. In sync with the sharp pain, distantly—someone’s voice.

…Destroy…

Destroy them, devour them…Release…this rage of ours…

At some point, he had clenched his right hand so tightly his nails were digging into his palm. But then something soft touched it abruptly. He looked and found Utai gently pressing his fist under the table. In the large eyes she sent glancing at him, there was a hazy note of apprehension. He hurriedly spread his hands out and nodded his head to say he was okay. Fortunately, the others were talking about the purification verification and didn’t seem to have noticed anything unusual about him.

“In the worst case, perhaps we can have Ardor Maiden purify Silver Crow inside the Castle and make it in time for the meeting on Sunday?” Takumu suggested.

Utai pulled her hand back and tapped at her keyboard with both of them. UI> I WOULDN’T SAY IT’S DEFINITELY IMPOSSIBLE, BUT IF POSSIBLE, I’D PREFER NOT TO USE A LARGE-SCALE INCARNATE TECHNIQUE WITHIN THE CASTLE. THERE IS A RISK OF THE WAVES OF A STRONG OVERLAY CALLING HIGH-LEVEL ENEMIES.

“Mmm. And the higher the level of the Enemy, such as Beasts or Legends, the less impact Incarnate attacks have, while at the same time, the more aggressive they become to Incarnate users. Most likely, the abnormal local load due to the Incarnate System causes their Hate to increase irregularly. We should also assume that this reaction is only stronger when it comes to the Enemies guarding the Castle,” Kuroyukihime remarked, and snapped to attention in her chair, looking around once before continuing. “Well then, Silver Crow, Ardor Maiden, we’ll have to have you leave the Castle before Sunday. To that end, although he is an unknown, I believe the best route is to petition this Burst Linker Trilead Tetroxide for his aid. Utai, Haruyuki, when you meet him again on Thursday, in the name of the Black King and Nega Nebulus, tell him that you will pay him an appropriate price for his assistance.”

By this time, it was ten to nine in the evening, so Kuroyukihime finished by adding, “Today’s mission is over for the time being.”

Fuko had come by car after going home briefly, so it was decided she would take Utai and Kuroyukihime, and the three of them got into the elevator first for the parking lot. Then Chiyuri and the plate that had been so full of sandwiches returned to her home two floors down, leaving Haruyuki and Takumu in the hallway on the twenty-third floor.

“Okay, Haru. See you at school tomorrow.” Takumu started walking toward the passageway that connected the separate wing of the condo.

“Taku, you still got some time?” Haruyuki stopped him in a small voice. His old friend turned around, head cocked to one side, and Haruyuki asked, falteringly, “So, like, how many times have you dueled since the beginning of this week?”

“Huh? Two, three times on my way home from school every day. No more than ten times, I think,” he replied, before blinking as if guessing at something. He lowered his voice and continued. “Ohh. If that bit about me and Chii giving you points if you do end up with a bounty like we said yesterday is still bugging you, don’t worry about it. My win rate’s the same as ever, but Chii’s getting some serious skill lately. If we’re not careful, she’s gonna jump right past us to the next level.” A self-deprecating grin slid onto Takumu’s face as he spoke.

“Th-that’s not it.” Haruyuki hurriedly shook his head from side to side. “That’s not what I’m talking about. Umm, during those ten duels, did you notice anything weird?”

At this vague question, Takumu got a doubtful look on his face before smiling a little wryly. “That question’s already weird. I mean, ‘something’? I don’t know what I should be remembering.”

“O-oh, yeah, I guess so.” Haruyuki scratched his head, and an embarrassed smile popped onto his face. What he was trying to ask was if any of Takumu’s opponents had used a technique with a power that went beyond the framework of a normal duel; more specifically, if there had been any close- or long-range Incarnate attacks clad in a black aura.

After school the previous day, a Monday, Haruyuki and Utai Shinomiya had fought a tag-team duel together in Suginami Area No. 2, their opponents Bush Utan and Olive Grab from the Green Legion. Haruyuki had been left to take Utan and had gained an advantage in the fight after using the “way of the flexible”—a guard reversal technique Kuroyukihime had shown him.

However, in the middle of the battle, the moment Utan summoned a bizarre Enhanced Armament, the nature of the fight was flipped upside down. With two types of Incarnate attack—Dark Blow, an attack with a fist covered in a dark aura, and Dark Shot, which shot a beam of darkness from his palm—Utan had Haruyuki up against the wall, completely at wits’ end. It wasn’t hard to imagine that that would have been the end for him if it hadn’t been a tag-team match with Utai.

Utan called the black eye-shaped Enhanced Armament affixed to his chest an ISS kit—in other words, an Incarnate System study kit—and said that someone had given it to him. And if Utan was able to instantly use the Incarnate System, which should have required long hours of training, by simply wearing it, then this was a situation that threatened to shake the very foundations of the Accelerated World.

With this in mind, Haruyuki had asked Ash Roller, Utan’s motorcycle-riding big brother figure, for a closed duel on his way to school that morning and explained the situation. Ash Roller had then noted in an unprecedentedly serious tone that if this ISS kit could be copied infinitely, then it was probably already too late. It might have been handed out any number of times and proliferated beyond a number it was possible to deal with.

Which was why, in a certain sense, the ISS kit could be said to be a much more serious issue than the element of the Armor of Catastrophe that was parasitizing Haruyuki. He should have tabled the appearance of the ISS kit for discussion at the meeting that day before the start of Operation Rescue Ardor Maiden. Or he could have raised his hand and said something when Kuroyukihime announced the end of that meeting only a few minutes earlier.

However, Haruyuki had done neither. First of all, he thought everyone should concentrate on the rescue mission. But he felt that wasn’t the only reason. He could see that somewhere inside, he didn’t want to tell his friends about the ISS kit. He couldn’t say what he should. Maybe his guilty conscience had prompted him to call out to Takumu.

Takumu. His best friend, the person he had gone up against for real, who he had exchanged real blows with, who had pulled through a truly difficult battle with him in the whole Dusk Taker thing. He was sure that Takumu of all people would undoubtedly share this burden he had picked up at some point. But…

In a corner of the dim hall, he looked up at the face of his tall childhood friend, and the moment he went to explain everything, Haruyuki felt the brakes put on his own mouth once more.

Why? Why am I hesitating?

This is Taku. A friend above all others, my partner at the front line of the Legion. The best partner, always cool and collected and helping me out when I don’t think. There’s no one better than Taku to talk to first about the ISS kits.

So why am I so freaked out about it?

Still staring at Takumu, who was looking more and more doubtful, Haruyuki took a deep breath and pushed back the mysterious clamor in his heart.

“The truth is…” Even after he started to speak, his tongue froze and his throat ached. Working to ignore this feeling, Haruyuki continued. “The truth is, Taku, something weird’s happening in the Accelerated World right now…maybe. It’ll take a while. How about we talk inside a bit more?”

The pair returned to Haruyuki’s living room, and as he spoke absorbedly, wetting his lips with the remaining coffee, the strange uneasiness in his heart finally disappeared.

Bush Utan. The ISS kit. The Incarnate attacks cloaked in a dark fluctuation.

Once Takumu had heard it all, he clasped his hands and pressed them to his forehead, elbows on the table. He was silent for a while, his face turned downward. Just when Haruyuki was starting to become uneasy with the fairly long silence, he finally lifted his face back up. The usual intellectual light shone behind his glasses.

“So what do you think?” Haruyuki asked, heaving a sigh of relief for no reason he could understand.

“Hmm.” Takumu took a sip of cold coffee. “To be honest, it’s hard to really process this all of a sudden. I’m only too aware of how hard it is to learn the Incarnate System after my training with the Red King. I don’t know how many times I ripped an enormous hole in my left hand trying to learn to stop my own Pile.”

In Cyan Plate, the Incarnate attack of Takumu’s avatar, Cyan Pile, he caught with his left hand the iron spike that shot out of the Enhanced Armament Pile Driver equipped in his right hand and pulled it out, transforming it into a longsword. Rather than simple repetitive training, he had to confront painful memories in order to catch the spike, a symbol of his own mental trauma.

“Yeah. I trained until I nearly passed out before I learned how to pierce the wall of the old Tokyo Tower. I was just totally focused on speed, speed, speed.”

Their eyes grew distant. For a variety of reasons, the head of the Legion Prominence—the Red King, Scarlet Rain—had been the one to initiate Takumu into the Incarnate System, but her Spartan style was basically on par with Haruyuki’s Incarnate instructor, Sky Raker. Yet they had suffered through it and somehow managed to learn a basic Incarnate technique: Haruyuki, range expansion; Takumu, power expansion.

“But just by equipping this ISS kit, you’re able to use both the power expansion technique Dark Blow and the range expansion technique Dark Shot. Is that it?” Takumu said hoarsely, and dropped his gaze to his own left hand, a smile with a color Haruyuki couldn’t remember seeing too much bleeding onto the corners of his mouth. “It doesn’t matter how hard you try—if something’s out of reach, you’ll never be able to grab on to it. That’s the basic principle of Brain Burst. That’s what I’ve always thought. Your duel avatar is almost cruel in how it unequivocally teaches you the limits of your own physical self. Which is exactly why this game gains another reality, right?”

“Taku?” Haruyuki cocked his head to one side, slightly bewildered by this small outburst.

Takumu lifted his face with a gasp. All that was on his lips now was his usual faint intellectual smile. “Oh, sorry. Don’t worry about it. You’re right. If someone’s distributing Enhanced Armament like that, this situation is pretty serious. The balance between duel and Territories will crumble.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Haruyuki nodded and brushed aside an irrational sense that something was out of place. “Although it’s bad enough that Incarnate techniques are being used in normal duels, that power is just too great. To be honest, beginner Incarnate users like us can’t fight that. Like, in the Meeting of the Seven Kings the day before yesterday, some people thought that depending on the situation, the existence of the Incarnate System should be disclosed to all Burst Linkers, but…if the ISS kits are on the market everywhere, is there any point in training now from the first steps in Incarnate techniques? It’s almost like…”

“Someone’s beat them to the punch?” Takumu hit the nail on the head while Haruyuki was searching for the words. He pushed up his glasses, an even more complicated look on his face. “But, Haru, if that’s the case, that means that the guys who showed off the power of the Incarnate System to all those people in the Gallery at the Hermes’ Cord race last week are the masterminds behind disseminating the ISS kits now.”

“Ah!” Not having even considered the possibility up to that point, Haruyuki threw himself back so hard that his chair clattered. Both eyes open wide, he murmured the name of the organization Takumu was hinting at. “The Acceleration Research Society?”

“Let’s think about it from the beginning. The first time they showed themselves was in April of this year. Dusk Taker skillfully made use of an illegal brain implant chip to attack the Umesato Junior High local net, while Rust Jigsaw did the same at Akihabara battleground. Maybe there were other closed nets they ran wild in using the same methods.”

Haruyuki remembered Twilight Marauder’s menacing power, so great that it had forced Haruyuki and his friends to surrender, however temporarily, and shuddered all over, nodding. But recollecting the whole incident now, a question he hadn’t noticed at the time popped into his head.

“But, Taku, when I think about it, it’s weird. At the time, in April, neither of them actively went to use Incarnate techniques themselves. Dusk Taker only started using that purple fluctuation when you pushed him into a corner in a duel. And I feel like Rust Jigsaw actually didn’t end up using it at all. But for those guys, it wouldn’t have been weird at all if they attacked with Incarnate at full throttle right from the start.”

“We should think of it like they were limited. But I don’t think the reason is that abuse of Incarnate risks calling the dark side, like the Red King and Raker warned us.”

Haruyuki nodded deeply at Takumu’s words.

In the power that the Incarnate System revealed, there were four quadrants, like the xy plane in mathematics. The x-axis was the breadth of the imagination—in other words, moving toward the individual or toward the world—while the y-axis was the lightness of the imagination—whether it took hope as its source or despair. The first quadrant, in the upper right, was positive will with range as its target; the second quadrant, to the upper left, was positive will with the individual as its target; the third, to the bottom left, was negative will with the individual as its target; and the fourth, to the bottom right, was negative will with range as its target.

Attack-type Incarnate techniques like Haruyuki’s Laser Sword, Takumu’s Cyan Blade, and Kuroyukihime’s incomparably more powerful Vorpal Strike were categorized in the second quadrant because they used as their source the hope inside themselves. The universal wellspring of Incarnate was mental scars, but whether they would pump hope from that deep hole or fall into the darkness of despair was left to the choice of the person themselves.

And although they were rare, there were some Burst Linkers who had mastered Incarnate of the first quadrant. Fuko’s Wind Veil, which protected herself and companions around her, was the most conspicuous example. Haruyuki didn’t know its name, but Utai’s Incarnate technique, which burned a wide range with crimson flames, was probably also in the first quadrant because Bush Utan, burned up by those flames, hadn’t felt the slightest suffering. Those were flames of purification to exorcise pain.

However, it wasn’t the case that all Incarnates showed this kind of positive power. For instance, Dusk Taker’s “purple fluctuation,” which had no fixed name. That technique shaved off whatever it touched and swallowed the object up into nothingness; it was a third-quadrant, dark-side attack power that used internal despair for energy. And Rust Jigsaw’s Rust Order. That power to summon a storm of red rust a hundred meters in diameter to corrode and destroy all things within its range had to be a power of the fourth quadrant. The imagination of the end, born from a despair against the world.

In short, these two from the Acceleration Research Society had probably learned negative Incarnate right from the start. At this late stage, there would be no reason why their teacher would caution them about falling into the dark side.

“So then that means they had a specific reason for limiting their Incarnate, I guess,” Haruyuki muttered.

Takumu nodded slowly. “Yeah, I guess so. But last week, when he stormed into the Hermes’ Cord race, basically the moment Rust Jigsaw appeared, he was using Incarnate. Except that wasn’t on the level of just using it. Dragging not just the other teams, but however many hundreds were in the Gallery into it, that was to make us feel in our bones just how tremendous Incarnate attacks can be. And that guy calling himself the vice president of the Acceleration Research Society, Black Vise, he was even there. So I think we have to assume that large-scale attack was exactly what that organization wanted.”

“B-but if that’s true, isn’t that like a huge policy flip in just two months? In April, they were trying to lie low, but June rolls around and they’re showing off?” Haruyuki said, waving both hands around on the table.

Takumu paused for a moment before responding quietly, “It means that in those two months, they finished their preparations.”

“P-preparations? For what?”

“Preparations to distribute the ISS kits.”

“Hng!!” Once again, Haruyuki made his chair clatter against the floor.

The two of them looked at each other wordlessly for several seconds. Takumu’s cheeks had lost their color and were paler than usual, and Haruyuki was pretty sure his own face was even whiter than that.

Eventually, after drinking the last sip of his cold coffee, Takumu moved his lips. “If that assumption is true, then all I can say is they’re meticulous. It’s like they’re always one step ahead, planning their next move. They make a show of the absurd power of the Incarnate System to many members of the Gallery with a large-scale attack at Hermes’ Cord, and then immediately after that, they start distributing the ISS kits as a device to easily learn Incarnate. Honestly, after that display, even veteran Burst Linkers, who should hesitate at wearing that sort of dodgy Enhanced Armament, would give in to their impatience and reach out for it.”

In the back of Haruyuki’s mind, Bush Utan’s cracked voice from the previous day came back to life.

IS mode has that kind of incredible power. The ultimate power, skipping over all the rules of Brain Burst even. And there’s some jerks who knew about it and kept it quiet all this time.

There hadn’t been only fear and impatience in Utan’s monologue; it had also contained a strong animosity toward the people who had kept the existence of the Incarnate System hidden until then—and that naturally included Haruyuki. That kind of emotional energy alone was plenty motivation to accept the black eyeball and its eerie appearance.

“So then, Taku, is their ultimate goal to spread the ISS kit throughout the Accelerated World? Or…?” Haruyuki timidly asked his best friend, pursing his lips.

“Is there another ‘next move’?” Takumu stared at his empty coffee cup and nodded slightly. “We don’t have enough information to determine that. I haven’t even seen this ISS kit with my own eyes.” Before Haruyuki could say anything, Takumu glanced at the clock display in the bottom right of his field of view and stood up. “Haru, isn’t your mom going to be home soon? Let’s leave it here for today.”

“Yeah.”

Now that Takumu mentioned it, it was almost ten already, in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Haruyuki’s mother worked at a foreign investment bank and in exchange for a late start to her workday, she also came home late, but even so, at this hour, she could basically come home any second. And although his mother wasn’t the type to get angry at Takumu being here at this time of day, they couldn’t exactly continue openly chatting about Brain Burst.

“Hey, Taku?” Haruyuki asked one final question in a small voice as he followed Takumu out of the living room. “This—we should probably talk to Kuroyukihime and the others about it…right?”

“…Well, of course.” On Takumu’s face as he replied, waving a hand in the entryway, was the same intellectual expression as always.

So Haruyuki forgot about the slightly long silence that preceded that reply and bobbed his head up and down. “Right? Okay. I’ll talk to Kuroyukihime tomorrow. Fortunately, it’s Thursday when we’re diving back into the Castle so we don’t have to do a bunch of stuff tomorrow.”

Once again, Takumu was silent, narrowing his eyes as though something had dazzled them. When Haruyuki raised an eyebrow, he laughed it off. “It’s just the way you’re all casual, ‘diving into the Castle.’ I was just thinking you jump in with both feet like always.”

“N-no, I mean, it’s not such a big—”

“Ha-ha-ha! It wasn’t a compliment.” Takumu reached out with his right hand and jabbed Haruyuki’s shoulder lightly before slipping his shoes on. Looking serious once more, he added, “I’ll try some tricks of my own to get information on the ISS kit thing.”

“Y-yeah. Good idea. But don’t do anything too reckless,” Haruyuki said, finding it a little weird himself that he would say something like that. For many years, doing reckless things had been Haruyuki’s job, and Takumu’s role had been to stop him.

Perhaps feeling the same way, Takumu grinned again and nodded. “Yeah, I know. Okay, see you at school tomorrow.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow.” Haruyuki raised his hand lightly, and his best friend opened the door and slid out into the dim hallway.

Listening to the sound of the automatic lock as the door shut once more, Haruyuki was aware of that sensation returning to his chest. That he didn’t want to talk about it. That he shouldn’t have talked about it.

A delusion. It was good that he talked about it. After all, it was precisely because he and Takumu discussed it that he realized the possibility that the source of the ISS kits was the Acceleration Research Society. And when he told Kuroyukihime about the situation the next day after school, she was sure to show him the right way to proceed, just like she always did.

Clenching his hands tightly, he forced his own thoughts to this conclusion before tracing his steps back through the living room into the kitchen to wash the coffee mugs.