Accel World - Volume 9 - Chapter 11

11

The next day, Friday, June 21, seven PM.

Gathered together in the Arita living room were, as on the previous day, the six current members of Nega Nebulus. Unfortunately—or not, as the case may have been—Ash Roller, aka Rin Kusakabe, was not there. Since she had broken her curfew of eight PM the previous day, she had apparently been categorically prohibited by her father from stopping anywhere on the way home.

“You know, I did wonder why she almost never dueled at night, given her character,” Chiyuri remarked, as if it all made sense to her.

Fuko chuckled. “Well, when it comes to vehicles, she’s actually pretty terrible with even a manual bicycle, much less an electric scooter. Just like there are duel avatars in the Accelerated World who are a Perfect Match, albeit very few, Rin is one of those you could call a ‘perfect mismatch.’”

“Ah-ha-ha! True! And he’s not on the level of a mismatch, but Haru’s toeing that line, too, huh?!”

The point of Chiyuri’s spear suddenly turned toward him, Haruyuki dropped the somen noodles from between his chopsticks.

Given that they couldn’t very well have asked Chiyuri’s mother to make another big meal for them for the nth day in a row, the menu that day was prepared by the group. That said, the two boys had just boiled the noodles, while the squad of girls had prepared the toppings and dipping sauce. The dinner table took twenty minutes of actual work to put together, but somen noodles crisply chilled in water were exceptional to eat on a hot, humid day at the end of June. Even more so when surrounded by good friends.

After slurping up the noodles he’d rescued from the excessively large glass bowl, together with some chopped ginger, Haruyuki launched his counterargument. “Th-there’s stuff in common between me and Silver Crow, you know. Um…we’re not easy to hit, bad fuel economy, we hate getting zapped with static electricity…”

UI> THOSE ARE ALL WEAKNESSES, Utai Shinomiya typed politely, after neatly returning her chopsticks to her chopstick rest, and everyone burst out laughing.

Fifteen minutes later, when they had finished cleaning up after dinner and moved to the sofa set, he could see a bit of nervousness in his friends’ faces.

Seated at one end, Kuroyukihime let her eyes run over them all before saying in a calm voice, “Just as was explained earlier, thanks to Haruyuki’s efforts last night, the negative residual will that could be said to have been the energy allowing for the existence of the Armor of Catastrophe was released. Currently, that armor has no will of its own and has returned to being normal Enhanced Armament…or it should have.”

At a glance from Kuroyukihime, Haruyuki nodded firmly. He had given Takumu and the other three an overview of the events that transpired after they had dispersed the previous day in an email, one carefully composed over lunch break that day. Still, he had been forced to leave out the part about being invited to Kuroyukihime’s house.

“Nevertheless, the Armor still remains deep inside Haruyuki’s avatar in the system as a parasitic object. Unless we completely remove this using Utai’s power of purification, those thickheaded kings will not recognize the Armor’s elimination. Utai?”

They shifted their eyes, and the youngest present tapped at her holokeyboard with resolution.

UI> LEAVE IT TO ME. THAT IS PRECISELY WHY I AM HERE NOW. HOWEVER, IF THE TARGET IS AN ARC-CLASS, SUPER-HIGH-LEVEL ENHANCED ARMAMENT, AN EQUIVALENTLY LONG TIME HAS TO BE ANTICIPATED FOR THE PURIFICATION. MOST LIKELY, IT WILL TAKE AT LEAST AN HOUR.

“Mmm. So then, the other four of us are there to protect Haruyuki and Utai from Enemies or other Burst Linkers, although these are not very likely. Naturally, we will select an area away from the patrolling courses of large Enemies, but as you well know, they are drawn by the ‘scent’ of the Incarnate…”

When Kuroyukihime closed her mouth, Takumu spoke with a reliable grin. “If that happens, then we’ll earn back the points all of us spent heading into the Unlimited Neutral Field, Master.”

“Ho-ho, that’s exactly right. If it comes to that, we can simply lure the Enemies into Shinjuku and have them get cozy with an Enemy hunting party in the vicinity of Leonids,” the actually scary Master Raker said brightly, and everyone forced stiff smiles onto their faces, at which point the meeting ended.

Just like they had the previous day, they connected their Neurolinkers directly, going through the Arita home server as a safety measure.

This was actually the fourth time that Haruyuki was visiting the Unlimited Neutral Field that week. However, when he cried out the “unlimited burst” command with the others, there was no longer any unease or fear in his heart, just the warmth of the feeling of believing in his companions.

Ardor Maiden, shrine maiden of purification, one of the Four Elements of the first Nega Nebulus. Haruyuki was already more than well aware of the tremendous power Utai Shinomiya possessed. He was convinced that the flames of the maiden—with which she had defeated the ISS kit–using Olive Grab unscathed, burned a similarly equipped Bush Utan right out of the Field, and then caught and melted in a pool of magma even the massive knight Enemy that had been guarding the inner sanctuary of the Castle—contained an attack power of the greatest order in the Accelerated World. However, the true nature of Utai’s power was not destruction. Haruyuki was about to learn that firsthand.

The location selected as the stage for purification was Koenji—not the area, but the large temple near Haruyuki’s own condo that gave the area its name. The temple grounds. Everyone thought a Shinto shrine would have been more appropriate given that Ardor Maiden was a shrine maiden, but she herself said that she had absolutely no issue with a Buddhist temple, and there were no shrines nearby to begin with, so that settled the matter.

Still, bathed in the moon’s cool, clear light in the Moonlight stage, a powerful sense of the sacred drifted up and around the temple grounds. Not a single element rejected the presence of the shrine maiden in her white robe and crimson hakama pants. Utai stood Haruyuki in the center of a large space, moved about three meters away, and then turned to face him before stretching her right hand out in front of her.

Small flames rose up in the slender fingers, flames that quickly turned into a snowy white hand fan. The fan was opened with a quietly satisfying snap, and the shrine maiden began to wave it leisurely from left to right.

Red flames shot up in front of Haruyuki to the right, then the left, then behind him to the right and left. While Kuroyukihime, Fuko, Chiyuri, and Takumu stood a ways off and watched with bated breath, Utai brought the fan back in front of her and stepped onto the earth with the tip of her tabi-socked foot.

“‘Fleeting cherry blossoms…The sins of the fleeting cherry blossoms scatter and take root’…”

The instant the “song” she chanted shook the cool atmosphere of the Unlimited Neutral Field, a roaring conflagration broke out inside the four fires encircling Haruyuki. His field of view itself was dyed crimson, and the air carried with it a physical pressure pushing against the body of Silver Crow from over a meter away.

However, Haruyuki didn’t feel the slightest bit of fear; he simply gave himself over to the power. He felt no heat or pain, and his health gauge in the top left of his vision did not flinch from its full state. He felt the overwhelming power of this fire was indeed burning something away—no, “cleansing” it. To borrow Kuroyukihime’s words, the flames were likely burning the object parasite status in the system, but with all five of his senses bathed in the raging fire, the words connection and attachment floated up in the back of Haruyuki’s mind.

Right. It was the Armor itself that had initially parasitized Silver Crow’s back. After that, the Beast, that pseudo-intelligence that lived in the Armor, would occasionally speak to Haruyuki, deepening the level of fusion until, finally, he awoke completely as the sixth Chrome Disaster. But it would have been a lie to say that in the process, an “attachment” hadn’t been born in Haruyuki’s own heart, to power—to a desire for the overwhelming destructive power that the Armor held. Put another way, if that feeling of attachment hadn’t existed, the Armor wouldn’t have fused with him to such a deep level.

In the middle of the powerful, cool blaze produced by Utai Shinomiya’s Incarnate, Haruyuki felt the faint egotism remaining inside him being gently burned away. He closed his eyes, and as he leisurely spread his limbs, he whispered deep in his heart to his former comrade in arms:

Hey, Beast.

I didn’t hate you, you know. Working together with you and fighting…It was pretty fun.

If we meet again someday in some other form, let’s duel for sure then. One-on-one or in a tag-team match—either’s fine. A real duel.

He got no reply. But Haruyuki felt like, somewhere far, far away, he heard the fierce, beautiful Beast wrapped in those flames of darkness howling at the moon.

Ardor Maiden continued to dance beautifully for an hour and thirty minutes. The feared interruptions from Enemies or Burst Linkers did not come. When the movements of the shrine maiden gradually grew slower and finally stopped altogether, the pillars of flame also turned into countless sparks and scattered, melting into the night wind and disappearing.

Feet alighting on the earth, Haruyuki realized that two small objects had materialized in his hands. Square cards glittering silver, transparently, in the light of the moon.

Carved on one of them was the text STAR CASTER; on the other, the name THE DESTINY glittered brightly. The sword and the Armor. These were nothing other than the initial forms of the binary stars that had appeared at the dawn of the Accelerated World and transformed the destinies of so many Burst Linkers. The fact that both had returned to a sealed card state meant that the Disaster no longer existed anywhere in this world.

Clutching both cards tightly, Haruyuki took a few steps forward and bowed deeply toward Utai Shinomiya, who did indeed appear to be mentally exhausted.

“Thank you, Mei. It’s over. All of it…”

“This is not something I alone accomplished. It is because you were able to say a proper good-bye to the Armor, C.” A small hand gently stroked Haruyuki’s helmet as she spoke.

When he lifted his face, beyond Utai he came to see Kuroyukihime, Fuko, Chiyuri, and Takumu—all with the same grins on their faces.

Ardor Maiden took a few steps back, and Sky Raker moved to support her. In her place, Black Lotus silently hovered forward and nodded forcefully.

“Crow, you did well. Now there will be nothing to criticize you for at the meeting of the Seven Kings this coming Sunday. Most likely, at the meeting, the policy on dealing with the ISS kits and the Acceleration Research Society will be the main topic, but you can stand up tall and declare you are free. And as for what to do with those two Enhanced Armaments, I’ll entrust them to you. Think about it carefully and make your decision.”

While he was pleased with the unconditional trust implied in his Legion Master’s words, Haruyuki shook his head slightly. “No, um. Actually, I’ve already decided.”

“Oh?” The Black King cocked her head to one side, and Haru took his eyes off her to look around at his friends.

“Everyone, especially you, Mei…I know you’re all tired, but…could you help me out just a little more?”

First, Haruyuki touched his own health gauge to bring up the Instruct menu and then deposited both cards temporarily into his nearly empty storage. Then he randomly smashed terrain objects outside the temple to fully charge his special-attack gauge. Holding Utai in his right arm and Chiyuri in his left, he floated up into the air a little, so that Takumu could dangle from his legs. Kuroyukihime climbed onto Fuko’s back, equipped with the booster-type Enhanced Armament Gale Thruster.

In this formation, the six headed due south, following Kannana Street. They left the Setagaya area, shifted east on Meguro Street, and headed toward Shibaura-futo alongside Tokyo Bay, avoiding the city center.

Coming down in a spot from which he could see the Shibaura parking area off the Daiba Route of the Shuto Expressway to the north, Haruyuki waited for Fuko and Kuroyukihime to catch up with a long jump using the booster, and intently compared the surrounding terrain with his hazy memory.

In the Moonlight stage, the storehouses of the wharf were transformed into buildings in the style of splendid sanctuaries. The wide road for trucks that stretched between them running east-west met an intersection—

“It’s here.” He turned toward the other five, who had no idea what that was exactly, and said, “Um, there should be an item on the ground somewhere in that intersection.”

“An item? Not a card, an object?”

He assented to Takumu’s question with a nod.

“But, like, things dropped on the ground of the Unlimited Neutral Field, don’t they get swept away and disappear in the Change every time?” Chiyuri asked, and Haruyuki brought his head up and down once, only to then move it from side to side.

“Yeah, usually, that’s how it works. But I feel like I heard that for supervaluable things, even when the Change happens, they don’t disappear, not after days…even years. That’s right, isn’t it, Kuroyukihime?” He turned his gaze on Kuroyukihime, likely the most senior Burst Linker in that spot, and she nodded slightly.

“Mmm. That is exactly right. But items with infinite endurance are relatively limited. Legion Master quest achievement proof…proof of passing through the four great dungeons…”

“And the key to your own house, right?” Fuko noted casually.

Haruyuki nodded firmly. “That’s it!” he shouted. “What I want you to look for is a key.”

The ground of the Moonlight stage was thinly covered with a crisp, dry, superfine white sand. Because of this, it could hardly be said to be the perfect place to look for something, but it was still better than the Corroded Forest stage, with its poisonous bogs all over the place, or the Purgatory stage, swarming with repulsive insects. Haruyuki considered the various options as he turned his energies to digging in the white sand spread out over the large intersection.

In truth, it wasn’t as though he had any proof that a key was buried in there. But on the other hand, he also had a certain confidence that he was in that place now because something—or someone—had led him there. The dream he’d had inside the Castle, that long, long dream…If the final chapter of that sad tale was indeed historical fact, then they would definitely find the key there. When he was really little, he had picked up a tiny obsidian arrowhead in the mountains of Okutama when he was climbing there with his parents. Just like that stone implement, the key had to have been quietly waiting here this whole time, waiting for when someone would come along and find it.

As the fingers of his right hand stroked the sand for the however-many-hundredth time, tunk—they touched something.

His hand froze, and then he began to carefully grope around below the sand. He grabbed on to something and pulled it up: a small silver key, completely unblemished even now after an eternity had passed. He guessed it must have been nearly seven thousand years.

“…I found it…,” he murmured, and stood up. Noticing him, his friends stopped their own searches and came over to him. He held up the small object, which shone in the light of the moon, so that everyone could see it. “I found it,” he said again. “This is what I was looking for.”

“Crow…what is that key for?” Chiyuri asked.

“I’ll take you there now,” he replied. “Of course, it’s not my house, but…I think the owners would forgive me.”

After he carefully put the small key away into his item storage, Haruyuki started out toward their next destination. But there was no need to fly a long distance this time. Across the Rainbow Bridge from Shibaurafuto into Odaiba, due south, they descended on the northern side of a place that was called Akatsuki Futo Park in the real world.

Along the narrow road, there was a small house with slightly different coloring than the other terrain objects. If Haruyuki hadn’t picked up the key earlier, he wouldn’t have been able to even find the house, much less touch it. Because this was a so-called player home, which granted access only to the Burst Linker who had purchased the extraordinarily expensive key from one of the shops dotting the Unlimited Neutral Field.

The house, standing there with walls of white rock bathed in the hazy moonlight, somehow resembled Kuroyukihime’s home, which he had visited the previous evening. Haruyuki took a few steps into the modest front yard and looked back over his shoulder.

“This is Chrome Falcon and Saffron Blossom’s house,” he announced.

All five of his companions opened their eyes wide. Although he had only really given them all a rough overview of the story tied up in the Armor of Catastrophe, they all seemed to understand right away. The reason why Haruyuki had worked so hard to find the key, why he had come to this place.

“So then, the intersection before at Shibaurafuto,” Utai murmured, and Haruyuki moved his head up and down in assent.

“Yes. It’s where Blossom lost all her points and disappeared from this world…and it’s also where Falcon was finally subjugated after that, when he became the first Chrome Disaster. So I figured whichever one of them had the key, it would definitely still be there.”

“I see. Indeed, there is no more suitable place than this to put those two Enhanced Armaments to rest,” Kuroyukihime said, turning her eyes on Haruyuki, and nodded deeply as if to say, This is good.

After Haruyuki nodded back, he opened his storage and turned the three items in question into objects. With the two card items in his left hand and the small key in his right, he slowly walked toward the house. He didn’t even have to put the key into the doorknob; at his approach alone, the cute door opened without a sound.

“Pardon my intrusion,” he said, and slipped through the doorway.

The inside of the house had been carefully customized with a variety of furnishings and small items, and even in the bluish-white light of the moon, it looked very cozy. But he did feel a thick sadness hanging in the long, still air. That was only natural. The two who had once lived in this house no longer existed anywhere in this world.

Glancing back, he saw that Kuroyukihime and the others had apparently decided to wait in the entryway and were silently watching over him. In that case, he couldn’t make them wait too long. He had already made Utai in particular, who must have been tired after the long purification, keep him company for nearly two hours.

Haruyuki turned his gaze back toward the inside of the house. “Blossom,” he said. “Thanks to the help you gave me, I was able to return to the people I love again…Falcon, I’m going to keep thinking about what it is you wanted, what you were trying to destroy…Thank you.”

It was all he could do to put the many thoughts filling his heart into these brief words, what with his impoverished language abilities. Even so, he felt sure that he had managed to communicate what needed to be said to both of them, and he took a step forward. On top of the table where the two who had loved each other had eaten, talked, and gazed at the other, he placed the two card items. Next to these, he set the silver key.

“Good-bye.”

He took a step back and turned around, heading toward the door, where his friends were waiting. Just as he was about to leave the room, he felt like he heard someone calling out to stop him. Turning around again, Haruyuki saw…

A slender, somewhat dark-silver avatar that looked a lot like Silver Crow standing to one side of the table. Beside him, sitting on the white chair, was a golden-yellow girl-type avatar. And on the girl’s lap, curled up in a circle, eyes closed happily, was a small black cat.

The three figures were half-transparent in the moonlight and flickered hazily. But Haruyuki was sure that they were no simple illusion. The boy and the girl, and the kitten their love had produced, had finally returned to the place they were meant to.

Good-bye. Someday, we’ll meet again.

Holding back tears that threatened to spill over, Haruyuki once more murmured a farewell in his heart. And then he took a large step back, to return to where his friends were waiting for him outside the door.