Accel World - Volume 9 - Chapter 3

3

The first thing he felt was not the dull weight of his real world body, nor the elasticity of the sofa up against his back, nor even the cool air emitted by the air conditioner. It was the sensation of someone’s hand squeezing his left shoulder tightly, the faint scent of something sweetly minty, and hair like silk tickling his cheek.

Before even opening his eyes, Haruyuki knew there was someone right in front of him. Even still, the instant he saw Kuroyukihime barely thirty centimeters away, eyes like the starry sky wide-open, he couldn’t stop himself from trembling at the feelings that filled his heart.

Kuroyukihime was gripping his shoulder with her right hand, and in her left, she held the XSB plug she had just pulled out of his Neurolinker. Apparently, she had been the one to carry out the physical disconnection, rather than Chiyuri.

“Haruyuki.” She parted her smooth, faintly cherry-colored lips, and a slightly strained voice came out. “We waited for an hour, but you didn’t come back, so apologies, but we took the liberty of activating the emergency disconnect safety.”

“…Right.” He somehow managed to produce that much of an answer, but his voice was so raspingly hoarse it surprised even him. The inside of his mouth was completely dried out; his tongue wouldn’t move properly.

A glass of iced oolong tea was swiftly proffered from his right. Holding it was Fuko Kurasaki, looking as worried as Kuroyukihime, if not more so. Bowing his head slightly, Haru accepted the glass and drank the chilled tea down in one gulp. The pain in his throat finally subsided, and he let out a small sigh.

As if she had been waiting for him to relax a little, Kuroyukihime opened her mouth once more. “Did something happen? Right before we moved to exit through the leave-point at the police station, the closest one to the Castle’s southern gate, we saw a tremendous explosion in the south, probably in the direction of Akasaka. You couldn’t have actually…”

Oh, right, he thought. All he had said to Kuroyukihime and the others when he left them at the Castle’s southern gate was that he was going to look for Ash Roller, so naturally none of them knew anything. Nothing about the many—too many—events that had happened in the following hour.

Still holding the now-empty glass with both hands, Haruyuki quietly looked away. Kuroyukihime was directly in front of him, one knee on the sofa, almost bending forward. To her right, kneeling on the carpet, was Fuko. Farther to the right, sitting on her knees alongside Haruyuki on the sofa, was Utai Shinomiya.

When he turned his eyes to the opposite side, Takumu Mayuzumi and Chiyuri Kurashima were leaning forward, shoulders almost pressed together. All the members of the second Nega Nebulus had a shared look of sincere and deep concern for Haruyuki on their faces.

And yet.

And yet, their faith in me, I…

Forcing that momentary thought out of his mind, Haruyuki somehow succeeded in bringing an awkward smile to his face. He looked at Kuroyukihime again. “Oh, uh, I’m okay,” he said, clumsily, still unable to meet her eyes. “I wasn’t pulled into that explosion. And I didn’t die. I was pretty close to a portal before I logged out, so it’ll probably be easy to leave normally.”

Once he had gotten this much out, a hint of relief rose up on the faces of everyone present. However, the moment he saw that, a feeling of guilt like a sharp needle plunged into Haruyuki’s heart. He had to tell them. Everything. What he had done. That he had given himself over to anger, lost his senses, and destroyed something precious—something called possibility. Not just for Haruyuki, but the future of the Legion Nega Nebulus itself.

Suppressing the urge to sob and wail like a small child, Haruyuki focused on keeping a smile on his face as he gently pushed Kuroyukihime’s hand away from his shoulder. His beloved swordmaster leaned back, brow furrowing slightly, and didn’t quite stand while rearranging herself on the sofa.

He reached a hand out and placed the empty glass on the coffee table before lifting his face. “Um, I’ll start at the beginning, okay?” He looked at Fuko first and gave her a nod. “Master, I found Ash Roller a little north of Shibuya Station. Apparently, before meeting with all of you, he planned to pick up Bush Utan in Shibuya and bring him along. But they were attacked by a group wearing ISS kits.”

“What?!” Fuko gasped, her eyes flying open.

Haruyuki nodded briefly again. “It’s all right. It looks like the attackers stole points from them a few times, but neither Ash nor Utan got to total loss. They should be leaving normally through the portal at Shibuya Station right about now.”

“I see.” Fuko let out the breath she’d been holding and furrowed her brow. “Even though I knew it would be far too late, I was this close to running down to the parking lot and pulling off Ash’s Neurolinker. Honestly, no matter how many times I say not to, that child’s habit of running off cannot be corrected…I must make sure I give Ash the superspecial course from the Incarnate training menu.”

UI> DON’T BE TOO HARD ON ASH, Utai replied in the chat window, pulling her shoulders in for some reason, and Kuroyukihime, Chiyuri, and Takumu laughed together.

“Um.” Haruyuki worked intently to relax his cheeks and somehow put something resembling a smile on his face as he recommenced his story. “So after I managed to beat back the kit users, I saw one of the ISS kits fly off to the east, so I went after it. It moved to the area around Roppongi Hills, but I ran into members of another Legion there, so I got into another little fight, but I managed somehow…And then right after they left through the Mori Tower portal, you pulled the cable out for me, Kuroyukihime, and I burst out, too. The explosion you guys saw was caused by this massive Enemy nearby, but it wasn’t like it was targeting me, so…”

Haruyuki closed his mouth here, but given how many details his explanation omitted, it was no surprise when his friends exchanged looks that said something didn’t quite click for them. Kuroyukihime gave voice to the questions.

“The most important thing is that you’re safe, Haruyuki. Just now, you said you…beat back the group of ISS kit users, yes? Does that mean that you defeated several IS mode users by yourself? Oh, I don’t mean to cast doubt on your actual abilities, but…”

“Uh, um…”

“Kuroyukihime, when Haru does something, he really does it, you know!” Chiyuri spoke up brightly, perhaps keenly sensing that Haruyuki was hard-pressed to answer. “Lately, if you let him use a sneaky trick or two when he’s down, he’ll come out better than the Yellow King!”

“…Chiyuri, was that a compliment?”

Takumu, Fuko, and Utai all smiled at this exchange between the two girls. Haruyuki tried hard to join them and push something like a laugh out of his throat. But at the same time, the feelings he had been desperately trying to dam up in the bottom of his heart were about to burst forth.

The cheery voices of his friends were just too warm, their faces too dazzling. Until the instant they dove into the Unlimited Neutral Field together—mere minutes before, according to the clock on the wall—Haruyuki had been a part of the small but strong circle of Nega Nebulus. He had believed that he would rescue Ardor Maiden from the mouth of the God Suzaku, be purified of the parasitic element of the Armor, and then fight alongside all of them forever. And yet…And yet…

“Haruyuki…?” At the sound of Kuroyukihime’s bewildered murmur, Haruyuki finally realized that a tear was sliding down his own right cheek.

“I-I’m sorry.” He hurriedly wiped at it with the back of his hand several times and put a smile on his face once more. “It’s nothing. I’m just relieved now that the mission to rescue Shinomiya’s over, and…” He managed to quickly push this out, but then his real-world body rejected his control, and large drops began to spill from both eyes, one after another. His face screwed up, and his chest heaved.

“Haruyuki.” Kuroyukihime said his name in a clear voice, and reached out with a pale hand.

He gently, but still with some force, pushed back with both hands. Kuroyukihime’s slender body had no sooner moved away from him than he was springing up from the sofa and running heavily toward the living room door. With his hand on the doorknob, Haruyuki looked back and said to his wide-eyed friends, “I’m sorry, guys. I’m really sorry.”

“Wh-what’s wrong, Haru?” Takumu shouted. “At least tell us first. We promised not to hide things from each other anymore, didn’t we?!”

Haruyuki started to reflexively lower his eyes, but then stopped and endured their gazes at least. To these people he loved, sitting about in the center of his blurry, hazy vision, he said hoarsely, “I’m not Silver Crow anymore. I’m the sixth Chrome Disaster.”

He felt them all gasp as one, but he couldn’t make out the details of their faces through his veil of tears. Thanks to that, he was able to string a few more words together.

“The Armor’s totally become one with my duel avatar. It’s too late to go back or to purify it…I’m sorry, Kuroyukihime. I…I…you…”

I wanted to see the farthest reaches of the Accelerated World with you. Swallowing this, Haruyuki turned without waiting for Kuroyukihime’s reaction. He pushed the door open and flew out into the hallway.

Behind him, he heard the footfalls of what was probably Takumu and Kuroyukihime. Running toward the front door, Haruyuki accessed his home server and opened a holowindow to press his finger down on the FORCE LOCK button in the security settings tab.

“Haru!!”

“You have to wait, Haruyuki!!”

As if fleeing from their voices, he shoved his feet into his sneakers at the same time as he pushed open the entryway door. He had no sooner stepped out through the gap into the shared hallway outside than he was pushing the door shut again with his body and hitting the LOCK button.

Chak! The sound of the lock rang out like something had been severed. Immediately after that came the sound of the handle of the door being pushed down several times, and then that of the dead bolt being turned, but the door did not open. No one but Haruyuki, with his administrator privileges on the Arita home server, could unlock that door.

Flicking around in the window, he set the maximum fifteen minutes for the time to maintain the lock and then started talking to Kuroyukihime, who was still calling his name on the other side of the five-centimeter-thick door.

“Kuroyukihime. I—I summoned the Armor of Catastrophe of my own will. Just when—just when all of you were working so hard to purify the seed parasitizing me…even though Mei made it out of the Castle alive…I made it all worthless…”

How could it be worthless?! Do you think I don’t at least understand you would do that to save a friend you care about?! I will cut that Armor away from you in a single blow! So open the door, Haruyuki!!

Even separated from him by the layers of aluminum, Kuroyukihime’s voice reached his ears very clearly. And the vibrations of her pounding steadily on the door with all her might felt like they came directly through his back and into his heart.

“If we go on like this, you and everyone in the Legion might end up being investigated, too, at the meeting of the Seven Kings on Sunday. And if everyone gets a bounty put on their heads…Nega Nebulus will disappear. I have to make sure that doesn’t happen, at least.” The vibrations stopped at this. In the brief silence, Haruyuki focused on giving voice to his last words. “I’ll finish things with the Armor of Catastrophe myself. Please wait…I know I’ll come back. To you…to everyone.”

That was the first big lie Haruyuki had told since he’d become a Burst Linker as Kuroyukihime’s child. The Armor could no longer be cut free. Even now, while he was in the real world, he felt that Beast breathing somewhere deep inside him. There was only one thing he could do: disappear along with it. After fighting countless battles, wear his existence itself out.

I’m sorry. Good-bye, Kuroyukihime. Good-bye, Master. Sorry, Taku, Chiyu. And…Shinomiya.

Whispering this in his heart, Haruyuki peeled his back off the door. He clenched his hands into tight fists and started running for the elevator. The time display in the lower right of his field of view said 7:20 PM, still a time when a junior high school student would be allowed to be walking alone outside. If he went back into the Unlimited Neutral Field again right away from a dive café somewhere, he should be able to finish everything before he was chased out of the café at ten.

Even in the midst of his confusion and worrying, the thought did indeed cross his mind that perhaps his own actions were a little too rash. But he could not forget the fact that the Armor of Catastrophe gradually ate into even the personality of the Burst Linker wearing it in the real world. Haruyuki could not repeat the tragedy of the fifth Disaster Cherry Rook trying to eat his own child and Legion Master Niko. At least that, he could not allow. Absolutely not.

In his last dive, Haruyuki had only lost himself and attacked Olive Grab and the other ISS kit wearers. In the fighting with Iron Pound and the Green King, he had started to rampage twice, but fortunately, it hadn’t reached the level where he lost his reason or his memory. He would settle this while he could still be himself.

Carving this into his heart, when he went to get into the elevator, his VOICE CALL icon began to flash, accompanied by a light synthetic sound. The caller was…Chiyuri.

Haruyuki clenched his hands as tightly as he could and rode out the desire to push the icon. He apologized in his heart as he cut all network connects from his Neurolinker. And then, instead of using the now-disabled AR button, he specified the first floor with the control panel in the elevator, something he had no memory of ever using.

The basement up to the third floor of the multi-use high-rise condo in northern Koenji where Haruyuki, Takumu, and Chiyuri lived was taken up by a large shopping mall. Even though it was a weekday evening, the central walkway on the first floor was quite busy with families and couples. As he trotted ahead, ignoring all the smiling faces and the fun these people were having, Haruyuki felt a little sense of déjà vu.

Right. It had been in April…the day Haruyuki’s lone power, his flying ability, had been stolen by the Burst Linker who suddenly appeared at Umesato Junior High, the Twilight Marauder, Dusk Taker. After he had been ordered to pay a tribute of burst points every day, Haruyuki had raced through the shoppers, holding back tears just like this.

In the end, he’d been saved by Ash Roller, when he had challenged him to a duel on Kannana Street. Ash had taken Haruyuki to meet his parent Sky Raker, and she had given him the two powers: that of the Incarnate system, as well as that of the Gale Thruster, all so that he could defeat Dusk Taker in the final battle.

This time, however, he couldn’t rely on anyone else. Because, if he faced them in the Accelerated World, Haruyuki might indiscriminately attack them. Given this risk, the act of diving into the Unlimited Neutral Field itself was full of danger. He couldn’t say that he wouldn’t run across someone there who didn’t want to fight. Maybe it would be better to pull the Neurolinker off his neck and smash it or throw it into the fountain. Destroying the installed BB program itself might be the only way to bury the Armor of Catastrophe…

And then a pair of neatly lined-up shoes came into Haruyuki’s field of view ahead of him, as he headed for the entrance with his head hanging. They weren’t new, but the black loafers had been well cared for. White socks, slender calves. A plaid pleated skirt swinging slightly above small knees.

Someone, probably a girl, was standing in Haruyuki’s path—in other words, smack in the middle of the central hallway of the shopping mall. She might have been manipulating her virtual desktop, but it was still a serious violation of etiquette. But of course, he did not have the nerve to just charge forward and shove her aside, so he changed course to the left without looking up at the other girl’s face.

But, shockingly, the black loafers also took a step to the left and continued to block his path.

Finally, feeling mildly irritated, Haruyuki shifted again, to the right. But the owner of the shoes also moved in the same direction. The distance between them was cut down to a meter, and he was forced to stop.

“Excuse me,” Haruyuki whispered, stubbornly not looking up. “I’m coming through here.”

Ah! I’m sorry! was naturally the reaction he was expecting. But…there was a bit of a pause, and then a fairly low voice said something beyond unexpected:

“I. Won’t let you.”

Huh?! Things having reached this point, there was no way that even Haruyuki could help but straighten his rounded back.

As he lifted his eyes, the mysterious path-blocking girl came into full view in pieces. Above the plaid skirt: an ivory school cardigan. At the neckline, a ribbon of the same pattern as the skirt. If it was a school uniform, it was a fairly stylish design. Over it, a smallish shoulder bag hung diagonally. The girl was probably in junior high, but she was quite slender and small. Thin arms were spread out at an angle of about thirty degrees; she was extremely serious about blocking Haruyuki.

Even more dumbfounded, he finally looked at his opponent’s face. Like the voice and the uniform, it was unfamiliar. Her features were sharply put together, with something boyish about them, and her hair was short and slightly unkempt. Haruyuki was bad at remembering faces, but still, there was very little doubt that this was the first time he’d ever seen this girl. However, he couldn’t definitively declare this to be true, seeing as how he’d only looked at her face for a moment before reflexively sliding his eyes away.

And that was because the mysterious girl had downturned eyes wet with tears, on the verge of spilling down her cheeks.

There was no reason for him to even try to figure out why a junior high girl on the verge of tears was not letting him pass in the middle of a mall full of shoppers; the whole thing made no sense at all. Haruyuki somehow managed to turn off his “surprised” switch before he went into full-on, frozen shock.

“Um,” he whispered, “I—I think you have the wrong person. Excuse me, I’m in a hurry, so…” And then he changed course for the third time, trying to slip by on the left.

The half-crying girl reached out to grab his wrist with unexpected force. “I don’t have. The wrong person,” she told him in an even thinner voice. “I can’t. Let you go.”

“Huh?! Wh-why…I haven’t done anything!” Haruyuki said, hurriedly, feeling the eyes of passersby finally turning on them.

The girl’s response to this was further denial.

“No. You did. You. Saved. Me,” she announced haltingly, tears building up in her single-lidded eyes.

“I’m. Ash. Roller.”