“I see. Mm-hmm,” Chiyuri hummed deeply, her face finally resuming its normal expression. “But I wonder if Blaze Heart and Peach Parasol and them are going to get on board after they came and attacked Suginami that time in the Territories…I didn’t actually fight them, but they were pretty serious, weren’t they?”
UI> YES. I DON’T THINK THEY WILL SO EASILY FORGIVE SACCHI FOR DRIVING RED RIDER TO TOTAL POINT LOSS.
“So then,” Chiyuri started. “Maybe Blaze and them’ll leave the Legion when they find out about the merger.”
Haruyuki nodded silently before asking the youngest and yet most senior Legion member there, “Shinomiya, what do you think about the merger?”
Without so much as appearing to think for a moment, Utai tapped away at her holokeyboard. UI> I HAVE NO PARTICULAR OBJECTION. WHEN I BECAME A BURST LINKER, IT WAS QUITE NORMAL FOR A LEGION TO MERGE WITH OR SPLIT FROM A NEARBY LEGION. THE REASON THE SITUATION IN THE ACCELERATED WORLD HASN’T SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGED RECENTLY IS BECAUSE THE SIX LEGIONS CONCLUDED THE MUTUAL NONAGGRESSION PACT. BUT
Her fingers stopped there for a moment, and then she continued, typing a little slower.
UI> IF THE LEGION NAME NEGA NEBULUS DISAPPEARS DUE TO THIS MERGER, I DO THINK THAT WOULD BE UNFORTUNATE. I’M SURE EVERYONE IN PROMINENCE FEELS THE SAME WAY.
“Mmm. I guess so.” Chiyuri looked up at the sky, where the clouds were gradually thinning. “It’s only been three months since I was let into Nega Nebulus, but even so, I seriously love the Legion. I do think we have to defeat the Acceleration Research Society, and I’m happy to have a whole bunch of new comrades, but…But I guess I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. I want to have fun with people I love in a comfortable place forever. It’s just this feeling I have…”
Haruyuki unconsciously stared at the face of his childhood friend in profile. He had once told Chiyuri that the energy source for Lime Bell’s special attack Citron Call was her longing for the past. The sound of the bell when she activated her technique was exactly the same as the bell at the elementary school she, Haruyuki, and Takumu had attended. Most likely, even now, she held the desire deep in the depths of her heart to return to the days when the three of them would get all sweaty running around and playing every evening, back when she wasn’t afraid of a recurrence of her father’s illness. Large changes like a Legion merger or a decisive battle with the Society probably made her feel more overwhelmed than he could imagine.
“It’ll be okay, Chiyu,” Haruyuki said. “Even if the name changes when the Legions merge, none of the important stuff’ll change, y’know? We’re gonna join forces with Promi, take down the Acceleration Research Society, crush their plans, and clear Brain Burst together with Kuroyukihime. That’s the goal, just like it’s always been.”
“Mmm.” Chiyuri blinked several times and then showed him her usual grin. “Right! You and I gotta get way stronger still, Haru!”
“Y-yeah, right.” Haruyuki’s response was somewhat inarticulate.
Utai snickered before moving her fingers. UI> ARITA, I THINK IT’S ABOUT TIME YOU GOT IT TOGETHER AND DECIDED ON YOUR LEVEL-SIX BONUS!
“Unh! …R-right…Graph said the same thing…”
UI> WHAT DID GRAPH SAY? Utai had already read Kuroyukihime’s report, so she should have known that Haruyuki and Fuko had encountered Graphite Edge in the Castle. So Haruyuki left out the preamble and just told her what the man had said.
“Um. He said if I wasn’t satisfied with how I am, I can get stronger with more training or level-up bonuses. I don’t know if I’m actually unsatisfied with Silver Crow’s status, though.”
Chiyuri shook her head as though exasperated, while Utai smiled once again.
UI> I DO RECOMMEND THAT YOU LET 90 PERCENT OF WHAT GRAPH SAYS SLIDE, BUT THAT ADVICE IS POSSIBLY PART OF THE REMAINING 10 PERCENT. IF YOU FEEL A WALL IN THE GROWTH OF YOUR DUEL AVATAR, ONE IDEA IS TO CHANGE THE DIRECTION OF YOUR BONUSES. I’M ALSO THINKING OF ENHANCING MY CLOSE-RANGE FIGHTING ABILITY NEXT.
Haruyuki read the words Utai tapped into the chat window with great interest and sank into thought. The reason he had poured all of his level-up bonuses into enhancing his flight ability was because he had been following Kuroyukihime’s advice. His resolve had been shaken when he was presented with an appealing special attack as a choice at level two, but ever since, he’d chosen to enhance his flight ability without hesitation. And yet, when it came to his level-six bonus, he felt this insurmountable reluctance…
“Graph and Master Fuko said that if it’s an enemy you can’t beat alone, beat with two. And if two can’t win, you just have to win with three,” Haruyuki murmured, looking down at his own hands. “But I want to win alone, whatever it takes. I think there are some places where you have to win. And for those times, I want just a little more power. Maybe it’s wrong to think like that.”
UI> THAT IS THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE FOR ALL BURST LINKERS GIVEN SUPPORTIVE-TYPE DUEL AVATARS, Utai announced without a moment’s delay.
Haruyuki yanked his face up. Utai was smiling, and Chiyuri was grinning. When he thought about it, Ardor Maiden was a support-type duel avatar that specialized in long-distance firepower attacks, and Lime Bell was a completely supportive type with only a simple smashing attack as her direct attack.
“Ah. S-sorry, Chiyu, Shinomiya.” Haruyuki hurriedly dipped his head.
Chiyuri sputtered with laughter. “You don’t have to apologize. I mean, it’s like Ui said. Sometimes you wish you had more attack power. I like my avatar, and it’s way more fun fighting together with everyone than it is to solo fight. I get plenty of fighting on my own in the real world at track, so I’m fine with going all out with team fights in the Accelerated World.”
Utai moved her fingers nimbly. UI> YOUR WAY OF THINKING IS VERY SOLID, CHIYURI!
“When you say stuff like that, it’s like I’m going in circles here,” he muttered before slowly nodding. “But I totally get what you’re trying to say, Chiyu. Basically, that’s what I’m looking for…And I feel like Kuroyukihime also told me way back in the beginning to ask my own avatar for the answers.”
UI> THAT’S EXACTLY RIGHT. I THINK IT’S BEST IF YOU CONSIDER ALL YOUR OPTIONS, STRUGGLE WITH THEM, AND THEN MOVE FORWARD THE WAY YOU TRULY DESIRE.
“Yeah, thanks, Shinomiya, Chiyu. I’ll decide on my bonus before the Territories tomorrow. And…this wasn’t in Kuroyukihime’s report, but Graph had a message for you, Shinomiya.”
Utai cocked her head to one side, and Haruyuki gave her the message entrusted to him by Graphite Edge immediately before the escape from the Castle.
“‘When I escape from the Castle’s north gate, I’m counting on your help, Denden’…is what he said.”
Utai looked at him with wide eyes for a moment until finally she pursed her lips. UI> I DO WISH HE’D STOP CALLING ME DENDEN ALREADY. She typed only that before clenching her small hands into tight fists and turning her gaze upward.
When Haruyuki also looked up at the sky, a ray of golden light stretched out through a gap in the clouds to make the humid sky glitter and shine.
9
Of all the twenty-three wards in Tokyo, the most populous was Setagaya—or so Shihoko Nago had been repeatedly taught since elementary school in her social studies lessons. In terms of area, it was just barely second after Ota Ward, but that was because the enormous plot of reclaimed land known as Haneda Airport was in Ota. If you didn’t count the airport, then Setagaya was the largest—so went the piece of trivia that had wormed its way into her brain. Thus, the thing that surprised her the most when she became a Burst Linker was the fact that Setagaya was treated as a vacant area in the Accelerated World.
“I actually still don’t really get by what logic Setagaya is a vacant area,” Shihoko said in a quiet voice as the Keio Line express train rocked her back and forth.
Next to her, Satomi Mito shrugged. “I guess maybe ’cause there’s nowhere famous. Kids who wanna duel are gonna gravitate toward Shibuya or Shinjuku.”
�
�It’s not true that there’s nowhere famous. Setagaya has all kinds of places.”
“Like where?”
“Like…Carrot Tower in Sancha.”
“Plus?”
“Plus…Nikotama Rise.”
“And?”
“And…Todoroki Valley and Baji Koen and the Olympic Park.” Shihoko earnestly listed the famous landmarks, and Satomi grinned as she nodded at each one.
“Next time, how about we ask the Crow and them how many of those they know?” she asked.
“Would! You! Quit! That?!” Shihoko groaned and hung her head, admitting defeat. It was true that Setagaya didn’t have a landmark that any resident of Tokyo would know instantly, like Ikebukuro’s Sunshine City or Shinjuku’s government building or Shibuya’s Ravine Square. Thus, people looking for a duel didn’t gravitate to the ward, and as a result, the number of Burst Linkers did not increase. She understood the logic, but she still wasn’t happy about it.
“Hmm, mmm. What else is there?” Shihoko muttered to herself, not knowing when to give up.
“Shiho!” Yume Yuruki, playing around on her virtual desktop across from them, suddenly lifted her face, her glasses glinting. “There is one! A famous place!”
“Huh? Where, where?”
“That massive gas tank in Roka Park.”
“…That’s gonna be taken down next year. And anyway, it’s just a big round thing.” Her shoulders slumped in disappointment, but then she straightened up again; this was no time for this sort of comedy routine. The reason they were on the Keio Line on a weekday after school when they normally walked was not to go off and have fun. It was a sortie for an important mission.
“Look,” she said. “We’re almost past Kanpachi now. You both cut your global connections, right?”
“Yup” came from Satomi.
“Courso” came from Yume.
Ring Road No. 8 that cut through Setagaya ward north-south was also the boundary of the area. The Shikishima University–affiliated Sakurami Junior High School they attended was in Setagaya Area No. 2. Riding the outward Keio Line train from the nearest station, Sakurajosui, they would be in Setagaya Area No. 5 once they crossed Kanpachi. Because they had turned the global-net connection on their Neurolinkers off once they got on the train, there was no chance of being challenged once the area changed. But the instant the express train racing along the elevated tracks cut across the main road, a nervousness rose up from the bottom of her stomach.
Their destination was the next station, Chitose-Karasuyama. But they weren’t going shopping or anything like that. The three Burst Linkers were crossing an area boundary to challenge someone for basically the first time since they’d become Burst Linkers.
“Don’t be so nervous, Shiho,” Satomi said. “I mean, it’s not like our opponent’s definitely gonna be on the list anyway.”
“In fact, it’s pretty likely she won’t be!” Yume chimed in.
“Yeah.” She nodded slowly. “But like, I just have this feeling. Like we’re gonna get to see her today.”
“Right. We might. You decide what you’re gonna talk about if we do?” Satomi asked.
This time, she shook her head. “Uh-uh. Not at all. But I’m sure Corvus’d say if we just go head-on with her, we’ll get our message across.”
“Heh-heh-heh.” Yume chuckled strangely. “Yeah, maybe.”
Shihoko glared at her. “I’m telling you this now. If I lose, Sato, Yume, you gotta go up against her!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Sure, sure.”
Both sounded as laid-back as ever, but only because they were trying to get the girl to relax a little. To show them her gratitude, she grabbed hold of the sleeves of their uniforms and turned her gaze out the window.
A minute later, the train gradually decelerated and slid up to the platform of Chitose-Karasuyama station. They went down the stairs out the south exit where there was a plaza in front of the station. Several benches were set out around the green space, so it looked like a good place for accelerating.
“I was thinking a café or something, but maybe the plaza’s good?” Shihoko suggested, and Satomi and Yume nodded. To replenish their energy for the duel, they each got a regular cone at the ice cream shop inside the station building and then moved out to the plaza. Once they sat down alongside one another on a bench farther in under the shade of a tree, the three wordlessly enjoyed their snacks for a while.
When Shihoko’s strawberry cheesecake, Satomi’s cookies and cream, and Yume’s dainagon azuki bean ice cream disappeared at the same time, they all nodded at one another and reached a hand toward their Neurolinkers to push the button for a global connection.
Since they’d already had a meeting in advance and determined that Shihoko would duel first, while Satomi and Yume stayed in the Gallery, it was only Shihoko who accelerated. She took a deep breath. “Burst Link!!”
Skreeeee! The sound echoed in her mind, and the summer evening froze a pale blue. She moved into the initial acceleration space of the Blue World in her full-dive avatar, modeled after Gretel from Grimms’ fairy tales, and tapped the B icon burning a bright red on her virtual desktop. Feeling equal parts excitement and dread, she opened the matching list.
Par for the course in an area that was known as vacant, there were only two names on the list other than Plum Flipper and Mint Mitten. The instant she identified the string of letters on top of the list, her breath stopped, even though she was in the middle of a full dive.
MAGENTA SCISSOR. The terrifying radical who had forcefully infected some dozen Burst Linkers, including Satomi and Yume, with ISS kits as part of a plan to level the playing field in the Accelerated World. The very person Shihoko had come to see. She’d been told her headquarters were Setagaya Area No. 5, but she supposed it was a stroke of good fortune that she had suddenly come across her like this.
But the matching list also contained some unexpected information. The other avatar name displayed right below Magenta’s.
AVOCADO AVOIDER. The supersized avatar who had paired up with Magenta. And the names of Magenta and Avocado were connected by a mark indicating that they were a tag team.
“Tag!” Shihoko murmured, her index finger hovering above the list. A tag team couldn’t challenge a solo Burst Linker, but the opposite was allowed, so Shihoko taking on Magenta and Avocado was possible in terms of the rules. But if they ended up fighting, her chances of winning would drop dramatically.
“What should I do…?” Biting her lip, she glanced to one side, but of course, she got no answer from the frozen, blue Satomi and Yume.
She could stop her acceleration for the moment and register as a tag team with one of them before once again challenging Magenta. But during that minute or so, Magenta might disappear from the list, and then it would all be for nothing.
Shihoko made her fairy-tale avatar look back and up at the northern sky. About a kilometer north of the Keio Line’s overhead tracks, the Chuo Expressway ran east-west. Beyond that was Suginami, the territory of Nega Nebulus, which Shihoko and her friends had joined three days earlier.
What would Silver Crow do at a time like this? Shihoko thought, only to abruptly giggle.
After school three days earlier, in the student council office of the private Umesato Junior High School near Shin-Koenji station, Shihoko and her two friends had come face-to-face with the members of Nega Nebulus in the real for the first time. Unfortunately, not all of Nega Nebulus was in attendance—it had only been five of them: the Legion Master, Black Lotus (aka Kuroyukihime), Ardor Maiden (one Utai Shinomiya), Cyan Pile (Takumu Mayuzumi), Lime Bell (Chiyuri Kurashima), and Silver Crow (Haruyuki Arita). But apparently, Shihoko and her friends would be introduced to the remaining Sky Raker and Aqua Current soon.
The one who made the deepest impression was, of course, Master Kuroyukihime. Shihoko couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the otherworldly beauty of the Umesato student council vice president, using her handle name (?) of Kuroyukihime even in the real
world, and her seemingly indefatigable (?) mental strength. Shihoko and her friends had nodded in agreement on the way home: Of course, the Black King was no ordinary person.
And then after Kuroyukihime, the second strongest impression had been made on her by Silver Crow—Haruyuki Arita. His face and body were both round, and his image was in stark contrast to his Accelerated World duel avatar. But just like when they’d met in the Unlimited Neutral Field, Shihoko’s nervousness melted away in the blink of an eye. It quickly became clear to her soon that Kuroyukihime and the others trusted him a great deal.
If it was Silver Crow…If it was him, with the strength to always accept his own weaknesses and push forward with all his might, he probably wouldn’t blanch at his opponent turning out to be a tag team.
Right…The reason Shihoko was in Setagaya wasn’t simply to fight and win. She had come this far to share something more important than victory with her former enemy.
“Satomi, Yume. And Corvus. I…I’m gonna do it!” Shihoko shouted in the frozen-blue world and punched the matching list button.
As she transformed from her Gretel avatar into her duel avatar, Chocolat Puppeter, Shihoko fell through the darkness until she landed on solid ground—no, until her feet were swallowed up by a shallow layer of water. Aware of waves lapping ticklishly at her ankles, she slowly opened her eyes. Instantly, the powerful sunlight dyed her field of view white.
She quickly adjusted the sensitivity of her eye lenses, and color returned to the world. Blue water stretched out endlessly. It was only about ten centimeters deep, but it covered the entire field. All the buildings had been turned into skeletal concrete frames bleached white in the sun, and the wind that blew between them swept up little wavelets on the water surface.
The natural-type, water-attribute Water stage. It was quite popular thanks to the bright sun and clear water, a design that allowed players to taste a bit of the resort life. But the instant Shihoko recognized the stage, she muttered, “Oh, crud.” But regardless, the duel had started. And by Shihoko challenging. All she could do now was fight with everything she had.
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