Pull of the Dark Nebula

by Reki Kawahara

  First, she checked on the situation. There were two health gauges displayed in the top right of her field of view, one upon the other. As expected, the one on top was Magenta Scissor, while the one below was Avocado Avoider.

  There were also two guide cursors in the lower center of her vision. But they were indicating different directions. It seemed that Magenta and Avocado were in different places within the area. The one she was supposed to meet was Magenta, but she didn’t know which cursor was pointing toward her.

  Finally, she spun around to take a look at her surroundings and saw the figures of the two members of the Gallery on the roof of the station building a little ways off. Of course, it was Mint and Plum. As Shihoko raised a hand to wave, they both jumped down.

  After landing gently without sending any water spraying up, Satomi and Yume ran directly over to her, shouting alternately.

  “What’ll we do, Choco?!”

  “You’re up against a tag team?!”

  “Why didn’t you just reaccelerate?!”

  “And they’re level six and five, you know?!”

  As the two interrogated her, she glanced at her own health gauge. The level displayed beside her avatar name was five, the same as Avocado. The power gap from the opposing tag team was absolute. But.

  “Min-Min, Pliko. Listen?! A Burst Linker! Once she accelerates, all that’s left is to fight in earnest! She must!!”

  ““……””

  Satomi and Yume fell silent, dubious looks on their faces.

  “If you would think that I would shrink in the face of a tag team of a mere five and six, then you are greatly mistaken!” she declared in an even higher-pitched voice. “I will neatly defeat them both and happily accept the many points I earn!”

  “But, Choco, you didn’t come to duel—,” Satomi started, but she didn’t get to finish.

  Suddenly, her friends vanished from before her eyes. They’d been forcibly moved due to the fact that a dueler other than a parent or Legion member had approached to within a ten-meter circle. Shihoko quickly looked back.

  Splsh! Meager waves rippled outward from the center of the station plaza where a human figure had descended to stand. Slender and tall. The F-type avatar silhouette was wrapped in reddish-purple, ribbon-type armor. Weapons like large knives were equipped on each hip, and the only body part exposed was the mouth, where a bewitching smile played.

  The duel avatar was without a doubt Magenta Scissor. But there was just one thing that was different from the last time Shihoko had encountered her. She had no jet-black eyeball-type Enhanced Armament attached to the center of her chest—no ISS kit.

  Her red lips moved, and Shihoko heard a husky voice. “I was wondering who’d come to challenge us in an area like this. If it isn’t our neighbor, Choco.”

  Pushing back her nerves, Shihoko returned resolutely, “Unfortunately, my headquarters is no longer Setagaya Number Four.”

  “Oh my! Did you move?”

  “I did not!” She took a deep breath, threw out her chest, and named herself. “I am now Chocolat Puppeter of the Legion Nega Nebulus!”

  The smile on Magenta’s lips faded somewhat. “Hmm. So you came all this way to tell me of your Legion transfer?”

  “To be precise, it was not a Legion transfer. Petit Paquet was disbanded, and Min-Min, Pliko, and I all joined Nega Nebulus!” Shihoko announced, and Magenta’s faint smile disappeared altogether. She didn’t know if this was because the other Burst Linker was mad or exasperated or annoyed at the way Shihoko spoke.

  Her somewhat formal tone was not because she was trying to create a particular character or use psychological warfare. At some point, she had become unable to speak any other way, no matter how she tried, when she was Chocolat Puppeter. Or rather, it was perhaps more accurate to say that once this tone had sunk into her, she’d finally been able to act naturally and fight in the Accelerated World. Satomi and Yume would sometimes tease her, but Shihoko surprisingly didn’t hate this self of hers. At the very least, she was far more free to speak her mind without fear than she was in the real world.

  Right. She was here to speak. The reason she’d come to that area that day, the reason she’d challenged Magenta Scissor. Shihoko steeled her will and started to open her mouth.

  But an instant before she could, Magenta said in an even cooler voice, “So then, you came to warn me? To say that the three of you are members of the Black Legion now, so I won’t get off so easily if I lay a hand on you?”

  “Pardon?” Surprised into speechlessness, she clenched her hands into fists and indicated her denial of this with her whole body. “Wh-why, that’s not it at all!”

  “So then, is this a pilgrimage or what? Did you come to get revenge on me for the ISS kit thing?”

  “Th-that is even more incorrect! You have the whole situation wrong!” Shihoko shook her head so forcefully that her bonnet threatened to go flying. “It is true that I won’t so easily forget the fact that you forcefully parasitized Min-Min and Pliko with the ISS kits, or that you tried to hunt our friend Coolu. However…Silver Crow told me how you helped him and the others in the end, in the battle to destroy the ISS kit main body.”

  Magenta’s lips curled with dissatisfaction. “That story’s gotten a bit exaggerated, it seems. I wasn’t helping Crow; I was just trying to protect my comrades.”

  “That’s fine, too. If you have the desire to protect your comrades…then that means you’re a Burst Linker just like us.” Shihoko had gotten that far when the water at Magenta Scissor’s feet scattered in an explosion of white spray.

  With a fierce charge, Magenta closed the distance between them at once. Her hand flattened like a sharp sword cut through the whiteout of the spray and closed in on Shihoko’s neck.

  Clenching her teeth, Shihoko sank down and twisted her upper body. Magenta’s strike grazed her neck with a tch and slipped past. Her health gauge dropped ever so slightly, and she wanted more than anything to leap back, but fleeing carelessly was deeply inadvisable at this stage.

  She grabbed hold of Magenta’s left arm with both hands and braced her feet firmly in the water as she threw her backward with what was essentially a one-armed shoulder throw. The taller duel avatar should have slammed into the water on her back, but she deftly did a somersault in the air and stuck the landing quite magnificently.

  Here, Shihoko finally stepped back and snapped a finger at Magenta. “That is very dangerous all of the sudden…indeed!”

  Magenta looked back and fortunately did not pursue the attack, but now a very clear animosity bled into her voice. “It’s a duel; it’s supposed to be dangerous. Anyway, nice job standing there and evading that. I’m a little surprised.”

  “I have a long history as a recluse in the Unlimited Neutral Field. I may not have very much duel experience, but I have memorized all the attack strategies in the various stages.”

  As she spoke, she checked the water beneath her feet. The liquid covering the Water stage was only ten centimeters deep, but in close combat, this meager water depth was more treacherous than it seemed. Players would forget that only their feet were sunk into the water, and when they carelessly tried to jump or run, they were more likely than not to fall. When moving, you first had to lower your center of gravity and make very sure of your foothold. This was the trick Shihoko had learned through painful experience from playing tag and stepping on shadows with Satomi, Yume, and Coolu.

  Meanwhile, being level six, Magenta Scissor of course was familiar with this somewhat rare stage. Even without the ISS kit, Shihoko was forced to admit that she was a worthy warrior with the sharpness of her striking hand and earlier somersault. Which was exactly why she could not lose here, of all places.

  “Magenta. Given that I was the one who challenged you, I have no intention of evading the fight. However…after that, I would ask that you hear what I have to say.”

  A thin smile rose up on Magenta’s lips once more. “Well then, you’ll have to try hard to keep me from taki
ng you down. Because once this duel is over, I’m going to cut my global connection immediately.”

  “All right.” Shihoko nodded, adding in a resolute voice, “I would ask that you also do not leave the battlefield so simply…please!”

  At the same time as she finished speaking, she kicked off the ground beneath the water as hard as she could. The tips of her toes sliding along the surface, she closed the distance between them in a heartbeat.

  Chocolat Puppeter’s armor basically only looked like chocolate; it didn’t melt in the sun or break upon impact. But even so, it was equipped with several properties based on chocolate. The most peculiar of these was the sweetness when you licked it, and her heat resistance was on the low side, but it would also repel water. Thanks to this water-repellent property, she could diminish water resistance to a certain degree in a Water stage. Dashing to close in on Magenta, Shihoko sliced through the water with a left mid-kick.

  In a reaction befitting her, Magenta bent her right arm. The armor of Shihoko’s leg beat down from above this guard.

  Clang! Magenta was knocked slightly off-balance.

  “Hah!” Even as she staggered, she launched a left hook in a counterattack with a sharp cry.

  Shihoko sank down to dodge it and drew in close to Magenta, pressing on her opponent’s neck with both hands as she stabbed her left knee into the ribboned avatar. One blow, two, and then three!

  Magenta’s ribbon armor perhaps didn’t have such a high resistance to strikes; with the three Ti Khao knee strikes in succession, her health gauge dropped over 10 percent.

  “Ngh.” Undaunted, Magenta threw out punches with her right and left arms, but given her long reach, her movements were awkward in these close quarters. And the strikes from above were obstructed by Shihoko’s large hat, so they didn’t manage to reach her face.

  To escape from a clinch, the standard practice was to either remove your opponent’s grip from the inside with both hands or spin around to the side. But Magenta had apparently not studied that far. Still clinging to her, Shihoko took what she could of the other girl’s gauge with strikes and took the lead in the fight.

  As Magenta crumpled, Shihoko was just about to drive home her fourth knee kick. But then an icy shiver caressed her stomach.

  Reflexively, she released her hold and shoved on her opponent’s shoulder to create some distance. A silver flash raced upward in the gap that was created between them.

  An icy chill shot through her, from her stomach up into her chest, and the bright-red damage effect chased after it. As she looked to see her own health gauge drop 5 percent in the corner of her eye, Shihoko jumped even farther back.

  In her outstretched hand, Magenta Scissor was gripping a large knife. The tip of the blade, whipped out sharply from her right hip, had sliced effortlessly through Shihoko’s armor.

  Regretting how she had become utterly focused on a weaponless battle, just like when she was sparring with Satomi, Shihoko dropped into position without a word.

  But Magenta slowly lowered the knife of her right hand and called out with a smile, “I’m a tad surprised. I thought you were a long-range type, and here you are surprisingly accustomed to hand-to-hand combat, hmm? Where’ve you been training?”

  “Min-Min—Mint Mitten—goes to a martial arts dojo on the other side. She is 1.3 times stronger than I am.”

  Instantly, a voice came down from up on a nearby building—“Your numbers are ridiculous!”—but she decided to ignore it.

  Magenta also didn’t react, but instead she nodded lightly, her eyes still on Shihoko. “I see. So they’re techniques you spent time learning in the real…I must apologize for not taking you seriously, then.” She also removed the knife on her left hip with her other hand and spun the two weapons at top speed before snapping into a fighting position.

  At first glance, it looked like she fought with a blade in each hand, but that was actually not the case. The two knives were together a single Enhanced Armament, and by fusing them, Magenta created the scissors that were the origin of her avatar name. And then she would show what she was really made of…

  But Magenta didn’t move to cross the two knives. “I’m gonna use this, so you can go ahead and summon them, Choco. Your delicious-looking puppets.”

  “I’m sorry to tell you, but my special-attack gauge is still insufficiently charged,” she replied, but the truth was, her gauge was just barely full enough for her to call up one Chocopet. But sadly, she couldn’t summon it right away.

  That was the reason Shihoko had muttered “Oh, crud” the instant she realized it was a Water stage—she couldn’t use the Cocoa Fountain special attack here, the prerequisite for summoning her Chocopets. In other words, she needed to move to a dry place to call her Chocopets, but the majority of this stage was covered with water. And the buildings were only concrete skeletons; there was no space there where she could create her Cocoa Pond.

  Perhaps realizing the situation Shihoko was in or perhaps not, Magenta kept her faint smile as she spoke. “Well then, I’ll charge it up a bit for you.” She took a step forward, the knives in both hands glittering ominously.

  Then.

  The water in the plaza in front of the station rocked and surged with a wave that was not generated by the wind. Regularly, once a second, the water surface shuddered. If she listened carefully, she could also hear the showy splash, splash of the water.

  “Oh my,” Magenta murmured, retreating as she lowered her knives.

  Very carefully readying herself, Shihoko also glanced in the direction of the sound.

  On the road—no, the waterway—connecting with the station plaza, a silhouette was slowly approaching from the south. Despite the fact that it was still quite far away, the water shuddered and rippled due to the immense size of the shadow. A Burst Linker without forehand knowledge might have mistaken it for an Enemy, although they were not supposed to exist in the normal duel field.

  Two and a half meters tall. A meter and a half wide. The massive bulk wrapped in dark-green armor was perfectly egg-shaped. Running along on short, fat legs, sending magnificent sprays of water up into the air, was none other than Magenta’s partner, Avocado Avoider.

  …So we’re finally getting serious here? she murmured to herself, slowly inching backward. She had almost been literally eaten by this very Avocado once before.

  A few seconds later, Avocado raced into the plaza and stood next to Magenta. No sooner had he done so than his low voice rumbled out and intensified the water’s rippling. “Sorry, Magenta! I’m late!”

  “It’s no big deal, Avo. You’re in the south of the area and all…And at any rate, I was planning to do this fight alone.” She hooked her fingertip through the ring-shaped knife grip—more precisely, the handle of the scissors—and spun it around.

  “No!” Avocado shook his head, together with his large body. “I…I wanna fight with you!”

  “Oh yeah? But our opponent’s level five, you know? And a level five and six duo attack, well, that’d be picking on someone weaker than us.”

  There is no need for concern! Shihoko nearly shouted. But when she had gotten the “there” in her mouth, Avocado’s loud voice drowned her out.

  “Then I’ll fight Choco by myself!” he declared, the small eye lenses on the upper part of his egg-shaped body flashing as he took a heavy step forward.

  Magenta shrugged as if to say “Well, there you have it” and called out to Shihoko. “Choco, hon, sorry, but maybe you could take Avo on instead. Looks like he’s really been looking forward to a rematch with you.”

  “I—I have no objection,” she replied, but in her heart, she couldn’t help thinking Whoa, indeed.

  The truth was Chocolat Puppeter wasn’t so incompatible with Magenta Scissor, although only under the condition that she was able to summon her Chocopets. Because the Chocopets, chocolate in human form, were basically immune to Magenta’s blade attacks.

  But it was no exaggeration to say that her compatibility with Avo
cado Avoider was the worst. On top of Avocado’s soft armor rendering nearly all physical attacks ineffective, his large mouth was big enough to swallow her Chocopets whole, and they were weak to biting attacks. The only way she could come up with to fight him was to blow away the soft armor with an annoying string of striking attacks and yank out the true avatar body inside. And anyway, there wasn’t any ground anywhere nearby for her to summon her Chocopets.

  But if she lost here, she wouldn’t be able to achieve her main objective of talking with Magenta.

  In terms of level, and in terms of compatibility with both stage and opponent, this was indeed a fierce situation. But she had to turn those disadvantages around and fight bravely—even if she couldn’t win, she had to show enough resolve to persuade Magenta at the very least. As a member of Nega Nebulus. As one Burst Linker who loved the Accelerated World.

  “All right. Come, Avocado Avoider!!” Shihoko shouted, adopting an upright posture in the style of Muay Thai.

  Avocado raised his short arms and shouted back, “I…tried to eat you last time! But today…I win!!”

  Letting out a roar, he charged in a straight line, and each time the super-heavyweight avatar stepped on the ground, columns of water shot up like a fountain.

  In the back of Shihoko’s mind, a fragment of a thought made a noise as it was given a singular shape. The battle with Silver Crow ten days earlier…He had grasped the terrain of the stage three dimensionally and defeated Shihoko with unexpected methods. Of course, Chocolat Puppeter didn’t have the ability to fly. But she should still be able to do the same thing. To do so, first of all, she had to get the upper hand on Avocado health gauge–wise.

  Shihoko stood waiting in place for the massive egg-shaped bulk charging ferociously toward her.

  “Hyoooaaanh!” Avocado spread his arms and jumped. Crushing the enemy with his heavyweight body protected by thick armor was his standard move. It was simple, but the attack was hard to counter. But if she started running away in the early stages of the fight, she would lose precious time.