Snow White’s Slumber

by Reki Kawahara

  “Not yer fault, Lotus,” Niko interjected immediately, sitting cross-legged on the concrete frame. “That damned Argon, she said it. Something about how it was too soon. ‘That lot, they went an’ did it.’ ‘That’ was deffo the ISS kit main body. And by too soon, she meant the timing of the Incarnate energy transfer. Which means those Society jerks were using the main body for storing energy right from the start. If everything’d gone ’zactly ’cording to their plan, the Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II, woulda been two or three or—worst-case scenario—ten times stronger than the thing we fought. This was the right time. We took it down. Couldn’t strike the killing blow, though…”

  “If that’s the case, then I feel a little better.” Kuroyukihime nodded. “But all that said, you did well to defeat it. We saw that black explosion from Midtown Tower, but that went far beyond the level of an Enhanced Armament.”

  “For reals!” Niko threw her hands up into the air. “Like, if you threw that at the Castle, you’d knock a god outta the sky…Heap your praise on your child, there. Without Crow, we’d deffo been wiped out.”

  Pard next to her nodded her agreement.

  “N-no.” Haruyuki flapped his hands in front of him. “We managed to win because no one gave up, right until the very end. If it had been just me, I probably would’ve run away before it even started.”

  “Don’t be so modest, Haruyuki. You are definitely today’s MVP,” Kuroyukihime said with kindness, and a warm joy welled up in his heart.

  But Haruyuki shook his head lightly once more and glanced up at the blue sky. “Thank you. But…it wasn’t my power alone. Archangel Metatron loaned me her wings and fought alongside me…If she hadn’t been there, I never would’ve been able to take down Mark II…”

  No one responded for a time. Finally, Ash Roller spoke at last to break the silence.

  “But, like, Crow, this Metatron, she’s like the Enemy boss, yeah? This is a giga-unbelievable story, man. Talking to an Enemy, tag teaming with her.”

  “Yeah. But Metatron was no ordinary Enemy. We were just born in different worlds, but we have exactly the same spirit…I believe that.”

  Once again, only the faint rippling sound of water filled the stage.

  It was no wonder they were confused. For Burst Linkers, Enemies in the Unlimited Neutral Field were the ultimate foes. They sent large-scale parties scattering with their overwhelming battle power and occasionally pushed Burst Linkers to total point loss with unlimited EK. And the final objective of that day’s mission had been to subjugate the Legend-class Enemy Archangel Metatron and end the blockade on Midtown Tower. He could say that this Metatron had become an ally, but there was no doubt it would be hard to believe right away…

  “I believe you!” Chiyuri suddenly shouted forcefully.

  Haruyuki let out a small “Huh?”

  “I mean, I’ve actually seen an Enemy and a Burst Linker get close!”

  “Seen—? Oh, right, you mean Coolu.”

  When he visited the Setagaya Area of the Unlimited Neutral Field four days earlier with Chiyuri, Haruyuki had met a level-four Burst Linker called Chocolat Puppeteer. She had spent a long time reaching out to a Lesser-class Enemy of the species Lava Carbuncle and finally tamed it—though really, it was more like joined it in friendship.

  Akira also nodded firmly. “There are rare examples of an Enemy being made non-active…or so I’m told. This is the first I’ve heard of one as high-ranking as a Legend class, but if it’s Crow…I feel like I can get on board with that.”

  “The Sun God Inti even might become friends with C!” Utai declared, causing the whole group to laugh cheerfully.

  “I see,” Takumu said once the laughter subsided. “That little icon flying around you in that school, that was Metatron herself then.”

  “Yeah. She was showing us the way.”

  “No way! I said something about her being a bug. I better say sorry the next time I see her.” Chiyuri shrank into herself apologetically.

  And the tears he’d been pushing back since this conversation began, just one of them spilled out. It was beneath his mirrored goggles, so he didn’t think the rest of the group would notice, but Fuko sitting to his right peered into his face.

  “What’s the matter, Corvus?”

  “Oh, n-no. It’s nothing.” His voice in reply shook slightly, and he very much could not fool these trusted comrades. Letting one virtual tear after another fall, Haruyuki turned to Chiyuri. “Chiyu…You won’t be able to do that. Metatron is…To defeat Mark II, she transformed herself into the light of Trisagion…and she disappeared.”

  With the group silent once more, Haruyuki haltingly told them about his experience in the mysterious Highest Level. About the things Archangel Metatron had shown him. Had told him. And about the end of the world that she had wanted to see…

  Once he’d told them about Metatron’s annihilation, there was a full ten seconds of silence. When the timer in the upper part of his field of view reached five hundred seconds remaining, Kuroyukihime started to speak slowly.

  “The final Arc, The Fluctuating Light itself, is the reason for the existence of the Accelerated World…Is that what Metatron said in this space, the Highest Level?”

  “If that’s true, then the world won’t end even once someone reaches level ten…Is that it?” Fuko asked in reply, and the Black King slowly moved her face mask up and down.

  After another brief silence, she said quietly, “When I attained level nine, the message text that was displayed in my field of view was precisely this: WHEN YOU REACH THE NEXT LEVEL, YOU WILL MEET THE CREATOR AND LEARN THE TRUE PURPOSE OF BRAIN BURST, THE TRUE MEANING OF THIS WORLD.”

  “Didn’t actually say the game’d be cleared by someone hittin’ level ten,” Niko said, having seen the same message herself, her tone faintly angry. “But if we’re not clearin’ it, why make such a big deal outta level ten? I mean, the condition to make level ten’s pretty for real—push five other level niners to total point loss or you don’t get to be level ten. What’s the point in that?”

  “…No idea. The only thing is to ask this creator about the truth…But Haruyuki’s story does make me think otherwise than I have been. I feel as though while the creator does wish to see someone reach level ten, they’re also afraid of this very thing happening…Something like that…”

  Niko groaned.

  “If the creator’s afraid,” Haruyuki said, trying to ignore the bitter pain of loss in his heart, “it might be connected with the end of operation of those two worlds—of Accel Assault 2038 and Cosmos Corrupt 2040. If the same creator’s behind all three games, then he—or she, maybe—this person only has our Brain Burst 2039 left now. And if someone reaching level ten means, like, the game’s final stage begins…”

  Metatron had said it on the Highest Level. Long, long ago, plenty of stars had shone in the two parallel worlds, as well. But those lights had gone out one by one until finally they all disappeared. Thus, those two worlds must have produced some “result” a step ahead of Haruyuki’s. He didn’t know whether someone had made it to level ten and challenged the Castle or whether everyone had lost all their points before that. But at the very least, there was the possibility that this world would go down the same path. The possibility that it would be swallowed up by darkness with no one able to reach the light at the end.

  Stewing silently, Haruyuki lightly tapped his right hand to his left.

  “You told us a little while ago, Corvus, about the Green King discussing these two ‘trials,’ Accel Assault and Cosmos Corrupt,” Fuko said, her voice calm. “But now it seems that we need to obtain more detailed information. Ash.”

  The man snapped to attention. “H-hhyah, Master?!”

  “Please set up a meeting with Grandé soon. I’ll leave the venue to you, but I’d prefer a neutral area.”

  “R-roger, yes, Master…So, like, G-G-G-G-G-Grandé, you maybe talkin’ about our LM?! S-s-s—”

  “Seriously for real. Please.” Fuko flash
ed him a bright smile, and even Ash could not say “Giga impossible!” to that grin.

  As Haruyuki watched the petrified century-end rider, the corners of his mouth finally softened. And then he heard a voice from nowhere.

  “That won’t be necessary, Burst Linkers.”

  Sweet like a young girl, clear like a pure holy woman—a stern echo like a noble queen. Although the elements resembled Metatron’s voice, he could tell that the essential nature of it was entirely different. Or rather, he couldn’t feel anything of the heart of the speaker, and that should have been the essential nature of the voice. A hard, cold, smooth wall completely blocked any empathy.

  Who on earth…? Haruyuki started to look around and then noticed something strange about Kuroyukihime.

  The Black King, also known as World End, was completely stiff, even more than the petrified Ash Roller had been. A strange light floated up in the eye lenses behind her goggles, but Haruyuki couldn’t tell what kind of emotion it was expressing. He’d never seen the Black King like this before. And yet, Haruyuki felt like he could see the expression on the face of the flesh-and-blood Kuroyukihime that lived in the avatar. It was definitely surprise, animosity, and fear.

  Instantly, Haruyuki understood. Or rather, remembered. I’ve heard that voice before, too. Not directly…In a dream. Within the memories of Chrome Falcon that I shared in the Castle…

  “On the roof!” Niko shouted, and everyone, with the exception of Kuroyukihime, leapt up from their concrete seats and looked up at the northern sky.

  A hut that housed the stairwell jutted upward from the center of the roof of Umesato Junior High’s first school building. Someone was on top of it. Not a duel avatar; the slender body was wrapped in a snowy-white summer dress, and long golden hair fluttered in the breeze. A girl. But her face was covered by a platinum mask that you’d use at a masquerade ball.

  A flesh-and-blood girl in the duel field? He was baffled for an instant before he realized it was a dummy avatar for spectator use. In other words, a Burst Linker besides Haruyuki and his friends had slipped into the Gallery for the duel that Kuroyukihime and Fuko had started.

  “Who are you?!” Niko’s sharp voice flew once more.

  Even at this demand from the Red King, the snowy girl didn’t so much as twitch. She stood on the edge of the hut and brought her hands together behind her back. A wind gusted up in the Water stage, making the girl’s golden hair and dress flap. He found it hard to believe that the lines of her graceful, refined limbs were polygons.

  Although she had no butterfly wings on her back, and her coloring was the polar opposite, there was an air about her that was very similar to the avatar in the black dress that Kuroyukihime used in the local in-school net. For an instant, the words Snow White flashed through Haruyuki’s mind.

  When the ripples on the expansive water surface died down, small, perfectly formed lips moved beneath the thin metal mask covering the eyes and nose. “Please ask Lotus for my name later. Right now, we have something more important to discuss.”

  …She’d called the Black King “Lotus.”

  Haruyuki glanced over at Kuroyukihime once again. The onyx avatar, the only one to remain seated, did not move a muscle, the swords of her arms and legs still crossed. No, just one place—the top of the sword of her right hand was shaking very minutely. Haruyuki couldn’t decide whether this trembling expressed fear or anger.

  When he returned his gaze to the top of the school building, the mysterious girl looked directly at him with eyes covered by the mask and said, almost singing, “Accel Assault 2038 and Cosmos Corrupt 2040. The reason these two worlds died out…is because both of these worlds were too biased.”

  “…Biased?” Takumu asked, his tone half guarded, half curious.

  “Yes. AA 2038 was filled with excessive fighting…and CC 2040 with excessive harmony. To put it another way, in the world of AA, every player other than oneself was an enemy, and in the world of CC, they were always allies.”

  While he was concerned about Kuroyukihime, as a gamer, Haruyuki reflexively interpreted the girl’s words. Accel Assault was a game with nothing but a so-called free-for-all mode. And Cosmos Corrupt was a game with just a cooperative mode. In which case, both were indeed biased. This was in comparison to Brain Burst 2039, in which all players could be enemies or allies.

  But that this bias destroyed the world…What did that mean? He could understand if it was just the AA world. If the players were constantly killing one another, it was obvious that there would be only one left in the end. But why would the CC world also collapse over the same period when all the players should have been working together to clear objectives?

  The girl on the roof seemed to sense Haruyuki’s question. “Excessive harmony, excessive cooperation…What these produce is not acceleration, but stagnation. Time stopped in the CC world. And it was destroyed because of that. In that sense, the flow of this world that you all love might also be starting to stagnate bit by bit.” The girl chuckled softly.

  This sweet echo jabbed at Haruyuki’s memory again. Chrome Falcon, the Burst Linker who synced with Haruyuki in the Castle…He’d become the first Chrome Disaster because his beloved partner Saffron Blossom was killed over and over and over before his eyes. In an unlimited EK using the terrifying hell worm, the Legend-class Enemy Jormungand.

  It was the Acceleration Research Society’s Black Vise and Argon Array who had put together this tragedy. But one other person was also there.

  She had been wrapped in a mysterious light, so he couldn’t see her, but someone higher up the ladder than Vise and Argon was there. The owner of a sweet, pure, stern voice.

  “…It can’t be…,” Haruyuki squeezed out hoarsely.

  Kuroyukihime, who had not so much as twitched up to that point, raised her face mask haughtily. She leapt up high from her seated position and did a backflip before landing on the mass of concrete with a sharp klak. She sighted the girl on the roof with the tip of her right sword hand.

  “Do you intend to say that that was why?!” Her tone was sharper and more severe than her swords. But Haruyuki realized that there was a shared echo, albeit slight, in Kuroyukihime’s crisp voice and the sweet song of the mysterious female avatar. “Are you trying to legitimize it by talking like that after you went around distributing a thing like the ISS kits?!”

  She yanked her brandished sword downward, slicing through the air.

  “Answer me!! White King…and president of the Acceleration Research Society, White Cosmos!!”

  The wind of the Water stage ceased. The light of the sun clouded over, and the water surface calmed like a mirror. Thick black clouds rolled in to hide the endlessly clear blue sky. Even though it had to have been nothing more than a preset weather change event, it was almost as if the stage itself were afraid. Purple lightning bolts began wriggling like living creatures through the ink-black sky. The low rumbling thunder called up wavelets in the water at their feet.

  The White King, White Cosmos. Also known as Transient Eternity, the head of the White Legion, Oscillatory Universe. Kuroyukihime’s parent and her real-life older sister. The very person who had convinced her that the Seven Roads—guns the Red King, Red Rider, created as symbols of peace—were the ultimate weapons of destruction and spurred her toward tragedy two and a half years ago.

  She was the only one of the Kings of Pure Color who always had a representative attend the meetings of the Seven Kings that Haruyuki had been a part of, and now Kuroyukihime was saying that she was at the same time the leader of the Acceleration Research Society, another figure similarly shrouded in mystery.

  “But…that’s…” The voice that spilled from Haruyuki’s throat shook so much that he himself could barely hear it.

  The other eight were in varying degrees of shock. The one who appeared the most surprised was Ash Roller, who groaned “No way…” without a single word of Ash slang.

  Chiyuri, on the other hand, muttered “Of course,” which jump-started Har
uyuki’s brain again.

  “Of course?” he asked his childhood friend. “How did you…?”

  “Now look, the Society headquarters we slipped into…It was about two kilometers southwest from the old Tokyo Tower, right? And the girls’ school Kuroyukihime said the White Legion headquarters was in was basically the same place.”

  “That’s exactly right, Bell.” Fuko nodded slightly. “We also realized it when we were moving from Midtown Tower. The White Legion is a cover for the Acceleration Research Society. We were planning to make that announcement at the end of this meeting, but…”

  “I never imagined that the White King herself would show,” Akira remarked.

  “Nor I,” Utai added.

  The girl avatar standing against the backdrop of the thunder clouds accepted Kuroyukihime’s censure silently. The cold wind that had started to blow toyed with the hem of her summer dress and her long, golden hair.

  The last to respond was the Red King. She took one step, then another, toward the school building before calling out in a voice that burned with a powerful fire, “You? You’re the one pulling the strings here? Not just the ISS kits…Creating the Armor of Catastrophe, the Disaster, and parasitizing one Burst Linker after another with it—that was your work, White Cosmos?!” A crimson aura rose like flames from her right hand, thrust toward the girl on the roof.

  Niko had made her own parent, Cherry Rook, retire through total point loss with her Judgment Blow, because Rook had turned into the fifth Chrome Disaster and was indiscriminately attacking members of other Legions. It had been the Yellow King, Yellow Radio, who had given Rook the Armor of Catastrophe, but even this act of his was likely the result of the Acceleration Research Society’s invisible machinations. Since the dawn of the Accelerated World, the White King and Black Vise had been sowing the seeds of tragedy.

  Flames of rage enveloped Niko, while the girl in white looked down at her through her platinum mask.