The transport to this place was never a privilege granted to only Haruyuki. If a Burst Linker knew of the news on the social camera installation in the Hermes Cord, conceived of the possibility of a new stage being added to Accel World, and furthermore could guess the time and place when the portal to it would appear, anyone could manage to come here.
Slightly happy that there was another player that thought of such a reckless fancy and actually came to the Sky Tree like himself, Haruyuki smiled. However, he immediately realized something, and stiffened his body.
In other words, it wouldn’t be strange if new avatars appeared one after another here right at this instant. He frantically looked around at his surroundings, but he saw no signs of a third person appearing.
As Haruyuki started becoming scared only now, Pard-san spoke in a slightly amazed voice.
“The reason you entered the portal first is because you boldly accelerated at the viewing platform itself. I Dived inside the toilet on the floor below, so I was slightly late. Since other people will probably come from the ground with the prevention of having their real identities exposed as their top priority, there should be a margin of several minutes before they get here.”
“Ah…yes, I see, that is true…”
While feeling belatedly scared at his own recklessness, Haruyuki once again greeted her.
“H-Hello, good day.”
When Leopard nimbly held out her right hand, he did likewise and bowed his head to her.
“Umm, I’m seriously indebted to you for the other day. I’m sorry for only sending you a mail afterwards and not thanking you directly…”
Those words were thanks to Pard-san for the great help he had gotten from her in solving the huge trouble that assaulted Haruyuki two months ago. The leopard-headed avatar shrugged and replied with an unusually long response.
“NP[20]. You also helped me a lot that time. Your information was very useful in finding the security hole within Akiba BG. More importantly…”
She struck Haruyuki’s back with a slap and urged him to move.
“We should effectively use the time advantage we went to the trouble of earning. Let’s investigate around the pillar.”
“K, K[21]!”
Although the person that had appeared after him belonged to another legion, Haruyuki was seriously glad as he walked that it was Blood Leopard who he had made friends due to certain circumstances. If it had been Frost Horn, he would have definitely grabbed Haruyuki from behind without speaking first and thrown him down to the ground below.
They crossed over the approximately twenty meter wide flange and approached the main pillar of the Hermes Cord, but even when they touched it with their hands, no change occurred on its shining alloy-like surface. Even though there were details like seams between metal plates, there were no handholds for climbing at all.
Pard-san scratched the pillar with her sharp nails, and after confirming that it was so hard that it didn’t leave even a scratch, she began walking around it clockwise. Haruyuki also followed after her. Since the diameter of the pillar was about 100 meters, they had a hard time going around the curving surface. When they could finally see the opposite side from where the transport location was, Haruyuki noticed that there was something there and raised his voice.
“Ah…There’s something here!”
The sound of their footsteps rose and they ran up to it.
The objects there seemed to be, at first sight, cars or ships. Streamlined vehicles about six meters in length were orderly lined up next to each other on top of a slanted rack installed at the bottom of the pillar, staring straight up towards the top of the Hermes Cord. There were ten of them.
The vehicles didn’t have a roof, and instead the seating areas were completely open. At the front, the one-seater cockpit was equipped with a transparent windshield. There were two rows of two-person seats placed behind it. The lower section was equipped with four big discs instead of tires, which seemed to be some kind of propulsion device. Its slender smooth body-line was fitting for the original meaning of the word «shuttle».
“W-What are these…?”
Murmuring that, Haruyuki climbed atop the slanted rack and approached one of the vehicles at the left end with the symbol «1» painted on its side. The cold iron-colored body remained coldly inactive, and there were no signs that it contained fire in its engine.
He timidly extended his hand forward, and at the instant he poked the smooth line of the door.
*PIPON* A purple holo-window popped up with a light sound. After being startled for a moment, he peered at it frantically. Pard-san also brought her face close next to him.
On the topmost part of the window, inscribed in robotic font were—.
The characters [3D 18H 25M 18S (JST)]. These digits, which appeared to indicate days, hours, minutes, and seconds in order, clearly seemed to be some kind of time count.
“Hmm. If this is a countdown, then when the digits will reach zero in 3 days, 18 hours and 35 minutes in Japanese Standard Time…in other words, at noon on Sunday.”
After Blood Leopard muttered that, Haruyuki also spoke following her train of thought.
“Will something happen at that time…?”
However, instead of answering his question, Pard-san pointed at the lower part of the window with her feline beast-of-prey-like claws. There was a short sentence displayed there as well. Saying, [DO YOU DRIVE ME?].
And beneath that, there was only a YES button. He understood that the meaning of the simple English sentence was “Will you drive me?”, but even so Haruyuki wavered over what to do, and the ever-hasty Pard-san whispered in his ear.
“If you won’t press it, I will.”
“Ah, I-I’ll press it, I’ll press it!”
Answering frantically, Haruyuki raised his right hand and, after resolving himself, pressed the YES button.
Instantly, a short fanfare SE[22] resounded and the English characters changed. [YOU ARE MY DRIVER!] —You are my driver.
Several seconds later, the string of characters changed again and became the single word [RESERVED]. At the same time, an object appeared as if oozing out from the window surface.
It was a transparent clue card. Besides the marking «1» on its surface, it also had the same countdown displayed on it as on the window. The instant Haruyuki took it, the next and final phenomenon occurred.
Along with a sound, the body of streamlined machine made changed from a cold iron color to a dazzling silver color. Haruyuki immediately noticed that its mirror-like tint was exactly the same as his, or rather, Silver Crow’s armor.
“I see.”
Pard-san murmured as if understanding something, and walked over to the shuttle marked with «2». When she touched its body, a window appeared, and she touched the YES button without hesitation. After she took the card that appeared between two of her fingers, the body color of the shuttle immediately changed to Blood Leopard’s deep red armor color this time.
Haruyuki walked over to Pard-san while holding his card and asked a question once again.
“U-Umm…Me and Pard-san have been registered as the drivers of these cars or ships…I understand that much, somehow. But, what is this countdown about? There’s still more than three days remaining, but…”
“That's self-explanatory. The shuttles won’t move until the countdown becomes zero at noon on Sunday.”
After hearing that clear reply, he nodded in understanding, and immediately after his next question sprang forth.
“H-Haa…B-But, why is there such a long waiting time…?”
In response, Pard-san unusually opened her mouth that was hidden by the lower portion of her artillery shell-like mask, and grinned with her sharp fangs shinning.
“That is also obvious. The given three and a half days are the grace period for preparing one driver and four passengers for each of the ten shuttles. At noon on Sunday, we’ll all step on the accelerator in a race and aim for the top of this pillar. In other wo
rds.”
Lifting up her right hand and pointing towards the far-off top, the deep crimson leopard-headed avatar said as if singing.
“We have acquired the right to participate in the «Hermes Cord Traversing Race».”
It took about a full five seconds for Haruyuki to understand the meaning of those words.
“Then…i-in other words…the goal is the top of this tower, in other words, s-s-s-space!?”
In response to Haruyuki’s voice which was turned inside out, Pard-san nodded ‘Of course’.
However, before he can say anything else, he heard a series of transport sounds from the opposite side of the pillar. Most likely, Burst Linkers that had accelerated on the ground level had arrived at the viewing platform’s portal.
Pard-san waved her long tail once, and then whispered to Haruyuki while touching his back.
“It’d be better for us to scatter before they find us.”
Certainly, since there were only ten shuttles, the remaining limit of people that could do the driver registration was eight. It would be troublesome if the people that were excluded suggested something like deciding the right to use it through a duel.
“That’s…That’s true.”
As Haruyuki pushed away the surprise inside him and agreed with her for the time being, her next words jumped into his ears.
“When you cease your acceleration, wait at the ground parking lot exit. I’ll carry you to Suginami on my bike.”
“Eh…”
He once again stiffened in surprise. The violent power of that large electric motorbike with Pard-san at the wheel was clearly revived in his mind.
However, he of course couldn’t say no and decline, so Haruyuki nodded.
“T-T-Thank you that’s a big help.”
“NP.”
And then, the two of them recited the command with their voices in sync.
““Burst Out!””
The real world Pard-san, who he hadn’t met in a while, was fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately, dressed not in her maid-style uniform from the cake shop, but in a T-shirt and slim jeans.
His gaze unconsciously wandered to the unexpected volume that pushed up her tightfitting clothing, which he hadn’t been able to perceive when she had worn her loose apron. Expressionlessly, Pard-san took out a spare helmet from the maintenance space underneath the seat, put it on Haruyuki’s head with a plonk and straddled the motorbike. After putting on the helmet harness himself this time, he frantically climbed onto the passenger seat and timidly put his arms around the thin waist in front of him.
At first she withheld the amount of power she put into the engine, but after coming out from the Sky Tree’s parking lot, the motorbike’s in-wheel motor instantly howled and raged with a ‘KYUIIIIN!’.
“……Ah——!”
Just like last time, Haruyuki had to thoroughly cling to Pard as he let out a scream. Though, as he did his best to endure the extreme stop-and-go that was repeated at every light, he didn’t have the time to care about the sensation of touching anything.
When they got out of the Sumida Ward, to Okachimachi, Ochanomizu and then Iidabashi, Pard-san’s voice reached Haruyuki’s ears.
‘It’s before 6:30, but do you have some time right now?’
‘Eh, ah…Yes.’
Since the curfew that Haruyuki’s mother had set was 9:00 at night, he still had time. As for the reason why she allowed a middle school student to be outside until a somewhat inappropriate time like that, he couldn’t say whether it was because she trusted her son or because she found managing him troublesome. Haruyuki might know the answer to that if she scolded him if he were to seriously break the curfew once, but he didn’t have that kind of courage, and so he added ‘It’s fine if it’s only for two hours’.
Pard-san then murmured in an unexpected tone.
‘If we went to go have tea for such a long time, it’d likely stop dissolving.’
Huh, t-tea?
Soon after he thought that, the large motorbike rode up to a fast food restaurant along the road while blinking its flashers.
Over the past eight months, Haruyuki had gone into shops like this twenty times with Kuroyukihime and once with Sky Raker. However, there was no indication at all that he was getting used to this kind of situation, and he always got a cold sweat when he felt himself exposed to gazes that said ‘Just what the heck is with that mismatched pairing’ from his surroundings every time.
Persuading himself that he was just self-conscious about that kind of thing and that anyone would worry about other people as he sat down in a boxed seat facing Blood Leopard, Haruyuki tried to block out the surrounding customers from his mind by concentrating with all his power on the hamburger set he was being treated to.
‘It seems like I’ll succeed’, is what he thought for a brief instant.
Pard-san took out a red XSB cable from her belt pouch, leaned forward and thrust one of the plugs at the end into Haruyuki’s Neuro Linker. Expressionlessly, she connected the other end to her own.
The Wired Connection warning that appeared in his vision couldn’t hide the spectacle of the middle and high school students within the shop clearly looking at them and whispering amongst themselves, and so Haruyuki found himself in an awkward situation as he ducked his head down and felt cold sweat run down his skin.
The length of the Direct Connect cable expresses the degree of progress between two people going out with each other—that kind of custom was clearly something that Pard-san didn’t care about at all, but Haruyuki wasn’t able to be that free of worldly cares, and asked in thought speech with half a scream.
‘Ah, u-u-umm, w-w-why Direct Connect?’
Her answer was very simple.
‘We can talk while eating this way.’
Besides replying with ‘……That’s true.’, Haruyuki couldn’t say anything else.
Pard-san displayed the high-level technique of talking via the cable while eating her hamburger with relish just as she had declared. This seemed simple, but the risk of biting one’s tongue while unintentionally trying to talk with one’s mouth as well was high.
‘Do you understand how to Dive into the stage for the race on Sunday?’
After she suddenly asked that, Haruyuki stopped his mouth in the middle of chewing a fry and spoke.
‘Eh…don’t we just use the Sky Tree portal again?’
‘That isn’t necessary. The card we got when we registered as drivers is a «transporter» item. It transports up to ten Burst Linkers who we Direct Connect with at the same time.’
‘H-Heee…Then, if we gather in Suginami and use it, we’ll instantly go to the Hermes Cord?’
‘Yes.’
That was a feature he was really grateful for. Because, if Kuroyukihime also participated in the race, it would be dangerous if she, who was a Level Niner that was bound by the sudden death rule, connected to an external network as far away as Sumida Ward for even an instant.
After letting out a sigh and biting into his hamburger, Haruyuki felt his original question rise up within him now. Since he had jumped into the portal at the Sky Tree, he had been caught up in the flow of the situation all the way until now, but in the first place—
‘…In the first place, why did it suddenly turn into a race? Those machines were prepared not by some player, but by the system’s…in other words, Brain Burst’s administrator. I’ve been a Burst Linker for about eight months already, but I don’t think there’s ever been even one GM event like that up until now…’
In response to Haruyuki’s question, Pard-san answered after thinking for just 0.5 seconds.
‘Certainly, signs of the presence of BB’s administrator are usually not felt at all. But, when there is a large-scale update in Accel World, there are also cases where one-time events occur like this time. Like when the «Tokyo Glass Castle» opened up the year before last…’
The Glass Castle was a large-scale theme park that had been constructed in the bay area. Accor
ding to what he knew, it had been built as a Medieval European-style fortress city made of real stone with the theme of being «realistic», at the time when the Full Dive technology was at the height of prosperity.
‘…The day when the social camera network there began operating, an event based on breaking through a group of monsters that crowded the city and aiming for the throne inside the castle occurred. My team regrettably got swarmed by a large heard of them along with the blue team and we all got mutually annihilated.’
As Pard-san’s eyes burned with fire, Haruyuki somehow managed to respond while unconsciously drawing back his head.
‘I…I see. Then, the race this time is also…so to speak, a «New Stage Connection Commemoration Event»? In other words, it is a race that will occur only once…?’
‘Definitely.’
In that case, he really was extremely fortunate to have been able to reserve one of the only ten machines. Haruyuki cried out ‘Mega-Lucky!’ inside his head, but he then frantically drowned out that thought. Going to the Hermes Cord had never been about obtaining the right to participate in an open event. It was because there was something that Haruyuki had to tell that person—Sky Raker no matter what, that he was aiming for the top of the space elevator.
—Then, there should also be that.
Ostensibly because he should also learn as much preliminary knowledge as possible, Haruyuki nervously asked a question through the Direct Connect circuit.
‘Umm…Pard-san. Since it’s a race, umm, if one comes in first or second place, will there be something like, umm…’
‘Of course there will.’
Without letting Haruyuki finish speaking, Blood Leopard nodded.
‘It will probably give out an appropriate amount of Burst Points. Or prizes such as an Enhanced Armament or some other item will be prepared.’
‘He…Heeh, is that so.’
As if roughly understanding that his throat was moving a lot despite his attempt to pretend being calm, Pard-san gave a faint wry smile. While carefully folding the wrapping paper of the hamburger she had eaten in the blink of an eye, she spoke in a completely calm state.
Accel World: Floating Bridge in Starlight Page 7