“For you, before learning how to fight, there is something else you must learn. Strength is...”
For a little while. Her slight bitter smile was mixed with some pathetic expression.
“Strength is, not just a word meaning the result of a victory. I wasted a lot of time to learn that. And when I learned it, it was much too late.”
The true meaning of her quietly whispered words, Haruyuki could not comprehend. When he tilted his head about to ask, without giving him the time to do it, Kuroyukihime suddenly turned around.
“Hmm, it’s almost time.”
When he looked, the 1800 second time count only had 20 second left.
“Then, the next lecture will be a practice lesson.”
“Huh... what...? What does that mean...?”
At the puzzled Haruyuki, Kuroyukihime showed an fearless smile.
“Of course, you are going to get it back. Your 10 points.”
Right after, the Draw result displayed, then the «Fight» ended, and «Accelerate» canceled.
At the moment they returned to the real lounge, without giving him a chance to speak, Kuroyukihime pulled out the Direct Connect cable and took it back.
“Well! Let’s eat, Arita-kun. The food is getting cold.”
With a smile, she picked up a small spoon from the table. Without any choice, Haruyuki too pulled the curry rice plate in front of him close. Even though he experienced over 30 minutes of time since he took it from the counter, it still had warm steam rising, his stomach growled.
From the surrounding tables, the same displeased stares like yesterday focused on him, he thought about bringing it to the cafeteria corner to eat, but lost to his empty stomach. After he ate three big mouthfuls, he heard an upperclassman at the same table talking to Kuroyukihime, that made his throat tighten.
“Hime[8], isn’t it about time you tell us? We are about to die from curiosity. How should we comprehend your relationship with this person?”
He looked up, and saw that the one who spoke was the fluffy hair student council member he saw yesterday. She should be the 2nd year secretary.
“Hmm.”
Kuroyukihime put her spoon on the side of the gratin plate, elegantly held up her tea cup, and looked like she thought for a bit. The surrounding students all quieted down.
“Bluntly speaking, I confessed, and he rejected me.”
Screams and shouts of consternation filled the world.
Haruyuki held the spoon in his mouth, took his curry, and escaped by running.
“Y... you there!!”
The afternoon next two hours, Haruyuki passed them while being showered with needle like stares, he went behind the right side of Kuroyukihime who was heading to the school gate and complained in a low voice.
“What were you thinking!! I will be bullied again!! I will absolutely be bullied again!!”
“That was a majestic proclamation.”
While laughing, Kuroyukihime continued with a wise look.
“I only said the truth. Also, you were not altogether bad yourself.”
While saying so she manipulated her virtual desktop, and made a flipping her finger tip motion. From the local net he instantly received a file, an icon lit up in his view. When he clicked it, a large picture opened up in front of his eyes.
It’s a picture of him with curry spoon in his mouth, a blankly stupid expression shown on his face.
When he saw that, Haruyuki shouted.
“Ugyaa!!”
He instantly threw the file into the trash can.
“Wh, when did you take this field of view screen shot! Even sleight of hand has a limit!!”
“What, just a souvenir.”
While bantering like that, the surrounding stares with real killing power was focused on Haruyuki. He shrunk his neck like usual, but after all he could not hide behind Kuroyukihime’s slender body.
“Hold your chest a bit higher. In this school, there are not many males that rejected me, on the other hand you were the only one.”
“So, when did I do that!”
“Saying it like that is so mean. I might get hurt again. ...Well, instead of that.”
With ‘instead of that’ words Kuroyukihime put the question on pending, she changed her expression and said in a low voice.
“When we leave the front gate, your Neuro Linker will connect to the Global Net. Any Burst Linker in this «Suginami 3rd Battle Area» can force you into a fight. Before you are challenged, Accelerate, look for «Ash Roller» in the matching list and challenge him.”
“What... area? Is there a limit in the area where fighting is possible?”
To Haruyuki’s question, Kuroyukihime made a small nod.
“That’s right. Even if you fight someone on the other side of Tokyo, 30 minutes will pass before you can meet. ...Eventually, you can go to a multi-person, unlimited connection, group-use battle field, but that is something beyond level 4. Right now just concentrate on the fight in front of you.”
With a slightly sharper sound, the lecture is nearing end.
“I will tell you now, if you lose you can not instantly re-match, you can only challenge the same person once a day. I will go in the gallery, unfortunately I can not help you. ...Don’t make such a dejected face, if you fight like I wrote in the mail, you won’t lose.”
“O... ok.”
He swallowed while nodding. He copied and pasted the text mail he received during the sixth period into his brain.
“This is your real debut fight, «Silver Crow». Good Luck.”
With a push at his back, Haruyuki stepped into the walkway blowing with the dust of battle.
Chapter 4
The battle field was again the late night ruin and burning «End of Century» stage.
Haruyuki shrunk his small avatar and hid on the walkway above the Seven Rings[9].
He did not notice it in the previous battle since he was panicking too much, in his view other than remaining time and HP, a small water color triangle was shown. It is a guide cursor displaying the general direction of the enemy.
The triangle pointed straight north at the wide road, shaking slightly. That meant the enemy, «Ash Roller», was not staying still somewhere far away, he was probably coming closer in a direct line in a hurry. The cursor did not show him the distance.
Haruyuki reviewed the attack strategy mail that Kuroyukihime sent him in his brain.
[The result from considering your information is that Ash Roller has two big weak points. First, when he moves, he makes a lot of loud noises.]
That is true. The previous time, if he actually noticed his surroundings, he would have heard the rumbling noise of the gasoline engine from far away.
This time he won’t be surprised by the same thing again. He held his breath and listened intently. And - .
...He’s coming!
The cursor was shaking slightly like usual, but an unmistakable heavy low tone reached Haruyuki’s hearing. In the Seven Rings empty of people, Ash Roller seemed to be roaring around with engine on full throttle. He must be really happy, if he rode a bike in the real world, he would be going slowly daily in that congestion in a low power electric scooter. And his challenger, was again his perfect win newbie from this morning.
‘But this time, at the very least it won’t be a perfect win. Since the first attack will be mine.’
Haruyuki ground his inner teeth and stared at the water colored cursor.
It was heading straight south still, but he could tell the enemy approaching by the engine sound. However, it’s not the same for the other person. In a straight line high speed approach, the only time he would notice the cursor change direction, is at the instant when they cross.
While laying on his stomach on the floor of the overhead walkway, Haruyuki intently looked down at the direction of Kouenji station. The explosive sound became louder, to the point that he could even feel the vibrations in his body -.
Saw it.
Ash Roller had his headligh
ts off of course, but Haruyuki for sure saw the red flames reflect off the chrome. The time that they will cross is 15 - no, 10 seconds.
There is only one chance for a surprise attack. However, Haruyuki’s weapons are only the normal skills Punch and Kick. That is, he can only jump down from the overhead walkway and hit with his body.
‘Scary. This is not something I can do.’
To the self that thought that for an instant, he cursed in his heart.
‘Don’t say stupid things. Right now I am not the overweight 13 year old Arita Haruyuki, I am the Burst Linker «Silver Crow». And then this is not the real world but the virtual game field. It’s the world where I have been putting most of my time and passion thus far. Rather, it can be said that this is my real world.’
‘Then, I won’t be defeated. Instead - this time will be my happy win against this skeleton person!’
“Uwaaaa!”
With that shout, Haruyuki stood up, in one breath climbed over the metal railing, and jumped.
For a biker approaching at over 100kph, to be able to land a kick on him from a high above drop, is probably a performance harder than Haruyuki thought it would be.
However, for Haruyuki who can continually hit virtual squash balls that are even harder to see, Ash Roller’s skeletal helmet was a huge target. He extended his right leg in the air, stabilizing his path with both hands extended, and flew forward like a silver arrow.
“...Owa!?”
He noticed that cry leaked from beneath the skeletal face face-guard.
However at that time, the heel covered by silver armor scored a direct hit at the center of the skeleton.
Bakyaaaan!! With that tremendous impact sound, the face-guard cracked radially. The rider’s head bend back with a crunch sound, Haruyuki slid past above that face, fell to the asphalt road and tumbled around.
His eyes were spinning for a moment, but he soon raised his head to check behind him.
The bike, with sparks flying out the front and rear brake rotors, flew off to the right side, it stopped when it crashed into the pile of rubble at the side of the road. The rider’s body, from reaction to the kick, hit his face on the tank, at the same time, the engine stopped with a sad sound.
“...Di, did it.”
While whispering and holding his right hand in a fist, Haruyuki checked both of their HP gauges.
For Silver Crow, with his fall damage from a high place, he had lost about 5% HP. As for Ash Roller, he had suffered large damage, with the flying kick and crashing dealing big damage, his gauge lost about 20%, and it became a slight purple color.
It can be said that his first attack was a perfect success. But in detail, it was not a critical hit that can kill.
Haruyuki stood up, his eyes found a five story building to the left side of the road and he started running that way. From what Kuroyukihime said, the «End of Century» stage's main fight area is on the road, so you cannot enter the buildings. However, the outside of the buildings was not limited by this.
On the building’s wall was a half collapsed emergency escape stairs put there like an afterthought. Haruyuki jumped on it, and climbed all the way to the top of the building in one go.
[As for Ash Roller’s 2nd weakness. That is, his duel avatar’s potential is mostly put into his bike. The rider’s fighting ability should be almost zero. So first you attack to damage him, then move to the top of a building that the bike cannot climb to.]
That was the battle plan Kuroyukihime gave him.
As long as his opponent is damaged more than himself after he climbed to the top, all he has to do is wait for time up to win. Even if the rider got off the bike to climb to the top, he can just use Punch or Kick to easily pummel him.
From the looks, it might be said to be a cowardly battle plan. However, Haruyuki actually loves this kind of clever win with attacking weak points. It can be said to be his nature in games.
For now from the top of the roof, Haruyuki wanted to return Ash Roller’s laughter from this morning in multiples, so he moved to the edge.
Looking down, he can see that the crashed bike’s engine has finally been re-ignited. With the idling sound like someone breathing hard shaking, the body of the bike was pulled out of the rubble.
While he was thinking about how to provoke him, Haruyuki heard some whispering sound.
“Ah, that small kid did well.”
“A big difference from this morning. Wonder who the «Parent» is.”
Looking that way, from the roof of the building a little away, were silhouettes sitting on top of a huge water tank looking down this way. The «Gallery».
Since a Burst Linker «Duel» is only a maximum of 1.8 seconds real time, there won’t be enough time to accelerate once a fight starts. So, for interested Burst Linkers and friends who registered the name, once that person starts a fight, he will also automatically accelerate and dive into the battle field to watch, there seems to be that function. For that purpose, no Burst Points are expended.
Looking around, Haruyuki can see shadows here and there on rooftops and roads. They should not have marked him, so they must be Linkers that are checking out Ash Roller.
However, one person in that gallery should have registered Silver Crow. Of course, it would be Kuroyukihime’s «Black Lotus».
Now, where is she? While he was looking around, one of the two sitting on top of the water tank waved to him.
“If you win this duel, I will register you too. Good luck, boy.”
“Well, it won’t be this easy I think.”
To the other one’s speech, Haruyuki replied in his mind.
‘Unfortunately, it won’t be too exciting development from here on, it will probably time up.’
He shrugged a bit with that feeling, and looked back to the road.
Then, he froze in consternation.
Far down looking like a pea, Ash Roller’s bike’s front wheel stood against the building’s wall.
Wai... wh, what are you trying to do?
The reply, was a high pitched furious shout.
“Don’t... be so full of yourself, baldy!! You dare to step on my V-twin sound!!”
Bogaaaan!! The engine roared, and the chrome exhaust put out flames.
Right after, the huge American bike started up the building wall at a blistering pace.
“Aaa...”
Haruyuki’s eyes bulged out under his silver face plate, he retreated back a step - just two seconds after that. Within the span of an arm held out, with loud noise and burning stench, the steel frame appeared.
Baruoooon! With that high pitched engine sound, the bike that flew about two meters above the roof’s edge, landed right in front of Haruyuki’s eyes.
“Uwawawa!!”
He hurriedly back dashed a few more steps.
With a loud crashing sound, the grey rear tire hit the rooftop concrete. The concrete cracked radially, and some fragments hit Haruyuki’s armor. At that moment, he noticed that his health gauge lost about one dot, he was surprised again.
For normal fighting games, damage is only dealt with system-set methods. For sure, this «Brain Burst» is not just a normal game. With graphics and sound that is difficult to distinguish from reality, and this detailed realism.
The key to winning fights in this world, must be in there.
While he engraved that in his mind, Haruyuki looked up at his far more experienced enemy.
While he skillfully steadied his bike, Ash Roller stared down at Haruyuki, and began speaking in a metallic high pitched voice.
“Actually, from my win against you this morning, I finally reached 300 points, and became level 2.”
The gunmetal helmet’s skeleton face-guard was mostly broken, and a part of his face was visible. It did not seem terrifying, what is there looked more like a science type, a slender young man’s face.
Duel Avatars are a manifestation of one's inferiority complex, that speech from Kuroyukihime faintly passed by in his mind.
A
sh Roller, smiling with thin lips, continued his speech after moving the throttle handle once.
“I was super stumped on what to use the level up bonus on, it had special attack, movement speed up, and wall-climbing. Ah, I made the ultra ~ correct ~ choice ~”
He removed both hands from the handles, and pointed two index fingers at Haruyuki.
“And so you are giga unlucky~”
‘I know without you saying so.’
While he grumbled in his mind, Haruyuki wasn’t just listening quietly. He desperately look around the surroundings, and tried to remember Kuroyukihime’s mail, squeezing his knowledge to try to find a way out of this situation.
[If the first attack, or the retreat fails, and you have to fight Ash Roller still on his bike head on, unfortunately the chance of your winning will become very low. Because - ]
Continuing, Kuroyukihime had written about Duel Avatar’s «affinity».
For a Burst Linker’s automatic English name, it always include a color word.
That color determines the Duel Avatar’s affinity.
«Blue» is short range direct attack, «Red» is long range direct attack, and «Yellow» is indirect attack. For middle colors like Purple and Green, can have two types of affinity. Also, for color that is away from the color circle, the metallic names «Metal Color», instead of attack, these are best at defense affinity.
[Your «Silver» included, the metallic colors are very rare, it is a strong color type. It has resistance against cutting, piercing, heat and poison attacks, and attack strength using it’s hard metallic body for close combat are not low. But of course it has weaknesses. Corrosion attacks are it’s natural enemy, and it is also weak against blunt attacks.]
That was how Kuroyukihime analyzed Silver Crow’s affinity, continuing, she also said the details of the supposedly never before seen Ash Roller.
[On the other hand, Ash Roller’s «Ash», in the color circle, it is closer to blue than green. The low color saturation means its attacks are special type. It is hard to tell if the tires are weapons or not, but I am afraid its affinity is the close-range blunt attack type. That means your armor has almost no effect against Ash Roller’s charge. In that case, there is only one way against him in a head to head fight.]
Accel World: Return of Princess Snow Black Page 7