Accel World: Return of Princess Snow Black

by Reki Kawahara

  “Y…You can’t!! You can’t do that!! If there’s such a power, I’ll use it! And I’ll protect you!! Because I’m your chess piece…it’s only natural that I have to protect you!!”

  He stretched out his short arms and desperately cried out.

  “Please teach it to me…What is this final power!? With what kind of command is it used!?”

  “It’s no good. This command can’t be used if one isn’t Level 9 or above, and it consumes 99% of one’s accumulated points. And before that—I am your «parent». How could a parent not protect its «child»?”

  “Bu…But…But, but!!”

  “Don’t make that kind of face. Because to me as well…in this situation, there is just one saving grace.”

  “Eh…s-saving grace…?”

  “Yes. In this moment, and as my last words, you’ll believe what I say, right?”

  Kuroyukihime quietly lifted both of her hands, overlapped her open palms together, and put them against her chest.

  Closing her eyes, a smile like a blossoming flower bud appeared on her lips, and—

  She slowly said a single sentence, a single sentence, like a falling jewel.

  “Haruyuki-kun. I love you.”

  From within her lifted eyebrows, those black pupils looked at Haruyuki while giving off an infinite radiance.

  “It’s the first time I’ve felt this way in my life. I just feel so confused without being able to really control myself. Even when I’m at school or lying down in bed at home, I’m always thinking of you, becoming happy, and becoming sad. This is the thing called love, huh…How wonderful this is. It’s like miracle.”

  Clenching both hands in front of her chest, Kuroyukihime smiled.

  That smile was warm, kind, and pleasant, but it pierce through Haruyuki’s chest with a splitting pain.

  I want to believe. I want to believe.

  I want to believe—

  The tears which overflowed from his avatar’s eyes distorted Haruyuki’s vision with too strong of an effect.

  With a jerk, Haruyuki wiped them away and looked at the two eyes that were so close, and then asked with a blurred voice.

  “Why…Why me? Why someone…someone like me?”

  “Hmm, a reason, huh. There are an uncountable number of reasons, but…No, I don’t think a reason is needed for love, but alright. Then, I’ll just tell you the trigger.”

  Smiling Kuroyukihime stretched out her hands and put them on Haruyuki’s shoulders.

  “Haruyuki-kun. Do you remember our first meeting?”

  “Yes…of course, of course I remember it. In the local net…in the Virtual Squash room, you said it to me. ‘Do want to accelerate further ahead?’”

  “That’s right. The high score I made in that game…”

  Her smile changed and became just a little mischievous.

  “I used «acceleration» to achieve that.”

  “Eh…Eh!?”

  “If I didn’t use it, I wouldn’t be able to achieve that kind of score at all. I did it thinking to attract your interest and easily persuade you, because you would want to improve yourself at any cost…I…”

  There, Kuroyukihime paused in her speech a little, and turned her gaze towards the sky of the accelerated world.

  “I became a Burst Linker only six years ago at eight years-old. Since then, I craved for only strength and speed and became Level 9 by cutting down so many enemies it can’t be counted, and yet even so I dyed these hands in the blood of friends without being satisfied. There is no way that someone like me could possibly achieve the high score you carved out.”

  Changing her expression and looking straight at Haruyuki with strong eyes, Kuroyukihime continued speaking.

  “Listen well, Haruyuki-kun. You are fast. You can become faster than anyone. Faster than me—than the other Kings. Speed is a Burst Linker’s greatest power. One day, you’ll become known far and wide as Accel World’s fastest Linker. You’ll take down the Kings, cross beyond even the surface of the earth, and reach the origin of Brain Burst. And I know. That you’ll reach the ultimate potential hidden within people…within our minds and souls.”

  Nodding slowly just once, Kuroyukihime continued further.

  “I…When I saw your figure as you play that game, I trembled. I shivered as I never had before, and was moved. Inside my heart, I cried out, ‘To think a person could be this fast. Eureka…Finally I had found the true King, who will once more accelerate this stagnant world.’”

  Haruyuki could only listen dumbfoundedly to her words now.

  ‘I’m, faster than anyone…?’

  He couldn’t just suddenly believe that. But, in this situation right now, he didn’t allow himself to doubt even a piece of the words that Kuroyukihime told him. That was the only thing he absolutely could not do.

  “But, while you possess such strong power and potential, the real you is very fragile…so painfully so that it’s heartrending, and seemed to tear up my chest. I want to kneel before the future king. But, at the same time, I want to protect you and wrap you in my arms. Those contradicting feelings steadily swelled up inside me…and before I noticed, I only saw you. I was in love. I finally realized it yesterday.”

  “Yester…day?”

  “Yes. When you were talking about Kurashima-kun. How should I say it…By experiencing the thing known as jealously for the first time in my life, I couldn’t control myself. I got that kind of attitude because of that. This morning too. I was too slow to notice…No, I was slow, but it’s not too late. Like this…”

  Putting a bit more strength into her hands on Haruyuki’s shoulders and bringing her face close, Kuroyukihime smiled.

  “Because I was able to confess. If I could have a wish, I would have wanted to face you in reality and properly say it, but.”

  Jewel-like tears suddenly welled up in her glistening jet-black eyes, and collected into drops on the corners of her eyes.

  “Now then…It’s time to say farewell.”

  “What…what do you intend to do? No…saying farewell, that’s just…”

  As Haruyuki felt his breath catch and shook his head, she left her last words like an instruction.

  “Please. Become stronger…And become faster. Beat the other «Kings» in my place, climb to the top and see what I wanted to see.”

  “No…No!!”

  Haruyuki gave out a cry similar to a scream.

  “I can’t do that!! That’s too…it’s no good if only you leave! I’ll protect you…If I can’t do that, I’ll go with you!! Please don’t leave me…I’ve, I’ve still done nothing for you…not a thing…”

  As Haruyuki spoke with a voice mixed with sobbing—

  Kuroyukihime’s lips quietly approached and closed up his mouth.

  It was between virtual avatars, but that sensation was above all soft, warm, and gentle.

  After that kiss that was a thousandth of a second in the real world, and also like an eternity in Haruyuki’s perspective, their lips slowly separated and Kuroyukihime whispered.

  “Someday…we will surely meet again.”

  On the track where she stood up, the drops of the tears she had spilled lined up in a silver radiance.

  As Kuroyukihime faced the approaching car and blocked its path resolutely, an aura of incredible willpower rose from her back, while Haruyuki couldn’t move or even speak.

  She spread both her hands wide. Her back tightly straightened and—

  Kuroyukihime spoke out in a dignified voice.

  “Physical Full Burst!!”

  Paaah…!

  Kuroyukihime’s avatar was wrapped in dazzling white light, and then disappeared.

  What? What had happened?

  Exploding with confusion, uneasiness and a unnameable feeling that overwhelmed those other emotions, Haruyuki strained his voice and cried out.

  “Senpai!!”

  Brimming with tears again, he lost his sense of balance with his distorted vision and staggered back several steps.

&nb
sp; And then, Haruyuki saw something he couldn’t believe.

  Kuroyukihime—the body of the real Kuroyukihime, while still under the blue permeation effect, was moving.

  Kuroyukihime, who should have been standing in the back with the real Haruyuki interposed between her and the approaching car, put her foot forward at about 10% the speed of running in the real world but still definitely in a continuous movement, kicked off the ground and moved forward.

  Such a thing—shouldn’t be possible!!

  The Brain Burst program overclocked the quantum signal by a thousand times using the heartbeat as its source and accelerated only the user’s consciousness.

  Conversely speaking, the effect of that didn’t extend to the entire body. Therefore, even if one accelerated, it wasn’t possible to move the body, let alone one’s gaze. That why’s the program, at the same time as one accelerated, separated the user’s consciousness from their body by using Full Dive, and connected it with a pseudo-reality generated from the Social Security cameras.

  Yet right now, the flesh and blood Kuroyukihime was moving her body at a speed which was so fast it could be clearly seen and confirmed by the accelerated Haruyuki. Her ice-colored body sometimes blurred here and there as if flowing, perhaps because she had exceeded the photographing speed rate of the Social Security cameras.

  In other words—her real-world self was dashing at a super-speed one hundred times that of an ordinary person!

  So this was the greatest and final power of Brain Burst. Overclocking not only the consciousness, but the entire body, truly a forbidden command.

  Doing such a thing, the body couldn’t possibly finish it safely.

  On the expression of the charging Kuroyukihime’s face, along with resolved determination, there was stiffening as if she was mustering all her force of will to endure something.

  That was most likely intense pain.

  Her muscles and joints, which were being driven at an original impossible speed, must all be screaming simultaneously.

  However, Kuroyukihime didn’t stop.

  With one, two, three steps, she lined up with the real Haruyuki’s left side.

  The front bumper of the Araya’s car was now not even eighty centimeters away from Haruyuki.

  Kuroyukihime lifted up both her hands and gently drew Haruyuki’s body close to her, as if embracing him.

  Putting in a little strength, she started to move Haruyuki’s body as she pushed it to the side.

  At the same time.

  He felt a terrible impact through his whole body and his vision blacked out.

  Kuroyukihime’s movements were graceful, but in the real world it was equivalent to a body blow with that extreme speed. The safety mechanism of his Neuro Linker had activated from that shock, and automatically released the Full Dive.

  In an instant, from the center of his darkened vision, the reality of regular colors returned as if enlarging outwards.

  Haruyuki returned to his living body from his avatar in an instant, and right away he hit the pavement on his back, his breath stopping.

  As Haruyuki forgot to even breathe again and opened his eyes wide, immediately in front of him was—

  With both hands still extended forward, Kuroyukihime seemed to be smiling.

  Immediately after, the white car which had fiercely crashed into the sidewalk collided with Kuroyukihime’s slender body.

  She was sent flying as if both her legs were scooped up by the bumper, then crashed against the front window and was thrown up even higher.

  Her black hair flowed in the air while drawing an arc.

  It caught the light of the sunset and shined orange.

  Next to her, the pulled-out direct connect cabled danced and fluttered white.

  Chapter 7

  Haruyuki’s broken consciousness could only remember what happened afterwards in images of three colors.

  The image of that slender form, lying on the brick tiles of the side walk and bent unnaturally—black.

  The image of blood spreading out in fearfully large amounts under that body—red.

  The image of those still closed eyelids, and of those cheeks which had lost their complexion—white.

  The necktie Haruyuki used to stop the bleeding and his own hand were also dyed red in an instant.

  The clothes of Araya, who crawled out from the driver’s seat of the white car, which had crashed into the wall of a store while laughing manically, were also red.

  A patrol car came with its red lights flashing rushed onto the scene, and the still laughing Araya was forced into its backseat.

  Immediately afterwards, a white ambulance with likewise red-flashing lights also arrived and the men in white who got off of it fixed Kuroyukihime onto a stretcher. At his urging, Haruyuki also rode with them and the ambulance had started driving at high speed—.

  And now, Haruyuki was looking up at the ER’s red in-operation lamp in a corner of a white hallway.

  Until now, Haruyuki couldn’t think about what had happened before.

  The only thing that was floating in his mind was a replay of every moment over the past four days since he met Kuroyukihime.

  That time too—that time too, and that time as well, Haruyuki should have been able to make different choices.

  And if he had chosen that instead, this situation could have been avoided.

  Why didn’t he try to believe even a little in the hand that Kuroyukihime extended towards him, and the feelings she showed? If he had obediently accepted it without obstinately looking down, that quarrel between them on the road wouldn’t have happened and they should have been able to notice the approaching car as well.

  …Among all the mistakes I’ve repeated so many times in my life until now, I’ve made the number-one mistake that can’t be undone.

  Haruyuki went back to every crossroad among each fragment of his broken consciousness and tried to do down a different future one by one, but even Brain Burst couldn’t change the past.

  He continued doing that for who knew how long as he gazed up at the lamp.

  The lamp indicated that they were still in the middle of operating, but suddenly the door slid open and a female nurse came out. Haruyuki simply looked at that form in a white gown as she then approached straight towards him.

  She was a young nurse who seemed like she had just graduated from nursing school. As he faced her, who showed a strained expression under her beautifully arranged bangs, words flowed out almost of their own accord from Haruyuki’s mouth.

  “How…is it?”

  “The doctor and all the staff are doing their best.”

  The nurse’s voice was slightly hoarse and stiff.

  “But…She has too many damaged organs. We fully injected repair-use micro-machines, and the deterioration of her conditions has somehow been delayed. And…that’s right, about her family…we’d like to contact them, but there wasn’t an emergency contact address registered in her Neuro Linker.”

  “Eh…”

  Sitting next to Haruyuki who was at a loss for words, the nurse leaned forward and continued from there.

  “I thought that you would know her home’s telephone number. You’re…her…?”

  There was a questioning note at the end, but Haruyuki didn’t respond at once.

  What am I for that person? A chess piece, an underling. I don’t want to use those kinds of words anymore. But now, I also don’t want to refer to us as friends, or as senpai and kouhai.

  Hesitating to speak, Haruyuki heard the words the nurse spoke after a moment’s pause, and unconsciously looked up.

  “…her boyfriend, right?”

  “Eh…W-Why do you say that?”

  Looking at the beauty of Kuroyukihime, which had miraculously not been damaged, and the physical appearance of Haruyuki, there shouldn’t have been anything for her do draw such a conclusion from.

  As Haruyuki reflexively shrunk his body, he was quietly presented a small notebook.

  Stamped with a me
tal emblem on its blue synthetic leather cover, it was the Umesato Middle School’s student handbook.

  “I saw it just now when I was looking for her phone number and confirming her personal effects. I’m sorry.”

  Wearing just a slight smile on her stiffened cheeks, the nurse opened the student handbook to the last page.

  In the clear pocket on the left side, there was a student ID with a face-shot of Kuroyukihime.

  And on the right side, there was a familiar round face.

  Receiving the notebook with trembling hands, Haruyuki gazed at a picture of himself wearing an idiotic expression on his face. From that time—It was without a doubt the sight-capture picture she printed, from when he heard Kuroyukihime’s first «confession» to him in the lounge.

  With a dripping noise, a single drop of water fell onto the surface of the picture.

  Haruyuki hadn’t noticed that tears had been overflowing from his eyes for a while now.

  “Senpai…Kuroyukihime-senpai.”

  His murmuring voice trembled greatly. It didn’t take long for him to dissolve into crying like a child.

  “Uu…aa…Uaaaaa!!”

  Holding the notebook to his chest and bending forward, Haruyuki cried.

  The tears flooded out one after another, and fell along his cheeks and onto the floor. Within the gouging-like pain his chest, Haruyuki found for the first time, in this moment now, his true feelings.

  The operation continued for nearly five hours.

  When the time indicator in the corner of his vision changed from evening to late night, Haruyuki simply sent a text mail saying “My friend was involved in an accident today, tonight I will return very late or not at all”, and then simply returned to sitting on the chair.

  Kuroyukihime’s home seemed to have been contacted through the school, but surprisingly, instead of her family, only a family lawyer appeared by himself.

  Equipped with large-type Neuro Linker and also like a machine himself, the middle-aged lawyer completed only the legal procedures in a very business-like manner, and then went away after about fifteen minutes without even casting a glance at Haruyuki.

  After a long, long time pass, the red lamp was finally extinguished at around 10 PM.