The Twilight Marauder

by Reki Kawahara

  The duel avatar is the manifestation of the feelings of inferiority of the person dwelling within it. Kuroyukihime’s words from six months earlier came back to life in his ears.

  Naturally, it wasn’t as if you could immediately intuit a host’s mental scars just by looking at his or her avatar. The truth was, even now, Haruyuki couldn’t begin to guess at what kind of complexes Takumu and Kuroyukihime had that would produce such powerful avatars. That said, it was true that the avatar was the manifestation of a hidden interior.

  In the frozen blue world, Haruyuki glanced over at Chiyuri’s back, which was seated in front of him, one row left. Gulping back his slight hesitation, he touched Lime Bell’s name and clicked on DUEL in the pop-up menu.

  The field that appeared while he changed into the argent Silver Crow was a Factory stage, complete with enormous gears and rumbling conveyor belts. He waited for the flaming FIGHT to explode and scatter, then slowly stood.

  His classmates had disappeared, and eighth grade class C was crawling with mysterious machines in their place. Haruyuki looked around and first saw the large, blue Cyan Pile. He nodded slightly in that direction before turning his gaze on the avatar opposite him, small like himself.

  Lime Bell was wrapped in a color more verdant than he had expected; it was like the green of fresh leaves. Her body’s supple lines were clearly female in nature, with limbs and torso basically as slender as those of Silver Crow, and armor resembling a tree leaf equipped around her waist. On her head was a pointy, wide-brimmed hat rather like a witch’s, and below that was a face mask with upturned eyes, reminiscent of a cat’s.

  What made the greatest impression, however, was the massive hanging bell on her left arm, probably a musical hand bell. Wondering if it was a weapon or just the instrument it appeared to be, Haruyuki took a step toward her.

  “This color’s kind of…flashy?” Lime Bell—Chiyuri—said, staring fixedly at the bell connected to her hand and cocking her head.

  “Don’t complain. Basically no one gets a color with that high level of saturation, even if they want it.”

  “So…” Orange eyes narrowed dubiously beneath the hat. “You’re…Haru?”

  “I am. And I know what you’re going to say, so don’t bother!” He added the last bit at tongue-twister speed.

  But Chiyuri cried out mercilessly. “So skinny! These game avatars, they’re the expression of some trauma? Was that it? Ooh! Wow! I get it!”

  “Just drop it.” He glanced down at his waist, which was more than half as thin as in real life, and turned away abruptly.

  And suddenly, there was Cyan Pile. The blue avatar, pile driver in his right hand, looking down on the yellow-green avatar with eyes somehow full of tension. Eyes Chiyuri met silently.

  Before, half a year ago, and unable to bear the fear of losing Cyan Pile, Takumu set up a backdoor program in Chiyuri’s Neurolinker. The virus’s main purpose was to use Chiyuri’s Neurolinker as a stepladder in order to connect to the Umesato Junior High local net from outside. His goal was to hunt Black Lotus, the Black King, the biggest bounty in the accelerated world. However, a secondary effect of the virus allowed Takumu to steal information from Chiyuri’s audio and visual feeds, which he used to dig into Chiyuri’s true feelings.

  When he later confessed his crimes and apologized, Chiyuri was, naturally, furious, and declared that she was breaking up with both Haruyuki and Takumu. It took a full week before she would even talk to them again. The terms of peace she laid out were all the parfaits she could eat at Enjiya, and both of their Neurolinker balances had gotten infinitely lighter meeting these terms, but even so, the relationship among the three of them had been restored and was back to the way it used to be.

  Or so Haruyuki had believed, had hoped, anyway. But the fact that the Takumu-Chiyuri line of their triangle still fluctuated unstably could be seen in their eyes as they stared at each other.

  “Well, we should get right into the newbie lecture,” Haruyuki announced, as if to ease the faint tension, and turned again to the yellow-green avatar. “Chiyu, you already heard the basic rules for Brain Burst from Takumu, right?”

  “Yeah. Basically, you win a bunch of fights, get a bunch of points, get to level ten, and you’re done. Right?”

  “It’s not as simple as that. Although I guess it is actually…” Shaking his head at what a certain someone would say if she heard Chiyuri’s rather indifferent words, Haruyuki continued. “A-anyway, to win duels, you need to see through to your opponent’s weak points and fight in a way that gives you the advantage. And to do that, you have to have a seriously perfect understanding of your own avatar.”

  I never thought the day would come when I’d be in the position of lecturing someone else. Slightly moved, he continued on, lifting the tip of his right pointer finger.

  “In your field of vision right around here, you have your own health gauge, right? Touch that and then open ‘Skill List’ in the window that pops up.” Generally, her parent, Takumu, would be teaching her this, but following the flow of the conversation, Haruyuki took the initiative.

  “O-okay.” Nodding, Chiyuri stretched out a slightly awkward finger and tapped a point in space. She then flicked around a bit on her virtual desktop. “Umm, it looks like there’re three normal attacks, and then one special attack, Citron Call? So, like, this bell in my left hand, it’d be…”

  Muttering to herself, Chiyuri aligned her movements with the animated silhouette in the Skill List, whirling her left arm and the enormous bell that began at her elbow until she finally snapped both down from above. But naturally, nothing happened.

  “What? It didn’t do anything at all.”

  “Because you have to fill up the blue special-attack gauge below your health gauge to use your special attack.”

  “So how do I do that?”

  “Damage an opponent in a duel or take a blow yourself—” He had gotten that far when Chiyuri slowly brought up the enormous bell and aimed it at Haruyuki’s head, so he hurried to add, “A-and you can also fill it by destroying the stage. You can break any of the machines over there!”

  “Oh! I can?” Nodding and looking slightly dissatisfied—or maybe that was just his imagination—Chiyuri walked over to a steam engine–like object enshrined in the place where the podium used to be. Without hesitation, she brought her left hand down on the thing as it vigorously puffed out steam. The satisfying sound of an explosion was accompanied by sparks and white smoke.

  “Wow! This is fun!”

  Haruyuki watched, shivers running up his spine, as the pointy-hatted avatar smashed the gears that made the belt conveyor go round with an innocent cry of delight. She showed not even the slightest appreciation for the reality of the explosions nor the extremely detailed modeling of the stage. This was why girls…

  As Haruyuki grumbled on in his head, Takumu, who had been silent up to that point, murmured softly from beside him. “Haru, did you notice? Chi’s HP gauge isn’t going down at all. I mean, Factory stage mechanical objects are supposed to do some damage when you break them, even if it is just a little.”

  “Oh! You’re right.”

  “Given her appearance, her relative defensive ability is high. Not a surprise, though. After all, green is the color with the best defense, after the metallics.”

  At Takumu’s cool analysis, Haruyuki suddenly remembered talk he’d heard of the Green King’s legendary iron wall.

  Lime Bell’s armor was clearly harder than Silver Crow’s had been at level one. Which probably meant Chiyuri was also a defensive type. He couldn’t help feeling, though, that this was the exact opposite of her actual character. As he contemplated Lime Bell, her special-attack gauge grew to nearly half full, shining blue.

  “Hey, Chiyu, that’s enough,” he said, and the avatar turned around and walked briskly back over. Without a moment’s hesitation, she brandished the large bell and aimed it straight at him.

  “Gah?!” Haruyuki cried out and reflexively brought both han
ds above his head.

  Whirled twice counterclockwise, the bell was suddenly encased in a dazzling yellow-green radiance.

  “Citron Call!!” As she uttered the name of the unexpected attack, particles of light began gushing out of the bell. As she lowered her arm to hold steady at a right angle to her torso, the light covered Silver Crow’s entire body, accompanied by a magnificent pomp and fanfare sound effect.

  “Hng!” Unable to predict what kind of damage it would do, Haruyuki held his breath and pressed his eyes shut. Maybe heat, maybe impact, maybe even an acid melting-attack like the Citron part might—

  “Huh?”

  “Wha?”

  Chiyuri’s and Takumu’s incredulous voices reached his ears from either side, and Haruyuki carefully opened his eyes a crack.

  Looking down at his own body nervously, he still had the same old smooth, silver gleam. He didn’t feel any pain or heat at all, and his HP bar hadn’t dropped in the slightest.

  “What is this?! Nothing happened?!”

  “Th-that can’t be.” Haruyuki reflexively shook his head at Chiyuri’s indignant cry. “Your attack definitely hit me. And your special-attack gauge’s down, too. It’s not anything with continuous damage, either. Maybe it’s damage with a timed launch and a delayed effect?” Muttering away, he waited for something to happen, but after several seconds, then several minutes, there was still not the slightest movement in Silver Crow’s HP.

  “Hmm. Maybe this is, like, a dazzle kind of attack with just the light and sound. I mean, that is a yellow kind of thing.”

  “That is so boring!” Chiyuri placed her right hand on her hip as if the indignation of it was too much to bear. “Haru, you give me one of your special attacks!!”

  “What? That’s obviously impossible. And all I have for a special attack is a head butt.”

  “I can make do with that, if this is what I have.”

  As their usual song and dance, the same old routine from the real world, unfolded, Takumu abruptly murmured, “No. Your special-attack gauge’s gone down too much for it to be just an illusion attack. You had it half full and you used all of it. There should be a more practical effect.” Crossing his sturdy arms, Cyan Pile turned a face lined with narrow slits downward. “It’s not damage, and it’s not weakness. So then…Oh! Hold up! What if—!!”

  Haruyuki and Chiyuri simultaneously snapped their heads toward him.

  “What, Taku? You think of something?”

  “Well, it seems kind of crazy, but…Chi, hit Haru a bit with your bell, just normally.”

  “Okay, got it.”

  Kliiing!!

  Before Takumu had even really finished speaking, Chiyuri had swung the massive bell without any compunction whatsoever, and Haruyuki, who stood and took the blow to his head, saw countless stars.

  “O-ow!” He had barely squeezed out a groan before Takumu’s merciless instructions continued.

  “You still don’t have enough in your gauge. Try maybe three more times.”

  “Okay, got it.”

  Klinklinkliiiing!!

  Chiyuri’s bell is cool. Makes a great sound whenever she hits something. His thoughts swirling deliriously, Haruyuki was soon splayed on the ground like a human X.

  In Brain Burst, which was at most a fighting game, your HP, attack power, and defensive power didn’t necessarily increase dramatically only when you leveled up. You might get new special attacks or abilities, which would broaden the scope of your battle tactics, but if you were hit without resisting like this, you’d be hit with a suitable amount of damage, regardless of the level of attacker. And Haruyuki’s HP gauge went down about 30 percent with the four hits, while in exchange, Chiyuri’s special-attack gauge once again went up to just over half and glittering blue.

  Groaning as he stood, Haruyuki saw the bell being swung around once more and the gleaming of a yellow-green light effect.

  It’s weird. When Kuroyukihime gave me my first lecture, there wasn’t anything resembling this “teaching with the master’s body” stuff. And why am I the one who’s stuck being Chiyu’s duel partner here, anyway?

  Although it was too late to do anything about it now, these thoughts raced through his mind as Chiyuri gave voice to her attack name for the second time, much more loudly than before.

  “Citron Caaaaaall!!”

  The crisp ringing of the bell. The ribbons of lime-green light spilling out. And to top it all off, a refreshing citrus scent. All wrapped Silver Crow in several layers.

  “Whoa?!” Haruyuki cried out, surprised from the very bottom of his heart. It was the first time in several months he could say that of the accelerated world.

  The HP gauge in the top left of his screen, which had been down 30 percent—

  It was filling back up before his eyes!

  HP recovery.

  This was basically an impossible phenomenon in the genre known as fighting games. In fact, up to that point, Haruyuki had never once seen a gauge recover in Brain Burst.

  Actually, to be accurate, he had personally seen exactly one example: Chrome Disaster, the cursed Enhanced Armament that they had annihilated and expunged three months earlier in an incredible battle. That avatar had had a power called “Drain,” which absorbed the health of cannibalized opponents. However, since the fight with Disaster had been in the Unlimited Neutral Field—where the HP gauges of other avatars could not be seen—he supposed that this was honestly the first time he had witnessed the physical recovery of a gauge.

  In a mere ten seconds, his HP had returned to full and the yellow-green light disappeared. But Haruyuki and Takumu, a little ways off, were both unable to move or produce any sound.

  It was Chiyuri’s millionth dissatisfied cry that unfroze them. “This sucks! Come on! Your hit points went back to what they were!! No fair, I want a do-over!!”

  “I’m not being unfair,” he managed to say hoarsely, and then turned his gaze on Takumu, seeking an explanation.

  Cyan Pile’s blue eyes were wide open beneath the mask’s thin slits. “Wh-what is this?” he finally moaned in a low voice, shaking his head from side to side. “That was definitely a recovery ability just now. So Chi, your avatar’s a healer, then.”

  “What? So does that mean, like, a monk? Kinda boring.” Chiyuri sounded slightly disappointed, and Haruyuki, finally overcoming his shock, simply said the first thing in his head.

  “Healer. That’s the first I’ve heard of that. Do they even have healers in Brain Burst?”

  In contrast, Takumu lowered his voice even further, as if he were afraid. “It’s not boring. It’s crazy rare. This is going to blow up when you make your debut in the duels, Chi. Maybe more than when Silver Crow showed up.”

  3

  “What did you say?”

  The incredulous utterance and its ensuing silence expressed the enormity of her surprise. Umesato Junior High student council vice president in the real world, leader of the Nega Nebulus Legion in the accelerated world, and Haruyuki’s “parent,” level nine Burst Linker and Black King, Black Lotus, also known as Kuroyukihime, stared at Haruyuki for at least a full five seconds before finally returning the cup in her right hand to its saucer.

  “I had expected that it would be fifty-fifty as to whether Kurashima could even become a Burst Linker. And then she’s a Healer, of all things.” Brushing back her long black hair, she entrusted her body to the white chair and sighed softly. Her new ribbon was a sleek, deep red shine against her ink-black blouse.

  Haruyuki was unintentionally captivated by this beauty, which he felt was only increasing in its incredibleness of late.

  April 10, 2047, Wednesday, 3:30 PM.

  As usual, there was not another soul in this place, where during lunch break every seat was guaranteed to be filled. The reason was simple: no one was particularly interested in hanging out on campus after school when you couldn’t connect to the global net.

  Two days had already passed since Chiyuri had become a Burst Linker and had stunned Haru
yuki and Takumu with the special nature of her avatar, Lime Bell. But Kuroyukihime was insanely busy with student council business, given that it was the start of the school year. She didn’t even have time for lunch, so they were only finally able to talk directly today.

  Two days earlier, he had reported by mail that Chiyuri had successfully installed the copy from Takumu and what the name of her avatar was. He had actually wanted to mention her avatar’s surprising ability at the time, but Takumu had insisted it would be better to tell her in person. So the explanation of that had ended up happening today.

  When Haruyuki apologized in a tiny voice for the delayed report, Kuroyukihime finally focused her eyes on him and shook her head. “Takumu’s judgment on this was correct. If, by any chance, you had spoken of this matter on the net and another Burst Linker had overheard it, it would be more than a big deal.”

  “I-it would be that serious?”

  “Make no mistake. I have no doubt that Burst Linkers throughout Tokyo would gather in Suginami and try all sorts of tricks to get Kurashima—Lime Bell—on their side before she joined a Legion somewhere,” she told him with a faint wry smile, and Haruyuki gazed in wonderment again.

  He thought he understood how rare the healing ability was, considering he had never seen or heard of it until that point, even though it had been a full six months since he had set foot in the accelerated world. However, it was unsettling to think it could even cause scouting battles.

  When it came to scarce, Haruyuki’s flying ability itself was a rarity among rarities. But once he hung out the Nega Nebulus shingle, he had been invited to switch Legions maybe two, three times.

  “B-but why?” Haruyuki mumbled, feeling greatly surprised. “I mean, she still hasn’t made her actual battle debut.”

  “Mm. True.” She seemed to consider her response before popping up a finger. “Perhaps you’ll understand if I put it like this. Although seven full years have passed since the birth of the accelerated world, a mere two Burst Linkers with healing ability have appeared. Of these, one managed to dodge the relentless invitations and assassination traps and is still doing quite well, but the other, unable to endure being the center of constant battling, decided to leave the accelerated world.”