The Seven-Thousand-Year Prayer

by Reki Kawahara

  The Beast, the pseudo-intelligence that lived in the Armor, reacted violently to the memory of this incident and had once even caused a negative Incarnate overflow within Haruyuki in the real world. That was proof that this incident was the source of the Catastrophe, enacted over and over in the Accelerated World. What exactly had happened in the past? Was it really all right to just eliminate the Armor and the Beast without knowing—no, without properly remembering, that?

  Of course, if he went back into that unknown past—in other words, into the memory of the Beast itself—he would experience even more intense mental interference than he had already. Surpassing even the stage of “fusion” and reaching into “control”—Haruyuki’s personality might disappear entirely. The fact that he was struggling like this might itself have been proof that this interference was already progressing.

  As Haruyuki hung his head and bit his lip, a small hand reached out from his side and wrapped itself around his right hand. At the same time, text typed out one-handedly was displayed in his view in a cherry-pink font.

  UI> ARITA. THE TRUE PURIFICATION ABILITY I HAVE IS NOT A DESTRUCTIVE FOURTH-QUADRANT INCARNATE LIKE I USED IN THE CASTLE.

  “Huh? So then…?”

  UI> THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO PHYSICAL ATTACK POWER. IT CANNOT BREAK A DUEL AVATAR, NOR AN ENHANCED ARMAMENT, NOR AN ENEMY, NOT EVEN A SINGLE TERRAIN OBJECT. WHAT MY FLAMES BURN IS…THE SO-CALLED “CONNECTION.” IT SELECTIVELY PURGES ONLY THE INFORMATION ROUTE CONNECTING THE PARASITIC BODY AND THE HOST. THUS, THE TARGETED PARASITIC OBJECT IS SIMPLY CUT AWAY, Utai Shinomiya replied, a calm smile slipping onto her face.

  “It’s cut away…without disappearing…,” he parroted, and then shook his head slightly with a “But…”

  “But…in that case, even if it works, the Armor of Catastrophe itself will remain in the form of a sealed card again. Right? If someone takes that card, or we sell it in the shop, or even toss it into the bottom of the ocean, I know it will call out to its next host again. Kuroyukihime, the card items, they’re…”

  When Haruyuki turned his gaze on her, Kuroyukihime guessed at the implied question and nodded. “Mmm. Impossible to destroy, without exception. The most certain method of disposing of a card currently known is to feed it to a Legend-class Enemy with an affinity for item loot…but I can’t say that that is actually foolproof.”

  A heavy silence filled the living room, illuminated only by the indirect orange lighting.

  Breaking this silence was a faint alarm announcing that it was eight PM. There was still time before Haruyuki’s mother came home, but it was about time for everyone to be getting home, especially Utai, who was still in elementary school. Regardless of how great the problem facing the Legion, the fact remained that in the real world, they were all students and thus constrained by various rules.

  They did have the option of diving into the Unlimited Neutral Field to continue talking there or to try Ardor Maiden’s purification. But there was one little snag. Because Haruyuki had burst out with a forced disconnection safety—in other words, his cable had been yanked out—if he dove into the Unlimited Neutral Field, he would appear alone on the roof of Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills, far away from this condo. And even that would have been fine if he could have immediately exited normally through a portal, but if the mental interference from the Armor began soon after he dove, Haruyuki himself didn’t know what would happen after that.

  “We’ll continue tomorrow…yes?” Fuko, the Legion deputy, said quietly, perhaps thinking the same thing. “We have to first safely reset Corvus’s position information.”

  Haruyuki had previously explained that he had disconnected in Roppongi Hills, right before he fled from his friends and this very room. Yet he still had a mountain of information to share with them, even though he wasn’t able to completely process his memories inside his own head. He needed to reexamine the exchange he had with the pair on the roof of Mori Tower—the Green King, Green Grandé, and the third seat of the Green Legion’s executive group, the Six Armors, a Linker known as Iron Pound. His memories themselves also needed time to clear.

  His Legion Master, Kuroyukihime, looked around the room. “We in Nega Nebulus made significant progress today,” she announced in a clear voice, “because we managed to bring back Utai—Ardor Maiden, one of the former Four Elements, from the altar of a God, a place believed to be impossible to escape. Although after that, there was a slightly unexpected incident…” Here, she glanced over at Rin Kusakabe—who continued to clutch Haruyuki’s T-shirt—but then merely cleared her throat before continuing, “It is an unquestionable fact that Silver Crow’s hard work contributed greatly to the success of this operation. Haruyuki, that’s why it’s our turn now to work hard for your sake. I can understand your indecision and fear. But please. Give us just one chance.”

  She repeated her earlier words, turning earnest eyes on him, and beside her, a small figure pushed forward: Utai Shinomiya, clad in a white dress-style uniform. She bowed her head neatly, which set her ponytail swinging, and tapped decisively at the air with both hands.

  UI> ARITA. WE NEED YOU. THE FACT THAT I WAS ABLE TO RETURN TO NEGA NEBULUS—THAT I COULD ESCAPE FROM THE STATE OF UNLIMITED EK THAT STRETCHED ON FOR TWO AND A HALF YEARS—IS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU. AND THE REASON I AM HERE RIGHT NOW IS TO CUT THE TIE THAT BINDS YOU TO THE CATASTROPHE. PLEASE. I WANT YOU TO GIVE ME THE CHANCE TO FULFILL THE ROLE I AM TO TAKE.

  Finished typing, she squeezed her small hands together at her chest. Fuko, Chiyuri, and Takumu all nodded deeply. Finally, Rin Kusakabe, sitting to his left, tugged lightly on the shirt she still held.

  Haruyuki shook slightly, with a momentary yet fierce conflict.

  Trying Ardor Maiden’s purification meant, in other words, diving into the Unlimited Neutral Field again at the same time as his beloved Legion comrades. In the worst-case scenario, his thoughts would suddenly be under the Armor’s control, and it was possible he might attack them without a word. Naturally, however strong Chrome Disaster might have been, Haruyuki didn’t think he could simultaneously fight all five members of Nega Nebulus with the Black King at the lead and win. But Kuroyukihime and the others would be forced to choose whether or not to neutralize—no, to push him to—a forced uninstall with the Judgment Blow.

  And that was something he didn’t want. No matter the cost.

  Haruyuki lifted his eyes and looked at Utai and Kuroyukihime in turn before nodding slightly. “I…understand. And I’ll ask you guys, too. Please use your power to end the cycle of catastrophe I can’t escape. Shinomiya, Kuroyukihime…everyone.”

  “Haru, are you really okay by yourself tonight? Maybe you should stay over at my place or at Taku’s?”

  Chiyuri repeated this worry at least five times, and Haruyuki sang his part in the duet, assuring her each time that he would be fine, he was fine, while he saw everyone to the door he was still fine, he was fine.

  Fuko yanked Rin Kusakabe by the collar of her shirt, forcing her to release Haruyuki’s clothes. Rin shoved her feet into her loafers before turning around again. “Um,” she said. “The sushi you gave me. Was. Really good.”

  “Oh! Th-then you should tell Chiyu—Chiyuri Kurashima. Her mom made it,” Haruyuki replied.

  So Rin turned around once more and bowed her head at Chiyuri, who was already out in the shared hallway. “Thank. You. Very much.”

  “…It was really nothing. Although I guess I’m not the one to say that…”

  Chiyuri returned the bow at a subtle angle, and an even sharper doubt rose up on her face, as it did with Takumu, who stood next to her. Except for the brief self-introduction immediately after they had dragged Haruyuki and Rin to the Arita home from the underground parking area, they had hardly spoken to her, so they were probably still having trouble accepting the theory that Rin = Ash Roller. Haruyuki could relate.

  Nonetheless, there was definitely an indescribable air of master and apprentice to Rin and Fuko, as Rin pulled her head in meekly and Fuko clutched the collar o
f the girl’s cardigan. Since Rin would also be part of the operation to purify the Armor of Catastrophe—which they had elected to start the following evening at seven, once more in the Arita home—all of them would get another chance to poke at her and ask her all kinds of invasive questions. This, of course, came with a rather large if—if the operation actually succeeded.

  Master and apprentice stepped out into the hallway, and once Utai followed them, Kuroyukihime slowly slipped on her shoes. She took a step forward before whirling around to look at Haruyuki. Her lips trembled as though she wanted to say something, parted slightly, and then quickly closed again. After a pause, Haru’s beloved swordmaster let a faint smile rise up onto her lips. “Sorry for always, always making use of your house as Legion headquarters. I hope you don’t mind that we’re doing it again tomorrow.”

  “No, not at all. It’s totally fine. But isn’t it actually tough for you and Master going home?”

  “Ha-ha! I’ll get a ride from Fuko again today, so I’m fine. Everyone should have an adult friend.”

  The look on Fuko’s face changed slightly behind her, and the others laughed briefly. They then took two steps back, facing backward, and stepped out into the hall.

  “So we’ll see you tomorrow, Haruyuki.”

  “Right. See you tomorrow.”

  The gently closing door hid the faces of Kuroyukihime and his friends, and separated the inside of the house from the outside. The sound of the automatic lock scraped the air. He waited until their footsteps had receded and disappeared before trudging back into the living room.

  Chiyuri had taken the large plate with the chirashi sushi and maki rolls on it, so Haru just had to wash the coffee mugs and return them to the cupboard with the dryer function. He wiped the dining table and the glass table, set the chairs straight, and turned on the AI vacuum cleaner.

  Back in his own room, Haruyuki opened his homework app and focused on tackling the math and English problems. Once he had taken care of both, he looked up at the clock and saw that it was just past nine. His mother still wasn’t home. On days when she hadn’t come back by now, she usually ended up home closer to midnight. Haruyuki accessed the home server and opened the family message board. After thinking for a minute, he typed out a short note…

  I’M GOING TO STAY AT TAKUMU’S HOUSE SINCE WE HAVE A GROUP PRESENTATION TO WORK ON. I’LL BE BACK EARLY TOMORROW MORNING.

  Naturally, this was a lie. And it was a lie to both his mother and his friends. In fact, it was perhaps a lie that betrayed all the members of his Legion. But he was sure that in the event that his mother did call Takumu to check up on him, he would very neatly corroborate Haruyuki’s story.

  He hit the ENTER key of his holokeyboard with a stiff finger, cleared his virtual desktop, and stood up. He changed out of his house clothes into baggy camo pants and a printed T-shirt. He put on a cap, slid into some sneakers in the entryway, and opened the door.

  The shared hallway seemed even darker and quieter than it had been a mere hour ago. It was only to be expected, but in the space illuminated by LED tubes, there was not a trace of his friends passing through earlier on their way home. Still, Haruyuki took a deep breath and tried to fill his lungs with the air they had all breathed before stepping out of the entryway. Behind him, the lock on the door of the now-deserted Arita house shut tight, along with a small electronic sound of raising the security level.

  The reason Haruyuki was going out by himself at this hour was slightly different from when he had locked his friends in and run off. Then, he had intended to slip into the Unlimited Neutral Field from a nearby dive café and lose all his points to an Enemy at the ends of the earth.

  However, Rin Kusakabe, Fuko’s “child,” had blocked his flight with her body in the shopping mall on the first floor, and Haruyuki had rethought things after talking with Ash Roller, who said he was Rin’s brother, in the duel field. He could disappear all on his own, but that didn’t fundamentally resolve the problem. And he couldn’t do that anyway, not when Takumu had been in exactly the same situation the night before but had still heard Haruyuki out and held his ground.

  Just like Takumu, I have to believe in my friends—in the bonds of the Legion, Haruyuki decided somewhere deep in his heart. So the solo excursion he was about to embark on (at a time of night not particularly appropriate for a junior high school boy) was not intended to result in his death in the Unlimited Neutral Field. He wouldn’t have had to go to the trouble of leaving his house for that; he could simply shout the “unlimited burst” command from the comfort of his own bedroom.

  Haruyuki’s objective was outside Suginami—in fact, outside the twenty-three wards of Tokyo: the city of Musashino, spreading out to the west. Of course, it was fully equipped with the social camera net, and thus was a part of the Accelerated World, but it was deserted. Almost no Burst Linkers lived or went there. And he was heading out to his wilderness because he wanted to check if he was still himself even when he dove into the Unlimited Neutral Field.

  The worst thing he could imagine happening in the purification mission the next day was him going on a rampage immediately after they dove and attacking his Legion comrades. Even if he assumed Kuroyukihime and the others would be prepared for that, they might decide they could control Chrome Disaster, but Haruyuki couldn’t take such an optimistic view of the situation. The sixth’s battle ability—being able to use all of the abilities of preceding Disasters—was his own power, but even he couldn’t see its depths. Especially the Flash Blink ability left in the Armor by the first Disaster. That was dangerous. This technique rendered physical constraints completely ineffective and turned the user into particles for teleportation. If Haruyuki, one with the Beast, was able to freely control it, it was possible that Nega Nebulus, which lacked anyone with the indirect abilities of yellow-type avatars, wouldn’t be able to handle him completely.

  Idly considering the possibilities, Haruyuki got on the elevator at the twenty-third floor. The car slipped smoothly downward as he continued along this train of thought.

  He could not turn into a crazed Beast and assault his friends in the next day’s purification operation. The only way to avoid this tragedy was to dare call up the Beast in the Unlimited Neutral Field, talk with it or fight it, and gain the right to a certain amount of control. And if he was going to do that, he had to get out of Suginami. If, hypothetically, his plan failed and he was completely taken over by the Beast, Haruyuki—no, the sixth Disaster—would first try to assault the Burst Linkers who made their homes in Suginami. For the same reason, he wanted to avoid Nerima, Nakano, Shinjuku, and Shibuya to the east. But in Musashino to the west, no matter how he might rampage, there were no targets to begin with. If he tried to hunt anyone, he would need to return to the real world through a portal and then take a train or something. During that time, his head might cool, even if only a little.

  For these reasons, Haruyuki had decided on this solo trip.

  He passed through the shopping mall, where most of the shops other than the supermarket were closed given that it was past nine, and went out into the front garden laid with red bricks. This space, filled with flower beds and benches, was basically taken over by couples at night. At ten o’clock, the main gate was closed, and no one other than residents of the connected condo could pass through it, but he could see the silhouettes of young people sticking around until the last minute, sitting together on benches here and there.

  For Haruyuki, this sort of thing was not interesting at all, so when he left the condo in the evening, he tried to use the residents-only gate on the north side. But the south main gate was closer to Koenji Station. Thus, he pulled the brim of his cap down over his eyes, tucked his shoulders in, and tried to pass through the garden at a brisk pace.

  “Have a seat.”

  The voice came from the bench immediately beside him. Startled, he came to an abrupt halt and froze, eyes still fixed forward.

  The tone was masculine, but the voice was clearly female. He
couldn’t mistake that voice, with its silky smoothness, the clarity of melted snow, the sharpness of a whetted knife.

  Haruyuki creakingly turned his head seventy degrees to the right, a movement like a gear-driven doll.

  Seated on the bench, the swordmaster he had parted from only an hour earlier was looking at him, smiling calmly. Obsidian eyes, black like deep space, announced that they had seen right through him.

  7

  I never thought the day would come when I—me!—would be sitting with a girl on these benches. And past nine at night! Of course, we probably totally don’t look like boyfriend and girlfriend. At best, older sister and younger brother. At worst, the girl lost a dare…

  As these thoughts raced through his mind, five slender fingers reached out from beside him to squeeze his left hand sitting on his knees. At the same time, a voice.

  “This way we don’t look like we’re brother and sister. Shall we direct to make extra certain?”

  It was almost as if she was reading 80 percent of his thoughts. “N-n-n-n-n-no,” Haruyuki squeaked. “Th-th-th-th-th-this is fine.” It was likely a wise decision not to add that there remained the possibility that she appeared to be there on a dare.

  What was fairly scary was that Haruyuki’s current situation could be completely laid bare if Chiyuri were peeking straight down into the garden using night-vision binoculars from the Kurashima house on the twenty-first floor of B wing, which was soaring up above his head. But maybe he was seriously overthinking this. But he couldn’t underestimate her animal-like instincts. He couldn’t completely deny the possibility of her suddenly wanting some of the tofu banana au lait (with tapioca) that was only sold at a vending machine in this plaza and coming down to buy some…