Shrine Maiden of the Sacred Fire

by Reki Kawahara

  What would she do? What would the Black King do? She was basically the same sort of close-range, high-mobility type as Silver Crow. She definitely wouldn’t be looking around so feverishly. She would no doubt stand calmly in one place, wait for the instant the enemy attacked, and wager everything on that moment’s offense and defense. Right, that was it. If his enemies were a close-range type, too, then they’d at least have to come up out of the grass in the moment of attack.

  His first move would inevitably be slower. Even if his enemy became visible, he wouldn’t be able to act first. But she had taught him a technique to change defense into offense in that direct duel they’d had a week before. He totally wouldn’t be able to pull it off in the same way as she did, but trying and failing was a hundred times better than giving up and just standing there.

  Haruyuki relaxed his entire body and half closed his eyes. In the back of his mind, he called up an image of Black Lotus from their fight the week before.

  In an almost leisurely gesture, the Black King had caught his right straight, which had all of Silver Crow’s speed and power behind it. Her movement had been not so much fast as streamlined; there had been no wasted effort. Instead of repelling the power of her enemy’s attack, she pulled it in, changed the angle, and released it. Black Lotus called this technique “the way of the flexible”—a kind of reversal via blocking.

  Despite the fact he hadn’t moved at all, he became conscious of a high-pitched whine, and the noise around him receded. It was the feeling of acceleration he got when he concentrated with a certain intense focus, but this was the first time he had relaxed his muscles so much and felt this stillness.

  A time passed—whether it was long or short, he couldn’t tell—and Haruyuki sensed the first blow coming from the enemy finally, from not sound or sight but rather the vibration of his enemy’s footstep.

  Behind, to the right!

  He raised his right hand as he turned around.

  A small avatar with grass green armor that blended into the background rose up from the grass and launched a punch: Bush Utan. Mask reminiscent of a certain primate, his arms were abnormally thick and long compared to his forward-leaning body and compact legs. He had probably used those sturdy arms to “swim” through the grass instead of run. So, naturally, his feet would have made no sound. He would also have used his shorter height to his advantage.

  To Haruyuki, this punch was essentially the ground below the deep grass leaping up into his face. By the time he saw his opponent, that enormous right fist was already closing in on his face, less than a meter away. And given that his footing wasn’t very solid at that moment, there was absolutely no way he was going to be able to dodge.

  “Hoooh!!” Utan let out a loud battle cry, perhaps certain that his first blow would hit home.

  In contrast, Haruyuki remained silent and loosely caught his opponent’s fist in his open right hand. He felt the force of his enemy’s right hook in his palm, a burning sensation. If he had tried to force a block here, his arm would have been thrown back, and he would’ve taken a serious blow to the face. But rather than block, he fused his own movement with the fist’s, and without resisting his opponent, he changed only the direction of the attack.

  The key was probably the circular motion. In the virtual squash game he used to play every day, the already incredible speed of the ball increased exponentially if he simply smashed it as hard as he could with every stroke, so he would sometimes squash his own power and cradle the ball in the face of his racquet.

  Remembering that movement now, Haruyuki moved his palm counterclockwise, following his enemy’s punch. Unable to completely quench the force, the armor of his right hand creaked and squealed. But at the same time, he felt the trajectory of the attack shifting bit by tiny bit.

  At this point, Kuroyukihime had turned the attack vector one hundred and eighty degrees and sent it flying directly behind Haruyuki. He, of course, did not have the skill for that. But if he could turn it a mere ten degrees down and to the left, he could at least avoid a clean hit. He held his breath, clenched his teeth, and carefully, cautiously, pulled in the rotation of Utan’s fist.

  Skrk!

  He heard a quiet scraping, and the sharp sensation of heat raced along his left cheek. Several dots were carved off his HP gauge, but the massive fist merely grazed Haruyuki’s helmet before flowing off behind him, and Utan staggered slightly. His center of gravity was likely too high when he attacked standing up because of his overdeveloped arms and shoulders.

  When he sensed his opponent faltering, Haruyuki unconsciously swung his right leg out to sweep Utan’s short ones out from under him.

  “Uwaah?!” The grass-colored avatar tumbled forward with a shout, and then hit the ground with his back. Wham! The sound of impact. The tall grasses beneath him acted as a cushion, so there wasn’t much damage, but Utan’s HP gauge did drop a few percent.

  I did it! Something kinda like that block reversal thing! He shouted to himself gleefully, but his delight was short-lived.

  Utan was swimming deep in the ocean of grass once more, and only the slithering sense of high-speed motion reached him; there was no doubt he was planning another surprise attack. Haruyuki slowly crouched down and sharpened his senses.

  The second attack came quickly. Mere seconds later, the vibration of the step came, this time from directly behind him. Without taking the precious milliseconds needed to look back over his shoulder, he thrust his right hand back. The instant he felt something, he yanked upward in a circular movement.

  When his eyes finally caught up they found Utan, left straight knocked, center of gravity off balance once again. He extended his left leg, perhaps trying to force his fist back onto its original trajectory, and his body rose up even farther. Reflexively, Haruyuki followed Utan’s punch with his left hand and brought them both up to his shoulder.

  “Haa!” With a short battle cry, he heaved the other avatar into the air with everything he had.

  Utan flew even higher than the last time, spun through the air, and slammed into the grass headfirst. The natural cushion couldn’t completely absorb the impact this time, and nearly 10 percent of his gauge was shaved away, accompanied by a damage effect.

  For a brief moment, Bush Utan’s legs stuck comically up out of the grass, but eventually, he pushed himself to his feet using the strength of his arms and whirled around to stand. Looking like he planned to dive back into the grass for Stealth mode, he retreated several steps and thrust a finger out at Haruyuki.

  “Oh-ho-ho! Just as one would expect from the eternal rival of my bro Ash, you feel me?”

  Haruyuki blinked hard. This was unexpected. “Huh…I—I am?” he blurted, somewhat unkindly, but fortunately, Utan didn’t notice his curt tone.

  “You sure use a pretty weird defense technique, huh!” he yelled. “This is the first time I didn’t get the First Attack bonus in a Grassland stage! But don’t go thinking you’ve won with that, punk! We dump the standing throws and get down to wrestling, and I am totally unbeatable in this stage! Got it?”

  “Unh!” Haruyuki had no doubt that this was exactly the case. He felt like he had at last awakened to the “way of the flexible” Kuroyukihime had initiated him into, but he wasn’t going to be able to handle throws or locks. If those solid arms suddenly grabbed ahold of his legs from below in the grass, he’d be forced into the ground fight he was so bad at whether he liked it or not.

  As Haruyuki panicked, Utan calmly waggled his index finger. “But my fans in the Gallery wouldn’t like it one bit if I used a locking technique here, you feel me? ’Cause, you know, they wouldn’t be able to see it at all!”

  Haruyuki spun around and found the figures of spectators, albeit only three or four—in addition to Utai Shinomiya as Ardor Maiden—watching over him from a little ways off, and his other duel opponent, Olive Grab, still invisible, apparently moving around a great distance away. Because there was absolutely no higher ground anywhere nearby, they were all stand
ing in the same grassy field. And indeed, if Haruyuki and Utan were to wrangle and wrestle in the bottom of the grass, they wouldn’t be able to see anything.

  “So what now? Oh! And don’t even talk about arm wrestling! Not interested, all right?!” Haruyuki said preemptively, and Utan slapped his fist into the open palm of his hand.

  “Ohh, nice idea, man. Sucks for you, but those skinny little arms of yours are no match for these powerful guns of mine. That’s why I’m gonna use a new trick I just learned!!”

  “N-new technique?!” He couldn’t help but be on guard. As far as Haruyuki knew, Bush Utan had only two weapons: the sheer brute power of those overdeveloped arms and the ability to stretch them out over three times their length when he used his special-attack gauge. He hadn’t gone up a level since they’d fought last week—he was still at level three—so he couldn’t have gotten a new special attack or ability. In which case, he had either bought Enhanced Armament with points or come up with some new fighting method on his own. Either was cause for alarm.

  Haruyuki crouched, nerves tensed, while Utan approached nonchalantly. “Mwah-hah-hah! If you charged in here now thinking you were in for an easy win like in that Territory Battle, you got another think coming, homie,” he sneered, challenging. “I’m not the me of last week no more. You’re gonna freak when you see it—this is the power that changed my life!!”

  He stopped and made broad circles with his arms to cross them tightly before his chest. He held this position for a moment and then flung both hands out to his sides. “IS mode activate!! Hell yeah!”

  E-eye ess mode? Although Haruyuki was bewildered by the completely unfamiliar technique name, he still tightened his taut muscles further, ready to dodge a sudden weapon whizzing his way. But what followed overturned any expectations he could possibly have had.

  In the center of Bush Utan’s grass-colored chest, a bizarre something rose up with a pop: a black semisphere, five or so centimeters in diameter. Although it shone with a deep brilliance, it wasn’t metal. It made Haruyuki think of plastic, or something more alive. Glittering like light was leaking out. And then, proof that this impression was correct: The surface of the semisphere split at the center into top and bottom, like an eyelid opening. The “eye” that appeared held a deep red light reminiscent of blood and stared hard at Haruyuki.

  Bwaaa! Waves of pressure shot out from Bush Utan’s body, and the surrounding grass was flattened in concentric ripples. From the center of the eye in his chest came a black aura, gushing out to envelop Utan. Although he was nearly ten meters away, Haruyuki felt the prickly stabs of this pressure on his own body.

  Clad in the thick shadow of this aura, Utan looked at Haruyuki with eyes that sparkled strangely and charged head-on without the slightest show of hesitation. He brandished his right fist with a war cry, shouting the name of a technique Haruyuki had definitely never heard before.

  “Hooooooo…Dark Blow!!”

  Vzzzm. A heavy vibration echoed through the stage, and the coating of night around Utan’s fist grew even thicker. He closed in on Haruyuki, clenched fist raised and radiating a wrecking ball’s worth of pressure.

  “Hngh!” If Haruyuki had been thinking clearly, he would have had enough time to try for a block reversal like he had before. But he was assaulted by unspeakably sudden shaking and abruptly switched to Dodge mode, flinging himself to the left and just barely avoiding the ominous fist.

  And then Haruyuki opened his eyes so wide they nearly fell out of his head, and all thought of a counterattack fell by the wayside. Utan’s empty punch plunged into the ground at his own feet, sending that earth and its dense grass flying like his fist was a meteorite impact.

  Unlike the buildings and rocks, the ground in a duel stage couldn’t be so easily damaged normally. And yet Utan had gouged out a crater that deep with a single blow. Whatever this IS mode was, it was no ordinary power. Haruyuki would have been in serious trouble if he had actually tried to catch and return that blow with one hand.

  What was that?! Special attack—no, Enhanced Armament?!

  Oozing silent astonishment, Haruyuki reflexively checked the thin blue line displayed below Utan’s HP gauge—his special-attack gauge.

  Doubly shocked, he gasped. Utan’s special-attack gauge hadn’t dropped. Or rather, it hadn’t been charged to begin with. But the black aura tinged with a red phosphorescence still radiated from Utan’s body like it was overflowing from within.

  A continuous emission of light that didn’t use up his special-attack gauge. There was only one word in the Accelerated World to explain such a phenomenon: overlay. When a powerful imagination passed through the Image Control System—an avatar control path hidden under the normal Movement Command System—the signal that spilled out was processed as light that could be seen with the naked eye.

  Having gotten this far, Haruyuki finally understood exactly what “IS mode” was: It had to be short for “Incarnate System mode.” Or to someone used to using it: “Incarnate mode.” The aura enveloping Utan at that moment was proof that the forbidden power of the Incarnate System was being invoked.

  But why? The number one thing that should have been drummed into Utan’s head when he learned the Incarnate System was that using this power first in a general duel was the greatest taboo. And what was that black eye stuck to his chest? Incarnate was a power born from within the heart of the user alone. He shouldn’t need to equip an object like that.

  Battered by waves of confusion, Haruyuki couldn’t react right away to Utan charging him head-on once more, shrouded in that jet-black aura.

  “Unh…hooooooo!!” With a low, nasal shout, Utan showily brandished his right fist.

  Haruyuki finally opened his eyes wide with a gasp, but he no longer had time to dodge to either side. Painfully aware of the danger he faced, he thrust his open left hand out; he had no choice but to use the “way of the flexible.”

  “Hoooo! Dark Blow!!” Shouting the same technique name as before, Utan unleashed a punch that roared as it ripped through the air.

  Haruyuki caught this fist—the overlay of it even more intense now—in the palm of his hand. It was cold like ice. Almost before he had the time to process this, he heard the screeching of destruction, and Silver Crow’s left hand turned into a myriad of metal fragments and danced away on the wind.

  “Ngah!” Haruyuki groaned, a fierce pain racing through his body as if his very nerves were being ripped out, despite the fact that this was a Normal Duel Field, where the sensation of pain was suppressed.

  But Utan’s fist still did not stop; it charged forward toward his face.

  He desperately tried to cock his head to one side and dodge the blow, but the thick thumb gouged deep into the left side of his helmet. And again, the burning heat came. The enormous pressure repelled him, and he was slapped onto the grass back first. Haruyuki rolled around, pale sparks shooting out of his right arm where it disappeared at the elbow, a deep wound carved out of his helmet.

  Looking down on him, Utan heavily pulled his right hand back while slowly raising his left fist high above his head. In the eyes shining in the slightly humorous mask, there was no sign of that vibrant gleam—his passion for the duel—Haruyuki had seen in their fight the week before or even mere minutes earlier. They only shone now with the excitement of beating Haruyuki down, of destroying him, of making him yield.

  The left fist came at him for a third time, shrouded in the viscous aura of darkness. Haruyuki frantically brought his back up, deployed both wings while still on the ground, and vibrated the ten fins with every ounce of strength he had.

  Utan’s fist pierced deep into the grass where Haruyuki’s torso had been only a tenth of a second before and the hard earth beneath it. Feeling his blood freeze as he watched this, Haruyuki ascended, working to put distance between them. Once he had gotten about twenty meters up, he finally went into Hovering mode.

  He hadn’t fully digested the situation yet. Or rather, he couldn’t accept the truth. He mana
ged somehow to move his mouth, frozen solid beneath his mask, and pushed the words out. “U-Utan…Why…That technique…How on earth…”

  Haruyuki’s answer was an enormous right hand thrust up toward him in the sky. A low, broken howl slipped out from the mouth area of Utan’s mask. “Flying’s no good either…” He spread his five fingers wide, and the black aura collected and condensed there. Then in a slightly distorted voice, “Dark Shot!!”

  A heavy vibration shuddered through the stage while an inky black beam leapt out of Utan’s palm.

  Beyond surprised, Haruyuki could only watch, dumbfounded, as the lance of darkness closed in on him. Unconsciously, he flipped one of his wings and slid in the sky to avoid the beam’s trajectory, but not quite fast enough.

  He heard a crunch as the center of his left wing was pierced. The metal fins scattered in an instant, the wing of a bird shot with a gun. His propulsion suddenly unbalanced, and with no time to pull himself together, he plummeted to the ground.

  If there hadn’t been a thick covering of grass below him, his health gauge probably would have dropped into the red at that point. But even with the cushion, it dropped down to nearly 50 percent. He glanced over at it, shuddering at the terrifying force of Utan’s Incarnate attack, and somehow pulled his torso upright.

  “Whaddaya think ’bout the power of my new technique, huh?” Bush Utan approached him, grass crunching, and stopped to stand directly in front of Haruyuki, a grin cutting his face in half. “Pretty great, yeah? I’m pretty much unstoppable now, y’know?”

  The light of the bloodred eye in the center of his chest pulsed. Throb, throb. Feeling the hunger in that gaze, Haruyuki asked hoarsely, nearly done in, “H-how…H-how on earth did you get this power…?”

  Thinking it through, the only conclusion Haruyuki could come to was that someone had taught Utan how to use the Incarnate System, the way he himself had been initiated into the key points of the system by Sky Raker, as had Takumu by the Red King Scarlet Rain.

  But one thing wasn’t sitting right with him. Of the four types of Incarnate power—expansions to range, movement, attack power, and defense—an avatar could only master those in line with their original attributes. Niko had said this was a key principle.