Shrine Maiden of the Sacred Fire

by Reki Kawahara

  Kuroyukihime forcefully pulled that arm back and made a cross with the sword of her left hand, readied horizontally. The overlay pouring out of every crevice of her body at once gathered in her right arm, to concentrate in a single point at the tip.

  This force, focused to such an extreme that it threatened to carve a hole in anything it even touched, was released at the charging God Suzaku as she shouted the technique name.

  “Vorpal Strike!!”

  A roar like a jet engine, loud enough to drown out the howls of the massive bird, accompanied the enormous crimson lance as it shot over a hundred meters in an instant to land squarely in the center of Suzaku’s thick chest. The flames enshrouding the Enemy scattered into space like blood.

  And then Haruyuki was sure he saw it. Suzaku’s HP gauge—so vast, it was stacked up in five layers—sliced away, albeit just the tiniest bit.

  Kuroyukihime. Kuroyukihime. You, why…How did you get so strong…

  The thought that flashed through the back of his mind was rejected by another emotion that came welling up from the bottom of his stomach.

  Her, strong? No. I already know that’s not it. She’s simply trying to be strong. For her own sake. For someone’s sake. For that something important shining in her heart. And I am, too. Right now, I don’t have enough power or brains or anything, but I can move forward. And that is real strength, the kind that anyone has right from the start. Move forward, breathe,

  throw your chest out. Okay, howl it!!

  “Hnngaaaaaah!!”

  “Fly!!” Fuko responded.

  “Here I go!!”

  Shhp! He spread the wings on his back; he beat the ten metal fins with every ounce of his strength—Haruyuki flew.

  The air howled in his ears, compressed, became a wall. He broke through with the glittering of the Incarnate lodged in fingertips stretched out before him. Fmp! The pressure was broken. Haruyuki became a single beam of silver light and plunged forward.

  Ahead and slightly below, the enormous body of Suzaku drew nearer with every breath. Blazing heat, as though burning the air itself, beat at his avatar. But he no longer felt any fear. Because Haruyuki wasn’t alone. Kuroyukihime, Fuko, Chiyuri, Takumu—they were all holding him up.

  And that younger girl, too, who was, at that precise moment, landing in the Unlimited Neutral Field for the first time in two and a half years.

  He had only met her two days earlier, but Utai Shinomiya was already a firm presence in Haruyuki’s heart. And not because she was going to purify the Armor of Catastrophe. Not because she would strengthen the Legion’s fighting ability. He wanted her to join the new Nega Nebulus as a new friend.

  That was what he was flying for now. Without fear, without flinching: simply moving forward. Ever forward.

  Silver Crow, a silver arrow racing along at an altitude of thirty meters, and Suzaku, charging ahead on the bridge with a roar, crossed paths, sending several sparks flying.

  Suzaku kept on, rushing toward Kuroyukihime behind him and Fuko, who should have landed beside their fallen comrade by now. All that was left was for the two of them to lure the Enemy far back, onto the bridge. All he had to do was believe in them and let them handle it.

  Ahead of him as he charged forward, in the center of the altar from which scattered flames still rose, fmp!—a scarlet flickering.

  She was here. Utai, Ardor Maiden. Perfect timing. Takumu had pulled off his role as messenger flawlessly. The shrine maiden avatar clad in white and red materialized before his eyes. He wasn’t even a hundred meters away now. To pick Utai up, Haruyuki went to drop altitude.

  At that moment—

  “Haruyuki!!”

  A shriek colored with shock and terror and despair.

  The shout of his real name, a fundamental taboo in the Accelerated World, was followed from behind by “Run!! You have to get away now!!”

  “……?!” Unable to comprehend the situation, Haruyuki glanced back over his shoulder.

  And then he saw it.

  The God Suzaku tilting those wings and pulling into a turn to the left. Its long neck carved out an arc, and the deep red eyes were focused straight ahead on this side of the bridge—on Haruyuki.

  Its target had most definitely changed. But why? He could see the lingering damage effects of Kuroyukihime’s Vorpal Sword in Suzaku’s chest. Haruyuki, on the other hand, hadn’t even touched his Enemy. It didn’t make sense for it to come after him. As these confused thoughts flashed through his mind, he felt like he heard a voice.

  The anger, the disdain of the Enemy, supposedly nothing more than a moving object without a will of its own.

  Small one. Accept the reward for the folly of penetrating Our domain. The flame of Our breath…

  Become ash.

  The enormous beak opened wide.

  Flames flickered in the depths of a throat filled with darkness. The breath attack. If he got hit with that, there was no doubt he would die instantly.

  Run, Haruyuki!!

  He heard Kuroyukihime shrieking again.

  For an extremely tiny unit of time, so short that the word instant was even too long, Haruyuki hesitated.

  If he rapidly ascended right then, he could probably evade the breath. If he kept going all the way up to Silver Crow’s maximum altitude of fifteen hundred meters, Suzaku probably wouldn’t come after him. But…

  Aah, but…

  Haruyuki gritted his teeth below his silver mask so hard, they threatened to crumble.

  And then he made his decision.

  He wouldn’t pull back. He couldn’t run away here. If he ran now, Utai Shinomiya, waiting for him just a dozen or so meters ahead, would be attacked by Suzaku and die. And if that were to happen, she wouldn’t reproach Haruyuki returning to the real world. She would probably tell him in her usual high-speed typing, YOU HAD NO OTHER CHOICE.

  But the truth was, he did have a choice. Because in that moment, Haruyuki could choose what he was going to do. Because he had been given these wings to keep flying toward her as long as there was the tiniest possibility that he could rescue Utai.

  “Unh…Aaah…” Returning his gaze once more to the altar, he pushed his voice out from the depths of his stomach.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

  With this battle cry, Haruyuki mustered up every ounce of his focus, so much so that he almost burnt out the synapses in his brain, and made his wings flutter. The light housed in the tips of his two hands, thrust out straight ahead, spread out over his entire body. Wrapped in the same silver overlay as when he used his sole Incarnate attack Laser Sword, Haruyuki plunged forward.

  Behind him, he sensed an incredible energy being generated. A vortex of flame to instantly vaporize all things was released from Suzaku’s maw, and coming at him, dyeing the world crimson.

  Haruyuki!!

  Corvus!!

  Haruuuuuuu!!

  The three screams barely touched his awareness. But he shook free of even that, became a single ray of light, and flew.

  Kuroyukihime. I know I promised to run when you said to run. I’m sorry. I’ll apologize loads and loads later. But in order for me to keep being me, I have to do this now.

  This fleeting thought became a white spark, bounced off, and disappeared, and then there was nothing left in him but the will to keep pushing ahead.

  He was getting closer to the altar with each thought of a breath. Ardor Maiden, who had appeared in its center, was simply standing there, as though she couldn’t understand what was going on.

  Haruyuki stared at the small shrine maiden and shouted in a voice that was not a voice, Your hand!!

  Like a switch had been flipped, Ardor Maiden raised her slender hands.

  Dropping down to a meter above the bridge, Haruyuki stretched out his own arms. Their hands touched, and they grabbed tightly on to each other—Haruyuki yanked Utai’s avatar up with all his might and held her to his chest.

  Hold on!! he shouted again, and Utai’s arms were no sooner around his neck than he
was climbing once more. He would do a 180-degree loop, turn around, and escape—

  Abruptly, the world around him changed color.

  Flickering with a wavelength from orange to crimson. Red. The color of fire.

  His avatar’s entire body sang out. Suzaku’s flame breath had caught up with them. Despite the fact that the flames themselves couldn’t be touching them yet, the HP gauge in the top left of his vision was decreasing with terrifying force.

  It was impossible. He couldn’t ascend. The instant he dropped his speed by even the tiniest amount, they would be swallowed in the flames and melt. He had no choice but to keep going straight. But not far ahead of them, the rock of the castle gate was blocking the way.

  For his self-respect, at least, perhaps the only thing to do was end this by crashing into the gate. But no—he hadn’t come that far to commit suicide. He was going to live. He was going to survive with Utai. He would do it.

  “Open!!” Haruyuki shouted, the surface of his avatar crackling and burning.

  At the same time, Utai in his arms raised her own voice. “You must open!!”

  But the thick, ice-covered indigo castle gates stayed firmly, tightly closed, as if mocking them.

  No.

  A light…

  In the center of the doors standing tall, he could see a mere sliver of white light, like a thread.

  12

  Quiet.

  Cold. And hard.

  He was lying with his right side on a crisply chill, level surface. Almost as if his entire body had been frozen solid. He couldn’t move his limbs at all.

  But he felt a mysterious warmth in his arms. Throb. Throb. An indistinct vibration. It was…

  Suddenly, he heard a voice. “This is a little uncomfortable.”

  Haruyuki’s eyes flew open with a gasp. He saw round, cute scarlet eye lenses before him. “Ah!” he said, and worked his frozen arms to loosen his hold. The adorable face mask receded slightly.

  “Sh-Shino—I mean, Mei?” he murmured in a shaky voice, and her mask moved up and down.

  A pure, quiet voice reached his ears. “That’s right. You saved me, C.”

  Those words sent a jolt through him.

  He couldn’t really remember what had happened. He had picked up Ardor Maiden standing on the altar…run from Suzaku’s flame breath…plunged straight into the closed castle gates…

  What had happened after that? Were they actually dead? Was this the ghost state?

  No, if it was, everything in his field of view would have changed to a single shade. But at that moment, he could clearly see that Utai’s eye lenses were glittering like rubies.

  Still unable to believe that they had managed to flee from that terrifying vortex of flame, Haruyuki asked in a hoarse voice, “Um, are we maybe alive…?”

  Utai nodded firmly once more. “We are alive. But…aah, but…” The end of her sentence was husky, and it shivered and melted into the chill air before disappearing.

  Ardor Maiden shifted her gaze to the cold gloom of the space around them. In an extremely, terribly faint whisper, she announced to Haruyuki, “Here…This place is inside the Castle.”

  To be continued.

  AFTERWORD

  Reki Kawahara here, bringing you Accel World 6: Shrine Maiden of the Sacred Fire. This is probably the book that’s taken the longest to write out of the series so far. But I do hope you enjoyed it…?

  Now then, there are many, many things that I lack as a novelist (patience, ambition, the ability to work at home…), but the one I am most lacking that I am aware of is the ability to bring a story to a neat end.

  To be honest, although I’ve created a variety of stories for more than eight years now, including when I was writing web novels, not a single one of them had a proper ending! In my maiden long-form work, Sword Art Online, right up into my first published work, Accel World, I end with “Our fight starts now!” and all. (I break out into a cold sweat now, wondering at the fact that I even won that award.)

  It’s not as though I’ll be completing it any time soon, but having written this much of Accel World, I have been sort of wondering exactly how I’m going to end this story. I have absolutely no clue, by the way (lol). I can imagine all sorts of ways to expand it, and yet no ideas to wrap it all up come to mind; I can’t help but feel this is not great for a novelist.

  That said, as a reader, I actually love stories that end in this open manner. Of course, it’s wonderful when the story ends with a detailed explanation of the rest of the main character’s life chronology-style, but I suppose I’d have to say that I want that feeling of “their story continues into the future as well.” In RPGs, too, I totally love the world after you beat the game (lol). If I ever get the chance to make a game, I want to make one that has a bonus scenario that’s three times as long as the game itself that starts playing once the end credits are done! Or rather, someone, please make this game!

  But I digress. All of this is to say, I have the keen feeling that this Accel World, too, in the ending that will likely come someday, will find some footing along the likes of “our fight…,” so let me apologize for that now. I’m sorry!

  I got a little carried away with the previous volume, which set me behind on my schedule, but despite this very great inconvenience, the illustrator HIMA was kind enough to draw a cover so wonderful it took my breath away. And my editor, Miki, who made no fuss about lending me three hundred yen when sad little me forgot my wallet. Once again, I am in your debt! And everyone who has read with me so far, my apologies for ending with a “to be continued” again! I’ll give this a proper conclusion in the next book probably! Taku will probably be part of the action, even!

  Reki Kawahara

  On a certain day in August 2010

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