“K-Kuroyu…” A hoarse voice stole out from Haruyuki’s parched throat.
Are you going to fight it? I mean, even if the Red King did ask you—With that? Face-to-face…
It was true that Chrome Disaster was still at level seven. Even if she was defeated, she wouldn’t end up losing Brain Burst, unlike when a King was her opponent.
But she would be eaten.
In this Field, where a sensation of pain could be greater than that in the real world, her avatar would be devoured still living. Such agony as that was beyond comparison to that of taking a slug from the gun in Haruyuki’s training room.
And it wasn’t just a matter of the sense of actual pain. The screams of the long-range avatar that had been caught and slaughtered by that thing a few minutes earlier were marked by despair. Despair at its whole self helplessly assimilated into a predator’s overwhelming power.
No way. I don’t want that thing to eat me. If that happens, I’ll just run again—
The strength abruptly drained from his legs, and Haruyuki fell to his knees on top of Scarlet Rain’s armor. He hurriedly tried to stand again, but his body didn’t move. It was frozen, stiff down to his fingers, refusing to listen to his commands.
What’s going on? What’s wrong with me? I was talking so big and saying all that stuff when Kuroyukihime was down, and now…I’m so pathetic, I can’t even move.
The more panicked he got, the more petrified his body became. It was almost as if his nervous system had been detached from the limbs of his avatar.
Haruyuki could only keep taking shallow breaths below the mirrored surface of his helmet when he heard her.
“A Burst Linker without the desire to fight cannot move his duel avatar.” Kuroyukihime’s clear voice reached him from where she and the black-silver armor still faced off on the edge of the crater. “It’s exactly as the little girl there said before. I don’t want to acknowledge it, but I regret that betrayal of two years ago. I feel that it was an unforgivable crime. And because of that, I was deeply afraid in the bottom of my heart of my own desire for battle—the very belligerence that seeks victory.”
With her sword arms still at the ready, her guard still up, Black Lotus’s blue-purple eyes glanced at Haruyuki.
“However, Haruyuki. You are the opposite. You fear defeat. You are under the impression that your own worth drops with each loss. This is the cause of your poor form recently in the Territory Battles.”
Her words gouged, mercilessly, deep into his heart.
Still on his knees, Haruyuki forced his eyes open wide and gritted his teeth.
It’s not an impression! It’s the truth! he shouted in his mind. If I lose, I don’t get anything. The value of my—of Silver Crow’s—existence is in continuing to win with his unique flight ability. Just gain levels, increase the territory of Nega Nebulus, and meet your expectations. I mean, if I don’t win, if I don’t get stronger and stronger, then you’ll—one day, you’ll give up on me…
“I’ll return the words you said to me earlier, Haruyuki!” With a sharp gesture of her right hand-sword, Kuroyukihime uttered a shout that bordered on ferociousness. “Do you really believe…that the bond connecting the two of us is at most on that level?!”
Then she immediately started to cleave at Chrome Disaster. Almost as if she was trying to tell him something.
Disaster’s broadsword welcomed Kuroyukihime’s left sword-arm as it struck down from directly above, absorbing its tremendous impact. Shining, spherical energy welled up and burst on the surface of the black-and-silver armor, turned into countless points of light, and then scattered.
Both fighters, violently knocked back, held their ground, digging into the surface of the earth, and attacked again at exactly the same time. Disaster gripped his broadsword in both hands and swung it horizontally. Kuroyukihime met this with a right roundhouse kick.
The bold moves, crashing into one another and tracing out deep red and bluish-purple arcs, really did cause an explosion this time, drilling out a small crater on the spot. Both were sent flying in opposite directions, and Chrome Disaster’s left hand, open all the way, was turned precisely toward Kuroyukihime, raising as she tumbled along.
That attack!
But, unable to move or speak, Haruyuki only held his breath.
The special attack that dragged the enemy over through a mysterious attractive force and held them. If he hit her with that, she’d be pulled into a close-contact situation, and without being able to fully swing her swords, she would just, in a manner of speaking, be chewed up.
Tnk!
A silver light seemed to flash between the two.
At the same time, Kuroyukihime placed a large lump she had gathered up at her tiptoes when he wasn’t looking—a mass of rock made out of the fragments of the ground from the earlier explosion—and kicked it up, into the center of her right leg-sword.
The boulder was propelled into Chrome Disaster’s palm. As he tried to shake free fingers that had bitten deeply into the hard surface, Kuroyukihime charged at full speed.
The piercing, metallic screech of impact burst forth, and the upward-thrust sword of her left leg at last found a home, digging into the armor of Chrome Disaster’s chest.
Incredible, Haruyuki murmured in his head, forgetting momentarily the despondency strangling him. How can she fight like that when her opponent is that terrifying? She might be a higher level, but the difference in power’s more than made up for by the Enhanced Armament; they’re basically even in terms of the force a single blow packs. I mean, if she makes a single mistake, she’ll be eaten up by those huge fangs for sure and drown in intense pain and despair. Why can she—It’s almost—
Like she’s having fun.
Because she’s confident she’ll win? Can she move so freely like that because she’s sure she’s stronger than her enemy?
No, that can’t be it. Despite the fact that Yellow Radio, level nine like her, still had ten or so subordinates left, he fled without even hesitating. And there’s absolutely no way you could say that decision came from cowardice. Chrome Disaster’s not a regular Burst Linker anymore. He’s a bigger threat than that enormous Enemy we saw on our way to Ikebukuro.
As if to support Haruyuki’s thinking, the crazed knight unleashed a terrifying skill. Reddish-black light coalesced around the wound in the Armor that Kuroyukihime’s sword had opened and proceeded to repair it to a smooth polish right before his eyes.
“Yurooo…” The Armor, a low voice like laughter spilling out, counterattacked with a sudden ferocity. The sword in his right hand came down at a speed that made it impossible to see, cutting the sky and the ground in a straight line. Kuroyukihime, on that trajectory, dodged uncharacteristically, but the tip of her armor skirt broke off at the left hip and fell with a faint clink.
But Chrome Disaster’s attack didn’t stop there. The enormous sword, the blade of which was probably a meter and a half long, was brandished again and again at a speed that made it seem weightless. Black Lotus dodged as if dancing or deflected the blows, but in short order, chinks were carved here and there across her beautiful armor.
She was gradually being pushed from the west side of the crater to the north in an onslaught that seemed like it could go on forever. Yet there was no sign that Kuroyukihime’s fighting spirit was weakening in the slightest.
The swords of her limbs swelled with violet light, and whenever she found a small gap in Disaster’s movements, she threw in a sharp counterattack. The wounds carved into her opponent’s armor were quickly restored by that malevolent red light, but she thrust her sword out, cut, and plunged the blade in again and again with an accuracy that was startlingly effortless.
It couldn’t have been that she wasn’t feeling the terror. They were essentially equals in attack power, speed, and precision, so the fact was that, at some point, an opponent with the ability to automatically heal his own damage would overcome her resistance. If she got hit with even one heavy attack and her abili
ty to evade dropped, in that instant she would be snatched up by her opponent, and some part of her body would be bitten off. Her pride as a King would be taken, and she would crawl on the ground as just a hunk of food for the beast.
And yet—Why…
“Why…why don’t you run?!” A croaking screech ripped itself from Haruyuki’s throat.
After all, running away wouldn’t lower her value as the Black King. The Yellow King had run away, and he was sure she had said that the Seven Kings of Pure Color had worked together to finally put an end to the former Chrome Disaster. It was only natural to pull out here. And more than that—
He didn’t want to see it. He absolutely did not want to watch her get destroyed and eaten, screaming.
“Please run, Kuroyukihime!” Haruyuki shouted again.
However, the massive iron sword rained down from on high with such speed and timing that it allowed no evasion.
Kuroyukihime caught the blow with crossed sword arms, but, unable to repel it the way she had up to that point, she dropped a single knee. The fierce impact roared like thunder, and fissures radiated outward in the ground around her.
“Yurooooooo!!”
Chrome Disaster howled loudly, perhaps convinced of his victory. He used all his weight to lean forward on the weapon gripped in both hands. With each hard metallic creak, fine sparks flew out from the contact point of the three swords.
It was the same scene as her battle with the Yellow Legion’s warrior avatar, but this time, the one on the defensive was clearly Black Lotus. The light of the bluish-purple aura enveloping her sword arms gradually faded and began to flicker irregularly.
Soon, both swords would be cleaved through, and she would take serious damage. Disaster would pounce on her the moment she fell and maul her at will until her HP gauge ran out.
“Why…didn’t she run?” Haruyuki murmured feebly.
It likely wasn’t to protect the immobilized Haruyuki. Because it had been Kuroyukihime herself who initiated the offensive, striking at Chrome Disaster when he was about to go after the Yellow Legion. In other words, Kuroyukihime had chosen to fight that armor, and with absolutely no chance of victory to boot.
Haruyuki knew that this had been their original objective when diving into the Unlimited Neutral Field, but the situation was already very different from what they’d assumed. Takumu was dead and wouldn’t be able to come back for another half an hour at least, and the essential Scarlet Rain was seriously damaged and incapacitated.
So, why? What exactly was she—
“This…this is my place, Haruyuki.” Unexpectedly, her words rang out.
Black Lotus looked up with violet eyes, blazing in the blades pressed within an inch of them, but said in a quiet but profoundly leaden voice, “I have exposed you to something unsightly here. As your teacher…and as your ‘guardian,’ I wouldn’t be able to look you in the eye in the real world if I left things like that.”
Chrome Disaster’s blade was getting closer to her with each passing moment. Haruyuki swallowed his breath and squeezed a trembling plea from his throat.
“P-place? But…if you lose, it won’t…mean anything…”
“You’re misunderstanding. Feed your clever retreats to a dog! There’s no value in things like that! Once you dive into the battlefield…there is only fighting with all your heart, toe-to-toe with whosoever your opponent might be!!” Kuroyukihime’s words, uttered so brazenly on the doorstep of defeat, hit Haruyuki like a hammer.
In his mind, the sense of acceleration that had visited him countless times in battle up to that point returned in a dazzling flash.
That time, just a few minutes earlier, when he’d dodged the protective laser attack in order to take down the jamming avatar. When he’d slipped through the Red King’s fierce antiaircraft barrage. And three months earlier, around the time when he’d just become a Burst Linker and caught Ash Roller’s motorcycle; or when he saw through Cyan Pile’s special attack…
Inside, I wasn’t lusting for victory or frightened of defeat. I was just lost in the battle. Without being aware of anyone’s eyes on me. Right. It wasn’t defeat itself I was afraid of. It was being laughed at by the gallery when I lost. Being compared with Takumu. And I was scared senseless of disappointing her. Not only in the real world, but even in the Accelerated World, all I’ve worried about is how people will see me—What…
“I am such an idiot.” Murmuring, Haruyuki put all his strength into his open right hand, frozen helplessly.
They creaked and groaned in protest, but he managed to clench his fingers tightly.
He raised this fist straight into the air and hit his own cheek as hard as he could. Accompanying the dull sound of the impact, a burning pain ran through his molars. This sensation of scorching heat raced along his entire virtual nervous system, diffusing as a signal to the limbs of his avatar.
He raised his head abruptly. On the northern edge of the crater, Black Lotus was offering her final resistance to the lethal blade. The dull-colored edge was grinding the crossed arms and pushing the backs into her forehead. Scattering sparks illuminated armor pitted with damage.
“Kuroyukihime!” Haruyuki cried. He spread his wings, to which the power had just returned, and threw himself into flight. Gliding at full speed just barely over the bottom of the crevasse, he hit Chrome Disaster’s blind spot and flew up from the crater’s edge.
“Unh…Ooooh!” Haruyuki howled. The punch he’d thrown at the black-silver armor was just barely blocked by an upraised right gauntlet.
But the instant Disaster took one hand off his sword, Kuroyukihime thrust both arms up with a battle cry.
The sword rebounded with a thud, and Chrome Disaster was pushed back several meters. But he maintained his fighting posture, immediately readying his sword low again, the fangs below the hood chattering fiercely.
“Rooo! Roooooo!!” The growl was colored with anger.
His whole body shaking with fear, Haruyuki confronted the beast head-on, keeping Black Lotus behind him. No doubt using every bit of strength she had left, Kuroyukihime had poked one arm into the ground like a cane, but soon she used it as a crutch to stand and took her place to Haruyuki’s left.
“Well, Haruyuki. Now, then, shall we lose with grace?”
Unconsciously, he smiled bitterly and nodded. “Yes, Kuroyukihime.” He crouched, widened his stance, and took a half-baked karate-style pose.
Next to him, Kuroyukihime yanked her swords up in a motion seemingly appropriate to the situation.
A second later, several things happened in succession.
Chrome Disaster raised his sword with a violent roar of rage.
Something glimmered on Haruyuki’s left as he was focused on trying to anticipate the coming slashing attack.
Kuroyukihime’s right arm flashed with exceptional speed, striking Haruyuki hard in the chest with the edge of the blade.
As he was sent helplessly flying in shock, and tumbled along the ground, a wall of crimson light rose up before his eyes.
Only after the terrifyingly large explosion—a detonation that sent him flying a farther ten or so meters—did Haruyuki grasp that this was a beam attack launched to his right from the center of the crater. He instinctively raised both arms to protect himself from the heat and impact wave that surged toward him, but even so, the HP gauge in the upper left of his field of vision was ground away. Upon his attempt to move, an unpleasant metallic scraping came from all over his body.
He was overwhelmed by a wave of anguish so acute it was as if every nerve he had was scorched from the intense heat of the flames, and it took his breath away as he lay there, legs splayed as he had fallen. Unable to even scream, his body convulsing, a raging storm of question marks swirled in his head even as he waited for the pain to recede.
How on earth—The Yellow Legion long-range types should have all retreated. Did they come back and jump into the fight? Even if they did, though, what was that power about? That was no gun. That was art
illery so overwhelming it could have been from the main armament of a tank—no, a battleship!
Propping himself up on his right arm now that the feeling had finally returned to it, Haruyuki wobbled as he raised his torso—
—and saw something falling with a stiff crunch. Deeply cracked, mutilated black armor. It was cruelly scorched, its transparent gloss gone. Of the four swords, the left arm and leg had been split in half, and cracks raced along mirrored goggles in a spiderweb pattern.
“Ku—” Haruyuki groaned hoarsely and dashed forward, forgetting his pain. “Kuroyukihime!!”
When he lifted her up in a daze, black splinters scattered from every part of her body. The completely limp avatar was so light it shocked him, and the bluish-purple sparks crawling around the damaged areas looked almost like blood spilling.
But another heavy metallic sound came from in front of him. Abstractedly lifting his head, he saw the figure of Chrome Disaster kneeling on one knee a short distance off. The destruction there, too, was severe: the black-silver armor was covered in soot and deeply dented in several places. The interior of the hood-shaped helmet had sunk once again into an indefinite darkness, and the broadsword, having perhaps flown off somewhere, was nowhere to be seen.
The damage had even changed the terrain.
New, smaller craters had been dug out of the northern edge of the South Ikebukuro crater, which had served as their battlefield up to that point, and thick smoke rose up from fires twinkling and burning in various places. Apparently, some percentage of the power of the bombardment had escaped to the north, and the buildings had been cut down at the roots, as if a new avenue had been created that cut across Green Street.
Nervously, Haruyuki finally turned his head to the south. He was already half expecting the scene that met his eyes, but he didn’t want to believe it. Even after logically determining that it couldn’t be anything else, his heart strongly rejected this conclusion, and the conflict materialized as tears distorting his vision.
“Why…why, why…Niko?”
The Red Storm Princess Page 19