Cradle of Stars

by Reki Kawahara

  “So far, we’ve always been a step behind in responding to the Society, always cleaning up the mess.” Her large eye lenses shone brightly. “This time, we can’t just sit around waiting for them to do something.”

  “But it’s not as though they have a territory or anything like that, is it?” Of course, it was the Yellow King butting in. “It’s all fine and good to strike a blow in advance, but exactly where do you propose we strike?”

  “What I’m tryin’ to say is we gotta be united here at least in the intention to strike at all. If we crack the headquarters of the Acceleration Research Society, then we attack with the combined power of the Seven Kings assembled here. We charge in without giving ’em the time to disappear from the matching list, and we take whatever points we can. Any Legion that doesn’t take part in the mission’ll be seen as collaborating with the Society.”

  This impressive statement from Niko caused the executive attendants of each king to murmur quietly. Even Yellow Radio fell silent as though daunted.

  It was extreme, but what she was saying made sense. And more importantly, it would put at least a small amount of pressure on Ivory Tower and the White Legion. If they could present some kind of definitive proof that Eternal Girls’ Academy—EG—was the Society’s base, then the White Legion would be forced to make a critical decision.

  “It seems that as a king, she’s finally taking off her kid gloves,” Fuko murmured.

  “Yeah.” Haruyuki nodded slightly. “I think Rain’s only going to get stronger from now on.”

  “You can’t slack off, either, Corvus.”

  “R-right.” He shrank into himself, nodding.

  “The Red King makes a sound argument.” Blue Knight’s firm voice echoed through the meeting area. “If we agree on a policy for the seven Legions here, then we’ll be able to move quickly when the time comes. Of course, I don’t think any of us are colluding with the Society, but I’ll ask anyway. Is anyone opposed to this proposal?”

  Before the Blue King was finished speaking, Haruyuki caught himself staring intently at Ivory Tower. Although he had been evasive like wisping smoke over and over in the meeting, for once, he did not raise his hand. Purple Thorn, Yellow Radio, and Green Grandé also maintained their silence.

  Looking around the meeting venue, Blue Knight stood up forcefully, his heavy armor clanking. “Well then, we adopt the Red King’s proposal. The moment the Acceleration Research Society’s base is identified, we will immediately put together a team from all seven Legions and carry out a concentrated attack. And we’ll have as many high-level members take part in the attack as possible. By the way, I will be one of the Leonids’ members.”

  The moment they heard this, the Blade sisters on standby behind him called out in a panic.

  “K-King!”

  “That’s…!”

  “I have to. You can only challenge the same opponent once a day. That’s the rule. We don’t know how many points they’ve accumulated, but we have to get in as many wins as we can if we want to push them to total point loss.”

  That was the hard truth. At level eight, Black Vise and Argon Array were high rankers, and they might have a store of a thousand or two Burst Points. It was unrealistic to think that even a concentrated attack could push them to total point loss in one go, but when it came to the level-six Rust Jigsaw or Sulfur Pot, who Kuroyukihime encountered in Okinawa…

  Haruyuki wondered about it, and then a single name popped up in the back of his mind once again.

  Wolfram Cerberus.

  Ever since his first appearance in the Accelerated World, he had been hailed as the most powerful level one, taking the crown from Aqua Current. But in their fight last week, he had jumped up to level five in one go so he could dive into the Unlimited Neutral Field. And that wasn’t all. He had told Haruyuki that he wanted him to strike the final blow against him so he could escape the control of the Society forever. And to that end, he had pushed his remaining Burst Points down to a mere ten.

  After that, Cerberus was assimilated into the Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II, and then disappeared from the Unlimited Neutral Field through a forced disconnect. He had not appeared once since then, but Haruyuki believed he continued to be a Burst Linker.

  At the same time, he couldn’t believe it would be so easy for Cerberus to replenish his points when they’d been on the verge of depleting entirely. Outside of Nega Nebulus, only Niko and Pard knew Cerberus was a Burst Linker produced by the Acceleration Research Society and their Mental Scar Shell theory. But if the other Legions found out, and he was made a target in the joint operation they’d only just decided on, he would face total point loss in just a few defeats.

  But even before that, Cerberus still had Invincible’s thrusters, which contained a vast negative energy. Most likely, he would be dealing with ISS-kit-type mental interference or something even more powerful; if they didn’t hurry to purify and dismantle the Enhanced Armament, there was the risk of the negative effect influencing even his real personality.

  Where are you, Cerberus? Haruyuki called out from deep in his heart, looking up at the sky of the duel stage.

  The stage type was Steel. The ground of their meeting venue, the east gardens of the Imperial Palace in the Chiyoda Ward, was covered in steel plates, and the trees had also transformed into reddish-brown steel frames; there was nothing charming about it. The sky alone, however, was beautiful. Several cirrus clouds drifted along a backdrop of transparent blue.

  If he went to the Highest Level once again, he might be able to find Cerberus—but Haruyuki banished the thought almost as soon as he’d had it. No matter how infinite the perception offered by that level, it still didn’t help you find someone in the real world.

  And if the Accelerated World and the real world became one; if that fusion could become the kind of world where they were all Burst Linkers, the duel was just a fun and thrilling game, and no one lost all their points or anything, no hatred was born…then he could go see Cerberus right away, as well as always be with Metatron…

  His mind spinning these outrageous thoughts, Haruyuki unconsciously clasped the small icon on his shoulder with one hand and placed his other hand over that, bringing the tiny Being in front of his chest.

  “Come now!” Immediately, a harsh voice bounced through his brain. “How many times must I tell you that a servant does not touch his master so freely?!”

  “Oh! Uh! I—!” Even as he panicked, he realized that if he let go, Metatron might fly up and draw the attention of the other Legions, so he defended himself in his mind, still hanging on tightly. “Y-you were so quiet, I thought maybe you froze…”

  “Froze? Even if I was in the field attribution W04—what you call the Ice stage—I would not freeze.”

  “R-right. Then why were you so quiet? What were you thinking about?”

  “I was exasperated at the deep inefficiency of the decision process of you little warriors. If this ‘akksellorashon society’ or what have you is what made that repulsive pseudo-Being, then rather than wasting time talking, you should go right away and crush them in their castle.”

  “I-it’s not actually that simple. Unless we have some definite proof that that school is their base, we won’t be able to convince the other kings.”

  “To begin with, I do not like this naming of ‘king.’ They could not so much as scratch my first form by themselves, and yet they call themselves kings. It’s absurd. And that black one you call a ‘parent’ is no exception to this.”

  “Gah! Y-y-you can stop right there!”

  His conversation with Metatron was happening telepathically, but Kuroyukihime had an incomprehensibly superpowered intuition when it came to herself, and he wasn’t certain she wouldn’t be able to actually pick up on thoughts, too. Haruyuki stared at the Black King’s back a mere two meters ahead of him and pulled the 3-D icon even more firmly to his chest.

  Curiously, it was Fuko, rather than Kuroyukihime, who glanced over at him this time and murmured, �
�Corvus, this has been bothering me since before the meeting started, but…what exactly is that white bug thing?”

  “Bug! Such insolence!” The angry voice screeched in his mind. Metatron threatened to leap out of his hands, but he desperately pushed her back.

  “Oh! Uh, this is like a pet or like an option or, uh.”

  “Mm-hmm. And where did you find it?”

  “Um, uhhh…”

  At the meeting after the battle a week earlier, he had gone over every detail of how the Legend-class Enemy Archangel Metatron had saved him and how she had been extinguished defending against the nihilistic attack of the Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II.

  However, he missed his chance to tell his friends about how Metatron later miraculously recovered, and now seven days had passed.

  There were two reasons he hadn’t found the right time to tell them. The first was that, since finals were coming up, there hadn’t been a chance for them all to meet. And the second was that he didn’t want to think about what would happen when the recovered Metatron and the Legion members—Kuroyukihime, in particular—met one another.

  Kuroyukihime was Haruyuki’s parent and Legion Master. And Metatron was the “master” who called Haruyuki “servant.” When you added his “teacher” Fuko into the mix, the meeting would definitely be extremely frightening…

  “All right then. Is that it for today?”

  The Blue King’s voice pulled Haruyuki’s mind back to the meeting venue. Fortunately, Fuko had also suspended her questioning and turned back toward the center.

  It wasn’t as though he had been paying zero attention whatsoever. He had definitely been paying attention to the kings’ conversation, and after they decided on the attack policy for the Acceleration Research Society, the discussion had continued with items not directly related to Nega Nebulus, such as the exchange of information regarding the finer revisions to the six-Legion mutual nonaggression treaty, and questions about why the Space stage hadn’t appeared yet, despite rumors of its introduction in July.

  Krsh. With a heavy step, the Seven Kings stood all at once. The Blue King, the meeting chair, opened his mouth again.

  “Once the Acceleration Research Society headquarters is discovered, I’ll send out the call for the next meeting. If we determine the information to be correct, we will plan and execute an attack immediately. My hope is that we’ll be able to beat them down before they start moving on their next conspiracy.”

  “Permission to confirm one final thing,” Kuroyukihime said.

  The Blue King inclined his head slightly. “What is it, Lotus?”

  “Knight, you just said ‘if the information is determined to be correct,’ but on what basis do you intend to decide that?”

  “My thinking there’s quite simple. It’s not like those Society folks could keep their Neurolinkers constantly disconnected from the global net, right? So then, their names should show up on the matching list in the area where their base is. Once we get any information, we dispatch a scouting party and check the list. If we see the names Black Vise or Rust Jigsaw or whoever else on it, then that means the information is correct.”

  “…Mm. Understood.” Kuroyukihime nodded.

  “Lotus, stop launching attacks on your own, all right?” Purple Thorn sounded kind somehow as she leaned on her long staff. “If you lose all your points somewhere I can’t reach you, I shall be very sad.”

  “I accept the warning with gratitude, Thorn,” Kuroyukihime responded curtly, taking a step back, her feet ringing against the steel plates of the ground.

  At this signal, Yellow Radio gave a silent-yet-theatrical thank-you before retreating swiftly with the girl riding the ball. Next, the Purple and Blue Kings walked away together with their respective subordinates, and the Red King and Blood Leopard also gave Haruyuki and his comrades a small signal as they left. Shifting his gaze, he saw that Ivory Tower’s seat had emptied at some point, and with that, the only ones left were the three members of Nega Nebulus and the two members of Great Wall.

  Eventually, the Green King, Green Grandé, silent throughout the meeting again that day, turned his massive body, his emerald-green armor clanking heavily, and looked straight down at Haruyuki, a sharp light in his eye lenses.

  It felt like it had happened a hundred years ago, but just over two weeks earlier, Haruyuki had encountered the Green King on the roof of Roppongi Hills Tower. At the time, Grandé had told Haruyuki the following: In addition to this world, Brain Burst 2039, there had been two other, very similar worlds, Accel Assault 2038 and Cosmos Corrupt 2040. But both had been abandoned for some reason.

  Metatron had also used the same names when they were on the Highest Level. She had also said that the Green King, who had taught Haruyuki about the existence of the two other worlds, had perhaps visited the Highest Level.

  What exactly was Metatron feeling now, observing Grandé as she was clasped in front of Haruyuki? Until seconds earlier, she had been fervently vibrating her wings to try to fly out of his hands, but at some point, that movement had stopped completely.

  The one who broke the solemn silence was the figure of an iron boxer avatar that appeared from behind Grandé, the third seat of Great Wall’s Six Armors, Fists of Steel, Iron Pound. He lightly raised a right fist encased in a lustrous glove and began speaking in a surprisingly friendly tone.

  “Hey, good to see ya, Silver Crow. I was the one who asked you to get the Theoretical Mirror ability, but I never dreamed you’d actually do it, much less that you’d take out the Metatron with it.”

  “N-no, I just reflected the laser, so…” And what Haruyuki had obtained was not the Theoretical Mirror that Mirror Masker, Ardor Maiden’s parent, had produced, but the similar Optical Conduction ability. However, they’d decided to keep that out of today’s meeting.

  “Just reflecting it’s amazing. I mean, our LM’s Arc plus Incarnate defense could only last a maximum of five seconds. Boss, don’t you have something to say to Crow?”

  “……”

  “He says he’s got nothing. So then, I’ll just cut straight to the chase. ’Cause we don’t know when Coba and Manga are going to close the stage.” Pound glanced around and checked that the other Legion members were all gone before continuing in a low voice, “We’re pretty much fine with the matter in question.”

  “Huh? The matter…Which is what again?” Haruyuki cocked his head to one side, and Fuko to his right and Kuroyukihime to his left reached out and yanked him back.

  “‘Pretty much’?” Fuko asked. “Does that mean you have some conditions, Fisty?”

  Making a face at the playful nickname, Pound nodded. “Well, I guess it does. Our Viri—the second seat of the Six Armors, Viridian Decurion—wouldn’t budge. We’ll have the talk take place in Shibuya Two.”

  Now Haruyuki finally remembered. A week ago, at the meeting after the long and difficult battle, Fuko had ordered Ash Roller to set up a meeting with Grandé. And soon.

  She would leave the place up to him but would prefer a neutral area. At the time, Ash had thought it was absurd and excessive, but he had apparently carried out the order. But of course, it seemed they wouldn’t be able to draw the king out of his territory.

  Fuko exchanged a momentary glance with Kuroyukihime before tossing her long, shining silver hair, like liquid metal, and nodded. “That’s fine. But as the bare minimum precautionary measures, could we perhaps have everyone except those taking part cut their global connection for ten minutes before and after the meeting?”

  This time, Pound glanced up at Grandé, and despite the fact that the Green King did not so much as twitch, the smaller avatar quickly assented. “Should be all right. As for the meeting, we’ll do it like this one, Gallery style. Viri and I will be the starters. And if anyone on your side jumps one of our members, even as a stupid accident, that’ll be the end of the meeting. And if by any chance Boss gets jumped, that’ll be all-out war right then and there.”

  “Understood.” Fuko seemed unmoved by P
ound’s threatening tone. “As for the number of attendees, we are planning a maximum of seven.”

  “Then we’ll go along with that, too. What about a date and time?”

  “How about next Sunday, July fourteenth, at three in the afternoon?”

  “Got it. Don’t be late.”

  “Strong Arm” Sky Raker and “Fists of Iron” Iron Pound finished the negotiations in the blink of an eye and turned their gazes back to their respective Legion Masters.

  It was then that Kuroyukihime, who had up to that point been silently looking up at the Green King, surprised him by saying, “Grandé. Do you remember our conversation two years and eleven months ago?”

  “Of course.” After a brief pause, a solemn voice deep enough to shake the thick steel plates covering the ground of the stage came from the Green King’s face mask.

  “You do? Then…the time to choose will come soon.”

  Haruyuki wondered what she could possibly mean as Kuroyukihime silently turned on her heel. Fuko also started to walk away behind her, waving lightly to the two green members.

  “Uh, um, excuse me.” Haruyuki dipped his head and then chased after them. He wanted to ask what exactly the “time to choose” was, but the slim back of the Black King was filled with a crisp resolve, making him hesitate to call out to her.

  When they started to descend from the meeting venue of Edo Castle’s inner citadel toward Kikyoumon Gate, Metatron, still wrapped in Haruyuki’s hands, murmured, “That little green warrior is also very interesting, in a different sense from the white one.”

  “Huh…How so?”

  “He has just a tiny bit of the same scent as us Beings.”

  “So what…does that mean…?” Cocking his head, Haruyuki glanced back over his shoulder, but the reddish-brown iron skeletons obstructed his view, and he couldn’t catch sight of the Green King.

  2

  Even after Fuko pulled out of the parking lot at Kitanomaru Park and started driving down Yasukuni Street, Kuroyukihime remained consumed by silence in the passenger seat.