Cradle of Stars

by Reki Kawahara

  Haruyuki wondered in his heart if that would be the case, but Kuroyukihime actually said it out loud.

  “No, you have one other option. Form an alliance with the five Legions and attack us. In that case, there would be no need to hand over control of Nakano One.”

  “…Nah, I can’t do that.”

  “I’m grateful that you would say that, but, Niko, we have no intention of simply sitting back and accepting charity. In the end, if we aren’t an alliance on equal footing, then setting up shop as a Legion—”

  “It’s not charity!” Making her chair clatter against the floor again, Niko stood up. In the light of the sun coming in through the window behind her, her red hair shone like flames as she looked at Kuroyukihime. “It’d be trouble for me if Suginami ended up Leonids’ or GW territory!”

  “Why?” Though curt, Kuroyukihime somehow had the air of an older sister comforting a younger one as she looked up at Niko.

  “Th-that’s…That’s—it’s…”

  But the instant Kuroyukihime heard what Niko had to say next, her placid look turned to surprise. And because it was enough to surprise the Black King, Haruyuki got such a shock that he nearly flipped over and fell off his chair.

  “That’s ’cause I’m starting at Umesato next year, maybe!” Niko shouted, as if pulling the words from her entire body, her hands clenching into fists.

  “What…Whaaaat?!” Haruyuki shouted.

  Niko glared at him before sitting back down. She drained her glass of the milk left in it in one gulp and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

  It was true that the boarding school where Niko lived now in Nerima Ward was not so far from Umesato Junior High in Suginami. It was probably about twenty minutes by bus one way. But Niko’s school also had a junior high. If she was going to advance to a different junior high, wouldn’t she have to leave the dorms?

  And to begin with, why Umesato? It was an academic school at any rate, but there were schools of the same level in Nerima, too. If it was because she wanted to go to the same school as Haruyuki, Chiyuri, and Takumu, then he was just plain happy. But at the same time, he felt like Niko—the proud Red King—would not decide on her future based on such emotion alone.

  Haruyuki hesitated about whether it was okay for him to ask about this and the several other questions on his mind.

  But as if she could read his mind, Niko glared at Haruyuki and let out a sigh before she started to speak. “This’ll be a loooong story. So the place I go now, the abandoned-child general-welfare facility and school, has this thing kinda like a scholarship system. Like, they give a few students with top grades a chance to go to a junior high outside the system.”

  “Top grades?!” said Kuroyukihime.

  “A few students?!” cried Haruyuki.

  For a moment, Niko started to bristle, pigtails swinging, but then she simply snorted, and her expression returned to normal. “Yup. And I’ll tell ya now, I’m not cheating or nothing with acceleration. So, well, I’m in that box or whatever this year. And it’s about time I decide what I’m gonna do. Give up on an outside school and go to our junior high or go to an outside school. I can’t decide just like that, so I talked to Pard, y’know? And, like, she thought about it for a second before she said I should go to Umesato.”

  “P-Pard suggested it?” he asked.

  “Yeah. I guess she’s been thinking about all kinds of stuff since we went to your festival last week. Said, like, there aren’t too many places where they leave students so much independence in junior high.”

  “Student independence…Umesato…?” Haruyuki cocked his head deeply to one side.

  Naturally, he’d never compared it to other schools, but Umesato didn’t give the impression of a particularly lenient school tradition. They gave loads of homework, and if students did anything bad, the administration was on them in a hot second. Like when Dusk Taker, aka Seiji Nomi, hid a small camera in the girls’ shower room and tried to get Haruyuki to take the fall, there was an emergency notice that entry into the gym itself was prohibited, which caused a huge commotion.

  But opposite the confused Haruyuki, Kuroyukihime nodded, her expression unchanged. “Well, that is our school’s greatest advantage, its fundamental charm. It seems that Haruyuki doesn’t feel the reality of this, but there aren’t that many schools where you can freely use Neurolinkers and the net like you can at Umesato. There are plenty of schools that forbid full dives on school grounds.”

  “Totally forbidden at our junior high, too,” Niko added. “Pard’s struggled a lot ’cause of that.”

  Haruyuki looked at her and nodded. “So if your school forbids full dives, that means all kinds of hassle as a Burst Linker?”

  “Nah!” Niko shouted loudly, before seeming to blush a bit. “Well, that’s one reason, but it’s a super-small one! It’s like, I dunno, I’ve never felt this before, either, but the atmosphere at Umesato’s loose somehow. And I mean that as praise, okay? I mean, look. I’m gonna be real with ya for a sec, Haruyuki; I went and looked at all these junior highs in Suginami. And I felt like all the private academic schools were so tense inside the school everywhere, but there wasn’t so much of that at Umesato.”

  “The reason for that is no doubt because there is a place the students can escape to if need be,” Kuroyukihime remarked, and Haruyuki’s eyes flew open.

  For once, he could understand what she meant right away. When he was in seventh grade, he had fled there at every school break, after all. “The in-school local net…right? But I mean, other schools have a local net, at least?”

  “They may, but few schools have a VR space on it for student use. Umesato’s parent company is a private corporation, and it seems they’re collecting data for a model scenario of education using Neurolinkers. Well, regardless of that kind of behind-the-scenes information, they were not mistaken in the idea that this space where you can chat and play games using whatever avatar you’d like would be a place for relaxation for students.”

  “Right. It’s true; on the local net, everyone, like, stretches their wings. It looks like they’re having fun, although I haven’t actually been in a while.”

  “Isn’t that because you found a place even better than the local net?” Kuroyukihime noted with a faint smile. “A place called the Accelerated World?”

  He nodded that this was indeed the case. If he hadn’t become a Burst Linker, and even if he was no longer being bullied by Araya and his gang, Haruyuki would no doubt still be fleeing to the local net during lunch even now. “So in that sense, is the Accelerated World a shelter for me to escape from the real world?”

  “It’s not just you,” Niko replied. “It’s the same for Kuroyuki and me and all the other Burst Linkers. But it’s not just that. I mean, we can find the courage we need to move forward there without running away. And it’s not given to us from outside; it’s in us. So even if you lose all yer points an’ Brain Burst an’ the power of acceleration, even when you don’t even remember you used to be a Burst Linker, something from that place stays in your heart. Absolutely. That’s what I think.”

  “…Niko.” All Haruyuki could do was say the name of his younger friend, as her words surprised him and impacted his heart. There was plenty he wanted to say, but he couldn’t easily put any of it into words, and he was stuck just chewing on his lip.

  Niko grinned, a smile that made her seem younger than her years. “I said the same thing at the school festival, but, like…I’ve been terrified of total point loss. I’m no Originator, no Pure Color, so, like, I was sure someone’d come hunt me one of these days…But Kuroyuki gave me that message from my prede—from Red Rider, right? I had this thought—wait, no, I knew. Like, I was super-small, y’know?”

  He suddenly noticed it was already past five in the afternoon, and the color of the sunlight pouring in through the south windows had grown quite saturated. The water droplets on the surface of the cherries still left in the bowl glittered in the sunlight.

  “I…
I was only about me.” The droplets shivered a little at Niko’s voice dipping. “Like, I gotta be tough, or they’ll take my territory. Or my Legion members’ll leave. I’ve only been thinking about stuff like that, hiding my own weakness and fear. But, like, what that all really boils down to is that I don’t actually trust my comrades…My predecessor, like, he said he’d leave the rest to me, yeah? The way he could trust someone else entirely, get me to take over this thing he’s been building up—that’s gotta be real strength…”

  “…Niko…” Haruyuki took a deep breath. “There’s nothing that says a Legion Master can’t show weakness. You need to rely on your comrades when stuff gets hard or painful. Before master or king or whatever, we’re all Burst Linkers, after all. I mean, I’ve even witnessed Kuroyukihime cry—”

  Thmp.

  The merciless pressure of a foot under the table rendered Haruyuki silent, and Kuroyukihime started to speak in his place.

  “Everyone’s afraid of total point loss. And I was so afraid of a concentrated attack by the kings that I didn’t connect globally for two years. My Legion was disbanded, and I even gave up on reaching level ten; I had nothing left to protect…And yet I clung to the fact that I was a Burst Linker in an ugly way. When I think about it now, I can’t even remember what made me do that…Ohhh…right…”

  Apparently realizing something, Kuroyukihime released a faint smile.

  “And perhaps that was thanks to the Umesato local net, as well. I felt that as long as I had that small virtual world, someone would certainly appear one day and lift me out of the deep darkness. And my premonition was correct.”

  Her right foot still pressing on him lightly, she turned her black eyes directly on Haruyuki, and he pulled into himself, suddenly self-conscious. But unable to escape from the swordmaster’s gaze, he silently accepted it.

  “Look, missy, I was here first today!” Niko shouted with a hint of exasperation. “Fine. While you two are makin’ googly eyes at each other, I’m gonna eat the rest of the cherries!” She drew the glass bowl toward herself.

  “Hey!” Instantly, Kuroyukihime released Haruyuki mentally and physically and reached out her own hand. “You can’t have them all!”

  The few remaining cherries were gone in a flash, and the glasses of milk were also emptied.

  Letting out a sigh, Niko leaned back all the way against the dining room chair and said with satisfaction, “Thanks for the grub. I wish Pard coulda had some…She’s looking for some good cherries to put on top of the limited-time-only fresh cherry tart.”

  “She is?” Haruyuki replied. “Then take some for her when you go home tomorrow.”

  “Really?! Hey, thanks.” She bowed her head before continuing with a placid look. “So like, about the reason Pard suggested going to your school. Of course, the local net’s got plenty of functionality, and the school festival was super-fun—there’s all that, but…It’s like, I feel like she’s looking further ahead, y’know? Like, what do I want the me in the real world and the me in the Accelerated World to be from now on? Like, maybe she’s thinking it’d be good for me to go to Umesato so I can really think about that for the next three years. Well, that’s just what I’m picturing, so.”

  What Niko was saying was too abstract, and Haruyuki couldn’t immediately grasp it.

  “In the real world…from now on”— Did she mean what school to go to? Haruyuki was in eighth grade right now, but to be honest, he had only thought about his future education once. And that was when a slightly impractical, slightly dependent hope rose up in his heart: the idea of going to the same high school as Kuroyukihime.

  In the Accelerated World, he had a clearer objective. Defeat the Acceleration Research Society and the White Legion, attack the Castle and the Shrine of the Eight Divines, and challenge the Blue, Green, Yellow, and Purple Kings to a decisive battle. But this, too, when he thought about it, was really just chasing after Kuroyukihime and her fight to reach level ten.

  But that’s fine. I already decided I’d follow her anywhere.

  Now it was Haruyuki who turned his gaze on Kuroyukihime, and she returned the look, her jet-black pupils shining with a bright light that seemed to illuminate everything. Just as they were on the verge of reactivating googly-eyed mode, Niko purposely cleared her throat and poured cold water on the mood.

  “Anyway! It’s not like it’s all settled yet, so just be ready for the possibility, yeah? If I decide on Umesato in the end, we’ll need to upgrade the treaty, so I’ll meet with the executives again then.”

  When she said it all so smoothly like that, Haruyuki wondered if it was really worth all this fuss, but he simply nodded. Kuroyukihime, as always, did not immediately reply but made a show of thinking for a minute before turning back toward the Red King.

  “Niko. Before, you touched on the responsibility of a Legion Master. In other words…may I assume that the option of coming to Umesato is not unrelated to that?”

  This time, for sure, the question was completely incomprehensible to Haruyuki.

  And at the meeting, too, Kuroyukihime had a mysterious conversation with the Green King, huh…?

  In the brief instant that Haruyuki started to think about this, Niko nodded forcefully.

  “Yeah, I don’t care if you take it like that.”

  “Understood. Well then, I shall do just that. As to who will do what, let us talk about it again someday.” Nodding in return, Kuroyukihime looked at Haruyuki with a faint smile. “Haruyuki, apologies, but we’ve talked a great deal, and now my throat is dry. I’d love it if you could make some tea.”

  “Big Brother, I want milk tea! Not too bitter, ’kay?” Niko suddenly switched to angel mode, and he had the feeling that he was failing to ask something important of that innocent smile as he got to his feet.

  “Is black tea all right for you, too, Kuroyukihime?”

  “Mm. The same as Niko will be fine. Oh! But no sugar.”

  “…Me neither!”

  “You’re still in elementary. No need to force yourself.”

  “A-and I’m telling ya, I don’t need sugar!”

  Listening to the two girls argue, Haruyuki set the three empty glasses and glass bowl on the tray. He then went to collect the small plates and their piles of cherry pits and stems.

  “Oh, right,” Niko began. “Hey, Haruyuki? If you buried these seeds in a pot, would they grow?”

  Haruyuki nodded his head at a slight angle. “Yeah, I wanted to do that, too, way back when, so I did some research—tried all kinds of stuff. Long story short, it’s not impossible, but it’s pretty hard.”

  “Oh? So then how do they grow the cherry trees at your grandfather’s farm?” Kuroyukihime asked with honest interest.

  “Please hang on a second. I’ll go put on the tea first,” Haruyuki replied, returning to the kitchen at a trot.

  He pulled some mineral water from the fridge and poured some into the kettle before placing it on the induction cooktop burner and setting it to high-speed boil mode. He was in a hurry, so rather than tea leaves, he put tea bags—albeit expensive ones that his mother loved—into a teapot and washed the bowl and glasses while the water was boiling. The dishes were processed with nanotechnological super-water-repellent treatment, and the water droplets would fly off with just a light shake, so he returned them to the cupboard.

  He carefully poured the boiling water into the teapot and then quickly laid out cups, saucers, and spoons for three, a jug full of milk, and a sugar pot—just in case—before returning to the table.

  “Sorry for the wait,” he said as he began setting the table.

  “You’ve gotten much more adept at household chores, too, haven’t you, Haruyuki?” Kuroyukihime commented with a smile.

  “Huh? H-have I? Lately, I’ve been doing what I can by myself, but I still can’t make a proper meal, not even close.”

  Now it was Niko’s turn to laugh. “But that curry you guys made me before was pretty tasty. And Pard seemed to like it, too.”

&n
bsp; “All I did was peel the potatoes. The main part of the cooking was basically done by Chiyuri and Shinomiya…”

  “Huh. So then I wonder what ’Ro did.”

  “I—I cut the peppers, I’ll have you know! Chopped up this red one like a certain long-distance type!”

  Haruyuki finished laying out the tea set and cleared his throat to get their attention. “Um, so then, about the cherry seeds…”

  “Oh, that, right. How d’they do it on the farm?” Niko asked.

  “With production agriculture, they buy seedlings and do grafting, too. The germination rate for edible cherries is pretty low…But I guess it’s not like it’s totally impossible.”

  “Oh? Is there a trick to it, perhaps?”

  “Right…” Haruyuki picked up one of the yellowish-brown seeds from a small plate he’d left on the table. “What I tried before was after I washed the seeds really well, I kept them in the fridge for a while so they wouldn’t dry out and then planted the ones that grew a root in soil. That was basically it, but only a few got roots, and even after I planted them, they didn’t get all the way to germinating. Maybe the soil didn’t agree with them.”

  “Hmm. But you managed to get as far as a root,” Niko said, slamming a fist into her open hand. “Awright! Let’s do it now!”

  “Huh?”

  “Mm.” Kuroyukihime nodded. “Prompt decisions and immediate action is the Nega Nebulus motto, after all.”

  “N-no, I can keep them in the fridge, but…where would you plant them after that?” Haruyuki asked.

  “Now you’re thinking too far ahead, hmm? First, we wash them, yes? I’m just going to borrow your kitchen.” Displaying an impatience on par with Pard, Kuroyukihime moved to stand up with the small plate.