But it wasn’t as though they had the time for him to train and try for the mirror ability again if he did fail. And even if he did deflect Niko’s lasers, that wasn’t proof he could do the same thing with Metatron’s. With things where they were now, Haruyuki was better off believing, rather than doubting.
In himself. And in Chiyuri and Utai and his precious friends who had given everything they had to helping him obtain his current abilities.
The trailer passed the northern side of the Diet and pulled onto Yasukuni Street from a back road. Soon enough, he could see the large guardrails on the north side of Shinjuku Station. The massive armored vehicle made the earth shake as it approached the underpass to slip below the overhead bridge of the Yamanote train line.
“…Ah, crap.” Niko’s voice came suddenly from the speaker.
“State the nature of your ‘crap,’ Red King,” Kuroyukihime immediately replied.
“Nah, I was just thinking it’s gonna be a tight squeeze here. And by tight, I mean for you guys up on top.”
“…”
They all fell silent and stared doubtfully at the guardrails rapidly drawing near. Indeed, given the distance from the road to the bridge, it seemed the vehicle would clear it somehow, just barely, but any way they looked at it, the heads of the seven passengers on the roof would slam into the steel frame—and that likely wouldn’t be the only hit they took.
“C-come on! Now that you’ve realized that, you can just stop, can’t you?!” Kuroyukihime’s voice was strained now that she understood the situation, but the vehicle’s twelve spinning wheels showed no signs of slackening.
“Nah, the thing about that, see, this thing doesn’t have any brakes.” Niko’s reply was nonchalant over the roar of the trailer’s engine.
“Wh…wh…what?!”
“So, like, Lotus, I’mma let you handle this. Over an’ out.”
“Not ‘over and out’! A car without any brakes, I mean, that’s like…Aaah…” Apparently, Kuroyukihime couldn’t immediately come up with a suitable analogy.
Beside her, Fuko casually remarked from her wheelchair, “They say love is like a car without brakes, but the opposite metaphor is difficult, hmm?”
“…How can you be so utterly relaxed, Raker?”
“Oh my, when push comes to shove, I do have Gale Thruster, after all.”
“Th-that’s not really fair!”
Haruyuki’s heart raced as he listened to this conversation between Legion Master and Submaster, and he realized, Oh, I can fly. So NP. But he really shouldn’t escape into the sky on his own.
The trailer started down the hill directly in front of the steel bridge, picking up even more speed.
Then came a firm voice: “Please leave it to me, Master!”
Cyan Pile—Takumu—his body wrapped in heavy indigo-blue armor, took a few steps forward. He readied the Enhanced Armament of his right arm, Pile Driver, as he shouted, “I figured something like this might happen, so I made sure to fully charge my special-attack gauge! Here we go! Lightning Cyan Spike!!”
The steel spike poking out of the barrel of the Enhanced Armament became a pale-blue lance of light and shot forward in a straight line. The superheated plasma instantly ripped through the rust-covered steel of the overhead bridge, gouging out a hole about ten centimeters wide before disappearing into the eastern Shinjuku sky.
And that was it. The bridge continued to exist in front of them, not destroyed nor flying through the air. Lightning Cyan Spike, a level-four special attack, was a powerful technique with both piercing and heat characteristics, but because the force was concentrated in one spot, when it struck a sparse object, the majority of the energy plunged out to the rear, which made it not so useful for large-scale destruction.
Or so Haruyuki suspected.
As he built his mental hypothesis, his friend Takumu stood rooted to the spot, astonished, and Chiyuri patted his arm consolingly.
A few seconds later, Kuroyukihime nodded deeply. “No, well, we mustn’t waste Pile’s efforts,” she intoned solemnly. “Leave the rest to me.” Arms still crossed, she moved to the very front of the trailer, switched places with Pard encamped there, and smoothly raised the sword of her right leg. The distance to the bridge was a mere five—three—meters…
“Death by Barraging.”
At the same time as she voiced the technique name, the Black King’s right leg transformed into a conical shadow. It hadn’t lost its physical substance; it was just kicking outward repeatedly at incredible speed. Even Haruyuki’s eyes couldn’t completely capture the multiple blows—reaching a hundred hits in an instant.
The trailer cockpit charged into the overhead bridge, the edges scraping along the metal, sending sparks flying. On the verge of smashing into Kuroyukihime, the girder broke up into innumerable metallic fragments that shot off to both sides. Black Lotus’s leg dug farther into the steel bridge, opening up the hole Cyan Pile had gouged out. Haruyuki expected it to be noisier, with more sparks; it was like she was cutting through craft paper rather than metal.
With the Black King transformed into a boring machine, Pard crouched down behind her, and so the others also hurried to their knees all in a line (Fuko stayed in her wheelchair). In less than three seconds, the tank had passed through and come out onto the east side of the Yamanote Line.
In the rear, Haruyuki looked back to see that a large hole, around a meter and a half wide, had been gouged out of the steel bridge.
“’Ro’s footwork is as frightening as ever,” Utai noted coolly from her place crouched down in front of him.
“And her handiwork’s plenty scary, too,” Haruyuki added quietly.
Kuroyukihime brought her right leg down smoothly and headed back to the center of the vehicle roof.
“Mmm,” she directed at a slightly glum-looking Takumu after clearing her throat. “…Pile, don’t get so down. I was the one who told you to extend your powers in line with your avatar characteristics, after all. I know there’ll be a situation when you save us all with your technique’s piercing ability.”
“Y…yes, I understand that. But lately, I’ve been thinking it might be a good idea to expand the breadth of my attack abilities a little…”
“A difficult problem,” Fuko added gently. She moved her wheelchair forward a little and continued from Kuroyukihime’s side. “Which should you aim for: all-rounder or specialist? This is a topic that has been debated since the earliest days of the Accelerated World, and in the more than seven years that have passed since then, no one has come up with an answer. Or I suppose, to be more precise, I should say the answer is different for each Legion. Our policy in Nega Nebulus is ‘If you can’t decide, specialize!’ but there are many all-purpose avatars in Aurora Oval and CCC. And Prominence’s policy is?”
“Specialize and specialize some more, o’course!”
All present nodded at Niko’s excited voice coming through the speaker. The Red King, Scarlet Rain, was basically a classic example of an avatar hyper-specialized in long-distance firepower. Her deputy Blood Leopard, seated at the front of the trailer, was also specialized in agility and biting attacks, even though she was a red type.
“Ooh! I’ve got a question!” Now it was Chiyuri raising her hand. “But, like, if you get too specialized, don’t you have zero hope of winning sometimes when you get dragged into a stage you’re not compatible with? I mean, an extreme example would be, like, an avatar specialized in fire attacks not being able to do anything in an Ocean stage since all the fighting’s in the water. So I was just kinda wondering about that, too, you know?”
“Normally, that would be exactly right.” Smiling, Fuko readily agreed with Chiyuri. She turned her eyes toward Utai, standing next to Haruyuki. “For instance, Ardor Maiden is the duel avatar in Nega Nebulus most specialized in long-distance firepower. But it can hardly be said that she is compatible with a water-type stage, because her main weapon, the flame arrow, disappears in a heavy rain, much less in the middle of an oc
ean. Maiden must have also hit a wall of her own around level four or five. Isn’t that right, Mei?”
Utai bobbed her head up and down. Perhaps because of the attention suddenly focused on her, she shrank into herself, embarrassed.
“…But Maiden didn’t seek out some power of a different affinity.” Warm eyes still fixed upon the small shrine maiden, the sky-blue avatar told the story: “She instead intently refined her own abilities. And then her duel avatar responded to that intent. Mei, the most powerful flames you can produce now—with a normal special attack, of course—how far can they penetrate in the sea of an Ocean stage?”
“Um…probably around thirty meters, I guess,” Utai responded bashfully, and the three junior members of the group—Haruyuki, Takumu, and Chiyuri—opened their eyes wide in surprise.
“…Maiden,” Takumu said after a minute or two, incredulous. “So then a fire attack you launch in the water will travel thirty meters without disappearing?”
Utai only bobbed her head silently, so Kuroyukihime spoke on her behalf:
“I remember it being about half that range, when I saw it way back when. So you’ve kept working on it since then, Maiden? Those flames charging through the ocean, churning the water into a white foam, that was really beautiful.”
“Wow! I want to see it, too!” Chiyuri cried out in delight. “Maybe the next Change will be an Ocean stage!”
“Whoa! ” Niko shouted roughly from the cockpit. “Careful what you wish for there! My tank’ll sink to the bottom!”
“NP. Just develop a battleship mode,” Pard retorted, and everyone burst into bright laughter.
“I understand, Master. Raker.” Takumu nodded deeply once the giggles had subsided. “In short, it’s a matter of how much faith you have in your duel avatar. My mind produced Cyan Pile here, and no matter what happens, I’m going to believe in this guy…Though I also have an important promise to keep with Haru.”
Takumu turned to Silver Crow at this last note, and Haruyuki heard his intent loud and clear.
Five days earlier in Takumu’s room, when Haruyuki had gone over after his first battle with Wolfram Cerberus had left him utterly trounced, the two best friends had made a promise. That once they reached level seven—the entrance to being known as high rankers—then the two would face off for real, with everything they had. This was still a long way off, given that neither had even made it to level six, but they could never forget this vow even for a moment. Because all their fights, all their experience in the Accelerated World, led directly to that time that would someday come.
“That’s right, Taku,” Haruyuki said, forcefully taking a step forward now. “And I mean, Silver Crow is specialized on the one point of flight ability, so I’m not thinking of trying to make him all-purpose at this stage of the game. Our duel avatars aren’t game characters given to us by the system…”
“…They’re avatars of our own selves.”
The two boys nodded meaningfully at each other.
“…What’s this about?” Chiyuri looked slightly creeped out. “You guys got some big-deal promise?”
“Um, sorry, Chii, this is—”
“A promise between two men isn’t something you go ’round telling everyone!” Haruyuki cried, thrusting his chest forward.
The third member of the group of childhood friends glared at him. “I feel like when you guys keep secrets, it generally develops into a whole thing, though,” she commented doubtfully.
“Th-that’s not true! I mean, up to now, the only things that have been a big deal are, um…”
That and that. Oh, that. That, too…Watching Haruyuki count off with the fingers of his right hand, the girls all shook their heads in exasperation as one.
While this conversation was going on, the armored truck continued to race ahead full speed, passing by the northern side of Shinjuku Gyoen and drawing near Yotsuya Station. If they drove a few minutes more, they would plunge into Hanzomon in the real world—the western gate of the Castle in the Accelerated World.
Kuroyukihime and Fuko had led a team from the former Nega Nebulus to challenge the Super-class Enemy guarding that gate—Byakko, one of the Four Gods. Although they had been trampled by the claws and tusks of the divine beast, which boasted a terrible and powerful speed, they managed to just barely escape Byakko’s territory, thanks to Fuko’s Gale Thruster. So now, the west gate was the only one of the Castle’s four gates that had no one sealed away at it. Thus, for the time being at least, Haruyuki wouldn’t get the chance to see the beast. Not until Nega Nebulus once again took on the challenge of a Castle attack.
The trailer passed Yotsuya Station and climbed up a gentle slope to reveal an enormous silhouette up ahead. Given that this was the Century End stage, all buildings should have been half-destroyed, but there was not a single blemish on the high Castle walls; they rose darkly up into the sky. The design of the main building, faintly visible on the other side of the walls, brought together ancient Gothic keynotes with modern hardness. The flickering of countless watch fires in the night fog was eerily beautiful.
The Castle in the Unlimited Neutral Field, unlike the palace in the real world, carved out a perfect circle 1.5 kilometers in diameter. It was surrounded by a bottomless ravine, above which an abnormally powerful gravity was at work, meaning that neither Haruyuki’s wings nor Fuko’s booster could make it across. The only means of getting to the other side of the ravine were the thirty-meter-wide bridges connecting the Castle to the gates at the cardinal points.
Niko brought the truck/tank out onto Shinjuku Street from the back road and cut power momentarily at the T-intersection where it hit Uchibori Street, so that they naturally decelerated. Ahead of them, the great bridge—and the gate—were visible, but the God Byakko would open its eyes only if they stepped onto it. All twelve wheels screeched as the trailer turned sharply right, onto the road stretching out along the infinite cliff, before the engine roared back to life, and they began to race to the south.
Haruyuki went over to the left side of the vehicle and looked up at the dark wall rising up into the sky beyond the five hundred meters of ravine. On the other side of that wall lived countless sentinel Enemies and one boy Burst Linker. Of course, he wasn’t always in a dive, but he had talked like he spent a lot of time on this side, so the probability that he was right then, at that moment, a mere thousand meters away, was probably higher than that of the Blue King being at the government building.
At the time of the Castle escape mission ten days earlier, Haruyuki had promised that they would meet again someday—he and the young samurai avatar who held the Arc of Infinity, Trilead Tetroxide. In the mission to rescue Aqua Current that was about to start, they weren’t planning to charge all the way into the Castle, although that had also been the case during the previous mission to rescue Ardor Maiden. Still, Haruyuki couldn’t help hoping that he and his young friend would be reunited that day.
But we’ll definitely meet again one day, Lead, Haruyuki resolved, as if calling out silently to the other side of the wall.
Utai smiled and nodded, almost as though she could hear his thoughts.
The tank continued to charge along the curving Uchibori Street until it finally passed in front of the south gate, which was guarded by the God Suzaku.
The place where Ardor Maiden had been locked away until ten days earlier…Haruyuki looked out onto the wasteland to the right, which was likely Hibiya Park in the real world, as their trajectory gradually shifted to the north.
Right around the time the office buildings in the Marunouchi neighborhood started to appear from the within the darkness, the vehicle’s speed dropped. They coasted along another hundred meters or so on inertia before the tank came to a halt in the middle of a large intersection.
“Last stop! Castle, east gate! All passengers, pleeeaaase disembark! ”
Obeying the announcement (which for some reason was in Niko’s angel mode), the passengers dropped down to the ground one after the other. When Haru
yuki landed last, carrying Fuko’s wheelchair, the massive tank was swallowed up in red light and vanished. A bright-red female avatar jumped forward from where the cockpit had been.
The drive from Umesato Junior High in Suginami across the city to Marunouchi finally over, the Red King, Scarlet Rain, thrust both arms out ahead of her. “Aaah, all those narrow roads!” she hissed at a stretch. “I really had to concentrate, dammit. We’re taking the expressway home!”
“Whaaaat?! But there aren’t any brakes!!” Haruyuki cried out, before hurrying to add, “A-and the expressway overpasses looked like they were crumbling all over the place. It’s just, maybe they can’t hold up a big vehicle, you know? I mean…”
“Between the two missions, there’ll prob’ly be at least one Change,” Niko replied evenly, hands clasped behind her head. “Or, like, I seriously wish we’d get one already. And it’d be the best if we got a fire type, like Lava or Scorched Earth.”
“Huh? Why—? Oh! I get it. If it’s a fire-related stage, Seiryu’s power will weaken.”
“Mm. But there’s also the possibility of a water stage, though,” Black Lotus said, turning her mirrored goggles up at the dark sky as she stood beside Niko. “We should be happy with the Century End stage. It doesn’t rain in this one, at least. At any rate, if we’re going to cross our fingers for a Change, I’d rather save our luck for the attack on Metatron.”
“Right. A bit of a higher-level dark stage, and if we could, the best would be…” Haruyuki was still gripping the handles of the wheelchair where Fuko was sitting, and she quietly picked up where he left off:
“…The pinnacle of dark types, a Hell stage. That way, we’d be able to fight Metatron together with you, Corvus…”
“Mm, true…But even I can basically count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen a Hell stage in the Unlimited Neutral Field. We do have the option of waiting until the very last minute of our seven-day time limit, but the probability is fairly close to zero…”
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