Her tone was subdued, but there were thick blades hiding in her words. In his rage, Haruyuki felt the world grow pale before his eyes. And Takumu and Chiyuri—and not just them, but Fuko and the others who had stayed silent so far—all radiated an aura like a colorless fire.
But even with this thrown at her, Kuroyukihime remained coolly dispassionate. “I see. I can finally understand what it is you’re trying to say, Magenta Scissor. For you, and your goal of making the Accelerated World homogenous through the ISS kits, the so-called elite groups are your greatest enemy. But, well. This thing, the ISS kit, to begin with, it exists to create—” She cut herself off and shook her head lightly.
The words Kuroyukihime had swallowed were likely something along the lines of “To create the ultimate berserker.” The ISS kit main body accumulates a vast amount of negative will, all of that is poured into a high-level Enhanced Armament, and the Armor of Catastrophe Mark II is born. —This was the theory Aqua Current had revealed three days earlier at the Arita house. It did seem like the sort of thing the Acceleration Research Society would think up, but unfortunately, they had no proof. Even if Kuroyukihime said it out loud now, it seemed unlikely she would be able to convince Magenta.
“…No,” Kuroyukihime continued nonchalantly. “I shouldn’t say anything about the kit at this late stage. Because we’ve come here to destroy it. And while I might accept your manner of speaking, the way you’re treating us as an elite group…Given the situation, there’s nothing I can say to change your mind on that matter. We’ll tell the rest with our fists. And let you know whether or not our strength is simply what was given to us by the system.” The Black King’s tone concealed a steely core, the strength of iron polished to a shine.
“Right.” Magenta accepted this squarely. “I’ve gotten to say basically everything I wanted to…But one final thing: If you win this fight, I don’t care what you do with the fourteen of us. I wouldn’t say nothing if you killed us repeatedly and forced us to total loss, even. But if we win…Black King, don’t interfere with the ISS kits anymore. Promise to simply watch as the world is reborn.”
“…You managed to succeed in a such difficult ambush, and yet, that’s all you ask? If you win in the Unlimited Neutral Field, I think it would be more than possible to force total loss on us all or forcefully equip each of us with ISS kits.”
“I’m good. As long as you have the Watch Witch, the kits’ll be yanked off. And I can’t even imagine how long it would take to send two kings to total loss. And…I want you all to see it. A world where the abilities of all avatars equalized, where there’s no meaning in tag teams or Legions. A place where Burst Linkers who weren’t born blessed in power or form will not be rejected for that reason. A new Accelerated World!”
The instant Magenta finished this fervent declaration, the eye lenses of the duel avatars lined up neatly behind her shone red all at once. Almost as if they were in powerful resonance with Magenta Scissor’s overly radical thinking.
Most likely, the thirteen subordinates under Magenta, including Avocado, were Burst Linkers from the Setagaya and Ota areas. Like the two members of the Legion Petit Paquet, some had likely been forcefully parasitized with the kits against their will. But over two weeks had passed since the appearance of the kits, and now, with the synchronization every night through parallel processing, all these Burst Linkers had to be seen as having become one under Magenta Scissor’s impressive conviction. Reaching out to individuals would no longer work.
“…Agreed. If we lose here, Nega Nebulus promises not to interfere until your objective is achieved. Although, even if every Burst Linker besides us ends up an ISS kit user, we have no intention of giving up the fight.”
Magenta Scissor smiled with satisfaction at Kuroyukihime’s declaration. “And that is why you’re the Black King, hmm? All right then. How about we get started already? Sorry, but I’m not doing any tournament-style thing where we send out one representative at a time or any garbage like that. I have no interest in playing at war like that.”
“Naturally, that wasn’t what I was thinking, either. As long as you all are using the ISS kits—negative Incarnate techniques—then this is necessarily nothing other than a slaughter where rules do not apply. Also, whoever wins, you will learn. The terror, the brutality, and the futility of an Incarnate war in which everything is possible…The reason the Incarnate System has been kept hidden for so very long.” Kuroyukihime’s voice was actually quiet to the end, even sad. But at the same time, a faint bluish-purple shimmering overlay enveloped the ebony avatar, showing her firm will to fight.
The Black King angled back slightly and murmured to the group around her. “Rain, Raker, everyone. I know I said that to Magenta, but powerful Incarnate techniques will draw in large Enemies. So hold back in the opening stages, and then annihilate them all at once when I say go. Up against Burst Linkers, victory might be slightly more attractive to you…but we’ll deal with that once everything is over.”
“Yup,” Niko said.
“Roger,” Fuko responded, and the others nodded.
“Master,” Takumu said, his voice concealing a strong resolve as he dropped into battle stance. “Will you leave Magenta Scissor to me at first? I was the one who created the connection between her and Nega Nebulus, after all.”
“…I suppose. But don’t stick out too much. I don’t think anyone has forgotten, but this spot is just on the edge of Metatron’s attack range. If we get too close to the tower, we’ll be hit from above by the laser. The limit line is…” As she spoke, Kuroyukihime indicated with her eyes a marble path that cut across the grass east-west about twenty meters from the two-hundred-meter line that was Metatron’s aggro range. “Let’s set it at that path. No matter what happens, be careful you don’t cross it.”
Once again, they all nodded.
Ten meters to the south, Magenta, having similarly given instructions to her comrades, turned to face them again and removed the small swords equipped on either hip.
“Pile, I’m pretty sure you remember, but…,” Haruyuki murmured.
“When those swords fuse, they become scissors, right?” Takumu was quick to respond. “It’s okay. I’m thinking of countermeasures. Crow, you…Bell…”
“Leave it to me.” Now it was Haruyuki assenting immediately. “I’ll make sure to keep her safe.”
This was normally when Chiyuri would fume at being treated like a child again, but this time, unsurprisingly, she moved behind Haruyuki without a word. She was probably the only one in this battle who couldn’t use the Incarnate System. Haruyuki would have to protect their precious healer against any Incarnate techniques.
The eight led by the Black King and the thirteen under Magenta Scissor dropped into fighting stances all at the same time. Kashak! The dry air of the Twilight stage rapidly grew strained. The tension was so great, sparks threatened to electrify his metallic armor, and Haruyuki had a fleeting thought in one corner of his mind.
If this had been a normal group fight, this was the moment when he would have been carefully scanning each member of the enemy team before the fighting started, guessing at their abilities from the avatar color and shape. But there was basically no point in that in this battle—because all the Enemies besides Magenta would come at them with nothing but Dark Shot and Dark Blow, the Incarnate techniques from the ISS kit. The thirteen before him were all sizes, shapes, and armor colors, but that no longer indicated the Burst Linker’s idiosyncrasies.
…Magenta Scissor. Is that really the Accelerated World you want?
Almost as if this question rattling around Haruyuki’s mind ignited the highly compressed air of the battlefield, twenty-three duel avatars all leapt into motion.
6
Magenta’s army made the first move.
Lined up in a row, twelve soldiers thrust out their right hands in perfect sync, with Avocado Avoider on the end taking on the same position a second later. The eye-shaped Enhanced Armament attached to their chests emitted
flashes of muddy blood-red light.
“““Dark Shot.”””
The technique name was shouted with one voice—although this time, again, Avocado was a little behind—but had an earsplitting dissonance. A dull-black aura swirled in thirteen palms, concentrated, and jetted forward in an ebony beam. Zzzshm!
In fights over the last two weeks, Haruyuki had seen and been on the receiving end of this technique any number of times, but this was the first time he’d been showered by this kind of concentrated attack. The nonmaterial bullets of nihilistic energy, containing enough power to potentially cause instant death with even one direct hit, came together in groups of four or five in midair and formed three lances charging toward them.
The first to react was Fuko, who had taken up position in the center of the Lotus army of nine.
“Swirl Sway!” Still seated in her wheelchair, she held her right hand in front of her to produce a green whirlwind. The wind that stretched out between Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime swelled in scope into something akin to a sideways tornado and essentially covered all nine as they stood firm.
The three large lances howled as they made contact with the tornado. Heeeeeng! They were sucked into the whirling wind, muddying the green spirals with black.
When they had fought Ash Roller’s motorcycle, which was under the control of an ISS kit, in the middle of the school festival, Fuko had repelled two simultaneous dark shots with this technique. But now she was facing over six times that force. The hand supporting the tornado shook, and a faint pant slipped out from between her lips.
One of the lances was ejected from the tornado, an enormous spring bouncing backward, and plunged into a building behind them off to the right, gouging a large hole out of it. Another shot straight up into the air and disappeared in the twilight sky.
But the final lance fought against the centrifugal force like a living creature and inched its way to the source of the tornado. If the wriggling energy made it straight through, Fuko’s entire arm would be sent flying. Unconsciously, Haruyuki stretched out the five fingers of his right hand so he could be ready with his Laser Sword. But if he wasn’t careful, he would cut into the rotational force of the tornado and potentially set the wind free.
The ebony lance pulled forward bit by bit.
“Maelstrom,” a quiet voice said. Akira Himi—Aqua Current—produced a blue vortex in her outstretched left hand. It was very much like Fuko’s technique, except rather than wind forming the tornado, it was water. Each of the scattering water droplets shone a pale blue, as proof of the technique’s origins in the Incarnate System.
The blue approached the green tornado from the right, touched it, and instantaneously merged with it.
Krr! An incredible storm swelled up, and Haruyuki reflexively threw back his head. A myriad of water droplets spun out of the tornado, now doubled in size, to rain down on the surface of his armor and bounce off again. No doubt, if he happened to swallow one, the raindrop could probably have taken out a pretty good chunk of his health gauge.
With the added force of the waterspout, the tornado now had the power of a swirling current, and it thrust the black lance out, turning it 180 degrees before releasing it into the sky. Whistling through the air, the fused Dark Shot didn’t make a direct hit on Magenta’s army, but it did plunge into the grass nearby to send a black pillar of flames skyward, throwing the enemy off-balance.
“Now!” Kuroyukihime cried sharply. “Pile, Leopard! Charge with me! Rain, Maiden! Cover us! Raker, Current, you’re defense. Bell, healing. Crow, protect Bell! Let’s go!!”
“Okay!”
“K.”
Takumu and Pard charged toward the enemy encampment alongside Kuroyukihime. Niko readied her handgun, Peace Maker, and Utai her longbow, Flame Caller, while Fuko and Akira prepared to defend against the next Dark Shot. And Haruyuki—well, at any rate, he looked at Chiyuri.
“H-heh-heh-heh…” The yellow-green witch-shaped avatar inclined her pointed hat. “Crow, thanks for the guard.”
“Yeah, leave it to me!” he shouted, but to be honest, he could hardly stand still. Although he understood the importance of protecting their healer, an advantage their enemy didn’t have, it was still frustrating not to be able to charge into battle with his leader.
“…Crow, maybe I should practice the Incarnate System, too,” Chiyuri offered quietly, as though reading Haruyuki’s mind. Her eyes were still on the front line.
“Huh…?” Instantly, his restlessness quieted. Readying himself for the next attack wave, he shook his head quickly. “No, you don’t need to hurry. The truth is, it’s better if you can get through without using it. Thanks to the ISS kits, we’re attacked with Incarnate a lot more these days, but once we smash the main body, things should quiet down again. And then you can really think about it, no pressure.”
“You really have grown, hmm, Corvus?” Fuko, rather than Chiyuri, responded to Haruyuki’s murmured assurance.
“Huh?! No, it’s just, I mean…”
“Once this is over and we go back to the other side, I will spoil you so hard. So right now, you make sure you do your job.” Apparently, she too had seen right through to his desire to leap onto the battlefield.
Haruyuki tucked his head in and shouted, “Right!”
“Yaaaaaah!” Takumu’s battle cry rang out over the enemy camp. “Cyan Blade!!”
It had been a while since Haruyuki had heard that technique name. The pile driver equipped in Cyan Pile’s right arm emitted a flash of bright light and broke apart. Gripped in his left hand, only the spike remained, and it quickly transformed into a large two-handed sword. As a reminder that the sword was Incarnate, an overlay like blue flames snaked around the blade.
Adjusting his grip on the sword, Takumu yanked it up, readying it at waist height, while in front of him, Magenta Scissor crossed the small swords she held in each hand. Ka-ching! The two swords came together to form a pair of enormous scissors. And unlike when Haruyuki had fought her, the scissors themselves were enveloped in a dark aura.
“Be careful, Taku…!” Haruyuki couldn’t help muttering, even though he knew he was too far away for his friend to hear him.
Magenta’s scissors were equipped with an ability called Remote Cut. Each time the blades came together, an unseen severing force cut into a distant target. The only way to avoid the invisible attack was to leap far away from the invisible line extending outward from the tip of the scissors. But it was nearly impossible to keep that up when they were snipped open and closed in quick succession.
Unable to come up with a strategy for countering the long-distance cutting on his own, Haruyuki had enlisted the help of Chocolat Puppeteer’s Chocopet puppets, leaving him room to charge Magenta. But Chocolat wasn’t there now. And Kuroyukihime and Pard were occupied with several ISS kit users, so they wouldn’t be able to cover Takumu. Niko and Utai launched one flame bullet/arrow after another, but over half were met with Dark Blow, so the enemy wasn’t exactly dropping like flies.
“Bell, when I give the order, please heal Pile.”
“Roger.” Chiyuri nodded.
Wheen! Magenta’s scissors flashed through their dark aura, opening and closing at a ferocious speed, perhaps as much as five times a second. An unbroken chain of metallic shrieks joined orange sparks crackling around Takumu.
Haruyuki reflexively started to give the heal order, but forced himself to swallow it. When he looked very closely, he saw the Incarnate sword was doubling here as a shield to repel the majority of the cutting power. As she opened and closed the scissors, Magenta moved them up and down and side to side, but Takumu correctly traced the tip with his sword, avoiding a direct hit to his avatar.
But the situation could only get worse. Because Magenta’s scissors were not a gun, in theory, she could continue to attack without end. On the other hand, Takumu couldn’t keep dodging for the rest of time; he’d need to switch into a counterattack at some point, but he didn’t have an opening to swing his sword. If he
moved the blade from the line of sight for even a second, he might end up with his head chopped off.
I can create an opening with my Laser Lance. The thought flashed through his mind, but Haruyuki brushed it away. An enemy might target Chiyuri while he was launching his Incarnate technique. And more importantly, Takumu wanted to face off against Magenta himself, knowing full well the terror of Remote Cut. So then, he had to have a plan for turning this defense into an offense.
“…!” Haruyuki caught a glimpse of a black aura concentrating in the corner of his eye and readied both hands. “Dark Shot’s coming!”
Simultaneously, the six on the enemy’s right flank shot jet-black beams through the sky toward them. Rather than fusing together, however, the attacks this time were all whizzing toward different targets.
Fuko and Akira quickly held up their hands to generate the green-and-blue tornados that would defend themselves, Niko, and Utai from the Incarnate bullets aimed at them. Haruyuki also brought a silver overlay up into his hands and stared hard at the balls of darkness flying toward him and Chiyuri.
“Laser…” The sword of his right hand knocked the first shot out into the sky.
“…Sword!!” He hit the second shot with the sword of his left hand.
Having fulfilled his duty, Haruyuki turned his eyes back to the battle between Magenta and Takumu and unconsciously stiffened. The aura enveloping Takumu’s Cyan Blade was flickering and looked to be on the verge of disappearing. Haruyuki could see countless scars running along the large blade. If this kept up, it would shatter.
When he thought about it, Takumu was essentially sacrificing his sword to defend against the nonphysical cutting power of Magenta’s scissors, so it made sense that the damage that power did would accumulate in the sword alone. The grand premise of Brain Burst—no, of all fighting games—was that you couldn’t win if you only defended, but this was exactly the situation Magenta’s scissors were forcing Takumu into, making it a weapon far more fearsome than Haruyuki had thought.
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