The Black Dual Swordsman

by Reki Kawahara

  “Me too,” Lignum agreed.

  “I was, as well,” Chafer chimed in.

  “Aaah, man, I been nothing but trouble for you guys, too, huh?” Scratching his head, Graph shifted his gaze upward. “Whoa, only five minutes left? We’d better hurry up…Um, Denden said I coulda gone up to level nine anytime, but there’s no way I can now. You’re probably going to get mad at me for going off on my own again, but as compensation for Shibuya, I paid all my extra points to G.”

  “…What?” Kuroyukihime managed, sounding frightened. “Incidentally, how many points was it?”

  “You’d be freaked, Lota, so I’m not telling. Anyway, G split ’em up into tiny pieces and fed ’em to the Enemies. So, like, now’s your chance! Double bonus Enemy appearance, limited time only! Ha-ha-ha!”

  “…Seriously?” Ash muttered.

  Wow, Haruyuki thought before refocusing on the matter at hand.

  The price that Kuroyukihime had intended to pay for the return of Shibuya Areas Nos. 1 and 2 had apparently been paid by Graphite Edge. In other words, the Green King had already accepted this payment and spent it—although not for his own self-interest, but rather for the sake of the continued existence of the Accelerated World—so Haruyuki supposed he could take this to mean that the return of Shibuya was only a matter of time.

  Huh…Is Shibuya really Nega Nebulus territory now? Just temporarily? Permanently? Unable to keep up with the situation, Haruyuki looked absently at the surrounding skyscrapers.

  “But, like, it’s not as simple as all that,” Graph said, as if reading Haruyuki’s mind. “Great Wall occupied Shibuya bloodlessly three years ago. Snatched it right out from under the nose of Oscillatory Universe when they were seriously after Shibuya. As for the deets about what actually went down…Right after Negabu got knocked down in the Castle attack, Oscillatory showed up to attack Shibuya One and Two in the Territories. If a war had started then, both areas would’ve definitely fallen.”

  Kuroyukihime nodded wordlessly. One eye on her, Graph continued.

  “But a mere five seconds before four PM, the start time for the Territories, Lota unleashed her clever scheme to abandon Shibuya. The instant the area was unoccupied, Oscillatory’s registered attack was automatically canceled, and then GW registered an attack on both areas right away. Oscillatory couldn’t reregister before the start time, and since the only attacker was GW, they took control without a fight. You already had the mutual nonaggression pact between GW and Oscillatory, so Oscillatory couldn’t attack Shibuya again. And now it’s been three years like that. And there’s been this weird tension between the two Legions ever since. Of course, they weren’t clashing in the Territories, but in normal duels around Ebisu and Aoyama, more than a few members of GW no doubt slammed up against Oscillatory’s Seven Dwarves.”

  Graph paused there, and Pound snorted.

  “They didn’t take me down fifteen times in a row or anything, but I did get my ass handed to me.”

  “Yup. Can’t chicken out against that gang,” Chafer agreed.

  It was true that the antagonism between green and white seemed out of the ordinary. But was that actually a factor in backing the return of the Shibuya to Nega Nebulus? After all, the whole point of the return was a direct attack on Oscillatory, something Great Wall couldn’t do.

  As if he once again had read Haruyuki’s mind, Graph quickly shook his head. “It’s exactly because of this cold war that returning Shibuya right now would be taken as an obvious act of aggression on the part of GW toward Oscillatory. They’d see it as breaking the mutual nonaggression pact for all intents and purposes. Oscillatory might even go so far as to attack Meguro or Shinagawa. It’s just like Raker said before—GW has to choose total cooperation with Negabu or break off all contact…Nah, just breaking off contact prob’ly wouldn’t do it. If GW refuses to return Shibuya, you’re planning to take them down in the Territories, yeah, Lota?”

  “Of course,” she responded immediately.

  Decurion and Pound flashed their eye lenses sharply. But Grandé maintained his usual silence, and Graph also only nodded lightly before turning his face mask upward again.

  “Three minutes…Well, at any rate, we’re at the heart of it here. I said it before, but I already paid the price for Shibuya Areas One and Two with my savings from the old Negabu days. But that alone’s not gonna convince Veri and the gang here, much less the other Legion members. And me, too. I gotta go through the proper channels one way or another as the first seat of Great Wall’s Six Armors. That’s why, Lota—Lotus. I won’t say you gotta go through the formality of the Territories. But we’re gonna need you to show us the power you got now.”

  The ink-black swordsman of the dual blades turned the masculine lines of his face mask toward the seven members of Nega Nebulus and, in a voice as weighty as that of the Green King, declared, “We’re shifting to Battle Royale mode. Fight with everything you’ve got— Show us your resolve. That’s the other condition for the return of Shibuya.”

  2

  Time inched forward. The second this thought occurred to Mihaya Kakei, a shout bounced off the walls of the definitely-not-large room.

  “Aaah, come ooooon! I can’t wait anymooooore!” The voice was owned by a girl with pigtails red like flames. Upside down on the sofa, she kicked her legs up and down before yanking herself upright. “Hey, Pard? How ’bout we actually sneak into Shibuya ourselves?! If we just watch from a corner of the stage, no one’ll notice us! Prob’ly!”

  “No,” she retorted curtly, glancing at the old analogue clock on the wall.

  Two forty-five. At the strike of three, the meeting between the top levels of Nega Nebulus and Great Wall would start in the Shibuya area. That would be, at most, 1.8 seconds from start to finish, so they’d hear about the result soon enough, but the fifteen minutes until that time felt like an eternity. Mihaya wasn’t a patient person to begin with—or rather, she was generally acknowledged by herself and others as being an impatient alien—so she desperately wanted to go along with her boss’s proposal, which meant she had to nip that excitement in the bud right here and now.

  “If we snuck into the meeting and green found us, they’d destroy us. And we won’t make it in time on my bike anyway.”

  “Unh, I knooooow. I was just saying.” The redheaded girl leaned her back up against the sofa and let out a sigh. The childishness of the person who had upended the Accelerated World with her fierce fighting style, the very picture of her eleven years, brought a faint, unconscious smile to Mihaya’s lips. To hide it, she picked up her teacup from the low table and took a sip of the unsweetened apple tea.

  They were in Mihaya’s room in the back of the first floor of Patisserie La Plage, a cake shop in Sakuradai, within Nerima Ward. There were no windows, and the door and walls were made of material that blocked electromagnetic waves, so connecting their Neurolinkers to the global net required a direct connection to the router in the table.

  Her aunt, who essentially ran the shop as the chef/pâtissier, rolled her eyes at the idea of a room where you couldn’t use wireless in this day and age and never came near the place, but that was actually a blessing. Because this small Western-style room was, for all intents and purposes, the command room of the Red Legion, Prominence.

  “That reminds me, Pard. You take your level-eight bonus yet?” asked the girl, Prominence’s Legion Master and the second Red King, the Immobile Fortress, known as Scarlet Rain and, in the real world, Yuniko Kozuki.

  Mihaya shook her head. “Not yet.”

  “Whoa. So even you can’t decide on a level-eight bonus? But you totally snapped up the ‘normal running on all surfaces’ at seven,” Niko teased, grinning.

  Although Mihaya was five years older, she wanted to purse her lips like a child. “You couldn’t decide on your level-eight bonus, either.”

  “That was because anyone’d have trouble picking between a heavy cannon and a laser cannon! You can’t know which one does what without some research…�
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  “I’m doing the research now,” Mihaya replied smoothly, having only just jumped up to level eight from level six the other day, and took another sip of tea.

  She couldn’t exactly whine in front of Niko, but the pressure for level eight was more than she’d expected. Outside of the Seven Kings, eight was essentially the highest level, and the way people treated her was different, not to mention the increased number of points taken when she lost to a middle ranker in a duel. As the leader of the Triplex, Prominence’s executive group, she felt like she’d fought with everything she had so far, but apparently, somewhere in her heart, she’d been spoiled by that little number six in her level.

  Sky Raker, Mihaya’s most worthy rival and the vice deputy of Nega Nebulus, had her sights set on the loftiest of goals and had been fighting with this enormous pressure bearing down on her for some time now. And Mihaya had no doubt she would make it through with her usual cool—even when confronted with the powerful warriors of Great Wall she was about to face.

  She’d told Niko they couldn’t, but she did want to be present at that meeting, and it was hard to completely banish that nagging thought from her head. The Acceleration Research Society had kidnapped her leader, whom she loved more than anyone, and then, after hanging her from a cross, had stolen four parts of her infamous Enhanced Armament, Invincible. Although Pard and her friends had gotten three of these back, thanks to the awesome special ability of Nega Nebulus’s Watch Witch, Lime Bell, which could rewind status changes, the thruster block was still in the hands of the Society.

  Niko acted like she wasn’t bothered at all, but there was no way she wasn’t worried about it deep in her heart. It was Mihaya’s duty as the deputy leader to take the fight to the Society and get the thrusters back.

  They’d taken a step forward in learning that the Acceleration Research Society, long shrouded in mystery, was, in fact, an organization within the White Legion, of all things. This showed again just how difficult it was going to be to fight the Society.

  The Black Legion had decided on a frontal attack to take down Minato Area No. 3, the location of the White Legion headquarters. The meeting that day was the first step, and Mihaya understood there was essentially no other choice. However, even if negotiations with the Green Legion were successful, and Shibuya Area No. 2, adjacent to Minato Area No. 3, was returned to Nega Nebulus, that didn’t mean that Mihaya would be able to fight the White Legion. Only members of Nega Nebulus would be able to participate in the Territories; as a member of Prominence, Mihaya would not have that right.

  When the Black Legion pulled back the curtain on the Society and the Six Legions’ joint attack mission was activated, she would, of course, be running at the front of the pack. But the fact that she would have to wait until then was actually very frustrating. Attack immediately when things started to move; this was the policy of Bloody Kitty, Blood Leopard/Mihaya, after all.

  “So, like, Pard?” Niko said, a little anxiety bleeding into her voice, while Mihaya stared at the painfully slow hands of the clock as she let her thoughts race.

  “What?”

  “For example, ’kay? …I was thinkin’ maybe it’s time to talk to Cassi and Pokki, too. But I dunno.”

  “…Hmm.” Even the immediately decisive Mihaya couldn’t answer this right away.

  Cassi, aka Cassis Mousse, and Pokki, aka Thistle Porcupine, were the second and third of Prominence’s Triplex. Both had distinguished themselves during the period of chaos immediately after the disappearance of the former Red King and served admirably in supporting the new Prominence both in public and behind the scenes, and thus, they were both more attached to the Legion than Mihaya was.

  For those two, the “talk” that Niko was thinking about having would have been relatively shocking. If they didn’t take the time to carefully explain things, it could even rip the Legion apart once more.

  “Maybe it’d be better to talk to just Cassi first, instead of both of them together,” Mihaya offered hesitantly.

  “Yeah.” Niko nodded, a complicated look on her face. “Pokki’ll prob’ly explode when word hits the street. Gotta have Cassi there to hold ’im back. Still, Cassi’s pretty stubborn and all, too.”

  “Cassi likes sweets. Offer her some cake. Maybe that’ll make things easier.”

  “Oh, good idea. Okay. Maybe your Cassi’s Mousse Tart’s the thing that’ll put us over the top.”

  “Maybe.”

  They both laughed briefly and then looked at the clock. Two more minutes until three.

  “’Bout that time, huh?” Niko muttered, plugging a cable into the XSB connector built into the table before connecting it to her own Neurolinker. Mihaya did the same, and the icon for a global net connection was displayed in her field of view.

  Right about now, the seven members of Nega Nebulus were also counting down the time remaining somewhere in Shibuya. All they could do now in distant Nerima was pray that the negotiations—the first step toward the decisive final battle with the Acceleration Research Society—went well.

  “Let’s take a cake and go see them when they’re back,” Mihaya said.

  Niko looked a little surprised, and then her large eyes that looked green in the right light shone. “Yeah. But can your bike hold ten cakes, Pard?”

  “NP,” she responded, beginning the final countdown.

  They had pressed Kuroyukihime and the others to tell them what had happened as soon as the meeting was over, so even with the time it took to utter the voice command, they should have gotten a call around five seconds past three.

  The hands on the analogue clock on the wall moved ever so slowly as if to thwart her.

  2:59:57 PM. Fifty-eight seconds. Fifty-nine seconds.

  Three o’clock.

  3:00:01. Two seconds. Three. Four. Five.

  Six. Seven. Eight…

  3

  Niko and Pard have got to be freaking out right about now, Haruyuki thought as he looked down at the confirmation dialog box before him.

  It was, of course, not the first time he’d seen the message written in English—something to the effect of YOU HAVE BEEN INVITED TO A BATTLE ROYALE. YES/NO. He’d gone from the Gallery to a Battle Royale a million times before.

  But just this once, he had a hard time keeping his head on his shoulders. Naturally, he was nervous about fighting the powerful warriors of Great Wall, but what loomed far larger was that two from the group gathered there were kings—level niners.

  “Kuroyukihime, is this really all right?” Haruyuki asked in a hushed tone as he shifted his eyes from the dialog box to the avatar beside him.

  She had already pressed the YES button, and yet, Kuroyukihime shrugged slightly. “Well…”

  “Well? That’s kinda— I mean, this isn’t the actual Territories, so that level-nine sudden-death rule applies, right?”

  “That is true. And it wasn’t a normal duel in which I took Red Rider’s head, but a Battle Royale.”

  “S-so then maybe you shouldn’t? If the worst happens, I…” Haruyuki tried to change her mind for the nth time.

  “I appreciate your concern, Crow.” Kuroyukihime lightly patted his shoulder with the flat part of her sword hand. “But I can’t be the only one to remain in the Gallery. When I do eventually come face-to-face with the White King, we, too, will be fighting under sudden death. And in this Battle Royale, Grandé and I have promised not to fight each other directly. If he was the sort to renege on that and come for my head, he wouldn’t have agreed to a meeting like this in the first place. In fact, if either of us was going to be nervous about this, I’d expect it to be him.”

  Haruyuki glanced over at the green camp standing firm a little ways off. The Green King and Graphite Edge had apparently both been in on the plan to switch the meeting to Battle Royale mode for a mock Territory battle. But it seemed to be news to the members of the executive from Viridian Decurion down, and while they agreed with the basic idea, Iron Pound was furiously counseling the Green King about
something or other.

  Unconsciously perking his ears, Haruyuki heard not an argument to stop the king from participating, but a specific strategy proposal on how to keep him safe on the battlefield.

  Not about to be outdone, Haruyuki turned to Kuroyukihime. “I understand. But you totally can’t charge into the enemy camp. Try to stay to the rear.”

  “Heeey!” A laid-back voice came from the green camp. The speaker was the one who proposed the Battle Royale mode, the double sword user. “Thirty seconds left! Who still hasn’t pressed the button?”

  Hurriedly turning his gaze upward, Haruyuki saw that the timer that had started at 1,800 seconds had only thirty seconds left. “Uh, um, anyway…I’ll protect you, Kuroyukihime!” he declared, stretching a finger out to the dialog box.

  Before he knew it, Fuko, Utai, Akira, Takumu, and Chiyuri had gathered around them. He looked at the faces of his trusty comrades in turn and nodded sharply before pressing the YES button.

  A BATTLE ROYALE IS BEGINNING!! The flaming text burned bright red before his eyes. Ten seconds until the mode switch.

  “Don’t worry, Haru. We’re totally going to win this!” Chiyuri declared in a very quiet but resolute voice and then slapped him on the back. His childhood friend was always there to cheer him on.

  “Yeah. Let’s do it!” he replied, clenching his hands into tight fists. The countdown burned flashily as the numbers dropped steadily toward zero.

  Klang! Silver Crow’s health gauge popped up in the upper left of his field of view, and the color of the sky began to change. The eternal evening sun of the Twilight stage sank into the horizon with incredible speed. Indigo blue painted over the madder-red, then became quickly overtaken by black.

  A night stage. Moonlight? Cemetery? Or maybe Bizarre Festival?

  Krrrr! A powerful quake made the buildings of the stage shudder and shake. Haruyuki hurriedly looked around, only to be confronted with an entirely unexpected sight: