The Black Dual Swordsman

by Reki Kawahara

  The ground of the duel stage was caving in. Ravine Square centered around Shibuya Station was safe for the time being, but the buildings in the direction of Dogenzaka and Miyamasu-zaka were swallowed up one after another, leaving nothing but massive holes where they once stood. The countless craters expanded and joined up with one another until, finally, all that was left of the ground were a few blocks like floating islands.

  At last, the ten-story building where the black and green teams stood was ripped in half with a loud roar midway between their encampments. Broken into north and south sides, the pieces of Ravine Square gradually began to pull away from one another. The other islands scattered throughout the stage also appeared to be moving freely.

  Haruyuki had never seen a stage like this. He looked down over the edge of the rupture, wondering what was in the holes, and groaned. “What?! Th-there’s no bottom!!”

  All he could see was an infinite darkness that absorbed all light.

  No, wait…He couldn’t make out what they were exactly, but he could see a few small lights bobbing around. The lights immediately increased in number, glittering a cool white or blue or red. They were…

  “Stars?” Takumu murmured beside him.

  Indeed, the lights looked like nothing other than stardust. But how could there be stars beneath the ground?

  “Hey,” Chiyuri spoke then from directly behind, her voice hoarse. “Up. Look up. Up.”

  “Huh?” Obediently, Haruyuki turned his face upward at the same time as Takumu.

  “Whoa!” They cried together, almost drowning out Utai’s admiring “That’s amazing…”

  A starry night spread out above their heads as well. But this was totally different from the sad sky of the Moonlight or Cemetery stages; it was bright. Against a jet-black background, countless stars completely filled the heavens, with red, blue, and yellow galaxies adding dashes of vivid color. It was almost like they were looking up from a point immediately beside the central part of the galaxy.

  “Oh!” Haruyuki cried out again. “Th-this stage, it can’t be…!”

  “It does seem to be doing the impossible,” Kuroyukihime assented, unable to hide her own surprise. “I thought it would be implemented today, but I never dreamed we would draw it here. There’s no mistake. This is the Space stage.”

  “But we’re still able to stand normally,” Akira noted, and the seven looked down. It was true that their avatar feet stood firmly on the cracked tiles of the building’s roof and showed no signs of floating up due to lack of gravity.

  “So then does the Space stage just look like space, but still has gravity?” Chiyuri sounded a little let down.

  “N-noooooo!” A throaty cry echoed through the stage. “Hey! Somebody! Gimme a haaaaaand!”

  Haruyuki turned his face up again and saw against the background of the magnificent sky the century-end rider bobbing upward. “Oh, he’s floating…”

  Takumu pushed up his nonexistent glasses as he remarked, “Apparently, gravity stops working if you jump carelessly. So I guess if you have no means of propulsion, you need to fight with your feet on the ground of the floating island.”

  “That’s not necessarily the case if you can attack at long-distance,” Akira remarked. “You can just shoot the enemies on floating islands while you float in the zero-gravity space.”

  Haruyuki nodded. Thinking about it now, in anime set in space, they fired beam rifles or missiles and things at one another, and it seemed okay to assume that those principles applied in the Space stage as well. But then…

  “…We might be in trouble,” he said.

  “…?”

  Akira turned around and raised a questioning eyebrow, so he explained his concerns.

  “Um. It was like this in the Hermes’ Cord race, too, but there’s no air in the Space stage, so I won’t be able to fly.”

  “Huh,” Chiyuri said like it had nothing to do with her and cocked her head to one side. “But even without air, it’s not hard to breathe. And we can talk and all.”

  “C-c’mon, don’t go digging too deep,” he said on behalf of the BB system, then realized something with a gasp. He shot his gaze back toward Akira and jabbed a finger with a splsh into Aqua Current’s flowing water armor, which glittered beautifully in the light of the galaxy. A small ripple spread out on the surface.

  “Hey! What’re you doing, Crow?!” Chiyuri jabbed him in his side.

  “I—I wasn’t!” He hurried to defend himself. “I mean! I was just thinking space is supposed to be absolute zero, but Curren’s armor’s not freezing.”

  This time, Fuko interjected from his right. “You’re not quite right there, Crow. Space is actually filled with microwaves known as cosmic background radiation, and because of that, it’s just a few degrees warmer than absolute zero.”

  “…B-but that’s still, like, minus two hundred seventy Celsius, right?” he replied. “You can’t call that warm.”

  “Hee-hee, I suppose not. Actually, there’s no heat or cold in this Space stage, hmm? …I don’t feel warmth or wind or smell anything.” Indeed, the thin dress Fuko wore and the ribbon on her hat were not fluttering in the wind.

  “Hmm.” Kuroyukihime looked up at the starry sky. “If I had to name the attribute, I’d say it was ‘nihilistic,’ perhaps. It seems we’ll have to test a variety of things to see what’s effective and what’s not. At any rate…shall we smash the things in the area and build up our gauges?”

  “I guess we should.” Haruyuki nodded and tried to crush the concrete pillar standing beside him with a punch. The strength of the terrain objects was not as bad as the Twilight stage, but they were still fairly brittle.

  His comrades similarly smashed pillars and walls, and when the floating island had essentially become flat terrain, they heard a sad cry from Great Wall’s island some thirty meters away.

  “No! Noooooooooo! Mighty me! My super-machiiiiine! Aaaaaah!!” Ash Roller, floating in zero-gravity space, was straddling his motorcycle, which he had summoned at some point, and was going hard on the accelerator. But the apple of his eye, the V-twin engine, didn’t so much as squeak.

  “Ohhh. There’s no air, so that old-style engine doesn’t work,” Haruyuki said as he watched. This is going to make for a pretty tough battle for Ash and me.

  And then Lignum Vitae turned the parasol she’d been using to destroy terrain objects toward Ash. The wooden shaft slid out and grew longer, and the sharp stone tip caught the wheel of the motorcycle. She pulled the umbrella back down, and the bike approached the wobbling island before both tires finally made contact with the ground. Then the umbrella returned to its original length in an instant with a sharp Shf!

  “Ooh!” Chiyuri stared intently at the green camp. “That parasol’s great! Stretching and shrinking like that seems super-handy. I wonder where they sell them.”

  “Unfortunately, Bell,” Akira said, “that umbrella is Lignum’s initial setting equipment, so I doubt it’s sold in any shop.”

  “Tch!” Chiyuri tsked in disappointment.

  Meanwhile, Haruyuki noticed that Utai, a little ways off, had a complicated look on her face. Being careful not to jump, he took a few steps and asked quietly, “Mei, is something the matter?”

  “Oh! Yes, I’m sure this will be difficult for you, C, but I think I will be facing some issues, as well.”

  He stared hard at the small shrine maiden, wondering what on earth her “issues” could be before finally realizing it. “Oh! R-right…Without air, flames…”

  “Yes. My flame attacks will most likely be ineffective. In such an important fight, it seems I will only drag the rest of you down.” Utai hung her head dejectedly.

  Haruyuki unconsciously put his hands on her shoulders. “I-it’ll be o—” Before he could get the last syllable out, Utai was yanked away.

  ICBM, aka Fuko, lifted her up from behind. “It’s okay, Maiden. Even without the fire damage, your bow is strong enough. I’ll make up for whatever’s missing.” She squeezed
Utai tightly and then threw her head back and shouted, “Equip Gale Thruster!!”

  From the starry heavens, two streaks of light shot down into Fuko’s back, followed by a blinding flash. Her dress and hat scattered and disappeared to reveal the flowing lines of an Enhanced Armament on her back. These rocket boosters that Haruyuki himself had once borrowed contained overwhelming thrust power.

  Fuko would be able to use them without any problems at all. In fact, they were originally created to fly in this stage: Sky Raker’s wings.

  With Gale Thruster equipped, Fuko gently set Utai down before the high heels of her feet clacked against the ground. Her previously soft aura was completely gone now. “Silver Crow said it at the top of Hermes’ Cord,” she said boldly. “I, Sky Raker, am a space-battle duel avatar, born to fly across the ocean of stars. Here, today, I will prove those words true.”

  “Mm. I’m counting on you, Raker,” Kuroyukihime agreed. “The rule is that I can’t cut down the enemy camp, so I leave the front line to you. Rip them to shreds.”

  “Of course!” Fuko replied.

  Perhaps the snappy exchange between Legion Master and Submaster reached the enemy camp some dozens of meters away. The seven members of Great Wall dropped into ready positions as one on the floating island drifting to the south. It seemed that they, too, had finished analyzing the new stage and charging their special-attack gauges. The timer had 1,523 seconds remaining.

  Haruyuki instinctively understood that the battle would start the instant the numbers reached 1,500. Still, there weren’t many options for a crow that couldn’t fly. At best, he could be someone’s shield.

  “…Ah, no, hang on a sec,” he muttered, staring at the enemy team again.

  The Green King had retreated to the rear of the island and set the great shield Strife solidly down in front of him. Standing in a row before him were the gladiator, Viridian Decurion; the boxer, Iron Pound; the kung fu artist, Suntan Chafer; the somehow treelike Lignum Vitae; Ash Roller, still straddling the motionless motorcycle; and the dual swordsman clad in black, Graphite Edge.

  “Um, Kuroyukihime?” Haruyuki asked. “Do they not have any long-distance types over there?”

  “Hmm?” she responded. “Mm, quite possibly.”

  “At most, the missiles of Ash’s bike,” Haruyuki agreed. “But he can’t fire continuously, and we have Mei with her bow and Pile with his long-distance special attack. So couldn’t we win by just getting them to shoot all they want?”

  “That’s the feeling I’m getting.” Akira nodded sharply.

  The two islands were already more than thirty meters apart. To cross this distance with a jump would require a powerful leap with a running start, but anyone who did that would fly off into the starry sky like Ash Roller had.

  “…………”

  The members of Nega Nebulus exchanged curious looks, and the remaining time reached 1,500 seconds. Haruyuki and his comrades had let their guards down for a mere instant. But in that moment, the enemy had already gained the upper hand.

  Graphite Edge jumped up lightly in the center of the enemy line, leaned forward, and bent his legs up underneath him. And then Iron Pound launched a hard right straight at the soles of his feet.

  Bwum! The shock wave shook the stage, and the body of the swordsman came flying at them with a force so intense it was as though he had fired up hidden boosters. By kicking at Pound’s right straight with perfect timing, Graph managed to accelerate suddenly along the horizontal. This way, there was no chance of him flying up into the sky.

  “Incoming!”

  At the sound of Kuroyukihime’s voice, Utai pulled back the bowstring of her longbow, Flame Caller. The string hummed, and the arrow that launched drew out a silvery tail instead of a flaming one as it streaked toward the sword user’s face mask.

  But Graph caught Utai’s arrow with the flat of the longsword he drew from his right shoulder. Clang! The arrow was repelled without fuss and disappeared into the stars.

  “Nngh!” Haruyuki stepped forward as if in a trance and readied his fists. Of all the members of the black team, the metallic-colored Silver Crow had the greatest resistance to swords—severing attacks. He would have to step up and take on Graphite Edge.

  But having drawn just the one sword, Graph took yet another unexpected action. Still flying through the zero-gravity space, he brandished the blade high and shouted what was probably the name of a special attack, “Vertical Square!!”

  The longsword slashed out four times on an upward trajectory, so fast it was invisible to the eye. The vivid-blue swipes drew an enormous square in the empty space. But Graph was still so far from Haruyuki. There was no way the sword tips would reach him.

  Empty swinging? Just a demonstration?

  But it was not. Although the blue square, three meters on each side, seemed to be just a light effect, it moved forward instead of disappearing, tumbling end over end, and touched the black team’s island. Haruyuki felt a powerful vibration beneath his feet, and the square of light closed in on him, ripping the concrete island apart.

  “Run, Crow!” Kuroyukihime shouted from behind.

  Haruyuki threw his body to one side. The blue light grazed the tip of his right foot, sending tiny sparks scattering. And then the square sank into the center of the thirty-meter island, and he lost sight of it.

  A second later, the island split in two with a krrrk.

  “Wh-whoa!” Hurriedly clutching at the ground, Haruyuki felt the virtual gravity suddenly weaken. The weight of his duel avatar was essentially halved, and the fierce shaking of the island threatened to throw him off.

  “G-gang!” He somehow managed to stabilize himself and turned around to see Takumu, Chiyuri, and Kuroyukihime standing on the same half of the island—and Fuko, Utai, and Akira on the other, legs spread and hips lowered to find their balance.

  Most likely, the smaller the islands got when they were blown apart, the weaker the gravity they generated. The accuracy of shots fired from such an unstable foothold was doubtful.

  But the bigger problem was whether Graphite Edge had slashed into the island with the aim of weakening gravity for the black team. If he had, then that meant that the swordsman knew the Space stage.

  The black-clad avatar came down to land soundlessly on Haruyuki’s chunk of island. Seemingly unperturbed by the unreliable gravity, he stood perfectly still.

  “Never dreamed we’d get the Space stage when it was only just implemented,” Graph drawled, resting the sword in his hand on his shoulder. “You were the last one to press the button, yeah, Silver Crow? So you’re lucky. Or not.”

  What? So does that mean I’m the one who got us this stage? Haruyuki panicked.

  From directly behind him, a sharp voice shot out.

  “You speak as though it’s not your first time in the Space stage. Have you been here before, Graph?” Kuroyukihime snapped from behind, only to come out and hover in front of him.

  “No way.” The black dual swordsman shrugged lightly. “Of course it’s my first time. But I’ve fought plenty in other games on a similar map. As a general rule, players with long-distance techniques’re at a lopsided advantage when it comes to space. So I’m just leveling the field.” He had no sooner made this statement than he was lazily brandishing the sword he bore.

  “Slant!” Together with the technique name, he brought his blade down diagonally. The blue sword of light slashed directly in front of Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime and cut a straight line into the gray concrete.

  Krrkaan! The ground shook once again. Cut apart in a single blow of the special attack, the floating island shuddered and split. Haruyuki hurried to grab hold of the foothold that was now a quarter its original size, but the gravity decreased even further, and he basically couldn’t feel the weight of his avatar at all anymore.

  As if Graph’s second blow was a signal, five avatars, excluding Grandé—Ash Roller had gotten off his motorcycle—leapt forward from the green camp island a few dozen meters away. Appare
ntly, they intended to turn the fight into a low-gravity group melee and nullify any long-distance attacks.

  But just as Haruyuki had guessed earlier, jumping diagonally upward meant that they quickly left the sphere of the island’s gravity and flew toward the stars. Still on all fours, Haruyuki watched with wide eyes, wondering how the green team would manage to change their trajectories.

  “Distant Shield.” The sonorous technique call came from behind the group flying through the air. The owner of the voice was the Green King, alone on the floating island. He held the great shield up high with his right arm and then brought it down hard against the ground.

  Zzzsshrn! The shock wave spread out, and a massive cross appeared in front of the five members of Great Wall. This was exactly the same color and shape as the Strife, but transparent enough that the stars behind it were visible.

  And yet, it had substance. Iron Pound and the others kicked off the vision of the shield one after the other to change the angle of their jumps.

  “Here they come!” Chiyuri shouted.

  “I’ll handle Graph!” Kuroyukihime shouted, quickly doling out instructions: “Pile and Bell, Maiden and Current, team up and take on the enemy! Crow, Raker, you’re ranging!”

  “Roger!!” the six members of Nega Nebulus called out in unison and dropped into position to meet the oncoming attack.

  Aiming for Pound and the others approaching from the sky above, Utai began shooting arrows at them. The majority of these were knocked aside by Viridian Decurion’s buckler, but they seemed to be effective as a challenge. The five avatars pushed at one another in midair to split into two groups, and Decurion and Pound came down toward the chunk of rock where Utai and the others were encamped, while Lignum, Chafer, and Ash fell toward Haruyuki’s island.

  Standing up very carefully from the ground in the weak gravity, Haruyuki moved away from Kuroyukihime and readied himself alongside Takumu and Chiyuri. The role he’d been instructed to play was roving attacker, but if three enemies were coming in, then he had to be there to welcome them.