The Black Dual Swordsman
Page 21
“Blaze Heart and two others. The location…Suginami. Nega Nebulus.”
“Whaaaat?!” Leaping to her feet, Niko bashed her shins on the edge of the table. “Ow!” The cry slipped out as she fell back onto the sofa. Even as tears sprang up in the corners of her eyes, her fierce expression remained unchanged. “That’s a violation of the truce! Why the…? So ohhh, I get it…That thing yesterday…”
Mihaya nodded. “I think they probably went to confirm with the Black King directly. Blaze has been a member since your predecessor’s Prominence.”
“Unnnh, I get how they feel, but, like, whoever butted in yesterday in the Unlimited Neutral Field was probably—nah, like an 80 percent chance that was a fake Lotus. That’s why I said to wait until we could get some info.”
“They’ve attacked, though, so that’s that. They were probably—no, an eighty percent chance they were repelled.”
“Ninety percent. Although, like, if they beat a team with Black One on it, I’d actually wanna high-five ’em.”
She smiled wryly at her leader’s nonchalance before clearing her throat and returning to the subject at hand. “Win or lose, we need to follow up on the treaty violation. I’m going to go to Suginami now and apologize directly to the Black Ki—”
“Mm. Mmmm. Hang on a sec.” Niko snapped her hand up to cut Mihaya off and turned her gaze to the ceiling for a second before grinning. It was her “great idea” face. “I’ll go do that.”
“……”
“Listen. This is the kinda thing that’s got more weight if the leader herself goes out there.”
“……”
“And we’re supposed to go along for their school festival tomorrow, yeah? Gonna be there anyway, so!”
“…We’re going to be there tomorrow, so you’ll take care of it today?” Mihaya asked, eyes turned up slightly.
The Red King cackled. “I’ll stay over at his place tonight, so come get me in the morning. I’ll make sure to get your ticket for the festival, too!”
“…Thanks.”
Although Niko was generally on the serious side, today was not the first time she had gotten overly active when it came to Nega Nebulus. Mihaya swallowed all kinds of things down and nodded, and Niko jumped off the sofa and picked up her backpack from the floor, no doubt intending to head over to Suginami right away.
“You can leave your bag here and just come get it tomorrow on our way home.”
“Oh, thanks. Then I will do just that.” She set the bag on the sofa and trotted to the door. She put her hand on the knob, but rather than open it right away, she looked back—and the young king had a smile on her face that was equal parts innocent and adult.
“Pard, I’m looking forward to the labyrinth next week.”
“K.”
She nodded at Mihaya’s reply, still smiling, and then waved before opening the door and stepping out.
After waiting until the sound of her footsteps disappeared, Mihaya also stood up. Four years since she’d become a Burst Linker. Three years since she’d found a master she could truly serve.
She had fought too many duels to count, leveled up, and could now run so fast that her old self didn’t begin to compare, but Mihaya still wasn’t satisfied with her speed. It was getting to be time for her to break free from running to escape fear. To go to the next stage. To become faster than she was now. And to protect the people she loved, the things she loved.
She raised her right hand and made a loose fist. She could feel the movement of her blood in her fingertips. Ba-dmp. Ba-dmp. The pulse, once a second. The direct cause of her father’s death was a sudden palpitation of the ventricle caused by cardiomyopathy. His pulse was over two hundred beats per minute, and then his heart stopped as if burned up, never to move again.
It was faint, but there was also a genetic element in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. So it was possible that Mihaya would someday be afflicted with the same disease, causing an anomaly in her heart. But her avatar, Blood Leopard, had taught her that she could never go anywhere if all she did was live in fear of that.
Burn her blood. Make her body race like a maelstrom. She would look only at herself and keep running. Just like a leopard racing smoothly through the grass.
Mihaya picked up Niko’s backpack and, holding it tightly, left the strategy room.
(End)
AFTERWORD
Thank you so much for reading Accel World 18: The Black Dual Swordsman.
First of all, I apologize for once again making you wait eight months since the last volume. I’m going to do my best to deliver the next volume to you at my previous pace, so please forgive me!
Now, then. In Volume 18, the last of the Four Elements, Graphite Edge, finally makes an appearance, and the executives of the first Nega Nebulus are together. Although Kuroyukihime, Fuko, and the others don’t appear to be too moved at their reunion…(LOL). With his demeanor, his position, the names of his special attacks, and so much more, Graph is quirky in all kinds of ways, but he’s a valuable (?) male character, so please do cheer him on!
This is changing the subject, but as a general rule, up to now, Accel World has been written from the limited third-person perspective of the protagonist Haruyuki. But with that single viewpoint, there comes the fact that I can only write the things that Haruyuki saw or heard, and when the number of complex scenes with simultaneous development in different places increases together with the increase in the number of characters, the story just doesn’t come together with Haruyuki’s viewpoint alone, and so the perspectives of other characters have been added since around Volume 15. We’ve had scenes from the point of view of Kuroyukihime, Pard, Magenta Scissor, aka Rui Odagiri, and in this volume, scenes from the perspective of Utai Shinomiya and Chocolat Puppeter, aka Shihoko Nago.
The number of things I can write about has increased—or rather, the number of things I have to write about has increased, so in order to progress with the story, I’d prefer not to add too many characters’ perspectives. But on the other hand, it is quite a bit of fun to write these new perspectives. In particular, the scene with Shihoko and the members of Petit Paquet was quite novel for me, with its tone like a slice-of-life comedy novel, which I’ve never done before (LOL). If I can find the opportunity, I’d like to do their part again, a little longer next time.
The story is at last (or perhaps I should say finally…) moving toward the conclusion of the two pillars of the tale that are the Castle and the Acceleration Research Society. I intend to do my best to retrieve the countless bits of foreshadowing I’ve sown aimlessly up to now, so I do hope you will all join me for the ride!
Additionally, as in the previous volume, this volume collects a previously unpublished story that was a perk for the TV anime Accel World Blu-Ray and DVD release, “Prominence Trajectory.” I would like to once again thank those involved who allowed me to print it here, as well as everyone who watched the anime version.
Thank you also to illustrator HIMA, who drew so cutely the three members of Petit Paquet and the Coba-Manga sisters who appeared here in the real for the first time, and my editor, Miki, who took the greatest of pains in arranging for this and that and doing traffic control! We will meet again in Volume 19!
Reki Kawahara
On a certain day in April 2015
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