Accel World Vol 1 Chapter 7 (1/2)

Chapter 7

Haruyuki’s broken consciousness could only remember what happened afterwards in images of three colors.

The image of that slender form, lying on the brick tiles of the side walk and bent unnaturally—black.

The image of blood spreading out in fearfully large amounts under that body—red.

The image of those still closed eyelids, and of those cheeks which had lost their complexion—white.

The necktie Haruyuki used to stop the bleeding and his own hand were also dyed red in an instant.

The clothes of Araya, who crawled out from the driver’s seat of the white car, which had crashed into the wall of a store while laughing manically, were also red.

A patrol car came with its red lights flas.h.i.+ng rushed onto the scene, and the still laughing Araya was forced into its backseat.

Immediately afterwards, a white ambulance with likewise red-flas.h.i.+ng lights also arrived and the men in white who got off of it fixed Kuroyukihime onto a stretcher. At his urging, Haruyuki also rode with them and the ambulance had started driving at high speed—.

And now, Haruyuki was looking up at the ER’s red in-operation lamp in a corner of a white hallway.

Until now, Haruyuki couldn’t think about what had happened before.

The only thing that was floating in his mind was a replay of every moment over the past four days since he met Kuroyukihime.

That time too—that time too, and that time as well, Haruyuki should have been able to make different choices.

And if he had chosen that instead, this situation could have been avoided.

Why didn’t he try to believe even a little in the hand that Kuroyukihime extended towards him, and the feelings she showed? If he had obediently accepted it without obstinately looking down, that quarrel between them on the road wouldn’t have happened and they should have been able to notice the approaching car as well.

…Among all the mistakes I’ve repeated so many times in my life until now, I’ve made the number-one mistake that can’t be undone.

Haruyuki went back to every crossroad among each fragment of his broken consciousness and tried to do down a different future one by one, but even Brain Burst couldn’t change the past.

He continued doing that for who knew how long as he gazed up at the lamp.

The lamp indicated that they were still in the middle of operating, but suddenly the door slid open and a female nurse came out. Haruyuki simply looked at that form in a white gown as she then approached straight towards him.

She was a young nurse who seemed like she had just graduated from nursing school. As he faced her, who showed a strained expression under her beautifully arranged bangs, words flowed out almost of their own accord from Haruyuki’s mouth.

“How…is it?”

“The doctor and all the staff are doing their best.”

The nurse’s voice was slightly hoa.r.s.e and stiff.

“But…She has too many damaged organs. We fully injected repair-use micro-machines, and the deterioration of her conditions has somehow been delayed. And…that’s right, about her family…we’d like to contact them, but there wasn’t an emergency contact address registered in her Neuro Linker.”

“Eh…”

Sitting next to Haruyuki who was at a loss for words, the nurse leaned forward and continued from there.

“I thought that you would know her home’s telephone number. You’re…her…?”

There was a questioning note at the end, but Haruyuki didn’t respond at once.

What am I for that person? A chess piece, an underling. I don’t want to use those kinds of words anymore. But now, I also don’t want to refer to us as friends, or as senpai and kouhai.

Hesitating to speak, Haruyuki heard the words the nurse spoke after a moment’s pause, and unconsciously looked up.

“…her boyfriend, right?”

“Eh…W-Why do you say that?”

Looking at the beauty of Kuroyukihime, which had miraculously not been damaged, and the physical appearance of Haruyuki, there shouldn’t have been anything for her do draw such a conclusion from.

As Haruyuki reflexively shrunk his body, he was quietly presented a small notebook.

Stamped with a metal emblem on its blue synthetic leather cover, it was the Umesato Middle School’s student handbook.

“I saw it just now when I was looking for her phone number and confirming her personal effects. I’m sorry.”

Wearing just a slight smile on her stiffened cheeks, the nurse opened the student handbook to the last page.

In the clear pocket on the left side, there was a student ID with a face-shot of Kuroyukihime.

And on the right side, there was a familiar round face.

Receiving the notebook with trembling hands, Haruyuki gazed at a picture of himself wearing an idiotic expression on his face. From that time—It was without a doubt the sight-capture picture she printed, from when he heard Kuroyukihime’s first «confession» to him in the lounge.

With a dripping noise, a single drop of water fell onto the surface of the picture.

Haruyuki hadn’t noticed that tears had been overflowing from his eyes for a while now.

“Senpai…Kuroyukihime-senpai.”

His murmuring voice trembled greatly. It didn’t take long for him to dissolve into crying like a child.

“Uu…aa…Uaaaaa!!”

Holding the notebook to his chest and bending forward, Haruyuki cried.

The tears flooded out one after another, and fell along his cheeks and onto the floor. Within the gouging-like pain his chest, Haruyuki found for the first time, in this moment now, his true feelings.

The operation continued for nearly five hours.

When the time indicator in the corner of his vision changed from evening to late night, Haruyuki simply sent a text mail saying “My friend was involved in an accident today, tonight I will return very late or not at all”, and then simply returned to sitting on the chair.

Kuroyukihime’s home seemed to have been contacted through the school, but surprisingly, instead of her family, only a family lawyer appeared by himself.

Equipped with large-type Neuro Linker and also like a machine himself, the middle-aged lawyer completed only the legal procedures in a very business-like manner, and then went away after about fifteen minutes without even casting a glance at Haruyuki.

After a long, long time pa.s.s, the red lamp was finally extinguished at around 10 PM.

The young doctor, who came out in an utterly exhausted state, looked a little confused at seeing Haruyuki alone in the hallway outside, but he still explained her condition in a polite tone.

They had succeeded in stopping the bleeding, but the damage to the internal organs was extensive, and it wouldn’t be strange for her to fall into a state of shock.

The batch of synthetic protein micro-machines were going through tissue reconstruction and a.s.similation at full power, but in the end it depended on the patient’s physical strength.

“…In short, I have to say that her present condition is serious. The next twelve hours will be the difficult part…Please prepare yourself.”

When he finished saying that with a grave expression, the doctor left the hallway along with the staff.

The only person left was the female nurse from before.

Giving a brief glance to the student handbook still being grasped in Haruyuki’s hands, the nurse spoke in a gentle tone.

“You should also…return home and rest. It seems that someone from her family will be coming tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow…will be too late.”

Haruyuki replied with a stubborn att.i.tude that showed that he had no intention taking even one step away from this place.

“The doctor said that the next twelve hours would be the hard part. Even though senpai is doing her best, that no one would be at her side now, that’s just…too cruel.”

“……I see…That’s true. Did you contact your home?”

“Yes…My parent won’t be returning until around one o’clock anyway.”

“I understand. Then, I’ll bring you a blanket, please wait a moment.”

Leaving for the nurses’ station within the hallway with quick feet and then returning immediately, the nurse nodded firmly while handing a thin blanket to Haruyuki.

“Don’t worry. That girl will surely be all right. She’s so pretty…and has such a nice boyfriend like you. The fun things, it all starts from here.”

Really—so many more things are “all starting from here” than you think. Defeating «Cyan Pile», taking down the legions of the other Kings, and going to the place that person is aiming towards. Of course, I will also go with her.

While instantaneously thinking that, Haruyuki spoke.

“Th…Thank you very much. Umm…when can I meet with senpai?”

“It’s impossible right now, since the micro-machine operation room has been air-sealed. But, you can see camera images of her via the hospital network. For this time only, a special privilege for you.”

The nurse smiled, and manipulated her fingertip in the air. At the same time as she made a flicking gesture, an access gate appeared in Haruyuki’s vision.

Haruyuki was a little surprised that he could wirelessly connect with the nurse’s Neuro Linker even though they were cut-off from the Global Net, but he quickly realized that they were connected through the hospital’s local network.

When he clicked on the icon, a video window was opened. The screen was dim and blurry, but by straining his eyes he noticed a bed with a strange shape in the middle.

It seemed to be a capsule with only its top-half transparent. A semi-transparent liquid filled its interior, and he could see a white body down to the shoulders soaking inside it.

The tubes that were connected to the arms and mouth were painful to look at, and the eyelids remained closed without even a flutter.

“Senpai…”

Right now, inside that delicate body, countless micro-machines and her life-force were fighting against huge damage. Haruyuki could do nothing to help in that battle. There was nothing he could do, but pray.

“Don’t worry. She’ll definitely be saved.”

The nurse repeated that again, and after gently patting Haruyuki’s back, she got up.

“Since her condition is being monitored in detail, we’ll come right away if something happens. You should rest a little too.”

“Yes. Ah…umm, thank you very much.”

As Haruyuki thanked the nurse who was departing and lowered his head—

As he looked at the video window displayed on the right side of his vision, he unexpectedly felt unease over a certain place within it. His intuition, polished by his enormous virtual game experience, was whispering that there was something he should be seeing, something he should be thinking about.

What—What did I see just now?

Kuroyukihime’s body was naked above the shoulders. But, she was still wearing something.

She was sunk in semi-transparent liquid, so he couldn’t see it well, but—that black thing behind her neck was a Neuro Linker. And, directly connecting to it was a single thin cable. It extended outside the bed parallel to an oxygen tube, and connected to a large machine on the side.

“Pl…Please wait a moment.”

Stopping quickly, the nurse tilted her head while looking back at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, umm…Kuro, no, senpai’s Neuro Linker, it’s still equipped, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Since we’re monitoring her brain waves.”

“Then, umm…that machine connected to it by cable isn’t stand-alone…?”

“Of course not, it’s connected to the hospital’s network.”

—What!?

Seeing Haruyuki lose his breath, the nurse put on a quizzical expression and smiled as if to make him relieved.

“What’s wrong, are you worried about the security? Don’t worry, the medical-treatment level of the hospital’s network has amazingly tough protective firewalls. There isn’t a hacker that can do anything bad to that girl.”

As he watched the back of the nurse, who was waving her hand with a “See you later then” and disappearing into the nurses’ station, Haruyuki replied back in his mind as if groaning.

—Normally, that would be true. But, “that” isn’t normal. “That”, which can easily invade the social security camera network that should be equipped with the strongest firewalls in the country, and can steal real time images…

Only Brain Burst could.

Now alone in the hallway, Haruyuki sat down with a thud while holding the blanket in his left hand.

Kuroyukihime’s Neuro Linker was completely severed from the Global Net. However, due to the direct connecting for the sake of treatment, she was connected to the hospital’s network. —In other words.

Haruyuki murmured with a trembling voice.

“Burst Link.”

Instantly, all sound and the world froze.

Standing up in his pig avatar form, Haruyuki clicked on the flaming B mark from among the icons lined up on the virtual desktop on his left with feelings of praying.

The Brain Burst console activated and the matching list opened.

Following the Searching indicator, the name «Silver Crow» appeared at the top of the list.

And, placed just a little below it was—the name «Black Lotus».

“No…No way…”

Haruyuki groaned.