Accel World Vol 4 Chapter 9 (2/2)

‘…Besides, a one-shot match is honestly much more welcome.’

‘Fufu, Haru is the overconcentration-type after all. You always expect to decided things in one go.’

‘You who spent so much trouble training in mind power are just as bad, though.’

After giving a short laugh at each other and saying they’d meet against after school, Haruyuki cut the connection.

—I’m glad that Tak.u.mu is next to me.

After sincerely thinking that, Haruyuki thanked from the bottom of his heart that, half a year ago when he had first fought Cyan Pile, he had decided not to deliver the finis.h.i.+ng blow to his friend.

After school. 7:30 at night.

While he was tidying up his home’s living room and taking out a box from the freezer in order to heat up the usual frozen pizza, his doorbell chime rang.

After quickly confirming Tak.u.mu’s face in a holo-window, he ran to the entranceway. He pressed the unlock b.u.t.ton, and headed to the opening door.

“Hey. Right on ti…”

Immediately after he ended in ‘-me’, Haruyuki was taken aback as he opened his mouth wide.

Another familiar face was there to the side behind Tak.u.mu who was standing there with a grave face.

“…C-Chiyu…!?”

Why did you come here now?

Without giving him the time to voice that question, the plain clothes-wearing Chiyuri mumbled an expressionless ‘Sorry for intruding[2]’ and entered into the hallway. She quickly pa.s.sed by Haruyuki and walked into the living room.

After watching the sight of her back while dumbfounded, Haruyuki turned around to face Tak.u.mu and questioned him.

“…W-Why?”

“I didn't call her here. She came with me inside the elevator.”

Tak.u.mu mumbled that, seeming like he also was having trouble understanding. After letting out a thin breath and closing the door, he tilted his head in doubt to ask whether it was okay to enter.

After deeply nodding, Haruyuki returned to the hallway along with Tak.u.mu.

Standing not in the living room but in the kitchen, Chiyuri lifted up the box of frozen pizza which he had left in the sink, made a small smile and spoke.

“…As usual, you eat things like this.”

And then she returned it to the freezer and lifted up a paper bag she seemed to have brought with her.

“I got Mama to make lasagna again. Let’s eat it the three of us together.”

She paused for a moment.

“…Don’t worry, I didn’t put anything like poison into it.”

As soon as he heard that joke, a sharp pain pierced through the center of his chest, and Haruyuki’s face became distorted.

—Why did we have to become like this?

That thought ran through his mind. Turning his gaze away, he saw that Tak.u.mu’s eyes had also stiffened behind his gla.s.ses.

Unable to look at the two of them like that anymore, Chiyuri quickly took out a heat-resistant container and divided its contents onto three plates. She skillfully carried one plate in her left hand and two in her right hand, and walked into the living room.

“Come on, sit down.”

Smiling, she placed a plate with a slightly large serving in front of Haruyuki, and placed the other two plates with similar amounts in front of Tak.u.mu and herself. She took out forks from a cutlery basket that was placed on the middle of dining room table and held them out to the two of them.

When compared to Chiyuri’s behaviour over the last week, each of those separate actions were important as they weaved together as if in an unseen thread, to the point where Haruyuki couldn’t watch anymore. He accepted the form, fixed his gaze on his plate, and spoke in a low voice.

“…Thank you. Itadakimasu[3].”

“…Itadakimasu.”

Tak.u.mu also said it, and with Chiyuri words of “Go ahead” as the signal, the three of them began to eat in silence the lasagna that was specially made by Chiyuri’s mama.

It was delicious. Its taste was far greater than the thing they had eaten as a meal a week ago. But within that deliciousness, there was still clearly that pain which dwelled in Haruyuki’s chest. Since he would probably start crying if he stopped chewing, Haruyuki made sure to hold the plate and earnestly continued eating.

Their three plates became empty in fifteen minutes. Chiyuri, after cleaning the dishes and coming back, sat down at the table once again.

After remaining silent for a while, it was 7:50 when Chiyuri finally opened her mouth.

“……Noumi told me to come. To the location of the duel.”

“Wha…”

“Eh…”

Haruyuki raised their voices at the same time as Tak.u.mu.

Following a momentary pause, his thoughts began turning at high speed.

“I…I see. You’re already at Level 4 after all…so you’re also entering the Unlimited Neutral Field…”

Foolishly, Haruyuki hadn’t considered at all the possibility that Chiyuri would appear. But, certainly, since it’s Noumi, he would have no hesitation in using Lime Bell as part of an ambush.

“B-But…how does Noumi intend to transmit the designated time to you, Chii-chan…?”

Tak.u.mu’s question was quite natural. He and Haruyuki would be arbitrarily changing the designated time, in order to eliminate the chances of Burst Linkers lying in ambush for them. Chiyuri wasn’t an exception to that either.

Chiyuri turned down her face so as to escape from the looks directed at her from the two of them, and then mumbled.

“…Noumi instructed me like this. Meet directly with Haru and Takkun, and tell them that I’ve betrayed him. Do that so that they trust me, and Dive at the same time as them…and then once the duel start, heal him.”

“……Wh…at…?”

Haruyuki clenched his teeth hard.

—Just how much foul play does he intend to do!

At the same time as that fury pierced through his brain, Haruyuki was even more confused by Chiyuri’s intentions in confessing those instructions to him and Tak.u.mu.

As if sensing that, Chiyuri continued in a thin voice.

“…But, that’s impossible. Even if I said such a thing now, it wouldn’t be persuasive at all. That’s why, I…thought that I would tell you two the truth and ask you two.”

“Ask us, you say……”

Looking at first Haruyuki and then Tak.u.mu with wide eyes wet with pale tears, Chiyuri clearly spoke.

“Please take me there. I have to go. If you say it’s impossible…if you say that, it can’t be helped, so instead I’ll Dive into the Unlimited Neutral Field right here and now, and wait on the other side until you two come. No matter how many months or years it takes, I’ll wait.”

“…Chiyu, you……”

Those words were squeezed out from his blocked throat. Chiyuri may have declared that, but he felt a deep shock at hearing words like the «Unlimited Neutral Field» coming out smoothly from the mouth of a girl who should have been a beginner that didn’t know the basics of Brain Burst only a week ago.

Haruyuki had held dozen, hundreds of questions within his chest since this incident began.

—Why!

—Chiyu, just what on earth are you going so far for! For what purpose are you continuing to so insistently and foolishly earn points in the Brain Burst that you denied until now!!

Yes, Haruyuki wasn’t able to stop himself from thinking even this.

What if even Chiyuri’s words now are a trap? What if this is a strategy where she betrays us two-fold, interrupts during the duel and steals away the points of me and Tak.u.mu?

Honestly, although it was a battle against Dusk Taker where they didn’t know what would happen in the match even if it’s one-on-one, their chances of victory would almost entirely disappear if Lime Bell’s healing ability was added to the mix. It would become just like the battle on Tuesday.

Haruyuki couldn’t understand. He couldn’t grasp Chiyuri’s true intentions at all.

The one that broke the heavy silence was Tak.u.mu’s quiet voice.

“…I understand, Chii-chan. We’ll go together.”

“T-Taku…”

Tak.u.mu turned towards Haruyuki, smiled quietly and spoke.

“Haru. Half a year ago, you saved me during our first battle in that hospital. You surely wavered about it, right? There was plenty of possibility that my pleading was just lip-service and that I would try to hunt the comatose Black Lotus immediately after our duel finished. But…you forgave me. No, you believed in me. I will never forget that time……That’s why.”

Taking a deep breath through his trembling throat, Tak.u.mu resolutely declared.

“I will also believe in Chii-chan. It’s frustrating that I can’t understand Chii-chan’s real intentions no matter how I think about it…But, whatever may happen due to Chii-chan’s actions, I will accept it.”

Within the silence that once again filled the room, Haruyuki saw Chiyuri’s lips move silently.

It was a minute movement like the shaking of a tree, but the clear words reached his ears.

…Thank you, Takkun.

The instant he heard that, Haruyuki shut his eyes tightly. On the screen of his eyelids, the tears that he had seen Chiyuri shed yesterday in her room were recalled.

I’m acting according to my own will.

Chiyuri had said that while crying. In that case, the small details of the situation already didn’t matter. Just as Tak.u.mu had said, it was about believing, or not believing. The problem was only that. And the answer to that was decided. Since many years ago, since the time when Chiyuri and Haruyuki could satisfyingly talk to each other, it was already decided.

“Alright.”

Haruyuki also nodded.

“Let’s go together. The three of us.”

At the same time as it reached 8 PM, Haruyuki sent the first typed email to Noumi. The specified Dive time was 8:30. The location was in front Kouenji Station within the Unlimited Neutral Field.

Of course, these would both be changed from now on again and again. Since they would only send the new directions a few seconds before the arrival of the previous designated time, even if Noumi had someone set up in ambush, it was impossible for Noumi to transmit a postponement to them. Only, there was a danger of Noumi and his ambush accomplice Diving at the same time if they met up with each other in the real world like Haruyuki and the others, but Haruyuki didn’t believe that Noumi had a comrade he trusted that much. Furthermore, Haruyuki and Tak.u.mu had also considered the idea that the accomplice would Dive after also meeting with Noumi on this side in order to eliminate that possibility, but they dismissed they because it was even more dangerous to leave one’s unconscious body in front of Noumi.

While randomly changing the time and location, Haruyuki continued to send mail after mail.

The feeling of tension while on standby was unpleasant like when being left alone for a long time in the waiting room of a dentist’s office. But, thinking that the irritation that Noumi must be feeling right now was incomparable to his nervousness made him able to endure it. On Noumi’s side, he wasn’t able to predict just how long and how many times they were going to extend this.

9:12 PM.

After amply repeating the extension more than 15 times, Haruyuki finally spoke.

“All right…We’ll Dive in one minute.”

“Roger.”

Tak.u.mu gave that answer, while Chiyuri also nodded.

The one-match battle which bet all the points of three people. Despite how long it had been prolonged, it would start in one hour. In other words, everything would be over after only three to six seconds in the real world.

Within his heart, Haruyuki called out ‘Senpai’ to Kuroyukihime who was in the far away Okinawa.

…Senpai, if I lose, you’ll probably be extremely angry, and also sad. But, I believe that you’ll definitely understand in the end. It is exactly because I aim to be your knight that I have to do this.

Five seconds before 9:13.

Haruyuki pressed the transmit b.u.t.ton for the last email.

The contents were—[Location: Umesato Middle School grounds. Time: Now.]

“Let’s go!!”

Right after Haruyuki shouted that out, the three of them gathered their voices together and cried out the command.

“““Unlimited Burst!!”””

References

↑ The kanji used here is different from the usual対戦for acceleration duels. Instead, he uses決闘, which basically means the more cla.s.sical kind of honorable one-on-one match or shoot-out.

↑ She says おじゃまします, which is a common greeting when entering someone else's home.

↑ Common phrase spoken before one eats.

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