Accel World Vol 5 Chapter 6 (1/2)

Chapter 6

After using the command “Burst Out” to return to the real world from the territory battle field, Haruyuki hesitated before opening his eyes as he felt gravity press down on his body.

He stayed still like that for about 10 seconds, but then finally raised his head up.

Currently 6 PM, his home’s living room was so deathly silent that the conversation and laughter that he exchanged with the others just a moment ago on the other side seemed like an illusion.

The room was quite gloomy since the lighting was off. The sliver of the evening sky that could be seen from the gap between the slightly opened curtains was a dull lead color. The only thing moving within his field of vision was the thin second hand moving languidly on the a.n.a.log-type clock on the wall, which was practically just an accessory in this day and age.

Haruyuki let out a small sigh and slumped back his body on the sofa.

Their legion tried as much as possible to Dive for the weekly territory battles on Sunday after gathering together in real life, but when they didn’t have the spare time to do so, they instead partic.i.p.ated from each of their respective homes and neighborhoods. Although a single battle in Brain Burst took only 1.8 seconds to finish, having to fight defensively in more than ten consecutives battles, at the very minimum, made it come out to closer to ten minutes when you included the intervals between battles. Today had turned out to be one of those days they each Dived separately, due to Kuroyukihime being unable to leave the student council room. —Of course, Sky Raker was the only one that partic.i.p.ated from a separate location almost every week, due to her house being close to s.h.i.+buya.

Haruyuki could never come to like partic.i.p.ating in the territory battles from his home by himself. The reason was simple. It was because, when he Bursted Out after having been absorbed in fighting ten consecutive fierce battles and sharing the joy of victory or regret of defeat with his friends, he always felt an intense loneliness when he suddenly woke up alone in his empty home.

It wasn’t the kind of extreme loneliness at being completely alone that he’d felt before he’d met Kuroyukihime last autumn and received the Brain Burst program from her. Rather, that would have been more comforting if it were so. Back then, when he ran out of school as soon as school finished every day and returned home as if running away, he would keep immersing himself in the world of games, anime and comics that filled his room. Just talking with others in the real world—no, just being in the same place as other people was painful to him back then.

Almost eight months.

It had only been that long since he had become a Burst Linker. And yet, Haruyuki now felt from the bottom of his heart that he wanted to meet with his friends in the legion that he had just parted with a few minutes ago. No, he didn’t care if it was with Niko, Pard-san, Ash Roller, or even Frost Horn. He wanted to exchange fists in a «duel», to comment on battles as part of a lively gallery, to meet with others in real life and talk about trivial things.

“……What’s happened to me?”

Murmuring that, Haruyuki buried his face in a sofa cus.h.i.+on. Suddenly, some window opened in the center of his vision along with the default sound effect of his home network, but he hit the confirmation b.u.t.ton with his right hand right away without looking at the contents. It was probably an automatic fixed message from his mom anyway about how she would be late tonight again. He quickly forgot about it and imagined the continuation of the question he’d asked within his mind.

—Have I become stronger, or weaker?

Considering how his fear towards other people had decreased, it could be said that he had become stronger. However, that had also increased his dependence on others at the same time.

When he’d been alone every day, there was nothing else he could lose.

But now, Haruyuki feared from the bottom of his heart that the personal relations he had obtained in these last eight months would break.

In particular, the one thread that was firmly connected to the very bottom of his heart and extended straight outwards from there, s.h.i.+ning like black silk—

Even though he knew this kind of thinking was dangerous, he couldn’t stop himself. He tightly shut his eyes while lying face-down on the sofa within his gloomily-lit living room, and continued thinking with his arms folded over his head.

What the end of the thread connected to was, of course, the person that had saved Haruyuki and was his «Parent», Kuroyukihime.

Kuroyukihime was currently a third-year at Umesato Middle School. And half of this year’s first semester had already pa.s.sed. In other words, there were ten months left. After only 300 more days pa.s.sed, Kuroyukihime would graduate from Umesato Middle School. He hadn't heard anything about which high school she would be going to after that. He was too afraid to ask.

Haruyuki could feel the actual time pa.s.sing by little by little even at this very moment, just like the rapid stream of thought from accelerating his mind’s thought processes a thousand times. If he could, he would like to spend all of the remaining ten months in Accel World with Kuroyukihime. On the other side, time would flow almost infinitely, taking up to 820 years for the eight months to pa.s.s by his simple calculations, but even that seemed not enough to him.

“……Senpai.”

He let out that whisper and grasped the ends of the cus.h.i.+on harder.

“Hmm, what is it?”

He imagined hearing her voice from very close by. While remaining face-down, Haruyuki repeated the same words in order to hear the reply of the imaginary Kuroyukihime once again.

“Senpai…”

“Like I said, what is it, Haruyuki-kun?”

Her voice was extremely gentle, not to mention containing a sense of realism, and Haruyuki heavily turned his body to the left, in a mood to see how far the limits of his delusional power went.

And there, right before his eyes, were two legs wrapped in black stockings, just fifty centimeters away from the sofa.

After blinking several times, he s.h.i.+fted his vision upwards. There was actually a superb knee-length skirt there. Above that, there was a jet-black short-sleeve s.h.i.+rt with a damp l.u.s.ter and a dark-red ribbon.

Her slender neck with a piano-black Neuro Linker attached, her long black hair that flowed down bewitchingly, and even her slightly tilted white face that possessed a beauty detached from people everywhere; they all had an overwhelming sense of reality as they filled Haruyuki’s vision.

……Wow, I really can’t make light of my mind’s delusional power. To think I would see such a clear illusion. Or was this developed from the image data in my memories while I was unconscious? But, do I really have such a high resolution photo of her entire body…?

While thinking that, Haruyuki nonchalantly held out his right hand and used it to grab and pull on the hem of her pleated skirt.

Even the realistic texture of the cloth and the ma.s.s and elasticity of the body beyond that were transmitted to his fingertips, and just when he thought ‘Let’s see now’.

“Nyaaah!?”

He heard that scream, and his right hand was smacked away. And then.

“Wha…Wha are you doing, you idiot!!”

A thunderous reprimand rained down on him, and at the same time two slender hands were held out towards him, which then grasped his cheek with three fingers each and mercilessly displayed their pulling power.

“Hii…Hafueh!?”

At the same time as he let out a scream and exclamation of shock, Haruyuki realized.

This was the real person. Not an illusion, not a photo, and not a solid AR image either. The actual Kuroyukihime had suddenly appeared in the living room of Haruyuki’s house and was raising her eyebrows in anger. But why, and how? Did she teleport here? Or maybe even quantum coherence[1]?

After about thirty seconds of pulling on Haruyuki’s cheeks, Kuroyukihime sat down on the sofa facing him with a thump and began lecturing him.

“Hey now, I properly rang the door chime, you know! And since you unlocked the door without even saying h.e.l.lo, I had no choice but to simply enter like that. I even properly greeted you by voice when I was at the door!”

“……Hah?”

Certainly, when he buried his head into the cus.h.i.+on and thought about this or that with his arms covering his ears, he had sensed that some kind of window had opened for a moment. He had thought it was surely a mail from his mother and had pushed the confirmation b.u.t.ton without looking at what it said, but apparently it had actually been a notification window for the intercom.

After summarizing in his mind that leaving the settings on the similar-sounding default message chime had been a mistake and that he should definitely change the ringtone without fail, Haruyuki then straightened his back and opened his mouth again.

“E-Err……W-Welcome, senpai.”

“Hmph. Sorry for intruding.”

Still pouting somewhat, Kuroyukihime answered back while adjusting the hem of her skirt. It was good that he had pulled it downwards just then, since if he had lifted it up, his punishment would definitely not have ended at just a cheek pull.

As he thought that to himself, Haruyuki was aware that the gears of his thought processes were still turning strangely. That wasn't the problem, nor was how Kuroyukihime had come up to his home either. The fundamental thing he had to solve first was,

“……S-So, umm…why did you suddenly come over to my place…?”

He timidly asked that question.

Based on her uniform and also her school bag lying on the floor, Kuroyukihime seemed to have come directly from Umesato Middle School. If it had been to give him a message, she would have said it when they were having their meeting after the territory battle earlier, and she could have send him a mail or called him as well. So it must have been a matter which she couldn’t discuss through those means.

“…Is it about…something that requires an extremely high degree of security to talk about?”

He went ahead and guessed that, but Kuroyukihime shook her head slightly and shrugged her shoulders.

“It isn’t something as grand as that…What, do I not have the right to come over to play every once in a while? Even though Tak.u.mu-kun and Chiyuri-kun seem to visit you quite frequently?”

As his cheeks started swelling again, Haruyuki shook his head back and forth at high speed.

“N-Nononono, that’s not it, that’s not it at all! I-I-I-I’m very happy. You can come every day if you like, rather you could even m-m-move in, wait, what am I saying, ah, that’s right I’m sorry I’ll go get tea! I’ll make it right away so please sit down, wait you’re already sitting I’m sorry!”[2]

Since he was speaking of things that couldn’t be recovered by talking any further, Haruyuki stood up as if rolling off the couch and escaped by das.h.i.+ng to the kitchen. From behind him, he heard her say “Please don’t mind me” mixed with confused yet wry laughter, and the instant he heard that, his mental tension finally began to loosen slightly.

She hadn’t come bearing some strictly confidential matter concerning the legion, but had simply come over to play on her way home. As if he was receiving a fellow cla.s.smate as a guest in his home. Like an ordinary middle school student.

The instant he thought that, Haruyuki barely held back the smile that tried to break out from his lips as he took out the most expensive bag of coffee beans his mother collected from the cupboard and roughly put it into the coffee percolator.

While the cloudy sky outside the window changed from gray to a perfect pitch black night sky, Haruyuki continued talking in an engrossed state.

About today’s territory battle. About recent information on Accel World. About tomorrow’s race.

They didn’t stop at topics concerning Brain Burst; rumours and events at school, local topics within Suginami, and in the end even about the 2047 summer model Neuro Linkers announced by all the Neuro Linker-producing companies. They just kept talking, and talking, and talking about it all.

“…But, I think that the large and high functionality-type Neuro Linkers recently are putting the cart before the horse. In the first place, isn’t it meant to be a device that’s made to be so wearable that you forget you have it on your neck? And yet, the new Hitas model that came out just recently has an extra carry-use external unit made to attach to it!”

“Fufu, I understand how you feel. But, can you say that just by looking at the specs? According to rumor, it’s equipped with a deferred unit line CPU by having the connector and slot connection placed outside the device itself.”

“Uuh…N-No, regardless of how amazing the CPU is, it doesn't give an advantage for Brain Burst duels, right?”

“Hmm, well, you can say that. But, I also heard gossip that the effect processing is rather gorgeous for players that use the newest Linker…”

“Seriously!? Unfair, that’s unfair!”

“What, it’s not like their percentage of victories go up due to the beauty of their visuals. By the way, I’ve also decided to change over to the new Recto model next month.”

“Uwah, that’s way, way too unfair! S-Senpai, can’t I also use yours a bit…?”

“Hey, hey, you can’t use the Linkers of other people. Even if I did lend it, I don’t think it’d fit on your neck, hahaha…”

So much fun.

Just thinking of having Kuroyukihime to himself, sitting on the other sofa and talking, nodding and laughing with a coffee cup in one hand, Haruyuki could taste a feeling of happiness that rose all the way to the heavens.

Haruyuki continued engrossing himself in the joy of communication known as a face-to-face conversation in the real world, which was a great luxury nowadays and was also something he still hadn’t been able to do well out of nervousness half a year ago. That’s why he wasn’t able to notice it. The faint hint of sadness that ran through Kuroyukihime’s eyes every once in a while.

After two hours.

This span of time that Haruyuki wished would continue forever was interrupted by a low grumbling sound from his stomach.

“Ah…It’s already this late. I overstayed my visit all the way to dinner time.”

After Kuroyukihime said that, Haruyuki shook his head frantically.

“N-No, it’s fine! My stomach isn’t hungry at all.”

*GUUH*

His body betrayed his mind again by letting out another grumbling sound. Thinking ‘This is why I hate this body!’, he covered his stomach with both arms, but dealing with the involuntary actions of his internal organs was quite difficult.

“Fufu, it’s only natural. Since you partic.i.p.ated greatly in today’s territory battle, you probably used up a lot of energy. You should replenish yourself fully for tomorrow.”

Smiling, Kuroyukihime stood up. Although he very much wanted to say ‘Then, at the very least, how about we have supper together?’, the only things he could prepare were frozen pizza, frozen Doria ca.s.serole, or five servings of frozen Chinese fried rice. He really couldn’t call it a menu appropriate for a guest.

While Haruyuki agonized over this, Kuroyukihime pick up her bag from the floor and began walking through the living room.

Her footsteps—

For an instant, her footsteps seemed just slightly heavier compared to her usual gallant gait. A needle of sharp discernment pierced through Haruyuki’s brain.

—Could she have come here because there was actually something else she wanted to talk about?

—And yet I simply talked about my own things and used up the time? Was I so engrossed in only my own happiness and enjoyment that I didn’t notice something important…?

Forgetting his intense hunger as well, Haruyuki opened his mouth.

But no words came out. How could he ask if she was worried about something, like an afterthought, in this kind of situation? He should have noticed it an hour, or at least thirty minutes earlier. He should have shut his rambling mouth and waited for her to speak.

While staring at her back as she approached the gla.s.s door to the hallway, Haruyuki prayed. ‘G.o.d, please give me just one more chance.’

It was then that a low-pitched rumbling sound resounded from far away.

Of course, the source wasn’t Haruyuki’s stomach. It was thunder. When he looked outside the living room window with a start, he saw that the interior of the thick clouds that dimly reflected the city lights of Tokyo were two or three times whiter than before. Shortly after, there was another roll of thunder from slightly closer this time.

While looking at the raindrops that started instantly striking the window and the blurring color of neon lights, Haruyuki spoke in a hoa.r.s.e voice.

“…Umm, senpai…It’s really raining hard.”

Kuroyukihime also halted, and whispered while looking at him sidelong.

“The forecast said there was a less than 10% chance of rain until 12 o’clock, though…This kind of mistaken prediction is rare.”

“U-Umm…do you have an umbrella?”

“Unfortunately, it’s just as you see. I’m sorry, but…”

As she held out her empty hands Haruyuki completely expected her to follow up by saying ‘Can I take shelter from the rain here for a little while?’—however.

“…Can you lend me an umbrella?”

“Eh…Yeah, sure, of course.”

After nodding stiffly and heading reluctantly towards the door, Haruyuki’s feet were held back by a second phenomenon.

A window with a yellow warning mark attached to it popped up in the left side of his vision.

“Ah…There’s a lightning warning and network malfunction alarm for Suginami and Setagaya.”

“You’re right. I don’t think I would get hit by an actual bold of lightning, but…I hate the connection lag on the road…”

Kuroyukihime said that with a shrug of her shoulders. When walking through traffic, it was convenient to have AR[3] information on every place within sight—from the traffic report within the vicinity, to the navigation line towards one’s destination, to the distance walked and to one’s calorie expenditure—displayed by the Neuro Linker, but when lags occurred frequently due to the network being in bad condition, it instead made walking very difficult.

“Hmm……But, the time is already this late…”

Although she was usually the kind of person who made quick decisions and took swift action, Kuroyukihime looked at the time with an unusually indecisive tone of voice. Haruyuki also followed suit and turned to look towards the lower right corner of his virtual desktop. It was 8:07 PM. It was a delicate period of time that couldn’t be called either early or late in the evening.

As the sound of rain and thunder reached them dimly from the other side of the window, the two of them continued standing still with awkward postures in the middle of the living room.

Haruyuki inhaled and opened his mouth several times. However, no words came out in the end each time. No, he shouldn’t have needed to feel pressured like this. ‘You should wait until the rain stops and the thunderclouds pa.s.s at least.’ Wasn’t it actually a harmless and natural request? Yet, why was his heartbeat skyrocketing like this suddenly?

He couldn’t read the expression on Kuroyukihime’s sidelong face two meters away. Was she wavering, or listless, or maybe tense, or was she just waiting for something…

*PIPOON*

A default beeping sound suddenly rang, and Haruyuki shrank back in surprise.

The window that appeared in the center of his vision was a text message sent via the home server this time. The sender—his mother. The t.i.tle—Be back tomorrow night. The contents—I can’t come back tonight, so please care of everything at home.

The third miracle in a row. Though, it wasn’t actually something so exaggerated. Half the time, Haruyuki’s mother would only return home on weekends after the date changed at night, and the other half she would not return at all. However, to Haruyuki, this message came with the greatest and most final timing. He closed the window and forcibly pushed out his voice from his constricted throat.

“U-U-Umm…I-I’m not really bothered by that kind of thing a-a-at all. That is, umm, ah…”

As Haruyuki agonized over how he should tell her about the contents of the mail from his mother in a non-suggestive way, Kuroyukihime touched precisely upon the crux of the matter.

“No, your mother will also be arriving back home soon, so I’d just be a bother. I’ll just go now…”

The instant he heard that, several of the safety valves in Haruyuki’s brain were blown away and the following words simply flew out of his mouth by themselves.

“No, i-i-it’s fine! Because my mother isn’t c-c-coming back tonight!”

The thought ‘Oh no, that was way too blunt, it’s like I’m saying I want her to take shelter here from the rain!’ went through Haruyuki’s mind as he fell into an even greater panic, but—

Even after she heard that, Kuroyukihime’s upper body merely twitched. Eventually, she did a half-turn in the opposite direction to face Haruyuki, and then she whispered while looking at him sidelong.

“…I see. Then, sorry for intruding further, but I’ll take you up on your proposal.”

“I-I-I-It’s p-p-perfectly all right!”

While nodding frantically, Haruyuki thanked his mother’s super laissez-faire parenting policy within his mind. After that, he simply prayed for the thunderclouds overhead to remain there for even a second longer. If possible for an hour, no, at least thirty minutes…

Then, as Kuroyukihime started walking again, her mouth moved at slightly high speed.

“Now that I think about it, since we’ll all be meeting up here tomorrow as well, it’d be a waste of time for me to leave now.”

“T-That’s right. That would be really inefficient…”

——Huh?

It’d be troublesome to leave since she’s coming over tomorrow anyway? Wait, what did she mean by that?

As Haruyuki froze with an unnatural posture and expression, Kuroyukihime put her bag down on a chair in the dining room, and then,

“Then, I’ll go down to the mall below for a little while.”

Leaving those words, she went out the door.

Haruyuki should have next cooked the best-cla.s.s frozen marguerita pizza that he treasured within the freezer for dinner, made another cup of coffee and then watched the night news program on top of the sofa, but he had almost no memory of doing all that.

By the time he came to his senses, Haruyuki sitting in the living room alone.

However, it seemed that everything hadn’t been a delusion, as the faint sound of a hair drier came from the bathroom across the hallway.

At this point, his brain transmissions that had been idling for over two hours finally entered first gear, and Haruyuki’s thoughts resumed from where they had broken off.

‘It would be troublesome to return.’ In other words, would it be correct to interpret that as meaning she would not be going home before the time of the race tomorrow? Then, didn’t this inevitably lead to a Kuroyukihime remaining here for the night? To put it another way, she was “staying over”? Was the occurrence of such a situation legally and morally allowable, even though they were middle school students? But, her words couldn’t be interpreted otherwise, right?

—No, don’t let yourself be shaken, me! Even if that’s the situation, you should be able to cope with it calmly! After all, this wasn’t the first time, she has stayed over before without this kind of feeling, but that time Niko was also here, and furthermore they’d slept in the living room while doing a retro game marathon…

“Thanks for letting me use the bath.”

The living room door suddenly opened, causing Haruyuki to spring up and looked at the owner of the voice with a speed that almost seemed to dislocate his vertebrae.

She wore a simple set of dull gray pajama top and bottom. She had probably bought it at the shopping mall attached to the apartment building on the ground floor. While rubbing a towel over the hair behind her head, Kuroyukihime spoke with a faint smile.

“For some reason, the pajamas I have keep increasing one after another.”

“Y-Yes…Then, you should just leave a pair here.”

After he automatically said that, he realized belatedly what he’d said.

“No, I-I-I didn’t mean it like t-t-that, I-I-I wasn’t thinking something like how I wanted to you stay over again due to the thunder like today, n-n-no I’m not saying I hate it or anything, not at all, that is, err, err——”

As Haruyuki shook his arms and head in a complex manner, Kuroyukihime gave a big wry smile and offered some help.

“How about you use the bath too before the water gets cold?”

“Yes! I’ll do that!”

Getting off the sofa as if rolling off, Haruyuki escaped from the living room at full speed.

While finis.h.i.+ng up his bathing despite being hit by confusion again at steam still filling bathroom and then changing into a sweats.h.i.+rt and sweatpants instead of pajamas, Haruyuki very carefully considered his next course of action that he would have to choose from among the available options.

The answer he came to in the end was—

“Umm, senpai, please use my mother’s bedroom! It’s the door at the end of the hallway! T-T-Then, good night!”

He babbled out those words from the entrance to the living room, and after that shut himself into his room and pulled his blanket over his head, which was a slightly, no, a very pitiful thing to do.

He had vaguely guessed that Kuroyukihime had come over because there was something she wanted to talk about. However, under these circ.u.mstances, Haruyuki didn’t think he could remain calm at all when directly facing her in pajamas. After all, since his brain had already overheated a while ago, he would undoubtedly talk about a hundred more meaningless things instead of saying nothing. No, before that, it wouldn’t be strange if he broke down from hyperventilation, dehydration or arrhythmia first.

If it was going to end up like that, he should put his head under the covers in his room like this instead. At the very least, he would not have to carry memories, permanently saved in his brain, that would always make him cry out “Wah!” or “Gyaah!” when he recalled it afterwards.

Activating his mental shut-in mode at full-throttle back pedal for the first time in a while, Haruyuki continued curling up in his bed while gritting his teeth in self-loathing with the thought ‘Thinking that I had gotten stronger was just my imagination’ in his mind.

That’s why, about ten minutes later, when he heard the faint words “Can we talk a little?” along with a light nock on his door, he was greatly surprised that he didn’t pretend to be asleep.

Instead, Haruyuki sat up on his bed and took a deep breath. He chased away the weakness inside him with the breath of air, and then answered “Come in” in a hoa.r.s.e yet clear voice.

Opening the door and coming in without a sound, Kuroyukihime was for some reason holding one of the big cus.h.i.+ons from the living room sofa in her arms. She took a single look around the room, and then quickly walked forward and sat down on the edge of his bed.

“I thought you would say no.”

After Kuroyukihime said that in a low voice with her back turned to him, Haruyuki also answered back quietly.

“…I also thought I would say that.”

“Why did you change your mind?”

“Hmm…err…”

His emotions were unexpectedly calm. Instead, Haruyuki even felt a tranquil composure in this astounding situation. That might have been due to his relief at not having made a huge error at the last minute here.

“…It’s because I believed that you surely had something truly important to talk about, senpai.”

“What, so then you tried to swiftly go to sleep even though you noticed that?”

Seeing her slender back twitch and go stiff, he apologized while scratching his head.

“S-Sorry.”

“…Well, I’ll forgive you since you let me into your room like this.”

Letting the tension go out of her shoulders, Kuroyukihime turned her body a little and looked at Haruyuki as he sat in the middle of the bed. Her expression was gentle, but just as he thought, the sadness that had wavered over her face all day long still hadn’t disappeared from her eyes.

She raised her slender fingers and stroked the piano-black Neuro Linker attached to her neck. At the same time, she whispered quietly.

“«Those that use up all their points and have Brain Burst forcefully uninstalled lose all their memories connected to it at the same time.»”

Haruyuki’s breath caught in his throat. That was the Brain Burst program’s secrecy protection system that they had seen proof of almost two months ago. It was a form of absolute salvation, but ultimately a merciless punishment for losers.