Accel World Vol 6 Chapter 7 (2/2)

-“What can I do! It’s this Crow who wants to confess to Ore-sama!”

The roar of protest immediately changed to rapturous applause in a single breath.

Hearing the waves of clapping and whistling, Haruyuki was utterly fl.u.s.tered and shouted “What, it isn’t so!” But even if this carrot hadn’t been given, more than half the Gallery refused to leave the duel anyway. Whether or not Ash Roller had been serious or merely joking, Haruyuki absolutely wouldn’t bow to this.

Hence, he reached and touched his name in the upper left corner of his vision, and from the menu to change the duel type, selected ‘Closed Mode’ and pressed OK. A [YES/NO] option must have appeared in Ash Roller’s vision too; his hand moved just a little and every cheer and whisper from the audience immediately disappeared in a flash of light.

A silence settled in over the stage as though the ‘mute’ b.u.t.ton had been pressed, save for the low rumble of the gasoline engine of the V-Twin bike; it was exempt from the rule.

Ash Roller reached out with his right hand to toggle the ignition and cut the engine.

“…Alrighty, whaddya wanna say now? Your wings missing again? …Doesn’t seem like it, eh.”

“Uhh… That is… This…”

At a loss for the words he should use to explain the situation, Haruyuki decided to simply recount the truth as it had happened, and began:

“Yesterday, I entered into a duel with ‘Bush Utan’ from Great Wall…”

But that was all he got to when Ash Roller responded in a completely unexpected way:

“What… What did you say?”

The masked rider with a fierce appearance dismounted his bike, his skull-like face mask nearly touching Haruyuki’s, shouting:

“Where? When did this happen?!”

The two of them found a suitably-sized chunk of cement and sat down, while Haruyuki related the previous night’s events in detail:

How he had found Bush Utan and Olive Glove in Suginami Battle Area 2 at seven-thirty yesterday evening in a tag team battle,

Bush Utan’s repeated use of ‘-deyansu2 in his speech, followed by his equipping of the ISS Kit, and how his att.i.tude drastically changed instantly,

And how Utan had said that this kit ‘had been given three days earlier.’

The only part he had left out was Ardor Maiden’s name and her power. The rest of the story would make its way to Ash sooner or later from the spectators present during the duel; the principle was to not spill out information about your own teammates’ information anyway, and Ash didn’t ask about anything as such.

After listening for about ten minutes, with his hand on his thickly armoured kneecap and his body hunched forwards, Ash let out a deep sigh.

“You said, this is called the ‘IS Mode Training Kit’…….”

After saying that in a low voice, he glanced down to meet Haruyuki’s eyes and asked simply:

“This IS Mode, it’s that so-called ‘Incarnate System?'”

“Y…Yeah, I guess. Hasn’t Ash-san learnt Incarnation already?”

With that question leaving out a great deal of information, the skull-like helmet slowly shook from side to side:

“I’ve only heard the name from Master. Before activating the V-Twin Fist technique in a pinch, Master would tell me that I had such an ability, but I’ve never actually seriously trained. How should I say it… It’s that I’m scared. After hearing about the dangers of falling into one’s own darkness, I got really scared……and now since Master has rejoined Nega Nebulas, I can’t say the same of her teaching me.”

The ‘Master’ Ash referred to was his Parent, and the same Master who taught Haruyuki Incarnation: Sky Raker. In May this year, she had formally returned to her old territory of the Black Legion, Nega Nebulas. Hence, she was essentially rivals with Ash Roller, who belonged to Great Wall. While they naturally did not appear to give much thought to this and continued to fight fiercely during Territorial Battles, it would seem that Ash could not rid his heart of his unease about being unable to depend on his Parent.

While they had deviated considerably from the question, Haruyuki took the opportunity to ask a question he had been curious about, and opened his mouth:

“Just to ask… why did Ash-san join Great Wall?”

Notes:

1. ^ Electric Vehicles.

2. ^ This was something untranslatable in Chapter 6; Bush Utan, as opposed to ending sentences with the formal ‘-desu,’ instead ended a great deal of his sentences with ‘-deyansu’ to emphasise himself.

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