Accel World Vol 8 Chapter 8 (2/2)

Though he was of a species that did not inhabit j.a.pan and was only sold with the intention of being a pet, he was not artificial protein synthesized in a factory, much less a polygon object. Within this four meter by four meter room, from day to day he was eating, sleeping, and then feeling something. Something that Haruyuki had no way of imagining…

Possibly having caught wind of the sign that he had slightly bit his lip, Utai turned round and tilted her head. Haruyuki hurriedly tilted his head and spoke in a small voice.

“Ah, I, I’m sorry. It’s not anything big. It’s just that, um, I was watching him bathe yesterday and said ‘What a lucky guy you are,’ maybe it was a little rude…”

There, he noticed that this time those remarks might have been rude not to Hou but to Utai, and he became fl.u.s.tered even further.

“Uh, um, I-I-I’m not particularly saying that it’s a misfortune for him to be taken care of by you, I think that’s a blessing, if anything I want it too…nooo, that’s not what I meant, um.”

Around there, Haruyuki’s «wanting to escape running meter» had risen quite a bit, but in a situation where he was holding meat with both hands that was not possible either; he joined words together with all his effort.

“Uh—mm, well, Hou was probably born from artificial breeding, so I think that from the beginning he didn’t know what was outside his birdcage, but…however, he’s a bird. Birds want to fly in the sky…possibly. Ah, of course I’m not saying we should set him free. I’m not saying either that this situation’s a misfortune for him. But, at the least, maybe it’s not good for us to arbitrarily decide what he should feel…”

The more he spoke, the less clear his meaning became, so there out of necessity Haruyuki shut his mouth.

However, it seemed that some extent of his intention had been conveyed to Utai. She nodded once and resumed feeding him with an expression of mulling over something on her face. The four pink mice’s worth of meat slices disappeared in succession inside his beak, and the Eurasian Scops-owl, who in the end had his head petted and seemed to be satisfied greatly, unfurled his wings and took off from Utai’s left hand. He flew leisurely inside the shed, tracing a counterclockwise arc.

No matter how many times he saw that figure, it was so beautiful as to make him let out a gasp. While becoming absentminded, he gazed on, enthralled, and with a discreet sound effect words flowed in the chat window.

【UI> I believe the thing of which you wish to speak, Arita-san, is called «respect».】

The instant the emphasized word came into his view, Haruyuki nodded furiously several times. That was right; that was precisely the thing that Haruyuki was feeling a moment earlier.

Hou was; no, all pets, including him, were not existences just «kept» by humans. One could also say they were «at the side» of humans. That was why it was amiss to measure their happiness or unhappiness with a human scale. All they could do was approach them with respect.

No, it wasn’t just pets. Earlier, Utai had used not scissors but a properly sharpened pocketknife and had dressed the pink mice with the utmost seriousness. In short, she had not forgotten to respect even the mice that were going to be the feed…

While looking up at Hou, who had returned to his perch, Haruyuki was struck by that deep emotion, and in the chat window text was again composed in a slightly slow manner.

【UI> I also believe that it’s very important to hold respect for all things. Respect is basically not disdaining. Even oneself is included as a target of that respect, no doubt.】

“Eh…, respecting oneself..?”

Haruyuki drew his gaze away from Hou and stared at the girl standing at the side.

“Isn’t oneself…different..? Because isn’t that, something like conceit…something like narcissism, isn’t it like tha…”

Haruyuki, who far from respecting himself frankly spared himself from even looking at himself in the mirror, only said that. However, still smiling gently, Utai paused slightly and then moved her fingers.

【UI> If one overdoes it, it may become like that, but I believe that slighting oneself is also looking down upon the path one has walked until now, the time one has pa.s.sed, and the people to whom one is related. Inside you, Arita-san, there’s undoubtedly a «flame» that will not disappear by any means no matter how much water is poured on it or how much the wind blows.】

The girl reached her right hand straight out and applied it precisely to the center of Haruyuki’s breast—right above his heart.

【UI> That flame burns with your experiences and memories…with even your sins and errors as firewood. In the final a.n.a.lysis, people’s consciousness and thoughts cause neurons ignite…for both an instant and an eternity, that flame is the essence of all life. I hold the conviction that not forgetting respect toward others and yourself and continuing to let your flame burn the proper way will illuminate the path you should walk. 】

Without even looking at the holo keyboard, s.h.i.+nomiya Utai had managed to type that difficult to decipher as well as lengthy text with her left hand alone. During that period, her pupils, which concealed deep crimson sparks, had been fixed continuously upon Haruyuki’s eyes. It seemed to Haruyuki as if from her small hand still touching his chest, surely some kind of energy—perhaps real flames were being emitted and flowing into his heart.

“My flame…the path I should walk…”

The heat in his blood vessels ran through his entire body and at last gathered at his back—at his two shoulder blades.

In real life, Haruyuki of course did not have wings. Far from that, his body was round and his height low, and his physical ability was at the extent where if he tried a little bit in PE cla.s.s, he would collapse.

However, he could advance forward. He could kindle the slight flame inside his heart, light his way, and take a step forward. Not facing backward, solely running—forward. Forward. Everything was the problem of his image. If he had possessed the image of moving his feet forward in this real world, without a doubt his pace would have become several times, several tens of times greater in the Accelerated World.

“…My image…my, Mind Power.”

After softly murmuring that, he deeply inhaled, and in a completely changed, clear voice, Haruyuki spoke.

“Thank you, s.h.i.+nomiya-san. Somehow, it seems like an answer for what I’ve always been worrying about has come.”

Upon which Utai softly separated her right hand from Haruyuki’s chest, gave a glimpse of her teeth like drops of pearls from her lips, and showed one of her rare articulate smiles.

Having left the caretaker shed, the two of them finished was.h.i.+ng their hands at the water supply, signed the committee log file indicating they had completed their activities, and submitted it to the school local net.

The time was 4:15 in the afternoon. The time to a.s.semble at Nega Nebulas’ temporary headquarters, aka Haruyuki’s house, was six in the afternoon, so they still had some leeway before they had to move.

—For the moment, maybe today I’ll go together with s.h.i.+nomiya-san to the student council meeting room and wait for Taku’s and Chiyuri’s club activities to end while chatting with Senpai…

While thinking in that manner, he tried to pick up his school-commuting bag put at the flank of the sink—but just beforehand.

Utai, who was using a handkerchief at his immediate side, stiffened her body with a twitch. Immediately after, Haruyuki also sensed some kind of presence creeping in at his back.

—A thirst for blood..!

Quickly, he tried to look back, but even quicker than that. Two arms extended across the shoulders of Utai, who was standing next to him, tightly seized her body. Simultaneously, a cheerful voice.

“Ui-ui, I—got—you!”

Page 223

【UI> Stopm, itd paonful】

The two hands of Utai, who had been hoisted into the air, tapped the keyboard in a struggling way, but the line of words flowing in the text box amounted to no meaning. All Haruyuki could do was catch the white handkerchief that had slipped out in midair.

The a.s.sailant who had succeeded in a splendid backstab whipped Utai’s small body around, wrapped her up super-tightly into her own chest, and raised a nasal voice.

“Aah, Ui-ui, you’re so cute as always! At this rate, would it be fine if I put you in my pocket and took you home! Or should I make you into a mascot and decorate my dashboard!”

The one who fired in succession those questionable lines of which it was dubious whether they were expressions of love or not was a female student wearing a uniform not from a school in this area. She was quite taller than Haruyuki, clad in a blouse with a too-magnificent proportion of light blue and a checker-patterned skirt, and had thin overknee tights covering her legs up to an area fairly high above her knees. Her hair was naturally long hair that seemed fluffily soft—.

Utai’s right hand, which was clawing even more at the air, came down with a sudden stop as if she were exhausted of strength.

The captor, who checked that her target had been suppressed, at that point finally looked at Haruyuki and smiled gently.

“How do you do, Karasu-san. Good job with the caretaker committee work.”

“Ah…th…thank you, how do you do, Master.”

While making his face twitch, Haruyuki returned a greeting to his «master», the vice chief of Nega Nebulas and level 8 Burst Linker «Sky Raker», Kurasaki Fuuko. Following that, he inquired timidly.

“Um, well…wh, why are you here at Umesato Middle, Master?”

“What I needed to have was a friend with power. Sacchan gladly issued me a one day visitor’s pa.s.s.”

In this day and age, the security at K-12 schools kept getting stricter; even if the outsider were a child of the same generation, one could not come and go as one pleased. At the school gate, a certification test would be carried out through one’s Neuro Linker; if one had not been issued a pa.s.s, in the wink of an eye a security guard would come flying.

“…I see.”

After nodding deeply, Haruyuki immediately shook his head.

“N, no, I’m not talking about the system…the meetup was at six at my place, right?”

“My, even if I don’t have pressing business, is it not all right if I only «wanted to meet Karasu-san more quickly»?”

If he were smiled at with those words, as a robust middle school boy his head couldn’t help from going poof, but at a precarious point Haruyuki remembered the fact that his conversation partner was «in fact a scary Raker-sensei». He tightened his cheeks, which seemed to be slackening, and shook his head minutely.

“N-n-no, such a thing, of course it would be all right, I-I-I-I’m pleased about that.”

It was not the situation to be getting carried away here. As to why, currently Haruyuki was keeping an important secret from Fuuko. That he had to teach the basics of Mind Power secretly to her «child», Ash Roller.

As he stood bolt upright and wore a stiff smile, Fuuko stretched her left hand straight out and lightly grabbed Haruyuki’s right cheek.

“Ha…hahi?”

“…Karasu-san. Is it perhaps a figment of my imagination? Somehow, I have a feeling as if you’re keeping a secret from me.”

Desperately restraining himself from jumping up in fright, again he shook his head sideways.

“N, no, such a thing, there’s no way I would hide a hecret from Mafter!”

“Is that so? For the most part, my intuition about things like this isn’t wrong.”

While gently squis.h.i.+ng Haruyuki’s grabbed cheek, Fuuko wore all over her face a smile that was as sweetly enchanting as the finest fresh cream. However, he could not forget it. The fact that a first victim was already buried limp in her chest.

Fuuko put both her hands right on her legs, stood up, and continued to shake her head slightly; her fingers moved from Haruyuki’s cheek to the area around his ear. This time, while her fingertips played with his earlobes, she drew her face closer and softly whispered.

“Then, was ‘that’ perhaps my misunderstanding?”

“Wh…wh-wh-what do you mean by ‘that’?”

“It’s not anything of much consequence. Today, I left school and had a bit of time, so I thought about partic.i.p.ating in the gallery of a duel. In doing so, by chance I found Ash in the gallery of the same duel and thought about talking with him, but…”

“…”

“For some reason or another, his att.i.tude was a little weird. Therefore, after I apprehended the real him and gently cross-examined him…”

“……”

“Somehow, leaving aside me, his «parent», didn’t he make a promise to be taught something important by you, Karasu-san? Something whose name people even hesitate to utter in public s.p.a.ces, something veery secret, something veeee-ry important, the…”

There, Fuuko moved her lips without letting out her voice: In-car-nate.

“…system’s way of use?”

—Ash Ro~llerrrrr~!!

You readily spilled the beans! Well, if you’re going to spill the beans there, you might as well have been taught by Raker-san in the first place! What on earth will become of my day today that I spent worrying about and toiling over, and rather first what are you going to do about this situation!

Though he had shouted that inside his head, it was too late to rewind the situation. Haruyuki stopped his head, which he had been exercising up until now in the horizontal direction, resignedly moved it profoundly in the vertical direction, and spoke.

“Umm…uh…I, I’m sorry…I, have been keeping…a secret, from you, Master…”

“Is that so?”

What was terrifying was that without letting her smile fade away, which could not have been any kinder, Raker also nodded once.

“You’ve said it well. If you had played dumb even further there, I thought about putting both you, Karasu-san, and Ash together in a full course of special training, but I’ll forgive you with half.”

“…Ha, half..?”

“That’s right. Depending on whether today’s «Imperial Palace escape mission» succeeds, we’ll start the special training in the Unlimited Field in that state. I was just thinking that soon it would be a suitable time for you to progress to the next stage, Karasu-san.”

“…To, today..?”

After murmuring that with his mouth in a flabbergasted way while also sensing the dependability of Fuuko, who had readily put «mission success» into words, Haruyuki looked around restlessly at his surroundings. However, needless to say there was not the figure of anyone in the dim backyard other than Haruyuki, Fuuko, and Utai, who was slumped senselessly in Fuuko’s bosom.

“B, but, how will Ash-san meet up with us? If we don’t meet up at considerably close to the same time, won’t the rendezvous in the Unlimited Field be difficult…”

In response to Haruyuki’s question, Fuuko replied exceedingly readily.

“No problem, because I’ve had Ash confined…no, stand by in my car, which I’ve parked nearby. In that state, I’ll take Ash to your apartment house, Karasu-san, and we’ll dive together. Of course, not from your house but from a nearby parking s.p.a.ce though.”

“Eh…is Ash-san going to come there? In real life?”

Momentarily forgetting even his punishment-like situation, Haruyuki opened his eyes wide. —That meant basically, if Haruyuki desired it, he could meet with him in the real world. By his prediction, that end-of-century rider’s physical body would also be in riveted leather jeans, with mohawk hair.

However, regrettably—if that was the right word, Fuuko slightly shook her head.

“Ash will come, but it’s probably better for now if you two don’t meet each other’s real selves yet. Because that child’s one way or another a member of one of the Six Kings’ legions, «Great Wall».”

“…Tha, that’s…true, I guess.”

While exhaling his bated breath, Haruyuki nodded. Sure enough, no matter how much they were fellow brother disciples, he was a subordinate of the Green King, who was an opponent of Kuroyukihime. There existed a line he had to draw.

Lifting his head and finally looking at Fuuko head-on, Haruyuki nodded deeply. Before he had known it, Haruyuki was not teaching Ash Mind Power; the flow of things had become such that the two of them were being taught side-by-side by Fuuko, but rather than feeling regret his elation was greater.

“—Understood. I was also just having a feeling as if I’ve found a new hint. It’s my pleasure to be able to be taught once again by Master!”

“You’ve said it well. That’s the spirit.”

He saw the face of Raker, who was smiling widely as if enjoying herself, and thought, “Maybe I was a little hasty…”; as he did so, the two hands of Utai, who was still seized in her chest, moved in a feeble manner and typed on the keyboard.

【UI> I too will accompany you in your training. 】

After Fuuko, who had finally released Utai, greeted Hou in the caretaker shed—it was their first time meeting, but the «flying-cla.s.s» comrades seemed to get along quite well—Haruyuki along with the two of them headed for the student council meeting room.

Though there were few students remaining in the school buildings after school, walking with an elementary school girl on one side and with a female high school student on the other lined up was quite an ordeal for Haruyuki. While slipping his way through the stunned gazes that bombarded him one after another, he moved from the entryway to the end of the first floor of the first school building and let out a long breath the moment he pa.s.sed through the door.

However, once he entered the locked room aka the student council meeting room, this time he could not help but feel yet another type of nervousness. In adding Kuroyukihime, who had received them with a smile, to their party, the situation of having one dull male in the midst of a gaggle of girls brewing an even more charming aura would inevitably show up. What was more, these three were the chief and highest executives of the former Nega Nebulas that had in the past occupied a seat of the Accelerated World’s seven great legions; Haruyuki did not have a reason to be able to relax.

…Now that he thought about it, even with Chiyu and Taku added the current Nega Nebulas had four females and two males. If the number of new male members didn’t increase soon, then they wouldn’t be able to balance it out. However, if possible it’d be good if they weren’t that scary. That’s right, I wonder if he would join…if I meet him today, maybe I’ll try inviting him…

While thinking that, in a nook of the sofa set he sipped the black tea that Kuroyukihime had brewed for him, and before he knew it the clock on the wall was pointing to five in the afternoon.

“Oh my, it’s already this time, isn’t it.”

Fuuko, who had stood up as if in a hurry, clapped her two hands together and spoke.

“I can’t keep ignoring Ash, whom I’ve shut in the ca…whom I’ve had wait in the car, I’ll move one step ahead. I’ll park my car near your house, Karasu-san, and only I will intrude at six o’clock.”

“…Really, I have the feeling that you’ve been thoroughly neglecting Ash, though…”

In response to what Kuroyukihime had pointed out with a bitter laugh mixed in, Fuuko answered with a composed face.

“I told Ash to earn ten points in free duels for the dive into the Unlimited Field while waiting, so that guy probably isn’t bored. With that, everybody, see you later.”

With timing almost as if replacing Fuuko, who had waved her hand lightly and had withdrawn from the student council meeting room, Chiyuri and Tak.u.mu, who had finished club activities, appeared. They met up with the two, who had probably hurried in using the showers, as their hair was still wet, and their company, which had become five in number, moved on foot toward the northern complex high-rise apartment building in Koenji.

Something for which they were both greatly apologetic and grateful was that things had become such that the day before yesterday, yesterday, and today successively, Chiyuri’s mama had prepared everyone a light supper, so they only stocked up on drinks at the shopping mall attached to the apartment building and rode the elevator. In order to transport the provisions, Chiyuri and Tak.u.mu got off at the twenty-first floor, and just Haruyuki, Kuroyukihime, and Utai proceeded ahead to the twenty-third floor—.

While also dealing with those actions of preparation, Haruyuki felt his nervousness grow minute by minute with regards to the imminently coming time of seven in the afternoon.

Currently, Haruyuki’s other self, the duel avatar «Silver Crow», was deserted in the depths of the «Imperial Palace» enshrined in the center of the Unlimited Neutral Field. If he did not escape from there, not only would the purification of the «Disaster Armor» be unable to be carried out, but also the question of whether he would continue to be a Burst Linker would become doubtful.

Tak.u.mu and the other had declared that they would continue to provide Haruyuki with the necessary points even if he were designated with a bounty in the name of the Six Kings and became unable to duel. That feeling made him happier than anything else, but he could not take advantage of that. He did not want to do something like clinging to «acceleration» to the point where he became the legion’s burden…

“Do not be seized by negative images now.”

The moment he had entered his house’s living room and had put down his bag, someone whispered in that manner at his ear; taken aback, Haruyuki raised his face.

The owner of the voice was Kuroyukihime, who stood immediately behind him. She placed her right hand on Haruyuki’s chest, and before he was aware of it, his body, which had developed the habit of facing downward, arched backward.

“It’s important to hypothesize about every possible situation. However, at times there are also scenes where one must single-mindedly look only forward and plunge on. Now is that very time.”

【UI> It is as Sacchan says. Now, let us only believe and advance forward. 】

If even Utai, who had popped her face out from behind Kuroyukihime, typed thus, then he could not look down any more. Haruyuki threw his chest out and answered with a single word.

“—Understood!”

With just that, curiously enough even the cold sweat soaking his hands withdrew.

On the dining table for six people, at the point where the chiras.h.i.+zus.h.i.+4 and norimaki5 into which Chiyuri’s mama had put her heart and soul were lined up and tea was being served, with good timing Fuuko joined them. Haruyuki looked round at the legion members, who were lined up in the same rows as the day before yesterday, and inquired timidly.

“…Um, is it really okay? Leaving Ash-san behind in the car…”

Chiyuri and Tak.u.mu, to whom the details had already been explained, and Kuroyukihime laughed forcedly; as usual Fuuko wore a composed expression.

“Ash was somewhat miffed, but I couldn’t possibly invite that guy here, right?”

“…Then, Nee-san, at least deliver this sus.h.i.+ to him afterward.”

While laughing, Chiyuri proposed that, brought a plastic container from the kitchen, and quickly began apportioning thenorimaki. Imagining that end-of-century rider eating kappamaki6, Haruyuki unintentionally let his mouth loosen, and with a serious face Kuroyukihime made an unexpected proposal.

“How about it, Fuuko. Why don’t we recruit him to our side?”

“Huh…eh, say what-!?”

The one who had shouted that was naturally Haruyuki. However, the other members had not particularly shown signs of surprise. As for Taku, he was nodding calmly and saying something like “That’s a possibility too.”

As he opened his eyes wide, dumbfounded, Fuuko changed her expression and tilted her head slightly.

“—I too have thought of that, but…that child unexpectedly has a strong sense of duty in a unique way… Will Ash be fine or not with lowering the once-hoisted flag of the green legion Great Wall? Moreover, of course there’s also the fear of whether the Green King Green Grandee would use «Judgment Blow» without recognizing Ash’s secession.”

“…Uh—mm… To be honest, I also don’t know well what that guy Grandee’s thinking, just him… I believe I’ve grasped the other Kings’ personalities to an extent, but just that s.h.i.+eld-wielding male…”

Kuroyukihime folded her arms with a troubled look on her face.

At last week’s «Seven Kings’ meeting», Haruyuki also had seen the Green King up close, but he didn’t know a single thing other than that «he seems super-hard». In the end he had not said a word from beginning to finish, and even on the occasion where the conclusion to grant Silver Crow a one-week postponement was reached, he had only nodded once.

He’s able to command his large legion of over a hundred members well in his own way, huh…Haruyuki hurriedly returned his thoughts, which had begun to digress along those lines, to where they were before.

Ash Roller, coming to Nega Nebulas. Up until now, he had not thought about that event at all, but he didn’t particularly dislike it either. He was an eternal rival with whom he had fought countless times from the first day he had become a Burst Linker, but when Haruyuki had lost his wings and had lost heart he was also the benefactor who had fervently chastised him and had introduced him to his parent, Sky Raker. From his habitual att.i.tude, it was fairly hard to imagine, but he was in his own way a considerate «man among men»…

And then, having thought that far, Haruyuki noticed something and abruptly raised his face.

“Uh, um, Senpai, Master…I believe that at the least, for now Ash-san won’t accept a legion transfer.”

“What’s the reason for you to state that positively?”

“—It’s Ash-san’s younger blood brother, «Bush Utan»…”

There, Haruyuki temporarily cut his words short and proposed, “Since it’s going to be long, why don’t we discuss it while eating.”

After Fuuko, who had parked her car—though it was not in her name but apparently her mother’s possession—in the large-sized parking underground the apartment house, returned from delivering the improvised norimaki bento that Chiyuri had prepared, they chanted “Itadakimasu” anew with everybody there.

While Chiyuri’s mama’s greatest forte was Italian cuisine such as pasta and lasagna, that skill was also amply flourished in j.a.panese food; Haruyuki, who normally had no opportunity to eat chiras.h.i.+zus.h.i.+, shoved it into his mouth in a state of ecstasy. Everyone else also undauntedly moved their chopsticks, and at the point where the large plate’s contents had been reduced to half, conversation finally resumed.

“An’ then…a’out Fush Uhan…”

While chuckling, Tak.u.mu checked Haruyuki, who was trying to chat with norimaki in his mouth.

“Allow me to explain that matter. Since it’s something deeply related to me myself as well…”

Startled, Haruyuki opened his eyes wide and hurriedly tried to chew his sus.h.i.+ rice, but while he was still chewing Tak.u.mu had begun to explain, so reluctantly he switched to the role of listener. As expected of the legion’s finest intellectual, the briefing was easy to understand, but Haruyuki could not help but be kept on tenterhooks. As for why, true to his words from earlier Tak.u.mu explained to Kuroyukihime and the others what had happened to him without omitting any details.

How the day before yesterday, he had left on a solo investigation after hearing of the «ISS Kit» from Haruyuki. How he had made contact with the Burst Linker Magenta Scissor in the Setagaya area and how the Kit in its sealed state had been transferred to him.

And then yesterday, how he had been a.s.saulted by the PK group «Supernova Remnant» in the s.h.i.+njuku area and had backlashed against and annihilated them in the Unlimited Neutral Field with the power of the ISS Kit. The subsequent direct connection duel with Haruyuki. And then the strange «dream» the three of them had shared during the wee hours of today—.

Haruyuki had only let Kuroyukihime, Fuuko, and Utai know the general outline regarding this string of events by mail. The reason was that it seemed impossible to put why Tak.u.mu had yearned for power and how he had overcome that precisely into written words. Of course, it was imperative that they give an explanation sometime; in that sense

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