Accel World Vol 4 Chapter 1 (2/2)
The blade created by Haruyuki and the five sickles created by Noumi touched in midair
In the previous battle, as soon as their two mentally-formed attacks touch, they had violently repelled and conflicted with each other
But this time, the exact reverse phenomenon occurred That is, the instant the jet-black blade and the dark-purplish sickles clashed, the darkness swirled onto a single focused point and tried to suck each other in
“Muu……”
Dusk Taker let a small voice leak out
“An attack of the sa on…?”
His eyes narrowed and see hiing forward his right hand and putting all his power into it
“U…gu, ooh…”
He bared his teeth beneath his mask and shouted in a twisted voice
“Disappear…disappear, Nouht!!”
BYUAAA!! His right hand’s sword shook, and the swirling darkness increased in force at the contact point The sickles extending froers effortlessly crumbled from their tips and were sed in
“Tch…”
Clicking his tongue, Noumi produced purple sickles on his left hand as well, and piled it on top of his right hand’s sickles to grasp Haruyuki’s sword The darkness that looked like a ss were suck in fro
“So insolent…!!”
Dusk Taker shouted and increased the force of the purple wave of energy from both his hands
“Gu…ooooh…!!”
A beast-like roar also gushed out from Haruyuki’s throat
Perhaps as a result of the abnor clouds slowly turned and were being pulled in like a funnel towards the ground The school building’s s broke one after another while scattering sharp light, and lightning-like sparks followed and radial cracks ran through the ground
And then, several things occurred at the same time
“Stop it…stop it already——!!”
Chiyuri’s screae
“Disa…ppeeeeeeeeeeear——!!”
Haruyuki’s yell pressed down and roared over it
And the re time that was indicated in the upper part of his vision reached zero
The characters of ‘TIME UP!!’ burst out in front of hinaled the end of the duel
When the accelerated state was released through the result screen of Battle Royal ht and returned to the real world, let alone what Haruyuki had been doing before the start of the duel—he couldn’t immediately remember even where he was or what time it was now
The sports-use track that was paved with auburn high-resistance ht in front of hi in front of him
And Haruyuki his His consciousness couldn’t link up with the ish physical body, and he nearly fell down before waving both his hands and holding himself up somehow The students who sat on the inner part of the track and theparallel to Haruyuki’s left suddenly laughed
—Speaking of which, I’m in the ht now it’s Tuesday, fifth period…in the middle of phys-ed class…
After thinking that in du blowing out like ma from the bottom of his belly
—Just what on earth a?
—The phys-ed lesson? The long-distance running? Those are inconsequential! I have to…crush Noumi Seiji at all costs!!
“Uuu…!”
He let out a low, unrestrained growl After clenching his teeth and staring at the goal line over there, Haruyuki put all his fury into his ar footsteps increased He naturally leaned his body forward
Next to the ht, a red R characters blinked It indicated that his pace had i conscious of that, Haruyuki ran the re ninety meters at full power He couldn’t overtake the students ere ahead of him, but Haruyuki’s last spurt as he clearly shortened the distancethe boys of the class
But Haruyuki didn’t care at all about those voices, nor his new personal time which flashed in front of hioal line Rather, he didn’t even stop his feet and tried to run like that straight towards the entrance
“Hey, where you going, Arita? The toilet?”
He heard the carefree voice of the phys-ed teacher and the laughter of the other students, but ignored them
Of course, he wasn’t ai to run up to the third floor of the school building and launch an attack on Noumi Seiji’s classroom
He would directly squeeze Noumi’s real body, forcibly direct connect with him, and this time, make him completely submit If that was impossible, he would instead yank of his Neuro Linker from his neck, trample over it, and destroy its core chip
Was it necessary to give up on such brutality? Against an enemy that went as far as to use foul means to threaten Chiyuri and make her obey his will?
Every time his intense violent impulse welled up, a point on his back throbbed No, it see infinitely produced from there
“Just wait…!”
Shouting as if spitting out, he tried to kick off the ground even more intensely—at that moment
GAshi+ A strong hand held back Haruyuki’s shoulder from behind
“Stop it, Haru!”
At the same time as a stifled voice resounded in his ear, Haruyuki reflexively put on the brakes Unable to stop coolly like his duel avatar, he nearly pitched forward and fell, until his arhted himself
While deeply hanging his head in that position, Haruyuki squeezed out a hoarse voice
“…Taku, why are you stopping me!?”
Taku Haruyuki’s left arht arm
“If Haru causes an incident of violence here and gets suspended fros will just become even harder for Chii-chan!”
“…She’s already having plenty of a hard time! Noumi…he threatened Chiyu and told her to obey what he said by force! I can’t forgive that!”
For the first time, Haruyuki turned around here and saw Takumu’s face
He noticed that Takuuish on the other side of his sports-type glasses, and he held his breath
That’s right—It wasn’t that Taku Inside his heart, he ed at Noumi’s actions than Haruyuki
But his childhood friend orried about Haruyuki at the sah Haruyuki hie and didn't try to think of Takumu at all
His back still throbbed, but at the o away After taking a big breath of air and slowly letting it out fro throat, Haruyuki undid the tension in his shoulders and spoke with a sigh
“……Even though a short while ago you also jumped at Noumi before I did”
Then, Takumu revealed a brief bitter smile
“Indeed How many years has it been since I acted like that…?”
The day Nous had been said between himself and Taku after they quarreled at his home, but Haruyuki felt that it all had suddenlyin a corner of the school grounds like that, but eventually, it seemed that the time measurement for all the students at the track behind theether and called for everyone to gather
“…Let’s go back, Haru”
After slowly nodding at Taku in a low voice
“Please go talk to Chiyu afterwards Even if she was told sohtest for her to obey that guy”
“Yeah, I know I…no, ill protect Chii-chan”
Looking into each other’s eyes for a moment, the two of them turned back
Haruyuki stared at the third-floor section of the school building one last time, and muttered in the depths of his mind
——Nou you absolutely never should have done From this moment on, my battle with you will be an endless death h the method you use to block yourself fro relentlessly until one of our Burst Points reaches zero
Clenching his teeth hard, Haruyuki began to walk towards the gathering place alongside Takumu
However, only ten minutes later
The situation once again advanced in a direction that betrayed Haruyuki’s expectations
As soon as fifth-period ended, Haruyuki and Takuy They found Chiyuri just as she was co out from a corridor, and they beckoned her from the shadow of a pillar
Wearing a t-shi+rt and shorts, Chiyuri’s face froze as soon as she saw the two of them That was only natural, as she had just dived into the field of her first actual battle just several o, used «recovery» on Haruyuki and Takumu’s enemy Dusk Taker, and healed hi his entire HP gauge Silver Crow (Haruyuki) had also lost due to the Time Up, and they both had points taken away by Noumi
However, they put ‘We didn’t come to blame you for that’ into their expression ashis ar an aard saze, but eventually she approached Haruyuki and Taku to her classmates in the locker room
In spite of the fact that he had just been strenuously exercising, when Haruyuki saw Chiyuri’s pale cheeks, intense rage towards Nouain After Takuhtly for an instant, Taku breath and opened his mouth
“…Chii-chan We already knohy you did such a thing That’s e’ve some to tell you that it isn’t necessary to obey him”
“Th…That’s right”
Haruyuki energetically added his oords as well
“He should also fear Chiyu’s power now With an ability that can heal not only HP, but even broken arainst him plenty…no, we can beat him!”
As she listened to that, Chiyuri’s eyebrows tightened for aand hesitating
Several seconds later—
“That’s not it”
Those were the first words to quietly come out from Chiyuri’s mouth
“Eh…th-that’s not it…?”
When Haruyuki dumbfoundedly repeated her words, Chiyuri’s expression suddenly changed and her eyes released a strong light, and she said it again after looking from Haruyuki to Takumu in turn
“That’s not it I’ forced to obey Noumi”
“Chii-chan…hat…?”
This time it seemed that Takumu was also surprised and tried to take a step forhile blinking rapidly Backing away as if to avoid him, Chiyuri quietly, but decisively answered
“I asked Noumi ‘Make me your comrade I’ll become your exclusive healer, so supplydeal, since I haven’t joined you and Haru’s legion yet”
Taking yet another step away from the two of them as they stood stock-still in shock, Chiyuri continued speaking
“We and «Nega Nebulas» will act without interfering with each other from now on Since each side knows each other’s real identities Of course, the agreement between Noumi and Haru is a different story”
Even in the rasp the situation, Haruyuki could understand what the «agreement» that Chiyuri spoke of was In other words, that was about how, if Haruyuki continued to pay ten burst points every week for two years to Nouht ability»
They didn’t intend to fight fro points fro
That was also a shock, but before that, but the fact that Chiyuri referred to Noumi and herself as «we» had itself too enor all the years until nohenever Chiyuri said «we», only she, Haruyuki and Takumu were included in that
Showing a profile of evading the eyes froave a short “See you later, then”
And then she quickly turned around and ran towards the locker room
After that, only the sweet milk-like smell that they were so familiar as left behind