Accel World Vol 4 Chapter 3 (1/2)

Chapter 3

April 17th, Wednesday

Before the dawn of the day when the Umesato Middle School field trip for new third-year students would finally be halfway done, Haruyuki saw a drea

However, it wasn’t the kind of drearetted not being able to record[1] Rather, it could be called the exact opposite

In the dream, Kuroyukihime wasn’t in her true form, but in her school avatar fors on her back The lace-decorated hehtly between the trees within a deep forest

Haruyuki was also in his pink pig avatar form, and moved his short feet desperately as he chased after the black butterfly The fairy princess gradually went further and further away fro out her right hand as if beckoning to him

—Senpai!

Haruyuki’s shouting voice was tinged with a strange echo that resounded through the bottom of the forest

—Please wait, senpai!

But Kuroyukihime’s feet didn’t stop Soive a mysterious smile on her red lips, but her fore moss-covered trunk Eventually, Haruyuki could only see the ruby-colored pattern that colored her jet-black wings That radiance which flickered like a blaze also ht very quickly

—Please don’t leave me Please…Please don’t abandon me

Though he cried that out, there was no response

—Becauseme? You don’t need me anymore?

No response

Suddenly, a point on his back hurt with a sting It quickly gained substance and squirmed intensely

ZURURI He felt soh his avatar fro and narrow tail grew out froed into the air, raised its snaky-forht ahead like a spear

A damp and heavy sound resounded within the forest

Haruyuki unsteadily continued walking as he chased after his tail

After he went around the knot of trees, that scene spread out before his eyes On the rough and bony surface of a remarkably think trunk, the black stail butterfly was being kept in place by a thin pin The wire-like tail that had extended out froh one of Kuroyukihis, and fixed her there like a crucifixion

Guided by strangely obstructed thoughts, Haruyuki stood in front of the butterfly and looked up On that beautiful and ephe like an expression She simply frowned a little, and motionlessly looked back at Haruyuki

—Because you have those wings

From his own mouth, Haruyuki heard a dark and warped voice leak out

—Because of those wings, you fly as you please

He involuntarily lifted his right hand That hand, before he had realized it, was no longer the coed into blackish silver claws His sinisterly shi+ning and sharp fingertips grasped the edge of one of her powerless and fluttering jet-black wings

With just a light squeeze, he cut off fros It at once changed into dry black sand and spilled down from Haruyuki’s hand

Another wing

And another wing again

Unnoticed, Kuroyukihiuidly While extending his hand to the last wing, Haruyuki spoke

—With this, you can’t go anywhere anyether with me Just like me

As soon as he cut off the last re, Kuroyukihime’s thin body fell into Haruyuki’s arms

Haruyuki strongly embraced her body with his dark silver claws

But one second later, even her body within his arms became ink-black particles and dissolved away It flowed dohilenoise, and became a pile of small sand at his feet—……

“……aaAH!”

Haruyuki ju with a blurred voice

Inside his chest, his heart was ringing like an alarm bell His whole body was covered in cold sweat, and yet his mouth was parched and dry

He blinked his blurred eyes many tiray light shi+ning through the curtains Of course, there weren’t any oers He clenched theainst his forehead

Unlike the night half a year ago where he first received Brain Burst, his ht to every nook and cranny Still frightened fro his Neuro Linker In other words, the drearas

While slowly shaking his head, Haruyuki muttered in a hoarse voice

“Senpai…I, don’t want to do such a thing to you…I, I just…”

I just want to be with you forever

Haruyuki irabbed his Neuro Linker from the bed’s tabletop, and attached it to his neck It was 6:15 AM, much earlier than his usual wake-up ti his whole body, he spoke the Full Dive command

“Direct Link”

The view of his dimly-lit room vanished, and darkness spread out frohts Haruyuki was pulled down by virtual gravity, and soon alighted down on a cold and gray level surface Many ses like «Participation in public utility rates» and «aparted around him with clear sound effects This space that was completely devoted to pure function was the main console of the Arita family’s home network

After looking at the roundish right hand of his pink pig avatar for a while, Haruyuki spoke a voice command with a murmur

“Command, Dive Call, Number Zero-One”

Before his eyes, a holo-dialogue appeared that read [Transistered address 01 Is this okay?] He shook off a moment of hesitation and pressed the Yes button

There are severalNeuro Linkers

The mode that isonly voice like old cellular phones The next most popular method is the video call, where you detach the camera part fro your face

Compared to those methods, the full-sensory call, where the two parties talk using their avatars in a virtual space, isn’t used in as many situations The reason was, si called may not be able to Full Dive immediately at the place they were at At the very least, it was required to h mail or voice call beforehand, so that ordinary tasks could be satisfied by the time of the conversation

Therefore, that Haruyuki would be requesting a Dive Call right now to the other person so early in the , could be said to be a considerably thoughtless act Even so, Haruyuki wanted to ht now no h voice or a 2D video, he wanted to touch her with all five senses If he didn’t do that, it felt like a part of hi different

The Ming-cho font[2] of [Currently Sending] blinked eight, nine tie, it changed into [Received]

All the surrounding s vanished with a whoosh A grain of white light appeared in the cold gray space It quickly increased in nule avatar

The front tips of her high-heel shoes touched the floor with a ka-thunk After slowly blinking twice, three tis on her back noticed the pig-type avatar standing a little away froently

“Hey, good , Haruyuki-kun”

Even after having being greeted like that by that s for a while He was frightened by the feeling that the slender form in front of him would collapse into sand, and so just stared at her fixedly

But of course, no matter how many seconds passed, her avatar didn’t disappear Suddenly co in a rush

“U-U, Kuroyukihi a Full Dive Call at this hour…”

“No, I had just openedwhether to fall back asleep”

Sain, Kuroyukihis

“…In any case, this is quite a siht maximum preference of data, well, it is like you…”

“Ah, n-no, that’s not”

In the initial configuration setup, Dive Calls would su called to the VR space where the caller was Because Haruyuki called withoutfrom the main area of his apartment’s home network, Kuroyukihile chair

“S-Sorry, I’ll change the location immediately!”

He quickly took out the menuand tried to call out object sets that he had made and stored himself, but all of thes, like ruined battlefields or the deck of a battleshi+p

As Haruyuki continued scrolling through the list while sweating greatly, Kuroyukihime watched him with a wry smile, but eventually clapped her hands and spoke

“If it’s like that, though it may be a bit slow, ht yesterday”

“Ah, yes, please do, please do, please do!”

After Haruyuki nodded as if juht hand after sh-speed fingera piano

In front of Haruyuki, a progress bar appeared with a ‘PON’ An object set was being sent over via the Global Net from Kuroyukihime’s Neuro Linker in Okinawa

Though she said it would be slow, it needed only five seconds to be received, and two seconds to decompress and unfold At the saht poured down froness disappear

What appeared was a tropical landscape with colors that woke up his eyes They were at what appeared to be a shi+nto shrine, and moss-covered Okinawan lion stone statues were enshrined on both sides of the short path to the shrine There were surrounded by trees to the left and right, and at the end of the shrine path, down-slope stone steps and in the background the blue sea could be seen

When he turned around, there was a s next to hi sound, and held it over both her and Haruyuki’s heads Then, as if that acted as a switch, countless cricket chirping surged forth from around them, and Haruyuki deeply breathed in the sun-scented air into his chest

“Let’s sit down over there and talk”

Kuroyukihied in front of the shrine After nodding with a “Yes” and ravel, Haruyuki lowered his avatar’s waist alongside Kuroyukihih soht before him

This was of course a VR space built through digital data, but it wasn’t sions All the objects such as the see-saw ienerated based on a real landscape that had been photographed with great tih-resolution camera An object set that reproduced a scenic area in such minute detail was currently a standard item for travel souvenirs

Having foolishly never left Honshu[3] to go to Okinawa, Haruyuki also forgot this was a call on his own, and continued gazing at the scenery as if he had beco hiave a sh

“U at the scenery with you like this, but…”

Once she said that, Haruyuki, after blankly looking up at the lovely face of the fairy princess next to him, finally remembered that this situation continued fro Dive Call

“Hauah…s-so, sorry!”

“No, there’s no need to apologize I just thought that you ent business with me”

He stared at the patiently s Kuroyukihime, and—

Haruyuki realized another terrible fact That is, he had no real reason that could be called business

That’s right, I siht before dawn, a very scary dream…

Suddenly recalling in his hands the feeling tearing off Kuroyukihis from her back within the dreahtly clenched his fists, and turned down his gaze

The words that came out of his mouth next resounded quietly as if the Neuro Linker wasn’t taking it froe field, but from the bottom of his deeper soul

“Umm…umm, I, was lonely”

While not being clearly conscious of what he was saying, Haruyuki continued letting his facsimile body mutter

“That I can’t one soh, and so…”

It felt like the virtual forest was silent Whether the sound effects of the crickets had actually stopped, or his brain was blocking off the environmental sound information, Haruyuki didn’t know

At the end of the following long silence, a short reply was given with a sigh

“Me too”

The shoulders of the pig avatar treaze, there was a distorted white face

“I’m also lonely, Haruyuki-kun”

Without trying to suppress her tearfully sly tucked Haruyuki’s cheeks between them

“It’s the first tih I’ve dived continuously in Accel World many times…I want to return to Tokyo quickly and meet you”

Somehow, just by mentioned that just now, Kuroyukihied Haruyuki’s head to her chest within her arms

Unlike in the Umesato Middle School local network, where the sensation of contact for avatars was impossible because it was diluted to the lih Haruyuki’s nervous syste a situation where he would normally panic and stiffen up, just now only Haruyuki was stirred by an overwhel to Kuroyukihime’s slender body as well

—Please come back

He wanted to say it To say, ‘Please come back, and save me like you always do’

At this instant, Haruyuki was clearly aware of just how far he was corned in a deep abyss right now No matter how much he desperately resisted, the ene at his effort, was like a wall of deep black steel The wish of piercing a hole in that ith Silver Crow’s slender fist and overco it didn’t seem like it would come true

But, he couldn’t say it

It wasn’t just for Chiyuri’s sake For his own sake as well, he had to fight that enemy with his oer till the very end If he lost to despair here and clung to Kuroyukihime as in the middle of a school trip, that would be an act essentially no different than what he had done in that dream

“……We’ll ain soon, just three more days”

Haruyuki somehow muttered that with a hoarse voice

“Yeah…that’s right”

Kuroyukihith in her arms around him one more time, she released her embrace With those black pupils that shi+ned as if wet, she looked fixedly at Haruyuki’s eyes froe, and—

“Haruyuki-kun…”

As if sensing so voice

Haruyuki mustered all his mental power to force a s further,

“Umm, please enjoy the re you”

“No, if you hadn’t called, I would have I’m happy that we could ift for you as a souvenir, so please look forward to it”

Sot off onto the gravel She spun and closed her parasol, and then called out the menu

Even when she pressed the disconnect button and her figure vanished into grains of light, Haruyuki kept standing there for a while The voices of the crickets, which had increased once again, washed away the lingering htmare that remained in Haruyuki’s mind

After Haruyuki finished a breakfast of cereal andout” to his mother in her bedrooreeted by a dull and cloudy lead-colored sky

He focused his gaze on the icon to the left of his virtual desktop and pressed on the shortcut for the weather forecast The chance of rain was 70 frorey umbrella from next to the sobx and then went outside

This tool known as an umbrella was one of the articles of daily life whose basic structure hadn’t changed for the longest tied in that it was nowmaterial, and its frame was now made of hymonet joule carbon

While thinking that if it had had an autoi daythe hallway and got onto the elevator

When the lift, which had begun to descend towards the ground, stopped a little two floors down, Haruyuki held a certain prediction that was close to conviction

The one who stood on the other side of the door as it slid open was, as he expected, Kurashi+ma Chiyuri

When their gazescat-like eyes shook as if hesitating Though she should have just given her usual “Ossu!” and cheerfully jumped in, her black shoes didn’t move while she collected herself

The instant the door tried to close after several seconds passed, Haruyuki reflexively pressed the «Open» button with his right hand He kept looking obstinately looking at Chiyuri’s face as he held the button

Just before the alar, Chiyuri turned down her eyes and quietly boarded the lift

“…Thanks Good ”

While she spoke in a low voice, Haruyuki released his hand from the button

Within the lance at Chiyuri’s left hand holding a pink umbrella, as she stood with a little more space between them than usual

“…Ossu”

The words he should have said after that flooded his mind one after another

No matter what she had been told by Noumi Seiji, there was no need to obey him Even if she had been threatened by hi video in front of the shower room, Noumi couldn’t actually use that Because the instant he ruined Haruyuki with that video, there was the possibility that Haruyuki would also distribute Noumi’s «real world infor with him

However, it was also clear that Chiyuri didn’t understand that kind of «nuclear deterrent due to mutually assured destruction»-type talk If there existed even the slightest chance of Haruyuki being expelled—or at worst, arrested due to an extremely shameful crime, Chiyuri would do all she could to avoid that Even if she was, for example, forced to become Dusk Taker’s exclusive healer and face Haruyuki and Takumu as enemies in Accel World

Because they were friends Because there were childhood friends who had spent a long, long tiether in this real world To Chiyuri that was theelse

“…Chiyu”

In a voice so s sound of the descending elevator, Haruyuki called out his childhood friend’s name

Chiyuri’s small shoulders trembled with a twitch, but her lips were still obstinately pulled tight Turning his gaze to Chiyuri’s left hand which was tightly the handle of the urasp that hand and make her face him

But, the words he should have said after that became a crumpled hot lump and remained jammed in his throat

Unable tostock-still, Haruyuki’s body rapped in a gentle feeling of deceleration Without looking behind her, Chiyuri briskly stepped forward towards the entrance

Separating in the blink of an eye froed to the track-and-field club, Haruyuki walked to school while looking down the same way as he had on the way hoe-version of a coazine he loved at a convenience store, but today he si

After following the route to school, which had a population density of a third less than usual with the absence of the new third-year students, and while alternatively feeling joy at having had a Dive Call with Kuroyukihi to Chiyuri, Haruyuki stepped into the gates of U up his back Once he connected to the local netithin the school, things like the log of the ties froht side of his vision

At the end of those, Haruyuki saw a sentence that read «I his face twist

After changing to indoor shoes at the entrance, he touched that string of characters with his finger while biting back an unpleasant feeling

SHUU The -cho font were lined up in Haruyuki’s visions

[To 2nd Year Class-C, School Register Number 460017, Arita Haruyuki: As soon as you arrive at school, you are to pro roo: Froeno Kouji]

Instantly, his heart shrank with a start He thought that Noumi really had submitted that video to the school authorities But he quickly noticed that the sender of the otten that much clear evidence, it should have been handled by the ad at the level of an intervieith his teacher Most likely, he was being sueno’s personal prediction

Even though it was just a guess in his head, Haruyuki passed by the stairs up and headed towards the career counseling roo plentifully within his clenched hands While walking, he opened the student-exclusive database of the local network in his browser and uselessly searched for so like a «manual for when you’re summoned by the teacher», which likely didn’t exist

Then, he actually found it within a school newspaper froo, and Haruyuki read it thankfully while amazed

When he arrived in front of the counseling roo within the ht that no students were in sight just in case He took a single big, deep breath in front of the gray door, and then pressed the room enter button indicated within his vision Student authentication was performed, and the lock was released with a click

When he pulled open the as expected non-autoeno was already within the not very wide roo desk, Sugeno had his ar the thickness of his arms

“So you came Come in”

The first words fro japanese History teacher weren’t that friendly Suppressing the urge to just close the door, Haruyuki stepped into the rooreeted him in an indistinct voice

“…Good ”

Sugeno sucked in a breath as if he was going to voice a complaint just then, but he seemed to reconsider as he closed his ain

“GoodPlease sit down there”

Though the seat he indicated was only one seat away froeno, Haruyuki couldn’t say “No, I’ll stand here” and so reluctantly obeyed by sitting down

The teacher had carved a single line of deep wrinkles on his often-tanned forehead and see» than «scowling» gaze, but suddenly the corners of his mouth finally lifted up

“Arita Though I may not look like it, the truth is, I was also not very popular during h school”