Accel World Vol 4 Chapter 6 (1/2)

Chapter 6

Fro-out portal point that was installed in the lobby of the Nerima Public Office, Haruyuki returned to the real world

After taking a deep breath, he raised his body fro the XSB cable, he saw Takulasses and breathing softly

Right now, the consciousness of his friend should be doing nothing but desperate training within a different time-rate from Haruyuki No, it couldn’t be described with si his heart’s scars that had been pressed down to the botto to overcome them

“…Taku, do your best”

Haruyuki mumbled that with the lowest volume and then stood up

On the opposite side of the table, the girl that was dressed in an ele with an innocent sleeping face, but—he looked over at her Haruyuki said “Thank you” inside his el only when like this, and then opened the massive door and went out into the hallway from the radio-wave isolated room

—At that moment

“This way Hurry”

A voice came down from above his head, and he raised his eyes with a start

Standing there ithout a doubt, the shop employee that had carried the drinks and cake to the table of Haruyuki and the others a while ago

Dark cherry-colored long skirt and coat that swelled out at the shoulders Over that, a snohite apron that was decorated with moderate lace A white Katyusha[1] on her head, and a thin ribbon over her chest that was of a brighter crimson red than her clothes

In short dressed in the so-called ht when he had seen her froh she was quite tall, she was probably a high school student Her bangs were exactly divided at the middle and her hair was braided all the way to the bottom of her shoulders behind her head Her features were sharp, and her eyes that were thinly turned up increased the sharpness of her impression by two-fold

…Is it because I came out early? Will Niko and Taku be okay like this?

Even as Haruyuki thought that, he si and tried to escape to the interior of the shop from the hallway But

“Not that way”

As she said that, she caught the back collar of his blazer with a jerk and his head was thrown back suddenly

The shock of ‘What ith this poor treatment by a shop employee of a cake shop and who moreover looked like a maid-san!?’ that he felt was amplified dozens of times by her next words

“We’re going out from the back Follow me, Silver Crow”

“……Wha…!?”

While screa “ThisisbadI’vebeendiscoveredinreallifeeeeeeeeee” in his mind, Haruyuki reflexively tried to run away, but because his collar was being held tight it only strangled his neck further Despite her slender figure, she had a frightful grip

“You don’t have to escape, and it’s too late even if you run away now”

As she said that with a thinly-pitched husky voice, Haruyuki reluctantly gave up on escaping and turned around

The maid-san stared down at Haruyuki while coo of the collar of his blazer, she spoke in a completely casual tone

“Scarlet Rain told ation My na me, call me Leopard not Blood If you shorten it, use Pard not Leopa”

“Wai…t, plea…se wait a moment”

Haruyuki soet just those words out and tried hard to understand the situation

—Ask the person who knows more about it

The Red King Niko had certainly said that to Haruyuki just before he logged out But, Haruyuki had naturally assumed that he would only meet that person in Accel World

But, it seemed that the maid-san here that had exposed her real for to the Red Legion that was the «knowledgeable person» that Niko had spoken of and moreover was a shop employee here at the same time, so in other words, this place was not only a cake shop but also so like the base of «Prominence»…

As he soed to being called «Blood Leopard» which was abbreviated to «Pard-san» spoke as if growing impatient

“I waited two seconds Think about the rest while ”

Then, her long skirt softly waved as she turned around and began to walk unflaggingly towards the door that was visible at the end of the dark hallway

Haruyuki no longer had any other choice but to follow the command of the mysterious older woman

The door seee that was built at the back of the cake shop

The ers in the air, and the shutters that faced the road began to open automatically «Blood Leopard» seeer at Haruyuki as if the time to as also precious

“The only information that I’ve heard from master is this There is a Burst Linker who connects to a local network yet doesn’t appear on the Matching List You want to see through the method he uses to do that That’s how it is, K[2]?”

As she asked for confir a shortened phrase that reduced the already short word «OK» by half, he nodded in response

“Ye…Yeah, that’s exactly it”

“Although this isof list interception, I’ve also recently heard a rumor about a «Local Net Troll»”

When the maid-san suddenly said that, Haruyuki reflexively leaned forward and asked impatiently

“L-Local Net Troll…? What kind of person is that?”

“I don’t know much about it It seems that, in a certain network, a Burst Linker that intrudes into there but disappears before anyone can think of challenging him to a rematch has appeared”

“W-Where is that «certain network»!?”

“Akihabara[3]”

This time he pulled his body backhen he heard that brief response that was returned immediately

“…A-Akihabara is, if I reion…”

“Yes”

Looking at the ulped deeply

It was threeNiko had fallen into an instant predica that controlled the Legion «Crypt Cosa Nebulas who had been accoed into the ah tily opposed to the Yellow Legion the ions

Although he very o collect infore to enter the territory of such an enemy, and so he bit his lip

—But, this isn’t a situation where I can afford to be scared here It’s also fortunate that I was told that there is a clue in Akihabara Besides, if I go into the gallery of an ordinary duel there and indirectly heard about that ruht…

While thinking that, Haruyuki tried to e

Then, Blood Leopard, who has been silent for several seconds, said a short sentence

“K We’re going now”

“Heh?”

…By “going”, did she ? Surely not with that appearance…?

Once again grabbing the nape of the surprised and blinking Haruyuki’s neck and saying nothing as if to say she didn’t intend to say anything further here, the e as her half-boots resounded on the ground

Enshrined within there while releasing an overwhel presence was—

A huge electric th was more than two meters

It could only be thought of as «so» completely different from an electric scooter that ran about peacefully Its entire body rapped in a glossy black and red cowl, and the front and back wheels with their own in-built h the active suspension ared that the armor could be seen, its whole forround

“A……”

As Haruyuki unconsciously spoke out in awe, Pard-san threw so he reflexively caught and looked down at was a red open-type helmet

“……Yes?”

Staring fixedly at hi at a brisk pace as he didn’t understand the ain from him

GAPO She put the hel, she skillfully fastened the harness under his jaith a single hand

After also putting on her own black full-face hel braid, she once again grabbed the nape of Haruyuki’s neck and e bike’s tandem seat with a thump

…Impossible No way Wait Wait a minute

Soon after he shouted that out in his mind, the maid-san straddled the bike while still in her h handles with delicate hands that had leather gloves on them

“Starting”

As she seely muttered a voice command, the bike’s meter panel dimly lit up The suspension arms that extended out the front and back preloaded

As Haruyuki’s Neuro Linker was also connected to the bike’s CPU, the speed and battery meter s opened up in his vision At the sah speech but through wireless communication

‘Grab on’

‘Eh, umm, no, but’

Iht about it, her two hands extended frorabbed onto Haruyuki’s arms His arms were then pulled and made to wrap around her thin waist over her apron This wo the same command twice

Though he had already hallway given up as escape from here appeared impossible, Haruyuki still persisted

‘Ah…u to drive with that appearance?’

‘Taking tie clothes is pointless’

‘Al…Also, will the shop be okay?’

‘My shi+ft is till 5:00 If you have any other questions, say them all at once’

‘………I don’t have any more’

‘K’

And then, the maid-san casually opened up the throttle

RYUUN Along with a motor sound which felt like a bottoe bike easily slid out froe

The tiht of his vision read 5:08 PM The rain had stopped without hiaps between the clouds that flowed towards the ere dyed in a e

Ah, I left my umbrella in the store Well, Taku will collect it later

As Haruyuki faintly thought of that in an escapistsmoothly came out from the Sakuradai town area at a nearly silent low speed pace It see to be an impatient person—

Just when he let the tension out of his shoulders, the bike turned right at the larger intersection and went onto the Loop 7

KYUIAAAAA!! The in-built motors of the front and back wheels roared out, and the needle of the holo-meter suddenly jumped upwards

BATABATA Her long skirt fluttered at the edge of his field of view The wind pressure beat into his face over his helmet’s shi+eld

“…Ah—————!!”

Haruyuki screa his real voice

The largea rider in maid clothes and a middle school student in a school uniform entered Mejiro Street fro determinedly towards the east

—Be that as itthe legal speed limit didn’t occur This was because the vehicle’s control system automatically places a limiter at the road’s maximum speed If you wanted to break that lially reency mode and temporarily stop and suspend the control AI Of course, since it was also illegal to suspend the AI without a justifiable reason, you would have to be prepared for a policeman’s handcuffs either way

The bike that Blood Leopard drove naturally had not been h either method and its lial speed limit of Mejiro Street, but the time it had taken to reach the maximum speed froe Gs that he had never experienced before in the real world were pushi+ng down Haruyuki’s round body and his screams rose each time, but in addition the slender body of Pard-san who he was clinging to was being pressed ‘GUNI—— ’ against his stomach, so he was already at his wit’s end

…Thank goodness I’ in the back If our positions were reversed, I’d be feeling her front instead of her back No, isn’t the reverse fundamentally impossible in the first place?

Which he considered such things with his dizzy-feeling head, the bike entered Sotobori Street in Iidabashi+[4] The little road they were on right in thewas filled with traffic, and the drivers of the surrounding electric auto the Pard-san’s and Haruyuki’s bike and widening their eyes while blinking

That was only natural, as a dazzling e sports-bike that people almost never saw these days Moreover, there was a fat ly behind her

Unable to bare the numerous looks that were concentrated on theht-speech while ducking his head down

‘…U-U, how much we stand out’

‘Yes’

Without being disheartened by Pard-san’s reply that seeht it was inconsequential, Haruyuki continued

‘…I-It seee into the headquarters of the CCC[5] like this’

This tier

‘NP[6] Conversely, we’re not conspicuous’

‘Heh?’

But she didn’t answer any further, and when the light turned blue[7], she fully opened up the throttle TheHaruyuki choked

He understood theof her words after the bike entered into alot that was adjacent to the westerne of the Akihabara district and they walked on foot for several minutes

As soon as they went into the h the electronics district from north to south, at least three ht Of course, even if one said that, they weren’t actualof which Blood Leopard wasn’t a realout holo-papers that seemed to advertise a shop so Certainly, the only outward difference between those girls and Pard-san was their s faces

“…I see…”

Deeply understanding it, Haruyuki looked up once again at the majestic appearance of the Sleepless Town, Akihabara

This district, due to redevelop of the 2000s, seeent-looking street But after that, the price of land fell into decline while the center of consumer electronics sales shi+fted to Ikebukuro and shi+njuku, the banks that beca the depression of those times quickly backed out, the landowners were sub-divided, and chaos covered this district in the 2020s once again just like back in the last century

And so, in the current year 2047, innumerable small scale shops of every industry related to electricity, networks and sub-culture were crowded together in this district Since self-indulgent neon lights shi+ned along all the s of the buildings that lined down the street, there was no uniforalaxy where stars of pure color were crowded together

If Haruyuki connected to the Global Net right now and moreover accepted advertiseain holo-leaflets like custom parts for Neuro Linkers or deferment PCs and various applications softwares would flood his vision and prevent hi

“How nice…”

As he let his mouth slack in bliss at the chaos of inforht of as reality but as the virtual world, his nape was suddenly grasped hard

“This way”

Blood Leopard, who did not seean to walk northwards along the sidewalk that was overfloith shoppers while dragging along Haruyuki

The place she led hi that was built at a place where you had to enter it a little towards the back from the main street

He didn’t really understand what kind of shop it was at first glance A neon sign that read «QUADTOWER» blinked on and off at the entrance, and the interior was direat volume overlapped and leaked out from within

“…Quadtower? What is this shop…?”

The slightly scared Haruyuki asked that,

“A ga-cen”

With that short answer, Pard-san unflaggingly headed towards the interior of the shop without any hesitation While thinking ‘Ga-cen, what’s that?’, Haruyuki went after her at a trot

Theof those words became clear the instant he went down the short stairs and stepped into a dark floor

The things that were tightly lined up on the naked concrete floor were prehistoric game machines, which were embedded with outdated CRTsounds, explosions and BGMs were being discharged into the air from each speaker without reservation, and the players that were sitting on oblong chairs were absorbedly striking their panels with ‘GACHAGACHA’ and ‘PAshi+PAshi+’ sounds

As he watched duave a victory pose on one side of two units that were lined up back to back, and the gallery people in the back suddenly sprang forward in a co man stood up It seeh the two machines

One of the gallery people iirl, who also had a showy appearance like an actual game character, took out a silver 100-yen coin from her pocket and dropped it into the slot in the center of the panel

“I…I see”

Haruyuki mumbled with a parched mouth

“Ga-cen ame center…Those ames», aren’t they!”

He continued speaking excitedly, but Blood Leopard ain

Although he understood the ioal in co to this district, Haruyuki himself could not help but want to sit down at that battle‘Just once is fine’ He hadn’t touched one of those large-type controllers before, but he had played 2D hand-to-hand coames that were controlled with a pad on a household machine at his home so many times he was tired of it

However, rettably, he didn’t have any old-fashi+oned material money like 100-yen coins in either his pockets or his backpack He e ot separated froht turn out terrible—rather than that, he’d probably be scolded, so he tearfully gave up on that

While the far too late question ‘In the first place, why did this person bring h hisbraid on the back of her maid clothes, and they eventually arrived at an elevator on the wall that was the farthest back inside the shop

The scarily old-fashi+oned lift carried the two of the It stopped on the fourth floor

What was on the other side of the opening door was completely different frorave What were lined up here weren’t gamepanels Next to the right wall, there were drink vendors set up in a row

Haruyuki also recognized a place like this A so-called «Dive Café», a shop that cheaply offered private roo while in the town Since the booths could be locked, the security was quite higher than leaving one’s real body in an open space like a family restaurant or coffee shop

Nonetheless, there had certainly been plenty of Dive Cafes closer to the parking lot where they had left the bike He wondered why they had expressly co, but Pard-san quickly finished up with the receipt at the unmanned counter in front and then briskly walked further inside the place Haruyuki reluctantly followed

However—

“Enter”

What Blood Leopard indicated at was to all appearances a single person-use booth and she further after Haruyuki as if it were natural, so Haruyuki couldn’t help but question her this time

“U-Umm, there’s only one chair”

“There were no two-person booths vacant If we craether, we’ll fit”

As she replied with that expressionlessly, she shut the slide-type door and the sturdy-looking lock resounded out with a ‘GACHINGACHIN’ While collecting together her long skirt, she sat down sideways on the reclining chair

When she brought her slender body near the edge, there was certainly about 40 cm of space left on the chair But even so the fat Haruyuki would just barely fit if he sat there Rather, he would be squeezed in

“……Um”

As Haruyuki tried to continue to say ‘I’ll reserve another room for myself’, the maid-san beat him to the punch and spoke

“NP I don’t care about sticking close to a child”

—But I care about it a lot!! Or rather, if you think about the first condition for being a Burst Linker, you can’t be more than three years older than me!!

Although he cried that all out in hisused to this, and so sat down next to Blood Leopard while h he tried to lean as far as possible towards the arap between the nose of Haruyuki’s head and the chest covered by a pure white apron

He felt faint as soon as he noticed a sweet fragrance that drifted softly in the air and that smelt of cream and strawberries, but he somehow endured it, and then a whisper came from so close by that he could feel the breath on his brow

“First, you must set up a Full Dive-use avatar that cannot be connected to your real life self”

“…Ah, y-yes”

He sohts, quickly operated his virtual desktop, and changed his avatar fro that he used on the Ureen lizard he had never used before

“I-It’s done”

“Then, when you Full Dive, pass into the access gate that has the shi+ning tag «Akihabara BG»”

“U-Understood”

“K Counting down One, zero”

…One usually starts from three at least!

At the saht that, the same command came out from both of their mouths

““Direct Link””

SHUWAH! Along with that sound, Haruyuki’s consciousness and real body separated, and he fell into darkness

A few Access Gates approached from below Since Haruyuki was cut off from the Global Net, they all should have be local networks ad characters that read «Read as much as you like!» and «Online Ga that read «Akihabara BG»

When he extended an invisible hand towards it, it drew closer within his field of vision The ate, there was a slight lag A sign that so performed

But the feeling of ain, and finally the soles of Haruyuki’s feet landed on the ground with a hard metallic sound

When he lifted up his turned-down head, he saw that he was in a place that could be called either a huge bar or a club

All the walls and floor were ular space in the center looked like an atrium, and on the floor of the first floor that was created as if to surround it and the floor of the second floor, there were rough tables made of just bare iron plates lined up at equal intervals