Accel World Vol 5 Chapter 2 (2/2)

While dumbfounded, Haruyuki focused his eyes, and saw that, indeed, the cone-shaped horns extending froe water-colored avatar’s shoulders and forehead were thickly wrapped in ice and seeer than they here the battle started

Further moment by moment In other words, no matter how many times Haruyuki memorized the distance and interval of his tackle attacks, it would be useless

“How is it, this! Is a real man’s! weapon! Uhahanohaa!”

In response to Horn’s loud laughter, applauses of ‘yeah, yeah!’ and retorts like ‘How vulgar’ rained down froallery

Listening to it all, Haruyuki sucked in a deep breath, and then breathed out

—It seems I was mistaken about this

Fighting recklessly without choosing one's opponent and fighting by destroying one’s style and just bulldozing forward are both siy in the eneht ofall ainst this opponent And if don’t do so, I’ll have no chance of winning

—Fro full-throttle!

Making a fist with both hands and drawing the the wings on his back With the first dae he had received just now, his special technique gauge was about half-filled First, he would retrieve Chiyuri and fly up towards the sky He would then wait for the Frosted Circle to be canceled, and then defeat Tourmaline Shell first with another double dive attack—

Haruyuki fory in his mind, but then experienced an unexpected phenomenon and cried out

“Geh…!”

For sos wouldn’t unfold When he promptly turned to look at his back, he saw that frost was sticking to his folded lue that prevented the

Watching Haruyuki as he frantically moved his hands to his back and tried to rub off the frost, Horn shouted

“Uhoh, somehow! I sense! A cha~~nce!”

Lowering his waist, this tier horn on his forehead in front

Haruyuki’s gauge had lost 20 from just the shoulder tackle He absolutely couldn’t allow himself to be hit by what seemed to be Horn’s sure-kill technique However, even if he abandoned doing a counter attack and ran out of the way, the situation would just gradually get worse So—

“Teiyaah—!!”

It was at that h-spirited yell resounded

When he looked in its direction for aTourht hand and then flinging him over her shoulder with a one-armed shoulder throw of excellent form

SUPO—N The thrown Shell fell somewhere behind her about 10 meters away However, it was unfortunate The effectiveness of a throwing technique was at the lowest in a grassland or sand stage like this «Prireen avatar started to jue

But, the true ai else

Chiyuri turned around without looking at where her thrown enee bell in her left hand up high in the air

“«Citron Ca——ll»!!”

As she swung down her bell, a li with a beautiful bell sound The light headed straight towards Haruyuki, and then—

Passed right by his left ar behind him

“Wha……”

Haruyuki’s duhter from Frost Horn

“Uhaha! Light beam techniques have their hit rate decreased by 30 within the «Circle»! If you’re a real ht with! Your body!!”

GOH White frost hirled up into the air at Horn’s feet With an energetic dash with a strong kick-off, he thrusted towards Haruyuki His forehead’s huge horn shi+ned sharply

In the near-instant it took the enehts spun at full power

No matter ho the visibility was, had Chiyuri really missed with her special technique just now?

She was an incredibly careful-type when it ca ability, she must have waited for the e was down by only 20 It was too soon for activating «Citron Call» with its bad energy consumption

In other words, Chiyuri had purposelyelse besides Silver Crow

If he had to nae that could influence the state of the battle, it would be…

The instant his thoughts reached that far, Haruyuki realized what he had to do

Opening his eyes wide, he waited for Frost Horn’s charge He lowered his waist, with one leg bent forward and the other extended behind hie towards

“Uo…ryaaaaa—!”

Pretending as if he was unnerved by Horn’s rough battle cry, Haruyuki turned his body around He ran away at full speed while precisely following the line that Chiyuri’s special technique had pass through earlier A treround drew near hie suddenly hit his back—

He then suddenly braked and kicked off the ground with all his strength, ai his back, he ju around to behind his back

The enes In that case, he shouldn’t expect for hirazing a sharp tip on the center of his back, but Haruyuki danced through the air without getting any further shocks

The large avatar was charging in a straight line towards the center of his vision that had become reversed

In the direction he was heading towards, a huge elliptical-shaped silhouette had appeared within the curtain of white fluttering frost

“Owaah!?”

That shout belonged to Frost Horn He flapped both his hands frantically and tried to do an abrupt braking However, since the ground at his feet was half-frozen, he couldn’t i about the frost on the ground, he slaht into the round silhouette

BAKUSHA A dry yet wet s sound resounded

The huge elliptical sphere broke greatly, and transparentcrept out frory cry of ‘GIIIIIII’ as if its back had gotten cold

The things that one always had to look out for in the Pri creature-type objects There were various types like carnivores, dinosaurs, and alsoplants, but standardly all the creatures would indiscriminately attack any duel avatars that entered their vision

The only exception to that hen one broke an egg»

A huge living creature whose peaceful sleep within its shell had been disturbed would continue ai at only the avatar that disturbed it for 500 seconds Like this huge long-horned beetle, whose four eyes were shi+ning red right now as it looked down on Frost Horn with its large robust jaws chattering

As as like ‘Aah, he really did it this tiallery, Horn put up his hands and spoke to the carapace-covered creature

“W-W-W-Wait! …If we talk as fellow men, we’ll understand each other!”

“GIGIGIIIIIII!!”

Unfortunately, it seeely chase after the avatar that wasn’t even half its size, e antennas As Horn let out a screae jaws bit the air several times above his head

—Of course, «eggs of huge creatures» that could cause such a terrifying result didn’t lie around the forest that conveniently Even if you tried to use it as part of a strategy, there was a high chance of not finding even one after searching intently during the duel time limit

But, in this case, the egg being there wasn’t a coincidence

Chiyuri had produced it She had noticed the silhouette of a large insectThen, she had had released her special technique while pretending to ai the insect

«Citron Call» wasn’t a true healing ability It was actually the power to «turn back the tie in a pseudo-s like alterations by Enhanced Are, its state would be reversed in time Destroyed objects would be restored to just as they were before—and a huge long-horned beetle would return to being an egg

Naturally, Frost Horn probably would have normally noticed what had happened as well and not approached the egg However, the frost drifting thickly through the air had obstructed his vision and hidden Chiyuri’s true aiuidance and s—

“Hiiyaaaaah—!!”

That shrill screary cries went far off into the deep forest to the west, in the direction of shi+njuku Central Park «Frosted Circle» also inal brightness immediately

Watching his partner’s fleeing escape in a dumbfounded manner, Tour from Haruyuki to Chiyuri in turn

“…I’ll take revenge for Horn-kun! C-Come at meeeeeeee!!”

Of course, they came at him

“Good work!”

Haruyuki buht fist as she said that with a sed hi the passage of the Tokyo Govern’s top floor

He let out a long breath and cut off his connection to the Global Net for the ti his face skyward

Even though he hadother than Burst Points hanging in the balance, he was somehow extremely tired The reason was probably because he had forced hiround, a way of fighting that wasn’t his usual style

The stress of «not flying» truly was like being in a desert without water to him When the first school term had started, there had been a tis for more than a week, but that experience had only seemed to increase his desire to fly even more

A year had still not yet passed since Haruyuki had become a Burst Linker If it was «that person» who had six years of experience, it wouldn’t be strange at all if she had continued hiding her passion for the sky ns of that couldn’t be felt at all from her usually quiet manner…

“Hey, what are you spacing out about!”

GOTTSUN Haruyuki confusedly blinked his eyes as his head was hit

Sitting on the next bench beside hilare It see

“S-Sorry What were you saying?”

“‘Shall we do another battle?’ is what I asked!”

After she said that, Haruyuki glanced at the tiht corner of his vision, and saw that only a fewplatform Burst Linker duels finished after 18 seconds at the ht it over a little, before answering

“H tea with Horn and Shell’s teah”

Chiyuri rolled her cat-like eyes, before shaking her head

“Certainly, fighting the sa But, it’d also be a waste to do solo duels after the two of us came all the way here…”

After staying lost in thought for a while with an expression where she would probably have beencat ears if she were in the avatar form she used on the school’s local network, Chiyuri suddenly clapped her hands together and spoke

“Ah, I know! Since we’re already in shi+njuku, let’s call Nee-san[4] over! If I reh school in shi+buya, so she could just travel over one station”

The instant he heard that, Haruyuki was a little surprised That was because the «Nee-san» that Chiyuri spoke of was «that person» who Haruyuki had been thinking of just now

Her name was «Sky Raker» She was a senior Burst Linker that had joined—no, returned to Nega Nebulas just two o, and was also Kuroyukihime’s old friend

The reason why Chiyuri called her Nee-san was very sis in their firstin the real world, where Haruyuki had noticed that, like how Chiyuri’s family name was «Kurashi+ma», Raker’s real name was «Kurasaki Fuuko», and then nonchalantly coether, it’s like you’re sisters, hahaha’[5]

Without waiting for Haruyuki’s response, Chiyuri started typing an invitation email to that Raker-nee-san As his childhood friend typed on her holo-keyboard with slightly aard finger movements, Haruyuki wavered over whether to say “Stop” That was because he had an intuitive premonition that Raker-san would undoubtedly refuse that invitation

While she had certainly returned to the legion, Sky Raker was still not released frouilty consciousness that bound her Even now, she still deeply regretted having left the legion a long ti the leader Kuroyukihime Chiyuri of course also knew about that And in her oay, she was probably trying to knock at the door of Raker’s closed heart

That’s why Haruyuki closed his mouth back shut

Co the email after a few seconds, Chiyuri connected her Neuro Linker to the Global Net for an instant and sent it She cut it off again, and then after waiting a little while, connected it oncethe reply froain, and then looked at the text

“……‘Sorry’, it says”

After whispering that, Chiyuri then raised her head and gave a tiny laugh; Haruyuki carefully prepared his next words

“Raker-san is in high school, so she’s surely busy on weekdays Since she should be participating in the territory match next weekend, we can meet her there”

“…Yeah, that’s right”

His childhood friend sucked in a deep breath, s her emotions, and spoke in a chipper voice

“Then, shall we fight another round as solo fighters this time?”

“Hmm, I feel quite satisfied froh, Chiyu, I’ll keep going with you, of course”

When Haruyuki gave that as his answer, Chiyuri showed a sincere happy-looking smile and nodded

“Yeah, since ere able to win in such an interesting and cool way, I’!”

“Pretty much”

Giving a s match earlier

Just winning in a power battle with their avatars themselves was also very nice, but as even ic victory perfectly using the stage’s attributes Further like a coes That was evident by how the gallery had gotten thrilled and animated when the duel had been concluded

Of course, the regret of having lost was also consequently doubled for the losers

Chiyuri also seenificent words Frost Horn had declared to thee long-horned beetle and returned to the battlefield only to be crushed by their concentrated attacks, and so the two of theether

“Bufufu…‘Next time I’ll definitely dropkick you off froives us advance notice like that, we can just easily dodge it, and it’ll end with hiht”

“Before that, there’s the problem of hoould reach up there There’s probably 200platform there to the antenna at the top, and in the first place, do the social cah…”

An idea suddenly flashed through Haruyuki’s mind as he spoke, and his words slowed down

It was about the topic he had tried to reed to a duel The first case of exporting the social cay outside japan

The lance on the headline news finally came back to him

As Haruyuki suddenly sank into silence, Chiyuri tilted her head in puzzlement

“…What’s wrong, Haru?”

“Eh, ah, n…no, it’s nothing”

When he si up energetically

“Then, let’s get some tea somewhere and head home You oing home all beaten up and full of holes with me![6]”

The thought ‘No ame talk, she still says that kind of reh Haruyuki’s mind

“N-Not especially, even if I was beat up, I wouldn't really mind, not especially”

As he le from Chiyuri who had started to walk towards the elevator reached his ears After sighing, he hurriedly chased after her

Outside the , only the white clouds continued slowly drifting through air as usual

References

↑ TL Note: Both Horn and Shell speak in an exaggerated and rough ine the way a couple of old-style high school delinquents froet the idea

↑ Here, Haruyuki says “Bell” in the regular text, but “Chiyu” in furigana Since he’s speaking in front of other players, I’ it as “Bell”

↑ It says tourana, but the kanji beneath it translates as “electric gem”

↑ For those who don’t know, Nee-san is a way of saying “big sister” In this case, though, it’s meant more as a familiar nickname toward an older female acquaintance, the reasons for which are further explained in the next few paragraphs

↑ The co of Chiyuri’s and Fuuko’s family names, which are “倉嶋” and “倉崎” respectively Besides the first kanji 倉 they share which is pronounced as “Kura”, the si second kanjis 嶋 and 崎 each respectively mean “island” and “peninsula/cape of a coast”, two terms that are closely related

↑ For those who don't notice, this is a reference to the declaration Frost Horn made earlier in the chapter