Accel World Vol 5 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Chapter 4

As if the seasonal rain front was taking a brief recess at last, Tuesday was the first clear and pleasant day in a long while

With only a few fleecy clouds floating in the sky when 6 o’clock classes ended, Haruyuki hurried to Kouenji Station at a quick pace as the rays of the setting sun hit his back

His destination was, of course, on the opposite side of Tokyo—the New Tokyo Tower in Oshi+age, Sumida Ward, whose official name was the «Tokyo Sky Tree» In about two hours, a door to the space elevator «Her platform there…maybe

It had all started from Haruyuki’s al the duel galleries in Suginami and shi+njuku, there hadn’t been any other Burst Linkers talking about the Hero, even Kuroyukihi, had added ‘Well, we shouldn’t be too disappointed even if it’s a hit-and-miss’

Therefore, at the very least, he would have liked to incorporate the sub-theme of «an expedition to the East Tokyo Area» that they didn’t normally visit, but unfortunately Takumu and Chiyuri were busy with club practice, and Kuroyukihime had a busy schedule in the student council in order to prepare for the upco cultural festival And so, Haruyuki had to pluck up the courage to risk being challenged to a solo duel in an unfamiliar territory

“…If it really is a hit-and-ame store in Akihabara as well”

Coot on the Chuo Line

Haruyuki changed over to the Hanzoe Station, where the rows of buildings were increasingly dyed in the color of sunset

Haruyuki circled around on the sidewalk, and after finally finding it in the sky, he let out a breath of relief

Despite living in Tokyo, he didn’t often get the chance to go to «famous Tokyo sites», and so this was only his second tiolden on its west side, the huge truss-structured tower rose up high sharply like a ladder reaching up to the heavens

A length of 634 h 35 years had passed since it had been built, this co in japan even now After standing there and staring up at its majestic appearance for a little while, Haruyuki hurriedly headed towards the tower

He paid the ot on the high-speed elevator As the elevator lift began to go up with a feeling of acceleration, he was gripped by a sensation of lift different fro off vertically in Accel World, and he unconsciously stuck hilass wall just like when he ascended the Tokyo Government Office the day before yesterday If Chiyuri were next to hih places don’t you!” in an amazed voice

A few dozen seconds later, the elevator reached the viewing platfor with several tourists

He restrained hiave a look at his surroundings It was a weekday evening, so there were very few non-adult figures on this floor There were only college students who seemed to be in the middle of a date, and small children accompanied by their parents Froh school students wandering around here by themselves with no apparent objective—in other words, there weren’t any «people who seemed like Burst Linkers»

Of course, he could also connect his Neuro Linker to the local network here, accelerate and check thethat in such a closed netould bring on the slight danger of his real identity being exposed Besides, if he found the name of other Burst Linkers here, he would have no choice but to «duel», and that wasn’t his objective today

Therefore, Haruyuki stopped scanning around the large viewing platforain

Although it was noplatform of the Governht, the view of the capital spread out under the clear evening sky was, in a single word, breathtaking The way large laround as looked like an outdated electronic board

When he turned his gaze straight forward, the ure of Mt Fuji lay stretched out there just beyond the demonic city[1]

To its upper left was the sun, currently sinking doards the horizon It was followed by a belt of deep black clouds, so it would probably rain again tomorrow

He raised his head further up The sky filled his field of vision as its color changed frohts on its wing-tips blinking A sightseeing craft floated leisurely in the sky

—At this instant, a 4000 k far above in that sky at the hypersonic speed of Mach 10

The instant he thought that, Haruyuki let out a sigh

—The world is vast It’s big It’s way too macroscopic in scale

The reason I like to look up at the sky is surely because I want to experience this sensation This feeling where my chubby, menial and tiny self seems truly microscopic in co

The times when I become Silver Crow and fly are also surely like that At that instant, I feel the absurd scale of Accel World with my whole body Compared to the «infinity» of space and time there, even the mountain-sized troubles I have are just round I believe that only when I’ the sky

……But

In that case, why did you aim, no, why do you continue to aim even now for the sky? Just like me, you should want to taste that epheoal, you can fulfill it plenty with your current abilities as well Why…? Is there so you want there in the sky…?

The question that Haruyuki whispered in his heart was of course directed to his other «teacher», Sky Raker

And Haruyuki could also vaguely guess the answer Of course, he didn’t know if it was correct or not No, the problem wasn't whether it was correct When the tis and dashed through the sky, the ansould appear then

That’s why, visiting the Sky Tree and waiting for a portal to appear ht now If Raker-san sientle so, that would be the end of it

‘But’, thought Haruyuki No matter how deep the scars she held were, Sky Raker was also a Burst Linker Therefore, if a new field and e to the sky appeared in Accel World, she will surely feel excited

Like how Haruyuki’s own chest elling unbidden at this instant

As he continued staring at the evening landscape of the heart of Tokyo, the ti it The predicted time of the portal’s appearance that Kuroyukihime had accurately deduced was 5:34:42[2] At that instant, the Her the equator, would be at its closest to Tokyo

After waiting for severalto fret, he connected his Neuro Linker to the Global Net five seconds before the designated time

Three seconds before, he took a deep breath Two seconds before, he shut his eyes tight And then one second before, Haruyuki cried out in a voice only he could hear

“Burst Link!!”

BAshi+H!

The sound of acceleration struck his entire body

When he slowly opened his eyes, he saw that he was in the frozen blue «Initial Acceleration space» The metropolis spread out outside the , the floor and pillars of the viewing platfor had become like transparent crystal and remained stock still

Haruyuki quietly separated fro avatar After taking one or two steps backwards, he turned around resolutely

The central area of the viewing platforoods shops But now, those shops had completely disappeared, and only a deserted floor was left there

No matter how hard he looked, there wasn’t even a switch there, let alone a portal After standing there stock still for alh

—As I thought, the idea that a «space Stage» would appear was just a childish fantasy

He whispered that within his heart, and tried to sit down on the very spacious floor, but at that instant

An intense light and vibrating sound suddenly struck Haruyuki’s entire avatar’s body,him jump up When he raised his face up with a start, there was a huge object gushi+ng out now in the center of the wide empty floor

A staircase gradually rose up froh the air A circular stage appeared at its tip while spinning, and furtheronal arrangement

The transparent pillars contained a blue light inside thehts, shi+ning particles rose up perpendicular to the center of the pillars, and glittered beautifully as they extended al

“…This is…the Hermes Cord’s portal…”

Whispering in a hoarse voice, Haruyuki stood up He coo, and tightly gripped his pig avatar’s right hand His guess was not wrong after all Who was it that said it was just a childish fantasy?

He rushed up to the stairs in that state, and without feeling any fear or hesitation, he ran up the stairs with his hooved feet

He passed through the gap between the six pillars, which were e sound, and went to the center of the circle

On his last step, he gathered his feet together and juain

“Uwah…!?”

Haruyuki shouted as he saw his pig avatar start decoht particles No, rather than decoinal forital code that served as proof that his virtual proxy body was being returned to its essence as information

The instant after he realized that

Haruyuki’s consciousness felt as if he were rising vertically at a violent speed But there was none of the Gs that accoht without h the Sky Tree’s superstructure, flew up to the sky—

And then his vision whited out completely

The sensation of stopping came just a few seconds later

First, Haruyuki felt his feet touch on a level surface, and heard a hard ‘GATSUN’ sound Weight suddenly returned to his body, and he involuntarily struck out one knee

While in a crouched posture, he timidly opened his eyes

The first thing he saas a HP gauge at the upper left corner of his vision Thinking ‘Eh?’, he held out his hands and looked at theers that shi+ned silver Without a doubt, these were the familiar arms of «Silver Crow»

Since he had transfor started a duel, he panicked over whether this was the rule-less «Unli The English word [LOCKED] was displayed in the center of the green HP gauge

Unable to i, he tilted his puzzle it aside for the ti in a deep breath, Haruyuki finally raised his head and looked straight in front of him

And then, he shouted

“Uu…uwaaaaaah!?”

He bent backwards and fell on his backside fro conscious of his aard pose, he stared at the spectacle before his eyes

The metal floor that Haruyuki sat on cut off just one meter in front of him Beyond that was—the sky And clouds And beneath that, the surface of the Earth

For Haruyuki with his flight ability, it was a familiar spectacle However, the scale was coh Just how her than the 1500 ht limit? The sky was dyed a deep ultrae swirls far below, the sea was an indigo blue, and the land was a blurry brown and green If he fell froht, he would probably burn out froe from the fall

He unconsciously drew back, and when he was about threeelse, he finally let out the breath he’d been holding in He stood up eak knees, and then finally looked to either side of him

The grey metal terrace see the line of its edge, he automatically turned around And then—

A curved wall stood in the center of the ring-like terrace

No, it wasn’t a wall It was a pillar An absurdly thick pillar, probably 100 meters in dia on a floor surface that spread out in the shape of a flange up to the base of the pillar

“This is…the Hermes Cord……?”

Mur that in a whisper, Haruyuki due tohere Gods lived shi+ning dully like stainless steel, the metal tower stretched up infinitely towards the sky which changed froo, and its tip wasn’t visible at all as it faded away into the vanishi+ng point

The space elevator in the real world should have been built by tying together several cables that were also twisted together from CNT fibers Its diameter o meters at most, so it was more accurate to describe it as a rope than a pillar

But, the thing that had been reproduced froh above before Haruyuki’s eyes right now could no longer be called a h altitude, it was an incredibly large-scale tower of 100 ht Just why on earth had it been enlarged to such a size?

He probably wouldn’t find the answer no ht it was a trifling question The i was that the «space elevator» actually existed No, the place he was standing on right now should perhaps still be called a «Super-High Altitude Stage» In that case, was real space waiting just beyond where this huge tower ascended…?

“It’s way bigger than I expected”

Haruyuki nodded in response to the voice that spoke to his right

“Yeah…Compared to this, even the Sky Tree is a toothpick…”

“On the other hand, there is also no detail on its surface Is there an internal structure inside it?”

“But, I can’t see anything like an entrance either…—Wait”

BIKUUN

His whole body stiffened, and after skillfully jurees to the right

“Waah!? Wh, ho-henhen”

Who’s that, when did you!

He tried to sharply ask the other person’s identity, but only a strange series of sounds came out from his mouth The silhouette that expressionlessly looked down on Haruyuki froht next to him was—

A thin dark red body Robust thighs and forearms Hands with sharp claws A tail that flexibly swayed around And with ular ears froolden eyes, it ithout a doubt, the strongest class close range-type duel avatar that Haruyuki personally knew

“Pa…P-P-P-P-Pard-san!? W-W-Why are you h-h-here!?”

«Pard-san», the Level 6 Burst Linker «Blood Leopard» that belonged to the Red Legion «Pro of her shoulders

“The same reason why you’re here”

“Heh…”

Finally settling down since the other party was much too calm and composed, Haruyuki belatedly realized

The transport to this place was never a privilege granted to only Haruyuki If a Burst Linker knew of the news on the social camera installation in the Her added to Accel World, and furtheruess the time and place when the portal to it would appear, anyone could e to come here

Slightly happy that there was another player that thought of such a reckless fancy and actually came to the Sky Tree like himself, Haruyuki s, and stiffened his body

In other words, it wouldn’t be strange if new avatars appeared one after another here right at this instant He frantically looked around at his surroundings, but he saw no signs of a third person appearing

As Haruyuki started becohtly amazed voice

“The reason you entered the portal first is because you boldly accelerated at the viewing platform itself I Dived inside the toilet on the floor below, so I was slightly late Since other people will probably co their real identities exposed as their top priority, there should be a et here”

“Ah…yes, I see, that is true…”

While feeling belatedly scared at his own recklessness, Haruyuki once again greeted her

“H-hello, good day”

When Leopard niht hand, he did likewise and bowed his head to her

“Umm, I’m seriously indebted to you for the other day I’ you ayou directly…”

Those words were thanks to Pard-san for the great help he had gotten froe trouble that assaulted Haruyuki two ed and replied with an unusually long response

“NP[3] You also helped me a lot that ti the security hole within Akiba BG More importantly…”

She struck Haruyuki’s back with a slap and urged him to move

“We should effectively use the tiate around the pillar”

“K, K[4]!”

Although the person that had appeared after hilad as he walked that it was Blood Leopard who he had made friends due to certain circumstances If it had been Frost Horn, he would have definitely grabbed Haruyuki froround below

They crossed over the approxie and approached the main pillar of the Hermes Cord, but even when they touched it with their hands, no change occurred on its shi+ning alloy-like surface Even though there were details like sea at all

Pard-san scratched the pillar with her sharp nails, and after confir that it was so hard that it didn’t leave even a scratch, she began walking around it clockwise Haruyuki also followed after her Since the diameter of the pillar was about 100surface When they could finally see the opposite side from where the transport location was, Haruyuki noticed that there was so there and raised his voice

“Ah…There’s so here!”

The sound of their footsteps rose and they ran up to it

The objects there seeht, cars or shi+ps Streath were orderly lined up next to each other on top of a slanted rack installed at the bottoht up towards the top of the Hermes Cord There were ten of them

The vehicles didn’t have a roof, and instead the seating areas were completely open At the front, the one-seater cockpit was equipped with a transparent windshi+eld There were ts of two-person seats placed behind it The lower section was equipped with four big discs instead of tires, which seemed to be some kind of propulsion device Its slender s of the word «shuttle»

“W-What are these…?”

Mur that, Haruyuki climbed atop the slanted rack and approached one of the vehicles at the left end with the symbol «1» painted on its side The cold iron-colored body rens that it contained fire in its engine

He timidly extended his hand forward, and at the instant he poked the smooth line of the door

PIPON A purple holo- popped up with a light sound After being startled for a ht her face close next to him

On the topmost part of the , inscribed in robotic font were—

The characters [3D 18H 25M 18S (JST)] These digits, which appeared to indicate days, hours, minutes, and seconds in order, clearly seemed to be some kind of time count

“Hits will reach zero in 3 days, 18 hours and 35 minutes in japanese Standard Time…in other words, at noon on Sunday”

After Blood Leopardher train of thought

“Will so happen at that time…?”

However, instead of answering his question, Pard-san pointed at the lower part of the ith her feline beast-of-prey-like claws There was a short sentence displayed there as well Saying, [DO YOU DRIVE ME?]

And beneath that, there was only a YES button He understood that the lish sentence was “Will you drive me?”, but even so Haruyuki wavered over what to do, and the ever-hasty Pard-san whispered in his ear

“If you won’t press it, I will”

“Ah, I-I’ll press it, I’ll press it!”

Answering frantically, Haruyuki raised his right hand and, after resolving himself, pressed the YES button

Instantly, a short fanfare SE[5] resounded and the English characters changed [YOU ARE MY DRIVER!] —You are my driver

Several seconds later, the string of characters changed again and becale word [RESERVED] At the sa out from thesurface

It was a transparent clue card Besides the«1» on its surface, it also had the same countdown displayed on it as on theThe instant Haruyuki took it, the next and final phenomenon occurred

Along with a sound, the body of streaed fro silver color Haruyuki immediately noticed that its mirror-like tint was exactly the same as his, or rather, Silver Crow’s armor

“I see”

Pard-san , and walked over to the shuttle marked with «2» When she touched its body, aappeared, and she touched the YES button without hesitation After she took the card that appeared between two of her fingers, the body color of the shuttle ied to Blood Leopard’s deep red armor color this time

Haruyuki walked over to Pard-san while holding his card and asked a question once again

“U-Uistered as the drivers of these cars or shi+ps…I understand that much, somehow But, what is this countdown about? There’s still , but…”

“That's self-explanatory The shuttles won’t move until the countdown becomes zero at noon on Sunday”

After hearing that clear reply, he nodded in understanding, and i forth