Accel World Vol 8 Chapter 5 (1/2)
Chapter 5
“…Uwaah! W, we’re falling!”
While yelling, Haruyuki abruptly picked himself up
Just at that htly pulled
“Eh…what…”
While feeling his heartbeat ringing like an alarht An off-white wallpaper A super-thin panel TV A large dining table and a kitchen counter beyond it
It was his living and dining roo on the round
The ho his upper body, illu In the diht, he looked at what had pulled his neck; it o XSB cables extending fro He traced the cable on the left side with his eye; only fifty centi face of his childhood friend—Kurashi+ with her tu out from the hem of her pajamas, dived into his view
—Surely, it wasn’t all a dream?
Becoh a long tunnel and seeing the light of the galaxy; ain there…it was all just a dream?
While Haruyuki was taken with that bewilderment, at almost the same time Chiyuri lifted her eyelids with a momentum that nearly made a sharp sound
Chiyuri exchanged glances with him for only a mere second, then shouted in a hoarse voice
“Haru…where’s Takkun!? Was he able to come back safely from there!?”
Those words indicated she had also shared the same experience as Haruyuki
That was right; there was no way it had been just a dream What they had experienced in that world, what had happened was all real The two had passed through «iination circuits» and had entered the Brain Burst central server, had discovered the «main body of the ISS Kit», and had awakened Taku to connect, with Haruyuki’s Incarnate technique, and then…
“—Taku!”
While raising his voice Haruyuki turned his body toward the ht side
In the diht, in contrast to Chiyuri, Mayuzu position with a straightened back and was closing his eyelids
“Takkun!”
While Chiyuri also shouted thinly, she clis and knelt at Takumu’s immediate side At the moment when her extended hand tried to touch his shoulder, Takureat momentum
His slightly brown pupils caught sight of Chiyuri and Haruyuki in order, ere holding their breaths and had stopped still His left hand came out from beneath the blanket and touched the Neuro Linker equipped to his neck and the cable extending fro him to Haruyuki
At last his childhood friend spoke in a distinct voice that did not see woken up
“…It wasn’t a dream, was it No, it’s different Haru and Chii-chan destroyed ht?”
And then he wore the exact saentle smile he always had on his lips
ThatTakuht he shouted
“Taku, you, you…if we tell you to run away, then run away! There it’d normally be impossible to counterattack!”
“That’s right! If you got caught by those nasty tentacles, ould you have done!”
While also drawing near Takumu as if to lean on him, Chiyuri too raised a shrill voice
Takuo, far fro main body of the Kit had counterattacked with his Incarnate technique i escaped its mind control due to Haruyuki’s Incarnate technique and was being reproached for that, answered while changing his sretful one
“W, well you see, I thought of it right off the bat…That thing’s to bla that I had to return the favor with a blow by any means…”
“W, well, as for ive it a hard knock with all h…”
After unconsciously nodding, Haruyuki abruptly raised his face and inquired hurriedly
“Th, that’s right, besides that…what happened? How’s ‘the thing’ inside you?”
Inside the «dream», with his new Incarnate technique «Laser Lance» Haruyuki had definitely pierced through and destroyed the ISS Kit, which had broken off froht arinary world, even if it weren’t an actual dream he still did not kno much influence he had exerted
The questioned Takuhtly closed his eyelids
His right hand rose up and touched the area around his brow His furrowed eyebrows trembled little by little Takumu, as in that state for a while, at last lowered his hand, and with his snapped-open eyes he stared straight at Chiyuri first, then at Haruyuki—
He emitted a subdued voice
“…It disappeared”
“Eh?”
“It disappeared, Haru That thing, which had been staying in a place deep insideto me…it disappeared…”
At the sa out, the hoed that the inhabitants had risen froree of illumination further
The daylight color of the panel lights shone on the face of the widely s Takumu It was no different than his sa Nebulas—no, than the smile of his old friend always at his side if Haruyuki looked there while they played as if in a trance since their childhood days
—It was Taku He had returned To my side To a place I could reach if I extended my hand out
The moment he believed that, the smile of Takumu before his eyes was covered in a boisterous dance of white light and became blurred
The instant he are of a hot so from his own eyes, out of embarrassment Haruyuki bumped his forehead into Takumu’s broad chest with a thump
“Y…you caused us to worry!”
While shouting roughly on purpose, Haruyuki tried to hold back his tears with all his ht, but on the contrary they welled up endlessly With clenched teeth, fro, a sob like that of a child
“Uh…nn…kk…uh!”
A large, warently slapped the back of Haruyuki, who, unable to stand it all, was causing his shoulders to tremble
“Just…just a moment, Haru, no matter how you think about it that’s my role, isn’t it!”
The voice of Chiyuri, who, aghast, had shouted that, was however also clearly wet Immediately after, around Haruyuki’s left shoulder Chiyuri also heavily bumped her body with a thump
While feeling the body warmth of his two childhood friends with his whole body, Haruyuki only continued to be filled to the brim with hot tears
And then, suddenly, in the far depths of his head he heard a faint voice
…I’lad for you That you were able to save your friends
That was unirl avatar While bearing his sobs, Haruyuki replied with his thoughts
—Thank you, it’s all thanks to you
…Fufu, I didn’t do anything The light of your heart shone upon the darkness I want you to keep walking the path in which you believe If you continue to gather lots of light, one day for sure the time when that person’s deep despair will also be healed will come…
At this ti of those words
However, as if being led by so Haruyuki murmured
—Unh I promise One day, I will definitely free you…free you and him from the cycle of the «Disaster»…
…Thank you I believe in you…
With those final feords, the voice faded and disappeared
With the sleeve of his pajaun to get under control, and he lifted his head; to hide his ereat force
“It…it see till ere about to diein the fridge…”
Chiyuri’s stunned voice overtook Haruyuki, who had pulled out the direct connection cable, had stood up, and was running with heavy footsteps toward the kitchen
“Hey there, even if you’re talking about running, wasn’t it in the middle of a dream!”
Following her was also Taku voice
“Ha ha ha…Haru, I’ on you for my share too!”
After heating three people’s rations’ worth of frozen cubes of cla equal amounts into their soup cups, Haruyuki carried the table
He looked at the wall clock; it was already close to six in the ht shi+elding ht from the east would probably shi+ne in It was an hour earlier than his regular waking ti up today as he was and stretched enormously
At the same time the tho had cleaned up their beds came to the table, they first took a sip of the soup fro out their breaths, their gazes met
The first to open her mouth was Chiyuri, whose expression had become serious
“Takkun Um…with this, it’s okay to think of the probleht?”
“Unh, I believe so I don’t have data backing me up, but my intuition says so”
There was no hesitation in the voice of Takumu, who had come to that conclusion i
“It’s not about reducing its degree of endurance in the duel stage, how do you put it…we destroyed some save data in the server If it survived that, on the other hand that’d be surprising…”
“«Server» —Haru, basically that place was Brain Burst’s?”
To Takumu’s inquiry, he nodded softly
“Aah The «Brain Burst central server»…That person had said so…”
To Taku the server, Haruyuki and Chiyuri alternately explained what they had experienced in that world
The long, dark tunnel and the infinite space in its depths The wavering light of the galaxy and the jet black luolden avatar who had appeared fros to him—
“…I see…”
Takulasses reular «professorhad his head revolve furiously for a number of seconds, he lifted his head and emitted some words crisply
“Haru, do you re the vulnerability of the ISS Kit, last night, before sleeping”
“V, vulnerability…uh, e said about since it has a power that formidable, it must also have a weakness to counterbalance it?”
“That’s right At first, you had struck that very vulnerability While its equipper is sleeping during the night, the ISS Kit autoination circuits and connects the equipper’s consciousness to the central server There, with other equippers, it executes a so-to-speak…«night the Kit’s main body as well as its terminals…”
At Takumu’s words, Haruyuki and Chiyuri simultaneously caused their bodies to shudder
“So like that already out of the limits of what players can do?”
To Chiyuri’s whisper, Takuhtly bit his lip
“Aah, truthfully, I also have no clue how one would be able toBut…if I could say one thing, then it would be that the Brain Burst program undoubtedly had that function froination circuits as a drea to the central server»”
“Eh…that means that?”
“Haru, you reht of the day you installed Brain Burst”
“Ah…”
After lightly raising his voice and exchanging glances with Chiyuri, Haruyuki deeply nodded
There was no way he could forget it He did not remember the details, but in the fall of last year, Haruyuki, who had received the prograram had filtered that dream and created Haruyuki’s other self, the duel avatar «Silver Crow» The avatar data istered simultaneously in the central server—rather than that, it wasoccurred in the interior of the central server That night, sure enough Haruyuki had co It was basically completely the saht—
Taking a sip of his soup, while being lost even further in thought Takumu continued
“The nightly parallel processing, that’s the very heart of the strength of the ISS Kit, but…however, at the sa Because no ht up to the side of the h if everyone’s under its control like I was, it wouldn’t become a problem…”
To Takufully, Haruyuki also returned a wide laugh
“The guys who created the Kit also probably sure didn’t iine there were Burst Linkers who make direct connections and sleep with its equippers in real life”
“On top of that, all the e expansion Incarnate technique» outside the sphere of influence of the Kit’s main body”
Watching the two boys laughing together with a “fufufufu,” Chiyuri shook her head with an “oh dear,” but she spoke i, half-displeased manner
“In short, this tih already, I want to ht!’ to him!”
Gulping down her soup to the last drop, she vigorously returned her cup to the table, and after a shake of her short hair disheveled froain
“…Hey, Takkun At the end of that «dreaht With that, were you able to destroy the main body?”
“…No”
The interrogated Takued his expression and slowly shook his head
“It’s unfortunate, but it didn’t have the effect of being able to destroy it coe to its accumulated « to the same cluster as I do probably lost quite a bit of power”
The «cluster» of which Taku of the saenta Scissor»—shared by some Burst Linkers and from there the people who possessed further copies of the Kit At the last of last night’s duel, if they had not been able to stop the Kit, which had broken off from Takumu and had tried to parasitize Haruyuki, Haruyuki also would have become a member of that cluster
While re next to Takuhtmare, Haruyuki murmured
“…That«Bush Utan» and «Olive Glove» from the Kit, then now’s our chance”
“Unh If it’s now, then even if we don’t enter the central server, we ht be able to destroy it in a normal duel Of course, with normal techniques it’s of no use, but if we use Incarnate techniques I think there’s a possibility”
“Understood Convey thisould, but today we can’t make a move…”
At Haruyuki’s words, Chiyuri and Takumu looked at the clock on the wall
The date and time displayed was June 20th 2047, Wednesday, 6:30 AM
At seven tonight—that was to say, after twelve hours and a little bit later, Haruyuki would have to challenge a h difficulty Nay»
Currently, his other self Silver Crow had been left behind in the depths of the «I in the center of the Unliether with the purification ability user «Ardor Maiden» If the two did not slip through the fierce attack of «Suzaku, one of the Four Divine Beasts» and return alive from there once more, as a Burst Linker Haruyuki had no future As for why, if he were not purified of the «Disaster Ar in the depths of his avatar, at the next Seven Kings’ hest price would be placed on his head
The night before the mission when he was really supposed to have slept soundly and fully he had braved an unexpected adventure, but on the contrary Haruyuki unusually felt briy He had a real sense that the duel with Takumu, who had been violated by the ISS Kit, and the experience in the central server after that had given hi
The three, who had turned their faces back from the clock, nodded firmly and deeply at one another Chiyuri, as at his left, with a sreat force
“Haru, you own that bird easily and coht away!”
“That’s right, Haru, co me on IS mode, that’s easy isn’t it?”
“Oh, look who’s talking Mayuzumi-sensei2”
At the point where the two boys again grinned widely, this time’s spontaneous sleepover event rapped up for the ti
Chiyuri, the brave warrior as going to return to her home two floors downstairs in her pajaed into sweats, followed afterward Haruyuki, who had gone out to see the two off, noticed by chance Takuesture
He was holding up his right hand and was softly holding the area of the outside of that wrist with his left arm It was the exact spot where the ISS Kit had parasitized Cyan Pile
Approaching a step, from behind Haruyuki called out to Takumu in a small voice
“Taku…I have to apologize For destroying your «power»…”
His old chum who had looked back smiled, but in its depths Haruyuki felt there was a faint plaintiveness after all However, Takureatly shook his head and spoke distinctly
“—To be sure, if I said I didn’t feel any attachether, it’d be a lie However, I thank you from the bottom of my heart Because I want to be how I am now after all No matter how much I worry or hesitate”
“…Taku…”
“Besides that, I obtained soer than that power That’s why there’s no need for you to apologize, Haruyuki”
At Taku his head to the side he inquired
“Eh…does thatspecial technique-like?”
Whereupon quicker than Taku her shoes, turned her head round and shouted
“Ah—enough already, why are you so dull! What Takkun wants to say is…”
There for sorinned broadly
“…You should think about it yourself after all It’s your homework for tomorrow!”
Haruyuki, who had tidied the table to its original state, bolted down a breakfast of cereal and ed into his uniform, and left the house
While riding the elevator down, he typed a short textthat he had properly gotten up and went to school and thanks for having let Takuht of it there was also the plan tonight to asseht to disperse before his mother returned horound level he sent it
Sole word 【Understood】, but precisely five hundred yen’s worth of money code was attached Haruyuki sed it into his own account
Haruyuki’s mother, the person Arita Saya, was a rather ical child She would be thirty-seven this year, so she had given birth to Haruyuki when she enty-three He had not asked the person herself the particulars about her personal history, but at that tiraduate school in the Tokyo metropolitan area While at school, with aat a network-related enterprise she had entered her naister and had borne a child However, the details of that area’s ti ceremony had been held either That seeed froata
While rearing a baby—granted, she had depended considerably on the Neuro Linker—she had completed her master’s coursework, obtained her MBA qualifications, and had secured a post in a japanese subsidiary of an invest herself by being assigned to the training departe-scale projects, in a number of years she had been promoted to associate—
In truth, Haruyuki had heard that story from Chiyuri’s mama Momoe-san She and Haruyuki’s mother seemed to have been fellow friends since their university years However, Momoe-san also would not tell hi why Haruyuki’s parents were divorced
Their divorce establisho His mother was thirty, his father thirty-three, and Haruyuki seven He hardly re at the time
However, there was one scene that had stained a corner of his memory and would not disappear by any means
The young Haruyuki, feeling that he had heard voices talking in thehis ears, sure enough from the other side of the door he could hear soain there was because the two voices were sharp with disquiet
Alighting from his bed, he softly opened the door Back then, it was not his current eight-tatami-sized room3 but a 45-tatami-sized room that was Haruyuki’s roolass door shone dimly Haruyuki moved so as not to raise any footsteps and squatted at the side of the door
His parents’ voices, which leaked through and could be heard, were restrained in low tones, but it was clearly a veno He could hear words like “looking after,” “pro However, the young Haruyuki intuitively realized his parents were arguing over himself…
There, suddenly as if running into a ith a clash, his memories were interrupted, and Haruyuki blankly lifted his face
Before he realized it he had cut across the apartht before the Loop 7 road He lightly shook his head and switched his thoughts He did not like to res of the past too much
At any rate, the person Arita Saya was a wo only forward, forward as if driven on by so the depths of her heart to no one, not even looking back at her immediate feet—
He had soht now he didn’t particularly etting she gave him his five hundred yen lunch money; she also let his friends stay over at home With this if he complained, he would incur divine punishment
He took a deep breath, replacing the air built up in his chest; Haruyuki glanced at his virtual desktop’s AR display
Today’s weather forecast was cloudy, and around noon a drizzle would sprinkle but would end by evening The forgotten ite left the house considerably earlier than usual, his estimated time of arrival at school was thirty minutes before the bell He probably had the leeway to co to school
Haruyuki, who at present had co around to his back and began to walk briskly heading south
At the intersection under the central line overpass to where he would nor the south slope of Koenji, he rode the elevator-style pedestrian bridge crossing Ohway At its apex he turned left and stopped directly above the widedown at the flow of co EVs, he muttered inside his mouth
“Burst Link”
A roar of thunder resounded, and the world froze blue He promptly clicked the letter B icon wrapped in flames in the lower left hand corner of the virtual desktop Froina his eyes over the not-too-many avatar names he touched a na he pushed the DUEL button in the smallthat had popped up
The blue transparent Blue World transforravelly dry valley The buildings becaht yellow It was the «Wilderness» stage
Haruyuki, who had confir to the south side of Loop 7, vaulted his body, which had transfore He landed swiftly and awaited the ru from the far distance
Just thethe day before yesterday as well, Haruyuki had «intruded» at the exact same time and same place on the same opponent For that reason this time as well his opponent had probably surmised his intention—not a duel, but the desire for a conversation Having co the silhouette that was co into view,
“Ah, hello, good morn…”
Haruyuki, who had begun his greeting, halfway through changed those words into a scream
“Now just wait a momennnnnt!?”
Narrowly throwing his body to the right, he dodged the hunk of iron rushi+ng at e-class American bike
Before Haruyuki’s eyes, the bike, which had settled its pistons whilesparks from the disk brakes of its front and back wheels, left a rut that sround and ca the rider on the vehicle, he shouted while being flustered
“Uh, u to say in «closed mode»…”
But the rider—«Ash Roller», the level 5 Burst Linker belonging to the green legion «Great Wall», waggled a finger on his right hand and cut off Haruyuki’s words