Snow White’s Slumber

by Reki Kawahara

  “We’ve forced you into difficult roles any number of times, hmm, new Red King. But that is proof that we recognized your power…Although, I suppose even saying that, I can’t expect you to forgive us.”

  “Yer! Damned! Right! I’ll pay back this debt a hundredfold!!”

  “If that is what you truly desire…” The girl—the White King—said with an innocent smile, as if humoring a small child. “Shall I switch from the current normal duel mode to Battle Royale mode right now?”

  It took him about half a second to understand the meaning of those words. It was true that if all the spectators of a one-on-one duel agreed, they could switch to Battle Royale, and all the people in the stage would become duelists. The Red King and the White King, neither of whom had a health gauge at the moment, would be able to fight each other. However.

  “You serious?” Niko snapped. “You seriously sayin’ you can actually fight us like that?”

  Just as Niko noted, the White King had dived into the duel stage using a spectator dummy avatar, and a dummy’s fighting abilities didn’t begin to compare to even a level-one newbie. And the switch to a duel avatar required operating the BB console screen in the real world. Practically speaking, in a dummy avatar, the only possibility was to run—and run desperately. But in the Water stage where the buildings were nothing but frames, there were few blind spots. She might have been the White King, but escaping against ten people, including two kings and four high rankers, in the two hundred seconds remaining, would have been difficult…

  No. Wait…There likely was a power in the Accelerated World that could be used wearing a dummy avatar. The Incarnate System.

  Was that the source of the White King’s confidence? If she used Incarnate, then even with a dummy avatar, she could keep running until time ran out; maybe she even thought that she’d be able to win? He didn’t know. He couldn’t trace White Cosmos’s line of thought.

  Shouldn’t it have been impossible for a King to challenge another King to a fight so casually like this, almost on a whim? The White King was a level niner bound by the sudden-death rule. If she fought using a dummy avatar, the defensive power of which was equivalent to a sheet of paper, and lost to the Black King or the Red King, both also level nine, she would instantly lose all her points.

  Why? For what reason? Somehow, she was able to stand there quietly, not worked up in the slightest.

  “…Cosmos…” Kuroyukihime called the name of her parent in a creaking voice. Her left hand flashed as she accessed the Instruct menu. If she pressed the button just three times, an offer to switch to Battle Royale mode would appear before everyone.

  Is this a trap? Or is it the chance of a lifetime?

  Kuroyukihime stood there, left hand trembling in the air, and Fuko, Sky Raker, and Utai waited silently. The readiness to simply follow their Legion Master became a colorless aura that radiated from the members of the Four Elements.

  Suddenly, Haruyuki felt a twitch from the white wings that no longer existed on his back—a sensation he’d felt any number of times in the Unlimited Neutral Field. A warning from Metatron.

  Even knowing it was a phantom signal from ghost wings, Haruyuki instantly took a huge step back and cupped Kuroyukihime’s hand in his own. At the same time, he turned to the girl standing on the roof and mustered all his courage. “White King!! Your offer’s not fair!!”

  His mental circuits were blown at several levels; his words were basically from instinct.

  “…Why do you think so, Silver Crow?”

  The moment White Cosmos said his name, a pressure that made him shudder in fear pierced his avatar’s core, but he earnestly braced both feet and continued.

  “Because your subordinate, Black Vise, still has one of the Red King’s Enhanced Armaments that he stole! If you’re saying you’ll fight in order to apologize, then you have to give that back first!”

  Everyone around him, including Kuroyukihime, looked at Haruyuki with slight surprise on their features.

  Meanwhile, the White King on the roof smiled faintly beneath her mask. “I see. Your logic is both understandable and not, but unfortunately, I cannot comply with this demand. That Armor is a very precious hope for me. You’ve no idea how relieved I was when I heard that it had just barely been recovered after it was purified by you all and on the verge of very nearly being taken back.”

  “…Hope? What do you mean, hope?” He had thrown himself forward to stop a fight, but when the White King said this, he felt an enormous fire of rage blaze up inside him. He shouted at the top of his lungs, “You made all those people suffer with the ISS kits…pulled Metatron away from her domain…controlled total-loss Burst Linkers like zombies…stole Rain’s Enhanced Armament from her…forced Cerberus into such a terrible role…And you call the result of all this ‘hope’?!”

  And that’s not all. The tragedy created by the White King and the Acceleration Research Society isn’t that. Chrome Falcon. Saffron Blossom. The Beast. The many Chrome Disasters. The first Red King. And now the Black King, my dear Lotus.

  Three days before, Kuroyukihime had pressed her face to Haruyuki’s shoulder and sobbed. She had regretted and wept over the fact that, manipulated by the White King, she had stained her hands with a friend’s blood, abandoned friendships, and even destroyed her Legion.

  Seeing those tears, Haruyuki had made a vow. When the time came that he faced off against the White King, he had to tell her. Tricking her little sister, making her cry, chasing her out of the house—was this what an older sister, what a parent, does? He had to tell her.

  Sucking air into his trembling chest, he got ready to yell with everything he had.

  But then Kuroyukihime gently placed the sword of her left hand on his shoulder.

  “…Crow,” she murmured, and he knew instantly what she was trying to say.

  Now was not yet the time for that. There was an appropriate time and place for the decisive battle with the White King.

  “…Okay.” Haruyuki somehow managed to swallow his anger and took a step back. In his place, Kuroyukihime stepped forward—her earlier tenseness transformed into cool resolve.

  “Cosmos. Your hope is for all other Burst Linkers to despair,” she announced to the White King. “I’m sure it is for Vise and Argon as well.”

  “…That may very well be. But if that’s the case, then what, Lotus?” The question was calm, at best.

  “It might not be enough for you to take, but we also have our own hope.” Kuroyukihime was also quiet in her reply. “The many Burst Linkers whose names you don’t even know have their own hope and are fighting in earnest. You might try to knock them down, toy with them, step on them, but our hope—the hope of all Burst Linkers—is not going anywhere. The small fires will come together, turn into a massive inferno, and someday burn away the cold hope that you all spread.”

  As she made this bold declaration, a bluish-purple aura rose from the Black King, making the water at her feet rise up into fierce waves. Almost in response to this display of fighting spirit, bolts of lightning shot down from the black clouds that filled the sky to hit various areas of the first school building. One landed right next to the White King on the roof, but the silhouette of the girl didn’t move.

  Amid the roaring storm, the older sister—parent—offered sweet words to the younger sister—child. “You’ve gotten stronger, Lotus. I look forward to it…the time when you come to stand against me of your own will…” The figure of the girl blurred in the rain that started to fall.

  Mysterious particles of light enveloped her body. “Until then,” the White King said in a melodic voice, “I shall doze a little in a butterfly dream. Good-bye, Burst Linkers. It was a pleasure talking to you…”

  Beyond the now-pouring rain, the girl transformed into a butterfly of light—or that was what it looked like. The butterfly danced up into the thunderous sky and immediately disappeared from view.

  And then the timer hit zero, and flaming letters announcing that time was
up burned a bright red in Haruyuki’s field of view.

  6

  Rin said that she was fine to get up, so the three said their good-byes to Ms. Hotta and left the nurse’s office. For a while, they walked silently down the empty hallway.

  “Um.” Haruyuki stopped in front of the small hallway that led to the main entrance and looked up at Fuko. “I’m sorry for butting in, Master.”

  “No need to apologize, Corvus.” Even the ever-calm Fuko had a hint of tension playing on her lips as she turned them up in a faint smile. “In fact, I should be thanking you for stopping a fight with the White King. Although, when the battle does commence at some point, I will of course expend every effort…But even as it was presented to us just now, I wouldn’t say we had even a thirty-percent chance at victory.”

  “What?” Haruyuki gasped in surprise—it was ten against one, and the one was a dummy avatar.

  “That person…” Rin clung to the hem of his shirt on his left side. “I can’t believe she’s a Burst Linker…like us. Maybe it. Was because. She wasn’t a duel avatar. But…more than that…it was…almost like…” Rin fumbled for the words, and Fuko explained in her stead:

  “Almost like she’s in a different time flow.”

  “Oh…Yes. It was. Like that.”

  Now that she mentioned it, the White King did indeed have an air like that about her. While she proposed changing to Battle Royale mode, it was almost like she was talking about someone else—she seemed like an observer looking down on the duel field from somewhere far, far away.

  “What on earth did she show up for?” he asked, half to himself, as he remembered her mysterious words. “I don’t feel like her end goal was to eavesdrop on our meeting or anything like that. I mean, she seemed to know so much more than we do. She even knows why AA and CC ended…And how did she get to the stage in the first place?”

  And then Haruyuki finally landed on the one thing he should have noticed and dealt with right away. “Oh! Th-this is bad, Master! That duel was via the local in-school net, right?!”

  “It was.” Fuko’s expression was troubled.

  “And you can only connect to the local net from inside the school. Wh-wh-which means th-th-the White King’s real self is somewhere in this school right now…”

  He had just disclosed the most dangerous and deeply critical idea possible, but Fuko and now even Rin simply looked more troubled. He cocked his head to one side. “Huh?”

  “Come, come. You’re saying that now, Haruyuki?”

  He heard a voice from off to his left and turned to find Kuroyukihime, Akira, Niko, Pard, and the others stepping into the second school building from the entrance hall. They’d apparently been on their way from the student council to meet them.

  “Look here, Haruyuki,” Niko said with a look of pure exasperation, on the heels of Kuroyukihime’s stunned question. “You gotta notice that stuff the second she shows up in a duel stage like that. And then ya check the matching list the second the duel’s done.”

  “…R-right. But—so then, you already checked?”

  “Mmm. And we were the only Burst Linkers on the list.” Kuroyukihime walked over to Haruyuki and the others and scrunched up her face.

  “She wasn’t there? So then, that means she cut her Neurolinker connection?” But Haruyuki’s guess was quickly shot down:

  “No, that’s not it. She was connected remotely from her own Legion territory.”

  “What?! To our local net from outside?! Can you even do something like that?!”

  “It’s not that you can’t, it’s that we don’t allow it…Normally, that is,” the vice president of the student council, who had control over the core systems at Umesato Junior High, added regretfully, leaning back against the wall. “But today, when the school’s opened up for the festival, we have no choice but to lower the firewalls so visitors can connect. With her skill and privileges, it’s possible that she dug a hole somewhere in the network and slipped through…Naturally, I absolutely will not allow such things to happen again.”

  Privileges. Maybe she meant that her family in Minato Ward had some connection with the company that managed Umesato Junior High, but he couldn’t exactly ask about that now.

  Instead, he dipped his head in front of her. “Um, Kuroyukihime? I’m sorry for suddenly butting in back there.”

  “Mmm. No, you don’t have to apologize.” Her response was basically the same thing as Fuko’s, a faint smile playing on her lips. She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I was utterly undecided about whether to push the button to switch to Battle Royale. And if I’m uncertain, then now is still not the time to fight.”

  Haruyuki felt a bit surprised and very delighted at how surprisingly normal the swordmaster’s demeanor was. The appearance of the White King had to have been completely unexpected for Kuroyukihime. He couldn’t believe she maintained her composure when faced with her older sister who had manipulated her, betrayed her, and chased her away.

  Eight months earlier, when Haruyuki had only just become a Burst Linker, Kuroyukihime had said to him:

  That person was once…the person closest to me. I believed this Linker would shine brightly forever at the center of my world and keep all kinds of darkness and cold at bay.

  However, one day…one incident, one instant, I realized that this was an ephemeral illusion. Now, you could go so far as to say that, for me, this person is my archenemy.

  Ever since, she had been unable to speak of the White King without getting upset. But today, when she finally encountered her mortal enemy again, she had pushed aside all fear and terror to stand tall and boldly declare the fight that was to come. A level-nine king herself, Kuroyukihime definitely wasn’t standing still, either. She trained and kept moving forward, seeking to grow stronger.

  She had also once said the White King, her real-life older sister, was able to exert the greatest influence on her in the real world, and that if they were to fight, this fact would become a curse and bind her swords. But the Kuroyukihime of today would definitely be able to get past this almost absolute obstacle for a Burst Linker. He had no doubt that she would stand at the head of the Legion to boldly lead them.

  Haruyuki gently wrapped his hands around the hand of hers that was still resting on his shoulder. “I’ll get much, much stronger before then. Strong enough to have your back in the field of the decisive battle.”

  “…Mmm. I’m counting on you, Haruyuki.”

  This would normally be the time when Chiyuri or Niko said something snarky, but even they had gentle smiles on their faces. In the center of the circle, Kuroyukihime gripped Haruyuki’s hands tightly in return and nodded deeply before looking around.

  “Now then, everyone. After all that fighting, you must be hungry. Let’s get some food at the booths and have lunch in our secret box seats.”

  They went around the refreshment booths in the courtyard and stocked up on the usual offerings—yakisoba, okonomiyaki, baked potato—added in some more unusual treats—tacos, falafel, samosas—and threw in churros and taiyaki for dessert, with enough drinks for them all, of course, and then Kuroyukihime led the party to a place no one expected—the roof of the second school building.

  For Haruyuki, this was a space with no good memories. Up until the second term of grade seven, he had been called up here over and over by three boys in his class and forced to buy them snacks or juice, and he had been beaten up for no reason at all. After he was finally freed, he would hide until the end of lunch in a stall in the boys’ washroom in a part of the school where no one ever went and distract himself from his empty stomach in a one-person squash game on the local net.

  With Kuroyukihime’s help, that bullying had ended abruptly, and he’d barely thought of it since then. But it wasn’t as though he’d forgotten those hellish days. That small, hard lump of memories was buried somewhere deep in his heart; he just pretended it didn’t exist.

  Following everyone up to the roof, Haruyuki hung his head and came to a stop when he
spotted a familiar rain stain on the concrete at his feet. Back then, too, he had always stopped here for a moment on the days that gang called him out. Beyond this shadow was territory that was out of range of the social cameras. Once he took a step forward, all the rules against irrational violence would go out the window.

  Why had Kuroyukihime chosen this for her box seats? And what on earth were they supposed to see from here anyway?

  “Haruyuki.”

  He hurriedly lifted his face.

  Kuroyukihime, who had been walking a little ahead, was now standing on the other side of the rain stain and smiling as she offered him her hand. Half unconsciously, he took it, and she pulled him forward, so Haruyuki was forced to jump over the gash and take a step forward.

  What he saw first was a large plastic tarp spread out next to the solar power–generating nano-wire panel. Was this the place she was calling box seats? Sitting down, about all they’d be able to see was the trees of the inner courtyard and the northern wall of the first school building. But then Haruyuki realized that the tarp wasn’t the only thing near the solar panels.

  A slim metal pole stretched up from the floor. He looked up and found not a floodlight at its tip, but rather a black sphere about fifteen centimeters across with a bluish luster. A social camera.

  “Huh? …How…? There didn’t used to be a camera there,” Haruyuki muttered.

  Kuroyukihime stood alongside him. “It took quite a bit of time. But there is no longer a single square meter of this school that is in the blind spot of a camera, and that includes the rear yard and the inner courtyard. I wanted to tell you that.”

  “………”

  He couldn’t say anything in reply at first.

  The other eight had probably guessed there was something going on between Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime at the moment. They took off their shoes and slippers and stepped onto the tarp, chattering excitedly as they started to set out lunch. Haruyuki watched them absently.

  The social cameras were set up and operated so that the government could strictly monitor the citizenry, including inside elementary and junior high schools, and no one would have said it was a perfect system. In fact, more than a few teachers hated the idea of cameras in schools. Such teachers insisted they shouldn’t rely on social cameras to prevent bullying, but rather give the students the independence and power to fight back on their own; i.e., deal with it if you’re dragged into a camera blind spot. But practically speaking, the camera blind spots themselves were what produced bullying, this denial of humanity through malice and violence. Haruyuki thought that not having any students bullied right from the start would be much more meaningful than the independence of the school that the teachers fixated on.