Accel World: Flight Towards the Blue Sky

by Reki Kawahara

  But Haruyuki didn’t care at all about those voices, nor his new personal time which flashed in front of him as soon as he stepped over the goal line. Rather, he didn’t even stop his feet and tried to run like that straight towards the entrance.

  “Hey, where you going, Arita? The toilet?”

  He heard the carefree voice of the phys-ed teacher and the laughter of the other students, but ignored them.

  Of course, he wasn’t aiming for the toilet. He was going to run up to the third floor of the school building and launch an attack on Noumi Seiji’s classroom.

  He would directly squeeze Noumi’s real body, forcibly direct connect with him, and this time, make him completely submit. If that was impossible, he would instead yank of his Neuro Linker from his neck, trample over it, and destroy its core chip.

  Was it necessary to give up on such brutality? Against an enemy that went as far as to use foul means to threaten Chiyuri and make her obey his will?

  Every time his intense violent impulse welled up, a point on his back throbbed. No, it seemed like the impulse was being infinitely produced from there.

  “Just wait…!”

  Shouting as if spitting out, he tried to kick off the ground even more intensely—at that moment.

  *GASHI* A strong hand held back Haruyuki’s shoulder from behind.

  “Stop it, Haru!”

  At the same time as a stifled voice resounded in his ear, Haruyuki reflexively put on the brakes. Unable to stop coolly like his duel avatar, he nearly pitched forward and fell, until his arm was grasped and he righted himself.

  While deeply hanging his head in that position, Haruyuki squeezed out a hoarse voice.

  “…Taku, why are you stopping me!?”

  Takumu—Mayuzumi Takumu answered back while strongly holding Haruyuki’s left arm with his muscular right arm.

  “If Haru causes an incident of violence here and gets suspended from school, things will just become even harder for Chii-chan!”

  “…She’s already having plenty of a hard time! Noumi…he threatened Chiyu and told her to obey what he said by force! I can’t forgive that!”

  For the first time, Haruyuki turned around here and saw Takumu’s face.

  He noticed that Takumu’s always refreshing eyes were twisted by strong anguish on the other side of his sports-type glasses, and he held his breath.

  That’s right—It wasn’t that Takumu couldn’t feel anything. Inside his heart, he must have been more concerned about Chiyuri and more enraged at Noumi’s actions than Haruyuki.

  But his childhood friend was worried about Haruyuki at the same time. Even though Haruyuki himself was simply filled with rage and didn't try to think of Takumu at all.

  His back still throbbed, but at the moment he made that storm-like violent drive go away. After taking a big breath of air and slowly letting it out from his trembling throat, Haruyuki undid the tension in his shoulders and spoke with a sigh.

  “……Even though a short while ago you also jumped at Noumi before I did.”

  Then, Takumu revealed a brief bitter smile.

  “Indeed. How many years has it been since I acted like that…?”

  The day Noumi stole Haruyuki’s wings, cruel things had been said between himself and Taku after they quarreled at his home, but Haruyuki felt that it all had suddenly melted away and disappeared. The two of them kept standing in a corner of the school grounds like that, but eventually, it seemed that the time measurement for all the students at the track behind them had ended, and the teacher clapped his two hands together and called for everyone to gather.

  “…Let’s go back, Haru.”

  After slowly nodding at Takumu’s words, Haruyuki added something in a low voice.

  “Please go talk to Chiyu afterwards. Even if she was told something by Noumi, it isn’t necessary in the slightest for her to obey that guy.”

  “Yeah, I know. I…no, we will protect Chii-chan.”

  Looking into each other’s eyes for a moment, the two of them turned back.

  Haruyuki stared at the third-floor section of the school building one last time, and muttered in the depths of his mind.

  ——Noumi, you did something you absolutely never should have done. From this moment on, my battle with you will be an endless death match. I’ll see through the method you use to block yourself from accelerated duels no matter what, and keep fighting relentlessly until one of our Burst Points reaches zero.

  Clenching his teeth hard, Haruyuki began to walk towards the gathering place alongside Takumu.

  However, only ten minutes later.

  The situation once again advanced in a direction that betrayed Haruyuki’s expectations.

  As soon as fifth-period ended, Haruyuki and Takumu dashed over to the gymnasium that was on the other side of the school building. They found Chiyuri just as she was coming out from a corridor, and they beckoned her from the shadow of a pillar.

  Wearing a t-shirt and shorts, Chiyuri’s face froze as soon as she saw the two of them. That was only natural, as she had just dived into the field of her first actual battle just several minutes ago, used «recovery» on Haruyuki and Takumu’s enemy Dusk Taker, and healed him. As a result, Cyan Pile (Takumu) had lost from losing his entire HP gauge. Silver Crow (Haruyuki) had also lost due to the Time Up, and they both had points taken away by Noumi.

  However, they put ‘We didn’t come to blame you for that’ into their expression as much as they could, and Haruyuki continued waving his arm while giving an awkward smile. Chiyuri cast her eyes down and seemed to avoid their gaze, but eventually she approached Haruyuki and Takumu after saying something to her classmates in the locker room.

  In spite of the fact that he had just been strenuously exercising, when Haruyuki saw Chiyuri’s pale cheeks, intense rage towards Noumi welled up in his chest again. After Takumu beside him also clenched his fists tightly for an instant, Takumu took a big breath and opened his mouth.

  “…Chii-chan. We already know why you did such a thing. That’s why, we’ve some to tell you that it isn’t necessary to obey him.”

  “Th…That’s right.”

  Haruyuki energetically added his own words as well.

  “He should also fear Chiyu’s power now. With an ability that can heal not only HP, but even broken armor as well, we can fight against him plenty…no, we can beat him!”

  As she listened to that, Chiyuri’s eyebrows tightened for a moment. An action that showed she was considering something and hesitating.

  Several seconds later—

  “That’s not it.”

  Those were the first words to quietly come out from Chiyuri’s mouth.

  “Eh…th-that’s not it…?”

  When Haruyuki dumbfoundedly repeated her words, Chiyuri’s expression suddenly changed and her eyes released a strong light, and she said it again after looking from Haruyuki to Takumu in turn.

  “That’s not it. I’m not being forced to obey Noumi.”

  “Chii-chan…w-what…?”

  This time it seemed that Takumu was also surprised and tried to take a step forward while blinking rapidly. Backing away as if to avoid him, Chiyuri quietly, but decisively answered.

  “I asked Noumi. ‘Make me your comrade. I’ll become your exclusive healer, so supply me with points without fail.’ It’s not a big deal, since I haven’t joined you and Haru’s legion yet.”

  Taking yet another step away from the two of them as they stood stock-still in shock, Chiyuri continued speaking.

  “We and «Nega Nebulas» will act without interfering with each other from now on. Since each side knows each other’s real identities. Of course, the agreement between Noumi and Haru is a different story.”

  Even in the midst of his blank-filled mind that couldn’t grasp the situation, Haruyuki could understand what the «agreement» that Chiyuri spoke of was. In other words, that was about how, if Haruyuki continued to pay ten burst points every week for two years to Noumi, he would get back his «
flight ability».

  They didn’t intend to fight from now on. But, that wasn’t related to Noumi extorting points from Haruyuki. That was what Chiyuri was saying.

  That was also a shock, but before that, but the fact that Chiyuri referred to Noumi and herself as «we» had itself too enormous of an impact on Haruyuki. Among all the years until now, whenever Chiyuri said «we», only she, Haruyuki and Takumu were included in that.

  Showing a profile of evading the eyes from the frozen two of them, Chiyuri then simply gave a short “See you later, then”.

  And then she quickly turned around and ran towards the locker room.

  After that, only the sweet milk-like smell that they were so familiar with was left behind.

  Chapter 2

  Something terrible had happened at school, and he returned home while gazing down with the feeling of being knocked down.

  Such an experience was an everyday thing for Haruyuki. During the time he had been severely bullied by classmates last year, he had gone home while counting the tiles on the sidewalk beneath him almost every day.

  However, for Takumu next to him—for that Mayuzumi Takumu, who was walking next to him and hanging his head and dragging his feet just like Haruyuki, this must have been his first time experiencing this in his life.

  After silently walking along the path to their apartment building from Umesato Middle School alongside Takumu, who had skipped out on kendo club practice on the pretense of being sick, Haruyuki spoke in a whisper when they passed through the apartment’s front gates.

  “Come inside my place.”

  “……Sure.”

  He got on the elevator with Takumu who feebly nodded and got off on the twenty-third floor. After opening the door of his empty home and entering the living room, he threw his bag onto the floor and sat down on a chair at the dining table.

  Takumu sat down on the other side as well, and the two of them remained silent like that for a while.

  —We sat down opposite each other like this before as well.

  Dimly thinking that, Haruyuki finally recalled that that incident that occurred only twenty-four hours ago—in other words, on Monday after school.

  During the recess yesterday, Haruyuki had dueled Noumi Seiji for the first time, and had the silver wings on his back taken away by his special technique.

  Takumu had been puzzled by the strange state of Haruyuki and Chiyuri, who had been present there, and had visited Haruyuki after club activities had ended and sat down in the exact same place. That time, Haruyuki had showered Takumu with cruel words while feeling self-torturous, and had been severely hit. Afterwards, he had gone out to Shinjuku to challenge anyone to an accelerated duel in despair, had had his lethargic attitude scolded by the familiar bike-user «Ash Roller», and had been forcibly brought by him to the Old Tokyo Tower in the Unlimited Neutral Field.

  There, he had been introduced to Ash Roller’s Parent and former member of Nega Nebulas, «Sky Raker». She had taught Haruyuki about the existence of the ultimate power of Burst Linkers, the «Incarnate System», and had given him super Spartan-type intensive training to make him learn it.

  Though Haruyuki had mastered the first step of the first step of Mind Power, he had actually needed one week in that world that was accelerated by one thousand times.

  That’s why, in a sense, it was natural for him to feel like the current situation of facing Takumu was such a long time since the last time.

  Unconsciously raising his right hand, Haruyuki traced in his jaw where he had been hit by Noumi during yesterday’s recess and then his right cheek where Takumu had hit him after school. Almost no marks were left anymore more on either of them, but he could still keenly feel the pain as it stiffened stingingly.

  …No matter much I accelerate my minds and shut myself in a different world, the wounds of the flesh…in other words, real pain can’t be healed.

  While he thought that, Takumu, who paid attention to that action, gave a self-deprecatory smile and muttered.

  “Haru. When I hit you, I said that I said that was fine with Chii-chan becoming happy no matter who her partner was, but…I take that back. I can’t accept it at all. That…Chii-chan would become that Noumi Seiji’s partner.”

  Dropping his hands on the table, Haruyuki also responded back with a hollow voice.

  “Before accepting it…I can’t believe it. Certainly, there are no rules in Brain Burst that say that real-world friends have to enter the same team, but…For that Chiyu to betray us and join Noumi for the sake of getting points is…”

  “Well, if you just think about earning points, it certainly is more efficient to join up with Noumi than us. Now that he’s stolen Haru’s wings, Dusk Taker’s battle power is already at a foul play-like level…If he debuts in duels with that while paired with the «healer» Lime Bell, there would be no Burst Linkers within the middle range that could directly fight against them.”

  “What a calm conclusion while still being depressed, professor.”

  This time Haruyuki gave a wry smile, but then quickly swept it away with a sigh.

  “But still, Taku…It’s Chiyu we’re talking about. Do you think Chiyu, who lacks any game sense and who is always useless in RPG event battles where she gets annihilated, would make a decision based on something like point efficiency?”

  “T-That’s…I don’t think so, indeed…”

  It was in a subdued tone, but Haruyuki’s shock from Chiyuri declaration of parting finally eased down a little from taking with his best friend, and he stood up slowly and headed toward the kitchen.

  He took out a box of frozen pizza from the large freezer and simply threw it into the microwave. He also took out a bottle of oolong tea and prepared two glasses. After the pizza finished thawing and heating in only a few dozen seconds, he carried it all to the table and properly placed them down.

  “…Thanks.”

  After pouring tea into Takumu’s glass as he muttered that, Haruyuki opened the box and picked out a piece of sea-food pizza. Just as he pulled at the thin strands of cheese, he suddenly heard a voice in the back of his ear as he tried to take a bite.

  ‘Aah, you’re eating something like that again!’

  ‘No other choice, I’ll have to get Mama to make you something.’

  But, of course, that was neither a real voice nor a PCM[1] file played by his Neuro Linker. Beginning to recall the taste of the lasagna that Chiyuri had brought over just a few days ago, Haruyuki emphatically bit at the mass-produced-type pizza in over to overwrite that taste.

  Casting his eyes down, he chewed the strangely salty pizza, and heard a sniffling sound all the while as he did so. When he quietly raised only his gaze, he saw Takumu rubbing vigorously beneath his glasses while eating with the same downturned face as him.

  Suddenly, a different pain than that until now pierced his chest throbbingly.

  —Taku, he’s always so calm and so clever that I’m no match for him…But, by no means is he someone who can stay strong in the face of all adversity.

  —When I lost my wings and became careless, he tried to help me with all his strength. Then, it’s my turn this time. It’s my turn to encourage him and support his back.

  Muttering that within his mind, Haruyuki closed both his eyes, and quickly made his pizza disappear with non-stop munching. He drank his entire glass of oolong tea, and returned it to the table with a bang.

  “Taku!”

  As he shouted that out, Takumu’s shoulder’s shook, and he lifted up his reddened eyes to look at him. Haruyuki looked straight at him and continued speaking.

  “Taku, I believe in Chiyu! That’s why, I don’t believe what she said!”

  “Eh…?”

  “I said it before. Joining up with Noumi because she wants points? That’s not like Chiyu at all. So that possibility is completed eliminated. Probably…no, definitely by at least 90%, our first guess was correct. Chiyuri was threatened by Noumi to partner with him, and was forced to give that explanat
ion to us. You can understand and agree with that much, right?”

  While tightly grasping his glasses, Takumu seemed to scrutinize the words that Haruyuki had vigorously lined up for a short while.

  Eventually, he slowly responded with some calmness returned to his voice.

  “Yeah…Certainly, that may be. But Haru, your explanation has a small inconsistency. You say «completely eliminate», yet you also say «90%»? In other words, the remaining 10% is that the possibility that Chii-chan voluntarily joined Noumi, right?”

  “Yeah…but, for a different reason.”

  “Reason…? You mean there’s some reason other than points that Chii-chan would become our enemy?”

  After looking with upturned eyes at Takumu who titled his head, Haruyuki spoke in a whisper while instinctively shrinking his shoulders.

  “In other words, umm…because of the boss of our legion Nega Nebulas…that person…”

  Takumu blinked several times just now as if he was caught off guard. Soon, the same kind of fear as Haruyuki was showing on his face appeared on his own face as well.

  “I-I see…—A situation where Chii-chan is thinking ‘No way!’ to becoming master’s…Kuroyukihime-senpai’s (Black Lotus) subordinate…”

  “Can we absolutely say that she would never do that?’

  At Haruyuki’s question, Takumu shook his head left and right with a complicated expression. Letting out a long continuous sigh, he then added with a groan.

  “But, in that case, that’s all the most reason not to tell master about this and seek her assistance…If master found out that Chii-chan had betrayed us because of her…”

  “She would take down both Dusk Taker and Lime Bell with a single stroke…”

  They didn’t need to be reminded now of the severe nature of Kuroyukihime, the «Black King» that lead the legion «Nega Nebulas» and the one that controlled the Level 9 duel avatar «Black Lotus». Once she determined someone as an enemy, she would mercilessly cut them down with the swords on both her hands. It was very difficult—no, impossible to think that she wouldn’t apply that principle on only Chiyuri.