Accel World: Flight Towards the Blue Sky

by Reki Kawahara

  However, Haruyuki shook off that feeling, and merely looked down deeply and spoke.

  “……Sorry. Please put your clothes back on.”

  He didn’t understand Chiyuri’s aim and intentions.

  But, he decided he would believe. Chiyuri was also probably fighting. She was trying to eliminate this crisis with her own power. He had to believe just that. If he couldn’t believe what she had said until now, he was already unqualified to be her friend.

  After getting up and turning towards the door in order not to look at Chiyuri who still didn’t move, Haruyuki spoke one final time in a firm voice.

  “…I believe in you. That’s why, please believe in me as well. I won’t lose to someone like Noumi. I will definitely regain everything that he took away.”

  Then, Haruyuki opened the door and began walking with a long stride in order to return to his own apartment.

  After going out onto the veranda from his apartment’s living room, Haruyuki put both his arms on the handrail and looked out at the Shinjuku high-rise complex rising in the sky to the east.

  The clusters of high-rise buildings including the more than 500 meters tall Tokyo Government Office glittered brightly in the slanted sunlight. At this very instant as well, a «duel» should be enthusiastically taking place at that skyscraper’s stage.

  Right now, there was nothing he could do about Dusk Taker steadily increasing his battle power and making his fame grow.

  However, unable to give up here, Haruyuki strongly gripped the handrail and mumbled.

  “…There is something even I can still do.”

  That something was, thinking.

  To scrutinize, consider and make conjecture from all the information.

  Just any kind of plunderer couldn’t steal that kind of weapon. While letting the cold wind that blew through the 23rd floor breeze through his uniform, Haruyuki began to remember in detail all the occurrences that had happened since the cause of all this—Noumi Seiji entered school eight days ago.

  After it became late at night, Haruyuki learned from Takumu that the place that Dusk Taker had appeared today wasn’t at Shinjuku but instead Shibuya.

  But although the area was different, what happened was completely the same as yesterday. Burst Linkers that could oppose Noumi, who had the possibly strongest hand of «flight», «healing» and «long-range firepower», when they fought for the first time did not exist in the middle range.

  This tag team, which had recorded a 100% rate of victory continuing for two days, had obtained a vast quantity of points once again. As a result, Dusk Taker was at Level 6. Lime Bell had reached Level 4.

  It wasn’t a phenomenon that fit inside the frame of «duels» anymore.

  It was already something was more appropriately called an «invasion» into the existing Accel World.

  As the sky in Shibuya was blazing red like the fire of battle, Haruyuki continued thinking intently while leaning against the veranda’s handrail.

  The playback of his memories passed through his desperate struggle with Noumi on Tuesday, and came to the scene at Akihabara yesterday.

  The mysterious Burst Linker «Rust Jigsaw». Just like Noumi was doing, he was invading the existing system. Using the privilege of list interception, he was making a killing on points within the Akihabara BG’s local network.

  Looking at it like that, it wasn’t necessarily far-fetched to think that there was some kind of connection between Rust Jigsaw and Dusk Taker either. At the very least, the possibility that they were using the same logic to intercept the list was high. That he had missed clearly seeing Rust Jigsaw’s real form in the bustle of the crowd was tremendously regretful.

  While once again tasting the bitterness he had felt so many times since yesterday, Haruyuki recalled in his mind the sight of Jigsaw’s back that he had seen for an instant.

  A gray stadium jacket. A white neck that was distinctly tanned-marked from wearing a Neuro Linker all the time. He had walked away at a fast pace while rubbing that place with his right hand as if it were in pain.

  Just before he disappeared from sight, that boy had suddenly swept out his right hand at the passerby in front of him, although they hadn’t really been in his way—

  His memory playback stopped exactly on that scene.

  He rewinded back several frames.

  The boy quickly cleared away the space to his right that was at about the height of his chest, with his right hand that had his fingers extended.

  Why did this scene bother him so much?

  Haruyuki tightly grasped the veranda’s handrail with his hands, and strained all his thinking power. The feeling that faintly bit into the center of his head when he touched upon the beginning to answer in a riddle-solving-type game intermittently struck him.

  Think. Think.

  While repeatedly playing back the sight of the boy’s back, Haruyuki unconsciously performed the same movement as well.

  He raised his right hand and quickly waved it to the right.

  He felt as if that movement was strangely familiar to his arm as well.

  Quickly waving his right hand. Waving his right hand. Waving.

  This was—this wasn’t the gesture of moving aside someone in front of you.

  Wasn’t this the motion of erasing windows on a virtual desktop?

  But that time, the boy hadn’t been wearing a Neuro Linker. Then, was it some kind of retinal projection-type wearable device? No, according to the image in Haruyuki's memory, he hadn’t had any such apparatus on him at all.

  Had he been looking at a holo-window without using a Neuro Linker nor any other device?

  …Impossible. As far as Haruyuki knew, devices like contact lens-type miniscule monitors had yet to be developed, and a device that was embedded in one’s eyeball shouldn’t exist either.

  ‘Maybe I’m mistaken’, just as he abandoned that line of thought, he suddenly recalled the words he had once had heard from Noumi.

  ‘…Do you think that the Neuro Linker is the only portable device in the world?’

  Those were the words he had said while pointing at the small digital camera he had used in order to take a secret recording of Haruyuki in front of the Umesato Middle School shower rooms. He couldn’t find any further meaning to his words than that. Yet, why did it bother him so much now?

  “Devices…Devices other than the Neuro Linker…”

  Haruyuki mumbled that while touching the aluminum-silver Neuro Linker that was attached to his own neck.

  A VR device that wasn’t a Neuro Linker. They certainly existed. In the 2020s before Haruyuki was born, there should have been huge headgears that were equipped to the head. But, the machines of those days were only for Full Diving, and the Neuro Linker should have been the first device that had an AR (Augmented Reality) function which allowed for a virtual desktop to be operated while moving around in the real world……

  “…No.”

  Haruyuki suddenly frowned.

  “No, that’s not it. The first device that implemented AR, if I remember right, was…”

  His mumbling stopped, and his gaze wandered through the air. Within his uncertain memories, there was something stuck that was prickling at him. Between the early headgear-type and the present Neuro Linker, another kind of device should have existed.

  After wavering for a while, Haruyuki quietly moved his fingers and struck the Drive icon on his virtual desktop.

  He rapidly passed through the endless number of data folders that existed in his Neuro Linker’s local memory. Eventually, at an absurdly deep level, a folder with only the title [F] appeared.

  F was the F for ‘father’. There, all the information, no, memories that were connected to his real father, who he hadn’t gotten in touch with once since he left their family long ago, were stored. There were only a few photographs. Voice files. Text memos. And the data folders related to his father’s work, which he had duplicated from the home server just before his mother completely erased them all.
>
  His father had worked as a business manager in a company related to the backbone of the network. Even if his father had hardly come back to the house and had only stayed at home for an occasional rest, the data of his work spread out wide in Haruyuki’s vision, and he wasn’t even looking at the other files there besides that.

  Having remembered that things like the history of VR device development should have been among the documents his father had left in the server, Haruyuki desperately went through the folder while shaking off the prickling feeling piercing his chest. Finally, he found the target file and opened it. He scrolled with his finger through the string of characters that summarized in chronological format.

  The first headgear-type VR machine that implemented Full Dive technology was marketed in May 2022.

  The first generation device of the present Neuro Linker was put on the market in April 2031.

  The moment when his gaze was drawn to the name of a certain device that described in small script between them.

  His heart jumped with a ‘DOKUN’, and his breathing stopped. While feeling his skin grow rapidly cold across his entire body, Haruyuki grasped the handrail tightly with his hands.

  —No way. That can’t be. It’s impossible. But.

  —It’s possible. If this was used. One could also see a virtual desktop without having a Neuro Linker. And, one could also connect to a local network without using a Neuro Linker.

  His lips trembled, and released a single phrase into the air with a hoarse voice.

  “…Brain…Implant Chip……”

  Brain Implant Chip. Abbreviation, BIC.

  It had existed for only a short time in the history of wearable VR machines, a ‘demon child’ as it were.

  The body of the device was a small neuro-electronic chip that was implanted between the surface of the cerebrum and the dura mater. By laying out a self-growing terminal port around the sensory area of the brain’s surface, the possessor was able to use the AR display of a virtual desktop and Full Dive without equipping any external devices. In a certain sense, you could call it the ultimate VR machine, even more so than the Neuro Linker.

  It was developed and marketed in 2029. However, its use was forbidden within this country only a few years later.

  The reason for this was because, unlike the Neuro Linker, the BIC couldn’t be unequipped, not to mention being unable to have its power disconnected. In the case where one received malicious hacking for example, opposing it would be accompanied by extraordinary difficulty.

  Conversely, if the possessor used it with malicious intent, there were various ways to evade the law as well. An extreme example of that would be using it during the entrance exam of a high school or university, or during various kinds of qualification exams. Since the Neuro Linker didn’t yet exist in those days, carrying VR machines during entrance exams was prohibited in principle, but if one had the BIC implanted in them, full marks could easily be taken on memorization-type subjects. Since it wasn’t any different from carrying all the dictionaries and reference books with you.

  Inevitably, cases where parents made their test-taking children implant the BIC in them occurred frequently throughout the whole country, and moreover it reached the point where the same thing occurred in bar examinations and national examinations for the licenses of government officials as well, and so the government had no choice but to make laws about the manufacture and use of BICs.

  That’s right—in the current year 2047, the BIC was an illegal VR device.

  That was exactly why Haruyuki had not even considered examining that possibility since the beginning, when Noumi entered the school. However, he already thought that there was no other conclusion than this now. Although the general use of the BIC was regulated, he had heard that its manufacture itself was continued for special uses and that there were also hospitals which performed implantations of the illegal chips that were sold through the black market. He couldn’t imagine how a middle-school student could get their hands on something like that, but he could certainly believe that Noumi of all people could have done it.

  Noumi Seiji/Dusk Taker, and probably Rust Jigsaw as well, possessed a second VR machine in his brain.

  Noumi wasn’t intercepting the Matching List while connected to Umesato Middle School’s local network. From the beginning, his Neuro Linker in which Brain Burst existed was not connected to the network.

  In other words, it was like this. His Neuro Linker was usually operating in stand-alone mode. By doing so, he avoided «unavoidable duels» that were a risk that came along with the privilege of a Burst Linker’s «acceleration ability», and furthermore could still connect to the network as well due to the BIC.

  For example, in the kendo match against Takumu. That time, Noumi was connected to the local network within the school by using the BIC in his cranium on the one hand, and activated physical acceleration using his Neuro Linker in its unconnected state on the other, letting his easily avoid Takumu’s shinai[34]. Even if one looked at the Matching List, his name naturally wouldn’t be there.

  Only, in order to get a high score in his social studies test using «acceleration», he had to connect to the examination application with his Neuro Linker instead of his BIC, but if you excluded that instant—

  “So…that’s how it is……”

  After getting rid of all the countless windows that were displayed in his vision with a sweep of his hand, Haruyuki squeezed out the words in a hoarse voice.

  At last. —At last, he had finally arrived at it. The only correct answer.

  What’s more, this information was fatal to Noumi Seiji. The existence of a BIC could be determined with an X linear scanner. And if the chip was discovered in Noumi’s brain, his entry into Umesato Middle School would certainly be revoked.

  If he used this card, he would drag out Noumi into the same place as him. Into a battlefield without special privileges. Then, after that, there would be only one thing to do. «Duel», fight with all his strength—and win.

  Staring out at the evening sky in the center of Tokyo where Noumi should be flying right now, Haruyuki said a short sentence, as if firing a bullet from a rifle.

  “Noumi…This time, I’m going to settle this.”

  Chapter 9

  April 19th.

  Friday.

  On the lunch of this day which was just a day away from Kuroyukihime’s return to Tokyo, Haruyuki went to the school cafeteria, cut through the long lines of tables and headed straight to the very back of the room.

  The place he was heading towards was the lounge. In this place where, in addition to the unwritten rule that only second and third year students could use it, there were also many tables for the exclusive-use of some committees and outstanding clubs, Haruyuki hadn’t never once set foot inside here until now when Kuroyukihime wasn’t present.

  However, just this once, he mustered his courage and went under the white gate, stepping up to a circular table there. The students that were sitting there and eating lunch while pleasantly chatting raised their heads as they noticed Haruyuki approach.

  Among these prodigies of the swimming club and softball club who were staring at this out-of-place student stepping up to them, Haruyuki walked up to the short first-year who was the only one with his back to him, and called out to him in a low voice.

  “Noumi. I have something to tell you. Please come to the place where we talked for the first time.”

  And then, he turned around and left without waiting for an answer.

  While waiting for Noumi to arrive underneath the dense grove of trees that was at the back of the courtyard and outside of the range of the Social Cameras, Haruyuki recalled back to the day he had first met that first year student here.

  The underclassman who had a pretty-looking appearance like a girl had declared to Haruyuki that the battle was over using a cheerful voice while smiling. Just as he had said, Haruyuki’s situation had worsened thereafter the more he struggled.

  He had h
it Noumi and conversely been knocked down himself, his flight ability had been stolen in a Direct Connect duel after he was trampled on by him, and although he had grasped a come-from-behind win in their second battle after learning the Incarnate System in the Unlimited Neutral Field, he had been further defeated because of the unexpected intrusion of Chiyuri.

  Noumi’s attacks hadn’t stopped there, and in the real world he had spread rumours that Haruyuki was the peeping camera perpetrator in the real world in order to corner Haruyuki, while in Accel World he had earned a vast amount of points using his wings and Chiyuri, and further leveled up.

  At this rate, Noumi’s objective, the Black King Black Lotus, would be exposed to danger just as Takumu predicted.

  —However.

  This is as far as you go, Noumi.

  Hearing a twig snap from being firmly stepped on and footsteps approaching from behind him, Haruyuki slowly turned around.

  Haruyuki saw the pure yet crafty smile on the face of the underclassman as he appeared from the shadow of the thick trunk of the big oak tree—and then he spoke.

  “Game Over, Noumi Seiji…No, Dusk Taker.”

  “……What was that?”

  Still smiling, Noumi tilted his head.

  “In other words, are you saying that you completely accept defeat this time? Meaning like ‘I give up, so please don’t bully me anymore’?”

  “…No. It means that bargaining things over with you is already over.”

  Haruyuki replied in a low voice, putting all his strength into his eyes while taking the sneering gaze from his opponent.

  Noumi’s smile gradually faded. A detestable wrinkle was faintly etched between his brows.