Flight Toward a Blue Sky

by Reki Kawahara

  Dusk Taker turned toward Cyan Pile, who had stopped moving, and continued talking. “But, you see, even stuck as I was, I saved points for myself bit by bit and leveled up. And then one day, this avatar, which had had no real power, came to have its first special attack. And that was Demonic Commandeer. During that same period, I obtained two significant powers: the BIC and knowledge of the Incarnate System. The Incarnate training was quite difficult. My guide told me over and over that I was wasting my time. But I endured it, my hatred of my brother feeding me. And then, yes, the moment finally came. The moment when I took back everything he—my brother—had ever taken from me.”

  Keh-heh-heh-heh. The laugh and its resentful echo fell in drops in the field.

  “I called my brother to the Unlimited Neutral Field and first took his abilities. Once that was done—he was so surprised—I tortured him to death with my Incarnate power. His HP slipped away a little too readily, so the second time I got more creative. Each time he was revived after an hour, my method of killing him got better. I can’t begin to put into words the feelings and pleasure of that time! Eventually, his points were exhausted, and when he came at me weeping and wailing, about to lose Brain Burst after one more death…Just remembering it even now, the laughter…hm-hm, heh-heh-heh, a-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

  He clutched his stomach and laughed briefly before jerking his head up. “Nothing?! Empty?!” he shouted. “That, you see, isn’t me; that’s him now!! A former acceleration user, bereft of Brain Burst. There’s nothing more pathetic and miserable! I’m not like him…I have everything. In the Accelerated World and in the real world. And this illusion of friendship and bonds you all believe in…” The eyes beneath his visor glinted sharply. “I’ll take that from you, too, and leave nothing behind!!”

  Nomi made a flourish with his right hand. From the stump of his shoulder where his arm had been cut off, black snakes shot out ferociously fast. Three tentacles, the Enhanced Armament he had equipped during his first fight with Haruyuki. He had secretly given the “equip” command and then waited for it to regenerate.

  The ever-extending tentacles did not roar in assault at Takumu standing in front of Nomi. Nor did they lash out at Silver Crow, pinned in the vise.

  They reached for Chiyuri—Lime Bell, silent this whole time, quietly sunk into the shadows of the distant school building.

  “Wha…” Takumu couldn’t stop the short, stunned cry from slipping out, but he was, of course, quick to brandish his sword to cut the tentacles.

  But a second before he could, the tentacles, snapping back like rubber, pushed under the blade of the avatar the color of fresh leaves they held captive.

  His entire body squealing at the strain, Cyan Pile stopped his slashing attack. The tip of his blade just barely touched the brim of Lime Bell’s pointed hat, sending a trail of sparks flying.

  The three tentacles immediately coiled themselves around Chiyuri and squeezed cruelly.

  “Ngh!” The slender avatar threw her head back, the groan of pain slipping from between her teeth joined by Nomi’s stifled laughter.

  “Heh-heh-heh-heh. Did you think I only called her here for her healing capacity? Ridiculous! I’ve long been aware that Lime Bell is your Achilles’ heel. You have to effectively use anything you can use…That’s the secret to the duel!”

  “…You. Bastard…,” Takumu snarled, tip of his sword shaking, as Chiyuri tried to say something to him. However, several layers of tentacle immediately coiled over her mouth and kept her silent.

  “Now then, please throw your sword down and remove that Enhanced Armament,” Nomi coolly instructed.

  “Lime Bell isn’t part of the sudden-death duel,” Takumu countered in a voice like a creak. “She’s no good as a hostage.”

  “Oh? Is that so?” Head cocked.

  Dusk Taker casually grabbed Lime Bell near her right elbow, his right hand dripping with purple fluctuation.

  Skrrk. An extremely, extremely unpleasant sound echoed in the air. The sound of the yellow-green arm being torn off at the elbow.

  “Hnnngh!!” Lime Bell’s entire body convulsed and a soundless scream surged out of her. She threw her head back two, three times as far as it would go. Each time, an ocean of green sparks spurt forth from the stump.

  Haruyuki’s vision was dyed a sudden red. An overwhelming rage swept through him, and in a trance, he struggled to break free. However, the black vise didn’t budge, almost as if sneering at his anger. In fact, the instant the light sword output he had been using to resist the pressure was disturbed by his anger, the vise pressed even more fiercely down on his shoulders.

  “You…bastaaaaaaard!!” It was Takumu who yelled instead. The large avatar took a step forward when something hit his chest with a clang. Lime Bell’s torn-off arm. It bounced back and broke into countless polygon fragments in midair before disappearing.

  “Do you understand, Mayuzumi? This is her first time diving into the Unlimited Neutral Field. This world where the sensation of pain is twice that of the lower field.”

  Takumu didn’t need to be told. At that moment, Chiyuri was no doubt feeling pain equivalent to having her flesh-and-blood arm ripped off in the real world. Perhaps because of the severity of the shock, the thin avatar continued to ripple with tiny convulsions.

  Cyan Pile was frozen in place, and before him, Nomi lifted his right hand once again. “And by doing this, I also increase her special-attack gauge so she can heal me.”

  He thrust the tip of his sharp index finger into Chiyuri’s side. Thrk.

  The green avatar recoiled fiercely. Even through the layers of tentacle coiled around her, they could clearly hear a thin scream. When Nomi pulled his finger out, a thin stream of sparks erupted from the cruel wound.

  Thrk. One more time. And again.

  “Stop!!” Takumu shouted in a cracking voice, immediately before Nomi could dig out a fourth hole. His entire body was shaking. The extra light wrapped around Takumu’s sword and arms flickered irregularly, like a poorly connected lightbulb.

  No, Taku, Haruyuki wanted to shout. But he could say nothing. He knew too well that Takumu—and if it had been him, he, too—had no other choice.

  “…Please, just stop…” Cyan Pile groaned. The Cyan Blade fell from his hands and clattered to the ground.

  Immediately, it turned to light and melted away. The luminescence flowed through space, was sucked into Cyan Pile’s right arm, and turned back into the original stake.

  When Takumu whispered the “unequip” command, the Enhanced Armament also disappeared. Once he saw this, Dusk Taker waved his left arm extravagantly and left Chiyuri somewhere off on the edge of the field. He didn’t even glance at Lime Bell, who huddled into herself against the pain.

  The dark avatar charged at Cyan Pile and buried the talons of his right hand into the sturdy stomach. A wet noise joined the black arm as it broke out through his back. Leaving a torrent of pale sparks, Nomi yanked his arm back out.

  Takumu staggered and dropped heavily to his knees before ceasing to move, head hanging.

  “It’s because you believe in the lie of ‘bonds.’” Nomi’s voice was quiet, almost as if he really were feeling pity. “Or rather, it’s because you act like you believe this, that you will lose. If you really trusted each other, you would have cut through her and right into me. Isn’t that right?”

  No…no, no!!

  Haruyuki struggled, crazed. Sparks flew from the joints of his arms as he fought to free himself from the vise and save Takumu. Resisting with all his might, he howled in a voice that was not a voice.

  What do you know?! There’s no way you could understand how strongly Takumu feels about Chiyuri!! If he had cut Chiyuri with you there, that wouldn’t be trust, just calculation!!

  But the black lumps at his sides indifferently applied more pressure, as if trying to crush even his anger.

  Why can’t I move?! Why can’t I even scream?! I have to move now; what has this all been for—

  “Sorry, boy.�
�� He heard a muted whisper from behind. The layered avatar, who had been silent all this time. “This attack stops you from talking as well as moving. So you can’t say anything and you can’t use voice commands. I’d like to at least let you say a few words of farewell to your friend there…Sorry.”

  At these words, which sounded sincerely apologetic, Haruyuki’s anger flamed even higher and swept through his avatar.

  Thmp. His back ached. Thmp. Thmp.

  A throbbing like lightning pulsed in regular intervals between his shoulder blades. He felt like he could hear a voice. But, perhaps obstructed by the vise, it couldn’t reach all the way into Haruyuki’s awareness.

  If he couldn’t talk, then he could only fight back with his will—his Laser Sword—but the pulsing anger prevented him from concentrating.

  In the schoolyard, Dusk Taker had just raised his right hand at Cyan Pile, who was on his knees. The Nihilistic Fluctuation once again transformed into a thin sword. He sliced it through the air twice with a whoosh.

  With a leaden sound, Cyan Pile’s arms were severed at the base and fell to the ground. Bundles of lightning cascaded from his shoulders.

  Haruyuki could hear his voice.

  Haru, I’m sorry.

  I can’t fight anymore. I’m really sorry…

  The tears welling up beneath Haruyuki’s silver mask blurred his vision. In the distorted screen, he watched Dusk Taker raise his sword high to bring down the final blow.

  Here.

  It ends here? This is my…This is Takumu’s Brain Burst ending?

  This thought crystallized in his heart like a single droplet at absolute zero, and the flames of his rage turned to frost and scattered. His limbs went cold. The light of his hands burned up and disappeared. All the sensations of his body receded. The sign of avatar shutdown he had experienced so many times.

  Oh, so that’s it? Zero fill. And this is a thing the Incarnate System makes happen, too. Negative imagination puts out the flames of your heart and turns your avatar into a cold lump.

  What does it matter figuring that out now?

  No, wait.

  If zero fill is the negative will that all Burst Linkers can use, then the opposite must be true, too. Moving an avatar who can’t move with positive imagination. Like, say, even when he’s stuck in a vise with absolute strength. Like when, battered and broken, he stood up again next to the bed of black thorns she was sleeping in.

  A small flame sprang to life in Haruyuki’s chest with a pop. But not the black flame of rage he had felt toward Nomi so many times now. Something better called determination. It was the pure power of heart he had learned from Kuroyukihime, and Niko, and Blood Leopard, and Sky Raker.

  The meager heat began to melt the ice binding his body. The connection to his four limbs came back to life. From the thin seams and joints of Silver Crow’s mirrored armor came abruptly a blue luminescence akin to a high-temperature flame—Overlay.

  However, unaware even of this, Haruyuki placed the palms of his hands flat against the vise on either side.

  “Ngh…” A low moan slipped from his throat. Mustering every ounce of strength, he tried to open the gap. His avatar creaked and squealed, and an intense pain assaulted his elbows and shoulders. He heard a succession of high-pitched metallic pops, the sound of thin cracks racing up the armor of his arms. Blue light shone through those thin lines as well.

  “Hng…Ah…Ah!” Clusters of pure pain exploded throughout his nervous system, and his consciousness was colored white. However, Haruyuki didn’t stop putting all his strength into his arms. His crumbling armor peeled off and scattered around his feet, and the blue aura wrapped around his slightly exposed dark gray body like a flame.

  The black lumps of absolute hardness and pressure, however, didn’t so much as shudder. But Haruyuki believed.

  Not in his own power.

  He believed that the power of the people who had supported and guided him this far could not bend to the power of someone who believed that the Accelerated World was nothing more than a tool.

  “Ah…Ah! Aaaaah!!” With his howl, every bit of armor on his upper body other than his helmet crumbled and blew away.

  Blue flashes condensed, exploded, and colored the world.

  Haruyuki felt it, just barely, for a mere instant: the constraint of the black vise weakening.

  He kicked at the ground with everything he had. He scraped his shoulders on the walls and his HP gauge turned to sparks and scattered. He put all his energy into running the distance of a single step that might as well be infinite, and finally, Haruyuki slipped out of the restraint.

  He fell to the ground. After a single somersault, he was back on his feet. Still running hard, he pulled in his right hand. Concentrated his will. Roared.

  “Unh…Naaaaaaah!!”

  The arm about to cut off Cyan Pile’s head stopped, and with an air of surprise, Dusk Taker turned. Haruyuki mustered what mental strength remained to him and launched his Laser Sword.

  Schwiiing! The tip of the light blade reached through space more than five meters and severed in half two of the three tentacles of Nomi’s left hand.

  That was all he could manage. The strength drained from his body, his feet tangled together, and Haruyuki fell facedown onto the ground.

  Perhaps because he had mustered such a strong image, his consciousness flickered and registered Nomi’s voice from a distance.

  “Goodness! Please don’t scare me like that, Arita.” He paused briefly. “Aren’t you lying down on the job a bit, letting your prey escape from your vise?”

  “Unthinkable, really,” the layered avatar responded, also far away. “I was at full power. I really have to hand it to this little guy: He’s quite the trooper. That said, it seems he’s about finished.”

  Haruyuki stared hollowly as the thin panels rose up around him once more. Shifting his gaze, in the center of his upside-down world, he could see Dusk Taker brandishing his purple sword to at last strike the final blow against Takumu. He could no longer think. His mental powers were so exhausted, he couldn’t even feel despair.

  “Well, then…farewell, Cyan Pile.”

  The nihilistic blade slid through space.

  The afterimages of several half circles lingering in the air, the blade slid toward the nape of the blue avatar’s neck—

  Haruyuki closed his eyes, and just as he was on the verge of cutting loose of his consciousness.

  Klink.

  A crisp sound.

  Nomi’s blade, about to touch Takumu’s neck, was severed at the base and melted into nothingness.

  Incarnate can’t be cut without another Incarnate attack.

  It wasn’t Haruyuki. And there was no reason for the layered avatar holding him to interfere with Nomi. Which meant another new Burst Linker on the battlefield.

  Haruyuki opened his eyes wide and lifted his head as if guided by something to stare up into the night sky before him.

  The magnificent palace was a dim white. On top of the spire in the center that had originally been the stairs at Umesato Junior High was a silhouette shouldering the enormous blue full moon. A mounted figure.

  The sturdy black horse’s mane fluttered in the wind, eyes glittering white, and four hooves enveloped in blue flames. A slim rider straddled its back neatly.

  Black crystal armor sleekly reflecting the light of the moon. Sharp V-shaped mask. Black lotus skirt encircling a slender body. Both arms long, razor-edge swords. The legs also swords. A sage brilliance that seemed to cut through even the moonlight pouring down.

  “…Aah.”

  A quiet voice, almost a sigh, spilled from Haruyuki’s mouth. And again. “Aaaah…” He felt like if he said anything more, the rider and mount would turn into a hallucination and disappear.

  But the rider nodded slightly, as if hearing his whispers as he lay on his side off in the distance, and lightly spurred the mount on with her right foot.

  The horse raised its front legs high into the air, and then clapped
its hooves down. Neighing fiercely, blue flames erupting from its nostrils, it began to run through the air. The duel avatars on the ground watched soundlessly while the mount and rider arrived at a point directly above the schoolyard, carving out a pale arc in the night sky.

  Here, the rider made her body dance lightly. She opened up the long swords of her hands and approached the ground, almost sliding. Right before she landed, she kicked her legs out, straight down. With a ringing echo, the avatar dropped to the white ground on the tip of her right sword leg.

  The black horse in the sky finished the arc and disappeared, as if melting, as soon as it started to dash off into the southwestern sky.

  After seeing it off, the jet-black avatar was quick to look straight at Haruyuki, to whom she nodded again. She turned to the raised face of Cyan Pile before her eyes shifted to the distant layered avatar and the still-fallen Lime Bell in turn. Finally, the avatar stared at Dusk Taker. Violet-blue eyes glittered visibly beneath the mirrored mask.

  “…Im…possible.” Nomi’s rasping voice. “Impossible. Why…How are you…Why are you here?”

  The same stunned question was living inside Haruyuki. But much greater than that was the overwhelming emotion that filled and overfilled his heart, and he could say nothing. Still on the ground, he could only stare raptly at the beautiful black crystal duel avatar.

  Nomi groaned once more. “Impossible. Did you come back from Okinawa by yourself for this battle alone? No, even if you had, you couldn’t have made it in time. This can’t be…Why—How are you here?! Black King…Black Lotus!!”

  Yes, the jet-black avatar could have been none other than Black Lotus, the Black King, occupying one of the seats of the Seven Kings of Pure Color, leader of the Nega Nebulus Legion.

  However, her real-world self, Kuroyukihime, vice president of the student council and ninth-grade student at Umesato Junior High, was currently supposed to be on a school trip in Okinawa. And Haruyuki and Takumu had only decided on the time for this final battle a little more than an hour earlier in real-world time. Assuming she had managed to find out about it somehow, she wouldn’t have been able to get back to Tokyo from Okinawa.