Flight Toward a Blue Sky

by Reki Kawahara

  Nomi’s howling showering her, Kuroyukihime shook her mask coolly and spoke for the first time. “You’re Dusk Taker? You seem quite proud of your ingenuity. But you’re still soft. There are countless ways of fighting in the Accelerated World, ways you haven’t even dreamed of.”

  Even as her voice was silky smooth, her words had a razor-sharp edge to them and cut through the virtual space. Nomi inched a half step backward.

  “I haven’t come back to Tokyo; there’s no need for that. Let me remind you of the basic rules of Brain Burst. In the Normal Duel Field, there is a time limit of eighteen hundred seconds and movement restrictions due to the area boundaries. However, in the Unlimited Neutral Field, there is neither. Which is why it’s unlimited. Understand?” Brandishing the sword of her right hand, Kuroyukihime declared crisply, “In this world, Okinawa and Tokyo are connected! Hmm, seems you finally get it. That’s right. I dove into this field in Okinawa and ran to Tokyo. Although I did have to tame that divine-level Enemy earlier. And it took about fifteen hours to get here. Still, in the real world, it didn’t even take a single minute.”

  “…Wh-what…” Nomi gasped in amazement, and Haruyuki felt the shock run through his own body as well.

  He had visited the Unlimited Neutral Field many times before, and had in fact wondered more than once just how far this world spread out. But it was just an idle thought; he had never even considered trying to check. But the answer turned out to be quite simple: As far as the social network cameras ran, so too the medium for the Accelerated World reached. Put another way, the whole of Japan, from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south.

  But who on earth would think to cross this expansive world all alone? This was no safe, touristy VR world. It was a place of death filled with swaggering Enemies so large they could easily kick around several dozen Burst Linkers.

  Except for this one person here.

  “Kuro…yuki…hime,” Haruyuki whispered. Beneath his cracked mask, hot tears welled up and spilled over.

  She turned her eyes once more to Haruyuki, and for the first time, he felt the hint of a smile from her. However, she soon checked that and shifted her gaze to the layered avatar, the owner of the vise restraining Silver Crow.

  Ting! came a sharp metallic sound as pale sparks lit up the darkness.

  When the black panels holding him disappeared, Haruyuki was slow to grasp what had happened.

  Not moving her avatar in the slightest, Kuroyukihime had launched a long-distance attack using Incarnate, with just the faint light housed in her right arm. The layered avatar had met this with his own Incarnate. Thus, the image of the vise imprisoning Haruyuki had been released and the prison had disappeared.

  Ting! Tinnng! Light bounded through the sky three more times. The phenomenon was visually modest, but the attacks crashing into each other made their immensity known, and Haruyuki felt the field itself beneath him shake violently.

  The force was such that it made it hard to breathe, and he was not surprised at all that Kuroyukihime, a king, could use an Incarnate Attack. After all, Niko, who was also level nine but had had a considerably shorter career, was able to demonstrate an attack of awe-inspiring power. But the power of the layered avatar fighting her attack head-on was also bottomless.

  “Your name?” Black Lotus asked briefly when she paused in her attack, as if the exchange of volleys just finishing up were a formal greeting.

  Twenty or so meters away, the layered avatar inclined the thin panels of his head hesitatingly. The same gentle voice, a dead ringer for the young teacher’s, flowed out. “Giving my name here would really be pointless. But a king such as yourself has come all this way to be with us. I suppose it would be rude to not at least introduce myself.”

  There was a whistling sound as several black panels rose up from the avatar’s feet and arranged themselves into his right arm, which had been missing until then. There was no mistake: They were the vise that had been restraining Haruyuki all this time.

  The avatar brought this right arm to his chest and bent at the waist to bow. His voice rang out again. “I’m the vice president of the group the Acceleration Research Society…My name is Black Vise. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

  From possibly the moment Haruyuki had seen the armor, he had had a faint premonition. But actually hearing the name, he still couldn’t help feeling an enormous blow.

  Black. The pure color black.

  The color he had been convinced crowned only Black Lotus herself. In fact, up to that point, Haruyuki had never once heard of any doubling of the color names given to any of the Burst Linkers in the Accelerated World.

  In contrast with Haruyuki and his stunned eyes opened wide, Kuroyukihime herself didn’t seem the slightest bit ruffled. She simply sighed lightly. “Hmph, not a Legion but a ‘group,’ hmm? Quite elaborate, no?”

  “Apologies. Society policy.”

  “Obviously, I’m no fan of the name. And I do need to thank you for inflicting such severe pain on my Legion member. Twofold, naturally.” Her bluish-purple eyes emitted a dangerous light. An aura the same color took up residence in the swords of both hands.

  In response, the layered avatar—Black Vise—spread his hands in a gesture that showed no hint of tension. “Well, this is a problem. The one who injured your friend for the most part was not me but Taker. Although, well, I suppose I’m in no position to ask you to let it go.”

  A pale black aura came to life in one of his slowly lowered arms, followed by several panels being soundlessly released, to sink as if sliding into the shadows at his feet.

  “Kuro…”

  Watch out! Haruyuki started to shout. However, by that time, two panels had already flown up from Kuroyukihime’s feet and snapped up around her so quickly he could barely see them.

  Clang! The panels crashed into her arms. The thin sheets immediately increased in volume, transforming into enormous lumps. It was Black Vise’s Incarnate Attack, Static Pressure. Having himself been mercilessly subjected to the terrifying assault, which completely prevented any movement or speech on the part of the captured avatar, Haruyuki forgot the pain coursing through his own body and tried to shout again. But before he could—

  Clink! A crisp echo through the field.

  Blue lines traversed the two jet-black lumps.

  Haruyuki stared in amazement as the lumps slid to the sides from the center and fell heavily to the ground. Kuroyukihime, appearing from inside with her arms out slightly, said, as if nothing had happened, “Unfortunately, physical restraint does not work on me.”

  The severed cuboids turned back into panels and sank into the ground. This time, the sword of Kuroyukihime’s right arm emitted a red flame with a roar.

  “Vorpal Strike!!” Coldly uttering the attack name, she launched an intense emptiness.

  The motion was very similar to that of Black Lotus’s special attack Death by Piercing, but the range was wildly different. The red lance spilling from the sword howled metallically and lunged at the distant Black Vise.

  The layered avatar, dyed a glossless black, raised his left arm straight ahead, gray aura swirling. “Layered Armor.”

  The panels of his arm leapt off, each transforming into a large square. The ten or so flat squares lined up horizontally, leaving gaps, and stood in the way of the red lance, protecting the main body of the avatar.

  The thundering roar of the impact shook the world.

  The lance pierced 90 percent of the way through the protective panels the layers created and then stopped but did not disappear. The air squealed and creaked as the weapon shone brightly, trying to pierce the remaining panels.

  The two Burst Linkers named Black, hands thrust out, fought each other’s will.

  Despite the extremity of the situation, Kuroyukihime glanced over at Haruyuki and ordered in a stern yet gentle voice, “Now, stand up, Silver Crow. I’ll keep this one in check. You defeat your enemy—Dusk Taker.”

  A second earlier, Haruyuki had t
hought that there was not a shred of fighting power left within him. But the words of his beloved sword master pierced his heart, almost as if they were even another form of the will, and reignited the fire that was about to extinguish.

  “Right,” he responded in a hoarse but determined voice. He bent the knees of his battered avatar, thrust his hands into the ground, and stood, albeit wobblingly. Just over 30 percent left in his HP gauge. He turned his face toward Dusk Taker, a way off, and Cyan Pile next to him.

  Consciousness perhaps inhibited by the intense pain of having his stomach pierced and both arms gone, Takumu’s head was still hanging heavily. There was no light from the eyes beneath the mask. But he was still there. He was alive.

  Dusk Taker, as if finally waking from the shock, slowly raised his right hand to cover the visor of his face. “Heh. Heh. Heh-heh.” The sneering laugh Haruyuki had heard countless times already slipped thinly from between his fingers. “Heh-heh. Honestly. You truly are disgusting people. Do you intend to keep playing make-believe with your friendship, your bonds, your what-have-you forever? You say you ran from Okinawa? Heh-heh, the height of madness. Really.”

  Vmm! He waved his hand. A hazy fluctuation entangled itself around the talons.

  “But, well, this does save me some trouble, doesn’t it? Once I destroy the puppet here and that little bug, then it’s just Black Lotus. You might call yourself a king, but there’s no way you can take on the both of us. In fact, this is some unparalleled good fortune. In one hour, at a single time, I’ll torment you plenty and kill you all. Until your points are entirely gone. Heh-heh, keh-heh-heh-heh.”

  Haruyuki was essentially ignoring the mocking voice. His consciousness was turned only toward the badly injured Takumu and Chiyuri, still collapsed in the distance. The scene of Nomi trampling the pair flashed up on the screen in the back of his mind. Chiyuri, arm ripped off, screaming. Takumu, stomach gouged out, fallen. What they felt was not just a virtual pain. It was the pain of their friendship and love being used and stomped all over. It was the despair of the thing they cherished more than anything being sullied and destroyed.

  As Haruyuki clenched both hands into fists, his entire body trembling, Nomi turned toward him and said consolingly, “But please be reassured. I’ll save her, Lime Bell, at least. And not for the reason this puppet here said, because I can’t take her healing power. I do it in deference to the lady’s loyalty. Her devotion is indeed praiseworthy. I’ll make sure to lavish attention on her. Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

  From between teeth gritted so hard they were about to crumble, Haruyuki squeezed his words out. “Nomi. You’re wrong.”

  “About what? And since when?” The twilight-colored avatar cocked his head.

  Haruyuki glared at him. “Everything. Right from the start,” he declared softly. “When you started at Umesato, you could’ve just challenged any one of us to a duel like a normal person and said, Hey, nice to meet you. All you had to do was say, I want to join the Legion. Then you could’ve gotten what you really wanted. Companions, friendship, bonds.”

  Dusk Taker froze in place. An entirely different voice, lower, colder, came from beneath his visor. “What did you say? Me? Companions?”

  “Yeah. You’re just like Taku and me. You were tortured and scarred mentally, and then you became a Burst Linker. You should’ve learned through duels that the real bonds we’ve been looking for exist in the Accelerated World. Why couldn’t you believe in that? Why would you turn to the fake power of a BIC? I know you must’ve had the opposite choice.”

  A few seconds of silence followed, and then a terrifying aura abruptly gushed from Nomi’s entire body. Haruyuki knew that it was an incredibly angry pulsation, and that its source was the feelings locked up in the very depths of Nomi’s heart.

  “So in other words, is this what you’re saying?” Nomi asked in a voice that was not a voice. “That you forgive me. That you pity me, so you’ll be my friend. That in your boundless mercy, you are reaching out a hand of salvation to me. Is that it?”

  “Oh no.” Haruyuki immediately shook his head. “I’m totally not doing that. You and I will never understand each other at this point. Let’s settle this, Seiji Nomi.”

  Naturally, there was anger toward Nomi inside of Haruyuki. But a simple feeling far stronger than that became a superheated blue flame and filled his body: determination. It was the resolute intention to put an end to all of this, right here, right now. The flame burned so hotly, without wavering in the slightest, that it was almost static. Like the cold stars twinkling in the night sky.

  In contrast, Nomi’s body radiated a raging tornado of anger and he laughed briefly one more time. “Heh-heh. That’s a relief. You narrowly missed being unable to forgive your pathetic self in the real world, once I take care of your avatar here…I suppose we could settle this now, Haruyuki Arita. This world doesn’t need two fliers, after all.”

  He raised his right hand, clenched it into a fist, and yanked it back. The black wings on his back, folded up all this time, flapped wide open.

  Haruyuki also lifted his right hand high up in the sky, opened his palm, and cried: “Equip Gale Thruster!”

  Chk! A large sky-blue star sparkled in the inky sky before becoming two laser beams shooting down at the ground. They hit Haruyuki’s back, but, still glittering, the light stopped there and took shape, finally producing the beautiful Enhanced Armament.

  Dusk Taker spread his wings even farther and flapped them hard.

  The boosters on Silver Crow’s back started to whine, the high-pitched noise of operation.

  The only two flying duel avatars in the Accelerated World locked eyes for a brief instant and stilled.

  Nomi was the first to kick off the ground, but by the smallest of margins. Dragging the remaining tentacle of his left arm like a tail, the membrane wings beat the air, and a clearly demonic silhouette rose up in a straight line.

  Haruyuki carefully watched that trajectory, hips dropped in a low ready position.

  “Go!!” At the same time as his sharp call, he opened the boosters all the way. Blue jets of fire scorched the white earth. An almost terrifying propulsive force shot the small avatar up into the air, and he immediately chased after the dark shadow.

  Glancing down, Nomi flapped just one wing forcefully. Turning sharply, he brandished his right hand. “Sheeeeh!!” he howled, and the purple fluctuation stretched out into long talons, carving out five arcs in the night sky.

  In return, Haruyuki readied the fingers of his right hand. “Laser…Sword!!”

  The sword of white light met the purple talons from directly below and collided fiercely. Their weapons were crossed for an instant. The tip of the light sword and the ends of the talons all severed, the pair faced each other and fought with what remained of their Incarnate weapons.

  A thick gash raked Dusk Taker’s chest, but five thin scars etched into Silver Crow’s, sending dichromatic sparks flying. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Haruyuki continued to ascend, and when the energy gauge for the boosters was exhausted, he opened his hands and dropped in free fall.

  The price he paid for the overwhelming propulsive power of the Gale Thruster, the Enhanced Armament he had been given by Sky Raker, was that it used up the entire gauge once it was ignited. He couldn’t break the jet propulsion up into chunks and hover by adjusting the power. Once he reached the pinnacle of the ascent trajectory, all he could do was control the direction of descent with the booster stabilizers. Normally, you would have to wait nearly ten minutes for the gauge to be full again.

  But Haruyuki was able to overwrite the system with the message that he could fly, using the Movement Expansion Incarnate. Of course, he was nowhere near the level where he could fly with that alone. But at the moment, with the Gale Thruster on his back, he could use the power of his imagination to get the system to reduce the gauge-charging time to the bare minimum.

  He might have been far from mastering the Incarnate System, but by combining the image of flight—whi
ch was in his bones thanks to all his experience in the sky—with the system-type propulsive power of the Gale Thruster, Haruyuki could fly.

  The problem was it took almost five seconds to activate the Incarnate to recover the gauge.

  And Nomi, who had watched him do the Incarnate charge in the previous fight, knew that, too.

  As he fell, Haruyuki spread his hands far out to his sides and visualized the clear image of flapping the wings on his back through the sky. Following Niko’s advice to reduce the activation time, he figured he had better give this Incarnate a name, too. But he felt a serious resistance to giving the desire to fly an “attack name” and fixing the image.

  Because this was a wish that had been secreted away in the depths of his heart for a long, long time—it was the core that produced this avatar, Silver Crow—what else could he call it but hope?

  Thus, Haruyuki simply prayed silently. I can fly. Even if my wings have been stolen, no matter how much pain I’m suffering, no matter how many times I’m made to crawl, I will still aim for the sky.

  This prayer was, to Nomi, however, a serious opening.

  “You think I’m going to let you?!” Dusk Taker called fiercely and worked his black wings madly, charging in a straight line.

  Haruyuki mustered all his mental stretch to ignore the ominous flapping and completed his image. In his heart, a clear blue sky unfolded. The excess light became illusory wings and was released, pouring into the booster sitting there and becoming a fuel called determination.

  Skrrk! He felt an intense impact and five talons dug deeply into his chest, crisscrossing his earlier wound.

  “Hng!” Sparks cascaded down to the ground as he groaned. Haruyuki popped his eyes open and grabbed on to the tentacle of Dusk Taker’s left arm as he tried to fly away.

  The wings, being the materialization of the flying ability, definitely had a much higher degree of freedom than the boosters. But they had a weak point: In compensation for that high maneuverability, they lacked stability.