Accel World: Floating Bridge in Starlight

by Reki Kawahara

  When the digital meter was dyed red and blinked with the MAX icon after several seconds, their speed had actually reached 500 km/h. This seemed to be the maximum speed of the shuttle. Letting out the breath he’d been holding back, Haruyuki finally started confirming the situation outside his vehicle.

  The silver No.1 shuttle that the Nega Nebulas Team was riding was running along the left end of the course as before. To their left, about ten meters away, the Red Team machine driven by Blood Leopard was shining with vivid crimson sparks.

  Behind that, there was the machine carrying four members of the Blue Legion «Leonids». The driver was Tourmaline Shell. The huge form sitting all alone on the two back row seats was Frost Horn. And further to the right of them, Ash Roller, a member of the Green Legion «Great Wall», was shouting his usual “Hey, Heeeey!” from his own shuttle.

  These four shuttles were fighting for the lead position in an almost straight horizontal line. Following right behind them was the team of the Yellow Legion «Crypto Cosmic Circus». There was no sign of the Yellow King of course, but there were some faces Haruyuki had fiercely fought against before among them.

  He carved the thought ‘We have to watch out for those guys!’ in his heart, and looked across the race course once more. It seemed that these were the only teams from the legions of the Kings, and the four shuttles that ran together as a group at the very back of the racers seemed to be from medium-sized legions—though he said that, they all had more members than Nega Nebulas in the end.

  The total number of shuttles running on the race course was nine. In other words, that extremely rusted shuttle didn’t start up in the end. Although his doubts about it didn’t disappear and gave momentary unease to Haruyuki, he quickly brushed it away from his mind. Even if someone had rusted the shuttle, it couldn’t affect the race anymore anyway.

  When he finished grasping the situation and tried to return his gaze forward, Haruyuki was slightly surprised to see a huge silhouette in the sky behind them. The three floating spectator stands that were fully loaded with 600 gallery viewers were automatically chasing after the shuttles. He now noticed the maelstrom of excited cheering overlapping with the roar of the linear engines.

  “…Fufu, it seems that they’re making bets.”

  In response to Kuroyukihime’s words, Sky Raker gave agreement.

  “Yes, I saw the «Matchmaker» running about busily back there.”

  The Matchmaker was the mysterious Burst Linker that managed the betting match arena «Akihabara Battle Ground». It seemed that he had butted into this race as well.

  “H…Heh, so you’ve also visited the Akiba BG, Raker-san?”

  When Haruyuki asked that while carefully adjusting the steering wheel, the one that answered was not the person in question, but rather Kuroyukihime with a wry laugh.

  “Not just visited, Raker was once…”

  However, he wasn’t able to hear the rest of her words. This was because the cheers of the gallery suddenly doubled, and was overlapped by a series of ear-splitting sounds. Looking to his right at once, Haruyuki’s face stiffened and he shouted.

  “Uwah, Pard-san has already started!”

  The source of the sounds was from the respective weapons of the four Burst Linkers sitting in the back of the Red Team shuttle being fired. It seemed that the only close range type among them was the driver Blood Leopard, and the remaining four were long range types. The barrels of their machines guns and rifles were enthusiastically scattering light bullets.

  They were aiming at the Blue Team shuttle on the right side of the Red Team shuttle. By contrast, all the Blue Team members seemed to be close range types, and so the thickly armored Frost Horn and one other member were leaning out and desperately blocking the rain of bullets. Since the HP gauges of their avatars were locked, they wouldn’t die no matter how many bullets hit them, but there seemed to be a knock-back effect that occasionally snapped back their bodies, and during those instances the shots would accurately hit the main body of the shuttle.

  “You bastards! I won’t! Forgive you! Tour, ram ‘em!!”

  Frost Horn shouted that, and with a return shout of “OK, Horn-kuuuun!” Tourmaline Shell turned his steering wheel to the left. The Blue Team shuttle quickly drew close to the Red Team shuttle. It seemed they intended to defeat the enemy shuttle with a close range attack. ‘That’s Frost Horn’s usual favorite pirate tactics’, thought Haruyuki as he excitedly watched the course of events. The gallery group in the floating stands following behind them also let out a clamor with shouts of “Hit them!” and “Stop it!”.

  As the two shuttles approached each other, the hit rate of the rain of bullets also naturally went up. Innumerable bullet marks were dug into the left side of the blue shuttle and released crackling sparks, but its durability seemed to be set quite high and there was still no sign that its speed would fall.

  “All right! Eat! The fist! Of a man’s soul!!”

  Frost Horn stood up with that shout and raised his huge right fist high.

  At that instant, Blood Leopard, who was operating the red shuttle, turned the steering wheel so fast that its form grew hazy. The linear wheels twisted, and the shuttle instantly did a spin. Its right rear end was shaken out and violently hit the side of the blue shuttle. From that shock, Frost Horn, who had been standing with a punching posture, was completely swept out from under his feet and—

  “Huh! Huh! Huuuuuuuuuuuh!?”

  With a scream, he quickly rolled down out of the car. The shuttle was traveling fast at 500 km/h after all. The instant he touched the surface of the tower, he was flipped up high with a frightening crashing sound and threw off flashy sparks. Repeating these bounces, his huge form and hoarse screams fell away behind them, and after several seconds he could no longer be seen.

  Meanwhile, Pard-san stabilized her shuttle as if nothing had happened and took some distance from the blue shuttle as if sliding away. The violent shooting started up again. The Blue Team determinedly tried to approach them again, but it seemed that the durability of their shuttle finally reached its limit here. Suddenly, the two linear wheels on its left side simultaneously burst out in flames, and the six-meter-long machine started to spin like a top. While the shouts of its three remaining passengers resounded high and low, the sound from the engine increased endlessly, and then—

  A huge explosion.

  Watching the now charred-black machine and the three avatars disappear from view in the blink of an eye like the distant Horn as the cheers and shouts of the gallery poured down, Haruyuki ducked his head down with fear. Then, Kuroyukihime and Fuuko started commenting as if they were impressed.

  “I see. It seems it’s the end of the line for you if you fall out of the shuttle. Even so, the attack by Promi[47] was excellent…”

  “It really was. As expected of Leopard for both her selection of team members and her operation of the machine, the good quality of her skill hasn’t rusted at all.”

  “T-T-This isn’t the time to be impressed, Nee-san! They’re coming after us next!”

  Just as Chiyuri shouted that, the four artillery members of the Red Team finished reloading their weapons and together turned around towards the left almost simultaneously. The muzzles of their guns were aimed precisely at the No.1 shuttle—or to be exact, to the space slightly before the front tip of their machine, as they took into consideration the curve of their bullets’ trajectory.

  “Ugeh!”

  Haruyuki squealed, and frantically turned his steering wheel to the left. However, Pard-san maintained the same exact distance and positioning between them with her brilliant steering. The gallery instantly grew excited at the beautiful parallel driving as the two cars circled around the surface of pillar which was 100 meters in diameter and therefore 314 meters in circumference, but this was a desperate chase different from a car commercial. One of the gun-users gave a command, and then the four guns fired all at once.

  “……!”

  Thinking it cou
ldn’t be dodged, Haruyuki reflexively ducked his head down, but—what he heard wasn’t the sound of bullets impacting, but instead a high-pitched sound of something being deflected. When he confusedly turned his gaze to the right, an unbelievable sight greeted his eyes.

  Leaning out from the starboard side, Black Lotus was flashing her hand swords at incredible speeds and was flicking away most of hail of bullets pouring down on them. In the backseat behind her, Cyan Pile was also firmly guarding the machine using his right hand’s huge «Pile Driver» in place of a shield.

  There were very few bullets that managed to pass through the guard of these two and hit the shuttle’s body, and the durability indicator wasn’t decreasing much either, but at this rate the situation would gradually worsen. Even if they tried to approach them for close combat, Haruyuki didn’t think he could win against Pard-san’s driving skill, and rather his precious crew might actually be struck down like what happened with the Blue Team.

  “Geez, just because we don’t have any red-types, they’re just shooting at us as they like!”

  Sitting in the left back seat, Chiyuri shouted in indignation. Certainly, «not having any long range types» was the greatest weakness of Nega Nebulas since the legion had been reformed. When they lose in territory battles, it was mostly due to powerful red-types on the opposing team.

  However, there was no use lamenting about it now. Haruyuki resolved to challenge Pard-san to a dogfight between their machines, and tried to shout that to the others behind him. However, a instant before he could so.

  “I’ll get off.”

  Sky Raker quietly said that.

  “Eh…master, what are you saying!?”

  “It’s a simple matter of addition and subtraction. The Promi-Team has five people, and moreover four of them are carrying large heavy guns. If I get off from the shuttle, there’ll be four people here, and that should let you shake them off with greater speed.”

  “T-That’s no good, Nee-san!”

  When Chiyuri shouted that, Raker stopped her with calm words.

  “I already told you. Since I’m participating, we have to aim for first place with all our strength. Getting off here is my way of using «all my strength». If I don’t do so, I won’t be able to respond to Leopard’s seriousness!”

  And then the sky-colored avatar grasped the side of the shuttle with her left hand and without hesitation tried to leap off.

  Instantly, Haruyuki pulled the steering hard to the right. Their machine did a half-spin and Raker was forced back onto her seat.

  “That’s wrong…That’s wrong, master!!”

  While concentrating all his nerves into operating the steering wheel and accelerator and desperately trying to regain the shuttle’s stability, Haruyuki squeezed out his voice.

  “Getting off yourself isn’t using «all your strength»! If you don’t fight on the same stage, you won’t be able to convey anything, isn’t that right!?”

  “It’s just as Crow says, Raker!”

  Continuing her defense with frightful accuracy, Kuroyukihime also shouted.

  “We are a team! We fight together with all five of us, and we win together!”

  “But…But, I!”

  Fuuko’s shouted rebuttal resounded.

  “I have no way of fighting! I can’t attack, nor can I stand up to defend! I can’t do anything besides sitting here like an ornament…!”

  “There is something you can do!!”

  Those scream-like words came out from Haruyuki’s throat.

  “You…have wings that you created and that you cherish!”

  He felt hesitation about saying this here. Sky Raker probably had her own reasons and feelings for stubbornly continuing to seal away that power even after she returned to the legion. Haruyuki did not want to forcefully step into that matter. Therefore, Haruyuki was trying to take Sky Raker to the peak of the Hermes Cords, the only place where he believed that he was allowed to talk about that, due to a certain reason.

  However, if Raker got off the shuttle now, that chance would forever be lost. Therefore, Haruyuki had no choice but to shout and pray his words would reach her.

  “The special technique gauge will hardly accumulate on this field…so I can’t fly. But, your wings are different. Your gauge is fully charged immediately after you equip it, so that means you can fly!”

  Haruyuki turned around in the cockpit, and while looking directly at Raker’s eyes—

  “…Please. Please entrust the power of your wings to this shuttle…no, to us! If you do that, we should be able to escape from the shooting line of Promi!!”

  Instant silence.

  Haruyuki’s ears couldn’t hear the roar of the shots showering them, nor the sound of Kuroyukihime and Takumu deflecting them, nor the cheers pouring down from the audience above. He strained his ears to only hear Sky Raker’s thin breathing, and the sound of the anguish charged into it.

  …I hurt Sacchan.

  …I hurt her with my words, my attitude, and my heart. Every drop of tears that Sacchan shed back then is contained in the fuel of my wings. That’s why, I will never again……

  “That’s not true, Raker!!”

  At that moment, Kuroyukihime suddenly stopped her hands and swung around to face her as well.

  The shots instantly began to dig into the side of their machine, and also merciless struck Black Lotus’ back. Even while her slim body swayed unsteadily against the impacts, Kuroyukihime spoke firmly.

  “I…I was stupid! I didn’t try to understand the size of what you carried! I just wanted you to devote yourself to me, and I thought you were betraying that, so I got unreasonably angry and resented you! I have no right to demand anything from you…but!”

  Kuroyukihime’s voice finally started wavering as well as strong feelings spread through her. As she spilled violet blue tear-like beams of light from her eyes inside her jet-black face mask, the Black King shouted.

  “But, now is the time for you to fly! Not for my sake or the legion’s sake…Fly for your own sake, Raker!!”

  At the same time as she shouted, one of the bullets from a large rifle came flying and violently hit Black Lotus’ back. Sky Raker supported her staggering body with both her hands. Her thin arms trembled slightly as she hesitated over approaching her any further.

  —Master, no, Fuuko-san.

  While desperately operating the shuttle, Haruyuki spoke to her at the back of his mind.

  —Two months ago, Kuroyukihime-senpai took a step forward on the roof of the Shinjuku Southern Terrace. That’s why, this time, please…pull senpai towards you with your own hand. That final distance cannot be shortened by me or anyone else. It’s something that only you can do!

  He probably couldn’t transmit those words to her.

  But, the next instant, the trembling in Fuuko’s arms stopped. She slowly folded the arms supporting Kuroyukihime’s body, wrapped her hands around her back—and gave her a tight hug.

  As countless bullets flew past them, quiet yet clear words flowed out.

  “……Thank you, Lotus. I finally realized it now. My wings…aren’t filled with your tears, but instead your hope, your kindness, and your love.”

  Then, after putting Kuroyukihime’s body back in the seat to her right, Sky Raker nodded her head with a clear movement.

  “That’s why, there’s no need for me to be afraid…I will fly. If it’s now, I’ll surely be able to fly once again…!”

  At that instant, Haruyuki finally realized.

  Sky Raker hadn’t given it up. She had been afraid. She had been afraid that, even if she equipped her Enhanced Armament, she wouldn’t be able to fly as she once did—that, just as her feet remained gone, her negative mind power would make her Enhanced Armament powerless as well.

  However, now, she had no fear in her bearing as she stuck out her chest and held up her arms towards the sky.

  Her dark red pupils gazed at the infinite sky above—

  And as if singing, she recited her equip
preset phrase aloud.

  “«Calling Gale»!!”[48]

  In the path ahead of their shuttle, in the direction of the unending ultramarine-colored sky above, Haruyuki saw a vivid light blue star flicker.

  It turned into two lasers and poured down, and in spite of the fact that their shuttle was moving at breaking speeds, they hit Raker’s body with pinpoint accuracy. The light enveloping her entire body immediately condensed itself on her back, and materialized the elegant-looking booster-type Enhanced Armament—«Gale Thruster». Most likely because they interfered with the equipment’s position, her hat and dress melted away into light, and the body of her delicate was fully laid bare.

  “Raker…” “Master!” “Nee-san!” “Raker-san!”

  As the four of them called out at the same time, Sky Raker nodded reassuringly, and nimbly jumped up from her seat. Of course, she wasn’t throwing herself out of the shuttle. She borrowed Lime Bell’s hand and moved to the back of the shuttle, and then firmly grasped the small rear spoiler.

  “Crow, stabilize the shuttle’s body straight forward!”

  Haruyuki immediately obeyed Raker’s order. Probably noticing the intentions of the No.1 shuttle, the Red Team’s No.2 shuttle increased their shooting even more, but Kuroyukihime once again struck their shots down from her side.

  “Here we go! Three second to boost! Two, one, zero!!”

  *DOGOOOOH!!* An extraordinary roaring sound was produced, and Haruyuki clenched his teeth as his whole body was thoroughly pushed back into his seat at the same time.

  What an incredible acceleration. When he glanced at the rear-view window while desperately steering to hold down the shuttle as it tried to go wild, he saw the spectacle of two jets of exhaust flames pushing the back of the shuttle from Sky Raker’s back like a comet. Its output was clearly greater than when Haruyuki had used «Gale Thruster». The strange light effect «Over-Ray» wasn’t being emitted from the booster, so it wasn’t a power-up due to the Incarnate System. This was the power that crystallized the cherished hard effort from Sky Raker pouring a vast quantity of Burst Points into it over the course of many years.