Accel World: Floating Bridge in Starlight

by Reki Kawahara

  In other words, the No.10 shuttle hadn’t been destroyed due to corrosion. It had merely reproduced the body color of its registered driver.

  Hit by a firm conviction, Haruyuki shifted his gaze slightly and looked at the No.10 shuttle’s cockpit.

  The one that sat there and silently gripped the steering wheel was—

  A duel avatar clad in the same rust color as the machine’s, with a thin body that made one think of a steel frame with rivets hammered in. This wasn’t Haruyuki’s first encounter with him either. Two months ago, at the underground arena «Akihabara Battle Ground» installed in the local network of a game center in Akihabara, he had fought against him once.

  In a voice even lower than earlier, Haruyuki spoke out a second name.

  “…«Rust Jigsaw»…”

  However, even when he called out his name, the rust-colored avatar remained silent and didn’t turn to face him. His body was quietly sunk into his seat as if he had become part of the shuttle.

  When Haruyuki looked at the four crew seats in the back, he saw that there was only one person sitting there. No, it would be better to say one set of «plates». There was only a thin shadow sitting at the backmost row. That atypical appearance in the form of black sheets lined up in human-shape couldn’t be anyone other than «Black Vise».

  These two were Burst Linkers that belonged to the club that called themselves the «Acceleration Research Society». Both the organization’s scale and composition of members were almost completely unknown. The only thing Haruyuki knew about them was that they all possessed the illegal VR device known as the «BIC» (Brain Implant Chip) in their skulls, and using its power schemed to avoid various restrictions in Brain Burst.

  That’s why it was extremely shocking to Haruyuki that these two would appear in the «Hermes Cord Traversing Race», a festival-like event. He stared at it aghast as he remained numbed from the shock, and suddenly countless voices poured down from above.

  “H…Hey, hey, where did that shuttle come out from!?”

  “Wasn’t the No.10 shuttle retired!?”

  “If that one wins, what will happen to our bets!?”

  The audience in the gallery also seemed surprised at this unexpected development. There were many voices of confusion rather than excitement contained within this rising commotion.

  And then, as if slipping into the uproar, Haruyuki heard a quiet conversation exchanged by the two on the No.10 shuttle.

  “…Is my job over with this?”

  That quiet voice that gave off the impression of a teacher was from Black Vise. In response to the question, a boy’s voice that sounded purposefully crushed low replied.

  “Yeah, that’s enough. You can go back.”

  “Then, I’ll excuse myself here, Jigsaw-kun…Goodbye, Black King. And the other members of Nega Nebulas.”

  “…You bastard.”

  Kuroyukihime muttered, but by the time she moved her right hand slightly, the humanoid shadow sitting in the back seat had already jumped off the shuttle. Then, he was swept back far away in the blink of an eye as if slipping into the jet-black sky—and disappeared.

  At this point, Haruyuki finally had a guess as to why the No.10 shuttle had suddenly appeared from the shadow of the No.1 shuttle.

  Black Vise, who possessed many strange abilities, was probably able to shut into a black plate and sink into shadows not only himself, but also other people and objects.

  When the portal on the top floor of the Sky Tree was opened at 5 PM on Wednesday, the first ones to visit the Hermes Cord hadn’t only been Haruyuki and Pard-san. In reality, Black Vise and Rust Jigsaw had also been there. But the two of them had undoubtedly hidden in the shadow of the tower and, as soon as Haruyuki and Pard-san Bursted Out, rose out of the shadows and did the driver’s registration. That’s why, neither Haruyuki, Pard-san, nor Ash Roller and the others who arrived immediately after had noticed their presence.

  And Vise’s concealment ability hadn’t been used only during the registration either.

  The instant today’s race had started, the starting block had been completely swallowed by the shadow made by the huge audience seats. Having boarded their machine by moving through the shadows, Vise and Jigsaw must have once again concealed themselves in the shadows along with their machine immediately after the race started, and then without anyone noticing, moved to the No.1 shuttle’s shadow. Like that, they had held their breaths quietly right next to Haruyuki and the others all the way until now. In other words, Vise’s ability allowed him to «freely move or remain stationary within any shadow».

  While Haruyuki came to such a hypothesis within his thoughts, Rust Jigsaw, now the only person left on the No.10 shuttle, once again became silent and intently gripped his steering wheel.

  Even though he still hadn’t fully grasped the situation and felt an unpleasant unease, Haruyuki spoke out to the rust-colored avatar.

  “…Rust Jigsaw, why did you come out now? If you wanted to, you should have been able to hide in our shadow all the way until the goal and then come out at the last minute and claim victory.”

  Jigsaw, let alone answer, didn’t even twitch at the question. But Haruyuki pressed forward the feeling of incongruity inside him and continued speaking.

  “The fact that you didn’t do so and came out from our shadow at this stage means…you want to properly race with us, do you? In that case, that’s exactly what I want as well. I’ll compete with you fair and square over the remaining 1,000 km…”

  “……Be quiet.”

  That single phrase cut off Haruyuki’s words. Rust Jigsaw’s voice, which he was hearing for the first time, was cold and dry, and yet seemed to be tinged with a boiling feeling.

  “Eh…?”

  “Don’t talk. Don’t speak worthless words like 'race' or 'compete' to me.”

  Listlessly letting out those words, Rust Jigsaw turned for the first time and glanced at Haruyuki and the others with red eyes that carried a chill from inside his facemask designed in the form of thin iron materials put together. Although Haruyuki only remembered Rust Jigsaw being harshly defeated by Blood Leopard’s bite attack during their previous duel at Akiba BG, his impression from then was erased due to pure coldness that dwelled in the rust-colored avatar’s eyes.

  Jigsaw narrowed his eyes, and spoke as if giving an order.

  “You should be ashamed. You people should be ashamed of yourselves for continuing to turn your eyes away like that from Brain Burst’s true purpose.”

  “……Hoh? Then let me ask you. Just what is this true purpose?”

  Having remained silent until now, Kuroyukihime finally spoke in a dangerous voice. Even after receiving that question with an edge to it, Rust Jigsaw gave no signs of being perturbed. He turned his face back forward, and replied back as if spitting his words out.

  “You should recognize it. Brain Burst is merely a dirty Life Hack tool.”

  “Life…Hack…!?”

  The fury-filled voice that spoke out was Takumu’s. The large blue avatar tried to lean out from the side of the shuttle, but the yellow-green avatar next to him pulled him back.

  “Hey, you! That’s just your personal interpretation! Even if it’s a crafty tool to you, it’s different for us! To us, Brain Burst is the greatest PvP game!”

  “Exactly.”

  Sky Raker also continued speaking after him.

  “Besides, your words are contradictory. If it’s just a tool, why are you participating in this race? Why did you show yourself halfway through the course? If you feel the desire to fight and compete, that’s proof that Brain Burst is not a tool, but a game to you as well.”

  In response to that sharp remark—

  Rust Jigsaw curled his body deeper into his cockpit seat.

  Haruyuki felt like he was enduring something with that movement. Then, several guesses as to the reason for it automatically appeared in his mind.

  Could it be that Jigsaw himself also wanted to deny his own words? Didn’t he w
ant to fight directly as a Burst Linker—to taste the thrill and excitement of «duels», and the feeling of connecting with someone through it? In other words, he wanted to leave the organization…the «Acceleration Research Society» that bound him……?

  The instant he remembered the dusk-colored plunderer that once belonged to the same organization, who had gained that choice and yet hadn’t chosen to do so, or perhaps been unable to choose so, Haruyuki reflexively called out.

  “Y…You…Don’t you actually…want to come over to this side…?”

  Silence.

  After a slightly long pause, Rust slowly raised his head from the steering wheel, and once more looked at Haruyuki.

  At that instant, Haruyuki realized that his guess had been completely mistaken.

  The emotion Jigsaw had been enduring was anger. A chaotic, boiling rage that had nothing to do with sharpness or purity. A hatred that had no clear target, but instead scattered in every direction intensely. Like a huge rusted saw that was waved about erratically, so to speak.

  “Regret it.”

  Rust Jigsaw whispered in creaking voice. Immediately after, he separated his right hand from the handle, and tightly grasped his forehead with his five fingers. He acted as if he was bearing an intense pain, but his words slowly began to be tinged with a crazed zeal, and rose until it became a shout.

  “Regret your naivety in not attacking the moment you saw me. And taste the price of that. Scream in overwhelming fear! Your stupid game ends today! And the time of desire and fighting, destruction and slaughter will arrive! Now…is that time!!”

  Immediately after, Haruyuki saw it.

  Beams of dull red light were rising up in all directions from Rust Jigsaw’s entire body.

  The lights whirled around all at once, and twisted violently like countless snakes. High frequency vibrations shook the shuttles and also the huge form of the space elevator. The steel ground, their two shuttles, and even the jet-black reaches of space shined brightly.

  This wasn’t a special technique. Since this was a race event where the HP gauge was locked, the killer technique gauge could not accumulate. Therefore, this life was from the imagination born from Jigsaw’s «heart»…

  “This is bad, that’s «Over-Ray»!”

  The first to shout out was Kuroyukihime.

  “Get us away, Crow! An incarnate attack is coming!!”

  By that time, Haruyuki was already turning hard to the left. With that last minute turn of the steering wheel that didn’t collapse into a full spin, he tried to distance their shuttle from the No.10 machine.

  He then heard a voice that sounded as if it was chasing after their shuttle as they escaped towards the other side of the tower.

  “Watch, you imbeciles! This is the true form of Brain Burst—!!”

  In Haruyuki’s rear-view mirror, Rust Jigsaw stood up from his cockpit seat, raised his arms high—and bellowed.

  “«Rust Order»!!”[49]

  The world shook.

  …That’s «Over-Ray»!?

  While pushing down on the accelerator right down to the floor, Haruyuki shuddered. The maelstrom of red light that was released with the No.10 shuttle at its center expanded to the size of a small star, and in the blink of an eye the light was hot on the heels of the No.1 shuttle.

  “Ho…Hold on!”

  While shouting that, Haruyuki cut back the steering wheel slightly. The explosion of light was composed of energy that swallowed the entire 100 meters diameter of the Hermes Cord. If they tried running away diagonally along the tower, they would not be able to escape. The light chased after them from just a few centimeters behind the back of the shuttle as it returned to going straight forward.

  Turning to look over his shoulder while fixing the steering wheel in place, Haruyuki gasped violently at the spectacle behind him.

  Having shined a beautiful steel grey just a few seconds ago, the surface of the elevator was— decaying away at a frightening speed!

  As if he was observing at high speed an iron plate that had been left on the beach next to ocean, spots of rust appeared bit by bit on the parts of the tower touched by the light. Those spots joined together as they rapidly grew bigger and covered the entire elevator. Soon cracks started appearing here and there, the blood-colored rust caved in while scattering dust. Many craters like those from a meteorite collision were forming.

  “Tha……That’s ridiculous……”

  Leaking out a hoarse voice, Haruyuki shook his head.

  “Even if it’s an incarnate technique…Pard-san’s nails weren’t able to even scratch the elevator…I-In the first place, its range is too great…!”

  As far as Haruyuki knew, all incarnate techniques should have been limited to phenomenon that affected oneself. Even if it was a long-range technique, it functioned by first extending one’s own attack power through mind power and firing it at the enemy.

  But, the mind power of Rust Jigsaw, who had been visibly angry just now, destroyed all of the vast surrounding area without restrictions. Such a thing should be theoretically impossible. The energy source of incarnate techniques was supposed to be scars of the heart, in other words, the imagination that belonged only to oneself.

  In response to Haruyuki’s question, Kuroyukihime answered in a low voice as she similarly turned around to look at the phenomenon.

  “……It’s «Spatial Erosion»…”

  Sky Raker explained that unfamiliar word.

  “The opposite side of mind power which uses hope as its source…the ultimate form of mind power born from hatred. An overly strong resentment towards the world creates an «override» over the field itself…But, even for those of the King-class, mental concentration done over an absurdly long time should be necessary in order to train an imagination of this magnitude…”

  Kuroyukihime also narrowed her eyes sharply and nodded in agreement.

  “That guy was probably lurking in our shadow all this while in order to gain the time to do so, but…even so, it’s too abnormal. Did he forcefully boost his mental concentration with the function of the BIC…?”

  “No way, that…would surely place a huge burden on his brain as well…”

  While those two conversed, the storm of rust created by Jigsaw wrecked further destruction.

  Several of the other team shuttles behind them became victims of the corrosion. It seemed that Blood Leopard and Ash Roller had avoided it by decelerating with their fine machine control, but even so more than half of the shuttle rusted instantly and greatly slowed down. With that, even if they avoided completed destruction, they would be forced to retire from the race.

  However, the damage to Yellow Legion and two of the medium-sized legion teams was far worse than that. They had rushed directly into the affected area, and many screams overlapped with each other as they echoed through the field.

  The three shuttles were rapidly covered with thick rust. That wasn’t all. The armor of the crew members of the shuttles also eroded in the blink of an eye and scattered huge chunks of parts and equipment that rusted off.

  Eventually, the destruction reached the main body of the avatars, which then spilled over the shuttles and fell into the darkness behind them as their whole bodies decayed and crumbled away.

  “What’s with this, even though their HP gauges were locked!”

  Following Takumu’s groaning cry, Chiyuri added on her own bitter shout.

  “So…So horrible! The race has already become all messed up!!”

  Then, as if he had heard their words, Rust Jigsaw let out a laugh as he continued chasing them from behind.

  “Kukuku…Haha, hahahahahaha!! Despair!! Lament!! And feel remorse!! This is retribution for your deception!! This world is the same as the real world in the end!! Nothing in existence can avoid being corroded away——!!”

  Just then, as if his words themselves were mind power, the raging red light scattered upwards like an explosion.

  That maelstrom of energy caught one of the floating
spectator stands and swallowed it.

  Before Haruyuki's widened eyes as he thought ‘No way’, even the spectator stand, which should have been an object completely protected by the system, was covered in rust along with an unpleasant grating sound. Many cracks instantly ran along its formerly smooth bottom, and planks fell down one after another.

  And several seconds later, the huge structure quickly collapsed above the tower.

  The hundreds of gallery viewers that had been crowded together there were thrown out into the empty sky like an avalanche. While all simultaneously screaming, some of them had their entire bodies corroded, and others fell down to the surface of the elevator and were forcibly expelled from Accel World along with momentary flashes of light.

  “Ri…Ridiculous…”

  Kuroyukihime gasped with her head thrown back as if pushed back by that spectacle.

  “At this rate…the gallery viewers will definitely notice. That this phenomenon is boundlessly transcending the framework of the normal system…”

  Haruyuki once again realized the seriousness of the situation when he heard those words.

  Senior Burst Linkers, including the «Seven Kings of Pure Color» were constantly taking great pains to hide the existence of the Incarnate System as much as they could. Even at times where a necessity arose to teach others how to use it as a teacher, the first thing they made their students promise at the beginning was to «only use mind power when attacked by mind power».

  The reason for that was because there was an enormous dark side included within the Incarnate System.

  Those who wished for greater power and reached their hand down into the hole within their hearts could be, at the same time, drawn to the bottom of that hole. After doing so once, they would become drunk on the negative feeling of sublimating with their duel avatar once again. The worst example of this was the «Disaster Armour», Chrome Disaster, who once caused huge mayhem in Accel World. The Kings had been controlling information concerning the Incarnate System so that the same thing would never again be repeated; even «Yellow King» Yellow Radio, who excelled at craftiness, had chosen to withdraw without using mind power in front of many of his subordinates back then.