Kuroyukihime’s Return

by Reki Kawahara

  The half-ruined stairs seemed to have been attached to the wall as almost an afterthought. Leaping onto them, Haruyuki sped up to the roof in one go.

  Ash Roller’s second weak point. The majority of his avatar’s potential is tied up in the bike. The rider’s battle power should be essentially zero. Which is why, after you strike in your initial attack, you move to the roof of a building his bike can’t climb.

  This was the battle strategy Kuroyukihime had given Haruyuki.

  If he climbed the stairs while ahead damage-wise, all he had to do was wait for the time to be up and he’d win. Even if the rider got off his bike and came up, he could easily beat him up with Punch and Kick. Depending on your point of view, this was perhaps a cowardly strategy. But the truth was, Haruyuki loved this style of winning, the clever assault at an opponent’s weak points. In fact, he even thought that this path to victory was the true nature of gaming.

  Haruyuki moved to the edge of the rooftop as he plotted and tried to pay back in spades the sneering laughter Ash Roller had dealt him that morning. Peering down, he saw that the rider had finally managed to restart the engine of the crashed bike. The machine, idling raspily as if out of breath, pulled itself out from the rubble.

  As he wondered what sort of challenge he should issue, Haruyuki heard a voice whispering somewhere, “Wow, he can play after all, that little guy.”

  “Totally different from this morning, huh? Wonder who his ‘parent’ is.”

  Turning his eyes, he saw silhouettes sitting a little ways off on the roofs of buildings around him, on the edge of an enormous water tank, looking down at him. The Gallery.

  Because Burst Linker fights lasted at most a mere one-point-eight seconds in the real world, you wouldn’t make it in time if you accelerated once a fight had begun. So the game allowed you to register the names of friends and Burst Linkers you were interested in, so that when any of those people started to fight, you would also automatically accelerate and dive into the battlefield, where you could watch. In this case, none of your points were consumed.

  Looking around, Haruyuki could make out figures who had come to loiter on rooftops and the road here and there while his attention had been on Ash Roller. Since there was no reason for them to have marked Haruyuki, they were likely Linkers who had registered his opponent’s name. However, there should have been one person among them in the Gallery who had checked Silver Crow’s name. Black Lotus, i.e., Kuroyukihime.

  Whirling his head around, wondering where she was, Haruyuki saw one of the two sitting on the tank wave a hand lightly at him.

  “If you win this Duel, I’ll put you on my list, too. Good luck, kid!”

  “Well, I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as all that.”

  To the other person, Haruyuki responded in his heart, Sorry, but you’re not going to get any more big-show stuff. We’ll prob’ly just time out. With that thought, he shrugged lightly and refocused his attention on the road.

  And froze in astonishment.

  In no time at all, Ash Roller’s bike, which had been nothing more than a speck in the distance below him, had its front wheel up against the building wall.

  Hey…what do you think you’re doing?

  The reply was a shrill cry of rage. “You really think you’re something, huh, baldy!! I’ll make you dance to the sound of my V-twin!!” The engine roared furiously, and puffs of exhaust rose from the chrome muffler. The enormous American bike then began to storm straight up the wall.

  “Gah…”

  Widening his eyes beneath his silver mask, Haruyuki pulled back a step. A scant two seconds. The bike flew past the iron rail, so close he could practically touch it if he reached out, bringing the roaring and the smell of burning with it. The engine raced, growling thunderously, and the bike, having flown up nearly two meters past the top of the roof, turned to aim at Haruyuki and started to drop.

  “Aaaah!!” Panicking, he dashed a few more steps backward.

  The rear tire hit the concrete roof with a tremendous crash. Cracks spread out radially from the impact, and several shards flew up and hit Haruyuki’s armor. Instantly, his health gauge dropped, although by a mere dot, and Haruyuki was surprised again.

  In an ordinary fighting game, damage could occur only in ways prescribed by the system. Brain Burst really wasn’t any ordinary game. There was a degree of realism in the high-level graphics and sound, and the persistence of the effects, to the point where you couldn’t really distinguish it from reality.

  This had to be the key to winning fights in this world.

  Burning this into his mind, Haruyuki looked up at his enemy, who had far more experience than he did.

  Standing the bike up deftly, Ash Roller glanced down at Haruyuki and started to talk in a high-pitched, metallic voice. “Tell you what, kid, taking you down this morning finally pushed my awesomeness over three hundred points. Made it to level two.”

  The skull visor on the gunmetal helmet had been smashed in, revealing part of his bare face. Haruyuki had thought whatever face was under that skull would have to be terrifying, but it was more science-club style, the thin lines of a boy’s face.

  The duel avatar is a manifestation of your inferiority complex. Kuroyukihime’s words flickered to life in the back of his mind.

  Ash Roller, stiffening his thin lips into something approximating a smile, revved the engine once before continuing. “And I was having suuuuuch trouble deciding on my level-up bonus, you know? In the end, I ditched the bonuses to my special attack and my riding speed and went with the ability to drive up walls, get it? And damn, I was so right!” He took his hands off the handlebars and pointed both index fingers sharply at Haruyuki. “And yoooouuu are hella unlucky!”

  Haruyuki cursed in his head, but he wasn’t simply standing there listening quietly to his enemy. He was staring intently at his surroundings, remembering the mail Kuroyukihime had sent, and using every bit of knowledge he had to try and find some way out of this situation.

  If your initial attack and escape fails, and you have to fight Ash Roller on his bike face-to-face, I’m sorry to say your chances of winning are quite small. Because—

  Kuroyukihime had followed that with an explanation of duel avatar “compatibility.”

  The English names automatically given to the Burst Linkers always included a color word. This color offered a rough grasp of the features of the particular duel avatar.

  Blues were short-distance direct attacks, reds were long-distance direct attacks, yellows were intermediate attacks. Intermediate colors like purple or green had characteristics straddling two color types. In addition to colors on the color wheel were the metallic colors, set aside with metal names, which excelled in defensive abilities rather than attacks.

  The metallic colors, including your silver, are fairly rare, but are also a strong color line. They have the ability to endure amputation, piercing, fire, and poison attacks, and given their hard bodies, their abilities in terms of close-range attack are certainly not insignificant. But, of course, they have weak points. Corrosion attacks are their natural enemy, with another weakness being strike attacks.

  Kuroyukihime, analyzing Silver Crow’s attributes, also went on to list the characteristics of Ash Roller, who she had presumably never seen.

  In contrast, the “ash” in Ash Roller is a color belonging more to blue than green on the color circle. The low saturation indicates the peculiarity of his attack. Since his tires are not an obvious weapon, it’s hard to tell, but most likely, his attribute is a close-range strike type. In other words, your armor is very nearly useless against Ash Roller’s charge. So there’s just one response in the event you end up in a face-to-face battle.

  Run for your life for the entire remaining time.

  Easier said.

  Despairingly, Haruyuki checked the size of the building. Both width- and height-wise, it was no more than twenty meters. Kuroyukihime’s evasion strategy was based naturally enough on a battle on the wide, des
erted Kannana and didn’t take into account a scenario where the motorcycle climbed walls.

  All of which meant that Haruyuki had inadvertently fled to a disadvantageous position all on his own.

  Given the bike’s thrust, running for the emergency stairs was pointless. Should he jump from the roof and just take the damage? But if his gauge dipped lower than Ash Roller’s, everything up to now would have been for nothing.

  A triumphant mounted knight, his opponent laughed ringingly at Haruyuki rooted in place, unable to think of a way out. “Ha-ha-ha-ha! No fight left in you, baldy boy? Well then, allow me!!”

  The internal combustion machine screamed and blue smoke rose up from the racing rear tire. The front tire made contact with the ground with a thud, and the enormous bike charged, the rider’s sights set on Haruyuki.

  “Aaah!” he screamed, leaping to the right, but there was just too little distance between them. The tire grazed the tip of his foot, and his health gauge dropped abruptly. Simultaneous with the shock of the impact, an instant pain danced across Haruyuki’s nerves.

  But re-creating the sensation of pain in a virtual game had supposedly been prohibited by law ages ago. This really wasn’t just a bit of fun. The battle was virtual, but real at the same time.

  The bike turned on a dime about three meters away, screeching deafeningly, preparing to charge again.

  Anything! There has to be something! Some secret trick to totally turn the tables, to come back from the dead—

  Right, the special attack!

  Even if it was called the prosaic Head Butt, it might have the power to crush rocks or something. Haruyuki allowed himself this sliver of hope and quickly crossed both arms in front of his body exactly like the silhouette in the instructions. Next, he opened his arms wide and threw his upper body back as hard as he could.

  Along with a vaguely dull vrooming sound effect, Haruyuki was conscious of the fact that his shiny head was starting to glow with a white radiance. Impressed murmurs rose up from the surrounding Gallery.

  You can do this!!

  Confident, Haruyuki glared at the enormous bike headed right for him. “Aaaaaah!!” Screaming, he aimed his shining head at the bike headlight and thrust.

  Long before he could hit his mark, he was struck by the tough tire and knocked on his back, opening up a human-shaped hole in the concrete. The light effect on his head disappeared into space and his special-attack gauge alone dropped to empty.

  A burst of laughter from the Gallery shook the stage. Amidst the laughter, the murmuring of one person reached his ears. “Too bad, looks like this is the end.”

  Haruyuki’s entire being was wrapped tightly in the familiar warmth of humiliation.

  Dammit. Damn. I’m supposed to be the hero in virtual games. My character’s too weak. I mean, a special attack that’s just some Head Butt that doesn’t even hit the target! I’m done for.

  He managed to stand but crumpled again abruptly. As he moved to sit down, he saw off in the distance, on the roof of a remarkably tall building, a silhouette standing tall and staring right at him. Hair in thick rolls swaying in the night wind. Soft dress. Almost-transparent butterfly wings.

  He couldn’t see the expression on this shadow’s face, the size of a grain of rice. However, Haruyuki felt its fierce energy.

  No. You can’t give up. If you have to lose, then struggle, fight, make it ugly. If you can’t do at least that much, you can’t even be her pawn.

  Brushing aside his humiliation, Haruyuki mobilized every bit of knowledge and experience he had and thought intently.

  Virtual while real. That was Brain Burst’s major feature. Overwhelming detail and reality. In which case, Ash Roller’s bike wasn’t just a bunch of polygons. There had to be a weak point in that meticulous reproduction.

  The bike. The main bit, the gasoline engine from the last century—what’s that about? Noisy. Stinks like gas. Those would be weak points before you actually ran into it, but they don’t matter now.

  It can’t move when it runs out of gas. If I made a hole in the tank—No, I can’t pull off that kind of pinpointed attack.

  Isn’t there anything else? Anything—

  The bike, whirling around and leaving a trail of burnt rubber under the rear tire, turned its shining yellow eye on Haruyuki for the third time.

  In that instant, Haruyuki swallowed sharply. Got it. That’s it. The main feature of an internal combustion engine bike and its weak point.

  “Yeaaaaah! Ha-ha-ha-ha!! Dance for me!!” Screaming, the iron horse began to run.

  Just one time is enough. Move, Silver Crow. Faster than that guy. Haruyuki clenched his teeth and glared at the charging bike. Right. No matter how fast he goes, it’s not going to be so fast I can’t see him. I’ll make a show of trying to avoid him, just barely dodge him.

  Gathering his powers of concentration, Haruyuki slid a mere fifty centimeters to the right when he was on the verge of being sent flying again. The tip of the handlebar brushed against him, and Ash Roller passed in front of him.

  Instantly, Haruyuki stretched out both hands and, bracing himself for damage, grabbed the edge of the black fender covering the bike’s rear tire. The shock threatened to rip his fingers loose, while sparks flew from every joint in his arms, and his health gauge dipped lightly.

  The bike slowed a little. Haruyuki didn’t let the chance slip by, digging both legs into the floor, putting all his energy into throwing his body backward. His steel feet crunched as they shaved concrete off the ground, and his gauge continued to drop.

  “Whoo-hoo!!” Looking over his shoulder, Ash Roller let loose with a loud laugh. “Stuuuuuupid!! As if an insect like you could stop my monster machine!!”

  The rider’s boots kicked the foot pedal hard. Black leather gloves twisted the throttle. The engine screamed and roared, and flames shot out of the muffler. The impressive torque of the American bike worked its magic, and the machine started to accelerate again, dragging Haruyuki along.

  “Zoooooowwwwww!!” As he listened to the incredibly abrasive sound of the bottoms of his own feet screeching along, Haruyuki let out a scream, overcome with pain and heat almost like his feet were being shaved off with a rough file; no, it was exactly like that.

  “Ha-ha-ha-ha! You don’t let go soon, you’re gonna be at zero in no time!!” Over Ash Roller’s triumphant voice was a grating metallic noise. Both of Haruyuki’s feet were completely red, overheating, and his health gauge was dropping so fast, it was scary.

  But he didn’t let go. Gritting his teeth under his silver mask and fighting to endure the painful heat, he continued to simply dangle from the tail of the bike.

  If it were the surface of Kannana Road below them, Silver Crow’s small body might have become scrap iron and turned to dust soon enough, just as Ash Roller said. But in the limited space of the abandoned building’s roof, Ash Roller couldn’t run in a straight line forever.

  The low railing drew near before his eyes, and the skull rider leaned on the bike with a strange whoop before entering a spin turn. Sparks flew from the brake rotors, and white smoke rose up from the fat tires.

  “Ngaaah!” Haruyuki tried desperately to hold on as he was nearly thrown in the centrifugal force.

  Just a little more. In half a second, my first and last chance is going to come.

  The engine rpm dropped, and the bike ended the spin and went to commence its mad dash anew. Immediately before it could, for the tiniest sliver of time, the soles of Silver Crow’s feet gripped the ground solidly.

  “Aaaaaaah!!” Haruyuki screamed. At the same time, he dug deep for every bit of strength he could muster and yanked the fender he was gripping with both hands straight up into the air. His knees, elbows, and shoulders all sparked, and his health gauge, which had dropped to about 20 percent, was eaten down to its last 10 percent, but his thin arms bore the enormous load, stretched out in front of him.

  A tenth of a second later, the fat rear tire raced fiercely, but the kinetic energy could
not be transformed into propulsive force. Because, although just barely, the tread had been separated from the ground.

  “Uh…uh?!” Ash Roller cried, straddling the seat with his back to Haruyuki. Apparently flustered, he jerked his right arm two, then three times. Each time, the engine roared and the rear wheel raced frantically. But the steel machine didn’t move a centimeter.

  This was the weak point Haruyuki had picked up on. Unlike electric motorcycles, which were equipped with motors in the front and rear wheels, the internal combustion engine motorcycles of the previous era only drove the rear wheel using a chain connected to the engine. It would have been absolutely impossible for him to lift the entire bike, but stiffening his metallic robot avatar and just bringing up the rear a tiny bit was something he could do for at least an hour.

  “Y-you! Come on!! Drop it, stupid!!”

  Haruyuki looked up at Ash Roller, twisting his body and yelling over his shoulder. And then, even though his opponent likely couldn’t see, he smiled complacently. “Nah. If you’re really stuck, try making your front wheel turn.”

  Having returned to the unaccelerated world, Haruyuki inhaled deeply in the afternoon sun before exhaling slowly. Given that the fight had been decided with the counter still at 600, he calculated that no more than a second or so had gone by in the real world. But the palms of his hands were dripping with sweat and cold to the point of being numb.

  As he pushed the button on his Neurolinker to disconnect from the global net with a stiff finger, he was suddenly hit sharply on his back.

  “Hey! You did it, Silver Crow! To be honest, I thought you were done for.”

  Turning around, he found Kuroyukihime’s pretty face, complete with a rare, bright smile. It was only natural, since they had accelerated standing next to each other outside the school gate, but in the stage, she had been watching the battle from the roof of a building in the distance, so he was slightly confused.