Kuroyukihime’s Return

by Reki Kawahara

  A group of small insects skittered past his feet, and occasionally vapor like a living creature spewed from the gills in the walls. Two hundred seconds had already passed on the counter, which had started at 1800. As the hundreds position on the counter clicked down to five, Cyan Pile spoke.

  “It is me.” The needle on his right hand pointed at Haruyuki. “Acceleration is me. I was the one with brain-training software crammed down my throat through my Neurolinker from the time I was just a baby until I was totally sick of it. I cultivated the aptitude! And it’s only been a year since I became a Burst Linker. My kendo team captain is my parent, a close associate of the Blue King. He’s got high hopes for me. I’m a cadet in the royal guard. And yet—”

  Ka-chaaaank!!

  His right hand, gesturing broadly, ripped several enormous scars in the wall. “Now!! Now you’re a Burst Linker?! And you think you’re my equal, Haru?! The ability to accelerate’s given you confidence, so you’re trying to take Chi back?! Is that it?! It’s no good, Haru. You can’t beat me. In grades, in sports, in Chi’s heart. And, naturally, not in the accelerated world. I’ll help you understand. My power…I’ll teach that pathetic duel avatar of yours.” A brilliant light burst forth from Cyan Pile’s eyes.

  He’s serious. Takumu is seriously planning to fight me.

  Haruyuki still felt like he could make Takumu understand if he just found the right words. He wanted to explain Chiyuri’s—and his own—true feelings. He didn’t want to fight like this.

  But if Haruyuki lost here…

  Cyan Pile would try to fight Black Lotus again. And then he would hunt her while she was unconscious. In an instant, Kuroyukihime would lose all her points and, with them, the power of acceleration.

  Just that. No matter what else happened, he had to prevent at least that.

  “Taku. You really are amazing. You’re good at school and sports; you’re cool, too. You have everything I don’t,” Haruyuki murmured in a stifled voice, looking down. Then he jerked his face up at Cyan Pile and shouted sharply, “But you’re an idiot. A super idiot!”

  “What was that? I’m an idiot?”

  “Yeah. Which is why you can’t beat me! Did you forget? Have you ever in your life beaten me at any game?”

  “…Haru. Haru.” A voice mixed with laughter and echoes of violence. “In that case, you’re about to lose the very last thing you can be proud of!!”

  Cyan Pile’s boots kicked hard against the floor, and the enormous body, nearly two meters tall, began to close the distance between them at an incredible speed belying his form.

  But he was still slower than the charge of Ash Roller’s bike.

  Slip by him. Then move to a bigger area. The entrance hall—no, the roof.

  Haruyuki focused on Cyan Pile’s right hand. His opponent was a close-range fighter; as long as he didn’t come within striking distance of that needle, he wouldn’t take any damage.

  After watching Cyan Pile move, right arm drawn back as far as it would go, Haruyuki dashed forward, intending to slip through on the opposite side.

  Silver Crow’s speed, essentially his only redeeming feature, appeared to take his opponent off guard. Seeming faintly surprised, Cyan Pile thrust his right arm forward, carving out an arc.

  You can dodge this!

  Predicting the trajectory of the attack, Haruyuki dropped down and tried to break through alongside Cyan Pile’s left arm.

  Krsshk!

  An unexpected sound rang through the air.

  Eyes open wide, Haruyuki saw in his periphery flames shooting from the end of the fat pipe that was Cyan Pile’s right arm. The dazzling, thick iron rod shot out so fast he could hardly see it.

  It may not have been a flying weapon, but it did stretch out to nearly double its length, and the range was more than sufficient to grab hold of Silver Crow. Haruyuki heard an unpleasant shrieking pass through his own body concurrent with the impact. And then a sharp, numbing pain.

  The tip of the rod had pierced his left elbow, and Haruyuki watched as his arm separated in that spot. He remembered belatedly that pile could also mean stake.

  The arm, carving out a trail of sparks as it fell to the floor, immediately smashed into a thousand tiny pieces and disappeared. The health gauge in the upper left of his vision dropped abruptly, nearly a third with just the one blow.

  But Haruyuki didn’t have the time to feel sorry about taking such serious damage right at the start of the fight. Even as he crumpled and his back scraped along the hallway wall, trying to regain his balance, he saw the evil iron rod in Cyan Pile’s right arm, still extended—or rather, he saw it being pulled in again.

  It was clear that the instant the stake was reloaded, he would again have to face that terrifying attack.

  The attack attribute was probably “piercing” and Silver Crow’s metal color should have meant he was resistant to it. So his arm being torn off in one blow meant it hit him in exactly the wrong place. This was the difference three levels could make, or simply, Cyan Pile was really strong.

  Considering this momentarily, Haruyuki picked himself up again and jumped hard, gaining some distance. Without looking back, he dashed for the entrance hall as fast as he could.

  “Ha-ha-ha! What? Running away so soon, Haru?”

  The sneering laughter echoed up from behind him almost as if urging him on, and Haruyuki ran his eyes quickly over his surroundings.

  The long benches in the waiting area had been transformed into cast iron, spikes sprouting up everywhere like some torture device from the Middle Ages, and the reception counter to his right was entwined with rusted barbed wire. Naturally, there weren’t any people. And on the other side of the counter was the thing he was looking for: the elevator doors.

  In the Century End stage, the elevators were naturally not likely to have been functioning because entry into the buildings themselves was not permitted, but in this Purgatory stage, with the interior reconstructed in such detail, they just might be working.

  Running over, Haruyuki smashed the skull-shaped button beside the door—now mesh like a cage—with a prayer in his heart. Sure enough, the mesh opened to the left and right, accompanied by a grinding, metallic noise. He clenched his right hand in victory.

  From behind him, the sound of Cyan Pile’s thudding footsteps grew closer moment by moment.

  He leapt into the solitary-confinement cell of an elevator, and his right hand repeatedly punched the button with an R carved into it. Hurry. Hurry up and move.

  The instant the lattice closed at a speed so sluggish it seemed designed to irritate, something slammed into the door. Poking its face through a gap of about five centimeters in the mesh was the iron rod’s shining, dazzlingly sharp tip.

  Haruyuki stifled the urge to shriek and jumped away, pressing his back against the wall.

  Skreeeee!

  The iron stake shot forward, bending the lattice slightly, before finally stopping mere millimeters from Silver Crow’s thin abdomen. As its malignant radiance retracted, the elevator finally trembled and rattled, beginning its ascent.

  “Ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!”

  Haruyuki stomped his right leg against the floor, banishing the sticky, sneering laughter chasing up from below him.

  Tumbling out onto the roof, Haruyuki scanned his surroundings, breathing heavily. Involuntarily, his eyes grew wider.

  The sky in the Purgatory stage was filled with an unsettling yellow light, and dark clouds wound through the sky like living creatures. The buildings around him, the heart of Suginami ward, had been changed into bizarre forms bearing a distant resemblance to something living and shone slimily with a reddish-black rusty color. He supposed the lancelike spires he could see in the distance were the Shinjuku Government Building and the surrounding skyscrapers.

  Just as he started to wonder exactly how far the stage reached, Haruyuki noticed something with a start and gasped.

  There was someone there.

  Well, if by someone, he meant a stri
kingly eccentric silhouette. From the roofs of buildings around him that were taller than the hospital, groups of twos and threes were looking down on Haruyuki. Unknown Burst Linkers. Spectators.

  Momentarily bewildered, Haruyuki finally hit on it.

  He might have been cut off from the global net, but the other fighter, Takumu, probably connected globally right before the match started. Why he would have done that and taken the risk of someone else calling him out was unclear, but in any case, because he had, this stage was open to the outside, and the Burst Linkers registered for the automatic Gallery for Cyan Pile and Silver Crow had appeared. Although it made no real difference to his situation if there was a Gallery or not.

  The light blue, arrow-shaped cursor displayed in his field of view slowly started to change direction, vibrating slightly. Cyan Pile had also gotten in an elevator and was headed for the roof.

  After moving about ten meters across the expansive roof, Haruyuki turned and faced the elevator. Up here, he had plenty of space for evasive moves, unlike in the hallway.

  And he now understood from firsthand experience the reach of Cyan Pile’s metal stake. As long as he paid attention to the position of Cyan Pile’s right arm, Haruyuki should be able to avoid it. Don’t be afraid. You have no choice but to do this. As he told himself this, the elevator lurched to a stop in front of him and the doors slowly pulled open.

  Cyan Pile’s enormous body was stuffed into the elevator, taking up every bit of space. Scraping along the walls, he stepped out onto the roof, and the eyes in the depths of the slits lit up faintly. “Oh, I get it. Up here, you can dart in and hit and then dart back out again, huh, Haru—I mean, Silver Crow.”

  “It’s just that down there, you looked cramped, like you were having a hard time.”

  “A-ha-ha! I can’t believe you’re saying something like that to me.” Still chuckling, Cyan Pile started to advance mechanically.

  Haruyuki crouched and measured the distance between them. He shouldn’t fully understand how fast Silver Crow is yet. That’s my only chance of winning. Before he gets used to my speed, I have to do something and win.

  A heavy-looking boot took its fourth step, and just as it was on the verge of making contact with the ground, Haruyuki kicked off as hard as he could.

  The sky rang out shrilly, and the enormous blue body approached instantaneously. Haruyuki plunged forward in a straight line, and Cyan Pile’s right arm followed, targeting him.

  Right here!!

  He abruptly took off on his left leg and started running to the right. With an enormous roar, the metal spike shot out at an extremely high speed. Reacting after seeing the spike launched was basically impossible, but if he could anticipate where it would go and make the right call, he could pull this off.

  Haruyuki traced an arc over the surface of Cyan Pile’s left arm and darted in, the tip of the metal spike stopping just in front of his left cheek. Feeling a scorching heat there, Haruyuki kicked his right leg at the floor with all his strength.

  “Nngaaah!” He beat into the defenseless flank with his right fist. Thunk. Serious resistance. The big frame shuddered.

  I can still do this!

  As if chasing Cyan Pile’s back as he tried to turn his body around, Haruyuki dashed forward another step and landed a right roundhouse kick on his enemy’s left calf. As Cyan Pile lost his balance with a jolt, Haruyuki brought a final blow, a left knee strike toward the center of that enormous back.

  Wham! Serious impact. The hulking body bent over into a sideways V.

  Cyan Pile, staggering to put distance between them, roared hatefully, “Rrrgh! I—I guess you really are good at games, Haru. But little tricks like that are useless!!”

  Haruyuki just barely managed to dodge the left fist thrown at him, used the inertia to spin his body around, and buried his right heel in the nape of the neck presenting itself defenselessly.

  “Nnngaaaaah!”

  Haruyuki closed his ears to the broken shrieking in Takumu’s voice and continued his rush. Using not just both legs and his right fist, but even his severed left arm, he delivered combo after combo without a break. At some point, half-screamed shouts began to tumble from his mouth. “You…idiot! You stupid idiot! Chiyu! Chiyu isn’t asking you to be number one in your grade or the kendo champion or anything!”

  In desperation, he used a leg kicked out in front as a step ladder to jump up high, grab Cyan Pile’s mask, and smash his own silver-armored helmet into it with everything he had. Part of the blue mask cracked loudly and caved in.

  Cyan Pile lost his balance, falling back onto the floor, and Haruyuki jumped on his chest to continue battering him with his right fist. “Chiyu just wants you to be you! You’re the one making her look back at the past, making her want to go back to when we were kids, Takumu! The only one of us who’s changed is you!” Mind blank, he simply screamed.

  However, at the sound of Haruyuki’s voice, Cyan Pile’s eyes shone from beneath the cracked slits with a light strong and cold enough to send shivers down spines. “D…on’t…” He crossed his thick arms abruptly as if to protect himself. “Don’t get so carried awaaaaaaaay!!” He flung his arms out wide to reveal the sharp tips of at least ten stakes that rose up with a grinding noise from the chest to the stomach of his body suit.

  What the—?! This is bad. Gotta dodge—

  But the instant Haruyuki tried to kick down on the ground with both legs and send himself flying backward: “Splash Stingerrrrrrr!”

  Thk thk thk thk thk thk!! Sounding like a heavy machine gun, the multitudinous stakes shot toward Haruyuki at point-blank range.

  “Gaaaah!!”

  Haruyuki somehow managed to avoid the stakes flying straight for his head and chest. But he then took serious hits to his left shoulder, his left flank, and his right knee, which sent him flying high in the air like a hunk of scrap, landing on his back against the roof.

  “Nngaah!!” The breath knocked out of him mixed with a cry from deep in his throat. His vision flickered, and a sharp, intense pain ran through his entire body. He couldn’t believe this was virtual damage from the Neurolinker.

  What was that?!

  Haruyuki braced his right arm and somehow managed to raise his upper body to watch Cyan Pile sluggishly get up a step ahead of him.

  “Hnn…Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!” Short bursts of laughter leaked out from beneath the blue mask as if a screw had come loose somewhere. “Heh-heh-heh-heh! You really…got a lot of energetic poking in there, huh? You surprised me a little. But in the end, you’re just an annoying little bug. And you even went out of your way to build up my special-attack gauge.”

  “Special…attack…” Haruyuki muttered as he checked the gauges at the top of his vision.

  Cyan Pile’s thick health gauge stretching out on one side was at 60 percent. He had taken more damage in Haruyuki’s rush than he was letting on. But Haruyuki, having been caught directly by the random stake shooting, only had about 30 percent health left.

  And below each of the health bars, a thin green gauge stretched out. Cyan Pile’s was glowing brightly at around 70 percent. In contrast, Haruyuki’s was basically full.

  “Now, now, don’t talk like it’s the first time you’ve heard the words, Silver Crow.” Cackling, Cyan Pile started to advance slowly. “The give-and-take of special attacks is the best part of any Duel. That Splash Stinger before’s my level-two special attack. Perfect for knocking down annoying insects, huh? Oh, that reminds me. Your gauge looks like it’s full up already. Go ahead, come on. Use whatever you’d like.”

  Haruyuki clenched his teeth grindingly. The special attack given to Silver Crow was just Head Butt, which basically had no reach at all and could definitely not stand up against Cyan Pile’s long range. And the motion was long and very obvious, so using it was basically like saying Shoot me while you were getting ready to act.

  Dammit. I don’t need a special attack or anything. I have my fists and my feet. And speed. Once his shaky vision settled, Haruyu
ki quickly rose and focused his strength in his right leg.

  But.

  He heard a repulsive breaking noise, like a snap. And then the metallic sound of his own body collapsing to the ground again with a crack. Hurriedly turning his eyes downward, he saw that he had been pierced with one of the shotgun stakes, and his thin silver leg, smashed from the knee—

  “A-ha! A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!” Cyan Pile’s piercing, loud laughter. “I got it! Your leg!! You’re so brittle!! And you’re supposed to be a metal color?!”

  Haruyuki was oblivious to this sneering voice. Crap. Crap!! I lost my leg, which means I can’t run anymore. Forget avoiding him, forget running; I don’t think I can even move.

  The sense of panic sneaking in chilled him to the depths of his bones.

  This is bad. I can’t, there’s no way I can lose here. I have to protect her; I have to.

  Crack.

  The boot, stomping down uncomfortably close, smashed Haruyuki’s severed leg as if it were glass.

  The corners of the bluish-white eyes Haruyuki could see in the distance turned up sharply. “So this is how it ends, Haru.” A faint whisper of a voice. “You here, like this: it suits you. And you even managed to get a lot of stuff off your chest back there, huh? Almost like you’re the only person who understands Chi?”

  “I do, you know. At least better than you do, anyway.”

  “Then what about me? Have you thought about me at all? Have you ever thought about how I feel when I’m alone with Chi and she gets this sad look on her face all of a sudden…and I know it’s because she’s thinking about you? Huh, Haru?” He cut himself off and brought his face in close. Cyan Pile—Takumu—gave voice to the decisive phrase. “It’s because you’re like this.”

  There was almost a gentleness somewhere in his tone, but his words dug a deep hole in Haruyuki’s chest, an enormous iron stake.

  “It’s because you’re like this that me and Chi and you are totally caught in this muddy swamp and can’t get out. Just disappear already, Haru. Set me and Chi free.”

  Crack.

  This step caught the bottom of Haruyuki’s foot on his good leg.