Signal Fire at the Water’s Edge

by Reki Kawahara

  The words she uttered so smoothly traced out the general course of the majority of events that had happened over the last month and a half, and it wasn’t just Haruyuki opening his eyes wide in surprise; Kuroyukihime also stared as if stunned.

  “Just like always, I suppose I should say. Your usual information-gathering powers show themselves once more, Curren.” Spreading her hands, Kuroyukihime explained to Haruyuki, “In Nega Nebulus before, Akira was in charge of information gathering and analysis. Her ability to pick up on fragments of rumors that we wouldn’t even notice and follow them to some key chunk of information was really magnificent.”

  Praised by her former master, Akira murmured, slightly embarrassed, “Information is like water flowing through the pipes of a city. There’s always some leaking out of the seams and cracks, bit by bit, but no one’s paying attention.”

  “W-wow…Is there really that much leakage in the water system?” Haruyuki asked, glancing back suddenly toward the kitchen again.

  Akira nodded with a serious face and revealed an unexpected nugget of knowledge. “The leak rate at the beginning of this century within the Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks was around five percent. Even now in the 2040s, one percent of the water flowing through the system in Tokyo disappears as leaked water. In terms of volume, that’s about fifteen million cubic meters.”

  “F-fifteen. Million…So, like, in two-liter soda bottles, um…”

  Before Haruyuki could launch the calculator app on his virtual desktop, Kuroyukihime quickly did the arithmetic in her head. “Seven and a half billion bottles. Even so, apparently, the amount of loss is fairly small compared with major cities in other countries…But, Akira, back when I was still level eight, I’m sure I remember you telling Graph, also level eight, to try leveling up first in order to get information on the level-nine sudden-death rules. Wasn’t that quite the strong-arming way of gathering information?” Kuroyukihime noted, a playful smile slipping across her face.

  “Graph was in charge of sacrifices, so there was no problem,” Akira responded coolly.

  “Ha-ha-ha! …Well, it’s true there really aren’t too many people as sour as Graph.”

  Watching Kuroyukihime laugh with delight, Haruyuki reflected on the powerful warmth he felt.

  Although some pressing circumstances had apparently pushed Nega Nebulus with their backs to the wall, now that Akira/Aqua Current was back, three of the Four Elements who had made up the senior executives of Nega Nebulus had returned. Of course, Current’s so-called real body was still sealed on the altar of the God Seiryu at the east gate of the Castle in the Unlimited Neutral Field, but he had a feeling that the day when all four of them were completely restored, including Graphite Edge—who he still only knew by name—was definitely not far off. And it wasn’t just the Four Elements; the other Burst Linkers who had belonged to the old Legion would also come around one after another at some point.

  That was when Kuroyukihime would be able to reclaim what she had lost. Once Nega Nebulus returned to being one of the seven Great Legions in both name and substance, Haruyuki wouldn’t be able to monopolize her the way he did now. It wasn’t that he wasn’t sad about that, but the fact that he was her sole child wouldn’t change. Plus, more than anything, it was still true that, in order to reach level ten—the objective of Kuroyukihime, and of Haruyuki himself—beefing up the Legion was a must.

  He considered all of this as he bit into a plum rice cake, and Kuroyukihime abruptly reached out to stroke his scalp. “Hasty as always, hmm?”

  He glanced at her kind smile, which looked as though she had been reading his thoughts, and shook his head quickly from side to side. “Uh— N-no, I wasn’t sad or anything. Not at all.”

  “Well, you say that, and you’re basically confessing. Believe me. You and Takumu and Chiyuri are just as precious—if not more precious to me—than my old comrades. No matter how big the Legion might get, the you inside of me could never get smaller.”

  “O-okay…” Haruyuki desperately pushed back the teary feeling welling up inside him.

  “It’s okay to cry when you want to cry,” Akira said from his right, smiling. “If water isn’t always flowing, it gets stagnant.”

  The Haruyuki from a little while before might have let his tears fall, unable to stop them here, but he resisted and responded, “Um…I’ll save them up until you formally rejoin the Legion, Akira.”

  “You will? Then you should remember what you said to me immediately before I sealed your memory.”

  “Uh, um…What did I say again…?” Even as he gave voice to this, the scene from the time was replaying in the back of his mind, as though Akira’s words had pumped it up. After Haruyuki had agreed to the direct duel with far too little in the way of wariness, Aqua Current had told him, “I’ll take all the points you have now as payment.” And to this, the words Haruyuki had said in reply…

  “…I won’t fight you. I like you, and—”

  Kree, kree. A fierce pressure assaulted his head, interrupting him. The source was Kuroyukihime’s five slender fingers still resting on his head. Even as she displayed a power on par with a duel avatar specializing in hold techniques, the smile on her lips did not disappear. Of course, this was her special attack: Ultimate Cool Kuroyukihime Smile.

  “…I didn’t quite hear you. What did you say the reason you didn’t fight Curren was?”

  “Uh, um…That, it’s…l-like…um, very ladylike?—no, not that. Oh, I got it. What I meant was, in all likelihood, I could never beat you in terms of skills.”

  Kuroyukihime refuted Haruyuki’s ever-so-masterful evasion with a cool, “There might be abilities in Brain Burst, but there aren’t any skills.” And then her face relaxed, as though that was the end of that. After finally bopping him lightly, she pulled her hand away from his head and took a rice cake between her own fingers. “But, well, you being like that, it’s probably why Akira appeared like this in the real…”

  She tossed the rice cake into her mouth and crunched on it, making a satisfying sound, and then drank down the rest of the tea in her glass. Haruyuki rose up in his seat to refill her glass, and Kuroyukihime checked him with a wave of her hand. She looked at Akira seated across from her with a serious expression and said:

  “…I still have a number of things I’d like to ask, but let’s set aside talk of the past for the time being. What’s more important is the present and the future—the reason why you visited Suginami and contacted us today, Akira. Judging from the timing, I believe it’s connected with the ISS kit or the Acceleration Research Society…So?”

  Faced with this question, Akira nodded as she touched a fingertip to the bridge of her glasses. “As insightful as ever. The reason is both…Plus one more.”

  “Oh? And that is…?”

  Haruyuki waited for Akira’s response with the attitude that he’d already had too many surprises to count that day, so nothing he heard at that point would give him a shock. But the words she uttered had a power that easily blew away that resolve.

  “…The Armor of Catastrophe.”

  “…!!”

  Kuroyukihime simply inhaled sharply, but Haruyuki reeled violently and very nearly flipped over the back of the sofa.

  He somehow managed to regain his balance and, after taking a deep breath, shouted, “Th-that’s—! Th-the Armor—that curse has been completely purified. It’s supposed to be gone!!”

  It had been a mere six days since Haruyuki had returned “The Disaster,” the Enhanced Armament known as the Armor of Catastrophe, to its original form, the Arc Destiny and the sacred sword Star Caster, and then sealed them away forever in a corner of the Unlimited Neutral Field. No matter what this Acceleration Research Society was, they wouldn’t have been able to lay a hand on that place now, and they absolutely must not be allowed to.

  To begin with, scant minutes earlier, Aqua Current had said it herself, hadn’t she? That the Armor had been purified and sealed by Silver Crow.

  As if to ease the sh
ock Haruyuki had taken, Akira nodded once before continuing. “I don’t think the society will be able to bring back the Armor of Catastrophe itself. But they’re probably not planning recovery. Rather, they’re after rebirth.”

  “R-rebirth? You mean…make it again?” Even Kuroyukihime’s voice was colored with fear as she asked this question.

  Akira shifted her eyes directly forward and nodded once more. “The Acceleration Research Society was involved in the birth of the Armor of Catastrophe seven years ago…or so I’ve surmised. Is that correct?”

  Question answered with a question, Haruyuki exchanged a look with his Legion master before they both nodded. This was extremely confidential information, but there was absolutely no reason to hide it from Aqua Current, a former Element.

  “Y-yes…I only have the super-vague proof of a dream I had while I was parasitized by the Armor, but I believe it. The ones who set a trap for Chrome Falcon and Saffron Blossom seven years ago and forced Fron into total point loss with an Unlimited EK were the vice president of the Acceleration Research Society, Black Vise…and senior member Argon Array.”

  He felt like Akira’s eyes were shaken for the merest instant when she heard the names of Falcon and Saffron, but the orange light coming in through the windows reflected off the lenses of her glasses and hid her expression.

  “They did…” Her voice was quiet, her head hanging slightly. “Then we must assume that it was also the Society’s intent to have the armor handed down over successive generations and so much blood spilled in the Accelerated World.”

  “But I’m sure the one who gave the armor to the Fifth Disaster, Cherry Rook, was the Yellow King, Yellow Radio.” Kuroyukihime furrowed her brow. “That banana-head can’t possibility be an ally of the society?”

  “I don’t think that’s it.” Akira lifted her face with a wry smile. “Radio loves traps and schemes, but he’s basically a ham who wants to be noticed.”

  “A-a ham…” Haruyuki was stunned by this vicious cut of a single stroke, but Kuroyukihime only giggled.

  “That’s definitely true. Radio’s not satisfied unless he climbs up onto his own stage. His color’s simply too different from the secret maneuverings of the society. But then, was it Radio’s own intent to obtain the Armor during the subjugation of the Fourth Disaster and use it as a key to entrap Scarlet Rain?”

  Haruyuki nodded, pulled in. “And the fact that the armor was transferred from the Fifth, Cherry Rook, to me, the Sixth, was a completely coincidental series of events. No one could have predicted that Niko would come to us in Nega Nebulus for help, or that I would be the one to strike the final blow on the Fifth Disaster. Even the guys in the Society.”

  Akira accepted these remarks with neither agreement nor denial and then dropped her voice. “…In other words, I think it’s like this: It doesn’t matter to the Society who transfers the Armor to whom or what kind of tragedy is brought about. What they’re after is the continuation of the cycle of calamity for as long as necessary—the Armor being inherited and strengthened. And then they recover it once it’s sufficiently strong and use it for their final objective…”

  “Oh…!” The instant he heard this, Haruyuki had a memory flash to life in the back of his mind. He screwed up his face and tried to replay the scene. “Um…Nearly a week ago in the Unlimited Neutral Field, we split the armor into the two Enhanced Armaments it was made of, but right before that, the society’s vice president, Black Vise, appeared and said something to me. I’m pretty sure it was something about how it was earlier than scheduled, but they were going to have to recover and analyze the Armor. And that, unfortunately, I would have to leave the Accelerated World.” The memory was hazy because he had been very much on the edge in terms of his mental state at the time, but he was sure of the overall idea of it.

  Hearing Haruyuki’s—well, Black Vise’s—words, the two girls looked at each other and then nodded, their looks turning serious.

  “I knew it.” Akira opened her mouth first. “They have a long-term plan. I think they have some final target for use of the Armor. This is just my supposition, but they were going to take the Armor recovered from Haru, equip it on someone who would be the Seventh, and then complete Chrome Disaster. Or perhaps this is even just one part of a larger plan…”

  “The Seventh? That’s quite the number, hmm?” Kuroyukihime said, annoyed, and looked at Haruyuki before softening her mouth and continuing. “So then by purifying and sealing the Armor, the Sixth, Haruyuki, ruined the grand plan the Acceleration Research Society had been working on for seven years—though, when you think about acceleration in the Unlimited Neutral Field, ten times, a hundred times that long. Once again, giga GJ.”

  “Are you speaking Ash or Pard now?” Haruyuki replied with a grin, and Kuroyukihime laughed, too, but Akira for some reason stopped moving entirely for a moment. A little later, a faint smile rose up across her lips. Haruyuki was about to ask her if something was the matter, but before he could, she said:

  “…The Armor of Catastrophe is gone, thanks to your hard work, Haru. I said this before, too, but the Society doesn’t have the option of bringing the Armor back. But that doesn’t mean they’re the type to quietly give up.”

  “Right,” Kuroyukihime murmured. “So then that’s where the ‘rebirth’ you mentioned comes in.”

  “Yes.” Akira slowly nodded. “The Acceleration Research Society is trying to repeat now what they did seven years ago…is what I think. They’ll call up an explosive hatred and sadness, pour this negative energy into the Enhanced Armament that will be the vessel, and give it a cursed power. I feel that several of the incidents taking place in the Accelerated World right now strongly hint at this possibility.”

  “Hmm…I don’t doubt your analytical abilities, Akira, but it’s not a phenomenon that can be reproduced as simply as that, is it? As I remember it, Chrome Disaster was born from a fusion of several different elements…Isn’t that so, Haruyuki?”

  She turned her eyes on Haruyuki, who nodded deeply. “Yes.” Counting off on the fingers of his right hand, he listed the factors that made up the Armor of Catastrophe. “Um…First, the initial Disaster, Chrome Falcon. And his partner, Saffron Blossom. The Legend-class Enemy that brought Saffron to total point loss. The Enhanced Armament, ‘the Destiny,’ which took in Falcon’s sadness and hatred and transformed into the Armor. And I don’t know if this was a requirement or not, but the greatsword Star Caster with Saffron’s heart in it…At the very least, these elements were required to produce the Armor of Catastrophe…”

  “And of course, they’re all relatively rare,” Kuroyukihime murmured. “It goes without saying that there are few metal-color avatars, and fewer still if you’re looking for one with a fixed partner. And rarest of all is the Destiny as the vessel…It is, after all, one of the Seven Arcs.”

  Haruyuki and Akira were silent for a moment, and then Haruyuki reached out for a rice cake, the mountain of which had dropped by half at some point, and grabbed one before setting it on the edge of the wooden plate. “The Arcs confirmed to exist in the Accelerated World right now are…the alpha, which is the Blue King’s greatsword, ‘The Impulse.’” He put a new rice cake to the side. “And the beta, the staff of the Purple King, ‘The Tempest.’ The Green King’s large shield, ‘The Strife,’ the gamma. And…the epsilon, ‘The Infinity,’ the longsword of Trilead, who we met in the Castle.”

  He had lined up four rice cakes by this point. Lifting his head, he looked at each girl in turn. “It’s just these four, isn’t it? The whereabouts of the delta, ‘The Luminary,’ are unknown. And the theta, ‘The Destiny,’ is of course sealed away, while the eta, ‘The Fluctuating Light,’ is in the deepest part of the Castle, where no one can touch it.”

  When Haruyuki closed his mouth, Kuroyukihime offered a slight, wry smile and shrugged. “When you list them all like that, it does seem like there are a lot. But it’s true that there are currently four—no, perhaps three—the society might be able to move o
n. No matter how powerful they might be, they can’t touch Trilead, who lives in the Castle with the epsilon.” She reached out her right hand, picked up one of the rice cakes sitting on the side of the plate, and bit into it with a crunch.

  Akira stared for a while at the remaining three, until she finally shrugged, too. “I think the remaining three are equally difficult to interfere with. None of the kings would ever part with their Arc, and the only way to take their Enhanced Armament would be to make the king lose all their points. And even the Acceleration Research Society shouldn’t have that kind of battle power,” Akira said, taking another rice cake.

  Haruyuki recovered the remaining two cakes and tossed them into his mouth together, munching on them for a while before speaking. “Um…So just to cover all the bases, there’s no Enhanced Armament in the Accelerated World as powerful as the Seven Arcs, right?”

  Akira and Kuroyukihime blinked twice, quickly, and then shook their heads simultaneously.

  “I don’t think there are.”

  “There shouldn’t be. I mean, to begin with, the Seven Arcs are called that because they have exceptional capacities. You only came up against Grandé’s shield the one time, but you felt the ridiculous defensive power it holds, yes?”

  “Y-yeah, that was…”

  “Although in his case, well, his body is so hard it almost breaks the rules, too. Mmm, so then that means, conversely, if a Burst Linker born with the majority of their potential given over to an Enhanced Armament were to pour all of their level-up bonuses into increasing the performance of that armament…Hmm, hmm…I wonder how that would go.” Kuroyukihime cocked her head to one side as she pulled on this thread of reason, and one Burst Linker popped into Haruyuki’s mind, whether he liked it or not.