“Hey, Mei?” Haruyuki unconsciously opened his mouth as they walked down the long hallway.
“Yes?”
After fumbling for the right words for a minute, he started talking again to the young shrine maiden looking up at him. “If we find a portal and get out of here…if we get through all this, I have a friend I want to introduce you to.”
“A friend? Do you mean in the real world?”
“Yeah. She’s two years older than you. She’s in grade six right now. Kinda sassy, kinda rough, but…but she’s really great. If it’s all right with you—if you’re okay with it, I mean, maybe you could be friends—”
Suddenly, a sensation like pain pushed up from the center of his chest. Haruyuki stopped breathing, and his eyes flew open. Was this…a premonition? That what he had just said would probably not come true? That some terrible…sad catastrophe would befall them before it could…
As if there’s any such thing!
I’ll keep my world safe. I won’t make anyone unhappy anymore. I won’t let anyone be sad. Kuroyukihime, my teacher, Chiyu, Taku, and Shinomiya, too…and Pard and, of course, Niko. I’ll protect this warm circle, these bonds we have, modest and yet bigger than anything else. I will keep this safe.
“C.” A tense voice called to him, and Haruyuki opened his eyes with a gasp. When he turned his gaze to his side, the young shrine maiden was focused intently on the path ahead of them in the hallway. Drawn in, Haruyuki looked ahead and noticed several massive auras. Soon, a heavy sound of creaking movement reached his ears.
“It appears that there are indeed Enemies inside as well.”
He nodded quickly and looked to both sides. On the wall to the right, the line of vermilion latticed windows. They could probably unlock one and get outside, but there was the possibility of the warrior Enemies there, too. On the left, rather than a wall, a row of brilliantly painted sliding fusuma doors. He couldn’t see anything resembling a lock, so he expected they would open if he pulled on them, but which of the fusuma should they slide open…?
He then had another strange vision: A pale, human-shaped silhouette pulled open the fusuma two meters or so ahead and slipped inside.
“Over there.” Rather than doubting his eyes, Haruyuki followed the phantom avatar. Without hesitating, he pulled the fusuma open and found another hallway with a polished hardwood floor. Another line of fusuma both ways. They slipped into the space stretching out to the north and closed the room dividers behind them with a thump.
They didn’t even get the chance to breathe for a second before movement somewhere along the hall made the floorboards creak loudly. The shadow before his eyes that looked so much like himself glided forward, opened a fusuma to the right, and disappeared.
Just what was that shadow? And why was he the only one who could see it? There were a lot of things he didn’t understand, but at this stage, all he could do was trust and follow where it led. Swallowing the echoes of the pain lingering in his heart, he forcefully called up all his focus and opened the next fusuma, pulling Utai along by the hand.
If they had tried to advance on their own and avoid the herds of warriors and Shinto-priest guardians that crowded the map of the interior of the Castle’s inner sanctuary, even a full day would not have been anywhere near enough time.
Although the hallways were wide and they didn’t lack for objects like pillars and sculptures to hide behind, the Enemy patrol patterns were complicated, definitely not readable with a few moments’ observation. The building was also made up of a series of fusuma and hallways that looked almost exactly like one another, making it very easy to get lost, and, of course, there was no auto-mapping function, so before they knew it, they had lost all sense of north and south. The fact that they had been able to make any headway at all in a labyrinth of this level of difficulty was because they had help from the strange silhouette that floated up in Haruyuki’s field of view.
The small nameless duel avatar found the blind spots of patrolling Enemies with a timing like passing through the eye of a needle and opened one unremarkable fusuma door after another, guiding Haruyuki and Utai forward. It was already quite evident that this was no mere dream or hallucination.
It was probably a “memory.” The logic of it was unclear, but the memories of a Burst Linker who had once snuck into this Castle were replaying in Haruyuki’s consciousness. He couldn’t come up with any other explanation for this phenomenon. But if that was the case, then that meant whoever this was had succeeded in reaching the most central depths of the Castle, and then left their memories in some kind of media after they made it home alive. Which meant there had to be a portal connected with the real world in the final site this hazy silhouette arrived at.
Haruyuki believed there was and chased after the memory shadow with undivided attention, pulling Ardor Maiden along by the hand. They had a few close calls, but after more than an hour had passed and they hadn’t been targeted by a single Enemy, the pair finally reached the entrance to a large hall that seemed to be very close to their goal.
“This is…,” Utai murmured, and squeezed his hand in hers tightly.
It was an enormous space, one better described as a massive temple than a hall. Vermilion pillars supported the high ceiling, and the walls on all four sides were adorned with dazzling color prints. It had a very “last boss room” look to it, but there was no sign of any Enemy. Regardless, a concentrated something hung in the air that made them hold their breath. Haruyuki squeezed Utai’s hand back and strained his eyes intently beneath his silver mask.
The silhouette of memory that had guided them here was stepping slowly into the hall and heading toward the gloomy depths. Steeling himself, Haruyuki followed it. The shadow glided in between the row of pillars and—
The moment it had advanced to a certain point, it vanished without a sound.
“Ah!” A quiet cry slipped out of Haruyuki, and he quickened his pace. If the memory shadow had disappeared, then the portal had to be in there. But only darkness and cool air filled the depths of the hall; he definitely didn’t see any flickering blue light. But that…to come all this way and have there be no exit, it couldn’t be…
Half running, he crossed the last ten meters and was forced to acknowledge that his fears had been realized. There was indeed something there. But it was very clearly not a portal.
Square stone pillars blackly lustrous side by side, a distance of about two meters between them, standing as high as Silver Crow’s chest perhaps. When he saw the thin, disparately colored panels on them, he figured these were no ordinary pillars, but rather pedestals to place something on.
But both were empty. If anything had sat on them at some point in the past, those items had already been carried off. The gray shadow who had guided them here had probably taken at least one of them. So then a onetime portal that—as the name suggested—activated only once.
“I…We came all this way…” Enormously discouraged, Haruyuki started to drop his shoulders.
Utai suddenly squeezed his left hand so hard it creaked.
“…?!” Hurriedly looking to his side, he saw the young shrine maiden, who he had never once seen lose her cool composure, staring at the pedestal on the right as if she were trying to devour it, scarlet light spilling from her eye lenses.
“A Seven Stars plate.”
“Huh…huh…?” Bewildered by the words, which he’d never heard before, Haruyuki looked at the pedestal once more…and realized that a small silver plate was indeed embedded in the front, which he hadn’t noticed before. He took a step toward it and stared hard. Several characters were carved into it, along with a curious diagram.
Seven dots, and six lines connecting them. He had seen this before. There was no mistaking it; it was the shape in the night sky he had looked up at from the Castle garden two hours earlier. The tail of Ursa Major. The seven stars of the Big Dipper.
Thmm.
The point on his back throbbed sharply again. It seemed like this pain h
ad a bit more presence to it than it had before. He shook his head lightly and pushed it out of his mind. “Seven Stars?” he asked in a low voice. “Do you mean the Big Dipper stars carved into this plate? Is there something going on with this pedestal?”
Utai finally lifted her face. “What sat on this pedestal was an Enhanced Armament,” she told him in the quietest voice possible. “However, it is no normal weapon or armor. A group of legendary armaments, said to be the most powerful in the Accelerated World, the Arms of the Seven Stars, also known as the Seven Arcs.”
“Seven…Arcs…”
There’s no way he would have forgotten that term. Haruyuki’s teacher, Sky Raker, had explained it to him at the Meeting of the Seven Kings the day before yesterday. The Tempest, the staff owned by Purple Thorn, the Purple King. The Impulse, the greatsword worn on the hip of the Blue King, Blue Knight. The Strife, the large shield carried by the Green King, Green Grandé. All of these together were called the Seven Arcs.
At that time, Raker had told him that the prevailing hypothesis was that there were a total of seven Arcs existing in the Accelerated World, but the existence of no more than four had been confirmed. The basis for this hypothesis was probably the plate embedded in this pedestal. When he looked very closely, the sixth star from the left in the relief of the seven stars of the Big Dipper carved into the plate was bigger than the others. He supposed that meant that particular star corresponded with this particular Arc.
“So then, the Arcs that the Blue King and the others have, they were on pedestals like these?” Haruyuki’s question omitted the thought process that preceded it, but Utai still nodded.
“Yes. The Arcs that the Vanquisher and the others have obtained were enshrined in the deepest parts of the four great dungeons of the Accelerated World: Shibakoen, Tokyo Dome, Tokyo Station, and the Shinjuku government building. I subsequently saw only the pedestal for the Impulse, but it was exactly the same design as this. C, please take a look here.” Utai pointed to a spot on the plate.
Two characters were carved out beneath the seven stars relief in a severe typeface. They could be read as kaiyou, but he had no idea what that was supposed to mean.
“This kaiyou is the Chinese name for the zeta star of the Big Dipper. The pedestal for the greatsword Impulse that I saw had the characters tensuu cut into it, the Chinese name for the alpha star. Similarly, the Chinese name for the beta star—tensen—was on the pedestal for the staff Tempest, while the pedestal for the shield Strife was imprinted with the Chinese name for the gamma star, tenki.”
“…I get it.” Haruyuki nodded deeply, intently etching the string of peculiar nouns into his brain.
Four great dungeons set to the north, east, south, and west of the Castle in the Unlimited Neutral Field. Four Enhanced Armaments sealed away deep within them. And carved into those pedestals, the Chinese names for the four stars that made up the bowl of the Big Dipper. Given that, it was only natural that the veteran Burst Linkers who found them judged that they were four of likely seven powerful armaments.
Aah, seriously, why didn’t I get to be a Burst Linker sooner?! Exploring the four great dungeons, capturing the bosses inside—probably super huge, too—getting the most powerful equipment…All the fun’s already over.
After letting these regrets race around his mind, Haruyuki quickly rethought things. Hadn’t his teacher, Sky Raker, said that everything was starting now? And if he had become a Burst Linker in the early days, there was a possibility that right about now, he might belong to a side against Nega Nebulus—against Kuroyukihime. And he had no greater fortune in this world than that of having been able to become her child.
He covered his face lightly and reflected deeply on his own thoughts. “That reminds me,” he said to Utai in a low voice. “I didn’t see it at the Meeting of the Seven Kings, but what’s the last of the four Arcs presently confirmed? I’m assuming someone’s already got it, like the other three hidden in the four great dungeons?”
“That…It’s been confirmed that the delta tenken pedestal in the lowest level of the large Shibakoen maze was already empty…” Utai broke off momentarily, and a look like she was thinking it over herself rose up on her face as she continued. “It’s unknown to the present day who obtained the Luminary, the Arc that should have been there. At the very least, as far as I’m aware, there is no record of it ever having been used in a duel.”
“What?!”
That was unexpected. Having expended the effort to obtain one of the most powerful Enhanced Armaments in the world, was it even possible to not use it? Perhaps whoever had it was worried about standing out and becoming the target of concentrated attacks, but if they had the actual strength to break through an enormous dungeon, then they were probably safe to stand up proudly and call themselves the owner of an Arc.
And there was something else that didn’t quite click. Puzzling over this, he asked Utai, “But I’m sure Master Raker said there were just four Arcs confirmed. So if they only found the pedestal, does the Luminary count as one of the confirmed Arcs?”
“No.” Utai shook her head, and the hair parts of her shrine maiden avatar swung back and forth. She lowered hesitant eyes before murmuring at minimum volume, “Luminary is treated as unconfirmed. The last of the four Arcs that have appeared up until now in the Accelerated World should have sat on this kaiyou pedestal, the Destiny.”
“Des…tiny…” Repeating the name, Haruyuki looked at the plate on the front of the pedestal as if drawn in by it. Beneath the relief of the Big Dipper with the single larger star and the two characters that spelled out the Chinese name for the zeta star, he did in fact spy several roman letters: THE DESTINY.
It was a name he had never heard before. Or it should have been. And yet Haruyuki felt that strange piercing sensation in the center of his body once more. Thmm, thmm. It throbbed somewhere deep in his soul. The pulsing reached his central nervous system and gave rise to a small spark at a single point on his back. Abruptly, the world before his eyes shook. Or no, not the world—only the roman letters on the plate he had his eyes focused on were losing shape. The seven letters of DESTINY shuddered, twisted, and transformed into another row of letters, similar and yet different…
“C.”
Haruyuki’s eyes flew open at the firm squeeze of his left hand.
The vision disappeared, and the letters on the metal plate returned to their original arrangement. At some point, the throbbing in his back had also vanished. He blinked several times before remembering what they had been talking about immediately before the vision.
“Oh! S-sorry.” Haruyuki apologized to a worried-looking Utai in a voice that was still slightly hoarse. “I just…spaced out. Umm, so then that means that some Burst Linker did come here before us and got the Disaster from this pedestal and used it in a duel, right? Who was it? Probably one of the kings or something?”
But Ardor Maiden only shook her head in tiny increments at this question. “You’ll have to excuse me. I haven’t seen it directly, either. I heard that it was a long, long time before I became a Burst Linker.”
“It was?” Haruyuki pushed back his frustration. If it was something even a serious veteran like Utai didn’t know, then Haru would definitely have no point of contact with it, given that he had been a Burst Linker for only eight months. Which was why this uneasiness smoldering in the back of his brain had to be a misapprehension. This itchy, annoying feeling practically insisted he knew the answer, but he just couldn’t remember.
Almost as if he were unconsciously trying to avert his eyes from the name Destiny, Haruyuki moved another few steps to the left, still holding Utai’s hand, and examined the neighboring pedestal. This one had a similar metal plate embedded in it. The carving of the Big Dipper was also the same. But the larger star was fifth from the left. The characters inscribed there were gyokusho.
“Gyoku…sho, maybe?”
“Yes. The Chinese name for the epsilon star. The Arc inscription is…”
He brought his face in closer at the same time as Utai did and found the English letters there. Together they murmured, “‘The Infinity.’”
“This is also the first time I’ve heard this name. Since this pedestal is as empty as its neighbor, someone—perhaps the same person—has already carried it off. If that’s the case, then like the Luminary, it would be an unconfirmed Arc, never once used.”
“I…I guess so.” Haruyuki let out a small, secret sigh.
Immediately before the Meeting of the Seven Kings the day before yesterday, where he had seen the Castle rising up in the distance in Chiyoda Area, Kuroyukihime had said there was a rumor about some incredible Enhanced Armament being hidden in the very innermost room of the Castle’s inner sanctuary. And that had evidently been true. And that Enhanced Armament was likely higher in status than the Arcs the Blue, Green, and Purple kings had.
And yet what they found were only the pedestals; the essential items had been carried off by someone long ago. As not just a Burst Linker but also a hardcore gamer, there was no way he was not going to be utterly and crushingly disappointed.
“Infinity, huh…It was prob’ly an amazing piece of equipment. I wish I could have at least seen it,” he muttered in frustration, and then jerked his head up in sudden realization.
Four Arcs in the four great dungeons scattered about the Unlimited Neutral Field. And two Arcs in the innermost room of the inner sanctuary of the Castle in the center of the Accelerated World. All together, six. But there were seven stars etched into the pedestal. Hadn’t Utai said that was why they were called the Arms of the Seven Stars? In other words, that meant…
“There’s one…missing…” His mouth opened of its own accord.
Ardor Maiden, next to him, nodded firmly. “I—I was also thinking that myself. In this hall, meant to be the very center of the Accelerated World, there are only two Arc pedestals. Then Alkaid, the eta star of the Big Dipper, which would be ‘Hagun’ in Chinese readings…Where on earth is it?”
Armor of Catastrophe Page 9
