Armor of Catastrophe

by Reki Kawahara

  The elevator came to a stop with a gentle sense of deceleration, and Haruyuki lifted his gaze from the floor. On the other side of a holotag indicating that this was the nineteenth floor, the door opened. The legs that had so earnestly raced all the way to the condo felt heavy now for some reason. Spurred on by the apparently intentional cough of the woman behind him, he stepped out into the hallway just as the door was about to close.

  He knew Takumu’s apartment was number 1909, but he could count on his fingers the number of times he had visited it. Takumu’s parents were very passionate about the education of their only son, and they never looked pleased when his friends came over to play. When Takumu decided to transfer from the famous school he was attending in Shinjuku to Umesato Junior High this year, they had apparently made quite a fuss. For Haruyuki, the very person who had seduced their son away (or so he assumed they thought), this raised the barrier to entry in this apartment even higher than it had been in the past, but fortunately, both of Takumu’s parents worked, and they shouldn’t be home for a while yet.

  He had walked only a few meters when the name plate MAYUZUMI leapt into his field of view, altogether sooner than he remembered it being. Standing in front of the door, a different color from those in the B wing, Haruyuki drew the curtain on his interrupted thoughts.

  A lot of stuff’s happened, and I’ve made a ton of mistakes. But in that fight in the Purgatory stage, me and Taku got to come up against each other’s true feelings, putting it all out there in our fists. That time was probably when we finally became true friends. No matter what happens, that fact alone can never change.

  Taking a deep breath, he raised his right hand and touched the call button displayed in his view.

  After a slightly long wait, the voice that answered was indeed not that of a parent, but Takumu himself. “Come on in. Sorry, but can you just come straight to my room?”

  He had likely confirmed that it was Haruyuki with the camera embedded in the door, but even so, he spoke as though he had almost been expecting this visit, and the door was unlocked. Haruyuki pulled on the door handle, muttered, “I’m coming in,” and crossed the threshold into the entryway.

  He took off his sneakers, lined them up neatly, and stepped up into the hallway. He advanced, following a distant memory, and knocked on the second door on the right. After hearing a real voice from inside tell him to come in, he turned the knob.

  The lights had been dimmed, and only the dusk light coming in through the west-facing window weakly illuminated the room. Takumu, in jeans and a jersey shirt with three-quarter-length sleeves, turned toward Haruyuki from where he was seated on the bed, a small smile on his face, half sunk in shadow.

  “Hey, Haru. Don’t just stand there, sit down.”

  “Oh, right.”

  Haruyuki stepped awkwardly into the room. Some of the furniture was the same as it had been when they were in elementary school; some of it was new. However, two things were unchanged: there were overwhelmingly fewer things than in Haruyuki’s own room, and it was neatly tidied. He cut across the blue-gray carpeted floor and set his bag down before sitting down about eighty centimeters to Takumu’s right. The folding bed creaked, and the very springy mattress sank down nearly halfway.

  He had run all this way, spurred on by an impulse, but now that they were face-to-face, he didn’t know how to get the conversation started.

  Takumu hung his head once more, left hand on his right arm and both on his knees; he looked different somehow from when they had said good-bye at Haruyuki’s the day before. He was certain of it. But the information he was getting was too complicated, and Haruyuki almost couldn’t grasp the situation he had been put in now.

  After sitting in silence for nearly ten seconds, Haruyuki finally remembered that he had originally been planning to come and pay a visit to the sick Takumu. “Uh, so, like…You were sick with a cold today, so…how are you feeling?”

  “Ohh…Right, that’s right.” Takumu laughed softly, and shrugged his shoulders lightly. “It’s true I had a bit of a fever this morning. Otherwise, there’s no way my parents would’ve let me stay home from school. But I’m fine. I took the medicine the doctor gave me, and my fever went down.”

  “You went to the doctor?” In which case, maybe Haru was leaping to conclusions?

  No, it was a fact that this afternoon, a lone Burst Linker had destroyed the PK group Supernova Remnant. But maybe that had been someone else who just looked like Cyan Pile. After all, if Takumu was getting checked out at the doctor at that time, he wouldn’t have been attacked in Shinjuku—

  “Yeah. The doctor where we can use my dad’s insurance is in Shinjuku, right? I got a ride over there this morning.” Takumu’s words cut off Haruyuki’s half-hopeful thoughts.

  “Sh-Shinjuku?” Haruyuki repeated tensely.

  “The exam itself was over pretty quick, right?” Takumu’s ever-calm voice reached Haru’s ears in reply. “My cold wasn’t such a big deal, and since I’d gone all the way over there, I figured I’d gather some info in the Shinjuku area. I mailed a member of the Blue Legion I used to be pretty friendly with way back when. Of course, we weren’t so friendly we met in the real or anything. We decided to meet up on the local net of a little arcade near the station…I never dreamed he’d sell me out to a PK group.”

  Haruyuki stared, dumbfounded, at the shadowed profile of Takumu as he laughed softly.

  Curling forward farther and tightening the hand that gripped his right arm, Haruyuki’s best friend continued, voice gradually growing lower. “Somehow those PK guys got the real info of the Burst Linker who was my parent, and following that lead, they narrowed down students who could be candidates for Cyan Pile. These four guys—they looked really rough—they shoved me into a group dive booth at the arcade and told me to choose one or the other, flashing this knife that looked like a toy. Either have my points carved away bit by bit in a direct duel or die once and end it all in the Unlimited Neutral Field. They seemed really shady, like they would really use that knife if I fought back.” Takumu’s shoulders shook as he laughed. His voice contained a faint echo of a distortion Haruyuki remembered hearing somewhere, sometime before.

  “Naturally, I chose the Unlimited Neutral Field with all its irregularities. But as befits anyone with the title of ‘worst PK,’ all of them were way above me in strategy and ability. I struggled desperately while they tortured me mercilessly and tried to kill me—”

  “Incarnate?” Haruyuki interjected hoarsely, no longer able to stand just sitting there and listening to the chill-inducing monologue. “Did you beat them back with the power of the Incarnate System? I—I mean, I’m not blaming you or anything. I’d probably use it without even hesitating in that situation.”

  But Takumu shook his head slowly. “Naturally, I used it right away. But they were masters of Incarnate use. My baby power expansion Cyan Blade was useless against their negative will.”

  “So then…how…? How did you annihilate Supernova Remnant?”

  Haruyuki’s question sank heavily to the bottom of the small room colored with twilight.

  It was a dry recollection that came via a long-ish silence and one that didn’t end up directly answering the question. “I caught a cold because last night, I lied to my parents that I was going to go observe a cram school where I could prep for high school, and I went for a walk. My parents don’t trust the full-dive long-distance lessons, so they’ve been bugging me for a while to go to a real cram school. I headed for the so-called empty area in the south of Setagaya, but it was kind of drizzling there, so…”

  Having listened silently, and somewhat confusedly, to Takumu up to that point, a chill ran up Haruyuki’s spine. “The empty area in Setagaya,” he repeated in a hoarse voice. Very recently, someone else had referred to that place. Right. He was sure Ash Roller from the Green Legion had mentioned it the previous morning in their closed duel. He had said there was a rumor his little brother Burst Linker, Bush Utan, and Bush Utan’s partner, O
live Grab, had used some strange power and won in the empty areas of Setagaya and Ota.

  And it had been Haruyuki himself who had given Takumu that information. Yesterday, after everyone in the Legion had gone home, he had asked Takumu to stay and talk. About the mysterious Enhanced Armament silently spreading through the Accelerated World, the ISS kit. And he would have told Takumu at the same time that the infection was progressing mainly in the Setagaya, Ota, and Edogawa areas.

  So then, after that, Takumu had gone home briefly before going out again and heading for Setagaya by himself. He had indeed said when they parted that he would use his own tricks to get some information. But still, why would he suddenly do something as reckless as going off by himself into a danger zone like that…?

  Haruyuki twisted his upper body to behold his friend and opened stunned eyes wide.

  As if trying to escape his gaze, Takumu hung his head even farther. From his mouth, hidden behind the line of his strong shoulder, an endlessly calm and yet almost inflectionless voice spilled out. “I just wanted to see it with my own eyes. Whether or not this Enhanced Armament really existed, something that broke even the absolute limits, the basic principle of the Accelerated World that Scarlet Rain taught me; you absolutely can’t gain power that goes against your avatar’s attributes.”

  “…Taku…”

  “Haru, I’ll say this because it’s you. My duel avatar Cyan Pile is unfortunately a failure. Like a build error in those online RPG games you always used to play.”

  Haruyuki immediately started to open his mouth the instant he heard this matter-of-fact statement, but Takumu moved his left hand slightly to dismiss his objections. “I’m not sitting here crying over it or anything. After all, I’m the one who made Pile like that. That avatar was generated as a fairly pure close-range type, but then more than half its potential was poured into a long-distance Enhanced Armament. I explained it before as being because of the trauma that caused me to excessively fear piercing attacks, even though I’m a kendo player, but…but I’m sure that’s not the whole story.”

  At some point, Takumu’s profile had fallen completely into shadow as he continued speaking, face turned to the ground, and Haruyuki could no longer see his expression. Even though it was June, the air that filled the room was cold and dry, and it stung his lungs.

  Takumu’s voice grew gradually hoarser and lower. “This is just my own personal theory, okay? The mental scars that are the mold for a duel avatar—the strongest memories and emotions linked with them…I feel like people who are turned vaguely toward the whole world tend to end up red types. And the people who have those emotions focused on a clear target end up blue types. In which case, Cyan Pile’s base form without a doubt includes my desire for revenge against the older students in kendo class who bullied me so harshly when I was in elementary school. But when I really think about it, there were people back then who were even more important to me and for a lot longer…you and Chii. There’s no way my feelings for the two of you wouldn’t be a source for my duel avatar.”

  Here, Haruyuki finally managed to push a few words out of his completely dry throat. “That…I mean, it was like that for me. I mean, inside me—Silver Crow is full of feelings for you and Chiyu.”

  “Yeah. I guess so, huh, Haru? But the thing is…unlike you, born without a weapon, I was born equipped with that sharp iron spike, Pile Driver. The power of the contradiction of being close-range and also long-distance…That’s because my feelings toward you guys are full of contradictions. And what those are…I won’t say right now. But…” Takumu abruptly sat up and turned his face slightly toward Haruyuki, leaving it still half-colored with shadow. “But I’m pretty sure that feeling is why I suddenly told Chii I liked her three years ago. Almost like I was testing you two. No, not just that. The fact that I set up the backdoor program in Chii’s Neurolinker last year, the fact that I could was because of that, too. Half of me wanted to keep the circle of the three of us, while the other half wanted to destroy it. Always. Just me alone. And that contradiction distorted my duel avatar.”

  “…T-Taku…” His best friend had just made a confession as if spitting up blood, but all Haruyuki could do was say his name.

  With a look somewhere between crying and laughing on his face, Takumu pushed on, his voice cracking. “Haru, have you ever thought about why Chii’s Lime Bell was born with that power, the seriously real power to turn back time? I’m sure…it’s proof that in the bottom of her heart, she wishes we could go back to how it used to be. Back to when we used to play every day until it got dark outside…And I’m the one who gave Chii that sad wish. I’m the one who destroyed this circle of the three of us she wanted to last forever. And I did it twice.”

  Takumu turned his whole body and sidled up to Haruyuki. Haruyuki could only stare wordlessly at the faint dampness of his best friend’s eyes behind the frameless glasses.

  “I thought I could make up for it. We were miraculously given this new circle, Nega Nebulus, and I thought that supporting and protecting that with everything I had was the final penance I could do. But…Cyan Pile is the realization not of a simple wish, like your avatar or Chii’s, but rather a distortion…I just know that at some point it’s going to be the Legion’s weak point. No, it’s already becoming that. So…before that happened, I thought maybe it’d be better to disappear…so I…”

  “…So you what?” Haruyuki opened his mouth, unable to stand listening to any more of Takumu’s heart-piercing words. In a whisper, he hazarded the guess that had been steadily approaching certainty as they spoke. “So you went looking for an ISS kit?”

  A few seconds later, a feeble smile rose up on Takumu’s lips, and he nodded gently. “Yeah. In Setagaya area three, I waited for a long time in duel standby mode until a Burst Linker finally challenged me…After they made me switch to closed mode, they told me, if I wanted, they’d share the power. But it’s not like I was just looking for power right from the start. The ISS kit was sealed in an item card at first, like a lot of unused Enhanced Armament. So I thought I’d save it in my storage and have Master and the others analyze it at the next Legion meeting. But…when I was attacked in the real this morning by those Remnant guys…I was useless against four opponents. So I made up my mind. If I was going to be taken out, then that had to be better…”

  An expression so appalling it almost took his breath away flitted across Takumu’s well-ordered face. As his trembling lips formed a self-deprecating smile, he spat out in a husky voice, “Before I knew it, I was shouting the command to activate the ISS kit I’d been taught. And from there…To be honest, I don’t really remember. Just…The one thing I’m sure of is that I didn’t just defeat those guys. Ten times—no, a hundred times more horrible, crueler than what they did to me, I tormented them, I tortured them, I slaughtered them. I kept the last one just barely alive and carried him over to where I saw this Enemy-hunting party off in the distance. I made him spit out everything about the PKs, and then I finished him off…The Burst Linkers watching were more afraid of me than them.”

  “Heh-heh.” Chuckling dryly, Takumu moved even closer to Haruyuki. His smile twisted. An almost soundless voice traveled the extremely short distance to Haruyuki’s ears. “Haru. I got it wrong again. And all I wanted…was for Chii to be able to keep smiling for a little longer at least…or that’s what I thought, but…”

  “Wh-what are you talking about, Taku? You…you only used the kit once, right? As long as you don’t equip it again…Or if you just get rid of it in the shop, then,” Haruyuki said earnestly, but Takumu shook his head quickly back and forth.

  “You can’t get rid of it,” he replied like a groan. “Once you equip it, it disappears from your storage and fuses with your avatar. No, not just that…It’s almost…almost like it’s gotten into myself in the real world even…” Takumu broke off and abruptly stretched out his left hand to grab Haruyuki’s right shoulder tightly.

  “T-Taku?” Haruyuki called his friend’s name in a hoa
rse voice, but Takumu didn’t reply; he simply tightened his grip.

  Unable to completely support the weight of the larger Takumu, Haru fell back onto the bed. But the hand on his shoulder didn’t go away. He opened both eyes wide and tried to get up, but with the taller and more muscular Takumu pushing him back, it was impossible.

  Takumu leaned over directly above Haruyuki, as if he was about to crawl on top of him. “Haru, destroy me,” he said, sounding weaker and more helpless than ever before.

  “Huh?”

  “Please…wreck me. If you don’t, I’m…I already can’t properly remember what I wanted, even, what I wished for…”

  At some point, Takumu’s right hand had come to hold a thin black line. About a meter long—an XSB cable.

  Still holding Haruyuki’s right shoulder down with his left hand, Takumu first plugged it into his own blue Neurolinker. Next, he slid the cable between sturdy yet lithe fingers and grabbed the plug on the opposite end. He brought this toward the direct terminal on Haruyuki’s Neurolinker.

  With the slight sensation of pressure, the crimson wired connection warning blinked in Haruyuki’s field of view and then disappeared.

  Takumu’s trembling lips took in air to shout the acceleration command.

  Before the single drop spilling out of the corner of Haruyuki’s left eye could fall onto his cheek, the thunderous roar of acceleration echoed in his ears, and the world went dark.

  9

  Although it also depended on the attributes of the stage, the Brain Burst program generally made duelers appear a minimum of ten meters apart at the start of a duel, even if they might be glued together in the real world. Thus, when Haruyuki came down to stand on the virtual stage as Silver Crow, a duel avatar with silver armor, the figure of his good friend was not immediately before him.

  At his feet was scorched, cracked concrete. The walls of the condo were all gone, and only thick pillars with carbonized surfaces supported the floors above and below. The wall behind him was completely transparent, and he could look out on the streets of north Koenji, soot-stained as though ravaged by super-high-temperature flames.