Cradle of Stars

by Reki Kawahara

  Whoa, this really is amazing. He’s moving forward at maximum lean!

  Haruyuki suppressed the unconscious urge to clap at this high-level technique, something that would no doubt have been utterly impossible in the real world. Although it had slowed down somewhat, the bike was already right in front of him.

  Since the motorcycle was spinning at high speed on the horizontal, it would be a bit tricky to jump to the right or left to dodge it. So then, the only way to evade it was to jump straight up. After drawing it in plenty close, he shouted “Hup!” and jumped with everything he had. The lightweight Silver Crow could jump nearly three meters into the air, even without using his wings. That was easily high enough to get over Ash’s head—or at least, it should have been.

  “New special attack, part two! Jackknife Guillotine!!”

  The instant the new technique name rang out, the motorcycle’s spinning switched from horizontal to vertical, and the massive iron body bounced up into something like a handstand. The rear tire closed in before his eyes, covered in white smoke and spinning at top speed.

  Without the time to avoid or defend against the superbly timed surprise attack, Haruyuki at least pulled his stomach in and threw his body forward. He just barely managed to escape a direct hit, but the thick tire came into contact with his avatar’s stomach, generating a flood of sparks.

  “Yaah! Hot! Hot! Hot!” Crying out, he instinctively knew that if he went against the rotation, his back would be scraped away, too, so he gave himself up to the tire. It yanked him back almost like a catapult and then launched him with a pop to the front.

  Pressing a hand to his stinging stomach and flying along the horizontal, he checked his health gauge. It had dropped over 10 percent with that contact, so he had about 60 percent left.

  On the other hand, the American motorcycle kept falling forward from its jackknife position, unable to recover its balance.

  “No! Nooooooo!!” The rider let out a high-pitched scream as he was pulled into the bike’s momentum and crashed upside down. Haruyuki’s opponent’s health gauge was similarly down to 60 percent.

  Haruyuki got control of his stance with his wings as he landed, then hesitated a little as he decided whether to charge Ash Roller as he kicked and flailed while pinned under the bike, or go to help out on the other battlefield.

  Below his own health gauge were mini gauges for his team members. The one on top was Chocolat Puppeter. Below that, Mint Mitten. And farther down, Plum Flipper.

  They had been members of the Legion Petit Paquet until the day before. As of five PM Friday, July 12, 2047, Petit Paquet was disbanded. At the same time on the same day, its members joined the Legion Nega Nebulus. And now, twenty-four hours later, the evening of Saturday, July 13, Haruyuki had teamed up with the Chocolat gang and sallied forth to defend Suginami Area No. 3.

  On the attacking side were three from the Green Legion, Great Wall: his old friend Ash Roller, Ash’s student Bush Utan, and Olive Grab.

  After staring with deep emotion at the names of Utan and Olive lined up to the top right, Haruyuki hurriedly checked their health gauges. Despite the difference in numbers, in the struggle for the stronghold in the center of the stage, team Utan seemed to be coming out slightly ahead of team Chocolat.

  But there was nothing to be done about that. Chocolat and her friends had never held territory before, so this was their first territory fight. When he thought about how they hadn’t learned Territories techniques, like how to use the stronghold or the timing to retreat and advance, he figured they were actually fighting a good fight.

  He glanced over at Ash, who was finally about to crawl out from beneath the motorcycle. “Sorry! I’m off to the centerrrr!” Haruyuki called out, then spread his wings and took off.

  “Don’t! Run! Away! You bastard, Croooooow!”

  Haruyuki waved lightly at the rage that trailed after him and flew in a straight line toward the stronghold enveloped in showy light effects.

  Twenty minutes later.

  Looking at the health gauges of Ash Roller and his team, all happily plunging into the red zone, Haruyuki called out to the enemy troops, “Um! Ash!”

  “What, ya damned crow?!” he answered forcefully enough, but both front and rear tires of the American motorcycle were flat, and black smoke was rising up from the muffler. Utan and Olive had also sunk down to the ground near the bike.

  “I’ve got nothing to lose here, but you guys are all super-red, while we’re still yellow. On top of which, we’ve got the stronghold. So how about we say we won already?”

  “Bull craaaaap! We’ll make a super-comeback from a single dot in our gauges! Right here, this is the heart and soul of my mighty Rough Valley Rollers, awright? Comprenez?!”

  Omitting the question of that team name, Haruyuki scratched the back of his helmet. “Y-yeah. Got it.” He glanced at Chocolat and her friends, standing at the ready, backs straight. “Okay, we fight to the end—”

  “But like, if you’re gonna insist, then you know, whatevs,” Ash continued casually.

  “S-sorry?!”

  “M’kay, so we’ll call this a draw.”

  “S-sorry?!”

  “So like, what’ll we do? Only got five minutes left, you know…”

  “S-sorry…?”

  Any number of ripostes sat on the tip of his tongue—You abandon your heart and soul as easy as that? You can call it a draw all you want, but with the amount left in our gauges, the system’s going to call it a win for us—but it was true that they were basically out of time, so Haruyuki nodded. “Um, I wanted to talk a sec.”

  “M’kay, let’s talk in the fort there. U, Oli, we’re moving out.”

  “You got it, yo.”

  “Yup, boss.”

  Haruyuki started after the motorcycle as it wobbled away on its flat tires together with Ash’s team members, back on their feet again. But he turned around at a sharp jab in his back to see a truly troubled-looking Chocolat standing there.

  “Can we really trust that skull face? Isn’t he just pretending to want to talk, and he’s really going to attack us?”

  “N-nah, it’s okay. He’s not the kind of guy who can pull something like that off.”

  “Well, then I can accept that,” Chocolat said, and Mint and Plum nodded.

  Ash really does have his own code, huh? This thought in mind, Haruyuki started to walk.

  The seven sat down in a circle in one corner of the rounded stronghold, and Haruyuki bowed his head once more. “Sorry for being so selfish when this is the Territories. I know how important they are.”

  “No biggie. So what’d you wanna talk about?” Ash spread out both hands, and Haruyuki turned his gaze from him to stare at Bush Utan and Olive Grab sitting next to him. Naturally, there was nothing attached to the armor of their chests.

  “Um, talk, it’s more like…I just wanted to tell you something. Um. I know we’re in different Legions, but I’m really glad you both came back okay, Utan, Olive.”

  When Haruyuki said this, Ash shrugged, almost as if to say “Oh, is that all?” and Utan and Olive scratched their heads in embarrassment.

  “Look, okay? That is only a natural, total matter of course. GW ain’t the sorta stingy Legion that’d chase a guy out for getting his hands on something a little off. And U and Oli are dark-root types who’ll just go and lock themselves away forever.”

  “D-dark root?” Haruyuki asked. “What’s that?”

  “Dark like night. Root like a plant. So like, gloomy! This’ll be on the test, so put it in your brain parts!”

  “There is no test. And when you say ‘dark,’ it makes you think of something connected to the ISS kits. Don’t scare me like that,” Haruyuki grumbled.

  “Um.” Chocolat opened her mouth, somewhat hesitantly. “From what’s been said here, were those two also infected with that?”

  Utan glanced at Olive and nodded firmly, as if to shake off his fear. “That’s right, yo. Oli and I, we got our hands on ISS kits.”
/>
  “’Top of that”—Olive picked up the story, clenching his large hands—“me, I even betrayed Brother Ash, tried to hunt him…But my bro here, he forgave me. Even since the ISS kit main body was destroyed, he’s checking the matching list dozens of times every day, coming to see me. That’s why I decided, as long as I’m a Burst Linker, I’m gonna follow my bro here!”

  “Same here!” Utan thrust a fist into the air. “Team Rough Valley Rollers never dies!”

  Ash Roller groaned, slightly embarrassed. “Nah, listen, kids. It’s not as big a deal as that. Even mighty me here got infected by the kit, after all. Meh, you know. Stick the landing an’ everything’s okay.”

  “Hell yeah!”

  “Just like you, bro!”

  The three guffawed, and Haruyuki looked on, thinking, Well, I guess that’s true if it ends well.

  Mint Mitten had remained silent so far, but now she said in a quiet voice, “So, um, Utan? Olive? Can I ask you?”

  “O-of course, yo!”

  “Aren’t you…angry? At the ones who made the ISS kits…and the person who gave them to you?”

  “……!”

  Before Utan or Olive could say anything, Haruyuki gasped sharply. It hadn’t only been Utan and Olive who’d betrayed their friends after being parasitized by the ISS kit. Mint and Plum had been through the same experience. And yet, he’d brought up the topic of the kits without giving them the slightest consideration. He was supposed to be the leader of this four-person team, and he couldn’t even give that much thought to them.

  Turning, Haruyuki started to apologize, but Chocolat jabbed his shoulder lightly. She brought her small face mask close and whispered, “It’s all right, Crow. Min-Min and Pliko have gotten over that day.”

  “But then, why…?”

  “Well—” Chocolat’s whisper was interrupted by Bush Utan’s decisive response.

  “It’s our fault for losing out to the temptation of the kit. O’ course, I deffo want those Acceleration Research Society guys to fall off a cliff right now.”

  “But we don’t hate the person who gave us the kits,” Olive Grab followed up, turning his elliptical eyes up toward the dark sky of the Century End stage. “But…I’m a bit worried, you know? I hope she could make it back okay like we did.”

  Hearing this, Plum Flipper nodded slowly. “I also hope sooo. I wonder where she is now…”

  Haruyuki looked up at the night sky with everyone else. In his heart, he called to the Burst Linker who had sought homogeneity in the Accelerated World through the ISS kits and disappeared after losing a final, decisive battle against Nega Nebulus. Where are you now, and what are you doing…Magenta Scissor?

  The seven continued to sit silently, each with their own thoughts, until the remaining time in the duel hit zero.

  After returning to the real world from the Territories stage, Haruyuki let out a long sigh on his bed. He’d come home from school right after taking care of Hoo, so he’d taken part in the Territories from his house. When he slowly opened his eyes, he was looking at the ceiling, dyed the color of dusk. The weather had been good all day, and the weather forecast said the clear skies would continue the next day as well.

  He’d come home early because he wanted to take care of Saturday’s homework that evening, but the dry breeze blowing in through the slight opening in the window felt good, and he couldn’t quite find the right time to sit himself up. Okay, I’ll get up when I count to ten—no, twenty. Actually, let’s make it thirty. This in his mind, he lounged there, not knowing when to just give up already.

  And then an icon flashed in the center of his field of view, announcing he had new mail.

  The sender was Chiyuri. He hurriedly raised his right hand and opened it.

  I DON’T HAVE A LOT OF TIME BEFORE WE’RE ON THE MOVE, SO SORRY FOR THE MAIL. NICE WORK IN THE TERRITORIES! I LOST IN THE SEMIFINALS, BUT I GOT A PERSONAL BEST, SO YOU KNOW, I’M HAPPY WITH IT, I GUESS. I’M EXCITED ABOUT TOMORROW! DON’T OVERSLEEP!

  He read the message twice before hitting the reply button. It looked like she wouldn’t be heading on to the finals, but she’d gotten that personal best in the Tokyo Metropolitan meet, so making it to the semifinals was pretty impressive. He made a note in his mind to check out the meet videos on the Junior High Physical Culture Association website as he tapped at his holo keyboard.

  NICE WORK TO YOU, TOO, CHIYU, ON THE MEET. CONGRATS ON A PERSONAL BEST! CHOCOLAT AND THE OTHERS REALLY WORKED HARD IN THE TERRITORIES, SO THANKS TO THAT, WE COULD DEFEND ALL AREAS. I’LL TELL YOU THE DETAILS TOMORROW. MAKE SURE YOU GO TO BED EARLY!

  Once he had hit the send button and closed his mailer, Haruyuki psyched himself up. Wohkay! We get up on the count of three. One, two—

  This time, a voice call came in. From Takumu, also at a sports tournament. He relaxed back into the bed and touched the answer button.

  “Hey, Taku.”

  “Haru! So you’re done with the Territories. How’d it go?”

  “First, you gotta tell me how you did,” Haruyuki replied, a wry smile unconsciously coming across his lips. “How’s the tournament?”

  “Oh yeah. We somehow made it into the top eight for both the group matches and the individual matches.”

  Takumu was at the Tokyo Metropolitan Block No. 3 junior high summer kendo tournament, a qualifier for the metropolitan meet, and Haruyuki was pretty sure that being in the top eight meant that they got the right to move on.

  “Ooh! So next is the metropolitan meet, huh? Congrats!”

  “Thanks. It’ll probably be pretty tough, though.”

  “Don’t say that. Go all the way to the nationals,” Haruyuki urged him. “Chiyu said she got to the semifinals.”

  “Yeah, she mailed me, too. We gotta celebrate her personal best tomorrow.”

  “We gotta celebrate you, too. And we did a total defense in the Territories. And…GW’s Bush Utan and Olive Grab came to the area the Chocolat gang and I were protecting. They both seemed pretty good.”

  “They did?” Takumu murmured, sounding relieved. “That’s great. They were able to go back to the Legion, huh?”

  “Yeah, I guess Ash’s working hard to take care of them. The three formed this team called the Rough Valley Rollers.”

  “Ha-ha-ha-ha!” Takumu laughed happily. “I wish I could’ve fought them, too!”

  “And…” After a moment’s hesitation, Haruyuki announced, “After the fight was over, we all talked. And like, Utan and Olive, and Mint and Plum are concerned about her.”

  “Her? …You mean, Magenta Scissor?”

  “Yeah. Magenta was trying to spread the ISS kits and all…Anyway, Mint, Plum, and Ash were all forcibly parasitized with those scissors, so I guess they’d have the right to hate her. But—and this goes for me, too—they just can’t seem to put her in the same group as those jerks from the Acceleration Research Society, you know?”

  “…To start with, I don’t have the right to say anything about Magenta,” Takumu said quietly. “I’m the one who went to Setagaya and asked her to give me a kit…”

  “Hey, Taku? Are you…Are you worried about Magenta, too?” Haruyuki wondered reflexively.

  “Yeah…It’s little different from worry. And she probably doesn’t want our worry or whatever…But it’s like, I don’t want her to vanish from the Accelerated World. She’s so strong. I want her to not rely on an ISS kit or whatever and fight under her own power…I guess it’s like that? And that’s a road I have to go down myself, too…”

  “I started to fall into the dark side, too, you know. Or like, it was pretty critical for me.”

  “That’s a weird thing to brag about,” Takumu noted, and they both laughed helplessly.

  “Hey, Taku, this is kinda sudden,” Haruyuki said slowly, looking up at the ceiling where the gold of the evening sun was gradually deepening. “But before the GW meeting tomorrow, how about you and me go up to level six, too?”

  “Th-that really is sudden. Does this suggestion have anythi
ng to do with Magenta?”

  “Maybe, maybe not…So like, there’s no one at level ten in the Accelerated World right now, so our level five is basically right in the middle, yeah? The Mid Level.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “So, like, somewhere in my head, I’m kinda freaked about becoming level six. You still can’t really call a level six a high rank, but it’s on the high side, you know? Like, when you go up the next level, you can’t make any more excuses…And I feel like people at seven or eight challenge level sixes pretty much without a second thought,” Haruyuki added.

  “Yeah, that’s true. Now that you mention it, I’ve been feeling kind of daunted by it,” Takumu mused. “Actually, even though I have plenty of points for a safe margin, I’ve basically been trying not to think about leveling up.”

  “If we want to earn points efficiently, then it might be smarter to stop at level five where it’s harder for high rankers to challenge us. But…when I think about Magenta Scissor fighting all that time at level six, I get this feeling like I can’t sit here freaked out by it forever.”

  “And you have that promise with me, too.”

  “Yeah, that’s right.”

  Here, the two friends fell briefly silent.

  Haruyuki and Takumu had promised that when they reached level seven, they would go up against each other full throttle in earnest. To realize this battle that was partly scary and partly exciting, they couldn’t allow themselves to be spoiled at the mid levels forever.

  “Okay! So let’s level up now, Haru.”

  “What? Now?!”

  “No time like the present, right? And there’s not even twelve hours left until the meeting tomorrow. So then, why not now?”

  “…I—I guess,” Haruyuki agreed. “We’ll use up a point, but we can replace it in the next tag team fight or something.” He stretched out on his bed. In order to do the level-up operation, he had to enter the Blue World of the initial acceleration and open the Installer. “Okay…We dive on the count of three.”