Cradle of Stars

by Reki Kawahara

  This was probably the first time he’d seen Akira’s naked face, and he stared unconsciously until Fuko clapped her hands together.

  “Okay, everyone, get ready!”

  Hurriedly, he stretched out in the water. Turning toward Akira on the deck, Kuroyukihime thanked her on their behalf. “Akira, thank you so much for getting so many precious tickets for us today.”

  “Thank you very muuuuch!” the other six immediately chorused.

  Akira nodded coolly. “You’re welcome.”

  Yes: The reason common junior and senior high schoolers like Haruyuki and his friends were able to have their fill of resort life at the lofty pool of the luxury hotel was because Akira had gotten a number of tickets for them. And she had been able to do that because her mother had apparently been the chef and pâtissier at the restaurant of an affiliated hotel.

  “Okay, everyone, have fun,” Akira announced, sounding exactly the way she always did, as she put on a white swim cap. “I’m going to swim.”

  She had been later than the others because she had done her warm-up exercises in the locker room, and now she artlessly bent over and dived into the lane to the far right with a form that seemed incredible to an amateur’s eyes. She slid into the water and didn’t pop up again until she’d gone nearly ten meters and then started to swim in a crawl. It looked entirely effortless, yet she was extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, she had swum twenty-five meters, and she flipped around to return. With her white swimsuit, she looked almost like a beluga whale.

  “W-wow…That’s Aquamatic for you,” Haruyuki muttered.

  Takumu once again caught the light on his air glasses. “I can’t just let her beat me like this. I’m going to swim a bit, too.” He moved smoothly into the neighboring lane and kicked at the wall at the same time as the returning Akira turned. In contrast with Akira, his form was powerful, and he swam hard.

  Haruyuki didn’t so much as go near the school pool, but because he had been forced to take swimming lessons as a kid, of all the sports in the world, swimming was the only one he didn’t hate. But of course, he couldn’t begin to compare with the speed Akira and Takumu produced, so he simply treaded water and wondered what to do next.

  Still on Haruyuki’s inner tube, Kuroyukihime pinched his shoulder. “Haruyuki, how are you at swimming?”

  “Oh, well, I’m not awful.”

  “Oh-ho! That’s good. So then how about we begin our training?”

  “Huh? T-training? What training?”

  Kuroyukihime grinned. “Oh my, knowing you, I’m sure you surmised the reason we came to this pool long ago.”

  “Reason? …It wasn’t because we got tickets?”

  “No, if Akira hadn’t been able to arrange for the tickets, I was thinking we could go to the Daikanyama sports center. I wanted you to get a little accustomed to it before the meeting.”

  “Accustomed? To what?”

  He whirled around. Akira and Takumu were still swimming, and Chiyuri, Utai, and Fuko were continuing to warm up. Rin, looking puzzled, was next to Haruyuki.

  “…To the. Water?” There was nothing but water around, so he hazarded that response, and Kuroyukihime smiled again.

  “So close.” She spun around with the inner tube and pulled her face in close to Haruyuki and Rin. “The sensation of floating in the water…Or to be more specific, to the sensation of artificial gravity.”

  “……!!”

  He took a sharp breath and exchanged a glance with Rin before asking in a similarly small voice, “S-so then…does that mean it’s finally going to be implemented today? The…Space stage?”

  “Fuko and I have carefully considered that the possibility definitely exists.”

  “B-but why today? The rumors were all pointing to July fifth…But no matter how many days pass, it totally never shows. Some people are saying it might never be implemented, at this rate.”

  Kuroyukihime nodded firmly. Drops of water fell from her wet bangs onto the pale skin of her chest and then rolled down. “I also thought that if it was going to be implemented, it would have been on the fifth. Because that was exactly a month after Hermes’ Cord appeared in the Accelerated World. But it’s not as though we had any firm basis for thinking that. Brain Burst updates pretty much on its own schedule…Some things will be one month after the official event, but they’ll also really stretch and push all kinds of commemorative days.”

  “Commemorative days…You mean like Culture Day or Respect for the Aged Day?”

  “Oh…I’ve. Heard that. Too. The Ocean stage was implemented. On Marine Day,” Rin said.

  “That’s exactly right.” Kuroyukihime raised a single finger. “Incidentally, everyone’s favorite, the Sewer stage, was also implemented on September tenth, Sewer Day.”

  “Is there actually such a day…? Huh? But wait.” Furrowing his brow, he searched his hazy memory. “I’m pretty sure that exists—Space Day, right? And that’s in September, too.”

  “Oh, well done! Space Day is September twelfth, the day that the space shuttle carrying the first Japanese person was launched into space.”

  “Wow. I get it…No wait, not that.” He shook his head, the water around him splashing. “If there’s a Space Day, then wouldn’t the Space stage be implemented on that day? Which means that’s still two months off?”

  “But that would mean too much time would pass from the Hermes’ Cord race,” Kuroyukihime noted. “After the formal event for the Odaiba theme park, Tokyo Grand Castle, the Ancient Castle stage patterned on the same motif was implemented thirty days later. I highly doubt they would drag it out three months. This is complete supposition on my part, but I believe the developer intended to implement the Space stage on July fifth, thirty days after the race, but there turned out to be a commemorative day unrelated to space a little later, so they postponed it. Perhaps.”

  “This developer’s kinda doing things at random, huh?” Haruyuki said.

  “That didn’t just start now. To begin with, the very idea of giving a bunch of mere seven-year-olds something like the Brain Burst program and then going completely hands-off is entirely too random.” Kuroyukihime denounced both game master and Originators at the same time, and Haruyuki unconsciously sank down into the water, but Rin displayed a surprising boldness and giggled. But she quickly got a strange look on her face and gave voice to another question.

  “Um. So then. Today…July fourteenth is a commemorative. Day not related to space? So. What day. Is today?”

  It was Fuko who replied, having come along to sit on the edge of the pool behind them at some point, her legs in the water up to the knees. In the water a little ways off, Utai was floating with her inner tube, having gotten in or been tossed in by Fuko. Chiyuri seemed to be swimming briskly together with Takumu and Akira in the opposite lane.

  “All right, a multiple-choice quiz for Rin and Corvus.” Grinning, she raised three fingers. “One: Dandelion Day. Two: Morning Glory Day. Three: Sunflower Day.”

  ““…””

  After exchanging another look with Rin, Haruyuki asked timidly, “Um, none of them seem to have any connection with space, though?”

  “I wonder? Maybe think very caaaarefully?”

  “Um…”

  Dandelions…They have that fluff that flies away. And I feel like the shape of the fluff doesn’t not look like a space shuttle reentry capsule.

  “D-Dandelion Day!”

  “Ennnh! Wrong! As punishment, thirty seconds underwater.”

  Still smiling, Fuko stretched out her right leg and moved it up and down in Haruyuki’s direction, so with a “’Kaaay…” he launched the timer app on his Neurolinker and took a deep breath before submerging his head below the water.

  Of course, this was the pool at a luxury hotel, so the water was quite clear. He took his eyes off his own shadow wobbling on the floor of the pool and looked ahead. Instantly, Rin’s chest, in the clover-patterned swimsuit, appeared at close range, and overwhelmed, he turned his body to
the left.

  This time, the lower half of Kuroyukihime poking through the inner tube on the water surface assaulted his retinas. Bubbles of air escaping his lungs, he was instantly in pain, but he felt like if he gave up then and there, they’d figure something was up, so he earnestly held on. He changed the orientation of his body once more, and the instant the digital numbers of the timer hit thirty, he pushed up above the water surface.

  As he panted and gasped, Fuko grinned and said, “Nice work, Corvus. How was the view underwater?”

  She knows!! Haruyuki froze, Rin’s face reddened as she covered her chest with both arms, and Kuroyukihime let out a cry.

  “Wh-what view?!” she demanded. “What did you see?!”

  “Uh, um, oh…Kuroyukihime. That swimsuit looks really good on you…”

  “This is pretty much the worst time for you to be saying that!”

  Still sitting on the inner tube, Kuroyukihime brought the heel of her left foot down and made a direct hit with the crown of Haruyuki’s head. Once again, he burbled under the water.

  “Okay, Corvus is out, then. So what’s your answer, Rin?”

  “Um. Um. I’m pretty sure. There was that morning glory. In space thing, so…Morning Glory Day…”

  “Enh! Enh! Enh! Wrong. Thirty seconds underwater.”

  “Okay…”

  Splsh! Rin vanished, leaving behind wavelets. Perhaps because of the lighting, the water surface was dyed the blue of the sky, and he couldn’t tell what was happening in the water at all.

  Having recovered from the mental and physical shock, Haruyuki couldn’t wait for Rin to come bobbing back up and looked toward Fuko on the poolside. “Um. Master? So that automatically means the answer is Sunflower Day, then…”

  “Do you still not see the connection between sunflowers and space?”

  “Um. I guess sunflowers follow the sun? …Whoa!”

  Rin popped up suddenly, ten centimeters before his eyes, so he threw himself back unconsciously.

  “Arita, no fair. Answering…first!”

  “Oh! S-sorry.”

  “But I. Under. Stand.” Whirling around, Rin turned to Fuko and said, “Sunflowers. Himawari. They rotate. With the sun. Like the. Himawari satellite, right?”

  “Correct, Rin.” Fuko smiled.

  Kuroyukihime, to the rear, cleared her throat loudly. “You there, don’t stay so close. It’s just as Kusakabe said, on this day seventy years ago, the first Japanese weather satellite was launched, the Himawari Number One. To commemorate that, July fourteenth is seen as Sunflower Day.”

  “Ohhhh…I get it. That is related to space, then.” Haruyuki bobbed his head up and down admiringly before quickly realizing something and craning his neck. “Huh? Maybe this sounds rude, but like, if they were going to match it up with some minor holiday, then they should have implemented the Space stage last week on July seventh, right? I think the Tanabata Festival’s way more of a major space-related holiday.”

  “True, but because of the history of Tanabata, the exact date is a bit hazy,” Kuroyukihime noted. “When you look at the whole of Japan, there are a fair number of places that go by the lunar calendar—that is, they have the Tanabata Festival in August.”

  “Oh! Now that you mention it, in Higashine in Yamagata where my grandparents live, Tanabata is at the beginning of August.”

  “Oh-ho, is that so? Mmm. Well then, to be in time for that— No, no, we were talking about the Space stage.” Her thoughts nearly derailed, Kuroyukihime cleared her throat once more before continuing. “At any rate, all of this is to say that Fuko and I were thinking that today, which could be said to be space-related, might be the day when the Space stage is implemented. We don’t know because we’re cut off from the global net, but it may have already been, and as we speak, no-holds-barred fights are taking place in a gravity-free space. In which case, we, too, must ensure that we are able to respond, just in case.”

  “Just in case…So then”—Haruyuki glanced around and checked that there were no poolgoers within hearing range—“do you mean the meeting with GW could be our first Space stage experience?”

  “There’s that, too.”

  “B-but we’re only talking today, yeah? So a stage with new rules we’re not used to still won’t be a problem, right?”

  UI> THAT’S WHY IT’S “JUST IN CASE.” Bobbing on the surface of the water, Utai had been listening to them with a smile, and now she lightly tapped at the surface of the inner tube with her fingers. UI> I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THE PEOPLE OF GREAT WALL WOULD BREAK THEIR PROMISE AND CHALLENGE US. BUT WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN; WE DO NOT KNOW *IF* SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN…THAT IS THE ACCELERATED WORLD.

  “Right…I guess so. Especially at such an important talk like this one, this is the sort of thing they’d target.” Haruyuki nodded, reminded of how Takumu had also said it depended on the situation the previous day.

  Utai nodded firmly as well. He hadn’t gone so far as to say who “they” were, but there was no doubt that the name Acceleration Research Society had popped up in all their heads.

  “Right. I know Rin is here, so maybe we shouldn’t say this,” Fuko said. “But GW is a large family, so we can’t exclude the possibility of an information leak.”

  “Only the top people know about the meeting,” Rin replied in a quiet voice, still submerged up to her chin in the water. “But they issued a notice that global connections are prohibited between two fifty and three ten in Shibuya Two. So the Legion members are probably wondering what’s going on…I think.”

  “We requested they send out that notice.” A faint, wry smile rose up on Fuko’s face. “If we hadn’t, then we might be disturbed by a connection to the meeting stage, even if it’s not deliberate. That said, however, having them issue a notice to every member of GW saying Nega Nebulus is coming so don’t challenge them seemed like it would only court extra risk.”

  “…It’s true that. There are a few. People who would want to go one-to-one with the Black King. Even if they got in trouble for disobeying an. Order. I think,” Rin said apologetically.

  Kuroyukihime grinned. “You tell that lot they can come to Suginami in the Territories, and I will be sure to take them on one-on-one. At any rate, I hope you’ve understood what Fuko and I are concerned about, Haruyuki?”

  “Y-yes.” Haruyuki hurriedly nodded. “An unexpected challenger—and in the newly implemented Space stage on top of that, so we can’t fight properly…That kind of thing, right?”

  “Yes. A gravity-free environment, which the Space stage is sure to be, requires fairly specialized movements and sense of direction…It actually would have been better if we could have trained in the Ocean-stage sea, but it would just be too much to stay accelerated until we drew such a rare stage. So! The real world it is!” Kuroyukihime slapped at the water. “This explanation’s run a little long, but we still have an hour and a half until the meeting at three. You may swim, you may dive, you may sip tropical juice by the poolside when you get tired. Everyone, play with all your might. That is today’s training!”

  Haruyuki and his friends all thrust their right hands into the air and shouted, “Okay!”

  Akira and the others had apparently tired of swimming, and so he, Rin, and Utai took their place in the inside lane and swam back and forth several times before starting a game of underwater hide-and-seek. With this and drinking colorful juice on deck chairs, the time flew by.

  When it was 2:50 PM, Kuroyukihime gathered them all in one corner of the pool to form a circle in the water.

  “Now, how do you feel, friends?” the Legion Master asked. “Have your bodies become accustomed to the floating sensation?”

  Chiyuri tilted her head thoughtfully. “Like, maybe it has, maybe it hasn’t? Or like, Kuroyukihime, are we really going to be able to deal with the Space stage like this?”

  “No idea. This will be my first time, as well.”

  At this response, everyone there rolled their eyes, but Kuroyukihime continued brightly.


  “Of those present, the only ones who have tasted zero gravity in the Accelerated World are Fuko and Haruyuki, who made it through to the very end of the Hermes’ Cord race. Considering this experience, perhaps you could say a few words?”

  “Um.” Haruyuki exchanged a look with Fuko before answering timidly, “I wasn’t able to go all the way to the finish line. But due to the feeling of up and down and left and right, being hazy is maybe like diving in the water…”

  “I only flew straight ahead to the finish line,” Fuko said, cocking her head to one side. “But I think it’s totally different depending on whether you’re mentally prepared or not. We’ve played around a full two hours here in the pool, so there’ll be no panicking if the Space stage really does come. As long as we have that mental awareness, I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

  “Mmm. That’s exactly it. Now, everyone, we’ll dive one last time into the water. Join hands with the person beside you.”

  He clasped the hand of Kuroyukihime on his left and Akira on his right. On Kuroyukihime’s signal, he took a deep breath to fill his lungs and dived.

  The faces of his comrades were distorted through the transparent aqua blue. To confront the Acceleration Research Society and Oscillatory Universe, Kuroyukihime had decided on a Legion expansion policy. Already, Chocolat Puppeter and her two comrades had joined the day before yesterday, and the total muster of Nega Nebulus was now ten—eleven if you counted the Archangel Metatron. Going forward, he would have fewer chances to work with the people there that day. He couldn’t feel that this was a bad thing, but he still wanted to burn that moment firmly into his memory.

  As if picking up on his thoughts, Akira and Kuroyukihime both squeezed his hand. One at a time, they squeezed one another’s hands until the gesture made it all the way around the circle and back to him again. Then they rose up to the surface.