The Black Dual Swordsman

by Reki Kawahara

  “Oh! That’s really helpful. Thank you. Please, have a seat.” He urged her toward the white wooden chair, and Kuroyukihime obediently sat down. He took the chair opposite and was about to pour the tea when a pale hand checked him.

  “……?”

  “Is the tea the environment data default flavor?”

  “Y-yes, it is.”

  “Then perhaps you wouldn’t mind trying something I put together recently? I’m a little bit proud of it.”

  “Of course. That would be great!” He offered her the white porcelain teapot, and Kuroyukihime tapped the lid with her fingertip, pulled up the control window, and loaded a new flavor. Then she held the pot up high and poured a narrow stream into the two cups without spilling a drop.

  “Here we are.” Kuroyukihime placed a cup in front of him, and he picked it up and thanked her before taking a sip. A luxurious flavor like a brandy cake with fruit filled his mouth, but when he swallowed, it disappeared, nothing more than a fleeting moment. All that lingered in the aftertaste was the faint aroma of refreshing mint.

  “Whoa,” Haruyuki said. “This is delicious. It’s like a cake or something.”

  Kuroyukihime grinned. “The cakes Petit Paquet made for us were so good, well, I was a little inspired. But I can only really fiddle with the parameters of the virtual tea.”

  “That’s amazing. I’m sure Chocolat and the others would be super-happy to try your tea.”

  “Well then, should the opportunity present itself, I’ll serve it to them, too.”

  Although Haruyuki savored the tea carefully, he soon drained his cup. When he did, a small black butterfly fluttered up from the bottom and cut in front of him.

  “Ah…Ahh!” Momentarily stunned, he tried to catch it, but his short pig avatar arms swung through the air, and the butterfly flew off away from the terrace. “Aww. I never dreamed you’d incorporate butterfly points into the tea.”

  “Hee-hee. Never let your guard down. How about a refill?”

  “With pleasure!”

  “The butterfly comes out or doesn’t at random, though,” she said with a straight face as she poured the tea with tremendous skill once more.

  Ruby-red liquid rippling in his cup, Haruyuki looked up again at the blue sky into which the black butterfly had flown off. “Um, Kuroyukihime?”

  “Mm. What is it?”

  “Um. I think I’m going to do it. Run for student council, I mean…”

  Kuroyukihime burst into a wide smile and then nodded once, twice, her black eyes trained on Haruyuki. “You are? I’m glad to hear it. Just let me know if there’s anything I can do. Of course, I can’t do anything fraudulent, but I won’t begrudge you any honest help.”

  “Okay, I appreciate that! So I actually wanted to ask you…”

  She encouraged him with a gesture. “Go ahead.”

  “Um.” Haruyuki wriggled his pig nose as he began awkwardly. “Okay, right. I know this is kinda curious when I said I was gonna run. But I don’t have any kind of vision or anything, like I want to change Umesato like this or make whatever better. Like, at the school festival, you said you increased the number of social cameras in the school so there were no more blind spots. That was superhard, wasn’t it?”

  “Mm. Well, it took a bit of work.” With a faint wry smile, Kuroyukihime wet her lips with tea before continuing. “I put in reports all over the place with the school administration, the corporate owner, the ward, the city, but it definitely wasn’t painful. It was something I wanted to make happen, whatever I had to do.”

  “I still haven’t found that something that I want to make happen, that thing I just have to do. I don’t know if I should really run when I’m still so unsure like that.”

  “It’s fine,” she responded immediately, standing up. High heels clacking against the stone floor, she walked to the edge of the terrace and looked at the mountains off in the distance. The gentle sunlight caught her spangle butterfly wings and made the rose-red pattern glitter.

  “Listen, Haruyuki. We’re still young. We’re only just starting to walk on our own two feet, see with our own eyes, think with our own brains. We do what we want to do; we do what we can do; we do what should move us forward…The roads stretch out in all directions. If you curl up in one place and plug your eyes and ears, you can’t go anywhere; if you start to walk, the road will most certainly open up before you. It’s all right. I’m sure you’ll find it as I did—whatever objective it is that you want to realize as a member of the student council.”

  Haruyuki also jumped down from his chair and moved to her side. But his avatar was too short, and his face didn’t come up above the railing. Crap, I should’ve at least tinkered with this bit.

  And then Kuroyukihime crouched down and picked up his pig avatar.

  “Ah, gah!” He panicked, but she pulled him close to her chest regardless.

  As she brought his round head up against her cheek, Kuroyukihime murmured heavily, “I’m graduating from Umesato in eight months.”

  “……!!”

  The instant he heard this, his pig avatar stiffened, reflecting his mental agitation.

  Kuroyukihime gently stroked his back with one hand. “My family has been told that I want to go to high school in Suginami. But this is not something I alone can decide. It’s possible they’ll use my graduation as an opportunity to send me even farther away.”

  “Do you mean…somewhere…outside Tokyo?” He somehow managed to ask the question, albeit in a shaky voice, but the answer shocked him even further.

  “Or outside of Japan, perhaps.”

  “Nngh! I-if that happens, then…!”

  “Mm. If I’m not connected with the social camera network, I won’t be able to accelerate. Which would be the same as no longer being a Burst Linker.” Kuroyukihime’s voice was utterly calm. Most likely, this was not something that had only come up the day before. As she caressed Haruyuki’s avatar, she continued.

  “Of course, nothing’s set in stone yet. But if, hypothetically, I was forced to study abroad, the deadline for applications is October. So that is when I will find out the conclusion to all this. I’m exerting maximal effort to ensure my wishes are respected but…I’m sorry, I can’t make any promises.” Her voice had been calm, but now, at the last second alone, it trembled slightly.

  Haruyuki unconsciously clung to her slender avatar as hundreds of chaotic thoughts raced through his mind.

  No. I don’t want that. I haven’t even started to work on going to the same high school as Kuroyukihime. I used the idea that it would be impossible as an excuse, averted my eyes since it was still so far in the future. But now I’m finally ready to try moving forward. And yet…

  “Kuroyukihime… If…? What if…?” Haruyuki managed to squeeze out, before desperately swallowing his words. He couldn’t say the rest. If she swore allegiance to her sister—to the White King—and helped her achieve her objective, then she could get her to persuade their parents not to send her abroad. But he couldn’t say that. He closed his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth.

  “It’s all right.” He heard a gentle voice beside him. “Don’t worry.”

  “Huh?” Opening his eyes again, he saw Kuroyukihime’s smile.

  “Whatever happens, the bond between us isn’t changing. Even if I end up leaving Japan, we can meet anytime we want in a full dive like this. I am a Burst Linker, I am your parent, and you are my child, but that is not the only bond connecting us. Even if we are separated by physical distance, or we both are no longer Burst Linkers…”

  She paused briefly before starting to speak again, choosing her words very carefully. “I promise you. I will be by your side. Forever and into the future.”

  Instantly, a powerful electric jolt pierced Haruyuki’s body. This wasn’t the first time he’d heard these words. Kuroyukihime had announced the same thing, word for word, after the battle with Dusk Taker three months earlier.

  “Kuroyuki…hime…” His hoarse voice trembling, Haruyuki
pressed his avatar face tightly against Kuroyukihime’s chest.

  What if she couldn’t escape going abroad to study, and her Brain Burst effectively ended next March? What was there that Haruyuki could do before then?

  It was obvious. He could see her to the end of the Accelerated World. The system message to those who reached level nine had informed them that Burst Linkers who got to level ten would meet the developer and learn the real meaning and ultimate objective of Brain Burst. He would find the truth of this message with her.

  But to reach level ten, Kuroyukihime had to take the heads of four other kings. That was a path of carnage, drenched in blood. Even if, hypothetically, she did defeat the White King at the end of the decisive battle against Oscillatory Universe set to open in three days, she would still be a long way from clearing that condition.

  And…

  …recently, Haruyuki had started to feel something that was hard to explain even to himself. If this was a game, then trying to beat it was only natural. He’d said this to Kuroyukihime before, and it was no lie. But through his interactions with the Six Armors of the Great Wall and the Dualis of the Leonids, he had grown reluctant about the idea of a bloody massacre with them over a simple duel.

  Kuroyukihime couldn’t get to level ten by taking the head of the Green or Blue King. But once she set out on that path to rule, the modest fellowship he felt between himself and Koto and Yuki Takanouchi a mere five hours earlier would be shattered without question. And anger and hatred, fist and sword would take its place.

  That was the future of the game Brain Burst. The developer had set it up like that. If they had their sights set on clearing the game, then that was a path they would have to go down at some point.

  But.

  But…

  As he took in the hazy warmth and softness transmitted to him from Kuroyukihime’s avatar, Haruyuki had the sensation of his self being ripped in two.

  It was at that moment. The thought he’d had before he sent Kuroyukihime that e-mail became a tiny spark and flamed back to life.

  There might be another path. Unlike the level ten stated in the system message, there was no evidence for it, so this was nothing more than a simple hypothesis. But it was also the path that the members of the first Nega Nebulus had tried to walk down three years earlier for the sake of their beloved Legion Master.

  “Kuroyukihime,” Haruyuki said, the slightest bit of force in his voice. “I…I’m going to fight. For my own sake. And for yours, I’m going to do everything I can. So… So…”

  The rest wouldn’t take shape in words. But Kuroyukihime tightened her arms around his avatar.

  “Mm. I’ll fight, too. I’ll expend every effort so I am able to keep walking together with you forever.”

  8

  “It’s been quite some time since you and I got to talk just the two of us, hmm, Corvus?” Fuko Kurasaki said as she came into the living room, smiling gently. “And that you would invite me over to your house alone. I’m looking forward to hearing this story of yours.”

  “Uh. Um. P-please have a seat there. I’ll bring something to drink.” Haruyuki awkwardly indicated the sofa before scurrying into the kitchen. He poured chilled green tea into two tea bowls, set them on a tray, and carried them out.

  He placed the tea before Fuko, who was sitting on the window side of the love seat, and then set himself down across from her on the chair and took a deep breath.

  Three months had passed since he met Fuko, but he always got a little nervous when it was just the two of them. Perhaps it was the memory of her pushing him off the top of the old Tokyo Tower right after their first meeting, but ever since then, he couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by her presence.

  It wasn’t just external factors like her beauty, on par with that of Kuroyukihime, or her proportions and their secret destructive power. It wasn’t her abilities as a Burst Linker, either, the source of many legends in the Accelerated World. It was the way she could contain all this and more.

  In fact, as the Submaster, Fuko was the central pillar supporting the current Nega Nebulus. He didn’t need to go so far as to remember what a huge role she’d played in the final stages of the battle with Great Wall the other day; there was no doubt that everyone in the Legion felt like as long as they had “Strong Arm” Raker with them, they’d be all right. Given how they all relied on her, Haruyuki always ended up being stiffly respectful when they were alone together, but today he had to ask this very Fuko for an outrageous favor.

  “This tea is quite good.”

  Fuko’s words brought Haruyuki back to himself with a gasp. “Thank you. My mother hates bottled tea, so we always make chilled tea in the summer.”

  “Are you the one who does that, Corvus?”

  “Oh, well, basically,” he said. “Although, all I do is put tea leaves in the bag and then fill a glass container with water.”

  “But it takes time, doesn’t it? And that time gives it a sweetness. It’s very good,” Fuko said as she drained her cup. Haruyuki started to stand up to pour her another, but she raised a hand to stop him. “Thanks, but that can wait. First, please tell me what you wanted to talk about.”

  “Right.” Haruyuki resettled himself on the sofa.

  Thursday, July 18th. With the closing ceremony for the first term and the decisive battle with White closing in two days out, Haruyuki had gotten in touch with Fuko and asked her to come over after school. She had readily agreed, and he’d gone to meet her at the bus stop on Kannana to show her to his house, but he still couldn’t really put together the words to express the throbbing that had started in the depths of his heart the previous day.

  “Um. That’s…” He sat up straight and clasped his hands above his knees, then acknowledged to himself that there was no other way than to dive right in. He bowed his head deeply. “Master, I have a favor to ask!”

  “And what would that be?”

  He felt sure that even his master would be surprised or angry as he lifted his face and shouted, “Please loan me Gale Thruster just one more time!”

  “Sure.” Fuko answered immediately, a smile on her face, neither angry nor surprised, and Haruyuki was the one left stunned.

  “…Huh? Um. A-are you sure?”

  “Of course. I just want you to tell me why.”

  “Of course! …But you might get angry.” Haruyuki took a gulp of chilled tea to calm himself and then looked straight into Fuko’s eyes, clear and deep like the stratosphere. “I actually want to go to the Castle again.”

  This time, her eyes did grow round in surprise.

  It took around ten minutes to explain his motivations in detail.

  There was the fact that Kuroyukihime might go far away after graduating from Umesato. And that, if possible, he’d like to reach the ending of Brain Burst before then. And to that end, he wanted to investigate in detail The Fluctuating Light, thought to be one condition to clearing the game.

  “I see. So that’s what’s going on…” Leaning back on the sofa, Fuko turned her gaze to the window.

  The Arita living room faced south, so the Castle, which was due east, wasn’t visible from there. But Fuko narrowed her eyes as though she could see a vision of the enormous, impenetrable structure beneath the summer sky and its gradation from navy to gold.

  “The only Burst Linkers in Nega Nebulus to ever enter the Castle and come back alive are you and Maiden, Corvus,” she deliberated quietly. “If you can do it once, you can do it again. I’m sure that’s what you’re thinking. But the Castle and the Four Gods are no joke. You run a real risk of being trapped in an Unlimited EK.”

  “I know.”

  Her tone was soft, but her words held weight, and all Haruyuki could do was agree. But he hadn’t expected her to accept the idea right from the start, so he tried desperately to put into words the things he’d spent the whole day thinking about. “But…from my experience getting into the Castle the last time, if I charge into the altar area at super-high-speed without trying to
fight the God, I think I could reach the gates. My flight speed’s gone up a fair bit since last time.”

  “I see. But if I recall correctly, the gate didn’t open just because you reached it, yes? The door is sealed from the inside, is it not?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly right.” He nodded his assent, admiring Fuko’s powers of recollection.

  The gates of the Four Gods that stood to the north, east, south, and west of the Castle were all sealed by a plate with a carved relief of their respective guardian beasts. If a Burst Linker defeated the guardian, the seal would also break, and the door could be opened. But the last time, the south Suzaku gate had opened at the mere approach of Haruyuki and Utai. And that was because the mysterious young samurai Trilead Tetroxide had destroyed the plate from the inside.

  The plate regenerated each time the gate opened and closed. The southern gate plate Lead destroyed with the Arc of Infinity and the Incarnate technique Heavenly Stratus would have returned the moment Haruyuki escaped.

  “When we left the Castle, I promised Lead I’d be back. So I’m sure he broke the seal plates for me again. On all four gates.”

  “……”

  Fuko furrowed her brow and crossed her right leg over her left. Underneath her thin tights, her legs were composed of bionanopolymer skin, biometal fiber muscles, and titanium alloy bones—and had lines so lovely and complex it was hard to believe they were artificial. He watched wordlessly as her slender fingers stroked the area around her knees where the servo motors were housed. “And if the gate doesn’t open?”

  Haruyuki blinked rapidly a few times before hurrying to answer. “R-right. In that case, I’ll do a sudden vertical ascent in front of the gate, spin around, and escape.”

  “I see.” Fuko fell silent once again. Perhaps reflecting the speed of her thoughts, the tips of the toes on her right foot carved out an incremental rhythm in the air, and a faint engine sound stroked Haruyuki’s eardrums with each tap.

  After a full two minutes, Fuko lowered her right leg to the floor, fixed her long, straight hair with both hands, and then smiled directly at Haruyuki. “In the end, it comes down to whether you believe or you don’t, hmm?”