8

During the ten-minute break at the end of second period, Haruyuki changed out of his gym clothes, back into his uniform, and returned to eighth grade’s class C.

Immediately after he pulled the door open and set foot inside, he was showered in no small amount of applause, and he froze in place. When he thought about it, though, he didn’t know what it’d be like when a frail girl collapsed from anemia or something, but if a boy collapsed from trying too hard in a regular gym class, that was basically comedy gold. Pulling in his head and bobbing it in small bows, Haruyuki dashed to his seat, sat down just as the bell sounded for third period, and heaved a sigh of relief.

When he lifted his face, his eyes met those of Chiyuri, who was looking back with an expression of concern from her desk, which sat kitty-corner to the front and right of his. He gave her a nod to say that he was fine and glanced back at Takumu, behind him, searching for brief eye contact.

Takumu’s expression was actually apologetic; he apparently thought it was because of his advice about the image being important that Haruyuki had tried so hard that he collapsed.

It’s not your fault. In fact, thanks to you, I realized something important. Thank you. Putting this thought into his gaze, he started to grin, and Takumu also finally turned the corners of his mouth up slightly.

During third and fourth periods, lunch, and then his afternoon classes, Haruyuki studied with half his brain while the other half thought furiously about what second-level Incarnate he could find and nurture.

He understood that he had a far more pressing duty to focus on at that moment: Castle Escape Mission Part II, scheduled for seven o’clock that evening and closing in fast. He had to dive into the Unlimited Neutral Field with Ardor Maiden aka Utai Shinomiya, meet the mysterious young azure samurai Trilead Tetroxide again, and, with his help, return alive from the Castle and the territory of the Four Gods. Considering the fact that they would be plunged into the terrifying state of Unlimited Enemy Kill if they were defeated by even one of the samurai avatars patrolling the interior of the Castle, much less the God Suzaku, no matter how much he focused on the mission, it would never be too much.

But Haruyuki simply couldn’t stop himself from thinking about his own Incarnate. Because at the moment, he had one other situation he couldn’t put off for later: the fact that he was going to initiate his eternal rival—or that’s how it had turned out at any rate—the fin de siècle motorcycle-riding Burst Linker, Ash Roller.

When Ash had abruptly asked him to teach him the Incarnate System in their last duel before school, Haruyuki had been stunned into silence for almost a full five seconds. Once he somehow managed to get his brain moving again, the very first thing he asked was, to him, the most natural question in the world.

“Wh-why me?”

And the century-end rider had said, “It’s just, you’re, you know. You’re, like, Master Raker’s apprentice, right? So then, like, you’re my junior or my bro or something?”

It took him another second to understand that bro meant younger apprentice, and he stopped himself from retorting that bro didn’t exactly make clear what their relationship was at all. He instead replied with a more practical question. “Th-then shouldn’t you get Raker to teach you properly? You’re her child, Ash. I’m sure she’d teach you very nicely, regardless of the fact that you’re in different Legions. She’d make sure to take the time and do it right.”

“That’s just it. That ‘do it right’ is the whole problem.”

Haruyuki caught an echo of something like fear in the voice slipping out from beneath the skull mask and instantly understood what the issue was for Ash. It was like he was scared—no, he actually was scared. Of the terrifying spartan teaching style in which Sky Raker aka Fuko Kurasaki “did it right” and pushed Haruyuki off the top of the old Tokyo Tower to initiate him into the Incarnate System two months earlier.

“Um,” Haruyuki said, after staring at Ash Roller out of the corner of his eye for a while. “This might sound a bit grandiose, but…the Incarnate System isn’t so easy as that. I mean, just getting it without working hard like some dodgy Neurolinker study kit or something—”

“Don’t be a Chatty Cathy about every tiny deet! I get it! Mighty me’s totally comprendés!” Ash shouted, and the palm of a gloved hand was thrust before Haruyuki’s eyes. “But let me just say this. The lesson you got from Master was the mild version, special for guests!”

“Huh? Th-that was?”

“One hundred percent! And, like, basically, my masterful self’s, like…Dunno if I should say it like this, but I’m not planning to learn the Incarnate System and then go running around the Unlimited Neutral Field ripping danger dudes to shreds or something. Only gonna use the Incarnate tech in one fight—maybe just one time. All I gotta do is slam tough-guy action on Kid U, who’s swallowed up by the ISS kit, and get him to wake up already. That’s all.”

At that unexpected pronouncement, Haruyuki considered the skull face’s profile.

Face turned up to the sky of the stage, Ash Roller muttered in a quiet voice tinged with an usual gravity, “For my mighty self, Brain Burst’s basically nothing but a fighter.”

And when Ash said this, Haruyuki couldn’t bring himself to reject his rival’s request. Because Haruyuki himself was the one who told Ash Roller that now was the time to strike a blow against Bush Utan and destroy his ISS kit.

The duel time ended there, so Haruyuki didn’t get the chance to say yes or no to Ash’s wish, but he was sure his intention—that he had resolved to grant this wish—had been conveyed to his longtime rival.

As half his brain spun and whirled in thought, the bell sounding the end of sixth period rang, and the air in the classroom suddenly perked up.

The sixth-period teacher left, to be replaced by their homeroom teacher, Sugeno, and the short homeroom session began. At the end of the various announcements, when the matter of Arita passing out in first period was brought up, Haruyuki gratefully accepted the wise words “Giving it your all’s fine, but the golden rule of the athlete is to properly self-monitor,” and then the bell for the end of the day rang.

He first talked briefly with Chiyuri and Takumu about the plans for that evening before his friends ran off to track and kendo practice, respectively. They confirmed the general gist of things—once they were done with practice and club work, they would change and meet at Haruyuki’s, have a meeting with the whole Legion, and start the Castle escape mission—and then parted for the time being.

Haruyuki changed into his sneakers at the outside doors, and while he headed toward the rear school yard by himself to take care of his club duties, he kept intently asking himself the same question.

Perhaps it was because these doubts still existed in the bottom of his heart that he had felt a slight impatience with Kuroyukihime in the nurse’s office, as he sought instruction in Incarnate.

If it was just about technical knowledge of the Incarnate System—a conscious use of imagination circuits, which were a subtextual control system in Brain Burst—he could brag that he had learned it to some extent. But Incarnate was not simply a technique. It held an overwhelming power outside the game rules, but it also carried the terrifying risk of the player’s own mind being pulled down into dark places. This was no mere metaphor. For Burst Linkers who unlocked a negative will, even their personalities in the real world were twisted. Like the marauder Dusk Taker. And Takumu the previous day.

If he was going to initiate someone into the Incarnate, he had to make sure to carefully warn them not to be pulled to that dark side. It probably wouldn’t be enough to explain the danger in words. First, he would need to show actual examples of the miracles that the Incarnate could bring about. Like Sky Raker making her wheelchair dance without using her limbs or Black Lotus turning her sword into a hand.

From this point of view, Haruyuki’s Laser Sword and Laser Lance were fairly weak. As a phenomenon, they were nothing more than one-off attack techniques. There was any number of other Burst Linkers who had special attacks with the same range and power.

If he really intended to lecture Ash Roller on the Incarnate System, then rather than the four basic technique types, Haruyuki would have to show him what Kuroyukihime called a second-stage power. If he couldn’t, then he probably wasn’t qualified to teach anyone about Incarnate.

“Still, that said…,” Haruyuki muttered with a sigh as he rounded the second school building from the east side and walked along the mossy backyard.

In the nurse’s office, Kuroyukihime had said that to learn the second stage of Incarnate, he needed to face his own flesh-and-blood self head-on and invert the mental scars that were the template for his avatar, in order to give birth to an image of hope. But to be honest, Haruyuki didn’t really understand himself why he was born as Silver Crow—a metal color with slender limbs, a smooth head, and ten metal fins.

He’d wanted a thin body because he was fat. He’d dreamed of flying because he lived his life crawling along on the ground. It was easy to say that. But for some reason, he felt like that wasn’t the whole of it. After all, this theory had nothing to say about the reason for the metal color.

Then he suddenly heard a faint voice: And it’s basically for sure that peeps with a mental-scar-shell strength that goes beyond a certain level turn into metal colors…

He froze on the spot and looked around.

It was the slightly husky voice of a girl. But there was no one in the dim yard. He listened hard once more, but the only sounds he heard were the shouts of the sports teams practicing on distant grounds and the members of the band tuning their instruments in the music room.

But he wasn’t just hearing things. Because even if Haruyuki had known the phrase “mental scar shell,” he didn’t know any girls around here who used the Kansai dialect the voice spoke in.

Throb.

Suddenly, a point in the center of his back, between his shoulder blades, ached fiercely. Unthinkingly, he staggered and put a hand out against the wall of the school building beside him. Throb. Throb. The pain just wouldn’t go away.

It wasn’t muscle pain from gym first period. Haruyuki already knew this pain wasn’t coming from some abnormality within his body.

“Ngh…Why, now…that,” he muttered hoarsely, clenching his fists and enduring the agony.

Exactly. That: the Armor of Catastrophe parasitizing Silver Crow, the Enhanced Armament “the Disaster,” born from the mutation of the Destiny Arc—it was excited.

Smash. In his ears, a fierce bestial voice roared, entirely different from the previous voice. Kill. All of them…Rip them apart…Chew them up…Eat them!

Haruyuki, still leaning against the wall, groaned at the heat of the rage and hatred that enveloped this voice; it instilled a terrible fear in him.

Two weeks before, in the final stage of the Hermes’ Cord race, Haruyuki had been carried away by his rage toward Rust Jigsaw and summoned the armor. Although it had basically controlled him for a time, Chiyuri’s special attack Citron Call Mode II had rewound time for his avatar, and the armor had returned to a parasitic state—a fragment of a hook wire left behind by the fifth Chrome Disaster, Cherry Rook.

He hadn’t heard the armor’s voice since, but the previous evening, when he was fighting Takumu, who was on the verge of being swallowed up by the ISS kit, Haruyuki had tried to summon the original form of the armor, the Destiny, to bring him back. And although it hadn’t been the Armor of Catastrophe itself, the parasitic element might have awoken in the summoning process.

But. As he endured the pulses of lightning-like pain, Haruyuki felt something was out of place somehow. This was…different from the voice of the armor before, he felt. The brutal destructive urge was the same, but behind that lay some massive emotion, beyond the anger and hatred. An emotion that howled and raged and…wailed.

If he simply closed his eyes and ears to it, the voice would pass at some point, but Haruyuki unconsciously tried to tune his consciousness to it.

Instantly, an intense pain, the most powerful yet, enough to make him dizzy, raced up his spine to the center of his head, and he fell to his knees on the ground. His hearing was filled with a ferocious howling.

Smash. Smash. Smash smash eat eat eat eat eat eat!!

…This is…sadness…? Are you crying…?

The response to Haruyuki’s questioning was a third merciless burst of pain. Unable to even groan now, he squeezed his eyes shut and pitched forward, about to fall onto the moss-covered ground.

Before he could, someone supported his shoulders with small hands from the front. A soft, gentle sensation enveloped his upper body. Before he could comprehend that someone was holding him up, Haruyuki wrapped his arms around that someone, clinging to them for dear life.

The someone was cool, a temperature to soothe and calm and absorb blazing crimson flames. Each time the small hands patted his back, the pulses of pain receded.

He let out a long breath and released the tension from his stiffened body.

Brain still half-frozen, he absently opened his eyes to see thin concentric lines of deep crimson against a black background, like the sparks from incense on a summer evening. It took a little time for him to realize they were pupils—eyes.

He pulled his head back just a little, and his field of view grew. Fifteen centimeters in front of him was the face of a young girl, large eyes open wide and looking worried.

Neatly trimmed front fringe. The rest of her hair was tied back with a slender ribbon. A surprisingly thin neck, and a white dress-type uniform below that. A brown school backpack on the shoulders—

“Shi…nomi…ya…?” Haruyuki asked hoarsely, and the girl nodded sharply.

Utai Shinomiya, the nonschool member of the Umesato Junior High Animal Care Club, of which Haruyuki was president. Fourth grader in the elementary division of Matsunogi Academy, a member of the same business group as Umesato. And in the Accelerated World, Ardor Maiden, a level-seven Burst Linker who had once occupied one corner of the Four Elements, the upper echelon of the first Nega Nebulus.

Haruyuki let out a thin sigh of relief at the appearance of someone he could trust unconditionally and tried to pull his face—still far too close to hers—back a little more.

But he couldn’t. Because both his arms were wrapped tightly around Utai’s body, which was small even for her age.

After looking down for about two seconds at Utai’s dress and his own round stomach pressed together, Haruyuki finally realized his position—as though he was unafraid of divine wrath raining down on him—and shouted out, “Noheeeah!”

His arms swung out to the sides, spring-loaded, and he jumped back half a meter, still on his knees. “I—! I-I’m sorry! I-it’s not like that. That’s not what…” He waved both hands wildly.

A red system message popped up in the middle of his virtual desktop. Without checking that it was a request for an ad hoc connection, he hit the YES button. A chat window had no sooner appeared in the bottom part of his field of view than Utai’s adorable fingers were typing furiously in the air.

UI> THERE’S NO NEED TO FEEL AWKWARD, ARITA. THIS IS MOST LIKELY OUT OF VIEW OF THE SOCIAL CAMERAS.

I-is it? So then isn’t that actually way worse?

Rather than giving voice to this fleeting thought, Haruyuki tried a more rational approach. “Uh, umm, I was walking along and I got a little dizzy, probably just from pushing too hard in gym class, but I’m okay now, sorry to worry—”

But as if seeing right through him, Utai cut off his speech with a gentle, sad smile. She stood up from where she was kneeling on the ground with him before moving her fingers once more at a slightly lower speed.

UI> YOU DON’T NEED TO PANIC LIKE THAT. I UNDERSTAND. WHAT YOU EXPERIENCED NOW IS MOST LIKELY SOMETHING CALLED “OVERFLOW.”

“O-over…flow?” He cocked his head at this word he was hearing, or rather seeing, for the first time. But the string of text that followed made Haruyuki open his eyes wide.

UI> THE HIGHER-LEVEL VERSION OF ZERO FILL. IF ZERO FILL IS AN EMPTY WILL—RESIGNATION AND HELPLESSNESS FILLING YOUR HEART, RENDERING YOU UNABLE TO MOVE—THEN OVERFLOW IS A NEGATIVE WILL: OVERFLOWING WITH RAGE, HATRED, AND DESPAIR, AND LOSING CONTROL. OF COURSE, THIS IS ESSENTIALLY A PHENOMENON THAT HAPPENS TO THE AVATAR IN THE ACCELERATED WORLD, BUT I’VE HEARD IT ALSO HAPPENS IN THE REAL WORLD, ALBEIT RARELY, TO BURST LINKERS WHO USE NEGATIVE INCARNATE.

“Negative…will,” he whispered, and gasped as he looked up at Utai. Shaking his head fiercely, he squeezed out, “Uh, um, I-I totally haven’t been practicing a negative Incarnate by myself…”

Once again, Utai smiled gently before stepping over to his side and placing her left hand on his plump cheek. At the same time, she typed with just her right, UI> I TOLD YOU, I UNDERSTAND. THAT WAS INTERFERENCE FROM THE ARAMOR, WASN’T IT?

He inhaled sharply, but if she had seen through him to that extent, he couldn’t exactly deny the statement. “Yes, it was. Something…Um, I remembered something someone said and it suddenly started raging.”

UI> SOMETHING SOMEONE SAID? WHAT EXACTLY WAS IT?

“Umm, I can’t remember who it was. Actually, I’m pretty sure it was the voice of someone I don’t know. But it was something like ‘the mental scar shell’ does whatever and then you ‘become a metal color.’ Or something.”

Twitch. Not Haruyuki, but Utai’s hand on his cheek.

The eyes with the crimson threads running through them opened as wide as possible. Lips trembled slightly but naturally, and instead of a voice crying out, her right hand tapped falteringly at her holokeyboard. UI> WHO WAS IT? ARITA, WHO SAID THAT TO YOU?

“Sorry, I’m trying as hard as I can to remember, but…I can’t. I don’t know. All I remember is that it was a girl’s voice.”

UI> IS THAT SO? I’M SORRY, PLEASE FORGET IT. ARE YOU FEELING ALL RIGHT NOW? She changed the subject rather suddenly, but Haruyuki quickly forgot the strangeness of it and nodded. When Utai pulled away her hand, he heaved himself to his feet and brushed off the knees of his uniform.

“Yeah, I’m okay now. Thanks. It’s almost like you can use Incarnate even in the real world, Shinomiya,” he said casually, in the way of a thank-you, and Utai seemed bashful in response, a rare display of age-appropriate behavior. Her cheeks colored slightly and she looked down as she filled the chat log all at once, typing at her fastest speed yet.

UI> I’M GLAD IT DIDN’T TURN INTO ANYTHING MORE SERIOUS. I DON’T THINK YOU NEED TO WORRY TOO MUCH ABOUT INTERFERENCE FROM THE ARMOR. IT WOULD ACTUALLY BE STRANGE FOR AN ENHANCED ARMAMENT WITH THAT SORT OF HISTORY NOT TO CAUSE ANY OVERFLOW. WHATEVER INTERFERENCE IT CAUSES, AS LONG AS YOU DON’T CALL OUT THE COMMAND TO EQUIP IT IN THE ACCELERATED WORLD, IT WON’T EXERT ANY CONTINUOUS INFLUENCE OVER YOU. EITHER WAY, IF WE SUCCEED IN THE ESCAPE MISSION, I’LL BE ABLE TO PURIFY THE PARASITIZING ELEMENT RIGHT THEN AND THERE.

“…Yeah, I guess so.” The slight delay in Haruyuki’s response was the momentary hesitation he felt about the mission to purify the armor, the most important matter before him at that moment—rescuing Ardor Maiden, escaping the Castle, all of it was nothing more than groundwork to that end.

But was there anything for him to hesitate about? If the Armor of Catastrophe wasn’t completely removed, then at the meeting of the Seven Kings in three days, a bounty would be placed on the head of Silver Crow by joint effort of the six major Legions. He absolutely couldn’t let that happen.

Fortunately, head still turned to the ground, Utai didn’t seem to notice the change in Haruyuki’s tone; her fingers continued to flash. UI> WELL THEN, SHALL WE TAKE CARE OF OUR CLUB DUTIES? I’M CERTAIN HOO IS QUITE HUNGRY.

She waved away her keyboard with one hand and picked up her bag from where it sat on the ground a little ways off. Without looking at Haruyuki, she began walking briskly toward the animal hutch in the northwestern corner of the school yard, and Haruyuki chased after her.

Hoo, the northern white-faced owl, had moved from Matsunogi Academy to Umesato Junior High only a mere three days earlier. But the small bird of prey drowsing on the wooden perch inside the hutch already seemed entirely at ease in his new environment. He didn’t even crack his eyes open when Haruyuki approached the hutch, but the instant he became aware of the sound of Utai’s feet after she set down her bag and backpack beside the sink, his round eyes flew open and his wings moved restlessly.

“He’s such a mercenary,” Haruyuki said with a wry smile, and unlocked the door’s electronic lock. He stepped quickly inside and collected the water-resistant paper that was spread out around the perch, along with the tub for bathing. In their place, Utai set out the paper they had washed and left to dry the previous day, before checking that Hoo’s weight and temperature were normal.

Haruyuki stepped outside once again, and as he splashed the paper with water from the tap sticking out from the side of the hutch, he caught sight of the white cooler peeking out of the bag off to one side.

Inside was Hoo’s food. From what he’d seen the previous day, it was some kind of meat, but according to Utai, it was not chicken or pork or beef. Which reminded him, at today’s feeding, she was supposed to show him how she dressed the meat, but she had noted that “a certain amount of mental damage can be expected, so please prepare yourself.” Cocking his head anew at just what exactly that was supposed to mean, Haruyuki quietly reached out his hand.

UI> YOU COULD EAT IT, ARITA, BUT YOU PROBABLY WOULDN’T LIKE IT.

The words scrolled across the chat window, and his hand froze. He turned around to find Utai grinning at him, having come out of the hutch at some point without his noticing.

“O-oh, uh, I wasn’t going to eat it as a snack or anything. I’m in eighth grade now, after all.” Haruyuki shook his head back and forth, forcibly forgetting the time he had come across fried eggplant and chicken meant for a curry and it had turned into a whole thing with Chiyuri, while he hung the freshly washed paper on small hangers. He dried his hands with a handkerchief and looked at Utai.

The elementary school girl, four grades lower than him, gave him a look as though she was carefully considering the situation, but soon she nodded crisply. UI> ALL RIGHT. I’M GOING TO PREPARE HOO’S DINNER.

She moved over to the sink, reached a hand into the bag there, and pulled out the cooler. She undid the clasps on all four sides and pulled off the lid. Spurred on by curiosity, Haruyuki poked his head forward to peer inside and, two seconds later, inhaled sharply.

Alongside the cooling packs were small light-pink creatures about five centimeters long, probably mice before they had grown any hair. Naturally, they weren’t alive, but they still looked like mice.

Plucking up one of the four creatures, Utai placed it on top of the cooler lid in the sink as she typed with her free hand, UI> HIS FOOD IS FROZEN PINKIE MICE. PET OWLS ARE BASICALLY FED MICE, CHICKS, OR INSECTS LIKE CRICKETS OR MEALWORMS. BUT THE MICE ARE TOO BIG LIKE THIS, SO YOU HAVE TO DRESS THEM.

Then she put her hand back into the bag and pulled out something that gave Haruyuki another start. It was very small, but it was indeed a knife. She slid it out of the smooth natural-wood sheath, and a blade about six centimeters long appeared, glittering with a bluish sheen.

UI> NATURALLY, I HAVE A PERMIT TO CARRY AND USE THIS SMALL KNIFE. ALTHOUGH IF I PULLED IT OUT ON A PUBLIC ROAD OR ANYTHING, I’D STILL BE TAKEN INTO CUSTODY IMMEDIATELY.

Utai’s comment was definitely not an exaggeration. Presently, in 2047, carrying any kind of blade, regardless of size, was basically illegal. If you had a professional reason, you could obtain a permit from the public safety commission, but he remembered seeing on the news that the review you had to go through was pretty severe.

“I—I can’t believe you got a permit,” Haruyuki murmured unconsciously, and Utai simply smiled faintly.

She held the pinkie on the lid with her left hand and brought the tip of the knife down onto it deftly with her right. She guided the blade, and its target was neatly split in two. And it didn’t look like she had even scratched the plastic of the lid. The knife moved two more times, and the mouse was instantly transformed into four thin pieces of meat. The color was indeed the same as that of the meat Hoo had happily downed the day before. Apparently, the internal organs had already been disposed of, but a little blood did flow out and wet the knife.

As she worked, Utai radiated a tension that seemed to change even the air pressure around her, and Haruyuki couldn’t bring himself to speak to her. Although right from the start, he hadn’t had the courage to ask her to let him do it. The remaining mice were dressed one after the other until, in not even a full two minutes, the contents of the cooler were transformed into the state he had seen the previous day.

Having finished her work, Utai washed the small knife and dried it carefully with what appeared to be a piece of cotton before slipping it into its sheath. She wrapped the fabric around the knife and the sheath, put the whole thing in her bag, and stood back up. Without looking at Haruyuki, she typed on her holokeyboard, UI> NORMALLY, YOU USE SCISSORS TO DO THIS. IT’S EASIER THAT WAY.

“So then why the knife?” he asked softly.

Utai cast her eyes downward as if in thought before replying. UI> I THOUGHT IT MIGHT AT LEAST BE A WAY OF PAYING RESPECT, BUT THAT MIGHT IN THE END BE MEANINGLESS CONCEIT. NOW THEN, LET’S GO FEED HOO.

Haruyuki followed Utai as she picked up the cooler and the leather glove, and returned to the hutch with her, contemplating the sentence still displayed in the chat window. But no matter how he explained it to himself, he felt like he was a little off somehow.

The pair entered the enclosure and the owl on the perch flapped his wings as if to express his impatience. The instant Utai raised her gloved left hand, he flew over, almost circling the interior space.

Just like the day before, Haruyuki held the cooler with both hands while Utai picked up the pieces of meat and fed them to Hoo. In the end, the answer to his homework question had been “mouse,” but now that he was thinking about it, he was pretty sure all the owls that showed up in fiction caught mice. There was no reason Hoo would be eating pigs or cows.

Staring at the owl intently swallowing one piece of meat after another, Haruyuki wondered absently at the very obvious fact that Hoo was also alive.

Although Hoo was of a species not native to Japan, sold only as a pet, he still wasn’t an artificial protein synthesized in a factory, much less a polygonal object. Inside this four-square-meter cage, every day, he ate, slept, and felt things. Things Haruyuki couldn’t even imagine…

Perhaps sensing him biting his lip, Utai looked back and cocked her head. Haruyuki hurriedly shook his head and said quietly, “Oh! S-sorry. It’s nothing big. It’s just, I was thinking maybe I was kinda rude yesterday when I said he looked happy when I was watching him with the water.”

Here he realized he was maybe being rude to Utai now rather than Hoo, and he panicked further. “Oh! Um, I—I don’t mean that he’s, like, unhappy or anything with you taking care of him. I’m sure he’s pretty happy about that. I mean, I’d want you to take care of me—Aah, that’s not what I mean. Umm.”

At this point, Haruyuki’s “run-away meter” had climbed fairly high, but he couldn’t do that while holding the cooler in both hands, so he earnestly focused on putting words together.

“Umm, Hoo was probably born through artificial breeding, so I guess he’s never known anything outside of a birdcage. But he is still a bird. And birds want to fly high…I guess. Oh! Of course, I’m not saying let him go or anything. I don’t mean he’s, like, unhappy here. But at the very least, it’s not great for me to just decide how he’s probably feeling or whatever.”

The more he talked, the more incoherent he became, so here, Haruyuki reluctantly closed his mouth.

However, whatever he was trying to say seemed to have reached Utai, to some degree at least. She nodded once and started feeding Hoo again with a thoughtful look on her face. Four pinkie mice worth of meat slices disappeared one after another into the beak, and finally, after some gentle petting on his head, the screech owl, looking deeply satisfied, spread its wings and lifted off from Utai’s left hand. It carved out a counterclockwise arc in the hutch, flying leisurely through the air.

No matter how many times Haruyuki saw the owl in flight, the sight was still so beautiful as to take his breath away. As he watched, fascinated and somehow at peace, text scrolled across the chat window with a modest sound effect.

UI> I THINK WHAT YOU WERE TRYING TO SAY IS “RESPECT,” ARITA.

The instant he saw the word in quotation marks, Haruyuki bobbed his head up and down several times. Yes, that was exactly what he had been feeling earlier.

Hoo—or rather, all pets, including Hoo—was not simply a thing for people to keep. Pets lived alongside their humans. And it didn’t make sense to decide whether they were happy or not by human measures. All you could do was treat them with respect.

And it wasn’t just pets. Rather than taking the easy way with scissors, Utai had used a properly sharpened knife and dressed the pinkie mice with the utmost seriousness. She didn’t forget to respect even mice who were destined to be a meal.

Looking up at Hoo back on his perch, Haruyuki was struck deeply by the text that began to scroll a little slower across the chat window.

UI> I BELIEVE IT’S VERY IMPORTANT TO HAVE RESPECT FOR ALL THINGS. “RESPECT” HERE MEANING NOT IGNORING OR SLIGHTING ANYTHING. THE SUBJECT OF THAT RESPECT ALSO MUST INCLUDE EVEN YOUR OWN SELF.

“Huh? Respect for yourself?” Haruyuki took his eyes off Hoo and stared at the girl standing at his side. “Isn’t it…different for yourself? Like, isn’t that being conceited…or narcissistic?”

This was all Haruyuki could say, given that, far from respecting his own self, he honestly preferred to avoid even looking at his own reflection in the mirror. But Utai paused for a moment before moving her fingers again, gentle smile still on her face.

UI> PERHAPS IT MIGHT END UP LIKE THAT IF YOU TAKE IT TOO FAR, BUT I THINK THAT BY DISRESPECTING YOURSELF, YOU ALSO DISRESPECT THE PATH YOU’VE WALKED UNTIL NOW, THE HOURS YOU’VE SPENT, THE PEOPLE YOU’VE KNOWN. I’M SURE YOU ALSO HAVE INSIDE YOU, ARITA, A FLAME THAT CANNOT BE PUT OUT NO MATTER HOW MUCH WATER IS POURED ON IT, NO MATTER HOW THE WIND BLOWS IT.

The girl gently reached out with her right hand and placed it neatly in the center of Haruyuki’s chest, directly above his heart.

UI> THAT FLAME USES YOUR PAST EXPERIENCES AND MEMORIES AS FUEL—AND EVEN YOUR SINS AND MISTAKES. IF YOU PROBE INTO A PERSON’S MIND, THE FIRING OF A NEURON—THAT FLAME, BOTH INSTANTANEOUS AND ETERNAL, IS THE ESSENCE OF LIFE. I BELIEVE THAT CAREFULLY CONTINUING TO BURN THIS FLAME WHILE REMEMBERING TO RESPECT YOURSELF AND OTHERS WILL ILLUMINATE THE PATH YOU ARE TO TAKE.

Utai Shinomiya didn’t even look at the long, difficult text or her holokeyboard as she typed with her left hand. The whole time, the crimson sparks of her eyes were focused on Haruyuki. From her small palm still pressed against his chest, Haruyuki felt like some kind of energy—perhaps even a real flame—was being generated and poured into his heart.

“My flame…The path I should walk down…” The heat in his veins raced around his body and finally collected in his back, between his shoulder blades.

The real-world Haruyuki, of course, did not have wings. On the contrary. He was round and short, and he was so lacking in any real physical abilities that he collapsed if he tried even the slightest bit in gym class.

But he could move forward. He could keep a modest flame burning in his heart to light his way, and he could put one foot in front of the other. Instead of running hard and looking backward—look forward. Move forward. It was all a matter of imagination. If he had the image of moving his feet forward in the real world, those steps would be doubled and increase tenfold in the Accelerated World.

“My image…my will,” he murmured before he took a deep breath and changed tones completely. In a clear voice he offered, “Thanks, Shinomiya. I feel like I can find the answer to something I’ve been wrestling with for a while now.”

Utai took her hand off his chest, and a rare, clear smile spread across her lips, allowing teeth like pearls to peek out.

Leaving the animal hutch, they washed their hands at the tap and then signed the club log file to indicate that the work was complete. After that, they submitted it to the in-school net.

It was four fifteen PM. The meeting at Nega Nebulus’s temporary headquarters aka Haruyuki’s house was at six PM, so even taking into consideration the time it would take for them to get there, they had a little time to spare.

Maybe I’ll go to the student council office with Shinomiya today and chat with Kuroyukihime and wait for Taku and Chiyu to finish practice. This thought rolling through his head, Haruyuki went to pick up his school bag sitting beside the sink.

Suddenly, Utai’s entire body stiffened and froze in the middle of drying her hands with a handkerchief next to him. And then Haruyuki felt the presence of something creeping up behind him.

Bloodlust…!

He started to whirl around, but before he could, two arms stretched out around the shoulders of Utai and caught her firmly. At the same time, a cheerful voice sang, “I got you, Uiuiiiiiiii!”

UI> PLAS SSDTOP PLS

Utai frantically slapped her hands at her holokeyboard as she was hoisted up into the air, but the letters scrolling out into the chat window didn’t come together into words. All Haruyuki could do was catch in midair the white handkerchief she dropped.

The assailant executing this masterful backstab had no sooner flipped around Utai’s small body than she was clutching it to her chest and crying out with delight, “Aaah! Uiui, you’re as cute as always! I just want to tuck you away in my pocket and bring you home with me! Or make a little mascot doll out of you and put you on my dashboard!”

Uttering this questionable declaration of love was a girl in the uniform of a school that was not in this area. She was quite a bit taller than Haruyuki, her too-perfect proportions wrapped in a light-blue blouse and checkered skirt, thin knee-high socks reaching up quite a ways past her knees. Her long, soft hair flowed down over her shoulders.

Utai’s right hand scrabbled even more frantically in the air before dropping down, as if it had expended all its energy.

Here, the predator, having confirmed total control over her target, finally looked at Haruyuki and smiled gently. “Hello, Corvus. I see you’re working hard at the Animal Care Club.”

“Oh. Th-thanks. Hello, Master.” Face stiffening, Haruyuki exchanged greetings with the deputy of Nega Nebulus, level-eight Burst Linker Sky Raker, aka Fuko Kurasaki. Then he asked, ever so timidly, “Uh, um, wh-why are you here at Umesato?”

“The one thing everyone should have is a friend in a position of power. Sacchi was kind enough to issue me a visitor’s pass.”

In that era, the tightening of security at elementary, junior high, and high schools had been pursued wholeheartedly, so that people outside the school, even children of the same age group, could not freely come and go. Authentication occurred at the gates of the school via Neurolinker, and unless a pass had been issued, security guards would come running the instant a stranger stepped over the threshold.

“Oh, nice.” Haruyuki nodded his head before suddenly shaking it.

“W-wait, I’m not talking system-wise. We’re supposed to meet at my place at six, right?”

“Goodness! Am I not allowed to simply want to see you sooner rather than later? I have to have some urgent business?” She grinned and, given that he was a healthy junior high school boy, there was no avoiding the way his head exploded a little.

But on the brink of disaster, Haruyuki remembered that before him was the actually scary Master Raker. His slackening cheeks tightened abruptly, and he shook his head in tiny increments.

“N-n-n-n-no, that’s, it’s not that you’re not allowed, I’m really h-h-h-h-happy.” This was no time for him to get carried away—because, at present, Haruyuki was keeping something important from Fuko. And that was the fact that he had to secretly initiate her “child,” Ash Roller, into the Incarnate.

He stood frozen in place, stiff smile plastered onto his face, and Fuko gently stretched out her hand to pinch his cheek lightly.

“H-huut?”

“Corvus. Perhaps it’s just my imagination? Somehow, I feel like you are keeping something from me.”

He desperately suppressed the urge to spring up into the air and shook his head from side to side again. “N-no, there’sh no reashon I would hide shomshing from you!”

“I wonder? My instincts on this sort of thing are almost never off.” As Fuko gently tugged on Haruyuki’s cheek between her pinched fingers, a charming smile, sweeter than the finest-quality fresh cream, spread across her lips to fill her face. Still, he mustn’t forget that she still held her first victim tightly to her chest.

He placed his hands on his legs and stood taller as he continued to shake his head, and Fuko’s fingers moved from his cheek to his ear. As her fingertips toyed with his earlobes, she brought her face in close and murmured, “So then I suppose I simply got the wrong idea?”

“Wrong idea? About what?”

“Nothing serious. It’s just I had a little time after I left school today, so I thought I might go sit in a duel Gallery. And when I did, I just happened to come across Ash in the Gallery of the same duel, so we started to chat.”

“…”

“And somehow, he seemed a little off, a little strange, you know? So I caught up with him in the real and gently questioned him.”

“……”

“And wouldn’t you know, he told me he had completely disregarded me, his parent, and gotten you to promise to teach him something very important? Verrrrry top secret, verrrrry critical, a name I hesitate to say in a public space…” Here, soundlessly, Fuko’s lips moved: In. Car. Nate. “…system and its use?”

Ash Rolleeeeerrrrrrr!! Way to crack under pressure! I mean, if you’re going to spill it right away, then just get Raker to teach you to begin with! What exactly was the point of me worrying and working on this all day?! Anyway, you seriously owe me for this mess now! he screamed in his mind, but he couldn’t turn back time.

He stopped the ongoing side-to-side motion of his head and moved it sharply up and down in resignation. “Um,” he said. “Uhh, I-I’m sorry. I was. Hiding something. From you.”

“Oh, you were?” Terrifyingly, her perfectly kind smile still on her face, Raker nodded once more. “I’m so glad you told me. If you had tried to feign ignorance any further, I would have given you the full course of special training with Ash, Corvus, but now I’ll let you do just half.”

“…H-half…?”

“Yes. Once we succeed in today’s Castle escape, your special training will begin in the Unlimited Neutral Field. I think it’s getting to be time for you to proceed to the next level as well, Corvus.”

“…T-today…?” he said, dumbfounded, and, although he was reassured by Fuko referring so easily to the mission’s success, proceeded to cast around wildly. But of course, there was no sign of anyone in the dim school yard besides Haruyuki, Fuko, and Utai (clutched firmly to Fuko’s chest).

“B-but how are we going to meet up with Ash? If we don’t pick a fairly definite time, it’s pretty difficult to meet in the Unlimited Neutral Field, isn’t—”

“That’s not a problem.” Fuko answered Haruyuki’s question with the utmost ease. “I already have Ash locked up—or rather, standing by in my car parked nearby. I’ll be bringing him along to your condo, Corvus, and having him dive with us. Naturally, not from your house, but rather the parking lot close to you.”

“Huh? Ash came all the way here? In the real?”

Haruyuki opened his eyes wide, forgetting momentarily his own punishment status. So then that meant if he wanted to, he could meet Ash in the real world? The century-end rider who in his mind had a mohawk and a riveted leather jacket in real life, too?

Unfortunately—he wasn’t sure whether to call it that or not—Fuko shook her head slightly. “He’s here, but it’s better if you don’t meet in the real yet. He is, after all, still a member of one of the six Legions, Great Wall.”

“R-right, he is.” Slowly letting out the breath he had been holding, Haruyuki nodded. They might have been pupils together, but Ash was still a subordinate of the Green King, who stood in opposition to Kuroyukihime. There was a line where he had to pull back.

“I understand.” He lifted his face, finally looked directly at Fuko, and nodded deeply. At some point, Haruyuki teaching Ash the Incarnate had turned into both of them being taught together by Fuko, but his exhilaration was greater than his regret. “I feel like I just came across a new clue. Having you teach me again, Master, is exactly what I want!”

“Well said. Good attitude.”

He watched Fuko smile, pleased, and wondered if it wasn’t a little too soon, when the still-captive Utai weakly moved both hands and tapped at her keyboard.

UI> I’LL ALSO COME ALONG FOR THE TRAINING.

After finally releasing Utai, Fuko said hello to Hoo in the animal hutch—it was their first meeting, but they apparently got along quite well as fellow “flying types”—before the three of them headed toward the student council office.

Although there weren’t very many students left on campus after school, walking alongside an elementary school girl and a high school girl was a bit of a trial for Haruyuki. Slipping past the amazed eyes that lasered in on them, they moved from the entrance to the depths of the first floor of the first school building, and the instant he pushed through the door, Haruyuki heaved a sigh of relief.

But once they were in the closed room of the student council office, he was forced to deal with a different kind of nervous tension. Because with the addition of Kuroyukihime, who welcomed the party with a smile, he had definitely arrived in the situation where he was the lone, dull boy in a troupe of sleek, refined girls. Not to mention that these three girls had been the head and senior members of the former Nega Nebulus, which had once occupied the top spot of the Accelerated World’s seven major Legions; there was no reason Haruyuki would be able to relax among them.

You know, now that I’m thinking about it, the current Negabu has Chiyuri and Takumu now, so it’s four girls and two boys. If we don’t get more boys in here, it’s gonna be all lopsided. But it’d be better to get someone who’s not too scary, if we can. Oh, right! Maybe that guy’d join. Maybe I’ll try inviting him when we see him.

These and many other random thoughts wandering through his head, Haruyuki sat in one corner of the sofa set and sipped the tea Kuroyukihime had made. At some point, the clock on the wall had gotten all the way around to five PM.

“Goodness! Is it already so late?” Fuko stood up as if in a panic and clapped her hands together. “I simply can’t leave Ash locked up—waiting forever in the car, so I’ll go on ahead, all right? I’ll park the car near Corvus’s house and come by myself at six.”

“I feel like you’ve already left him alone plenty long,” Kuroyukihime remarked wryly.

“I told him to earn ten points in free duels before diving into the Unlimited Neutral Field, so I’m sure he’s not bored,” Fuko responded with a composed expression. “All right, then, everyone—I’ll see you later.”

Fuko waved a hand and left the student council office, and almost as if to replace her, Chiyuri and Takumu appeared, practice over. Their hair was still damp from the quick showers they had taken, and the party, now five, walked together to the mixed-use condo in north Koenji.

Since Chiyuri’s mother should have already prepared a light supper for all of them again that day, hot on the heels of the previous two days—a fact for which Haruyuki was both deeply grateful and deeply apologetic—they simply stocked up on drinks at the shopping mall in the condo building and got into the elevator. Chiyuri and Takumu got off at the twenty-first floor to transport the foodstuffs, while Haruyuki, Kuroyukihime, and Utai went up to the twenty-third floor ahead of them.

As they were making these preparations, Haruyuki felt his nervousness increase with each second they drew closer to seven PM.

His other self, the duel avatar Silver Crow, had been left deep in the Castle enshrined at the center of the Unlimited Neutral Field. If he couldn’t escape from there, the purification of the Armor of Catastrophe couldn’t happen, and thus, his future as a Burst Linker would become very uncertain. Takumu and the others had declared that even if a bounty was placed on his head in the name of the Seven Kings and he ended up not being able to duel, they would supply him with the points he needed. That sentiment filled his heart with joy, but he couldn’t simply sit back and count on that. He didn’t want to cling to acceleration to the point where he became a burden on the Legion.

“Don’t get caught up in a negative image, now,” a voice murmured in his ear the instant he walked into the living room of his house and set down his bag.

At some point, Haruyuki had started to droop forward, and he lifted his head with a gasp.

The voice belonged to Kuroyukihime, and she was standing immediately behind him. Placing her right hand on his chest, she pulled him around to face her. “It’s important to have an image of every situation. But there are times when you need to focus hard on what’s in front of you and charge ahead. Now is one of those times.”

UI> IT’S EXACTLY AS SACCHI SAYS. RIGHT NOW, LET’S SIMPLY BELIEVE AND MOVE FORWARD.

If even Utai, his fellow prisoner of the Castle, was typing these words as she poked her head out from behind Kuroyukihime, then he couldn’t very well hang his head.

Haruyuki thrust out his chest and replied with a single word: “Right!” At this, the cold sweat oozing from both hands seemed to mysteriously suck back in.

Once the sushi and various other rolls prepared so lovingly by Chiyuri’s mother were laid out on the six-person dining table and the tea had been brewed, Fuko joined them, with perfect timing.

Haruyuki looked around at the lineup of Legion members, the same as it had been two days earlier, and asked timidly, “Um, are you sure it’s really okay? Leaving Ash in the car, I mean?”

Chiyuri and Takumu—already filled in on the situation—smiled wryly along with Kuroyukihime, and Fuko composed her face in the same cool expression as before.

“He’s pouting a little, but I can’t exactly bring him up here.”

“So then at least bring him some of the sushi later,” Chiyuri suggested, smiling as she brought a plastic container out from the kitchen and began to quickly divide up the rolls. Haruyuki pictured the century-end rider eating cucumber rolls, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up.

“How about it, Fuko? Time to recruit him for our team?” Kuroyukihime uttered unexpectedly, with a serious face.

“Ye—H-huh?!” Naturally, it was Haruyuki who shouted.

But the other members didn’t seem so surprised. Takumu even nodded calmly with a quick “That’s one way, isn’t it?”

Haruyuki stared, dumbfounded, with wide-open eyes, and Fuko cocked her head slightly, looking perfectly composed.

“It’s not that I haven’t thought about it, but…he’s, well, he has a surprisingly strong sense of duty. I can’t say whether or not he’d approve of lowering the Wall flag after raising it already. And, of course, there’s also the concern that the Green King, Green Grandé, would use the Judgment Blow instead of approving Ash’s withdrawal.”

“Hmm. To be honest, I never really know what Grandé is thinking.” Kuroyukihime crossed her arms, frowning. “I feel like I’ve grasped the personalities of the other Kings to a certain extent, but that shield of a man alone, well…”

At the meeting of the Seven Kings the previous week, Haruyuki had also seen the Green King close up, but the only thing he got from it was that the Green King seemed super hard. Grandé hadn’t said a single thing from start to finish but had simply nodded once when it was concluded that they would give Silver Crow a week.

It’s kind of incredible that he rules over a major Legion of more than a hundred people like that.

Haruyuki hurriedly brought his straying thoughts back to the subject at hand: Ash Roller in Nega Nebulus. He had never even considered it, but he didn’t actually hate the idea. Ash was his eternal rival, someone he had fought countless times since that first day when he’d become a Burst Linker, but when Haruyuki lost his purpose after his wings were stolen, that man had passionately rebuked him and brought him to his own parent, Sky Raker. Haruyuki owed him. It was hard to picture from the swaggering way he carried himself, but Ash Roller was a real stand-up guy, honestly compassionate.

And then Haruyuki realized something and lifted his face with a gasp. “Uh, um, Kuroyukihime, Master? I think that, for the time being at least, Ash can’t transfer to our Legion.”

“Why do you say that with such certainty?”

“Ash’s little brother, Bush Utan—” Haruyuki cut himself off here and suggested that they talk while they ate, since it was a long story.

Once Fuko had returned from delivering the package of sushi Chiyuri had put together to her car—although it was apparently not her vehicle, but rather in her mother’s name—in the large parking garage in the basement of the condo, they all sat down together once more to eat.

Chiyuri’s mother’s specialty was Italian food like pasta and lasagna, but she also demonstrated ample skill when it came to Japanese food, and Haruyuki, who didn’t get to eat sushi all that often, stuffed it all in his mouth in a trance. Everyone else also rose to the challenge, maneuvering their chopsticks until the large plate was half-empty, and then finally, the conversation resumed.

“Haight, haight. Ahout Ahoo Hohaa.” Haruyuki started to speak with a mouth full of sushi, and Takumu stopped him with a slight smile.

“I’ll explain about that. I’m a big part of it, so…”

Haruyuki opened his eyes with a gasp and hurried to chew up the vinegar-seasoned rice in his mouth, but while he was furiously masticating, Takumu had already started to explain, so he had no choice but to accept the role of listener. The briefing by the biggest brain in the Legion was indeed easy to understand, but Haruyuki couldn’t help but get nervous. Because, just as Takumu had said he would, he explained everything that had happened to him, without leaving out a single detail.

How two days earlier, after hearing about the ISS kits from Haruyuki, he had gone to investigate on his own. How he had come into contact with a Burst Linker called Magenta Scissor in the Setagaya area and been given the kit in a sealed state. And then how the previous day, he had been attacked by the PK group Supernova Remnant in the Shinjuku area and had counterattacked and destroyed them with the power of the ISS kit in the Unlimited Neutral Field. The direct duel with Haruyuki after that. And the mysterious “dream” the three of them shared that morning.

Haruyuki had simply informed Kuroyukihime, Fuko, and Utai of the general overview of this chain of events in a mail, because it had seemed impossible to properly put into text why Takumu had sought power and how he’d overcome that. Of course, given that they would have to explain that at some point, it was probably preferable that Takumu was telling the story now himself, but Haruyuki couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Like maybe Kuroyukihime would reprimand Takumu for getting the ISS kit at his own discretion like that.

However…

“I see. Well done, Takumu,” the head of the Legion put forth immediately with a gentle smile after hearing the whole story. Fuko and Utai also nodded calmly.

“What? I thought you’d be super mad and break the table slamming your hand onto it, so I got sushi ready as an emergency measure,” Chiyuri said, actually bringing both hands out onto the table.

“I am indeed the Legion Master.” Kuroyukihime smiled a broad, wry smile as she responded. “But I don’t believe that I can—or would like to—control my members completely. All of us Burst Linkers have our own daily ongoing battles, in the Accelerated World and in the real world. Whether you’re a parent or a master, all you can do is simply have faith and offer encouragement. And it’s basically still adorable when you three act on your own. More so than the Four Elements of the first Nega Nebulus.”

At this last bit, Fuko and Utai both stuffed sushi rolls into their mouths and feigned ignorance.

In the midst of this harmonious scene, Takumu blinked quickly behind his glasses and then finally bowed his head deeply. When he lifted it again, his pale face had completely regained its usual intellectual expression. “Thanks to Haru and Chii, I was able to break free of the control of the ISS kit. At the same time, I managed to inflict some degree of damage to the main body in the Brain Burst central server. But, although that weakened the kits parasitizing Bush Utan and Olive Grab, they’re still not completely gone.”

“Th-that’s right.” Here, Haruyuki remembered what he had wanted to say and connected that to words. “And Ash feels super responsible for Bush Utan getting sucked into the ISS kit. I think that, even if we did invite him to join, he wouldn’t say yes until he had freed Utan from the control of the kit. The reason he wanted me to teach him the Incarnate System to begin with wasn’t so he could get stronger, but because he wants to destroy Utan’s ISS kit himself. That’s all he wants.”

“Corvus. You really do understand him very well, don’t you?” Fuko said suddenly, just as he had taken a breath and was about to down some of his tea, and he unconsciously choked a little.

“Unh. What? You think so? To be honest, I still can’t picture what he’s like in the real at all, though.”

“Hmm? Isn’t he the same, though? Riding an electric scooter every morning, doing his hya-ha-ha thing?” Chiyuri opined, and Takumu nodded with a serious face.

Fuko, however, simply laughed gracefully, and then, without answering the question, clapped her hands. “Setting aside the Legion switch, if he wants to learn the Incarnate System because of his friend, then I can’t stop him. I believe he’s reached a level of actual power as a Burst Linker that will allow it. That’s the reason I got Sacchi’s permission to have him accompany us today.”

After the escape from the Castle, we move straight into special training. Remembering Fuko’s words, Haruyuki felt a shiver run up his spine.

Utai, to his right, finished eating a kanpyo roll before setting her fingers racing over the tabletop. UI> WELL THEN, OUR SCHEDULE TODAY’S GETTING PRETTY FULL. (1) CASTLE ESCAPE. (2) ARMOR PURIFICATION. (3) INCARNATE TRAINING. IT DOES COST TEN POINTS TO DIVE INTO THE UNLIMITED NEUTRAL FIELD, SO IT’S ACTUALLY A BARGAIN TO TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE.

“Hee-hee, it truly is. Once we’ve finished all that, how about we do a little Enemy hunting while we’re at it?”

“Ah, in that case, I wanna go check out one of the four great dungeons!” Chiyuri proposed innocently, and the three veteran Burst Linkers fell silent all at once before shaking their heads back and forth, looking serious.

Utai typed out in an excessively stiff motion, UI> IF WE TRIED TO GO IN ALL THE WAY WITH THIS MANY PEOPLE, IT WOULD TAKE AT LEAST SIX MONTHS.

At the same time as the three junior members dropped their jaws in amazement, the clock on the wall hit six forty-five.

They worked together to clear the table, took turns using the restroom, and then moved to the sofa set on the west side of the living room just as the clock hit five minutes till seven.

Looking around at the assembled, Kuroyukihime carried out the final briefing. That said, unlike the previous outing, they didn’t have a particularly detailed plan.

After diving into the Unlimited Neutral Field, Kuroyukihime, Fuko, Chiyuri, and Takumu would move from Suginami to the Chiyoda area and stand by in front of the Castle’s south gate. When Haruyuki and Utai dove, they would appear in the coordinates of the automatic disconnect from the last time—the shrine in the basement of the Castle’s main building—so with the cooperation of the mysterious young samurai avatar Trilead Tetroxide, they would return to the south gate, break the seal, and escape. Working together with Kuroyukihime and the others waiting outside, they would evade the fierce attacks of the God Suzaku and flee to the other side of the large bridge that stretched out from the gate.

Since they couldn’t predict what Suzaku would do, all they could do was play it by ear in the actual moment. However, unlike the last time, when he’d had to collect Ardor Maiden from the ground, this time he just had to flee as fast as he could. The bridge was only five hundred meters long. If things went well, they might be able to charge through before Suzaku finished materializing after detecting the intruders in its territory. No, they’d definitely be able to.

Clenching his fists as he whispered this to himself, Haruyuki suddenly remembered something and looked at Fuko, seated across from him. “That reminds me. What’s Ash going to do? If you’re going to meet up in front of the condo, he’ll have to match the timing here pretty closely.”

“It’s fine. I gave him very strict orders to dive a second before seven,” Fuko responded briskly. And indeed, in that case, it would be impossible to leave Ash waiting for her and the others in vain. Just the opposite, actually. One second in the real world was a thousand seconds in the Accelerated World; in other words, Ash Roller would be waiting in front of the condo for sixteen minutes and forty seconds.

Just like our master—tera nil mercy, he thought secretly, while Chiyuri asked in a slightly concerned tone:

“Isn’t that dangerous? I know it’s only sixteen minutes, but he’ll be all by himself in the Unlimited Neutral Field.”

Fuko smiled gently at Chiyuri’s kindness toward Ash, ostensibly an enemy, as she crisply uttered even more merciless words. “I don’t believe that our dive time has been leaked to the outside, and if, hypothetically, Ash did have the misfortune of being attacked by a large Enemy or a hostile Burst Linker, we’ll have appeared during the hour of regeneration time. We will at the very least avenge him.”

“I guess that makes sense. Okay, if it comes to that, I’ll kick ass, too!” Chiyuri readily agreed with the elder girl, and the two boys felt shivers run up their spines.

And then it was finally one minute before seven.

Their six Neurolinkers were already daisy-chained together with five XSB cables, and they were connected to the Arita home server through the second cable extending from Haruyuki’s neck. All he had to do was press the button displayed in his field of view, and they would all be connected to the global net.

Sitting to his immediate left, Kuroyukihime stared into his eyes and murmured in a gentle, ringing voice, “No matter how many hours, how many days it takes, I’ll be waiting, Haruyuki. For the moment when you and Utai open the Castle gate once more and come flying out.”

“O-okay!” Haruyuki nodded once and then hurriedly shook his head. “N-no! We won’t make you wait that long! At most, five hours—No, we’ll escape in three hours!”

UI> THEN LET’S AIM FOR TWO HOURS. WE HAVE OTHER PLANS AFTERWARD, AFTER ALL, Utai typed in a very Utai-like way. Everyone laughed.

Nodding deeply, Kuroyukihime straightened up resolutely in her seat and shouted, “Well then, I’ll begin the countdown! Ten seconds to acceleration! Eight, seven, six…”

Everyone joined in the countdown with her.

“Five, four, three, two, one!”

“Unlimited Burst!!”