4

“Haannngaaaangh!” After yawning for a full five seconds, Haruyuki glanced at the clock in the lower right of his virtual desktop.

Monday, July 8, 6:50 AM. The weather was slightly overcast, and although it was early, the temperature and humidity were rising rapidly. The gaits of the people plodding toward the station along Kannana Street before him were also heavy somehow.

Haruyuki had left his house an hour earlier than usual to say good-bye to Kuroyukihime and Niko. A few minutes earlier, they had gone off to the north and south in a bus and taxi, respectively, to stop in at home before going to school, and the spontaneous sleepover party/superhard study group came to a close. But he couldn’t deny he was feeling a little sleep deprived after staying up and working hard until two in the morning since Kuroyukihime was taking the trouble to help him.

He’d gotten his things ready for school, thinking he’d just head that way once he saw the girls off, but he considered going back to his house and sleeping for another half an hour. But no, that would be nothing but a drop in the ocean of exhaustion. He agonized over this for a moment before he broke free from the temptation of an early nap and started walking along the sidewalk to the south.

If it had been Tuesday, he would have had his usual morning duel with Ash Roller, so that would’ve woken him right up. But unfortunately, it was Monday. And given that they had taken a break the previous week out of consideration for Rin Kusakabe’s health after she was so recently freed from the mental interference of the ISS kit, tomorrow would be their first duel in a while.

I’m pretty sure I lost the last duel, so Ash’ll be the starter tomorrow. He got me that time by diving into the sand with his bike and launching missiles from beneath my feet. I gotta watch out for that if we get another Desert stage…Haruyuki’s mind was wandering as he turned right on the road beneath the Chuo Line elevated bridge.

“’Sssssssuuuup?!” a forceful voice cried from behind as a hand slapped his back.

“Ouch!” His hanging head snapped upward, and before he even turned around, Haruyuki was shouting the name of the one person who would greet him in such a powerful manner. “Chiyu! Wh-what are you doing?!”

“You were walking like you were all down or whatever, so I just gave you a little pick-me-up!” Puffing out her chest proudly was, as expected, Chiyuri Kurashima. T-shirt on top, sweats on the bottom, large sports bag slung over her shoulder.

“It’s too early in the morning to have that much energy,” he replied in a near whisper before falling in alongside his childhood friend.

Haruyuki had totally forgotten that Chiyuri went to school every morning at about this time for track practice, and he let out a sigh of relief that he hadn’t run into her when he was still with Kuroyukihime and Niko.

But then a question came flying at him. “Haru, something going on today?”

“Huh? Something?”

“It’s just, you usually barely make it before last bell, so why’re you so early?”

“I—I go to school early sometimes, too, you know.”

“Hmmmm.” Her voice was full of suspicion, and when he stole a peek at her face in profile, so was her expression.

He shifted the bag on his shoulder for no reason, and now 100 percent awake, he thought about whether he should change the subject to the final exams or the track meet after that, or even the end of the rainy season forecast for sometime that week…

His life raft dropped down from an entirely unexpected direction.

Skreeeeee!! The sound that filled his head was no doubt acceleration. And then the message that a challenger had appeared showed up in his field of view.

A-a challenger?! But it’s Monday?! Did Rin get the day wrong maybe?! But even if she did, it’s too early…?! Even as half his mind descended into utter confusion, the other half automatically switched into duel mode.

Descending into a virtual darkness, sparks scattering, Haruyuki landed as his duel avatar, Silver Crow, on an excessively elastic ground. Looking around, he saw that the road and buildings were covered in a pattern of squares at a forty-five-degree angle. Each was about eighty centimeters, and the dense tiling made it seem like the world was made of an enormous quilt—no, it was made of an enormous quilt. This was a natural-type, wood-affiliated Buffer stage. Every terrain object was wrapped in thick, sturdy cushions, a rare stage where nothing could be easily broken, and impact damage was minimal. Even the cars driving down Kannana Street were rounded like stuffed animals.

At present, there was no sign of the Gallery on the rooftops. Most likely because it was still early, and it wasn’t a day for the Ash-Crow duels that were so strangely popular.

After checking the situation, Haruyuki turned his attention to the health gauge of the dueler hanging in the upper right of his field of view. If Rin hadn’t gotten the day wrong, then he thought maybe Niko or Kuroyukihime, whom he’d so recently parted with, had challenged him for some reason, but displayed there was an entirely unexpected avatar name.

CHOCOLATE PUPPETEER. Level five.

“Ch-chocolate—I mean, Chocolat Puppeter?!”

Haruyuki’s shock was amplified by a voice behind him.

“Choco?! Why?!”

“Whoa?!” Leaping back, Haruyuki met the exasperated gaze of the Watch Witch, Lime Bell, in her yellow-green pointed hat.

“I was standing right next to you. Why’re you so surprised?”

“U-uh, I never thought you’d be in the Gallery…”

“We’re both on each other’s lists. You should be surprised if I wasn’t here. And, like, why are you getting challenged when we’re in our territory?”

“Oh, uh. I’ve been leaving it set to open to challenges just when I go to school so that I don’t deny Rin—I mean, Ash.”

“Mmm-hmmmmm.” Although she really stretched the Mm out, Chiyuri seemed to accept this explanation, fortunately, and turned her gaze back to the challenger’s health gauge. “She’s gone up to level five from level four. But it’s definitely Choco, huh? We met her in Setagaya the week before last.”

“Yeah…” He nodded but couldn’t say anything more.

Chocolat Puppeter was a Burst Linker Haruyuki and Chiyuri had encountered when they visited Setagaya Area No. 2 of the Unlimited Neutral Field, the Master of a small Legion called Petit Paquet. But at the time, her Legion members, Mint Mitten and Plum Flipper, had been infected with ISS kits by Magenta Scissor, whose stronghold was in Setagaya. When Magenta came to infect Chocolat as well, she and Haruyuki fought, and after a difficult battle with her scissor technique, he managed to get her to retreat. After that, Chiyuri had purified the ISS kits parasitizing Mint and Plum with her Citron Call, and the three members of Petit Paquet had gone back to being friends. So why was Chocolat here in Suginami and challenging Haruyuki, to boot?

“No way. Choco’s got an ISS kit…,” Chiyuri wondered aloud hoarsely.

“There’s no way!” Haruyuki shook his head forcefully. “The ISS kits have been destroyed. It’s not possible for anyone new to be infected now!”

As he shouted, he stared toward the south indicated by the guide cursor displayed in the lower part of his field of view, as if he could devour it with his gaze.

The ground and buildings of a Buffer stage were a uniformly bright color, off-white or beige, or maybe light gray to light brown. So Chocolat Puppeter and her dark-brown body should have stood out, but he couldn’t catch sight of her.

Most likely, she’d challenged him because Suginami Area No. 2 was near the border of Petit Paquet’s headquarters, in Setagaya Area No. 2. In which case, it would still be a while until they made contact, given that she had no high-speed movement abilities.

“What’re you gonna do, Crow?” Chiyuri asked anxiously.

Haruyuki took a deep breath. “Fretting over every little thing here won’t change anything. I’ll decide what to do when I encounter her. If she is actually infected with a kit, then I’ll think of some way to purify her. I’ll probably want your help then, Bell, so get ready for that at least.”

“…Right. Got it.” Chiyuri nodded forcefully, sounding even more anxious, and Haruyuki walked over to the corner of the overhead bridge nearby. He tried punching it, this thing covered in an enormous quilt.

His avatar’s fist sank deeply into the thick cushion but was soon enough repelled with a bounce. There was basically no damage to the synthetic leather-like surface, either.

“Building up my special-attack gauge with terrain destruction’s a no-go, huh…?” He sighed.

“I’ve never seen this stage before, either, but I heard you can’t break the terrain with a gun or a sword or a drill, either.”

“So then, physical attacks are basically null,” Haruyuki responded, and Chiyuri was about to say something in response when she suddenly disappeared without a sound.

Disconnection? —No. The guide cursor had also similarly disappeared. Which meant that Chocolat Puppeter had gotten to within ten meters of him, even though he’d thought she was still far-off, to the point that Lime Bell in the Gallery had been forcibly teleported. But where exactly was Chocolat? Haruyuki wondered, looking around.

And then a small silhouette jumped down next to him from the roof of a stuffed bus driving along Kannana Street, bouncing fiercely off the ground to hit a nearby building and then bounce once again before somersaulting through the air and coming to stand before Haruyuki. Even after these acrobatics, she appeared to take absolutely no damage.

Bonnet-style hat with a large brim. Flared skirt spreading out in all directions. And smooth chocolate-colored armor. There was no doubt this was Chocolat Puppeter.

“……!”

Quickly dropping into a fighting stance, Haruyuki stared at Chocolat’s chest armor hard enough to burn a hole in it. If she had been parasitized by an ISS kit, there’d be a repulsive black eyeball enshrined there. But Chocolat’s armor was fairly dark to start with, and he couldn’t immediately detect the presence of a kit. Straining his eyes, Haruyuki inched closer.

As if in reaction to this, Chocolat brought her hands up in a ready position.

He gritted his teeth—she was getting mental interference then. But at that moment, a shrill shout pierced his ears.

“Wh-what are you doing, you creep?!”

“C…c-creep?” Haruyuki hurriedly lifted his eyes.

Chocolat covered her chest with one hand while she snapped the index finger of her other in his direction. “I went to all the trouble of coming to you, and then the second you meet me, you’re staring there of all places. Disgusting! I’ve lost all hope, Silver Crow!”

“Wh—? N-no…!” Haruyuki hurriedly waved his hands and shook his head, but further abuse rained down on him from somewhere up above.

“That’s riiiight! Total perrrv!”

“They’ll be calling you Silver Perv from now on!”

Lifting his gaze to find out just who from where was trying to give him the worst nickname in all of history, he found three figures on top of one of the buildings on either side of Kannana Street.

To the far left from Haruyuki’s point of view was a bright, light-blue F-type avatar with large mittens: Petit Paquet’s Mint Mitten. In the center was an F-type avatar with something like enormous candies stuffed into both hands and feet. Given the reddish-purple armor, this was Petit Paquet’s second member, Plum Flipper. And then on the right was the cheeky figure of Lime Bell.

“I-I’m not a creep or a perv or anything! I was just worried you were infected with an ISS kit, Choco…”

“There’s no way!” She jabbed her finger at him in the air again. “And you’re acting far too familiar by calling me that!”

“You said I could call you Choco, didn’t you?!” Haruyuki protested once again.

“I…I did, but…”

“And I think you’d actually read that avatar name as Chocolate Puppeteer instead of Chocolat Puppeter!”

“Y-you just be quiet! Chocolat is cuter, and Puppeter is easier to say. Do you have some kind of problem with that?!” Chocolat threw her arms up in the air, and Haruyuki suddenly returned to the point at hand.

He focused once more on Chocolat’s mostly flat chest armor, but he couldn’t find anything that looked like an ISS kit. And her behavior didn’t seem to indicate she was experiencing mental interference, either. But then…

“I—I don’t have any problems with that, but…Choco, so then, why did you suddenly challenge me first thing in the morning? I mean, you guys have school today, too, right?”

“That…” Chocolat started to say something but then snapped her mouth shut firmly before jabbing a finger at Haruyuki once more. “I will tell you that when I win!”