4

The battlefield was a Century End stage again, dotted with a nightscape of abandoned buildings lit up by fires. Haruyuki made his small avatar even smaller and concealed himself on the pedestrian bridge running over Kannana.

During the previous fight, he had been too freaked out, so he hadn’t noticed that in addition to the remaining time and the health gauge, a small light blue triangle was displayed in his field of vision. It was a guide cursor roughly indicating the direction of the enemy.

The triangle merely wavered as it hovered due north Haruyuki’s position along the wide road. Even so, Haruyuki knew his enemy, Ash Roller, was definitely not just twiddling his thumbs somewhere off over the horizon. He was most likely making a beeline right for him. The cursor didn’t go so far as to tell him the distance.

In his head, he went over the walkthrough Kuroyukihime had sent.

After going over the information you gave me, I’ve determined that Ash Roller has two significant weak points. The first is that he makes a great deal of noise when he moves.

That was definitely true. If he had been paying proper attention to his surroundings last time, he would’ve been able to hear the enormous roar of the gasoline engine from a ways off. He couldn’t make that mistake again. He held his breath and strained his ears.

There it was!

An overbearing, thunderous sound made its way into his head, although the cursor still didn’t waver. Ash Roller sounded like he was racing down deserted Kannana Road with the engine open full throttle. No doubt he was enjoying himself. If he rode a bike in real life, too, it was probably a low-powered electric scooter that crawled forward in the usual heavy traffic on this road. And if his challenger happened to be the newb he had completely crushed that same morning, all the better.

But this time, you at least won’t get a perfect win. Because the first attack is mine.

Haruyuki gritted his teeth and glared at the blue cursor.

As before, it was still pointing due south, but he could tell how close his enemy was by the sound of the engine. However, his opponent shouldn’t have been able to do the same. Given that he was approaching at a high speed in a straight line, the direction of Haruyuki’s cursor would only change the instant they were already entangled.

Flat on his stomach against the pedestrian bridge, Haruyuki stared intently at the hill leading down toward Koenji Station. The explosive noise gradually grew louder until he could feel it shaking his body.

And then Haruyuki saw him.

The bike’s headlight was off, of course, but he was sure he saw the red reflection of the bonfire flames shimmer across the chrome. Fifteen—no, ten seconds until he made it to the intersection at the top of the hill.

Haruyuki would only have this one chance for a surprise attack. But the only weapons he had were his normal Punch and Kick attacks. Which meant he had no choice but to jump from the bridge and slam his entire body into the rider.

Too scary. I can’t actually do that. Haruyuki cursed in his heart the version of himself who allowed this thought to flicker through his head. Don’t be stupid. The me right now isn’t overweight, thirteen-year-old Haruyuki Arita; I’m the Burst Linker Silver Crow. And this isn’t the real world, it’s a virtual game field. I’ve given this world everything, all my time, my passion. To the point where this basically is reality for me. In which case, I can’t lose. Better—this time, the easy win’ll be mine, you stupid skullhead!

“Aaaaaah!” Haruyuki screamed and yanked himself to his feet, taking the iron rail in one step to leap over the edge.

The task of jumping from high up and landing a kick on the rider of a motorbike flying along at more than a hundred kilometers an hour was next to impossible, probably even more impossible than Haruyuki thought.

But given that Haruyuki had spent so much time so focused on hitting a nearly invisible ball in virtual squash, Ash Roller’s skull helmet was too big a target to miss. Thrusting his right leg out into the air and controlling his posture with his arms splayed, Haruyuki became a silver arrow, shooting forward.

“Ohwaa?!”

He thought he heard a faint voice beneath the helmet’s visor, but at that moment, Haruyuki’s silver-armored heel slammed into its mark, right in the center of the skull.

Crrrrrrunch!! With an incredible detonation, cracks pierced the center of the visor shooting outward. The rider’s head snapped back, and Haruyuki slid over his face before crashing into the asphalt and tumbling forward. His head spun momentarily, but he was quick to raise his eyes and check the damage behind him.

The motorbike careened off diagonally to the right, large sparks flying from the front and rear brake rotors, before finally crashing to a stop in a pile of rubble on the shoulder. The rider’s body slammed into the tank, while the engine shut off with a pathetic clicking noise.

“…I—I did it,” Haruyuki murmured, clenching his fist before checking their health gauges.

Silver Crow’s was down about 5 percent, appropriate damage for a drop from high up. In contrast, Ash Roller was naturally seriously hurt; with both the flying kick and the crash, it looked like he had taken considerable damage. More than 20 percent had been shaved off his gauge, which was now slightly purple.

His first attack was basically a total success. But this wasn’t the time to sit and bathe in the lingering sweetness of the critical hit.

Standing up, he set his sights on the five-story building on the left side of the road that he had scoped out in advance, and he started running. According to Kuroyukihime, since the road was the main field in the Century End stage, you couldn’t enter the buildings. But that didn’t mean you couldn’t use a building’s external stairs.

The half-ruined stairs seemed to have been attached to the wall as almost an afterthought. Leaping onto them, Haruyuki sped up to the roof in one go.

Ash Roller’s second weak point. The majority of his avatar’s potential is tied up in the bike. The rider’s battle power should be essentially zero. Which is why, after you strike in your initial attack, you move to the roof of a building his bike can’t climb.

This was the battle strategy Kuroyukihime had given Haruyuki.

If he climbed the stairs while ahead damage-wise, all he had to do was wait for the time to be up and he’d win. Even if the rider got off his bike and came up, he could easily beat him up with Punch and Kick. Depending on your point of view, this was perhaps a cowardly strategy. But the truth was, Haruyuki loved this style of winning, the clever assault at an opponent’s weak points. In fact, he even thought that this path to victory was the true nature of gaming.

Haruyuki moved to the edge of the rooftop as he plotted and tried to pay back in spades the sneering laughter Ash Roller had dealt him that morning. Peering down, he saw that the rider had finally managed to restart the engine of the crashed bike. The machine, idling raspily as if out of breath, pulled itself out from the rubble.

As he wondered what sort of challenge he should issue, Haruyuki heard a voice whispering somewhere, “Wow, he can play after all, that little guy.”

“Totally different from this morning, huh? Wonder who his ‘parent’ is.”

Turning his eyes, he saw silhouettes sitting a little ways off on the roofs of buildings around him, on the edge of an enormous water tank, looking down at him. The Gallery.

Because Burst Linker fights lasted at most a mere one-point-eight seconds in the real world, you wouldn’t make it in time if you accelerated once a fight had begun. So the game allowed you to register the names of friends and Burst Linkers you were interested in, so that when any of those people started to fight, you would also automatically accelerate and dive into the battlefield, where you could watch. In this case, none of your points were consumed.

Looking around, Haruyuki could make out figures who had come to loiter on rooftops and the road here and there while his attention had been on Ash Roller. Since there was no reason for them to have marked Haruyuki, they were likely Linkers who had registered his opponent’s name. However, there should have been one person among them in the Gallery who had checked Silver Crow’s name. Black Lotus, i.e., Kuroyukihime.

Whirling his head around, wondering where she was, Haruyuki saw one of the two sitting on the tank wave a hand lightly at him.

“If you win this Duel, I’ll put you on my list, too. Good luck, kid!”

“Well, I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as all that.”

To the other person, Haruyuki responded in his heart, Sorry, but you’re not going to get any more big-show stuff. We’ll prob’ly just time out. With that thought, he shrugged lightly and refocused his attention on the road.

And froze in astonishment.

In no time at all, Ash Roller’s bike, which had been nothing more than a speck in the distance below him, had its front wheel up against the building wall.

Hey…what do you think you’re doing?

The reply was a shrill cry of rage. “You really think you’re something, huh, baldy!! I’ll make you dance to the sound of my V-twin!!” The engine roared furiously, and puffs of exhaust rose from the chrome muffler. The enormous American bike then began to storm straight up the wall.

“Gah…”

Widening his eyes beneath his silver mask, Haruyuki pulled back a step. A scant two seconds. The bike flew past the iron rail, so close he could practically touch it if he reached out, bringing the roaring and the smell of burning with it. The engine raced, growling thunderously, and the bike, having flown up nearly two meters past the top of the roof, turned to aim at Haruyuki and started to drop.

“Aaaah!!” Panicking, he dashed a few more steps backward.

The rear tire hit the concrete roof with a tremendous crash. Cracks spread out radially from the impact, and several shards flew up and hit Haruyuki’s armor. Instantly, his health gauge dropped, although by a mere dot, and Haruyuki was surprised again.

In an ordinary fighting game, damage could occur only in ways prescribed by the system. Brain Burst really wasn’t any ordinary game. There was a degree of realism in the high-level graphics and sound, and the persistence of the effects, to the point where you couldn’t really distinguish it from reality.

This had to be the key to winning fights in this world.

Burning this into his mind, Haruyuki looked up at his enemy, who had far more experience than he did.

Standing the bike up deftly, Ash Roller glanced down at Haruyuki and started to talk in a high-pitched, metallic voice. “Tell you what, kid, taking you down this morning finally pushed my awesomeness over three hundred points. Made it to level two.”

The skull visor on the gunmetal helmet had been smashed in, revealing part of his bare face. Haruyuki had thought whatever face was under that skull would have to be terrifying, but it was more science-club style, the thin lines of a boy’s face.

The duel avatar is a manifestation of your inferiority complex. Kuroyukihime’s words flickered to life in the back of his mind.

Ash Roller, stiffening his thin lips into something approximating a smile, revved the engine once before continuing. “And I was having suuuuuch trouble deciding on my level-up bonus, you know? In the end, I ditched the bonuses to my special attack and my riding speed and went with the ability to drive up walls, get it? And damn, I was so right!” He took his hands off the handlebars and pointed both index fingers sharply at Haruyuki. “And yoooouuu are hella unlucky!”

Haruyuki cursed in his head, but he wasn’t simply standing there listening quietly to his enemy. He was staring intently at his surroundings, remembering the mail Kuroyukihime had sent, and using every bit of knowledge he had to try and find some way out of this situation.

If your initial attack and escape fails, and you have to fight Ash Roller on his bike face-to-face, I’m sorry to say your chances of winning are quite small. Because—

Kuroyukihime had followed that with an explanation of duel avatar “compatibility.”

The English names automatically given to the Burst Linkers always included a color word. This color offered a rough grasp of the features of the particular duel avatar.

Blues were short-distance direct attacks, reds were long-distance direct attacks, yellows were intermediate attacks. Intermediate colors like purple or green had characteristics straddling two color types. In addition to colors on the color wheel were the metallic colors, set aside with metal names, which excelled in defensive abilities rather than attacks.

The metallic colors, including your silver, are fairly rare, but are also a strong color line. They have the ability to endure amputation, piercing, fire, and poison attacks, and given their hard bodies, their abilities in terms of close-range attack are certainly not insignificant. But, of course, they have weak points. Corrosion attacks are their natural enemy, with another weakness being strike attacks.

Kuroyukihime, analyzing Silver Crow’s attributes, also went on to list the characteristics of Ash Roller, who she had presumably never seen.

In contrast, the “ash” in Ash Roller is a color belonging more to blue than green on the color circle. The low saturation indicates the peculiarity of his attack. Since his tires are not an obvious weapon, it’s hard to tell, but most likely, his attribute is a close-range strike type. In other words, your armor is very nearly useless against Ash Roller’s charge. So there’s just one response in the event you end up in a face-to-face battle.

Run for your life for the entire remaining time.

Easier said.

Despairingly, Haruyuki checked the size of the building. Both width- and height-wise, it was no more than twenty meters. Kuroyukihime’s evasion strategy was based naturally enough on a battle on the wide, deserted Kannana and didn’t take into account a scenario where the motorcycle climbed walls.

All of which meant that Haruyuki had inadvertently fled to a disadvantageous position all on his own.

Given the bike’s thrust, running for the emergency stairs was pointless. Should he jump from the roof and just take the damage? But if his gauge dipped lower than Ash Roller’s, everything up to now would have been for nothing.

A triumphant mounted knight, his opponent laughed ringingly at Haruyuki rooted in place, unable to think of a way out. “Ha-ha-ha-ha! No fight left in you, baldy boy? Well then, allow me!!”

The internal combustion machine screamed and blue smoke rose up from the racing rear tire. The front tire made contact with the ground with a thud, and the enormous bike charged, the rider’s sights set on Haruyuki.

“Aaah!” he screamed, leaping to the right, but there was just too little distance between them. The tire grazed the tip of his foot, and his health gauge dropped abruptly. Simultaneous with the shock of the impact, an instant pain danced across Haruyuki’s nerves.

But re-creating the sensation of pain in a virtual game had supposedly been prohibited by law ages ago. This really wasn’t just a bit of fun. The battle was virtual, but real at the same time.

The bike turned on a dime about three meters away, screeching deafeningly, preparing to charge again.

Anything! There has to be something! Some secret trick to totally turn the tables, to come back from the dead—

Right, the special attack!

Even if it was called the prosaic Head Butt, it might have the power to crush rocks or something. Haruyuki allowed himself this sliver of hope and quickly crossed both arms in front of his body exactly like the silhouette in the instructions. Next, he opened his arms wide and threw his upper body back as hard as he could.

Along with a vaguely dull vrooming sound effect, Haruyuki was conscious of the fact that his shiny head was starting to glow with a white radiance. Impressed murmurs rose up from the surrounding Gallery.

You can do this!!

Confident, Haruyuki glared at the enormous bike headed right for him. “Aaaaaah!!” Screaming, he aimed his shining head at the bike headlight and thrust.

Long before he could hit his mark, he was struck by the tough tire and knocked on his back, opening up a human-shaped hole in the concrete. The light effect on his head disappeared into space and his special-attack gauge alone dropped to empty.

A burst of laughter from the Gallery shook the stage. Amidst the laughter, the murmuring of one person reached his ears. “Too bad, looks like this is the end.”

Haruyuki’s entire being was wrapped tightly in the familiar warmth of humiliation.

Dammit. Damn. I’m supposed to be the hero in virtual games. My character’s too weak. I mean, a special attack that’s just some Head Butt that doesn’t even hit the target! I’m done for.

He managed to stand but crumpled again abruptly. As he moved to sit down, he saw off in the distance, on the roof of a remarkably tall building, a silhouette standing tall and staring right at him. Hair in thick rolls swaying in the night wind. Soft dress. Almost-transparent butterfly wings.

He couldn’t see the expression on this shadow’s face, the size of a grain of rice. However, Haruyuki felt its fierce energy.

No. You can’t give up. If you have to lose, then struggle, fight, make it ugly. If you can’t do at least that much, you can’t even be her pawn.

Brushing aside his humiliation, Haruyuki mobilized every bit of knowledge and experience he had and thought intently.

Virtual while real. That was Brain Burst’s major feature. Overwhelming detail and reality. In which case, Ash Roller’s bike wasn’t just a bunch of polygons. There had to be a weak point in that meticulous reproduction.

The bike. The main bit, the gasoline engine from the last century—what’s that about? Noisy. Stinks like gas. Those would be weak points before you actually ran into it, but they don’t matter now.

It can’t move when it runs out of gas. If I made a hole in the tank—No, I can’t pull off that kind of pinpointed attack.

Isn’t there anything else? Anything—

The bike, whirling around and leaving a trail of burnt rubber under the rear tire, turned its shining yellow eye on Haruyuki for the third time.

In that instant, Haruyuki swallowed sharply. Got it. That’s it. The main feature of an internal combustion engine bike and its weak point.

“Yeaaaaah! Ha-ha-ha-ha!! Dance for me!!” Screaming, the iron horse began to run.

Just one time is enough. Move, Silver Crow. Faster than that guy. Haruyuki clenched his teeth and glared at the charging bike. Right. No matter how fast he goes, it’s not going to be so fast I can’t see him. I’ll make a show of trying to avoid him, just barely dodge him.

Gathering his powers of concentration, Haruyuki slid a mere fifty centimeters to the right when he was on the verge of being sent flying again. The tip of the handlebar brushed against him, and Ash Roller passed in front of him.

Instantly, Haruyuki stretched out both hands and, bracing himself for damage, grabbed the edge of the black fender covering the bike’s rear tire. The shock threatened to rip his fingers loose, while sparks flew from every joint in his arms, and his health gauge dipped lightly.

The bike slowed a little. Haruyuki didn’t let the chance slip by, digging both legs into the floor, putting all his energy into throwing his body backward. His steel feet crunched as they shaved concrete off the ground, and his gauge continued to drop.

“Whoo-hoo!!” Looking over his shoulder, Ash Roller let loose with a loud laugh. “Stuuuuuupid!! As if an insect like you could stop my monster machine!!”

The rider’s boots kicked the foot pedal hard. Black leather gloves twisted the throttle. The engine screamed and roared, and flames shot out of the muffler. The impressive torque of the American bike worked its magic, and the machine started to accelerate again, dragging Haruyuki along.

“Zoooooowwwwww!!” As he listened to the incredibly abrasive sound of the bottoms of his own feet screeching along, Haruyuki let out a scream, overcome with pain and heat almost like his feet were being shaved off with a rough file; no, it was exactly like that.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha! You don’t let go soon, you’re gonna be at zero in no time!!” Over Ash Roller’s triumphant voice was a grating metallic noise. Both of Haruyuki’s feet were completely red, overheating, and his health gauge was dropping so fast, it was scary.

But he didn’t let go. Gritting his teeth under his silver mask and fighting to endure the painful heat, he continued to simply dangle from the tail of the bike.

If it were the surface of Kannana Road below them, Silver Crow’s small body might have become scrap iron and turned to dust soon enough, just as Ash Roller said. But in the limited space of the abandoned building’s roof, Ash Roller couldn’t run in a straight line forever.

The low railing drew near before his eyes, and the skull rider leaned on the bike with a strange whoop before entering a spin turn. Sparks flew from the brake rotors, and white smoke rose up from the fat tires.

“Ngaaah!” Haruyuki tried desperately to hold on as he was nearly thrown in the centrifugal force.

Just a little more. In half a second, my first and last chance is going to come.

The engine rpm dropped, and the bike ended the spin and went to commence its mad dash anew. Immediately before it could, for the tiniest sliver of time, the soles of Silver Crow’s feet gripped the ground solidly.

“Aaaaaaah!!” Haruyuki screamed. At the same time, he dug deep for every bit of strength he could muster and yanked the fender he was gripping with both hands straight up into the air. His knees, elbows, and shoulders all sparked, and his health gauge, which had dropped to about 20 percent, was eaten down to its last 10 percent, but his thin arms bore the enormous load, stretched out in front of him.

A tenth of a second later, the fat rear tire raced fiercely, but the kinetic energy could not be transformed into propulsive force. Because, although just barely, the tread had been separated from the ground.

“Uh…uh?!” Ash Roller cried, straddling the seat with his back to Haruyuki. Apparently flustered, he jerked his right arm two, then three times. Each time, the engine roared and the rear wheel raced frantically. But the steel machine didn’t move a centimeter.

This was the weak point Haruyuki had picked up on. Unlike electric motorcycles, which were equipped with motors in the front and rear wheels, the internal combustion engine motorcycles of the previous era only drove the rear wheel using a chain connected to the engine. It would have been absolutely impossible for him to lift the entire bike, but stiffening his metallic robot avatar and just bringing up the rear a tiny bit was something he could do for at least an hour.

“Y-you! Come on!! Drop it, stupid!!”

Haruyuki looked up at Ash Roller, twisting his body and yelling over his shoulder. And then, even though his opponent likely couldn’t see, he smiled complacently. “Nah. If you’re really stuck, try making your front wheel turn.”

Having returned to the unaccelerated world, Haruyuki inhaled deeply in the afternoon sun before exhaling slowly. Given that the fight had been decided with the counter still at 600, he calculated that no more than a second or so had gone by in the real world. But the palms of his hands were dripping with sweat and cold to the point of being numb.

As he pushed the button on his Neurolinker to disconnect from the global net with a stiff finger, he was suddenly hit sharply on his back.

“Hey! You did it, Silver Crow! To be honest, I thought you were done for.”

Turning around, he found Kuroyukihime’s pretty face, complete with a rare, bright smile. It was only natural, since they had accelerated standing next to each other outside the school gate, but in the stage, she had been watching the battle from the roof of a building in the distance, so he was slightly confused.

That was the real distance between us. Don’t go getting any ideas, he told himself as he returned her smile awkwardly. “I—I thought I was done for, too.”

“Don’t be modest. That was an amazing win. I hadn’t given any thought to the internal structure of Ash Roller’s bike at all. That was probably the first time that weak point had been attacked, thanks to that burst of power from your avatar. In any case, you certainly did get your points back.”

“I got more than that. Twenty points were added to my total; he was at level two.”

Kuroyukihime blinked in surprise, the smile on her face quickly becoming even wider, and she hit Haruyuki on the shoulder again. “Ha-ha-ha! He was? So that’s why he could ride up the wall like that.”

“It’s not funny. I was totally terrified.”

“Hee-hee-hee, no, I’m sorry. But, well, that did allow you to win in an interesting, cool way, didn’t it? I overheard members of the Gallery talking, and apparently, you’re the first one to attack Ash Roller like that. It was a magnificent win.”

“U-uh-huh.”

After spending about five minutes stubbornly yelling and screaming from on top of his bike, drive wheel up in the air and going nowhere, Ash Roller finally climbed down.

Haruyuki leapt forward immediately, as if the chance might slip away, and shifted the conflict to an intimate hand-to-hand combat, swinging his fists, silver like his name, to win handily.

“Punch and Kick are starting to look better and better somehow. As for Head Butt, at any rate, with a more orthodox hand-to-hand-type opponent, you won’t have to deal with that delay. But how long are we going to stand here talking?”

At Kuroyukihime’s question, he looked around again and discovered students on their way home walking along or stopping and staring openly and curiously at the two of them in front of the school gates.

Shrinking his body with a start, as if to hide himself in his own shadow, Haruyuki saw Chiyuri’s face in the circle of people and stopped breathing. Reflexively, he turned his face away abruptly.

The memory of fleeing from Chiyuri and Takumu the day before was still fresh. After going and doing that, even though he still hadn’t apologized for the sandwich thing, he didn’t have the slightest idea how he was even supposed to start trying to fix things.

No. It’s not my fault. It’s Chiyuri’s fault. I mean, I told her I don’t know how many times to keep it quiet, and she went and told Takumu anyway. I didn’t ask them to pity me or feel sorry for me.

“What should we do?” Kuroyukihime said somewhat doubtfully to Haruyuki as he cast his eyes downward obstinately. “If we’re going to go somewhere else, there’s that cafe over there. Hm? You—”

“What do you want with Haru?”

Haruyuki jumped at Chiyuri’s voice, suddenly so close. Lifting his face with a start, his eyes flew to his childhood friend arching her small body fiercely and confronting Kuroyukihime. Thick eyebrows fixed at an angle that only Haruyuki knew indicated maximum competitiveness, Chiyuri continued argumentatively in a low voice, “The reason Haru got into that fight yesterday was because of your meddling, wasn’t it? And yet here you are again, making a spectacle of him like this. What do you want? Is this fun for you?”

Eeep. What is this, what is going on, what am I supposed to do here?

His entire body paralyzed, the situation having surpassed his capacity to deal with it, Haruyuki tried to move his frozen mouth. “H-hey, Chiyu—”

“Shut up, Haru!!” She shot him a look that had been carved into his memory since infancy, and Haruyuki had no choice but to stand at attention and stay silent as her former subordinate.

Even faced with the superheated Chiyuri beam, Kuroyukihime showed her usual composure and tilted her head ever so slightly, cool smile on her lips. “Hmm. I don’t quite understand. Are you saying that I am playing around, that I am doing something Arita is not happy with?”

“Aren’t you? Haru hates this kind of thing, standing out so much, being stared at. He’s been seriously bothered this whole time, although I suppose you can’t tell.”

“Hmm, I see. It’s true that I may have placed Arita in a situation not entirely to his liking. However, I believe that choosing or not choosing is up to him. I wonder if you have any right to be saying anything here?”

“I do. I’ve been friends with Haru longer than anyone at this school.”

“My! Friends…hm?” Hearing Chiyuri’s proclamation, the chilliest Kuroyukihime smile rose up on her beautifully pale face. “In that case, I rank somewhat higher. You may have heard the rumors, but I confessed my crush to him and am currently awaiting a reply. We were just about to go on a short date.”

Gaaaah. I can’t can’t, this is the end of the world, no choice but to change schools tomorrow.

Chiyuri and everyone around them froze almost like when he was accelerated. Haruyuki also froze in an unnatural position, just his sweat in motion, pouring off his face.

In the silence, Kuroyukihime pulled a snow-white handkerchief from her uniform pocket. “He’s a strange one. Almost winter and yet…” After wiping away Haruyuki’s sweat, she hooked her arm tightly through his right elbow. “Now then, farewell, Miss Friend.”

And she began walking forward through the students to their left and right, almost as if walking a red carpet, dragging Haruyuki’s large body with her.

Dragged along and facing backward, Haruyuki watched in terror as the face of his childhood companion changed from dumbfounded shock to the brink of detonation, anger gauge three times above capacity.

*  *  *

“I—I—I know I’m repeating myself, but…wh-what are you thinking?!” Haruyuki shouted and finally ripped his arm free of Kuroyukihime after they had left the main road and entered a brick-paved back lane. “L-l-l-let me just tell you, there are some things in this world that can’t be fixed by acceleration!!”

“A-ha-ha-ha-ha!” Kuroyukihime laughed delightedly from her belly. “Ha-ha-ha! And you’ve already arrived at the very heart of the Burst Linker! Isn’t that lovely?”

“It’s not! Not at all! If I stop coming to school, it’s all your fault!”

“Now, now, you didn’t look entirely displeased, you know. I also managed to get the perfect screenshot this time, too. Want to see?”

“I do not! Please throw it away!!”

“Hee-hee-hee…” Kuroyukihime continued laughing for a while, shoulders shaking slightly, as the heels of her loafers hit the wear-resistant brick surface of the road with a biting sound. Finally, she recomposed her face, exhaling softly, and continued. “I’m a little concerned. Or rather, there’s something I’d like to confirm.”

“Huh? Concerned? You mean, about Chiyuri?”

“Oh? You’re on a first-name basis?”

“Oh! Uh, no, it’s Kurashima, Chiyuri Kurashima, grade seven, class one.”

“I know. Although this is the first time I’ve heard about her being your best friend. What I really want to know, though, is…are you really just plain old friends?”

Bathed in her suspicious gaze, Haruyuki bounced his head fiercely up and down. “We are. Childhood friends, stuck-with-each-other kind of thing…I mean, she has a boyfriend.”

“Oh? Even still…no…mm. Hmmmm.”

“What’s ‘hmmmm’?”

“Oh, nothing. I just saw again the depths of the real world.”

“Uh…uh-huh.” Not understanding, he swallowed a sigh and asked something that had been bugging him for a while. “Um…before, did you say you already knew Chiyuri’s name?”

“Yes, I did. Quite coincidentally, I’ve been paying attention to her for different reasons than I have been you.”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“I can’t explain it in just a few words. It’s directly connected to why I came to invite you to the accelerated world. Anyway, let’s discuss it at length over tea. It’s my treat, a celebration of your victory,” Kuroyukihime said as she changed direction, stepping toward the branch of a coffee-shop chain, which was apparently the destination she’d had in mind right from the start.

Maybe because the afternoon was still young, fortunately, the shop had only a smattering of customers. As soon as Kuroyukihime stepped through the door, though, Haruyuki felt those few gazes locked onto them. It made him afraid to keep going.

Even at the best of times, Haruyuki had never done anything even remotely close to having tea alone with a girl on his way home from school. Indeed, he had never done anything like this in his life, and his brain immediately overloaded. He ordered a large, sweet drink almost automatically, quietly allowed himself to let her pay, and staggered to a table in the back. As he inserted the cable she produced, he thought, Whoa! What’s going on? This is almost like a real date—

Prob’ly doesn’t look like that, though. I mean, the two of us? Older sister, little brother? No, mistress and flunky?

“I know what you’re thinking, you know.” She scowled lightly, and he hurriedly sipped at his sweet, caramel-flavored concoction.

“N-no. It’s nothing. Anyway, before…The reason you invited me to the accelerated world—”

“Don’t be in such a hurry. It’s…a long story.” After gracefully raising her not-very-sweet-looking drink to her lips, Kuroyukihime rested her chin in her hand with a short sigh.

In the pale yellow light coming in through the window, she looked like something out of some old foreign movie while nevertheless remaining a uniformed junior high school student, and Haruyuki was unconsciously struck dumb. It was almost like he was sitting in front of an old projector screen with a direct cable stretching out from it. He’d been spacing out like this for who knew how long when Kuroyukihime suddenly rapped his right hand on the table, and he nearly flew out of his seat.

“Anyway, you really did great back there. Let me congratulate you on your victory once again, Haruyuki.”

“Uh, thanks. Thank you. It’s because of all your advice.”

“No, it was your own resourcefulness. If you keep it up, you’ll be level two in no time. You might even make it up to three before the end of the year.”

“Uh…uh. Honestly, I can’t even imagine that…” He had only just barely snatched up his first victory. The idea of having to win dozens more fights like that in the future made his mind go blank.

The smile disappeared abruptly from Kuroyukihime’s face, and she nodded as if reading Haruyuki’s thoughts. “Mm. In fact, the road ahead is unimaginably long. Of the estimated thousand Burst Linkers, the number of those who have been raised to level four is fairly limited. Getting to five or six is nearly impossible in solo play. And it’s no mistake to assume that level-seven and -eight Burst Linkers are all commanders of enormous groups.”

“G-groups?”

“Like the guilds or teams you often see in other online games. We are army corps. Called Legions. The current accelerated world is split into and ruled by six enormous Legions. And commanding these are the only six Burst Linkers who have reached level nine. Named Blue, Red, Yellow, Green, Purple, and White, they are the Six Kings of Pure Color!” Her voice, suddenly sharp like a knife, echoed in his brain, and Haruyuki opened his eyes wide. Conscious of his gaze, Kuroyukihime fluttered her eyelids briefly and gave a faintly bitter smile. “I’m sorry for yelling.”

“It’s fine…but, so, six people?” He was surprised there were even as many as a thousand Burst Linkers, but he could only be baffled that so few had made it to level nine. “I’ve played a lot of different net games, but I’ve never heard of so few players reaching the level cap.”

“Must feel incredible,” Haruyuki murmured jealously, and Kuroyukihime, listening to him, raised a single eyebrow and shook her head.

“I didn’t say that level nine was the limit.”

“Huh? Th-then there’s a level ten, too? How many people…?”

Her response was another dismissive gesture. Kuroyukihime took another sip of coffee, her seat back making a faint noise as she turned her attention out to space. Pulling at her motion, the direct cable shook, shining silver between them.

“Brain Burst…Formally titled Brain Burst 2039, the program was released seven years ago by an unknown maker and has already been updated several times. However, despite the fact that so much time has passed, there is not a single Burst Linker who has reached level ten. The sole reason is…the severity of the dictated rules.”

“Do you mean you have to win an incredible amount of fights? Like a thousand or…ten thousand?”

“No, just five is sufficient.” A slightly dangerous smile flitted across the lips pronouncing this unexpected revelation. “However, for this purpose, you may only fight another level nine Linker. And if you lose once in a level-nine battle, you instantly lose all your points, and Brain Burst is forcefully uninstalled.” Kuroyukihime turned her pitch-black eyes on her speechless companion. “Haruyuki. Don’t you think it’s strange that Brain Burst, which makes possible the marvelous phenomenon of accelerated thought, has been able to stay hidden from the general public for the last seven years?”

Haruyuki was bewildered by the sudden question, but now that she mentioned it, it was seriously weird. If there were a thousand Burst Linkers, the secret should have leaked out from somewhere long ago and amazed the world.

“It stays a secret because of how strict the requirements are for compatibility with Brain Burst.”

“Requirements? Like being good at games or something?”

Kuroyukihime smiled bitterly at Haruyuki’s question and replied, “Nothing as ambiguous as that. The most serious requirement is having ‘continuously worn a quantum connection Neurolinker terminal from shortly after birth.’ The first-generation Neurolinkers went on the market fifteen years ago. Which means”—Kuroyukihime paused before continuing slowly—“there are no adult Burst Linkers. The oldest are a meager fifteen years old, mere children. And because they are children, while they are Burst Linkers, they will try to protect that privilege at all costs. And after the program is forcefully uninstalled, they wouldn’t be believed even if they were to say anything to an adult.”

For a brief moment, an ironic smile crossed her glossy lips.

“And because they are children, they share the same sweet fantasies. In summer two years ago, the young kings all reached level nine at very nearly the same time. A system message then informed them of the brutal requirements to reach level ten. Did they, as a result, plunge into bloody dispute? No. What the kings chose was eternal stagnation. Rather than move forward, they prioritized maintaining their own tiny gardens. In other words…they decided to divide and rule over the accelerated world in Legions and concluded agreements to prevent the invasion of other territories. It’s honestly a total farce. This, even though we had hunted countless Linkers to reach level nine.”

Haruyuki swallowed hard. A pain raced down his dry throat, and after taking a large sip of his melted caramel frappe, he put forth his thoughts timidly. “So you’re saying your objective is to challenge these Six Kings of Pure Color…?”

Hearing this, Kuroyukihime allowed a mysterious smile onto her lips. “No, I already did that.”

“Wha…?!”

“The Six Kings…they used to be the Seven Kings of Pure Color. Seven boys and girls, who, although rivals, were bound by strong ties. They fought one another countless times, winning and losing nearly the same amount but never holding even a shred of resentment. The Black King betrayed them all and tried to hunt them. Until that night two years ago.”

Black…King.

Which means that avatar name…ruled Black…Haruyuki opened his eyes wide and gulped his breath back.

Kuroyukihime nodded slowly. “Yes…It was me. The Black King, Black Lotus, was the only one of those who had reached level nine who spoke out against choosing peace. I threw away everything—ties, friendship, respect—and insisted that we should throw ourselves into fighting, wagering our accumulated points. And when they refused to listen, I dyed the round table of our meeting with fresh blood.”

“Wh-what did you do?”

“The last night the Seven Kings met in one building—although, of course, we have never met in the real world. Burst Linkers must do their utmost to hide their real names and faces.”

Haruyuki was about to ask why, but he quickly deduced the reason. If other Burst Linkers found out your name or what you looked like, in the worst-case scenario, they could attack you in the real world. People pressed into a desperate situation, people who needed to earn points no matter what, would probably go to such lengths.

Kuroyukihime nodded slightly, as if reading Haruyuki’s mind, and continued. “The meeting that night took place in Battle Royale mode, connecting all seven of us as fighters on the same field. I…The Red King appeared before me, preaching friendship and insisting we stop fighting. He caught me off guard…”

The pale face beneath her shining bangs collapsed. Fixing her empty eyes on a single point, Kuroyukihime recounted the rest mechanically. “I cut his head off. A perfect critical hit…He instantly lost all the health in his gauge and, under the new rules, all his points as well, finally losing Brain Burst itself as a result. The current Red King is the second one. After that…all hell broke loose. Ha-ha! Purple, who had been in love with Red, screamed and wept; Blue went crazy with rage; and we all began to try and kill one another—no honor, no respect. We knew it was our first and last chance, you see…We struggled desperately to take the other five heads, we were so reckless.”

Her lightly colored lips twisted and a laugh slipped out of her actual mouth. “The ability to make rational judgments went out the window. Stirred up by madness, I fought, and although I couldn’t take another king, I was also not defeated, and before I knew it, thirty minutes had passed and I was linked out. In the two years since, I’ve focused on running and hiding. Right now, I am the biggest traitor in the accelerated world, I have the largest bounty on my head, and I am the worst coward.”

“…Why…” Haruyuki’s thoughts were half paralyzed by the gruesomeness of this near-monologue, and even simple questions escaped his consciousness. “Why would you…”

“Because I put it far above friendship, above honor…becoming level ten. You could even say that alone is what I lived for. The system message also told us this. That Burst Linkers reaching level ten would have the chance to meet the program creator and would be told the true meaning behind the existence of Brain Burst, as well as its ultimate goal. I…I want to know. Whatever it takes, I have to know.” Propping her elbows up on the table and hiding her face in tightly clasped hands, Kuroyukihime whispered to Haruyuki, in neurospeak so leaden it was as if it were echoing up from an infinite abyss. “Accelerating your thinking, you can get money, grades, fame. Is this really the meaning behind our Duels? Is this the compensation we seek, the limit we can reach? Isn’t…isn’t there something beyond this? This…shell called a human being…outside…something more…”

Aah.

A little, honestly just a tiny bit…I get it. Like being on the ground, where it’s hard to hold on, and looking up at the distant sky.

Almost as if even this fleeting thought had been communicated to her, Kuroyukihime slowly lifted her face and stared at Haruyuki with eyes glowing urgently.

But that, too, was fleeting, and the beautiful senior, both arms flopped down on the table, smiled dryly and murmured, “So? Are you shocked? Or maybe you hate me, Haruyuki. Perhaps I’ll sacrifice even you at some point for my objective. It’s fine if you say you can’t help me anymore. I won’t try to stop you. I won’t try to take your Brain Burst.”

After thinking for approximately two seconds, Haruyuki nervously reached his right hand out and stopped about a centimeter in front of Kuroyukihime’s fingertips. “Er, well…,” he said. “In any game, some people want to forget about seeing the ending, and they just roam around the map right before the end forever. They’re obviously idiots. It’s only natural to try for higher levels, if there are any. I mean, that’s why Brain Burst exists, right?”

This wasn’t just a lie to suck up to Kuroyukihime. As a hardcore gamer from before he could remember, he sincerely believed this from the bottom of his heart.

Kuroyukihime’s eyes widened in surprise, and then she laughed lightly and brilliantly a few seconds later. “Pft, ha-ha-ha! How did this happen? You’re already more of a Burst Linker than I am. I get it…Only natural to aim for it; that’s where we are, is it…”

“I-it’s nothing to laugh at.” Slightly hurt, Haruyuki pursed his lips, and then sat up straighter before continuing. “A-anyway, that’s why I’ll keep helping you. I mean, I want to get there one day, too…to level ten.”

Kuroyukihime’s left hand suddenly moved over the tabletop to grab Haruyuki’s right hand. “Thank you.” Her thought, free of the empty undertone it had held only recently, poured warmly into a flustered Haruyuki. “Thank you, Haruyuki. I knew…I knew I made the right decision. I’m so glad from the bottom of my heart that I chose you.”

Here was where he should squeeze her hand back and meet her eyes. But there was absolutely no way Haruyuki could do anything like that.

Instead, instinctively, he pulled his hand back, drew his shoulders in turtle-like, and mumbled in tight neurospeak, “N-no, it’s—You won’t really be able to get a lot of use out of me…A-anyway, to get to the main part of it, you…What am I supposed to do?”

In the short silence that followed, was it pity that floated up in those still eyes regarding him?

Finally, after a quiet sigh, Kuroyukihime uttered softly, “Right. The introductory bit ended up going long. But let’s get to the heart of it. I told you before I managed to survive these last two years, yes?”

Haruyuki released the long breath he had been holding as he lifted his face and nodded with a gulp at Kuroyukihime, whose expression had returned to its normal complacency.

“That doesn’t mean that I’ve won out in challenges from the blood-crazed kings themselves or assassins they’ve dispatched. Rather…these two years, I haven’t once connected my Neurolinker to the global net. If your name isn’t on the matching list, you won’t get any challenges, you see?”

“Guh…a-are you serious?” he groaned unconsciously. For Haruyuki, taking in information from the global net was as necessary as drinking water and breathing air. This wasn’t just a metaphor; he had no doubt he would wither and die without it.

“Very serious. With the fixed-panel terminal, you can still view sites and read your mail. Although the 2-D screen does make my eyes tired. You can get used to anything. But even if I’m cut off from the global net, there is just one net I absolutely must connect with every day, because of my position in society.”

“Y-your position…? You mean, a rich girl—I mean, a princess?”

“Idiot!”

Shot down by that cool voice, he finally started to realize the person before him was just a junior high student like him. “O-oh, right. The Umesato Junior High local net. So, so, w-wait a minute. You can’t mean…”

“I do mean.” Kuroyukihime drank down the last of her coffee and crushed the cup. “Two months ago, the very day summer vacation ended, I was challenged to a Duel through the in-school local net. By someone at Umesato, just like us.”

The words that followed further baffled an already dumbfounded Haruyuki.

“Then the worst thing…Back then, I changed my original duel avatar to a dummy spectator avatar.”

“Dummy…There’s a function like that?”

“Mm. There are many times when it’s preferable to hide who you really are and watch from the Gallery. Naturally, the dummy avatar has no battle capacity. However, that’s not the problem…When I think about it now, I realize I was extremely careless. I used my avatar for the local school net as my dummy as well. I certainly didn’t expect a Burst Linker to show up all of a sudden at our school.”

After a moment’s confusion, Haruyuki jumped up lightly, sending his chair clattering back. “Huh? You mean that black swallowtail…?!” The bewitching avatar that popping up in the back of Haruyuki’s mind projected perfectly onto the graceful uniformed figure in front of him. “Your enemy saw it…on the school net? Which means…Then that’s…”

“Good guess. That’s right, this person knows”—Kuroyukihime released the cup onto the tray and pressed her right hand firmly against her chest—“that the real me here is Black Lotus. A Burst Linker’s greatest taboo: outed in the real world. I was afraid of real attacks by assassins sent by the Six Kings.”

Attacks…in the real world.

Haruyuki had already guessed at the terror hidden in those words. If you could pinpoint someone’s identity in the real world, then at the extreme end of the spectrum, it was possible to kidnap, confine, beat, or threaten that person and steal every last point they had.

Of course, this would be a serious crime. But even in “normal games,” problems between players had been known to develop into deadly incidents in the real world. And Brain Burst was not just a game.

Haruyuki held his breath and waited for Kuroyukihime to continue. But…

“That said, there haven’t been any, not one. Not even a vague sense of contact, much less an attack.”

“What…?”

“I was deeply perplexed, but—This is all I can think. My enemy…intends to monopolize me. With the good fortune of having discovered me, whoever it is wants to gradually run me down, big-game bounty that I am, and take every single one of my points for themselves, without telling the Legion they belong to.”

“Run you down…?”

Staring intently at Haruyuki tilting his head, Kuroyukihime coughed and began making a list as if it were obvious. “In the toilet. While I’m changing. In the shower. There are plenty of moments where I’m emotionally defenseless at school. If someone pinpointed these times and challenged me to a fight, I certainly wouldn’t be able to respond at the top of my game.”

“In the…shower…” Unthinkingly, he imagined the whole scene, and betrayed by his voice, Haruyuki was once again the recipient of an icy glare. Fortunately, however, Kuroyukihime didn’t press any further and continued with a sigh. “The truth is, in these last two months, I’ve been attacked more than a dozen times. The timing has always been less than ideal, although I’ve managed to get away with draws so far.”

“I—I get it. So basically, this guy’s, like, seriously greedy, then…but in a sense, that’s the silver lining, I guess…”

“Well, better than an attack in the real world, anyway. But that being said, I can’t exactly trade in my dummy avatar for my original duel avatar and beat him down. My enemy might end up thinking his plan isn’t going to work and give up on my points, then strike a bargain to give my head to the Six Kings for some meager bounty.”

“O-oh…right…uh-huh.” Haruyuki nodded unconsciously. This was basically the definition of cornered. “Okay, but what are you going to do? You can’t run, and you can’t even get them before they get you.”

“This I know. There’s only one way to break free. I find out the player’s real identity. Just who is this unknown Burst Linker—what grade, what class?”

Haruyuki was suddenly overcome with the urge to slap his knee. If they both knew the other’s identity, they would naturally be forced to a cease-fire to protect their own Brain Burst. “Right, of course. Then your enemy would be totally blocked. And, I mean, that’s fairly simple, right? Like at morning assembly or something, when all the students are together in the auditorium, you just accelerate and challenge whoever it is to a fight. You can figure out their class and student number from where they appear.”

“Oh, aren’t you something? It took me a full day to come up with that idea.”

“So…you’ve already tried that?”

“I have. And…I was shocked. It’s been quite a while since I was that surprised.”

“Wh-who was it?”

“No one was there.” Kuroyukihime’s response was something Haruyuki had not expected. “My name was the only one on the matching list. Listen, we both know Umesato students are not allowed to disconnect from the school net for even a second while they’re at school, because attendance and the lessons themselves happen via the net. So if you were to disconnect, there would immediately be a school-wide warning broadcast. This is exactly the reason I can’t avoid my enemy’s attacks. And yet…whoever it is wasn’t on the list!”

“M-maybe they were home sick or something.”

Kuroyukihime stared at Haruyuki and sniffed lightly. “I checked. Everyone came to school that day. And moreover, once, immediately after I was attacked and barely managed a draw before escaping, my opponent’s name was not on the list. In other words…it’s hard to believe, but this player can block, by some means or other. They can challenge people to all the fights they want, but not a single Burst Linker can trespass on them. A tremendous privilege, and one that erases the great underlying principle of the accelerated world. Someone able to do that…You’d have to be a super hacker, so much so that you could change the Brain Burst program itself, a program which is supposedly impregnable, or—someone with some connection with the program creator…”

Her only purpose in life was to meet the creator and learn the meaning of Brain Burst. That’s what she had said only moments ago. In which case, discovering the true identity of this mysterious opponent was for her more essential than protecting herself.

Having guessed this, Haruyuki felt an inexplicable throbbing in his chest as he murmured softly, “So then…what you want me to do…You want me to help you find out the true identity of your enemy, right?”

Not to protect the princess from evil.

Well, it’s only natural. Don’t think such stupid things. I’m just a hunting dog chasing prey, a pig sniffing out mushrooms in the earth.

“Hmm…well, that’s about it, yes.” Seemingly unaware of his momentary internal conflict, Kuroyukihime nodded slightly. “To be honest, I’ve obtained a fair bit of information already. To list everything I know now, let’s see…First, my enemy’s name. The duel avatar is called Cyan Pile. Level four.”

“Cyan…Pile…”

That’s kind of…cool. And sounds strong. No, but Kuroyukihime also said that level four is the first barrier. Which meant Cyan Pile was strong.

“Affiliation is a fairly pure close-range blue. I’ve seen this Linker punch right through the thin walls of the stage several times. Conversely, he or she doesn’t seem to have any flying equipment. Which is why I’ve been able to escape somehow up to now, but…to be honest, I’m coming up against my limit. My powers of concentration are essentially shot.”

They must have been. Not knowing when you would be attacked from the moment you came to school until the second you left. Haruyuki probably wouldn’t have been able to make it three days. However, Kuroyukihime continued speaking in clear thoughts without a hint of exhaustion. “And, this is at best a guess, but…it’s not just me. Whoever it is, he or she is backed into a corner, too. I get that feeling somehow.”

“What? By what?”

“The fear of losing acceleration. Most likely, from being on the verge of running out of burst points. People with points to spare normally try to have more fun with the Duels as fights. Like that Ash Roller you fought.”

“O-oh, yeah. He was definitely having a seriously great time.”

“However, my assailant doesn’t have a drop of wiggle room. Silent, not giving a thought to appearance, Cyan Pile comes at me half insane. That feeling, that’s the sign of a Burst Linker afraid of losing everything. So afraid that the stingy prize the kings have put up for me isn’t enough. All the points I’ve accumulated is the goal. But just understanding this desperation doesn’t get me anywhere.”

“I…guess not. I mean, we can’t make all the students get a psychological checkup or anything. Is that all you know?” Haruyuki asked casually, but he got the impression that Kuroyukihime’s thoughts abruptly froze.

Huh, he thought.

Before he could voice the question, Kuroyukihime shook her head and said, “No. I have one other important piece of information…the guide cursor.”

“Huh? That blue arrow?”

“Exactly. It points in the direction of your enemy from the moment the Duel starts. So even if I can’t see the exact moment when Cyan Pile appears, as long as I remember the direction the cursor is pointing when the fight starts, the real body of my enemy must be somewhere along that straight-line trajectory. That’s my theory.”

“Oh…oh! Right, of course. The stages are the real world landscape as is, so you can at least see which direction in the school Cyan Pile is hiding!”

“Exactly. I’ve memorized the direction of the guide cursor each of the dozens of times I’ve been attacked up to now, made a list of the students in those parts of the real-world Umesato, and pulled out the duplicate names. As a result, I’ve reached a conclusion about which student is most likely to be Cyan Pile. But I have absolutely no solid proof. A single straight line in a place so densely packed with people is simply not enough. There are always dozens of students on any given trajectory. Haruyuki, I want you to watch the next attack on me and memorize the direction of the cursor pointing out Cyan Pile to the Gallery.”

“If there are…two cursors, then…” Haruyuki mumbled, dazed, and Kuroyukihime nodded, the expression on her face hardening.

“Exactly. If we have two, then the intersection will give us a single point. And then, the student in that place…I can settle this once and for all. The true identity of Cyan Pile.” Pursing her lips tightly, Kuroyukihime traced a nimble finger in the air, manipulating the virtual desktop only she could see. Just as she was about to slide the file she had called up toward Haruyuki, her finger stopped abruptly.

“What’s wrong? Who is it, this suspect of yours?” Haruyuki leaned forward, swallowing hard to wet his throat, dry despite the fact that he had just finished drinking that enormous frappe, because he was worked up.

Kuroyukihime still seemed to be hesitating, but finally, muttering as if making excuses, she flicked the file and sent it over. “Listen. I prepared this file a week before I found the third acceleration-compatible person I was looking for at Umesato—which is to say, you—in that game corner.”

Not understanding at all why she would tack on such a disclaimer, Haruyuki accepted the file, brow knitted. He didn’t hesitate to stab the icon displayed on his virtual desktop with the tip of his finger.

Which opened into a single image. A portrait from the neck up, probably taken from the school register.

“…Huh…? This…? Why…?”

The fiercely short hair. The blue hairpin. The big eyes, somehow catlike. It wasn’t just a face he had seen before. It was the only face in this world he had seen more of than his mother’s.

“Ch-Chiyuri? She’s…a Burst Linker…?” After a full five seconds of muttering and wondering, Haruyuki turned toward Kuroyukihime again, perplexed. “No…that’s not possible! She’s super terrible at games and stuff. Doesn’t matter what kind, she’s just bad, bad…There’s no way she’d be Burst Linker material. She’s so slow…and everything shows up on her face…She can’t be the person who’s targeting you with such relentless focus.”

“You know her pretty well, hm?” Kuroyukihime said without meeting his eyes, her voice the slightest bit harder.

“That’s…I mean, we’ve been friends since we were kids…”

“When she came up to us at the gates before, inside, I was surprised. If she is Cyan Pile, she should obviously know I’m Black Lotus. I suspected it was some kind of strategy.”

“Um, but that—she doesn’t have that kind of skill; she’s not that kind of person. I mean, she’s super awkward. Everything she’s thinking shows on her face and in her attitude.”

The more Haruyuki protested, the sharper the angle Kuroyukihime’s eyebrows formed, and she returned in an even chillier voice, “Don’t you think in that case it’s even more natural to think she is Cyan Pile? You saw the obvious hostility she—Kurashima—has toward me.”

“No, that was just, it wasn’t like that. It was just you and I are directing and stuff…”

“Why would she get mad about that? Kurashima has a proper boyfriend, doesn’t she? In which case, she doesn’t have any reason to complain if I direct or link arms with you, does she?”

“I…I…That’s true, but…,” Haruyuki stammered, wanting to hold his head in his hands and wondering how they had gotten to this point. Chiyuri definitely has the perfect boyfriend in Takumu, but besides that, it’s—I’m her—

Subordinate? Possession? Under exclusive ownership?

Several words he couldn’t quite bring himself to say flitted through his mind, and as he struggled with the nuances, Kuroyukihime hit him with a merciless final blow. “Isn’t that exactly what her attitude says? Kurashima has been a Burst Linker for some time, and she was intending to make you her ‘child.’ And yet here I come out of the blue and snatch you up. Furious and unable to stand it, she then comes after me. Hmm?”

He was completely unable to process Kuroyukihime’s thinking, sounding so much like a petulant child, and her persuasive, impossible logic…and yet before he even realized it, he had given himself over to it, declaring, “I—I understand! I’ll check directly with her!”

“You will?” Kuroyukihime’s voice was hard as a lone eyebrow snapped up. “But what do you intend to do exactly? I’m sure you understand that you can’t simply go up to her and ask if she’s a Burst Linker. And it’s no use accelerating and trying to fight, to get a visual confirmation of Cyan Pile. Whoever it is has no problem blocking Duels. Which is exactly why I’ve been working so hard. I have no way of confirming any of this. Honestly, I need you to think things through.”

“I—I am thinking things through!” Haruyuki returned sharply, his tit-for-tat reflex triggered. “It’s fine. I’ll go and direct with her. She can block the Duels, but if I look in her memory directly through her Neurolinker, I should be able to check if she has the Brain Burst program or not. That should satisfy you, right?”