5

“Hey, hey, heeeeeey!!”

The shout echoed throughout the battlefield, accompanied by the throaty roar of the V-twin engine. A high-pitched squeal, then another shout. “Cheap wall like this’ll never stop a master like me!!”

“No way?!” Haruyuki looked around, panicked. The discolored buildings characteristic of a Weathered stage crumbled here and there, and a barricade had been made of the rubble. He and Takumu—who was now fighting a little ways off—had brought the buildings down. Taking advantage of the extremely brittle nature of the terrain particular to this stage, they had focused on smashing buildings and blocking whatever roads there were.

Their objective was to reduce the mobility of the motorcycle-using Ash Roller, a member of the attacking team in the Territories. They had succeeded; there was no longer a way to get from here on the front line to the base Sky Raker was protecting in the rear—or at least, there shouldn’t have been.

“Wh-where are you riding?!” Haruyuki searched desperately for the origin of the burbling roar of the engine. A few seconds later, he found it. But unable to move immediately, he simply stood bolt upright, mouth gaping, totally open.

The gunmetal American motorcycle was moving from right to left on the opposite side of the four-lane main road. But he was going far too slowly. And it wasn’t to avoid the rubble blocking the road—given that the rubble was piled nearly two meters high, avoiding it was impossible right from the get-go—but rather because it was being carried.

The enormous bike, complete with rider, was up on the right shoulder of a small avatar only half its size, laboriously stepping over the rubble-pile barricades. Ash Roller straddled the seat of the bike swaying on that shoulder and simply raced the engine.

“Th-there’s no point in racing the engine!!” After throwing everything he had into this unconscious rejoinder, Haruyuki finally realized that this was not the time for staring. Their aim was the base beyond the mountain of rubble. If they occupied that, things would get annoying.

“A-as if I’d let you!!” he muttered and charged toward the opposite side of the main road. When he did, the small avatar bearing the motorcycle shot a glance at him and—

“My brother Ash! Go on without meeeee!” Spitting out this ridiculously cool line, he heaved the bike forward. For his size, his strength was incredible.

The large American bike bearing Ash Roller, who had apparently at some point gotten a younger-brother-type companion, soared over the pinnacle of the barricade, the high-pitched sound of the exhaust ringing out remarkably loudly.

“Your heart’s giga-buuuuuurning, yo!!” He hit the asphalt with his usual nonsensical shouting and took off at high speed, white smoke rising up from the rear wheel.

Saturday, June 8, five thirty PM. They were in the middle of a three-on-three team battle to defend Suginami area number three. Kuroyukihime and Chiyuri were taking a break, so on the Nega Nebulus side, it was Haruyuki, Takumu, and Sky Raker. Against them on the attacking side was a three-person team from the Green Legion Great Wall, led by Ash Roller.

There was a difference in the level makeup, with eight, five, and five for Haruyuki’s team, and five, five, and three for the enemy, but Brain Burst was the type of game where if you let your guard down even just one time with this kind of gap, the whole situation could easily be upended. Gritting his teeth and vowing that Ash breaking through the barricade would be the man’s only triumph this match, Haruyuki went to chase after the speeding bike. However…

“Ain’t gonna let mew get through here!!”

Accompanied by this shout—which Haruyuki couldn’t decide was an attempt at creating a character or the kid’s actual voice—a shadow flew down before him. The avatar who had been carrying Ash Roller’s motorcycle.

His name was Bush Utan. Level three with dark grass-colored armor. He was a few centimeters shorter than Silver Crow, but he had a toughness about him that kept you from really noticing that. The reason for this was his abnormally developed arms. They were so long that if he was leaning forward, his hands very nearly scraped along the surface of the ground, making his overall silhouette reminiscent of a type of primate, but still, he was definitely not an opponent to take lightly.

“Anyone who says something like that obviously doesn’t have it in him to stop me!” Haruyuki replied, glaring cautiously at the large arms turned toward him. He bent forward, aiming for a decisive, super-low-altitude dash.

Bush Utan had poured all his potential into those enormous arms. He was an avatar that specialized in brute strength. If Haruyuki took a punch from him, the damage would be enough to blow away the two-level difference between them, but Utan didn’t have much in the way of speed. And anyway, he had no intention of fighting here.

Racing along, nearly scraping the ground himself as he closed the gap in an instant, Haruyuki brought his enemy’s focus downward before leaping up with all his might. He vibrated his wings for a mere instant to preserve his special-attack gauge, so that rather than flying, he soared over his enemy’s head in a long jump.

Utan hurriedly stretched both arms up above his head, but Haruyuki was far beyond his grasp. You should’ve closed in on me yourself to reduce the number of options I had, Haruyuki remarked tangentially in his head. The distance between opponents wasn’t something you had, it was something you actively controlled—

“Hng! Wha?!” The cry of shock slipping out of Silver Crow’s mouth was drowned out by a thick battle cry.

“Ooh ho ho hoooo! I’m not letting mew gooooo!!”

In some incomprehensible turn, Bush Utan had stretched his arms out. He hadn’t dislocated his joints or anything like that; no, he had in fact elastically extended his arms to nearly three times their original length, and now grabbed tightly on to Haruyuki’s ankles with his enormous palms.

“Hnngaaaaah!”

Utan was about to slam Haruyuki down onto the ground as hard as he could, so Haruyuki deployed his wings fully in the opposite direction and released every bit of propulsive force he had.

“Nnngh!”

The state of equilibrium was momentary. No matter how great Utan’s physical strength might have been, weight-wise, he was in the light class. With the primate-type avatar dangling from both legs, Haruyuki ascended blindly. As he thought about how he would just carry the other avatar like this and take out Ash Roller—

“Ooh ho?! Mew’re scaring me!!”

He heard a pathetic scream, and his flight speed dropped with a jerk. Hurriedly looking down, he saw that Utan had removed just his left hand from Haruyuki’s feet and was using that hand to grab on to a building’s roof railing instead. His arms were now stretched out to the limit, so it was almost like an avatar had been fastened to the middle of a long rope.

“Hey! L-let go!”

“N-no mway!”

Haruyuki flapped his wings fervently, but the power with which his left ankle was being held didn’t appear to slacken in the least. Takumu’s Pile perhaps could have cut him free of Utan’s arm, but he seemed to be still in the middle of a pitched battle against the third member of the enemy team a little ways off, judging from the clashes Haruyuki could hear.

With no other choice, Haruyuki continued with the midair tug-of-war as he raced his eyes over the area, looking to the west side of the main road. Instantly and unconsciously, he opened his mouth. “Crap…!”

The large American motorcycle had already raced ahead a hundred meters or more and was charging right at the small plaza at the end of the street. In that plaza stood a tall flagpole in the center of a circle emitting a violet light. The black of the flag there was the proof that this was Haruyuki’s team’s base.

The base was a spot existing in each Territory Duel Field where members of the team occupying the base could recharge their special-attack gauges over and over within the circle. Which was to say, the Brain Burst Territory Battle was nothing more than a fight in which teams pushed the front line forward while occupying base after base and taking down their opponents’ bases.

The base Ash Roller was aiming for was currently being guarded by no one but Sky Raker. As a level eighter, her power was obviously the real deal, but because of her strange fighting style, there was a big difference in whether she had the advantage or not depending on the enemy’s affinities.

And from where Haruyuki was standing, he was forced to conclude that because wheelchair-user Sky Raker and motorcycle-user Ash Roller were of the same lineage, Sky Raker would be at a disadvantage here. When it came to performance as a vehicular Enhanced Armament, the motorcycle was obviously superior in each and every way.

The motorcycle faced the sleek silver wheelchair plopped down in the front of the plaza and the graceful female-shaped avatar occupying it, and then it charged, roaring thunderously.

“Masterrrrrrr!” The skull-headed rider’s cry was for some reason mixed with tears. “I!…Today for sure! I’m going to go…beyond you, Master…!!”

Up in the air, Haruyuki’s jaw dropped. Sky Raker was indeed Ash’s teacher and his “parent,” but a line like that was something you only shouted after numerous twists and turns, in the final moments of battle. Although today was actually already the third time Ash Roller’s team had taken part in the Territory attack, this would be the first time that parent and child faced off in direct contest.

Raker in her wheelchair grinned beneath her wide-brimmed hat and shook her long sky-blue hair. “You still have so much to learn, Ash.”

And then she stretched her left hand straight out in front of her, turned her palm toward the sky, and curled a finger up in invitation. Come.

To this Ash replied with a sharp “Hyaaah!” He jumped up vertically from his seat and stood with his right foot on the handlebars and his left on the back end of the seat. He rode the motorcycle almost like a surfboard; the name of this unique technique was V-Twin Punch, so named by the rider himself.

Sky Raker didn’t appear to panic in the slightest seeing this, but Haruyuki was already grinding his teeth once again. This was a bad situation for her, wasn’t it? Because given that she couldn’t stand up from her wheelchair, Sky Raker’s hands could no longer reach Ash Roller’s body. And if she attacked the bike with her bare hands, she’d be the one taking the damage.

“Master! Giga thanks for everythiiiiiiing!!”

The sole of his boot opened the throttle all the way, and the motorcycle jumped into a final acceleration, spewing flames from the muffler. The instant the massive gray front tire was about to deal a serious blow to the wheelchair—

Raker’s left hand caressed the silver wheel beneath it so fast it was nearly blurred. Sparks flew up from the ground, and the wheelchair shot backward with intense force.

Impossible! You won’t be able to get away! Haruyuki shouted in his heart at Sky Raker, who was a teacher to himself as well. The wheels had to be turned by hand to make the chair move, and while the power it held for sprints was incredible indeed due to its extremely light weight, it could continue at that pace for only a moment. Once she had fallen back, the bike would quickly catch up with her and send her flying.

Or so Haruyuki expected as he caught his breath. But at the same time—

Sky Raker stretched her entire body forward with wonderful abandon, avoiding the front tire, and pressed her right hand onto the bike’s handlebar. She grabbed only the brake lever.

It looked like such a casual gesture, but the power it contained was apparently very much more than that, and a flood of sparks gushed from the front rotor disc. And what would happen to the motorcycle when only the front brake was locked with this kind of force?

“Oh! Whoa?!”

Even before Ash Roller managed to cry out, he was rising up at the force of the sudden deceleration and flying through the air along with his bike, wheels racing meaninglessly, before crashing into the wall of a distant building.

This impact seemed to be more than the Enhanced Armament of the motorcycle could endure, and the whole thing burst into fierce flames with a whoosh before exploding into pieces.

However, Ash Roller himself had, perhaps fortunately, been standing in the seat, and was not caught up in the explosion, but rather thrown high into the air.

“Noooooooooooo!” Screaming, he reached the peak of his parabola, stopped for a moment, and then started to drop back down—with Sky Raker pushing her wheelchair into a sprint once more, aiming to stop directly below him.

“So very much to learn.”

Grinning as she rendered this assessment, she thrust the palm of her left hand up perpendicularly with such force as to practically scorch the air. This open-handed punch beautifully caught the back of the rider’s black leather jacket, causing such an impact that it reached even Haruyuki, up in the far-off sky.

In addition to the damage from falling from so high up, he had also taken a critical hit to the center of his body, the combination of which easily knocked Ash Roller’s HP gauge down to nothing.

“You are the master…Mercy, Tera-nothing.” Leaving these mysterious words behind, the skull rider avatar exploded and scattered.

Watching Sky Raker as she brushed her hands off, Haruyuki and Bush Utan murmured at the same time.

“S-so strong…”

“Meah’s too strong…”

They gasped as their eyes met. Sky Raker had so wonderfully repelled Ash and guarded the base, so there was no longer any real point in continuing this midair tug-of-war.

Haruyuki said nothing as he flapped his wings forcefully, abruptly using up the remainder of his special-attack gauge. The upward force he generated made both of Utan’s arms creak alarmingly.

“N-no meoway! Burn, biceeeeeps!”

The left arm hanging onto the railing of the building and the right holding Haruyuki’s ankle swelled up and pulled with terrifying brute strength, bringing Haruyuki back down.

In that instant, Haruyuki changed the orientation of his silver wings by one hundred eighty degrees and readied himself for a sudden dive. Inevitably, Utan ended up being yanked toward Silver Crow with the strength of his own arms.

“W-wait, meo—!”

The w disappeared in the sound of a ferocious dive kick hitting its mark.

The two avatars fused into a single lump and crashed to the Earth. Utan released Haruyuki’s ankle from its imprisonment with the impact, and in the close-range fight that necessarily followed—the zero-range fight, to be precise—he was no match yet for Haruyuki.

Having had his HP shaved away in the scrum, Utan disappeared from the battle, leaving a parting threat like the lead in a gangster movie. “I-I’ll get you back for this tomeowrroooooooow!!”

…Tomorrow?

Haruyuki had a bad feeling about that somehow, but he tossed it up on a shelf for the time being and rushed to the front line to offer Takumu backup.

Fifteen minutes later, real-world time.

The five members of Nega Nebulus gathered in the center of the field that served as the setting for their last battle and commended one another on their hard work. They had once again managed to thoroughly safeguard Suginami areas one through three for the week.

Sitting on a nearby lump of concrete, Haruyuki felt a pleasant exhaustion as he exhaled deeply. In time, he spoke to Sky Raker, who was next to him. “But still…I never even thought of that sort of attack strategy with Ash Roller’s bike.”

In the past, Haruyuki had met victory against Ash Roller by lifting the rear wheel of the motorcycle and thus removing its propulsive force, but grabbing on to the brake lever while the bike was in motion, and thereby sending it flying, was way more stylish, speedy, and, more than anything, totally cool.

But Raker shook her head as she laughed quietly. “Unfortunately, you can only use that technique when Ash is standing on the bike.”

“Oh…R-right…”

Indeed, the rider’s hands normally would not leave the handlebars. He hummed his understanding, and this time, Kuroyukihime uttered with a rueful laugh, “Before that, though, to lay a hand on a bike that is accelerating full throttle, you have to synchronize yourself with its speed using a power sprint like Raker, or else you’ll end up the one damaged instead.”

“Oh…R-right…I guess…” Haruyuki dropped his head and Chiyuri and Takumu raised their voices in unrestrained laughter.

The jet-black avatar laughed briefly once more before adding, “But, well…It could be that you flying at full speed can do the same thing as Raker’s dash. Check into it.”

“Right!” Haruyuki assented enthusiastically, and his Legion leader looked around at her subordinates.

“If there’s nothing else that needs consideration, let’s discuss tomorrow,” she said. “I believe a text message from Haruyuki outlining the general concept has already gone around, but perhaps we could have the explanation from him again here.”

“U-understood.” Hurrying to his feet, Haruyuki stepped out in front of the four sitting avatars and began to give an overview of the big event on Sunday—the Hermes’ Cord Race—first of all talking about how there was no need to go all the way to Skytree. If they got together at Haruyuki’s and directed, he said, the transporter card item would take them all to the bottom station of the space elevator.

Second, he described how Silver Crow had registered as the driver of the first shuttle, and since he was unable to change this, the other four would have to be the crew. In other words, they would be staffing the shuttle to guard it or to attack rival teams.

Finally, he spoke to how their HP gauges would be locked during the race, so there would be no risk for the level-nine Black Lotus.

After he had somehow managed to get this far, albeit stammering the whole time, Haruyuki suddenly hesitated. He couldn’t decide whether or not he should tell them about the fact that Blood Leopard from Prominence had registered with the second shuttle and that she had said she was eager to see Sky Raker again. He quickly came to the conclusion that he would stay quiet about it for now, since the only ones who could understand the way things worked between Leopard and Raker were Leopard and Raker.

Thus, Haruyuki expelled a deep breath and finished up with, “That’s all!”

“Nice work,” Kuroyukihime responded quickly, and stood up again after Haruyuki sat back down. “This was also touched on in Haruyuki’s mail. There was the Grand Castle Attack race event the year before last. I know Raker understands this, but…” The Black King stopped speaking momentarily and made the blade of her right hand sing through the air. “At that time, I was in hiding from the assassins of the other kings and not connecting to the global net at all, so I was unable to take part, which…I do deeply regret.”

“Absolutely. I know I sent waves of resentment from the top of Old Tokyo Tower all the way to the Grand Castle.” Sky Raker laughed gracefully, and Kuroyukihime nodded firmly, while the remaining three Legion members sat up straighter with a start. Not one of them would have been surprised if Scary Master Raker’s ire had actually managed to take down several duel avatars.

“At any rate, all of this is to say: I want to completely wipe away my regrets from two years ago in tomorrow’s race. Takumu and Chiyuri have both good-naturedly agreed to take part, and it was Haruyuki who realized that a new stage might appear and went all the way to distant Skytree to get the right for us to take part. It would be a true shame if we were to waste this gift.”

“N-no, that’s—” Haruyuki hurriedly shook his head and hands. “It was just this idea that sorta popped into my head…You were the one who guessed all the stuff about when and where the portal would appear…”

“That idea popping up was key. Those ten spots filled up quickly, and the majority of the registered teams apparently bought the information at a high price from NPC shops in the Unlimited Neutral Field. Only you, and maybe one or two others, realized the possibility on your own.”

“H-huh…Is that what happened…”

Perhaps the expected timing of the portal appearance in the NPC information was slightly delayed, and that was why Haruyuki, who had figured things out from zero, and Pard, who probably had, too, were the first to reach Hermes’ Cord.

So then really, he should be thanking Chiyuri for inviting him to go to the Shinjuku government office the day before. And also, of course, Kuroyukihime for talking the whole thing over with him in the dive call. Having friends really was pretty great…

As Haruyuki let these thoughts wander through his mind—

“Lotus, may I?” Sky Raker raised a light hand and advanced her wheelchair with a creak. She turned around in a fluid movement and looked at the faces assembled there. “I’m also very much looking forward to the event. After rejecting any contact with the Accelerated World for so long, I am grateful every single day that I’m able to fight in the Legion, the reborn Nega Nebulus, again like this—alongside my companions. If it were possible, I would so much love to combine forces with you all and set our sights for the finish line in the race. But…”

She cut herself off for a moment and dropped her gaze to her own legs, covered by her long white dress.

“From what Crow’s said, there are only four seats for the crew in the shuttle and no real space for anything else. In which case, I’ll be without my wheelchair and simply glued to that seat. Which means that this avatar will become a mere object. If I’m just going to pointlessly increase the load the shuttle carries and dull its speed, then it’s better if I don’t even get in in the first place.”

“B-but you—!” Haruyuki cried out reflexively, trying to deny Sky Raker’s words.

However…

If Sky Raker had been a long-distance avatar, then she could have more than adequately fulfilled an attacking role while glued to a seat. But just as her fresh sky-blue color indicated, she was a fairly pure close-range type. Most likely, for close-range types to take on an attacking role in the race, an action like jumping over to the other shuttles would be required. For Sky Raker and the wheelchair that took over for her legs, this was, of course, impossible.

Seeing Haruyuki grinding his teeth tightly, Raker said gently, “Corvus, don’t worry about it. Even if I’m not there, if it’s you, Lotus, Pile, and Bell, I honestly believe you’ll end up on top when crossing the finish line.”

No. No, that’s not it.

I…I wanted to bring you especially to that pillar stretching up into the sky. In that world ahead where we’ll be shooting up the four-thousand-kilometer space elevator, there’s something I want to tell you. On the ground, I’m held back by gravity and I can’t get it out. This particular thought…

“Raker.” Kuroyukihime’s voice sounded like she was also enduring a kind of pain, similar to Haruyuki’s and this prayer in his heart. “Your avatar likely weighs less than Crow’s. Whether you are on the shuttle or not, the power-to-weight ratio will not differ that much. And even if you can’t move from the seat, it’s enough for you to stand on guard duty—”

“I can’t go, Lotus,” Sky Raker said curtly. “As a fundamental principle, you…and Nega Nebulus must move to strike at the other kings to bring you to level ten. If you come in first in the race tomorrow, you’ll be given a quantity of burst points worthy of the feat. And that will bring you that much closer to your end objective. In which case, you shouldn’t be concerned about me, which would reduce your chances of winning, however slightly…Isn’t that right?”

Her argument was more than sound, and thus even sad. Most likely, in her heart, Sky Raker had clearly determined her role as someone whose range of movement was severely limited. She would expend every effort in ways she was able to help the Legion. But conversely, she would absolutely not take part in battles where it seemed like she might become a burden.

So all of that came down to this.

Sky Raker had already given up on her own game, her own Brain Burst. She had agreed to Kuroyukihime’s request and come back to the Legion, but her motivation was solely to help Kuroyukihime. She had strictly prohibited herself from the thrills and excitement of the duel, the joy of talking with others through her fists. Almost as if it were a punishment she should continue to receive forever.

That’s not it, Haruyuki murmured once more in his heart.

Getting his Legion Master Kuroyukihime to level ten was also Haruyuki’s own personal objective. He constantly prayed that until that time came, he could be a knight worthy of closely guarding his King. He put nothing before this goal, but there was one thing that was on the same level:

Playing. Having fun with this fighting game known as Brain Burst.

The duels couldn’t just be painful. They couldn’t be just mechanisms for earning points. At the end of those roads was nothing but darkness, a heavy shadow falling even on the real world, as embodied in the Acceleration Research Society.

Naturally, Haruyuki didn’t think that Sky Raker would fall into that darkness. But if she had yet to forgive herself even now, then she most certainly was not happy. But he didn’t have the ability to communicate those thoughts and feelings at the moment. Kuroyukihime and Takumu seemed to feel the same way, both of them stiffening up like rocks and simply hanging their heads.

A silence blanketed everything other than the timer, which noted that they had ten minutes left until the field disappeared. It was a silence Sky Raker broke with a gentle, short laugh. But a moment before that—

“Sister Raker.” Chiyuri started talking, using the strange seminickname that had at some point stuck for her.

“What is it, Bell?”

“I…I’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” Chiyuri said as Lime Bell stood up, using an almost-hesitant voice that somehow could still make its listeners feel the resoluteness of her will. She took a few steps to stand before Raker. After she took a deep breath, an unusually serious air came over her mask. “As long as it’s okay with you, big sis, I’d like to try something. To see whether or not I can bring your legs back with my power.”

Haruyuki’s eyelids flew back. Chiyuri’s—Lime Bell’s power was, in other words, the special attack Citron Call, the result of which was a reversal of time. Any avatar or object subjected to it had time rewound.

In a normal duel, this technique was used as a pseudo–healing ability to recover the HP gauges of allies. But the fact that its effectiveness did not stop there had been proven the other day in the fight against Frost Horn and Tourmaline Shell. Since it was possible to dodge the technique, it was fairly difficult to use against enemies, but if it succeeded, it could even forcefully eliminate Enhanced Armament summoned by an enemy. And in this sense, Citron Call was a special attack even rarer than a healing ability.

However.

“B-but, Chiyu,” Haruyuki reflexively interjected, “I’m pretty sure Master Raker lost her legs more than three years ago. Can you actually rewind time so far back?”

“Okay, um…” Chiyuri cocked her pointed, witchy hat and waved her index finger, as if to confirm her own thinking. “My Citron Call has two modes. The first one uses up half my special-attack gauge and rewinds the in-game time in units of seconds for the status of the target duel avatar. That’s the one I use to heal HP.”

The number of fingers increased to two as she continued. “And then, mode two uses all of my fully charged gauge and rewinds the avatar’s status, except for level increases…like in units of fixed changes due to external causes. One by one, it cancels out changes like buying Enhanced Armament with points or stealing techniques and parts from other avatars. That’s the one I got Haru’s wings back with.”

“So fixed changes…are undone?”

It was Kuroyukihime who murmured this. “Mmm,” she hummed quietly and, still sitting, brought the ridge of the sword of her right hand up to her mask. “Easy to say, but when I think about it, that’s quite the power. The natural enemy of—or perhaps, divine retribution for—those with theft abilities.”

“But I can’t interfere negatively with the status data of anyone other than the target, so I can’t get back items someone else owns. Which is why I couldn’t get back Haru’s wings when I used my power on him. It’s pretty easy to run away from the technique itself, so it’s hard to use it on an enemy during battle, Lotus.”

As Haruyuki worked hard to digest the rules for the somewhat complicated technique, Takumu opened his mouth.

“Chi, with that Citron Call mode two, how many steps back can you cancel out these fixed changes? What’s the maximum?”

“Um, let’s see. I haven’t actually tested it out, but judging from how my gauge decreases, I’d say I could go three steps, max.”

“Three…hmm? Raker, since you lost your legs, have you had any other status changes?”

The sky-blue avatar paused for a moment at Takumu’s question. “There was the exchange of Enhanced Armament with Corvus…If that counts as two changes, then the loss of my legs would be the third.”

“U-um, Master. What about the wheelchair…?” Haruyuki asked reflexively the instant he heard these words. The silver wheelchair in which Sky Raker sat was an Enhanced Armament item, the same as Ash Roller’s motorcycle, and Haruyuki wondered if getting it also counted as one fixed change.

Raker shook her head lightly, stroking the wheels gently. “I acquired this immediately before I cast off my legs.”

She sounded nonchalant, but the meaning hidden in her words was significant. At the point in time when Sky Raker asked Black Lotus to cut off her legs, she had anticipated that the amputation damage might be permanent, or she had been prepared for it to be. In other words, the injury she had suffered didn’t stop within the framework of the normal game system; there was a greater logic at work: that system.

“Bell.” Sky Raker’s voice calling out interrupted Haruyuki’s thoughts. The Burst Linker in the middle of their collective stares, who even now lived half as a recluse, announced in an endlessly kind tone, “Thank you. I gratefully accept your feelings…But even if it doesn’t work, you mustn’t blame yourself. The causes and effects here are all within me.”

To Haruyuki, it seemed that the latter part of that statement had been directed to Black Lotus as well as Lime Bell. The black crystal avatar stiffened momentarily and lowered her face slightly.

“I understand, big sister Raker.” Chiyuri’s determined voice broke the silence that fell over the stage. “But I’m definitely going to bring your legs back. Oh, and Haru?” Her gaze swung around to Haruyuki, and she flicked a finger at him as he blinked in confusion. “I think you’ll get a message saying you got some Enhanced Armament while I’m using the technique, but you have to cancel. Otherwise, it’ll be a big hassle later!”

“R-right, got it.”

When Haruyuki nodded, Chiyuri glanced up to her left. She was probably checking that her special-attack gauge was still full, charged up at the base during the Territories. She brought her face back down and put a foot forward.

In sync with Lime Bell, as she stepped forward, Kuroyukihime, Takumu, and Haruyuki fell back.

The freshly green avatar stood about two meters in front of the wheelchair and pointed the enormous bell attached to her left arm directly up at the sky. She tilted her pointed, broad-brimmed hat backward and took a deep breath, throwing her slender torso back.

“Okay, here we go…Citron…”

At the same time as she started to call out the technique name, she rotated the bell in a large counterclockwise circle. Ring gong. A magnificent sound washed over the field. Normally, when she was healing Haruyuki and their team’s HP, she rotated the bell twice, but Chiyuri drew another two circles after that and—

“…Call!!”

With the loud cry, she brought her left hand straight down in front of her.

A ribbon of yellow-green light and chords like something played by an orchestra of angels cascaded from the large bell and enveloped Sky Raker. Her long sky-blue hair and the hem of her white dress flapped back, exposing hidden legs. Below the round knees, almost as if they had been designed that way from the start, there existed absolutely nothing.

Sky Raker closed her deep-red eye lenses and clasped her hands in front of her chest as her entire body flashed lime green once. At the same time, in the center of Haruyuki’s vision, a system message popped up.

DO YOU ACCEPT THE ENHANCED ARMAMENT GALE THRUSTER?

Haruyuki quickly pushed the NO button in the window, which flashed erratically, quite unlike a normal window. He felt something returning to Sky Raker, and her body flashed brightly once more. This was likely Chiyuri’s ability rewinding the two item exchanges that had taken place between her and Haruyuki.

This really is nuts. Haruyuki was impressed anew. Normally, canceling a transaction of money or items in a net game, it went without saying, was something solely at the discretion of the game master. And because of this overwhelming authority, the GM was occasionally likened to a god. However, since there was no so-called GM in Brain Burst, you could say that Chiyuri was, in the Accelerated World, the only one other than the mysterious developer who had the power of a god—even if just a part of that power…

A third flash sent these thoughts rolling around in Haruyuki’s head flying.

“…!!” The three witnesses held their breath and opened their eyes wider.

In the writhing green light, they could definitely see tiny particles of light blue radiance settling on Sky Raker’s thighs. As the number of these particles increased before their eyes, they extended downward. They clumped together into tapered cylinders, grew denser, and began to draw out the hazy shape of legs—

Fwsh!

They vanished like particles of ice melting in the sun.

Instantly, the green light faded as the sound of the bell grew distant and disappeared.

In the center of the now-silent field, Lime Bell staggered as though she had used up all of her energy. Black Lotus was immediately at her side to catch her.

The yellow-green avatar hung there, no strength left in her legs. “…Why…why,” she muttered hoarsely. “How come…they’re not coming back…?”

“It’s not your fault, Bell.” The answer came from Sky Raker, gently rearranging the hem of her dress. She moved her head slightly with a comforting smile. “This result proves that in the termination of my legs, a logic of higher priority than the normal game system is at work. The image control system…in other words, the Incarnate System.”

Haruyuki took a sharp breath. In a larger gesture, Black Lotus, still holding Lime Bell, pulled her right foot back. She turned her V-shaped mask away.

Sky Raker began to speak calmly at Chiyuri, who was rooted to the spot, and, by extension, Kuroyukihime.

“But you’ve only heard the broadest outline of the Incarnate System, Bell, so perhaps this is hard for you to understand…Three years ago, I tried to increase the maximum altitude I could fly with the power of my will. In exchange for the sacrifice of my legs, it let me reach the sky; that was the deal I made with god—no, the devil. My wish was heard, or rather the tiniest bit of it was. My maximum altitude reached a mere hundred meters higher…and my legs have never come back, no matter how many times I dive into the field. Keeping my legs away is my own will. I no longer know how to undo this. Which is why it’s not your fault you couldn’t bring them back…and it’s not your fault, either, Lotus.”

When you chase after that power, you absolutely lose something as payment.

The Red Legion’s Blood Leopard had told him this. Maybe Leopard, too, had had an image of Sky Raker in the back of her mind at the time.

To those words, Haruyuki had this response: I want to believe. I want to believe in the Incarnate System, in Brain Burst itself.

He couldn’t make a lie of that. Absolutely not. And to that end as well, Haruyuki had to take Sky Raker to the pinnacle of Hermes’ Cord.

“Raker,” Haruyuki called to her, quietly but in a voice that pulled together every ounce of determination he had. He stared directly into her deep-red eye lenses and moved his mouth. “I don’t think that the fighting ability of our avatars is what decides the strength of our team, of our companions. Like observation and judgment—no, before that, I think the feeling of being able to fight even harder because we’re together is more important than anything. You give us support, Raker. Just having you with us, we are so, so much stronger. So…So.”

With his limited linguistic competence, Haruyuki could only manage to get this much out. Still, trying to communicate what was in his heart, he clenched his hands tightly, and abruptly, Cyan Pile’s large hand slapped him on the shoulder from behind.

“It’s just like Haru says. Raker, you’re a priceless part of the battle potential of this Legion.”

“That’s right, sis!” Chiyuri bobbed her head up and down. “We’re strongest when the five of us are together!”

And then finally, Kuroyukihime took a step forward. “Exactly, Raker. It’s as everyone is saying.” The leader of Nega Nebulus spoke in a tone that was calm, though the pain hidden at the core of it was palpable.

“I told you this before as well. I need you. At any and all times…Let’s make this simple. If you are not in tomorrow’s race, the four of us won’t be able to fight with everything we have. Just this alone is reason enough for you to take part in the event.” She sounded fairly overbearing, but it was that overbearing tone that gave her words the power to get right to the heart of the matter.

Sky Raker’s eyes flew open, and then a faint wry smile crossed her lips. She shook her white hat as if to say, Honestly.

“Lotus, that way of speaking you have hasn’t changed at all since the first time I met you.” She hung her head and lightly stroked her knees with her hands. “There are some things you lose and never get back. But I know that there are also things that keep shining, without ever being damaged…Perhaps the right at least to believe that—or rather, to wish for it to be true—still remains for me…”

Her quiet murmuring, making almost no noise, flowed softly from below her hat. At the same time, Haruyuki felt as though he saw the glint of a single drop falling into space. However, when she lifted her face, the same gentle smile as always was playing around Sky Raker’s mouth.

“Thank you, Lotus, Pile, Bell…Crow. I suppose I can allow myself to be swayed by your kind words. But…” Her expression became playful. “You’ll need to get rid of any sugary ideas of aiming for second or third because I’m taking part. We either have total victory or we burn up in the sky.”

Eep!

Haruyuki jumped up to stand a little straighter, and Takumu and Chiyuri raised their voices in easy laughter.

You guys don’t know! The truth is she’s really, really scary!

Shouting this in his heart, Haruyuki finally was able to put a sincere—albeit slightly stiff—smile on his own face.