…Haru.
…Hey, wake up, Haru.
Having the feeling that he had been called by someone, he slightly lifted his eyelids. His surroundings were a deep gray. From the other side, a hazy figure of a person.
“…It’s still dark…let me sleep a bit more…”
Mumbling indistinctly, he tried to lie flat again, but this time his shoulder was shaken back and forth.
“Wake up, Haru.”
That voice’s echo, which in some way seemed urgent, slightly awakened his consciousness, which felt as if it were wrapped in cotton. He reluctantly opened his eyes again. As expected, it was dim. In this season, it was still around four at most.
“What’s happened, Chiyu…”
While speaking in a hoarse voice, Haruyuki strongly blinked and forcibly opened his eyelids.
From directly opposite, the one placing her hand on the right shoulder of Haruyuki who was lying on the left side of his body was Chiyuri as expected. A slender silhouette sitting plopped down. Short hair, and atop that a large three-cornered hat. A bright green semitransparent armor covering her entire body. In her left hand, a large hand bell Enhanced Armament…
“—Eh?”
His consciousness finally more than half awake, Haruyuki jumped up like a spring mechanism. At that moment, his body rang with a crack. What were there were not his vertically striped half-sleeved pajamas—it was his mirror surface armor that shone silver.
Flustered, he looked at his hands and touched his face. Without checking the feel of his smooth mask, he knew this was his duel avatar Silver Crow. And the yellow-green avatar sitting before his eyes was Chiyuri’s Lime Bell.
…Why? Had Chiyu challenged him while he was half asleep?
First having thought that, he turned his eyes upward to try to check the health gauge and time count that were supposed to be in the upper part of his field of vision. However, there was nothing there. The green bar, the engraved number of 1800 seconds, and all the other overlay displays did not exist.
However, that was impossible. Since they had became duel avatars—basically, since they were making a full dive into a duel stage, no matter whether it was the normal duel field or the Unlimited Neutral Field, without exception one’s own health bar was visible, and it was not possible to erase it by changing one’s settings either.
If so, then this was a dream.
Sitting with his legs still sprawled out, Haruyuki tried to pinch his own cheek with his right hand. However, it was blocked by his hard helmet, and he couldn’t touch it. Still with halfway fuzzy thoughts, he thought about substituting with Chiyuri’s cheek and began to reach his hand out to the avatar sitting immediately to his left. There, he remembered that all avatars’ face masks were hard in the first place. Other places that seemed able to be pinched…now that he thought about it, how about female F-class avatars’ chests below their armor…
While thinking that vacantly, Haruyuki moved his left hand, and into the round protuberance peeking out from below Lime Bell’s mantle armor, with his index finger—.
Squish. That feeling was transmitted through his fingertips half a second later.
“Wh, what’re you doing!”
At the same time as her shout, ring! A tremendous impact accompanied with a large reverberation directly hit the crown of his head. With the Enhanced Armament «Choir Chime» in her left hand, Lime Bell had hit Silver Crow with all her might.
“Ooh!”
After causing the yellow chicks around the area of his head to tweet for a while, Haruyuki finally completely awakened his consciousness and suddenly lifted his head. Quickly looking around at his surroundings, he noticed that it was not the Arita household’s living room. It was a dim tube-shaped space. To his right-hand side was a dead end, but to his left was a thin tunnel that seemed to continue forever while turning and twisting.
This was not a dream. However, it was not a normal «duel» either. Due to some irregular phenomenon, while sleeping, with Chiyuri the two of them had dived into this completely unknown space.
…The two of them?
“…! Wh, where’s Taku!?”
He checked his surroundings again, but Cyan Pile’s huge frame was nowhere to be seen. He turned his gaze to Chiyuri; the verdant green avatar glaring at Haruyuki while further covering her chest with both hands changed her expression to a seemingly worried one and softly shook her three-cornered hat left and right.
“I don’t know…I also had just awoken here a moment ago. When I got up, I had become a duel avatar, you were sleeping beside me, and Takkun wasn’t here…”
“…Is that so…”
Below his helmet, he thought for a moment.
Both of them had transformed into duel avatars, but since neither the time count nor their health/special technique gauges existed, it was clearly not the normal duel field. He had unconsciously tried to deploy his wings, but even though he could usually just bring out his wings even if his gauge were zero, right now they did not even respond with a twitch. It seemed that all abilities had completely been made ineffective.
If that were so, there was only one thing of which he could think. This unnatural phenomenon was probably—no, was without a doubt something that the «ISS Kit» parasitically inhabiting Takumu had caused. Haruyuki and Chiyuri, who had been sleeping while directly connected to him, had been pulled into the phenomenon through the XSB cable. To put it briefly, it could be said in a sense that right now the two of them were inside Takumu’s dream.
If so, then Takumu must also inevitably exist in this world. Why they couldn’t see his figure was surely because he had moved somewhere. Into the depths of the dark tunnel extending endlessly to the left-hand side.
“…Let’s go, Chiyu. We have to search for Taku.”
“Unh, got it.”
Chiyuri, who had apparently reached almost the same conclusion as Haruyuki, immediately nodded. Haruyuki lifted his body up from a sitting position with a vertical jump impossible with his real body and lent his left hand to Chiyuri, helping her up.
Lime bell did not release her hand even after having stood up; on the contrary Lime Bell tightly squeezed it. Lightly squeezing back, he tried feeling this wall surface with his right hand. It was not earth or cement. It was a deep gray soft tissue having an odd elasticity. Its faint temperature and minute ring-shaped pleats were completely like the interior of a living thing’s body—no, otherwise it was that very thing.
Looking at each other, they exchanged nods once, and with their hands still joined the two began to advance briskly into the depths of the tunnel.
Their sense of time and distance were lost in the wink of an eye.
It was even unclear whether the two of them were «accelerating» in the first place. If they were in a non-accelerating state, the home server alarm set to go off at seven in the morning would probably knock them awake sometime, but if they were accelerating then time would have might as well stopped. Or they maybe could have been able to leave this queer world with the «Burst Out» command, but they had reserves about leaving Takumu behind. The reason was that if they were in the midst of accelerating, then in the few seconds that they awoke in the real world and woke up Takumu sleeping next to them, in this place a vast amount of time would have passed by.
He had probably seen this dream yesterday night too. Then he must have received some kind of interference in his heart and been injected with a black something.
In that case, at this moment as well, that process might be progressing. What he had finally begun to take back through his direct connection duel with Haruyuki might be stolen once more…
That impatience caused his feet to quicken; before he knew it Haruyuki was running while pulling Chiyuri’s hand. Chiyuri’s feelings were probably the same; she was following the speed-class Silver Crow with all her might. The two avatars kept running, running in the tunnel that extended while twisting and turning.
He had thought rather about flying with the wings on his back, but for whatever reason it seemed like his «flying ability» could not be used in this place. With his metal fins tucked in, no matter how much he focused his consciousness they did not move.
When he felt that they had probably exceeded five kilometers, at that moment.
Finally from the path before them, a faint light could be seen.
“An exit..?”
To Chiyuri’s voice, he nodded back and raised his speed even more.
They ran the remaining dozens of meters in one go; before the eyes of the two who had broke out of the tunnel at last—suddenly, a sight they had not anticipated in the slightest appeared.
It was outer space.
No; precisely, it slightly differed. A jet black space that could be thought of as stretching out endlessly, and countless points of light coloring it. In the direction far above the heads of the two who had stood still dumbfounded, the cluster of points of light agglomerated densely and beautifully sparkled like a circular galaxy. However, what was different about it from a starry sky was that those lights were swaying and moving incessantly. One ray of light collided with the other still rays of light, and this time those began to move, bumping into the next ones. That chain reaction was continuing in the entire galaxy without end. Just like gigantic three-dimensional billiards—or like some kind of network.
Since he could not get a grasp of the sense of distance, he did not know the precise size of the «swaying galaxy». However, Haruyuki intuitively felt that if he tried to draw right next to it, that cluster of light would spread probably spread out to a cosmic scale.
He looked at his back for a moment; the tunnel out of which he and Chiyuri had come was still existing there as if it were a hole opening to space. From the tunnel, a thin bridge of two meters’ breadth extended and seemed to continue to the downward jet black space. The two were standing at the foot of that bridge.
Returning his gaze again to the beautifully sparkling cluster of stars, with his left hand still grasping Chiyuri’s right he stood bolt upright; from his left, a faint whisper fell out.
“…Amazing…”
Nodding to that, Haruyuki also murmured in a hoarse voice.
“What on earth…is that…”
To that question—somebody responded from his immediate right side.
“«Main Visualizer».”
“Eh..!?”
“Wh, who is it!?”
Raising a voice of surprise at the same time as Chiyuri, he turned to his right. Close to the edge of the thin passageway where the two were, a slender silhouette that definitely had not existed until a moment before was standing inconspicuously.
It was not Takumu—Cyan Pile. Of course, it was not another legion member either. It was an F-class duel avatar possessing a flower petal motif design on every part of her body. Her armor color was a warm bright golden yellow reminiscent of the sunshine of spring.
The moment he saw that figure, Haruyuki relaxed his guard and whispered to Chiyuri.
“It’s okay Chiyu, it’s not an enemy.”
“Eh…is she your acquaintance? If she is, then why is she here..? Isn’t this Takkun’s «dream»..?”
Answering that question was hard for Haruyuki too. However, while striving to somehow put the information he knew in an easily understandable form, he spoke.
“Um…this person’s not inside of Taku but inside of me. To be exact, she’s inside the Enhanced Armament I have, «The Destiny»…That’s right, isn’t it..?”
Last evening, Haruyuki had roughly explained to Chiyuri the matters concerning the Destiny, the sixth Divine Weapon that he had summoned. To Haruyuki’s inquiry, the bright golden yellow avatar slightly tilted her head.
“You could say it’s both like that and it’s not. It’s true that I exist inside the «Destiny», but because the main body of the Destiny is documented inside this world…”
“Eh..? What’s that supposed to…Besides that, what’s the Main…Visualizer you were talking about at first..?”
To the question he further asked, the mysterious girl returned a greatly surprising answer.
“To put it in your words, it’s the «Brain Burst central server».”
“..!!”
This time for sure he was shocked from the bottom of his heart; he along with Chiyuri froze their whole bodies.
The Brain Burst central server, whose place of existence was unknown, was the so-called «main body» of the Accelerated World. Containing all Burst Linkers’ statuses, it was truly the core of the world, recording Brain Burst’s each and every bit of data, calculating every change, and moving every enemy.
The central server, which rejected all irregular interference and only permitted players to imagine its existence, was in front of their eyes…no, the bright golden yellow avatar had said that they were already inside it.
“Bu…but why did such a thing..? Even though veterans say it’s absolutely impenetrable…”
After he whispered that in a quivering voice, the girl faintly smiled—so he felt.
“Of course, that’s true. However, we were given just one way to make our hands touch the natural laws of the world. You already know what it is.”
“Make our hands touch…the natural laws of the world…”
After parroting her words in a murmur, Haruyuki abruptly opened his eyes.
“The «Incarnate system»..? The power of one’s image…using «imagination circuits», overwriting phenomena…”
“Correct. A very strong as well as saddening power…”
While listening to the words of the girl who was nodding, Haruyuki remembered something for a moment.
This was not the first time that he had encountered this bright golden yellow avatar. That had happened during the final stage of the direct connection duel carried out with Takumu in Takumu’s room today, no, probably already yesterday night.
From inside Haruyuki, who had been blasted away by Takumu’s «Dark Blow» and had lost the strength even to stand up, the girl had appeared. At that time, sure enough she had said it. That “because the circuits to thecentral system had been temporarily activated, I was able to talk with you, Haruyuki.”
The central system was namely the BB server, the «Main Visualizer» that the girl had mentioned. And the circuits were—«imagination circuits». It was the root of the Incarnate system, the path of conveying one’s image power to the natural laws of the world.
“But…we haven’t been using the Incarnate system..? What’s what, I don’t understand well what Mind Power is either…to begin with, we were sleeping, both of us…”
Chiyuri, who had been behind and to the left of Haruyuki up until now, took a step forward and asked that.
If one looked again, Lime Bell and the mysterious bright golden yellow avatar had completely opposite armor colors, but their entire body design lines were similar in some respect. They did not just have the point in common of having «leaf» and «flower petal» exterior motifs but also something deeper and more fundamental.
The girl who had seen Chiyuri nodded slowly and pointed with her left hand to the dark, long tunnel through which the two had passed.
“This tunnel is precisely the «imagination circuit». The two of you had followed the circuit of your friend, whose heart you were connected to, and arrived as far as here.”
“Eh…T, Taku’s..!?”
“Then…right now, is Takumu invoking the Incarnate system..?”
The two of them raised their voices one after the other, but the girl gently shook her head sideways.
“This image is not his own. It’s a tunnel joined by the black power that’s penetrated inside him. —Over there.”
This time, the girl lifted her right hand and indicated the tip of the passageway that disappeared into jet black space. The floating bridge, which extended while twisting and turning, seemed to descend into the depths, into the depths of space as if to avoid the sparkling, vast galaxy high in the sky. After squinting hard, far ahead through the darkness through which he had seen—.
An avatar who was walking totteringly step by step while doubling his large frame over and deeply hanging his head was slightly visible.
Without verifying his blue heavy armor and the Enhanced Armament on his right arm, Haruyuki and Chiyuri knew who that was.
“T…Taku!!”
“Takkun!!”
The two simultaneously raised shouting voices close to screams and began to run forth. However, in front of the two, a bright golden yellow left arm swiftly blocked them.
“You mustn’t. If you carelessly approach him, you’ll be noticed by that.”
“Th…that..?”
While being driven by impatience, he instinctively focused his gaze to where Takumu was walking.
A few seconds later, as if his eyes had become accustomed to the darkness, «something» dimly stood out.
It was a thing that was difficult to describe as anything other than being enormous. If one said so, maybe a «lump of black living tissue». Meat wriggling in an indeterminate form that was surrounded by innumerable blood vessels in the shape of a mesh and was pulsing with a thump, thump. The blood vessels extended while branching off into the surrounding space, making its thin tips snake back and forth like tentacles.
The state of the «black lump of meat» swaying with a fixed rhythm somewhere resembled the «light of the galaxy» in the sky overhead. However, the impression it gave was the exact opposite. Chaos that opposed order. Darkness that opposed light.
“Wh…what is that…Why is that thing in the middle of the central server..?”
To Chiyuri’s trembling voice, the girl also lowered her voice and answered.
“That is…not something that the system gave birth to. It’s something whose seed has been sown by someone among the BB players and had been slowly, slowly nurtured over many years…a so-to-speak «foreign substance»…”
“Whose seed has been sown…nurtured…”
Immediately after he murmured that, Haruyuki convulsed his body with a twitch and gasped in a voice unlike one.
“S, surely not…the «Disaster Armor»? Is that, the main body of the Armor..?”
“Uh-unh, it’s not like that. The Armor is one of the «Seven Stars»…a part of the system. The Destiny, see it’s over there.”
Her bright golden yellow arm pointed to near the center of the galaxy glittering in the distant overhead sky. When he looked, he saw some stars that were aligned in the shape of a ladle shining even more largely and brightly than the surrounding points of light. As if in sympathy with it, Haruyuki’s eyes were drawn to the sixth star from the left.
Differing from the five to its left, only that star seemed to be accompanied by the dark, small companion star at its immediate side. As the girl had stated, if the sixth star were the main body of the Divine Weapon «The Destiny», then the dark companion star at its side was the «will to destroy» dwelling inside the Armor—probably.
Feeling a strange heartrending sorrow toward the figures of the two stars of differing sizes, Haruyuki slid his gaze to the right. There existed the seventh star and the final Divine Weapon of the Chinese name «Yao Guang»[1], «The Fluctuating Light». Sure enough, a large golden light could be seen wavering—but to Haruyuki, it could be thought of as being the center of the light of the galaxy itself.
What exactly did all this mean? No matter how immense the power they held was, the Divine Weapons in the end were Enhanced Armaments, one of the simple equipped items. Did that exist in the center of the Brain Burst Program itself..?
For a moment, he had that doubt, but Haruyuki immediately discarded it. Now was not the time to be thinking about the structure of the Accelerated World. Cyan Pile, who was walking with his head hanging down, would reach the black lump of meat a few minutes later.
He knew that grotesque lump was not the «Disaster Armor». If so, then what was it—.
“Ah..! H, Haru, look! It’s not just Takkun..!”
Chiyuri had sudden shouted and pointed slightly to the left of Cyan Pile with her right hand. As he had been told, he strained his eyes as hard as he could. Sure enough, the same type of thin floating bridge on which Haruyuki and company were standing was extending from there as well; what was more, somebody was walking on it.
It was a small-class duel avatar. A familiar form. He was hanging his burly arms as though they were scraping the bridge and bending his body possessing a voluminous upper body over with all his might. His armor color was grass green.
“…B, Bush Utan..!”
There was no mistaking it. That was Bush Utan, who was like a brother to «Ash Roller», who belonged to the green legion. Only a few days before, he had fought with Haruyuki in the Suginami area and had flourished his terrifying Incarnate techniques of darkness at will like a seasoned expert.
Without even noticing Haruyuki’s cry, Utan still trudged toward the black lump.
No; it did not end with him. Behind him too. Above and below as well. A countless number of floating bridges that had been hidden in deep darkness until now stood out in Haruyuki’s field of vision.
On one bridge, without exception there was one duel avatar existing apiece; all were continuing to advance with a lifeless gait. The total number of the bridges that extended radially from the lump of meat, at a rough estimate, was thirty—no, possibly over fifty.
At this point in time, Haruyuki finally realized what that jet black organism was.
That was the main body of the mysterious «ISS Kit». Hadn’t Takumu said it? That all ISS Kits were mutually linked. That if one Kit became stronger, then the surrounding Kits also became stronger. This very sight was undoubtedly that «link». Each time they fell asleep, through the imagination circuits of Brain Burst they were lured to this world and were mutually connected through the main body of the Kit, the lump of flesh.
In truth, a number of duel avatars had already arrived at the lump of meat and were kneeling before it. The black blood vessels extending from the lump crawled tightly around their entire bodies; while throbbing with a thump, thump, they seemed to be exchanging either liquid or information of some sort.
“No…no…”
Chiyuri, who although had less knowledge relating to the Kit than Haruyuki but had intuitively inferred the meaning of the sight before her eyes, whispered in a hoarse voice.
“This is cruel…everybody’s having something precious to them sucked away…in exchange, they’re having something undesirable poured into them…”
“Ahh…that’s right. That thing…that lump led Taku astray. Even though he fought with me and had finally begun to regain himself…at this rate, again he’ll…”
After moaning in a low tone, Haruyuki turned to the bright golden yellow avatar standing to his right and shouted.
“How are we supposed to stop this!? The ones walking over there are our friends! No, the ones there are all comrades playing the same game…playing Brain Burst! …That black lump…if we destroy that, this can be stopped, right!?”
And then, the girl again swiftly raised her arm and restrained Haruyuki, who had been about to run out after Takumu without waiting for an answer.
Why Haruyuki had stopped was not because he had run into that arm. It was because he had passed through it. Like a picture that had no substance, her right arm had penetrated Haruyuki’s body without a sound. Due to that disconcertment, Haruyuki had stopped his feet.
While being astonished, he looked back at the mysterious girl. Since he had always been grasping Lime Bell’s hand, it was not that there were no «collision detection» in this world.
The girl smiled just a little bit in a seemingly lonely manner and opened her mouth.
“Didn’t I say it? I am…a memory. I am the memory of a single BB player who left this world a day a long, long time ago…the echo of that player’s consciousness…”
“M…memory..? But you’re able to talk with us like this…”
To Chiyuri’s whisper, the girl slightly nodded.
“With this Main Visualizer, all data is preserved in the same format as that of people’s memories. That’s why, objects with a strong will…objects engraved with a prayer or a wish can possess a pseudo-thought circuit. That is me…”
“A strong…wish…”
While murmuring, Haruyuki was remembering something in a cranny of his head.
The first time he had met her in the midst of his duel with Takumu, the girl had said it. She had been waiting for the person who would undo the curse of the «Armor»…for the person who would heal the anger and grief of «that person».
That person. He did not know who that was. But that person’s wish had probably continued to let the girl exist in the Accelerated World even now.
As if she had read Haruyuki’s mind, the girl nodded and spoke.
“In this place, only «will» realistically possesses power. That black lump is made of an enormous coagulated malicious intent. If you approach it any closer, you two will also be taken in.”
“B…but, on the other hand, at this rate Taku will..!”
Driven on by impatience, he looked again at the bridge ahead. The distance between Cyan Pile, who was walking while looking down, and the ISS Kit was already only a few dozen meters. Within another minute, Takumu would be arrested by the black blood vessels and have something precious stolen from him again.
But, at that moment—.
“You already have the power.”
Said the girl in a distinct tone.
“P, power..?”
“That’s right. The «power to reach your hand out to the far distance for the sake of something precious».”
“..!”
Haruyuki reflexively looked at his own right hand enveloped in silver-colored armor. His five fingers, sharp-tipped and slender. His hand, which had been afraid of touching something, had been afraid of being linked with someone, and had continued to hide in his pocket for a long time.
Following that, he looked at his left hand. However, that hand had been securely continuing to grasp Lime Bell’s—Chiyuri’s right hand without shrinking from it.
If it had been before he had become a Burst Linker, even as fellow avatars in the middle of a full dive he would not have been able to show this kind of behavior. However, from that day eight months ago, lots of people had extended their hands out to Haruyuki and had shared their encouragement and courage with him.
—I’m no longer the me of the time when I walked while only facing down. This hand isn’t here for the purpose of breaking out into a cold sweat and being hidden behind me. It exists for the sake of grasping the hands extended out to me…no, for joining hands with someone of my own accord.
As if in sync with Haruyuki’s thoughts, Chiyuri lifted Haruyuki’s left hand and tightly clasped it.
“You can do it; if it’s you, Haruyuki, then you can do it. Your hands…your feelings can reach where Takkun is.”
Nodding and strongly squeezing back, Haruyuki spoke.
“Aah. I will reach him. As if I could stand letting Taku be taken by that lump of meat.”
The bright golden yellow girl had said only will possessed power in this world. That basically meant one could only use the Incarnate system. To put it the other way, normal techniques did not have any kind of power. That was the reason why Silver Crow couldn’t fly in this world.
Haruyuki’s only Mind Power technique, «Laser Sword», was a basic technique of the range expansion type. Having said that, the interval added from his bare fists was at most two meters. In contrast, he estimated the distance from himself to Takumu, who was continuing to walk, and the black lump of meat immediately opposite him to be fifty meters.
However, in this world, things such as apparent distances held no meaning. If he fired while believing his shot would not reach that far, then even large-class missiles probably would not reach; if he fired believing he could reach that far—even with Haruyuki’s immature Mind Power, it would definitely reach.
With his left hand still grasping Chiyuri’s right, Haruyuki lowered his waist and spread his legs open one in front of the other. He sharply lined up the five fingers of his right hand.
“Your chance is only one point, one moment.”
Immediately to his right, the girl had whispered.
“But, if it’s you, you can definitely do it. Believe. Believe in yourself…in yourself and in the power of the many people who have joined their hearts with your own.”
And then the girl—her avatar suddenly began to fade; wholly as if melting into the inside of Haruyuki, her figure overlapped with his and disappeared.
He had a lot more things he wanted to ask her. However, they would have an opportunity to meet again. Right now, he should only think of taking back Takumu.
Haruyuki had intuitively understood the girl’s meaning that his opportunity was one chance. In order for that lump of meat to connect with Takumu, it must expose some kind of vulnerable part. He would aim and shoot there.
He concentrated his senses in his right hand; a dazzling silver light was born in his fingertips and immediately covered him up to near his elbow.
As if responding to that light, the far-off lump of meat stirred its blood vessels extending from its whole body. It moved its tentacle-like tips and seemed to search its surroundings. Sure enough as the girl had said, if Haruyuki approached any closer those tentacles would notice him and try to take him in. Like how the ruptured «Kit» had done so at the end of his battle with Takumu.
While reverberating with a high riiiing vibration sound, the silver light in his right hand extended a couple dozen centimeters in the shape of a sharp sword. Trying to guard his right hip with the pre-motion of the normal «Laser Sword», Haruyuki stopped his arm still.
The same techniques, the same Mind Power he had been using up until now would not be able to reach it. He had suddenly intuitively felt that. Haruyuki had already fought with the aura generated by the ISS Kit with his Mind Power yesterday night. To bore through that redoubtable, thick darkness, he needed a stronger, stronger image of piercing.
As if being led by something, he raised his right arm up to the height of his shoulder. He bent his body and arms and drew them tight nearly to his limits. It was the motion of the astonishing long-range attack that in the past his teacher and parent Kuroyukihime—Black Lotus had shown a number of times, «Vorpal Strike».
That Incarnate technique was probably the ultimate range expansion and power expansion technique. One could not use the same technique without preparation. But he was sure he could definitely do it just by redoubling his image. He had to do it.
Due to the preparatory motion to which he was unaccustomed his image had possibly wavered, causing the Over-Ray residing in his right arm to flicker irregularly.
That moment, his left hand was gripped even more tightly. Simultaneously, a whispering voice.
“Haru. Though I can’t use Mind Power, my feelings are the same as yours. I want to take back Takkun. In order for us to begin to walk facing the future, not the past. Even if…even if one day our paths differ.”
Though her voice had slightly quivered and trembled, Chiyuri had proclaimed that distinctly.
Suddenly, a pale light green glitter covered Lime Bell’s whole body. That vivid light also flowed into Haruyuki’s body as well through their joined hands, stabilized the Over-Ray in his right hand, and strengthened it further.
“That’s the power of Mind Power, Chiyu.”
Haruyuki had answered in a dwindled voice.
“Pray for me. That my hand can reach Taku.”
“Unh.”
Riiiiiing…The resonance like the sound of a bell increased again in volume. The black lump of meat made its mass of tentacles rustle irritably. However, it seemed unable to find Haruyuki and company.
At that time, Cyan Pile, who had been continuing to advance forward, finally arrived right before the lump of meat and stopped his feet. As if a thread had been cut, he kneeled and hanged his head deeply.
On the surface of the «Pile Driver» covering Takumu’s right arm, a burbling black globule rose up. It opened its eyeball with a color like that of drenched blood and looked about, checking its surroundings—and its entire form suddenly floated up.
With the narrow blood vessel tissue still joined to Takumu’s right arm, wholly like a snail’s antennae the black eyeball slowly lengthened upwards. From the main body, the black lump of meat, a bundle of thick blood vessels was extended out in order to accept it.
At the moment when both of them tried to conjugate with the other—.
In one go, Haruyuki thrust his right arm straight out, which he had been tensing above his shoulder to his limit. At the same time, he shouted the words welling up from inside his heart.
“—«Laser…Lance»!”
With an intense metallic sound, a narrowly condensed lance of light was shot far, far from his right arm.
The lance penetrated the darkness lurking around the main body of the ISS Kit and lengthened. Twenty meters, thirty meters; its momentum had not yet declined.
However, there Haruyuki felt a heavy resistance in his right arm. That feeling. A cold incandescence, same as that of when he had taken Bush Utan’s «Dark Blow» for the first time.
—Reach!
—Reach!
The unvoiced shouts of Haruyuki and Chiyuri resounded simultaneously. The Over-Ray covering the two avatars scintillated dazzlingly, melted together, and flowed into the lance of light—and blew the heavy film of darkness away in all directions.
Takumu’s ISS Kit, which had been trying at that very moment to connect with the mass of blood vessels extending from the main body, looked back with the very movement of a living organism and caught sight of the lance. Its black eyelid was opened wide to its limits. It immediately began to return to the place it had parasitically infested, Cyan Pile’s right arm, but a mere moment earlier than that could happen.
The tip of the Mind Power lance deeply pierced the pupils of the crimson eyeball.
While raising a terrible splat sound and spraying out a jet black liquid, the eyeball ruptured all too easily. All of a sudden, Haruyuki felt the ferocious waves of anger emitted by the vast lump of meat—the Kit’s main body.
The countless tentacles stretching from the lump somewhere resembling a brain searched for the intruder, swirling violently. Directly below them, Cyan Pile, who had been hanging his head down, suddenly lifted his head.
“T…Taku! Over here!!”
Haruyuki shouted in as loud a voice as he could muster. Takumu, who had looked back, visually recognized Haruyuki and Chiyuri. From the depths of the slits engraved in the face mask, his pale eyes, which seemed to have fully awakened, opened wide.
“Takkun, run!!”
In response to Chiyuri’s scream, Takumu stood his avatar upright and stepped toward the two. Although he ran a few paces across the narrow floating bridge, whatever he was thinking he stopped still and turned about facing his rear—the direction of the lump of meat.
The Kit’s main body had twisted together most of its tentacles into a single one and was trying to arrest Cyan Pile again with it. If he were engulfed by that, he would probably be parasitized by a new Kit once more.
“Taku, run awa..!”
Halfway through, Haruyuki swallowed the words he had begun to yell.
The reason was that Takumu had suddenly gripped the tip of the steel pile extending from the Pile Driver on his right arm with his left hand.
That was—that motion was the Incarnate technique Takumu had mastered, the attack power expansion—
“«Cyan Blade»!!”
The call of a technique name spoken with his head held high. At the same time, the Enhanced Armament on his right arm was dismantled, and a blue Over-Ray enveloped the pulled-out steel pile. By the time he grasped it firmly again with his two hands with smooth movements, the pile was already changing into a large two-handed sword.
Without any sign of fearing the rushing mass of tentacles, Takumu held his sword glittering blue overhead.
“CHEIAAAAAAA—!!”
The vigor of a piercing scream. The very space around him trembled electrically, and an aftershock wave of intimidating might was transmitted as far as where the two were standing stock-still.
While effusing a light resembling lightning, the two-handed sword cut down from a head-on direction—.
It severed the swarm of tentacles and cut deeply into the lump of meat of the Kit’s main body.
A silent shriek.
The entire body of the lump of meat writhed violently, and the dozens of Burst Linkers joined to its blood vessels also swayed tremblingly. Some of them had regained consciousness and seemed to be blankly gazing around at their surroundings. From the vicinity of the two-handed sword that was still cutting into it, a blue light stretched radially and gave birth to some fine cracks.
Right after, a part of the Kit’s main body about ten meters in diameter internally exploded, and a large amount of black liquid and gas was dispersed. The passageway in which Takumu, Haruyuki, and Chiyuri were standing crumbled from its base. The avatars, losing their balance, were helplessly thrown into the bottomless space of outer space…
—Or so they had thought, but the next moment.
…Haru.
…Hey, wake up, Haru.
Having the feeling that he had been called by someone, he slightly lifted his eyelids. His surroundings were a deep gray. From the other side, a hazy figure of a person.
“…It’s still dark…let me sleep a bit more…”
Mumbling indistinctly, he tried to lie flat again, but this time his shoulder was shaken back and forth.
“Wake up, Haru.”
That voice’s echo, which in some way seemed urgent, slightly awakened his consciousness, which felt as if it were wrapped in cotton. He reluctantly opened his eyes again. As expected, it was dim. In this season, it was still around four at most.
“What’s happened, Chiyu…”
While speaking in a hoarse voice, Haruyuki strongly blinked and forcibly opened his eyelids.
From directly opposite, the one placing her hand on the right shoulder of Haruyuki who was lying on the left side of his body was Chiyuri as expected. A slender silhouette sitting plopped down. Short hair, and atop that a large three-cornered hat. A bright green semitransparent armor covering her entire body. In her left hand, a large hand bell Enhanced Armament…
“—Eh?”
His consciousness finally more than half awake, Haruyuki jumped up like a spring mechanism. At that moment, his body rang with a crack. What were there were not his vertically striped half-sleeved pajamas—it was his mirror surface armor that shone silver.
Flustered, he looked at his hands and touched his face. Without checking the feel of his smooth mask, he knew this was his duel avatar Silver Crow. And the yellow-green avatar sitting before his eyes was Chiyuri’s Lime Bell.
…Why? Had Chiyu challenged him while he was half asleep?
First having thought that, he turned his eyes upward to try to check the health gauge and time count that were supposed to be in the upper part of his field of vision. However, there was nothing there. The green bar, the engraved number of 1800 seconds, and all the other overlay displays did not exist.
However, that was impossible. Since they had became duel avatars—basically, since they were making a full dive into a duel stage, no matter whether it was the normal duel field or the Unlimited Neutral Field, without exception one’s own health bar was visible, and it was not possible to erase it by changing one’s settings either.
If so, then this was a dream.
Sitting with his legs still sprawled out, Haruyuki tried to pinch his own cheek with his right hand. However, it was blocked by his hard helmet, and he couldn’t touch it. Still with halfway fuzzy thoughts, he thought about substituting with Chiyuri’s cheek and began to reach his hand out to the avatar sitting immediately to his left. There, he remembered that all avatars’ face masks were hard in the first place. Other places that seemed able to be pinched…now that he thought about it, how about female F-class avatars’ chests below their armor…
While thinking that vacantly, Haruyuki moved his left hand, and into the round protuberance peeking out from below Lime Bell’s mantle armor, with his index finger—.
Squish. That feeling was transmitted through his fingertips half a second later.
“Wh, what’re you doing!”
At the same time as her shout, ring! A tremendous impact accompanied with a large reverberation directly hit the crown of his head. With the Enhanced Armament «Choir Chime» in her left hand, Lime Bell had hit Silver Crow with all her might.
“Ooh!”
After causing the yellow chicks around the area of his head to tweet for a while, Haruyuki finally completely awakened his consciousness and suddenly lifted his head. Quickly looking around at his surroundings, he noticed that it was not the Arita household’s living room. It was a dim tube-shaped space. To his right-hand side was a dead end, but to his left was a thin tunnel that seemed to continue forever while turning and twisting.
This was not a dream. However, it was not a normal «duel» either. Due to some irregular phenomenon, while sleeping, with Chiyuri the two of them had dived into this completely unknown space.
…The two of them?
“…! Wh, where’s Taku!?”
He checked his surroundings again, but Cyan Pile’s huge frame was nowhere to be seen. He turned his gaze to Chiyuri; the verdant green avatar glaring at Haruyuki while further covering her chest with both hands changed her expression to a seemingly worried one and softly shook her three-cornered hat left and right.
“I don’t know…I also had just awoken here a moment ago. When I got up, I had become a duel avatar, you were sleeping beside me, and Takkun wasn’t here…”
“…Is that so…”
Below his helmet, he thought for a moment.
Both of them had transformed into duel avatars, but since neither the time count nor their health/special technique gauges existed, it was clearly not the normal duel field. He had unconsciously tried to deploy his wings, but even though he could usually just bring out his wings even if his gauge were zero, right now they did not even respond with a twitch. It seemed that all abilities had completely been made ineffective.
If that were so, there was only one thing of which he could think. This unnatural phenomenon was probably—no, was without a doubt something that the «ISS Kit» parasitically inhabiting Takumu had caused. Haruyuki and Chiyuri, who had been sleeping while directly connected to him, had been pulled into the phenomenon through the XSB cable. To put it briefly, it could be said in a sense that right now the two of them were inside Takumu’s dream.
If so, then Takumu must also inevitably exist in this world. Why they couldn’t see his figure was surely because he had moved somewhere. Into the depths of the dark tunnel extending endlessly to the left-hand side.
“…Let’s go, Chiyu. We have to search for Taku.”
“Unh, got it.”
Chiyuri, who had apparently reached almost the same conclusion as Haruyuki, immediately nodded. Haruyuki lifted his body up from a sitting position with a vertical jump impossible with his real body and lent his left hand to Chiyuri, helping her up.
Lime bell did not release her hand even after having stood up; on the contrary Lime Bell tightly squeezed it. Lightly squeezing back, he tried feeling this wall surface with his right hand. It was not earth or cement. It was a deep gray soft tissue having an odd elasticity. Its faint temperature and minute ring-shaped pleats were completely like the interior of a living thing’s body—no, otherwise it was that very thing.
Looking at each other, they exchanged nods once, and with their hands still joined the two began to advance briskly into the depths of the tunnel.
Their sense of time and distance were lost in the wink of an eye.
It was even unclear whether the two of them were «accelerating» in the first place. If they were in a non-accelerating state, the home server alarm set to go off at seven in the morning would probably knock them awake sometime, but if they were accelerating then time would have might as well stopped. Or they maybe could have been able to leave this queer world with the «Burst Out» command, but they had reserves about leaving Takumu behind. The reason was that if they were in the midst of accelerating, then in the few seconds that they awoke in the real world and woke up Takumu sleeping next to them, in this place a vast amount of time would have passed by.
He had probably seen this dream yesterday night too. Then he must have received some kind of interference in his heart and been injected with a black something.
In that case, at this moment as well, that process might be progressing. What he had finally begun to take back through his direct connection duel with Haruyuki might be stolen once more…
That impatience caused his feet to quicken; before he knew it Haruyuki was running while pulling Chiyuri’s hand. Chiyuri’s feelings were probably the same; she was following the speed-class Silver Crow with all her might. The two avatars kept running, running in the tunnel that extended while twisting and turning.
He had thought rather about flying with the wings on his back, but for whatever reason it seemed like his «flying ability» could not be used in this place. With his metal fins tucked in, no matter how much he focused his consciousness they did not move.
When he felt that they had probably exceeded five kilometers, at that moment.
Finally from the path before them, a faint light could be seen.
“An exit..?”
To Chiyuri’s voice, he nodded back and raised his speed even more.
They ran the remaining dozens of meters in one go; before the eyes of the two who had broke out of the tunnel at last—suddenly, a sight they had not anticipated in the slightest appeared.
It was outer space.
No; precisely, it slightly differed. A jet black space that could be thought of as stretching out endlessly, and countless points of light coloring it. In the direction far above the heads of the two who had stood still dumbfounded, the cluster of points of light agglomerated densely and beautifully sparkled like a circular galaxy. However, what was different about it from a starry sky was that those lights were swaying and moving incessantly. One ray of light collided with the other still rays of light, and this time those began to move, bumping into the next ones. That chain reaction was continuing in the entire galaxy without end. Just like gigantic three-dimensional billiards—or like some kind of network.
Since he could not get a grasp of the sense of distance, he did not know the precise size of the «swaying galaxy». However, Haruyuki intuitively felt that if he tried to draw right next to it, that cluster of light would spread probably spread out to a cosmic scale.
He looked at his back for a moment; the tunnel out of which he and Chiyuri had come was still existing there as if it were a hole opening to space. From the tunnel, a thin bridge of two meters’ breadth extended and seemed to continue to the downward jet black space. The two were standing at the foot of that bridge.
Returning his gaze again to the beautifully sparkling cluster of stars, with his left hand still grasping Chiyuri’s right he stood bolt upright; from his left, a faint whisper fell out.
“…Amazing…”
Nodding to that, Haruyuki also murmured in a hoarse voice.
“What on earth…is that…”
To that question—somebody responded from his immediate right side.
“«Main Visualizer».”
“Eh..!?”
“Wh, who is it!?”
Raising a voice of surprise at the same time as Chiyuri, he turned to his right. Close to the edge of the thin passageway where the two were, a slender silhouette that definitely had not existed until a moment before was standing inconspicuously.
It was not Takumu—Cyan Pile. Of course, it was not another legion member either. It was an F-class duel avatar possessing a flower petal motif design on every part of her body. Her armor color was a warm bright golden yellow reminiscent of the sunshine of spring.
The moment he saw that figure, Haruyuki relaxed his guard and whispered to Chiyuri.
“It’s okay Chiyu, it’s not an enemy.”
“Eh…is she your acquaintance? If she is, then why is she here..? Isn’t this Takkun’s «dream»..?”
Answering that question was hard for Haruyuki too. However, while striving to somehow put the information he knew in an easily understandable form, he spoke.
“Um…this person’s not inside of Taku but inside of me. To be exact, she’s inside the Enhanced Armament I have, «The Destiny»…That’s right, isn’t it..?”
Last evening, Haruyuki had roughly explained to Chiyuri the matters concerning the Destiny, the sixth Divine Weapon that he had summoned. To Haruyuki’s inquiry, the bright golden yellow avatar slightly tilted her head.
“You could say it’s both like that and it’s not. It’s true that I exist inside the «Destiny», but because the main body of the Destiny is documented inside this world…”
“Eh..? What’s that supposed to…Besides that, what’s the Main…Visualizer you were talking about at first..?”
To the question he further asked, the mysterious girl returned a greatly surprising answer.
“To put it in your words, it’s the «Brain Burst central server».”
“..!!”
This time for sure he was shocked from the bottom of his heart; he along with Chiyuri froze their whole bodies.
The Brain Burst central server, whose place of existence was unknown, was the so-called «main body» of the Accelerated World. Containing all Burst Linkers’ statuses, it was truly the core of the world, recording Brain Burst’s each and every bit of data, calculating every change, and moving every enemy.
The central server, which rejected all irregular interference and only permitted players to imagine its existence, was in front of their eyes…no, the bright golden yellow avatar had said that they were already inside it.
“Bu…but why did such a thing..? Even though veterans say it’s absolutely impenetrable…”
After he whispered that in a quivering voice, the girl faintly smiled—so he felt.
“Of course, that’s true. However, we were given just one way to make our hands touch the natural laws of the world. You already know what it is.”
“Make our hands touch…the natural laws of the world…”
After parroting her words in a murmur, Haruyuki abruptly opened his eyes.
“The «Incarnate system»..? The power of one’s image…using «imagination circuits», overwriting phenomena…”
“Correct. A very strong as well as saddening power…”
While listening to the words of the girl who was nodding, Haruyuki remembered something for a moment.
This was not the first time that he had encountered this bright golden yellow avatar. That had happened during the final stage of the direct connection duel carried out with Takumu in Takumu’s room today, no, probably already yesterday night.
From inside Haruyuki, who had been blasted away by Takumu’s «Dark Blow» and had lost the strength even to stand up, the girl had appeared. At that time, sure enough she had said it. That “because the circuits to thecentral system had been temporarily activated, I was able to talk with you, Haruyuki.”
The central system was namely the BB server, the «Main Visualizer» that the girl had mentioned. And the circuits were—«imagination circuits». It was the root of the Incarnate system, the path of conveying one’s image power to the natural laws of the world.
“But…we haven’t been using the Incarnate system..? What’s what, I don’t understand well what Mind Power is either…to begin with, we were sleeping, both of us…”
Chiyuri, who had been behind and to the left of Haruyuki up until now, took a step forward and asked that.
If one looked again, Lime Bell and the mysterious bright golden yellow avatar had completely opposite armor colors, but their entire body design lines were similar in some respect. They did not just have the point in common of having «leaf» and «flower petal» exterior motifs but also something deeper and more fundamental.
The girl who had seen Chiyuri nodded slowly and pointed with her left hand to the dark, long tunnel through which the two had passed.
“This tunnel is precisely the «imagination circuit». The two of you had followed the circuit of your friend, whose heart you were connected to, and arrived as far as here.”
“Eh…T, Taku’s..!?”
“Then…right now, is Takumu invoking the Incarnate system..?”
The two of them raised their voices one after the other, but the girl gently shook her head sideways.
“This image is not his own. It’s a tunnel joined by the black power that’s penetrated inside him. —Over there.”
This time, the girl lifted her right hand and indicated the tip of the passageway that disappeared into jet black space. The floating bridge, which extended while twisting and turning, seemed to descend into the depths, into the depths of space as if to avoid the sparkling, vast galaxy high in the sky. After squinting hard, far ahead through the darkness through which he had seen—.
An avatar who was walking totteringly step by step while doubling his large frame over and deeply hanging his head was slightly visible.
Without verifying his blue heavy armor and the Enhanced Armament on his right arm, Haruyuki and Chiyuri knew who that was.
“T…Taku!!”
“Takkun!!”
The two simultaneously raised shouting voices close to screams and began to run forth. However, in front of the two, a bright golden yellow left arm swiftly blocked them.
“You mustn’t. If you carelessly approach him, you’ll be noticed by that.”
“Th…that..?”
While being driven by impatience, he instinctively focused his gaze to where Takumu was walking.
A few seconds later, as if his eyes had become accustomed to the darkness, «something» dimly stood out.
It was a thing that was difficult to describe as anything other than being enormous. If one said so, maybe a «lump of black living tissue». Meat wriggling in an indeterminate form that was surrounded by innumerable blood vessels in the shape of a mesh and was pulsing with a thump, thump. The blood vessels extended while branching off into the surrounding space, making its thin tips snake back and forth like tentacles.
The state of the «black lump of meat» swaying with a fixed rhythm somewhere resembled the «light of the galaxy» in the sky overhead. However, the impression it gave was the exact opposite. Chaos that opposed order. Darkness that opposed light.
“Wh…what is that…Why is that thing in the middle of the central server..?”
To Chiyuri’s trembling voice, the girl also lowered her voice and answered.
“That is…not something that the system gave birth to. It’s something whose seed has been sown by someone among the BB players and had been slowly, slowly nurtured over many years…a so-to-speak «foreign substance»…”
“Whose seed has been sown…nurtured…”
Immediately after he murmured that, Haruyuki convulsed his body with a twitch and gasped in a voice unlike one.
“S, surely not…the «Disaster Armor»? Is that, the main body of the Armor..?”
“Uh-unh, it’s not like that. The Armor is one of the «Seven Stars»…a part of the system. The Destiny, see it’s over there.”
Her bright golden yellow arm pointed to near the center of the galaxy glittering in the distant overhead sky. When he looked, he saw some stars that were aligned in the shape of a ladle shining even more largely and brightly than the surrounding points of light. As if in sympathy with it, Haruyuki’s eyes were drawn to the sixth star from the left.
Differing from the five to its left, only that star seemed to be accompanied by the dark, small companion star at its immediate side. As the girl had stated, if the sixth star were the main body of the Divine Weapon «The Destiny», then the dark companion star at its side was the «will to destroy» dwelling inside the Armor—probably.
Feeling a strange heartrending sorrow toward the figures of the two stars of differing sizes, Haruyuki slid his gaze to the right. There existed the seventh star and the final Divine Weapon of the Chinese name «Yao Guang»[1], «The Fluctuating Light». Sure enough, a large golden light could be seen wavering—but to Haruyuki, it could be thought of as being the center of the light of the galaxy itself.
What exactly did all this mean? No matter how immense the power they held was, the Divine Weapons in the end were Enhanced Armaments, one of the simple equipped items. Did that exist in the center of the Brain Burst Program itself..?
For a moment, he had that doubt, but Haruyuki immediately discarded it. Now was not the time to be thinking about the structure of the Accelerated World. Cyan Pile, who was walking with his head hanging down, would reach the black lump of meat a few minutes later.
He knew that grotesque lump was not the «Disaster Armor». If so, then what was it—.
“Ah..! H, Haru, look! It’s not just Takkun..!”
Chiyuri had sudden shouted and pointed slightly to the left of Cyan Pile with her right hand. As he had been told, he strained his eyes as hard as he could. Sure enough, the same type of thin floating bridge on which Haruyuki and company were standing was extending from there as well; what was more, somebody was walking on it.
It was a small-class duel avatar. A familiar form. He was hanging his burly arms as though they were scraping the bridge and bending his body possessing a voluminous upper body over with all his might. His armor color was grass green.
“…B, Bush Utan..!”
There was no mistaking it. That was Bush Utan, who was like a brother to «Ash Roller», who belonged to the green legion. Only a few days before, he had fought with Haruyuki in the Suginami area and had flourished his terrifying Incarnate techniques of darkness at will like a seasoned expert.
Without even noticing Haruyuki’s cry, Utan still trudged toward the black lump.
No; it did not end with him. Behind him too. Above and below as well. A countless number of floating bridges that had been hidden in deep darkness until now stood out in Haruyuki’s field of vision.
On one bridge, without exception there was one duel avatar existing apiece; all were continuing to advance with a lifeless gait. The total number of the bridges that extended radially from the lump of meat, at a rough estimate, was thirty—no, possibly over fifty.
At this point in time, Haruyuki finally realized what that jet black organism was.
That was the main body of the mysterious «ISS Kit». Hadn’t Takumu said it? That all ISS Kits were mutually linked. That if one Kit became stronger, then the surrounding Kits also became stronger. This very sight was undoubtedly that «link». Each time they fell asleep, through the imagination circuits of Brain Burst they were lured to this world and were mutually connected through the main body of the Kit, the lump of flesh.
In truth, a number of duel avatars had already arrived at the lump of meat and were kneeling before it. The black blood vessels extending from the lump crawled tightly around their entire bodies; while throbbing with a thump, thump, they seemed to be exchanging either liquid or information of some sort.
“No…no…”
Chiyuri, who although had less knowledge relating to the Kit than Haruyuki but had intuitively inferred the meaning of the sight before her eyes, whispered in a hoarse voice.
“This is cruel…everybody’s having something precious to them sucked away…in exchange, they’re having something undesirable poured into them…”
“Ahh…that’s right. That thing…that lump led Taku astray. Even though he fought with me and had finally begun to regain himself…at this rate, again he’ll…”
After moaning in a low tone, Haruyuki turned to the bright golden yellow avatar standing to his right and shouted.
“How are we supposed to stop this!? The ones walking over there are our friends! No, the ones there are all comrades playing the same game…playing Brain Burst! …That black lump…if we destroy that, this can be stopped, right!?”
And then, the girl again swiftly raised her arm and restrained Haruyuki, who had been about to run out after Takumu without waiting for an answer.
Why Haruyuki had stopped was not because he had run into that arm. It was because he had passed through it. Like a picture that had no substance, her right arm had penetrated Haruyuki’s body without a sound. Due to that disconcertment, Haruyuki had stopped his feet.
While being astonished, he looked back at the mysterious girl. Since he had always been grasping Lime Bell’s hand, it was not that there were no «collision detection» in this world.
The girl smiled just a little bit in a seemingly lonely manner and opened her mouth.
“Didn’t I say it? I am…a memory. I am the memory of a single BB player who left this world a day a long, long time ago…the echo of that player’s consciousness…”
“M…memory..? But you’re able to talk with us like this…”
To Chiyuri’s whisper, the girl slightly nodded.
“With this Main Visualizer, all data is preserved in the same format as that of people’s memories. That’s why, objects with a strong will…objects engraved with a prayer or a wish can possess a pseudo-thought circuit. That is me…”
“A strong…wish…”
While murmuring, Haruyuki was remembering something in a cranny of his head.
The first time he had met her in the midst of his duel with Takumu, the girl had said it. She had been waiting for the person who would undo the curse of the «Armor»…for the person who would heal the anger and grief of «that person».
That person. He did not know who that was. But that person’s wish had probably continued to let the girl exist in the Accelerated World even now.
As if she had read Haruyuki’s mind, the girl nodded and spoke.
“In this place, only «will» realistically possesses power. That black lump is made of an enormous coagulated malicious intent. If you approach it any closer, you two will also be taken in.”
“B…but, on the other hand, at this rate Taku will..!”
Driven on by impatience, he looked again at the bridge ahead. The distance between Cyan Pile, who was walking while looking down, and the ISS Kit was already only a few dozen meters. Within another minute, Takumu would be arrested by the black blood vessels and have something precious stolen from him again.
But, at that moment—.
“You already have the power.”
Said the girl in a distinct tone.
“P, power..?”
“That’s right. The «power to reach your hand out to the far distance for the sake of something precious».”
“..!”
Haruyuki reflexively looked at his own right hand enveloped in silver-colored armor. His five fingers, sharp-tipped and slender. His hand, which had been afraid of touching something, had been afraid of being linked with someone, and had continued to hide in his pocket for a long time.
Following that, he looked at his left hand. However, that hand had been securely continuing to grasp Lime Bell’s—Chiyuri’s right hand without shrinking from it.
If it had been before he had become a Burst Linker, even as fellow avatars in the middle of a full dive he would not have been able to show this kind of behavior. However, from that day eight months ago, lots of people had extended their hands out to Haruyuki and had shared their encouragement and courage with him.
—I’m no longer the me of the time when I walked while only facing down. This hand isn’t here for the purpose of breaking out into a cold sweat and being hidden behind me. It exists for the sake of grasping the hands extended out to me…no, for joining hands with someone of my own accord.
As if in sync with Haruyuki’s thoughts, Chiyuri lifted Haruyuki’s left hand and tightly clasped it.
“You can do it; if it’s you, Haruyuki, then you can do it. Your hands…your feelings can reach where Takkun is.”
Nodding and strongly squeezing back, Haruyuki spoke.
“Aah. I will reach him. As if I could stand letting Taku be taken by that lump of meat.”
The bright golden yellow girl had said only will possessed power in this world. That basically meant one could only use the Incarnate system. To put it the other way, normal techniques did not have any kind of power. That was the reason why Silver Crow couldn’t fly in this world.
Haruyuki’s only Mind Power technique, «Laser Sword», was a basic technique of the range expansion type. Having said that, the interval added from his bare fists was at most two meters. In contrast, he estimated the distance from himself to Takumu, who was continuing to walk, and the black lump of meat immediately opposite him to be fifty meters.
However, in this world, things such as apparent distances held no meaning. If he fired while believing his shot would not reach that far, then even large-class missiles probably would not reach; if he fired believing he could reach that far—even with Haruyuki’s immature Mind Power, it would definitely reach.
With his left hand still grasping Chiyuri’s right, Haruyuki lowered his waist and spread his legs open one in front of the other. He sharply lined up the five fingers of his right hand.
“Your chance is only one point, one moment.”
Immediately to his right, the girl had whispered.
“But, if it’s you, you can definitely do it. Believe. Believe in yourself…in yourself and in the power of the many people who have joined their hearts with your own.”
And then the girl—her avatar suddenly began to fade; wholly as if melting into the inside of Haruyuki, her figure overlapped with his and disappeared.
He had a lot more things he wanted to ask her. However, they would have an opportunity to meet again. Right now, he should only think of taking back Takumu.
Haruyuki had intuitively understood the girl’s meaning that his opportunity was one chance. In order for that lump of meat to connect with Takumu, it must expose some kind of vulnerable part. He would aim and shoot there.
He concentrated his senses in his right hand; a dazzling silver light was born in his fingertips and immediately covered him up to near his elbow.
As if responding to that light, the far-off lump of meat stirred its blood vessels extending from its whole body. It moved its tentacle-like tips and seemed to search its surroundings. Sure enough as the girl had said, if Haruyuki approached any closer those tentacles would notice him and try to take him in. Like how the ruptured «Kit» had done so at the end of his battle with Takumu.
While reverberating with a high riiiing vibration sound, the silver light in his right hand extended a couple dozen centimeters in the shape of a sharp sword. Trying to guard his right hip with the pre-motion of the normal «Laser Sword», Haruyuki stopped his arm still.
The same techniques, the same Mind Power he had been using up until now would not be able to reach it. He had suddenly intuitively felt that. Haruyuki had already fought with the aura generated by the ISS Kit with his Mind Power yesterday night. To bore through that redoubtable, thick darkness, he needed a stronger, stronger image of piercing.
As if being led by something, he raised his right arm up to the height of his shoulder. He bent his body and arms and drew them tight nearly to his limits. It was the motion of the astonishing long-range attack that in the past his teacher and parent Kuroyukihime—Black Lotus had shown a number of times, «Vorpal Strike».
That Incarnate technique was probably the ultimate range expansion and power expansion technique. One could not use the same technique without preparation. But he was sure he could definitely do it just by redoubling his image. He had to do it.
Due to the preparatory motion to which he was unaccustomed his image had possibly wavered, causing the Over-Ray residing in his right arm to flicker irregularly.
That moment, his left hand was gripped even more tightly. Simultaneously, a whispering voice.
“Haru. Though I can’t use Mind Power, my feelings are the same as yours. I want to take back Takkun. In order for us to begin to walk facing the future, not the past. Even if…even if one day our paths differ.”
Though her voice had slightly quivered and trembled, Chiyuri had proclaimed that distinctly.
Suddenly, a pale light green glitter covered Lime Bell’s whole body. That vivid light also flowed into Haruyuki’s body as well through their joined hands, stabilized the Over-Ray in his right hand, and strengthened it further.
“That’s the power of Mind Power, Chiyu.”
Haruyuki had answered in a dwindled voice.
“Pray for me. That my hand can reach Taku.”
“Unh.”
Riiiiiing…The resonance like the sound of a bell increased again in volume. The black lump of meat made its mass of tentacles rustle irritably. However, it seemed unable to find Haruyuki and company.
At that time, Cyan Pile, who had been continuing to advance forward, finally arrived right before the lump of meat and stopped his feet. As if a thread had been cut, he kneeled and hanged his head deeply.
On the surface of the «Pile Driver» covering Takumu’s right arm, a burbling black globule rose up. It opened its eyeball with a color like that of drenched blood and looked about, checking its surroundings—and its entire form suddenly floated up.
With the narrow blood vessel tissue still joined to Takumu’s right arm, wholly like a snail’s antennae the black eyeball slowly lengthened upwards. From the main body, the black lump of meat, a bundle of thick blood vessels was extended out in order to accept it.
At the moment when both of them tried to conjugate with the other—.
In one go, Haruyuki thrust his right arm straight out, which he had been tensing above his shoulder to his limit. At the same time, he shouted the words welling up from inside his heart.
“—«Laser…Lance»!”
With an intense metallic sound, a narrowly condensed lance of light was shot far, far from his right arm.
The lance penetrated the darkness lurking around the main body of the ISS Kit and lengthened. Twenty meters, thirty meters; its momentum had not yet declined.
However, there Haruyuki felt a heavy resistance in his right arm. That feeling. A cold incandescence, same as that of when he had taken Bush Utan’s «Dark Blow» for the first time.
—Reach!
—Reach!
The unvoiced shouts of Haruyuki and Chiyuri resounded simultaneously. The Over-Ray covering the two avatars scintillated dazzlingly, melted together, and flowed into the lance of light—and blew the heavy film of darkness away in all directions.
Takumu’s ISS Kit, which had been trying at that very moment to connect with the mass of blood vessels extending from the main body, looked back with the very movement of a living organism and caught sight of the lance. Its black eyelid was opened wide to its limits. It immediately began to return to the place it had parasitically infested, Cyan Pile’s right arm, but a mere moment earlier than that could happen.
The tip of the Mind Power lance deeply pierced the pupils of the crimson eyeball.
While raising a terrible splat sound and spraying out a jet black liquid, the eyeball ruptured all too easily. All of a sudden, Haruyuki felt the ferocious waves of anger emitted by the vast lump of meat—the Kit’s main body.
The countless tentacles stretching from the lump somewhere resembling a brain searched for the intruder, swirling violently. Directly below them, Cyan Pile, who had been hanging his head down, suddenly lifted his head.
“T…Taku! Over here!!”
Haruyuki shouted in as loud a voice as he could muster. Takumu, who had looked back, visually recognized Haruyuki and Chiyuri. From the depths of the slits engraved in the face mask, his pale eyes, which seemed to have fully awakened, opened wide.
“Takkun, run!!”
In response to Chiyuri’s scream, Takumu stood his avatar upright and stepped toward the two. Although he ran a few paces across the narrow floating bridge, whatever he was thinking he stopped still and turned about facing his rear—the direction of the lump of meat.
The Kit’s main body had twisted together most of its tentacles into a single one and was trying to arrest Cyan Pile again with it. If he were engulfed by that, he would probably be parasitized by a new Kit once more.
“Taku, run awa..!”
Halfway through, Haruyuki swallowed the words he had begun to yell.
The reason was that Takumu had suddenly gripped the tip of the steel pile extending from the Pile Driver on his right arm with his left hand.
That was—that motion was the Incarnate technique Takumu had mastered, the attack power expansion—
“«Cyan Blade»!!”
The call of a technique name spoken with his head held high. At the same time, the Enhanced Armament on his right arm was dismantled, and a blue Over-Ray enveloped the pulled-out steel pile. By the time he grasped it firmly again with his two hands with smooth movements, the pile was already changing into a large two-handed sword.
Without any sign of fearing the rushing mass of tentacles, Takumu held his sword glittering blue overhead.
“CHEIAAAAAAA—!!”
The vigor of a piercing scream. The very space around him trembled electrically, and an aftershock wave of intimidating might was transmitted as far as where the two were standing stock-still.
While effusing a light resembling lightning, the two-handed sword cut down from a head-on direction—.
It severed the swarm of tentacles and cut deeply into the lump of meat of the Kit’s main body.
A silent shriek.
The entire body of the lump of meat writhed violently, and the dozens of Burst Linkers joined to its blood vessels also swayed tremblingly. Some of them had regained consciousness and seemed to be blankly gazing around at their surroundings. From the vicinity of the two-handed sword that was still cutting into it, a blue light stretched radially and gave birth to some fine cracks.
Right after, a part of the Kit’s main body about ten meters in diameter internally exploded, and a large amount of black liquid and gas was dispersed. The passageway in which Takumu, Haruyuki, and Chiyuri were standing crumbled from its base. The avatars, losing their balance, were helplessly thrown into the bottomless space of outer space…
—Or so they had thought, but the next moment.
