The intense howl of the wind, as if it was knocking on the window, woke Haruyuki from his shallow sleep.

In the darkness, as he listened while under the mattress, he could hear numerous water droplets carried by the wind bouncing off the glass window. It seemed to have started raining sometime ago.

For sure, during the night, this wind would blow away most of the cherry blossoms from the trees around the apartment. However, unrelated to this wind, spring was a season of melancholy for Haruyuki.

There were two reasons for that. First, the humidity and temperature would rise. For Haruyuki, whose sweat function was double that of normal person's, even around 25°C, his forehead began to become moist.

And then there was the other reason: his school year would change. His long suffered days of being bullied were finally over, and he had somehow obtained a neutral position, so at this point, having his class shifted is nothing other than harassment. For unfamiliar student opponents, he had to Ping[1]?them again to determine their relationship from the beginning, and thinking about it made him feel faint.

At the very least, for the last few hours of Spring break, trying to extend it a little wouldn't warrant any punishment.

While thinking like that, Haruyuki searched on the bed's top panel and got hold of his Neuro Linker. He put it on from the back of his neck and turned it on, and with the sound of a light motor drive, the lock arm closed. The startup stage began, then after the five senses connection check was completed, a half transparent virtual desktop appeared in front of his eyes.

At the bottom right of his view, he took a look at the time display, ?2047/04/08 AM01:22?, and sighed, then took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

"Burst..."

Link.

He was going to sing that magic spell, but right before that, with a faint 'message received' sound, a voice call icon lit up blue white.

He touched it with his right index finger without thinking, and realized at the same time that the call was from his childhood friend two floors below.

"...Haru, are you awake?"

When the soft voice echoed in his head, Haruyuki was slightly shocked. Chiyuri who normally sleeps at 10pm and should not wake up no matter what till 7am, what was she doing up at this hour? And for what?

While pushing the tangled thoughts to a corner of his mind, Haruyuki mumbled an answer with his thought voice.

"Just now, I woke up..."

"The wind, is pretty amazing. But, the reason for me being unable to sleep is something else."

"Unable to sleep!? You!?"

As he blurted that out, Chiyuri immediately shouted "Hey!".

"You, who do you think I am. In the first place, the reason I can't sleep is Haru's fault!"

"Huh...? M-Me...?"

"That's right. You, today... it's already yesterday, in the evening before I went home, didn't you say something strange? 'Tonight you might have a scary dream, but absolutely do not remove your Neuro Linker, or turn it off', you said. After being told that, being uneasy and unable to sleep is a matter of course!"

To be truthful, around 10 hours ago, Haruyuki did say that to Chiyuri.

The reason was simple. The duel fighting game software ?Brain Burst?, after its install was completed, on the first night, used a nightmare-like method to search the user's memory, looking for scars in the heart like trauma and inferiority, straining them to create their battle field alter ego, the ?Duel Avatar?.

Half a year ago, Haruyuki himself had the biggest nightmare in his life on the night that he obtained Brain Burst. The details were scattered so he could not remember, but the result from the software creation, was a spindly slender body with a huge helmet headed silver avatar, ?Silver Crow?.

While remembering his sore disappointment fondly at that time, Haruyuki answered Chiyuri.

"N...No choice. If you don't have that dream, then your crucial duel avatar won't be created. Also... I just thought of it, do you actually have any emotional trauma..."

"That, you dare say it! I have traumas at least. Long ago, in our elementary school excursion trip, someone played games in the bus and messed up his sense of balance, became badly car sick, and finally, on my lap,"

"Excuse me. I am sorry. Please don't say anymore."

Provoked by his own trauma, Haruyuki moaned as he apologized. However Chiyuri's pursuit didn't stop, and she continued to complain as if her puffed up face could be seen.

"Ah, now that I remember it, Haru did not properly apologize that time. Perfect, you can return what you owe now."

"Wh...What!? How many years ago was that... the statute of limitations is over!"

"The 'statute of limitations' will become obsolete words soon, was what the news said the other day."

To be truthful, after all of Japan's public spaces were set up with ?Social Camera Net?, the statute of limitations for criminal cases were eliminated a few years ago. However if they followed this trend, then Haruyuki didn't know how much he needed to pay Chiyuri back for what he owed her.

"The ?Special Law of Childhood Friends? makes anything have a one year statute of limitations."

After he mumbled that complaint, Haruyuki sighed with his real mouth, and sent out the question from his mind at the same time.

"...So then, how do I pay you back? Again, the ?Enji Shop? jumble parfait?"

"I feel that the taste at that place got worse recently. It might be because their cow's milk had been changed to a milk mixture... hey, that's not it. It's troublesome to explain by mouth, so dive into my Home Net right now. I will open the gate."

"Huh...?"

While he was still blinking from the unexpected order, Chiyuri had already cut the voice connection at her end. As he watched the icon fade, Haruyuki wondered what she wanted at this time as he tilted his head, but he did not have the guts to disobey either, so as ordered, he sang the command with his flesh voice.

"Direct Link."

At that moment, with a *slush* sound effect, the dim scene of his room melted away radially and disappeared. The feelings of his body surface and weight were also cut, and then Haruyuki slowly fell into the darkness. With the Neuro Linker's ?Full Dive? function, only his consciousness was released into the net.

In the view of Haruyuki, who was enjoying the floating feeling, a few round access gates came near him from below. Those, were net entrances that could be dived into. The Global Net VR spaces recorded in his favorites list, his apartment's home Local Net, and Kurashima's Home Net tag was there as well. Haruyuki extended his unseen right arm that way.

Soon a virtual pull occurred, and Haruyuki's consciousness was drawn to the small gate. When he went through with a *Supon* sound, in front of his eyes, a calm lemon yellow ring of light expanded—

"U...Uwaaa."

The scene that appeared made him involuntarily shout out.

Usually, a normal Home Net's VR space was mostly based on the house's design. The Living Room, Parlor, and family members' ?Single Rooms? exist, with different things not possible in the real world like large space or decorations being customized as mostly fun places.

However right now, what spread out wide under Haruyuki's eyes were, objects with many different shapes and sizes— a sea of cushions.

Square walls did not seem to exist. Under a lovely blue sky, the pastel-colored cushions were piled up as far as the horizon. Haruyuki fell right into the middle of that, bounced up once, then again landed on his behind.

"...Wh-What is this."

While looking at the yellow giraffe cushion lying flat right in front, the elephant cushion beside it, and also the strangely shaped one beside it and murmured that once again.

"That is an?Anomalocaris. A creature from the Cambrian Period."

Suddenly Chiyuri's voice echoed from behind him, and Haruyuki turned around.

Standing on top of probably an?Acanthaster?like black star-shaped cushion, was an elegant avatar. Its whole body covered in soft looking light purple fur, dressed in a small one piece, the cat-evolving-into-a-human kind of design, was Chiyuri's avatar that she also used in the Umesato middle school Local Net.

With a 60% cat-like face, Chiyuri blinked her large bluish green colored eyes as she snorted.

"You are still using that avatar. It's about time you changed it to something better."

After being told that, Haruyuki glanced down at his own body.

What was there was what he used at school, a pink pig-type avatar. With an almost ball shaped body, and round limbs. A flat nose stuck out from the center of his face, and although he could not see it himself, there should be large ears growing out of his head.

It was a shape that you could not call cool or cute, and actually it was not an avatar that Haruyuki himself selected, but somehow he continued to use it. As Haruyuki moved his nose, he responded as if it was an excuse.

"I have already gotten used to the sensations of this body, and changing it now will be troublesome. Instead of that... earlier I said, 'What is this', was not referring to this strange creature, it's about the whole VR space. What is this cushion hel... heaven."

To be sure, Chiyuri liked cushion type stuffed animals from long ago, and he remembered different ones lying on her bed, but this scale was way beyond anything. 'What is the total number of objects', he inquired as he thought about it, then the cat avatar wiggled her tail with a ribbon and smiled proudly.

"Nihihi, isn't it great. Recently, as a present for going to the next grade, I got a Home Server expansion and my own user memory space. Even at this resolution, from edge to edge it is about 15km."

"Re...Really!"

At that moment he leaned back in reaction, his round behind slid, and Haruyuki fell in between the elephant and the Anomalocaris. While he fumbled around, he thought. With that much capacity, if it was him, he would recreate the battle field around Kursk in 1943. With a mountain of Tiger tanks and T-34 tanks placed everywhere, and in the sky BF109 fighters. You would cry out, 'What a blood tingling spectacle'.

"...H-Hey Chiyu, let me play with it a bit"

"No!!"

While he was still talking, he was coldly denied, and Chiyuri stuck out her tongue for a "Be~" between the small fangs in her mouth.

"If I let Haru customize it, it will definitely become something that's oil, steel, and smoke filled."

"Th-That's just fine."

"N-o-W-a-y! Ah geesh, we haven't gotten anywhere in talks at all."

As he looked up at the cat type avatar with her slender arms crossed, Haruyuki finally remembered the reason he was called here.

"Ah... o-oh yeah. Then, what did you want me to do anyway?"

"Just sitting there is fine."

"Huh?"

Not understanding what she meant, Haruyuki threw out his short legs in front as he sat on top of a huge cushion, with his head tilted. Then, right after—

With a *bounce*, the cat type avatar jumped in front of him, and without any hesitation, she laid her supple body on top of Haruyuki's legs.

"U...Uwaa!?"

As Haruyuki jumped up to escape, Chiyuri's right hand held his nose and pulled him back to where he was.

"You, become a pillow there for a while. Then I will forget about the time of that trip. Let me warn you, if you do anything erotic, I will let the Anomalocaris bite you."

"I-I won't! Speaking of which... a pillow, what do you..."

Not answering Haruyuki's excited question, Chiyuri extended her small claw fingers and snapped them. At that moment, the calm blue sky above, turned in one direction, and changed to a night sky with a huge moon floating above.

Under the blinking stars that looked the same as constellations found in picture books— and on top of Haruyuki's knees, Chiyuri stretched widely, lay on her side and curled up.

"...There isn't, any deep meaning."

From the mouth that Haruyuki could not see, came a small whisper.

"Just, when Haru used to come for sleepovers in my home, I remembered that I soon fell asleep when you became my pillow."

"...Wh-When was that..."

"Who knows. Long... long ago."

With a "Fuwa" yawn, the cat type avatar really closed her eyes.

...This kind of role, ask Taku.

He wanted to say that, but Haruyuki swallowed back those words. While they were young, only Haruyuki had experienced being used as a pillow by Chiyuri. Due to Takumu's parent's strict educational policy, he usually did not have a chance to sleep over at either of their homes.

But, even so, would a conditional response from that long ago remain till now? Furthermore they were both animal type avatars, and this was a virtual cushion heaven created by the Neuro Linker. However, of course, he absolutely could no longer imitate this with his real body. No, even for VR it was questionable, to be truthful.

While that kind of thought spun around in his head, what was amazing was Chiyuri really starting to sleep, breathing calmly.

"...Unbelievable..."

As he groaned involuntarily, Chiyuri, whom he thought just entered sleep, mumbled in an indistinct voice.

"Hey, Haru... I, really worked hard..."

"Huh? For what...?"

"To become a Burst Linker... I tried really hard... Like this... again, we, will return. Like back then... three of us, every day, playing till the sun goes down... that... time..."

There, this time for sure Chiyuri went into a deep sleep. To the avatar that was breathing virtual air with a *Suu Suu* sound echo, he touched the soft fur under her ear, and Haruyuki answered in his chest with a sigh.

—There should be something that won't change.

—But, something that changed, and will no longer return to where it was, also exists for sure.

A few minutes later, after the Neuro Linker determined that Chiyuri had went into a deep sleep, it automatically canceled Full Dive for her. Even after the cat type avatar on his knees disappeared with a bell like sound effect, for a while Haruyuki sat in between the mute stuffed animals.