hat, put her right index finger to her chin, and tilted her neck. He thought that her expression did not change, but he could not keep watching, so he cowered. Just thinking of the disappointment flowing in her dark eyes, made his whole body heat up.

He unconsciously moved his mouth.

“No, that’s fine. This is within expectations. This avatar looks like it is full of uselessness. I am sorry it’s not what you hope for. It’s ok, you can just leave me alone. Just think of it as a missed lottery.”

“You... fool!!”

That shook his body, Haruyuki raised his face. Unknown since when, Kuroyukihime was right in front of him, her eyebrows raised, and her burning eyes looked down at him.

“I won’t say anything about your way of living, since I am just a similar middle school student. However in regards to Brain Burst, I am over six years your senpai. I already said it before, different Duel Avatars have equal potentials. Have you already forgotten?”

“B... but, my only skills are Punch, Kick, and Head thrust...”

“Then, there is a strength to supplement that somewhere for sure.”

Her stare softened a bit, Kuroyukihime continued like admonishing him.

“That Duel Avatar was born from your heart. What happens if you don’t believe in it?”

‘The person I do not believe in the most, is myself.’

While he murmured in his chest, Haruyuki nodded.

“...I am sorry. I will believe... not sure about myself, just your words.”

Hearing that, Kuroyukihime’s face twisted slightly - maybe it was just a bitter smile - Haruyuki’s shoulder relaxed slightly.

“For you, before learning how to fight, there is something else you must learn. Strength is...”

For a little while. Her slight bitter smile was mixed with some pathetic expression.

“Strength is, not just a word meaning the result of a victory. I wasted a lot of time to learn that. And when I learned it, it was much too late.”

The true meaning of her quietly whispered words, Haruyuki could not comprehend. When he tilted his head about to ask, without giving him the time to do it, Kuroyukihime suddenly turned around.

“Hmm, it’s almost time.”

When he looked, the 1800 second time count only had 20 second left.

“Then, the next lecture will be a practice lesson.”

“Huh... what...? What does that mean...?”

At the puzzled Haruyuki, Kuroyukihime showed an fearless smile.

“Of course, you are going to get it back. Your 10 points.”

Right after, the Draw result displayed, then the ?Fight? ended, and ?Accelerate? canceled.

At the moment they returned to the real lounge, without giving him a chance to speak, Kuroyukihime pulled out the Direct Connect cable and took it back.

“Well! Let’s eat, Arita-kun. The food is getting cold.”

With a smile, she picked up a small spoon from the table. Without any choice, Haruyuki too pulled the curry rice plate in front of him close. Even though he experienced over 30 minutes of time since he took it from the counter, it still had warm steam rising, his stomach growled.

From the surrounding tables, the same displeased stares like yesterday focused on him, he thought about bringing it to the cafeteria corner to eat, but lost to his empty stomach. After he ate three big mouthfuls, he heard an upperclassman at the same table talking to Kuroyukihime, that made his throat tighten.

“Hime[3], isn’t it about time you tell us? We are about to die from curiosity. How should we comprehend your relationship with this person?”

He looked up, and saw that the one who spoke was the fluffy hair student council member he saw yesterday. She should be the 2nd year secretary.

“Hmm.”

Kuroyukihime put her spoon on the side of the gratin plate, elegantly held up her tea cup, and looked like she thought for a bit. The surrounding students all quieted down.

“Bluntly speaking, I confessed, and he rejected me.”

Screams and shouts of consternation filled the world.

Haruyuki held the spoon in his mouth, took his curry, and escaped by running.

“Y... you there!!”

The afternoon next two hours, Haruyuki passed them while being showered with needle like stares, he went behind the right side of Kuroyukihime who was heading to the school gate and complained in a low voice.

“What were you thinking!! I will be bullied again!! I will absolutely be bullied again!!”

“That was a majestic proclamation.”

While laughing, Kuroyukihime continued with a wise look.

“I only said the truth. Also, you were not altogether bad yourself.”

While saying so she manipulated her virtual desktop, and made a flipping her finger tip motion. From the local net he instantly received a file, an icon lit up in his view. When he clicked it, a large picture opened up in front of his eyes.

It’s a picture of him with curry spoon in his mouth, a blankly stupid expression shown on his face.

When he saw that, Haruyuki shouted.

“Ugyaa!!”

He instantly threw the file into the trash can.

“Wh, when did you take this field of view screen shot! Even sleight of hand has a limit!!”

“What, just a souvenir.”

While bantering like that, the surrounding stares with real killing power was focused on Haruyuki. He shrunk his neck like usual, but after all he could not hide behind Kuroyukihime’s slender body.

“Hold your chest a bit higher. In this school, there are not many males that rejected me, on the other hand you were the only one.”

“So, when did I do that!”

“Saying it like that is so mean. I might get hurt again. ...Well, instead of that.”

With ‘instead of that’ words Kuroyukihime put the question on pending, she changed her expression and said in a low voice.

“When we leave the front gate, your Neuro Linker will connect to the Global Net. Any Burst Linker in this ?Suginami 3rd Battle Area? can force you into a fight. Before you are challenged, Accelerate, look for ?Ash Roller? in the matching list and challenge him.”

“What... area? Is there a limit in the area where fighting is possible?”

To Haruyuki’s question, Kuroyukihime made a small nod.

“That’s right. Even if you fight someone on the other side of Tokyo, 30 minutes will pass before you can meet. ...Eventually, you can go to a multi-person, unlimited connection, group-use battle field, but that is something beyond level 4. Right now just concentrate on the fight in front of you.”

With a slightly sharper sound, the lecture is nearing end.

“I will tell you now, if you lose you can not instantly re-match, you can only challenge the same person once a day. I will go in the gallery, unfortunately I can not help you. ...Don’t make such a dejected face, if you fight like I wrote in the mail, you won’t lose.”

“O... ok.”

He swallowed while nodding. He copied and pasted the text mail he received during the sixth period into his brain.

“This is your real debut fight, ?Silver Crow?. Good Luck.”

With a push at his back, Haruyuki stepped into the walkway blowing with the dust of battle.