“One..One hundred percent winning rate!?”

Lunch break the next day, Thursday the 18th.

Haruyuki shouted in a shocked voice on top of bench on the rooftop of Umesato Middle School.

“That..isn’t just a figure of speech, but they really didn’t lose even once..?”

Sitting next to him, Takumu nodded while placing the sandwich he bought at the cafeteria on his knees.

“Yeah, I heard it from an acquaintance of mine in the Shinjuku area. Since he seems to have watched it all of Noumi and Chii-chan’s duels starting from their first one, appears to be true..He said that, once Dusk Taker’s gauge fills up and he starts flying, no duel avatars are able to do anything to him no matter what type they are.”

“....”

After looking dumbfounded at his partially-eaten hamburger for a while, Haruyuki nodded.

“..I see, so that’s how it is..Close-range types aren’t able to approach him from the beginning, and it’s also impossible for long-range types to make Dusk Taker fall down in a firefight using firepower since he has a healer.”

“Yeah. —I don’t mean to put you down, Haru, but originally your ?flight ability? was such a strong power that it couldn’t be embodied in an avatar unless all other potentials were thrown away. But by stealing it from you, Noumi has made it compatible with long-range techniques. Right now, that guy has boundlessly deviated from the ?general rule of same level, same potential?. Furthermore, there are tactically no blind spots in Noumi either..”

While mechanically tearing the film around his sandwich in half, Takumu added more in a heavy voice.

“Since the Level 7 and 8 rankers seemed to still be following a wait-and-see strategy regarding Noumi yesterday, there is no telling what will happen when they come out to face him, but..if Noumi still continues to win against them, then the situation is far more serious than I imagined.”

“W-What do you mean..?”

“....Haru, somewhere in our hearts, we have probably been thinking something like this. ‘No matter how strong Noumi becomes, when master..when Black Lotus returns, that person will solve the situation in a single stroke’, right? But..”

The moment he heard those words, Haruyuki almost dropped his hamburger. Without noticing how he reflexively grasped it with all his strength and how the overflowing sauce from within was falling on his hands, he shouted in a hoarse voice.

“T-Taku..Are you saying she’d lose!? Senpai, against Noumi!?”

“I don’t want to consider it either! ..But, at the very least, we have to admit that Noumi does intend to do that.”

Haruyuki noticed how Takumu’s hand was minutely trembling as he tried to tear off the sandwich’s film. Turning even paler, his best friend spoke as if groaning.

“Yes..Noumi probably planned to do so from the beginning. Corner and put the three of us at a disadvantage during the week that master is absent, and gather only the trump cards that can let him oppose master. No, not just oppose her. That guy..intends to hunt the Black King, Black Lotus.”

“Hu..Hunt..?”

“Yeah. —In the past, I felt inclined to target the Black King just because she didn’t possess any fighting power in her dummy avatar form. Even so, I only intended to go as far as taken some of her points. But Noumi is different. He without a doubt is thinking of taking down Black Lotus in her original form and taking over this school..no, taking her seat as a King..”

Haruyuki shook his head strongly as if to negate the cold feeling that was crawling down his back.

“Impossible..As if, as if senpai would lose to a bastard like him!”

To Haruyuki, that beautiful jet-black avatar was the only absolute existence in Accel World. No matter what kind of Burst Linker she faced, even if her opponent was another ?King?, he believed that there was no way she could lose.

It was impossible for that ?Black King? to lose against a rule-breaking ?Acceleration User? like Noumi. It was impossible, but—

..If I were to hold her back.

If this idiot that was tricked by a virus, was caught on video, and even lost his wings, were to dull that person’s sword.

Or if the worst case situation were to become reality as well..

“—Haru.”

Takumu suddenly grasped Haruyuki’s shoulders strongly.

“Haru, no matter what Noumi’s intentions are, there is one thing we have to do. We must do everything we can do until this Saturday.”

“What we can do..but what’s that? We’re absolutely helpless as long as that guy is intercepting the Matching List.”

After mumbling that in a hollow voice, Haruyuki’s face strongly twisted and he continued.

“Or else, are you saying we should also go to Shinjuku? Do you plan for the two of us to intrude onto Noumi’s team and take down Chiyu..?”

This time, Takumu became silent for a long while.

Eventually, he removed his hand from Haruyuki’s shoulder, shut his eyes behind his glasses and answered back quietly.

“——Please don’t say that to me.”

“..Sorry.”

After hanging his head as well and letting out a long breath, Haruyuki apologized.

“Senpai and Chiyu can’t be compared, after all..For now, let’s believe. That the people of Akihabara BG and Blood Leopard will solve the mystery of the list interception..”

Those words were closer to a prayer to God than hoping for something, but it was also a fact that there didn’t remain any other methods. Even if they went to Akihabara again, that would only be like walking blindly down the road.

While Haruyuki vigorously gnawed at his crushed hamburger and moved his mouth to chew, he stared up at the slightly cloudy sky.

He connected his Neuro Linker to the Global Net with a feeling of praying and check the anonymous mail box he had told to Blood Leopard, but—

“....Still nothing, huh..”

He understood that it wasn’t such a simple matter, but Haruyuki was still struck by huge disappointment and dropped his shoulders.

Kuroyukihime was already going to return from Okinawa the day after tomorrow, on Saturday night. Although it was a moment he had been looking forward to, now he also wished that she would remain longer in safe Okinawa for at least one more day.

In the interval of 48 hours until then, they had to uncover Noumi’s secret, eliminate the video evidence, and also get back Chiyuri. But right now, he couldn’t do anything else besides patiently waiting for information.

Tormented by burning impatience, Haruyuki hung his head downward as far as possible and walked down the path towards his home alone. Takumu had, as expected, not gone home with him and instead had gone to club activities today, since he had skipped for three days in a row.

He trudged toward his apartment home under the sky that seemed on the verge of rain, and at the moment when he went into the large entrance and looked up.

The back of a female student who was standing in front of one of the two elevators on the far-off wall at the end and was wearing the same Umesato Middle School uniform as him came into his view.

Short hair that came to her shoulders. A sports bag she carried slanted. Even just by seeing her from behind, Haruyuki immediately realized that it was Chiyuri. —However, why was she here, at a time like this?

Chiyuri was part of the track-and-field club, and ran around the track everyday right until it was time to leave school. The time when she returned home should have been two hours later than Haruyuki who was part of the going-home club. When he saw her in the classroom today, he didn’t see any signs that she had caught a cold either.

After that familiar back vanished into the elevator and the door closed, Haruyuki finally realized.

She was skipping club activities on Noumi’s instructions. In order to ?duel? from the evening in Shinjuku, just like yesterday. In order to use her avatar as bait and attract the enemy, while continuing to heal Dusk Taker who hovered above in the safety of the sky.

“....Chiyu.”

While mumbling that, he unconsciously gripped both his fists tightly. Haruyuki didn’t understand this feeling that pushed up from the bottom of his stomach and that had the heat and density of melted metal. But, when he pricked that heat and moved, Haruyuki walked to the elevator, jumped in right as the door opened, and on impulse pushed as if jabbing the button for the floor two levels below his—the 21st floor.

After he stepped out from the lift and started walking again, he stopped in front of the door of the Kurashima household. He pushed the displayed chime button without hesitation, and a sound effect chimed lightly.

Chiyuri should also have already learned via the home server that the visitor was Haruyuki.

After stubbornly standing there waiting, he finally heard the click of unlocking and the door opened.

Perhaps aunty had gone shopping, since the one who stood in the apartment’s entranceway was Chiyuri herself. It seemed she had been in the middle of changing clothes, for she had removed her blazer and her undone blue ribbon hung down from the neck of her shirt.

Chiyuri slightly tilted her outwardly calm-looking face, and spoke only a single word.

“..What?”

“I came, to talk.”

Haruyuki immediately answered. Truth be told, he hadn’t entirely thought of what he should talk about, but even so his mouth still moved almost automatically.

“..I see.”

Giving a short answer again, Chiyuri then turned around and returned inside. Haruyuki held his breath, then went through the door, took off his shoes and followed after her.

Half a year ago as well, Haruyuki had been driven by a similar impulse and visited Chiyuri’s room.

The reason for that visit had been to direct connect with her and confirm whether Chiyuri was the unidentified Burst Linker ?Cyan Pile? who had been making attacks in the Umesato local network back then.

The visit this time as well was similarly related to Brain Burst. However, the situations differed greatly as much as they were similar. Chiyuri was definitely the Burst Linker ?Lime Bell? now, and on the surface had turned against Haruyuki and Takumu due to her own will.

After sitting down on the bed with a thump and holding one of her big stuffed animal cushions that were lying around in large numbers—probably some kind of sea creature on top on her knees, Chiyuri spoke once again.

“What do you want to talk about?”

While standing near the door, Haruyuki let out the words as his moved his mouth.

“..You skipped your club activities, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

When Chiyuri gave only that minimal answer, he unusually locked gazes with her firmly, and asked another question.

“Is that part of Noumi’s instructions?”

“..If it is?”

“If that’s so, then stop. It's wrong to give priority to Brain Burst in real life.”

Then, Chiyuri’s expression changed for the first time here, and her eyebrows furrowed slightly and her sharp voice returned.

“Speak for yourself. Haru, how many times until now have you thought of nothing but Brain Burst?”

“Th..That’s not true. I’m not in any clubs, and I’ve never carelessly forgotten about my homework because of it.”

“And in exchange, you pour in all your other time into it..”

In that instant, Chiyuri shut her mouth.

And she suddenly cracked a smile.

“Let’s stop. It’s just a game. Let’s not become so serious about it.”

She was brightly smiling, but Haruyuki, who had seen Chiyuri’s face for such a long time even more than his own, clearly grasped the very faint awkwardness that was hiding in that expression. But Chiyuri smiled even wider and gave a V-sign with her right hand.

“..It’s amazing, you know? I only started yesterday and I’ve already gone up two levels. The people in the gallery said that going from Level 1 to 3 in a single day might be the fastest record in the history of Brain Burst. I can’t even count the number of legion invitations I’ve gotten.”

“....Chiyu.”

Calling out her name in a voice that seemed to catch in his throat, he took a step forward.

“I’m only skipping club for the time being, so you don’t have to worry. Since my pace will drop once I stabilize and can fight even as a solo. I’ve already gotten the knack of dueling..”

“Chiyu!!”

He said it again in a half-cry, and words burst forth from Haruyuki’s throat like a stream.

“Chiyu, you’re obeying Noumi because of that video, right!? He told you that he would submit the video of me peeping to the school, right!? In that case, you don’t have to worry about such a threat! Noumi can’t use it, because even he understands that if he did, I would release his real world information to other Burst Linkers. That thing..That video can only be used to threaten not me, but you, so stop worrying about it already!”

—‘It’s useless even if I say this’, even though he should have understood those words intellectually.

If Noumi exposed that video, Haruyuki would almost certainly be expelled. On the contrary, it was quite possible that he would be arrested and, as result of a trial in family court, be sent to Juvenile Hall.

As long as that possibility existed at all, Chiyuri would continue to obey Noumi. That was because—she was Chiyuri. Because she was his childhood friend who always tried to protect Haruyuki since long ago.

“......”

After turning down her gaze and becoming silent for a long while, Chiyuri smiled once again.

“That’s not how it is, Haru. I just want to collect points quickly and raise my level. I said this before the other day as well.”

“That’s..That’s not like you at all!”

Haruyuki shouted as tears flowed down from his eyes without him being aware of it.

“I’m the one, I’m the one that’s completely at fault here! I let him manipulate me just like he wanted and let him take hold of my various weaknesses, and on top of that..if even you are stolen away by him, I don’t know what to do..”

As Haruyuki slumped to the floor and hanged his head downwards, in his ears—

The similar tearful voice of Chiyuri reached him.

When he raised his head up with a start, his childhood friend was still giving an unchanged smile, but there were two thin lines of tears quietly falling down her suntanned cheeks.

“....You don’t understand. Haru, you don’t understand me at all.”

“Eh....?”

“Even though you don’t understand anything..anything at all!!”

Suddenly shouting in a teary voice, Chiyuri then did an unexpected action.

With the fingers of her trembling hands, she started to undo the buttons of her white shirt from the top one after another.

In front of the Haruyuki’s eyes as his breath caught and he froze, Chiyuri, after showing a momentary hesitation, took off her shirt in one go. Her upper body, which only had a simple bra covering it, was exposed to Haruyuki’s eyes without anything obstructing it.

Several days ago, Haruyuki had been tricked by a visual marker and entered into the female shower room, and as a result had seen her stark naked form, but for some reason, seeing her figure right in front of him like this now was accompanied by overwhelmingly huge implications and knocked down Haruyuki’s consciousness.

“....If I do this, do you understand?”

Chiyuri whispered in a trembling voice.

“Even if my avatar in Accel World obeys Noumi, the me here in the real world..is in a place where you could touch me if you wanted to, Haru. Do you still not understand with this? I haven’t been stolen away or anything like that.”

Gazing at Haruyuki with eyes that shined intensely despite being wet with tears, Chiyuri spoke as if to engrave every word upon him.

“I act according to my own will. Both until now, and from now on.”

Haruyuki—

Couldn’t understand.

Chiyuri was acting according to her own will. What was that supposed to mean? Did she mean that, just as she had said until now, she had judged that, as a Burst Linker, it was more advantageous to join with Noumi rather than Haruyuki and the others, and was cooperating with him in order to get more points?

Suddenly, Haruyuki understood that the feeling that had been squirming and burning inside him since he saw her at the entrance was jealousy. It seemed that, even though he liked Kuroyukihime and wanted Takumu and Chiyuri to turn out well together, that black feeling hadn’t been exhausted and had sprung up from the bottom of his chest just from thinking that Chiyuri was on Noumi’s side.

However, Haruyuki shook off that feeling, and merely looked down deeply and spoke.

“....Sorry. Please put your clothes back on.”

He didn’t understand Chiyuri’s aim and intentions.

But, he decided he would believe. Chiyuri was also probably fighting. She was trying to eliminate this crisis with her own power. He had to believe just that. If he couldn’t believe what she had said until now, he was already unqualified to be her friend.

After getting up and turning towards the door in order not to look at Chiyuri who still didn’t move, Haruyuki spoke one final time in a firm voice.

“..I believe in you. That’s why, please believe in me as well. I won’t lose to someone like Noumi. I will definitely regain everything that he took away.”

Then, Haruyuki opened the door and began walking with a long stride in order to return to his own apartment.

After going out onto the veranda from his apartment’s living room, Haruyuki put both his arms on the handrail and looked out at the Shinjuku high-rise complex rising in the sky to the east.

The clusters of high-rise buildings including the more than 500 meters tall Tokyo Government Office glittered brightly in the slanted sunlight. At this very instant as well, a ?duel? should be enthusiastically taking place at that skyscraper’s stage.

Right now, there was nothing he could do about Dusk Taker steadily increasing his battle power and making his fame grow.

However, unable to give up here, Haruyuki strongly gripped the handrail and mumbled.

“..There is something even I can still do.”

That something was, thinking.

To scrutinize, consider and make conjecture from all the information.

Just any kind of plunderer couldn’t steal that kind of weapon. While letting the cold wind that blew through the 23rd floor breeze through his uniform, Haruyuki began to remember in detail all the occurrences that had happened since the cause of all this—Noumi Seiji entered school eight days ago.

After it became late at night, Haruyuki learned from Takumu that the place that Dusk Taker had appeared today wasn’t at Shinjuku but instead Shibuya.

But although the area was different, what happened was completely the same as yesterday. Burst Linkers that could oppose Noumi, who had the possibly strongest hand of ?flight?, ?healing? and ?long-range firepower?, when they fought for the first time did not exist in the middle range.

This tag team, which had recorded a 100% rate of victory continuing for two days, had obtained a vast quantity of points once again. As a result, Dusk Taker was at Level 6. Lime Bell had reached Level 4.

It wasn’t a phenomenon that fit inside the frame of ?duels? anymore.

It was already something was more appropriately called an ?invasion? into the existing Accel World.

As the sky in Shibuya was blazing red like the fire of battle, Haruyuki continued thinking intently while leaning against the veranda’s handrail.

The playback of his memories passed through his desperate struggle with Noumi on Tuesday, and came to the scene at Akihabara yesterday.

The mysterious Burst Linker ?Rust Jigsaw?. Just like Noumi was doing, he was invading the existing system. Using the privilege of list interception, he was making a killing on points within the Akihabara BG’s local network.

Looking at it like that, it wasn’t necessarily far-fetched to think that there was some kind of connection between Rust Jigsaw and Dusk Taker either. At the very least, the possibility that they were using the same logic to intercept the list was high. That he had missed clearly seeing Rust Jigsaw’s real form in the bustle of the crowd was tremendously regretful.

While once again tasting the bitterness he had felt so many times since yesterday, Haruyuki recalled in his mind the sight of Jigsaw’s back that he had seen for an instant.

A gray stadium jacket. A white neck that was distinctly tanned-marked from wearing a Neuro Linker all the time. He had walked away at a fast pace while rubbing that place with his right hand as if it were in pain.

Just before he disappeared from sight, that boy had suddenly swept out his right hand at the passerby in front of him, although they hadn’t really been in his way—

His memory playback stopped exactly on that scene.

He rewinded back several frames.

The boy quickly cleared away the space to his right that was at about the height of his chest, with his right hand that had his fingers extended.

Why did this scene bother him so much?

Haruyuki tightly grasped the veranda’s handrail with his hands, and strained all his thinking power. The feeling that faintly bit into the center of his head when he touched upon the beginning to answer in a riddle-solving-type game intermittently struck him.

Think. Think.

While repeatedly playing back the sight of the boy’s back, Haruyuki unconsciously performed the same movement as well.

He raised his right hand and quickly waved it to the right.

He felt as if that movement was strangely familiar to his arm as well.

Quickly waving his right hand. Waving his right hand. Waving.

This was—this wasn’t the gesture of moving aside someone in front of you.

Wasn’t this the motion of erasing windows on a virtual desktop?

But that time, the boy hadn’t been wearing a Neuro Linker. Then, was it some kind of retinal projection-type wearable device? No, according to the image in Haruyuki's memory, he hadn’t had any such apparatus on him at all.

Had he been looking at a holo-window without using a Neuro Linker nor any other device?

..Impossible. As far as Haruyuki knew, devices like contact lens-type miniscule monitors had yet to be developed, and a device that was embedded in one’s eyeball shouldn’t exist either.

‘Maybe I’m mistaken’, just as he abandoned that line of thought, he suddenly recalled the words he had once had heard from Noumi.

‘..Do you think that the Neuro Linker is the only portable device in the world?’

Those were the words he had said while pointing at the small digital camera he had used in order to take a secret recording of Haruyuki in front of the Umesato Middle School shower rooms. He couldn’t find any further meaning to his words than that. Yet, why did it bother him so much now?

“Devices..Devices other than the Neuro Linker..”

Haruyuki mumbled that while touching the aluminum-silver Neuro Linker that was attached to his own neck.

A VR device that wasn’t a Neuro Linker. They certainly existed. In the 2020s before Haruyuki was born, there should have been huge headgears that were equipped to the head. But, the machines of those days were only for Full Diving, and the Neuro Linker should have been the first device that had an AR (Augmented Reality) function which allowed for a virtual desktop to be operated while moving around in the real world....

“..No.”

Haruyuki suddenly frowned.

“No, that’s not it. The first device that implemented AR, if I remember right, was..”

His mumbling stopped, and his gaze wandered through the air. Within his uncertain memories, there was something stuck that was prickling at him. Between the early headgear-type and the present Neuro Linker, another kind of device should have existed.

After wavering for a while, Haruyuki quietly moved his fingers and struck the Drive icon on his virtual desktop.

He rapidly passed through the endless number of data folders that existed in his Neuro Linker’s local memory. Eventually, at an absurdly deep level, a folder with only the title [F] appeared.

F was the F for ‘father’. There, all the information, no, memories that were connected to his real father, who he hadn’t gotten in touch with once since he left their family long ago, were stored. There were only a few photographs. Voice files. Text memos. And the data folders related to his father’s work, which he had duplicated from the home server just before his mother completely erased them all.

His father had worked as a business manager in a company related to the backbone of the network. Even if his father had hardly come back to the house and had only stayed at home for an occasional rest, the data of his work spread out wide in Haruyuki’s vision, and he wasn’t even looking at the other files there besides that.

Having remembered that things like the history of VR device development should have been among the documents his father had left in the server, Haruyuki desperately went through the folder while shaking off the prickling feeling piercing his chest. Finally, he found the target file and opened it. He scrolled with his finger through the string of characters that summarized in chronological format.

The first headgear-type VR machine that implemented Full Dive technology was marketed in May 2022.

The first generation device of the present Neuro Linker was put on the market in April 2031.

The moment when his gaze was drawn to the name of a certain device that described in small script between them.

His heart jumped with a ‘DOKUN’, and his breathing stopped. While feeling his skin grow rapidly cold across his entire body, Haruyuki grasped the handrail tightly with his hands.

—No way. That can’t be. It’s impossible. But.

—It’s possible. If this was used. One could also see a virtual desktop without having a Neuro Linker. And, one could also connect to a local network without using a Neuro Linker.

His lips trembled, and released a single phrase into the air with a hoarse voice.

“..Brain..Implant Chip....”

Brain Implant Chip. Abbreviation, BIC.

It had existed for only a short time in the history of wearable VR machines, a ‘demon child’ as it were.

The body of the device was a small neuro-electronic chip that was implanted between the surface of the cerebrum and the dura mater. By laying out a self-growing terminal port around the sensory area of the brain’s surface, the possessor was able to use the AR display of a virtual desktop and Full Dive without equipping any external devices. In a certain sense, you could call it the ultimate VR machine, even more so than the Neuro Linker.

It was developed and marketed in 2029. However, its use was forbidden within this country only a few years later.

The reason for this was because, unlike the Neuro Linker, the BIC couldn’t be unequipped, not to mention being unable to have its power disconnected. In the case where one received malicious hacking for example, opposing it would be accompanied by extraordinary difficulty.

Conversely, if the possessor used it with malicious intent, there were various ways to evade the law as well. An extreme example of that would be using it during the entrance exam of a high school or university, or during various kinds of qualification exams. Since the Neuro Linker didn’t yet exist in those days, carrying VR machines during entrance exams was prohibited in principle, but if one had the BIC implanted in them, full marks could easily be taken on memorization-type subjects. Since it wasn’t any different from carrying all the dictionaries and reference books with you.

Inevitably, cases where parents made their test-taking children implant the BIC in them occurred frequently throughout the whole country, and moreover it reached the point where the same thing occurred in bar examinations and national examinations for the licenses of government officials as well, and so the government had no choice but to make laws about the manufacture and use of BICs.

That’s right—in the current year 2047, the BIC was an illegal VR device.

That was exactly why Haruyuki had not even considered examining that possibility since the beginning, when Noumi entered the school. However, he already thought that there was no other conclusion than this now. Although the general use of the BIC was regulated, he had heard that its manufacture itself was continued for special uses and that there were also hospitals which performed implantations of the illegal chips that were sold through the black market. He couldn’t imagine how a middle-school student could get their hands on something like that, but he could certainly believe that Noumi of all people could have done it.

Noumi Seiji/Dusk Taker, and probably Rust Jigsaw as well, possessed a second VR machine in his brain.

Noumi wasn’t intercepting the Matching List while-->>

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