“...This car is master’s personal property?”

Unable to withstand the tension from the impending ?Seven King Conference?, Haruyuki suddenly inquired from the rear seat, which made the person in the driver's seat his ?Master?, Fuuko shake her head in surprise.

“No way. It’s my mother’s since no matter what I cannot buy an automobile with just a high school student’s allowance.”

“Th, that’s right.”

The EV had a round cute form, but the bright cream yellow interior had leather upholstery and the center of the steering wheel had a snake and cross shaped emblem. Even Haruyuki was very familiar with it, as it was something from an established Italian automobile maker. Let alone university student, not even young members of society can easily afford that kind of price.

“You seem to be very used to driving, so I thought that maybe it was yours. That license is your own... right?”

The answer to the cautiously asked second question, was not from Fuuko but was instead from the navigator seated Kuroyukihime.

“Fufu, of course. Fuuko is 16 this year, so she is a woman who can obtain license or get married, unlike us.”

“...Saa-chan, I don’t like the way you said that...”

‘—— I see, a woman huh.’

After that moment of fleeting thought, Haruyuki shook his flabby head and revived.

The qualification for acquiring a driver license was lowered from the normal 18 years old to 16 years old about 7 or 8 years ago. The official reason was, the social camera net completion and the vehicle control AI became mandatory so traffic accident rate was greatly reduced. That was the story but there seem to be a hidden side.

Japan in year 2040, was overcome with unbounded declining birthrate and aging population, and the social security system was on the verge of collapse. The annual increase in health care, long term care and public pension expenditure became unsupportable by the working generation. At that point, with the driver’s license as representative, various qualification acquisition ages were lowered so as to increase the number of working young people- this was the government's intention. In fact, the Labor Standards Act was also amended at that time, so it became possible to hire 16 year olds as a full time company employee.

That meant Fuuko was already, in a legal sense, over half of an adult. And then Kuroyukihime who became 15 this year will be one next year. In just two years Haruyuki's time will also come.

Of course, graduating from middle school does not immediately mean having the need to find employment, and in fact one will continue to be a child, but even so, Haruyuki could not help but feel uneasy about it.

‘—— How long, will I be able to stay as my current self.’

After thinking about that kind of thing, he suddenly made a bitter smile inside his heart. Not wanting to be his current self and wanting to escape somewhere far away, this kind of longing was something that Haruyuki was supposed to continue feeling for a long time.

That desire had not disappeared. He still hated his external form and he still could not like his middle school. However if right now some kind of God said to him, ‘I will change you to a different person living at a different place’, then he would probably firmly reject the offer. ?This Place? was, in the short term, being in the rear seat of the EV driven by Fuuko, and in the long term, being a Burst Linker in a corner of the Accelerated World. Putting it another way, with ?Brain Burst? boasting enormous size and finesse, he would be a player of this game that offered him unlimited thrill and excitement. He did not wish for any more than that, not a thing.

But even that was probably not forever.

Brain Burst was a game. A game will eventually end. No, aiming only to reach that ending, Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime were fighting.

What kind of shape the game’s conclusion will be, he could not understand right now. When Kuroyukihime reach the level 10 she wished for, will Brain Burst itself be cleared, or will the ?End of Childhood Time? kind of ending come, robbing them of their play rights without mercy, or will even some other kind of ending he could not imagine be visited upon them?

That was why right now, he should go all out.

Do his best to play, enjoy, and then protect. This world that himself and the people he loved could be together in.

In the somewhat tight rear seat, he swore that in his heart and held his fist tight —— then, Haruyuki soon remembered the circumstance he had fallen into, and blew out a deep sigh.

In fact, this was not a situation where he could say cool things like ‘I will protect!’.

The agenda of the ?Seven King Conference?, which was to start in 10 minutes, was number one, a countermeasure against the mysterious destructive group, ?Acceleration Research Society?, that suddenly appeared in the accelerated world and number two, how to deal with the unbelievable revival of the enhanced armament, ?Disaster Armor? and Chrome Disaster.

Whichever agenda, if it was just one week ago, would have just been an over the cloud talk for the not yet level 5 Haruyuki. For discussion between Kings and their aides, he would be glad to just look on from the audience seat.

However, right now Haruyuki, instead of being an audience, would be standing in the center of the stage.

Since, the one who revived the Disaster Armor, and became the sixth generation owner, was Silver Crow —— Haruyuki himself.

“...No need to become so tense, Haruyuki-kun.”

With the arrival of calm words from the front seat, his face jerked up.

The owner of the voice suddenly pulled the nav seat’s reclining lever and the backrest started to tilt. Right in front of Haruyuki, who panicky dodged to the driver side, the seat fell all the way to full flat. Long black hair smoothly flowed, and part of it touched Haruyuki’s lap.

Today’s Kuroyukihime, was in unusually casual clothes. Above her grey slim jeans was a tight print T-shirt. On top of that was a thin punching leather material short sleeved shirt. The color was, of course, black. It was in contrast to the ivory type one piece and three quarter length leggings that showed the feminine side of Fuuko, but it did not diminish her official kind of beauty by one bit.

Kuroyukihime, who was in a sleeping position in front of Haruyuki, casually extended her right hand, grabbed Haruyuki’s T-shirt collar with her fingertips and pulled. As his body leaned forward as if sucked in, a sweet scent different from the car air freshener tickled his nose, and Haruyuki’s thinking rapidly decelerated.

“You don’t need to be afraid of anything. It’s ok, I will not let the Kings do anything to you. You, will be protected by me.”

After that was whispered at an extremely close distance, his head became more dizzy, so, after desperately putting his brain in gear, Haruyuki answered.

“Th... thank you very much. But... that is, all the Kings other than senpai will of course, ask for enforcement on Silver Crow right? That means... legion master’s ?Judgement Blow?...”

“Well, probably.”

“If that... was refused, won’t that be bad for senpai, how to say it, image-wise?”

What Haruyuki had experienced, was how unbelievably cruel the ?Many who wore the hat of justification? could become. The delinquent students, who bullied Haruyuki a lot during the first year, did not irrationally wield violence at the start. At the beginning they came by with friendly faces, then at the moment that Haruyuki refused their invitation and distanced himself, they used the pretext of ?Betrayal of companionship? and showed their fangs.

This time, as for reason, he thought that the Kings have more of it than Kuroyukihime. The ?Disaster Armor? was a curse that had a lot of victims since the beginning of accelerated world, and even Haruyuki thought that it needs to be erased. On the other hand, if he could erase it by his own operation, then he would have done it already.

If that was not possible, then he should be dealt with by all the Burst Linkers. If Kuroyukihime rejected that ?Valid? opinion, then what kind of mental and physical pressure will the Kings shower upon them?

That, was only Haruyuki’s worry —— however.

“Hahaha, what are you saying that at this time for?”

The sudden light laughter that flew by, made him blink his eyes a few times.

Then Kuroyukihime’s smile changed to a fearless one, and exaggerated in a somewhat low sound.

“I am already their enemy. I did not join their foolish ?Mutual no invasion treaty? either. If they have a problem, then the six Kings can just come duel me. That is exactly what I wish for, right?”

“...Senpai...”

‘—— Truly, what a strong, cool... and brave person.’

While he was impressed within his chest, he of course did not have the ability to put it into words, so the least Haruyuki could do was look with all his heart into the shining deep black eyes at close range.

Doing so made Kuroyukihime’s sharp look soften, and she again kindly smiled as she accepted Haruyuki’s gaze. With her lips moving slightly, a lowest volume whisper shook the air lightly.

“Thinking back, I had been protected by you a lot since the beginning...”

The lightly extended fingertip, gently touched Haruyuki’s right cheek. Even while his heart beat loudly, he somehow managed to answer in a raspy sound.

“No way... That’s not it... I had also...”

However Kuroyukihime lightly poked Haruyuki’s cheek with her index finger to seal his objection.

“I am your ?Parent?. So I have the?right?to protect you any time. That’s why, at least during times like this, rely on me without saying anything.”

“...Sen, pai.”

With his chest quickly tightening, Haruyuki somehow managed to say just that, and continued to exchange gazes with Kuroyukihime. The sword King that returned a kind nod, as her fingertip stayed on Haruyuki’s cheek, once more whispered her words from a few seconds ago.

“I promise. You, I will protect.”

“...Yes. Yes.. I believe yomugiu!”

—— There, the reason that the ending of his words were overwritten by spoiled sound was.

The backrest of the driver’s seat suddenly fell down, and squashed Haruyuki.

The hand that thrust out from the seat’s edge grabbed hold of Haruyuki’s left ear and at the same time it was pulled, Fuuko’s face peeked out with both cheeks blown up hugely, and said in a resentful voice.

“Hey Saa-chan, Karasu-san! Getting excited in someone’s car is forbidden, you hear!”

The two people in the front returned their seat angle back to normal and as Haruyuki fixed his depth in the back seat, it was 3 minutes to 2 pm in the afternoon already.

Looking up through the window, he saw somewhat moody light clouds in the middle of June sky, but spots of blue color also showed their faces here and there. There did not seem to be any worry of sudden thunderstorm disrupting Neuro Linker connection.

Continuing after a slight cough, Kuroyukihime said tensely.

“This time’s conference is not an everyone connected become fighting opponents kind of ?Battle Royale Mode? and instead, the host, ?Blue King?’s two close aides will duel and other participants will be in the gallery which will automatically dive in. That is, there is no need to think about danger of anyone attacking us.”

“Ah... Including ?Incarnate System? type of attacks too?”

Haruyuki’s question was answered by Fuuko.

“Yea, even if mind power is used, you cannot do something like attack the gallery in the normal duel field since the gallery does not even have a HP gauge. In the previous week’s ?Hermes Code Traverse Race?, the reason that the participants and audience were hurt by Rust Jigsaw’s mind power was because the HP gauge was set for everyone, but the number for it was locked due to the special field status.”

“I see, it was that right... Somehow... someway, it was like...”

As Haruyuki murmured obscurely, Kuroyukihime added with a quiet sound.

“Somehow it was like,?it seems there was leeway left for destroying the race with mind power, that?”

“Ye... N, no, to that degree is...”

He hurriedly shook his head. If that was said, then the next conjecture would inevitably hold true. That was —— that destructive act by Rust Jigsaw, was approved by the developer of Brain Burst.

No way, it could not be that. That simply could not be. The identity unknown developer, who managed Brain Burst for whatever goal was still a mystery, but Haruyuki had already began to feel a deep respect for him/her as a gamer. The person who built and maintains this much of a fun, exciting, and immersive game... no, ?world?, could not be helping some dirty guy from the likes of ?Acceleration Research Society?.

“Haruyuki-kun.”

As he strongly ground his inner teeth, Kuroyukihime’s gentle sound called out.

“Listen, remember just this. Accelerated world’s main actors are each and everyone of the Burst Linkers. You're the same. What kind of form you commit to this world is fully left up to your choice. No matter what the developer’s intent is.”

“...Yes!”

At the same time as his deep nod, the time display at the edge of his view showed that it was 10 seconds before the appointed time.

“Good response. —— So then everyone, start Global connection.”

Under the legion master’s direction, three fingers pressed the link button on each of their Neuro Linkers.

After the Global Net connection display lit up, the connection status continued after, and 2 seconds after that icon disappeared ——.

A ‘ViShiiiii!’ kind of acceleration sound echoed fully in Haruyuki’s hearing.

In the center of his view, [A REGISTERED DUEL IS BEGINNING!] in flame letters brilliantly flared up.