Accel World - Volume 18 - Chapter 11.4

4

All the Territory Battles for the fifth week of June were finished, and Mihaya slowly let out the air that had built up in her chest as she returned to the specialized room in the back of Patisserie La Plage.

During the accelerated duel, she had, of course, continued to breathe with her real-world body. If she fought the whole time in the Territories, 1.8 seconds passed in the real world, so the lungs that exhaled with the Burst Link command would be taking in their next breath around the time she woke up.

Back when she was a newbie, she would often try to take a deep breath immediately after she returned to the real world before exhaling the last one and end up coughing. Her parent, Akira, rolled her eyes and said it was because she kept running all over the place during the duel, but that was a long time ago now, too.

She hadn’t dueled or fought alongside Akira in almost three years. A lot of things had changed after the destruction of the former Nega Nebulus headquartered in Shibuya—no, the night before that, when the Red King had been pushed to total point loss by the Black Lotus.

Prominence fell into total chaos, faced with the abnormally abrupt departure of their Legion Master, who had earned their absolute faith as one of the Seven Kings of Pure Color. Although system-wise, the master privileges were automatically ceded to the Submaster at the time, half the members refused to accept him as the new leader of the Legion.

They came up on their next Territories with nothing settled, and Prominence was utterly crushed. Even though the Legions of the other kings did not attack them, they lost to one after another of the mid- and small-size Legions, opponents who were superior in number and average in level. In a single night, their territory was halved, and more than a few members put in their resignations. The indignant new master went so far as to use the Judgment Blow on one of those leaving, and Prominence’s split became decisive.

Mihaya emptily watched the destructive drama of the Legion she had belonged to for a little over a year from almost the outside. Regardless of the fact that she’d barely spoken to Red Rider, she’d trusted him as a strong and fair master, and she’d had absolutely no complaints about fighting under him, but she felt nothing like the adoration of the veteran members.

So she coolly accepted his departure as the result of having lost a fight. And even if he was dead as a Burst Linker, that naturally didn’t mean his life in the real world had also been taken. It wasn’t as though he could never ride a motorcycle again or drink his favorite coffee, like Mihaya’s father.

Mihaya thought this way of thinking probably meant she was heartless. She stayed a member of Prominence, but she never really liked the new master, and she even felt like she might retire, too, if things stayed the same.

What changed this was when she saw a newbie Linker trying desperately to protect herself and a few comrades in the Nerima area, which had fallen into its own Warring States period. Her level was still quite low, and her fighting style was the very definition of rough, but her spirit alone was so hot that it threatened to burn the entire stage to the ground. This kid’ll definitely get stronger if she survives the chaos. Mihaya applied to join the girl’s team, in a move that she herself found strange.

Her instincts had been right, but at the time, she never dreamed that not only would this small girl’s avatar become so strong that she would charge through the wall of level eight in only a year, but she would eventually take the throne as the second Red King.

“What’re you looking at me and grinnin’ for, Pard?” The redheaded girl sitting across from her—the Second Red King, Scarlet Rain, aka Yuniko Kozuki—pursed her lips tightly together in a frown.

Mihaya quickly shook her head. “I wasn’t looking at you and grinning.”

“Huh? So then, a smile of satisfaction at beating Helix?”

“Not that, either.”

“Then what? …You don’t have to say if you don’t want to, though.” Niko leaned back on the sofa, a childish—and indeed, she was still in sixth grade—pout on her face.

Mihaya thought a moment before answering. “I was just remembering all this stuff during the duel. From way back.”

“Hmm.” Niko cocked her head to one side but then nodded quickly and smiled herself. “You were, huh? Nice to have memories that can make ya smile.”

“……”

Mihaya shifted her gaze unconsciously in a questioning manner. As if he could read her thoughts, Niko’s smile became pained.

“Don’t look at me like that. I got memories like that, too, y’know. Like maybe what you said to me the first time you ever talked to me.”

“Just forget that.”

“No way! Saving it forever!” Niko laughed out loud before composing herself in a Legion Master way. “Anyway, nice work defending again this week. How was the fight with Helix?”

“The leader and the members are gradually getting stronger. And they’re keen students.”

“They are, huh? It’s ’cause we were all a mess with the whole ISS kit thing. We let our guard down even a bit next week, and it could be dangerous. And we had fewer people taking part today, too.”

“About that.” Mihaya got a serious look and stared hard at Niko. “A small issue with the members who backed out at the last minute.”

“Hmm? What’s that?”

“It wasn’t all of them—probably three. They ignored orders and attacked another Legion.”

“Who?” Instantly, Niko’s brow was furrowed. “And where?”

“Blaze Heart and two others. The location…Suginami. Nega Nebulus.”

“Whaaaat?!” Leaping to her feet, Niko bashed her shins on the edge of the table. “Ow!” The cry slipped out as she fell back onto the sofa. Even as tears sprang up in the corners of her eyes, her fierce expression remained unchanged. “That’s a violation of the truce! Why the…? So ohhh, I get it…That thing yesterday…”

Mihaya nodded. “I think they probably went to confirm with the Black King directly. Blaze has been a member since your predecessor’s Prominence.”

“Unnnh, I get how they feel, but, like, whoever butted in yesterday in the Unlimited Neutral Field was probably—nah, like an 80 percent chance that was a fake Lotus. That’s why I said to wait until we could get some info.”

“They’ve attacked, though, so that’s that. They were probably—no, an eighty percent chance they were repelled.”

“Ninety percent. Although, like, if they beat a team with Black One on it, I’d actually wanna high-five ’em.”

She smiled wryly at her leader’s nonchalance before clearing her throat and returning to the subject at hand. “Win or lose, we need to follow up on the treaty violation. I’m going to go to Suginami now and apologize directly to the Black Ki—”

“Mm. Mmmm. Hang on a sec.” Niko snapped her hand up to cut Mihaya off and turned her gaze to the ceiling for a second before grinning. It was her “great idea” face. “I’ll go do that.”

“……”

“Listen. This is the kinda thing that’s got more weight if the leader herself goes out there.”

“……”

“And we’re supposed to go along for their school festival tomorrow, yeah? Gonna be there anyway, so!”

“…We’re going to be there tomorrow, so you’ll take care of it today?” Mihaya asked, eyes turned up slightly.

The Red King cackled. “I’ll stay over at his place tonight, so come get me in the morning. I’ll make sure to get your ticket for the festival, too!”

“…Thanks.”

Although Niko was generally on the serious side, today was not the first time she had gotten overly active when it came to Nega Nebulus. Mihaya swallowed all kinds of things down and nodded, and Niko jumped off the sofa and picked up her backpack from the floor, no doubt intending to head over to Suginami right away.

“You can leave your bag here and just come get it tomorrow on our way home.”

“Oh, thanks. Then I will do just that.” She set the bag on the sofa and trotted to the door. She put her hand on the knob, but rather than open it right away, she looked back—and the young king had a smile on her face that was equal parts innocent and adult.

“Pard, I’m looking forward to the labyrinth next week.”

“K.”

She nodded at Mihaya’s reply, still smiling, and then waved before opening the door and stepping out.

After waiting until the sound of her footsteps disappeared, Mihaya also stood up. Four years since she’d become a Burst Linker. Three years since she’d found a master she could truly serve.

She had fought too many duels to count, leveled up, and could now run so fast that her old self didn’t begin to compare, but Mihaya still wasn’t satisfied with her speed. It was getting to be time for her to break free from running to escape fear. To go to the next stage. To become faster than she was now. And to protect the people she loved, the things she loved.

She raised her right hand and made a loose fist. She could feel the movement of her blood in her fingertips. Ba-dmp. Ba-dmp. The pulse, once a second. The direct cause of her father’s death was a sudden palpitation of the ventricle caused by cardiomyopathy. His pulse was over two hundred beats per minute, and then his heart stopped as if burned up, never to move again.

It was faint, but there was also a genetic element in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. So it was possible that Mihaya would someday be afflicted with the same disease, causing an anomaly in her heart. But her avatar, Blood Leopard, had taught her that she could never go anywhere if all she did was live in fear of that.

Burn her blood. Make her body race like a maelstrom. She would look only at herself and keep running. Just like a leopard racing smoothly through the grass.

Mihaya picked up Niko’s backpack and, holding it tightly, left the strategy room.

(End)