Pull of the Dark Nebula, page 1
part #19 of Accel World Series
Copyright
ACCEL WORLD, Volume 19
REKI KAWAHARA
Translation by Jocelyne Allen
Cover art by HIMA
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
ACCEL WORLD Vol. 19
© REKI KAWAHARA 2015
First published in Japan in 2015 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.
English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.
English translation © 2019 by Yen Press, LLC
Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kawahara, Reki, author. | HIMA (Comic book artist) illustrator. | bee-pee, designer. | Allen, Jocelyne, 1974– translator.
Title: Accel World / Reki Kawahara ; illustrations, HIMA ; design, bee-pee ;
translation by Jocelyne Allen.
Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2014–
Identifiers: LCCN 2014025099 | ISBN 9780316376730 (v. 1 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316296366 (v. 2 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296373 (v. 3 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316296380 (v. 4 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296397 (v. 5 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316296403 (v. 6 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316358194 (v. 7 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316317610 (v. 8 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316502702 (v. 9 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316466059 (v. 10 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316466066 (v. 11 : pbk.) |ISBN 9780316466073 (v. 12 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975300067 (v. 13 : pbk.) |ISBN 9781975327231 (v. 14 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975327255 (v. 15 : pbk.) |ISBN 9781975327279 (v. 16 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975327293 (v. 17 : pbk.) |ISBN 9781975327316 (v. 18 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975332181 (v. 19 : pbk.)
Subjects: CYAC: Science fiction. | Virtual reality—Fiction. | Fantasy.
Classification: LCC PZ7.K1755Kaw 2014 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2014025099
ISBNs: 978-1-9753-3218-1 (paperback)
978-1-9753-3270-9 (ebook)
E3-20190816-JV-NF-ORI
1
There was only one way to become a Burst Linker, a player of the fighting game Brain Burst 2039: get a current Burst Linker to copy and install the BB program.
To do this, the would-be Burst Linker needed a wired connection with the current Burst Linker’s Neurolinker. If the installation succeeded, giver and receiver would be bound by the transitory and yet most powerful bond in the Accelerated World: that of “parent” and “child.”
Haruyuki’s parent was Black Lotus, the Black King, aka Kuroyukihime. Utai Shinomiya’s parent was Mirror Masker, aka her real-life older brother, Kyoya Shinomiya. Rin Kusakabe’s parent was Akira, aka Fuko Kurasaki. And Fuko’s parent was…
Now that I’m thinking about it, I’ve never heard Master Raker talk about her parent, Haruyuki thought as he glanced over at her, but he hurriedly pulled his mind back from that potential tangent to focus on the current situation.
Thursday, July 18, 2047. 5:00 PM.
Together with Fuko, Haruyuki had dived into the Unlimited Neutral Field from the Arita living room, charged the Castle with the borrowed power of the Archangel Metatron, and entered the fortress for the first time in about a month and a half of real-world time. There, he’d been reunited with his friend Trilead Tetroxide and one other person: the Anomaly Graphite Edge, first seat of the Six Armors, the Green Legion, Great Wall, executive.
Trilead introduced Graph to Haruyuki and Fuko as his swordmaster and Brain Burst parent. In other words, Graph was the one who had given the mysterious young warrior Trilead the program. And to carry out the required copy/install, they had to have had a direct connection between their Neurolinkers in the real world.
“…Trilead…And Graph…,” Haruyuki said to the pair lined up before him, still in shock. “You’re…You know each other in the real?”
Trilead looked up at Graph with a slight frown, and Graph shrugged lightly.
“Mm, we’ll explain that a bit later, Crow,” he said. “Rekka’s looks like she’s got some questions for us, first.”
“Huh?” As Haruyuki shifted his gaze back to Sky Raker, his avatar reflexively stiffened up.
Her madder-red eye lenses shone with a particular light, quiet but hiding an unfathomable force, and that was all he needed to see to understand that the “actually scary Master Raker” was one step away from intense rage.
“Graphite Edge.”
She called him by his full avatar name, and Graph shuffled backward ever so slightly.
“Wh-what’s up, Rekka?”
“The fact that you are here in this place…I take it to mean that you long ago escaped from the Unlimited EK the God Genbu had you in at the north gate of the Castle?”
“W-well, strictly speaking, I guess so?”
“And when, exactly, did this happen?”
“A-actually, pretty soon after the Castle attack three years ago…”
“So then…why did you not tell us sooner?!” she shouted, pale-blue flames of a powerful aura jetting up around her slender avatar.
Haruyuki once again flinched into himself. Even Metatron’s icon, which had apparently been observing their surroundings from her spot on his right shoulder, froze in place.
“Do you have any idea how much it has pained Maiden that you were trapped in an Unlimited EK?! In order to save you, that child has gone so far as to train in an Incarnate technique of the fourth quadrant—large-scale destruction!! Her! With her kind heart; kinder than anyone else’s!!”
This was true. During their previous Castle escape mission, Ardor Maiden—Utai Shinomiya—had activated a fearsome Incarnate technique that changed the ground to magma in order to dispatch large soldier Enemies. He was pretty sure she said at the time that she developed the technique for the God Genbu.
The more the practitioner used fourth quadrant—negative Incarnate techniques—the more they were pulled into the hole in their heart. Specifically, they felt more and more negative emotions toward themselves and other people, leading to a warping of their personality. All that awaited any player captured by the darkness in the depths of that hole was a dark carnage, the simple and singular search for enemies and constant battle until the player was utterly destroyed. Just like had happened to Chrome Falcon, after becoming the first Chrome Disaster.
Which reminds me. It was here in the Castle where Falcon’s Enhanced Armament, The Destiny, was found…
His thoughts now started to wander into the past, but his mind was yanked back by Graph’s voice and the ever-so-slightly serious edge it now held.
“She was…Denden…Ah, crap, I didn’t mean to…” Scratching his helmet with one hand, the dual swordmaster raised the other and continued, half in apology, half in excuse, “It’s true, it’s on me for not telling Lota and the rest of you that I escaped from Genbu’s Unlimited EK. But, y’know, how was I supposed to let you know? I don’t have your e-mail addresses or anything. And just showing up all of a sudden to pick a fight in a duel’s a whole thing…”
“You didn’t have to come meet face-to-face. There are all kinds of ways to send a message!” Fuko thundered, and Haruyuki flinched along with Graph. “Great Wall often attacks Suginami in the Territories, so you could have had that team give us a message. Or you could have simply failed in some spectacular manner in the Unlimited Neutral Field like you used to do in the old days. If we heard you’d shown up and blundered in some ridiculous way, we’d at least know you escaped from the Unlimited EK.”
“Y-you’re totally right. But the second one o’ those is kinda impossible.”
“And why’s that?” Fuko pressed.
“I did make it out of the Unlimited EK,” Graph replied, not hesitant in the least. “But not outside the Castle. I escaped to the inside.”
“…The inside?”
“Yep. I know I’m pretty amazing, but there’s no way I could dodge Genbu’s attacks and make it across the bridge on my own. But my appearance point was right next to the north gate, so I figured I might have a chance that way. Like, ‘why not give it a try?’ And that means when I’m in the Unlimited Neutral Field, I’m here inside the Castle.”
“B-but that doesn’t make any sense!” Haruyuki cried out heedlessly.
The swordsman’s face mask was abruptly whirled around toward him. He definitely wasn’t threatening Haruyuki, but the instant the sharp lines of his goggles were turned his way, Haruyuk
“Um.” Slowly exhaling the virtual air trapped in his lungs, Haruyuki first checked one thing. “Graph, three years ago…You came into the Castle after the first Nega Nebulus mission to attack it, which is where you met Trilead and made him your child, right?”
Dual swordmaster and apprentice nodded firmly at the same time, so he continued.
“To get into the Castle through one of the four gates without defeating the Four Gods, the seal plate on the inside of the gate has to be destroyed in advance. Like Trilead did for us. But when you charged the gate, Graph, Trilead wasn’t a Burst Linker yet, so there was no one inside who could destroy the plate— No, I guess you could make Trilead your child first and then get him to cut the seal? But then, how did you get inside, Trilead…?” The whole thing gradually made less and less sense to him, and he trailed off as he looked back and forth at the two of them.
Again, Trilead said nothing, but rather glanced at his teacher with a faint hint of a smile. Graph, on the other hand, groaned before turning his face to the massive building rising up behind them.
“How about we go somewhere we can relax at least? The patrol Enemies’ll be regenerating pretty soon.”
“I agree.” This immediate response came not from Fuko or Haruyuki, but Metatron’s icon on Haruyuki’s shoulder. “This palace—you little warriors call it the Castle, yes? I wish to see the interior right away. Postpone the information exchange and move there immediately.”
“You’re somehow even more domineering now, hmm?” Fuko murmured, shaking her head in exasperation, her anger finally subsiding.
When Haruyuki and Utai had broken into the Castle a month ago, the field attribute had been a Heian stage, and a Demon City stage when they’d escaped. Now, on his third visit to this courtyard, it was a Moonlight stage, but only the object design had been transformed; the terrain itself was unchanged. The wide, straight road from the plaza in front of the Castle’s south gate stretched out to the north, and up ahead, the main building sat ponderous, now a massive temple.
The last time, fearsome Enemies had been patrolling the corridors when he’d headed for the main building with Utai, so they’d had to use the lines of pillars to either side and carefully jump from the protective cover of one to the next, which ate up a lot of his mental energy. But now, Graph and Trilead had dispatched those guard Enemies, so they could walk tall down the center of the road that was likely patterned after the Suzaku Avenue of the ancient capital.
And while this was utterly ideal, and he was quite grateful for it, it also made the questions in his mind multiply. He looked at Graph and Lead walking slightly ahead of him and wondered how on earth they had known that Haruyuki and Fuko would try breaking into the Castle that particular day at that particular time. He’d only told Fuko what he was planning, and then only fifteen or so minutes before the start of the mission. He was sure she hadn’t had time to contact anyone else either, and she had no reason to. Given her earlier anger, it was obvious that she hadn’t expected to see Graph here again.
So then, had they anticipated Haruyuki’s move and been waiting for him? He was aware that he was pretty easy to read, so he couldn’t say it was entirely unexpected that someone would guess what he was up to. But even so, it wasn’t realistic to wait for someone in the Unlimited Neutral Field. Time here flowed a thousand times faster. No matter how patient the Burst Linker, six months was basically as long as anyone could keep waiting for someone who might not even show up. Even the Green King, Green Grandé, and the third seat of the Six Armors, Iron Pound, were going to give up their stakeout at three months when they tried to wait for the Change to effect a Hell stage so they would have a chance of defeating the Metatron who’d been guarding Tokyo Midtown Tower.
Well, G by himself could probably hold out for a whole year, though…
As this thought passed through his mind, he shook his head vigorously. Haruyuki would never be able to sit tight for a whole year. He had no doubt that the master and student before him were equipped with far more patience than he was, but he still found it hard to believe they would wait blindly and possibly in vain. Most likely, they had guessed at Haruyuki and Fuko’s plan through some means or another—and with a fair bit of precision…
“This is such a lovely place.”
A voice came suddenly from his left, and Haruyuki shifted his gaze.
Having dismissed the Gale Thruster, Fuko was once again wearing her white hat and dress, and she looked at their surroundings, seemingly moved. He heard a faint murmur come from her face mask with its molding surprisingly similar to her real-world face.
“This mission is for Sacchi, but still, it’s honestly a shame that she’s not here. She’s the one more than anyone in this world…who wants to know the truth of the Accelerated World…”
“Yeah.” Haruyuki nodded, reflecting upon that same thought. Silver Crow and Sky Raker, with their flight abilities, had only barely made it through the area guarded by the God Suzaku and had used up every bit of power and energy they had to do it—they’d definitely had no margin for bringing a third person. Still, if they could have brought Kuroyukihime, she would no doubt have been utterly delighted. He remembered how her eyes had shone as she listened to him and Utai alternately explain the situation inside the Castle and hung his head.
“I do not understand.” A crisp voice came from his right shoulder. “Why are you little ones held prisoner by thoughts of what you cannot do, allowing your thoughts to stagnate? It is quite unproductive. If you have the time for that, think about what you can do going forward and activate your mental circuits. Unfortunately, there are no words to express this situation precisely in my word library.”
The Archangel Metatron spoke 1.2 times faster than normal, and he flashed a secret smile that was overwritten by a feeling of admiration. She was right—and while he didn’t necessarily agree that reviewing the past was pointless, right now, it was more important that they turn their eyes to the future.
“We call this status ‘excitement,’” he said, turning his face to his shoulder.
The 3-D icon blinked irregularly for a moment. “I shall remember that. Now then, I order you anew. Crow. And Raker. You must be at full excitement in this situation.”
“I never dreamed the day would come when an Enemy told me to be excited,” Fuko murmured.
“You will say Being,” came the quick rejoinder. But Metatron quickly rattled on, “Currently, we are in Area Zero Zero, the place where Brain Burst 2039 begins and ends. Even a single terrain object is utterly fascinating! Have you realized this? With the current field attribution HL05—what you little warriors call the Moonlight stage, the object endurance should be less than average, and yet, everything here is set at the maximum value. And all main architectural object structures have the attribute ‘indestructible’…My own Trisagion most likely would not be able to cause their destruction.”
“…You really are excited, sounding so happy about things you can’t do,” Haruyuki noted.
“I feel as though that utterance was relatively insolent, but I shall allow it. Now, look behind us. It appears the guard Beings are regenerating.”
“You keep telling me to look at things; I can’t keep up here…” He turned, sending sparks scattering on the paving stones, and immediately shouted, “Wheah?!”
In the plaza in front of the south gate, a mere fifty meters away, he could see a large-scale cascade effect.
“Hmm, that’s quite the information density. As with the guard Beings in use at the headquarters of the Acceleration Research Society, it will be difficult to repel it with my order.”
“That’s too bad—Now’s not the time for that kind of talk!” Whirling around once again, he called out to Graphite Edge ahead. “Uh! Um! Graph! It looks like the Beings—I mean, Enemies—are generating!”
The swordsman glanced over his shoulder at the eerie gushing effect before answering lackadaisically, “It’s fine; we’re fine. They’re not gonna aggro when we’re this far away.”
“B-but it’s not like Enemies just stay in one fixed place, though, right…?”
“It’s fine; we’re fine. Those guys are slow.”
“B-but it’s not going to be just that one, though, right…?”
