Signal Fire at the Water’s Edge Read online

  Copyright

  ACCEL WORLD, Volume 13

  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. 13

  © REKI KAWAHARA 2013

  Edited by ASCII MEDIA WORKS

  First published in Japan in 2013 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

  English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2018 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. | Beepee, 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.)

  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: 978-1-9753-0006-7 (paperback)

  978-1-9753-2722-4 (ebook)

  E3-20180227-JV-PC

  1

  Battle Royale, one of Brain Burst’s Normal Duel modes, was very much like a regular fighting game in that it incorporated an expanded framework to service combat beyond the regular one-on-one.

  For instance, you didn’t know which opponent existed where until they had come within ten meters of you or you saw them directly. Naturally, there was a guide cursor, but only one; it pointed in the direction of your closest enemy and would disappear if you were in combat. So it was more than possible that a new duel avatar could suddenly jump in while you were battling the Burst Linker before you. That situation was actually the true thrill of the Battle Royale.

  In fact, in this duel—started unexpectedly at six PM, June 27, 2047—Haruyuki had first made contact with his old frenemy, the biker Ash Roller. Only then did the duel’s initiator, the super-hard metal color Wolfram Cerberus, storm in on them.

  In this third ferocious battle between the metal colors, Haruyuki had struggled with Cerberus’s hold technique, but had just barely managed to escape by using his special attack Head Butt. He flew up, dragging Cerberus with him to a high altitude, and neatly put the other avatar in check.

  However, another challenger had appeared to change the direction of the battle: the mysterious F-type avatar, nicknamed Quad Eyes Analyst, aka Argon Array. From the lenses equipped in her hat—lenses that had seemed up till now to be used for data scans—she had shot a terrifyingly powerful laser and pierced one of Silver Crow’s wings, felling him. Argon then mercilessly shot Cerberus—apparently an acquaintance of hers—and even destroyed Ash and his motorcycle all in one go; she was poised to stomp down the entire Battle Royale on her own. Or so it seemed.

  And then a third challenger appeared and turned the tables once more.

  “You’re the one who’s going to be crushed by a level one and lose a ton of points.”

  The quiet—yet unfathomably powerful—voice shook the diamond dust dancing in the Ice stage.

  An avatar of a unique hue, her entire body was enveloped by clear, circulating water.

  The Burst Linker Olive Grab from Great Wall also had armor with a slick coating, but the thickness of his oil layer was entirely different from this. Babbling like a small river as it flowed from her head out to her four limbs and carving out four individual arcs to return to her head once more, the total volume of water this avatar held was about the same as the size of her main body itself.

  From the slender waist and smooth form, it seemed like an F-type. And the voice, too, was more feminine than not, but since the avatar body itself couldn’t be seen, it was impossible to be sure.

  The duel avatar that was probably a “she” used the chill air of the stage to produce ice javelins, which she launched to block Argon Array’s laser attack. From the concept of the attack to the precision of her aim, it was clear she was accustomed to fighting—making it very hard to believe that she was a newbie, as she’d just announced.

  On his knees on the road, Haruyuki quickly checked the multiple mini–health gauges displayed in the top right of his field of view. Since the gauges were automatically displayed in order of proximity, the one at the very top was that of Cerberus, who was immobile in Haruyuki’s arms. He didn’t even have 10 percent left in it, his strength having been carved away first in the battle with Haruyuki and then by Argon’s laser attack.

  Below that was Ash’s gauge. He was on the ground, stunned, in a snowy field a ways off. Not only had he also been hit with the laser—he’d taken the entire splash damage from the explosion of his own motorcycle, so his remaining health was similarly under 10 percent.

  And the third gauge was that of the mysterious flowing-water avatar. The level displayed contradicted her relaxed and imposing fighting style; it really did say 1. Gasping, wondering who exactly she was, Haruyuki’s gaze moved to the avatar name beside the health bar.

  “…Aqua Current…” Earlier, he’d seen—no, heard—the name he now muttered softly. And it was a name that had been spoken somewhere very important.

  But for some reason, he couldn’t remember whose mouth he’d heard it from or in what context.

  —Wait.

  Pssh. Pssh, pssh. In his ears, he could hear the sound of flowing water. The refreshing cool of it washed over the core of his mind, like a waterway that had been stagnant and then started to flow again. At the same time, a hazy feeling—no, a conviction—was born and grew within him.

  “…That person…”

  I know her.

  And I haven’t just heard her name. Sometime, somewhere…not so long ago, we fought in the same stage. Not as enemies, but as a tag team.

  That’s right—she saved me. When I was facing a crisis so serious, so massive that my life as a Burst
Linker was on the line, this avatar saved me.

  And not only that…something more; something even more important happened when we parted…

  “…Aah, you really gave me a fright there. Never even dreamed you’d show up here, Curren darling.”

  This voice abruptly cut off Haruyuki’s intent excavation of his own thoughts. He immediately sent his eyes racing in the direction it had come from, only to find the figure of Argon Array, standing with her hands on her hips, upon a rooftop on the south side of Oume Highway, their battlefield. The upper half of her face was covered by large goggles, so only her mouth was visible, and as always, a coquettish smile played on those lips. But at the moment, it seemed as though the tiniest bit of tension was bleeding through where there had been absolutely nothing like it before.

  It was true that even if Argon had shot her apparent comrade, the battle was still three against one. This was precisely the time and place a player would normally tense up, but one of the three (Haruyuki) had 10 percent health left, and Ash was immobile, so it was basically no different from a one-on-one.

  On top of that, Argon’s health gauge was still full, and at eight, she was a vastly higher level. What on earth did she have to be on guard about against the level-one Aqua Current?

  Occupying the top of a building exactly opposite Ash Roller on Oume Highway, Current’s face was hidden beneath her flowing armor as she responded in her truly soft voice, “I didn’t think we’d meet again like this either, Array.”

  It seemed they’d known each other for some time.

  “Hmm?” Argon asked in return, lightly shrugging a shoulder. “Then what kinda scene did you picture?”

  “Naturally, a fight to the death…wagering all our points.” Current uttered these fearsome words without the slightest hint of agitation.

  Argon’s reaction to this was a bit delayed. After a few seconds of silence, she erupted. “Pfft! Ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Same as always, saying the craziest stuff with the straightest face. You wanna get into a sudden-death duel with me, you gotta escape first, yeah?” And then, a breath later: “From Unlimited EK at the Castle.”

  “…!!”

  The instant these words entered his ears, Haruyuki gasped sharply.

  “Unlimited EK at the Castle”: In other words, that meant that just like Ardor Maiden had been, Aqua Current was currently sealed away on one of the altars of the Four Gods, who numbered among the Super-level Enemies of the Unlimited Neutral Field.

  But that’s impossible! You can’t use the Unlimited Burst command to dive into the Unlimited Neutral Field unless you’re level four.

  Current, at a mere level one, shouldn’t have been able to get anywhere close to the Castle.

  Holding his breath, Haruyuki waited for her response.

  But the flowing-water avatar apparently had no interest in continuing that conversation. She took a splashing step forward and turned toward Argon, who was thirty meters to her right.

  “I’ll simply satisfy myself today with taking points from you. There’s not a lot of time left. Enough talk.”

  “Ooh, don’t be cold like that. This is our long-awaited reunion, y’know? We both have so much to share…” Argon spread out her hands and shook her head—and then suddenly, her hat flashed.

  She had feinted with talk and then launched her laser with no advance warning. And on top of that, it was both lasers at the same time. The super-heated purple heat beams melted the ice in the air on contact and carved out a pale trajectory, shooting toward Current.

  Haruyuki didn’t even have the time to call out, “No fair!” The terrifying part of Argon’s laser attack was that there was little time lag from launch to hit. The lenses of the hat flared, and in the next moment, the beam of light was already reaching its target, dozens of meters away. Naturally, it wasn’t quite the “speed of light,” but it was fast enough to make spectators think so. Haruyuki, Ash, and not even Cerberus with all his fighting genius—none of them had been able to dodge it.

  So Haruyuki believed that Current’s slender body would be blasted away with her flowing-water armor, and he reflexively turned his face away. But as he was on the verge of averting his eyes, he saw the special attack Argon Laser brush past Current and gouge into an ice pillar far behind her.

  That super-precise sniper attack missed its target?!

  No, hang on—!

  The flowing water covering Aqua Current’s body had grown thin, and in its stead, something had appeared in front of her.

  A cube made of water was floating at the end of her outstretched arm. An enormous cube, with one side around fifty centimeters long. It was so transparent he could barely make it out without straining his eyes. Most likely, that cube had bent the trajectory of Argon’s laser. In other words, it was the phenomenon of refraction.

  He didn’t understand why the high-energy laser, so powerful it melted even Cerberus’s tungsten armor, had passed through and been refracted by water without simply causing it to evaporate, but at any rate, as long as she had that technique, Current had an essentially perfect defense against Argon’s attack. The difference in strength between a level one and a level eight should have been overwhelming, but that was meaningless if no attack could actually hit its target.

  “…Wow…,” Haruyuki murmured from beneath his mirrored surface. The unconscious Cerberus in his arms had also overwhelmed a variety of midlevel Linkers—and that included Haruyuki, of course—with his extraordinary abilities as a level one, but Aqua Current’s strength was another dimension still beyond that. Her style, that bearing—it was the dominion of a high-level player.

  In fact, from the way Argon had spoken before, she and Current were old friends or something. If that was indeed possible, the only thing he could think of was that Current was no newbie, but an old-school veteran who had never once gone up a level that whole time.

  “Aah, now that’s somethin’, Curren. You went and taught yourself a trick like that to fight me.”

  Once more, the laughing voice interrupted his thoughts, and Haruyuki looked up at Argon on the top of the building, unsure.

  She continued. “It’s true, with your ‘Pure-Water theory,’ my laser just goes right through, huh? But that technique’s not so simple, from the looks of it. You gotta get some pret-ty tight control over the angle of laser entry, yeah? …So, like, how ’bout this?”

  Pew! The air shook, and a beam of bluish-purple light jetted forward. But the trajectory was not the extremely fine, straight line they’d seen so far—rather, it was fan-shaped. When emitting the laser, Argon had moved her head to the side ever so slightly.

  The laser bent the instant it touched the cube of water, just like before. By the time it passed through the cube and came out the other side, the alignment was already more than twenty centimeters off, so it should have passed through empty air to the right of Current.

  But this time was different. Because Argon had shaken the laser, once it passed through the cube, its trajectory shifted, and the beam grazed Current’s right arm, albeit very lightly.

  This time, there was a shfk sound, and then pale smoke rose up from the slender arm. At the same time, Current’s health gauge was brought down to just over 10 percent.

  It wasn’t simply the power of the laser that generated so much damage from a mere scratch. No matter how much she acted the veteran, Current only had the health gauge of a level one. If she was hit with the same attack ten—no, nine—more times, her gauge would be helplessly blown away.

  Thinking about how Aqua Current would respond, Haruyuki finally realized something. Her laser defense with the cube of water was indeed an impressive technique, but she definitely couldn’t beat Argon with that alone. Brain Burst was a fighting game, and there had never been a single fighting game you could win with defense alone. Flying tools and special attacks would shave away health points, and no matter how perfect the defense might look, your gauge would slowly but steadily decrease. There was no way Current didn’t know that.
r />   In which case, where was she looking for her chance at victory?

  It’s obvious. That would be me! Haruyuki gritted his teeth and cursed himself for his own foolishness. Stupid dummy! Such an idiot! What am I just sitting here staring for?! The instant Curren refracted that first laser, I should have been flying up out of here. From her color and attack method, Argon Array’s a long-distance type. If I just stick to her, that should lock away her laser attack. I’m sorry, Curren. Please give me just one more chance! This time, I’ll work with you like a real tag-team partner!

  Without noticing he had started to think as though Aqua Current was also an old acquaintance of his, Haruyuki focused his mind. Argon’s laser couldn’t be fired continuously, it seemed. Once she fired, it seemed to take a minimum of three seconds to charge up again. With Silver Crow’s propulsive power, that was enough time for him to fly up to the roof from the street and grapple with her.

  In the brief moment before her next shot, Haruyuki turned his mind to Wolfram Cerberus, who lay motionless in his arms. He still didn’t really know what the relationship between Cerberus and Argon was, but at any rate, this mysterious level-one Linker appeared to be under the Analyst’s control. And since Argon was known to be a senior member of the Acceleration Research Society, Cerberus might have been connected to the organization that was maneuvering in secret to bring chaos to the Accelerated World, as much as it pained Haruyuki to think so.

  Right. Thinking back, Haruyuki had already discussed with Kuroyukihime and Fuko the possibility that Cerberus was an artificial metal color. And the one who had proposed the Mental-Scar Shell theory that was the foundation of the Artificial Metal-Color plan was this very Argon Array.

  But.

  But, Cerberus, I’m sure you said it before: that if there’s something more important in this world than winning, then you wanted to see it. I believe that’s actually how you really feel. No, I know that it is.

  After promising this to himself, Haruyuki completely switched mental gears.

  Defeat Argon Array. Even if he beat her here in a regular duel, the number of points he could take from her wouldn’t make Argon raise so much as an eyebrow, but even so, he could show his intentions—his will.