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  Copyright

  ACCEL WORLD, Volume 10

  REKI KAWAHARA

  Translation by Jocelyne Allen

  Cover art by HIMA

  Guest illustrations by abec

  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

  © REKI KAWAHARA 2011

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by ASCII MEDIA WORKS

  First published in 2011 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

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

  English translation © 2017 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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  First Yen On eBook Edition: December 2017

  Originally published in paperback in June 2017 by Yen On.

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  ISBN: 978-1-9753-0091-3

  E3-20171108-JV-PC

  1

  YOU WIN!

  Haruyuki Arita held his breath and stared at the flaming letters that popped up in his field of view, followed by a display of burst points being added to his total.

  It was a two-against-two tag team match, but since the total value of the player levels on each team was equal, he earned only the basic ten points. With the delightful metallic sound echoing through his ears—a sound that never failed to please him no matter how many times he heard it—he watched the number indicating his current total points climb. From 298 to 308, up it went.

  Below this appeared a system message he had never seen before: YOU CAN NOW LEVEL UP.

  “All…right!” Haruyuki thrust the arm of his avatar, Silver Crow, up into the air and unconsciously struck a victory pose.

  Although they seemed somewhat irritated, the level-two and level-three players of the opposing team offered their congratulations.

  “Hey, congrats!”

  “Think carefully before you choose your level-up bonus!”

  Haruyuki hurriedly bowed his head several times in their direction as the pair burst out together. The members of the Gallery occupying the surrounding buildings’ rooftops also clapped and shouted their congratulations before disappearing one after the other.

  In the end, only his tag-team partner remained, level-four Cyan Pile, clad in blue heavy armor with his piercing-type Enhanced Armament. He, too, nodded his head deeply. “Congratulations, Haru. You’ve really fought hard these past two weeks.”

  “…Thanks, Taku.” This was the best he could do with his impoverished linguistic abilities, despite his desire to truly communicate all the feelings welling up in his heart. He repeated the sentiment in a louder voice: “Seriously, thanks.”

  Over the past two weeks, Cyan Pile (aka Takumu Mayuzumi) had assisted Haruyuki with anything and everything in a way that was impossible to quantify. Duel avatars’ color characteristics and the attributes of duel fields, with strategies to handle each…places and times where duels were plenty, alongside the local rules and customs of each area…and he didn’t stop at sharing this sort of Brain Burst information, either: He even helped Haruyuki with real-world homework and school reports.

  Even if Haruyuki—Silver Crow—was the first complete flying-type duel avatar to appear in the seven-hundred-year history of the Accelerated World, without Takumu’s kind assistance, he could never have saved up three hundred points in this short a period of time. In fact, without Takumu, he could easily have been attacked right out of the gate and lost all his points.

  And that was because his parent Burst Linker, the one who would normally be giving him this kind of instruction, was currently in the hospital. Not only could she not duel, she couldn’t even connect to the net except for the briefest instant each day. This was only natural, given that patients in HCU were monitored at all hours. Haruyuki wanted her to avoid full dives and just rest quietly, but she grumbled and complained about it every day when she called him.

  At any rate, given the situation, seeking instruction from his “parent,” Kuroyukihime—the Black King, Black Lotus—and meeting her in the Accelerated World was naturally impossible. She was supposed to be transferred to a general ward the following week, but she likely still wouldn’t be up to dueling for a while after that, either. Which was why Takumu withdrew from the Blue Legion, Leonids, transferred to the Black Legion, Nega Nebulus, and took on the temporary role of instructor. Haruyuki couldn’t begin to express his gratitude, but he tried desperately to cram all his feelings on the matter into those two words.

  Takumu laughed from beneath his edged face mask. “Okay, but seriously, this level of thing doesn’t even erase a single sliver of my crimes.”

  “…Taku…”

  Takumu averted his eyes from the mumbling Haruyuki and looked up at the full moon of the Ancient Castle stage. “And, like, Haru, if I hadn’t attacked Master—the Black King—all those times in such cowardly ways, I’m sure we wouldn’t have ended up like this. So it’s my responsibility, my duty, to help you on behalf of the king.”

  It was true. Haruyuki definitely couldn’t say that Takumu had used honest means to continually challenge Kuroyukihime to duels within the Umesato Junior High local net after summer vacation had ended. He had set up a backdoor program in the Neurolinker of Chiyuri Kurashima, their childhood friend, and used that as a stepping-stone to one-sidedly challenge Kuroyukihime.

  Having realized the trick, Haruyuki had fought Takumu to protect Kuroyukihime, in the hospital she had been taken to, while she was in a coma after sustaining serious injuries. In the ferocious battle, they had clashed with all the emotion and power they could muster, and at the end of it, Haruyuki awoke as a flying avatar and destroyed Takumu. But rather than striking the final blow, he forgave his friend.

  In the end, Takumu hadn’t been able to steal a single point from Kuroyukihime. Her being in the hospital and Takumu’s attacks, directly or indirectly—

  “Th-they’re not connected, Taku!” Haruyuki shouted, waving both hands earnestly. “Kuroyukihime was so seriously hurt because I was an idiot from start to finish! A-and think about it: If you hadn’t kept challenging her, she’d still be hiding in the local net. And she wouldn’t have tried to make a child or anything. So I wouldn’t have become a Burst Linker, right? So then, if we trace it back to the beginning, it’s also thanks to you that I’m here fighting in the Accelerated World right now.”

  It was a little too heavy-handed to say that one followed from the other, but even so, Takumu’s shoulders relaxed just the tiniest bit as he stared up at the pale moon. “Ha. Ha-ha! You never change, do you, Haru? Not a bit, not since elementary school.”

  Haruyuki cocked his head questioningly. “So, I can take that as a compliment…right?” />
  “Ha-ha! Of course.” Takumu laughed briefly, shoulders shaking, and this time turned away completely. Haruyuki muttered “Thanks” once more to that broad back, so like Takumu’s in the real world, and checked the timer in the top center of his field of view.

  They had settled the tag-team match unexpectedly fast, so the timer still had nearly two hundred seconds of the original 1,800. And once a duel was over, players had to use an extra burst point to play around with the Brain Burst menu. He still had three minutes left; that ought to be plenty.

  This decided, Haruyuki reached a hand toward his own health gauge and opened the main menu—nicknamed “Instruct.” This strange name came from the fact that in the very distant past, the manual embedded at the top of the control panel of the large game cabinets at amusement shops (apparently known as “video game arcades” then) were called “instruction cards.”

  With a light effect and sound, a holowindow, designed much like those found in commercial VRMMO-RPGs, opened in the center of his view. In the initial settings, a simplified silhouette of his duel avatar was displayed. If he touched a button on the same screen, that silhouette would move and teach him the motions for his normal and special attacks. But he only got depressed watching Silver Crow’s attacks, so he ignored it.

  At the top was a row of tabs for moving to STORAGE or POINTS screens. He didn’t have a single item, so he ignored that tab, too, and moved to the POINTS screen.

  As soon as he touched it, the number 308 was displayed in large type at the top center of the window. This, of course, was the number of points he currently possessed. No matter how many times he looked at it, the corners of his mouth curled up beneath his helmet. It made him even happier than the first time he’d saved up ten thousand yen in the real world—because he had literally earned these points with his own hands and feet (and sometimes wings).

  I wonder if Kuroyukihime will be happy for me when I tell her I made it to level two…But nah, she’ll definitely look at me calmly and say something like, “You’re still a little chick.”

  As he thought about this, Haruyuki touched the button to use his points, and on the menu that appeared, he pressed the LEVEL UP button glittering brightly at the very top. An English confirmation dialog opened to ask if he was sure he wanted to use three hundred points and advance to level two. He thought this was strange, given how curt the basic user interface normally was in Brain Burst, but still Haruyuki stretched a finger toward the YES button.

  Instantly, Cyan Pile, who had his head tilted back at the night sky a little ways off, whirled around, as if sensing his action. He caught sight of Haruyuki’s gesture, a shudder raced through his entire body, and then he took a hasty step forward. “H-Haru!” he shouted. “You can’t! Stop!!”

  But by the time the desperate cry reached his ears, Haruyuki’s finger was already pressing up against the three letters of YES.

  The cool, thrilling melody of the level-up fanfare filled his ears. In the center of his field of view, a message announced that he had gone up to level two. And then finally, the total burst points he possessed changed from 308 to eight.

  2

  Only after Haruyuki woke up after the thirty minutes of duel time did he realize the mistake he had made. As he lay in a daze on the recliner, in the reading booth at the Shinjuku Tsunohazu Library he had used for the dive, the door of the booth was opened from the outside, and a hand darted in to yank his aluminum silver Neurolinker off his neck. The virtual desktop displayed in his field of view vanished immediately.

  Forcibly removing someone else’s Neurolinker was clearly a crime if done by a stranger, and even between the best of friends, it was the ultimate violation of manners. However, leaning forward into Haruyuki’s booth, Takumu Mayuzumi had no choice but to do so at that moment, and with good reason. Haruyuki understood that reason so well it hurt.

  He had only eight burst points now. If someone challenged him and he was defeated, the moment he lost those ten points, it would be total point loss, and Brain Burst would do a forced uninstall.

  Having finally acknowledged this fact, Haruyuki opened his stunned eyes and simply stared up at Takumu in his blue-gray school uniform, its pert stand-up collar still intact.

  His friend’s lips trembled, and a hoarse voice escaped his throat. “I can’t believe it…Sorry, I’m sorry, Haru. I can’t believe I forgot to tell you the most important thing…Even if you get enough points to level up, you shouldn’t do it right away. I’m supposed to be your teacher…Even if I forgot everything else, this is the one thing that I absolutely had to remember to tell you…”

  Right. Rather than being a phenomenon that happened automatically once a set number of experience points was reached, as in other games, leveling up in the game Brain Burst was paid for with the points a player had earned. The number of points required to go from level one to level two was three hundred. So if you selected the level-up operation with 308 points, you would obviously end up with only eight points left. Which was precisely why you couldn’t level up right away. Players needed to ensure a margin within the safe zone after spending those points. That was an absolute requirement for leveling up itself.

  Haruyuki looked up at his friend, who was biting his lip. “Taku,” he said in a similarly hoarse voice. “I was an idiot. It’s obvious, if only I’d thought about it for a second. Just getting to three hundred points, I was so excited. God, I’m an idiot.”

  Belatedly, he was keenly aware of the fact that his own life as a Burst Linker was now a flame in the face of a strong wind. In the two weeks since Kuroyukihime had given him the program, the lowest his points had been was seventy. And now they were at eight. If Takumu hadn’t forcibly removed his Neurolinker and he had been challenged by someone immediately after the previous duel and lost, Haruyuki would have already lost Brain Burst.

  The hands gripping the arm rests of the mesh chair trembled. What am I going to do? What should I do? These words alone chased around in his brain. The world was different now. He had thought that she had changed his world for him, that from now on, he himself would be able to change, bit by bit. He had finally, almost believed that, and now…

  “Haru.” A hand abruptly grabbed hold of Haruyuki’s. Takumu leaned in through the sliding door on the side of the small reading booth, his normally cool eyes glittering with fire. “It’s okay, Haru. It’s not over yet. There’s still a way to come back from this. First, let’s go to your place.”

  “…Taku…”

  After the battle at the hospital two weeks earlier, Takumu had left the Blue Legion and come to be Haruyuki’s teacher, but he hadn’t once visited Haruyuki’s apartment like he always used to. Although Haruyuki had invited him any number of times, Takumu just shook his head, a smile on his face. Almost like he was saying he didn’t have the right to say yes.

  However, now, at the sudden turn into this state of emergency, all signs of that hesitation appeared to have vanished from Takumu’s head.

  “Y-yeah. Let’s go. We can’t really talk here, after all.” Bobbing his head up and down, he grabbed his school regulation bag from the hook on the wall as he stood up.

  The Tsunohazu Library, which they used for duels after school, was an enormous facility with more than two hundred seats in the electronic document reading booths alone, where full dives were possible. After school, students from the neighboring elementary, junior high, and high schools all crowded in, so there was no danger of being outed in the real just from your appearance position in the duel field, making it a convenient place for them. But obviously, having a discussion about Brain Burst in their real voices was simply too reckless. And he hesitated a little at directing with Takumu in a place where there were so many people their age all around them.

  It’s not that I care what anyone thinks of me or whatever, but Taku stands out. And if his friends from school saw him and they started some weird rumor, it would be embarrassing for him and all.

  These thoughts rolling through his mind,
Haruyuki chased after his more fleet-footed friend walking ahead of him, and the cold sweat on his back felt like it was finally dry. Even if he did only have eight points left, as long as Takumu said it was okay, then things would work out somehow. Repeating this to himself, Haruyuki slipped through the automatic doors and took a deep lungful of the slightly chilly November air outside.

  They took a bus from Tochomae down the Oume Highway to their condo building in northern Koenji (in Suginami Ward), and by the time they were passing through the security gates that stood before the residential elevators, the sky had gotten quite dark.

  Haruyuki had had his Neurolinker off the whole time, with Takumu even paying his bus fare for him, so he didn’t know the exact time. Of course, if he simply cut off the global connection before he put his Neurolinker on, he wouldn’t risk being challenged by other Burst Linkers. But when he thought about the worst-case scenario, he couldn’t muster up anywhere near enough courage to set the device on his neck again.

  Normally, Takumu went home to the A wing on the other side, so it was the first time in years they had ridden the elevator together. They got off on the twenty-third floor of B wing, and Haruyuki unlocked the door to his deserted apartment with the emergency fingerprint and retina confirmation built into the intercom.

  “Thanks for having me over,” Takumu said as he stepped up into the apartment after Haruyuki, and then he smiled just a little, as though he had only finally realized that he was visiting the Arita house for the first time in a while. “This takes me back. It’s been a year and a half or so, I guess.”

  “Huh? Has it been that long already?” Haruyuki’s hand stopped, slippers half pulled out, and he followed his own memories back. The last time Takumu had been to his house—or more precisely, when he stopped coming over—had been not long after he had started going out with Chiyuri, so that would have been in the spring of sixth grade. It was the fall of seventh grade now, so a year and a half had indeed passed.

  “We still have these slippers, though,” Haruyuki jested as he set the pale yellow slippers that were a little too small now in front of Takumu’s feet. On the top of each slipper, the cute face of an elephant was embroidered in green thread. Although he normally didn’t bother with them, Haruyuki got out his own matching set. Embroidered on them were blue bears. Still on the rack were the pink rabbit slippers for Chiyuri, although those hadn’t been used for a year and a half, either.