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  Her gauge was clearly dropping more slowly than Haruyuki’s.

  “Heh-heh-heh. You finally noticed?” Doll’s voice sounded slightly pained, but was still quite clear. “Even exposed to the same electrical current, you’re the one getting more damaged. I mean, at normal temperatures, the electrical resistance of silver is only one-fourth that of nickel. Silver’s, like, the most electrically conductive of all the metals!”

  Gah?! So does that mean that of all the metal colors, I’m the weakest to electrical attacks?! We haven’t learned that in science yet! So then, it’s not my fault, it’s the Ministry of Education’s! Wait, this isn’t the time to be thinking about that. Something, something, I have to do something…!

  Unable to speak or lift a single finger, Haruyuki earnestly racked his brain. No special attack lasted forever. If he just waited, her electricity attack would end at some point, but his HP gauge would be almost completely whisked away by then. And by bathing herself in her own electricity, Doll was also recharging her depleted special-attack gauge. If she activated it again the instant this attack ended, he’d be out of options.

  Haruyuki’s HP gauge had dropped to 50 percent, dyeing the bar yellow. The instant he saw that his special-attack gauge below this was basically fully charged, he finally figured out his next move. Even if his whole body was numb from the electric shock, Silver Crow was equipped with one organ that could be operated through willpower alone.

  “Flyyyyyy!” he cried thinly, from between clenched teeth.

  Kachak! The comforting sound of metal rang out, and the ten fins folded up on his back deployed at once.

  “Ah!” At the same time as Nickel Doll cried out, the wings extending from Haruyuki’s back flapped powerfully, and the wind pressure they generated pushed aside the water surface around him.

  Silver Crow shot up into the sky with the force of a rocket. He shook off even the sparks attempting to chase after him and danced up higher and higher.

  “Ooooh!” A gasp rose up from the members of the Gallery who were seeing his flying ability for the first time.

  Haruyuki cut through the drifting fog and the green phosphorescence of the Corroded Forest stage and flew. He ascended ever higher, almost brushing against the members of the Gallery clustered together on the rotting baobab trees. Finally, he broke free of the miasma of the forest, and everything around him changed to blue skies.

  Now that he had flown to this altitude, he could no longer be completely seen from the ground. Bathed in sunlight, his entire body glittered silver as he did a one-eighty turn. At once, he shifted to a sudden descent.

  Haruyuki stretched out his sharply tapered right foot, let gravity join the propulsive power of his wings, and shot forward like an arrow or a laser. The compressed air crackled and burned the tips of his toes, sending orange particles shooting off on all sides. In the blink of an eye, he had plunged into the green miasma, passed the baobabs, almost brushing the treetops once more, and was shooting toward his target on the other side of the guide cursor.

  Nickel Doll had climbed up onto a small island and was staring dumbfounded up at the sky when she seemed to come back to herself and tried to leap back and out of the way. But Haruyuki made a slight adjustment to his trajectory with his arms and wings.

  “Hnngaaaaah!” With a forceful battle cry, the tips of his toes made perfect contact with the shoulder of the tiny enemy avatar.

  A flash of light and vibration, an enormous explosion, rocked the entire stage.

  The five-meter-diameter island was instantly transformed into a crater. Nickel Doll flew back helplessly, twirling in the air, a high-pitched cry trailing after her. The 60 percent she had left in her health gauge was devoured, sending her into the red zone of less than 20 percent.

  This was Silver Crow’s best technique at the moment. This Dive Attack could decide a battle in a single blow, so if his enemy did manage to dodge, he would be damaged himself and be frozen for a few seconds. But for a Burst Linker seeing it for the first time, getting out of the way was nearly impossible since he was attacking in a straight line from directly overhead. The reason he had been able to hammer out an average win ratio of 70 percent over the last two weeks was solely because he had this technique.

  On one knee in the middle of the crater he had created, Haruyuki lifted his head. Given the force that had sent her flying, Nickel Doll should have taken another big hit when she landed. One that might even decide the battle.

  However.

  The little avatar—about to plunge headfirst into the center of the Suruga Daishita intersection—was caught and held fast by two massive hands.

  Sand Duct. He had temporarily abandoned his fight with Aqua Current and run over to prevent Doll’s fatal fall. A cheer rose up from the Gallery at the unexpectedly knightly act.

  Duct’s health gauge was also already down below 50 percent in the yellow zone. Curren, who had been fighting one-on-one with him, however, was still at over 90 percent somehow. Either their compatibility was indeed very unilateral, or the difference in their technique was.

  Aqua Current came gliding around from the south of the intersection, avoiding the poison bog, and stopped next to Haruyuki. As he stood up, he heard her low murmur: “That was a good hit back there.”

  “Th-thanks.” Unconsciously, he shrank into himself.

  “But it’s not over yet,” Curren continued. “Those two must have some reason for joining up with each other. They’ve definitely got something up their sleeve. Don’t let your guard down.”

  “O-okay!” Haruyuki nodded.

  “Oh, come oooooon!” Nickel Doll shouted in indignation from on top of Sand Duct’s shoulder standing some ten or so meters away from them. “Now I’m mad! Flying ability’s totally no faaaiiir!!”

  “Y-you can say that, but…” Without thinking, he started to argue with her, but Doll jabbed the index finger of her right hand at him as if to say she would brook no argument.

  “Shut up! Shut uuuuup! If this is how things are, then we’re gonna let you both really have it with our super-gorgeous, super-special attack and send you into next week!”

  “S-super…”

  Is there even a system like that in Brain Burst? There’s not, is there? He had a silent conversation with himself, but he was sure that what was coming next was the “up their sleeve” that Curren had mentioned. Haruyuki still had about 40 percent left in his health gauge, so depending on the scope of the technique, it was even possible that a single blow could kill him. And because he had used up his special-attack gauge in the earlier dive attack, he couldn’t fly and dodge it this time. He dropped his hips and concentrated on his enemy’s movements.

  Nickel Doll struck a daunting pose on Sand Duct’s shoulders, her right foot on his right shoulder, left on left, and then shouted sharply, “Do it, Sandy!”

  “Roger!” the sand giant responded in a weighty tone and raised the massive air ducts on his hands, then slammed them loudly together.

  “Aaaaaah! Take this! Turbo Molecular!!”

  He shouted the name of the special attack, and the turbine propellers inside the ducts in his hands began to rotate at high speed. But they were facing the wrong way. The right duct seemed to be the exhaust, while the left had the power of intake.

  “I see,” Curren said. “The reason they were able to hear our private conversation before the fight started was because that left hand was secretly sucking in the air, hmm?”

  Haruyuki nodded in agreement. Even during this exchange, the air was moving stormily between Sand Duct’s hands.

  “But…blowing on the right and sucking on the left, is he telling us to come get them…or what’s it mean?” Haruyuki cocked his head.

  In that moment, Duct threw his hands out, and Haruyuki thought he could see a strange heat haze. The thought had no sooner crossed his mind than his entire body was caught by an intense suction.

  “Whoa! I-I’m being sucked in!” He hurried to dig his feet into the ground, but he was essent
ially powerless to resist. Carving out ruts in the little island with his feet, he was dragged toward Sand Duct, ten meters ahead of him. Next to him, Aqua Current, too, was moving forward bit by bit, the water covering her body half ripped off.

  “Heh-heh, soooo? What do you think of Sandy’s Turbo Molecular Pump?” The triumphant voice of Nickel Doll reached them against the direction of the sudden squall. The wind had captured only Haruyuki and Curren with surprising precision.

  “I…see. With the turbines on both arms, he sends air molecules flying and creates a vacuum region.” Even as they were pulled inexorably forward, Curren was coolly analyzing the situation.

  Haruyuki panicked automatically. “Th-th-this isn’t the time to admire it! I-i-if we don’t do something, w-w-we’ll be sucked in!!”

  Now that I’m thinking about it, there was a scene like this in that full-dive picture book Journey to the West I read when I was a kid. Wait, that scene where he gets sucked in was super scary. I cried so hard, and Chiyu laughed at me.

  Haruyuki’s thoughts abruptly ran down an escapist tract, while, in contrast, Curren spoke as if she wasn’t disturbed in the slightest.

  “No need to be afraid. There’s no attack power in the wind itself. Once we’re dragged in, it’ll just be a close-range fight.”

  “Huh.” Unconsciously, he let his gaze wander through space and then bobbed his head up and down.

  It was true that although they were exposed to the gale, their health gauges hadn’t budged a pixel. This technique was probably to bring in mid- and long-range avatars, in order to turn the fight into close-range combat. But Haruyuki was a complete close-range type, and Curren hadn’t been unskilled enough to be taken down in one-on-one combat with Duct. Getting closer was actually exactly what Haruyuki’s team wanted.

  Okay! Then I can use this wind and go flying in. Haruyuki started to make a plan in his head, looking for the right timing, when his eyes caught sight of something unexpected:

  A smirk slashing across the face of Nickel Doll as she stood on Sand Duct’s shoulder, even as his hands continued to generate the vacuum. It was the exact same look she had given him immediately before she caught him in the electric trap in the swamp.

  Doll bent forward abruptly and touched both hands to her partner’s vacuum region. At the same time, the technique name call: “Anode Cathode!!”

  Crack! Crack! Fierce sparks snapped to life in the space between her small hands. But this technique had an effective range of zero, and without some kind of conductor, she wouldn’t be able to do any damage to distant enemies. So what on earth—?

  It was then that Haruyuki witnessed an unbelievable scene.

  From Duct’s hands, a stormy spark vortex climbed backward through the vacuous region, reaching out to Haruyuki and Curren.

  “Unh…Aah?!” All Haruyuki could manage was a hoarse cry. His avatar, unable to move from being sucked into the wind, was enveloped in a dazzling electric light. The shock made his head spin. His body froze; he couldn’t even speak.

  The remaining 40 percent of his health gauge was mercilessly ripped away by the storm of current. His special-attack gauge was charged by the same measure, but it was nowhere near enough for him to fight this wind and take to the skies.

  “Glow discharge,” Aqua Current announced abruptly. “In pressures close to vacuum lows, the insulation between the electrodes is destroyed, and the current flows through the air.”

  “Heh-heh, you really know your stuff, bouncer!” Nickel Doll smiled sweetly, fiery sparks shooting from her hands. “It’s me and Sandy’s ultra-gorgeous combo attack. First public appearance in this place. Whaddaya think? It might not be on the same level as that old purple lady’s super-high-voltage arc discharge, but our thing still works pretty good, huh?”

  Old purple lady? Who’s that? The thought flickered through his mind, but the raging storm of sparks sent it flying.

  The terrifying part of a combination attack like this was that while they were subject to the damaging power of the electrical current and the sudden wind that kept them from moving, the rate of consumption of the special-attack gauges was overwhelmingly low, despite the very showy nature of the attack. If this were one person’s technique, the attack would have barely lasted five seconds even from a full gauge. But there was enough left in the special-attack gauges of both Doll and Duct to burn through all of Haruyuki’s little remaining HP with change left over.

  Here, Haruyuki finally felt a chill run up his back. Am I going to lose? Lose, and have my points taken?

  Faced with a terror so powerful that it made him want to give up everything and crumple into a ball on the ground, Haruyuki gritted his teeth and fought back.

  Even if I’m going to lose, I’m going to charge ahead and go down fighting. That’s the only thing I can do right now. Even if I can’t fly up, I can fly forward.

  He still had enough HP to break through this electrical storm and strike one blow. So then he’d fly. She would definitely do the same thing. Okay…

  Fly! Haruyuki called out in his mind, and the wings on his back trembled faintly, spread out, and—

  “You’re fine.” A calm voice washed over him. A hand was placed on his left shoulder. From the palm, a transparent stream of water flowed over Haruyuki’s entire body, completely covering his armor. Smooth, sleek. The world was suddenly blanketed by a babbling murmur that was somehow calming, reminiscent of something warm and long gone.

  Poof! All the pain disappeared.

  At first, he thought the enemy combo attack had ended. But that wasn’t it. The glowing discharge sparks still filled the vortex of the vacuum, raging and storming. And yet none of the current made it to his body. The veneer of water completely cut it off, so that all it did was crawl harmlessly around on the surface.

  But…but this…

  “Impossible!” Sand Duct called out, the vacuum still streaming from both hands. “Water’s a conductor! Why…why would it deflect the current?!”

  “In my water, there is not a single impurity,” Aqua Current replied coolly. “The pure water of theory.”

  “Huh? Ah?!” Nickel groaned, as if intuiting something.

  Curren nodded. “Water with zero impurities is essentially a perfect insulator. Electric attacks do not work on me.”

  Haruyuki’s eyes snapped up to check the health gauges in the top left of his view. Although Silver Crow’s had dropped below 20 percent into the red, Curren’s gauge was still green with 90 percent left in it. Even this terrifying combination attack of Doll and Duct didn’t do the slightest bit of damage to the bouncer.

  So strong. This kind of strength at level one…

  There was no way she was a newbie. Most likely, she had fought her way through the Accelerated World for many long years, so many years that Haruyuki couldn’t even begin to imagine it. The vast battle experience and the unwavering confidence in the water that was her own attribute produced a power that easily blew away any difference in levels.

  Finally, the special-attack gauges of both Doll and Duct ran out, essentially simultaneously.

  “You’ve shown me what I needed to see.” After collecting the defensive membrane of water from Haruyuki, Aqua Current took a step forward, accompanied by a splash. “That’s a nice trick, Doll, Duct.”

  “Ngh! Eeeeeee!!” Nickel Doll shrieked piercingly. Kicking and screaming on top of Sand Duct, she shot the index fingers of both hands straight out at Haruyuki and Curren. “If this is the way it is, then it’s on! For real! No tricks! We’re going to corner you and then show you what we’re really made of!”

  “Roger!”

  The large and small avatars snapped their fists up into a ready position at the same time and charged in a straight line.

  “Just what we were hoping for!” Aqua Current shouted back, cycling the streaming water armor of her entire body even more swiftly. “Let’s go, Crow!”

  “O-okay!” Haruyuki kicked at the ground to follow her.

  Perhaps seeing th
at this was the final climax, the Gallery members around them cried out in excitement. Bathed in their cheers, the four avatars collided in a dazzling display of light and sound, and everything melted away into the white-hot vortex produced by the passion and excitement of the duel.

  6

  Challenging twice, challenged twice. After winning a total of four tag-team matches, Haruyuki’s burst points had been brought back up to seventy, well within the safe zone.

  “And with that, my job is complete.” The neurospeak voice was clear in Haruyuki’s mind as he returned to the real world.

  The girl in the red glasses sitting across the table from him reached out to her white, semitransparent Neurolinker. Following her lead, Haruyuki cut off his connection to the global net at the same time. The earth-shaped icon disappeared from the right edge of his virtual desktop. And with that, their names were erased from the Chiyoda area matching list.

  “Phew.” Shifting his gaze to the XSB cable dangling between them, Haruyuki let out a long breath. A mere thirty seconds had passed on his clock display since the start of their first duel. But those thirty seconds had been dense, concentrated in a way he had experienced only a few times in these last two weeks fighting as a Burst Linker. The aftershocks of hitting and being hit mercilessly still reverberated within him.

  After a lethargic five seconds or so, Haruyuki lifted his face with a gasp and looked at the real girl behind Aqua Current, the bouncer who had saved him.

  A mysterious light still shone in the eyes on the other side of her glasses, while he could make out no clear expression on her lips. He felt like he actually had more questions he wanted to ask her now than he did before the duel started. But at that moment, there was something he needed to do before anything else.

  Unusually for him, Haruyuki held the gaze of the girl for more than a second as he transmitted all his thoughts through the direct cable: “Thank you so much. Really…Thank you.” He blinked over and over to hold back the tears that blurred his vision, unbidden.