Accel World: Return of Princess Snow Black by Reki Kawahara
In fact, he had understood with one look that the icon symbolized by a flaming letter B wasn’t in the Application folder. Just in case, he checked each installed program, but he couldn’t seem to find anything outwardly suspicious among the commercial mailers, media players and simple games.
Sure enough, Chiyuri wasn't «Cyan Pile».
While persuading himself of that, Haruyuki suddenly felt uneasy when he opened up the properties of some of the applications.
The programs weren’t the problem. That wasn’t it— just now, the response to the operation was subtly sluggish.
Rather than wirelessly communicating through the inexpensive home server, right now he was Direct Connected to Chiyuri’s Neuro Linker with a high-grade cable (moreover, a very short one), so there was no reason for lags that could be sensed in the response to occur.
If there was a lag, the only possible cause was that the communication bandwidth of Chiyuri’s Linker was mostly occupied by other circuits.
Becoming all the more suspicious of that, Haruyuki opened the network status window as well.
Chiyuri's Neuro Linker was currently connected to three networks, the Global Net, the Kurashima family’s Home Net, and the Direct Connection with Haruyuki. Among that, the only packet exchange that should have been happening right at this moment was with Haruyuki.
However, as he checked her network, Haruyuki nearly cried out. A massive packets was being sent to the Global Net. The local sender was an unidentified program that was installed under many layers of folders. The receiver on the global side was unknown. In other words, this was—
A Backdoor!!
Someone had hacked Chiyuri’s Neuro Linker, and was secretly connecting to it from the outside. And that person was right at this instant stealing Chiyuri’s sight and hearing information.
This bastard!!
While nearly shouting unconsciously, Haruyuki began to move his fingertip in order to erase the problematic application.
But he stopped himself just before he threw the icon he was dragging into the garbage can.
The person connecting right now had to be «Cyan Pile». Without a doubt, this guy hadn’t succeeded in altering Brain Burst, but rather he was using Chiyuri’s Neuro Linker as a step-point in order to allow himself to freely appear and disappear on the matching list.
In other words, if he could trace the packet’s destination, the true identity of «Cyan Pile» would also become clear. However, tracing without being sensed by the other side was difficult work. The only chance would most likely be while they were in battle. For that to happen, he would have to hide the fact that he had noticed the backdoor until that person next attacked.
Quietly letting out a breath, Haruyuki closed all the windows.
"…Thank you, Chiyu."
He murmured that and quietly separated their bodies.
Still crying a little, Chiyuri also slowly dropped her hands, smiled while nodding. As he returned an awkward smile, Haruyuki stretched out his left hand and removed the plug from Chiyuri’s Neuro Linker.
Chapter 6
Friday.
Haruyuki trudgingly walked along the sidewalk with his shoulders drooped dejectedly among the other students, who were going to school with shining expressions at the prospect of the holiday the day after tomorrow after the long week finally ended.
"A guy... a guy like me..."
He mumbled to himself, filled with maximum self-loathing so early in the morning.
If the dream he had on the night of installing Brain Burst was the scariest one of his life, the dream he had last night would have to be the lowest and most disgusting one. If the other person, who had done things he only knew about through virtual knowledge, had just been Kuroyukihime, it might have been the best dream he had ever had. But before he knew it, the number of people in the dream increased to two, and the second person was—.
"Auu...aaa..."
He desperately pushed back the urge to grab his head and run.
Currently, the producers of Neuro Linkers were said to be ruthlessly competing to create a truly dream-like application called «Dream Record». It was a good thing that it didn't exist yet. No—well, he had to admit that part of him was disappointed about that...
"Hey, good morning, boy!"
Haruyuki jumped as somebody greeted him cheerfully with a slap on his shoulder.
Then he jumped again after turning around and seeing the beauty in black standing there.
"Hwuaaa?!"
"...What was that? Is it a greeting that's popular these days?"
Kuroyukihime had a dubious expression on her face. Haruyuki shook his head.
"No, it-it's nothing!! Umm, go-good morning, senpai!!"
"...Hmmm."
Kuroyukihime cocked her head once more, then coughed slightly and spoke again.
"Hmm—. Ahh—. Well, I... apologize about yesterday. I wasn't being very mature."
"N-no... there's no way it's like that, it's nothing of the sort. I should be the one apologizing... I went home without even saying goodbye properly..."
As the two of them stopped to speak, students wearing the same uniform slowly started milling around them. Not just first years but even second and third years were waiting to greet Kuroyukihime with looks of admiration in their eyes, and before they knew it, a line had formed behind them.
Having seen this, Kuroyukihime finished her greetings in one fell swoop by shouting "Hey, good morning everyone!" to all the people in the back, and then tapped Haruyuki on the back and hurried off. She continued the conversation, whispering in Haruyuki's ear after he had hastily caught up with her.
"No... of course you wanted to get away. I had treated your precious... friend, as a cowardly marauder. Because of that, I made you say something impossible, that you would check Direct Connecting. I sincerely apologize."
"Huh? Ah... Well, I did it... the Direct Connect."
"...What?"
Her face froze. She spoke even before Haruyuki could put up his guard. He had the feeling that something wasn't quite right.
"Where did you do it?"
She asked with an edge to her voice, so there was no choice but to answer truthfully.
"That-that is... at her house..."
"Where in the house?"
"I-in a room... He-her room."
"...Ho."
Kuroyukihime increased her pace for some reason. Haruyuki had to chase after a person with a much longer stride than him with sweat running down his brow. It took him a couple seconds to catch up and continue the conversation.
"So, I sneaked a peek at her memory... and in her Neuro Linker there was..."
"How long was the cable?"
Kuroyukihime asked with an aura that seemed to bore into him. Haruyuki answered timidly, feeling more and more frightened.
"Th...irty centimeters."
"...Hmph."
Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap.
Haruyuki could only watch Kuroyukihime's long hair shake to and fro as she walked towards the school entrance ahead of them at a frightening pace.
I don't understand. This world is just full of things I don't get.
After seriously listening to the morning classes, half as a way of escape, and taking a mountain's worth of notes, Haruyuki couldn't himself to take any sort of action even when he heard the lunch bell ring.
If he thought about it logically, he should immediately go find Kuroyukihime and talk about the backdoor that «Cyan Pile» had installed in Chiyuri's Neuro Linker, as well as how to track the packet down. But before that, if he couldn't figure out the reason behind why Kuroyukihime had been acting strangely ill-humored since yesterday, he wouldn't be able to concentrate on the conversation.
It was true that he made people in front of him feel disgusted quite a lot. It would be more of a surprise if there was someone that didn't get annoyed at an overly obese guy that sweated like a waterfall and mumbled almost inaudibly. And the expression that conveyed that on the perso
Perhaps Kuroyukihime had been secretly tolerating him until now. And perhaps she had finally gone past her limit.
If so, it would be better to give up talking to her face to face in real life. If they talked with their full dive avatars, he wouldn't sweat at least and the volume of his voice would be automatically compensated. Getting things done like this smoothly and efficiently would be the most desirable thing for him as well.
As Haruyuki kept telling himself this while gazing at the table, an unfamiliar and loud voice suddenly blared down from above his head.
"Hello! First year, Class-2 Arita Haruyuki-kun, right?"
He jerked his head up in surprise. Two girls whose faces he didn't know were standing in front of him. Both had a holo-tag on their shoulders that showed that they were in the middle of a club activity. [Newspaper club].
Geeh, a new icon flashed in Haruyuki's vision as he almost fell down in surprise. [SREC], that was an icon that told you that the other person was recording your conversation. Of course it wasn't something that was freely allowed, but it was allowed in very few instances within the school.
For example, collecting data for the newspaper club.
Haruyuki couldn't even look at his classmates who were watching with interest around him. He prepared to run away, disregarding how he would look. But, as if they were used to these sorts of situations, there was someone who stood behind him to block his escape route.
Right in front of Haruyuki who was frozen in a half-risen position, the attacking reporter pushed out her hand that was holding a holo-board and threw out the question which struck at the heart of the matter.
"This is Umesato Real Times, «Head☆shot to that guy in the rumors» corner!! Well to get straight to the point, is the rumor that Arita-kun is going out with that famous Kuroyukihime-san true!?"
Haruyuki glanced at the blinking recording icon.
Then, he concentrated all his mental power and managed to reply in what could be called a calm voice.
"It's a lie. A rumor. Groundless."
The reporter typed furiously on her invisible keyboard in front of her and then launched a counter-attack.
"But according to the information we have gathered, Arita-kun has direct connected with Kuroyukihime-san twice in the lounge and even did a non-stop Direct Connect date in a café within the school district!"
"Wha..."
Looking down at Haruyuki who was shocked and thinking "Why do you know that?", the female student made light flash across her real glasses, which were a rare thing these days.
This was bad, really bad. If he answered wrong here, it would become something that can't be taken back.
Several sensational headlines appeared in his head. He could even hear the battle cry of the Kuroyukihime fan club as they saw that and swore bloody punishment.
With one of his cheek twitching and convulsing in spasms, Haruyuki made his brain think three times faster than the time he had fought «Ash Roller» and came up with an answer that seemed innocent enough.
"Eh—, w-w-well that is. I-I-I know quite a lot about Neuro Linker operating systems, and umm, senpai's Neuro Linker was in bad shape, so I just fixed it for her when she asked me to, and the thing in the café was nothing more than compensation for that. There wasn't anything else to it, really, not even a little."
As he shook his head with a stiff smile, the newspaper club member stopped typing and frowned.
Even if they saw them direct connecting, it was impossible to tell if they had talked through or if he had just fiddled with the Neuro Linker. It wasn't a great excuse but they wouldn't be able to refute it.
As Haruyuki calmed down, he kept talking to make his defense stronger.
"Be...Besides, if you look at how that person acts when she's with me you'll know. Senpai gets upset really easily when she talks with me. There's no way that she's going out with me."
With this, the interview was over.
That was what he thought, but the girl cocked her head and repeated his words as if suspicious of something.
"Upset? It didn't seem that way at all..."
"I-It's true! Even this morning, she went off by herself and was angry for some reason... She's always acts like that whenever I talk about Chiyu, I mean Kurashima..."
"Kurashima...san? You mean the girl who quarreled with Kuroyukihime over something at the school gate...?"
After blinking her sparkling eyes behind her glasses several times—
The newspaper club club member's dramatic attitude suddenly vanished and moved her finger. The recording icon disappeared from Haruyuki's sight.
"...? Has the interview finished?"
"Erm, well... that is......"
After strangely faltering and exchanging glances with her partner behind her, she then continued to talk in what seemed to be her normal manner of speaking.
"Well, you see. The truth is, we were also skeptical and just came came to collect data thinking it was just some silly mistake, but..."
"Yes...?"
The girl brought her face closer and whispered low enough so that only Haruyuki could hear.
"Hey, Arita-kun. It couldn't really be... well this is what I think... but maybe, are you and Kuroyukihime, really... like that?"
"Haah!?"
"Well, y'know, if she gets upset every time you talk about that Kurashima-san who's close to you, that's, well... you know?"
The other club member who stood next to her continued.
"Yeah. That, the only thing it could be is..."
Then both of them whispered to Haruyuki at the same time as if they were oracles from a temple.
"...jealousy, right?"
When Haruyuki recovered his state of mind, Haruyuki found himself in his usual cubicle in the men's restroom.
In the end, he had run away, but he didn't have the luxury of mind to feel remorse for what he had done.
'Jealousy? With what characters is that written with? I don't know of any such word in Japanese.'
He wanted to run away from his thoughts like that, but the kanji to spell it was already etched into his mind like a red hot iron brand.
The reason that Kuroyukihime showed a displeased face when they talked of Chiyuri was because of...jealousy.
Yes, that's what the two of them had said.
Jealousy. Envy. In other words, Kuroyukihime had not been acting or joking, but had seriously been—
"It's a lie."
Haruyuki rushed ahead of where his thoughts were going and muttered that. There was no way that was true. It might happen to other people but to him, Arita Haruyuki, such a thing cannot happen. Don't think like that. Don't wish for it. If he did, he would, without a doubt, toss and turn in his bed while regretting it two to three times more.
Haruyuki banged the back of his head on the flush tank behind him and told himself again.
"It's a lie...a lie."
But the more he kept telling himself that, the more the little actions, expressions and words Kuroyukihime had showed and told him flickered through his mind.
That time...and that time, and that time, did that person really...?
"......It's a lie!!"
Bang! Haruyuki punched the cubicle wall and hugged his head.
It was painful to even continue thinking now, he wanted to run away from here more than ever, but—at the instant he was going to give the command for Full Dive.
He remembered the crazy high score that Kuroyukihime had managed to achieve in virtual squash.
He could never exceed that score. If so, he couldn't use that game to escape from reality anymore.
"...Why."
He muttered again, a little louder this time.
"...Why!? Why me!?"
You have everything. Looks, brains, physical skills, social graces, and even—the one thing I really prided myself on, reaction speed in virtual games.
In other words, I didn't have anything that was better than you.
"And yet...why did you say that you believed in me...?"
Of course Haruyuki was the person with an aptitude for Brain Burst that Kuroyukihime had been looking so hard for.
But even then, there were three of them in the same middle school, it meant nothing more than that.
Furthermore Haruyuki's «Silver Crow», with its huge helmet head attached to tall and thin wire-like body, had no skills beyond kicking, punching and headbutting. With a duel avatar like that, he wouldn't be of any use other than finding out the identity of the enemy—«Cyan Pile». In that case, he wanted to be suitably treated according to that. He wanted to just be commanded calmly, indifferently, as a chess piece.
He didn't wish for anything more than that. He wouldn't have dreamed of anything more than that. Yet—why, why did Kuroyukihime act like that, make such expressions, and look at him with such eyes?
Finally Haruyuki decided to cling onto the single conclusion with the sole wish to set his mind at rest. It didn't seem as if he would be able to find any reason other than that now.
Although the person who had extorted food money from him had already disappeared, Haruyuki had skipped lunch, but he wasn't conscious of being hungry and just passed through the afternoon classes indifferently.
In homeroom, the teacher seemed to have talked about Araya and his gang, but Haruyuki ignored that too, and after the other students rushed out of the classroom just as the school bell rang and in high spirits in anticipation of the weekend, he stood up slowly with his bag in his hand.
He then slowly walked to the entrance, changed his shoes and left the school building.
Even though it was only just past 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the late autumn sun was already a deep red and had sharply gone down in the sky, illuminating the school gates. Catching sight of a black silhouette standing there as if absorbed into the gatepost, Haruyuki approached while dragging his feet.