Current had told him to prove his strength. That meant winning this fight wouldn’t be enough. He had to win overwhelmingly. Only then could he show the difference in power.
Kojiro thought that over as he considered what technique would satisfy Current. Just then, a blimp carrying a giant advertising panel flew over their heads and dimmed the faint moonlight. Shadows fell across Kojiro and Current as they glared at each other from the center of the rooftop.
The two of them stared each other down, their aura rising as if they might lunge at any second. Both tensed their entire bodies, ready to burst.
In the next instant, the blimp passed overhead and the shadow between them vanished completely. Bathed once more in moonlight reflected off his blade, Kojiro sprang forward. At the same time, Current made her move as well.
Kojiro dashed straight at Current with his sword thrust out rigidly, as if he meant to end it in a single blow. In response, Current gathered the streams of water coiling around her body and tried to defend.
The four streams split in front of Current and merged together, forming a circular barrier. It was a carefully prepared defensive stance that used up most of the water wrapping around her body. Kojiro, by contrast, kept running just as he had from the start, sword still held straight ahead.
The distance between them vanished in an instant, and the moment Kojiro reached the space right in front of Current, his body gave a strange twist.
In that instant, a detailed diagram of his body structure flashed through Kojiro’s mind.
The kinetic energy generated by his sprint flowed from the sole of the foot that had kicked off the ground, through the knee and into the waist, then along the back to the shoulder and elbow, and from the wrist all the way to the fingertips. That entire chain happened in a single, perfect instant. Then, using his left hand as the aiming point, he hurled the right hand gripping the sword forward and released the force in an explosion. It was less a thrust than a shot-put stance.
Boom!!!
The rooftop floor Kojiro had kicked off from exploded, sending fragments scattering in all directions. A gunshot-like shock rang out from Kojiro’s sword.
Fwaaaaaaang!
[Tsubame Gaeshi]
Kojiro’s sword tip broke past the speed of sound for an instant and glowed red-hot. The moment it struck Current’s water shield, a huge blast sounded and steam burst outward. The shockwave from the supersonic strike shattered the water forming the barrier and scattered it everywhere. The sudden change in temperature vaporized the stream, filling the space between Current and Kojiro with a thick white cloud of steam.
A moment later, when the steam cleared, Current stood there with a dazed expression, while Kojiro had his sword extended right beside her face.
"W-What... is this...?"
"Just a simple thrust."
Of course, it was not a normal thrust. It was one of the secret sword techniques Kojiro had developed in his previous life, the ultimate form of a technique called a thrust. After countless experiments and endless training, he had learned exactly how much force should be applied from which part of the body to which part when driving out a sword, and forged that knowledge into a perfected technique.
Current had intended to block the first attack with her water shield, then use the streams of water for a hit-and-run tactic. But she never expected that instead of merely failing to block it, she would lose almost all the water she had stored in a single blow.
Current had sensed the moment the sword touched the shield that she could not stop it, but her body froze and would not move. As the dazed Current’s strength gave out and she began to collapse to the floor, Kojiro smoothly supported her by the waist.
The neon signs and illuminators of the city center lit the two of them from above, creating a strange atmosphere, almost like a man and woman embracing in a club.
Kojiro said with a teasing expression, "Is that enough proof for you?"
Current could only nod blankly.
**
Back in reality, Kojiro left the noisy background music of the arcade behind and led Current to a cafe in front of the building. The cafe was quiet and cozy, unlike the arcade they had just come from. Kojiro and Current ordered simple drinks and sat down.
The manager gave the rare combination of two elementary school boys and girls a slightly curious look, but soon lost interest and started making the drinks. In the place where the smell of roasted coffee mixed with a sweet aroma, Kojiro and Current stared at each other in silence for a moment. Then Current let out a sigh and said, "I’ll say it again: sorry for suddenly attacking you earlier."
In Avatar form, she had spoken politely the whole time, but the moment they returned to the real world, she immediately dropped the formal speech. She seemed to be the type who kept her BB self and her real-world self completely separate.
"No, it’s fine. More importantly, could you tell me how you realized I was a Burst Linker?"
Before answering, Current held out the wired cable she had forced into Kojiro’s neck earlier.
"You’re not planning to talk about that in a public place, are you? Here, take it."
Kojiro obediently took the cable and inserted one plug into his Neuro Linker.
[You know how to do thought-speech, right?]
Thought-speech was the technique of conversing through the Linker alone without moving one’s lips.
[Of course.]
Kojiro nodded, answering in thought rather than with his mouth, then asked again.
[So, can you answer me?]
[It’s nothing that impressive. Half of it was just luck.]
[Luck?]
[Yeah, simple reasoning. I’ve been looking for Burst Linkers at that amusement center for several days now. One of the traits of a Burst Linker is being an elementary school student, and specifically third grade or below, right? So I narrowed the suspects based on that, then came to the arcade and filtered them again by watching for people who wandered around observing their surroundings without actually playing any games. Finally, I asked the people who fit those conditions, "You’re a Burst Linker, aren’t you?"]
[......]
[Normally, if someone who knew nothing got asked that, they’d react with something like, "What’s that?" But if they were really a Burst Linker, they’d get flustered. Just like you did.]
[Hmm...]
It was certainly a plausible method. Even Kojiro had been caught off guard and thrown off by her sudden question. But this trick was dangerous, because while it could identify a Burst Linker, it also risked revealing her own identity to the other party. And what was with that odd way of speaking? Was that her natural style?
[I see. I understand now. Then let me ask you this: have you found any other Burst Linkers besides me using that method?]
[No, you’re the first.]
[That’s a relief.]
Just then, the drinks they had ordered arrived. The server brought them over, looked at the two of them in their direct connection with a strangely pleased expression, and then walked away. Kojiro thought they had probably been misunderstood in some odd way and took a sip of the orange juice that had been brought for him. Current also took a sip of the drink in front of her and said calmly, [Let me introduce myself again. My name is Himi Akira. As you probably already know, my Avatar name is Aqua Current, and my level is 4. From now on, call me Karen.]
[My name is Sasaki Kojiro. My Avatar name is Ultramarine Swallow, and I’m level 5. You can call me Kojiro or Sasaki, whichever you prefer.]
[Sasaki Kojiro? Are you joking?]
When Karen heard Kojiro’s name, her expression turned completely dumbfounded. Kojiro casually waved a hand and summoned his name tag. There it was, the name [Sasaki Kojiro(佐々木 小次郎)] displayed in neat lettering.
This was like a business card used to introduce oneself to someone for the first time, complete with kanji, and served as a kind of simplified ID. The certification mark of the resident registration network shimmered at the lower right of the tag. Forging one was difficult even for a top-tier hacker, which meant that the name registered on the tag was his real name.
Kojiro had gotten tired of always making the same excuse every time he introduced himself to a stranger, so he made frequent use of the name tag. Karen’s expression had now gone beyond dumbfounded and become outright exasperated.
No, just the name "Sasaki Kojiro" already sounded like a joke, but the owner of that name also possessed terrifying swordsmanship? Wasn’t that too contrived? It felt like a really bad prank.
[Ahem. Fine, I get it. Then let’s get to the point. How much do you know about those PK bastards?]
[Honestly, only their method. I didn’t know anything else. At first I was planning to find them by smashing my head into the wall and figuring it out as I went.]
[You’re way too rough around the edges. Anyway, there were four people who attacked my friend. Of those, only one was directly connected with her, and she remembers that person’s appearance clearly.]
[Was the friend who got attacked also level 4?]
[That’s right.]
[Then there’s a high chance they dragged her into the Unlimited Neutral Field.]
It was possible they had drained her points through consecutive normal duels, but Kojiro thought that was unlikely. Every time a normal duel was used, a point was automatically deducted, and above all, if they had moved as a group rather than alone, they would have had to be relying on numerical superiority.
In the Unlimited Neutral Field, a Duel Avatar surrounded by four Burst Linkers would eventually be overwhelmed and collapse. A revival cursor would flare up at the spot where she fell, and in front of it would stand those trash waiting for their next hunt. As that whole sequence formed in his mind, Kojiro found his hand tightening without realizing it.
[What did that one look like?]
[For an elementary school kid, he had a pretty sturdy build, dyed his hair blond, and had flashy piercings in his ears.]
[A punk.]
[It looks like the four of them jumped her from behind all of a sudden. There’s a karaoke room in the corner of the arcade that’s designed to be completely soundproof. They threatened her with a small pocketknife there and forced a direct connection. After that, she doesn’t remember anything. By the time she came to, they were already gone.]
It was a textbook PK method. First threaten the target and drag them somewhere deserted, then force a direct connection. After that, check whether the name is on the matching list and, if it is, confirm they’re a Burst Linker. Even if they were wrong, they could just brush it off as a misunderstanding.
And once the target was confirmed to be a Burst Linker, the next step was to threaten their real-world body and drag them into a normal duel or the Unlimited Neutral Field, then extort their points. If all the points were exhausted and they lost Brain Burst, all the memories tied to it would vanish too, leaving no evidence behind.
The only risk was if the person they attacked turned out to be a Burst Linker far stronger than themselves, and they ended up getting taken down in return. Those guys had clearly used their numerical advantage to prepare for exactly that possibility.
If that was the case, then it was truly fortunate that Karen had found him before she found them. Even though they had only exchanged a brief series of blows and he couldn’t judge Karen’s true skill precisely, trying to take on four opponents at once against Burst Linkers of the same level would probably have been suicidal. Looking at it that way, Karen seemed to be the same kind of reckless type as Kojiro: the sort who acted first and thought later.
[Then there’s only one way. We need to find that blond guy. If he has accomplices, we take them all down at once. If even one gets away, they might spread our real-world information instead.]
[......Are you sure? This is my personal matter. There’s no need for you to take on the risk just because]
Kojiro cut Karen off and answered, [I told you at the start, didn’t I? I came here because I had business with PK bastards too. If anything, I should be thanking you. You made things easier for me.]
By the time Kojiro said that much, Karen had nothing else to say. She only whispered softly, [Thank you.]
Himi Akira
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register