Cover View
A school somewhere in Tokyo, Japan, in 2039.
Tap tap tap
"And so, with the invention of this 'quantum mobile terminal,' the 'Neuro Linker,' humanity achieved virtual reality and an information revolution that were once nothing more than a fantasy. In modern times, it has become indispensable. To put it a little exaggeratedly, the Neuro Linker is now another brain for humanity."
Sasaki Kojiro stared blankly at the teacher writing on the virtual blackboard.
There were thirty children in the classroom, Kojiro included, all seated in rows and listening to the lesson, but it seemed only a handful were actually paying attention. Kojiro was, of course, not among them.
"Haaah~"
Kojiro covered his mouth with a hand and let out a small yawn, then gathered himself and forced his attention back to the lesson.
Even setting aside the fact that he lacked a great deal of modern knowledge, Kojiro could not afford to miss even a trivial class like this.
The middle-aged teacher was writing on the board with bare hands, with nothing in them at all. No, the dark green board visible to the eye did not actually exist in the first place.
The numbers, symbols, and letters the teacher wrote into the air were being visualized directly in Kojiro's brain by the [Neuro Linker] mounted on the back of his neck.
Even the teacher's voice would not have reached Kojiro's ears at normal volume, but the Neuro Linker wrapped around the teacher's neck amplified it clearly and transmitted it to him.
The Neuro Linker in question was a kind of small computer, the same sort of device now installed on the back of Kojiro's neck.
This marvelous machine used technology that sent virtual information signals directly to the cerebrum through the nerves, providing augmented reality visible only to the user. In simple terms, it let him see illusions that did not originally exist with his own eyes.
Honestly, Sasaki Kojiro had no real understanding of what principle allowed such a tiny machine to perform such a strange feat, but as a matter of national policy, the Neuro Linker had been obligatorily installed on the back of the orphaned Sasaki Kojiro's neck and helped raise him from childhood.
Kojiro himself also made use of this amazing piece of civilization in order to acquire the modern knowledge he lacked, so he did not particularly mind it.
Watching the teacher drone on in that drawn-out voice, Kojiro thought about his own situation.
Sasaki Kojiro, or rather the nameless swordsman, first realized he had been reincarnated when he was nine years old.
The sudden flood of memories from his previous life had apparently been a burden on the brain of a child still so young, because Kojiro collapsed right after awakening to his reincarnation and startled everyone around him. By now, that had become a fond memory.
In any case, the memories of his previous life, which had surfaced without warning or cause, merged with the memories of the body’s original owner and formed a new self.
Of course, the self of a frail child barely nine years old was outweighed by the self of a swordsman who had devoted his entire life to the blade.
The thing that surprised the nameless swordsman most when he realized his reincarnation was not the fact that he had been reborn in Japan hundreds of years in the future, nor the bizarre modern devices around him. It was the fact that his name was Sasaki Kojiro.
In his previous life, he had never had a name. Whether he had never had one to begin with, or whether he had simply forgotten it after his master died and there was no one left to call him by it, he did not know. But the swordsman of his past life had lived his entire existence nameless.
What he had spent his life practicing as a profession was [Tsubame Gaeshi]. It was a secret sword technique said to have been used by a genius swordsman he had only heard about through rumor. He had devoted his whole life to reproducing it, and just before death, he believed he had succeeded in creating a demonic sword technique that surpassed the original.
And yet, in this new life, his name was the same as that genius swordsman’s. At that point, it would not have been strange to feel some kind of fate in it.
In any case, realizing he had been reincarnated and beginning a new life under a new name was a good thing, but the circumstances around him were not exactly pleasant.
The only family this body had ever known, both parents, died in a traffic accident when Kojiro was still an infant. To make matters worse, he had no close relatives, so Kojiro ended up sent to a child welfare facility. If this had been the Warring States era he had lived in before, he would already have been dead and buried.
Fortunately, modern Japan had a very well-developed welfare system, so Kojiro was able to live at the Tokyo Public Residential School for Orphaned Children, the Comprehensive Protection and Training School for Orphaned Children.
Ironically, this special situation was actually beneficial to Kojiro himself. If he had been reincarnated into a wealthy family that gave him enough love and attention, he would surely have caused problems with the awkward behavior brought on by his memories of his past life.
After remembering his previous life, Kojiro had to spend nearly a year in a state of utter confusion. The memories of a nine-year-old child were not much help, and the common sense of the Warring States era was worse than useless in modern Japan.
So after a number of trial-and-error mistakes in adapting to the present, Sasaki Kojiro eventually ended up with the position of a third grader who was mature and calm for his age, yet occasionally showed a strangely offbeat side.
Just as Kojiro's thoughts reached that point, the school bell announcing the end of class rang from the speakers.
"Well then, that will be all for today's lesson. Please enjoy your meals."
The middle-aged teacher said that, gathered up his materials, and left the classroom. As if they had been waiting for exactly that, the students rose from their seats and began chattering noisily. As expected of children, they were extremely loud and full of energy.
Kojiro generally liked quiet, so he quickly got up, intending to eat lunch and leave the noisy classroom behind.
At that moment, a girl who wore glasses and looked earnest called out to him.
"Sasaki-kun, are you going to lunch?"
"That was the plan. Why?"
"Your right arm is inconvenient right now, isn't it? Should I help you?"
"No, I'm fine. Still, thanks for worrying about me."
When Kojiro smiled gently and answered, the girl who had been refused looked a little disappointed for an instant, then nodded and returned to her friends. It seemed his condition looked rather pitiful to her.
That was understandable, since Kojiro currently had his entire right arm in a cast. In fact, there was a reason he could not tell anyone about.
The story went back three days.
Kojiro's goal in this life was to surpass the realm of his previous life and reach the end of swordsmanship.
But with a frail body that had not even finished growing yet, it was difficult to train at all, let alone perform swordsmanship to his satisfaction.
No matter how much Kojiro might be the greatest genius swordsman of all time, it was absolutely impossible to reproduce the peak of swordsmanship he had only barely reached at the moment of death in the body of a child. And the slow growth of his flesh, combined with the ecstatic sword movements from his previous life that kept surfacing in his mind, were driving Kojiro nearly mad.
At this rate, he was worried the imbalance between body and mind might drag him into inner demons.
Especially after Kojiro turned ten and adapted to the present era to some degree, the imbalance grew even worse as he began serious sword training. Three days ago, Kojiro had tried to forcefully recreate the swordsmanship of his previous life, only to swing a wooden sword into empty air and end up with a broken arm, turning him into a patient like this.
Of course, he could not tell anyone the truth, so he had no choice but to offer the pathetically flimsy excuse that he had slipped and fallen down the stairs.
Thanks to modern medical technology, he would not need much time to recover, but Kojiro could do nothing but feel depressed at the thought that he would be unable to train his body, much less practice swordsmanship, in the meantime.
As Kojiro left the classroom, radiating that gloomy mood, the other children in the class, especially the girls, could not take their eyes off his back. Kojiro himself was too busy adapting to modern life to notice, but he was something of an object of admiration in his class.
The residential school Kojiro attended, the Comprehensive Protection and Training School for Orphaned Children, had been established for the noble purpose of protecting orphaned children without guardians, but perhaps because it gathered only children with complicated backgrounds, there were quite a few who had gone a little off track.
Even there, Kojiro was an unusual presence. For someone his age, he was always calm and mature, with a body that was clearly well-trained. And above all, there was his handsome face. It was a combination that could not help but be popular.
On top of that, perhaps because of his meddlesome nature as an adult, he could not leave wandering children alone and ended up looking after them little by little. Before he knew it, Kojiro had become the big brother figure of the class.
What Kojiro himself still did not know was that the many incidents and accidents he had caused while adapting to modern life over the past year had already become the stuff of legend within the narrow society of the boarding school.
Of course, Kojiro, who always devoted more than half of his brain to swordsmanship, never noticed.
**
Kojiro said, looking at the curry rice he had ordered in the school cafeteria.
"Thanks for the meal."
Kojiro was always deeply grateful to have been reborn in this prosperous age, but what he especially liked was the food.
The era Kojiro had lived in before had suffered from wars, natural disasters, and all kinds of hardships, so there was never enough food to be satisfied. As a result, cooking methods were poor, and cuisine never rose above a crude level.
Of course, the dishes served on the tables of the powerful might have been different, but for Kojiro, who had been born to a poor farming family, that was a distant story. To him, modern cooking was nothing short of a new world.
From the day he became aware of his reincarnation, Kojiro had never neglected a single meal and had savored as many dishes as he could. By now, one of Kojiro's few hobbies was even touring the best eateries in Tokyo.
So today as well, giving thanks for his daily bread, Kojiro put aside his worries and took a large spoonful of steaming curry rice to his mouth.
Just as his tongue was about to be toyed with by the spicy curry aroma, a change suddenly appeared on the augmented reality interface visible only to Kojiro.
Ding-dong!
Along with the small alert sound, a new mail had arrived on his Neuro Linker. An email from an unknown sender, with one program attached.
The program's name was BB2039.
It was an invitation to the Accel World.
Neuro Linker
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register