Accel World Vol. 22: Sun God of Absolute Flame Read online

  Copyright

  ACCEL WORLD, Volume 22

  REKI KAWAHARA

  Translation by Jocelyne Allen

  Cover art by HIMA

  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 Vol. 22

  ©Reki Kawahara 2017

  Edited by Dengeki Bunko

  First published in Japan in 2017 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

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

  English translation © 2020 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.

  Yen On

  150 West 30th Street, 19th Floor

  New York, NY 10001

  Visit us at yenpress.com

  facebook.com/yenpress

  twitter.com/yenpress

  yenpress.tumblr.com

  instagram.com/yenpress

  First Yen On Edition: September 2020

  Yen On is an imprint of Yen Press, LLC.

  The Yen On name and logo are trademarks of Yen Press, LLC.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Kawahara, Reki, author. | HIMA (Comic book artist) illustrator. | bee-pee, designer. | Allen, Jocelyne, 1974– translator.

  Title: Accel World / Reki Kawahara ; illustrations, HIMA ; design, bee-pee ; translation by Jocelyne Allen.

  Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2014–

  Identifiers: LCCN 2014025099 | ISBN 9780316376730 (v. 1 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296366 (v. 2 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296373 (v. 3 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296380 (v. 4 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296397 (v. 5 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296403 (v. 6 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316358194 (v. 7 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316317610 (v. 8 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316502702 (v. 9 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316466059 (v. 10 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316466066 (v. 11 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316466073 (v. 12 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975300067 (v. 13 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975327231 (v. 14 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975327255 (v. 15 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975327279 (v. 16 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975327293 (v. 17 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975327316 (v. 18 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975332181 (v. 19 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975332716 (v. 20 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975332730 (v. 21 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975332778 (v. 22 : pbk.)

  Subjects: CYAC: Science fiction. | Virtual reality—Fiction. | Fantasy.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.K1755Kaw 2014 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2014025099

  ISBNs: 978-1-9753-3277-8 (paperback)

  978-1-9753-3278-5 (ebook)

  E3-20200804-JV-NF-ORI

  Contents

  Cover

  Insert

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Afterword

  Yen Newsletter

  Download all your Fav Light Novels from Just Light Novels

  1

  “Aah, no matter how many times we do this, I always get nervous waiting like this,” Haruyuki announced to no one in particular, as his fingers wandered around his virtual desktop. His global connection was currently cut, so he figured he would distract himself with a mini-game or some other app that worked offline, but he couldn’t decide which one to launch.

  “Now listen, Haruyuki.” Kuroyukihime turned a faint wry smile toward him over the headrest of the passenger seat. “We still have twenty minutes before the meeting starts. Shihoko’s much calmer than you.”

  “What? No, that’s…I’m actually extremely nervous,” Shihoko Nago responded in a quiet voice from her position in the middle of the back seat to the left of Haruyuki. Maybe because her good friends Satomi Mito and Yume Yuruki weren’t there, or because of the unexpectedly large part she had to play that day, she was indeed speaking less than usual. Or so he felt.

  In the Accelerated World, Shihoko—Chocolat Puppeter—was extremely high-handed, a “spoiled rich girl” sort of avatar, and she had hurled verbal abuse at him the first time they’d met over there. But he had to say the real Shihoko was much more reserved, and he wasn’t quite comfortable with her yet. When he thought about it, though, they’d only come face-to-face on this side a mere five days ago.

  When Shihoko, Satomi, and Yume had come to the student council office at Umesato, they’d all seemed fairly nervous, but when Shihoko, the smallest of them, gave her name as Chocolat Puppeter, he’d cried out in surprise. Thinking about it now, however, when Shihoko and her friends had learned that inside the sharp and sleek Silver Crow sat the round and jiggly Haruyuki Arita, they must have been thinking “What?!” and “Get out!”

  He really owed a serious debt of gratitude to the members of Nega Nebulus, who had never looked down on him after learning who he was in the real—in fact, they often hung out with him in the real world, both around town and at his house.

  As if picking up on his self-torturing thoughts, Chiyuri Kurashima laughed from the other side of Shihoko. “It’s no wonder Haru’s nervous, Kuroyuki! He’s surrounded by four hot girls.”

  “Mmm. I see.” Kuroyukihime nodded. “There is that, isn’t there? Haruyuki, you may be as anxious as you wish.”

  Just when he was wondering how he was supposed to react to that, Fuko Kurasaki giggled in the driver’s seat.

  “Perhaps we should’ve come dressed a little more summery for Corvus’s sake,” she said, clearly with a hint of sarcasm, because her thin knit top, with its wide neckline, and her tulle miniskirt were plenty summery already.

  “Whoa, whoa, Fuko. Any more summery, and you’ll be a public menace.”

  “Goodness. Isn’t it the duty of the Legion Master and Submaster to raise morale of the Legion members? I think you could stand to show a little more skin yourself, Sacchi.”

  “A-as if we have such an obligation!”

  As Haruyuki listened to them, he felt compelled to sneak a peek, but sitting behind the driver’s seat as he was, he could only see their shoulders and up. According to his predeparture memories, Kuroyukihime had been wearing a chiffon tunic with knee-length leggings, so by Haruyuki’s standards, she was probably showing enough skin…

  “Sorry for not wearing anything you can get excited about, Haruuuu,” Chiyuri teased, in a singsong voice. But she was also looking quite ready for summer in a lime-green T-shirt with white jean shorts. After all this time, however, his childhood friend showing a little leg wasn’t going to send his thoughts hurtling off any cliffs, not when he’d known her as long as he could remember. Or at least, it shouldn’t have.

  If he reacted in any way now, he would only unlock further rounds of teasing, so Haruyuki fixed his eyes on the seat back in front of him. “Keep it together, keep it together,” he told himself quietly.

  “Um. I do apologize for coming dressed like this.”

  With Shihoko joining in, his eyes drifted up once more. Her “like this” was a
short-sleeved gray blouse with a wide Puritan collar and a white pleated skirt—her school uniform.

  “Oh, you totally don’t have to apologize, Choco. I mean, I’m in uniform, too,” he replied, wondering why he was the focus of attention here.

  Shihoko cocked her head slightly to one side. “I know I didn’t have time to change clothes, but why are you in uniform, Corvus?”

  “Huh? Um. I have club stuff at school after this.”

  “Even though it’s the first day of summer vacation? What club are you in?”

  “The Animal Care Club. We have an owl. We can’t exactly take a day off from feeding him,” Haruyuki explained, and Shihoko’s eyes grew wide.

  “Wow! What kind of owl?”

  “It’s a species called a northern white-faced owl.” He moved a finger and selected a number of pictures of Hoo from the image folder of his Neurolinker before sliding them to his left.

  “Oh!” Shihoko squealed in delight as soon as she saw the pictures that had been sent to her own desktop. “He’s so cute! His orange eyes are super pretty. Wait. This is at Umesato, right? Why is Utai in the pictures?”

  “Haru’s the president of the Animal Care Club, but Ui’s the super president!” Chiyuri interjected.

  “Th-the super president…?” Shihoko had a question mark sprouting above her head.

  Haruyuki explained how the Umesato club had been established to take Hoo in after the Animal Care Club at the private Matsunogi Academy, which was owned by the same company as Umesato, had been eliminated and the owl had been left with nowhere to go. How Hoo had been abused by his previous owner, and after being found in critical condition and cared for by Utai Shinomiya, he would only eat food she gave him. And thus Utai had become a member of the Umesato Animal Care Club and came to feed him every day once school was over.

  “Huh. I had no idea.” Shihoko looked at the photos of Hoo and Utai again, and then said, as if she’d only just noticed something, “Uh. But then, does that mean that when you first met Utai, you didn’t know she was a Burst Linker and one of Nega Nebulus’s Four Elements on top of that?”

  “Y-yeah.” Haruyuki nodded. “And Utai Shinomiya didn’t know I was a Burst Linker, either. Or that I was Kuroyukihime’s child.”

  Shihoko laughed. “So then you must have both been surprised when you found out who you were.”

  “Yeah, well, mainly me, though…” Haruyuki trailed off.

  “So, like, I just thought of this,” Chiyuri interjected. “But why didn’t you just say something to Haru and Ui, Kuroyuki? I mean, you’re the one who started the Animal Care Club, right? After Ui asked you, I mean.”

  “Hey, whoa.” Kuroyukihime whirled around in the passenger seat. “I simply got the ball rolling at the school. And I never dreamed that Haruyuki would draw the winning number in the Animal Care Club lottery.”

  “Ohh, right,” Chiyuri replied. “And I’m pretty sure it wasn’t because of the lottery that Haru ended up in the club. He actually put himself forward as a candidate, right? And by mistake on top—”

  Haruyuki coughed deliberately to cut off his childhood friend. Her memory was indeed correct. He’d spaced out in class and missed whatever their teacher had said. So when his name was called, he reflexively stood up and ended up being the nominee for the Animal Care Club, without having the first clue about what was going on. That was the honest truth of the matter.

  But the reason he’d spaced out in the first place was because he’d been mentally replaying the conversation he’d had the day before with Niko—Yuniko Kozuki—in his living room.

  The instant his thoughts reached this point today, Niko’s hoarse voice came back to life in his ears:

  “Now look, big brother Haruyuki. If one of us—or maybe both—loses Brain Burst, we’ll probably forget it all, everything we know about each other, you know?

  “So let’s promise. That when we find a name we don’t know in the address book of our Neurolinkers, before we erase the data, we’ll send one mail. And then maybe, one more time…”

  At the time, Niko had been overwhelmed by the other Seven Kings of Pure Color at their eponymous meeting and afraid of total point loss. But she’d faced that fear and overcome it to continue protecting what needed protecting. Indeed, at that very moment, Niko was on standby with Blood Leopard not so far away from Haruyuki and his friends in order to go up against the most powerful presence in the Accelerated World, the bringers of far too much chaos and tragedy.

  “Hey, Corvus?” Shihoko asked.

  “Oh…” Haruyuki came back to himself and blinked a few times. “Wh-what?”

  “Once the meeting’s over, is it okay if I stop by Umesato, too? Can I watch the owl being fed?”

  “Yeah, sure. Of course,” he agreed immediately. When Hoo first came to Umesato, he’d been on guard with anyone who wasn’t Utai, but lately, he’d gotten comfortable enough that he would even eat his dinner from Haruyuki’s hand, so he probably wouldn’t get anxious if Shihoko were there.

  “Yay!” A smile blossomed on her face, though Chiyuri’s eyes narrowed dangerously for some reason.

  “Oh goodness, Corvus,” Fuko said from the driver’s seat, her tone light. “Exactly when did you become able to respond to a lady’s request so boldly, I wonder.”

  “Nngh?! N-no, I’m not b-b-b-bold or anything…”

  “My! I was complimenting you, though? As your master, I was simply pleased at the growth of my student.”

  And yet, on the face in the rearview mirror, was the vacuum-shattering Raker Smile—combined with the ultimate chill of the Kuroyukihime Smile from the passenger seat.

  “Um, if you’d like, Master…a-and Kuroyukihime,” Haruyuki squeaked, shrinking far into himself, “why don’t we all go together?”

  Kuroyukihime turned her face away. “Unfortunately, we’re in street clothes, so we can’t enter school grounds.”

  “Aah! You’re not gonna invite me?!” Chiyuri, meanwhile, puffed her cheeks out.

  “Y-you have a very important job after this, though!” he protested.

  “I knooooow, but the process of inviting and refusing is important!” Chiyuri wailed.

  Shihoko laughed happily, and he couldn’t see any sign of the earlier tension on her face.

  If my sacrifice allows Choco to relax, then I guess this is okay… Haruyuki mumbled and grumbled in the back of his mind as he looked up at the blue sky out the window.

  Sunday, July 21, 2047. In the early afternoon of the second day of summer break, the five of them had set out from Suginami Area in a yellow hatchback driven by Fuko and moved over to Chiyoda Area. Their goal was, of course, to attend the fourth meeting of the Seven Kings that was to take place at one PM.

  At the last meeting of the Seven Kings exactly two weeks earlier, Nega Nebulus, the Black Legion, had proposed to the other six Legions a large-scale mission: That the seven great Legions would immediately muster their forces and attack when the Acceleration Research Society’s home area became clear. And if a Legion did not take part in the mission, they would be deemed to be conspiring with the Society and become a target for attack.

  The Yellow King, Yellow Radio, had dithered and butted in, but the proposal had been adopted with the backing of the Blue King, Blue Knight.

  At that point in time, Haruyuki and his friends had already confirmed that the White Legion, Oscillatory Universe, was the parent organization for the Acceleration Research Society. But they couldn’t get the kings to move with no evidence on the basis of their conviction alone. They needed to get ahold of some incontrovertible proof, but that was no easy feat.

  In the end, Nega Nebulus put together a complicated mission across three stages. First, they would negotiate with Great Wall, the Green Legion, to have them agree to temporarily cede the areas of Shibuya No. 1 and No. 2. Next, immediately before the Territories on Saturday evening, the transfer of the two areas would be executed, and Nega Nebulus would attack and usurp Minato Area No. 3, the site of the White Legion
base. Finally, they would have Blue Legion observers check the matching list for Minato Area No. 3 once the White Legion had lost the right to refuse challengers. If members of the Acceleration Research Society appeared on the list, it would prove they were members of the White Legion.

  To be honest, this was still not actually incontrovertible evidence. At the end of the day, they would be forced to rely on nothing more than the testimony of these observers; they wouldn’t be able to show any sort of physical proof in a form that would shut the mouth of even the Yellow King.

  Still, they didn’t have any other options. So Haruyuki and his comrades cleared one hurdle after the other, merging with the Red Legion Prominence in order to increase their battle strength, until finally, just yesterday on July 20, they carried out the final stage of their strategy.

  However.

  Somehow, although the Territories attack should have been a total surprise, the White King had guessed that they were coming. A mysterious Burst Linker, Orchid Oracle, had appeared out of the blue in the Territories field and transformed it into the Unlimited Neutral Field with her Incarnate technique. The seventeen members of the Nega Nebulus attacking team had very nearly been annihilated by the combined Incarnate attacks of Snow Fairy, the second seat of the Seven Dwarves (the White Legion’s executive branch) and Glacier Behemoth, the seventh seat.

  Having very narrowly escaped the Unlimited EK trap, Haruyuki and Chiyuri had joined up with Trilead Tetroxide, who had dived from a separate location as their eighteenth member, and together, the three of them had crushed the first form of the Archangel Metatron in the Contrary Cathedral, the Shiba Park Underground Labyrinth, which was just barely part of the range of Oracle’s Incarnate technique. En route back to the main battlefield with Metatron’s newly freed true form, Haruyuki had spotted Orchid Oracle curled up on the top floor of a small tower and attempted to defeat her and her guard Rose Milady, the third seat of the Seven Dwarves.

  But he hadn’t been able to do it, because he had learned that Oracle was actually the Umesato Junior High student council secretary and Kuroyukihime’s best friend, Megumi Wakamiya.