The Carbide Wolf

  Copyright

  ACCEL WORLD, Volume 11

  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

  © REKI KAWAHARA 2012

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by ASCII MEDIA WORKS

  First published in 2012 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

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

  English translation © 2017 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.

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  First Yen On eBook Edition: December 2017

  Originally published in paperback in September 2017 by Yen On.

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  ISBN: 978-1-9753-0092-0

  E3-20171117-JV-PC

  When he passed through the automatic doors of the supermarket, a small progress bar appeared in the bottom of his field of view.

  The design was simple. A black butterfly at the tip of the bar slowly advanced from left to right, and as the processing rate approached 100 percent, the wings started to tremble. In a mere three seconds or so, the task was complete, the bar disappeared, and the butterfly flew away without a sound. Reflexively, he reached out for it, but the butterfly slipped easily through his fingers. It danced up to the ceiling of the supermarket, exactly like a real butterfly, and then melted into the air.

  “As always, Sacchi fixates on the strangest details in the apps she makes, hmm?” The voice came from his right, and he turned his gaze in that direction.

  Standing there was a girl wearing her school uniform: a short-sleeved shirt and pleated skirt. The slight breeze of the air conditioning set her long, soft, chestnut hair swaying, and the over-the-knee socks encasing her long, slender legs were a cool light blue. She held a large tote bag in her left hand. The faint smile never left her gentle features, but the meaning behind it changed fluidly depending on the situation. If necessary, it could even become a dispassionate face of anger that was ten times scarier. However, currently present on her face was nothing more than a faint wryness in that smile, topped generously with affection for “Sacchi.”

  Indicating that he felt exactly the same way via a large grin, Haruyuki Arita answered Fuko Kurasaki: “That butterfly’s in all of Kuroyukihime’s apps, but when it flies off once it’s loaded, you can catch it—if you grab it ultra-fast, with max gentleness.”

  “What happens when you catch it?”

  “You get a point for every butterfly.”

  Fuko cocked her head even farther to one side. “What happens when you get points?”

  “Apparently, something happens when you get to a thousand. But what that is exactly is a secret.”

  “She really focuses on the details, hmm?” Fuko murmured seriously, a look of real exasperation coming onto her face this time, before she clapped her hands together. “Well then, shall we finish the shopping, Corvus? Children with hungry tummies are waiting upstairs.”

  “R-right!” Nodding, Haruyuki raised a finger on his right hand and touched the EXECUTE button that was floating where the progress bar had been. Displayed on the right side of his virtual desktop were a ground plan for the supermarket on the first basement floor and a shopping list with ten or so lines on it.

  A thin line on the map indicated their route, and blinking dots marked the shelves they would visit, so following this, they headed first in the direction of the fresh-fish area. When they approached a particular shelf, the first line of the list to the right side of the map was highlighted. Written there was “5 potatoes (May Queen) ¥198,” and indeed, there was a pile of them on the shelf before his eyes. He picked up a bag, and after checking that the potatoes didn’t have eyes or cuts, he pressed the BUY button displayed in his field of view.

  He heard a ching as 198 yen was taken from the e-money loaded on his Neurolinker. Fuko stretched out the tote bag toward him, opening it wide as she did, so he put the potatoes in it, and the first line of the shopping list was grayed out.

  That was when Haruyuki finally noticed: “Oh! I—I can carry that!” he said hurriedly.

  “Oh my, could you? Then I’ll do the shopping.”

  He took the bag from Fuko, now five hundred grams heavier, and switched places with her before heading to the next point displayed on the map. On the second line of the list was the row of text listing “2 onions, ¥98.”

  The shopping list linked with the store map was the app Shopping Optimizer Ver. 2.0, which Kuroyukihime had made. It connected with the store’s local net, obtained information about the location and price of the products you wanted to buy, and displayed this on the map. Of course, it wasn’t limited just to supermarkets; it allowed the shopper to find a product without randomly wandering through vast, densely packed displays in places such as hardware stores and drugstores.

  Store local nets were also equipped with a function to search display location, but almost none of them could connect with a shopping list app, because if they provided that service, customers would quickly sweep through and buy only the things they had already planned to buy and wouldn’t pick up extra items as they wandered around the store. What was incredible about Kuroyukihime’s shopping app was that it could easily link with data that the store local net should have refused to supply, but he was too scared to ask for the details of how that worked.

  Having been assigned to the shopping squad after drawing lots, Fuko and Haruyuki moved swiftly through the crowded evening supermarket following the app’s guidance and bought all eleven items on the list, right down to the last line of “Transcendent Curry Sauce/Mild ¥278,” in approximately four minutes. Since they had paid via the local net, they passed the register bank’s long lines and walked out of the store.

  “This is the first time I’ve used this shopping app,” Fuko said as they headed down the central passage of the shopping mall toward the elevators, with wryness in her smile again. “But the design very much reflects Sacchi and her impatient ways.”

  “Oh. Ha-ha-ha! Apparently, starting in version three, you’ll also be able to pay automatically, too.”

  Fuko rolled her eyes. “So then you’d be able to toss items into your bag as you ran through the store and just leave, I suppose? I’d bet ten burst points the guard at the exit would stop you.”

  “I—I guess so.” He paled slightly as he ran for the door to the residential-wing elevator that had just opened, remembering that Kuroyukihime had asked him to help with the movement test for the next upgrade.

  1

  Monday, June 24, 2047, 6:30 PM.

  In the liv
ing room of the Arita household—on the twenty-third floor of B wing, in the mixed-use high-rise condo in northern Koenji, Suginami Ward—the full lineup of friends more important to Haruyuki than anyone else was present: the members of Nega Nebulus.

  At the end of the six-person dining table was their master, Kuroyukihime. Sitting alongside each other, on the two chairs closest to the kitchen, were staff officer Takumu Mayuzumi and mood maker Chiyuri Kurashima. On the balcony side were Legion conscience and mascot Utai Shinomiya, as well as its (unintentional) troublemaker, Haruyuki. And directly opposite Kuroyukihime was Legion deputy Fuko Kurasaki.

  Since they had met Utai, their sixth member, on the Monday exactly a week earlier, this had somehow become the standard seating plan. However, this day, they had set up extra chairs next to Kuroyukihime and Fuko. There were eight round plates on the table, rather than six.

  The sweet smell of freshly cooked rice wafted up from the rice cooker, which had dropped into warming mode earlier, and an almost violently spicy scent drifted over from the large pot on the cooktop. Tortured looks rose up not just on Haruyuki’s face, but on those of the other five as well, and the conversation had stopped at some point.

  “…I…can’t…anymore…,” he muttered, shaking his head.

  Next to him, Utai weakly moved all ten fingers. UI> IT’S ABOUT PATIENCE, C. THIS IS ALSO PRACTICE TO TRAIN OUR MENTAL POWR. Her expression was resolute, but the extremely rare typo showed that she too was reaching her limit.

  In front of him, Chiyuri was glaring at the white plate, and Takumu was intently wiping the lenses of his glasses. The terror level of the faint smile on Fuko’s mouth was steadily increasing, while Kuroyukihime was very master-like, sitting motionless with her eyes closed.

  “…They’re late!!” she shouted without provocation, banging lightly on the table. “They are three minutes and thirty seconds late! In the Accelerated World, that’s fifty-eight hours!”

  “More precisely, that’s fifty-seven hours and twenty minutes,” Fuko added, grinning.

  Haruyuki could almost see the flames rising up behind them, and he jumped in with his usual inertia. “W-well, you know, Kuroyukihime, Master, I—I mean, they say curry gets more delicious the longer you let it sit, right?”

  “Oh? Then perhaps we’ll leave yours to sit for a good while…Three days or so?”

  “We did go to all this trouble. Let’s go for the limit and let it rest for a whole week.”

  “N-no! That’s going beyond a different limit!” Haruyuki frantically waved his hands.

  In that moment, the sound they’d all been waiting for echoed in their ears. Ding-dong! Before the doorbell had even stopped ringing, Haruyuki’s right hand flashed like lightning to press the UNLOCK button in the window that displayed his guests.

  “W-welcome! I’ll come meet you at the elevators, so please—come up to the twenty-third floor!” He almost fell out of his seat in his mad dash toward the door, as the other five stood up behind him.

  Kuroyukihime waved her right hand and shot off a rapid series of instructions. “Chiyuri, dish out the rice! Takumu and Fuko, get the salad from the fridge! Uiui, you reheat the curry! Leave the barley tea to me!”

  The first thing his visitor said, as Haruyuki guided her into the living room, was, “Ooh! It smells good! I’m starving!”

  She turned an innocent smile up at Haruyuki, who could barely move for how he and his guest were being showered in the unified murderous glare of the entirety of Nega Nebulus.

  “Where should I sit, Big Brother?” she asked.

  Haruyuki hurriedly pushed her red-T-shirted shoulders and led his guest to the chair beside Kuroyukihime. This arrangement made him slightly nervous, but given that the dining table’s center seat was seen as the position of honor, they couldn’t exactly seat her anywhere else, because the little girl with the red pigtails jumping up onto the chair was of exactly the same rank as Kuroyukihime. She was the Red King, leader of the Legion Prominence—the Immobile Fortress, Scarlet Rain, aka Yuniko Kozuki, in the flesh.

  Niko sat neatly beside Kuroyukihime without a fuss, and Haruyuki breathed a momentary sigh of relief. But then their second guest of the evening appeared in the doorway of the living room, without a sound. She had been a few seconds behind Niko because she had to take off her sturdy motorcycle boots in the entryway. She still had long black leather gloves on her hands, which strangely complemented her short-sleeved, sailor-style school uniform. She brushed back the braid hanging over her shoulder.

  “Sorry. Kannana accident traffic jam dodge,” she explained in a fairly husky voice. It was, of course, the deputy of Prominence, Blood Leopard—“Pard” for short—giving voice to this barest minimum of information.

  Haruyuki went to lead her to her seat, but before he could walk over, Fuko, who was closest, stood up.

  “Well, that was very nice work. It would have been such a bother if you got caught up in that, Leopard,” she said in a gentle tone as she moved to stand in front of Pard.

  “Accident traffic jam dodge” happened when a vehicle’s control AI applied the emergency brakes because it seemed like the automobile was about to have an accident, and it simultaneously sent out a warning signal to the vehicles around it. When the road was crowded, the warning propagated in a chain reaction to avoid a series of connected collisions, and cars were stopped over a fairly wide range or else forced into slow-driving mode.

  And just like that, even in the setting of the Arita living room, invisible sparks shot outward, emitted by the two girls facing each other, bringing Haruyuki to an immediate stop. He swallowed hard as he belatedly connected the dots.

  Until the fall of the first Nega Nebulus, Pard, also known as Bloody Kitty, and “Strong Arm” Sky Raker, aka Fuko Kurasaki, had each recognized the other as their greatest rival. He had heard all that before, but apparently the fact that Pard was still sitting at level six, despite being a fairly old veteran, had some deep connection to Raker’s semiretirement.

  “…Hi, Raker.” From the brief greeting Pard offered as she pulled off her gloves, he couldn’t tell if the two of them had met before in the real, or if this was actually their first time.

  At the very least, they had been reunited in the final stages of the Hermes’ Cord race three weeks earlier, and they had to have spoken then as well. But when he thought about it, that had been a multi-team event, so they still hadn’t had a direct duel since Raker’s return.

  …Wh-what if they suddenly start a duel here? Unconsciously, Haruyuki clenched sweaty hands.

  But Niko, behind him, cut cleanly through the tension in a voice with angel mode disengaged. “Enough with the standoff. Let’s eat already! I can’t wait any longer!”

  “…You were the ones who kept us waiting, Red King,” Kuroyukihime responded.

  Fuko took this opportunity to step back and urge Pard to take a seat at the table. The two rivals sat down together, and when Haruyuki had hurried back over to his own seat, Kuroyukihime opened her mouth once more.

  “Now then, let’s eat. We’ll talk after that.”

  “Let’s eat!” the other seven chorused in unison, picking up their spoons and digging into their respective plates of curry at once.

  Why had the six members of Nega Nebulus made curry and invited the top two members of Prominence to dine with them? The reason went back to the meeting of the Seven Kings held the previous day, Sunday, June 23.

  Chewing on a potato wedge he had selected and peeled, Haruyuki scrolled back twelve hours in his memory, to the moment of judgment when a single wrong move could have ended up with him being given the death penalty by the Kings of Pure Color…

  2

  Flanked by two beautiful women. Haruyuki wondered if he could actually say that in his current situation.

  His duel avatar, Silver Crow, had been made to stand alone atop a raised circular stage, tiers of stairs leading up to it, while two imposingly beautiful female-type avatars stood sharply at attention to either side, one ste
p lower. Unfortunately, however, rather than Crow’s guards or attendants, they were there in the role of police officers monitoring a criminal.

  “…Um, were you initially equipped with those blades? Or did you find them somewhere?” he asked Cobalt Blade quietly, unable to stand the tension. She was the senior executive of the Leonids, standing to his right.

  “The swords are our souls,” the female warrior replied in a whisper that sounded slightly indignant, indigo-blue armor clanking as she looked at Haruyuki. “Of course they were initial equipment!”

  And then from the left, Manganese Blade—looking almost like Cobalt Blade’s twin, her armor having only slightly more green to it—said, “I can’t allow that ‘find them’ to pass. I’ll strike you down for your insolence!”

  Trembling, he hurried to make his excuses. “Th-th-that’s not it. It’s just, I saw a sword that looked a lot like yours in the Unlimited Neutral Field earlier, so I just thought…”

  The two warriors looked at each other and then whispered in perfect unison, “Where in the Unlimited Neutral Field did you see it?”

  “Uh, um, it was…” Naturally, Haruyuki’s recollection was of the straight sword carried by the mysterious blue avatar he had met in the absolutely impenetrable castle towering over the very center of the Unlimited Neutral Field. Its inscription: “The Infinity.” The fifth star of the Seven Arcs, the group of the most powerful Enhanced Armament in the Accelerated World.

  He couldn’t exactly leak such classified information to the executive of an enemy Legion so readily, so Haruyuki brought the index fingers of both hands together to make an X. “Uh, heh-heh,” he chuckled nervously. “That’s a secret.”

  Instantly, the eyes of both Cobalt and Manganese flashed, and their hands grabbed hold of the swords plunged into the earth before them like staffs.

  But fortunately, a clear voice rang out then, a lazy tone, but still full of a fierce dignity. “Come, come, Cobal, Maga. Don’t send him out of here before the investigation’s finished.”