Accel World: Ties that bind
Disclaimer: I do Not own Accel World
This work is based solely upon the Anime show, as it is the sole source of Knowledge on the subject. This begins at some point within a few days of the end of the second series Finale, with the defeat of Dusk Taker.
Also note: I watched the entire series with the subtitles, and the Japanese names and titles and honorifics are beyond the scope of my understanding (I freely admit I am not so bright) so I will Likely use only the shorthand names.
Chapter 1: Savage Introductions
Snow Black, Vice-President of the Umesato Junior high School student council, beacon of popularity, and envy of all that knew her was happy. A number of months ago, she would not have thought it was possible. If fact, she would not have known she was not happy back then. But so much had changes since she had seen the potential laden within an underclassman in her school. One Arita Haruyuki.
When she had first ... manipulated the poor, shy, bullied, fat little boy into her thrall, she saw him as the perfect tool for her to maneuver to serve her ends. She had of course, been correct. His scores on the School network speed games were phenomenal. She had had to accelerate just to compete with his scores, and edging it out was a close thing at that. She had thought that he might simply be the key to reclaiming her position within the Accelerated World. But his earnest nature and dedication to her had moved her more than she would have thought possible. Working with him, watching over him... worrying about him; in no time at all, she realized that she loved him.
She had not know how much she had needed that until it happened. She had never before that realized that she had not been happy until suddenly now she was, and it was crazy how different things looked from this side. Now, when she smiled at the random people she had to deal with during her day, it was genuine, not simply a practiced mask. When she looked forward to the end day, it was because they would be together. She did not even fear the consequences of the actions that got her hated across Accelerated World. Heck, she even looked forward to her next spat with the angry little Niko, so nice was it to have people she liked, and that really liked her in return.
She smiled to herself as she stood on the corner of a street. She knew from habit now, that any minute, Haru would come dashing around the far corner, late again. They would walk together, and he would apologize to her for her walking with him to school. She would smile the special smile that was just for him, and Chiyu would give her a slightly irritated look as they arrived at school. This last part was of no consequence. It was merely the ghost of the resentment of the suspicion that Chiyu had felt when Snow Black had first started being friendly toward Haru. The mixed feelings of mild jealousy and worry over her friend were buried now, but the ghost still liked to poke it's head about now, even though Snow and Chiyu now considered themselves friendly.
Suddenly, as if a switch had been thrown, time around her seemed to stop. With a sickening swoop in the pit of her stomach, she realized that she had forgot to disable her connection before she left for school. Losing her smile, she took a deep breath and steadied herself as the Brain Burst program activated, and she was loaded onto the contest field. She ran through the possibilities in her mind. She had a lot of enemies, and any number of people in the Accelerated World wanted her head. But of the people who it might be, the only one she knew that knew who she was in the Real World, was Niko, the Red King, and she felt sure that at the very least, when she attacked, there would be more bravado and less chance that Haru would be involved. Admit it or not, the girl was fond of him. So, logically, she should not be expecting a seriously problematic fight, likely just a random person looking to break their teeth on a high class opponent.
She snapped back to Reality as the world took form around her. It was the Post Catastrophe city stage. Up on a crumbling overpass to the left were the normal crowd of observers, looking pleased. One of the female avatars waved to her. She nodded back, and continued to look around. More spectators were dropping in as she looked. She guessed it must have been because it was rare to see Black Lotus in a solo match. She looked up to the health bars at the top of the field, and her suspicion was confirmed. The opponents name was... Slate Mantis. She was aware of most of, if not all of the prominent Burst Linkers active, even though she herself was rarely on the field of battle, but she had never heard of this one. The Blazing word "FIGHT!" floated in front of her, before falling to ash, and her compass appeared, as the timer started to tick down. She glided silently down the street, wondering what to expect. She paused at the intersection, swiveling to face her antagonists, who was just standing down at the far end of the street.
It was certainly odd looking. It had a basically humanoid base structure, all done in sliver for the skeletal structure. Over the calves, thighs, and forearms were bulbous while casings. A sloping, vaguely rectangular block extended from the front of the foot casing, while a smaller one extended from the back. More white metal armory was formed into a vest and loin guard, and shoulder padding extending a short distance out. A segmented silver neck extended up, narrowing slightly where it connected to the heart shaped head, where 2 large, glassy green orbs sat like the true head of a praying mantis, along with a pair of droopy antennae. From the foremost tip of the fore arm bulge armor, long jointed fingers extended, layered with black plate at the joints.
And the final piece of the weird image was the portion that caught her attention the most. For the elbow of the avatar, long, flat blades, easily a meter and a half long, extended outward, the points coming to rest as it stood with fist pointed at the ground about a half meter over it's head.
She took the whole of it in with a glance, and let a small, almost predatory smile play across her lips. She did not consider herself particularly arrogant, but she also did not think that a blade type fighter could match her, especially one with such an awkward positioning of their blades. Suddenly, a window popped up in the corner of her vision.
"R.S. has requested a private chat with you"
She looked at it for a fraction of a second, then selected decline. There was a pause of about 2 seconds, and the request was repeated. Irritated now, she declined again, and swung her sword arms into play. Her opponent still did not move. She moved a step forward. Still nothing. At three more steps, another private chat request hit her, and the mantis cocked its head to the side inquisitively. She answered by again declining, and in an action almost too fast to see, spun backward and aimed a backhanded blow at the opponent's throat. There was a clang, and her blade halted, rather than the slight hesitation followed by the parting of the enemies head. The mantis had brought up its arm fast enough to intercept her attack. With a blast of speed, she shot back out of easy range, while opening up his character sheet. Browsing it with a practiced eye, she her eyes budged slightly.
He was completely unremarkable, save the fact that he was challenging the Black King at level 6. Metal colored, with based on the stats she could access, no real strengths. The wheel of ability showed that he had equal power in unarmed, blade, speed, defense, technique, and agility. She could not know the finer points of his proficiency until he displayed them, but she also was aware that levels were not a fair gauge on player skill.
The blades on the mantis's elbows slid silently forward, transitioning until the entire length was slung underneath the forearms, so that the back of the blade was now resting under the palms of the hands. He braced, and again waited for her to advance. She warily obliged.
Floating in slowly, she closed to about 5 meters, then sped up and delivered another pair of vicious backhands, throwing of sheaves of sparks as the blows were warded off. She continued like this for another 7 attacks, adding one or two more hits each rotation, then breaking contact suddenly in the middle of a flurry.
"I get it now." She shot at him, trying to provoke him into an action other than defensive. "Like your namesake, you must gain a reactive bonus from remaining immobile, giving you an advantage in countering attacks if you remain stationary." She checked the life bars again. She had penetrated his defenses twice, just glancing blows, but she had taken about an eighth of his health down, and left a gash across one leg and the chest. He continued to stare, and simply shook his head once. She scowled. "Then you have a heightened attack score for remaining stationary?" Again he shook his head. "Do you receive any benefit from remaining passive?"
He cocked his head again, then shook it once more. Without a twitch she shot forward, flipping and driving how a blow that forced him back a step, and nicked his health even though it was blocked. She pivoted from that, bring a swipe laterally, and then continued, flowing from blow to blow without a pause, an elegant dance of whirling blades and showers of sparks. Small hits were breaking through his defense, doing little damage, but wearing down the health. She was certain of victory, and continued her assault almost absentmindedly, so able was he to catch her own blows. Then suddenly she met the steel of his blade, and rather than the resistance she was depending on to spring her into the next slash, the blade caught hers like an egg on a plate, the retreated still bearing the pressure of the attack, throwing her off balance and forcing her to recover. With a sickening plunge of the stomach she caught herself just as his elbow flew up and smashed her full in the face, arching her back. He pivoted on a single leg, and she caught a glimpse of the tip of his blade go from a smooth cutting surface and warp into a flat spike for about 10 centimeters before the now curved instrument impacted her stomach armor, buckled it, and drove into her core.
His planted foot gripped the ground, as he forced more power into his spin, lifting her, spitted on the end of his meter long spike, and spinning her around and around, building speed. Then with a squeal of straining metal and the grinding of cracking joints, the spin halted and she was carried by her momentum off the spine and several hundred meters up and into the face of a broken building, crashing through the walls in a explosion of dirt and stone. She bounced and rolled, final coming to a stop as her back impacted into a support pillar.
She felt a little damaged, and checked the health bars again. The Mantis was down to a quarter, and she herself had taken less than a 10th of her total health. In fact, it looked like he had taken more damage from stopping his spin, then she had from the whole attack. There was a noice simlar to a jet fly by, and the mantis suddenly lighted in the gap that she had plowed through, rolling to his feet 15 meters from where she lay. Again, the private chat request popped onto her view. She decided to see what this person was so eager to say to her personally, when he would not speak to her locally. She accepted as she rose, ready to ward off his attack.
"Oh, you accepted! I am so very sorry to have had to engage you like this, Miss Lotus, but I needed to speak to you, and I could not figure out any other way."
"Why did you not say something to me when the match started?" She asked, irritated. His avatar managed to look as embarrassed as his panting voice sounded.
"I mean no disrespect, Miss Lotus, but you have a certain reputation in the Accelerated world, and one in my position cannot afford to appear on any other than antagonistic terms with you." She kept her gaze level. She could understand that.
"That makes a sad kind of sense. Very well, you have my ear, what is it you want?" He again looked extraordinarily embarrassed.
"Again, I have to apologize, but if we delay battle any longer, suspicion may be raised. As I am sure you noticed, the crowd of observers is quite a deal larger than necessary, and contains many members of any of the 6 legions, excluding your own. I have forwarded a file to you with this chat message, containing a network address and access password. If you would please directly connect to this location at around 8 o'clock tonight, I would be most grateful."
Snow Black hesitated. This sounded like a trap. But somehow, she felt certian it was not.
"I make no promises, but I will try. If I do show up, I will be dressed in black, with large butterfly wings." The mantis seemed to visibly shrink with relief, and gave a formal bow.
"Thank you, Ma'am. Now, let us resume the battle." He severed the link and charged.
Those watching the match saw Black Lotus thrown into a building, then the challenger, whom many had never seen before, bounced up after. About 15 seconds later, the clanging of steel blades resumed, and the building began to show marks as silver crescents erupted from various points, and the building shuddered as it took damage. Suddenly those assembled heard a muffled shout, then a flash of purple light. The building shook, dust poured out of the windows as the building collapsed.
"Winner: Black Lotus." Appeared in the normal flaming letters, and the stage began to fade.
Back in the real world, Snow Black immediately killed her connection to the net. Haru rounded the corner ahead of her, and turned red as he saw her. She smiled. She would have to tell him about her strange morning, and see if he would accompany her to the meeting later that night.