Resolution

My duel with White Cosmos had come to an end, with a few minutes left on the clock. We stood about the same in terms of health- as close to zero as is possible- but she was out of special attack points, while I had her in my embrace. As this was a battle between two Level 9 players, it would also be the loser's last battle. The only thing that held me back from ending her the same way she tricked me into ending Red Rider was the knowledge that when I did so, she wouldn't be able to remember it.

I only hesitated a moment, but it was long enough for my enemy to make one plea for her life.

"Wait, sister! I give up!" my enemy cried out frantically. "Please! Spare me!"

I could hardly believe what I was hearing; I wonder what sort of expression I made in the real world when I heard this. Some of my enemies pleaded for mercy before their defeats, like Noumi had before my close friend, Haruyuki-kun, defeated him. Others, like Red Rider, never even saw the attacks that finished them off coming. But I had never expected to hear this from someone who believed so strongly that I could never defeat her, and would always act according to her expectations... unless it was bait for a trap.

"Sister, you say?" I said incredulously. "You expect me to be swayed by that now, after everything that's happened?"

"I hope you are," she said, somewhat hesitantly. "Our parents were quite upset by what happened. Even now, they're still thinking about you, hoping that you'll make amends with us and come home."

"That hardly seems likely," I said. "Last year, I was hit by a car and nearly killed, while protecting a boy who's ten times the Burst Linker and the person you will ever be. Neither you nor our parents showed up while I was in the hospital."

I wasn't initially able to see visitors in the hospital, but when I was transferred to the general ward, quite a few people stopped by. Arita Haruyuki-kun, desiring to protect me, did not leave the hospital for half a day after I was first admitted. Mayuzumi Takumu-kun, my former enemy and a new member of my Legion, came by on occasion, and his friend and ex-girlfriend, Kurashima Chiyuri-kun evidently asked about my condition from time to time, out of concern and sympathy. One of my closest friends, Wakamiya Megumi came by on an almost daily basis, both as a friend and as a fellow member of the student council. Quite a few of my fans and admirers wished me well. And while Kurasaki Fuuko and I had a falling out at the time, and she believed I would never forgive her, if she had known what had happened, she would have come all the way from Shibuya.

But neither my parents nor my sister had shown up at the hospital. Within a day of the accident, while I was unconscious and in critical condition, one of my family's lawyers stopped by, but I never found out what he wanted. Perhaps it was contingent on my not surviving, but I had hoped my parents were not so indifferent to the fact that I did survive.

I understood that my parents were still angry about what had happened. Upon learning the truth about Red Rider, I had, in a rage, attacked my sister with a box cutter, responding to my mistake by making another one. But I wasn't prepared for what happened next. The way my sister acted, and the way my parents reacted, one would think I had been trying to kill her and had very nearly succeeded. I had been angry back then, but I was also careless, and I knew that the wound I inflicted wasn't that large.

In any case, I had been thrown out of the house. Perhaps they didn't know how to deal with their younger daughter after I attacked their elder daughter; violence between family members is quite serious. But I had hoped that they would have felt something when I was almost killed. I had been all but certain I was going to die when I pushed Haruyuki-kun out of the way, and had no regrets making that choice.

"Yes, we heard about this," she said. "But we weren't sure whether you wanted to see us, given what happened last time. This may be hard to believe, but it's the truth."

I was tempted to point out that I was was willing to hear them out. If things went downhill, I could always ask them to leave, and hit the call button as a last resort. But this was no longer about what I would have done, but what they were doing. My only source on this was a less than trustworthy one; perhaps what she was saying was true, but what reason did I have to accept it?

"Believing what you said, I never gave Red Rider this chance," I said. "His intentions were noble, but now he's gone from Brain Burst Forever, and I can't take back what I did to him. I'll never have the chance to talk with him, gain his forgiveness or become friends with him in the real world, like he'd hoped. Sister or not, my 'parent' or not, what makes you think you deserve more of a chance than he did?"

She paused a moment. Evidently, my point had hit home well enough that she'd risk giving me the second I needed to decapitate her, instead of desperately saying something to stay my hand. This was the first time I had ever pushed her this far into the corner- her belief that she was superior to me in every way was not entirely unfounded, after all- but I suspected that she was desperate.

"Because it's something that you'll never be able to take back, sister," she said. "I may deserve this, but what about you? Is this the resolution to our conflict that you want?"

Suddenly, my mind went back to a conversation I had with Haruyuki-kun, Takumu-kun, and Chiyuri-kun a few days after defeating Dusk Taker.

While sitting on the rooftop, we were discussing Noumi Seiji, who not only had lost his ability to play Brain Burst, but all his memories of it. He only had the vaguest memories of how he'd interacted with Haruyuki-kun and the others through it, and no idea of the nature of their interactions. But Haruyuki-kun and his friends could not forget Noumi's misdeeds so easily, which made interactions with him awkward, to say the least.

"I saw Noumi again at kendo practice lately," Takumu-kun said. "He's taken being dropped from the regulars relatively well, and asked me to help him out."

"So, are you gonna do it, Takkun?" Chiyuri-kun said.

"I gave him some pointers," Takumu-kun said. "All things considered, he did ask nicely, and it's my duty as his senpai. I also have some idea of where he's coming from, even if he doesn't himself."

Haruyuki-kun remained quiet for the entire conversation.

"Is something wrong, Haruyuki-kun?" I said.

"I just thought of something, Senpai," Haruyuki-kun said. "Back when I faced off against Taku, I was considering dropping him to finish him off and end his threat to Senpai forever, but didn't."

"I didn't exactly give you very much reason not to do so back then, Haru," Takumu-kun said.

"Now that I think about it," Haruyuki-kun said, "if I had done that, we wouldn't have been able to work out the issues that led us to this point, and wouldn't have come away understanding each other better. We'd have returned to the point before we entered Brain Burst- and probably stayed there forever, if we didn't end up drifting apart."

Chiyuri-kun sighed.

"I certainly didn't want that," she said. "I sometimes want to go back to happier days- which is where my duel avatar's power comes from- but I realize that there are times when it's better to go forward. That's why I'm glad you and Fuuko-nee-san made up, senpai."

I nodded. Fuuko and I had not parted on the best of terms, in large part because of her obsession with obtaining flight, possibly in part because of how she needed prosthetic legs to even walk. But I learned through Haruyuki-kun that Fuuko had long regretted what she had said and what she had made me do. Not unlike the Prodigal Son in the Bible, all it took was for her to come before me, willing to be friends again, for me to forgive her. But could I say the same for my sister?

Taking a moment to reflect on it, I started to understand why Haruyuki-kun had done what he had done. He'd chosen to trust Takumu-kun, as he once had. Their friendships with each other and Chiyuri-kun had their ups and downs, but ultimately they emerged from that crisis with a stronger bond. They trusted each other more, were more open with each other, and now fought alongside each other in Brain Burst, going up many levels, and helping fight against Noumi and the others from the Acceleration Research Society.

So could I do the same with my sister? It was because I had trusted her that I had made many of the mistake. But it was also because of her that I had gotten involved in Brain Burst in the first place. All of those actions regarding her, for good or for ill, had been choices I had made myself, and now I had one critical decision to make regarding her.

"Very well, sister," I said. "I'm willing to spare you, on a few conditions."

"I'm listening," my sister said, apprehensive but aware that she had no room to negotiate while she remained within my Embrace.

"First, you will tell me everything you know about the Acceleration Research Society while helping us shut it down once and for all," I said. Throughout our various battles, we had eliminated many of the Acceleration Research Society's members and curtailed many of its plans. We had our findings recorded and stored, in case anything happened to us. Perhaps I did not need her help, but I wanted to know whether I could count on her cooperation, so I would first have her corroborate our findings, and then help us find anything we may have missed.

"Agreed," she said, after taking a moment to consider the request.

"Second," I said. "You will accompany me as I work through things with our parents. I want to be there whenever you say anything to them, to avoid a repeat of what happened when you went to them with your injury- your role in exaggerating that will be the first thing that will be discussed."

"That is acceptable, sister," my sister said. "But is this really all you want?"

"Essentially, but I wouldn't take it lightly if I were you, sister," I said. "I am asking a great deal of you, and of myself in trusting you to do all this."

"Then why do so?" my sister said. "It certainly would seem easier to finish me off at this juncture."

My sister had seemingly having accepted my decision, and now was wondering why she had earned my trust. Perhaps she was mistaken if she could call it "trust," but I hoped that if she was not sincere about her repentance, she would have accepted my mercy more easil.

"There are two more reasons," I said. "The first is that a large part of what happened is my responsibility. Perhaps things never would have come to this if not for your machinations, but I cannot deny my own mistakes. You manipulated me to kill Red Rider, but I was the one who did so. You took advantage of your injury to get me thrown out of the house, but I was the one who inflicted that injury in the first place."

"And second?" my sister said.

"The second is that a friend of mine once found himself in the same situation," I said. "Someone he knew since he was a young child betrayed his trust, although he believes that his own behavior led to that situation to some degree. Faced with this situation, he chose to trust his old friend, and the two have rekindled their friendship with him and their mutual friend."

"And do you really see that happening?" my sister said. "With the two of us?" With our parents?"

"I hope it does," I said. "I recall that my friend was uncertain about his choice. But I know that unless I do this, nothing will change."

My sister gave a slight nod, moving as much as I would allow within my embrace.

"I'll do my best, sister," my sister said. "For what little it's worth, you can count on me."

The duel timer then timed out, ending in a draw, at least in one sense. From a gameplay perspective, it was recorded as a draw in our statistics, no Burst Points changed hands, and both of us went on another day. Of course, from our perspective, it was clear who won the duel.

As the duel ended, I couldn't help but feel a lingering sense of doubt regarding whether I had made the right decision. If I'd finished off my sister right then, right there, everything would have been over. But would that have been the right choice?

In sparing my sister and choosing to try to salvage our family's relationship, I chose the long and difficult road toward putting the past to rest, and hoped that she had chosen to do so as well. It was not an easy choice, or one that I thought I would make, but I believed in it, and in the person who had inspired me to do it. Whatever resolution awaited me at the end of this path, this thought gave me the courage and hope to go down it.

Author's Notes

Thank you for reading this fic.

I'm branching out into Accel World fanfiction. So far, I've watched the entire anime, read the manga and some of the light novels, andread some articles on the Accel World wiki.

This is one possible outcome I imagined for Kuroyukihime's inevitable confrontation with her sister, who seems to be the main antagonists. While Kuroyukihime claims that she's unable to fight against White Cosmos, as both her "parent" and her sister, I suspect that the two will face off, likely in the final battle of the series.

I decided to have Black Lotus and White Cosmos refer to each other as "sister", because I'm not sure what sibling terminology the former uses on the latter, and to avoid having the latter use the former's first name.

I also left the ending somewhat ambiguous, to leave you wondering whether it's the right decision.