"You fought well," Black Lotus amicably smiled at her defeated opponent. But remember: you have to learn to control those jumps better.
"Thank you. It was an honor fighting the Black King."
As the viewers dispersed, Kuroyukihime became aware of a presence that made her blood boil. Haru and his friends were out on a mission and most of her soldiers had already left.
She wondered whether she had walked into a trap, but decided to wait things out.
"An honor!" She heard from where she had sensed her sister's presence.
"That certainly isn't what you would have heard anyone say a few years ago," The girl giggled.
"And who was to blame for that?"
Black Lotus turned to face her opponent. To her surprise that opponent was in her duel avatar. She doubted her sister would just challenge her out of the blue. Something told her this had more to do with the threat the Black Legion had become.
"Didn't you feel that blame laid with you?"
"I think we share the blame for what happened. I shouldn't have done what I did back then. But I would have acted very differently, in any case, had you never lied to me."
"It's natural for you to feel that way. Still... I had to get rid of you one way or another. I had hoped the Kings would have finished you there and then, but you proved very resilient."
"I'll take that as a compliment. Since imagined kindness is the only sort I will ever receive from you."
Shiroyukihime looked around, careful not to let Black Lotus out of her field of vision.
"Here is another compliment: I didn't expect you to talk to me with such presence of mind. I am glad."
"That is hardly a compliment. It sounds more like you still enjoy using my anger over what you did to me as a weapon to rile me up."
"It is intended as a compliment, however. It is also a reproach to myself...
I want to meet in real life," White Cosmos suddenly added.
"What?! Why?" Kuroyukihime frowned suspiciously.
"I don't want to waste time explaining. I don't want us to stand around here for too long."
"Fine. When and where do you want to meet?"
"I want to meet you now. I am standing at the door to your apartment."
It was late at night and Kuroyukihime could have expected anything from her sister. But Shiroyukihime's behavior told her that she really would be alone.
As she opened the door to her enemy, she needed a moment to recuperate in order to recover from the shock of seeing the sister she had once loved so much and then hated so much standing face to face with her after all that time.
Shiroyukihime herself stood still as a statue until gradually a smile formed on her lips.
"You really do look great in black. I am dressed all in white, of course. I intended myself to be one large white flag," She smiled. Though Kuroyukihime noticed a flaw in her sister's studied cheer.
"You can come in."
Shiroyukihime cautiously followed her sister into the sober but stylishly dressed apartment.
With a blank face she watched her sister sit down and when Kuroyukihime stared angrily into her face she turned and looked out of the window.
They stayed like this for a few moments, until the younger sister was fed up and cringed.
"Have you come to kill me with impatience?!"
Shiroyukihime stayed fixed in the direction of the window.
"That is funny. You were the one who tried to kill me."
"I didn't..."
"I would never want to cause you any physical harm. No matter how you frustrate me with your war against us."
"Then what are you here for? Not that I have any reason to believe a word you say."
"Since I was only able to fool you so easily because you wanted to be fooled... " Shiroyukihime smiled at her sister. "it should be easier to see through any lies I might tell you, now you have become more critical of me."
"You say that as if I was at fault for believing you in the first place! You were my sister! The person I loved most in the world!"
Shiroyukihime looked at the window without the slightest hint of emotion on her face.
"I had never had the slightest reason to suspect this kind of behavior from you! Don't try to blame me for being easily led! Don't try to blame me for having trusted you too easily or for having loved you too much! It's you who were entirely to blame for betraying the person who loved you the most! "
Kuroyukihime caught her breath while her sister turned so her face was entirely hidden from view.
"I am not here to reminisce. I am here to make it clear to you that you can never win. Up until now, you have had several in your eyes major victories. And they are indeed major inasmuch as we never expected you to accomplish them. But what you have gained were things that to us were calculated losses."
Shiroyukihime turned around to face her sister. A cold smile on her face.
"Stand in the way of our goals and we will crush you. You will find that your army doesn't stand a chance against us if you continue to threaten what we are trying to accomplish. Pursue us any further and you will cause much more harm than you think you will prevent."
The sisters unflinchingly stared at each other. A determined look on each face.
"What is it you want to accomplish? To reign over Accel World trough fear?"
Shiroyukihime mockingly snickered at her sister.
"How you enjoy to see me as a villain! You don't have a clue about the evil we are struggling against."
"What reason do I have to see you as anything but a villain?!
Are you entirely blind to the suffering you have caused?!
Do you care at all?!"
The blonde girl again turned her back on her sister.
"Of course we see the suffering our methods cause, but we are aiming to prevent much worse.
It is useless to try and make you understand any of this," Shiroyukihime continued in a harsher tone.
"Just realize that you don't stand a chance and give up your pointless struggle against us!"
"If your goals are so noble then at least try to explain them to us! At least have the courage to try and confide in us! We may not agree with your methods, but if you can be persuaded to rëevaluate them and your goals really are as noble as you claim, we will stand with you!"
Kuroyukihime noticed a slight tremor going through the body of the girl in front of her.
At last her sister uttered a forced giggle.
"Do you really think I would have done what I did to you if I expected there to be any chance that you would stand with me? If you would find out what my goal is you would be my worst enemy!"
"I am already your worst enemy because you refused to be honest with me! What could possibly be so divisive between us that you would make me hate you rather than take the chance to tell me about it!"
"Enough! I told you to stop getting in our way! You have no chance of stopping us!"
"If I have to I will personally take you out!"
Again Kuroyukihime's sister laughed.
"I warn you Kuroyukihime! You have no idea how powerful I have become while you spent your life isolated from the rest of Accel World! I do not want to fight you if I don't have to!"
Shiroyukihime never expected her sister to be able to make things so difficult for her. She never expected her to break through her calm like that.
Suddenly the girl sitting on the sofa heard a quiet whisper she couldn't understand.
"I don't want to do this anymore."
Kuroyukihime frowned at the strange shudder going through her sister's body.
She sat up as she saw Shiroyukihime put her hands to her face, emit a shrill laughter and bend over.
After the blonde girl straightened herself again, still with her back to her sister, she turned and started to move towards the door.
"I will go home now. Remember my warning Kuroyukihime! End this war and stay out of my way!"
Fast as lightning, the black haired girl grabbed her sister's wrist.
Before she knew what was happening Shiroyukihime found herself on the large sofa.
Kuroyukihime felt an all-consuming anger flare up inside herself as she saw the remains of tears in her sister's eyes.
"What is this nonsense?! First, you come over here with your usual attempts at supercilious intimidation and when you realize it doesn't work you pretend to cry?!"
Shiroyukihime grew suddenly frightened under the anger of her younger sister and attempted to leave again.
"You are imagining things," She smiled."I haven't been crying at all."
Kuroyukihime couldn't restrain herself anymore and pushed her sister down on the bed.
"What are you doing?! Let me go!"
The blonde girl considered using any of the powers Brain Burst might give her to gain an edge on her assailant in the real world, but she knew all of those techniques were equally available to her sister.
As the older girl struggled to get out from under her, Kuroyukihime fiercely pinned her down.
This might be the one thing she had her sister beat in. They might be equal in many things and Shiroyukihime might be superior in some, including Brain Burst perhaps, but Kuroyukihime had always been the more athletic of them.
"How dare you continue to use my feelings for you as a weapon against me?!"
Tears started to spill from her eyes.
"How dare you make me love you like that and tear yourself away from me?!"
"What are you talking about?!" Shiroyukihime's eyes started to fill up.
"You are mad! Let me go or I will challenge you now and end our conflict at once!"
"I dare you!" The younger sister seethed. "I dare you!
Her sister had always ruled her world. She had always been there to teach her all the things she had done first. To introduce her to new games. To be a model for her. But now for the first time in her life, Kuroyukihime had her sister completely at her mercy. She could inflict anything on Shiroyukihime's beautiful and fragile body. That body with the elegance and grace of a butterfly. That beauty that Kuroyukihime had always tried to emulate in her own way was now completely her property.
Shiroyukihime could not escape from her here. She could not tear herself away. The sister that she had loved so much and hated so much was helplessly at her mercy now.
"You may be able to beat me in Accel World and you may have me in your power through your control over our parents. But in here, I can do anything I want to you." The black haired girl whispered to her sister.
It was strange. Kuroyukihime had never seen her older sister so frightened as after she uttered those words. But after Shiroyukihime had struggled so fiercely she was now completely still. She didn't know if that was because of her words or the look in her eyes, but Kuroyukihime couldn't stop staring into the eyes of the girl that lay so still and trembling underneath her.
As her sister's face came closer, Shiroyukihime swallowed and closed her eyes.
She felt hungry lips steal her breath and shuddered involuntarily at her sisters' passion.
Kuroyukihime marveled at the softness and the whiteness of the skin she caressed. It felt like her sister was made of tissue paper.
She wanted to feel that softness all over her body.
She started to undress herself and her unresisting sister and kissed Shiroyukihime's gasping lips every time their bodies touched.
For the first time since her sister had started to kiss her, Shiroyukihime opened her eyes.
She didn't remember Kuroyukihime was so beautiful.
Her soft black hair enveloped her like a silk sheet.
Her gentle, noble features smiled at her in pure bliss.
The blonde felt new tears form in her eyes as she realized how happy her sister was to hold her like this, to love her like this.
She wanted them to Burst Link together and make this moment last forever.
But Accel World could only demean this sacred moment they shared after all the pain it had caused them.
All the pain it had made her cause Kuroyukihime.
Shiroyukihime flinched as she felt her sister gently kiss her weeping eyes.
"You are mine tonight. I am going to cause you as much happiness and as much pain as you have given me."
The pressure of her sister's breast on her own was lifted and Shiroyukihime became aware of the other girl's fingers reaching inside of her.
Kuroyukihime looked deep into her eyes and made her feel exactly what she had meant by her words. The blonde felt happy. Happy that they were finally reunited. Happy that they were closer than ever before.
"I want my sister back," Kuroyukihime sighed as she kissed her sister again.
Again and again, she kissed Shiroyukihime's lips and again and again, she uttered those words.
Shiroyukihime felt that she had never been more honest with the younger girl, had never been able to return the honest look of those eyes with an equal sincerity as now when she answered continuously: "So do I."
But when she woke up again in the middle of the night she burst into a flood of tears, sitting next to the sleeping body that was lying next to her and had been connected to her since the previous moment she had woken up in the night.
"I don't understand," Shiroyukihime wept. "I don't understand...
I shouldn't have done this. I shouldn't have betrayed you again after tonight, certainly not after tonight... but I suddenly feel so scared and confused. What is happening? I don't understand...
You shouldn't even be able to measure up to me, but not only have you defeated me as many times as I defeated you...
How do you keep making the program reset our level and Burst Points? How do you keep us both in Accel World every time we defeat each other... I don't understand any of this... "
After having spent all of her tears Shiroyukihime was finally overtaken by deep sleep.
The morning after she felt a gentle hand rock her body.
Yawning, she slowly opened her eyes to her sister's blushing face.
Under that loving gaze, she grew pale and muttered: "I... I'm sorry about last night... I was scared... I didn't mean to..."
To her surprise, Kuroyukihime just smiled. Making her blush in turn.
"Hurry up and wash. It's best to keep the chances of anybody seeing you come out of this building to a minimum."
The black haired girl didn't say much besides that until it was time for her older sister to leave.
Shiroyukihime wondered whether Kuroyukihime remembered how she had ambushed her in her sleep.
She wondered whether she remembered how Black Lotus and White Cosmos had dueled and how Kuroyukihime had used that miraculous incarnation attack time and again, every time one of them lost, in order to keep the Brain Burst program from separating them.
"Of course nothing has changed between us." Her younger sister stated.
It wasn't a question. For all that she had been deceived by the blonde girl before, Kuroyukihime knew her sister well enough to know the answer to any such question.
"No. Of course not," Shiroyukihime agreed. "I meant what I said: I don't want us to fight anymore, but I will do anything to keep you from interfering with my plans."
"Good. As long as you cannot confide in me, I will do anything I can to prevent them."
Shiroyukihime hesitated before she left the apartment.
"I think we can agree then that what happened stays between us."
"Of course. Why should anybody else have to know?"
The sisters looked each other in the eye.
"I was finally able to say what I wanted to tell you, Shiroyukihime."
"I know. I am happy you did."
As the door closed between them their hearts still beat rapidly.
There was no telling what they would have to do to each other in the future in order to reach their goals, but from now on both sisters knew that one thing would always bind them.
One thing would always be true.