Chapter 2: Brain Burst

At the end of the day, I saw Haruyuki staggering out of the detention room, the place where the supplementary lessons were held. He looked extremely worn out, and to be quite honest, I didn't blame him. Iron Man's supplementary lessons were… well, let's just say that you don't want to know. As a result of that, supplementary lessons are, from what I can make out, the one thing that students dread above all else. I hear Haruyuki muttering while shuffling down the corridor. He seemed to be cursing an 'Ash Roller', and worrying about what will happen with 'Brain Burst'. "Haruyuki!" I shout, running towards him and embracing him.

"Hi-Hideyoshi?" he stammers

"It's so good to see you again. I've missed you so much."

"What! Time and a place, Hideyoshi! Can't you tell that I have just gone to hell and back?!"

"When I never hear from you for at least four months and all of a sudden you show up, of course I'm going to be uncontrollably happy about seeing you!"

"Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind. I have to get back to Senpai as soon as possible."

"Not until you tell me what is bothering you, Haruyuki."

Haruyuki looked defeated, and took me into the boys' bathroom. I knew that look: that meant he had something he wanted to get off his chest, but at the same time, he wanted to keep to himself. Although he tried to hide his defeated expression, I guess he could tell that I could see right through that, hence the reason for taking me into a private space. He began telling me about reuniting with his friend Chiyuri at Umesato, but from there, things got bad. He started crying and told me that the virtual avatar design I created for him was forcibly deleted. Anger started rising in me; I had worked for at least three nights on his design, trying to make it look the way he requested. However, my rage ceased at the moment when I heard that a gang of bullies at Umesato was the one behind the avatar deletion. Haruyuki went on to tell me about his lunch money being used to feed the aforementioned gang, especially one 'Araya'. It was only due to help from this 'Senpai' he mentioned that the gang was dealt with.

I could tell, despite him pouring his past out to me, that he was still hiding something. Maybe it had something to do with his earlier utterances about 'Ash Roller' and 'Brain Burst', so I ask him: "Is that really all that's bothering you?"

"Yes, p-pretty much," Haruyuki stammers. It's times like these when I feel like telling him he's a terrible liar.

"There is something bothering me, though, Haruyuki. How on earth did you get assigned a supplementary lesson?"

"I don't know! First, I'm challenged this morning by someone called Ash Roller and then- never mind!"

"How did this Ash guy challenge you? In what did he challenge you?"

"I can't say, Hideyoshi! I don't think you'll get what I'm-"

"Brain burst?" a voice outside our stall speaks. I knew that voice well by now: Tsuchiya Kouta a.k.a. Muttsulini (You can just think of 'Voyeur' if that name is hard to say).

"What is this 'Brain Burst', Muttsulini?" I shout.

"Ash Roller, now a level 2, part of the Green Legion, Great Wall… so Haruyuki is now a Burst Linker?"

"What is 'Brain Burst'?"

Muttsulini leaps over the door and lands in the stall. He has short, uniquely styled grey hair and at that moment was wearing a ninja costume. He pulled the face mask down so as to reveal his neck, which, surprisingly, featured a Neuro-Linker. "It will be much easier to show you, Hideyoshi," he spoke, taking out a cable from… somewhere in the suit I guess. I couldn't quite tell where he retrieved it from, because he had it out in an instant, and plugged it into both his and my Neuro-Linker. Soon, a new file had appeared on my Heads-up display, and Muttsulini told me to click on that.

A progress bar had appeared, and slowly started filling up. Haruyuki looked shocked, shouting that it was impossible for Muttsulini to be a Burst-Linker. Muttsulini just responded with a demand to know what his Duel Avatar was, if it was the 'Silver Crow', considering that the Avatar in question fought the 'Ash Roller' that he complained about. Haruyuki, in turn, demanded to know what Muttsulini's Duel Avatar was, and how he managed to get the information. Questions and counter-questions continued to fly. What were Haruyuki's abilities? What was Muttsulini's Duel Avatar? How well informed about Haruyuki was Muttsulini? What was Muttsulini even doing as a Burst-Linker?

The progress bar filled up completely, and there was an explosion in my HUD, with flaming letters appearing saying "Welcome to the Accelerated World".

"Well done, Hideyoshi," Muttsulini spoke to me. "I had my doubts as to whether it would install properly. Now, let's go onto the roof."

"Why?" I ask.

"You'll see."

Haruyuki, Muttsulini and I were on the roof a few minutes after the installation of this 'Brain Burst' program. "Now, everyone, shout 'Burst Link'!" Muttsulini spoke.

"Burst Link!" I shouted. Immediately, the world froze and turned blue. I found myself in my digital avatar, which I had styled to resemble the Summoned Being I have here at Fumizuki Academy, with the same blue hakama, white kimono, complete with the same naginata and fluffy tail that my Being possessed. Muttsulini was in almost the exact same ninja outfit as before, only there was another one in front of his own position in the real world. By Haruyuki's real body, however, was a small pink pig, which I could only assume was his virtual avatar. Muttsulini then proceeded to direct my view to a bird in the sky, which was a little strange considering his preferences of 'birds', but continued to ask me what I thought of how the bird was moving.

"Well, the bird isn't moving," I spoke. I couldn't really see any movement of the avian, not even a change in horizontal or vertical position.

"Wrong. It may seem like time has stopped, but we have just accelerated our minds. Our thought processes have sped up one hundred times," Muttsulini responded.

"So that is why everything seems to have stopped. Interesting. Do you use this speed to get better snapshots of 'birds'?"

"I can't. This blue world is only created via images captured by social cameras, hence why we needed to come up to the roof. Unless she is exposing herself to the camera, there's nothing to see."

"Then, what do you use it for?"

"Hmmm… the only one on the matching list is Silver Crow. I'm assuming that is you, Haruyuki, since this is the Fumizuki network and everyone else has left. Anyway, we are done here. Burst Out!"

"Burst Out!" I say, and the world returns from being blue to normal, the aforementioned bird continues to fly and we are back in our original bodies. Haruyuki still wanted to know what Muttsulini's 'Duel Avatar' was, and I thought he was just going to hit another brick wall. However, Muttsulini actually caved in, saying 'Grey Smoke'. After that, though, we went our separate ways back home.

Ane-ue, my twin sister Yuuko, was already at home when I arrived. By that point, the sun had just about set, and I was quite hungry. Ane-ue asked me why I was late, but I felt that she didn't need to know. She knows more than enough about me, and after the way she treats me, I might as well keep her in the dark about Brain Burst. I just came up with a story about some self-studying after school to shut her up. As we were about to sit down to dinner, though, there was a knock at the door. I got up to answer it, and found a boy, maybe in middle-school, with a bouquet of flowers.

"Can I help you with something?" I ask.

"Well…" the boy begins. I can tell he is extremely nervous about something. "Well… I… I have been watching you for quite some time now. I'm really sorry, but I cannot restrain myself any longer. P-p-please…"

"Yes?"

"I love you, miss!" the boy shouts, thrusting the flowers at me. "I loved you from the moment I saw you, and I simply cannot keep these emotions to myself."

"I'm a guy!" I shout. I don't know, maybe this was the second confession this month. For some reason, I seem to unwittingly steal the heart of boys. I know that my figure doesn't really agree, but I am a guy! I don't know why boys are always confessing to me! I close the door, and walk back inside, ready to eat. However, I notice Ane-ue glaring at me. The rest of the night continued to be somewhat tense.

The next morning, I began walking to school. The same boy from last night approached me on the road with a bouquet of roses and once again confesses his love. I said that I am a guy, but he insisted that I was wrong. There was another school boy approaching, also with a bouquet of roses. He also confessed his love. I saw a third one trailing him, then a fourth, and then a fifth. I looked behind me, and I saw a sixth school boy with flowers. A seventh followed him. There were eight, no, nine boys following those boys. Frustration rose inside me, and I looked around. I saw an escape route: a public toilet. I ran towards it, and bolted inside the men's toilets. There were two men already there, and they threw me back outside, saying that I was in the wrong toilet; the women's toilets were on the other side. I screamed the fact that I am a guy at them, but two women grabbed onto my upper arms and dragged me towards their bathroom.

"Let me go! I cannot go into the women's toilets! I'm a guy!" I shouted.

"No, you're not," the women reciprocated. "You're clearly a girl."

"I'm a guy! Why does everyone see me like a girl?"

"Because you are a girl! Your arms and legs are so slender, your hair is so beautiful, and you are clearly going to grow into a fine woman."

"I am not a girl!" I screamed. Tears were spilling out, as the women continued to drag me past the bathroom door into their bathroom. "I swear; I'm not a girl. Why is everyone so stupid! I'm a guy!"

"Look in the mirror. In that mirror is reflected what you are," the women continue to insist. I look, but what I see shocks me. I am in a short, red skirt and it looks like there are two slight bulges in my chest. I can't believe this; someone has surely done something to me. Was it maybe Ane-ue? Was this Yuuko's cruel idea of a joke?

"No! NO! That mirror is lying about my reflection! I am a guy! Why do people see me as what I don't want to be seen?! Why do people not see me as I want to be seen?!"

"Now, it is time for the makeup. Let me see, I know I've got some mascara here somewhere, and we surely need to gloss up those pretty lips of yours."

"NO! I don't want people to see me as a girl! I want my reflection in people's eyes to be of my own choosing! I want them to see me the way I want to be seen!"

"Is that what you really want?" I heard a different, slightly rougher feminine voice boom.