Disclaimer: I do not own Accel World or any other works by the author Reki Kawahara. Any relation to actual people, locations or concepts and ideas belonging to similar fiction is purely coincidental. The only thing I do own is this story and its characters.
Author's notes: This chapter is mostly an introduction to the basic groups dynamics of the main Divine Sanctuary group. Also lets say I have interesting plans for Navy Brawler, Ruby Princess and Kizaki Hikari.
Login 03: Legion
It was Sunday morning as Narajima Ayumi stood in front of a traditional gate, behind which was a surprisingly modern two-storey house. She also spotted the top of a traditional roof connected to the house. The marble nameplate read 'Kagama' in vertical script. There were other names which she presumed belonged to his family members. Nervously, she adjusted her grey blouse and denim shorts before she found the bell icon and pressed it.
"Hold on, I'm coming!"
Kagama's voice was followed by the sound of footsteps then a click as the gate was opened. Kagama held the gate open dressed in a pair of grey trackpants and a red sleeveless shirt.
"Ah, Narajima-san...you're early. No one else is here for the mission meeting but you can come inside. You can also leave your bike by the front door."
"Ok, thank you...sorry to intrude."
Leaning her bike next to the door, she entered the door and slipped off her shoes, wearing a pair of guest slippers. Stepping inside she was led down a corridor and through a door into what she took as a living room.
"I'll get something for you to drink...do you want anything in particular?"
"Not really...anything will do sempai."
"Ok then, I'll get you some iced barley tea then. You still have the guest account from yesterday right?"
"Yes."
"Then there should be no problems...you can watch some TV while waiting for the others to come."
As Kagama left the room, Ayumi sheepishly sat down on the black leather sofa. She was not sure why she was nervous. Maybe it was because she was in her sempai's house? Or maybe she was not dressed nicely enough? As she sat there blushing, Kagama came back with two cups of drinks and a plate of crackers on a tray. She blushed even harder.
"Are you alright Narajima-san? You face is getting really red."
"I'm fine sempai...anyway where're your parents?"
"Ah...my father is in Tokyo to help a friend with his junior high kendo team for a month starting today. My aunt is in the hospital for a broken hip so my mother is in Hokkaido for three weeks."
"So you have the whole house to yourself?"
Casually, Ayumi took a cracker and bit it into half, chewing it noisily.
"Pretty much."
Also taking a cracker, Kagama chewed off half of it. The doorbell rang.
"Ah, that must be the others. I'll get the door, just make yourself at home Narajima-san."
Eventually the entire group consisting of an additional four junior high schoolers, three males and one female, arrived and were all relaxing in the living room. Ayumi only knew Hideo Tarou but she was unfamiliar with the other three. One was a small built boy with short brown hair who she knew was a first-year in the kendo club and was the one she saved from the group of bullies though she never got his name. The second male was larger built, resembling a delinquent. He was dressed in a pair of torn jeans with a chain serving as a belt paired with a black t-shirt. His hair was cut short at the back with a long fringe. The girl however had the appearance of a typical rich girl with an expensive looking red skirt and white blouse. Her blond hair was tied in two long pigtails with two smaller ones at the back of her head. Kagama looked at everyone, noting that everyone was there before starting, "Alright, before we begin with today's group meeting I would like to introduce a new member who is joining our legion starting today. After that I would like everyone to introduce themselves to her. Narajima-san, you can start."
Ayumi nervously stood up to face everyone, "Hello, I'm Narajima Ayumi, a second year middle school student at Hirayama Middle School. My duel avatar is Iron Rapier. I'll be in your care."
As she took her seat, the delinquent was the next one to speak, "I'm Tenma Godou, First year at Hirayama Middle School. My duel avatar is Navy Brawler."
The next to speak was the small built boy, "I'm Takahashi Haki...I'm also a first year at Hirayama Middle School. My duel avatar is Emerald Bulwark. I hope we get to work well together!"
The last to speak was the rich girl, "Kizaki Minami, same school as those two. My duel avatar is Ruby Princess."
"Wait...Kizaki? As in Kizaki Hikari?"
"That would be my older sister the high-school idol queen."
The word 'queen' was said with much contempt.
Kizaki Hikari was an idol who began her rise to stardom about two years ago when she participated in a singing competition right after her junior high graduation. Now she has four hit albums in the Top 100 songs along with a multitude of credited roles in television, anime, games and even a minor role in Hollywood. In addition has a legion of fans all across Japan and even overseas. Among those fans are an extremly hardcore faction of fans who declared themselves 'Kizatakus' and attend every one of her events without exception, even going so far as to skip work and school for the entire duration of her concert. Essentially she is a super idol in every sense of the word.
"Well they may be sisters but she definitely doesn't have her older sister's grace."
"Tenma-san, at least I'm the sister of an idol. You're just a delinquent!"
"I'll show you who's a delinquent! Burst Link!"
Both Tenma and Kizaki spaced out for a brief second before they snapped back, as though some kind of secret battle was concluded.
"Hah, your aim is still terrible!"
Kagama sighed, "Are the both of you done?"
Tenma and Kizaki were both silent
"Good...since Narajima-san is acquainted with myself and Hideo-san there is no need to introduce ourselves. Now onto why I have gathered this team and why I have brought in Narajima-san."
He nodded to Hideo who produced a hexagon shaped device along with several direct-link cables. Everyone took a cable and plugged into the device.
"Whats wrong Narajima-san?"
"Its nothing, just that direct linking with so many people..."
"Don't worry, I made sure Hideo-san put in enough privacy filters into the DirectLink Hub."
"Its not that sempai..."
She sighed, deciding that it was pointless to explain something she herself believed is irrational. She plugged into the hub.
*Ok, now that everyone is linked, I can start. I believe you all know of the attacks on the Monastary and the various attempts to breach the Vault. A group or at least its member has claimed credit for it.*
He nodded to Hideo who made a gesture, flicking an icon to each member of the group. Upon reaching her view, the icon spread out into a cluster of windows. Several of them were huge text files while the rest were images and clips of a red avatar.
*This is Cardinal Derringer. All we know is that, aside from the obvious, she is level six. However Hideo-san has discovered another fact that will help. According to the school's connection logs there were no illegal connections or intrusions at the time of the duel. In addition the only active connections at the time were those of teachers, myself, Himoru-san and approximately fifty students. Out of the fifty student connections, only seven had data transfers that were consistent with Brain Burst's data usage patterns. Thus there is a high chance that she might be a student at Hirayama Middle School.*
Kizaki interrupted, *So do we know who it is?*
Hideo answered, *Unfortunately the encryption on things like account user ID's is still a little beyond what I can do. However what I do have is GPS data for where each data transfer is originating from.*
With a flick of his finger, an image of a layout flew to the fore front. Ayumi realized that the layout was of the school as Hideo swiped his hand over it, producing several red dots, some of which were overlapping.
*These are the approximate locations of Burst Linkers that were within the school premises. As we have discussed some time ago, all of our alibis check out. Meaning that there is only one location that Derringer could have accelerated from.*
Six dots disappeared leaving one centered at the rectangle labled 'kendo dojo'.
*Then Cardinal Derringer is a kendo club member?*
*Or at least a student who happened to be there at the time.*
*That still narrows us down to about thirty.*
Kagama sighed thoughtfully, *At the very least we have more information to go on this time. Also the fact that Cardinal's Burst Linker is a member of the kendo club means that we are at least able to isolate and draw her out if we need to.*
He sat up to grab his drink, taking a sip before continuing, *This is where Narajima-san comes in. There is a slim chance that our real life identities might have already been compromised...*
Ayumi knew where this was going so she continued his sentence, *So you need someone who is so new that she isn't even on the radar?*
*Exactly... we will use your newbie status to our advantage. Essentially your job will be to find out who Cardinal Derringer is.*
*Ehh?! How am I supposed to do that?*
*The only way would be to accelerate and check the matching list everytime some comes into the dojo.*
*But isn't the dojo part of the school domain?*
*It is Narajima-san, however the main school domain is actually sub-divided into smaller domains for each building to save the cost of bandwidth for the entire school compound. Hence by monitoring the dojo's sub-domain and accelerating every time someone enters, we should be able to get her.*
Kagama smiled as he finished by pushing the image to one side, *Now that thats out of the way, Narajima-san.*
*Yes sempai?*
*Challenge me to a match.*
*What? Sempai you don't mean...*
*Don't worry... its just so I can teach you a few things. We'll just be there until time's up.*
*I suppose its ok if its like that.*
Kagama made several gestures before he looked at her directly, *Do you remember how to setup a match?*
*Yes sempai.*
*Alright then. Burst Link!*
A calm breeze blew through a purple crystal forest as two avatars stood in a clearing, Ayumi as Iron Rapier stood stunned at the area's surreal beauty.
"You know Narajima-san, you shouldn't get stunned by the scenery like that in a real battle."
Ayumi turned towards the source of the voice, facing a black armored figure approaching her, "Alright, open up your skill menu and tell me what you have there currently."
"Well I have two normal skills: Stab and Pierce. Then I have five special moves but they're all greyed out..."
Ebon Knight [Kagama] rubbed his chin, "Hmm, I've never heard of someone starting out with so many special moves before but it appears that there are conditions you have to fulfill before you can use your special moves."
"Well about that sempai...after I used Pierce, a strange light appeared under my name. After that I could the first move...Heavy Strike I think its called."
"Hmm...could your avatar be using a combo system..."
"Combo...system?"
"It seems that your avatar has to use Pierce to build up your counters. Then these counters can be used to activate your killer move depending more on how many counters it costs rather then depending entirely on your special meter."
"Sounds complicated sempai..."
"I'll be honest with you, it took me a long time to get used to fighting with my lance."
"Really? I can't imagine that someone like you had trouble at all sempai."
"To be honest a lance is nothing like a sword at all and in the beginning I had serious manuervability problems since my main attack is a charge."
"So how did you get used to your weapon?"
"Practice, alot of duels and trial and error."
"I see..."
Ebon Knight [Kagama] hinged his lance forward, "However I guess you could say that the lance is my own fault..."
"What makes you say that? You didn't choose this weapon?"
"Well the lance was what I started out with so I guess this was something the system gave me. So in a way this lance represents who I am, someone who is strong and single-minded yet has problems with change. Perhaps there is a reason why you were given those six swords and why your special moves have such a system."
Absently, Ebon Knight [Kagama] turned away from Iron Rapier [Ayumi], taking in the scenery of the crystal forest. An aurora radiated across the sky as he slowly paced about, "By choosing the path of a Burst Linker you will face many things; friends, victory, love, battle, rivals, enemies...you will face all of these as we fight our way to level 10."
"Level 10? Level 10 doesn't seem very high in my opinion."
"Well there might be more but we are only aware of ten levels and we only know this because of a system message Alabaster Master got when he got to level nine. That message revealed the existence of level ten and that those who reached it would meet Accel World's creator...but it also states the conditions to reach level ten."
"Conditions?"
"You need to defeat five other level nine avatars."
"That doesn't seem like alot sempai..."
"Also these battles are sudden death battles, namely if you lose...you lose all your Burst Points."
Ayumi was silent as she took in the seriousness of what that meant as he continued, "Have you heard of the Six Kings of Pure Colour?"
"Well Hideo-sa...I mean Chameleon-san has mentioned them a few times. They are the six level nine legion masters in Tokyo."
"Correct, when they hit level nine at more or less the same time two years ago, they received the same system message as Alabaster Master and instead of progressing to level ten, they agreed to a non-aggression pact and stagnated since then. However this situation did not happen here in Kanagawa, rather the exact opposite happened."
"So what exactly happened here?"
"Sadly, that is a story for another time...for we're out of time."
Iron Rapier watched as the timer ticked down to zero, watching the draw declaration appear then the scenery shifted back to reality.
They eventually spent the rest of the day chatting and helping Ayumi get enough Burst Points to reach level two safely through tag matches. However despite a drawn out debate over ice cream, they could not reach a decision on how to spend her level-up bonus. Soon it was Monday.
"Sorry Ayumi-chan, I need to head to the staff room to help a teacher."
"Its fine Chiyu-chan, I'll go to the dojo first."
As they parted ways, Ayumi began to think back to the prolonged argument regarding her level-up bonus. Essentially, she was given four options:
- Cavalier's Chainmail; increases her armor by 30%.
- Double Pierce; a killer move which applies 2 Rapier counters by consuming 30% of the killer move meter and two Rapiers
- Kamaitachi; a ranged normal attack that damages all enemies in the path of the slash.
- Atom-tip Rapier; passively increases the pierce stat by 50%.
As she approached the now familiar kendo dojo, she continued thinking about her level-up bonus, completely unaware of a set of footsteps falling into step behind her.
"Sempai!"
"Ah, Tenma-san...going to the dojo."
"Yep."
"So you can fight Derringer-san when we find her?"
"Actually yeah."
She giggled as Tenma blushed at the fact that his real reason for coming was exposed. He soon resumed the conversation, "So sempai...how did you get to know Kagama-sempai? Or rather to be more exact how did Kagama-sempai invite you into the legion?"
"Guess I was just scouted."
"Scouted huh...but still you must have seriously caught Kagama-sempai's attention for him to personally try to recruit you."
She smiled at the thought as they entered the dojo. Before entering the male changing room, Tenma turned towards Ayumi, "Don't forget to call me if you get into a fight!"
"Doubt there'd be a fight, I just need to figure out who this Cardinal Derringer is right?"
"Well you never know sempai!"
As the door closed, she decided to start her tedious task. Soon after changing she would warm-up in a position that would allow her to see the main entrance since the training would not start until everyone was there. Accelerating and checking the matching list soon proved to be an exhausting and expensive affair- ten burst points and ten minutes later the search only pulled up three names: Iron Rapier, Navy Brawler and Emerald Bulwark.
"Dammit! I want to have a fight already!"
Ayumi ignored Tenma as she scanned the training hall, noting that everyone was already in the hall either milling around or chatting. Soon everyone started to fall in as the teacher came in to start the warm-up however Ayumi felt uneasy as she whispered the accelerate command, turning the world blue. Frozen as though it was a surreal blue tinted photograph, she scrolled through the matching list, still seeing the three familiar names of her Legion's avatars. She looked through the kendo club students, noting that everyone was there...
Nearly everyone, she realized.
She noticed that Takeno still was not in the hall. She stopped accelerating and asked another member, "Have you seen the manager?"
"Yeah I did...she said that she had something urgent happening at home and that she isn't coming."
Her thoughts began to race as she started to come to realize that there was a possibility that her friend, Takeno Chiyu, was Cardinal Derringer.
Before she could rationalize her assumption, the world flashed blue then dissolved away revealing a ruined arena. Several columns dotted the circular stone area as two avatars stood in front of her.
One seemed to be made of fire as his body flickered slightly, flames occasionally licking his armor. His face was nothing more than a pair of eyes set in his 'face'. His partner was more solid being composed of diamond with a far bulkier build and a single cyclopean green eye. Three avatars were in the stands, a red avatar, a blue avatar seated on a throne and a purple avatar. The blue avatar stood up, his visage locked into a savage grin, driving the blade of his chainsaw sword into the ground
"Welcome Divine Sanctuary!"
"Who are you? Whats going on?"
"Who am I? I'm the Legion Master of Predatory Carnival; Prussian Tyrant! As for what is going on, I would like your assistance."
Iron Rapier drew her swords, "What do you mean by that?"
"Why what else do I mean? I just simply want to see your strength and at the same time test the strength of my potential new recruits; Blaze Pyro and Diamond Wall. Now...all of you, entertain me!"
Blaze Pyro and Diamond Wall, level three and level four respectively, responded simultaneously, "Yes Tyrant-sama!"
Diamond Wall immediately charged towards Iron Rapier while Blaze Pyro surged towards Navy Brawler, both struggling to defend themselves against their near immediate attack.