The Seven-Thousand-Year Prayer by Reki Kawahara

Author:Reki Kawahara [Kawahara, Reki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction
Publisher: Yen Press
Published: 2017-12-19T05:00:00+00:00

The duel ended after a full thirty minutes—1.8 seconds in the real world—and the first thing Haruyuki felt upon returning to the real world was a mysterious peace in his heart.

To speak of what he had actually done during the duel, he had only been hit three times by Ash Roller’s motorcycle, and then they had simply sat on the hood of an American car and spoken intently. They had talked about some pretty important things, but they hadn’t actually come to anything like a conclusion. Haruyuki still basically had no idea what he should do now.

And yet the frustration and remorse—and despair—that had been sweeping through his heart before the duel had calmed, if only for the moment. Eyes still closed, Haruyuki stayed submerged in the gentle warmth filling his body.

A few seconds later, he finally realized that this sensation was not a psychological illusion or false electronic information, and his body froze with a start.

The high-quality elasticity pushing up on his back was the leather of the rear seat of Fuko’s beloved car. He was lying on his back there. And on top of him was something soft that smelled good. A sensation a hundred times more alluring than that of the material of the Italian car’s interior leather upholstery, an exquisite ratio of elasticity and plasticity.

Very timidly opening his eyes a crack, Haruyuki looked at the ivory knit fabric glued to his own stomach. More precisely, a summer sweater with the badge of a school he didn’t know. Even more precisely, the upper torso of a girl the same age as he was, wrapped in that sweater.

“Ngh.” A small noise like a hiccup slipping out of him, Haruyuki nervously shifted his eyes upward. A thin, checkered ribbon tie. Slender pale neck and metallic-gray Neurolinker around it. Tapered jaw like a young boy’s, thinnish lips, a subdued but solid bridge of the nose. And then two eyes, irises tinged with a light gray.

The girl with her entire body on Haruyuki’s—or rather, the girl who pushed him back, XSB directing cable still clutched in her right hand—murmured from extremely close range, eyes as wet as possible as always, “I-I’m. Sorry. My brother. Said so many rude…”

“Uh, uuuummmmm.” Darting his eyes around in the great confusion brought about in him by the physical situation and the linguistic information, Haruyuki tried at any rate to cope by producing some kind of voice. “Um, uumm, first, so, you…Do you remember the duel just now?”

He was pretty sure she had said before that she ended up in a trance of sorts during duels and didn’t really remember the details. In other words, the personality that dove into the Accelerated World switched to her “brother,” and so no vivid memories remained inside her. Or at least that was what Haruyuki had supposed was happening.

But the girl—the true identity of the Burst Linker Ash Roller, Rin Kusakabe—nodded her head sharply. “Right now. I can still. Remember it. While I have this—my brother’s Neurolinker. Equipped.”

“O-oh, you…can…”

Perhaps

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.