Random FAQ:
What are the ISS kits?
The ISS kit is distributed by the duel avatar Magenta Scissors, who distributes it in sealed Card Form to Burst linkers who find (and presumably, duel) with him/her. The kit, however, is far from "safe" in a sealed state; at night, it bombards the user with negative feelings, hatred, anger, et cetera.
The Kit manifests on the duel avatar as a single eyeball, just like the one seen in the volume illustration here. The avatar may or may not undergo a change in shape and/or appearance.
Avatars infected with the kit can use Incarnate System Skills. Unconfirmed as of yet since I've not fully read the novels, but moves include: "Dark Shoot" and "Dark Blow". While using dark IS attacks, the avatar's Over-ray (excess light characteristic of IS attacks) appears as a black aura.
The Kits communicate via a central entity at night when the Linker sleeps, as V8.4 shows. The more Kits are distributed, the greater the amount of information and power they collect and the more powerful the kit's users become.
It is speculated that upon a certain command or signal, the kit will self-duplicate, possibly to infect another avatar or to create a copy of the host avatar, a clone.
Who are the Originators?
Originators were the 1st 100 Linker to be given the Brain Burst Program..all were around 7-8 years old kids
From the kings which are "Originators"?
The only kings confirmed to be Originators are Green Grande and White Cosmos.. yet some people think Blue Knight is one of those as well
the other king should be Second Generation (The Child of an Originator, Lotus as example)
What light novels does the anime cover?
The anime covers the first 4 Novels (1-4) and at the time I wrote this, there's currently 16 Novels out.
Who is Ash Roller?
Ash Roller is a girl in real life, she is called Kusakabe Rin and later on declares her love to Haru.
The reason why her character is a male is because it's originally her brothers avatar who is in a coma and as such she is using his neural linker/his avatar.
Does the relationship between Haru and KYH improve at all? What about with other girls?
Yes, their relationship improves slightly, however it's moving very slowly, KYH still loves Haru (as everyone knows) and so does Haru or at least that's what most people think... Their relationship hasn't changed much when compared to the anime even though there's 12 novels after the anime, shows how slow their relationship is progressing... Other than KYH, Rin (Ash roller) also admitted to loving Haru. Fuuko and Niko are unknown in terms of loving him or not as both of them try to tease him although it can be seen as a way to get under his skin. (piss him off/have fun with him). However Haru does say that he LIKES Metatron in novel 16, which is the best thing he has ever said in the whole novel, however since Metatron is an AI it'd doubtful that he loves her.
Who actually faced Wolfram Cereberus? Who is the Mirror Maker? What other things happen in the volume?
1) Wolfram Cerberus has a win streak in a neighboring neutral district next to Nega Nebulus' territory. Multiple people have faced him, though the only one that's shown 'on-screen' is Frost Horn and Silver Crow.
2) Mirror Masker is Ardor Maiden's 'parent', and real-life brother. Died in a accident in Real Life, ironically impaled by a mirror twice his size broken into shards. Ardor Maiden lost her ability to speak from then as well.
What happened between KYH and her sister the White King?
The white kings is her one year older sister.She doesn't possess any natural attack power, and she doesn't appear in front of anybody besides her legions top lieutenants. KYH mentions she used to fight in the very beginning of Brain Burst (implying she is an originator), but that she used something, either an ability or a enhanced armament, that made he enveloped with light so the opponent couldn't see her form (essentially confirming she is the person with Black Vise in the Chrome disaster back story)
Looks like there is some confusion about that. What actually happened was that the white king approached KYH and showed her a gun made by Red Rider, claiming that one of it would be given to every legion, would only be usable when your legion is attacked, and never missed, had infinite ammo and devastating power.
She made a demonstration of the power of the gun, and said it was to be a deterrent that would make it impossible to attack another legion, as the defending side would always win, essentially enforcing the truce regardless of the other kings opinions.
KYH kills him with the intention of stopping the making of the other guns. However, after the destruction of NN, while she was already in hiding, she notices that, when she killed Rider, one of the guns was transferred to her inventory, as sometimes happens when you kill someone. The weapon in unlocked, but it won't fire. She realized he made it that way as a symbol of peace. She runs to her sister's room to accuse her, to which she only agrees to everything, smiling. Hime tries to force her into a duel with a box cutter, but her sister tells her not to do that, as she doesn't want to take even brain burst away from her. Hime, realizing she could never win, ends up stabbing her in the hand, and that's how she was throw out of the house.
Light novels Spoilers. (Some may contain little bits of translations)
Volume 5:
Short info on what happens
At the opening of Sky Tower in RL, Haruyuki goes there and finds out there is a Sky Race event going to be held there. He manages to snatch one of the seats to the event along with Blood Leopard.
Meanwhile Lime Bell tries to use her healing skill on Sky Raker's legs but failed, as it is unable to override Black Lotus's incarnate system(BL cut off Sky Raker's legs with IS so that she can fly higher in the past)
KYH stays at Harus house the day before the event and has an epic romantic moment with haru and haru failed to get laid.
At the race, which turns out to be a team kart race, the full Nega Nebula legion goes in as a team(5 members as of now). Providence enters with Blood Leopards as leader, Ash Roller also enters with his team. While racing, a team tries to destroys the race by wrecking the area, including using Incarnate System to damage the audience(which are supposed to be protected). In a fit of rage, Silver Crow equips Chrome Disaster and destroys the enemy sadistically, and almost loses control of himself, before Lime Bell uses her time reversal spell to unequip CD
Volume 6:
Haru and co attend the first King's Conference since Rider's death. Crow gets a week to remove the Armour or the Kings will deal with him. Haru through comic events of sorts meets Shinomiya Utai, Level 7 Burst Linker and controller of the avatar «Ardor Maiden». She's one of the old NN «Four Elements» representing Fire, and has the «Purifying Flames» skill that can get the job done for Crow. Can't remember the rest of the volume.
Screw that. Crow faces off against Bush Utan, Utan equips the ISS kit and hammers Crow. Crow and Maiden win only by her IS attack, burns the whole place down with long-range flame attack.
==Translation Start==
Not knowing what to do next, Haruyuki turned back to look at Ardor Maiden.
The diminutive masked avatar slowly waved the hand fan in her right hand, almost as though she was dancing.
At this, a long-forgotten memory in Haruyuki's recollection was suddenly awakened:
He has seen such a thing before in the past. On a certain performing stage when he was much younger, he was brought by his parents to visit the Yasukuni Shrine. Mysterious music was playing all around, and the girl dressed in white with a red pleated skirt danced with a fan in one hand. It was exactly the same kind as the one Utai was performing now, but with some different details. The performer was not masked like Ardor Maiden, and her actions were much more vigourous than Utai's. Utai's own dance, overall, appeared much more like a masterpiece than the one Haruyuki remembered.
Haruyuki had long forgetten about the battle just in front of him, and continued to admire the dancing of Ardor Maiden.
Without warning--from the mouth of that avatar, a bright, clear voice resounded. It was not a shout, but easily propagated over the entire field, and seemed nothing else than «Singing».
"Three kinds of suffering, they recur and remind the heart~"
Suddenly, the grassy fields covering the entire stage shuddered. It was not transpiration - it was flames. Flames surrounded Utai and spread far away to the edges of the stage. That was the indication of an Incarnate System Skill, «Over-Ray», or excess light, that was covering the entire stage. To the point, of surpassing even the erosion-type Incarnate System skill employed by Rust Jigsaw, «Rusting Order», which he used during the Hermes Vertical Cord Race last week.
"And yet, keeping calm, even just a little~"
The world--was set on fire.
Lotus-like red flames rose into the sky in all directions, completely scorching the grassy plains. The whole stage had been dyed red, with countless embers dotting the sky like stars.
A two-metre circle of space around Utai was untouched, with naught an ember inside this space. But the illusion of being completely untouched by those flames was enough to send Haruyuki gasping for breath.
Ardor Maiden gracefully waved her fan. The violently raging flames spread, burning the grass and even the ground to ash.
Between the curtains of fire, a vague shadow could be seen.
That was Bush Utan, whose entire body had been engulfed in flames. His two arms had long ago been incinerated.
And yet unbelievably, his face had no expression of pain whatsoever, only an unreadable expression. He looked down on his own body which had just been toasted into a pillar of flame. Haruyuki reflexively checked their HP gauges; Bush Utan's gauge was dropping at an alarming speed. It dropped below 30% in the blink of an eye, as though the flames itself was burning the gauge away. 2%--1%--zero.
With a flash of light and a sound effect, the avatar-shaped pillar of flame disappeared.
Even so, the short avatar continued with her dance. While watching her in silence, Haruyuki finally felt all the puzzle pieces fall into place, and understood:
«Maiden» had another meaning aside from «young girl». It also had the meaning of a shrine maiden that serves God. It was natural, thus, to think of a shrine maiden upon seeing the red and white colour of her avatar, because it was synonymous to a «Magician».
And «Ardor»'s meaning is that of blazing. Even hotter than mere «Fire», more ferocious than «Flames».
Ardor Maiden.
Its meaning, thus, is «Shrine Maiden Of Sacred Fire».
==Translation End==
Ash and Crow meet up later and he hints that more users of the Kit are around.
Fuuko and Utai meet IRL and Utai nearly suffocates as seen in the volume illustration. They also explain that Maiden is in EK mode.
Lotus, Raker, Bell, Pile, and Crow all Dive in to rescue Maiden. Lotus activates «Overdrive: Mode Red» to hit Suzaku with Vorpal Strike, and they retrieve Maiden. Suzaku heals, recovers, and is about to stomp Crow and Maiden until an unknown entity breaks open the Imperial Palace gate, letting them in, but also sealing them inside.
Read the kings meeting IN ENGLISH (Volume 6 chapter 2-3)
http://pastebin.com/2zLGvn2y
Chapter 4:
http://pastebin.com/MDwU9QxV
Volume 7:
The story of Chrome Falcon (Who originates Chrome disaster) and Saffron Blossom has an incurable disease in RL. So she and Chrome Falcon took advantage of AW to spend a lifetime there before she dies in RL. They even bought a house for this much like what happened in the author's previous work.
Haru and Maiden wake up to find that they're inside the Imperial Palace; the stage has changed from the «Ice And Snow» stage to the «Peaceful» stage, and they stargaze for a bit. Trilead Tetraoxide (aka Azure Heir) shows up, he confesses he used the Fifth Arc, Straight Sword «The Infinity» to break open the Palace gate, which let Maiden and Crow in. They talk, and Trilead takes them to see the seventh and final Arc, «The Fluctuating Light», It just appears as a ball of light from where they're standing, but Haruyuki realises he think's he's seen it in his IS training:
==Translation Start==
"I've..I've seen that light once before..."
"...!!"
On his left, the small-framed avatar of Utai let out a sharp gasp, and gazed at Haruyuki with an inquisitive glance. Haruyuki, desperately searching his memories for the recollection, slowly strung together his words to explain.
"N..no mistake about it, that is...that, in the Unlimited Field, the first time I was undergoing «Mind Power Training». From the Old Tokyo Tower, Master Raker threw me down and told me to climb back up using my bare hands..."
Utai emitted small sighs while listening to Haruyuki's recollection. For her who definitely has been made to do many different things by Sky Raker, this was probably a highly similar experience. Haruyuki continued in a low, rough voice, recounting his experience.
"At first, I could not even leave a scratch on the walls, but every day, with continuous piercing attacks being made, I slowly was able to make a tiny slit...followed by a cut a few fingers wide. I climbed the Tower about a week later. But I forgot...spending countless hours piercing the wall with my two hands...at times, that light...I felt, that was not merely an effect. That golden light was..."
At this moment, Haruyuki turned to face Trilead and Utai, looking in the eyes of the two avatars hanging on to his every word. In a shaky voice, he forced out the last few words that must be said.
"-that golden light, was a person. And it was calling to me."
==Translation End==
Haru and Utai are forcefully disconnected shortly after that, in RL KYH is mounting Haru (just see the fanservice illust) and pulled off his Neuro Linker. The plan to rescue Maiden is incomplete now that she's stuck inside the Imperial Palace.
NN is discussing the Arcs and their holders, the conversation turns to «Quad Eyes Analyst». Haru has never heard that name before, but suddenly he feels pain and some fragments of words come back to him, and he has no idea who is that nor why.
The next day, Pard catches Haru in RL, and warns him the PK group «Supernova Remnant» has a contract out on him, paid with real money, not BP. She does this by picking him up from Umesato with her bike and Direct Cabling - KYH hears this later and interrogates him (cue the next vol illust).
Haru finds Utai at school the next day and asks her about SR. After confirming he is indeed talking about SR, she drops a bomb: SR met a linker "blue like water in colour" and fought a Sudden Death Duel, and according to Fuuko, that linker is Cyan Pile.
Haru rushes back to class to find Taku, fearing he had BB uninstalled; he was not. Takumu had gone to investigate the ISS kit and SR, and he duelled them. SR had him at the last bit of his HP, but Takumu asked them for one chance...he got it.
Cyan Pile equipped the ISS kit, gaining the close-range IS attack «Dark Blow» and long-range «Dark Shoot». He then slaughtered the five-member group and uninstalled BB from all of them (Sudden Death rule bets all your BP). Regretting his actions, Taku asks Haru to defeat him.
Haru and Taku Direct Cable and duel; they both start out with their IS attacks, Laser Sword and Cyan Blade. Haru pulls out «Aerial Combo» on Pile, using his wings and Laser Sword to continuously attack, but Taku pushes him back with Splash Stinger. In the lull:
==Translation Start==
In his right hand, the beautiful two-handed sword «Cyan Blade», the other manifestation of Takumu's desire, vanished. Blue light swirled and collected about his fist, reforming the original Enhanced Armament «Pile Driver».
Takumu raised the pile driver high - and in a firm, resolute voice, recited a command.
"ISS kit, activate."
Darkness rushed in from all directions.
==Translation End==
Taku used Dark Blow and his special move warped by the Kit, «Lightning Dark Spike». In his shock Crow was beaten badly, yet he still tried to persuade Taku to let Chiyuri use Citron Call II to reverse all the damage. Short of calling The Disaster to win against Taku...
At the verge of defeat, a mysterious saffron-coloured avatar appeared before Haru, voicing her hopes to cleanse the Armour's holder of their pain and suffering. She requests that Haruyuki call the name of the Armour, the original name before it became the Disaster Armour.
His own silver armour fracturing and fragmenting into pieces, Haruyuki managed to find the will to stand.
"Equip....«The Destiny»."
Volume 8:
Taku infected himself with ISS kit during his independent investigation into it. Haru manged to remove the infection by using his new IS move, Laser Spear. Unfortunately, the ISS kit was picked up by an unknown linker after the battle. Details about it will be in Vol. 12. This is likely to take place in the limited field.
In the the Unlimited Field, SC and AM managed to get out of the Imperial Palace with the help of AH using his Infinity on the gate. Once they got out, the Four Gods were waiting. BL and SR are stalling them in order to facilitate the escape. SC went back for them and used another new IS ability, Laser Speed to finally get out of range of the Gods.
The volume ends with SC going to meet with AR only to find him being tortured by his own legion mates.
Volume 9:
Small info on what happens:
1) Nega Nebula manages to escape from the Forbidden Castle
2) Ash Roller did not appear at the area at the time specified for meeting(They were supposed to meet up to teach him Incarnate System)
3) SC on fearing something goes wrong, went and look for him.
4) Saw Bush Wutan and Ash Roller getting endless PK'ed by Olive Glove + 6 guys using ISS
5) SC went into CD mode in a rage
6) SC whose original piriority was to save Ash Roller and Bush Wutan, changed his piriority to chasing the 6 guys due to CD's influence and tells Ash Roller and Bush Wutan to log out once they revive b4 the 6 guys resurrect.
7) Later on Chrome disaster gets sealed and is now called "The Destiny". Haru no longer posseses it.
PS: Haru once again fails to get laid with Rin/Ash Roller and Fuuko caught him and Rin.
With other words:
5 people with ISS units was continuously PKing Ash Roller and Bush Wutan, Haru lost his cool and merged with CD to slaughter the 5 of them. After Olive Glove, the final one left standing, was burned by CD's Flame Breath (2nd gen's ability) Haru plucked out the ISS unit from Olive Glove. The ISS unit has a recall function if removed from the host, and it flew back to where it came. Haru followed the unit and decided against camping the 5 to completely eliminate them, not out of mercy but because the guys who spread the ISS programs are higher up on his $hit List than some random thugs.
Eventually, Haru flew to the skyscraper where the ISS units (and now Metatron) is based, and before Haru can go in to wreck everything Green Grande used his Incarnate System technique + The Strife to make a wall that completely blocked off Haru, and then Haru flew down to meet them. Iron Pound (3rd seat of 'Six Layered Armour' in Great Wall) was with Grande and fought Haru, and beaten Haru down to half health before Haru worked together with Beast to tear Iron Pound apart with a sneak attack (the fight was pretty good, but you guys are asking for Green Grande VS 6th CD I'll skip this for now )
Grande said he'll explain everything soon, the timing isn't quite right, but CD's Berserker instincts won out and Haru attacked Grande. Haru packed his Incarnate System into one slash with Star Caster, using 3rd gen's sword skill. 'Demon City', the stage where they are on right now that boasts the hardest terrain to be destroyed by physical force, did nothing as the skyscraper they're on had half of it obliterated by the impact between Haru's Star Caster and Green Grande's 'The Strife'. Black fire from Haru's sword threatened to burn away everything, but Green Grande's aura was like the World Tree which supported 9 worlds of Norse myths and withstood the attack. From the aura Haru got a bit of insight into Grande's history, how he supported many of the Accel World by hunting down monsters and leaving the point cards to be eaten by other Enemies, so when other hunters kill them they get even more points. Grande's been doing what he can to keep the BB2039 running behind the scenes.
Haru cooled down a bit after that exchange of blows, even Beast went silent. Haru scratched a 3mm wide gap into The Strife so Grande motioned Haru won that round, while Haru went and said he was trying to cut Grande in half.
Green Grande finally explained a bit, and Haru almost initiated hostilities again after Grande spoke of 'BrainBurst2039', 'AccelAssault2038', and 'CosmoCorrupt2040', with BB2039 being 'Trial #2'. Haru thought Grande was the GM (Game Master) and had everyone in Accel World dance like puppet on strings. Grande said he's only one of the early 'Pioneers', 1st generation Burst Linkers. Other Pioneers would have the same info, probably even more than he did.
Haru asked Beast if it knew anything, since it was around back at that time. Beast replied it doesn't care about anything other than slaughter, and Haru should do the same as well. Haru convinced Beast to be patient, Grande's isn't someone that they can just brute force through. Beast grumbled and went back into the depths and waited for the time being.
Volume 10:
Aqua current and KYH in Okinawa.
(NEED MORE INFO ON THIS VOLUME PLEASE)
Volume 11:
Introduction to the mirror maker, the mirror surface theory and the super hard Wolfram Cerberus.
Judgment of Silver Crow and introduction of ARG's new member(lab rat).
NEED MORE INFO ON THIS VOLUME PLEASE!
Volume 12:
Regarding the past, KYH Sister tricked KYH into killing Red Rider, and KYH in turn tried to PK her in real life (this was hinted in vol10), which is the reason why KYH got exiled from home ("to reat her mental illness") and only a lawyer came to see her even when a car ran her over. WC did get injured. Oh yeah, she's also confirmed KYH's "parent".
Crow got a new ability called Optical Conduction.
Lime Bell's new nickname is Watch Witch (kinda like how Raker is called ICBM sometimes).
She dived into the unlimited stage and got an ability called Acoustic Summon that can gather Enemies (ability's from an item called Choir Chime).
Aqua Current appear once again when Crow was attacked by Argon Array.
More on Graphite Edge, he likes to give other nicknames and act totally like a kid . He didn't have enough safe points so he decided not to get to level 9 before the other Kings. His swords are made of Hyper Diamond (hardest material in AW), can completely reflect one full on assault from KYH; extremely versatile with his swordsmanship in that he can use them to defend and attack. Since he only upgraded his swords, his body's super weak (so weak that he would lose to Ardor Maiden in close combat without 'em, and AM's already super weak close range).
Red Rider, has an equipment called Arms Creation, and is also called Master Gunsmith (according to Kawahara's livecast for that episode, his battle avatar's totally a cowboy image with the horse if you missed that tiny detail). His creation has a symbol of crossed guns which acts as a safety switch, which Rider can control at will.
Blood Leopard's special attack is called Vital Bite, which absorbs HP and also Mental Bite, which absorbs special attack gauge.
Green Grandee has an ability called Double Payback, which is exactly like it sounds (2x reflect damage on enemy attack).
Blue Knight has abilities called Pain Killer and Limit Surpass.
White Cosmos is also nicknamed Transient Eternity, has 0 offensive abilities, but her IS ability makes her totally invisible, after she reached level 9, nobody can see her but other kings and her own legion. Ivory Tower also has the ability call Under Cover.
Wolfram Cerberus has 3 personalities (like name suggested). Middle head wants to collect burst points only; left head has ability call Wolf Down that can copy any ability, right now he wants The Disaster.
Magenta Scisscor is from Setagaya and is the first Burst Linker to install the ISS chip, but is not part of the Accel Research Committee.
ISS chip before installation is black and has Red Rider's symbol on it.
Just after Haru and KYH leave the school after their conversation about the white king, KYH mentions there's one more thing she needs to tell him. However, before she can speak, Haru, who had accidentally put his battle royal setting into accept mode, gets challenged by someone. KYH goes into spectator mode, and tells him to be careful about a potential IS kit user.
Haru hears the roar of a motor, and immediately recognizes it for Ash Roller. However, when they speak, they both say they weren't the one to start the duel. It's then that they hear the noise of another avatar approaching, breaking everything in it's path, going straight towards them. It's Wolfram, obviously.
Wolfram says he is the one who started the duel, and that he needs to battle SC within the day, but refuses to explain why. Ash Roller doesn't like them having a conversation and ignoring him, so attacks Wolfram before Haru can explain his power. Wolfram simply flips his bike, and Ash ends up stuck under it.
Crow and Wolfram begin fighting. Haru tries to use the same technique as before and use throws to bypass his physical damage nullifying power, but because they are in an ice stage the ground is covered with snow, and the impact doesn't stop Wolfram long enough. He grabs Crow and begins crushing him in a pinning technique, holding him in such a way that he can't use his wings. They have a quick conversation in which Wolfram explains that he has to beat Crow, otherwise his personality, whose only purpose it to gain points, will disappear. Haru, thinking he's being metaphorical, tells him that there are more important things than winning, and promises to beat him right now and prove it. Wolfram says he has studied Haru's avatar and know he has no way to fight back in this situation. Haru then tells him that there's one technique he certainly doesn't know about.
Haru proceeds to use his head butt special on Wolfram. The head butts damage is part physical and part energy, and only the energy part costs Wolfram 60% of his energy, and forces him to release Haru, who, not missing the chance, grabs and drags him to a high altitude, essentially checkmating him.
Haru gives him a Big Brother speech about how it's the players, not the game, who decides the value of winning, and tells him there are still many things Wolfram doesn't know about the AW. Just as he's about to tell him to "stick with me", somebody shoots a laser through his wing, dropping them.
It's Argon Array, level 8. Wolfram is shocked by her interference, and she tells him she's helping because if he lost, the 3rd personality might wake up. She tells him to just win and not worry about anything else. At that moment, an irate Ash Roller tries to attack her, but she leaves him at the brink of death with a single attack. Wolfram tries to protect Haru, but she quickly neutralizes him. Just as she's about to deal him the death blow...
...a fifth avatar appears, and attacks her with what looks like ice darts. The female avatar is completely covered with water, with bits of ice circulating in the surface do to the ice stage, and reminds Haru of the sound of running water. She calls out to Argon Array, telling her that she is the one who will lose a lot of points, being defeated by a level 1.
Volume 13:
It picks up back at the stand-off between Aqua Current and Argon Array. They exchange some harsh words that imply there's a grudge between them (at least from Karen's side). Aqua is able to use refraction by manipulating her water coating in order to alter the trajectory of the lasers, but even the slightest graze of the lasers takes out 1/10 of her HP. Haru realizes she is just buying time so he can attack Argon, and using his Optical Conduction, he deflects one of her lasers and lunges at her, only to get hit with a stun special and lose her in the process. Argon declares that fighting two opponents with anti laser abilities would be too hard and just disappears. Before the battle ends, Crow tells the barely alive Cerberus to meet him the real world at a specific spot.
Back in the real world, Haru and (from a distance) Hime go to meetup spot, but Cerberus, who turns out to be actually male for once, shows himself for only a second before running away.
Hime refuses Haru's proposition to search for irl Karen, but before they can leave she shows herself to them. The two girls have a heartfelt reunion and after they all go back to Haru's place.
Karen, who's real name is Himi Akira, unblocks Haru's memories of her, and tells them that the reason she went to Suginami that day was to warn them that she thinks the ARS is going to try to reproduce the Chrome Disaster armor, using the core of the IS kit to accumulate negative IS energy and use Cerberus as a host (who she said reminded her strongly of Magnesium Drake, her old rival who went on the become the second Chrome Disaster). They discuss for a while about what Enforced Armament could take the place of The Infinity, but don't come to any real conclusion.
Two days later Akira is oficially entered back into Nega Nebula and meets with Raker and Maiden. After their tearful reunion they get ready for the week's area battle. Chiyu and Taku can't participate due to school festival preparations, so Haru get's paired with Karen and Maiden, who nominate him as the leader for the day.
The get into a battle with a Prominence group led by Blaze Heart, who are breaking the Prominence/NN truce by attacking them. When confronted, they claim that Black Lotus had attempted to put a ten men Prominence hunting party including Scarlet Rain under perpetual enemy kill state by riding on a legend level enemy and sicking it on them, and had come to take satisfaction with Lotus without Rain's permission.
The are initially in disavantage do to Crow being to slow to give orders, but eventually Haru has a hot blooded confrontation with Blaze that convices them that they really believe Lotus would never do that. The other two get easily taker care of by Maiden/Karen.
Before the battle ends, they tell them that Lotus ran away by melting into the ground and disappearing.
When Haru gets back home, Niko is waiting for him. She apologizes about the attack and asks him about the fake Lotus, who she claimed had a much weaker "data pressure" than the real Lotus "as if it weren't even really there". Haru promisses to tell her the whole truth about Black Vise and the ARS. But first they go make curry together (turns out Niko is actually terrible at cooking anything other than pastry, but they actually manage to make it passable) eat, do homework together, and get ready to sleep. After Haru is already half-asleep she goes to his room and reminds him that they forgot what they were actually supposed to talk about.
Haru them tells her about about Black Vise. Niko says that the objective of the attack was probably to test her strength, and regrets the fact the she used her new ability at the time and was probably seem.She also mentions that she never heard of two avatars with the same color and that "Black Vise" may be a fake name.
She then confesses had often wondered if there wasn't a way to change your color, so she could be a true "Red" like rider, which she segues into a fit of self loathing where she admits she know she can't beat any of the other kings one-on-one, and is afraid that she might not be able to protect Prominence if the other legions choose to attack them. She says that when she first contacted Haru, aside from the CD thing she was also planning to use Haru as insurance to stop NN from attacking them, all of that while hugging and crying into his chest. After a lot of skinship, Haru swears to protect her at all costs (still hugging). She recovers a bit, and kisses him on the cheek before they fall asleep together in the bed.
The next day they wake up and go together to the school festival. Halfway through they meet up with Pard and the two girls go ahead, promissing to meet up at the gate after Haru is done setting up his class' presentation.
Later at the gate, Haru meets up with the Prominence duo and Rin, who quickly figure out the other is a buster linker. Rin grabs Haru's shirt as usual and Niko mimicks her out of jealousy. Haru notices Rin doesn't look too healthy.
General festival stuff happen, they meet up with Fuuko and Akira, and Haru notices some tension between Akira and Pard. They do more festival stuff, Rin and Pard become quick friends due to their love of bikes, fanservice happens, they go watch Taku's samurai dance thing which is pretty much the only time he gets any attention in the book. Rin then faints, and they carry her to the infirmary.
Rin reveals to Haru and Fuuko that she had been infected with the IS kit. They decide to ask Ash directly about it, and Fuuko has a cabled duel with Rin with Haru as audience.
Turns out the IS kit was implanted in the bike by Magent Scissor. It has changed form to the point of looking like a living creature, with Ash himself incapsulated in some material that fused with the bike. Fuuko dodges the bike's enhanced ramming attack with her soupped-up wheelchair, blocks it's double dark shot with her IS ability Swirl Sway, and then uses the Gale Thruster to destroy the bike from below without killing Ash.
They wake him up, and he explains that because the kit is implanted on the enhanced armament and not on him, Maiden's purification and Bell's time reversal won't suffice to remove it, as it requires a will on the part of the host to discard it (a similar case to Taku's, but he doesn't believe Rin has the mental fortitute to resist the kit long enough for them to do what they did with him). He says that he and Rin had come to the festival prepaired for that to be their last memories as BL, and as NN to enlist him so Lotus can use the Judgement Blow to finish him off.
Haru refuses and instead proposes that they go immediatly to destroy the kit core.
They get ready to go with the prominence duo + NN - Karen, when Pard proposes that they use the 7 in-game days they had to complete the plan to first rescue Karen. Niko claims the reason Pard hasn't been leveling up is specificaly in order to rescure her.
They go to the neutral field, where Niko uses her new ability that turns her enhanced armament Invincible into a mobile armed vehicle.
In the end they are riding towards the palace in the Nikobus in order to face the dragon god Seiryuu.
Additional stuff.
-Karen can put part of her water armor into other water bodies, allowing her to use her ability "water auditory" to scout distant locations.
-Karen can use any water found in the stages to replenish her armor, but she need to purify it first, so the more soiled it is the longer it takes.
-Karen's memory leak and memory free use bb's memory erasing system to manipulate other's memories, but it only works on memories that regard her. She also used it on Cyan Pile at some nonspecified point.
-She calls KYH Sacchi, but it is specifically said by Haru that that is mearly a shortenned for of the nicknames that Fuuko and Utai use (Sacchan and Sacchin), and she doesn't seem to know her real name until they meet in real life.
-Rain can measure other avatars "Data Pressure" due to an IS ability called Vision Extention, and it is something it seems only she can do.
-Prominence is the smallest of the 7 legions after NN, with only 30 odd members.
-Very few of the original Prominece members are still in the new one.Blaze Heart and the other were apparently some of those few.
-Niko implies all of the the other kings can use "power enhancement" IS.
-Karen is almost certainly Pard's parent.
-Two of Haruyuki's classmates get introduced: an boy named Oka and a girl named Ikuzawa, who's the class president.
-Niko says the reason female BL's fawn over him is that they are usually afraid of males due to sensing the diference between their avatars and their helpless real selves, but Haru can make them feel confortable. Haru isn't completely happy of being seen as harmless.
-Blaze Heart, Peach Parasol and Ochre Prision are fan submitted avatars.
oh, also, Karen may have know Falcon and Blossom personally.
2015-05-04, 23:51
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