Welcome to the Accelerated World - Accel World RP

Forest Aspis

It took only Forest a few seconds to regain her bearings. She then stared at her opponent's eyes... noticing the shift in his weight and his new posture, she knew.

It would all come to the next blow. She could hide behind her shield. She could use her superior speed to keep him away and let the scratch damage finish him.

Still, neither of those methods appealed to her. In respect to the warrior before her... and in accordance to her own pride, she could not use such methods in a one-on-one duel.

Indeed... there was only one answer.

Aspis changed her posture... crouching low before launching herself to run at Citadel. She ran fast, in a slightly zig-zag pattern while pressing her knuckles close. Her target was only one... the wound made earlier by her spear.

"This is it..." Hayate mumbled as he watched when the two fighters below him changed their posture.

"R-really?" Hisako was surprised at her answer. She thought Ai would answered more negatively. The file transfer confirmation dialogue appeared on her interface, and obviously, she pressed the OK button.

"Am I just worrying needlessly?" She let out another long sigh as the file arrived in her neuro-linker, then she again inspected Ai's face.

...

"Yeah, I'm definitely thinking too much about this." Hisako's face turned a bit red; she's getting too worked up. "A-anyway, thanks for the help." she said.

At the edge of her vision, Hisako noticed Hibiki. He wasn't doing anything, but he seemed in on something...

"Oi, Hibiki, not to ruin your dreams, but we aren't discussing which boy we liked at the moment." Hisako put her mischievous expression again; she needed to cool herself down by teasing Hibiki.

"I know, I heard everything y'know," Hibiki replied to Hisako's jab, scowling.

— Honda Masanori —

As the two opponents neared each other, Citadel brought both his hands together, the combined fists forming quite the intimidating bludgeon. The behemoth brought the twin fists crashing down towards Aspis' head.

Forest Aspis

Forest lifted her shield arm right over her as she saw the fist swinging down upon her. The crash sounded loud and mighty... but at the end of it, with her legs trembling Aspis held out.

But not for long. Her shield arm cracking under the pressure, her feet sinking into the ground, cracking as well under the massive pressure of Citadel's overwhelming power. With a grunt of pain, Aspis swung her free arm, right into the wound on Citadel's chest... just as her whole body shattered and broke... both of the combatant's health reaching zero at the exact same second.

"You were a mighty opponent, Citadel... One whose power I could not beat..." said Aspis as she broke, just before they were taken out of the program.

Midori

Sitting on the floor of the school library, tucked in a little corner on the least used section Midori shivered as the phantom trace of pain from her match slowly went away. She then slowly stood up and walked to a window, looking out to the students outside.

To think that there was someone so strong within her own school. Midori had looked into Citadel, but what she saw exceeded her expectations.

"You don't have to shy out like that." Hisako said, "How cute of you." She flashed another teasing smirk as she spoke.

— Honda Masanori —

Masanori tripped and fell as he snapped back to reality, catching himself with one hand.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit..." he said, clutching his still aching side with his free hand while still on the ground. He took a few deep breaths before slowly getting back up as the pain slowly faded.

"That hurt worse than when I had appendicitis."

Hayate ran up to Honda when he saw that his friend fell. "Masanori?! You alright?!"

Hibiki blushed, mostly out of embarrassment, but also because despite her teasing Hisako was still a very pretty girl and her smile was accordingly radiant.

Turning his head away from the girls, he replied, "Shy? Yeah right. It's... it's not like I was interested in your love lives in the first place. Especially yours, Hisako." He was however slightly interested in what Hisako and Ai were talking about. It sounded familiar... but it's probably something I read in a manga or whatever.

edited 10th Oct '12 8:02:15 AM by fillerdude

— Honda Masanori —

"Yeah, I just tripped," Masanori replied, standing up, still slightly covered in a cold sweat, but standing nonetheless.

That had been the real deal though. After a while it was all a blur in Masanori's memory. That spear had hurt just as much as getting clobbered in the Unlimited Neutral Field.

"Just who was that girl..." Masanori wondered to himself.

— Morisato Midori —

Midori waited until she was sure her legs would not tremble any further before she walked outside the library. Of the Burst Linkers she had found inside her school, she had researched and properly fought one today... Citadel, who had exceeded her expectations. One part of her was happy about such a development... after all, it's always exciting to find strong opponents. However, having such a mighty person within her own realm might be big trouble depending on his intentions. She would have to be more careful from now on.

With that thought Midori turned off her Neuro-Linker, thus disappearing from the matching list as she fished in her pocket for a pair of glasses to put on.

"Duh, it's not like I'm asking for your interest in the first place." Hisako imitated his tone of speech, again pouting slightly. "Just so you know, I have a boyfriend," she added a slight pause, "a pretty one, at that."

Hisako did felt a bit of pity for him, and a tinge of guilt for bragging like that to the poor young man. "But you're not that far behin-"

*RING*

Her sentence was cut short by the digital sound of a bell ringing. "Well, there goes my lunch break. I'm so going to starve..." Hisako slumped on her desk.

A boyfriend, huh? thought Hibiki as he gazed at Hisako. I guess someone as pretty as her was bound to have one or two lovers. His lips curved ever so slightly upward. "Well, I'm sorry for not being pretty. I'm as ordinary as you can get."

Hisako continued speaking, but she was cut off by the lunch bell, leaving Hibiki to ponder what she was going to say. He considered telling her to continue but he really didn't care enough. It was probably another jab anyway.

In any case, it was back to boring lessons for the rest of the afternoon.

edited 13th Oct '12 9:46:29 AM by fillerdude

Amane gave a nervous nod as she took in Toki's words. Not meeting her eyes she turned the information over in her head as she spoke. "I see." She spoke with a hollow voice as she gestured to the area around the pair.

— After School —

As Toki and Amane walked out of school, Toki continue to explain "Indeed, while accelerating the program reconstructs the space we are in by taking in the feed from our cameras and the Social Cameras from the city. That's why we can see the world as if it was paralyzed even if we are accelerating inside the program"

— After School —

Hisako looked a bit listless as she left the classroom, still processing whatever the teacher taught her at the last period. However, a bit (or so she claimed) of it went past her head.

The Tennis club doesn't have any agendas today, much to Hisako's chagrin. She really wanted to try out the wonders of Acceleration by herself, and sadly she hadn't found the opportunity to do so.

Hisako didn't forget to sever her connection with the Global Net after exiting the school compound, as per Ryota's suggestion. She examined the area in front of school with unusually curious eyes, occasionally paying a stare to students she usually found generic.

She shook her head and purged whatever thought just entered her head. She had to go there-the hospital-and discuss the details of what she would about to go into with Akio.

— After School —

For a supposed laid-back guy, Hibiki sure had a lot of after-school activities. Okay. Gotta drop by the Card Games Club and see if I'll win that bet. I also need to get these ingredients to the Pastry Club. Have to get my goods from the guys in the Manga Club too— ah yeah, the Sewing Club guys said they could use some help too. And after all that, I go to Debate Club, meet up with senpai, and start level-grinding again.

So pretty much life as usual.

— After School —

Tenma had just gotten out of the school building when he received an incoming call through his neuro-linker. He took a look at who was calling and saw that it was Aki.

"What do you want?" Tenma answered.

"Yo, Tenma! I'm here at Akihabara with Fumi. Wanna ha-?"

Tenma hung up before Aki could finish. Immediately after hanging up, he received another call. This time, from Fumiko.

With a sigh, Tenma answered. "Yes?"

"As Aki was saying," Fumiko said. "Wanna hang out with us?"

Tenma sighed again and said, "Fine. I'm guessing you're at that maid cafe that you always go to again?"

"Yep! See you soon!" Fumiko gleefully said before hanging up.

Tenma shook his head as he sighed a third time. "You're lucky I'm in a pretty good mood today...."

—Hospital—

Hisako visited the familiar room yet again. The hospital's smell kept entering her nose; it was an unpleasant smell to her. She tapped the door into the room.

"Come in." It was a female voice that greeted her.

Hisako opened the door. Behind it was a relatively large room, made to host two patients. At the time, only one patient is inside. Akio Shibara, he was supposed to enter high school one year ago, but because his crippling condition, he had been unable to, and instead opted for a private certified teacher.

Akio was there, sleeping peacefully on the patient's bed, with his short black hair occasionally swaying to the wind that entered through the slightly open window. The sight of him sleeping was, as always, charming. Beside the bed sat a brown-haired girl, who appeared to be in her mid-thirties.

"He's still there." The female said to Hisako.

Hisako nodded, "I know, I'm going to knock him back to our own daydream." she replied with a faint smile.

The female was his private teacher, a gentle, well-natured mother. She taught Akio with care and attention to his condition. In fact, she had said that Akio was progressing better than average students of his age.

"Well, I'll leave that to you." The female stood, and left the room subsequently after she left her goodbye.

Hisako took the teacher's place beside him, and stared at him for a while.

"Direct Link."

Her world faded to black.

—Akihabara—

"Where is it again?" Tenma mumbled to himself. "Ah, there it is!" He said as he finally found the maid cafe he was looking for after walking around for almost half an hour.

"Welcome back, master!" The waitresses greeted him as he entered the establishment.

He scanned the place for Fumiko and Aki, and found them sitting at the very center of the room.

"Yo, Tenma! Took you a while to get here!" Aki said as Tenma sat with them.

"I didn't get lost, if that's what you're thinking." Tenma defensively said. "Anyway, why'd you call me here?"

"You're gonna be fighting with Fumi in tag-battles today."

"What? Again? I'm so sick of being her partner."

"Awww... don't be so mean, Tenma!" Fumiko said with a pout.

"Whatever. Let's go." Tenma sighed.

"Burst Link." The three of them said at the same time.

Morisato Midori

Midori too walked towards Akihabara and a certain Maid Cafe, her Neuro Linker kept turned off the whole while. It was quite an inconvenient thing to have to do almost every time, but she was a careful girl. Besides, she was heading into the Yellow Legion's territory... a bit of care was not unwarranted.

The place was filled with the regular clientèle and a slightly higher than usual amount of students like her. While this was a good place to settle in, spectate some matches and speak with other Burst Linkers meanwhile, she was a bit worried about what sort of reputation she'd get for coming to such a locale alone so often.

She let out a sight and then picked up the old fashioned printed menu, putting a big smile to her face to at least pretend she came here for the sweets and cakes. And at the same time she turned on her Neuro Linker, making Forest Aspis appear on the ranking lists.

Cautiously, Hisako stepped out from the hospital building.

That was a truly long lecture, especially from her boyfriend. He had given her a lot of advice regarding Brain Burst, such as using special moves, stage destruction bonus, level up conditions and others. Obviously, he taught her how to fight, although he only talked about it instead showing a battle to her (that's more like him). She wasn't sure if she could process all that...

"Hisako, it's time for your debut."

...when her first battle is nigh.

Akio told her that she should battle after this, so she could get used to her avatar and the way Brain Burst worked. He would be spectating her by connecting to the global network by proxy. Faced with such circumstances, she was really nervous. Not to mention that being attacked in-game hurts; truly a violent program.

"Isn't this pretty unreasonable, Aki?" She asked Akio via an ongoing voice call.

"Where did your absolutely diamond-like persistence go to?" Akio replied in a slightly teasing tone.

"Fine." Hisako said sharply. "What kind of foe should I fight?"

"Hmm, let's keep it simple. Look for an avatar whose name screams 'red'. They're long-range fighters; so if you can get close it's usually game over for them. To minimize point loss, you should challenge a Level 2 avatar."

"You're being optimistic," Hisako moved to a nearby rest area and sat down on a chair, "I'm totally going to be gunned down." she sighed.

"Long-range fighting in Brain Burst takes some time to get used to, unlike Short-range fighting which relies more on instinct and quick moves. The former use more brainpower."

"I think you're indirectly insulting me just now." Hisako remarked. "Oh well, I'll keep that in mind, see you." She cut off the voice call.

She took a deep breath, and with zeal she shouted the magic words, "Burst Link!"

The world turned blue yet again. And everything around her stopped dead in their tracks. She's sure that this blue world will soon become second nature to her. Hisako pressed the Brain Burst icon, and the unique bar interface came up. She immediately checked the available players...

Some look rather tempting to challenge, but they're not 'red', and their levels are pretty high. After scrolling the list for some time, her eyes stopped upon what seemed to be her target.

"Level 2: Vermillion Doppelganger"

Without further ado, she pressed the duel button, and initiated the fight.

— Mori Ryota —

"All the receptors check out, I don't see an problems, doctor," the nurse reported.

"We really ought to figure out why his body adapted to the prosthetics so much better than the other attempts. Alright, Ryota-kun," the doctor turned to address the boy, "You're free to go. Stay out of trouble and see you in a month."

"Tha—" Ryota began, before the doctor in front of him froze. Then a familiar, but still somewhat unsettling sensation set in as his mind entered his non-humanoid, four-legged spider tank form.

"A battle, here, now?"

Ryota checked HUD as the battelfield materialized.

"Ocean Mirror, waitwaitwaitwait... Irokane-san? Can nothing be not complicated?"

Doppelganger flipped his feet to wheel mode, and rotated his camera/barrel in the direction of the arrow, looking for his opponent.

— Honda Masanori —

"Just what is that supposed to mean, 'interesting woman?'" Masanori fumed as he kicked a can into an alleyway on his way home.

He closed the response Masanori had gotten back from his parent after he sent him a recording of the simultaneous kill that had occurred earlier. A parent who had been quick to point out that Aspis could easily have won if she had just pulled back and avoided Masanori for a few more seconds. Masanori knew that he took heavy risks, his special ability necessitated him getting injured to an extent. He didn't need someone else to point that out, much less that stuck-up old man.

"Damn it all!" he yelled, kicking around more street debris.

edited 26th Oct '12 12:08:52 PM by zzzdragon

The battlefield manifested around her. The scenery was relatively striking; everything became skyscrapers made of solid steel, towering high around her. Even the very ground she was stepping upon was made out of metal. It was as if she had jumped straight into a sci-fi movie set in another planet. And it seemed like the time here was night.

Hisako checked her appearance, and much to her amazement, she had assumed a robot-like appearance that was recognizably feminine. Several plating of opaque 'glass' served as her protection, and her entire being had a metallic blue hue. Personally, she thought it was pretty cool.

On her arms there are two 12-inch-long bladed fragments that ran parallel alongside her pinky. They were attached to the protrusion caused by the elbow bone, and a slot near the elbow.

"I guess this is my weapon." Hisako lifted her arm and examined the blade.

She examined another part of her vision, upon which was displayed a gauge-like interface. Hisako had played some (non-VR) fighting games before, and quickly figured out what the elements meant.

"Right, now is the time to fight." Hisako steeled her mind once more, and she looked at the direction where the compass pointed. It seemed to source from a building near here (or somewhere beyond that, the compass was two-dimensional, after all).

"I'm asking to be sniped just by being here..." Hisako quickly ran into the building to get a better look from her area. And spotted that the compass' pointing arrow changed all too quickly.

"He's... inside this building." Hisako entered the building with caution.

When you start fighting in Brain Burst, your avatar's position depends on where you are when the battle started. So if Hisako and Ryota were at the same hospital, they were would start close to each other.