Mirishira Accel World

Did Gunsou believe he and Misawa could live happily ever after? Sure he did. But once Misawa began to act strangely, everything fell apart.

First, she started to avoid him. Then, she asked for her own room and a bit more money. Confused, Gunsou can't help but notice the School Council President, Ohgouka Mayumi (大豪華 真由美), and her mayumis. He's getting faster and stronger, and at times he forgets his vow to Misawa.

And then their relationship began to fall to pieces. They couldn't tag team without quarrelling at least once anymore. Everything Gunsou did wasn't enough, anything she did was not appreciated. In his darkest of times, Gunsou finds an unlikely companion: Guardsman Railgun.

Misawa's mood swings, she realises, is a result of the beginning of her menstrual cycle: the start of her transformation from a girl into a woman. She flirts with Tatesuke only to guilt herself into going back for Gunsou. She takes out her mood swings on him, only to become affectionate, albeit forced, during dinner time. She doesn't know how to explain her behaviour; she simply can't!

Optimura's comments:

Amid all the trouble, an Event opens up in the Unlimited Neutral Field, and danger even beyond the imagination of Guardsman Railgun looms...

It's an Event that starts when a hundred players reach Level 4. The System sends a message to all eligible Burst Linkers, containing a RL countdown to the opening ceremony of a new amusement park. The countdown coincides with Christmas. Carousels, roller coasters, train rides, it has it all.

Unfortunately, this utopic childrens' dream is the ultimate stage for the circle «Odysseus Metis». It's led by a Parent-Child team of yellow Burst Linkers: «Effective Omniscence» Oxide Lock, and «God's Left Eye» Gorse Theory. Their aim: to manipulate every contestant into giving away their points collected and gain the Event's reward for themselves.

Various rumours about the Event have been flying around, but these details were based on firsthand observations:

-Enhanced Armaments are aplenty in this stage. The vast majority are generic, simple powerups, but at certain stages, it seems that you're given the choice to exchange all your points available for one, stronger EA.

-A final boss is confirmed at the end, but the rewards he yields upon defeat are unknown.

-Certain non-compulsory stages require a team of five to clear. Clearing one team stage causes everyone to skip individual stages until their maximum points remain the same.

Details not known to the players until the start of the Event:

-The death penalty is better and worse: each time you die, you remain out of action for five minutes as opposed to an hour. However, you lose thirty Burst Points each time you die in the Event.

-Completing each stage awards each participant a point Card worth five Burst Points. The Points are redeemable upon completion of the Event.

-The wealth of EAs was half a lie. Most individual stages only award point cards, and the team stages award a weak EA. All the EAs 'seen' during scouting have been shifted to the boss room, ala AWRP's Christmas Event. That is to say, you can claim your rare, personalised EAs as you can carry, but whether the «Yule Goat» will let you do so is another matter...

Oxide Lock (L), «Effective Omniscience».
Gorse Theory (Sub L), «God's Left Eye». Gorse Theory's debut and his Moment of Awesome.
Vulcan Widow, «Silent Killer». The power of his integrated sniper rifle is meh, but the ability «Complete Camouflage» is awesome.
Lagoon Phelps, «Aquaman». Laugh at his nickname while you can. All muscle, no fat, the close-range fighter is truly the King of the Seven Seas.
Manz Noise, «Banshee Queen». If you like music, he'll deliver it...severely overtuned and pitched up high, until you're brought to your knees for execution-!
Fuel Festival, «Pyrotechnica». Pretty fireworks! Pretty lights! Wait until you get closer, and that's when you become the firework!

Basically, being Gunsou is suffering. He snaps and fights somebody, gets into trouble for it. When he needs Misawa the most, she just shakes her head quietly and walks away to...wherever she's staying. The more Gunsou tries to seek her out for support, the more he scares her and she backs away.

Gunsou just wants to cry. He's all alone, nobody wants to help him (and Mikiseki herself took it the wrong way and thought he wanted a girlfriend), and now on top of school, he's been asked to drop out and start working. There's one way left for him to vent his frustration: Unlimited Burst.

Long term, this story's true ending is virtually indistinguishable from a bad end. This is the part I need to expand.

Gunsou has a bad dream about his relationship with Misawa: he loses his teeth while on a bus to nowhere, Misawa changes bus and he's stuck with Gulf Beast. Kihara Mayumi makes a better appearance here, fleshing out her character as a dominatrix woman of the house who has a firm authority over Gunsou.

while trying to work out a physics question, Gunsou and Misawa clash. This standoff resolves quietly, but they're both bitter about it. Misawa wants Gunsou to pay more attention to her needs and wants (which Mayumi is standing in for, more of that later) but Gunsou just feels sidelined and everything is beyond his control.

Enter the Mayumi & Misawa relationship. They've grown closer, talking when Gunsou isn't around to chill things, and Misawa knows she has to get answers soon anyway. They talk about her changing feelings, Gunsou's complete 180 in his behaviour, MMOs, boys. Turns out Mayumi wasn't a well-behaved girl when she was younger, but meh.

Mayumi tells Misawa the things she has to know: that the only way to bring their relationship to a close, or a better way, is to confront him and bring it to his face. For all his flaws, Gunsou at heart just needs to work on it and set a course for salvation, or they will be equally guilty in destroying each other.

Misawa enters the Unlimited Field to hunt with the TJC Burst Linkers. They know of the tension between Gunsou and her and don't try to poke any deeper. They team up and concentrate on the various Enemy mobs running around that drop bronze Point Cards holding 1-2 BP. Then Ryoutarou suggests chasing a Wild-rank Enemy: Untamed Serpent, rumoured to drop a silver Point Card. They briefly explain about the ranks of Enemies found in the UNF found so far, and decide to rest for the night.

Guardsman Railgun has been tracking Turquoise Duro for awhile; it's not hard, since Duro battles twice or thrice daily in Bunkyo, the fucking warzone of Accel World, he's levelled up fast and got to Level 4 with Saint's Fist winning a great deal of his battles. And, Cul Artillery's recent absence from the Matching List is not unnoticed; in fact, Railgun even knows she's gone to Minato. But that's the limit of his knowledge; which he shares with Gunsou. He's not here as an enemy.

Scene expansion:

As Rules of Nature points out clearly, Guardsman Railgun is a player seeking new heights and pushing his limits. He wants to get strong to help himself, and Turquoise Duro is part of his plan. Duro opens up to him a little too fast for Railgun to handle, but guys will always talk better with guys. They get around to hunting a Wild Enemy and kill it; Duro learns that all Enemies drop Point Cards and an Enhanced Armament. They find a Safe Area and call it a day, bumping fists. Well, that's how bros are formed. Railgun disbanded his crew in the first place because his partnership with Mirage Zealot had to be wrapped up anyway.

It's been eight hours in UNF, a mere thirty seconds in reality. Gunsou wakes up fully refreshed and enjoys a cup of tea. Railgun is slow to wake, however, and by the time he gets up Duro's tea is stone cold. Nevertheless, life in the UNF is...strangely normal.

They hunt another Enemy with greater ease than before; this one was caught napping and Railgun woke it up with a shot to its eye. As Railgun claims the Point Card and checks out the EA, Duro remarks that it's strangely okay to be here without Misawa. Now that Railgun's ready and Duro isn't hurting so much, they have the man-to-man talk about girls. Turns out that Railgun doesn't know shit about the female gender (he *worships* Gunsou for living with one!) but tries to help anyway. That's when he remembers he has a spare ticket...

The North Pole Palace Event. As the Mt. Fuji ski resort gets Social Security Cameras, a new Area will open up in Brain Burst too, at the stroke of midnight on Christmas! The ticket is a teleportation card that will whisk its owner away when the timer hits midnight. As they make their way to the Leave Portal, Railgun formally proposes to Duro that he join in the alliance of Bunkyo Burst Linkers: BBL. (lol.) They number a dozen strong and most are battle-type avatars. However, besides internal disagreements, there's also competing wards, as they find out in a subsequent meeting:

[*]Bunkyo: The TJC members show up; Guardian had Extinguisher and Renascentia reach Level 4 just for this Event. Apprentice is in it for the Legion Master information.

[*]Shibuya: two Burst Linkers who agree to beat up each other's ass in an exclusive agreement: Flamingo Spike and Mallard Bison.

[*]Nakano: Only one man is perfectly qualified for the free-for-all: the 'Crowd Controller,' Cove Fighter.

[*]Chuo: Jaguar Destroyer and his three-men group, Great Annihilator.

[*]Taito: Smalt Hunter and Glade Crusher. And who knows who else stands behind them?

[*]Minato: an all-girls group of nine avatars who are as terrifying as they are cute. And their newest member is the 'Artillery Princess'...


As for rewards: based on the last Event, speculah goes that this Event will have a truckload of EAs waiting to be claimed, though there will be intense competition for the biggest, fattest prizes: House Key Cards, and Legion Master appointments.

(lots of exposition, but well.)

The Yule Goat waits at the end. Some points to include:

-Tension: Turns out that the wealth of freebie EAs were lies; the cards only contain messages such as 'Try again next time!' and 'Aww, too bad!' As the groups progress, even the lesser EAs invite open struggles and on-the-spot duels...over a fucking 'Steel Sword.'

-MOBA teamwork: Can't miss this. As players try to clear obstacles, curses and insults are given and taken freely, including a general hatred at the difficulty of the course. A few Duro x Artillery scenes? The first winner of the minigame gains a LM Card, but it's sealed until he reaches Level 6. The rest must still reach Level 7 to qualify as Legion Master.

-Climax: Just before things boil over as they accuse each other of KS, Artillery & Duro team up with their new weapons and take down the Yule Goat for good.

Refer to the original Palace Event. Everyone's tired; it's been a few hours of solid fighting, and the few valuable cards have been 'claimed' by the group leaders. Then everyone suddenly has a 'relapse' of their dreams when they first installed BB: the cue for the system to construct Personalised Armaments and scattering them throughout the Boss Room. They push through the last portal, and then all hell breaks loose. Well, what do you expect of a ragtag bunch of kids who couldn't be further from resembling a coherent raid group?

-Peak of Adversity: Everyone's tired. Gunsou is this close to giving up. The Yule Goat still has its second HP bar...and then Cul Artillery drags him up and hands him his present. In a soft voice that nobody else can hear:

"Happy Christmas, Gunsou!"

That does the trick and puts Gunsou firmly on High Tension: he'll do anything as long as Misawa is by his side. He tanks, she fires. Then he goes in while her girlfriends support and heal.

Tl;dr Yule Goat goes down and bequeaths a single silver card to Turquoise Duro. The Event concludes.

They arrange a meeting at Chiyoda in a cafe. They chat, swap stories, and catch up as promised. Then Gunsou pops the question:

"Will you...come home?"

Misawa falls silent. I keep my mouth shut, holding back my hope; somewhere in my gut, I can already feel the answer...

"No."
     
Misawa blinks and shakes her head. "I won't need to come back. Aunt and Uncle insist that I stay."

I swallow and resume breathing. Of course, it wouldn't turn out the way I wish. It never will.

"Don't be sad, Gunsou. There's nothing to be sad about."

"Really?" I look away to a nearby swing set; a young boy and a girl are playing happily. The boy pushes the girl on the swing as hard as he can; the girl giggles happily as she swings up and down.

"Don't you feel good that you could take care of me?" Misawa asks. Her gaze flicks over to the children for an instant, "I mean, I don't have any regrets about staying with you. We've had our happiest memories growing up together."

That's a lie. You... No, I spoiled it for us.

"Everytime I look back to those times, I guess... All has been said and done. We had a wonderful time and I'm thankful for that."

Lies. You always look away when you're lying, Misawa.

"So... Don't feel bad that I'm gone, Gunsou. If you keep looking back, you'll never see what lies ahead of you."

She stood up from her chair and tossed her hair back over her shoulder. Her sweet scent scatters in the wind; I take in a breath, as deep as I can.

"Are you..."

"Bye, nii-san. We'll see each other someday."

And Kihara Gunsou is left alone at a table for two.

Okay, wtf?: