Summary
Yellow Radio quickly retreats, leaving Black Lotus and Silver Crow to take on Chrome Disaster. With some encouraging from Kuroyukihime, Haruyuki gains the courage to fight on even if it means inevitable defeat, but the two are interrupted by Niko, claiming to have no allies and shooting down KYH, who reveals that Cherry Rook was once Niko’s guardian. Haru convinces her to have a change of heart yet again, and goes after an injured Chrome Disaster, beating him by using the momentum of his attachable wire against him, with Niko finishing him off using the Judgement Blow.
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Impression
Hmm…I dunno what to say. Something felt slightly off, especially how the battle seemed to go by so quickly and it appeared to be more of an encounter battle rather than a big bad boss that will change the fate of the world. Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime were fully expecting to lose as well, so it was a rather big turnaround to actually have Cherry Rook lose the Armour of Catastrophe. Yellow Radio retreated as expected, but it was surprising to see Black Lotus struggle against Chrome Disaster. Either that or she didn’t properly go all out, since I don’t remember the previous Disasters ever posing a threat for a Level 9 King before. I mean, Haruyuki beat him eventually, so KYH must easily be able to…ah yes, I’d forgotten about the flying factor.
Chrome Disaster’s almost invisible wire looked like something out of Spiderman with the swinging through the city, combined with Hisoka’s Bungee Gum from HxH. He went down rather easily to Haruyuki (or let’s just say, easier than usual) though it did require some thinking on his part. And it looks like they haven’t gotten rid of Haru’s OHKO Falcon Kick either. Obviously, the Armour of Catastrophe isn’t gone at all, and looks instead to be a part of Haruyuki, with the armour saving its own sentience through the wire it attached to him. The very image of the unlimited field after the changeover is a foreshadowing of bad stuff that’ll happen to the lush green world, but let’s not think on that right now.
Niko was an important character tonight, and it had nothing to do with her giving Haruyuki homemade cookies at the end, though I had a feeling she’d be sticking around. She’s the example in Accel World of the betrayed, that ends up forsaking trust with other people and has strong emotional feelings. Obviously not trusting anyone is the last thing she wants – however I can see where she’s coming from. Cherry Rook was practically her first friend both in-game and IRL, becoming her guardian and she his protegé. To have someone like that turn against her must have hurt her bad, and I can’t help but look at the Haruyuki and KYH pairing, and what kind of warning signs we’re getting from this case. I’m glad things turned out fine, both for her conscience and in her real life.
I guess we could call this the end of an arc? It seems that next week we’ll be focusing on Chiyu and her foray into Accel World, so she can finally understand what kind of gaming drug her two childhood friends are so obsessed about. And with good reason, too.
