Summary
Nomi reveals his killer move, Demonic Command, that allows him to take away one of his opponent’s killer moves for himself when used, with an unlimited usage time of their abilities. Taking Haruyuki’s wings, Haru is quickly overpowered and surrenders to Dusk Taker, losing a lot of his self-esteem and confidence he had gained thus far as a Burst Linker. After trying to fight Ash Roller, now a regular rival, without wings, Ash takes him to meet his own guardian and the person that came closest to flying in Accel World before Silver Crow – a girl named Sky Raker.
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Impression
Oh man, that is so overpowered. At least Haru’s wings isn’t just a surefire win method and requires some strategy (not to mention its not flawless) but a killer move like Nomi’s Demonic Command is too easy a way to break an opponent’s spirit. It even lasts forever, and never returns to its user unless the owner willingly does so, which is something that never really should be implemented in any game. All this time, Nomi has cheated his way up to Level 5, from blackmailing Burst Linkers in real life to eventually stealing their unique abilities and advancing himself even further using them. It’s despicable. I doubt he’s ever even played fairly and is used to getting his way – all the more reason why Haruyuki needs to beat the crap out of him, though how he’s getting his wings back I have no idea.
Haru’s wings were his pride and joy, something that only he was capable of throughout the whole of Accel World, which was a good boost to his low self-esteem. For them to be taken in such a crude and unfair manner was shocking for both him and us – leading to some thoughts that would have been common to his pre-Accel World self, possibly aided by the consciousness of Chrome Disaster maybe? Chiyu doesn’t quite understand the impact of the loss of his wings, though he fact that there was now something tying them down like that was enough to make an impact on her. And while Taku was right that they should say something, it’s not like he can do much about it. As long as they’re still, Nomi can take any ability, even ones like Niko’s huge fortress (which never moves anyway) which would power him up ridiculously. Come home quickly Kuroyukihime, we need you!
Admittedly, it wouldn’t be much of a story if people like KYH solve every single problem present to the characters, so it’s nice to see unlikely old faces like Ash Roller returning, which was still a surprise even though we saw him with Haruyuki in the OP sequence. He’s actually quite a nice guy, even with the slightly antagonistic portrayal of him back when he was Haru’s first ever opponent. Ash is honourable too, and had no impulse to jump Haruyuki while he was down and beat the crap out of him, unlike a certain other bastard. Who’d have thought that a mega guy like him (see what I did there) would have a guardian like Sky Raker? Actually, I’ll confess I’ve seen her before, in an AW doujin that I’m not going to mention. Courtesy of more OP spoilers she’s pictured there too – dammit Haru, why do you get all the hot chicks?
Haru got his wings sucked out of his face. CANNOT UNSEE.