Accel World

[Ryllharu]

My bet originally was that Taku was the red king who got beheaded and lost all his points. Chiyu's development suggests otherwise though. I don't know if Taku saved her from something in real life, had sex with her, or simply introduced her to the Accelerated World 2 years ago.

The final idea at this point (and the one that makes the most sense at the moment anyway) is that someone hacked Chiyu to challenge Kuroyuki. It explains why a challenge from Kuroyuki doesn't work neither. Cyan Pile isn't available unless he's proxying through Chiyu.

edit: So.. given all this, it puts my idea of Taku being the beheaded Red King in the backseat a bit. His prowess at Kendo could be contributed to his increased physical training the virtual gaming world OR to his Burst Link abilities. He doesn't seem that confident, so that's why I thought the former.. but still. Or... his lack of confidence may be because he's low on Burst Points?

I would think that it was pretty obvious that Cyan Pile is Taku now, given both what you went over in your post and his dialogue this episode that Haruyuki, "shouldn't make [kendo] sound so easy," with a hurt/distant expression on his face.
(By the way, it looked like Haru was drinking from a bottle of steak sauce or ketchup in that scene.)

He's been challenging Kuroyuki by proxying into their school through Chiyu from the global net, and all this time he's been using Burst Points to stop time against his kendo opponents, read their moves, and then strike appropriately. Now he's running low, and is really desperate.

If this is the case, then it makes Taku a much more interesting character than I had thought. He was impressing Chiyu and others by abusing the points system, and now it's biting him in the ass. He isn't everything that Haruyuki has felt inferior to all this time. All three friends have their own weaknesses and insecurities.

She's upset that he didn't want to hang out with them anymore. I can see that being the case and I don't see any problems with her feeling that way. Haru felt he'd get in the way and left, but she never thought he was getting in the way. More than anything, she didn't want to lose a friend just because she was dating one of them.

She's kind of naive. Haruyuki was trying not to impose on their relationship, whereas Chiyu didn't want to choose, even after she already had. He was being courteous, Chiyu was being selfish without realizing it. You can further see this with how upset and jealous she gets when Kuroyuki takes him, or pays attention to him. She wants to monopolize her male friends. True, Kuroyuki is using him out of revenge or fear, but she does seem to genuinely like him, she just hasn't expressed her own reasons for doing so.

The bed scene was great. If anything proves Chiyu's defenseless naiveté, it was flopping on the bed with one leg propped up, and then suggesting that he should get on top of her, rather than the two of them sitting against the bed on the floor. She either really trusts him, doesn't think of him as a man, or simply doesn't even realize (the most likely).