September 15, early morning.
School District 7, a certain hospital.
A sparse scattering of streetlamps cast a cold glow over the road. The branches of the roadside trees swayed in the wind, while a rhythmic sound of footsteps echoed along the silent street.
Like an iron rod striking the ground, shadows fell across Accelerator's slender figure.
Staring at the sign before the inpatient building's gate, Accelerator raised his head and paused for a moment. Then, for some inexplicable reason, he suddenly burst into hysterical laughter.
Heaven only knew which nerve had been struck. His laughter was sharp and full of mockery.
"Just as I thought. How could someone like her possibly have good intentions? Accept her conditions and be healed... Hahaha! What a joke. She means enslavement, doesn't she?!"
Perhaps he was ridiculing the bottomless greed of a person in power like Selene, or perhaps he was merely mocking his own helplessness.
The laughter lasted only four or five seconds before abruptly stopping. Every trace of expression vanished from Accelerator's face. Through his white bangs, his crimson eyes stared fixedly at his left palm.
There was no doubt that Accelerator had rejected Selene's offer.
At the time, Accelerator had already prepared himself to fight to the death and endure whatever torment followed. Unexpectedly, Selene had not reacted at all. She merely tapped the left arm she had once severed and left him with a single sentence: "Just wait and see." Then she teleported away.
"Was she saying that someone like me isn't even qualified to make her act anymore?"
Accelerator clenched his fist and exerted force, feeling the pristine, unscarred left arm that seemed never to have been severed at all. He knew that this arm had been cut off during his first battle with Selene. For it to have been reattached, Academy City's medical technology had likely been supplemented by Selene's Honkai energy.
Perhaps, without his knowledge, Selene had already branded some kind of mark onto his body.
Now she had extended an olive branch. The moment he accepted, that brand would likely burrow completely into his soul. By then, he might no longer be himself, and he would never again be capable of resisting Selene.
He would have sold himself into lifelong servitude and become her dog.
When it came to Selene, Accelerator never hesitated to interpret her intentions with the greatest possible malice.
Still, he really did need to find some way to accelerate his recovery. He would speak to the doctor again tomorrow.
Creak—
"La la la!"
At that moment, a figure suddenly darted out through the inpatient building's entrance. "You're finally back, Misaka Misaka declares happily!"
A miniature Misaka Mikoto rushed over and hugged Accelerator's trouser leg. The little girl wore a yellow T-shirt, gray shorts, and blue sandals, with a long strand of hair sticking straight up from her head. Her face was overflowing with excitement as she said:
"Ooh, ooh! This is the first time Misaka has heated food for someone and made a piping-hot meal, Misaka Misaka says with great excitement! It was amazing! The whole container was steaming, and Misaka Misaka couldn't stop staring at it. Come quickly! Misaka prepared it for you!"
Accelerator could tell from the little girl's bleary eyes that she had stayed awake waiting for him. She had probably failed to endure through the entire night and dozed off halfway, only to be awakened by his laughter before running outside.
"A 'piping-hot meal'? Brat, you can cook? Don't tell me you burned down the hospital kitchen. That old hag will nag me to death..."
Although he instinctively relaxed, the hostility between his brows dissolving as his expression softened, Accelerator's words remained as irritable and impolite as ever. The miniature Misaka Mikoto had clearly grown accustomed to communicating with him through this brand of mutual hostility.
Before he could react, Misaka 10032 grabbed the hem of his trousers with both hands and shook it, trying to drag him into the building.
Accelerator did not resist and simply allowed Misaka 10032 to pull him along.
They entered the auxiliary kitchen on the floor near Accelerator's hospital room. When he saw the undamaged kitchen and the steaming boxed meal sitting on the small dining table, Accelerator secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At least the brat knew her own limits and had not recklessly burned down the hospital kitchen.
Otherwise, he might really have needed to accept Dark Side jobs just to raise the kid and support the household.
The moment he thought about his money, Accelerator cursed under his breath.
Kihara Amata! You damned bastard!
Whether it was his allowance as a Level 5 esper or the compensation he had received for lending his body to countless research projects in the past, Accelerator had accumulated considerable savings, especially since he normally had almost no expenses.
Unfortunately, all of that had ended with the complete failure of the Level 6 Shift Project. Accelerator had been laughably defeated by a mere Level 0, then shot in the head and deprived of his calculation ability.
Academy City had already suspended the Level 5 student allowance it had once paid him. Kihara Amata had also frozen the savings in his account under the pretext of compensating the numerous research institutions for the investment losses they suffered during the Level 6 Shift Project.
Had there not still been a little cash stored in his dormitory, he would not even have been able to afford his hospitalization. Did they think everyone was like a certain Selene?
Few people had objected to Kihara Amata's act of discarding a useful hound once the hunt was over.
After all, they were not running charities. In the eyes of those who knew nothing or understood only part of the situation, the former second-ranked Level 5 had suffered grievous injuries, sustained brain damage, and lost much of his power. Even the strength of his ability had fallen below the threshold of Level 5.
Accelerator could roughly guess why no one had acted against him yet. Quite a few people were probably waiting to see what the third-ranked Dark Matter, Kakine Teitoku, would do—whether he would strike and drag Accelerator down from the second-ranked position.
"It's an instant boxed meal. Brat, when did you learn how to use a microwave?"
Looking at the microwave still plugged into the outlet nearby, Accelerator leaned against a dining chair and yawned.
"What? Is that really how Misaka looks in your eyes? Misaka learned how to use something this simple at a glance, Misaka Misaka protests indignantly!" Misaka 10032 planted both hands on her hips, puffed out her cheeks, and turned her head away.
Accelerator waved a hand dismissively. Still, he did not waste Last Order's goodwill. He truly was hungry. Ever since parting with Selene, he had spent the entire journey lost in thought, hobbling back one painful step at a time with his cane. It was not as though he possessed a spatial ability.
He tore open the packaging. "Beef curry again..." Accelerator's eyes brightened slightly at the sight.
Accelerator liked meat and coffee, especially when the two were mixed together.
"Heeheehee..." Seeing Accelerator devour the food, Misaka 10032 immediately smiled. Her eyes sparkled, and she stopped pouting.
Even though it was only instant convenience food and could hardly be considered her own creation, she had still heated it. Rounding up, that made it her accomplishment.
As he ate, the honk of a braking vehicle sounded outside the door. Not long afterward, footsteps approached, and the sliding door opened.
"Hm? The smell of curry. Instant food... Honestly, you're still growing. You should eat properly instead of always choosing whatever is convenient."
A woman carrying a shoulder bag in one hand calmly walked over and interrupted Accelerator, lightly tapping him on the head. Her long black hair was tied neatly behind her head, and she wore a simple, practical green tracksuit. She possessed the mature, sensual charm of an adult woman, along with an extraordinarily large chest.
It was difficult to imagine that the notoriously irritable second-ranked Level 5 esper would allow someone to knock him on the head without flying into a rage.
Yomikawa Aiho.
She normally worked as a physical education teacher at a certain high school while also serving as an Academy City Anti-Skill officer.
She was one of the rare people who could scold Accelerator as an elder and still receive his acknowledgment.
In mid-August, Accelerator had been awakened by one of Kamijou Touma's personality-correcting punches. From that moment onward, he had come to a sudden realization, throwing himself into saving others and yearning for redemption.
At the research facility, he grew familiar with Yoshikawa Kikyou, a genetics researcher involved in the Level 6 Shift Project who was responsible for maintaining and managing Accelerator in addition to the Misaka Sisters. After learning more of the experiment's inside story, he decided to save Last Order and the nearly ten thousand remaining Sisters.
Through Yoshikawa Kikyou, Accelerator was formally introduced to Yomikawa Aiho.
Yoshikawa Kikyou and Yomikawa Aiho were extremely close friends. Because Yoshikawa's body had yet to recover, she entrusted her old friend Yomikawa with caring for Accelerator and Last Order.
As for why this counted as a formal introduction...
Accelerator had crossed paths with this justice-driven Anti-Skill officer many times back when he still considered himself a villain. At the time, however, he had mostly treated her with disdain.
Yomikawa Aiho enthusiastically participated in and protected Academy City. Her absolute conviction that weapons should never be used against students inspired particular respect in the newly reformed Accelerator.
At the same time, and most importantly, Yomikawa Aiho was now his nominal guardian...
As for why it was not Yoshikawa Kikyou, well, to put it simply, she possessed at least some of the bad habits common among researchers.
Yomikawa Aiho currently looked travel-worn and exhausted. Clearly, she had only just completed an Anti-Skill deployment before returning home in her capacity as a physical education teacher at a certain high school.
Yomikawa Aiho was about to continue when she suddenly noticed someone tugging on her clothes. When she looked down, she unsurprisingly found Misaka 10032.
"Um, please don't blame him. This was all Misaka's fault, Misaka Misaka pleads."
The girl's eyes were filled with tears as she looked at Yomikawa Aiho, her expression begging the woman not to scold Accelerator.
Yomikawa Aiho did not know whether to laugh or cry. When did I become the villain here?
"What a considerate child. I couldn't tell before, but she's rather protective of you." The latter half of her remark was directed at Accelerator.
Yomikawa Aiho gently stroked Misaka 10032's head. The strand of hair sticking up from it was remarkably strange. It seemed almost alive, refusing to stay down no matter how she smoothed it.
"Yomikawa, did last night's work keep you up all night?"
The sliding door opened again. A refined-looking beauty over twenty-five years old entered without makeup, holding a carton of vegetable juice and speaking with easy familiarity.
"It couldn't be helped. That's the nature of Anti-Skill work. I have no idea where so many members of external organizations slipped in from last night..." Seeing her close friend, Yomikawa Aiho waved. After carefully examining her old friend's clothes, her eyes immediately lit up.
"Looks like hospitalization has finally convinced you to stop wearing those faded old jeans with that T-shirt you've washed so many times it's practically worn through," she teased.
"Does it bother you that much? Never mind that for now."
Yoshikawa Kikyou sat down beside Yomikawa Aiho and similarly rubbed Misaka 10032's head. Closing her lips around the straw, she said, "Yesterday's disturbance was fairly large. Even from School District 7, we could see armed helicopters and riot-control units being deployed."
"Yeah. A lot of people died last night." Yomikawa Aiho sighed. "Judging by the insignias painted on the deployed riot units, quite a few of them were even transferred from the Board Directors' residences."
"It was a Tokiwadai girl named Shirai Kuroko, a member of Judgment Branch 3."
"Branch 3... The branches inside the School Garden are essentially the territory of high-level young ladies. As for Shirai Kuroko... she seems to be one of the first-ranked Level 5's few friends. That explains everything."
As a researcher who had participated in the Level 6 Shift Project, Yoshikawa Kikyou knew a considerable amount of classified information.
"Exactly... This never needed to become so bloody. But that young lady made a single phone call, and the orders from above were worded a little too forcefully. That was enough to turn it into this."
Yomikawa Aiho crossed her right leg over her left and leaned weakly against the chair, tilting her head back to stare at the ceiling. "I don't know whether deploying military robots on a large scale to maintain public order is good or bad. Anti-Skill casualties have certainly fallen dramatically, but the rate of accidental injuries and killings during arrests has also increased."
"Their crimes didn't warrant death. They still had a chance to change, but..."
The conversation grew heavy. For a time, the only sound remaining in the floor's auxiliary kitchen was Accelerator chewing his food.
"Hey, hey, Kakine, why are we at the hospital? I don't like this place."
"I don't like it either, but this is necessary. We didn't have time before. Now that we're settling down, you need a full physical examination. Otherwise, I won't be able to stop worrying."
"Oh... Kakine, I'm hungry."
"Hungry? I remember that every floor of this hospital has an auxiliary kitchen..."
The voices of a man and woman sounded outside. The moment Accelerator recognized the male voice, his eating came to an abrupt halt. He rose to his feet and shielded the bewildered Misaka 10032 behind him.
Clatter—
The sliding door opened, and a brown-haired youth entered alongside a petite black-haired girl.
"..."
In that instant, Accelerator and Kakine Teitoku's gazes met.
Both simultaneously noticed the girl standing beside the other.
Oh, you're raising a kid too?
"Dark Matter..." Yoshikawa Kikyou's voice broke the stalemate.
Kakine Teitoku shoved one hand into his pocket and clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Woman, I have a name. I'm not like that scrawny idiot over there who uses his codename as his actual name."
"Heh. What is it, Number Three? Can't wait to push me down the rankings?" Accelerator naturally refused to show weakness.
"I don't want you polluting Ringo's eyes, but if you're that eager to die, I can oblige."
"Right back at you. I don't want a government hound like you polluting the brat's eyes either."
"This is a hospital. Fighting is strictly prohibited." Yomikawa Aiho hurriedly stepped between the two men, whose hostility had reached a breaking point. "As an Anti-Skill officer, I have the authority to stop your behav—"
Before she could finish, a thunderous explosion erupted in the next instant.
Boom—!