Accelerator was having a dream.
He thought that someday, this power might turn the entire world against him and truly destroy everything.
He had that thought when he was a child, when he got scared and swung his arm, and it tore the opponent to pieces.
It was back when he wasn't the strongest esper yet. A classmate who had picked a fight with him screamed, a teacher who tried to intervene was blown away, and a Bureau member who was dispatched was torn to shreds.
He was just scared.
He was just scared of the fists being raised against him and was flailing his arms wildly.
But as the wreckage of the latest equipment and the people he had hurt piled up, he also realized. That he was the dangerous one.
If he continued to repel the threats directed at him, he might eventually destroy the world itself.
To prevent that from happening, he chose to become a person who was not bothered by anything that others did to him. If a person dies from a light touch, then he should become a person as cold as ice whose emotions don't move no matter what is done to him.
The boy grew up, having made a fatally wrong choice.
And then there were researchers who came to him.
"But if you evolve beyond the strongest, something might change, you know?"
Those words seeped into the cracks of his rusted heart.
"To do that, you must follow the plan and carry out the experiment."
If power creates conflict, then he should become an absolute being that no one would even think of fighting.
Thinking about it now, he really...
"What have I been doing..."
---------
"Ah..."
Accelerator's consciousness awakened. His senses slowly became clearer.
He felt a throbbing pain starting from the tip of his nose. The pain intensified when he grimaced.
"Damn it..."
He realized belatedly that this wasn't his usual worn-out room. A clean white futon on a standard mattress. It was a hospital bed.
Something was annoyingly stuck to his cheek.
He moved his hand to check and found it was a piece of gauze covering a wound.
"Ah, I guess... I lost."
He was knocked out and taken to a hospital. What else could you call that but a loss?
It was the first time in his life that Accelerator had suffered a defeat in a battle, but his heart was strangely calm. He had no thoughts of getting revenge on the man who had punched him.
The most accurate word might be "emptiness." It was as if the power he had been holding in for the sake of the title of "strongest" had suddenly drained out of him and he had deflated.
Just then, a woman opened the door to his hospital room and entered.
"Oh, you're awake, it seems. Accelerator."
"You're... Kikyo Yoshikawa, right?"
She was wearing a white lab coat, but it was too dirty for a doctor. Her faded jeans and wrinkled T-shirt were far from clean.
"I'm impressed. I thought we had only exchanged words once or twice."
"Did you quit being a researcher and become a doctor?"
"Sorry, wrong guess. There isn't a doctor who doesn't have a stethoscope hanging around their neck."
"I don't remember asking you to visit me. Why are you wearing a lab coat to make it confusing? Did you panic and rush here after I was taken to the hospital?"
Yoshikawa shrugged as she sat down in a chair.
"That's also wrong. Your being brought here was a mere coincidence. I was here for a different reason than the main purpose of the experiment."
"Huh?"
A different reason from the main purpose...
"Yes. A different reason from the main purpose, but a factor with a big connection to the experiment in another way. I came here for that reason. To be more precise, I'm waiting."
Accelerator didn't ask her to elaborate, but Yoshikawa continued.
"I'm searching for an individual called Last Order."
"Last Order...?"
It was a word he never heard outside of restaurants.
"Yes. Sample number 20001. The development code Last Order is currently missing."
"...Wait a minute. 20001? Didn't the experiment end at exactly 20,000?"
"Oh, are you interested?"
"If you're mocking me, should I 'reflect' all your unnecessary sounds back at you?"
He only asked because she talked to him. Accelerator had no further interest.
"I'm sorry. To answer your question, Last Order is an individual who is not necessary for the experiment. She's like a safety device, you could say."
An experiment carried out using 20,000 artificial espers. The Sisters were obedient, but if they were to rebel, it would be a huge problem.
It would be almost impossible for powerless researchers alone to subdue 20,000 espers.
Furthermore, if the public were to find out, it would be difficult to conceal. The experiment might also come to an end.
That's why Last Order was prepared.
"Do you know the term 'Misaka Network'?"
Accelerator had heard that before.
It was like a brainwave link that connected all the Sisters. The network itself had a giant will, and there were ways to manipulate each of the Sisters.
"Last Order is the opposite of that. She can interfere with the Misaka Network by sending special electrical signals to the brain. In some cases, she can even send a stop signal to all of the 'Misakas'."
She was the ultimate safety device.
"That's why Last Order must not be free. Only a few people, including myself, knew her location. Last Order herself was kept young in both mind and body so that even a researcher could restrain her."
"They make a grim human-shaped remote control."
Last Order was, in a way, a remote control for the Sisters.
If a knowledgeable person were to use her, she would be a very dangerous remote control that could freely manipulate the Sisters.
"So, she's gone?"
"Yes, it's a huge problem."
"When did you find out?"
"About 10 days ago."
"What?!"
It was a little too slow to not have been found and not have her life confirmed for 10 days.
"We had no choice. Although this experiment is tacitly approved, it's a crime that violates international law if it's revealed. We can't ask the Bureau or Butei for help. The rest of us are amateurs when it comes to that kind of thing."
Furthermore, Sho's attack on the research institute also began around that time, and the amount of cleanup doubled with Mikoto's portion as well, which was a big factor.
"I wonder where she is now."
There was an undeniable look of worry on her face. It wasn't about a leak of classified information, but a pure concern for the Sisters.
Yoshikawa was a naive woman.
She had once tried to give names to the Sisters who were genetically identical to the ones they were using for their experiment, to distinguish them.
If she felt sorry for the Sisters, she should have pulled out of the experiment. She should have protested, even if she knew it was pointless.
But she didn't do any of those things.
No matter what, she was a naive woman, not a kind one. That was Kikyo Yoshikawa.
"She's probably dead by now. Her mind and body are still young, which means she's a bigger kid than the usual ones. There's no way a kid like that could survive without anyone's help."
This island isn't exactly a safe place.
There's the Bureau as a police force, but there are just as many esper-related crimes.
"Ah, no, I think she's alive."
"Do you have a reason to think that?"
"Actually, there's a virus in Last Order's head right now."
"...Hey."
Accelerator unintentionally blurted out a comeback at the sudden, unsettling word.
"We couldn't find her, so I tried inputting her personality data into the Tree Diagram. I was hoping to pinpoint her location based on her behavior patterns. And I was surprised. I found a code I had never seen before when I inputted it. I could tell it was something bad from just a little analysis."
"Ten minutes after the virus is activated, it will infect all the Sisters via the Misaka Network. The symptoms we can predict are indiscriminate attacks on humans. Once that happens, it's the end. 10,000 espers who were taught every fighting method imaginable to fight you will go around killing people."
"... ... Wait a minute. Is that going to happen now? Is it?"
"I don't know. But it could happen at any moment."
Even on a normal day on this island, that would be a huge incident.
However, it's August now. Athletes are gathering for various tournaments, and people are coming from outside the island to watch them. Furthermore, important people from various countries are scheduled to gather for a conference to discuss the island.
If the Sisters were to go on a rampage in such a place,
"10,000 artificial espers going on a rampage. It wouldn't be dismissed as a mere blunder by a single research facility. A large number of civilians would be sacrificed. If important people are sacrificed, it could become a spark for war. It would be a huge blunder that could affect the very existence of this island. Radical countries might even aim their warships and missiles at us."
In any case, many lives would be lost.
"So? Who's the cause of this? Was it an industrial spy, or is it a conspiracy by a weapons company that wants war?"
"Who knows? I'm not a detective. But judging by the clarity of the method... especially the virus code for Last Order, it's highly likely to be an inside job."
Here, Yoshikawa stopped talking for a moment, and then,
"So, to go back to my first question."
"What was it again..."
"Why I'm at this hospital."
"Oh, that."
Accelerator had completely forgotten about it because of the shocking story.
"I'm at this hospital to readapt Last Order. There aren't many hospitals on this island with better facilities than this one."
"So you have a lead on where to find her?"
"Right now, the Bureau is looking for her for various reasons. It's thanks to a lot of coincidences."
To break out of this situation, Yoshikawa decided to find a collaborator.
The one she chose was Sho, who had been trying to investigate on his own before he started working with Claudia.
"The security on the internet was pretty sloppy. I looked up his address and sent him an email. I thought he would cooperate since he was going to such lengths to investigate the experiment."
That was today. In other words, the email was sent to the girls who were making a fuss about Sho being missing.
From there, the information was shared among the girls.
The girls, overwhelmed by the sheer scale of it, decided to contact the Sixth Division. At that time, it was already evening. A little before Sho fought Accelerator.
"From there, we explained the situation, and the arrest of the remaining researchers involved in the experiment and the search for Last Order began in parallel. If the culprit behind the Last Order incident is an insider, it's faster to arrest them and get the information from them."
That was the end of Yoshikawa's story.
"You said you were waiting. So you have time to talk to me. You're quite relaxed."
"We're currently verifying the vaccine program. I'll use a PC to check it and fix the parts that are bad. This is the fifth time."
"Well, you can try as hard as you can. It's all your fault for being so careless."
"We are trying our best to prevent that from happening."
Even if Last Order is found, if the vaccine isn't completed, she'll be in danger of going on a rampage forever.
If they determine there's no other way, they'll have no choice but to 'dispose' of her.
By sacrificing just one person, they'll save the world.
"Of course, there's something you can do, too."
"...Huh?"
It was only then that he finally understood why Yoshikawa had explained everything so carefully.
"Hey, do you even know who you're talking to? The person in front of you is the very person who was just killing those Sisters a little while ago. No matter how many people you say you need, you should at least choose who you ask for help."
"I'll have you know that if we hadn't invited you to the experiment, you wouldn't have killed the Sisters. If we had been able to provide a different option."
"Blaming others for your murders is something a lowlife does. I was the one who signed the agreement."
"Oh, that's right. I forgot to mention it. The experiment has been frozen."
"..."
The email Yoshikawa showed him indeed stated that.
"It seems that because you lost, a flaw appeared in the calculations that couldn't be corrected."
"...Is that so."
He never thought the experiment would be canceled so easily. He never thought that an experiment that aimed for an unprecedented achievement would be crushed by a single defeat on his part.
But Accelerator had a feeling it would happen.
Then what would happen to him now? Accelerator vaguely wondered. With the Bureau involved, he had committed murder, even if it was with clones.
The laws and human rights of clones were ambiguous, so the final judgment should take a long time. Would a long life begin from here? It wasn't something to be proud of, but he had no intention of making excuses.
"Are you refreshed now that you don't have to crush those defective clones? Are you disappointed that you couldn't reach Level 6? Are you annoyed that your time was wasted? Do you regret participating in the experiment?"
"...It was a pretty interesting story. When you're done talking, just get out."
"I will. Thank you. Well then, I'm counting on you."
When Yoshikawa left the room, Accelerator clicked his tongue quietly.
"...Damn it."
He felt so bad. Even though he had accepted the cancellation of the experiment so easily. Now, such a small thing was no longer important.
He wondered what Yoshikawa was asking of someone who had killed countless people.
What was he supposed to do now that he was being presented with such a choice?
Was she telling him to use this power, which could only be used to destroy things, for someone he didn't even know?
"Despise me. It seems I'm a person who wants salvation at this point."
He said that as he peeled off the gauze that was stuck to his cheek.
---------
Thirty minutes later, Yoshikawa returned to the hospital room.
"The boy who defeated you seems to have escaped the hospital. I can't believe he managed to sneak out when Hayate Yagami's guard was down. I didn't think he would be the same person I sent an email to, but—Accelerator?"
There was no answer.
She looked inside, suspicious, and the bed was empty.
The hospital gown was discarded on the bed. The window was wide open, and the night breeze was coming in.
"I see."
Yoshikawa's expression was one of relief, affection, and kindness—no, it was one of
"Please, Accelerator."
A 'naive' expression.
--------------------------------------------
🚀 Want Early Access (80+Chapters ahead ) & Bonus Content?
"Loving this story so far? You can read ALL chapters RIGHT NOW by joining my P4tr3on!
✨ Unlock instant access to the full completed novel
✨ No waiting for daily updates
✨ Support your favorite degenerate author (that's me!)
Only $5.99 for the full experience!
🔗 Check my profile for the Link!!