She slammed into the floor once, then bounded back up like a basketball. As she did, she desperately balled herself up to roll over the floor and avoid the concentrated attack. Because the concrete that made up the underground mall’s ceiling (and therefore, the aboveground surface) was destroyed, parked passenger vehicles and such also rolled down in the avalanche.
“!!”
Kinuhata didn’t pause to think.
She grabbed a car falling at her with one hand. Her petite palm touched the door area and made an awful cracking noise. Countless wrinkles shot through the metal frame, as though she’d clutched a cushion.
She’d acquired a hulk weighing about five hundred kilograms, but it wasn’t so she could use it as a defensive shield.
It was a weapon to throw at her opponent and crush her.
That was right when Stephanie Gorgeouspalace stepped on the landslide of concrete wreckage to approach the underground mall.
Her footing was unstable, creating a situation where she wouldn’t be able to immediately jump left or right to avoid it.
And Kinuhata planned on using all her strength to kill her.
… Comin’ at ya!!
She twisted her upper body once, fueling it, and swung around the passenger vehicle. Now she just had to let go, and an attack like a giant, building-destroying wrecking ball would fly straight at Stephanie.
She didn’t know if the woman was a soldier from outside or a mercenary, but she wouldn’t be able to stand up to an Academy City–made Level Four.
That was what she thought anyway.
Ga-krrsh!!
Stephanie’s shotgun struck the vehicle right in the fuel tank.
It was a literal instant before Kinuhata let go.
Wha—?
The car’s rear half transformed into a crushed empty can. Then, all that fluid stored in the tank ignited like a bomb.
Sound vanished.
Her vision was wiped out by a single flash of light.
Struck by the blast wind, Kinuhata’s body hurtled to the side. Intense light and heat rushed into the underground mall, which had little illumination save for its fluorescent lighting, and black smoke crawled along the ceiling.
Her counterattack had been stopped by yet another.
But what surprised Kinuhata wasn’t only Stephanie’s quick wits.
It was the foundation underpinning them.
She’s … used to this? This outsider is super-knowledgeable about how to fight espers like me … ?
Logically, that was impossible. Even within Academy City, where supernatural powers were just a part of life, not many would be able to lead the Level Four Kinuhata around this easily. And there couldn’t have been a whole lot of individuals who could match her technology and tactics from the outside world.
“Wait…”
After realizing that, she unsteadily looked up.
Stephanie, shotgun in hand, was descending the rubble and entering the underground mall.
“Wait, are you…?”
“Oh, you finally figured it out? Before becoming a mercenary, I was an average person who lived in a peaceful country…It was the guilt. I knew there were people suffering out of fear of bullets and artillery and land mines, yet, I could fully enjoy a relaxed peace. That was why I decided to save the people embroiled in warfare.”
As the blonde pointed her hot barrel at her, she smiled and said, “Yes, I was originally from Academy City. I used Anti-Skill’s arresting techniques for killing. That was why Mr. Sunazara, a sniper, looked at you so oddly, wasn’t it?”
So that was why.
Why Stephanie Gorgeouspalace knew exactly how to kill espers.
“If I remember right, you can use the nitrogen in the air to block my attacks, right?”
Slip.
She pointed her light submachine gun in a completely different direction.
“I’ll start by messing that up. Fortunately, there seem to be many delicious restaurants in this underground mall…How many propane gas tanks would you say there are?”
She pulled the trigger.
3
Accelerator proceeded down the midnight streets in the sports car, chauffeured by the high school student. After getting in touch with Tsuchimikado via cell phone, he learned the other members were currently fleeing using their own routes, like he thought. And then:
“Great. I think you’re the first one to get out of the pursuit unit’s encirclement. I want you to go to District 21 now. There’s an observatory in the mountains.”
“Eh? What, does Shiokishi have a shelter in the mountains, too?”
“No. He’s an official General Board member. If we want to take him down, we’ll need to be prepared politically … Meaning we’ll need someone with the General Board’s level of authority. The twelve board members are a wily bunch. The one at that observatory is probably the only one we can hope for any cooperation from,” explained Tsuchimikado, adding under his breath, “Tsugutoshi Kaizumi is a good person, but the brains of his operation is Seria Kumokawa, a female high school student, who is too much of a genius for him to handle.”
“Well, who the hell’s this person who could help us out?”
“Monaka Oyafune,” answered Tsuchimikado immediately. “She’s having an astronomical observation event as charity with the kids who were kidnapped in the Hula Hoop incident … She’s the best person out of the General Board. I don’t like to do things this way, but she owes us. This might be the only chance we ever have to negotiate with her.”
With that, the sports car Accelerator sat in headed for District 21.
This school district was the only mountainous one in Academy City. Nevertheless, its altitude was extremely low, and even the highest peak only reached about two hundred meters. The district was famous for its reservoir as well as its animal and plant research, but many also knew it as a center for astronomy.
Small parabolic antennae, each about one meter across, possibly a type of radio telescope, lined the slope at constant intervals. The mountain roads Accelerator and the student’s car drove up were intentionally free of most artificial light. Skid marks were visible in several places on hilly, curved parts of the road. Maybe they held illegal street races here on weekends.
The observatory was near the center of the mountains.
It was on a large concrete land, the only flat place here, as though rebelling against the mountains’ slopes. The sports car entered the parking lot. When it did, Accelerator spotted a small bus. There was nobody inside; the kids must have been having fun, safe at the event they’d planned to have from the start.
“You can drop me off here,” said Accelerator, opening the passenger door and pushing the tip of his crutch onto the asphalt.
The high schooler serving as his driver frantically interrupted him. “H-hey, wait a minute! What about my debt to you? Even a grunt like me can tell you got involved in something crazy. I can’t just call it quits after giving you a quick lift.”
“I didn’t do anything amazing. If you do any more than this, I’ll be the one who owes you,” said Accelerator, getting out of the car and standing up on his crutch. “…And if you go any deeper, you could end up a target, too. I don’t care what happens to random lackeys, but if someone uses that pregnant lady I saved as a hostage, it’d leave a bad taste in my mouth.”
“You’re…”
“I’ll contact you if I really need help. Stay hidden until then. It’s important to keep the useful pieces stowed away. That’s how we survive. Let me use you like that.”
“All right. Hey, let’s trade cell numbers. If things get bad, make sure to give me a call.”
They both used their cell phones’ infrared communication function to exchange phone numbers.
After that was completed, the high school student finally drove off in the sports car and left the observatory, albeit reluctantly.
Anyway … thought Accelerator with a short sigh.
The number he’
d given him was obviously a dummy he’d set up in advance, and he’d rejected the incoming number as well. Now their connection to each other had disappeared completely. It was Accelerator’s way of tying up loose ends.
He looked toward the large observatory building from the parking lot.
In there was one of the General Board members: Monaka Oyafune. The VIP that would be the key to defeating another board member, Shiokishi.
If she was the best person on the board, then she was probably Accelerator’s polar opposite.
He’d never actually talked to her before, but Oyafune owed Accelerator for two things. The first was, as Tsuchimikado mentioned, the fact that they’d saved those kids at the Hula Hoop. The second was when they’d stopped a sniping attempt on Oyafune during the clash between Group, School, Item, Member, and Block.
Tsuchimikado had a forked tongue, so he probably wanted him to use those points skillfully to get her cooperation—and as was clear from Accelerator’s words and actions, no job was more unsuited to him.
… This is going to be a pain in the ass.
He scratched his head, then walked with his crutch toward the observatory. Whatever the case was, he’d have to see her face-to-face and start talking before anything would happen, but…
“Please go home.”
That was quick, thought Accelerator.
Incidentally, the one who had insulted him as soon as he’d opened his mouth in the parking lot a short distance from the observatory had not been Monaka Oyafune, but a short man who appeared to be her secretary. Accelerator didn’t know how many secretaries the lady had or how many she’d gone through, but the man who stood before him appeared highly strung, glaring at Academy City’s number one and blocking his path to Oyafune.
“And yes, even Mrs. Oyafune was very skilled in her time. She excelled in negotiation and bargaining rather than using force, but she was so feared by foreign diplomats they called her tactics peaceful acts of invasion.”
The secretary’s fists, which had never punched another person before, trembled as he spoke.
“But she’s done with that now. She doesn’t live a life of going back and forth between light and dark anymore. Don’t you understand that? You’ve looked at the peaceful world from the darkness all this time. Don’t you know how difficult and important it is to cast that away? Or are you so addled with your world that you don’t even understand that?”
Accelerator tsked in irritation, but it wasn’t particularly toward what the secretary had to say.
… “Most likely to cooperate,” my ass. This just turned into the biggest pain of them all. How dare he use me like some dime-a-dozen minion. Next time I see him, I’m gonna need to put five bullets in him before I’m satisfied…
He felt something seething in his stomach, but he didn’t show it. Instead, he said, “Sorry to bother you.”
“…You’re…giving up?”
“Hey, you’re the one who told me to. What, would you rather stand your ground and make this a bloodbath?”
“Even if I had to, it wouldn’t change what I need to do.”
The secretary’s face paled, as though he’d only just now considered the possibility. But he still wouldn’t yield the way.
Accelerator questioned, “Can I ask you one thing? What the hell happened to her?”
“…Her daughter,” answered the man after a pause. “When the General Board was deciding on provisions related to the restrictions of weapon export to the outside, Mrs. Oyafune, who was anti-munitions, used her own bargaining tactics to gain advantages with it. She truly hated warfare. But then, an envelope arrived at her office. In it were an unused magnum and a picture of her daughter…Nothing came of it in the end, but I suspect Shiokishi, a supporter of the munitions business.”
“…” Accelerator’s eyebrow very slightly, but very certainly, moved.
As though he’d acknowledged Academy City’s number one as a person now that he’d said he’d leave, the short secretary averted his eyes as he continued. “Mrs. Oyafune withdrew from the front lines after that. She’d live in a sphere that doesn’t contact this city’s darkness, but it also blocks what happens in the darkness without them knowing, in such a way that they won’t go after her…That’s how she wants to live now, foolish though it may sound. It’s a very delicate balance—a golden ratio created by Monaka Oyafune, skilled negotiator…If you and yours intervene, that balance collapses. Her daughter and others close to her would end up being targeted again.”
“That so?” muttered Accelerator under his breath.
Just as he was about to turn his back on the secretary, Monaka Oyafune had finally noticed their little squabble. The old woman came running out to where he was. The secretary’s expression changed, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Excuse me, but…Who might this be?” asked Oyafune, mystified, looking at Accelerator.
Accelerator had once saved her life in secret from a sniper’s attempt to kill her, but because it had been secret, Oyafune probably didn’t know who he was.
“…Never mind.” He wasn’t about to boast about it, either. Tsuchimikado had told him to use it to his advantage, but that thick-skinned, shameless bastard could go to hell for all he cared. “Just asking directions.”
Finished speaking, Accelerator started to turn his back to Oyafune and her secretary.
But this time, the secretary began to question him.
“…And what about you? You must have at least known things wouldn’t have gone the way you wanted them to. But you came anyway. Here’s my final question: What happened?”
“Why would you need to know?” spat Accelerator in response. “You turned me down, and now you only want to know what’s going on? It would just add to your burden. You’re better off not knowing what sort of trouble is going on between that bastard Shiokishi and me.”
“…” The secretary’s expression shifted.
Details aside, he’d probably gotten a good idea of what was happening. For whatever reason, he knew that Accelerator needed to fight one of the General Board members, and to do that, he needed Oyafune’s assistance as another board member. Nine times out of ten he wouldn’t be able to beat Shiokishi without her help, and even if he had managed, he’d still be treated as a criminal.
Out of reflex, the secretary looked away from Accelerator. “…Sorry.”
“It’s my problem. Nothing you need to get involved with,” Accelerator replied, sounding tired of the nonsense. “I should have just done this myself to begin with. It might cause some problems, but it wouldn’t have gotten you tangled up in it.”
Once the fight with Shiokishi ended, Accelerator would probably be branded a terrorist.
After losing all support, he’d be unable to live life the way he had been. He wouldn’t be able to see Last Order very easily anymore, either. And if their interests clashed, he could also end up fighting Motoharu Tsuchimikado, Mitsuki Unabara, and Awaki Musujime.
But—
So what?
Hadn’t he made this decision for himself? That he’d keep fighting to protect Last Order, even if he had to make an enemy out of Last Order herself? This didn’t change anything. His course was set—he didn’t have to drag Oyafune into it.
“Sorry for bothering you. Forget what you heard here. I’ll settle the score with that shithead myself.”
Without waiting for an answer, Accelerator turned his back completely this time.
But then—
“What are you doing?!”
Suddenly, he heard a new voice.
It belonged to a boy who couldn’t have been older than ten. It was one of the grade school kids who had been part of the astronomical observation charity event. And it was the hostage boy Accelerator had saved at the Hula Hoop in the nick of time.
“You’re the hero from earlier, right?” the kid tried again. “What are you doing here?”
“…Nothing.”
“I heard you talking before.”
; Accelerator and the secretary looked at the boy anew. He’d come closer in the meantime. With no hesitation—right up to Academy City’s number-one monster. Without an ounce of caution, probably because he’d saved his life.
“I didn’t know what you were talking about, but you’re going to fight again, right? To save people in a situation like I was in?”
The boy looked straight up into Accelerator’s eyes as he spoke.
“Then I’m coming, too.”
… Are you kidding me? wondered Accelerator, unconsciously wanting to face-palm. “Get lost, stupid brat. Who’s going to fight with whom, here?”
“Well, those people said they’d abandon us!!”
The abrupt comment surprised Monaka Oyafune most of all. The secretary frowned slightly, as if he had an idea.
“I know you wouldn’t fight for something stupid. And I know you’re going somewhere really dangerous! So I’m going, too. I won’t let you be alone. If there are people in trouble like I was, then I want to fight, too!!”
He had no idea what was happening, but he spoke sincerely.
Considering the child’s practical usefulness in combat, it was an all-too-unrealistic request. Despite that, Accelerator didn’t ignore him and leave. Even though he was looking directly down at the boy, he responded to his honest words with an honest reply of his own.
“…I don’t need your help.”
“But—”
“I was alone at the Hula Hoop, idiot. Did it look like I was ever in any danger from those terrorist insects?”
“I don’t know. I was blindfolded.”
“Right. Then I’ll just tell you—I was in no danger then, and I’ll be in none now.”
That wasn’t true.
Accelerator knew the truth; he reigned over the world of darkness, after all—but Monaka Oyafune and her stocky secretary knew it, too.
Accelerator was strong. But in order to wield his power to its fullest in the darkness, he needed the support of several departments and agencies, not the least of which was the General Board. Losing all that, making them into his enemies, turning all of Academy City’s military against him—that bespoke incredible danger.
A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 19 Page 13