Part 6
Accelerator could clearly see the explosion even from where he waited.
Something white was floating up into the air, but he wasn't sure if it was smoke or dust made up of building material. He took his modern cane and headed in that direction when he received even more information.
The asphalt had been blown upwards from below.
A large number of fragments had spread around and had smashed car windshields and restaurant windows to pieces.
A girl was crouched down holding her bleeding head.
He could hear groans and cries from all over the place and the distant sound of an approaching ambulance's siren was mixed in with it all.
The former Spark Signal group seemed to have already fled.
"(…Damn villains.)"
Accelerator looked at the yelling people and at the onlookers who had gathered as he ever so slightly gritted his teeth.
"(…So this is the result when a bunch of piece of shit villains gather together.)"
Tsuchimikado and the others were likely in pursuit of the former Spark Signals, but Accelerator had no intention of just doing what he said. It was upon seeing that scene that he truly started considering shooting the former Spark Signals.
His fingertips slowly approached the switch to the choker-style electrode around his neck, but then he heard an especially loud yell.
A lot of people had been caught up in the sudden incident, but that one stood out among them all. Accelerator looked in that direction without really thinking about it, approached, and saw a high school-aged boy yelling at a rescue worker. It seemed the rescue worker was trying to treat a woman the boy knew, but the student was frantically trying to stop him.
"…?"
The woman looked college-aged or older. The papers that had fallen from her bag looked school related, so she might have been a teacher. She looked more seriously injured than the high school boy who had only a single trail of blood on his forehead. She was slumped over unconscious. Normally, she would need to be treated right away, but…
"Stop!! Stop!! Don't use that medicine!! You can't!! It'll just have the opposite effect!!"
"But if she doesn't get something to give her some strength, she won't make it to the hospital! Do you know what her heart rate is!? I already checked, and she showed no allergic reaction to this drug. Why are you trying to stop me from treating her!?"
Both the high school boy and the rescue worker were getting worked up.
"…You just can't," the boy clinging to the rescue worker's arm finally said as if he were squeezing out the words. "She's…pregnant."
With that last word, the rescue worker's expression turned to one of shock. There was no need to ask for the details regarding that situation.
The high school boy averted his gaze and desperately moved his trembling lips.
"I've heard that drugs that normal people have no issue with can have a negative effect on a fetus. What about that one? Will it really be okay? What if that kills it!?"
"W-well…"
It was a delicate situation. The drug had been developed on the assumption that it would not be used on infants or pregnant women, so no tests had ever been run. Not even a professional rescue worker like him knew what to do when it actually came down to it.
"I'll be honest. When I first heard that she was pregnant, I thought my life was over. I didn't know what to do. I just wished the problem could disappear… actually, I still feel that way. I still wonder why things ended up this way." The high school boy bit his lip. "We were walking along here on what I suppose could be called a date. It was mostly to calm me down from the panic I was in. I just couldn't figure out what to do. But this isn't what I wanted. Is it really going to end like this? What do I want to do? Did I want to leave her? Then why am I clinging to her like this…?"
After saying that much, he fell silent.
Finally, he desperately moved his lips, speaking quietly in a cracking voice.
"I don't want to lose them…"
As the high school boy trembled, tears welled up in his eyes and he used all his strength to yell.
"Even if I decided in this direction, this isn't how I would have wanted it!! I still have no idea what I want to do, but I can't let it end like this!! Please, do something!! You're an expert at saving people's lives, right!? So please save both of them!!"
The rescue worker seemed a bit flustered.
However, no matter how much he thought about it, there was only one thing he could do.
One path would likely save neither and the other would certainly save one.
As a professional, he knew which one he had to choose.
"…Let me use this. If I don't, the mother will die, too!!"
"But…!!"
As they once again reached their stalemate, they both heard the sound of a cane striking the ground.
It was Accelerator.
"Out of the way."
"Hah…? W-wait a second! Outsiders shouldn't do anythi—!!"
Accelerator knocked the rescue worker aside without even waiting for him to finish speaking and moved to the spot the man had previously been in. He leaned over and reached a hand up to the switch of his choker electrode. He then lightly reached a hand towards the pregnant woman's belly.
He had once calculated back from the electrical signals on the surface of the skin in order to completely rewrite the structure of a small girl's brain so he could save her.
It was not difficult for him to gather accurate information on the fetus by touching the pregnant woman's belly.
(…Gender: Female. Weight: 244 grams. Nutrition Supply Level: 3825. Consciousness Operation Rate: 3.8. Heart Rate: 60. Stimulus Reaction Rate: 5.52. Cell Division: 88…)
After only a few seconds with his eyes shut, Accelerator returned the electrode's switch to normal.
He spoke to the rescue worker who had fallen to the ground.
"Give her the drug. Give her 2.5 grams of ectrin. Put a surface chip over her carotid artery and inject it inside her over five 10 second periods with 20 second breaks in between. That will do it."
"Wait!!" The one objecting was the high school boy not the rescue worker. "What will happen to the fetus!?"
"That's what I was fucking calculating, you piece of shit!!" Accelerator yelled back and the boy fell silent.
The #1 continued on.
"If you truly don't want them to die, then do as I say. If you do that, it won't have any negative effects on the mother or the fetus. You don't want them both to die while you argue, do you?"
Having said what he had to say, Accelerator turned towards the rescue worker without waiting for the boy to respond.
"If you're gonna do it, you only have 5 minutes to decide. You want to save both if you can, right? Then try my way. You'll still be using the same drug. Do you really have any reason not to do it?"
The rescue worker shook his head and pulled a chip that looked like a stick of gum out of his kit. As Accelerator told him, he put the chip on her neck for a short time, pulled it off, and then continued to repeat the action.
And once he had done it 5 times like Accelerator had said…
"…Uuh…"
At first, the high school boy did not know who had made that small groan.
When the woman who had been unconscious up until that point opened her eyes, it truly looked like the boy was going to collapse to the ground.
"…It had no effect on the fetus. Doesn't look like there was any change to its cell division rate. Just take her to the hospital like this," Accelerator said to the rescue worker after having briefly flipped on the electrode and used his fingertips to check.
"But don't take her to the District 3 hospital. Take her to District 7 instead. It's a bit farther away, but that hospital definitely won't try to avoid dealing with her. With a delicate patient like her, not all places you take her will accept her. Taking her somewhere you know will take her will be quicker overall."
Accelerator then turned his back on them.
He couldn't stay there forever. To make sure the same thing didn't happen again, he had to take out the fleeing former Spark Signals.
And then…
"Hey!! Wait a second! Hey!!"
It was the high school student. He was yelling after Accelerator who stopped in place but did not turn around.
The boy desperately spoke to Accelerator's back.
"Thank you. If you hadn't done something there, I definitely would have lived the rest of my life as an empty shell."
"...Fuck off," Accelerator muttered, but it seemed the boy hadn't heard him.
He continued to speak.
"I won't forget what you did for me. I will never forget that you saved something more important to me than my own life!! If you ever need something from me, I can try to pay you back. So…"
The boy's words trailed off.
He did so because of a sharp noise and a dull shock on his cheek.
He wasn't quite sure what had happened and then he noticed something black and hard pressed up against his forehead. It was a small handgun. Accelerator had pulled the gun from his belt, lightly struck the boy on the cheek with the grip, and then stuck the barrel up against his forehead. It seemed this was going to cause another uproar, but the #1 didn't seem to care.
He repeated his two words from before.
"Fuck off."
For a bit, the high school boy was unable to speak and he took a few steps back. Finally, he bowed deeply in thanks to Accelerator. He then turned his back and ran towards the ambulance the woman he knew had been loaded onto.
After the ambulance drove off, Accelerator put the handgun back in his belt and slowly looked around the area.
"…"
He muttered something.
However, what he said did not reach anyone's ears.
Finally, he reached a slender finger up towards the electrode's switch.
An explosive noise rang out.
The injured and the onlookers at the scene did not see Accelerator after that.
All that was left was a new large crack running across the asphalt that seemed to indicate the fury of a monster.
Part 7
Hamazura Shiage was driving the (stolen) family car from District 7 to District 3. He was on an overhead bypass road. He was supposed to be chasing after the terrorists to help out Kinuhata, but…
"Hey, what the fuck!? What the hell is that chasing us!?"
With a look of shock, Hamazura checked the rearview mirror and then turned his head around to get a better look.
His reaction wasn't too surprising.
"That's an HsAFH-11 'Six Wings'. …It's an unmanned attack helicopter," said Kinuhata with a look of light irritation one would usually associate with getting caught in traffic.
The military helicopter reminded Hamazura of an Apache and it looked like it had a wing with missiles on it sticking out on the left and right. But that wasn't quite accurate. The wings split into three each forming six wings that moved around like the joints in a human arm as they aimed.
All six wings were aimed at the family car Hamazura was driving.
As Hamazura looked in the mirror at the helicopter that was flying at low altitude and matching their speed, he gave a loud gulp.
"Fuck this!! All I did was steal a car to help you out! Does that usually turn out this badly!?"
"Does that look like an Anti-Skill toy, Hamazura!? It super isn't!!"
"Then what is it? Is this a counterattack by the terrorists you're after? Do the terrorists have weapons like this!?"
"No, the Six Wings is an unmanned weapon belonging to Academy City's air defense unit. They super wouldn't send this out for just a criminal!"
"So this is Academy City doing this!? And high up in the city at that!? I can only think of one reason why this is happening and that's the fact that you ignored the order you got on the phone!!"
"…Hmm. I think you might be jumping to a hasty conclusion."
"Why are you so relaxed!? Do you understand the situation here!? Do you know how fast a military helicopter can fly!?"
"Hm? That's a super HsAFH-11, so its maximum speed is around 3000 kph."
"Mach 2.5!? Is that thing really a helicopter!?"
"It super can't use its rocket engines when its wings are spread out like that because the wind pressure would super damage its joints. Right now, it can only go about 3 or 4 hundred kph."
"Either way, we're kinda fucked with only this family car!!"
The Six Wings had perfectly matched its movements to those of the family car, so it looked frozen in place in the mirror. …Hamazura didn't know the details, but it seemed to have locked onto them.
"What do we do!? If that thing shoots a missile, it's all over!!"
"We just need to pray it uses a short range anti-armored vehicle missile," was the ridiculous-sounding thing Kinuhata said as she bent over as if she were tying her shoes.
"I don't see how that makes much of a difference!!"
"It does," said Kinuhata as she straightened back up. "It seems the Six Wings super uses an SRM21 for a short range anti-armored vehicle missile. It super uses an infrared sensor to get a lock."
"And!? Whether it uses a very high frequency radar, infrared rays, or ultraviolet rays, we still can't get away from it!! Do you know how fast a missile moves!?"
"Here, super breathe in some of this smokescreen and calm down."
"Cough cough!? A-a smoke grenade!! Don't activate that thing in the car!!"
"Are you sure? Using it this way can be super useful," Kinuhata said nonchalantly as she threw the smoke grenade out the passenger side window.
Immediately afterwards, a comparatively short missile was fired from one of the Six Wings' arm-like wings.
Hamazura thought his heart was going to stop, but the missile did not strike the family car's exhaust pipe blowing the car away.
They avoided that fate due to the smoke grenade.
The dummy heat source had made the short range missile to veer off course.
"That's super what you call a flare," Kinuhata said smoothly, but the threat was not over.
With a loud boom, the missile exploded on the road surface where the smoke grenade had landed. They had avoided a direct hit, but the intense explosive wind created assaulted the family car. The car's windows shattered and the car itself trembled unnaturally. Hamazura desperately tried to bring the car's spin under control.
Meanwhile, the Six Wings continued to follow the family car as the wind from its rotor blew away the smoke caused by the explosion.
Even though Hamazura could just floor it because there were almost no other cars on the road, the family car just didn't have enough speed to outrun the attack helicopter.
"What do we do? I'm pretty sure you only had one smoke grenade and it'll probably decide to switch over to its machine gun meaning we can't use any kind of flare defense again."
"Hamazura, turn super left at the next branch in the road."
"Hah? Eh? What are you saying? I can't hear you over the wind."
"Fnhh!!"
Kinuhata said nothing more and instead suddenly grabbed the hand brake from the passenger seat.
The family car suddenly decelerated and slid to the side as if it were drifting.
Having suddenly started to move diagonally, the car shot into the left branch of the road.
"Waaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"
Hamazura frantically put the hand brake back to normal and turned the wheel. Hitting the brake would definitely have put them in a spin, so he just used the steering wheel to bring the car back from the vector it was drifting in without decelerating.
"What the hell was that for!?"
"I super want us to survive this. Hamazura, head straight through this main road. It's a super large road with 3 lanes on either side, but just head super straight without even changing lanes if you can help it."
"Have I gotten involved in something dangerous again without realizing it?"
"Isn't that super normal for you? Anyway, just head super straight."
"Is this really okay? I know it won't actually save us, but wouldn't it be better to zigzag back and forth to throw off its aim?"
As he complained, Hamazura drove the family car as instructed. He looked around while stepping on the gas. The area had a lot of skyscrapers, so the Six Wings chasing after them would naturally head in a straight line. It looked like the helicopter would hit a wall if it tried to move around much.
And on top of that, there were occasional signs on the sides of buildings and other overhead roads crossing above theirs. This meant that the Six Wings would have to lower its altitude while chasing the family car. It was now flying just a bit off the ground almost at the car's level.
"Hey, Kinuhata, is this…Bfh!?"
Hamazura looked over towards the passenger seat and then did what would have been a spit take had he been drinking something.
Kinuhata Saiai was leaning forward out the passenger side window. In fact, everything but her legs was sticking out the window. Her slender legs were wrapped around the seat to hold herself in place as she pointed a handgun back behind the car.
However, the fast-moving car was naturally creating quite a bit of wind.
"W-wow!! Wow!! Those panties!! Kinuhata, this goes well beyond the level of just a panty shot!! Your panties!! What are you going to do about your panties!?"
Kinuhata then shot a bullet through the car into the driver side door.
"…Do super nothing other than looking forward and focusing on driving!"
"Yes!! But your panties!!"
Kinuhata ignored Hamazura who was getting all worked up over something weird and went back to aiming the handgun behind the family car. As if in response, the barrel of the Six Wings' machine gun started to move.
"Kinuhata, this is impossible!! Maybe if you had some kind of antiaircraft gun, but a tiny little 9 mm isn't going to get through a military helicopter's armor!!"
"…The bullets I'm super using are made to be destroyed easily. They're made of something like papier-mâché so they will super smash to pieces. They're meant to be used in small areas where a ricocheting bullet could super hurt an ally."
"Then that's even worse for attacking armor!!"
"Who said I was shooting at its armor?" Kinuhata muttered out of annoyance. "I'm super shooting at the engine's air intake."
Multiple gun shots rang out. The bullets seemed to be almost sucked into the small hole below the helicopter rotor.
Just like a car, a helicopter had its fuel react with the air to create energy, so they needed a hole to suck in air. If a foreign object was brought in there, the engine would stall causing the helicopter to crash.
However, a few countermeasures were used in normal air intakes to prevent that kind of trouble. The downward wind created by the rotor prevented dust and sand from getting in and a wire mesh was usually put over it to prevent foreign materials from getting in. Something as big as 9 mm would not be sucked in.
But Kinuhata Saiai had used bullets made of a papier-mâché-like material so they would break to pieces as soon as it hit its target instead of ricocheting.
Yes, it broke to pieces just like dried papier-mâché being broken.
The created particles were even finer than normal dust, so the extremely narrow openings in the wire mesh over the air intake were large enough for them to get through. And once the foreign substance was within the engine, the engine burnt out and failed to work properly. The Six Wings lost a good bit of its lift.
With an explosive noise, black smoke started to rise from the helicopter's engine.
Just as the Six Wings started to veer slightly from the road, it started scraping across the asphalt.
That helicopter was loaded with fuel for the rotor, special fuel for the rocket engine, missiles, and ammunition for its machine guns as it crashed.
"Yes!! I super got him!!"
Kinuhata almost seemed to slither back into the passenger seat like a snake, but Hamazura had more important things to focus on.
A giant shockwave struck the family car that made the previous one from the short range missile seem like nothing. He lost control of the steering wheel almost instantly and the car finally entered a true spin.
"Dammit!! Kinuhata! Use your Offense Armor!! If you can stop a shot from a sniper rifle, you can do something about this, right!?"
"Wait, Hamazura—!!" Kinuhata said as if protesting something, but he didn't have time to listen.
The family car struck the side wall of the road.
"Kh…"
Hamazura's consciousness cut out and he eventually came to and sat up. His body had been thrown out of the car, but it seemed he had escaped any difficulties by hitting a balloon made of synthetic fiber that was filled with a large amount of water. They were lined up on the side of the road to soften the blow of any accidents.
(Where's Kinuhata…?)
Hamazura looked around and towards the crashed family car, but he didn't see her. He actually didn't know how long he had been unconscious, so he assumed she had come to before him. Perhaps she had been unable to find him and had gone off to take care of the terrorists on her own.
(Things can never be easy, can they?)
He stood up and checked his arms and legs, but none of them seemed to be broken.
From a sign he could see, it seemed they had entered District 3 while being chased by the helicopter.
He started wondering whether he should find Kinuhata and continue helping her or go meet up with Takitsubo, but it became a moot point.
His cell phone started to ring.
It was a suspicious call that withheld its number, but Hamazura had a general idea what kind of person was calling at a time like that.
"Hello, it's been a while. If I told you I was Measure Heart, would that be enough for you to at least remember what I look like?"
"…Why do you know my number?"
"Do you want me to explain every little thing? That would be a real pain, so I won't. More importantly, I have a question for you: Is Kinuhata Saiai with you? I've been trying to call her, but I can't get a hold of her."
"…"
Hamazura Shiage looked over at the crashed Six Wings.
"So that was yours."
"?"
He heard an odd breath rather than words.
She seemed to be surprised about something.
"I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I'll tell you something if you're in contact with Kinuhata. If she's going to do this on her own, we'll leave her alone, but the former Spark Signal terrorists have taken over a private salon in District 3. Of course, if she's going to give up, we would be glad to take care of it."
"A private salon…in District 3…?" Hamazura muttered in what was almost a moan.
Wasn't that where Takitsubo Rikou was waiting for them having just left the hospital?
Part 8
Hamazura Shiage ran through District 3 at night.
He repeatedly prayed that it wasn't true, but the situation was quite severe.
Anti-Skill was surrounding the skyscraper Takitsubo was supposed to be in, so he couldn't even get inside. The yellow tape marking off the area hit Hamazura's heart as a danger signal.
He heard a loud, dry noise coming from the upper levels of the building that sounded like a gunshot.
After he heard that, Hamazura Shiage took a deep breath and made up his mind.
The terrorists had taken over the private salon building.
Takitsubo Rikou most likely could not escape.
In that case, what he had to do was clear.
"God damn it…" Hamazura muttered because he didn't really want to have anything to do with the incident.
He then started repeating the same curse growing louder and louder.
"God damn it! God damn it!! God damn it!!!!! Why? Why here of all places!? There are tons of other buildings! Why the hell did they have to choose this one!?"
As he yelled, he turned his back on the private salon. He looked around and spotted an unnaturally placed garbage truck. He unhesitatingly approached it, forced open the passenger side door, and climbed in.
The driver was shocked.
"Waahh!? What the-..!? Are you trying to rob me!?"
"Let's cut the crap. You're a subordinate in the underworld like me, right?" Hamazura asked in a low voice as he stuck one hand in his pocket.
The garbage man in a work uniform's face stiffened and Hamazura continued on.
"I'm sure you can tell from my face that I'm making some preparations for helping out my boss. …Hand over your backup gun. Of course, I could always just kill you and take it."
Rationally speaking, someone with a weapon wouldn't demand a weapon from someone else, but the garbage man hadn't realized that. He pulled out a cheap-looking bag and handed a small handgun and a few extra magazines that were inside to Hamazura.
"Wh-where exactly are you assigned? If you need a weapon, can't you just go through the proper procedure…?"
The man assumed wrong, but Hamazura just averted his gaze.
What was he doing?
Hamazura Shiage was just a Level 0. He didn't have any kind of special power at his disposal to defeat an incoming enemy like Kinuhata Saiai had. He was weak enough that he could easily be killed in a street fight with delinquents if he wasn't careful.
"I'm not assigned anywhere. I've already retired," he muttered after thinking for a bit.
Despite being weak, Hamazura knew that the world was not a kind place. A delinquent leader like Komaba Ritoku had been killed so easily. He didn't want to think about it, but Takitsubo Rikou was most likely the same. That was why Hamazura took that weapon. It had nothing to do with whether he was a Level 0 or not.
"…But someone I know seems to be trapped in that building, so I have to go."
Having said what he had to say, Hamazura got out of the garbage truck.
He had a gun now, but he still couldn't just charge into the private salon building. He would clearly be captured by Anti-Skill if he tried.
(…They've got it covered all the way around with no blind spots. Anti-Skill isn't stupid enough to leave a route for the criminals to escape. But that also means they haven't left a route for me to get in through.)
Hamazura then looked up into the starry sky.
(…If I can't get in on the ground, I'll have to go through the sky.)
Hamazura Shiage had been attacked by a helicopter just a few minutes prior.
He looked around and then entered a large hotel that was nearby. He used the elevator to get to the roof and, just as he had expected, he found a heliport there. A small helicopter with a round egg-shaped body was stopped there. It was most likely waiting for a guest that wanted to enjoy the nighttime scenery.
Hamazura headed straight for the helicopter and opened the door.
Hamazura spoke as he pointed his handgun at the female pilot who was running through a systems check.
"Sorry, but I'm gonna need you to take me to the private salon three roads down."
The female pilot who had the barrel of a gun pointed at her head remained silent for a few seconds.
Finally, she spoke without removing her headset.
"…Unfortunately, even someone like me used to belong to the agency that administers Academy City's air defense."
As she whispered, Hamazura frowned and then realized something.
At some point, she had gotten a utility knife into her hand.
"Did you think a pilot wouldn't know how to use a weapon? Since we might crash in enemy territory and be forced to act on our own, we have things much harsher than an army soldier who acts in a large group with plenty of weaponry."
(…Wait a second. When did she bring that out?)
When he had gotten into the cockpit, both of her hands had been busy checking over the displays. At some point she had taken out that knife that had been hidden somewhere. He knew that much, but he couldn't fully understand what had happened.
She was too dangerous to take his eyes off of.
He may have a handgun, but he was still the one with a chill running down his back.
That was when the cell phone in Hamazura Shiage's pocket suddenly started to ring. He frowned at the timing. In contrast, the female pilot continued to sit in her seat while a thin smile appeared on her face.
"…Don't you need to answer that? We haven't taken off yet, so you're free to do so," she said in a provoking manner.
"…"
Without moving his head, Hamazura used the hand not holding the gun to slowly grab the cell phone from his pocket. He did this so carefully that it took him 30 seconds. The instant he looked down to check the screen was the most terrifying, but he immediately hit the connect button and put the phone to his ear upon seeing the displayed name.
"…Hama…zura…"
"Takitsubo, are you okay!? Where are you!?"
"…At the meeting point. The private salon…"
Hamazura looked slightly relieved to hear that lovely voice, but the relief disappeared replaced by burning doubt.
(Wait a second. Why does her voice sound so weak?)
"I heard what happened. Terrorists have entered the private salon. Are you okay? You weren't hit by a stray bullet, were you!?"
"I'm…fine…"
At the very end of her sentence, he heard a gunshot over the phone. He then heard what sounded like rushed footsteps.
"Takitsubo!!"
"I'm fine…really… I'm hiding right now… They haven't noticed me yet."
He heard a small noise over the phone.
It was the sound of someone leaning up against a wall.
"Wait. Then why do you sound so exhausted!?"
"I'm just…not feeling too good. It's nothing you need to worry about, Hamazura…"
"Dammit!!" he swore.
Takitsubo Rikou had only just been released from the hospital. She may have been fine with a normal life, but that kind of heavy activity and intense mental strain would put a toll on her body. And her health had originally taken a turn for the worse because of some rare and not fully understood material called Body Crystal. No one knew just how much damage had actually accumulated within her.
"Hamazura…"
"Okay, don't worry. I'm telling you that it'll be fine. I'll be there right away. I'll definitely be there to rescue you. So just bear with it a little longer. Can you do that?"
"No, not that."
Hamazura had been frantically moving his lips, but Takitsubo's reaction was the exact opposite.
"Don't come, Hamazura. Don't come here. There are 10 terrorists. They all seem to be armed with submachine guns and grenade launchers. Hamazura, you may know how to use a handgun, but you don't know how to use a rifle, do you? If you come in here, they will just concentrate their fire on you. You can't do anything about it, Hamazura. So don't come."
"…Fuck that…" Hamazura muttered as he trembled.
This trembling was different from before. It was due to anger instead of fear.
"I'm going. Of course I'm going!! I can't just leave you there! No matter what it takes, I will rescue you from there. So wait for me. Don't give up!! Whether I'm out of my league here or not, I'm going!!"
Takitsubo did not respond.
Perhaps because the cell phone relay antenna within the private salon had been destroyed, the call ended. Hamazura stared at the disconnected cell phone for a bit and his trembling reached its maximum. A shout exploded from the bottom of his throat.
The female pilot sitting in the cockpit looked at him and her eyebrows moved slightly.
The pilot was still playing with the knife in her hand that she could attack with at any time while Hamazura continued to point the hand gun towards her with trembling hands.
"Please…" he said to her with tears and snot running down his face. "You can charge me with whatever crime you want. I won't complain if you send me down to the very depths of hell. But please help me save her…"
Those words that sounded as if he were just barely squeezing them out resounded within the helicopter.
After a few seconds of silence, the female pilot finally sighed. She then spoke in a voice that could barely be heard.
"…Why didn't you say that sooner?"
"?"
Hamazura hadn't been able to quite hear her and he looked on questioningly, but then a loud roar pierced his ears. It was the sound of the helicopter's rotor quickly raising its rotation speed. He looked up in the direction of the noise and realized the feeling at his feet had disappeared. The craft was hovering.
The female pilot threw the utility knife aside and grabbed a half-empty can of coffee. She hit a few buttons on a number pad and a small door-like object near the joystick opened up. She then poured the coffee inside.
(…The flight recorder…?)
It was the device that recorded what happened within the craft so that the reason for a crash could be investigated. Pouring coffee inside the armor that protected it from fire, water, and shocks would erase the conversations that had taken place inside the helicopter. That included the one that had recorded who Hamazura and Takitsubo were.
The female pilot raised the helicopters altitude as she spoke into her headset's mic without looking at Hamazura.
"Flight H3389 is being hijacked. Repeat, Flight H3389 is being hijacked!! The hijacker has a handgun and a small drum with liquid inside. It probably holds 8 to 10 liters! If what he says is true, the drum contains a liquid explosive and he is threatening to scatter the contents along with an ignition device down from midair if his instructions are not followed. I am giving priority to the lives of the people in the area, so I am following his orders for now!!"
The panicked male voice of an air-traffic controller responded over her headset. In response to that, the pilot started speaking some sort of code.
"T-A, T-A. Code black. Flying in direction 202 and altitude 80, give me authorization! B-A-L, at intervals of 35 to 40. Large. I'm going, understood!?"
At first, Hamazura had thought that had simply been aviation radio jargon, but when he thought through it again, he realized it didn't actually mean anything. She had been listing off the characteristics of the hijacker. She had most likely been saying the hijacker was aged between 35 to 40, was 202 cm tall, weighed around 80 kg, and had black skin.
Of course, none of those characteristics matched Hamazura.
The pilot spoke to him once she had completely cut off the transmission.
"…Flying on some kid's whim isn't so easy. Sorry, but I had to make that pretty showy."
"You…"
Hamazura wasn't quite sure what to say as the helicopter continued on. The private salon building was only 3 roads away from the hotel. They would be there in no time.
The building was just as luxurious as the hotel had been.
He could see a few figures on the lit up heliport. They were not customers wanting to be rescued. They had submachine guns in their hands.
Tension grabbed at Hamazura's heart, but they did not shoot at the helicopter flying above them.
Hamazura looked confused.
"What's going on?"
"…I don't know who they've contacted, but I bet one of their demands was to be given a means of escape. They may have mistaken our helicopter for the one they requested."
The female pilot circled around the private salon building.
"But that doesn't change the fact that they're on their guard. We can't exactly land at the heliport if you don't want this helicopter to be taken by the terrorists."
"I know, and I don't intend to cause that much trouble for you." Hamazura looked down at the heliport below and pointed at a certain spot. "What's that?"
"…An imitation tree. To put it simply, a number of layers of white cloth like a yacht's sail are formed into the shape of a tree and various colors of lights are put on as decorations. If a normal tree were there, the branches broken off by the wind would create issues when landing or taking off."
"I see."
Hamazura thought for a bit.
Then he unhesitatingly opened the helicopter's door.
"Thanks for the info."
"!?"
That caught even the female pilot by surprise.
Hamazura Shiage then jumped out into the night sky.
They were around 20 meters above the heliport. Gravity slammed Hamazura into the tree made of cloth. The yacht sail-like decoration snapped, but it absorbed enough of the shock for Hamazura to avoid receiving a fatal injury when he landed on the heliport.
At first, the three terrorists armed with submachine guns and grenade launchers merely stared on in shock. After all, some strange guy had jumped down out of the helicopter they thought had come in accordance with their demands.
And Hamazura did not wait for them to retain their composure.
He mercilessly pointed his handgun forward and repeatedly pulled the trigger.
Multiple gunshots rang out and the terrorists were taken out before they could manage to fire back.
Hamazura waved once at the helicopter circling around above signaling for it to leave the area. Then he moved his gaze to the door leading inside the building.
His lips moved slightly.
"…I've come here to the depths of hell, partner."
Most likely, Hamazura Shiage himself had not noticed.
It was true that he was a good-for-nothing third-rate thug. There was no twist ending coming where it turned out he actually possessed some special power or talent. He was exactly what he looked like: a pathetic Level 0.
However, when he put his life on the line to protect a certain girl, he became a true protagonist.
Part 9
The former Spark Signal terrorists who had control of the private salon building raised their heads.
They had heard gunshots.
And the gunshots sounded different from the guns they carried. The caliber was probably the same, but the powder being used was different.
"A group went up to the roof to see if the helicopter we had requested had come, but…"
"When is Stephanie going to meet up with us? Depending on what she does..."
"Maybe we should take an attack from an esper with teleportation powers into account."
However, they were not so simple as to all head straight for the source of the noise. They had mostly suppressed the people within the building, but there was a bare minimum of people they needed to seal their movements.
There was also the risk that the gunshots themselves were a trap and they would trigger some explosives upon heading that way.
The 7 former Spark Signals immediately thought through all that and split into 3 teams.
They had made the decision and reacted very quickly.
However, a "disaster" ignored that and suddenly attacked regardless.
That "disaster" came in through the window.
An explosion that sounded like the main gun of a battleship resounded throughout the room and the window through which a piece of the night scenery could be seen shattered. However, it was not a mass of firepower that flew inside.
It was a person.
The person had white hair, red eyes, and a smile that looked like a rip in his face.
He was Accelerator, Academy City's strongest Level 5.
(…Th-this is the 28th floor…!?)
In the face of such an unusual phenomenon, one of the former Spark Signals had that commonplace thought. Yet even that small lag was fatal before Accelerator.
The action the Level 5 took was simple.
He grabbed the closest former Spark Signal terrorist with one hand and threw him at the others. The action was much like one a child in a temper tantrum would take, but when the ability to alter all kinds of vectors was added in, it possessed the destructive power of an explosive shell.
With an explosive noise, three former Spark Signals were blown away.
Without even waiting to hear the sound of ripping flesh and snapping bones, Accelerator turned his red eyes to his next target.
The remaining former Spark Signal terrorists finally jumped behind cover and started firing their submachine guns.
But gunshots began to resound from an unexpected place.
"…"
The gunshots had come from that floor's exit. The terrorists had been so distracted by Accelerator that they had been unable to react. They collapsed to the ground spreading their blood across the floor. Each target had been accurately hit by a single bullet either in the head or the center of the abdomen. They had clearly died instantly. It had been so sudden that not a single one gave out a death scream.
Accelerator turned in the direction of the gunshots.
An unfamiliar man wearing a suit stood there. He looked to be around 30. As his handgun had smoke rising from it, it was clear he had been the one to shoot the former Spark Signal group.
"Who are you?"
"Does it really matter?" the man in the suit said.
The man then aimed his handgun to the side towards the terrorists Accelerator had knocked away with his vector power. He carefully shot each of them either in the head or the abdomen. The gunshots were louder than one would expect for the size of the handgun. Most likely, it was not a standard 9mm. It used bullets of a higher caliber.
The man in the suit spoke to Accelerator as he swapped out magazines.
"If you truly want to protect this city, you must be this thorough."
"I asked who the hell you are. Do you want to die here?"
"I am Sugitani," the man said in an offhand manner without his expression changing.
He kicked each body over to see if they reacted in any way.
"Pray that we do not meet again. You need to work towards that end."
Saying only that, the man in the suit put away his handgun and headed for the floor's exit. Accelerator glared at his disappearing back and finally switched his electrode back to normal mode. Whatever the details were, the danger had left the private salon at least temporarily.
Accelerator pulled out his cell phone.
It pissed him off to ask for help from the people who had fucked things up, but it would be a pain to deal with it all himself.
"…Hey, Tsuchimikado. I took out the bastards you let escape to the private salon building. Get up here already and deal with the injured and check for traps. If you can't even do that, I really will put a bullet in your head."
He put away his phone and walked out along the floor.
He opened a door and saw a large party area inside. Civilians that appeared to have been hostages were gathered in it. His initial glance told him there were more than 300 of them in there. Eerie sobs leaked out from various directions, but it didn't feel like the atmosphere of a group in which there had been fatalities.
He then heard a clattering noise from a different direction.
Accelerator had been about to enter the large area, but he stopped. He walked down the hall with his modern cane and saw something roll out from behind a pillar.
It was a high school-aged girl wearing a pink track suit.
All strength seemed to have left her body and she was sweating profusely. Accelerator was reminded of Last Order when her personality had been desecrated by a virus.
The girl in the track suit's consciousness seemed dim, and she slowly opened and closed her eyes. Even when she saw Accelerator approaching, she did not attempt to stand up.
Accelerator knelt down to check on her condition and his eyebrows shot up slightly.
(…She has no obvious injury. It doesn't look like she was shot. Is she sick or something? Don't tell me she's pregnant, too.)
Accelerator decided he should at least bring her to the hospital, so he pulled out his cell phone.
And then…
"…What the hell did you do?" said a low male voice.
Accelerator immediately looked over and saw a boy walking from further down the hallway.
He, Hamazura Shiage, was glaring at the limp, unmoving girl in the track suit and Accelerator while he forced out some words.
"I asked you what the hell you did to Takitsubo!"
Part 10
Hamazura had lost his cool.
When he had snuck into the private salon building from the roof, he hadn't been stupid enough to take the elevator. He had headed down floor by floor via the emergency stairs, but even that was pretty much a straight shot. If he ran across the terrorists, he would not be able to avoid a firefight in which he would have the disadvantage.
Hamazura had been continuing down while extremely nervous and then he had heard numerous gunshots upon arriving at a certain floor. He then ran down to the 28th floor and that was where he had witnessed it.
Academy City's strongest Level 5, Accelerator, was crouched down next to the unconscious form of Takitsubo Rikou looking like he was about to do something to her.
It was possible that a third party may have interpreted Accelerator's actions as an attempt to help her.
However, Hamazura was unable to see it that way.
The reason was quite simple.
Hamazura Shiage had once belonged to a delinquent group called Skill-Out. At that time, the group's leader had been Komaba Ritoku, but the higher ups of Academy City had determined that Skill-Out was disadvantageous to the city.
That decision had led to Accelerator being dispatched.
Skill-Out's leader, Komaba Ritoku, had been killed and the group had temporarily been driven to the edge of destruction.
"…So this was your doing, too?"
That person, that dog of Academy City, had appeared before Hamazura again and was trying to do something to Takitsubo Rikou.
"Were you the leader and sole survivor of those terrorists? Or did you kill your other comrades yourself? Either way, you're doing dirty jobs secretly in the darkness."
As Hamazura had just previously been attacked by one of Academy City's Six Wings, he naturally came to that conclusion.
"When Skill-Out was destroyed, things weren't exactly going well for us. Leader Komaba made up his mind and challenged you to a final battle, so I won't say anything about that. I want to say something so badly, but I won't for his sake."
Most likely, a third party would have been unable to understand his words.
But Hamazura wasn't saying them because he wanted to be understood.
His mouth was merely moving on its own.
"But if you're going to try to take something else I care about away from me… If you're going to take Takitsubo's life, the life of someone who hasn't made up her mind to fight and who is supposed to live a normal life from now on…"
He was shaking.
Paying no heed to the tiny distinction between Level 0 and Level 5, Hamazura Shiage aimed his handgun at Accelerator in order to protect that girl who couldn't move.
"Prepare yourself, strongeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssstttttttttttt!!"
Meanwhile, Accelerator more or less understood the situation.
He knew Hamazura was mistaken about what was going on, but he made no attempt to correct him.
"…Excellent."
Accelerator slowly stood up and reached for the switch to his choker-style electrode. He faced Hamazura Shiage with a smile ripping across his face.
"An excellent villain," Accelerator said with an inhuman smile on his face.
At first, it seemed to mean nothing, but it was an assessment he very rarely gave.
But before Hamazura could figure that out, Accelerator manipulated the vectors for his leg strength and charged straight for Hamazura.
A loud roar exploded with a slight delay.
Accelerator had jumped in an extremely low arc and Hamazura Shiage attempted to jump back while still holding out his handgun.
(…He may be a Level 5, but he's still a human!! I should be able to kill him with a single bullet. Basically, he just uses a trick to keep the bullet from hitting him. I need to start by bringing him into circumstances where I can hit him with that bullet!!)
Hamazura was able to come up with that answer because he had previously shot and killed the #4 Level 5, Meltdowner Mugino Shizuri.
No, Hamazura actually knew another Level 0 who had used that thought pattern. His former leader, Komaba Ritoku, had inspected Accelerator's actions and investigated his characteristics. This had led him to the answer that electromagnetic interference would temporarily seal his powers.
In that case…
(…I need to make that choker malfunction. But how!? Leader Komaba used chaff to jam the signal, but…!!)
He knew generally what he had to do, but he didn't know specifically how to do it.
As he thought, Accelerator spun his body swinging a clenched fist.
His arm was rumored to be able to kill someone just by touching them.
"…!!!???"
Hamazura immediately swung his body to the side in an attempt to evade.
Accelerator's arm did not actually make contact.
However, an explosive wind of unknown origin appeared and blew Hamazura away. He flew more than 2 meters through the air before slamming into the hallway wall. Unnatural strength entered his finger holding the trigger and he fired a meaningless shot into the ceiling.
Accelerator turned his head in Hamazura's direction.
Hamazura realized that he would be killed if he didn't do something and he noticed a security robot approaching from further down the hallway. The terrorists had likely sealed them all in one room and it was now heading back on its normal route after having been released.
Hamazura nearly unloaded his clip into the security robot.
The bullets broke through the fairly durable armor and destroyed the components within. Hamazura stuck his hand inside. The characteristic weird feeling of electromagnetism numbed him from his fingertips to his back and then to his chest, but he ignored it and ripped out a piece.
It was a part of the large motor the robot used to move around.
Hamazura ripped the cords off of the large permanent magnet that was used in the motor and then threw it at Accelerator.
To prevent theft, the security and cleaning robots were purposefully made quite heavy. To make sure the machines could smoothly move up slopes, their motors were made to be rather powerful.
Yes, powerful enough that the permanent magnets they used could cause electronic devices to malfunction at close range.
(…Is it gonna work!?)
He had two bullets left in his handgun and he didn't have time to switch out magazines, but he should still be able to win if Accelerator had been weakened to the point where a bullet would kill him.
However, there was no worry on Accelerator's face.
Before the large magnet reached him, a strong unnatural wind knocked the thrown item away in a different direction.
"Oh, shit…!!"
He tried to evade, but his legs still hadn't recovered from the damage they had taken when he had struck the wall. Hamazura reacted too late and Accelerator mercilessly grabbed his collar.
He grabbed it with that arm that could bring death and fresh blood.
The battle was over.
Accelerator pulled Hamazura closer and then casually threw him aside. That was all it had been, but Hamazura's body shot away like a bullet. He rolled over and over along the hard floor until he finally came to a stop. Dull damage had permeated even the areas between his bones and the very depths of his organs, so he could not even stand up. He had never been more shocked that his exhalations were not accompanied by blood.
"Gh…Ah…!!"
Gritting his teeth at the intense pain, Hamazura still tried to grab at the floor with his fingertips.
Seeing that, Accelerator hit the switch on his electrode, extended his retractable cane, and mercilessly aimed his handgun.
He could kill Hamazura instantly with a single shot.
"This is over. If you stay down, I'll leave you be, but if you get up, I'll shoot. It's your life. I leave the choice to you."
"I don't…cough…really have a choice..." Hamazura glared at Accelerator from the floor. "…You have no…real reason…to let me live…"
"True. I could easily just fill you full of lead without saying another word. In fact, killing you now may save me trouble later. I have no duty to bring on the risk of some later revenge by letting you live. Just finishing you off now would be simpler. But," Accelerator added in an annoyed voice, "it's not really fair for the sick girl to stand up to protect you, now is it?"
After hearing those words, Hamazura turned his gaze from Accelerator for the first time.
He turned his head and saw Takitsubo Rikou, whose consciousness was hazy and who was sweating profusely, approaching while desperately clinging to the wall.
She was doing it to protect him.
She was doing it to save him.
She was most likely in a worse state than Hamazura, but she was giving it everything she had.
"What'll you do? If you want to use her as a shield and continue this 2 to 1, I'll take you up on your offer and make a bloodbath out of you. But if you feel she would just get in the way in a battle, then this is over. As much as it pisses me off, I'll leave you alone for now. That's the aesthetics of a villain."
Hearing that question, strength left Hamazura's hand that was reaching for the handgun that had fallen to the floor.
He finally started to wonder why.
Accelerator was the one that was supposedly trying to hurt Takitsubo, so why was he trying to avoid having her in the fight? If he wanted to kill her, wouldn't it be easier to kill them both at once?
(Don't tell me…there's been some kind of…misunderstanding on my part…?)
Before he could look back over towards Accelerator, he heard a light noise.
The esper must have manipulated the vectors in his legs somehow because Academy City's #1 had disappeared. All he could hear was a slight sound that sounded a bit like a vibration from elsewhere on that floor.
"Hamazura…"
As he sat there dumbfounded, Hamazura heard a girl's voice calling his name.
It was Takitsubo Rikou.
The girl he had most wanted to protect was dragging her body along towards him. She came over, sat down next to him, and lifted Hamazura's unmoving body to rest in her arms.
"Hamazura!!"
"I'm pathetic…" he muttered with his arms and legs still hanging limply at his sides. "I kept saying I would save you, but this is all I could do in the end. Ha ha. I'm so pathetic. I even bared my fangs towards the guy who may have saved you. I couldn't be more pathetic…"
"That isn't true."
Takitsubo desperately shook her head seeming to be in a good bit of pain herself.
Her trembling lips rejected Hamazura's view.
"Hamazura, you came this far all on your own. Not even Anti-Skill could break into this building, but you came charging in for me. You aren't pathetic."
"Is that so…" Hamazura muttered with a faint smile.
But he added more in his heart.
(Then…)
He gritted his teeth so that the girl would not notice.
(Then why are you crying?)
Hamazura had not been so badly beaten because Academy City's strongest Level 5 had shown up. If that monster had not been there and the terrorists had instead, would he really have been able to save Takitsubo Rikou? In fact, if the grade was dropped even lower to a group of delinquents, could he have even succeeded then?
He couldn't say for certain.
The odds were actually quite low. He was not a professional who had received special training, he was not a prodigy when it came to his battle sense, and he did not have a rare or powerful esper power. If he were part of a large scale conflict between groups, he was nothing more than a lowly thug who would end up collapsed in the corner of an alley.
Even if he threw everything away, put his life on the line, and stood up to fight, Hamazura could not even promise so simple a thing. If he were a protagonist-like person who had been wonderfully blessed since the moment he was born, he would have been able to save Takitsubo in a much smarter way. He wouldn't have had to make her worry so much. He felt a great sense of loss and he gritted his teeth upon realizing what it was.
It wasn't that something he had built up had collapsed.
It was the opposite. Hamazura became aware once more that he had gained nothing from his victory over Mugino Shizuri.
(…What's all this crap about me being the guy who defeated a Level 5 or being the guy who defeated the #4 all on his own? All I did was get full of myself over a fluke. It was meaningless. I'm the same Hamazura Shiage that I've always been. I didn't get any convenient dramatic change from that one event.)
"Fuck," Hamazura swore.
He wanted to be able to make sure Takitsubo didn't have to worry, but he also believed that he didn't have to gain an evil charisma like the #1 had.
He could simply remain a third-rate thug.
However, Hamazura Shiage wanted to at least become the kind of third-rate thug who could protect that girl's smile.
Part 11
(It looks like things went down in a super flashy way…)
Kinuhata Saiai was circling the private salon building from a slight distance. It seemed the former Spark Signal group had already been taken out and the Anti-Skill group blockading the building had started to enter the building while seeming bewildered by the sudden occurrence.
The Measure Heart girl in the dress had told Kinuhata that Hamazura Shiage had entered the building carrying a gun to save Takitsubo Rikou.
She doubted Hamazura could take on 10 former Spark Signal terrorists, but it seemed the two of them were fine. However, the problem did not end there.
Hamazura and Takitsubo were not currently taking part in work for the underground. Academy City would work to cover up incidents, but those two were not in a position to receive that kind of service. If Anti-Skill found them with weapons, they would be in trouble.
(I wish I had taken action super sooner.)
The reason Kinuhata had not arrived at the private salon building was simple: She had been investigating the Six Wings attack helicopter that had attacked the family car. The woman on the phone insisted she wasn't behind it, but Kinuhata found it hard to believe that the former Spark Signal group had been somehow controlling it.
In the end, it had been wasted effort.
(I have to super apologize for being late and I like to pay people back super quickly. I guess I should super help them escape.)
Despite thinking that, Kinuhata never had a chance to carry out her plan.
This was because Kinuhata's small body was blown away by a sudden shotgun blast from the side.
The girl's slender body wrapped in a white wool dress bounced two or three times on the road. The sudden gunshot caused a panic among the surrounding onlookers, but Kinuhata kept her cool as she rolled along. The blast had spread out to cover from her right cheek to her chest, but she was not bleeding thanks to Offense Armor.
(…I only heard one gunshot but there were 20 shots. Each individual bullet is greater than 5 mm. With that, I should be able to use something in the area as a shield without having to super use my powers!!)
Kinuhata had calculated out the strength of the attack from the one she had received and she then jumped behind a nearby parked car.
But the attacker accurately aimed the barrel.
The next shot did not have the usual single gunshot of a shotgun.
It was the sound of a gun on full auto.
"Wha—? That's not a normal shotgun!?"
The car did not last as a wall for even 2 seconds.
It wasn't just that bullet holes were created in it. Like a balloon being popped from within, the metal body tore apart. The downpour of shots that had pierced it headed straight for Kinuhata's body. Even with her thin wall of nitrogen, the overwhelming amount of force blew her away.
She was knocked over 10 meters away.
When she got back up, she realized she had a trail of blood running down her cheek.
It wasn't a fatal wound, but her armor had been pierced.
Kinuhata shuddered and she heard a voice that did not match the scene.
"Hi there. You're Kinuhata Saiai-chan, right? I thought your guard looked pretty tough which would make things difficult, but I made the right decision in contacting the completely unrelated Spark Signal group to use them as bait. While your focus was on them, I took the opportunity to take a bite out of your nice soft side. Academy City espers really are a pain, though," the woman said as she operated a large gun that was almost as large as an umbrella.
Kinuhata heard a loud mechanical noise.
Breaking through the cloud of smoke she herself had created, the tall blonde woman approached.
She was holding a light machine gun with exceedingly high rapid-fire ability.
It was over a meter long. It was not the kind of assault rifle that was made so that it would have no effect on a soldier who was traveling long distances carrying it. It was much bigger than that. It had a box magazine that looked like it could hold 150 to 200 shots and it looked like something that would be used against a military encampment rather than a single person.
However, it was clearly using custom shotgun ammunition. No proper soldier would use a firearm like that. The combination of a shotgun which should be used at close range and that weight which was disadvantageous at close quarters was simply terrible. But that also meant that woman possessed the speed and skill to use something like that.
The woman carrying the light machine shotgun smiled.
"Do you recognize the name Sunazara Chimitsu? You're the one that tried to blow him up, right?"
The way the woman said "right" was so cute it probably would have given Hamazura a nosebleed.
"I am Stephanie Gorgeouspalace. I came here to get revenge for Sunazara-san, so you should prepare yourself."
She pointed that monstrous gun at Kinuhata and smiled as she gave that last death sentence.