Part 6
Every street of every district had blank spaces.
A powered suit was in a square area in the sea of buildings that was District 3. It was an area where a building had been demolished and nothing else had been built. Maintaining an old building cost money, but the owner must have wanted to keep just the land until the land's value changed so he could make a profit off of it.
The powered suit Silver Cross was in this time had a giant sensor dome for a head, two arms, and two legs. Its appearance was rather subdued for his tastes.
However, there were twelve metal poles extending from its back. There were over ten Edge Bees stored on those poles. Ten of the machines fit on a single pole, so the suit would have been able to hold over a hundred of them in total. Over half of those were away from the suit.
The metal poles were both the Edge Bees' hive and high precision antennas.
The powered suit was a reconnaissance suit that specialized in gathering information.
Even then, it was receiving video information from the many Edge Bees, intercepting the signals from cleaning robots and security robots, and cables stretching from within the armored suit were directly gathering information from the underground communications network.
His objective was clear.
"Now then. I think I've cut off all their escape routes."
Of course, the plan had been to capture Fremea Seivelun inside the private salon, but he had deployed Edge Bees around the building and was acquiring information from nearby security cameras to defend against the small possibility that she would get away.
From the size of the building and the number of customers using it, he had expected to cause quite a panic, but he wasn't about to miss his target's face among all the people.
(Either Kuroyoru will catch her first or it'll fall to me. Either way, this is the end for Fremea Seivelun.)
Because Hamazura Shiage was in the building, the possibility of Item showing up came to mind, but that would just mean it was time for his overwhelming but easy-to-understand "power".
(Maybe I should switch from a reconnaissance suit like Bee Launcher into a battle suit.)
The owner of the powered suits didn't get fixated on a single suit.
His motto was that not insisting on sticking with a single weapon and choosing the one that was most suitable for the situation was the most effective course of action. As such, he saw no meaning in arguing over what weapon was strongest and he didn't blindly believe that a certain weapon could do anything.
(No, if the target moves during that time, I'll lose sight of her. That would be getting my priorities backwards. If I did that…)
As he thought, the powered suit trembled slightly.
He had picked up on a threat via the great number of Edge Bees deployed out in the city using the reconnaissance suit. He noticed his thoughts accelerating. In other words, he was panicking and he couldn't stop it.
(This is bad.)
This was someone who was completely unaffected by direct "power" and that was what he specialized in.
Normally, this would be something Kuroyoru Umidori would handle.
(Item is nothing compared to this. My methods are just too incompatible!!)
Part 7
Hamazura Shiage was running down the southern emergency staircase.
He was still split up from Fremea.
He needed a weapon to save her and the private salons were used by rich boys and girls in the upper echelons of society who lived in a different environment from him. As such, the building offered services that seemed a bit odd to him.
Like an indoor shooting range.
Of course, they didn't have a collection of real handguns and hunting rifles there. However, they did have a variety of projectile weapons that didn't violate Academy City regulations. They had crossbows, longbows, blowguns, and bolt action rifles that fired rubber bullets.
Hamazura looked at the sign on the wall and ran out of the emergency staircase and into the corridor of his target floor. Unlike the other floors, this one was not lined with evenly spaced doors like in a hotel or a karaoke box. The large floor was split by corridors in a cross shape making four large rooms. The four rooms contained a bowling alley, an indoor shooting range, and other such facilities.
However, Hamazura was not able to arrive at the shooting range so easily. An Edge Bee appeared in the corridor in front of him.
He just had to hurry up and get in the shooting range.
He just had to obtain a proper weapon and fight back.
But Hamazura's mind had passed its limit.
A large shiver came over his entire body and he couldn't stop trembling afterwards.
"Ahhh… Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"
The disappearance of the immediate need to put up a strong face in having to protect Fremea who was weaker than him had helped him reach this point.
He felt a full-on fear of death. He saw an image of his flesh and bones being ripped and torn by the crude chainsaw. Hamazura lost strength in his limbs and his thoughts were thrown into chaos.
Despite what he had experienced, despite how clever he could be, and despite the fact that he had been on the front line during World War III, deep down he was still a high school student from Japan's Academy City.
He wasn't a professional soldier who had been trained to kill for years.
With no foundation to rely on, it would have been odd if he hadn't felt fear with true danger staring him in the face.
(Why…?)
It was taking all of Hamazura's strength just to remain standing.
(Why? Why does this shit always happen to me!? The war is over. These kinds of tools aren't needed anymore!! What could possibly make someone aim one of these things at a flesh-and-blood human!?)
However, the Edge Bee did not wait.
It plunged straight towards Hamazura in order to slice his body in two.
Hamazura immediately grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher.
"Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"
He swung it horizontally.
The fire extinguisher struck the chainsaw and exploded. All the gas leaked out through a different spot than it was supposed to which caused the metal remains to shoot off like a rocket leaving white powder behind. It stuck into the ceiling.
However, the Edge Bee was knocked away.
It had struck the fire extinguisher while its chainsaw was still in "cut" mode and some of its own power may have sent it flying off. Its position maintaining system used image processing, so the powder from the fire extinguisher may have lowered its ability to determine which way was up.
The Edge Bee tried to regain control, but it struck the wall. More specifically, the pole of a decorative flag diagonally sticking out of the wall pierced through the shampoo hat-like contra-rotating propellers. The propeller blades it needed to move broke and a further cracking noise could be heard from within the machine. Hamazura looked at the Edge Bee hanging on the wall like a hat and gulped.
(I did it…?)
That was when the LED next to the Edge Bee's camera changed color with a beep.
"Fuck!!"
Hamazura's face paled. He opened the door to the shooting range and jumped in.
Immediately afterwards, there was an explosion.
The noise put great pressure on his eardrums. Also, it wasn't just the blast that spread out. A sharp pain ran up Hamazura's arm. Tearing through his sleeve and into his arm was the kind of fishing hook that was often used for lures. It was made of three J-shaped hooks.
There had been explosives and hundreds of fishing hooks inside the Edge Bee. It wasn't unusual for nails or metal balls to be put inside to increase the damage done, but using fishing hooks was just cruel.
This was because fishing hooks had a reversed area at the end making them hard to remove. And with three hooks together, it couldn't be taken out the other way either.
"~ ~ ~ !!"
Hamazura held a handkerchief in his mouth to make sure he didn't bite his tongue and then forced out the hook while holding it between his thumb and forefinger. A pain that felt like the tip of the hook was tearing directly at his nerves ran up his entire arm and sweat covered his face.
(This isn't normal…)
He wrapped the handkerchief around his wounded arm and unsteadily walked over to the shooting range's counter. A great number of projectile weapons were set up behind it. Normally, an employee would be managing them, but there was no one at the counter due to the uproar.
(Their cruelty isn't like the darkness I've seen before. They aren't thinking about what will be advantageous to them and maintaining their power. They're thinking about what will make us suffer and deploying everything they have…)
He climbed over the counter and looked at the lined up weapons.
He wanted to arm himself with as many weapons as he could, but all of them were over a meter long. Either a certain size was necessary to be powerful and yet not be against the regulations or large weapons were popular among the customers. Either way, he could only really carry around one of them.
He wanted the strongest on there, but he also wanted something an amateur like him could use.
After a short period of indecision he finally chose…
(…An electrically assisted blowgun.)
The blowgun was about 110 centimeters long and had been improved for sports use. It was made of the same type of plastic used in knives and airplanes.
Normally, a blowgun didn't have enough power to injure or kill someone. It used an arrow that was no more than a needle and used the human lungs to propel that arrow. Certain tribes could capture large beasts with them, but that was due to poison on the arrows instead of the destructive power of the projectile itself.
However, this one was electrically assisted.
When someone blew into the pipe, sensors picked up on it and sent out a blast of compressed air created with a compressor. Forcing the human to blow into it when it could easily be left completely to the machine must have been a method to get around the Academy City regulations. The arrow was propelled by the breath amplified dozens of times, so it could pierce through a piece of plywood a couple of centimeters thick.
A laser pointer was used to help aim, so aiming was fairly easy.
Hamazura grabbed an entire box of the arrows that were stabilized with tails much like darts.
The weapon had not stopped his trembling.
His determination to carry the weapon had brought strength back to him.
(This doesn't guarantee I can defeat those Edge Bees and I'm not even sure I can scratch that Bomber Lance esper with it. Even so, having it makes a big difference. At the very least, I can use it to allow Fremea to escape!!)
That was when he heard a clattering noise.
He immediately crouched behind the counter while he opened up an area about forty centimeters from the hole to blow in and put in an arrow. But then his hand stopped moving. The noise hadn't been caused by an Edge Bee or an unknown esper.
It had been caused by a middle-aged man.
He was wearing a worn-out suit and his tie was crooked. Sweat caused by tension and fear was soaking his face and his dress shirt.
Hamazura stood up from behind the counter and spoke.
"…You don't look like an employee. Are you a customer?"
Academy City was a special city with 80% of its residents being students, but that still meant that 20% of its residents were adults. Hamazura didn't know whether an adult would want to rent a "secret hideout", but there was no reason they couldn't use the private salons.
Hamazura grabbed a longbow from behind the counter and threw it towards the middle-aged man.
"If you don't want to die, you should get out of here. They can destroy doors and walls and they're searching through every single room. They may not be after you, but you'll still get attacked if you stay here. And those killer chainsaws seem to have explosives inside of them. You should get the hell out of here if you can."
"…"
The man slowly reached his hand over to the longbow. It looked more like he was just picking up something that had been thrown in front of him than like he was prepared to fight. Frankly speaking, there was no independence in his action.
The man's gaze slowly moved from the longbow to Hamazura.
"…Wh-what are you going to do?" the man asked.
"Run away, of course. This place isn't right. There are killer chainsaws flying all over the place and some even more dangerous esper kid is swinging around spears that look like they can slice through steel. If I stay here, I'm sure to be killed, so I'm going to run away even if it's pathetic."
Hamazura pulled some arrows for the blowgun and stuck them behind his belt.
He was rushing and his hands were shaking, but he didn't have time to allow himself to relax.
"But before I do, I have to rescue a girl called Fremea. I don't think I can win in a fight against that monster, but I at least have to help that girl escape safely."
"Why?" The man shook his head like a child. "With an uproar like this, Anti-Skill is sure to come. Even if they're searching through every single room, this building must have hundreds of rooms! If we stay here, they'll use up all their time. Someone will come to save us in that time!! Moving around isn't going to save us; hiding here is!!"
"That may be true."
That assumed Anti-Skill had the power to resolve the situation.
And it assumed the enemy wouldn't use their dozens of flying cameras effectively.
And it assumed the enemy would respond to failure by letting them go home instead of with an explosion of anger.
"But it may not be true. And, as I said before, I have to let Fremea escape this building. She's only around ten years old. She'll clearly die more easily than us. There's no guarantee she'll have the support to live on. I can't leave her alone. If I do, I'm letting death rush towards her. So I need to draw that death away from her as much as I can."
"…Why…?" muttered the man again.
Hamazura wasn't pressuring the man to help.
"Sorry. I'm not telling you to come along. It's your life. You should decide what to do with it. But, if you decide to hide, you should find somewhere else. When I came here, I destroyed an Edge Bee. A replacement might come, so you need to at least go to a different room."
"No. Not that."
The man shook his head repeatedly.
Hamazura realized the man was shaking due to something more than just fear.
"How can you think about the things around you in a situation like this…?" The man was muttering, but then his voice grew louder. "I came here looking for my daughter who ran away from home. I don't know the details, but she was trying to resolve a dangerous situation where she couldn't rely on Anti-Skill or Judgment. She didn't want to get the rest of the family wrapped up in it, so she was using a private salon as a secret hideout. I desperately searched to figure this much out. I was prepared to do anything. I worked so hard determined to bring my daughter back before she was caught up in trouble that she couldn't come back from."
He spoke as if he were about to vomit up blood.
"But my real self was different. When I was faced with danger, it all broke away. I could only think about myself. After that, I can't imagine that I could use this bow for my daughter's sake! No matter what is in my hands, I can only imagine that I would think only of how I could use it to save myself!! …How can I become like you? It isn't so simple. When my real self saw what was going on, I couldn't think about anything around me!!"
That was an inevitable fear that came from life.
That was distorted thinking meant to avoid that fear.
That defeated man had tasted the depths of the earth with his heart's tongue and he now sat there silently trembling.
"…What are you saying?"
But Hamazura Shiage's face did not display an expression of contempt.
"You used your own power to get a wife, created a proper household, and frantically worked to protect all that. You had enough money for your daughter to use a private salon daily, because you worked for your family. You didn't just get on the rails and amass it all solely because everyone around you was. When your daughter disappeared and your household seemed like it was falling apart, you acted to save your family even if it was breaking your own rules."
Those were not words of comfort.
They were not soft words intended to not hurt.
"Everyone has things I don't. No matter how much I struggle, I just can't obtain them and yet I still have a final goal that I want to grab no matter what."
Longing.
Because of his genuine longing, Hamazura bared his heart here.
"Be proud, hero. You are what I long to be."
The middle-aged man looked down and remained silent for a short while.
He reflected on what Hamazura had said.
Finally, he stopped his body's trembling. That once-defeated man raised his head and spoke.
"…I'll go, too. Doing nothing isn't going to help this situation."
"Are you really okay with that?"
"Just like you have to let that Fremea girl get away, I have to save my daughter."
"Do you know where your daughter is amid all this chaos?"
"She's a lot like me. She most likely hasn't moved around and I know what room she was in, so I'm going to head there."
"I see," muttered Hamazura.
He picked up the blowgun again.
"Then I'll draw the attention of the Edge Bees as much as I can. If you know where you're headed, it's simple. You just run there."
"Draw their attention…? Do you know what you're saying!? Even with a weapon, you aren't invincible. If a bunch of them fly at you at once…!!"
"It's my fault," Hamazura said cutting the man off. "This chaos, the swarm of Edge Bees, and the strange esper destroying walls are all here because of me. I'm not strong enough to resolve it all. I can only do so much. But let me do it. I can only do so much, but let me do what I can!!"
Hearing no restraining voice, Hamazura left the indoor shooting range and walked out into the corridor.
At the exact same time, the Bomber Lance girl destroyed a different wall and came through.
"Just meet up with Fremea already, so you lead me to her."
"…!!"
"Or should we do the opposite? If I made you scream so loudly it could be heard throughout the building, would she come here or get scared and run away?"
There was no need to listen to her words.
He had a weapon now.
Hamazura held the blowgun up with both hands and centered the red dot from the laser pointer on the girl's body. He then blew as hard as he could into it. The electronic compressor amplified the power of his breath dozens of times.
A thick noise rang out.
It wasn't the sound of it being fired. Just like with bows, the sound of the blow landing was much louder than the sound of it being fired. However, it wasn't the sound of the esper's flesh being ripped either. Nor was it the sound of it being reflected with her power. The girl had twisted her body slightly and the dart-shaped arrow had hit the corridor wall behind her.
Her expression remained calm.
But Hamazura had learned something.
She had dodged the arrow instead of repelling it. That meant she had determined that she would have been damaged had it hit her. She had decided she couldn't block it, so she had avoided it. That esper could only create spears of nitrogen. She couldn't create an unbreakable wall in every direction around her.
In other words…
(I can win this if I hit her!!)
In order to fire a second shot, Hamazura opened an area forty centimeters from the hole to blow in and put in one of the arrows from his belt.
Then the Bomber Lance girl made her move.
She created spears from both hands and moved at high speed towards Hamazura while slicing up the walls on the left and right half for fun.
(Shit, can I shoot in time!?)
Before the girl could get to him, Hamazura finished reloading and closed the open part of the blowgun.
But by the time he had raised it up, the girl was in killing range.
She got rid of the spear coming from one hand and covered the end of the blowgun with the same hand.
"How about I blow through the wrong end?"
"!?"
Hamazura immediately let go of the blowgun and swung his head forcefully to the side.
Immediately afterwards, a spear of nitrogen appeared and pierced straight through the inside of the blowgun. Along with an explosive blast from the destroyed blowgun, the spear grazed Hamazura's cheek. Sharp plastic fragments gave him light scratches.
The shock knocked him down.
On the ground, Hamazura pulled a dart-shaped arrow from his belt. He had intended on throwing it back at her, but the girl stepped on his arm before he could.
"Gah!?"
Her small foot came down on the area between his wrist and elbow, pinning it to the ground.
Then she held her palm down towards his chest. The very same palm that could create a deadly spear.
"Fremea Seivelun," she said bluntly. "Should I try having you call her here with a scream as planned?"
But then…
"Kuroyoru." The girl didn't seem to have a cell phone, but a staticky voice came from her pocket. "We have a problem. Break off and get outside. I'll take over inside the building."
"Has Item come?"
"No. It's much worse. My brute force will be no help in dealing with this problem. And dealing with him was supposed to be left to you."
"I see." The girl removed her foot from Hamazura's arm. "Excellent timing. I was just getting into too good a tempo."
"Gh…"
Hamazura put a hand on the wall and desperately tried to stand up so he could stop her.
However, the girl did something he hadn't expected.
She sliced a nearby wall with a spear, walked through it, and then broke through a thick window with a tackle.
With the high-pitched noise of the window shattering, her small body was thrown out through the window. The floor they were on was quite high up.
However, she did not fall.
She spread her hands out horizontally and the spears of nitrogen coming from them held her in place. Her spears didn't just have destructive power. She was manipulating the air currents with them to create swirling currents on her back.
"You mentioned Item." Hamazura dragged his hurting body over and desperately questioned the girl who was stopped in midair. "Answer me. And not just about Fremea. Are you planning on doing something to them?"
"Don't be in such a rush. Whether you want to or not, you'll know soon enough."
After saying that, the girl stopped emitting the spears and fell straight down with her back to the ground. Of course, she was intending on landing, not on crashing. She was most likely going to stop herself with the spears again near the ground.
"Dammit…"
Hamazura thought for a bit and then headed for the emergency staircase.
It seemed the Bomber Lance girl had temporarily withdrawn, but there were still tons of Edge Bees wandering around the building.
Part 8
Kuroyoru Umidori landed on the ground.
The uproar inside the private salon building had led to a lot of people pouring out of the building and a lot of onlookers gathering around the building, so there were quite a few people in the area.
As part of the dark side of the city, she was unconcerned with that uproar.
Her expression was calm. A student playing a game on his cell phone out of boredom would have had a more serious expression on his face.
"Tch. Silver Cross. You said they had problematic reinforcements, but where?"
She looked around, but didn't see anyone like that.
The only people out of the ordinary she saw were some of her subordinates who caught sight of her and moved in tentatively to protect her.
Kuroyoru sat down in a seat at a nearby open café, set her plastic dolphin doll down in an empty seat at the round four-person table, and ordered what seemed to be the café's recommended black tea.
She brought the teacup that was given to her to her lips.
(…I'm sure someone somewhere is at their wits' end over this. Well, doing things in such a showy way is perfect for having the roots meet.)
Of course, the residents of the city saw the swarm of Edge Bees flying through the sky and the private salons being attacked. But no one actually did anything to stop the crime. Even if it seemed odd, they just couldn't keep up with the ever changing situation.
They lived in a different world.
The darkness couldn't function as the darkness if it wasn't stronger than the surface.
(Now then, I have to make sure no reinforcements get in the way until Silver Cross's Edge Bees corner Fremea Seivelun. I wish he would have at least told me where the bastard I most need to stop was.)
That was when she heard a footstep.
A wicked grin appeared on Kuroyoru Umidori's lips.
She could smell it. This was the smell of someone who wasn't on the level. This was the smell of someone who was trying to mix in with the people passing by and clearly failing. Simply put, this was the smell put off only by people who were soaked with darkness.
"Oh?" Kuroyoru said at about the same time as a piece of paper slipped onto the table.
A single photograph now accompanied the seemingly popular tea on the table.
The photograph was of Fremea Seivelun.
"…Apparently that report about you being here was accurate. You weren't actually supposed to show up until a bit later," Kuroyoru called out to the other side of the table with a grin on her face.
She was addressing a Level 5.
"Dammit, and the #4 would have been so much simpler."
Yes.
It was the #1, Accelerator.
Accelerator had tossed the photo of Fremea onto the table and watched the girl's reaction.
He had made it nearby from the marked map and by referencing some more information, but the biggest factor had been the explosion and the many unmanned reconnaissance devices. If he hadn't been passing through that area, he probably would have headed for the building or the origin point of the unmanned reconnaissance devices.
It had been a coincidence that he had stopped and looked over at the open café.
The girl had been incredibly easy to spot.
All Accelerator had to do was notice the idiot who stank of darkness and was relaxing with a number of subordinates blending into the surrounding area.
"How about you take a seat?" asked the girl with a thin smile and a dangerous look in her eyes. "This is the café's recommended tea. It's called...nnn…I don't remember. It was a pretty long name. Anyway, how about you try some? Although it isn't very good."
Accelerator sat in the seat opposite the girl and ordered a different type of tea from the recommended one.
It wasn't any good either.
"…I guess there was no avoiding it."
"That's life for you."
"And who are you?"
"Do you really think I'm going to introduce myself?"
"You're Kuroyoru Umidori."
"…Tch. You were just asking to verify it."
She looked around and noticed two or three of her subordinates were missing. They weren't important enough to her to remember their names or what they looked like, but it seemed they had been dragged off somewhere.
In their place, a woman wearing an ao dai and with a cast on one arm waved at her. There was nothing but scorn in the woman's smile.
(An incredibly simple trick, but it's admirable that they managed to pull it off without me noticing.)
Kuroyoru gave up and spoke.
"Correct. …Did you chop off a few fingers?"
"We threw him in an automated kitchen waste disposal device in an alley and asked whether he wanted to talk or be turned to fertilizer."
"Eh? That's all it took to get him to talk? I guess I need to cut off a few of his fingers then."
"But it wasn't enough," Accelerator said as if he were cutting her off. "We didn't get much information. Really all we got was your name, Silver Cross's name, and the term 'Freshmen'. …Oh, and given how much ridiculous pride he had in this Freshmen thing, it must be pretty important. He told us your names, but he wouldn't say anything about that."
"…Maybe I need to cut off his legs as well as all of his fingers," was Kuroyoru's disturbing comment as she puffed up her cheeks.
She used her hand to stroke the plastic dolphin doll in the seat next to her in what may have been a way of letting out some of her stress.
"So what are you doing here?"
"That's my question," spat out Accelerator. "The darkness should be gone. I eliminated it. I abolished the structure that bound the city's dark organizations together. At the end of that annoying war, I made it happen. I had the people being used by the upper levels released. So why are people so obviously part of all that like you doing here?"
At the end of World War III, he had said this to a messenger of the upper levels:
"—Don't send out any more orders to use that brat or the Sisters as shields. Freeze the Third Season project. Don't play with their lives for your own purposes, be it about killing them or making more of them."
And:
"—Release everyone else in a similar situation to mine. I won't let you use anyone or anything as a shield to force people to do your dirty work in the world of darkness. If I catch even one instance, I'll bare my fangs towards you. I will brutally crush you as many times as it takes."
"True enough." Kuroyoru brought her cup to her mouth and smelled the tea, smelled it again, smelled it yet again, and then looked puzzled at her inability to tell the difference from normal teas. "There was a notification. All the hostages and conditions functioning as chains were done away with. Maybe there were even some people that celebrated. Although the whole thing felt less like it was due to the higher ups being afraid of you and more like it was them rewarding you for carrying out your proper role in the war. I guess your achievements in the war made up for your debt."
"…"
"There was something I wanted to ask you if I ever met you. I had actually completely forgotten about it, but I remembered it when I saw your face. So I guess I'll ask you now."
Kuroyoru closed her eyes with her cup still in her hand.
Then she opened them.
And she spoke.
"…Do you really fucking think everyone in the world can just get along?"
Immediately afterwards, the table was sliced in half with an explosive noise.
Accelerator swung his head to the side slightly.
The cup near his mouth had been sliced in two just like the table and the liquid inside was flying through the air.
He was Academy City's strongest esper, but he had a weakness in his inability to use his power if he didn't hit the switch on the choker-style electrode on his neck.
So he dodged the first strike.
He didn't need to for the second strike.
As he used his empty hand to hit the switch on his neck, the cheap-looking black tea hit his upper body and was repelled. There were no burns left on his skin. And Kuroyoru's second attack met the same fate.
Namely, it was reflected.
Kuroyoru forcefully stood up knocking her chair backwards and twisted her entire body to the side just barely managing to avoid her own attack. The cup in her hand was sliced. Only the handle remained in her hand and she threw it to the ground. In its place, she grabbed the plastic dolphin doll.
With the tea, the table, and his opponent's seat gone, Accelerator sat comfortably in the sole remaining chair.
"…That manner of speaking…No, that calculation pattern…"
"Oh, so you realized it? I suppose you would, wouldn't you? It is a portion of your own pattern planted and strengthened, after all."
"The Dark May Project."
Accelerator gave a scornful laugh.
That was one of the inhuman projects that had been carried out in the dark portions of Academy City. They had analyzed the city's strongest Level 5s thought patterns and forcibly inserted a portion of it into others. In exchange for a bit of stability in their personalities, those people had received a rapid increase in the strength of their powers.
"You're just some little kid with a portion forcibly planted inside you and I'm the real deal. Are you really so god damn stupid you can't figure out who's stronger without actually going through with it?"
"Maybe I am, you fucking brat."
"This is a trigger." Accelerator tapped his chair's armrest with his index finger. "If I stand up from here, you're dead. Do you really want to make me stand up?"
"It's true that I don't have much of a chance in a straight-on fight. That's why I was putting off dealing with you. However," Kuroyoru added, "terms of victory here aren't those of a straight-on fight."
"…"
"Your power is great for destroying, but it's not so great for protecting, right? It's the same for me!!"
As she yelled, Kuroyoru horizontally swung the hand of the arm without a plastic dolphin doll under it.
She swung it towards the people watching the sudden turmoil from a distance.
She used the power that had sliced a table in half in the direction of flesh-and-blood humans.
At the same instant, Accelerator jumped up from his chair.
The attack was similar to wind.
Accelerator got in between Kuroyoru and the onlookers and immediately scattered the attack that was also much like a spear or an arrow.
"That was a trigger." He struck her chest with his bullet-like words. "And you pulled it. Now accept your fate."
Kuroyoru Umidori smiled.
Pieces of the tables and road surface she had blown away were flying through the air. She pointed towards a photograph floating amid it all that had been sliced in half.
"She's here."
"Who is?"
"Fremea Seivelun."
Academy City's strongest monster's eyebrows twitched ever so slightly.
"Let's have some fun, #1."
"…"
"That brat is nearby. Let's play a game. If I can chop off her head like in that photo, I win."
And then…
Part 9
Hamazura Shiage ran out of the private salon building.
Things had been crazy inside the building. It had been a hell of multiple Edge Bees destroying and flying through windows and doors whenever he let his guard down, but he had still managed to make his way out.
As long as you didn't falter at the sight of the chainsaws around the disks, there were a number of ways to deal with them. You could throw a spray can into the shampoo-hat like propellers, you could smash their camera lenses with a fire extinguisher, and you could stick a lit cigarette near their batteries and then hit them with a bottle of whiskey.
The Edge Bees could catch objects, accelerate them with centrifugal force, and throw them, but that could be dealt with by throwing things at them from angles the chainsaw couldn't reach or using bottles that would break when "grabbed".
He was lucky that they only self-destructed when they stopped functioning in any other way. If they detonated at any opportune time, Hamazura wouldn't have been able to even approach them.
(Where's Fremea!? Is she outside already? Or is she still inside!?)
Hamazura pushed through the onlookers who had gathered after hearing the uproar and searched around the area for the girl, but he then got an odd uncomfortable feeling.
Something was off.
It didn't make sense.
It had been complete luck that he had been able to make his way through the large swarm of Edge Bees and outside. It wasn't that he hadn't wanted to make it outside. He had been fighting desperately hoping to do just that.
But…
He honestly felt that it had been too easy.
Even if he did have a motley collection of experiences, Hamazura was still just a delinquent boy. He couldn't use the kind of special power that was needed to get through this kind of situation. These were killer weapons; they were specifically designed to kill people and getting killed was the obvious result of running into one. There was no way he should have gotten past them.
One or two could maybe fall under the category of a miracle.
But Hamazura had run into more than ten Edge Bees and there had to be a lot more of them spread out throughout the building.
How had he survived?
Was it just a coincidence?
Or had someone purposefully intervened to make it happen?
"Fremea!! Are you there!?"
But he didn't have time to think too deeply about it.
He had only managed to escape from the swarm of Edge Bees. They hadn't been destroyed. Not to mention that they were only unmanned reconnaissance devices. If his conjecture was correct, the true threat behind them was much worse than the esper girl or the powered suit he had seen before.
That was when Hamazura heard a familiar girls' voice as he looked around the area.
"…In the first place…!! Over here, Hamazura…come…!!"
"Fremea!!"
He franticly turned around, but there were simply too many onlookers. It didn't help that Fremea was fairly short. She may have been completely hidden behind all the people.
He couldn't find her.
He couldn't meet up with her.
His panic grew causing his ability to find someone amid all that confusion to fall.
And as he moved about in confusion, the next disaster came.
With a great noise, a giant powered suit appeared kicking a car away in the parking lot.
The suit looked very alien in the cityscape. That out-of-place feeling led to Hamazura picking up the same scent from it as the one in the underground mall despite him having no proof.
It had two arms and two legs.
Compared to the eight-legged one carrying a smoothbore gun, this one had a very subdued design, but it was still just too huge. A person's arms and legs simply couldn't be in the analogous parts of the suit. There had to be a space opened in the body. It had a number of narrow pillars on its back that held Edge Bees on them.
The onlookers stared blankly at it.
They knew that Academy City could create things like that suit, but they didn't often have a chance to see one with their own eyes.
On the other hand, the powered suit did not hesitate.
It did not care that there were witnesses.
The giant suit headed straight for its target paying the onlookers no heed.
In other words, it headed to crush Fremea Seivelun.
"…!!!???"
A number of screams, both male and female, rang out.
Ignoring the panicked people attempting to escape, the suit headed straight on.
Hamazura couldn't move.
For one, he still didn't know exactly where Fremea was. But the bigger factor was that, unlike with the Edge Bees, the overwhelming and chilling negative feelings that came over him penetrated his skin and caused it to tighten up so he couldn't move.
This was the killer intent of a living being.
A mere machine could not emit this.
While Hamazura was completely frozen up, the powered suit knocked a car in the parking lot into the air. It made three flips in midair before heading back towards the ground.
Hamazura looked in horror at the spot it was headed for.
Fremea Seivelun was there.
She must have been knocked down while the other onlookers tried to escape. She was collapsed face down on the road. Near her was an abandoned stroller. Either the parent had panicked and ran off or the stroller had been separated from the parent in the confusion. In the stroller was a baby young enough that it was difficult to tell if it was a boy or a girl.
Hamazura finally managed to free his legs from the fear. He started running in Fremea's direction.
But it was too late.
He yelled at her to run.
Fremea looked back and forth between the car approaching from above and the stroller.
That slight hesitation brought her tiny odds of survival straight down to zero.
The car fell.
The baby in the stroller must not have understood the situation. It stretched its innocent little hands up towards the side mirror that was reflecting sunlight as the car spun through the air.
Immediately afterwards, a sound of destruction could be heard.
Momentum, heat, electricity. The sound was caused by the boy who could control all these vectors, Accelerator, when he knocked the car horizontally with a flying kick.
Accelerator had shot over at tremendous speed, but he remained stationary in the air for a short second. Meanwhile, the car that had received all the energy from his movement was knocked away accurately in a direction with no onlookers. Like in billiards, the momentum had been transferred.
Accelerator almost floated down and landed lightly near Fremea.
The loud noise must have finally caused the baby to think it was in danger, because it started crying loudly. Accelerator did not turn towards it.
The powered suit.
Kuroyoru Umidori.
Keeping an eye on the locations of the direct threats, Accelerator spoke.
He spoke the words as if they were words of praise and they were directed towards Fremea who had been unable to run away in the very end.
(…This is supposed to be that damn Level 0's role, not mine.)
What the monster said could be applied both to himself and the girl.
"You're just not fit to be a hero, you fucking brat."
In that instant, Hamazura Shiage was bewildered.
Why had Academy City's strongest Level 5 shown up there?
Level 0s like Hamazura and Fremea were practically the polar opposite of the Level 5s who reigned from the very top of the esper development program. Hamazura knew it was ridiculous, but he didn't think a Level 5 would save a Level 0 in that city without a really good reason. He didn't feel that they had enough "value" to do so otherwise.
Of course, he was thankful Fremea had been saved.
The problem Hamazura had now was that the situation had passed the point where a Level 0 could get through it by coming up with a great idea.
He had met Accelerator in the areas of fiercest fighting during World War III like Russia and the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations. Accelerator was a person who could overpower the latest weapons of both the Russian army and Academy City barehanded. It would be immensely reassuring to have his help.
However, Hamazura remembered something unpleasant.
It was the same as when he had "luckily" escaped the swarm of Edge Bees.
(…Can I use him?)
The #1 had protected Takitsubo from terrorists in the past, but Hamazura had a bad impression of him for a different reason.
But he wasn't in a position where he could be picky.
(…Anything's fine as long it gets us out of this situation. He's the horrible person who killed Leader Komaba, but that in itself is a reason for him to fight for Fremea!!)
In that instant, the powered suit received a delighted transmission from a comrade.
"Here we go! Here we gooooo!! Silver Cross!! The connection has been made. Just one more push and the line will be set!!"
"It's possible they've figured out what we're after."
"They can't do anything about it even if they have. That's what the half-dead Fremea Seivelun is for! After coming this far, the flow can't be changed. They can't stop it!! If we use her, it'll be set. This is checkmate, Silver Cross!!"
The sound of someone clicking their tongue resounded throughout the inside of the powered suit.
He was the kind of man that knew how to do the right thing at the right time.
"God damn it. This model isn't suited for battle!!" he cursed and the powered suit moved forward.
The guard rail and fire hydrant in the way were knocked away as if by construction equipment.
At that same time, Kuroyoru was at a distance watching Silver Cross's giant powered suit attack.
It may have been a custom suit, but it couldn't defeat Academy City's #1.
(…That won't be a problem.)
The loud noise of metal being smashed could be heard.
The powered suit had moved to pick Fremea up off the ground with its steel fingers that were tougher than heavy machinery and Accelerator had used his power to completely bend them.
The shock of the attack crept up like roots and the broken arm tore off, cracks ran across the outer shell, and great damage was done to the machinery required for the powered suit to move.
Normally, it would have been over there.
But this was different.
(…Wins and losses here aren't determined by strength alone!!)
Silver Cross Alpha was "wearing" the thick powered suit.
That meant…
Suddenly, the front of the powered suit opened up even as the suit was being destroyed.
This allowed Silver Cross to get out.
However, it wasn't a flesh-and-blood human who came out.
It was an exceedingly small powered suit constructed from rounded armadillo-like armor.
It must have used some kind of equipment or sensors to carry out its attitude control. The armadillo kept its momentum from leaving the giant suit and rotated in midair.
It passed over Fremea upside down.
No, the armadillo actually grabbed her by the back of the neck with one hand.
Kuroyoru yelled forcefully into her radio.
"Silver Cross!! Run off with her! That'll end this!!"
Accelerator had thought it was over when he had destroyed the larger suit, so he was a little late in reacting.
The next move came.
Along with some screams, the crowd of people in the area split to the left and the right.
A powered suit had a giant propeller on its back and it slid through the gap in the crowd. It was a model meant to travel at high speeds and it could "slide" with its four legs at 800 kph. The end of its legs could emit a liquid known as Slip Oil that let it travel smoothly, but the highly volatile Slip Oil did not leave any hint that allowed it to be tracked.
Its movements were very monotonous, but this meant Silver Cross could have this personal suit move automatically based on a program.
A thick hatch opened on the front.
Silver Cross half-rotated once more while still holding Fremea and went inside the four-legged model.
The bank vault like hatch closed.
The transfer was complete.
He was a man that knew how to do the right thing at the right time.
In other words, he had looked at the situation and used the model that allowed him to get away as quickly as possible.
The propeller on the back increased speed.
It created an explosive wind.
The powered suit began accelerating all at once before Accelerator had a chance to grab the armor.
His hand met only air.
By that point, the suit was already cutting through the streets like a bullet.
Kuroyoru Umidori hid her presence and mixed in with the crowd.
"We win," she said into her transmitter.
All that was left was the crying of the baby in the stroller.
That voice was provoked by a human's primitive emotions, but it did not reach the darkness.
Part 10
He didn't have time.
After seeing what happened from start to finish, Hamazura Shiage grabbed a broken metal pipe—most likely a piece of the destroyed powered suit—for self-defense and ran towards Accelerator.
He would use anything he could to increase his power.
Unlike with Takitsubo, Mugino, or Kinuhata, he had no reason to not want to get that #1 wrapped up in this.
Now that Fremea Seivelun had been captured, he couldn't put it off any longer.
Accelerator had killed Komaba, the person who wanted to protect her.
That gave him a reason why he had to protect Fremea.
Kuroyoru Umidori snickered as she walked through the crowd of people.
(Fremea Seivelun has no use herself. She's just a Level 0. Normally, there would have been no reason to get her involved in this city's darkness.)
"#1!!" Hamazura yelled, but Accelerator did not turn around.
Hamazura didn't know what it was that made Accelerator more of a monster than Mugino, but he held up the broken metal pipe regardless.
"We don't have time. Work with me. We should be able to find her much faster if we work together than if we work separately. If you have even the slightest desire to save that girl, then work with me!! If you don't know who she is, I'll tell you. Once you know, you'll know you need to help her. She's…"
"…"
Accelerator lightly waved his hand.
The second his hand touched the metal pipe in Hamazura's hand, the situation reversed.
With a dull noise, not only did the metal pipe fly from his hand, his body was slammed to the ground. Accelerator hit the switch at his neck and bent over towards Hamazura's collapsed body.
He was leaning over in order to completely incapacitate him.
At the very least, he was going to dislocate both of Hamazura's arms so he couldn't fight at all.
There was no rule saying the enemy of your enemy was your friend.
In fact, they both had completely different mental driving forces making them save people and continue to act.
Kuroyoru rechecked the progress of the plan while the white coat held on only by its hood swayed back and forth.
(…Those personal connections are what are important. Fremea has a connection with Accelerator because he killed Komaba Ritoku and she has a connection with Hamazura and Mugino of Item through Frenda Seivelun.)
(…I underestimated him…)
Hamazura gritted his teeth while lying collapsed on the ground.
Accelerator's hand reached out for his neck.
If Accelerator constricted Hamazura's carotid artery, he would lose consciousness right away. Hamazura couldn't imagine how much worse the situation would get if he lost that much time now that Fremea had been taken away.
He had to turn the situation around somehow.
(…I just need something. Anything. It just has to get him away from me…!!)
He felt around blindly with his hands and felt something hard in his right hand. It was a handgun that had fallen to the ground. It had mostly likely been dropped by an Anti-Skill member during everything that had been going on.
But that wasn't enough.
This was a monster that had destroyed a giant powered suit with one hand. Hamazura doubted firing a 9mm bullet straight on was going to do anything.
Kuroyoru took out her handheld device and checked on the disorderly exchange between the higher ups.
(That's right. Hamazura Shiage and Accelerator. It's important that those two points connect creating a thick line.)
Suddenly, Hamazura felt a change in Accelerator's gaze. He wasn't looking at Hamazura anymore. No matter how unimportant he was, he doubted Accelerator would normally move his attention away from the person he was in the middle of taking out.
Still lying on the ground, Hamazura looked over at the target of Accelerator's gaze.
It was someone in the crowd.
It was a small girl.
Hamazura didn't know, but the girl was called Last Order.
(…Can I use this…?)
He felt the weight of the handgun in his hand once more.
The #1 was truly a monster.
But the ability to protect oneself and the ability to protect others were two different things.
If that girl was someone he knew, it was possible Hamazura could use her as a hostage.
Even amid the crowd of onlookers, Hamazura had a clear shot at the girl. She was about twelve meters away. If he carefully aimed, he could definitely hit her. By threatening her, he could negotiate with that monster.
(…What should I do?)
There was no way he could deal with that monster using normal methods.
And every second counted if he was going to save Fremea.
(…What should I do?)
Hamazura's right arm twitched.
But before he could make any definite movements, Accelerator counterattacked.
With a dull noise, a dull shock ran across Hamazura's arm from the wrist to the elbow.
Accelerator was crushing the bones of Hamazura's right arm under all of his weight.
Kuroyoru was satisfied because it seemed the higher ups were feeling just as much danger as the scenario had predicted.
(Well, of course they are. At the end of World War III, both Hamazura and Accelerator negotiated with the upper levels of Academy City. They've gotten pretty indecisive about that. Even though he's such a danger and even though he's such an eyesore, they can't interfere because of the negotiations.)
"Gah….!?"
After confirming that the handgun had left Hamazura's fingers, Accelerator reached a hand up to the electrode's switch.
"…The second I hit this switch, all the blood in your body will reverse its flow and you'll die," Accelerator informed him in a coldhearted voice. "But answer me one thing first."
"What?"
"Why did you hesitate? You had enough time to aim for that brat and fire. …Although, you may not have hit her."
Of course, if that had happened, he would have mercilessly killed Hamazura. Whether Hamazura had hit or not, Hamazura would have been a dead man the instant his finger had tightened on the trigger.
Hamazura didn't even look over at the gun that was now out of his reach.
He stared Accelerator straight in the eyes.
"…I had no reason."
"What?"
"I only have business with you. That girl isn't involved. I had no reason to get her involved."
"And how am I involved in this situation?"
"Komaba Ritoku."
Accelerator's eyebrows moved slightly when he heard that name.
Hamazura continued speaking regardless.
"What that man you killed wanted to protect down to the very, very end was Fremea. …You should know why Leader Komaba was fighting Academy City's darkness. That's why you once fought for a Level 0 you had no connection to. But that isn't enough. If you truly understand what Leader Komaba's dying wish was, then you have a reason why you must save Fremea."
An email arrived on Kuroyoru's handheld device.
The same email had most likely arrived at Silver Cross's powered suit.
(That's why we're overthrowing this stable state things are in.)
"Tch," Accelerator clicked his tongue.
He removed his weight from Hamazura, stood up, and muttered something.
He wasn't talking to someone from the past.
He was talking to the person who had come up with the strategy he was now caught in.
"…Not just my own judgment, but Komaba's dying wish? Fuck, so that's the trick."
Kuroyoru looked over the characters on the screen.
They spelled out the decision made by the higher ups.
(Hamazura Shiage and Accelerator. When they were acting separately with their own factions, Academy City could simply go along with their negotiations. That's why they let the two of them go even if it was temporary. But what if those rebels joined forces? What if they become a single rebel faction? The higher ups would no longer be able to just let their negotiations stand. There would be too much risk for them to sleep soundly at night without utterly taking out those rebels. Those two would no longer be just observed; they would be killed.)
"What…?"
Hamazura looked puzzled, but Accelerator didn't give a proper response.
They couldn't stop the flow of events.
At that point, they had no choice but to act exactly as Kuroyoru Umidori and the rest of the Freshmen wanted.
They had permission to attack.
She had held some slight doubts about the process, but the current threat level was clear.
Accelerator, Hamazura Shiage, and the people, funds, and emergency stores they both had were to be quickly demolished.
Permission to use deadly force if necessary had been given.
That simple order had been exactly what Kuroyoru had wanted from the higher ups.
(Hamazura's an idiot, but I'm sure Accelerator has figured it out by now. Right!? But you can't stop it now!! It doesn't matter if you know. Whether it's a trap or not, Fremea is going to be killed before your eyes!! You have no choice but to come running. And that's exactly why it'll piss you off so much, you overly optimistic Graduates!!)
"Heh heh. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"
Kuroyoru burst out laughing completely forgetting that she was mixed in with the crowd.
The people around her focused on her wondering what was going on.
"This is a greeting from the Freshmen," Kuroyoru Umidori muttered under her breath ignoring the people around her. "Make this enjoyable, Graduates."
And so Accelerator used his cell phone to send an email to Misaka Worst. The email said that he knew what the enemy was after and that it was possible the enemy would even target Yomikawa and Yoshikawa and so she should take Last Order back to the apartment and protect all of the "good people".
He muttered something after seeing the words saying the email had been sent.
"…Fine, I'll play along. Destroying things straight on was that bastard's way of doing things, wasn't it?"