Chapter 748: Accelerator, Teitoku Kakine, Mugino Shizuri, and all of ITEM!
Inside a villa.
"Huu... gurgle..."
In the pitch-black room, multiple snores echoed.
"Beep beep!"
The phone on the table suddenly rang and lit up.
"Ugh!"
A small hand grabbed the phone and opened it. The light illuminated the girl's sleepy face.
Suddenly.
The girl's sleepy expression vanished. She abruptly sat up, turned on the light, and shouted, "It's super bad!!"
Click!
A bedroom door opened.
A mature woman with chestnut-colored long hair, wearing light pinkish-purple pajamas, walked out expressionlessly. She gazed at the short chestnut-haired girl who had just shouted and said coldly, "You'd better give me an explanation, or I'll make you regret it."
The petite blonde girl and the short black-haired girl, who were sleeping on the sofa with the short chestnut-haired girl, were also startled awake.
"Oh, Kinuhata, why are you yelling in the middle of the night?"
"What happened?"
One complained, and the other asked curiously.
The shouting girl, named Kinuhata Saiai, said seriously, "Mugino, Frenda, Rikou, we have something to do. A super urgent mission."
"Urgent mission?"
The mature woman, Mugino Shizuri, frowned.
Their organization was ITEM.
It was a dark-side organization directly under Academy City's Board of Directors.
She was the leader. That is, Academy City's fourth-ranked Level 5 Esper, Mugino Shizuri.
ITEM was responsible for preventing the upper echelons, including the Board of Directors, from losing control and for suppressing riots by other dark-side organizations. Because they were very effective, they received a large budget from unknown sources. For ITEM, all their work was the unseen, dark work of Academy City. Almost all of it involved killing.
So, what kind of mission counted as urgent?
Kinuhata Saiai took a deep breath, her hands trembling slightly as she held the phone out like a talisman of doom. "It's an urgent mission from the Board Chairman."
"He wants us to immediately go to the Central Container Port. The target is… to kill everyone there~"
"Board Chairman?!!!"
Even Frenda Seivelun and Takitsubo Rikou were no longer sleepy after hearing this. The drowsiness evaporated from the room, replaced by a chilling realization.
Takitsubo Rikou frowned, her usually blank expression tightening. "The Board Chairman… the General Superintendent whom no one knows what he looks like, and no one has ever seen."
The General Superintendent, Aleister Crowley. He was a ghost story that signed their paychecks, a myth that ruled the city from a windowless building. For him to issue a direct order was unprecedented.
Frenda, who feared nothing except death and Mugino (in that order), shrank her head into her shoulders. "This mission feels very wrong."
"Super wrong, and it feels super dangerous!" Kinuhata agreed, her voice pitching up.
Kinuhata Saiai looked at Mugino Shizuri.
She asked, "Mugino, what should we do?"
No matter what, Mugino was ITEM's strongest leader, and even for the most dangerous missions, they had to listen to her choice. In the dog-eat-dog world of the Dark Side, her word was law, and her power was absolute.
"Tsk."
Mugino Shizuri also felt it was tricky this time. She ran a hand through her silky hair, her expression a mix of annoyance and calculation.
That was the mysterious Board Chairman; not just anyone was qualified to contact him. To receive a direct order meant they were valued, but it also meant they were expendable pawns in a game far larger than they could comprehend.
Finally, her eyes hardened. Green sparks of unstable electrons danced at her fingertips.
She gritted her teeth, "Let's go."
"Eh? Are we really going?"
Frenda exclaimed, jumping off the sofa. "Mugino! Think about it! If Aleister is calling us personally, it means the target is probably a monster! How about we just run away? We have enough money saved up, right? We can go to France! Or Hawaii!"
"Hmm?"
Mugino Shizuri glared at her with sharp eyes and said gloomily, the air around her distorting with heat, "Do you think we can refuse the Board Chairman's order?"
"Uh…"
Frenda's body stiffened, a cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.
Kinuhata Saiai retorted, adjusting her shirt, "That's the Board Chairman! Frenda is super stupid. If we run away, I have no doubt that we'll be the ones being hunted tomorrow. It's super scary!"
"Besides, we're in Academy City, where can we run?"
Takitsubo Rikou nodded, standing up and checking her pockets for her 'Body Crystal' pills. "Exactly, we have no choice but to carry out this urgent mission. We belong to him."
"I just hope the danger level of the mission isn't too outrageous."
Mugino Shizuri walked towards the door to change into her combat gear. "Hmph, let's go."
… …
A tall building.
The view from the top floor was breathtaking, the neon lights of Academy City stretching out to the horizon like a sea of electric stars.
A long-haired blonde man held a glass of vintage red wine, gazing at the streets of Academy City.
His eyes were full of ambition, a hunger that gnawed at his very soul. He wore a sharp, burgundy suit that screamed arrogance and refinement.
"Beep beep!"
He took out his phone with a practiced, elegant motion.
Initially, his gaze was casual, expecting a report from one of his subordinates in SCHOOL or perhaps a nuisance call from another organization.
But after seeing the content of the message, his pupils contracted, and his eyes narrowed sharply!
The text glowed ominously on the screen:
"Complete the following urgent mission, and you will gain direct negotiation authority with me."
And the sender of the message was the goal he had always strived for, the phantom ruler of this city of science.
"Board Chairman: Aleister Crowley"
"!!!"
His breath hitched. A tremor of pure ecstasy ran through his body.
He had never imagined that the right to speak and negotiate with the Board Chairman, which he had always strived to climb to and obtain, had always eluded him. It had slipped through his fingers like smoke, keeping him in the shadow of the First Rank.
But now, the opportunity was actually delivered right to him.
"Hahahahaha!!!"
The man covered his face with his wine-stained hand and burst into wild, unhinged laughter. The sound bounced off the empty walls of the luxury apartment.
He was Kakine Teitoku.
He was Academy City's second-ranked Level 5 Esper, Dark Matter.
He knew the secrets within Academy City, even including the first-ranked Esper and the Level 6 Shift Project. He knew he was the "Spare Plan," the backup to be used if the main plan failed. It was a label that burned him, an insult to his very existence as a creator of new matter.
But he understood that all of this was not the ultimate secret.
Everything in Academy City—the schools, the experiments, the darkness—was part of some plan by the Board Chairman.
What he wanted to do was gain negotiation with the Board Chairman. To stand before the master of this city and demand his place in the sun, to prove that his Dark Matter—a substance that did not exist in this universe until he created it—was superior to mere vector calculations.
A moment later.
The laughter gradually subsided, leaving a cold, terrifying smile on his face.
"Since the opportunity has been delivered to me, I won't pretend I didn't see it."
He tossed the wine glass aside.
Whoosh!
Six magnificent wings erupted from his back. They were pure white, angelic in form but alien in nature. They were not made of feathers or light, but of Dark Matter—substance that defied the laws of physics of this world. They shimmered with an ethereal, dangerous glow.
Crack!
The reinforced glass in front of him shattered from an unknown vibration, exploding outward into the night sky, and Kakine Teitoku flew away from the high altitude, a fallen angel ascending to claim his throne.
… …
The container area of Academy City.
There was little light even in the night. Only the sparse illumination of distant streetlamps cast long, jagged shadows across the rusted metal canyons.
This silent place was filled with a murderous atmosphere. The air tasted of ozone and impending violence.
Thump!
Footsteps.
"Hey, hurry up and get out here. Let me kill you and end this boring game today."
A very sharp voice rang out.
The person who arrived in this area had white hair.
He wore a gray-based striped outfit.
White hair and skin, red pupils, slender build, and noticeably lacking muscle in his limbs.
His eyes mixed with killing intent and madness, coupled with a twisted mouth that seemed to have given up on the world, giving off a 'delinquent' vibe.
But he was not some delinquent.
He was the strongest Esper in Academy City, openly.
No. 1, Accelerator.
His real name was unknown.
Academy City's first-ranked Level 5 Esper, codenamed Accelerator.
He held the title of "Academy City's Strongest," and his ability was "Vector Manipulation" (openly, at least).
He could control the direction of energy.
He could "reflect" all physical attacks.
He could kill a person just by touching them.
He was the only talent who, in current calculations, could become an Absolute Ability User.
However, this first-ranked individual's pale skin and frail body looked somewhat weak.
This was because he reflected all harmful rays like ultraviolet light, only accepting the necessary levels of oxygen, light, and heat required for survival.
This resulted in his hair and skin being white.
Lack of external stimulation caused abnormal hormone secretion, making it impossible to distinguish his gender, and his pupils, due to lack of pigment, appeared close to red, showing the color of blood.
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