Toaru Majutsu no Index

Volume 3, Chapter 4: Accelerator. Level5(Extend).

Part 1

As the night grew deeper, the cold grew sharper. Despite it being the middle of summer, she felt a chill like a cold blade being pressed up against her stomach.

Serial Number 10032 aka Misaka Imouto left a shopping district and walked with an accurate, machine-like pace toward a section of a silent industrial area.

As she walked along the empty street lined with street lights, Misaka Imouto mentally went over the contents of the experiment about to begin.

The absolute coordinates of the area to be used were X-228561, Y-568714. The start time was at exactly 8:30 PM Japanese Standard Time. The specimen to be used was #10032. The purpose was to find a way to fight so that the usage of reflection would not apply.

“...”

Misaka Imouto ran mentally through the scenario in which she was to be killed, but no tragic expression appeared on her face. There was no fear, no hatred, and not even resignation on her face.

Her face truly was expressionless.

If someone had seen that, they would sense the same danger as watching a clockwork doll heading for the edge of a cliff.

Misaka Imouto was not a deviant that did not know the value of a living being’s life.

If someone had been about to die before her, she would have immediately searched for options she could take and then taken action on the most suitable one.

However, she could not apply that concept to herself.

As if it were information being written on a hard disk, her empty heart had been installed by a Testament onto her physical body that could be remade as many times as needed at the push of a button using the proper equipment. The value of her life was 180,000 yen. She was like a high performance personal computer. In fact, she was the type that would get thrown into the bargain box.

(...That is why there is one thing Misaka does not understand, thinks Misaka.)

Misaka Imouto had that thought as she walked down the dark street.

When that boy had run into multiple Misakas in that back alley, he had been so shocked he had stopped breathing. It had been like a reality he could not stand was being thrust before his eyes. It had been like he did not want to accept that reality even if it was thrust before his eyes.

Misaka Imouto recalled what that boy had said.

–Who are you?

Those words had not been a question he asked her.

–What are you doing?

It had seemed more like he had asked the question because he wanted her to deny something.

Misaka Imouto’s face remained expressionless.

(Did he really want to deny it that badly?)

Had he really wanted to deny the reality of the 20,000 Sisters, and the world in which their hearts stopping was all according to plan, that badly?

(...Misaka does not understand. Misaka cannot understand, thinks Misaka as she addressed her questions related to the boy’s mental state.)

Misaka Imouto concluded that there was no point in thinking about things there was no way she could understand.

It was as if she were saying there was no real problem in not understanding why a frog would swim in a ditch.

But then...

Why had she recalled that boy’s face?

If there was truly no value in it, she would not have thought of him. There was no reason to recall the shape and color of the gum that was stuck to the station platform a week before.

She was supposed to be assembling information in her head for the upcoming experiment. If she failed, it would cause problems for a lot of people, so why had her thoughts drifted to that boy’s face when he had nothing to do with the experiment?

“...”

Misaka Imouto could not understand.

And she had concluded that there was no point in thinking about things there was no way she could understand.

Misaka Imouto could not even understand something as trivial and pointless as that.

The girl headed alone to her own place of execution while still understanding none of it.

Her precise footsteps sounded like the ticking of a time bomb.

Part 2

Kamijou was lying on his side atop the windless iron bridge.

He slowly opened his eyes. Most likely, it had not been long since he had been hit by that high voltage current and lost consciousness. It had probably only been 10 or 20 seconds, but his sprawled out arms and legs were oddly cold. The proper circulation of blood had been obstructed. The electric shock may have made the beating of his heart irregular or his heart may have actually stopped once or twice while he was unconscious.

Without moving his head, Kamijou blankly stared at his limbs that looked like they belonged to a doll that had been thrown into a corner of the room by a child who had gotten tired of it.

“...”

He tried to move his fingers and his index finger slowly moved like a dying insect. He managed to move his eyelids and blink. He was sucking in and blowing out terribly shallow breaths and he could hear the faint beating of his heart coming from within his body.

“Thank goodness,” he mouthed.

He could still move his body. That meant he could stand back up.

“What are you doing?” said a girl’s voice from very close by above his head.

Kamijou suddenly realized that there was an oddly soft feeling on his cheek as he lay on his side.

It seemed his head was lying in Mikoto’s lap.

“You’re that beaten up, you’re lying on the filthy ground, and your heart may have even stopped for a short time. So...”

Her voice was trembling.

That was not the voice of one of Academy City’s seven Level 5’s, of a Tokiwadai lady, or of Railgun. It was the voice of a normal girl who could not stop trembling in the darkness.

“...How can you smile like that?”

Transparent drops of liquid fell on Kamijou’s cheek from above.

They were warm like a spring rain.

“...”

“Thank goodness,” he mouthed again without actually speaking.

He was glad that he could be Mikoto’s ally. His eyes narrowed slightly in happiness.

The black cat mewed next to his ear.

Its rough tongue touched Kamijou’s hand as if to kindly lick his wounds.

“I’ve figured it out,” he said while still lying there.

Mikoto did not respond. He only heard a rubbing sound as if she were wiping at her eyes with her fingertips.

“...I’ve figured out how to stop the experiment.”

He heard a slight sound from Mikoto’s throat as if her breath had caught there in surprise.

“If you think about it, it’s quite simple.”

The entire experiment was just the researchers following the scenario created by Tree Diagram.

That was why Mikoto had been thinking of stopping the experiment by making the researchers think that scenario would not work.

If something that simple could stop the experiment, then it was quite simple indeed.

“...I’m sure Tree Diagram took the fact that Accelerator is the strongest in Academy City into account for its calculations.”

If the experiment could be stopped by having them believe in a bluff, then...

“Then it’s simple. We just have to make the researchers think that this Accelerator they insist is the strongest is actually really absurdly weak.”

What if Accelerator, supposedly Academy City’s strongest esper, were to easily lose in a simple street fight?

Even if the simulations said he was Academy City’s strongest, would the researchers really continue to believe Accelerator was the strongest after seeing something as pathetic as that?

Wouldn’t that make the researchers think the machine’s predictions were wrong?

“That’s not possible,” Mikoto replied. “The experiment can’t be stopped so simply. I’m a Level 5 just like him. If another Level 5 defeats him, I’m sure they’ll just accept it as within the accepted margin of error. They won’t think that Accelerator is actually weak.”

Mikoto sounded like she was gritting her teeth and like she was oozing blood.

“And we can’t beat him even if we ganged up on him.” Mikoto seemed to be reflecting on her own powerlessness. “I’ve only directly met this Accelerator once, but that was enough. I hacked into the Bank and did a search on his power and it gave me goose bumps. For him, a fight is not something he might win or lose. When he fights, it is a completely one-sided slaughter.”

“...”

Kamijou knew she was right.

Tree Diagram had already determined that she would be killed in 185 moves if she were to fight Accelerator. That was surely an accurate answer. Even if Misaka Mikoto used everything at her disposal and tried her very best, she could not defeat Accelerator. That was why that strong and usually impulsive girl had not tried to take him out in a fight, and had instead been cornered in a situation where her death was the only way to stop the experiment and save the Sisters.

Kamijou knew that Misaka Mikoto could not defeat Accelerator.

“That just means I have to fight.”

Mikoto’s breath caught in her throat because Kamijou’s words had shocked her to the bottom of her heart.

But that was the only way.

Even if another Level 5 defeated Accelerator, the researchers would not be convinced that he was actually weak.

But what if Academy City’s strongest were defeated by one of Academy City’s weakest, a Level 0?

Of course, it may have looked like Kamijou was a strong esper who had merely flown under the radar, but Academy City’s System Scan had thoroughly checked him over and he still could not get rid of being branded a Level 0. That was just what Kamijou Touma’s Imagine Breaker was.

If Accelerator were easily defeated by someone who was seen as a Level 0 no matter how much one checked him over, what would those researchers think of their supposed strongest?

“...”

Now that he knew what he had to do, the rest was easy.

Kamijou tried to lift his head from Mikoto’s thighs and stand up, but his body would not move as he wanted it to. He felt a slight scraping feeling and his head slid from her thighs down to the hard ground.

Even so, he gritted his teeth and moved his trembling fingers like caterpillars. He slowly, slowly got his fingers gripped on the uneven asphalt and then gathered all his strength to lift himself up from the ground like he was lifting a barbell.

He expended so much effort into just getting up on one knee that he felt like he had shortened his lifespan by 5 years.

Mikoto let out a trembling voice upon seeing Kamijou gritting his teeth.

“What are you doing?” She spoke like she was seeing something she could not believe. “You can’t. You’re only saying that because you don’t know what Accelerator’s power is! It’s crazy to even think of taking on that kind of overpowered villain that you would see in a manga. He’s the kind of person who would just cackle at the fact that every army in the world was after him!”

“...”

Kamijou did not respond.

He merely remained silent and gathered strength in his legs in order to stand up from being on one knee.

“Accelerator’s power is the ability to freely control all kinds of vectors such as motion, heat, and electricity as long as they are touching his skin. You can’t find an opening in an overpowered ability like that even if you know what the ability is!” Mikoto seemed to be yelling out at the unfairness of reality. “All of his attacks will reach you, but none of yours will reach him. In fact, everything you fire at him is reflected right back at you. No human can stand up to an absolute one-way road like that!”

“...”

Kamijou did not respond.

He poured all his strength into his trembling knees and tried to stand up.

“He’s just different. It’s best to think of him as a being on a different dimension from espers like us. You can’t win when you take on someone who is cheating from the start. And you’re already so beaten up! You can’t defeat a monster like that in your state!”

Mikoto begged him as she was about to burst into tears. She begged him to not stand back up.

“...”

Even so, Kamijou did not respond.

He moved his body that was even then about to collapse and slowly, slowly stood up.

“Why?” Mikoto asked in the voice of a child who was lost.

“...”

Kamijou did not know.

He did not know how strong Accelerator was.

He did not know what he could do with his body that battered.

But Imagine Breaker resided in his right hand.

And a reason to clench his right fist existed within his chest.

He would not rely on anyone else and he would not hope for anything else.

If he could use that hand to rescue a girl who had been cornered in a dead end by that Accelerator, then he felt it was a wonderful thing.

So Kamijou stood up.

He stood upon the ground on his own two feet.

“Misaka, you said you were about to head to where Accelerator is, right?”

Kamijou looked at Mikoto’s face.

He had a feeling that he had not seen her eyes in a long time and they were currently red from crying.

“Tell me, Misaka. Where is he about to start the experiment?”

Part 3

Misaka Imouto had arrived at a train switchyard.

Similar to a transit bus garage, it was a place where many trains were serviced and where they were kept after the last train ran. An area about the size of a school’s grounds was covered in the same gravel as a train track and over 10 rails were lined up next to each other. Lined up at the end of the tracks were garages with large shutters over them making them look like rental storage areas at a port. Surrounding the entire switchyard were large numbers of metal containers used on freight trains. The containers were piled up like building blocks and they rivaled three story buildings in height. The disorderly piles made the area around the switchyard seem like a three-dimensional maze. The containers were like mountains and the switchyard itself was like the basin between the mountains.

The switchyard was not a popular place.

As all students had to be back from school by the time the last train left, the switchyard was quickly abandoned. The electric lights used for work were turned off and there were no houses nearby so that left no illumination. Even though 2.3 million people lived in that city, that area was wrapped in such darkness that the usually invisible stars were visible in the night sky.

Standing in the middle of that vacant darkness was Academy City’s strongest esper, Accelerator.

His form seemed to be one with the surrounding darkness, so Misaka Imouto felt like she was being thrown into a giant organ belonging to Accelerator by entering that switchyard.

The white boy smiled in the black darkness.

His eerie whiteness gave her the feeling that her eyeballs had been thrown into boiling water.

“So it’s 8:25... I take it you’re the next doll to be targeted in the experiment?”

Accelerator’s voice sounded like a white darkness spewing forth from that smile that split across his face.

But Misaka Imouto’s expression did not change even slightly.

“Yes, Misaka is Serial Number 10032, responds Misaka. However, shouldn’t you check using the passcode to ensure that Misaka is part of the experiment? suggests Misaka.”

“...Tch. You’re fucking insane,” Accelerator spat out. “Well, I may have no right to say this as someone forcing you to take part in this experiment to make me stronger, but you sure are calm. Don’t you feel anything about this situation?”

“It is difficult to understand what you mean when you use vague terms such as ‘anything’, replies Misaka. The experiment begins in 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Are you prepared? asks Misaka to make sure.”

Accelerator’s eyes narrowed. He chewed on something in his mouth with a look like he was fed up with something. It was like he was chewing on a piece of gum that had lost its sweetness.

“? Are you eating something? asks Misaka.”

“Yeah, a finger,” Accelerator said casually as he spat the object in his mouth out to the side.

The piece of meat was all chewed up and had saliva all over it, but the general shape of a girl’s narrow fingertip could just barely still be seen.

“Since I had the chance, I thought I’d borrow it, but human flesh isn’t all that great. I’d heard that fingers didn’t have much fat and that it tasted a bit sour, but it’s not even that. You bite into it and you can feel all these narrow bundles being torn apart. It’s fucking horrible. I guess we just didn’t evolve to be eaten like pigs or cows.”

Accelerator wiped his lips with his arm as if to wipe away the flavor in his mouth.

But Misaka Imouto’s expression did not change even slightly upon hearing that.

“Normally, pork or beef has the blood removed and the flavor improved with salt and other spices, advises Misaka. Is the distinction between raw meat and cooked meat due to the changes in the proteins created by heating bringing an error into your testing? asks Misaka giving her view on the situation.”

“Is that so?” said Accelerator sounding fed up with the entire thing.

Misaka Imouto did not understand why Accelerator had asked that question. It was true that she had been shocked upon seeing him in front of the used bookstore, but that had been because of the black cat at her feet. She was only afraid of having an unrelated life taken by the experiment.

“Dammit, after 10,000 times, this is getting really fucking old. I was hoping to kill some time, but no. There’s just no having a conversation with any of you,” Accelerator said leisurely. “I can’t understand why you would throw away your lives like that. To me, my own life takes top priority and I think of my own body as the best. That’s why there’s no limit to the amount of power I want and that’s why I can just laugh scornfully as I kill hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of you.”

“There are parts of what you said that Misaka does not understand, replies Misaka. You are already Academy City’s strongest Level 5, are you not? If you are already at a point where no one else can reach you, there should be no need to head even higher, predicts Misaka.”

“The strongest, hm?” Accelerator sounded bored as he responded. “Strongest? Strongest!? Strongest!!? True enough. I am the strongest esper in this city and therefore the strongest esper in the entire world. But,” Accelerator sounded bored from the very depths of his heart, “in the end, I am only the strongest. How does everyone else know that I’m the strongest esper in Academy City? It’s because they’ve fought me and lost. In other words, my strength is only at the level where they try to pick a fight with me because it sounds like fun.”

His red eyes completely changed to those of a pleasant smile.

“That’s not enough. That’s nowhere near enough. Level 5 – strongest – is boring. I’m after something beyond that. I want absolute strength that makes the thought of taking me on sound like a fucking joke and doesn’t even allow anyone to even think about fighting me. I yearn for that invincibility known as Level 6.”

As that boy spoke of his own dream, he slowly stretched his hands out horizontally to both sides.

The right hand of suffering and the left hand of poison.

The boy smiled with his hands held out horizontally. Both were like poisonous snakes that could kill with just a touch.

He looked like a cross emitting darkness.

“So are you ready? It’s time to die, you overproduced failure.”

The white boy smiled mockingly, but Misaka Imouto’s expression did not change even slightly.

She merely spoke unconcernedly like a doll with a clock in it.

“8:29 PM and 45 seconds, 46 seconds, 47 seconds...Experiment #10032 will begin shortly. Test Subject Accelerator, please wait at the designated spot, informs Misaka.”

And the unavoidable experiment began at 8:30 PM.

Part 4

Kamijou left the black cat with Mikoto and then ran through the nighttime city.

On the west end of Academy City was a large industrial area.

Apparently, a train switchyard there was the location for the 10032nd experiment.

“...”

He recognized the number 10032. That was the serial number Misaka Imouto had mentioned in the back alley.

A great impatience assaulted Kamijou’s chest.

He had to get to that switchyard as quickly as possible, but the buses and trains had already been returned to their garages.

With most of the transportation facilities shut down, Kamijou had no choice but to run on his own two feet.

He knew he did not have much stamina left, but he was in too much of a hurry to keep a slower pace to preserve that stamina. Instead, he gritted his teeth and ran full speed through a shopping district.

He moved his battered body and ran despite the fact that doing so was shaving away the little stamina he had left.

Leaving the shopping district, he entered a residential area and the lights and hustle and bustle of the city seemed to grow more distant. As he ran further, the student dorms started growing sparse, too. After cutting past some small trees that had been artificially planted, he reached the industrial area.

Academy City had an industrial area so that items made from the research carried out in the city could also be produced within the city. However, the area was not filled with factories that looked like slightly dirty rented storage areas in a downtown area. Instead, the area was lined with windowless industrial buildings. The area was oddly organized and had no sense of being lived in. It was a little reminiscent of an area of a city filled with offices.

There was no one there.

The factories were surely structured to run 24 hours a day, but no sound could be heard because of their perfect sound proofing. The scenery looked like a dead city to Kamijou and he felt a chill in that midsummer night.

As she remained alone on the iron bridge, Mikoto held the frightened black cat in her arms.

She recalled that the electromagnetic waves subconsciously emitted by her body made cats dislike her, but she didn’t particularly care at that moment.

“...Is he an idiot?” she muttered in the darkness.

She had wanted to stop Kamijou. She had at least wanted to head with him to the area for the experiment.

But Kamijou had forbidden it.

What was important was that the Level 0 Imagine Breaker singlehandedly defeated the Level 5 Accelerator. If Mikoto, another Level 5, were helping Kamijou, it would be determined that Accelerator was defeated by a group of people that included a Level 5.

“If you want to save Misaka Imouto, leave this to me,” the boy had said.

“I will return with her,” he had promised.

Mikoto looked at the end of the bridge where the boy had disappeared.

Logically, she knew that she could not do anything by heading there. In fact, there was a chance she would destroy the solution that the boy had finally obtained. Because of that, staying there was the proper choice. She knew that. Anyone could figure that out logically.

But...

Something beyond logic did not want to understand it.

Mikoto gritted her teeth.

“...Do you really think I can do that!?”

In the end, Mikoto chased after Kamijou while still holding the black cat.

She simply could not sit idly by.

Part 5

At 8:30 PM, the switchyard became a battlefield.

Bluish-white flashes of light as if from a camera flash lit up the dark switchyard.

Misaka Imouto and Accelerator’s feet kicked up the gravel.

The distance between them was less than 10 metres.

“Hah. What!? Are you just walking around casually without a plan? If you like pain that much, I’ll make you cry so much you might as well take a cough drop now!”

With his arms still spread out, Accelerator bent over and closed in on Misaka Imouto like he was a carnivorous beast.

He did not need to think about defense. In fact, he did not even need to think about attacking. For someone who could reflect all kinds of attacks and therefore could kill his opponent just by touching them, a fight was nothing more than thinking of the fastest and most definite way of touching his opponent.

As he could reflect all kinds of attacks, there was no way of stopping his legs from bringing him closer. Misaka Imouto was faced with that unreasonable amount of violence that was like driving a tank into the middle of a group of demonstrators.

“Ah!?” was Accelerator’s dissatisfied cry.

Misaka Imouto took steps back to put some distance between her and Accelerator as if she were fleeing from his advance. Misaka Imouto paid close attention to the situation around her and continued to flee back sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left. The carnivorous beast that was Accelerator chased after her with a look of pure boredom in his eyes.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon! That’s pathetic! What the hell are you hoping for?! No matter how much time you buy yourself, there isn’t gonna be a miracle!”

Misaka Imouto was not listening. She did nothing but put distance between her and her enemy while keeping that enemy in her range of vision. Accelerator felt like the blood vessels in his head were going to burst, but then he noticed that the girl was electrifying the surrounding air.

“Oh, come the hell on! Surely you know that’s fucking useless! And I’m not going to play along with your pathetic attempts at resisting much longer!”

Accelerator laughed mockingly. He could reflect any attack that was thrown at him and Misaka Imouto was purposefully not firing the electricity at him out of fear of that. The sparks were flying around him, but no actual attack came his way.

“What’s with her?”

Accelerator gritted his teeth, but then he noticed that he was short of breath. At first he thought he had used up too much oxygen by talking while running around, but it was too odd for that. A sharp stench sent off alarm bells in his head.

“Tonight is a windless night.” Misaka Imouto’s voice reverberated throughout the still air of the switchyard. “As such, Misaka may have a chance of winning, calls out Misaka.”

Accelerator checked on his surroundings again. Misaka Imouto continued to run away, she was firing electrical attacks around him, he was oddly out of breath, and he could reflect any direct attack.

(Ohhh, I see. Ozone, huh?)

The oxygen in the air could be broken apart with electricity. Oxygen molecules were normally formed from two oxygen atoms, but once the two oxygen atoms broke apart, they had a disposition toward connecting together in threes as ozone.

Oxygen and ozone were two different things. Breathing it in would not satisfy one’s lungs.

And as was obvious from its use in sterilization, it was toxic.

No attack would reach Accelerator, but that did not change the fact that he was a human that breathed in oxygen and breathed out carbon dioxide. If all the oxygen were removed from his surroundings, he would suffer from oxygen deprivation.

Misaka Imouto did not need to approach Accelerator. In fact, it was imperative that she kept her distance from him so that his attacks could not hit her while she continued to rob him of his oxygen.

“Good, good, excellent!! I take it back, you are a worthy enemy after all! Ha ha!! Now this is an excellent change of pace! After killing 10,000 of you, you’ve finally come up with a good idea!”

Accelerator chased after her while laughing out of enjoyment. Despite the fact that he was being cornered, he was still enjoying himself from the bottom of his heart.

“But!! There’s one weak point!”

Misaka Imouto’s shoulder’s shook out of surprise.

“Your plan fails if I catch up to you!!”

Accelerator’s foot suddenly caused the gravel behind him to explode. He had altered the vector for the motion of his foot. As if a rocket were firing from the bottom of his foot, he shot 7 metres forward like a bullet in one step. Misaka Imouto tried to jump further back, but Accelerator heartlessly flew forward many times faster than she could move.

“If you don’t try to avoid this with everything you have, you really will die!”

As he yelled he struck with his left hand. The strike was gentle like he was stroking her cheek....and yet a cracking noise came from Misaka Imouto’s neck upon receiving the attack. Her vision spun around as her entire body spun like a bamboo copter before landing on the gravel.

His attack did all that, but he had actually been holding back.

If Accelerator had seriously been trying to kill her, her body would have exploded the instant he touched her skin.

“Now for a question. How many times have you been killed!?”

As Accelerator gave a broken-looking smile, he looked like a darkness hanging over her.

The smile splitting across his face filled her vision.

Something like a jeer came from his mouth that was opened so wide that drool was about to spill out.

Accelerator had regained his utter advantage. Misaka Imouto was balled up on the ground, but the tip of his shoe weaved through the gaps in her defenses and stabbed into her. His fist flew and struck her on the back. With each strike, he was holding back enough that her body would not be destroyed. She was thrust into a spiral of intense pain as if she had been thrown into drum that was being repeatedly hit with a metal bat from the outside.

“Ghfh...!?”

Misaka Imouto was having trouble even remaining balled up and she finally lost to the force of a kick to the gut. She collapsed face up on the ground. Her forehead must have been cut because she could not see out of one eye due to flowing blood. She could see Accelerator breathing erratically in her blurry vision. He wiped away the drool that was flowing down from the smile splitting across his face.

Even after all that, Misaka Imouto did not resent Accelerator. It was not that she wanted to but could not. She merely saw no value in her own life. Once the experiment in which her 180,000 yen life was being used was over, her body would be retrieved and disposed of, like a frog that had been dissected.

That was all there was to it.

That was all there was supposed to be to it.

And yet Accelerator suddenly stopped moving as if he had realized something. He slowly turned his head and looked at something over his shoulder.

(What...?)

From Misaka Imouto’s position face up on the ground, Accelerator’s body blocked her view of whatever he was looking at. But Accelerator froze up. The entire experiment existed in order to elevate him from “strongest” to “invincible”, but he seemed to have forgotten all about that.

“...Hey. What happens to the experiment if this happens?” Accelerator muttered while frozen in place.

Misaka Imouto felt that was an odd thing to ask the person he had been in the process of killing, but Accelerator still did not move from that spot.

Misaka Imouto crawled along the gravel so she could see what Accelerator was looking at.

Someone was standing in a gap between the piles of containers circling the switchyard.

Standing there was a normal person who had nothing to do with the experiment.

Standing there was Kamijou Touma.

Accelerator did not know what the procedure was when a normal person entered the experiment. He looked like he didn’t know what to do about the high school boy who had suddenly appeared.

“...Get away from her,” said Kamijou as if stabbing at Accelerator.

His entire body was wrapped in such anger that it looked like static electricity would scatter about if someone touched him.

“Get the hell away from Misaka Imouto. Can you not hear me?”

Accelerator frowned at Kamijou’s words. He then turned back toward Misaka Imouto. He turned his somewhat critical red gaze on her.

“Hey, Misaka’s the name of your original, right? If he knows that, then he must know you. C’mon now, don’t bring unrelated people to the experimental grounds.”

Accelerator’s expression made it clear that Kamijou had ruined his fun.

“...I mean fucking come on. What am I supposed to do now? I guess the standard thing would be to silence the person who knows about this secret experiment, but that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. He’s not some disposable doll. He’s just a normal-...”

“Shut the hell up and get away from her, you lowly thug!!”

Kamijou’s lightning-like rage cut off Accelerator’s words.

Accelerator looked over at him as if he were looking at something he truly could not believe.

It was like he was a child who had never once been yelled at before.

“Who are you? Do you know who you’re talking to here? Not only am I one of the seven Level 5’s, but I’m the one who stands at the top of them all. And you call me a lowly thug? What the fuck? Do you think you’re a god or something? Don’t make me laugh.”

His low, quiet voice was accompanied by killer intent leaking into the air around him like static electricity.

That massive killer intent felt like billions of eyeballs staring at Kamijou from the darkness of the night.

“...”

Even so, the boy continued to glare at Accelerator.

His incandescent gaze silently said that he did not care in the slightest if his opponent was the strongest or the best or the greatest or whatever.

“...Heh. Now this is interesting.”

Accelerator’s red eyes froze over.

Strongest and invincible were different. When someone was invincible the victor was clear before the battle began, but when someone was the strongest, their strength was only discovered once the fight began.

In other words, the fact that Accelerator was the strongest meant he was only at a level where people would still try to pick a fight with him.

“...You truly are interesting.”

Accelerator’s gaze had moved from Misaka Imouto to Kamijou. He was setting the experiment aside and giving 100 times more priority to crushing Kamijou’s gaze.

A crazed crimson heat resided within the white boy’s eyes.

His smile was thin and wide. It split across his face like a piece of melted cheese stretched out to the left and right.

“...”

Even so, Kamijou did not take a single step back.

Instead, he took a step forward.

“What are you-...?”

Misaka Imouto was in complete shock.

That boy was going to fight Accelerator. He had no weapon and he was going to fight that person who could singlehandedly crush an entire army smiling the entire time.

That boy had spoken to Accelerator.

He had told Accelerator to get away from her.

In other words, the reason that boy was on that battlefield was...

The reason that boy was risking his life in that fight was...

“...What are you doing, asks Misaka?” Misaka Imouto said in a trembling voice.

–I-I see, so you’re the little sister. But you really do look alike. Both your height and weight look the same.

It did not matter how many times Misaka Imouto died in that experiment because her life had no value.

–Hey. Thanks for carrying those drinks and taking care of those fleas yesterday.

But he had nothing to do with the experiment and he could not be mass produced.

–That’s right! A name! This is your cat, so take responsibility and give it a name!

An original who there was only one of in the world was going to get hurt due to the experiment.

(What is this...?)

Misaka Imouto felt some sort of pain within herself.

No matter how much she thought, she could not determine the source of the pain.

(Misaka has questions about her own mental state.)

Even so, Kamijou did not respond. He took one more step toward the battlefield.

Misaka Imouto switched out her thinking and spoke in order to stop him.

“What are you doing? asks Misaka for a second time. Misaka is an imitation that can be remade as many times as needed while you are irreplaceable, so what are you doing? asks Misaka for a third time.”

There was no inconsistency in her logic. There was no disturbance in her tone of voice. Her words had been extremely exact as if she were running according to a program, so she concluded that her mental state was all green.

Yet her heart was beating at a terribly fast pace. Her breathing was unbelievably shallow and she could not suck in the proper amount of oxygen.

Misaka Imouto wanted to stop that boy from entering the experimental grounds.

Misaka Imouto wanted to stop that boy from clashing with Accelerator.

However, her useless battered body would not move as she wanted it to. That was why she continued to try to stop the boy with her words as she lay atop the gravel.

She did not realize that those very words were doing nothing more than drawing the boy to the battlefield faster.

“Misaka can be automatically produced at the press of a button as long as the proper machinery and chemicals are prepared, explains Misaka. Misaka has an artificially made body and a borrowed mind. Her value is 180,000 yen and there are 9968 more in reserve, so stopping the experiment just for her is...”

“...Shut up,” the boy muttered cutting off Misaka Imouto.

“What?” she replied.

“I said shut up. None of that matters. You have an artificially constructed body? You have a borrowed mind? You can be automatically produced at the press of a button as long as the proper machinery and chemicals are prepared? Your value is 180,000 yen? Well, I don’t care about that! None of that matters!” the boy yelled into the night sky as the conflagration of his rage burned.

And yet his voice was distressed like he was being hit by cold rain.

“I’m standing here to save you! I’m not here for anyone else. I’m fighting to save you! So the fact that you have an artificially constructed body, have a borrowed mind, can be automatically produced at the press of a button, have a 180,000 yen value, or any other insignificant shit does not matter!”

Misaka Imouto did not understand.

She did not understand what the boy was trying to say. There had not been a single lie in what she had said. She was a being that could be automatically produced at the press of a button. If one was lost, one could be made to replace it. If 20,000 were lost, 20,000 could be made to replace them. That was all she was.

“There is only one of you in the world! Why can’t you figure out something that simple!?”

But for some reason the boy’s yell reached her.

It was not that she believed what he was saying.

Misaka Imouto still felt that there was no problem no matter how many of her lives were lost.

However, there was still one person who was yelling that he did not want to lose that tiny existence.

That boy certainly had no power.

There was no way he possessed anything making him worthy of being referred to as Academy City’s strongest.

“Don’t go off and die. I still have plenty more to tell you.”

Even so, Misaka Imouto felt that boy was strong.

“I’m going to save you now, so just stay quiet and watch.”

She felt that way of living made him stronger than anyone else.

Part 6

Accelerator may have been the strongest, but he was not invincible.

Kamijou’s Imagine Breaker could destroy any kind of supernatural power even if it was one of god’s miracles. Even if Accelerator’s reflection was a perfect defense that could reject even a nuclear explosion, Kamijou knew it should not be able to defend against his right hand.

Accelerator was the strongest and therefore he could stand up to the entire world at once.

However, his power was not absolute enough to be able to defend against Imagine Breaker.

A chance for victory lay in that slight error.

“...”

Kamijou looked around the area.

For about 100 metres around him, the ground was covered in nothing but gravel and steel rails. Kamijou Touma and Accelerator were both standing on that level surface with nowhere to hide. They were about 10 metres apart. That distance could be filled in three or four steps if one of them started running.

Kamijou stopped breathing.

He slightly lowered his entire body like a spring and...

“Ooohhhhhhh!”

He explosively started running toward Accelerator.

However, Accelerator did not move from that spot. In fact, he did not even clench either fist. He kept his arms dangling at his sides, he did not use his legs to shift his centre of gravity, and a smile split across his face.

Accelerator slightly tapped the heel of his foot on the gravel as if he were tapping his foot to a rhythm.

In that instant, the gravel below his feet exploded like he had stepped on a landmine.

A large amount of gravel scattered in every direction and at close range it was reminiscent of a shotgun blast.

“...!”

By the time Kamijou realized what was going on, it was too late.

He immediately brought his arms up to cover his face and over a dozen small stones of various sizes struck Kamijou’s body. Just when he thought his feet had been knocked from the ground due to the large shock, his entire body was forcefully blown back. He rolled along the ground before finally coming to a stop a few metres back.

“...Too slow,” said an unpleasant voice that sounded like pieces of rusted metal being scraped together.

The intense pain had disoriented Kamijou and he merely looked blankly in the direction of the voice completely forgetting to stand back up.

“That’s nowhere near enough. That speed of yours is just 100 years too sloooooowwwww!”

Accelerator stepped on the ground again.

He must have converted the vector of that shock in some way because a steel rail lying at his feet stood up on end like there had been a spring under it. Accelerator used a backhanded blow like he was brushing a spider web away and knocked the rail flying.

His action had been nothing more than the slight strike one would use on an unreasonable child, but a great noise like a church bell resounded throughout the switchyard. The steel rail bent into a shallow V-shape and flew straight for Kamijou like a bullet.

“!!”

Kamijou frantically rolled and jumped away from its path.

Immediately afterwards, the crushed piece of steel pierced into the ground like a holy sword in the exact spot Kamijou had been lying in before.

Kamijou thought he had just barely managed to avoid it, but the mass of steel weighed hundreds of kilograms. When it struck the ground, it sent a large amount of gravel flying into the air. It was like a meteorite striking the sea.

Countless small stones stabbed into his body.

The shock this gave to his chest forced all of the oxygen from his lungs.

“Gh...Ah...!”

Accelerator fired a second and third steel rail at Kamijou who was rolling on the ground.

Those masses of steel flying through the air were as unavoidable for a human as handgun bullets.

A direct hit from one would be certain death and even barely avoiding one would lead to damage from the gravel scattered by the hit, which would slowly but surely add up and lead to death.

All Kamijou could do was continue to roll along the ground, try to read the direction the gravel would be sent, and then jump in the same direction to reduce the damage as much as possible.

He could not approach.

He avoided 10 or 20 of those steel bullets and was struck by the scattered gravel each time, but he was gradually heading away from the centre of the switchyard and to the outer part.

Even then, Kamijou felt the battle was in a stalemate.

It was true he was the only one receiving any attacks, but he believed that Accelerator would not deliver a decisive blow.

But the sound of the air being sliced cut off his thoughts.

“...?”

Kamijou thought a rail was headed his way, so he immediately jumped backwards. He had done so to reduce the shock from the scattered gravel even just a little bit, but the steel bullet did not come.

Kamijou suspiciously frowned while keeping on his guard.

The steel rail flew past over Kamijou’s head and stabbed into the ground behind him.

“!?”

Kamijou had jumped backwards to reduce the damage he took.

The gravel sprayed at him at close range from the opposite direction than he had expected. It was like running into a truck that was moving at 100 kph while moving at 100 kph yourself. His own actions had doubled the damage that stabbed into his back. His breathing stopped as if he had been struck with a bat in the back and he pathetically collapsed onto the ground.

The sound of objects slicing through the night sky continued.

Kamijou looked up and saw multiple steel rails flying toward him.

(Wha-...?)

Kamijou immediately tried to roll out of the way, but the rails landed on all sides of him simultaneously. As if he were being beaten by 5 or 6 people, gravel assaulted him from all sides.

He could not defend against or evade that. Having lost all options, Kamijou could only sit there dumbfounded as over 100 small rocks stabbed at him. His body was knocked about making him look like a shrimp that had been brought onto land.

“Gh...gheah...! Ahh...aahhh...!”

Even so, Kamijou managed to grab one of the steel rails sticking into the ground nearby in order to stand up. His legs were still shaking from the damage leftover from Mikoto’s lightning attacks and his mouth was filled with the taste of blood.

He was just barely managing to hold on to his consciousness when he saw it.

In the distance ahead of him, he saw Accelerator slightly lowering his entire body like a spring.

“Ah hah! See!? You’re slow, so slow, so very slow! Can you become a fox and bring some enjoyment to your hunter or are you nothing but a pig to be eaten, you lowly thug!?”

At that time, there were about 30 metres between Accelerator and Kamijou.

Despite this, Accelerator brought that distance to zero in only two steps.

The gravel at his feet exploded as if from a rocket and Accelerator charged toward Kamijou with tremendous speed as he moved almost like a rock skipping on the water.

Tension sank into Kamijou’s stomach.

He immediately tried to stick out his fist, but Accelerator’s foot struck the ground first.

The steel rail lying at his feet stood up as if a spring lay beneath it. The bolt in the railroad tie popped off like a shirt button.

Before Kamijou could respond in surprise, the rising rail struck him in the chin like an uppercut.

“Ghah...!”

His body shot up and a space of 20 cm opened up between his feet and the ground. Accelerator watched that with a satisfied look and opened up his right hand like it was a demon’s claw and aimed it for Kamijou’s airborne body.

That was the very same hand that had sent steel rails flying like bullets with just a soft stroke.

“...!!”

Kamijou saw Accelerator’s right hand moving in toward him like a poisonous snake and immediately struck out with his right hand despite still being in midair. In a small piece of fortune, Kamijou’s right hand somehow managed to brush away Accelerator’s hand.

That was all he did, but Accelerator looked up at Kamijou as if he had seen something truly unbelievable.

As if trying to shake something off, Accelerator forcefully stomped on the ground.

That stomp turned the gravel into a dangerous weapon and it struck Kamijou all over as he floated in midair. He stopped breathing and fell to the ground like a corpse. After rolling for a few metres with his arms and legs sprawled out, he stopped because his back had struck something.

“...?”

It was the side of a container.

It was part of the piles of containers that surrounded the switchyard. Accelerator and Misaka Imouto had been in the centre of the switchyard, so Kamijou must have travelled a few dozen metres while evading the various attacks.

The containers were piled up five or six tall and the piles were about as tall as a three story building.

For an instant, Kamijou glanced at the wall of the container his back was to, but...

“Oh, so you have time to look away!? If you want to die that badly, I’ll turn you into such a lovely piece of art that you’ll end up with a Guinness World Record!!”

There was a crazed laugh.

Kamijou frantically turned back around just in time to see Accelerator sink down and then jump up from the gravel a few metres away. It should have just been a normal vertical jump, but his slender body shot 4 metres up into the air.

He aimed his feet for Kamijou’s head.

Kamijou immediately rolled to the side to avoid the strike and Accelerator’s jump kick struck the metal side of the container Kamijou had been leaning on.

A great noise like a church bell resounded throughout the area.

Suddenly, the pile of containers collapsed.

It was like when a pile of building blocks had the bottommost block pulled out.

The instant Accelerator’s jump kick crushed the bottommost container like it was made of paper, the containers it had been supporting wobbled and suddenly collapsed. When one collapsed, it brought the one next to it down with it causing the entire pile of containers to collapse like a house of cards.

Kamijou gulped down air and looked above.

A number of containers had been thrown into the air like giant dice and were about to rain down on him.

“!”

He immediately jumped up to his feet. Just when he was about to jump to the side in an attempt to avoid the containers falling toward his head, he saw something in the edge of his vision.

He saw Accelerator lowering down like his entire body was a spring.

He then shot forward like a bullet in order to pursue Kamijou who was trying to flee the containers.

Accelerator could reflect any kind of impact, so he did not need to worry about avoiding the rain of containers even though each of them weighed more than a ton.

But that was not so for Kamijou.

If he tried to avoid the containers, he could not avoid Accelerator’s pursuit.

If he tried to counterattack Accelerator with his right hand, he would be crushed by the containers.

“...!”

Kamijou immediately kicked up the gravel at his feet toward Accelerator’s approaching eyes.

Of course, that would not stop Accelerator.

“Hah hah! Did you really think that would work? If you’re gonna try that, at least make sure you go all the way...like this!!”

Accelerator manipulated the vectors of the gravel that struck his body so that it was reflected back at Kamijou at double the speed.

Kamijou immediately crossed his arms to protect his face and chest.

In the next instant, that shotgun blast of small stones struck Kamijou’s body. His body flew back a few metres as if he had been shot by a shell.

In doing so, he evaded the rain of containers.

In doing so, he managed to get some space between himself and Accelerator.

“Ah?”

Accelerator gave that sound of slight admiration and the containers struck the ground an instant later. A large amount of gravel flew up into the air and a cloud of sand obstructed Kamijou’s vision. Suddenly, countless containers came rolling through that cloud of dust as if to crush Kamijou. The containers rampaged around on unpredictable paths like living beings similar to dice dancing around in a giant cup.

(Shit...!)

Kamijou desperately jumped out of the way of the containers.

They finally stopped moving, but the cloud of dust continued to rob Kamijou of his vision. No, it was not a cloud of dust. It seemed the containers had held flour. The cloud of powder was like a white mist as it hazily obstructed Kamijou’s view.

That white curtain surrounded Kamijou in all directions.

He did not know when or from where Accelerator would slice through that curtain and attack him. Kamijou felt a hopeless tension like he had been thrown blindfolded into a cage with a carnivorous beast.

But instead, he heard a voice coming from in front of him beyond the white curtain.

It was as if Accelerator were showing off his location.

“Heh. It looks like these containers held flour, but this nice windless night might be making this a very dangerous situation.”

Kamijou looked questioningly in the direction of the voice.

“There are stories of explosions in mines, right? Those don’t happen because someone didn’t use their explosives properly.” The voice sounded like it was grinning and enjoying itself. “They were caused by the fine dust from the stones filling the air in the mine. A lot like now.”

Kamijou jumped out of shock.

He figured out what Accelerator was trying to do, so he moved his battered body in an attempt to get out of there.

“If there is powder floating in the air, it can be ignited. The combustion rate of oxygen is ridiculously fast, so it seems all the air in the place becomes one giant bomb.”

Kamijou was no longer listening.

He was merely running as fast as he could without looking aside.

He had turned his back on Accelerator and was trying to escape that giant space filled with that powder.

He ran and ran and continued to run.

Accelerator’s voice then pierced into Kamijou’s back.

“Surely you’ve at least heard of a dust explosion.”

Immediately afterwards, all sound was blown away.

The area with a 30 metre radius in which the flour had been scattered became a giant bomb. The entire area became wrapped in flames and heat as if gasoline vaporized into the air had been ignited.

Kamijou had just barely managed to escape the curtain of flour when it happened.

The shock wave struck his back and knocked him down to the gravel, but he managed to avoid being enveloped in the flames themselves.

However, a dust explosion was different from a normal explosion because it used the oxygen in the air as fuel. The explosion instantly stole all the oxygen in the area which lowered the air pressure dramatically.

Fortunately, it had occurred outside rather than in a sealed area, so a vacuum was not created. But the sudden change in air pressure internally squeezed on his organs to the very limit. If it had actually been a vacuum, his body would likely have burst open from the inside.

“Gah...Ahh...!”

Kamijou moved his battered body and just barely managed to stand up as the sea of flames lit the switchyard up as if it were the middle of the day. He turned around toward the pile of containers he had fled from.

Accelerator was walking there.

He was calmly walking through the crimson purgatory he himself had created.

“God damn it. I’m sure you just experienced it yourself, but the lack of oxygen was tough on me, too. Fuck, I thought I was gonna die. You should be glad. I think you’re the first in the world to make me, Accelerator, think he was gonna die.”

His voice was light, like he was just having a casual conversation.

“Heh heh. I guess I can’t use my tagline about being fine even in a nuclear explosion anymore, can I? Well, I can just bring an oxygen tank with me. They make ones about the size of a can of hairspray, right? Do you know how much one of those costs?”

Accelerator’s cheerfulness while within that hell of flames scared Kamijou.

“...!”

Kamijou immediately tried to put himself on guard, but the damage had permeated his legs making them tremble uncontrollably.

“...Well? What are you even trying to do?”

Amid the flames, Accelerator tilted his head to the side like a child.

“All your frantic efforts haven’t gotten you a single step closer to me. And what the hell do you even think you can do if you were somehow able to get near me?” Accelerator refreshingly spread his arms open amid the hellfire. “I can manipulate every vector that touches my body. That includes the flow of your blood, y’know? In other words, the instant you touch me, every blood vessel and organ in your body will explode. Do you really understand that?”

“...”

Kamijou’s trembling legs froze up.

Even though his right hand could penetrate Accelerator’s reflection, what could he really do?

He could only touch Accelerator with his right hand. That meant he was basically boxing with one hand sealed off. And even if he could strike Accelerator’s face with his right hand, if Accelerator managed to grab his arm before he could pull it back...

Accelerator laughed in a friendly manner as Kamijou stood frozen in place.

“Well, don’t worry about it too much. You put up a nice effort. It’s actually a miracle that you’re even breathing after facing me. It’d be rather selfish to want more than that, don’t you think?”

He laughed in a friendly manner despite being in the middle of a deadly fight.

“Fuck. You are lucky that your potential was so low. You’re so weak that I couldn’t use my reflection on you properly. You really did find a weak point in me. Judgement acts so thoughtlessly with their powers and Anti-Skill brings out all their high-tech weapons, so it’s all over after I reflect the first shot.”

Accelerator clapped his hands in applause within the sea of flames.

He truly sounded like he was thanking his opponent from the bottom of his heart.

“You made a good effort. You made a really good effort. ...So it’s about time you had a rest!”

Accelerator’s body sank down slightly amid the flames.

With a roar, the white boy shot like a bullet toward Kamijou blowing away even the flames as he went. There were a few dozen metres between them, but he brought that to zero in two or three steps. Accelerator made his way right up to Kamijou with motions like a rock skipping on the water.

“...!”

Tension crawled up from Kamijou’s stomach to the top of his throat.

The right hand of suffering and the left hand of poison.

Those hands could convert any vector that they touched and were therefore hands of darkness that could bring death to any living thing. Just by touching the skin, they could cause a human heart to burst from the inside by reversing the flow of the blood via the capillaries and reversing the flow of the bodily electricity via the surface of the skin.

Accelerator brought both hands together.

His hands were pressed together at the wrist like he was wearing handcuffs and he thrust them toward Kamijou’s face.

Kamijou immediately tried to move back, but his trembling legs would not move properly.

Those hands that could crush one’s soul approached before Kamijou’s eyes.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkk!”

Kamijou reflexively shut his eyes and swung his right hand up prepared for the worst. As he had cut off his own vision, he had no idea where he was aiming his fist.

With a dull sensation, his right hand punched Accelerator in the face.

“Eh?”

The first one to express his surprise at that result was Kamijou, not Accelerator. He had truly not expected to hit and he had not expected his battered fist to actually do any damage even if it did hit.

However, Accelerator was knocked away and was now squirming around atop the gravel.

“Ah? Ow... Ha ha... What the fuck? Oh, wow. Ha ha ha. Dammit. Excellent, excellent. That was great! That was wonderful! Now you’ve done it!”

The white boy laughed insanely as he crouched on the ground like a demon about to grow wings.

But Kamijou was not listening.

When he thought about it, it had been odd from the beginning.

Why had he not realized it after fighting with Accelerator that long?

There was an overwhelming handicap between Kamijou and Accelerator. Accelerator could kill people just by touching them. On the other hand, Kamijou would die instantly if he touched Accelerator with any part of his body besides his right hand.

And on top of that, Kamijou could not move his legs properly due to the damage he had taken from Mikoto’s lightning attacks.

He had such a great handicap, and yet...

(Could it be...?)

Accelerator charged toward Kamijou.

His right hand that could kill with a touch was aimed straight for Kamijou’s face.

(Could it be that he’s...?)

Kamijou avoided it just by swinging his head to the side.

He had no military training or anything, but he was easily able to evade it.

(Is he...?)

Kamijou clenched his right fist.

He moved in toward Accelerator to counter Accelerator’s missed attack.

(Is he actually...really freaking weak?)

“Gbah!?”

Kamijou’s fist plowed into Accelerator’s face. He moved his hand back and forth in complex trajectories like someone swinging a knife around, but Accelerator never once grazed his skin. Kamijou slipped past Accelerator’s poisonous snake-like arms and attacked Accelerator’s face with his fist again and again.

“Dammit, what!? What’s with those weird movements!? You’re not an eel, so quit wriggling around like that and stay put!”

Accelerator tried to grab the fist that was stabbing in at his face, but the smooth serpentine movements of Kamijou’s hand prevented him from doing so.

“Hah. You’ve never lost.” Kamijou danced around with precise footing. “And that is why you’re weak! You defeat all of your enemies in a single strike and you can easily reflect any attack. There’s no way you would actually know how to fightbrawl!”

That summarized the gap between them.

Acelerator’s fights had no chance of loss on his part. They were just one-sided slaughters. Because his ability was simply too powerful, he had never needed to learn how to fight.

Accelerator’s stance was sloppy. He did not clench his fist. His fingers were spread out like he was just asking to have them jammed and he gave no thought to his footing or his centre of gravity.

However, Accelerator’s ability was so powerful that he did not need to worry about that kind of thing.

If you could kill any enemy in a single strike, there was no reason to train in techniques to defeat your enemy well.

If you could reflect any attack, there was no reason to put any effort into predicting and evading or defending against your opponent’s attacks.

Simply put, techniques and effort were things that weak people used to supplement their power.

But that strength was not Accelerator’s strength. It was the strength of his esper ability.

So what if there was a right hand that could seal off that ability?

Accelerator was not someone who there was absolutely no way of defeating. He was not invincible.

He was merely exceedingly difficult to defeat. He was merely the strongest.

A chance for Kamijou’s victory lay in that slight gap between invincible and strongest.

“Tch. Shut the fuck up, you third rate!!!”

Accelerator’s foot lightly tapped the ground.

Like there was a spring beneath it, a steel rail lying at Accelerator’s feet stood up.

If he knocked it away, the mass of steel would fly straight into Kamijou’s body.

But Kamijou did not let him.

In order to stop that attack that he had predicted was coming, Kamijou’s right fist slammed into Accelerator’s face. Accelerator was forcefully knocked to the ground and he manipulated the vectors of the gravel knocked up by his own body to send a blast of small stones at Kamijou’s upper body.

But it did not hit.

Kamijou had predicted that attack too, and he had managed to avoid it by crouching down like he was about to start crawling along the ground.

Kamijou was not especially good at fighting.

In a fight against delinquents, he could win with 1 on 1, he was in danger with 1 on 2, and he would unhesitatingly run away with 1 on 3. That was the extent of his skill.

But even so, Accelerator could not reach him.

The punches Kamijou was throwing did not have his weight behind them. They were diversionary punches that put more strength into pulling back than in the punch itself. In boxing, they would be called jabs.

But even so, Accelerator was being hit strongly.

Accelerator had never once lost which also meant that he had never once been in a proper fight. Because his power was the strongest, he had never had a chance to use his athletic abilities normally. Kamijou could not utterly crush even a delinquent in a fight, but he could easily beat the hell out of a sheltered boy who had never been in a fight.

“...! Kh. Hah! Interesting. What is with that right hand!?” Accelerator yelled recklessly with his arms stretched out after having received that fist to his face again and again.

One of them was the strongest who had never lost once in his life.

The other was the weakest who would never give up no matter how many times he lost.

Who was the stronger one? The answer was Kamijou. If he lost 100 times, he would stand back up 100 times. If he lost 1000 times, he would crawl back to his feet 1000 times. And each of those losses was converted into strength that was now poured into his right fist that slammed into Accelerator’s face.

Accelerator had always been able to reflect any kind of attack, so even though he now thought of the attack before his eyes as dangerous, that thought did not lead to any actions to avoid it. Despite the fist striking him, he recklessly swung his arms about in an attempt to chase after Kamijou who was keeping away. He looked just like a child being teased by an adult.

Accelerator knew that better than anyone and he could not stand it.

The pride of Academy City’s strongest shook the gap between it and reality and a creaking sound could be heard.

An unknown pain that felt like it was crushing his nose further affected Accelerator’s concentration.

“Fuck. Fuck! Fuuuuuucccckkkk!!”

As Accelerator roared, the ground at his feet exploded. His body flew toward Kamijou like a bullet. He had manipulated the shock of his heel hitting the ground. He had used the scattered kinetic energy to double or triple his movement speed.

But...

“What the hell!? Why the hell can’t I hit you!?”

Even with that carnivorous beast-like speed, he could not reach Kamijou.

Even if he was faster, his attacks were still easily avoided as long as they could be predicted. It was the same as how a sharp knife was a deadly weapon, but it posed no threat if it was being held by a kindergartener.

The fight was more or less over. The damage from Kamijou’s light hits had piled up and Academy City’s strongest esper legs gave out.

In the instant that strength left Accelerator’s knees, Kamijou struck his face with a serious punch.

It was a strike like someone using a golf club to hit a golf ball with everything they had. For that killer strike, he rotated his hips to put his weight into it and knocked Accelerator’s body to the ground where it rolled a bit.

“Pant...pant...!?”

Accelerator lifted his upper body and looked forward. When he saw Kamijou Touma slowly approaching, he starting using his hands to drag himself backwards.

He hurt.

Accelerator automatically reflected all attacks, so that was an unknown sensation for him. To him, his senses on his skin were just sensors to send pleasure from his skin to his brain. His undeveloped pain sensitivity had almost no resistance to pain, so the intense signals felt like they were burning him.

“...The Sisters were living with everything they had.” Kamijou tightly clenched his right hand. “They gathered all their strength and lived. They worked with everything they had.” Kamijou gritted his teeth. “Why do people like that need to act as your prey!?”

“Ee!” Acelerator froze in place.

But Kamijou did not stop.

“No!” Accelerator shook his head.

He did not know what it was to lose. He had never once lost in his life, so he did not have the slightest bit of resistance to losing. He had never even had to think of the possibility of losing before.

But even so, Kamijou did not stop.

The night wind blew on Kamijou’s bangs making them wave like a nameless flower blooming in a graveyard.

(...Wind?)

Accelerator finally realized something as he was being cornered by Kamijou who looked like some kind of evil spirit.

The wind.

“Ku.”

Accelerator laughed. Kamijou stopped moving. Accelerator guessed Kamijou had sensed some kind of danger, but he did not care. It was too late even if he had realized it.

“Kuka.”

Accelerator’s power allowed him to change the vectors of anything he touched. Motion, heat, electricity. Whatever kind of power it was, he could freely control it as long as it had a vector.

“Kukaki.”

That meant that, if he could grasp the vector of the wind flowing through the atmosphere, he could bring the motion of the giant wind flowing throughout the entire world into his hands!

“Kukakikekokakakikukekikikokakakikukokokukekekekokikukakukekekokakukekikakokekikikukukukikikakikukokukukekukakikukokekukekukikukikokikakaka!!”

Accelerator lifted his hands above his head like he was trying to grab the invisible moon.

With a roar, the flow of the wind started to swirl around.

The look on the other boy’s face changed, but it was too late. A large atmospheric swirl that looked like a hole had opened in the earth had taken a spherical form above Accelerator’s head. Gravel in the area was swept up with it and that giant swirl of destruction with a radius of a few dozen metres gave its joyous birth cry.

Accelerator laughed and yelled “kill”.

That sphere of destruction created from the world’s atmosphere sliced through the air.

It became a spear of wind flying at 120 m/s. At that speed, wind could easily lift up a car. That spear of wind very easily blew away the boy like he had been struck by the hand of an invisible giant.

Part 7

The wind died, sound died, and the atmosphere died.

Accelerator looked out over the disaster he had created. The gravel covering the ground in the switchyard had been swept up in the wind leaving the earthen ground visible in places. The boy was blown away twenty metres where his back struck the pole to a broken wind turbine. He then slid down to the ground. Falling to the gravel would probably have been a better outcome for him, but either way his fate was the same. Hitting something at 120 m/s was not much different from getting into a car accident without hitting the brakes.

Kamijou lay unmoving on the ground below the turbine with his arms and legs sprawled out. It was unclear whether he was alive or not.

“...Hm.”

Accelerator had only just thought up that method and it had caused more destruction than he had imagined.

But it was still incomplete. Unlike his automatic reflection, he had to think about the original vector and the altered vector when he was altering vectors under his own will.

Wind, the flow of the atmosphere, required complex calculations that involved chaos theory, so it could not be completely predicted without the use of Tree Diagram.

He doubted that the flow of the entire world’s atmosphere could be calculated in a single human’s head.

He had only managed to manipulate the wind within Academy City and that had still been imperfect.

However, it had still produced that much destruction. He no longer needed Level 6. If he could calculate the flow of the wind more perfectly and more accurately, he already held the power to destroy the world in his hands.

He held the world in his hands.

That feeling rushed all over Accelerator’s body. The feeling of victory felt even more fresh within his chest because he had been driven to the edge of defeat just before.

He was sure once more that there was nothing in the world that could defeat him.

A nuclear bomb or that unknown right hand would do him no harm.

“Heh...!” Accelerator finally started to laugh. “What’s with you!? What’s with you!? What’s with you!!? After all that tough talk, that’s all you could do!? I’m gonna fire another one, so how about you show me the return of the badass loser!?”

As Accelerator yelled, he spread his hands above his head like he was trying to embrace the night sky.

“Compress the air. Compress, compress. Hahn, I see. Excellent. I just thought of something really fucking nice. C’mon, stand up, weakest. This won’t be worth it unless you play along!”

Kamijou did not respond.

Countless steel rails were stuck into the gravel like crosses and a deathly wind blew through that graveyard like area. Only the violent wind and the crazed laughter could be heard.

The black cat gave a displeased mew at Mikoto’s feet.

In that instant, Misaka Mikoto set foot inside the switchyard.

She had been watching Kamijou’s fight from the beginning. She had wanted to charge between him and Accelerator countless times, but doing so would make his plan fail. Mikoto had only been able to silently watch as Kamijou became more and more battered.

But she had reached her limit.

If she let that boy fight on his own any longer, he would truly die.

“Stop this, Accelerator!”

Mikoto stuck out her arm at a distance of a few dozen metres. A coin lay on the thumb of her clenched fist. Purple electricity was overflowing from her entire body. With just a light flick of her thumb, Misaka Mikoto could fire the Railgun she was named for at three times the speed of sound.

But Accelerator did not even glance over at the Railgun.

He continued to increase the power of the raging wind as if telling her to go ahead and do it.

Any attack she fired would just bounce back and damage her.

Any powerful attack he received would just be sent right back at the one who fired it.

“...”

Mikoto’s fingers trembled.

If the Railgun was sent back at her, her body would be smashed to pieces at three times the speed of sound.

If she and Accelerator were to fight, she would be slaughtered in 185 moves. That result given by a machine could not be changed and it stabbed into Mikoto’s heart like a shard of ice.

Even so, Mikoto lifted her head.

It was not that she wanted to protect someone because she could defeat her enemy.

She had to fight that enemy she could not defeat because she had someone she wanted to protect.

“...-op, Misaka.”

Suddenly Mikoto realized someone was calling her name.

The voice was so very weak, but it belonged to a boy she knew very well.

“...Stop, Misaka!”

Kamijou Touma’s sorrowful cry caused Mikoto’s hand to freeze.

In Kamijou’s plan, he had to defeat Accelerator in order to fool the researchers. Once Mikoto interfered, that plan would fail.

If Mikoto did not interfere, the mass of raging wind would crush Kamijou’s body.

If Mikoto did interfere, Kamijou would be allowing 10,000 Sisters to be killed.

“...”

Even so, Mikoto could not just sit and watch.

She did not feel that she was abandoning the Sisters to their deaths.

She had another plan. If she purposefully lost to Accelerator, it would fool the researchers and the experiment would be stopped.

Mikoto did not want to die.

But no matter how much they struggled, she had never had any other option.

“...I’m sorry.”

That was why she apologized to Kamijou in the end.

Whatever she chose, Kamijou could no longer be saved. If he was crushed by that swirling wind, he would of course die, but if he either had to watch the Sisters die or Mikoto alone died to stop it, he would be unable to withstand that truth.

Kamijou Touma wanted for everyone to go home with a smile and without losing anyone or anything. That dream would be shattered that night in that switchyard.

“So I’m sorry,” Mikoto apologized even if it was selfish. “But I know I want you to live.”

“Stop!!” Kamijou yelled.

He was so battered that he could no longer even stand up, but he still desperately stretched out an arm that would never reach her in an attempt to stop Mikoto.

Mikoto gave a small smile.

The boy was not aware that his cries were what allowed Mikoto to fight without fear of death.

“.........................”

Mikoto stuck her right hand out toward that enemy she could not defeat who was known as Accelerator.

She only needed to create the magnetic rails and flick the coin to pass the point of no return. She would not be able to do any damage to Accelerator because he could reflect any attack, but she would still be able to put a stop to the death that was approaching before her eyes.

(Why did it end up like this? Why couldn’t it have ended in some different way? Why couldn’t it have ended in the most wonderful way where everyone heads home in the end with a smile and without losing anyone or anything?)

As Mikoto’s thoughts floated up into the air, Accelerator sneered as he spread his arms wide up into the night sky. In the next instant, the wind flowing through the city focused on one point. It was a point 100 metres above Accelerator’s head. When the raging wind gathered there, a bright white light appeared as if from welding.

It was plasma.

Compressing the air created heat. Internal combustion engines used that fact. By compressing the city’s air with a ridiculous compression ratio, it had turned into a mass of heat exceeding 10,000 degrees Celsius. This forcibly caused the atoms in the nearby air to split into cations and electrons which turned them to plasma.

That point of light swallowed up the surrounding air and instantaneously grew to have a radius of 20 metres.

The surrounding darkness was annihilated by the pure white light.

The heat of 10,000 degrees caused a burning pain on Mikoto’s skin.

“...!”

A chill ran down Mikoto’s back that seemed to freeze her spine.

That was not an attack that humanity could defend against. That mass of heat could dig up a nuclear shelter from the ground, so there was no way a flesh-and-blood body could do anything about it.

Misaka Mikoto was certainly Academy City’s strongest in the category of Electromasters.

Plasma was created from the atoms separating into cations and electrons, so she may have been able to return the plasma to the original atoms by putting the electrons back together with the cations.

But how would that help?

Even if she did manage to return the plasma to its original state, Accelerator would just gather the wind again to recreate the plasma. To seal Accelerator’s attack, electricity did not cut it. One needed the ability to control wind like he could. But Mikoto could not control wind with her electricity techniques. Mikoto gritted her teeth at the uselessness of her power in that situation.

She realized the simple fact that Accelerator could be stopped as long as the wind could be manipulated.

“Ah.”

Mikoto’s mouth fell open stupidly.

The wind turbines were spinning making a sound like the laughter of skulls.

Accelerator was making that plasma by compressing the wind he gathered from throughout the city. The scale was much too small for him to be gathering it from throughout the world, so his ability must have had limits. For example, when he was controlling rather than just reflecting, he might have to calculate out the original vector for the wind as well as the altered vector.

In that case, his calculations could be interrupted by something causing a disturbance in the wind throughout the city.

Academy City had wind turbines spread throughout the city. There were probably more than 10,000 of them.

And the wind turbines could be made to spin by using a certain electromagnetic wave.

Each individual propeller could only produce a small amount of wind, but more than 10,000 of them spinning at once was a different story. Accelerator may lose control of the wind as a result.

But it would mean nothing if a Level 5 like Mikoto manipulated the turbines.

If Mikoto directly interfered in the battle, the experiment would not end.

If she were to maintain the condition of her own power not interfering, then it was a job that the one and only Misaka Imouto could do.

The level of power between Misaka Imouto and Mikoto was too different. Misaka Imouto’s Radio Noise power was a deteriorated version of Mikoto’s and it was only Level 2 at best. She could not make very many turbines move.

But there were 10,000 Sisters within the city.

And unlike Accelerator who was calculating the flow of the wind in just his own brain, the 10,000 Sisters had their brain waves linked, so they could predict the flow of the wind using parallel calculations. It was just like how Tree Diagram used high performance parallel processors.

Mikoto ran over to Misaka Imouto who was still lying atop the gravel.

Misaka Imouto’s entire body was battered and she did not seem to possess even the strength to stand up on her own legs. Mikoto did not like having to ask this of the girl when she was already in that state, but she had no choice.

“Please, wake up. I know how ridiculous and terrible it is for me to ask this of you, but please wake up!”

She had no choice but to ask.

“There’s something I want you to do. No, there’s something that only you can do!”

It was necessary for everyone to go home with a smile and without having lost anyone or anything.

“Just this once, please listen to what I have to say! I cannot protect everyone. No matter how much I struggle, I just can’t do it! So I beg you!”

It was necessary to reach that happiest end that everyone wanted and where everyone was smiling.

“Please protect his dream with your power!”

Misaka Imouto heard the Original’s cry within her intermittent consciousness.

She indeed thought it was a ridiculous request. She did not know the situation, so she assumed it would be better for the Original, the stronger esper, to use her power rather than cracking the whip and forcing Misaka Imouto to do it even as her heart was on the verge of stopping.

But she did not complain.

The Original’s words were as unreasonable as they were violent, but for some reason, Misaka Imouto saw her as a small child crying and asking for help.

“...”

Misaka Imouto saw no value in her own life.

Her body could be created at the press of a button and her empty heart had been given to her according to a program. She truly believed that a life worth 180,000 yen could simply be replaced if it died.

But she did not want to die.

While her own life had no value, she now knew there were people who would be sad if they lost the tiny existence that she was, so she could no longer die.

And if that tiny existence could save that crying girl, then she felt that was a wonderful thing.

She had something she had to do.

She had found something she had to protect.

“There’s something I want you to do. No, there’s something that only you can do!”

(Misaka cannot understand the meaning of your words...)

Misaka Imouto slowly gathered strength in her limbs.

(...but those words have left an impression on her for some reason, thinks Misaka expressing her frank feelings.)

Because there was someone who was saying those things, Misaka Imouto was able to stand up once more.

Part 8

With a roar of wind, the sphere of plasma floating above lost its form.

“Wha-...?”

Accelerator looked up. That plasma had been created from all the wind flowing through the city being condensed into one point. The flow of that wind had clearly shaken for an instant. That had caused an error in the compression ratio which caused the plasma to be shaken as well.

Accelerator thought he might have made an error in his calculations of the wind, so he rebuilt those new equations. Unlike simple reflection, he had to calculate both, the vector before alteration and the vector after alteration which was a pain in the ass.

But Accelerator managed to perfectly revise that huge set of equations in less than 10 seconds. His brain had developed to the point that something of that level was no problem. In Academy City, power development was part of the teaching method, so Academy City’s strongest espers were also Academy City’s greatest honor students.

But the movement of the wind flowing through the city suddenly changed as if escaping from the supposedly perfect equations he had built up in his head. It was not a mere coincidence. It was as if the wind itself had a will and was slipping through the gaps of his equations.

The mass of compressed air above his head scattered and the plasma disappeared as if it were dissolving into the air.

(What? What the fuck happened!? There was no mistake in my equations. Those irregular eel-like movements were clearly not natural movements of the air!)

He wondered if he had gotten really unlucky and an actual wind user was using his power somewhere in the city, but that did not make sense as the irregular flow of the wind covered the entire city. If there was a wind user with the processing power needed to outdo Accelerator’s ability and equations, that person would definitely be designated a Level 5. However, no one like that existed in the seven Level 5’s Accelerator knew of.

Accelerator started panicking wondering what had happened, but then he heard a dry clattering sound.

It was the sound of a wind turbine spinning.

(Wait. I’ve heard that those power generator motors can be made to spin with microwaves!)

Accelerator turned around toward the Sister he thought he had defeated, but he did not find a dying girl there.

What he found there was his enemy.

He found an enemy standing on her legs that seemed about to collapse, not raising a single complaint about the intense pain running across her entire body, and silently glaring at him.

(Damn you...!)

Accelerator’s red eyes changed to a deadly crimson.

Even if his control of the plasma and the wind had been stolen, a Sister could not stand up to Accelerator. That right hand was the sole thing in the world that could penetrate his perfect defenses.

“I’ll kill you!”

A smile split across his face as he took a step toward the Sister.

Misaka Mikoto cut in between the two of them.

“...Do you really think I’ll let you?”

Mikoto’s voice sounded tiny amid the raging wind, but for some reason her quiet voice seemed to pierce into Accelerator’s eardrums.

“Hah. Don’t get carried away. At your lower rank, you can’t reach me. You can’t even slow me down. It’s like with vision tests where they only test up to 2.0. The only reason I’m stuck at the same level as you is because Academy City’s levels don’t go higher than 5.”

Mikoto did not respond. She likely understood that fact better than anyone and she stood there because she did not want to run away despite understanding that.

Accelerator would see her as in the way and decide to kill her first.

Suddenly, a noise came from behind Accelerator.

“...”

Accelerator timidly turned around.

An unbelievable sight spread out before his eyes there. The boy who had been blown away by 120 m/s winds and slammed into the pole of a wind turbine was slowly standing up.

The boy had countless injuries and it looked like blood was spurting out whenever he put even a slight amount of strength into a muscle. He had almost no strength left, his legs were trembling, and his arms were hanging down like the branches of a willow tree.

Even so, the boy did not collapse.

He would certainly not collapse.

“...................................................!”

Accelerator’s throat grew as dry as a desert.

Normally, one would think that boy could no longer fight. Someone with that much damage would be destroyed by Accelerator in a single strike.

Even if Accelerator did not want to directly fight the boy, he could always just kill Mikoto and the Sister so he could regain his control over the wind and the plasma. Accelerator was standing much closer to the girls than the boy was.

His reason told him that he could easily win if he dealt with everything calmly.

But something beyond that told him it was incredibly dangerous to turn his back on that boy.

Danger signals were fired from every part of his body.

A normal person would have been able to understand those signals as fear of pain.

“You’re amazing!”

Accelerator clenched his fist.

“You’re really fucking amazing!”

Kamijou moved his battered body to take a step forward.

With just that slight movement, it felt like all of his blood was evaporating. It felt like just thinking slightly would blow his consciousness away.

Even so, Kamijou continued forward.

With his dim consciousness, Kamijou did not completely understand the situation. He did not know why that wind had blown, he did not know why the plasma had disappeared, and he did not know why he had survived. Even his mind was so battered that those important things had been knocked from his awareness.

Even so, he saw the situation before him.

He saw Accelerator about to kill Misaka Imouto.

He saw Mikoto standing between them to act as a shield for Misaka Imouto.

That was enough.

That was more than enough reason for him to stand up.

“You’re amazing!”

He heard Accelerator’s voice.

“You’re really fucking amazing!”

As Accelerator howled up at the night sky, he ran forward clenching his fist in order to crush Kamijou Touma. He did the same alteration of the vectors of the force of his foot as he kicked the ground as before so that he flew forward like a bullet. Kamijou was thankful. If his opponent was coming for him, he didn’t have to walk any further. With Kamijou’s battered body, he would likely collapse before making it to Accelerator.

Kamijou Touma had no power.

He did not even have the slight bit of strength left needed to walk on his own two feet, to form words with his own tongue, or to think with his own mind.

Even so, Kamijou clenched his right fist.

He clenched it.

He looked up.

Accelerator had almost reached him as he shot forward like a bullet.

The right hand of suffering and the left hand of poison.

Both of Accelerator’s hand could kill with just a touch and they were headed for Kamijou’s face.

For an instant, time stopped.

Kamijou mustered up every last ounce of strength remaining in his body and sank down as if he were swinging his head down. The right hand of suffering fruitlessly passed above his head and the left hand of poison was knocked aside by Kamijou’s right hand.

“Grit your teeth, strongestweakest!” Kamijou said to Accelerator whose heart had frozen at having his doubly surefire attack suppressed.

Kamijou gave a ferocious, beast-like smile while they were at such extreme close range that they were almost touching.

“My weakeststrongest is going to resound a little!!”

An instant later, Kamijou Touma’s right fist plowed into Accelerator’s face.

His slender white body ways forcefully knocked to the gravel-covered ground where he rolled around with his arms and legs roughly strewn about.

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