21 The Aftermath.
He let the kids go after a long verbal scolding earlier in the morning.
From the expressions on their faces, it seemed as though the message had been received and wouldn't be forgotten.
They parted after the meal, the atmosphere was a bit awkward after the whole ordeal and there was cleaning up to do on many ends.
They had managed to grab any relevant DNA samples and remove any labs that were processing them so they would have to got to Mikoto to retrieve more samples again, which she would obviously refuse.
Accelerator's defeat has most likely reached the relevant circles in the city. There had been no big announcement to the city as a whole but it was hard to hide something like this from the higher-ups.
He was pretty sure the boy was still alive. Even if he was unconscious, his powers would protect him from the building falling on him. He honestly debated on whether to give the final blow...but it was not his choice to make.
Regardless, there should be some significant shifts in the plans of the higher-ups with regards to his defeat.
The best-case scenario is that the whole lvl 6 plan gets scrapped after the little display, the worse case is that it continues due to some deviations that were brought about by his presence.
If it is the latter, he would have to strong arm the city into abandoning the idea.
If the project was immediately shut down, then there would be a lot of clean up and logistics that need to be solved by those involved.
Mikoto was bound to take away all the clones, which the scientists would probably happily accommodate so they wouldn't have to deal with it. And if he remembered correctly, there were a few scientists who were sympathetic to her cause that would help.
The follow up issue would be dealing with the fact that the clones have a very short lifespan.
Alex didn't have an immediate answer to that issue himself, but he 'convince' some people to lend their aid.
Though he is probably overthinking everything.
Honestly, Misaki's ability is quite frightening with regards to getting stuff done. She could easily take command of the whole situation and have it sorted in no-time.
The whole incident didn't go exactly as he had hoped, but he was content with the outcome.
For now though, he had to just wait and see what the fallout would be.
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Alex was currently sitting at his little 'safe house' that he stashed away the few dozen little sisters he had run into.
Mikoto had already come by and taken them 'home' as she said.
Misaki was being oddly nice to Mikoto with this whole situation. Though it wasn't too surprising, the girls antagonized and fought against one another, but they weren't truly 'enemies' more like rivals. Beneath the cold exteriors they often portrayed, they were very warm-hearted individuals.
He was just staring at the area, deep in thought with regards to the defenses.
He had layered as many bounded fields as he could around the building and used the very basic runes he had learned to reinforce the build as much as possible.
He sighed at the work he had done.
He couldn't in good conscious even call it amateurish, frankly it was shoddy work but it was the best he could do at the moment.
He was purely muddling his way through his own magecraft 'studies'.
He had put up dozens of bounded fields around the building, that sounded impressive until you realized that each one was abysmally weak. Some of them did different things and weren't purely 'barriers'. He didn't know how to combine the effect into a single field.
To make the building unnoticeable, to put a physical and magical barricade around the complex, to block all transmissions, to alert him to intruders and other random effects he could think of.
A true magus would only have to put a couple fields up to replicate his efforts and with a higher efficiency and power.
He had done his best so far to basically just pump the fields with as much prana as possible but after a certain amount there seemed to be a 'diminishing returns' with continued prana injections.
It would take him months to figure out how to efficiently strengthen the barriers effects correctly.
Compared to a true magus's field that would be like a steel wall, he had basically just been stacking pieces of paper over each other until it became sufficiently durable.
There was a reason magecraft was more a science than art portrayed in various forms of media.
Atleast his reinforcement had been coming along decently enough.
He wasn't walking into the complete unknown with this specific craft at least.
He was close to trying it on himself soon. He hadn't shattered any practice materials recently and had only been escalating from there.
The added benefit from reinforcement should be quite noticeable. Probably somewhere around a quarter of a status upgrade if he had to guess. Something not insignificant, it allowed a normal person to transcend the physical abilities of what a human was capable of.
He was still hesitant to actually try it on himself though. When other people's safety is his concern, he didn't want to put himself at risk by rushing through his learning.
The thought of him accidentally overloading a limb while trying to reinforce himself was a definite possibility.
And its not like he would probably have it ready for any significant combat in this world as it was.
The amount of concentration it initially took when he started practicing on inanimate objects was already a bit difficult, he doubted he could perform it at a moments notice while in combat. Not to mention that the human body is much more complex than glassware or vegetables.
Besides waiting until he purchases the next volume in the 'guide' he should probably also review books on the human body.
While structural grasp was a god-send, it was almost useless if you didn't understand what you were looking at. He needed a better understanding of his body to be able to reinforce certain aspects of it.
The highest level of a full-body reinforcement would require a very in-depth knowledge on how his body worked.
It was the realization when he was looking 'inside' Touma. He didn't understand what he was looking at and was merely 'eyeballing' the issue.
At least he was in a place that was referred to as 'academy city'. He could easily find the required reading material and add it to his growing collection.
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The day was going by rather quickly. Nothing of any significance was happening.
It was nice considering the stress he had to deal with the past weeks or so. While there were more issues to come, everyone needed time to unwind.
He was curious what Index and co were up to these several days.
The two Magicians had been doing a good job keeping her occupied while Touma had been running around 'behind her back'. Though she more than likely knew something was going on. She was a lot smarter than she let on sometimes.
But ignorance is bliss as they say. Everyone agreed that they didn't want her to worry too much with what the kids were doing. It would break her heart if they had to tell her that there was nothing she could do to help.
The issue was one that pertained to the science side of things so her knowledge wouldn't be useful.
They would definitely have to make it up to the girl.
It was physically hard to see that cute girl sad.
He should probably make the little glutton something special as an apology.
He was currently walking down the street with no set destination in mind, it wouldn't be too difficult to swing by a grocery store to find something.
He was broken from his thoughts when he noticed a car park on the side of the road in his path with an attendant waiting for him.
"Mr. Penn, my boss would like to speak with you." The person spoke as she held open the door to the car.
"Well....I wouldn't want to keep Aleister waiting." Alex said with amusement.
The attendant had her eyes widen a bit, she did not expect him to know who she was working for or so readily agree to come with her.
According to her boss he would have to be persuaded in some capacity.
She quickly composed herself as the man got into the car and she into the driver's seat and drove off towards the center of the city.
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The Superintendent of Academy City. The man behind the curtain so to speak.
His name is Aleister Crowley.
There had been many rumors and legends about him across the years on both sides of the world. Yet both sides shared the same feelings about the man.
He was someone to both respect and fear.
He could be considered the lynchpin that held together the science side of the world that allowed it to rival the magic side.
He was used to having control of everything that went on in his city.
He had plans onto of plans, schemes that made unwitting pawns of almost every powerful individual the city had to offer. He could squeeze the usefulness out of the lowliest of esper if it was in his benefit.
And this man was annoyed.
It was rare for him to get annoyed. He had cast away most of his emotions a long time ago, though they were occasionally flare up, he was only human after all.
Several weeks ago, an anomaly appeared.
Something that ever so slightly skewed his plans…..at first.
Then the anomaly took a more direct role in ruining all the calculations he had done and all the planning he made.
All of this finally culminated in a group of brats defeating his strongest esper. He didn't care about Accelerator's defeat per say, he cared about all the cascading consequences it would have for all the other plans that concerned the boy.
Even when the man first appeared, Aleister Crowley did not care much.
His display of power was.....eye opening, but did not threaten to destroy his plans.
The second incident he was involved in, the one that Aleister actually wanted the man to participate in but was apparently blown off.
Yes, the man apparently knew of him. Knew of his hold over the city, knew of his connections and power. And even when the magician relayed the message that He wanted the anomaly to do a job as payment for being allowed to stay in his city…..the anomaly blew him off without a second thought.
Though the situation still played out in his favor. Aleister was not a prideful man by nature, he didn't care about the words and actions the anomaly said about him as long as he played his role like all pawns should.
It was this second display of power that worried the director.
Something that managed to strike fear into him. It was an innate fear. He felt the power that radiated out.
It was pure destruction. Like he was standing in the cusp of genesis as it washed over him.
He was shocked that no Magic gods descended in the aftermath.
At that moment, hundreds of plans had to be suddenly thrown out the window.
An unknown pawn had suddenly been promoted to a king.
This new king had inserted himself into one of his more important plans and managed to deviate it enough to cause him headaches. Though there was not a total loss yet, the situation could be salvaged.
For one of the very rare times, he would parlay. He would negotiate and ask another king to not interfere on his chess board.
This unknown.
Even with all the connections at his disposal he could not figure out this person's identity.
He had eyes and ears all around the city so he knew much of what went on around the man when he was out and about.
All the subtle hints that were dropped. All the coy responses were documented and yet, Aleister could still not identify the man.
He was clearly from the magical side of things and yet there was no record.
The name he went by, which was apparently not a throw away, was not listed anywhere.
His features were reminiscent of the English royal family yet there were absolutely no records of him.
His power was substantial, yet he was no Magic god.
The anomaly used a brand of magic that even he, a renown magician in his own right, could not recognize.
The director opened his eyes as the door to his room opened.
"Alexander Penn....we finally meet." He said as the blonde haired man walked into the room.
