The Party

-9th September 2:04p.m.-

Accelerator laid in bed as Last Order attempted to peel the apple while sitting on a small chair beside the bed.

Keyword: 'attempted'

She was struggling to peel the skin off the flesh of the apple. All her concentration was focused on peeling the apple, she couldn't feel the coolness of the room. Her face would occasionally turn blue, as she held her breath to be more precise when cutting the apple.

"...Oi, give me that."

Accelerator tries to reach his hand out for the apple, but she quickly withdraws her hands.

"No! You should rest, Misaka will peel this herself, says Misaka as Misaka dismisses you."

"...*sigh* Whatever."

He continues watching her peel the apple intensely as sweat drips down his forehead. That sweat wasn't from him being under his blanket, or any heater nearby. It was him being nervous.

"(*Sigh* Did I mess up back there? No...no... Tch, it's too annoying to think about that.)"

Accelerator thought of what had happened with Ester. Was it really his fault?

He didn't know, but by the time he snapped back, Last Order...

...was still peeling the apple.

"Oi, if it's too difficult, pass it to me."

"No! Misaka already told you that Misaka will do it! Says Misaka as Misa...ka...realizes that you tried offering her help!"

"...I didn't do such a thing."

Then she gets up from the seat and leans in closer to him.

"Hey, you just asked if Misaka needed help, right? Asks Misaka as Misaka tries to confirm it with you."

He turns his back to her and faces the window and calmly replies,"No. It's just your imagination."

"No, it cannot be, Misaka records everything that happens. Says Misaka as Misaka informs you."

"Tch, stop bothering me!"

He swatted her away as he closed his eyes, but she wouldn't stop approaching him as she holds the knife and apple in her hands.

"Did you try to show care to Misaka just now? Asks Misaka as Misaka tries to confirm it with you again."

"Go away!"

He slowly gets up from his bed as he carefully pushes her face away, making sure that the knife is not pointing to either one of them.

But...

She forces her way to him, and then the blunt edge of the knife stabs him. On instinct, he grabs her hand holding the knife and squeezes her hand.

"Ow ow ow!! You're hurting Misaka! Says Misaka as Misaka complains about the pain."

When he realized what he was doing, he quickly pulled his hand away.

"...Tch, just give me the damn apple and knife."

"Okay..."

This time, she willingly surrenders the knife and apple to him. He peels the remaining half of the apple and cuts it into two pieces. Last Order sat quietly on the chair, not making any eye contact with him, and he clicked his tongue.

"Oi, annoying brat. Here."

He holds the two apple halves out, facing them downwards. She opens up the palm of her hands and he drops it into them.

"You're not going to have any? Asks Misaka as Misaka feels guilty for eating the apples alone when there's clearly enough for each of us."

He looks at her, her adorable face and eyes.

"...Tch, fine."

"Yayyy!!"

Last Order passes him one half of the apple, and she goes up on his bed again, this time sitting down on his lap.

He puts the knife down on the mini table beside his bed, and takes a bite from the apple.

"So...how does it taste? Asks Misaka as Misaka seeks your opinion!"

"...Tastes like a normal apple. Why don't you take a bite?"

Last Order still had the other half of the unbitten apple in her hands. She merrily takes a bite from the apple and her eyes lit up as she went nearer to his face.

"I-It's a normal apple, yet it tastes even more sweet and sour than normal since Misaka and you peeled it together, says Misaka as Misaka wonders if this is the power of love!"

"Looks like this is the power of ethylene gas, and a bit of rancidity."

She continues to bite through the apple while murmuring the words,"So good..."

Accelerator watches as he too, bites the apple in his hand, finishing it quickly. Then, he remembered the Judgement member who was taken into the hospital, and he asked Last Order about the details out of curiosity.

"By the way, I heard that another pain in the ass was brought to this hospital. A Judgement member."

Upon hearing those words, Last Order shivered when Accelerator brought up that topic. But she also realized something.

"Oh, did you mention 'another pain in the ass'? Do you admit that you are a pain in the ass? Asks Misaka as Misaka covers her mouth to laugh at you."

The aura surrounding Accelerator grew darker and a sinister smile formed on his face as he replied,"Are you going to answer me?"

"Eek! B-But it's true! You were supposed to be in bed for 3 days, yet you left on the first day of your bed rest! Says Misaka as Misaka complains about you who can't even do the simplest thing!"

"..."

Accelerator couldn't reply her. This time, she had a point.

Staying in bed.

It was something he could easily do.

Something he really liked.

Why didn't he just do that from the beginning? No, that was because Ester was kidnapped. But...he could've just left her there.

No...but that would also mean that he is making her suffer. She, who was never supposed to be involved in his business got caught up, because of him.

But he did give her a warning, she deserved it.

But, was it the right thing to do?

He started to doubt himself and his intentions. What was he really after? Peace? Freedom? He already has them by staying in the hospital. By going around and causing trouble, he's just making his situation bad. Before he could ponder further, Last Order cuts him off.

"Anyway, about the pervert..."

Last Order then looks away as she covers her mouth.

"(Seems like she's already well acquainted with her...)"

"Uhhh...Misaka means...uhhh friend! Yes! No! Misaka means no! No, Misaka doesn't mean the word No, but as in No! That pervert isn't Misaka's friend, yes!"

Last Order was moving everywhere as she scratched her head in frustration.

"...*sigh* Just get to the point already."

Then, she slams the bottom of her fist on the palm of her hand just as the perfect title came to her mind.

"You could call her someone who's a good cook, and not that bad of a person."

"Is that so?(Seems like it's someone else. But still...are all Judgement members perverts? No, that flower head girl doesn't look like that type of person. But I can't judge her on first impressions alone...)"

Then he looks outside the window and comes with the simplest conclusion to his thoughts: Forming relationships are such a hassle and too troublesome.

Following the events yesterday, he DID lose quite a lot of blood, so he needed rest. 3 days of bed rest.

Last Order knew it too, so she decided that it was time to head out and let him rest, and also let the nurse do her job of watching over him.

He plucked out his battery, and struggled to put it into the charger. But, the nurse rushed to his side and helped him charged it.

Then, she laid him back. He closed his eyes, and fell back into his slumber.

—9th September 8:21p.m.—

Accelerator woke up, the room was dark. The lights were off in that white room. The nurse didn't seem to be there anymore, and no one else was inside the room as well.

He reached his left hand out for his still-charging battery, and to his surprise, he had a way easier time than before. However, that doesn't mean he didn't spend a long time trying to get it. His hands quivered just from holding it, and slipping it in took just as much effort.

But he persevered, and eventually, he was relieved after turning it on.

"*sigh* This is annoying."

———————————————

Accelerator was walking back to his ward after going to the toilet, and while he was walking back, he saw Last Order leaning against a wall beside someone else's door.

Accelerator raised an eyebrow and asked her,"Oi, what are you doing here? The playground is just downstairs."

He expected her to smile and start skipping around him like some bunny. Or at the very least scold him for mocking her.

However, none of that happened. She only gave him a very weak smile, a 'fake' smile. A smile so blatantly faked. Her lips were going down for a second, then they were pulled back up.

"Oh...it's you, says Misaka as Misaka tries to feign happiness, but it's difficult."

"...I don't care about how you feel. If you're not happy, why don't you play with the kids downstairs?"

As he approached her, he heard voices behind the door.

"...When Mami was examined at the large hospital, they discovered that her disease came from her powers gradually going berserk in her body. The unintentional power usage continually wore her down and would ultimately kill her, but there were a few other cases in Academy City. Thanks to that, there was something like a clinical trial, so her treatment went quite decently."

Last Order then spoke.

"The pervert inside has a sick sister, and they were brought in with their mother, says Misaka as Misaka informs you of what happened..."

She pauses for a while as she breaks her eye contact with him, and faces the floor.

"...the restaurant which Misaka went to, was ran by her mother and two of them. The food there was really really good! Says Misaka as Misaka shares some juicy information with you!"

Her eyes glowed up, but the glowing faded away as she puts her hands behind, to support her tailbone on the wall.

The soft womanly voice continued.

"Several difficult and painful years passed. Surely Academy City could cure her. My mom, Mami, and I all believed it. The three of us were a step away from losing control of our emotions. But, we decided to do our best as a family. We decided to work together to overcome whatever life threw at us..."

There was a pause for a while, as Accelerator leaned against the other side of the wall as well.

"...we trusted in Academy City."

"(Wrong place to put your trust in.)"

"One day, someone claiming to be a researcher at a well-known pharmaceutical company showed up at the hospital where my sister was and said they might be able to develop a drug to heal her. But they said a clinical trial was needed and asked if Mami would participate. They said there was no danger involved and they would not ask for any money."

"(Wow, how shocking.)"

Accelerator looked at the scenery behind the window. A starless, grey night sky, only being lit up by the singular moon. The cloudless sky.

"We were ecstatic and so glad we were in Academy City, so we immediately agreed and Mami was set to go to the pharmaceutical company. And then...we never heard from her again."

"(How unsurprising...)"

Then, another voice spoke. A voice which seemed to annoy Accelerator a bit. Just a bit.

"Which company was it?"

"It was a company that never existed. That non-existent company took every patient with that disease away. In the first place, we had no choice but to send them away to that lab because medical costs were high..."

Accelerator could feel the anger building up in her voice. A powerful anger. He could feel it, her voice was almost straining.

"It was a terrible shock to our mom and she's been undergoing therapy at her childhood home ever since. So while our grandma looked after her, I stayed in school and joined Judgment to find my sister."

Then, that annoying voice replied,"I see. That couldn't have been easy. Judgment is selective, so you must have done very well."

"I'm not sure I would say that. But it did help me find a clue leading to my sister. I still don't know where she and the others had gone, but I found a child with the same disease and found a suspicious location by following the underground organization trying to recruit the child."

There was a slight hesitation in her voice before she continued, but she eventually told her.

"The moment I reached their location, I couldn't go in further. The security was too heavy, and Judgement doesn't have the necessary firearms to match theirs. I sent in a rescue drone to rescue someone who knew more, but..."

That was as far as she went with that sentence. But Accelerator could have deduced that the person she managed to save was 'the princess'.

Speaking of 'the princess'...where was she? Accelerator hadn't seen her yet. When he thought of where she had gone, he was cut-off midway with another sentence from the voice inside the ward.

"I can't leave Academy City until I rescue Mami. But my grandma..."

Her voice was starting to crack, her words felt heavier.

"...she said we look the same and have the same DNA, so my mom would be satisfied as long as I was with her. I...I didn't know how to react hearing that from a family. Yeah, it's true that we're identical twins with the same DNA, but...but we're two entirely different people! I can't just take her place. It has to be both of us together!"

He could hear sobbing noises afterwards, and Last Order commented,"The same DNA, huh? Says Misaka as Misaka thinks about some things."

They both glanced at each other, as their eyes locked with one another yet again.

"Hey..."

"Tch...you really gonna let me go out after I just got patched up?"

"Misaka will tell you that she won't force you to do something that you wouldn't like to do. Misaka saw and heard nothing. Says Misaka as Misaka makes a stand."

"Tch, I feel so annoyed just being here."

He uses his pinky finger to dig his ear and blows the dirt off his pinky, as he walks off with his cane in his right hand.

Instead of walking to his ward, he walks all the way to a flight of stairs that led him all the way to a sign that says 'keep out'.

He crosses the sign and steps out into a large, spacious area at the top of the hospital. The roof.

There was a tearing-like sound as he took the bandages around his head off, as a wide smile appears on his face.

"Well, I'll just call this my rehabilitation."

—9th September 8:45p.m.—

Accelerator arrived at a certain train station. An isolated train station unknown to many people in Academy City. But why was he there?

Well, he was there for a certain someone. Someone who is of importance to Academy City.

"(Himegi has a body crystal extraction device in her, and they would want to capture her for it. The body crystal...first made possible by Kihara Gensei. Even thinking about his name makes me want to puke. He used his granddaughter, Kihara Therestina, as his first subject to extract the first body crystal. But the project stopped after he realized the flaws in it.)"

Accelerator walked through a long dark hallway with a flight of steps at the end of the hallway, as he recalls the information he managed to dig out from the computer in A Certain Hospital. The only sound that could be heard was the tapping of his heavy,metal cane, and his footsteps.

"(By subjecting espers to body crystal, their esper powers will overload, increasing the output of their abilities, just like the coffin Mikihiko used. But when multiple espers with the same AIM field gather,it will cause a mini earthquake to happen. Therestina decided to take over the experiment in place of Gensei, but she was later stopped by the #3 Level 5 of Academy City...)"

Accelerator's eyes looked down, in disappointment. Not at the fact that he could have reached level 6, but because he 'killed' a hero.

"(...Misaka Mikoto.)"

He finally reached the end of the hallway, and slowly climbed the staircase.

"(40% of the medical papers about body crystal came from labs funded by A Certain Pharmaceutical Company. Sukunabikona Pharmaceuticals is #2 in the industry, and its largest stockholder is a dummy company owned by Nakimoto.)"

Nakimoto Rizou, one of the twelve members of the Board of Directors. One of the people on top.

He has power, but Accelerator too has power. Accelerator being the #1 of Academy City back then, the Board of Directors favored him a lot, and gave him all sorts of personal information. However, back then, he didn't care. But now, he was going to use it.

"(They retrieved Himegi, and the retrieval team included the Tobio sister after she came down with the same disease. All the mysteries are connected.)"

Then, he reaches the end of his journey. A single barricade, and a railway track below the barricade. He turns his battery on, and steps onto the barricade before jumping down several meters down onto the railway track.

It didn't look like the whole place was cleaned at all. Well, to be expected, as it was a railway track. The iron tracks had patches of rust on them, and the pillars supporting the whole underground system were dusty and looked as if a single touch could make the whole system collapse.

"It's time I stopped by to say hello."

There was a light at the end of the long, straight tunnel, and the light was becoming brighter and brighter as it approached him.

The whole area underground was rumbling and rattling as the sound of an engine roaring grew louder.

And then, he switched his cane to his left hand and put his right hand out facing the train, and created a ball of wind on his palm.

The front of the train was finally visible and then...

*BOOM*

The pointy part of the train was blown apart until it became flat, and the train stopped entirely. Dust and iron scraps covered Accelerator, but he simply brushed them off.

Then, he heard the sounds of scraping and coughing coming from the side of the train, and he poked his head out from the corner. In front of him were 3 people, a woman with short black hair, wearing a stewardess uniform, and two blonde haired guys, with their hairs combed neatly, wearing a brown business suit with a red tie.

"Hey there. I've got a question."

Accelerator asked like a normal student, when the student has questions for the teachers. However, they didn't respond the same way a teacher would. Their response was...

"Eeeeeeekk!! Run!"

The two guys supported the lady as they limped away from him.

"Man, fame ain't easy...Ahn?"

Accelerator turned his head to the side as he closed his eyes, but when he did, two bullets blew past his face. This time, there were a myriad of armed guards pointing their guns at him.

"Seriously?"

And they continued firing round after round at him, some were aimed at his legs, some at his body, but most of it went to his head. The bullets were like raindrops to him, so small, yet so quick, and it was hitting his redirection field every second.

That ticked him off.

"Oi, stop that already. It's getting annoying."

He was now standing diagonally on one of the wrecked train cars facing downwards to them. He boosted himself off the 'platform' and was in the middle of all of them, still flying down. Then, in a swift motion, he used his cane on his left hand to whack the person on his left, the one on his right using his right hand, and his legs to kick two guards behind him.

He manipulated the vectors of each impact, to hurt them even more than one could imagine. He was like a swan flapping it's wings.

In that instant, he wiped out four guards. He landed on his feet and then manipulated the vectors under his feet to negate inertia and smoothly turn the corners of the whole tunnel, executing his attacks smoothly at the same time.

Then, at the end, there was one.

He managed to knock out eight more guards before leaving only one conscious.

The last person conscious was firing bullets from his rifle straight at Accelerator, but Accelerator redirected all his bullets to the side, and then he used his right knee to pin the guard down and used his right hand to smash the ground beside the guard's head.

"Ha...ha...ah...a-ah..."

The guard was so terrified that he could barely breathe, or even form a sentence at the very least. He was breathing very hard on Accelerator's arm.

"I don't care about you guys. Where's Nakimoto? Is he inside?"

"N-No! I-If he was attacked, he would be evacuated immediately!"

"Oh? Then where is he? You better tell me while I'm still being gentle. Otherwise..."

A massive grin appeared on his face as he manipulated the vectors on his right hand. He converted the kinetic energy of the winds into electricity and it buzzed all around his hand. The whole tunnel was lit up by the electricity on his hands.

"Eeeeek!"

The guard screeched in fear as he tried to crawl out of Accelerator's grasp.

"I-I'll sp-speak! He's at District 11, in a cruise ship."

"Is that all?"

Accelerator moved his right hand closer to frighten the guard even more and the guard only screeched even louder.

"AHHHH!! I-I don't know anything else! Please, I'm trying my best here! Uhhh...uhhh...he...uhhh...ah yes! He placed an order for the party!"

"Party?"

"Y-Yes! I-It should be at District 11, the truck contains many exotic animals inside!"

"Okay, anymore to add on?"

"N-No! I swear, I promise!"

"Okay then, goodnight."

Accelerator placed his right hand on that guard's shoulder and then manipulated the bio-electricity in his body to shock him to sleep.

"Well, now that we know where it is, I wouldn't want to cause too much of a ruckus."

Accelerator jumped back up to the platform and turned his battery off.

-9th September 9:12p.m.-

In a certain warehouse, a truck was parked in District 11. Inside that truck were goods waiting to be eaten up. However, these goods weren't considered normal goods.

There were walruses, monkeys, camels, snakes and even more exotic animals inside that truck. At the back of the truck was a girl with short, spiky pigtailed hair, with bangs covering her entire right eye. She was wearing a black chef's outfit with black pants, and shoes. She had a bit of freckles on her face. Beside her was a heavy, metal briefcase.

She was dealing with an almost bald guy, with just his short blonde hair poking out. He was wearing a black jacket with a brown collar, and light colored jeans.

"These violate cites, so m-make sure no one finds out."

The guy had his voice shaken up by the fear of getting caught by Anti-Skill. What he was doing was illegal, however, the girl didn't care.

"Don't worry, all of the evidence will be erased from the world. They will be broken down, digested, and absorbed."

She said it so calmly, that it took the guy a few moments to process what she had just said.

"Wh-What?"

Even then, he was still confused.

"Don't worry about it."

Then she places the briefcase in front of his face and lays it down.

"Here's your pay. We added in a little extra, we hope to work with you again."

He looked at her with a confused face, as if she was speaking a different language.

"Sorry! But no more. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to capture these animals?"

He took the briefcase by the handle as she raises her index finger. A wide smile appeared on her face.

"Well then. Would you like to be erased as evidence too?"

"Eek!"

"Just...kid-ding. Don't worry, let's do this again next time, okay?"

"A-Ah...okay..."

They both shook hands with each other, just when the girl asked the man,"who are you?"

"Huh?"

She tilts her head to the left as she loses her eye contact with him. He too, then turns his head back, and sees a white haired boy wearing a green hospital gown with two black wires sticking down from the back of his head. He assumed those black wires were connected to the earphones in his ears, but then he realized that the boy didn't have any earphones on.

"What?"

The girl stepped in front of the guy, and the white haired boy with pale skin spoke.

"Hi."

That boy was Accelerator.

The girl didn't know who he was, yet his presence left her shaken up. She raised her hand and wanted to reach for something behind her, but then in a blink of an eye, Accelerator was beside her.

"What?!"

Before she could move away, he touched her shoulders and manipulated the bio electricity in her body to electrocute her. Her body flailed around like a fish that was away from water as he grabbed onto her shoulder.

Then, when he let go, she dropped down onto the floor with a massive thud as her eyes rolled back.

"E-Eh?!"

The man was surprised at the fact that Accelerator moved fifty meters in just a second, or maybe even less. Moreover, he even took her down just from touching her shoulder.

"Don't worry. It's just like anemia." Accelerator explained to him.

"A-Anemia?"

"Yeah, definitely."

Then he gets onto the back of the truck and continues talking to the man.

"Just shut up and do your job. You're delivering these to the party, right?"

"Y-Yeah."

"Then get to it."

The man slowly nods his head as his head shivers with his body. He walks all the way to the driver seat, and opened a small sliding door that allowed his eyes to observe the back of the truck.

"W-We're going then..."

"Sure."

The truck made a huge roar as the man starts up the engine, and Accelerator looks around the truck to see many animals.

"(Who would be crazy enough to eat these?)"

Accelerator turns his battery back to 'normal' mode, as he closed his eyes to sneak in a bit of rest. He went to war with a bunch of magicians on the same day, and had his wound opened up without having a single day of bed rest. Needless to say, one wrong move could lead his wound to open up again.

Get too excited, it breaks open. Get too angry, it will open up as well. He had to maintain a steady mind. A mind that doesn't expose too many emotions, ironically enough, he had been doing the opposite.

-9th September 9:30p.m.-

Accelerator couldn't get much sleep as the roads were bumpy and it would shake him up each time the wheels hit a bump.

"Tch, this is so annoying..."

But then, when the exhausts finally 'loosened' up, he could tell that they were at a checkpoint. Mumbling could be heard outside.

"(We're here already?)"

Then, the truck started moving again, with the occasional bumps.

"(Ughhh...just get me out of here...)"

When he got up, the moving truck immediately stopped, and he tumbled all the way to the wall that separated the driver and the goods at the back of the truck.

A loud bang could be heard, but the man didn't check if Accelerator was okay.

"(Tch, is he trying to incapacitate a handicapped person?!)"

Suddenly, shouting could be heard from the outside. It wasn't mumbling this time. It was shouting. Have they found him out? Was the driver bribed? Or could it be that the girl he had left behind back there informed the guards of their presence?

Whatever the case was, the shouting was driving all the animals in the truck insane. They were crying out at the back of the truck. It was getting so loud, that Accelerator was almost losing his mind.

"Gah! Fucking shut up!"

He turns his battery on, and slammed his fist onto the side of the truck, and manipulated the sound waves to make it more eerie.

In an instant, everything went silent.

Accelerator kicked down the vertical sliding door at the back of the truck, with the assumption that they knew he was here.

"Did that finally quieten things down? My oh my..."

He got out of the truck and faced the people who were shouting.

"You really riled up my traveling companions. What are you gonna do about it? Huh?"

There were a bunch of middle aged guys looking at him. They were wearing an outfit that would be fit anyone working at an industrial company, a strap at each part of their shoulders, a brown cap, and baggy jeans.

"Hm?"

He looked at the floor and realized that there were a lot of bullets lying on the floor. Not only that, but there was a woman beside him with her blue hair tied into a ponytail. Her face annoyed Accelerator. She was wearing a red, V-shaped collar dress that did not fit her at all. It could barely contain her breasts that could be visible from the side. She had a black bag that was slung around her body, covering the V in between her breasts.

It was the Anti-Skill woman who had stopped him from killing Ester.

Yomikawa Aiho.

He realized that there was a streak of blood flowing down from her ear hole.

"D-Did you do this?"

The person who asked Accelerator this, was one of the many workers. He had a trimmed beard that left the small hairs sticking out of his chin.

"Hmm...who knows?"

"Y-You damn kid...how about you show some respect to your elders...IN HELL!!"

They all raised a bazooka at him and fired a round each. They were planning to destroy everything. The goods, the driver, a kid, and Yomikawa.

"(And I thought that clones carrying a weapon wherever they go was crazy. Turns out they're not the only ones.)"

He slammed his cane down on to the ground, and manipulated the impact to send the bullets flying up to intercept the bazookas.

Just a single bazooka was all it took to cause a chain reaction of explosions. It was like a fireworks show as everything in front of him exploded, leaving nothing but a cloud of smoke behind.

As the smoke was clearing up, he walked forward and drew a line in front of him and the truck using his cane.

"Sorry, but this road's closed. So, it's a one-way road now."