Chapter 4

The walk back to his apartment was quiet. People were walking all around him, but he used his vectors to negate the sound around him. He walked home, feeling numb. 'I have no obligation to her… I don't need to feel guilty,' Eri's sobbing was ringing in his ears. He sighed in exhaustion. 'When the hell did I become so sentimental… what kind of bullshit is this?'

"YOU DID WHAT!?" Saki screeched in his ear. He winced, looking at her with furrowed brows and an irritated expression. "Do you have to be so loud?" he groaned. Saki glowered at him. "Is that what you should be worrying about right now? You dumb motherfucker!"

Accelerator shrugged her off and walked around her. "I had no obligation to the kid. The fact that I even did as much as I did should be more than enough," he said, walking past her. Saki's breath hitched as she looked at him in shock. "Hold it, I'm not done with you!" she growled, following him into his apartment.

"You cared for her," she exclaimed.

"What are you talking about?" Accelerator sighed.

"I did what I did on a whim. It meant nothing-"

"You're wrong!"

Accelerator stilled at her remark. "I don't know why, but that kid meant something to you," she said. "I don't know who or what you saw in her, but you saw something. Something that made you feel, feel things you didn't want to feel… you are a much kinder person than you think you are… I knew it the minute you saved me that day-"

"That-"

"-And that child saw it the minute she met you… and maybe… maybe just for a second… you started to see it yourself." Saki's eyes softened as she faced the teenage boy in front of her. "I don't know much about you, brat… but I know that right now… you're regretting what you did."

Accelerator still didn't face her.

"And I know that kid's feeling the same."

Eri was quiet. She was numb. Everything had changed, her future, her life was once again uncertain… and Accelerator and Saki weren't there… it didn't feel safe anymore.

"Are you hungry?" Asphalt asked her. He was sitting in the driver's seat, hands on the wheel with a gentle smile on his face. Eri quietly shook her head. She hadn't said much after Accelerator had… Eri didn't know what to feel. Betrayed… hurt? She knew she was, but at the same time, she felt like she had no right to feel like that. Accelerator had helped her, done so much more for her than anyone ever had. It didn't feel right to want for more; it felt… selfish. But at the same time, she couldn't help but want, desire for more.

'Please don't act selfishly anymore, Eri.'

Tears appeared in her eyes, but this time she held them in, as she had always done. Asphalt didn't know what to do. 'All I have to do is deliver the girl and then she'll be out of my hands, but…' sweat dripped down his forehead as he thought back to Accelerator. Though he hadn't faced them, Asphalt could see in his eyes that the boy had been going through an internal struggle. The cold and monstrous boy he'd thought of as inhuman was showing humanity most subtly.

Asphalt let out a sigh. 'Sometimes I really can't help but hate this job.'

Asphalt's thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of his phone. With a huff, keeping one hand on the steering wheel, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his old, red flip phone. The name "Vel" brightly lit the screen. "Velvet?" he muttered to himself in confusion. He had asked the girl to wait for him by the airport. "I'm not late… why's she calling me now?"

Pressing 'answer' and placing the phone to his ear, he greeted her. "Yo! Vel, I'm on my way. Just picked up the tar-…um, kid, and I-"

"Asphalt!" her voice had a sense of urgency in it. "There's been a change of plans."

"What?" Asphalt looked surprised. "What happened?"

"WHAT!?"

Eri had been staring numbly at her hands, but when the atmosphere in the room began to feel tense, Eri looked up at Asphalt and flinched. His face, which had once seemed kind to Eri, looked full of anger and… pain? Asphalt, noticing Eri's eyes on him, looked at her, a look of concern and guilt on his face.

Asphalt took a breath, closed his eyes, and faced forward again. "I understand," he said in a grim tone. "Tell the Council… that I'll make the drop off personally." He pulled the phone from his ear and after clicking a few buttons, threw the phone into the cup holder in between him and Eri... still opened. Asphalt was quiet for a minute, taking glances at her and his phone. "…It seems something has… changed in our plans," he said as he turned the car. "I'll be taking you to a… special hospital, where you'll be given a special checkup, by someone named Doctor Hamazura." Eri was silent. "…It's going to look a bit scary but… you don't have anything to worry about, okay."

Eri remained silent, but the tension in the air was palpable, intensified by Asphalt's unsettling demeanor, which made her instinctively want to curl into a ball. "I… wanna go back," she whispered, almost unaware that she had vocalized her thoughts. Asphalt offered no words of reassurance, allowing the uncomfortable silence to persist, weighing heavily on Eri's shoulders. The drive continued, each moment of silence becoming increasingly unbearable for her.

Meanwhile, Accelerator, charged with agitation, leaped from roof to roof, his cell phone clutched tightly in his hand. His expression was contorted with frustration, his teeth clenched, and his eyes narrowed in deep concentration. 'What the hell was that about?' he wondered, his thoughts swirling with confusion and suspicion. 

Brrriiinnng!! Brrriiinnng!!

A while after Saki had left, Accelerator's phone began to ring. Pulling out his phone he stared at the screen, 'Who the hell is this', he wondered, the unfamiliar number prompting a moment of skepticism. He didn't give out his number to a lot of people, actually, the only people who had his number were Saki and two others. Pressing 'answer', he placed the phone against his ear. He could hear the sound of car engines and breathing, "…It seems something has… changed in our plans".

His breath hitched in surprise and suspicion, 'Asphalt!?' he didn't think he'd hear from the geezer this soon, actually he never thought he'd hear from the man ever again, 'wait… how'd he even get my number?', he snarled to himself, 'what a pain'.

"I'll be taking you to a… special hospital, where you'll be given a special checkup, by someone named Doctor Hamazura", Asphalt's voice spoke through the phone, Accelerator's eyes widened at the name '… is he… trying to tell me something, something he can't tell me directly…' Accelerator realized, the silence stretched on, Accelerator's mind raced with possibilities, his instincts sharp and alert "…It's going to look a bit scary but… you don't have anything to worry about, okay".

A silence fell, 'he's on a freeway I think', Accelerator's eyes narrowed…

"I… wanna go back".

Accelerator didn't move. His body froze at the sound of the whimper, his breath lodged in his throat as he swallowed his saliva. As Eri's voice reached him through the receiver, a plaintive yearning that struck a chord within him, igniting a flicker of uncertainty in his resolve.

Accelerator's eyes narrowed even further. Asphalt had been attempting to convey something, something concerning Eri. There was only one freeway close to Shibuya, and there was only one hospital close to it. "Doctor Hamazura?" Accelerator's eye glinted with suspicion. He'd only had a brief interaction with the man, yet that encounter was enough for him to harbor intense disdain. During his quest to establish a legitimate medical record while constructing his identity, Accelerator had sought out an underground doctor who posed as a friendly family physician.

It wasn't the shady dealings that incensed Accelerator; it was the contemptuous gaze exchanged during their meeting. It mirrored the dehumanizing looks Accelerator had encountered numerous times in Academy City, eyes that regarded others as less than human. It repulsed Accelerator, yet the man had not directly wronged him. Consequently, Accelerator had chosen to avoid further contact, leaving the man be, a task he deemed more suited for the world's heroes. "Why?" he pondered, "Of all people, why take Eri to him?"

A large white building came into view.

The air was cold as he entered the building, and the smell of sanitizer was nauseating. People were sitting in waiting areas or walking about, doing their own business, not noticing or not caring about the white-haired boy as he frantically searched left and right for any signs of the old man or the ash-haired child. Walking up to the receptionist, he demanded, "Doctor Hamazura! I need to see him immediately!" Urgency and seriousness dripped in his tone, but the receptionist, an indigo-haired woman with cat-like eyes and gravity-defying hair, looked at him with a polite yet wary smile. "I'm sorry, but Doctor Hamazura is a bit busy right now. Do you have an appointment?"

Accelerator clicked his tongue in annoyance. "I need to see him now. It's an emergency, it came up unexpectedly!" he spoke roughly, yet did his best to maintain his patience. The receptionist looked at him suspiciously. "I'm afraid that if you don't have an appointment, I can't allow you to pass." Accelerator glowered at her. "Look, I-"

"There you are!"

Accelerator turned in surprise at the familiar voice. Velvet was casually walking up to him with a smile on her face. "Didn't I tell you to wait for me?" she said in a sultry voice. "We were supposed to go in together." Accelerator gave her a confused look, but she ignored him and walked up to the receptionist, who was looking at her in surprise. "Oh, so do you have an appointment, ma'am?" she asked.

Velvet smiled gently at her and nodded. "Yes, it's under my father's name, Gerald Barlem."

The receptionist fiddled with the computer in front of her with a focused expression before smiling. "Yes! It's right here!" She looked up at Accelerator and Velvet. "I'm so sorry for the misunderstanding. Dr. Hamazura will see you now. He's in room 50A." Velvet nodded her head with a smile, thanking her, but Accelerator was on the move. Velvet was quick to catch up to him, walking beside him.

"You wanna tell me what the hell is going on?" he asked her in a gruff voice. Velvet glanced at him before facing forward. "There's been a change of plans," she said.

"Meaning?" Accelerator didn't look at her. There was a sinking feeling in his gut. Velvet took a breath before answering. "When we were first ordered to go after the target—"

"—Eri, her name's Eri," Accelerator interrupted her, a warning, dangerous tone in his voice.

"…Eri," Velvet corrected herself. "We were told that once we had her, we were to immediately set her in processing, basically legalizing her in the magic society under a different name, and then we were to send her to live with one of the 13 Zodiacs… that was the plan but…"

She stopped walking and instead faced Accelerator, who had stopped as well. "We've just received new orders… the tar—Eri—is to be sent to a Doctor Hamazura Eiko, who will be supported by Hayate Kyomi, a magician in the Japanese branch, in the 'Preservation Ritual'… immediately," she said, adopting a grim look on her face. Accelerator looked at her in confusion. "…And what the fuck is that?" he asked her, his voice aggressive. Velvet's gaze lowered for a moment, her eyes wavering in guilt. "Basically… the Council intends to force Eri into a comatose state and… remove her brain."

Time felt frozen in that instant. Before Velvet could even realize what was happening, she was lifted off the ground by an invisible force, as if there was some sort of invisible hand around her throat, arms, and legs. She couldn't move a muscle. 'What the hell… how is he,' her breath hitched as fear washed over her entire body. "I'm done playing nice," his voice was hoarse and heavy, his red eyes glowing under the shadows of his bangs as he looked at Velvet with a deranged look on his face. Velvet realized, his expression seemed more frightening than when he was fighting her; the deranged smile and look of madness he had back then didn't compare to the calm, collected, and crazy look he had on his face as he stared at her with demonic eyes.

"You're going to answer every question… and you're not doing it in any bullshit roundabout way… unless you want me to overturn every blood vessel in your body," he threatened. 'He can do that!?,' Velvet stared at him in utter fear; whether he was bluffing or not, she didn't know, but she didn't want to find out either. "Where is she?" he asked her, "is she here?"

"…No…," Velvet whispered, "…Asphalt had hoped you would get here before they left but… mid-way Hayate intercepted him… Asphalt had no choice but to give the girl to him. He should be on his way here for Hamazura."

"Hamazura, is he a magician too?"

"No, he's just a shady doctor we've had dealings with before… he doesn't know much but… we think he suspects something, though he's never actually said anything."

"Why do they need him?"

"The operation… it's not the ritual. They need a professional to force Eri into a comatose state and to dissect her brain from her body carefully… the ritual is meant to ensure that nothing happens to the grimoire and to make sure that her brain can be preserved in a near functional state."

Accelerator gritted his teeth in anger. "Why?," he bit out, his voice hard and filled with anger. "WHY?"

Velvet looked at him in a mix of pity and guilt. "Because it was deemed that it would be a lot safer and—"

"—easier to control all that power, huh?," he scoffed. After a minute passed, Velvet felt the invisible force tighten slightly around her throat. It wasn't choking her, but the threat was clear. "Why are you helping me?," he asked, "no offense… no, never mind, take offense… you don't exactly look like you're against this magical Council of yours."

"If you were," he continued, "your partner would have never handed Eri over to… Hitatitty, or whatever the fuck his name is." Velvet was silent for a second before she looked Accelerator in his eyes as best she could in the position she was in. "We do what we're ordered… we work for the Council, but the one we follow is Razoh. The 8th of the Zodiacs, and something like this… he would never allow something like this to happen."

Accelerator looked at her, deep in her eyes, before scoffing. She felt the invisible force disappear as she then crumbled to the ground, slightly coughing. Though the grip wasn't exactly tight, it was still tight enough that she felt her throat contract. Accelerator said nothing as he continued to speed walk, making Velvet follow behind him.

When the door with the number 50A came into view, Accelerator charged in with no hesitation. "Knock, knock, room service here!" he growled sarcastically as he slid the door open with more force than necessary, nearly breaking it in the process. The room was just as Accelerator had remembered it: blue walls with animal designs, a small kiddie table in a corner with a toy box that was wide open, dolls and blocks strewn across the floor. In the center of the room were two large sofas and a coffee table in the middle. There were shelves and cabinets filled with either toys or books; on the desk was only one picture of two young men, the short man with pale aqua blue hair and the taller one with bright red hair.

Accelerator's eyes narrowed. "… There's no one here!"

"Hayate!" Velvet cried out in shock.

Hamazura Kyoya, a stick-thin man with heavy eyebags under his onyx eyes, was fiddling with the IV as a red-haired man with pale skin, wearing a blue sweatshirt and jeans, chattered away on his phone. Behind him, connected to the IV, was Eri, lying on a hospital bed, fast asleep, unaware of the dangers. "Seems we were right," the man said as he placed his phone into his pocket, "Asphalt's betrayed us." Hamazura looked up at the man with no emotion on his face, "don't you mean I was right," Hamazura asked, "I'm the one who told you that guy would try to intervene, directly or indirectly, was the question." "Ugh!" Hayate groaned before giving an exaggerated sigh, "Fine, fine, it's all thanks to you, I'll be sure to give you a bonus for that, okay?" Hamazura gave a small smile to the man next to him, a cruel and fake smile, "How about you let me dissect you as my bonus?"

The space they were in was large. It didn't even look like a room, almost like a large house with no walls or doors to make any rooms. Except that the walls looked like they were made completely out of stone.

Hayate gave the cruel man next to him a chuckle, "I'll do you one better." Hamazura's brow raised in curiosity, "Asphalt's partner… Velvet, it seems she's temporarily aligned herself with a quirk user." Hamazura looked away from him, unimpressed, "not interested, unless it's All Might himself, or the infamous kingpin you're talking about. I'm not at all interested," he said in a dull voice. Hayate smirked, "Actually… It's someone you may know," he said in a teasing tone, "someone you wouldn't stop blabbering to me about."

Hamazura said nothing, but he did give Hayate a small glance. Hayate's smirk grew even larger, "I believe he gave you the name… Accelerator."

Hamazura's hand tightened on the IV. His eyes glinted in clear madness. "Him!" he grinned a wide and inhumane smile, phantom images of a white-haired teenage boy staring him down like he was something insignificant made him shiver. Turning to face Hayate, he said, "You get me him alive! And I'll do this all for free," his voice hoarse and heavy.

Accelerator burst out of the hospital doors at full speed, disregarding discretion. Right now, the only thing on his mind was Eri and how he'd made the same mistake with her as he did with Last Order. Velvet was right behind him, phone to her ear, cursing, "Damn it, Asphalt! Pick up already!" Accelerator was prepared to tear through the entirety of Japan, and Velvet couldn't bring herself to think that he was bluffing.

'If he had actually fought me with the intent to kill,' she nervously thought to herself, memories of their fight flashing in her mind alongside the memory of Accelerator easily pinning her to the wall, completely incapacitating her, 'I'd have had no chance at all.'

The phone was still reaching voicemail. She gritted her teeth in impatience. 'Damn it, Asphalt! Pick up already… it's not just the kid we need to worry about,' she thought to herself as she pushed her legs to run even faster, attempting not to lose sight of Accelerator's speeding form. 'This guy…' her eyes narrowed on Accelerator, '…he's a much bigger problem than we originally thought!'

Accelerator's mind was racing. 'Where is she? Where would they take her? They couldn't have gone too far.' He glanced behind him at Velvet, who still had her phone to her ear and a nervous look on her face. 'If he's not answering then he's either dead or worse…' He faced forward again. 'Come on! Think! They need a place where they can operate on her without her dying! A place where the equipment and medicines they need are on hand, in a place where no one can interrupt them, a place where heroes can't or won't interfere!'

Accelerator stopped abruptly, causing Velvet, who was running behind him, to hit his vector shield and get flung away a good few meters from him. "Hey!" she roared, "I'm trying to help you, damn it!"

Accelerator paid her no mind. "Do you know of a place called 'The Wilted Lily'?" he asked her. She looked at him confused. "The Wilted… Lily? What the hell's that?" she asked. Accelerator looked at her with a wide grin on his face. "So the bastard's quite the sentimentalist…" he smirked. "Good to know!"

"It's ready!" Hamazura said as he walked away from a monitor and approached a sleeping Eri. "Let's begin," he whispered as he grabbed a scalpel. Eri lay asleep, her hair having been shaved off to make the operation even smoother.

Before he could even touch her, the ground shook. No, the entire room shook!

"What the hell?" Hayate, who had been standing guard near the door, looked around in shock, trying to locate where the sound was coming from. Hamazura smirked, "He's here!" he said in a sing-song voice. Hayate glanced at him in shock. "What?"

BANG! CRASH!

The walls from the corner sides of the room crashed open as a white-haired male with red eyes came barging through, a demented smile wide on his face. "KNOCK! KNOCK! BASTARDS… THE DEVIL'S COME FOR A VISIT!" he shrieked, his voice hoarse and cracked yet heavy and cemented in madness.

Hayate rushed forward towards him, a blood-red scythe appearing in his hands. "Charging in without a plan… pretty stupid move, dumbass!" he roared as he attempted to cleave Accelerator's head off his body, only for the shadows around him to charge at him, creating spikes and forcing him to back off. "I didn't need your help," Accelerator growled lowly as a blonde-haired woman entered through the opening he'd made. "I know! I just need you to try not to kill him," Velvet chirped.

"And why should I do that?" Accelerator scoffed. Velvet remarked in fury, "Because! We need to find out what happened to Asphalt!" Accelerator rolled his eyes. "I'm only here for the kid," he said as he faced Hamazura with an animalistic smile. "I don't care what you do as long as you don't get in my way." Velvet confidently smiled. "No problem."