Author's note: Alright, before we begin, just two things that must be said right away;
1: I don't own 'A Certain Magical Index', its offshoots 'A Certain Scientific Railgun/Accelerator', or 'High School DxD'.
2: This fic will be rated M due to violence, blood and gore, sexual situations (its High School DxD, duh), and language.
And with that, let the story begin!
A/N PS: Hello everyone, this is the re uploaded, revised, chapter 1 of this story that was briefly up on this site before I took it down for reasons that will be explained in the A/N at the end. Before you old readers that hated the issues that sprung forth from the first time way back I uploaded this story leave, please read the A/N at the end and wait for chapter 2 before raining down your judgement.
Chapter 1: Resurrection of the One Way Road
Akeno Himejima, former half-human/fallen Angel and now resurrected demon, was walking to the Occult Research Club (or ORC for short) to meet with her master Rias Gremory. She had been Rias's queen ever since Junior High, as part of a deal between House Gremory and the Himejima family.
She sighed, tired of the constant dealings that demons were up to after classes. That and she was certain she was the obsession of countless male students at Kuoh Academy, so she had to tease them like she always did. Who could blame her; it was fun teasing the male body with something they could never have.
She walked in and saw the other members of Rias's peerage. Koneko was staring at a wall, seemingly uninterested with what was going on in the room. Meanwhile Yuuto Kiba was making some tea for himself, looking a bit tired.
"Hello Akeno," Yuuto said calmly. "How are you doing?" Akeno shrugged.
"Felt better," Akeno said. "I just am tired from the contracts and school is all." Yuuto chuckled.
"Yeah, same here," Yuuto said. "I just got done doing a contract for a woman who was exhausted due to her work. I ended up giving her a massage to help relieve her stress."
"Oh, what was the price?" Akeno asked. A demon contract had two parts; the first was the request. The request can range from simple things like needing someone to talk to all the way to protecting someone from a threat. The second part was the price; these varied depending on the nature of the request, with the ultimate price being reincarnated into a demon.
"Nothing too much," Yuuto said. "It was an exchange of stocks; she would give Rias Gremory roughly 2% of the stocks in her company." Akeno nodded; that was a decent return on Yuuto's part.
"I see," Akeno said. "Well, I hope you don't get too bogged down with contracts."
"Same here," Yuuto said. "Oh, by the way, Rias won't be in today, due to needing to see her parents, but she left instructions for you to give out flyers." Akeno frowned; not that she didn't like handing out flyers, she did, but still she was looking forward to something more interesting.
"Okay, where at?" Akeno asked. Yuuto checked his phone, before sighing.
"Um, Academy City," he said. "More specifically outside a little diner. Huh, there is nothing else to go on." Akeno sighed.
Academy City; the one place that humans held powers that rival the factions of Demons, Fallen Angels, and Angels. Going there was risky for anyone outside of humans, as even a middle-class demon could be beaten by a trained esper. And there was some information that the strongest espers could rival the strengths of high-class demons.
Akeno felt something inside of her warning her to be extra careful. Despite her being powerful in her own right, something was telling Akeno to be on guard. She nodded to Yuuto.
"Thank you," Akeno said to Rias's knight. "I better be on my way." Quickly making a teleportation circle, Akeno stepped on it and went to Academy City.
"Huh? A man in a lab coat?" asked a pale teenager, about seventeen years old. He was wearing a black shirt with a white pattern, blue jeans. His hair was white, and his eyes were as red as blood. He was at Joseph's Diner, where earlier he took someone he was now searching for.
"Yes," the waitress replied. "He said he was the girl's relative, so we turned her over to him." She paused, sensing something was wrong. "Um, do you have any idea who he is?"
The pale teen looked at her, remembering who he saw earlier. Amai Ao, a researcher for the Level 6 shift program, the program that would've made him a ton of money had it not been for 'the hero' stopping the pale teen during one of the 'tests'. He smirked.
"Hmph. Distastefully so." replied the teen. The pale teen turned around and left, reviewing everything that had happened to him until now.
He was the Accelerator, the strongest, number one, the one who wields the power of God. All his life for as long as he could remember, he was always someone of interest due to is ability.
Accelerator, or as it was known to researcher Vector Transformation, was considered the most powerful of all esper abilities. In short, any vectors, such as heat, kinetic energy, gravity, electricity, he could control both its momentum and direction. In essence, he was indestructible, due to being able to reflect any harm towards his attackers, while being able to inflict hellish destruction just with small taps, causing an avalanche of destruction with his ability.
He was in the Level 6 shift as the primary subject, with the goal of becoming Academy City's first Level 6 esper, or in other words a person with absolute power, a person equal to or greater than God. To achieve this, he was ordered to kill twenty thousand clones of the third rank Level 5 esper, Misaka Mikoto. But when he began experiment number 10032, the project came to a crashing halt. For he encountered 'the hero', a supposedly Level 0 esper.
At first, Accelerator dismissed his as a threat, and began to toy with him, sending rail way lines at him, with the hopes of crushing him. But after his salvo managed to force the Level 0 into position of weakness, Accelerator approached him with the intent of ending the Level 0's life and to carry out the experiment as planned. But he failed when he tried to touch the level 0's skin, with the aims of giving him the most excruciating death possible, as the level 0 managed to swat away his hand.
Never, in Accelerator's experience, had he met anyone able to get past his reflection. This enraged him to where he became more and more ruthless, his mind becoming obsessed with killing this weakest, to show him who was truly powerful.
But after a barrage of attacks (including igniting a container full of flour), Accelerator had one chance to destroy the weakest with a mass of plasma that he was going to use to destroy the weakest's body. But the other clones interfered, redirecting the wind vectors away from the mass of plasma.
This gave time for 'the hero' to get up. Accelerator at this point decided that if he couldn't kill the weakest with a strong attack, would just kill him with a simple charge. But his charge was ended when the weakest managed to use his right hand to block his attack and deliver the knockout punch that ended the experiment.
Ever since that defeat, the thugs that once fear Accelerator due to his ruthless disposal of them, began to return to beat the strongest, only to fail. Accelerator knew something had changed, but he didn't understand.
He was walking to his dorm last night when he met a girl wrapped in only a towel or blanket. She explained that she was Last Order, or the 20001 Misaka clone. After getting to his dorm (which was wrecked) and going in the morning to Joseph's Diner, he had a conversation with Last Order, which centered on why she didn't seem afraid of him.
Last Ordered explained that she saw his intents to derail the experiment, trying to intimidate the other 10031 clones with his 'pre-battle' banter. She even suggested that he would've ended the experiment had they tried to beg for the experiment to end. This infuriated Accelerator, as he only saw the experiment as a means to achieving his goal of being so powerful that no one would dare even think to rival him.
He left the diner, leaving Last Order behind, and he ended up back at the lab where the experiment was being observed from. There, he met with Yoshikawa, one of the researchers, who informed him of Amai Ao's virus.
The virus was designed by Amai Ao for reason that no one could understand, which would attack the collective consciousness of the Misaka Network, using Last Order's position as the 'control tower' to spread the virus to the other Misaka Clones that were now dispersed worldwide. The virus would cause the clones to go on a rampage, wrecking havoc and destruction across the globe.
Yoshikawa explained that the virus would go online at midnight tonight, and thus gave Accelerator two choices; retrieve Last Order so Yoshikawa could purge the virus, or get ahold of Amai Ao to get him to remove the virus. He returned to the diner, only to learn that Amai Ao had gotten ahold of Last Order.
Accelerator sighed as he stepped outside the diner, the cool evening air and sky giving way to night. He pulled his phone and called Yoshikawa, bring her up to speed.
"He what?" Yoshikawa said, after being informed. Accelerator thought of something.
"Hey, left to itself, the virus is gonna activate on its own, right?" He asked. "If so, why would he make a move on the kid?"
"I don't know the answer to that, either." Yoshikawa said.
It's possible that he is already out of here, isn't it?" Accelerator asked. He knew that if Amai Ao left the city, he would be gone, the virus would activate, and the clones would go on their rampage, only to be put down by force. "There are any number of organization that would hide him."
Yoshikawa, while typing on her computer replied.
"Word is someone from the outside broke through the security net and slipped into Academy City. The Security code was orange this afternoon; right now it has reach red. Passage into and out of Academy City is completely forbidden. Amai should still be in the city."
Accelerator, with a scowl on his face, processed this information.
"I'll bet he is crashing at some acquaintance's place." He replied. Yoshikawa seemed slightly amused at this.
"I'm curious whether there's anyone he could call an acquaintance in the first place." Accelerator smiled, turning his head.
"You mean the guy is scum, like me."
"With the closure of the laboratory, he's incurred quite a bit of debt," Yoshikawa explained. "I'm guessing his friendships last as long as his money holds out."
"Hmm… Well, that means he should still be prowling around town," he said, his mind thinking like the hunter he was. "People's actions quickly tend to become simpler the more breathing room they lose." Yoshikawa heard this and began to panic.
"Hold on just a minute. You're not—" Accelerator hung up on her, his mind on the pursuit already begun. He began walking to one of the locations he was certain Amai would be hiding out at; one of the now abandoned labs used for the Level 6 shift.
But as he was walking, he saw someone that stood out approaching him. It was a girl, roughly his age, with her long black hair tied up in a long pony tail that reached down to her legs. She was wearing an unusual school uniform, not one that Accelerator recognized from around Academy City, which somehow emphasized her large breast. Her eyes were violet, which with her hair and uniform seemed to fit perfectly. He shook himself mentally, wondering where that came from.
She approached him and handed him a flyer. He glanced at it and saw a weird ritualistic pattern on it. It had a simple message; 'your wish will be granted'.
"Here, take a flyer," she said, before walking off. Accelerator watched as the girl walked off being pocketing the odd flyer.
"Tsk, what a pain," he said, continuing on his path. He begun to smile sadistically, thinking about what he would do to Amai Ao when he found him. The thoughts of Amai bleeding on the ground appealed to him.
"I am coming Amai," Accelerator vowed. "I will give you a death truly worthy of being put on displayed."
Inside his yellow sports car, Amai ao pounded the whell in frustration.
"Damn it! The way things are going…" He glanced over at Last order, who was hooked up to a computer, and she was breathing heavily, her face blushed as though she was having a fever. The computer was keeping tabs on the installation and launch of the virus. He began to think to himself.
Please, just a little longer, Amai Ao thought. "Hang in there until the virus starts!" When he finished that, a crow fluttered off in front of his car, and Amai Ao stopped. He begins to sweats and he turns his head to see the crow land before taking off again. He breathes a sigh of relief, thinking it was just his paranoia getting the better of him.
But then he began to hear a slow, methodically footsteps, getting closer to him. He tilts his head just enough to see his nightmare. In the review mirror is Accelerator, getting closer and closer. Accelerator's head is tilted to the left, a grin on his face.
Amai frantically tries to start the car up, only to keep having the engine fail to ignite. He begins to panic. What the hell will he do if he catches me, Amai thinks. Finally, the engines starts up, and Amai comes up with a hastily thought up plan. He throws the car into reverse, quickly getting the front pointed at Accelerator, before slamming on the gas, his intent being to crush Accelerator out of his way.
Accelerator, upon seeing this, began to calculate for his reflection. When the car is nearly on him, he redirects all the energy to Amai's side of the vehicle, pinning Amai behind the seat while leaving Last Order perfectly unharmed. Amai's head crashed into the wheel, and he looks up at Accelerator, who begins to speak.
"Now then, what to do?" Accelerator asked. Amai attempts to get out of the car, but Accelerator had other ideas. He kicked the car, redirecting the energy into crushing Amai with the door. As Amai fell to the ground, Accelerator decided to taunt him.
"Take it easy, middle-ager. You're embarrassing yourself." He walks over to Last Order's side of the car, pulling his phone to call Yoshikawa.
"You there Yoshikawa? Yeah, I've secured the kid." He looks upon last Order, and he notes the electrodes. "Hey, the kid's got what looks like electrodes on her face."
"That's probably a Sister's physical exam kit," Yoshikawa said. Accelerator turned the computer around and begins looking at the data.
"What's a BC operating ratio?" he asked.
"That's her brain cell operating rate," Yoshkiawa explained. "'BC' stands for 'brain cell'."
"Brain cell operating rate?" he questioned. He looks more at Last Order, noting her heavy breathing and flushed face. At the moment, he begins to think of something.
"Hey, can I use this device to get rid of the virus?" he asked. "It'd take quite a bit of time to bring her back from here."
"No way," Yoshikawa begins to explain while accelerator could hear the faint noise of traffic bleed through the phone. "We need specialized incubators and a learning apparatus to overwrite her mind."
"Huh? Hey are you…" He didn't get time to finish his question.
"Yes, I am in my car, driving towards you," Yoshikawa states. "I thought this would save us some time over having you come back to the lab." Accelerator nods.
"Are you done analyzing the virus code?"
"I would say I'm about eighty percent there," Yoshikawa answered. "I'll be finished before midnight arrives." Accelerator clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Geez, how much trouble is this kid planning to put me through?" he asked rhetorically. At that moment, Last Order's heavy breathing becomes an accelerating flow of the same word.
"Mi…sa…, Misa…ka, Misa…ka, Misa...ka. Misaka! Misaka! Misaka! Misa-Misa-Misa-Misa-Misa-Misa…" As this continues, Accelerator stares at her, wondering what the hell is going on when the computer begins to beep loudly. Kneeling down, he sees the warning messages are popping up at an alarming rate.
"Hey Yoshikawa, what's going on here?" he asked, a bit disturbed.
"Keep quiet a minute," Yoshkiawa orders. She begins to hear Last's Order frantic calls for the others in the Misaka Network. "That's it, all right," she replied ominously.
"What is? What's happening?" Accelerator demands.
"It's the virus code," Yoshikawa states. "It's getting ready to execute." Accelerator's eyes widen at this news.
"There are still four more hours until the time is up." She pauses, thinking of something. "Could that have been dummy information?"
Accelerator gasped in frustration and the computer keeps gathering new warnings, and Last Order's BC rate keeps climbing until the computer lets off a warning sound.
"Listen up Accelerator!" Yoshikawa yells. "It's too soon to despair just yet. You've got to take action." Accelertaor turns his head in surprise.
"Action?" he asked. "There is something I can do?"
"Before the virus is distributed over the Misaka Network, it's being converted into a 'host command' which none of the sisters will be able to go against," Yoshikawa begins to explain. "This will take about ten minutes to complete. You do know that there's only one thing you can do now, right?" Accelerator felt something click, and his eyes dilate.
"Dispose of Last Order," Yoshikawa commands. "Save the world by killing her."
Accelerator grips the phone in anger.
"Damn it all!" he hisses. "I may be the strongest guy around, but my ability consists of altering the direction of power." He raises his left hand, glaring at it. "And it's only used to kill people, at that. All I can think of to do is to touch someone skins-"
He clenches his fist, thinking about the human bodies' blood and bio-electrical signals.
"-And reverse the flow of their blood and bioelectricity." He pauses, a thought entering his mind.
Wait, what was that? What did I stumble upon? Think. He then had a spark of an idea. Reverse the bioelectricity… if it could work, this idea of his, could he spare Last Order?
The contents of this data stick are the kid's—Last Order pre-infection personality data. He thought about for a sec, before deciding to get Yoshikawa's opinion.
"Oi, if I can get control of the electrical signals in her brain, couldn't we mess around with her personality data?" Accelerator asked, hoping for a way out of the predicted outcome. Yoshikawa meanwhile is momentarily confused.
"What are you talking—You don't mean, you would take place of the learning apparatus? You can't. "
"It's not like I can't do it. If I can master 'reflection', it shouldn't be any surprise if I can take the next step… to controlling." He plug the data stick into a portable terminal, intent on getting ahold of the codes that make up Last Order's pre infection personality.
"Even assuming you can get control of Last Order's brains, it won't be possible for you to completely eliminate the virus!" Yoshikawa argues. "If you fail, it won't just be the Sisters, it will mean many more causalities. The only way to avoid that is to give up on Last Order. Or are you telling me you can prepare a vaccine?"
Pissed off with Yoshikawa's assumptions, Accelerator threw the phone aside, giving up on the scientist.
"Excuse me, are you listening?" Yoshikawa asked through the disposed phone. Accelerator meanwhile smiles in glee.
"I can do this," he states. "Who the hell does she think I am? If I collate this pre-infection data, all I have to do is erase all the excess data, right? That's simple enough." He snaps the portable terminal, having gleamed all the data he need.
"Here goes," Accelerator mutters to himself, placing his hand on Last Order's forehead. "Geez, after all that everyone has done to this kid, I won't let them get away with 'Sorry, we couldn't save her'."
He grins before collecting himself, concentrating at the task at hand.
"Collating the pre-infection data… Object Code count: 375081. So if I erase all of this virus code, the kid will go back to the state she was in one week ago. Before she ever met me. Execute command… Delete!"
As the warning on the physical exam kit begin to dwindle, Accelerator focuses more on his task.
"Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete!" At this point, Last Order begins to flail mindlessly, her mind begin to respond to the deletion of the virus code.
"Code CIIEB… Resist MA… From Route A to W, V7E8…Waveform red from code 08 through code 72 via route C..."
"Remaining Code Count: 173542," Accelerator states to himself. He already purged over half of the virus code. Meanwhile Last Order tries to resist the purging of the virus code.
"—2…B…A…1…9…M…C…O…R…E…D…O…I…8…9…0…R…4…5…O…" At this point, Accelerator begins to reminiscent about his time with Last Order.
I wonder what I'm erasing along with this virus.
"—5…M…R…E…X…N…I…O…"
"So what if I am?" Accelerator thinks aloud. "This kid is better off forgetting it all."
"—Assignment area D at point A8 blocked… bypassing code 56 to route S…X…M…N…Q…T…P…"
"Remain Code Count: 23891" Accelerator notes. "Ten seconds to go. This is no sweat!" however, at that moment, he hears the clicking of a gun being raised, and he turns to see Amai Ao holding a pistol aimed at him.
"Do not… interfere…!" Amai orders, the gun waving in his hand. Accelerator stares at the gun in panic.
'You've got to be kidding me!' He thinks. 'I'm doing electron microscope-level precision work here! I don't have the operational power remaining to divert to reflection."
His eyes begin to waver at Amai aiming the pistol at him.
If I take my hand off this kid and go back to 'reflect', then even if a nuclear bomb were to drop on me, I won't get a scratch.
Amai pulls the trigger on his pistol, and time seems to slow down for Accelerator. He watches as the bullets flies towards him.
For crying out loud, what wishful thinking. That by saving someone, I might be able to get a second chance myself…
As the last code of the virus is deleted, the bullet slams into Accelerator skulls, throwing him back and embedding itself in Accelerator's brain. He falls to the ground, and lies still, unknown to all of what is about to happen.
Akeno, a couple of hours after handing the flier to the pale teen, was about to teleport back to the ORC building, only to be forced teleported.
"Huh?!" she said, surprised. She gets a bearing of her location, seeing Rias and Grayfia Lucifuge in front of her. She realizes that they are in the home of Ria's brother, the Maou 'Luficer'.
"Akeno, there isn't time to waste," Grayfia begins. "As you know, you handed a flier with the Gremory ritual circle."
"Why, what about it?" Akeno asked, confusion mounting up.
"At this precise moment, that flier is being called upon," Grayfia explains. "However, due to the nature of the person calling on it, Rias can't accept the contract."
"Huh?!" Akeno asked, surprised by this development. "Why not?" Rias sighed.
"Because I already have a queen," Rias said. "The contract, his wish if you will, was to save someone's life to get a second chance at redemption. However, right now he is about to die, risking both him and the person he was trying to save."
Akeno felt her throat constrict. The thought of two people dying, especially with the sacrifice one of them made, had an impact on her.
"So why am I here?" Akeno asked. "What can I do, if anything?" Rias bows her head as Grayfia informs Akeno.
"As you know, there have been times when middle, and even low, class demons form a peerage before they receive the evil pieces once they become a high-class demon," Grayfia starts. "At the moment, you can accept this person into your peerage right now, as a high cost."
Akeno nodded, her mind trying to see where this was going.
"What cost?" she asked.
"A two fold cost," Grayfia notes. "The first is that he will be reincarnated as a pseudo-queen of yours until which time you are a proper high-class demon, in which he will become a proper queen. And second, you must sacrifice all mutation pieces you would've received and you become a high-class demon in-training."
"I see," Akeno said. She knew that being a high-class demon in-training when you are only a low class-demon is a serious affair. It meant that Rias couldn't use her during rating games, that she couldn't accept any contracts for Rias, and in effect becomes a burden for Rias.
"Rias, are you alright with this?" Akeno asks. "And who would it be I am resurrecting as a demon?" Rias raised her head before sighing.
"I'm not against this, as this is purely your decision," Rias remarked. "Also, I will be your mentor for your training. As for who you will be resurrecting, well, it is to remain confidential unless you accept or decline."
"WHAT?!" Akeno burst out. "But how…"
"How are you to know if the person is worthy of resurrection?" Grayfia asked. "You aren't traditionally. However, due to the extreme circumstance, I can tell you this; if you don't resurrect this person, you will never find anyone as capable to be your queen."
Akeno stares at Grayfia and Rias, her mind in overdrive. She was about to ask a question when she shakes her head.
"Why bother?" she asked herself. "I would always live with the 'what if' should I refuse to resurrect the person. I will do it." She saw Rias smile light, and Grayfia hands Akeno a queen, two mutation pieces, and a card.
"Now to begin," Grayfia announces. "Akeno, repeat what is on this card. Akeno reads the card, and places the three pieces between the fingers of her right hand.
"In the name of Akeno Gremory, servant in memento under Rias Gremory, I call to Accelerator. Hear my command; return my soul from the shadows of death to the human realm. Rise once more as my demon servant. Rejoice as you have been given new life. Wake as my destroyer and my queen!"
Akeno waited, and soon saw the queen and two mutation pieces disappear from her hand in a green glow. She turned to Grayfia, who nodded at her.
"It is done," Grayfia stated calmly. "Rias, Akeno, I wish the best for the both of you and for Akeno's newest pseudo servant." Before Akeno could do anything, Rias grabbed her army and teleported them to the ORC.
Yuuto and Koneko both got up from their seats, seeing as Rias and Akeno had returned.
"Rias, is everything alright?" Yuuto asked. "Why do I sense something… off with Akeno?"
"That is because Akeno had to do a resurrection at her level," Rias explained. "At this moment, she is high-class in training." Yuuto and Koneko stared at Akeno, before both nodded.
"I understand," Koneko stated simply. "Was it worth it?" To their surprise, including Akeno's, Rias nodded.
"It was," she said. "I may not have my queen at the moment, but as her mentor, I do have certain level of control over her queen." She summoned a demon viewing portal, and sat Akeno down.
"Now," Rias began. "It is time to see what you have done." Akeno looked at the portal, watching what her actions have done.
"He's dead, huh?" Amai questioned. He stared at the seeming less lifeless body of Accelerator. He begins laughing; he never expected Accelerator to be so easily disposed of! He looked at his gun in glee as it was the one that ended the strongest's life!
"How am I alive?" Amai asked, but before he could continue to gloat in his victory, the physical exam kit beeped to life. He looked as Last Order began to speak.
"Error… Break code 000001 to 357081… Host Command has been cancelled due to illegal process. Delivery terminated. Subject No. 20001 restarting." Amai leaned in, his heart plummeting.
"Cancelled?" he echoed. "Restarting? You mean…" he raised his gun to Last Order's head. "…it failed?" Cursing his luck, he pulled the trigger, only for a hand to reach out and reflect the bullet back into Amai's gun, shattering it and throwing him back, writhing in pain.
He looked, trying to process what happened.
"How? S-so that's it. Just before the bullet penetrated your brain, you managed to reflect it, huh?" he saw Acclerator crawl through the car and get out the other side, standing up in front of Amai, blood trickling past his left hand.
"Isn't that right?!" Amai asked. "What are you planning to do now? It's too late for someone like you." At this point, Accelerator responded.
"Hmph, I know. It's ridiculous to believe that someone would save human scum like me at this point." His blood begins to pool at his feet. "Flat out wishful thinking." As Amai Ao begins to get up, Accelerator continues.
"It even makes me sick. But even so, that has nothing to do with this kid. Sure I may have slaughtered over ten thousand Sisters, but that doesn't make it okay for me to watch the other ten thousand die."
"Yeah, I know, it's just lip service. But it isn't. No matter what kind of scum we are, or what reasons we trot out, it doesn't make it right for her to get killed!"
Accelerator lunged at Amai, who began to back up, fearful of what he might do if he merely touches him. But after an attempted second lung, Accelerator slumps to the ground. Amai, shocked at seeing this, cautiously pushes Accelerator's head with his shoe. Blinking in confusion at the lack of pain, Amai questions what is going on.
"His reflection… isn't working…?" he asked Chuckling to himself, he pulled a second pistol out of his pocket, aiming at the back of Accelerator's skull.
"So you didn't have the strength to settle things like a hero after all. It's no wonder. People like us are all like that. That's just how it is."
But before Amai could pull the trigger, a shot rang out and Amai felt a bullet rip through his lower abdomen. He turned to see Yoshikawa standing there with a Derringer in her hand.
"Y-Yoshikawa…Kikyo…" he mutters before falling to the ground. Yoshikawa quickly grabbed Last Order and place her in the incubator, making sure she is okay. She then walks over to Amai, who is struggling to get up.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I never seem to carry anything all the way through. Not that I'm kind, just soft. While I don't have the nerve to shoot you anywhere vital, I guess I can't let you get away, either."
She takes a few steps, cocking the second shot for her pistol, and aiming it at Amai.
"Perhaps allowing your suffering to be drawn out needlessly may have been a decision so soft to be cruel, huh? I don't know what happened here except from what I gleaned from what I heard from the phone, but there isn't any sign of trouble erupting "outside" at least."
Amai turned to look at Accelerator, his fear evident. Yoshikawa takes pity on the man.
"Oh, you don't have to worry about him," she states calmly. "I have a friend who's this unusual little doctor. He's got a face like a frog, so he's somewhat lacking in presence, but he is good enough to be nicknamed 'Heaven Canceller'. Knowing his skill, he should pull him through somehow."
Amai turned his attention back to Yoshikawa.
"Why?! I can't understand this!" he lashes out. "As someone who always weighs risk and chance in the balance, this is an impossible decision for a personality like yours to reach!"
"The thing is," Yoshikawa continues. "I didn't actually want to be a researcher like this. I wanted to be a schoolteacher. Not like in a rigid capacity, like an instructor or a lecturer, I wanted to be… a nice teacher. One who remembered each of her student's faces, who they could come to, no matter what problem they had, who could smile broadly, without expecting anything in return, who would be seen crying—at graduation, and be teased about it—that's the kind of nice teacher I wanted to be."
She knelt down next to Amai, keeping her gun trained on him.
"I'm sure some of that must still be lingering in me. I've wanted to try doing something, not because I was being soft, but because I was nice. I wanted to try acting like a teacher who would do anything for just one of her students."
She placed her pistol to his chest, only for him to do the same.
"It's over Amai Ao," she declares. "It must be frightening for you to die alone. If you are going to take someone with me, choose me. The last thing I am going to do is let you take a child with you. On the one act of kindness this body has performed." Amai chuckles.
"Heh, sure enough, 'kindness' doesn't suit you," he remarks. "It has turned to strength, instead." They both pulled their triggers, certain they were both going to die.
From the other side of the Portal, Akeno felt her throat constrict further.
"Rias, she and Accelerator are going to die!" Akeno said. "Was what I did pointless? Did I…"
"Akeno, look," Rias commanded. Akeno turned her head back to the portal, and saw Accelerator inching his way to Yoshikawa, before placing a hand on her skin.
"What is he doing?" Yuuto asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"He is directing the flow of Yoshikawa's blood past the gunshot wound, thus acting like she was never shot at all," Rias explained. "In a few moments, this 'Heaven Canceller' will arrive and both will be fine. Akeno, your act of resurrecting Accelerator save not only his life, but the lives of Last Order and Yoshikawa. Don't doubt your decision to resurrect him, regardless of his future or his past."
Rias turned to leave, leaving Akeno, Yuuto, and Koneko alone. The knight and Rook turned to their former queen.
"What happened while you were gone?" Yuuto asked. Akeno chuckled.
"I'm not completely sure," she replied. She then begins recounting all she could. When she finished, Koneko asks the obvious question.
"What did Accelerator mean by 'slaughtered ten thousand Sisters?" she asked. Akeno sighed.
"I don't know," she said. She leaned back in her chair, rubbing her forehead, trying to rid herself of this headache.
In a hospital room a couple days afterwards, Accelerator opened his eyes. He struggles to focus his vision, and he notes that his hearing seems off. Actually, everything seems off. He tries to focus, but all his senses seem off. Hearing, sight, touch, taste, smell, it's all off. He hears a door open, the noise distorted.
"Ah, you're awake," said a seemingly electronic voice. Accelerator tilts his head to the noise, and sees a blurry man. "Don't worry about your senses being off, the network has yet to completely synch your senses yet. Just give me a moment."
Accelerator followed the man, and he types a few commands into a computer. Almost instantly, his senses seem to return back to normal. His vision is no longer brighten and jagged, his hearing no long sounding as though he was listening through an auto-tuner, and his sense of touch no longer being numbed.
He also notes his reflection coming back on. But he notes how weak it feels; it was like how he was when he was a young child. He clicks his tongue.
"Oi, what happened?" Accelerator asked, trying to regain his bearings. "Why is…"
"You were shot in the head," the doctor began to explain. "You were left essentially brain dead. We were able to repair the damage to ensure you didn't die, but in order to repair your mental faculty, we had to employ the Misaka Network."
Accelerator narrows his eyes at the doctor.
"How do you know about that?" Accelerator growls. "I thought only…"
"The researchers, the Board of Directors, you, and the clones know of the Network?" the doctor finished. "I work personally on the adjustments of the sisters that remained in the city, so I would know about the network. And given how the Board can't afford the number one of this city to be brain dead, they authorized me to connect you to the Network to regain your speech and calculation ability."
Accelerator raised his hand, only to grace something. Turning his head slightly to the right, he felt a chocker on his neck. He could feel a on and off switch.
"That choker," the doctor began to explain. "Will allow you to have your reflection on to protect you against UV radiation, but in order to do anything more with your ability, you have to manually turn it on. Please note that the battery life is only twenty minutes, so please refrain from anything that requires more than twenty continual minutes of your ability."
Accelerator clicked his tongue in annoyance. This wasn't good; he tended to try and mix terror and his ability in his fights to prevent any further fights from occurring. This meant he often wasted his ability trying to inspire terror in his victims. With only twenty minutes to spare, he couldn't afford to waste even a second during a fight.
"My name is Heaven Canceller," the frog-faced doctor replied. "I will be responsible for any of your medical needs in the future, as I am currently the only one with your medical file and because I am the only one who could help you in the future due to my knowledge."
"I see," Accelerator muttered. He began to move his fingers methodically, making sure nothing was off. He turned his head and saw a crutch lying next to his hospital bed. "Oi, what's with this?"
"That is so you can walk," Heaven Canceller sadly explains. "Even with the network, without turning your choker on, you will require assistance getting around, as the sheer amount of electrical signals your body processes to keep yourself upright and walking is too much to handle. To compensate, we gave you a crutch that will enable you to walk."
"Tsk, what a fucking pain," Accelerator comments. He pauses, wondering about the fate of Last Order and Yoshikawa. "What happened to Last Order and Yoshikawa Kikyo?" Heaven Canceller smiled; he was glad that the monster from the Level 6 shift was beginning to shift to something other than pure darkness.
"Last Order is safe, and she is resting in her own hospital room," Heaven Canceller began to explain. "She had expressed the desire to see you. Yoshikawa meanwhile survived due to your intervention, though she is now unemployed as a result of cleaning up Amai Ao's mess."
Accelerator grinned; as least he didn't lose his capacity to unleash Armageddon for nothing. And hearing that Last Order wanted to see him, well, he was partially annoyed, but it was more a resigned annoyance, not one of spiteful or hateful reasons.
"Very well," he said. "How long am I going to be here?" Heaven Canceller shrugged.
"Until the higher up decided, I don't know," heaven Canceller admitted. "Although if I know anything about your situation, it's that it won't take too long resolve itself." Accelerator lied back down, sighing in annoyance.
Heaven Canceller meanwhile walked out of the room and headed to his office. He sighed at the thought of the mess the boy had gotten himself unintentionally into. Closing the door, he dialed a number that as far as he knew, he only had.
"Ah hello my gentle friend," said the manipulative voice of the enigmatic General Sectary of Academy City Aleister Crowley. "I suppose you are calling in to tell me about the health of the main plan?" Heaven Canceller nodded, annoyed with the lengths Aleister would go to ensure his plan's success.
"Accelerator is alive, though by all account he should be dead," Heaven Canceller said. "I know you know about the other factions, and you know how most likely how Accelerator survived a normally impossible to survive shot."
"I do indeed," Aleister confirmed. "Those lovely demons, oh how brilliant they can be when they choose to ignore their war with the other two factions." Heaven Canceller shivered at the chuckling Aleister was doing.
"You planned for this, didn't you?" Heaven Canceller challenges. Aleister stops chuckling.
"I didn't," he admitted. "It was merely two fates intersecting one another. But I won't deny, it was a lucky break for me. Losing the number one would mean I have to start from scratch with number two, and you know how much of a monster he is."
Heaven Canceller thought of the second rank Level 5, Kakine Teitoku. He was truly a monster, showing no empathy to those he goes up against, and willing to shed blood unnecessarily to ensure his goals. His ability was also the only other one (other than Imagine Breaker) in theory to get around Accelerator's reflection.
"But," Aleister continued. "That means Accelerator will have to deal with the demons, which could interfere with my plans, given how they are so possessive and rigid in their structure. Hmm, although all things considered, it might not be a bad idea for him to be ingrained… yes, that could work. Heaven Canceller, what is his condition overall?"
"He, after a couple of days, will be fit to leave from the hospital," Heaven Canceller stated. He heard Aleister smirk.
"Very well, make the necessary calls to get him to his master," Aleister said. "I wouldn't want to cause a war between Academy City and the demon faction. Besides, it would allow me to buy some time for my plan."
"Alright then," Heaven Canceller said, and he hung up. He sighed, wondering how the hell he would do what Aleister asked of him, when the phone rang. Intrigued, he picked it up. "Hello, this is Heaven Canceller speaking."
"Hello Heaven Canceller," said a calm female voice on the other end of the line. "I am Rias Gremory, the…"
"The current heiress to House Gremory, one of the 72 pillars of the demon faction, sister to one of the four Great Satans, and the president of the Occult Research Club at Kuoh Academy," Heaven Canceller finished for her. "Yes, even a mere human can know about the other factions. I assume this is about Accelerator, am I right?"
"Yes," said a surprised Rias. "I am curious about how you know all of that, but it is beside the point. Is my ex-queen Akeno able to pick him up now?"
"Right now, no," Heaven Canceller answered. "In a few days, after recovering and getting used to his state, he should be able to, as you put it, be picked up. However, I will tell you he won't go so easily, not when he now has someone to protect."
"You are talking about Last Order and Yoshikawa, aren't you?" Rias asked. "I understand that, but the sooner he knows what he is, the better it will be for everyone."
"And have you thought about how you are going to explain what he is?" countered Heaven Canceller. "He is an esper and a former human; he isn't going to believe there are demons just because you say there are. He is going to demand proof. I suggest you use the time to figure out how you are going to explain this to him."
"Also," Heaven Canceller continues. "He has a lot of enemy, few friends, and virtually no allies. So brace yourself for his attitude; he knows very little about manners or socializing with people due to his rough past."
"I understand," Rias said. "However, how bad was the gunshot?"
"It was bad enough that even with your ex-queen resurrecting him he suffered extensive brain damage," Heaven Canceller explained. "I was able to remedy as much as I could do, but until his king is able to heal him, which it sounds like it won't be for a while, he will have to rely on the Network to get around and use his ability."
Rias on the other line was sweating; how was this human so knowledgeable about the other factions? He wasn't grasping at straws, but actually knew what he was talking about. She wondered how many others knew about the factions, and if so were they a threat to them. She decided to put it off and continue on her original purpose.
"Well, since Accelerator is predisposed at the moment," Rias said. "Perhaps you can determine what would be best for my ex-queen and him."
"What do you mean and or propose?" Heaven Canceller asked. Rias chuckled, though unlike Aleister it didn't send a chill down his spine, but rather was quite endearing.
"Well, as a pseudo low-class demon, he will be busy attending to business that we demons partake in," Rias began. "As such, being far from the others in his peerage, at the moment mine due to technicalities, would be wasteful for him and everyone else. I want your opinion on something."
She explained to Heaven Canceller her idea, and after making some amendments to the plan, he nodded in approval.
"It may not be the best plan," Heaven Canceller said. "But it is certainly is better than having no plan." Rias agreed; the plan had it flaws, but all plans did.
"Very well, then I won't hold you from your duties as a healer," Rias said. "Good day doctor."
"Good day to you to," Heaven Canceller said. The line went dead, leaving Heaven Canceller to his devices. He sighed as he heard the hospital intercom calling for him.
"Heaven Canceller, the hospital's number one investor has arrived with injuries, again," joked the nurse. "He's in room two hundred." Heaven Canceller sighed; that unlucky kid had better stop helping people else for two reasons; the first is that he is going to incur enough debt to the hospital that it will be able to pay for a new wing, and the second is that the harem he is somehow unaware of will be so great every man will want to beat him up. He got up to tend to his latest patient, while in the back of his mind he was wondering how Accelerator will do.
The more he thought of it though, he became less worried about Accelerator and more worried about the demons; did they realize what he was capable of, if given the right motivation?
Author's Note: Hello readers, this is Panzer4life, and this is the revival to my original story. To start, to those that followed, favorited, and enjoyed the original, I must apologize. I got rationally flamed badly and it discouraged me enough to take down this story. As a result, I have had this story, in a folder, almost deleting it permanently. But I couldn't bring myself to do it; it was popular, despite the admittedly well-thought out points that were against key points to the story, and so I've decided to revive it. As a result, while the first chapter hasn't changed much, the second one will and all subsequent chapters will hopefully not have such canon-conflicting horse-shit (mainly how I tried to deal with angels from both sources the first time).
So with introductory part of the A/N done, here's the rest to explain my logic for certain parts of the story, and feel free to give me your honest input or suggestions to how to fix certain issues.
About Akeno and Accelerator: Due to Akeno being a high-class in-training demon, she can't serve as either Accelerator's king or Rias's queen (for certain things). She is effectively in limbo until she has become a high-class demon. As a result, Accelerator will serve as Rias's pseudo queen for the time being. This has the side effect that any rating game or contract that Akeno would normally serve with Rias will instead become Accelerator's responsibilities. So yeah, I am willingly to bet you guys can see where this leads to some interesting scenarios.
About Accelerator's evil pieces cost: The only piece worthy of Accelerator would be a queen; he is powerful, fast, and extremely intelligent. Even with his twenty minute limit, in a fight, he is a monster. But about the two mutation pieces, they are due to Accelerator's personality. They both show the two sides of Accelerator, his unredeemed 'monster' self and his redeemed 'savior' self. This will be explained later, when it comes up.
About the Church's involvement in this story: In both stories the church is pivotal to what is going on. In 'A Certain Magical Index' the Roman Catholic Church, under the leadership of Fiamma of the Right, is trying to (as I can tell) purge the original sin that humanity had, outside the influence of angels.
Meanwhile, in 'High-school DxD', those loyal to the teachings of God (Ie, the non-exiled priests and exorcist) are under the banner of the Angels, while those exiled fall under the domain of the Fallen Angels, and demons take anyone not in those two categories. Also, God is dead, having died
This presents an issue as far which interpretation of the church I go. If we use 'High-school DxD', then the events leading up to WWIII for 'A Certain Magical Index' become invalid. If we use 'ACMI' (I got lazy, sue me later), then the reasons that there is the truce between Angels, Fallen Angels, and Demons becomes shattered. So for the sake of everyone, here is the gist;
The Church, being unaware of God's (the God of the Bible, not the various other gods) demise, began to pursue trying to achieve someone who can be the right hand of God and purify the world of sin. However, due to various reasons, the magic of the church became something separate than the magic of angels.
Also, several beings that in the 'ACMI' universe identified as angels (much to the reviewers of the first attempt pointed out), will be incredibly powerful, but not angels per say. See, they seem like they lack a will of their own (from what I saw), so to allow angels for both stories to make sense, the angels in ACMI are, for the want of a better word, God's prototype to angels, and the angels in DxD were the final product. If you guys have a better solution, then please for my sake send it my way!
As for what will happen post WWIII (or the rise of Othinus), I haven't the foggiest. I haven't read the light novels (I would if I knew where to get them, but I don't), so I don't know the fine details that began post WWIII. I can see some issues with source conflict between DXD and ACMI, but hopefully you guys can help me out.
I hope to have the second heavily revised chapter out within a month, though no guarantees.
As always guys, please follow, favorite, and review!