Here's the second chapter of this installment. Since I have two stories up I decided that I'll alternate between making chapters between the two so expect a chapter for my other story, A Certain Honey Scent, to come first and then this one and so on and so forth.
Anyway, hope you guys enjoy this one.
Disclaimer: I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index
Accelerator was laying down on the couch inside of Yomikawa Aiho's apartment with his eyes closed.
He felt like he needed a rest after going halfway around the world to Denmark in pursuit of a certain boy named Kamijou Touma.
Just some time ago, he had received an email from Academy City that was sent out to all Level 5s. Inside the email was a message attached that said Requesting the death of Magic God Othinus and Kamijou Touma who is traveling with her.
Mixed feelings coursed through his body as soon as he read that message. It was no surprise to him that Academy City was trying to mobilize its Level 5s in an effort to stop the leader of the organization called GREMLIN that had been terrorizing the world. But what the thing that surprised him the most was the name listed after hers that was also being called on for death.
What is that fucking hero doing now? Was the question he asked himself. He was no stranger to the boys' deeds and actions, but something must have happened if Academy City was listing him for death now. He had to go check what was happening and scope out the situation for himself. But not only that, he had an underlying reason why he wanted to be the first one to reach him.
And so, Accelerator had confronted the boy in Denmark along with the Magic God. They had battled it out again for the third time and Kamijou Touma had won while he had lost.
"I wouldn't exactly say that you lost /return."
Accelerator opened his eyes and turned his head to the source of the sudden voice. He looked over and saw that sitting on the other couch was Last Order. But Accelerator noticed something off with her tone of speech. With the usual clones, they talked in a monotone voice. With Last Order, she expressed a childish demeanor. This girl had an unusually happy tone that he was familiar with. It seems like the Will of the Misaka Network had taken over Last Order's body again.
"What are you doing here?" Accelerator said as he lifted his body up from the couch.
"To finish your thought, I believe I explained back in Denmark your true intentions you had for confronting Kamijou-chan /return." The Will said ignoring Accelerator's question.
"I don't believe I confirmed anything about what you said about me being true at all." Accelerator refuted.
"Ah but /backspace, you never denied that what I said was false /return."
"Tch. You're annoying with your technical details." Accelerator clicked his tongue. And yet, he still did not deny anything.
"Aww come on /return. I thought that it was very nice and thoughtful of you that you were going to those far of lengths to try to protect Kamijou-chan."
"Protect him? I was just following Academy City's orders. I wanted to see for myself what the hell kind of ridiculous reason he had to protect a global terrorist and knock some sense back into him. The Hero always seems to get caught up in all of these sorts of ridiculous situations."
"Don't act all so tsundere for Kamijou-chan Accelerator /return. I believe that spot is taken up by the original Misaka /return." The Will teased.
"Who the hell are you calling a tsundere?!" Accelerator yelled.
"You /return. Just admit it, he was the one that changed your worldview and the one you looked up to for a while /return. I think deep down you really want to be his friend /return."
"Like hell I'd want to be friends with someone like him. Besides, that hero already has his own world that he wants to protect and I've got mine."
"Oh really /escape? Are you two really that far apart /escape?" She formed a smirk on her face
The Will in Last Order's body stood up and reached for a device that was sitting on the table. Accelerator watched her as she did and saw that she had picked up his cellphone that he left on the table.
"If I recall correctly, didn't you say that you would protect the people that were in your cellphone's memory /escape?" The Will said as she opened his phone with her smirk still present on her face.
"Tch, yeah, so what?"
"Let's take a look at your cellphone's contacts /return. If we scroll through them, we'll find a contact labeled 'Kamijou Touma' won't we /escape?" She turned the phone around and pointed i at Accelerator. Sure enough, a contact highlighted 'Kamijou Touma' was on the screen.
"I believe you know what I'm implying /return." She said in a teasing tone.
"Grrrrr." Accelerator growled at her before grabbing the phone out of her hand and snapping shut and putting it back into his pocket.
As he looked back at the Will, he saw that her face adopted a more serious expression "In any case, however you feel about him, I have a huge favor to ask /return."
"What makes you think I'll help?" What was her reason for even being here? She was getting on his nerves with all of her teasing.
Her face suddenly grew somber at his response. "Please, I know you're a good person Accelerator and I really need your help. /return. This involves the boy named Kamijou Touma /return." She looked at him with pleading eyes.
The hero? Accelerator thought in surprise as she mentioned that boy's name. If her she was pleading with him and it was involving that boy...
Accelerator sighed. "What the fuck do you want then?"
Kamijou Touma still layed in his hospital bed. After going through what he did, it didn't seem like he was going to be out of the hospital any time soon despite his freakish recovery time.
A couple of knocks on the door to his room suddenly resounded that indicated that someone was coming in.
As the boy sat up and looked over to see who had entered, a small form came at him with lightning speed and tackled him right in his stomach, sending him right back down on the bed while in pain
"Misaka is happy to see the savior again and that he is alright! says Misaka as Misaka jumps into his stomach to show her affection."
Touma opened his eyes and lifted his head up to see the mini-Misaka known as Last Order on his stomach looking up at him with her usual bright childish smile.
Another form entered his peripheral vision as he had walked in just right behind her and now stood right on his bedside.
Touma turned his head from Last Order to the other person in the room. His face paled and gulped as he saw the #1 Esper again right in front of him.
The last time Touma had seen Accelerator was back in Denmark where they fought again as he was trying to protect Othinus. He didn't know how to react to seeing him again right after what they just went through. Was he here to finish the job or something?
While Accelerator carried on his usual expression that looked like he was scowling, it didn't look like he was giving off any feeling of hostility from him.
Noticing that Touma was panicking, Accelerator sighed.
"Calm down you fucking hero."
"Huh?" Touma replied confused.
"Don't think I'm here to kill you. I'm not about to make a bloody scene in front of her." Accelerator said as he pointed at Last Order.
He thought back to what had brought him here.
Accelerator had obliged to listen to the Will's favor she wanted to ask of him. The Will began explaining the whole situation regarding the boy named Kamijou Touma. As she was talking and explaining the whole time, Accelerator's expression gradually started softening up as he listened. The moment that she finished talking, Accelerator accepted the request with no hesitation.
The Will smiled at him. "As I said before, you are a good person Accelerator /return."
"Just because I'm doing this doesn't make me a good person."
"Even so, it's important to me /return. Deep down, I know you care for him as well /return."
"Now listen here-" "Good luck Accelerator /return!" The Will said with one last enthusiastic expression as she left Last Order's body.
Last Order's body drooped over. After a brief moment, Last Order then started lifting her head up slowly while rubbing her eyes. "Huh? What just happened? Misaka says as Misaka feels kind of droopy."
"Tch. That girl." Accelerator said as he scowled.
Accelerator then stood up and started walking towards the door that lead out of Yomikawa's apartment.
Last Order had watched him and turned her body around and was curious to see what he was doing. "Ah, where are you going? Misaka asks as Misaka is curious about what Accelerator is up to."
"I just have some business to take care of. You're coming too Last Order." Accelerator said as he turned around and continued his path out of the apartment.
"Ah!" Last Order jumped up off the couch and started running towards Accelerator. "Where are we going then? asks Misaka as Misaka chases right behind Accelerator."
"We're going to visit that fucking hero in the hospital."
Misaka's face brightened up. "Yay! We get to see the savior again! Misaka exclaims cheerfully as Misaka starts skipping."
And so they were present in the hospital room of Kamijou Touma.
Touma was still befuddled at their sudden appearances. He's had many visitors before but he can't recall if Accelerator has ever visited him before. So if Accelerator wasn't there to kill him, why was he there then? was the question that Kamijou Touma answered in his mind.
"Get up, we're going for a walk." Accelerator demanded.
"Uhh what?" Touma said confused.
"You heard me."
"I uhh, kind of can't since I'm in the hospital and all that."
"It's fine, I already got that frog-faced doctor's permission to let you go out. Besides, I know you recover at a monsterous rate that a walk won't hurt you."
"But I-"
"Yay! Come on, let's go! Misaka says excited as Misaka jumps up and down on your chest."
"Ah alright, alright! I'm getting up."
Touma had followed Accelerator out of the hospital. Currently he, Last Order, and Accelerator were currently walking side by side together in that order. Last Order was skipping along happily, Accelerator still walked along with his usual scowl, and here he was confused at where Accelerator was taking him.
After a bit of walking, Accelerator turned them into a park.
"Alright brat, you can go off and play with those other kids or something." Accelerator said to Last Order as he nodded to the other groups of kids playing around the park.
"Whee! Alright! Misaka says excitedly as Misaka she runs off enthusiastically."
Accelerator watched her run off. It seemed that he was intently watching over her until he knew she was safe. As soon as he saw that she was playing among the kids, he let out a sigh. It sounded like any normal sigh but you could say it was one of relief for Accelerator. He turned away from Last Order and started walking towards a bench. All the while giving off an aura that was telling Touma to follow him.
As they neared it, Accelerator turned back around sat down on the bench. Touma looked at him and then decided the follow his example and sat down beside him a few moments later.
As he sat down, he looked over to his side to see that Accelerator was still watching Last Order. They stayed in silence for a while as Touma was still observing Accelerator watch over Last Order.
"Hmm, so it looks like Last Order is doing well huh?" Touma said letting out his thoughts.
"Yeah, I suppose she is." Accelerator said.
They sat in silence for a couple of more moments.
"I'm glad. It's great to see that she still has a happy smile on her face."
"..."
"And it looks like that you're doing just fine yourself. I guess you've been watching over her and keeping her safe. Seems that ever since WW3, you've both have had each other to keep close. I'm glad that things worked out for the both of you."
"Do you ever stop and start thinking about yourself for a change?" Accelerator said all of a sudden.
"What?" Touma said confused at his remark.
"You always think about others' happiness constantly don't you? After all, you wouldn't be a fucking hero if you didn't have that trait about you. Here you are blabbing on about how the two of us are doing."
"Well isn't it just human nature to care about others?"
"It's also human nature for people to prioritize themselves and make sure that they survive. And considering it's you, you're way off of that definition. You always try to save everyone, even going as far as suicidal lengths to do so."
"I'll never hesitate to reach out and grab someone's hand to save them. If my body is able, then I will run to them to protect their smile."
"There you go spouting all that bullshit again." Accelerator said. "It's times like these that makes me wonder what goes on through your head."
Touma looked at Accelerator questioningly as he listened on as to what Accelerator was trying to get at with his argument.
Accelerator looked at him and sighed. It looks like he wasn't going to get it.
"The Will of the Misaka Network told me everything."
Touma flinched at Accelerator's words. He could feel a chill crawl up his spine in response to his words. He recalled what the Will had said to him yesterday. Touma had sat in his bed and thought over everything she had said. Especially the last words that she had left him with. Even after going every thing she had said, he thought over all of his relationships with everyone. He had friendships that he cherished with some of them but he still rationalized that he didn't really affect peoples' lives that much did he? But even so, he did not understand what that had to do with Accelerator being here and what he was trying to get at with him.
"Listen here, she told me to ask you what you saw in that other world you went to with that fucking terrorist girl."
"..." Touma remained silent. That was the one question that he feared to answer. Even after yesterday, he still did not have the courage to confront the people he knew of what happened in the Omega World.
"Well? You going to tell me or am I going to have to beat it out of you?" It wasn't going to look like Accelerator would let this go.
"It's just..."
"Just what?"
"I know I just said I always want to protect people's smiles..." Touma said as he started fiddling with his thumbs.
"Yes, and?"
Touma let out a long sigh.
"Well, in that world, I took away everyone's smiles away."
Accelerator looked at him with a questioning look. He waited for Touma to continue but Touma had stayed silent for a couple of more moments.
"Is that it? Is that the big fucking deal?"
Touma looked at Accelerator with a sad look. "You don't understand, I destroyed everyone's happiness. When there was a chance for me to protect their happiness, I rejected that chance and destroyed that world now their happiness was gone."
"That world was obviously a fake. How you could believe that girl's bullshit is appalling."
"I only wish that world was fake. Every person in that world was real. So many people that I took their happiness away from. One of those people included you."
"Pfft. I haven't been happy most of my life, what makes you think that what happened there over there was any better than what's happened to me."
Accelerator still looked at Touma questioningly. Really, how could he have been happy in another world? There was no way considering the circumstances surrounding his powers ever since he was child. He had given up on his own happiness way back when but in the present he was content with what he had now. What could have been better in that world?
"Well... All 20,000 Sisters were alive."
After Touma had dropped that statement, Accelerator looked on at him with a serious expression.
"They were all saved. And you were happily with them, watching over them. I'm pretty sure that you were the one that saved them. That world was able to save those 10,031 sisters that I couldn't save!"
"So what?" Accelerator said in an aggressive tone.
"H-huh?" Touma said confused.
"I thought that you were stupid before, but now I know you're really fucking stupid."
Accelerator put his left palm over his face.
"But all of those lives..."
"I don't know if you've forgotten, but I was the one that took those lives. You had no idea at all of those experiments that were being conducted until that one day. How you could take responsibility for the loss of those lives is just fucking lunacy."
"I still had a chance to save all of those lives and I threw it all away." Touma said and looked at Accelerator. "Either way, you've regretted killing them right? You've told me about it and your resolve to protect the remainder. So how could I take away your wish to protect them all?"
"Idiot. Those 10,031 lives are a mark to remind me of my sins. If all of them were saved, my whole resolve would have been null and never even existed."
Accelerator turned to him and gave off an intense glare.
"But did you forget the most important thing? Did you forget who was the one that caused everything that made me want to save all of the remaining Sisters?!" Accelerator aggressively said at him.
"..." Touma had remained in silence at his question.
"It was you. Fucking you! If it wasn't for you, I would have killed off all of those clones. I wouldn't have stopped killing them by myself. It took a fucking hero to be able to stop me. And after you stopped me, I fucking looked up to you. I thought maybe I could be able to be a hero just like you and repent for my sins. It was part of the reason why I had saved Last Order. But even then, it still didn't feel right for me. I had immense doubt build up in me and I thought that a scumbag like was worth enough to even try to play a hero when I was protecting Last Order. Back in Russia during WW3, I attacked you for not being the one to save Last Order because I felt undeserving to be her savior. Even then you had continued to change me yet again. You were the one that convinced me that there were no such things as heroes or villains. You were the one that gave me a reason to continue protecting Last Order." Accelerator ranted.
"Now here I am, I'm able to live in peace and be content with my life. And who do I have to fucking thank for all of that?!" Accelerator said with gritted teeth. "Fucking you!"
After finishing what he wanted to say, Accelerator still stared at Touma intensely to make sure his message got across.
Touma did not have any response back as to what he could say to him. He was utterly in awe of what Accelerator had said to him. He could only stare back with a befuddled look.
Accelerator sighed. "And yet, the Will was telling me all this bullshit about how you think you don't affect anyone's lives. You better not be thinking about that sort of crap anymore. And you better not say anyone else in your place could have done it. It was you and only you."
Accelerator stood up from the bench.
"With the way you are, sometimes I think you're the one that needs saving."
Touma remained in silence for a couple of more moments. Even if he did have an impact on his life, what made his life any more worth than others if his own sole purpose was to help others out. There was a quality worth protecting in Accelerator as evidenced as he is now. But what sort of quality did he possess. "...But am I really someone worth protecting? There's nothing special about me, I'm just a normal high school boy. If I asked you, what would you say?"
"I told you before in Denmark, didn't I? I'm only going to protect those that are in my cellphone's memory."
Accelerator turned his head back forward and started walking away. Accelerator called for Last Order and started running towards him. Accelerator chopped Last Order's head and it seemed like he was telling her that they were leaving. Accelerator started walking forward out of the park. Last Order turned around and started waving her arms to Touma as a sign of goodbye. Touma waved back at her and she then turned back around and started running to catch up towards Accelerator who was still walking away with his back towards him. Touma watched him until he disappeared from his sight. He was now left alone at that bench. Touma let out a sigh while frowning as he thought over everything Accelerator told him.
Suddenly, a vibration was felt in his side. He pulled out the source of the vibration from his pocket, that source being his cellphone. He opened his phone and read the contents that were on the screen.
Don't ever forget you're a fucking hero or I'll kill you.
Next Chapter: Shokuhou Misaki
