It had been three days since they set out of the Village they first stumbled in and since then they had been on their way to the biggest city in the vicinity, still 150 miles away from said village. They had stumbled from village to village basically, now since they had a road finding one more often, but still always going in the right direction thanks to a certain electromaster. She was a like walking compass.
They had fast learned that where they were wasn't their world, because of various maps they found. All showed the world, but completely out of shape and a written language to the Japanese spoken language that neither could identify. So they did everything in their power to survive those three days, stealing in the villages and pickpocketing money.
There was tension between the two of them now, neither knew how they should continue. Should they go different ways or should they stick together and neither knew where they stood on the food chain, whereas before it was clearly defined and both stood pretty much at the top.
"Why did you kill the sisters?" she broke the silence as they were near the city they were headed towards. They had been on the road and conversation was at an all time low between them, besides discussing before each village what to do and ask the locals. She was tensed, the question was on her mind for all the time they had been in this world and on his answer it depended if she would stick with him.
"Power" he replied after a minute or two. There never was more underlying besides power, though people thought it was to not hurting other anymore, but that wasn't true. "Is that all?" she asked, her voice tight, not showing much emotions, but still conveying it that she wasn't happy with his answer.
"Pretty much, though in the beginning I was only told to fight them and beat em" he said and he could basically feel her emotions of rage and hate directed at him. Knew that she wasn't happy with his answers, but he continued on. "Then after the experiment started they told me to eliminate them, kill them"
"At first they killed themselves with weapons, everything getting reflected until they got hit and died and I had pretty much nothing to do with it, but soon after the first thousand or so they began to fight a little bit better, getting less injured and I needed to take a more hands on approach to eliminate them" he told her and he was surprised that she hadn't lashed out at him until now. Though now he could hear a few angry sparks dance across the air towards the most conductive thing in the area.
Iron sand began to lift in the air once again, just like in their fight before, dancing around her and his adrenaline began to pump. He wouldn't say it out loud, but she was strong, deserving of the title Level 5 and strongest Electromaster. The iron sand began to attack him, though was redirected again and again and after a few moments it fell down, his calculations finished and used on the magnetism of said Iron sand.
What he hadn't expected for her to do was send electricity at him with full power, which was redirected, away from him. Though as soon as he felt the heat he changed his calculation to keep it away too. Both level 5 stood opposite of each other, one attacking, the other just defending, though after a few minutes he finally looked through her plan as it became harder to breath. She burned with the heat the oxygen away, so that the only oxygen around him was in his area where nothing could harm him.
He jumped to the side, lightheaded and finally new oxygen could be inhaled. "Damn, just a little bit longer and I would have fallen unconscious" he thought, still redirecting her lightning away from him. Though she hadn't called her strongest attack down yet, he knew she tried to tire him out. He kicked a pebble at her, sending it at bullet speed but iron sand shot up from the ground, intercepting it.
He shot more at her, still all were blocked flawlessly. It seemed she had her own ultimate defense too. Suddenly he sprung forward, towards her, vectors around him changed to make him faster, lighter and to keep friction to a minimum. He shot his hand out, his calculation working on how to suppress her electricity before it could leave her body. She dodged to her side, but letting iron spikes stand in his way, not moving.
He dispelled their magnetism as soon as he was in range, saving himself from being impaled by her attack, trap, whatever. Electricity stopped for a moment, before he heard the boom of a Railgun being fired, but just as before it was redirected to a few centimeters besides her head. The coin wasn't even ten meters behind her before it disappeared, melted from the friction. It seemed she had sent her Railgun faster then before, with more electricity behind it to give it more power over less distance.
He turned to her, stomping the ground and his calculation made the rest, destroying their battlefield so that she would have it harder to move around. Though he kicked a pebble again towards her, but this time no Iron sand shot up to protect her and she seemed to levitate in the air. He smirked, she seemed to take out all stops against him and showed that she was a capable level 5.
She used her electromagnetism to levitate in air and to move around. She shot froward at him, electricity blinding him, but being redirected in the ground before him. She had disappeared from his sight until he felt arms coil around him, holding him. It didn't hurt, before he felt lightheaded.
After a second everything went black and he asked himself how it could have happened. He awoke later, a little ways besides the road they had traveled with Misaka sitting there too, her knees drawn to her chest and eyes glazed over in thought. He didn't say anything and just looked at the night sky, thinking of how it could have been that she had bested him, the strongest of the Level 5´s.
He really didn't know how she did it, nobody had ever come so close to touching him since he was in the special institute, where his ability got stronger and stronger and since his fights with the sisters it got more precise. And she hadn't come close to touching him, she did touch him and even knocked him out.
"Oh you are awake" she called out, towards him and if he didn't know better he would say she sounded almost worried. He grunted as he sat up, eying her suspiciously. She was the first one to beat him, she knew how to get around his Vector control, around his defense and he felt even just a little bit intimidated by her. "Yeah" he said, to let her know he didn't ignore her.
Silence hung again over them, both keeping quiet and not knowing where they would begin. "So" she began, not really sure how she should ask him. "Do we stick together now or are we going to go separate ways?" she asked, not really sure if she wanted to be in his company for longer. There was always so much silence around them.
"Did it anger you so much? My answers" he clarified, after a second and she lowered her head to let her chin rest on her knees. "It did anger me, power isn't a reason, or at least not a good reason to kill 10000 Humans, even if they weren't normally born. You have so much power already, hell you could have beaten me if you hadn't been so passive during our fight and gone straight for the kill, instead of the knockout" she murmured, loud enough for him to hear.
"Probably, but you still beat me" he answered, hinting to her that he wanted to know how she did it. She smiled thinly, it was a fluke she was sure of it, but one worth betting on. "I shot you the whole time with lethal amount of electricity so I thought, an indirect attack could come through, like the hug that I gave you, as it normally isn't something that hurts others and with the skin to skin contact I could easily knock you out" she explained, a little bit put off. In theory it sounded better.
Though what she didn't expect was for Accelerator to laugh, hysterically. It seemed to go on for minutes, as he found it so funny. As he calmed down, he muttered. "The best, you were the first one to beat me, the first one of finding a way through my vectors. You are the best, the strongest Esper out there" he praised her, he had never felt so light, the burden of being the strongest a little lifted of off his shoulders.
Just a day ago he thought he was untouchable, unbeatable and now the third strongest Level 5 had beaten him, soundly. He hadn't even gotten a hit in on her. It felt good to have lost, though never would he admit that. He didn't catch her blush, as he praised her as the strongest and laid down again. "We keep sticking together? I wouldn't mind, your company is … pleasant" he said out loud as he laid down on the ground again.
Misaka felt herself blush lightly at his words again, though laid down too, staring in the night sky. In Academy city you couldn't see the stars as good, because the lights from the city were too bright. She didn't mind his company, though they were mostly silent with each other, but that could be attributed towards their shared history in the past. She drifted slowly off into dreamland as she closed her eyes, thinking off what to do next.
She awoke to being shaken lightly, opening her eyes to stare at Accelerator that crouched besides her. She sleepily rubbed her eyes, before sitting up and looking around. The sun stood a little over the horizon, meaning it was around 7 or 8 in the morning. "Morning" mumbled her companion, looking away. Her lips quirked upwards a little, before she answered "Morning and what do we do in this city? We will arrive today"
She asked him, as if he would lead her, as if he had the command. Though until now they were both on the same page, to find a major city and gather more intelligence. "We look for a library, whatever it is to get more information. Maybe we even find a way to get money, to make a living somehow but not to be chained down at one place" he said, it was for him the most logically thing they could do.
"Huh, the problem with the job is we know next to nothing on this world, politics everything. It would take months to get to a reasonable knowledge before we could take a job" she intercepted, though in the long time sense she didn't say anything against his suggestion. Only that it would take time to find a job. "True" he accepted her reasoning.
They both stood, making their way towards the city. It wasn't until noon before they reached the city, which was far different from all the villages they had seen. Far more futuristic, maybe in the same time as the outside world of academy city, a few years behind maybe. They both stuck together through crowds in the market district, searching a way to the more shadowy areas on the way, hoping to find a few thugs to get money from.
Neither talked much, once again. Besides a comment here and there about the city, which was far more then in the beginning of their travels. As they reached the darker part of the city, both of them felt eyes following their every move. Both didn't mutter anything, but clearly waited for whoever it is that shadowed them to come out and attack them.
Attack they did, as it were more people than expected who came out. Around twenty five, slowly came out of the street towards them, circling them. Though neither level 5 was really intimidated. Both of them knew the standard thug of their world, and these people held the same stance, came too in groups and had the same weapons. No different then in academy city.
Few stormed them, intending to swamp them from different sides, to not let them escape, but neither level five had a problem defending against these people. As soon as they were near enough to the electromaster they got shot with electricity, knocking them instantly out. Though against the Accelerator it was more painful, as they hit his vectors their arms, hands, muscles were torn apart.
A sadistic smirked formed on said teens lips as he suddenly jumped in the group of thugs, hitting them, reversing the blood flow, sending them flying. Needles to say it was a short battle, after five or so tried to run away and got shot with pebbles in the head, instantly killing them. The battle was over, blood coated the street, walls and lamp posts.
"Did you need to kill them?" a harsh voice brought him out of his own little world. He scowled before turning to said girl, who looked at least a bit intimidated, but still angry enough to stand her ground. It was a massacre, that he did without a second thought and even enjoyed. "No I didn't need to, but I like it, so what?" he replied after a second or two staring at her.
"Well you can't always kill the people that we want to get money from … or we will have soon the government or something like that after us. Which would contrast with our plans" she explained, though he could tell she was seething at him with rage again. If the conversation continued down this way far more it would result again in a fight and that would catch attention. "Yeah. I will keep in mind to not kill in the future" he mumbled, avoiding eye contact.
He really wasn't used to bowing to someone else´s will. But he respected her enough and their plans to understand the logic, but somehow the power made him always want to take lives, it was always like that since he first tasted the power of doing so. He felt like a god, deciding the life of lesser life forms, if they continued to live or not. It gave him a thrill.
"Good, now" she let the magnetism do its work as coins began to float out of the pockets, or ripped through clothes before coming to a stop before her. "We really don't know how much we need … and when it is somewhat like our money then they have bills too" she said and looked at him pointedly. He raised an eyebrow, not really understanding.
"You killed them, you get the bills from them" she explained after a moment. She really wasn't interested in touching his victims, especially if they were showered with blood. The sight didn't bother her as much as it should and she didn't feel as disgusted as she should.
"Tch" was heard from him, but he didn't complain as he rummaged through the pockets of the man for any money he could find. Finally after twenty minute rummaging through the bodies of the dead or unconscious he was finished. He handed her the bills, neatly stacked and she had put the coins in her pockets.
"We should get going" Misaka said and the boy could only agree, before someone saw them, it would give the wrong impression. Both walked rather leisurely away, in the direction of the market district they passed earlier to find a restaurant to sit in and eat something and to find a hotel after and rest properly.
A restaurant they found was nothing grand or so, just a small little shop that didn't have many customers. They didn't talk and just bought something that looked like it was for them eatable and drinkable. A silence hung over them and neither wanted to break it, the tension between them had become far more intense again after the massacre before. After all this morning they were far more relaxed around each other, but it seemed they were for the time being back towards the start.
After exiting the restaurant quietly they found a hotel to stay and booked one room, there were two beds and one bathroom. They stayed there for the afternoon and night before setting in the morning out to gather information.
Quickly they found a library, which was no help as there was no other language know besides this written language. So that meant they could communicate only through words with anybody but the other Level 5. Both had after that asked around for a good job and both came up with the most suitable one. A Hunter, though to find a hunter exam and ace it was hard, as hunters were as close to apex predators in the world as one could get.
But both were confident that as soon as they found a hunter exam it would be a walk through the park to win it. After all they were the strongest and third strongest of Academy City and one of the strongest persons in the world. Basically the apex predator of their world.
Both set out at the next day to find a hunter exam and have fun while traveling, seeing the nature of this world and different kind of animals. They traveled from cities to cities on foot, never really staying much and just gathering information and learning a little of the written language here and there.
Days have gone by before they finally found real useful information on hunters. Apparently there were some in that bar down the street, causing a lot of ruckus as they were drunk, but non dared to stop them. "Should we do it?" asked the brunette, leaning against a wall around the corner. On the opposite wall stood a white haired boy, looking over to the bar, which was nothing special.
"Tch, we don't know what a hunter can do, so would you mind going in first? Maybe they have some attacks or whatever for which I don't have a vector" he explained, eying the bar and the things that were broken, he could make out from his position a few chairs, windows and tables. "Yeah yeah, but if it gets too much you will step in … though I doubt that would be needed" the brunette pushed herself of the wall, slipping both her hand in the skirt which she wore and nonchalantly walking towards the bar.
The white haired boy followed her, but stopped as she walked in, kicking the door open and he leaned against the buildings wall, ignoring the sounds on the inside. The insides were silenced for a moment as the door was kicked open and a little girl walked in, hands in her pockets. Then the brawl continued, twenty persons lay unconscious on the ground while only four fought each other.
"So, you guys are the hunters that made such a ruckus, huh?" asked the brunette, looking the four men over. They were nothing special, but alone being in their presence gave her the chills, as if she had just challenged the Accelerator as a Level 0. "Magnificent" she thought and while she felt uneasy she had a few tricks up her sleeve.
One of the men turned towards her, after having thrown his opponent through the room in a few tables and chairs. "What do you want kid? This isn't a place for a little girl" he said, dodging the attack of the person he had thrown away just a few moments earlier and using the mans momentum against him to send him flying in the wall. "Oh, well you know. I thought a hunter could help me, after all I want to become one too in the future" she exclaimed cheerfully.
Outside the white haired boy facepalmed, really why must his partner try to be this innocent in such a situation and not just knock them down. If she weren't such a strong person he would never walk around with her, she was far too manipulative for that with her mask of innocence, ojou-sama and angry little child. Well as far as he knew she didn't do it on purpose, which was what made it even harder to see through.
Inside, the man which had talked with the brunette girl had finished off his opponent, aka knocked him out. "So you want to be trained by a hunter?" he asked, his voice getting lower, ignoring the fight behind him and focusing on the girl in front off him. As far as he had seen she wasn't intimidated by the Nen that they gave off in their little quarrel and didn't flinch when he turned his attention to her, ready to scare her off.
That man was scary, that much was clear and strong too, so he could probably help. "Yeah" she replied cheerfully, jumping even a little and then bending forwards with her hands behind her back, smiling and looking innocent. "Tch, alright. We will see if you are worth training" he said, walking past her outside and she followed him, obediently. The hunter ignored the white haired boy that leaned against the building and walked away the brunette following him.
As he was turned away from them he didn't see their quiet exchange. He shot her an angry glare which was returned promptly by her, before he sent a pointed look at the hunter and she nodded. The boy sighed and closed his eyes before nodding and she sent him a little smile before walking to catch up with her "sensei".
They walked together until they found a quiet spot in a park, where no one was around at that time in the night. She supposed it was around eleven o clock. "So, hunter-san? How do we begin?" she questioned, obliviously excited. He noticed she had a small bounce in her step and a big grin on her face.
He looked her over, she was energetic, didn't flinch away from the Nen he had used earlier and seemed despite her easy going nature to keep a safe distance from him. Good, he decided, she wasn't too trusting, but still risked it by following him for her dreams. A good candidate. "Well, what do you know of hunters?" he asked, testing her.
"Shit" thought the girl, she didn't know that much of hunters, generally of this world, so if he asked such question she would have to take drastic measures, but she would play along for now. "Well I come from a small village way up North and came recently the bigger city's, searching for a way to make money" she began to explain.
"Well we don't know much of the world around us to be honest, so I asked around for a good paying job where I could travel and found out about hunters" she continued, her tone not anymore so lighthearted, as it would sell her act far better. "They seem like good people, hunting criminals, artifacts, or even knew ingredients for food and you could travel a lot and learn more about the world" she explained, her tone going a bit more lighthearted towards the end.
"Do you think you could pass a hunter exam? Its a hellish experience" he said after her explanation. It seemed more like she had in the short amount of time idolized hunters, created a happy perfect image in her head that could do no wrong. "Well, I am physically fit and have a few other tricks up my sleeve. But I think hunters have something more special about them than only just the determination and skills to pull through the exam" she answered him honestly, which was relatively important as up till now nothing was lied.
"Hm, you have that right little one" he acknowledged and sat down on the ground. "Would you like to have the skill, to open your pores in you body to that power?" she blinked owlishly at him, before grinning excitedly and running up to him, nodding. "Ok, calm down and sit down next to me and give me your hand" he instructed and the brunette did.
As soon as their hands touched the older man fell forward, out cold and the brunette smirked "Fucking idiot, as if I was this dumb and let you just ´activate´ a random power that I could have" she called out and gave him one kick before huffing and turning away. She didn't have to wait long before a white haired boy showed up, looking bored and not that surprised to see the hunter knocked out.
"So, found out anything useful that we can use before we interrogate him?" he asked, nodding towards the man. The brunette, didn't turn around and just shot him a look, before walking away, not really in the mood to talk with him. "Tch" was heard behind her before the boy walked up to the man and took him by the collar, held him over his shoulder and walked after the brunette. They walked like most times in silence.
It was clear that the brunette wasn't in the mood to talk at the moment and he was ok with that. They walked for an hour and a half before they stopped, outside of the city in a small patch of forest. He threw the man without prompting against a tree and iron sand shot up, binding him in place. "He was able to resist me knocking him out two times" she muttered, looking towards the man that was bound towards the tree.
He raised and eyebrow, but letting her continue. "It was an instant, but I needed to shut his body down three times before he was unconscious. Whatever the power was it seems his body was made more … enduring then normal humans" He looked the man over, there was nothing special. Looked like an average man, but he had felt intimidated by him as he walked out of the bar. Though he didn't show it, it wasn't easy to intimidate him, after all he fought as he was a little kid against the military of Academy city.
But it was more instinctual then anything else, in itself he didn't fear the man, was positive could knock him out with just a punch. "So … do you think he will wake up in the next few minutes or how long will he be knocked out?" a legitimate question, considering how much power she had and how much control. "Don't know, reading him is harder then other people, thanks to his power probably, but normally he would be out of it for at least 8 hours"
He could understand that, no wonder that she was angry as he came out in the open. What would they have done if her power hadn't worked on him, because his power would have made him immune to electricity? He didn't know, but could understand her, she was one of the stronger people and even she had needed three times as much as normal.
"So we wait" he answered, not letting anything show. He settled down by a nearby tree, keeping his eyes on the hunter for a twitch or whatever that signaled he had awoken. He glanced for a moment at the brunette, which settled down by a tree to his right, her expression carefully blank and arms crossed. She looked to be contemplating something so he didn't even try to begin a conversation.
They waited for roughly forty five minutes until the hunter came to be again, gaining conscious back. He groaned as he lifted his head, looking around. He spotted the brunette leaning against a tree and memories flooded his mind as he snarled at her. She had lured him in a trap! "You bitch" he roared as soon as he came over his shock, snarling at the brunette and trying to get up.
Though he fast learned that wasn't so easy as he was bound to the tree behind him, with what appeared to be iron. The brunette looked towards him lazily and stood up. "Seriously you shouldn't trust people so easily, just because you are a hunter and all doesn't make you invincible" lectured the girl, which made him even angrier. His blood boiled and the iron or whatever it was seemed to loosen for a moment before electricity sparked from the brunette.
A shock went through the hunter and the iron bound him tighter than before. That bitch, could use Nen! He focused his Nen in his eyes for Gyon, to look at her Nen only to see the faint aura of a normal person that hadn't awakened Nen. He narrowed his eyes and focused on breaking the restraints, but to no avail, they held tight.
"Normal iron cable would have long since loosened up by your power, hunter-san" began the brunette which had tricked him and took a few steps towards him. "But to your misfortune that isn't normal iron cable and I can always just make your restraints tighter, by taking away a little bit of iron" she explained with a grin.
"So .. now tell me what did you try to do to me, before I knocked you out. I hope you are honest or you will feel pretty bad afterward" she didn't look threatening. And so he wasn't intimidated by her and turned his head away in defiance. Coupled with the point that she had no Nen meant that she couldn't seriously harm him, even if she had a weird power. After all now that he knew about it he could use Nen to protect himself, even if he couldn't break these bindings.
"So the hard way it will be, huh?" a spark could be seen above her head for a moment before lightning traveled between her and the hunter, electrocuting him. He twitched here and there a little, but nothing else happened, he didn't scream and it seemed that he didn't get a burn from where the lightning hit him directly.
"heh, if that's everything you got then we should stop right here" taunted the hunter and her eyes narrowed. Though she didn't speak and just upped the strength of the lightning, and slowly but surely you could see him to get a burn where the lightning hit him, but nothing else happened. She stopped and smiled. "Well it seems you get hurt from only a few hundred thousand volts … easily able to kill a normal person. But my power far exceeds this little bit of electricity" she explained, lightly impressed by his endurance.
Though for a level 3 electromaster it wasn't much, and for her a level 5 it was like a walk in the park, she wouldn't even register if she was hit by so much electricity. "So … do you spill or do I need to roast you before you tell me?" The man looked a little hesitant but kept quiet and she sighed. A moment later electricity traveled again between the two of them, hitting the man and burning him up slowly but surely.
His skin changed slowly color over the body, getting a bit more red and again she stopped, she had stepped up the power just about a few ten thousand volts, but it seemed as soon as she stepped over the maximum he could take his resistance lowered drastically afterward. She looked him over, the signals from his brain to the rest of the body flowed and the heart was beating, so he would live through.
"Gah" exclaimed the man as he felt something touch him and as he turned his eyes to it, he saw that it was a pole of metal, poking him. It hurt like hell, even through his Nen powered body. "So, are you ready to talk or do I need to continue?" asked that devil that could control electricity, with a smirk on her face, as if she was enjoying herself. But despite himself he shook his head no, he didn't want to give in to her.
"I see" was whispered and she swung down hard with the pole of iron again and again until his red skin was scarlet from the burns and the pole striking him. Ten Minutes later he didn't even cry out anymore, just sobbing and enduring the pain. Then suddenly it stopped, the devil still smirking lifted a questioning eyebrow and he nodded before waiting a moment.
His throat was hoarse as he talked, he had cried too much, screamed to much in pain, but he still could talk well enough for her. "It was Nen, awakening it in you. Every human has special cells that produce aura, which we call Nen and normally you can't control them. But when opened up for a person one could control it, keeping the aura around ones body without it being lost" the girl nodded and it seemed like she wouldn't strike him again.
"There are different techniques with Nen and there exist four major principles of Nen. Ten is the first, keeping the aura from going out of your body uncontrolled. Zetsu is about suppressing the aura completely instead of keeping it from flowing away from the body. Ren is producing more aura around oneself willingly and keeping it with Ten around ones self" he explained to the girl and she nodded, a little bit lost in thought.
"So how can one open the cells in their body?" asked a different voice this time, not that of the devil in front of him. He looked frantically around fro the voice, but he didn't seem to find it and as he looked again at the girl, he saw that the stick was raised, ready to brought down on him if he didn't answer. "When another Nen user of pure intentions opens them and doesn't want to hurt you or through training, though most that open them like this are geniuses and are centered around their field of work"
"I see, so that means we need to find a hunter for Nen, that can open our cells without hurting us, huh?" spoke the devil to no one it seemed, or to the voice he had heard just a minute or two before. "Yeah, but clean up the trash will you?" came the voice again and the devil froze for a few seconds, before nodding. She asked him one last question, which he couldn't answer.
"Do you know what a Railgun is?"
AN: Ok so most important things first: Merry Christmas to you all and a good new year.
Next up, I know she probably wouldn' be able to penetrate his defense like this ... but yeah, she is the only one that I would trust to come up with such a plan and well I did need to let Accelerator lose and I just didnt find another way that she could use, if you find one hit me up.
After that, Mikoto changed as you can see, she had become more accustomed to death and even took at least one life. How? Well she couldnt really stop Accelerator from murdering people, because her tactic was a one time thing that he now would be able to counter, thus she saw a lot of death. Besides that they became closer, more like partners and maybe just maybe he did rub off on her.
Thanks for all the reviews, favorites and follows. It means at least my story isn't that bad as I had thought it would be.
See you in the next chapter (maybe)... around January 24 or so.