And so, Accelerator was back to the familiar place with lots of container boxes.

"Lots of memories?" said John suppressing his laughter.

Accelerator didn't answer. Indeed, he had lots of memories of the place, but nothing good. This was where he was first beaten by his level 0 rival.

"...Not the memories I'd like to remember, anyway."

"Well, you say that, but this is the place where you awakened your senses as a masochist. Must be pretty meaningful."

Accelerator growled and lunged at John, reaching his hands for the button on the choker. However, his feet suddenly didn't listen to him, and fell face first to the ground.

"Just kidding with you. Chill. I know you are a lolicon...or not. You've added Worst-chan to your SISTERS collection, so is it still masochist?" John laughed with his hands on his tummy.

"I swear that I'll kill you someday."

"Looking forward," said John, calming down from the laughter. He released Accelerator's body and smiled good-naturedly.

"Well then, let's start our decisive battle...I mean training."

"Oi, you, wake up already."

Kamijou grunted. He unconsciously reached for the source of the voice, expecting an alarm...except that when he did, he felt a sharp pain, which made him completely awake.

"Ow..." Touma grunted. He slowly opened his eyes and found a familiar person who he'd run into that morning.

"Misaka...?"

The owner of the name smiled. She looked paled for some reason. But the next moment, her face brightened and she distanced a little from Touma, her arms crossed.

"Y-you shouldn't run off to trouble like that. I seriously thought you were going to die when I found you."

Touma looked at his shoulder. It's been relocated, but he still had bandages on.

Then, he remembered everything.

"That bastard! Where is he!"

Misaka jolted and looked at him. "He? Who is he?"

Without answering Misaka, Touma started getting up. Misaka's eyes widened and supported him. "Oi, you can't force yourself. You had a serious fracture in your bones. The doctor had trouble fixing you."

"The doctor?" asked Touma. "Wait, do you mean the frog-faced doctor?"

"Ah, you know him? Yeah. He was persistent in doing the surgery himself for some reason." Misaka relaxed Touma's shoulder and pushed him back down, making him grunt a little.

"Then...I'm in the hospital again?"

"Yeah," said Misaka. "He also said that he wanted you to stop using your right arm since otherwise it's going to harm your nerves."

Touma clicked his tongue. Misaka, genuinely surprised and almost afraid of how Touma was now, slowly asked him, "So...who is your enemy 'this' time?"

In an aggressive attitude, he answered, "John Smith."

Silence fell.

"...Oi you, I'm not very generous to liars, especially the easily seen ones."

Touma, realizing where Misaka's misunderstanding came from, shook his left hand and yelled. "No, no! I don't know his real name, but that's how he called himself!"

"...You'd better be telling the truth."

"Every word!" said Touma with a forced smile.

"Then fine," said Misaka with an unconvinced face. "So, who is this 'John Smith'? Is he also one of GREMLIN?"

"No, he's from the science side, but he's from outside Academy City and he is an adult who uses vessels of a boy. He is a level 7 esper."

Silence didn't fall this time. Sound of electricity crackling filled the room.

"No! No! I'm not lying!"

Misaka, not listening to him, spat high-bolt electricity at his right arm.

Then, both Touma and Misaka stunned at what happened.

Touma yelled "Yeaghraicha!"

His right arm has power to negate all powers. That way, Touma won in his battles with Misaka countless times, although she was the number three esper in Academy City.

But, right now, that power was gone.

Right now, Touma was just a simple level 0 without power.

"What...happened?" said Misaka, before realizing that the person in front of her had fainted. She smiled awkwardly and ran off to call the frog-faced doctor.

"First of all, I want you to make a sun," said John.

Accelerator twitched. "Oi, are you serious?"

"Go ahead. I can take care of myself."

Accelerator, a little reluctantly, approached his hands to the choker, but stopped mid-way. "You aren't going to stop my powers somehow this time, I hope."

"Course not."

Accelerator thought for a second. If he could use his powers, he could easily wipe the existence in front of him. Should he kill John or not was the question.

John sighed. "I can hear you. Also, that's not going to work."

Accelerator clicked his tongue. "Fine."

He turned on the choker and raised his arms. Air around him started to ripple. In a moment, the whole place was ravishing with wind.

About three meters above Accelerator, green plasma started to appear. Accelerator repelled the heat using his power and concentrated.

"So, about ten seconds? That's slow."

Accelerator was about to throw his sun at the annoying hoodie before John spoke on.

"Listen, Accel-chan. You need to find a way to most efficiently use your power. If you calculate all the vectors of the air, it's going to burst your head. However, if you manipulate all the directions of the vectors, you won't have to deal with all those calculations."

John pressed his temples and held that posture for a while. He then pointed three meters above him.

Then, all the ripples of the air headed to that direction.

In a blink of an eye, a collection of wind far stronger than Accelerators replaced his. Then, almost at the same time, a new green plasma started to manifest.

"You're...kidding..."

The plasma grew bigger and bigger. In a while, the plasma Accelerator created got sucked into John's.

"Goddammit!" Accelerator raised both of his hands and lengthened the vector of the wind even farther. However, the air didn't collide above him. Instead, John's sun got even bigger and started melting the container boxes around it.

"Tch," said John. He wavered his fingers and calmed down the air.

Accelerator, without turning off his choker, fell to his knees, his eyes widened and his arms powerless.

"What…was…that…?"

John smirked. He pressed his temple and said, "That was my using your personal reality. I simply thought, 'all the air, go there' and it happened. It isn't as complicated as you think. You can try it out if you want to, but for today, I've gotta take my leave."

Accelerator twitched. "Now? Where?"

"I've gotta go give my other student back his gift. I feel bad for having held it too long."

Accelerator stood up.

"Well, then, I'll see you around. Turn your choker off by the way."

John turned around and walked towards the exit.

"Teach me…"

John stopped. "Huh?" He turned with a little surprised face. "Teach you what? I've already taught you that you can control much more than just vectors. You're smart, so you can go from there, right?"

Accelerator shook his head. He turned off his choker and slowly lowered his head. He was bowing down. John, with a surprised look, stared at Accelerator.

"You're a far better esper than I am. I need your help. I don't want to lose anyone anymore.

John just stared at him with a surprised look.

Was he going to teach him more? Did he have to go this far? He hated bowing down. He didn't need to bow down. He was the number one. He was the strongest. He was the almighty.

And yet, why was he bowing down?

'None of that matters if I cannot save a goddamn brat!'

Accelerator yelled.

"PLEASE HELP ME PROTECT PEOPLE AROUND ME!"

Silence fell.

John sighed. "You don't have to be that respectful. I almost feel bad for what I did."

Accelerator twitched and looked up. "That means…"

"Fine, I'll teach you all applications of your power that I know of."

And, for the second time, a warm smile covered the face of the monster.

Level 7.

The idea still rang in Touma's mind.

He knew he was not a trivial fighter. He knew that he was a strong esper, and must've had enough power to beat perhaps even the Almighty Thor and the Magic God.

Then, why didn't he do it himself?

No, that wasn't the question Touma had.

"Why did he take my power…?"

Rather, how was it possible for him to take his power? Almost nothing is known about his right hand, the imagine breaker, but he had never heard of someone taking someone else's power.

Then again, he knew absolutely nothing about his right arm's power besides the fact that it could negate another power—an imagination.

Touma twitched. He could move his body again. Under his right hand was a girl's head.

Misaka Mikoto.

She was sound asleep after nursing him for almost the entire night.

After smiling a little, Touma softly stood from his bed and took off all the syringes from his right shoulder.

"I have to find him…"

John Smith. That was obviously not his real name, but if he was a level 7, he could've magically—or scientifically—taken his power. He could've even cut off his entire arm and replace it with artificial arm.

Just to clarify the point, Touma swung his shoulder. It still ached a little, but it was real.

Before heading out, he checked Misaka again and slowly covered a blanket on her.

"Good night, biribiri."

Then, with a stern face, Touma turned. It was time to meet the level 7.

"KAMI-YAN!" yelled Tsuchimikado, who stunned by Touma's physique.

"Sup, Tsuchimikado." Touma said with a smirk, although he was a little eerie that Tsuchimikado was unhurt despite his having fractured a shoulder.

"You have to keep restin', man! He wanted you to keep in touch with you! If you're here, he can't find you!"

"So, he's also looking for me?"

Touma clenched his teeth. "Where is he?"

"Sorry, Kami-yan. I have no idea. I'd tell you if I—"

"Cut the bullshit, Tsuchimikado," said Touma. "I want to talk—no, I need to talk to him."

Tsuchimikado, with a stern expression, crossed his head. "I cannot tell you."

Touma growled. "HE IS THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS ABOUT MY POWER! I need to listen to him right now!"

"That's why you need to stay in the hospital. You cannot use your power yet so…" Tsuchimikado bit his lips.

Silence fell.

"How did you know that?" said Touma.

Tsuchimikado didn't answer.

"Tsuchimikado, I'm asking you. How did you know that my power wasn't working?"

"Kami-yan…"

"ANSWER ME!" yelled Touma.

"Sheesh, you are energetic so late in the day, aren't you," said a familiar irritating voice from behind Kamijou. Without even turning around, Touma could tell who it was.

"You…are late."

"Sorry, had to give some supplementary classes to Accel-chan," said John, smiling in such a fascinating way it irritated Touma even further.

"With the worst possible definition of death, I want you to die."

Tsuchimikado twitched. Did Touma just say that?

John clicked his tongue. "I expected you to return, but didn't expect you to be this hostile in such a short amount of time. Taking the gift was a bad idea after all."

"Shut the fu** up."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." John waved his left arm and felt his shoulder. "I guess that makes it about level 4. Oi, stay where you are."

"I'm not taking any orders from you, asshole."

Without answering to that swear, John quickly approached Touma and grabbed his face. He, despite having fractured his shoulder, kicked his arm again.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!"

"Sorry kid," said John. He pressed his temple and grabbed his right hand with his left.

"I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH! YOU BASTARD!"

"Calm down, kid," said John. "Still feel like cursing me?"

"Of course, you…" Touma stopped.

Silence fell.

"Well, that was easy," said John, wiping his sweat off contrary to his claim. "First, let me fix that shoulder of yours."

John pressed his temple and touched his shoulder, However, Touma didn't cry—he just twitched.

John froze.

Touma, without a word, looked at John. "Funny. You regenerated," said John, who was still staring at the right arm.

"Ah…yeah, that happened before. My right arm regenerates quickly."

"Is that so? You sound like you've experienced this before."

Touma twitched. "Yeah…during World War Three, there was a time my entire right arm regrew."

"Yeah, I know."

Silence fell.

"Are you still feeling hostile?" asked John.

Touma looked at John with a stern face. "Please tell me about my right hand."

John laughed. "I was waiting for you to say that." John waved at Tsuchimikado, who suddenly twitched and turned to return to his room.

"Oi…don't tell me…"

"Yeah, I just said I didn't want to tell you because Tsuchimikado was there. I wouldn't want to trust Tsuchimikado with my knowledge, you know."

"Especially with information about the imagine breaker?" said Touma with a smile.

"I like you with my power better," said John. "Come on, let's go take a walk."

"Yeah, sure…" Touma stopped. "Wait, what?"

"I said, let's take a walk. I'll teach you—"

"No, no. Before that. What was that about my having your power?"

John smirked. "You don't remember a thing, really."

Touma didn't get irritated this time. "Is Imagine Breaker not my power? I thought my right hand was closer to that of magic side than science side!"

"Not really. It's as scientific as it is magical." John scratched his head. "Well…let's just go take a walk first."

"No! Speak now!"

John sighed. "I hate impulsive guys. Fine. I'll talk."

Touma gulped.

John opened Touma's room's door and entered it. "Come in."

"…That's my room. Don't act like it's yours."

"Fine. Can I come in?"

"Go ahead."

John took off his shoes and entered the room. He sat on the floor and relaxed. Touma also came in and sat on his bed.

"First of all, I stole your imagine breaker for a short while so that I could speed up your leveling up."

"Leveling up? I'm a level 0!"

"Because your power cannot be measured through level measurement device. It's a different story if there is another way of measuring power."

Touma listened.

John cleared his throat. "I was a level rater."

"Whoa."

"Since I was gone, there was no way to measure the level of power besides by…well, today's methods."

"So, who made that new method?"

"Aleister Crowley," said John.

"The number six?"

"Yeah. Still, he's not yet your concern." John looked at the ceiling. "Before I turned into level six and left Academy City…or rather, its foundation, I was the number one level five. Can you guess of what?"

Touma didn't answer. However, he already knew the answer.

"I was a level 5 Imagine Breaker."