8 years prior to the Level 6 Project:
It's a long hallway of a research facility. Two sides of the hallway were lined up with windows, one facing the outside with artificial sunlight shining through, the other overlooking a gym kind of looked like a recovering room for a mental asylum. A tall, slender old scientist walked a little girl through the hallway, then stopping to look at the gym. In the center of the plain, white cube was the set of equipment, where a frail looking teenage boy clung desperately to a set of bars.
"Look, Misaka." The old man begun:
"I don't know how to put it. He suffers from a rare neurodegenerative disease that using today's technology, can't be cured. It means that he will slowly lose control of muscles, which will eventually lead to his heart stop beating." The old man showed sympathy, and little sadness. He continued:
"You have Electromaster powers, if you can lend your DNA to the researchers, we might be able to find a way that will hopefully counter his disease and maybe even cure it completely. Are you willing to help him out?"
The little girl nodded and smiled, an innocent smile.
Three days prior to the Level 6 Project:
It's the same hallway, same place where two guys were discussing something. This time it's at night, blocks of lighting shone from the roof. The gym wasn't there anymore, it's now a computer room with machinery of all types and functions. One slightly older looking man in his thirties wearing a staff uniform nodded, then took out a ball point pen, and jotted something down on a notepad before leaving. The other guy who gave the instructions looked just like the boy who was in the gym. He leaned over and looked at what used to be the gym with a hint of nostalgia. He half smiled and half smirked.
"You're still not changing your mind aren't you?" A voice spoke behind him. An old man in a doctor's white robe seemed to be confronting him.
"Why?" He asked.
"How many more are gonna fall victim to you?" The old man asked.
"You asked the same question to good old Kihara didn't you? Well, there is no Victim in my dictionary. Please don't get involved in this by yourself. After all, I am thankful you cured me, dear Heaven Canceller. You are a great guy, have a happy life." He chuckled.
"You worry about that yourself. Just for how long do you think you can still keep this up?"
"You're not supposed to be here right now, Sorry, Academy City top secret studies, you know the drill."
Several guards dressed in black and white suits walked towards the old man.
"Sorry about this sir…"
"I know, I know. I will leave. And you, good luck." Heaven Canceller walked towards the exit, picking up a small suitcase on his way. The exterior of the building he walked out says: "Higuchi Medical Facility Seventh Research Center."
Back in the building, the man looked down at the scientists in the gym-transformed research facility. He did a thumbs up gesture. One scientist nodded back, before pulling a container out of the cryogenic storage area. He puts it inside a machine connected to an operating screen, which turned on and displayed a spinning DNA diagram.
Back to the current timeline:
"What time is it?" That was my first question. And who am I asking? I live alone in my apartment. Hold on, since when was I back in my apartment? I wasn't. I'm in a hotel room, with two queen sized beds.
"It's eleven O'clock dumbass." Misaka said, standing at the doorway of the room.
What happened last night was a blur, it was almost a dream. Did we walk home? I was probably exhausted after that.
"You nearly fainted again after Mugino's gang left. After we got out of the place, Shinobu hotwired a shared car, laboratory property."
"Where's 19982?"
She dropped us off here and then drove 19982 to the hospital, the one where I met the old doctor."
"Why hospital?"
"Okay, the doc is a researcher too, 19982 needs to readjust her body condition, because of all the chemicals in the containers they've been in. Are you awake now or are you going to skip lunch?"
I took a quick shower, and changed back into my usual shirt.
"Let's go." I said, we walked to the elevators.
"Jeez, you really freaked me out back there." She muttered.
"Oh really? Stop being so…" I didn't know what else to say,
"Just… shut the hell up." I did. Dang she's always like that.
"We are paying her a visit, Shinobu is with her there too. Actually can we please call her something other than 19982?"
"I didn't want to either."
We walked out of the hotel and saw an ice cream van, a man was leaning over the window smiling nicely, waving good bye to a group of kids. Misaka seemed to recognize him. The owner waved at her too.
"Hey! You are the girl I saw the other day! How's things with your sister? Hopefully you guys stopped arguing right? It's probably not a huge thing, everyone has sister problems. But as I said, you might break up with your loved ones, but if you have a sibling, you are stuck with that person forever."
Misaka flinched, her face darkened instantly.
"Are you okay? You know that man?" No answer.
She marched over to the window, and violently grabbed him by the collar.
"DON'T YOU EVER BRING HER UP AGAIN! YOU HEAR ME!? Don't see me again, don't speak about her ever. Sibling problems you speak of eh? Well I assure you there's no need to worry about that anymore, coz' now she's…" Her voice cracked, I noticed she was tearing up. Her anger was replaced by grief. I figured out what had happened. The owner probably saw Misaka confronting one of her earlier clones the other day, and thought they were arguing over something. She let go of the man and started sobbing.
I begun:
"Look, I'm sorry about your…" She turned away from me, covering her face.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I've only met you at that vending machine." She started walking away.
"Yeah I know that."
"I'm going back. My friends are probably worried about me." She said.
"What about your sister?"
"You go, Shinobu needs to meet you anyways. Damn, give me a break."
"Sure, take your time."
"What do you know? About me, about how I felt?" She muttered.
"I'm being honest, not a ton a'ight? I'm sorry I can't help you out a lot this time. But just out of curiosity, do you still trust me?"
"Think about that." With that said she left.
It was an emotional moment. I took no outside information when I was walking towards to hospital. I reviewed her words, like: "Who are you?" "I've only met you at a vending machine." She wasn't necessarily creeped out but come to think of it, how was it my business in the first place? I did just stick my nose in. How's that gonna change anything, am I trying to be a so called "Important Member of Society?" I'm still just living my life, that is full of twists and turns. Hey, I'm cool with it. It happened, so I'm gonna move on. It's not like there's no reason for me to become part of this. I felt like my life totally collided with this large, recent, Being. All this crap. It's alright, I'm cool with it. I'm sure she still thinks of me as a friend right? Her question circled through my head. Three simple words:
"Who are you?"
She just left. I'm not super obsessed over her, but it made me felt empty inside. That was my conclusion of my feelings. She was just saddened by the events, and will be fine. Suddenly, my brain tingled again. I was sensing something. I looked back at me, and saw a pale face through the flow of pedestrians. Accelerator. I've heard of him, but never seen him. The back of my mind sensed him. He had moppy white hair, and wears a simple black t shirt. He was so pale and skinny. Rumors says his powers extends to blocking UV rays. I stilled stared blankly, my eyes widening. A strange cold feeling engulfed my chest. Is he sensing me too? I turned away immediately before he noticed me and ran towards the hospital. His sudden appearance chilled me to my bones, he looked intimidating enough just by keeping a neutral expression. Was it really him?
"Whoa, here." I heard Shinobu's voice. She was waiting for me.
"Where is Misaka?"
"She's taking a break. Guess she's not coming. Something happened, the clone reminds her of her earlier clones who got killed."
"Jeez… She's always acting according to her own emotions. The clones might do the same, in terms of developing personalities they are likely to develop her personality. Hey, by the way you look pale."
"I think I saw him."
"Accelerator?"
We walked to the huge back yard of the hospital, where patients were recovering. 19998 was sitting on a swing, she was staring blankly.
"What's up." She greeted me and went off the swing.
"Your sister is not coming this time, I'm sorry, she can't take all the events happening."
"I don't blame her, I know my appearance haunts her. I can't blame myself either." She said, staring at her palm.
"Come on." Shinobu said.
We walked in from the back garden and took the elevator up. I wasn't even paying attention to which floor we were going up to. The door opened up to a clean looking corridor.
"This way." We walked to a waiting area that is dressed like a living room. Very comforting. An old doctor sat on one of the couches, with a wide face and grey hair on the sides of his head.
"Hi. Thanks for coming, I've heard of you. Come in my office, little more privacy." He said warmly. We walked into a typical, decent sized office with a desk complete with a laptop and a cup of coffee. A side of the room was covered by a bookshelf, which made me suspicious that there's gonna be a hidden room.
"I'm Meido Gaeshi, or Heaven Canceller." We shook hands.
"I see Misaka needed a little time out? That's fine. Want tea?"
"That would be great, thanks." I said.
"Sit, make yourselves comfortable. I know what you might think, you can trust me." He said, as he steeped three cups of tea.
"I am glad to inform you that though injecting emotions into a linked brain network is risky, this case is mostly successful. Right now I need to readjust all the clones' bodies, this is the hard bit. If I don't, the chemicals and artificial hormones will shorten their life expectancy significantly."
This time he signed sadly, his age showing. The things he'd seen, what he'd experienced seemed to all be reflected in his eyes.
"I know Accelerator. He had no choice. Right now it seems there's still basic rules and patterns to follow. In this case having great powers still can't change who you are. And the researcher…"
"He's being used. I know."
"Shinobu, can you and her step out a bit? Actually sorry, it's better if you guys stay here." He looked at me.
"I'm sorry to tell you, your case is even less common than I thought. I'm not sure if it's. Coincidence. People had Accelerator's brain data successfully merge with their brain, your is naturally similar and had been activated so suddenly. Based off my prediction, the process started off slow when you were twelve."
"I made a mistake by taking this, I was out of powers." I took out the ability body crystal out of my pockets. He took it and examined it.
"I'm afraid this did speed up the process of your ability change inside the brain. You were estimated to become a Level 5 in three months, if using my algorithm. Now it would be even harder to tell."
"So am I the eighth Level 5?"
"Ninth Level 5. There's seven official ones before you, however, there is at least one that is unrecognized. With the technology of cloning maturing faster than ever, Level 5s soon will be much more common."
"How many are out there looking for me?"
"Yes, I know Shinobu told you about it. I'm sorry, I really don't know all of them. There are people interested in you. There are people with so much power, they managed to blackmail Board of Director members into helping them. But I know a huge character, he is the one that ordered the scientist rep to come to the US and find you. She knew it was safer here, Academy City researchers were evidently visiting the United States and making strong ties right behind the officials' backs. She then pretended to lose contact with you. I'm just saying the truth, as much as I think there's not much options." I nodded in understanding.
"I remember her, Yoshikawa."
"I appreciate that you understood. The rep worked for the Level Six Shift project and is the only one that met you." More nodding.
"There is one last thing I need to tell you…" He hesitated.
"That kind of requires you to make a decision."
"Yes?"
"Level 5s are known to have slightly destabilized personality because of their ability changes in the brain were similarly extreme. Take Misaka for example…"
"Oh my god don't bring her up, I've witnessed. and experienced it."
"Exactly, it gets worse if you look at Accelerator. This is basically what will happen." He signed and took a sip of tea.
"I am extremely sorry, but this is the most likely outcome: your brain will start to destabilize around the age of 17."
I can only nod like I always did. You know how when you heard something shocking you end up having no significant reaction? You just try to accept and make sense of it, you managed to do it but your thoughts are blank, only focusing on that shocking thing but not thinking through it, just thinking about it. Then I started giggling, and finally I couldn't hold back. I started laughing out loud but I couldn't hear how loud. I didn't even know what's causing me to laugh. Then I started hallucinating, I wasn't in the office anymore. In a blank space. All the people I've known throughout my life, from all places somehow fit inside the room, surrounding me. They all spoke in the same blank voice:
"Who are you?"
"What do you mean? You guys know me." I replied in a soft voice.
