A/N: I'm back!
Chapter 22:
"Well if isn't the new level 5 ESPer!" Yomi patted an embarrassed-looking Rei on her back. "Congratulations!"
"Yes, Rei-chan, although it's quite sad to hear about your school."
"Yeah…" Rei looked down.
"No need to feel guilty, no one's really blaming you. No one got killed- thankfully- and the school should've seen that coming considering you and your ability." Yomi sympathetically patted her back again, understanding why her head was down. "They really should have thought things through and put up more protection, just in case. You know, they say that, when the Railgun is being tested, they put industrial-grade shock absorbers on the pool. And even then they wear out quickly. They really should think this more through for the sake of all students."
"I guess…" Rei trailed off. She raised her eyes and met Accelerator's glance before nervously looking back down.
Accelerator, whose insane smile had worn off, walked off to his room with a second glance.
Rei hesitantly sat down on the single-seater. Last Order came over to her and hugged her knees. "Misaka Misaka is happy to see you, Misaka Misaka says as Misaka Misaka tries to talk to Rei-chan and congratulate her on reaching an important goal."
Smiling, Rei patted her head just as Yomi had to her. "Thank you for saying that, Mi-chan." She looked up to Yomi. "Did….Accelerator-sensei say anything about me?"
"Oh, nothing usual, jan." Yomi swatted her hand around, ignoring Rei's obvious concern for Accelerator's approval. "Just, 'Oh, I'm still the strongest ESPer, yadda yadda yadda, I don't like to talk about my feelings and instead smile sadistically, I'm overly dependent on soft drinks and unhealthy food', jan!" A newspaper came out of nowhere and covered Yomi's face, taking her by surprise. "Damn it, Accelerator! When you leave the room you leave the room, your powers and all!" She tried to remove the layers of thin paper while Rei blushed as she realized that he had heard what she had just asked.
Yoshi chuckled and placed a cup of tea with faint trails of steam in front of Rei. "Accelerator is not a man, well a boy really, of compliments. If anything he criticizes, but he doesn't have anything to criticize now, so you're in the clear. He's just sulking. Isn't that better than what he usually says?" She went into the kitchen and began to wash some of the dishes. "This is probably than if you were to have taken that test and still give a result of Level 4. He would probably have been more annoyed that nothing he did actually worked. It could have been a blow to that big ego, and we'd all bear the brunt of it! Accelerator needs anger management classes." She chuckled some more as she squeezed dish soap on the first dish and began scrubbing it with the sponge.
"Yeah…I guess…So, I came here to talk to him about still being his student." The first part of her statement was slow- nothing Yoshi had said was news to anyone- but the rest a slew of words. She stood up and faced Yoshi.
Yoshi turned to Rei for a moment before giving her attention to a bowl. "You still want to be his student? What is there for him to teach now that you're a level 5?" It was an objective question. There was neither sympathy to Rei's concern nor was there an edge to bring out Rei's anxiety.
"With all due respect, just because I'm a level 5 now does not mean I don't have anything to learn. We may all have the same number level, but our strengths are not equal. I was already close to being a level 5, but Accelerator's number 1. Just fathom all he knows that I don't. I don't have to leave yet." Rei realized her last sentence too late. "Ah, nevermind.…." She said really softly.
Yomi's eyes widened a little. She opened her mouth slightly before closing it. Her eyes crinkled and she smiled. "You know, you can still come over if you want, jan. You don't have to be Accelerator's student to be like family." Yomi replied. Last Order, a silent but supportive audience member, nodded her head repeatedly.
Rei blushed. "I…I'm grateful for what you said. However, I still wish to be under Accelerator's wing for a little longer." She didn't meet Yomi's gaze.
"Actually, about being under Accelerator's wing, we have something to tell you." Yoshi got a cup of tea for herself and sat on the three-seater. "Should you tell her or should I, Yomikawa?"
"Well, I'd prefer if Accelerator himself said it, jan!" Yomi called out deliberately. "But I guess it doesn't really matter at this point. Listen, Rei-chan, Accelerator said he is willing to fight you once, like a convoluted final exam of sorts. It took a little bit of convincing, but it's done now."
Rei's eyes widened. "Really? Thank you!" She immediately headed to the hallway to check where Accelerator was. She found him in his room, on his bed, staring at the ceiling with his usual expressionless face.
"Thank you, Accelerator-sensei. That means a lot that you agreed."
Accelerator didn't look at her. "You shouldn't really be saying, 'Thanks'. Idiot…don't go picking fights with anyone, especially me."
"But you're not fighting to kill."
"Killing's not the intention, but," Accelerator begins a sinister chuckle. "When have I been known for restraint against opponents? You sure you want to take that risk? Of course, you've never seen my fights. No wonder why you're not scared. But, that also means you've never heard of me, and honestly that it quite troublesome. I thought I had a more prevalent image than that, even amongst sheltered boarding students."
"Uh…" Rei didn't know how to respond to his rambling and instead chose to ignore it. "I just wanted to say my thanks. I know this will be helpful to me."
Rei can see Accelerator smile amidst the dimness of his room. "As it will to me." Rei didn't know how to respond to this enigmatic response either.
Yomi walks to her and lightly touches her shoulder. "Come, let's sit down and talk about some ground rules we laid out for this…"
人
Rei roughly pushed her folding closet door aside as she scoured for the most appropriate clothes. One week had passed since she sat down and talked with Yomi and Yoshi on how her mock fight between Accelerator and herself would go down. Each day leading up to now had her brimming with anticipation. Now, she was taking out her excitement on her closet door.
Haruhi sat on Rei's bed, one knee up to her chin and her arms wrapped around that leg, passively but curiously watching Rei's frantic motions.
"Where are you going again?" She asks.
Rei at first didn't hear her. She sees her track suit neatly folded in one of the hanging fabric shelves she put up, but no, she wasn't in the mood for that. It was too baggy, too. When she imagined fighting with her sensei, it was done with clothes with certain finesse. Alas, none of the clothes in her imagination were clothes she actually had. Well, I could just go for a straight and simple look with this slightly tight-styled black long shirt. She mused. But that's so plain! If I wore this, I'd probably have to wear the black jogging pants that match this! Might as well put a handkerchief on my face. I'm not going to fight looking as a burglar! What if…
"Rei-chan?" Haruhi's voice finally registered in Rei's preoccupied thoughts.
"Huh? Oh, just going to see my tutor."
Haruhi shifts. "If you're 'just going', then why are you fussing so much about clothes?" Haruhi looks calm before jerking upwards. "Wait a moment! Are you actually going out on a date!? DO YOU HAVE A CRUSH ON YOUR TUTOR!? IS THIS WHAT IT'S BEEN ABOUT THIS WHOLE TIME?!"
"Oh hush Haruhi, it's nothing like that. Now which do you think is better, this, or this? I need to be able to move easily in these clothes, but I don't think really like my black long shirt." She held up two hangers to Haruhi. Haruhi slid her gaze to both of them before looking at Rei and sighing. She walked out of Rei's room and shortly came back with black running tights.
"Here, wear these tights with that black long shirt, and…" She unzipped her classic brown jacket and shrugged it off. "Wear this over the shirt. You need to move freely, right? So wear exercising clothes."
"Oh, thanks Haruhi!" Rei gratefully took the clothes. "I'll wash them and give them back to you later."
Haruhi sat back down on the bed. "…Do I want to know why you need exercise clothes?"
"Uh…My tutor says it would be a good idea to move around in between study sessions so he's going to implement it starting today so I can study for next year and be well ahead. Never too early to study more, you know?"
"I don't understand how you can study so much, but that is quite admirable, Rei-chan." Satisfied with that response, she laid down and spread her arms and legs like a starfish. "Just make sure the jacket's not torn or anything. It's my good luck jacket. It was a present."
"Will make sure of that." Rei, ignoring the pang of guilt, made a mental note to put the jacket somewhere safe should the battle turn-and most likely would- dicey. Rei went into the closet and changed away from Haruhi's view, even though she was too busy spacing out. Afterwards, she did a few stretches and grabbed the box at the foot of her desk and cradled it in her arms.
"Well, I'm off now. See you later."
"See ya."
Rei locked the door. As she rounded the corner to go down the stairs- she considered it a warmup- she saw a familiar face look at her. A thin body with a disinterested stare was upon her.
It was the white hair and red eyes that shocked her the most.
"Ac…Accelerator-sensei…?" Rei had so many questions in her head.
In that instant, Accelerator became a blur and turned into a girl dressed in all- jacket and all- with long black hair.
"Sensei?" Reika questioned.
Alarm flared through Rei. "You-" Her eyes got big and she took a step back.
"I saw you two at the café the other day with some other people." Reika explained. "So he's your tutor? I did think it was rather suspicious, but I'm also kind of impressed he's your tutor." She didn't sound mad, but Rei felt embarrassed nonetheless.
"I didn't want people to find out I had a tutor for my ESPer ability, and on top of that it would be easy to find out who was my tutor so I didn't want to deal with that and any rumors. I'm sorry." Rei bowed her head.
"It's fine, I guess. But that kind of shows you don't trust anyone on the matter, right? Like, I don't even think Haruhi knows, and she's such a loyal friend." Reika shrugged. She was a lot like Accelerator in the aspect that she rarely talked with much emotion on her face.
"You're not planning to tell Haruhi are you?" Rei clutched the box a little harder.
"That's not my place, I just thought I'd finally get an answer today. We all know your schedule now so it wasn't that hard to find you. But…" She began walking in the direction of Rei's dorm. "It would probably be in your best interest to eventually tell her."
By the time Rei was able to gather her thoughts, come up with a response, and turn around, Reika had already gone from her line of vision.
人
Rei pushed what had just happened to the back of her mind just as the cold wind pushed her hair back. Despite it being March, there were still days that made the month feel like winter. And today was one of those days.
Nighttime was failing, evening light a dark orange. This was all on purpose- it would be a good way to fight due to the lack of light. It would challenge Rei more, Accelerator said.
She walked on the sidewalks, noticing the thinning crowd of pedestrians, even if curfew was in a couple of hours. I wonder if it will go on till past curfew. Would I get in trouble? Or would Haruhi do a good job of covering for me? Would I get back into the building alright? Her mind was already into the future.
She looked around; she was on the fringes of the 7th district, the main academic district for middle and high schoolers, and the 9th district where they had the industrial arts and fine arts schools.
This was where she was supposed to be. This was the agreed place.
She wandered what appeared to be a small campus, looking for the perfect spot. She finally came across a building with its lights still on-a fine arts building according to the sign- and tried to open the handle. No luck.
But her luck instantly reversed when a student came out that very moment. To that random student, it must have just appeared that she was about to open the door, and she looked of right age, so he didn't even think much of security, she thought. "Ah, thank you." She spoke as he walked off.
She climbed up all the stairs, finding that the door to the roof was unlocked as well. She walked to the edge and peered down before sitting on the ground and taking out one of the many contents of her box.
It was a broken metal pencil.
Her box was filled with them, all remnants of her attempts to write during the school year, all signs of her poor ability control. Holding them in her palm, she took what Accelerator taught her and began to morph them, steel and all, into something oblong yet sharp and thin. The first one took the longest- a few minutes- but by the time she got through half of the pencil shards it took only seconds. Rei had decided it would be best to do this now as a way to get rid of any pre-battle jitters, and it was working.
When she had finished, she again looked at the door to the roof- to make sure she would not get caught in her current situation- and then around the edges.
And then she saw him, walking around in the distance.
It's time, she thought.
Without little hesitation, she used her ability to lift all the sharp weapons she had just created. She couldn't use them all right away. A handful would do for now.
She let her mind grow blank and calm.
And then she shot her handmade spears into the growing darkness.