Chapter 26

And then she ran.

Rei ran to the door with the trail of the remaining spears floating behind her, a cloud of shallow protection. And, just as she grabbed the knob, all of them returned fire, slicing into the door or the brick, one just barely missing her right calf. Rei gasped in surprise and lurched the door open and jumped straight to the stair leveling instead of going down the stairs, using her ability to soften her landing and minimize time in the building.

Got to get out of here, got to get out of here…

As she left, she stopped to look for the darkest path to take.

"This one." She saw herself in that black Victorian dress with her arm down a narrow street. Not even beginning to consider why she was hallucinating of her, Rei looked around and asserted that that was indeed the best path to take and let Dark Rei lead her. She heard a giggle while the blood in her ears roared and adrenaline fed her body.

The street lasted for blocks before Rei thought to change course of action. Now, she looked around, how am I going to get the above angle? I need to figure out where he is.

Rei looked up and saw that she was standing in front of a one story bakery. Emulating what she had done with the stairs but in reverse, she jumped on it. The building next was the same, and followed. Her breath only slightly heavy at this point from all the exercise, she took a moment and smiled in thanks for all the work her sensei did. Then, she looked around abruptly to snap her brain back in the moment. There was either darkness, dim-orange light, or bright white light pollution coming from every angle. People were no longer discernable, just moving bodies finding their way through the night. The wind gently blew, her hair dancing to it ever so slightly.

"Nice weather, isn't it?" Rei, startled at first thinking it was Accelerator, looked down to bakery to see her mind's counterpart. She was looking out at the same view as Rei, her hands formally holding each other in front of her. "I almost feel stuffy in this dress. But don't you think it looks really pretty?"

"What are you doing here?" Rei couldn't help but respond out loud to her. "You know, they say you should go to the doctor when you get these recurring hallucinations despite getting sufficient sleep."

"But I'm not a hallucination. I'm you. I'll go when something happens. Or not quite go…well, you'll understand it later."

"All you do is make my head hurt." Rei scowled in response. "I have no idea what you're talking about! Please, you're me! You need to make more sense than this!"

Another giggle. "Something's going to happen soon. Something big. Call it intuition, I guess. But anyway, Accelerator is approaching." She gave an innocuous look up to Rei. "Don't want to get caught, right? Good luck~" Her sing-song voice faded with her.

Wait, he's here, where? I need to leave…Rei saw a construction site in the distance. There were roads that could take her there, but the quickest route was straight through a park filled with trees. Well, at least there's cover-

"Fou-n-d you~."

Rei sharply turned around to see a grinning Accelerator with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"Did you think I wouldn't find you? Why have you been running without fighting back? I thought you wanted a fight."

"Well, sensei, it just seems like a good idea to put yourself in the most advantageous situation. There wasn't much I could do on a university building." Rei gulped a little, getting ready to twitch at Accelerator's slightest movement.

"And you think standing on top of a bakery is better? Will you try and pelt me with bread?" He took a step forward and Rei instinctively took a step backwards.

"Technically we're not on the bakery, but-" Instead of finishing her sentence as expected, Rei lunged forward, her spikes coming out to the front. Her right hand was clenched into a fist, aiming to punch his center. Accelerator used his right forearm to block.

"You going for this angle too, now?!" He howled. With that block he set his left fist for a punch. Rei dodged by leaping back and then stepped forward again, roundhouse kicking his arm away before she felt pricks on her arm. She looked down to see 3 of her spikes lodged into her arm.

Suddenly she felt it. The vector fields around her weren't just hers and his separately anymore. She could feel him trying to gain control of what she was manipulating. She tried by her ability to remove the spikes, but to no avail. I feel…really tired now for some reason. Her back dropped as she tried to pull them out by force. Each sting greater than the last, her clothes started to become drenched and Rei could smell the blood.

Accelerator stood by, just watching her. "You know," he spread his arms out to the remaining spikes, now under his control. Rei gritted her teeth in response, trying to bring them back, but it seemed as if he had locked them down and she didn't have the key to get them back from her sensei. "You should really watch over these more carefully. They're pretty sharp. They could really injure somebody." The moon illuminated his smile and the light shone off the metallic spikes. "Here, take them back."

As if he knew she was trying to pull the wave of spikes back, he pushed them towards her, not to impale them into her, but to create a wave to throw her off balance with the spikes as an added pain to deal with.

"Ahhh!" She screeched at the top of her lungs as she was thrown off the building's roof, only silenced when her back slammed into a tree's trunk and her head whiplashed. The spikes scattered hither and tither to the point where it was ineffective to try and use them as weapons. Rei could barely control her body as her upper half folded onto the ground. Familiar…This feeling is so familiar…Her mind took her back to when she hit the blackboard during one of her several failed ESPer level tests. Failure, am I destined to always achieve that? What was I even thinking? As she thought, she felt the world getting brighter.

Then she saw it. In her mind she saw a girl with blonde, short-medium layered hair and pale skin turning her to give a cheerful smile. She was talking, but Rei couldn't remember what. She then saw this girl in a simple sleeveless white dress with tiny blue flowers dotted all over it. Rei could hear her giggles as she twirled and danced in it.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard the tree she was leaning upon break with a resounding crunch. It was about to fall on her, but Rei wasn't in the best of health to be dodging with ease. She grunted as she rolled over and the tree collapsed onto where she once was.

"Oi, Ryuuzaki! It's time to wake up! Where's that fight you were so eager to get?! Well, I'm here!" The trees around Rei, both old and young, begin to make sickening crunching noises as they get uprooted, no doubt part of Accelerator's next attack plan.

Rei slowly got up, wobbling in the process and trying not to let Accelerator's words get into her psyche. Failure, she told herself. Failure, failure. Inside her mind she began to run a health check, using her ability to clot the blood before she lost even more.

"I promise I won't hold back on you!" He began laughing like a hyena. "Weak student! I'M HERE TO MAKE YOU SCREEEEEAM!"

It was at that moment that all the trees were aimed at Rei and thrown upon her, trying to trap her.

Not here…Not this time.

"No!" She screeched, her hand stretched out to Accelerator's grinning outline, as if grasping for the one thing that had been eluding her for so long. She saw another bright light envelope her sight. Almost as if she was in recollection, she saw someone's arm on the ground in a pool of a maroonish liquid with the hand stretched out towards someone's feet. In that instant that image was gone from her mind.

With that outstretched motion, one of the trees flew towards the building, decimating a good chunk of the former building. Accelerator jumped forward, missing any debris from the impact while flying towards his challenger.

Reenergized, she was able to take control of 3 other trees. One old and the other two young, she sent the young ones flying in hope of injury. Accelerator, however, ended up just using his ability to get extra lift from the ground and dodge them entirely. But Rei was prepared, predicting where he might land and using the old tree at the last moment as an attempt to trip him up. As he side stepped the trunk, Rei was ready, lunging forward just as she had in the beginning, controlling the stones and wooden debris to be used against him.

Rei aimed the rocks at his face. When Accelerator deflected them back towards her, she repeated her action, just as she had when they had first met with the soda can. Only now this was a much more deadly version of ricochet. Multitasking, she then sent the sticks forward while making sure the surrounding trees were only controlled by her vector manipulation only all while making sure none of the stones could hurt her.

Accelerator, by this point, only had scratches. But they were scratches nonetheless, and considering who he was, Rei began to feel some accomplishment.

"That is enough!" Almost as if the previous had just been a lighthearted game, Rei immediately felt overpowered and was thrown back by everything she had been used against him. She lied on the ground, her eyes up to the stars as all the trees in the clearing had been destroyed. In the side of her mind she started to wonder of the consequences of such unauthorized destruction. "You have gotten stronger, I can give you that." His footsteps were light but noticeable on the treaded ground. Accelerator walked around to her head and looked down, still smiling. The way the moonlight hit his bloodred eyes gave it that extremely dangerous glint. It was then that Rei wasn't entirely sure if he realized that, at this point, she had lost and the match was done. Rei wasn't entirely sure what Yomi and Yoshi were telling him through his earpiece. Were they getting through to him? Rei suddenly felt undressed and vulnerable. Almost as if she had lost all her security, her instinct took over and she felt the sudden need to escape.

She got up and straggled to run, but felt her body tugging itself in opposite directions. She could feel blood leaking out of her arm despite her abilities. She screamed in pain. Make it stop!

"Get away? Now? I don't think so." He chuckled as he calmly walked towards her.

"Sensei, stop! Please!" She felt the blood in her injured arm giving one extra pull away from her and she screamed again. "You win!" Rei was in so much pain she couldn't even register the shouts of Yomi and Yoshi in Accelerator's earpiece, for they were talking so loudly it in alarm anyone next to Accelerator would be able to clearly hear the voices.

"You…are not who you say you are. I can tell you're not who you are. This whole time, Ryuuzaki Rei- is that even your real name?- you have been hiding something. And I don't know if it's deliberate or not, but during this match itself you went from not being able to go against my vector field controls to actually putting up a fight? I've been teaching you for months, but your learning curve has never been as steep as it has been during now. And you've been so injured and yet, here you are, still fighting. It would be commendable if everything wasn't so damn suspicious. It's as if you have been slowly gaining power throughout this match, and I can't stand for that on so many levels!" He took another step towards her.

"I-I have told you the truth already! What do I have to gain from withholding information?" The tugging had stopped, but she was stuck in place.

"Who sent you? Are you after Last Order? Information? Money? Me?" Another step.

"I'm not affiliated with anyone like that, honest!" Rei began to hear sounds calling from his earpiece.

Another step.

Am I going to die? Rei began regretting all sorts of things.

"No, it's not your place to go here." Rei wasn't sure if she was hallucinating due to the blood loss, but Dark Rei once again appeared before her, a perfectly mellow smile on her face, not perturbed by Accelerator at all. She put a hand to her thought and struck a pose. "As if I could die here! But I am beginning to feel better." She straightened herself out. Dark Rei pointed to the nearby area outside of the clearing. "Escape through that way. You'll be able to lose him there. In fact, I think I can help you out here, too." She lifted her hand and as she gestured Rei to come towards her, Rei felt empowered. Suddenly Accelerator's pull on her was meaningless. She broke into a limping run.

Rei didn't pay any mind to Dark Rei vanishing once more or the slightly startled look on Accelerator's face before it broke into another wide mouth grin.

"You know, I really enjoy chases! If you weren't so damn shady we could have even been friends!"

Rei's breathing was a mess as she escaped, trying her best to weave between whatever trees were left in the densely packed park. She almost felt relief when she hit the road, but even then it was only part of the battle. She was disoriented beyond belief and couldn't recall where she really was, much less the location of any buses or subways. Rei couldn't rely on Yomi and Yoshi at this point. She didn't know where they were, but she had faith that they were employing their backup protection for Rei. She couldn't trust that they could get to her in time, though. Right now Accelerator was out for answers. If he couldn't get that, then the kill would suffice.

And Rei had no answers.

This area was under more construction than the campus area Rei was previously on. Filled with cranes and other equipment to build buildings, there were plenty of alleys for Rei to weave through and plenty of shades above doors to prevent someone from the roof from spotting her. Then again for another second the bright white light flashed in her eyes and she seemed to intuitively run through the alleys as if her body knew where she was going.

Rei stopped for a second to catch her breath. She certainly couldn't hear any signs of Accelerator, but that wasn't good enough. Rei wasn't sure of his true personality or what his past was like, but his actions today set a little fear of him in her. He had the eyes of someone who could kill in any form from brutal gore to a silent release.

With that previous flash, Rei felt aware of her surroundings. She felt close to escaping- there was a subway that ran late only a block from her. She felt more fear and sadness than anything else at how these events unfolded, but Rei had no choice but to run to lick her wounds and confront Accelerator through Yomi and Yoshi another day.

But, before she could even take one step, the brightness came. However this time it didn't come all at once. Rei saw a feather queerly made of light dance through the darkness in front of her all the way to her eyes. And, when that one ended, she saw another one. Then another. And again. Her eyes hurt from all the bright white light. It felt as if she was being covered in them all. She had no choice but to stand like that for minutes until it all ended.

She was walking down the street to the neighborhood's playground. She was in primary school, young and always looking for fun. It was on the way to her house from school, but she liked to indulge in some swinging or the monkey bars without her parents knowing. As of late, her parents wouldn't let her go outside unless strictly necessary. In fact, most days someone always picked her up directly from school.

One day, she saw that boy swinging by himself. She swung beside him without striking a conversation.

Rei could all of sudden hear Dark Rei laughing. But this time it wasn't a haughty or malicious laugh. It was a joyous laugh.

One day in the summer she was playing in the living room with that girl from before with the blonde hair-only they were both much younger. The girl had brought new foam blocks to play with. In the distance she could hear their mothers chatting.

Another day they had taken baths together.

Some time in the future they began going to go to middle school together. Rei could see their ID cards. The girl was proudly showing off her new 4 status. Rei looked down to hers.

She saw a 5. And then she saw her ability.

And that girl lying in a pool of her own blood with a large drawbridge in the near distance.

Then it all came back to her.

It all makes sense-

DUN

She felt something sickeningly heavy come into contact with her head and shoulders.

DUM

She folded on the ground, no regard whatsoever for repairing herself. Rei had no choice but to stay there dying. Blood profusely came out of several places. Her pain was indescribable, but while all her memories came back to her, she remembered that this was not the first time she had felt like she was in Hell.

She could barely bring herself to cough, and when she did she coughed a large amount of blood. All she could focus on now was childishly being angry at Dark Rei for saying she would not die here.

"There you are! I almost thought you would-" Accelerator's voice came out of nowhere. He registered Rei's pitiful state and the large metal beam support that hit her head. "What, you managed to almost off yourself without any assistance? That takes skill." He scoffed.

"Sen..sei. Accel…erator sensei…" She hoarsely coughed. Everything alarmingly blurred and regained its former composure within seconds.

Her state and her words took Accelerator back to sanity. He crouched down. "Well, I see we've learnt a lesson, dumbass." He touched her bleeding head. "Damn…this is worse than I thought. Yoshikawa, get an ambulance." He turned his attention back to her. "Don't leave just yet. You still haven't told me anything."

"Sen..sei. It came back to…me. Just…now." She weakly tried to get her hand to touch his arm. Her eyes began to glaze over. "Go…gomen." Another cough.

"You piece of shit, stop talking."

"I…I am sorry. I…didn't mean to..." Rei continued on, having no heed for anything Accelerator was saying. She just needed to get everything off her chest now before it was too late.

"Oi, do you understand what 'stop talking' means?"

"My…ability. I'm sorry. My ability is not 'Vector Change'."

"What? What the hell is that supposed to mean? I think you're losing it, Ryuuzaki."

Silence.

"Oi, Rei? Can you hear me?"

Silence.

"Oi! Rei? REI!"