.
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XIX.
En masse
Accelerator stared at her for a long, endless moment, and the air felt thick between them, fraught, but not wrong. It's like sparring, the half-second of locked gazes that heralded the final blows, and—
"What the fuck," he breathed, slowly, as he swiveled around to face her fully. There's bandages wrapped around her right hand, and he narrowed his eyes at them, anywhere but her face. "What in the damn hell are you doing here?!"
His only reply was a tilt of her head. Even a few meters away Accelerator could still make out the frown that was halfway forming under her bangs as the girl took in the scene in front of her. She's in her school uniform, and him in his usual black tee and faded jeans. He's frowning at her, but the girl's focus zeroed in on the goon whose collar he was still holding instead.
"This is work," he told her, and stopped midway. Since when did he ever feel like he had to explain himself?
"He looks half-dead."
"That's the work."
"Can you just please drop the guy?"
"He'll escape."
"You broke both his legs!"
"Wench," he closed his eyes, and sucked in a breath through his teeth. He did not sleep enough for this. "What the fuck do you want?"
"We need to find Kihara. And I can't do it alone."
"...Oh?"
Accelerator murmured. The Railgun admitting defeat and asking for help? From him of all people. He removed his hands, letting the guy drop into a heap on the ground as he got up to his full height and turned to her.
"What happened? Your little band of Justice don't cut it for ya?"
"N-no, it's not that." Mikoto blinked. A wave of nervousness suddenly ran down her entire body as she watched him twist his choker and pull his sweater up to cover it. Even half-swathed in the dark, the guy's imposing aura was still so overwhelming sometimes, especially when his gaze is on her.
But she knew better than to step down now.
"They don't know." She admitted.
For a moment there was just silence. Mikoto frowned, wondering if she should repeat herself when suddenly the guy stepped out from the dark and came fully out of the alley. Afternoon sunlight spilled over the red irises of his stare as he eyed her down, half-leaning on one side of his crutch.
"And I'd know?"
He said, just because he can. Consider it a little payback for all the shit he had to deal with when she was inside his head.
"Unfortunately so." Mikoto sighed. "Look, I've been searching for him by myself for a week now but I keep coming up empty. The SISTERS don't have a clue either. It's like he just disappeared off the face of the Earth. I was thinking maybe you and Last Order will know where to dig."
He shrugged. "Coulda asked Last Order herself."
"Yeah...she's not exactly as easy to find as the guy who goes around beating people up black and blue."
"It's work."
"Your work is awful."
"Your point?"
Mikoto closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. A month passed and it's like nothing has changed between their banter. "Will you just say you're in or not already? We don't have all day."
The guy just stared at her for another long moment—not blankly, because those dark maroon eyes were intent and considering and distinctly Mikoto realized she's staring at them right back, secretly glad the past days did nothing to deter the sheer mental strength she had honed herself under his sharp gaze.
Then Accelerator hummed thoughtfully, bent down, and picked up his crutch.
"Fine."
She blinked up at him. "You're in?"
"I ain't repeating shit."
"Oookay...so what do we do with him?"
"Damn...almost forgot. Gimme a minute."
"Oh no no let's just go. Forget I ask. I'll call Judgement."
x
x
x
Two months didn't really change much between the two of them, except perhaps add a little bit of distance and some new things to argue with each other about. There's also the fact that when they fell into steps next to each other, the guy stopped and nudged his head at her. It took Mikoto a stupidly long moment to realize he was telling her to walk inside, and the thought had her burning up all the way to her nape.
Two months, and yet it felt like a whole new world opened up under her feet.
If anyone had told her there would be a day when she would willingly search and ask for Accelerator's help, Misaka Mikoto would have laughed, then railgun-ed them for ever daring to make such a crappy joke.
But then again, who would have known anyways.
"'Sup with that hand?"
Mikoto blinked, a bit taken aback at the random change of topic. She turned to look at him only to find him looking down at her side, and she slowed on her tracks, subtly squeezing the bandaged arm to her skirt tighter. Accelerator arched a pale brow at the notion.
"No big deal. Just...some practice with my aim again."
"And you zapped yourself?" he continued, deadpanned. She could read it in his face, that was too ludicrous, even for her.
"Well in case you haven't realized, not everyone can control the direction of their power, unlike somebody around here."
"Sucks for you then."
"Yeah, sucks for me, I suppose."
The girl agreed with a soft chuckle, after a while of them walking, shoulder grazing at the wall. She protested when he nudged his head at her to go inside, but Accelerator figured he must have had some shit look on his face, because the girl easily complied after looking up at him.
He wasn't going to dwell on it, but the thought itched at the back of his mind nonetheless. It took Last Order an embarrassingly insane amount of whines and complaints to bore into his head that the inside of the sidewalk is for girls, and the habit stuck since, mostly just to get the brat off his ass. So he just didn't expect his body to react so automatically to someone else that wasn't his ward.
Maybe Yoshikawa was right after all. He was going soft. The thought sent a nauseous chill down his spine.
"It wasn't that bad, actually. Good, even." The girl continued, and he turned to see her fiddle with the ends of the bandage around her hand.
"To feel again, you know. Felt like I could disappear sometimes, back when I was in there."
For a moment it was quiet. Mikoto opened her eyes, realizing she was gazing down at his sneakers and immediately looked up. Accelerator was staring at her, as if trying to make sure he heard it right.
"Just sometimes…," she immediately added. "Then you started yelling some really terrible profanities and getting pissy so loudly I completely forgot about it right after."
It wasn't an insult as much as it was a factual statement. After all, he was in the middle of calling that thug a 'jerkoff' when she stepped in that alley.
Accelerator scoffed. At least he's creative about it.
"Fuck if I cared. At least it's over and you're back with your miserable ass life now." He continued, just to rub it in her face, because he can now.
"Yours isn't exactly sunshine and rainbows too, you know."
"Yeah, it's fuckin' shit." He looked at her pointedly, just to get the idea across. The girl just looked at him, all doe-eyed like it flew right over her head.
They were getting familiarized with this banter game with each other. Accelerator still didn't know whether to put it as a good or bad thing.
The line was getting so blurred everytime he was with her now, these days.
x
x
x
In retrospect, she really was stuck. A month after catching up with school, and Mikoto's finally had enough. Uiharu has been keeping a close eye on her, with a subtlety she thinks she has that Mikoto pretended not to notice. Saten's repeatedly talked to her about comatose people's stories. If it ever hurts again and all, and she just nodded and smiled through a burning head. Kuroko kinda stopped being such a groper. And her mom Misuzu is just…Mikoto is honestly just not sure.
"You seem different."
Her mom has told her one night, after she finished moving all the dishes to the sink. Misuzu's decided to stay with her for a while, which was understandable after everything that happened, and there's always good food for her when she came home. Mikoto just wished there was less staring. Her mom's looking down to wash the plates, but Mikoto could still feel her eyes on her – dark and intent through the entire space between them.
"What do you mean?" she replied, slightly wincing at the thought. "Like...bad different?"
"No, just...different."
Misuzu smiled, eyes roaming over her daughter. "You're calmer, and less...agitated. You used to have this look when you sleep, like a pretty deep frown. It felt like the whole world was on your shoulders or something."
Mikoto sucked in a breath. So she wasn't as discreet as she's thought. She chanced a glance at her mother, and the taller woman just looked at her, eyes big and full of warmth. It's moments like this that Mikoto thinks she understood Accelerator the most. You'll only fall so hard when you have people to love, to protect.
When warm fingers pressed against her back and tugged back her hair, she thinks of Accelerator glancing down at her, the curved arch at the right corner of his lips, and made her decision.
x
x
x
"When we find him, I get first dibs to beat that freak." He added, when they finally reached where Last Order was staying at. "Damn overdeveloped cumshot owed me big time."
"If we can even find him."
Mikoto replied, scrunching her nose at his vocab. "I dug through every research facility there is in the city. His old hiding place we went to is also clear now. He's obviously on the move. Maybe scheming something again. Maybe retiring for all we know."
"And you expect Last Order to know?"
"Well, either you or her. She has our network, you have underground contacts."
"Convenient."
"It's why I'm here." She confirmed.
"Really? Not because you can't zap your shit properly anymore and might need me to pull through for the endgame fight?"
If the girl got any redder, she would be matching the stop sign standing next to their street. She's launched off another bluff about how it's only a few times and she's perfectly capable of aiming, unlike somebody who's had it so good with their all-might vector control. Accelerator's tuned her off since she opened her mouth, but his eyes hadn't stopped glancing at the bandages wrapped around her hand.
It's sparked a thought, really. That's all. Just a curiosity. They'd planned to reserve his control of her Railgun for fighting, for the barest, harshest attacks, even if the chance never came. So maybe it's natural that he'd be interested in…exploring it again, so to speak.
"Hey, geez shut your trap for a sec. Shoot me."
The girl stopped midway to gape at him. "What?"
"Use your Railgun." He repeated, pulling down the collar of his shirt to flip his choker on. "Aim it at me."
"That's redundant. We know you'll just cancel it out." She shook her head, and the distant memory surged at him so hard he almost winced back at the force. Sometimes if he closed his eyes, he could still remember what she looked like at the train tracks – bloodied, desperate and browbeaten. He'd laughed at her face as he killed one of her Sisters.
That face was now wrinkling her nose, looking him over again, and then lifted her hand up between them. Accelerator turned to face her completely.
The blue, sizzling light burst out of her fingers with an electrical hiss, just in time his mental calculations are done. He lifted his hand in return, palm open...
And wrapped his power around it. A ball, lightly prickly but gentle against his skin, and it pulled him up, curled around his palm like a very friendly snake. Accelerator curled his hand around it on instinct, and there's her electricity running through it, heavy and warm, eager and rising like sap in the spring.
"I guess you still need me after all."
He's said finally, snapping his hand shut to break off her Railgun. Misaka Mikoto just blinked at his hand, then her hand, before dropping it and turning away. She sucked in a breath, and huffed, so small he would have missed it if they weren't next to each other, shoulder by shoulder.
"Yeah. Guess so."
She murmured, and if there's a slight tint to her cheeks, they seemingly ignored it. Like everything else that happened just between themselves.
x
x
x
She's debated whether or not she could explain it to him. My friends and my family and my own house were suffocating me and sometimes I miss staying inside your space so I can just be left alone with my own miseries. She's failed more than she's won and when she's finally back in her room, her bed, with no loving stares and hushed whispers lingering behind, Mikoto wondered, if she could ever be good enough.
Next to her, Accelerator cursed explicitly as another three minutes passed and Last Order still hasn't come down to pick them up yet. Mikoto curled still warm fingers into her palm, and looked forward. One day, she told herself, maybe she will be.
(TBC)
NOTE: Well this is shorter and less contents than I've initially expected. I'll try to make it up in the next few chaps. Thank u for all the support, reviews and favorites! You guys keep me going, honestly :'D