Stressful Week
Accelerator was tapping his finger on the armrest of the comfy chair he was currently sitting on. He begrudgingly waited for the social worker sitting on the sofa to finish writing her report. He diverted his eyes towards the clones; Last Order currently looking at her phone while Worst was grinning at his situation.
He really should have expected a visit from the child protection service or whatever their name was. Then again, he never received a visit from one himself because of reasons related to the Dark Side of the Academy City. So, it was kind of possible for him not to expect them to come this soon.
Doesn't make it any less irritating.
"Well, from what I see, both the living condition and their…" The worker diverted her eyes towards the clones. "...attitude, everything is within the law and the necessary conditions have been fulfilled, Mr. Suzushina."
"Told you not to waste your time." Accelerator stated as he clicked his tongue.
"Oh, damnit. Does that mean you're going to leave Misaka in the hands of tou-san?" Worst asked, keeping her grin on. "Don't you know how abusive he could be?"
"If there's someone among this family that's abusive, it would be you." The social worker replied with a deadpanned tone. "And that's because you like to mess with everyone."
Accelerator glared hard at the older-looking clone, who merely shrugged. The Level 5 once again clicked his tongue in annoyance. He then looked at the social worker, who decided to continue writing her report.
"Alright, that should be all." She stated as she stood up and went towards the door. "Have a nice day, Mr. Suzushina."
After waiting for several minutes, the three of them went serious. Accelerator turned his head to the left and saw a figure floating in the room. The figure was a translucent, barefooted girl with thin wings, a tentacle-like tail, pointy ears and a hole in her forehead. The girl laughed as she floated towards Accelerator.
"Ehee hee hee hee. Hee hee hee."
"She really is a perfect partner for you, Misaka says as Misaka remembers the time when Accelerator laughed like that." Last Order became rather uncomfortable.
"Like hell I laugh like that, shitty brat." Accelerator retorted without looking at her.
Misaka Worst tilted her head a little and squinted her eyes as she remembered the first meeting between her and the Number One Esper. One of the things that happened was him having a breakdown and started to laugh like a madman and attacked anything on sight.
Yep, he definitely laughed like that.
"So, what do you know about her?" He asked.
"Ehee hee. She can detect emotions-desu." The floating figure stated. "She's also a genuine social worker. Her headline article is about a little girl who died in a ditch-desu."
The floating girl was called the Qliphah Puzzle 545, a demon that Accelerator made a contract with during a "certain incident" involving "the hero, that bastard who turned into a girl, a bit of magic, and a trip to England."
"Well, at least that's one person we don't have to worry about." Accelerator rubbed his head. "Speaking of which, found any lead?"
"Ehee hee hee. Nope-desu." The Qliphah replied as she kept laughing like a hyena.
He performed yet another clicking of the tongue. Once again, no clue was found on how to return to the Academy City. The Science Side in here was not as advanced as back home and they haven't found the Magic Side if it existed at all.
Considering he had no idea about the existence of the "other side" before the war, it was likely that the Magic Side also existed.
In any case, they better make progress. Their sources of income were basically illegal. While they had no problem with it, the longer they stay in that kind of business meant more chances for them to have an unfriendly meeting with the police or the security contractors.
Hopefully, it wouldn't end up with him facing against the might of Japanese and the US military. That would be annoying.
Walking on the street carrying bags of grocery were two students of U.A. who had just recently taken an internship, Ochako Uraraka and Tsuyu Asui. They had just returned from the market where they bought their grocery. On their way back to the agency of the hero they were interning for, both of the young would-be heroes had a little conversation.
"You know, it's really a coincidence that Ryukyu's sister decided to visit her when we are interning," Asui commented.
"What do you mean, Tsuyu?" Uraraka asked as she tilted her head. "They're siblings so it's not strange that they meet with each other."
"Don't you notice how Ryukyu reacted when she saw her sister visiting? It's likely that she rarely received a family visit when working."
"Hmm, now that you mention it…"
Their conversation was cut short when a woman suddenly screamed. Both girls immediately ran towards the source. They found a crowd of people converging around a man lying on the ground. They increased their speed and - after putting down their bags - looked at the man's condition.
"Excuse us, please give us a way. We're heroes." Uraraka stated as she and Asui showed their licenses.
Upon being given a way, both of them checked the condition of the man on the ground. Uraraka put two of her fingers on the man's vein and felt a weak pulse; he was still alive but barely. On his back were several nails embedded deeply, with some only having their heads visible.
"Does anyone know what happen to him?" Uraraka asked the crowd.
"U-Um…" A woman, probably the one who screamed earlier, raised her had. "I-I saw him coming from the alley. T-There's a lot of o-of blood and h-he looked scared. V-Very scared."
"I have called 110. Help should arrive soon." Asui stated, phone already in her hand.
"Good." Uraraka nodded her head. "Should we investigate the alley?"
"I am not suggesting that. We might run into an ambush or something. Besides, we don't know how far this man has run or whether the culprit would still be there." Asui put a finger on her chin.
"Good point. In that case, we should…"
Her words were cut short when suddenly blood spluttered from the man's head. It was followed by him jerking and letting out a yelp of pain before he went silent. Both students looked at the man, shocked by what had just occurred. Uraraka once again went to check the man's pulse. This time, there was none.
She went towards his head and checked it, finding a hole on it. The brunette looked towards the street at the other side of the road, where the killer most likely located. There was also a crowd there, looking at the scene with morbid curiosity. There were also people who only gave a glance before returning to their own business.
There was no sign of the killer who most likely blending with the surrounding civilians.
As he walked back towards his apartment, Accelerator couldn't help but rubbed his head on the event earlier. He basically had to tie up a loose end thanks to Worst being unable to silence that guy. On the other hand, even he didn't realize that "really fucking hard to die" was something that existed as a quirk. She basically had to spend her entire nail just so that Accelerator could eliminate him without being spotted.
Well, looks like he could still let that on the list; learn more about quirk. It looked superficially similar to Personal Reality but there were noticeable differences. For one, quirk can be more physical, up to altering the physiology of those with one. As far as he could remember, there was nobody that possess animal physiology like a beak or something.
Though there could be one and the reason why he hadn't seen one was that said organism was being held in one of those laboratories with a Kihara working there.
"What a bother." Accelerator complained as he kept walking. The sound of a laugh by the Qliphah certainly didn't help.
"Here you go."
"T-Thanks."
After the first responders arrived at the crime scene, the police escorted Uraraka and Asui back to Ryukyu's office, who was still in shock due to a man in their hands died. When the hero found out what happened, she immediately took them into the office with her sister making a tea to calm them down.
"So, feel any better?" Ryukyu asked her interns.
"Well, it…does not feel as bad as earlier. Right, Tsuyu?" Uraraka replied while looking at her friend, who merely nodded.
"Yeah, one of the things that really sucked about his job is that no matter what you do, you will have someone who died under your care." The Dragon Hero stated as she took a sip of her own tea. "I wish that you girls only experienced that after graduation but I guess that's merely a pipe dream now."
"Not every wish will come true, unfortunately," Asui commented.
Ryukyu nodded her head before noticing that her sister was currently reading a newspaper. Curious, she decided to ask.
"Hey, Yuuzaki, anything interesting in that old newspaper?"
"Hmm?" The sister looked back at the hero before answering. "Well, it appears that this is not the first murder committed by the culprit, Ryu-neechan"
"Wait, really?!" Ryukyu snatched the newspaper from Yuuzaki's hand and looked at it. "Where? Where is it?"
"The bottom right corner." Yuuzaki pointed at the newspaper.
True to her words, there was a small box containing the article about several drug dealers being killed by currently unidentified individual. Some of them were killed by nails, just like the man on that street. The Dragon Hero's eyes became wide as she read further.
"Are you kidding me?! Eight death and possibly connected to more death? And they only give it a box in the corner?!" Ryukyu then looked at what page the box was in. "On the third page?!"
"The only victims are drug dealers. With the increase in crime, the government being busy trying to find a suitable replacement for All Might, and the focus being put on that Yakuza group, I can see why these cases are put on the back burner." Yuuzaki explained.
"Umm, excuse me." Uraraka raised her hand, getting the attention of both sisters. "Is it normal for this kind of thing to happen?"
"Well, in general, the higher you are on the social ladder, the more effort and resource will be devoted to you if something happens." The older sister replied. "Which is why the police care more about a case if say, a governor's son is a victim rather than some random person."
"It also means that if you're criminal, the police will put little effort in giving you justice." The younger sister added. "The police have finite time and resources so they need to prioritize. The more likely a case will cause a public outcry if remain unsolved, the more the case would be prioritized."
"But at this point, isn't the culprit has become a serial killer and thus necessitated more effort to be caught?" Asui asked.
"Not really. The police currently have bigger fishes to fry; the League of Villains and Shie Hassaikai. Plus, considering the victims of those two are innocent civilians, police, and heroes while this killer only chased criminals, they would still be on the bottom." Yuuzaki answered. "Maybe when one of the groups is taken out but I have my doubt."
"Alright, alright, enough with that." Ryukyu patted her sister's shoulder. "Go check the food, will you? I can smell that it's almost ready."
Yuuzaki nodded her head and went towards the kitchen. As she closed the door, the hero sighed and rubbed her head. Uraraka and Asui looked at each other before the latter asked a question.
"A family problem?" The frog-faced girl put down her cup.
"Well, somewhat." The Dragon Hero took another sip of her tea. "Yuuzaki is not someone who easily trust others, especially the authority. I guess that what would happen if your best friend becomes your bully and your former teacher tried to kill you."
"Wait, what?!" Both of the students' eyes became wide.
"It was two years ago. When she had some kind of future profession discussion, her teacher basically dissuaded her from being a hero – something that she wanted ever since she saw me on TV – by telling her that she would be one not due to her skill but due to nepotism. Thus, she should leave that to a 'more skilled individual.'"
Ryukyu took a small break and drank her tea until there was almost nothing left in the cup.
"Not saying that it's wrong but that's not something you should say to a kid." She put her cup down. "Anyway, I was mad when I found out about it and immediately went to her school, demanding them to fix it. They decided to do it by firing the teacher and the rest, as they said, is history."
"That's…" Uraraka tried to make a comment but found herself speechless.
"Yeah. Had it not been for that bastard, you girls might be studying with Yuu-chan right now."
The room became silent after Ryukyu told the story. It was only when Yuuzaki returned to tell them that the food was ready.
"Ah, Accelerator. You have returned!"
"Cut that shit, will you? I am not exactly in mood for small talk." Accelerator stated as he took a seat.
"You never in one." The bartender sighed as he continued cleaning the counter. "Speaking of which, I have a job that you might be interested more than the ones you've done this far."
"Huh?"
"One of my clients gave me this." He took out a bullet and put it on the counter. "He said to me that it's some kind of quirk-suppressing bullet."
The albino picked it up and examined it. It was unlike a normal bullet, looking more like a syringe without the pump.
"What does this have to do with the job?" He put it down.
"This bullet is actually bad news for business. If the government finds out that the underworld has this kind of weapon, they will make sure no stone unturned until they find out the creators." The bartender explained.
"Makes sense. This thing could cause a problem to their monopoly on quirk violence."
"Exactly. That's basically your job." The bartender poured himself a glass of whiskey. "Track down whoever created this and shut down their operation for good."
Accelerator couldn't help but smile at the description of the job. It reminded him of his time in GROUP. Taking out the trash that decides to become too troublesome for the rest of the Dark Side. No need to think whether what you're doing is right or not, something that he never cared in the first place.
"I see that the job is to your liking." The bartender commented as he took a sip of his drink. "Want some?"
"Keep that shit to yourself." Accelerator's smile turned into a scowl. "Any clue on who sold this thing?"
"Nope. My client took it from a rival of his."
The Esper clicked his tongue and went towards the door. When it was closed, the bartender merely shook his head as he raised his glass and stared at the content.
"You certainly know how to make interesting, aren't you, O the One Who Wields the Power of God?" He put the glass down. "For you, it's not about money or power. It's not about justice or sense of righteousness either. No, it's something much simpler."
And this chapter is done.
If you have a question or suggestion, feel free to tell me.
Review, please!