.

.

.

VII.

Curdling the blood

By the time he landed, the whole city has turned itself into a battleground. Rubbles and fires were sweeping through the wide landscape in waves. His choker was switched on and ready, and he strolled past the misty chaos, effortlessly averting any crumbles and flames away to make a path.

"Was there a fight here?"

Mikoto murmured, looking around the scenery in awe. They hadn't encountered any civilian so far, and she was starting to get anxious.

"What do you think?" Accelerator muttered, picking up a small rock before chucking it into the flames rising up in front of them. "Best to move forward. I have a target to look out for."

"To – kill?"

"To make sure that they're dead. And if not," he said flatly, before turning to her. "Then to kill."

The Esper's eyes were as fierce and scorching as ever staring down at her, and Mikoto swallowed delicately. "Right."

One of his eyebrows perked up at her reply, like he's just seen something joshing to embark on, but the guy turned away before Mikoto could fully register the look.

"We're dealing with magic here, so watch out for any signs of it. Cover my blind spots."

As if you have any, Mikoto thought darkly, but nevertheless kept her eyes alarmed. His powers were disintegrating away any mess that came shooting their way, although she doubted they could find any signs of life in these flaming rubbles. It seemed like whoever that arrived before them had managed to do an exceptional job at leveling out the city's landmark. The flame was going steadily on its way to lap up the remaining broken down buildings, scattering black ashes into the filmy air.

"It doesn't look like you have much left to clean up though."

She said flatly, lips curling in. Accelerator didn't answer, but as they went past scorching ground and grey clouds, he knew she wasn't wrong.

x

x

x

"Someone needs to tell those assholes there's such a thing as too much force. Using a blade for severing continents on a flesh-and-blood human is just wrong. How the hell am I supposed to confirm the remains now?"

On the inside, Mikoto winced. Accelerator had a way of terrorizing people with just the smallest flick of his sharp tongue, and the past two hours of scouting deadland had quickly taken its toll on the albino's infamous already low tolerance for nonsense.

The poor, unfortunate crew member only stuttered on the other line, and Accelerator turned to cast another look around skeptically.

"Well, since the riots stopped after the blast, I guess the objective was carried out."

There was more fumbling for words, but Accelerator flipped the phone close before the guy could even finish, curling his mouth back into a frown.

"So what do we do now?"

Mikoto supplied weakly, closing arms around herself. The hot air was blowing smoke into every nook and crane of their surroundings, but her spine was running down with chills. She'd prepped herself for screams and chaos, not deadland and flotsam. What, or whoever Accelerator was told to look for, the government had already buried them down to the grave before he could even start searching.

"Home, probably."

He said, musing his hair up in annoyance. Eliminating a potentially dangerous target was one thing, but blowing a fucking human up was just batshit insane, even for his twisted standards. They'd gone all the way here for nothing, and he didn't even get to do anything of required. The whole day had just been a total shitshow, without even the show.

"Should've just slept the fuck in."

The guy muttered under his breath, and Mikoto looked away. She'd learned a lot more profanities staying with him for a week than she had ever got to know her entire life. The top Level Five was as bad of an influence as his name could ever be. By the time they were done with whatever hocus pocus that got them stuck together, she'd probably have a wide enough vocab to make the guy trip over himself the next time they did another round of tongue lashing.

"So where to now then?"

"Did you even look around at all?" Accelerator mumbled. "Just go back to the way we went – "

There was a loud yelp in reply, surprising enough to make him almost wince, hissing under his breath.

"The hell was that for?"

"That wasn't me, genius," Mikoto snapped, turning back the same time as the guy. Her mouth curled back, ready for another snarky response before she finally took a good look at what was in front of them.

"Then what was – "

The words died in both of their throats as his powers finally distorted the smokes away. The petite, dark haired girl staring back at them was as foreign as their surroundings. There was palpable fear in her eyes, although none of the Espers was paying attention to that right there. The only visible thing they could see then was the horribly familiar dark, unmoving bob of hair lying on her lap.

For a moment, Mikoto could swear the air was being literally dragged out of her lungs, as she stared unblinkingly at the silent figure laying on the girl.

On the outside, Accelerator could practically hear the confused, angry denials ringing inside the girl's head. Silently, he fused his powers in and cleared out the rest of the smoke and falling debris, opening up the scorched ground the other two were on. The quiet ravenhead looked visibly shaken at the sight of him, but still kept a steady hand on the boy's head, as if daring him to even come close to the unconscious guy. Accelerator just bit back a curse.

Everywhere he'd gone to. Everywhere. Kamijou Touma either had some other freaky voodoo under his sleeves, or both of their lucks were just that fucked.

The girl inside his head was eating his brains away with her turbulent thoughts, and Accelerator pushed back his hair in annoyance before stepping up to the other two. The brunette flinched at his closer proximity, but still kept her arm around Kamijou stubbornly.

"Chill out. I'm not here to hurt anyone," he said, before making a quick scan around them, just in case. "Not him, at least."

It took a long, dubious moment, but then the girl released her hold around the unconscious guy, and Accelerator kneeled down to take a closer inspection. Kamijou looked pretty much like he'd just been mauled through a house on fire. There were red, angry marks scabbed on his exposed skin, and dark scratches, dirt clinging to his face. Of all the times Accelerator had seen of the guy, and this was probably the first he'd got to witness such a battered, beaten down Imagine Breaker. The sick satisfaction was going to creep up, but the Railgun squashed it dead faster than he could have even felt anything. Her jumbled, incoherent trails of panic were getting fuzzy as she fixedly peeked through his eyes.

It didn't take two and two to make sense of what'd happened. The government may have created the battleground, but Kamijou had obviously leapt into the ring and finished the fight before he could even arrive.

"Where's Terra?"

He looked up at the girl, and the apparent answer was already clear in her silent, flat stare.

Fine.

"We need to get him out of here."

He'd finally said, biting through every word. The ravenhead snapped up at him, like she'd just seen him for the first time again, but he wasn't focusing on her reaction yet. Inwardly, Mikoto looked like she'd just been hypnotized, hazel eyes wide and misty. Accelerator knew that look. He'd seen it on so many girls, so many bodies before – one that walloped his whole existence for a terrifyingly long period of time, and enough was bloody enough.

"Now."

As if in unison, both girls flinched back to life. Nodding shakily, the girl looped her hand under the guy's neck. Accelerator grabbed him by the other arm as they made a jerky pull to get him up.

There was blood on his fingers when he pulled away, and if both he and the Railgun noticed it, they never looked back.

x

x

x

All three of them were back at the hospital again, and if there was one thing worse than an unconscious Railgun and a hurtful, frustrated Kamijou, then that would be it, and in the other way around.

This had to be some kind of conspiracy, it had to be. Accelerator didn't know what else to think. He, Railgun and Kamijou had to be some type of holy trinity of shit life, and if he was the next person to get knocked out, he would rejoice in utter gratitude, because by this time he'd rather done away with having tubes stuck in his veins and passed out on a bed than dealing with any of this.

Kamijou was all banged up in his hospital bed, white sheets drafting over his deadbeat body. He couldn't see anything from the guy's neck down, but Accelerator was pretty certain there ought to be a few gnarled knots of scarred tissues under there, if the injuries he'd seen were any indication.

The brunette, named Itsuwa, as he later came to find out, had shyly retreated away after they took him back, and Accelerator thought better than to question the girl, not that there was much to confirm either way. GROUP had taken everything to their hands and thoroughly demolished any remaining evidence of the attack. They all knew there was something beyond this whole grand scheme, but Accelerator couldn't find it in himself to think about that yet.

Kamijou's ward was, fittingly, right next to the Railgun's, and taking the five steps to check up on both of the two unconscious bodies was less than thrilling, even if he did loathe their stubborn, stupid, heroic guts. The silence was back again, and Accelerator was seriously beginning to question his sanity. He could do away with any explosions, screaming, cursing,.. But the calmness that hung in the air, when there was supposed to be people – living, breathing, capable people –

There's this...instance. Like the quiet before the storm – probably the result of being squished together in a head for so fucking long, that he could tell something was about to blow, and fat chances were that it would be coming from a certain girl inside his mind. Misaka Mikoto had been exceptionally silent during the whole ride home, and if there was anything Accelerator had learned from staying with the MISAKAs, then that he would be better off keeping his own silence.

It was late again, and the wind was wild, howling through the hospital hallway like the screaming of dying men. Accelerator shut the door ward closed, and slid his cane across the floor quietly.

The silence was deafening in his ears, and he hoped to God it'd be enough to drown out the soft cries in his head.

x

x

x

Mikoto hadn't managed a blink of sleep.

Granted, sleep hadn't been a daily luxury in this form for quite a while. But at least then she could still close her eyes, slink herself away from the other guy's mind, and just stop thinking.

Yet even thinking had become meddlesome nowadays. One head, even of the greatest Esper, was too cramped for two trains of thoughts. Accelerator had mostly kept to himself and away from her, and she was at least grateful for the sentiment. The whitehead was a certified bastard, but even he had his moments.

But Touma – bright, oblivious, always pushing to do right – Kamijou Touma. It wasn't the first time she's ever seen the boy getting his heroic butt kicked, but to be so broken down, to be gone from the mind. He had been her rock, her drive, her wish. And now all of that was laid silent and unmoving in a hospital bed, just like the rest of her.

Something's been wedging painfully in her chest, and it hurt. Nothing was supposed to happen, at least not like this. She could deal with just herself dead and broken, but never, not ever –

"God fucking hell, stop it."

Mikoto sprang up with a loud gasp, eyes snapping open to wide and stormy pools, wildly shifting around. She was dwarfed in complete darkness, and it took a moment to remember where she actually was, and with whom.

"In case you forgot, Railgun, we're both here. And your little freak-out is giving me a migraine."

Her frantic stare shot outside to see the small expanse of his room. Accelerator was sitting on the edge of his bed, facing the opposite wall with his head hung low. The familiar cane was placed neatly at the bedside, and his hands were pushed deep into his wild locks of hair, elbows propped up with his knees. The boy's eyes were tightly shut under his palms, and Mikoto took a silent moment to gather herself, feeling her chest heave with urgent stutters.

"I – "

"Don't."

Accelerator growled, the sound wretched out of his throat raw and scratchy. He tore his hands away from his hair, and leaned back on the bed. The usual circles had managed to turn even darker under the rim of his eyes, sinking the crimson gaze in even further.

"This isn't working."

He finally said, and shook his head. His harsh glare was directed at the opposite wall staring back at them, but Mikoto still felt the chill run over skin nonetheless.

"Th...This? What do you mean?"

"Me. You. This whole nonsense of staying in one head together." He snapped lowly. "You're messing with my mind as much as I'm fucking up yours. And it's destroying us all."

He was right, she knew. They both knew all along, even if the fact still didn't sound any better when finally spoken out.

"I…we're getting better. You can't hear me when I don't want you to and – "

"You hate me," he hissed. "We loathe each other, Railgun. When the fuck did you ever even manage to think that this would work for one b – "

"What are you trying to grasp here?" Mikoto cried. Her heart felt too tight against her chest, and it tore at her throat on every syllable. "It's not like we could do anything about it right now. Last Order's trying her best..."

"Last Order isn't in our minds."

He said, with absolute finality. Pushing himself up and ignoring the girl's helpless gaze, Accelerator grabbed at his cane and flipped the front of his bagpack open.

"If no one can tear us apart then I will," he muttered, sorting through the disjointed mess inside. "I'll hack my brains out if that's what it takes for this to go away. Just stay put and stop meddling. Your precious Boy Wonder's done more than enough already."

"Accelerator."

The addressed guy stopped at his search, and slowly turned back to the girl in his mind.

For a moment, Mikoto looked utterly lost. Her lips parted, and a sound came up from the back of her throat that indicated the beginning of a word, but she fell silent just as quickly, mouth closing – and opening, and closing again.

They stood in silence, and as the seconds ticked by, Accelerator began to realize the heavy weight lodged down his being. The girl could say his name a million times and he still would not know how to respond, besides maybe shut up and what the hell are you trying to do and we're never supposed to be like this – fucked up and together.

He wanted out. The SISTERS, Kamijou, Railgun. He wanted all of them out. Dear fuck, Aleister strike him down, he needed all of them away from him.

The word was tipping and ready on his tongue, but a familiar judder shook him out of his train of thoughts. Outside, Accelerator pulled out the phone from his jeans' pocket, and flipped it open.

"W...What is it?"

Mikoto asked, nervously fumbling with the sleeve of her skirt. The whitehead's raging frustration was bleeding all over the place inside his mind, and pushing into her uncomfortably. She'd been treating on thin ice with him for so long, and to have it directed at her everytime could only be so nerve-wrecking for so much.

But even with all the caution she could take, Mikoto was certain none would ever be enough to prepare her for what was about to come.

"It's Kamijou," Accelerator muttered, and wrenched himself away from her.

Mikoto frowned, and tried not to feel a sudden loss at the distance he'd created between them, but the words came out next stalled any other thoughts she could've had.

"He woke up."

x

x

x

For all he knew of hospitals and comas, there was always something allaying and gladden about one waking up from it. Even Accelerator himself had been on the receiving end of a few, although none would he be practically interested in going through again.

But for all he'd also learned of his punches and kicks, Kamijou Touma was one to be reckon with. And to meet the guy again, as in an actual meet-up, face to face, maybe a fist to fist later, to say that he was unnerved, could be a great understatement.

Misaka Mikoto did not share the same sentiment, of course. Her mind was in a frizz, and even if she did have some decency to try and not let it show, Accelerator could still feel it spilling all over the place on the inside, like an overflowing dam had burst in them.

It was absolutely irritating, and he couldn't bring it in himself to find out exactly why.

The first thing he saw was the glaring sunlight, shooting right into his eyes and blinding his sight for a moment as he pushed the door open. It took a while for everything to turn less blurry and morph back into view, and when he finally settled his gaze on the figure on the bed, Accelerator surreptitiously steeled himself, and walked closer.

Kamijou Touma was seated up right in his bed, slouching forward, the white blanket pooling at his lap and his bruised arms splaying on the covers. For a moment it was only silence, and all Accelerator could only see the messy, dark top of the guy's head, but then at the click of his cane against the floor, he finally looked up.

The Imagine Breaker's eyes were as piercingly blue as ever, and Accelerator was pretty sure he'd just heard a breath getting drawn in inside his head.

"You...?"

"'Bout time you got up." He replied instead, ignoring the obvious confusion in the latter's hoarse voice. "The Railgun is more than enough to fill our plates already, asshole."

There was a short moment of silence, and for a while Accelerator really considered blasting a hole into the wall just to murder the dead quietness, but everything that came out next from the hero destroyed any other thoughts he could've contemplated.

"...Who's this...Railgun?"

(TBC)

A/N: When you think you've managed to build a good cliffhanger ( ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ)

Right, it's been a while. Summer really is a writer's cockblock, not that I've been going out or anything. I just stayed home and treated myself because I've finally passed my summer class. /virtual high-five, people!/

Oh, I am going to be in Texas, 'Murica though, anybody has any cool ideas of what to do there? I'm down to try anything, esp. food. I hear they have bombass ribs...

Let's hope work won't depress me yet so that I can come back to continue this soon. Thanks for all the support guys~