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XI.
Crux of the Matter
There's something stirring in Accelerator's chest, growing, boiling, burning, like he had a radiator in place of his heart, waiting to explode.
It's exhilarating – how much she can feel him from the inside. Goosebumps, short breaths and all. A few feet away from them is Kakine Teitouku. Mikoto couldn't ever recall hearing his name anywhere, even though she knew of all the facilities built for researching about their kind. But his eyes are dark, his stance arrogant and an unsettling feeling sank low in her stomach at the manic crook in his grin as he took his strides forward. She sucked in a breath.
Here were Academy City's First and Second strongest.
The first clash happened in a flash, with the ground rumbling from the force. A shock wave exploded outwards, flattening everything, knocking down bystanders and breaking glass windows. Kakine Teitoku was blown backwards and smashed into a café with a loud crash. But his voice never faltered.
"So what if you can control vectors? What if you were to smash into a large mass that can't be moved regardless of all the vectors you can gather?" the spat came from under the rubbles. Taunting and disoriented.
"As long as my vectors aren't being controlled, it's meaningless."
Accelerator ignored the jab, narrowing his eyes at the destroyed remains of the cafe. His heart thrummed hard against his chest in alarm, and just as quickly Kakine Teitoku walked out of the shop with some kind of cocoon around him, six wings like that of an angel's slowly spreading behind.
Mikoto's eyes widened. The figure in front of them looked terrifying, and horribly familiar. The wings and black matter dripping off his form sent a chilling reminder down her spine.
"Don't even think of going there. It's not the Level 6 transformation."
Accelerator spat back right away, squashing down her horror in a heartbeat. The crutch is gripped tight in his palm and Mikoto winced at the harsh sound of his voice.
"It's called Dark Matter, something he created himself." He told her instead, fuck it, by now who the hell even cared.
Mikoto nodded, looking on in wary. It's awful, what that implied, the guy single-handedly created a material with his esper ability that could not even be classified by science. Accelerator is literally facing these white wings that seemed to have come from a different world and defy the laws of physics.
"Watch out!"
The warning ripped out of her throat just a second too late. With just one ray of light Accelerator was suddenly hit with a searing burn across his shoulder blade, the girl's choked gasp reverting through inside him.
"Felt that, huh?" Kakine chuckled darkly, the curve of his mouth ever tugging upward at the look on the other guy's face. "That was diffraction. Light or electromagnetic waves change direction when passing through narrow gaps. Using multiple gaps at the same time will make the waves interfere with each other."
"Your vectors can't control it." Mikoto finally whispered, the realization dawning on her whole.
Accelerator didn't answer, spitting out the blood in his mouth instead before blowing apart the water cylinder on top of the building with one stomp and jumped aside using the rebound. The white wings that struck down crashed into the building and split it vertically in two. Large dust clouds swelled outwards and faded into the atmosphere.
"The sunlight and wind affected by the Dark Matter are infused with 25,000 different kinds of energy. Then by observing your reflection and using a filtering system that judges which energies are deemed 'harmful' or not, I can use the energies that are subconsciously accepted as not harmful to attack you."
Two announced, forever a manic gleam in his eyes. And he was right, even if Accelerator changed the rules his reflect was based on, he could immediately use his Dark Matter to inspect the change. The repeated attack and defense this way would only make Accelerator's wounds get worse.
From inside, Mikoto could only stare on with stricken horror. It's been a while since she felt this helpless, useless.. It's a dangerous path to dwell on, but familiar nonetheless as she felt blood seeping out of Accelerator's jacket, staining the white material. He has seemed so untouchable in her eyes for so long, to see what was happening felt like such a sober punch to the guts.
If Accelerator picked up on her cries, he didn't act on it. With a few sweeps he bound the winds together to form tornadoes and threw them against Kakine's wings. The buildings around them trembled and shook continuously. The two of them continuously attacked each other, moving in parallel down the main road at an extreme speed. Sometimes they flew towards a windmill electricity generator, and other times they kicked streetlights away, flying down the road at a frightening speed.
"I've done everything," Kakine spat from above. "Everything in my power to get to him, but none has ever worked."
Accelerator landed on the side of a building, breaths coming in short. His brows furrowed. Since the Child Error time he only ever knew Kakine with one goal in mind – to be the strongest, the best of them, the sight of Accelerator a sore block of his plan. Who else would the bastard want to –
He blinked. "Aleister? That sick fuck?"
Kakine simply grinned down at him. "I should have recognized it sooner. You were always gonna be in my way no matter what. I spent so long trying to get to him without even realizing what was keeping me down, but not anymore."
His wings expanded, fluttering open wider into several tens of meters long. Mikoto stared in horrified wonder, from their angle, the Second of their kind looked nothing less of a demon.
"So killing you, First, is the only and fastest way."
x
x
x
Accelerator ignored Kakine's words and stomped on the gravel road, then kicked the rocks that were sent flying up in one smooth motion.
A loud explosion rang out.
Inside the void, Mikoto watched on with wary but awed eyes. The vectors of the pebbles that changed and fired off were faster than even her Railgun, but vanished only after a few millimeters. The sheer pressure of Accelerator's waves was strong enough to feel like it would tear the very air apart, but Kakine also put strength into his wings and scattered his strikes accordingly. The waves of attacks between the two sent a terrifying surge of air throughout their surroundings, blowing streetlights and advertisement signs away.
It eventually dawned on Accelerator, as he blocked and fended off attacks after attacks, what Kakine truly meant. During their time in the Child Error program, he didn't even get enough chance to see the light of day, let alone seeing the older guy, but his motors didn't come off as ridiculous at all. In the darkness of Academy City, there was more tragedy than stars in the night sky. Chances were one of them was what had twisted Kakine's personality. Just like how Accelerator had killed 10,000 Sisters for the Level 6 Shift experiment. Just like how everything of that night changed the moment he was willing to give up his life to save one little girl.
"You know," he finally said, evenly, calmly. Maybe it was not too late to turn this thing around. "Maybe you think what you're saying is nothing less than the absolute moral truth, but everything that's coming out of your stinking mouth is complete bullshit."
"Ha, you think you're different from me? You're not. You never will be."
Kakine spat, breath coming out just a tad bit shorter than Mikoto expected, even though his eyes held the same fury since they started this fight.
"Including the brat that shielded Last Order, they're all the same. You have no right to lecture me, murderer," he laughed, the sound dry and hoarse as he looked down from above them. "Don't tell me you really believe you're exempt from your own ideals when we're both the ones doing the killing here."
"Ah, but that's where you're wrong, bastard."
The laughing stopped, and Accelerator took a moment to relive in the light that disappeared from Kakine's eyes as his mouth tugged downward.
"What?"
"All those times, and you've ever stopped to think to try and understand why you're the Second and I'm First?"
The side of the building he stood on was crumbling down, but with the vectors' help he walked forward nonetheless, spreading his arms out wide. The bloody red of his irises shone bright and taunting.
"Between me and you, there is an impassable wall."
Kakine glared down at him, fuming at his comments, but darted his eyes around anyways.
Their surroundings.
Their battle has been brutal, destroying the road, shattering the glass from the buildings, blasting off traffic lights, and blowing away trees and debris.
But something was missing.
Pain.
Glass shards had rained down from above, but there was no one who was hurt. A sweeping gale had twisted the path of those shards into falling elsewhere. The advertisement signs stood erected, shielding those that were too slow to run away. The others were the same, with not a single drop of blood or wailing screams in sight. A lot were even looking up at them, in a mix of awe and horror at the two strongest of their city.
Kakine felt his throat go dry. During the entire midst of battle, Accelerator was not only fighting him, but also protecting the civilians.
"So much for a villain, isn't it?"
The albino grinned up at him. The fury that sluiced down his stomach was hot and burning, and Kakine jumped off and pushed forward again.
"No matter. I've already figured out your filtering system. Your pathetic sham of defense won't stop this."
He made to hit another strike, but it never landed, dissipating upon close contact with the white haired male. Accelerator only smirked at his baffled expression.
"You're right. I can't control what doesn't exist in this world."
In the matter of seconds, the game was changed. Blood was still seeping out of the boy's jacket, but from inside Mikoto could feel a strong surge of powers bubbling up, and suddenly all the wiring and chattering sound from the distance she's been hearing made sense.
"But if I change the laws of this world into a new world that includes your Dark Matter and create a new algorithm…
...then it's checkmate."
x
x
x
The ending strike took no more than a minute, but it took even less time for the people to form into little crowds around them. Accelerator didn't bother passing them a glance.
In the center of the crossroad that was in upheaval, Kakine Teitoku was lying there on the ground. The white wings that had their control of the vectors taken from them, had stabbed through Kakine. A puddle of blood was slowly spreading, as if an unknown magic circle was slowly taking shape.
But his chest was heaving, Dark Matter was still alive, just barely moving.
And Accelerator was a villain, not one of the good guys.
For a moment, he turned the idea over in his head. In moments like these, one of the good guys would know to do right, probably turn away and leave the bastard out here until cops can get to him. Or perhaps they would even be merciful, staying to take care of the wounds the asshole had suffered, all the while making some damn puke-inducing speech to point him to a better direction in life.
There's a gray line in there somewhere, Accelerator mused to himself. But civilians and Last Order were almost hurt, and that is as close to unforgiveness already, thus he only wordlessly pulled out a gun from its holster on his side.
"Well, it's gonna hurt but at least this is probably better than being taken down by one of those goody-two-shoes, Second."
Accelerator cocked the gun with his thumb, and said in a quiet voice to the still unconscious Kakine.
"Farewell, scumbag."
"Wait…!"
His finger on the trigger twitched. Accelerator felt his irritation spike. She's been so quiet throughout the whole battle, he forgot the girl was occupying his mind for a moment there. The voice that called him to the void was both pleading and demanding.
When he finally materialized inside, Accelerator almost haltered in his tracks. The girl looked as pale and stricken as ever, fading marks of tear tracks running down both sides of her face and flail limbs hung dejectedly at her sides. He refused to dwell on how that happened and threw her his usual annoyed glare.
"What's your problem now? Don't you wanna get that revenge you were on about?" he hissed.
"Y-yes...but not like this."
"He broke your friend's arm. Almost killed her."
"And you broke him." Mikoto said fervently, and shook her head that sent her brown locks flying around. He tried to stare at them instead of her eyes. "Look. It's over, Accelerator."
From the corner of his eyes, he saw her feet move forward, but he didn't let her, stepping back just one step further. The tiny twinge of hurt that flashed across those brown orbs sent his stomach swooping, but he quickly batted it away in favor of the anger rising from his throat.
After all this time, and the Railgun still couldn't get it into her thick head. His index finger was on the trigger. It was all part of him now. If he wanted to archive anything good in this life he couldn't possibly be relying on the kindness of others, or some miracles from the heavens anymore. Accelerator carried out his actions in his own style.
There was only one step left to the end of everything, and the peace that was built on death.
"Stop, Accelerator!"
A loud voice sounded out from outside his view. From the crowd gathered a familiar face jumped out, wearing a green jersey that was ridiculously unfashionable, and without any make-up on her face. Accelerator felt his stomach drop.
Yomikawa Aiho.
She ran straight towards him.
"I don't know what you're trying to archive, or what this current situation means. But all I have to say is this: Give me the gun. That's not something you need!"
The addressed boy just stared at her. From the feet up she didn't even have special batons, tasers, or anything for self-protection. Everyone watching might have thought she was an idiot. Facing a rampaging esper that had done this much damage, going in unarmed was almost like suicide. Yomikawa probably knew just how dangerous the situation was for her. Or putting it another way, as a member of Anti-Skill standing on the frontlines, she understood far better than bystanders just how dangerous her actions were.
And yet here she was, trying to stop him.
"You don't get it."
He finally said, slowly, but surely, turning to stare straight down at the girl inside his head too.
"You all don't get it."
"I don't have to, but if you do this I will try to stop you."
"Are you serious?"
"Apart from that I have no other choice."
Not defeating him, just stopping him. That was her way of doing things, even if it was impossible. Just like how Accelerator chose the life of a villain, Yomikawa would never agree with methods that pointed a weapon at the children that they needed to protect. Accelerator stared into Yomikawa's eyes, dark but alert with stern determination. He could not for the life of him think of a more foolish way of living like this, but to her this was something that was worth giving up her life for.
"It doesn't matter whether you are a villain or hero, Accelerator, or what kind of world you are involved in," she said, never faltering under his scrutinizing gaze. "For me, what's most important is bringing you back. No matter how dark or cold your world is, I won't give you up..."
Behind them, crowds have started to gather. Whispers and chatters flew by as the blood under Kakine kept getting darker by the minute. Yomikawa swallowed at the sight, but plowed on anyway.
"...I won't. That's why I have to stop you. For the children I must protect, and for the peace of our world. Where you and Last Order can both happily live together."
"She's right, you know."
Accelerator blinked, and once again he was back in the void, staring down at the girl in front of him. Her eyes are huge and bright all zeroed in on his face, and Accelerator sort of felt like being thrown into a loop again because damn him and his fucked up, unfortunate fate. Heaven forbid he could be given the luxury of basking in his one small win for a minute longer.
So this was how it's gonna be.
Accelerator made his choice. In one moment, the gun that was pointed to Kakine turned towards Yomikawa. Mikoto almost screamed in protest before she saw the same gun manifested and pointed at herself direction instead, held up by the guy himself.
"You know what happens when you get in my way, do you not?"
He drawled, watching with a slow sense of satisfaction as the girl's eyes moved from his face to the gun in his hand. This is the part where she cried. This is the part where she ran away screaming bloody murder. Monster. And it will be fitting. They're the banes of each other's existence and the sooner the girl realized that the faster their entanglement mellowed out.
The step he took before retracted, and now it's him that was doing the pushing - nudging her backwards until she was flat against the wall. The gun's head cocked pointedly right above her belly button, the metal sweeping right through the thin material of her sweater a cold contrast to the fire flaring up under her skin then.
Mikoto winced at the deep grumble of his voice, heart hammering in her ribcage. The same sense of dread came back filling in to her. She knew this, remembered this feeling as clear as day, when he approached her from behind and whispered in her ear the name that sent her knees wobbling.
If this were still around that time, maybe she would have reacted differently. If she still didn't know the Accelerator better, maybe she would have pushed him away.
But in this shared void, they both knew better than that.
"You wouldn't."
She whispered, looking up at clear, red irises - the same time Yomikawa stepped forward and covered both the gun and his hand softly with her own.
"You can't do it, Accelerator." The woman told him, a gentle smile playing at the corner of her lips.
"Not anymore. Not to her, Accelerator." The Railgun repeated, eyes as bright as ever staring into his, and it felt a little like another punch to his guts. Because of fucking course it's the dark brown eyes and dark brown hair to grab hold of his insides and twist painfully at all the slopes that sting the most, that cut the deepest.
"And definitely...not to me."
She said, finally, as the gun disappeared in his hand, and that was the end for both of them.
For a second Accelerator just stared at her, the curve of his mouth widening as if to say something. But an attack made of Dark Matter came suddenly came, and immediately cut off their train of thought.
Mikoto jumped at the sound, and he immediately whisked outside just in time to see blood splatter off Yomikawa, as a strand of Dark Matter protruded through her stomach like a knife.
(TBC)
Note: Hellooooooooooo ("⌒∇⌒")
Yes yes I know it's been more than a year. If you guys are still following this oh my god thank you! I had some trouble with this story because I lost all my drafts when my laptop broke down so I gotta get a new one and then there was school and traveling blah blah blah and finally here we are again.
Please don't be surprised if some of this sounds familiar, I based the events in here from the Light Novel except that teeny part of some good ol' Accel and Mikoto there at the end. I'm honestly barely starting over with all the new chapters like seriously I just finished writing this right now. I'll try to wrap this up to the best of my capabilities because I absolutely hate leaving things undone but who knows with the way of life, eh?
Anyhow thanks a lot for all the support! I'll be back soon~