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XVII.

Come rain or shine

Kihara Gensei, as it turned out, had retreated back to an old research facility in School District 17. Accelerator had half a mind to just barge in there and blast the bastard to bits and pieces, morals be damned, but the huge cynical part inside him (and the chick's uptight good little girl ass) dismissed the thought faster than he could do anything about it. They were up against a Kihara here, and whatever it was stealth should be the first priority.

He texted Mental Out, just to give the girl a head's up, and made sure Yoshikawa have come home to watch over Last Order, before changing into his gears and heading out.

The night was humid and quiet, quarter to midnight with the barely there humming of cars running and the occasional breeze passing by. Accelerator tread through the empty streets, white hair peeking through his black hoodie and red eyes hidden beneath his bangs as he ran through the plan in his head. Go in, knock Kihara out, put the nasty brain in an ice box that should probably be available there, call the cops and maybe beat the bastard up a little bit, then dip. It should be simple enough, but with his shit luck, and Kihara, who knew.

"You should cut your hair. It's getting kinda long."

Accelerator blinked at the sudden interruption, before glaring at the figure in his mind. "Well fuck me, I didn't know the state of my goddamn hair was any part of your business?"

"It's just an observation! Besides, it can get in your way while in battle."

"Jesus Christ, worry about other stuff. Now quit it, you're starting to sound like my girlfriend or some shit."

He said, making a turn at a corner and inwardly watched with satisfaction as the girl sputtered while turning various shades of red. It was so easy, riling her up. Maybe he should do this more often.

"Hey listen, I'm thinking."

"Really? That's shocking."

"Shut up." He sighed. "This is a Kihara we're talking about. I don't fuck with these bastards, and they always have something up their sleeves. Since this is his research facility, there could be traps. Hell, this entire thing might be a trap for all we know."

The Railgun looked at him, before nodding. Given their history, she didn't need further explanations. She stood up straight, hands loosely at her sides, wrists still as thin and frail as the time he held them in his hand. Accelerator promptly looked away.

Some thoughts were better left unsaid, sometimes.

x

x

x

Mikoto tried not to dwell over the idea in case she'd overthink it just like she always did with everything, but Accelerator was right. They didn't realize how much they all depended on stable dynamics until then. Volatile outbursts weren't good for the group, and both Accelerator and herself have been wild cards from the beginning. They'd have to run a well-oiled machine where both had their privacy and purpose to keep themselves sane.

With Academy City and Level Fives like them constantly at odds, there was no peace.

Her thoughts drifted to Accelerator, and that awful two-second hand/wrist-hold they shared. Maybe it wasn't a spark that she felt. Maybe it was just the need to connect with someone. But if that was the case, dancing with Touma should have done the trick, she thought.

Mikoto knew she liked Kamijou Touma — she knew everyone knew. It may not be love, but it was something close. She saw the real him before anyone did. Deep down though, in the back of her mind sometimes she wondered, if given the opportunity, that she could feel for someone else too.

Because Accelerator, as tough as he tried to pretend he was, had grown into a person worthy of forgiveness and more. She saw it in the way he helped Yoshikawa with the dishes after supper, the way he peeked into Last Order's room before going to his own every night, the way he poked into the Network to check on the rest of the Sisters every weekend.

The way he stayed back with her when she couldn't sleep because of their nightmares.

Mikoto admired him, and that was something she thought she'd never feel.

Maybe it was just that, but sometimes, when she was alone with her own thoughts and lingeringly ghosted her fingers over her left wrist, Mikoto wondered.

x

x

x

There was something strangely daunting about tonight, Accelerator can't exactly pinpoint what. The ten-leveled building stood tall and quiet in front of them, the guard post at the gate was void of people, which only further increased his suspicion.

"It's empty. But should we take a detour?"

Inside his mind, the Railgun asked, ever always so eager to jump the gun. Accelerator leveled her with a look, inwardly taking note of her new cautiousness, but took a turn nonetheless in response. They reached the backdoor of the building and snuck inside with ease as he deactivated all the cameras in the hall.

It was to be expected that the building would be void of people, but even with his vector control Accelerator still couldn't pick up any trace of Kihara around. His mental alarm was going through the roof when they reached the destinated coordinate, but the room was indeed empty. Except for an ice box sitting next to a computer set.

They stared.

"Uhm...I don't have a good feeling about this."

"No shit."

He said, clicking his tongue as he turned on the computer, hacking it open with the girl's little help, and made a quick scan of all the available data on it. Kihara Gensei was definitely here, judging from all the Child Error and Level Five's files, but the bastard himself was nowhere to be seen. He knew the Railgun was trying to think positive, maybe the freak went home to rest for the night, but even that was vain. He stared at the ice box in thought, just when his phone beeped with an alerted text message.

'It's done. Whenever you guys are ready.

5.'

x

x

x

"I'm pretty sure you don't even need to read my mind to know what I think about what you're doing right now."

"You're right. But that's more because I don't care. Now shut up."

"I must really suck if you're trying this hard to get me out."

"No shit." Accelerator scoffed, hauling the ice box with both of his hands as they waited for the elevator. "You're the worst."

In hindsight, he knew the girl made perfect sense. No Kihara would be leaving his best asset lying around without any traps set up. But what was the possibility of them knowing the Railgun's consciousness was living inside his mind? He was even kind of surprised her body hadn't been taken for experiments yet, now that he thought about it.

"Aren't you supposed to be happy?" he retorted back instead. "You're finally gonna be free from all this bullshit."

The girl froze as soon as his words hit her, and she turned to peer at him silently.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Right. And I'm pulling rainbows out of my ass." He stared at her flatly. "What the hell was that?"

She stared at him, as if turning the question around in her head before shrugging and turning away. No answers.

"If this is about the chances of both of us dying I already told you what I think about it." He continued anyways, red eyes narrowing at the tiny flinch the girl made. "It's either die trying or being stuck together like this until fuck knows when. And you and I both know what we want here."

The Railgun nodded again, and immediately he could tell something was off – just something about her seemed to stiffen, freeze her on the spot. "What's wrong?" he finally asked, and she looked up to blink at him in surprise. Distinctly he realized she probably was. When was the last time he ever even asked about someone's well being, let alone hers.

Mikoto didn't know quite what to say to that, because she didn't even know what to make of it herself. Not when she thought back on how this all started – a desperate, careless fight, and a lifetime of pain because of it.

She should be glad to be rid of him. Of them.

It was the only thing that made sense.

And yet, here she wasn't. And a traitorous little voice in her head added in a whisper: not even close.

"I -", Mikoto murmured, "I think I'm scared of waking up." It wasn't the whole truth, but she did mean it.

"Would you rather stay in here then?" he said back, incredulous. "I seriously doubt I'm a better companion than your actual life problems."

"You'd be surprised." She said, and if that was a real smile he saw at the corner of her lips, Accelerator hoped his then scowl was enough to hide his actual surprise.

In hindsight, Accelerator knew exactly what he should say to that. He should scoff, mock at her perfectly rich good little girl act she put up so well, dwell in her anger and misery at his stabbing words. He shouldn't be looking at her trembling hands and quivering lips. Accelerator knew they'd both rather go back to dealing with the silence. It was better than saying anything more that could leave them wondering and stuck in whatever demented despot they put themselves in.

What can he say? Hindsight was a bitch.

"If - If I've never given up my dna and you were never experimented on, do you think we would have met?"

She stared at him, and the way the elevator light twinkled in her gaze sent more shivers across his spine. That amber reflected in her eyes has such a vibrancy to it that it made Mikoto herself seem otherworldly, like her eyes are casting spells on him. He wasn't used to feeling this way— in fact, he's never felt this way and it was damn confusing and damn annoying.

"I don't know," he said, and distinctly realized how honest that was. He waited for her surprise to pass and her to turn away before continuing.

"But just for the record, I don't mind this present."

x

x

x

He had no idea if it was true, but he could swear on Aleister's grave there was a ghost of a touch lingered on his hand.

"There's a huge chance of hallucination, so make sure to stay alert." The Mental Out had warned them, fiddling with the remote.

Huge chance his fucking ass. Accelerator gritted his teeth, swallowing down the bitterness and trying not to swallow the rain above them instead. It was leaking through the corners in his room, down the scratched and broken skin of his face, and it stung like hell.

Giving a damn about people freaking sucked.

He never should have started in the first place.

He spat, wiping his mouth out of another trail of muddy water dripping on him. The Railgun must be here somewhere too, it was barely a test the Mental Out was doing and yet here he was living through both of their nightmares again already. He had barely seated himself near the Railgun's bed as Misaki Shokuhou hooked up the machine with the brain that the mental onslaught had started.

Voices were stinging his already awful headache, and the rain hindered his vision so much he was swimming through the blurry images flashing around him. It was all mental, mentally, he knew, but nothing could deter his hands from shaking and his breath from quickening.

If this was anywhere else, any other time - Accelerator would have left himself to drown in the assault like he always did with his recurring nightmares. But then he thought of Last Order – saw flashes of her smile in his head and felt the phantom fluttering in his stomach as he remembered that look in her eyes – soft, warm and filled with promises and hope. Yoshikawa with her perpetually tired eyes and concerned questions. The SISTERS as they tentatively listened to him whenever he checked up on them. Their Original staring at him with her wide, curious eyes.

It's a drug. It's a fucking disease. He couldn't have resisted even if he wanted to.

And it was going to get him killed.

After all, he wouldn't be out here if it wasn't for the fact he cared about these assholes in the first place.

He tried to shake them from his thoughts. Tried to close his eyes and let the sound of the rain battering down around him carry him away.

It didn't.

He saw only tear-filled brown eyes in the darkness, and remembered the tiny warmth of a thin, frail wrist around his fingers and he trudged forward until he heard her.

The Railgun was crying, drenched in rain and curled up into herself as she rocked back and forward, tremors running through her so much even he could see from this distance. He made a break until he was kneeling in front of her, tugging her by the arms before she snapped out of her trance and started fighting him back.

"Hey hey stop struggling goddammit...it's just me."

The girl froze at his words right away and snapped up in shock. Her face was stricken with tear tracks and tiny scratch marks everywhere. He released her arms as if burned, and leaned back to put some space between them.

"A-Accelerator?" she murmured, eyeing him up and down in wonder. "But I - I thought I killed you...the transformation…"

"Nothing happened." He shook her question away and made to stand up before he noticed it - a cut inside her wrist that was bleeding fresh blood, black crumbs surrounding it like parasites.

"What the fuck?! Are you doing that to yourself?"

He growled, snatching her by the bleeding wrist to inspect the wound closer but she pulled it back, cradling the hand to her chest.

"I - I thought I ruined everything. It was the only way I could free myself and save everyone from it."

Mikoto shook her head frantically, retreating into herself even more at the guy's crimson glare. She didn't know what was going on. One moment she was inside his mind and the next something broke out of her in black sludge and started blasting everything in its way, clawing into her skin and for a moment she really did let it. Until she saw him.

"It's fine. I'm fine now. We just have to go…"

"Fuck yeah we are. But not without you explaining first whatever that shit was you were doing to yourself before I got here."

Mikoto startled, before glaring up at him in anger. How many times did she have to bleed her heart out for him to understand? Resentment was swelling inside so much she pushed herself up to see him eye to eye.

"What did it look like I was doing?" she yelled right back. "I was destroying everything and killing everyone. What else was there for me to do?!"

"Maybe pull your head out of your ass and actually try to fight it?!"

"No one was alive anymore. There was no point."

"Fucking hell, and I thought I was the coward."

"Just stop it. Like you would care."

"And if I did?"

He said, so sudden and serious it left her reeling back in shock. The red of his irises so wide and fierce it almost hurt to not look away.

"Like hell I would let you off that easily." Accelerator spat, yanking her close by the wrist until his eyes were the only things obscuring her vision, not minding the black crumbs cutting into him. "You think you're the only one suffering in this? That you can just kill yourself and all your misery will be gone? Did you ever even stop to think about what will happen to the ones you leave behind? Your family, friends, the goddamn SISTERS, fucking hell, even me?" He pulled the sleeve of his sweatshirt down, and pushed their wrists together until the sharp fragments dug deep into his skin and made a cut so identical to hers it left her crying out, trying to pull herself away from him to no avail.

"We're the ones who did this to them and to ourselves, and I'll die before I ever let you forget that."

They panted, sweating, and stared at each other. Mikoto was suddenly hit with the fact of how close they were, and how warm his body was. She couldn't tell how her gaze was looking at him, but the way the light twinkled in his eyes sent more shivers across her spine. That crimson reflected in his eyes had such a vibrancy to it that it made Accelerator himself seem so otherworldly. Distinctly, she got the feeling that they had somehow done something really wonderful, or really terrible without realizing it.

"I can't believe you just did that." She whispered, feeling the old trails of tears on her face starting to burn hot again.

"I know." He nodded, the movement made the wet bangs on his forehead flutter against hers. "Make a deal with me. Never do this again. And I won't do it anymore if you don't, okay?"

Mikoto swallowed the lump in her throat. "Okay." Her voice was creaky, barely over a whisper. She wished she wasn't going to cry, that would have been just the perfect ending to this weird predicament they were in, even though it was in vain. She could feel every fat drop of tears roll down her face already, but Accelerator was letting her lean on him without being a prick about it, so it wasn't so bad.

Above them, the rain stopped.

x

x

x

"Hold on, I think we got them!"

(TBC)

NOTE: I am soooo very sorry this took so long, but hopefully the entire arc of Accel and Mikoto here is worth it. There should be more of the others' POVs next chapter, I just really wanted to write some that solely focused on our two Fiveys~

Thanks for sticking with me for so long. Let me know what you think and be sure to stay safe out there!