This orginally meant to be part of one bigger chapter, but that chapter was way to big for the type of story that I was trying to make, so now it's split into two.
Also, this took way longer than it should. This chapter and the next one is almost fully dialogue, so apologies.
luizfernandocordovil007: Thanks :)
Yh: Here it is!
Xeno01: Yes, those wings with eventually be part of the story. *No big spoilers tho*
NSGCommando: Perhaps another function of Coronzon will be present. I wonder what the real-life Aleister Crowley had said about Coronzon's orginally job...
Kuvukiland: Thanks, I hope my next few chapters won't dissapoint.
Anyways, thank you all for reading! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: The To Aru Series is owned by Kazuma Kamachi.
"Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways."
― Sigmund Freud
He wasn't dead.
The skyline had once again shifted. The full-mooned night sky that marked the battle between the world's strongest esper and the great demon of the abyss was now replaced with the crisp blue of an early Tokyo winter morning.
In which case, scratch whatever the esper had initially said about receiving a nickel every time the city was invaded. If Accelerator had a nickel for every time he woke up like this, he would probably be the richest man in Japan by now.
At least the esper was getting used to this situation… except for one thing this time:
Instead of seeing the sun shining on him, the esper was face-to-face with a certain great demon staring down at him.
The two let the silence linger for a long while, neither entirely sure what to make of the situation.
Eventually, the demon finally spoke.
"You should be dead."
He should. The esper had siphoned a large amount of magical energy into his body. Even with the completion of the contract, no esper- Rank 1 or otherwise – could survive the shock of magic flowing inside them.
Unless someone had saved him at the last moment.
Accelerator looked up wearily. "You healed me?"
The demon sighed. "Yes, I removed the magical residue in your body from that suicidal plan of yours. You can probably move now without your organs hemorrhaging.
Perfect. Despite having just fought the exact demon the night before, it was clear that just being alive right now meant that the esper had succeeded in his goal.
Standing up, Accelerator was about to walk out of the district…
"Ow! Fuck!"
Only to fall straight back down again.
"However…" Coronzon continued. You relapsed on that head injury of yours once the contract was finished. This time there is nothing left that can fix that wound- magic or science. I'm slightly amazed that the only thing you once again lost was your ability to real-time calculate and walk without an aid."
So, he was back to square one. This time permanently. It should have bothered him, regaining his full capability only to lose it again, but Accelerator only mentally shrugged. After the retrospectives the esper had in the last few months, he had come to terms with the fact that his power would always be hindered following the incident. There was no point in trying to find ways to change the past. He had picked his road to walk on and wouldn't back down on it, even if it meant doing so with his injury.
Extending his crutch, Accelerator was about to continue walking away from the former battlefield before stopping in surprise once he saw Coronzon move along with him.
Accelerator gave an incredulous look at the demon. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Are you forgetting about the contract?" Coronzon exasperated. "A deal is a two-way street. In return for your request, I had to make one return."
The esper suddenly realized that he hadn't known what Coronzon had said about the contract.
"And what exactly are your terms?"
Coronzon repeated the words she first spoke to the boy the night before.
"In return, I, Coronzon, will protect you."
Accelerator almost tripped backwards when he heard those words.
So, she did surprise him.
If protecting him meant what he thought it did, Coronzon wasn't leaving her presence upon him anytime soon.
But that just raised another question,
"So, what happens if I leave the city?"
"I would have to break the contract. I can't leave the city with that damn binding spell still active."
The demon was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Technically, Accelerator could still 'win' by simply leaving the city. The aftermath would likely involve Coronzon returning back to the abyss as well as an unknown fate for himself.
He wasn't exactly sure what would happen if someone broke a contract, but given Coronzon's reaction, it was certainly not something that would be wise to attempt.
Moreover, the demon had saved him after he had completed his part. She was moving towards a different road, away from the darkness. To shackle Coronzon again after promising freedom would be the epitome of pure evil, especially after his promise.
"Then I guess I will stay there for now. Anything…"
"I want answers!" Coronzon harshly interrupted the esper. The demand came out almost as a plead- extremely uncharacteristic of the demon.
"Pardon?"
"You heard me. What got you to this point? To commit to a near-suicide mission only to throw it all away for a stupid contract?"
The demon jabbed a finger towards the white-haired esper.
"Tell me why."
Accelerator clicked his tongue as a sign of annoyance. "Tch."
Where could he even start?
Had the esper only told Coronzon what had happened, the demon could have likely pieced together his reasons by the facts alone.
However, reason didn't exactly translate into thoughts. Perhaps the demon would have understood the parallels between the esper and the Sisters Project in comparison to her and Mather's contract, but could she understand why?
Thus, the boy didn't just share his stories. He shared his innermost personal feelings about them.
He talked about his childhood and how he was placed as the first-ranked esper when his ability started to come to fruition.
"The throne felt more of a prison than anything else. The only time anyone approached me was to challenge or use my ability."
He talked about the Sister Experiment and how he accepted the task of killing 20,000 clones in order to achieve godhood.
In my naivety, I thought if I was just a little more stronger, they couldn't challenge me anymore. And if they couldn't fight, what was left to do but be friends?"
He talked about his journey during the experiment and his eventual defeat at the hands of Touma.
"The hero is the definition of good. What is there else to say? Beats the illusion out of the villain, gets the girl, and makes everyone happy. Tch. A Prince Charming- straight out of a Fairy Tale."
His first meeting with Last Order:
"I promised that I would protect her. Like you to me, I suppose. I guess I followed that promise to the best of my ability… still fell a bit short compared to the hero."
GROUP, Russia, Denmark, he spoke of all his experiences to Coronzon, letting out his personal thoughts and feelings on the events in his life as the demon listened intently.
"Can't escape the darkness once you enter; why did I even bother to try?"
"Why him?! Goddamn it. Couldn't it have been someone else to help me? Tch, at least the brat was happy with me."
"Even at his worst, he's still helping others. Good Fucking Grief. I'm I really the strongest in the city with him around?"
Throughout his story, the demon had stayed completely silent. Instead of the expected sadism, Coronzon was analytical, studying the esper to an unnerving degree.
It would be a lie to say that her new behavior didn't disturb Accelerator. The esper thought back to the mishap in which he had fallen down after trying to stand without his crutch. Not a single hint of schadenfreude was present on the demon's face.
Did his contract with Coronzon cause this sudden change in her behavior?
Eventually, the boy finished his story by concluding the situation that led to the battle between them.
"The bastard and the hero wanted me to go along with the expedition. But for once, I made my own choice and decided to confront you myself."
After a brief lapse of silence, the demon spoke her own thoughts via one single question:
"In all your personal thoughts about your situations, you seem to directly compare yourself to Kamijou Touma. Do you desire to become him?"
Accelerator shifted his body on the bench the two of them were sitting on. No matter how much he was going to deny that possibility in words, Coronzon question had succeeded in making the esper extremely uncomfortable.
The esper attempted to dismiss the question with a monotoned answer. "What kind of idiotic question is that? Of course not."
However, the retort only caused Coronzon to shake her head in an apparent refutation to esper's statement.
"You speak highly of him, but not in a fantastical way. Why? Does Kamijou Touma represent the characteristics you want to be but feel you cannot?"
"Although, if you want one piece of advice, the path of emulating someone never ends well. While it might seem like a good thing at first glance, the road is paved equally with envy as it is with admiration."
The esper nearly jumped out of his seat in anger. "I am not jealous!"
"Envy, not jealously." The demon stated matter-of-factly. "There is a difference."
"In any case, you have still not answered my question."
Accelerator felt his face turn a dark shade of red. The esper was starting to regret the fact that he talked about his personal feelings to Coronzon. Wasn't this conversation meant for him to show Coronzon that he understood her plight? Instead, it seemed the demon was now exposing his most hidden desire for the world to see.
"Why is this becoming so damn difficult? The hero does this shit all the time in his sleep."
Once again, the esper gave another non-answer. "What are you, my psychiatrist?! Don't give me that crap. As if I could ever be like the hero. Not after what I have done."
Coronzon attempted to reply to the esper's repeated dismissal only to be cut off...
"And what about you?" Accelerator scoffed.
"Even if I'm just trying to copy the hero, at the very least, I'm trying to create some good. That's more than we can say about you. After being summoned by Mathers, the only things you have created were grief and destruction."
Accelerator remarks were intentionally baiting. The esper felt the uncomfortable desire to quickly divert the conversation towards something else.
"I had my reasons," Coronzon spoke harshly. It seemed the demon was also starting to become agitated at their conversation. "I do not expect you to understand them."
"BULLSHIT!" Accelerator rage finally spilled out. "If you think I'm mentally unable to understand your reasoning, then you have no right to call out my own actions."
"Either tell me what the fuck you have been doing for all those years after being summoned, so I can decide my' understanding of your reasoning' for myself, or I will just get the fuck out of this place and leave us both to the consequences of a broken contract."
It was a bluff, but not by much. The esper was getting increasingly irrational.
Coronzon sat still for a moment before finally relenting. The demon reminiscence how she was first summoned by Mathers to lead Aleister to ruin. In return, the magician had offered her 'freedom.'
She spoke about how she had almost defeated Aleister in Africa before a stroke of fate had allowed the magician's now-deceased assistant to expel the demon from his body.
And she recalled how she took the form of Lola Zaza Crowley, playing the role of the archbishop of Necessarius while making Aleister Crowley believe that the demon had possessed his daughter's body.
The story the demon told was much shorter compared to the esper's. It also wasn't the whole story. The esper was sure of that, but it really didn't matter to him at that moment. The tidbits were enough to expose Coronzon for what she really was: a hypocrite.
"So…" Accelerator attempted to summarize what he had heard- specifically the last story. "You manifested a physical copy of this "Lola" but pretended to hijack the girl's body in order to plan all of this?"
The esper scoffed.
"Isn't it a bit condescending to deride my intentions while having your own that make even less sense?"
Coronzon scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, all this toying around: masquerading as his daughter, mocking him after injuring him, if you wanted, you could have already brought him to ruin long before he had set up the city. Long before I was ever born."
The esper continued. "But you didn't. Like a mouse playing with mice, you are dragging this out as long as possible. First with Aleister, and now with me. You wouldn't even be in this situation if you had killed me after the second attack."
The demon was getting annoyed at Accelerator's pestering. "I already told you. I needed to ruin Aleister Crowley for my freedom. Freedom from my contract with Mathers."
"Absolute Nonsense." Accelerator spat. "If that was the case, your behavior makes no sense whatsoever."
"As if can know!" Coronzon shouted back.
"Like how you think that I am trying to be like the damn hero!? HOW EXACTLY? EXPLAIN!"
"WHY DON'T YOU THINK ABOUT IT FOR YOURSELF FIRST?" The esper had dragged the demon into the same pit of irrationality.
"JUST THINK ABOUT IT, HUH? AH, RIGHT; WHY CAN'T I SAY THE SAME FOR YOU!"
Accelerator and Coronzon were now screaming simultaneously directly at each other's faces.
"IF YOU UNDERSTAND MY PROBLEM SO PERFECTLY, WHAT MORE IS THERE FOR ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT?"
It was only now that the two realized they had been in a shouting match, hurling every rhetorical question they knew at each other.
"IF YOU UNDERSTAND MY PROBLEM SO PERFECTLY, WHAT MORE IS THERE FOR ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT?"
A lot in fact, and whatever or not it came to emulate someone or committing nonsensical and atrocious acts, the esper and the demon knew exactly one thing at that moment:
Both of them understood their own problems, but it wasn't enough. Despite their power, it wasn't nearly enough strength to fix the problems by themselves. They needed help. They needed someone who had already made the same mistakes to show them a different road that could be taken.
They had shouted the rhetoric in unison against each other while dismissing the other's question, but it was only now, did they realize why the other could question their story and motives in such a way.
"I should know; I'm speaking from experience."
Accelerator wanted to bang his head against the metal bench. He ALREADY knew that Coronzon was making the exact same mistakes he had during the Sisters Project. He repeatedly told himself that fact the night before. How the fuck did his attempt at mutual understanding dissolve into this?
A strong silence held for a while before Coronzon stood back up and turned her back against the esper.
"I cannot bear this situation. I will speak with you again later."
Accelerator simply watched the great demon walk down the road.
Once again, sorry about this being a bit late, I was and will be busy with school stuff.
Accelerator finally gets the 'chance' he tries to be the hero for Coronzon only for it to go really really wrong.
Ironic, because in the last chapter, he even realized that he couldn't follow Touma's method.
But Accelerator striving to be an idealized version of Touma hold him back. He needs to be different from that, because, Touma himself isn't that idealized version.
In the canon version of the story, Accelerator realizes this near the end of the Coronzon arc, and I hope to showcase a different way for Accelerator to realize this.
Much will be revealed in the next chapter including Coronzon's full backstory.
Stay Tuned.