"A Meeting of Associations"
August 24, 2020
As Accelerator fell, the sensation of weightlessness overcame his body. He had been falling for at least 10 seconds, though he was unable to calculate it. The disorientation of the flashbangs he was hit with previously still had control over his mind, as it blurred with obscurity. Accelerator was unable to calculate anything. His ability, VECTOR CHANGE, was all but useless.
A fall from this height would kill him, regardless of his natural barrier. A reflection of the force that is the result of contact with the ground would be forced into the soil Accelerator would come in contact with. The entire landscape in the surrounding area would be shifted like an earth tidal wave. However, that isn't the factor that would kill him, but would be the one that killed the civilians around ground zero.
The fall from the helicopter was 700 metres from the ground. A human body reaches terminal velocity at 500 metres, whereupon it is travelling approximately 130 kilometres a second. This force is developed by Accelerator's body, therefore there is nowhere it can be reflected, bar into himself. Contact the ground will only release the force his body develops into him, practically mulching his organs, bones and tissues into a thin, pink paste, despite his ghoulish white appearance.
The entire free-fall lasts about fourteen seconds before Accelerator blacks out. He didn't regain the ability to gauge the forces around him. He fell, to limited knowledge of his circumstances – blinded, deaf and weightless. A comment spoken in the way a mute would was worded out before losing consciousness –
"But I'm Accelerator… Number… "
Darkness took hold of the creature of the night as the city itself rose with the sun. A new day was upon Academy City. A new day for the progress of humanity was at its footsteps, and Accelerator was at the backdoor of hell, kicking and screaming. He was alive. Barely.
Time past until the sun shone almost directly above the inhabitants below before Accelerator regained movement and thought. His vision was clear like a seer's ball and hearing was as acute as a bat. He was himself again, though something troubled him – his surroundings were oddly homely, he was inside someone else's home. Accelerator felt like a fish out of water, having no home to call of his own, let alone one of this size and prestige.
Taking in his surroundings with a pinch of salt, he rose from the makeshift bed that was, in actuality, a lounge to find his neck acting oddly. It was very stiff and hard to manoeuvre. However, before he could question the cause of this oddity a voice spoke out from another room and the rustling of plates and disses could be heard along with it. It sounded as if it two people were in there.
"Nyahh, mysterious young stranger! You've awoken from your slumber, of sweet prince o' mine!" rang out the voice of a poorly educated individual from within the other room, which was presumably the kitchen. Muffled whispers occurred after it and young girl, around thirteen, dressed in a maid's outfit shuffled out of the kitchen with a tray of various edible commodities atop of it. She placed it on the coffee table in front of Accelerator, poured a glass of water and broke a bread roll into bite size pieces. Accelerator looked in puzzlement over her actions.
After performing these medial tasks, the girl peeked at the clock on the wall behind Accelerator. She seemed surprised by the time and raced off to her room screaming at the person in the kitchen, knowing full well Accelerator would overhear.
"Bro! I'm going to be late to my first day at my new job because of you! It's almost 11:30! He is your problem now!" were the grumbled pleasantries of the girl in the distant room and by the sounds of it struggling with her clothes, though that could not excuse the harsh tone she talked about Accelerator with. She was lucky to still be breathing.
In the mad rush she was in, she must have stumbled putting her clothes on as loud thuds came from the room she entered. After a few moments later the same girl raced out of the door with a work uniform on, slamming the door behind her, only to re-opened moments later to spew more words filled with hatred at the person in the kitchen.
"And if I come home to see that fiery haired hussy again… You. Are. Dead."
A small silence broke after she slammed the door again and she wasn't heard of again. Accelerator still hadn't left his stunned position, partially because he was so confused and partially because it hurt too much to do so. He reached for the water within an arm's reach from him on the coffee table in an attempt to quench his thirst, though ignored the bread pieces. As he drank, the presence from the kitchen made his way to Accelerator, making idle chitchat.
"Nyahh, that girl will never become a maid if she keeps that forked tongue o' hers hidden beneath a pleasant exterior… So, big fella'… How'ya hanging after last night? I heard you had a bit of a rough time with a certain mysterious woman, ehh?" The boy prodded, sitting on the arm of the lounge Accelerator had been laying on. He looked away from him as he spoke, his gaze hidden by the deeply shaded specs he wore, so deeply coloured it seemed as if they hid the secrets of the Vatican. The chain around his neck glistened into Accelerators eye's, blinding him for moments.
Those moments of sightlessness came a severe reminder to what occurred the night previous, all his partial, fractured memories of the events that took place were highlighted like a university student studying for finals. Accelerator retained a stoned cold response to the boy's questions, ignoring him and making disapproving noises with his tongue - "Tchh"
"Now listen here, boyo'. That's no way to act to the person who saved your life! You should at least say "Thank you!" or "Cheers, mate!"" He commented, placing his arm on Accelerator's shoulder and bumping his neck – or he would have if it was exposed and not in a brace. Accelerator noticed the neck brace after the boy touched it and all the pieces came together – he must have injured his neck after being blinded and deafened by LAST ORDER and her lackeys.
"You seem to know the details – so spill it. Why did you save m- no scratch that. How did you save me? I can't remember much after being hit by a grenade in that woman's helicopter…" Accelerator dismally questioned, though clinging to some sort of superiority he thought he had over this boy. The lad nodded and was about to begin his explanation before the doorbell rang and a woman's cry came from the door. She sounded as though she was one who thought she was queen of the world – a female Accelerator personality-wise.
"Motoharu! Open the door you lazy bastard! I did your dirty snooping now hurry up… I'm tired…" the voice rashly roared then slowly morphed into a pitiful whine. Motoharu moved from his position on the lounge to the door, answering the disembodied voice's cry for passage.
At the opposite side of the door was a teenage girl with bright red hair in short pigtails dressed in an oversized leather jacket. At first, the oversized jacket seemed to be the most out-of-place piece of clothing on the thinly statured girl, since she didn't place her arms through the sleeves. This left the sleeves dangling near the zipper and teeth of the jacket. However, after the girl approached closer to Accelerator, conversing with Motoharu in casual small talk of no importance, he noticed what was wrapped around her underneath the jacket –freshly bound bandages, stretching from her midriff to her chest. It must have been one terrible wound to cause something like that.
"So, are you going to be an ingrate all your life or are you going to thank your guardian angel, Awaki Musujime, ace thief, spy and professional Teleporter?" She quizzed, questioning Accelerator in such a way that she introduced herself and instantly made him the indebted party in their relationship. A truly cunning and quick witted individual.
"I'm sorry, who are you? And why should I give a damn, you egotistical brat?" he responded coldly after moments of thought, staring straight into her eyes to relish in her shocked reaction.
She did not disappoint.
"Of all the nerve! You didn't tell me this new guy would be a stubborn man-child, Motoharu! He won't even thank me for his spared life, by the hands of the brave and cunning Awaki! Well… I can easily that it back, if you don't mind…" she flew into shock, followed by rage then into a devilish glee. She surely was a temperamental piece of work.
"Well, I can think of a better word to describe you using the first three letters of "cunning" followed by the letter after "s". How about you spell it out for me?" He responded, joking, taunting, abusing and teasing all in one strike. He was more than quite the match for this girl.
Awaki responded to his comment by striking him in the face with a full blown punch. She was about to continue a vicious beating on the crippled Accelerator until Motoharu intervened. Accelerator gritted his teeth at the loss of pride he just took along with the other side effect of the strike-
VECTOR CHANGE didn't redirect the punch.
Motoharu could see the tension between the two was reaching dangerous levels, so stepped in to explain the situation as he was to do before Awaki arrived. He retrieved an ice pack and applied it to Accelerator's swollen jaw before starting. Awaki took a seat in an armchair on the opposite side of the room, sulking and ignoring the ghast in the room.
"Now, let's all calm down. We're all on the same team here… Accelerator, isn't it? This is Awaki Musujime – she is the one that saved you from your fall, the one you took after losing to LAST ORDER, correct?" he started, his terrible slang disappearing the moment he started being serious.
"What do you know?" Accelerator snapped back, slightly surprised to the depth of his knowledge. "I didn't lose, but you seem to know more than me about this." Awaki broke out in laughter after his comment. A glare struck and stunned her afterwards.
"A-Ah, w-well, I simply teleported you back up a few metres and reset your bodies terminal velocity, but there was nothing stoping your landing on your head though. Who knew you were such a bone head!" Awaki interrupted shyly then burst into laughter. Perhaps she was no very good at taking a compliment, even from herself. She was, however, perfectly fine with taking the micky out of someone. Motoharu's shades pierced her very soul and she was put back into place, silence.
"Anyway, I have very good sources of information. Regardless of whether you lost or not, that woman you fought is dangerous and a threat to the city. The higher-ups can ignore your little murderous rampages of SKILL-OUTS and low levelled psychics, but this woman is killing strong, dependable psychics. LEVEL 4's aren't out of her league…"
"So? Why don't they round up ANTI-SKILL or something to get rid of them, that bitch isn't my problem anymore. I ran into her by chance."
"ANTI-SKILL's blood has also been spilt by her hands. The higher ups have just about had it… They are preparing to wipe her and the group behind her off the map."
Accelerator glanced at him, "So what" and "I'm involved, how, exactly?" was written all over his face. Motoharu took note and mentally skimped over his information to get to where Accelerator was involved.
"Well, that's where you come in. We are GROUP. Both Awaki and I have various… possessions of ours temporarily removed from us until we destroy this woman and her organisation."
"You're being blackmailed to do this, huh? Well those guys won't have anything on me - I don't have any worldly shit I'd care if you took from me. So if this is why you guys are keeping me here, I'm off." Accelerator mumbled in pity over the conditions the two teens were facing.
"Don't you have friends, or a relative you care about? Every man at least has a dog they love!" Awaki yelled in desperation, obviously offended. He probably struck a nerve with the now quite Motoharu as well, who was staring at a family picture with Maika and himself smiling as kids. Accelerator ignored her plea and slowly got up to leave the house before a voice called him from behind.
"Every man has a weakness. Whether it is family, friends, or themselves… There is something we, as humans, find in the world that makes us get up each day. When you find yours, call this." Motoharu spoke, poetically and scribbling a number down on a piece of paper before rising from his seat and placing it in Accelerators hand. Not once did he make eye contact, yet the quivering of his eyebrows lead to one excuse as to why. He was perhaps hurt a little bit more than first realised by Accelerator's comment.
The ghostly boy left the building after snatching the paper and placing it in his pocket. He would go to spend the rest of the day in a waiting room at 8th district's hospital. After his departure, Motoharu questioned Awaki with a formal question, perhaps business related.
"Did you end up finding the other one we were supposed to get?" he inquired, wiping his finger underneath his glasses. Her head fell low in shame upon hearing the question.
"He... isn't a priority anymore… It seems he wasn't up to our standards to taking on these guys…" she responded informally, in contrary to the rest of the conversation that was to play out.
"Kill count before he died?"
"Around 30, more than what that bastard did"
"What time did he die?"
"When we were out rescuing that dick"
"He only killed six, right? We could have saved Etzali instead of him - perhaps he'd be a friendlier, more sensitive bloke…"
"We don't even know if he'll join!"
"He will. Your weakness is your friends, mine is my sister. His…? His is his pride. He'll be back, before the days end."
The 8th district hospital is always incredibly busy, but today was perhaps it's busiest. Accelerator had been in the waiting room to have a doctor check his neck for four hours, when it would normally take half an hour to two hours. The sun was just about to set on the day as Accelerator was called upon to enter the physician's room.
"Oh! Why hello there, Accelerator! What brings us to meet again this time?" announced the doctor after spinning around from his desk to meet his patient. His face was unmistakably deformed.
"Oh, it's you Froctor." He unenthusiastically mussed, pointing to the cast on his neck. "Froctor" was perhaps the quack's nickname, since his deformed face looked much like a frog.
"Only a wee bit of pain, yes? Well these here will do just the trick" the doctor smiled and threw a capsule of medication at Accelerator, which reflected from him onto the professional's desk. Accelerator was more than pleased with this visit – VECTOR CHANGE's reflective shield was back and he would be able to remove this pain he had without going through potentially invasive questioning from a doctor he was not so familiar with.
"I wasn't able to use my ability until now, since last night. I got hit by an explosive I've never seen before… What do you reckon it was" Accelerator asked respectfully. The fact that he asked with respect showed how well respected and long the history between these two had been.
"SKILLOUTS don't have access to very new weapons, so I doubt it was anything in them…" Accelerator interrupted him to clarify a point.
"They weren't SKILLOUTS, but a group of well-armed clones. I'd never seen them before."
"I've heard about this group. A lot of my patients have been attacked by them - all of them are high levelled psychics as well. It would be safe to say that they have some sort of counter for your ability too… But to think that you weren't able to reflect something… What would Amata say to you if he heard that?" Accelerator turned his nose to the doctor at the mention of that man's name.
" "You sack of worthless garbage! I should have killed you the day I picked you out of that orphanage!" something along those lines, I guess."
The G.P's pager then rang out after Accelerator's depressing reminiscences, luckily for the doctor who had no response to his comment. The doctor flew out of the room after reading what the message's contents were without a word and Accelerator followed closely behind.
A critical patient had just entered the ward. It was a small teenage girl with curly pink hair. She was hooked up to multiple fluids and machines – blood bag, sodium bag, a breathing apparatus and a small amount of green liquid, mostly likely morphine. This girl was badly beat up, the bed sheet she was covered with was covered in blood around her waist. The "Froctor" immediately questioned the ambulance officers on the girl's situation before taking her into his operation room hastily.
"She's a goner, poor thing." One of the onlooking nurses whispered to another.
"Who do you think that doctor is? He is the HEAVEN CANCELLER." The other replied. Accelerator scoffed at the Hollywood drama that was unfolding in front of him and left into the night of Academy City once more. He didn't even thank the "Froctor" for his advice and assistance.
Prowling the streets, with the pain in his neck removed and cast disposed of, Accelerator continued where he left off last night. After a while he found himself recognizing the surrounding area – it was the suburb Motoharu lived in.
With no activity on the main streets, Accelerator proceeded into the alleyways of multiple apartment complexes. Within moments of turning the third or fourth corner, he felt the reflection of another body collide with him and noticed a small object fall at his feet. He picked it up and mocked the boy for having it in his possession.
Provoking the young boy into attacking him, Accelerator was finally ready to break the losing streak he was on. Both LAST ORDER and Awaki made absolute fools out of him, but this young, cowardly boy was an easy target. He was going to be "Number 1" in his own mind again soon.
A back and forth of words occurred with Accelerator making prodding attacks to force him into fighting. Eventually, the boy came at him with full force. Accelerator grinned in anticipation and thought – 'Finally, time to start winning again!'
He didn't keep that thought for long.
The boy struck him hard in the face, knocking him out cold onto the ground below. It came so fast and was such a surprise that Accelerator had no knowledge of what occurred between that time and when he awoke in a spacious car with a dominating presence of a woman driving next to him. She glanced to him and acknowledged his presences.
"Well you've certainly changed, Touma. Since when did you bleach your hair and get so sickly?" She jested, laughing. Accelerator remained quiet, though his body language asked questions to which the woman answered.
"I'm Aiho Yomikawa. Head of the ANTI-SKILL in 8th district… and you are…?" she paused, waiting for his response.
"Accelerator…" he spoke, filled with shame. Accelerator had never lost before and now he had lost three times in a row. His pride had been taking a beating and he was finally showing it.
"Well, Accelerator, apparently you were knocked out by a boy named Touma Kamijou. I didn't take him to be such a punk to fight such a sickly kid as yourself… he was so well mannered when that incident with the assassin occurred." Accelerator wasn't listening to her words until "assassin" came up, which piqued his interest.
"Assassin? Was it a girl? Brown hair, school uniform?"
"Wow, how'd you know that? Yeah it was. The group she was connected to has been causing the higher ups all sorts of problems - they have no idea what to anymore… Everytime we capture one of them they are killed by a sniper that we can never find. They seem to disappear with the wind."
Just as she confirmed his suspicions, he remembered the conversation he had with Motoharu earlier, about taking down LAST ORDER. Rage filled his mind with the thought of her name - she was the one that took away his gorified status of "Number 1". Taking down that woman became the only thought in his mind, and he was willing to do anything to do it.
Asking Aiho if he could borrow her cell phone, which she allowed, he began rummaging through his pockets for the piece of paper he was given earlier with Motoharu's number. Unable to find it, he noticed a piece of paper with writing on it in the ash tray amongst a mountain of coins.
"Sorry, I knocked this guy out. Please help him." was displayed on one side, and the number on the other. He dialled it ravenously - the thoughts of revenge manipulated his actions, or how he went about them.
"Nyahhh, Motoharu here!" was the answer he was greeted with.
"Specs, its Accelerator. Look, you know a lot about this "LAST ORDER", right? Well I want to help you remove her… on one condition." He replied ferociously, he demanded complete dominance in the transaction.
"Oh, well let's hear it, bug eyes." Motoharu responded with malice, taking offense to the nickname he was called.
"I get to kill LAST ORDER singlehandedly." There was a pause after his demand was heard.
"We'll have to discuss it in person. Meet me tomor-" Accelerator interrupted before he could finish.
"No, tonight."
"Sorry, bud, but that is a conflict of interest right now. I'm expecting a source of information any moment now. Meet me at my home, 3:15 tomorrow. Any earlier and the deal is off." Motoharu organised before cutting the connection. Aiho, who was eavesdropping, offered a proposition to the disappointed boy.
"So how about you stay at mine then? Sounds like the plans you tried to make didn't work out to well."
Aside from the nod of affirmative, Accelerator ignored Aiho. Instead, he took a pen and wrote a time and date on the piece of paper with Motoharu's number on it:
"3:15 pm, August 25th"
"A Meeting of Associations"
END