He woke up in the darkness of an unfamiliar room. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he got up from the bed and reached for the light switch. As the room revealed itself, he noticed that he wasn't as exhausted as usual. He realized the nightmare that he had suffered through nearly every night didn't visit him as he slept. He decided to poke around through the room. In the dresser, he found clean clothes that were right for his size. I wonder how they knew I'd pick this one. Unless 37 came in after I fell asleep and put these here, I was sleeping pretty soundly.

"Well, I guess I'll take a quick shower and grab a coffee drink." He said to himself as he gathered some fresh clothes and stepped out of the room. The overhead lights had dimmed, possibly representing that it was nighttime outside. He looked at the end of the hallway where her room was and saw her closed door with no light showing underneath the doorframe. "Looks like she's asleep, so occupying the bathroom shouldn't inconvenience her." He continued and stopped in front of the door marked 'Bathroom.' He thought he heard the sound of water running, but ignored it as he opened the door.

Steam spilled out of the doorway as he stepped inside. The escaping water vapor gradually revealed the bathroom's features. Directly in front of him were the toilet and sink, and to his left was the shower stall and bathtub. Sitting in a seat in the middle of the shower stall was 37, facing away from Accelerator. Her long violet hair freshly washed and tied up in a messy bun. The rest of her was hidden from view by the back of the seat. Seeing her without her gray bodysuit surprised him, and froze him where he stood. She stood up as she flung a towel behind her back, slowly wrapping herself up in it.

He could see her more clearly now, the skin that had seemed so smooth and pale amid the foggy haze was laced with bruises and red marks. Those scars, her back is covered in them! Is this what her ability does to her? There are so many of them...

"Oh, 37. What have they done to you?" Accelerator said in a woefully sad tone. Shit, why did I say that out loud?!

Upon hearing those words behind her, 37 turned around to see Accelerator standing just inside the doorway of the bathroom, watching her. "WHA-WHAT ARE Y-YOU DOING?!" she screamed in surprise as she frantically checked to make sure the towel was covering up everything that she didn't want him to see.

Accelerator turned his face away from her, blushing a deep red as he answered her, "I'm sorry! I thought you were asleep so I didn't think anyone was in here! I didn't see anything special I swear!" His words and thoughts grew more flustered the longer he stood there. "I mean, I'm not saying nothing about you is special... I just... I didn't see your boobs, honest!"

"GET OUT!" yelled 37 as she ducked behind the chair. Accelerator made a hasty exit and closed the door, leaning against it as he slid down to the floor.

"Geez, get it together, it's just a girl bathing. It's just as much her fault for not locking the door," he said to himself as his heart slowly stopped racing.

"Accelerator, are you out there? I'm... I'm coming out now," 37 said through the door. He got up from the floor as the door opened. 37 looked embarrassed as she stepped out of the bathroom with a full-length cotton robe covering her. "T-the bathroom's all yours now," she said in an attempt to sound cheerful and break the growing tension in the air.

"Okay, thanks," Accelerator replied as he gave her enough space to pass by, then stepped into the bathroom and closed the door.

...

After his shower, Accelerator went into the kitchen to get a can of coffee. He noticed 37 sitting at the end of the couch flipping through channels on the TV. She was curled up under a blanket, her hair still up and off her shoulders. He picked up a can for himself and one for her and went into the living room. He walked in front of the TV, placed her coffee on the table in front of her, then sat down on the opposite end of the couch. He popped his can open and took a long, satisfying drink.

"We... We need to talk Accelerator. About what you saw earlier," said 37, her voice calm and low as she picked up her drink.

Accelerator noticed she didn't look like her usual cheerful self. "The scars. That's what happens to you when you use your ability, isn't it."

"Yeah. The stronger the ability, the worse the physical injury I receive. Sometimes it's lacerations; other times fractured bones or bruises. The tests they ran at the SAI never identified what caused them, or why they varied. All they could figure out was that the severity depended on the other person's Esper level. They never went higher than a level 4 though. I had severe internal bleeding and a fractured spine after that experiment. I heal a little faster than a normal person would, but that didn't help the pain at all."

I thought I could only feel this kind of rage towards Kihara and those so-called scientists for what they put me through. But looking at her now, seeing the scars and how they've made her suffer is only intensifying my hatred for that place.

"How can you sit there so calmly and talk about what those assholes did to you? Why aren't you filled with rage and vengeance? Because after hearing your story that's all I feel right now. All I can see is me tearing them apart just like they've done to you. And you're just going to leave it to Anti-Skill to bring them to justice?"

37 looked at him with that same calm look in her eyes, "There's nothing I'd like more than to rip Kihara's head clear off his shoulders for what he's done. But if I have to sink to his level to beat him, than I'm no less of a monster than he is. There's a difference between justice and vengeance, Accelerator. Don't mistake one for the other. It took me a while to realize that."

"No, I disagree. Sometimes you have to become a monster if you want to fight one."