"I wish you had stayed back at the safehouse 37, you're putting yourself in more danger than necessary coming with us to the SAI.," said Yomikawa. "Your testimony is one of the pillars holding Anti-Skill's case against these guys up."
"True, but without any records of me even existing, my word doesn't mean anything. I'm going to find those records; I have to know... everything," 37 replied back as they stepped out of the car and towards the crowd gathered in front of the Special Abilities Institute.
Accelerator casually followed the ladies, keeping an eye out for any suspicious movements or people. He wasn't worried about an attack though. If anything he was hoping for some altercation. The last few days had been pretty dull in the safe house. Some action was just what he needed to get back to feeling like himself again. Yomikawa led them through the police barricade, and the three of them went up the steps. Just as they reached the entrance, Accelerator locked eyes with Kihara, who was being escorted out of the building by several Anti-Skill officers.
"Ah, if it isn't Vector Boy himself. Nice to see you again, Accelerator. If you had complaints about your living quarters, you could have just sent me a memo. Blasting the shit out of my school seems a little over the top, even for you." He grinned as he noticed 37 standing behind Accelerator, avoiding his gaze. "Well, well. I wondered if you managed to survive after escaping. I can't imagine the real world's been very welcoming to a mutilated freak like yourself, 37." Kihara glanced over to Accelerator and reveled in the reaction he got out of the boy.
"That's enough asshole, take him back to Headquarters. Since he doesn't seem to mind running his mouth, take him to Interrogation for questioning," yelled Yomikawa as she stepped between 37 and Kihara. The officers acknowledged her orders and continued walking Kihara down the stairs.
"Hey Accelerator, I know you're busy here and all, but you should take a moment to check out the latest Esper rankings. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised!" Kihara started to laugh as they led him away. Accelerator began to follow him but was stopped by Yomikawa.
"Get out of my way, that bastard's not getting away with what just went down." He attempted to side-step her, but she moved to block his path again.
"He will get away with everything if we don't stay focused on this investigation. Don't let him distract you from what we're here to do. He's the lead researcher for this place, so anything we find will have him responsible to some degree. There's no way he's getting out of this unscathed, so let's do our job and make sure he gets what he deserves." Yomikawa relaxed her defensive position once she was sure Accelerator had settled down.
"Tch...Fine. I'll be giving him what he deserves soon enough anyway. Is there anywhere I can log in to see the Esper rankings? I don't like the way he sounded just now." Yomikawa pulled out her cell phone and pushed a few buttons on the screen.
"Sorry, I don't have any signal here. Maybe one of the computers inside can access it." They followed Yomikawa into the building and as she went through she started asking for status updates. Very little information remained that was worth anything, although several officers noted that there weren't any signs that students had been occupying the facility recently.
"That's odd, I was here since the beginning, and I never heard of anything like that happening before. The student body wasn't as large as most schools, but it was far from being considered abandoned or neglected. And I rarely saw students leave either. I'm a good example of what happened to students that were no longer useful," said 37 as they continued through the halls.
They arrived near Accelerator's old room. The hole in the wall had been covered by several blue tarps, as were the other walls that had been destroyed. The outer walls were the only ones that had been repaired, although the work was considerably sloppy. Accelerator walked into his old room, ducking underneath a tarp to gain entry. Nothing seemed to be out of place. He didn't have many belongings, but for some reason, he didn't particularly feel inclined to take any of it with him. He took one last look around the room before muttering "they can keep this shit for all I care..." under his breath and left to rejoin the group. 37 leaned halfway out of a doorway and waved Accelerator over.
"We're in Kihara's office. Either he didn't feel threatened by the investigation, or he's just plain stupid. He hasn't destroyed or deleted any of the files and records in his office. It's like he wants us to see them." He followed 37 back into the office where several Anti-Skill officers were downloading the contents of Kihara's computers onto portable drives. Yomikawa was busy at a filing cabinet flipping through folders.
"It's strange that there are written records here. I've always known Kihara to update my records through the various computer stations throughout the facility," said Accelerator as they walked over to Yomikawa.
37 answered him, "These are likely the original records from when the SAI first opened. I do remember them using paper records for us. I was one of the few that saw it go from paper to digital. I doubt they bothered to transfer the old records onto the new system, so that's likely what she's looking through now, right Yomikawa?"
"Yep. And man these things are dusty! How anyone could deal with this archaic form of records storage is beyond me. But at least they titled the folders so they're easy to read." She skimmed a few more folders before pausing at one that had nothing written on the tab. As she opened the folder, she saw a picture of a much younger 37 stapled to the initial enrollment form. "Uhh, I think I found what we were looking for guys. 37, does this look familiar?" she asked as she pulled the folder from the cabinet and laid it open on the desk next to it.
"That's... me. I remember when the staff took this picture. I was six years old, so... it was 1998. That's when the SAI opened. I recall them saying that I was the only Subject that had no previous pictures or identification." She continued to read the information on the form. Nothing was filled in for her name or former address. Her parent's names were listed, followed by a 'DECEASED' notation. She started to read the summary that followed that information aloud.
"Utsu-ru's daughter, no name given, was admitted to the SAI by an unknown person. They claimed to be a friend of the family, giving the child's parent's names, but no name for the girl. The person informed us that the parents had died recently, and the child was left with no one to care for her. The parents had kept her existence a secret, so she has no legal name or identification number. She has since received the designation 'Subject 37'. It's obvious she was kept hidden due to her Esper ability, now referred to as 'Rip-Off.' Her ability activates through direct skin-on-skin contact with another Esper. Once contact is made, the other Esper's ability is stolen and absorbed by Subject 37. It is currently unknown whether the Esper eventually regains their ability. Studies will be conducted to confirm this as fact. 37 appears to suffer some discomfort when her ability is activated. Studies investigating this phenomenon will be run as well. Considering the danger associated with such an ability, Subject 37 should be treated with caution. NO DIRECT CONTACT."