EPILOGUE
One Will and a Small Key
The_Present_Target.
“Hmph.”
Accelerator, lurking in the dark, cast a glance at the front gate of the Dangai University database center; upon finding Misuzu’s face there, he averted his gaze.
There had been more Skill-Out goons left in the facilities than he’d anticipated, and it had eaten up a lot of time neutralizing all of them.
Still, considering he’d had to do that, and Misuzu was safe anyway, the person Accelerator had met in the dome must really not have been her enemy. That person might have been wounded on the way, though, seeing as how Misuzu was seeing off an ambulance.
Doesn’t matter to me, concluded Accelerator, exiting the lot from the database center’s back door.
There, he was addressed by a voice.
“I heard you’d be here. Judging by your expression, I’d say things went well.”
“Unabara,” he stated tersely, instantly looking that way.
His smooth brown hair and friendly, youthful features didn’t mesh with this darkness. And when he came closer, Accelerator felt an odd pressure weigh down on his chest.
Without letting it show, Accelerator casually stepped away from the man.
Unabara’s hazy visage spoke to Accelerator, who had blended perfectly into the dark.
“Even so, more overtime? You aren’t getting paid, and I cannot abide overwork.”
“Quit blabbering,” Accelerator quipped flatly.
Looking again, near Unabara stood Motoharu Tsuchimikado, and even Awaki Musujime. That meant all of Group’s members were here.
“…What do you want? The higher-ups tell you to come punish me?”
“No way. It’s about the future,” Tsuchimikado said, eyes slightly wide and staring at Accelerator from behind sunglasses. “First, about Misuzu Misaka. It seems, from what we gleaned listening from a distance, that she indeed no longer wants to bring her daughter out of Academy City. So the hit is off. A lucky fluke, but things are settled for now.”
“You think our bosses are gonna accept such a vague conclusion? They can say anything they want. Who knows when they’ll change their mind?”
“They’ll accept it… Mostly because the idiot Unabara over here tried real hard,” said Tsuchimikado, like he had given up.
Accelerator gave Unabara a dubious look, but Unabara smiled amid the darkness and said, “Well, it seemed like that young man kept his promise to protect the one I love and the world around her, so I just figured I needed to do my best as well. Maybe I was a little too gung ho about it, though.”
“…That’s all this gallant bastard’s been saying. He won’t give us any real answers,” said Musujime, shaking her head, a hand to her forehead. “Whatever he did, it must have been ugly.”
Tsuchimikado relaxed his shoulders. “Anyway. Misuzu Misaka should be fine. You did good for your first assignment, including the overtime, Accelerator. How do you like Group’s MO? We generally just clean up after other people and the half-eaten food they leave sitting around. But did you find this to be worth it?”
“Piece of shit. I had violence, betrayal, and killing all in one day like some kind of sick parade,” Accelerator spat in response.
Tsuchimikado nodded. “That’s true, but even in those situations, we need to protect our own weak points. Abandoning them would make life easier, but nothing we do will ever rid ourselves of these…useless treasures.”
“…”
“I have my stepsister to think about, and Unabara has the one he holds dear. For Musujime, it’s the friends who once worked with her, and for you, it’s the clones.” Tsuchimikado’s lips twisted into a sardonic grin. “We’ll need to think outside the box to protect what’s precious to us. The higher-ups give us surface-level victory conditions, but to be perfectly frank, they’re all lies. The same as gambling joints on the outskirts of town. It’s designed so that the house wins, no matter what. We can’t outwit them while playing by their rules. We need to always be thinking about how to win anyway, or searching for exploitable holes in the rules, or flipping the entire chess board and storming off.”
“Why talk to me about this? It’s not like I’m trying to make friends with you people.”
“Because you could end up being a good card for us to have,” answered Tsuchimikado lightly. “We don’t know what they’re planning, but the higher-ups seem to think you’re pretty valuable. Fiddling with your electrode seems to have placated them for now, but that might actually give us an opportunity. Let’s join forces, Accelerator. I’ll teach you how we live around here. Don’t go dying on us too easily.”
“…”
Accelerator looked at the members of Group.
Motoharu Tsuchimikado, Mitsuki Unabara, and Awaki Musujime.
They all seemed very peculiar, and there was no telling what they were actually thinking, deep down. But Accelerator fit into that glove nicely, too. He wouldn’t hesitate to use them as disposable pawns if he needed to do it to protect Last Order.
“Interesting,” said Accelerator. “But hold me back, and I’ll leave you behind. Our relationship is based on net value. Ask for anything that tips the scales, and I’ll destroy all of you.”
“Ha. You’ve got lip, kid,” said Tsuchimikado with a laugh, turning his back.
And then, so casually as to invite them to karaoke, he waved a hand to urge them on.
“Come with us. And soon, we’ll get back at the bosses.”
Accelerator’s greatest shackle was the safety on the electrode that allowed the higher-ups to control it remotely.
Since he couldn’t use the Sisters’ proxy calculations in areas where radio signals didn’t reach, he couldn’t circumvent the higher-ups’ controls by simply blocking them. That would mean cutting off his own link to the Sisters as well.
At a glance, it might have looked like a perfect means of control. But on the other hand, if he could just solve that problem, it could give them an opportunity to outwit their bosses.
First I’ll need the blueprints, he decided.
He’d pay the frog-faced doctor a visit and acquire the blueprints for his choker electrode. Then he could reverse engineer the safety mechanism and, if he had time, maybe even create a second electrode.
Oh, this is fun.
He broke out in a grin.
From afar, they might have looked like a group of kids around the same age, walking through the city streets at night while chatting.
But for Accelerator, there was only something hot churning within him.
——That “man” who he’d talked to on the phone, just before his electrode had been switched off.
He might have been comfortable sitting on a sofa somewhere right now, or walking through this very location nearby, like them. You could use devices to fake your voice over the phone, so even the man’s gender was questionable.
But that shithead would lead him to the mastermind.
The one behind all the misfortune.
It’s so fun when there’s a goal.
That night, in the hospital, the frog-faced doctor doing adjustments on Last Order’s body received an urgent communication. It seemed the usual young man had once again overtaxed himself and was being brought here now. He’d answered the first-aid team’s report of an emergency case with a dry grin, though maybe he shouldn’t have.
The virus that had been injected into Last Order’s head by Amata Kihara on September 30 had been entirely eliminated, now a thing of the past. A little rehabilitation, and she’d be able to return to her regular life.
A virus, though…
Had overthrowing it obstructed a part of Aleister’s plan? Probably not. If that was a possibility, he would have never released Last Order so easily. As always, it was like all the important parts had been painted over, dealt with in a quiet, peaceful way, at least outwardly.
But there was no doubt he was using Last Order’s unique physical condition for something. Follow that line of thought, and one might realize what he was trying to do.
The frog-faced doctor looked at the girl, who lay on the bed.
Her body, at least, indicated that she was about ten years old. So small she made it seem like they’d gotten the wrong size bed for her.
“That’s enough adjustments for today. I need to see to another patient. Be a good little girl and go to sleep, all right?”
The girl, Last Order, nodded a little. And then, moving her small lips, she spoke.
“He…”
The frog-faced doctor remained silent and listened.
“…Where is he? asks Misaka asks Misaka.”
That was, in all likelihood, a question nobody could answer. The frog-faced doctor, of course, couldn’t say; but even Aiho Yomikawa, his provisional guardian, and Kikyou Yoshikawa, who had created the clones, apparently didn’t know where Accelerator was right now.
Even so, the frog-faced doctor said this: “He’ll be back soon. Very soon.”
“Okay… Misaka wants to see him soon, too, says Misaka says Misaka, nodding.”
“Good night,” said the doctor, leaving the hospital room.
He walked down a long, dark hallway, heading for Touma Kamijou, who had just been brought in.
As he did, he saved Last Order’s words in his heart.
He was the kind of person who would procure anything his patients needed.
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