(How the hell did things end up like this?)
Accelerator's shoulders drooped.
He was at the area just inside the entrance to the underground mall. Specifically, he was in an open space filled with a few tables outside of a fast food restaurant. But since it was inside an underground mall, he felt there was not much difference between inside the restaurant and outside.
A girl wearing a white nun's habit and with silver hair and green eyes had her upper body lying across one of those tables. She was buried in a large number of hamburgers, French fries, salads, and other foods. All of this had been purchased by Accelerator. The girl had not had any money at all.
It had all begun when Accelerator had brought his modern cane into the underground mall to search for Last Order. In that first instant, this mystery girl had run right into him from the side.
With an unsteady footing and voice, the girl had spoken to Accelerator.
"Oh, you're not Touma. You're not Touma at all. I thought you were Touma. Why aren't you Touma? Where did Touma go? It doesn't matter. I'm too hungry to move. It smells like salt, pepper, and meat here. I want to eat it. I want to eat that. What do I have to do? What do I have to do to eat that?"
"…"
Normally, Accelerator would have considered smashing the girl's body to pieces and tossing her aside, but unfortunately for him, Yomikawa had told him just a few minutes before to try to do something good every once in a while. He really hated that kind of conversation. He had no real intention of faithfully taking Yomikawa's lesson to heart, but he had a feeling he would hear something with a similar nuance to "You didn't even last half an hour after saying you would quit smoking? Ah ha ha!" if he knocked that girl out of his way to continue on.
He was also reminded a bit of that brat by how the girl continued speaking without listening to what anyone was saying, but he would rather die than admit that affected him.
When he then kicked the starving nun into the nearby fast food restaurant and threw his wallet at her, she had uttered the ridiculous line "I want to eat this and that…I want to eat everything here!" That was how he had ended up in the current situation.
Accelerator had allowed his body to be used in many different projects in the past. All the money had simply been thrown into his bank account without being used, so this was not an issue from a monetary perspective. But he had to wonder what that nun's limit was given how many hamburgers she was devouring in quick succession.
The nun was also holding a calico cat, but it must not have been hungry because it showed no interest in the hamburgers. (Not that it could have had them regardless thanks to the finely chopped onions on them.) The cat was meowing back and forth with a stray cat that had wandered into the underground mall. Their conversation was probably something along the lines of "I here supple muscles are in this fall." "No way! I've been focusing on sharpening my claws!!" It seemed neither cat intended to declare the area was its turf.
Accelerator watched the scene of gluttony before him and muttered, "This is ridiculous… Not even dealing with that damn brat is this exhausting."
"Mgh?"
"You don't have to stop at every little thing. Just eat it all. But isn't there something you should be saying to me?"
"Gulp. Yeah, thanks."
"…That's it?"
(What a person to run into.)
Accelerator gently shook his head. He wished better luck in the next life for the people who had to deal with her day in and day out.
The nun brought the large-size drink bottles lined up on the table to her mouth and downed the small plastic bottle's amount of liquid from each one in 5 seconds each.
"Um, my name is Index."
"Can you even taste that?"
"I was looking for Touma, but I got too hungry before I found him. Then again, I was only trying to find him because I was hungry."
Index tossed the small pieces of ice from one of the drink bottles into her mouth and her shoulder's shivered a bit. Whether it was a sign of innocence or a ravenous appetite, she did not seem to notice the sauce around her mouth. The way she was full of demerits reminded Accelerator of Last Order.
"…Tch."
Accelerator clicked his tongue, pulled out a package of pocket tissues, and wordlessly tossed them at Index's face. He sighed when he saw her struggling to get a tissue out of the plastic packaging. He could not believe how much knowledge of the modern world she lacked.
(So she's looking for someone too…)
The face of that suspicious figure who had not long ago been wandering around in nothing but a single blanket floated up in Accelerator's mind. He switched on his cell phone, accessed a picture of Last Order's face (She had swiped the phone from him when he had mentioned it had a camera. The picture was out of focus and filled with nothing but her face.), and showed it to Index.
"Have you seen this brat?"
"No," she replied immediately. But she was oddly filled with confidence so it did not seem she was just saying that because she did not care. "I never forget a face I see even once, so I know for sure."
"Ahn?"
Accelerator frowned, but Index must have been satisfied after eating so many hamburgers because no further explanation seemed forthcoming. She simply sprawled her upper body across the table with a happy expression on her face.
"I really am glad, though. I'll say it again: thank you. Now I can go look for Touma without worrying about an empty stomach. Now that I'm full, I suppose I actually have less reason to find him, but I won't be satisfied until I finish what I started."
"I see. Well, don't expect any help from me."
"I've been here for a while now, but I still don't really get this city. And yet I know I will never forget what paths I go down. Maybe just memorizing it isn't enough. But I don't care as long as I can meet the people of Academy City."
"Great, now go away."
"…What are you doing? Are you busy?"
"Unfortunately, I'm very busy."
Accelerator pressed down on his cane to stand up from the chair.
In an unfortunate coincidence, he was looking for someone too.