"You…fucking disabled bastard!!"
With a shout, Amata Kihara punched Accelerator for real this time, sending
him flying from the office desk he was propping himself up against. Accelerator
couldn't use his ability anymore. He wouldn't have a problem putting all his
weight into his blows rather than the "fist pullback" method he'd been using.
The result was Accelerator's body dancing through the air like stardust.
But just before that, he'd grabbed Kihara's wrist. With a stronger grip than
imagined and simple, instinctual movements on a dog or cat level of "catching
something thrown at you," Kihara's body ended up stuck to Accelerator.
"Shit!"
Kihara tried to push Accelerator's hand away, but he had trouble. Meanwhile,
Accelerator made a loose fist with his other hand and drove it into Kihara's face.
There was a dull plop but almost no pain.
That is, there wouldn't have been if Accelerator hadn't reached right above
Kihara's ear—then grabbed the hair on the side of his head and tore it as hard
as he could.
"Gwaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh?!"
With a scream, blood sprayed.
Accelerator had pulled the hair out in a clump like weeds, and he tore the skin
underneath along with it. Just like soil underneath grass, the "clump of hair"
Accelerator held had a thin layer of skin and pink flesh attached to it.
No sympathy.
No mercy.
Right in front of Kihara, whose expression had broken, Accelerator's lips
opened into a grin.
He was attacking almost entirely on instinct, and his face displayed an
incredibly primal exhilaration.
"You…little shit…!!"
Holding the side of his head, Kihara tried to back far away.
But Accelerator latched onto him like a zombie, pushing him down to the
floor. Kihara shouted "bastard!!" but Accelerator had no ability to process
language, so it was completely wasted.
Don't underest—
Kihara tried to shout, but at that moment, Accelerator grabbed his ear and
tried to rip it off.
"Ooorgh?!"
He quickly shook his head to get the fingers off, then punched Accelerator in
the face and escaped backward. He moved in a roll along the floor. Don't screw
with me! I'll kill you right now!!
Still on the floor, Kihara spotted a handgun lying there. The weapon belonged
to one of the Hound Dogs who Accelerator had killed.
He decided to use that and turn Accelerator into a beehive.
" "
But then Accelerator grabbed his hand.
Kihara tried to edge his hand closer to the pistol, but Accelerator had already
shoved his other hand into Kihara's solar plexus. He did so a few more times,
and Kihara gave up on the pistol for now, ramming a shoulder into Accelerator's
face and trying to put distance between them.
Accelerator's actions were mostly instinctual, and yet he still fell between
Kihara and the gun.
This little shit…The more ability to take action he loses, the crazier his
movements get?!
Kihara glared at Accelerator as he squirmed across the floor and exhaled
sharply. If Accelerator still had the faculty to think straight, maybe he would
have realized something was wrong. About how strange it was for a monster
who could easily deal with Academy City's strongest Level Five to be acting this
nervously.
Kihara had a trick.
When all was said and done, Amata Kihara had been overpowering
Accelerator only because he'd personally developed him. Kihara had all his data,
from his personality profile to his supernatural ability to his physical prowess—
all he'd done was learn a fatal tactic that would be effective only against
Accelerator.
Of course, to make this tactic work, he needed much more than a normal
person: a superb martial arts sense and a level of genius able to develop the
vast amount of research data into a cohesive tactic. But even if he pulled it off,
it wasn't enough to put down one of only seven Level Fives in the city in a fair
fight.
If he really could kill a Level Five without any little tricks, Kihara wouldn't
bother having the Hound Dogs as subordinates. He'd have dealt with the
piercing-covered woman in a flash, too. But in reality, if he needed to kill
anyone other than Accelerator during this operation, he always left it to his
henchmen and never came to the forefront.
But his true character had been unmasked…
…by Accelerator switching from a Level Five to a completely impotent Level
Zero.
Now that he'd abandoned all his tactics thus far, Kihara's "countermeasure"
was meaningless.
Think you can fuck with me? I'll kill you. I'll kill you for sure. Shit! Why is this
happening? I was supposed to have the upper hand at all times. I can't think of a
single damn reason to be crawling on the floor like this…
As Kihara muttered abuse under his breath, he suddenly noticed something
strange outside the window.
The "angel" was acting odd.
He couldn't figure out exactly what about it was wrong, but it still felt wrong.
If expressed vaguely, the biting sense of ominousness was gone.
Something…wrong? thought Kihara, dumbfounded. No…no. Could there be a
problem…that not even Aleister…? He wiped the sweat from his brow and tried
to stand up, then saw Accelerator's face.
His lips were moving as if to speak words. But the sounds didn't reach Kihara's
ears. Even if they had, Accelerator wasn't in a state where he could speak
human words. It should have been impossible for Kihara to understand what he
was saying.
And yet Kihara felt a blood vessel in his temple pulsate strangely. He could tell
just by Accelerator's expression and the air around him that he was making fun
of him.
Don't…get cocky…Kihara's eyes immediately became bloodshot. Killing him
isn't enough. Even if I just stop his heart, he'll have an easy death. Take more
from him. Remove from him the very meaning of death. How do I do that?
His mind raced. What was Accelerator's weakness? What were his
vulnerabilities? What could Kihara do to cause him the most pain? Direction,
writing, outcome—he took them all together and began constructing the worst
possible scenario.
"Ah-ha!" He chuckled.
He swiftly reached into his lab coat, then took out a chip.
On it was the original script of the virus he'd injected into Last Order's brain.
The data would also be absolutely required to repair her mind with
Testament.
Without it, he would never save Last Order.
He took the chip…
…and, before Accelerator's eyes, crushed it in the palm of his hand.
"Gya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!"
A scornful laugh exploded, shaking the abandoned office.
The plastic fragments scattered and fell to the floor. Accelerator didn't move.
He couldn't calculate anything and couldn't figure out what the chip's
destruction meant. And yet Kihara was satisfied. It was unbelievably
entertaining to destroy everything right in front of him like this.
"Take that! See what happens?! There's never just one victory condition! Now
you'll regret it, you little shit!! I just destroyed everything you hold dear! You
can't get any of it back!! Ah-ha-ha-ah-ha-gya-ha-ha!!"
This was the world Accelerator and Kihara lived in.
There was no moderation, no mercy, no sympathy.
Good and evil alike died. The weakest were served up as food for the strong.
When someone like Last Order strayed into that world, there was no chance
they would survive. It was obvious, not even worth mentioning: a fundamental
truth of the underworld. Now another had lost her life for being caught up in it.
That was all.
That was supposed to be all it was.
As Kihara cackled, he kicked Accelerator in the side. Stealing his hope wasn't
enough. Now he'd beat him to death. The joy of a plunderer was deeply
engraved on his face.
"See? Next, it'll be you. Might want to start thinking about dumb shit, like
whether heaven exists!!"
There was no more hope.
But salvation, on the other hand, hadn't forsaken Accelerator and Last Order
just yet.
"There she is!! I found her!!"
Footsteps came into the abandoned office.
The girl's voice felt very nostalgic, despite him having heard it only a few
hours ago.
The beaten and crumpled Accelerator's head turned toward the voice.
And there…
…was Index, her soaked white habit dragging behind her.