Part 6
The ocean surface in the Strait of Dover had been solidified and British and French magicians clashed atop it. The battle was almost a free for all, but the British forces were starting to rally together around the knights who were borrowing the power of Curtana Original via the mobile fortress Glastonbury.
However, humans tended to push back harder when others pushed against them.
The French magicians were not about to simply fall back upon seeing the values and conditions. The harder they were pushed against, the more ghastly an expression they held as they used various attack spells.
A few of the British knights fell back a bit.
It was a just a tiny bit and they were doing it to reevaluate the distance between them.
Second Princess Carissa interpreted it as weakness and casually took a step forward from the front line.
"Oh, no. At this rate, those French bastards are going to capture me and then gang rape me to death."
"…!!!???"
With that, the British knights could not give up.
It felt like their bodies were at the limit as they swung their swords, but they just barely managed to keep Carissa from being swallowed up by the mass of French forces.
Carissa put her hands on her hips.
"Really, you shouldn't hold back on the battlefield. You should have been fighting that hard from the beginning."
At that point, Knight Leader finally used a communications spiritual item to contact Windsor Castle.
"That's right. Connect me to Queen Elizard! Hurry!! I need to get permission to spank Lady Carissa!!"
"Hey, stop that!! Knowing mother, she's likely to focus all of Curtana Second's power on you solely for that purpose!!"
As they yelled at each other while fighting over the communications spiritual item, the larger battle continued. As many swords and spells crossed, Carissa glanced at the French magicians and spoke.
"Hmph. They have no individuality," she practically spat out. "There are plenty of people with legitimate strength, but they're lacking any kind of deciding blow. Are they trying to say that modern military force is solely in organizations? They can't stand up to us with our Saint and our knights."
An explosive noise rang out.
It came from above Carissa's head.
A bolt of lightning shot down from the sky directly for the second princess.
However, she remained unscathed.
The knights around her must have had a means prepared because they all swung their swords above her head and blew the lightning away.
"In the end, the Holy Woman of Versailles can only work from a distance," Carissa said sounding rather uninterested. "It's clear that you fundamentally cannot leave the palace. It isn't that there is a seal on the palace preventing you from leaving. Instead, your body cannot live without the magical environment inside the palace. You have just been readjusted to that extent down to the internal organ level by the foolish leaders of France that are afraid of you."
Her words were most likely reaching the ears of the Holy Woman of Versailles in her distant palace.
No response came.
Carissa continued regardless.
"And you cannot finish someone off so easily with spells that give you the needed range."
Assume a magician has a power of 100.
If the magician used all of his power for attack, his attack power would be 100. However, spells that extended the magician's range also lowered his attack power proportionally.
There existed spells that could apply damage to any spot in the universe completely ignoring the physical distance, but the Holy Woman of Versailles's spells did not have that characteristic. She only had the stereotypical spells that lost power the farther away they were used.
And on top of that, the knights gaining power from Curtana Second had superhuman abilities. They were not a force that could be dealt with using weakened magic.
"Now then," Carissa said to the Holy Woman of Versailles who was most likely viewing the battle from afar. "I think it's time to get serious. You can just sit there helplessly watching us land."
Part 7
The sound of crackling electricity exploded across the snow.
The Third Season.
That project had been carried out to kill Accelerator who could no longer be controlled and Last Order and the other Sisters that could no longer be used due to the effects of Aiwass.
It was a series different from the 20,000 +α set of Sisters.
And then the attacker gave her name.
"Misaka supposes you could refer to her as Misaka Worst."
She likely knew that she was a being that should not have been born and no one especially wanted.
She played with the 2 cm steel nails in her hand.
At times, a nail would be fired at over the speed of sound along with the sound of a bursting balloon.
But…
(From the amount of electricity she's using, that isn't a practical railgun.)
As the situation had him cornered, Accelerator forced his head out of its chaos to analyze the situation.
(The same method is used in the magnetic sniper rifles some snipers use. Instead of Fleming's left-hand rule, it more simply uses an electromagnet to fire a steel bullet.)
Accelerator was still not using his reflection.
Instead, he was altering the vectors of his leg strength to take quick bursts of speed and escape Misaka Worst's aim.
The situation as a whole and his need to protect Last Order meant he could not avoid the fight altogether.
But he wanted to avoid finishing off Misaka Worst if possible. Even if she had been created in a plan other than the one that had created the 20,000 +α set of Sisters, even if she was a part of the Third Season that had been activated to kill Accelerator and the others, he still utterly opposed the idea of letting a clone of the same series die.
It was rather cruel, but Accelerator thought about what he would do if it were Kihara Amata or Kakine Teitoku that stood before them. If it were those fuckers, he would not hesitate. He would rip them to shreds in order to protect Last Order. Accelerator was not a philanthropist. If it brought him towards his goal, he did not mind killing his enemy. However, that was why he couldn't let himself carry out that set of rules when it came to the "enemy" before him there.
Of course, Misaka Worst had realized that.
She knew Accelerator was hesitating and she was using that in her strategy.
After all, that was what she had been born to do.
"You should be careful," she said with an expression on her face that was clearly different from what one would see on the Sisters' faces.
It was a grin filled with spite.
"I don't have the output of the Original, but Misaka can still manage 200,000,000 volts. That's around Level 4."
An explosive noise rang out and Misaka Worst's body disappeared.
She had used an extremely high voltage current to detonate the air and had used the momentum to fly up into the air. It was the same method she had used to land safely from the transport plane.
Accelerator realized it too late.
"One more shot," said a voice directly above him.
And then a 2 cm nail flew down towards him.
Accelerator jumped to the side, but he lost his balance partway through and fell down on the snow.
There was a dark red wound on his calf.
That time, the nail remained in his body.
"Run from Misaka more," said Misaka Worst as she landed back on the snow.
She scraped the steel nails together in her hand.
She was purposefully making that painful noise in order to torment her target just a little more.
"You killed more than 10,000 Misakas, right?"
Her words stabbed into him.
Her words held a completely different meaning from the words of some complete stranger.
Accelerator could reflect a nuclear attack, but the slight vibration of the air that was her voice destroyed him from the inside.
"So run. Pathetically beg for your life. You aren't a normal person who gets a normal death. You won't have made up for what you've done unless you at least have your human rights trampled on 10,000 times. Just so you know, that's the bare minimum. If you add in the interest, three times that won't be enough."
The skin of Misaka Worst's face was twisted from within.
The delicate features of that feminine face became distorted like a plastic doll in a fire.
It was caused by hatred.
It was not just simple anger. Such an extreme smile spread across her face that it looked like the frames of her face would never return to normal.
(…Don't be led astray.)
Accelerator suppressed the pain spreading from his arm and leg and desperately thought.
(She isn't one of them. She isn't one of the ones created directly for the experiment. She's just a fake who is literally borrowing their face and body. I don't need to pay attention to every little thing she says.)
An unknown feeling gathered in the center of his forehead.
Should he bring his reflection across his entire body?
Should he reflect Misaka Worst's voice?
He was weighing his options.
But…
"Misaka is the same."
It was just one sentence, but those 6 syllables were enough to keep Accelerator from making his decision.
"Misaka was created in order to kill you. Misaka didn't particularly want to be born, but she was forced to do so. In order to cut off the signals from Last Order, her skin was cut open and a bunch of strange sheets and selectors were embedded within. If it weren't for you, none of that would have happened. If you hadn't made that decision, Misaka would never have been born. And even if she had been, it would not have been in that way that cut off all chance for a future. 'It hurts. Help.' By the time Misaka learned those words, she was already in a situation where she could not say them. That is why Misaka has the right to blame you. That is why she has a reason to kill you."
She spoke each word like a twisted killer showing off her murder weapons.
"While all the Misakas are individuals, they are also one large Misaka connected by the network. This is not a thought pattern unique to this Misaka. It is a portion of the large Misaka over the network."
Accelerator heard a dull noise and his vision blurred.
It took a bit of time for him to realize that Misaka Worst had detonated the air for quick movement and kicked him in the face.
"Why do you think none of the other Misakas including Last Order ever blamed you? Didn't you find it to be odd? You killed them and killed them until you had killed more than 10,000 of them yet they don't seem to hold any hatred towards you. The reason for that is quite simple. It is not because the Misakas are noble and perfect or because they are pure and proper princesses. …Nor is it because they did not feel any resentment toward you. They merely could not show it on the surface because their means of processing human-like emotions are incomplete. They are unable to comprehend or express their emotions."
That was her aim.
She was trying to corner Accelerator.
Therefore, he didn't have to pay attention to what she said.
It was all a calculated ploy, so he didn't have to take it seriously.
But…
Accelerator just could not ignore the hatred coming from Misaka Worst…and possibly all of the Sisters.
Even if it was a part of her plan, it still bothered him.
What if Last Order's smile was not there because she had forgiven him? What if her personality that had been quickly constructed by the Testament was just not mature enough to properly recognize negative emotions such as hatred or fear? Would she really forgive him so easily after what he had done? Those fears shook Accelerator.
Drops of red blood scattered across the white snow.
A line of red seemed to trail the path of Accelerator's body.
Misaka Worst wiped the red liquid off of the tip of her shoe onto the snow.
"Gya ha ha!! The Misakas are getting more human-like bit by bit! As they do, they can do more and more human-like things!! But being more human-like is not always a good thing! Before long, all those Misakas will become aware of their hatred. They will begin to realize they have a legitimate right to revenge!! Your atonement you've been getting so caught up in does nothing more than satisfy yourself!! It does nothing to reduce the Misakas' hatred!! At some point, all the Misakas connected to the network will be after your life based on their human-like resentment!! Will you let them succeed and give up your life or will you have them fail and kill all of the Misakas? Either way, the convenient future you've imagined will not come to pass!!"
The tips of her shoes flew towards him again and again.
Each time, blood spewed from various parts of Accelerator.
He could avoid her attacks if he tried.
He could strike back if he tried.
However, Accelerator was not even able to try.
The movements of his heart that let him try would not come forth.
Something was beginning to break within his heart.
It wasn't just due to the external damage. The anger burning in opposition to that was great enough that he thought something was going to break.
And once that something broke, there would be no fixing it.
If that something broke, he could easily transform into a monster even greater than when he was taking part in the experiment.
"If you want to soak in that sentimental delusion of yours and deny Misaka's words, that's fine. But what Misaka is saying is already being proven to you. This Misaka, Misaka Worst, has had the secretion patterns of the substances in her brain intentionally adjusted so that she can easily display the negative emotions that the other Misakas cannot. Misaka can easily read the negative emotions from the giant network. As such, she has proven that the other Misakas do have hatred and that they simply cannot express it. …And that applies to all Misakas including Last Order!!"
Misaka Worst's foot stopped just as she was about to bring it down on his face.
She was looking at something.
Last Order was collapsed on the snow a bit away. The effects of Aiwass's appearance had put the young girl in a state where she could barely maintain consciousness. As she lay on the snow, she slowly stretched out an arm in Accelerator's direction. She seemed to want to somehow protect his trampled and bloody form.
Last Order paid no heed to the realistic values such as whether she could actually reach him or not.
It seemed she was attempting to seal the attacker's movements using some sort of power, but there was no change in Misaka Worst. It seemed she had some sort of countermeasure towards that and Last Order may not have even had the strength needed to function as the command tower.
Sweat dripped from the small girl's face.
It was clear something bad was going on within her.
"…"
Misaka Worst stopped moving just slightly.
And then an even more twisted smile spread across her face.
"That's right. Misaka should take care of that defective unit first. That sounds like it would be more effective."
A very bad feeling swelled up from within the depths of the heart of Academy City's #1.
"When the Misakas are renewed under the Third Season, the redeployment and expansion of the network will bring about greater performance and faster progress."
Misaka Worst scraped together the 2 cm steel nails in her hand once more.
"Last Order, the old generation command tower, is no longer needed. In fact, her existence is nothing more than a hindrance to all the Misakas who will be deployed from now on."
It seemed almost like a cannibalistic situation, but if the Sisters were thought of as single existence ruled by the large network, then what she said made sense using normal human thought patterns.
Humans thought of convenient things.
That isn't the real you. There is wonderful talent hidden within you. To draw it out, you need to become the real you. Abandon the old you.
Normal humans used that type of convenient idea when it came to mental concepts. But the Sisters were a giant network made up of multiple bodies. The idea of "abandoning the old you" could be taken quite literally with them.
(…Ah.)
The desire to stop their spontaneous "progress" and have them remain exactly the same was nothing but his ego. It was much like a parent's desire for their child to always remain a child. It was nothing more than robbing them of their freedom.
(…So that's what it is.)
He could not resolve that situation without anyone dying.
He only had two options.
Would he kill Misaka Worst in order to protect Last Order?
Or would he just watch as Last Order was killed in order to avoid killing a Sister?
After he had been pierced by steel nails, kicked all over, and stomped on, Misaka Worst's target had finally changed to Last Order.
Accelerator finally realized what he had to do.
He had no choice but to give up.
An explosive noise rang out.
It was the sound of Misaka Worst's body flying up into the air just as she had been about to stomp on Accelerator's face and send a steel nail towards Last Order. She flew through a large arc and finally landed over 10 meters away
That's right.
That was what happened when Academy City's #1 got serious.
Whether it was a 200,000,000 volt electric current, a nail flying at over the speed of sound, or one of the Sisters, those tiny threats couldn't do anything to him.
"Gah!?" Misaka Worst gasped before standing back up and confirming her target's location.
Accelerator had lost his central core and he looked like a mirage.
Normally, that would have meant that she had succeeded in weakening him and a once in a lifetime chance had arrived.
However…
"…!!"
Misaka Worst gave a short breath and used magnetism to shoot a nail.
The nail flew accurately towards Accelerator's forehead at over the speed of sound. Accelerator did not evade it. He did not swing his head to the side or even shut his eyes. Even so, not a millimeter of his skin was torn and not a drop of his blood was shed.
He had reflected it.
The nail flew back and accurately stabbed into Misaka Worst's arm. There was no hesitation in Accelerator's actions. Misaka Worst fell to the ground and pulled out another nail. This time she aimed for Last Order. She stretched out her arm and attempted to destroy the core of the network that handled Accelerator's calculations.
The mirage-like Accelerator moved precisely.
He altered the vectors for his leg strength to instantaneously approach and then mercilessly swung his fist down on Misaka Worst's outstretched arm.
It broke.
Her arm still held the nails as he put strength into breaking it.
She screamed and detonated the air with a high voltage current in order to move back. However, Accelerator grabbed her leg and slammed her down onto the snow.
A great vibration spread through the area like at a fireworks show.
Misaka Worst coughed as he swung his fist down again.
The sounds of flesh being struck, bones creaking, and blood splattering continued.
It seemed Misaka Worst had a means of interfering with Accelerator's electrode, but he did not give her the chance to use it. The continuous pain prevented her from concentrating long enough to use her power.
As he did this, Accelerator felt something inside him collapsing. He hadn't been walking on a path that brought much admiration, but he still felt himself utterly losing the way of life that he had shoddily built for himself. Even if he made an enemy of the entire world or had to crawl through that bloody world as he fought terrible monsters, he had sworn that he would protect the girls who held that face. He could feel that collapsing.
No, that wasn't it.
It wasn't collapsing.
It wasn't disappearing into nothingness.
It was worse than that.
He could tell that he was transforming into a monster much more fearsome than he had been before he met Last Order while he was taking part in the experiment.
"Ha ha ha."
The next thing he knew, Misaka Worst was no longer moving.
"…It hurts…Misaka…is…"
She was just barely managing to breath and her body was split open in places. Her arm was bent at an odd angle. Her well-featured face was swollen. One of the girls that he had sworn to protect with his life was barely breathing.
"Help Misaka. Someone…"
Accelerator was aware of that.
As he knelt down on the snow, he knew that his hands were stained with blood.
"Gya ha ha ha ha ha!! Gyyaaah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"
Only his dry laugh filled the area.
It was over. He could no longer move. What were the people in Academy City doing? He couldn't deal with them. He couldn't deal with a world that prospered from their power. He felt a darkness hidden behind all the peace, all the fortune, and every smile in the world. Just as the huge smiles in TV commercials were created to build up huge fortunes, he could no longer believe that the light that he had looked up to was actually good.
It would likely not end there.
Even if the #1's heart remained unbroken there, a second and third plan would be carried out. Different Sisters might appear, clones made to look exactly like that brat could appear, Yomikawa and Yoshikawa could be used, and completely unrelated towns and cities could be utterly destroyed.
In any case, he was at his limit. In the future, his enemy would surely give him even greater pain. He couldn't withstand that. He didn't want to take that on. It would probably be easier if he just broke then. The darkness created by Academy City was not normal.
He then heard a noise.
Even after being so utterly beaten, Misaka Worst was squirming in the red-stained snow.
Misaka Worst had previously said that she had a way of using her power to stop Accelerator from using the Misaka Network for his calculations.
In the previous barrage, she had not had a chance to use it.
She may have been trying to use it as a counterattack.
While still smiling, Accelerator shook his head. He did not know why he did so. However, he did not want to move any more than that. He didn't care anymore. His heart hurt so much that everything he had been holding inside it up to that point had disappeared. With the inside of his heart in the state it was, Accelerator did not care if he just died there.
But Academy City had done something beyond what Accelerator had been expecting.
He heard a small noise.
It was the sound of the selectors embedded within Misaka Worst's body rupturing.
"…Ha?"
Whatever happened from then on, the damage to his mind was at its upper limit.
There was no greater pain than what he was in.
Misaka Worst's harassment of mental attacks was supposed to be over.
Because he had thought that, his thoughts were completely washed away for an instant.
All of the waves of emotion completely leveled off.
And immediately afterwards, every emotion a human could possess exploded within his head.
"Kha ha ha!? Ga ha ha ha!! Gyaaahh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"
It was such a great shock that his vision ceased to function properly.
He could no longer distinguish between colors and a small bit of red started to expand and cover everything.
Something burst from Misaka Worst's neck and the back of her head.
A large amount of blood flowed out.
Amid it all, the girl smiled as she lay on the ground. It was as if the negative emotions had solidified the skin of her face in that smile. It was like the invisible finger of spite was pulling at her skin from within her face.
Misaka Worst's mouth moved.
She spoke in a cracking voice.
"…This…is…your…fault."
He thought he was going to vomit.
"Gfh!! Ga hagfh!! Gbah gha ha ha gya ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!"
The Academy City bastards had designed Misaka Worst's body so that she would definitely end Accelerator's life no matter what the result of the battle was. She had been made so that Accelerator's mind would be ripped to shreds even if he used his overwhelming power to only half-kill her.
Up to that point, he had thought they were thinking that weakening him via his trauma and killing him was fine, but he would also be mentally destroyed by the fact that he had killed a Sister even if she lost.
However, he had been wrong.
They hadn't been that kind.
It wasn't an issue of whether he won or not.
They had a means of finishing off Accelerator whether he won, lost, tied, fled, reconciled, or brought the situation to any other conclusion. That was the purpose of the girl known as Misaka Worst.
The word "collapse" came to mind.
From a mental standpoint, Academy City's #1 could be thought of as truly dead.
Accelerator's heart had been almost completely broken.
He had lost the strength needed to act as a human.
He did not want to live in such a rotten world and he did not think he could change a world that rotten. The world was done for. It wasn't at a level where a human could do anything about it. If it would take him from that world, it might be better to just sink down into that snow.
Misaka Worst's body squirmed around.
She was not in control of those movements.
She was probably in shock due to loss of blood.
That was the result the rotten people from Academy City had brought about.
The worst possible result was playing out before Accelerator's eyes.
"Fuck thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!"
He finally yelled out and headed over to the dying Misaka Worst.
His power was vector transformation.
He mainly used the power for attack, but that wasn't all it could be used for. He could read the direction of the flow of blood and electrical signals within a person's body to check on their condition. If he went even deeper, he could use it to perform a certain level of treatment and first aid.
"Fuck that, fuck that, fuck that!!"
Accelerator's eyes were bloodshot.
He had a new goal.
It was a tiny bit of defiance.
"This was all a plan by those Academy City fuckers… Someone is sipping a drink in a warm room and smiling as this brat dies no matter how I struggle and my mind is torn to pieces. Every single bit of this is part of their plan…"
His emotions boiled up.
Those emotions were the driving force needed for him to act as a human.
"Then I'll destroy that plan of theirs!! If this brat has to die for their plan to succeed, then I'll save her with my own hands and make it fail!! I'll show you, you pieces of shit!! I'll smash those relaxed expressions from your faces!!"
Overwhelming anger and clear determination resided in Accelerator's eyes.
"You god damn fucking pieces of shit!! You rotten fuckers look down on me thinking my powers can only be used to kill!! I'll show you right now!! Just like when I saved that brat from Amai's virus back then, I'll show you that I have the power to proteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccctttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!"
Part 8
Her dimmed vision never cut out completely.
Eventually, Misaka Worst realized that meant she was still alive.
Selectors had been embedded in her body in order to reject signals from Last Order. She had detonated them of her own will. The explosions had been exceedingly small ones, but many fragments were sent deep into her body. Normally, there would have been no way to save her. It would have been impossible even if she underwent surgery in a hospital that had the latest equipment. There was even less that could be done for her on that snowy plain with nothing at all around.
She was a disposable unit.
Even if she had won there, no other use for her had been thought of. She was a unit that had been expected to die before the proper network of the Third Season had been constructed.
And yet…
(…?)
Time passed, but she never died.
She continued to be in that vague condition of life. She was able to guess that she would be back to having stable vitals before long.
Had she survived?
Had Academy City's plan failed?
Had Academy City's #1 Level 5 been able to overcome a global level of malice?
She was made to easily pick up negative emotions from the network, but what had happened was difficult for her to pick up. However, the reality was that Misaka Worst had survived a situation where she was supposed to have died no matter what. And it had happened by the hands of a third party.
She remained silent for a bit.
As she was created to take in only negative emotions, that silence was out of bewilderment but also somehow comfortable.
But…
"Gya ha."
She heard an unpleasant noise.
It sounded like whatever it was she was finally bringing inside was shattering.
"Gya ha ha. That's it. It's over. Kah ha ha ha ha ha ha."
The wave of that voice was not stable. It wavered between high pitched and low pitched, loud and quiet. The sound gave her a much greater sense of danger than even the sound of leaking gas.
Misaka Worst slowly turned her head.
And what she saw was…
"Ehya ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!! I can't hold back!! That brat's smile isn't enough to stop it!! Gya ha! Gya ha ha ha ha!! I'll destroy it all! I'll blow it all away!! I'll kill those who rejoiced at creating this and those who have gained happiness from its benefits! Every single one!! Every single fucking one!! Gya ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"
An explosive wind exploded out.
Misaka Worst assumed Academy City's #1 had lost himself in his anger and was blasting his power in all directions.
But that wasn't it.
There were black wings.
Those wings seemed to be a manifestation of every kind of despair.
The pair of wings intertwined with each other and tore at each other as if they were both attempting to crush the other. It was probably an external representation of the movements within his heart. A scream surged from Accelerator's throat. The air trembled and the excess energy caused the white Russian land to creak and groan under stress. A spider web of cracks raced along the ground with Accelerator's feet in the center.
Misaka Worst could not tell how far the cracks stretched.
That scene may have been something from the end of the world.
What Misaka Worst had been starting to hold inside a bit before may have not been wrong.
That same warm thing may have been flowing through Academy City's #1 Level 5 as well.
However, it had been shattered.
She may have pulled some sort of trigger. As Misaka Worst finally began to realize that, she started to tremble uncontrollably.
Part 9
The anti-aircraft gun attacking the village had been stopped.
The infantry spread around the area were the ones who had been aboard the armored vehicle that was stuck in the basement of the clinic. They had not been equipped for a genuine battle. They may have been more trained as soldiers, but the village had more people armed with assault rifles. After all, those rifles were more ubiquitous there than fire extinguishers.
With the gun barrels pointed at each other, both sides stopped moving.
However, the privateers' armored vehicle and anti-aircraft gun had been destroyed. That fact had uplifted the villagers' spirits keeping the intense fear they would normally be feeling away.
It didn't take long for a disturbance to spread through the privateers when they saw the villagers resolutely staying in place without taking even a step back. If either side snapped and a firefight broke out, both sides would be taken out. The privateers had come to the battlefield with the idea that it would be like a murder tour, so they had never thought it would turn out like that.
It didn't take long for their spirits to break and their hands to rise into the air.
Since they assumed they would be saved if they did that, they may not have understood the enormity of what they had been doing.
"…We performed body checks and then threw them into the shelter that's still usable," Digurv reported to Hamazura.
Hamazura was having his various scrapes disinfected.
"I see."
"Honestly, I kind of want to break their legs and feed them to wild dogs and some people are suggesting we do just that. If you, the person who blew away the anti-aircraft gun, hadn't requested we spare them, they probably wouldn't have listened."
"…"
Hamazura thought for a bit about the weight of the handgun in his pocket.
In the end, Hamazura had not been able to shoot the soldiers who had exited the immovable anti-aircraft gun. No matter how horrible they were, he hadn't been able to pull the trigger. If they had been about to take his life in that instant, he would probably have fired. He wouldn't have had time to think about it in that situation. However, he had been given time to think about it then. He had been given time to think about the fact that they were human, too.
At any rate, the danger was gone at least temporarily.
He wanted to bring an end to his brutal thought patterns.
Most of the buildings had been turned to rubble, but even so the people would be happier. The fact that they had not shot the surrendering privateers would surely become a large strength for that village one day. That was how Hamazura wanted to think about it.
And yet…
"Come here!! This is bad! This is even worse than the previous ones!!" someone yelled in Russian.
Hamazura could not understand the person, but it didn't sound like it could be anything good. He ran over along with Digurv to find a large number of people gathered in one of the intact buildings. They weren't just escaping the cold. Something like an old fashioned television was inside. It was displaying green points of light.
"It's an old radar," explained Digurv. "It detects reflections from reactions with metal and displays them. The closer to the center, the closer to the village. Objects next to the ground won't show up on here."
"What are those 3 points?"
"They're large objects. They may be greater than 30 meters. They don't seem to be fighters, so that means…"
"What?"
"Helicopters." Digurv's expression visibly changed from the tension saying that word brought him. "They're attack helicopters made to bomb the surface. We don't know the specific type, but they're rather large. If all 3 are attack helicopters, then we can't deal with them with only what we have in the village. This isn't something you can deal with by grabbing a landmine."
The village had AK assault rifles, but those would not hit a helicopter. Attack helicopters had thinner armor compared to a tank or an anti-aircraft gun, but they moved around much faster. Even handheld surface to air missiles had to be fired from behind them or they could be avoided.
And if their enemy could move quickly, that also meant that it would be difficult to escape. They would be caught almost instantly even if they did have cars to escape in. They wouldn't be able to withstand the missiles and machine gun fire being sent down from the sky.
"…Is this more privateers?"
"Probably. If it were a normal operation, they wouldn't be coming with just one type of weapon like that. The usual theory is to bring together different types of weapons or different branches of the army to cover each other's weaknesses, but those types of theories mean nothing to the privateers."
Most likely, the second wave was being sent in because the other vehicles had not returned. However, their tenacity did not come from the usual source. Instead of coming out of revenge for their fallen comrades, they were attacking fiercely in order to rid themselves of the shame of a defeat.
"We can't use any basements anymore. The previous attack did a lot of damage. If a missile is fired from above, we'd just be buried alive," Digurv said to Hamazura as he spread out a map.
He had already explained the basic plan to the others in Russian.
"There is a forest to the south of the village. The branches and leaves obstruct the view from the sky. We have no choice but to flee into the forest and spread out as much as possible. Before they realize that, the helicopters will likely primarily aim for the village."
Digurv's instruction to "spread out as much as possible" bothered Hamazura.
Most likely, the helicopters had sensors that could detect heat sources and magnetism. If they bunched together in the forest, the pilot would know there was a group of people there. If they instead spread out, their chances of surviving went up because they might be mistaken for a larger animal traveling through the forest.
However, that was not the true reason.
In reality, spreading out ensured that fewer people would die at one time if the helicopters fired randomly into the forest.
(…We can't keep the casualties down to zero.)
Everyone there understood that fact.
But they were all too scared to put it to words.
Hamazura couldn't accept that. He cut off Digurv's explanation and spoke.
"…We might be able to win using an anti-aircraft gun."
"What, so you want to send up a barrage of bullets to shoot them down? But this isn't a Russian military facility. We don't have any weapons like that just lying arou—!!"
Digurv trailed off and gulped.
He had realized it.
He had recalled that the vehicle Hamazura had previously taken out was a mobile anti-aircraft gun on treads.
Hamazura brushed away the map that had been brought out in preparation to flee and then spoke to Digurv.
"Do you have any construction equipment? Like a digger or something!? If we can just get that rubble off of the anti-aircraft gun, we can do something about this!!"
"But…"
"So you're saying we should do nothing and let them kill us!? Other than getting the anti-aircraft gun moving, the plan stays the same. The others will still go hide in the southern forest. It'll just be getting them away from the battlefield this way! Having more plans is better, right!? And even if I fail and they manage to blow away the anti-aircraft gun I'm on, they might even leave satisfied with the fact that they took out an enemy that put up a fight!! It's a lot better than doing nothing, right!?"
Digurv ran toward the exit of the building.
Hamazura followed him.
It seemed they had a digger used to dig up snow when it accumulated up to a few meters and sealed off traffic.
Hamazura had used construction equipment like that before when stealing ATMs in Academy City.
He removed the rubble from atop the anti-aircraft gun.
The treads were not damaged.
However, one of the two large machine guns had been badly bent. If they fired with it like that, they would clearly damage themselves. But Hamazura and the others did not have the specialized knowledge needed to remove that gun. As a stopgap measure, they removed all the ammunition from the damaged gun. That way, only the properly functioning gun would be able to fire.
"That lowers the accuracy by quite a bit," said Digurv. "Why do you think they put two guns pointing in the same direction? Because they almost never hit. Guns made for anti-aircraft purposes almost never use a single gun. With this kind of weapon, they usually prepare dozens of the same vehicle to cover a portion of the sky and have a few bullets hit and shoot down the target."
"I'm not complaining," said Hamazura cutting him off. "Of course we don't have an ideal weapon. All I need is a slight chance. I'm not just going to stare up into the sky waiting to be killed. As long as I have a chance to do something with my own strength, that's enough."
"Do you even know how to operate this thing?"
"The part dealing with the treads is basically the same as the digger, right?"
A bitter smile appeared on Digurv's face as he watched Hamazura climb up on top of the battered vehicle.
"Antiaircraft guns are not made to be operated by one person."
"What?"
"Someone to move the vehicle, someone to aim the guns and fire, and someone to keep track of the surroundings and command the others…At the very least, three people are needed. To operate it at normal specs, five are needed."
Hamazura stopped moving.
If he were to do it alone, he would have to stop the other two jobs to do any one of them. There may not have been much point in trying to evade an attack helicopter that could freely fly through the sky, but moving as he fought would improve his chances of surviving over just firing from a single position.
"So let me go with you," Digurv added. "I'll go talk to the others from the village. With two or three of them, we can actually get that anti-aircraft gun going. I'm more worried about everyone who hears about it asking to help fight then no one volunteering."
"W-wait a second," Hamazura said in shock.
He felt a different type of tension from the one when he was just heading to the battlefield alone.
"Is that really okay? As you said before, there's no guarantee we'll win. It's a lot more likely that this half-broken anti-aircraft gun will be taken out by the three attack helicopters."
"Hey," someone suddenly called out in Japanese.
Hamazura and Digurv turned around and then looked puzzled.
It was the frostbitten soldier who had called out to them.
"Let me help you. I was stationed at an air force base, but I was trained in using these anti-aircraft weapons before I was transferred there. You'll have a better chance of winning with an actual soldier helping, right?"
"…Wh-what? But the privateers are part of the Russian army, right?" Hamazura asked a bit suspiciously.
However, the Russian spat out some words in response.
"Those pieces of shit are not part of the Russian army."
"…"
"You all saved me when no one would have blamed you for abandoning me and they tried to kill you like you were worms. …I've had enough. Fuck being a soldier. I don't care if they come after me for this. I can just defect to the Elizalina Alliance if I have to. Repaying my debt is more important. I'll use these skills of mine to help those who saved my life."
"…I see." Digurv's shoulders relaxed and he smiled. "It seems you feared getting us wrapped up in this more than you thought. I don't want to let someone with that expression die. I'll fight fair and square for that reason. …And if we're going to bet on this chance, it would be better if you weren't alone. I've had enough of the privateers' way of doing things, too."
Hearing that, Hamazura silently lowered his head.
He silently reflected on how reassuring it was to fight together.
He then turned back towards the anti-aircraft gun.
It was the weapon Hamazura had won from the enemy.
It was the final chance to save the girl who was more important to him than his own life and to save the people who had been worried about that girl.
He couldn't let them lose.
Hamazura Shiage strongly reaffirmed that inside his own head.
The foreign mercenaries that were on a murder tour would be there before long in their attack helicopters.
Part 10
Something in Accelerator's heart shattered.
The black wings on his back, the symbol of "Evil", kept growing.
It would come to a halt soon, like a dying flame with its fuel spent, for his heart, the source of his negative emotions, had lost its core.
Just at that moment, a convoy driving past appeared in his line of sight. There were several large vehicles moving along in the snow. Judging from the level of technology of those vehicles, they didn't appear to originate from Academy City, but he couldn't rule out the possibility that it might be Academy City's forces disguised as Russia's.
If he was his normal self, he would have observed intently, considering the possibility that they might be from the dark side. But the current Accelerator, his will lost, couldn't be bothered. He wouldn't have cared even if he was shot.
However, the empty shell that was once his heart, shook.
All because of the face of one person, whom he chanced upon in one of the vehicles.
It was the face of the guy who had defeated him back in Academy City's train switchyard - the one who stopped the "Experiment", permanently froze the Level 6 Shift project, and saved 10,000 Sisters. He would step up to help those in need whenever he could. No matter how despairing any situation was, he would still reach his hand out to those who had nowhere left to go. That was the kind of guy he was.
He should still be in Academy City.
Why is he in Russia?
And that Hero, who was completely different to the apathetic #1 of Academy City, the one who could lift people out of their pits of despair,
How could he pass by without realizing Last Order's pain, who was so close to him?
Unknowingly, Accelerator let out a mighty roar, and directed the vectors of a large boulder buried under the snow to the end of the vehicle. Like a balloon, the end burst open, and the convoy stopped. He knew how unreasonable he was, to ask that person to do something which he had given up.
Even so...
"Aren't you the Hero who saved the Sisters? The one who saved almost 10,000 lives by himself?"
That person jumped out from the vehicle.
He seemed to have noticed Accelerator's black wings.
"If you are, please save that brat's life!! Why must she, who has done nothing wrong, be the only one to suffer so much!?" WHYYY?!
His black wings grew even larger with that roar.
He knew he was wrong to begin with.
And yet, he could no longer restrain his power.
Not even Last Order's smile, the symbol of all things good and pure, could stop him.
The battle against Academy City's #1, a monster who has surpassed his limits from his insurmountable anger, had begun.