August 31, 5:20 PM.
The research facility Accelerator was entering was rather large.
There were 3 giant warehouse-like buildings in front of him. These buildings were the development facilities of the Sisters, the 20,000 Sisters who had been used in the experiment had all been nurtured here. There was a pile of metal platforms in the buildings, and there were numerous cylindrical plastic capsules that were stacked all the way to the ceiling. The place looked like a library shelf that was stacked with books.
Beside the 3 huge buildings, there was a building that was called a research center.
It was a 2-story rectangular metal and concrete building, and it was a lot smaller than the nurturing facility. It was hard to imagine that it was the core of the research center.
Accelerator was standing in front of the research center.
There was a visual scanning machine at the door, but Accelerator ignored it. His ID pass should have been ineffective now. Accelerator knocked on the door lightly, and the 'impact' gathered at the door, breaking the metal lock precisely.
"Creak..."
With this light sound, the door slowly opened, like in some sort of old Western style building.
The inside looked more like a computer simulation room than a research center. A machine was arranged all over the walls and looked like it used a large cooler. It was said to be the latest quantum computer, but nobody could tell that it was just some outdated experimental-use tool. At least it didn't seem like it could replace the Tree Diagram's functions. The numerous screens let out a mysterious light in this windowless room. Large amounts of information continued to be printed out from the printers, and the papers covered the floor. The only thing one could hear was the bellowing of a cooling fan.
Though this room didn't look like it was meant for research, it wasn't that much different. If this was used for an evolution experiment on artificial life or for testing a plane model's air resistance, maybe it was to be expected for them to have such a facility.
A woman was sitting in the middle of the research lab.
Before the 'experiment' ended, there had been 20+ researchers crammed into this room, but everyone had already disappeared. That woman seemed to have understood this, which was why she was not sitting on a chair, but on a table. She was holding papers of information from the printer, and marking them with a red pen. There was no need for courtesy in this room anymore.
"Hm? Ah, you came back, Accelerator. Your ID's still effective for 90 days, so you didn't need to destroy the door."
The woman hadn't noticed that Accelerator had walked into the room, but only lifted up her head and noticed Accelerator once her focus on the information was interrupted.
Yoshikawa Kikyou.
She was already over 25 years old, but she didn't have any makeup on. She was wearing a faded old pair of jeans and a T-shirt that was worn out after it had been washed too many times. Only the white lab coat that was draped over the T-shirt was as fresh and white as a new shirt.
Accelerator stared at the papers in Yoshikawa's hand, and then to the thick stack of papers that were being printed out from the source. A large number of papers were scattered all over the floor.
Right now, the 'experiment' was paused; as this 'experiment' had been planned through the Tree Diagram simulations, right now, people found that the simulations were wrong.
But the 'experiment' was merely paused and not ceased. They could restart the 'experiment' once they found the 'error' in the simulations and corrected it.
However, Accelerator didn't think that they would find that 'error'. The Tree Diagram's method of simulation wasn't especially complicated, but the calculations were really too big. The '1 X 10 = 10' function that humans used would be calculated as '1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 10' by the machine. To the machine, this may be easier, but to the one who calculated wrongly, this was a nightmare. It was likely that they would need several decades just to look through these vast numbers.
"Such a hardworking person. Is it really interesting to read all these?"
"Not at all. If possible, I really want to ask for your help. Your calculations and analytical ability are rather reliable."
"It shouldn't be good if I know of the contents of the plan, right?"
The main aim of the 'experiment' was to have 20,000 battles, and let Accelerator go through the plan and eliminate the 20,000 enemies. The skills of an esper could increase through battle, and the final aim of the 'experiment' was to use a controlled growth and let Accelerator level up from a Level 5 to a Level 6.
In that situation, if Accelerator knew too much, maybe the battles wouldn't go on according to the 'plan'. Thus, Accelerator had been warned not to touch the data of the 'experiment' if it wasn't necessary.
At this moment, Yoshikawa Kikyou looked up from the pile of data and said,
"Don't worry, I'm not checking the simulation figures of the Tree Diagram."
"What? Do you have enough time to toss the large figures aside and handle everything else? Or have you abandoned the 'experiment'?"
"I suppose when the figures are analyzed completely, you may be at the end of a long life. So as for your question, my answer is a 'yes'. At least for me, the data here is more important than the 'experiment'."
Yoshikawa sounded rather anxious, But Accelerator didn't care at all. Right now, what he wanted was an incubator that could let Last Order develop her incomplete body, all the associated equipment, and the knowledge of how to use them.
He looked around. The folders, notebooks, discs, data reports and the like were all scattered on the floor. It was like a hurricane had just struck, nobody knew what was what anymore.
"Oi, where's the instruction manual to the Sisters adjustments? Physically and mentally...I want to learn how to install the nurturing and learning mechanisms. Also, lend me a working adjustment equipment. Don't ask me why, treat it as a favor because you didn't pay me after the 'experiment' got paused."
Hearing Accelerator say this, Yoshikawa seemed rather shocked.
"Hold on, how did you know about this? Even I only knew of this 3 hours ago."
"What?"
"Isn't it about this?"
Yoshikawa said as she waved the pile of printed papers in her hand.
It was the learning mechanism simulation script.
The Sisters were Misaka Mikoto's clones, made through unique nurturing tools, which needed approximately 14 days. The Sisters couldn't just 'learn' a personality as the time was too short.
Thus, their personalities and knowledge were from so-called learning mechanisms—basically, it was a brainwashing machine that introduced electrical flow into the brain; it was somewhat like inserting data into a hard disk.
In other words, what Yoshikawa was holding was equivalent to that of the Sisters 'Soul Diagram'.
"What are your researching this for?"
"Can't you tell? I'm eliminating errors."
Yoshikawa used the red pen to make marks on the paper and said,
"I only knew of this 3 hours ago, so I haven't finished yet."
Accelerator frowned.
After a while, Yoshikawa's red pen suddenly stopped.
"Right now, I'm picking out errors in the personality files. No, it's more like a human command code, or maybe I should call it a virus."
"...Hold on, what are you saying now?"
"Though not all the Sisters personality files were destroyed, if a Sister loses control, the virus may be spread to the other Sisters, so this is really dangerous."
Yoshikawa shook her head, and said,
"That's right, I haven't mentioned it to you before. The Sisters have a very unique unit called 'Last Order'."
Last Order.
Accelerator had a bad feeling about this, as if an electrical surge occurred in the back of his brain.
"What did you say...that brat is?"
"You just called her 'brat', seems like you met her before...so this means that the child never left this city?"
Yoshikawa twirled the red pen and said, "Alright, I'll spill out all the information regarding Last Order and the current situation to you. You may have heard about some of these. These things are important, so listen carefully."
After saying this, Yoshikawa got off the table and sat on the chair. She pointed at a chair for Accelerator to sit down, but Accelerator ignored it.
Accelerator didn't like Yoshikawa's style of doing things; it was as if she was a teacher in an ordinary world.
"In fact, that child wasn't created for the 'experiment'. Do you know that?"
"What did you say? I thought that those were inferior clones of the Railgun that were meant for me to kill them."
"That's right, but do you remember how many battles are required for the 'experiment'?"
"20,000, isn't it? I always wondered why the number is so exact—"
After saying this, Accelerator suddenly noticed the problem.
"That's right. That child's serial number is 20,001. Seems like you know this; the child isn't a unit that's to be used in the 'experiment'. Basically, she's a failsafe."
Yoshikawa sighed, and then said,
"Think about it. We created 20,000 espers. What if they revolt against us? We don't even have 20 workers, can we even handle them?"
"So that brat is your trump card? What is she? Some artificial Level 5?"
"We couldn't create that thing, and even if we did so, it's meaningless. Wouldn't it be useless if an artificial Level 5 joins in the revolt as well? Since she's a failsafe, we had to have a system of more trustworthiness to allow us researchers with zero attack to handle them."
"?"
"Have you heard of the Misaka Network?"
Accelerator frowned. If he remembered correctly, it referred to the phenomenon of linking all the Sisters through brainwaves. The Misaka Network itself had a large hive mind that could control every single 'Misaka'.
"Last Order is the opposite of the other Sisters. We just need to insert a special code in her to take control of the Misaka Network. In other words, it means that if an emergency occurs, we can handle 20,000 Misaka's by giving a stop signal to prevent them from betraying us."
"So it's like...a breathing keyboard?"
Accelerator wondered. Though it was cruel, it was basically how the researchers here did things. Even if it was the other Sisters, they were basically human-shaped targets that were abandoned.
It was no wonder that Last Order felt somewhat different from the others. So her body and mind were deliberately maintained at an immature stage.
"So what's with the error on that brat? You just called it a virus, didn't you?"
"After the 'experiment' ended, Last Order was still secretly kept within this incubator. A week ago, we suddenly detected that her brainwaves became abnormal, but once we hurried down and opened the warehouse, that child was gone. It was damaged from the inside."
Yoshikawa stroked the printed pages with her fingertips.
"At that moment, we didn't really know what was going on, so we just treated it as if she went berserk due to reasons unknown. The workers inside are in charge of looking for her."
"What? You haven't sought out Anti-Skill or Judgment yet?"
"We couldn't. Although we've gotten permission from the higher ups, the 'experiment' still isn't something we can openly declare."
"So you just let her continue to run till today? An entire week? Don't you people lack a sense of danger? Isn't that brat the one controlling 10,000 Sisters?"
"It's because we were overconfident in our system that we were too careless. We never expected for her to escape. Besides, that child shouldn't be able to survive outside the incubator, and we really underestimated the seriousness of this situation...really, that child actually managed to live past 7 days, and that's already unexpected. We shouldn't have made her that sturdy...maybe it's because we unknowingly put all our feelings into her?"
Hearing this, Accelerator smirked.
Yoshikawa didn't seem to notice his expression.
"Thinking about it, this should be a self-defense mechanism on the child's part. Someone inserted some malicious process into Last Order's brain and caused her to leave the facility to protect herself. I suppose that child probably didn't know why she had to leave."
Even Yoshikawa herself had only realized this 3 hours ago.
At first, Yoshikawa had wanted to call up all the researchers and come up with a countermeasure, but she hadn't been able to get even one. It seemed like the researchers didn't want to admit the fact that they had been involved in this project.
"But that brat doesn't seem like she intended to escape. She even came to me for help and wanted me to contact the researchers."
"What did you say? Hold on, when did you last see her? How many hours ago? Also, why did she ask you?"
"Didn't I say that already? She pestered me. To be honest, no matter how much she begs or cries in front of me, do you think that I would automatically talk to her?"
"...What's going on?"
Yoshikawa put her hand on her forehead as she wondered and sunk into deep thought. Maybe it was because her brain was spinning so fast that her face looked as immobile as a statue.
"That malicious process you just talked about is—ah, I know it's something bad even without asking. Seeing how you're talking about this, that brat should be the administrator of all the Sisters."
Accelerator recalled the conversation at the restaurant.
—"The relationship between the brainwaves link and the 'Misaka' unit is like a sudden nerve touch and a brain cell."
"That's right. I printed out all her personality files in order to find the reason why she escaped and the destination. But looking closely, there are codes jumbled up all over the place. I managed to find a few, but these malicious codes have some fake codes scattered all around, so it's really hard to remove them. And as for these malicious codes..."
"What's in it?"
"I haven't analyzed it completely, so I can't be sure, but if I go by my hypothesis, the symptoms indicate that they will end up attacking any human without discrimination."
Yoshikawa paused, and then continued,
"I found the virus activation time, 01 September 00 hour 00 minute 00 second. When it's time, the virus will start to activate the system, and it will be complete 10 minutes later. The virus will be spread to the Sisters through the Misaka Network and cause them to go berserk. At that point, nobody can stop them. Though those children can't go up against you, they can easily wield a Metal Eater. Also, they have 10,000, so the number can't be underestimated."
"...Oi, this means..."
"That's right, it's exactly what you think."
Yoshikawa said with a stiff voice. She was not calm; her thoughts had already ceased.
Accelerator was now grasping the meaning behind Yoshikawa's words.
Right now, about 10,000 Sisters had been sent 'outside' Academy City—all over the world to have body adjustments. Considering the time and distance, it was impossible to use all the espers in Academy City and defense forces Anti-Skill or Judgment to stop them.
The Sisters that went berserk and attacked others would most likely have to be dealt with by the people of the outside world. And it would be impossible to cover up a terrorist attack that involved 10,000 espers attacking at the same time. Then, if they found out that these espers who had launched the terrorist attacks were clones, there would be a lot more problems. Even if a few of the Sisters were able to escape by a miracle, they would be mercilessly dealt with on the basis of being a dangerous threat.
As all the organizations all over the world 'outside' Academy City were helping them in the adjustments, this would drastically decrease their impression of Academy City. This was a scandal of 10,000 clones revolting. If such a thing ended up causing Academy City to lose the support of the outside world, no matter how big Academy City was, it wouldn't be able to survive on its own.
As for what would happen next, nobody could guess.
Maybe Academy City would dissolve, and the researchers who lost their jobs would bring this unknown technology to all the military institutes in other countries. Or maybe Academy City would be afraid that it would be dissolved and start a worldwide invasion with their latest weapons and espers.
No matter the outcome, it would cause a severe tip in the balance of world power and create a worldwide terror. In the worst case scenario, it could lead to war, and not simply a war between Academy City and the rest of world. It wouldn't be just a small shift, but a worldwide loss of balance. It would cause all the minor differences in the countries, races, religions, and thoughts to be a decisive trigger for a war and the map would be tattered, like a whole puzzle dropped onto the floor.
The end of the world.
Accelerator understood what these words meant. Because he also had 'the power to destroy the world', he understood it better than others.
No matter how the world was destroyed, Accelerator may have been able to survive. Even if the center of the world was distorted, he could still remain unharmed on a street when the walls crumble around him.
But that was a world of nothing. No convenience store, no electricity, not even a can of coffee. He could only hunt or pick fruits, put it over a fire and live a primitive life. No, if they used a nuclear missile, maybe even plants and animals would be extinct. If that happens, he could only eat dirt to survive. At that point, he would regret that he was too strong and couldn't die. The limit of being too powerful was that he would become the lowest tier in the food chain.
Humans created civilizations. If there weren't any humans, civilizations wouldn't exist.
That was how the so-called zen was achieved.
"Ha! How interesting, way too interesting! To think that I will get involved with the end of the world. I've always thought that that was my mission."
Accelerator sneered and said,
"Oh yeah, it's not too late to send out Anti-Skill and Judgment now, right? Though this city is big, it's still a sealed one. They'll definitely find Last Order through a human wave tactic throughout every single inch of land. Besides, that brat isn't wary at all. She just followed me onto the streets and went to eat."
"I said it before. We can't call the cops. Think of what we did. Though the higher ups did agree to our 'experiment', it doesn't mean that we can reveal the 'experiment' so openly. And also--"
"Also what?"
"In the end, this method won't be able to save the Sisters. If Last Order is caught and brought by people not involved in this, the fact that '20,000 Sisters may potentially go berserk' will be exposed. This reason will be more than enough to let them get punished."
"But you can't even catch that brat, right?"
"I can't talk back about that. Though that child doesn't have the instincts to run for her life, but her basic movements are based on the 'experimental extermination plan' in the Misaka Network. That child is basically living a street urchin's life, not using money and ID at all, so she won't leave any trace behind. There are blind spots on the satellite cameras as well, and if she can avoid the security robots' cameras, she won't be caught. Oh yeah, how long has it been since you last separated from the child? Have the other organizations realized this? In this situation, it will be troublesome if she gets kidnapped."
Her words seemed to imply that Yoshikawa was concerned about her own welfare, but she also did sound like she was really worried for Last Order's safety.
On seeing Yoshikawa like this, Accelerator slid his tongue 'tch'.
Among the researchers, she was one of the most naive. It was impossible to identify one Sister from another since they have the same genes, but she had still insisted on remembering every Sister's face. She had also tried to give each Sister an individual name other than their serial number.
But in the end, she was just naive, not kind. If she were kind, she would have stepped up to argue against the 'experiment'. That was right, like that boy and girl.
Yoshikawa didn't seem to notice Accelerator staring at her.
"However, it seems like this subconscious command to 'escape' is only against us 'researchers'. It seems like she's not wary against you...yes, if we can use that, maybe we have a chance of salvaging this."
The last sentences seemed to be some random muttering to herself, but it had reached Accelerator's ears clearly, causing him to frown. He didn't want to become a pawn of the researchers, so he immediately diverted the question.
"Oh yeah, you just said that it's a virus? Not an error? Is this some trigger set up by a secret agent sent by a warmonger? Or is this some smart move set up by a failing war factory that wants to pump itself back?"
"Amai Ao."
Yoshikawa just simply answered this question from Accelerator
Accelerator frowned. He did see that person when he went to eat at the restaurant with Last Order. But if the culprit was really Amai Ao, why would he still appear in Academy City? It had been a week since the incident happened, and logically, he should be 'outside' Academy City...
At this moment, Yoshikawa continued,
"After that incident, he's the only researcher who's still missing. We only received an email from him stating that he wanted to take a vacation."
"Just because of that?"
Accelerator looked around the entire room.
Most likely, only the weirdest of the weirdos would continue to come to work at a company that wouldn't pay money. Accelerators felt that it was not shocking for Amai to run to other organizations to promote himself or become a cashier at a convenience store, since pretty much everyone else was doing the same thing.
Seeing the suspicion in Accelerator's eyes, Yoshikawa explained,
"He was the superintendent of the Radio Noise project that got bottlenecked, and joined us in the 'experiment' by deciding to use the Sisters as the experimental substitutes. His specialty is the writing of the Testament's personality files. Basically, he's the one that understands the Sisters' personalities best. In terms of the structure, there's basically no one that can sneak new codes into those children's brains. Besides, before he left, someone witnessed him installing a Testament. But for some reason, he deleted the user history."
"Hasn't he revealed too much already? And why is he so kind to set the activation day as today? If he really wanted the end of the world, why can't he just let the virus activate once he installs it? Is there a need for him to wait for a week?"
"I suppose you shouldn't ask me, but him, right? But if I have to make a guess,"
Yoshikawa sighed,
"Perhaps he's waiting for the Sisters to mix into the environments of the 'outside' as they wait for their adjustments. In order to create a natural scenario of them 'going berserk after being peaceful', he has to allow the thought of 'the Sisters are reliable' sink into the people around them."
Accelerator remained silent for a while.
He then decided on what to do next.
"Alright, what do you want to do next? How do we prevent the virus from activating in the brat's brain?"
"I'm researching on that now."
Yoshikawa looked really anxious, causing Accelerator to bend down. With a Testament, they could modify Last Order's brain at will. The problem was that there was not much time till the virus activated. She had to find a way to override the virus, find Last Order and insert the code into her brain--to be honest, there's less than 50% chance of that happening.
If so, what should they do?
The answer was simple. If they couldn't find a way to solve this before the last moments, they could only 'eliminate' the infected unit to prevent the rest from getting infected. When that happens, the 9,969 Sisters 'outside' wouldn't be affected by the virus and would continue to live ordinary lives.
They would just need to sacrifice one.
As something was wrong, they could chuck her into the dustbin and erase her.
"...That's why I'm trying not to let that happen. Of course, you can help as well."
Yoshikawa seemed to understand what Accelerator was thinking in his silence.
"Who the hell do you think you're talking to? I'm the guy who killed 10,000 of that brat's companions. How can a bad guy like me save others? I can only kill, I can't save others."
"My answer is that, we're the ones who arranged for that 'experiment'. It's true that you killed more than 10,000 Sisters. But if we could have found a way 'not to kill the Sisters and still upgrade you to a Level 6', I believe you wouldn't have killed them."
"Do you think that I will trust you just because of those words?"
"I can't stop you if you don't want to do it. You can use the remaining time to do your own things, but you better pray that she dies before the virus activates."
"..."
Accelerator stared at Yoshikawa.
Without changing her expression, she continued to sit in front of Accelerator.
She maintained a straight face and continued,
"I alone can't catch that child. That child has the movement characteristic of 'running away from the researchers without knowing it', and she can detect the weak electromagnetic waves that we researchers give off. Even if we don't appear in front of her, she will run away when she senses it. On the other hand, if we can overcome that, we might be able to get close to her...but the problem is that I can't track her down while decoding the virus. But with you here, the situation is different. If we work together, we may be able to salvage this."
"...Damn you."
Accelerator narrowed his eyes slightly and sunk into silence. This woman was just that irritating. Anyway, she was too naive. She lacked the strength to take up large responsibilities, so her naivety would never grow into kindness.
Compared to the reason that '10,000 Sisters would revolt', the seriousness of which could never be fully realized, the reason that 'Last Order would die' was simple and easy to feel, and therefore much more likely to affect Accelerator. Accelerator was inadvertently amazed by Yoshikawa's psychological tactic. However, though his aim was to bring peace, the method couldn't be called 'kind'.
Yoshikawa held up 2 envelopes, each large enough to hold a large notebook.
"You can help me in 2 ways. The first way is to get Amai Ao out from his hiding place in Academy City and force him to explain the workings of the virus. The other way is to protect Last Order while the virus is still dormant in her. You can choose one. But perhaps you're better at destroying than protecting."
The envelopes slid across the table and stopped in front of Accelerator. Both of them weren't sealed, and their contents spilled out.
--A few photos slid out of the left envelope. They seemed to be taken from a highway speed camera. Among the photos, Amai was sitting in the driver seat of a low framed sports car. There was also a map with red markings all over it.
It seem like Yoshikawa had used all sorts of security facilities to investigate all of Amai Ao's possible hiding spots and movements. She had so much information, yet she couldn't capture him. Either it was because there was not enough manpower, or maybe Amai was too quick in changing hiding places.
--What dropped out from the other envelope on the right was a disk and super-light notepad-sized computer. There was a label on the disk, with the words 'serial 20,001 personality info/before infection' written on it. Maybe too much paper would be used up if she tried to print it.
This envelope contained all of Last Order's personality files. One could predict where she was going to run to through her interests, habits, thoughts, initiatives and actions, track her down and ambush her. However, with how she had looked in the restaurant, Last Order shouldn't be able to move on her own.
"Oi, you just said that you couldn't capture Last Order on your own, right?"
"Yeah. She seems to be moving according to the hiding guideline of the 'experiment' without knowing it. Besides, I'm alone in this, and I can't do all of these."
"But wasn't Amai the one who created these personality files? Since he's a qualified expert, he should be rather skilled in them, right?"
"Knowledge and skills can't be mentioned together. It seemed like he did try to hide himself, but his methods weren't refined enough, so I managed to get a trace of him. But the Sisters are different. They can process all the knowledge in their brains as skills, so Last Order's whereabouts are harder to trace than Amai's. Besides, money flow is another reason. Amai will leave a record once he buys something, but that child can completely disappear on the streets. It should be obvious which one is easier to track down."
"..."
It was obvious which one was more suited for Accelerator.
Accelerator's power was more suited to destroying than protecting others. No, perhaps this wasn't of a technical or theoretical problem now.
"Ah, it's here, finally here, Misaka points at the waitress with her finger. Wah, Misaka as Misaka's food is here."
He couldn't protect others. He didn't know how to protect others. He couldn't even imagine himself saving others through his power.
"Ohh, this is the first time Misaka's eating such a hot meal, Misaka as Misaka feels really excited. This is great, the entire plate is giving off hot air, Misaka as Misaka continues to stare at it."
This was no longer of reasoning, but concepts. His power couldn't save anyone. The world he belonged to wouldn't allow him to save anyone.
"But it's Misaka's first time to be eating with someone, Misaka as Misaka answers. Misaka as Misaka recalls that everyone should say 'itadakimasu' before everyone starts eating, and Misaka wants to try that, Misaka as Misaka tries to mention what she wishes for."
If he just used his power to save someone for once, the common knowledge about him would collapse. 'Accelerator' would no longer exist. The Accelerator who saved others wouldn't be Accelerator at all. One could even say that he got replaced by someone else.
"Yeah, that's right. Anyone can tell which side I will choose."
Accelerator continued to mutter to himself.
He was not that boy or that girl. There were many others who were more suited to be a savior than him. And unexpectedly, the seats over there were taken, there was no way in.
His power wasn't suited to save others.
His power was only suited to kill others.
Accelerator's mind immediately thought of a certain person's face.
"Humph, laugh at me now, damned brat. I can only choose this side!"
Then, he needed to make a decision. He had to abandon one of the envelopes. Accelerator seemed to give up on struggling as he picked up one.
He took the right one.
The one that had the personality files disks and the notepad-sized computer.
He decided to save that man-made girl called Last Order.
From that moment on, Accelerator was no longer Accelerator.
He stepped up to protect others. He took action to help others. He was going all out to save others. The term 'unsuitable' didn't even describe him now. Anyone who understood him and saw this would think that something was wrong with him, or even declare that 'the Accelerator who says this is definitely a fake'.
His choice was this unbelievable.
One could even say that he had lost all reason to exist as Accelerator.
The boy who was no longer anyone weakly mocked himself,
"If you want to laugh, go ahead. Seems like at this point, I should hope for redemption."
"Alright, then I'll laugh for you then."
Yoshikawa stared at the boy as she said this,
"Seem like it's really worth celebrating that you still have such feelings remaining in you. Go ahead and prove that your power can be used to save those precious to you."
Accelerator didn't answer. He took the envelope with the disk inside and turned to head out the door. "That's why I hate this naïve woman," he muttered. Then, he said to Yoshikawa.
"Since I agreed to help you researchers, you have to prepare a satisfying reward for me."
"No problems. I'll take care of that child's body adjustments."
Yoshikawa Kikyou answered. Without saying anything further, the boy left the research facility.