And with that the battle was over.
Who won and who lost was as clear as day. Accelerator's last ray of hope was that his gun was pointed towards somewhere other than the metal Chaff Seeds scattered throughout the air that were obstructing his powers or his target, Komaba.
And Komaba Ritoku's Smart Weapon was accurately pointed at him from a blind spot. In shogi, that was called a perfect checkmate. It was a situation where his attack couldn't reach and his opponent's attack could take his life.
The fired bullet pierced soft flesh.
The bullet from the Smart Weapon tore through the meat of a person's side. The scraps of clothes torn off were soaked with blood and the weight kept them from floating. The scraps merely fell to the ground.
A second later, a burning pain ran though that side.
But there was no time to even put a hand to the wound.
"Why…?"
The words naturally seeped out.
The taste of blood spread through that mouth and that red liquid spilled from those lips.
"Why is your 'reflection' back?"
Looking at Komaba coughing up blood above him on the framework, Accelerator gave a thin smile while still lying on the dirty ground.
"You idiot."
It was a thin, thin, thin, thin, ever so thin smile.
It was a smile that looked like it had been split open by a razor blade. It was a smile that starved for blood.
"After you scatter that foil called chaff into the air, it jams electromagnetic signals. So the solution was simple. I just had to get those thin sheets of metal out of the air somehow. With ventilation, for example."
"You…don't mean…"
Komaba looked up.
One of the various colored plastic sheets that were spread from building to building as a satellite countermeasure was blown out of the way. Accelerator's bullet had knocked off the clasp.
Due to the sudden wind, the Chaff Seeds had blown well out of formation. They could float under their own power to a certain extent, but it wasn't enough to stand up to a strong blast of wind. A large hole had been blown in their compact formation from before.
"Now then…"
The sound of the ground being struck was heard.
Accelerator must have altered some vector or other because, from lying on his back, he stood straight up without bending like a door being opened.
"You need to rethink what it means for a Level 0 to pick a fight with a Level 5!!"
"…Tch!!"
Komaba slowly reached for his pocket.
Whether he used his special gun or strong legs, Komaba Ritoku had no chance of winning now that Accelerator's vector transformation ability was back.
So he must have been trying to disseminate more Chaff Seeds and retreat.
"Too slow!!"
Accelerator kicked some pebbles at his feet.
That was all he did.
Nevertheless, the vector converted pebbles shot strait through Komaba's palm. A loud roar could be heard after the flesh on his hand was torn open.
"Gwaaaaahhh!?"
The Chaff Seed container Komaba had taken out fell and he crouched down holding the wrist of the hand hit. But that was when he lost his balance. While crouched down, he fell from the 3rd floor frame.
Komaba Ritoku wasn't going to die from just that. His legs were strong enough to break those steel frames. If he could regain his balance partway down, he could easily make a proper landing.
And for that very reason, Accelerator showed no mercy.
"Ha ha! C'mon, let me have a little more fun!!"
He altered the vectors of his legs and shot forward like a rocket. He grabbed Komaba's gut just as he was about to land and slammed him into a nearby steel pillar.
He had converted Komaba's falling vector to one straight ahead.
The thick steel pillar bent unnaturally from the impact. Komaba's giant body trembled. His cell phone and the reserve Chaff Seed containers came from his pocket and scattered across the ground.
"Gh…bh…!?"
Komaba coughed up blood, but, regardless of whether it was going to reach Accelerator's face or not, he repelled it to the side so not a single drop landed on him.
He rejected even that.
"Now it's checkmate. You have no feeling left in your lower body, right?"
"Kh…"
"You did a good job of actually managing to keep your Smart Weapon in your hand through all that. I'll give you that much. If you want to continue this, go for it. Seeing people kill themselves like that can be quite fun."
While holding his target by the gut, the edges of Accelerator's lips lifted up.
"It's true Level 0s are weak, but being weak doesn't make you evil."
He was enjoying disgracing this man who was on the verge of death.
"People like that are treated like nuisances because it's always people like you in Skill-Out causing the problems. Give you rights? A guarantee of safety? Fucking ridiculous. Can't you tell you're strangling yourself by doing things like that?"
"…Heh."
All his teeth were stained red, but Komaba still laughed.
"Here's a…hypothetical question…" he said in his voice that sounded like copy paper was coming from his mouth. "These 'harmless Level 0s' you're talking about… If attacking them for no reason became popular among you rotten espers…what would you do?"
Accelerator's eyelids closed slightly out of disinterest.
"Problems with a person's personality aren't taken into account when it comes to whether they get powers or not… There are some people who have powerful abilities but are weak people. These horrible people can do nothing but gloat about it. …I have seen dozens of espers like that who are nothing beyond their powers."
Komaba Ritoku didn't beg for his life; he merely looked Accelerator in the eye as he spoke.
Skill-Out.
That group was originally created in order to protect themselves from powerful espers.
"And if…it became popular among those people to play a game where they hunted down Level 0s who weren't part of an organization like Skill-Out…what would you do?"
There was something glowing on the ground.
It was Komaba Ritoku's cell phone that had fallen when he had struck the steel pillar. The phone had unfolded when it hit the ground and light was coming from the standby screen.
The screen showed a low-resolution photo.
It was of a small elementary school aged girl and Komaba Ritoku standing uncomfortably next to her.
It was a scene far removed from the Skill-Out and the back alleys.
Perhaps Komaba had gone to a lot of effort to distance himself from that kind of thing for that photo.
(This bastard…)
The reorganization of Skill-Out.
The objective of this incident and its result.
What Komaba Ritoku had with him.
"Heh. I knew if I kept taking out-of-place actions it would eventually end like this…"
Accelerator lifted his head when he heard Komaba's voice.
"But I got to see something good in the end. I suppose it all worked out…"
Komaba looked at Accelerator's expression and smiled with his blood-covered mouth.
What exactly had Komaba taken from the change in the look on that Level 5's face?
With slow motions, Komaba pointed his gun right between Accelerator's eyes.
"It seems…you and I are living under similar circumstances."
A gunshot shook the area.
Accelerator's "reflection" made no exceptions. The bullet bounced back and flew back into the Smart Weapon's barrel. The iron weapon was smashed to pieces from the inside and the bullet continued on its path and hit Komaba's face. And with that Komaba Ritoku's face was gone. There was a raw noise. The torn pieces looked like a bowl with chipped edges. It looked like a crude container with skin and hair on it that had only brains inside.
Accelerator saw it from point-blank range.
He saw it from closer than anyone else.
"…"
He let go.
The body fell to the ground and the arms and legs bent limply and remained stuck where they were. Komaba wasn't going to say anything more. He had been a troublesome enemy when he stood in Accelerator's path, but all resistance had left him.
And Accelerator's job was over.
His first job had been completed without a hitch.