August 31 8:03 PM
Accelerator opened the side door of the passenger seat. Wrapped in the towel, Last Order didn't respond at all. Her limbs sunk weakly onto the floor, and were completely stained in uncomfortable sweat.
Just as Accelerator was about to carry Last Order out, he suddenly realized a problem.
"Oi, the brat has some things that look like electrodes. I shouldn't take them off, right?"
"Hm? Can you please describe that clearly?"
On hearing Accelerator's description, Yoshikawa said,
"That should be our equipment for checking the Sisters' conditions. It just shows the respiratory rate, pulse rate, blood pressure, body temperature, physical and mental conditions. It's okay to take the electrodes off."
A cable linked the electrodes to a notebook computer. There were several images on the screen. Besides that, there was a percentage display value that had the words 'BC functioning value' beside it.
"What's this?"
Accelerator asked.
"Oh, that's Last Order's brain functioning rate. Brain Cell is called BC for short."
Accelerator was shocked. It was not easy to monitor a person's brain functioning perfectly. One really couldn't tell that such a small computer had such a large function. However, the Sisters were Electromasters, so maybe they used their abilities to make up for the lack of ability?
Either way, it was not a technology that Accelerator could understand.
"Oi, is there anything that can erase the virus from this brat's brain? It'll take some time to take her back."
"Impossible. That's just a detection device. If you want to enter it, you have to have an incubator and a Testament."
"Oh."
Accelerator pondered for a while, and suddenly realized something.
For some reason, there was noise coming from the other side of the phone.
"Oi, aren't you at the research center?"
"You just realized it? I'm driving over to you now. There's an incubator and a Testament, so that should be much more time efficient than you going back to the research facility. Maybe she will want to run away when she sees me, but with your movement ability, you should be able to stop her from going."
So you just wait over there. Yoshikawa said.
"Of course, a huge quantum computer won't be able to fit into a car, but a DNA computer can fit it perfectly, so I brought one as well. The function may be a bit inferior, but at such capacity, it should be enough."
"...Oi, since you can use a machine to analyze, why did you use a red pen to make markings? That's just unnecessary work, right?"
"Machines are extremely dull, or too rigid. Sometimes, they might even create problems. Have you heard of video games? When the games are being debugged, they still need humans to actually play them. We calculate the data through a machine, correct it through human means, put it back into a machine to see if there are any more errors...and we continue to use such a method."
Accelerator reached his hand out, taking off the last electrode from Last Order's face and randomly asked,
"So you analyzed the code already?"
"About 80%. After I analyze it, I still need to write a code to override the virus, so we don't have much time."
But I believe that we can make it, Yoshikawa said confidently.
Accelerator frowned slightly, as such a style wasn't like her.. However, this made Accelerator heave a sigh of relief, as the situation seemed like it was all alright now.
(How irritating. How much trouble must you create for me, you damned brat?)
This was the first time Accelerator actually experienced what it felt like to 'wait for someone'. Every second seemed to be dragging on meaninglessly. This feeling couldn't be considered comfortable. He stamped hard onto the asphalt floor lightly, and just like that, it created a crack.
"Mi,saka--"
Suddenly, the girl's mouth moved.
Like a thirsty person asking for water, her lips were trembling.
"Misaka...as, Misaka is---"
Her eyes were shut, and only her lips were moving. The girl was moving crazily as if she was trying to say something. Accelerator didn't know whether he should listen to her words carefully. Besides, since the expert Yoshikawa hadn't arrived yet, Accelerator didn't know what he could do to ease her pain.
"Misa,ka—as Misaka is Misa! Ka! Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as Misaka as MISAKA AS MISAKA AS MISAKA AS MISAKA AS MISAKA AS MISAKA AS MISAKA AS MISAKA AS AJSNIOVJIOZXCHJJ23RIOHYWERIOSDHA FJKHUQEHYIRHKOSDHIOUCH89WEHYUIH!!"
"Ah?" Seeing Last Order shout out, Accelerator gasped.
This didn't look right at all. The girl's petite body was quivering in front of Accelerator like a fish on land. She continued to bend back. It was unknown whether her bones or muscles were cracking, but the girl's face did look like she was in pain. She was looking excited as if she was singing a carol.
There was one difference.
The girl's tightly shut eyes were giving out tears.
This point alone clearly indicated that it was not of joy.
But of tremendous pain.
The computer screen was showing a chaotic image. Windows of warning signs continued to pop out like rain on the windows, covering almost the entire screen. The unknown beeping sound continued to ring.
"DAMN IT! OI, YOSHIKAWA! WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON HERE? IS THIS SOME SORT OF SYMPTOM?"
"Calm down, explain clearly! I can't tell what you're saying. Oh yea, do you have a camera function in your phone? It's best that you have an image capture camera--"
Yoshikawa stopped talking halfway through, maybe gasping because she was in shock. The phone wasn't cut, as Accelerator could hear her mutter. She seemed to be muttering things like 'impossible, how can this be'.
"Oi, what's going on!? Is there any emergency function?"
"Calm down. Can you let me listen to what that child's saying?"
"HURRY UP AND EXPL--!"
"HURRY!!"
Yoshikawa started to sound serious, making Accelerator feel that something was wrong. But even if he didn't do anything, Last Order's cries could be heard through the phone.
"hiuashihcvjnxnuinweiniondfnizdNIncion whsioahjisdisjad8qwyrionjdklnckljiojdosfjljkl;sdjfi0jdsj!!"
The girl's cries weren't of any country's language now.
On hearing the girl's cries through the phone, Yoshikawa was so shocked that she couldn't breathe.
"...I see."
"WHAT? WHAT'S GOING ON?"
Accelerator was obviously anxious. Yoshikawa answered him clearly,
"This is a virus code that was encrypted. That virus seems like it's about to be activated."
On hearing this, Accelerator nearly froze.
The virus should be activated at midnight on 00 hour 00 minute 00 second. It was just past 8, and time wise, there should have been 4 hours left...
There was only one possible reason.
That was a fake signal.
The enemy Amai Ao had deliberately installed a fake activation code. The information that the enemy gave out shouldn't have been considered real at all. Accelerator had wondered before why Amai Ao would be so kind as to indicate the time for the virus to activate.
A simple game like trap, yet so terrifying.
Maybe Amai hadn't expected that this trap would work. Setting this trap up must have been an extra bonus within his capability rather than an insurance.
Accelerator started to wonder what would happen when the virus activated.
"Once the time starts, the virus will start to activate. It will be complete 10 minutes later, and then it will spread through the Misaka Network to all the Sisters and cause the Sisters to go berserk."
What would happen to the girl in his hands?
The boy recalled.
"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 humans without discrimination."
Accelerator was unable to do anything.
Last Order continued to shout and cry. Numerous warning windows buried the notepad-sized computer screen.
He could barely see the 'BC operation rate' from between the gaps of the windows—which was the brain cell functioning rate.
The values continued to increase. 70%, 83%, 95%...even though the values exceeded 100%, they continued to increase.
That small body of Last Order arched backwards as if electrocuted.
Then, even the 'BC functioning rate' window was blocked by the warning signals.
It was as if Last Order's personality files were overwritten by some mysterious virus.
It seemed like Yoshikawa was trying to say something through the phone, but Accelerator was not listening.
It was too late.
Yoshikawa hadn't finished analyzing the virus, and hadn't found a way to debug it. Also, there was fake information present in the code she had analyzed. Even if she managed to debug it, she couldn't be certain that she was correct. Besides, it was impossible to ask her to move back to the facility where all the equipment was.
Amai, who had created the virus, should be clear about how it worked, but there was no time to interrogate him and write a code to debug it.
A mysterious feeling etched into Accelerator's mind, but before he could understand what that feeling was, his thoughts were interrupted by Yoshikawa's calm voice.
"Listen to me, Accelerator, it's still too early to sigh now. You still need to do something."
"...Something? Can we still save her?"
"It will take some time before the virus spreads out. Before that, the current virus will be converted into a 'superior code' that they can't disobey, rather than it appearing there right from the start. This is because if that's the case, the virus code would be obvious in the normal personality files. There's only 10 minutes, I suppose you should be able to guess it, but you can only do one thing— eliminate the girl. Kill the child, and protect this world."
Yoshikawa's words didn't have any intention of saving Last Order right from the beginning.
What she said as her justification was something higher than that.
Protect the world.
If he wanted to prevent all the Sisters in the world from going berserk, he had to kill this girl personally.
The girl who was struggling and rolling about, unable to make even a cry of help.
Accelerator mocked himself. His power that could only kill would actually work at this moment. And not even the minimum damage was allowed; he had to kill the girl.
If this dragged on longer, the command code that was input into Last Order's brain would break her. There was only one way to prevent that, and that was to take her life before it happened.
"Damn it."
No matter what he chose, she wouldn't be saved.
"At least smile to let her rest in peace", Yoshikawa Kikyou said.
"DAAAAAAMMMMMMNNNNNN IIIITTTTTTTTT!!!"
Accelerator gritted his teeth. There was a sense of sharp pain deep within his chest. This pain was completely different from the time when he was beaten up by the Level 0. This couldn't even be compared. This was the pain of losing. Right now, Accelerator finally experienced it. He finally experienced the weight of the girl in his heart. Accelerator finally experienced this pain he had inflicted 10,000 times on others.
It was too late for him to experience it.
No matter what he did, it was too late now.
Accelerator roared out, but it was useless.
With his power, he wouldn't be able to delete the virus in Last Order's brain. He never had such a useful ability. Though he was said to have the strongest power, it was just the manipulation of 'vectors' like kinetic energy, heat, electricity and all sorts of energy and redirecting them. In application, he could only kill. He had such power, yet he could only think to use it to touch the enemy's skin and reverse the enemy's blood and electrical flow to form an explosion--
(…?)
Thinking till here, an idea suddenly flashed in Accelerator's brain.
He reminisced what he just thought.
Reverse the electrical flow in a human?
(Hold on, what attracts me to that so much?)
That phrase continued to appear in Accelerator's mind.
The time in his body instantly slowed down.
(There's less than 10 minutes left, so I can't call for help. I have a disk and a notepad-sized computer with me here. The disk has the personality files before infection. The Testament is needed. The Level 5 'Accelerator' can manipulate it. It uses electrical flow to control the information in the brain to control the electrical signals. To debug, I have to look through the huge personality files and find a way to find the code and delete it. If I can't find a solution, I have to kill Last Order.)
Accelerator tried to think quickly.
The rows of excessive words were gradually removed, forming meaningful sentences.
While focusing on his thoughts, the short few seconds seemed to become an eternity.
(If I don't want to kill her, I have to delete the virus. I need to do two things. First is to find the virus codes from that massive personality file in Last Order. The second thing is to manipulate the electric signals in Last Order's brain and accurately delete the virus codes.)
In Academy City, where the school curriculum included esper development, the strongest esper in Academy City also had the strongest brain. Having accurately calculated all the air particle flow in the entire city before, Accelerator used all his thoughts to find a way to solve this.
(The disk has the personality files 'before infection'. If I compare it to the one 'after infection' and find the difference—hold on, what attracted my attention here? Let's recall from those abusive words of mine. What am I able to do best? What can I easily think of?)
Thinking about this, Accelerator's shoulders jerked as if they had been electrocuted.
Human electrical reversal.
If Accelerator's power could redirect any energy 'vector'.
If he could let the blood and electrical flow in a body reverse on contact with the skin.
He looked up. It took a mere 10 seconds to think about this.
"Oi, if I can control the electrical flow in the brain, I should be able to correct that brat's personality file without a Testament, right?"
"What are you--"
Speaking halfway, Yoshikawa seemed to realize something.
The Testament controlled the electrical flow in a human, forcing in personality and knowledge.
"...Are you intending to become a Testament yourself? Impossible, though your power is to redirect any 'vector', controlling a brain signal is unheard of...!"
"Why not? I did use skin contact to reverse the blood and electrical flow in a human body in the 'experiment'. Since I can 'redirect', 'manipulation' shouldn't be hard right?"
Of course, Accelerator had never actually manipulated the brain signals of others before, so he didn't have confidence that it would work.
But this was the only way left. If possible, he hoped to use the Testament. If he could prepare an anti-virus code, it would be perfect. The problem was that the current situation wasn't that perfect. If he didn't want to give up, he could only make use of what he had here to break through the difficulty.
Through his own hands.
It was okay even though it was not perfect, he just needed to save her life.
"That's impossible. Even if you can you use your power to manipulate Last Order's brain, the anti-virus process isn't complete, and you can't even delete it completely."
"..."
It was true. Yoshikawa still hadn't finished analyzing the virus. And since Yoshikawa hadn't detected the fake parts in the virus, it seemed like the research results wouldn't be completely correct.
"Listen, even I made the decision to kill her. I know the workings of that child better than you by at least 100 times, and even I feel that there's no other way other than to kill her. Do you know what that means?"
Yoshikawa said in an icy voice,
"Your ability alone isn't going to erase the virus from Last Order's brain at all. If you fail, you'll sacrifice 10,000 Sisters. And if the situation gets out of hand, Academy City will be forced into a war with the rest of the world. In order to prevent that, we have to give up on Last Order."
Yoshikawa sounded like she was lecturing Accelerator, but she was delivering the final ultimatum.
"Of course, it's a different case altogether if you can immediately write an anti-virus code. Can you do that? The virus will activate in a few minutes, can you do that?"
"Of course."
Accelerator replied without hesitation. Hearing this, Yoshikawa Kikyou nearly stopped breathing.
Accelerator turned his eyes to Last Order, who was lying limp on the passenger seat, and then looked into the envelope. The envelope had a disk that had the label 'serial 20,001 personality info/before infection' on it.
It had the personality files before infection. In other words, if he compared Last Order's brain now to this personality file and found the excess parts, he could erase the virus code. Once that was complete, he just needed to overwrite the corrupted data with the normal one to correct it. It was like using a hammer to smash an uneven metal floor to flatten it.
This act of smashing the protruding virus back in was what they called neutralizing a virus.
"Damn it...of course I can do it. WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!?"
Yoshikawa seemed to be saying something through the phone, but Accelerator was no longer listening. He wanted to shut the phone off, but the phone slipped and dropped onto the floor. He didn't intend to pick it up at all.
Accelerator smirked.
He already knew the flaw to this method. He had the 'personality data before infection'. In other words, if this personality file was the base, it would 'overwrite most of the excessive information', and all the memory 'after infection' would be cleaned off. It was like painting a new image over a completed painting.
Including that meeting.
Including that conversation.
Including that smile.
Everything would be lost, and he would have to overcome that pain.
"...So what? It's better for that brat to forget about everything."
Thinking back, that was the case. The walk back down the alley and destruction of his room at midnight were proof that as long as she remained together with Accelerator, she would have the danger of being attacked by unknown people.
Though Last Order wasn't afraid to accept Accelerator, it was all the more reason that he couldn't let such a person exist in the same life as him.
She had to go back.
Back away from this monstrous, bloody and cruel world. Back into the warm and sunny world.
Lonely and weak, he laughed at himself, then inserted the disk into the notepad-sized computer.
A large amount of data appeared in front of him. He quickly scanned through the data that was scrolling at waterfall-like speed, reading all the data. It took him 52 seconds to finish reading, 48 seconds to close his eyes to remember, and 65 seconds to compare what he had memorized to the data on the screen.
The preparations were complete.
He was ready to put an end to this.
Clak. He crushed the notepad-sized computer. The fragments of the girl's internal design fell from his hands.
"..."
He shut off the reflection on his hand, using his fingers to touch the girl's forehead. The girl's skin felt slightly hot, as if she had a cold. He extracted the electrical flow of the human and continued to touch the 'direction' as if he was touching the insides of the girl with his hand. Through the 'direction' of the electrical flow in the person, he managed to grasp it.
Finally, the girl's internal workings were in Accelerator's mind completely.
The girl's thought process that appeared in his brain was ever so warm.
One that made people want to hug, and not lose it.
However,
He had to do this.
"You damned brat. Since I helped out so much, I won't allow you do die by yourself."
After saying that, he smiled.
If there had been a mirror in front of him, even he himself might have been shocked. It was a gentle smile.
Accelerator's hand was trembling.
Using the power that could only kill to save others was like tying a spoon on a tank cannon barrel to feed a baby weaned food; it was extremely difficult.
"...How interesting. Don't die of shock."
He said this.
He was inserting the 'power' and changing the 'direction'; the 'war' had begun.
The virus would activate at 8:13 PM. There were still 52 seconds till the final moment.