Accelerator stood in a filthy back alley.
He had returned to District 7, but this did not put him at ease.
A heavy metallic noise rang out amid the sound of rain in the darkness.
It was the sound of the lid of a giant dumpster closing after Accelerator disposed of a Hound Dog member who had become nothing more than an old rag. A red liquid trailed down from the gap between the dumpster and its lid. It looked like the drool of a glutton.
Accelerator leaned his hands on the waist-high dumpster to support his weight and then relaxed his legs to slide down to sit on the ground. He felt like an oil-soaked puddle was soaking into his clothes and skin.
"Ha ha."
He laughed.
He had crushed flesh for the first time in a while.
It felt like chugging down a can of a certain brand of coffee after not having that brand for a while. It should have felt good, but it only felt empty. He should have been in an uplifted mood, but he could not get over feeling a sense of resignation. He had drunk it down thinking it was so delicious, yet at some point he had started to wonder if it had really never been any better than this. It was a strange state of mind.
He was reminded of something.
It was no longer okay for him to kill people. Or rather, he had realized it had never been okay on August 31. That was how great a turning point his meeting with Last Order had been.
Accelerator did not want to kill anyone like Last Order. And it was possible for him to feel the same way about others who lived in her world such as Yomikawa and Yoshikawa. It was wrong for those naïve people who walked along the path of light to fall prey to those who lurked in the darkness like Accelerator. And so he was prepared to fight all on his own to prevent that from happening.
At first glance, that may seem to be the thought process of a proper human being.
However, there was a hole in his logic.
For example, what if some rotten bastards who were nothing like Last Order appeared before him? What if those irredeemable people tried to take away a redeemable person? In that case, Accelerator was freed from the bonds saying he must not kill. He feared having the residents of the world of light falling victim to the residents of the world of darkness. As long as he hated himself as a resident of that world of darkness, he could never accept anyone else from that world either.
As such, he would unhesitatingly tear through human flesh if certain conditions were met.
He would go nuts until everything he held inside him had been dealt with and nothing but pure white remained.
He would do exactly what he had just done.
"…"
Accelerator hung his head down amid the pouring rain.
In the end, the change in him had not been enough. The turning point on August 31 had not been enough to wipe away the darkness he was so deeply dyed with. That was not enough. It was lacking something. He needed a few more parts before he could return to being a human.
After thinking through that far, he laughed.
It was a laugh of resignation that set him free of something.
He was ruled by solitude.
He had returned to what he had been before meeting Last Order.
"Ha ha…"
Accelerator looked up into the night sky with his back leaning against the dumpster.
The raindrops struck his body.
The clouds were thick. They were so dark that looking at them seemed to darken his heart.
(I don't even have 4 minutes left in esper mode…)
He double-checked his situation in annoyance.
(Anti-Skill's after me now. They'll have scattered my photo all over the city by now. Now I can never return to that world after I defeat Kihara and rescue that brat.)
He had already cut away his ties with Last Order. Even if he saved her before any harm came to her, he could not walk along the same path as her. What he needed now was not to work towards walking down her path. He needed the strength to accept the truth before his eyes. He needed the strength to not care and to save her nonetheless.
He clicked his tongue.
His time with her had not lasted long, but its loss seemed to create a great hole in his chest.
However, this was not enough to make his red gaze waver.
(I'll accept this. But it changes nothing.)
He grabbed the shotgun that had sunk into a puddle.
(I will drag that brat out of the darkness. That was my only objective from the beginning, so I just have to cut away any excess meat getting in the way. I can take care of myself. Right now, that damn brat's safety comes first.)
He unsteadily stood up using that weapon as a cane.
Kihara Amata, Hound Dog, Anti-Skill, and anything that might happen after the fact did not matter.
He only needed the one objective.
Thinking about it that way put his mind at ease. He felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his back. He felt like he could achieve any goal he put his mind to.
He had broken the last chain.
Accelerator had regained his position as "strongest" in exchange for something important, and he now began walking through the rainy street with his cane.
He continued on to crush his next target.
He continued on to resolve this problem even if it left him fully dyed in the color of blood.
He had an idea where his prey was.