Accelerator glanced around within the dark hospital.
His enemy was lying on the ground having trouble breathing through the blood. They had no other guns of the same model as the shotgun he was using as a cane, so he could not replenish the ammunition. He could have picked up a different model of gun, but he chose not to. He did not want his enemy to think he was relying so much on guns.
(Now then. I've crushed two of his teams.)
Accelerator muttered under his breath as he stared out a window being struck by large raindrops.
(That piece of shit Kihara will have to change his plans now. Defeating me will shoot up on his list of priorities. And that will lower the danger to that damn brat.)
At first glance, Accelerator seemed to have an overall advantage, but in reality, he was still in serious trouble. No matter how many normal Hound Dogs he defeated, Kihara might get impatient, but he would not feel fear. After all, Kihara had the special ability to beat down Accelerator barehanded.
And on top of that, Accelerator had no hint as to where Kihara Amata or Last Order were. Accelerator could not take any decisive action. He could only wait for his enemy to make a mistake.
If they had not yet captured Last Order, Accelerator's previous strategies would still be effective. Kihara would change his plan and send more assassins after him. That would, in turn, leave fewer men to pursue Last Order.
But if Last Order had already been captured by Kihara, Accelerator's efforts would be a waste. Without knowing where Kihara was, he could not race over to rescue her and no mistake would come no matter how long he waited. Their objective was Last Order, not Accelerator. They would not need to do anything more.
(It's all or nothing. There's no common ground here. Fuck, this isn't funny at all.)
Accelerator clicked his tongue and looked down at his feet. One of the radios used by Hound Dog was there. He crushed it underfoot in anger. It seemed Kihara knew Accelerator had a radio. No important information had been exchanged by radio for a while. It was no longer any use to him.
(But why are they targeting that brat now?)
He leaned his back against the wall.
(If it's for some research, does it have to do with the Sisters? But that bastard Kihara was right about the Sisters not being all that powerful. Kihara was the idiot that developed me. If they really wanted to use espers for military purposes, it would've made more sense to use my DNA map or to create a DNA map even better than mine.)
When Accelerator had been beaten by Kihara near the entrance to the underground mall, Kihara had said something odd. He had said the Radio Noise project had not been meant to create clones for the military. He had said they would have used Accelerator's DNA map instead of the Railgun's if that had been their intention.
(The Radio Noise project and the Level 6 Shift project after it.)
Accelerator's gaze wandered lazily around the area.
(What the hell have that brat and I been involved in?)
He felt like he was about to grasp some truth, but his thoughts were cut off before he could.
His cell phone suddenly began vibrating.
"…"
Accelerator held his breath and pulled the small communications device out of his pocket.
It displayed Last Order's number.
He thought.
(Is this that brat herself or is it Kihara? Could any two options be more different?)
He pressed a button to answer the call.
He pressed the cell phone against his ear.
"Thank goodness! I finally got through!"
The voice did not belong to Last Order. However, it did not belong to Kihara Amata either.
Accelerator thought one of Kihara's subordinates was using the phone, but then…
(…This voice?)
The voice sounded somehow familiar, but he could not quite place it. The signal was not great and it sounded like this person was outside because he could hear the sounds of rain coming from the speaker.
"I've been calling all of the numbers in Last Order's cell phone. You're the only one that answered. You may not know what is happening, but I need your help. That girl is in danger!"
It was entirely possible this was a trap.
However, Accelerator had no choice but to step into the trap.
"What's going on?" he asked while focusing his mind to pick up as much information as possible.
The voice spoke at length.
He explained that he had met Last Order at about the time of the citywide curfew, that she had asked for help because someone she knew had been attacked by a mysterious group, that only unconscious men in black had been there when they went to check, that they had been pursued by more of these men in black, that he had allowed Last Order to escape ahead of him, that he did not know if Last Order was safe, that he could not contact her, and that she needed to be protected as soon as possible because it was unclear if the danger had passed.
Hound Dog could easily know what the men in black had done and where Last Order was.
The odds of a trap grew even higher.
But at the same time…
(That does sound like what that brat would do.)
"Hey, by any chance, are you the one that girl was saying was attacked?"
"Probably."
"I'm glad you're okay. I'm worried about Last Order too, so please go hide with her if you find her."
The conversation was veering off course, so Accelerator brought it back on track.
"Where did you part ways with that brat?"
"Fight Street in District 7…Oh, I suppose that doesn't help much. That's only what we call it. Does this road even have an official name?"
A slight silence followed. The person may have been searching for a street sign.
"Found it. Leaf Street on Route 39. Specifically, at a Spanish family restaurant called Olla Podrida."
Accelerator knew where that was.
It was a lively area with a lot of back alleys away from prying eyes if one moved away from the major roads. Its many connections between the two sides of the city caused a lot of people to be sucked in.
"Which way did she run?"
"I don't know. The best I could do was have her escape the building. She probably followed the road, but it's been a while since we parted ways. To be honest, it seems impossible to even guess where she might have gone."
(Don't be so sure.)
The curfew had passed, so Academy City's busses and trains were not running. Even if she tried to hire a taxi, no driver would faithfully stop to pick up a soaking-wet brat who clearly had no money.
Last Order would have been forced to walk.
And while Accelerator had done it to get her away from Kihara, a lot of her strength had been sapped when she had been thrown into water from a great height. And the pouring rain would not help matters regardless. Even if a good bit of time had passed, Last Order was likely working to regain her strength in a building somewhere.
If this person on the phone was telling the truth, Accelerator might actually be able to do something.
And even if it was a trap, it could still lead to some new turn of events.
"Understood. I'll go retrieve her. You throw away that phone and go back to your normal life."
"What are you saying!? I'm obviously going to help!!"
Accelerator's true reasons were the fact that moving on his own would be easier and that he did not want an amateur to disturb the situation, but this person was surprisingly persistent. Accelerator decided this guy was a stupid bastard whether this was a trap or not.
"Fine, you head to the huge metal bridge in District 7. That was our emergency rendezvous point. If she's still running, she'll have gone there."
"Understood," came back an oddly motivated response.
Needless to say, that had been a complete lie.
"Be careful," said the voice. "Something's odd about Academy City today. Some strange person has broken into the city. Also, Anti-Skill and other people are collapsing all over the city."
"What?"
Accelerator frowned.
That was the first he had heard of someone entering the city or people collapsing around the city.
"The intruder is one thing, but had you really not noticed anything odd about the city? I saw Anti-Skill and those…um…men in black fall victim to it. The restaurant guests had also passed out. And they weren't physically knocked out from a blow to the gut or anything either. It looked like people walking around had just suddenly passed out. I haven't bothered to go checking around, but doesn't it seem oddly quiet tonight?"
"…"
(What is going on?)
Would Kihara Amata really go that far? It bothered him that the Hound Dogs that worked for him had passed out too, but it was possible Kihara would not hesitate to discard his own subordinates.
It filled him with an unpleasant feeling, but he had to put it off until later.
His top priority was retrieving Last Order.
"It looked like an indiscriminate attack, so you be careful too."
"What a pain…"
A short silence followed those two comments.
Finally, the person on the phone spoke.
"Sorry. I really shouldn't have left that girl alone."
"…Don't feel too bad. I left her alone too."
Accelerator ended the call there.
He looked down at the cell phone for a moment before shoving it into his pants pocket.
He headed for the hospital's exit using the shotgun as a cane.
The crucial moment had arrived.