Part 6
Musujime Awaki sat at a table in a family restaurant, resting her head on her hand.
She stabbed a fork into a single salad that cost over one thousand yen and was in a completely different rank from an all-you-can-eat salad bar.
Another girl the same age as Musujime sat across from her with a bitter smile on her face.
"That's bad manners."
"I can't rest my elbow on the table even when I'm not using chopsticks?"
However, Musujime made no attempt to fix her manners.
The atmosphere was a languid one lacking in tension. She felt as if she did not know how to handle it.
The girl sitting in front of Musujime had been imprisoned within a secret underground area of Academy City's juvenile hall.
In order to save the other boys and girls imprisoned there, Musujime had carried out various dirty jobs as part of Academy City's darkness.
She had been a member of Group, a special organization for a select few.
At the end of World War III, those bonds had suddenly disappeared. She should have been glad, but there was still a bit of unease because she did not know why it had happened or what had caused it.
What should she do from now on?
Was there a risk of her actions affecting the situation negatively?
"Are you thinking through something difficult?"
"If it were something simple, I wouldn't need to think about it."
"How about you break apart the problem?" suggested the girl. "Most difficult things are just a complex intertwining of a lot of different things. I feel that it's better to line up each of the little problems making it up one by one."
"…True."
It was best to resolve each thing in turn and then bring it all back together in the end.
The problem was that resolving each thing one by one might take over one hundred years in her case.
But…
"Even if I'm going to be skipping some steps on the way up, it may be a good idea to at least measure the height of the staircase."
Part 7
Fremea, the girl that the kotatsu had turned into a hot water bottle, woke up.
Hamazura Shiage was not nearby. The only people around were some strange foreigners wearing all black, an unknown spiky-haired boy, and a nun in a white habit.
Fremea continued to gather information through her unfocused eyes, but then she felt something on her forehead. As if she were a jiangshi or playing Indian poker, there was a memo stuck there. She read it, and learned that Hamazura had gone out to buy some drinks at a vending machine.
"Nyaohh…"
She let out that forlorn voice because she did not know anyone there besides Hamazura.
Also, they had been continuing on for so long on some difficult subject that it was nighttime, and she was exhausted from running around the city so much, so her focus and curiosity had gone below the zero line. She was simply not in a state where she could make the fine adjustments to her heart needed to match the topic of a conversation and lessen her distance with someone she was speaking with for the first time.
Fremea fell back and laid herself on the floor with her lower body still underneath the kotatsu. She saw Birdway's legs passing by, and she reached out for one of them.
"Stop that, you damn brat! I don't have time to deal with the likes of you!!"
Birdway spoke arrogantly, but she was holding a handheld game console in her hand.
"Mark!! There's new information on the walkthrough site. The speed of information in Academy City truly is something else. Hurry up and log in! Let's kick that lightning scrap beast's ass!!"
"I am not young enough to still have the kinetic vision needed for video games…"
"Niiyaa…" said Fremea in a feeble voice, but Birdway and the others headed out to the balcony where they could get a better wireless signal.
Fremea was caught in the vicious cycle of being tired and bored yet unable to sleep. She then reached her hand out for the next foot she saw passing by as if she were a cat reacting to a green foxtail.
The foot belonged to Accelerator.
"…Ahn?"
That situation could very well have been enough to make a back-alley delinquent wet himself, but Fremea did not properly recognize the threat level because her sleepiness was at its max and her sense of what was dangerous was below average in the first place.
"Nyaahh nyah nyah nyahh…" she said.
"…Don't look to me if you need support for your language faculty…"
Even then, Accelerator and his modern cane did not leave. Given that, he may have acquired a personality more decent than Birdway's.
"…Are you the person who saved me?" Fremea said.
"I'm not your hero," Accelerator spat out. "Your hero is the bastard who risked his life and actually took the full brunt of the danger. That title shouldn't be given to someone who just helped out a little."
"Nii…"
It seemed Fremea was so tired that she was not really listening to him.
"Even so, you still saved me," she said sleepily.
"…"
"Funyahh…"
Fremea said that half in her sleep, and grabbed Accelerator's leg.
As he looked down at the girl sleeping in the kotatsu, Accelerator thought.
(I have no interest in being a villain, and I don't think that I can become a good person. I'm at a halfway point where I'm not even sure which path I should walk down… but I guess even there, I can still interfere in someone's life and help bring things to a positive conclusion…)
Part 8
And on a road in Academy City at night, Last Order, a girl who looked about ten, cried out.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!! Misaka's position was taken!! says Misaka as Misaka trembles due to an unexplainable sixth sense!!"
And upon receiving massive interference from the Misaka Network, Misaka Worst let out a meaningless cry next to the small girl.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!! Misaka doesn't care about him, so why!?"
Part 9
After each of their breaks were over, Birdway's explanation time began again.
"I've more or less finished explaining magic cabals and other groups of magicians, but there is one other major thing I need to explain before talking about 'them'."
"…There's more?" complained Hamazura who was bad at listening to things like a principal's speech.
Birdway ignored him.
"Before we talk about 'them', we have to talk about the details of what produced 'them'. The foundation they came from is a real pain."
"The foundation?" asked Accelerator.
Birdway waved a small finger at him.
"Yes, but I have no intention of giving a long lecture on the myths and legends. …Well, you could say it was a folklore-class emergency, but at the very least, you should be more familiar with it than occult legends."
"This roundabout means of explaining things isn't helping. Just get to the point."
"I am talking about World War III," Birdway said simply.
Kamijou Touma, Accelerator, and Hamazura Shiage's movements stiffened a bit.
They had all taken part in a deep portion of that war.
"…That war was not just a clash between two nations using scientific technology. A conflict in a larger frame existed at the deepest portion of that war," Birdway explained. "In other words, it was magic vs. science."
Accelerator frowned upon hearing that.
"So 'they' are related to the other side that started that war?"
"…Yes." Birdway grinned. "During World War III, 'they' rose to the surface. As such, I first need to explain what kind of war World War III truly was and what was going on at the deepest, darkest depths of the war, don't I?"
Part 10
It apparently was going to be a long story, so they would need drinks and snacks on hand. The three of them headed to either the room's kitchen space or a nearby convenience store.
During that time, Kamijou opened the door to the unit bathroom and went inside.
However, he was not planning on taking a shower. He was holding a sandwich and a bottle of water that he had bought at the convenience store.
That area was not suited for eating, but he was not planning on eating the food.
There was a girl inside.
"…So you'll even politely give me food."
She was Kuroyoru Umidori.
The girl of about twelve was one of the Freshmen from Academy City's dark side. Her arms and legs were restrained. No special devices or ropes were used. Kuroyoru had already been wearing a punk outfit with plenty of leather and studs. Due to the strings weaved around her arms and legs, her outfit could be made to function as a straightjacket with a bit of modification to how the strings were tied.
She used a power called Bomber Lance that allowed her to produce nitrogen spears from her palms, but her arms were crossed to prevent her from doing so. If she produced a spear, she would only be injuring her own upper body.
Kamijou said, "No, I don't think I'm the only one that's worried about you. They're finding it hard to face you because you just had a fight, is all."
What had actually occurred was well beyond the level of a mere fight, but Kamijou had no way of knowing that since he had shown up partway through.
Kuroyoru smiled cynically while restrained.
"…I am a cyborg. My insides haven't been messed with too much, but I can still manipulate the signals within my body to bring about a state of suspended animation on a cellular level. I can mess with my metabolism, so I can go without water for an entire week."
"If it involves messing with your metabolism, then that means you can't just go without eating."
"Tch," Kuroyoru clicked her tongue. "Listen up, you naïve bastard. I'm one of the Freshmen, the new darkness of this city. I'm the kind of person that targeted Fremea Seivelun's life just to form a line between Accelerator and Hamazura Shiage and then kill them. I'd prefer you being a little more nervous about being near me."
"I see…" Kamijou muttered.
That was the first he had heard of that general situation, so he took control of his feelings once more.
And then…
"But that's no reason to get in a fight with me, right?"
"..."
For an instant, Kuroyoru felt he was right, but then she frantically shook her head.
"No, no, no!! You're the one that truly got in the way at the end!! You delivered the final blow! You directly affected the outcome, so you're a clear enemy!! You're the kind of person I should have a grudge against!! You have guts to show up before me. Didn't you think I might just chop you to pieces!?"
"How?"
"…In the darkness I live in, there is a term called cyborg therapy," said Kuroyoru with a smile. "Whether it's victory over an illness, the raising of one's physical abilities, or a correction of one's personal appearance, the people who wish to be cyborgs have a defect or perceived inferiority in mind. Of course, those with any shame are not going to write whatever it is down on their order form, but you can still peer into the depths of that person by seeing what it is they're trying to get across in a roundabout way."
"?"
"For me, it was my arms. I only have two, and my power can only be emitted from my palms. I knew that having more points to emit it from would be better, so I branded myself with the stigma of having only two arms." Kuroyoru Umidori shook her restrained body as she spoke. "As such, even though I am a cyborg, I did not have my entire body altered. What was done to me was centered on my arms, the shoulder blades that support them, and the connectors in various places on my upper body. My lower body is relatively untouched; after all, there was no reason to do anything to it."
Kamijou heard an odd noise.
It was an oddly hard and metallic noise for something that was coming from a human body.
"Do you still not fucking understand?"
Her tone of voice changed.
"If my arms are in the damn way because they're restrained, then I can just remove them!!"
With another metallic noise, Kuroyoru's left arm came undone at the shoulder.
This was not just the shoulder being dislocated.
The entire left arm came off like a doll's arm.
She swung around the left arm like nunchuks while it was held together by the long glove. Kuroyoru Umidori then turned her now-freed right arm towards the center of Kamijou's face.
She was using Bomber Lance.
She had said that she had a reason to turn that power on him, but she was also the kind of person that would not hesitate to do so even without a reason.
After all…
"You're taking villains too fucking lightly!!"
With an explosive noise, a spear made of nitrogen shot out.
That spear held destructive power that could pierce straight through composite armor, much less a human skull.
And Kamijou's reaction to that impending death was…
"Yes, yes, and here's Imagine Breaker."
"W-what!?"
Kuroyoru stared in astonishment as her very identity was blown away with a light wave of his right hand.
Meanwhile, Kamijou could not exactly turn a blind eye to what had happened.
"…So just tying you up isn't enough. Hmm… But you could be in danger if I can't prove that you can't resist."
"Wait, wait!! Don't just move the hell on!! Come to think of it, you were the one that did something to prevent me from killing Fremea, too, weren't you!?"
"Oh, I know. If you can freely take them off as a cyborg, I can just take off the other one. If you have no hands, you can't use your power."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait- Ow!? You idiot! They don't just pop off like that!! How many damn locks do you think there are!? And even as a member of the darkness, confining a twelve-year-old kid in the bathroom and removing both her arms seems really fucking twisted to me!!"
"…Hey, the left arm isn't going back on."
"I'm not some old TV! You can't fix it in an analog way like that!! Ahh, stop grinding it in there! If you hit the connecter wrong, it sends noise through the nerves for pain!! Dammit, gimme that!!"
Kuroyoru grabbed her left arm back from Kamijou, and reconnected it using a special process.
Everything related to the connector was completely artificial, so there was no blood. Due to this, it didn't feel real to Kamijou and he looked her over interestedly.
"Being a cyborg sure seems convenient…"
"Do you know what the lifespan of precision equipment is? Think of a computer. If you have it at full operation 24/7, you'll be lucky if it lasts three years. Do you really want a body that requires surgery that often?"
But Kamijou was not really listening to what she was saying.
He ripped open the plastic wrapping around the sandwich.
"But as a cyborg, you can have gills like a fish added on and live underwater, right? Not just swim, but live there. There would literally be a wider world you could live in."
"…The issues of your cell's osmotic pressure and a lot of other minute things would have to be dealt with, so you'd probably have to thoroughly change your body for that."
"Or you could put cat ears on your head to gather auditory information from a wider range."
When she heard that, Kuroyoru's movements froze.
Immediately afterwards, she quickly backed up from him while still restrained.
"S-stop! What the hell are you imagining!?"
"?"
"I'm from the darkness!! I'm one of the Freshmen who have begun to hunt down the Graduates!! Don't be stupid! That isn't foreshadowing!! There isn't going to be some strange development where it turns out that I always wear my hood in order to hide cat ears!!"
Accelerator heard the commotion coming from the unit bathroom, and (in an exceedingly rare move for him) silently paled.
There was a certain common point between all villains and those in the darkness.
That was the fact that having their cool atmosphere ruined would end everything.
No matter how much of a villain someone was, if they were handed an apron and thrown into a kindergarten, they would have no choice but to look after the children.
Normally, the villain would protect their own world by using violence to eliminate those who would ruin that atmosphere of theirs, but that Level 0 had a strange right hand.
It was frightening to think of what would happen if one could not eliminate those that would ruin that atmosphere.
Kuroyoru Umidori had been implanted with the especially attack-oriented part of Accelerator's thoughts, so she was similar to a version of him that had headed down a different path.
If he failed, he would end up like that.
Accelerator had already deviated from villainy and darkness, but he swore in his heart that he would work to avoid being wrapped up in that kind of situation.