One-way traffic

"It's something that people are very concerned about."

On the other side, Yomikawa Aiho and Yoshikawa Kikyo looked at Accelerator with strange expressions.

"What are you doing?"

"We just asked the manager of your shower room, and he said that you seemed to have suddenly run out halfway through your bath."

"I wouldn't dare entrust my body to this fake hot spring made of chemicals."

"Oh? If that's the case, then what have you been doing all this time?"

"Just stopping by to buy coffee."

"What about the coffee? Your hands are completely empty."

"Can't I just drink it?"

"So... does it really take this long to buy coffee? We've been waiting for you for almost twenty minutes, and I remember there was a vending machine nearby, right?"

"You damn guy, you should just become a lawyer...!"

Kikyo Yoshikawa's words left him speechless, and in the end he could only click his tongue in great displeasure.

"It doesn't matter. Even if you find out, what can you do? It's a situation that even I can't understand."

"That's true, but ultimately I still hope you can pay attention to your surroundings."

He could clearly sense that Kikyo Yoshikawa's words seemed somewhat different.

"Accelerator, you're not alone anymore."

Those were spoken in a very serious tone.

"I can let Aiho and I be, but you should know just how important your existence is to Last Order and the others, right?"

"..."

"And the same goes for that girl named Hatsune. She seems to care a lot about you. Don't tell me you can't tell. You're just dealing with her the same way you treated Last Order back then. You haven't really thought about truly accepting her, have you?"

Kikyo Yoshikawa sighed as if she had already anticipated the silence from Accelerator.

"Really, of course I know you've been in that darkness for a long time."

"But this has nothing to do with darkness, right? The people you want to protect are always waiting for you to return safely. If you put yourself in danger for the sake of their world's peace and prosperity, do you really think that's what they want?"

"...Tsk."

One-way clicked its tongue in displeasure.

"Have we finished talking about this old, tired topic?"

"Sigh... I really hope you can listen to me at least a little bit."

Even so, Kikyo Yoshikawa simply smiled and shook her head.

"But anyway, it's good that you're back safe and sound."

He ignored Kikyo Yoshikawa beside him and simply walked to the back of the group alone.

The Last Order was making a ruckus happily in front, while Yomikawa Aiho and Yoshikawa Kikyo were responsible for keeping an eye on her.

then.

"...Are you alright?"

The people walking at the back of the line are not limited to one direction only.

The girl, now wearing the same dress and sporting blue pigtails, slowly walked to his side.

After observing the situation of the people in front of her, she leaned closer and whispered to him.

"Um, you must have just gone to fight someone, right?"

"...How did you know?"

"It's so easy to sense this... really."

Then he saw Hatsune Miku touching him from all sides and looking him over.

"What's going on now?"

"Check if you have any wounds. Be sure to take good care of yourself during the fight..."

"Do you think anyone can hurt me?"

"That's what they say, but they're still really worried about you... Think about it, the last team fight was completely different."

"The probability of that happening is very low. You don't really think you'll encounter opponents of different dimensional strength in every battle, do you?"

"Well…"

Seeing Hatsune Miku looking like a wronged little animal, Accelerator could only sigh.

I don't know what to say.

"Don't worry about me. There's no need to worry about a bastard like me who can't even be killed by a nuclear warhead."

"...No, that's not it."

Hatsune Miku kept her head down.

"Just knowing that you're involved in a dangerous battle all by yourself is enough to make me worry..."

"..."

"If I could... I could fight too."

The first one seemed to pause for a moment, but then fell silent.

"Hey, you two are walking so slowly over there, you're going to fall behind us!"

"Hurry up, hurry up!" Misaka Misaka urged the two while leisurely spinning around in circles!

Urged on like this, Hatsune Miku had no choice but to look up, unsure of what to say.

"Let's go."

"…Um."

She nodded somewhat dejectedly, just as she was about to move forward.

"...This is so annoying."

boom!

Accelerator raised his left hand and flicked his finger directly on the girl's forehead.

No supernatural power was used; it was merely the lightest force.

"Whoa—!!"

"Why are you acting like a brat? Or have you reverted to your silly, spoiled princess days?"

"I'm not an idiot...! That's so mean..."

"Whoa! Misaka won't allow you to bully Hatsune Miku! Misaka Misaka, acting as the champion of justice, is coming swiftly to punish you!"

"Oh my, these people... they really have a good relationship."

"So, at least our future is settled, right?"

"The future? What future...?"

Hatsune Miku blinked, but the two people in front of her just smiled without saying a word.

one way or another.

Having escaped the farce behind him, Accelerator looked at the simulated sky with its twinkling stars in the distance and narrowed his eyes slightly.

He remembered what Kikyo Yoshikawa had told him before.

“…You idiot.”

Do you think I wouldn't know something so simple and stupid?

He buried everything deep in his heart. The number one in Academy City, he simply walked slowly forward into the moonlight, his hands in his pockets.

They moved forward slowly, as if they were about to enter a world of light.

Chapter 213: The Beginning

There is no room that shines.

It is now the dead of night in Academy City, inside a high-rise building located in the very center of the Seventh District, a place that no one can enter directly through normal means.

It is said that this building is so resistant to attack that it is even immune to nuclear weapons. Even an attack capable of shaking the entire biosphere might only cause it a slight tremor. The first leader of Academy City once used the immense rotational force of the planet Earth to launch a frontal bombardment, but even so, he was still unable to breach its defenses.

Calculation-based impact diffusion composite material.

In a sense, it was a composite material created using a portion of the calculation method of Accelerator, the number one in Academy City, which could, in a sense, reproduce that person's reflective ability.

This is why it can easily withstand even the bombardment generated by the Earth's rotation.

All these defensive measures were prepared solely for a simple "human".

"The plans have changed a lot."

Inside the building, a voice, whose exact tone and manner were indistinguishable, spoke softly.

It sounded like a magnetic voice, and when you listened directly to it, you couldn't tell if it was a male or female voice... no, in fact, you couldn't even tell if it was a human voice.

It looked like an angelic gold, floating defying gravity in front of the huge culture tank.

"ImagineBreaker itself has already reached 98% of the destructive potential of the plan, not only attracting Roman Catholic magicians, but also causing a massive fluctuation that can be ignored by both the magical and scientific sides."

"Something interesting seems to have happened during that battle between the Dark Guards. There was a pawn that you thought was doomed—it seems that he managed to survive by doing something himself."

"Right, right... isn't this the most important thing? The genius you're looking forward to, the one-in-a-century talent."

An entity whose identity could not be discerned spoke, using a method different from vibrating the air.

“Accelerator, the number one in Academy City, has now grown to a level that even you yourself cannot assess.”

"..."

"When exactly did this start? Was it from the last time he came to this building? Or was it from when he came back from 'over there'?"

If Accelerator himself were here, he would definitely find these things unbelievable.

In this world, there should be no one who knows that he ever left this world.

"Whichever it is, it must be an unprecedented change for you. Is the core of the plan still intact? Actually, it has already become so chaotic that it is beyond comprehension."

"Aivas".

Located directly in front of the mysterious entity, inside a huge culture tank.

A certain "human" spoke.

"Even you shouldn't think you can easily control everything."

"Oh?"

"You don't really think I'm unprepared, do you?"

The entity located in front of the culture tank paused for a moment.

"Could it be that you have a new plan in mind?"

"impossible."

The "human" voice is so plain and unremarkable that it's impossible to discern a clear gender, but at least it's certain that it's a human voice.

"But you would never think of one thing."

"...?"

"The core of the plan never needs to be changed, and I don't need to prepare any new plans at all."

His deep yet exceptionally clear voice echoed here.

"Because the core of the plan has never deviated from the norm from the very beginning."

"Since the plan is still under my control, why should I change it?"

The golden light then displayed an expression unique to humans.

That was a smile.