One-way traffic

The security guards will arrive in a few minutes to handle everything, but until then... let's calm the two girls down first.

Accelerator arrived at the roof of the apartment building.

He held a can of coffee in his hand, which he had somehow gotten from a vending machine downstairs. He stood there alone, without an umbrella, calmly gazing at the rain-streaked night.

After going through all sorts of things and overcoming countless hardships, they finally returned to Academy City.

But once you return here, what's the difference from the past?

The people I want to protect are still here, and I must continue to fight for them, before soon departing for other worlds...

In terms of strength, Accelerator has now reached the pinnacle.

He has almost mastered all the vectors of spirit, time, and space, and the "wings" that were once difficult for him to control are now easily within his grasp.

In terms of pure strength, he has already reached a peak, and it would be fair to say that he doesn't need to strengthen himself further.

That being the case.

Why am I going to keep traveling to other worlds?

No one could answer him.

The night was enveloped by rain, constantly filling the surroundings.

His body reflected light, so he wouldn't get splashed by raindrops, but the environment still gave him a sense of coldness.

"..."

At some point, he found himself holding something in his hand.

A small doll that is almost identical to myself.

But in essence, this thing is a doll.

In the previous world, the last thing that girl left for herself was a doll, which was like a keepsake.

Recalling the blonde doll user's attitude towards him, Accelerator could more or less guess what kind of mentality she was.

Although, in essence, as the number one in Academy City, he should only have destruction and protection in his eyes, and should not have any other superfluous thoughts.

However, there is one point to consider.

Even if he doesn't care about such things or think about them... it will still affect other people in the end.

A powerful person will inevitably encounter all sorts of obstacles along the way.

These bonds, coupled with a series of mutual stimuli, will eventually elevate this relationship to a supreme level.

This is especially true for teenage girls whose psychology is still in the girl stage.

As for Accelerator, he had already studied human sociology, psychology, and all kinds of communication in great depth a long time ago... The reason he seemed to care so little about it was simply because he was very clear about all of this.

But that doesn't mean he can change other people's feelings about him.

Especially for girls.

Accelerator tilted his head slightly and drank the bitter liquid in his glass in one gulp.

He casually crushed the cup into powder and let it drift away in the wind.

"I thought only weirdos like me would be interested in going out in this awful weather."

He slowly turned around and looked at the person who had arrived silently.

A girl holding an umbrella.

She was holding a large, dark blue umbrella, wearing a dark coat, and still sporting black over-the-knee socks despite the chilly night.

Her azure twin tails appeared somewhat deep against the black, rainy night.

The girl walked towards him step by step.

She was silent.

"This isn't like you."

Accelerator spoke calmly, without much change in tone despite their reunion.

"The Hatsune Miku I know is a bit more energetic than this one."

Upon hearing this, she seemed to raise her head slightly.

Those rather cloudy eyes finally began to tremble.

"I…"

She gradually closed the distance between herself and the other person.

"I always thought you had already..."

Hatsune Miku did not elaborate on what followed, but both parties understood the specific meaning.

"That's too much, that's really too much."

She spoke softly to the person in front of her, as if complaining.

"Do you know... what I was thinking back then? Try to consider other people's feelings a little bit...!"

"Do you really think I would die in that situation?"

"Of course not." That was the girl's instinctive thought.

In her heart, the person in front of her was as tall and mighty as the sky, able to calmly and stylishly resolve any situation, without saying a word more or less.

It was as if he were an omniscient and omnipotent god. She couldn't believe that Accelerator, who could do almost anything and was invincible, would actually die at that moment.

even so--

"But you were definitely fighting with... a death wish, weren't you... at that time..."

Accelerator did not respond.

Was it because she hit the nail on the head? Or was she simply unwilling to answer? Hatsune Miku didn't know.

But no matter what.

Whoosh—she raised the umbrella high.

The thick umbrella covered both of their bodies.

"...No, no more fighting so desperately and recklessly."

The girl held the other person's hand tightly.

The two of them were under the same umbrella, isolated from the surrounding rain.

"Whether it's me, Last Order, or everyone around us... we're all thinking of you, if something really happens to you..."

She tried to say something harsh, but no matter what she did, she couldn't bring herself to say it.

"Just consider it for everyone's sake, just consider it... for my sake... okay?"

After a long time, she finally heard a sigh.

"Feel sorry."

Whoosh—a gust of wind rises.

When Miku came to her senses, there was no one else in front of her.

Even so, there was still a warm feeling in my arms.

She lowered her head slightly and looked at her arms.

There was a can of hot drink that was still warm enough.

This is exactly the drink I usually enjoy.

She held the drink in her arms, alone on the rooftop, gazing silently into the distance.

"...always ignoring other people's thoughts and taking on everything on their own...I hate it the most."

"Fool…"

The rainy night in Academy City lasted until dawn.

It has never stopped.

——————————————————————————————————————————

The two girls didn't wake up until dawn.

Of course, the security personnel had already investigated everything during this period.

The original location of the incident was the Kamishiro family's residence in the 7th District of Academy City, where a massacre of nearly a dozen people took place.

Based on the surveillance footage from the mansion, the final culprit was determined to be a teddy bear doll that was carrying a knife.

The security personnel and higher-ups could not possibly accept such a conclusion. Therefore, they concluded once again that there must be a deeper mastermind behind all of this, and that the doll was nothing more than an assassination robot controlled by some kind of micro-nanomachinery.

…Even so, this conclusion had already been guessed by the individuals in the side stories.

"So, that thing is a real ghost."

"No, no, even if I said that, no one would believe me, right?"

"And even if it really is a ghost, it doesn't matter. If we report this result to the higher-ups, we can forget about getting paid this month."

"Ah~ It seems that no matter where you come from, you still have to make a living by traveling around."

"But then again, the money Accelerator earns from just one Live performance should be enough to cover his monthly expenses, right?"

Even so, I can't bring myself to write "it was done by a ghost" in the report!

Yomikawa Aiho, Yoshikawa Kikyo, and the side stories.

Three women make a drama, and they were discussing the events of the previous night in the back living room, which the security guards seemed to be calling an 'unconventional murder case'.

Regardless of the strange and supernatural things, let's put them aside for now. The two girls named Yuka Kamishiro and Mikoto Himeno have already been questioned.

Logically speaking, after such a large-scale killing incident, the two should have been questioned by guards for a long time.

"Huh?! How, how could this be…"

That's what Mikoto Himeno said at the time.

"Tomorrow is the First Festival! I really want to see... the first master's... live performance..."

…And so, Accelerator overheard these words by chance.

I don't know what happened, but anyway, the questioning of Mikoto Himeno and Yuka Kamishiro was postponed to a few days later. At least they didn't have any problems with their actions during the festival.

"You've really changed a lot. You actually came to me to ask for this kind of permission for two female students. Also, welcome back."

"Stop talking nonsense, you upside-down bastard... Also, your proud science city is almost filled with all sorts of junk. I suggest you go and clean up the mess yourself."

"That's quite an interesting development."

After finishing his call with the chairman of the board of directors, who was at the highest level of Academy City, Accelerator stopped paying attention to these issues.

The chairman of the board, Aleister Crowley… that guy is a really difficult bastard.

As the perpetrator of a series of tragedies, Accelerator will certainly not let him off so easily; however, that day is not yet approaching…

It seems that even for this reason, I still need to keep becoming stronger.

He hummed casually and then sat back down in the living room.

"A single-sided festival..."

That's something he'll be attending soon.

At the Academy City Festival, several Level 5 esper idols are responsible for their respective live performances.

"I almost forgot I had such a troublesome project to do before I got back here."

"Wow~ I never thought that the number one would seriously consider idol-related matters. It's really too interesting."

The person speaking was an extra character who swaggered over to their side.

She was holding a glass of cola, looking at me with a mocking smile.

"Speaking of which, that little girl from yesterday seems to be one of your fans too? You're really popular with girls."

"Shut up if you don't want me to throw you out of here... Where's Last Order?"

"Commander Tower and Hatsune Miku ran outside, saying they were going to buy some things to celebrate the Ichiran Festival. But you, as soon as you came back, you were pestered by all sorts of girls. First, it was a weak, supernatural girl, and then it was a world-class idol. Is this really okay? —Puwaaa!!"