novelIn the Shining Golden Sky (1)
| ← Ch.170 | Ch.172 → |
Part 1
An intense pressure assaulted Accelerator's chest.
His breathing stopped.
He did not know how it worked, but a portion of the night sky had split open greatly and a great amount of golden light was overflowing from it. Given the refractive index of sunlight and the atmosphere, the heavens were filled with a color that should have been impossible upon the earth. That light expelled all sense of night from the world. The fortress monopolizing the heavens was even more clearly visible than when it had been dyed in the colors of night before.
The night sky from before had been strange enough given the time.
That eerie night sky had seemed like it had been pasted there by human hands and the layout of the stars had been impossible from an astronomical point of view.
But...
That golden sky was beyond even that. It seemed like it would be wrong to even attempt to explain it astronomically. One could only imagine that scientists across the world would just give up saying that there was no way common knowledge could explain it even though it was before their eyes.
Everything had gone insane.
It wasn't just the fact that the scene ignored all the basic scientific laws. It was the fact that no one was hiding the phenomenon. It was completely insane that it was just spread out before the entire world like that.
Accelerator was used to the darkness of Academy City where it was natural for all sorts of incidents and the esper powers that had caused them to be covered up using cutting edge technology, so that sight seemed completely ridiculous to him.
In that second, in that instant, what was known as the world may have completely changed.
But...
(... What do I care?)
With that one thought, Accelerator cast aside that great change.
He seemed to be grabbing at his own chest with his slender hand as he breathed heavily.
Even then, Last Order's life was in danger.
If he did not get rid of the cause as soon as possible, it would go beyond the point of no return.
He knew it was selfish.
But even so he did not care about a change that encompassed the entire world. If anyone would say that was self-centered and evil, that strongest monster of Academy City was prepared to fight every single one of them. No matter who he had to make an enemy of and no matter what he had to lose, there was something he had to accomplish.
He had to rescue the girl known as Last Order from every part of that unreasonable world.
Accelerator once more had a reason to live.
"Misaka WORST. Have you gotten the data on the song used to remove Kihara Amata's virus?"
"It is in a rather shallow portion of the Misaka Network. It seems the single large will of the network had noticed something wrong with the song. The calculation ability of each Sister was reorganized and used in parallel to continually attempt to analyze it. Thanks to that, this newcomer Misaka was able to acquire the data without having to dive too deeply into the network. Misaka has finished downloading it, " Misaka WORST said while pointing toward her own temple with a mischievous smile on her face.
"Give me the data, " Accelerator said without thanking her.
"At least say something. A pointlessly vast knowledge is the reward of intellectual work, y'know? Although it's kind of like a drink after working overtime."
She sighed and then pulled a mobile device from a pocket of her white battle outfit.
"Misaka has the song, but she cannot express it with her specs. It has less to do with how you have to move your throat and more to do with the manner of breathing and how you make it reverberate within your body not being normal. It would be faster to output it by sending electrical signals to a speaker. Would you like the score, artificial voice data, or the sound amplitude graph?"
"Give me all of them. Only a lowly thug holds back. Having good manners with small things like that won't get you any praise, but acting tough and then failing is a waste of your achievements."
"You really are an unpleasant person through and through, but it is more comfortable that way."
With a slight noise of static, a change suddenly occurred on the mobile device. A few files were added.
Accelerator took the mobile device and operated the screen with his fingertips. Misaka WORST peered at the small screen from the side.
"But just this song isn't enough, right? You have to replace the exclusive parameters or whatever. How are you going to do that?"
"I'll manage somehow, " replied Accelerator as he shook the mobile device around to drive the girl away as her head was blocking his view.
He then pulled out the pile of parchments.
Written with a sticky black ink were eerie and strange spells or magic circles. Misaka WORST frowned upon seeing the cryptic contents of the parchments. They simply seemed unfitting for the crystallization of Academy City's cutting edge science that Last Order was.
"... Are you mocking Misaka?"
"I'm glad to see you can express your emotions so abundantly, but I'd rather the other dolls didn't learn from you."
"Quit talking like you're a parent. So this clearly occult demon summoning text is hiding the parameter you need? Are you going to become a shady spiritual expert after studying for twenty minutes and then call a goat's head from a pentagram to grant your wish?"
"No."
"By the way, " Misaka WORST said without listening to him and with clear ill will covering her words."Last Order's problem was caused by something within Academy City, right? So why was the manual to fixing that problem plopped down in front of you in such a far off place? You just happened to go to Russia and yet you just happened to run into an adaptable means of fixing this? It's like a video game where hints are kindly prepared along the route you progress along. You just need to gather the gun to fight the zombies, the hero's sword to defeat the demon king, and the memos from researchers and sages and you've got it all. Do you really think things would be that simple in this harsh real world?"
"... I said that isn't fucking it."
"Oh, should you really be pressing a gun between Misaka's eyes, you parent? This Misaka would like to be treated the same as the other Misakas."
Accelerator had stuck the handheld device and the parchments under the arm with his cane and was pressing a mass of metal just below Misaka WORST's forehead. To be that annoyed but to have not yet pulled the trigger would have been unthinkable for the old him. After all that had happened to that monster, he had softened a little.
"Whether you're talking about high-level security encryption on computers or encrypted plans from da Vinci's time, it all comes down to math. The number of digits is a bit different, but the root of it all remains the same. The code put on cell phones for privacy can be broken by repeating the same simple calculation over and over again. People only think of it as safe because the numbers are so huge that it would take too long to do it that way. The actual method of encoding isn't all that complex."
"So?"
"So I dealt with it using math. I broke apart all the information into 1s and 0s and then put it together like a puzzle in my head. Under normal thinking, I should have been able to solve it that way. At the very least, I should have at least gotten a clue to how it's encoded.... Let's just ignore that the numbers are so large that it would take hundreds of years."
"Misaka senses the kind of misfortune and frustration that she loves so much in how you said 'should have'."
"I can't solve the puzzle, " Accelerator readily admitted."I'm missing a piece, so I can't use just math. I can manage up to a certain point, but something is definitely off. It's like I'm trying to calculate Pi and an error occurs at the 100th digit every time. There's some other kind of laws mixed in. Unless I can fill in the missing piece, I can't correct for this error. The further I continue the calculations, the greater the error spreads until I've lost sight of what I'm trying to find."
"So whatever these parchments are, you can't get the parameters you need?"
"I can't do this with math, but I have to solve it somehow, so I've brought together every single bit of knowledge I have. I do have the Number One brain in Academy City after all. I'm not particularly proud of it, but I have a lot packed in here. And so I started doing a self-search through every part of my head pulling out every kind of information and just pulling it out and pulling it out and pulling it out."
His words alone continued.
Misaka WORST should know what he meant. His calculative and linguistic abilities were being supplemented by the almost 10, 000 Sisters. In other words, his original intellectual specs were simply that great.
"And then I suddenly realized it."
"Realized what?"
"I already have things I can't understand inputted within me."
"..."
"I first thought of the previous battle between the water angel and the scientific angel, but that wasn't the right answer. Before that, well before that, I understood it with my own body."
Accelerator spoke as if he had realized something.
"Yes."
Speaking of his own loss would have been unthinkable for the person he had once been. But now his priorities had changed.
If he could protect a small life in exchange for his pride, he would unhesitatingly cast it aside.
"I was unable to reflect an unknown attack. It just went straight through my defenses and cut my body in two. I couldn't come up with a single way of dealing with it. I was utterly defeated at that time."
He now had enough leeway to smile.
He pushed on his own back and took another step forward.
"But it wasn't that the attack did not have vectors. I'm sure I had those unknown laws inputted into my body from Aiwass back then."
Thinking back on it, that had been what had happened.
Aiwass had not just erased his powers like that Level 0.
The being had not worked around his powers like Kihara Amata or Kakine Teitoku.
Aiwass had used a completely straightforward attack and its vectors had directly struck Accelerator. In that case, that information should have been transferred to Accelerator.
A hint had been within his own head from the beginning. The answer was within him. Aiwass had said to go to Russia, but it had not said the solution needed to save Last Order would be simply laid out before him. All that monster had presented to him was the key to the vault.
He mustn't write it off as "unknown".
He mustn't just throw it into the black box.
He needed to establish nonexistent vector axes that could deal with what seemed off. He needed to think of math dealing with things such as imaginary numbers that did not actually exist in the real world but that could be explained using purely mathematical calculations. He had to calculate what the values were from the vectors before his eyes in order to determine what laws were used to create them. He could not figure it all out just from Aiwass. Aiwass was a nonstandard monster. A fragment of an asteroid altered by tremendous heat was nothing more than a rock in and of itself. However, using high level formulas on it could become a key to guessing at the spread of the universe from the big bang.
Of course, he may not be able to grasp a perfect picture of it, but he could put together an inference that was exceedingly close to the truth.
The big bang at the start of the universe had yet to be proven to be a giant explosion. All that had been done was using giant ring-shaped particle accelerators to recreate and confirm the physical phenomena theorized to have happened after the explosion.
Physicists used that to continually bring the original explosion as close as possible to reality in their minds as they filled in the details bit by bit.
He just had to do the same thing.
The skill to focus and control the vectors of forces and alter them into attacks was nothing more than an added value. Most likely, the core of the reason he existed slept in what he was doing there.
When he had naturally been given his esper name, he had surely understood it on an instinctual level, but Accelerator once more became strongly aware of that reason.
"By mixing in nonexistent math similar to imaginary numbers into the contents of the parchments and inputting just one line of a unique physical formula, it rises to the surface. But that isn't what's important. Once I have solved the puzzle using the rules I put together myself, the mysterious Aiwass vectors in my head have been cut down to an inference exceedingly close to reality on the same level as the big bang theory. In other words, " Accelerator paused for a second, "I have the parameters needed to save this brat. Now is the time to turn this around."
He turned toward the small girl who was even then suffering for some absurd reason.
He turned toward the true battlefield where he must fight.
On September 30th when he had confronted Kihara Amata who led the Hound Dog unit, the doctor known as Heaven Canceller had said rather unfunny things that had hit him where it had hurt, but now Accelerator felt he could step into that same field again with pride. Accelerator now understood the value of fighting to protect a life and of putting effort into securing that life.
Not all fights involved physical conflict.
Taking from others was not the only way to win.
Up until then, he had sworn to stand at the peak of villainy in order to protect those important to him from the unreasonable darkness. He continued having fights to the death with bastards a lot like him in the bloody back alleys. Each time he had lost a lot in exchange for his victory which led to him being swallowed up by the darkness even further.
However, this fight was different.
He no longer needed to remain a villain!!
"... Heh."
Accelerator hung his head down and contemplated what that meant for an instant.
He contemplated it deeply.
When he raised his head once more, the trembling that had been in his eyes as he wandered about Russia was gone.
"Let's get started, " was his short comment.
He did not need to make any especially showy actions.
He just had to close his eyes and bring out the answer he had come to in his head in the form of his voice.
That would end it.
That would end it all.
The massive formula was outputted into the world in the form of song data.
Misaka WORST may have been surprised as she watched from the side, but it was nothing special. In the past, Accelerator had eliminated Amai Ao's virus using his own power. This was merely in a different form, so there was no reason he shouldn't be able to do it. He had everything he needed. All he had to do was keep it in the best condition through to the end and produce the desired results like he was a machine.
That was how it was supposed to go.
However, the mechanism that was supposed to move slowly got caught somewhere.
It was a slight but ominous vibration like the omen of a train disastrously derailing.
(The golden sky... !?)
Mysterious vectors like Aiwass's were pressing down on him from above.
(I see. It isn't too surprising that something like that would interfere with this a bit. )
Static ran through TVs or radios when they were near power lines with high voltage currents running through them. It was the same as that. He immediately determined that and made slight adjustments to his equations.
He was reminded of a ball rolling down a slope.
At the bottom of slope was a cliff.
If he continued to adjust his equations, he would cross a decisive line. Whatever he analyzed, Accelerator was an existence living within the normal physical laws. He himself would not be immersed just by knowing of the mysterious laws.
He would cross that line.
He would be swallowed up by the mysterious laws.
Accelerator knew that, but he did not stop. He continued on. He shot down the slope in a straight line. He could already see the edge of the cliff. Accelerator saw that deep hole as a gate. He unhesitatingly headed forward and leapt into the bottomless darkness.
He crossed that line in an instant.
Immediately afterwards, a change occurred.
"... !!!???"
With a cracking noise, something within his body let out a cry. The blood vessels on the back of his hand swelled up oddly. He became strongly aware that he had thick blood pipelines running from his fingertips to his shoulders. As soon as he noticed that, something tore. His skin ripped from the inside and a dark-red liquid squirted out.
Had he realized it?
By breathing in a way impossible for a normal person and using vibrations from his entire body rather than just his throat, he had let out an extremely special voice. With that voice, he was refining his life force into magic power, putting together a spell, and outputting it into the real world. In other words, he was using true magic.
Espers could not use magic.
If they forcibly used it, what awaited them was an enormous rejection reaction.
The damage did not remain in just one place. The flows of the arteries, veins, and nerves running through his entire body like spider webs gave him a strange pulse and pain while bringing their presence to the front of his mind. He was made strongly aware of the expansion and contraction of his organs as well as their locations. More sweat flowed from his body in an instant than if he were to enter a sauna. That clear and unpleasant liquid mixed with something red. Accelerator thought small scale explosions were occurring in various places across his body. That prediction was not wrong.
But he continued because he had no reason to stop there.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"
A wild yet solemn voice similar to a primitive aborigine dancing song spread throughout the white land. His entire body was soaked in blood and countless wounds were being expanded from within, but there was not even the slightest shaking in his voice. That was the strength of his will. He wanted to save a certain small girl. With that feeling alone, he overcame the very real pain and carried out his high-level mental work without the slightest error.
There were stories from the age when the Christian Church was still persecuted by the Romans saying that many believers would occasionally witness the form of angels while they were being gruesomely tortured.
There was a rather dreamless view saying that it was an illusion created from the excretion of excess chemicals in the brain in order to escape the excruciating pain. After all, the appearance of the angel was just too convenient. If angels actually existed and that powerful being was on their side, why had the Romans not been slaughtered there?
That view may have been accurate in some cases.
But what if those believers who were in that extreme mental state had subconsciously carried out the mental work needed to delicately carry out a complex and powerful spell that allowed them to temporarily control Telesma in order to perform a high level summoning? Wasn't that another explanation that had some dreams left in it? Couldn't it be explained as those believers responding with wordless words and briefly calling in a real angel via some quick spell?
Yes.
Accelerator prayed.
He prayed wholeheartedly. He wished for nothing else. He paid no heed even to his own pain. Academy City's strongest monster did nothing but continually pray so that he could protect the one who was more important to him than his own life.
That white angel had been thrown down to the depths of the earth by a great amount of evil. He had crawled back up seeking light, but his wings had been broken by a different monster.
But would anyone think that he was "fallen" by looking at his bloody face?
Or would they think that his shining light would not be clouded even if he fell to the depths of hell?
It was the same as with the many believers who had been looked down on, thrown into cells, or thrown into brothels, and yet those unsightly and filthy places had been completely transformed into shining places of faith.
His soul was not so stained that he did not have a place to stand.
Sinners would face their sins, risk their lives and work to make up for their sins, and wash away that darkness.
It was not a mere performance.
It was not something another could force one to do.
The world was not so cold as to not save those who truly searched within their hearts, continually fought to change their ways, and tried to break from their destiny. Among the important historical figures of the Christian Church, there were those who had originally brought suffering to the Christians as Romans. Those people had regretted what they had done for the rest of their lives, but had headed down a path of hardships but also salvation as they continually fought to make up for their sins as much as they possibly could.
What was Accelerator at that time?
Was he a good person or a villain?
Was he a human or a monster?
Was he of science or of magic?
If you had asked him, he would unhesitatingly have answered as follows: Isn't that obvious? No other word can describe me other than "me".
"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"
By walking down that bloody path, Accelerator had broken every single chain binding him.
There was nothing left limiting him.
He could head forward as far as he needed to.
To save Last Order's small life, he did nothing but head down the path he believed in.
He became covered in blood.
He continued to sing.
And...
Part 2
Where had Takitsubo Rikou gone?
The battle with Mugino was over and additional attackers had been seen coming down from a bomber, so Hamazura Shiage needed to meet back up with Takitsubo as quickly as possible. Even if he was going to come up with a plan, he did not want to do so while they were separated.
"Dammit!! Where is she!? Takitsubo! Where are you!?"
As he loudly called out her name, Hamazura grabbed a thick branch. An avalanche had torn up the snow-covered base of the mountain. He had lost track of Takitsubo around the time of his battle with Mugino. The fact that no response came after he searched around the area and called her name meant that it was possible she was buried beneath the snow.
Despite working in that freezing land, Hamazura worked up a sweat and his throat dried up. Hamazura took a drink from a bottle of carbonated water. The water was still water because it had been within his jacket. If it had been lying on the ground, it would have quickly frozen.
Meanwhile, Mugino Shizuri disinterestedly watched Hamazura panicking from a slight distance.
"Hey!! You help search too, Mugino!! I can't find Takitsubo! I can't even take a guess where she might be!! So help me! I need as much help as I can get!!"
"Why do I have to do that?"
"What do I do? What do I do? The burden of the Body Crystal may have been lessened, but she's still far from being fully recovered. We can't just leave her out here in the cold. We need to get her warm. Takitsubo's weak. She's a weak girl. It's all the Body Crystal's fault that she's like that..."
"..."
Academy City's Number Four Level 5, Mugino Shizuri, struck with Meltdowner.
With an explosive noise, a mass of snow right next to Hamazura evaporated in a straight line. There was such power to it that it caused a phreatic explosion sending Hamazura's body flying into the air.
Mugino shook her head.
"O-oh, no. I feel dizzy. This might be the result of the Body Crystal... of the Bo-dy Cry-stal. There's a lot going on with my body's drive, but... no, I think I might just pitifully pass out."
"What are you doing, Muginoooooo!? Don't you know that the weak bunny that is Takitsubo could be buried anywhere around heeeeeerrrrrrrrre!?" Hamazura yelled out in a girly falsetto while lying on the ground.
"... What a pain. Fine, I'll help you dig her out."
"Keeeee!! You need to make a clear distinction between jokes and serious statements!! I can't deal with this. I really do need someone who is completely harmless!!"
Mugino then pointed behind Hamazura with an unbelievably unmotivated expression.
"She's silently approaching."
"Waahh!?" Hamazura yelled out upon seeing the ghost girl Takitsubo Rikou quietly drawing near.
But that meant they were all there.
Hamazura checked on the situation now that all three of them were gathered.
He looked up at the golden sky.
He could tell the Academy City attackers heading down amid that psychedelic scenery were about to land a bit away. Their clothing did not match the white snowy plain. They were wearing black battle outfits. They looked like the kind of outfit that would be supplied to urban special forces. They had nothing that looked like a gun.
"..."
Mugino Shizuri had fired her Meltdowner just a moment ago, but it could not be used in real battle anymore.
She would be able to fire 2 or 3 shots, but that would be the limit for her body that had been ravaged by the Body Crystal. She could possibly manage against a stationary target, but it was unclear if she could hit enemies irregularly running around at high speed. It would be difficult indeed to take out those attackers when she had so few shots left.
Takitsubo Rikou would not be any help. The negative effects of the Body Crystal had been alleviated to a certain extent, but she had not undergone any fundamental treatment. And even if she was at full strength, she was more suited for logistical support. His image of her was not that of someone who was skilled at close quarters combat much less someone who could blow away an enemy with a powerful esper ability.
The attackers knew that.
That was why they had parachuted down from the bomber in clear view. Otherwise, they would have been more cautious in their approach.
Hamazura charged into the forest of conifer trees.
A few dozen meters ahead, he saw a figure approaching slowly but surely across the snow. Hamazura held his breath and stared.
It was not a normal soldier.
The attacker was wearing completely black clothes and a gold and white flat mask covered his face. The strange mask seemed to stretch up over twice as high as the attacker's face. There were no holes for the eyes or mouth. It seemed patterns could be drawn with various man-made lights covering the mask like LED decorations for a cell phone. Hamazura did not know what it meant, but a faint LED would occasionally be emitted. From the stature, the cheekbones, and the other parts of the head the mask did not cover, it seemed the attacker was a man.
"..."
Just staring at the enemy would not change things in Hamazura's favor.
He checked on his surroundings and on the weapons he could use.
As Mugino and Takitsubo would be of no use, it would not be a good idea to fight alongside them. He had made them retreat into a nearby cave. Hamazura had to fight the attackers, but he also had to distance them from that cave.
He held the assault rifle in his hands and turned off the unrefined safety with his thumb.
(... Did they sacrifice armor for lighter movements?)
Hamazura stared between the trees at the attacker in the strange mask from a few dozen meters away.
The attacker's outfit looked too thin to have bulletproof plates embedded in it. However, given the situation, it was best to assume it had some ridiculous technology that gave some kind of ridiculous effect.
(A special fiber could stop a bullet, but would the shock of the impact get through? In that case, a 7. 62 mm bullet would do it. The Anti-Skill protectors look like they would be better than that just based on thickness alone. It looks like he can move quickly in that, but I might be able to do something if I do it before he notices me. )
Suddenly, the attacker's head turned in his direction. The attacker was not holding anything like a gun, but if his strength was reinforced with springs that expanded and contracted with electrical signals like the ones used in Hard Taping, he would be able to tear a human body in two with his bare hands.
Hamazura was out of time.
His hands shot up and he pulled the trigger with the barrel pointed toward the attacker.
A shock hit his right shoulder like it had been punched.
The first shot struck a tree trunk partway there.
The second shot travelled straight for the attacker.
A high pitched noise and sparks exploded out.
The rifle bullet did not pierce the attacker. An exceedingly lifelike-looking wing suddenly stretched out from the middle of the flat gold and white mask. It acted as a shield to cover that slim body.
"Wha—!?"
Hamazura thought his breathing had stopped, but it was not simply due to seeing that organic wing.
Familiar words appeared in light on the mask covering the attacker's face.
Equ. DarkMatter.
That was the esper name of Academy City's Number Two Level 5 who had confronted Mugino Shizuri.
Hamazura heard a creaking noise.
The attacker was preparing to charge in toward him.
"Ooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"
Hamazura shouted as he continuously fired on full auto.
The sound of metal being scraped apart repeatedly rang out. The cartridges being spat out were striking each other in midair adding a sound like small bells to the gunfire.
However, that scraping noise was not because the attacker's body was being blown to pieces.
It was the sound of the multiple white wings that had flowed out of the large flat mask knocking every single bullet to the ground.
Hamazura could not reach him.
Immediately after despair filled Hamazura's chest, the attacker moved.
With a roar, the many wings flapped and filled the dozens of meters between them.
Hamazura did not have time to avoid it.
They flew straight toward him like bullets.
A dull creaking noise came from within Hamazura's upper body.
"Gaaahhh!?"
The mere fact that he could cry out showed that he had gotten off easy.
His body flew a few meters through the air and collapsed atop the snow. He felt a hard root in his back. After just that one attack, he could taste blood in his mouth.
Hamazura heard the sound of something slicing through the wind.
Multiple wings stretched from the attacker's gold and white mask and were released around the entire area like whips.
Hamazura rolled across the ground while stifling the yell that was stuck in his throat.
The conifer trees making up the forest were smoothly sliced through. The ground nearby was torn up and thick trees fell over around Hamazura who continued to roll.
The white wings and the mask were made of the same substance.
They spread unnaturally like a sugar sculpture stretched in heat.
"No..." Hamazura muttered.
He had never seen Kakine Teitoku actually use his power, but from what he could tell, there was something off.
"This isn't Dark Matter or any other esper power... ?"
The attacker did not respond.
Instead, the attacker slowly turned the multiple white wings toward Hamazura.
"!?"
Hamazura frantically tried to get up and head back to get some distance, but another attack came from behind. There was more than one attacker. By the time Hamazura realized that, it was too late. The trunk of the tree behind him was sliced apart as multiple white wings attacked from behind.
He was fortunate that he was struck by the tree trunk instead of the white wings.
However, that was still like being struck like a hammer, so Hamazura was knocked away.
That time, he was not able to cry out.
As he lay on the white snow, Hamazura realized that there were red stains around him. He was in such pain that it took him a little longer to realize that was because he was bleeding.
Lying on the ground, he moved only his eyes to look around.
He could see three of them.
He had no idea when the final one had shown up.
"Psychic powers are similar to fire, " said one of the attackers.
They were all wearing the same type of mask, so Hamazura could not tell which one was speaking.
"Fire is a great power that only humans can control, but just swinging fire around brings you no further than a caveman's torch. Civilized man uses fire to temper iron. It is the same as that."
(I see. )
Level 5 powers like Mugino Shizuri's Meltdowner and Kakine Teitoku's Dark Matter produced effects that exceeded the normal physical laws. In that case, what new materials could be manufactured using those powers? Could they perhaps create brand new materials that ignored everything derived from the elementary particles, atoms, and molecules extending from the big bang?
Just like how carbon nanotubes were different from mere masses of carbon. Just like how semiconductors that carried out high speed calculations were different from mere masses of glass. Just like how steel that had a high level heat treatment applied was different from mere soft iron.
A new substance created using an energy source that did not exist in that world would possess properties that did not exist in that world.
It was to the point where one could mock a true Level 5 as nothing but a caveman with a torch.
"... You certainly seem calm, " spat out Hamazura."Did you give Mugino the Body Crystal because you wanted to treat that Number Four 'fire' as a weapon and use her like a flamethrower filled with naphtha? And when that didn't work out, you came to collect her before the coals went out? What do you plan to do next? Are you going to hook her up to a medical device and turn her into a blast furnace for creating new materials?"
If that were the case, Hamazura was not needed for their project.
Academy City had been pursuing him from the start, so a Level 0 like him would just be killed.
The masked attackers drew closer from three different directions.
He could likely not defeat them with just an assault rifle. Even the Level 5 the materials were created from had the power to single-handedly take on an entire military unit. Hamazura would not be able to defeat even one of the attackers even if he had a tank or a howitzer.
That was if he attacked them straight on.
However, Hamazura Shiage had not stood before them in order to be killed.
"Hey, " he said while still on the ground with no strength in his arms or legs."Because I rolled all over the place like that, what was in my pocket is gone. It may have fallen out somewhere."
The attackers paid his comment no heed.
They would quickly kill the two rebels and retrieve Mugino Shizuri.
That was all that was on the attackers' minds as one stepped forward and felt something hard crunch under his foot.
It was a clear shard. It appeared to be the remnants of a broken glass container.
"Damn. And that was my last hope, " Hamazura said as if he were giving up on something."I finally thought I had something I could use to negotiate with Academy City and then this happens."
An ominous feeling swelled up within the attackers.
Hamazura continued to speak to the attackers who supposedly had the absolute advantage.
"That was a package of the bacterial wall the Russian special unit was trying to disseminate. I'd rather you hadn't stepped on that right before my eyes."
The atmosphere instantaneously froze. The attackers from the dark side of Academy City had been given the specs of the bacterial wall used in the Kremlin Report.
It was a type of virus that spread through the air and had a higher than 80% death rate for those infected. It had an extremely high resistance to heat, so boiling would have no effect. As such, toxic high density ozone was needed to sterilize it. Also worth mentioning was the fact that the virus had the ability to break down oils meaning it could eat through the filters in protective masks, vehicles, and other constructions. It was stored without any moisture to prevent it from becoming active, but once it left the package and came in contact with the moisture in the air, there was no way of stopping it.
There was even a risk of infection if you were entirely covered in special masks and suits!!
"Shit!!"
Panic came over the attackers for the first time. They knew it was pointless, but they tried to get away from the broken glass container.
And then Hamazura Shiage quickly swung his arms holding the assault rifle.
"Just kidding, you idiots. That's a bottle of carbonated water."
"!?"
By the time the attackers realized it, it was too late.
Hamazura stood up on his knees and forced his body forward. He stuck the rifle between the white wings and forced its aim toward the attacker's waist.
He did not have time to hesitate.
He pulled the trigger.
With a sharp gun shot, the attacker collapsed onto the ground like roughly opening and closing a door. The attacker was protected by the white wings. If he had been shot from anywhere else, it was clear what would have happened.
"You bastard!!"
The attackers had never expected one of their own to be taken out. The other two frantically flapped their white wings.
At that rate, Hamazura would be sliced to pieces. The thick tree trunks would not act as cover from those white wings.
However, the body of a man using the same technology lay at his feet. Hamazura moved to the side and leapt behind the white wings that were still coming from the dead body. The white wings that seemed to slice through anything were obstructed and repelled by wings made of the same substance.
Hamazura kicked the body changing the angle of the neck... or rather, the angle of the wings coming from the mask. The white wings flew down like guillotines toward the attackers.
They both had the same type of weapon.
That meant they were able to block the white wings, too.
Multiple white wings grew from the masks as the attackers used everything they had to block the attack. Yes, they used everything they had. They had no room to spare. That was when Hamazura aimed his assault rifle like he was sticking it out from under his arm.
A scream rang out.
Along with the short burst of bullets, red liquid scattered about and the second attacker collapsed atop the snow.
However, that was the limit.
The third attacker counterattacked. Multiple white wings squirmed about and tore into the ground below Hamazura's feet rather than at the boy himself. He lost his balance making him unable to aim his assault rifle. He was completely powerless. The attacker first made sure he himself was safe and then unhesitatingly headed forward. He grabbed Hamazura's neck with one hand and moved that half of his body forward in order to push the boy's back against the trunk of a tree that had barely managed to survive during that battle.
"Gah!?"
A shock ran through Hamazura's body, his breathing stopped, and the grip of the assault rifle slipped from his hands. His legs dangled above the ground. The attacker said nothing and spread the white wings wide. There was no mercy in his actions.
"... Aren't you forgetting something important?"
However, Hamazura smiled.
He spoke as he smiled.
"Even if her body's balance is off due to the Body Crystal, Mugino Shizuri is the Number Four. She can still fire two or three shots."
"..."
As the attacker held Hamazura up with a single arm, the face of the mask moved a bit.
"You're bluffing. The same trick will not work on me twice. Mugino Shizuri's level of performance can be seen in the fact that she lost to the likes of you."
"I see. That's too bad."
Hamazura's arms went limp.
He made one last comment as his limbs dangled down.
"I guess you'll just get shot through while still feeling triumphant in your victory."
A brilliant beam of light shot out.
By the time the attacker perceived it, it was already over.
The attacker was sticking the right side of his body forward to grasp Hamazura's throat with his right arm. That arm was blown off at the shoulder... or so Hamazura thought. In reality, the man's shoulder and right chest were torn off along with it. There was a giant cavity eating all the way into just below his neck.
Hamazura fell to the ground with a thud. The torn off arm was still stuck to his neck.
"What... ?"
The attacker's gaze turned in shock toward the source of the beam of light. Two girls stood there a few hundred meters away. One girl was limp and wearing a yellow coat and the other was wearing a pink track suit. The girl in the yellow coat was leaning on the girl in the track suit's shoulder.
Mugino Shizuri's balance was off due to the Body Crystal, so she was not able to aim carefully. Even if she had 2 or 3 shots to spare, they would not hit.
So...
(It was Takitsubo Rikou... That Number Four relied on someone else to correct her aim... ?)
The attacker did not realize that he was not speaking those words out loud.
(No, it's not just that. Even the bacterial wall bluff... was nothing more than preparation for this. If I had known Mugino Shizuri was aiming for me, I could have easily dealt with it... That's why he made me think that any showy possibilities were nothing more than bluffs... That way, I would let my guard down and give them a chance to slowly aim at me... )
With 2 or 3 shots, all of the attackers could have been taken out as long as all of the shots would hit.
If even one shot was evaded, it was over. No, the white wings coming from the mask most likely could deflect those weakened Meltdowner attacks.
(So... )
Hamazura's defeat of the two attackers with the assault rifle had been nothing more than good luck on top of their strategy. His role had been to keep the attackers still, buy some time, and allow Mugino to finish them off.
The wounded Number Four had not been able to fight the way things had been.
That was why Hamazura had changed the situation to one where the wounded girl could fight.
The attackers had completely fallen for their trick.
"God... dammit..."
The attacker's horribly wounded body wobbled to the side and collapsed onto the snow.
Even so, he moved the mask.
With his last strength, he tried to take Hamazura down with him.
But then he felt something hard press up against the side of his head next to the mask.
It was the barrel of an assault rifle.
"How could... this happen... ?"
The attacker finally started to regret it.
The attackers' primary objective had been to kill the two rebelling against Academy City, Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou. However, their opponent had been a Level 0, so they had taken him lightly and had neglected to do a proper analysis of his strength.
"So this is... Hamazura Shiage..."
"No, you've got that wrong, " said the boy who was aiming his assault rifle down while standing on wobbly legs."This is ITEM. Make sure to remember that while you burn in hell."
Part 3
There was no real reason for it.
His right arm simply had a special power within it.
Imagine there was a nuclear missile about to be fired before your eyes and you held the control key in your hand and the firing control panel was right in front of you.
Was it unnatural to put the key in and try to stop it from firing? Wouldn't it be more unnatural to say things like "I'm not a specialist, so I don't understand it" or "I'm not a soldier or a police officer, so I have no obligation to risk my life" and stand there without doing anything? Wouldn't it be more unnatural to not do it because you had no reason to do it?
Someone who would do that would not be human.
They would be nothing more than a toy that had run out of drive.
No reason was needed to fight. In fact, not doing anything in a great crisis would bring guilt. And he had the necessary things in the necessary amounts. Instead of trying to stretch his hand out toward a place he could never reach, he instead continued making slow preparations for a long period of time like creating stairs out of wooden boxes.
It was for the sake of a single success.
It was for the sake of a victory that required no reason.
He felt that boy was the same. They both possessed right arms that had special abilities even if they had different properties. That was why he continued to fight using the power of that right arm. He had no doubts over the reason behind that process. After all, he had no need to think about it. In fact, he had no reason to come to a stop.
That was why he fought in the same way.
That was how it should have been.
And yet...
A great high-pitched noise rang throughout the Star of Bethlehem.
It was the sound of Kamijou Touma's right hand repelling the flow coming from Fiamma of the Right's Third Arm.
Kamijou's Imagine Breaker could not negate a power all at once if it was too great. He used that fact to his advantage to press against the side of Fiamma's approaching attack pushing it like a train changing tracks, making it slip, and causing that overwhelming attack's trajectory to veer off.
Fiamma wondered why.
His right arm altered the strength of the power it presented to match the strength of the enemy he must defeat. And Fiamma had determined his enemy was World War III. In other words, it was a great calamity that could destroy an entire planet contaminating the surrounding area of space with a large amount of debris. By bringing together the Star of Bethlehem, Misha Kreutzev, and the flesh-and-blood right arm that acted as a container for Imagine Breaker, he should have succeeded in drawing out the proper ability. Fiamma should possess the power to single-handedly claim victory over that large war that was a mix of science and magic.
It was like the power to destroy all of humanity on the face of the earth. He was trying to use that for the sake of salvation, but it would have been possible for him to bring an end to human history if he used it in a certain way.
However...
"... Why were you able to stop that?" Fiamma muttered.
He adjusted his grip on the remote control spiritual item.
The golden light in the heavens focused together and rained down straight for Kamijou Touma matching the movement of Fiamma's Third Arm.
"Is it that great an ability? It is merely the power to negate the supernatural!! It is merely the power to grab and twist a power it cannot completely negate!!... I should be able to sink an entire continent into the ocean with a single wave of my right arm. I should be able to dry up all the water in the oceans with a single strike!! You were nothing more than an adapter connected to that right arm until the designated time. You were nothing more than a potato shoot that is to be returned to the earth after the potato is collected!!"
Guided by the 103, 000 grimoires, the power of salvation bared its fangs.
The golden rain fell.
It fell on about half of the surface of the Star of Bethlehem. The mass of stone structures crumbled bit by bit and large cracks ran through even the floor Kamijou and Fiamma stood upon. The pressure sent ferocious winds flying in every direction and it caused such fierce destruction that even Fiamma brought his Third Arm up to protect his face.
However, Kamijou Touma did not go down.
His right arm was pointed straight up. He had forcibly repelled the first strike and it has exploded out like a liquid having something dropped into it. The after effects of that struck the downpour and distorted the trajectories of the beams of light.
Why?
That boy's right arm should not have held such great ability.
A single attack from Fiamma should have destroyed all of humanity. He should have been able to deal with even Vento of the Front or Acqua of the Back with a single wave of his right arm.
"Do you still not understand?" Kamijou Touma asked from within that ruined room that had lost even its ceiling due to the bombardment from the heavens.
His voice was low and heavy.
"You said that right arm changes its ability based on the strength of your enemy. The stronger your enemy, the more strength it draws out. And to draw out the arm's power to the maximum, you had to cause World War III to increase the people's malice. You needed to complete your preparations to make the form of the enemy you must defeat clear."
So what?
World War III was continuing even then. Tragedy created more tragedy and the spiraling malice would spread out to every corner of that planet. Fiamma's holy power would increase in response to that ugly sight and he would purify the entire world once his preparations were complete.
"But that brings in another possibility, " Kamijou spun his right arm around as if to check on his shoulder.
The joint made a cracking noise as he did so.
"What if everyone's hearts were not filled with malice to the extent you thought they were? Then you would not be able to draw out as much power as you expected."
Fiamma's eyebrows moved ever so slightly.
He stared past the broken wall and down at the distant surface of the earth. The golden light was shining down, but he could not see deep down at the surface. The dust and evaporated particles may have gathered together creating a screen. It was like the world was covered in a smokescreen emitted by the minds of the people killing each other in that war.
"... You're making an incorrect assumption."
Fiamma of the Right shook his Third Arm.
He tightly gripped the remote control spiritual item that supported him with a vast amount of knowledge.
Clear hatred resided in his eyes.
"This world is twisted. It can no longer be controlled. The four great elements that make up its core would have been utterly destroyed had I not corrected them. Remaining resources, opposing races, religious differences, lack of food, warring countries, destroyed borders, and everything else becomes intertwined creating a situation where each problem cannot be resolved in turn."
"..."
"You're saying I was not able to gather up as much malice as I assumed? Don't make me laugh. That is nothing more than nonsense coming from someone who does not understand what malice is!! That great war is continuing even now and it is making everyone honest!! Nation, race, religion, gender, language, money, bloodline, talent, and all the other small thorns in people's hearts are starting to be brought out into the world!!... Do you really want to believe that the depths of human hearts are that pure? What part of a human heart could be pure with the things they have done!?"
"It's true that human hearts are not something to be viewed from the outside. Human nature may be something dripping with darkness. There may even be malice sleeping within me without my knowledge and I simply do not wish to believe it is there."
Kamijou did not stop speaking there.
"But that is not all there is to human nature."
"What... ?"
"How can you say that there is only one aspect to what is inside people? How can you claim that there is dark malice within the depths of our hearts and that there is nothing else there?"
| ← Ch. 170 | Ch. 172 → |