Chapter 1: A Certain Scientific One-Way Road. Last_Order.[Part 1]

August 31, 12:00 AM.

In an alley during midnight, the roars, shrieks, cries and sounds of things being devastated could be heard.

It was a long narrow straight alley, with both sides blocked by concrete walls. The buildings on both sides should be student dormitories.

In the alley, seven youths were panting heavily, and three were already down on the ground, bleeding.

The seven youths were holding onto things like switchblades, batons, and tear gas canisters. Though those were all devastating weapons, the people holding them didn't seem to be proficient enough to use them, giving one the feeling that they just took them out from a plastic bag or something. Since those things were weapons, no, maybe it was because amateurs were wielding them that those things were extremely dangerous.

The seven youths surrounded the one boy.

Their eyes were bloodshot.

However, the boy who was being surrounded didn't do anything.

To the boy, the seven armed people surrounding him didn't seem to exist in his sight. He just looked up at the night sky that was cut into a long strip as he stood around looking like he was pondering about something.

The boy seemed to have come back from a convenience store, as he was holding onto a plastic bag with a shop brand on it. The plastic bag was swaying about, and there were more than ten cans of something like coffee in that fully filled bag.

The impression that the boy gave was white, white, white.

But what gave a larger impression was the title of being the strongest Level 5 in Academy City.

The boy named Accelerator casually thought.

What was the significance of him fighting against that Level 0?

"HAAAHH!!"

Another delinquent rolled onto the floor, crying in pain.

One of the delinquents surrounding Accelerator thrust a knife at his back, but Accelerator didn't even give a look back. The delinquent exerted all his weight onto the sharp point of the knife as he attacked at that seemingly defenseless, weak back. He had taken part in the experiment that had used the twenty thousand Sisters to evolve himself into a Level 6, and this was the result.

How did this defeat change the world?

BAM!

The sound of a bone breaking could be heard from behind Accelerator.

Of course, that devastation didn't come from Accelerator's body. The delinquent who charged at his back with a knife had his wrist broken. The reflection ability that was exerted onto the blade of the knife had caused the slender wrist holding it to break, as it had been unable to withstand that force.

"AAAHHHHH!!!"

Another delinquent's cry could be heard.

The delinquent grabbed his hand as he rolled about on the dirty ground. It looked almost comical.

Seemed like from that moment, the boy was no longer considered the strongest in Academy City.

He was one of the seven Level 5s in Academy City, with the ability to redirect all sorts of vectors, whether they be kinetic energy on the skin, heat energy, electrical energy or anything else, and that hadn't changed at all.

Their comrade's voice seemed to have become a trigger and the six remaining youths charged forward.

But was there really anyone amongst them who thought that they could win?

Their eyes were bloodshot.

But that seemed to be due to extreme nervousness, insecurity, fear and anxiousness.

Ever since that battle, Accelerator had been attacked from all directions, whether day or night.

The legend that he was the strongest in Academy City was broken, that was what everyone who attacked him believed.

Amongst the roars, the knives and batons started to swing, but Accelerator ignored them.

He lazily let his arms drop, not doing anything, just waiting for the enemy to defeat themselves.

All the forces of the savage youths attacks would be redirected and concentrated on their complicated but weak wrist bones.

But like the rest, those people seemed to realize something.

The moment they had failed the first time, they realized that the legend of Academy City's strongest still existed.

The sounds of the savage youths breaking their bones could be heard. They let out cries of agony and rolled onto the floor, but Accelerator continued to ignore them.

At that moment, one of the youths used a psychic power at Accelerator. Why had he waited until now to use it? Maybe he realized that it was too dangerous to use normal physical attacks, or maybe his own remaining bit of conscience had caused him not to use it until the end.

But the number of attacks never decreased.

No matter how many times he beat the enemies, no matter how many times he proved his power, he couldn't break the label those idiots had stuck on him.

Accelerator didn't know what kind of power it was that the savage youth just let out, but naturally it was redirected; it was just that simple.

The youth who had his attack redirected seemed shocked, and the next second, he took the full brunt of the attack he had been so confident in and rolled away on the ground. However, since he was not dead, it seemed like he was somewhere around a Level 2.

Accelerator pondered.

After that battle with the Sisters and the Railgun, how had Accelerator changed?

Had Accelerator gotten weaker, or stronger? Or rather, that nameless Level 0, had he gotten weaker, or stronger?

"Hm?"

Accelerator suddenly noticed the commotion surrounding him had disappeared.

At that moment, he turned his eyes away from the long stretch of the night sky and looked around. The people who had stubbornly surrounded Accelerator had defeated themselves, and they were lying peacefully on the dirty ground.

With the blood splatters, maybe the word 'sleeping' was too much of an understatement, but at least no one had died. To have fought Accelerator head on and still be able to remain alive could be considered a miracle in itself.

Looking back, the ten youths who had attacked Accelerator were on the ground, but Accelerator hadn't done anything, let alone fight.

To him, the scenario was such that he just went to a convenience store to buy canned coffee and wanted to go home—that was how it was to him. He didn't intend to deal the finishing blow to them as well. He could kill those he could kill tomorrow, and those he could kill tomorrow, he could kill them one year later. It was stupid to be serious with those people. This was different from that experiment, no matter how hard he tried, he wouldn't be able to reach the end. How was swimming endlessly different from drowning?

"Eh...that's not right. If it were the old me, I wouldn't have let off those people who challenged me so easily. I really have changed, but how? What's the situation now? What happened?"

Accelerator tilted his head and pondered.

After experiencing battles where he won and lost, a one-sided victory was no longer able to satisfy him—such a conclusion was way too idealistic. Anyone who could recall being beaten up happily was most definitely a masochist.

"Hm..."

Accelerator folded his arms in front of his chest. The canned coffee in the bag started to sway about. There were more than ten of them, and they were all of the same brand. Whenever he found a coffee brand he liked, Accelerator would continue to drink it until he got sick of it less than a week later. The he'd switch brands and continue the pattern.

(What's going on? Why am I so unmotivated?)

He again looked up at the long stretch of the night sky. At this moment, around seven or eight levels above him, he heard an angry girl's shouts.

"CAN'T POSSIBLY...AT ALL!? I'M STILL A GIRL...THOSE KINDS OF THOUGHTS...I STILL HAVE... PRIDE AS A GIRL!!"

As it was midnight, that voice could be heard very loudly.

What the heck, a lovers' squabble? Accelerator thus redirected that excessive noise, the air vibrations away from his ears. If he had done that a few seconds later, he would have heard the familiar painful cry of that Level 0.

The reflection ability could be done unconsciously through some simple calculations. He just needed to calculate the minimum required forces (gravity, air pressure, light, oxygen, heat, sound wavelength, etc.) and redirect everything else. If he really redirected all forces, he would be tossed out of the atmosphere because gravity was redirected.

After Accelerator re-calibrated the noise that was transmitted to him, he walked out of the alley and arrived at the road. He continued to look up at the sky; there was no need to look forward because he didn't need to notice any obstacles. With the reflection ability of his, his body wouldn't be hurt at all.

But it was because of this that Accelerator failed to notice something.

Someone was following Accelerator closely from behind, shouting their vocal chords out.

"Ah?"

Accelerator continued to walk forward as he turned to look behind.

It was a strange person. First, their attire was very weird. The person was completely covered in a dirty towel. The light blue towel, which looked like the cloak of a mysterious organization, covered this person's body and face completely. Of course, Accelerator couldn't tell what the person was wearing inside.

Also, the person was extremely short. Accelerator couldn't be considered tall, but this person was only as tall as his stomach. This person looked like they were a ten-year-old boy or girl. Considering the average age for a vagrant, this person was a little too young. However, 80% of the city inhabitants were students, so it was not completely true that there were no vagrants around.

The little towel monster seemed to be shouting something at Accelerator.

"—!.....——, ———. ...........!?"

But since their voice was redirected, Accelerator couldn't hear anything. He casually looked up at the sky and tried to shut the reflection down.

A high-pitched yet calm sounding voice of a girl reached Accelerator's ears.

"—Ara ara, it's somewhat refreshing too even though Misaka is ignored. Speaking of which, if it was deliberate, why are you walking so naturally? Is this person someone really dense? ponders Misaka as Misaka tilts her head."

This girl was standing only about ten centimeters from Accelerator. Anyone who understood Accelerator and saw this would have desperately pulled the girl away from him, or would have abandoned the girl's life, thinking that it was useless to try to save her now.

That boy could kill people with just a single finger. The girl, who was only ten centimeters away from him, was no different from someone who put her head into a lion's mouth.

But even after a few moments, there was no bloodbath.

The girl was still standing around carefully.

Accelerator frowned slightly. His power was able to change the vector of anything he touched, which in other words meant that he wouldn't hurt anyone no matter how close they were, as long as they didn't touch him.

Reflection was merely reflection, it could only hurt people with ill intent.

Anyone who didn't mean ill wouldn't be hurt.

"...How boring."

"Though he's muttering, the distance between us continue to increase. Can't this person see Misaka? Or did he treat Misaka as a pixie? Hello, Misaka is here! exclaims Misaka as Misaka tries her best to emphasize her existence but was completely ignored!?"

Accelerator tilted his stiff neck left and right as he headed towards his house.

The girl who was being ignored seemed somewhat panicky as she exclaimed, "Hello! Misaka is here—eh? Does this person treat Misaka as something invisible? says Misaka as Misaka tilts her head and tries to fulfill the Misaka style...hm? How many Misaka did Misaka just say? wonders Misaka as Misaka's brain is all confused now."

"Hold on...did you just call yourself Misaka?"

Accelerator suddenly stopped. The girl in the towel seemed rather happy as she walked forward in small steps. However, Accelerator couldn't see her expression, so he couldn't confirm her feeling.

"Oohh! This person finally acknowledged Misaka's existence, says Misaka as Misaka's feeling proud of it. So the saying 'I think, therefore I am' is a lie, since there's somebody else acknowledging Misaka's own existence besides Misaka's own view, says Misaka as Misaka completely denies her half-understanding of the saying 'I think, therefore I am'."[1]

"That's enough, shut up and take off that towel that's covering you entirely. Show me your face."

"Eh? Eh...erm...erm...isn't it too bold for a girl to take off her clothes in the middle of the streets? This is a little too crazy—that—says Misaka as Misaka confirms it again, are you for real?"

"..."

"Wah, he's not saying anything at all! This person is looking extremely serious! Please don't take off this towel because what's underneath isn't suitable to be seen woahhhh..."

The girl was no longer speaking calmly at the last moment, but it was too late. The towel that was covering her head was pulled down and away.

—Accelerator first saw her face.

She had a similar face as the Radio Noise Sisters Accelerator was familiar with. However, the Sisters were all designated at fourteen years old, and this girl looked about ten. The girl seemed shocked as her eyes widened. This expression was also completely different from the Sisters.

—Then, her shoulders.

The girl's clothes had a rather exposed design. Her body was also like a ten year old, as her collarbones were extremely slender, looking like they would break anytime.

—He then saw her exposed chest.

—And then her exposed abdomen.

—And finally her exposed legs.

"Ah? What's this?—What's the situation now?"

Holding onto the towel, Accelerator inadvertently froze. If anyone who was familiar with him saw this, they would have frozen for a moment and then started rolling on the floor laughing.

Basically, the girl wasn't wearing anything underneath.

Maybe the girl couldn't grasp the situation quickly as she was unable to react, and she stood around blankly.

Basically, there was a completely naked girl in front of Accelerator.