Chapter 11

For now, he decided to chase down the figure that had run off with his target. He didn’t know who that figure was, but he hadn’t killed Misuzu and run away by himself. In the worst case, even if that person was with Skill-Out, he clearly didn’t intend to kill Misuzu before going to a safe location. The fact that the stranger hadn’t opened fire when Accelerator had stepped into the dome meant he probably didn’t have a gun. Which meant… I’ll just have to catch up to him before he leaves the premises and take care of him. So he thought, but then the pattering of multiple footsteps in several directions reached his ears. They’d probably heard the firefight earlier. It probably wouldn’t be easy to get much farther. I’ll just have to fall back and deal with them first. The desks in here won’t provide hard cover against bullets. Searching for a place to fight, Accelerator glanced around, then suddenly stopped. There were three pieces of trash now collapsed in the dome. But there were four guns on the floor. 10 Kamijou and Misaka went through the hallway that ran from the main dome facility to another smaller, rectangular building, then used an emergency exit there to finally get outside. Curious onlookers had gathered by the front entrance, but the two of them had emerged from a back door into an empty area. Pulling on Misuzu’s hand, Kamijou said, “For now, let’s go somewhere with more people. Rubberneckers and Anti-Skill are out front, so if we go around to them, we should be pretty safe.” Misuzu sighed. “Despite all the talk, you’re still just a boy. And I relied on you from start to finish. You really are eclipsing my title of guardian.” She was oddly dejected, but it would have been harder to tell her to stay resolute in that situation. Frankly, Kamijou didn’t want to do that ever again, either. So instead of blaming her too much, he decided to urge her onward. “Quick. We managed to get outside, but it’s not like we got rid of all of them. If we get attacked again here, we’ll have to start from scratch.” “Yes, yes. Thank you for escorting a lady by the hand,” said Misuzu. Kamijou suddenly got embarrassed. He tried to release her hand from his grip, but Misuzu grabbed his hand instead. She appeared to be teasing him, but maybe she was actually seriously scared beneath the surface. Kamijou decided not to argue and to focus on getting away from the premises. The dome was about fifty meters across, and even combined with the buildings around it, the place wasn’t that big. It would only be a few minutes’ walk to the front entrance. They’d escaped the most dangerous situation, so Kamijou thought they were safer than he let on. As long as these guys weren’t the type to try to kill them along with the bystanders, getting to the front entrance would probably cause Skill-Out to retreat on their own. However. “Don’t move.” A figure stood there, blocking their path to the front entrance. It was the one Kamijou had hit with the bulletproof glass in that dome. He’d probably woken up shortly after. His nose had a dark-red color stuck to it, maybe due to his nose ring getting yanked out. Despite the situation being what it was, Kamijou should still have tied him up while he was unconscious. “Don’t you dare move… Who the hell are you? Why did you come here at the worst time? Was that request a fake after all? Have we been tricked…?” Kamijou frowned. “Request?” “Why is that your question? You know what this is all about. Komaba went and got himself killed, and now I have to be the one to lead them in his place. This is me dealing with the aftermath. I figured I had to curry favor with them in order to avoid their back-alley crackdown … Damn it. Were they just trying to get rid of us from the beginning?!” “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Kamijou, putting together the fragmentary words. “But I only came here because I got a phone call. From her. I don’t know what you’re imagining, but my circumstances aren’t very complicated.” The man’s mouth hung open. And then he grinned. “Ha-ha…” He began to laugh mirthlessly. “So what, then? There’s almost no doubt we’re all about to retire and get caught by Anti-Skill, yet you, in the middle of all this, barely even have a motive? My life as Shiage Hamazura is about to end, and this is the finale… Couldn’t you have lied and said it was all some giant conspiracy, or planned by a genius tactician, or something? Ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!” The man, who called himself Hamazura, reached behind him as he spoke. It must have been tucked in his pants belt. His hand came out with a retractable police baton, which he gave a shake to extend. “I can’t deal with this. I’ll need to beat you to death to be satisfied.” Hamazura immediately dashed for Kamijou. Kamijou pushed Misuzu to the side. Because of that, he lost valuable moments, and he heard the whoosh of wind at his ears. It was like a tennis racket swinging—and it was, of course, a baton. “!!” Kamijou put his left arm up instantly to protect his face. The strike, which had aimed for his temple, gave off a dull noise as it connected with a spot lower than Kamijou’s wrist. A terrible creaking raced through his bones. As he winced in pain, Hamazura gave him a hard knee in the side. Bam!! It roared like a beaten drum. “Guh, ah!!” All the air came rushing out of Kamijou’s mouth. The impact sent him sprawling to the ground, along with everything that was tucked into his belt. The self-defense weapons he’d stolen from the Skill-Out members he’d taken down—tasers and police batons and such. Damn it! Imagine Breaker won’t work on a Level Zero!! Gritting his teeth, Kamijou quickly crouched to pick up the taser on the damp ground. “Did you think I’d just let you do that?” Hamazura’s sole crunched down on Kamijou’s hand after it grasped the weapon. Kamijou didn’t even have time to feel the dull pain. “Nobody knows better than us how to use these things!!” An awful boom resounded. Hamazura, still stepping on Kamijou’s hand, had used his other leg to kick Kamijou in the jaw. “Brgh?!” Kamijou’s consciousness wavered. But maybe he was just lucky he hadn’t bitten his tongue. Kamijou’s body keeled over backward like a bridge, then fell to the ground faceup. Misuzu let out a quiet cry, but Kamijou couldn’t think about that now. He scooped up some dirt from the ground and flung it toward Hamazura’s face. “!!” It didn’t blind Hamazura, since he’d covered his face with a hand, but he still flinched backward a bit. Kamijou swiftly rose, then kept himself low and tackled Hamazura’s gut with all the strength he could muster. A roaring thump rose from his shoulders, as though he’d broken through a doorframe. Hamazura’s legs scraped across the ground. But he still didn’t fall over backward. This guy…?! “Sorry, but I’m a Level Zero.” Kamijou heard the quiet voice right next to his ear. Hamazura was speaking to him, while he had his arms around Hamazura’s body, from point-blank range. “Gotta have a strong body to go toe to toe with espers in back alleys. Man, it really is stupid. We’re out here doing the same stuff as athletes, but where’s our applause?!” The butt of the police baton slammed into the back of Kamijou’s neck. There was a crack, and a new sharp pain Kamijou hadn’t anticipated shot through his whole body. As he moaned, the baton came down a few more times. Then Hamazura used his left hand, which wasn’t holding the baton, to grab Kamijou’s chest before he staggered and fell. Hamazura laughed, right up close to him. “Ohhh. Wait, I get it. If you’re not with them, our deal with them is still valid. If I take the corpse of their target to them, maybe we can even get them to protect us. Ha-ha-ha!!” But those words were, perhaps, a mistake. Gree!! A clear power resided in the light given off by the eyes of Kamijou, who by all estimations should have been exhausted by now. “You try…saying that again…you asshole!!” he roared, slamming his own forehead into Hamazura’s jaw and lower lip. With a cracking like a flowerpot falling from a high place, Hamazura’s neck reeled backward. And then, Kamijou rammed his clenched fist into the crown of Hamazura’s nose. Hamazura’s body, which had formed a bridge, immediately crashed to the ground. “Agahhhh!!” Kamijou tried to use his feet to follow up on his attacks as Hamazura rolled, holding his nose. However, his footing was wobbly; maybe the damage had affected him more than he’d thought. “Damn… You fight so recklessly.” Meanwhile, Hamazura managed to get himself on his feet. His lips were bright red; the head-butt earlier must have broken his front teeth. “Quit dragging this out and give us that woman’s corpse. That’s the deal we had. Komaba failed, so we don’t have any other way out. We have to fulfill this request…” Despite having been on the offensive so much, Hamazura’s words were strangely weak. Kamijou frowned, then realized why. They had formed this group of Level Zeroes because they feared unilateral attacks from the strong. That was why, no matter how much strength they gained, they weren’t used to people seriously punching them. Kamijou thought about it but then spat. “Don’t be a moron,” he said, reflecting on how the words dug into him at the same time. “All this request bullshit? You think I’ll let you kill someone for no reason like it’s some kind of homework? Does human life mean nothing to you? You really believe you can put it on a scale with money and goods? That’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard!!” “We can’t help it. If we don’t do stuff like this, we Level Zeroes can’t survive! No matter where we go, we’re made fools of, and whenever we make places for ourselves, they destroy them all and call it city beautification or some shit… What other path do Level Zeroes have aside from preying on others?! You tell me!!” Skill-Out. A self-defense group formed by Level Zeroes. There must have been a good reason they had to make such a thing to defend themselves. Events where violence and unfairness reigned, the kind that would never be brought out in the daylight. However. “…Don’t lump me in with you.” “What?” “Don’t lump all Level Zeroes in with you shitheads!” “You’re… That’s right. What is your ability…? You haven’t used it even once…,” murmured Hamazura, wiping the blood from his mouth, glancing around. Kamijou ignored him and said what he wanted to say. “Of course Level Zeroes have a place to be. You want to know if there’s a way to live other than preying on others? Of course there is!! There’s tons of Level Zeroes all over Academy City. And they all go to school like normal kids, make friends like normal kids, and live their lives like normal kids! What do you mean, you get made fools of wherever you go? That kind of thinking is the number one thing making fools of Level Zeroes!!” “Wait. Are you…? You’re the same as us…!!” “I’m not the same. At least, I don’t do the shit you guys do. I don’t attack people who have power just because I don’t have any! I may be a Level Zero, but I haven’t fallen so far that I get my kicks from making life worse for others!” “Fallen?” repeated Hamazura, frowning. “You think we’ve fallen down? That’s ridiculous. We’ve ascended! Skill-Out is a hundred times better than those guys who discriminate against us for not having power, and they don’t give us any of theirs if they have it!!” “Then have you ever reached out to help anyone who needed it?” “…?!” “If you can’t answer that, then you’re the same as they are. This is ridiculous. Who’s going to do anything to save people who won’t let others borrow their strength? Who would ever want to get involved with people who act like their happiness is a right but don’t even think about others being happy?! In the end, all the problems come back to you!!” It was all getting just so stupid that Kamijou couldn’t help yelling. This Level Zero was altogether too weak.