You're Cheating!

"A one-on-one? Hahahahaha! Who do you think you are?" It seemed he'd just heard the most ridiculous joke in the world. Accelerator burst into uncontrollable laughter, and his gaze at Jiu Ming was filled with... no, it was nothing but contempt for an idiot.

That twisted grin and the crazed look on his face were things most people couldn't pull off.

"Hey, hey, do you know what this kid's been through? How'd she end up this twisted?"

"Misaka refuses to answer because it would interfere with the experiment. In fact, Misaka doesn't know either."

Heh, what a "straightforward" girl.

Whoosh...

Jiu Ming raised a hand and sent a concentrated gust of wind toward Accelerator. It was a special technique for applying force, one that required a great deal of physical strength. But thanks to his Soul Body, his extraordinary explosive power surpassed that of ordinary people, making it fairly easy for him.

The kid looked so frail that the gust should've blown him away without a doubt...

Bang!

The gust came back even faster. Jiu Ming reached out and scattered it. "What was that just now? Reflection?"

"That all you've got?"

With utter disdain, Accelerator took two steps forward. Cracks spread out from beneath his feet, radiating dozens of meters. Jiu Ming's eye twitched hard. This testing ground definitely wasn't shoddily built. What the hell—were other worlds churning out freakish monsters by the dozen now?

He glanced at the girl behind him. Her eyes were dull, her expression blank, and she seemed lost in a daze. Jiu Ming couldn't even begin to compare the two of them. Could they really be compared? What kind of experiment was this, a slaughter experiment?

A wind-based esper? No, that wasn't it. As he strolled forward, Accelerator paid casual attention to Jiu Ming. He could clearly see Jiu Ming's physical state. The place was brightly lit, and both the human and the clone cast shadows. Yet Jiu Ming was the odd one out.

That guy had no shadow.

An esper he'd never seen before. Whatever. The guy couldn't hurt him anyway. More importantly, he'd had enough of this place...

"Damn, you're annoying. I don't care who you are. Since you're here, I might as well take you out too. I doubt anyone here would mind cleaning up afterward... No one would care about you!"

It was hard to imagine how such a scrawny body could produce that kind of explosive speed. Grinning, Jiu Ming reached out and pulled Misaka 1 back just as she was about to head off in another direction.

Splitting up was a good choice, but also the worst one. Jiu Ming was worried Accelerator might ignore him and go after Misaka 1 instead.

Feeling the ground shake, Jiu Ming looked at the crater where he'd been standing. He'd have to revise what he'd said earlier. If he let Misaka 1 run off on her own, she wasn't fast enough to escape the range of the attack in time...

What was with that casual strike, hitting like a cannonball?

The attack wasn't over yet. The fragments of stone still flying through the air abruptly changed direction, forming a barrage that hurtled toward him at terrifying speed.

"Whoo..." Jiu Ming breathed out softly and punched forward. The shockwave rippling through the air shattered the incoming stones into dust. Stone, at least... Anyway, it wasn't metal, that much was certain.

"Go wait in the corner. I'll get you out of here in a bit."

Jiu Ming could only describe the enemy before him as top-tier. He'd never faced such a troublesome opponent. Even the strongest foe he'd ever encountered was no match for Accelerator.

It was his ability!

"Keep struggling!" Accelerator lightly stomped the ground and once again burst forward with that impossibly fast acceleration. Damn it! How could this girly-looking guy, without a hint of muscle, generate such explosive power?!

All right, it wasn't like Jiu Ming had no chance. Accelerator seemed unfamiliar with close-quarters combat.

Or maybe he was simply unpracticed. His hand-to-hand skills couldn't compare to Jiu Ming's, honed through countless fights to the death. If he still dared to charge in, he must be relying on something. Jiu Ming had to watch out.

Jiu Ming tilted his body slightly and easily dodged the hand Accelerator thrust at him. His eye twitched. What was that move supposed to be? Was he trying to grope his chest?

Standing at Accelerator's side, Jiu Ming hesitated for the briefest instant, then gently brought the edge of his hand down on Accelerator's neck. If he hit too hard, he was genuinely afraid he might kill the frail kid...

Then Jiu Ming went flying. Even he couldn't believe it. The pain in his hand left him even more confused. Was that... really reflection?

And while he'd been flung away, Accelerator hadn't suffered the slightest harm. His attack hadn't affected the other guy at all; Jiu Ming had taken the entire force himself. The reflected force was far greater than the force he'd used!

How the hell was he supposed to fight that? The other guy was basically invincible, with a tenfold damage-reflection buff! What a cheat!

"Your ability... is so damn annoying!" Jiu Ming shook his arm slightly and spoke with resignation.

"...What the hell are you?" Jiu Ming was frustrated, but Accelerator was more astonished. The moment Jiu Ming touched him, especially when they made physical contact, Accelerator had taken him for a dead man.

His ability was Vector Control. When Jiu Ming touched him, all he'd wanted to do was slightly reverse the direction of the other guy's blood flow. But all Jiu Ming had suffered was the most basic reflection.

He didn't even have any blood in him. No bioelectricity, either... or even a physical body!

So what was the thing he'd been fighting this whole time?

Some kind of special monster newly developed by this research institute?

"Hahahaha!! Now this is interesting! I was getting bored slaughtering test subjects. You, on the other hand, have caught my interest! Come on, struggle a little!"

"If you're bored, why'd you join this experiment?"

"What would a monster like you know?"

Accelerator retorted. In his eyes, Jiu Ming had become some kind of monster developed by a research institute. But how could this "monster" possibly have something like "reason," under normal circumstances?

Accelerator was Academy City's number-one esper, known as the strongest. But he wasn't after being the strongest. He wanted to be invincible!

"Please. I know a lot more than you do. Come on, come on. Let me teach you how to be an adult!"

Jiu Ming disappeared from Accelerator's sight. He moved so fast that Accelerator only caught a blurry afterimage. That kind of movement...

It was completely unreasonable!

Using his ability, Accelerator realized that Jiu Ming's movement hadn't stirred up much air at all. His ability let him ignore things like air resistance, but other people couldn't. Now Jiu Ming's high-speed movement seemed capable of doing the same thing.

"Huh? Why would I need you to teach me what to do... You bastard! Stop!!!!"

Accelerator's roar was filled with the fury of a hunter who'd finally caught his prized prey, only to watch it escape. Jiu Ming had actually run off without a care in the world. Who did he think Accelerator was?!

Academy City's strongest, undefeated since his debut, with countless overwhelming victories to his name!

Who dared to make a fool of him? Who dared to mess with him? Now Jiu Ming had successfully piqued his interest, only to act as if none of this was his problem and run away. He'd even had time to take the clone with him... Well, if you disliked someone, you could always invent all sorts of reasons to dislike them.

To Accelerator, Jiu Ming's actions were nothing but mockery...

"You're finished!! You're dead! No matter where you run!!!"

"I'm so scared... Go home and have a late-night snack, then."

The sturdy wall burst apart. Jiu Ming kicked the chunks of rubble on the ground toward Accelerator to slow him down, then dashed upward with Misaka 1. He didn't hold back at all, reaching the top floor of the research institute as quickly as possible.

So it was a high-rise building...

Feeling the tremors beneath his feet, Accelerator chased after them with another violent charge. Jiu Ming took a deep breath. Misaka 1 saw what looked like flames flickering across his translucent body—not hot, red flames, but rippling distortions like transparent, wavering fire.

Misaka 1 had already uploaded what she'd seen to the Misaka Network. The Misakas discussed it for quite a while, but still couldn't figure out what had happened to Jiu Ming.

Well, saying "quite a while" made it sound longer than it was. It had only been a very short moment.

"Ha!!" Once he'd finished gathering power, Jiu Ming punched down at the ground beneath him.

Boom—!!

The deafening crash spread in an instant. Misaka 1, standing beside Jiu Ming, was flung away by the sudden gust of air. Her skirt flipped up... So her underwear had blue-and-white stripes.

"Let's go!"

Jiu Ming's body had dimmed considerably. He grabbed Misaka 1, then jumped straight down, ignoring the height of the building. If they didn't jump now, it would be too late.

The building was collapsing.

Cracks spread rapidly downward from the top. In just a few seconds, the entire building was swaying on the verge of collapse. Accelerator, who'd been pursuing them, noticed and stopped. The area around him was already crumbling. If he stayed any longer, he'd be buried alive.

He wasn't afraid of that, but he didn't want to be in such a sorry state.

He'd underestimated that bastard's ability. He actually had enough power to destroy an entire building so easily. A monster with a will of his own—had he escaped from some research institute? Ha! At last, someone interesting had shown up. He'd just have to help them bring him back...

Accelerator stepped out of the ruins. The test subjects buried in the rubble? There was no need to care about them!

What he cared about more were the deep cracks spreading through the surrounding ruins. That one punch had severely damaged even the ground nearby. As he looked at it all, the sick grin on Accelerator's face deepened. What was so exciting about slaughtering an emotionless test subject, compared to personally killing a bastard he both found interesting and hated?

"This is a lot more fun than that boring experiment. Keep running, you piece of trash. I'll find you, no matter what!"

Had it been easy for Jiu Ming to destroy this building, which had clearly been constructed to such a high standard and was extremely earthquake-resistant?

Not even close...

"I lost so much..." Jiu Ming muttered, heart aching as he looked at his arms, which had faded considerably.