[SS] The Walking Church and the Strongest

Roars, shrieks, cries and sounds of things being devastated could be heard in the recreation sector.

Relatively empty is the word that came to mind but in truth there were still people out and about at this late hours. Idiot couples night out, researchers scrambling for the last tram home and late night shopping for something to snack on. There were still people in the streets and even though it was right out in the open public, nobody seemed remotely alarmed at the brutality that ensued across the street from them.

This was Academy City, or rather what happened on the dark side of it's public image.





10 people were panting heavily, and two of them were already down on the ground, bleeding from horrible wounds, even a 5 year old could tell this was an Esper attack as one person suffered horrific burns while the other lied on the ground twitching from having all of his bones from his right arm to his ribs smashed as though it was hit by a speeding train.

Their eyes were bloodshot, overwhelmed with fear yet the boy who was being surrounded by assailants didn't do anything.
To the boy, the 8 armed people surrounding him didn't seem to exist in his sight. To him they were less than trash, unworthy of stepping on as they will no doubt destroy themselves without him ever needing to lift a single finger against them.

How stupid.

Yet they continued to send them. Most likely they were specialists with paramilitary background and judging from the earlier two having employed unique advanced weapons to either shoot bullets that melted anything in it's trajectory, or temporarily turning their fist's momentum to rival that of a bullet train, it was safe to assume these people were properly funded. It didn't take rocket science for Accelerator to figure out who sent these scums, afterall Academy City and it's underworld was governed by the same people that ran it's politics. The Board of Directors.

In some regard Academy City was a government run by Hydra corporate heads. While some fully supported the LEVEL 6 Shift, there were others who opposed it quite openly like this. It didn't came as a surprise to him that there would be idiots who'd provide funding for something stupid like hiring assassins to take out Accelerator. What was surprising was that there were fools who'd dare themselves to try it even now when he stood at the pinnacle of power as the strongest Level 5 Esper in Academy City. They were mad. Their eyes showed crazed expressions even as they destroyed themselves against Accelerator's reflection, no perhaps it would be correct to say they were crazed zealots who opposed anything remotely Esper. What drove them to harbor so much hatred against Espers? Accelerator can only guess but why should he? It didn't matter to him and he didn't need to bother with them as he simply walked back home from his trip to the convenience store as they came one after another destroying themselves until they couldn't scream at all from the agonizing pain.

At first all this was amusing to see. He can break loose all carnage and hell and still get away with it from having full support and backing from his backers. There were Espers trained and hired to manipulate people around them to divert their attention as though what was unfolding was non existent, mind benders capable of hypnotizing everyone to forget the blood splatter against the walls, broken bones a jogger stepped on, and everything else. Not to the extremes of hypnosis capable of the Tokiwadai Queen but close enough to serve it's purpose.

Another day and another group of crazy assassins dealt with. It was more ideal for him to walk around at night so that the assassination didn't occur in his apartment. Killing off one or two bugs was one thing but cleaning the mess caused by trash was an entirely different matter. It was all calculated event, not that Accelerator needed to buy anything from a convenience store at this hour, but it was to take out the "trash".

What he didn't count on was for him to bump into someone.

What?

Something didn't register in his mind and brought him back from his thoughts and into the reality of where he just got bumped into a person. Rather than being surprised at the earlier attacks, it seemed as though Accelerator was more surprised at the fact that someone bumped into him yet nothing happened.

Reflection.

It was a power that unconsciously activated whenever something came into contact with him as a safety measure. So by punching Accelerator it would result in that force being redirected into the puncher's fist the instant it came into contact with Accelerator's skin, often resulting with broken bones throughout their arm, bruised muscles and a trauma that would last their remaining lifetime to never come in contact with Accelerator again. Yet the reflection didn't work and the person that bumped into him remained unharmed against the effects that would normally have caused a violent push at the very least.

A girl wearing a white nun’s habit and with silver hair and green eyes had her face planted in his midriff while chanting incomprehensible words.

She looked up, her eyes told him that she was exhausted.


“Oh, you’re not the salesperson handing out free food. You’re not with them at all. I thought you were an employee. Why aren’t you a employee? Where is the free food gallery? It doesn’t matter. I’m too hungry to move."


And she stood buried unable to move from all the exhaustion of running around looking for places that served free food to try out. The man in the box told her it would be around the recreation sector yet she's been searching long and hard all over the place at the wrong hour for the festival scheduled to happen next month out of sheer insatiable hunger storm.

Loud noise came from the bottom of her stomach indicating it was much overdue for supper.

While Accelerator, the strongest Level 5 was being swallowed up into the small nun's own pace, it irked him that here stood a creature of religion that somehow managed to survive his reflection.

Groooooooooooooowlllll

Accelerator hardly understood her at first. Whether from his knowledge of English only as a second language or shock and disbelief at the situation unfolding it took him a moment to parse the words she had spoken. He instead stared, dumbfounded and with the sneer of disgust the teenager uttered a response.

"What the hell did you say?" The words oozed like venom from his tongue. Something about her demeanour and the casual, flippant attitude of this girl stoked a strange kind of anger in him. It was as though she hadn't even noticed his automatic reflection. Like the God-Kings of old he seemed to consider the touch of another something beneath him. To be literally untouchable. That was what it meant to be in command of Vector Change and the title of the Strongest Esper.

That she could simply ignore his ability like that. Ignore him like that was preposterous.

That anger only drowned out his awareness, smothering his attempts to decipher just how she had ignored his ability so easily.

By the time Accelerator's venomous words made its way out of him, he could already feel the weight of having a hungry nun leaning against him with her face still buried into his stomach where it didn't belong. The fact that he was feeling weight itself was unthinkable since such things didn't bother him in the slightest unless he allowed it like allowing gravity to affect him. He's had military tanks attempt to crush him beneath it's weight in a vain attempt to defeat him after exhausting out it's ammunition only to be crushed inwards as though a giant pair of hands squished it as one would squeeze an aluminium can after drinking it's content. The point is he's had worse thrown at him yet none came close to annoying and felt heavier than the weight leaning against him now.

Groooooooooooooowllllllllll

Each time her stomach growled it felt as though she was releasing her strength to even stand properly, leaning most of her weight against Academy City's most dangerous Esper without a care in the world until...

"GAH! I'm SO HUNGRY! SO HUNGRY that I can eat this shirt and still be hungry!"

She exploded into a uncontrollable tantrum.

A sharp intake of breath and Accelerator's already snarling visage bared his teeth at Index. He reached out to seize her and to push her away. Perhaps the feeling of her collar bone being crushed to dust would make this foreigner pay attention. Bony, pale fingers closed around the white fabric of her robes and squeezed tight...

"GAH! I'm SO HUNGRY! SO HUNGRY that I can eat this shirt and still be hungry!"

He had expected a shriek, or at least a squeal from the nun but she only continued her assault on his ears with her high-pitched whining. To his surprise his fingers, which could easily rend the hardest of metals, had met resistance against her clothing. His hand trembled with frustration.

Meanwhile her tantrum raged on. With mixed feelings of anger, irritation and a strange curiosity he came to a troubling realisation.

He was powerless to resist this slight built girl with the childish temper.

He had only one option. Until he could figure out what sort of ability this girl possessed he would have to play along. It was an unappealing prospect.

Reaching into the carrier bag at his side he handed the girl a packet of ready-made sushi. The snarl on his face didn't subside as he waited for her to take his offering.

Her face lit up the moment he offered her some food as she said “Thank you. And it’s time to eat.” and began eating the sushi without hesitation. She seemed completely ignorant to Accelerator's snarl or his killing intent from earlier as she ate expressing how tasty it was and that she was glad it didn't have the "Wabisabi" sauce hidden inside it. Green demonic paste said to give her headaches when she last tried it on Kanzaki's recommendation.

Clearly she was in a world of her own, oblivious to the possible dangers that stood right beside her.

“I suppose I need to start with an introduction.”

Again, Accelerator never asked yet she proceeded to move on her own pace.

"My name is Index, I am from the Church. This is important. Oh, but I’m not from the Roman Catholics. I’m from the Anglican Church and my magic name is Dedicatus545, The devout lamb protects the knowledge of the strong."

One could only imagine what was racing through Acclerator's head at this dumbfounded situation. Normally he wouldn't even bother associating with such annoyance other than to squash them like bugs yet the nun before him puzzled him. She was like an immovable object that defied common sense.

To Accelerator's chagrin the noisy girl's chatter didn't cease with his offering. If anything she grew louder! His shaking hand clenched into a fist at his side, the tremors overtaking his entire body now.

"My name is Index, I am from the Church. This is important. Oh, but I’m not from the Roman Catholics. I’m from the Anglican Church and my magic name is Dedicatus545, The devout lamb protects the knowledge of the strong."

"Shut up!" He barked, stomping down on the floor hard enough to crack the paving slab beneath him. The entire sidewalk shook from the petulant gesture. "What the hell does any of that even mean!? You're just spouting gibberish!" He lifted his head, peering down his nose at her as the already sour expression on his face grew more and more enraged. "Fucking slow down and start making sense. What's your ability? What level are you? How come I haven't heard of you before!?" All at once his pent up aggression slipped out in a barrage of abuse and half concocted questions.

Index tilted her head trying to register what Accelerator was asking. He demanded to know what ability she was using but somehow nothing came to mind... wait was Index using an ability that not even Index was aware of?! As for level she wasn't sure what he meant by it, maybe it was... a level to determine how hungry she was. The last question on the other hand seemed like the simplest question she could answer with certainty so she began to answer him with that.

"Index has arrived here from England not long ago so we've never met before which is why you've never heard of me before."

After pondering for awhile whether she should tell him or not, she answered in earnest.

"Index has the photographic memory ability and is able to memorize anything and everything on first glance including the 103,000 magical texts inside my memory already."

Accelerator had encountered many kinds of thugs in his lifetime, and with this experience he's come to able to tell on first glance the kind of pattern left behind by liars and scumbags of all levels yet he couldn't detect any sort of patterns on the nun before him. Contrary she was gentle and polite with a kind nature that generally irritated Accelerator to the point he'd make an active attempt to stay away from such people.

If she never nullified his reflection, he'd have simply ignored her and moved on by now.

But wait... the brat mentioned that she was from England.

The security checkpoints for Academy City from a normal standpoint was several years maybe even decades beyond anything available elsewhere around the world. Bypassing the checkpoint aside, there was a spy satellite monitoring the movement of every single individuals entering and exiting Academy City 24/7. Anyone whose profile didn't match with the system's registeration would immediately alert the Antiskill and Judgment to take action and apprehend the intruder so... how on earth did this brat manage to pass? No matter how you looked at her she didn't have any form of ID or money for that matter. She couldn't have been a runaway Child Error either, least not with the flashy habit she was wearing.

Without a doubt she was telling the truth and all of that pointed towards the fact she was not a local but an outsider.

"Index has arrived here from England not long ago so we've never met before which is why you've never heard of me before."

An outsider? That would mean she couldn't be an Esper. It was common knowledge that AIM research outside of Academy City was years behind and quite possibly decades away from being able to create a real Esper, much less one capable of rivaling himself. So what was her secret?

"Index has the photographic memory ability and is able to memorize anything and everything on first glance including the 103,000 magical texts inside my memory already."

"Magic? You expect me to believe that crap!?" He spat out even before he had a chance to really compute what she was saying. It was an instinctive response to what he perceived as a child's make-believe fantasy. "Magic doesn't fucking exist, so stop with the bullshit and tell me why my vectors aren't affecting you." He glowered at her.

Index sulked like someone had insulted her pet cat. Childish side of her took over from her earlier polite demeanor and she started to pout as she began a small tantrum against Accelerator's clothes with small balls of fists smacking against him.

“Believing in Esper powers but not in Magic makes no sense,” Index said with a pout. “Are those Esper powers really all that great? It isn’t alright to make fun of people just because you have some kind of special power!”

When she was done giving Accelerator a beat down of the century which inflicted absolutely no damage other than to his pride as the Strongest, the untouchable Level 5, she threw her arms  above her head in annoyance, not realizing the fact she just dealt another mortal blow to Accelerator's public image. Not a scratch on her, he was really having a weird experience to say the least.

"Magic does exist and I'll prove it! These clothes I'm wearing! They’re the highest quality of Magical defensive barrier called the Walking Church!”

Index spread her arms to show off the teacup-like nun’s habit that strayed from the ordinary design.

Vectors or whatever Accelerator mentioned was probably the boy's Esper ability. When did he use it and why? The question did pop up for a brief second before she reverted her full attention on the great argument at hand, Magic DOES EXIST!

"It's an accurate replica of the Shroud of Turin, the cloth worn by the Saint who was stabbed by Lance of Longinus, so its strength rivals a Pope Class barrier. I guess you could say it’s something like a portable nuclear shelter. It turns aside or absorbs any attack, be it Magical or Esper."

So whatever the boy in front of her used on her, he had nothing on her. Hehehe

"It means your Vectors won't work on me and this is the undeniable truth that Magic DOES EXIST!" She said it so triumphantly as if she single handedly proved that not only was Magic a real concept but it was superior to Esper Abilities by comparing it to the boy's powers.

Accelerator's frown had deepened as he listened to what must have been the lunatic ramblings of a brain damaged child. It was an expression which displayed disdain, revulsion and indignance. The kind of face a person would pull after finding a cockroach in their bed.

She was making fun of him. This dumb bitch was mocking him!

"Are you willing to bet your life on it, brat?" He felt his fingers clench without intending to. Fascinating. His arm was rearing back, his shoulders tensing. All without him telling them to. Accelerator watched his own reaction with a strange sense of wondrous detachment as his body reacted to the irritation he felt all on its own. Was he really going to pulverise this disturbed little girl? Just for making fun of him?

That odd moment of dissonance made him hesitate for a moment and he found himself standing, arm raised as he awaited her response. Perhaps she'd have the sense to turn and run?

Magic vs Science. Despite the kindness the boy before her showed her by sharing sacrificing his dinner, he stood there denying the possible existence of magic at it's very foundation. She never felt so irritated at the arrogance and ignorance this person was displaying even when it was evident that whatever he was trying to achieve with his Esper abilities, he had failed to get past the Pope class defense barrier embedded and sewn into her habit.

He was making fun of her to the very end. Index tried to do her best to convince him by using nice explanations about the concept of magic yet this person was too stubborn to acknowledge it in the least and instead used the opportunity to deny it with every effort!

"This clothing is a materialization of God’s protection, my life is in his hands!" She stetched out her hand and as far as she could to imitate a goalkeeper ready to anticipate heavy impact as the opposing team approached her with a banana kick. It was ridiculous! Absolutely ridiculous! Anyone who saw this scene would have screamed inside as the little nun prepared herself to die in the most savage way possible, yet she was ready and willing to test the strongest power of Science side in an outrageous efforts to convince the Esper that she was a Magician and... that magic DOES EXIST!

"Give me your best shot but Magic does exist and it will break that illusion of yours!"

"You asked for it, brat!" He said dismissively as he swung his fist down on her. The entire force of his vectors focused on a single point on the nun's head. There would be little left of that smiling face after this, he was certain.

Bop.

Accelerator looked on in mute surprise as the bottom of his closed fist bounced lightly on her crown. He blinked and looked into her eyes for a moment as the sheer absurdity of the situation hit him. He raised his hand, still clenched in a fist, to his face. He started to quake with anger. His face growing dark and his lips twisting in a furious howl.

"What the FU-"

***

Accelerator had taken some time to calm down. And not without considerable property damage. Indeed, for the poor Anti-Skill team that had arrived in the aftermath the scene was quite a mess. Whatever 'disturbance' had occurred had left the entire sidewalk shattered and demolished the wall of a nearby business.

Now, a 'calm' Accelerator sat opposite the foreigner who sat eagerly awaiting her meal. His arm draped over the back of the booth's arm rest as he listened to the childlike girl explain herself.

"And anything for you, sir?" The waitress waited to take his order with an awkward smile.

"Piss off." Accelerator interrupted her tersely with a wave of his hand. Calm he may be, but he was still as surly as ever.

It was a happy day for Index to run into someone so kind. She did end up creating a small dent on the pride belonging to the boy opposite her but at the end of the day it all somehow worked out. Though he didn't look it, Accelerator was a nice guy even though he would much rather die than have someone else admit that for him. Despite his scary appearance, he seemed curious and was the one initiating the conversation while Index answered and continued to blab on about things that was alien to Accelerator.

What Accelerator could pick out from that ridiculous conversation so far was that she is an important figure in England Magic Society who is tasked with the role of storing magical books into her memories like a walking library. As ridiculous as this sounded Accelerator continued to listen as she explained that due to the fact that she was a bearer of such books she was being pursued by enemy Magicians who sought to steal the books and abuse them for evil. Accelerator wasn't a huge fan of television series but he could have sworn he saw some similar sounding plotline from a kids anime show the Magical Powered Kanamin.

A part of him wanted to call her out as a liar and begin the argument fresh but before his impulse could take over, strong reasoning stopped him. It was explainable that an Esper ability would be able to stop his manipulation of the vectors, there was just no explanation for that at all. So what if this Magic thing was real? What the nonsensical brat was saying somehow connected and made sense despite her bad explanation.

"I'm glad that I bumped into someone before I passed out of hunger!"

When the food arrived she was too busy to stuff her mouth with food to have a normal conversation but she tried her best to talk with the white haired boy anyway even if her voice sounded muffled from chewing and wolfing down food like a hungry child from a third world country. It was poor table manners but she reasoned that it would have been even poorer manners to discontinue their chat.

"What is your name?" It just occured to her that she didn't even know the name of her savior. "And how come you are being nice to Index?"

As she asked those questions the restaurant jukebox started to play a song. A song composed by the popular group Train Buffet Eaters 2nd Album, Black Glutton.



Can she even taste what was going into her mouth before she chowed on the next one? There was sauce running down the corner of her mouth and she didn't even realize it.

This nun's stomach was like the cosmos onto itself! It felt as if it was connected to the void of the universe! How much food can a single nun eat?! One has to ask where has she been where is she going? Her eating form was like that of the god's descent itself truly awe inspiring for all heavy weight eaters out there! It may very well be that what Accelerator was witnessing today was a birth.

The birth of the next step of the human stomach evolution!

Due to his involvement with the dark side of Academy City, Accelerator has access to an amount of money he would never end up using it all in his entire lifetime and more. Even so, when there was a long line of waitress and waiters with food trays lined up to their table which was now completely overrun by hamburgers, pizza, pasta, and various cuisine from different continents he wondered if his balance would last a year if he adopted a nun.

Accelerator sat in stunned silence as the number of dishes on the table grew. Was this a joke? Did she even realise what she was ordering? Or was her grasp of Japanese so tenuous that she accidentally ordered multiple items instead of one? And where exactly was she going to put all this? Someone her size could only eat so much after all.

The more he assessed the situation the more he wound himself up into another teeth-grinding fury.

"What is your name?"

That question had caught the pale boy off guard. It was the first time in a while that someone had bothered to ask him that.

"And how come you are being nice to Index?"

"Huh?" His eyes were open in a guileless look of surprise but his expression quickly settled into a bored scowl again. "What a weird question. It's..." He seemed to search for an answer just briefly before tutting dismissively as he turned his eyes away. "People call me Accelerator." He said dryly. "And I'm not being nice to you! It was the only way to stop you whining!" He snapped.

As she ordered more food she gradually became more comfortable speaking Japanese and eventually by the time she ordered her 18th meal set she sounded like a local Japanese customer. Their table was littered with empty dishes and all the softdrinks they had on their menu was being tasted one by one by the white silver haired nun who found no problem at all fitting all this in her questionable stomach. Was it possible that this was part of what she claimed as magic? If so the person paying for all this had better be rich enough to afford it all as this Magic didn't seem to work on the piling receipt on Accelerator's end.

"Accelerator? that's a very unusual name!" she exclaimed happily munching away at the hamburger the restaurant menu called 9 Continents 1 Burger, a hamburger that contained the distinct taste of hamburgers all over 9 continents around the world combined into 1 massive hamburger fit for a heavy weight pro sumo wrestler. The description on the menu described as a burger that nobody can finish, often customers had to share it between 4 people or take home the remainders to finish it off in 4 meals. While the term burger was used here, the circumference of this burger was about the size of a extra large pizza by Italian standards.

It was eaten just under a blazing record of 5 minutes.

A strange name... To a stranger Index Librorum Prohibitum was an unusual name as well but she would sooner deny it with a zeal than admit it.

She lay top half of her body on the table and thanked Accelerator.

"Thanks for the food! I'm glad I met someone nice at last, all this time I only met strangers who are too preoccupied with their small devices and the screen inside it."

Most likely she was referring to a mobile phone.

Nice? Yes the white haired boy denied it but she corrected him by calling him nice. To the Anglican nun the boy before her was a natural Christian by following the ten commandment without even being aware of it, thou shalt love thy neighbor.

"So Accelerator, was there anything I can help you in return for the food you treated me?"

"Help me?" He scoffed at the idea with a proud look. To look at her she seemed barely able to help herself. "What could someone begging for scraps on the street possibly do to help me?" The very idea was offensive. He let his eyes wander around the diner as he spoke in an indifferent manner. "I'm already the strongest Esper in this city. I've got entire departments at my beck and call. I have everything I need already." He spoke confidently, and yet those words sounded hollow, even to him. Pausing for a beat he mulled over his own words, reaffirming those facts to himself before turning to Index.

"Let me guess, you're going to offer me spiritual peace and God's eternal love or some shit, right?" He laughed humourlessly. "You might as well save your breath. That sort of thing doesn't hold any interest for me."

The one sided argument carried on with the white haired boy displaying his negative reactions to biased opinions of the small nun. It's been awhile since she found someone to talk with casually like this so Accelerator's general negative responses didn't affect her enthusiasm to continue talking about whatever came to her mind. As she continued to talk about spiritual peace and importance it has on true believers of good faith Accelerator would have felt something bouncing off him. To be more specific it was something that's been trying to make contact with him for awhile but couldn't due to the effects of his reflection cancelling whatever it was that tried to dare test his abilities. Something had touched his reflection yet he couldn't be sure what it was and it had been trying to affect him but couldn't. That was when Index noticed it.

They were the only ones in the family restaurant.

Just a few minutes ago there were customers eating 3 benches away from them and some employees at the counter yawning and complaining at their unlucky graveyard shifts.

The lights were left on, and across the benches there were still food on the table hardly eaten. When she looked outside there were no pedestrians in the area either.

People clearing field.

A magical spell used by Magicians in order to remove unnecessary witnesses from the scene where battle would ensue. She was Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Grimoire Library of Necessarius and she was being pursued by Magicians of enemy Magic Cabals. Her face paled into a panic as she suddenly got up from her seat and looked for the nearest exit. She didn't understand how Accelerator was not affected by the enemy's magic but there was no time to lose, the Magicians were already in the area and they could attack any moment. Getting rid of one eye witness who failed to be removed by the People Clearing Field wasn't a problem for them.

"Quick Accelerator! You have to get away from here they're coming!"

They looked at the two in the restaurant from outside where traffic would have still been busy even at late hours where Anti-Skill roamed about making sure everyone with late shifts regardless of their profession got home safely. It didn't take rocket science to figure out there was something odd about the manner in which the people outside chose to dress. 3 girls, one was tall with long wavy blond hair, with bangs that covered her left eyes and next to her was a girl with shoulder length wavy red hair and last but least was a short girl with hair as long as Index. They were dressed in small capes, ribbons and one even wore a witch hat armed with a broom. Like Index they seemed to be foreigners with a passion for cosplaying medieval themed characters as a passerby would note if anyone saw them.

There was something odd about them aside from the strange items they were holding onto nor their strange cosplay. A pressure of threat exerted from the three girls outside that seemed most unnatural.

The scent of cigarette lit up in the restaurant where it was supposed to be smokefree. A tall figure in black robes jumped over the counter and stood there looking at both Index and Accelerator who shouldn't have been there. An Esper who wasn't affected by the spell that should have evacuated him from the imminent danger. It was misfortunate for him not to have been affected as the Magician before him had no qualms about burning a eye witness to the point nothing remained of him.

He looked at Accelerator but didn't seem surprised as he immediately proceeded to burn the trash without giving any second thoughts.

"Ash to ash..."

He held out his hand towards Accelerator as though he was holding out his hand to stop him from advancing.

"...Dust to dust..."


A ball of fire 3000 degree C° suddenly erupted out from nothingness and sped towards Accelerator at alarming speed. It was enough heat to burn a person to a crisp and leave nothing behind but ashes as if someone suffered a spontaneous human combustion said to be a myth. What unnerved the Magician was the fact that the white haired boy didn't bother to dodge away from the blast let alone stand in his seats unable to comprehend what just happened. Instead the boy seemed uninterested. The person who moved from her seat wasn't the white haired boy but the short silver haired nun dressed in white.

Index jumped up from her seat and into Accelerator, blocking the shot from reaching the boy as she knocked him over the table along with herself.

"Run while I hold him off!" yelled Index as she got up from pushing Accelerator to the ground.

Accelerator's cool composure never stood a chance against Index's walking church. Slamming sideways to the floor he snarled at the nun who stood to shield him from the flames.

A fire user? Seriously?

A peculiar sense of mundanity fell over the Esper as he gradually rose to his feet and gently dusted off his shirt.

A fucking fire user wants to fight me!?

Accelerator chuckled dryly and stepped forward, placing his hand on Index's shoulder. He pulled her aside, shunting her out of his path with a harsh shove.

"If you think that's enough to intimidate me then guess again." He spat, glaring at his red haired assailant. "Small fry like you are nothing but shit to me!" He took another step into the quickly spreading flames that surrounded the remains of their table.

"Hey, brat." He jerked his head towards Index. "Take your own advice and get running. If you don't want this place to be where you die."

"M..M..MASTER?! I thought we weren't supposed to attack anyone who wasn't a Magician!"

She was another weird foreign girl who was dressed in a manner that screamed out witch in every sense. Between her and the two other girls standing outside the restaurant, she appeared to be the most mature among the three. Long wavy blond hair covered her left eye and a stereotypical witch hat decorated with a white bow rested on her head as she entered through the main doorway looking startled.

There existed an unknown rule between the two societies of Magic and Science, a delicate equilibrium that kept the two communities in a fragile sense of harmony. Therefore, a Magician was expected to keep their masquerade when operating within Academy City yet the Magician before Accelerator was more than prepared to break a few rules if it meant achieving his mission.

"Eliminating one eye witness shouldn't affect our agreements." said the man as he pulled out more cards from within his robes. There was indeed the risk of this being exposed to the higherups of both respective societies which could be used as a necessary spark for a large scale war... but there was no risk of such exposure as the magical field surrounding them prevented further eye witnesses. In fact... the boy next to Index Librorum Prohibitorum was the anomaly that wasn't affected by the spell. Have the three witches miscalculated in the people clearing ritual? He dismissed the unnecessary thoughts as he prepared another wave of magic to completely burn away the anomaly.

"Ash to ash..."

The magician held out both hands this time towards Accelerator and channelled magic into his palms now picking up a intense glow as bright as the sun itself...

"...Dust to dust!"

With that the field around his palms bursts into a spontaneous explosion, fierce flames erupted out as if his hands opened a portal to the deepest depths of hell. The witch on the other side of the restaurant quickly closed the door while brushing the surface with a downward swing of her broom sealing the magic to affect only the inside of the establishment.

There was no way of dodging from such a close range, the moment it made contact with Accelerator would have triggered the explosion as though it was hit by a cruise missile. Stiyl Magnus expected the room temperature to temporarily spike up to 3000 degree C°, leaving everything but the white nun in ashes. Yet what he saw was vastly different from what he imagined.

Accelerator remained standing in one piece, the ball of fire simply dissipated upon making contact... almost as if though it vanished.

"Impossible!" yelled the magician, his eyes widened with surprise and his cigarette fell from his mouth in complete disbelief. 1100 year old celtic rune sorcery didn't mean anything before the white haired boy as magic dissipated upon making contact with his skin. Faintly traces of it could still be felt in the difference of room temperature yet even those traces of it briefly lingered before disappearing completely.

Was this boy able to kill magic?

Accelerator swept his arm through the flames and they fluttered like candles in a breeze. He blew through the wall beside him just as easily, punching through it like it was made of tissue paper and his iron grip closed around the metal of a gas pipe. He tugged sharply and the pipe wrenched free with a groaning shriek.

Accelerator cracked a smile, a small creak of a laugh creeping from between his teeth.

The entire room filled with billowing flame as the flammable gas ignited in contact with Stiyl's flames. The restaurant's glass front splintered outwards with the force of the explosion and the entire city block trembled and rattled in the aftermath.

Accelerator looked about at the gutted shell of a restaurant, lazily surveying the scene for sight of the nun. He couldn't spot her.

"Guess that fancy dress of yours wasn't so strong after all." He tutted.