A Certain Magical Haruka

Accelerator found himself walking aimlessly around the city again, this time his only intention was to get away from the apartment. This time, however, there was barely a soul in sight. He needed to think, to get his thoughts in order.

You have an angel watching you.

Shut up, he told his mind.

The thoughts were relentless, though.

You and Haruka were friends when you were still an innocent, happy child. But sadly, your memories were all erased and changed.

Shut up already! He mentally screamed at his mind.

You'll die in the upcoming war.

That was the last thing before his conscience went silent.

So he was going to die. Well, he didn't really care about his life. Did he? He could not have computed the deflection of the bullet Amai Ao sent into his head. He could have died right then and there and he wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place.

"Well, if you're going to ignore me, can I kill you right now?"

That voice jolted him out of his thoughts. He looked around to see he was in an area in Academy City which was usually crowded day and night, but strangely, the place was empty. To his surprise, white cards with a strange looking symbol were plastered all over the place.

"I'm behind you, esper. And if you want to know, these are runes to keep anybody else from entering this area."

Accelerator looked behind him to find a blond teenager looking at him with a smirk. He had almost cat-like yellow eyes, a black cloak around him and he was wearing a medieval-looking green tunic underneath.

"Who the hell are you?"

"My name's not important, but if you wish to know, I'm from the Roman Catholic Church. I was dispatched here to kill you."

"A church? So you're a magician."

"You aren't as in the dark about magic as I thought you were. Oh well, makes no difference whatsoever. The Roman Catholic Church considers you to be a threat in the war, so they sent one of their best soldiers, me, to kill you before the war even starts."

"Who's fighting who?"

"Oh, you didn't know? The Roman Catholic Church will declare war on the Science side soon. Now, enough talking." With that, the boy raised his right hand and a bolt of lightning shot down, aimed straight for Accelerator. Accelerator turned on his choker and quickly deflected the lightning bolt to the boy. The blond caught the lightning bolt, let it dissipate, and turned to Accelerator with a disappointed look on his face.

"Damn, I forgot you had that deflection ability. Oh well, let's see if you can deflect this!" A ball of crackling light formed in his hand and he threw the ball straight at Accelerator's chest. Accelerator tried to deflect it, but it didn't work and the ball slammed into his chest, sending him flying into a wall. He got up after a minute, coughing up blood. He had felt a few ribs crack, and it hurt to take a breath. His shirt was charred black from the blast.

"You bastard…"

"I get that a lot. Well, looks like you can't deflect pure magic." A larger ball of magic formed and separated into smaller ones, flying at Accelerator again. Mustering his strength, Accelerator controlled the wind vectors and flew high into the air, flying straight for the blond magician, who looked surprised at the fact Accelerator could fly. Shaking off his surprise, the magician muttered a spell which sent a blast of lightning at Accelerator, who promptly dodged, but the lightning followed him and blasted him to the ground.

"I hope you're dead now. This mission totally ruined my vacation."

Accelerator struggled to sit up, blood pouring down his head and his body. Electricity crackled around him. The boy sighed. "Still not dead? Seriously, I wish I didn't have to use this spell."

He began chanting again, but Accelerator slammed his hand on the ground, uprooting the ground around the boy and sending him flying for a wind turbine. However, the boy recovered quickly and flew back to his original spot, his body crackling with lightning.

"You put up a good fight considering you don't know any spells. But as you know, magic is always more powerful than science. Goodbye, Accelerator." The boy started up another chant, moving his fingers in lightning-fast patterns. Out of energy and in immense pain, Accelerator could do nothing but watch as the boy finished the chant. Thunder rumbled in the sky, and multiple bolts of magical lightning shot down, all aimed for Accelerator. Not one of them missed.

A cry of pain was torn from Accelerator's throat as millions of volts of electricity and magical energy coursed through his body. He slumped to the ground, seemingly dead.

"Huh, the body's still intact? Looks like I'll have to make sure he's dead." The blond drew a sword out of a scabbard clipped to his belt and made to take a step towards the esper.

But before the boy could take a single step, a fiery sword poked out of his chest. He looked down in surprise as blood started pouring out of the wound and his mouth. The sword was promptly jerked out and the boy turned to see a red haired man standing there with a cigarette in his mouth and something looking like a barcode under one eye.

"Impossible," the boy rasped. "No one told me he was under the protection of Necessarius."

"He is now. If he's dead, I will lay such curses on your spirit that you shall be in eternal torment no matter wherever you are."

"A thousand curses on your own grave, Stiyl Magnus."

"You do not know how many times my enemies say that." With that, the boy collapsed on the ground, dead.

Stiyl wiped off the blood on his sword on the dead boy's clothes and turned to the seemingly dead teen. Taking out a cell, he made a call.

"Kamijou, are you there?"

"Oh, it's you, Stiyl. What's going on?"

"You and Index find an empty room or someplace safe with a bed and tell her to get some powerful healing magic ready. Extremely powerful."

"Eh? Who got injured this time?"

"Don't ask me questions, just do it."

"Alright, alright."

Stiyl hung up and looked up at the top of one building.

"I wonder if he's dead. Aren't you going to help me, Kanzaki?"

"He looks pretty light, why do you need my help?" Kanzaki jumped down and nimbly landed on the ground, giving Accelerator the once over.

"The electricity seems to have stopped his heart and permanently paralyzed him. I don't think he should be alive right now."

"Well, he'd better be alive. He held out longer than anyone else I saw who fought him, and they were all magicians. And they all died as well."

"That first energy ball would have killed a regular human, and I doubt the one they call the Railgun could have absorbed or survived that last lightning blast. The body should have been obliterated. You were lucky you had the element of surprise on your side and the fact he was out of magical energy."

"Well, he's definitely not regular. I probably should have stepped in earlier though."

"Very true."

Stiyl's cell phone rang and he picked it up.

"We got a place ready. It's at Komoe-sensei's place."

"Where?"

"Remember that place where I went to heal Index?"

"We'll be there in a few minutes."

Snapping the phone shut, he draped Accelerator's unconscious and bloody form over his shoulder and started walking. Kanzaki followed closely after, looking out for any other magicians.

They reached the place in a few minutes, with Touma and Index at the door.

"Who did you rescue this time, Stiyl?"

"A kid who seems to be on the Science side, but he was targeted by the Roman Catholic Church. They sent one of their most powerful magicians after him. He should have been dead by now, but he seems to be able to take in some magic."

Komoe popped up and ran over to Stiyl. "Huh? It's Accelerator-san."

"What? No way!" Touma rushed over and tried to examine the unconscious white-haired boy. Stiyl pushed the spiky-haired boy out of the way and laid Accelerator on the bed.

"Huh? He looks different from the last time I saw him."

"That's because he got shot in the head saving the last 10000 MISAKA clones. The bullet destroyed his computing and language abilities, so he has to wear that choker for him to use his ability and he needs a crutch to go around town." Komoe replied.

"Out of all people, he saved the last 10000? But how? And he killed the first 10000 as well!"

"He took in clone number 20001, known as Last Order. She had a virus implanted in her head which could have caused all the remaining clones to go berserk, and he stopped the virus. However, the scientist shot him in the head since he couldn't reflect the bullet while rewriting the virus code. That's why he's like this now."

"Oh… so that's who the mini-MISAKA was talking about at the mall. He looks like he changed a lot."

"If you got shot in the head and still survived, you'd change, Kamijou-chan."

"Stop talking, everyone! He won't live any longer if I can't heal him right now."

"Sorry, Index. We'll leave you to your work then."

"I'll go contact Yomikawa-san then and tell her what happened." Komoe turned to the phone.

"Wait," a weak voice rasped from the bed. "Don't tell her or Yoshikawa." Accelerator hissed in pain as he tried to sit up. Index rushed over to him.

"Don't sit up and stay still. I'll heal you soon."

"Oh, it's you again." Accelerator looked around and his eyes landed on Touma. His eyes flared with rage.

"You!"

"Uh… um… hi?"

Accelerator gave him a look of disdain as best as he could in his current state and looked away. Meanwhile, Index glared at Stiyl. "I thought you said he was dead!"

"I told you he was supposed to be dead!"

"Hmph!" Index turned to Accelerator and with plenty of force behind her voice, she commanded: "Sleep." Accelerator's eyes rolled up and he collapsed back onto the bed.

"Touma, I suggest you leave. Your right hand will interfere with the process."

"I know."

"Actually, you too, Komoe-san."

"What about Aisa-san? She's still here, you know. I think she's asleep, though."

"Who can sleep with all this noise?" The long black-haired girl stepped into the room, in her usual kimono on. "I'm not going to stay."

"Okay then. You three, please exit this place. This will take a few hours, so try to keep busy or something."

"Anything we can do, Index?"

"Stiyl and Kanzaki? I don't really know. Just don't interfere."

Index drew a magic circle around Accelerator and started chanting. The circle glowed with blue light and encased Accelerator's body. After a few more minutes of chanting, the light changed to a white colour. Index stopped chanting.

"Now we need to wait at least 3 hours for his body to heal fully. He was supposed to be dead, but something was keeping his life force anchored to his body."

"What is it?" Stiyl took one step towards Accelerator, but Index stopped him.

"Don't get close. You could disrupt the healing process. I think I know the reason why he's still alive."

"Which is?"

"A few months ago, there were the haloes of white light and the Roman Catholic Church sent Vento of the Front from God's Right Seat to attack Academy City. While Touma was fighting Vento, I located the area where the white light was being controlled and found myself in a strange building with the little girl on the table. She was the remote control of the thing, so I stopped it with a spell. While that was going on, this esper was fighting another man. When I finished, I saw black wings sprout out of his body and I heard him speaking in the language of the angels before killing the man. There is no doubt; he has an angel watching over him. It was a partial awakening though, so the angel wasn't at his full magical potential."

"No wonder he's special. A science kid with an angel watching over him."

"Not just any angel, I can sense that it's extremely powerful. For all we know, it's an archangel."

The two magicians gaped at Index. "There is no record in all of history of an archangel awakening in a human."

Index ignored their reactions. "We should join the others now. It would be best to leave him alone while the spell finishes."

"Alright."

The three Necessarius members exited the room, leaving the white-haired boy peacefully sleeping on the bed, still encased in white light.