Part 21
(November 10 – Oahu – Coral Street Shopping Mall – In front of a coin locker – From security camera footage)
An armed group of five stepped out of the black smoke and in front of Accelerator.
They were covered in special all-silver military uniforms from the top of their heads to bottom of their feet. The surface of the uniforms glittered like a CD. Their faces could not be seen, but Accelerator could just barely tell from their body shapes that three were men and two were women. They were all armed with special bullpup-style assault rifles. In addition, the men had recoilless guns hanging from their shoulders and the women had intelligence-gathering tools such as high-fidelity microphones and fiberscopes hanging from their waists.
"(…Tch. Are they from Gremlin? Those uniforms look more like electronic camouflage for fooling sensors than something to be used against people.)"
They did not utter a single word.
One of the men held up his rifle and unhesitatingly fired.
However, Accelerator had his reflection.
The man was struck by the bullet he himself had fired and was knocked to the ground, but the other four showed no sign of worry or confusion.
They all took separate actions.
"(…Was he testing to see if I could do it?)"
He had ignored the damage he would take on a personal level and made a calculated sacrifice to control the damage to the group as a whole.
It pissed the #1 off, but it did not change what he had to do.
He manipulated the vectors of the force of his legs to explosively charge forward. The hunt had begun. No matter what the enemy thought or how they moved, Accelerator's reflection was overwhelmingly effective when it came to bullets and explosives. The attackers could do nothing to oppose the #1 as he wiped them out.
But…
There was one left.
Just as he stretched his fingers out before her, bright red blood suddenly burst from Accelerator's right arm.
"…Ah?"
A bullet had not made it past his wall of reflection.
Accelerator could not be harmed even by invisible threats such as gas or a biological weapon.
This had been caused by a non-external threat.
That is, his body was being destroyed from the inside.
The last remaining attacker jumped to the side and Accelerator was unable to correct his motion. He slammed into the wall. Blood was splattered on the wall and it did not quite seem real to him that it was his own.
Still leaning against the wall, Accelerator said, "It…can't be…"
"One fact remains the same for every esper," said the woman as she held up her bullpup-style rifle. "When a scientifically-created esper uses a magical spell, they are assaulted by a certain side effect."
"…You're…a magician…!?"
He tried to shout out but instead coughed up a clump of blood from deep in his throat.
The attackers' movements. The way they had fled. The timing with which they had been taken out.
It had all been calculated out to make Accelerator take certain actions—to make him pull the trigger known as magic.
The specifics of the magic he was made to use did not matter.
It could be something relatively useless like sending a pale light from his fingertips or even something so trivial it could not be seen. What mattered was that they were making an esper use magic.
Accelerator managed to figure that much out, but he could also tell his consciousness was growing muddy.
He had used something like magic in the past, but making careful adjustments while checking on one's limits was very different from charging in unaware.
And a scientific esper's powers were created purely from the brain.
The muddying of his consciousness lowered his calculation ability which in turn had an effect on his control on the macro physical world he could see.
Simply put…he lost his reflection ability.
The woman whose face he could not see held her finger to her rifle's trigger.
"The name Gremlin refers to an occult fairy that causes malfunctions in scientific machines. Had you not given any thought to what that meant?"
Immediately afterwards, a gunshot rang out.
Blood flew through the air. The dull sound of a human body falling to the ground was heard. Dark red blood leaked from the body as it lay on the ground.
However, it was not Accelerator's body.
It was the woman's body after she had been suddenly shot from the side.
Even as she lay on the ground, she held the bullpup-style assault rifle in one hand. She blindly fired in the direction she had been shot from.
But…
"That just isn't gonna cut it, lady. You aren't going to hit anything firing wildly like that. Stability is more important than distance. No matter how good a gun you have, you can still miss at ten meters with terrible form like that," said a deep male voice.
Two light gunshots rang out and two dark-red holes opened in the woman's right shoulder. The rifle finally fell from her grasp and her resistance was replaced by groans.
"Don't even hold a gun if you can't hit. Are you trying to get yourself killed!? This is the world's largest gun country!!"
"Who…are you…?" Accelerator asked the boasting man.
"That's what I'd like to ask you, Japanese boy. I came all the way here to save the children, but you stole my thunder."
"…Again: who the hell are you?"
"I really wish people would start watching the morning news," sighed the middle-aged man holding a handgun. "I'm the goddamn president."
Part 22
(November 10 – Oahu – White Beach Golf Club – From a tourist's video camera)
The tourists poured out of the shopping mall and fled to the beach and other nearby areas. Unlike with a simple accident or disaster, the people were trying to escape a shooter, so they were mostly heading for other buildings to hide in.
Normally, only members could enter the White Beach Golf Club, but the guards' shouts did nothing to stop the surging waves of people. They hesitated to draw their guns as a threat as it was an emergency and people's lives were at stake.
Mixed in with the crowd, the Gremlin magician operated her cell phone.
Birdway and the others had been monitoring all of the exits, but they had not thought of the possibility of her destroying a wall and leaving through that. In a firefight like that, an extra explosion or two did not seem suspicious.
After ringing a few times, the call finally connected.
Without waiting for the other person to speak, the magician shouted into the phone.
"Why did you send them!? They were meant for a later stage!!"
"Either way, the plan would have been brought to a standstill if you had been captured back there," said the young woman's voice coming from the phone. "And I have things I must do while the enemy is focused on you."
"Then…"
"They already know what you look like. If it is only a matter of time before the pursuers reach you, we must proceed even faster than planned. From here on out, this is a blitzkrieg. We must shake free of them faster than they can respond."
Part 23
(November 10 – Oahu – From the in-vehicle camera of an electric cart)
Because he had no idea when the enemy's comrades would return and injure Accelerator further, President Roberto Katze could not leave Accelerator where he was. Instead, he dragged him into the passenger seat of the kind of electric cart used in golf courses. He wanted to watch the reunion of the hostages and manipulated attackers longer, but they had no time, so he drove off in the cart.
Incidentally, his rental car had been rendered completely unusable. He started to seriously consider whether he could call it a public expense and get reimbursed.
"It's a good thing this is a tourist area. Electric carts are a lot simpler than a normal car. You're supposed to input a four digit number, but you can bypass that and start them by opening the cover and connecting a single cord to an open port on the circuit board."
A certain company had a few different models of electric cart and each one had different types of security, but they all used the same circuit board. Depending on the model of the cart it was for, different electronic parts were connected to that circuit board and different ones of the several input ports were chosen. That was how the different products were given a sense of individuality.
However, holes for electronic parts and input ports not needed for that model still existed.
A common circuit board was used to reduce costs, but that meant a signal could be sent through a route the machine was not made to handle. It was possible to cause an intentional error.
It was because of his interest in those kinds of things that the president was sometimes called the swindler who had risen to a higher position than any other swindler in history. If he was not careful, Hollywood was likely to make a movie about it.
Accelerator clicked his tongue while breathing shallowly.
"…If we had taken one of those damn reinforcements with us, we could've gotten some information."
"That's too much of a burden. I'm no Hollywood star; I can't carry two people at once." The president gave a light smile. "More importantly, you need to do something about that blood. I'm only borrowing this. I'd like for this to end up being a cart of good fortune that is rumored to have been driven by the president, but at this rate it'll be rumored to be a bloodthirsty cart that kills everyone who uses it. I don't want to cause any problems for its owner."
"Tch."
"If you need something to use as a bandage or gauze, take this."
The president handed him a lace handkerchief. It did not look like a man's handkerchief, but that may just have been part of the strategy he used in regard to his image. Accelerator took it with an irritated look on his face.
"…Why did woman's underwear come out with it?"
"Sorry, sorry. That belonged to a career woman I met at a bar two days ago. At some point, it found its way into my pocket."
Accelerator tossed the women's underwear aside and glared over at the president.
"How much do you have to do with this incident?"
"That's what I want to know from you, Japanese boy. This is my country. Do you realize you're having a barbecue in someone else's yard without asking?"
"…"
"Currently, the occult is running rampant through the White House and Congress. Its tentacles have spread through the military, the police, and the intelligence agencies. The phenomena you saw back there have eaten into all of the public institutions. In some cases, it has reached people who have the authority to decide to invade another country. The bastards using the occult are using living people to put together their own force."
"…In concrete terms, how far has it spread?"
"Who knows? It could be a few hundred people or it could be a few thousand. It's beyond the point where we can tell that kind of thing. What I do know is that something isn't right in this country. There's no convenient test, so telling apart the affected and the unaffected is difficult. Areas that were safe the day before are not necessarily safe today."
"Is it Gremlin?"
"What's that?"
"A magic cabal…that is, a group that uses the occult…that is hiding here in Hawaii. To be honest, I don't know many of the details myself."
"Does someone in that group have the power to control people?"
"Yes."
"…I see. So you're a Japanese hunting dog that has chased the rabbit here and so we're starting to catch glimpses of the enemy's tail in our sights."
But if what Roberto said was true, it was possible Gremlin's influence was not confined to Hawaii.
It would mean they had eaten into the entire country.
The enemy could possibly wield the military and intelligence gathering power of that nation.
"(…Dammit, Birdway. What was that about an incident possibly occurring? If you want to stop this, you need to start moving before it's already checkmate.)"
The president operated the steering wheel as he drove up onto the freeway. The electronic cart had no windows or walls, so a dry wind blew on them.
Accelerator and President Roberto Katze had a common enemy.
All the circumstances were connected.
Accelerator started thinking about that fact, but joining forces with the president did not give them the power of America itself. After all, the country was already being eaten into by Gremlin. He decided joining forces with Roberto Katze as an individual was the best they could hope for.
"So these occult bastards making up this Gremlin group are controlling important people within the US in order to take over the center of the government and the military," said Roberto.
"Possibly."
"…Or that's what I thought."
"Ahn?"
"If so, what happened back there was odd. Do you remember? That girl controlling people with the occult was using those children as shields and having them target normal people."
"Are you talking about how that group of what seemed like professional soldiers cut in partway through? Their equipment was weird, too. That CD-like uniform was electronic camouflage. That's meant to be used against high-tech sensors, not people. But I thought no military actually used it because they all hated how it looks."
"If they had been planning to use those soldiers from the beginning, they would have simply relied on them instead. I don't see why they would go out of their way to use those normal people who could possibly turn on them."
"And yet the magician used them."
"There is something there. We're just not seeing it."
Part 24
(November 10 – Oahu – Green Café Iwamaki – From the camera in the tablet terminal installed on the table)
"There we go," muttered Birdway as she looked at the papyrus.
It was the spiritual item she was using to automatically analyze the magician's spell.
Kamijou, Hamazura, and Kuroyoru looked at the papyrus, but they could not understand what they were seeing.
Birdway ignored them.
"She is indeed from the Russian Orthodox Church. Mark, compress the analysis data from the papyrus and send it to our contact with the Russian Orthodox Church. Ask them—politely—if they have any idea who she could be."
"…Do you really think they will answer honestly?"
"As the main battlefield of World War III, Russia is in the process of being restored by Academy City's technology and America's funds. Gremlin is currently damaging both of those. Tell them any delays on our part could have a major effect on their recovery."
Kamijou made sure not to touch the spiritual item and asked, "Do you know how her magic works? What's its weak point?"
"Ugh, someone explain it to him."
"Ah, I have a response from the Russian Orthodox Church. That was incredibly fast. Especially for a bureaucratic job," Mark cut in.
"That last comment must have done its job," said Birdway as she snatched the tablet computer from him. "Her name is Saronia A. Irivika. Fourteen years old. Comes from Yekaterinburg. She proudly thinks of herself as European and hates having Russia be called part of Asia more than anything. Well, that last bit is about as stereotypically Russian as you can get."
She used her index finger to scroll down.
"During World War III, she was deployed to Vladivostok to stop Academy City forces from landing, but had little to do since the invasion was primarily carried out by supersonic bombers. She disappeared in the confusion of the end of the war. Her whereabouts since then are unknown."
"Them".
Gremlin.
Those created by the war who did not wish for the war to end.
"So is this Saronia trying to overturn the result of the war as a Russian soldier…?" asked Hamazura
"It's possible," Birdway replied as she shoved the tablet computer back toward Mark.
"Then is Gremlin a group of those who lost the war and want a comeback? Do they just want to redo the war?"
"I thought I told you personal objectives had more of a priority than an overall ideology. The group and an individual will not necessarily align. It would best to have as few preconceptions about them as we can."
Suddenly, Kamijou's cell phone started to ring.
He answered it to find it was from Accelerator.
"I know what Gremlin is after. I don't know what their ultimate objective is, but I know what one of the means to get there is."
"One of the means to get there?"
Kamijou quickly switched over to speakerphone so everyone there could join in the conversation.
As soon as he did, Accelerator got to the core of the issue.
"Gremlin seems to be trying to obtain the Trigger."
"The Trigger…? That's rather vague. Is it from the science side or the magic side?"
"Technically, it's called the Small Scale Induction-Style Active Volcano Controlling Device, but that's a pain to say, so they call it the Trigger. The device is being developed by the American military."
"…I don't like the sound of that name."
"As the name suggests, it's a toy used to control the activities of an active volcano. It can't stop a volcanic eruption, but by distributing the energy of the explosion, it can control the damage done. To keep it simple, you can think of it as a device that uses a special combination of explosives to apply stimuli to the underground magma which artificially causes small scale eruptions. By letting the pressure escape before a major eruption occurs, the worst case scenario can be avoided."
In addition to the avalanches and pyroclastic flows that directly damaged the areas at the foot of the volcano, air lanes had been cut off by volcanic ash in recent years. Given how much economic damage from natural disasters such a device would avoid, it was certainly worth researching.
"You're saying Gremlin is after that?"
"To be specific, the people being controlled by Gremlin all seem to have been searching for data on this Trigger," spat out Accelerator. "But the Trigger really only applies the proper stimuli to the underground magma and that's it. If it's intentionally used incorrectly, it could be used to cause a major eruption."
If Gremlin was after the Trigger, it was almost guaranteed that they were planning to cause a major eruption in some active volcano. In fact, that was about the only way the Trigger could be used.
But where?
Which active volcano was Gremlin going to detonate?
"Kilauea," replied Accelerator. "That's the largest active volcano in the Hawaiian islands, so that has to be it."
"Kilauea, hm?" muttered Birdway quietly. "The opening at its peak alone is over a kilometer in diameter and it has other smaller openings lined up for twenty or thirty kilometers."
"…The Trigger is a system that can artificially cause volcanic eruptions, right?"' asked Kamijou.
Accelerator clicked his tongue and responded.
"If Gremlin uses the Trigger, they can even cause eruptions that would be impossible naturally. In the worst case, it's possible they could send lava erupting from all of the openings at once."
"Kilauea is on the island of Hawaii and over eighty percent of its area is mountainous. The network of roads has brought development onto the mountainsides, but most of the population is still focused in the few level areas."
"So if Kilauea has a serious eruption…the lava would all flow there…?"
"And that's only what would happen with a normal eruption," said Accelerator. "If an artificial eruption is caused using the Trigger, it will not end there. Apparently, Kilauea will start a chain reaction that will spread through underground connections to Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, and Hualalai, causing them all to erupt. If that happens…"
"Well, all of the island of Hawaii will be washed over with lava," said Birdway easily as she ignored Kamijou and Hamazura who had fallen speechless. "If you add the residents and tourists together, I guess the death toll would probably be around 500,000. It isn't fun to think about, but it is on the scale of what I would expect from them."