Hearing the merciless mockery echoing from the PA system instantly ignited the anger of the thousands of students and thugs outside.
"Who is this guy?! Who dares to talk to us like that?!"
"Does he want his mouth sewn shut?!"
"If you have the guts, come out and say it to our faces! What kind of coward hides in the shadows to hurl insults?!"
"Come out and die!"
Among the crowd were dozens of high-ranking Level 4 Espers. As the elite tier just below the eight Level 5s, these Level 4s were extremely confident and arrogant about their own powers. Being mocked so brazenly to their faces caused the hot-tempered ones to completely lose their minds.
"Hehe, you won't find me anyway!" Yuuya's voice echoed cheerfully over the speakers. "I was asked to say this by Accelerator herself! Go ahead and beat her up! Hahaha—click."
Standing on a catwalk high above the arena, Yuuya cut the microphone feed and tossed it aside.
He leaned over the railing, watching the massive wave of Espers flood into the stadium through the open gates. He touched his chin, feeling quite accomplished about the spectacle he had orchestrated.
'Hmm... There are exactly 121 Level 4s down there, and more than 300 Level 3s. The rest are mostly low-level grunts or Skill-Out thugs with useless abilities.'
Yuuya did the math. 'It's slightly disappointing that this only attracted about one-twentieth of the high-level Espers in the city. I thought it would draw at least two hundred Level 4s.'
Still, with so many people present—and countless smartphones already recording—Yuriko's goal of demonstrating her absolute supremacy to the public was guaranteed to succeed.
...
Outside the Stadium.
"That voice... that incredibly frivolous tone... it sounds so familiar!"
Misaka Mikoto frowned deeply, looking up at the stadium speakers. The incident from three days ago—and the despicable guy who had caused it—involuntarily popped into her mind.
'Is it him?!'
She clenched her fists, a dangerous, sparking smile appearing on her face.
"Whether it's that despicable guy or not, I'm going to find him first. And when I find him, I'm going to teach him a lesson! How dare he just kiss me and run?! That kind of delinquent should be humanely euthanized with a billion volts!"
While the rest of the mob rushed toward the arena to fight Accelerator, Mikoto sprinted in the opposite direction, scanning the upper levels of the stadium for a boy in a white coat.
BOOM!
Suddenly, a figure wearing a red t-shirt and a white school uniform draped over his shoulders leaped from the roof of a nearby commercial building. He landed heavily on the pavement, cracking the concrete and kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
The surrounding students gasped and backed away.
"HEY! I'll go check it out too!" the boy shouted enthusiastically, adjusting his headband. "If the Number One is here, I'm really curious to see if they have any GUTS!"
"Who is he? Another Level 4?" someone in the crowd whispered. "How could he jump from a ten-story roof and not break his legs?!"
"Wait... he looks familiar... I remember now! He's the Number Seven! The Strongest Gemstone!" a student shrieked, recognizing him from a magazine. "Sogiita Gunha!"
"What?! The Number Seven is here?! Another Level 5 has appeared! Is he going to challenge Accelerator for the throne?!"
Sogiita Gunha ignored the whispers. He grinned, bent his knees, and—completely defying Newton's laws of gravity—leaped straight up toward the roof of the stadium, clearing fifty feet in a single bound.
"Amazing..."
...
A VIP Box Overlooking the Arena.
"The Number Seven..."
Kakine Teitoku chuckled, watching Sogiita Gunha bound across the rooftops.
"I didn't expect to have company. This is getting interesting. I wonder what the reaction from the Board of Directors will be."
Kakine smiled gloatingly. In an instant, he leaped out of the VIP box window. Three pairs of glowing, pure-white wings erupted from his back, and he flew gracefully toward the stadium's open dome.
This striking, angelic scene was noticed instantly by the crowd below.
"Th-Those wings... could that be the Number Two?!"
"Dark Matter?! Kakine Teitoku is here too?!"
"A third Level 5 has appeared! This is massive news!"
"This is bad," an older student muttered, backing away from the gates. "If three Level 5s start fighting, this entire stadium will be wiped off the map. Let's get out of here!"
The more rational students immediately turned and fled.
Shirai Kuroko, who had been desperately blowing her whistle to maintain order, suddenly stopped. She listened to the panicked murmurs spreading through the crowd. Her expression turned grim.
'The appearance of three Level 5s in one unapproved location... this is very, very bad. If this continues, the General Board won't just send Anti-Skill. They'll send the military.'
...
District 1. The Administrative Center.
District 1 was the judicial and administrative heart of Academy City. Surrounded by government agencies, courthouses, and universities specializing in economics and law, it lacked the vibrant, youthful atmosphere of the other sectors. It was a place of cold, hard bureaucracy.
Inside a high-tech command center, the Board of Directors was panicking.
The fact that the District 7 Stadium had become a gathering place for thousands of Espers had set off every alarm in the building. Even though curfews and travel restrictions had been issued to the schools beforehand, the sheer volume of defiant students proved impossible to contain.
This wasn't the Daihaseisai (the annual sports festival), where Espers were given controlled environments to use their powers. This was an unpermitted, spontaneous riot.
If this many Espers started fighting, the collateral damage would be catastrophic. The stray electromagnetic fields alone could cause rolling blackouts across District 7. It would completely disrupt the normal operation of the city.
"It is outrageous that these students completely disregarded the curfews!" a middle-aged Board Director in a sharp suit yelled, slamming his fist on the console as he watched the live satellite feed.
"Deploy all available Anti-Skill riot units! I want this farce stopped by force! Detain anyone who uses their ability and throw them in a juvenile detention center!"
"Deploying personnel is not the main issue, Director," a senior intelligence analyst replied nervously, his fingers flying across his keyboard. "It is now confirmed that this gathering was indeed instigated by Accelerator. The Number One is physically present in the arena."
"What?!" The Director's expression turned ugly. "A mere Esper dares to incite a city-wide riot?!"
"Furthermore... the satellite has picked up the Number Two, Kakine Teitoku, and the Number Seven, Sogiita Gunha. Both are converging on the stadium."
The Director's face drained of color.
"Wait, there's more," the analyst swallowed hard, switching the main screen to a series of ground-level security feeds.
The screens displayed images of Misaka Mikoto running through the crowd, and Takahashi Yuuya standing on a catwalk.
"The Number Three (Railgun) and the newly registered Number Eight (Space Master) are also on-site. In fact, all the Anti-Skill cordons near the stadium were just forcibly teleported a kilometer away by the Number Eight. Our personnel cannot access the perimeter."
"Have these children gone mad?!" the Director roared, gripping his hair.
"Five... Five Level 5s are gathering in one place?! This is beyond my jurisdiction to control! I must contact the other Board Members immediately to authorize suppression protocols!"
Even the most oblivious bureaucrat knew that something historic—and highly destructive—was about to happen.
...
Inside the Stadium.
The massive wave of challengers finally poured through the entrance tunnels, spilling out onto the grassy field of the arena.
Suzushina Yuriko stood exactly in the center of the stadium.
She wore her gothic black-and-white maid outfit. Her hands were shoved deeply into her pockets, her shoulders relaxed in a permanent slouch. Her crimson eyes watched the mob encircle her.
A sinister, bloodthirsty smile crept across her lips.
Those in the front row who actually recognized her immediately stopped in their tracks. Their expressions twisted into a contradictory mix of extreme excitement and primal, paralyzing fear.
"It really is her..." someone whispered, their voice trembling. "Accelerator."
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