Suzushina Yuriko grinned as she watched the mob of challengers pouring onto the field. Their faces displayed a chaotic mix of excitement, fear, and hesitation.
Her voice, tinged with a dark, terrifying amusement, deepened as she spoke.
"I didn't expect so many bugs in Academy City to actually want to challenge me. Hehehe... maybe that guy was right. Why didn't I think of gathering all you scoundrels together and destroying your delusions in one go?"
'I used to think I was afraid of this causing irreversible consequences,' Yuriko thought to herself. 'I was afraid of losing the miserable, tolerable life I had.'
'I was so stupid. That bastard was absolutely right.'
'This world will always be like this: the strong prey on the weak, and whoever has the bigger fist makes the rules.'
More and more people flooded the stadium floor. Although it wasn't as packed as a major sporting event, the massive, bird's-nest-shaped stadium was already a quarter full. There were easily over a thousand people present.
"What's wrong?" Yuriko tilted her head, her white hair falling over her red eyes. "Didn't you all come here to challenge me for the throne? Why are so many of you standing there like cowards, afraid to make a move?"
She let out a hollow, mocking laugh.
"I used to have trash like you ambush me every single day. I am tired of this childish game. So I'm going to break all of you lowlifes in one go. You'd better show me all your pathetic tricks before I make my move."
With her hands shoved deep in her pockets, Yuriko's red eyes flashed with genuine malice.
Of course, she wasn't actually going to kill these scoundrels. Even if she just stood completely still and let her passive shield reflect their attacks, the resulting kinetic feedback would cripple them. But if she murdered or permanently maimed a thousand students in public, even Aleister couldn't keep her out of a maximum-security black site. She wouldn't have a life left to live.
So, she would calculate her reflections perfectly. She would hurt them enough to break their spirits, but not enough to end their lives.
Yuriko's taunts worked perfectly. The fragile egos of the challengers snapped.
"Don't be so arrogant, Accelerator! Even if you're a Level 5, you're just one person! You should be trembling in fear facing this many of us!"
"You dared to declare war on every Esper in the city! Now pay the price!"
"Take her down!"
"Once we beat her, the Board will have to recognize us as the Strongest!"
The Level 4s, enraged by the perceived disrespect, launched the first wave of attacks.
A scorching blue beam of thermal energy shot toward Accelerator.
The moment the beam touched the invisible barrier millimeters from her skin, her calculation shifted its vector. The beam was reflected back at an even faster speed, exploding precisely at the feet of the Esper who fired it.
BOOM!
Like a landmine, the shockwave launched the Esper and the three thugs standing next to him into the air, sending them flying with terrified screams.
"Damn it! Watch out! Take this!" A high school student rushed forward, thrusting his hands out. "Sonic Vibration!"
A highly compressed microwave of distorted air shot toward Accelerator, carving finger-thick cracks into the concrete ground along its path.
Ping.
The sonic wave hit her shield, reversed its trajectory, and slammed back into the attacker's chest, throwing him fifty feet across the arena.
Seeing the frontline fall, the rest of the mob panicked and attacked simultaneously. A massive, dazzling array of fireballs, lightning bolts, compressed air, and telekinetic projectiles swarmed the lone white figure.
RUMBLE—!
The stadium erupted in a deafening cacophony of explosions. It sounded like a munitions dump catching fire. A massive cloud of smoke and pulverized concrete instantly obscured the center of the arena, causing the ground to violently tremble.
CRASH!
Some of the wildly reflected attacks missed the crowd and hit the stadium structure, obliterating rows of seats and punching a massive hole through the dome roof, sending steel rebar raining down.
...
The VIP Box.
"Haha. Impressive as always, Accelerator," Kakine Teitoku chuckled, watching the bombardment with his hands in his pockets.
"But these idiot Espers really underestimate the chasm between levels. Level 3s and 4s are just small fry in front of a true Level 5."
"No matter how many ants you gather, they are no match for a boot. This is a meaningless, one-sided crushing."
Other people might not have been able to see through the smoke, but Kakine's senses were sharp. He could clearly see that absolutely none of the attacks were injuring Accelerator. They were all being perfectly reflected.
Furthermore, the reflected attacks were deliberately angled to hit the ground near the attackers. The shrapnel and shockwaves were only causing concussions, broken ribs, or intense stomach pain.
"What a merciful, hypocritical bastard," Kakine sneered.
...
"Wow! That's some serious GUTS!"
Standing on the edge of the blown-out roof, Sogiita Gunha pumped his fists in excitement.
"She wants to defeat all the challengers at once so they learn their place! Hahaha! Impressive! Really impressive! I'm so fired up I want to jump down there and ask for a friendly spar right now!"
The Number Seven Gemstone vibrated with energy.
"However! Although fighting is an unavoidable passion in a man's life, I must pay tribute to their collective GUTS! I will endure this urge with my iron backbone and wait until the first round is over before I make my grand entrance!"
As he posed dramatically, Gunha noticed a figure floating near the opposite side of the stadium ceiling.
'Who is that guy?' Gunha wondered, tilting his head. 'I just saw three pairs of glowing white pigeon wings sprout from his back. He gives off a very strong aura... could he be a Level 5 too?'
Gunha scratched his head. He had never paid attention to the rankings or the faces of the other Level 5s, so he had no idea he was looking at the Number Two.
...
Two Minutes Later.
The deafening explosions finally subsided. The thick smoke enveloping the stadium slowly thinned out, carried away by the wind through the hole in the roof.
"H-How can she be so strong? I didn't even see her move..."
A Level 4 Pyromaster, one of the few still standing, stared at the white figure in the center of the smoke. His face was pale. A primal fear of the unknown gripped his very soul.
He turned his head to look around.
The entire mob—over a thousand people—lay groaning on the ground. Some were unconscious, bleeding from their foreheads; others were clutching broken limbs and moaning in agony.
The pristine grass and concrete of the arena were completely unrecognizable. The terrain had been violently terraformed by their own reflected attacks.
The spot where Accelerator stood was now an elevated pillar of intact earth, surrounded by a massive, scorched crater three meters deep. Flames danced in the rubble beneath her feet.
Most of the ordinary spectators in the stands had already fled in sheer terror. In the distance, the wailing sirens of dozens of ambulances grew louder.
...
'Such amazing computing power... it might even slightly surpass my own raw processing speed,' Yuuya thought in genuine admiration, looking down at the devastated stadium.
'With over a thousand erratic variables attacking simultaneously, she managed to calculate the vectors perfectly. She protected her own body, incapacitated the attackers, and ensured that the fleeing spectators in the stands suffered nothing more than minor scratches from flying debris.'
It was a breathtaking display of mathematical genius and physical control.
Yuuya glanced out the stadium windows. A massive convoy of Anti-Skill vehicles was stuck at the one-kilometer perimeter he had established. Yomikawa and her officers were driving themselves crazy with anxiety, forced to watch the stadium explode from afar.
...
"Is this all you've got?"
Accelerator's deep, raspy voice echoed across the silent, groaning crater.
"Monotonous! So boringly monotonous! Is that really it? I didn't even lift a single finger, and you're all down on the ground? This is hilarious."
Yuriko pulled one hand out of her pocket. Her emotions peaked. She grinned, a terrifying, absolute malice radiating from her slender frame.
"Let me show you the true power of the Number One, you pathetic lowlifes."
As she spoke, she raised her foot and stomped down hard on the concrete.
In that instant, her brain calculated the ultimate vector. She tapped into the colossal, planetary-scale potential energy of the Earth's rotation for exactly five minutes, violently reversing its vector and channeling it directly into the ground beneath her.
.....
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