Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Virtual On Chapter2 (section)

===Part 9===

Not all parts of the city were bustling with activity for the Virtual-On tournament.

Seedy darkness filled the depths of an alley.

A rhythmic clacking noise rang there. It was the sound of a modern-style cane that looked like a longer version of a T-shaped tonfa. White hair and red eyes were visible above it. Anyone even slightly familiar with Academy City would never want to meet this person in the shadows of the city. That monster walked slowly but resolutely down the narrow path.

He was Academy City’s #1 Level 5.

He was known as Accelerator.

“Is this the place?”

The white-haired monster mercilessly kicked down the thick metal door. Something unbelievable occurred. He only tapped lightly with his toes, but the locks and the hinges immediately burst off and the door itself shot inside like an artillery shell.

The door was made of the same composite material as tanks and it was more than 50cm thick even if it had not looked it from the outside. The locks had a total of 16 bolts. More importantly, this was not just a back entrance. This space was architecturally positioned so that it was impossible to set foot inside without prying open the kind of door found on a bank vault.

He ignored all of it.

There were no windows inside. A lot of LCD monitors must have been lined up like in a day trader’s dealing room, but they had all been smashed to pieces as the door shell flew by a second ago.

And beyond the bent door, the crushed contents of the sandwich uttered a messy groan.

“U-uuh…”

It was a young man. Due to living in an air-conditioned room year-round, he must have lost sight of the season. He was wearing a shirt and shorts that might have been indoor wear but might have been outdoor wear.

“Wh-who hired you? Are you here to delete a VIP’s disgraceful data? But it’s too bad for you. This is only a terminal. The online assets, that shared culture of knowledge, can never be infringed by anyone…”

“I can’t believe this,” muttered Accelerator. “I have no interest in your life.”

“…”

“Cut the crap and don’t bother looking into any of this. All you have to do is answer my questions and I’ll free you from this shitty situation. Understand the rules?”

With that said, Accelerator looked around the room just once.

Most of the monitors were spewing sparks and useless, but there were some other notable things in here. There was a logo on the wall. Accelerator had seen it here and there on the internet and this man may have designed it himself and printed it out.

The Phoenix.

That cruel hidden site claimed its objective was to preserve, release, and share the disgraceful data found on the internet.

“Who are you spreading this data for?”

“Wh-what are you-…?”

The man trailed off.

The hand not holding the modern-style cane was suddenly holding a giant scythe taller than Accelerator.

It had nothing like a sheath and it was far too large to hide.

It seemed to have simply appeared from thin air.

No.

Wait.

“You can guess what this means, right?”

“…”

“Well, if I wanted to, I could use my vector manipulation to control the electrons in your head, but if I’ve got a specialized tool, I might as well use it.” Accelerator slowly shook the scythe’s tip as he spoke. “''Isn’t Specineff a Virtuaroid that specializes in psychological attacks and hits the enemy with various status disorders?''”

“W-wait. Wait just a- ebrmorgjah!?”

The tip of the scythe-shaped weapon named Ifleesa merely touched the collapsed man’s forehead.

His language capability collapsed, his expression faded, and his body grew limp in only a few seconds.

The #1 had clearly caused a paranormal phenomenon separate from his vector manipulation.

And it was from a different system than Academy City’s esper development.

To top it all off, he displayed no side effects whatsoever.

“…This really isn’t funny,” spat out the white-haired monster while resting the scythe’s handle on his shoulder.

The man sprawled out on the floor was now a faucet of words. It was time to get the needed information out of him.

The #1 asked the exact same question again.

“Who are you spreading this data for?”

There was a dramatic difference.

The man revealed the information with empty eyes. It was happened so smoothly it was actually creepy.

It was less like he was being obedient or cooperative and more like he had been deprived of food and sleep and then kept from resisting through violence or drugs.

“No one hired me. I had a small goal in letting it be known I was gathering articles on the Defections and revealing that hidden data.”

“Out with it.”

“Assets.”

He spoke normally.

There were none of the phony niceties found at a bank ATM.

But that created a mismatch that left no sense of a human will behind the words, so it filled the listener with an intense impression that something was wrong.

“Virtual-On rapidly spread across Academy City, right? But you can’t start that kind of movement for free. With the portable devices, the specialized centers, and how the information was advertised and spread, someone paid a ton of money to get that done. It’s the same as airing lots of ads during primetime. I heard an interesting rumor saying the user known as the Blue Stalker had started it all. Makes you wonder just how much money they’ve got, doesn’t it?”

“…”

“Of course, Virtual-On has gained an insane amount of attention. Do you call it the power to spread information? I mentioned TV ads before, but the billboards and banners at that tournament have gone way beyond that level. They’ve gained control of a very large market share. The more money you spend, the more you can earn. Construction companies, general trading companies, and famous corporations must want to contact them. They’ve spread their roots more than you can imagine.”

Even though the information was being forced out, the man spoke with more and more intensity.

It may have been his own nature influencing how he obeyed the order.

“I’ve managed to get my hands on information proving that they’ve got a hell of a sponsor. It’s a certain old man. An Academy City VIP. He’s intentionally kept himself off the Board of Directors and away from other power structures, but that lets him spread his business like crazy. So why is he giving the Blue Stalker mountains of gold to make Virtual-On a success? How does he benefit? This is something that VIP wants to succeed no matter what. If I can find his Achilles’ heel, I might be able to get my hands on the leftovers of an unbelievably large mountain. And to do that, I need to gather all sorts of information. And without anyone suspecting my true motives.”

“Such nonsense,” spat out Accelerator as he glanced toward the wall.

Several photographs were pasted there with red threads and pins connecting them. It likely diagramed the flow of money. There must have been no data on the Blue Stalker because there was only a black piece of paper as a placeholder.

Then there was the old man in question.

The formally dressed gray-haired man looked so spotless you would think he had been born wearing a custom-fitted suit. He did not give off any hint of malice and he had the kind of “roundness” that would look at home feeding pigeons in front of a museum.

But no one in the world was truly innocent.

The more someone looked like they were, the more effort they put into the illusion.

(I guess I’ll give him a visit next.)

Accelerator sighed and then Specineff’s scythe vanished into thin air.

Like a switch had been thrown, a human will and human emotions reappeared in the collapsed man’s eyes. He looked utterly bewildered like a villager who had come to in the middle of a crop circle after being abducted by a UFO.

The #1 was done with him, so he only said one thing more.

“Sorry about the mess.”

“U-uweh!? What? What happened? Oh, right. H-hey! Did you, um, know? Was this some kind of warning? If…if we’re after the same target, uh, we could always work togeth-…”

The monster brought the Ifleesa scythe back into existence and held its handle.

That weapon specialized in manipulating…no, contaminating and destroying the mind.

He whispered like the grim reaper with it in hand.

Except his words hinted at something more fearsome than death.

“''Do you want me to turn you into an honest man, you piece of shit?''”