Hey guys! This is my first story (well, my first story in a while), and my first story on To Aru Majutsu no Index. I haven't read the manga or the light novels, so bear with me if I get anything wrong. This takes place after Index II ends, and focuses on one of my favourite characters, Accelerator. I still have no idea if I'm going to make it AcceleratorxOC, so you can decide. Anyways, have fun reading!

"About time I got out of here," muttered Accelerator under his breath as he stepped out of Yomikawa's apartment and into the warm summer night. Of course, he actually had no reason to be outside-except for the fact he couldn't sleep with Last Order's constant shifting on his bed when she snuck onto his bed to sleep with him this night. She had actually kicked him a couple times in her sleep, but he didn't want to wake her up lest he had to deal with the cranky side of her. He checked the time on a nearby clock.2:15 AM. He walked in a random direction away from the apartment, his metal crutch clanking beside him. Even though it was pretty late, a lot of people were still scattered around outside, minding their own business, so Accelerator chose to stroll towards a somewhat abandoned area in Academy City.

Walking around also gave him an opportunity to think about the girl that was currently and constantly haunting his usual dreamless sleep for days now. He had a feeling she was connected to his frustratingly-blank past, but he had no idea how and why. In his dream, he was running towards the girl-chasing her? She had dark blue hair, playful sapphire blue eyes, a blue hoodie, and shorts. She was always out of reach, and as he was finally about to catch up with her, she disappeared. He always woke up afterwards, with Yoshikawa always commenting later that his eyes had a haunted look in them. He had always denied the fact vehemently, declaring that he wouldn't look all haunted from one dream. Yoshikawa had always given him a secretive look that let him know she knew something, but she never told him anything, no matter how much he asked.

As he passed a dark alley, he heard a gunshot ring out, and then a deafening scream pierced the night sky, which was cut off abruptly. Accelerator, sensing trouble, turned his powers on with the choker. He knew 30 minutes could pass extremely quickly, so he had to hurry. By instinct, he ran into the alley, where he could easily make out two or three people under a dim streetlight. As he quietly got closer, he saw two men and an unconscious girl, with obvious bruises and other scrapes all over her body. Watching on, the men laughed contemptuously and moved on, completely unaware of the white-haired Level 5 behind them, about to spring into action. As the two rounded a bend in the alley, they saw a figure standing casually on the relatively high wall.

"Now, what are you two doing here late at night? Assaulting girls and leaving them unconscious to die?"

"Who the hell are you, you brat?' One of the men growled, pulling out a gun.

"Huh? You're asking me who I am?" Laughing maniacally, Accelerator jumped down from the wall and landed without a sound, sporting his wide, sadistic grin. As he slowly advanced closer to the duo, they quickly noticed the distinctive albino-white skin and the messy white hair, giving away his identity instantly.

"It's that level 5, Accelerator!"

"Get away, now!"

"No, no, you won't get off so easily for calling me a brat. It's been so long since I got to have some fun!"

As the men tried to run away, Accelerator lunged, punching one in the gut and sending him flying, where he crashed against the brick wall and slumped unconscious, blood pouring from a wound on the back of his head. The other one shot three bullets at Accelerator, who redirected them onto the man's body, but for some reason, they all missed.

I know my redirection was accurate. How did the bullets not hit him? Forget it; I'll just shoot him without using my abilities. Pulling out his own gun, Accelerator quickly put three bullets into non-fatal places on the man's body, making him scream in pain and drop his gun, and then stepped on his back, flattening the man to the ground.

"I'll make your death slow and painful," Accelerator snarled, "but first, why were you and your little accomplice assaulting a girl this late?"

Fearing for his life, the man quickly stuttered out a few lines.

"W-we're level 0 mercenaries, hired by a group of scientists who told us to track down this girl who escaped their labs. We were under strict orders to not kill her but to incapacitate her, since the scientists planned to pick her up afterwards. Her powers are that of a level 5, and her identity is unknown to all the civilians in Academy City."

An unknown level 5? And another group of scientists? What the hell is going on? thought Accelerator. No matter, he had to finish his interrogation. "How did you manage to incapacitate her then?"

"The scientists gave us a device that nullifys esper powers when we carry it around on our body. Also, if it touches any esper level 1 or above, they will not be able to use their powers for the next 3 days. They gave us the only one, so I carried it. We were able to incapacitate the girl afterwards."

Well, so much for killing him by changing the direction of the blood flow in his body, Accelerator grumbled internally.

"Is that all you can tell me?" He growled, getting off the man and hauling him up by his collar. "I may not be able to kill you with my ability, but I can still shoot you."

"T-that's all I know! I don't even know the girl's name or her ability! Please, don't kill me! Pl-" His pleas were abruptly cut off with a BANG.

"Time to call Yoshikawa," muttered Accelerator as he replaced the gun within his outfit, blood now splattering his white shirt. He kicked the dead body to one side, near the other man. The unconscious man had yet to stir, so Accelerator decided to leave him alone so he could run off back to the scientists and report what happened.

Turning off the choker, he retrieved his crutch, and pulled out his cell.

"Oi, Yoshikawa, get an ambulance over here. There's a girl who's been assaulted. I killed one guy and left the other unconscious. Apparently, she escaped from a lab. Plus, the two guys were level 0 mercenaries." Giving her his address, he hung up.

As an afterthought, he walked back to the dead man and plucked the nullifying device out of his pocket. It looked like a taser, but the words on the side clearly said DEVICE TO NULLIFY ESPER POWERS. Accelerator turned it off and stuffed it into his own jeans pocket.

Walking back to the lit alley, he cautiously lifted up the semi-conscious girl and draped her right arm over his shoulder, where she let out an involuntary cry of pain. Muttering a quick sorry under his breath. Accelerator gritted his teeth and carefully half-led, half-carried her to the exit of the alley and onto the main street, which was not an easy thing to do while he used his crutch.

"W-what...is...going...on?" the girl mumbled, apparently now awake. "Everything hurts...what happened?"

"Do you remember anything?" Accelerator asked as he gently set the girl onto a bench. He was never this gentle with others besides Last Order, but he knew worse could happen if he was his usual prickly uncaring self.

"Running away from the prison...getting beaten by the two guys...they shot me as well...who are you?"

"Accelerator."

The girl's eyes widened. "The strongest and famous level 5?"

"Yeah. What's your name?"

The girl blinked. "I-I'm.." was all she managed to say before she fainted. Her head was about to hit the hard bench before Accelerator caught her and laid her down gently. Now that they were under a streetlight, he could study her features better. Her skin was as pale as his, and she had dark blue hair in a messy ponytail. A black eye was beginning to form on her left eye, not to mention there was a bleeding cut running down one cheek. As he scanned her body for more injuries, he saw a gun wound on her right shoulder, and bloodstains in random places all over her body. She looked extremely familiar, but Accelerator couldn't place where he saw her before.

After a few minutes, an ambulance pulled up. Surprisingly, Yoshikawa was in the back, typing away madly in her computer, pausing briefly to give him a quick nod. After the paramedics loaded the girl onto a stretcher and strapped her down onto the surprisingly large back of the ambulance, they let him get on to talk with Yoshikawa.

"How are you here, Yoshikawa?"

"Easy, told them I was your guardian. Besides, I had to tell you what I found out about the girl after I did some hacking."

"Any idea who she is? Is she from the same group of scientists who trained me?"

Yoshikawa set the laptop down and turned to face him, her face completely serious.

"She is from a different branch of the same scientists that trained you. Except the fact that this group is way more vicious."

"How?"

"I'll tell you when we get back to the apartment." Accelerator wanted to press her further, but he decided it wasn't a good idea, judging from her tone of voice.

"Did you find out her name?"

"Tsukiko Shizuka. It'll take some more hacking to find her level and her power." Saying that, Yoshikawa turned back to her computer and started typing madly again.

"By the way, Yoshikawa, I interrogated one of the mercenaries before killing him. He says she's a level 5. Oh, and the scientists created some device that nullifys esper powers if you carry it around, and it will keep any esper from using their powers for three days if the device touches them." Taking the device from his pocket, he tossed it to Yoshikawa. She caught it, and scrutinized it closely.

"Amazing. So they managed to make a mechanical and portable version of Imagine Breaker."

"Imagine Breaker?"

"The ability of that kid who beat you in that fight during your experiment with the MISAKA-10032 clone. Kamijou Touma, I think. Ability to nullify any type of esper power."

"And that's the only reason he could beat me? Since he could nullify my power?"

"Pretty much. Unless we trained you in close combat as well."

They sat in silence for a while, until Yoshikawa let out a quiet cry of triumph. "Come and take a look at this, Accelerator!" She spun the laptop around so Accelerator could see what she found. His eyes widened and he looked up at Yoshikawa.

"Tell me this isn't a joke. There's no way someone could have two abilities. And abilities no esper has ever manifested!" For there on the screen under the heading ABILITIES, Accelerator could see two abilities for the girl: FOUR ELEMENT MANIPULATION and TELEPATHY.

They could say no more, as the ambulance had arrived at the hospital.

1 hour later

"Wake up, Accelerator. You can visit Tsukiko-san now." Accelerator jolted awake from his unplanned nap. He had meant to stay awake until the doctors came to tell him and Yoshikawa about the girl's condition, but he had somehow drifted off to sleep. Sitting up, he saw the frog-faced doctor, or better known as Heaven Canceller, looking down at him. Yoshikawa had disappeared somewhere.

"How is she?"

"I see you found another person that you care about other than Last Order." Ignoring Accelerator's indignant splutters of protest, the doctor went on. "She's lucky since you rescued her quickly. Tsukiko-san has multiple injuries, including that nasty gun wound and a few broken ribs as well. It'll take a few days for her to recover completely, and for her powers to return to her as well. Come with me. She's been asking for you ever since she woke up a few minutes ago. Oh, and Yoshikawa-san told me to tell you she went back home to make sure Last Order wasn't home alone, since Yomikawa-san and her Anti-Skill squad went to apprehend that man you left unconscious."

Digesting the information silently, Accelerator followed the doctor down the hallway, where they stopped at a door. The doctor opened the door, and gestured for Accelerator to step in.

"You're not coming in, doctor?"

"No, I have to check on my other patients."

That was a poorly concealed excuse for the doctor to leave them alone, presumably to talk privately. Stepping in the room, Accelerator closed the door and strolled towards the hospital bed, where the girl was lying on the bed, gazing out into the night sky.

So yeah, that's the first chapter. Please follow/favourite/review! I'll accept any constructive feedback.

~goddessofshadows7212