Mikoto timidly opened her eyes and saw the boy lying on the ground a few meters away.
He was motionlessly lying face down and thin smoke was floating up from his clothes in places like incense. Just like how video game consoles grew hot after using them for long periods of time, objects gained heat referred to as Joule heat when electricity was passed through them.
The great amount of Joule heat created by the high voltage current had given the boy light burns in various places.
However, the boy did not writhe around in pain due to the burns.
"Ah…"
Mikoto suddenly realized that it was over.
That time, the boy would not get up again. That had not been a fake attack. The true high voltage current had likely stopped the boy's heart.
She heard the black cat mewing.
Mikoto unsteadily turned around and saw the utterly frightened kitten sitting a little bit away.
Its fur was not standing on end and its fangs and claws were not bared.
Its young eyes seemed to be asking her why she had done that.
"Ahh…"
Mikoto suddenly realized something upon seeing that black cat.
In the end, what Mikoto had done to that boy was no different from suddenly attacking that cute cat that immediately trusted people and rubbed its nose up against them.
That boy had actually had a few different options.
After reading the report, he could have hidden it and returned to a lie of a normal life.
Even if he chose to stop Mikoto, he could have hidden the fact that he had read the report so she would not be suspicious of him and then waited for her to turn her back on him so he could strike her on the back of the head to knock her out.
But that boy had not done either of those things.
He had revealed that he had gone into her room without permission and read the report and he had told her he did not want her to fight. He had revealed everything and still tried to stop Mikoto head on.
What he had done was like playing poker with his entire hand exposed to the other players.
It was like announcing beforehand that he was going to play scissors first in a game of rock-paper-scissors.
Why had he done something so dangerous?
If he had betrayed Mikoto's trust and suddenly attacked her from behind, it could have all ended safely.
"…"
The answer to that was obvious.
Mikoto had trusted that boy. At the very least, she had seen the area around him as a type of safe zone because he knew nothing of the experiment.
He had been like a cat curled up asleep in a sunbeam.
That boy had not been able to stab Mikoto in the back. Even if that was the safest and most reliable course of action, he had not wanted to.
She had pointed a gun at that boy, but he had still not wanted any harm to befall her.
He believed that it could be resolved by talking it out rather than resorting to violence.
But she had pulled the trigger before his words could reach her.
"…"
Mikoto gritted her teeth.
There was nothing left to stop her. A thin string within Mikoto that was something like resignation snapped, she felt as if she had been freed of something. She felt like she had been given a freedom that held definitive destruction within it like a balloon flying off into the sky after its string broke.
Kamijou's finger moved.
"!?"
Mikoto froze up upon seeing that.
As he lay face down, Kamijou's right hand twitched. His finger moved slowly as if softly caressing the ground.
That was not the action of one wanting revenge upon the person who had done that to him.
Nor was it the action of one filled with fear and wanting to flee the area as soon as possible.
From the very start, the boy had said that he would not fight and that he did not want to fight.
That persistence was nothing more than a desire to reach out a saving hand to a girl who had cried out for help.
"…Why?" Mikoto muttered.
Just reading the report did not tell him everything about her situation. He did not know that she had handed over her DNA map to help with a muscular dystrophy treatment, that the map had ended up being used for a military purpose at some point, or that her desire to save people had led to 20,000 people being faced with death.
That boy had no way of knowing about those things.
But he stood up for Mikoto despite not knowing those things.
He stood up for her.
But…
"Stop," Mikoto said like a child about to cry as she shook her head.
If he stood up again, she would have to take him out in order to save the Sisters. Of course, she could hold back, but it was already strange that the boy was still moving. Even a slight almost playful strike could stop his heart.
"Stop."
That was why she said that.
She did not want the boy to stand back up. If he was alive, then he should just pass out there. If he did, Mikoto could head to where Accelerator was without having to kill the boy.
If that boy would give up on her, she would not have to hurt anyone again.
If that boy would lose hope in her, he would be freed from that pain.
Yet the boy's finger moved.
He could no longer move his body properly, but he mustered up every last ounce of strength in his body to move that one finger.
"Ahh."
Mikoto slowly held her hand out toward the boy.
She was sure she could no longer stop him. Even if she ripped off his arms and legs and even if she crushed his eyes and ears, he would never give up as long as his heart was still beating. That meant she had no choice but to do it. If that boy would prevent her from saving the Sisters, she had to eliminate him before she could continue.
Mikoto slowly steadied the aim of her hand.
However, she could not shoot a lighting spear.
Her body was frozen, but heat burst from her tear glands.
She couldn't do it. She could not shoot that boy. She did not know why. She did not know what the right answer was. But she just did not want to. She did not want the boy before her eyes to die. Just thinking of that possibility sent a shock through her chest that made her want to go on a rampage.
"Help me."
Those words that she could not allow anyone to hear no matter what came from her mouth.
It was like she was praying to the god that she was not sure existed.
Her tear glands were supposed to have rusted over long ago, but now transparent rust fell from them.