Chapter 2: Awakening
The forest at night was a world of fangs and shadows.
Cold wind slipped between the trees like a whisper from the grave, stirring the leaves overhead and carrying with it the scent of damp earth, blood, and hunger. In the darkness beyond Axel's tiny body, pairs of green eyes began to appear one after another.
One pair.
Then three.
Then ten.
Then too many to count.
They hovered between the trunks like ghostly lanterns, swaying as their owners prowled forward in silence.
"Awoooo...!"
A long wolf howl tore through the night, and the pack answered at once.
Branches cracked. Grass rustled. Heavy paws drummed against the ground from every direction as the wolves closed in, their movements swift, disciplined, and terrifyingly coordinated. By the time Axel truly understood what was happening, the circle had already formed around him.
Ten meters.
Maybe less.
He lay in the middle of it, tiny, naked, and helpless.
His heart slammed against his chest so hard it felt like it might burst. Fear flooded his body so completely that even his thoughts seemed to slow, dragged down by the crushing instinct of imminent death.
This was not the fear of imagination anymore.
This was the fear of prey.
His mind, cursed with clarity, could already picture the end waiting for him. Teeth sinking into flesh. Bones cracking. Warm blood spilling across cold grass. His tiny body ripped apart before he could even scream properly.
The wolves did not rush in at once.
That only made it worse.
They circled him with eerie discipline, low growls rumbling from deep in their throats. Their eyes remained fixed on him, wary and hungry at the same time. Saliva dripped from bared fangs. Their bodies were tense, muscles wound tight, ready to spring the instant the order came.
They were not just beasts.
They were hunters.
Organized hunters.
Axel's fingers twitched weakly.
That was all he could do.
He could not run. He could not crawl away. He could not even roll over properly. Aside from making a few pitiful movements with his soft, useless fists, he had no means of resistance at all.
Escape was impossible.
All that remained was a miracle.
A miracle...
But miracles were not things that happened just because someone desperately wanted them to.
The wolves were starving.
And starving predators did not show mercy.
"Awoooo!"
The howl came again.
This time, one of them moved.
A gray blur shot out from the darkness, crossing the distance in an instant. Axel barely had time to widen his eyes before the beast lunged.
Crunch!
Its jaws clamped down on his shoulder.
Pain exploded through him.
Not a sharp pain. Not a simple pain. It was a savage, overwhelming agony that obliterated every coherent thought in his mind. His entire body spasmed violently, and a raw, broken cry tore from his throat.
"Ahhhhhh!"
That sound did not even feel like his own.
The wolf's fangs had bitten deep. Too deep. Axel felt them grind against bone, unable to bite cleanly through, yet refusing to let go. It shook its head with brutal hunger, trying to tear away a piece of him, and the pain became even worse.
His vision blurred.
His thoughts scattered.
Then the rest of the pack moved.
Seeing their companion succeed so easily, the wolves abandoned caution at last. Hunger overtook hesitation. One after another, they lunged forward from every side, a storm of claws and fangs converging on the tiny prey pinned in the grass.
Axel stared up at the sky beyond the trees, his entire body drowning in agony.
So this is it?
This was how he would die?
Thrown into an unknown world without warning.
Born into a body too weak to even stand.
Surviving one night by sheer luck, only to be ripped apart before he had even learned what kind of world he was in.
Pathetic.
Hopeless.
Meaningless.
Why?
Why did I come here just to die like this?
He had not even had the chance to see this world.
Had not taken a single real step in it.
Had not met a single person.
Had not fought for anything.
And now he was going to vanish like some nameless insect in the dark.
No.
No.
NO!
A fierce, scorching unwillingness ignited inside him, burning hotter than fear, hotter than pain, hotter than despair itself. It rose from somewhere primal, something buried beneath reason and terror, something that screamed against this cruel fate with every fragment of his soul.
The wolves did not care.
To them, he was only meat.
Their paws slammed down around him. Their jaws opened wide. Fangs gleamed in the moonlight as they descended together, ready to tear him to pieces.
And in that instant, something inside Axel snapped.
Fear vanished from his eyes.
In its place was only fury.
Only defiance.
Only the raw, desperate refusal to die.
"AHHHHHHH—!"
With the very last of his strength, Axel let out a scream that no longer sounded like a baby's cry.
It was a roar.
A howl of rebellion against the heavens themselves.
Then the world exploded.
Boom!
An invisible force burst outward from Axel's body in all directions.
The wolves attacking him were blasted away in perfect unison, as if struck by a giant unseen hammer. Some were hurled across the clearing and smashed into tree trunks with sickening force. Others were thrown into the dirt, tumbling and yelping. A few were torn apart on the spot, their bodies mangled by the sheer violence of the impact.
Silence followed.
Not complete silence, but the broken, stunned kind that came after something impossible.
The surviving wolves scrambled back in panic, their earlier discipline utterly shattered. Their growls vanished. Their eyes, once filled with predatory hunger, now trembled with instinctive fear.
Animals understood danger better than humans ever could.
And whatever had just happened...
It terrified them.
"Awooo..."
A weaker howl sounded, uncertain and shaken.
The pack did not attack again.
Instead, the remaining wolves began to retreat, dragging away some of their dead and injured companions as they fled into the darkness. Several limped badly. Others staggered as though still unable to understand what had hit them.
In moments, the forest swallowed them whole.
Axel did not even notice their departure at first.
He was too busy drowning in something far stranger.
A sensation unlike anything he had ever known surged through his body.
It was as if the world around him had suddenly become clear in a way that transcended sight, as if every current of movement in the air, every vibration, every flow of force within his reach had opened itself to his awareness.
Energy.
There was energy everywhere.
Flowing through the breeze.
Resting in the ground.
Passing through his own skin.
It drifted around him like countless invisible streams, and somehow, impossibly, they felt... obedient.
As though they could be touched.
As though they could be guided.
As though they belonged to him.
At the same time, his mind erupted with information.
Formulas.
Calculations.
Endless streams of incomprehensible data flashed through his consciousness, automatically arranging themselves, solving themselves, evolving into something instinctive. It did not feel like learning. It felt like remembering something that had always been buried inside him, waiting for the moment it could awaken.
By the time Axel fully came back to himself, the wolves were gone.
Only bloodstains remained on the grass.
And the throbbing agony in his shoulder.
He stared blankly into the darkness for several seconds before a name rose from the depths of his memory.
"Vector manipulation...?"
His voice did not come out as words, of course. Only the soft, rough sounds of a baby escaped his throat.
But inside, there was no doubt.
The warmth spreading through his body.
The instinctive defensive "reflection" that had blown away the wolves.
The absurd calculating ability now running in the back of his mind.
The overwhelming sensation that he could interfere with the direction of the forces around him.
Everything pointed to the same answer.
Accelerator's power.
Vector manipulation.
For a moment, Axel forgot even the pain.
His heart pounded for an entirely different reason now.
This ability... it really is vector manipulation.
The power to control the direction of force and energy through contact. To redirect, alter, gather, disperse, and transform vectors through calculation. In Academy City, this was the terrifying ability that had placed Accelerator at the absolute summit.
A monstrous power.
A broken power.
A power that, once mastered, could turn its user into an almost untouchable existence.
Of course, Axel immediately knew he was nowhere near that level.
This was only an awakening. A beginning.
He did not have Academy City's systems. No one was here to measure whether he was Level 1, Level 2, or something else entirely. But judging by what he had just done, and by how clumsy his awareness still felt, he was definitely far from the full might of the original ability.
But that did not discourage him.
Far from it.
In the original setting, espers could grow. Their abilities could be refined, strengthened, deepened. Computational power, usage, understanding, and development all mattered. Even Misaka Mikoto had once started at a low level before reaching the top.
If they could grow, then so could he.
More importantly...
He had just gained a real chance to survive.
Axel forced himself to think despite the pain.
Vector manipulation was not just for combat. If used creatively, it could compensate for the weakness of his infant body.
He could use it to balance himself and eventually stand.
He could use it to control the direction of force acting on his body.
He might even be able to influence the movement of his blood and reduce the danger from his wounds.
That thought made his gaze flicker toward his injured shoulder.
The bite had stopped bleeding heavily, but not because the wound was minor. If anything, the damage felt horrifying. The flesh there was torn open, and if he mishandled it, he could easily bleed out.
Theoretically, he could redirect blood flow away from the wound.
Theoretically.
But theory and practice were not the same, especially for a newborn who had just awakened an absurd power in the middle of the forest. One wrong calculation, and he might turn a survivable injury into instant death.
No.
Not yet.
I can't gamble with that until I understand this power better.
He needed a safer test.
Something simple.
Something low risk.
Only then did the hunger come roaring back.
Now that danger had passed, the fear and adrenaline that had suppressed it vanished all at once. His stomach twisted violently. His body, exhausted and starving, reminded him with ruthless honesty that awakening a power did not change one fact.
He was still on the verge of dying.
Slowly, Axel turned his eyes toward the tree above him.
The fruit.
The unfamiliar fruit hanging from the branches.
A spark lit in his gaze.
I'll start with that.
If he could use vector manipulation to affect the air, or the movement of the fruit, then he could both practice his ability and solve his food problem at the same time.
As for whether the fruit was poisonous...
Axel's thoughts paused for a moment, then sharpened.
If this really is vector manipulation, then toxins should fall within the range of what reflection can eventually handle. Poison, radiation, chemical corrosion, biological agents... in principle, anything harmful to the body involved interactions, movement, force, transmission.
Vectors.
Of course, he was not arrogant enough to trust that blindly on day one.
Still, if there was any chance at all, this was the best option he had.
A light breeze brushed across his cheek.
Axel focused on it.
For the first time, he consciously reached out with his power.
The sensation was strange. The wind was no longer something invisible and untouchable. He could feel its direction, its pressure, its flow. Yet when he tried to grasp it, it slipped apart instantly, scattering before he could properly control it.
He frowned inwardly.
Too rough.
Too unstable.
His earlier outburst against the wolves had been instinctive, closer to an unconscious reflex than true control. Reflection came naturally, like the body flinching away from danger. But active manipulation... that required intention.
And calculation.
So Axel tried again.
He gathered his thoughts.
The formulas in his mind began to move.
He followed the flow of the air, tracing it, measuring it, adjusting it as best he could with his newborn understanding. Slowly, painstakingly, he guided the drifting breeze toward his hand.
A current formed.
Weak.
Unsteady.
But real.
The faint movement of air spiraled around his tiny palm.
Axel's heartbeat quickened.
Again.
He recalculated.
This time he did not try to seize the whole breeze. He only nudged it. Directed it. Encouraged one stream to follow another until the wind began to gather instead of scatter.
Bit by bit, the current in his palm became denser.
Sharper.
More obedient.
Sweat beaded on his forehead. The wound on his shoulder throbbed. His starving body trembled from strain. But Axel gritted down on the pain and refused to stop.
He had no room for failure.
He had no backup.
No one was coming to save him.
This world had already made that painfully clear.
So he gathered the wind into his hand, lifted that tiny arm toward the tree overhead, and aimed upward.
His eyes burned with exhaustion.
With pain.
With hunger.
But beneath all of that, something fiercer blazed.
He wanted—
No.
He needed—
To survive.