~????~
"Thanks for picking me up today."

After waiting for a good thirty minutes, Akira puts on a smile as his ride home was finally here to pick him up from his part-time job at the hospital. The moment he got inside the car, he saw that it was his uncle that picked him up. Truth be told, his mother already told him about this. That's why he spent most of his work day mentally preparing for this.

"I hope your day was good. Oddly enough, the rain sounds pretty soothing on a slow day at work. Don't you thi-"

"Why are you procrastinating, Akira?"

"H-huh."

"You had all this time to go back to college, you even got a chance that most would dream for. At this rate, your cousins are gonna move out the house before you do. If it was me, I wouldn't let a younger family member out do me."

That was the first thing his uncle had to say to him. Akira sighed as he knew this exact conversation was going to happen. It didn't matter what he did, his uncle always found a way to say something negative about him. The worst part was that since his family was poor, Akira's uncle would pitch in. So he endured it; not for himself, but just so his family can get by until he had enough money saved up.

"Honestly, I miss my father. If he was here, you would never have failed school. You're being lazy, doing nothing. If my father was still alive he would never let you come back home til you graduated."

"..........."

"See. You're playing dumb, acting like a zombie."

"Grandpa died years ago. Why the fuck would you keep bringing him up just to put me down? Dad isn't even in my life so the closest thing I had to a father was grandpa. Now you're saying even he would turn his back on me if he was still alive?"

Akira bit his tongue as he endured his uncle's verbal abuse. As much as he wanted nothing more than to curse this man and deck him in the face, he knew it would cause more trouble than good. His words meant nothing to Akira because the white haired boy knew the truth. That his uncle was just a prideful peace of shit. Knowing that, he believed that nothing the uncle could say would hurt him.

"Seriously, were you always such a lazy disappointment? You don't even go out with any friends nor do you have a girlfriend. I bet all you do is sit on your ass and play video games. Don't you feel the least you could do is support your mom more?"

Akira sighed mentally as he does do a lot to support her. He helps pays bills, buys groceries, does the laundry, cleans the house, and even cooks dinner. Worst of all, his uncle knew this. Yet apparently that wasn't enough and Akira was just being lazy in his eyes. This was fine though, Akira could handle something like th-

"Honestly, what good are you if you can't even do the simplest things? Just do us a favor and disappear. At least then you'll be helping your mom for once by having one less mouth to feed."

"Wow, you really went there. Do you hate me so much for not succeeding in college. Yeah ......you're right. If I disappeared, mom would have one less mouth to worry about and you can finally be free of a disappointment. Besides, who'd miss a good for nothing like me, right? Apparently you never loved me if you can say that so casually."

~????~
"Look, he has awakened, Sister."

"Indeed, he is awake, Rem."

As Akira's eyes opened up, he found himself in an unfamiliar building that looked to be far fancier than anything you'd find in the slums. When he sat up and turned towards the sources of the noise he heard, he saw two maids standing at the side of his bed. While one of them had pink hair and pink eyes, the other had blue hair and blue eyes as the two siblings looked at the white haired boy.

"So there are maid costumes here too. More importantly, their vectors are different from a regular human's. I'm also in an unfamiliar place. Last I checked, Reinhard took off with Felt and I was left with Subaru and Emilia."

"Sister, the guest is stunned by your appearance and won't break his intimidating gaze from you."

"Yes, Rem, he clearly is entranced by you and I."

"Do you treat all your guests like this or am I the unlucky bastard who somehow pissed you off?"

"Come on, you two, don't tease him too much."

As Akira heard this familiar voice, he noticed that Emilia was standing in the doorway. Seeing that Akira was awake, Emilia decided to inform him on what happened. After he passed out, Emilia took both him and Subaru to the manor while they recovered. Not only that, after telling the lord of the manor of Akira's living situation, it was agreed that the white haired boy could stay as long as he needed and was free to leave whenever he chose. After hearing this, Akira lightly bowed his head.

"Thanks, I owe you one, Emilia."

"No, I should be thanking you. You fought just as hard as everyone else and even stalled for us to escape while you handled things."

"You misunderstood me. I'm not thanking you for patching me, i'm thanking you for saving Old Man Rom. That's the reason why I owe you one. Besides, I wasn't exactly fighting for the sake of saving everyone like some knight or a hero. I only did it because my own life was in danger. You lot being saved was just a lucky bonus. Then again, I wasn't the one doing the saving to begin with."

As Akira said this, he was seen walking out of the room as Emilia was trying to call for him to come back so they could at least talk. Truth be told, she couldn't help but be confused on why Akira acted this way. It felt like the young man was downplaying his actions too much. Almost as if everything he did to protect everyone yesterday wasn't good enough. Soon the girl began to run towards the boy as she spoke up.

"You know, Subaru is already awake and currently outside. You're free to join us if you want?"

"Fine, not like I got much to do anyways, i'm just busy doing calculations."

"Calculations?"

"Don't worry about it."

~Timeskip~
As Emilia and Akira walked out of the manor, the white haired boy was impressed by what he saw. The garden was more akin to a big park. There were even a few gazebo's here and there. It felt like he was at some rich country club or something. Noticing Emilia and Akira's arrival, Subaru waved to the both of them.

"Emilia-tan, Akira! Over here."

"Shall we go?"

"You don't need my permission, Emilia. We're the guests here, remember?"

As she nods her head, Emilia lead Akira to where Subaru was. The moment they got together, Subaru decided to do some morning exercises. While Subaru began to jump up and down, Emilia was surprised by this action. She turned to Akira to see what he would do, only to find out he was doing the same motion as Subaru.

"Think of it as way to get your body to feel less heavy. It also helps with stress relief."

"Yes, Akira! You know the power of radio calisthenics! Join us, Emilia-tan!"

"O-ok."

"Just play along Emila. It's not like exercise will kill you. You'd sooner die of Subaru's idiocy before anything else can kill you."

"WHEN DID YOU START HAVING A SENSE OF HUMOR, AKIRA?! Alright everyone. Get ready!"

As Subaru said this, he held onto Emilia's right hand as he lifts both of his arms and Emilia's right arm into the air. Seeing this, a small smile formed on Akira's face as he held up Emilia's left arm and both of his own limbs. Seeing this, Subaru smirked as he decided to finish this exercise.

"Alright, everyone. Yell out VICTORY!"

"V-Victory."

"Victory."

"Victory! Victory! VICTORY!"

"Good morning, Subaru and Akira. You two really were a big help in keeping Lia safe yesterday. I owe you one."

"Is that so? Then let me touch your fur."

As Subaru said this, he began to run his fingers through Puck's fur. While this happened, Akira and Emilia looked at the two of them as they both thought that the spirit and black haired boy were getting along. When Emilia looked towards Akira, she realized she could finally ask him something that was on her mind.

"Hey, Akira, is it okay if I ask you something?"

"I'll answer the best I can depending on the question."

"What kind of magic did you use when we were at the loot house? It seemed like nothing could touch you, then it looked like the Bowel Hunter was in pain just by you touching her, afterwards you caused that huge explosion."

"Yeah man, I was surprised by all the stuff you could do too, so what's your secret?"

As Emilia and Subaru looked at Akira, he was trying his hardest to think of a way to answer them in the most simple way possible. Because truth be told, while Akira arguably had one of the best powers he could wish for, it was a real pain in the ass to explain. Even more so since he can't exactly write it off as magic.

"You guys want the long answer or the short answer?"

"Hmmm. Short answer, I guess. What about you, Subaru?"

"Give us the short answer, Akira-sensei!"

"I do math and physics then cool shit happens. End of class."

As Akira said this, he saw a confused look on Emilia's face as Subaru was just pouting on how Akira's explanation didn't really answer anything from his perspective. Seeing their expressions, Akira couldn't help but laugh a bit. He honestly couldn't blame them for being confused. Hell, there were people back home who were just as confused on how Accelerator worked. The moment he stopped laughing, he saw Subaru smiling as Emilia looked at him in shock.

"What?"

"It's nothing, Akira. It's just that usually you look so serious that you have this scary look in your eye."

"Yeah, man! It's nice to see you let loose. You should do that more often."

Upon Subaru saying that, Akira began to think to himself. When was the last time he had a genuine laugh like that? At the moment, he couldn't even remember. As he shook his head, he looked towards Subaru and Emilia with a faint smile on his face.

"Ok, at least around you guys, i'll try to be a bit more open. Though don't expect me to be an open book and stupid like Subaru."

"What is that suppose to mean?!"

"You're smart enough to at least pick up on a jab, right?"

"I said be more open, not sassy!"

"What's the difference?"

As Subaru was now chasing after Akira in the garden, Emilia couldn't help but laugh at the display. It truly was a lot of fun to see the two be so free spirited. While the boys were running around the garden, she decided to do her usual routine and talk to the spirits. As this happened, Puck was seen floating next to her.

"Those two really make you smile more, don't they, Lia."

~A few minutes later~
While Subaru was out of breath from chasing Akira around, he saw that the white haired boy was perfectly fine as he had a smug look on his face. Truth be told, everytime Subaru got close to him, Akira would control the vectors of kinetic momentum to make himself faster. Was he being unfair? He definitely was and he admits it. Did he really care about being unfair? Considering he did this for fifteen minutes straight, the answer was obvious.

However, the fun was cut short as Subaru and Akira were now walking back to where Emilia was as they saw the two maids from earlier waiting for them. Akira noticed how Subaru's shoulders tensed up as he hugged himself for a brief second the moment his eyes fell on the maids. Soon the group made it back as the two maids bowed their heads while delivering an important message to them.

"Lord Roswaal L. Mathers, owner of this manor, has returned and requested your presence. Please enter back inside of the mansion."

As the maids bowed their heads and walked inside of the manor, Emilia walked behind them as Subaru and Akira followed her lead. While they were walking, Akira noticed something off when he looked at Subaru. Even during the events in the loot house, he noticed various things were off.

It was for a brief moment, but a look of conflict was present in his eyes. Not only that, when the maids appeared, he noticed how the Subaru's shoulders stiffen when they were around and how a look of betrayal and fear appeared in his eyes. Then there was the loot house incident. He knew too much info that he shouldn't be aware of, talking to Rom and Felt as if they were close despite that being their first meeting, among other various things.

"He knew how much money Elsa had for the insignia, acted familiar with Felt and Rom despite that being their first meeting, had info about my trade with Rom, and even predicted Elsa's attack on the loot house. I wonder, can Subaru travel in time? He was brought here from Japan like me, so it might not be too unbelievable if he got an ability like I did. Let's say he did have this ability, how many days have passed by for him? What happened here to cause him to react like this in front of the maids?"

It was times like these that Akira was truly grateful for his Divine Protections. With the Divine Protection of Parallel Calculation, he was able to have multiple thought processes for calculations, doing an analysis like he was doing now, and have room for thinking normally all at once without losing himself. And thanks to the Divine Protection of Thought Acceleration, he was able to speed up the thinking process and reach his conclusions with great speed and accuracy.

"Oh myyyyyy. It would seem Lady Emilia's saviors are an innnnnteresting duo."

Akira and the rest of the group stopped walking and looked at the owner of this new voice he heard. Standing in front of them was man standing around 186 cm. To say that this man was flashy would be an understatement. Indigo blue hair so long that it covers his back, his left eye being yellow while his right one was blue, wearing purple lipstick and eye shadow. One would mistake this man for a clown at first glance.

"It's a pleaaaaasure to make your acquaintance. I am the owner of this manor, Roswaal L. Mathers."

The moment Akira heard this man speak, he knew there was more to Roswaal. After spending years with his family, Akira could pick up this trait very quickly. When someone is merely watching your every move, just waiting to catch you slip up. Once you do, they will do everything in their power to take everything from you and break you down.

"Alright, bring on whatever challenge you got, clown."