"Huh? Is the fight about to start?"
Sogiita Gunha stood amidst the rubble, crossing his arms. "I'm a little confused about the logistics of this 'Plan' you're talking about. But if you're just looking for a personal fight and you dragged thousands of innocent people into it... then you guys don't have very much GUTS."
Gunha was somewhat confused by the dark political undertones, but he was certain of one thing: Accelerator had definitely gone astray by using her power to cause so much trouble.
He clenched his fist and slammed it into his open palm.
"Let me instill some GUTS into you!"
"So, you want to get involved too, Number Seven?" Kakine Teitoku lightly flapped his six glowing wings, looking down at Gunha.
'The Strongest Gemstone,' Kakine calculated. 'A natural Esper. This meathead's raw power is definitely in the top three among all Level 5s, perhaps even rivaling my own. If he gets involved now, it will be very troublesome.'
Moreover, fighting the Number Seven wouldn't achieve his goal of defeating Accelerator to prove his worth to Aleister.
"I'm not interested in your personal grudges," Gunha declared, his expression becoming surprisingly serious. "But if you two fight here, it will cause a massive disaster for the city! So I'm going to instill some GUTS in both of you and stop this fight!"
"What a meddlesome idiot," Kakine muttered under his breath, his face darkening with annoyance.
Meanwhile, standing nearby, Yuuya muttered to himself.
"This is really interesting. I never expected something like this to happen."
'Even the timeline is messed up now,' Yuuya realized. 'Although Kakine Teitoku has always been looking for an opportunity to prove himself to Aleister, I didn't expect him to ambush Suzushina Yuriko directly just because I threw a public party.'
The plot of the canon timeline was probably going to be changed so much that even he wouldn't be able to predict it anymore.
'Is this the Butterfly Effect?'
"Tch!" Yuriko glared at Gunha, a hint of murderous intent in her eyes. 'This idiot doesn't seem to be here for a ranking. Is he seriously here for the sake of "Justice"?'
"Hey, Gunha! Wanna have a go?"
Yuuya stepped forward, smiling casually. "We have four Level 5s here today. But actually, I was the one who orchestrated this whole stadium gathering. If you're looking for the mastermind who lacks 'Guts,' you can't go wrong looking at me."
Yuuya looked at the suddenly serious Gunha.
When Yuuya opened his System Map, he saw a glittering, golden-purple icon floating directly above Sogiita Gunha's head.
[Treasure Chest: Mythic Rank]
'It's actually a Mythic Treasure Chest,' Yuuya thought, his heart skipping a beat. 'Second only to the Supreme and Unique levels!'
It made sense. Gunha's potential as a Gemstone was at the level of a Quasi-Magic God. According to canon lore, once fully awakened, Gunha could theoretically go toe-to-toe with monsters like Ollerus. Gunha was arguably the Esper with the highest raw potential in Academy City.
Moreover, Gunha was a deeply righteous person. He was combative but not vicious—a passionate, hot-blooded superhero ripped straight from a comic book.
"You planned this?" Gunha looked at Yuuya, his arms crossed, genuinely puzzled. "Why would you do this? You don't seem like someone whose Guts have completely rotted away. What's your reason?"
FWOOSH—!
Before Yuuya could answer, Kakine Teitoku lost his patience. Seeing that Gunha was distracted, Kakine flapped his wings.
A white gale, formed from Dark Matter—a substance that did not exist in the physical laws of this universe—rushed toward Accelerator.
"Accelerator! Stop standing there looking bored!" Kakine yelled, his pride stinging. "You don't think you're some kind of saint for holding back against those weaklings, do you? Don't make me laugh! After experiencing the true darkness of Academy City, you still think you can run away and play nice? Don't make me look down on you!"
Kakine channeled his power, unleashing a torrent of white, corrosive wind.
"Heh! What a noisy spare part."
Yuriko's world-weary smile crumbled into a mask of pure cruelty.
"Since you want to play 'Villain' with me... then I'll let you have your fun. I'll repay you for your provocation."
She stomped her foot, manipulating the vectors of the air around her. A localized tornado with a rotational speed exceeding 600 meters per second was generated instantly. Concrete fragments and heavy steel rebar from the ruined stadium were drawn into the vortex and launched at Kakine like a massive, grinding buzzsaw.
SIZZLE—!
The concrete and steel collided with Kakine's Dark Matter wind. The physical matter instantly emitted a loud hissing sound as it was subjected to physical laws that shouldn't exist, corroding into white dust.
However, the sheer kinetic force of the tornado was too much. Kakine couldn't completely corrode the attack in time. His three pairs of wings quickly wrapped around him, forming a white cocoon to take the hit head-on.
BAM!
The immense inertia hit the cocoon, sending Kakine flying backward like a cannonball. He crashed entirely through a high-rise office building next to the stadium, shattering the glass curtain wall into a million pieces.
"Since you brought up the 'Darkness' with me..." Yuriko's voice dropped to a demonic whisper. "Let me teach you what true darkness looks like, you pathetic knock-off."
Six compressed tornadoes appeared behind her back. They instantly propelled her forward like a fighter jet, shooting her out of the stadium in pursuit of Kakine.
'Since the incident has already happened,' Yuriko thought, her blood boiling, 'there's no need to hold back against him. It doesn't matter if the collateral damage escalates.'
"Hey! Come back here!"
Gunha immediately threw a punch toward Yuriko's fleeing form, creating a strong storm of visible psychic ripples to drag her back.
Snap.
The attack vanished before it even crossed the stadium. Yuuya materialized directly in front of Gunha, reaching out with one hand to casually absorb and disperse the kinetic energy.
"Your opponent is me, Gunha," Yuuya said, half-closing his eyes and smiling. "I suppose you'd love to fight someone who can take a punch. So don't hold back."
"You're a Spatial Level 5! Fighting a teleporter is just asking for a headache!" Gunha clenched his fists, his expression turning fierce. "But it seems your Guts have indeed rotted away!"
"Didn't you notice?" Yuuya said, keeping one hand in his pocket. "From the beginning until now, no one in that mob actually died? At most, they were knocked unconscious or suffered broken bones. It was a controlled demolition."
"Of course I noticed! I have great situational awareness!" Gunha shouted. "But if you attracted thousands of people here for no reason just to cause a mass-casualty event... then don't blame me for being impolite!"
"Take this! AMAZING PUNCH!"
Gunha roared with immense spirit. A terrifying aura erupted from his body, and colorful, logic-defying smoke swirled around him. He threw a punch directly at the ground.
The five-colored smoke instantly gathered, forming an energy wave with an abnormally high temperature and concussive force. The ground was instantly annihilated, and the explosive energy rushed toward Yuuya at a speed human nerves couldn't track.
"Hehe! I'll catch it right now!"
Yuuya grinned enthusiastically. He raised his arm. Using his Vector calculations to achieve perfect force dissipation, combined with his Physical Enhancement and Electromagnetism, he unleashed a counter-punch packing 25 tons of raw kinetic force.
BOOOOOOM—!!
The two fists collided. An explosion resounded throughout the entire district.
The shockwave instantly excavated a massive crater that swallowed one-fifth of the stadium's grassy field. A crackling, electrically-charged mushroom cloud rose into the air, making the arena look as if it had been struck by a tactical nuke.
...
The Stadium Entrance.
Running toward the sounds of destruction, Misaka Mikoto finally arrived at the stadium.
She watched in horror as Accelerator and Kakine Teitoku disappeared into the skyline, trading devastating blows in mid-air. She clenched her fists, gritting her teeth in anger.
"What on earth is going on here?! Why are so many innocent people being dragged into this?!"
She looked down at the stadium floor just in time to witness the atomic-like explosion between Sogiita Gunha and another figure. The shockwave blew her hair back.
As the dust settled, she saw the reflection of a certain boy in a white coat in her pupils.
"It's HIM!"
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