"Let's follow them."
Watching Kiyama Harumi's black sedan speed out of the research facility, Yuuya moved instantly. With a casual flick of spatial calculation, he teleported Index to a safe commercial plaza several blocks away. The impending confrontation wasn't a suitable environment for a defenseless nun to be tagging along.
WEE-WOO-WEE-WOO—!
The piercing wail of civil defense sirens echoed across the wide avenues of District 13. Pedestrians and students calmly cleared the sidewalks and filed into designated emergency shelters. In an island nation perpetually prepared for earthquakes—and in Academy City, where supernatural Esper incidents were practically daily occurrences—the civilian awareness regarding rapid evacuation was exceptionally high.
Most citizens knew from experience that as long as they stayed inside the designated shelters, high-level collateral damage rarely reached them.
After tearing through several intersections, Kiyama Harumi's sedan was abruptly cut off by a heavy barricade of automated Anti-Skill riot robots and armored cruisers. Fully armed Anti-Skill officers in tactical gear were crouched behind the defensive line, automatic rifles raised.
Screeech—!
Kiyama slammed on the brakes, the tires leaving thick black skid marks on the asphalt. She let out a long, exhausted sigh, her heavy eyelids drooping.
'These people only ever mobilize this quickly when an explicit order comes down from the General Board of Directors,' Kiyama thought bitterly. 'They preach about maintaining public peace and protecting the children, but when push comes to shove, they're nothing more than the hunting dogs of the higher-ups.'
She harbored zero goodwill toward Anti-Skill. No matter how many formal petitions and investigative requests she had filed regarding the comatose Child Errors, the authorities had coldly swept everything under the rug, classifying the tragedy as a "standard laboratory accident." The board had buried the truth to protect their funding, leaving the abandoned children to rot while the city carried on as if they never existed.
"Kiyama Harumi!" an Anti-Skill squad captain bellowed through a loudspeaker. "You have committed severe violations of Academy City's Public Security and Technological Regulation Acts! You are hereby detained as the primary suspect behind the development and distribution of the Level Upper! Step out of the vehicle with your hands raised! Any resistance will be met with lethal force!"
Kiyama pushed her car door open and stepped out onto the empty street. Her expression was completely devoid of fear, her messy hair fluttering in the summer wind.
"Although I have no desire to cause pointless bloodshed, my calculations still require time," Kiyama said softly, her dark circles prominent against her pale face. "So... I suppose I'll have to demonstrate this miraculous power for you."
"Hands where we can see them! On the ground, now!" the captain shouted.
"Hehe..." Kiyama chuckled faintly. Instead of complying, she calmly raised her right hand toward the barricade.
"Wait, what is she—"
Before the officers could finish their warning, a visible, swirling vortex of compressed air materialized above Kiyama's palm. Within a fraction of a second, the atmospheric pressure condensed into a glowing, fist-sized sphere of white kinetic energy.
Aero Hand.
BOOM—!
Before the front-line officers could even register the calculation, the condensed air bomb detonated with the force of a high-explosive artillery shell. The shockwave tore straight through the barricade, shattering the heavy riot robots into twisted scrap metal and sending dozens of officers flying through the air before they crashed heavily against the pavement, unconscious.
"What the hell?! She's an Esper?!" an uninjured officer in the rear shouted in utter disbelief. "A senior adult researcher developed a high-level Personal Reality on herself?!"
"Open fire! Neutralize the target!"
TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT—!
A concentrated hail of armor-piercing rounds erupted from the remaining Anti-Skill rifles, tracing fiery orange streaks straight toward Kiyama.
BUZZ—!
A high-frequency harmonic hum resonated through the air. A transparent, glass-like barrier materialized directly in front of her. Every single bullet struck the invisible field, losing all forward momentum before clattering harmlessly onto the asphalt.
"She deflected live rounds with an invisible barrier?!"
Ignoring their horrified shouts, Kiyama tapped her foot against the ground. Localized seismic vibrations rippled outward through the asphalt. The paved road violently fractured, launching jagged chunks of heavy concrete straight into the remaining police cruisers like a barrage of cannonballs.
The vehicles were crushed and overturned in seconds, pinning the remaining officers to the ground and completely neutralizing the blockade.
Judgment 177th Branch
Back at the branch office, Kuroko and Uiharu stared at the real-time surveillance feed with wide, horrified eyes.
"She's overpowering an entire Anti-Skill strike team... and using multiple distinct Esper powers?!" Kuroko's voice cracked in pure shock. "That should be impossible! Once an individual passes the adolescent development phase, awakening a Personal Reality is virtually unheard of—and there is zero record of Kiyama Harumi possessing an ability in the Data Bank! What is going on?!"
"Kiyama-sensei isn't just using one ability..." Uiharu whispered, her jaw dropping as her fingers froze over the keyboard. "She just seamlessly chained three completely unrelated Esper abilities together!"
"Multiple abilities at once...?" A thick bead of cold sweat rolled down Kuroko's temple. "That's fundamentally breaking the single-ability rule of Personal Reality! How is a standard Anti-Skill squad supposed to fight a monster like that?!"
"It's the ultimate function of the Level Upper network," Uiharu explained grimly, her analytical mind piecing together the terrifying truth. "If brainwaves are network signals, then each connected brain acts as an individual CPU. By networking over twenty thousand Espers together, Kiyama Harumi serves as the central server administrator! She can theoretically access and execute every single Personal Reality connected to the array! She has artificially engineered herself into a Multi-Skill user!"
"If that's the case, standard Judgment officers and Anti-Skill units stand zero chance against her," Kuroko said, realizing the apocalyptic gravity of the situation. Her mind instinctively drifted to her roommate, but she immediately shook the thought away. 'I can't drag Onee-sama into a military-grade disaster just because our branch is overwhelmed.'
"Ah! Look at the monitor!" Uiharu suddenly gasped, pointing at the screen.
"What happened?!" Kuroko snapped her head toward the feed.
Through the lingering clouds of smoke and burning vehicle wreckage, a lone figure was casually walking into the middle of the devastated street.
"That's... Takahashi-senpai?!" Uiharu blinked in disbelief.
On the surveillance feed, Yuuya emerged through the haze, wearing his casual summer clothes with his hands tucked into his pockets, looking as if he had merely gone out for an afternoon stroll.
"Kiyama-sensei, you've really caused quite a scene here," Yuuya's amused voice carried across the quiet, cratered street. "Demolishing this much municipal infrastructure... the reconstruction bill from the Board of Directors is going to be astronomical."
Kiyama, her white lab coat covered in fine concrete dust, stopped in her tracks. She looked at the boy standing before her, a tired, remarkably complicated smile appearing on her pale face.
"I was sincerely hoping you wouldn't get involved in this... yet here you are. It really brings up mixed emotions, Yuuya."
"Oh?" Yuuya raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised by her familiarity. "It seems Sensei already knew I was coming? That's quite unexpected."
"Although I am merely a specialized researcher, you'd be surprised how much information trickles down to those of us in the upper scientific tiers," Kiyama said, her gaze softening as she looked at him. "I know about the Dark Side of Academy City. And I know about the true powerhouse operating in the deepest shadows, directly answering to Board Chairman Aleister Crowley—Takahashi Yuuya."
Kiyama let out a soft, melancholic breath. "I never imagined that a student I once watched grow up in the institutional system would step into that dark abyss, become the leader of the city's underground, and orchestrate operations that would terrify even veteran researchers."
She looked straight into his dark eyes, her voice steadying. "So... are you here on official business to stop me, Yuuya?"
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Give me powerstones.
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