Thanks to Selene's last-minute intervention and improvised addition, the Daihasei Festival opening ceremony finally concluded without further incident. All that remained were the athletic competitions and recreational events.
Of course, the most important matter was that Selene had to fulfill the promises she had made during the Daihasei Festival.
In particular, suspending the student curfew for the duration of the festival had struck directly at the students' hearts.
Although students did not necessarily obey the curfew even under normal circumstances, they were at the restless age of youth. To sneak out and revel, they employed every method imaginable, matching wits with Anti-Skill officers, dormitory supervisors, and resident wardens alike. Returning late, staying out all night, and failing to return to their dormitories could never be completely prevented throughout the year.
But no one would ever complain about having more opportunities to wander around openly!
Selene had staked her own reputation on that promise. If it went wrong, she would be slapping herself in the face. She was currently haggling with Academy City's Board of Directors over the matter. After all, one word from her had drastically increased the workloads of Judgment, Anti-Skill, and the Management Committee... They would probably be running until their legs gave out.
That naturally meant allowances and several times their normal wages had to be arranged. She had made the announcement in the name of the Board of Directors, and everyone would share the resulting good reputation, so why should she bear all the costs alone?
With that thought in mind, the moment the opening ceremony ended, Selene contacted Chairman Aleister Crowley. She had already fabricated... already thought of her justification. The magic side was preparing to come over and stir up trouble, wasn't it?
Then she would arrange several major surprises for them. Under the pretext of protecting student safety after the curfew was lifted, Selene could deploy enormous numbers of military armored units around the clock at Academy City's major traffic routes and important research facilities.
At that moment, inside the main venue, Misaka Mikoto's eyes immediately lit up as she watched Selene slowly descend from the oath platform, surrounded by the host and a group of principals. After observing for quite some time, she prepared to hurry over.
Once the Daihasei Festival began, at Meigo Arisa's request—or rather, Shutaura Sequenzia's—Misaka Mikoto needed to convey their gratitude to Selene for the help she had given them during the Endymion space-elevator incident.
Uiharu, Saten, Kamijou Touma, and the others had also invited Selene to a Daihasei Festival gathering so they could thank her in person.
Misaka Mikoto had only just descended the steps leading from the stadium's rest passage where Selene had previously been when, with a rip, an unbearably sweet voice drifted from the spatial portal behind her. "My, my, Misaka-san~~"
Bzzzt—boom!
The instant she heard that voice, the corner of Misaka Mikoto's mouth twitched reflexively. Electricity immediately burst across her forehead. Lowering her eyelids, she turned around with utter helplessness. "Shokuhou Misaki..."
Who else could possibly speak in that tone?
Why did Selene have to dump this troublesome girl here with me?!
"Oh my... Isn't this Tokiwadai's incredibly famous ace of brute force? Could it be that you were waiting here especially for me? This humble girl is truly flattered."
Placing the remote control back into her bag, the girl spoke with the intimate tone of a close friend.
"Hmph!"
Staring at the honey-colored hair pressing close to her, Misaka Mikoto snorted coldly. She raised a hand and shoved away the warm, soft female body leaning against her, then retreated several steps as though she had touched something filthy and frantically rubbed both arms.
Curling her lips, she complained, "Who was waiting for you? Don't flatter yourself. I wonder who was so useless that she was completely overshadowed and even needed someone else to salvage the situation. Which Level 5 esper could possibly be that incompetent?"
"Tch!"
Clicking her tongue softly, Shokuhou Misaki folded her arms beneath her chest. Her glittering starry eyes glared indignantly at the flat-chested electric girl before her. "You wouldn't have done much better if you'd gone up there. Those three are monsters..."
As she spoke, she seemed to notice that Misaka Mikoto's gaze kept involuntarily drifting three centimeters below her face. Shokuhou Misaki covered her mouth and giggled, then confidently thrust out the voluptuous figure that left boys her age speechless and girls in tears.
"Pfft! How rude, Misaka-san. Deliberately exposing someone else's weakness will make people dislike you, especially when your own obvious defect is so childlike. You're nothing like me, whom everyone adores."
Although their outfits were almost identical, the difference between one middle school student and another...
The girl's long, honey-colored hair flowed down her back. She wore white thigh-high stockings patterned after spiderwebs and long formal gloves, while Tokiwadai's simple and practical athletic uniform perfectly accentuated every curve of her shapely figure, making her appear exceptionally alluring.
Compared with a certain utterly curve-free individual, the difference was as vast as heaven and earth.
Crackle!
Misaka Mikoto gritted her teeth in fury and clenched her fists. The prominent swell of the other girl's chest made her feel an almost irresistible urge to bite someone. In an instant, a tiny arc of electricity flashed and vanished across the chestnut-brown bangs above her forehead, while a beastlike growl squeezed from the depths of her throat.
"Shokuhou. Misaki."
"I'm right here. You don't need to say my name like that. You'll make me shy." Shokuhou Misaki looked at Misaka Mikoto as though she were genuinely embarrassed.
Then her eyes shifted, and she smiled toward Selene, who had finished communicating with Aleister Crowley and was looking over from nearby.
"Oh? Misaka-san, it seems your distinguished friend has arrived. Well then, goodbye. Farewell. Bye-bye."
"Shokuhou Misaki..."
After watching Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki quarrel from the corner of her eye, Selene raised an eyebrow slightly and made no attempt to greet the latter.
That was because her relationship with Shokuhou Misaki truly was not close. At most, they were acquaintances who nodded when they met—familiar strangers.
From the very first time Selene met Shokuhou Misaki, she had sensed a faint, almost imperceptible hostility from the other girl.
What else was there to say? Whether it was because Selene had joined forces with Academy City's upper echelon or for some other reason, Selene had no interest in finding out. Expect her to press a warm face against a cold backside? Goodbye and good riddance!
Shokuhou Misaki was not qualified for that.
The moment she sensed Selene's gaze, Misaka Mikoto immediately cast aside the "cup-related sorrow" in her heart. The corners of her lips curved upward, and she lightly leaped down from the steps. "Selene, that was so cool. The moment you went up there, all the Anti-Skill officers and staff snapped to attention. It was so serious, almost like military training."
Her attitude was worlds apart from how she had treated Shokuhou Misaki moments earlier.
In truth, Misaka Mikoto herself did not know when her relationship with Shokuhou Misaki had turned into one where they traded barbs and nearly came to blows every time they met. It was almost as though they had been born incompatible.
Of course, in the eyes of most Tokiwadai students, the ease and naturalness with which Shokuhou Misaki and Misaka Mikoto "played around" was instead proof that they were close.
"That was already fairly approachable... Hehe. Misaka, what would you have done if you'd been sent up to salvage the situation?"
"Me? Ah, no, no..." Misaka Mikoto laughed awkwardly while walking forward and hurriedly waving her hands.
"What about the other Level 5s besides Shokuhou Misaki? Where did you transfer them?" She looked around as she asked.
"There." Selene pointed. "Over there."
Following the direction of Selene's finger, Misaka Mikoto's gaze crossed more than three hundred meters of green field. In the stands along the opposite side of the stadium, she could vaguely make out two large figures and two small ones causing a commotion. The stadium's long axis measured 332.3 meters, while its short axis measured 296.4 meters.
As for the eighth-ranked Sogiita Gunha, sorry, but Selene had already thrown that spirited youth back to his own school. A useless teammate like that was impossible to carry!
"Oh, right, Selene. Thank you for what happened with the space elevator. Shutaura—or rather, Meigo... Arisa asked me to convey her gratitude." Slowing her steps, Misaka Mikoto walked beside Selene. When she mentioned Meigo Arisa, her expression became somewhat unnatural.
What a coincidence. Back when Shirai Kuroko had called to tell her that Selene's mother Katy, younger brother Ferdinand, younger sister Arisa, and the rest of her family had come to Academy City for a visit, Misaka Mikoto had frozen. She had thought Meigo Arisa was Selene's younger sister Arisa, especially since they had only recently met.
Only after returning did she learn that she had been mistaken. Selene's younger sister's full name was Arisa Benares.
"Ah, it was nothing. I received compensation for it as well. Misaka, I think you should start considering how you and that spiky-haired classmate of yours are going to pay for the damages. Starrail Gate Corporation and the Endymion space elevator are currently among my assets."
Selene extended a hand. Purple-red particles slowly gathered into a projection, assembling an image of Endymion after the catastrophe. It was barely holding together without collapsing, riddled with holes, and looked thoroughly miserable. Selene regarded Misaka Mikoto with amusement.
During the Endymion space-elevator incident, the elevator that pierced the clouds like a heavenly bridge had been mercilessly consumed by flames. Public-spirited citizens Kamijou Touma and Misaka Mikoto had set out to save a girl's song, destroy an evil corporation's sinister scheme, and stop the ancient witch manipulating everything from behind the scenes. It had been a truly touching tale...
Ahem. In summary, it had merely been a series of trivial disasters caused by an immortal magician who wanted to die, courted death, and went out of her way to get herself killed.
She had intended to exploit the differing laws surrounding the space elevator and a suicide spell to end her own life. As for the countless innocent lives that would be caught in the disaster, she viewed them merely as sacrifices prepared for her final journey.
As expected of a magician. Her thought process was truly unlike that of ordinary people.
In any case, Selene only remembered that her name was Ladylee Tangleroad, yet another thousand-year-old shelf-stable little girl.
Selene had beaten her into pulp in outer space. Thanks to the immortal body she had gained from eating a mystical fruit as a child, Ladylee regenerated, only to be beaten into pulp again. She regenerated and was crushed once more, her cells continuously ground into dust without pause.
After suffering devastating injuries to both body and mind, Ladylee Tangleroad finally lost consciousness completely. Selene packaged her up and sent her to Aleister.
A freshly captured magician. Here. You're the expert in this field, so you deal with her.
Aleister accepted the gift and reciprocated by handing Starrail Gate Corporation and all its assets over to Selene.
"Huh? How did that become one of your assets too?" Misaka Mikoto's face immediately crumpled.
She was already numb to it. The same thing had happened before. Whenever she destroyed something or infiltrated a research institute, tracing through the ownership structure would invariably reveal that some portion belonged to Selene—or rather, to the Schicksal Research Institute and its affiliated groups.
It was standard practice. Cross-shareholding and equity swaps were among the most basic methods capitalists used to form interest groups.
Many of the minor assets Selene knew nothing about and could not be bothered to care about might have been acquired by authorized subordinates, gifted by others, or received through exchanges of interests.
Misaka Mikoto muttered irritably.
"Uiharu, Saten, and the others want to meet up and thank you for looking after us. It's been a long time since we all gathered to eat and drink together. This week-long Daihasei Festival celebration is the perfect opportunity, and you just announced that the curfew would be suspended. We don't often get a chance to stay out all night right under the dorm supervisor's nose."
"No problem. But we'll have to see what time works. I still have quite a few events to participate in." Selene projected her schedule and tapped several entries.
"Events? You would actually partici—uh, it was Aunt Katy, wasn't it?" Seeing the elegant woman waving to them from the VIP seating area, Misaka Mikoto immediately understood.
"But if you compete in athletic events dressed like that... No matter how much the principal and Watanabe-sensei favor you, they can't show such blatant partiality in front of everyone, can they?"
At that moment, the speech platform and ceremonial facilities on the field were rapidly being dismantled and carried away by the staff. The competitions would begin shortly. Aside from teachers and staff, Selene was the only student still wandering around the venue in an autumn uniform.
Every student from the various schools throughout Academy City had already changed into light athletic T-shirts and shorts.
"Don't tell me you don't have any events today."
"Have you forgotten? I'm Academy City's strongest spatial esper. As for the events, I signed up for every individual, team, and class competition in which Tokiwadai had too few participants."
"What?!" Under Misaka Mikoto's stunned gaze, Selene moved one finger and snapped it.
Bzzzt—
"Don't tell me that's also a spatial ability!"
When the violet light dispersed, Selene appeared before Misaka Mikoto with her hair tied into a high ponytail. She had changed into a black athletic crop top beneath a white sleeveless outer layer, wrist guards on both arms, black short shorts, and a black-and-white short skirt over them.
The outfit looked both practical and refreshing.
Watching Selene, who was unusually excited and enthusiastic today, several beads of cold sweat appeared on Misaka Mikoto's forehead.
"Selene, take it easy. Don't kill anyone. Your spatial attacks cripple on contact and kill with a direct hit... Didn't the Management Committee impose special restrictions on you?"
The Daihaseisai Management Committee had specifically approached her and repeatedly emphasized that she was not allowed to injure anyone or use abilities whose interference value exceeded the Level 4 threshold.
"Of course they did, and my restrictions are extremely strict." As she spoke, Selene pointed toward the competition field where the athletes and referees were already in position.
A group of staff members was jogging toward her from that direction. "See? They're coming to remind me again."
"Miss Selene, please forgive us. The committee has no means of evaluating or regulating the output of your spatial attacks. Even at a Level 1 output, being struck by spatial severance carries an almost one-hundred-percent chance of crippling injury or death. Therefore, you are prohibited from using your ability."
Before the first person had even finished speaking, the group of staff members surrounded her, solemnly explaining and persuading her one after another.
"Yes, yes." Watching the staff repeatedly bow in apology, Selene could only smile helplessly. "For every competition, I will refrain from using any supernatural ability and participate using only my body, technique, and experience."
"Thank you very much!"
A voice came over the broadcast system. "Athletes from Tokiwadai Middle School, Bluebell Girls' High School, Ninoude Middle School, Habatobi High School, Private Shidarezakura Academy... please prepare yourselves. The throwing events in the track-and-field category will begin shortly..."
"Oh, it's starting. Well then, we'll talk again at noon..."
Looking at the event signs erected in the direction Selene was heading, Misaka Mikoto's eyes slowly widened. "Those are shot put, javelin, and discus..."
No wonder Selene had called them events with relatively few Tokiwadai participants. There truly were not many Tokiwadai students skilled in strength-based throwing competitions...
...
"Ui—ha—ru—!"
Outside the stadium serving as the main venue in School District 7, a lively and energetic voice suddenly rang out near the entrance platform.
"Ahhh!"
Reflexively, the petite girl wearing a floral headpiece hurriedly pressed down her skirt. Her face had turned so red that steam seemed ready to rise from it, and she looked around in a panic.
"Aw, I failed again. Uiharu, you've really improved." Wearing the athletic uniform issued by her school, a girl with shoulder-length black hair emerged from beneath the shade of a tree and spoke with heartfelt emotion.
"Mmmph! That's because of you, Saten-san! You finally obtained an ability during the Level Upper incident, yet this is how you use it. If Selene-senpai finds out, you'd better watch out or she'll teach you a lesson."
Clutching her skirt with tears at the corners of her eyes, Uiharu Kazari repeatedly struck Saten Ruiko with her soft, powerless fists and let out a feeble roar.
Dispersing the ripples of air around her hand, Saten Ruiko scratched her cheek in embarrassment. "But Selene-senpai seemed pretty pleased to see it."
Her meaning was obvious: I know I was wrong, but I won't change!
Ever since the Level Upper incident ended, Saten Ruiko had continued working hard to recall the feeling of controlling an ability beyond her natural strength, deepening her understanding through Selene's guidance.
At last, her efforts were rewarded. During the monthly comprehensive assessment last month, Saten Ruiko officially broke through the boundary of Level 0 and became a Level 1 esper.
Although she was only Level 1 and her ability was not particularly strong, Uiharu Kazari had suffered greatly because of it.
The overexcited Saten Ruiko had used her Aero Hand ability more than once to flip up Uiharu Kazari's skirt. In the past, once a day or several times a week had been enough, but now...
At her most excited, Saten Ruiko had done it four times in a single day, more often than three daily meals! She no longer even needed to use her hands. A simple gesture could summon an updraft and lift the skirt.
As a result, Uiharu Kazari had been forced to become more agile, and she had even started wearing the same safety shorts as Misaka-senpai.
She was terrified that Saten Ruiko would fight without honor.
"Saten-san, why did you come all the way to the main venue in School District 7? What about your school's events... Don't tell me you're skipping them!"
After calming down, Uiharu Kazari tugged at her Judgment armband and let out several sinister chuckles, pretending to speak "coldly." "Saten-san, confess honestly..."
"Oh, Uiharu~ This is the main venue in School District 7..."
Seeing this, Saten Ruiko shook Uiharu Kazari's arm and decided to use her trump card. "Not only are there lots of young ladies from prestigious girls' schools, but there are also many high-level espers. In other words, Shadow Metal must definitely..."
Boom—!!
Suddenly, a violent blast of compressed air erupted from the field in the center of the stadium. It seemed to contain fanatical cheers like a collapsing mountain and surging sea, mixed with anguished screams on the verge of tears.
The two girls exchanged glances. What's going on? Isn't this a little too intense?