Night fell quietly, and the streets were already thick with students hurrying back to their dorms.
Taking a sharp turn off the bustling avenue, Natsume Sonoko slipped into a quieter lane. Almost instantly, the noise faded away—so much so that the soft whirring of a cleaning bot's wheels became clearly audible.
She'd walked quite a distance now, yet Sonoko kept glancing back over her shoulder, eyes fixed on Yumiya Rakko, who stubbornly maintained a careful distance behind her.
Under the cover of night, Rakko seemed to melt into the shadows, drifting in and out of sight along the secluded path like a seasoned hunter.
Sonoko couldn't quite figure her out. She tilted her head up toward the sky, brow furrowed. Lately, everything felt more confusing than ever.
Before being noticed, Rakko had at least tried to be discreet—but now she was brazenly tailing her. No matter how Sonoko looked at it, that was seriously suspicious.
And Sonoko hadn't forgotten how dangerous Rakko could be. When it came to people who operated in the dark, her guard didn't drop easily.
After all, as an ordinary student who'd dumped all her skill points into defense, safety always came first.
"Yumiya-senpai really doesn't seem like the type for the Dark Side."
She shot a sidelong glance behind her, and a few stray thoughts flickered through her mind.
Though Rakko still hadn't admitted anything, Sonoko had already linked her to the underground operatives. In her view, any student wandering around Academy City at night was automatically suspect—unless, of course, they were just sneaking out for fun.
She'd seen plenty of Dark Side members before, and many of them were barely even adults.
Kids who should've been in school were being turned into killing machines.
The thought alone made Sonoko catch a whiff of the city's grimy underbelly—chaotic, rotten, and hidden just beneath the surface.
Shoving those thoughts deep down, Sonoko turned to face Rakko.
Good or bad, this whole tailing business was getting ridiculous. She couldn't just let it slide anymore.
"Yumiya Rakko-senpai," she said firmly, voice steady and eyes blazing, "whatever your reason is, could you please stop following me? Or I really will get mad."
Rakko, however, seemed utterly oblivious to Sonoko's irritation. She stayed perfectly still in the shadows, playing the part of a silent backdrop.
They locked eyes for about ten seconds—then suddenly, Rakko's sleeve shot upward.
Sonoko flinched.
Instinctively bracing to counterattack, she quickly realized the angle was off—it wasn't aimed at her.
That alone was enough to stop her from lunging forward, but it didn't mean she let her guard down. Not for a second.
A quiet bullet hissed from Rakko's sleeve. Sonoko's eyes weren't sharp enough to track it—she hadn't trained her vision to legendary levels—but her brain was another story.
A sudden heat trail flared in her mind, triggering an instant alarm. Before the bullet even landed, Sonoko had already calculated its trajectory and pinpointed its destination.
"There's someone there."
She blinked in surprise, following the path with her eyes until the dim streetlights revealed a figure at the impact point.
What stunned her more was that her thermal vision—already active—hadn't picked up a thing. The spot had registered as empty air, completely normal.
Immediately, Sonoko ran a mental diagnostic on her own ability. This wasn't good. Not good at all—especially for a bun-headed girl who relied on thermal sight like her life depended on it.
Firearms always released heat, sure—but what about cold steel? If someone could creep up on her without a trace, then her whole "safety first" philosophy was just a joke.
In under ten seconds, she'd already called on Reiko's computational power for a full system check.
To her surprise, everything checked out. Her thermal vision was functioning perfectly, her formulas intact, and the distance well within her range. So why hadn't she seen that person?
While Sonoko stood frozen in thought, Rakko had already sprung into action. In three long strides, she'd covered over ten meters, moving with the precision of a veteran fighter.
Her movements were fluid, efficient—almost elegant. It was the kind of raw physical skill that most ability-reliant students couldn't even imagine.
Within seconds, Rakko was locked in combat with the mysterious figure.
He wore a bizarre suit that made him look like a standing dolphin, complete with a small oxygen tank strapped to his back.
The outfit was so odd it bordered on comical—and it seriously hampered his fighting ability. Yet somehow, he held his own against Rakko.
Gunfire cracked again. The "dolphin man" rolled sideways, dodging several shots from Rakko's sleeve gun, then whipped a dart from his back and hurled it straight at her.
But the instant the dart began spinning, it froze solid—encased in ice.
By now, Sonoko had confirmed her ability was working fine. Her attention snapped to the fight.
If it wasn't her, then the problem had to be him.
With a flick of thought, she flooded the area around them with heated air. Since she wasn't targeting Rakko, the older girl easily stepped out of the zone.
But Sonoko quickly realized the oxygen tank rendered her usual shock tactics useless—he didn't need to breathe ambient air at all.
"So it really is me they're after."
Understanding dawned on Sonoko's face. Someone must've analyzed her ability. The target was obvious.
And that explained why she hadn't sensed him earlier—it had to be that strange suit.
She raised one hand, fingers slightly curled. A second later, the oxygen tank on the dolphin man's back exploded, sending him flying several meters.
It wasn't just the air around her that she controlled—gases inside sealed containers were fair game too. Inducing thermal expansion in the tank was child's play.
The blast tore a neat hole in his suit, and finally, Sonoko detected his body heat.
So it was heat-insulating clothing. Not exactly cutting-edge—thick winter coats could do something similar—but this suit blocked heat emission completely. That was rare.
"This is X-fiber," Rakko said, her voice calm. "Developed years ago. Not the newest tech, but it's got incredible thermal insulation. Rumor has it, it was reverse-engineered from heat-based espers like you. Though it's pretty weak against punctures or blunt force."
Wearing it in combat was pushing it, though. Prolonged use risked heatstroke—or worse. Whoever this guy was, he had serious endurance.
X-fiber was usually reserved for extreme environments—firefighting, Arctic expeditions, that sort of thing.
"I see," Sonoko murmured, nodding slowly.
Just as she'd suspected—her ability wasn't at fault.
Still, her stomach tightened.
This material was a natural counter to her. And why were so many people suddenly after her?
First Rakko, now this dolphin guy. Was this the fallout from beating Accelerator?
She took a slow breath. She already had a workaround in mind.
Beyond her usual thermal sight, she could also detect the "vacuum" effect—areas where her ability failed to register heat, creating unnatural voids. By cross-referencing both signals, she could build her own custom radar system. She'd call it the Thermal Vacuum Radar.
Of course, it had one flaw: it couldn't distinguish between a person and a robot wrapped in X-fiber. But for now, that was a problem without a solution.
Luckily, even with advanced robotics, machines still struggled to move as quietly or hide as effectively as humans. Their threat level, at least, wasn't as high.
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T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
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