The air carried a faintly sweet scent. The snacks Natsume-san had just bought were laid out in a row on a bench near the competition grounds, with three retrieved coins placed in the corner.
She had originally planned to solve her phone problem first—it was too inconvenient to go without one in modern society.
But the prices of scroll-screen and virtual-screen phones were beyond her means, all over ¥30,000. The cash-strapped bun-girl gritted her teeth and decided to just buy an ordinary smartphone from the underground mall sometime.
After all, her requirements for a phone were simple: as long as it could read manga and browse forums, it was enough.
Speaking of which, Natsume-san's various budgets had been stretched again and again, leaving her in a severe financial crunch.
This month's scholarship had already been used to buy two holographic projection devices in advance. Even though the threat from Kihara Gensei had temporarily subsided, Natsume Sonoko wasn't about to abandon the idea.
The Sisters couldn't participate in the Daihasei Festival, so Natsume-san thought the holographic imagery would give a similar feeling and also help with concealment.
But now things had changed again, and the need for concealment had lessened considerably.
Instead, the need to simulate various environments was greater—the Sisters could go see the Egyptian pyramids or the ocean whenever they wanted.
When they discussed it yesterday, Shokuhou-senpai had offered to provide the building used as a safe house for the Sisters, and the Sisters seemed to like it there. But they still needed to coordinate with Heaven Canceller—the dorm provided by Academy City had to be returned.
As for the original Misaka Apartments, only Building 1 would be kept, and the rent for Building 2 that Misaka-senpai had been paying could be saved.
"Hanazono-san is amazing—she defeated so many people."
Juufuku-san's mouth hung open as she stared in astonishment at Hanazono Mei on the field.
Though her feet were stuck to the ground by her opponent's ability, her body moved with surprising flexibility, dodging attacks effortlessly. Then, raising her wooden sword high, she popped the balloons on her opponent's chest and head with two precise strikes.
Kendo-related competitions, which required simple protective gear, were among the most challenging events.
Not only were offensive abilities restricted, but participants also needed specialized training. These events weren't open to anyone outside the kendo club.
However, the specific rules were quite simple and emphasized fun, eventually evolving into a contest of popping balloons with wooden swords.
"Well, Hanazono-san can probably see through her opponents' movements. It seems like she's using her sword to create echoes, similar to a triangle instrument."
Natsume-san held a steaming bun, ignoring the heat as she took a big bite, a satisfied smile spreading across her face.
This was nice—the budget she'd worked hard to save was still being put to good use.
In truth, Natsume-san was very familiar with this fighting style of reading opponents' movements. Using thermal mapping could achieve a similar effect to echolocation, but she never planned on fighting up close.
"And Hanazono-san said she's been practicing kendo for six or seven years—her family elders taught her at first."
"You know, if Hanazono hadn't come to Academy City, she might have become a shrine maiden someday."
Glancing thoughtfully at the girl in the competition area, Natsume Sonoko recalled their conversation during the three-legged race practice.
"A shrine maiden?"
Juufuku-san looked puzzled, clearly confused by such a role.
There were very few shrines or similar things in Academy City—they were considered outdated. Yet, there was a school of theology in District 12, which was somewhat hard to understand.
But for most students, such things had long faded from view. No one took so-called gods seriously anymore.
"Yeah, Hanazono-san's family runs a shrine."
"But gods definitely don't exist. Lots of books say that people in the past feared natural forces, so they imagined or exaggerated things that didn't exist. Maybe they were just rare beasts or monsters."
Even though she had seen magicians and various world-shaking powers, Natsume-san held a deep-seated belief that gods didn't exist.
But this skepticism seemed limited to the gods of local Japanese legends—it didn't extend to deities from other places. Natsume-san didn't seem to hold the same view about angels or demons, for instance.
"Hmm, I think so too. But the profession of shrine maiden sounds so ancient—you hardly see anyone like that nowadays."
Nodding, Juufuku Miho seemed to agree with the bun-girl—their views were quite similar.
"Probably."
Natsume-san thought for a moment, suddenly recalling a certain Himegami-senpai who liked wearing miko attire. She wondered if she was a real shrine maiden or just into cosplay.
Her curiosity was piqued.
But aside from that one time she saw her with Komoe-sensei, she hadn't run into her since. She was probably in Komoe-sensei's class now, in the same class as that Kamijou-senpai.
Not many people were watching the kendo match, so Natsume-san and her friend had a whole bench to themselves.
Natsume-san found herself with little to do, slipping back into a state of leisure.
The follow-up matters regarding Kihara Gensei and the Board of Directors were being handled by Shokuhou-senpai, and the escaped Kouzaku Mitori's whereabouts were still unknown.
Misaka-senpai was spending time with Misaka Misuzu-san, so Natsume-san didn't need to intrude. The Dorm Supervisor had also helped cancel today's matches for a certain someone.
As for the nano-spheres discovered last night, Natsume-san still hadn't thought of a good way to deal with them—she could only take things one step at a time.
Then there was the matter with her mother—Natsume-san had called yesterday.
But something unexpected seemed to have happened. Her mother was going to District 15 this morning to negotiate buying a company building.
The seller had suddenly become willing to lower the price, unlike before when they were stubborn and negotiations had reached a stalemate.
According to her mother's cheerful tone, the money saved could be used to buy her dear little Sonoko an even bigger supercomputer.
Bigger is better, bigger is beautiful.
That simplistic notion still lingered in her mother's mind, and Natsume-san herself also hoped her future supercomputer would be as large as possible.
Due to recent events, she urgently needed more computational power to help derive some new formulas.
Without disrupting daily life, Reiko had already incorporated many derivations related to the thermal-kinetic conversion formula.
With the help of the microscopic world, the difficulty of developing such formulas had decreased significantly, allowing her to rapidly gain combat capabilities—almost like forcing a seedling to grow.
But there were downsides: using these formulas still relied on the microscopic world itself—they couldn't be used independently.
Natsume-san had a clear understanding. Aside from the most simplified microscopic formulas, she also planned to develop a set of conventional thermal-kinetic conversion formulas that were less simplified but could be used anytime.
However, the development difficulty was inversely proportional to their simplicity. These conventional formulas would undoubtedly be much harder to develop than the shortcut formulas relying on the microscopic world, but their advantage lay in stability and repeatability.
For every simplified formula she could obtain via the microscopic world, she planned to do the same.
Doing so would require a staggering amount of computational power.
Of course, Natsume-san's current focus remained on the simplified formulas based on the microscopic world.
Compared to her newly acquired perception, Natsume Sonoko trusted her long-used abilities more—so much so that she was willing to invest more effort in seemingly pointless tasks.
Even if she developed something only to leave it unused, Natsume-san would gain an indescribable sense of security—something she had always pursued.
"These independently operable, repeatable conventional formulas could actually rely on observing the microscopic world itself to reduce development difficulty, making it easier to summarize universal operational patterns. At the same time, the corresponding dependency would only exist during the development process."
"So, developing these two types of formulas isn't contradictory for me—instead, they can form a progressive development path."
Some clear ideas were already forming in Natsume-san's mind.
First, develop the simpler, simplified formulas, then add various elements to refine the conventional ones.
But for now, the computational power Natsume-san could command was still too limited. She could only focus on developing thermal-kinetic conversion for atmospheric control, starting with nitrogen and oxygen—the most abundant elements in the air.
Previously, she had to rely on natural laws like hot air rising and cold air sinking to indirectly control the atmosphere.
Now, she could influence the thermal-kinetic distribution within atoms to directly control the atmosphere itself, greatly improving efficiency.
The noisy surroundings didn't seem to disturb the bun-girl exploring her new toy, but part of her attention remained on the match.
Hanazono-san, who wasn't much taller than Natsume-san, defeated several more high school opponents in a row, her straightforward sword strokes carrying a subtle sharpness.
As long as her opponent struck first, they were usually taken out in one move. After all, even the faintest sounds made by her opponent fell within her ability's domain.
"Natsume-san, for you."
Someone poked her arm, pulling her attention back completely.
Under her puzzled gaze, Juufuku-san smiled and handed her a bottle of mung bean and cucumber juice—a flavor that had recently become popular among students aiming for skincare.
Moreover, the vending machines had added many vegetable-flavored juice drinks, further squeezing out the carbonated beverage market.
Amid the lively competition scene, two Tokiwadai girls drank strange beverages and snacked, cheering enthusiastically for the kendo girl sweating it out on the field.
The morning seemed to pass slowly, especially for the busy Tokiwadai girls.
Accompanying Juufuku-san and Hanazono-san to various events—from kendo matches to sandbag tossing, to obstacle races—the adolescent girls freely radiated their vitality and youthful energy.
Meanwhile, a certain bun-girl with nothing to do ate all morning, her fat accumulation rate rising steadily. She looked radiant and fortunate, having spent part of her budget that really shouldn't have been spent.
Luckily, Juufuku-san treated her to some snacks, saving her from the danger of having to replace her smartphone with an older, keypad model.
With so many formula derivations to handle, eating a little more to replenish her hard-working brain's sugar was perfectly normal, right?
--+--
Stretching lazily, she let the warm sunlight wash over her.
The clear weather was always comfortable, if you ignored the occasional gusts of wind.
"How strange—the wind hasn't stopped all day. The forecast said the gust index in District 7 was only around level three."
Having accompanied the bun-girl out of the underground mall, Juufuku-san immediately noticed the unusual weather.
"The forecast must be wrong. Small-scale air convections happen in cities all the time, like the heat island effect or something."
Natsume Sonoko maintained a ladylike smile—Tokiwadai young ladies instinctively became more poised in crowded places—as she earnestly explained the minor changes around them.
It wasn't exactly a lie—there really was severe air convection happening nearby, except it was being directed by a certain bun-girl herself.
They were already far from the dorm, but the air still contained countless nano-spheres, further proving that these technological creations were indeed widespread throughout Academy City.
"These things are probably cheap consumables. High technological content doesn't necessarily mean high cost. Even after destroying so many along the way, their density hasn't changed noticeably—it quickly returns to normal. How to put it… it's like a flowing river. Even if you block it, it replenishes quickly unless you use something to isolate them."
"Considering bad weather, the daily damage count could reach millions or even tens of millions. So, these things must be deployed and replenished daily, or they'd be used up quickly."
Natsume-san calculated silently, gradually forming some ideas.
Even if she destroyed all the nano-spheres in District 7, it wouldn't matter much because they were cheap consumables. She also didn't have to worry about drawing special attention.
Of course, that was assuming these things weren't surveillance devices or something.
But even if they were cheap, once you considered the quantity, there couldn't be many research institutions that could sustain such consumption.
It was likely another multi-department joint experiment, possibly even directly funded by a major corporation or the Board of Directors.
And once multiple agencies were involved, Natsume-san instinctively grew wary—she was becoming more and more sensitive lately.
"True, the weather forecast has been wrong several times recently."
Hanazono-san, full of energy, nodded in agreement beside her.
The once near-perfect weather forecast had long since fallen from grace due to inexplicable weather changes. Even an intact Tree Diagram probably couldn't predict some people's reckless actions.
"Speaking of which, we're really lucky—the underground mall has been having discounts during the Daihasei Festival."
Hanazono-san continued cheerfully, quickly shifting the topic away from the weather.
She had gone shopping in the underground mall with the bun-girl but ended up buying more herself. Though she wasn't carrying anything, the items had already been delivered to the dorm.
"I managed to buy a phone with only three-quarters of my budget—so great!"
Pulled back to reality by her companion, Natsume Sonoko felt like crying tears of joy. For the first time, she felt the Daihasei Festival wasn't so bad.
--+--
T/N: 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!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.