The purple-haired girl calmly looked at the two people in white coats who had just opened her cell door. Only high-level personnel with maximum clearance could open the doors to this specific detention block.
It was only natural that researchers would eventually come for her. To the scientists and the General Board of Directors, the Espers in Academy City were nothing more than guinea pigs and experimental subjects.
'I used to think that to survive in Academy City, I had to put on a flattering smile and be liked,' she thought bitterly. 'I was so naive. No matter how hard experimental animals try to please the researchers, it only makes the vivisection easier for them.'
"Eh~ You look so dirty for our first meeting. It really diminishes your aesthetic appeal," Yuuya said, looking down at the fourteen-year-old girl crouching in the corner of the padded cell. Her purple eyes were calm but filled with an abyssal darkness.
"However... even with a little dirt on your face, the purple hair still makes you look very promising." Yuuya smiled, walking into the cell with casual interest.
Kozaku Mitori. In the canon timeline, after her failed assassination attempt on Aleister Crowley, she was supposed to be secretly extracted from prison by Kihara Gensei to serve as his proxy during the Daihaseisai festival. But because Yuuya's actions had already altered the timeline, Kihara Gensei was currently too distracted by the Level 5 battle data to retrieve her. So, she had simply been left rotting in this cell for months.
Mitori watched as the "researcher" approached her.
'Who is this guy? He's so young. He looks like a high school student. Is he some kind of prodigy?'
"She hasn't said a word. Has she gone mute from being locked up?" Yuuya squatted down, touched his chin, and then reached out to lift Mitori's chin with his finger.
Mitori reacted like a feral cat with its fur standing on end. She bared her teeth and clamped down hard on Yuuya's finger. She intended to bite clean through the bone to at least draw blood and vent her hatred.
But instead of a scream, all she heard was a sharp snap.
It felt like she had just bitten down on a solid block of tungsten steel. Her teeth rattled, her jaw throbbed, her whole body shuddered from the impact, and tears of sheer physical pain welled up in the corners of her eyes.
"Are your fingers made of iron?!" Mitori hissed fiercely, clutching her jaw.
"Tsk!" Yuriko crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe, looking highly impatient with Yuuya's antics.
"I thought you'd gone feral from being locked up," Yuuya chuckled, waving his uninjured hand. "Do you want to get out? I can take you out."
"Huh? What do you researchers want with me now?" Mitori spat sarcastically, glaring at him with pure hostility. "Do you want to study my Liquid Shadow ability again? Or am I just a warm body for your next human experiment?"
"Hmm~ I've actually just taken a liking to your face and your body. Is that a good enough answer?" Yuuya playfully pinched Mitori's chin again, teasing her. "Fourteen years old, and you're already so well-developed. You'll probably be a great beauty when you grow up."
"Huh? Are you an idiot?" Mitori looked at him as if he were completely insane. Was this researcher out of his mind?
"Alright, let's be frank." Yuuya dropped the act, his expression turning confident. "I am the Eighth Level 5 in Academy City. The Space Master. Of course, you've been locked in a box, so you wouldn't recognize me. But the white-haired girl brooding behind me is Accelerator. You know her, right?"
Yuuya pointed his thumb over his shoulder at Yuriko.
"A Level 5?!" Mitori's eyes widened.
She looked past Yuuya at the white-haired girl leaning against the doorframe with her eyes half-closed. That was Accelerator? The Strongest Esper in Academy City?!
A slight doubt arose in Mitori's mind, but it quickly vanished. The suffocating aura of compressed violence radiating from the girl couldn't be faked.
'The Eighth Level 5?!' Mitori thought frantically. 'Did he manifest while I was imprisoned? How long exactly have I been locked in this hole?'
She looked down at her chest. 'Well, my breasts have gotten this big... it must have been at least a year or two.'
"Hey." Mitori swatted Yuuya's hand away from her chin. "What does a Level 5 want with me? I have no connection to the top ranks."
'If I can get out of here with their help,' she calculated, 'I might consider cooperating with them for a while. Although I don't know what they could possibly need my power for.'
"I recently obtained the clearance from Aleister to form my own Dark Side organization," Yuuya said, standing up. "So, I've come to District 10 to recruit reliable members."
"Aleister..." Mitori's pupils contracted violently at the name, but she quickly forced her expression back to normal. She stood up, leaning her back against the padded wall, and glared at Yuuya.
"Are you kidding me? You want me to join a Dark Side unit? I was imprisoned in a black site because I tried to blow up the Windowless Building! I have a blood grudge against the General Board! You want me to be the Board's lapdog?! Aren't you afraid I'll plant a bomb in your skull and betray you?!"
The Dark Side units were just the wet-work dogs of the General Board of Directors. Making her take orders from the very people who tortured her friend? What a joke! She'd rather detonate a liquid metal bomb right now and blow them all to hell.
"I hate the General Board of Directors too," Yuuya grinned, stepping closer. His voice dropped to a strong, resonant whisper. "My Dark Side unit doesn't obey the Board's orders. We answer only to the top. And our main, unofficial responsibility... is to deal with the bastards who run things like the Clone Projects, and send those scumbags to meet their maker."
Yuuya reached out, his hand brushing past her ear, trapping her against the wall as he spoke with absolute confidence.
"Do you understand now?"
"Dolly..."
Mitori looked into Yuuya's eyes. Her heart skipped a beat. He knew. He had investigated her past, and that was exactly why he had sought her out.
"Heh." Mitori let out a dark, mocking laugh. "If it really is a rogue black-ops squad, then the Superintendent has truly lost his mind to let you run it. I'd be more than happy to join a suicide squad to kill researchers. But why choose me?"
"The reason is simple: your hatred for the researchers guarantees you won't betray my specific goals. And also, as I said, you're very pleasing to the eye," Yuuya said, looking down at her with amusement.
Mitori's eyes flashed with anger. Without warning, she raised her knee, delivering a brutal, self-defense strike directly to Yuuya's groin—a kick that would make any grown man kneel down and beg for mercy.
BZZZZT!
To her absolute shock, the moment her knee connected, her entire body went numb as if she had been struck by lightning. Her purple hair stood on end, and she collapsed against the wall, her muscles violently spasming.
'Electricity?! An electric shock?!' Mitori thought, her vision swimming. 'Didn't this guy just claim to be a Spatial Esper?! He's definitely lying!'
"What if I told you... that Dolly isn't dead?"
Yuuya stopped teasing her. He pulled out his smartphone and held it in front of her twitching face. The screen displayed a live-feed picture of a secret medical facility.
"Dolly?!" Mitori's eyes widened to the size of saucers. She instantly forgot the paralyzing pain, becoming incredibly agitated. "Dolly is dead! You're trying to deceive me with forged photos?! You bastard!"
She had broken into that research institute herself! It was completely empty! The stolen documents she found explicitly stated that Dolly's decaying clone body could only last for a month at most. That was years ago!
"Oh? If you don't believe me, I'll take you there right now," Yuuya said softly. "Dolly is currently receiving life-prolonging treatment at a hidden hospital run by Heaven Canceller. But her body is too fragile for her to leave the incubation tube."
Yuuya tucked his hands back into his white coat, smiling like a devil luring a fish onto a hook.
"So, are you willing to join my team now? You only get one chance."
"I'll join!" Mitori shouted, her heart pounding against her ribs.
Her emotions became extremely erratic. She grabbed the lapels of Yuuya's coat with both hands, her cloudy eyes finally shining with a desperate, agonizing light of anticipation.
"I'll do anything! Just tell me... Dolly is still alive, isn't she?! You're not lying to me, are you?!"
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