The cleaning robots' chassis whirred madly, their omnidirectional wheels working in tandem with thin strip-like cleaning cloths to wipe the now drained floor spotless.
In the brief pauses between cleaning, these compact bodies demonstrated surprising power, suddenly slamming into the Powered Suits that towered over them.
The impacted Powered Suits only swayed slightly before violently swinging their tal bats, knocking the cleaning robots in front of them over with a single strike.
But new cleaning robots imdiately rushed in to replace them, attacking from multiple angles, creating distractions from the sides, exploiting the blind spots in the Powered Suits' built-in caras, effectively blocking the ones near the main entrance.
Although these Powered Suits were remotely controlled, unless manually overridden, they operated on preset functional programs.
Given their sheer numbers, manually controlling them one by one was practically impossible.
The initial plan was to leverage the asymtric strategy of swarm tactics, but then more and more enemy Powered Suits reinforcents arrived. Fortunately, their side still held the nurical advantage.
Staring intently at the intensifying battlefield, Uiharu's face held a calmness belying her age, like a general directing a battle from afar.
Though, seemingly thinking of the other Judgnt mbers at their posts, a trace of worry and unease flickered in her eyes.
The rain had stopped, but a fog had risen.
The dark clouds still hung in the sky, but their color had lightened considerably, and they no longer released any rain.
Uiharu's hands suddenly stilled, her eyes unconsciously darting to a spot not far away, her cherry-blossom pink lips parting slightly.
The grey mist surged like a herd of wild horses, churning and rolling, seeming to seek prey, devouring everything within sight.
In this semi-flooded environnt, the fog displayed a startling aggressiveness, wrapping everyone caught within it in a thick, suffocating embrace.
"Hey, hey, can you hear ? Attention to that super cute flower-girl up ahead."
A voice—that of a certain bun-haired girl—sounded beside her, yet Uiharu looked around and saw no one.
This was because Natsu-san was using air vibrations to transmit her voice directly to Uiharu's location.
"Really now, what is Natsu-san saying," the 'flower-girl' murmured, montarily stunned before a faint blush appeared on her cheeks, tinged with a hint of complaint.
"Uiharu-san, rember to recall the cleaning robots outside the main gate. I've thought of a way to deal with these Powered Suits."
As a certain soone wasn't equipped with an earpiece or similar communication tool, she naturally couldn't hear Uiharu-san's minor grumbling, and simply continued using the air to carry her words.
"I understand."
Uiharu nodded instinctively, not considering whether Natsu-san could hear her or not.
Lifting her head to look at the thick fog rolling towards them, Uiharu suddenly had an epiphany. She thought she understood Natsu-san's plan.
So Natsu-san planned to use the fog against the Powered Suits. It was a very clever move.
As expected of a Tokiwadai lady.
'If only Natsu-san were a bit more diligent, less of a glutton, and maybe swapped her hairstyle for sothing like princess curls, she'd fit my image of a proper young lady perfectly,' the flower-wearing girl, a fervent admirer of elite all-girls' schools, couldn't help but think.
Uiharu steadied herself, retreating outside the main gate at a jog while using her PDA to control the cleaning robots' movents.
The cleaning robots disengaged without hesitation. The mont the fog enveloped the area, they followed Uiharu's commands and pulled back to the entrance, quickly turning the gateway into a sea of machines.
Just as Uiharu reached the entrance, a certain bun-haired girl landed deftly on top of one of the cleaning robots, the wind-like wings behind her dissipating.
"Natsu-san, it's a relief to see you're alright."
Uiharu's face lit up with a hint of joy upon seeing Natsu Sonoko safe and sound.
"But where's Shirai-san?"
Glancing around, the flower-wearing girl grew sowhat worried again.
She rembered that Natsu-san and Shirai-san had been together.
"Don't worry. She's probably rescuing people right now," Natsu Sonoko said softly.
Standing atop the eighty-centiter-tall cleaning robot gave Natsu-san a very different perspective from usual.
In fact, a certain bun-girl rather enjoyed sightseeing from atop the cleaning robots on many occasions.
The mist halted about ten ters from the main entrance, firmly trapping everything inside.
Now, almost the entire Research Exhibition venue was blanketed in a thick layer of fog, with only the areas around the five exits remaining clear for a short distance.
In this dense fog, the built-in caras the Powered Suits used for orientation and target acquisition beca utterly useless, causing them to spin around aimlessly like headless flies.
"Relax. Even if any get out, it'll only be a few stragglers," Natsu Sonoko said in a comforting tone, seeing that Uiharu beside her was still sowhat tense.
Unless an individual's combat ability reached a qualitative transformation, they couldn't handle nurous opponents—of course, freaks like Accelerator were the exception.
And when the goal wasn't annihilation but simply containnt, Natsu-san seed to have a particular talent.
After realizing this, Natsu Sonoko and Shirai-san had quickly switched tactics.
The two had devised a seemingly simple yet remarkably effective thod: use the fog to cripple the Powered Suits' identification systems.
Natsu-san would use the mist to seal off the venue, while Shirai-san took the opportunity to evacuate everyone inside—not just the Judgnt mbers and Kongou-senpai's group, but even the venue staff.
"Good thing these Powered Suits aren't equipped with infrared imagers, or this would be less effective," Natsu Sonoko muttered under her breath.
The original Powered Suits required pilots; after being modified for remote control, they beca heavily reliant on their built-in functions.
Unlike standard thermal scopes, infrared imagers could directly observe the infrared rays emitted by objects.
They were unaffected by most weather, environnts, or even buildings, but the resulting images were overly blurry.
While the machines might not accurately interpret these fuzzy images, the people remotely controlling the Powered Suits might still use them to find a way out.
Natsu-san's thermal perception, however, was more like a combination of both: it possessed the infrared imager's ability to see through obstructions, while also offering the clear, distinguishable visuals of a thermal scope.
"Perhaps they thought caras were sufficient. A fog as low-visibility as the one you're creating, Natsu-san, is probably an exception to their planning," Uiharu mused from beside her.
"Uiharu, I just thought of sothing very important."
Frowning, Natsu-san suddenly turned her head, scrutinizing Uiharu's face intently.
"Has sothing else happened?" Uiharu-san asked, slightly taken aback.
"No, it's not that. Can you teach how to control the cleaning robots with my phone? This is the request of a lifeti."
Gazing at the massive swarm of cleaning robots gathered at the entrance, a look of unmistakable envy abruptly flashed across Natsu-san's face.
'If I could learn Uiharu's thod of controlling these cleaning robots, I could hail a ride ho anyti, anywhere.'
-- --
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.
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