Fine dust and debris still drifted in the sky. Amidst the silence, the collapsed ruins of the hotel groaned and creaked. The evening wind blew cold, and fragnts of the building glead clearly under the illumination of the streetlights lining the road.
Thud thud~
The sound of steel-reinforced concrete crashing down from the hotel mingled with the distant wail of police sirens, and from afar, a crisp set of footsteps echoed closer.
Staggering to the ground, Musuji Awaki didn’t care about anything else as she looked up. What appeared in her view first—and in the viewers’ eyes—was a pair of black high heels with orange trim, stepping lightly upon "violet shards."
"Please don’t confuse priorities, ’Guide’ Musuji Awaki."
It was a tall silver-haired beauty.
She wore Tokiwadai Middle School’s winter uniform: a beige blazer over a dark blue plaid pleated skirt. Her snow-white waist-length hair shimred under the moonlight, cascading over her shoulders and forming a breathtakingly stunning and intimidating silhouette.
Her delicate face bore a faintly curious look, with crimson eyes reflecting the figures of Shirai Kuroko and Musuji Awaki. In her slender hand, she carried a silver-white suitcase.
Noticing the Academy City insignia on the case, Awaki murmured, "That suitcase contains the new generation of the Tree Diagram’s central data processor..."
Wait a minute, wasn’t that supposed to be in my travel case?
Awaki instinctively looked down at her travel case, only now realizing—it felt lighter. When did it change?
As a Level 4 spatial teleportation esper, sensitivity to weight was essential. And yet just now, she had failed to notice it at all.
"Selene... why? Why are you here? Could it be... you also want to stop the re-initiation of the ’Level 6 Shift Project’?!" Awaki stared at the white figure before her, face twisted in a mix of laughter and tears.
"As a partner to over sixty percent of Academy City’s research institutions, wouldn’t the reactivation of this project serve your interests best? No... no way. Is the fourth-ranked ’Railgun’ really worth you going this far? To protect this... this world she whimsically imagined into existence?"
"You speak as if you understand well. Protect? Hmph..."
"Not quite. It’s more like watching, observing. I want to see what kind of fruit this world she so willfully imagined will ultimately bear."
Selene shook her head, her voice neither calm nor mocking, but as if she was holding back laughter. Just monts earlier, she had observed the battle and conversation between Shirai Kuroko and Musuji Awaki through a screen.
As for Awakie’s beliefs, Selene was civilized enough not to claim they were absolutely wrong. But just the sa—she had every right to speak, and Selene had every right to disagree with every single word.
She found Awaki ridiculous. Disdain, contempt, and aversion were inevitable.
Selene paused, her tone becoming slightly more engaged, as if suppressing amusent. "If you say she is ’white,’ then in your eyes, I suppose I shall claim to be black."
"Where there is white, there is black. Together, we will paint the world in a refined shade of gray." Suspended in midair, Selene’s delicate face radiated a smile that could steal one’s breath away.
"As for the ’Level 6 Shift Project’—why persist with sothing already proven unfeasible? Besides, hasn’t the project’s true goal already been achieved?"
On the surface, the Level 6 Shift Project aid to artificially elevate Accelerator to a Level 6 esper. But in truth, Board Chairman Aleister Crowley never believed the plan had any real chance of success.
In so ways, Aleister welcod the project’s failure.
At the right mont, under the imnse pressure brought by Selene and Kakine Teitoku, Accelerator had grown even stronger than he had been at the corresponding stage in the original plan.
Even with Kamijou Touma’s intervention and the desperate efforts of Misaka Mikoto and the Sisters, the battle that ultimately ended the Level 6 Shift Project had been fiercely intense and dangerously close.
Watching live via the Misaka Network, Aleister had even considered whether to contact Selene again to disable Accelerator a second ti.
Fortunately, Kamijou Touma lived up to his reputation as the most unpredictable boy. He defeated the Level 5 esper Accelerator, becoming the first person to bring down a Level 5 with only Level 0 abilities. And so, the Level 6 Shift Project was permanently frozen.
After the plan’s termination, the remaining Sisters were distributed to various cooperative institutions worldwide for rehabilitation and adjustnt. Their lifespans were possibly limited. Yet that was Aleister’s exact intent—or rather, his deliberate arrangent.
The project’s failure gave Aleister a valid excuse to scatter the Sisters across the globe.
From an outsider’s perspective, Selene’s intervention was perfectly reasonable. The first to beco Level 6 could only be her. Suppressing the rising Accelerator was natural—that’s just her overbearing style.
And the justification was ready-made: Selene’s protective nature and her preferential treatnt toward her own were well known in Academy City’s research circles. Being a fellow student of Tokiwadai Middle School, plus the alumni culture prevalent in Western countries, it seed only natural that she would help a classmate like Misaka Mikoto through a tough ti.
In this regard, Selene and Aleister shared a common goal. If Kamijou Touma and Misaka Mikoto failed to handle Accelerator, Selene would have intervened to ensure the Level 6 Shift Project’s failure.
The Misaka Sisters would then serve as the antennas for the imaginary district’s AIM diffusion field. According to Aleister’s plan, the world would ultimately be enveloped by the AIM field and transford into an artificial heaven.
A realm created purely through scientific ans, embodying the destruction of all magic.
In such a world where fundantal rules had shifted, temples or sanctuaries sustained by magic would collapse. The sa would happen to all religions, instantly halting all global magical activity.
Selene would assist in expanding it—doing all she could to make the artificial heaven broader and more suppressive. Not rely an Earth-based artificial heaven, but a galactic one. Just add so extra fuel.
If the conditions allowed—she wondered—how would a Magic God’s flavor be?
That’s right. Selene’s bottom line for maintaining this world’s peace and existence would not change.
She would not annex or destroy it, nor establish direct rule. The continued existence of the Magic Gods didn’t concern her. But if the temptation was strong enough and the success rate high—without threatening the Solar System—Selene wouldn’t mind devouring a Magic God or two.
Whether Aleister knew the details of Selene’s little sches was uncertain, but he definitely sensed her plotting. Still, he didn’t care. As long as they shared a united front.
He had lived this long for a single reason: to shatter all phases, end all mysticism, and return the world to one where living was simply natural.
Academy City, everything he left behind—if Selene wanted it, she could have it. He desired nothing more.
"You said... achieved..." Musuji Awaki’s pupils suddenly widened at Selene’s words, her entire body trembling even more violently.
"Aaaahhh—!"
Awaki suddenly clutched her head and scread in agony, face twisted, violently shaking her head.
Around her, with herself as the center, the atmosphere within several ters trembled. But due to Selene’s spatial lockdown, it was nothing more than mild air distortion and flickers of the AIM diffusion field.
"Losing control already? How noisy."
Landing lightly, Selene frowned slightly. She raised her right index finger, and a beam of violet-red laser light lit up from its tip.
"Ah! Stop stop stop! Selene-senpai, please don’t expand the area of public property damage! You can’t kill people!!"
Seeing this, Shirai Kuroko blinked and snapped out of her dazed state. Like a frog leaping forward, she lunged toward Selene.
In the next mont—Boom!!!
An earth-shaking explosion roared out. The violet-red laser beam instantly lted through Musuji Awaki’s travel case, scorched across the street, and blasted into the collapsed hotel ruins. The rubble and debris were vaporized, leaving behind a deep crater over ten ters wide at the foundation.
A violent shockwave mixed with fragnts of masonry and wisps of smoke burst forth, sweeping through the adjacent street like a sudden gale. Musuji Awaki, screaming, was flung to the ground.
"Relax, I exercised restraint."
Holding Shirai Kuroko’s head down, Selene looked at her pitiful expression and flicked her on the forehead. "In your eyes, am I just a violent brute with no self-control?"
"Um... uh, I an—no, of course not!" Shirai Kuroko had almost nodded reflexively but quickly shook her head when she saw Selene’s faintly amused gaze.
"You already turned the place into rubble anyway. Clearing the debris is a pain, so I lted it instead. Easier to rebuild, don’t you think?"
"Yes yes yes!"
Whatever Senpai says is always right! I surrender!
Clack clack~
The military-grade flashlight used as an ability-support device quietly slipped from Musuji Awaki’s hand, clattering onto the ground. The front lens popped out and fractured with ripples, reflecting the image of the dust-covered, lifeless girl lying face down.
"Why? Why..."
Shattered along with the lens were the final fragnts of Awaki’s spirit. She seed to have lost her goal and support. Even though Selene hadn’t aid at her, she still collapsed motionlessly to the ground.
What now... what should I do?
All my backups have failed. Is there nowhere left for ?
"I’m not your therapist. Since you’re one of Aleister’s people, I won’t kill you. If you have questions, think about them in prison."
Gazing at the dreamless, salted-fish-like Awaki, Selene spoke indifferently.
Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps approached. "Kuroko!"
A girl with pretty, shoulder-length chestnut hair sprinted over, her Tokiwadai uniform fluttering. A hint of safety shorts peeked out beneath her skirt. Her similarly colored eyes radiated strength and energy, and her naturally beautiful face needed no makeup.
It was Misaka Mikoto, her voice filled with urgency.
"Onee-sama!"
At the sight of her, Shirai Kuroko’s dejected mood vanished. She sprang up like a spinning top, wriggling as if to leap into Mikoto’s arms, and then...
"Yo." A casual greeting from a certain spiky-haired boy caused her to freeze mid-motion.
"..."
Shirai Kuroko’s eyes dimd like a light turned off. She stared blankly at Kamijou Touma running alongside Misaka Mikoto.
"Onee-sama, y-you-you... Don’t tell you and this humanoid ape—?!"
"Waaaah! Kuroko is devastated! No wonder you were so distracted shopping for lingerie with today, wearing that lovestruck look—sob sob sob! Onee-sama, why can’t you be more like Selene-senpai? Remain pure and chaste!"
Pointing at the two, Shirai clutched her chest and stumbled back in heartbreak.
"No... it’s not... ugh, Selene?" Mikoto started to explain, but the mont she saw Selene standing behind Shirai with a suitcase in hand, she changed the subject with a nervous chuckle.
"You’re here, which ans everything’s settled, right?"
"Naturally. Academy City has fewer than sixty spatial ability espers. Isolating Musuji Awaki’s AIM diffusion field signature wasn’t difficult." Selene gestured to the pitiful girl at her feet and answered coolly.
"Biri-biri~ So you called in Lady Selene too, huh."
Kamijou Touma stepped up to Selene and scratched the back of his head. When he saw Musuji Awaki lying on the ground, his right hand unconsciously clenched into a fist. He looked up at Selene and Misaka Mikoto. "That terrifying plan must never be restarted..."
Thinking of the scenes where tens of thousands of Misaka Sisters were brutally killed, Kamijou tightened his fist. "This is the thing, right?"
"The new-generation Tree Diagram’s central data processor? You’re not planning to destroy it, are you?" Selene lifted the suitcase, tapping its outer casing as she eyed Kamijou and Mikoto’s murderous glares.
"You’re afraid that by replacing the processor, the Tree Diagram will gain even stronger predictive research capabilities, leading to the resurrection of the ’Level 6 Shift Project.’ So you want to destroy it. But do you even know what it’s worth? In a way, part of it belongs to ."
"Selene, you..." Hearing that the device was tied to Selene, Misaka Mikoto’s expression turned troubled. Should they still destroy it?
Just as Selene said, that was indeed Mikoto’s fear when she went after Musuji Awaki. The Level 6 Shift Project had been frozen due to failure—but that was using the old processor. What if the new one enabled stronger prediction algorithms?
Like a startled bird, Mikoto was terrified the plan would begin again.
But if their opponent was Selene—the strongest, the First-ranked—what could she do?
"No need to look so grim."
Seeing Mikoto’s eyes grow moist, Selene smiled gently. She stepped forward and patted her shoulder. In Mikoto’s stunned expression, Selene pushed the suitcase into her arms.
"A failed plan won’t be restarted. Accelerator has already found a new path."
"R-Really?" Hugging the suitcase, Mikoto stared at Selene. A bit of hesitation and shyness surfaced on her pretty face, as if she wanted to say sothing but held back.
"Really."
Just like teasing a kitten, Selene took the opportunity to ruffle Mikoto’s hair while she was still in that pitiful state. Her crimson eyes flickered ever so subtly.
Mm, from this angle—very clear. Maybe I’ll show it to you later when you’ve cald down, Misaka-san.
As she’d said before, Selene wanted to see what kind of fruit this whimsical world would bear. But at the sa ti, it was all a stage—a play where bonds continued to deepen.
Kamijou Touma.
Selene turned her gaze to the black-haired, spiky-headed boy behind Mikoto, who was now grinning like an idiot, relieved that the situation had been resolved.
If sothing happens again, and Selene can’t use her main body to brute-force a solution, then it would be up to him. This boy.
Perhaps sensing her gaze, Kamijou responded with a bright, cheerful smile. He flashed a row of white teeth and gave a thumbs-up. "As expected of the strongest First-ranked. Solved it all in a flash, Lady Selene."
"You too, Kamijou-san. The first Level 0 to defeat a Level 5 esper. Your na echoes far and wide. Accelerator isn’t weak. I’d even like to spar with you myself," Selene teased.
"Please don’t!"
Kamijou instantly broke into complaints. After defeating Accelerator, his fa skyrocketed—and so did the number of delinquents chasing him, hoping to make a na for themselves.
"Hahaha... But still, thank you, for helping our clumsy classmate Misaka Mikoto." Selene extended her hand with a smile.
Kamijou took it and said seriously, "Of course. We’re friends, after all."
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