Sunlight cut through the haze, flooding into the venue with a blinding white glow. A single breath filled the lungs with the lingering, acrid scent of gunpowder.
As the mist thinned, visibility improved from utter blackness to being able to make out people and objects over ten meters away.
Everyone looked wretched. Even those wearing raincoats were soaked through, their faces splattered with mud, their hair stained yellowish by the filthy water.
Each person bore injuries, major or minor. Except for a certain bun-girl, who remained perfectly clean.
Suddenly, as if steeling herself for some grand decision, Natsume bit down on her impeccably white teeth.
A water balloon abruptly detonated right above her own head.
The water crashed down directly onto the bun-girl. Caught completely off-guard and with her defenses down for once, she was instantly drenched from head to toe.
The cascading water made it hard to breathe. Gasping for air, Natsume's mouth fell open as she struggled.
She flailed for a moment, wringing the water from her hair and pushing the sodden bangs plastered to her forehead out of her eyes to clear her vision. It took her a good while to compose herself again.
"Natsume-san, what on earth did you do that for?"
The sound of splashing water had startled Shirai-san beside her, who looked at Natsume with a mix of surprise and confusion.
"It's... it's nothing. Anyway, it's none of your business, Shirai-san."
Natsume's face flushed an inexplicable red. She felt a rush of heat to her head, realizing she'd probably done something that looked incredibly foolish.
"Honestly, what am I going to do with you?"
"Everyone saw how hard you worked, Natsume-san. There was no need to do something like that."
Shirai-san let out a sigh, her voice laced with helplessness. Natsume always seemed to fixate on the most peculiar things.
"Natsume-san!"
Hearing a familiar voice call from a distance, Natsume Sonoko immediately turned and spotted Juufuku Miho-san waving at her.
"Juufuku-san, over here!" the bun-girl called back hurriedly.
Dashing through the thinning mist, Natsume quickly closed the distance and scurried over to the other group.
"Are you okay? That must hurt."
Natsume Sonoko's gaze fell worriedly on Juufuku Miho's knee.
Truth be told, more than anything else in the world, Natsume-san had the lowest tolerance for pain. A previous bruise on her foot had caused her misery for the longest time.
"It's fine, really. I just bumped it."
Juufuku Miho shook her head, a shy smile gracing her lips.
Her thick bangs were soaked and stuck flat to her forehead, unintentionally revealing her two prominent, bushy eyebrows.
Though Juufuku-san was still shy and introverted, the lack of confidence she had when they first met had vanished.
The girl who had once been desperately trying to hide her eyebrows while being spun around on a tornado by a certain bun-girl could now present them to others openly.
Not only had her ability leveled up to Level 3, but she had also transferred to Tokiwadai. The current Juufuku-san was different now.
"They're lovely eyebrows. You're welcome to visit the Judgment branch anytime."
Konori-senpai happened to be walking by and gently patted Juufuku-san on the shoulder with a warm smile.
"Okay," Juufuku-san replied, her face tinged with pink as she nodded politely.
"Oh, that's right! I have some medicine here. Let's get some on that first."
Remembering, Natsume-san pulled a slightly squashed small cloth pouch from her pocket. It bore a red cross medical symbol and the Judgment emblem.
It was the medical supply kit she received as a Judgment member. She'd never needed to open it before, but given the severity of today's events, she'd brought it along just in case.
"This is for wounds, right? But it should work for bruises too."
Natsume-san mused aloud, handing a small tube to Juufuku-san.
"Thank you."
Accepting the tube, Juufuku-san offered a soft, grateful smile.
"Don't mention it! By the way, Juufuku-san, how did you find out about what was happening here at the research exhibition?"
Hesitating for a few seconds in her mind, Natsume Sonoko half-knelt beside Juufuku-san and asked, her tone curious.
"I overheard Kongou-san and the others talking at school. I felt I might be able to help a little... and I knew you were involved too, Natsume-san."
Juufuku-san explained slowly, though her voice seemed to grow fainter towards the end.
The crisis of twenty thousand powered suits had been averted, leaving behind scattered debris littering the ground. The most intact ones were those from which Judgment had previously extracted the ability-conducting media.
The elaborate plan, prepared over a year by the dark side organization [STUDY], hadn't even managed to breach the main entrance of the research exhibition.
The majority had been handled by Judgment, and the rest were swiftly suppressed by Academy City's overwhelming military force.
While the situation at the exhibition venue had been resolved, the circumstances concerning Misaka-senpai remained unclear.
"Still no word from Onee-sama?"
Shirai-san paced restlessly on the spot, her face etched with anxiety.
"Not yet, but we've tracked the locator signal on Febrie."
Uiharu-san turned her head to report.
They had in advance placed a phone on Febrie to prevent any mishaps.
--+--
"No matter how many there are, they're useless if they can't hit you. And this is nothing like the real Meltdowner."
Misaka-senpai, with Febrie clinging to her back, nimbly evaded the attacks from several replica Meltdowner cannons.
If it were the real Meltdowner, its attacks wouldn't require charging like these machines; they'd unleash their surprising, immense power in an instant.
Even with numerical superiority, their effectiveness plummeted once their attack patterns became discernible.
The real nuisance was that these replica Meltdowner used copious amounts of non-metallic materials and insulating coatings, rendering Misaka-senpai's electric shocks useless.
White beams of light ravaged the soccer field. A stray shot sliced through a spectator stand, reducing it to rubble.
It had a reckless, scorched-earth feel to it; the beams attacked not only Misaka-senpai but also shredded the powered suits on their own side into scrap metal.
As an unwelcome intruder, Misaka-senpai had been greeted with the host's 'enthusiastic hospitality' the moment she stepped in—though the offering wasn't fruit, but weapons.
A considerable number of powered suits were also lying in ambush here. While nowhere near the numbers at the exhibition venue, there were still over a thousand units.
Coupled with the seven replica Meltdowner cannons built using collected Meltdowner data, they completely outgunned a certain Electromaster in terms of firepower.
Under such dense suppressive fire, Misaka-senpai found no opening to counterattack.
She could only move rapidly among the clusters of powered suits, using them as shields to draw the replica Meltdowner fire onto themselves.
Dodging a pure white lethal beam, Misaka-senpai's steps suddenly halted, as if she had changed her previously devised strategy.
She ran straight up the stadium wall, the attacks still doggedly pursuing her.
Her knees bent slightly, powerful arcs of electricity manifesting as visible blue-white lines coiling around her.
"Hold on tight."
Misaka-senpai whispered to Febrie, using one arm to secure the girl firmly behind her.
Carrying Febrie did seem to be hindering her movements somewhat.
The electrical glow at her feet intensified, growing dazzling, accompanied by a sound like a thousand chirping birds.
With a flash that lit up a wide area, the scenery immediately around Misaka-senpai was swallowed by the intense light, affecting nearly a third of the soccer field.
All the replica Meltdowner cannons ceased fire simultaneously. Blinded by the high-intensity light and heat, and disrupted by electronic interference, they had completely lost track of their target.
In that moment, Misaka-senpai used the cover of the light to leap high into the air.
"Where did she go?"
In front of the computer screen, Aritomi Haruki frowned.
The screen monitoring Misaka-senpai had suddenly gone blank, her figure vanishing.
As the intense light subsided, the seven replica Meltdowner cannons, which had been standing perfectly functional moments before, began to shudder violently.
As if pulled by an invisible force, the seven machines were dragged by a powerful tug and slammed hard into the wall. Stuck over ten meters up, immobilized, they were taken out in one fell swoop.
Embedded in the muzzles of these Meltdowner replicas were countless minute iron sand particles, which had found their way there at some unknown point.
--+--
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.