Exhausting all her strength, she finally dragged the driver out of the powered suit. The girl, who had been forcibly commanded by Shokuhou-senpai, was still in a dazed, disoriented state.
Following Shokuhou-senpai's suggestion, Natsume Sonoko found a rope from the corner and prepared to tie the girl up. After all, the imposed command could end at any moment.
In a situation like this, using one's own hands felt far more reliable.
Neither of them had much strength left, both gasping for air, barely managing to move the girl to a spot near the edge.
In the process, they'd accidentally covered the girl in dust—a minor act of petty malice from a certain bun-girl.
Natsume Sonoko's face was still smudged with grime, her whole body filthy. Her expression remained that same vacant look, but inside, she felt an indescribable unease.
Ever since gaining her esper ability, she'd basically never dirtied her clothes or hair like this. Now, feeling this grimy made Natsume-san's skin crawl.
But that feeling was quickly pushed aside by a certain someone as she suppressed the urge to freak out, because Shokuhou-senpai next to her was in the same sorry state.
Dust clung to her golden long hair, making the top student of the year look utterly ordinary.
Shokuhou-senpai was trying to read the memories of the attacker girl, fumbling almost like a beginner with her ability.
Surprisingly, a certain bun-girl felt a sense of calm settle over her, even feeling a bit distracted and distant.
She wasn't all that special. Everyone was just acting for their own important reasons.
"Did you manage to read her memories?"
Tilting her head slightly, Natsume Sonoko asked with some concern.
Their plan today had failed in every conceivable way. Their greatest achievement was just narrowing down the search for the mastermind.
If they couldn't find anything useful now, they wouldn't even be able to identify the attackers. Shokuhou-senpai didn't know who these assailants were.
But after waiting several seconds, she received no reply. Shokuhou-senpai was fully concentrated, using her telepathy.
The bun-girl didn't idle either. She simply climbed into the powered suit, trying to figure out how to operate it.
Basically, she fiddled with the instrument panel, checked if the cockpit could fit two people, and reminisced about the protagonist's maneuvers from the mecha manga she'd read.
After talking earlier, Natsume-san knew this was one of the escape plans Shokuhou-senpai had thought of on the fly.
While their abilities were being jammed and the attackers were trying to break through the guards' defenses, Shokuhou-senpai had conceived the idea of capturing a powered suit.
Combined with other contingency plans, it formed a complete set of self-rescue and counterattack measures.
Luckily, this particular fallback showed a glimmer of success—a single powered suit had barged into the warehouse area where the interference was relatively weaker.
Of course, the final outcome also benefited from her other preparations.
However, one point even Shokuhou-senpai seemed to have subconsciously overlooked: from the start, this powered suit was intended for Natsume-san or someone else to use, not herself.
Although she'd read memories containing vast computer-related knowledge, Shokuhou Misaki seemed to have a natural resistance to machines. She could barely use a cellphone, let alone operate a high-tech powered suit.
"This is so fun! It even has an auto-control mode!"
"Shokuhou-senpai, this thing even has game software installed!"
The bun-girl was exclaiming with excitement, clearly having found something entertaining, almost forgetting her grimy state.
"Success. I've managed to read something," Shokuhou-senpai said, finally letting out a sigh of relief. Things were finally taking a turn for the better.
What should have been easy mind-reading was now severely hampered.
Not only did the target need to be relatively still, but it took five or six consecutive attempts to barely read the girl's memories. At this level, it was barely equivalent to an esper of Level 2.
The AIM diffusion field interference most affected precision, and psychological control required extremely high precision to begin with. Otherwise, Shokuhou-senpai wouldn't need her remote to refine her ability.
If she abused her power while it was being jammed, not only would she fail to read minds, but she could easily cause severe damage, with memory loss being just a minor issue.
It wasn't like Natsume-san's approach, where she could sometimes focus on the big picture and overlook details, as long as the end result was roughly acceptable.
"I know where these people are from. They all come from a net forum called the 'Esper Mutual Aid Union,' were selected to join one of its discussion groups, and received a recruitment request to attack Level 5 espers a few days ago."
"The attack on me wasn't random. They've been preparing near the juvenile correctional facility for five days. Some members even dropped out of the Daihasei Festival events."
Shokuhou-senpai took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm.
So, it wasn't that Natsume Sonoko's plan had been leaked. In fact, Shokuhou-senpai's presence at the juvenile correctional facility was itself a result of the enemy's manipulation.
Was the intermediary's information deliberately left for her to find, complete with all those clues pointing straight to the correctional facility?
"'Esper Mutual Aid' forum? Sounds familiar," Natsume-san murmured, thinking of the forum Meigo-senpai had mentioned before. She'd logged in to check it out later and had been furious.
Although Natsume-san had vowed to get back at the people on that forum, she ended up doing nothing. She was quite restrained in these matters.
Truthfully, it was mainly because a certain someone was too lazy, and one incident after another had left her mentally drained.
Come to think of it, before she became a Level 5, she'd quite enjoyed reading gossip about these senior espers herself.
If the attackers really came from this forum, Natsume-san had underestimated it in the past.
She remembered some posts where people talked about teaching Accelerator a lesson, like vandalizing his place with paint or letting the air out of his bike tires. Those might have been real too.
Brave in every sense of the word, indeed.
"Deadlock," Shokuhou Misaki said abruptly. Just cross-referencing slightly with the memories she'd read, her expression immediately turned resolute.
That student organization still existed.
"Deadlock? What's that?" Natsume-san asked, blinking. "Is it related to the forum?"
She was at a loss. Having been a Level 5 for such a short time, there was much she didn't know.
"Deadlock is a student organization dedicated to targeting Level 5 espers."
"They believe the AIM diffusion fields emitted by Level 5 espers severely hinder others' ability development, preventing many from making progress. To eliminate this 'unfair phenomenon,' Deadlock aims to kill Level 5 espers."
Shokuhou-senpai's voice was low.
"I was attacked by them once before. Thankfully, someone risked their life to save me. I thought they had vanished, but now they've reappeared in this form."
"And perhaps Deadlock can no longer be called just Deadlock. They've grown from a mere student group into a certain voice, a certain force within this city. They parasitize the network, making them difficult to eradicate completely."
As she spoke, Shokuhou-senpai's expression clearly turned somewhat uncomfortable, as if recalling mixed memories.
"Such a thing exists? That's insane," Natsume-san thought, inwardly shocked.
Academy City really had all sorts. Trying to improve abilities by killing Level 5s seemed completely unreasonable to her.
'Got any proof? Show me. If not, I'll smash your glasses.'
Still, Natsume-san could understand a little. If your ability stalled completely, that feeling was truly agonizing.
It was like students trying their hardest yet still ranking last in exams—easy to fall into despair and look for someone to blame.
But if they targeted the Level 5 tier, Natsume-san couldn't sympathize anymore, because she was a Level 5, and she cared deeply about that identity.
"So, who was it that saved you, Shokuhou-senpai?"
Setting the whole Deadlock matter aside, a certain bun-girl felt inexplicably curious, even losing interest in the powered suit she held.
"Natsume-san, prying into others' privacy isn't very polite, you know?"
Her expression returning to normal, the golden-haired senpai couldn't help but ruffle Natsume Sonoko's dusty head, speaking with a somewhat stern tone, even addressing her formally as 'Natsume-san.'
"If I hadn't managed to activate that thing in time, causing mass unconsciousness in the area, we'd probably be facing Deadlock members of Level 4 caliber by now."
As she ruffled the other girl's hair, Shokuhou-senpai seemed lost in thought, her memories drifting back to when she first arrived at the juvenile correctional facility.
These attackers were actually reinforcements who had arrived later.
When explaining to Natsume-san earlier, she had only mentioned part of the story, hiding the inconvenient details.
But Natsume-san had always been understanding. Seeing Shokuhou-senpai hold back, she didn't press further. She, too, kept many things hidden, things she didn't want others to know.
Unless absolutely necessary, a certain bun-girl wouldn't try to uncover others' secrets. That would just make her look foolish.
--+--
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.