Time slipped and swirled, and the scene abruptly shifted back to several dozen minutes earlier. The golden-haired girl was still sparkling as brilliantly as ever.
She'd strolled nonchalantly into the annex of the Juvenile Reformatory using her ability, the staff around her seemingly oblivious, obediently remaining near a certain Mental Out.
Standing before the glass window on the fourth floor, Shokuhou Misaki gently lowered the arm holding her remote.
The imprint of her starry pupils was already embedded in the eyes of the guards not far away.
Aiming in the right direction, activating her power—Mental Out infiltrated unsuspecting minds like an insidious spy.
By merely imposing slight influence on these guards and staff, she had already gleaned a rough idea of the events of that day.
But to get more precise information, she needed more details about the person who had issued the death certificate from Tsuchihara Hospital.
Reading recent memories to obtain information had long become second nature to Shokuhou Misaki.
Just in case, she was also prepared to copy the records from the day of that person's death—after all, she had an ally with decent hacking skills.
Several guards piloting Powered Suits had been meticulously controlled by her and were now heading into the depths of the Reformatory to find the staff on duty that day.
More guards remained at their posts, but tiny stars now shimmered unbidden in their pupils.
The Juvenile Reformatory covered a considerable area, with the underground facilities being even more extensive. Without using some special methods, Shokuhou Misaki's ability couldn't possibly envelop everyone completely; she could only manage limited control over the peripheral personnel.
Meanwhile, some staff members, under clear instructions, were being controlled towards the Reformatory's electronic records room and surveillance room.
Even though she wasn't adept with machinery or electronics, she could achieve similar results by leveraging others' strength—for instance, by imposing directives for specific routes and copying actions, though these would fail if they exceeded the directive's scope.
By the same logic, when Shokuhou-senpai controlled espers, she couldn't use their abilities directly through her mental control, but she could impose commands for them to fight using their powers.
"The sun is really dazzling today."
"I've found the person. It's about time to call Natsume-san."
Standing by the glass window, Shokuhou Misaki couldn't help but narrow her eyes. The midday sun usually didn't shine directly into one's eyes, but now it was blurring her vision.
Seeming to think of a certain bun-girl, a slight smile instantly appeared on her face.
'Well then, I'll have to rely on Natsume-san next.' She wasn't very skilled when it came to combat, so she was truly glad to have found a partner to fight alongside her.
The prerequisites for choosing a partner were mind-reading and personality screening. Trust was something rather luxurious for Shokuhou Misaki, but once it fermented, it became stronger than anyone else's.
Feeling like the sunlight was growing increasingly harsh, Shokuhou Misaki unconsciously took a few steps forward, wanting to check the sun's angle.
But in the very next second, her body froze abruptly, a rare look of shock flashing in her pupils. A peculiar doll, resembling something molded from clay or a liquid, had appeared directly above the glass window.
Its body reflected a silvery-white gleam, capable of making exaggerated movements.
Its deeply sunken eye sockets were empty, with tentacles like long hair flowing from both sides of its head, and a strange pendant hung around its neck.
Shokuhou Misaki realized immediately—the reason the light reflection had blurred her vision was because this thing had been lurking atop the glass.
Her first instinct was to use her mental control ability, but she found it useless. Multiple attempts yielded the same result.
This liquid creature wasn't an esper; it was more like one of those mechanical constructs she was least adept at dealing with.
But she had no time to discern its exact identity now. Whatever it was, its intentions were certainly not to chat, drink tea, and enjoy sweets with her.
Even someone striving for a peaceful daily life would instantly grasp its intent, let alone a golden-haired senpai who could see through people's hearts and understood this city's dark side.
In the split second before the glass shattered, Shokuhou Misaki didn't hesitate in the slightest. She controlled the surrounding staff to interfere, sending chairs, tables, and other objects flying one after another to obstruct its movements.
Even if it only bought her a brief moment, it would be enough to reach the elevator.
However, to her slight surprise, as the furniture flew towards it, the liquid doll's movements suddenly halted, as if it had briefly lost track of Shokuhou Misaki's position.
Its extending liquid arm turned around and swiftly shattered the flying furniture instead, allowing Shokuhou Misaki to slip past the crowd and dash into the elevator.
These staff members, though not directly engaged in combat, had inadvertently provided enough cover for Shokuhou-senpai.
Simultaneously, Shokuhou Misaki raised her remote towards the guards' direction.
Even with the elevator doors separating them, she successfully summoned over half of the guards to her location, constantly updating their protective commands, reconfirming her position to ensure the defenses would activate immediately.
'Was that just an illusion a moment ago?'
Stepping into the elevator, Shokuhou-senpai immediately shook her head. It wasn't an illusion.
Her feeling was correct. That doll-like thing had entered a brief stupor because of the furniture, afterwards even letting her leave unscathed.
Either the doll's target wasn't her, or it had suffered some unknown interference.
She didn't think there was anything unusual about the furniture itself; she just felt something was off.
Thinking in terms of normal human reactions, perhaps the liquid doll's 'line of sight' had been obstructed.
Maybe even more severely than if a normal person's vision was blocked, as if it could no longer maintain its attack lock on Shokuhou Misaki.
But that thing clearly had no eyes or similar organs—only hollow, sunken sockets—so the concept of 'line of sight' didn't apply.
'I need to quickly confirm that doll's location.'
'If I'm not mistaken, that thing needs certain methods to identify its target, methods that can be blocked or interfered with. Those methods could be cameras, sound, or perhaps... human sight.'
Sensing the guards' positions, a thoughtful expression crossed Shokuhou Misaki's face. She had a rough guess.
She actually leaned more towards sound, as she remembered carefully reading a certain file—the one on Kouzaku Mitori recorded in the Database.
Under these circumstances, she couldn't think of anyone else or any technology with similar capabilities.
And the current situation fit the Database's description of Kouzaku Mitori's ability perfectly.
Her ability was 'Liquid Shadow.' Since the created dolls lacked eyes, they could only use echolocation, similar to bats, to perceive the heartbeat sounds of others within a certain range.
Because the furniture disrupted the echo paths, combined with the heartbeats of the multiple staff nearby, the doll had lost its target, Shokuhou Misaki deduced.
Though everything happened quickly, Shokuhou Misaki's response was even quicker.
The reaction speed of a Level 5 was on a different dimension altogether from a normal person's, though whether her body could keep up was another matter.
She hadn't given up on investigating the mastermind behind this, but she had to deal with that thing first.
Fortunately, she had plenty of force at her disposal here. Facing it alone would have been far too dangerous—it was practically her natural counter.
'It's on the third floor—no, it's already on the first floor.'
'If it really relies on sound waves, the elevator might cause some interference.'
Shokuhou-senpai felt tempted by the idea, but wasn't entirely confident.
Outside the elevator, hurried footsteps echoed everywhere. Some guards equipped with Powered Suits had already arrived nearby, a number of them still under Shokuhou Misaki's direct control.
To prevent inmates from escaping the Juvenile Reformatory, aside from the standard security facilities, some guards patrolled round-the-clock in Powered Suits.
Shokuhou-senpai's eyes snapped open.
Without hesitation, she pressed the button for the first floor, pressing her body tightly against the side of the elevator door, her heartbeat a faint echo against the confined space.
As the elevator doors slid open with a 'ding,' a liquid doll instantly appeared, its head swiveling around, the skull pendant on its neck turning synchronously.
In the cramped environment of the elevator, sound waves and their echoes returned almost simultaneously, the interval between them compressed to an extreme minimum.
If Shokuhou Misaki's guess was correct, and this doll used echolocation or a similar method of observation, then the echoes could also mislead it.
By pressing against the wall in this tight space, Shokuhou Misaki had thrown the echoes into chaos.
These preparations were minor, but their sole purpose was to ensure that when the elevator doors opened and attracted the doll's attention, she wouldn't be its first target.
Just before the doll fully elongated its head into the elevator, slowly turning towards where Shokuhou Misaki's head was—
A large number of Powered Suits swiftly appeared behind the doll. With a roar of concentrated fire, countless tongues of flame and arcs of electricity enveloped the liquid doll's body.
Shokuhou Misaki, positioned at the edge of the elevator door, avoided the barrage entirely.
What she needed to confirm now was whether this thing could be destroyed. If it couldn't, she'd have to change her plans for today.
"It melted?"
Even though the ambush had worked, a flicker of surprise crossed Shokuhou Misaki's eyes. The doll had rapidly melted upon being hit.
The weapons hadn't destroyed it at all. Its liquid nature allowed it to withstand significant kinetic and thermal damage. In fact, only a small portion of its body had been damaged, with just some of the liquid material vaporized during the initial concentrated fire.
This situation seemed more like it had abandoned this particular body.
The barrage, consisting of numerous stun guns mixed with a few projectile weapons, had completely engulfed the target within seconds of firing.
Shokuhou Misaki didn't dwell on it much. She could confirm this thing wasn't a living being, but rather a tool of unknown origins.
"It should be some kind of liquid metal. And this skull pendant... seems to be a camera?"
Carefully stepping out of the elevator, Shokuhou Misaki looked down to examine the items on the ground, immediately gaining some useful information.
The miniature camera appeared to have been destroyed by the stun guns. The opponent's retreat might have been partly due to losing one tool for locking onto targets.
But the camera's field of view was too limited to provide proper sight. The opponent must have other target acquisition abilities; this camera wasn't strictly essential.
So, the opponent's retreat likely had another reason unknown to her.
However, as a sudden, sharp pain shot through her arm, a barely visible wasp-like robot clumsily emerged from the pile of liquid metal and bit into Shokuhou Misaki, instantly injecting numerous microscopic nanomachines.
But due to the intense electrical barrage from the stun guns, both the wasp robot and the nanomachines it carried had been severely affected, resulting in massive damage and malfunction among the nanomachines.
The nanomachines, which should have completely paralyzed Shokuhou Misaki, only left Shokuhou-senpai struggling to maintain control over her own body.
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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.