Humans' sensitivity to time largely boils down to neural reaction speed.
Generally speaking, the faster one's reactions and the more active their thoughts, the more effortlessly they can act within the same span of time.
Natsume-san was precisely the type who knew how to use time with high efficiency.
Operating at her usual level, the flurry of thoughts she could generate in a single second could easily rival five or six seconds' worth for an ordinary person.
To put it in trendier terms, Natsume-san's perception of time was five or six times faster than a normal person's.
Accelerator's voice still echoed in her ears, but things weren't unfolding as she had imagined.
The torrent of thoughts flashing through her mind led Natsume-san to a decision instantly, silently calculating the relative distance between herself and Misaka-senpai.
If the person before her—now unrecognizable, their body shimmering with light as if adrift among stars and seas—was still Misaka-senpai, then Accelerator's actions should have been quite useful.
Even though she utterly despised that white-haired bastard, a sentiment that hadn't improved much, even a certain bun-haired girl had to admit he was trying to help.
Against all expectations, the current Misaka-senpai remained utterly indifferent to his words. Even her rage seemed increasingly superficial, a dangerously telling sign.
So dangerous it could cost Misaka-senpai her life.
The negative emotions radiating from Misaka-senpai had already reached an extreme level, tainting her AIM diffusion field to a terrifying degree.
Yet, the total volume of emotion was no longer increasing.
This indicated her body was on the verge of complete miscontrol. The consciousness belonging to Misaka Mikoto was no longer dominant; something far more terrifying and unknown was gradually taking over.
This 'something' could be void, it could be mystery, it could even be some form of energy entity—but it was decidedly not Misaka-senpai.
The Level 5's evolution had reached a critical juncture. Lacking the requisite talent, Misaka-senpai couldn't possibly survive the remaining stages of evolution. This was the very reason Natsume-san was fighting so hard to stop it.
Not only was Misaka-senpai's rationality suppressed, but even emotional surges like rage, resentment, and bitterness were beginning to wane, as if on the verge of being utterly replaced by something else in the very next second.
The current Misaka-senpai's reactions to the external world were becoming increasingly limited to the instincts of her body and brain.
Though her AIM field vastly extended her perceptual range, not a shred of intellect remained. She merely carried out preset objectives by inertia and eliminated threats based on instinct, thus completely ignoring Accelerator's provocation.
Knowing full well the experiment would fail, knowing failure meant death—it all stemmed from that utterly un concealed arrogance.
An arrogance that had saturated this city's very flesh and blood since its founding.
Including the Level 5s, all espers were merely lab rats in this cage. This reality filled Natsume-san with an immense sense of suffocation.
For the first time, Natsume-san felt a desire to change something.
But it was immediately followed by a profound sense of powerlessness from the depths of her heart. Just protecting what she already had was exhausting enough.
"How pitiful. What did Misaka-senpai ever do wrong?"
"Just for the pursuit of some illusory power, they push an innocent person to the brink. This is exactly why I'm so angry. Even my hatred for the dreaded Daihasei Festival doesn't come close to a tenth of this disgust."
Reiko's body trembled slightly, resonating with the anger belonging to Natsume-san.
Without almost any further deliberation, Natsume-san began operating at her absolute limit.
The physical pain, the fury in her heart—it all flooded into a certain someone's mind, solidifying her resolve to fight with everything she had.
The easiest way to infect someone is through shared experience. She had long since felt the same rage Misaka-senpai faced, she just hadn't wanted to confront it.
That bun-haired girl was always hesitating, always imposing limits on herself. This time, reality was brutally forcing her forward another step, making her recognize Academy City's most naked truth.
Death was always present. A single moment of carelessness, and someone precious could die right before her eyes.
It's just that every incident until now had been resolved successfully. But if just one wasn't... what would become of Natsume Sonoko's life?
She truly needed greater power, even if she could choose not to use it.
Aside from a few irregular monsters, the Level 5s weren't as invincible as they believed themselves to be.
The opportunity Accelerator tried to create never materialized. Misaka-senpai's attention wasn't diverted, so the relentless attacks continued.
Even operating purely on bodily instinct, the power of a Level 6 was undeniable, sufficient to contend with two Level 5s simultaneously.
Almost the instant Natsume-san snapped back to focus, dozens of those blackened projectiles homed in on her position once again.
'If Accelerator can destroy those black spheres and even land a hit on Misaka-senpai, then what he can do, I can do too.'
Returning to reality, Natsume-san constantly tracked the trajectories of these projectiles, searching for a path to close the distance to Misaka-senpai's side.
She frantically calculated all known variables, figuring out how far she could move after each wave of assault.
She also needed to maintain somewhat irregular, non-linear movement, lest she lose her stealth advantage completely, turning the widespread barrage into the far more dangerous precision strikes.
Not far away, Accelerator also realized something was wrong and acted decisively at the same moment.
Several monstrously large tornadoes swirled into existence behind him, fearlessly charging head-on into the mass of dark energy.
The dark energy corroded his body's surface, only to be easily deflected by an Accelerator who had already analyzed vast amounts of AIM diffusion field data.
His reflection hadn't fully adapted to this specific field yet, resulting in minor deviations, but it didn't hinder his ability to suppress the field before him.
Whatever the vanished-and-reappeared #8 was planning, Accelerator intended to get involved.
The sheer tenacity of this Level 6 was giving him a headache. Given enough time, it wouldn't be a threat, but there simply wasn't much time left—for him or for Last Order. So he chose to help voluntarily.
That Tokiwadai girl, shrouded in mystery, hadn't just shaken free of Kihara Gensei's control; she seemed to have a solution to the current problem.
Though, in the end, she was just a naive ojou-sama with a penchant for skulking around.
But this time, it seemed the bun-haired ojou-sama had chosen a direct confrontation.
With a wave of his hand, he tore through the conglomerate AIM field before him, ripping a large gap open through the middle.
The main black sphere, with a radius exceeding a hundred meters, couldn't hinder Accelerator's advance in the slightest.
But he had to admit, as the energy density and attack frequency increased, the computational cost was rising limitlessly.
Even if the cost per instance was minuscule, the sheer volume was starting to strain even Accelerator.
Meanwhile, in a specific moving zone, continuously released Meltdowners and blackened Railguns were locked in a fierce, inextricable battle.
They canceled each other out, merged, and stirred up chaotic currents of air and shifting electrical charges.
To conserve some computational power, several of the black projectiles destined to miss anyway grazed past the cheeks of Natsume-san and Reiko, their immense heat steadily dissipated by the multiple thermoregulatory layers maintained over their skin.
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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.