Academy City's Weather Report! (Toaru)

Chapter 462: Academy City Weather Report! - 462

Hokaze Junko rose to her feet, her stubborn gaze fixed on the assailants slowly closing in.

Even though she'd managed a magnet-like effect by harnessing stray cellular electricity, the computational power required far exceeded normal ability usage.

Right now, quickly escaping this area with its altered friction coefficient was key.

What gave Hokaze Junko pause, however, was her inability to identify which attacker was the original user of this ability.

If she couldn't figure that out, even if she escaped this zone, she'd just plunge right back into danger.

The members of the Shokuhou Clique beside her were also nearing their limits. Most of them weren't the type skilled in fighting, and in just a short while, they'd been driven into a narrow corner by the assailants who held an overwhelming numerical advantage.

Though, thanks to interference from a certain Level 5, the situation hadn't completely deteriorated.

"There are simply too many people to restrain, and I have to consider the state of the Shokuhou Clique members too."

"If I indiscriminately apply optical illusions or alter the environment to split them up and pick them off, the most likely outcome would be unpredictable chaos and friendly fire. After all, everyone's emotions and thought processes are highly abnormal right now; they're releasing their abilities without restraint."

"Unless I can restrain everyone at once, any gentle approach will just lead to foreseeable trouble and delays."

Not far away, Natsume-san wore a somewhat helpless expression; she too had noticed the difficulties.

With the number of people needing restraint having increased so dramatically, she could no longer grasp everyone's movements with the same precision as before.

This was the point Natsume-san was most hesitant about.

Her mind was still trying to figure out a peaceful resolution, and observing her classmates brawling in a tangled mess was giving her a major headache.

Frankly, using Meltdowner or an air pressure cannon to clear the area would be most convenient. She wouldn't even need to worry much about accuracy; using such methods against physically frail espers was undoubtedly quite suitable.

However, Natsume-san naturally couldn't do that. She'd never even killed a chicken in her life, the very picture of a sheltered young lady.

Such high-lethality moves were only used by a certain bun-girl against opponents on her own level or stronger.

As for why that certain bun-girl hadn't joined the fray or shown herself yet—her ability's nature never required close combat. She didn't even need to reveal herself or announce her presence; sneakily taking potshots from the surroundings was sufficient.

It was only when maintaining secrecy and a safe distance that her advantages could be maximized. But right now, her mind was shackled by certain concerns, and her abilities were severely hampered by her eye injury and the need to protect the captive girls.

Her condition was poor, making it impossible to quickly render so many classmates unable to resist.

"Strictly speaking, calling for backup is the most cost-effective solution."

"After all, I'm really not well-versed in things like fights and brawls. It's best to leave it to the experts."

Her eyebrow twitched as a plan came to mind. Natsume-san always opted for the simpler solution in such matters. Calculating the time based on a certain dispenser-of-justice-girl's movement speed, she estimated she'd arrive in about three minutes.

Considering that Shirai-san sometimes ignored the school garden's entrance/exit procedures, saving the check-in time, she should be even faster.

Most importantly, with Shirai-san on the scene handling the crisis up close, Natsume Sonoko's own operations would become much easier.

"This is Judgment speaking."

"I order you to cooperate with our investigation on charges of assault and ability misuse. While I'm not entirely sure what happened here, seeing things in such a state is truly infuriating."

A dead-serious voice rang out, and then a twin-tailed girl wearing a Judgment armband appeared right in the middle of the crowd.

Shirai-san had arrived faster than expected, probably because she happened to be near School Garden.

The girl named Shirai Kuroko shot several special steel needles from her hands, instantly subduing a restless assailant and pinning her, clothes and all, to the nearby wall.

After receiving a distress call from a certain teammate, Shirai Kuroko, who had been handling another case, hurried back to the school.

To her surprise, however, the school was in the midst of a widespread public order incident. Even the security personnel stationed at the research institute near the school seemed to have been delayed for some reason.

But even if they were her schoolmates, those who did wrong must be investigated and punished. That was the most basic form of justice, after all.

"Speaking of which, where is Natsume-san?"

After glancing around, Shirai-san found herself surrounded by a group of aggressive girls, but she couldn't spot the one who had called her here.

A look of displeasure crossed her face as she seemed to realize something.

Not far from her, however, Hokaze Junko, now back on her feet, was also holding off a significant number of people. The situation had reached a temporary balance with Shirai-san's arrival.

Commotion slowly grew outside the clique building. The trapped Shokuhou Clique members had finally broken free from the gymnasium and subdued the assailants lurking near them.

A certain noble girl holding a folding fan, gently resting it against her chin, followed the Shokuhou Clique members into the building with considerable surprise.

Several disheveled Tokiwadai girls were pinned to the hallway walls of the clique building, while others were suspended mid-air by air currents, creating a rather bizarre spectacle.

Invited by Kobayashi-senpai, Kongou Mitsuko, who had unexpectedly aided the Shokuhou Clique, gladly headed to the clique building to assist.

Just moments before, Kongou Mitsuko, who had been peacefully enjoying a quiet afternoon at school, chose to join the fight. She promptly blew the gymnasium doors sky-high, declaring that she would cover the cost of repairs.

With a gust of gentle wind, an assailant was pressed against the floor, promptly pinned down by the arriving Shirai Kuroko, unable to get up.

In simple coordination with a certain bun-girl whose location was unknown, Shirai Kuroko leveraged her excellent close-combat talents, possessing a natural advantage in handling criminals.

She reached for the steel needles in her leg holster, only to find the dozens she had prepared were completely used up. The several pairs of handcuffs she carried for restraining espers were also gone. She rose to her feet with a sigh, ready to find her next target.

But as she looked back, she saw that the suspected leader of the assailants, Houjou Arei, had already been thoroughly suppressed by a certain purple-haired princess-curl-girl. It was finally time for the battle to end.

Faced with destructive power on the level of a Level 5, Houjou Arei, unable to withstand such immense force, was instantly sent flying.

Multiple parts of her body suffered muscle spasms due to the severe strain from her Hard Taper, and she was completely surrounded by the arriving main force of the Shokuhou Clique.

"Hokaze, I saw it all. How you protected me."

"Such overwhelming protective instinct… it's very reassuring, you know."

Shokuhou Misaki opened her eyes, a faint smile playing on her lips as she gazed directly at the panting girl beside her. Then, she stretched comfortably in Hokaze's arms.

"Ah, Queen, I…"

Flustered by her queen's words, Hokaze Junko could only stammer out a few simple syllables before hurriedly setting her queen down, her face visibly embarrassed.

This made the ghostly girl flitting above her head want to shake some sense into her.

'Junko-chan, your performance right now is terrible! Where did all that destructive impulse from before go? Don't let some random praise go to your head!'

"But still, there are some things I simply can't ignore. It was Indian Poker, after all."

Having deleted the fragments of intense light from her mind, the gradually recovering queen was still somewhat weak.

Apart from those deeply ingrained light-based memory traps, Shokuhou Misaki had also read something else: the other party had used Indian Poker, causing a degree of distortion in their inner thoughts.

This incident also raised Shokuhou Misaki's guard. She couldn't so casually read others' memories anymore, even just surface-level ones.

Not until she could confirm the memories in their heads posed no threat to her.

Perhaps she needed to create a secondary brain specifically for screening memories, to filter and bear the brunt of such memory-based attacks.

Or maybe she could develop some formulas for memory inspection, though that clearly wouldn't be as effective or direct as a secondary brain.

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T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL