Haruto frowned as he watched the broadcast feed, someone had appeared where they definitely shouldn't be, and their eyes were fixed on Level 5 Misaka Mikoto.
No matter how he looked at it, something was wrong.
Pulling out his phone, Haruto accessed the Holy Grail system and hacked into the arena's surveillance cameras, but when the feeds loaded, his brow twitched slightly—the cameras covering that very alley, the one shown in the broadcast, had all been physically destroyed.
He rewound the footage and saw someone, just out of frame, deliberately smashing them with an ability.
This was bizarre.
In Academy City, any rational person wouldn't physically smash cameras, since security officers would catch you almost instantly, vandalizing public equipment was the fastest way to leave evidence behind.
Most people simply tampered with the network instead, especially since ordinary public cameras weren't particularly advanced, and Academy City was crawling with hackers capable of altering footage.
Hiring one was cheap, easy, and far less noticeable.
So, for someone to go to the trouble of destroying the cameras with brute force, their purpose had to be something far more reckless, something that, once complete, would leave behind a trail investigators could follow—digital trickery would not hold up.
That must be why they resorted to smashing them outright.
At that moment, Shirai Kuroko noticed the feed on Haruto's phone.
"Unauthorized access to public cameras is illegal hacking behavior… wait, why are these ones all static?"
She quickly realized the problem and prepared to teleport straight to the scene.
But Haruto's hand suddenly closed around the back of her neck, disrupting her calculation mid-process.
Her teleport fizzled, forcibly canceled.
Kuroko glared at him, furious. Even if she had complicated feelings toward Haruto, as a Judgement member she had to stop him—otherwise, she wasn't living up to justice.
But before she could speak, Haruto shook his head.
"Since they blatantly destroyed the cameras, don't you think they're also prepared for Judgement and Anti-Skill?"
Kuroko froze.
He was right.
Teleporting in recklessly could easily mean walking straight into an ambush.
Back during the bank robbery incident, she had learned her lesson the hard way, and though her character had matured a lot since then, her sense of justice still made her act impulsively.
"…Then I'll call in Anti-Skill, coordinate with the other Judgement members, and form a perimeter blockade—"
This time, her plan was actually sound. But just as she pulled out her phone, Haruto snatched it away again.
Kuroko puffed up angrily, glaring like she might bite him.
"Keep an eye on her. That situation is troublesome—I'll deal with it."
He handed the phone to Misaki, leaving the instruction behind, then disappeared instantly.
By now, his divine authority—his Kamui—had practically no startup time. It was even faster than Kuroko's teleportation.
She was stunned.
This guy… he was also a spatial ability user!? How had she never heard of him?
And besides, how could she, as a Judgement officer, just stand by while something so dangerous unfolded?
As she braced to follow, Misaki raised her remote.
"Kuroko-san, please don't act rashly. Otherwise, I'll have no choice but to take control of you for a while," she said with a faint smile.
"You… what if he ends up in danger!?" Kuroko shot back, furious.
But her processing speed couldn't possibly match a Level 5 like Misaki.
If Misaki pressed that button, Kuroko—who wasn't an Electromaster or Psychic-type—would instantly fall under control.
All she could do was try to argue, but Misaki only shook her head.
"He won't. Haruto is strong. If he says he'll handle it, he will."
Kuroko was left speechless, her frustration boiling.
What kind of blind trust was this? It was maddening.
Leaving Kuroko's anxiety behind, Haruto had already arrived in the alley within the competition grounds.
Even without cameras, his sensory ability was enough to lock onto the figures waiting there.
His silent appearance put them instantly on alert.
They were dressed in full-body black jumpsuits, like extras from a "Men in Black" film set, each one wearing a motorcycle-style helmet that concealed their entire body.
"Who are you!?" one barked sharply.
Since Haruto wasn't wearing a Judgement armband or Anti-Skill uniform, they didn't attack right away.
He frowned.
The energy within them wasn't weak, more like Level 3 to Level 4 espers.
Strong ones. But why would espers of that level risk becoming criminals? If Judgement or Anti-Skill were forced to fight them, the casualties would be terrible.
"You guys… Forget it. I'll see for myself."
He had thought to question them, but villains rarely gave honest answers.
Better to rely on his own method.
In a blur, he seized one of the men, lifting him from the ground as the Blacklight virus invaded, reading his memories.
The sight sent the rest into panic.
"Wait! Don't—just ask what you want to know, we'll tell you!" their leader shouted, almost desperate.
But Haruto had already finished.
His expression twisted into something amused. You know what—they really would have just answered if he asked.
"We belong to the special organization 'Deadlock.' You must be a spatial-type esper, right? There's no need for us to fight!" the leader blurted before Haruto could even speak.
Setting the man down, Haruto watched the leader exhale in relief, even looking excited.
"Judging from your strength, you must be a Level 3 or 4 stuck at a bottleneck, right? Join us—join Deadlock. We can help you break through and reach Level 5!"
His tone was coaxing.
Spatial espers were incredibly rare, after all, and recruiting one would be a massive boon. More importantly, there were no Level 5s among them.
So-called Deadlock was something like Skill-Out, a gray underground student organization.
But unlike Skill-Out, its members were mostly strong Level 3 and Level 4 espers, and Deadlock had only one goal: to break the bottleneck and reach Level 5.
Many espers tormented by their limits fell prey to that cult-like promise.
Their theory was simple: espers generated AIM fields, and the higher the level, the stronger the field—but the space could only hold so much intensity, and the existing Level 5s' AIM fields prevented anyone else from advancing.
Therefore, all they had to do was kill the existing Level 5s, and breaking through would come naturally.
The name "Deadlock" referred to this supposedly unbreakable knot.
But the logic was riddled with holes.
If they killed the current Level 5s and a new one emerged among them, would the rest have to kill that one too?
If not, then the Level 5 AIM field would still exist, and the others would remain stuck.
But those who joined Deadlock were already obsessed, consumed by the frustration of being trapped at their limit, more like cult followers—or MLM victims—than rational people.
They didn't want to face reality.
Driven by greed, they deluded themselves.
And the reason they tried to recruit Haruto was simple—they assumed he was also a spatial esper stuck at a bottleneck, since there had never been a Level 5 among his kind.
Listening to this nonsense, Haruto nearly laughed.
How foolish did you have to be to believe such a theory?
Or perhaps they didn't believe it at all, and simply used it as an excuse—to kill the Level 5s, take their place, and then, once they advanced, kill off their comrades as well.
It was almost funny. But also troublesome.
These were just ordinary members of Deadlock, and their memories had been tampered with.
Information about the true leaders was erased, leaving no way to trace back to the core.
After all, Deadlock was still an organization filled with numerous powerful Level 4 espers. Troublesome indeed.