Chapter 86: Who Is Hunting Whom?
Makoto was woken in the evening by a call from Misaka Mikoto.
"Hello? What's up?"
Mikoto immediately sounded suspicious.
"That voice... don't tell me you're still sleeping. I thought you just didn't like going out, but you can't spend every day lazing around at home!"
"In any case, get up and come outside. I'm treating you to dinner, then we're going to the arcade. No refusing!"
Her words sounded like an order, yet there was somehow a hint of coaxing in her tone.
'Is that just my imagination?'
"Fine. If the young lady gives an order, I'll obey."
Makoto had no reason to refuse. He needed to go out for dinner anyway, and getting another expensive Tokiwadai-style nutritional meal out of Mikoto was hardly a bad deal.
Sure enough, she didn't disappoint him. They ate the same kind of meal as before, and Makoto even suspected his portion was more elaborate than usual, almost as though she'd ordered something special for him.
"Kitano, maybe I'm not the best person to say this, but summer vacation is almost here. You really should fix your sleep schedule."
Makoto nodded. That wouldn't be difficult.
Yukino would also be entering summer vacation soon, so Makoto could shift his training to daytime and sleep normally at night. The exact schedule could wait until after he met Sakiko.
"Hey. Hey!"
A familiar voice suddenly cut through his thoughts.
"Are you listening to me? Don't tell me you're thinking about something weird... or some girl?"
Makoto snapped back to reality and looked over.
It was Shirai Kuroko.
"What are you doing here?"
Kuroko immediately bristled.
"Hah? Onee-sama is here. Why wouldn't I be here?"
"But Mikoto invited only me to dinner."
Kuroko nearly petrified.
Then she noticed Makoto's meal.
It was the most expensive set in the restaurant, priced at a full 68,000 yen.
Her head turned toward Mikoto like a rusted machine, desperately waiting for her to deny everything.
Mikoto simply lowered her head and started drinking through her straw, clearly unwilling to discuss the matter.
Kuroko gritted her teeth.
"Fine! I'm here to eat too. Happy?"
She ordered a slightly cheaper meal and squeezed into the seat beside Mikoto, stabbing at her food with her spoon as though every bite were a hated enemy.
With Kuroko constantly interrupting, the conversation naturally shifted toward yesterday's bombing and Level Upper.
After finishing her meal, Kuroko said, "We've located a place where several Level Upper users gather. I'm going there later to collect information."
The moment Mikoto heard there was an incident, her energy returned.
"Level Upper users are dangerous, right? Then I'm obviously coming too. Kitano, you're coming with us."
Makoto nodded.
This was a perfect opportunity to obtain a copy of Level Upper.
The recording recovered from Hatsuya yesterday had naturally been confiscated as evidence by Kuroko. Today there should be several copies around, making it much easier for Makoto to take one.
After eating, the three headed to a small working-class restaurant.
Unlike the expensive nutritional meals they'd just eaten, this place mainly served things like tonkatsu and fried-rice set meals.
Most of the customers were delinquents.
They were easy to identify. Few wore school uniforms, and most had various accessories meant to make them stand out.
"All right, let's divide the work."
Mikoto rolled up her sleeves, looking completely motivated.
"I'll go inside and get the information. Kuroko, don't argue. They must have seen your Judgment face plenty of times already."
"As for Kitano... I doubt they'd be interested in you at all."
Kuroko couldn't even argue.
Instead, she looked toward Makoto for help.
Letting Mikoto handle intelligence gathering sounded unreliable no matter how you looked at it.
Makoto asked, "How exactly are you planning to get information? You're not going to pretend to be pitiful or act cute, are you?"
Mikoto froze.
Her expression gave her away immediately.
Beating up a few delinquents would be effortless for her, but starting a fight inside the restaurant would turn the situation into something else entirely.
"W-What? Are you saying I'm not cute enough?"
Kuroko clutched her head and shook it violently, looking as though she were about to lose her mind.
The thought of her beloved Onee-sama deliberately acting cute for delinquents was enough to destroy her image of Mikoto.
Makoto looked Mikoto up and down until she started getting uncomfortable.
"Cute."
Mikoto, who had already prepared herself to argue, froze completely.
She awkwardly touched the end of her hair and looked away.
Makoto continued, "But you're wearing a Tokiwadai uniform. As far as I know, Tokiwadai doesn't have weak students. They won't believe whatever act you put on."
"Besides, I don't want you acting cute in front of those guys."
Mikoto's heart skipped a beat.
She tried to sound calm.
"Why?"
Behind her back, however, her intertwined fingers had already begun trembling nervously.
"Because I have a much easier solution."
Makoto strode directly into the restaurant, leaving Mikoto staring after him in stunned silence.
A second later, she clenched her fists in embarrassment and tried to follow, but Kuroko wrapped both arms around her and stopped her.
From the doorway, the two could still clearly see what Makoto was doing.
He walked inside while yawning, swaying slightly with every step.
Then, as if by accident, his hip bumped into the table of three delinquents.
They immediately jumped to their feet.
"Bastard! What the hell are you doing?"
"You trying to die?"
"Come on, apologize right now or we'll beat you and throw you outside!"
Makoto merely rolled his eyes.
"What are you staring at?"
The three delinquents froze.
Then anger overwhelmed what little judgment they had left.
The leader reached for Makoto's collar.
"I'm staring at you, and I'm about to beat your ass!"
"Then come on. Who's scared? Let's settle it in the alley."
Makoto pointed outside.
All three immediately followed.
Mikoto and Kuroko watched in complete disbelief as Makoto lured all three delinquents out of the restaurant in less than a minute.
Kuroko couldn't help muttering, "That's... surprisingly efficient."
Still remembering how Makoto had flustered her earlier, Mikoto glared at his back.
"Hmph. Boys are so childish."
Everything after that was straightforward.
Once they reached an empty alley, Makoto took exactly 0.1 seconds to put all three delinquents into a peaceful, baby-like sleep.
Then he searched them and found a cassette player.
"This thing again?"
Kuroko took it and pressed play.
A rhythmic pattern of strange noise came from the headphones.
She immediately realized this was another copy of Level Upper.
The problem was that she still had no idea how it worked.
Makoto said, "You already have one as evidence. Let me keep this copy. Maybe I know someone who's good with codes and can figure something out from the sound."
Kuroko considered it briefly before nodding.
Makoto had contributed plenty today, and despite everything else, she did regard him as trustworthy.
Of course, if he intended to get even closer to her Onee-sama, that was another matter entirely.
Mikoto watched Makoto take Level Upper while thinking about how she'd accomplished absolutely nothing today.
She crossed her arms in a sulk.
Makoto waved the cassette player.
"Then I'll leave first. If I learn anything, I'll contact you."
He disappeared almost immediately.
Once he reached a deserted corner, Makoto put on the headphones and started the recording.
Harsh noise flooded his ears, immediately beginning to interfere with his mind and brain activity.
His Reverse Cursed Technique had already reached a very high level.
Since an Innate Technique was engraved into the cerebral cortex itself, Makoto had also developed some awareness of abnormal changes inside his own brain.
Unfortunately, Level Upper interfered mainly with brainwaves rather than directly damaging brain tissue.
Otherwise, Makoto might have been able to use Reverse Cursed Technique to remove its side effects.
He soon returned home and continued listening while attempting to activate his esper ability.
Then he realized one major problem.
He knew absolutely nothing about his ability.
That meant he didn't even know how he was supposed to activate it.
After scratching his head for a while, Makoto temporarily gave up on experimenting with Level Upper.
'Looks like I really do need a proper ability test.'
Only then would he learn what kind of esper ability he actually possessed.
After another full night of training, Makoto opened his eyes early the next morning.
Nothing special was scheduled for today.
There was one particularly dangerous event coming, but it wouldn't happen until evening.
Around noon, Kuroko called.
She informed Makoto that Kaitabi Hatsuya, the bomber from the other day, had fallen into a coma and that Level Upper was suspected to be responsible.
She strongly advised him to stop using it and return the recording to Judgment as soon as possible.
Makoto had no reason to refuse.
He simply copied the recording first and kept one duplicate at home as a backup.
Once that was done, he brought the original equipment to the meeting place Kuroko had specified.
To his surprise, Mikoto, Uiharu Kazari, and Saten Ruiko were there too.
Kazari approached him first.
"Thank you, Kitano-senpai. If you hadn't helped me that day, I probably would've been seriously injured."
"To thank you, I'll treat you to something later. Do you prefer ice cream or pancakes?"
Ruiko walked over with a smile.
"If Kitano-senpai wants both, that's fine too. I'll help Uiharu pay!"
Makoto smiled.
"You really don't have to go that far. Ice cream is enough."
Before long, all five were seated around a table beside a roadside food cart, each with a different kind of ice cream in front of them.
Naturally, the conversation centered on Level Upper.
When Kazari and Ruiko heard that Makoto had also listened to it, both immediately became nervous.
Only after he explained that he'd listened for a few minutes and felt completely normal did they finally calm down.
"So after all this, we still don't know how Level Upper actually works?"
Mikoto sighed.
Makoto glanced toward the wind chime hanging from the ice cream cart.
If he revealed what he knew, Kuroko and Mikoto were smart enough to work out the answer in less than a minute.
While Makoto was deciding whether to intervene, a little girl suddenly began crying nearby.
"I'm sorry!"
Everyone turned.
The girl had accidentally smeared a chocolate sundae against the waist of a gloomy-looking middle-aged woman.
The woman stared darkly at the ice cream staining her clothes, looking as though she were about to scold the child.
Kuroko immediately approached to mediate.
What happened next stunned every girl present, while Mikoto instantly reached over and covered Makoto's eyes.
Instead of getting angry, the woman calmly reassured the child.
Then, while talking, she took off her lab coat and stained white shirt, revealing the black lace bra underneath.
Everyone stared in disbelief.
Who suddenly started undressing in public over spilled ice cream?
And of all people, it was a grown woman doing it in front of a child.
"Wait! Even if you're a woman, stripping in front of a kid still counts as harassment!"
Kuroko rushed over and frantically helped her put her clothes back on.
The little girl was completely stunned.
She'd expected to be yelled at, perhaps even hit.
She had not expected to encounter a strange adult who suddenly took her clothes off.
The fake crying stopped instantly.
The child fled.
The gloomy woman was left standing there looking completely bewildered.
In the end, Kuroko pushed her into the laundromat across the street.
A while later, she returned with the woman looking considerably more presentable.
Only then did Makoto get a proper look at her.
It was Kiyama Harumi.
The researcher who had created Level Upper.
She was also the true identity behind Academy City's urban legend of the "Stripping Woman."
The rumor had started because Harumi lacked basic awareness of ordinary social behavior and had developed a habit of casually changing clothes in familiar environments.
What Makoto couldn't understand was why she was here.
The location where he and the girls had met was already different from the original story.
'So why did Kiyama still show up here?'
After a brief conversation, the girls were quickly impressed by Harumi's scientific knowledge.
Once they learned that her field of research was the AIM Diffusion Field, Kuroko naturally asked for her opinion on Level Upper.
Perhaps to remove suspicion from herself, Harumi proceeded to explain nearly everything she knew except the fact that she was the culprit.
Only then did everyone understand that Level Upper functioned through brainwave resonance.
That also explained why users eventually collapsed.
The Level Upper Network connected their brainwaves together, then drained the users' computational capacity.
What Makoto couldn't understand was something else.
Throughout the entire explanation, Harumi kept glancing at him from time to time.
It almost seemed as though Makoto mattered more to her than all four girls combined.
'Don't tell me she came here because of me.'
Even after everyone separated, Makoto still couldn't figure out what she was thinking.
Meanwhile, inside a luxury car whose interior Makoto couldn't see, Harumi held a cigarette between trembling fingers.
The variable she'd spent so long searching for had finally appeared.
And it was Kitano Makoto.
…