Natsume Sonoko was currently about fifty meters above the ground. At her wings' normal speed, she could land safely in just three or four seconds.
But before she could even put her emergency landing plan into action, it seemed the one known as Accelerator had already caught on.
A trademark smirk tugged at Accelerator's lips. He took a step forward, and with the lift from his four tornado-like wings, he shot upward at high speed, closing in on Sonoko mid-air.
Sonoko was still scheming, thinking of ways to scatter and hide her presence, when she noticed the white-haired #1 Level 5 suddenly vanish from his spot. In his place was a blurry, indistinct white afterimage.
As that white streak zipped toward her, an intense pressure slammed into her, thick with menace. But thanks to the counter-currents controlled by a certain bun-haired girl nearby, she barely felt a thing.
Still, the moment the air currents collided, Natsume realized what was happening.
If she tried to land now, she'd have to slow down—and that white-haired monster would catch her in a heartbeat.
"He's coming, he's coming! That white-haired guy is way too fast!"
Natsume's breath hitched. She hurriedly pulled upward, gaining altitude.
Facing the #1 esper in Academy City, her first instinct was simple: avoid that white blur.
Of course, the girl who'd maxed out her defense stats had the exact same idea.
In the same instant, Natsume acted. The whirlwinds behind her began sucking all the surrounding air into themselves, causing her wings to swell—from one meter wide to three.
With her wings enlarged, the turbulent air around her multiplied several times over. Sonoko's potential speed surged, but there was no hiding the growing commotion she was making.
Just as Accelerator was about to reach her, a massive wave of wind pressure erupted from Sonoko, blasting downward toward the approaching white streak.
It seemed useless. The moment the pressurized wind touched the space around Accelerator, it scattered harmlessly, not buying her even a second.
But on Natsume's side, the recoil from that blast shoved her backward, accelerating her violently upward, farther from the white streak's attack path.
In an instant, she slipped out of his line of fire. Sonoko, showing the skill of a seasoned pilot, controlled her wings and soared higher, melting into the pitch-black sky.
The white streak's momentum slowed, its ground-launched acceleration finally spent. Accelerator hovered steadily in the air, his gaze fixed on the distant sky.
A strange, unreadable expression crossed his face as he stood there, poised mid-air as if rooted, seemingly waiting for his opponent to make the next move.
That person's invisibility was a slight annoyance, but up here in the open sky, stealth was nearly useless.
Natsume wasn't thrilled either. With no fog or mist to obscure vision, she was at a real disadvantage. She glanced down and saw Accelerator positioned squarely below, blocking her escape route.
'I wonder how Misaka-senpai is doing.' The thought of the upperclassman crossed Sonoko's mind, but she was flying too high now to make out what was happening on the ground.
No attack came—only those annoying layers of ice clinging to him, again and again.
Accelerator was growing increasingly irritated.
The ice absorbed heat, forcing him to constantly divert processing power to reflect his own body heat back inside. Tired of waiting on the defensive, he decided to act.
Accelerator's learning ability was fearsome. After seeing it just once, he mimicked Natsume's technique and generated a massive pressure wave of his own.
A huge ring of condensed air burst out behind him. Using that force, his speed kicked up again.
Whoosh!
Seeing Accelerator move, the bun-haired girl also released a large air ring, putting distance between them once more.
Over District 7, sudden concussions of air erupted one after another, shattering windows in high-rise buildings for no reason at all.
Showers of glass fragments had no time to fall before being swept into the violent airflow, becoming weapons in someone's hands.
Ignoring the incoming glass shards, Accelerator gripped the air itself, altering its direction. Not only did he blow the glass away, he also managed to shred one of his opponent's tornado wings.
But the very next moment after the wing was torn apart, Natsume reclaimed control of that portion of air. The wing instantly regenerated, and she regained her balance.
"Are we playing cat and mouse now?" Accelerator's cold voice carried across the gap—now less than thirty meters between them.
He was tight on her tail. Even after adjusting his tornado calculations several times, he still couldn't match her speed, and it was grating on him. Plus, she also had air control abilities, trapping them in this weird stalemate.
On top of that, she seemed to be keeping a specific, fairly close distance on purpose.
Frowning, Accelerator couldn't quite figure out her game.
After about ten minutes, their chase was finally winding down. As they continued to climb, they soon reached an altitude of fifteen hundred meters.
Up this high, the lower clouds thinned out, and the moonlight grew brighter.
"I get it now," Accelerator called out to Natsume Sonoko not far away, a villainous grin spreading across his face.
"You're trying to drain my processing power. You think because I fought the #3 for so long, my reserves must be almost gone, right?"
He was thoroughly sick of this pointless chase.
"But it actually makes me curious," he continued, a hint of genuine interest in his tone. "You've held out for so long, and your own processing power isn't exhausted yet? This is beyond Level 4, isn't it?"
That chase wasn't just a simple game. Natsume had to continuously accelerate and dodge Accelerator's attacks—the computational load was enormous.
But thanks to Reiko's presence, Natsume's actual consumption wasn't that high. Most of her processing power was dedicated to maintaining the connection with Reiko.
Because the bio-computer could perform calculations nonstop, as long as her link with Reiko held, her endurance had reached an incredibly high level.
Abruptly, Accelerator, still in mid-speech, broke into a harsh cough.
Unnoticed by him, his body temperature had risen significantly. Excess heat had gradually built up inside him.
A layer of frost coated his body once more, only to be shattered violently by his own power.
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, 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.