"Soga!"
"Onee-sama~ Why don't we try exchanging ice cream flavors and compare how they taste? Wouldn't that be wonderful? We could enjoy two different flavors at the same time without worrying about stomach trouble."
The brown hair colored twin-tailed girl scooped up her ice cream with a spoon. Her voice was sweet and overly affectionate as she carefully attempted to feed the brown-haired girl beside her.
'Perfect. This way I can indirectly share a kiss with Onee-sama.'
"Huh? But didn't we both order the exact same flavor?" the brown-haired girl asked, raising her eyebrows in confusion.
She let out a helpless sigh. Ever since this junior had moved into her dormitory room at the beginning of the semester, she had been constantly doing embarrassing and strange things. It was giving her a constant headache.
"Ah! Idiot, idiot, Kuroko, you absolute idiot." The twin-tailed girl looked devastated and repeatedly knocked her forehead against the edge of the table with dull thumping sounds.
"Ugh. Kuroko, stop doing weird things again." The brown-haired girl flushed as she noticed the curious stares from people around them. She quickly stood up, an angry vein mark appearing on her forehead, and delivered a firm punch to Kuroko's head.
"This is a public place. Behave yourself."
The brown twin-tailed girl covered her head, which looked as if steam might rise from it at any moment, and instantly fell silent.
"Let's go shopping after we finish eating. It has been a while since we came here." The brown-haired girl sighed softly, then glanced up toward the announcement airship drifting across the sky.
'The eighth Level 5? Now that I think about it, aside from that annoying starry-eyed person, I have not met any other Level 5 in person.'
...
In a dormitory room elsewhere, a girl with long straight black hair lay sprawled across her bed, scrolling through her phone and browsing various strange urban legends circulating around Academy City.
"The eighth Level 5. A telekinetic user who manipulates telekinetic force. Speaking of that, I heard from Haru that her roommate at Tokiwadai is also a Level 5."
She placed her phone aside, stared at the ceiling with a slightly disappointed expression, and muttered quietly.
"Esper powers really are amazing. I wish I could develop an ability someday."
Thinking about those people who unconsciously look down on others simply because they possess abilities made her feel uncomfortable.
Even if her friends did not mean it maliciously, there was always a subtle divide. Those with abilities and those without lived in fundamentally different worlds.
After spending so long in Academy City, she had come to understand that although the city appeared peaceful and governed by science, the gap between espers and Level 0s was very real.
"Are Level 0s really defective products?"
She bit her lower lip, then suddenly slapped her cheeks with both hands, instantly energizing herself. Raising her right fist in encouragement, she declared:
"Stop overthinking it. Tomorrow I will show Uiharu the Chinese phrases that kind senior taught me yesterday."
...
Meanwhile, inside the dormitory area of Tokiwadai Middle School.
"A certain high school student. Arata. Level 5 Telekinesis."
A girl with waist-length honey-colored hair and heterochromatic starry eyes sat elegantly by the window, enjoying her dinner. Unusually, she was reading the news on her phone while eating.
"So he has officially reached Level 5."
Her lips curved slightly upward, her demeanor as refined as an aristocratic young lady from another era. She opened her phone's photo album, which contained numerous pictures of herself standing beside a certain boy. In every photo, she was smiling brightly.
"However, now is not yet the time to meet you."
"My memories of you were lost in that accident long ago."
"I cannot simply reappear without preparation. I must leave a lasting first impression on you, Arata."
"Now that I have reached Level 5, I no longer need to worry about external interference affecting my interaction with that game."
...
Inside a certain high school dormitory room, Fukiyose Seiri stared at her phone screen with a complicated expression.
"Level 5. Arata."
At that very moment, countless people throughout Academy City were paying close attention to the emergence of the new Level 5.
Walking casually along the street toward the sealed area of District 8, Accelerator glanced up at the announcement airship without much interest.
Level 5?
He had never cared about other Level 5 espers. Although he had not personally fought them all, his own ability was absolute.
Vector Control. The power to manipulate the direction and magnitude of all vectors.
No matter what kind of ability an esper possessed, it ultimately relied on physical quantities such as kinetic energy, electrical energy, or thermal energy.
He could amplify energy, redirect it, reverse it, or nullify it.
According to the calculations of the supercomputer Tree Diagram Designer, even the second-ranked Level 5 would be defeated within roughly four hundred moves. Facing all other Level 5s simultaneously, victory was still guaranteed within approximately three thousand moves.
He had long since surpassed the level of his peers. The only reason he was still classified as Level 5 was because Academy City's system capped the ranking there.
He could score one hundred out of one hundred simply because the test itself only allowed one hundred points.
"Hidden spatial teleportation Level 5? If you have the guts, come and try."
His white hair cast shadows over his crimson eyes as a cruel smile slowly spread across his face.
The words that man had left behind yesterday echoed in his mind.
I will not give you a second chance to escape.
The only person who had provoked him and walked away unscathed. The one who had even mocked him.
Before tearing that bastard apart, he would crush that irritating mouth first.
As he stepped into the cordoned-off experimental zone in District 8, a palm-sized sniper round tore through the air toward his head. The instant it made contact with his skin, it was reflected at an even greater velocity.
Boom.
The anti-materiel rifle held by the Misaka Sister, positioned nearly one kilometer away on a rooftop, instantly exploded from the recoil of the reflected vector. She was hurled backward, blood spraying from her torn hands and forearms.
Her arms had been lacerated by flying fragments, but they were not completely destroyed. Realizing the attack had failed and her location was compromised, she swiftly opened her guitar case, retrieved an automatic rifle, and sprinted down the building stairwell.
"Primary plan failed. Initiating secondary plan."
Accelerator's bloodshot eyes glowed with killing intent. The corners of his lips curved into a grin filled with contempt for the world.
"The official outdoor experiment is certainly more entertaining than the indoor trials. But a doll is still just a doll. I have already demonstrated my ability, yet you refuse to learn."
"If you get caught during hide-and-seek, what do you think will happen?"
"Heh. Hehehehe."
...
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