After cleaning the blood stains in the bathroom, and taking care of the tattered clothes, Shirai again used her Teleport ability to get to the back alley behind the girls' dormitory.
The time was 8:30 PM.
It had only been 2 hours from the time when she had separated from Mikoto after the shopping trip. Shirai was rather surprised by it.
At this time, almost all modes of transport in Academy City had ceased operations. In order to prevent students from venturing outside, all the buses and trams were coordinated with the last school's leaving time. Right now, there were only private vehicles belonging to those of teachers, university students, taxis, trucks, and other forms of industrial vehicles.
The scene of a traffic jam had completely vanished.
As there were already very few vehicles on the road, the roads were empty.
Shirai took a deep breath. The air already had the scent of night.
"Ah, Shirai-san, there is something important you need to note."
A voice came from the phone,
"Musujime Awaki doesn't seem to be able to teleport her own body continuously. I found some records in the library. Shirai-san, I said before that Musujime lost control of her powers during a lesson two years ago and was severely injured, didn't I?"
"So what?"
"After that, Musujime went for several counseling sessions in school. That incident seemed to have caused some sort of trauma in her. After that, as long as it's a test that involves 'teleporting one's own body', she is always unable to get good marks on it, and there are even cases when she fell sick from overexerting herself. It's like every time she teleports, it's a gamble of her own life. In other words…"
"Her mental condition will immediately worsen if she teleports continuously, right?"
Shirai bit her lips and said,
"Now that I think about it, Musujime didn't teleport her own body at all during the battle. In fact, if she could teleport around on her own, there would be no need to ask for any special help from the outside world; it'd be faster for her to do it on her own. Teleporters can move fast and ignore any walls, paths or distances, so it's impossible to catch us using ordinary means."
The strength of Shirai's own ability would differ according to her mood each day. If Musujime was affected by her own emotional scar, her control over her own ability would very likely decrease.
Shirai then thought,
(Come to think of it, her ability is so powerful. Maybe it's because of that emotional scar that she's stuck on the same Level as me…?)
Shirai carried some mixed feelings as she teleported. Every 80 meters she moved, her feet would land on the floor, she would aim at the next point and continue to teleport.
Since Shirai was already covered in wounds, and it was difficult for her to even walk, the ability to quickly teleport around at will was at its most useful.
"Musujime is stronger than me. She can move things 'far away'. But on the downside, her methods of calculations are even more troublesome than mine. Though I can only move 'things that are beside me', I don't have to calculate the 'original coordinates' before moving."
"That's…right. So…your calculation time…is shorter. Oh yeah…if Musujime doesn't use…Move Point…then she'll move…"
Because of teleportation, the content of the phone call was interrupted. Shirai was listening carefully, but before Uiharu even finished speaking, Shirai knew where to go.
BOOM!
The sound of thunder could be heard from afar.
Shirai Kuroko looked up at the sky.
"Don't tell me it's…"
The time when the shops and transportation operated in Academy City was coordinated with the schools' timing. Once it was slightly dark, the lights on the roads would vanish one by one, so compared to the metropolis in other major cities in the outside world, the light intensity was a lot less. Right now, the stars were covering the sky, and the weather looked good; there were no thunderclouds that could possibly cause thunder.
If so, what was with that high voltage roar?
"Shirai-san, I got a new report that there is a large-scale esper battle somewhere in District 7, and it's right on the path where Musujime's predicted escape route is!"
Another thunder roared, covering Uiharu's voice, and it also interrupted the phone's reception.
Shirai would definitely not mistake that voice.
"ONEE-SAMA!!"
Shirai shouted and changed her direction. Though her appearing in front of Mikoto would basically be against what she had intended, but on thinking that Mikoto may be attacked, Shirai didn't have a second option.
She continued to teleport, jumping around spaces.
The sparks that could terrify anyone continued to rumble about in the air like an air raid.
On the roads in the night, all the people, who were older than Shirai, stared at her in surprise.
Everything of everything seemed to be pushing Shirai forward. Just as she was about to reach her destination, Shirai stopped her teleport. Following a deafening thunder roar, Shirai moved to the back of a building through blind corners.
Like a murder detective, Shirai poked her head out of the building.
At that moment, she witnessed something amazing.