"Fainted?"
Yuuya touched his chin. He hadn't passed out in the slightest; rather, his consciousness had momentarily crossed the dimensional boundary into the Imaginary Number District, bringing him face-to-face with Kazakiri Hyouka.
Feeling the Triangle Core rotating smoothly within his mental space, the corners of his mouth curled upward into a quiet, satisfied smile.
"That's right! As a high school student, engaging in unauthorized supernatural combat means you are writing a formal letter of reflection for the administration," Yomikawa Aiho scolded, crossing her arms with a stern, authoritative scowl. "Seriously... You're still just a student who acted completely on your own initiative! Even if you're officially recognized as a Level 5, what if something had gone wrong?!"
"Huh? I just saved District 13 from an apocalyptic bio-psychic disaster, and your immediate reaction is to make me write a punishment essay? Isn't that a bit too inhumane, Yomikawa-sensei?" Yuuya replied with an amused smirk, crossing his arms in return.
His eyes briefly drifted toward Yomikawa's exceptionally developed chest—which easily surpassed the size of Komoe-sensei's entire head—and he clicked his tongue in mock contemplation.
'Komoe-sensei would probably cry her eyes out in the faculty restroom if she saw this comparison,' he thought.
"The fact that you saved the area is the only reason I'm just making you write a letter of reflection," Yomikawa sighed helplessly, rubbing the back of her neck. "Otherwise, the municipal reconstruction bill for this entire avenue would be charged straight to your account."
"Hey, don't pin property damage on me! I was purely engaged in localized pest control. My calculation precision ranks among the best in Academy City—I can guarantee my vectors didn't damage a single blade of municipal grass without cause," Yuuya boasted shamelessly.
"That is pure sophistry and you know it. Still... you did prevent an unprecedented crisis, so the school board will likely issue a public commendation on the morning stage."
"Please, spare me the commendation," Yuuya's lips twitched slightly. The horrifying mental image of standing on an auditorium stage while a bald principal droned on with empty praise in front of hundreds of staring students sent an authentic shiver down his spine.
His gaze shifted toward Kiyama Harumi, who was standing beside an Anti-Skill transport cruiser in specialized alloy handcuffs, her head bowed in deep dejection.
"Yomikawa-sensei, can I have a minute to speak with Kiyama-sensei?" Yuuya asked, his tone settling into something far more serious.
"With the suspect?" Yomikawa raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. Kiyama-sensei used to be my homeroom instructor during my early institutional days," Yuuya replied, recalling how he used to drop by her cluttered laboratory back in elementary school just to tease her and steal her snacks.
Yomikawa looked at the boy, then at the exhausted female researcher, and let out a soft breath. "Alright. But keep it brief—we can't delay the transport protocol."
"No problem. One minute is plenty."
Yuuya strolled over to where Kiyama was standing under the watchful eyes of two armed officers.
"What else could you possibly have to say to me at this point...?" Kiyama sighed softly, looking up at the boy who had thoroughly dismantled her grand design.
Her bloodshot eyes held no remaining malice or resentment—only a hollow, crushing desolation. Her master plan had been reduced to ashes, and she had failed to compute a cure for her students. Now, she was facing a lengthy sentence in an Anti-Skill detention facility.
Yet, deep down, she knew she couldn't give up. No matter the cost, she would find a way to break out and continue searching for a way to save those children.
"Sensei, allow me to tell you the real truth," Yuuya murmured.
Snap.
He subtly snapped his fingers, deploying an invisible, high-frequency acoustic vector barrier around the two of them, completely isolating their conversation from the surrounding officers.
Kiyama looked at him, her brow furrowing in confusion.
"The truth is... I already possess the exact method to wake your students," Yuuya stated calmly. "The reason they remain trapped in their comas isn't due to standard calculation fatigue—it's because an essential component was forcefully extracted from their nervous systems during the initial experiment. That component is the crystallized core of their condensed AIM diffusion fields. And recently, through my covert operations in the Dark Side, I managed to retrieve that First Sample straight from Kihara Gensei's personal vaults."
'Although that's only half the story, it's more than enough to lift the despair from her shoulders,' Yuuya thought.
Kiyama's pupils contracted violently. Her entire body began to tremble.
"Sensei, this is classified intelligence I uncovered through an official underground purge," Yuuya continued, casually flicking his wrist. Resting in his palm was a reinforced glass vial containing a cluster of pulsing, deep crimson crystals.
"This is the material that was harvested from their brains during the AIM detonation test. Gensei triggered the runaway reaction specifically to induce psychic crystallization. As long as we use this First Sample to synthesize a neural counter-frequency and re-inject the stabilized AIM particles into their bodies, their brainwaves will normalize and they will wake up completely unharmed."
Kiyama bit her trembling lower lip, staring at the glowing vial in his hand with wide, overflowing eyes.
'All this time... he had already investigated everything down to the deepest root...' she realized, her heart swelling with an overwhelming rush of emotions. 'He wasn't standing in my way out of cold indifference—he had already secured the salvation I was desperately destroying myself to find!'
Tears of pure, unadulterated relief pooled in her eyes, spilling over her pale cheeks. She had misunderstood him entirely. She had jumped to the most extreme, destructive gamble out of sheer desperation, unaware that the solution was already being prepared behind the scenes.
After drowning in bottomless despair for so many years, the radiant light of hope had arrived when she least expected it.
"I'm sorry... Yuuya," Kiyama wept softly, bowing her head in profound gratitude. "I completely misunderstood your intentions... Thank you. Thank you so much."
"See you soon, Kiyama-sensei," Yuuya smiled gently, dropping the acoustic barrier.
To him, whether the process involved a few theatrical deceptions didn't matter in the slightest. If the ultimate outcome brought genuine salvation to those who deserved it, then the method was entirely justified.
Seeing Kiyama openly weeping with a look of profound relief, Yomikawa let out a quiet, sympathetic sigh. 'If she had just communicated her troubles earlier, things wouldn't have escalated to this point... She must have carried an unbearable burden.'
The officers guided Kiyama into the transport cruiser, and the vehicle quickly pulled away, disappearing down the avenue toward District 7's central processing facility.
Within minutes, dozens of heavy construction units, automated debris-clearing drones, and municipal engineers flooded the devastated intersection to initiate rapid repairs. Under Academy City's hyper-efficient urban management protocols, an entire leveled street could be restored to mint condition in less than forty-eight hours.
"I never expected a mundane investigation to escalate into an apocalyptic monster raid," Shirai Kuroko remarked, crossing her arms as she and Uiharu Kazari walked up to the edge of the perimeter. "That arrogant ape really did pull off something ridiculous. Though, honestly... my Onee-sama could have flattened that creature with a single Railgun blast just as easily. It's nothing too special."
"Shirai-san, it's really not nice to call Takahashi-senpai an ape," Uiharu whispered softly, puffing her cheeks in mild protest.
While Yuuya certainly possessed a whimsical, highly capricious personality, he was undeniably kind and constantly stepped forward to protect people—even if nine out of ten cases coincidentally involved cute girls.
'Takahashi-senpai is genuinely reliable,' Uiharu thought warmly. 'Whenever he's standing nearby, it feels like nothing in the world could ever hurt us.'
"Sigh... With collateral damage this severe, Judgment Branch 177 is going to be buried under administrative reassignment logs for the next week," Kuroko grumbled, massaging her temples. "Public security is going to be a massive headache."
"Well, there's nothing we can do about the paperwork now, Shirai-san," Uiharu smiled wryly.
District 7 — Central Detention Facility
Less than forty-five minutes later, Takahashi Yuuya stood casually before the high-security processing gates, leaning against the reception counter with a bright, sunny smirk.
He let out a crisp, cheerful whistle as the heavy blast doors slid open, revealing Kiyama Harumi—who had barely finished signing her initial intake paperwork—being escorted right back out into the lobby by a thoroughly confused facility warden.
"Yo~ We meet again so soon, Kiyama-sensei," Yuuya gave a playful two-finger salute. "I told you I'd have you out before your tea got cold. Didn't expect me to work this fast, did you?"
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Give me powerstones.
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