However, what Misaka Mikoto did not know was that if she had not shown up, Luo Yifang would not have been the unlucky one—the unlucky ones would have been those absurdly fortunate delinquents. If she had not arrived in time, what started as beating people up might have turned into rescuing them. Broken arms and legs would have counted as lucky.
"Onee-sama!" While Misaka Mikoto was still brooding over Luo Yifang slipping away, a sweet shout rang out. Her body suddenly felt heavier, as if some sort of accessory had latched onto her.
"Kuroko?! What are you doing here?" Misaka Mikoto was slightly shocked, but remembering how Kuroko always somehow discovered her whereabouts, she did not think much of it. She merely raised her right hand and pressed it against Kuroko's face as she nuzzled closer.
"Onee-sama is always so reckless, acting on her own while wearing a Disciplinary Committee armband. What would Kuroko do if you got hurt?"
"It's not that serious. They were just a few delinquents." Having been found out for sneaking out, Misaka Mikoto smiled awkwardly and tried to change the subject by bringing up the delinquents.
"Even delinquents are dangerous, so you have to be careful." Kuroko looked deeply concerned, yet she remained glued to Misaka Mikoto's body, and her two wandering hands began acting up.
"Ku...ro...ko..." Having seen through Kuroko's true intentions, how could Misaka Mikoto let her get away with it? A cross-shaped vein bulged on her forehead, and blue-white arcs began dancing through Railgun's hair again. The next instant, an even more dazzling flash of electricity erupted in the alley.
One second later, another charred "unidentified object" had appeared in the alley. She lay on the ground, twitching nonstop, letting out moans suggestive enough to make anyone's mind wander—"Ah~~~~." Misaka Mikoto stood beside her, irritably straightening her slightly disheveled Tokiwadai uniform. Though she hated to admit it, after letting off electricity again, Misaka felt much better all of a sudden.
"Hmm... could discharging electricity relieve stress?" This terrifying thought flashed through Misaka Mikoto's mind, but the arcs dancing around her seemed to betray her somewhat "delighted" mood.
"Is Onee-sama unhappy?" Kuroko, who had clearly been twitching on the ground moments ago, somehow revived at full health and stood beside Misaka Mikoto again. The charred blackness from before seemed never to have existed; only her hair was slightly frazzled. She combed it with a brush. "Is it because of those delinquents?"
"Not really." Misaka Mikoto hesitated before asking, "Did you happen to see a white-haired boy? Um, he was probably about a head taller than me."
"Uh, let me think?" Kuroko held her chin, brow furrowed as though deep in thought. After a moment, she said uncertainly, "Wearing a black-and-white striped short-sleeved shirt and black jeans?"
"Yes, that's him!" Seeing that Kuroko had really spotted Luo Yifang, Misaka Mikoto hurriedly asked, "Which way did he go?"
"I don't know." Kuroko shook her head. "I saw him during one of the intervals while teleporting here, but he only flashed by before disappearing into the crowd. I have no idea where he went. What, was he one that got away?"
"He's not a delinquent, but I do want to ask him a few things." Misaka Mikoto did not know why, but she simply could not stop caring about it. Although there was nothing wrong with Luo Yifang running away, a stubborn urge lingered in her heart and refused to fade. She felt that if she did not catch that runaway and give him a proper verbal lesson, she would be very dissatisfied.
"Eh, eh, eh, eh!" Upon hearing Misaka Mikoto's words, Kuroko shrieked hysterically. "Onee-sama, you want to ask a man something? How can that—ow!"
After interrupting Kuroko with a fist of love, Misaka Mikoto declared decisively, "There's nothing impossible about it!"
Tears welled in Kuroko's eyes. What she had wanted to say was—how could that possibly be forgiven?! Onee-sama, can't you let me finish what I'm saying?!
"All right, Kuroko, stop fooling around. Hurry and take these delinquents back to the Disciplinary Committee, or we'll be late getting back to school."
"Yes, Onee-sama!"
By then, Luo Yifang had already gone far away. Naturally, he had no idea that the events in the alley had landed him a sticky, troublesome nuisance. He was still thinking about Misaka Mikoto's question. "No. 3, Railgun? Misaka Mikoto and Accelerator shouldn't have met at this point, right? Was it because I came out? Wait, Accelerator should have been participating in the Absolute Ability User Project at this time. But my memories tell me I've never participated in anything like that?"
Luo Yifang's expression turned grave as he began digging through his memories. Although he possessed absolute memory, rarely used memories were like files buried deep in folders—they still took some time to find. Fortunately, not much time had passed since this happened.
"Two months ago, I received a proposal from Academy City's officials?" Luo Yifang frowned, realizing that things did not seem so simple. His memories contained nothing whatsoever about the proposal. In other words, he had not even looked at it?
Just as Luo Yifang was deep in thought, a message from Paqi shook him to the core. "Yifang, the worldline has undergone a change acknowledged by the [Book of Ten Thousand Worlds]. You have received a reward."
"Hmm?" By then, Luo Yifang had happened to reach his doorstep. After pushing open the door and entering, he suddenly realized he had been overlooking a question—a very important question...
Why did the [Book of Ten Thousand Worlds] exist?
"You're only asking that now?" Paqi rolled her eyes. It was rather strange—although he could not see Paqi, he could clearly sense her expressions and movements. It felt as marvelous as someone sending reaction images directly into his mind.
"You never told me either, did you?" Luo Yifang passed the blame without hesitation.
"Tch, you..." Paqi glared at Luo Yifang unhappily. "Listen carefully. The [Book of Ten Thousand Worlds] is different from any God of the Main World or system you know. Put simply, it exists to observe."
"Observe?"
"It observes the trajectories of countless universes, like observing a particle travel from A to B. There are infinitely many possibilities." Paqi explained in terms he could understand. "But it is also somewhat different. Although a world may have countless parallel worlds, most of them are exactly the same. Only a very small portion are noticeably different."
"You mean... diverging from the original information I know?" Luo Yifang seemed to grasp something.
"Mm, you could understand it that way. But you need to know that the information you know may not necessarily be the 'original script.' Take Accelerator, for example. In the countless parallel worlds resembling the anime or novel you know, he simply does not exist. What you know is the exceptional kind."
Before you continue