With a BOOM

"Hey, Onee-sama, did you see the news from a couple of days ago? They said there was a murder on a street near our neighborhood." Shirai Kuroko sat on the dorm bed, her legs dangling and swinging in the air.

"Mm, I heard a little about it. But the Disciplinary Committee said the scene was pretty bloody." Misaka Mikoto was somewhat sensitive about such things, and her expression did not look too good. "It's supposed to be confidential, but they told me the bodies were hollowed out? That's terrifying. Could Academy City really have a psychopathic killer like that?"

"Well, well, maybe it wasn't done by a human..." For some reason, Kuroko suddenly teleported to Mikoto's side and spoke in a sinister voice beside her ear.

Mikoto immediately broke out in goosebumps. She gave a dry laugh. "H-How could that be? It was just a particularly brutal murder case. How could it not have been a human? There are no supernatural creatures in this world. Zombies and werewolves definitely don't exist." Yet her tense body gave away her fear and nervousness.

Shirai Kuroko chuckled. She knew that while her Onee-sama was incredibly brave when dealing with delinquents, without the slightest trace of fear, she was somewhat out of her depth when faced with horrifying incidents on the level of urban legends. Of course, most girls Kuroko knew seemed to be like that. Hatsuharu was the same. Even though she was terrified of horror movies, she always dragged Kuroko along to watch them. Not only would she curl up in fright by herself, she had nearly knocked over Senior Gufǎ's milk as well—Kuroko had not forgotten that painful experience. After that, Senior Gufǎ banned them from watching movies in the Disciplinary Committee office, and Kuroko had almost gotten scolded too.

Realizing that she could not hide her embarrassment, Mikoto decided to change the subject. "By the way, Kuroko, don't you have some Disciplinary Committee gathering today? Aren't you leaving yet?"

"Well, it's not time yet." As though recalling something, Shirai Kuroko added, "Oh, right. Onee-sama is coming too."

"Huh? Me? Why?"

"I'm really sorry, but Kuroko here went ahead and promised one of my colleagues that she could meet Onee-sama."

"Well, I don't really feel like going, but since you already promised someone, I guess it's fine to make a trip." Mikoto tapped Shirai Kuroko on the forehead and smiled indifferently.

Misaka Mikoto and the others' first meeting proceeded as scheduled, but what was Luo Yifang doing now? Today, rather than staying home and grinding games, he was weaving through the streets and alleys of Academy City, searching for clues left behind by that corpse.

"This is really irritating. I got played by a corpse." Luo Yifang kept his hands in his pockets, his mood sour. Last night, he had actually caught a good opportunity. He had wanted to follow the trail and let the corpse lead him to the true mastermind's location. Yet that thing had ambushed a child halfway through. With no other choice, Luo Yifang had stepped in and saved the child. But the corpse seemed to realize that Luo Yifang was an opponent it could not match, and it used some bizarre escape method to slip out of his grasp.

Luo Yifang had no way to stop an ability similar to spatial movement. Afterward, he had directly unleashed his vectors to search an area nearly a kilometer wide, yet he had found no trace of the thing. It looked like some kind of long-range Space Magic. Luo Yifang truly could not understand it. A necromancer-like fellow could use Space Magic too? Was Space Magic really that commonplace? And for magic with such extreme range, Luo Yifang did not believe just any random nobody could cast it.

Paqi was somewhat puzzled by Luo Yifang's actions. "That thing obviously only comes out at night. What are you doing out here in broad daylight?"

"It escaped from here last night. I want to see whether it left behind anything valuable." Luo Yifang had been busy chasing after the corpse last night to find out where it had gone, so he had not had time to inspect this place. He only came here after failing to find any clues elsewhere.

As Luo Yifang walked, he pondered how that thing had escaped yesterday. Reverse Summoning? Or Space Magic? He was not entirely sure yet. But when he reached the alley where the corpse had vanished, he suddenly froze and looked at the building beside him. After thoughtfully touching the wall, a cold glint flashed through Luo Yifang's eyes. "So that's how it is. That thing might not have escaped at all. It used some method to enter the wall."

A strange energy was clearly leaking from the wall, but it was so faint that it could not have been sensed without touching it. It was undoubtedly a very clever method. Luo Yifang looked up at the towering building and spotted an open window. He lightly tapped the ground with his right foot, and as though completely ignoring gravity, entered the building through that window.

The building's interior was pitch-black. Other than the faint light filtering in through the windows, almost nothing could be seen. But this did not affect Luo Yifang's vision in the slightest. He looked around and found that this seemed to be an ordinary office floor... but why was the building as quiet as night in the middle of the day? Or was it only this floor? Luo Yifang moved through the deserted level until he reached the entrance to the emergency stairwell. When he pushed at it, he discovered that this floor seemed to have been sealed off. Even the stairwell exit appeared to have been cemented shut.

"Something's definitely wrong here..." Luo Yifang muttered. He returned to the office area and began searching for useful information.

Hard work paid off. After more than half an hour, he finally found a magic circle emitting a faint blue glow beneath the surface of a desk. Luo Yifang was overjoyed. Just as he reached out to probe its energy and read its information, a violent explosion suddenly rang out from outside the building the instant his hand touched the magic circle. The building itself even shook. The tremor should not have been a problem, but the magic circle turned out to be anything but stable. Luo Yifang only saw a flash of blue light.

Moments later, Luo Yifang stood beside the office desk, now reduced to ashes, his face dark as he forced out several words through clenched teeth. "Who the hell did that...?"