What Kind of Move Is This?

"Damn you, Luo Yifang!" Arcs of electricity began flickering around Misaka Mikoto once more. "You tricked me with a blank USB drive? Aaaah! The next time I see you, I'll fry you to a crisp!"

"Achoo!" Luo Yifang, who was sitting at home drinking coffee, suddenly sneezed for no apparent reason. He scratched his head in confusion. "What's going on... My reflection should have repelled all those tiny particles..."

Paqi said to him, "That blank USB drive you gave Misaka Mikoto was probably discovered."

"That was a little mistake... just a little mistake..." Luo Yifang laughed awkwardly. He had quite a few USB drives stored in his space, and there happened to be two identical ones. He had kept the one containing the Absolute Ability User Project files and given Misaka Mikoto the blank one.

"Tch, whether it was a mistake or not, you know perfectly well." Paqi curled her lip. "Also, why did you bring Misaka 9982 back?"

That was right—Misaka 9982 was currently lying unconscious on Luo Yifang's bed. The reason Luo Yifang had been in such a hurry to leave earlier was because he had used his ability to hide her. Although the light had been distorted, who knew whether Misaka Mikoto's ability could sense changes in the surrounding magnetic field? It would not have been fun if she had discovered them. With Misaka Mikoto's personality, she definitely would have interrogated him to the very end.

"Mm, I checked her body just now." Luo Yifang tapped on the keyboard and brought up a diagram displaying Misaka 9982's physical condition. "I didn't find anything like a tracker. I don't know why the lab didn't even install one. But her physical condition really is terrible. At this rate, it'll be impossible for her to live more than three years."

The information about the Misaka Sisters' physical condition had been provided by Aleister's side in the original work. He could not guarantee that it was true, so it was better to examine her himself. But now, it seemed Aleister had been fairly honest—at least, he had not lied about this.

"Come to think of it, this is really troublesome. In a city covered by the Aerial Loop, there's no such thing as a true secret." Luo Yifang glanced at Misaka 9982 in her sleep and slapped his forehead in frustration. "Even if I save her, she'll just become another pawn for that Hanging Man, Aleister... Paqi, don't you have any solution?"

"There is a way, but it can't be done yet," Paqi answered. "If you want to use my method, you first need a 'key.'"

"A 'key'?" Luo Yifang was somewhat puzzled.

"It's really just a breach leading to another world. Calling it that makes it easier to record," Paqi explained. "This breach requires a medium. For example, that necromancer you met last time—she could serve as a medium for reaching the world of Diablo."

"Wait. Never mind that Diablo is ten times worse than this place, your talk about using someone as a medium sounds pretty scary. You don't mean we have to kill her and use her blood and limbs to build some bizarre magic circle, do you?"

"What do you take us for? A cult, or demons from hell?" Paqi said irritably. "By medium, I mean using the spatial properties inherent in that person or object to let the [Book of Ten Thousand Worlds] deduce the spatial coordinates of that world and open a portal. It does no harm to the object itself."

"You should've said so earlier. But where are we supposed to find this so-called 'key' now?"

"I don't know either, but you can follow the current clues," Paqi analyzed. "I'm afraid what's happening now isn't as simple as before."

"You mean there are outsiders meddling with the Absolute Ability User Project?"

Paqi spread her hands, indicating that she did not know. "It's only a guess. Don't blame me if you find nothing. I just think that with the worldline changing this much, there's probably something else going on."

Seeing that Paqi was unwilling to say more, Luo Yifang could not be bothered to keep asking. Given Paqi's personality, if she did not want to say something, no amount of questioning would help. Besides, rather than search for an outsider who might not even exist, he might as well deal with what was right in front of him first... At the very least, figuring out how to arrange Misaka 9982 was a problem.

Meanwhile, just as Misaka Mikoto was hesitating over whether to call Luo Yifang, the phone in her hand suddenly vanished. She jerked her head up and shouted, "Kuroko, what are you doing?!"

"Onee-sama, you've been staring blankly at your phone for nearly twenty minutes!" Kuroko waved Misaka Mikoto's phone around in displeasure. "And it turns out you were thinking about whether to call that guy?"

"I just wanted to call and ask him why he gave me a blank USB drive!" Misaka Mikoto tried to snatch the phone back, but Kuroko was as slippery as a loach, and Misaka Mikoto could not catch her at all. Yet the two had clearly forgotten that they were still in the dormitory. The consequences of their horseplay needed no imagining—before long, they were both taken down on the spot by the Matron, who had come to maintain order in the dorm.

"You two, have you forgotten the dorm rules again? Do you know what time it is? You're still not asleep—what, are you trying to cultivate immortality?" After dealing with them, the Matron adjusted her glasses and said in a low voice, "If I catch you two again, you can go back to cleaning the swimming pool for me!"

"Yes!" Kuroko and Misaka Mikoto hurriedly bowed and admitted their mistake. However, after the Matron left and Misaka Mikoto breathed a sigh of relief, Kuroko grinned slyly and pressed a few buttons on her phone from an angle Misaka Mikoto could not see before returning it to her.

Having suffered this dormitory disaster for nothing, Misaka Mikoto had no mood to keep fooling around. Burdened with worries, she flopped onto her bed and soon fell asleep, leaving Kuroko standing beside her, not knowing what to think. Looking at the sleeping Misaka Mikoto, Kuroko sighed inwardly. For some reason, Onee-sama has been like this ever since she came back. She really can't hide what she's feeling. She obviously has something on her mind, but she refuses to tell me. Honestly.

Should I ask that bastard Luo Yifang tomorrow? The thought was dismissed by Kuroko the instant it appeared. As if! That guy is a complete bastard—there's no way I'm asking him! Heh heh, you didn't expect this, did you? I, Shirai Kuroko, made preparations. I deleted your number from Onee-sama's phone and blacklisted you too. Now there's no way you can contact Onee-sama! Ohohoho! The certain pervert whose mind was filled with Shirai Kuroko's great victory contentedly flopped onto her bed and drifted happily off to sleep.

"Achoo!" Luo Yifang rubbed his nose. "What's going on this time... Don't tell me I caught a cold."

"You can catch a cold? That's hilarious. You might as well say Aleister dropped dead on the spot—that would be more likely," Paqi said.