The Way

He never would have imagined things turning out like this. On his very first trip to another world, he'd run into an opponent so troublesome that there seemed to be no way to deal with him. How was he supposed to get through that transparent, spiky turtle shell?

Apart from his strength, he didn't seem to have any other strange abilities. There was no way he could break through it. Maybe once his strength reached a certain level, he'd be able to break through when his opponent couldn't reflect his attacks?

He could put that aside for now. He couldn't do it yet. In that case, he'd just run.

On his way out, he'd destroyed that building, too. That little extra effort would probably leave Jiu Ming needing some time to recover. At the time, he'd directly activated his own mental power, keeping it at an extremely heightened level. For that moment, he'd been able to draw on more of it and unleash a much more powerful burst.

It was no big deal to destroy a building with one punch!

Was that really so hard? These days, any high-magic, high-martial-power being who couldn't do that would be relegated to the role of an extra. He had no idea how strong the top fighters in this world were. Take that White Hair, for example... Was he boss-tier, just an ordinary type, or, at worst, some sort of elite unit?

"...Oh my god." Once they'd reached a safe place, Jiu Ming looked around at the dozens of Misaka Sisters who'd appeared, the corner of his eye twitching. "How many of you are there?"

Dozens of them had just appeared out of nowhere. If he waited a little longer, would there be hundreds?

With dozens of emotionless eyes fixed on him, Jiu Ming would rather have a hundred ordinary people gawking at him. This was worse. He was starting to feel like he had to help them.

Back when he'd been in dire straits, he hadn't been able to help anyone and could only watch indifferently. Now that he had the ability... what was he hesitating for?

Damn it, it was just one White Hair. It wasn't like he was truly impossible to deal with. If physical attacks didn't work, then he'd try another approach!

Or he could simply ignore the guy and focus on saving people. If Accelerator really went so mad as to hunt them down without mercy, Jiu Ming would have to think carefully about how to break through that turtle shell.

Poison?

Hmm, good idea.

What he needed to worry about now was how to find a place for these Misaka Sisters. They were clones... He could see them as people, but others might not. Did that mean he'd have to sit down and discuss philosophy with them? That all life was equal, even that of clones, because they had faint, innocent souls...

That would be less effective than putting a knife to someone's throat and threatening them. "You bastards so much as lay a finger on them, and I'll grab two cleavers and hack my way from the east gate to the west, wiping out your whole family!"

That'd be direct.

And simple!

The problem was, he couldn't do that...

He was clearly overthinking things.

"What? You won't leave?" Damn it, did they have to be so stubborn? After learning what the dozens of extra Misakas wanted, Jiu Ming was conflicted. He wanted to take them away, but they didn't see it that way. The experiment couldn't be interrupted!

Why were they so set on this? The experiment was going to cost them their lives, and they still didn't plan to leave?

And they acted as if this was simply how things were supposed to end?

"How do we stop the experiment?"

He couldn't reason with them. Trying to explain things to girls who lacked emotions only left him frustrated, so he tried asking another way.

"..." Misaka 1 rattled off a long string of what sounded like passwords. Jiu Ming had no idea how to answer. And then...

Nobody replied!?

Jiu Ming knocked on his head, feeling a headache coming on. There were a few ways to stop the experiment, after all. The dumbest and most time-consuming was to interfere with the experiments while destroying the research facilities. If he demolished every last one, the experiment obviously couldn't continue.

There was bound to be something he missed if he did that. Another option was to find the mastermind... and take him out!

Uh... that seemed a little too difficult.

There was another option. Accelerator seemed like a pretty important subject in the experiment!

If he took him down, would the experiment end? If that wasn't reliable enough, he could just drag Accelerator into some remote corner and make him disappear for a while.

"One last question: who's willing to come with me?"

Even if he used force to take away dozens of identical girls, Jiu Ming only had two hands. He could carry ten at most, between holding them, hugging them, and hauling them over his shoulders. And that scene... If anyone saw it, he'd definitely end up in this world's jail!

Only Misaka 1 stepped forward, because Jiu Ming had forcibly brought her experiment to an end. Next time, it wouldn't be her but Misaka 2 or one of the later Misaka Sisters. As for what would happen to her, the nice term was "recycling." The less nice one was "mercy killing."

It seemed the only option, after going around in circles, was to take out Accelerator. He couldn't stay in this world forever.

"Sigh... In the end, the forest abandoned me." Jiu Ming complained jokingly and shook his head. "Come on. I'll find you somewhere safe for now."

He shook his head with a wry smile, as if something had just occurred to him, and summoned Panel-kun...

"Your time to shine. How big is the Mysterious Shop?"

The Mysterious Shop could add useless things like bathrooms and bedrooms whenever it wanted... and even now, it still judged those things useless to Jiu Ming!

Anyway, if it could open up some extra space and create things like that at any time, how big was the Mysterious Shop?

Big.

Then Panel-kun disappeared again less than 0.1 seconds after appearing, leaving Jiu Ming with a maddeningly vague answer. How big was "big," exactly?

Panel-kun had explained that the Mysterious Shop was a lot like a demiplane. But a demiplane was... Jiu Ming wasn't some wizard specializing in mysterious space elements. How could he understand all that?

As for why all these Misaka Sisters had appeared here, the reason was simpler than Jiu Ming could have imagined—curiosity. They'd come to watch!?

Were they kidding him? He'd never seen Misaka 1 make a phone call, and she didn't have any communication device. So how had they heard about him and come by to watch along the way?

"The Misakas share the same brainwave pattern. Their brainwaves are converted into electronic signals and linked together, forming the 'Misaka Network,'" Misaka 1 explained, clearing up Jiu Ming's confusion.

A human network?

Jiu Ming's mouth twitched. This world was incredible. That was possible!?

So with this network, they could communicate from anywhere at any time? Hey! No matter how powerful a communication device was, it was completely pathetic compared to this.

Maybe this experiment wasn't as simple as it seemed...

Jiu Ming thought, uncertainly. If every clone could have a network like this, then this world was crazy. Spies and moles would be everywhere, and they wouldn't even have to worry about getting exposed. They wouldn't need to find a contact to pass on information; they could just think it and send it to another clone.

Wait! Why not go straight for the root of the problem and expose the whole business of the clones?

Yeah, that'd work. But would he get silenced? Whatever. He didn't believe anyone could cross dimensions just to hunt him down!!

Clatter...

"What's this thing?"

Hearing a small noise, Jiu Ming glanced down at the black, smoky object that had landed by his feet.

"A grenade. It's obvious what it is. Misaka is worried about your intelligence."

"I know it's a grenade! I'm more concerned with who threw it!" Jiu Ming promptly sent it flying back even faster.

A flurry of noise followed, along with a loud explosion. As a brief scream sounded beside Jiu Ming, a rocket-propelled grenade came hurtling toward him, leaving a long trail of smoke.

They clearly didn't care about the Misaka Sisters here. Jiu Ming reached out and swatted the incoming rocket-propelled grenade aside. Catching it with the force of the blow, he spun around on the spot and sent it right back the way it had come...

"Phew. I may not be able to learn the Great Shifting Skill, but it's worth borrowing a few ideas..." he muttered. He'd worked out his technique for redirecting force by sparring with an opponent conjured by the Mysterious Shop... Zhang Wuji? No, no... And definitely not Yang Xiao!

The guy was named Yang Ding Tian—the Yang whose wife ran off with someone else. Yang! Ding! Tian!

He had to admit, that name was even more badass than Jiu Ming's. He admired anyone with the nerve to use it!

"Hey! What else have you got... You've got to be kidding me!"

Jiu Ming calmly watched as several more rocket-propelled grenades appeared. He planted both hands in the ground, heaved up a massive slab of stone, and shoved it toward them. This time, he couldn't throw them back one by one. He only had two hands!

Boom, boom, boom—

The slab of stone was blasted to pieces, and dazzling flames flared up. "Go, go, go! What are you still standing around for?!"

He didn't know who the attackers were, but now that they were using rocket-propelled grenades—"conventional" weapons—it didn't look like this world was one where laser weapons flew everywhere because of an advanced tech tree. That was fine. He could handle this... as long as there wasn't more than one example of that effeminate White Hair!

He drove the Misaka Sisters away. The attackers clearly didn't care whether they lived, and the Misaka Sisters left decisively. Jiu Ming felt increasingly conflicted. Had he saved a bunch of ungrateful she-wolves?

Phew, whatever. Maybe to them, things could only be one way or the other. Hesitation was... They barely cared about dying. How could they possibly hesitate?

He'd told them to leave, and they'd gone without a word. That was only to be expected. What he hadn't expected was that Misaka 1 stayed behind.

"You go, too. I'll find you later." Jiu Ming waved at Misaka 1, keeping his eyes on the dark area ahead. He could sense plenty of people crouched there. They hadn't gone after the scattered Misaka Sisters. They were here for him, weren't they?

Hearing footsteps behind him, Jiu Ming nodded. Maybe it would sound great if she stayed and said, "I'm not leaving. We'll face this together." But that only sounded nice. Once the fight started, he'd be the one worrying. With her tiny frame, what if a bullet just grazed her...

"Come on! Let me see who you are!" He took a breath and stared intently into the darkness. A fully armed squad ran out.