A Certain Magical Index: The Primal Spirit Descends to My Side

On the broken viaduct, the gray steel bars reflected a blinding white light in the afternoon sun. The wind swept through from beneath the bridge, bringing a dull whistling sound and dispersing the dust it stirred up.

Misaka Mikoto stood twenty meters away from Kiyama Harumi, her short, brown hair swaying slightly in the hot wind. The cuffs of her school uniform shirt were slightly torn, marks from when she had dodged the air-cutting blade. A fine layer of sweat beaded on her forehead, but there was no sign of retreat in her chestnut-colored eyes.

Kiyama Harumi stood on the other side of the bridge, the hem of her white coat fluttering in the wind. Her bloodshot eyes calmly looked at Misaka Mikoto, an invisible pressure permeating the surrounding air.

"Multi-talented..." Misaka Mikoto repeated the word, a defiant smile playing on her lips. "Sounds impressive. But..."

She raised her right hand, and blue-white sparks flew from her fingertips.

"How long can this cheat-obtained power last against a true superhuman like me?"

Before she finished speaking, Misaka Mikoto had already moved.

Instead of charging in a straight line, she used magnetic force to attract the steel bars on the side of the bridge, propelling her body out like a cannonball, her trajectory curving in an astonishing arc. Almost simultaneously, a crater three meters in diameter blasted open where she had originally stood.

"Quick reaction," Kiyama Harumi commented casually, waving his left hand to the side. Five invisible air blades swept across in a fan shape, blocking all possible dodge routes for Misaka Mikoto. But Misaka Mikoto didn't dodge at all. She twisted her body in mid-air and pressed her right hand forward.

Sizzle—!

The blue-white lightning spear tore through the air, colliding head-on with the air blade and brutally piercing through the blade made of air. The high-voltage current instantly ruptured the structure of the compressed air, and the aftershocks even melted a charred mark on the bridge railing.

Kiyama Harumi raised an eyebrow slightly. She took half a step back, and the bridge surface beneath her feet suddenly softened, swallowing her up like a swamp, only to be spat out ten meters away in the next second.

"Can you escape?" Misaka Mikoto landed, her feet scraping against the bridge surface, creating two sparks. She didn't give chase, but instead placed her hands on the bridge surface.

Simultaneously, the entire steel structure of the viaduct emitted a blue-white electric light. Centered on Misaka Mikoto, the position, shape, and even the slightest vibration of every metal object within a 100-meter radius formed a precise 3D map in her mind. No matter where Kiyama Harumi moved, as soon as she touched the metal structure, she would be instantly locked onto.

Kiyama Harumi clearly realized this, and instead of using movement abilities that required contact with the bridge surface, she simply flew up.

Misaka Mikoto used magnetism to move at high speed between exposed steel bars, each step generating intense sparks. Kiyama Harumi floated in mid-air, constantly switching between activating her abilities: flamethrowers, ice spikes, telekinetic shockwaves, and even brief beam distortions…

Each ability is only at Level 3 to Level 4 strength, but what's truly terrifying is their "seamless switching." One second it's a blazing fireball, the next it's icy cold air, and the next it's an invisible shockwave. There's no interval, no warning, as if dozens of different ability users' brains exist simultaneously within Kiyama Harumi's body.

"Tsk..." Misaka Mikoto brushed past an ice pick, tearing a gash in her left shirt and leaving a shallow bloodstain on her skin. She gritted her teeth, her mind racing.

No… this will wear us down. Her ability switching has no cooldown, and it seems to require absolutely no calculation… Is it the brains of those ten thousand people sharing the computational load? Then… if we just cut off her connection to the network…

A resolute glint flashed in Misaka Mikoto's eyes.

She suddenly changed tactics, no longer dodging, but charging straight at Kiyama Haruo's next wave of attacks. Dozens of pebbles were accelerated to bullet speed by telekinesis and shot towards her, but Misaka Mikoto remained completely calm.

"What?" Kiyama Harumi was slightly taken aback.

Just as the pebbles were about to hit Misaka Mikoto, a dense electric net erupted around her. It wasn't defense, but decoys. The electric current altered the magnetic field of the trace metals within the pebbles, causing their trajectories to deflect slightly. A dozen or so pebbles grazed her body, exploding into a series of craters on the bridge surface.

Misaka Mikoto had already rushed to within five meters of Kiyama Harumi.

Too close. For most ability users, this distance is already within "killing range." Kiyama Harumi frantically activated her "shockwave" ability, and a visible shockwave erupted outward from her. But this was the moment Misaka Mikoto had been waiting for.

"The same trick won't work on me!"

She concentrated all her magnetic force on her right foot and slammed it onto the bridge surface. The entire steel structure vibrated violently, and the resulting reaction force propelled her upwards at a speed that almost defied the laws of physics, allowing her to leap just over the crest of the shockwave.

Then, it fell.

Kiyama Harumi tried to activate another ability, but Misaka Mikoto was too fast. From leaping to falling, the whole process took only a blink of an eye. By the time she reacted, Misaka Mikoto had already caught her.

It wasn't an aggressive tackle, but rather an almost embracing gesture. Her arms wrapped around Kiyama Harumi's waist, and she pressed her entire body against her.

"You—!" Kiyama Harumi exclaimed, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Got you..." Misaka Mikoto whispered in her ear, a triumphant smile playing on her lips. "Even though that idiot could block it... there's no way you have that many abilities in your inventory..."

Then, she released the electricity.

It wasn't a focused attack like a lightning spear, but rather an indiscriminate electrical discharge covering the entire body. Blue-white electricity completely enveloped the two, forming an electric sphere three meters in diameter. The voltage was kept within a non-lethal range, the aim being to stop their movements.

"Ugh—!" Kiyama Harumi let out a painful groan as a powerful electric current coursed through his body. This move had been tested on many thugs and had not caused fatal injuries, so Kiyama Harumi simply lost all his strength.

The core principle of the "Fantasy Master" network is to synchronize the brainwaves of 10,000 users through synesthetic audio, forming a parallel computational network. As the master node of the network, Kiyama Harumi's brain must have exchanged high-frequency brainwave signals with the network.

Misaka Mikoto's electric current directly affects this exchange, and the consequence is...

countercurrent.

Because Misaka Mikoto's brainwaves were also drawn in, as the strongest Electromaster in Academy City, Misaka Mikoto's brain itself possesses extremely strong bioelectric activity. When she enveloped Kiyama Harumi with her entire body's current, the two's brainwaves briefly "coupled" on a physical level.

And so, the memories began to flow back.

The fragmented memories, emotions, and pain of ten thousand users that Kiyama Harumi sensed through the internet, along with her own deeply buried past that she had never spoken of to anyone, surged towards Misaka Mikoto like a flood breaking through a dam.

Misaka Mikoto saw it, not with her eyes, but with a memory and feeling as if she were seeing it herself, as if she were experiencing Kiyama Harumi's life.

Soft lighting illuminated the clean and bright laboratory. Several beds were placed in the high-ceilinged space, surrounded by devices for monitoring vital signs and collecting data, with messy cables laid on the floor.

"Mr. Kiyama~" A little girl sat on the large bed, taking up only half of it. She was wearing the surgical gown that was issued to her, and her short chestnut hair was adorned with a red headband.

"What's wrong, Mr. Zhi?" Kiyama Haruo stood by the bed adjusting the parameters, then placed a helmet on the table and plugged the cable into the interface on the helmet.

"Oh...is this the teacher's experiment?" Zhi first pulled over a neatly folded blanket, wrapped it around herself, then unfolded it and draped it over her back.

"I guess so... This is Professor Kihara's experiment, it's to test the medicine..." Kiyama Harumi adjusted the helmet's settings and then placed it on Zhixian's head. "Okay, stop playing with the blanket for now..."

"Hmm!" Zhi raised her head first, smiling as she took off her headband and placed it under her pillow. "Hehe...this blanket is really good quality..."

Kiyama Harumi smiled as he secured the helmet with the straps, then helped her lie down and gently covered her with a blanket. "It'll be done in a little while..."

"Okay~ I believe you, teacher!"

Kiyama Haruo entered the observation room and sat down next to Professor Kihara. Watching the children below swallow a diamond-shaped white pill one by one, Kiyama Haruo knew that the experiment was about to begin.

She looked at the data with anticipation, only to see the students' pained expressions and blood seeping from their foreheads. In a panic, she opened the data display and found that where the pill sponsor should have been, the words "Ability Crystallization" were displayed instead.

She watched in despair as the children below struggled in agony, coughing up blood, scratching their faces and necks, foaming at the mouth, until finally they lay still.

She looked at her colleagues, who, like her, had also been teachers to these children. If she went down to help them... she found that her colleagues were just frantically recording experimental data.

At that moment, a large hand landed on her shoulder.

"Kiyama-kun... Inui did a great job... Although their ending is somewhat regrettable, it is an inevitable process of scientific progress..." Professor Kihara's voice came, without the slightest change, as if the deaths of those children were insignificant to him.

He gently patted Kiyama Haruo on the back, his tone relaxed, like an elder concerned for a junior, "Don't take this to heart. I look forward to your next performance..."

The flow of memories has ended.

The electric orb dissipated, and Misaka Mikoto and Kiyama Harumi simultaneously released each other, staggering back a few steps before collapsing onto the bridge. Both were breathing heavily, their foreheads covered in cold sweat.

Misaka Mikoto raised her head and looked at Kiyama Harumi. Her eyes had changed. They were no longer the sharp gaze she held when facing an enemy, but rather a mixture of shock, understanding, and a deep sorrow.

"Why...why do you do that kind of thing..." Misaka Mikoto's voice was a little hoarse.

Kiyama Harumi didn't answer immediately. She supported herself with one hand on the ground, pressing her temple with the other, seemingly sorting through her jumbled memories. After a few seconds, she spoke slowly, her voice so weary it sounded as if she might collapse at any moment.

"Ah...you saw it." She looked up, her bright red eyes staring at Misaka Mikoto, a bitter smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"That experiment was disguised as an 'AIM diffusion field control experiment,' but it was actually an 'explosion experiment to induce superpower rampage by ability crystals'! The real purpose of that experiment was to observe the patterns of ability rampage by feeding ordinary ability users 'body crystals' and using learning devices to control their ability rampage..."

"In that case..."

"That experiment was pre-arranged... although I only discovered it later..." Kiyama Harumi's body slumped down limply, barely managing to stand.

"Human...experiments..."

"Those children never opened their eyes again, they've been sleeping ever since..." Kiyama Harumi turned around, touching his eyes with his hand. "We used them like guinea pigs, used and then discarded!"

"Why...not ask the security guards for help? Or collaborate with other researchers? There should be plenty in Academy City..."

"Do you think I haven't tried?" Kiyama Haruo interrupted her, her voice suddenly becoming agitated. "My application was rejected seventeen times! My collaboration request was rejected twenty-three times! Even when I proposed to conduct independent research, my experimental equipment and funding were blocked! The General Council is in cahoots with them! They would never send in the security guards!" She stood up, her white lab coat fluttering wildly in the wind.

"Even so, you shouldn't have resorted to such a drastic measure..."

"What do you know?! I'll do anything to save those children! Even if it means becoming an enemy of everyone in this city, you won't make me stop!"

Her voice suddenly stopped.

It wasn't because she finished speaking, but because her body began to tremble violently. Her bright red eyes widened abruptly, her pupils reflecting something unseen by Misaka Mikoto—something that was crumbling away.

"No...wait...the network...is unstable..." Kiyama Harumi clutched his head, collapsing to his knees in anguish. "My emotions are too volatile...the control node...is out of control..."

Misaka Mikoto immediately realized what had happened.

The recent flashback of memories and emotional turmoil caused a crack in Kiyama Harumi's control over the "Fantasy Master" network. The parallel brain network of ten thousand people was inherently an extremely unstable structure, relying entirely on Kiyama Harumi's precise control as the master node to maintain balance. And now, this controller himself was in chaos.

Centered on Kiyama Haruo, the invisible AIM diffusion field began to run rampant. Chaotic vortexes emerged, and a strange halo visible to the naked eye appeared in the air.

Above Kiyama Harumi's head, space began to distort. It was a distortion of reality caused by the excessive condensation of the AIM diffusion field.

A "thing" was born from the void.

It started as just a tiny point of light, the size of a baby's fist, emitting a soft, milky-white glow. But it was breathing, and with each pulse, it grew a size larger.

In just three seconds, it took to form a blurry outline, the outline of a baby, with curled-up limbs, a round head, and even closed eyes and a slightly open mouth.

It is not a living being; it has no skin or flesh. Its entire body is composed of a translucent, flowing AIM force field, with countless tiny points of light shimmering inside, as if stars were flowing within it.

An infant-shaped aggregate formed from pure AIM diffusion force field. It floated two meters above Kiyama Harumi's head, slowly rotating, its eyes still tightly closed.

Kiyama Harumi looked up at the thing, her crimson eyes filled with despair. "A fantasy beast..." her voice was weak, almost fading away. "A self-aware aggregate of force fields... the final form of a network rampage..."

Misaka Mikoto also looked at the "baby," and the hairs on her body stood on end.

Meanwhile, in a dimly lit room, with pipes crisscrossing everywhere, a slow breath exhales tiny bubbles from a large glass container.

"The birth of an artificial angel... steps from 2160 to 2503 omitted..."