On how PhDs become human evil

These robbers, from their speed of movement to their escape from the scene, and even their attitude towards those who tried to stop them, all showed that they were a bunch of overconfident and arrogant pufferfish. Bai Jie was too lazy to even touch them; they were barely good enough to be used as practice targets for Shirai Kuroko.

"Hahaha! Are there no disciplinary committee members left? They actually let this little brat do the work!"

Very good, that's the standard statement from a lowly villain. This group really knows how to set a good flag.

Bai Jie's gaze towards the three robbers was as if they were already dead. Of all things to say, why did he have to make such a fuss? This is no way to court death.

Next, Shirai Kuroko put on a standard one-against-three showdown against Bai Jie and Misaka Mikoto.

[Shirai Kuroko sends a signal]: I'm here to arrest someone!

[Shirai Kuroko] caught three lone ones!

[Shirai Kuroko] (Flash) killed one enemy.

[Shirai Kuroko] Double kill!

[Shirai Kuroko] Triple Kill!

Using her unpredictable spatial teleportation, Shirai Kuroko completely manipulated the three adults. With almost no cooldown time, she quickly took them all down. She even demonstrated what a standard grappling technique looks like, pinning a man half a head taller than her to the ground in just ten seconds.

"Misaka, I feel like you should learn some self-defense techniques too."

"Huh? Why would I learn that?"

"Think about it, what if Shirai Kuroko ever plots against you and uses grappling techniques against you? You can use self-defense techniques to protect yourself."

"...That makes some sense."

Given Shirai Kuroko's almost obsessive and stalker-like behavior towards her, Misaka Mikoto had a thousand reasons to believe that Shirai Kuroko would really have ulterior motives towards her. In fact, since the two became roommates, Shirai Kuroko had made several attempts to take advantage of her, but each time she had been electrocuted.

Now that Shirai Kuroko's grappling techniques seem so standard, Misaka Mikoto feels she needs to take some precautions. What if Shirai Kuroko one day manages to render her electric shocks ineffective? Like a rubber sling or something.

Just then, something unusual happened at the robbery scene.

"Don't move! Anyone who dares to touch him, I'll kill this brat!"

A robber who was supposed to be taken down by Shirai Kuroko suddenly got up from the ground, grabbed a passing little boy, and held a gun to the boy's head with his other hand.

This instantly reversed the situation.

"Hmm, here comes the weakness. Shirai Kuroko's technique is very mature, but unfortunately her strength is too weak. Even if she knocks someone down, she can only make them weak for a short while. Should we suggest she go to the gym?"

"Stop making sarcastic remarks! We need to get that boy out of there right now!"

"Judging from your tone, you want me to take action?" Bai Jie raised an eyebrow. "There's an old saying in China, 'Why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut?' If my old friends knew I was dealing with a robber, they'd probably laugh their heads off, saying things like, 'Doctor, you've actually gone and started doing chivalrous deeds!'"

"So you're planning to stand by and do nothing?"

"I just judged that the current situation wasn't worth my intervention. I'm not some superhero who saves every mortal he encounters."

Seeing that Bai Jie was leaning against the wall and showed no sign of moving, Misaka Mikoto sighed in disappointment: "Then I'll go, you just stay here and watch."

"Okay, be careful on the road."

Watching Misaka Mikoto leave, Bai Jie gave a wry smile: "Oh dear, what a naive little girl with a strong sense of justice. She'll probably get along well with Emiya Shirou. I just wonder what she'll become after she learns about the dark side of Academy City..."

"Well, it's not that I don't want to help, it's just that if I take action, this street might be gone. Aleister wants me to be kinder to the world."

No matter how much Bai Jie suppresses his power, he can still destroy the entire street with a single magic trick.

If Bai Jie doesn't intervene, at most the bank will be ruined; if Bai Jie intervenes, the entire street will be destroyed. It's a huge loss no matter how you look at it. Although Bai Jie can use methods like sleep magic, as mentioned before, the minimum range of magic is tens of meters. What if one sleep magic spell knocks the entire park out of sleep?

So it's not that Bai Jie didn't want to make a move, but that he couldn't.

"Does this mean she dislikes me? Has my affection for her decreased?"

As the first person he met in this world, and also the first person he got to know, Bai Jie didn't really want to antagonize Misaka Mikoto if he could. After all, he first knocked her unconscious and took her to a hotel, then tied her to a chair and took 100,000 yen from her without her permission... Looking at it this way, Bai Jie seems pretty scum, doesn't he?

Overall, although he has only been in this world for less than a day, Bai Jie has already had a lot of close contact with Misaka Mikoto and received a lot of help from her, so Bai Jie still wants to be friends with Misaka Mikoto.

"Boom—!"

Just then, a beam of light from a super electromagnetic cannon, shining with an orange-red glow, burst forth on the street, blasting a car and the robber driving it into the air.

Looking at the street that had been split in two by the Railgun, Bai Jie covered his face: "Well, this girl is just like me."

Section 509, Chapter 9: The Oil Bottle and Flamethrower of Justice

Two days after the bank robbery, it was Monday again. However, since summer vacation was coming up at the end of the week, Tokiwadai simply didn't schedule any classes for the last week, letting the students do whatever they wanted. Unlike other students at Tokiwadai, who are all elites, they have a lot of self-discipline and won't go crazy playing as soon as vacation starts.

In this situation, Bai Jie had no time to rest. At the end of each semester, the teachers at Tokiwadai would select one person to handle some end-of-semester tasks, such as grading final exams. Unfortunately, as a teacher who had just arrived at Tokiwadai, Bai Jie was assigned this important task. At a time when he should be enjoying the air conditioning at home, he was sitting in the Tokiwadai teachers' office grading papers.

Although Bai Jie has a technique to control the surrounding temperature, making it warm in winter and cool in summer, he doesn't feel any temperature changes at all.

However, just because Bai Jie doesn't feel hot doesn't mean his assistant doesn't.

"Ugh...it's so hot..."

Like a fish that has been baking in the sun for several minutes, Misaka Mikoto lay on the table with her tongue sticking out, wisps of heat rising from the top of her head.

Because there were hardly any people at the school during the last week, the Tokiwadai school buildings didn't have air conditioning, and the same went for the teachers' offices. The only thing available was the ceiling fans, but in this late July, the fans couldn't bring any relief, and the offices were still as hot as steam rooms.

"So if you feel hot, just go back to your dorm. There's not much left anyway, I can handle the rest by myself."

Bai Jie's words immediately made Misaka Mikoto frown: "Hey, have you forgotten that these exam papers are to be handed in to the principal? We'll all have to hand them in together. If I leave first, won't that mean I'm slacking off? I'll get my credits deducted."

"It's not like you're not slacking off anymore. I did 80% of these tests, didn't I?"

"...What can I do? It's so hot that I can't concentrate at all. Besides, why don't you look hot at all? You haven't even broken a sweat."

"Who knows? Maybe it's just because my spot is cooler."

Not at all. Bai Jie's spot is directly facing the sun, much hotter than Misaka Mikoto's spot in the shade.

Misaka Mikoto was used to Bai Jie's blatant lies and didn't bother with him. In the past three days, Misaka Mikoto had realized that eight out of ten of Bai Jie's words were jokes, and the other two were half true and half false. Therefore, he should never be believed completely, or he would definitely suffer a great loss.

"However, even though we're supposed to be grading the exams, all we'll be doing is grading the multiple-choice questions. The longer, more complex questions will all be scanned by machine, right?"

"Indeed, I'm so grateful to the principal for not making me grade all the questions. Ah, I got one wrong here. Speaking of which, it's amazing that people in Academy City would start giving electrical engineering questions in middle school. I wouldn't dare to do that."

The students in Academy City are all espers. The higher the level of their esper ability, the more developed their brains are. Therefore, theoretically, high-level espers are all excellent students. Tokiwadai's entrance requirement is level 3, so it can be said that there are no idiots in the school. Otherwise, giving middle school students questions that are equivalent to university level questions in the outside world would be an obvious attempt to prevent them from passing.

Upon hearing Bai Jie's words, Misaka Mikoto hesitated for a moment before finally asking, "Hey, Bai Jie—"

"Teacher Bai Jie, please use a more respectful title within the school."

"Teacher Bai Jie!" Reluctantly using a respectful title for Bai Jie, Misaka Mikoto asked, "Who exactly are you—"

"If you're going to ask me where I come from, then I can only answer that I come from the outside world." Before Misaka Mikoto could finish speaking, Bai Jie interrupted her, "By the way, you're probably wondering why I know what you're going to ask. The answer is simple: I can read minds."

"...Isn't your ability level 4 physical regeneration? How come you also have the ability to read minds?"

"You actually believe the information on the surface? You clearly saw how I appeared, yet you still think I'm just a simple person with the ability to regenerate flesh?"

Bai Jie's words silenced Misaka Mikoto.

(Indeed, that portal of light was clearly an effect of spatial abilities. So, theoretically, he should be a multi-ability user... no, ultimately, he's never received any ability development training.)

Seeing Misaka Mikoto's conflicted and confused expression, Bai Jie smiled and said, "Well, you don't need to think too much about my identity and abilities. You wouldn't be able to figure it out even if you racked your brains. Besides, I think it's more important to finish grading the exam papers you have. We need to hand them in to the principal before sunset."

"Well...."

"By the way, I've already approved it."

"What!?"

Misaka Mikoto looked at the stack of graded test papers on Bai Jie's desk and felt like crying.

Standing up, Bai Jie patted Misaka Mikoto on the shoulder and said, "Well, good luck. I'll go buy you something to drink. What do you want?"

"Lemonade, please...wait a minute." Just as Bai Jie was about to leave the office, Misaka Mikoto called him back again, "Why didn't you help during the bank robbery?"

"What? You're still dwelling on that matter?"

Bai Jie sighed.

"Two days have passed, why are we still digging into it?"

"......"

"...If I had to answer, I could only tell you this—[someone wants me to be kinder to the world]—after all, if I were to take action, I might just destroy the world."

After leaving those words, Bai Jie turned and left the office without looking back.

Meanwhile, Misaka Mikoto, who was in the office, fell silent for a moment before bursting out with a laugh: "That guy, he's got quite the big mouth, saying he could destroy the world by accident. Is he still a chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) patient? Does he think he's some kind of great demon king?"

"Okay, it seems I was overthinking it. He wasn't unwilling to help before, he just felt he didn't have the ability to do so. Yeah, that's it. Alright, let's get to work! I feel much cooler now, it's so nice to have figured things out."

In the hallway outside the office, leaning against the wall, Bai Jie listened to Misaka Mikoto's soliloquy and chuckled: "Never mind, let her think what she wants to think. Let's go, let's go buy some drinks."

This time, Bai Jie really turned and left, and where he had been leaning, a small magic circle was engraved on the wall.

That's a magic circle for controlling temperature.

P.S.: Pouring oil and breathing fire felt so fun! Killing two bosses in a row was so satisfying. But that ninja at the feather spot really hurt when he kicked me; one kick and I was dead.

Section 510, Chapter 10: The Temporary Charlatan

Honestly, Bai Jie felt he shouldn't have gone out today.

After finishing the exam papers for Tokiwadai, Bai Jie returned to the villa that Aleister had prepared for him and began a reclusive life, even ordering takeout for his daily meals.

Logically, he shouldn't have gone out today, but Misaka Mikoto suddenly called him, saying she had something important to discuss, so he reluctantly left his house.

Then he encountered the two people in front of him on the street.

One was a red-haired man over two meters tall, wearing a black robe that looked unbearably hot, with all sorts of strange ornaments on his fingers and ears, and even a row of barcodes at the corner of his eye—he was utterly non-mainstream.

The other was a tall, black-haired woman, presumably Japanese, dressed in a completely different style from the red-haired man. She wore a T-shirt tied at the waist and jeans with one leg missing, and a two-meter-long knife hanging from her waist.

(What kind of weird combination is this?)

This was Bai Jie's first reaction.

(A magical reaction? Are these two magicians?)

This was Bai Jie's second reaction.