One-way traffic

Page 699

She simply gazed at the opposite shore, as if looking at someone who didn't exist.

"Even the 'Demon God' cannot be ignored; it is an existence that must be confirmed."

"I need to go and confirm for myself whether such humans actually exist."

"Go to Academy City."

——————————————————————————————————————————

A massive science city with a population of 2.3 million.

People with superpowers are not uncommon here. Nearly 80% of the population consists of people with superpowers that are beyond the imagination of modern science. In this city, nothing is surprising.

Then, at night, at one o'clock in the morning.

This is the 7th school district, where most students live together.

Today, seven Level 5 espers have become idols, and a world-class idol company has emerged. A long time has passed since VOCALOID was introduced to Academy City.

Everywhere you look, you can see advertising signs and surrounding shops that resemble idol promotions.

Of course, there are very few shops still operating at 1 a.m.

However, this is not the main concern.

Academy City should be a huge city dominated by science.

Swah——

It's raining heavily tonight.

The raindrops kept hitting the asphalt, and they were quite dense. Fortunately, it was only one o'clock in the morning, and there were hardly any people to be seen here.

In an area relatively far from the student dormitories, there is an even larger house.

It looks like some kind of private villa.

The house has a typical Japanese-style structure and two floors, which is quite different from the ordinary student dormitories of the surrounding students.

Regardless of whether the people here are students or from another family, it's clear that the people living here are of high status.

Snap.

The sound of keyboard typing could be heard continuously coming from inside the room.

“…Got it.”

The room was spacious, neither too big nor too small, with a tatami floor and a distinctly Japanese style.

The person sitting at the desk, constantly typing information into the computer and making inquiries, was a young girl.

She has long orange hair, is about fifteen years old, and is a very cute girl with striking looks.

But there is one difference.

The girl's eyes appeared slightly vacant.

"Prepare the corresponding materials... First, a rag doll with hands and feet."

"Then, fill the doll with the appropriate amount of rice, prepare a needle and red thread, and then a sharp object, like a knife."

"Finally, prepare a cup of salt water..."

There was still a lot of information on the computer screen, but she kept recording it all in her mind.

So the girl got up and followed the instructions without hesitation.

--Then.

It wasn't until a certain moment that the girl came to her senses.

“…Huh?”

Me—I'm here, what am I doing?

She blinked, turned around in disbelief, and looked at the computer screen in front of her.

Everything has been pulled down to the lowest level, which means she has completed all the above operations.

But at the very bottom there is a saying.

One sentence that she found utterly chilling after reading it.

"This game carries an extremely high risk of causing life-threatening situations. Please think carefully before deciding whether to participate..."

zizi——

After she finished reading the information on the screen, the computer screen began to flicker.

then.

The ceiling lights were also turned off.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Click——! !

In the rainy night, vehicles speeding by splashed up a series of muddy water.

"Well... it's okay to wake Misaka up in the middle of the night, but shouldn't our Hatsune-san explain the situation to Misaka?"

Sitting in Aiho Yomi's car, the extra character spoke with a slightly annoyed, awkward tone.

"It's 1:15 a.m. now. Although Misaka doesn't care much about her health and can stay up all night without any problem, there should always be a cause and effect to everything, right?"

Around one o'clock, the extra individual who was still sleeping in the apartment was woken up by Hatsune Miku.

The gist of it was, 'The situation is urgent, and although I'm sorry, please help me.' After saying that, she was inexplicably pulled outside.

Fortunately, Aiho Yomikawa does have a car, which can be borrowed to drive directly to the place Hatsune Miku mentioned.

But she simply couldn't understand what the other person wanted to do.

Especially on a dark, rainy night when the rain is pouring down.

"This is it... Ms. Yuka's residence."

"Yuka? Ah, is that the Yuka Kamishiro from last time?"

"Well, although I don't know what happened, Ms. Yuka... suddenly called me."

Hatsune Miku, sitting in the passenger seat, was wearing a very loose coat.

Because it's close to winter, and it suddenly rained heavily during this season, even though it's still past midnight, the temperature in the surrounding area has dropped significantly.

Hatsune Miku, trembling slightly, took out her phone.

It also noted that the last call was at 1:03.

Next to the call log was a message from the sender, Yuka Kamishiro.

Please help me.

"Although it's unclear what exactly happened, the sound on Ms. Yuka's phone was very garbled, and it was impossible to call back. All that came on the other end of the line was pure radio interference."

"Wow! A kidnapping? This is quite an interesting development!"

"...Please don't joke about Ms. Yuka's situation; it's a very dangerous matter for her."

"Sorry, sorry, Misaka just suddenly became curious about this kind of development and got excited on her own."

As expected of a collection of Misaka Network's malicious intent, she always uses this malicious personality to speculate about others.

However, it is precisely because of the existence of the extra characters that Hatsune Miku was able to arrive in time.

Deep down, she instinctively longed for others to be with her.

"If we go in from here, will it be fine?"

"Yes, after we met before, Ms. Yuka also gave me her spare key to her house."

"What a carefree woman! It's fortunate that you have your personality. If it were someone else, they wouldn't have any problem even if their mansion was burgled, right?"

"Okay, okay, stop saying that..."

Hatsune Miku sighed and got out of the car.

Swoosh—! The sound of rain followed.

The torrential rain nearly soaked the girl as soon as she stepped into the car, so she quickly opened her umbrella.

"Ah... Misaka really doesn't like this kind of weather. If that person were here, things would be much easier, right?"

The extra character, who had just opened an umbrella, began to complain unhappily.

"After all, it's number one. With its reflectivity that can deflect anything, even if it rains for 24 hours, it won't affect that bastard."

"..."

"Hey, why the sudden expression? Oh dear, Misaka only mentioned that person briefly, and Hatsune-san can't even stand it?"

Seeing that Hatsune Miku seemed to change her expression slightly because of what he said, the extra individual laughed loudly and followed her to her side.

"If you're worried about that guy, there's no need to be. You should know very well what kind of person he is, right?"

"Whatever secret mission or what, it makes no difference to that guy, right? After all, even a nuclear bomb couldn't kill that bastard, let alone these things!"

Yes...

Seeing the side character looking gloating, still thinking about how Accelerator would humiliate him when he returned, Hatsune Miku couldn't help but freeze in place.

She bit her lip, trying her best not to let her emotions show.

That's right, everyone here thought that Accelerator was just doing his usual thing.

no one knows.

…Apart from her.

Only she knew the truth: the number one superhuman could never return.

"What are you waiting for? Open the door! Misaka is freezing to death!"

"…Um."

The girl remained silent and immediately went to open the door in front of her.

She reached out and inserted the key into the door.

"--Huh?"

In less than half a second, she couldn't help but freeze in shock.

No matter how she turned the key and the doorknob, she couldn't open it.