One-way traffic

"Magic won't work in a situation like this..."

Furthermore, Alice doesn't believe any magic can truly affect the First One, who possesses the ability to reflect.

In that case, we would be at a disadvantage.

hum-

It was at this very moment.

Alice's cell phone, which she had hidden in her pocket, rang.

"Whoa—! What?!"

"...You two are so noisy."

Marisa and Reimu reacted differently, while Alice immediately took out her phone.

Hmm... it says to press this button to connect...

Although she had never used such an electronic device before, Alice's intelligence allowed her to figure out how to use it in an instant.

She answered the phone.

"Ah—can you hear that? Misaka is the same person from before."

"what…"

"You're halfway there now, aren't you? Although Misaka doesn't know where you and that guy are going, at least on this journey, Misaka will have a chance to have a good chat with you."

"What...should we talk about?"

The moment I asked that question, the person on the other end laughed.

"Of course we're talking about how to win that guy over!"

"Strategy...strategy?"

Even Marisa, who was standing nearby, heard it.

Not only that, Reimu, upon hearing the sound, actually approached with some interest.

Three girls from Gensokyo gathered around Alice, holding the phone as if it were a precious treasure.

"Listen carefully, the first thing to do is to start by targeting that guy's interests."

grunt.

Without realizing it, Alice felt herself swallow.

From then on, she followed the instructions of the extra characters very carefully during this journey.

————————————————————————————

"——A-sneeze!"

Accelerator was walking along peacefully when he suddenly sneezed.

"Huh? Are you alright... could it be a cold?"

"…fine."

I was thinking that someone like me could never catch a cold.

But Accelerator thought about it and realized that... it had already been like this when he was walking side by side with Takibayashi before.

Both Takibayashi and Hatsune Miku exchanged a surprised look.

"...How do I feel today?"

"It's gotten so strange..."

Chapter 681 The Building Without Doors and Windows

The secret organization "School".

—The existence of such an organization had already collapsed not long ago.

Now words.

"I bought black tea."

A beautiful girl with long golden hair, an elegant figure, and wearing a pink dress.

She was opening the door as she walked into the room, which resembled a high-end salon.

Sitting in the room was a bored young man, staring at the television and playing console games.

Brown hair, approximately 180 centimeters tall.

“I didn’t ask you to bring it for me.”

"Don't say that. We were once partners in the same secret organization."

Yu Caihai Mei.

Once a member of the "School," a dark organization within Academy City, he now finds himself in a place like this.

She tossed the drink she had prepared over, but Kakine Teitoku paid it no heed.

But that doesn't mean he couldn't catch it.

Swah——

From behind the second person, an arm whiter than snow reached out and instantly grabbed the canned black tea.

"...Huh?"

"It's nothing, just an effect similar to creating a clone. We've already demonstrated this kind of thing during concerts on stage, haven't we?"

He manipulates primordial matter to create entities that resemble clones, but Kakine Teitoku's abilities are not limited to this.

Effects such as having three heads and six arms extending from the body are also achievable.

The arm caught the black tea with perfect precision, placed it on the table, and then vanished into thin air.

Yuzai Haimi blinked, looking somewhat startled, and walked over.

"However, nowadays even you Level 5 superpowered beings can't participate in these kinds of idol activities, right?"

"Because the whole world is suffering from that damn disaster... By the way, what are you doing here?"

"You're really slow on the uptake."

*Thud.* A large stack of documents was thrown onto the second desk.

Kakine Teitoku clicked his tongue in annoyance as he watched the game screen where they had lost because of Yuuka Mimi's interference.

"Don't tell me you're here on purpose to cause me trouble?"

"No way~ You'll understand once you look at these things."

The document contained a very clear and striking sentence.

'I agree to replace Academy City's second-ranked idol manager with Yuuka Umi.'

After seeing that sentence, Kakine Teitoku understood everything completely.

"You actually came to be my agent?"

"What, you're not welcome?"

"Stop talking nonsense. What I hate most is having an annoying woman around me."

"Oh dear, does she really have absolutely no charm that makes you dislike her so much?"

"Stop being such a mouthful."

Kakine Teitoku buried his entire body in the sofa behind him.

Ultimately, discussing idols is pointless these days.

The entire Academy City is facing unimaginable circumstances, and indeed, the entire world is in a similar situation.

Then there's no need to even mention any idol projects.

"So, which guys are planning to develop this thing anyway?"

"How would I know? Whoever wants to be, is whoever wants to be. As long as I can beat that kid in first place with this kind of thing, that's fine."

Is that right?

Yuuka Mimi came to Kakine Teitoku's side and sat down.

"what the hell."

"nothing."

She thought for a moment, then looked at the second person.

"I was just wondering, is your participation in idol activities... really just for the sake of beating the number one spot?"

Her words instantly stunned Kakine Teitoku, who was about to take a sip of black tea.

"…What do you want to say?"

“If that’s really all there is to it, I feel you should have given up long ago.”

Yuzai Haimi simply spoke her words calmly.

"At this point, he doesn't particularly care about popularity, and all the things that have happened so far have affected your idol career, right? Under these circumstances, let alone competing with each other, you can't even maintain a decent level of popularity."

"I've been observing this carefully. The first one has been paying very little attention to idol careers lately... but you are the opposite."

"On the contrary, you seem to have always maintained a high level of focus on the idol industry."

No sooner had she finished speaking than Yuu Ayami noticed the dangerous gaze emanating from Kakine Teitoku.

thump—

Before the two could continue their discussion, there was a knock on the door.

Aren't you going to open the door?

"No interest. The only people who would come to a place like this nowadays are those who are blind to the danger."

Kakine Teitoku ignored the series of knocks on the door and simply sat there, lazily sipping his black tea.

—Bang! !

The next second, the tightly locked iron gate was kicked open.

Under the watchful eyes of Yuuka Mimi and Kakine Teitoku, the person who entered the room was someone they were both very familiar with.

The first one with white hair and red eyes.

"Are you deaf, kid?"

Accelerator grumbled as he twisted his neck, making cracking noises, and stepped through the broken iron gate.

Several other girls followed behind him.

Kakine Teitoku disagreed.

He remained seated, casually taking a sip of his black tea.

"What are you doing here? By the way, when did you start playing this playboy act?"

"Stop talking nonsense. You should feel lucky that I, the great lord, have come to find you, you beast."

Accelerator placed one foot on Kakine Teitoku's table.

"Get out of here immediately."

"Where are you going? You don't really think you have the right to yell at me like that, do you?"

Kakine Teitoku didn't even look up, and even picked up the console controller again, intending to continue playing the game.

"I won't do it. All those stupid things you talked about, like protecting others, are things you'd rather do yourself, but don't drag me into them."

"...That's it."

Accelerator didn't say anything more.

He put his feet off the table, and then took his phone out of his pocket.

Tick.

The contents of the email he had previously received were forwarded to Kakine Teitoku's phone without any changes.