Unknowingly, the August vacation was quickly slipping through their fingers. Summer break was almost over.
During this time, aside from making the necessary appearance at Scorpius each day to hand out a few instructions, Fang Li mostly holed up in his dorm. He was either playing games with Index or just tackling his summer assignments.
Compared to students who got out early, those poor souls who had to attend summer supplementary classes (the ones with bad grades) were naturally burdened with even more homework. Since Fang Li was currently gathering intel on the next original Magic Path book and didn't have anything urgent to do, he figured he might as well just get the work out of the way.
Of course, Fang Li seemed to be the only one actually doing his homework.
It turned out that Kamijou Touma, Tsuchimikado Motoharu, and that blue-haired earring guy had apparently blown through all their savings a while back. With their scholarship day still ages away and their wallets empty, they'd each retreated to their respective hometowns for the summer just to survive.
Rumor had it that only yesterday, those idiots had gotten together to go hiking, specifically, to the mountains to catch those mythical "single-horned fairies." They even sent Fang Li a photo, proudly saying:
"Aren't you jealous?"
Naturally, Fang Li wasn't jealous at all. In fact, he immediately texted back:
"How old are you guys? Still going up mountains to catch single-horned fairies during summer break? The Idiot Trio will always be the Idiot Trio."
Apparently, it started raining around noon that day, leaving a certain spiky-haired, unlucky boy shouting about his misfortune atop a mountain with no shelter from the wind or rain.
Those guys had probably already forgotten their summer homework existed. Fang Li could already picture their misery once they got back to Academy City.
As for himself, he'd finished all his summer assignments by August 18th.
"Then let's go out to eat!"
The gluttonous nun, always ready to seize an opportunity, immediately voiced her ever-present desire.
Naturally, Fang Li rejected her outright and even tossed out a merciless jab: "No matter how much you eat, the parts that are supposed to grow still won't. Maybe it's time to just give up?"
The moment those words left his mouth, the gluttonous girl instantly transformed into a beast of fury, unleashing a certain-kill biting technique on her heartless roommate.
And thus, Fang Li, as usual, had to flee the dorm and make his escape onto the streets.
"It feels like I've been through this kind of situation way too often lately…"
He sighed as he walked down the street.
Around him, pedestrians were engaged in lively discussions.
"Seriously, I was just in my dorm about to sleep, and then suddenly everything flashed, next thing I knew, I was standing in that field of flowers. Was that really just a virtual projection?"
"You've got it easy! I heard some girls were bathing when it happened, halfway through their showers, and then bam, they were teleported into that same flower field completely naked! If it hadn't been all girls from the same dorm, that would've been an absolute disaster!"
"So that definitely wasn't some virtual illusion. It must've been some top-secret, high-level tech."
"Too bad, though, even though there were tons of reports about it, there hasn't been any new information since."
The people continued to chat animatedly as they passed Fang Li by.
Of course, what they were talking about was the "incident" caused during Fang Li's recent rampage.
"Should I be glad I managed to regain a bit of sanity at the last moment?"
Fang Li couldn't help but smile bitterly. If he hadn't come to his senses then, not only Academy City but the entire island nation might've been sunk to the bottom of the sea.
"Unfortunately, that power doesn't truly belong to me…"
From beginning to end, that power belonged to Arcueid. Fang Li was merely its temporary keeper, he never once thought of claiming it as his own. Arcueid had left that power within Fang Li's body to save him. And Fang Li, sooner or later, would return it and, in doing so, rescue the princess who now slept within the Millennium Castle. That was something that would never change.
"I wonder... what kind of dream that girl is having right now?"
Fang Li found himself thinking absently.
Lost in thought as he was, he didn't notice when, with a sharp bang, he walked straight into a girl coming from the opposite direction, who was just as distracted as he was.
The two of them immediately snapped back to reality and hurried to apologize. However, halfway through their apologies, both of them finally got a clear look at the other's face.
"You?!"
Their exclamations overlapped perfectly.
The girl Fang Li had bumped into was none other than Shirai Kuroko.
"Why are you showing up around here again?" Fang Li asked helplessly. "Tokiwadai is a fair distance from this area, you know."
"None of your business! Be quiet!"
Kuroko bared her teeth as she glared at him, and her hand instinctively slipped toward the hem of her skirt, most likely reaching for the metal darts she always kept strapped to her thighs.
Fang Li sighed inwardly, already preparing to bolt.
But then, Kuroko suddenly froze mid-motion. As if she'd run out of energy, she let out a small sigh.
"Forget it."
She cast Fang Li a sidelong glance.
"I'm not in the mood to deal with you today. So before I change my mind, hurry back to whatever little alley you crawled out of."
With that, she turned and started to leave.
Seeing this, Fang Li couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
"Weird… You didn't charge in swinging like usual. Are you really the terrifying Shirai Kuroko everyone knows?"
"…I did say I'm not in the mood to mess with you today," Kuroko snapped without turning around. "That doesn't mean I won't. Do you actually want me to teleport you underground?"
Hearing that, Fang Li didn't reply. He simply looked straight at her.
"What? Why are you staring at me like that?" Kuroko frowned, irritation flickering across her face. "What's your problem?"
Fang Li still said nothing, until finally, he spoke quietly:
"Did something happen?"
Those few words made Kuroko's expression falter. Silence fell between them. That alone was enough to confirm Fang Li's suspicion.
Something really had happened.
Otherwise, considering how Fang Li had treated her last time, it would be impossible for Shirai Kuroko to act like this, ignoring him instead of showering him with metal darts was already a miracle. Fang Li hadn't expected that the petite yet surprisingly strong-willed Judgment officer could look so… downhearted.
And as for the reason why, Fang Li had already started to guess.
A moment later, Kuroko raised her head to meet his gaze. After a brief hesitation, she finally asked:
"You… haven't seen Onee-sama lately, have you?"
Onee-sama.
There was only one person Kuroko ever called by that name.
Misaka Mikoto.
In other words, this had something to do with her. Fang Li's thoughts immediately clicked into place.
"So it really is about her…"
(End Of This Chapter)
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