Natsume Sonoko was tempted to try out the newly purchased Indian Poker cards she'd just bought. The idea of experiencing someone else's dreams was deeply intriguing to her.
Especially since it offered the chance to learn useful skills or live through fascinating experiences—this prospect made the already curious girl even more eager.
But when it came to actually going through with it, Natsume Sonoko's better judgment quickly took over. Her wariness soon overpowered her curiosity.
Having lived through the Level Upper incident, she'd learned a valuable lesson: things of dubious origin often hid real dangers, and this thing directly affected the human brain, no less. What's more, not long ago, a certain bun-girl had her brain forcibly hijacked by Kihara Gensei—a cautionary tale that made it impossible to ignore the risks.
It seemed she also recalled Shokuhou Misaki-senpai's earnest warnings that day.
Reluctantly, she lowered the hand holding the Indian Poker card. She was, after all, the type to take others' advice seriously.
Someone was recklessly distributing these things, which were built on principles similar to Mental Out.
Their circulation could be traced back to several days before the Daihasei Festival, yet no official organization in Academy City had stepped in to intervene. That was clearly abnormal.
Was it because the cards hadn't yet shown their danger, so the authorities hadn't bothered to pay attention?
Or was it possible that some official body had developed these themselves?
Thinking that, she was reminded again of the tiny nanomachines scattered through the air. Over the past few days, she'd become completely certain that these things were practically everywhere.
No matter how many were destroyed, their numbers quickly returned to normal. She found it hard to believe that Academy City didn't have several massive research institutions dedicated to developing and maintaining machines like these.
As for whether they were connected to the city's administration or the Board of Directors, Natsume didn't have any solid evidence yet. But she was sure of one thing—she couldn't be the only person in Academy City who knew these machines existed.
"Experiencing someone else's dreams… when you really think about it, it doesn't sound all that fun. I'm not some naive young lady lacking in caution, you know."
"Right."
She took a good, long look at the strangely colored card in her hand, then hesitantly tossed it into a corner.
Maybe it'd be better to go see Shokuhou-senpai about it tomorrow.
Even espers weren't necessarily invulnerable—physically, they were still just ordinary people. Suppressing her curiosity, Natsume mulled it over.
Squeezing herself between two stuffed bears, the sofa felt a bit cramped with the extra large plush toy. Natsume pulled out her phone and tried searching online for any gossip or news about these cards.
To her surprise, the cards seemed even more popular than she'd imagined.
The urban legend forum she often visited was completely flooded with posts about Indian Poker cards—it had totally lost its usual urban-legend vibe.
--+--
[Sampling 15 kinds of dream foods—restoring the original flavor of the ingredients!]
[New card: Unlimited black tea and sweets hell—come get refills!]
[Simulated entrance interview for Tokiwadai Middle School]
[Realistic 10-meter Gundam piloting experience]
--+--
"Ugh, this is bad… it all looks so fun."
A frustrated look crossed her face. Natsume felt she really shouldn't have looked this stuff up.
"Huh? Amakusa-senpai's looking into the Indian Poker cards?"
"Even Hata-senpai is joining in."
A moment later, she opened her investigation club's chat group. The club mascot was, once again, quietly lurking.
[The Indian Poker cards are already circulating on a small scale within the School Garden. I've found some related materials and suspect this might be connected to another urban legend—the Learning Device.] —From Quiet Night Color
[Is it possible that Indian Poker is just a variant of the Learning Device?] Maeda-senpai added an "aha!" emoji after her message.
[Yes. An informant within Anti-Skill also provided similar intel.]—From Hata Ranko-senpai.
Natsume's eyes widened slightly. An informant inside Anti-Skill… now that was something to think about.
Up until now, Natsume had thought she'd joined just an ordinary, laid-back club.
Pushing the swirling thoughts from her mind, Natsume decided to stop dwelling on the Indian Poker cards and instead reached out to Reiko.
Talking with Reiko had become part of her daily routine.
Once Reiko began developing consciousness, their relationship was no longer just that of a caretaker and a baby.
As both guardian and onee-sama, Natsume wanted to teach her a thing or two about life and how to carry oneself—but it usually ended up devolving into lazy, unmotivated, slacker-talk.
From the Daihasei Festival up to now, Natsume had been prioritizing the development of electromagnetic barrier calculation formulas. Fortunately, Reiko provided most of the processing power, and they'd made some progress over the days.
Even with the assistance of her new sensory abilities, the actual results weren't great.
Forget unconsciously activating it for self-protection like Misaka-senpai—even when she used it deliberately, it caused uncontrolled electrical discharges and heat.
While it could defend against Mental Out, the side effects were far too noticeable. She couldn't achieve what Misaka-senpai did, where only small animals were mildly affected.
If Natsume tried to keep the barrier active for long, it'd likely disrupt her daily life.
The main reasons, aside from the unfinished formulas, were her lack of understanding regarding the operational principles of the electromagnetic barrier.
Unlike using it as a weapon like the Meltdowner—where you just fire and forget—this required a stable, safe barrier in close contact with her body. Stability and safety were crucial.
Incidentally, with the aid of her microscopic perception, the precision requirements for these microscopic formulas dropped significantly, leaving only the demand for raw processing power.
But for conventional formulas not reliant on microscopic perception, precision requirements remained—and precision likely depended on the formula itself and how well it adapted to input data.
"What a headache… Should I ask Misaka-senpai for advice?"
"Eh, why didn't I think of that before?"
Pale moonlight streamed through the window. Natsume Sonoko tossed and turned, sinking deep into the sofa like a poor girl being swallowed by quicksand.
If she asked Misaka-senpai for help, she could probably unlock parts of the electromagnetism skill tree—maybe even learn Misaka-senpai's signature move, the Railgun.
But Natsume didn't really need the Railgun; for similar offensive means, she already had the Meltdowner as a substitute.
Among the signature abilities of the other Level 5s—aside from the #7 whose principles were unknown, and the #6 whose true nature was unclear—Natsume was particularly interested in Accelerator's vector control and reflection ability.
If Academy City could simulate reflection-like technology and produce cutting-edge products like vector control calculation suits…
Then that ability must still conform to the physical laws of this universe. It could be understood and analyzed—meaning it was possible for Natsume to mimic it as well.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon!
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.