Strolling through the small garden nestled within the student dormitory, a faint, delicate fragrance clung to my clothes.
Even though this island nation didn't have a distinct autumn season, flowers that typically bloomed in fall were in no short supply. The Dorm Supervisor, keen on maintaining the dignified image befitting a prestigious academy for young ladies, made a point of sourcing blossoms from every season.
Lacking a discerning eye for beauty, Natsume-san had long grown accustomed to the various sights within her own dormitory. With a single leap, a graceful arc traced through the air, accompanied by a chaotic ripple in the atmosphere, shattering the surrounding tranquility.
Truth be told, Natsume-san didn't have a clear destination in mind. Her actions were simply being guided by a whim that seemed to come from nowhere.
On this hard-won day off, while others were busy with their monotonous daily school routines, wouldn't staying cooped up obediently inside the dorm be a terrible waste?
It was just like those working adults who, after agonizing over calling in sick, would then gleefully savor this different kind of holiday, doing whatever they pleased, even though they didn't actually have so much as a headache or a fever.
Driven by this line of thinking, which felt a bit pitiful no matter how she looked at it, Natsume-san found herself filled with a fresh sense of anticipation for going out.
"What the heck, there's no one at the branch."
'But that's normal, everyone's in class right now. This leisurely feeling, as if everyone in the world has vanished and you're the only one left, is just so easy to get addicted to.'
After verifying her identity, Natsume-san deftly opened the door to Judgment Branch 177. A petite, delicate head habitually poked inside, glancing around a few times.
All clear. Alarm status lifted.
After a large-scale renovation, the environment of Branch 177 had changed quite significantly from before.
Especially after Natsume-san had stuffed a whole pile of her own things in here, any trace of its former efficient, tidy appearance was gone, instead showing a trend towards a more homely style.
It was a shame the branch didn't have a sofa style that Natsume-san liked, otherwise taking a nap here would be a pretty good choice.
Natsume-san was quite picky about her sleeping spots, particularly disliking places that weren't soft enough.
Retrieving Uiharu-san's black tea from the large storage cabinet leaning against the wall, it seemed Uiharu-san had recently splurged on a better variety. Unfortunately, Natsume-san wasn't well-versed in such things, and her dull palate couldn't really discern the difference at all.
Just as deftly, she snagged some Musashino Milk from the corner of Konori-senpai's desk.
Natsume-san contentedly settled herself on the newly built small balcony, happily heating her milk tea to the perfect temperature.
The ability to freely adjust the temperature of one's tea was an essential skill for any young lady, ensuring one never had to drink tea that was either too cold or scalding hot.
Only one thing was less than perfect. Natsume-san realized that even her tea-drinking habits had picked up some traces of that Hitomi-san.
This dampened Natsume-san's good mood considerably, though this time she immediately found a solution.
'The best way to counter the influence of that shrine maiden's antiquated etiquette is to fight it with modern methods.'
'To exclude or weaken another person's influence, you must have things that belong to yourself. Otherwise, it's dangerous.'
'Similarly, if you're forced to accept another person's life, you must make sure you cannot be replaced or assimilated.'
Taking a small sip of the steaming hot tea, a sudden clarity rose within Natsume-san.
As a rather inexplicable transmigrator, she had actually harbored similar thoughts for a long time.
Even though she was constantly influenced by the transmigrator's memories, even now, Natsume-san felt she and that transmigrator were not the same person. She was just a native Toaru-verse girl who happened to have a transmigrator's memories.
Accordingly, Natsume-san simply focused on maintaining a proper sitting posture, deliberately aligning her every move with what was taught in the school's etiquette classes.
Immediately, the mannerisms inherited from that Hitomi-san were suppressed.
When you got down to it, this body still belonged to the slow-witted Natsume-san.
"So, as long as I hold fast to the things that belong to me, the influence from others will lessen considerably?"
Her expression turned somewhat serious. Natsume-san had known these principles for a while, but this was the first time she had felt them so intuitively.
The Judgment branch was deserted in the middle of the day. Only those with too much time on their hands would linger here.
It also seemed like no incidents were happening at the moment. Because if no one was handling them, they might as well not exist. Most Judgment members weren't on duty at this hour.
Over by the window on one side of Branch 177, Uiharu-san's computer was, as usual, left on. Programs on it automatically received and processed various reports, then sorted them by school district into respective folders, all waiting for a certain cute girl with a flower wreath to return after school.
However, since it was school hours, there were obviously very few student reports. But because Uiharu-san had expanded the report collection range to cover all of Academy City, even low-probability events became inevitable due to the sheer size of the area.
"A ghost spotted near a school in District 18?"
Holding her empty cup and about to go refill it with more tea, Natsume-san's perception swept over the computer processing the report information, and an odd expression immediately appeared on her face.
She'd encountered quite a few incidents related to ghosts. She herself had a rather 'glorious' past involving similar things.
Within Academy City, topics concerning ghosts often morphed into popular urban legends, ranking among the hottest types of rumors.
However, Natsume-san didn't have much interest in handling these kinds of incidents anymore. Whether it was a prank or some genuinely surreal phenomenon, she found herself largely unmoved.
Although she was a Judgment member driven by her interests, the number of incidents that could pique Natsume-san's interest seemed to be dwindling.
Simply put, a certain bun-head knew her place very well and never stole work from her teammates or the Anti-Skill teachers.
"It's that person I met before."
"I remember, she should be a friend of Index and Kamijou-senpai... Hmm... Kazakiri... Kazakiri Hyouka-san?"
Stopping short, Natsume-san refocused her attention, directing her perception towards the photos attached to the report information, taken by witnesses.
Although the photos were somewhat blurry, likely due to some kind of interference, the general image was enough for Natsume-san to recognize at a glance.
After all, that strange girl whose body lacked flesh and blood, containing only something like a core, had left quite a mental impact on Natsume-san back then.
Natsume Sonoko's knowledge of Kazakiri Hyouka was still largely based on the previous underground shopping mall incident.
The powerful magician who invaded Academy City, the stone humanoid that kept regenerating unless completely smashed to dust, and Natsume-san's own self-created new move, the Planet Slam, or something like that.
After that incident, Natsume-san had basically never seen the other girl again. The same treatment applied to Index, as if they had both completely evaporated from this universe.
From this perspective, this 'true form unknown' Kazakiri-san was perhaps the real ghost of this city, existing in a strange state, neither fully connected nor detached from reality.
But if she didn't exist within reality, then where exactly was she?
Previously, Natsume-san had always been puzzled about where this Kazakiri-san lived. But now, she had a very strong premonition.
It's the Phases, right? It has to be the Phases, right?
Kazakiri-san was a unique life form composed of AIM Diffusion Fields. If she had to guess where the other girl went during her disappearances, was there any place more logical than the AIM Field Phase?
Just like how AIM Diffusion Fields ultimately flowed into the AIM Phase, it stood to reason that a unique existence like Kazakiri Hyouka-san couldn't be unable to go there.
The reason it was just a premonition was because Natsume-san had no way to prove it. Guesses and deductions were, after all, just that.
Although she could observe the Phases themselves, until now, she hadn't detected any conscious beings within them. Let's call them beings for now; Natsume-san wasn't sure if energy-based lifeforms could be called beings.
This limitation in observation was probably due to Natsume-san's pitiful total processing power being utterly incapable of covering the Phase itself. Or perhaps it was because her own worldview differed too greatly from many of the Phases, resulting in a kind of cognitive barrier.
"But I'm so curious. Could there really be self-aware existences like that within the Phases?"
"I can understand that Kazakiri-san's bodily functions can be mimicked and reproduced by AIM Field energy. But for that energy to give rise to conscious thought... that's just too strange. It's completely unscientific."
Frowning slightly, Natsume-san felt she was challenging her own knowledge blind spots again, and subconsciously re-examined her understanding of Kazakiri Hyouka-san.
This entire train of thought was based on Natsume-san's understanding of AIM Fields and their corresponding Phase.
She clearly knew the role of AIM Fields within Academy City: they were a form of energy emanating from the brain.
And also, due to some deeply ingrained notions in her head, Natsume-san didn't consider it fundamentally different from other energies in the physical universe. Just like the espers themselves, they were products conforming to scientific concepts.
Consequently, whenever this field was involved, a certain bun-head would fall into an indescribable sense of contradiction.
Natsume-san had always felt that while AIM Fields were the most scientific thing, many of their aspects behaved too unscientifically. The mere fact that gathering them together could create a giant monster was enough to leave one baffled.
This often made the honest bun-head feel rather uncomfortable. Fortunately, she had the kind of lazy personality that could forget things in an instant.
Logical inconsistencies weren't a major problem. One could always use excuses like shallow knowledge or lack of experience to cover everything up.
As an utterly ordinary student, Natsume-san wasn't arrogant enough to believe she could understand these 'cutting-edge technologies' of Academy City.
Espers' talents lay more in their interpretation of their Personal Reality, rather than every one of them possessing strong scientific research abilities and literacy.
Someone like Natsume-san couldn't even rank first academically within Tokiwadai Middle School's first-year cohort, though her skill in fights and brawls far surpassed her classmates.
'At least my grades are better than Shirai-san's.'
Actually, even though the idea of AIM Field energy generating thought seemed utterly unscientific to a certain someone, if she set aside the scientific factors, Natsume-san could barely accept it.
Because she had already discovered that an esper's consciousness could guide their AIM Field. Coupled with the control over AIM Fields demonstrated by Misaka-senpai during her Level 6 state, there was already something called experience to draw upon.
Therefore, the idea of AIM Fields carrying, or even developing, self-awareness didn't particularly shock Natsume-san. It was just, as mentioned before, it filled her with a sense of internal contradiction.
Returning to the scene at hand, after discovering traces of that Kazakiri Hyouka, the certain bun-head set her teacup aside, seemingly forgoing a refill for now.
"That's weird. If Kazakiri-san hardly ever appears, why does it feel like a grand giveaway today? She's been sighted by many people all at once."
"Last time seemed similar too, suddenly appearing before Index, even with a substantial body."
Frowning, Natsume-san sensed that things were not simple.
After fiddling a bit with the computer belonging to Academy City's strongest hacker girl, thoroughly messing up the automatically running programs, the bun-headed girl showed an embarrassed smile. But at least she managed to hastily skim through all the case information.
"In that case, could there be a similar reason causing Kazakiri Hyouka-san to appear multiple times in the real universe?"
"For example, some unknown change occurred in the field sustaining Kazakiri-san's existence. Or maybe she's just being influenced and controlled by someone."
Most of Natsume Sonoko's knowledge about Kazakiri-san came from Kamijou-senpai and chats with Index, but that didn't stop her from making bold hypotheses.
After all, she firmly believed that Kazakiri Hyouka's existence definitely involved some experiment or plan within Academy City. There were undoubtedly a bunch of related personnel and research institutions behind it, one hundred percent.
"Can't figure it out. Still too little information."
Letting out a sudden sigh, her rapidly working brain finally relaxed.
Natsume-san still couldn't find a sufficiently strong reason to explain Kazakiri-san's appearance. Maybe it really was just a coincidence.
It seemed like if you used coincidence to explain everything in the world, all mysteries would be easily solved.
"That's right, I should go tell Index."
In the very next second, Natsume-san, who had been tangled up in all sorts of thoughts, suddenly had her eyes light up, a gleam that seemed to pierce through the thick gauze.
She hurriedly copied the sighting information from the computer onto her phone. Clearly, Uiharu-san didn't put up much defense against her own people.
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T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL