"Touma, how's life been lately? Judging by the fact that you're still as unlucky as ever, if I didn't know your ability was Imagine Breaker, I'd assume your real power was catastrophic bad luck."
"Honestly, before I came to Academy City, I thought that might actually be my ability. Then I went through development and somehow still got classified as a Level 0."
Touma sighed.
"As for my life lately? Same old story. With luck as bad as mine, nothing good is ever going to just fall into my lap. And whenever something does happen, I usually end up dragged into some bizarre disaster."
The two chatted casually as they made their way to school.
A Certain High School.
As ridiculous as the name sounded, that really was what people called the school they attended.
Asakami En was one of Academy City's seven Level 5 espers, so under normal circumstances he would have attended a far more prestigious and technologically advanced institution. Instead, he'd chosen this otherwise ordinary school, where most of the students were Level 0s, simply because he wanted to attend alongside his friend.
In the original storyline, the sixth-ranked Level 5 should have been a mysterious individual named Aihana Etsu. Almost nothing concrete had ever been revealed about them, not even a confirmed appearance or detailed profile. That lack of information had led to endless speculation that their ability might somehow involve identity or existence itself, explaining why they remained so elusive.
After arriving in this world and demonstrating his own power, Asakami En had effectively taken that position instead.
As for what had happened to the world's original Number Six, where they were now, or how powerful they might be?
Even Asakami En had no idea.
His System could probably find out if it really wanted to, but neither of them saw any reason to waste time investigating something that currently had no relevance.
Komoe-sensei began class as usual.
Asakami En sat there looking as though he were listening attentively, while in reality he had already mastered the universal student skill of letting his mind wander somewhere completely unrelated.
Apparently, having memories from a previous lifetime didn't stop a person from zoning out during class.
It didn't help that Komoe-sensei was teaching material he'd already learned in his first life. Academy City's esper development had also enhanced his brain, making his ability to learn and process information far better than it had once been.
Even while mentally elsewhere, Asakami En could still pick up the quiet conversations of several friends around him.
For example, the boy who insisted everyone call him Blue Hair Piercing, yet still refused to reveal his real name, was currently passing notes with Tsuchimikado Motoharu.
Judging by what was written on them, the two were debating how meaningful popularity rankings were on a certain adults-only website.
One of them was widely suspected to be the original storyline's mysterious Number Six, Aihana Etsu.
The other was Tsuchimikado Motoharu, the absurdly talented onmyoji who spent much of the original story jumping between opposing factions while somehow surviving all of them.
Naturally.
The people surrounding the protagonist were never ordinary.
Still, those two idiots were approaching the question completely wrong.
View counts had some value as a rough indicator, sure, but those rankings mostly reflected freely available material. It might be entertaining, but it was rarely the best content on the site.
If you actually wanted the good stuff, you had to pay.
Asakami En was still silently judging their amateur standards when his System suddenly spoke.
[Host. They're here.]
His expression sharpened immediately.
Elsewhere in Academy City, Caelus looked around the dark alley before lowering his gaze.
A short-haired girl with chestnut-colored hair lay in a pool of blood at his feet.
She appeared to be wearing some kind of night-vision device or tactical goggles. Her upper body was dressed in a white blouse beneath a sweater vest, while below that she wore a short skirt.
Judging from the rapid loss of life and soul energy, she had only died moments ago.
The fatal injury was obvious.
There was a gaping hole through her chest.
"She can still be saved."
Caelus looked down at her.
"The question is whether I should."
Before he could decide, a boy's voice echoed through the alley, carrying the unmistakable attitude of a delinquent.
"Hah? Cleanup got here this fast?"
A pale, white-haired boy stepped out of the darkness.
He looked frail enough to have just recovered from a serious illness, his entire body thin and almost delicate.
After giving Caelus a few cursory glances, he clicked his tongue impatiently.
"Huh? Just one guy?"
He shoved both hands into his pockets.
"Whatever. Not my problem."
The white-haired boy began strolling toward the alley's exit.
[System, did you give me an identity in this world? I don't remember receiving any background information.]
[No. This is an invasion-type transit rather than normal participation in a world scenario. Unless you spend System Currency to install an identity, we're effectively undocumented.]
[Isn't this universe supposed to be troublesome? Why wouldn't you arrange one beforehand?]
[If my Host were still weak, I'd absolutely need to operate carefully. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have brought you here at all.]
[But Host, at your current level, you don't need to worry about things like that.]
During their brief exchange, the white-haired boy's phone suddenly rang.
He frowned, pulled it out, and looked at the incoming call.
No number was displayed.
His expression remained annoyed, but he answered anyway.
"Hm?"
A short pause.
"Intruder?"
Another pause.
"Tch. Got it."
Whatever orders came from the other end changed his mood completely.
The boy pocketed the phone and turned around with a wild grin that practically announced trouble.
"And here I thought today's entertainment was already over."
His red eyes locked onto Caelus.
"Turns out we've got an intruder."
He pointed casually.
"You over there. I'm in a pretty good mood, so I'll even let you choose how you die."
His grin widened.
"Want all the blood in your body to burst out at once?"
He glanced toward the dead girl.
"Or should I open your chest like that test subject on the ground?"
Caelus turned fully toward him.
"Who are you?"
His gaze briefly shifted to the girl.
"And why did you kill someone you're calling a test subject?"
"Hah?!"
The white-haired boy's face twisted.
"I'm the one asking questions! Don't answer me with another question!"
He looked ready to explode.
Several stones on the ground suddenly launched forward with impossible acceleration.
They shot toward Caelus with enough force to tear through limbs.
Instead, they passed straight through him as though he were nothing more than an image.
Accelerator's expression changed.
His crimson eyes narrowed sharply.
"What the hell are you?"
"My name is Caelus. I'm a traveler."
Caelus regarded him calmly.
"I gave you mine. Will you tell me yours?"
Accelerator's grin returned.
"Then remember the name of the last person you'll ever meet."
"I'm Accelerator."
The moment he finished speaking, he shot forward like a fired projectile.
In an instant, he was directly in front of Caelus.
Accelerator reached out with a vicious smile.
The moment his hand made contact, he intended to tear apart Caelus's nervous system, reverse the flow of his blood, and make him die in agony before he even understood what had happened.
His hand touched Caelus.
Nothing happened.
"...What?"
Accelerator instantly retreated a tremendous distance.
For the first time, genuine uncertainty appeared on his face.
He stared at Caelus in disbelief.
"You've got to be kidding me."
His voice lowered.
"There's nothing inside you."
No flesh. No bones. No blood. No nerves.
No internal structure at all.
He wasn't human.
He wasn't a doll.
He wasn't a machine.
He wasn't even some kind of projection carrying detectable information or signal output.
Accelerator stared at the figure standing in the alley.
What exactly was he looking at?
(To be continued.)
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◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)