That particular Judgment member always arrived fashionably late. In Natsume Sonoko's eyes, Miss Shirai's usefulness was almost on par with Anti-Skill's at this point.
Coupled with her Teleportation ability, she was a whole street ahead of your average security officer.
And calling for Miss Shirai was like summoning a brutal teleporting harbinger of death who also happened to keep things at a constant temperature. The sense of security just shot right up.
"Judgment is here, desu-no~" Miss Shirai's verbal tic was always so familiar.
Tugging at the green armband to display the Judgment shield emblem, it also meant she'd have to write another apology letter later.
As for trivial matters like apology letters, Miss Shirai treated them like a daily hobby. So long as she could fight crime, she was always this full of energy.
"Was it Onee-sama?"
No sooner had Miss Shirai struck her pose than she saw the group of thugs already lying on the ground.
Their hair was standing on end, all fluffy and charred, and their bodies looked like they'd been zapped by a high-voltage current.
Seeing them twitching on the ground, eyes rolled back in their heads, Miss Shirai felt an odd sense of empathy. This scene felt somewhat familiar.
"Onee-sama?!" Miss Shirai exclaimed again.
Turning around, she saw Misaka-senpai meticulously fiddling with an unfamiliar mobile phone, while Natsume Sonoko stood by looking utterly innocent.
For an Electromaster like Misaka-senpai, the Railgun wasn't her only point of pride. Her various non-combat skills were also quite impressive.
Not only could she be a great hacker, but also a decent electrician, and even the best electronics repair person.
Due to the recent powerful electrical discharge, Natsume Sonoko's phone seemed to have been affected; it wouldn't turn on no matter which button she pressed.
So she'd handed it over to Misaka-senpai for repairs, asking her to charge it up too.
Misaka-senpai's repair method was truly one of a kind.
Just by placing her hand on the phone, she could diagnose internal issues.
Faint blue sparks danced over the device, making her look like a professional technician—though of course, no ordinary repair person could perform such a feat.
'Now this is the ability the 21st century needs most,' Natsume Sonoko couldn't help but think.
Misaka-senpai found the problem in just a few dozen seconds, fixed the phone within that time, and even managed to charge Sonoko's phone to full battery for good measure.
"Alright, all fixed."
Misaka-senpai returned the phone to Natsume Sonoko. Under Miss Shirai's furious glare, Sonoko happily took it back and started checking it.
Not only did it turn on, but even the lagging issue was resolved. The phone felt much smoother to use now.
"Onee-sama! You already have me, so why are you having a secret rendezvous with this little runt, even exchanging phones so intimately?!"
Miss Shirai's overly dramatic expression and words successfully grabbed both their attentions.
"Shirai feels like she can't breathe! Can I... can I really not satisfy you?!"
Natsume Sonoko glanced up at Miss Shirai and immediately understood: she was under the effects of a 'Fanaticism' buff.
This version of Shirai couldn't be equated with her normal self. It was probably a buff that doubled her lightning resistance but halved her sanity.
"Don't say things that will be misunderstood." A vein immediately throbbed at Misaka-senpai's temple, especially with so many pedestrians nearby.
Faced with her kouhai's numerous perverted antics, Misaka-senpai felt she could offer her a few complimentary sessions of electrotherapy.
"But Shirai's heart is truly breaking, Onee-sama. Do you know how it feels to have your heart cut open and salt rubbed in the wound? Shirai knows that feeling now."
Clutching her chest, Miss Shirai staggered towards Misaka-senpai, her other hand making some strange gestures.
Predictably, the air began to smell faintly of ozone.
A flash of electricity later, and under Natsume Sonoko's wary gaze, Miss Shirai joined the thugs on the ground, landing flat on her backside right in front of Misaka-senpai.
Unlike the completely unconscious thugs, Miss Shirai alternated between screaming and making strange, giggling sounds, muttering under her breath.
Most of it was rather inappropriate content, drawing even more stares from passersby than the seven fallen thugs had.
Watching the turning heads, Natsume Sonoko felt that some strange new urban legends would probably pop up on certain websites soon.
"Uihara-san, please contact Anti-Skill."
Giving up on relying on Miss Shirai, Natsume Sonoko quietly took the earpiece Shirai was wearing and contacted Uihara on the other end.
The earpiece's quality was quite good—unsurprising for a Judgment special edition. It had held up fine under Misaka-senpai's shock, though a few more zaps might have done it in.
"Already done, Natsume-san. But... is Shirai-san alright?" Uihara's sweet, soft, somewhat timid voice came through the earpiece, laced with concern.
"Heeeeeelllllloooooo~" Before Sonoko could answer, another voice came through the earpiece.
The drawn-out greeting was followed by the distinct sound of a skirt fluttering in an upward draft.
"Eek!" Uihara seemed to gasp, followed by a loud shriek that was hard to ignore.
"Saten-san, what are you doing?!" Uihara's wail came through.
"Polka dots today, huh? So childish," the voice of Saten-san said in an appraising tone.
Terrifying.
Under the influence of Saten-san's Level 6 "Upward Draft," the power of Newton finally radiated youthful vitality even in this land where such bovine principles were supposedly forbidden.
The thugs became irrelevant in the face of the Level 6 Upward Draft. In this supposedly ultra-safe Academy City, the hurried figures of Anti-Skill were always a familiar sight.
"Too late again, damn it. It's that middle-schooler who zaps everything." Shortly after Anti-Skill's arrival, a high-school boy with spiky black hair rushed to the scene.
He'd gone to great lengths trying to save these thugs who kept sticking their necks out.
"Yo."
The spiky-haired boy felt a heavy thump on his back. A large hand had clapped him on the shoulder.
Turning around, he saw a weirdo in a garish shirt and shorts, with golden spiky hair and arms so long they almost reached his knees. Next to him was a strange little maid sitting primly on a cylindrical automated cleaning robot.
"Oh, it's you guys." The black spiky-haired boy scratched his head.
--+--
A few weirdos who had no real connection to Natsume Sonoko had appeared, though the little maid was an exception.
At the moment, Natsume Sonoko was following behind Misaka-senpai, the two of them having successfully formed a party headed for the arcade.
Sticking close to them for some unknown reason was Miss Shirai.
"There have been three explosions recently. I'm on my way to check out the latest site." Miss Shirai held up one finger as she addressed Misaka-senpai and Natsume Sonoko.
Unlike the two heading to the arcade, she had a legitimate reason; following them was just coincidental.
"The explosion was near the arcade?" Natsume Sonoko spoke up. If that was the case, it would be bad if the arcade got caught in the crossfire.
"Yes, on a lawn nearby. But like the previous ones, the scale was small and no one was hurt." A serious look crossed Miss Shirai's face.
She had a sharp intuition for these incidents. In her opinion, this one was likely to escalate into a bigger case, unlike that guy who just made it snow everywhere for fun.
"Explosions? Even if it's just someone messing around, we can't take it lightly. If one goes off in a crowd, this becomes a major incident. Any leads yet? Like clues about the perpetrator?"
Misaka-senpai's eyes sparkled with curiosity. With no club activities to occupy her, she was the most likely to stick her nose into this kind of thing.
"Unfortunately, no leads yet. We have to wait for the next incident. But we've already requested satellite assistance for the investigation. We should have clues soon." Miss Shirai said this with complete seriousness.
When Shirai mentioned satellite assistance, Natsume Sonoko couldn't help but glance at her. Did Judgment have that much authority?!
"Serial explosions are a big deal, Shirai. How about I help you find the culprit?" Bored with just playing games, reading free manga, and picking fights, Misaka-senpai seemed to have found a new toy and volunteered enthusiastically.
"I'll help too," Natsume Sonoko chimed in, not wanting to be outdone.
She'd seen several seasons of A Certain Scientific Railgun, after all. This could help maintain the city's peace and hone her own investigation and combat skills.
Beneath its safe exterior, Academy City was fraught with danger.
Although she'd seen several seasons before crossing over, she hadn't bothered to remember every single name.
She had some recollection of minor characters, like the bomber being a bespectacled boy, but his specific appearance was fuzzy.
Natsume Sonoko had been here for over ten years now, and her pre-transmigration memories were gradually fading, though slower than normal forgetting.
She suspected these memories weren't stored in her current brain, but rather in her soul. [A/N: Soul metaphysics.]
It made sense. A newborn baby suddenly flooded with a lifetime of memories?
Even without knowing much about neuroscience, she could guess the outcome would be brain death or paralysis.
Therefore, even with her past life's memories, as long as she didn't use her current brain to extensively access them, there was no risk of others reading those memories. [A/N: That's right, this is a patch setting—from your honest author.]
Even if she did access some fragments from her past life, without context, they were just drops in the vast ocean of her memories. To anyone else, they'd seem like random thoughts or wild imagination.
--+--
T/N: Author finding a way to cheese Shokuhou from peering into her mind lol
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T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on 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.