I, Kurumi Tokisaki, Am a Wanderer

Faced with the charging Loli Kurumi, Kurumi's expression shifted slightly as she instantly predicted her movements.

After raising so many lolis, naturally, she knew their inherent weaknesses.

Kurumi sat at the edge of the bed, holding the phone in one hand. Then, she slightly turned her body and extended the other hand, pressing it against Loli Kurumi's forehead.

Ah, the essence of lolis: soft and delicate.

But lolis often have one fatal flaw—Short arms.

Kurumi held Loli Kurumi at bay by her forehead, watching her swing her arms like paddles, desperately trying to hit her.

But she just couldn't reach~~~

Frustrated? Frustrated yet?

"This is Kurumi Tokisaki . May I ask what this is about?" Kurumi said, glancing at Loli Kurumi while speaking into the phone.

Confirming that the call had been handed to the intended recipient, Kakine Teitoku prepared to cut to the chase and get straight to the point.

He organized the information in his hand, took a deep breath, and was about to speak—

"One moment," Kurumi interrupted Kakine directly, putting the phone aside.

Seeing that she couldn't land a single hit on the main body, Loli Kurumi gave up on attacking.

She raised her hands and hugged Kurumi's arm. Then, tilting her head aside, she opened her mouth and aimed for a bite.

But how could Kurumi allow that?

Even if she let Loli Kurumi sink her teeth in, it wouldn't necessarily cause damage.

However, letting her succeed would jeopardize her status as the head of the household. Once her dignity slipped away to the point of resembling that of a certain other "dignified young lady," it would be nearly impossible to reclaim.

Kurumi smoothly pulled her arm away, causing Loli Kurumi to lurch forward and topple onto the bed.

Without giving her the slightest chance to recover, Kurumi grabbed the loli by her slender ankle, stood up, and hoisted her upside down by her leg.

"Waaah!" the little one cried out.

Due to gravity, her entire gothic dress flipped down, completely covering her face.

Her delicate legs in white stockings were exposed to the air, along with her pale-pink undergarments

Newton would have shed a tear of joy and even sealed his coffin lid back down.

Kurumi dangled the little one like a sack of potatoes, shaking her lightly a few times. The once-struggling arms quickly fell limp.

Kurumi sat back on the edge of the bed and placed Loli Kurumi on her lap, holding her snugly in her arms.

The little one, dazed and dizzy, had completely lost her ability to resist. Her eyes sparkled as she obediently lay against Kurumi's chest.

While tidying Loli Kurumi's hair with one hand, Kurumi picked up the phone again.

"Apologies… please, continue?"

"..." Kakine Teitoku was silent.

A photo was sent to Kurumi's phone.

Kurumi was a bit puzzled.

In the pitch-black night, a waning crescent moon hung faintly in a corner of the sky.

The photo appeared to show an abandoned park, desolate and in ruins.

The white wind turbines were torn to shreds, their pillars twisted like pretzels, while the ground was riddled with craters and the grass overturned.

Still... why did this place look somewhat familiar?

Then came the next photo.

Kurumi saw half a mobile phone sealed in a transparent bag, along with a small lock of pink hair.

"I think you'll recognize this," Kakine Teitoku said confidently, as if he had already won.

"Rikuto Mika..." Kurumi bit out the name word by word.

"So... shall we make a deal?"

A late-night call woke up Uiharu Kazari. Half-asleep, she clutched her down comforter, her arms, legs, and part of her shoulder exposed.

She groped around for her phone.

Upon seeing the caller ID, a small surge of excitement bubbled in her heart.

It was Kurumi-senpai.

Uiharu had always held a special admiration for Kurumi, seeing her as the quintessential elegant lady she idolized.

For Kurumi to call so hurriedly in the middle of the night, it must be something urgent.

Sure enough, though Kurumi's voice on the other end of the line was still slow and soft, with an alluring charm, Uiharu could distinctly sense a tinge of urgency.

Kurumi was an intriguing person—someone who disliked involving others around her in her affairs. This stemmed from her past.

But clearly, Kakine Teitoku had crossed that line.

A deal?

What could he possibly offer to bargain with her? What right did he have to negotiate with her?

Kurumi's smile turned icy and sharp.

"Uiharu, help me locate a phone," Kurumi said, forwarding Kakine Teitoku's number.

She had two choices—both Misaka Mikoto and Uiharu Kazari could help her solve this problem.

However, Misaka Mikoto was soon departing for Russia to participate in an Ability Showcase, and Kurumi didn't want to bother her in the middle of the night.

"Understood. Please don't worry, Kurumi-senpai," Uiharu Kazari said as she tilted her head, holding the phone between her ear and shoulder while booting up her handheld console.

On the other end of the line, faint whooshing sounds of wind could be heard, as though someone was flying.

But it was too quiet for that.

Uiharu's fingers danced across the keyboard. It didn't take long for her to realize that the individual in question was a highly unusual figure—classified with an "A" security level in Academy City's Data Library and belonging to an organization known as the "Dark Side."

A strange feeling stirred in Uiharu's chest.

It was like something out of a shounen manga—the protagonist, suddenly approached in the dead of night, discovering the hidden forces at work behind the city, leading to the end of their mundane life.

The Dark Side—"School."

Uiharu mentally jotted down that name.

The individual's significance was so high it made Uiharu feel slightly uneasy. "Please wait a moment, Kurumi-senpai."

Barefoot, she hurried over to her computer.

Her fingers flew over the keyboard, deftly bypassing the restrictions of the "Data Library," locking onto the target's coordinates, and reporting back to Kurumi.

"Thank you for your hard work," Kurumi said before hanging up.

"Hey… you piece of trash."

The boy's incongruous smile, both soft and mocking, belied the fury in his tone. He kicked his subordinate lying on the ground.

That rage-filled grin brought back deeply unpleasant memories for Yobou Banka. His stomach churned as if a storm raged within, and he retched, curling up on the floor like a shrimp.

Kakine Teitoku pressed his foot down on Yobou Banka's chest, forcing him to straighten out and look up.

Yobou Banka averted his gaze as much as he could. At that moment, just looking at Kakine terrified him, let alone the thought of resistance.

Kakine's foot pressed down harder, as if it had been filled with lead, crushing down on Yobou Banka's chest.

It was as though Kakine intended to squeeze everything from within Yobou Banka's ribcage. Several ribs cracked under the pressure.

With a cruel grin, Kakine kicked him away.

A wave of excruciating pain surged through Yobou Banka's chest, and his vision blurred.

Crunch, crunch—

The sound of something being crushed echoed.

Fragments of plastic sprayed into the air, landing beside him. Struggling to focus his vision, he glimpsed a severed black cable.

It was his ability support device.

"Useless trash," Kakine Teitoku said coldly.

...

About half an hour earlier, a girl stood inside a phone booth, holding the receiver to her ear.

Academy City had many phone booths.

However, the devices placed inside these booths were not ordinary telephones but student terminals.

These terminals provided internet access and connected to Academy City's "Archive." They held a "C" level clearance, sufficient for students to use for research.

Of course, they could also function as regular telephones.

She didn't dial any numbers. Instead, she held the receiver to her ear, quietly waiting for something.

Beep—

Beep—

The waiting tone echoed, but she remained indifferent, exuding extraordinary patience.

Soon, the receiver emitted a burst of garbled static, which quickly faded, leaving an empty silence.

"What do you want with me?" A low, neutral voice came through the receiver—it was Aleister.

"How much time… do I have?" The girl squeezed out the words from her throat. Her voice was soft and melodic, yet it carried the roughness of someone who hadn't spoken for a very long time.

"We had an agreement…"

Before Aleister could finish, the girl interrupted him forcefully. "I asked…"

"How much time do I have left?"

"..." Aleister paused in thought for a moment. "Ten minutes. You have no more than ten minutes."

"If you exceed that limit, the consequences could far surpass what you imagine."

"That's enough." The girl hung up abruptly.

She stepped out of the phone booth, brushing past a girl walking by.

Oddly, the passing girl seemed entirely unaware of her presence, walking past as though she hadn't seen anything at all.

The two crossed paths without so much as a whisper of wind.

It was as if… they existed in separate worlds.

...

Rikuto Mika and Yobou Banka faced off.

To be precise, Yobou Banka was unilaterally suppressing Rikuto Mika.

Although Rikuto Mika was a Level 4 esper, she had virtually no combat abilities. The only thing she could reliably do was tail people.

"What do you want?" Rikuto Mika asked Yobou Banka, her mind racing as she searched for any chance of escape.

"Don't be so tense. We're merely inviting you as a guest," Yobou Banka said coldly.

As he lightly clenched his right hand, the wind turbine pole behind Rikuto Mika twisted like a braided pretzel.

"But… I'd advise you to cooperate."

Rikuto Mika grew even more anxious.

She knew her abilities and status were insignificant—she had no connection to the upper echelons of society. Kidnapping her would bring no tangible benefit.

And… "We"?

What qualifications did she have to warrant such a group mobilizing against her?

Her mind raced.

She had no reason to doubt Yobou Banka's earlier statement: if his gaze lost its locked target, everything within a 25-meter radius would be shredded into pieces.

But that didn't mean he was without flaws.

Rikuto Mika stumbled back a few steps.

"I advise you not to try any tricks," Yobou Banka warned kindly. "While my principle is not to involve innocents, a little collateral damage is sometimes unavoidable for the sake of the mission."

Rikuto Mika clutched the half-broken phone in her hand.

The effect of the special bandage was such that if Yobou Banka's line of sight lost track of its target, it would forcibly trigger his ability. However, controlling a person's gaze was not as straightforward as it seemed.

Rikuto Mika recalled her professor's emergency response lectures.

She took a few more steps back, then suddenly hurled the phone fragment at Yobou Banka and immediately activated her ability to escape.

Instinctively, Yobou Banka's eyes tracked the flying phone fragment.

Rikuto Mika swiftly withdrew her presence from existence, grateful for once that, as a Gemstone esper, her ability required no formal calculations to activate.

A person's gaze is inherently difficult to control—when an unidentified object flies toward them, it's human nature to want to see what it is.

Taking advantage of this, Rikuto Mika fled.

Yobou Banka's ability activated, pulverizing the phone fragment in mid-air. However, he momentarily forgot what he had been doing.

But that didn't matter.

The program embedded in the bandage immediately triggered, and the "Saturn Ring" issued a command.

"Twist," Yobou Banka murmured.

Everything before him began to distort at once. It was as if an unseen hand gripped this section of space and twisted it like a wet towel. Grass and debris flew everywhere.

Rikuto Mika was just a fraction too slow.

Hot blood dripped onto the ground as she reappeared in the world, lying on her side. One of her legs was trailing behind her, soaked in crimson.

The tidal wave of pain hit her, forcing her to stop using her ability.

Her eyes filled with tears. Through the blurry haze of agony, she felt something soft brush against her forehead, like a kiss. Moments later, her consciousness faded.

Yobou Banka moved to activate his ability and lift Rikuto Mika.

But his psychokinesis inexplicably failed, rendering him powerless.

Then, in front of the unconscious girl, a flicker of flame danced softly.

A girl dressed in a swan-like white gown appeared without warning. She pressed a kiss to Rikuto Mika's forehead, her hand tracing down Rikuto Mika's waist.

Seemingly out of thin air, she produced a viscous, oily substance—the exclusive "Soluble Skeletal Repair Gel" specially supplied by the Frog-faced Doctor—and applied it to the wound.

The girl slowly rose, her expression visibly angry.

From the moment she appeared, it was as though the entire world's focus had been drawn to her.

Something in Yobou Banka's mind clicked.

Three years ago… the super idol… a star who once captivated Academy City…

His world felt as though a strange switch had been flipped, the girl's mere presence triggering an inexplicable phenomenon that corrected everything around her.

"She's… Yumei Mika."

Simultaneously, everything around them began to recalibrate, centering on her presence.

But Yobou Banka had no time to process it all. Yumei Mika was clearly radiating hostility.

He raised his right hand and swung it toward the girl, transforming his psychokinesis into a sharp blade that sliced heavily in her direction.

For reasons he couldn't explain, Yobou Banka felt a profound sense of danger.

The girl stood there like an elegant swan, completely unperturbed. She called out loudly: "Immovable Fortress!"

A fan-shaped barrier unfolded in front of her. The blade struck but failed to inflict even the slightest damage.

Yobou Banka's face twisted in disbelief.

As an otaku, he couldn't possibly fail to recognize it—this was the most powerful defensive move from the Sailor Moon series.

Then, Yumei Mika raised her right hand toward Yobou Banka.

"Dead World Revolution."

In that instant, Yobou Banka felt his heart sink into utter despair.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

40 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon: 

Patreon.com/DaoOfHeaven