Silence once again suffocated the battlefield, which was now nothing more than a field of total ruin.
But the scene was utterly, disturbingly different from when the confrontation had begun.
The dark organization known as "ITEM", a black-ops unit tasked with quashing potential uprisings within Academy City and keeping the Board of Directors and the higher-ups on a tight leash…
This group, spearheaded by a Level 5 and supported by several Level 4s, a force strong enough to overrun a military base… now lay scattered, one after another, completely incapable of moving.
It wasn't their bodies that had failed them.
It was their minds.
At this moment, Frenda, Kinuhata Saiai, and Takitsubo Rikou were all staring at Fang Li with eyes reflecting sheer, bone-deep terror.
As for Mugino Shizuri, her head was bowed, she didn't move at all.
Though she hadn't physically lost the ability to fight, the will to continue had been completely crushed out of ITEM as a whole.
And that included Mugino Shizuri herself. Fang Li spared the completely demoralized group of girls a single, indifferent glance. Then, without a word, he simply turned and walked away, never looking back.
Watching him, Misaka Mikoto finally snapped out of her daze. She started to rush after him, but then hesitated. After a split second of indecision, she changed course and walked toward Frenda and Kinuhata Saiai instead.
"You… what are you trying to do?"
Even Frenda sounded scared now, scared even of Misaka Mikoto.
Among the members of ITEM, Frenda was the one who valued her own life most; when danger struck, fear was her first instinct. Kinuhata Saiai, by contrast, still managed to muster the faintest hint of resistance, but only barely.
Mikoto ignored them. She crouched down beside them and reached toward the handcuffs restricting their wrists.
"Bzzzt…"
A crackle of electricity flowed into the metal.
"Click!"
With a soft, sharp sound, the locks snapped open. Frenda and Kinuhata Saiai froze, stunned. Standing up, Misaka Mikoto spoke quietly, her tone calm but edged with firmness.
"Take your teammates and get out of here. Now."
She continued, "I don't know who hired you to take care of that guy, but even if the Board of Directors is backing you, it won't do you any good if Anti-Skill or Judgment find you here."
Given the sheer destruction that had just occurred, the city security forces were undoubtedly already on high alert.
"Academy City is chaotic enough as it is," Mikoto said, holding the two girls' gazes. "We don't need another public uproar caused by the dark side's business. So leave, take your comrades and go."
She glanced toward Takitsubo Rikou, still sitting nearby looking utterly lost, and then at Mugino Shizuri, who remained slumped, her head bowed and unmoving.
Finally, Mikoto left them with a final, pointed warning.
"Don't ever pull something like this again."
With that, Misaka Mikoto turned to leave. But just then, a voice, cold and mocking, sliced through the air behind her.
"You really plan to stick with that guy?"
Mikoto froze mid-stride. Mugino Shizuri lifted her head, her lips curling into a bitter, derisive smile.
"A privileged brat like you… If you keep following someone like him, you'll end up begging for death."
Her tone sharpened, laced with cruel laughter.
"Let me make this clear, you can't even begin to comprehend what he is. He's someone you must never get involved with."
"Compared to that monster, even we, people who live in the darkness every day, constantly wiping blood off our hands, are just children. We can't compare at all."
It was a difference in rank, a chasm so vast it could never be crossed.
"That guy isn't even human. The only thing he could be… is a ghost."
Mugino covered her face and began to laugh uncontrollably, her voice echoing with a manic intensity through the ruined street.
"After everything you just saw, if you still don't understand, then you're truly beyond saving, brat!"
Her laughter was shrill and sharp, like glass stabbing at Mikoto's ears.
Misaka Mikoto said nothing. Because she did understand. While it was impossible to imagine the sheer depth of the dark side's grime, Fang Li's darkness was certainly worse.
Otherwise, the crushing defeat that had just happened wouldn't have been possible.
Even those who lived by the dark side's rules, who did as they pleased and treated human life like trash, had been reduced to that state in his presence. For someone like Misaka Mikoto, who lived an ordinary life in the sunlight, walking in the world of normal people, she truly couldn't fathom what Fang Li had endured.
And yet, even so…
"Even so," Misaka continued, speaking as much to Mugino as to herself, "that man used to be constantly chased around by a bunch of middle-school girls who hadn't even graduated yet. Even though he had many armed, powerless gangs under his command, he never wallowed in violence. He'd sit at open-air diners and buy people hamburgers. His grades at school weren't bad either. When his subordinates threatened to make a scene, he'd tell me that causing a public fuss would put their secret experiments at risk."
Misaka hadn't looked back as she spoke.
"Maybe I can't see into his heart the way you can, so I can't tell what kind of darkness lives in him. But I do know this: that darkness only surfaces when you cross his line, when you try to harm the people he cares about."
"Therefore, I can say this with certainty."
She turned her head, meeting Mugino's gaze.
"Someone like that isn't to be feared."
At that, Mugino's eyes flickered.
A moment later, she let out a disdainful huff and said, "You're such an innocent, naive brat."
Mikoto simply answered in return, her gaze unwavering. "It's precisely because I'm innocent that I have the courage."
"Don't underestimate a brat, ma'am."
With that, Misaka turned away once more and hurried in the direction Fang Li had gone.
Mugino was left alone. The contempt on her face gradually melted away, replaced by a sinking silence.
"Mugino…"
Frenda, Kinuhata Saiai, and Takitsubo Rikou steadied each other and approached, exchanging a cautious look before timidly addressing their leader.
Mugino raised her head again, her face completely expressionless.
"We're going back," she said flatly. "This quest is over for us."
No one objected.
"It's just…" Frenda raised a trembling hand. "How do we report this to our superiors?"
"Just tell them the truth," Mugino said impatiently. "Say whoever wants to provoke that kind of monster can go right ahead and deal with the consequences."
"A Level 0?" Frenda ventured.
Mugino ground her teeth, her voice a low snarl. "If anyone ever dares call that guy a Level 0 again, I will kill them myself!"
The others forced hollow, shaky smiles.
What happened today would probably be etched into these girls' memories forever.
That unbearable, terrifying feeling, it would never be erased in this lifetime.
(End Of This Chapter)
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