The Hound Dogs, one of Academy City's unseen internal security forces.
Compared to the more publicly present Anti-Skill, these Hound Dogs were more like the black gloves doing the dirty work for the big shots.
They stopped at nothing, wouldn't hesitate to harm innocent bystanders, and were a thoroughgoing dark side organization.
"Mugino, to run into these guys... we should pull back now," Frenda said, carefully supporting a weary Takitsubo, her expression grim.
"Think you can just walk away after meeting them? They're scum who treat murder as a hobby. To erase any evidence of their missions, they'll casually eliminate witnesses too," Mugino Shizuri replied in a low voice.
Things had clearly taken another unexpected turn.
As the #4 Level 5 esper in Academy City, Mugino Shizuri wouldn't normally fear this bunch. But she'd been fighting this Kiyama Harumi for far too long, and her stamina and mental focus were severely depleted.
"I'm super disappointed, honestly. I thought the Hound Dogs would be more impressive."
A multi-ton truck came flying through the air and crashed down right where the Hound Dog squad was standing.
Dust exploded outwards, carving a huge scar into the ground as the earth shook violently from the impact. Several Hound Dog members at the epicenter were sent flying.
Pulling off her hood to reveal a brown bob cut, Kinuhata Saiai stood atop the newly-arrived truck, a look of serious focus on her face.
"Nancy, target is Kinuhata Saiai. Use portable tracking armor-piercing rounds."
No sooner had they been thrown back and found their footing than the Hound Dog members coordinated their counterattack via their comms.
One member, positioned further out and untouched by the truck's aftermath, raised a launcher. A fist-sized armor-piercing shell was instantly fired, targeting Kinuhata's position on the truck.
It was set to land right where she stood in three seconds.
Another violent explosion rocked the truck, but Kinuhata Saiai was already gone. As the dust settled, the bob-haired girl emerged completely unscathed from the blast zone.
"You're all super awful."
Not a single scratch marred Kinuhata Saiai's body. The explosion had been blocked by something near her skin, as if an invisible suit of armor protected her.
"Kinuhata Saiai, survivor of the 'Dark May Project'. Implanted with the defensive algorithms from Accelerator's calculation mode, granting her the ability to automatically defend using nitrogen."
The Hound Dogs' internal communication continued, having already deduced most of her capabilities after just one encounter.
She could compress the surrounding nitrogen to an incredibly dense state, forming a protective wall generated by her ability.
This defense operated independently of her conscious will, activating automatically even while she slept, and could withstand almost all conventional attacks.
Of course, that didn't include unconventional attacks—like the Railgun, Meltdowner, or high-tier magical forces.
This was pretty much the ability Natsume Sonoko wanted more than anything. It was like having a permanent, personal climate control layer, though Sonoko's version was mostly good for keeping cool in summer and warm in winter.
Never mind that the development difficulty for the two abilities was probably worlds apart.
"Kinuhata, fall back!" Mugino Shizuri suddenly commanded. The motionless 'Kiyama Harumi' had begun to move again.
They'd thought this 'Kiyama Harumi' was exhausted after the long battle, but it seemed the situation had changed once more.
"Kiyama Harumi, I am now formally arresting you for assault, possession of hazardous research materials, and resisting arrest."
The leader of the MAR unit, who had been hanging back on the sidelines observing until now, finally spoke up. Her voice sounded like that of a rather gentle woman.
"Where did you hide the stone?" Mugino Shizuri demanded, barely suppressing her fury.
The monster's AIM diffusion field was so anomalous that Takitsubo couldn't get a clear lock on it. As for the AIM field of the one who took the stone, it was a bizarre and headache-inducing mess.
They'd covertly tested thousands of potential AIM field variations and investigated nearly a hundred suspects before coincidentally discovering one near this research institute that bore over an eighty percent similarity to the monster's.
The prolonged battle here was what eventually drew the attention of both MAR and the Hound Dogs.
There was no response. The face of this 'Kiyama Harumi' remained as still as stagnant water.
Then, violent changes wracked her body. Her clothes began to tear, and her previously average height surged wildly, growing from 1.7 meters to over 1.8 meters. Fresh muscle and tissue swelled from all over her body, encasing Kiyama Harumi in a thick layer.
"Open fire!" x3
Gunfire from all three sides rained down on the massive flesh-ball. Several incendiary shells landed near it, instantly igniting a raging inferno. A peculiar smell began to permeate the air.
"Looks like a fire over there," Natsume Sonoko remarked, sitting beside another Kiyama Harumi. She glanced up, concerned, into the distance.
A fierce blaze seemed to have broken out there, the leaping flames visible even from here.
"Kiyama-sensei, are you... not finished yet?" Sonoko asked hesitantly. Even though the woman before her was a criminal, Sonoko couldn't help but use the honorific.
She didn't know the specifics about this so-called monster, but seeing the sweat beading on Kiyama-sensei's forehead told her things weren't going smoothly.
Again, she received no reply. Getting anxious wouldn't help, so she sat back down to focus on studying the optical formulae from before.
"It's too late," the Kiyama Harumi sitting beside Sonoko finally lifted her head, a flicker of consciousness returning.
"I only managed to erase the monster's consciousness, but the collective subconscious of the Level Upper users has expelled me. They want that computer."
Sonoko was still lost.
Weren't they talking about a monster? How did a computer enter the picture?
"Take this. Get away from here, now." Kiyama Harumi stood up weakly, pressing a chip and a player into Sonoko's hand. One hand clutched at her eye, from which fresh, red blood now flowed.
Her earlier weakness was more pronounced now, edged with a hint of frantic, hysterical energy.
"It's become aware of my plan. You must disseminate the treatment program immediately, to disrupt the Level Upper network. If you don't, it will devour the AIM fields of every esper, assimilating everyone into itself."
"I can still interfere with its actions a little, buy you some time. I'm sorry for dragging you into this," Kiyama Harumi said weakly, her expression bleak.
This was a situation she had never imagined. Her initial plan was simply to use the Level Upper network to run the simulations needed to awaken the children.
She'd even developed a cure for the Level Upper's side effects.
If all had gone well, the children would have been saved, the users would have recovered without any lasting effects, and no one would have gotten hurt.
Then the monster had awakened, and she'd unexpectedly gained access to that meteorite-based computer. But after that, events spiraled beyond her control.
The monster's own violent consciousness was roused by the Level Upper network, its brain partially completed.
Simultaneously, the collective subconscious of the Level Upper users didn't converge on Kiyama Harumi, but instead transferred to the monster, which shared the same brainwave patterns but possessed monstrous computational power.
Her plan to use the Level Upper network to purge and cleanse the two consciousnesses from the monster had failed after she was ambushed. Now, this latest attempt had also ended in failure.
Since erasing and expelling the consciousnesses had failed, she couldn't allow the network to remain active and let the monster continue to grow.
"The only way to prevent this from getting worse now is to completely sever the Level Upper network," Kiyama Harumi clutched her head, seemingly in immense pain.
Kilometers away, a tentacle over ten meters long sprouted from the flesh ball, reaching through the roaring flames to seize a Hound Dog member and hurl him into the sky.
Then the ground suddenly began to sink. Hundreds of similar tentacles erupted from around the flesh ball.
With a few sweeping motions, they wiped out the MAR armored division. Wreckage of powered suits and drive cores flew everywhere, with only a few mechs managing to escape the range of the attack.
The mass of flesh reverted to its original Kiyama Harumi form, standing motionless with closed eyes, a pale blue flame emanating from its body.
But as the blue flames appeared, a strange power began to envelop this 'Kiyama Harumi'.
A bizarre, malformed lifeform with two massive eyeballs emerged from the head of this 'Kiyama Harumi', using its body to observe its surroundings.
This strange power was the AIM diffusion field. It quickly solidified into tangible flesh and blood. A core, meant to stabilize the AIM field, now appeared within this mass of tissue.
"Unforgivable."
"I won't lose this power I worked so hard to obtain. No matter what."
The colossal monster's body began to expand, swiftly growing limbs and facial features. From within it came the sound of countless voices screaming and wailing in unison.
Its gaze slowly turned towards a specific point in the distance, and it began dragging its enormous bulk in the direction of the AIM Analysis Research Institute.
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 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.