Life sure has a way of throwing surprises at you. No two days ever feel the same.
Even our usually fierce Dorm Supervisor seemed to have switched personalities today. It really makes you marvel at how strange life can be.
"Maybe today is some sort of special occasion," Misaka-senpai suggested hesitantly, though she didn't sound too confident in her own guess.
"Nah, she's probably being controlled by someone."
"Natsume-san, that's a bit too far-fetched. Have you been watching too many sci-fi movies?" Shirai-san replied with a hint of exasperation.
"Have not."
After finally making it up the stairs, Natsume Sonoko, with Misaka-senpai's help, managed to get back to her room in Dorm 210.
Shirai-san, who had a mountain of duties waiting for her at the Judgment office, left in a hurry after checking in with the Dorm Supervisor.
The whole 'Level Upper' incident was causing major ripples, and wrapping it up was going to take a lot more time, with all sorts of documents needing to be filed and organized.
Back in her own dorm room, Sonoko took in the familiar scent of the air, and a look of relief settled on her face.
With the Railgun, Misaka-senpai, living right next door, surrounded by a bunch of Level 3 and Level 4 upperclassmen and classmates, plus the Dorm Supervisor whose combat ability was rumored to be around Level 6, staying here felt a whole lot safer than being in any hospital.
Closing the door finally blocked out the Dorm Supervisor's ever-present gaze. Leaning on her crutch, Sonoko hobbled painfully over to her desk.
Truth be told, she had considered using her ability to whip up a pair of tornado wings—getting around the dorm would've been much easier that way.
But tornado wings are, well, tornadoes. Using them in a cramped dorm room was just asking for trouble.
Besides, she was a good student who had the school and dorm rules memorized!
Sure, she occasionally used her ability for convenience, but she'd never blatantly challenge the Dorm Supervisor like Shirai-san sometimes did.
Pulling a notebook out of her desk, she carefully recorded everything she had learned from Dr. Kiyama the day before. Then, she flipped open her laptop to look up some supplementary information.
Resting her chin in her hand, a thoughtful look in her eyes, Sonoko twirled a pen as she pondered.
Without even realizing it, the formula for her wings was being taken apart, analyzed, and reconstructed in her mind.
Optimizing formulas was much simpler than boosting her calculation power. After all, she could get outside help for that—studying, asking questions, borrowing ideas.
But a breakthrough in raw calculation power? That depended entirely on a person's innate talent.
After reworking the tornado wing formula, Sonoko felt it had improved somewhat. The calculation cost was slightly lower, the stability a bit higher—in short, it was just more user-friendly now.
She still couldn't fly hundreds of meters into the air, but getting around at ground level or in low-altitude areas with denser air was no problem.
Not that she dared to fly too high anyway; if she suddenly ran out of stamina or calculation power mid-air, the result would be… well, pathetic.
The wing optimization was just one part. Her repeated, overloaded use of freezing on those monsters yesterday had given her some new insights into temperature reduction.
She had thought her series of ice-forming formulas were pretty good already, but under those extreme conditions, they showed quite a few constraints and problems.
They worked fine under normal use, but the more she pushed herself to the limit, the more those constraints hampered her. The more tired her brain got, the less control she had over her calculations.
At first, it was just a tiny gap in her calculations, but it ended up causing her calculation power to drain away like a tidal wave, swiftly leaving her completely immobilized.
'I need to figure out how to fix this. I can do it.'
'Come on, you can do it. You're the best.'
'Someone, please save me.'
'...'
'I can't solve this problem! It's too hard!'
Frustrated and fuming impotently, the knowledge-deficient Sonoko finally looked utterly worn out. She couldn't be bothered with the crutch anymore and just hopped on one foot over to the sofa.
The moment she landed on it, she sank deep into the sofa's cushions, as if being swallowed by quicksand. Her eyes held a vacant, world-weary look as she stared blankly at the ceiling.
I want some peace and quiet.
After all, she was just an ordinary student. No need to be so hard on herself. Speaking of which, she hadn't even read the manga she bought a few days ago.
She could think about the formulas later. Maybe she'd figure them out just by using them more. It wasn't like she had made zero progress; she had managed to simplify a calculation or two. These things couldn't be rushed.
'I should wash up a bit before sleeping,' Sonoko thought dazedly, lifting her head from the sofa cushions, her eyes sleepy.
Hopping on one foot to the bathroom, she turned on the showerhead, only to find no hot water came out. The tap yielded no water either.
District 7 was experiencing a large-scale water outage. Fortunately, Tokiwadai Middle School's dormitory in District 7 had a reserve water tank.
But the reserves weren't limitless, so they had to prioritize supplying the cafeteria and the dorm's public baths, restricting the water usage for individual rooms.
Sonoko suddenly remembered her own handiwork in causing this, though her face remained impassive.
Well, she didn't know whether to be happy or not, but at least there was still water for cooking in the dorm cafeteria.
Not wanting to go to the public bath, Sonoko had a sudden brainwave. She hopped over to the windowsill.
Opening the window, she evaporated some moisture from the ground below, brought the vapor up, boiled it to sterilize it, and then placed a washbasin on the windowsill to collect the condensate.
This water wasn't much different from rainwater in composition, and with the high-temperature sterilization, it should be fine to use.
Having managed to get herself cleaned up, Sonoko felt quite pleased with herself. See? She'd never be truly without water.
Just as she was about to evaporate the water and return it to nature, a series of meows reached her ears. Looking closely, she saw a black cat had jumped onto the protective bars outside her window from who-knows-where.
"Are you staking out my dorm window? Why is it you again!"
Sonoko felt this black cat looked familiar. Last time, it tried to steal the frozen mouse, and after being discovered, she had kindly given it a mackerel can.
"Meow, meow, meow."
Unable to understand cat language, Sonoko could only silently observe this uninvited guest.
Wait, did it see her using her ability just now? Just in case, should she...
She shook off that ridiculous thought. While the abilities in Academy City were numerous and varied, surely no one would be bored enough to turn into a cat just to report her for secretly using her ability in her dorm.
"Hold on, you can't drink from this bowl!"
Lost in her unnecessary thoughts, Sonoko only now noticed the black cat trying to drink from her washbasin and hurriedly pulled the basin back.
Hopping over to a corner, she retrieved a plastic bowl. She then condensed some more groundwater directly into it.
"Here. The bowl you used last time."
Last time, she had dumped the mackerel from the can into this very bowl. Since they'd met again, it was convenient to let it use the same one.
The black cat silently licked its paw, gave Sonoko a brief glance, and then leaped back into the darkness, leaving a slightly miffed Sonoko behind.
"Honestly, you just drink and leave? Not even a simple 'thanks'? Where are your manners?" Sonoko grumbled, displeased.
The black cat was like a familiar yet strange friend, visiting someone in the night before vanishing just as suddenly.
Turning off the light, Sonoko settled comfortably onto the sofa and soon drifted off to sleep.
--+--
Early the next morning, Sonoko Natsume woke up on time to find that Misaka-senpai had already been thoughtful enough to wait by her door, ready to help her to breakfast.
Shirai-san trailed behind them, her face drooping, dark circles under her eyes radiating intense resentment.
"Natsume-san, I've retrieved your bicycle for you. It's parked right outside the dorm entrance," Shirai-san said once they were seated in the dining hall.
She took a bite of bread and a sip of her morning tea, waiting until she had swallowed before speaking.
"Thank you so much, Shirai-san!" Sonoko nodded vigorously, quickly setting down the cake she was holding to reply.
--+--
T/N: Classroom of the Elite Fanfic Up!
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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 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.