"Record: 78.23 meters. Deviation from the designated point: 54 centimeters. Teleport, overall evaluation, Level 4!"
The test result rang out across the track.
The twin-tailed girl brushed back her hair and muttered to herself, "My condition still isn't great. Yesterday's Judgment work really did affect me..."
"So many excuses. Looks like you're not all that capable after all, Shirai-san," said a long-haired young lady with sleek black hair.
The twin-tailed girl looked disgusted. "Kongou Mitsuko..."
Covering her face with a folding fan, the black-haired girl let out a queenly three-part laugh. "At this rate, I'll be the one who reaches Level 5 first."
"Please don't compare your ability to mine. The way three-dimensional and eleven-dimensional space is handled is fundamentally different, "
Boom!
A shockwave suddenly erupted from the far side of the field, throwing the girls' long hair into disarray. Thankfully, they were all in gym clothes, so no one had to panic and hold down a skirt.
"Wh-what was that?" Mitsuko cried in shock. "Someone's actually fighting on Tokiwadai grounds? How utterly unladylike!"
"Did some work suddenly come up even though it's a school day?"
Not wearing her armband today, Shirai Kuroko still acted on pure Judgment instinct. She activated Teleport and vanished from sight.
On the other side of the field, Ethan and the purple-haired girl with elaborate curls stood facing each other from a distance.
"That's some astonishing strength, Hokaze-san."
"No, I should be the one saying that. Dr. Ethan is a truly worthy opponent. I'm about to go all out now, so please be careful."
As she spoke, the curled-haired girl settled back into her stance on the field.
She looked every bit the gallant martial artist.
Too bad the handshake earlier had been too brief. He hadn't had time to Mimic her ability.
Ethan narrowed his eyes. In an instant, Emerald Eye saw straight through every detail of his opponent.
[Name: Hokaze Junko]
[Age: 16]
[Classification: Level 4 Esper]
[Calculation Power: 8192]
[Combat Ability:]
『Rampage Dress』 (Lv.4): In essence, an electromaster ability. By controlling the electrical signals inside her own cells, she releases the body's built-in limits, enhancing her strength, speed, five senses, dynamic vision, and more.
Even her calculation power made it obvious, this girl was a peak Level 4, nothing like Mitsuari Ayu, who had only just barely climbed into that tier.
In terms of raw destructive force, she had already reached Level 5 territory.
For a "healing hero," Tokiwadai was a dreamland, every one of these pampered girls was a treasure vault.
The admission requirement alone was Level 3 or above. Was there a better collection of experience packs anywhere?
Compared to spending every day in that hospital using Heal over and over, waiting for who-knew-what useful ability to show up, infiltrating a girls' academy full of elite espers was clearly the more direct and efficient route.
That had been Ethan's real reason for accepting Shokuhou's commission in the first place.
If Mitsuari Ayu had only been the first hurdle, then all he had to do now was defeat the "violent girl" in front of him and earn their trust.
Beep!
On a nearby screen, a display resembling thermal imaging appeared. In reality, it was a precision instrument used to monitor the electric and magnetic fields inside the human body.
Countless red points now appeared outlining the girl's figure, as though electrodes had been pasted across her entire body.
"That's right. Hokaze only took two months to go from Level 2 to Level 4, and she's been stuck there ever since. Only battle can bring out her full power☆"
Shokuhou stood off to the side, watching.
"Don't stop moving forward... you, whom I've always admired for being so strong..."
The one murmuring to herself was an upperclassman in kyudo attire named Yumiya Iruka.
Whoosh!
On the field, Hokaze Junko instantly closed the gap and unleashed a high side kick. A very ordinary kick in form, straight out of taekwondo.
With her natural athletic talent and excellent mind, she had long since learned how to apply textbook knowledge in real combat.
Ethan smiled.
Smack!
Ethan quickly parried outward with his left arm, pressing down on the young lady's ankle joint with his elbow. At the same time, his left leg snapped upward, his knee driving straight toward her neck and jaw, a textbook kickboxing technique.
Bang!
The unexpected problem was the curled-haired girl's built-in shock absorbers.
His knee strike first hit the young lady's breasts before continuing on to clip her face.
Boing~
Hokaze's gym clothes were perfect for fighting, but even they couldn't restrain that dramatic bounce. She staggered back several steps, her face instantly turning tomato red.
It was the first time a man had struck her in the chest...
Seeing her most trusted subordinate clutching her chest, Shokuhou Misaki asked with concern, "Would you like me to rub it for you, Hokaze-san?"
For the Queen herself to... rub it?
"N-no, that won't be necessary. I'll definitely bring victory back to you, Queen!"
The curled-haired girl instantly looked as if she'd been injected with adrenaline.
"Among the patients I've healed were all kinds of fighters, so I picked up a few moves."
Right there in public, Ethan untied his necktie, shrugged off his suit jacket, and removed his glasses. Under the sunlight, his tousled black hair fluttered in the wind, and for a moment the girls actually stared.
"Hold these."
Without waiting for permission, the black-haired young man thrust his things into Mitsuari Ayu's hands.
"W-wait, we're supposed to be enemies..."
A suit with sneakers was Ethan's last line of dignity, but under intense movement the brand-new clothes were already starting to strain.
He didn't want to dirty Komoe's gift.
So, quick finish.
"As expected, Dr. Ethan's martial skill surpasses mine. You also mentioned before that you could output 91%. So you really are, like me, an ability user who's released your muscular limits."
As she spoke, faint electricity began flowing over Hokaze's body. The moment she let go of her chest, the injury there was already healed.
A highly accelerated form of bodily regeneration.
Ethan thought to himself: It's similar to Heal. She's probably speeding up cell division to achieve that absurd regeneration speed.
Hokaze's resolve only grew firmer.
To avoid letting Queen Shokuhou dislike her, she rarely showed that violent, muscle-headed side of herself in front of her. But by stimulating her muscle cells with electricity, she could cast off her restraints and then...
Surpass the man standing before her.
"Round two."
Output 90%, 91%, 92%... 99%!
Rampage Dress!
Boom!
Hokaze took a single step forward. The turf of the athletic field exploded beneath her feet, leaving behind a deep footprint.
At nearly sonic speed, her tender skin felt as though it were being sliced by knives. The pain only made her frown faintly. With rapid cell regeneration compensating for the frailty of a female body, it was as if an invisible heavenly garment were cloaking and strengthening her flesh.
This strike had surpassed the human limit, 96%!
Boom!
Hokaze threw a full-force punch at Ethan's head. A delicate, girlish fist, yet it carried the power of a truck slamming into him as it rushed closer and closer to his face.
Even Mitsuari, watching from the side, thought it a shame. Such a handsome face was about to be swollen and ruined. At the same time, she couldn't help feeling thrilled at the thought of finally seeing him get what was coming.
"Yes! Hokaze, punch him in the face!"
For now, Ethan still couldn't reveal his Multiple Ability, so he had to rely on pure martial arts against a young lady whose physical power was already brushing against true esper territory.
Never Use Weapons on Students!
That passive really was absurdly useful.
And then,
Ethan remained still. Green light surged across his body.
Using Enhance, he reinforced his body until it matched the strongest combat champion in his memory. With Heaven Canceller's knowledge of the human body, every cell had been adjusted into its most optimal state, supplemented further by a Mimicked Muscle Reinforcement ability.
As long as he could Heal, he could copy even the gods.
"Output... 100%!"
Before Hokaze's lightning-fast attack could land, Ethan's fist struck her in the chest first.
Bang!
Hokaze's eyes widened. Blood burst from her mouth, and her body flew backward. Her delicate figure tumbled across the soccer field and smashed straight into the goalpost, snapping the net in an instant.
Craaaack!
The once-solid goal collapsed with a crash.
The sudden reversal stunned everyone present.
"Hokaze-san!"
The purple-haired girl with elaborate curls lay in a pool of blood. Her once-luxurious ringlets had lost all luster. Her clothes were shredded, her body covered in injuries, multiple bones broken. It looked as if she could barely breathe.
The force of impact worked both ways. Ethan's strengthened right hand had also been ruined.
Aside from his brain, it seemed his body had also been successfully enhanced.
With a mere thought, he healed the torn muscles and shattered bones caused by his berserk output.
The inspiration for this fighting style came from Is This a Zombie? In a way, a man who felt no pain and could heal infinitely really wasn't all that different from a zombie.
A twin-tailed girl appeared out of nowhere and declared sternly, "I am Judgment. I am now placing you under arrest on suspicion of attempted murder, "
It was none other than Shirai Kuroko, whom he had met once before.
Ethan immediately grabbed hold of her and said, "Perfect. Take me over there."
"What kind of weirdo starts ordering me around all of a sudden?"
The situation was urgent, so Shirai didn't dare waste time. Ethan's vision went black for a moment, and then he found himself a hundred meters away, profoundly appreciating how convenient teleport truly was.
Unfortunately, before he had a chance to activate Mimic, the shameless yuri fanatic flung him away with obvious disgust.
Heal!
As soft green light flowed from Ethan's hand, Hokazes breathing gradually stabilized, and all the wounds on her body began to close.
"The injured party is no longer in life-threatening danger!"
Shirai widened her eyes in disbelief.
What was this ability? healing?
"Dr. Ethan..."
Hokaze slowly opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was Ethan, calm as ever.
"That punch might have killed you. Luckily, I'm Heaven Canceller's student. Pulling you back from the edge of death is easy."
Life and death, all in a single thought.
"I'm sorry, Lord Ethan. I wasn't able to make you use your full strength." The curled-haired young lady instead looked ashamed of herself.
It sounded disturbingly like the kind of line spoken by a character right before being written out of the story.
The human muscular output limit was 90%. Ethan could reach 100%. But normal physical means could never truly push past that ceiling. Once that boundary was broken, the human body, as a complex living system, would begin collapsing and tearing itself apart.
"Even the same percentages can differ. Reaching 96% is already impressive," Ethan praised her.
After all, a young lady's body wasn't very strong to begin with.
Hokaze gave a bitter smile. "So you really did see through it."
"Even though yours is an electromaster ability, you show no resistance at all to mental out. You let yourself be controlled by that Queen willingly."
Out of the corner of his eye, Ethan spotted Shokuhou hurrying toward them from afar at a speed even slower than an elementary school child. Even that maximum output made her pure, youthful chest sway visibly.
"Too slow!"
Even Mitsuari couldn't bear to watch, so she grabbed Shokuhou and started dragging her along at a run.
"I'm already accelerating as hard as I can!"
"If my ability were to evolve further, maybe I could protect our Queen even better, so that kind of thing would never happen again..." Hokaze's expression turned gentle. "That's what I've been thinking."
This was the deep bond shared by Tokiwadai's girls, something that went beyond friendship and wasn't quite infatuation, either.
"Keep at it." Ethan held out a hand.
The curled-haired young lady, still sitting weakly on the ground, froze for a moment. Then she smiled and placed her hand in that of the black-haired man who had just defeated her.
Her restored chest still throbbed faintly. In that instant earlier, even her breastbone and her natural "fat padding" had felt as though they'd been shattered like Mitsuari's gel. Her heart had even stopped for a moment.
And yet, Dr. Ethan had saved her so gently that she couldn't be afraid of him. If the legendary knights-errant of the celestial realm really existed, then surely this man was one of them.
"Hokaze-san!"
The girls who had rushed over surrounded the curled-haired young lady all at once, proof of how well-liked Hokaze Junko usually was.
The way they looked at Ethan now held a mix of awe and hostility.
"So, what's the final result of this life-or-death test?" Kuroko reminded them.
"Oh, r-right!"
The young female teacher in charge of the examination was badly shaken. She had genuinely thought a Tokiwadai young lady might die under her watch.
Forget losing her job, she might have spent the rest of her life in prison.
Clutching a laptop to her chest, the young teacher announced with a trembling voice, "Electric signal strength: high. Whole-body cell development level: 96%. Rampage Dress, overall evaluation, Level 4!"
A look of disappointment spread through the Shokuhou faction.
So in the end, she still couldn't break through to Level 5.
The green light in Ethan's hand faded away, and with it he absorbed everything about Hokaze Junko.
Rampage Dress, acquired!
The key to breaking through the 100% limit might well be hidden inside this ability.
Sneaking into Tokiwadai in broad daylight really was a great way to get interesting powers.
"Thank you."
Ethan took his glasses back from a frightened-looking Mitsuari and put them on again, casually slinging his suit jacket over one shoulder.
"Isn't Dr. Ethan going a bit too far?!"
Even Shokuhou was annoyed enough that the little stars dropped out of her voice.
Ethan only replied, "If you're not ready to die, don't fight. Weren't you the ones who invited me here for sparring?"
He felt not the slightest mental burden about hitting women. In a life-or-death fight, he had no room to care whether he struck a beautiful girl's sensitive spots.
These highborn young ladies were far too naive if they thought they could so easily take advantage of a gentleman's kindness.
"You're still a man, aren't you? Couldn't you go easier on us delicate girls?"
The Tokiwadai young ladies clearly couldn't accept that.
Raised in pampered comfort from childhood, they believed themselves different from ordinary commoners. Their bodies were precious, after all.
"Oh, right, Hokaze. Stop using your ability."
Ethan's voice was flat.
"If you keep going, you'll die."
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