Academy City's Weather Report! (Toaru)

Chapter 467: Academy City Weather Report! - 467

Memory is a fortress that never speaks, solemnly and earnestly safeguarding a human life.

Yet to lay bare another's experiences, to dissect them completely—that was the instinct of the esper known as Shokuhou Misaki.

"Even though I don't understand why that person holds such intense malice toward me…"

"This is simply how I've always moved forward."

Sliding her remote back into her bag, Shokuhou's gaze turned somewhat complicated. Yet her expression held no anger or resentment—only calm acceptance.

Malice was like a pack of wolves circling its prey, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the moment its target showed weakness before pouncing to tear it apart.

This was especially true for espers. Even with hordes of admirers, the hidden stares from dark corners—the covetous, watchful eyes—were always there, clinging like shadows, impossible to fully guard against.

All people like her could do was grip their hunting rifles tight and make sure they always appeared strong.

"Espers are natural allies. Our numbers are small, and we hold little real say in Academy City. In a way, our desires are aligned."

"But so far, the only one I can really talk to normally is Sonoko-chan. The rest are too tangled up in conflicting interests and ideologies."

She sighed, musing over these matters, seemingly forgetting her own cold decisiveness when suppressing a certain Electromaster at school.

It was only a girl like Sonoko—unaggressive, with no particular hunger for power or influence—who made for an ideal partner.

Of course, that conclusion came only after she'd peeked into that bun-headed girl's mind and understood her character and integrity.

"Now that I think about it, why was I so fixated on Sonoko-chan back then? Aside from being unable to find her Parameter List data, it probably had a lot to do with that paper document."

"It clearly had nothing to do with the Ideal project led by the Clone Dolly faction or the Exterior project. But because all ability development plans ultimately trace back to the person in that document, it was kept in Clone Dolly's database as a sort of optional reference."

Shokuhou's expression shifted slightly, clearly recalling something from the past.

After secretly taking control of Clone Dolly's legacy, Shokuhou also inherited most of its data files and confidential materials—including parts related to the Parameter List.

In fact, having secretly read the memories of many researchers, Shokuhou had long been fully aware of the Parameter List's existence.

Although it was considered one of Academy City's highest-level secrets, this secret was actually widely distributed among sufficiently high-level research institutions. It served as the basis for ability development, allocating resources according to each student's latent potential.

In other words, the city distributed ability development resources based on a student's innate parameter.

This was also why Shokuhou had the chance to receive the resource allocation typical for Level 5 espers at Clone Dolly—her parameter within the facility must have been semi-public. The reason for secrecy was simply to prevent societal chaos.

As long as it wasn't made public or an attempt to make it public, it wouldn't attract excessive attention from the Board of Directors.

Shokuhou understood this well, maintaining a silent understanding with certain lofty individuals.

But whether it was Clone Dolly's Parameter List data or the various other institutions Shokuhou later took control of, none contained the Parameter List for that bun-headed classmate of hers.

It was strange. Natsume-san, who clearly possessed at least Level 5 potential, hadn't attracted attention from any major research institutions. There wasn't even basic Parameter List data, let alone the city investing resources in her development.

Almost every student had a Parameter List, and its accuracy was remarkably high.

Even Misaka-san, who was practically left to develop on her own, had her Level 5 potential identified early on—leading to all those subsequent messy events.

But this didn't raise Shokuhou's suspicions at the time; it didn't even catch her attention.

It was only after she remembered a certain paper document stored at Clone Dolly that she went back to specifically look for Sonoko's parameter—and found nothing.

It was after reading and altering Kihara Gensei's memories that Shokuhou gained a new understanding of just how mysterious her underclassman was.

The Parameter List for Natsume-san that she could never find didn't not exist—it was submerged in a dedicated database somewhere within the Board of Directors, mixed in with numerous unremarkable parameter data, recorded as a mediocre Level 3.

It seemed to have only recently been officially updated to Level 5.

As for that paper document that piqued Shokuhou's interest, it recorded events from half a century ago—files concerning the first modern esper born in Academy City, a girl referred to as the The Beginning Child.

The Beginning Child's name was unknown. She was created by the current Academy City Board Chairman, Aleister, and there were even rumors that he couldn't fully control her.

The methods used to develop that girl's abilities were gradually refined and optimized over time, eventually evolving into the current Curriculum used for ability development.

This file on the Beginning Child girl contained not just experimental records of her ability development process, but also contemporary news reports recounting and interpreting her powers—though most treated them as comedic acts.

What made Shokuhou interested in Natsume-san was a photo in one news report: next to the Beginning Child stood a researcher who looked like a grown-up version of Natsume-san.

In the photo, she stood around 160 cm tall, wearing a familiar white lab coat, worriedly holding the arm of the Beginning Child, who seemed weary from reporters' pressing questions.

"It's just a coincidence, right?"

"Maybe it's one of Sonoko-chan's relatives or something… But why does this feeling, this intuition that it's her, keep getting stronger the more I think about it?"

Shaking her head, Shokuhou felt she was being overly paranoid, but it had genuinely sparked her curiosity.

Sometimes she even wondered if she'd met Sonoko somewhere else before, long ago, when she herself was very young. Thinking that far made her head hurt. What nonsense was she imagining now?

"But none of that is important. The main issue now is figuring out how to deal with that person."

"The ghost student of Tokiwadai, missing for a year now—Mitsuari Ayu."

Recalling a student roster from Tokiwadai, Shokuhou had some impression of that girl who once attended Tokiwadai Middle School with her. After all, there were only so many students across its grades.

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T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL