Chapter 59

And before I knew it, I'm already in my third and final year of middle school. Time flew by fast, for sure.

Everything mostly kept with the same pace, save for a few notable exemptions. For one, Uiharu's talent was recognised --Finally!-- or to be more specific, her online persona [Goalkeeper] was recognised and was given an invitation to work at I-island. Then there was an amusing reveal when she told them that she is a middle schooler and modified the contract to include stuff like a scholarship, a fund of sort, healthcare, and others. Uiharu was ecstatic when she broke us the news and we had a party to celebrate.

Saten, in a flight of fancy, decided to try out engineering at some point and got into it. In particular, she found a passion in the creation of power armours. She is the type of gal that like to move her body a lot so I guess it kinda makes sense, or not? It should be fine so long as she is happy.

I remember when she showed us her JumpBooster Greaves that lets her jump high and kick hard. The kinetic dampeners might need some more work though... Broken bones aren't fun.

Haru kept to his goal. His application of his powers were rough at first, but now he is still steadily gaining more and more control. Eventually, I'm sure that he would earn a title similar to 'Embodiment of the Forest' or something with the potential I've seen. But it isn't like he's using it for fighting anyway. Haru primarily uses his powers to promote plant growth by connecting to the underground root/fungus network. It wouldn't drain himself of energy if he makes like a plant and siphons it instead from the earth.

But if it did comes down to a fight, Haru wouldn't go down that easily either. Perhaps it was due to the incident, but he is the one with the most drive to improve his fighting capability among us, surpassing even me, which isn't saying much considering I'm not actively looking for more strength. Anyway, Haru can crack his leg-roots out like a whip a shatter a two-inch steel plate. His fingers are also capable of sharpening enough to poke through them with ease. And let's not forget to mention poison, he can secrete those anywhere from his body. Haru is a nightmare to fight with, either close or mid-range.

Then of course there's Shiina. As an aspiring photographer, she plans to make full use of her aerial mobility to the fullest. Mind you, she doesn't like paparazzi just as much, if not more, as the average person --Because of her mutation she knows what it's like to be stared at. Both good and bad-- but rather, she wants to take pictures of nature and animals. She said that her passion was only strengthened when she saw my paintings of Gensokyo's beautiful landscape --I trust my friends enough to show it, but only Kuroko knows the truth about the place-- and said that she wants to capture similar scenes in the future.

Shiina isn't really much of a fighter, but she's a tricky flyer. She asked for my help from time to time to help her in her agility training to dodge attacks, and she trains strength and endurance by going to specialized flight centers that have facilities to mimic terrible winds of varying degrees of severity. It sounded extreme at first, but she just said that it was fun and that the wind felt nice under her wings.

As she aims for U.A., Kuroko is also diligent in her training. Between theoretical brainstorming and practical application in and out of combat, it's no wonder she improved plenty. Her apportation got better, obviously. She can now apport something that can fit in her two hands from an even further distance. It's been such a useful application, allowing us to disarm opponents became a trivial matter with her around. Quite useful in fact, that she decided to pick up on how to swap different objects now as well. For now, she can only do so when both items are in her hands but one day she be able to do it at a distance, hopefully. According to her, the calculations became a different kind of difficult when 'Individual of X size and mass goes from point A to point B' became 'Object of X size and mass from point B is sent to Point A while Object of Z size and mass from point B is sent to point A within the same specific timeframe but without crashing, interacting, intersecting and/or disentegrating each other in the 11th Plane of Space'.

And honestly, I don't blame her. She made it sound so easy on paper but knowing her, it's anything but a breeze. I suppose this is where one of Uiharu's quotes fit quite nicely. "As expected of Tokiwadai~"

And speaking of that school, Misaka has already graduated from the middle school division a few months back. No one would have batted an eye if she went straight into the High school division of the same school but the Railgun apparently took an offer to continue her studies overseas. Kuroko managed to pull her over for a farewell party before she left, it was a fun and nostalgic send-off.

Coincidentally, Touma has also supposedly gotten an offer as well but when he asked to meet up before leaving, he told me that it was going somewhere close to a location about to burst in an all-out magic war. He and his 'Not-Harem' are going near the place to lend a hand to prevent any of the fighting to spill over anywhere. If they're lucky, they might even find an opportunity to end the war sooner, Touma told me in confidence but knowing his luck, I kept my mouth shut and wished him the best.

As for the war, well, from what I've gathered, it all started a few years ago and appears that followers of a certain racist clan managed to bomb the home of a supernatural thinking they were just a regular mutant and have them killed. This sparked a debate among the local population of other supernaturals in the area that somehow escalated to become an Anti-Mundane radical group itself and now they're put for blood.

Then of course, there are also supernaturals who still have common sense and decided to try and take them out or talk to them out of it with no apparent success. Right now, they're still upholding the secrecy of the other side but If this rate continues, it really will evolve in to an All-out war.

Even Dusk's Grace has been shipped out already as a hired sword. I'm not too worried about them since they're very capable individuals, I'm worried of whether or not they leave a pile of bodies in their wake because someone couldn't keep it in his pants. Apparently that happened multiple times with Cen because they thought she was an actual kid who looked like an easy target?

Speaking of overseas, when I offhandedly commented about how the visitation slip is taking too long, she told me that they were probably and most likely troubled by my request as well. First up, it is a school for witches, and as a man, my request would have been turned down almost instantly because it's tradition and whatnot. However, there also the fact that I'm not human to consider, which makes it technically possible for me to be allowed in, but only as either a worker, a familiar, or some along that vein. Then here's the kicker, Marisa vouched for me.

They didn't wanna offend her in some way by using their old tactics on me, but there also the fact to consider that Marisa is Marisa and they probably distracted her to buy themselves some time so argue about it for so long. Which lead to where we are now, a stalemate of sorts, with them not turning me away because of reasons and also them not bringin me in because of what? Pride and traditions? Not that I mind, I just wanted a look around to see the sights and maybe come back with a few souvenirs. After all, it's not everyday you see an anime in real life.

Well, alright that last part might have been a lie now but it wasn't a few years ago! Honestly, if the plot was gonna develop the way it's supposed to be by itself, then why not let it develop by itself? As one of the animes that I've watched during my early days of being an otaku I can hardly even remember the plot of LWA anymore. I'd rather not makes things worse if I can help it.

Although, that doesn't mean I won't help if I was needed.

I... Well, I'm not slacking off in training either, but since I'm already pretty strong, I decided to delegate most of my time to do other productive things. That isn't to say that I'm not training at all, I just do enough to not have myself get rusty. I'm well aware that I'm a big fish in a small pond, but that isn't an excuse to neglect literally everything else for the singular goal of becoming stronger than I am now. I'm simply just taking things along at my pace.

In particular, I feel like I'm getting closer to getting through into [Lunatic Mode] with my Danmaku, but it still requires more work. I've also increased the upper limit for the amount of heads that I can summon. I can't give an actual number on that one because I, myself, am only going by a vague feeling to sort of 'eyeball' the gauge with the amount of energy I can use, but I can confidently say that I have enough to at least fill a narrow street!

Ah! That reminds me, in the Vigilante canon there was a sort of plasma skeleton that blew up a street. I don't know exactly when that happened, but I am taking some time off my summer break this year to work in the hospitals in that city. It wouldn't be suspicious at all since I did the same for other places. And it's not like there's any guarantee that it's going to happen when I'm there anyway so it should be fine to just scope out and leave.

What cou- Nope not finishing that sentence.

~~~~~~(Short Omake)~~~~~~

"EEEEEEEEEEEEPPP!!!!!!" Chirped Shiina as she frantically flapped her wings.

"Hey, uhh, Kuzuki?"

"Yes, Haru?"

"Isn't this a bit over the top?" Said as he pointed at the sky. Dozens of heads are currently chasing and trying to physically hit Shiina, with a handful firing low-powered lasers and at least a hundred on standby to catch her if she falls. "Couldn't you tone it down a bit?"

I looked over at him, then at the sky, then back at him. "This is normal."

"Oh..." He turned quiet.

To be fair, I really wasn't lying. This actually is normal mode, well normal according to my power.

'I could have given her something easier to work with, but Shiina was adamant I don't hold back even if she gets scared...' I thought as I continued watching the Harpy girl scream for her life.