Chapter Thirty-Eight You're Just Like Me

  "You're awake!"

  Kazari Touya opened his eyes with a hint of disappointment, and the first thing he saw was Misaka Mikoto's face blocking out the light, grinning foolishly; seeing that clean smile, his disappointed emotions were somewhat alleviated. Anyway, the incident had been perfectly resolved, and Kazari Touya from his past life had also recovered what he had lost, wasn't it a GOOD END?

  "Even so, I admit what you said earlier made sense. But in that situation, standing in front of 'Phantasmal Beast', are you an idiot? They're not someone who doesn't listen to advice!" Upon seeing Toma Kamijou wake up, the smile on Mikoto Misaka's face lasted less than a second before she crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks, showing her disappointment at Toma's skepticism.

  What's going on? The Mikoto Misaka I know is a proud and arrogant girl, but this behavior of yours can't be because you're possessed by a ghost or something?! Kuroko Shirai was shocked by Mikoto Misaka's behavior, but what he couldn't remember was that although Mikoto Misaka had an arrogant personality, her gentle and kind nature could not be denied.

  This point can actually be seen from the conversation between Mikoto Misaka and Touma Kamijou in the Hyoue Kurokami incident. Mikoto Misaka could have directly refused Hyoue, but she made an excuse saying that it was because he was the grandson of the school's board chairman that she couldn't refuse him directly. In fact, thinking carefully about it would reveal that it was just an excuse. After all, for her sisters, Mikoto was willing to cause massive destruction in a research facility; what is a mere school board chairman's grandson compared to that?

  "Hey, what's with that look on your face?! Don't I deserve your trust? You're just a high school student with a dead fish eye and chuunibyou disease!"

  "Ah, yes! The first time we met, you lost to me and got angry, destroying the arcade facilities. The second time, you chased me for a whole day. And the third time, you repaid my kindness by sending me straight to the hospital! This behavior is not arrogant at all, you're definitely a trustworthy person!" Mikoto Misaka's face turned redder with each incident that Touma Kamijou recounted.

  "Who, who made you always stare with a pair of dead fish eyes?! And your whole body emits a gloomy and arrogant aura, so that any normal person who meets you will establish their first impression on the basis of 'this is not a good person', okay?!" Mikoto Misaka pointed out to Toma Aogami; being misunderstood was just because of Toma's temperament problem, which had nothing to do with my, the elder sister's, character.

  "Hmm..."

  He glanced at someone with a 45-degree angle, and actually dared to say such a thing with a straight face, no wonder he's a second-year junior high school student.

  "Look, what are you looking at? Do you know what materialism is? The principle that objective conditions determine subjective conditions, do you understand? It's...". Mikoto Misaka couldn't take this gaze with countless implications and began to lecture Kanzaki Aoi on dialectical materialism, thinking that he absolutely wouldn't understand this unpopular and obscure theory in Akihabara.

  Little did they know, this shell contained a soul from the Celestial Dynasty. For this set of exams that had been going on since elementary school and would continue until he was expelled from college, it seemed like he was about to reach the point where just hearing similar content made him want to vomit out of conditioned reflex. Saying this in front of him wasn't like putting on airs, was it?

  And besides, isn't materialism based on the complete non-existence of mysticism? This world doesn't have things like gods, right? Haha, even Aleister would laugh at that. However, after graduating for a few years and still hearing others talk about this in front of him, Kamijou Touma unexpectedly felt a faint sense of nostalgia, so he didn't interrupt Misaka Mikoto's error-ridden explanation.

  Just as Misaka Mikoto was in the middle of her long-winded monologue, and Ichijiku Saiji was smiling but not saying anything, the reinforcement troops from the security forces finally arrived. They once again proved the law that "the police are always one step behind" with their actual actions. The security personnel who got off the armored vehicle first expressed surprise at how badly the surrounding environment had been destroyed, and then their well-trained habits kicked in as they began to arrange for batched sentry duty, rescue of the injured, and search for any remaining enemies.

  And standing on the scene, the two people, Toma Kamijou and Mikoto Misaka, who still had traces of battle on their clothes, would not be ignored by the security guards, especially Toma Kamijou, whose white shirt was almost completely stained with blood. Although his wounds had mysteriously healed in the light earlier, the blood that had already flowed out could not flow back in.

  Soon, two fully armed security guards were arranged to come and inspect the two of them. Fortunately, the two people who should have been strictly inspected were only asked routine questions and then let go easily, but they were all asked to leave their contact information for future reference.

  Everything was going smoothly for Maki Harukawa, but her luck didn't last long. After being identified, she was handcuffed by the Public Safety Bureau members and is now walking towards their ambulance to receive treatment for her injuries before undergoing interrogation.

  "I won't give up on those kids!" Mugiyama Harumi suddenly stopped and said as she was being dragged past Misaka Mikoto and Kuroba Tatsuya, not even knowing herself why she had to say that to the two of them.

  "I've decided to start anew, and if I have to reorganize my theory, I can do it anywhere. From now on, I'll still stop at nothing, so if you can't stand it, feel free to come and try to stop me again sometime. No matter how many times I fail, I won't give up, because the only one who can save those children is... me. If even I were to give up, they would be abandoned by the world... How could that be allowed to happen?!"

  "A network that can construct brain waves, accomplishing what seems like an impossible task. I believe that one day you will make those children open their eyes and call you 'teacher'. Jia Lu Chu Ye put his hands in his pockets, for this woman who had pushed herself into darkness for the sake of her students, he only felt reverence. Some people, although we may not be able to agree with them, are still worthy of our respect."

  "Even so, if I see something like this again, I'll still stand up and stop you! Because I don't want to see those students wake up to find the teacher they've always believed in is already in prison!" Misaka Mikoto said seriously, looking at Haruue Spring.

  "I'm looking forward to it, actually the idea of 'Fantasy Hand' was inspired by the 'Learning Device', a machine that reorganizes brain structures... all these inspirations came from you......" Mugino Shizuka couldn't help but glance at Misaka Mikoto, conveying some inexplicable information in her words.

  "Ah?" Mikoto Misaka was somewhat bewildered and asked inexplicably: "I don't remember writing that kind of thesis, do I?"

  "It's not like that..." Mugino Shizuri walked towards the ambulance, making it so Misaka Mikoto couldn't see her expression. In a low, sinking voice she said: "Even with powers as strong as yours at LV5, you can't resist... You're just like me..."