"Did you fight that girl?" Yifang Tonggong's voice broke the silence as he trailed behind.
"She's incredibly strong," Ryougi Shiki (Two Rituals) replied, her brows tightening. "I saw multiple death lines running through her… all different. And they weren't all hers."
Despite the lightning-quick reflexes and an overwhelming control of range, Shiki had still been able to read her with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception—though just barely.
"Master," Violet interjected calmly, holding her massive scythe at her side. "My bullets were completely nullified."
Her talent for close combat was terrifying even among enhanced beings, but in front of such a fundamentally immune opponent—whose long-range attacks shredded everything while remaining unreachable—Violet could only frown.
"…Yeah," Shen He nodded, exhaling a slow breath. "We can't go head-on."
Despite being rebuffed, the confrontation had granted Shen He a wealth of insight—combat data, trajectory patterns, emotional feedback from allies—all feeding into the ever-growing neural archive built from countless dimensional conflicts.
This "Special Forbidden Demon Copy World" was easily one of the highest-tier simulation realms they had encountered—a difficult dungeon where even intermediate-level agents were barely sufficient.
Shen He's thoughts wandered briefly: If I use the Intermediate Enhancement Card drawn from the silver chest, can I raise Saiki Kusuo's suppression level to at least Class-60?
No time for speculation. They were closing in on Kusuo and Misaka Mikoto's position.
The alley was nearly indistinguishable from others in this city—overrun by post-systemic collapse, stinking of rotting circuits and overflowing sewage. Misaka Network's internal firewall could no longer prevent the environmental degradation from affecting her local nodes.
Shen He led the group down silently, descending from a warped steel balcony. There she was—Misaka Mikoto. Or at least the real one, unlike the clones they'd faced earlier.
"It looks like you've received my little gift," Shen He said with a soft smile, eyeing the electromagnetic suppression doll Mikoto held. "I'm Shen He, the one who guides them. Kusuo should've already filled you in a bit."
"…Hello." Misaka Mikoto replied cautiously, her eyes darting between the strangers. Then she pointed in shock behind Shen He. "Why are you here?! Weren't you critically injured in the hospital?"
"…I got better," replied Accelerator curtly, stepping forward.
This was definitely Misaka Mikoto, not a clone. The aura, the polarity control, the mental signal divergence—all matched the Level 5.
Shen He stepped in, voice calm. "Yangtong understands what he did can't be forgiven. But he's trying to make amends. That much is true. He wants to help us save the Misaka Sisters."
Accelerator didn't respond, but his silence wasn't refusal—it was affirmation.
He no longer believed in redemption, but he had chosen a path of protection for the Last Order. That resolve now extended to all Misakas.
Misaka Mikoto's mind reeled.
Last time she saw Accelerator, he had laughed maniacally while crushing her clones, swatting them like insects. That image had haunted her every time she shut her eyes.
She took a deep breath and lifted her head.
"…Thank you for helping. But I still don't agree. Relying on others like this is wrong. These sisters… they exist because of me. I caused this. I should be the one to fix it."
The shame and pain hadn't faded. It had only deepened with every step of destruction and every sister harmed.
"I think you've misunderstood something," came Shen He's voice again—calm, yet pointed.
Misaka Mikoto opened her eyes to find Shen He looking almost disappointed.
"Didn't Kusuo already explain? We're not here to help you. We're here to ask for your help. You're the key to stopping this war. Not the cause of it."
"…That doesn't even make sense," she muttered, giving him a skeptical look. "You sound like you're trying to trick a kid."
"Think whatever you want." Shen He glanced around the dark alley. "But this isn't the place to debate philosophy. Let's move. We'll explain everything properly on the way—and don't overthink it. It's normal for kids to lean on adults sometimes. Here, take this."
With a wink and a light gesture, he clipped a system-generated Kata hairpin onto her sidebangs.
The effect was immediate. Though a little stiff at first, Mikoto fell in line.
Despite all her bravado, the fact was: she was still a child. An Electromaster Level 5 child who had been forced to grow up too fast, too violently.
On the way back to the makeshift Chaldea field HQ, they gave Mikoto a brief rundown of their role.
"Chaldea" was the universal agency maintaining timeline stability, a multiversal paramilitary and peacekeeping force composed of agents from collapsed or threatened realities. Their existence, while secretive, had protocols to reveal themselves under extreme cases like this.
With Accelerator's silent affirmation of the facts, Mikoto didn't object anymore.
"So you're kind of like interdimensional guardians? Like a Super Pan organization?" she asked, stars practically sparkling in her eyes. "Do you also have that kind of mind-wipe beam, like biu! And then everything resets? Or like a masked hero that shows up at the last second with a cape and—"
"Stop." Shen He's voice cracked like a whip. "Why do all you Tokiwadai girls only watch nonsense?"
"That's how we're raised!" Mikoto replied without shame. "You adults always want girls to act like proper ladies! We struggle too!"
She turned toward Violet, who was silently marching with her oversized scythe.
"…Who is she, anyway? When I saw her move during the fight, I thought it was another clone. But she's way too intense for that."
"Not every child is lucky to be from your kind of world."
Shen He gently offered his hand, and Violet—calm, precise—placed her small fingers into his.
"We don't know where Violet was born. But we do know she grew up on battlefields. Her combat data and confirmed kill count... not even any of us can match it."
He looked straight into Mikoto's eyes.
"Don't go thinking you can fix this alone. Even the strongest—especially the strongest—need others."
In the corner of her vision, Mikoto saw Violet's tiny hand grasping only three of Shen He's fingers.
Misaka Mikoto had always believed she could carry everything herself. Until now.
And this time… she wasn't so sure anymore.
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