Academy City's Weather Report! (Toaru)

Given the disparities in perception and personality, compounded by the vastly different circumstances each person faces, a world of genuine mutual understanding was ultimately an impossibility.

In such a bleak reality, only power could truly settle the divisions born from these differences.

Whether it was the sparks of fate generated by the friction between Phases, or the lofty Magic Gods gazing down upon the mortal realm, the distinction between ordinary beings and them likely boiled down to a mere difference in power.

They could even rearrange the universe according to their whims.

Yet, faced with something as crucial as power, a certain girl who tended to just drift along still couldn't muster a stronger desire for it.

She merely adjusted her attitude based on reality and her experiences, adapting to her immediate needs.

However, compared to pursuing something as hollow and meaningless as power—which only gained tangible significance when measured against others or objects—the girl named Natsume Sonoko probably cared more about the ability users themselves, or rather, exploring the myriad possibilities along the path of an ability user.

Her earlier argument of treating power as a bargaining chip, in contrast, had left her feeling stifled and uncomfortable.

All her summaries of Personal Realities and formulas, all her joy in the growth of her computational power—these could all shed their layers of false pretenses and evolve into an exploration of the possibilities for ability users.

She should, at the very least, position herself as a seeker of the path.

Ah.

But then again, what was this 'path'? Was it just the road for ability users?

Where did such a thought suddenly spring from?

Restraining her scattered thoughts into a single, straight line, a powerful, almost oppressive thirst for knowledge surfaced in Natsume-san's mind.

It felt like her genuine desire, yet seemed at odds with her typically lazy self.

Engaged in meticulously analyzing Kazakiri Hyouka-san, unraveling the truth, Natsume Sonoko fell silent, stunned. Even the snack in her hands seemed to lose its flavor.

She was becoming stranger and stranger, and it left her feeling a bit at a loss.

As she 'focused intently' on monitoring and studying Kazakiri Hyouka-san from afar, she felt she was vaguely overlooking the other girl's human qualities, becoming immersed instead in the dazzling, wondrous, all-encompassing structure of her force field.

This was a terrible thing for her. It was impolite, and it didn't align with her values.

Was it the possibility of the Level 6 Absolute Ability embodied by Kazakiri-san that attracted her?

Or perhaps she had always been this kind of person—someone with an innately exuberant curiosity deep in her bones.

Even facing Misaka-senpai's frenzied rampage, she had the presence of mind to collect the precious data scattering from her, yet she felt nothing but disdain for the power that came as a mere byproduct.

Maybe she wasn't so different from some researchers after all. She just hadn't realized how she was meant to advance before.

"What's wrong, Sonoko? Does it taste odd?"

Noticing the change in the girl's expression, the little nun Index, holding onto the certain bun-girl's arm, asked with concern. From the start, she had defaulted to treating the girl beside her as someone who needed assistance.

Even though Natsume Sonoko seemed capable of monitoring the traces of a girl of uncertain authenticity several kilometers away, in Index's eyes, Sonoko was still an injured party requiring care.

"Ah, no, it's not that."

"It's just... I keep getting these random thoughts in my head lately. Sometimes I really don't know what to do. But don't worry, Index-chan. I can handle it."

Natsume Sonoko snapped back to attention and replied with a smile.

Standing quietly by the crossroads, the certain bun-girl relaxed her crescent-moon-like brows. She knew her thoughts had strayed again.

This deviation felt like randomly generated, chaotic thoughts in her head, but they genuinely made her feel different emotions.

Was it that Hitomi-san's memories acting up again?

At most, she was curious about the extent of an Absolute Ability's power and longed for the day a truly flawless natural science theory could be established.

But a 'seeker of the path'? That was just too strange.

This was probably just a minor nuisance caused by absorbing part of that woman's memories.

Yet, in a way, it resonated with something inside Natsume Sonoko herself, making it hard for her to even feel she was being influenced.

That long-deceased Hitomi-san, in her early memories, seemed to have striven hard to find evidence proving the universe wasn't real, filled with a rebellious spirit against the ancient past.

Perhaps that was the origin of this so-called seeker's mentality.

But Natsume Sonoko suddenly felt this speculation was a bit flimsy. She just didn't have enough information to draw a definitive conclusion.

"Thinking about it, that Hitomi-san and I are becoming more and more alike."

"Superficially striving hard for power, but deep down caring more about something else entirely. I suppose this is what they call a 'meeting of minds'."

Remembering something, Natsume Sonoko's thoughts drifted as she spaced out.

The more she peered into the other's life, the more her favorability rating shot up. Yet, she had to guard against the invasion of those memories, forcing a mutual separation.

But even while thinking, her attention remained firmly locked on Kazakiri Hyouka. She observed the vast ocean of AIM diffusion fields tightly enveloping Kazakiri-san like chains, tentacles, invisible bindings—that so-called AIM Field Phase and the Hidden Dimension.

While she wasn't confident she could definitely find the formulas and information implanted by the mastermind within that vast field, as long as that information reached Kazakiri-san, she could obtain the specific results directly from Kazakiri-san herself.

Because Kazakiri-san was the core. Any changes would be reflected in the core first.

"It's starting. The optical changes are trending towards normalcy."

"They must have input the optical formula controlling the core of the AIM field. The other party is gaining control over Kazakiri-san's optical existence."

Taking another deep breath, she poured her complete focus into the observation. Her petite, 145-centimeter frame suddenly went still, its care entirely entrusted to the little nun beside her.

For the first time, Natsume Sonoko felt she couldn't afford to waste computational power anywhere else.

Whether it was curiosity, a sense of responsibility for her friend, or something else entirely, it all compelled her to go all out immediately.

The moment she made contact, her brain kicked into high gear. A faint blush gradually spread across her cheeks, as if steam was about to rise from her head.

Combined with her overly thin face, she looked like a shriveled red apple.

Within seconds, she had to link up with Reiko's computational resources. Her own brain's processor simply couldn't handle the rapidly changing informational data on Kazakiri-san.

As she had thought earlier, Natsume Sonoko couldn't know where the other party would inject information and formulas from within the AIM field ocean. After all, Kazakiri-san was backed by an entire Phase. The only option was to compare and scrutinize all the information and data being fed back onto Kazakiri-san.

And this scrutiny nearly fried Natsume Sonoko's brain—and this was with preparation and actively filtering out vast amounts of AIM fields unrelated to optics.

The volume of data associated with Kazakiri-san was equivalent to a miniature version of the entire Phase's field. The certain information starved bun-head had been far too naive.

"Which data points are key? How many critical pieces of information have actually been altered?"

"Although the various data and information on Kazakiri-san are causing global changes affecting the Phase itself due to the newly input 'formula', the information actually causing the impact is only a minuscule part of it. Most of the data changes are merely the ripples and splashes caused by a stone hitting the water's surface."

Natsume Sonoko gazed 'directly' at the vast ocean of information, feeling a sense of overwhelming dread.

Once she actively started receiving the intelligence contained within the AIM field's informational ocean, things were completely out of her hands as the host.

What was more disheartening was that even though she could clearly observe large amounts of information being influenced and altered, merely identifying these changes consumed most of Natsume Sonoko's energy and computational power, leaving little leftover for analysis and reverse-engineering.

"Don't panic. Everything is under control."

"I can do this. I just need to find the right method."

Reining in her slightly nervous emotions, the certain bun-girl tried to maintain an optimistic attitude.

This situation was within her expectations. The possible outcomes were limited anyway—she could keep up, or she couldn't.

Even though she instantly utilized over sixty percent of Reiko's computational power and completely relinquished control of her own body to the care of the little nun, the situation remained grim.

This also demonstrated that this method of analyzing the 'formulas' input by the mastermind through big data wasn't very smart.

But that was normal. The certain bun-head was just an ordinary girl, after all. Being clever wasn't a requirement.

"Observing and recording data changes on this level simply isn't something a human can accomplish. At least, I don't think anyone can do it. That white-haired guy couldn't either. Just the changes in the optical information alone are giving me a headache."

"But what if I change my approach? Stop collecting all the optical field data. Hide most of the optical data again, like I did with the other AIM field types before, only keeping a portion that my own computational power can quickly analyze and reverse-engineer."

"Or even divide the part that needs observation into several sections. For example, treat the data of the force fields that ultimately interfere with the physical world on Kazakiri-san as the end point. Then trace back from the end point to the starting point of the 'formula'. Only calculate one part at a time, and find a 'path' that affects the entire core."

Silently observing the changes in Kazakiri-san in reality, something suddenly occurred to Natsume-san.

Simply put, it was about finding the Tree Diagram of the 'formula's interference with the AIM field energy. If the AIM field could receive the 'formula', then the series of changes triggered by the formula should spread out according to a pattern—from near to far, from simple to complex.

Of course, Natsume-san didn't know how the AIM field energy received and expressed the 'formula', and she found the chaotic information within the field a complete mess—most of it was the idle thoughts of ability users she didn't know.

But the truth, or the underlying patterns—those could be discerned simply by truly 'seeing' them once.

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