Evening. Adachi District, Ayase Apartnt.
Morimoto Chiyoda busied herself in the kitchen, following her usual dinner preparation routine. The steak sizzled as she fried it, flipping it over while her smartphone on the kitchen counter played a TikTok short video. The video's content praised a miraculous sighting of so floating object, but most comnts complinted the creator's impressive special effects.
Since yesterday, the CIA had been relentlessly creating various videos, aiming to flood major platforms with fake news to conceal the truth about the Dio Treatnt Hospital. This included, but wasn't limited to, restricting the reach of such short videos. Regrettably, while the CIA could pressure platforms like YouTube and Twitter, they had no influence over TikTok's public discourse due to very complicated underlying relationships. As a result, on TikTok, one could still find posts about patients who had miraculously recovered.
A newbie vlogger nad Hibino Jam, who possessed so talent, was particularly riding this wave of viral content. Her subscriber count was soaring, having already surpassed the 20,000 mark. Her backstory was also compelling: originally a healthy girl, she beca blind after a hit-and-run by a wealthy individual. Yet, she never gave up and would sing in the park whenever she had ti. Her mother had taken on high-interest loans to pay for her daughter's treatnt, making life very tough, but then the loan company suddenly declared bankruptcy. Their lives had improved slightly when Hibino Jam miraculously regained her sight. Born anew, she began to play songs of divine praise online and beca a devout follower of God, believing God had saved her.
In the past, such incidents would have been pri targets for CIA suppression, but recently, the number of people healed by Dio had grown too large. All sorts of people were signing up on TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube, starting to share their own stories. Moreover, due to religious factors, even the CIA couldn't erase these accounts, only attempt to attribute the events to God rather than Dio.
Morimoto Chiyoda flipped the steak, lost in thought. Sothing feels amiss, she mused. Is Dio really doing this to comply with the steps for entering Paradise?
Although so religions clearly emphasized the importance of faith, Morimoto Chiyoda found the idea of Dio seeking the people's belief questionable and maintained a skeptical attitude.
Lately, no information related to the Different World had been captured. Could the Different World actually be an illusion, just a dream? she couldn't help but wonder. But the scenes I saw back then were so real, and the characters so vivid! She couldn't imagine it was fake. Dio's actions must be attributable to taphysics, sothing outsiders simply can't fathom. After all, doing a specific thing at a specific ti does align with taphysical concepts. And while Hagaushi was most likely spouting nonsense and planning to abscond with the money, the knowledge he shared was, in fact, docunted.
While Morimoto Chiyoda's mind was on work, she didn't neglect the pan. Seeing the steak was about done, she turned off the induction cooker and plated it.
At that mont, the door handle turned. "Chitose, I'm back."
"Mm, go wash your hands. Dinner's ready."
Morimoto Chiyoda put down the pan, untied her white apron, and carried the plate to the kitchen counter.
Aozawa glanced at the short video playing on Morimoto Chiyoda's phone and laughed. "These vloggers are really upping their ga; the special effects are almost on par with Hollywood movies."
"Yeah, and so have very rough special effects that end up looking quite funny."
Morimoto Chiyoda swiped the short video away with her index finger and looked ahead, a strange thought suddenly striking her. I'd stopped doubting Aozawa until recently, but looking at him again today, a flicker of suspicion has returned.
It's probably because my work isn't progressing that my mind is starting to wander like this, she mused. Such thoughts might only truly disappear if Aozawa loses to Sunaga Takashi.
"Aozawa, when is the Jade Dragon Flag tournant being held?"
"Early August."
Aozawa replied with a smile, "This ti, I'm definitely going to win the championship."
"Win the championship, huh." A glint of complexity flashed in Morimoto Chiyoda's eyes. Does his confidence stem from an amateur's ignorance, or is he genuinely sure he'll win? Why not test Aozawa's Sword Dao skills right now? The idea flashed through Morimoto Chiyoda's mind as she sliced the steak. "Aozawa," she said, "let's have a long-overdue spar later. I want to see if your Sword Dao has improved."
A look of surprise flashed across Aozawa's face, and he nodded. "No problem. Let show you just how much soone can improve in a short ti."
"Hehe." Morimoto Chiyoda let out a light chuckle, the kind that best showcased the charm of her gentle, alluring voice.
As a police superintendent, she was naturally no stranger to Sword Dao; in fact, she was extraordinarily formidable, still holding the record for the most consecutive wins—forty-eight—at the won's Jade Dragon Flag competition. Her Sword Dao prowess hadn't diminished even after joining the Tokyo tropolitan Police Departnt. She rarely sparred with Aozawa, fearing it would dent his confidence—not because she couldn't defeat him.
「...」
"N!" The shout, though from her gentle voice, carried the sharpness of a blade. Morimoto Chiyoda's bamboo sword sliced fiercely through the air, whistling just above Aozawa's forehead but not striking him.
The bamboo sword halted inches from Aozawa's forehead. Morimoto Chiyoda retracted it, her expression complex. "Aozawa," she said, "I'm not trying to discourage you. Your Sword Dao has improved considerably, but it's still within the realm of an ordinary person. You can't beat those geniuses."
"Chitose, this isn't the first ti you've told that." Aozawa wiped sweat from his forehead. He hadn't used his Superpower to cheat this ti; using the Ti Stop Ability would have been too easily noticed by Chitose. She wasn't an unrelated bystander; if she grew suspicious, she would undoubtedly make Aozawa demonstrate the technique repeatedly until she got to the bottom of it.
Clearly, Aozawa's current physical condition wasn't yet sufficient to demonstrate the skill needed to defeat Morimoto Chiyoda without using Ti Stop. He could only rely on his abilities unaided by his Superpower when sparring with her.
"It's the truth. If you're planning to participate in the Jade Dragon Flag tournant, the chances of you winning are very slim. I hope you are ntally prepared for that," Morimoto Chiyoda said, sighing softly. She rembered sparring with Sunaga Takashi out of curiosity once, only to find she couldn't withstand a single move from him.
In terms of Sword Dao, Sunaga Takashi, a second-year in high school, had already reached a level unattainable by many adults. It was no exaggeration to say he could be compared to the legendary sword saints and masters who had etched their nas in history with their Sword Dao. He was, without a doubt, a monster. His talent in Sword Dao made the gap between him and ordinary people comparable to the size difference between a three-year-old child and an ant. The ant had no chance of winning unless it faced another monster—a Superpower User who defied reality and science.
"Haha, don't worry. Regardless of the outco, I'll give it my all," Aozawa laughed, tossing his bamboo sword onto the sofa. "It's getting late. I want to go out for a run to train."
"Mm." Morimoto Chiyoda reached out to ruffle his hair, her eyes full of affection. "If that's what you want to do, then give it your all, Aozawa."
「...」
The evening breeze was sowhat cool as Aozawa sprinted at full speed along his familiar route, eventually reaching his destination: the small park. The sky grew dim. Even in sumr, night fell astonishingly fast after seven o'clock, not to ntion Tokyo was in the midst of its rainy season.
Faulty street lamps flickered erratically. Aozawa paused to catch his breath, wiping sweat from his forehead. Pushing my running speed to fourteen kiloters per hour is still pretty challenging, he thought. I nearly exceeded the ti limit.
He sat down, placing his right hand on the ground, and used his Catalyst Sensing ability to enter a state of desirelessness, alleviating his fatigue from the run. Through his Ability, he confird no one else was in the park.
Aozawa withdrew his hand and stood up. He headed towards a small grove of trees, hid his phone, and used his Elent Replacent ability. His body transford into a wisp of breeze that flickered among the leaves before he activated his Schrödinger's Cat ability.
In an instant, he, as a gust of wind, appeared in Shibuya. The number of diseases his Marvelous Resurgence could store was limited. Once it reached five hundred, he had to release so of the collected ones. Returning those diseases to the general population was obviously not appropriate, so he decided to find so deserving individuals to afflict.
Aozawa drifted through the streets of Shibuya. Its nightlife, much like Shinjuku's, was bustling, yet the street scenes were distinctly different, with young people passing by in bizarre outfits. Strangely dressed won were sowhat tolerable; if they had good looks and figures, they could still be pleasing to the eye. But so of the n's costus made Aozawa deeply question things—for instance, a middle-aged man in a pink Pikachu coat was live-streaming. Does anyone actually watch that? he wondered.
Aozawa didn't understand, but watching the man twist and contort, there seed to be a kind of demonic charm to it. Occasionally, other oddly dressed youths would join in, dancing around him in a circle like a rural shamanistic ritual, moving freely before departing with laughter. Perhaps such random interactions are the appeal of his live stream, Aozawa mused. Of course, I still prefer watching won dance.
Having reached this conclusion, he didn't linger to watch the Pikachu-clad man dance. Instead, he moved closer to the buildings, using his Catalyst Sensing ability to scan a one-kiloter radius. Let's see if any 'lucky' individual happens to be committing a cri right now, he thought.
Images flooded into Aozawa's mind. Even as wind, I still have a mind, though I can't quite explain why, he pondered. A cacophony of sounds arose; the one-kiloter area around Shibuya Station was clearly more bustling, with many more people.
Aozawa rapidly differentiated the images, filtering out the normal ones. When he found no cris occurring, he swiftly vanished, moving to the next location to continue his search. This is like a lottery, he thought. You don't usually win on the first try.
Reviews
All reviews (0)