0p0 Chapter 1820 - 1818: Mokuhara (Rolling Over, Flipping Around, Licking Paws, and Acting Cute)
Chapter 1820 - 1818: Mokuhara (Rolling Over, Flipping Around, Licking Paws, and Acting Cute)
"It’s right here..."
Fang Zheng looked at the building in front with a serious expression.
Shihou Souki really went big this time.
To be honest, this really surprised Fang Zheng quite a bit. His impression of Shihou Souki only came from that bit he saw in the previous anime. In Fang Zheng’s view, even if Shihou Souki didn’t like Misaka Mikoto, at most she would just tease her a bit. But directly delete the memory of Misaka Mikoto from Shirai Kuroko’s and the others’ minds?
It’s not that Fang Zheng thought Shihou Souki couldn’t do it, but he did indeed not think she would do it. He now understood why there was no sign of Misaka Mikoto at the ceremony. It was imaginable that Misaka Mikoto must have come here to meet Shirai Kuroko and the others, only to find that they had lost the memory of her.
In Academy City, only Shihou Souki was capable of doing this, and she wasn’t in good terms with Misaka Mikoto, so Misaka Mikoto surely thought of this and went to trouble Shihou Souki.
But why Shihou Souki did this... Fang Zheng couldn’t figure out, but he guessed it was for something quite important.
Otherwise, Shihou Souki wouldn’t play like this.
If someone else did it, it might not matter, but Shihou Souki and Misaka Mikoto are classmates. Such a situation where they almost tore each other’s faces once it happened, they wouldn’t even say they are friends or classmates anymore, it would definitely lead to bloodshed.
Of course, not everyone in LV5 understood human relationships, like the already dead First, Second, and Fourth were brash fools, but Shihou Souki was different. She was a Psychic User. To say Psychological Control doesn’t understand the human heart, Fang Zheng wouldn’t believe it for a second.
By the way, the Second’s "Unobtanium" Imperial Supervisor was strictly speaking not killed by Fang Zheng. After the previous Dark Side meeting, Fang Zheng released Imperial Supervisor once more, but that fool didn’t listen to anything Fang Zheng said and tried to defeat Fang Zheng, predictably failing.
Initially, Fang Zheng thought that after this, he would finally run into a wall and turn back, but to Fang Zheng’s surprise, Imperial Supervisor made an unexpected decision.
He actually attempted to create a substance capable of killing Fang Zheng to defeat him!
But what’s standing in front of him is not a mortal but the Swarm Overlord, God of Magical Girls, Time Dragon!
This is like using a 2000 PII computer to run the latest graphics card crisis with all effects turned on; it would explode as soon as it starts!
And in fact, it did explode.
What else could Fang Zheng say to this? Just that not asking for trouble won’t result in trouble.
But this also served as a wake-up call for Fang Zheng. When Imperial Supervisor tried to create the "substance capable of killing him," it was because of insufficient power, leading to a forced overclocking explosion, not because "it couldn’t be created," meaning there is something in the world capable of killing him, even though he is now a deity, it’s no exception.
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng felt somewhat a pity, if Imperial Supervisor hadn’t exploded, he could’ve at least observed what this substance looked like. But sadly, Imperial Supervisor’s body was ultimately mortal, and wanting to slay a god was beyond his capacity; the result was just starting, no conclusion, and it blew up completely, not even leaving any fragments.
This also reflects the gap between deity and mortal.
But these are not important now.
"Artisan Workshop..."
Fang Zheng raised his head, taking another look at the building ahead. At this moment, it was already late at night, and the entire building was pitch black, showing no signs of people. He sensed earlier that Misaka Mikoto and Shihou Souki’s presence were both around here, so he came over, and it seems that this was indeed the case.
However, Misaka Mikoto’s presence seemed to have weakened quite a bit, but compared to her... Shihou Souki was almost dying.
What’s going on here, did the two really tear each other to shreds, leading to one dead and one injured?
It can’t be... can it?
But better to go and see.
Thinking this, Fang Zheng reached out and snapped his fingers.
In the next moment, he immediately appeared in a fully enclosed passageway, and in front of Fang Zheng, Shihou Souki was painfully clutching her neck, her face red, her long legs clad in white stockings kicking helplessly on the ground. Seeing this, Fang Zheng was quite surprised; he could sense that there was no air around Shihou Souki, meaning she was suffocating!
This isn’t something Misaka Mikoto could do!
Fang Zheng hurriedly reached out and patted Shihou Souki on the head, in the next instant Shihou Souki’s legs weakened, sitting down, flushed, and began to cough loudly.
"What is going on? Why are you..."
Fang Zheng didn’t finish his sentence, because he only raised his head and quickly saw an old man standing not far in front of him.
He looked around seventy or eighty years old, wearing a white coat, with age spots visible on his head. At this moment, the old man squinted, looking benevolent.
But Fang Zheng knew he wasn’t any good.
"It’s you, you old undead."
"Hehehe, hello."
Facing Fang Zheng, the old man also chuckled.
"You must be Fang Zheng-kun, nice to meet you, I’m Mokuhara Genki. To be honest, I didn’t expect to see you here."
"I didn’t either... looks like you’ve finally cracked and crawled out of your hole, you undead old mouse."
Fang Zheng wasn’t a fool; hearing Mokuhara Genki’s words, he immediately understood the general situation. It is known that during this period, Fang Zheng had dealt the strongest blow to Academy City’s dark side, those unethical human experiments and ability development experiment organizations, almost all of which were shut down and crushed by Fang Zheng, and the Dark Side was forcibly disbanded.
And these all had connections with Mokuhara Genki, which showed that his research institute being attacked tonight wasn’t a coincidence. It was clear that Mokuhara Genki targeted his attendance at the Endymion opening ceremony, choosing this time to act.
As for Shihou Souki—not that Fang Zheng believed she cared about him, she must have been involved in Mokuhara Genki’s plan, hence why she used that method to summon Misaka Mikoto.
After all, among Superpower Users, only few were left like them now...
But speaking of which...
"Where’s Misaka Mikoto?"
"Cough... cough cough... She was captured by them."
"... Huh? Are you kidding me?"
Faced with Shihou Souki’s answer, Fang Zheng was truly dumbfounded. You must be joking, wasn’t the Princess of Lightning supposed to be invincible?
"I don’t know what happened either. That muscle-head girl... In short, she got attacked by some weird metal liquid entity, then she was injected with some substance and passed out. My psychological control had no effect on that creature..."
That doesn’t make sense?
Faced with Shihou Souki’s answer, Fang Zheng was quite surprised too. According to his impression, Misaka Mikoto should be pretty capable in a fight... Ah!
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng slapped his head. He just remembered that his impression of Misaka Mikoto’s fighting skills all came from the animation. In the show, Misaka Mikoto first handled the monster generated by the Fantasy Manipulator network, and also resolved the Chaos Development incident. Then in the second season, she fought a battle against Mugino Shizuri’s Item due to the Sisters, growing step by step through these battles.
But in reality?
Mokuyama Haruo was subdued by Fang Zheng, the Fantasy Manipulator network was wiped out by the Little Angel, and Misaka Mikoto didn’t get to fight any minor monsters. The Chaos Development incident never happened, and after resolving the Fantasy Manipulator, Fang Zheng transferred all those kids to the lab. That menopausal old woman was even directly dealt with.
As for the Sisters incident, Fang Zheng directly defeated Accelerator and took back all the remaining Sisters, causing Misaka Mikoto to lose the opportunity to investigate the Sisters and battle the Dark Side.
As for the Dark Side... it was already dissolved.
Which means... Fang Zheng almost completely blocked the battle upgrade route for Misaka Mikoto seen in the animation... Now she is just at a beginner’s level, dealing with delinquent teenagers!
She hasn’t upgraded to the ultimate Valkyrie state seen in the animation!
Fang Zheng himself hadn’t really paid attention to this. In his view, Misaka Mikoto was LV5 anyway, but now recalling this—perhaps Saten Reiko might be more seasoned in battle experience than the current Misaka Mikoto!
Street amateur boxer versus a gold belt, the outcome is naturally tragic.
Maybe... it’s really time to give Misaka Mikoto some special training? Since this girl is truly used to charging headlong.
Anyway, for now, let’s focus on the issue at hand.
"Originally I wanted to find you, but since you’ve delivered yourself, it’s saved me the effort."
Fang Zheng chuckled while looking at Mokuhara Genki, who also giggled while gazing at Fang Zheng.
"Really? Fang Zheng? Looks like you’re quite confident in yourself. But... Since I’m here, naturally I’m well-prepared."
While talking, Mokuhara Genki took out a small bottle.
"Do you know what this is?"
"Please enlighten me."
"This is a type of bio-weapon that can induce bacterial mutation. It’s already placed in every corner of Academy City. If you do anything to me, others will immediately activate it... You wouldn’t want to see yourself picking up a City of Death, would you?"
"Oh."
Facing Mokuhara Genki’s words, Fang Zheng merely responded with a light "oh".
"So?"
Faced with Fang Zheng’s response, Mokuhara Genki paused, then giggled.
"You’re truly worthy of snatching the Chairman position from Arestar. It seems tricks like this have no effect on you."
As soon as he finished speaking, Mokuhara Genki suddenly extended his hand. Then a light beam appeared from behind him, shooting towards Fang Zheng. But Fang Zheng remained motionless, standing there casually with his hands behind his back, allowing Mokuhara Genki’s ray to reach him—then suddenly deflect.
At this moment, Mokuhara Genki’s expression changed drastically.
"Is this... Vector Manipulation?"
"Though Accelerator is pretty dumb, I find this move kind of interesting."
Now it was Fang Zheng’s turn to chuckle. Except for the second position, he had completely included the genes of the first and fourth position into the Swarm’s "database". As the Swarm Overlord, Fang Zheng could naturally use these abilities himself. However, in Fang Zheng’s view, Mugino Shizuri’s Atomic Collapse held little value, compared to Accelerator’s Vector Manipulation, which was more intriguing.
Of course, with the entire Swarm Network as backup, Fang Zheng’s computational ability is clearly beyond Accelerator’s.
However, Fang Zheng certainly wouldn’t manipulate vector reflection anytime anywhere like Accelerator; this was merely a supplement, and... giving it to the Jumping Bugs was clearly more valuable than using it himself.
A swarm of Jumping Bugs that are impervious to bullets and can reflect attacks; now that’s a real nightmare.
Faced with Fang Zheng’s answer, Mokuhara Genki fell silent for a moment.
"It seems Fang Zheng isn’t concerned about Academy City, so... that’s truly unfortunate."
While speaking, Mokuhara Genki began to tightly grip his right hand. Soon, the bottle shattered, and the dark green liquid inside turned into mist, spreading in all directions. Seeing this, Shihou Souki’s expression changed drastically as she hastily reached out her hand to cover her mouth and nose. Her ability is psychological control. Besides that, Shihou Souki had no combat capability, and her physical strength was weaker than ordinary girls of the same age.
Not to mention, Mokuhara Genki had designed to seize control of her psychological manipulation authority, leaving her utterly powerless in the face of this situation.
However, unlike the frightened Shihou Souki, Fang Zheng merely stood there with his hands behind his back, sneering at Mokuhara Genki.
"Is this it?"
As Fang Zheng spoke, in an unimaginable scene unfolded before Mokuhara Genki and Shihou Souki.