A Scientific Urban Detective

“……” Komaba Ritoku was speechless, seeing that he had walked right into the guard teacher's presence as if walking into a trap.

“Resisting arrest is an added offense, you know.” Yoimikawa Aiho sized up the little giant in front of her as she spoke.

After a moment of contemplation, Komaba Ritoku recalled the secret plan Hanzo Hattori had given him: “If I identify the whereabouts of my companions, will my sentence be reduced?”

“It wouldn’t quite lead to a sentence,” Yoimikawa Aiho waved her hand. “But confessing is indeed the best policy. Now, where are those two?”

Komaba Ritoku raised his hand and pointed to the very center of the commotion: “Over there.”

“Sigh…” Yoimikawa Aiho sighed deeply. “I knew it.”

The little tricks they were playing couldn't possibly deceive a guard teacher, but saving people was originally the duty of the security forces, so Yoimikawa Aiho wasn’t angry about it.

“Come back to the police car with me, and then wait for your companions to come out.” Yoimikawa Aiho said, “Don't worry, we'll definitely bring them out.”

After a moment of thought, Komaba Ritoku nodded: “Okay.”

Yoimikawa Aiho secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Although he was theoretically still an underage student, this boy in front of her looked far too mature, and his physical fitness far exceeded his peers… no, it could even be said to exceed the entire “human” group.

At least, Yoimikawa Aiho had never seen anyone as strong as Komaba Ritoku in real life. Some guard teachers even suspected that he was a test subject from some body modification experiment and had specifically investigated him.

——If he wanted to resist arrest violently, even I would have a hard time suppressing him, right?

It was great that he was willing to cooperate obediently.

“Hey, you over there!” Yoimikawa Aiho suddenly shouted, “You, the girl with the baseball cap, the area ahead is closed, don’t get any closer.”

Although the mainstream of the crowd was fleeing away from the source of the incident, there were still some people who wanted to get closer to watch the excitement, and Yoimikawa Aiho made it a point to stop them whenever she saw them.

——Wearing a baseball cap, a girl? Is she talking about me?

Misaka Mikoto, who was moving against the flow of the crowd, stopped and carefully looked back.

——I've already changed clothes and disguised myself as a boy, so she must be talking about someone else, right?

But she looked around, and there didn't seem to be anyone else wearing a baseball cap…

“Huh? Is she really talking about me?” Misaka Mikoto said in astonishment, “Is there something wrong with my disguise?”

“Disguise?” Yoimikawa Aiho, who had already arrived, couldn’t help but scrutinize the girl after hearing her words. “You’re trying to disguise yourself as a boy? Why would you do something like that? It’s very suspicious!”

She even specifically wore a baseball cap and lowered the brim to cover her face, looking completely suspicious, and considering the current situation…

“Please show me your student ID.”

“Eh?” Misaka Mikoto was immediately stunned.

The reason she was dressed as a boy was to deceive the organizers of the “Underground Arena” and try to sneak into the arena to destroy the illegal event from the inside.

As it turned out, her disguise didn't seem to be very successful, and she was immediately seen through.

It even backfired, arousing the suspicion of the guard teacher.

——What should I do next? Should I just confess? Honestly tell the teacher my name… and then the teacher will definitely ask me why I came here, and then, my hacking will be exposed… and finally, the guard teacher will lecture me…

In an instant, Misaka Mikoto went through the entire process in her mind.

Although she was a Level 5 and a good student in terms of academics, she was often warned and lectured by teachers at school due to her personality.

Misaka Mikoto wasn't afraid of those criticisms, but… it was quite troublesome, and she knew that the teachers were genuinely thinking of her, so she had no reason to refute them…

And this guard teacher looked quite fierce, too. She had subdued such a menacing behemoth next to her, so her deterrent power was evident!

Hesitating, Misaka Mikoto didn't know what to say for a moment.

“Ah, Misaka, so you're here!” A somewhat familiar voice suddenly came from behind.

Misaka Mikoto looked back and saw that the one calling her was a Judgement member wearing an armband—Kohama Mii, one of Lin Wuming's companions who had worked together yesterday.

“It’s Kohama-senpai, good evening!” Misaka Mikoto quickly responded.

“Misaka… are you Misaka Mikoto?” Yoimikawa Aiho was surprised.

“It’s like this,” Kohama Mii said, “because we cooperated yesterday, Misaka is here to help today as well.”

Yoimikawa Aiho didn't doubt it.

Indeed, asking “ordinary students” for help wasn't the Judgement's style, but if it was a Level 5, that was a different story.

From the Judgement's perspective, it was reasonable to do so.

Thus, the reason for Misaka Mikoto's disguise was also known—to investigate the “Underground Arena.”

Although the process was somewhat different, Yoimikawa Aiho ultimately came to the correct conclusion.

“I understand, but, this kind of high-risk case and operation…” As a guard teacher, Yoimikawa Aiho reflexively wanted to give a lecture, but quickly stopped herself. “Forget it, there's no point in saying all that now. Go ahead, be careful, and don't do anything reckless.”

The two girls bowed together and said goodbye to Yoimikawa Aiho.

Then, Kohama Mii grabbed Misaka Mikoto's hand: “Follow me.”

Next, under Kohama Mii's guidance, Misaka Mikoto arrived at the Judgement's “front-line command center”—a multi-functional integrated command vehicle.

“Although Misaka isn't a Judgement member, the situation is urgent, so we can only ask for your help.” Kohama Mii said, “The existing ground-penetrating radar has limited power, so we haven't been able to determine the exact location of the Underground Arena. I don't know if your superpower…”

“Radar?” Misaka Mikoto's eyes lit up. “That's right, there's that trick!”

“Calm down, Misaka-kohai.” The Judgement member in charge of operating the equipment looked up and said, “Although it's called radar, the device for exploring the underground world is essentially sonar—using sound waves rather than electromagnetic waves.”

It turned out that they wanted to ask Misaka Mikoto to help modify the equipment and temporarily increase the machine's power.

“I see…” Misaka Mikoto scratched her head. “That's not a problem, but why not just go down directly? I heard that a Level 5 has already opened the entrance, right?”

“We're an organization,” Kohama Mii explained, “and a very large one, so we must act according to plan as much as possible, otherwise it's likely to cause chaos.”

Of course, there was also a more important reason—to stall Misaka Mikoto with a reasonable excuse.

The Judgement's motto and insistence—avoiding involving “ordinary citizens” in danger.

The so-called “ordinary citizens” basically referred to all citizens except for Judgement members and security forces, even Level 5s were no exception.

In fact, if they could, the Judgement would have liked to catch up with Accelerator and Mugino Shiritori, the other two Level 5s, but unfortunately they couldn't.

So, they had to stabilize the third-ranked Level 5, Misaka Mikoto, first.

You should know that the scene of the incident was located hundreds of meters underground. If several Level 5s fought fiercely below and caused a cave-in, it would be over!