A Scientific Urban Detective

“There’s also this,” Yamai Tenjou said with some concern, “Considering the extent to which Accelerator is currently influenced, even if we eliminate Lin Wuming, we might not be able to reverse his thinking.”

Tenjou Yamai is a researcher specializing in personality information. Although he only recently took over this new project, he has already been able to analyze some clues through the information accumulated in the 'Dark May' plan.

– Accelerator regards Lin Wuming as a 'friend'.

Although the specific expression is somewhat distorted and different from ordinary people, it is clear that Accelerator has shown the emotional side of a normal human being.

For researchers like Kiharu Gensei and Tenjou Yamai, there is nothing more troublesome than this—the fact is that once Accelerator, the strongest esper, becomes stubborn and willful due to personal feelings, no one will be able to persuade him.

Tenjou Yamai can completely make such an assumption: given that the armband ranking system was established by Lin Wuming, and Lin Wuming is Accelerator's friend, assuming Lin Wuming dies, then Accelerator is likely to insist on this system even more to maintain his friend's 'legacy', making their plan completely impossible to proceed.

Kiharu Gensei also thought of this. Now, simply relying on eliminating the person who caused the problem to solve the problem is no longer a viable approach.

“Then,” Kiharu Gensei said, “we can only let Accelerator kill Lin Wuming himself.”

“What you say makes sense, sir. I also think this is the best solution,” Tenjou Yamai agreed. “But the problem is, how can we make them fight each other? You know, Lin Wuming and Accelerator have already had two public duels, but each time they stopped short of going all out. Even when he had an absolute advantage, Accelerator didn't seem to want to kill him.”

Tenjou Yamai felt that even if they fought a few more times, no one would die.

“That’s because they don’t regard each other as enemies, but as worthy opponents,” Kiharu Gensei said. “What we need to do is very simple: make them hostile, even hate each other. Then, they will naturally kill each other.”

“Instigating their relationship?” Tenjou Yamai immediately understood his superior's meaning. “If Lin Wuming hurts someone Accelerator cares about… No, does that guy Accelerator even care about anyone?”

No friends, no relatives, not even classmates, living alone… The only one who can barely be called a 'friend' is Lin Wuming himself, who he needs to deal with.

From this point of view, Accelerator is simply impeccable!

“It’s precisely because he’s this kind of person that he was chosen as a test subject,” Kiharu Gensei said. “Don’t consider his side, start with Lin Wuming’s side.”

“Lin Wuming…” Tenjou Yamai began to think. Because he had to deal with Lin Wuming, he had recently collected a lot of information about him. “Although Lin Wuming’s social circle is also very narrow, he does have people he’s close to.”

However, Lin Wuming's social circle is also very problematic—basically, they are either Anti-Skill or Judgment, and these are not easy characters to deal with.

The only one who does not belong to the above two is… 'Mental Out' Misaka Mikoto, Level 5!

Starting with the people around Lin Wuming is not that simple either.

What's more, judging from Lin Wuming's usual behavior, he doesn't really care about many people. If they choose the wrong target, he might not necessarily turn against Accelerator for it.

After careful selection, Kiharu Gensei and Tenjou Yamai chose Touma Homura.

– The 'Hero Partner', the girl who is closest to Lin Wuming in various senses. Although she is Level 4, she is easier to deal with than Level 5 Misaka Mikoto.

Moreover, also because of her personality, Touma Homura often acts alone—as long as they can find a way to separate her from Lin Wuming—it will be easier to find an opportunity to capture her.

The plan is this: Kiharu Gensei will dispatch his elite troops—the 'Hound Unit'—to capture Touma Homura.

Use tranquilizer darts, without harming her life.

After a successful capture, use the 'Learning Device' to brainwash and suggest her, making Touma Homura actively attack Accelerator.

Finally, wait for the two of them to start fighting, and Touma Homura dies—it doesn't necessarily have to be killed by Accelerator. As long as the two have actually fought, then Touma Homura's death will inevitably be blamed on Accelerator.

That's right, this is the hit-and-run behavior they had already implemented once before.

At that time, the person who died as a sacrifice was a random delinquent, and Lin Wuming could remain calm and defend Accelerator.

But this time, if the girl he is closest to dies, even if he knows there is a problem, can Lin Wuming still remain calm?

And even if Lin Wuming is cold-hearted and suppresses his anger, what about Accelerator's side? His spirit is not very resilient to begin with. After 'wrongly killing' a friend's friend, even if he doesn't have a big fight with Lin Wuming, he probably won't continue to be friends with Lin Wuming, right?

– As long as they reach this step, the goal of 'eliminating Lin Wuming's influence' can be considered achieved. After that, they can follow the original plan and entice Accelerator to join the 'Level 6 Shift Project'.

The plan's launch time is chosen after the Daihasei Festival, on a certain day before October arrives.

Because in the week after the Daihasei Festival, there will still be many 'people from outside the city' staying in Academy City, and they will gradually all leave until October.

During this period, there are many people and mixed eyes, and the security level is not as high as during the Daihasei Festival, which is the perfect time to do various things.

……

The latest novel is first published on 69shu.com!

This year's Daihasei Festival passed peacefully. Because he was still on leave from school, Lin Wuming naturally did not participate in any competition events.

He didn't even leave his house, staying at home to learn about various situations through television broadcasts.

As for Touma Homura, her surgery has reached the most critical step—dealing with the scars on her face.

Touma Homura is, after all, a girl in the prime of her youth, and it is impossible for her to be indifferent to her appearance.

So, contrary to her usual behavior, she stayed in the hospital ward for more than a week, skipping the entire Daihasei Festival.

Three days after the end of the Daihasei Festival, Touma Homura finally removed the gauze from her face and was discharged from the hospital recovered.

Looking at herself in the mirror, Touma Homura gently stroked her right cheek. Because the treatment had just ended, the original scar area still had a slight subtle color difference from the surrounding skin, which would be particularly obvious when she was excitedly blushing.

But this is only temporary. According to Sakurai-sensei, it will be completely invisible in about a week.

Touma Homura put down her bangs again, covering her right cheek: “Before that, I’d better not change my hairstyle.”