A Scientific Urban Detective

"Senior Wuming also ran into that girl named Index? What a coincidence... Huh? She ran away again?" Misaka Mikoto was quite displeased. "That's too much! That kid doesn't appreciate kindness!"

Lin Wuming turned around to comfort Misaka Mikoto: "She's on the run after all, it's normal to be cautious; besides, she probably doesn't want to implicate others, so she took the initiative to leave us."

"Actually, there was no need to leave at all, we could have protected her." Misaka Mikoto was still indignant, especially after learning that Stiyl and Kanzaki Kaori were actually in the same group as Index.

"Alright, don't overthink it. This is, after all, a private matter within their organization, we shouldn't interfere." Lin Wuming ate two hamburgers, and really didn't have the appetite to continue.

So, he packed up all the remaining hamburgers, and then bought even more hamburgers, making it a hundred, as a reward snack, and sent them to 'Misaka Home'.

After comforting the Misaka sisters who helped find Misaka Mikoto today, Lin Wuming and Misaka Mikoto picked up Last Order on the way, and the three of them walked towards Family Side together.

Tonight, there's a family gathering at home to celebrate the end of the first semester and the start of summer vacation.

At the same time, just as Lin Wuming and the others were heading home, Index accurately found Touma Kamijou's apartment address.

She left in a hurry this morning, and left her nun's habit behind at Touma Kamijou's house.

Because the 'Moving Church' is a magical artifact, even if it's completely destroyed, it still retains obvious magical traces, making it an easy target for those magicians to track.

In order to prevent Touma Kamijou, an 'unrelated person', from being dragged into her troubles, Index made a special trip back to retrieve her habit.

When she was at Touma Kamijou's house this morning, Index glanced at the calendar and knew his schedule for today.

So she timed it so that she would appear at the apartment door when Touma Kamijou returned home from school—to minimize contact with him and prevent the two magicians chasing her from targeting him as well.

Get the habit and leave—that's what Index originally planned.

"Index, I've decided, I'll protect you!" Facing the girl who had returned and met again, Touma Kamijou immediately patted his chest and declared, "Just like you said this morning—even if hell awaits us, I will use this right hand to shatter hell for you to see!"

"Huh?" Index widened her eyes. "Are you... alright? Why all of a sudden..."

"You said you were being chased, right?" Touma Kamijou said as he opened the door, "In that case, there's no way I can sit idly by."

"It's really dangerous, you might die because of it," Index said seriously.

"Yeah, I understand, I've been prepared for that for a long time," Touma Kamijou nodded. "Okay, come in first, you haven't had a good rest outside alone today, have you?"

After hesitating for a moment, Index finally took a step—no matter what, she had to get her habit back first.

Touma Kamijou didn't realize the seriousness of the problem at all: "Don't worry, although this apartment isn't in the downtown area, it's not a particularly remote place either, if we really encounter danger, it's easy to escape to a safe place."

Index suddenly stopped. "Although I appreciate your kindness, it's still no good, Touma Kamijou, you don't understand the danger involved. If I involve you like this, I'll feel guilty for the rest of my life."

"No, no, no, I'm really prepared," Touma Kamijou said quickly. "Don't look at me like this, I've actually been through many battles."

"I think this child is right, recklessness without recognizing reality can't be called heroic at all." A strange voice suddenly came from the other end of the hallway.

Index instantly became alert and shouted, "Hide!"

Saying that, the silver-haired nun rushed forward, pushed Touma Kamijou into the apartment, then pushed the apartment door and locked him inside the relatively safe room, while she stayed on the other side of the door.

"This person has nothing to do with me, he was just talking nonsense just now," Index stood outside the door, facing Stiyl alone. "So you can't involve him."

"Is that so?" Stiyl said. "But that brat didn't say that just now."

"That's why I said he was talking nonsense!"

Before Index could finish speaking, she saw the apartment door suddenly open, and Touma Kamijou rushed out.

"Hey, what are you doing, you've got the person who needs protecting wrong!" Touma Kamijou stood in front of the girl. "Is this the person who's chasing you? As expected, he doesn't look like a good person at all!"

Stiyl didn't care about his mockery, and said with a cigarette in his mouth, "Seeing as you still have a bit of courage, I'll give you an ending befitting a 'hero'."

After saying that, a huge ball of fire suddenly ignited in front of Stiyl and pounced on Touma Kamijou, engulfing him...

Index, who was being protected by Touma Kamijou, immediately let out a cry of grief.

"Don't worry, it's just a little lesson for him, he won't die," Stiyl said.

"Of course I won't die!" Touma Kamijou roared, tearing through the flames and breaking free. "You think you can defeat me with this kind of attack!"

"Touma!" Index shouted in surprise.

"Don't worry," Touma Kamijou turned back and gave her a thumbs up. "I said I would protect you!"

The first thing that responded to him was Stiyl throwing a triple volley of fireballs.

Touma Kamijou didn't panic and waved his right hand to knock them away.

"Damn it, another one..." Seeing this, Stiyl cursed in a low voice. Since coming to this Academy City, he had only encountered troublesome espers.

Strange and bizarre superpowers are simply emerging one after another! Honestly, Stiyl is already used to it.

However, what's even more troublesome is that, strictly speaking, these espers are not 'enemies'; from the perspective of protecting Index, they can even be said to be 'allies'.

Therefore, he can't really go all out...

Of course, Stiyl, as a magician, doesn't mind getting serious.

As long as he doesn't cause any deaths, even if a conflict between the two major forces is triggered because of the war with the espers, that's not something he needs to consider.

Stiyl and Kanzaki Kaori came with a mission, and completing the mission is the only thing they need to consider, everything else is secondary.

If he were directly fighting Touma Kamijou today, Stiyl wouldn't mind getting a little serious and teaching this ignorant guy a lesson.

But the problem is that before encountering Touma Kamijou, they first encountered Misaka Mikoto and Lin Wuming.

The force led by the 'Nameless Director' conveyed a signal to the two magicians—they couldn't make too much trouble, otherwise he would take action.

After all, this is Lin Wuming's territory.