Temperature Control in Academy City

It's just like those adults who are working people, who struggle to take a sick leave, and then happily enjoy this different kind of holiday, doing things they want to do, even though they don't actually have any symptoms of a headache or fever.

Because of this somewhat pitiful thought no matter how you think about it, Natsume is filled with a new sense of anticipation for going out.

"What? There's no one in the branch."

"But this is normal. Everyone is in class now. It's easy to be fascinated by this leisurely life where everyone in the world seems to have disappeared and only you are left."

After verifying his identity information, Natsume skillfully opened the door of the Discipline Committee Branch 177, and habitually stuck his delicate little head in to take a few peeks inside.

Everything is normal and the alarm is lifted.

After undergoing a large-scale renovation, the environment of Branch 177 has changed significantly compared to before. Especially after Natsume-san stuffed a lot of things in here, the neat and tidy look of before is no longer there. Instead, it tends to develop towards a home style.

It's a pity that there is no sofa style that Natsume likes in the branch, otherwise it would be a good choice to take a nap here. Natsume is quite picky about where he sleeps, especially not a sleeping spot that is not soft enough.

I took out some Hatsuharu's black tea from the large locker leaning against the wall. It seemed that Hatsuharu had recently spent a lot of money to buy a better variety of black tea. Unfortunately, Natsume didn't know much about this kind of thing, and with his dull tongue, he couldn't taste the difference at all.

Natsume skillfully took some Musashino milk from the corner of Senior Sister Gufa's desk, and sat comfortably on the newly built small balcony, heating his milk tea to the right temperature with a happy look on his face.

Being able to adjust the temperature of black tea at will is an important skill that a young lady must have. You never have to worry about drinking cold or too hot black tea.

But there is one thing that is not so perfect. Natsume found that even when he was drinking tea, he was tainted with some of Miss Hitomi's shadow.

This dampened Natsume's good mood a lot, but fortunately she found a solution immediately this time.

"In order not to be influenced by the old etiquette and habits of the miko, the best way is to hedge with modern methods."

“If you want to exclude or weaken the influence of another person, then you must have something of your own, otherwise it will be dangerous.”

“Similarly, if you have to accept another person’s life, you must make yourself irreplaceable and irreplaceable.”

Taking a sip of the steaming black tea, Natsume suddenly had an epiphany.

As an inexplicable time traveler, Natsume actually had similar ideas a long time ago.

Even though she has been influenced by the memories of the time traveler, until now, Natsume feels that she and the time traveler are not the same person. She is just a native girl of Magical Index who has the memories of the time traveler.

Similarly, Natsume just tried hard to maintain a good sitting posture, and every move was deliberately catered to what was taught in the etiquette class in school. The etiquette habits from Miss Hitomi were immediately suppressed.

After all, this body still belongs to the slow-witted Natsume-san.

"So, as long as you stick to what belongs to you, the influence of others will be reduced a lot?"

The expression on her face was somewhat serious. Natsume had known these principles for a long time, but this was the first time she felt it so intuitively.

The discipline committee branch is empty in broad daylight, with only some idle people staying here.

It seems that nothing happened at this time, because as long as no one deals with it, it is equivalent to non-existence. Most of the discipline committee members are not at work at this time.

In the 177th branch near a side window, Hatsuharu's computer was always on. The program on it automatically received and processed various types of police reports, and then compiled them into folders according to school districts, just waiting for a cute girl with a wreath on her head to come back from school.

However, since it was the school term, no students had reported the crime. However, since Hatsuharu had expanded the scope of collecting crime reports to the entire Academy City, the low-probability incidents became inevitable as the area expanded.

"A ghost appeared near the school in District 18?"

Holding the empty teacup and preparing to refill it with some black tea, Natsume's perception swept across the computer that was processing the report information, and some strange emotions suddenly appeared on his face.

Natsume has come across ghost-related incidents many times, and she herself has a similar "glorious" past.

In Academy City, various topics about ghosts often form popular urban legends, which are among the most popular rumors.

However, Natsume obviously doesn't have much interest in dealing with such incidents. Whether it is a prank or the appearance of some real surreal product, she is in a state of lack of interest.

Although she is a discipline committee member out of interest, there seem to be fewer and fewer events that can interest Natsume.

Simply put, a certain bun-haired girl knows her position very well and never steals the work of her teammates or security teachers.

"It's the person I met before."

"As I recall, she should be a friend of Index and Kamijou-senpai, Kazezan...Hyouka-san."

Suddenly stunned, Natsume regained his attention and focused on the photos taken by witnesses attached to the report.

Although the photo was a little blurry, probably due to some kind of influence, the general image still allowed Natsume to recognize it at a glance.

After all, the strange girl who had no flesh and blood in her body and only a core-like existence gave Natsume a great mental shock at the time.

Chapter 482: Semi-unscientific

As for Feng Zhan Binghua, Natsume Sonoko's understanding of her is still stuck in the last underground street incident.

A powerful magician who suddenly appeared in the academy city, a stone monster that would continue to recover unless it was completely shattered into pieces, and Natsume's new trick of throwing the earth.

After that incident, Natsume basically never saw the other person again, and even Index suffered the same treatment, as if the other person had completely evaporated in this universe.

From this perspective, this "unknown identity" classmate Feng Zhan may be the real ghost in this city, in a strange state of being close to and distant from reality.

But if the other party no longer exists in reality, then where is he?

Before, Natsume had always been confused about where that classmate Fuzan lived, but now he had a very strong premonition.

It’s the phase, it must be the phase, right?

Feng Zhan is a strange life form composed of an aim diffusion force field. If we want to guess where he went during the time he disappeared, is there any place more reasonable than the phase of the aim force field?

Just like the aim diffusion field will eventually flow into the aim phase, there is no reason why a special existence like Feng Zhan Binghua cannot go there.

The reason why it is a premonition is that Natsume has no way to prove this matter. After all, guesses and inferences are false.

Although she can observe the phase itself, she has not yet discovered whether there are conscious creatures in the phase. Let's call them creatures, Natsume is not sure whether energy life forms can be called creatures.

The limitation of this observation is probably because Natsume's poor computing power is not enough to cover the phases themselves. Or maybe there is a huge difference between his own worldview and many phases, which leads to a cognitive disorder.

"But I am really concerned. Are there really such beings with self-awareness in the phase?"

"I can understand that the various functions of Feng Zhan's body can be imitated and reproduced by the AIM force field energy, but it is too strange to let energy give birth to thinking ability. It is not scientific at all."

Frowning slightly, Natsume felt that he was challenging his blind spots in knowledge again, and subconsciously rethought his understanding of Feng Zhan Binghua.

In this series of thoughts, they are actually based on Natsume's understanding of the aim force field and the corresponding phase.

She knew very well the position of the AIM force field in Academy City. It was a kind of energy that escaped from the brain.

At the same time, because of some deep-rooted ideas in her head, Natsume didn't think it was fundamentally different from other energies in the physical universe. Just like them, the people with special abilities, they were all products that conformed to scientific concepts.

Therefore, once this kind of force field is involved, everyone with a bun will fall into an indescribable sense of contradiction.

Natsume has always had a feeling that the aim field is the most scientific thing, but many aspects of it are too unscientific. The fact that they can form a giant monster when gathered together is confusing.

This often makes the honest girl with a bun-haired head feel uncomfortable, but fortunately she is the kind of lazy person who will forget things as soon as she turns her head.

Chapter 482: Back Defense

Logical confusion is not a big problem, it can always be covered up by excuses like shallow knowledge or lack of experience.

As an ordinary student, Natsume is not arrogant enough to understand the "cutting-edge technology" of Academy City.

The talents of people with superpowers are more reflected in their interpretation of personal reality, rather than everyone having good scientific research ability and literacy. For example, a guy like Natsume, who can't even get the first place in the first grade of Tokiwadai, is far better than his classmates in fighting.

But my grades are better than Shirai's.

In fact, although some people think that the idea of ​​aim field energy generating thoughts is very unscientific, if scientific factors are excluded, Natsume can still barely accept it.

Because she has discovered that the consciousness of the ability user has a guiding role in the aim force field, and coupled with the previous level 6 state of Misaka senior's control over the aim force field, she already has something called experience.

Therefore, Natsume was not particularly surprised that the aim field could carry and even develop self-awareness. As he said before, he was filled with a sense of contradiction.

The scene returns to reality. After discovering the whereabouts of Feng Zhan Binghua, the guy with a bun put the teacup in his hand aside, and it seemed that he had no intention of refilling it for the time being.

"It's strange. Since Feng Zhan hardly shows up, why does it feel like she's making a big splash today? She suddenly showed up in front of everyone. Many people have already witnessed it."

"It looked similar the last time. He suddenly appeared in front of Index and his body became real."

With a frown, Natsume realized that things were not simple.

After fiddling with the computer of Academy City's strongest hacker girl for a bit and messing up the automatically running program, the bun-haired girl smiled shyly, but at least she took a quick look at all the case information.

"In that case, could there be a similar reason that causes Feng Zhan Bing Hua to appear in the real universe so many times?"

"For example, the force field that maintains Feng Zhan's existence has undergone unknown changes, or it may simply be influenced and controlled by someone."

Most of what Natsume Sonoko knows about the classmate Fuzezan comes from Senior Kamijou and casual chats with Index, but that doesn't stop her from making bold assumptions.

After all, she has always believed that the existence of Feng Zhan Binghua must be related to some experiments or plans of Academy City, and there are definitely a lot of relevant people and research institutions behind it.

"Unexpectedly, there is still too little information."

He let out a breath suddenly, and his racing brain finally relaxed.

Natsume still couldn't find a strong enough reason to explain the appearance of Feng Zhan. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

It seems that if we use coincidence to explain everything in the world, all mysteries will be solved.

"Oh, go tell Index."

Natsume, who was still struggling with various things a second ago, suddenly had her eyes brightened, and the brilliance seemed to penetrate the thick gauze.

He hurriedly copied the eyewitness information from the computer to his mobile phone. It was obvious that Chuchun was not on guard against his own family.

Chapter 483 Excellent Employees

After restoring their own traces and putting the black tea and milk back in their original places, the small discipline committee branch returned to its peaceful state.

With a crisp sound of the door closing, the anxious girl with the bun finally disappeared at the end of the corridor, just like an ordinary junior high school student who couldn't wait to share the good news with her friends.

Although Natsume Sonoko and Kazezan Hyouka did not have a deep friendship, and even their meeting seemed hasty and brief, because Index cared about their relationship very much, she showed enough concern.

But speaking of which, since his wallet is empty and he has no money to go shopping in the supermarket, Natsume hasn't visited the little nun who works part-time as a handler of expiring food and a poster girl for several days.

"I'm so distressed. I feel unhappy no matter how I think about going to the supermarket without buying anything."

"Once I no longer have strong financial support, I will no longer be a junior high school girl that is popular with stores."

The illusory wind wings slowly spread out, and Natsume Sonoko, with some emotion on her face, moved quickly between the tall buildings, letting the harsh sound of wind blast pass by her ears.

When Natsume thought that this poverty situation would continue until the scholarship was paid out next month, he felt like the days were passing by like years.

Although I thought about borrowing some money from my senior classmates for emergency, I just couldn't bring myself to ask.

I don't know if it's the girl's boring self-esteem or the burden of being a young lady that makes Natsume-san care so much about things that may lower her own evaluation.

Passing through the dense steel forest and bypassing the building without doors and windows, a small black dot stood tall and broke into the busy street.

In the distance, it seemed that some unknown types of armed aircraft could be seen, but they were heading in the opposite direction of Natsume, so she didn't take them seriously.

...

He was wearing a loose work uniform with his work ID hanging limply around his neck.

The little nun, who had to support herself because her boarding family was too poor, sat bored in her exclusive seat, swinging her legs and looking at the people coming and going around her. From time to time, she would go to the sample TV in the neighboring electrical appliance counter to watch Magical Girl Kanami for a while. She had no awareness at all that she was actually a supermarket employee.

Although she has nothing to do all day, this does not detract from the fact that she is an excellent employee here.

Because of her, there hasn't been a crisis caused by expired food in this supermarket for some time, even the baked bread that would expire after one day.

It helps supermarkets perfectly solve the troublesome issue of wavering between food waste and food safety.

"The soft-shell milk candies at the candy counter have a shelf life of one month, and the potato chips at the snack section are basically more than three months...it seems like a long time no matter how you think about it."

"Fruit has a short shelf life, but if you eat too much, it's just like drinking water. Not many people buy fresh milk in the supermarket, but it doesn't taste very good either. Even bread and sandwiches are left with strange flavors that no one wants every day."

Index counted on her fingers and pouted as she was lost in some kind of annoyance.

Although she is a terrible glutton who eats sour ramen, beef jerky that is one year expired, and fried noodles and bread together with the plastic packaging, she will also develop some happy worries if she stays in this supermarket with abundant food and diverse flavors for a long time.

But what is more important is how to complete the work better. Fortunately, she has a very good memory, which is the so-called complete memory ability.

The expiring products in the supermarket follow certain rules and quantities. As long as you record the shelf life of all edible products in advance, and then subtract the amount sold on a daily basis and normal losses, you will be able to easily understand and allocate your daily workload.

Sometimes there will be some ups and downs and fluctuations due to discounts, special offers, free gifts, etc., but generally it is still in a relatively stable state.

Similarly, it seems that because of this complete memory ability, her brain needs to consume a lot of energy all the time.

Perhaps this is why Index is always hungry and not full.

"As long as I keep all the information in my head, nothing will be difficult for me."

As if she had gained some useful experience, Index puffed out her chest with confidence. She was indeed the most suitable person for this kind of work.

"By the way, I think I saw Sonoko?"

"Shouldn't Sonoko be in school at this time?"