Bonus: Chapter X – Pure White Paint that Colors the World ①

──That single flash should have meant nothing less than a guaranteed kill.

"…………He blocked this too, with just that right hand."

Bagin!!

Right after, one of the descending white wings shattered into fragments. But the destruction didn’t end there.

"What!?"

The wave of destruction spread. For some reason, after a beat, all three pairs of wings splintered apart. Suddenly left defenseless, Kakine fixed his gaze on the lone boy who had done nothing more than raise his right hand above his head.

An attack faster than the speed of sound had been wiped out with just one right hand—by a monster.

"I don’t like this."

Kakine clicked his tongue, spitting the words out. The anger that leaked through his voice came either from having his absolute confidence tarnished, or perhaps…

"You think that right hand means you can crush me? You’re looking down way too much on the darkness of this city."

Zubaa!!

After a beat, three pairs of wings unfurled again.

But this time, he didn’t aim directly at Kamijou. With a single sweep, countless feathers of Dark Matter scattered, tracing parabolic arcs before showering down on him like rain.

Kamijou wasn’t just standing still either. Realizing his right hand alone couldn’t block it all, he dashed forward to escape the lethal zone of that Dark Matter rain.

Kakine laughed at the sight.

"No need to analyze you at all. A right hand that kills illusions? …A small fry who can only do anything through that right hand has the nerve to act tough? I’ve got more ways to cook you alive than there are millions in this world!!"

Goba!!

The scattered feathers of Dark Matter converged, once again forming a single wing.

The three pairs of wings struck the air, and Kakine’s figure vanished in an instant—only to reappear right in front of Kamijou.

"If all you can erase is supernatural powers, then!!"

Kamijou couldn’t keep up with Kakine’s movement. The boy’s stomach was pierced by a kick, the air forced completely out of his lungs, his body folding into a < shape. But if he stopped there, the next strike would be a fatal blow from Dark Matter.

Ignoring the grotesque creak of his organs, Kamijou desperately wrapped both arms around Kakine’s leg and pulled him down.

"Wha… this bastard!? He doesn’t flinch…!?"

"Hey, Elite boy. First time in a back-alley brawl!?"

Thrown off balance, Kakine staggered, his attack missing its mark.

Seizing the chance, Kamijou mounted on top of him. Kakine raised both arms to guard against a strike—but instead, Kamijou attacked the Dark Matter itself.

"…………Your ability takes the form of six wings, but they’re not truly separate. Like how Misaka’s ‘Iron Sand Spears’ may split into countless branches, yet at the root they’re unified into one—your wings are just split at the ends, but ultimately it’s one big ability!!"

In another history, Kakine would later master the skill of managing abilities in separate parts.

But that development came largely from realizing he could place multiple output points for his power. At this point in time, Kakine Teitoku’s Dark Matter was something emitted from his body. Because of that premise, Dark Matter always took the form of wings.

An exception was Reicia’s black-and-white sawblade, Jagged Edge, but that stemmed from her power being a placement-type ability. In flight, her “cracks” only looked like wings because it was convenient for airflow control, and unconsciously mirrored how many Level 5 espers were depicted with wings in “novels.” Strictly speaking, they weren’t wings at all.

"That’s why earlier, when I touched just one wing, all of them shattered!! To escape that chain-destruction from Imagine Breaker, you have to split your wings apart and temporarily release control every single time!!"

"So what…………you Level 0 loser!!"

Gun!

Kakine surged upward, slamming his forehead into Kamijou’s. Staggered, Kamijou was shoved back, and Kakine rose to his feet, swinging his leg down toward the boy’s face.

Kamijou twisted hard, rolling across the ground to escape the descending kick—but Kakine’s relentless assault wasn’t over. When Kamijou looked up, three pairs of white torrents were once again roaring from Kakine’s back.

"Rejoice, fraud. The second strongest in Academy City is personally gonna peel off your cheap plating."

A prickling, unpleasant sensation ran up Kamijou’s spine.

Instinctively, before even thinking, he raised his right hand in front of him. An instant later, beams of light slammed into it.

(…!? His ability changed!?)

There was no time to be confused. Kamijou dove headlong into the pile of rubble created by the observatory’s collapse during the earlier battle.

In that fleeting moment, he caught sight of something.

(…………After I nullified the light, right before I jumped in—the wings on Kakine’s back were completely gone. That attack… I don’t think it required him to use up his wings. More likely… the Imagine Breaker’s effect propagated through the light and erased the Dark Matter itself.)

It was a phenomenon he had seen before, when using his right hand against magic.

For instance, in his recent fight against the “Queen Fleet,” when he touched the mace wielded by a suit of ice armor, the entire armor shattered into fragments—even though it wasn’t directly fused with the weapon.

At that time, the “ice armor that kept changing under supernatural influence” was destroyed, whereas the “ship walls that had finished changing” were unaffected even when touched by his right hand.

In other words—Dark Matter attacks weren’t simply altering phenomena through power. They were “rewriting” phenomena by weaving Dark Matter into them.

That’s why the Imagine Breaker’s nullification effect propagated through the light, reaching the Dark Matter itself and erasing it.

But still…

(Is that even allowed!? Doesn’t that mean just mixing Dark Matter into something as ordinary as a breeze could turn it into an invisible killing wind!?)

That meant an infinite variety of attacks.

"You’re catching on now, aren’t you. …My Dark Matter creates and controls brand-new elementary particles that don’t exist in this world. Not something like ‘yet to be discovered’ or ‘should exist theoretically.’ No—these are genuine new substances that don’t exist anywhere in this world."

Bassa!!

Kakine’s wings flapped, the sound alone sending a chill through the air.

"And a world infused with particles not of this world behaves in ways not of this world. Merge them with light, and you get a deadly laser. Merge them with airflow, and it transforms into an unpredictable, violent storm. And… you can even do this."

Before Kakine could finish speaking, the rubble Kamijou had been hiding in started to emit strange, bulging noises.

Particles penetrating. Matter mutating. The phenomena he associated with it instantly parched Kamijou’s throat.

"U… uooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!?!?!?"

His immediate decision not to rely on his right hand was pure instinct.

From the bulging noises, he sensed that the incoming attack wasn’t a focused strike but an indiscriminate, explosive assault.

Still, that instinct saved Kamijou’s life in this critical moment.

Goba!!!!

At the same instant Kamijou leapt away, the rubble he had been hiding in swelled like a volcano, spewing glowing molten matter across the area.

──Even if the volcano itself counted as a single ‘supernatural phenomenon,’ each splatter was separate. Had he tried to block it with his right hand, he would have been showered with molten fragments at point-blank range and burnt to a crisp.

Even with his fastest evasive maneuver, Kamijou didn’t escape completely unscathed.

"…Gahhhhhh!?!?"

The blast’s explosion hurled him across the ground. His back felt scorched. Despite the searing pain, he felt an odd sense of relief knowing that the sensation in his back still persisted.

"Don’t get comfortable now. Don’t ever think there’s a safe zone in a Level 5 esper fight."

Reacting with only his eyes to the voice, Kamijou saw Kakine raising his wings. Probably, he wasn’t planning a direct wing attack but was altering surrounding matter to strike instead.

From this distance, whether Kamijou dodged or raised his right hand, the attack could destroy indiscriminately.

────!!

Instinctively, Kamijou grabbed a handful of sand and hurled it toward Kakine.

"…Huh? You stupid? That’s not gonna blind me at this point."

"Who said anything about blinding you? Your ability penetrates surrounding matter at a particle level and changes its properties, right?"

Kamijou said while crouched low.

But it wasn’t because he couldn’t stand due to the pain.

It was to put as much distance as possible between himself and ‘that.’

"Then… what you’re controlling is the new matter itself, and its transformation is just an ordinary physical phenomenon!!"

Immediately after, a hexagonal crystal suddenly expanded before Kakine’s eyes.

In a form that seemed intent on crushing both Kakine and Kamijou together.

"Th-this…!? No way… he’s recklessly triggering a Dark Matter phenomenon…!?"

The distance to the crystal was closer to Kakine. His wings, swung defensively at supersonic speed, could do little against the phenomenon. As Kamijou had predicted, it was a normal, equal physical phenomenon—it could just as easily strike Kakine.

Two of the three pairs of wings were used defensively, while the remaining pair propelled him through the air. Still, complete avoidance was impossible. Kakine was blown back, but he used his wings to regain posture midair.

And then…

Even while being sent several meters flying, when he lowered his wing defense, Kamijou naturally nullified the crystal with his right hand and moved out of range.

Kakine, having narrowly missed his mark, clicked his tongue in irritation.

"…Normally, I don’t pursue enemies who run. But you’re special. I’ll chase you down until your dying breath."

Even if that was exactly what the enemy wanted,

To trample over that intention and demonstrate victory—that is the ‘Second Strongest’s way of fighting.’

Chapter 3: The Worth of a Soul is Worthless Double(Square)_Faith.
Bonus:
　　Chapter X: Pure White Paint that Colors the World ①
Dark_Matter.

Taking advantage of the chaos to hide himself, Kamijou had slipped into the underground section of the observatory.

The observatory, wrecked by the battle between the Doppelgänger and Kihara Gensei, was littered with gaudy, nouveau riche decorations—like medieval suits of armor—scattered across the floor, walls smashed apart without care… and even more than that, countless cracks ran across the flooring.

Like in some RPG, where stepping on the wrong panel would cause it to collapse, every step carried tension. Kamijou moved deeper inside, not so much to escape as to buy himself time to think.

He had managed to put some distance between himself and Kakine, but in the end, no opening had presented itself.

He knew that if he touched the phenomenon of Dark Matter, his Imagine Breaker could erase both the wings and the ability itself for a time. But when it was used in attacks like the rain of Dark Matter earlier, or the recent volcanic eruption of molten lava—the “countless solid particles”—his right hand alone wasn’t enough. On top of that was the esper’s incredible speed.

Pride as a Level 5 esper must have been what made Kakine deliberately hold back from full-on hand-to-hand combat, but had he fought seriously at close range, Kamijou would already be miserably groveling on the ground. That was the overwhelming gap between them.

(…No. Wait.)

At that thought, Kamijou stopped.

The difference in their power was undeniable. The ability of Academy City’s Number Two was overwhelming, and Kamijou alone couldn’t hope to match it.

But then… why hadn’t that happened? If the difference was really as great as everyone said, Kamijou should have been defeated already.

Which meant there had to be something else at play. Something different from the reputation.

"Oraaa!! This is about the only place left you could be hiding, right!?"

Just as his thoughts reached that point, the whole building shook.

That was Kakine realizing Kamijou was hiding in the observatory, and attacking the structure itself.

“Damn it…! He’s planning to bring the entire observatory down!? If I get buried alive in the rubble, Imagine Breaker won’t be any help at all…!”

He hadn’t yet found a way to counter Dark Matter, but being buried here would make everything meaningless.

Almost in desperation, Kamijou tried to get out of the observatory—and then the building shook again.

At first, Kamijou thought he had tripped.

He should have felt solid ground beneath his feet, but instead there was nothing, only the strange sensation of falling.

And then he realized it wasn’t tripping at all—he was truly falling. The reason he understood was simple: there was an actual “below” where his feet had been.

He remembered something one of Reicia’s friends had said.

"District 21’s… observatory! Doesn’t that mean it’s Microfibers’ hideout!!!"

A hideout.

He’d be lying if he said the word hadn’t struck him as odd.

This observatory was open to the public for tourism, with people coming in and out all the time. Especially these days, with all the talk about mysterious signals from Mars, the number of visitors had surged. In short, there were too many people for it to work as a hideout.

Of course, it was possible the density of visitors had been inverted and deliberately used to camouflage it. But in that case, they would have needed to install heavy security systems to keep civilians out. For instance, placing the entrance somewhere normal visitors could never reach.

But even so, at the end of the day it was just walls and floors separating spaces. If someone destroyed those—well, a certain unlucky boy could very well end up falling right through.

“Uwaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!”

The drop was about five meters. His legs would never survive the impact. In a desperate split-second decision, Kamijou tore off his school uniform jacket and swung it wildly.

The cloth caught on a protruding steel beam jutting out of the debris. Bigi!! His right arm, the one swinging the jacket, was jolted with a blunt pain as the fall’s force dragged on it—but in exchange, his speed slowed dramatically.

Somehow landing in the underground hideout, Kamijou quickly slipped his jacket back on and looked around.

Though rubble was scattered from the collapse, the place itself seemed solidly built.

It was a cylindrical underground facility, hollowed out, with two spiral staircases along the walls, each leading to an upper entrance. Normally, those entrances would have been locked with heavy security, but the impact had broken the locks, leaving both sides open.

Of course, with the massive hole in the ceiling, Kakine—who could fly—could enter whenever he pleased.

"This place is… uh, right, they called it ‘Mars World’…?"

The reason for the name became obvious.

In the center of the underground facility—though now damaged by falling rubble—was a circular area about the size of a classroom, covered in reddish-brown earth: the surface of Mars.

The place was like a studio set, clearly a testing ground to simulate Martian conditions. Everything seemed to be shut down now, however.

(…No. If this was just rubble damage, the destruction’s way too severe. Did a battle already happen here before we arrived…?)

As if to confirm his suspicion, several experimental instruments set up with test tubes showed clear signs that some had been removed.

Most likely, the Doppelgänger or Amata Kihara had taken research samples from here for some purpose. What that purpose was, Kamijou had no idea.

(…I guess I’d better contact that guy—Baba, Reicia’s friend?)

The battle above was urgent, but this fight wasn’t the final round. Even if they defeated Kakine Teitoku and his “School,” they’d still have to deal with Kihara Gensei, Amata Kihara, the Doppelgänger, and then rescue Onorei Nurikae.

Not to mention… other matters he couldn’t just ignore.

At any rate, Kamijou pulled out his phone and called Baba. They had exchanged numbers during that awkward moment at the previous celebration party, when both men had found themselves sitting together uncomfortably. Kamijou’s old flip phone had been the butt of endless jokes.

Just as Kamijou, in his own way, was preparing himself with that unhurried air…

Go-gonnnn!!!

The world began to shake violently once again.