Chapter 71: A Deserved Retribution

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

If one were to sum up Nurikae’s state of mind in a single phrase, that would have been it.

It all began when he tried to expand his business into the cybernetics industry.

Having fallen behind in the field of powered exosuits, Nurikae sought to compensate for the lost opportunities by investing in cybernetics.

At first, cybernetic technology seemed poised to dominate the medical field with overwhelming market share. But before long, the truth came to light—the maintenance costs were crushing. The entire industry began to decline rapidly.

To recover from this failure, Nurikae turned his eyes toward Academy City’s technology.

Academy City, renowned for its advanced science, had developed cybernetic treatments as a low-cost medical solution. The industry might have been stagnant, but compared to the “outside,” the difference in quality was overwhelming.

In order to absorb that technology, Nurikae sought to establish ties with Academy City—and the key he targeted was his business partner, the Blackguard conglomerate.

Nurikae’s late father had worked for decades under the father of Gilbert Blackguard, the conglomerate’s current head.

Thanks to that connection, the Nurikae and Blackguard families had been close for years. After succeeding his father as president, Nurikae had grown distant while devoting himself to management, but ties were ties nonetheless.

By cleverly masking his company’s financial troubles, Nurikae managed to approach Gilbert and eventually secured the position of fiancé to his beloved daughter.

From there, he used that foothold over several years to become a patron of Academy City’s research institutions, gradually rebuilding his company’s standing in the cybernetics industry. It looked as though he was finally on the verge of turning everything around.

That was when the gears began to fall out of place.

Come September, Reicia Blackguard began to act strangely.

Until then she had barely ever contacted her family, yet suddenly she was reaching out to them—and even making appointments to meet with Nurikae himself.

Since Academy City strictly regulated student travel to the outside, leaving the city was a major ordeal. Besides, as a patron of one of Academy City’s research facilities, Nurikae could easily arrange to meet her inside the city.

And yet, Reicia insisted on speaking “together with her family.”

Sensing something ominous in her intent, Nurikae tapped into his information network within Academy City to uncover the truth.

Using his connections through the research institute, the information came surprisingly easily.

Reicia’s suicide attempt. Her ability growth—though not to the level of an esper Level 5, merely a “slight” improvement. And then… the annulment of their engagement.

To Nurikae, it was like being doused with ice water.

Even if his business was beginning to recover, the support of the Blackguard conglomerate was still essential. …He could not allow an annulment under any circumstances.

“No, no, no, first of all…! To suddenly cancel it now—what kind of nonsense is that!? I’ve done nothing wrong. The one being unreasonable is her…!”

Gnawing at his nails, Nurikae muttered feverishly.

He was mistaken. Reicia, of course, was fully aware of the damage her selfishness had caused those around her. She intended to annul the engagement, yes—but not to dissolve the partnership. She even planned to speak on Nurikae’s behalf to her father so that his company would continue to receive aid.

But Nurikae never placed that much faith in Reicia Blackguard’s good will.

To him, Reicia Blackguard was nothing more than an arrogant, villainous young lady—a spoiled girl who would recklessly toss others around for her own convenience.

And so, he chose the methods he believed appropriate.

He resorted to blackmail, brandishing her attempted suicide as a weapon.

He directed the pressure at members of her faction, threatening Reicia indirectly. …But it had no effect whatsoever.

On the contrary, she responded by reaching out through the very research institute where he was a patron—brazenly, as if to say: Your petty schemes mean nothing to me.

If only he had abandoned coercion at that point, the future might have taken a very different course.

Had he not turned Reicia into a personal enemy, had he chosen the path of dialogue instead—even if negotiations had soured—Nurikae would not have been ruined. After all, the cause was rooted in Reicia’s personal circumstances.

But that was not the path he took.

Nurikae, with his overbearing pride, could not tolerate being dragged around by someone else’s circumstances. Unconsciously, he seethed with rage—and he could not be satisfied unless Reicia was made to taste bitterness in turn.

Thus, matters worsened irrevocably.

Cornered, Nurikae confronted Reicia directly. …But it was utterly meaningless. To his shock, she brazenly clung to another man’s arm right before his eyes and left with him.

The reason for the annulment: romance.

Don’t screw with me, Nurikae thought.

For something as frivolous as that, he was being forced into this crisis? For something so shallow, this brat was willing to wreck another person’s life?

Very well then.

He would make her taste it—the agony, the despair of having one’s most precious things trampled underfoot.

He spread the rumors.

And when he saw the scene before his eyes, he once more whispered those same words:

“…This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.”

Before his eyes stood a girl, her enormous wings spread in stark black and white.

Like an angel, come to deliver judgment upon him.

Chapter One – No Wind for the Cooper’s Shop　Psicopics.
Episode 60: A Deserved Retribution　Are_You_Sure?

『A—and that’s the match!! An overwhelming victory! A downpour of plasma laid waste to three schools without them being able to lift a finger! Is that really the power of an esper Level 5!?』

『No, it looks like he’s combining it with his teammates’ abilities. Though he seems to have slipped through the interference values pretty neatly. That plasma, and even the gusts caused by breaking the “Rifts,” aren’t technically the ability itself. It’s like how debris created by an ability piling up doesn’t count as breaking the rules. Which means he can essentially do whatever he wants with it… The rules clearly need revising.』

『Still! What a breathtaking fight this was… no one expected it, no one could have imagined it! A brand new esper Level 5 is born!! Ladies and gentlemen, let’s hear it for Academy City’s new hero!!』

With the cheers and applause of the crowd in my ears, I kept my gaze fixed on him.

The man trembling, face drained of all color—Nurikae.

《…Foolish man. If he was going to cower like this, he should never have opposed me in the first place.》

《…Yeah. Exactly.》

At this point, nothing he could do would matter.

He had crossed a line that should never have been crossed. There was no path left where we could forgive him.

Truth be told, bringing Misaka-san and Hokaze-san into the team was largely for this very moment—cleanup, after the fact.

FWOOOSH!!

Riding a gale conjured by a Rift, I dropped down right in front of the stunned Nurikae.

Moments later, Misaka-san landed with magnetic flight, and Hokaze-san bounded down on raw leg strength, taking up positions at my sides.

The real reason they were here was simple—this confrontation with Nurikae over the annulment of my engagement. They were the witnesses.

“R-Reicia, li—little…”

“For now, it’s Shiren. …Ah, pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Shiren, one of the personas who make up Reicia Blackguard.”

With a sharp declaration, I tilted my head upward to meet the man’s eyes.

What a pitiful sight. His panic-aged face looked ten years older than it was, and the carefully set hair he’d styled was now a sweaty mess.

Earlier today, he had radiated confidence, even an aura of depth—but now? Now he was nothing more than a petty villain.

“You understand why I’ve come here in person, don’t you?”

“W—wait! Please, wait! If the engagement is annulled here, and our business partnership collapses, countless people will be cast into the streets! No, no, you can’t do that! That would be far too selfish!”

“…Oh?”

Not groveling for his life, but appealing to our sense of responsibility. Reicia gave a small nod, as if mildly impressed.

《How unexpected. I thought for sure he’d try crocodile tears.》

《…Maybe he overheard our little speech earlier. Banking on the idea we wouldn’t go for a messy ending.》

Either way, shallow reasoning.

“It seems you’re under a misapprehension.”

With that, Reicia delivered the final blow to his fragile hope.

He needed to know—we’d moved far past those “obvious concerns.”

“The only one who will be ruined is you. Company protection can be fully managed by myself and the Blackguard conglomerate. Profitability included.”

“Wh—wha… r-ridiculous!? I’m the president! If I go down, the company goes down! You can’t just separate the two like that…!!”

“Tell me—can you honestly say, with your hand on your heart, that you have nothing to hide?”

It should have been obvious if he thought about it.

He spread rumors of Reicia Blackguard’s attempted suicide?

How exactly did he obtain that information?

Anyone could have heard a rumor. Word spreads, after all. And sure, a man familiar with the researcher circles might have managed to “learn” something.

But to use it as a weapon meant he had certainty.

From surveillance footage, perhaps. From medical records.

…And could such data truly be obtained legally?

“Misaka.”

“Yeah. Uiharu dug into it for me. And sure enough—the traces were all there. His unauthorized access. He hacked into the archive bank and pulled her treatment records. Bold of him, wasn’t it?”

“Hokaze-san.”

“In the same way, we conducted inquiries within our own faction. We obtained confirmation that you purchased a security company. We already have testimony from one of the executives who signed off on the deal.”

“Wh—wha…”

The ‘evidence’ presented by Misaka-san and Hokaze-san left Nurikae utterly speechless.

…We had to stay focused on the competition, after all. That’s why we’d leaned on their networks.

And sure enough, it was a bull’s-eye.

Just as we suspected, Nurikae had been backing up his rumors with illegally obtained proof.

If we submitted this to the proper authorities, he’d be arrested. His company was a one-man dictatorship; with the top gone, steering what came after would be entirely up to us.

“W—wait!!”

“…Still something to say?”

“H-heh… Heh heh… It was all according to plan! Don’t you see? I staged all this just to prepare the stage for your grand debut as a Level 5! I’d never seriously try to trap you! Come on—how could I? You’re my precious fiancée!”

…Haah.

Even now, he says that?

Truly, utterly beyond saving.

“You will no longer be my fiancé. The engagement will be annulled here and now.”

“…………!!!!”

“It’ll be best for you not to do anything rash. Right now, Kuroko—my Judgment junior—is on her way here. Just let yourself be handed over quietly to Anti-Skill.”

Slowly, insidiously.

At Misaka-san’s words, the expression on Nurikae’s face twisted.

From that pasted-on, shallow grin… into a boiling, corrosive rage.

“D-don’t you dare mock meeeeeee!!! Do you have any idea how much of my time I’ve spent on you!? And this is how you repay me!? Not just betrayal—arrest!? Who do you think you are, you filthy wh—ghk!?”

He charged at me in a fit of blind fury.

But before he could get even close, Hokaze-san moved faster than the eye could follow, stepping in to block him.

“…My apologies. But you are far too dangerous to allow anywhere near Lady Blackguard right now. If you attempt to approach her again… I will be forced to take appropriate measures. I advise you to restrain yourself.”

With that, Hokaze-san lowered her stance, fists raised.

The pressure she radiated was such that you could almost hear lightning crackle in the air. Nurikae, a mere man, could no longer move a muscle.

“…It was nothing more than a verbal arrangement to begin with. Shall we end this with words, then?”

And so, together, we delivered the final sentence:

“We, Reicia Blackguard—hereby declare our engagement with you annulled!!!!”

《…Well, it’s finally over, isn’t it?》

After that…

We handed Nurikae over to Shirai-san and had him taken by the Anti-Skill security team, then returned to the hotel we’d rented for the duration of the Daihasai Festival, finally allowing ourselves a moment to breathe.

《It’s finally done…》

《I still can’t quite believe it…》

《Indeed…》

Originally, we’d planned to take much longer with this, but it wrapped up so cleanly that both of us just collapsed in relief.

By the way—

Nurikae’s charges looked far more severe than we’d expected. The illegal access to the Archive Bank and the purchase of a security company were, of course, crimes. But apparently, the fact that he’d spread my personal information publicly was considered extremely serious.

I don’t know all the legal details, but it seemed there was even a possibility he could be treated as a political offender… Well, I think anyone who did bad things should be punished, but I honestly didn’t expect the charges to be that heavy. It’s a complicated feeling. On the other hand, he did try to socially destroy “GMDW” for his own benefit. If this is how the judicial system handles that normally, it doesn’t feel right to ask for leniency…

《But things are going to get busy from here on. Your father will handle the official procedures, of course, but Nurikae’s company is semi-affiliated with Academy City. I’ll need to be heavily involved in steering things, given my knowledge of internal Academy City affairs.》

《Plus, even though it couldn’t be helped, we ended up exposing a Level 5 esper before our faction was fully ready.》

Thanks to that, we fully executed Shokuhou-san’s order to “draw attention,” but now we’ll have to skillfully fend off the unscrupulous adults trying to seize our benefits. Otherwise, not only we, but everyone in our faction could be exploited.

Still…

“Let’s take a little… break today. Too many huge clashes in a row—this has been exhausting…”

“……Indeed…”

Still in our gym uniforms, we flopped onto the bed and began dozing lightly, letting the fatigue from battle wash away.

…Though, admittedly, at this point, we had completely forgotten one obvious thing:

How would the parents react to having their beloved daughter suddenly reveal she’d attempted suicide, was a Level 5 esper, had multiple personalities, and dropped a bomb of monumental personal secrets?