Heart pounding with adrenaline, Jin’s eye twitched at the child’s greeting. Since the child’s appearance did not match any character he remembered from this world, an immediate solution to approach a conversation with the child did not immediately come to mind like with characters he knew well.

“...Can I help you?” Jin cautiously probed due to his lack of information about this ‘child’.

Without any change in expression, the child stated in a detached yet childish tone, “Am I correct in assuming you came here to correct the… anomaly?”

Doubting he could pass off a lie in front of any powerful character in this universe, Jin cautiously asked in return, “Why do you ask?”

The child slowly shook its head before replying, “Since that seems to be your purpose here… Remove the anomaly and return to where you came from. You won’t be welcome here after that. If you linger too long afterward, then consider your life forfeit.”

Jin frowned. It had been a long time since anybody directed a serious threat on his life, let alone a potential Magic God-level entity if his instincts were accurate. Since he did not have the ability to confront such an individual yet, he maintained a stoic face despite his spike in adrenaline and replied, “I can abide by those terms. Didn’t plan to stay here long, anyway.”

The child nodded slowly, but then streaks of blood and pus trickled from its nose, then its ears, its mouth, its eyes, and finally, even some of its pores. For the first time since their conversation began, the child’s expression changed. Its lips curled downward just enough for Jin to notice.

“This vessel seems to have reached its limit, so I will end this here. So long as you attend to the anomaly and leave quickly after, nobody noteworthy will bother you. Linger, and that will change. Remember that, outsider.”

Jin’s cheeks twitched slightly, but he quickly forgot his discomfort since the child’s body melted and disintegrated into dust right before his eyes as though melted by acid. His eyes lingered on the crumpled mass of flesh and blood as it slowly evaporated into nothingness due to the lingering supernatural field left behind by whatever entity confronted him. Eventually, even that supernatural field dissipated, freeing Jin from the ethereal weight on his shoulders.

For a few seconds, Jin stood silently in the hallway. Although he knew something like this could occur in this world, he thought the possibility remained low so long as he minded his own business.

‘Perhaps it’s because I’m involved with an important character? I thought the chat group might prevent my transfer from being noticed, but maybe that wasn’t the case? Then again, wouldn’t a bunch of powerful characters show up because of me coming from another world in that case?’

Groaning, Jin pinched the bridge of his nose. Almost on autopilot, he entered the bathroom and went about his business while pondering who had controlled that child.

‘That whole exchange didn’t make much sense. Although I doubt I know all the magic-god level characters who exist in this universe, the only one I can think of who would act like that within Academy City might be Aleister, but even that feels like a stretch. I don’t recall him having such an avatar… Then again, he did say it was a vessel, so maybe it was temporary or something? I just don’t have enough information here.’

After thinking that far, Jin sighed, ruffled his hair, and quietly grumbled, “Man, this is annoying. I wanted to try activating an Esper ability while I was here, but I’d rather not mess with somebody on that level.”

Since he could not obtain answers right away, he decided to move his quandaries to the backburner until he could confidently confront the issue later.

‘Might take a while, but I’m sure the group chat’ll get me to that level eventually. Won’t have to tiptoe around such characters anymore after that. Finding some other precautions against such powerful characters would be good, too.’

* * *

Somewhere else in Academy City, a man, or was it a woman? Well, a person with long flowing white hair floated inside a large cylinder filled with liquid. The person looked like an adult, yet also a child; like a man, yet also a woman; like a saint, yet also a criminal. The person’s eyes slowly opened, revealing apathetic green irises. His pupils focused on a specific screen floating in the room that looked like it was glitching and displayed several error codes.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“You aren’t going to do anything else?” A deep and ethereal voice echoed through the room.

“No,” The effeminate-looking man coldly answered without moving his lips.

“Why not approach with your own body?”

“A simple precaution since he is an unknown variable.”

“I’m surprised you even noticed the kid. That disturbance in the AIM field was so miniscule that I wouldn’t be surprised if you had missed it. Something is mostly obscuring my perception of him. Very intriguing.”

“And yet you advised me against immediately removing him despite the unusual nature of his existence. Now, elaborate on what you meant when mentioning that killing him would become more of a hindrance to my goals than leaving him to his own devices.”

“Well, I don’t give a shit how you handle it, and I don’t mind expanding on what I already told you. A long time ago, during a long-forgotten era, a similar reality-altering event occurred which even gods could not intervene with. Somebody attempted to kill an outsider who arrived to fix the anomaly at that time. Several Phases ceased to exist that day, and nobody understood how it happened. Whoever attempted to kill them must have had a damn good time causing all that chaos, though.”

The effeminate-looking man closed his eyes, ignored the statement, and said, “The anomaly still must disappear. So long as the boy succeeds in clearing the anomaly and returns to where he came from without interfering in anything else, then it is fine to overlook his existence.”

“What if he stays?”

“Let’s hope he doesn’t force my hand.”

“How boring. Perhaps I shouldn’t have given you incentive to leave him alone in the first place. Would have been more interesting that way.”

* * *

Unaware of the discussion between two of the most powerful individuals in this world, Jin returned to the restaurant proper with his hands in his pockets and a frown on his face. On his way back to the table, he saw a few punks dressed in casual street attire surrounding Railgun. Some of them leaned on the table and benches as though they just arrived there, and one of them attempted to strike up a conversation. Railgun’s cheek twitched, and her finger tapped on the table as though ready to electrocute the men at any moment.

Struck by a strange feeling of déjà vu, Jin halted his steps for a moment. The scene reminded him of the first panel in the Index manga, but he chose to ignore the similarities and walked forward. Upon reaching the table, the punks stopped talking and glared at him.

The man who had been trying to strike up a conversation with Railgun spoke up and grumbled, “Get lost, bastard.”

Still annoyed by his encounter with a powerful entity, Jin stared back with cold eyes. Then, he glanced at Railgun. Ignoring the fact that she looked back at him with a confused gaze, he asked, “They bothering you?”

After receiving a nod in response, Jin formed box-shaped barriers around the men with barrier-make magic. Almost in unison, the men recoiled with fright and turned to flee, but the barriers prevented them from going anywhere. Despite his annoyance, Jin simply moved the barrier prisons out the front door of the restaurant. Once the barriers reached the sidewalk, he waved his hand. The barriers flew outward while dissipating, tossing the punks onto the opposite sidewalk. The punks unanimously fled while ignoring their bruises and road rashes.

With that out of the way, Jin turned back to their table while ignoring curious glances from the handful of bystanders. However, in another corner of the restaurant, he noticed a young man with messy black hair watching him with a confused yet relieved expression.

‘Hmm. Is it actually that early in the timeline? Well, whatever. Doesn’t really matter.’

Deciding to ignore the guy for now, Jin took his seat across from Railgun. Noticing a strange expression on the girl’s face, he asked, “Is something wrong?”

“...Are you okay?”

“Ah, yeah. Someone powerful decided to bother me on my way to the bathroom, which may have irritated me a bit.”

Quickly changing from wary to concerned, Mikoto asked, “Someone powerful? Who?”

“Even with what I know about this world, I’m not one hundred percent sure of their identity.”

“Did they try to hurt you or something?”

“Nah. They seem to have some idea about my origin to some extent, or maybe just my purpose in coming here. Either way, they told me to leave when I’m done, and they’re definitely too powerful for me to resist, so I’ll probably head home as soon as we’re done with the mission.”

Punching her fist into her palm, Mikoto smirked confidently and offered, “Do you need some help? I’ll help you beat them up.”

“Forget it. They’re far beyond the current you.”

“How do you know if you don’t try?”

Chuckling slightly at her misplaced confidence, Jin jokingly retorted, “Have you heard about Mt. Tai?”

“Mt. Tai? Where is that?”

“...Nevermind. Just a meme from my home about overestimating your own abilities,” Jin said, sighing.

“Hah?! You wanna fight, old-man-brain?! I’ll show you how powerful I am!” Mikoto proclaimed, pointing a thumb at herself.

“No. I want to eat.”

“Ah, right. For real, though, let’s fight later. I want to see how strong you are, because I’m the strongest.”

“Some other time, perhaps, when powerful eyes aren’t on us. Teaching you a bit of humility might make you a much more attractive girl,” Jin taunted with a playful smile, hinting that he would teach her a lesson despite lacking confidence in his ability to win against her at the moment.

“A- attractive?”

Mikoto blushed a little and retreated into her seat.

“You’re focusing on the wrong thing, Misaka-san…”