Anime, Girlfriend Shokuhou Misaki.

Haramura Makoto had always disliked these esper's habits.

This wasn't really directed at Shokuhou Misaki, because due to what he was doing, he often came into contact with espers who enjoyed bullying those without powers.

That was indeed the case.

Despite the news often reporting incidents of powerlessness attacking espers, the reality was that espers bullying those without powers happened far more often.

Otherwise, how do you think so many powerless armed groups developed?

It wasn't just a bunch of jealous and irritable students; many were constantly bullied by espers and, left with no other choice, joined powerless armed groups to stick together for warmth.

Haramura Makoto, while incorporating them and forbidding them from clashing with espers, naturally had to protect them from being bullied.

So, Haramura Makoto had defeated quite a few espers.

Among them were even some Level 4 powerhouses.

However, those hailed as being able to fight an entire special forces unit all fell at Haramura Makoto's feet.

How did they lose?

It was simply because their weak bodies were like easily crushed paper in front of Haramura Makoto.

As long as they weren't speed-specialized espers, once Haramura Makoto avoided their attacks, they were basically at his mercy.

So, he was a bit angry at Shokuhou Misaki for being like this.

Perhaps even if Shokuhou Misaki trained her physical abilities, she wouldn't improve much, but it would still give her a bit more hope when facing danger, right?

"Oh my! Could it be that you're worried about my safety?"

If it were anyone else, being scolded by Shokuhou Misaki in such a stern tone, they would probably have been controlled by this person and made a fool of as punishment.

But right now, Shokuhou Misaki only felt happiness in her heart; she only felt warmth, as if she were about to fly.

"Sort of."

"Anyway, we can be considered friends now, right? I'm just showing normal concern for a friend."

Haramura Makoto, as if trying to hide something, reached out and rubbed Shokuhou Misaki's head hard.

"Just concern for a friend?"

"You're such a two-faced man."

Shokuhou Misaki quickly pulled away Haramura Makoto's hand from her head, her face beaming with a smile.

"What, I haven't even called you yet, and you're already trying to read my mind."

Haramura Makoto curled his lips, but he didn't deny Shokuhou Misaki's words.

"Okay, okay."

"Just consider it concern for a friend."

Shokuhou Misaki didn't dwell on this question; as a girl with explosively high emotional intelligence, she could grasp the limits very well.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to reach a deal with the principal of Tokiwadai.

Right now, her relationship with Haramura Makoto wasn't suitable for further advancement; not only was Haramura Makoto's intention not strong, but she herself hadn't made the corresponding mental preparations.

However, she had now obtained the best information.

That was, she wasn't the only one rushing forward in her relationship with Haramura Makoto.

If she had developed a clear liking for Haramura Makoto the day before yesterday because of his words that saved her from danger.

Then yesterday, after she had investigated and verified the correctness of Haramura Makoto's words from the day before yesterday, her liking for Haramura Makoto turned into genuine affection.

That's why she had this outing today.

Although she had made up her mind to get Haramura Makoto no matter what, mutual affection was always better than her pushing forward all on her own.

Then she didn't need to rush now.

The two of them just needed to slowly get closer with time, moving towards each other, right?

Scenes flashed through Shokuhou Misaki's mind, and her future life was outlined by her fantasies.

"Spacing out again? What are you thinking about?"

Shokuhou Misaki woke up from her fantasies at Haramura Makoto's question.

"Nothing."

"I was just thinking that what you said is indeed very reasonable."

"So, shouldn't you be responsible for enlightening me?"

Chapter 022: Green Tea-like

"Let's decide that happily!"

"From now on, my physical training will be entrusted to Haramura-kun. If I encounter danger in the future due to insufficient physical strength, Haramura-kun will definitely regret it."

Clearly a youthful and beautiful girl.

Clearly usually very normal.

But now she was acting like a green tea master, full of subtle flirtation.

If it were a woman who was completely unrelated to him, daring to talk to him like that just because she had some looks, he wouldn't give her any good face.

But if it were Shokuhou Misaki...

"Forget it, I can take you to train when I have time."

"But how long you can last depends on your own willpower."

Letting one go was letting them all go.

He had already promised Shokuhou Misaki to teach her how to peek into people's hearts without using her ability, so taking her to exercise occasionally was just a convenient side trip.

However!

He didn't have much confidence in this person's willpower.

"Don't worry, with Haramura-kun here, I'll definitely be able to persevere."

The meaning expressed on Haramura Makoto's face was too obvious; she couldn't possibly not see it.

Haramura Makoto didn't know where her confidence came from, allowing her, a physical fitness disaster, to say such words.

But that didn't prevent him from nodding in agreement.

"Alright, the rest time should be enough, right?"

"Let's try to learn how to swim today."

...

"Whoosh——!"

In the sound of air being torn, a beam of white light suddenly burst out from the darkness, rubbing against the air and piercing through the steel frame, landing on the wall behind.

"Tss——!"

The moment the wall was hit by the beam of light, it didn't directly explode with energy; instead, it rapidly melted as if it had been focused on by a high-temperature flame gun, dissolving like cream.

At this time, an extremely shrill scream also came from behind the wall.

Then, several voices came from the darkness behind.

"Hmm? Did we hit him?"

"Looks like we got super lucky."

"As expected of Takitsubo and Mugino, the strongest Level 5 and Level 4 combination in Academy City; the result is invincible."

"...Hmph..."

Along with these words, several figures slowly walked out from the darkness behind.

"The current missions are getting more and more unreliable; the situation of the mission target is completely different from what the broker gave us."

A girl with a tall and slender figure and fluffy brown wavy hair, not very old, with a speaking tone and figure that leaned towards maturity, spoke in an extremely impatient tone.

"It's still okay! At least in terms of difficulty, it's definitely a super easy level!"

Speaking with such a strange verbal tic was a middle school student with shoulder-length brown short hair, wearing a jacket with the hood pulled over her head, and a petite figure.

"But because the information provided by the broker and the client was inaccurate, causing errors in the middle of the process, we were busy all afternoon, and now we can only get two-thirds of the original reward."

This girl who spoke later was also complaining.

Judging from her appearance, she was probably from Northern Europe, with fluffy blonde hair and azure blue eyes, and a slender and petite figure. She was wearing a dark blue beret and black stockings with a mini-skirt. From her appearance, she was an excessively cute girl.

"Sorry, my direction indication was off..."

This was the last person to speak.

There were almost no expressions on her face, but her white pupils were already filled with dense blood vessels, and a trace of fatigue flowed from her face. She was wearing relatively rustic clothes and had shoulder-length black short hair.

This was a group of four girls.

Judging from their appearance, these were four girls with completely different personalities.

But the only thing they had in common was probably the aura atmosphere that was completely similar to the jet-blackness that was covering them now.

Originally, if he hadn't erupted his ability and calculated at a normal speed, her ability would have been able to melt his legs, causing him to lose his ability to act.

But who told him to overexert himself? Oh well.

But since it was already like this, there was no point in continuing to be annoyed; the smooth strands of hair slid through her fingers.

"Notify that guy to come and clean up the mess."

"Are we just leaving this time? Don't we need to wait for the handover?"

The blonde cute girl immediately took out her phone and sent a message according to the brown-haired woman's request.

"Is there any need to wait for anything?"

"The mission target is already dead; we can just leave."

"That's true."

Between two points, a straight line is the shortest. Without having to take detours and using abilities to dissolve all the walls, even in a complex abandoned laboratory, their speed of getting out was very fast.

Then, looking at the empty street, the road with no cars.

"Speaking of which, if there's no one to connect this time, it seems we can't directly hitch a ride back."

"And Mugino, the only one who's old enough, doesn't have a driver's license."

"Annoying!"

The brown-haired woman spat impatiently and stomped the ground hard with her high heels.

"Forget it, I'll go back and look for information and find some more trash to use as consumables."

...

The afterglow of the sunset dyed the entire sky a brilliant red.

The location returned to Ruriko Kazakiri's villa again.

But it was different from the afternoon before; Shokuhou Misaki was still here.

But the man who had taught her swimming skills all afternoon had already left.

Instead, the person accompanying Shokuhou Misaki had become Ruriko Kazakiri, the number two figure in Shokuhou's faction, who had already left at noon.

"Queen, did you have a good afternoon?"

Ruriko Kazakiri looked at Shokuhou Misaki, who was still wearing a swimsuit and lying on the deck chair, with the most sincere smile on her face.