A Scientific Urban Detective

Although nothing could be seen from the camera due to "electromagnetic interference," the "touch" of the liquefied shadow could still be transmitted to Keisatsu Kanzaki—this was the effect of her ability, "Liquefied Shadow," unaffected by external forces.

Therefore, Keisatsu Kanzaki was certain that she had "been attacked."

Without much thought, Keisatsu Kanzaki immediately climbed out of the pool and ran outside.

Misaki Shokuhou followed immediately…

"What, it was just a small animal attack…"

When she arrived outside the swimming pool and found the liquefied shadow, Keisatsu Kanzaki saw two stray cats baring their fangs and claws, threatening the small, metallic-colored doll.

This relieved Keisatsu Kanzaki, and she was glad she hadn't manipulated the small shadow to counterattack, as she might have killed the cats.

"What a false alarm! It's all because the camera suddenly broke, and I couldn't see what was happening!" Keisatsu Kanzaki explained to Misaki Shokuhou, who had arrived, panting. "It was just cats. Because I couldn't see, I probably made the shadow intrude on their territory."

"So there are stray cats here too," Misaki Shokuhou said, enthusiastically trying to tease them.

"There are always these little guys where there are people," Keisatsu Kanzaki said. "And they might even have owners. Some dorms seem to allow pets."

Seeing a stranger, the two cats immediately ran away, making Misaki Shokuhou feel a little disappointed.

"It really is broken," Keisatsu Kanzaki concluded after inspecting the camera attached to the small shadow's neck. "That's strange. There aren't any sources of interference nearby? This is the latest model; the quality shouldn't be this bad, right?"

Regardless, broken was broken. After a brief inspection revealed that the internal circuitry was damaged, Keisatsu Kanzaki completely gave up on repairing it and decided to just replace it with a new one.

After some twists and turns, the broken camera eventually ended up in the hands of Saten Ruiko.

Along with it came a set of nine remote controls of different models.

That's right, these were Misaki Shokuhou's exclusive equipment, the complete set of remote controls she always kept in her bag.

Taking advantage of the rare opportunity to enter the pool during physical education class, Saten Ruiko manipulated a student to replace Misaki Shokuhou's exclusive equipment with nine identical remote controls.

Because it was a prestigious girls' school attended by young ladies from wealthy families, Tokiwadai Middle School had almost no defenses against "theft." Anyone could easily get away with it, without any difficulty.

However, fearing Misaki Shokuhou's "memory tracing" ability, Saten Ruiko wasn't reckless enough to go herself.

Instead, she used "mental perforation" to control an unrelated student to carry out the switch.

As a price, the cell phone camera obtained from Miyamae Kanari exhausted the "residual thoughts" on it and was completely destroyed.

However, exchanging it for the more powerful "Mental Out" was undoubtedly a profitable deal.

"I hope Shokuhou-san is a little slow and doesn't notice that the remote controls have been switched…" Saten Ruiko casually prayed.

Of course, even if Misaki Shokuhou noticed, it didn't matter. Under normal circumstances, no one would suspect that Saten Ruiko, the leader of a faction, had stolen the remote controls.

Saten Ruiko's true ability was only known to her and her sister, Kinuhata Saiai.

No one could imagine what use she had for collecting these "junk."

Without a motive, of course, no one would suspect her.

In the infirmary, Saten Ruiko laid out her "trophies" on the bed—the "tokens" she had collected through various means in recent days.

Saten Ruiko had thoroughly mastered the abilities contained in each "token" and reviewed them one by one in her mind.

After a series of permutations and combinations, she finally nodded in satisfaction.

Holding the hind leg of a panda doll in one hand, Saten Ruiko walked to the window and looked in a certain direction in the distance.

"The puzzle is complete. We must act as soon as possible before they react."

To avoid complications.

And now was a good time.

Saten Ruiko turned to look at the television, which was broadcasting a city news program.

Today's main report was, unsurprisingly, the widely publicized "general strike and demonstration" event.

After a day of development and evolution, the demonstration led by blue-collar workers had not been resolved but was instead escalating.

According to the latest reports, the large-scale demonstration had paralyzed almost half of the city's ground transportation—wherever there were factories and workers, there would be demonstrations of varying scales.

Only places like Academy Garden, a "country within a country," and the exclusive "Shangri-La" of prestigious girls' schools, remained calm and peaceful.

Outside, even in other parts of the Seventh District just a wall away, people were inevitably affected, filled with unease and agitation.

The demonstrations had even spread to high schools, especially among graduates majoring in science and engineering, who were worried about their future employment prospects and had joined the demonstrations.

Yes, the cause of this unprecedented general strike in Academy City was the "mass layoffs" in factories.

As everyone knows, Academy City has a technological advantage of at least twenty years over the outside world. The secondary industry is the most typical example of this.

Whether it's light or heavy industry, or equipment manufacturing, they are all important symbols of Academy City's "technological leadership."

Therefore, even in this city dominated by students, there are 100,000 industrial workers.

It is these people who support Academy City's high technology, turning abstract concepts into tangible objects.

Of course, although they are called "workers," they are actually engineers and technicians, truly "high-paying professions." Their jobs are also highly sought after.

However, recently there was a sudden message that Academy City's secondary industry was preparing for mass layoffs, cutting almost 90 percent of its personnel in one go!

This is equivalent to directly smashing the rice bowls of nearly 100,000 people, and also cutting off the path for all future generations, so it's no wonder it caused such a commotion.

Saten Ruiko didn't know who made such a stupid decision, and she didn't care.

All she knew was that this commotion had created excellent conditions for her actions, which she must seize in time!

Based on the development of the situation throughout the day, the Anti-Skill and Judgment forces were working at full capacity to deal with the sudden large-scale demonstrations and the armed ability users who were taking advantage of the chaos.

In this state, it was difficult for these two major organizations to spare enough manpower and energy to deal with other "less important" events.

Moreover, during this period, the Anti-Skill and Judgment forces had arrested many people and were continuously sending underage offenders to juvenile detention centers.

Saten Ruiko picked up a remote control. Now, it was too easy for her to sneak into the juvenile detention center in the chaos.

"Yoizuki-nee, I'm coming!"

Packing all the collected "tokens" into her backpack, Saten Ruiko carried the bag, grabbed the panda doll, left the infirmary, and walked out of the school.