Chapter 24 - Part 1

Who’s the traitor? - Part 1

It was time for the betrayal event featuring Baba. It would start with the disappearance of some PSI drives.

Tricked by the wicked Demon King who was allegedly manipulating the World’s Darkness, Baba would hand over a couple of PSI Drives and their blueprints (she wouldn’t actually hand it over), and leak Amaterasu’s classified information (no, she wouldn’t leak anything either).

The students would fortuitously notice some PSI drive were missing and report it to Kaburagi-san. But Baba would successfully cajole Kaburagi-san into not pursuing the matter any further. Seeing Kaburagi-san turning a blind eye, both of them would feel a sense of crisis. The unreliability of adults would make them take matter into their own hands and start an internal investigation.

Frankly speaking, it was going to be a detective game. They would investigate and find clues and investigate more and find even more clues. Eventually, they would realize the culprit was Baba who was enticed by the Demon King’s.

Afterwards, “Get back to your senses, Baba-san!" Shouta-kun would yell and give her a wake-up punch and follow it with the infamous detective line “The culprit is…you Baba-san!!" which would shock Baba greatly and cause her to regain her sanity. This would make Baba happy and she would give Shouta-kun a hug.

In other words, the betrayal of Baba, the appearance of the World’s Darkness, the prolonged depression, and the unending conflicts were all caused by the Demon King.

THAT FARKING BASTARD!!!

In the end, this internal conflict would be caused by an external entity. If Baba betrayed of her own free will, it would have collapsed the organization. But since we fortunately have a wicked being who toys with people’s heart, called the Demon King, we might as well push all the blame onto him.

Now then, the outline of the event has been decided. Let’s begin preparing as usual.

First, we need to mass produce PSI drives. Since we have insufficient numbers, it would be ludicrous if some were to suddenly go missing and no one noticed. But with a large number of PSI Drives we could effortlessly smuggle out a few of them. It is difficult to manage such large numbers, so we didn’t notice the missing PSI drives…it would create such a convenient cover. Remember, both Shouta-kun and Touka-chan are intelligent There’s a real possibility that they would see through it as a match pump if we half-ass it.

Now, for the sake of producing the fuel (blood) to run the PSI drive, we recommended 200ml blood donation once every two months to the members of Amaterasu. For this purpose, I spent two whole weeks studying about blood collection and set up a blood collection room at our secret base. The centrifuges, roller mixers, and refrigerators were brought in, so we could manage the blood collection, refining, and storage in bulk.

As for the cover story for mass-producing PSI Drives, it was for the newcomers who would join Amaterasu in the future, and to have spares in case the ones being used break down.

Currently, the plan is to mass produce roughly 100 PSI drives. Since it would be too much work for Baba to handle alone, an industrial robot would produce the basic parts of the frame and later Baba will give the finishing touch. She would need to hand-craft the intricate machinery of each individual drives as it could not be entrusted to a machine.

As a result, the effect and efficiency of PSI drives differed based on the fuel (blood) used. For example, the first prototype dagger is optimized for fire attribute, so it has high heat resistance, and can release flames in any direction the ESP’er wants. However, if fuel (blood) of ice attribute ESP’er is used, it will only spill cold air everywhere. If an ESP’er with time attribute uses it, then that ESP’er will stop completely, and nothing will happen. Essentially, if the PSI drive does not match the fuel, it will not have any meaningful effect.

The first prototype PSI drive for my psychokinesis power exploded immediately after taking in my blood, so it was stored inside a reinforced container as a memento in a fragmented state. When I analyzed the pieces, there were traces of it being blown away from the inside. It seems the frame couldn’t endure the ridiculously high power output. My power is too strong!.

And, even if I dilute my blood and reduce the power 100,000 times, the strengthened frame still breaks apart with a *gachi-gachi* sound, making Baba sigh in exasperation.

Please, don’t do that!

Hm..My psychokinesis is too strong.

Even though it may seem like I’m bragging about it, but it makes me honestly sad to see the PSI drive Baba made so earnestly, breaking apart just like that. No matter how I think about it, my psychokinesis is too OP. If Shouta-kun and Touka-chan were said to be living a supernatural school life doing superhero stuffs, then I am in a sci-fi universe where stars and planets and everything keeps exploding.

FARK! MY ROTTEN LUCK!

That aside, finding out that 200ml of my blood was sufficient fuel for powering about 100,000 PSI drives was a good news.

Now if we could further develop a PSI drive optimized for healing, it could be carried around as a recovery potion. And a drive that designed to mimic my psychokinetic barrier could be used as a gadget to deploy a force field and prevent damage to the surrounding area during a battle. The possibilities are endless. For instance, the wind power generator I’ve been moving with my [Nenrikin] up until now could also be substituted with a PSI Drive. If I succeed in doing so, I would be free and could take it easy for a while.

And of course, we will have to remove the PSI drive’s psychokinetic attack function^[1]. At the very least, until I can defend against it. I don’t want to get hurt every time the World’s Darkness is attacked.

The PSI Drive’s psychokinetic attack is like sending a virus over internet to crash a computer, so there is no point in physically protecting the computer with a barrier. Basically, you could physically block the PSI drive, but the energy^[2] behind the attack would penetrate the barrier and hurt you. It needed special defense training.

Therefore, I had Baba make me a knife-shaped PSI Drive that specialized in psychokinetic attacks, and I began training at Amaterasu’s secret base at night. I diluted the psychokinetic fuel^[3] five hundred billion times and created an invisible force field around the knife.

….

…Then I stabbed my arm covered in a barrier.

….

OUCH! It hurts!

I concentrated on my defense and stabbed my arm again.

OOWW!

I slowly tried to stab again while focusing on my psychokinesis to push back the knife…. It still penetrates!

Hmm, let’s try flexing [Nenrikin] at the point of contact.

Stab! Ooww! It still hurts!

There has to be another way to defend, right? Right!?

Watching me stab my arm like a madman, Kaburagi-san’s face stiffened and she averted her eyes.

“Sago-san, it’s frightening me.”

“Hmm? Ah, don’t worry. I’ll have Ig heal me later..Ouch..So there’s no problem.”

“…It hurts, doesn’t it?”

“It does but I can handle this much pain!”

While I was talking (and stabbing myself), Kaburagi-san closed her eyes and covered her ears. Is this training that awful to look at? It might be fatal if I suddenly stab with a powerful PSI drive, but with this low-performance prototype, I wouldn’t die.

…No No No!

That’s not the problem here! No sane person stabs himself with a knife and act all merry. I guess I’m too used to this level of pain, so I don’t mind it much. But to an observer I might appear as a lunatic. Let’s be more careful.

When the assembly line at Kaneyama Tech was up and running, we began mass producing PSI drives. With the help of Baba we fine-tuned PSI Drives with various shapes like clubs, shields, spears, watches, and handcuffs. These were stored in special briefcases, lining up in Amaterasu’s weapon storage. By the time all this was done, two months had passed and it was February.

It was the perfect time as Shouta-kun and Touka-chan had just finished their high school entrance exam.

TL Note 1

Hi everyone. Ristu here.I hope everyone is safe and sound.

First, I’d like to apologize for picking this up without permission. I tried to contact Rosie but couldn’t find her on blog or Discord. Since it is one of my favorite novels, I just went ahead and started the TL.

Now, my current plan is to at least translate the betrayal arc. If till the end of the arc I am able to maintain a decent TL quality and release 5 parts per week (2 parts per chapter), I’ll continue the TL. Else I’d drop it and wait for someone to pick it up. I don’t want to ruin this novel with a sub-par TL.

TL Note 2

[1]: Basically the attack spreads like a wave and hurts the user. I couldn’t find a proper term. ↩︎

[2]: The invisible energy or hidden pain or sword qi. Something like that. ↩︎

[3]: Referring to his blood. ↩︎