In Academy City, the Paradise Project begins.

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[Post #87] Teacher's skin is so nice! I almost fainted when I touched her head just now!

[Post #156] Did anyone notice the way he arranged the medicine? He definitely practiced piano!

[Post #233] Urgent Notice! After getting married, Mitsuko went to the infirmary with a lunchbox!

Suddenly, the sound of orderly footsteps echoed down the corridor as the three-person team from the Tokiwadai Health Committee pushed open the door. The committee chairperson, wearing a red armband, adjusted her glasses: "We received a report of inappropriate conduct between teachers and students here..."

Their voices stopped abruptly.

Higashino was bending over to bandage the blonde girl's knee. The path the medical scissors traced across the bandage resembled an artistic performance, leaving the girls collectively stunned.

"Just in time."

He suddenly looked up and smiled.

"Can you help maintain order?"

He was worried that there were too many students today and things were getting chaotic.

The student in the lead immediately stood at attention: "Yes, sir!"

By the time she came to her senses, she was already standing at the door of the consultation room holding a "Quiet" sign.

During lunch break, Misaka Mikoto hid under the shade of a tree, munching on a pineapple bun. Her phone kept vibrating with a secretly filmed video sent by a classmate; the video showed a man treating Mitsuko's scrapes.

Suddenly feeling a warm touch around her waist, Mikoto instinctively exclaimed, "Kuroko!"

"Ahhh—my big sister's energy is exceptionally high today~"

Shirai Kuroko appeared from behind, her body emitting blue smoke. It was clear that Mikoto's subconscious attack had successfully hit its target.

"However, this rough treatment is also proof of love!"

She closed in again with the agility of a cheetah; she had endured electric shocks countless times before.

"I've told you not to suddenly stick to me like that!"

Mikoto's hand slashed through the air, but Kuroko had already flashed to the bench three meters away.

The notebook spread out on her lap showed her to-do list for the day.

The first item is prominently marked "3 PM - Cleaning the dressing room with my older sister".

Kuroko, swinging her legs, grabbed Pocky and said, "Speaking of which, Big Sister passed by the infirmary three times in five minutes~"

Kuroko looked somewhat unhappy.

"As a member of the 'sandwich girl' group, I have to remind you that if you are alone with a strange male teacher for more than fifteen minutes, you need to report it to the 'sandwich girl' group!"

"Who needs to register? Besides, you're talking complete nonsense!"

Electric arcs danced in Mikoto's bangs, but she saw that Kuroko had already teleported away.

Her protest was drowned out by the sudden ringing of the school bell. The deliberately amplified chatter of the girls drifted in from outside the window:

"I heard that his calming tea can make people dream about their ideal type!"

"Seventeen people have already pretended to have insomnia today!"

"A third-year student has scheduled a full-body checkup..."

As Higashino locked the medicine cabinet, the setting sun cast its last rays onto the medical records. Total patients seen that day: 99, setting a new single-day record for the Tokiwadai Health Center since its establishment.

He rubbed his aching shoulders and neck as he walked toward the locker room, when he suddenly noticed the pink envelopes stuffed into the gaps between the lockers. The topmost envelope, decorated with a lace ribbon, was from someone from the Shokuhou faction.

Higashino loosened his tie and chuckled, the hem of his white coat brushing against the cherry blossom petals scattered on the ground.

An invitation from the Queen of Tokiwadai? But summer vacation starts tomorrow, so let's postpone our meeting a bit longer.

Chapter 15 The Girl's Choice

On a park bench in the 7th school district, Saten Ruiko locked her phone screen and then turned it back on for the third time. The headline in the news feed, "A high school student develops a new type of ability amplification device," stung her eyes and brought tears to her eyes.

For someone like her who has no abilities, even the most advanced amplification device would be useless.

The headphone cord was tangled in a knot between my fingers, and the sharp edges of the USB flash drive's casing hurt my palm.

Tears welled up as she looked up at the circling flock of pigeons. The sunlight compressed her shadow into a tiny ball, as if trying to press her whole body into the scorching asphalt.

She has been sitting here alone for a while, struggling with a certain thought in her mind.

"Staring blankly in the park at this time of day, that's not like you, Saten."

As Higashino left Tokiwadai after school, he noticed a familiar girl at a park intersection.

Is that expression because she's struggling with the matter of the Imagine Mage?

Tears welled up as if she had been electrocuted, and she clenched her right hand tightly, trying to hide the USB drive in her hand.

Higashino stood in front of the vending machine a meter away, bought two drinks, and walked towards Ruiko.

"Dr. Higashino?"

Ruiko hurriedly hid her right hand behind her back, her movement so quick that she knocked her schoolbag off the bench. Various notes on ability development scattered, with key points handwritten by Uiharu Shiori fluttering from between the pages.

Higashino's bending down to pick up the book was so natural, as if he had rehearsed it a thousand times. He wiped his tears with his index finger and hurriedly grabbed the back of his hand: "Saten-kun, are you also interested in neuroscience?"

He pointed to the hippocampus marked with a highlighter on the anatomical diagram.

"This part is related to memory formation."

Ruizi felt a tightness in her throat. The man's warm breath carried the coolness of a mint, reminding her of her boyfriend's ability "cognitive reconstruction" that she had mentioned to Chuchun last night, which seemed to be a brand new ability that had just been updated in the library last night.

He's also a very powerful ability user.

"Just browsing..."

She lowered her head to pick up her notes, not daring to look into Higashino's eyes.

"Want to try this?"

Higashino suddenly tossed her a piece of fruit candy.

"Sugar can improve your mood, and I've heard that sweets can bring happiness."

Ruiko took the fruit candy that Higashino handed her, but hesitated to open it.

Are you happy?

But in this Academy City, do I, who lack any abilities, really deserve to obtain such a thing?

Ruiko thought to herself with a touch of self-mockery as she looked up at Higashino.

"Why did the teacher choose Tokiwadai?" she suddenly asked, not wanting to continue the previous topic.

Higashino took a comfortable sip of his canned soda, which made a soft clicking sound, but did not choose to answer the girl's question.

"I'm better at observing people's hearts than healing the body, especially the hearts of confused young girls."

He suddenly pointed to Leizi's hand behind her back.

Tears stopped breathing.

His gaze fell on Ruiko's right hand, clenched tightly in tension. The edge of the USB drive peeked out from between the girl's fingers.

Saten Ruiko gripped the USB drive so tightly her palms were sweating. She knew it was contraband and didn't want Higashino to find out, but things didn't go as she wished.

"Using this thing too much will make you demented," Higashino suddenly said, startling Ruiko so much that she almost threw the USB drive into the fountain.

"It's like stuffing a hundred short films into your brain; the hard drive will burn out sooner or later."

Tears suddenly stood up: "Since you know this, then you must have a way, right, teacher?"

Higashino chuckled. How exactly did Ruiko figure that out?

"You don't think I'm Santa Claus, do you?"

He suddenly bent down and approached, the smell of disinfectant mixed with the scent of mints hitting Leizi's nose. "But I do have a way, though it comes at a high price."

The girl's fingernails dug into her palms. The intimate actions she had taken with the boy at the hospital last night were still vivid in her mind.

"I'll pay any price!"

Ruiko heard her voice crack as she shouted.

"Even... even if I have to wear a maid outfit and be your maid, I'll do it!"

Higashino was somewhat surprised by the girl's decisiveness, but he still reached out and cupped her face in his hands; he was not one to hesitate.

"Any price? Then close your eyes."

The moment her eyelashes trembled and closed, Leizi tasted the sweetness of the fruit candy exploding between her lips and teeth.

Unfortunately, in the distance, the voice of Haru Shiori calling for Kuroko suddenly came, and she was being pressed against the trunk of a zelkova tree, her school uniform shirt rustling as it was rubbed by the bark.

At the same time, Higashino also activated his ability. Whether it's having an ability or what's happening now, it's all reasonable.

"breathe."

A whistling, breathy voice tickled her eardrums. Suddenly, Lei Zi felt dizzy, as if someone had plugged a USB port into her temple, and a flood of information rushed in.

When she opened her eyes, firefly-like specks of light danced in her palm. Tears welled as she watched the aluminum can three meters away tremble slightly with her will, and she suddenly realized that this was the first time in her life she had used her abilities without the aid of external devices.

"For now, only Level 1 is available."

Higashino licked the sugar stains off the corner of her mouth and looked at her alluring lips with a smile.

“But you’ll have to pay ‘tuition’ once a week…” He pressed his thumb against Leizi’s swollen lower lip, where teeth marks were still visible.

Of course, the main reason is that the current strength of the ability is not yet sufficient to permanently enhance the ability of a user, even if it is only Level 1.

Suddenly, Ruiko grabbed his tie with such force that it could suffocate Higashino: "Does Haru know you charge like this?"

"She..."

The man laughed like a cat that had just stolen some fish, laughing without even realizing it.

"Right now they probably think we're talking about some urban legend, but I doubt she'll mind that I have another girlfriend, after all, it's you, Ruiko."

Ruiko couldn't help but roll her eyes at him, realizing she had essentially sold herself to this awful doctor.

However, for some reason, she was not opposed to it.

That night in the girls' dormitory, Ruiko was testing her new ability in front of the mirror. Her phone's photo album had unknowingly been filled with pictures of her with Haru and Professor Higashino.

Higashino Yu leaned back on the sofa in the apartment, twirling the strawberry hair clip left by her tears with her fingertips.

This ability even automatically patches my devices; it's a perfect ability for me.

From the "three-month boyfriend" in early spring to the "ability coaching agreement" that Leizi just signed, their best friends, classmates, and even the cleaning robot passing by all think, "Isn't it normal for this guy to have ten girlfriends? Anyway, they're all legal, right?"

Even when Kuroko and Haruko came over in the afternoon, they didn't feel anything was wrong at all. Haruko even happily said that she could be with Ruiko from now on.

Only Kuroko was slightly unconvinced, feeling that Higashino was incredibly lucky to have two of her best friends fall for her.

"My abilities seem to be much stronger than yesterday; even if they completely defy common sense, no one will think it's abnormal."

As for why he became stronger, he wasn't quite sure, but it might be related to his proficient use of his abilities.

However, such a limited and reasonable understanding is indeed a bit exaggerated. If one indulges their desires, they could stay in bed all day without getting up.

Even Aleister's hovering trajectory seemed reasonable, so who dares to say it's abnormal? He's just that amazing!

He suddenly grabbed the handmade cookie Chu Chun had given him and took a bite; the creamy flavor immediately overwhelmed any ambiguous atmosphere. The latest message on his phone was a dinner invitation from Mitsuko after their marriage, the location showing that male guests were prohibited from entering the school dormitory—clearly, in her mind, he should have had a special pass long ago, and the dormitory supervisor probably wouldn't have stopped him.

He casually declined the invitation and looked at the mirror in the room, his pupils shimmering like mercury in the reflection.

But that's not enough; it needs to be even stronger, since both Aleister and the future Demon God are ridiculously powerful.

Chapter 16 The Gradually Deviating Trajectory

On the morning of July 20, sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains of the Tokiwadai faculty dormitory, waking Higashino Yu from his sleep.

He glanced at his phone; the screen showed 9:17 a.m. Tokiwadai Junior High School officially started its summer vacation today, which meant that his role as a school nurse, which he had only worked for one day, was temporarily coming to an end.

Finally, I don't have to smell disinfectant all day anymore...

The excited chatter of girls drifted in from outside the window, mingled with the sound of suitcase wheels scraping against the ground. Today was the first day of summer vacation for all schools in Academy City, and the entire campus was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

Higashino stretched and slowly walked to the balcony. The July sun scorched the earth, and even the air felt thick and sticky.