Academy City, Seventh School District, Windowless Building...
In that strange room, the astonishing figure floated as he had for years in that tank that seemed to keep him alive in an unknown way.
In front of Aleister was a display, unfortunately blank since he had not yet launched the replacement for Under_Line. However, today one of them lit up, displaying a report.
"Sisters' kidnapping?"
Aleister slowly opened his eyes. Over the past two years, many things had been happening. First, there was Dolly, the prototype who was supposed to die but surprisingly lived for another year, then disappeared, and her whereabouts are unknown.
This was the beginning of everything. Out of nowhere, a Magician (Clown) appeared and made this city his home. Aleister kept him under surveillance, but this man could not only evade Under_Line's surveillance but also had plenty of tricks up his sleeve that disrupted his surveillance.
Aleister didn't know why such a character came to Academy City, who he was, what group he belonged to, or if he was simply a wandering magician. This clown appeared out of nowhere in the world, but he kept playing with Anti-Skill and Judgment. He didn't pose a threat, or at least that was the case until a few hours ago when this clown intercepted Kanzaki and Stiyl.
Unfortunately, because Tree Diagram and Under_Line have been destroyed, Aleister's information network was weakened, and he was unable to know what happened between Necessarius and the Clown due to the barrier.
Aleister squinted at this. The existence of Index and Imagine Breaker was necessary for his plans, but if this clown interfered with them, he had no choice but to deprive him of his freedom. But now he had other things to worry about—three laboratories where the Level 6 shift experiment and the birth of the Misaka Sisters were assaulted yesterday, and all the Sisters in that laboratory were kidnapped...
The most interesting thing is that even when the other Sisters were asked about the whereabouts of their missing Sisters, none could give a correct answer. Apparently, the kidnapped Sisters lost connection with the Misaka Network, and none could say exactly what happened, as it seemed the kidnapped Sisters could not see their kidnapper.
There were no witnesses; everyone present was massacred, and the buildings were burning late into the night.
The assailants were quite careful, erasing all evidence, the database, and everything related to the experiment.
"..."
It all happened in a single night, which made Aleister suspicious.
He had two possible suspects for the kidnapping. First, Misaka Mikoto's boyfriend, Yuki Uchiha, Apocalypse.
This Esper's ability was quite versatile, and he had the perfect motive to do it. However, according to his sources, Apocalypse was at home when all this happened, which added more variables.
The next suspect was the Clown. This man's abilities were very mysterious, but he lacked motives, as he didn't seem to be related to Misaka Mikoto. The closest this clown got to Misaka Mikoto was through Judgment's Shirai Kuroko, but according to their relationship, the latter hated this Clown to the bone.
Also, this Clown was at that moment with Kanzaki inside the barrier.
As for Mikoto? Aleister didn't even consider her, considering her personality, Mikoto wouldn't harm a fly, and the assailants were quite cruel, as they crushed their victims to the point of being unrecognizable.
Completely beyond Mikoto's expectations, not to mention that at that moment, Mikoto was also in her room with her roommate...
Aleister was in a dilemma; everyone had an alibi that eliminated their suspicions.
"The military clones based on Academy City No. 3 had been stolen. The amount stolen amounts to 7012 clones. The remains of clones in organizations responsible for cleaning up the aftermath of the Level 6 shift program were also stolen."
Aleister closed his eyes; he was no longer interested in hearing the report. More than half of the clones for the continued experiment were lost.
Although he planned for this experiment to fail, he didn't want any sister to disappear. The Misaka Network is a powerful information network that many want, for example, Kihara Gensei.
"I told you, your plans are falling apart, you no longer have control..."
Suddenly, a static voice of indeterminate sex sounded, and Aleister opened his eyes. This voice belonged to Aiwass.
"And this isn't the first time things haven't gone according to your plans, is it? ..."
Aiwass was right. Since that Gigantic Crown appeared, nothing had followed the course of action, and if Aleister did not act, Index Librorum Prohibitorum would follow the same path as the Sisters.
Fate is an inanimate and shapeless thing, but powerful for every living being or object. That this crown could manipulate it was something that even made Aiwass shudder.
Because if he wasn't careful, this Crown would start changing his fate, and it's possible that he would encounter his destruction, Aleister knew it and that's why he prevented Aiwass from leaving this windowless building without either eliminating or preparing a countermeasure for that crown; he wouldn't let Aiwass leave.
"..."
Aleister did not respond and continued to think. Since Under_Line could not follow Joker's steps, it taught Aleister not to trust too much in Under_Line.
He quickly established an information network with ridiculous efficiency, which he then integrated with Under_Line, all so that he would know everything that happened in Academy City.
He thought that this way, this Clown would not escape his eyes, unfortunately, it was not so, the Joker still could not be detected and was causing chaos wherever he went, even controlling the Gangsters of Academy City.
Technology seemed not to work on that Clown, so Aleister took a passive action, waiting for the right moment to bite this Clown, but not everything went as it seemed, Under_Line and Tree Diagram were destroyed, and the Sisters were kidnapped...
"What will you do?"
Aiwass, on the other hand, was quite interested in what Aleister would do to eliminate the threat. As far as Aiwass could remember, Aleister had never lost before and had always used others as chess pieces. Now he was facing an unknown existence in the same game, and Aiwass was curious.
Aleister did not immediately respond; he took a few minutes of silence...
Aleister remembered the moment everything fell apart, before this crown covered Academy City, Dolly survived the experiments, and from that day on, his plans were thwarted one by one.
Mikoto Misaka's increase in power, something that exceeded the list of parameters, surprised Aleister.
The parameter list, an underground achievement ranking used to judge an Esper's potential. The assumption here is that anyone born has a certain limit with which they were born that effectively keeps them at a certain stage of development, in other words, a growth limit.
Mikoto was judged as level 5.
However, a year ago, Mikoto, through means unknown to Academy City, had managed to surpass her own growth limit, reaching level 5.1, almost reaching the same level as Teitoku Kakine, Dark Matter.
The appearance of Apocalypse, a human previously unknown to Tree Diagram, who awakened a quite unusual power such as a lethal Virus capable of exterminating all humanity.
And everything that happened before seemed to come from a root source.
"No matter, all I have to do is adjust my calculations and eliminate the root cause..."
Unfortunately, the root source was still in the dark, the patterns in which the events were triggered were unrelated, and everything seemed to be covered in mist...
If only he could get his hands on the root cause and eliminate it, Aleister believed that everything would return to normal.
Thinking about what went wrong these days, Aleister closed his eyes and muttered...
"Joker...."
No matter what, Aleister could no longer sit idly by. If he couldn't find the root cause, he had to track it down, and who better for the job than a Hound...
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TN: Bro's acting skills are so good that no one suspects clown and virus to be the same person lmao