Chapter 1742: Chapter 1740: No Friendship Without a Fight (Today Was Exhausting)

"Ah!!"

Riko was completely taken by surprise when the bank behind her suddenly exploded, and she let out a shriek. However, Fang Zheng, unlike Riko, didn’t react that slowly. Almost simultaneously with the explosion, he pulled Riko behind him, and a series of magic radiance instantly emerged, blocking the explosive fragments and flames.

"Get lost!"

At that moment, three figures, each holding a bag and with masked faces that looked like they could only be thieves, rushed out of the bank. The leader of the thieves saw Fang Zheng and Riko blocking their way and yelled in anger, raising his right hand. A fireball instantly shot out from his hand, aimed straight at Fang Zheng.

Playing with fire in front of me, huh. Not bad.

Watching this man dare unleash a fireball at him, Fang Zheng let out a cold snort. He clenched his fist and punched forward. The next moment, Fang Zheng’s right fist smashed through the incoming fireball and landed a punch on the face of the thief who had launched it. With a scream of agony, the man flew back into the bank as if he had been hit by a speeding truck.

Fang Zheng then stepped forward, and, taking advantage of the moment when the accomplices beside him hadn’t reacted yet, he kicked, sending the second thief flying.

Only then did the last thief react. He hurriedly turned to run, but Fang Zheng had already grabbed his arm and yanked him back.

"Waaaaaah!!"

As the thief’s arm was twisted, he let out a horrendous scream, but at that moment, a voice suddenly echoed.

"Stop!"

Before the voice had even faded, Fang Zheng saw a petite figure appear almost instantly beside him, aiming a kick at him.

Had it been an ordinary person, they might have been flustered by such a sudden attack. But to Fang Zheng, the speed seemed as slow as a crawling turtle. He merely gave a light snort, then casually tossed the thief like a discarded sack, extending his left hand swiftly to catch the opponent’s kicking right foot.

At the same time, Fang Zheng looked forward.

The attacker, evidently not expecting their ambush to be foiled, momentarily felt Fang Zheng’s hand loosen. They freed themselves from Fang Zheng’s grasp, reappearing in front of him and extending a hand forward —

"Aah —!"

However, the next moment, with a scream, the unfortunate attacker stumbled and fell to the ground.

Only now, as the smoke cleared,

a petite girl with brown hair in twin tails lay before Fang Zheng. Her skirt and sleeves were nailed firmly to the ground by pins. The twin-tailed girl widened her eyes in surprise, staring at Fang Zheng in disbelief.

What on earth happened?

She certainly knew what had transpired just now. She had intended to use her spatial movement ability to pin the man in front of her to the ground with those pins. However, her ability had barely manifested when the next moment, the pins appeared by her side, pinning her instead! How could that be possible? How was it done?!

"Kuroko!"

But then, another voice suddenly cut in, followed by a streak of thunder that flashed from the sky, shooting straight toward Fang Zheng.

Fang Zheng merely glanced at the incoming lightning.

In the next instant, before the lightning could strike Fang Zheng’s body, it vanished into thin air.

"How could this be...!?"

Seeing this, the twin-tailed girl was at a loss for words, while another brown-haired girl in the distance opened her eyes wide in shock, momentarily speechless.

At that moment...

"Stop!!"

Suddenly, a girl wearing a sailor uniform and a flower crown rushed out. She fearfully approached the twin-tailed girl pinned to the ground, reaching out her hand. Although she looked on the verge of tears, she mustered her courage and spoke up.

"I-I am a Discipline Committee Member! The guards will be here any moment! Please lay down your weapon immediately...!"

"Watch out, Hatsuharu!"

But right then, the man who had been knocked away by Fang Zheng suddenly lunged from the side, wielding a butterfly knife, aiming straight for Hatsuharu. Meanwhile, another girl in a sailor uniform, with the flower-crowned girl, dashed out, shoving Hatsuharu aside. But in doing so, she put herself right in front of the man.

"Die!!"

"Classmate Saten!!"

Witnessing this, the flower-crowned girl screamed, but just as the man was about to strike the black-haired girl, Fang Zheng swiftly moved, stepping between them, grabbing the man’s knife-wielding right hand, and casually tossing him aside.

"Ahhhh!!"

With a cry of pain, the man was sent soaring into the air before crashing heavily to the ground.

"...Eh?"

Seeing this, everyone was stunned.

After a moment, the gathered crowd finally learned the cause and effect of the situation, and couldn’t help but feel deeply embarrassed.

"Since you’re the victim, why did you attack Kuroko?"

"She came at me first."

Fang Zheng pointed to the twin-tailed girl beside him, whose face was ashen, and she snorted softly.

"Be-because I heard those criminals yelling so loudly, I thought you were the one who..."

At this point, the twin-tailed girl sighed helplessly and lowered her head. She had just teleported in, not yet clear on what was happening, when she heard the third criminal’s scream. At that moment, Kuroko instinctively thought Fang Zheng was the bank robber, and the one screaming might be the victim, leading her to act hastily.

Unexpectedly, she was taken down by Fang Zheng in just a few moves.

Incidentally, the three criminals were arrested by the guards who arrived upon hearing the news, but they weren’t sent to jail but directly to the hospital. After all, they were severely injured by Fang Zheng, all three suffering varying degrees of comminuted fractures, with the leader also having a concussion and multiple hemorrhages. If not treated promptly, they might have died on the way.

As for Fang Zheng, he was summoned to the Discipline Committee’s branch for a statement, and after reviewing the video, it was confirmed he was an innocent passerby affected by the incident. Given his good attitude, it was finally deemed self-defense.

"I’m really very sorry."

Upon leaving the branch, the twin-tailed girl—Kuroko Shirai solemnly bowed to Fang Zheng.

"It’s nothing, you were just doing your job and merely mistook the identity, don’t worry too much about it."

Fang Zheng didn’t mind, while Kuroko felt slightly flushed. She knew he had indeed shown mercy toward her, as the appraisal of the three criminals’ injuries had already come out, and if Fang Zheng had intended to fight back, she might have ended up in the hospital herself.

Not to mention this all originated from her own misguided judgment...

However, as they say, no fighting, no understanding; through this commotion, Fang Zheng got to know these girls. The twin-tailed Discipline Committee Member was Kuroko Shirai, the one who fired thunder to stop him was Mikoto Misaka, and the one who came out to protect Kuroko, wearing flowers on her head, was her friend Hatsuharu Shirori, as well as Hatsuharu’s friend, Saten Reiko...

Of course, Fang Zheng had seen them in the anime before, but it was indeed their first time meeting him.

After finishing the statement, it was already dinner time, and as an apology, Fang Zheng invited the girls to dinner, which they readily accepted, and they also got to know Riko Mine, who was with Fang Zheng, and the little kitten he was holding...

"So Mr. Fang Zheng, you’re the director of a research institute?"

Over drinks... after rounds of tea, Fang Zheng introduced himself to the girls, and after hearing his introduction, Ruiko, with her glossy black long hair, couldn’t help but ask curiously.

"That’s right, I only recently came to Academy City."

Fang Zheng nodded while stroking the kitten in his arms.

"Oh... so Mr. Fang Zheng, what research does your institute conduct?"

"Currently? At present, we’re researching how to enable Non-Ability Users to gain abilities."

"Really?"

Upon hearing this, Ruiko stood up excitedly once more.

"Is it really possible to do such a thing?"

"I can only say it’s possible, whether it can be done is another issue, as there must be many similar research topics in Academy City."

As he spoke, Fang Zheng glanced at Kuroko, and she nodded.

"That’s right, enhancing Ability Levels is a key research topic in Academy City... if there really was a way to grant abilities, it would have been discovered long ago."

"I see..."

Ruiko sat down, somewhat disappointed, looking a bit dejected. Fang Zheng just smiled at her without saying much. At this moment, Hatsuharu curiously looked at Fang Zheng and asked.

"But Mr. Fang Zheng, how did you defeat Kuroko and Classmate Misaka? Are you an Ability User too?"

Hearing Hatsuharu’s question, Misaka Mikoto, who had been focusing on the kitten, and the absent-minded Kuroko Shirai immediately perked up and looked at Fang Zheng. This was their question as well; Kuroko couldn’t understand why her ability backfired, and Mikoto was puzzled by why her electricity vanished before reaching its target.

After all, she had been very nervous and anxious when she saw Kuroko fall, even though she hadn’t used her full power, she had exerted quite a bit of strength!

How did it suddenly disappear?

However, in response to Hatsuharu’s question, Fang Zheng merely chuckled.

"Who knows? Maybe it’s an ability, maybe it’s magic, who can say?"