Chapter 164: Let's Blow It Up
The veins in the head professor's forehead bulged as he got ready to fight. He jabbed a finger at Mika, voice rising as he shouted,
"But he just admitted it! He said himself that he added the battery! There's evidence that he did it, so how can you excuse him so easily when you were so angry just a moment ago!"
But Anya only chuckled lightly, brushing aside his outrage as though he were a child throwing a tantrum.
"Don't worry yourself, Professor. Even if Mika did add a dangerous battery, I'm sure he accounted for every possible outcome. I trust him to have taken proper precautions to ensure nothing catastrophic would happen."
She turned to Mika then, smiling as though expecting him to back her words.
"Isn't that right, Mika? You probably made sure the danger was contained?"
Mika met her gaze, calm as ever, and gave a polite nod as he said, "Of course. Do you really think I'd go against your wishes, Anya? I wouldn't dare do something you despise without safeguards in place."
Her smile blossomed wider, her eyes glinting with something unreadable.
The professors, however, erupted in outrage.
"Nonsense!" The bearded one snapped, slamming his hand against the nearest desk. "That's absurd, complete absurdity! You expect us to believe you could contain a potential overload from a three million decavolt battery?"
"And not just that, but one linked with a Teverus Blue Supercharger? That's not a battery, that's a nuclear power plant strapped to a bomb!"
Another professor stepped forward, veins bulging at his temples.
"Do you even understand what that means? If that battery had exploded, the blast would have shattered the eardrums of every student in the main building! The explosion would have left a cloud so vast it could be seen from hundreds of miles away!"
His voice cracked in disbelief.
"And you're telling us you had precautions against that? That you could contain it?...Impossible!"
"I've already said it once, but I'll say it again." Mika's voice remained steady, almost bored. "Even if that battery had exploded, the measures I put in place would have contained it. The machine itself would have been destroyed, yes—but the students would have been perfectly safe."
The professors gaped at him, their outrage climbing.
"Bullshit! Absolute bullshit!" Another spat. "Even we, with decades of research, can't imagine containing such an explosion. There's no invention in existence that could achieve it, certainly not in a mid-grade student lab like this! Not now, not in the distant future! You'd need a miracle!"
One finally barked the question the others were circling.
"And who in the world are you supposed to be? Your name isn't even listed in Charlotte's group, so why are you meddling in their project? Why were you the one adding that battery?"
Mika chuckled lightly, scratching the back of his neck as if amused.
"Ah, right, I suppose I should explain that." He lifted his gaze, meeting theirs with an easy calm that only made them angrier. "I'm not officially part of Charlotte's team, true. But I am her contacted support class. That means I'm involved indirectly, and when they encountered this particular problem, I stepped in."
The professors exchanged wary glances as he continued,
"The issue was simple. They needed a massive, constant power source. Their project required it. Obtaining such a battery wasn't the problem, Charlotte's the daughter of a Battle Angel, after all. She has the resources. But..." He tilted his head knowingly. "...those resources came with risk. The academy rules forbid such batteries because of their destructive potential. If it overloaded, it could have been catastrophic."
He spread his hands casually.
"That's where I came in. They consulted me, I assessed the problem, and I assured them I'd handle the risk myself. I was the one who told them to go ahead with the battery. I was the one who put the precautions in place."
"So yes, if you want someone responsible for it, it's me."
The room fell into a tense silence. The students gawked, the professors fumed, and Anya's smile only deepened, as if she wholeheartedly trusted what Mika said.
And then suddenly the head professor threw his head back and burst into laughter, the sound echoing harshly across the room. He then pointed a trembling finger straight at Mika, as though he had just heard the grandest joke in the world.
"You!?" He scoffed, voice dripping with disbelief. "You, of all people, created something that could withstand the explosion of a three-million decavolt battery tied to a Supercharger?"
"You, a boy who isn't even a Blessed? Not even a researcher in this block, but just a lowly support-class student with no future prospects whatsoever?...Don't make me laugh!"
The laughter cut short, and his expression twisted into contempt. He stepped forward and slapped the side of his own face mockingly, as though to wake himself from a ridiculous dream.
"Stop lying, boy. Stop this charade. We all know what this is, you're covering for her." He jabbed his finger toward Charlotte, his lip curling. "You're lying to save her from the punishment she deserves!"
The other professors quickly joined in, nodding and sneering, their voices rising in agreement.
"There's no way a child like you could engineer precautions on that scale."
"It's too advanced—even for us, decades of research couldn't manage it!"
"A student who hasn't even published a single paper, daring to claim something impossible...preposterous!"
"Enough games. Stop wasting our time. Get lost!"
Their dismissive words rang loud, the chorus of scorn meant to drown him out completely.
And hearing this, Charlotte's hands clenched so tightly her knuckles turned white. She trembled with fury, biting back her outrage. Every word they spat at Mika felt like an insult hurled directly at her.
Anya, meanwhile, stood smiling sweetly, but her eyes betrayed the storm within. Those eyes glimmered with a murderous edge, as though she could cut every last professor into a million pieces if Mika gave her the word.
But Mika himself remained utterly calm. A faint smile tugged at his lips as he finally spoke, his tone maddeningly even.
"I see." He said softly. "It makes sense you wouldn't believe me. It's only natural. Just because you couldn't accomplish something like this yourselves, you assume no one else could either."
The underlying sting in his words made the professors flinch and cringe as though slapped, their pride smarting under the casual insult.
But Mika wasn't finished. His eyes sharpened, his voice sinking with weight.
"But sadly the truth is, no matter what I say now, you'll simply call me a liar. Even if I showed you the entire theoretical framework, every safeguard, every detail, you'd still mock me. You'd call it nonsense, invent excuses for why it couldn't work, and bury me under your so-called 'authority.'"
His smile deepened, carrying a dangerous calm.
"So instead of arguing with you, I'll just show you...Practically."
The professors stiffened. Unease spread through the room.
"Show us…?" The bearded one asked warily. "What do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what it sounds like..." Mika's reply was casual, almost playful before he chuckled and casually announced, "...I'll detonate the battery to show you the truth."
"Right here. Right now. With the supercharger. I'll make it explode, and you'll see with your own eyes that not a single scratch will touch anyone in this room."
The moment those words left his mouth, the crowd erupted in chaos.
"He's insane!"
"Did I hear that right? He's going to blow it up himself?!"
"No one's that crazy!"
"He really is the mad dog!"
Fear rippled outward like wildfire. Students stumbled back. Even professors faltered, eyes wide with shock.
Surely, they thought, he was bluffing, surely this was a ploy to intimidate them.
But Mika ignored their protests. He simply turned his head toward Charlotte, his tone as calm as ever.
"Charlotte. If I detonate your battery with the supercharger, will it ruin your experiment too much?"
The professors froze, aghast. Was he seriously involving her in this madness?
Charlotte's lips curled into a grin, her fury melting into amusement as she said,
"Not at all, Mika. Not at all. If this one goes, I'll just buy another. It's no big deal...I've also unplugged the battery from the Dream Drifter, so nothing will happen to that as well. Your okay to do whatever you want!"
She chuckled, as if replacing a three-million decavolt battery were as simple as buying bread at a market, when it was something that even these professors would never be able to get their hands on.
"Then good." Mika said lightly. "Please override the batteries. Let's show our professors how my precautions work."
The professors paled in horror. "You can't be serious, stop this madness!"
But Charlotte only sneered, bowing mockingly before them. "Of course. Anything you ask Mika."
She strode to the console, her fingers dancing across the glowing keys and the professors shouted for her to stop, students cried out in panic, but she ignored them all.
With a final smirk in their direction—she pressed the last button.
And immediately, a low hum filled the chamber.
Wroooom!
Next to the Dream-Drifter, a black cube-like machine etched with glowing runes came alive. Its tubes pulsed with unnatural light, flashing an ominous red as heat radiated in waves.
Seeing this, the professors blood ran cold. Their eyes widened as realization struck them.
"H-He wasn't bluffing."
One whispered in horror, while the head professor's face drained of color. He let out a strangled scream, his voice rising in raw panic.
"Run! Run for your lives!...The building's going to explode!"
And just like that, chaos erupted. Students screamed, bolting for the doors. Professors scrambled like frightened animals, shoving each other aside in their desperation to escape.
But before they could reach safety, Anya's lilting chuckle stopped them cold.
"Where are you going?" She asked sweetly. "You're witnesses. Do you really think you can leave so easily?"
Her eyes glinted, dangerous and amused. "Stay. See for yourselves. That's the only way you'll learn."
She then turned her head slightly. "Charlotte. Shut the doors, please."
Charlotte grinned. "With pleasure." Her fingers flew over the console again.
With a heavy clang, every exit slammed shut, locking tight. The crowd hurled themselves at the doors, pounding and begging.
"Help! Let us out! Don't trap us in here!"
"Please I don't want to die!"
"Mommy! Save me!"
But their cries went unanswered. They were trapped, locked inside with a bomb about to blow.
The students clawed at the locked doors, their voices hoarse as they begged to be let out. Professors, men who usually carried themselves with intellectual pride, now shoved at each other in desperation, their polished shoes scraping against the floor as they fought to reach the sealed exit.
Some had tears in their eyes, others were muttering prayers, their glasses fogging with sweat from the oppressive heat radiating off the humming cube.
But in the midst of this chaos, Mika remained perfectly calm. His eyes were steady, his expression even, as though the deadly device pulsing red in the corner was no more than a lit candle on a desk.
He turned his gaze toward Charlotte and Anya, his tone light but teasing.
"So what about you two? Not even a little scared? Not even the tiniest doubt that I might be wrong, and that when this battery goes off, it won't just wipe out this building, it'll take all of us with it straight to heaven?"
"As if that would ever happen. You making a mistake like this, Mika?...Impossible."
Charlotte scoffed, folding her arms under her chest as if the very idea insulted her, before adding,
"You could light a bomb that would shatter the world itself and I'd still stand beside you without flinching. If you say it's safe, then it's safe. No one else gets a say."
Her words rang with absolute conviction, her eyes blazing with the kind of trust that left the professors staring at her as though she'd lost her mind.
Anya, however, rolled her eyes with a faint chuckle, her smile as sweet as poisoned honey.
"Stop playing games, Mika. Even if a bomb did explode right in our faces, I'd still be happy...as long as I went together with you."
She stepped closer, her voice lowering, dripping with devotion.
"But of course, something like that won't happen. You promised. And when you promise, I know you'll carry it through to the end. Don't insult me by asking silly questions."
Her eyes gleamed with something far more dangerous than fear, a fanatical faith that unsettled even the boldest students in the room to which Mika's lips curved in a faint, wry smile.
He hadn't expected less.
Both sisters, for different reasons, put their lives in his hands without hesitation. And while the crowd screamed and beat against the walls in a frenzy, Charlotte and Anya stood at his side like loyal shadows, one fiery with mischievous certainty, the other serene with unshakable devotion.
That trust, absolute and terrifying, made the professors pale even more than the looming explosion did.
For they realized then: that messing with this family was the worst decision of their lives as every one was crazier then the other, each one ready to follow each other into hell...