2_Chapter 1_ Entrance Ceremony_1

He was all set to stomp in and go into full-on lecture mode today, but… What he saw were girls in the middle of changing their clothes, just like in a manga. And there were two of them, too. First was the nun he knew well. She wasn’t wearing her habit, for some reason, but rather a short-sleeve shirt and the short pants of a gym uniform. Except…her short pants were only halfway on. She was bent over, with one hand holding either side of them, and she had completely frozen—save for the corners of her lips, which were turning up in an awkward way. Second was a girl he did not know, wearing the summer uniform of a different school. She had straight hair, with a clump of it tied up with elastic at the side of her head. Her thin-framed glasses were sliding down her nose, though he couldn’t tell if it was on purpose or if they just did that anyway. Except…all the buttons on her blouse were undone, and she held a short-sleeve gym shirt in her hands. She was also completely frozen, save for her eyes, wide like a small animal and dangerously close to watering. They looked back at him. It seemed they hadn’t yet fully grasped the reality of the situation. The cat, who didn’t care one way or the other, drowsily cleaned its face with its front paw. Kamijou’s danger sense went into overdrive. “Err, sorry, wrong room” The next moment, both girls’ faces went bright red. He wanted to believe it was because they were blushing or embarrassed—but no. One moment later there came a shriek of anger and the roaring crash of something breaking. 7 Kamijou was extremely angry. He was the one being subjected to this absurdity in the first place. He was very sorry that he had walked in on them changing, but he would not be satisfied with simply letting Index get angry at him and thereafter having her tooth marks imprinted in his head. This led to them going to the cafeteria after the two of them had changed back into their normal clothes. Kamijou and Index glared at each other while the girl who he didn’t know looked at them and fidgeted, as though wondering what to do. None of this was any concern of the cat’s, though, who proceeded to make itself comfortable on the table. In a low voice mixed with sleep deprivation and anger, Kamijou asked, “So, Index, who’s this girl?” For some reason, the unfamiliar girl’s shoulders twitched in surprise. In contrast, Index morosely replied, “I don’t know, but she’s my friend.” “What do you mean you don’t know? Don’t go walking around with strangers!” “I don’t know, but I know Hyouka’s my friend, okay?!” The girl named Hyouka jolted like a frightened animal every time one of them shouted, but she finally took a deep breath and, very hesitantly, tried to settle them down. “I-I’m…Hyouka Kazakiri…Who are you?” “Hmm? Oh, I’m Kamijou.” He said it casually, though her shoulders still gave a jerk. Index saw that and said, “Touma, you mustn’t scare Hyouka…It’ll be okay, Hyouka. Touma is a rare species. He’s a very vigorous male, and he’s indecisive, and he wants to butt into girls’ business all the time, but he’s a good person.” “…U-umm…Am I supposed to be relieved…?” Kamijou grimaced at how seriously Kazakiri asked that question. However, she didn’t look like she was coming out of her trembling, scared mood any time soon. Index tried to ease her nervousness. “There, there, Hyouka. I’ll let you hold Sphinx! If you pet him, it might loosen you up a little.” “Umm…Is Sphinx his…his name?” Without a hint of hesitation, the cat rolled onto its back and showed its stomach, as if to say in a very gentlemanly voice, “Now, Miss, you can cry into my belly all you need.” It began to spread its front paws wide. Kazakiri’s troubled face persisted as her hand hovered in the air, but she finally brought it down and stroked the cat’s soft stomach. “Oh…He’s warm.” An unintentional smile crossed her face. The cat, on the other hand, started to twitch back and forth as if someone were tickling his feet. He looked like he was trying desperately to endure something, as if saying, I-I’m just fine, Miss. You’ll hear no complaints from me, this is nothi— Owhoa?! Meanwhile, Kamijou moped a little at how he’d been eliminated from the conversation. “Yep! You can try holding him if you want. He does shed a little bit, but I think it feels good to hug him.” “Um, okay…Like…like this?” Doing the same as she saw Index do, she softly embraced the cat, holding him to her breast. The motion wasn’t any different from what Index always did, but… Sproing. The cat’s head got buried in Kazakiri’s generous chest. Kamijou snapped out of his foul mood and immediately went red in the face. He jerked his head and eyes far away from the defenseless Kazakiri. The cat squirmed about, as if to say, Gwooh?! N-now, Miss, I appreciate the gesture, but I may suffocate— Agh He slipped out of her hands, landed back on the round table, and shook himself off. However, the girls in question didn’t seem to realize why the cat had shown such rejection. “Umm…Animals have sharper senses than humans…so maybe he can smell the difference between you and me…” “Hyouka, don’t look so sad! You just have to get to know each other a little better…Hey, Touma? Why are you looking over there?” “No reason,” Kamijou answered. He locked eyes with the cat, both of them knowing the truth, but the cat meowed in exhaustion, as if telling him that there are some things in this world better left unsaid. Kamijou, strangely self-conscious, wanted to change the topic. However, he was under the faint impression that Kazakiri might have androphobia, so he took aim at Index instead. “So why did you come here, anyway?” “Mgh. That’s right. Lunch, what about lunch? You left without leaving any lunch for me. I could have died of starvation!” “Today’s the entrance ceremony, so I’d have been home by noon!” “Y-you didn’t say anything like that! How was I supposed to know?” “Just know! It’s common sense, okay?!” “Okay, then, Touma, you know this, right? About how when you’re casting a spell in a sanctuary to create an idol and fill it with Telesma from an English cross? You know how the time and cardinal directions are related to the caster’s position, right?! You know about defensive magic circles to protect yourself from the main spell’s aftereffects, and how you have to put it in a very precise location! And how if you’re even a little bit off, the main spell will eat up the defense and it won’t work properly! This is a golden rule, but you knew that already, didn’t you? Come on, it’s just common sense!” “Now…now, stop…” They continued to yell at each other like this, with Hyouka Kazakiri trying to mediate every twenty seconds or so. They weren’t the only ones angry. Miss Komoe was at the end of her rope. Wheeere aaare youuu, Kamiii? How bold you are to blow off the entrance ceremony on the first day like this! Hee, hee-hee-hee, eee-heee-hee-hee… When she’d realized Kamijou wasn’t present in the gymnasium, she began to smile that dark, evil smile that no one should ever see and began to search for him. Hmm. Well, he may have fallen ill, or been wounded, or had extenuating circumstances…Kami, you’re okay, right? Even though she was currently raging mad at a certain truant, she couldn’t help but worry a little. She was a kind teacher at heart, after all. However… She heard the sounds of talking coming from the cafeteria. Every student and faculty member in this school should have currently been in the gymnasium. Could it be? Miss Komoe headed that way, and sure enough, there was Kamijou. Surrounded by a pair of girls, no less. They were arguing with one another, somehow looking like they were enjoying themselves. Ah…aha… The needle on her anger gauge rose exactly as much as how worried she had been. She took a deep breath, filling the very bottom of her lungs, and put every ounce of strength she had into her next words. “K-K-Ka-Kami What in the world do you think you’re doing?” At the sound of her shout, the cat curled up on the table, yelped, and nearly fell off. They stopped their conversation and turned around. A female teacher barged into the cafeteria. She was 135 centimeters tall and looked like she was twelve. Her face was red all the way to her ears. Probably from intense anger. “H-huh? Miss Komoe, what’s wrong? Isn’t the entrance ceremony happening—” “You shouldn’t be talking, Kami! I’ll have you know that your teacher was so worried that you weren’t in the gymnasium, she left and came all this way to look for you! And yet here you are, reveling in your school popularity! If you flirt with girls that much, you’re going to fall victim to impure members of the opposite sex one day!” “Well, no, I wasn’t flirting…Miss Komoe, did our yelling at each other really look that way to you?” “You both look so calm even though you’re yelling at each other. That’s basically what flirting is! I-in the first place, why do so many girls just gravitate toward you, anyway?! Are you giving off some kind of weird involuntary diffusion field or something?!” “Th-that’s got nothing to do with it! Why even bring that up at this point?” And like that, Kamijou and Miss Komoe began a face-to-face quarrel… …and five minutes later, the conversation started to get a little strange. “Tsuchimikado never came to school, and a nun did come to school, and I was already busy! So no more weird questions out of you! I cannot leave you to your own devices when you’re so…so frivolous with girls!” “Tsuchimikado and Index have nothing to do with me, do they?! Besides, good old Kamijou is super hard-headed! Even if I happened to trip some flags, no events would happen! Only bad stuff would happen!” “K-Kami? What about you is hard-headed, exactly?! Here you are, wallowing in your loud, flamboyant school life, and yet you say you’re hard-headed?!” …Ten minutes later, the conversation started to get really strange. “Why do your mental and physical faculties suddenly increase whenever girls are involved, Kami?! You should use that enthusiasm for your studies instead!” “W-wait a second, Miss Komoe! You’re not just writing me off as some merrymaker who would risk his life just to make friends with a girl, are you?!” “…Touma, don’t you realize that risking your life is why you make friends with girls?” “Damn it, not you, too, Index…?!” …Fifteen minutes later, the conversation was in a completely different place altogether. “A-anyway, you’re coming with me, Kami! I’ll give you a lecture you’ll never forget” “Touma, instead of listening to a lecture, I think you should give your confession to me.” “Agh, jeez! I’m running on no sleep and I have a terrible headache, so please stop yelling in such a high-pitched voice! Come on, Kazakiri, say something! You’re the only good person around here—Huh? Wait, what?” Kamijou looked over, stupefied. Index and Miss Komoe looked over as well. Hyouka Kazakiri had been at their table, but at some point, she had disappeared. The only thing left was the empty folding chair sitting by itself where she had just been. “…Oh man, did she get fed up and leave?” he wondered aloud, but there was, of course, no response. 8 Index, having been driven off of the school grounds, leaned against the chain fence next to the school gate. She had decided to wait for Kamijou. The cat in her arms seemed sleepy. “…Umm…I just wanted to say, that was…well. I was a little surprised, I guess…” She turned around at the hushed voice to see Hyouka Kazakiri, who they thought had left because she got tired of them. “That stuff always happens. Hyouka, you should have said something, too!” “Really…? That teacher seemed really mad, though…” “Komoe wasn’t angry. How come you’re so bothered by it, Hyouka?” “Well, I mean…She was making kind of a…well, a sad face…” Index fell silent for a moment. Then, she said, “…Touma was mad.” “?” “We fight with each other all the time, but this time it seemed different. He wouldn’t listen to anything I said, and he was angry the whole time, and he never smiled…” Index made a sour face at her own words. She had looked pretty energetic while arguing with him, but it seemed she was a little depressed on the inside. “I wonder if Touma hates me now…” Her gaze fell. Or maybe… She hesitated to think the rest. Maybe he just hated me from the start, and I only just realized it now. She bit her lip. The cat in her arms started to mew in protest as she tightened her grip unconsciously. Kazakiri smiled a little at her. “…That’s not…true. Really good friends…are friendly enough to fight with each other.” “Why? People get hurt when you fight. It hurts when someone says something rude to you. I wouldn’t want to do that to someone I’m good friends with.” “Friends who are close enough to fight with each other…,” began Kazakiri in a soft voice. “It means that when they fight…they can make up. So their friendship doesn’t end. That person…He knows that even when you and he fight, you won’t stop being friends…so I think that’s why he can fight with you.” “Really?” “It’s true…Would you rather not argue at all? If you don’t want to fight…then you would keep everything you want to do pent up inside you, and just smile even when you don’t feel it…And if you have a fight anyway, you wouldn’t even make up after it…You would leave that friend and make other friends. Would you rather be on thin ice like that…?” Index made a grouchy face. Kazakiri gave her a small smile. “No, I don’t want that. I want to be with Touma forever,” said Index. “Yes…I think you two will be fine…because you feel that way…At the very least, he would get angry on your behalf…so you’ll be okay,” responded Hyouka Kazakiri. But under her breath, she added, “…But he does talk like nothing happened even though he saw us naked…” At long last, Kamijou was freed from the clutches of Miss Komoe’s lecturing. There were no students left in either the hallways or the classrooms. Both the entrance ceremony and homeroom were over, and everyone had gone home by now. The only voices he heard were of people at after-school clubs. That must be why the cafeteria was open. He never saw Tsuchimikado. Maybe they had missed each other, or maybe he really hadn’t come in today. …B-blech… He drooped like a wilting vegetable under the weight of his exhaustion coupled with his lack of sleep. It was already past noon. He idly reflected on how he was hungry as he returned to his deserted classroom, picked up his bag, and headed for the entryway. He traded his slippers for his shoes and exited the building. He plodded through the courtyard and past the soccer club, which was in the middle of its stretches, and discovered Index and Hyouka Kazakiri waiting for him at the gate. “Heeey!” he called out to them as he ran outside. “Oh, Touma’s back…” “Huh? Why the long face?” “What? No, it’s nothing.” “Huh? Whatever. You want to get something to eat? Somewhere cheap.” Index made a confused face and replied, “Touma, we’re not eating at home today?” “That’s too much of a hassle. We were gonna go do something afterward anyway.” “…” “What? I told you this morning, remember?” “I-I remember…but…” Index’s face flushed a bit and she tightened her grip on the cat, who started squirming about and mewing in annoyance. Kazakiri, standing next to her, giggled. “Oh, do you want to come, too, Hyouka?” “Huh…? May I?” “There’s no reason not to! Touma, you’re okay with that, right?” “Right,” he answered without skipping a beat. Kazakiri looked a little surprised. “Umm…Th-thank you…,” she replied in a hushed voice to Index. “Hmm. If we’re gonna be out all day, we’re gonna need some money. I’ll be right back. I’m just going to go withdraw some cash from the store, so wait here.” With that, he headed for the convenience store by the school and started using the ATM next to its entrance. Every student in Academy City was included in its scholarship system. Each month they would receive money, sort of like a paycheck. It sounds like a pretty convenient system, but you could also look at it as the contract fee for agreeing to be a human experiment for ability development. The better your school and the higher your Level, the bigger your scholarship was—meaning you were that much more important to their research. Kamijou didn’t get much money, because he was a Level Zero who attended an average school. …Well, it’s not like they’re treating us like lab rats or anything. He stuffed the money into his wallet and left the store. Then a voice suddenly addressed him from the side. “Hey, hey, you, young man! That’s dangerous, y’know.” He turned to the female voice and saw a rather good-looking woman in a green jersey standing there. Her long hair was tied back, but her somewhat sloppy impression only served to bolster her appeal. However, judging from the crest on her shoulder, she was a member of Anti-Skill. He thought female Anti-Skill members were pretty rare. The reason was simple—despite Japan’s equivalent pay laws, the gender ratio in its defense force was overwhelmingly one-sided. She looked at him and said in exasperation, “Don’t go flaunting your wallet next to an ATM like that. It’s almost like you’re asking people to steal it!” “Huh? Oh, um, I’m sorry.” He didn’t really know what to do but apologize, but that seemed to satisfy the woman in the jersey. “Right, right! Be more careful next time, young man.” Grinning, she left Kamijou and went elsewhere. He scratched his head. Professional Anti-Skill officers had a lot of training under their belts, but their real job was teaching. Normally, side jobs were forbidden to government employees, but that rule didn’t apply here. It wasn’t a specific exception, though—it was because they weren’t paid for it. Their job was essentially like a neighborhood watch that volunteers to keep an eye on things at night. The only thing they got for doing such a dangerous job was special jurisdiction as members of Anti-Skill. He heard it was still pretty popular to do, though. From an educational guidance standpoint, it seemed to make their jobs easier in a few different ways—not the least of which was to keep your students in line when you told them you were an official member. But why was she hanging around here? Is she actually a teacher at our school?…Argh, I was talking to her like we’d just met, too! Well, I guess she wasn’t talking like she knew me, though… Someone tugged on his clothes, breaking his train of thought. What is it? He turned around and saw Aisa Himegami there. “Huh? What’re you doing, Himegami? You haven’t gone home yet?” “…I just transferred into your school. And yet you give such an indifferent response.” “Uhh…” Now that she mentioned it…The events of today were still pretty hazy for him thanks to Index bursting into the classroom. The big event of the day had been Himegami’s first day at her new school, hadn’t it? “I see. I really am. An easy girl to miss.” “No, well…Don’t get so down on yourself! It’s just that the sun doesn’t quite shine as much near you, or something…” The gong sound effect was nearly audible as Himegami got more depressed. Eventually, though, she lifted her head up. “More importantly.” More importantly…? Man, she doesn’t really understand conversation, either… “I recently heard something. That girl wearing the glasses. Is her name Hyouka Kazakiri?” “Huh?” Kamijou shifted his gaze. Index and Kazakiri were standing a little ways off. He couldn’t hear them from here, but they looked like they were enjoying their conversation. He looked back at Himegami and replied, “Oh, yeah, that’s right. Hyouka Kazakiri. Wait, is she a friend of yours?” “…” After hearing his words, she looked at Kazakiri from afar. It wasn’t a very favorable stare. It was more like an observational glare or something. “Hey, what’s the matter with you?” “Just to be sure. Her name. It’s really Hyouka Kazakiri?” “Well…I mean, she and Index both say so. It’s not like she showed us her ID or anything, but does she really need to?” “Hyouka…Kazakiri.” She said the name to herself again. “Do you know? The name of my school. The one I used to go to.” “Well…no.” “Kirigaoka Girls’ Academy. It’s an elite school like Tokiwadai. If we’re talking purely about ability development. Tokiwadai specializes in helping espers with regular abilities. And excellent all-around academic skills. Kirigaoka deals with weirder ones. Strange ones. Irregular espers with abilities that are difficult to reproduce.” “Hmm,” mumbled Kamijou to let her know he was still listening. Now that she mentioned it, her own power, Deep Blood, didn’t seem very useful for any scientific pursuits. Put in those terms, he wouldn’t be surprised if they would treat his right hand as a treasure. Of course, he hadn’t the slightest intent of going to a girls’ high school. “I have seen Hyouka Kazakiri’s name. At Kirigaoka,” she asserted, placing emphasis on the word name. “Wait, so did you two transfer in together, then?” “…” For some reason, she didn’t answer. She was acting a little odd. “Since she went to Kirigaoka, that must mean she has an unusual skill like you, right?” he asked, not really surprised. He knew a top-class electric user, and he had a unique ability himself. However… “I don’t know.” “Huh?” “Nobody knows. Hyouka Kazakiri’s power.” She paused. “But her name. It always shows up on the test grade bulletin boards at the top.” “Hmm. So she’s smart, then?” “No. It has nothing to do with her intelligence. Kirigaoka gives ranks based on rarity of ability. It is simply that. Her power is the most unusual. Whether or not it’s useful. Is a different story. However…” She paused again there. “But nobody knows. What class or year she’s in. In the first place. Everyone at Kirigaoka knows. The name Hyouka Kazakiri. But there is nobody. Who has actually seen her. And yet she appears at the top of the test rankings.” “…That’s kinda weird.” “Yes. We don’t know anything. I once asked a teacher at Kirigaoka about it. And she told me in secret. That Hyouka Kazakiri is called Identity Unknown.” That wasn’t all she had to say. “But. That isn’t the most important part. The most important thing the teacher told me. Was not about that Identity Unknown. It was something else.” She continued. “She told me. That Hyouka Kazakiri. Is the key to discovering the identity of the ith School District—the Five Elements Society.” Kamijou frowned. The ith School District was also known as the Five Elements Society and got its moniker from the symbol used to designate an imaginary number. Some called it the imaginary school district. It was said to be the first-ever research institution in Academy City, and that it possessed all sorts of sci-fi technology that modern science couldn’t reproduce. If the rumors were true, then the entire city was being managed from within it. It was the dark spot of this city. It was a mysterious facility that should certainly exist, and yet nobody knew where it was. This was starting to sound like a certain girl. “From what the teacher said. Hyouka Kazakiri had her own special class. Though it was more like a laboratory. So they could research it. People almost never create a laboratory for just one person. But it was not actually for Identity Unknown. It was to uncover the truth behind the Five Elements Society.” She, too, seemed lost in thought. “But. The teacher said that she hadn’t ever seen Hyouka Kazakiri, either. Even though there was a lab for her. Even though she showed up on test results. Very few teachers know her identity.” “But…but that’s…” “Yes. I don’t know how much of it is true. And that’s why. I thought I would warn you about her. So be careful.” And then, as if to say that her job here was finished, she turned to leave. “Hey, wait a minute. We’re going to go and hang out. Do you want to come?” “—” She turned back around. Her impassive face held the slightest tinge of surprise. “…Stupid…Komoe.” “Huh?” “Nothing. I have been asked to do something. So I can’t go,” she explained calmly, turning her back to Kamijou again. He stared after her for a few moments, noting that she looked crestfallen, but suddenly she remembered something and turned back to face him. “By the way. Hyouka Kazakiri. How did she enter the school?” “Huh? If I recall…Well, Index said she’s a transfer student.” “I see,” she replied succinctly. “But. As far as I remember. I am the only transfer student.” Kamijou wasn’t sure what to say. Himegami told him once again to be careful, then left for real this time. He looked away from her and back to the girls next to the school gate. Hyouka Kazakiri stood next to Index, smiling along with her. She didn’t look like anything but a normal person. She looked like she had nothing to do with any of that weird imaginary school district stuff. Man, I don’t get it. Are they just rumors? Or are they real? He scratched his head and then walked over to them. Index and Kazakiri smiled at him to welcome him back. The cat mewed. There was nothing strange about this. At least, not at the moment. INTERLUDE ONE The road in front of the station was packed with swarms of high school students. All schools had their entrance ceremonies today, so every student had been released into the afternoon city at once. People were particularly crowding around one corner of the train station, where all the big department stores were. Kuroko Shirai made her way through the chaos. She was shorter than your average female middle school student, and she wore her brown hair in two long pigtails. She was best described as cute rather than pretty. She was fully dressed in Tokiwadai Middle School’s summer uniform, but she had a brassard on her right arm. On it was written the word JUDGMENT. Judgment was the name of an anti-esper peacekeeping force—essentially the city’s version of the riot police. In contrast to Anti-Skill, which was comprised of school faculty wielding next-generation weapons, Judgment was made up entirely of espers. The reason there were two separate peacekeeping organizations was so that they could each keep an eye on the other’s internal affairs to prevent corruption. Unique though they may be, they were just students and teachers. There was no discarding the possibility of a renegade cop showing up and abusing his or her position of power. …Goodness. They should have split up the recreational facilities in this city a little more. I wonder if the developers are short on traffic and environmental psychologists? grumbled Shirai—one of those students—completely ignoring things like property values and consumer attraction methodology. Like most people, she hated crowds. But there was a reason she had braved the combination of the blazing, late summer heat and the sweaty, crowded atmosphere to come to this station. There she is… Shirai saw a figure ten meters away and compared it to the photograph on her cell phone screen. The woman looked foreign. She hadn’t noticed Shirai’s presence. She was walking boldly through the throngs of people, seemingly uncaring of the fact that she was on the run. Two people had broken through Academy City’s walls at approximately the same time, right before seven this morning. One of them was under Anti-Skill’s jurisdiction, not Judgment’s, so Shirai didn’t know the details. From what she’d heard, though, it was a student registered in the city’s databanks—a corporate spy, perhaps? She was on the tail of the other suspect. Her cell phone screen showed an enlarged image from a security camera. The blond-haired woman depicted had actually attacked the city gates head-on. After causing fifteen casualties, including three with major wounds, she had forced her way past security and entered the city. The anti-terrorism security level “Code Red” was currently in effect. Entry and exit were being completely blocked, and the members of Judgment had been excused from class and ordered to search for the intruder. Thus, Kuroko Shirai had skipped her entrance ceremony and had been walking around the city for a while now, but… In a normal situation, I would call for support, have the civilians disperse, and confirm that she’s the one we’re after…but if I take very long, I’ll lose my chance, won’t I? she whispered to herself, making her way through the crowd, still glaring at her target in front of her. Though the city’s security forces were split into two, Anti-Skill was usually the one on the front lines, not Judgment—the latter was made up of students, after all. Shirai’s orders were only to capture the criminal—everything else was in Anti-Skill’s ballpark. Unfortunately… I can’t just leave this in Anti-Skill’s hands, either. People have already been wounded at the gates. I shall ask all powerless individuals to please evacuate, then. This decision was based on her confidence as a Level Four esper. The teachers, who surrounded themselves with armor and next-gen weaponry, seemed extremely fragile from her point of view. She didn’t want to give Anti-Skill a job they wouldn’t be able to handle. She’d have trouble sleeping at night if the Anti-Skill officers she handed off the baton to got hurt. She’d feel more at ease if she were the one who did the fighting. She reached a hand into her skirt pocket and came out holding what looked like a small handgun. However, its muzzle was more than three centimeters wide. It was a device for firing signal flares. I don’t want to write the report I’ll have to make after firing this, but…! Shirai pointed the barrel into the sky and immediately pulled the trigger. Pop! With something of a comical noise, a metallic cylinder the size of a tube of lipstick flew about seven meters into the air. Right after that came a boom and a brilliant flash of light as the contents of the cylinder scattered everywhere. Those in the area put up a hand to shield their faces from the sudden and extreme brightness. A moment later, they all took swift action. Everyone scrambled into nearby buildings, screaming and shouting. The university students and teachers who were driving at the time stopped their cars right away and also dashed indoors. Everyone in this city knew what this meant. It was the evacuation order used by the security forces. It said that a battle was about to start, and it urged bystanders to find shelter somewhere stray bullets wouldn’t hit them. It didn’t even take thirty seconds for the bustling street in front of the station to completely empty out. Now, only Kuroko Shirai and the aforementioned target remained. The woman neither fled nor caused a stir; she simply stood, relaxed, within the center of the explosion of light. There was a bit more than ten meters between them. Shirai cast her gaze over the woman. She was an odd person to look at. It seemed fair to call her a gothic lolita—she was wearing a long black dress with white lace and ribbon decorating its ends. Nothing a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl wore would look bad. Despite her long blond hair, her skin appeared weathered and brittle. She was in her late twenties, and strands of hair stuck out like a wild animal. She must not have taken proper care of it. Her skin was brown, but not the shade that went well with sunlight. Her dress, too, seemed fairly old and worn-through, its fabric damaged and the white lace beginning to fade into a dingy tone. She was certainly pretty, but she looked somehow crazy at the same time. Looking at her would destroy the illusion of gothic lolitas being neat and trim. “Please, it would be better for both of us if you stayed where you were. I am Kuroko Shirai, and I am a member of this city’s security force. I don’t believe there is any need for me to explain why I’m arresting you, is there?” The woman with the wild blond hair didn’t show much reaction to her voice. Was she effete or just emotionless? She turned her neck slightly and took a look around. She seemed more interested in the people who had all disappeared than in Shirai. After five seconds, the woman finally looked toward her. “Suspending search.” She paused. “…Make things harder for me, will you?” she said with clear disdain. Then, without waiting for a reply, she stuck a hand into one of the ripped sleeves of her worn dress faster than Shirai could move an eyebrow, and was about to bring something back out— —but at that point, Kuroko Shirai was already standing right in front of her. They had been ten meters apart just a moment ago. In less than a heartbeat, Shirai had reduced that distance to zero. The woman’s relaxed expression took on just a hint of doubt. Shirai wasn’t about to explain, though. The woman didn’t need a lesson on how she used her Level Four teleportation ability to cross through space. She reached out her hand and grabbed the lace-covered woman’s wrist. The next thing the woman knew, she was on her back on the ground. There was no pain or shock, nor did she even remember when she fell. Shirai had actually just used her teleportation ability to move her to the ground as she touched her. To the woman, however, ignorant of her abilities, it probably looked like a martial arts throwing technique she’d never seen before. Irritated, she took evasive action anyway, and tried to get herself up off the ground, but… “I said…” Kachink-kachink-kachink A sound like a sewing machine split through the air. When the woman looked back down, there were two metal arrows piercing through the loose parts of her dress sleeve and skirt fabric, pinning her to the asphalt. “…not to move. Do you not understand Japanese?” Kuroko Shirai demanded quietly. This, too, was an attack that used teleportation. She had instantly moved the arrows hidden in her skirt into specific points. It was both as strong and fast as a machine gun. It couldn’t be blocked with anything, since the arrows instantaneously warped from one place to another. There also wasn’t any chance of collateral damage. It was a truly unbelievable attack. However… Even presented with that, the expression on the woman’s brown face didn’t change. Except… …for the corners of her mouth. Her face was like a steel mask, but her lips began to stretch across it, thinly, long, and silently, into a smile. “Wha…” On the other hand, Kuroko Shirai frowned in surprise… …and suddenly, the ground just behind her exploded violently. “…at…was that…?!” She was surprised, but she had no time to turn and look. Her body flew into the air, flung by the bulging in the asphalt. Once she slammed on her back down on the cold, hard ground, she finally glanced behind her. It was a giant arm. There was a two-meter-long arm sprouting from the road like a sea serpent stretching its head above the surface of a lake. It was shaped like a human arm, but it was made up of asphalt, bicycles, guardrails—from all sorts of things nearby—that had been kneaded together like clay. It vaguely resembled the metal arms that were attached to heavy machinery for building deconstruction. Shirai quickly tried to get away, but her ankle caught on something. The road around where the arm was sticking out had bulged, and the broken asphalt plates were coming back together like mismatched jigsaw puzzle pieces. Her ankle had gotten caught in between two of them. …Agh…She’s just an outsider…Could she be an…esper…? The pressure slowly increased around her ankle, causing her face to distort with pain. She looked back to the woman and saw her pinned hand holding something resembling white chalk. She was using it to draw symbols on the road. They weren’t any scientific symbols she’d ever seen. In fact, they looked like occult, magical letters. She may be controlling her ability by using some kind of patterns for self suggestion, like the compressed memory in a cell phone, she speculated, ignorant of magic and going purely off what she knew. Th-this is…really bad. I need to…get back up…! She made a valiant effort to calm herself, but then she noticed something. The giant arm was sticking out of the ground, causing the surrounding areas to bulge upward. Her ankle was caught between pieces of road from that bulge, but the swelling itself looked somehow…round. Almost like a human face. It was as if her foot were being bitten by asphalt teeth. Oh…no… Shirai possessed the ability to teleport. This power let her cross freely through empty space, unbound by three-dimensional limitations. But it had a weakness. She couldn’t just warp around however she wanted. It went beyond three dimensions—the ability required her to derive her current spatial coordinates in eleven dimensions, then calculate her movement vector from there. The commands she needed to give were on a completely different level than those of normal espers, who could just think phrases like “create fire” or “make lightning.” Because of that, if anything were to rob her of the calculation abilities she normally possessed—something like pain, exhaustion, or confusion—she would no longer be able to use it. Creeeak. The road fragments only closed a few millimeters, but her ankle spasmed in agony nonetheless. Ah…gh…gah…?! She could flee immediately if she teleported, but her fear was overriding rational thought. She saw the woman on the ground smiling to herself as she moved the chalk around with a few snaps of her wrist. As if being controlled by it, the arm’s elbow gradually bent and slowly changed the direction it was facing…as if it were about to crush a bug crawling on the ground. Shirai understood all that, but she still couldn’t move. Her calculations were in disarray because of the pain and her fear of death. She had an escape route right in her hands, and yet she couldn’t make use of it. It was like losing the key to the door of a nuclear shelter. The woman swung the chalk into the air in an arc, and the arm clenched its five fingers into a fist. At the same time, the pavement dug into her ankles even tighter. Shirai slammed her eyes shut at the incredible pain. Bkk-bkk-gkk-bkk! Then she heard a loud, strange noise ring out from somewhere in her self-induced blindness. Was that the sound of her anklebones shattering? No, it wasn’t. The sound of the giant arm made of countless pieces of scrap coming down to strike her? No, not that, either. It was the sound of somebody severing the arm. Wha…Eh…? She opened her eyes, surprised at the sudden strike. The arm had been cleanly cut in two at the wrist. Before she could give it a closer look, the “teeth” holding her ankle in place were mowed down. Suddenly freed from her shackles, she toppled over backward. As soon as the hand was severed, all the materials composing it reverted to their normal state and flew off in all directions. Bzz…! A strange sound hundreds of times louder than the buzzing of bees assaulted her ears. When she looked, she saw something floating in the air. It was like a black whip or like a rapier many meters long. That’s where the sound was coming from. Closer inspection revealed that it was iron sand. An enormous clump of iron was being controlled by someone, possibly with magnetism, and it was vibrating. In other words, it was a supersonic chainsaw. Bshh-bang came a piercing sound as the iron whip returned to its owner. Wa…wait…Controlled by magnetism…? Could…could it be…?! Taken with a fit of coughing, still trying to get oxygen, she looked over there. And there…there was… Mikoto Misaka. There was a small chink of metal. It was the sound of her bouncing a coin on her thumb. It danced slowly, slowly, slowly over her head. She spoke. “I don’t know what all this fuss is about…” The arm, its hand gone, had transformed into essentially a mountain of trash sticking out of the ground. As if collapsing under its own weight, the garbage tower fell toward Kuroko Shirai in an attempt to hit her as hard as it could. Before that happened, though, the coin landed back on Mikoto’s thumb. “…but don’t lay another one of your dirty fingers on her, you pig” A moment later… …she fired the attack that had given her the name Railgun. The coin flew forward at triple the speed of sound. It heated up as it rubbed against the air and became an orange beam as it lanced straight through the “tower,” which shattered instantly at the extreme impact. It and the “head” attached to it all blew into a million pieces. Grashh came the roar an instant later. A dust cloud rose up like a screen, but a sudden gale drove it away—the trailing shock wave from the Railgun attack. A-amazing… Shirai continued to keep an eye on her surroundings, but most of her mind had been stolen by something else. She could match normal wind users just with the gusts coming from her shock waves. Big Sister! Just how much more invincible are you planning on getting? On the other hand, Mikoto was walking toward her, relaxed, as if to say that the crisis had already been defused. “Uhh, Kuroko, you can loosen up now. I think that giant hand was a decoy. It blew up on its own, not because of my Railgun’s power. See? That jerk of a woman used the smoke to get away,” Mikoto said, pointing and sticking out her tongue a little in spite. Shirai looked. She’d pinned the woman’s dress to the ground, but she was nowhere in sight. The only things still there were a few pieces from the end of her dress’s black fabric, sticking around like a stubborn stain. “So who was that? Someone related to Judgment? You were the one following her, after all.” “Y-yes, that’s correct. She seemed to be the illegal intruder, but…Oh, Big Sister!” Then she lunged toward Mikoto as if her legs had given out. “Hey, would you quit it?! This isn’t the time for your crazy fantasies—” She reacted a second too late, though. She finally tried to peel Shirai off her chest but didn’t put any strength to it, because… Shirai was weakly clinging to the chest of her summer sweater. With just that one point of contact, Mikoto realized that she was trembling. “Jeez.” She sighed, thinking. What would that boy have said to her if she had been the one like this? “Kuroko, you try to do way too much by yourself. It was stupid to go up against someone like that. There’s no rule that says you have to fight by yourself, you know.” She thought about it. Words themselves didn’t have any meaning. The feeling she put into them as she spoke was what gave them meaning. “Rely on me more, all right? Not just if something really bad happens, either. Even if things only kind of look bad, contact me. It won’t cause me any trouble, so stop thinking like that. If you rely on me in hopeless situations, then that just means you trust me more, right? I’d never refuse that.” Pat pat. Mikoto lightly stroked Shirai’s head. Then, her underclassman, still trembling, said, “…Heh-heh-heh. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. This close to Big Sister, I have full access to her cleavage…heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh-heh” “Wh…Hey…What? Wait! I-I’m seriously trying to make you feel better here! You were trembling with excitement, Kuroko?!” Mikoto shouted as her face turned red, but it was too late. Shirai brought her hands around Mikoto’s back, locked her in, and started rubbing her cheek all over her “big sister’s” chest. Word Cound: (7901)