3_Chapter 2_ A Certain Unsophisticated Railgun

CHAPTER 2 A Certain Unsophisticated RailgunDoubt_Lovers. 1 (Aug.31_AM08:00) Academy City was a giant institution in which 2.3 million people resided for the development of supernatural abilities. Tokiwadai Middle School was an elite all-girls school said to be one of the top five in the city. Currently, it had less than two hundred students, including two Level Five “Superpowers” and forty-seven Level Four “Masters.” A person needed to be at least a Level Three “Expert” to enroll at the school—and that was just one of the requirements. The lifestyle rhythm of mornings at Tokiwadai never changed, even during summer vacation. Students woke up at seven AM and had thirty minutes to get their appearance to the point where they didn’t look like a disgrace, and then assemble in the cafeteria at seven thirty AM. After roll call, they would finish their breakfast by eight. Incidentally, the reason breakfast ended at eight AM is because the school encouraged the use of school buses. The school’s gates closed at 8:20, so if one didn’t take the bus, they’d have to run through town as fast as they could. Today was August 31—still summer vacation—so aside from dinnertime, the curfew, and lights-out, students were free to do as they pleased. Apparently the rest of the world used this time to romp around trying to finish homework, but there was none of that hurried tension in the air here. Sitting in the exceedingly, needlessly large and majestic cafeteria was one of those Level Fives, Mikoto Misaka, stretching her arms out wide. Despite the time of year, she wore her school uniform. Tokiwadai’s rules consider the dormitories and the school to be a single establishment, so personal clothing was forbidden. Mikoto’s shoulder-length brown hair, her indomitable eyes, and the fact that she would talk for twenty minutes if a person asked her one thing—everything about her was exactly what one wouldn’t expect from a proper young lady. But that wasn’t all there was to her. Around her, the students in the cafeteria were sticking around after breakfast to talk to one another, and most of them gave the same impression. Wherever they happened to be, they were Japanese middle school students, after all. The prim and proper young ladies in manga and novels, normally symbolized by horseback-riding hobbies and piano-playing skills, were extremely rare (though they did exist). Manga, manga…Oh, that’s right, today’s Monday, isn’t it? Mikoto rose from her seat as she realized it. She went to the convenience store and stood there reading manga magazines every Monday and Wednesday. However, she was ignorant of the plight of the unfortunate high school students forced to endure the tattered page edges of the resulting magazine every single time she got one into her hands. Normally she’d leave her reading session until after school, but summer vacation meant she could start right from the morning. She had to know who the criminal in the detective manga with all the hidden rooms was, and she wanted to get there right away, so she got her stuff together. As she was about to leave for the store, the waitress in maid clothing who was cleaning up the dishes noticed her. She was a middle school student from a different school—a housekeeping one—and she worked in girls’ dormitories as part of her “training.” This training seemed to be quite multifaceted, but the fact that she came all the way to Tokiwadai’s dorms belied her standing as one of a handful of top students. “Misaka, Misaka! Are you going to the convenience store? Or the bookstore?” “Today isn’t the tenth and it’s Monday, so I’m going to the convenience store. Also, Tsuchimikado, you’re training to be a maid, aren’t you? Isn’t it bad to be talking so casually?” “Misaka, Misaka! If you’re going to the convenience store, then can you buy me some questionable manga? You know, that kind, the ones that are meant for girls and kinda sexy, but not adults only!” “Uh, were you one of those BL-reading types? Also, Tsuchimikado, you’re training to be a maid, so you can’t ask your guests to run errands for you.” “Misaka, Misaka! I’m not the one with those hobbies—it’s our head chef, Genzou! I like those other ones, you know, those ones where the big brother and the little sister get all dirty!” “Those are meant for young adult men, not girls, aren’t they? Also, Tsuchimikado, you’re training to be a maid, so you shouldn’t be mentioning your love for your brother right in front of your guests.” Mikoto heaved a sigh and left the cafeteria, then headed for the lobby via an awfully long hallway. She didn’t run into anyone on the way. The majority of the students were staying in the cafeteria to chat after finishing breakfast. She reached the entrance hall and threw open its big doors. In contrast to the dormitory’s antique, western mansion feel, outside was near-futuristic cityscape as far as the eye could see. Wind-generating propellers sticking out of the ground instead of power lines, oil drum–shaped police robots automatically patrolling the streets, a blimp in the sky with a huge display screen across its side—it was a little different from normal cities, but those who lived here were so accustomed to the place that they didn’t know how different it really was. Right across from the stone-walled dorm, there was a twenty-four-hour convenience store. Mikoto smirked at the marked difference. She stepped out toward the road…and suddenly a man’s voice addressed her from nearby. “Ah, if it isn’t Miss Misaka. Good morning to you. Where are you going? Oh, did you start going to a school club? If you’ll allow it, may I accompany you midway there?” Mikoto groaned and stiffened up for a moment. Then, desperately suppressing a rankled grimace from crossing her face, she turned toward the voice’s owner. He was a tall man, one year older than her, standing there. He was slim but with an athletic build, had silky hair and whiter skin than most Japanese—he was the sort of person who would approach sports from a logical angle. His looks just weren’t fair. He’d look good no matter what—whether he was holding a tennis racket or typing on a laptop. He had this impression that made you think he’d begin to glitter with reflected light when he sweat and that he’d be smiling happily and peacefully no matter where he was or what was happening…That was the sort of person he was. Mitsuki Unabara. He was one of the people Mikoto found hard to deal with. He was the grandson of Tokiwadai’s principal or something. For Academy City, whose main objective was supernatural ability development, his level of influence was, in essence, that of the family of a very large corporation’s CEO. The school was girls only, so he wouldn’t actually come into the school or the dormitories, but he didn’t hesitate to put himself anywhere else. The thing she found most difficult about him, however, was not that he flaunted his authority. “Well, it’s good to be absorbed in your hobbies if you’re not in a club. Miss Misaka, do you play any sports? I can teach you a lot of them if you’re interested, like tennis, or equestrianism, or squash, or golf—things like that—so feel free to ask me…hmm? What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?” “Uhh…no, it’s nothing.” Mikoto exhaled a little at Unabara’s genuinely worried tone. Mitsuki Unabara was certainly aware of just how vast and total the effects of his authority could be, but he never tried to flaunt it. He would always purposely match the level of Mikoto’s gaze, and he would speak to her as if she were an equal. If anybody asked her, that measured, distant, adultlike part of him didn’t match with the rest, but as long as he approached her as an adult, she would hesitate to just start flinging lightning at him to solve the problem (unlike a certain other high school student). It would make her look extremely childish. Mikoto had trouble dealing with him because she always had to mind every action she made and every word she spoke, no matter what. She wasn’t talking to a friend—it was more like trying to keep an upperclassman at a school club happy. That’s still strange, though. He wasn’t all over me like this a week ago. Lately he’s doing it every single day…Ergh, has the summer changed the man? What a bad way to change. Thinking back, he’d only ever talk to her if he ran into her in town. They’d stand and talk for a minute, but he didn’t interfere with her schedule. This was different, though. It was almost like he was following her actions, and from a certain, more aggressive perspective, he was— “Miss Misaka?” Yikes, she thought, flinching back. Unabara had suddenly closed the distance between them while she was lost in thought. To make matters worse, he was peering into her face from above. “Um, please don’t worry like that. Where are you going from here?” “Uh, umm…(frankly, you’re the kind of person who would mercilessly burst out laughing if I said I was gonna stand in a store and read manga or something, and so if possible I don’t want anyone I know standing next to me while I’m doing that, and I mean, well, if it were Kuroko Shirai or that moron, there wouldn’t be a problem, but…)” “What?” “N-nothing! Nothing at all! My thoughts aren’t escaping through my mouth or anything!” “? Do you not have any pressing errands to run? Ah, then how about this. There’s a place with the most delicious seafood nearby, so if you’re free, then…” Is this guy seriously inviting me to eat somewhere right after breakfast?! thought Misaka, not letting it show on her face. “Ah, but, well, I’m happy you invited me, but I sort of do have something to do…” “Then shall we go now? I’ll accompany you.” “Uhh, err, I do have something to do, but how do I put this…?” “…?” Unabara frowned a little. “Could it be somewhere it would be difficult for me to go with you?” “Uh, yeah, that’s it!” Mikoto pounded her hand with a fist. “I-I’m going to…(ummm)…right, I was just about to head to the department store to look at underwear. See, that’s not somewhere a guy would want to go, right?” “I’ll accompany you.” His answer came immediately. He didn’t seem insane. His smile glistened. He slipped right by it?! Mikoto thought, mentally holding her head in her hands. Ugh, what do I do, what do I do? Oh yeah, I’ll pretend I’m waiting for another guy. Then he definitely couldn’t come with me. All right, it’ll be pretty corny, but let’s just latch on to some guy and say, “Sorryyy, did you wait for meee?” and then ad-lib it from there! It’ll bother the person who gets involved, but I’ll just treat them to some juice from the vending machine or something Mikoto looked from right to left, looking for the male who would play the part of her boyfriend. Unfortunately, it was August 31. For Academy City, where 80 percent of its population consisted of students, today was a day for shutting oneself up in their house and wrestling with their remaining homework. Meaning there was nobody around, as far as she could tell. Jeez, this is hopeless! she wailed internally, when at that very moment, as if she had received a gift from the gods, three young men turned a nearby corner. 2 (Aug.31_AM08:25) Motoharu Tsuchimikado and Aogami Pierce. Touma Kamijou had run into them in town early this morning. Apparently they were classmates—apparently, since he had amnesia and had essentially never seen a classroom environment before. Kamijou didn’t actually have the time right now to be walking the streets. He hadn’t even touched his homework at all for the entirety of summer vacation until today, August 31. He was embroiled in a race against time. Now in a standstill with his homework, he concluded that it was going to be an all-night job and had gone to buy some coffee at the store. Unfortunately, the shelf normally containing the brand he always drank was conspicuously empty. As he wondered to himself who was hoarding all of those mail-in prize tickets, he was accosted by Aogami and Tsuchimikado. His classmates had long since finished their own homework and wanted to do something memorable to fully enjoy the last day of summer break. But still— “Aahhh, can you believe it’s the last day of summer break already, Kami? Man, bro, I didn’t meet a girl falling out of the sky, or find a cat-eared girl in a cardboard box on a rainy day, or open the front door to find a cute freeloader who ended up at my place at some point, or anything like that this year, either! I mean, seriously, what the hell? Not one event triggered this summer. If this were a novel, the author would just outright ignore me and say, ‘The student passed his time during the break,’ wouldn’t he?!” Such were the words of Aogami, in his fake Kansai accent, looking toward the past… “Ah, I want a romantic comedy already! Our school is coed and everything, dang it. There’s gotta be some kind of rom-com waiting for me this semester! An unrealistic one, too, where for some reason every female, from upperclassmen to underclassmen to teachers to classmates to class presidents to childhood friends to the dorm managers, every single one, has zero experience with men, see?” …And such were the words of Motoharu Tsuchimikado, in his odd way of speaking, looking toward the future. Kamijou put a hand to his forehead at their entirely infeasible opinions. “Earth to idiots. Are you really doing this even though you know that I, the humble Touma Kamijou, am currently swamped with homework? Just stay out of my way, at least for today! Actually, I’d like it if you used your friendship power to help me out or something!” “It’s fine, Kami, bro! If you haven’t done your homework, then you get to have private lessons all alone with Miss Komoe! Ah, why did I have to go and do my homework, dude? I probably wanted her to praise me or something. Looks like I’ve got a lot to learn from you about calculated work, bro!” “And I mean, helping you with your homework doesn’t have anything to do with my love comedy. But if a girl falls out of the sky drawn to your math problems, then I’ll gladly assist ya, nya!” The two of them were clearly reveling in his misfortune; Kamijou grinned darkly. “How should I put this…There’s really no point in being friends with either of you. Wait, what the hell? Girls falling from the sky? Does that mean you’re into air force ladies?” In response to his yell, Tsuchimikado answered absentmindedly that these days, girls who fell from the sky would get caught on people’s balconies anyway. Kamijou didn’t understand what he was talking about. He was an amnesiac. On the other hand, Aogami responded, in classic Aogami fashion: “Hah! Kami, what’re ya sayin’? I don’t only go for descended heroines; I’m open-minded enough to welcome any girl, including but not limited to stepsisters (older or younger), stepmothers, stepdaughters, twins, widows, upperclassmen, underclassmen, classmates, female teachers, childhood friends, preppies; girls with blond hair, black hair, brown hair, silver hair, short hair, bobbed hair, ringlets, straight hair, twin tails, ponytails, braids, pigtails, wavy hair, frizzy hair, cowlicks; girls in sailor uniforms, blazers, gym clothes, judo clothes, archery clothes; kindergarten teachers, nurses, maids, policewomen, shrine maidens, nuns, soldiers, secretaries, lolis, shotas, tsunderes, cheerleaders, stewardesses, waitresses, goths in white, goths in black, girls in china dresses, girls with weak constitutions, albinos, girls with crazy fantasies, deluded girls, split personality girls, queens, princesses; girls wearing knee-high socks, garter belts, men’s clothes, glasses, hair over their eyes, eye patches, bandages, school swimsuits, one-piece swimsuits, bikinis, sling swimsuits, ridiculous swimsuits; nonhumans, ghosts, and animal girls, okay?” “One of those was definitely not even female!” Kamijou found himself exhausted after that one. Tsuchimikado gave a smirk. “But hey, Kami, what girls fall within your strike zone, eh?” “…Ladies managing dormitories. Proxies are fine, too.” “We’re in a male dorm! Our manager is an old dude!” “Shut up! I know full well it’s realistically impossible! It’s like an only child wishing for an older sister! Why didn’t you ignore that?!” “Urk. I see, though, administrative ladies, eh? But aren’t ya into little sister characters, nya? No matter what you meant to say, it’s basically still great,” nodded Tsuchimikado, who had a younger stepsister in real life. Kamijou and Aogami, though, looked at him painfully. Kamijou spoke as the representative of his friends. “Hey, as your friend, there’s something I need to warn you about so that your relationship with your stepsister goes well.” “Wh-what is it?” “Your stepsister? She’s one of those girls who calls everyone ‘big brother.’” “What did you just say, you bastard?!” screamed Tsuchimikado, infuriated, swinging his hands around. “That can’t possibly be true! She would never call anyone but me big brother, no matter where, when, why, or who it was, dang it!” “He’s right, bro. I treated her to lunch yesterday at the department store underground in front of the station and she totally said, ‘Thanks, big brother!’” “Yeah, and yesterday when I ran into her on that main street over there, she said, ‘Hi, big brother.’” Scriiich. He thought he heard the sound of Tsuchimikado biting something deep in his mouth. “I’ll kill you…Wait, what the hell are you doing taking my sister out to lunch without asking?!” With that, the raging fist of an older brother came upon Kamijou and Aogami. 3 (Aug.31_AM08:35) Mikoto Misaka froze in place for ten full minutes as soon as she saw the three of them. During that time, they all did what seemed like a reenactment of the final battle of the last fifteen minutes of some Hollywood blockbuster. Every once in a while, Unabara would hesitantly wave a hand in front of her face and say, “Hello?” but she didn’t notice. She just watched them, her mouth still forming the s in “Sooorryyy, did you wait for meee?” Wait, just wait, wait a second, that’s who’s gonna be pretending to be my boyfriend? Unabara doesn’t know anything, so he’ll think he actually caught a glimpse of my boyfriend, but…Oh, God, that one is talking about his little stepsister…! That was enough to finally thaw out Mikoto’s iced-over mind; she buried her face in her hands. “Are you not feeling very well?” came Unabara. She faked a smile and took another look around. Nope, there’s not a soul around save for those three. On top of that, even they were getting farther and farther away from her. If she didn’t act fast, she could quickly be stuck spending the entire day with Mr. Smooth here. There’s no other way. They’re showing me the most intense battle scene I’ll see all day, and I have a feeling they actually mean it, but I’ll have to choose one of them, she thought, making up her mind. Who would she pick? Let’s start with him. He’s got kinda blue hair and earrings…No, not that one! He’s spouting crazy lingo not even the manga-loving Miss Mikoto understands, so he would probably feel like a three-dimensional girl was intruding on his two-dimensional thoughts. Mikoto shook her head from side to side. Next is that one. He’s got kinda blond hair and sunglasses…not him, either! From what he’s saying, he seems like a dangerous person who would lay a hand on his sister even if she was blood related! Mikoto wagged her head so much she felt her brain rattle. Okay, so the third…Wait a minute, is that…? Aah, crap! No, anything but that! Er, but still, leaving him aside, only the blue-haired guy and the one in sunglasses are left, so, umm, aaahh “Ah, wait, Miss Misaka, where are you going?!” Mikoto shut her eyes and dashed. She heard the voice of Mitsuki Unabara behind her, but she paid it no mind. There were about twenty meters to her target. The battling boys caught up in their final battle had yet to notice the enemy approaching fast. 4 (Aug.31_AM08:40) “Sooorryyy! Did you wait for meee?” When they heard the girl’s voice from behind them, Kamijou and the others, having just launched into the thrilling climax of their fistfight, stopped and made sour faces. They looked like someone had just dumped water all over them. Obviously, none of them had been waiting to meet up with a girl, and each one of them was grinding their teeth, thinking, Shit, there must be some hot guy nearby and that’s got nothing to do with me! However, when they calmed down a little, they realized that today was August 31—there shouldn’t be many people around. “?” Kamijou looked confused, and just then— “Did you wait for meee? Are you even listening to me?! Don’t ignore me, damn it!” A girl tackled into Kamijou’s waist from behind. There was a magnificent thud as he and the girl crashed down onto the sidewalk. Now crushed underneath her, he managed to twist his body and get a good look at the identity of the person now attached to his body. “Sh-shit, who the hell…? Wait, what?! Misaka?! Of all the people!” “…(What the heck is that supposed to mean?! Oh, never mind, just please, please play along!)” Kamijou gave a “Huh?” to Mikoto’s whispering and his eyes shrunk to pinpoints. Aogami and Tsuchimikado reacted quite differently. “Hahh?! K-Kami’s being hugged by a middle schooler from Tokiwadai! He’s already had that shrine maiden and that nun and Miss Komoe! Is the curtain about to rise on an all-new Legend of Kamijou?!” “Wait, Kami, how many digits was the number of flags you had to trigger for this?” Mikoto shook with rage at their voices. But that was all. It was a far cry from her usual attitude—she was a Level Five electricity user and had the habit of flinging lightning every which way no matter where someone happened to make her angry. “Uh, Miss Mikoto? What on earth is going on here?” “…(Shh! Quiet…argh, this is bad. I can’t talk to him from this long a distance…Wait, how were you all messing around again? Okay…)” Mikoto unsteadily held a fist aloft, looking somewhere far off into the distance. Kamijou followed her gaze with a “?” A little ways off on the sidewalk, there was one of those real smooth dudes a person sees from time to time, standing there by himself. It looked like he was frozen, at a loss as to how to deal with Mikoto’s sudden odd behavior. Move it! said Kamijou, irritated, his heart beating a little faster. At this, Mikoto took a deep breath. “A-ha-ha! I’m so sorry I’m late! Did you wait? Did you wait for meee? I’ll treat you to something later, so please forgive me, okay?” “What?” Her voice echoed. He didn’t know what to say. Aogami and Tsuchimikado were frozen in time. The smooth dude was looking away awkwardly. And then, all of a sudden, bam! The windows in the Tokiwadai Middle School Girl’s Dormitory flew open all at once. “Uhh…” Mikoto’s face stopped moving, locked into its smile. The female students looking out the windows were all talking among one another in hushed tones. The twin-tailed girl, Kuroko Shirai, was making a truly amazing face, and her mouth was moving as if she were devouring something. A little ways off through one of the windows, an adult female appeared, looking like the person in charge of everything. The adult female said something. She said it quietly, and she was far away, so the sound of her voice didn’t reach Kamijou and Mikoto. Despite that, her magnificent words clearly pounded themselves into their brains. “How interesting. You have guts, Misaka, for arranging your rendezvous in plain sight of the entire dormitory.” “Ah-aha-ha…” Mikoto’s facial muscles stiffened quite strangely. “Aha-ha-ha-haaa! Uwaahh!” Mikoto, retaining her completely fake smile, grabbed Kamijou’s hand and launched into an explosive sprint. Without a scrap of understanding, he was dragged away. 5 (Aug.31_AM09:45) And such it was that Kamijou and Mikoto ran around the city for a whole hour. “W-wait! I don’t think time passes like that! Why have we been running around nonstop for an hour now?!” “Shut up! Be quiet, just be quiet! Please, just let me get my feelings in order!” Mikoto, for her part, had been shaking her head from side to side for a while now, groaning. Kamijou checked around them. They must have entered a back road somewhere. Tall buildings surrounded them on all sides, though one of them, shorter than the rest, seemed to be a dormitory. Mikoto took a deep breath, then finally calmed down. “Whew. Sorry, it seems like I lost my head there a bit. I’ll explain everything, so let’s go somewhere we can sit down, all right?” “The hell? Explain? Are you going to get us into even more trouble?” “Huh, it’s already ten? Places to eat should be open at this time. I just ate, though, so maybe we should just go for some lighter food. A hot dog stand might be good…” “Wait, hey, don’t ignore me! I’m asking if you’re gonna get us into even more trouble! I’ve got homework to do, you know! And wait, you got a buttload of people involved in your nonsense! You can’t excuse yourself with just one cheap hot dog!” “Hmm?” Mikoto put an index finger to her cheek. “Okay, let’s do that.” “Huh?” “I’m saying, we’re gonna get the most expensive hot dogs in the world. You’d be okay with that, right?” “Well, that wasn’t the issue…Ah, forget it, she’s not even listening to me!” He wasn’t given time to worry about it as Mikoto dragged him forcibly down the road. 6 (Aug.31_AM10:15) One for two thousand yen. Kamijou stared at the prices, mouth agape. The guy doing the selling inside his modern-looking stall—probably a renovated motor home—gave him a strained smile. He probably got that a lot. “Two…thousand…How is it that much? What ingredients could they possibly be using?” “If they told people that, they’d go out of business. Oh, can I get two hot dogs?” requested Mikoto, making an order on her own in the meantime. Kamijou watched the clerk as he worked. Neither the bun nor the dog was especially large or anything. There also weren’t any strange ingredients in it. He didn’t want to say it, but it looked to him that if a person put one of these hot dogs next to one from another place, they’d barely be able to tell the difference. And from its small size, it felt more like a snack than a meal. She’s gonna pay two thousand for that? Kamijou slumped as Mikoto indeed handed over the money in exchange for the two hot dogs. “H-hey, that money—” “What are you so confused about? There’re all sorts of different hot dogs, just like anything else. Stands in LA are basically shops where movie stars pull up in a limousine to order. You sure you’re not just unfamiliar with how these things are priced?” “No, I didn’t mean that. I mean I’ll pay for mine with my own money.” “Hah? No, don’t worry about this little thing. No point in getting out your wallet for it, right?” she answered plainly, causing a dry smile to cross the face of Kamijou, living as a poor student. No matter what he might say, Mikoto Misaka was one of the elites—a proper lady who attended Tokiwadai Middle School. There were benches right nearby—maybe the hot dog guy had opened up here because there was a place to sit and eat. The sunlight overhead was blocked by the roof of street-side trees, so it looked nice and cool…but it was probably actually hot. The sweltering Kanto heat was real, and it had no mercy. To make it worse, there was a shrill sound, possibly from some building construction, floating to them from far away. “Here’s your hot dog.” Mikoto handed over his hot dog. He stared at it. Then he ate it. He didn’t want to admit it, but it was good. More than that, though, he hated not knowing the difference between this hot dog and other ones. Mikoto bit into hers, battling to keep the mustard from getting on her nose. As she continued, she began her explanation—about how she was being followed around by a real “smooth” customer named Mitsuki Unabara, how it was kind of hard for her to just turn him down, how she was fed up from him constantly asking her out for the last week, how she was trying to pry him from her side by using a false boyfriend, how Kamijou was the only candidate in sight, etc. Kamijou took a quick look around. Expectedly, Unabara wasn’t there. Well, I don’t think he’d be keeping his distance and watching closely from the shadows of the trees around the clock, but… “But, I mean, you got away from him for now, didn’t you? So we don’t need to pretend anymore. There’s no point in putting on an act where he can’t see us, right?” He had a mountain of homework left to do. He really wanted to put himself first for once. “Hmm. Well, I mean, I did only get away from him for now. Next time we meet, he’s definitely gonna start following me again. Since I have this chance, I kind of want to make sure he won’t ever do it again.” “…Wait.” “I’ll stick with you for the rest of the day. I want to show it to as many people as possible. If we run into Unabara a few times in town, it might leave a stronger impression on him. What I mean is, anything goes if that makes Unabara leave me alone, but, well…What’s wrong with you? Why are you holding your head like that?” Kamijou, head in his hands, replied that it was nothing and sighed. This all meant that Mikoto was asking him to pretend to be her boyfriend for the entirety of the day. Kamijou thought, though, that even if her plan worked spectacularly, him ending up as a crazy person who started something with a middle school student would be fait accompli. He was already living with Index, after all—but he didn’t know how old she was. He had a female teacher who looked twelve, so he could never be too careful about the topic. And more importantly, he had his summer homework. He obviously wanted to refuse, but then he saw Mikoto’s eyes suddenly growing steadily more irate. This is bad. If she seriously gets mad at me, homework will be the least of my problems. She’ll probably drag me into a twenty-four-hour endurance battle (though that would be needlessly drawing it out, and somehow I don’t think I’d lose anyway). Seeming vexed at his prolonged silence, she asked, “So, you got questions? Thoughts? Anything?” “Not one. Could you just wipe that mustard off your nose?” Mikoto squeaked and went red. She wrapped her half-eaten hot dog in a paper napkin and set it down on the bench. Then, turning away from him, she frantically tried to wipe it off of her face with a handkerchief, but… “Eeesh!” This time she held her nose and kicked her feet around. It seemed like in her hurry to wipe off the mustard, she’d accidentally gotten it up her nose. “Uh…are you okay?” Kamijou followed her lead, wrapped his hot dog up and put it down on the bench, and searched his pocket with his other hand for a tissue or handkerchief. Seeing that, Mikoto forced a smile and said, “I-I’m fine. I mean, nothing happened in the first place anyway.” She wanted to treat her clumsy mustard self-destruct as if it never happened. When he looked again, her face wore an expression of calm. But that was just on the surface—a lot of mustard must have gotten up her nose, because her cheeks flushed pink and she pursed her lips, desperately holding back the tears about to form at the corners of her eyes. Her shoulders trembled. “S-so, don’t you have any questions, or thoughts, or something?” “Seriously, are you okay? Anyway, maybe it’s just like you to tear up and turn your eyes up like that for such a silly reason. Could you actually be one of those people who cries really eas—” “Shut up! I told you already, nothing happened! Jeez! Quit it with that weird, nice face! Don’t bring that tissue near me!” Her words bit into him; he hastily drew his hand back. Well, if she wants to forget about it, then I guess I will, too. He sighed. Then, as he reached for the hot dog he’d placed on the bench, he blurted out, “Huh?” There were two hot dogs nicely wrapped in paper napkins there in the small space between the two of them. They obviously belonged to them, but he couldn’t tell which one of them he had been eating. Mikoto came to the same realization and asked, “Umm…Do you remember which was yours?” “Not really…but it was probably the one on the right.” Without thinking about it too hard, he reached for the hot dog on the right. Before he could do anything with it, Mikoto grabbed his wrist with amazing speed. He looked at her, surprised. “W-wait a minute. Let me make sure.” “What?” he responded dubiously. She took the hot dog from his hand and compared the two side by side. Then, she unwrapped them both and looked closely at the eaten portions. But as far as he could tell, there was no way to know the difference. They had both eaten about half, so they were still about the same length, and they had all the same toppings on them—he just didn’t know. They were both the same exact thing anyway, so he didn’t really care. “So did you figure it out?” “…” “Did you figure it out?” “…” “Did you—” “Ah, jeez, be quiet! I don’t know! Whatever. Just take the right one, and I’ll take the left one, like you said! Pay more attention next time, stupid!” Kamijou took the hot dog from her, confused at the inexplicable nonsense she was jabbering. “What in the world are you making a big deal out of this for? You ordered the same thing for both of us anyway,” he said, casually taking a bite. As he expected, there wasn’t any difference at all. Then, Mikoto’s complaints suddenly stopped. She wasn’t moving at all, in fact, like she had frozen in shock. “What’s the matter with you?” “Nothing at all,” she replied. She grabbed her hot dog with both hands, stared at it for a moment, and then finally put it into her mouth like a small, nervous animal. She blushed a little. “…Anyway, getting back to the subject. I want you to pretend so that I can fool Unabara. Do you have any thoughts or questions?” “Um, seriously, what’s the matter? You’re suddenly acting like a fish out of water. Was the mustard in your nose really that ba—” “Be quiet! That wasn’t what…No, wait! Forget it! I’m just asking you if you have any damn questions or thoughts about this” she yelled as her face turned bright red, leaning toward him. Their faces were almost touching, so Kamijou quickly pulled his back. “Whoa?! Um, er…My thoughts are, ‘What the shit?’ and my question is, ‘What the heck am I supposed to be doing exactly?’ I guess.” “Huh? What you’re supposed to…?” “Yeah, like, what the heck should I do to come off as your boyfriend?” “…” “…” What to do? They both stopped. How young they both still were—they hadn’t actually started dating because of anything, and neither of them knew what would make them appear as such. 7 (Aug.31_AM10:45) They eventually agreed to chat idly while sitting on the bench. Though since all the students in the city were probably hard at work finishing up their summer assignments, the streets were dead silent. The only one who heard them was the guy selling hot dogs. Kamijou quickly began to realize that this was a problem—the point of their facade was to let as many people see them as possible. “So after that whole experiment, there aren’t even ten Sisters left in Academy City anymore. Apparently most of them got sent to places on the outside for physical adjustments,” said Mikoto. “Wait, they went to outside places? I thought they were espers. If they really examine their bodies, won’t they figure out the Curriculum secrets and stuff?” “I mean, there’re corporations and laboratories in cahoots with Academy City on the outside, too. The city can’t stand on its own, you know. It might be hard to see, but there’re connections all over the place for raising funds, controlling information, legal services…” “Huh. So I guess that means they’re all up and at ’em. That’s good to hear.” Mikoto quieted a little at that. Her expression implied that she wasn’t convinced of something or that she was somehow irritated. Whatever it was, Kamijou didn’t know, so he stopped for a moment as well. “Hmm, you think this is a little deep for a conversation between boyfriend and girlfriend?” “Well, I dunno. With all our talk of research facilities, Academy City collaborators, and physical adjustments…probably.” “…(Yeah, right. You’re getting worked up because we’re talking about other girls, isn’t it?)” “What?” Kamijou didn’t quite make out what she had said, but Mikoto flatly insisted it wasn’t important. She shot a sidelong glance at him that went unnoticed. He took a piece of folded paper out of his pants pocket—it was a packet with classical Japanese or something printed on it. He then took out a mechanical pencil and got to work on the questions. “…Are you actually understanding what I’m telling you? What part about this makes us look like we’re dating?! Ignoring the lady and burying your nose in your studies is as patriarchal as Europe in the Middle Ages!” “Oh, ah, right. Wow anthropomorphic Mikoto-tan is so moé…” “Anthropomorphic? I don’t even get to be human first?!” “Oh, but oh my, a heart-pounding study group event! I wrote a poem for you about our school lives! What I mean is, I haven’t done a single scrap of my summer homework, Sarge, so these last twenty-four hours look like they’re gonna be hell!” “? Whaddaya mean summer homework?” “…Umm, Miss Mikoto, would you happen to not know about summer homework?” “Well, hmm. You know, I have heard of it. Those are the assignments they give you so that you don’t get lazy or dumber during long breaks from school, isn’t it? But it’s not like you have to actually do any of it. People don’t get lazy or dumber like that, right?” Words escaped Kamijou. Surprisingly enough, it seemed that Tokiwadai Middle School had no such concept. “Grr, that’s not fair…Why do they let you run wild over there?” “How should I know?” she snapped. “So what kind of homework are you doing, then?” “Huh? I guess I can show you, but they’re high school–level problems, so a middle school kid like you probably wouldn’t know them.” “Just lemme see already.” She peered at the pile of papers in his hands. Kamijou was about to inadvertently look at her, but then he pulled back in surprise. She had leaned in pretty far to look at his papers, so she’d come so close their cheeks were almost touching. “Hmm, Classical Japanese, is it? Wait, this is all just simple review stuff.” As if she didn’t notice anything, she took Kamijou’s pencil from his hand and, almost like she was snuggling up against him, began smoothly writing down the answers. Her hair got in her way when she looked down, so her other hand came up and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. He could smell the faintly sweet scent of her hair conditioner. Yipes…! Th-this is bad. I don’t know why but this is really bad! If he moved any part of his body, it would end up touching her. His body locked up for a moment, but then he suddenly came to his senses. “…Umm, how can you answer these?” “How can’t you?” she countered with a straight face without any sort of nastiness behind it. Kamijou very nearly ran away, but Mikoto held his shoulders and smiled as if to calm him. “Well, I mean, see…Everyone’s got strong and weak subjects. Oh, right. Should I tell you the answer to this question to pay you back for my request?” “A middle school student is admonishing a high schooler about his studies…” “Ah-ha-ha…wow, you’re really taking this hard. Let’s get a drink for a change of pace. I’ll go buy one for you, but you have to finish your homework or whatever once you’re done with it, okay?” “Huh? No, I’ll buy it. Getting up and walking around would be a good enough change of pace for me, and I still owe you two thousand yen.” “I said I’ll do it, and I will. It’s more embarrassing if you refused something like this.” Mikoto grinned wryly, stood from the bench, and left to go. A glance revealed no vending machines nearby. He wondered if she was planning on going to the convenience store a little bit away. Wait, all we’re doing is drinking and eating. Kamijou, left on the bench, stared after her for a moment, but finally lowered his gaze back to his Classical Japanese homework packet. He honestly didn’t know if it could even be considered Japanese. It might as well have been Advanced English for all he knew. “…Blech.” Kamijou shook his head and pried his eyes away from the paper. A small dog ran past him. It was dragging a leash behind it from its neck, so it must have run away from its owner. Kamijou watched in vague surprise as it ran away, and then a smooth-looking man passed right by him as well in pursuit. That had to be Mitsuki Unabara. He caught up with the puppy in no time and grabbed hold of its leash. A little while after that, a boy who looked to be in elementary school came up behind Unabara. He must have been the dog’s owner. Unabara handed it over in the same sort of way you might hand over a balloon that was stuck in a tree, and he said a few things to the boy, who now had the leash in his hand. How smooth. How totally cool. I wasn’t sure people like that even existed. In terms of rarity, let’s see…he’s about the same level as a runaway girl sitting on the swings in the park at night, nearly in tears, he thought, half in admiration and half in disgust. He figured, though, that he was also about as rare as a boy fighter saving a girl being hassled by punks in an alley. Then their eyes met. Unabara looked a little taken aback, as if he remembered him, and then gave a half smile. He didn’t seem to want to leave, though. After getting his mental state in order, he came over to Kamijou on the bench. “Nice to meet you, umm…what should I call you?” “Huh? It’s Touma Kamijou. Mitsuki Unabara, right?” “What? I mean, yes, my name is Mitsuki Unabara, but how do you know it?” Unabara looked confused, but Kamijou had heard all about him from Mikoto. In fact, he was the one responsible for Mikoto dragging him all over the place when he had so much else to do today. “So what does Mr. Mitsuki Unabara need from Mr. Touma Kamijou?” “Er, I mean, nothing in particular…,” replied Unabara, a little flustered. “Umm, I would like to ask, if you don’t mind, but are you a friend of Misaka’s?” “You wanna know?” “…Yes. You’re sitting next to the person I love, so of course.” Wow, thought Kamijou, reappraising him. He suddenly started to like him. He didn’t think he’d just come out and declare it like that. Kamijou really liked idiots like him. Hmm. He thought for a moment. Mikoto had asked him to play along so that he’d give up, after all. “Hey, which answer do you want to hear? The one you expect or the one you don’t?” “Whatever this case is, my own answer won’t change,” he asserted without skipping a beat. He had the resolve to raise himself to a higher position rather than achieve it by climbing atop others. Maybe he looked like a stubborn, annoying person from a certain point of view, but strangely enough, Kamijou didn’t feel any insidious intent—probably because he didn’t view Kamijou as an enemy, nor did he resent Mikoto in return. 8 (Aug.31_AM11:02) When he talked to him, Mitsuki Unabara turned out to be a pretty nice guy. Kamijou knew he was the rich grandson of Tokiwadai Middle School’s board chairman…but his initial assumption that Unabara was surely some disagreeable, high-class person was way off. “So I think Misaka should be clearer about whether she likes or dislikes people. By the way, the answer to that question is three, because the word hi-doru means ‘roast,’ and it’s a ru-verb with an irregular conjugation.” “Three, huh? All right, three. You think so? She seems more the type who is pretty honest with her emotions. She flung all that sparky nonsense at me that one time when all I did was forget her name.” “I sort of feel like when she is being honest, there’s embarrassment or acting in there. To be frank, I’m not confident I’ve ever heard what she’s actually thinking. Not even once. Um, that answer there is four. I think two is a trick.” “Hey, thanks. Hmm…you might be right about that.” “It’s true! She doesn’t make anything clear, so somebody like me just ends up chasing after her all day, every day. I’m being serious about this, so I think she should give me a serious answer, too. Oh, that one is one.” “Ack, it’s not four? You’ve really made up your mind, huh? It’s like you’re just pulling the trigger during a game of Russian roulette without even knowing how many bullets are in the gun. There may be two possible answers she can give you, but it’s not a fifty-fifty chance.” “I understand that. I’m scared, you know? I don’t know what’ll happen to me if she outright says no to me. But even still—” “Even still?” “—I can’t. I can’t take her away when I know she’ll cry. If she’s not happy, then there wouldn’t be any point.” Tsk. Kamijou cursed mentally. He’d really wanted to start cheering this guy on, but it looked like the results were already in. Man, that’s youth for you. He sighed. Problems like this were honestly out of his comfort zone, and on top of that, after Unabara’s frank discussion, he didn’t even know if he wanted to keep going through with this act at all. Then, he suddenly heard footsteps beside him. He looked to find Mikoto holding two juice bottles, standing there looking quite startled. “Eh? What’s wrong with you—” Before he could fully voice his question, Mikoto strode over to the bench and gestured with her chin for him to stand, as if to tell him to get away from Unabara. “Come with me, you.” “H-hey!” Kamijou looked at Unabara. He had a forced expression, like he was in shock but still trying to maintain a smile. Mikoto looked at him and said, “Sorry. I have something I need to do with this person.” “Oh, I see.” “I’m sorry. See you.” Mikoto smiled, but for Kamijou, who knew a little bit about her, it was an unnatural act of politeness toward another person. Unabara might have realized it, too, because he didn’t seem willing to persist. Meanwhile, Mikoto turned her back to them and started walking. As he was worrying about what to do, Unabara smiled and told him to go. 9 (Aug.31_AM11:20) They walked for a while in silence before reaching a back alley, where Mikoto finally stopped. Kamijou, following behind her, almost bumped into her. She turned around and said, utterly exasperated, “Jeez, I can’t believe you! Why did I even bother asking you to put on this whole act? There’s no point if you start getting friendly with Unabara!” “…” “Understand? Right now, you’re…my b-boyfriend, okay? We’re trying to make Mitsuki Unabara give up on following me around! Please don’t forget about this crucial point!” “…” “Why aren’t you saying anything?” “I can’t do it,” he replied straightforwardly. “He’s totally serious! He’s completely prepared to get hurt as much as he needs to, and he wouldn’t even hate you if you did hurt him, and he still says he likes you. I can’t trick a person like that. I don’t want to.” “Oh, come on…” Mikoto seemed somewhat surprised as she looked at him. Kamijou didn’t notice Mikoto’s subtle trembling. “I’ll ask you instead—why do you instinctively dislike him so much? Does he really have some kind of huge shortcoming? Well, I mean, it’s probably wrong to force yourself to go out with him when you don’t like him, but…is there some other reason?” “…” Mikoto glared at him like she really wanted to say something. Her mouth was zipped shut—he couldn’t even hear her breathing, much less speaking. The two of them were silent. Finally, she blurted out, “You know, you’re…” “?” “…I see. Never mind.” She cut herself off like she was correcting herself. She grinned like it was nothing, but he thought he saw a hint of loneliness swimming in her eyes. 10 (Aug.31_AM11:45) Mikoto and the boy were the only ones in the alley. The words that had come out of his mouth shook her more than she let on. But what rocked her very core—that she did not realize. Nevertheless, she unconsciously understood that she’d be better off not letting it show. Or rather, she possessed a compelling force telling her that she mustn’t do so. However, without care, it would erupt within her. She was desperately holding it back, like a raging vortex of steam trying to escape her body. It was strange. She didn’t want to let it show on the surface, but she felt pained trying to hold it back. Would that not mean that deep down she wanted to let it show? But that wasn’t the case. Just thinking about letting it show nearly made her red in the face. And she didn’t even know what the essential thing was. She held everything in her throat, not understanding why. One way or another, she’d realized it. Mikoto had always kind of thought she was a unique existence. She had thought that even her distance to this boy had shrunken just a little bit compared to everyone else. Like if he was browsing a list of a thousand names and saw the name Misaka, he’d at least stop for a moment. But no—she’d been wrong. And that fact by itself had a big effect on her. She didn’t even understand why something as insignificant as this had caused her so much damage, so she of course couldn’t think of a way to deal with it. She wanted to run away right now if she could—from this unidentified pain. But she couldn’t. She didn’t want to turn tail and run away from him. It would hurt him. The pain would be much more than what she was feeling now. …Man, I really am an idiot, if I do say so myself, she sighed. He didn’t seem like he caught on at all. He said in wonder, “? What are you smiling about?” 11 (Aug.31_PM00:00) As Kamijou and Mikoto left the smaller back roads for the main one, they decided to discuss what to do from here on out about Unabara. “So what are we gonna do now? Keep putting on the act or quit it already?” Mikoto sighed. “What do you think we should do?” “Well, I’d rather we just gave up. There’s no point in continuing. Besides, Unabara doesn’t seem like the kind of person you think he is. I don’t think he’d resent you for turning him down or anything.” “That may be true, but it’s kind of scary. He’s been so aggressive with his advances lately he seems like a different person…Hey, you sure are sticking up for him. Did something happen?” “I guess. He really just helped me out with my homework.” Mikoto gave a “?” face, and Kamijou showed her his Classical Japanese homework packet. The correct answers Unabara had told him were written in. But when she saw that, her expression suddenly clouded over. “They’re…all correct and everything, but…” “But? But what?” “Was he a good student? I didn’t think he was actually all that smart.” “But he answered my homework correctly, didn’t he?” “Well…His grades do put him at the top of his class, but…he’s got that Level Four ability—telekinesis. It’s the power to move things far away with an invisible force.” “How does that have anything to do with how smart he is?” “It does.” Mikoto folded her hands. “Kuroko Shirai jumped the gun and looked into it. What he’s doing is cheating. He sticks his power like a plastic film on the monitor, and then when the light and heat from the monitor pushes back onto it, he calculates backward to the image being displayed on it…Well, it’s like a listening device. His good grades have nothing to do with how smart he is.” “Whoa…,” Kamijou grunted. He did know about special kinds of devices that could calculate electrical signals by measuring subtle changes in the magnetic fields that monitors and transmission codes emit. What surprised him was the fact that a normal person could do the same thing without even using any tools. “Wait, you managed to explain all that pretty calmly.” “Don’t patronize me. Is that weird? I’m an electric user anyway, so I can do something similar. Like steal your credit card information from the magnetic field coming from the magnetic tape on it,” she explained, far too calmly, leaving the Level Zero Touma Kamijou speechless. 12 (Aug.31_PM00:12) It was lunchtime. Kamijou wasn’t feeling too hungry because of the hot dogs they ate earlier, but it reminded him that Index was left by herself in the dormitory. He’d left things like bread in the kitchen, edible things that she wouldn’t have to cook, so he didn’t think she’d have a problem. He got the feeling, though, that her personality dictated that she would wait patiently until he got back. “All right, then let’s stop the boyfriend-girlfriend thing. I’ll treat you to one last thing as a tip. Want anything to eat?” “We’re gonna eat more?! It’s fine, I’m not hungry!” “I’m trying to thank you here, so be quiet and accept it. Oh, I heard that if you can eat an entire jumbo-size bowl of super-spicy fried rice, you get it for free. Want to try?” “Now you’re just doing it out of spite!” It being midday, the students who were all in a race against time to finish their homework were overflowing into the now-lively city streets in search of food. Mikoto was walking ahead of Kamijou, so as he made sure not to lose her in the crowd, he asked, “Hey, we’re done with the whole acting thing, right? What are you gonna end up doing about Unabara?” “I’ll settle the score myself. The school board chairman will probably give me hell for it…but that’s my own problem, too, so,” said Mikoto as if she’d gotten past something. Kamijou didn’t get another word in. They looked around for someplace to eat, but everywhere was full. In the end they just went to buy a cheap hamburger or something and eat outside. Despite this compromise, though, there were giant lines in front of the fast-food joint’s counters. “I’ll go line up. You can just take it easy here. You don’t have any complaints to me deciding our order, right?” Kamijou grunted in confusion. “Why don’t we just line up together?” “It’s fine, okay? I’m the one who put you through all this. I have to at least pay you back this much.” Right after she said that, she went into the line. The restaurant seemed pretty popular—as soon as she got in, others lined up behind her, and she disappeared into the mountain of people. Pushing his way through said mountain to get to Mikoto would probably bother everyone else, so he gave up and decided to wait by himself outside the store. Ugh…With this direct summer sunlight, waiting in line inside would have been less painful. Ack, but what should I do about my homework? He glanced up toward the sun, looking like a wilted decorative plant left on the windowsill in the sunlight for too long. Then, a familiar face appeared. It was Mitsuki Unabara. “Hm? Fancy seeing you here. Are you alone? Is that errand of yours finished?” “Eh? Oh, actually, Misaka’s battling her way through that pile of people,” he said, pointing toward the store counter. “You want to go talk to her? She’s calmed down now, so you might be able to.” “No. I don’t think I could. She seemed really angry a little while ago,” he replied with a slightly troubled look. 13 (Aug.31_PM00:15) If the phrase packed in like sardines ever applied to a situation, it was the crowd at the counter of the fast-food place. She looked up at the ceiling tiredly, swallowed by the waves of people. It’s summer, and it’s crowded, and it’s so hot…Ugh, why is it so hot even though the air conditioners are going? She began to consider going somewhere else when she saw the line not moving at all. But when she turned around, there was yet another human wall. She’d bother everyone else by trying to push through them. Ahh, aha-ha…this is hell. She smiled dryly when suddenly the crowd near the entrance began to churn. Someone seemed to be forcing their way through the congestion. Stifled complaints and dissatisfaction spread through the store like a wave. Then, the crowd in front of Mikoto parted to either side. The one who fell toward her was someone she knew well. “Huh? Hey, just what do you think you’re—” “…ease, run…,” he said, cutting her off. His body was soaked with sweat, and for some reason, his right arm was wrapped in white bandages. The boy cried out, his eyes bloodshot. 14 (Aug.31_PM00:15, at the same time) “Oh, hey, thanks for your help with my homework,” said Kamijou, standing under the burning-hot sun waiting for Mikoto. In contrast, Mitsuki Unabara, in the middle of the scorching-hot road, gave an incredibly cool smile and replied, “Not at all. I just did what I was able.” “What I was able,” huh… That struck Kamijou as a little off. Then Unabara, as if sensing the oddness of the conversation, asked, “Is something the matter?” “Mm. I’d like to ask you something, if that’s all right.” “Go ahead.” “Are you…a smart guy?” “Huh?” Mitsuki froze for a moment in confusion. “Um, well, rather, I’m sorry—were my answers wrong?” “No, that’s not what I meant…” He obviously couldn’t just straight up ask if he cheated in school. He hurriedly tried to change the subject…but something else happened before he got his words out. “What is it?” asked Unabara, seeming a little surprised. Kamijou didn’t answer. Actually, the problem wasn’t Unabara himself. He was staring at something—someone—behind him. Behind Unabara, a big crowd of people was gathered in the fast-food joint where Mikoto was lined up, since it was lunchtime and everything. Students walking along nearby were steadily joining the mess. And there, among those people…was another Mitsuki Unabara. His face, his height and weight, and even his clothes—everything about him was the same as Unabara. He was dripping with sweat from every pore on his body, and he was diving into the restaurant with bloodshot eyes. Mitsuki Unabara finally seemed to realize where he was staring. He turned around to look at the building, but the man had already disappeared entirely into the throng. Kamijou bent his head in bewilderment. Was it a case of accidental resemblance? They looked so alike, though. The air that they gave off may have been slightly different, but they looked exactly the same—just like Mikoto and Little Misaka. “Hey, do you have a brother or something?” “No, I’m an only child. Why do you ask?” “Well…A second ago, a guy who looked just like you went in there,” he explained, pointing toward the restaurant. Unabara, somewhat startled, turned around again. “I-I see. I would have liked to have seen him myself, but you only got a short look at him, right? Couldn’t his hairstyle or clothing just have been similar? Regardless, I don’t have any siblings.” Kamijou got that feeling as well. He’d only gotten a cursory glance at him, so he didn’t remember any details. Then, Unabara, with a somewhat nervous expression, looked back and forth between Kamijou and the restaurant. “Did that person really look that much like me?” “Huh? Uh, well, it was more than just looking alike—it was almost like he was an identical twin. But it was probably just a coincidence. This sort of thing happens sometimes. It’s nothing to get into a fuss over, is it?” “That person went into the shop where Miss Misaka is currently in, right? Doesn’t that seem creepy to you?” Worried, Unabara looked toward the restaurant entrance. “There are espers who have metamorphosis abilities in this city. Just as the name implies, they can change their face and body into that of somebody else. I don’t think it’s possible to change their own genetic information, but still…,” went on Unabara, seeming a bit anxious. Kamijou thought that maybe he was worrying about this an awful lot, but perhaps this much was natural for someone who was in love with her. “Well, coincidental or not, you can just go in and see for yourself. I don’t really think it’s worth worrying about, but imaginary fears are best cleared up quickly.” Kamijou immediately began to walk forward, but Unabara took a step back instead. “Oh, I couldn’t…Miss Misaka got awfully mad at me earlier. If I really am overthinking this, then it could end up with her getting angry at me again. The thought scares me.” “Don’t give me such a lonely looking smile. You’re only worrying about her, that’s all.” “There’s a thin line between helping somebody out and being nosy. If you would be so kind, could you go in and see if anything is out of the ordinary for me?” “Jeez, fine. But look here. I don’t really have any place to say this, but I don’t think you need to get all spineless at this point. She’s been refusing your invitations all week long and you haven’t given up yet, have you?” “Refusing my what?” “Huh? I said—” “I’ve been out this whole week at a training camp for my school club. I could figure out that she’d been avoiding me, so I thought I’d cool off for a while and regroup. This is the last day of summer vacation, so I just wanted to see Miss Misaka again.” Kamijou gave a start. Mikoto had said that a person—Mitsuki Unabara—had been following her around every day. But if the real one had been away at summer camp, then who was the one with her this whole time? Unabara didn’t know about it. Kamijou hid all this to not cause him needless worry. He swept past the young man and headed for the fast-food place. Then, suddenly, he remembered something. Unabara had been keeping up his good marks by cheating, and he had also easily helped him with his homework—what was going on? As he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard Mitsuki Unabara’s voice behind him. “I tell you, tricking people never goes well, does it?” Slam A powerful impact landed in the middle of Kamijou’s back. It took him a few seconds to realize it had been a punch. The air in his lungs rushed out of him like he was a blown-up plastic bag that someone had stepped on. He couldn’t breathe, much less cry out in pain. He looked back over his shoulder to see Mitsuki Unabara standing there with freezing-cold eyes. What was going on? His breath caught in his throat, but while he stopped thinking entirely for a moment, Unabara took his other hand, brought it behind him, and took out a bladed object. He came down with it at the same time that Kamijou took a step forward in panic. He felt a sharp, cold sensation as it lightly scraped across his lower back, but he forced himself to get his breathing in order. He had been attacked after Unabara had driven the air from his lungs and prevented him from screaming. So many people were around that they were blind to anything below their chests, so the attack had been far more difficult to see than if he had covered his mouth and stabbed him. Even if Unabara had used this tactic to kill him outright, he could have just joined into the crowd nonchalantly and no one would be the wiser. It hadn’t been a bullet—that would have assured his own destruction. It had been an assassination, which would have let him go home alive. An act of murder committed in broad daylight with dozens of people around. But he didn’t scream, so it didn’t cause panic. That fact directly confirmed Unabara’s high level of skill. Could he be…? Kamijou, still dizzy from the assault, tried desperately to bring his body back around, but he couldn’t stop his staggering legs. It brought him around in an arc, with Unabara precisely at the center. Was this one the fake all along…?! The corners of Mitsuki Unabara’s lips twisted upward as if he had realized from Kamijou’s eyes what he’d been thinking. He glanced at the object in Mitsuki Unabara’s hands—it was like a knife made out of a black rock. The rock didn’t look like it had been filed down. It looked more like it had been broken to create its sharp edge. It was wholly unlike a weapon, so perhaps that was why people nearby didn’t stop to think about it when they saw it. Blinded with pain, Kamijou thought desperately about what to do and uttered, “…Damn…it! Why…are you…?!” “Why, you ask? This was supposed to have been my very important latent period…but you wouldn’t understand how vital it was if I told you, would you? Still, for the real one to have escaped…I suppose I should have just killed him outright instead of going for the milder option of confining him. Oh, and by the way, I’m neither his brother nor a stranger who happens to look just like him. I believe there is a way to do this called metamorphosis on your science side of things, but there are other ways to achieve the same effect, you know.” Mitsuki Unabara waved around the black stone knife as he spoke. This time, he didn’t cut him, but rather raised it toward the sky… Zoom Something invisible shot past his face. An unseen laser-like thing had come out of the tip of his knife and collided with an illegally parked car behind him. As if it were a branding iron, a complex sigil appeared on the car’s door. Then, with a gzzzzt, something else invisible erupted from the indentation it had created. Something he couldn’t see but could certainly feel, like a malicious gaze upon him. It was hard to explain with science, and at the same time, it seemed to be representing itself as something outside of science. In other words—sorcery. After the one second of silence… With a series of metallic noises, every part of the car, from its doors to its glass windows to its chassis to its tires, split apart into a thousand pieces. It wasn’t like somebody had broadly cut and sliced it up. The screws, the bolts, the welding—everything holding each part of the car together just neatly fell apart, almost like converting an already-built plastic model kit into its component pieces. Kamijou saw it and went white. He had realized, one way or another, what would happen to a person hit by it—what would become of their parts. A stir began to spread in the crowd, but there was no screaming or panic. To the people there, it was a mysterious occurrence. Their thoughts hadn’t quite caught up to the point where they had figured out it had been a clear attack. Mitsuki Unabara didn’t look around. He continued swinging his knife. “?!” Kamijou’s back broke into a cold sweat. Unabara’s attacks were scary, to be certain. Kamijou’s right hand could nullify any abnormal powers, but sensing an invisible attack before it happened? It was like trying to dodge a bullet once a person saw it heading for them. The sparky attacks Mikoto shot at him were similar, but those were all limited by having electrical properties. In other words, all he needed to do was stick his right hand out in front of him, and the spears of thunder would all be naturally attracted to it like a lightning rod. However, Unabara’s unknown attack didn’t follow those rules. But the most terrifying thing of all was that his aim was all over the place. He had missed the utterly unprepared Kamijou from a distance of just five meters. And then the attack’s power ended up destroying a car in an instant. A lot of people were around. They were surprised at how the car had broken apart before their eyes, but they hadn’t realized it had been an attack. And Unabara didn’t seem to care about collateral damage at all anyway. If a sorcerer let loose here, the stray bullets would surely hurt people. “Shit!” Kamijou turned his back to Unabara, completely aware of the danger of doing so. He darted from the main road onto a side road, trying at least to get away from people. Then, he turned onto a back alley. The enemy, equipped with an invisible weapon, followed him in steady pursuit. 15 (Aug.31_PM00:24) Damn it, what the hell is going on?! Why’s a sorcerer just hanging around in a place like this? What the hell does he want?! Cursing to himself, Kamijou ran through the alleys. First of all, he needed to know what kind of attack his enemy was using. As he ran, he grabbed his cell phone. Fortunately, the enemy didn’t seem able to fire rapidly, nor accurately. Nevertheless, the fact that someone was chasing him from behind with a ranged weapon was enough to put immense pressure on him. As his fingers flew across the buttons, he realized they were trembling erratically. The ringtone sounded once, twice, three times, four times, five times, six times, seven times, eight times, nine times— “H-hello! Hello, this is the Kamijou residence, hello!” “What took you so long?!” shouted Kamijou angrily for no reason. The girl on the other end got mad, too. “Mgh. Is that you, Touma?! You’re the one who’s taking too long! When are we gonna have lunch? Or should I evacuate to Komoe’s house again? You need to be clearer about these things, for my sake!” “Sorry, Index, we’ll talk about food later! There’s something I gotta ask you, okay?!” “Later?! Why are you so—” “Damn it, are you listening?! There’s a sorcerer or something in the city. I don’t know what he’s after, but it might be you! Tsuchimikado…might be back at his dorm right now. Index, I want you to go next door, all right?! He’s an ally!” “Touma…Are you being chased?” Index’s voice changed to a quiet tone. She must have guessed the situation he was in. “Yeah, I’m in full escape mode right now! I could really use a hint to turn this around on him!” “…Anything unique? Like his clothes, or his weapon, or the way he talks or acts.” Kamijou told her everything strange he knew about Mitsuki Unabara, like the fact that he had transformed into somebody else and the properties of the stone knife he held. Index was silent for three seconds, then immediately came back with a reply. “The black knife might be…obsidian? A lance of reflected starlight from a mirror…that’s probably the Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli.” “Tola-what?” “The Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli. It comes from the name of an Aztec god. He was the god of Venus and calamity. It’s said that the spear will kill anyone and everyone exposed to the light of Venus.” Kamijou gave up. That was just an embellished legend. If it was true, everyone in the world would have died a long time ago. “Venus…? You know, Index, enough with the backstory. I need to know what to do here as soon as possible—ack?!” A loud zoom cut off his needless retort. The mysterious attack had lunged right past him, barely missing. It dismantled an outdoor air conditioner. Still bathed in a cold sweat, he whipped around another corner. “Touma, if you don’t listen carefully, you’ll be the one who gets hurt!” “Yes, I’m sorry, Miss Index! I will never nitpick at a specialist’s words again! So please, just give me a hint as soon as you can!” “Okay. For now, just remember that the spear itself is made from the light of Venus.” Kamijou immediately looked up. In the slender sky, bordered by buildings on either side…Venus was not. That didn’t mean that Venus wasn’t up there, but that he just couldn’t see it because of the bright sunlight. “But I don’t get it. Everyone in the world is exposed to Venus’s light. If the spear has that kind of power, then you couldn’t avoid it no matter where you were. Wouldn’t mankind already be wiped out?” “That’s right—it’s a godlike power. But it’s a double-edged sword. There’s no way that humans can completely control the same kind of techniques a god can handle.” “I don’t get it.” “To put it simply, the spear that people use is a replica. If you used the real spear, everyone in the world would die. Hmm, I think the replica is probably using the obsidian knife as a mirror. It reflects the light from Venus coming from the sky with the mirror, exposing something to the light to attack. In other words, as long as you don’t get exposed to that light, it’s more than possible to evade his attacks. You could probably block it with your right hand, Touma, but figuring out the trajectory of something invisible is the important part.” “An invisible light ray…So it’s basically like a portable laser!” “Lay-ser?” He could almost see Index making her confused face from here. As he ran, he tripped over a parked bicycle on the street, probably because his focus had waned. He pitched forward but managed to keep himself from falling and ran farther. Behind him an eerie zoom! rang out. He looked back at the bicycle he’d stumbled over. It had been dismantled into its wheels and frame by the unseen strike. It didn’t seem like the sorcerer was very precise with the spear. He saw the sorcerer swing the knife around behind him again and rushed around another corner. “God, he’s firing that thing all over the damn city. Think about your surroundings, stupid!” “Hmm. Without knowing the blueprint of the technique, they can witness the magic’s outcome without causing a problem for the sorcerer. Even if an unknowing person saw what it caused, they wouldn’t be able to calculate backward to the technique’s construction!” “I mean, well…that’s not really what I wanted to say.” Kamijou sighed and swerved into an even narrower street. He was in a race against time, but there was still something he needed to ask. “Gah. Then is Aztec magic or whatever responsible for him disguising himself as Unabara, too?” “Probably. There’s an art where Aztec priests tear off the skin of human sacrifices and wear it, so I think it’s being applied here.” He caught his breath. He knew this wasn’t the time for it. If he didn’t concentrate, his feet would stop moving. “Do what with their skin?” “They wear it. They slice it off with a knife. But I don’t know if he needs to go that far if he just wants to disguise himself. He could imitate someone’s form just by cutting off a piece of skin around fifteen centimeters long from the arm and making a talisman out of it.” A vile sensation rose gradually from his fingertips. His pursuer suddenly got a lot creepier. “What the hell? Cutting people’s skin off and wearing it to disguise themselves? Are all sorcerers this messed up in the head?!” “Mgh. Touma, that sounded an awful lot like occupational discrimination to me—” He didn’t have any more time to listen, so he hung up the phone. This particular alleyway was shorter than he’d thought, and Kamijou ended up coming right back out onto a main street. He hurried across it and dove into another alley. Behind him, he heard the strange sounds of things being dismantled by the invisible spear. Should I flee into a building? No, he could just dismantle the whole building from the outside, and I’d be buried alive! It’s hard not knowing how extensive his attacks can be. I could even be buried in the underground mall. As he ran, he tried to make sense of the situation. Was the sorcerer’s aim related somehow to Index? She was a library of grimoires who had 103,000 of them memorized, so he couldn’t discard the possibility that sorcerers from around the world would come and try to take her. But that didn’t really add up, either. Why would he have changed into Mitsuki Unabara in that case? Unabara was acquainted with Mikoto, and he didn’t have any direct link to either Kamijou or Index. He’d think that if Unabara was trying to kill him, he’d have changed himself into someone closer to Kamijou… Kamijou shot around another street corner. “Damn it!” he swore. It was a dead end, with an in-construction building blocking it. Shovels, cement bags, and other construction tools were taking up the narrow path, and it didn’t look like there was a way past them. There was a giant arm overhead from a crane or something that had been set up on the roof of the incomplete building. Kamijou ran for the construction site anyway and shot a glance over his shoulder. The footfalls of his enemy were surely and steadily getting closer. He couldn’t run away. What now? What now?! The instant he scanned his surroundings, Mitsuki Unabara came running around the corner. As soon as he spotted Kamijou, he brandished the black stone knife in his hand. There were only five meters between them. However, Kamijou didn’t go to punch him. Instead, he grabbed a nearby shovel. During that time, Mitsuki Unabara began to change his knife’s angle, trying to get it to shine light at him. Kamijou, all too aware of the sweat dripping from his palms, swung down the shovel with all his might. Not at Unabara, but at the bag of cement close by. The shovel stabbed into the bag with a sharp zzzkkk noise, but he didn’t stop there. The gray powder inside flew all over the place. Unabara’s vision, his surroundings, and the sky—all of it had been blanketed in gray. He still swung the knife, but then he realized it. The spear wasn’t activating. The cement powder had severed the space linking Venus and the spear. He couldn’t fire the weapon because it needed to use the light from Venus. Thwop! A heavy object flew right past Mitsuki Unabara’s face. As soon as he realized it was the shovel and readied himself— “Wooohhh-aaahhhh” Kamijou’s fist came from directly in front, stabbing through the gray curtain. Unabara reflexively bent over to dodge it. There was no sense behind the action—only instinct. As a sweat now broke out on him, he took the obsidian knife, which had become just a blunt object at this point, and tried to bash it against the side of Kamijou’s face. But because of his unstable stance, there was no strength behind it. Kamijou gave a roar and drove his toes straight into Unabara’s gut. Unabara attempted to leap backward to lighten the damage as much as possible. He might have also realized the disadvantage of this cement curtain, as well, because he soon switched into a retreat. He took two steps back, then a third, but Kamijou immediately closed the distance, moving many times faster than him. It was only natural—human feet are made for running forward much faster than backward. He clenched his fist again and went to throw another punch. Unabara instantly readied his obsidian knife. Then, a whooosh. In that moment, an entirely uninvited gale blew through the back road. It drove away the curtain of gray covering their surroundings all at once. The sky, enclosed by the buildings, reappeared. And the light of Venus, its grace, showered down upon Unabara. He brandished the knife and angled it. Right before his eyes was a surprised Kamijou. “Hah. You should prepare yourself” He fixed the angle. Venus, the mirror, and his target were all in alignment. He concentrated mana into it, weaved his spell, transformed the starlight into an invisible spear, and sent it flying straight toward his enemy The symbol of Venus and calamity: the Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli. Kamijou… …thrust out his right hand, but he couldn’t figure out where the invisible attack was coming from… …and as if slipping through the cracks in the divine protection of his right hand, the attack was set straight on his heart to pierce it… …but nothing happened. “Wha…?” Mitsuki Unabara couldn’t help but grunt in confusion. There were many necessary conditions to fire one of his powerful spears, and he thought he had satisfied them all. Therefore, there was no possibility of it having backfired. The loosed spear had flown straight at Kamijou’s heart, and his body should have been beautifully disassembled like a cow at a butcher. He looked at the obsidian knife in his hand as if it were a flashlight whose batteries had gone dead. He was astonished at what he saw. The rough gray powder had stuck all over its surface, just like chalk powder on a blackboard eraser. He couldn’t even tell what color it was anymore. Its function was to be a mirror—to reflect and control the shining light from Venus. The mirror had been clouded, and he was thus unable to connect the light from Venus with his target. Kamijou’s feet came marching in. He had already gotten up close to Mitsuki Unabara. “?!” If Unabara had abandoned his obsidian knife and rethought his strategy, he might still have had a chance. Unfortunately, he decided he would wipe the dirt off of it. Of course—given the choice between a fifty-fifty bare-handed brawl and sorcery that would let one win for sure, anyone would choose the latter. He only needed to wipe it off a little bit—but that was the temptation, which defeated him. It delayed his reaction to Kamijou, who was right next to him. A dull sound ripped through the air. The obsidian knife, with which he had persisted until the end, flew from his hands as he fell backward. 16 (Aug.31_PM00:36) Kamijou looked down at Mitsuki Unabara, lying on the road. With a glass-breaking noise, the skin on the part of his face where he had been punched shattered to pieces. The face of the sorcerer beneath looked even younger than Unabara, and his complexion seemed darker. It was almost like someone had forcefully torn off a sunburn—fragments of his face still stuck. It was uncanny. “All right, then. Answer me this,” began Kamijou, breathing heavily. “Why did you decide to change into Mitsuki Unabara, of all people?” “Hah. Must I really spell it out for you to understand?” “Of course you do, damn it! You wouldn’t get anything out of Unabara attacking me, so why did you go for him?! To get close to Misaka? Just because she happens to know me?!” “…” “Answer me. You tore off a piece of Unabara’s skin and disguised yourself as him. Were you going to do the same to Misaka? She’s got nothing to do with this magic world! Why are you trying to get her involved?!” Kamijou’s rage was met by Unabara’s quiet tone. His words were level and without feeling, like they were dripping out of his mouth. “In all actuality, I should have just killed Unabara.” His voice was not cold as ice, but rather like lukewarm water, neither rising nor falling with emotion. “It seems like when he was on the verge of death, he used his power—telekinesis, was it?—to harden his own body’s movements at an atomic level. He basically put himself into a cold sleep. I tried stabbing him through the heart, but it was like sticking a knife into frozen meat. My spears couldn’t disassemble him, either. I had no choice, so I tied his hands and feet and threw him into that room, but…” It appeared that this sorcerer had done his research before coming to Academy City. He was dropping scientific terms like telekinesis and cold sleep all over the place. But Unabara’s quiet voice got to Kamijou the most. It felt like he was forcing an old, stretched-out cassette tape to replay. When Unabara saw his expression, he seemed just the slightest bit satisfied. Emotion returned to his voice. “And why did I come here? Is that seriously the first question you thought to ask me after all this?” he sneered. “You really don’t understand what a dangerous thing you’ve done, do you?” “What?” “To make all this worse, you have sole possession of the Index of Forbidden Books—all 103,000 grimoires. On top of that, you’ve won over sorcerers from the English Puritan Church, a Level Five from Tokiwadai, and a trump card against vampires to your side, haven’t you?” Then, his tone turning to one of self-ridicule, he continued. “The world of sorcery and the world of science aren’t naturally able to mix. And yet you’ve gotten familiar with both organizations. You’re essentially creating a new body all its own—the Kamijou faction. Organizations like the one I belong to are terribly afraid of such a new faction upsetting the world’s power balance.” His organization. Did that refer to Academy City, the world of the Church, a sorcerer’s society, or some economic power? “That’s why I was sent over here. Though it’s not like I was originally aiming to become Mitsuki Unabara or trying to cause harm to anyone. I only came here one month ago, and I only changed bodies last week. I was just here to observe. If we found that your Kamijou faction didn’t have an effect on the power balance, I would have just reported back that there was no problem.” The sorcerer gritted his teeth. His glare shot straight into Kamijou’s face. “But you were too dangerous! Speculating purely from the shards of information I’ve received, you’ve destroyed numerous organizations during just this summer vacation! On top of that, your power doesn’t use money or influence, so we can’t control, restrict, or negotiate. It’s arbitrary, dictatorial, and self-righteous, fueled by your emotions alone! Do you seriously think the higher-ups wouldn’t think such an enormously unstable power dangerous?!” “Wait…so then you’re…” “Yes. My goal is not just Touma Kamijou, but the entire Kamijou faction. Even if you died by yourself, the members of this faction are too close for it to just disappear.” That was probably why he would shape-shift into an acquaintance. He would take on the face of somebody Kamijou knew well, be as terrible a person as he could toward him, and cause him to lose trust in the person. Once that was over with, he’d switch to some other acquaintance of his. He would cause this faction to steadily rot away from within. Even if he got wise to the idea midway through, there would be no problem for this sorcerer. He could then tear apart his circle of friends by playing the “Which one is the fake?” card—and his doubts would beget yet more doubts. Internal decay. The same political maneuver had caused countless dynasties to crumble since days of yore. Behind such occurrences as seemingly steadfast rules rotting in no time at all and sagacious kings one day suddenly transforming into horrific tyrants were the invisible hands of secret agents. Such extremely vivid and cruel skill later came to be exemplified using beings like kitsune or demons, depending on the country. “I was trying so hard to leave you until last, but there was no choice. You had already unveiled the truth. I suppose I will just have to take your face next!” he said, leaping toward the obsidian knife that he’d dropped on the ground. He wiped the dirt from its mirrored surface, then, still on the floor himself, twisted around and swung another spear at him. Unfortunately, perhaps because he fired from such an unreasonable position, the spear seemed to fly in an entirely different direction. The sorcerer swore under his breath, stood up, and tried to ready the knife again. Kamijou dove in close before he could. “Shit” The sorcerer tried to loose another spear, but Kamijou’s fist was faster. His right hand punched the obsidian knife. With the sound of glass breaking, his Imagine Breaker caused the obsidian knife to shatter. “I’m not gonna wait for you, you moron—” Suddenly, his voice was cut off. A loud, metallic clatter-clatter rang out from above Kamijou. He looked up to find the framework of the unfinished building about to come crashing down. The spear that had missed its mark had hit the building right next to them. The structure wasn’t at the concrete phase yet, so it was more like a giant jungle gym made of steel beams. The spears caused objects to break up into their component parts. The thick girders, now without any screws or bolts attached, were raining down upon their heads. “?!” Kamijou and the sorcerer both leaped backward to get away from it. A steel beam weighing hundreds of kilograms stabbed like a holy sword into the spot where they had been. It didn’t take long before the building itself started to topple down like an avalanche. Common sense would dictate running away. But if he let this chance go, the sorcerer would get away. That would mean he would swap bodies with somebody again and cause harm to somebody close to him. Their eyes met. The sorcerer looked at him, grinning. Damn it! My life is the unluckiest piece of shit I’ve ever… Kamijou swore, glaring at the sorcerer, who also didn’t seem to want to run. “This may be a pretty clichéd line, but…we could have been friends.” He heard the shouts of construction workers running about, trying to escape. They were all aboveground, so there probably wasn’t anyone inside the building. He didn’t think anyone wouldn’t run away at this point. “I’ve never entertained that fleeting thought even once!” His reply was immediate. A steel beam crashed into the ground right next to him, but his face didn’t budge an inch. “Seriously, it’s a shame,” Kamijou sighed. “All that stuff you said about Misaka—that was all faked, too, wasn’t it? That’s the biggest shame…because now I’ve got a reason to really beat your face in.” The air between them froze at those words. The silence was colder than darkness and dominated the area. “…Being a fake?” whispered the sorcerer to himself. Before Kamijou could frown, he repeated it. “What’s wrong…with being a fake?” he growled at himself. “Can a fake not desire peace? Is a fake not even allowed to want to protect Misaka?” “Eh…?” He forgot about the building’s ominous creaking and looked hard at the sorcerer. “That’s right, I never wanted to do any of this,” he declared, not paying any mind to the collapse soon to come. “I didn’t even want to hurt Unabara, either. That would be the best solution. Everyone would be happy, and nobody would be hurt. I loved this city. Ever since I came here a month ago. Even if I could never be a resident here, I loved this world in which Misaka lived.” The sorcerer continued. “But there was no other way. The results were in. The higher-ups decided that the Kamijou faction was dangerous. Do you understand what I felt like when I changed into Unabara? What I felt like when I knew I was harming this world she lives in?” Extreme emotions twisted and turned his expression. “You would never understand! You destroyed all of it! If you had just been a little more amicable, if you had let me tell them that there was no problem, then I would have left quietly! I wouldn’t have had to attack Unabara or lie to Misaka! Yeah, we’re enemies now, but whose fault is that?!” An invisible, murderous aura hung in the air around his body. As if in concert with his rage, the top of the building started its descent with a crash. Kamijou looked into the sorcerer’s eyes. Then he asked, without looking at the falling building, “Do you really like Misaka?” Even though he was a spy…even though he’d tried to use her… …his response was yes. The top of the building turned into countless steel girders and beams, and all came hurtling down at them. “Did you want to protect this world Misaka lives in?” Because he was a spy. Even if he had to use her. His response was yes. The metal framework collided with the lower parts of the building, causing even more parts to be dismantled. “But I can’t protect them any longer. I’m your enemy now. Her enemy now. I didn’t want to be, but I had to. What else would you have me do? What else could I have done? Fought against an entire organization by myself, like some movie hero, and died? I can’t. I’m not you. I can’t be a hero like you,” the sorcerer said with a strangely fleeting, weak smile. Yes. Touma Kamijou understood. These were his true feelings. The motives of a man who was forced to become his enemy even though he didn’t want to. He was forced to have to lay a hand upon that which he wanted to protect more than anything else in the world. They were the words of a man whose heart had been twisted. There was a man named Motoharu Tsuchimikado. When he had identified himself as a spy, Kamijou had thought it was a pretty easy position to be in. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. He’d gained his freedom in exchange for the immense risk of disobeying orders. The sorcerer before him was unable to shoulder that kind of risk. He knew his own weakness, too, and that’s probably why he could never forgive Kamijou for tearing his dream apart…nor himself for being unable to protect it. Those were his true feelings. He vented all of the distorted words within his own heart and stood to block him with everything he had. Kamijou decided that he wouldn’t pull his punches, either. Those were his true feelings as somebody who lived a life free from freedom, his actions uncontrolled by anyone, and able to remain an ally to those he wished to protect. For a sorcerer, there was likely no more painful reality. He was a light too brilliant for his eyes to handle. “Hah. No future after this apart from laying a hand on her, you say?” Nevertheless, he made up his mind to fight with everything he had. Kamijou couldn’t ignore someone who had bared all his motives and emotions to him. “Then I’ve got no choice. I will kill…that illusion of yours!” Because of the top section of the building crumbling, the entire thing came tumbling down like a giant hand trying to crush them. The steel girders poured down like rain, one after the other, but neither he nor the sorcerer paid a glance above them. Nor did they flee backward. They simply clenched their fists and ran forward, each set on closing the distance between them to zero. “Gah-aahh” Kamijou’s fist connected with the sorcerer’s face. He didn’t seem to have any intent to dodge it in the first place, though, and he seized Kamijou by the collar with both hands. He twisted his arms and flung Kamijou’s back hard into the wall. There was a loud, dull sound. It forced all the air out of his lungs. As he was leaning against the wall, the sorcerer grabbed his neck with both hands. Kamijou felt the disturbing sensation of the sorcerer’s thumbs jabbing into his windpipe, but he whipped his foot into the sorcerer’s stomach. It was enough to cause the sorcerer to bend over in pain—perhaps because he relied only on that strange technique, he had never trained his body. Without worrying about the hands strangling him, Kamijou brought his fist down as hard as he could on the enemy’s back, so straight he might have been bowing. The sorcerer’s legs gave out. He delivered another downward punch, and the hands around his neck came off. Clonk came the roar of a beam slamming into the ground right next to Kamijou. Then, to make it worse, another girder slammed right into the top of that one. A huge shock wave–like, ear-piercing sound like a church bell ringing right next to him flooded into his eardrums. “Gh…uh…?!” Then, suddenly, the similarly shaken sorcerer came at the staggering Kamijou… “Aaahh” …and tackled him at full force. Kamijou fell onto his back, but because the sound had rocked his brain, he couldn’t move his body the way he needed to. On the other hand, the sorcerer, his movements faltering like he was drunk, still tried to get on top of him. As Kamijou tried to somehow get away from the sorcerer about to fall on him… “Oh.” …he saw it. A huge swarm of iron beams was coming down from the sky, filling his vision. He saw one of them on a route that would skewer the both of them. They couldn’t have been more than twenty meters away. They had, what, a couple seconds? The sorcerer was glaring at Kamijou underneath him, so he didn’t realize what was happening. “Get out of the way, moron” He kicked the sorcerer in the gut before he could get on top of him, then delivered an openhanded slap to his cheek. His body fell to the left. He turned onto his back…and then finally got a grasp of the situation. At that moment, their eyes met. The rain of iron girders. He didn’t try to avoid it. He smiled. It was a thin, lonely smile, like he had realized what would happen if he won this fight. Kamijou had no responsibility to save this sorcerer. Nobody would scorn his decision to leave him for dead. But… “Can a fake not desire peace?” Even still… “Is a fake not even allowed to want to protect Misaka?” Kamijou bit down. Aw, jeez! This is totally unfair, you asshole He tried to grab the fallen sorcerer’s arm. When he realized the latter was surprised at this, it riled him up even more. He knew it wouldn’t be in time. He gritted his teeth— —and the swarm of iron and steel crashed down, shaking the earth. 17 (Aug.31_PM00:47) Huge clouds of dust swept up into the air and took away their vision. He could hear an uproar from people nearby, but they didn’t gather around like curious onlookers normally would. An onlooker would need to look at the dangerous place from a safe area, and the distinction between them wasn’t clear in this case. They couldn’t get close. “…Ha-ha.” Kamijou, at ground zero, chuckled weakly. A steel girder had fallen into the ground right between his legs as he sat on his butt. That wasn’t all. All around him, more of them were sticking out of the ground, covering them up, like a badly made hut with tons of holes in the roof. There was a precarious balance here that seemed so weak a breeze would cause the whole thing to come crashing down, but for now, at least, Kamijou hadn’t been buried alive. That was lucky…wait, that’s impossible. I’m unlucky, after all. Which means…oh, I see. That Level Five can use the power of electricity to manipulate magnetism, too, can’t she? His luck had nothing to do with it. That one beam’s trajectory had definitely led straight to him. Some kind of power must have been at work, and the beam’s path had warped right before it hit him. That was the likely answer. Still fearing further collapse of the unsteady iron framework, he looked around. He could see the sorcerer in the gaps between the steel pillars holding up the roof. He seemed to have one hand caught between two fallen girders. But it hadn’t been crushed by them. It was more like he’d stuck his hand in between a space that was already there. He was essentially bound by the world’s heaviest handcuffs. The sorcerer looked dazed, like he was mystified by the fact that he was still alive. Finally, he spoke. “Have I…lost?” “Something like that. By the way, my hand didn’t cause any of this, got it?” he insisted, scratching his head, but the sorcerer shook his head. Whatever the reason, he couldn’t move. He couldn’t make a comeback even if he wanted to continue the fight. “So I’ve lost, then,” said the sorcerer, smiling faintly. “That means I was stopped here, then, right? It means I don’t have to kill Misaka or anyone else, right?” “…” Kamijou didn’t answer. He looked at the sorcerer’s face. Thinking about it now, he was probably always lost as to what to do. Of course, he was probably trying to kill Kamijou with everything he had, but wasn’t he worrying terribly and putting a limiter on his real power? After all, if he had won this battle, he would surely need to kill Mikoto with his own hands. If he had used his spear as his first attack, Kamijou probably would have died, without any time to dodge it. And while he was running through the straight roads between buildings, now that he thought of it, there were plenty of chances for him to hit his back. This sorcerer didn’t want to hurt Mikoto Misaka. He didn’t want to destroy this world she lived in. But his selfishness was not so easily granted. His own life would be in danger if he were to follow through with that. So he wanted a justifiable reason. An excuse, like “I used everything I had, but something got in the way and I failed.” Kamijou was a novice, but the enemy faction was seriously considering him and the group of people around him as a threat, after all. He was, so to speak, the boss of the bad guys. It felt rather terrible to be an opponent whose main way to fight was through lies and bluffs. “You know…,” the sorcerer began, “…the attacks won’t end here. My superiors wouldn’t let up just because a henchman like me failed one time. In fact, it might make them view you as even more dangerous. Others like me will come your and Misaka’s way, and in the worst case, they might order me to do so again.” Kamijou listened silently. “Will you protect her for me?” he asked. “No matter when, no matter where, no matter who it is, no matter how many times. Can you promise me that whenever something like this happens, you’ll run to her side like a convenient hero and protect her for me?” That was his wish that could never be granted. That was the weight of surrendering the dream he really wanted to accomplish himself to somebody else. And so… …Kamijou said one thing… …and nodded. “That really was the worst answer you could have given,” muttered the collapsed sorcerer, smiling bitterly. 18 (Aug.31_PM00:57) Mikoto Misaka held the wrapped hamburger to her chest and listened to their conversation with her back to a wall around the street corner. She hadn’t heard everything they’d said, though. There were two Mitsuki Unabaras, and one of them started a fight with Kamijou. Then, when she hurried to catch up, Unabara’s face was cracked apart like some kind of special makeup, and someone else’s face was inside. And on top of it all, the unfinished building had suddenly collapsed. A whole lot of things she didn’t understand had happened. And because she was keeping her distance, she only caught bits and pieces of their conversation. In fact, after scrambling out of the path of the falling girders, she was the one least able to keep her calm. But she still got the gist of it. She knew why they had been fighting each other. Who they were fighting over. Who they were fighting for. She shook her head violently from side to side. I-I’ve got it all wrong! Of course, I must be misunderstanding this! He says that sort of thing unconsciously all the time! It doesn’t mean I’m special or anything! But still, she stopped shaking her head to deny it. She knew all that, and yet she stopped. Ugh… She knocked the back of her head against the wall she was leaning on with a thunk. It really was the worst, she thought. How was she supposed to go and face him after hearing a line like that? Especially that last thing Kamijou had said. …Man, even though I know I’m mistaken…why does that idiot have to be so confusing about it?! She sighed. She couldn’t even predict when her red face would go back to normal. Aug.31_PM01:04 End