Chapter 1_ Girls After School

CHAPTER 1 Girls After School After_School_of_Angels. 1 “And that’s what happened, Big Sister.” Tokiwadai Middle School had three shower rooms. In one of them, called the Returners’ Bath—the one attached to the school building mainly for girls to get their appearances in order before leaving school—was Kuroko Shirai, covered in white steam and water that was the perfect warmth. The drops running down her delicate body pushed the soap bubbles clinging to her chest down toward her stomach. “Oh, wow, the water spray made it that far, huh?” replied Mikoto from across the partition as though the whole thing was absurd. “You know, they were making such a big deal out of it, but it doesn’t feel like I did much. I was still so wrapped up in controlling my own strength! Such a small pool would never do anything to stop a real attack.” The shower room was the size of five classrooms put together, and there were white partitions and swinging doors installed around each of the close to ninety shower faucets here. The partitions were one thing, but the doors were made of frosted glass and were only large enough to cover the thighs to the chest of the middle school student of average height. They weren’t made for really tall girls, and sometimes they would talk about needing to hunch over a bit, lest they expose themselves. “Besides, even if I needed to stop someone, I’d try to resolve the situation with talking. If it were as small a problem as that swimming pool was, anyway. I do try to at least have the good sense to choose my attacks based on my opponent, though. I mean, the only one I’m comfortable shooting something full power at is that idiot.” The last bit made it sound like she was reassured by the fact, which caused Shirai’s eyebrow to twitch. As the sensation of the lukewarm water hitting the white bubbles on her stomach and making them slowly creep down to her thighs hit, she thought, That idiot. She’s talking about that idiot again… Shirai, with only one of her eyebrows twitching, reached above the swinging door. There were two thin ribbons for tying her hair into twin tails there. She suddenly and deliberately dropped one of them on the floor. There was a pool of warm shower water on the white marble, so when the ribbon fell into it, the thin film of running water carried it toward the nearby shower area through the gap in the partition. “Ahh, how careless of me! My ribbon—it has gone into the forbidden Big Sister zone!” “Yes, don’t you dare come accidentally teleporting into here!” Right before she was about to teleport, Mikoto yelled, then Shirai heard a loud bang on the partition from the other side. The students in the other shower areas paused for a moment out of surprise. With her timing thrown completely off due to the sound and the impact, Shirai was forced to cancel her teleportation. In order for her to trigger her ability, she needed to substitute theoretical values of eleven dimensions into this three-dimensional world she was bound to, then re-form her grasp on reality. The calculations involved were extremely cumbersome, and sudden panic or surprise could render her power useless. “Heh-heh. Such a precise interception, and with no planning involved. This is proof of the natural compatibility that exists between our bodies—even our breathing matches. Heh. Heh-heh-heh-heh” “You’re being gross, so I don’t want to respond to that. Anyway, take your ribbon.” Mikoto’s slender, wet hand suddenly poked over the top of the partition. Entwined in her fingers was the soaked ribbon. Shirai thanked her and took the ribbon. The thin cloth was a little warm. Shirai slowly ran her fingers from the top of her body down, getting the more persistent bubbles off, then twisted the shower faucet to stop the water. “By the way, Big Sister, would you happen to have plans after school today?” She turned back to the partition next to her and got a few drops of warm water off her chest that had floated down from her collarbone. “Yeah. I’m going to take a nap, just like I do every other day of the year,” answered Mikoto crudely. Shirai heard a rummaging noise—maybe she was fishing around for the little shampoo bottle in her carry-on shower kit. “If only that were true—I would have full access to you while you were sleeping, too…” “Don’t sigh like that. It makes it sound like you’re actually disappointed. It gives me the creeps. Anyway, did you need something from me after school?” Shirai heard the sound of scrubbing bubbles. The scent of a sweet shampoo wafted to her nose. The sound of the water past the partition grew louder; she must have turned up how much was coming out of the showerhead. “No, I didn’t need anything in particular.” Shirai leaned her back against the partition. “But, well, once in a while! Once in a while, I was just thinking we could go shopping together or eat some cake or something. I have been so busy with Judgment that we haven’t had much chance to go out together lately. Frankly speaking, I, Kuroko, have been feeling a bit lonely as of late. And besides, you mentioned that for the last few days you have been searching for a certain accessory, no?” “Kuroko…” Mikoto’s tone over the partition changed into something more sympathetic. G-gallant! Kuroko, you will be gallant and brave today! She might deny it, but she wants nothing more than to embrace me in her loving, dependable arms and fawn over me. Hu-hu, eheh-he-heh-ah-hah Kuroko Shirai grinned like a bandit—it was a good thing the partition was here so Mikoto couldn’t see it. Utterly ignorant of her expression, Mikoto started speaking gently to her underclassman. “You know, every day after your Judgment job after school, you stuff your face with a lot of candy, don’t you? That’s why no matter how hard you try to diet, your belly never goes back in, isn’t it?” A moment later… Bandit’s smile still on her face, Kuroko Shirai teleported to Mikoto Misaka and attacked. More precisely, she moved to a position diagonally above Mikoto. There are times when a woman must do a dropkick even when she knows she’s already lost. 2 The Garden of Learning, the shared area created for five schools for young ladies, was an extremely small town. Shirai thought of it like a U.S. military base in Japan, though that particular analogy was questionable. Large fences kept outsiders from coming in, and there were both residential areas and laboratories on the premises. In fact, it even included essential commercial outlets like cafés and clothing shops. The town was packed, but only with necessities. Shirai and Mikoto walked through it. The area was supposed to be fenced off, but there were buses driven by women inside it. The students here each had one of five different uniforms, and all were girls. In a way, this Garden of Learning, which could be called a strange sight, looked like an old town on the sea with lots of buildings of white and roads paved with stone. The buildings were close in design to western-style houses, but many had squarish silhouettes that looked like the traditional triangular Japanese roof had been squished down flat. It was a shape used in places with not much rain. It also looked like modern buildings had been remixed using older decorations. But for such a town implanted from the western hemisphere, there were two things missing. One was a church. And the other was a statue of a person. The reason for the first went without saying, and the latter was usually a religious figure or saint anyway. The town may have been styled after western towns, but without those two things, it wasn’t built to the same specifications—normally in real western towns, the houses spread out from religious facilities and plazas. Instead, the schools took on the role. From overhead, the five of them were easy to see. They were bunched up and linked by slender paths around them, giving the appearance of a spiderweb, an intricate pattern of intertwining roads with countless intersections. Because of that, the paths in the Garden of Learning weren’t very wide. The area had already been limited, but they’d been adding to experimental facilities one after another for a long time, making the narrow roads weave among buildings like a labyrinth. Anyway. After school, in some weird town, there were two girls walking shoulder to shoulder. Kuroko Shirai and Mikoto Misaka. They were young ladies of Tokiwadai Middle School, the object of adoration for all girls in Academy City, but for some reason, both their hair was ruffled and messy—the harmful side effect of their brawl. Mikoto, slumping tiredly, ran a hand through her hair to fix it. “…You know, you can’t just dropkick someone in the face fully naked! You were so open and unguarded that I froze up instead. Seriously.” “Hee-hee. I’ve begun to understand you recently, Big Sister. It may be absurd to challenge a superpowered electromaster to a fair fight, but there’s a lot of moisture in the shower room, so you can’t use your electric attacks because they might cause short circuits! But my greatest miscalculation was not realizing you knew how to fight dirty with your bare hands!” Shirai ended with a regretful tone and grinned drily. Neither looked anything like someone raised under Tokiwadai’s founding principle: to produce people who could function in the real world even during their compulsory education. Shirai swung her flimsy bag from side to side and continued smiling defiantly. Mikoto turned an eye to her and said, “But you really were serious about dieting, huh?” “I was wondering more how you have such a perfect figure despite not thinking about it. Hah! You have some trick, don’t you? Where you control your bioelectric field and efficiently burn off the fat, a kind of trick only you would have…?!” “I don’t have anything like that, so stop looking at me like I’m some kind of god. I said, I don’t have a trick! Don’t grab my shoulders and shake me so hard! It’s not like I don’t understand how you feel, but doesn’t our school prohibit that kind of thing?” Unreasonable diets obstructed growth, which presented a danger for ability development, so some schools banned their students from doing them. Shirai stopped swinging around her bag, sighed, and replied, “Abilities are important, too, but worth throwing away your femininity for? I don’t want to turn into some enormous human teleportation device.” “But I heard once you start a diet, the first thing you lose is fat from your chest. Also, if you overdo it, the oils that make your skin shiny get all dry, and it’s easier for your hair to fall out because it’s not getting enough nutrition.” “Ahhhh! I don’t want to hear this kind of terrible trivia!” shouted Shirai, covering her ears and shaking her head. Normally such a conversation would be seen as eccentric behavior in Academy City, but the other female students who overheard them certainly sympathized, so they got no odd looks. There was even one girl nearby with a French fry in her fingers who gave a pained smile before returning the snack to its container. Shirai didn’t think Mikoto would broach the subject of weight or makeup in the city normally, either. For one reason or another, she’d worry about men staring at her. From that perspective, the Garden of Learning was still a girls’ school according to her mind. They walked through the artificially western town. There were no big stores like department stores or malls in the Garden of Learning. Shops that dealt solely in one necessity for each thing they needed for the curriculum or school life, like gym uniforms or stationery, were on the rise, so the town was stuffed with little shops that specialized in just one item. The exceptionally giant buildings were all research institutions. Every one of the labyrinthine paths and lanes had turned into shopping districts. Shirai spotted a certain signboard among them, then took Mikoto’s hand and pulled her into the shop. After she entered, she sighed, disappointed. “When you said you needed to go somewhere, you meant here?” “Oh, my, but this is essential to living!” answered Shirai, as though it were totally obvious. It was a lingerie shop. The snug, compact store featured an interior design that used mainly darkly colored materials, in the same vein as antique stores and souvenir shops. Both the orange evening glow streaming through the windows and the light bulbs adorned with lamp decorations filled the interior with a soft light. On the whole, it had clearly been done this way to create a relaxing space. But decorating the place was women’s underwear of all tints and hues. Their laces and bright coloring didn’t quite meld with the idea of a relaxed shopping atmosphere. Instead, perhaps they made the goods stand out more to give them a stronger impression in the minds of their customers. “Well, I mean, I kind of feel like you shouldn’t come here with people you know. It just seems like you’re flaunting your taste in underwear.” “There’s no need to be shy. Such concerns mean nothing between the two of us. I am already well aware that Big Sister leans toward the pastel-colored, childish underwear—Ow, oww! Please do not grab my ear so suddenly, Big Sister!” “…Teleportation really is a huge pain in the butt, isn’t it, Kuroko? Come on, cough it up. When do you check what underwear I’m wearing every day?!” “Wh-why does it matter so much? You see my underwear every single day, too, do you not?” “Not because I want to! You really shouldn’t wear a sheer negligee as pajamas! I mean, you’re probably showing it off on purpose because it makes you happy or something, but still!” “Oh, if we are talking about pajamas, then your tendency toward baggy, pastel-colored, childish ones is rather—Ow! I know quite well that you have been all about the queen look this year—Ow, ack?!” Mikoto was pulling on Shirai’s right ear, but she looked happy about it. Despite all the commotion, they weren’t drawing stares from those around them. The other guests amounted to a group of three girls from another young ladies’ school, and behind the counter there was one old lady, both the proprietress and a lace craftsman, who looked like she’d come as a set with the counter and had been sitting there for decades. None seemed to mind their noise—the proprietress was even reading an English-language newspaper. Their sharp squeaking wasn’t loud enough for people to think of them as a disturbance in this girl-filled Garden of Learning. “Oh, Big Sister. Do you not think the two-piece set on display over there would suit you perfectly?” “I’m pulling on your ear, here. How are you making such calm recommendations?…Hey, what?! You can see through eighty percent of that lace underwear. You’d only choose something like that to make people laugh!” “This store does specialize in underwear, however, so would it not be more natural for them to stock professional underwear rather than unprofessional underwear?” “…You make it sound like you’re an expert on the topic, Kuroko.” “I, of course, specialize in many things that have the potential to bring the color of embarrassment to your cheeks, Big Si—Ow …Y-you mustn’t keep doing this. This sort of relationship is starting to be rather thrilling. Fu…fu-fu. I suppose having Big Sister grab part of my body in broad daylight and making me moan is a perfectly valid form of entertainment!” “Kuroko? If I pull your ear any more, it’ll tear off and we’ll make a mess.” Mikoto smiled and stretched Shirai’s ear out, but she hadn’t overlooked one thing. When Mikoto had glanced at the two-piece lace set she’d recommended to her, she’d blushed and hurried to peel her eyes from it. Shirai grinned, very much happy at having seen Mikoto’s profile filled with embarrassment, but she suddenly had a thought and noticed Mikoto had, at some point, begun looking at something else with a serious look on her face. “?” Shirai, vaguely interested, looked in the same direction. The world outside the windows facing the street was covered in the glow of the afternoon sun, and a blimp was floating by, far away in the sky. It stood out as strange given the old-fashioned, western-style town below. A big screen was attached to its side, displaying today’s news in Academy City. The headline they could see from there was about the successful launch of a space shuttle in the United States. The VTR of the shuttle launch taken with cameras from multiple angles was being played over and over and over again. Mikoto stared at the news seriously for a long time, forgetting all about underwear, but Shirai wasn’t interested. “There’s been a lot of them lately. If I recall, France, Russia, and Spain all did launches last week. And aren’t China and Pakistan scheduled to launch later this month? My type-three economics teacher always goes off on tangents about the advantages and disadvantages of space enterprises.” As she spoke, she gently prodded one of Mikoto’s earlobes with her fingertip. “Bwah! Wh-what was that for, Kuroko?!” She quickly turned back to Shirai. “W-well, Academy City launched one last month, too. Wait, you’re taking another useless elective, aren’t you? Also, don’t poke me in the earlobes! And no, it’s going to make me more angry if you try and tickle them” Tokiwadai Middle School was an organization for the special education of gifted children who could become leaders in every field the world had to offer during their compulsory education. That meant their classes were put together differently than normal middle school textbooks. “Apparently, a long time ago…the technology and funds needed to launch multistage rockets and space shuttles using large launch sites meant not just any country or organization could do so. But now things are different, I think…I have a report due on it this weekend, so I’ve been researching it…,” she said, casually suggesting a black lace two-piece to Mikoto. “I don’t think you’ll ever have to use type-three economics, though. Well, I guess if you have a report on it, I’ll tell you. When we got the technology to strap a rocket to the bottom of an airplane and launch it from midair, it brought the barrier to the entryway down. They developed it at the beginning of the century, so it won’t be in any of the older reference materials. Be careful of that when you’re finding sources for your report.” She sighed, shoving the black lace underwear back at Shirai without changing her expression. Then, she noted a particular pair of light yellow panties and seemed to be interested, but…“Oh, Big Sister. If you really insist on being that childish, everyone is going to lose interest in you.” Mikoto stared at her with eyes asking, What? but this was something Shirai wasn’t going to budge on. Perhaps sensing something from Shirai’s stiff expression, Mikoto reluctantly turned to other underwear. But to her, the action was precisely what she figured a child would do. She sighed. “Still, with the entire body of knowledge on the subject changing like that, it gets really muddled up. I seem to have my work cut out for me. I cannot just discard the older reference materials, either, because they may have information newer ones do not.” “Learning how to tell old information from new and incorrect from correct is what it means to study it! Besides, the space industry is prone to change—if you talk like that, it’ll be a pain for you to memorize things. Like how the industry was energized by privatization, or how new records get set all the time and they have to keep rewriting the time line—Pfft! W-wait, Kuroko! That may not be childish, but it’s going way too far…” spurted Mikoto despite herself when she saw the completely exposed—to the point of bad taste—underwear Shirai had picked up. “? What’s the matter, Big Sister?” “N-no, nothing, I don’t care. Everyone has his or her own taste in underwear. Just make sure the R.A.s or the counselors don’t catch wind of that.” Mikoto looked away from the insane underwear Shirai was holding and took a deep breath. “W-well, it’s a tough subject. Places that already had their own launch sites don’t want to let newcomers break into the space R&D marketplace. Places with the new technology want to show they have things cheaper and more reliable than the old rockets and shuttles. If old tech or new tech is supported, then the other will go on the decline. So everyone’s just doing a ton of launches and trying to prove to their sponsors that their own tech is more trustworthy.” Mikoto still kept her eyes from the underwear in Shirai’s hands, but she did glance over from time to time. She tried to keep it in but still ended up accidentally muttering, “Why not just be naked at that point…?” “? Why do you keep looking away from things like this?” she asked, tilting her head, a few different pairs of underwear she liked in her arms. “Academy City is the one place that has both kinds of technology, so there would be no problems there. Plus we’re monopolizing all the deals with our biggest sponsor, the Japanese government, so it’s pretty comfortable, but—Ack.” She stopped, bringing her hand to her mouth. She felt her lips split a little. Mikoto watched her and asked, “Why not put on some lip balm? Air conditioning dries you out pretty badly.” “Th-that is all right. In fact, I’ve been fresh out of it since yesterday.” Makeup in general was prohibited at Tokiwadai Middle School. The regulations were recklessly strict, too—obvious lipstick and mascara went without saying, but even practical, medicinal lip balm and hand cream (which everyone doubted even fell into the category of “makeup”) would be targeted by the rule. Therefore, it had become tradition among the girls to use just little enough of it so that normal people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. One might notice it if they got up close, but the color and gloss of Mikoto’s and Shirai’s lips were very slightly different. Though it had originally been a compromise out of necessity, this style was steadily becoming a little popular even outside Tokiwadai, along with the mysterious words of “ladylike manners.” “Hmm…” Mikoto fished through her bag and came out with a stick of medicinal lip balm. “Then let’s drop by the cosmetics shop after this and get some things. You can use this in the meantime if you want.” “?!” Kuroko Shirai gave a start when she looked at the lip balm, devoid of any sexiness, that was being nonchalantly held out for her. Her eyes opened wide and she began to tremble all over. L-lip balm. Big, Big Sister’s…Big Sister’s, her, her lips, they’ve been on it every day, it’s been on her beautiful lips, this lip balm Ah, ah. Kuroko, yes, Kuroko, yeaahh “Huh? What? H-hey, why did you make the whole thing come out—Hey, wait, wait, stop, stop, Kuroko! Why the heck are you trying to eat the stupid thing?!” “Hah…I-I am so suddenly surprised and stunned at this that I think I may accidentally devour the entire thing.” “I have a good guess as to why, but that is a new one. It was in a three-pack. Besides, normally people don’t want to use lip balm other people have used.” “Eh…A new one?” She clicked her tongue. “…What a disappointment. Ah, however! Then if I give the lip balm I used back to Big Sister, then…!” “I don’t need it back. I have two others anyway, so you can have it. Hey, stop that! Don’t try to put lip balm you just used on my lips by force!” Shirai and Mikoto began to fight like main characters of a Hollywood movie where one grabs a handgun and they start to wrestle. Suddenly, though, Mikoto stopped dead. That’s when Shirai realized it—Mikoto wasn’t looking at her. Her eyes had been stolen by something else, something behind her. “?” Dubious, she turned around to look. They were breast pads. Mainly worn underneath underwear by girls without confidence in their own chest, said to preserve their pride and dignity—yes, those breast pads. In actuality, however, in the Garden of Learning, populated only by girls—in other words, with no one to be prideful toward—they were not particularly in demand; they were leftover products sitting in the corner, their sorrow floating around them. A bit confused, Shirai cocked her head just a little…and then remembered. Mikoto had said something while they were walking through town, hadn’t she? But I heard once you start a diet, the first thing you lose is fat from your chest. “Ha-ha, so it was bothering you! Oh, Big Sister, pfft. I suppose you have weighed your bust and waist on a scale and chosen the former, yes?” “Wha…?” Mikoto stiffened. “No…That is not it. You would not have such attachment to your breast growth, Big Sister. Which means you probably harbor slightly ambiguous hopes, such as wanting to have an adult body quickly or wanting people to stop treating you like a child. Ahh, how praiseworthy you are, Big Sister! Who could possibly be the lucky gentleman you want to go that far to present yourself to? Could the one in your heart really be an older man? Come to think of it, you seemed to be waiting for someone in front of the dormitory on the last day of summer vacation. He certainly did not appear to be a middle school student, did he?” A provocation with this sort of timing? Shirai thought for sure she’d earn a punch from the girl. And she already had the entire conversation after the punch planned out in her head. However… Mikoto Misaka was a Level Five esper in Academy City, even called the ace of Tokiwadai Middle School. And instead, her face went red, and she looked down, not saying a word. “Oh? Big Sister? Hey, Big Sister—” Then Kuroko Shirai’s face went pale. I-I meant it as a joke, but she’s taking it so seriously! Is she really, seriously, truly…Him?! That gentleman?!—huh. That freaking monkeey The face of a certain youth came to her mind and she bit into her handkerchief. Actually, she was practically tearing the thing apart. In her brain, she ripped the handkerchief to pieces. It took some time for her to calm down. When she finally did, she saw Mikoto looking at the breast pads in their vinyl packaging out of the corner of her eye, pretending not to be interested at all. She muttered something along the lines of, “H-huh, so some people do seriously use those things,” working very hard to keep the interest from her face but still obviously extremely interested. “…Breast pads come in all varieties. Whoa, like this one—it’s like water balloons, or it has gel inside or something.” Mikoto’s engrossment got Shirai angry, but she would never ignore something her beloved big sister said. Feeling gloomy about a number of things now, she sighed. “Apparently they stuff vinyl bags with gel in them when you get breast implants, too. I mean, most people would need some sort of device to have them swaying all over the place.” “Swaying all over the place…Th-they have a lot of different shapes, too.” “Everyone has their own needs, I suppose. Oh, Big Sister, I think yours would become that type after your modest chest grows some more, do you not?” “Don’t point to it! There are other customers in here” Mikoto hastily pushed Shirai’s finger away, but she kept her eyes and attention on the product Shirai had pointed out. Shirai, looking distant, sighed—if she shoved such a gigantic breast pad into her bra, everyone would clearly notice. For a few moments, Mikoto forgot about the time, single-mindedly observing the breast pads. Then, suddenly, she took a step back from the shelf they were on and tilted her head. “But in the end, as soon as you took your clothes off, the truth would come out.” “…?! B-Big Sister. D-do not tell me that you have already planned so far into the future?!” “Eh? Uh, oh! No, that’s not it, Kuroko Gym class! I’m talking about changing during gym class” Mikoto insisted, shaking her head in a fluster. Shirai’s face remained comically locked in an expression of surprise. 3 Academy City bathed in the evening glow. The Garden of Learning used white as its standard color for buildings. They were extremely good at reflecting the color of the sky. The traffic flow of the young ladies, separated into five different school uniforms, was gathering at the terminal—the time of the last bus was approaching. Like Mikoto and Shirai, their dorms were probably outside of the Garden of Learning. They weren’t required to use the bus, but some of these young ladies were ignorant of the ways of the world, scared even of Academy City, from which they were isolated. Some even lived in a mental bubble containing only their dormitory, the bus, and the Garden of Learning. Shirai and Mikoto walked leisurely through the frantic going-home rush. Actually, it was more like they were exhausted and unable to join the rush. The flimsy bags in their hands swayed to and fro without energy. “I-I told you a hundred times, I’m only talking about when I get changed for gym. I-I mean, th-th-there’s no guy I’m into or not into—you know what, it doesn’t matter at all anyway.” “A-and as I’ve said a thousand times, it is certainly too early for you to plan for a future that involves taking off your clothes in front of a gentleman, yes?” “Argh! You’re so bad at listening, you bad-taste full-exposure lace-underwear buyer!” “B-bad taste?! Th-that underwear you found was so cutesy it was just childish instead, and as a fellow girl, it creeps me out!” They began struggling with each other again. They didn’t last long, though, since their protracted argument earlier had drained their stamina. They both sighed and fell limp again. They didn’t use the bus to begin with, so they didn’t mind when the last bus came. With the passing of the students on their way home, stores were already beginning to close up. Shirai glanced at the cozy shops as she went by. “Big Sister, I will without a doubt make further inquiries into the truth of this matter at a later time. But what shall we do now? A good amount of time has passed because of our arguing. My current Kuroko Plan was to go for a light meal after shopping.” “I see. I’ll certainly clear up the misunderstanding later, then. Shouldn’t we call it quits for today? Everything in the Garden of Learning closes up early.” “Hmmmm. There are plenty of shops outside, though. Things only just begin when we leave. We could go for a dessert course at the Kuromitsu House.” “Umm, Kuroko, it’s because you give in to these temptations that you’ll end up being happy and plump in places you don’t want—Eek?!” Before Mikoto could finish, she sensed a menacing outburst. Next to her, Shirai’s face was down, so she couldn’t see her expression well. She was muttering to herself. “K-Kuroko? I promise, I was about to wrap that up by saying if you eat that stuff, you’d really just need to exercise a little!” “Big Sister…If you continue to say things that wound a maiden’s heart like that, I will gladly teleport your clothing away in a busy street in broad daylight.” Shirai, her hands out and fingers wiggling, was the natural enemy of girls everywhere. If she touched anything with those hands, whether it was a skirt or underwear, it’d be warped to wherever she liked. Half-naked or fully nude—everything was completely in her control. As Mikoto feared the approaching stripping disaster, a cell phone ringtone suddenly went off. Its melody loosened the tension between them. Mikoto listened to it—it was different from her own ringtone. “Kuroko…You still have all that useless stuff on your phone? Do you really need to have so many ringtones?” “Heh-heh. And despite that, it’s too small, too easy to lose, too hard to press the buttons, and too hard to see the screen.” Shirai chuckled, exhausted, and took out her cell phone. It, however, was vastly different from the general idea of what cell phones should be. It was cylindrical, like a tube of lipstick, one centimeter in diameter and five centimeters long. The actual part of it, clear and thin as a piece of paper, slid out from a slit on the side. “That thing looks so futuristic, and yet it has no functionality at all,” remarked Mikoto. “What a sham of a phone.” “Nobody asked you! I happen to like silly futuristic things. One day I want to ride a train that goes through a clear tube, too…Oh, excuse me for a moment, please.” Shirai turned her back to Mikoto. She looked at the screen, then put the actual phone part of it to her ear. It was a phone number in her contacts list. The numbers displayed on the screen belonged to an Academy City security group called Judgment, a police-like, anti-esper organization formed to solve problems in the city that Shirai belonged to. “Yes, this is Shirai! I will have you know that I have finally gone shopping with Big Sister today and had just gotten to a good part. What could possibly be important enough to get in the way of that?” “Wah…I’m relieved I was able to protect Miss Misaka’s chastity.” The one on the phone was, of course, a colleague of hers from Judgment. The girl’s voice was sweet like candy rolling around. Shirai considered immediately hanging up. “Shirai, I ran into kind of a problem that a newcomer like me can’t handle all alone. I’d like to get a veteran’s opinion.” “You mean in terms of Level?” “Uh-huh.” “Even though I am currently standing next to Big Sister and having the best time of my life?” “Uh-huh. This really was an excellent coincidence in terms of timing. I’m surprised myself! Is this when I should laugh really loudly because I won? Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha” Shirai slammed the cell phone microphone against a shop wall nearby. “Ow?! M-my ears are ringing; the receiver’s all weird…” “If you make any more fun of me, I’ll give you a nice present. How does nails on glass sound?” “A-anyway, I’ll be waiting at Branch 177. The situation is accelerating relatively quickly, so please come within thirty minutes.” Click. The girl hung up. Kuroko Shirai sighed, putting back her cell phone. Regretfully, she turned back to Mikoto Misaka. “I do apologize for this, Big Sister. This is—Well, it is very difficult for me to say, but a rude idiot from Judgment has assigned me a job…” “Don’t worry about it. I’ll see you off with my great big smile.” “…I could cry right now. I have no regrets. Please take care of yourself, Big Sister.” Shirai headed off for the bus terminal, her destination changed. She could use the last bus to cut down on time compared to walking through Academy City. Then, suddenly, Mikoto said something. “Kuroko, I know you have to go do your job, but try your best to get back early tonight. The weather might go bad once night falls.” “Oh, I had not noticed. I forgot to check the weather report for today. Thank you very much. I will see you back at the dormitory, Big Sister.” Shirai gave a short bow, then turned around and headed for the bus terminal. She heard Mikoto’s footsteps walking away, too, but those eventually faded. Now worried about the look of the sky, she gazed upward. It didn’t seem like it was going to rain, but— Hm…? She suddenly felt that something had been wrong with what Mikoto just said. The weather might go bad once night falls. At first, that might have sounded like an everyday thing to say. But among the three satellites Academy City had launched into space, one of them, the Tree Diagram, was supposed to be a perfect simulation machine. Weather forecasting was no exception. Her usage of the vague word might was not something you heard every day here. That would mean Big Sister… Bothered though she was by what Mikoto had said, she had her hands full dealing with the immediate problem. The last bus would depart in less than ten minutes. She adjusted her grip on her cheap bag and began an outright sprint toward her destination. Soon the little inconsistency had all but slipped her mind. INTERLUDE ONE Academy City’s seventh school district. In a corner of town in the same district as the Garden of Learning that lacked any of the school’s brilliance, there was a student dormitory where a certain young man named Touma Kamijou lived. It was a boys’ dormitory, of course, but this one room was overlooked as an exception. There was a girl of fourteen or fifteen with long silver hair wearing a completely white habit rolling around on the floor. She was a freeloader. The rolling Index was currently in complete control of the television. The weather forecast was on. With a giant map of Japan in the background, a smiling lady in a suit was giving the clothes-drying index. They’d been doing the UV ray announcements until a few days ago. For the average high school student, Touma Kamijou, it had finally started to feel a little like the seasons were changing. (They were still in the midst of a heat wave lingering from summertime, though.) “Touma, Touma! How do they know tomorrow’s weather?” asked the sister without turning around. “All they have on the map are things that look like the rings in tree stumps.” Kamijou’s exasperated voice came back from the one-room apartment’s kitchen space. “Index, sit farther away from the television when you’re watching it.” He continued to drop the seasoned chicken meat into the oil. He was making fried chicken for dinner. “And those tree-ring things are called isobars. They can roughly figure out whether it’ll be cloudy if they look at the atmospheric pressure on mountains and in valleys and stuff. Actually, sometimes clouds bump into mountains and make rain, so it’s not all about the pressure.” “Huh. Wait, really? You can read calamities in geography…? Oh! I see! Academy City figured out how to do geomancy using artificial methods” “You seem to be shaking all over in enjoyment, so I’ll leave you alone. I’ll talk to the cat instead. It’s time for the deep-fried taste testing!” Kamijou picked one of the freshly browned pieces out of the oil with tongs, set it on a small plate, and placed it on the floor. The calico, which had been curled up near Index, reacted immediately. Like an arrow springing from a bow, it shot over to the plate and started taking little bites, then rolling around as if to say, Hot! It’s hot but I’ll still eat it! But it’s hot! and then coming back for more. He took out another plate and put some water on it. The cat must not have been wild before; someone had probably raised it. It wasn’t even slightly cautious about hearing the sizzling sounds of something being fried nearby. Index saw this and stood up vehemently from her spot in front of the television. “N-no fair. Whenever I snatch food like that, you get mad at me! You’re giving Sphinx special treatment and it’s not fair!” “What? No, you eat literally everything whenever I take my eyes off you…Whoa, wait! That one’s still not done! I only just seasoned the thing! Stop” Skillfully using the metal tongs, Kamijou succeeded in a desperate defense of tonight’s dinner, protecting it from the human vacuum cleaner coming at him at full force. In the meantime, a couple of the pieces started to burn. The hungry and angry nun Index clamped onto his head instead of the food. Suddenly, she childishly cocked her head to the side. “Wait, Touma, sometimes the lady on the weather forecast says stuff that’s not right. Is being a birdbrain her selling point?” “I guess coming from you, she’d have to admit she was a birdbrain—Ow, hey!” he screamed in tandem with the chomping sound effect. “W-well, you know. Weather forecasts aren’t perfect, even though they act like it. They used to be perfect, but it looks like their calculation equipment is broken.” “?” Index seemed to have a mind full of questions, but Kamijou didn’t go into the details. The Tree Diagram. The ultimate supercomputer. It could accurately predict the movement of every single particle of air on earth. It was one of the three satellites Academy City had launched into space—and it no longer existed in this world. Kamijou glanced at the television. The weather forecast, now without the perfect cogwheels behind it, ended, and the traffic report began with news of delays. Word Count: (7227)