Chapter 1_ Starting Signal Under the Blazing Sun_1

She constantly emitted a weak electromagnetic field even if she didn’t want to, so animals tended not to like her very much. She stared at the listless sister in white. “Hey, you. Did you see him today? Did he seem strange at all to you?” “Hm? Him? You mean Touma? He seemed the same as always…” Mikoto nearly burst out with, Are you two together all the time? but thought better of it. If he wasn’t particularly less energetic, then maybe that meant he wasn’t too caught up over winning? That means our school will win anyway, so…Wait, what should I do if we win? She thought for a moment, then shook her head very hard. The collapsed girl looked at her askance. “Hey, Short Hair.” “…That’s how you talk to someone who shared her drink with you?” “Hey, Generous Short Hair.” “That doesn’t make it a whole lot better, you know” she shouted, one of her eyebrows twitching. The sister didn’t seem to take notice of it. “What are you doing here, Short Hair?” “Huh? Wh-what? Well, I mean, I’m…” “Are you rooting for Touma?” “Wha, uh, that’s ridiculous! Why would I be here rooting for that guy, anyway?” “Is that so?” said the girl in white, not pursuing the topic. Mikoto started flap-flap-flapping her fan on her face a lot faster. Then the school’s PA system came on and announced that the players were entering. The first event was the pole topple—two opposing teams had their own seven-meter-tall pole. The goal was to try and topple the opposing team’s pole while protecting their own, apparently. A crackling voice came over the speakers to explain that high school freshmen would be the ones taking part in the event. There were TV crews here, but it was basically just a school athletic meet. The commentary for the TV stations was being broadcast from somewhere else, so it didn’t look too out of place. Of course, just the fact that people were watching on TV made a huge difference in the place’s mood and atmosphere. It was obviously impossible to do a close-up on every single one of the 1.8 million students, but some still found it nerve-racking. Despite the insanity of the students’ cheering, strangely enough, she felt a kind of calm, a quiet masking tension, inside her. That was the moment she fully realized this was a public, worldwide event. Still… “I-I’m…I’m so hungry…” The sister collapsed facedown on the ground mercilessly shattered the tense mood. She looked so pathetic that Mikoto took a portable stamina ration shaped like a cookie (and chocolate-flavored) and held it out for Index. The cheerless sister brought up only her head and opened her little mouth. When Mikoto held the ration in her fingertips at her mouth, surprisingly, she started eating it obediently. Still, I guess that idiot wouldn’t be nervous about it…In fact, I’m more worried about him completely skipping all this like it doesn’t matter. Then, prompted by the school broadcast, she casually looked over to the field. The team opposing Kamijou’s was from an elite school with a heavy emphasis on sports, and they looked the part—she could practically smell their expertise from their simple warm-up stretches. They had tense countenances, like coiled springs; they seemed used to public matches. Each class gathered at its own end of the campus and began to stand up their poles. This’ll be a disaster if it’s a straight fight, thought Mikoto, shaking her head and looking over at Kamijou’s class. As far as the pamphlet told her, his school wasn’t a prep school or anything. It was just a completely normal, featureless school—or so she thought. What she saw then were true warriors. I…What? Mikoto doubted her eyes. Despite the oddly intimidating air coming from their group, they didn’t engage in any jeering or trash talk. Instead, they silently formed a line on their side of the campus, Touma Kamijou at its center. This wasn’t just pole-toppling—it was like they were lining up for a medieval battle. The poles on either side to be toppled looked like soldiers’ spears or something. This wasn’t the kind of tension that came from knowing cameras were trained on you. The only things they were seeing right now were clearly their own army and the enemy one. Grr, came a strange sound from them. Their supernatural powers numbered in the hundreds, and their side effects were clashing with one another, causing the air to vibrate. What…? The altogether bizarre tension almost made Mikoto cry out. What the heck is with that determination?! He uses that stupid charisma for stupid stuff like this, too?! H-he can’t seriously be planning to win, can he?! Are you that set on beating me?! What the heck could you possibly want to make me do?! This was all because their whole contingent had found out about the episode with Miss Komoe, but there was no way Mikoto would have known that. Her face paled as the game-beginning announcement came. With the enemy forces baffled by the gap in their mind-sets and with a cloud of dust in their wakes, Kamijou and the rest of the warriors charged the enemy lines. 4 Those taking part in the pole-topple game naturally split into two groups: one to stand up their own pole and support it and one to drag the opponent’s pole to the ground. Kamijou chose the latter option. So as soon as the match-starting signal came out, he began running straight toward the enemy line. “Ooohh” As he ran, he roared. One may think it a mere single game in an athletic meet…but this was Academy City, where most of the students were espers who had awakened to some sort of natural power. And now a hundred of those espers were clashing. Nobody knew what would start flying around—fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, ice, or any number of other things—and that made both enthusiasm and tension far above the norm. About eighty meters lay between the two enemy camps. From the straight, horizontal enemy line sparked a succession of lights. They looked like camera flashes from the audience, but they weren’t. The students were firing long-range esper attacks—probably explosive bursts made with fire or explosion-type abilities. In addition, they would be covering them by using pressurization-type abilities to make tiny invisible walls that created their bullet shapes. This creation process meant the transparent “shells” of the explosive bullets changed how light refracted through the distorted air; they threw back the light like sunlight hitting a transparent balloon. Multiple espers cooperating to create a single kind of attack was another thing you would probably only ever see at the Daihasei Festival. Kamijou figured offhand that the pressurized bullet shells would come off and release the explosive pressure within them, sending shock waves in all directions. As the dozens of shots were fired at him, a huge number of spears made of sand were coming from his allies to meet them and overtaking him as he ran. These were telekinetic attacks. The “power” had no original color or shape, but the sand particles in the air reacted to the invisible force—like iron filings aligning with a magnetic field. The explosive bullets and telekinetic spears collided halfway between each team and exploded. There was a string of delighted shrieks and squeals from the stands as the unexpected wind forces hit them like they were riding a roller coaster. Well…I guess it’s a lot more fun to watch Flinching a bit from the sounds of the explosions, Kamijou pressed onward. The enemy school seemed to be filled with sports experts and clearly put a lot into ability development. At least these attacks weren’t as bad as Railgun’s or Accelerator’s—those two could definitely kill you in one hit—but they were still scary anyway. Kamijou’s right hand was loaded with a power called the Imagine Breaker. It was a fantastic ability, one that could nullify any sorcery, any supernatural power, even divine miracles, with a single touch…but in the end, it was in only his right hand. He couldn’t completely defend against abilities coming at him from all directions like this. As he mulled over that, still running at the enemy lines, he saw someone running alongside him. It was Blue Hair. “Let’s do it, Kami. Those rotten, high-and-mighty elitists—just feel their aura of handsomeness and good looks. Watch as I, the comedic mastermind, smash them all into a million pieces! Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha” A few explosive bullets that their return fire missed came rushing at them, but Blue Hair laughed and danced around them like a ballerina, dodging every bullet with time to spare. The teams were about twenty meters apart now. They couldn’t risk looking away, but Kamijou got in a retort at Blue Hair, running beside him, anyway. “Hey, what on earth are you so happy about?” “Ehh?! Kami, it’s love—love, I tell you!” he replied, thick with his fake accent. “These athletic girls, lively, sweating, crying, their fleeting hearts weaving a sadistic form of love for a national television network—nay, for a multinational broadcast! Their love will do anything to achieve its goal, and I would never turn it away to open up a harem route” He continued laughing uproariously, and as his spirits heightened, his movements grew even faster. “Hey, uh…Is that angry guy with the crew cut part of that love? Look at how red he is—that’s some pretty intense pillow talk, eh?” “You’re such a joker— Wait, gyaah?!” Thanks to Kamijou’s calm notification, Blue Hair realized what the “pillow talk” really was and froze in place. A second later, an explosive bullet sent him hurtling backward. Kamijou looked back, startled, but one of their allies had caught him in the air with their invisible telekinetic force. Cheers and applause erupted from the audience seats. Holy shit, those things are strong. I’ll pass on the carnival ride, thanks! And now the audience is into it because they think this is what the Daihasei Festival is for He took his eyes off the flying Blue Hair and looked in front of him again. There was the enemy team. About ten meters before they collided now. Touma Kamijou quietly clenched his right hand into a fist. A moment later, he dove straight into the enemy ranks. 5 The story ended with Kamijou’s class winning the game. They were confident that a straight-up battle would end in total defeat, so right before the two teams clashed, Kamijou’s class fired all the abilities at their disposal at the ground to create a huge screen of dust, taking away the enemy’s sight and using a blitzkrieg-style surprise-attack tactic. The faculty had been sprinkling water on the grounds beforehand to prevent sand from being kicked up like this, but they couldn’t deal with successive attacks scooping it out entirely. The one who came up with the idea, Seiri Fukiyose, had split the entire class into roles as she held her parka to her chest—one group to shoot the ground and make a dust cloud, one to sneak through the dust cloud and push over their pole, and one for the telepaths who would give the orders to make dust and to get their allies who ran into it out at the proper time. To top it all off, she held command over the entire operation. As this happened, though, telepathic messages used to convey the order to make dust clouds didn’t reach him. Unfortunately, he was at the tip of their spear, so he got blown away by friendly fire and then beaten to a pulp by the enemies. Still, results were results. The warriors, covered in scrapes and bruises, left the courtyard from the competitors’ entrance without thinking at all about either having wrested victory from the arms of defeat or the wounds they sustained doing so. When they did, Miss Komoe, half crying, brought over a first aid kit. “B-but why? Why did everyone act so recklessly to try and win?! The Daihasei Festival is for everybody to have fun playing in the games! It doesn’t matter if we win or lose! You’re all so torn up now, and I, well…it doesn’t make me the least bit happy…” Despite her complaints, the students began splitting off into twos and threes and leaving, as if to tell her that some things were better left unsaid. Kamijou left the competitor waiting area as well and went over to the cheering section, looking for Index. She should have been in the student cheering section. Normally it was off-limits to anyone but students, but he had hesitated to bring her to the regular audience seating. She had 103,000 grimoires packed away in her brain. They were much more valuable outside this city than inside it. “Indeeex? That’s strange. Where did she go?” Unfortunately, when he went to check the student cheering section, he didn’t see her anywhere. They weren’t really seats, either—just a blue vinyl sheet lying on the dirt ground of the campus. There was nothing blocking them from the actual event…but anyway, it was really crowded. The students going back and forth were like a wall, and he had difficulty just looking around. He dove into the crowd and walked from one end of the cheering section to the other, but he didn’t find her. He went back the same way. Still, there was no sign of her. Hmm…That white habit she wears stands out a lot, so I thought I’d see her right away. He reached into his gym shorts pocket and looked over at the school building, which was a bit farther away. I gave her a zero-yen cell phone, so using that to meet up with her would be fastest…but I seem to have left my cell phone in the classroom. The fact that he’d never actually seen Index using the cell phone gave him cause for a lot of worry, but he decided this would be the best solution. A lot of schools were cordoned off for the duration of the Daihasei Festival. They contained facilities for ability development curricula, so they couldn’t let outsiders see any of it. But it wasn’t an issue for the students who belonged to the school like Kamijou. There were doctors and nurses waiting in the nurse’s offices in case they had to treat injuries, and the shower rooms and such were open for use as well. In any event, Kamijou headed for the entrance. There was a pair of black-clad Anti-Skill members in the shoe locker room. It was a little surreal to see teachers, who normally taught history and math at the blackboard, carrying guns. “Excuse me! I want to find someone who got lost in the crowd, but I left my cell phone in the classroom. Can I go get it?” “Straight and to the point as usual, Kamijou. If you need to use the school phones because you can’t get a signal, give us a call. That is all. Have a nice festival.” The math teacher’s reply contained some annoyance. Still, he delivered all the necessary points—obviously the man had training. Kamijou walked by them and into the school. He traded his shoes for slippers then headed for the stairwell. The empty school was pretty quiet—of course, the announcements being broadcast over the speakers were echoing around because of it, and that was a pain. He went up the stairs. His classroom was only a few moments’ walk down the hallway. He came to the door and threw it open. I’m glad Himegami is getting used to everyone in the class. Anyway, let’s get my cell phone and give Index a call. If Himegami’s free, we can bring her along and walk around together— A moment later, he fell over. The administrative committee member, Seiri Fukiyose, was in there, with all her clothes off. He hadn’t realized that the curtains were all closed until he opened the door. Now, in the darkened classroom, she sat alone on a nearby desk as they faced each other. She was down to one piece of underwear. Really just one—she didn’t even have on her bra. She must have been changing out of her clothes, since they’d gotten soaked with the hose before. The panties she had now seemed to be brand-new, and the wet clothing, including her underwear, had been stuffed into a vinyl bag at her feet. The rest of her clothes must have been in the duffel bag sitting next to that one. Seiri Fukiyose, without batting an eye, stared at the intruder. “” Eventually, though, her face still impassive, she reached for a nearby chair. Kamijou’s shoulders jerked. “W-wait a minute, Fukiyose! I only came here to get my cell phone so I could find someone who got lost— I didn’t have any evil intentions And you should really read the manual for the classroom chairs before using them! You’d probably actually kill me if you hit me with that” Wshh Kamijou was on the ground groveling within 0.2 seconds. Fukiyose looked at him and sighed, then let go of the chair. She took a new parka out of the duffel bag at her feet and wrapped herself in it for now. “Fine, whatever. Just get out of the classroom for a minute.” “…You’re not mad?” “You’re looking for someone who got lost, aren’t you? You know, you don’t have to keep bowing and groveling like that—but don’t look up, Touma Kamijou!” She had on a parka, but under that the administrative committee member was wearing only panties. And, perhaps due to impatience, she couldn’t seem to zip up the parka. Kamijou, as frightened as she was, didn’t notice the shakiness in her hands. Kamijou continued to press his face to the ground like a soldier to a feudal lord, then decided to crawl backward out the door. “…You’re seriously not mad?” “No, so just get out!” She took a paper box that was on the desk and flung it at his head, and he hastily jumped out of the room. He slid the door shut behind him, sat down in the hallway, and took a deep breath. Ahh…wow, that scared me… After shaking his head, he looked down and noticed the paper box in the hallway, about the size of a box of cigarettes. Wondering if it was the one Fukiyose had just thrown at him, he picked it up and looked at it. Written on it was: RED-HOT MR. SHEEP—AN EXTREME INFRARED TREATMENT DEVICE YOU CAN USE JUST BY CONNECTING IT TO A CELL PHONE’S BOTTOM PORT. WORKS ON ANYTHING, FROM KNOTS IN YOUR SHOULDERS TO BODILY FATIGUE Upon looking at the box again, the actual device would have been shaped like a cute, deformed sheep. It might have been from the same mascot line as the frog on Mikoto’s school bag. “…You have to plug an accessory into a cell phone? ‘Anything from knots in your shoulders to bodily fatigue’? That doesn’t seem like a very big range of things. I had no idea people on this planet fell for such clearly suspicious products…Huh? Wait, don’t they show this off on TV shopping programs late at night?” Of course, the television was in the room Index slept in, and by the time late-night shows came on, she was sleeping soundly. He had to watch the programs using the TV on his phone. Fukiyose, for her part, didn’t seem to notice Kamijou’s complaining. “Kamijou, is your cell phone in your desk?” “Oh, there should be a bag on top of the desk. It’s in there…” “After I change, I’ll bring it to you, so you wait right there!” “Thanks, Fukiyose. I’ll trade it for this weird as-seen-on-TV product. You know, I didn’t think you’d be the sort of person they sold these products to.” He heard a short, startled cry from inside the classroom. She must not have realized what she’d thrown at him. After a few moments, her voice came back from the other side of the door. “Th-that isn’t really relevant now, is it? And besides, even if I watched shopping programs with a notepad in one hand and lay around on my bed reading shopping magazines, what would be wrong with that?!” “N-no, I didn’t say it was bad. I was just a little surprised…” Fukiyose seemed to have a knack for sassy retorts, but also seemed to have trouble when they were turned on her. Kamijou had thought what he’d said was acceptable, but then words came back from the classroom with even more haste. “What? I can want to fill my room with novelty cookware, which seem convenient when I see them in magazines, but when I get them they’re nothing special, and I only end up using them two or three times before abandoning them, and it’s no business of yours!” “It’s that bad?! You should calm down and think about it before calling them!” He meant that as a generous piece of advice for a classmate, but he got some crazy in response. “I mean, doesn’t a frying pan with a notched surface just seem so wonderful? They advertised it as catching thirty percent of the grease that comes off meat. But the surface is just dented, and you can’t even make eggs sunny-side up with it!” Kamijou decided to stop trying. He stared at the box again for the infrared sheep device in his hands. “Works on knots in your shoulders, huh…?” “Why do you sound so dubious? I can have knots in my shoulders at this age and it’s perfectly fine!” “No, not that.” He looked up at the ceiling, still sitting in the hallway. “…I was just thinking, maybe you get knots in your shoulders because your breasts are so big…Ack! I mean—” One moment later… A duffel bag crashed through the sliding door and into Kamijou. His cell phone was thrown in there as a bonus—Seiri Fukiyose was ever the kind and gracious committee member. 6 “Touma…Huh? You kind of look like you’re crying.” “Don’t worry about it…” The girl dressed in a white habit tilted her head cutely to the side, but Kamijou answered in a shaky voice. He also decided not to tell her about the epic adventure that had unfolded before he found her. On top of everything else, the zero-yen cell phone Index had was dead (she didn’t understand what the words charge or power supply meant in this context). He’d ended up relying on her ultra-conspicuous habit to find her. They had gone back to the student cheering seats. Index had moved through the crowd to get to Kamijou, and for some reason she cradled an empty plastic bottle in her arms along with the calico. The cat didn’t seem to react to it; it yawned lazily as if saying cats being afraid of plastic bottles was only a superstition. “…A-anyway, my stomach is empty, and I’m in urgent need of something to eat…Touma!” “What?! What happened to your bento?! Why do you look like an angry ghost starved for energy?!” “Short Hair was here before, and she gave me a drink and a chocolate cookie…but they didn’t help at all…” “At all?! You were scarfing down extra food and that’s what you say?! And who’s Short Hair?! I don’t care, actually, but you made sure to say thank you, right, Index?!” Index didn’t react much to his shouting, though. Girls often had a separate stomach for sweets, but Index’s stomach seemed to be constructed to allow her to deal with every single kind of food separately. Kamijou figured that if the bento didn’t sate her, then they would need to go to another food stand no matter what. For now, he looked at the thick pamphlet he’d given to Index before. There wasn’t much time before his next event, the ball-rolling, but there was a little. “Whatever. Let’s get out of the cheering seats. There are mountains of food by that stall area from before.” When Index heard that, her head whipped around to look at him. “Mountains?!” “N-no, look, there might be mountains’ worth, but Mr. Kamijou didn’t say his wallet could cover all of it! Stop it with those sparkling eyes, the guilt, ohhh, the guilt…” After his cry, he took the wallet out of his shorts pocket and checked inside. There was some money in there, but it had to last him the entire seven days of the Daihasei Festival. If he burned through it on the first day, he would undoubtedly meet a tragic end. Worried about how he’d rein in Index this time, he decided to head over to the stalls for now. Next to him, Index’s thoughts turned to this unseen palace of food, causing her eyes, hair, and skin—all of her, basically—to sparkle. He’d heard some theory once about psychology or something that said a person’s mental activity could affect them physically. It seemed to be true. Kamijou and Index approached a large pedestrian crosswalk. They stopped there as the light turned red. There was generally no civilian traffic allowed in Academy City during the Daihasei Festival, but business vehicles like automated buses, taxis, and delivery trucks were still on the roads. That was the reason they couldn’t make the place into a so-called “pedestrian paradise” despite the deluge of people around. The food stalls were just a little bit past the other side of the crosswalk. They could already smell the faint scents of soy sauce and other sauces being cooked from across the street. The light turned green, and Index’s sparkle levels were reaching a yearly high… …when— Clatter-clatter-clatter. One of the Anti-Skill officers, charged with protecting peace in the city, brought a no-crossing sign in front of the road. “Oh, sorry ’bout this! A big group of wind instrument clubs is starting their parade in a moment. We need to block off the flow of traffic now, or we won’t make it, ’kay?” The officer was apparently the lady who had helped him out during the entrance ceremony about two weeks ago. Though she had her black hair tied in the back, she was a scarily good-looking teacher. She wasn’t wearing the green jersey he remembered; instead, she was clad in her official, mostly black gear. She wasn’t wearing her helmet—maybe so she wouldn’t give the regular people a bad impression? Kamijou didn’t know why she didn’t just wear more normal clothes instead of jerseys and combat armor. Their outward image seemed to be the most important thing to Academy City’s higher-ups during this public Daihasei Festival. Actually, the strategy going into maintaining appearances was probably half of the whole point here. Academy City was, as has been established, a closed environment, but even that had its limitations. Outsiders knew, for example, that research on strange, unknown science was proceeding in its completely secret, completely cordoned-off facilities. Naturally, they might feel rather opposed to it. That was the reason the city was opened up like this a few times every year. Of course, security detail in research areas was much tighter than normal—they didn’t want anyone getting to the core secrets of ability development. Making such strict security feel normal to civilians had to be the work of true professionals. The Anti-Skill lady’s outfit was probably one piece of the strategy. Her pretty face being visible did give her a more favorable impression than having every inch of skin covered in violent gear. He looked between the no-crossing sign and their destination. “Umm, we want to go over there. Is there a different way around?” “Ack. The big parade is cutting off a good eight kilometers of this road. I think it was in the pamphlet schedule. Hmm…” The Anti-Skill lady looked it over. “There aren’t any pedestrian walkways around here, either…I guess this one here would be the closest? There’s an underground mall about three kilometers west of here. If you enter at U04 and leave from V01, you can cross underground…” Three kilometers…?! Kamijou was dumbfounded. He looked over. Index had a face that implied she couldn’t walk that far and was losing the battle with her empty stomach. She slumped to the ground without a word. 7 Mikoto Misaka ran through the streets. Not inside a closed-off stadium, but through the roads filled with people. There were no restrictions on entering buildings or any road preparations, either. Despite that, Mikoto was currently competing. She glanced to the side and saw several other runners on the sidewalks opposite the road. There was no restriction on non-competitors being in the way—in fact, this was the one event in which their presence was a necessity. It was the scavenger-hunt race. However, the event took place across three entire academic districts of the city: Districts 7, 8, and 9. Using modes of transportation such as the self-driving buses and subways were, of course, forbidden. It was almost like a more nuanced, more complicated version of the marathon, where they had to dash out of the stadium, find the designated item, and return. The mental aspect was important; you needed to build the shortest route in your head. And not with your face down on your desk in anxious worry, but in a situation that demanded you deplete your stamina in a long-distance foot race. It was famous for always having very difficult-to-find items given the area of the game. Argh! This is Kuroko’s specialty—she’s the one who can teleport! At least make it easier by having this be in a place without the tourists around! Her ability was immensely powerful, but in areas crowded with bystanders, she had a hard time handling it. In consideration for the civilians, the Academy City General Board had set the maximum level of ability interference to four. However you looked at it, Mikoto’s ability was way over the limit. She was coming to a water supply point, but she ignored the sports drinks set up there and kept going. Too much water in your system would actually slow you down in a long-distance race. She opened up the folded scrap of paper in her hand again and once more checked the name of the indicated item written there. I drew the short stick again…Whoa As she ran through the throng, she suddenly spotted her goal “item” right nearby. This was one of the conditions: If the indicated item is in the possession of a third party, upon gaining permission from that person, return to the stadium with him or her in tow. Got it Mikoto burst off one of her high-rebound shoe soles and dove into the mountain of people. Kamijou put a hand on Index’s shoulder as she cried and clung to the no-crossing sign. “Come on, Index. If we stay here, the smell is going to tantalize you. The pamphlet has branches of those food stalls on it. Let’s go look for something else, all right?” She sobbed. “It’s so close I can almost touch it, but I’ll never be able to reach it!” she shouted, oddly poetically. The Anti-Skill lady who put up the sign looked guilty, but rules were rules. She couldn’t let them past. “T-Touma…Then where is the next closest one of these stall thingies?” “Huh? Hmm…I guess it would be this one,” he said, flipping through the pamphlet at random. “Three kilometers to the west…Wait, that’s exactly where the underground mall entrance is that she told us to use!” “…Ahhh…” “Hmm…But if we walk all the way there, I might not make it to my next event. What about the buses…Oh. They’re all detouring around this street during the parade, too. Jeez. Doesn’t look like this is happening, Index. You’ll have to endure it until after the ball-rolling event.” “(…snap)” “Uh, wait, what?! No! Don’t get mad at me for that! I, Touma Kamijou, profess to have absolutely nothing to do with the location of the stalls or the program of events or the bus routes” Index, who didn’t feel like listening to him, opened her cute mouth like some kind of monster and leaped at him. It was so fast not even the Anti-Skill lady could react. So now she’s going to eat me He couldn’t help but flinch… …when he suddenly blurred away at high speed. Snap Index’s teeth dug into empty air. She looked up, wondering what happened. Her accuracy rate—and kill rate—with her bite attack was 100 percent. But it was only natural she’d miss—from the right, Mikoto Misaka had come running in swiftly, grabbed Kamijou by the back of his neck, and then quickly disappeared off to the left. “All right I’ve got my ticket to victory! Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha” “W-wait…! I can’t breathe! A-at least explain this to me…” The two of them disappeared into the crowd before the dumbstruck Index. She face-planted onto the sidewalk in exhaustion, and the Anti-Skill lady, unable to just leave her be, handed her a ration that looked like a biscuit. 8 Kamijou, now nothing but a messy rag, entered the stadium with Mikoto Misaka, and they cut through the goal tape. This stadium was in a totally different world than the one his pole-toppling event had been in. It apparently belonged to a sports engineering university. There were white lines on an orange-colored asphalt track like the kind used for official track-and-field events. The seating was set up in tiers like a real stadium as well, and there were far more reporters with cameras and far greater security detail. An administrative committee high school student was waiting for her at the end, and after Mikoto passed over the goal line, she placed a large sports towel on Mikoto’s head. The way she offered a drink and used the small oxygen cylinder was both brisk and businesslike—not only in a practical way, but also in a way with the cameras on them in mind. There would be an awards ceremony and a simple interview after this. She’d basically be waiting in another place for the rest of the competitors to finish. This is totally different…That committee member moves like an expert personal trainer from some sports engineering place. Then, the high school committee member, after seeing to Mikoto, gave Kamijou a suspicious look. He braced himself a little, not knowing why, and then she began to whisper. “(…Touma Kamijou. Yes, this is certainly the item for your scavenger hunt, but you seem to have a lot to do with girls, don’t you?!)” “(…That voice…Wait, Fukiyose?!)” Kamijou finally looked at her more closely, and it was indeed Seiri Fukiyose. She had on a short-sleeved T-shirt and shorts, with her thin parka over her shoulders. She froze for a second, but she was on the job, so she didn’t let herself get any angrier. “(…I am so, so sorry for earlier, for my lack of caution and attention, and for walking in on you changing!)” “(…I’m trying my best to forget about it, so just drop it already, Touma Kamijou!)” “(…Ohhh, I’m really, really sorry. By the way, Fukiyose, does that sheep-shaped infrared TV product actually feel good?)” “(…Did you want one?)” “(…N-no, I was just a little curious! I didn’t say I wanted one!)” “(…Be quiet. Everyone’s working earnestly, so I would thank you not to get in my way of seeing to the event and the athletes!)” Without any further desire to listen to Kamijou, Fukiyose picked up a clipboard from the ground lying next to a case of drinks and began writing what were probably race results with a ballpoint pen. Nobody realized Mikoto was right next to him looking a little irritated. Now that he had figured out Fukiyose was no longer willing to talk to him, he turned back to the one who had dragged him all the way here against his will. “By the way, Misaka. You made me run so far that I’m soaked in sweat, and my calves feel like they’re gonna explode. It would seem the rules say you need to get the person’s permission first. Am I just seeing things?” “Oh, that? Yeah, you’re seeing things. Anyway, it doesn’t say anywhere I can’t leave getting permission until after the fact!” “…” “Come on, don’t just sit down like that. You look pathetic. You’re so lazy!” She put the sports towel that was on her on top of Kamijou’s head instead. Then she placed her hands on top of that and started madly wiping off the sweat on his face. It was like she was drying a little kid’s wet hair. Kamijou felt a bit mortified, but she was doing it with such force he couldn’t get her hands away. Flailing his arms was making him look even more like a kid, so he decided to be quiet and let her have her way. After that, it looked like Mikoto was about to hand him a drink bottle with a straw in it, but suddenly she looked at the straw again and stopped. Her eyes went to Fukiyose and she shook the bottle a little. Fukiyose, writing something on the clipboard, looked up and shook her head. It seemed like the rules said only one drink per competitor and no more. “” Mikoto stayed still for a few moments, but then at an unfortunate moment some dust must have gotten caught in Kamijou’s throat because he started hacking up a lung. She winced, then shook for a few moments before saying, “Argh, you’ve got no backbone! I can’t stand to watch you do that! You can have it! Take it” “Gwahhh” Mikoto pushed the side of the drink bottle against his cheek; he thought he saw some liquid spurt out of it, but she wasn’t watching. Her face was bright red as she turned away from him and disappeared over to where the awards ceremony was to be held. They were relatively unelaborate when the games were between classes or academic years because of the number of people, but for individual events they still had the top three properly represented and awarded. Mikoto, having gotten first place, was obviously one of the ones receiving an award. Next to him, Fukiyose remained silent, clicking her tongue in a clear show of disdain. The event was still going on, though, and she needed to see to the next athlete, so she left to prepare for that. Of course, Mikoto was the only one being awarded anything. If this were a bread-eating race, he would have been the bread. There was no point in his continued existence once things were over, so he might as well have just left. This is just adding insult to injury…This whole event is even more of an inconvenience for the random people involved than for the actual people competing! Wouldn’t the whole point be the athletes not being able to go all out, since they have to match the pace of the random people they grab? Kamijou finally came to the end of his doubts, but nobody was around who could answer them. As he slurped up the drink given to him, he wondered if Index was still waiting around by the no-crossing sign. Suddenly, a scrap of paper blew into him on the wind. It looked like the thing saying what they needed to find for the scavenger-hunt race. There were no other athletes in the stadium yet—Mikoto had clinched first by a landslide—so this must have been hers. Fukiyose was finished with her busy writing on her clipboard, too, so they didn’t need it anymore. The cleaning robots would pick it up even if he left it there, but he decided to pick up the burnable trash and look at it. What…? And there it was. One phrase: “A high school student who has already participated in his or her first event.” What the hell…? I-I mean, sure, I just finished the pole-topple contest. But there’s gotta be at least a hundred thousand other kids who fit this condition…Why was…Why was it me…? He suddenly felt exhausted, like an anvil was pressing down on his back. His shoulders drooped and he trudged to the exit. As he walked, though, he suddenly started to wonder how Misaka even knew he had just done the pole-topple contest at all. 9 It was a long way between the stadium and where he left Index, so he decided to take the bus. Seventy percent of the currently operating buses were driverless, automatic ones. Kamijou pressed a temporary button attached to the side of the bus stop, and a mainly electric-powered bus glided up without any engine noise. Driverless technology for passenger planes, trains, and boats was in development, but the car was apparently the most difficult of the bunch. All areas—land, sea, and air—demanded extremely complex control and decision-making. They could be used only during times like the Daihasei Festival, where there were already transportation restrictions in place. The bus door opened automatically and Kamijou climbed on board. No private cars were allowed in the city, so the bus was packed. There was a driver’s seat, but a reinforced glass shield like a telephone booth separated it from passengers. Watching the steering wheel and pedals moving smoothly without an operator there was pretty fascinating. The bus didn’t use gas and was thus very quiet as it let people off and picked people up a few times before bringing Kamijou to his destination. He left the vehicle. This still wasn’t where he’d left Index—that was a little ways away. The road was blocked off by the wind ensemble parade, so the bus routes had been changed temporarily. He trotted along until he began to hear a competition broadcast mixed in with the hustle and bustle of the crowd. Everything coming over the stadiums’ speakers was being broadcast via various big-screen TVs on department store walls, the sides of blimps, and to temporarily constructed outdoor theaters. “Regarding the results of the previous men’s obstacle course, the decision has been made that—” “These are the events that will be beginning within the next hour. Once an event begins, no further spectators will be allowed entry, so please be—” “The Fourth Combined School scavenger hunt certainly didn’t betray anyone’s expectations as Mikoto Misaka from Tokiwadai Middle School won in a landslide. She crossed the finish line a full seven minutes ahead of the next closest competitor—” “Attention, we have a lost child. If there is a Mr. Charles Goncourt visiting from Saint-Tropez, please find the nearest security robot and have it verify your face and Academy City–issued Daihasei Festival entrance pass. When your position has been confirmed, we will immediately bring your child to you. Veuillez l’entendre. Nous vous annonçons un enfant manquant” As he listened to the broadcasts, their volumes quickly increasing then passing him by, he looked around him. All right. She wouldn’t just go off somewhere and get lost, would she? It would be great if he could call her cell phone, but unfortunately, her zero-yen phone’s battery was dead. She apparently had perfect recall and seemed to memorize every road they walked down, but he was still worried. As he trudged on in the blazing sun, he thought, Well, maybe I should have stopped by the food stalls and bought her a thing or two. He couldn’t go back now, though. His next event was quickly approaching. For now he’d just find Index and hurry to the stadium where his class was waiting. He sped up… …and then stopped abruptly. There was someone he knew in the crowd of people. Long hair dyed red. Earrings. Silver rings, one on all ten fingers. A cigarette in the corner of his mouth and a bar-code tattoo under his right eye. It was a very un-priest-like priest. Stiyl Magnus. A true sorcerer belonging to a post in the English Puritan Church called Necessarius, the Church of Necessary Evils. ? What? Did he come to see Index? Stiyl was a member of the magic side—Kamijou couldn’t imagine him having any interest in the festivities. It might be logical to think he came to see Index, his former colleague, whose face he barely saw anymore. Kamijou didn’t have any particular reason to refuse him that, and having someone he knew stay with Index would put his own mind at ease. He decided to let him take care of her during the events as he casually approached… …but Stiyl seemed to be talking to someone. “…so…that’s what it looks like…I think it’s possible, don’t you?” He heard a voice. Who was he talking to? Kamijou got closer to check—and saw his classmate Motoharu Tsuchimikado standing there. A multi-spy—a mole buried in both Academy City and the English Puritan Church. From afar, he gave off a very amicable air, but he was speaking low so others couldn’t overhear. “Right. You…a point…For them…this…only chance.” Kamijou got a bad feeling about this. They were smiling, and that by itself made them seem to blend in to the Daihasei crowds…but something important was missing. They didn’t look amused in the slightest. Those smiles were forced—not born of positive emotions but negative ones. And that clearly set their countenances apart from the rest of the massive festivities. He walked closer and closer, hoping to get rid of such ideas… …and then Stiyl Magnus said something quietly. “That’s why we need to do something about the sorcerer who has wormed their way into the city. By ourselves.” And just like that, Kamijou’s world, based completely in science… …transformed into another, colored by sorcery. INTERLUDE ONE There was a student named Kuroko Shirai. The petite girl went to an elite girls’ school for ability development called Tokiwadai Middle School, and she liked to wear her brown hair in twin tails. She was a user of teleportation and acknowledged as a Level Four, placing her relatively high up even within Tokiwadai, but despite that, she wouldn’t be participating in the Daihasei Festival. Several days ago, a certain incident had left her with wounds that had yet to heal, and she was still half-covered in bandages. However. In spite of the doctor’s orders to stay in bed, she had slipped out of the hospital onto a large Academy City road. She wore her usual Tokiwadai uniform, but she was sitting in a wheelchair. It was a sports model rather than the usual kind, featuring wheels that came inward at the top like the body of a formula-one car. Kuroko Shirai wasn’t the one wheeling it along. Behind her was Kazari Uiharu holding its handles. They were colleagues in Judgment, an Academy City peacekeeping organization, among other things. Uiharu was wearing the white short-sleeved T-shirt and black leggings of a regular athletic girl, but the decoration on her head made of roses and hibiscus flowers was clearly unsuited for the look. So many artificial flowers were on it that you could spot the flower crown even from afar. She pushed the sports wheelchair along, smiling brightly. “Well, we were all toiling away under the hot sun, so when I thought of you sitting all alone in an air-conditioned room taking a rest, I just wanted you to help us out, too. Tee-hee-hee.” “…Your wonderful show of friendship is appreciated. The moment I’m better, I’m teleporting your clothes away and leaving you completely naked. I do hope you look forward to it.” Shirai’s reply sounded exhausted, but she had been bored from lying around alone during a big event like the Daihasei Festival, so she was kind of happy that Uiharu forced her to come out here. She would die before telling anyone that, though. This wasn’t her first Daihasei Festival, of course, but it happened only once a year, so it was still something special. The roads were the same as always, but just hearing the competition commentary and fireworks seemed to give everything a new color. Some of the people walking around—not Academy City residents, but outsiders—looked at her with curiosity, which was somewhat annoying. Shirai knew she had powers, though, so she rationally saw their behavior as only natural. She looked around a little from her sports wheelchair. “So is there a problem happening at the festival this year?” “For now, nothing major. We did have a corporate spy posing at a fried calamari stall trying to steal DNA mappings from student saliva, but that was about it. This is the first festival I’m working for Judgment, though. The others tell me it’s been relatively easy this year.” “Yes, this is certainly on the tame side compared to the attempted destruction of an unmanned helicopter by anti-AI radicals, or the attempted stadium bombing by spiritual culture advocates.” Her response was so smooth that Uiharu unwittingly grimaced. Those incidents hadn’t ever gone public, so she was in a state of surprise (Things like that actually happened last year?!). Shirai, though, would have been prepared to get involved in trouble like that if she’d been acting as a Judgment member during this festival. Then her ears picked up on stadium commentary, which she realized was coming from a big screen on the wall of a department store. The footage wasn’t live, it seemed, but rather the highlights of previous events. A clear male voice continued the explanation. “The Fourth Combined School scavenger hunt certainly didn’t betray anyone’s expectations as Mikoto Misaka from Tokiwadai Middle School won in a landslide. She crossed the finish line a full seven minutes ahead of the next closest competitor—” A track-and-field stadium blinked onto the screen. A camera had caught the competitor’s face, and her name was on the screen as well. Whoever it was, she would be practically world famous, since the broadcast was going all over the planet…or so one would think, but that wasn’t actually the case. There were more than 1.8 million people competing, and even though she won first place, the events weren’t nearly Olympic level where the winners would leave their names in history. It might be easier to consider it like a little league whose athletes hadn’t been scouted for the big leagues yet. In such a situation, it was impossible to remember every one of the athletes’ names and faces, so people would celebrate and then forget about it—that was the audience’s standard operating procedure. Because of that, Kuroko Shirai didn’t have much interest in what was on the big screen, but then… “Mikoto Misaka, who took first place, stayed on her feet even after finishing, and she seemed to have even more energy to spare.” Shirai whipped around to face the big screen so fast that Uiharu, who had been pushing her wheelchair, froze in panic. “Oh, my Big Sister…My wonderful Big Sister…Ah, my Big Sister (haiku)! You’ve done it again! A flawless victory, your youthful, vigorous limbs on display for everyone to see! Please, I beg your forgiveness for not seeing you live or even being able to record it! I am a failure” Sparkle sparkle sparkle sparkle sparkle sparkle sparkle Shirai’s eyes glittered, but… “Her consideration for the one who cooperated and ran with her was impressive as well. I suppose it is the very decency one would expect from the elite Tokiwadai Middle School.” What? thought Shirai, a question mark appearing over her head. Wha— No…?! A moment later, she saw— Saw the male student Mikoto Misaka was holding the hand of as she ran to the stadium. Saw how she wiped the male student’s body clean with her own sports towel. Saw how she handed the sports drink she’d already had some of to the male student. That little upstart… T-t-taking Big Sister’s hand and being her escort, taking a-ad-advantage of her human decency to have her wipe his sweat all over, a-and even laying a hand on the beautiful drink she had just been drinking Kuroko’s entire body broke out into a tremble as she looked at the far-too-lucky male student. Wait. She totally remembered this kid. Actually, she’d just run into him a few days ago. She leaped up full force out of her wheelchair with a loud clatter. “Y-you’re dead! Don’t think you’ll come out of this alive And you made Big Sister blush so hard in front of everyone! Frustrated doesn’t even begin to describe me right now” “W-wait, Shirai Please calm down! Wait, how did you even stand up with those serious wounds?! This isn’t the time to show your fighting spirit like in a shounen manga” As Kuroko Shirai half cried, her very soul enraged, and Kazari Uiharu yelled at her from a few inches away, they only made the Daihasei Festival even livelier. Word Count: (9225)