Chapter 4_ Those Who Settle the Score_0

CHAPTER 4 Those Who Settle the Score Break_or_Crash? 1 As Mikoto Misaka searched for her, Awaki Musujime stood beside a window with a white rolling suitcase next to her, and looked down at the other girl from above. Awaki Musujime was inside a building. The fourth floor of this one in particular belonged to a pizzeria. Not a delivery place or a fast food restaurant, but a real one that served pizza for its menu. Given the cheapest single thing available cost over 3,000 yen, it wasn’t a place meant for middle school kids. The establishment catered mainly to university students and faculty, so even now that it was approaching nine in the evening, it showed no signs of closing up for the night. There were many fancy tables with brand-new tablecloths on them, and although it took away the silence from the restaurant, the French pop music playing through the cable radio was soft enough that it wouldn’t get in the way of people having conversations. The tables filling the room didn’t even cover half of it, but a sign saying CLOSED was already posted at the entrance. The moderate amount of space between the seats was part of how the place created its atmosphere. Despite people seeing the Move Point esper suddenly appear from nothingness, chaos didn’t ensue inside the restaurant. Perhaps they were long since aware that this was just that kind of city. Using their consideration to her advantage, she continued to look down. She could see Mikoto look about, then go into one of the narrower roads somewhere. Phew…Finally, she knew relief—she could breathe again. No amount of straight-line distance would help her against Tokiwadai Middle School’s ace. Unlike her Railgun, which slowed due to air resistance at a certain range, her electric attacks went at the speed of light. They would reduce any distance to zero in the blink of an eye. —It didn’t matter how close she was; she only had to flee into Mikoto’s blind spot. —And she needed to be able to see Mikoto Misaka losing track of her from a safe location. Those were the two major conditions. Thus, for her location, she had chosen “up.” From here, she could watch her enemy go past and think up a way to escape at her own leisure. Urgh… As soon as relief came over her, she was overcome with a violent urge to vomit—an urge she’d forgotten about until now. The burning stomach acid caused pain in her throat. Barely managing to return the contents of her stomach to where they belonged, she appeared, on the surface, to avoid any further difficulties. Sweat had formed in the hand gripping the military-grade flashlight. In the past, Awaki Musujime had lost a handle on her control over her ability, Move Point, and ended up in an accident. Because of that, whenever she tried to move her own body with it, she felt immense tension and fear, enough to negatively affect her physical condition. Therefore, she wanted to avoid teleporting her own body as much as she could. Damn it. Maybe it’s unavoidable, but why is it so terrible? Thinking on it, she didn’t like guiding VIPs into the windowless building at that person’s command, either. Just sending someone to the other side of a wall was one thing, but especially the part where she had to Move Point along with the important people, not even the smallest failure would be allowed. On top of that, there were a few people who didn’t seem anything like VIP material mixed in: like a blond high school kid with sunglasses and a red-haired priest. She placed the luggage on its side and sat down, then wiped off the sweat forming on her brow with a handkerchief. It certainly was nerve-racking jumping into a building you couldn’t see inside. Warping into an oven would get her roasted, and coming out over a ventilation shaft would mean she’d fall a moment later. You could snort and say that wouldn’t happen normally, but just the fact that cases like this were at all possible was plenty scary enough. In any case, Mikoto Misaka had completely lost Musujime’s trail. Normal people confined themselves to actual roads to look for someone. That meant if she warped from the top of one building to another, people on the ground would probably be blind to her. Her maximum teleportation distance was over eight hundred meters. Unfortunately, she wasn’t confident that she could keep her body moving continuously. If she warped four times, the contents of her stomach would spurt out of her mouth, her senses would be confused, and she might not be able to keep using her ability in that state. From a mental health perspective, the most she would use Move Point on her own body was once or twice. For now, that meant completely escaping pursuit with just that, then running on foot for the rest of it. Her plans were starting to coalesce— Dpshh! There was a high-end corkscrew stuck in her right shoulder. “Agh…?!” She knew that corkscrew. It was the one she’d stabbed the Judgment girl with just a few hours ago. When she really considered what that meant, a familiar voice came to her from behind. “I’m returning this. It hasn’t even a scintilla of taste, after all. People don’t want to see things like that. Oh, and these, too.” Right as she said “too”— Gsh-dbsh-gshh Sounds like things thrusting into a mud-soaked cloth repeated. Her side, her thigh, and her calf. She knew all too well why the metal darts were stabbing into those particular locations. The searing pain surged through her, converged in her brain, and exploded. “Hah…gah…” Awaki Musujime turned back into the restaurant from the window. The patrons looked confused, startled, and generally at a loss for what to do at the sudden occurrence. Among them was only one who didn’t. A girl was sitting on one of the fancy tablecloths on a table, grinning confidently. The restaurant seemed too high-class for its own good. Just like when Musujime had come in, nobody particularly seemed to care when Shirai teleported there. “There’s no rush. I missed your vitals…Quite easy to understand, isn’t it? I pierced all the places you stabbed me. Oh, and that reminds me.” Shirai theatrically reached into one of her pockets. Musujime was immediately alert, but what she brought out wasn’t a weapon. It was the tube of blood coagulant from her Judgment first-aid kit. She flicked it from her fingers. It landed on the floor at Musujime’s feet. The girl with the twin tails grinned an evil grin. “Use as much as you like. Please, remove your clothing, including your underwear; crawl around on the floor like a worm; and tend to your wounds. Then, and only then, can you say we’re even, you piece of shit.” Maybe they had considered the hostility in her words, or maybe they were afraid they might be included in the vilification themselves; the dumbfounded patrons and staff finally and suddenly rose and stormed for the exit. Tables and chairs were overthrown in the very unclassy atmosphere, and with a tempest of footsteps, the restaurant emptied in no time. Now it was just the two of them, staring each other down. The distance between them was around ten meters. Teleportation and Move Point. It was within the effective range of both; at this point the concept of distance held no meaning. Only the faint noise of the air-conditioning and the relaxing French pop music broadcast could be heard, sounding oh-so-innocent. Shirai was sitting on a table. It didn’t appear to be due to composure. It secretly showed that her wounds weren’t even letting her hold up her own body as she liked. Still, Musujime was in the same situation. Both had attacked the exact same spots with the exact same weapons. All one of them needed to do to guess at the damage done to the other was to imagine her own. “…Now you’ve…done it. But…I suppose…I can’t bring myself to hate…such a childish reprisal.” Musujime was sitting on the luggage by the window. She was forcing herself to appear relaxed—either as a combat bluff or because her pride was making her. Whichever the case, neither of them was going to have a very easy time walking around. But each of them had an alternate means of moving around. “Well, this isn’t very good,” said Shirai with a smirk. “If they make too much of a fuss, my sagacious and impulsive big sister will come running straight here.” “” “Your personality would never let you run from someone you could beat without doing anything, would it? No, I’d thought your methodology involved a lot of inflicting a lot of pointless wounds and feeling superior about it, then leaving, like you did with me.” Come to think of it, not once did Musujime attack Mikoto during their fight at the building under construction. Staying on the defensive and never launching a counterattack was proof she knew that she’d never be able to hold up in a square fight. That meant that as soon as Mikoto Misaka arrived here, Musujime would lose. The wound-covered Shirai didn’t need to strain herself to beat Musujime. If she bought enough time for Mikoto to get here, she could get a second victory. Musujime acted brave even when presented with that truth. “Hah. You seem to be pretty worried about Tokiwadai’s ace. But even the Railgun isn’t all perfect. Take Academy City’s number-one strongest esper—she’d die for sure against him.” “Oh, I wasn’t under the impression that either of us could reach that place anyway—the Level Five world.” Shirai smirked. She spoke her self-defeating words with pride—as though it were proof that she really was worried about Mikoto Misaka. Musujime couldn’t help but scowl and click her tongue. Is that why she made all the noise…? Not only did she pull a surprise attack on me, she created another victory condition by letting that Railgun know where she was…! In that case…She started thinking immediately. What would decide her own victory wasn’t whether she could take down the Judgment officer in front of her. It was whether Railgun chased her down or not. If she decided not to deal with Kuroko Shirai, and used Move Point to escape immediately— “It will not work,” declared Shirai, interrupting her thoughts. “You can’t get away for good. I’m sure you know that! You and I are very much alike, you know. In this situation, with these wounds, in this place, with our abilities, with Big Sister following us…So what will you do? Do you think an esper with the same ability as you would be unable to predict where you would be going?” “?!…You…You little…?!” She lost it. She lost her cool so much that she couldn’t put more than two words together. Shirai smiled very thinly at her. “Come, now, do you think I would be bluffing? If you do, then please, abandon that optimistic thought right this instant. I have prior information from the data banks. I have experience from crossing blades with you before. Plus, I have a similar mental structure as an esper with the same ability. My gut instincts have already given me quite a few pieces of supplemental information.” It was at that moment when Musujime finally figured it out. What was the meaning of all the actions Kuroko Shirai had taken up until now? She stabbed me in the same places with the corkscrew and the darts…to put me into the same situation as her?! She was making my movement patterns easier to predict by compensating a little bit for the difference between us! They had similar abilities, similar handicaps, and similar thoughts—Shirai was trying to read ahead of time how Awaki Musujime would move. I can’t let this stupid girl do this, she thought, gritting her teeth. She could use Move Point to get out of here, but her destination would be exposed for certain. She couldn’t even be relieved if she warped to the other side of the world. There was no way. With just one teleport, her stomach hurt so much, it felt like it was being strangled. She couldn’t stand it. She had finally prepared herself for death and used Move Point on herself, and this stupid girl could nullify that as many times as she wanted. Three or four teleports in succession were the absolute limit of her body anyway. She didn’t want to waste her precious warps. Which meant… “Yes, you have just one means of victory: to crush me before Big Sister arrives,” she announced with an air of composure. “I, however, have two. Either I defeat you directly or I wait until Big Sister appears…Please, must I declare which of us is in the dominant position?” That in itself was the declaration, and Musujime found herself surprised. She felt like the choices she’d had were being narrowed down, picked off one at a time. She shuddered—but then shook her head. No. She figured it out. This Judgment officer wasn’t making room for Railgun to intervene. If she wanted to get her involved, she would have teleported her here right along with her. Musujime smiled a bit. Once she figured that out, all sorts of other facts followed in its wake. Perhaps knowing her opponent’s thoughts had backfired on her attempt to set up those artificial conditions. Her mind cooled, and she began to regain her calm. “I swear…What a strange twist of fate has brought us together. Let me get this straight—you gave up not one but two chances to win?” “…” “The first chance was not bringing Railgun here. And the second was this attack. If you weren’t so hell-bent on making this a game, you would have just killed me by crushing my brain or my heart or something. If all that really was for those cute ramblings of your Railgun, then you really are a sad person.” After she’d asked the question, Shirai’s body had shaken a little. Musujime knew why. She had the same sorts of wounds, after all. The damage they caused was severe. Plus, Shirai had been chasing her like that for hours now. Simply closing up the wounds wouldn’t be enough to replenish her lost stamina. She was more exhausted than Musujime was. Musujime had just been injured now, but Shirai had been running with those injuries, so they had a different amount of stamina. So she smiled—at her own dominant position and at the recklessness of her opponent. “How pathetic. You could have just compromised on your second hope. Why bother trying to go for your first one? Is your life really worth putting in that much danger?” she asked, still seated on the luggage. “To protect the world that Railgun selfishly thinks is real…” Kuroko Shirai looked back at Awaki Musujime’s face. There was a strong, forceful light in her eyes, despite the fact that she was sitting on the table because her legs couldn’t hold her up and her arms were dangling at her sides without energy. Both those things made it very clear how few options she had, but she wasn’t making a false show of courage. She was just staring straight into the eyes of her enemy. Even if it made her look stupid, she answered without hesitation. “…I want to protect it.” To make matters worse, she was running on fumes—and she was pouring the last of her energy into this. “Why wouldn’t I…want to protect it? Of course I do. She may be selfish, and she may not ever spare a thought for our circumstances, but Big Sister wishes for something: a situation where neither you nor I would have to do any of this. It’s so selfish and stupid, isn’t it? She…Big Sister really believes she can settle everything just by getting everyone together, punching them in the face, and lecturing us. Even now that everything has gone to heck in a handbasket. I am actually considering trying to save you, even after everything you’ve done!” Shirai smiled. It wasn’t a mean one, just a normal one. “Big Sister is the kind of person who could look at this situation and say she didn’t want us to fight, that she would appreciate it if we stopped trying to kill each other. There is no way Big Sister would feel nothing after imagining what I must look like now. She could blow you to pieces in five seconds if she felt like it—and that’s exactly why she doesn’t. She hopes there’s some other way. Even though she could end things instantly with a coin and the flick of a thumb, even after all this, all she does is hope she can work things out and bear by herself all the pointless suffering that brings.” “…” “Did you think Kuroko Shirai would refuse such a ludicrously infantile wish? By catching you by surprise and digging out your brains with a metal dart?! By bringing this to a swift end steeped in death and fresh blood?! All for my own self-preservation?! Do you think I am so unrefined I would get mud all over a doormat someone else laid out for me?!” As Shirai shouted, she slowly lifted herself from the table. Her legs trembled but were firm. She was declaring that now was when things got serious. “I will grant you a return to your normal life. Just as someone, somewhere, wanted, and just as I’ve agreed with them.” “Then if I betrayed that, I suppose I would win,” answered Awaki Musujime, still sitting on the luggage. She was declaring that she didn’t want to go along with any of that. 2 It is so simple in the end, thought Shirai. Both she and Musujime were in very bad shape from their injuries. Even though she’d closed up the wounds, her stamina wouldn’t return immediately. Just one shot—yes, just one light blow to tip over the opponent would be the end of it. With as many stabbing wounds as Shirai had, just ending up on the floor could potentially make them open back up. If this turns into an all-out battle…I’d have about ten seconds at best. She didn’t need to be hit by an attack—just moving her limbs with all her energy would make her cuts open up. Nor did she have much stamina left in the first place. Losing any more blood would immediately put her into an unconscious state. Musujime’s power was overwhelming. If not for the condition stating teleport espers couldn’t be moved with teleportation abilities, she’d probably just have warped Shirai into a wall or the ground and been done with it. They stared each other down. Ten meters between them. Commotion could be heard outside the window. There was one ringing sound, as though part of the framework of the building Mikoto had recklessly fired upon had collapsed. And that was their signal to start. Shirai brought her fist down on the table she’d been sitting on. With the sensation of ripping flesh, it shattered a plate. Grabbing the sharp pieces, she set up her teleportation. The ability made every attack sure to kill—she just needed to cut out of her target from the inside. Defense was impossible even by creating a wall, since the ability sent an object straight from one point to another. In the same moment, Musujime activated Move Point. Matching the movement of her flashlight, a silver tray shot toward Shirai, trying to hit her directly. It may have only been a tray, but a direct attack from Move Point could easily penetrate skin. It would be no less than instant death if it hit. Shirai, however, moved before that. She warped her body but a footstep’s length to the side. The silver tray guillotine materialized in empty air and clattered to the ground. Musujime had vast power, but she had the habit of swinging her flashlight whenever she triggered it, perhaps to get the timing right. Shirai would have a hard time taking the opportunity to launch a counterattack, since it ran the risk of a mutual death, but it made evasion a nonissue. “Damn.” Musujime frowned a bit. At the flick of her flashlight, five or six tables around them vanished and reappeared in front of her. They stacked atop themselves and fanned out, forming a giant shield that concealed her body. She messed up…? thought Shirai. No, that isn’t possible! They’re to conceal the fact she’s moving out of the way… She’d fallen for this trick once already. Coordinate attacks sent things from point to point, so the slightest differential in the target’s coordinates would cause the attack to miss. Musujime had built a wall so that she wouldn’t know she’d moved herself. In that case Shirai teleported. With the plate shards in her hands, she moved her entire body to a targeted location. After she landed on the other side of the wall of tables, she prepared the plate shards again. Correcting aim! If the wall obstructed her vision, she only had to jump to the other side of it. Then she would recalculate her target’s coordinates, letting her accurately warp the plate shards to Musujime’s location. Awaki Musujime couldn’t use Move Point on her own body at the drop of a hat. Shirai lined up her shot, hoping for a quick conclusion… Whoosh. She heard something whipping through the air. Musujime was standing just a step away from her. She had the heavy luggage handle in both hands and was twisting her body to try and bash Shirai in the face with the centrifugal force. With both her hands full, she held her flashlight in her mouth. She could see it in the girl’s face—she’d predicted Shirai would do this. She looks relieved her extra insurance paid off… With the corner of the luggage quickly approaching, Shirai teleported the sharp pieces in her hand to coordinates where they would sever the squared handle on the luggage. The luggage flew in a different direction. Musujime’s hands, now holding only the handle, swung around, with surprise on her face. Now’s my…chance Shirai poured all of her energy into her wounded right arm and tightened her little hand into a fist. It would be faster just to punch her at this range than it would be to go through the calculations for her ability. Unfortunately… Musujime jutted out her jaw a little bit, the flashlight still in her mouth. “” Shirai was alarmed, but her thoughts couldn’t go fast enough to activate her ability in response to Musujime’s unexpected action. She immediately took a step back and watched as one color filled her vision. White. The color of the luggage, she realized, stunned. Musujime had called the flung-away luggage back to Shirai—without depleting its momentum, just correcting its direction to end up in her face. If she hadn’t taken a step back, the newly appeared luggage might have consumed her head. But, having evaded it, the heavy, fully materialized case flew at her face with force. She’d realized it too late. There was a loud thud as the heavy strike hit her. She bent over backward at the impact; she couldn’t keep herself from falling. Her skin all tightened up, and she felt something warm bursting from the wounds on her shoulder and side. Her fist flailed, hitting nothing. Opposing her will to endure it, her feet flew out from under her. Just as she lost her balance, Shirai teleported. Her body vanished, then reappeared, still about to fall over, but this time behind Musujime. She used her falling momentum to whip her elbow around and slam her in the back with it. Musujime shot toward the pile of tables in front of her. Shirai hit the floor before seeing that happen, and the impact this time didn’t fail to reopen all of her wounds. Guh…agh… She rallied the last of her strength and grabbed something nearby on the floor to end things. It was the severed luggage handle. Sharpness was irrelevant for Shirai’s teleportation attacks. This…is where it ends she shouted to herself, setting up the targeting equations at the same time to warp the handle she held. …?! But she couldn’t use her power. The weapon in her hands didn’t move a bit. The intense pain and panic had shattered her concentration, preventing the activation of her ability. “N-no…” The fact made her panic even more. If only the pain got in the way of her ability, too, she hoped optimistically, looking over at Awaki Musujime. But what she heard was another whoosh. And what she saw was the pile of tables Musujime had been shoved into disappearing. And also that she’d pulled the flashlight out of her mouth like a kebab. Shirai felt a chill and shuddered. She immediately tried to roll out of the way, but above her, gravity pulled all those tables down at her like rain. “…” Still lying on her face, she set her hands on the back of her head to protect it. The heavy, blunt attacks showered her, striking flesh, resounding inside her wounds. She couldn’t even writhe in pain with all the weight coming down on her. Her narrowing field of vision showed Musujime, still down, kicking off the floor to avoid falling victim to the same rain of tables Shirai had. The darts piercing Musujime opened her wounds farther, and she screamed. Still, though, she used Move Point to get the handleless luggage back over to her, then, leaning against it, looked to Shirai. Slowly, slowly, Musujime ran the tip of her flashlight over a nearby chair. “Shirai, if you don’t dodge, you’ll die,” she said with a broad grin. She dragged her flashlight over the chair and, like an airplane coming off a runway, thrust its rounded edge straight in Shirai’s direction. “” Shirai paled, but it wasn’t like she could use Teleport anymore. A chair appeared right next to the trembling Shirai via Move Point. It crushed a table, bringing the pile of them covering her tumbling down like a pyramid of playing cards. But it had only changed its shape—it was still preventing her from moving. “Hmm. Considering you didn’t move even then, it would seem you really can’t draw up the teleportation calculations.” The tension in Musujime’s face began to loosen. Then she laughed. Despite the scattered blood from her open wounds hitting her cheek, she laughed. She continued on, her tone jovial. “Hey, Shirai. Kuroko Shirai. Have you heard this story? Sheesh, I hear all sorts of things being close to them.” Musujime checked where the metal darts and corkscrew were stabbing her, and then, with a deep breath and the swing of her flashlight, each one of them vanished and reappeared in front of her face. The darts and corkscrew succumbed to gravity and clanked to the floor. “A long time ago, there was a powerful esper who ran into a certain organization.” Musujime stood and backed up. Treating the wounds causing her pain seemed to be her top priority. She looked around, glancing here and there, searching for anything she could use as first aid. The tube of coagulant Shirai threw at her was on the floor, but Musujime kicked it away out of pride. She’s going…to treat herself…here…? And expose herself to me? I mean, she can’t discard the possibility that Big Sister is headed this way…Shirai was dubious, but Musujime’s expression looked rather relaxed. Having taken the darts out of her body, fresh blood spurted from her wounds. Still, the smile on her face remained. That was gruesome in its own way. “The organization wanted to gain great power by somehow acquiring more of those powerful yet rare espers. So they decided to try and clone the esper. Do you know what the result of it was?” Kuroko Shirai couldn’t move. She managed to stick a hand out of a gap between tables, but flailing it wouldn’t let her move the tables or attack her enemy. Musujime seemed quite satisfied at this as she tore a piece off the end of her skirt and wrapped it around a wound on her thigh. Mikoto Misaka hadn’t come yet. With how loud the battle was and how many guests and employees they’d chased out of the place, she would have surely noticed. Had she just not heard it? Or had she decided it wasn’t related to the remnant? Shirai didn’t want to call her here, but Mikoto’s absence was quite a worry in and of itself. Shirai didn’t think it the case, but perhaps there were still a few people from Musujime’s group slowing her down. But there was something stranger than all that. Why does…Musujime look so relaxed…? She cannot possibly think she could win against Big Sister like that… In contrast to her dubiousness, Musujime spoke like she had a good bit of leeway. “It went terribly. The poor lambs they created didn’t even have one percent of the original’s power. Even one percent is enough to be used in the real world, but even with ten or twenty thousand of them in a group, they couldn’t hold a candle to the powerful esper.” Soaked with blood, Musujime tore more fabric from her skirt and wrapped it around the cut on her calf. Shirai decided, without really knowing, that she’d wounded Musujime’s pride enough that she unconsciously felt the need to tell a long-winded story to secure a more decisive victory. Musujime’s skirt was already short, and now her underwear was exposed; she gave a thin smile anyway. “You know, Shirai. Children made through cloning technology have the exact same genetics. Even their brains are constructed exactly like the original. So then why is there such a difference in their abilities?” Her voice was brimming with overconfidence. It made Shirai want to barf, but if she kept ignoring her, Musujime would immediately lose interest and run away somewhere. With the luggage. “Wh-what a stupid…piece of fiction. Are you not aware of how Academy City’s schools are assigned rankings…?” The way abilities came into their own depended on the way a person was raised, even if they were the same person. That fact gave birth to all sorts of ability development theories, and the schools themselves started to be ranked with monikers such as “excellent” and “elite.” Musujime didn’t seem to be particularly aggravated. “Oh, no. Each created individual was artificially put through the same talent-blooming process the original had gone through. And still, they couldn’t catch up to the result they wanted. If the same brain didn’t produce the same result, then don’t you think there’s something other than simple brain construction that relates to how abilities work? And if we could find those other things, wouldn’t that mean we could give processing units that weren’t human brains abilities? What I’m asking is…” Disregarding her own blood flying to her cheek, abruptly stopping her first aid, she said: “Does the manifestation of abilities even need a human brain?” Shirai gasped. Ideas based on quantum theory were deeply involved in development of abilities in Academy City. The abilities conducted measurement and analysis of reality using purposely distorted processing and decision-making dubbed a “personal reality.” Then, depending on the results, they would achieve the creation of some phenomenon by unnaturally altering the probabilities of the infinitesimally microscopic world. “What…are you talking about?” But Shirai still couldn’t help asking the question. “The curricula in Academy City…They’re the culmination of brain research, aren’t they?” “Well, yes, but you see…The processing for all these phenomena—the observation and analysis of a target, I mean—do you even need to be human to do it?” she asked, seeming delighted. “For example, even plants can measure light. Some leaves and flowers close up at night. Can you say those kinds of plants aren’t measuring the world?” Musujime tried to close the wound on her shoulder, but her skirt was already an unusable mess. Instead, she removed the winter blazer she wore over her shoulders, tore off a piece of the long sleeve, and used it as a bandage. This isn’t good, thought Shirai. Once Musujime finished her stopgap treatment, she’d do something. But the only means Shirai had of hoping to hamper whatever that something was was to attack with her words. “Th-that’s absurd. Do you even hear yourself talking? If reacting to light is all you needed, then you’re saying photographs and posters faded by ultraviolet light can observe the world. The basis of abilities is what to do with that information. That’s why Academy City goes through the whole personal reality business, which is different for everyone. What’s special isn’t our five senses, it’s our ability to process things.” Musujime didn’t show much emotion at those words, either. She took the belt her flashlight had been on and tried to wrap up the last wound on her side with it. Unfortunately, the thick belt made of metal plates didn’t allow that. Instead, she removed the bandage-shaped pink fabric around her chest and wrapped that around her side. Despite them being the same sex, Musujime didn’t appear to have any misgivings about exposing her breasts to a complete stranger. The most she felt was a little bit of apology as she swept up her winter blazer with the torn sleeve to hide her naked chest. “You’re saying you can’t use abilities without a high degree of mental activity?” “Yes,” answered Shirai, though she felt a discomposure in her heart. She knew she was being led on. The lack of argument from Musujime proved it. “Then what about ants? They move in groups, using mass psychology to manufacture colonies and secure food. They receive honey from other organisms called aphids, and they repel ladybugs—it’s a simple symbiotic relationship. A primitive form of reasoning, if you will…If you think their mental structure is irregular, then you’re denying the way people think who are basically the same as you. They just have a minor difference in level,” declared Musujime, making sure the cloth on her wound wouldn’t loosen. “You’re just splitting hairs now…” “Splitting hairs? Even they have a society with labor divided according to physical structure—king ants, queen ants, worker ants. Are you trying to discard their signal-based communication abilities that use their antennae or bioluminescent organs depending on the species, as well? If you are, then what exactly does a humanlike high degree of mental activity mean? Even insects have ethics and morals. Parent ants will protect their own eggs just like the rest of us.” Awaki Musujime smiled very, very, very thinly. “Even ants can measure phenomena.” She paused. “Them and us. Is it up to you to decide which of us perceives these phenomena correctly? How can you say for sure they would never be able to use abilities?” Kuroko Shirai felt a chill go down her whole body. A single shiver, threatening denial of her very foundation as an esper. She looked at the thing Awaki Musujime was leaning on. “Don’t you think there could be plenty of things that are as good or better than humans? If it doesn’t seem that way to you, then perhaps it is human hubris.” Musujime smiled slowly, then stroked the luggage with a fingertip. “If you just changed your perspective slightly, you might learn how close such a thing really is. Yes, how extremely close it is.” The surface of the luggage gleamed sharply with reflected light. The remnant. The silicon-corundum processing core. The Tree Diagram. An artificial brain more efficient than humans’, larger than humans’, more complex than humans’…and yet slightly less flexible. “Kuroko Shirai, you know how we sometimes say things have a mind of their own? If you’re so stuck in your opinion that humans reign supreme, then I must say I’m a little disappointed in you.” Measurement of nature even ants were capable of. Supernatural abilities that could manifest as long as one had a “mind.” If a human wasn’t absolutely required for it… …then, then that, would… Kuroko Shirai stared at the luggage Awaki Musujime was leaning against. “You…can’t be serious. Are you saying abilities like ours have manifested deep down in that titan? Do you seriously think that? That’s nonsense—you’re claiming machines have minds.” But still. But still, Shirai began to wonder. Was the efficient system called the “human mind” really necessary just to observe and analyze reality in the first place? Musujime still didn’t get angry. “Well, yes. That might be going too far. Machines are just machines, after all. Even if we took an AI that could adjust for camera shake and light exposure for a digital camera, for example, and presented it with some phenomenon, all the processing chip would be able to do is arrange the pixels of optical information on a screen. Data processing goes in an entirely different direction than the measurement of phenomenon in the first place.” Her face actually looked relaxed. “In addition, it’s true that no forms of animal or plant life capable of using abilities have been discovered, either. We don’t actually know whether such a thing exists, but…” She brushed the luggage again. “If we have this, we can predict it. Using the ultimate simulation machine, capable of perfectly reproducing any phenomenon, would show anything and everything: the possibility of such creatures existing in our world and the progress of evolution of creatures ten thousand years from now. That is why I will assemble this remnant and acquire the Tree Diagram. Then I will ask it for every possibility under the sun—about whether any individual thing could ever use abilities in place of a human.” There was a strange light in her eyes. That light is called delusion, thought Shirai. “So that’s why…you contacted an outside organization…?” “Yes. The remnant may be valuable on its own, but I can’t repair it by myself. I needed a group with the technical skills, the knowledge, and this particular objective.” Awaki Musujime smiled. Shirai found it difficult to believe that organization was wallowing in Musujime’s ideas. They probably had an objective of their own. Plenty of people would want the Tree Diagram if they saw its specs. “Shirai, what did it feel like when you first gained that ability?” Shirai couldn’t move, but she could sure as hell talk. From underneath the tables, she replied as if the answer were obvious. “Wh-who cares? The adults in the room got pretty excited about it, but as the person who got the ability, it wasn’t surprising. It was just normal to me.” “That’s right.” Musujime paused. “I was honestly pretty scared,” she said as though recalling events in her childhood. “I was afraid of what I could do with this ability. And when my fears were confirmed, it got even more frightening. You have to know something, Shirai. I was more scared of what I had gained than anything else in the world. I could kill someone with so much as a silly thought.” At the moment, the girl no longer trembled over the past. “But I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Only we have these powers. They’ll be researched and analyzed in some lab we’ll never see and go on to be useful to the world. That’s why I had to keep this power. Somehow I managed to endure it, and yet…” Musujime smiled—her grin slowly cutting across her face like melted ice cream. “If I’m not the only one with this power, then I wouldn’t have ever needed to have it in the first place. Hypothetically, if the user didn’t need to be human, then why do they give powers to humans? If it didn’t need to be me, then why did they give it to me? Shirai, you stopped thinking about it, believing it was natural. Leaving those adults aside, the other esper children with me before thought the same way, you know. They used the unfinished building as a shield, but they were the ones who first proposed this. Before they lost consciousness, I smiled and just told them to leave it to me.” “…” Shirai frequently heard stories about Level Zero children who couldn’t get a power no matter how hard they tried turning into delinquents and gangsters. But this was the same thing. Even for those who happened to gain powerful abilities, some wouldn’t be able to get used to it. Supernatural abilities were like the giant monsters in movies. If you wanted to live with others, you had to always be walking on your tiptoes, always meticulously careful. If you took a big, free step, buildings would be destroyed. In fact, being able to go all-out with powers on the level of Railgun was more unusual. They lived a life demanding constant self-control against outside pressure. In a way, they were essentially bound in handcuffs and shackles. “Don’t you want to know? Did we really have to gain these powers? Don’t you want to know for sure if there was a good reason or not?” Musujime spread her hands gently—as though she were beckoning to Shirai. “You’re no exception, are you? You’ve hurt someone with your own ability before. And you must have wondered why you had to come into such powers.” As if to embrace her—as if to suck her in. As if she hadn’t finished Shirai off yet because she wanted to say this. “But I understand. You’re like me. When you close your eyes, you think about how you’ve hurt others. And that’s why…” As if she were singing. As if she were whispering into the ear of a loved one. As if Musujime had no real intention of killing Kuroko Shirai in the first place. “I understand your pain. More than anyone. And because of that, I know how to acquire a method to take it away. How about it, Shirai? I invite you to learn the truth with me.” Her expression betrayed how she’d wanted to go on such a long-winded tirade, despite running the risk of Mikoto Misaka arriving. Maybe what Musujime said was something every esper would have to question. As someone who had fought in this city with supernatural abilities, there was something she would have had to consider. How skillfully could she hurt an opponent with her power? How much damage could she do with it? Would it hurt? Would they suffer? Could it break them? Could it stop them? Could it mow them down? Could it send them flying? And after all of that was over, she would feel a sudden chill. Why did she have something like this? So she spoke out. Did that chill back then really have to happen to her? Why don’t I contact an outside organization and rebuild the Tree Diagram to find the answers? Shirai gritted her teeth. The reason she was given her power. The reason it may have been fine for her not to have been given it. She felt some kind of foundation she’d created to support her mind waver, and said: “I’m going to have to refuse that proposition.” Crushed under a pile of tables though she was, she cast a sharp glare at Musujime and spoke with a low, intimidating voice. “I was wondering what kind of bombastic remarks you’d make after causing this much trouble. I am pretty disappointed. Big Sister does always claim how petty villains are.” “What…was that…?” “Oh, please, don’t get so surprised over something so obvious. Did you think your drunken logic would win Kuroko Shirai over to your side? You’ve seemed so relaxed this whole time. You weren’t under the impression I would sympathize with you, then convince Big Sister on top of that, were you? Oh, or could it be that you just wanted to feel my cold eyes on you and shudder? “Besides,” she added, “animals? Evolution? Possibilities? Hah! You think they are important? Let’s say you did some selective breeding on little tiny ants and got one to have an esper ability. How would that change anything for us?” “Don’t you understand? If other things were able to be given supernatural abilities, we wouldn’t have had to turn into teleporting esper monsters! And if we didn’t have to have such dangerous abilities, then—” “Utter nonsense, if I may be so bold. I was asking you, regardless of what the possibilities are now, how it would change those of us who are already espers.” “…” “If you had been pursuing the possibility for future generations, then I may have been simply moved to tears. But what will come of presenting a different possibility to those of us who have already become espers? “And besides,” she prefaced, firmly grabbing the floor with the hand poking out of the tables, “saying that espers hurt people is already evidence of a sore loser. If I had your power, I would help fix bridges or something, not stopping until the broken bridge was fully repaired. I would escort people trapped in the underground mall up to the surface. If you want to exert your powers to your heart’s content, then go right ahead. Just so long as you do not misuse them.” With a creak, the pile of tables shook slightly. Kuroko Shirai gritted her teeth, trying to rally all the strength left in her wound-covered body, and said, “From my point of view, gibberish and sophistry are too good to call what you’re saying. You’re scared of power? You don’t want it because you’ll hurt someone? That’s what your mouth is saying, but which one of us is the idiot injuring people like this?! If you want to know whether what you’re doing is right or not, then look at my wounds! They’re your answer” The many tables crushing the girl swayed and lolled. Her feet dug into the floor. She strained every muscle in her body for strength, despite the blood flowing from her wounds. “Do you honestly believe that having a dangerous power will make people think you’re dangerous? Have you ever thought seriously about how great power comes with great responsibility? You, madam, are an idiot! Don’t you dare think Big Sister or I got where we are today with such ease We all put a lot of time and effort into thinking as hard as we can about what we can do with our powers before acting! Only after we acknowledged that did we create a place for ourselves today” The mountain of tables wobbled and shook violently. Kuroko Shirai turned up the power, trying to fling away the heavy pressure coming down on her. “Take a look at how Big Sister is running around outside if you like! If she felt like going all-out with her Railgun, she could settle this paltry problem in a minute! The only reason she discarded the simplest option is because she doesn’t want it to end with a bloody tragedy She’s putting herself in danger because of it I want to help her because I’m her ally, but even you, her enemy, are stupid enough to seriously feel like you want to save her, too! That is exactly why I call her my big sister” The wobbling and creaking changed into a deafening clatter. It started to fall. All that weight holding her down started to fall. “All you’re really saying is that you’re an esper with a special talent and everyone else is just part of the mediocre masses—running away with your dirty, high-and-mighty mind-set exposed! I will now proceed to beat some sense into those rotten guts of yours. Once someone so mediocre beats you, you’ll be forced to admit how mediocre you are! And I will send you straight back to the mediocre masses you came from” Kuroko Shirai stood up. Her clothes and body were sticky with the flowing blood from her opened wounds. She offhandedly grabbed a tall floor lamp nearby and held it at her side. Her hands dangling down couldn’t use teleportation anymore. But… So what? said she. I will beat you regardless of our abilities, said her expression. Silently, she declared that she wouldn’t be defeating her enemy because she had an amazing skill… …but that she was standing up to her with a more powerful reason. Kuroko Shirai inched along. Forward. One step, two steps, three. All she did was wobble along, unable to maintain her balance, unable to even bring the lamp up in front of her, dragging it behind her instead. And yet her vigor forced Musujime to move back. A tiny yelp escaped her lips. Word Count: (8440)