Prologue_ The Preparations As Seen By a Third Party

PROLOGUE The Preparations As Seen By a Third PartyParent’s_View_Point. The Daihasei Festival. An event held by Academy City over the course of seven days, from September 19 to September 25. The event was, in essence, a giant school athletic meet. Every school in the city would be participating in the festivities. Given that the city was one giant organization for the development of supernatural abilities and took up all of western Tokyo, and given that 80 percent of the city’s 2.3 million total people were students, the event was massive. Today was September 19, its first day. Despite the early weekday morning hour, the parents and guardians of those participating in the festival were already flooding the city streets. If Academy City’s general board hadn’t prohibited outsiders from driving into the city as part of its plan to keep people from seeing too far inside, there would have been pointless traffic jams stretching dozens of kilometers all over. Therefore, it was faster to go on foot. To deal with the pedestrian congestion, the city had ramped up its train and subway services. They set up self-driving buses, too; this was all so much more than usual that they were experiencing an extreme shortage of actual drivers. No matter where you looked, it was like a big train station platform at rush hour. It just went to show how big the Daihasei Festival really was. These were some of the few days of the year Academy City was open to outsiders, all so others could see its espers and their theatrical supernatural abilities as they competed ruthlessly against one another. The actual events of the competition were the same as any old-school athletic festival, but seeing the students’ mysterious “powers” up close was quite stimulating and fascinating for those not from the city, who may have known about them for their fame on television but had never actually witnessed them in person. So. A couple, one man and one woman, was walking through the near-futuristic city. “Oh, honey, look! No matter how many times we come here, Academy City is so overwhelming. It’s like the worlds we drew with our crayons as kids have come to life. If only they had trains that ran through tubes and hoverboards! Then it would be perfect…” That was Touya Kamijou, a certain boy’s father. He wore plain slacks and a dress shirt with its sleeves rolled up to his shoulders. He wore a necktie that seemed more a gift than a thing someone would actually use, and the soles of his well-worn leather shoes padded along, sounding pathetic on the pavement. A reply came. “Oh my, oh my. I don’t think this is up to the standards of the near future that I imagine. There are no giant space battleships or humanoid weapons split up into a federation and an empire fighting, firing red and blue laser beams at each other, making pew pew noises even though they’re in space, are there? And I’d like to see the sabers that look like fluorescent lights.” That was Shiina Kamijou, a certain boy’s mother. She looked twice as young as Touya, and her apparel made the two of them seem poorly matched as they walked together. She wore a long dress that went down to her ankles, made of delicate silk or perhaps another thin, smooth fabric. Over that, she wore a relaxed cardigan. There was a wicker basket hanging from her arm, perhaps with their lunch inside. The wide-brimmed hat on her head brought it all together in quite a classy fashion statement. Though the two were married, they looked more like a noble daughter and her hired driver. Right now, they were walking leisurely toward the opening ceremony venue where their son would be participating. “Honey, I don’t think you can call that exactly near future. That’s much further off. They apparently have pyro-blades here…Well, let’s stop with all the talk of weapons, yes? We have a nice, er, atmosphere going. It wouldn’t be proper to break it.” They looked up to the sky and saw smoky white fireworks popping in the air. The helicopters flitting about probably belonged to the mass media. The Daihasei Festival was open to the public, and the city allowed the media to broadcast it on television. Commentary booths were present at the stadiums and fields, and temporary outdoor studios had been set up all around the city. The viewership rivaled even the World Cup’s; Touya, ever the businessman, imagined that the media was working itself to the bone. Then somebody crossed in front of them. It was a young girl wearing a maid outfit, perched atop an oil drum–shaped security robot. She carried a tray at her waist, hooked around her neck, like a baseball stadium vendor. “Ah! Hey! Does anyone want one of Academy City’s famous maid box lunches? Does anyone want one of Ryouran Girls’ Housekeeping Academy’s maid bento—or more specifically a maid-in-training’s bento?” The couple stood amazed at the intense sales pitch as the maid riding the security robot slid past from right to left without a sound. Despite her “maid bento” comment, the box lunches’ contents looked like regular old Japanese food. “Oh my, oh my.” Shiina put a hand to her cheek. “Academy City has so many different kinds of schools.” Touya, too, glanced at the disappearing maid (more specifically, the maid-in-training) as they proceeded. “Well, it’s like a microcosm of every kind of educational institution the world over. They probably have all the knowledge and technology from the home economics schools throughout the world. And how scary is it that a maid walking around the city doesn’t seem out of place at all— Ack, whoa” Having let his attention slip, he ran straight into someone. “Eek! Ah, I’m so sorry for bumping into you!” Touya looked to see a lady who seemed about college age. She wore a light gray dress shirt and a pair of long, slender jet-black pants made of a thin material. Their design was simple, but the clothing was high class. He could see her sitting in a company president’s seat dressed like that. Still, there was nothing formal about her, despite the clothing. As a matter of fact, she looked more like a delinquent being forced to wear it. It was the opposite of Touya, who always went to business dealings with the company fortunes on the line in a lazy suit. The girl who’d collided with him smiled amicably. “It’s so big here that it’s easy to get lost. I’m sorry, but would you happen to know where Tokiwadai Middle School is?” “Right…Ah, wait just a moment.” Touya rummaged through his things and took out a pamphlet. Academy City was enormous, and there was a vast number of schools participating, so it was as thick as some overseas travel guides. He gave up on trying to find a map and looked through the index at the end of the pamphlet instead. “Toki, toki…I don’t see it. Tokiwadai Middle School isn’t on the list. If there’s no introduction for it on the official pamphlet, then maybe that means it’s not open to the public?” “What?! Are you serious? Then where the heck is Mikoto?! I finally managed to get some time off from university for this!” Is Mikoto her little sister’s name? thought Touya as he read, but she suddenly drew near to him and peered at the pages, basically up against his shoulder. “To, to, to, toki, toki, toki…Ack! It’s really not here! Crap! Now what?!” The lady gave a cornered yelp. Had they not already decided on somewhere to meet? This soon before the opening ceremonies, her cell phone could be powered off. Her defenseless cheek nearly collided with Touya’s stubble, and her soft hairs tickled his ear. The soft hair had a faintly sweet scent to it. He hastily looked away. “Oh my, Touya. This again?” “H-honey? Wh-what do you mean?” asked Touya carefully. Shiina put a hand to her cheek and sighed, sincerely sad. He also thought he saw an evil shadow starting to cross her face. “My word, Touya. Running into a lady by the roadside, making friends, and getting nice and cozy without even being aware you’re doing it. How many times does this make, I wonder? Am I the sillier one for trying to keep count? Oh my, oh my. This will not do. You must be very masochistic to make me this mad, Touya.” Shiina’s face was so terrifying that portraits on paper bills would flinch away in fear, but the lady next to Touya didn’t notice Shiina change at all. Instead, she kept pulling on his arm, asking, “Hey, do you know where the administrative committee tent is or something? Come on, tell me!” Touya, meanwhile, was frantically thinking about whether to ignore or accept the situation. Honey, that’s scary! B-but, but it’s actually kind of cute seeing you a little jealous! What should my next move be?! “Oh my. Isn’t that Touma over there?” With Shiina’s attention directed elsewhere now, Touya felt deflated. I-I’m saved. But why do I feel a little disappointed? he wondered, looking in the same direction. The lady next to him was still pulling on his arm, looking at the pamphlet. There was a crowd in front of them, and most of them turned out to be students in gym uniforms. There were slight differences in the uniforms based on what school they were from, but they were all wearing either a red or a white headband. On the other side of the crowd, he spotted the spiky hair of his familiar child. He was participating in the Daihasei Festival, so he was obviously wearing a uniform of short sleeves and shorts. Next to him was a girl in a different uniform, this one for full-blown track-and-field events: a tank top and shorts. The lady looked up suddenly from the pamphlet Touya was holding out, then pointed at the girl, who had brown hair down to her shoulders, then began to explain. “Oh! There’s Mikoto. Thank goodness. I’ve been so busy with university that we never agreed on a place to meet.” There was a throng of people between them, so the children hadn’t noticed their parents yet. Still, the children were talking to each other loudly enough that they could hear them clearly. “Hey, so which color did you get, anyway? Red or white?” “Eh? Red, why? Are you on the red team, too?” “Y-yeah.” “Oh! I see. So you’re on the red team. Let’s both try our best!” “Th-then if the r-red team members do some kind of group event, we should—” “Just kidding! I’m actually on the white team” “…?!” “Gaze upon this immaculate white headband! It is the symbol of my determination to send every single last one of you, our sworn enemies, to the grave! We would never be on the same side. And I don’t care whether you’re a middle school kid or a high school kid! I’ll beat the hell out of all of you and take all the points for myself, so you’d better be ready” “You…You’re insane! I’ll teach you to look down on people younger than you. I could wipe out all the nerds on the white team by myself” “Yeah, but you won’t! In fact, if I lose to you, then I’ll do whatever you say! I don’t care what it is!” “I…That’s fine by me! I’ll take you on…Whatever I want, huh? All right, then.” “Oh, that’s just like a proper young lady from Tokiwadai! So much unfounded hope despite having no prospects for victory! In exchange, if you lose, you have to do whatever I say!” “What?! I’d have to…to do whatever you…” “Oh my, what’s this? Scared now, Miss Misaka? After all that, are you really all bark and no bite, Miss?” “…Fine, then. I’ll do it! Just don’t come crying to me when you lose!” “I see, I see. Only people who’ve already given up on winning would say stuff like that” Their family members watched, deathly still, as she replied with a loud what and a biri biri and weaved electric attacks into the conversation. There must have been a bit of a gap between them and the ideal images their parents had of them. Shiina Kamijou placed a hand on her cheek. “Oh my, oh my…So clever with his words, making such an absurd request of a girl of such a tender age. She sure does remind me of someone in particular. Oh my! I’m starting to remember my own school days.” Touya Kamijou was petrified with shock. “Th-this can’t be. A punishment game? Telling a middle school girl she has to do whatever he wants? What do you want to order her to do, anyway, Touma?!” The lady next to them made a face. Is it their fault? Well, I’ll ask Mikoto later. How young—and how inexperienced with the ways of the world…She sighed and pressed her hand to her forehead. And that about wraps up how Academy City’s giant coordinated athletic festival, the Daihasei Festival, kicked off its seven days of competition. Word Count: (2301)