Difference between revisions of "Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter4"

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==Chapter 4: Misaka Mikoto and the Death of Class==
  
==Chapter 4: Misaka Mikoto and the Death of Class==
   
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===Part 5===
  
===Part 5===
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To start with, they made sure 12-year-old Yugure Tsumebakei could focus on her exam interview. Having a recommendation gave her better odds than if not, but it was still crucial she performed well. Even if she was trying to find her sister, screwing this up really could influence the rest of her life.
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“Don’t worry.”
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When they parted ways, Mikoto exchanged numbers with her, held out her little finger, and made a promise.
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“Canary-chan is my classmate. I promise you I’ll find her, so you relax and go to your exam.”
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“Okay…”
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“I promise you there’s nothing to worry about. Now, get going. Akazame-sensei is calling.”
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Mikoto kept a smile until the small girl had disappeared around the hallway corner.
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And then…
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“If a serious crime has occurred in the School Garden, it must be in one of the ''Lost Pieces''.”
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Whether or not they were familiar with that term was plain to see on their faces.
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There was suspicion of industrial spies trying to use the entrance exam season to sneak in and steal data, but this was still the untouchable School Garden. The security there wasn’t so lax that an entire person could just disappear. All the likely places were patrolled by Judgment or security robots and none of the security cameras at the limited gates out had shown Yugure Kanaria.
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That meant she was inside the School Garden but in some unique cranny none of the five schools could touch. There was no way for her to disappear otherwise.
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Mikoto and Shirai were familiar with the term. Uiharu and Saten were not.
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Uiharu hesitantly asked about it.
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“What are the Lost Pieces?”
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“Do you remember what Saten-san said about the School Garden being the ultimate educational environment funded by the five schools here? She wasn’t wrong about that.” Mikoto pointed her thumb toward the entrance. “But to put it another way, the School Garden looks peaceful at first glance, but it’s actually locked in a constant struggle for power between the five schools. There are invisible lines dividing the ‘turfs’ of each school’s students. They’re like national borders. But there are some dangerous disputed zones that every school claims are theirs, causing tensions to grow.”
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“Those are called the Lost Pieces,” said Kuroko. “Because they’re like missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle forming the School Garden. Since everyone claims them, no one can manage them properly. So those are the only areas not patrolled by security robots or monitored by security cameras. Not even the teachers can agree on which school is in charge of security there.”
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And a lack of surveillance created a blind spot where unspeakable desires could be released. They might only look like an abandoned construction site or an artificial forest, but they meant so much more to the right people.
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Humans were human. Mikoto knew better than anyone that the pure girls here were not saints. In fact, all the studying and perfect etiquette the adults forced onto them at all times could cause stress to build up until it exploded out in one of those unmonitored areas.
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Bluish-white sparks crackled from Mikoto’s bangs.
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“Honestly, finding this is the work of a secret delinquent from one of the schools is probably the best case scenario.”
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“Yes, this is such an irritating time what with the industrial spies trying to sneak in during the entrance exams. Combine that with a justice-minded girl afflicted with a super slow-motion curse and I have a very bad feeling about this.”
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The four of them rushed out of the school building.
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The inorganic stone buildings along the European-style streets felt so much different now that they knew someone had gone missing here. And none of the people living in that peaceful world were aware of it. It felt like the part of a dystopian SF movie where the big corporation insists their new technology is perfectly safe. With the streets without a speck of litter and the smiling employees at the polished cafés, there was no darker side to be found, which only made the girls more suspicious of everything.
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“What standards should we really be striving toward!? Is unquestioningly obeying the adults really the key to improving ourselves!?”
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“Wow.”
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But Saten reacted a little too sensitively to what she heard coming from the LCD ads on the decorative pillars.
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“We have no intention of stopping with Tokiwadai! We intend to provide greater autonomy to every student in the School Garden and through that ensure we can all take responsibility in our own actions!! None of us should simply follow the rules the adults have set for us! Only by thinking through the reasons behind the rules we should follow can we find true consideration for each other!”
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Did it really matter if they were testing replacing the wind turbines with solar panels? But Saten tapped Mikoto on the shoulder.
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“Misaka-san, what is that?”
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“A debate being held between the schools, I think. Like I said, as peaceful as things look here, the five schools are having constant turf wars. The adults think healthy competition provides fuel to increase our powers, so the adults never intervene to stop it.”
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“Um, but that person is acting like a representative of Tokiwadai on TV,” said Uiharu.
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“She can claim whatever she wants,” bluntly stated Mikoto. “I don’t know who ''that redhead'' is, but she’s not even part of the student council. Besides, Tokiwadai is focused more on individual esper powers and the conflicts between our cliques, so I don’t see what a debate like this can really accomplish. I can’t speak for the other four schools, but for us, this at most lets you advertise your club or clique. It isn’t popular enough for anyone to compete for the spot and no one will feel jealous seeing someone else calling themselves our representative.”
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An eloquent speech with no group backing it wasn’t enough to solve anything in the real world. When there were problems between the students, it was simpler to either fight it out with their esper powers or have their cliques apply pressure to each other. And that didn’t just apply to Tokiwadai. The girls here still clung to the outdated traditions of the nobility, so they seemed to like the sound of the word “duel”. Otherwise, they wouldn’t praise Mikoto as the Ace for being the strongest individual or Shokuhou as the Queen for leading the strongest group.
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Mikoto understood finding everything suspicious right now, but there was no point in wasting their time with the debate playing on TV. They had a much more real problem to face.
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What had Tokiwadai 2nd Year Yugure Kanaria seen in a Lost Piece, who had made her vanish, and where had she ended up?
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“Is that all?” complained Saten Ruko after taking a peek past the tall metal wall and into the abandoned construction site that was one of the Lost Pieces. “But it’s so normal. You described this as a lawless zone, so I was expecting to find every wall to be covered in post-apocalyptic graffiti.”
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“Keep in mind this is still inside the School Garden.” Mikoto shrugged. “The official story is that construction of the building was protested in the name of scenery preservation, but I have my doubts. I think the real reason is an 8-story building here would have obstructed the phone signal at Shidarezakura. Does that sound like too modern a reason for a traditional girl’s school? No matter how much history or tradition a school has, all the students and teachers are constantly on their phones.”
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While it was a construction site, there weren’t rough piles of pipes stacked up on the bare dirt. A building that looked an awful lot like a Greek temple had been abandoned half built. The plan had been for it to be a recreation facility including a gym and a bath, but those plans had been canceled and now it sat here unfinished.
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There weren’t any signs as obvious as cigarette butts on the ground, but there were a few footprints. That meant there were some girls who found this place comfortable enough to visit.
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“Uiharu,” said Shirai.
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“Yes, yes. According to her Bank data, Yugure Kanaria’s shoe size is 22cm. Let’s see…I can use my PDA’s camera as an electronic ruler, but it looks like none of these were her.”
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Photography was banned all across the School Garden and not just in Tokiwadai. Any function that used the camera would be deactivated without a Judgment device.
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If Kanaria had come here and seen something she shouldn’t have, her footprints would be here. Since the whole point was for her to have been disappeared in one of the Lost Pieces, she wouldn’t have been knocked out elsewhere and carried here. Then the crime would have been noticed.
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They concluded this Lost Piece wasn’t the one they wanted and moved to the next one.
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Saten spoke up on the way there.
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“Hey, wait. Judgment can access data on all our measurements?”
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“Sex, age, height, and weight are the basic pieces of data needed to identify a suspicious figure seen on a security camera. And the more data we have, the better.”
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“Weight too!? Please don’t tell me you have our body fat ratio!”
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Saten felt like this should be a crisis for any girl, but Uiharu didn’t seem to care. Was it like how doctors were professionals and thus didn’t get flustered about seeing a patient naked?
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All the LCD ads around were playing that debate from earlier. But Mikoto had missed the topic of debate, so she wasn’t entirely sure what the 5 schools were trying to say.
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“Clean energy is not enough for us. I demand safe energy as well. We must do more than enjoy ourselves in the present. This is the first step toward being adults aware of our responsibility to the future. The wind turbines used across Academy City have received some criticism over the low frequency waves produced by the friction as they turn, so I suggest replacing them with silent solar energy.”
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“Flying cars have already reached the practical stage of development. But can we really allow them to be managed by the existing driver’s license system? Should they require a pilot’s license, which is even more difficult to obtain? I say no. Why not create a new system that instead lowers the barrier to entry? As long as we can learn how to operate them safely, why can’t middle school students like ourselves use these flying cars?”
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“Independence! We demand independence!! Leaving your parents and setting out on your own is a crucial step toward obtaining your own identity.”
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Saten looked bored. A lot of people disliked that any voices at all were coming from the streetside LCD ads, so what they were saying didn’t matter.
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“What the heck are they talking about?”
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“They’re taking it in some confusing directions, but I think they might be debating on the general category of what it means to be an adult.”
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At any rate, Mikoto guided them to some woods that seemed out of place among the stone buildings.
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An unnatural thicket of conifer trees grew in between the buildings. It didn’t look like a well-maintained park.
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“This artificial forest is next. The only other ones I’m familiar with are the subway station remains, the abandoned bell tower, and the server center that has never been run despite its ridiculous communications capacity.”
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“Why would prestigious schools be fighting over those places? No, wait, forget I asked. I don’t want to get roped into any trouble for knowing the truth of this fancy place.”
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Rumor-loving Saten actually opted out of learning some new rumors.
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However…
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“Onee-sama, I can’t help but wonder why you are familiar with so many different Lost Pieces. I am especially curious why you seemed to be checking a map on your phone while leading us here.”
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Mikoto coughed and refused to look Shirai in the eye.
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The position of Academy City’s #3 came with its own pressures, so sometimes she wanted to step away from all of that. She didn’t know for sure, but she guessed the #5 was also familiar with the Lost Pieces.
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Uiharu viewed the area through her PDA and then shouted excitedly.
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“Oh, a match! Official Tokiwadai loafers, 22cm. Of course, that isn’t enough to guarantee it’s her.”
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“It’s still better than what we found at the constructions site. Let’s take a closer look.”
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Mikoto’s group stepped into the artificial forest growing in a gap within the city.
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However, the forest didn’t have anything going for it aside from the lack of surveillance. The conifer trees didn’t grow any fruit like apples or peaches and there weren’t any rhino beetles around during this season, so there was nothing exciting to find. They couldn’t even sit down on the ground without getting the dark soil on their uniforms. The artificial conifer forest was nothing more than a pollen factory.
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Saten lost interest really fast.
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“Huh. So when the girls here know no one is watching, the best they can come up with is go forest bathing? High society delinquents are lame.”
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“Saten.”
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“Shirai-san, I can understand getting together with your friends at that construction site,” said Uiharu. “But wouldn’t you just get swarmed by mosquitos if you came here during the summer?”
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That was when Mikoto tilted her head with electricity crackling from her bangs.
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“There’s something further in.”
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“What is it, Onee-sama?”
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“The microwaves I’m sending out are getting a weird reaction from the ground. This isn’t anything natural, like a rock or a fallen tree. It’s more artificial…square shaped even. Could it be a metal cover on the ground? But it doesn’t seem like a manhole cover. It’s too big. The reaction I’m getting is 2m across.”
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“Wait, Misaka-san! There is no such thing as a square manhole. As a square, you could tilt it along the diagonal like this and the heavy lid would fall right in the hole, so they’re specifically designed to prevent that! All the manholes covers you see on the road are circles so they won’t fall through no matter how they’re situated on top!!”
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All four of them exchanged a glance.
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If Saten was right, then this metal cover wasn’t to a manhole. Then what was it? What other metal covers did you find on the ground?
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Yugure Kanaria had gone missing after discovering something.
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They may have been approaching whatever it was. Uiharu walked further into the woods with Mikoto and Shirai.
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“Why is your head so full of useless trivia, Saten-san?”
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“Because, Uiharu, manholes are a treasure trove of urban legends. Some say they’re holes meant to drop bodies in and others say there are bizarre monsters living below. The sewers they connect to are even said to be home to ''white alligators''.”
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Uiharu wasn’t sure what to say when Saten looked so proud of herself for this. Had her friend failed to notice the “useless” qualifier she had used?
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Mikoto came to a stop after reaching the point indicated by her microwaves.
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“It’s here.”
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“It looks like ordinary soil to me.”
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“But look at my PDA, Shirai-san. Those 22cm footprints walk right up to this spot and then vanish.”
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“What does that mean?” asked Saten.
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Mikoto answered her by casually raising her right hand.
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She was using her magnetic control.
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The dark soil on top was blown away and a metal cover 2m long, 2m wide, and more than 3cm thick rose into Mikoto’s palm.
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The square hole below revealed sturdy-looking stainless steel stairs leading down. Mikoto tossed the metal cover aside and aimed her phone’s LED light inside, but she still couldn’t see the bottom.
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“I’ve heard they sell simple tornado shelters in America for people to bury in their yard, but I don’t think that’s what this is. I’m pretty sure those are more like burying a small storage shed, but this just keeps going deeper.”
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“Wow! It’s like an evil secret base, Uiharu.”
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“It couldn’t possibly be evil. This is the School Garden funded by those five super classy schools, remember?”
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Uiharu’s comment put some very uncomfortable looks on Mikoto and Shirai’s faces.
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This was far too largescale to be the work of an individual. It was probably one of those five schools that had built this underground facility.
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And those same schools were fighting over who owned this artificial forest.
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“What did you see, Canary-chan? This is starting to look really dangerous.”
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“The footprints end here, so we have to go down these stairs to figure out what that person saw, don’t we? Don’t we!?”
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Saten’s love of urban legends had her giddy with excitement at the prospect of pursuing this new mystery.
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But had she really thought this through?
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It was true Yugure Kanaria had probably descended these stairs since her footprints ended here, but the entrance had been sealed by that heavy metal cover and soil had been placed on top to hide it.
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Kanaria couldn’t have done that from the inside. Not physically and not with her esper power, Micro Dying. They also hadn’t seen any of her footprints leading back out of the woods. Didn’t that mean something had had happened to her down those stairs and then someone else had shut the heavy metal cover from the outside and covered it with soil to delay anyone from discovering her?
   
 
===Part 6===
  
===Part 6===
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Without anyone to stop her, Saten Ruiko likely would have rushed into the mysterious underground space to solve the mystery on her own. As can be seen from her stance on pursuing urban legends, she preferred to solve mysteries herself when she encountered them. And while this may be a rude and baseless prediction, it seemed likely she would have ended up in serious trouble and gotten beaten up.
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But Shirai Kuroko and Uiharu Kazari were different.
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Even without directly finding an assailant or victim, the evidence and situation they found told them a survivor had likely been sealed in by a third party. A 2m square of metal more than 3cm thick was too heavy for a 2nd year in middle school to lift, so closing that cover from outside was enough to charge the third party with at least abduction or confinement. In the worst case, their intent may have been to let her starve to death down there. It could be hard to tell without a single drop of blood to be found, but this was a legitimate(?) crime that could have taken a life.
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And when faced with something like that, the correct course of action was to call Anti-Skill and get the adults’ help. There was no reason to rush in and act like this was a single player game. If Mikoto’s group got wiped out without letting anyone know, then no one would be able to rescue Yugure Kanari from that underground space.
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Saten complained, but then something occurred to her.
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“Hold on, Shirai-san. Didn’t you say these Lost Pieces are unmonitored areas that none of the schools can touch? Will Anti-Skill even show up?”
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“Even if no one is monitoring the area, a report of a kidnapping or murder is enough justification to raid the place. We’re not talking about a foreign embassy here.”
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Shirai was exactly right.
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A total of 20 or 30 people were sent in as reinforcements. That seemed like a lot. If you reported a purse snatching or an attempted convenience store robbery, there was no way that many would show up. So that number meant Anti-Skill was already considering the possibility this was a murder case. The normal crime scene preservation measures would require placing blue tarps over any doors and windows, stringing police tape around the area, and keeping away the press showing up with large cameras, so 20 or 30 was probably about right. Which made their presence all the more disturbing.
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The ones carrying bulky silver cases around were probably the crime scene investigators. They didn’t only work murder cases, but knowing they had been called in for a case relating to a classmate was still worrying.
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The adults in Anti-Skill allowed the children from Judgment join the investigation, which may have shown they understood the complicated status of the Lost Pieces.
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Anti-Skill and Judgment ended up speaking at the same time.
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“Understood. We will let Anti-Skill handle the rest.”
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“No, hold on. We want all of you Judgment girls to help us search inside.”
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Did they have to argue like that? Hadn’t they ever heard of teamwork? Mikoto’s group only wanted to find out if Yugure Kanaria was safe.
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And whichever side of the argument they were on, Mikoto’s group only had one real option here. If they were going to confirm Kanaria was safe, everyone needed to pool their information and they needed as many people searching as they could get. Plus, none of them were the type who could sit around waiting for the result. They preferred to take action and actually do something.
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Since the people in charge apparently saw them as a group working for Shirai Kuroko, Mikoto placed a hand on the center of her chest and spoke up.
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“Very well. I am more than willing to help, Miss Judgment. Show us how the experts do it.”
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“Okay, just follow me. You aren’t going to find unexplored underground spaces on your map app, so we need to be thorough. First of all, this is a special pen that shines in response to UV light. The UV light itself is built into the back end. I will teach you a few signs, so make sure to mark off all the rooms and pathways we have already checked. Since we don’t have a map, we’ll have to make one ourselves. If we run into something and have to run away, make sure to follow the path we took coming in. Ready, everyone? Here we go☆”
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They descended the stainless steel stairs as a group.
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But they ran into something unexpected almost immediately. It was deep. They had known their phone lights weren’t enough to see all the way down, but the stairs still seemed to continue on and on forever.
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They had to have descended at least 100 steps. And without any landings or reversals along the way. They had to have already left the Lost Piece artificial forest.
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They heard a deep groaning sound.
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It was much too loud to be caused by their feet on the metal stairs.
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Saten pointed her phone around nervously.
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“Wh-what is this sound?”
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“Is it an earthquake?”
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Saten normally ran headlong into danger, so it was strange to see her clinging to Uiharu’s arm here.
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Mikoto placed her hand on the smooth wall.
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“For that matter…”
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Where were they underground right now?
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Was anyone really allowed to dig so much beneath the School Garden where the five schools competed so fiercely over their turf?
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The shiny silver walls and floor looked even cheaper than the stairs. They may have been a lightweight aluminum alloy.
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“Cool. This is practically a dungeon now,” said Saten Ruiko, sounding carefree.
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There was an intersection up ahead and another a bit past that one, so this may have been a vast web of underground pathways.
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There was no point in sticking together as a single group, so despite their disagreements, the Anti-Skill and Judgment members exchanged a nod and spread out across different pathways.
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Mikoto’s group decided to stick together.
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“So what is this place anyway?”
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“Uuuiiihaaaruuu.”
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“N-not now, Saten-san! Why would you even think of flipping my skirt with all this going on?”
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“Oh, I already did it before we went down here. It just isn’t a proper Uiharu panty viewing if isn’t out in the sunlight.”
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Uiharu Kazari shrieked and held down her skirt with both hands.
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Meanwhile, Mikoto let some bluish-white sparks crackle from her bangs and rapped the back of her hand against the aluminum wall.
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“That’s pretty thick, but it’s hollow inside. And based on the evenly spaced lines on the passageway’s walls, floor, and ceiling, could this be made from the metal cubes used for the foundation of a megafloat?”
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“That’s ridiculous. Creating an underground wall out of those would requires so much extra digging,” said Shirai. “Burying a hollow cube is so much more work than just a flat wall.”
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And the more digging required, the more money required. That was why the tunnels built through mountains generally took the shortest possible route and some would reduce the number of lanes or lower the ceiling to cut costs. Keeping the width and height the same from beginning to end for no real reason could lead to unbelievable costs in the end.
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In the same way, a thick cube would cost so much more than a flat wall. When a width of 2m was enough for people to pass through, no one would dig a tunnel 6m wide for three times the cost and then fill in either side with cubes, leaving only the original 2m width.
  +
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However…
  +
  +
(Costly cubic walls, a megafloat foundation, and a network of underground passageways. And all of it was built in secret so no one in the School Garden would notice?)
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Mikoto’s thoughts were cut off by an ear-splitting noise.
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Saten shouted in surprise and pulled out her phone.
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Uiharu snapped at her for once.
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“What are you doing, Saten-san!?”
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  +
“It’s not my fault. The alarm won’t stop! I didn’t think we even got a signal down here!”
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It wasn’t just Saten.
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More of those loud electronic tones sounded from other passageways and around other corners. They reverberated and mixed together into a mass of noise that seemed to spread endlessly.
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  +
A deep groaning came from the lightweight aluminum alloy walls.
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Shirai looked around.
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“This isn’t a normal signal. Is it a more powerful disaster warning app alert?”
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(No.)
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Mikoto gulped.
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(This isn’t an earthquake. When a fault in the crust grinds together, the friction produces static electricity, but I don’t sense anything like that.)
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It was easy enough to say what this wasn’t, but then what was it? The low rumbling was so unusually regular it seemed more like some kind of machine.
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Something felt extremely off to Mikoto.
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She felt the frustration of seeing something dangerous approaching her but being unable to find the words to describe what exactly it was. Or maybe it was the groundless fear of a jinx where naming the thing would give it more power.
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But her thoughts were cut off there.
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Her phone’s light had found something in the vast underground space. Something on the floor there did not fit the smooth, metallic aesthetic. The dark, lumpy object was…
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“A…person? Damn, it’s Canary-chan!!”
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“Ah, Misaka-san!?”
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“Uiharu, mark the wall with that special pen!!” said Shirai. “Forgetting to mark it could lead to trouble later!!
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They were all in a hurry now.
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A girl with long flaxen hair wore a Tokiwadai uniform. With Tokiwadai’s strict rules only the bangs and socks left room for individuality and Kanaria was wearing triple roll socks.
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Yugure Kanaria lay face down on the floor. Mikoto had a bad feeling about this. If she hadn’t laid down on her own, she could have had trouble breathing. Either her mouth could have been covered or her weight could have applied pressure to her lungs.
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Mikoto just about grabbed her shoulders and turned her on to her back, but then she stopped. Why was Kanaria collapsed down here and why couldn’t she get back up under her own power? It would be best to check her for injury before moving her.
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But her classmate’s dry lips moved before she was done checking.
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  +
“Ah…kh…”
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  +
“Canary-chan, do you recognize me? Everything will be okay. There’s a bunch of Judgment and Anti-Skill here too!!”
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“…was a…ctory.”
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(…?)
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Mikoto frowned.
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What was that? Would she really suddenly use that word even if she was woozy?
  +
  +
It was possible Mikoto had misheard.
  +
  +
But it had sounded an awful lot like Yugure Kanari had said something about a factory?
  +
  +
“It was a factory, Osprey-chan<ref>Kanaria refers to Mikoto as Osprey because Misaka is sort of similar to Misago, the Japanese word for the osprey.</ref>. This place was a factory.”
  +
  +
“What are you talking about, Canary-chan?”
  +
  +
“But I don’t think this is anywhere near enough. My, my. They know it too, which is why they wanted to keep their secret. It was all just a childish dream.”
  +
  +
“Start from the beginning please. What was a childish dream!?”
  +
  +
More deep rumbling.
  +
  +
Still kneeling next to her classmate, Mikoto looked up on reflex because she thought this was an earthquake.
  +
  +
But it wasn’t.
  +
  +
Yugure Kanaria knew more about what was going on, so she seemed to know what this was.
  +
  +
“It’s started. I couldn’t stop it. Oh, no. And now Hoatzin<ref>Tsumebakei is the Japanese word for the hoatzin.</ref> is going to be caught in the middle of it all.”
  +
  +
“What’s started!?”
  +
  +
“Independence Day,” said Kanaria, still lying face down and having trouble breathing. She was just like the bird chirping in the mines to warn of impending doom. “The School Garden is ''declaring independence'', Osprey-chan.”
   
 
===Part 7===
  
===Part 7===
  +
  +
Shortly before that, 12-year-old Yugure Tsumebakei couldn’t focus on what she was saying.
  +
  +
The teachers across from her looked uncertain.
  +
  +
But not because she was saying anything weird.
  +
  +
Her responses to the interview had been perfect. They had been so painfully perfect they almost seemed robotic.
  +
  +
Mikoto’s group had contacted the adults, so the teachers would know about her situation. That meant they would be aware the young hopeful student was preoccupied. The School Garden was supposed to be unquestionably safe yet her sister had gone missing there. Anyone would have difficulty focusing on their entrance exam in those circumstances, so the Tokiwadai teachers’ opinions were split.
  +
  +
Some wanted to make an exception and push back her interview to a later date.
  +
  +
Some thought it would be unfair to the other hopeful students to allow any kind of exception.
  +
  +
Although none of them considered that their thoughtfulness actually put more pressure on her young heart. The interviewers, who were meant to place pressure on her, were all being unusually nice, which made her think something really bad had happened to her sister.
  +
  +
“Yugure-san, why don’t you take a break?” suggested the woman directly across from her. Akazame-sensei, was it? “Don’t worry. It will not affect the evaluation of your exam.”
  +
  +
The two factions of teachers had settled on that as a compromise.
  +
  +
All entrance exams were a coldhearted system used to select some people over others, but some kindness was allowed as well. The decisions made on those exams could literally influence the rest of someone’s life, after all. And the interviewers did not do this because they wanted to fail people. They wanted to find the most qualified people in the group.
  +
  +
Don’t worry.
  +
  +
That phrase made Tsumebakei look down at her right pinky finger.
  +
  +
An apparent friend of her sister had said the same thing while making a promise. She had nothing to prove that friend could make good on the promise, but she had to believe in it.
  +
  +
She thanked the teachers and left the exam room on unsteady legs, but what was she supposed to do now? If running around outside would find her sister, she was willing to run all the way around the planet, but she knew it wasn’t that simple.
  +
  +
After leaving the building, her own weight got the better of her and she collapsed onto the ground.
  +
  +
She was smart enough to know there was nothing she could do.
  +
  +
She understood that all too well in her own young way.
  +
  +
“Uhh.”
  +
  +
Why did this have to happen?
  +
  +
She had said all sorts of nice-sounding things to the teachers during the interview, but she didn’t actually have any grand dreams for her future. She only wanted to go to the same school as her sister. She only wanted to walk to school with her beloved sister every day. Had that been wrong of her? She didn’t know what had actually happened, but would her sister not have gotten into trouble today if she hadn’t tried to go to Tokiwadai?
  +
  +
Maybe she had been wrong to want that.
  +
  +
What if it was her fault her sister was in trouble?
  +
  +
But then why was it her sister who had to suffer and not her?
  +
  +
“No. I don’t care about Tokiwadai anymore. I don’t care about my future, so I’ll give up on all my dreams. Just give Onee-chan back…”
  +
  +
What was done was done, so this bargaining was meaningless.
  +
  +
She wasn’t even sure who or what she was bargaining with. Was she asking an invisible demon to alter fate to bring her sister back to her?
  +
  +
But she wasn’t even allowed that self-destructive wish. She was no more than a powerless observer.
  +
  +
And while she sat on the ground feeling so pitiful, things took a turn for her.
  +
  +
Yes…
  +
  +
“Oh? What are you doing out here?”
  +
  +
She heard a voice.
  +
  +
When she raised her lowered head, she saw a girl with long blonde hair.
  +
  +
“Who are you?”
  +
  +
“Hee hee. You must be Hoatzin-san☆ I’m Canary-san’s friend.”
  +
  +
Her heart leapt in her chest.
  +
  +
And the older blonde girl had more to say.
  +
  +
“Did Misaka-san’s group not contact you because they wanted you to focus on your interviewing ability? Fortunately, I heard allll about what happened from them☆”
  +
  +
“…?”
  +
  +
“You have nothing to worry about.”
  +
  +
The sweet-smelling girl bent her knees to bring herself to Tsumebakei’s eye level.
  +
  +
“Misaka-san found Canary-chan just like she promised.”
  +
  +
“Ah.”
  +
  +
“The school is looking after her, so there really, truly is nothing to worry about. She’s receiving medical care now, but it’s nothing serious. You should be able to see her soon.”
  +
  +
“Ahh, wahhhhhhh!!”
  +
  +
Tsumebakei leaped into the older girl’s arms and bawled.
  +
  +
“I was scared!! So scared!!”
  +
  +
“Anyone would be.”
  +
  +
“Onee-chan, sob, Onee-chan. I thought this was my fault. I thought none of it would have happened if I hadn’t tried to go to Tokiwadai!!”
  +
  +
“You were overthinking it. That would never happen.”
  +
  +
The confidence in the blonde girl’s voice soaked into lonely Tsumebakei’s heart like nothing else.
  +
  +
“Now listen, Hoatzin-san. Your dreams aren’t going to hurt anyone. There’s no reason at all to stop yourself from wanting to walk to school with and go to school with your sister. So throw out all that worrying ability. Turn around, march back into that building, and do your very best at that interview. I’m sure Canary-san wants to go to school with you too☆”
  +
  +
“Okay!!” she cheerfully replied, still clinging to the older girl.
  +
  +
All the dark feelings had vanished from her heart.
  +
  +
“Huh? But wait a second.”
  +
  +
“Yes?”
  +
  +
“How did you know my dream was to go to school with my sister? I never even told her about-”
  +
  +
  +
  +
Shokuhou Misaki pressed the button on the TV remote pressed against the girl’s back.
  +
  +
Yugure Tsumebakei fainted like her power switch had been flipped.
  +
  +
This was Academy City’s #5 Level 5, Mental Out, the strongest of the psychological powers.
  +
  +
She gently patted the back of the girl who had fallen into sweet dreams, but the blonde queen also clicked her tongue at her own mistake.
  +
  +
“Well, I sure screwed that one up!! I went as far as ''digging up'' their pet names for each other and then ruin it all with a stupid mistake!? Knowing someone ''too well'' has its own problems. I really do mess up the details when I try to work my adlib ability. I was supposed to put her at ease even if it meant lying to her and then I end up knocking her out about as forcibly as possible.”
  +
  +
Yes.
  +
  +
Young Tsumebakei normally wouldn’t open up so much to a middle schooler she had never met. Even if that middle schooler had been wearing a Judgment armband and had mentioned someone she knew like Misaka, she would have been on her guard.
  +
  +
But none of that mattered to Mental Out.
  +
  +
Shokuhou Misaki had not in fact been in contact with Misaka Mikoto since the two of them did not get along at all.
  +
  +
She had been smiling with Yugure Tsumebakei and mechanically constructing a conversation by assessing the situation and choosing the best phrase to use next like she was choosing a chess move. Whenever she pulled one statement from Tsumebakei’s mouth, she obtained all the surrounding terms as well. Once she had drawn out the terms “Misaka-san”, “searching for” and “Yugure Kanaria”, it wasn’t hard to find the right things to say to soothe the crying child. But this time, Shokuhou had delved too deep into the target’s mind and it had all backfired.
  +
  +
(No one tells the people they truly love about their plans for the future. How could I forget something so basic? When did my sensibilities get so distorted?)
  +
  +
“Queen.”
  +
  +
“Hokaze, I order you to treat this girl like she is me and protect her life, her assets, and everything else she holds dear. Protect her with your life☆”
  +
  +
That ringlets girl was Shokuhou’s most trusted aide and bodyguard and she always faithfully carried out her queen’s commands. Thus, when she asked a question, it was only to confirm some information she felt was necessary to carry out that command.
  +
  +
Hokaze Junko expressed her concern.
  +
  +
“Is something about to happen that will require me to protect her with my life? But Tokiwadai is so peaceful.”
  +
  +
“The usual state of affairs isn’t going to apply much longer. We’re about to see a major panic brought on by some extreme Peter Pan Syndromes.”
  +
  +
Then Shokuhou Misaki looked away and grumbled under her breath.
  +
  +
Disaster warning app alerts were going off all around. The chain reaction was like ripples spreading throughout the School Garden and it would reach Shokuhou and Hokaze’s phones eventually.
  +
  +
The low rumbling below their feet was growing.
  +
  +
That rumbling came from a large number of enormous motors.
  +
  +
“What are you even doing, Misaka-san?”
   
 
===Part 8===
  
===Part 8===
  +
  +
The School Garden, which contained five girls’ schools including Tokiwadai Middle School, flew high into the sky.
  +
  +
The ground had been secretly reinforced with a megafloat foundation and the near endless solar energy collected while above the clouds was used to pour an overwhelming amount of power into a vertical takeoff system that was essentially a much larger version of a flying car.
  +
  +
Yugure Kanaria had called this Independence Day.
  +
  +
Mikoto’s group had failed to stop it.
   
 
===Part 9===
  
===Part 9===

Revision as of 04:04, 15 June 2022

Status: Incomplete

8/20 parts completed

   

Chapter 4: Misaka Mikoto and the Death of Class

Part 1

This was supposed to be Tokiwadai Middle School.

It was the most prestigious of the five fancy schools in the School Garden.

But Misaka Mikoto looked grim as she spied on the schoolyard from behind cover.

She had lost track of how many times she had repeated the same phrase today.

“Well, this sucks.”


“How about we take a vote? Who thinks Akazame-sensei is guilty?”

“Guilty!!” “Guilty!!” “Guilty!!” “Guilty!!” “Guilty!!” “Guilty!!”

The stadium-level roar was horrifying.

Those were cheers. All those voices were joined in anticipation and celebration.

The person using the megaphone used an old-fashioned dialect, but she was in fact a young girl. And the person about to be physically yanked from the ground by the neck was a female teacher.

No men were allowed in the School Garden, so the angry mob surrounding them was also entirely female.

“Do they really expect us to accept these new school rule proposals!? What right do they have to ban us from wearing silk or synthetic underwear!? What right do they have to demand we only wear cotton underwearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!?”

Shouts of support.

“What right do they have to ban the use of deodorant spray!? What right do they have to insist we only use certain brands of soap or shampoo!? There’s no rhyme or reason to it, so I can only imagine it’s based on some sick desires held by one of the grownups!! Find the sicko dictating our private lives while hiding behind the rest of the faculty!! Drag them out here so we can string them uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!!”

More shouts of support.

“They claim to have created the perfect environment to prepare us for life, but that was nothing but a lie! They don’t even see us as human! This place is a love doll factory where they transform us to cater to all their perverted ideals!! Death to all the teachers using the rules as an excuse to sexually harass us alllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!”

Thunderous shouts of support.

The shouting group was not some mob that had broken in. It was made of all the same girls who normally lived such pleasant lives in the School Garden.

Mikoto couldn’t bear to watch.

She agreed the new school rule proposals were awful, but they were just that: proposals. They would probably be rejected even if the students didn’t lift a finger.

“Yet they’re doing all this.”

Mikoto’s gaze focused on something that was perfectly innocent. You could find one at most any school. She didn’t know the technical term for it, but it was the metal pole used when raising a flag. It even had a device at the bottom that let you turn a crank to raise the flag.

But no one gathered around it had a flag with them.

The end of the thick wire was tied into a loop.

It went without saying that was meant to go around someone’s neck.

The meaning was clear. That shape itself was a well-known symbol.

(We haven’t even had dinner since that happened, and they’re already doing this? A sanitized upbringing is a scary thing.)

It was absurd to think the upper classes never caused trouble. Did they never explode no matter what happened to them? Quite the opposite. Just look at all the wars and revolutions that had been fought around the world. No matter how graceful, refined, and ladylike the girl, she would still shout “kill” if the conditions were right.

This kind of thing was common in the west and these girls did love copying western culture.

(It doesn’t help they never learned how to vent their anger.)

Maybe some blame lay with the teachers for raising them that way. The students at a school like this probably questioned things less often than average. They weren’t used to feeling malice and they were easily influenced, so when it started to set in, it spread shockingly fast.

The girls raised here according to the adults’ wishes had completely derailed from those wishes and started rioting. It was like a failed attempt at winemaking that left the barrel full of mold.

People who tried to live pure lives without ever considering what that meant were easily shaken when the rules themselves came into question.

Pure crystals were fragile to external shocks.

Maybe Mikoto hadn’t been affected because she had exposed herself to enough impurities while wandering the streets on a daily basis.

(Even Shokuhou’s brainwashed world is better than this. In fact, where is that she-fox right now? That schemer must have taken in far more impurities than me.)

The megaphone voice continued to agitate the mob of girls.

If Mikoto didn’t intervene soon, the teacher standing up on the “gallows” would end up dangling from her neck like a mascot phone strap, but if she rushed in without a plan, she would end up like that as well. She was at the top of the ranks when it came to her power as an individual, but a battle against hundreds of high-level espers at once was something else entirely. Plus, even Academy City’s #3 had to worry about compatibility issues with a potential opponent.

Not to mention that she had to worry about keeping her friends Shirai, Uiharu, and Saten safe.

But more than any of that, no one won if a deadly fight broke out within Tokiwadai or the School Garden. They would only be pitting allies against each other.

Mikoto’s only enemy here was the agitator using the abnormal situation to transform the crowd of girls into an angry mob.

(On the other hand…)

She looked to the side.

When things got this bad, it was probably best to call in Anti-Skill from outside the School Garden, but that wasn’t an option this time and the reason why was right in front of her.

It was only three steps away.

The megafloat lightweight aluminum alloy used to build floating airports had been used to swiftly and secretly fortify the ground, but it hadn’t been perfect. Some squares of ground several meters long were just missing.

Yes.

The blue of the open sky spread out before her.

The School Garden was currently floating at an altitude of 5000m.

She heard a deep thrumming.

The sound was even heavier than a chainsaw’s roar. It reminded her of a military transport plane’s engine, but the principle behind it probably wasn’t related to aircraft.

It was more like a flying car.

Or the coaxial rotors used for aerial photography drones.

(Geez. If all these cubes of earth crumbled, how many rotors the size of circular fields would we find inside? I’m sure they’re linked in parallel using a grid pattern, so shutting down individual ones would only imbalance the entire structure and send us crashing to the surface.)

That was why the ordinary laws and Academy City’s unique rules did not apply here.

She had a very physical reason she could not expect support from the adults. The entire area had been cut away before declaring its independence. No one could escape the aerial cage. Anyone who carelessly let it slip that they disagreed with the central agitator would be snitched on and end up like that.

Misaka Mikoto’s exhalations were white.

How had this even happened?

She once repeated the same phrase she had used so many times today she had lost count.

“Well, this sucks.”

Part 2

The School Garden had not, of course, always been airborne.

It had been attached to the ground like normal until earlier that day.

Part 3

“Oh, wow. We’re actually inside the School Garden,” said Saten Ruiko.

She looked around the Western-style street, spread her arms horizontally like airplane wings, and flapped them up and own.

“Is it true Tokiwadai sometimes has real princesses come for the entrance exam? And they ignore all the diplomatic pressure, so they fail the princess if she isn’t up to snuff? Coming here just for fun makes me feel like a socialite☆”

She was even more excited than if she were going on a European vacation. Her step was so light it felt like someone needed to grab a hold of her before she floated away like a balloon.

Mikoto, who had come to meet her, smiled bitterly.

“You’ve been here before, remember? And there really isn’t anything here worth all the fuss. Right, Uiharu-sa-”

“Dwo ho ho ho!! Since they’re banning all photography to help protect their secrets, we have only once choice here: deep breaths! Take deep breaths, Saten-san! Inhale as many high society particles as you can so we can smuggle them home with us in our lungs and upgrade the rank of our souls!! Ohhhh ho ho ho ho! I-it actually came out right? The legendary ‘oh ho ho’ laugh comes so naturally to me here, Saten-san! I feel just like Cinderella. My soul has shed the dried husk of its skin to reveal its shining true form!! Now I can boldly use the all-purpose incantation that works for everything from ‘good morning’ to ‘goodbye’: good day to you alllll!!!! Yahoo!!”

(O-oh, no. Her dopamine levels are higher than Kuroko’s right now.)

Mikoto gulped and took a step back.

She always forgot how Uiharu Kazari was normally shy and sensible but had a weird obsession with high society girls. Make the wrong move with her and you could find yourself faced with a worldview disturbing for reasons entirely different from Shirai Kuroko’s. It was like seeing someone in a cult.

But Uiharu’s ‘oh ho ho’ laughter was not cult brainwashing. It was the same principle as the Osaka dialect imprinting on the language center of the brain after only about three days in Kansai.

In fact…

“Ohhhh ho ho ho!! Once I start assisting father in managing Kongou Airlines, we will build up a global flight network and even expand into the civilian spaceflight industry!!”

“My, that sounds wonderful, Kongou-san. It is always good to have realistic dreams.”

“The final frontiers are space, the deep sea, and I suppose the human mind. With your spirit, Kongou-sama, I imagine you will conquer all three. Hee hee.”

Yeah, most of the girls walking around here talked like they were at an opera or a masquerade, so it wasn’t surprising people who hadn’t built up a tolerance would be influenced. Just like people taking a Kansai vacation, they would probably go back to their usual way of talking after returning to their normal Academy City lives.

Anyway.

“This place isn’t as great as you think it is.” Mikoto had to smile bitterly since she knew the truth. “The teachers are always busy tacking on more incomprehensible rules. That hasn’t developed into a major issue yet since the student councils of the five schools always reject them, but it sounds like the teachers are even trying to determine what material of underwear we can wear.”

“But we’re barely ever allowed in here. What was it Tokiwadai is doing again? An interview entrance exam for recommended applicants? Whatever it was, I love that they’ve opened the place up for it.”

“It isn’t that simple,” sighed Shirai Kuroko who was feeling blue.

Since she had her armband on her right shoulder, her Judgment side was showing more than her Tokiwadai student side.

“When they open up the School Garden, people who normally can’t get in will sneak inside. We have to be ready for problems. Agh, needing to suspect anyone and everyone you see is so stressful. Just let me trust in the goodness of humanity!”

“Why would anyone cause trouble? The people coming in from outside are taking their entrance exam. And these are the ones who have a recommendation vouching for them, so I can’t imagine why they would cause trouble at the school they’re trying to get into.”

Saten wasn’t convinced, but Shirai shrugged.

“If any of them compare their academic abilities, academic record, and esper level to their rivals and conclude they can’t win, they might skip out on the interview and try to memorize as much as they can about Tokiwadai’s secret esper development tech. The past records show several cases of weirdly pessimistic yet optimistic people who are so convinced they’re going to fail they focus on gathering up as many ‘souvenirs’ as they can find.”

“Eh? But Tokiwadai is a middle school, so aren’t we talking about elementary schoolers? A-are there really people so jaded at that age that they’ll give up on getting into their dream school and work as an industrial spy for some bad grownups?”

“Sateeen. When you see those child actors turning on the waterworks in front of the camera, it isn’t because something sad happened to them. And I’m sorry to say there will always be a segment of the population who are talented but refuse to use that talent responsibly.”

Saten Ruiko herself had been in elementary school less than a year ago. And her skill at deception and cunning hadn’t popped into her head the instant she moved up to middle school.

The belief that all children were pure and innocent never survived long while working in law enforcement.

If it was true that no one could change who they were deep down, then the villains were already villains as children.

A thought that did the opposite of relieve the stress of Shirai’s job here.

“Fortunately, the struggle for one of the recommended spots has nothing at all to do with extreme commoners like us. Being heiress to a giant IT company or princess to an entire country isn’t enough to get through those super strict interviews, right? I’m never going to be a part of that world, so let’s go make the most of this School Garden visit in our own commoner way!!”

“(My point was to watch out for people resorting to crime because their ‘super strict interview; didn’t go so hot.)”

Mikoto and Shirai were out and about on a weekday morning because their classes were canceled for the day thanks to the entrance exam interviews. It seemed unlikely Uiharu and Saten’s school would be out too, so Mikoto was honestly worried they were skipping class for this.

“Please follow me, everyone. My name is Akazame-sensei. Now, when we turn this corner here, you will see the next landmark: Tokiwadai Middle School’s School Garden Dorm.”

“It’s called a crepe. You can eat one for a snack or as a meal. For a meal, you can put tuna, lettuce, and crushed-up potatoes inside. I personally recommend adding some homemade mayonnaise to make it extra delicious.”

“Onee-chaaan, where are youuu?”

There was a lot of chatter.

Supposedly, the crowds during this event were large enough to cause nearby seismographs to malfunction. That apparently caused disaster warning apps to send unnecessary alerts.

Maybe it was practice for the open campus being held later on or maybe it was meant to help the applicants judge what life here would be like, but a teacher was waving a small flag like a tour guide. A lot of food trucks were parked alongside the sidewalks and streets. And on closer inspection, there were a lot of small children not wearing uniforms. There was even a sparkly new flying car being shown off as a demonstration for something or other. It was basically just a bigger version of an aerial photography drone.

Mikoto stared off into the distance.

It wasn’t often you got to see Tokiwadai’s Ace indulge in schadenfreude.

“Poor Shokuhou. People come gawk at her dorm as a landmark now. Heh heh heh.”

“Misaka-san, your dorm has it way worse since it isn’t even inside the off-limits School Garden. People can stop by to take a look or even stake out the place any time of the year. Ah ha ha. Check the map on any urban legend site and your dorm’s location always has a pin in it. If anything, yours is the bigger landmark.”

Saten’s tone was light, but Mikoto was thoroughly petrified.

Meanwhile, Shirai’s focus was somewhere else entirely. She lightly tapped on Uiharu’s shoulder to gather the attention of the other girl wearing the same armband.

“That girl has called for her sister three times now. Outsiders aren’t allowed to take videos inside the School Garden, so I doubt this is a prank video meant to see how ordinary people react. It’s safe to assume she’s lost and I would put the risk level at low. Let’s go help her.”

“Fine, but…wait. Am I even allowed to do Judgment work in the School Garden?”

Technically speaking, all law enforcement work outdoors was Anti-Skill work.

But once those two switched to work mode, they were Judgment through and through. They eliminated their own inexperienced and unreliable side as soon as they spotted a small child crying on the side of the road. They were aware the best way to make someone feel safe was to avoid showing them the ordinary weakness everyone had.

The girl had shoulder length flaxen hair. Her bangs were cut along a perfect horizontal line, which added a touch of Japanese aesthetic. She was even shorter than relatively small Shirai, but she was wearing a suit. She may have been one of the applicants here for the entrance exam interview, but she looked more like she was dressed up for Shichi-Go-San.

“We are with Judgment. I am Shirai and this is Uiharu. Is something wrong, young lady?”

“Wow, look at Shirai-san. I never imagined that pervert could sound like the host of an educational program.”

Shirai felt like murdering Saten for that, but she did her best not to let it show on her face. They taught you how to speak to small children in Judgment, but of course an outsider wouldn’t know that.

“Be nice, Saten-san. She might be a pervert, but she’s the kind of pervert who can set her perversions aside when there’s work to be done.”

“Uiharu!? You’re not even an outsider, so maybe I really should murder you!”

She heard some quiet laughter.

It came from the girl. She had been tearfully calling for her sister before, but now she was laughing. Talk about a stroke of good luck. Shirai suddenly recalled a busty track suit teacher from some joint training they did with Anti-Skill saying you could help bridge the emotional gap between yourself and someone in need of help by acting silly and pretending to make harmless mistakes.

Whatever the case, the girl was willing to open up to them now.

“My sister isn’t here.”

“Oh, so you really are lost. What’s her name? Do you have a photo? In your phone’s photo album, maybe?”

“I don’t mean it like that.”

Uiharu was better at dealing with lost children than Shirai. She crouched down to the girl’s eye level and tried to get the information they needed to search out her sister, but the girl stopped her.

The record needle hit a small scratch and popped out of the expected groove.

It flew far off course.

“My sister has gone missing.”

Part 4

“Sigh. I haven’t been at this branch in forever.”

“But Branch 003 is the Tokiwadai branch, Shirai-san. It’s the one you actually belong to, for crying out loud. You shouldn’t spend so much time at Branch 177.”

“Come to think of it, doesn’t Shirai-san’s favorite teacup live over at Branch 177 nowadays?”

They complained while Shirai unlocked the door and they all walked in. The lost girl was among them.

The small girl’s name was Yugure Tsumebakei.

She wasn’t wearing a uniform and she was only 12. That meant she was in the 6th grade, which made it obvious what she was doing at the School Garden today. She was here for an exam interview at Tokiwadai.

Even though the School Garden was about the safest place someone could be, the children showing up for their crucial exam would normally be accompanied by a female family member like a mother or sister or some private bodyguards hired by their family. Bringing family was apparently popular because they were so rarely allowed inside Academy City. Tsumebakei was supposed to have had her sister Yugure Kanaria looking after her since she was a 2nd year at Tokiwadai.

“Oh, hey. So you’re Canary-chan’s sister, Yugure-san?”

Mikoto realized she recognized those flaxen bangs cut straight across like that. But Kanaria had long hair that fell to her hips.

“You are in the second year too, aren’t you, Misaka-san?” said Uiharu. “So is that sister a friend of yours?”

“A classmate. You do not want to mess with her.”

Her stupid mouth let that slip with a smile.

Just as the younger girl’s face had lit up at finding a friend of her lost family member – and one who knew her well enough to call her by a nickname – she was hit by that harsh comment. Clear drops were growing in the 12-year-old’s eyes.

Shirai Kuroko was in justice mode right now, so she shouted in a way that made one imagine a pair of horns growing from her forehead.

“Ugh, Onee-sama!!”

“Eh? Oh, I didn’t mean it like that! I meant you wouldn’t want to fight her because of her power, but she’s a nice person so it’s not like that would ever happen!!”

Mikoto quickly retracted her statement while pulling out her phone and trying to contact the girl in question. But she didn’t receive a response. Saying things looked bad would only have made the younger sister cry, so Mikoto made eye contact with Saten instead.

She couldn’t reach her classmate’s phone.

That meant it was either turned off or deep underground. But in Academy City, it was actually hard to find places that didn’t get a signal.

Saten took the hint and casually changed the subject.

“But you’re #3 in the entire city, Misaka-san. What kind of power makes you not want to fight her? Tokiwadai is crawling with monsters, isn’t it?”

“Micro Dying,” said Mikoto with a fair amount of exasperation in her voice. “Basically, Canary-chan’s power lets her kill all microscopic microbes with a touch. She’s ranked at Level 3, but she’s definitely stronger than that. You realllly don’t want to fight her.”

Yugure Tsumebakei fidgeted on the sofa, unsure how to react to this. She could tell this was meant as a compliment of her beloved big sister, but she clearly didn’t like how Mikoto’s compliments were so focused on fighting.

“Huh? But, Misaka-san, how is that any different from medicinal soap?”

Saten sounded confused by the explanation, so Mikoto smiled and clarified.

“Because she can rub her palm against your belly and wipe out all of your intestinal bacteria, both the good and the bad. We can only stay healthy because of the barrier of microbes protecting us. What do you think would happen to us if all of those microbes were suddenly taken from us? To be blunt, we would start growing mold inside our bodies and then it’s game over. We’d even have mold all over our skin and in our mouths.”

“Ew,” groaned Saten.

That girl could eliminate microbes at a touch, so she wouldn’t need a hazmat suit or a mask to protect against germs. She could even suicidally scatter all kinds of killer viruses around while remaining entirely unharmed herself. If she put her mind to it, she could become an assassin or cause devastation on an international scale. Mikoto honestly thought that power was more dangerous than her own Railgun if you looked just at how deadly it was.

Yugure Kanaria’s power could be unimaginably dangerous when combined with the right kind of cunning, but the girl herself was peaceful and afflicted with a super slow-motion curse, so none of those possibilities had ever occurred to her.

Saten tilted her head.

“So, um, Tsumebakei-san was it?” asked Shirai. “Do you have a similar power?”

“No.”

Yugure Tsumebakei wasn’t obligated to answer since it wouldn’t help find her sister, but she must have been the trusting type. She answered the casual question with a shake of her head and went on to explain.

“My power is Macro Dying. It’s very different from my sister’s.”

“Macro?”

“I can pull the data from the Bank.” Uiharu looked like she was unsure if she should, but she had already completed the search. “Macro Dying. Level 4. She can increase the size of and control the red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, plasma, macrophages, cholesterol, amino acids, and other components in her blood. For example, she can cause a white blood cell to grow to 2m across and have it swallow and digest an attacker nearly instantly. Huh, that is an extremely rare type of power. Even more so than Shirai-san’s Teleportation.”

Even Mikoto couldn’t believe her ears.

How many of those components were in a single drop of blood? She was pretty sure there were 5 to 10 thousand of the white blood cells that fought foreign invaders. If that explanation was accurate, then she was the type of high-level esper who could basically command an army. That contrasted Mikoto or Shirai whose strengths were as an individual. It was certainly a different category from her sister Kanaria, but it was similarly difficult to rank on the Level scale. Mikoto could think of a number of clever ways to make use of that power. One idea even made her hold a hand to her forehead. If that power still applied with transfusions and dialysis, couldn’t that girl basically bring about the end of the world?

Saten, being Saten, was focused squarely on the Level system.

“So this cute little thing is secretly a monster on the inside? Ugh, and she’s a Level 4 at her age? It feels like I’m in a bicycle race and someone just passed me using a rocket engine. But I guess she is the kind of genius girl who gets recommended to apply to Tokiwadai.”

“I really don’t like my power.”

“Why not? It’s Level 4!”

“I don’t like needles, but I have to extract some of my blood every time I use my power.”

Come to think of it, she would need to do that, wouldn’t she?

In that sense, her power required a lot of setup in a way Mikoto’s didn’t.

Shirai Kuroko started to recommend the girl converted to the Church of Onee-sama so she could trigger a nosebleed at will using her fantasies, but Mikoto smiled and shut her up with a solid punch.

“So what makes you say Canary-chan has gone missing?”


It was finally time to get down to business.

When they had first approached Yugure Tsumebakei, she had said her sister had “gone missing”. It didn’t sound like she had just been waiting at the wrong time or location or they had gotten separated in a crowd.

“My sister is missing,” said Yugure Tsumebakei with her small fists clenched in her lap. “We were supposed to meet up right away, but she called to say she was searching for something. She said she couldn’t let someone find out she was searching for whatever it was, but she promised to come meet me as soon as she was done. I waited and waited, but she never showed up.”

That meant the girl was up to something during the entrance exams.

Mikoto and Shirai exchanged a glance and Shirai formed an X with her index fingers in front of her lips. The look in her eyes said, “I know, but don’t you dare say anything that would worry her.” Very forcefully said it, at that.

There were three general possibilities here.

1. Kanaria’s disappearance had nothing to do with the suspicious circumstances. For example, she had made a quick detour for a snack and forgotten all about her promise to meet with her sister, or she couldn’t answer her phone or meet her sister because a teacher was getting after her over some minor infraction. There were any number of peaceful possibilities like that.

2. Kanaria’s disappearance had everything to do with the suspicious circumstances. For example, she had tried to reveal some of the data theft common during entrance exam season and got herself into trouble.

3. Yugure Kanari herself was stealing secret information.

Mikoto sighed.

“It doesn’t prove much of anything, but Canary-chan is in the newspaper club. And for how easygoing she is, she’s a stickler for keeping promises and has a strong sense of justice.”

“Oh? If she has an overabundance of justice, she should come join us in Judgment.”

“She’s afflicted with a super slow-motion curse, so apparently she failed the physical exam when she tried to join.”

“She fai- she couldn’t get past that? I-I thought it was just for show. I mean, it’s so insultingly easy even Uiharu passed.”

“Shirai-san…” groaned Uiharu, but everyone ignored her.

Shirai had avoided using the word “fail” after remembering Yugure Tsumebakei was here for an exam.

Mikoto sighed.

“She apparently joined the newspaper club to help create a civilian group that could increase transparency by keeping an eye on both Anti-Skill and Judgement. So I’m guessing this is option number 2.”

But that wasn’t enough to put her sister at ease. Even if Kanaria was innocent of all wrongdoing, they still couldn’t get in touch with her. The presence of a separate villain removed all suspicion from her, but it did nothing to guarantee her safety.

What had she found and who had she been pursuing?

If she had been so busy she had left her little sister all alone, she must have been approaching the climax of whatever story she was pursuing for the newspaper. But then someone had gotten in her way and now she had gone missing.

Mikoto concluded that learning what story she was working on would be the fastest way to figure out how to help her.

“But, Misaka-san.”

They weren’t in the familiar Branch 177, but Saten had already figured out how to use the kitchenette and had made herself some cocoa with warm milk. But after some thought, she passed it to young Tsumebakei instead of drinking it herself.

“This is the School Garden. It’s the ultimate educational environment funded by Tokiwadai and four other fancy schools. Is there even crime here? And we’re talking about an entire person disappearing without a trace.”

Saten would be aware that, if you wanted to keep a worried witness’s trust, you could never bluntly reject what they told you, no matter how absurd it might sound.

So her question was meant to lead into a response from an expert.

She had stepped on the landmine herself by immediately rejecting the idea and saying it wasn’t possible because she hoped to ease some of lonely Yugure Tsumebakei’s worries.

So she started sweating when Mikoto didn’t immediately respond.

The look on her face said she really wanted someone to follow up on her question.

“Um, uh, Misaka-san? Shirai-san? Hello?”

She tried to get an answer out of them again, but both the Tokiwadai students were reluctant to speak.

Mikoto looked to Shirai.

“What do you think, Kuroko?”

“I have my doubts about those stories, but I suppose it is a possibility.”

Part 5

To start with, they made sure 12-year-old Yugure Tsumebakei could focus on her exam interview. Having a recommendation gave her better odds than if not, but it was still crucial she performed well. Even if she was trying to find her sister, screwing this up really could influence the rest of her life.

“Don’t worry.”

When they parted ways, Mikoto exchanged numbers with her, held out her little finger, and made a promise.

“Canary-chan is my classmate. I promise you I’ll find her, so you relax and go to your exam.”

“Okay…”

“I promise you there’s nothing to worry about. Now, get going. Akazame-sensei is calling.”

Mikoto kept a smile until the small girl had disappeared around the hallway corner.

And then…

“If a serious crime has occurred in the School Garden, it must be in one of the Lost Pieces.”

Whether or not they were familiar with that term was plain to see on their faces.

There was suspicion of industrial spies trying to use the entrance exam season to sneak in and steal data, but this was still the untouchable School Garden. The security there wasn’t so lax that an entire person could just disappear. All the likely places were patrolled by Judgment or security robots and none of the security cameras at the limited gates out had shown Yugure Kanaria.

That meant she was inside the School Garden but in some unique cranny none of the five schools could touch. There was no way for her to disappear otherwise.

Mikoto and Shirai were familiar with the term. Uiharu and Saten were not.

Uiharu hesitantly asked about it.

“What are the Lost Pieces?”

“Do you remember what Saten-san said about the School Garden being the ultimate educational environment funded by the five schools here? She wasn’t wrong about that.” Mikoto pointed her thumb toward the entrance. “But to put it another way, the School Garden looks peaceful at first glance, but it’s actually locked in a constant struggle for power between the five schools. There are invisible lines dividing the ‘turfs’ of each school’s students. They’re like national borders. But there are some dangerous disputed zones that every school claims are theirs, causing tensions to grow.”

“Those are called the Lost Pieces,” said Kuroko. “Because they’re like missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle forming the School Garden. Since everyone claims them, no one can manage them properly. So those are the only areas not patrolled by security robots or monitored by security cameras. Not even the teachers can agree on which school is in charge of security there.”

And a lack of surveillance created a blind spot where unspeakable desires could be released. They might only look like an abandoned construction site or an artificial forest, but they meant so much more to the right people.

Humans were human. Mikoto knew better than anyone that the pure girls here were not saints. In fact, all the studying and perfect etiquette the adults forced onto them at all times could cause stress to build up until it exploded out in one of those unmonitored areas.

Bluish-white sparks crackled from Mikoto’s bangs.

“Honestly, finding this is the work of a secret delinquent from one of the schools is probably the best case scenario.”

“Yes, this is such an irritating time what with the industrial spies trying to sneak in during the entrance exams. Combine that with a justice-minded girl afflicted with a super slow-motion curse and I have a very bad feeling about this.”

The four of them rushed out of the school building.

The inorganic stone buildings along the European-style streets felt so much different now that they knew someone had gone missing here. And none of the people living in that peaceful world were aware of it. It felt like the part of a dystopian SF movie where the big corporation insists their new technology is perfectly safe. With the streets without a speck of litter and the smiling employees at the polished cafés, there was no darker side to be found, which only made the girls more suspicious of everything.

“What standards should we really be striving toward!? Is unquestioningly obeying the adults really the key to improving ourselves!?”

“Wow.”

But Saten reacted a little too sensitively to what she heard coming from the LCD ads on the decorative pillars.

“We have no intention of stopping with Tokiwadai! We intend to provide greater autonomy to every student in the School Garden and through that ensure we can all take responsibility in our own actions!! None of us should simply follow the rules the adults have set for us! Only by thinking through the reasons behind the rules we should follow can we find true consideration for each other!”

Did it really matter if they were testing replacing the wind turbines with solar panels? But Saten tapped Mikoto on the shoulder.

“Misaka-san, what is that?”

“A debate being held between the schools, I think. Like I said, as peaceful as things look here, the five schools are having constant turf wars. The adults think healthy competition provides fuel to increase our powers, so the adults never intervene to stop it.”

“Um, but that person is acting like a representative of Tokiwadai on TV,” said Uiharu.

“She can claim whatever she wants,” bluntly stated Mikoto. “I don’t know who that redhead is, but she’s not even part of the student council. Besides, Tokiwadai is focused more on individual esper powers and the conflicts between our cliques, so I don’t see what a debate like this can really accomplish. I can’t speak for the other four schools, but for us, this at most lets you advertise your club or clique. It isn’t popular enough for anyone to compete for the spot and no one will feel jealous seeing someone else calling themselves our representative.”

An eloquent speech with no group backing it wasn’t enough to solve anything in the real world. When there were problems between the students, it was simpler to either fight it out with their esper powers or have their cliques apply pressure to each other. And that didn’t just apply to Tokiwadai. The girls here still clung to the outdated traditions of the nobility, so they seemed to like the sound of the word “duel”. Otherwise, they wouldn’t praise Mikoto as the Ace for being the strongest individual or Shokuhou as the Queen for leading the strongest group.

Mikoto understood finding everything suspicious right now, but there was no point in wasting their time with the debate playing on TV. They had a much more real problem to face.

What had Tokiwadai 2nd Year Yugure Kanaria seen in a Lost Piece, who had made her vanish, and where had she ended up?

“Is that all?” complained Saten Ruko after taking a peek past the tall metal wall and into the abandoned construction site that was one of the Lost Pieces. “But it’s so normal. You described this as a lawless zone, so I was expecting to find every wall to be covered in post-apocalyptic graffiti.”

“Keep in mind this is still inside the School Garden.” Mikoto shrugged. “The official story is that construction of the building was protested in the name of scenery preservation, but I have my doubts. I think the real reason is an 8-story building here would have obstructed the phone signal at Shidarezakura. Does that sound like too modern a reason for a traditional girl’s school? No matter how much history or tradition a school has, all the students and teachers are constantly on their phones.”

While it was a construction site, there weren’t rough piles of pipes stacked up on the bare dirt. A building that looked an awful lot like a Greek temple had been abandoned half built. The plan had been for it to be a recreation facility including a gym and a bath, but those plans had been canceled and now it sat here unfinished.

There weren’t any signs as obvious as cigarette butts on the ground, but there were a few footprints. That meant there were some girls who found this place comfortable enough to visit.

“Uiharu,” said Shirai.

“Yes, yes. According to her Bank data, Yugure Kanaria’s shoe size is 22cm. Let’s see…I can use my PDA’s camera as an electronic ruler, but it looks like none of these were her.”

Photography was banned all across the School Garden and not just in Tokiwadai. Any function that used the camera would be deactivated without a Judgment device.

If Kanaria had come here and seen something she shouldn’t have, her footprints would be here. Since the whole point was for her to have been disappeared in one of the Lost Pieces, she wouldn’t have been knocked out elsewhere and carried here. Then the crime would have been noticed.

They concluded this Lost Piece wasn’t the one they wanted and moved to the next one.

Saten spoke up on the way there.

“Hey, wait. Judgment can access data on all our measurements?”

“Sex, age, height, and weight are the basic pieces of data needed to identify a suspicious figure seen on a security camera. And the more data we have, the better.”

“Weight too!? Please don’t tell me you have our body fat ratio!”

Saten felt like this should be a crisis for any girl, but Uiharu didn’t seem to care. Was it like how doctors were professionals and thus didn’t get flustered about seeing a patient naked?

All the LCD ads around were playing that debate from earlier. But Mikoto had missed the topic of debate, so she wasn’t entirely sure what the 5 schools were trying to say.

“Clean energy is not enough for us. I demand safe energy as well. We must do more than enjoy ourselves in the present. This is the first step toward being adults aware of our responsibility to the future. The wind turbines used across Academy City have received some criticism over the low frequency waves produced by the friction as they turn, so I suggest replacing them with silent solar energy.”

“Flying cars have already reached the practical stage of development. But can we really allow them to be managed by the existing driver’s license system? Should they require a pilot’s license, which is even more difficult to obtain? I say no. Why not create a new system that instead lowers the barrier to entry? As long as we can learn how to operate them safely, why can’t middle school students like ourselves use these flying cars?”

“Independence! We demand independence!! Leaving your parents and setting out on your own is a crucial step toward obtaining your own identity.”

Saten looked bored. A lot of people disliked that any voices at all were coming from the streetside LCD ads, so what they were saying didn’t matter.

“What the heck are they talking about?”

“They’re taking it in some confusing directions, but I think they might be debating on the general category of what it means to be an adult.”

At any rate, Mikoto guided them to some woods that seemed out of place among the stone buildings.

An unnatural thicket of conifer trees grew in between the buildings. It didn’t look like a well-maintained park.

“This artificial forest is next. The only other ones I’m familiar with are the subway station remains, the abandoned bell tower, and the server center that has never been run despite its ridiculous communications capacity.”

“Why would prestigious schools be fighting over those places? No, wait, forget I asked. I don’t want to get roped into any trouble for knowing the truth of this fancy place.”

Rumor-loving Saten actually opted out of learning some new rumors.

However…

“Onee-sama, I can’t help but wonder why you are familiar with so many different Lost Pieces. I am especially curious why you seemed to be checking a map on your phone while leading us here.”

Mikoto coughed and refused to look Shirai in the eye.

The position of Academy City’s #3 came with its own pressures, so sometimes she wanted to step away from all of that. She didn’t know for sure, but she guessed the #5 was also familiar with the Lost Pieces.

Uiharu viewed the area through her PDA and then shouted excitedly.

“Oh, a match! Official Tokiwadai loafers, 22cm. Of course, that isn’t enough to guarantee it’s her.”

“It’s still better than what we found at the constructions site. Let’s take a closer look.”

Mikoto’s group stepped into the artificial forest growing in a gap within the city.

However, the forest didn’t have anything going for it aside from the lack of surveillance. The conifer trees didn’t grow any fruit like apples or peaches and there weren’t any rhino beetles around during this season, so there was nothing exciting to find. They couldn’t even sit down on the ground without getting the dark soil on their uniforms. The artificial conifer forest was nothing more than a pollen factory.

Saten lost interest really fast.

“Huh. So when the girls here know no one is watching, the best they can come up with is go forest bathing? High society delinquents are lame.”

“Saten.”

“Shirai-san, I can understand getting together with your friends at that construction site,” said Uiharu. “But wouldn’t you just get swarmed by mosquitos if you came here during the summer?”

That was when Mikoto tilted her head with electricity crackling from her bangs.

“There’s something further in.”

“What is it, Onee-sama?”

“The microwaves I’m sending out are getting a weird reaction from the ground. This isn’t anything natural, like a rock or a fallen tree. It’s more artificial…square shaped even. Could it be a metal cover on the ground? But it doesn’t seem like a manhole cover. It’s too big. The reaction I’m getting is 2m across.”

“Wait, Misaka-san! There is no such thing as a square manhole. As a square, you could tilt it along the diagonal like this and the heavy lid would fall right in the hole, so they’re specifically designed to prevent that! All the manholes covers you see on the road are circles so they won’t fall through no matter how they’re situated on top!!”

All four of them exchanged a glance.

If Saten was right, then this metal cover wasn’t to a manhole. Then what was it? What other metal covers did you find on the ground?

Yugure Kanaria had gone missing after discovering something.

They may have been approaching whatever it was. Uiharu walked further into the woods with Mikoto and Shirai.

“Why is your head so full of useless trivia, Saten-san?”

“Because, Uiharu, manholes are a treasure trove of urban legends. Some say they’re holes meant to drop bodies in and others say there are bizarre monsters living below. The sewers they connect to are even said to be home to white alligators.”

Uiharu wasn’t sure what to say when Saten looked so proud of herself for this. Had her friend failed to notice the “useless” qualifier she had used?

Mikoto came to a stop after reaching the point indicated by her microwaves.

“It’s here.”

“It looks like ordinary soil to me.”

“But look at my PDA, Shirai-san. Those 22cm footprints walk right up to this spot and then vanish.”

“What does that mean?” asked Saten.

Mikoto answered her by casually raising her right hand.

She was using her magnetic control.

The dark soil on top was blown away and a metal cover 2m long, 2m wide, and more than 3cm thick rose into Mikoto’s palm.

The square hole below revealed sturdy-looking stainless steel stairs leading down. Mikoto tossed the metal cover aside and aimed her phone’s LED light inside, but she still couldn’t see the bottom.

“I’ve heard they sell simple tornado shelters in America for people to bury in their yard, but I don’t think that’s what this is. I’m pretty sure those are more like burying a small storage shed, but this just keeps going deeper.”

“Wow! It’s like an evil secret base, Uiharu.”

“It couldn’t possibly be evil. This is the School Garden funded by those five super classy schools, remember?”

Uiharu’s comment put some very uncomfortable looks on Mikoto and Shirai’s faces.

This was far too largescale to be the work of an individual. It was probably one of those five schools that had built this underground facility.

And those same schools were fighting over who owned this artificial forest.

“What did you see, Canary-chan? This is starting to look really dangerous.”

“The footprints end here, so we have to go down these stairs to figure out what that person saw, don’t we? Don’t we!?”

Saten’s love of urban legends had her giddy with excitement at the prospect of pursuing this new mystery.

But had she really thought this through?

It was true Yugure Kanaria had probably descended these stairs since her footprints ended here, but the entrance had been sealed by that heavy metal cover and soil had been placed on top to hide it.

Kanaria couldn’t have done that from the inside. Not physically and not with her esper power, Micro Dying. They also hadn’t seen any of her footprints leading back out of the woods. Didn’t that mean something had had happened to her down those stairs and then someone else had shut the heavy metal cover from the outside and covered it with soil to delay anyone from discovering her?

Part 6

Without anyone to stop her, Saten Ruiko likely would have rushed into the mysterious underground space to solve the mystery on her own. As can be seen from her stance on pursuing urban legends, she preferred to solve mysteries herself when she encountered them. And while this may be a rude and baseless prediction, it seemed likely she would have ended up in serious trouble and gotten beaten up.

But Shirai Kuroko and Uiharu Kazari were different.

Even without directly finding an assailant or victim, the evidence and situation they found told them a survivor had likely been sealed in by a third party. A 2m square of metal more than 3cm thick was too heavy for a 2nd year in middle school to lift, so closing that cover from outside was enough to charge the third party with at least abduction or confinement. In the worst case, their intent may have been to let her starve to death down there. It could be hard to tell without a single drop of blood to be found, but this was a legitimate(?) crime that could have taken a life.

And when faced with something like that, the correct course of action was to call Anti-Skill and get the adults’ help. There was no reason to rush in and act like this was a single player game. If Mikoto’s group got wiped out without letting anyone know, then no one would be able to rescue Yugure Kanari from that underground space.

Saten complained, but then something occurred to her.

“Hold on, Shirai-san. Didn’t you say these Lost Pieces are unmonitored areas that none of the schools can touch? Will Anti-Skill even show up?”

“Even if no one is monitoring the area, a report of a kidnapping or murder is enough justification to raid the place. We’re not talking about a foreign embassy here.”

Shirai was exactly right.

A total of 20 or 30 people were sent in as reinforcements. That seemed like a lot. If you reported a purse snatching or an attempted convenience store robbery, there was no way that many would show up. So that number meant Anti-Skill was already considering the possibility this was a murder case. The normal crime scene preservation measures would require placing blue tarps over any doors and windows, stringing police tape around the area, and keeping away the press showing up with large cameras, so 20 or 30 was probably about right. Which made their presence all the more disturbing.

The ones carrying bulky silver cases around were probably the crime scene investigators. They didn’t only work murder cases, but knowing they had been called in for a case relating to a classmate was still worrying.

The adults in Anti-Skill allowed the children from Judgment join the investigation, which may have shown they understood the complicated status of the Lost Pieces.

Anti-Skill and Judgment ended up speaking at the same time.

“Understood. We will let Anti-Skill handle the rest.”

“No, hold on. We want all of you Judgment girls to help us search inside.”

Did they have to argue like that? Hadn’t they ever heard of teamwork? Mikoto’s group only wanted to find out if Yugure Kanaria was safe.

And whichever side of the argument they were on, Mikoto’s group only had one real option here. If they were going to confirm Kanaria was safe, everyone needed to pool their information and they needed as many people searching as they could get. Plus, none of them were the type who could sit around waiting for the result. They preferred to take action and actually do something.

Since the people in charge apparently saw them as a group working for Shirai Kuroko, Mikoto placed a hand on the center of her chest and spoke up.

“Very well. I am more than willing to help, Miss Judgment. Show us how the experts do it.”

“Okay, just follow me. You aren’t going to find unexplored underground spaces on your map app, so we need to be thorough. First of all, this is a special pen that shines in response to UV light. The UV light itself is built into the back end. I will teach you a few signs, so make sure to mark off all the rooms and pathways we have already checked. Since we don’t have a map, we’ll have to make one ourselves. If we run into something and have to run away, make sure to follow the path we took coming in. Ready, everyone? Here we go☆”

They descended the stainless steel stairs as a group.

But they ran into something unexpected almost immediately. It was deep. They had known their phone lights weren’t enough to see all the way down, but the stairs still seemed to continue on and on forever.

They had to have descended at least 100 steps. And without any landings or reversals along the way. They had to have already left the Lost Piece artificial forest.

They heard a deep groaning sound.

It was much too loud to be caused by their feet on the metal stairs.

Saten pointed her phone around nervously.

“Wh-what is this sound?”

“Is it an earthquake?”

Saten normally ran headlong into danger, so it was strange to see her clinging to Uiharu’s arm here.

Mikoto placed her hand on the smooth wall.

“For that matter…”

Where were they underground right now?

Was anyone really allowed to dig so much beneath the School Garden where the five schools competed so fiercely over their turf?

The shiny silver walls and floor looked even cheaper than the stairs. They may have been a lightweight aluminum alloy.

“Cool. This is practically a dungeon now,” said Saten Ruiko, sounding carefree.

There was an intersection up ahead and another a bit past that one, so this may have been a vast web of underground pathways.

There was no point in sticking together as a single group, so despite their disagreements, the Anti-Skill and Judgment members exchanged a nod and spread out across different pathways.

Mikoto’s group decided to stick together.

“So what is this place anyway?”

“Uuuiiihaaaruuu.”

“N-not now, Saten-san! Why would you even think of flipping my skirt with all this going on?”

“Oh, I already did it before we went down here. It just isn’t a proper Uiharu panty viewing if isn’t out in the sunlight.”

Uiharu Kazari shrieked and held down her skirt with both hands.

Meanwhile, Mikoto let some bluish-white sparks crackle from her bangs and rapped the back of her hand against the aluminum wall.

“That’s pretty thick, but it’s hollow inside. And based on the evenly spaced lines on the passageway’s walls, floor, and ceiling, could this be made from the metal cubes used for the foundation of a megafloat?”

“That’s ridiculous. Creating an underground wall out of those would requires so much extra digging,” said Shirai. “Burying a hollow cube is so much more work than just a flat wall.”

And the more digging required, the more money required. That was why the tunnels built through mountains generally took the shortest possible route and some would reduce the number of lanes or lower the ceiling to cut costs. Keeping the width and height the same from beginning to end for no real reason could lead to unbelievable costs in the end.

In the same way, a thick cube would cost so much more than a flat wall. When a width of 2m was enough for people to pass through, no one would dig a tunnel 6m wide for three times the cost and then fill in either side with cubes, leaving only the original 2m width.

However…

(Costly cubic walls, a megafloat foundation, and a network of underground passageways. And all of it was built in secret so no one in the School Garden would notice?)

Mikoto’s thoughts were cut off by an ear-splitting noise.

Saten shouted in surprise and pulled out her phone.

Uiharu snapped at her for once.

“What are you doing, Saten-san!?”

“It’s not my fault. The alarm won’t stop! I didn’t think we even got a signal down here!”

It wasn’t just Saten.

More of those loud electronic tones sounded from other passageways and around other corners. They reverberated and mixed together into a mass of noise that seemed to spread endlessly.

A deep groaning came from the lightweight aluminum alloy walls.

Shirai looked around.

“This isn’t a normal signal. Is it a more powerful disaster warning app alert?”

(No.)

Mikoto gulped.

(This isn’t an earthquake. When a fault in the crust grinds together, the friction produces static electricity, but I don’t sense anything like that.)

It was easy enough to say what this wasn’t, but then what was it? The low rumbling was so unusually regular it seemed more like some kind of machine.

Something felt extremely off to Mikoto.

She felt the frustration of seeing something dangerous approaching her but being unable to find the words to describe what exactly it was. Or maybe it was the groundless fear of a jinx where naming the thing would give it more power.

But her thoughts were cut off there.

Her phone’s light had found something in the vast underground space. Something on the floor there did not fit the smooth, metallic aesthetic. The dark, lumpy object was…

“A…person? Damn, it’s Canary-chan!!”

“Ah, Misaka-san!?”

“Uiharu, mark the wall with that special pen!!” said Shirai. “Forgetting to mark it could lead to trouble later!!

They were all in a hurry now.

A girl with long flaxen hair wore a Tokiwadai uniform. With Tokiwadai’s strict rules only the bangs and socks left room for individuality and Kanaria was wearing triple roll socks.

Yugure Kanaria lay face down on the floor. Mikoto had a bad feeling about this. If she hadn’t laid down on her own, she could have had trouble breathing. Either her mouth could have been covered or her weight could have applied pressure to her lungs.

Mikoto just about grabbed her shoulders and turned her on to her back, but then she stopped. Why was Kanaria collapsed down here and why couldn’t she get back up under her own power? It would be best to check her for injury before moving her.

But her classmate’s dry lips moved before she was done checking.

“Ah…kh…”

“Canary-chan, do you recognize me? Everything will be okay. There’s a bunch of Judgment and Anti-Skill here too!!”

“…was a…ctory.”

(…?)

Mikoto frowned.

What was that? Would she really suddenly use that word even if she was woozy?

It was possible Mikoto had misheard.

But it had sounded an awful lot like Yugure Kanari had said something about a factory?

“It was a factory, Osprey-chan[1]. This place was a factory.”

“What are you talking about, Canary-chan?”

“But I don’t think this is anywhere near enough. My, my. They know it too, which is why they wanted to keep their secret. It was all just a childish dream.”

“Start from the beginning please. What was a childish dream!?”

More deep rumbling.

Still kneeling next to her classmate, Mikoto looked up on reflex because she thought this was an earthquake.

But it wasn’t.

Yugure Kanaria knew more about what was going on, so she seemed to know what this was.

“It’s started. I couldn’t stop it. Oh, no. And now Hoatzin[2] is going to be caught in the middle of it all.”

“What’s started!?”

“Independence Day,” said Kanaria, still lying face down and having trouble breathing. She was just like the bird chirping in the mines to warn of impending doom. “The School Garden is declaring independence, Osprey-chan.”

Part 7

Shortly before that, 12-year-old Yugure Tsumebakei couldn’t focus on what she was saying.

The teachers across from her looked uncertain.

But not because she was saying anything weird.

Her responses to the interview had been perfect. They had been so painfully perfect they almost seemed robotic.

Mikoto’s group had contacted the adults, so the teachers would know about her situation. That meant they would be aware the young hopeful student was preoccupied. The School Garden was supposed to be unquestionably safe yet her sister had gone missing there. Anyone would have difficulty focusing on their entrance exam in those circumstances, so the Tokiwadai teachers’ opinions were split.

Some wanted to make an exception and push back her interview to a later date.

Some thought it would be unfair to the other hopeful students to allow any kind of exception.

Although none of them considered that their thoughtfulness actually put more pressure on her young heart. The interviewers, who were meant to place pressure on her, were all being unusually nice, which made her think something really bad had happened to her sister.

“Yugure-san, why don’t you take a break?” suggested the woman directly across from her. Akazame-sensei, was it? “Don’t worry. It will not affect the evaluation of your exam.”

The two factions of teachers had settled on that as a compromise.

All entrance exams were a coldhearted system used to select some people over others, but some kindness was allowed as well. The decisions made on those exams could literally influence the rest of someone’s life, after all. And the interviewers did not do this because they wanted to fail people. They wanted to find the most qualified people in the group.

Don’t worry.

That phrase made Tsumebakei look down at her right pinky finger.

An apparent friend of her sister had said the same thing while making a promise. She had nothing to prove that friend could make good on the promise, but she had to believe in it.

She thanked the teachers and left the exam room on unsteady legs, but what was she supposed to do now? If running around outside would find her sister, she was willing to run all the way around the planet, but she knew it wasn’t that simple.

After leaving the building, her own weight got the better of her and she collapsed onto the ground.

She was smart enough to know there was nothing she could do.

She understood that all too well in her own young way.

“Uhh.”

Why did this have to happen?

She had said all sorts of nice-sounding things to the teachers during the interview, but she didn’t actually have any grand dreams for her future. She only wanted to go to the same school as her sister. She only wanted to walk to school with her beloved sister every day. Had that been wrong of her? She didn’t know what had actually happened, but would her sister not have gotten into trouble today if she hadn’t tried to go to Tokiwadai?

Maybe she had been wrong to want that.

What if it was her fault her sister was in trouble?

But then why was it her sister who had to suffer and not her?

“No. I don’t care about Tokiwadai anymore. I don’t care about my future, so I’ll give up on all my dreams. Just give Onee-chan back…”

What was done was done, so this bargaining was meaningless.

She wasn’t even sure who or what she was bargaining with. Was she asking an invisible demon to alter fate to bring her sister back to her?

But she wasn’t even allowed that self-destructive wish. She was no more than a powerless observer.

And while she sat on the ground feeling so pitiful, things took a turn for her.

Yes…

“Oh? What are you doing out here?”

She heard a voice.

When she raised her lowered head, she saw a girl with long blonde hair.

“Who are you?”

“Hee hee. You must be Hoatzin-san☆ I’m Canary-san’s friend.”

Her heart leapt in her chest.

And the older blonde girl had more to say.

“Did Misaka-san’s group not contact you because they wanted you to focus on your interviewing ability? Fortunately, I heard allll about what happened from them☆”

“…?”

“You have nothing to worry about.”

The sweet-smelling girl bent her knees to bring herself to Tsumebakei’s eye level.

“Misaka-san found Canary-chan just like she promised.”

“Ah.”

“The school is looking after her, so there really, truly is nothing to worry about. She’s receiving medical care now, but it’s nothing serious. You should be able to see her soon.”

“Ahh, wahhhhhhh!!”

Tsumebakei leaped into the older girl’s arms and bawled.

“I was scared!! So scared!!”

“Anyone would be.”

“Onee-chan, sob, Onee-chan. I thought this was my fault. I thought none of it would have happened if I hadn’t tried to go to Tokiwadai!!”

“You were overthinking it. That would never happen.”

The confidence in the blonde girl’s voice soaked into lonely Tsumebakei’s heart like nothing else.

“Now listen, Hoatzin-san. Your dreams aren’t going to hurt anyone. There’s no reason at all to stop yourself from wanting to walk to school with and go to school with your sister. So throw out all that worrying ability. Turn around, march back into that building, and do your very best at that interview. I’m sure Canary-san wants to go to school with you too☆”

“Okay!!” she cheerfully replied, still clinging to the older girl.

All the dark feelings had vanished from her heart.

“Huh? But wait a second.”

“Yes?”

“How did you know my dream was to go to school with my sister? I never even told her about-”


Shokuhou Misaki pressed the button on the TV remote pressed against the girl’s back.

Yugure Tsumebakei fainted like her power switch had been flipped.

This was Academy City’s #5 Level 5, Mental Out, the strongest of the psychological powers.

She gently patted the back of the girl who had fallen into sweet dreams, but the blonde queen also clicked her tongue at her own mistake.

“Well, I sure screwed that one up!! I went as far as digging up their pet names for each other and then ruin it all with a stupid mistake!? Knowing someone too well has its own problems. I really do mess up the details when I try to work my adlib ability. I was supposed to put her at ease even if it meant lying to her and then I end up knocking her out about as forcibly as possible.”

Yes.

Young Tsumebakei normally wouldn’t open up so much to a middle schooler she had never met. Even if that middle schooler had been wearing a Judgment armband and had mentioned someone she knew like Misaka, she would have been on her guard.

But none of that mattered to Mental Out.

Shokuhou Misaki had not in fact been in contact with Misaka Mikoto since the two of them did not get along at all.

She had been smiling with Yugure Tsumebakei and mechanically constructing a conversation by assessing the situation and choosing the best phrase to use next like she was choosing a chess move. Whenever she pulled one statement from Tsumebakei’s mouth, she obtained all the surrounding terms as well. Once she had drawn out the terms “Misaka-san”, “searching for” and “Yugure Kanaria”, it wasn’t hard to find the right things to say to soothe the crying child. But this time, Shokuhou had delved too deep into the target’s mind and it had all backfired.

(No one tells the people they truly love about their plans for the future. How could I forget something so basic? When did my sensibilities get so distorted?)

“Queen.”

“Hokaze, I order you to treat this girl like she is me and protect her life, her assets, and everything else she holds dear. Protect her with your life☆”

That ringlets girl was Shokuhou’s most trusted aide and bodyguard and she always faithfully carried out her queen’s commands. Thus, when she asked a question, it was only to confirm some information she felt was necessary to carry out that command.

Hokaze Junko expressed her concern.

“Is something about to happen that will require me to protect her with my life? But Tokiwadai is so peaceful.”

“The usual state of affairs isn’t going to apply much longer. We’re about to see a major panic brought on by some extreme Peter Pan Syndromes.”

Then Shokuhou Misaki looked away and grumbled under her breath.

Disaster warning app alerts were going off all around. The chain reaction was like ripples spreading throughout the School Garden and it would reach Shokuhou and Hokaze’s phones eventually.

The low rumbling below their feet was growing.

That rumbling came from a large number of enormous motors.

“What are you even doing, Misaka-san?”

Part 8

The School Garden, which contained five girls’ schools including Tokiwadai Middle School, flew high into the sky.

The ground had been secretly reinforced with a megafloat foundation and the near endless solar energy collected while above the clouds was used to pour an overwhelming amount of power into a vertical takeoff system that was essentially a much larger version of a flying car.

Yugure Kanaria had called this Independence Day.

Mikoto’s group had failed to stop it.

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Part 17

Part 18

Part 19

Part 20

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[v d e]Toaru Majutsu no Index: Genesis Testament
GT Volume 1 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword
GT Volume 2 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending
GT Volume 3 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending
GT Volume 4 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending
GT Volume 5 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending
GT Volume 6 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword
GT Volume 7 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending
GT Volume 8 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending
GT Volume 9 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending
GT Volume 10 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending
[v d e]Side Stories
Volume SP Illustrations - Stiyl Magnus - Mark Space - Kamijou Touma - Uiharu Kazari - Afterword
Railgun SS1 Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8
Kanzaki SS Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8
Railgun SS2 Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8
Road to Endymion Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5
Necessarius SS Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8
Virtual-On Illustrations - Preface - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword
Railgun SS3 Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8
Biohacker SS Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6
Agnese SS Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8
Railgun LN Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword
Item LN Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending
Item LN 2 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Cold Game
Toaru Jihanki no Fanfare
Toaru Majutsu No Index: Love Letter SS
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun SS: A Superfluous Story, or A Certain Incident’s End
Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament SS
Toaru Majutsu no Index: Shokuhou Misaki Figurine SS
Toaru Majutsu no Index: A Certain Midsummer Return to the Starting Point
Toaru Majutsu no Index: Using Final Bosses to Determine a Sociological Threat
Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament Bonus Short Story
Toaru Majutsu no Index: Thus Spoke the Kumokawa Sisters
Toaru Majutsu no Virtual-On: Vooster's Cup, The Day Before
Toaru Majutsu no Virtual-On: Misaka Mikoto's Dangerous Tea Party
Toaru Majutsu no Index: Birthday Through the Glass
Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament 20 Bonus Short Story
Toaru Majutsu no Index: Misaka Mikoto’s Teamwork
A Certain Magical Index: Genesis Testament SS
[v d e]Official Parody Stories
A Certain Prophecy Index
A Certain Academy Index
A Certain Gift Exchange
A Certain March 201st Novel
I Don't Want This First Story of A Certain Magical Index!! or I Don't Want This Final Story
An All-In "World" Tour of Academy City, the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion, and Ground's Nir
Kamijou-san, Two Idiots, Jinnai Shinobu, Gray Pig, and Freedom Award 903, Listen Up! …Fall Asleep and You Die, But Not From the Cold☆
We Tried Having a Group Blind Date, but It was an All Stars Affair and a World Crisis
Will the Spiky-Haired Idiot See a Piping Hot Dream of His Wife?
Dengeki Island: A Girl’s Battle (Still Growing)
Kamijou Touma Visits Another World
Toaru Majutsu no Index X Apocalypse Witch Crossover SS
Toaru Majutsu no Index X Apocalypse Witch X Heavy Object Crossover SS
I Still Want to Do a Summer Fair
A Certain Collaboration Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4
Kamachi Crossover Illustrations - Preface - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - A.E. 02 - Afterword
Durarara Crossover Preface - Academy City Chapter - Ikebukuro Chapter
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  1. ↑ Kanaria refers to Mikoto as Osprey because Misaka is sort of similar to Misago, the Japanese word for the osprey.
  2. ↑ Tsumebakei is the Japanese word for the hoatzin.
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