Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume7 Prologue
Prologue: Capture the Powerful Witch – Happy? New_Year!![edit]
It was January 1, time for a happy new year.
Specifically, it was just past 7:30 in the morning.
The wind carried away a white breath.
A solid footstep was drowned out by the low crackle of electricity.
Academy City’s #3 Level 5, the 2nd year middle schooler with the strongest electric power, wandered into a dark back alley. After walking, walking, and walking some more, the short-haired girl came to a sudden stop. If she had run into someone unexpected here, she might have zapped them with millions, if not tens of millions, of volts without even glancing their way.
But what if she actually targeted someone?
When she put her mind to it, she could wield a billion volts of destructive force.
“Hm,” the Electromaster girl muttered, pulling a leg back.
Bluish-white sparks scattered from her bangs and a metal dart stabbed into the ground right in front of her foot. A teleportation attack was a definite threat since it could pierce any target no matter how hard or sturdy it was, but its fatal flaw was its inability to target more than a single point at a time. Even the greatest threat was meaningless if it failed to hit.
If that was the end of it, she would have made an immediate counterattack to deal with the issue.
“!?”
But after sensing something, the #3 disappeared.
A moment later, metal darts covered every surface there. The asphalt ground and concrete walls were turned to Swiss cheese.
If the Electromaster hadn’t magnetically pulled herself up to a higher part of the wall, that would have been the end for her.
“That attack.”
She pressed her arms and legs against the wall and used her elevated vantage point.
She could now see exactly who her enemy was and where they were.
An underclassman with twintails stood in the narrow alleyway between buildings.
“What even was that attack!?”
Yes, this made no sense.
Teleportation allowed its user to send anything she touched – including herself – to whatever coordinates she wanted, but it couldn’t do what the #3 had just witnessed. That had to have been close to a million metal darts, but where had they come from and how had they been teleported?
“Do you see now?”
But her opponent remained calm. Something stood next to the twintails girl.
It was intimidation itself.
It was neither a lion nor a wolf, but it was a massive four-legged beast that’s claws tore into the asphalt under its weight.
The twintails girl smiled boldly with this unknown enemy under her control.
But did she really understand just how dangerous that thing was?
It was not just a convenient weapon.
Something croaked from Mikoto’s shoulder. Her froggy partner warned her that this beast was the deadly disease secretly spreading across Academy City.
After choosing power over safety, the twintails girl probably wasn’t aware of that.
“It is true I was no match for you in the past, Onee-sama. But times have changed. The 0-5 ranking system is a thing of the past. No longer must we purposefully deceive our brains to produce supernatural phenomena using quantum physics.”
“Y-you can’t mean-!?”
“Answer me, core of my powers. Answer me, material embodiment of that which hides in the depths of my heart. Answer me, my personal beast grown from within after being injected from without.”
The twintails girl held a rectangular object between her index and middle fingers.
It was a card.
She swung it perfectly horizontally from right to left and gave a roar.
Sharp slashes ran across the giant beast’s body. No, those were the parting eyelids covering eyes larger than basketballs. A total of 11 eyeballs – one for each of the dimensions present in her calculations – poured their heavy gaze upon the Electromaster to set her as their coordinate.
“Be devoured by the dimensional maw, #3. The world has left you behind as you cling to your outdated crown and refuse to awaken.”
Mikoto scrambled to pull out an arcade coin, but it was too late.
A roar seemed to rebel against heaven as it conquered the earth below.
“Personal Therion – Teleportation!!!”
“Oh.”
Exciting sound effects played from an LCD TV.
It was just past 7:30 AM on January 1.
Academy City’s PR drama meant for foreign viewers – and possibly to draw attention away from the truth of their former dark side research – had finally reached the climax of its 2nd episode. With the basic worldbuilding complete, they had added a slight twist to the concept to surprise the viewers. There had also been a lot of foreshadowing like the ultra-violent Dorm Manager Sage and the mysterious Masked Blonde Brainwashing Queen, so it looked like they had a long story in the works.
(The identity of the Masked Queen seems a little too obvious, so some in the Misaka Network suspect that answer is a red herring.)
“The elderly frog doctor told Misaka it is Japanese tradition to waste away an entire day of your life spending New Years watching a jidaigeki marathon, but it would seem that tradition has changed, notes Misaka while holding a can of shiruko energy drink to power through her drowsiness. The TV station must be running very low on ideas if they are attempting a niche cable-style supernatural battle drama on over-the-air TV.”
A girl with short chestnut hair and special goggles pushed up over her forehead let out a white breath while staring at the LCD screen in front of her. She wore a thick coat over a Tokiwadai Middle School winter uniform and a silver heart necklace shined at her chest. This early in the morning, a hot drink can was a necessity. A hand warmer was simply not enough.
However, this girl was not the original.
“Still, a 10-hour action drama special is a cruel relay race in its own way. Ugh, an energy drink’s chemical flavor is way worse when it’s hot. And the mochi is absorbing it like crazy, complains Misaka while her tongue rejects this flavor despite her being accustomed to being injected with all sorts of drugs.”
Did a new year mean new rules?
The mass-produced military clones known as the Sisters now had official identities. This girl – Serial Number 10032, who some referred to as Misaka’s Sister – was out in the cold at 7:30 in the morning because she was inside a small security booth in front of District 11’s east gate.
The booth was no larger than the tiny shared offices for rent at a train station. It did have heating, but there was a strange tradition of keeping the window open to make sure you could hear what was going on outside. The idea was to make a show of doing your job so people didn’t think you were simply watching TV all day. Thanks to that, it was so cold inside the booth that her eyelashes would frost over or her eyelids would freeze shut if she wasn’t careful.
(A different Misaka wore a Russian hat during World War Three. It was nice and warm and Misaka wants to order one online right this instant, but she doesn’t know what it’s called, says Misaka while fighting the cold and hating how only sharing our memory data makes some things more painful.)
She had had a few different options, but Misaka’s Sister had chosen this since Academy City needed all the help they could get with Anti-Skill so shorthanded. However, this was the front line of checking the travelers and cargo moving in and out of the city. The fact that a (supposedly) secret clone was working this job was a sign of the changing times.
The world really did change when a new year began.
“But is this really a good idea? wonders Misaka, revealing her worries about this new era of information resources. Even if the seven Level 5s are the face of Academy City, this feels like giving away their personal information for free. And if you are going to do it, why make the bizarre decision to show them being dethroned like that? …Oh?”
Misaka’s Sister looked up.
Someone was approaching.
She reached for the assault rifle with grenade launcher attachment leaning against the wall and stepped out of the security booth. The gate looked wide open, but several thick barriers rose up from the asphalt. Those would keep out a 20ton truck even if it crashed into them at full speed, but there was still a risk of a motorcycle or someone on foot getting through. Of course, if they did get through without permission, they would be literally filled with holes by the machineguns of an unmanned helicopter activated in the name of protecting the city’s secrets.
In truth, Misaka’s Sister’s job here was to keep people safe as they passed through the gate.
No one wanted an emergency alert triggering based on a misunderstanding. Unlike the clones, the mechanical weapons had no sense of humor.
“Pant, gasp.”
The person attempting to pass through now was a pointy-haired boy.
He was accompanied by a silver-haired nun in a white habit with a calico cat on her head and an unfamiliar busty black-haired girl. The clone didn’t know who that was, but she stared into the distance, knowing this had to be more of the usual. This bastard may have had more female acquaintances than there were Sisters.
Oblivious to this, Kamijou Touma was so exhausted he felt ready to forget his current situation and sprawl out on the asphalt.
“We made it, dammit. We made it to Academy City’s gate!!”
“T-Touma, I still think we should have taken the train. We have money from that job, don’t we!?”
“Shut up. I was the only one who did any real work in Shibuya. And even if the trains are running throughout the night since it’s New Year’s, I can’t walk through the station looking like this. I haven’t cleaned up after fighting for my life on the 31st.”
“Ugh. Boy, that’s why I said I would call us a taxi or a hired car.”
“Why do you have money to throw away when you didn’t work at all, Kumokawa-senpai!? If I forget the value of money so soon after working, I’ll be broke again in no time, you super rich upperclassman!!”
The pointy-haired boy went on to shout “A debt free new year!!” at the top of his lungs, so he had apparently been through a lot.
Misaka’s Sister held her grenade-launcher-attached assault rifle to her flat chest like it was a stuffed animal and tried her best to look cute.
“Oh, it was you, says Misaka as a greeting. If you really would collapse onto the road now, I could be – panties – the first one to wish you – panties – a happy new year.”
“Huh? Hold on. Are you glitching out because the Misaka Network was hit by something like the Y2K bug?”
Kamijou’s concerns here were no laughing matter.
Misaka’s Sister continued staring blankly as she directed her gaze a bit higher.
She looked to Othinus, the 15cm god keeping warm within the pointy hair.
“You are a god, aren’t you? says Misaka as she gives you a New Year’s greeting. Bow.”
“Come to think of it, the being hidden within you kept her memories and personality after I destroyed the world, didn’t she?”
“Misaka is not sure what you mean, but she does hear an unidentified voice in her head saying, ‘Fuck that lonely goddess for hogging the spot next to Kamijou-chan like she of all people deserves the heroine position’, notes Misaka. Fuck you.”
“Fair warning: I’m not a particularly benevolent god. If I thought hitting you would hurt the being hidden within you, I would do so without hesitation, insolent clone.”
The pointy-haired boy sensed that letting this continue would lead to bloodshed on New Year’s morning, so he quickly intervened.
“So what are you doing here, Misaka’s Sister?”
“This is apparently part of an experiment to see if clones can participate in society, says Misaka to provide a short but informative answer.”
Misaka’s Sister did not try to hide it. There was no reason to.
To repeat, it was a new year.
“It is still unknown if clones like us will be immediately accepted into society, but we will never know if we do not try. To start with, we were split into groups and each group is attempting to work in a different field, such as education, public service, finance, labor, and research. This Misaka is in the public service group, proudly states Misaka. With so many of us, it was deemed faster if we attempted every genre and see what suits us best.”
“That guy really thought this through.”
“He is the new board chairman after all.”
“Yeah, but that’s a job where overthinking things leads to some scary places.”
“By the way,” said Misaka’s Sister, turning her emotionless eyes elsewhere.
She looked next to Kamijou Touma’s face, where a large butt was wiggling.
“What exactly led to this situation? inquires Misaka, seeking an explanation.”
A muffled voice groaned from behind a strip of duct tape.
Sturdy waterproof tape bound the wrists behind the back, the ankles together, and the lips shut.
Witch Goddess Aradia was being carried over the shoulder, bandit style.
So, what were Kamijou’s reasons for this?
He had no other choice.
He had defeated Transcendent Aradia in Shibuya on the night of the 31st, but if he left her there, she would have recovered and attacked again. Ditto for leaving her with the ordinary police. Kamijou was the only one who could neutralize her by negating all forms of magic, so he had to look after her.
There was also a reason for carrying her bandit style, which made him look like a ruffian. Aradia fought by covering the ground with a powder made from various chemicals and then used her own bare feet to mix in her own sebum and create a witch’s ointment. In other words, if her legs were bound and her feet were kept off the ground, she couldn’t attack.
However, blankly-staring Misaka’s Sister must not have really expected a clear explanation. She resumed speaking before Kamijou had a chance to respond.
“That unknown woman’s butt is putting up a mighty struggle. With her hands bound, she appears to be using only her butt to fight back, but that is causing an impressive wedgie, assesses Misaka with a sigh.”
“Mghh!!!???”
“Is Misaka correct in concluding you walked all the way from Shibuya like this? Misaka is amazed no would-be heroes tried to stop you, says Misaka to express her awe at this miraculous occurrence.”
“You think luck or a miracle would give Mr. Misfortune himself any help? Oh, no. I was stopped for questioning four times on the way here. And all four times, I had to make a run for it with Aradia over my shoulder!! I imagine they’re making a wanted poster for me right about now!!”
That was why Kamijou Touma wanted inside Academy City as soon as possible. According to Othinus, the rest of the world viewed the city like a giant embassy. Kamijou wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but Kumokawa-senpai had gone on to say they would be safe in the city!
Not even the police officers driving around with their lights flashing on New Year’s could get into Academy City. …Not that he could let his guard down once inside, since he had no guarantee Anti-Skill and Judgment would take his side.
“I should really contact the Anglican Church about this, but I don’t know how. Fortunately, I remembered Academy City’s board chairman has a secret hotline with the Anglican Archbishop, so returning here is my best way of contacting the magic side.”
“The board chairman…”
“Right. And that’s the #1 nowadays, isn’t it?”
Misaka’s Sister sighed and stepped aside to clear the way.
“Misaka will always take your side no matter what, but an ordinary Anti-Skill officer might have put you in handcuffs, says Misaka, hoping you will be more reasonable in the future.”
“Thanks.”
He wished he could leave Aradia with the adults of Anti-Skill, but he didn’t trust them to handle her after Anna Sprengel’s escape. He decided it would be best to use Imagine Breaker to keep her under control until the Anglicans could send Stiyl or Kanzaki. In fact, Witch Goddess Aradia wasn’t a scientific esper and hadn’t done anything in Academy City, so would Anti-Skill even take her into custody?
“By the way.”
But not everything was going to go smoothly.
Still expressionless, Misaka’s Sister held out her hand, palm up.
“The frog doctor has informed Misaka that Japan has a tradition of gifting money on New Year’s.”
“…”
The very beginning of Kamijou Touma’s year had been defiled.
Mr. Bribery returned to Academy City after buying his safety with money.
