Toaru Majutsu no Index SS

Volume 2, Chapter 16: There is a Reason They Do Not Look Like Mothers. The Fifth Friday of September.

There was a members only sports gym a short distance from the hottest spot in Kanagawa prefecture.

The walls and ceiling around the indoor pool were all made of glass and the pool was a more extravagant and precise version of the standard rectangular pools found in schools. The types of the guests were quite mixed. There were some athletes who were working to shave off 0.1 seconds from their time, there were some housewives being taught how to swim by young instructors, and there were some people trying to stay healthy or trying to help their diet.

Misaka Misuzu was swimming in the outermost lane of that pool.

Misuzu looked to be in her twenties, but she was actually the mother of a 14 year old daughter. She swam in the pool after her university lectures every day. She was exercising because, “When I slack off on my health, it immediately comes back to bite me in the ass.” Despite exercising for such a dubious reason, her speed was amazingly fast. The female athlete in the lane next to her decided to treat Misuzu as her rival, but the athlete didn’t stand a chance against Misuzu who was plunging through the water like a torpedo.

And yet Misuzu’s thoughts were in a completely different direction.

(...Not good.)

She raised her head with a splash as her hand struck the edge of the pool and sighed despite the instructor looking shocked at her time.

(This swimsuit is too efficient. What’s the point of exercising in something as resistant as water with something like this?)

What Misuzu was wearing was more the kind of black wetsuit surfers loved than it was a swimsuit. The arms and legs cut off around the elbows and knees respectively and it emphasized her body lines much like a one-piece swimsuit.

She had ordered it without really thinking about it when she saw it was a swimsuit that let you swim fast, but it regulated the flow of water too well. It would have been great for a serious swim meet, but Misuzu just wasn’t the kind of customer it had been made for.

Then...

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“Oh, are your classes done for the day?”

“Ah, hello, Kamijou-san.”

Misuzu took her hand from the water and waved it in response to the voice that called out to her from the poolside as she supported herself on the coarse rope.

The Kamijou-san she addressed was a woman named Kamijou Shiina. It seemed she had moved to the area recently and had become quite a celebrity in the neighborhood as the “flying young lady” because of her powered paragliding hobby.

Also, despite being referred to as a “young lady”, Shiina was a mother with a child in high school. Misuzu guessed that Shiina was even older than her, but the resilience of her skin and other such things were quite excellent. The arms and legs stretching from her graceful white one piece swimsuit (it only looked graceful. It was actually quite aggressive in every possible way) looked like those of a teenager.

“Kamijou-san, are you doing the same thing you always do?”

“Yes. My hobby requires that I train my lungs quite a bit.”

Misuzu checked Shiina’s upper arms and thighs during this casual conversation and grumbled in her heart over how perfect her body was.

(...D-damn. What kind of stretches does she do to stay that young looking?)

Of course, Misuzu was quite beautiful herself. She looked young enough that she could mix in with the students and attend university lectures without seeming out of place. However, she knew that people were putting hidden extra words in their comments about how young she looked such as “she’s so beautiful (for someone who isn’t a beauty)”, “she looks so young (for someone with a kid)”, or “she looks like a college student (even though she’s a middle aged woman)”. The monster known as old age had opened its mouth and was trying to swallow Misuzu whole as she ran as quickly as she could away from it!!

Misuzu just couldn’t help but be jealous of Shiina.

Because she went to so much effort, she could tell. Kamijou Shiina was older than her and yet she did not go to any of the effort she did. And even so, she had youthful looks to spare.

“Here I go,” said Shiina as she held onto a kickboard with both hands, stuck her face in the water, and just lay floating there like a corpse.

(...Maybe I should get Mikoto-chan to introduce me to an amazing health machine from Academy City. No, no. If I just diet, it’ll eliminate the fat that gives you glossy skin and I’ll just be all dried out...)

Misuzu continued muttering into the water until Shiina was done with her corpse mode and the two women moved to the poolside.

“Ah, living alone as a housewife is surprisingly comfortable and enjoyable. Of course, that’s only because I know he’s coming back periodically.”

“Oh, Misaka-san, did your husband move elsewhere for his job?”

“Mmm, I wouldn’t really say he moved...I just never know where he is or what he’s doing.”

“Mine still technically lives at home, but he has lots of overseas business trips. Also, he always comes back with weird souvenirs. I sometimes feel like he’s delving into some great unexplored area of the world.”

Misuzu and Shiina laughed together.

The two women did not know that their husbands (as well as the Tanaka-kun the new employee and the people they met on their journeys) were actually getting into real trouble all over the world.

Drying herself with a long towel, Shiina suddenly spoke.

“I heard that my son’s school wasn’t having their midterms.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. It’s the same for Mikoto-chan’s school. I think they said the grades for two terms were going to be decided at the final exams. She doesn’t feel that kind of pressure though, so she’ll do the same as ever.”

“Whether my Touma-san does the same as ever or not, he’ll still end up with supplementary lessons due to a failing grade.”

The two laughed and giggled, but then Misuzu suddenly realized something.

“...Our conversation certainly took a motherly turn, didn’t it?”

“Oh, but we are housewives after all.”

A college girl passing by looked at them quizzically, but that was nothing new.

Misuzu thought for a second before speaking.

“There’s been one thing that’s been bothering me for a while.”

“What is it?”

“Is what our kids do in Academy City really what you would call studying? That city uses leading edge technology to develop psychic powers.”

“Well, I suppose...” Shiina said before silently adding, “I’m not so sure that’s true with my Touma-san.”

“I wonder what it is that determines if someone can gain psychic powers or not?”

“Oh, I don’t really know anything about that, but doesn’t that have to do with genetics and DNA?”

“I suppose so,” said Misuzu as she nodded. “But then...”

“?”

“Nothing, I was just wondering if the fact that Mikoto-chan became Academy City’s Number Three Level 5 meant that I could have electricity sparking from my bangs if I underwent the Curriculum.”

“My,” was Shiina’s refined expression of surprise.

Maybe it was because she had left her child to Academy City, but Misuzu’s thoughts continued on that path and ended up elsewhere.

“When I think about the possibility that there could be tons of people like that in the world, it gives me a mysterious feeling. My Mikoto-chan is ranked Number Three, but what if there were people all over the place who had even more amazing powers but no one realized it?”

With that last question, she was more speaking to herself than to Shiina.

Perhaps there were people who never realized their own ability and lived their entire life as a normal housewife. And perhaps there were people who thought they were normal people and yet they had used a mysterious power without even realizing it.

Perhaps there were powers that were not as easily noticed as having fire come from one’s hand or sending lightning from one’s bangs. Perhaps the everyday phenomena that people experienced such as having good instincts, having neater handwriting than the average person, looking younger than you actually were, or any other silly little “mysteries” had laws and theories behind them. Perhaps certain idiosyncrasies were actually special powers the people lived with.

“Oh, then how about you transfer to a university within Academy City?”

“Hmm. That does sound like fun, but someone my age can’t take part in the Curriculum that develops psychic powers,” Misuzu said with a laugh. “In the end, I don’t know the truth, but I feel that it would truly be wonderful if these dreams of mine were true.”