Toaru Majutsu no Index

Volume 15, Chapter 2: The People Who Have Slowly Begun to Move. Hikoboshi_II.

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Part 1

Accelerator, Tsuchimikado Motoharu, and Musujime Awaki were inside a camper-van driven by one of the grunts.

It was lunch time.

Fast-food was lined up onto a small table that was bolted onto the floor. Accelerator and Tsuchimikado were each eating their own respective food that they had bought — hot fried chicken for Accelerator, and a huge hamburger for Tsuchimikado. Even at lunchtime they didn't get along well.

Meanwhile, Musujime Awaki was looking at them while eating her high-quality brand salad delivered straight from the Mediterranean.

"...You two are killing yourselves fast, you know."

"Nya. Eating only green leafy veggies isn't too healthy, ~nya. You can maintain a healthy body for sure by eating meat and veggies in moderation, right? To be biased in either meat or vegetables isn't right."

"Hah!? You say eating meat and then dying is not a blessing? This is what you call doing what you want until you're dead!"

As Accelerator licked off the oil sticking to his thumb, Musujime continued,

"So, you got nothing about them, School."

"I tried accessing the Bank, but nothing came up apart from the name. It seems its secrecy level's the same as ours. Only Group and School were recorded."

However, Musujime cut in,

"...When I tried to dig in, multiple organization names like those came out."

"There are more than two of them?"

Tsuchimikado chomped down on the hamburger, and quickly grabbed the meat forced out from the other side of the burger.

"Group, School, Item, Member, and Block... from what I found out, there's five of us. Little is known about the rest, but I felt they're perhaps the same as us — **unofficial units created by putting few persons together**."

While Musujime was counting with her fingers,

"School is the one who attempted to snipe Oyafune Monaka. If that's the case, are they the ones involved with the destruction of Management's apartment and the attack on the paddy wagon? Unabara Mitsuki is also concealing himself under them because of those."

"Who knows. However, I wish he'd make signs that he's spying on School. He might think of them as enemies and carelessly, utterly crush them."

Accelerator was listening to Tsuchimikado and Musujime's discussions, all the while sipping on his can of coffee.

...Even so, why did this so-called School try to assassinate Oyafune Monaka?

Part 2

(They just do whatever they want, don’t they?) thought Hamazura Shiage.

It was noon and they were at a family restaurant in District 7, but the girl known as Mugino Shizuri was sitting at one of the tables eating a convenience store bento she had bought elsewhere and she wasn’t even trying to hide it. He felt sorry for the short waitress that was nervously standing nearby.

“Huh? This salmon bento seems different from the one from yesterday. Huh?”

Even inside the restaurant, she was wearing a bright autumny short sleeved coat. She crossed her stocking-covered legs as she sat next to the window and muttered those words of puzzlement. Hamazura responded silently in his heart with, “It’s the same damn thing as yesterday.”

Everyone at that table was rather eccentric.

“In the end, I’m getting kind of tired of canned mackerel. Now curry. Curry would be awesome.”

The blonde-haired blue-eyed high school girl known as Frenda sitting next to Mugino said this while poking at the contents of a can, but she must not have been good at using a can opener because there was something that looked like PVC tape stuck around the can and the top had been burned off by an explosive with an electrical fuse stuck in it. Hamazura thought it was a tool usually used for blowing the locks off of doors.

Kinuhata Saiai, the girl sitting across from Frenda, was an obedient-looking girl of about 12 wearing a fluffy knit dress. She was paying no heed to the actions of the other eccentric girls (not because she had the good sense to ignore them or because she was broad-minded; that was just the type of eccentric person she was) and looking through some movie pamphlets.

“An ultra-problematic C-movie by the Hong Kong Red Dragon Film Company... It sounds like you’ll be on the edge of your seat for more reasons than one. I’m super interested. I have to check that one out. What do you think, Takitsubo-san?”

Kinuhata was speaking to a lethargic girl sitting next to her named Takitsubo Rikou. She wasn’t touching her food and was sluggishly sitting in the sofa-style seat with her arms and legs sprawled out limply while her gaze aimlessly wandered around.

“...A signal is coming from south-southwest...”

These girls were Item.

Item was one of Academy City’s unofficial organizations and its primary duty was to stop the “upper classes”, including the board of directors, from getting out of hand. There were only 4 of them, but they could influence what direction the city and the science side as a whole took. They were a unit that had the same level of secrecy as Group and School.

Hamazura Shiage was not a proper member of Item.

He was part of its subordinate organization and all the odd jobs and the driving were left to him.

Before, he had briefly been the leader of the armed organization of back alley Level 0s, Skill-Out, but their plan had failed and they had taken a devastating amount of damage. That had put an end to his life of standing above others. Now he spent every day doing subordinate work in the dark side of Academy City.

(Y’know...)

There was something that had been bothering Hamazura ever since he had been assigned here.

(Being the only guy in a group of girls is kind of awkward.)

The table was made for 6 people, so Hamazura sat at the seat closest to the aisle. He had been given drink bar duty.

“So,” Mugino Shizuri began a conversation after having finished eating her usual salmon bento. “Before noon, someone attempted to snipe Oyafune Monaka, one of the board of directors. They want us to take action in regard to that case.”

“Hey, in the end, I don’t have that information.”

Frenda made that simple objection and Mugino stopped moving for a second saying, “Mh?”

Then the girl in the short sleeved coat looked over to Hamazura.

“Hamazura. Send the details of the incident to everyone’s cell phones.”

“Okay, okay.” was Hamazura’s halfhearted response.

He couldn’t complain about what he was instructed to do. This was his job. He took out his cell phone and sent the data saved there to the members of Item other than Mugino.

“Hmm.”

All of Item checked the information on their phones.

And what appeared on their screens was a porn video he had downloaded from the internet.

All four Item members immediately snapped their cell phones shut. When they looked at him with scornful eyes, the door of his heart slammed shut. He shut his heart up tight and sent his heart’s elevator down to take refuge in his heart’s nuclear shelter.

“No, wait!! Let me redo that! This was some kind of mistake!!”

Hamazura Shiage was once the leader of over 100 Skill-Out delinquents and now he was having to explain himself in a loud voice.

But the 4 members of Item responded by...

“Hamazura...”

“In the end, you’re disgusting, Hamazura.”

“So bunny girls are a super hit with you, Hamazura?”

“Don’t worry, Hamazura. I’m rooting for you.”

Hamazura trembled slightly at their mild words and made sure he sent the information on the attempted sniping of Oyafune Monaka to them.

When he did, Kinuhata spoke in surprise.

“Oh, this is that super plan of School’s. But I was super sure we had taken out their assassination sniper three days ago...”

“They probably just hired a new one. Well, I suppose this means they ignored our ‘warning’.”

“In the end, didn’t we debate about why they were targeting Oyafune Monaka back then, too?” Frenda stabbed into the contents of her mackerel can with a fork as she spoke. “Oyafune’s on the board of directors, but in the end she’s useless. She doesn’t have much influence, so there’s no value in killing her. And yet...”

“School went out of the way to replace their lost sniper and they ignored our ‘warning’ in order to assassinate Oyafune,” Takitsubo added to what Frenda had said absentmindedly.

Mugino nodded casually.

“There’s no value in killing Oyafune Monaka. And yet School forced themselves to snipe her on schedule knowing full well we had our eyes on them. Why would they do that? ...Yes, Hamazura-kun!”

Hamazura jumped in surprise at her words.

(Hah!? Why did she bring me into the conversation as if she wants me to say something interesting!? Don’t focus on me in a situation like this!!)

“U-um, well!! Wait a second! It’s on the tip of my tongue. Just give me a bit and I’ll have it!!”

He gave a nice energetic answer, but didn’t actually say anything in it.

And the 4 members of Item responded by...

“C’mon, Hamazura...”

“In the end, it’s really disgusts me how flustered you are.”

“There are a super lot of different types of disgusting, but you’re the worst kind, Hamazura.”

“Don’t worry, Hamazura. I’m rooting for you even when everyone’s calling you disgusting.”

The girls sighed in disappointment. Hamazura the Level 0 kneeled down on the ground and stopped moving.

Mugino ignored him and spoke.

“Well, as we said, there’s no value in assassinating Oyafune Monaka. There’s no denying that. And yet School still chose her as their target. So maybe they chose Oyafune as their target because there’s no value in killing her.”

“Because there’s no value in it? I super don’t understand.”

“Oh, you know. Maybe School didn’t care who it was. Maybe as long as it caused a disturbance, they wanted a VIP whose death wouldn’t have much of an effect. In other words, they chose the VIP with the least security.” Mugino sounded like she was enjoying this. “Other VIPs...well, let’s just think about the board of directors. No other member was making an outdoor speech around this time. And that bastard Shiokishi wears a powered suit 24/7. There was no way they could successfully snipe someone like that, so I’m thinking they chose someone easier to target. And, frankly, Oyafune Monaka had fairly lax security.”

“...In the end, I feel sorry for Oyafune.”

“If I’m right, what was School after? This is why a system to ensure the safety of VIPs is important.”

Mugino puffed up her obviously large chest as she spoke.

“Starting with the 12 members of the board of directors, there are a lot of people and organizations recognized as VIPs in Academy City. Their security is better than the usual security and, when their lives are in danger, people are called in from all sorts of places. The roads their ambulances need to travel on are blocked off and big-shots from various medical industries gather at the hospital for them.”

“In other words,” Mugino paused for a second, “what do you think would happen if someone attempted to assassinate a VIP?”

“A lot of people would be called in to protect the facility where they would undergo treatment. Special researchers and equipment, anything necessary, would be brought in. Ah, hahhh. It looks like School wants to do something amid all that confusion.”

“What a boring method,” Kinuhata added.

“It was true they could create an 'opening', but it lacked certainty. Calling in more security would have little effect on District 23, or the 'windowless building'. All this would do would change their possible targets from 'facilities that could be attacked' to 'facilities that were temporarily raised to an attackable level'.”

“It could be some kind of insurance. If School got serious, they could break into most facilities.”

“But,” Mugino added, “in order to carry out that insurance, they had to get a new sniper in a hurry and carry out their plan of assassinating Oyafune Monaka. They must have been pretty high strung getting everything in order.”

“So, in the end, Oyafune Monaka was just a bit of security and School is still planning on attacking their real target wherever or whoever it may be?”

“Yes,” Mugino quickly nodded.

Hamazura timidly spoke up.

“...Wait. So was that really an ‘attempted’ assassination?”

“It probably didn’t really matter. Even if Oyafune died, it would take a lot of manpower to perform CPR, do an autopsy, and analyze her body. She is the very highest of VIPs as one of the 12 members of the board of directors, after all. They would use all of Academy City’s mysterious technology to deal with it.”

“Uegh,” Hamazura responded in disgust.

Mugino continued on as if he had never spoken.

“We need to see what facilities have insufficient security due to the attempted assassination of Oyafune Monaka. ...No. That’s not enough. We also need to see what would have changed had the assassination been successful. School must have been creating a situation where they could move whether the sniper succeeded or failed. So there should be a facility that has its security reduced in both situations. And that’s most likely where School will show up next.”

Mugino Shizuri forcefully stood up from her seat.

She spoke to Hamazura without ever looking over towards him.

“Hamazura, go find a car for us. It looks like we’re going to need to head out soon.”

It pissed Hamazura off how self-importantly she said that, but he couldn’t object.

He was just here to do subordinate work.

“Damn it. I was once the leader of over 100 Skill-Out members...”

Those words accidently leaked out.

“That’s true. Your point?”

(...God damn it.)

This time he swore in his heart rather than out loud and left the family restaurant to go find a car.

Part 3

Unabara Mitsuki was in a multi-tenant building in District 10.

The building had a lot of empty space and he was in one of the rooms that no one was renting. It may have had to do with the fact that the Academy City’s only juvenile hall was right outside the window.

There were a few dozen armed men in the small room and there were four boss class figures standing in a line. A business desk that had been left there by someone had their guns, laptops, disguise tools, and hand cream on it.

(...This certainly didn’t go as planned.)

Currently, he was not “Unabara Mitsuki”.

He had fought back one of the attackers and “borrowed” his face.

(He was pretty weak, so I never thought he would be one of the central figures of the organization...)

His plan had been to disguise himself as some small fry, find a good time to go run an errand or something, and then sneak away from the group, but it seemed the person he had defeated was one of the boss class members.

That meant sneaking away was going to be difficult. Everything he did stood out and the group moved with him wherever he went.

Because of this, he hadn’t found a good opportunity to escape and had been forced to move from District 7 to District 10.

“What is it, Yamate?” asked a voice coming from next to him.

A tall woman was standing there. She was slender, but her body was covered in hard muscles. She looked less like she was tense and more like she had been carved from stone. At first glance, you could tell she worked in some kind of underworld business, but, from what he had heard, she had gone undercover into Anti-Skill’s headquarters.

After thinking about all that, Unabara thought back on what the muscular woman had said to him.

Yamate.

Apparently, that was his current name.

“It’s nothing.”

“Pull yourself together. The success of the plan depends on your power.”

Everything she said was very polite. It could sound like she was being kind or that she was looking down on him.

“School has begun moving,” said a large bear-like man. “We’re the ones that sent them the info on Management, but... Tch. Couldn’t they have waited just a bit longer to take action?”

“It looks like this isn’t going to be easy. Outwitting Academy City is hard. But that’s also why we can’t give up now.”

(...)

Unabara sorted out the information he had while listening to the woman.

It seemed this organization was called Block.

It seemed this organization had the same level of secrecy and authority as Group.

It seemed they were planning something, but another organization, School, had taken action on the same day before they could and that happened to get in their way.

In order to correct for that as much as possible, Block had covered for School with that explosion. That was how Unabara had gotten wrapped up in it all.

(And...)

Block had given up on dealing with the effects of what School had done and were now switching over to carrying out their plan.

(School and Block. This sounds like it’s pretty complicated...)

Then the muscular woman spoke to the large bear-like man.

“What about you know who?”

“...Oh, the man on the phone? That won’t be a problem. The guys in the powered suits that act for him are tied up dealing with the aftermath in Avignon. The man on the phone can’t do much right now. He’s in trouble. He usually passes on orders from farther up the chain, but once we start our rampage he’ll probably take the blame and get executed. Also, Hound Dog and its leader Kihara Amata were destroyed in the 0930 Incident so they won’t get in our way.”

(Apparently, this organization has someone who gives them orders just like Group.)

However, it was unclear whether the person on the phone was one person or multiple people. Multiple people could be commanding a single organization or each organization could have someone in charge of them. It could even seem like it was multiple people while it was just one person artificially altering their voice. It was all unknown.

(Well, whether it’s one person or multiple, it can’t be too large a group. They seem too responsive to be a large group.)

Unabara pushed the issue of the voice on the phone aside. He concentrated on Block’s conversation and started thinking about the structure of the organization.

(At the very least, they’re clearly not acting on the orders of the upper classes of Academy City right now. What are they planning on doing while the powered suits are gone?)

Unabara glanced to the side. The men of Block’s subordinate organization were standing there. They were helping out with an obvious rebellion, but...

(I wonder how many of them realize it.)

Even if the upper classes told them it was an emergency and ordered them to gather at Point A, in the city’s underworld, that was quite often a lie. In this world that was complicated by assumed ulterior motives, no one took an order at face value. In the end, you trusted in and acted on what you saw for yourself. There was the information that could very well be a lie and Block that would shoot you to death if you turned your back on them. If you had to trust in one of the two, you would choose the latter. That was the way to stay alive.

(It’s divine punishment really. They’re always lying to their subordinates, so eventually the credibility of their information will drop.)

“Okay,” the large bear-like man said as if he had gotten over something. “I won’t let anyone delay this any longer. Let’s get started. Enough with Block. I’m not going to keep working under those higher ups like this.”

He didn’t start moving after saying that. Instead, he surveyed the area.

Unabara asked a question.

“What is it?”

“Nothing. I just want to do the usual safety check first.”

The large bear-like man smacked his large hands together as he spoke. At that signal, a gloomy girl calmly stepped forward.

“Tetsumou. ...We need to use your Skill Polygraph. We need to make sure there isn’t a traitor amongst us.”

“Will do. Reading people’s minds is all I’m good at.”

(...!?)

Unabara Mitsuki thought the surprise was going to come out on his face.

He pretended to casually grab a bottle of hand cream that was on the business desk and looked around the area. With the four members of Block (Unabara included) and the subordinate organization, there were a few dozen people there. It would be bad if he was found out here.

“Oh, and let me say one thing. The second you refuse to be ‘read’, I’ll assume you’re a traitor. I like transparency.”

After the large man’s announcement, the girl called Tetsumou started grabbing the hands of her colleagues one by one. An inhuman, mechanical voice came from her mouth as she did.

“Saku Tatsuhiko. Age: 28. The leader of Block. His primary duty is to keep an eye on the level of cooperation from friendly institutions outside of Academy City.”

After the large bear-like man was the muscular woman.

“Teshio Megumi. Age: 25. A formal member of Block. As a member of Anti-Skill, she......!?”

Tetsumou’s expression suddenly became distorted. For an instant, a menacing atmosphere came over the area, but Teshio herself didn’t seem worried.

“...You don’t have to read that far. Why that kid has no parents and can’t speak isn’t an enjoyable past to see.”

Tetsumou shook her head and turned her gaze in Unabara’s direction.

That was when the bottle of hand cream Unabara was holding slipped.

“...Ah, sorry.”

The bottle rolled over towards a member of the subordinate organization. When Unabara reached out for it, the young man approached and handed over the bottle.

“While you’re up here, you can go ahead,” Unabara invited.

The young man had happened to step right in front of Tetsumou, so he interrupted the order and held his hand out towards her. It seemed he wanted to get his check over with.

It happened when the two of them held hands.

“Gaaaaaaahhhhh!?”

The young man and Tetsumou’s hands burst into red flames. With a boom, blood flew through the air. A few fingers did as well. Tetsumou held her right hand, but the pain and blood loss was too much for her causing her to collapse onto the ground and stop moving.

The young man hurriedly reached over for the first aid kit, but the large bear-like man stopped him.

“What did you just do?”

“I don’t know. I have no idea what just happened!”

“What the hell did you do!?”

“I was a victim here, too!!”

Saku didn’t say anything more. He pulled his handgun from its holster, pressed the barrel between the young man’s eyes, and pulled the trigger.

“Wait. I didn’t do anyth-...!?”

The young man was completely dumbfounded, but a gunshot rang out.

The blood-covered young man fell to the ground.

Saku stared down at the red-stained corpse and spoke.

“...Well, at least we found him before we got started. What did he even do?”

“What do we do now? Do we continue?”

Saku shook his head at Unabara’s question. It didn’t look like Tetsumou was going to be of any more use.

“There’s no time to find a replacement. We’ll prepare a confirmation device later.”

He didn’t seem interested in Tetsumou and ordered some subordinate members to take care of the body.

(...)

Unabara glanced over at the body of the young man lying unmoving on the floor.

Before the young man had held hands with Tetsumou, he had handed the bottle of hand cream to Unabara. When he had, Unabara had gotten the cream on his palm on the young man’s hand. And a small amount of liquid explosive had been mixed into the cream.

Unabara rubbed some hand cream into his palm. This time, it had a chemical mixed in that would eliminate the liquid explosive.

(He may have been an enemy, but... No, I can’t have thoughts like that right now.)

Unabara didn’t let his thoughts show on his face and Saku spoke as if he had pulled himself together.

“Now then. How about we get started?”

There was a laptop in front of him.

Part 4

An electronic alarm rang out within the RV.

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The members of Group had finished eating their lunches separately and were now discussing their plan for the upcoming investigation, but they were immediately cut off.

The flustered voice of the driver/operator came over the vehicle’s speaker.

“E-emergency! I’m sending you the data now!!”

Accelerator and the others looked toward the speaker the voice was coming from.

A map of Academy City appeared on the screen that was on the wall separating the back living area from the driver’s seat.

“District 5’s Virus Isolation Center?”

“It’s a facility where Academy City-made computer viruses are analyzed and antivirus software is made. ...It seems someone’s cracking it.” Tsuchimikado said as he read the rows of characters that were continually appearing.

Even though they knew about this incident, they never once thought of contacting Anti-Skill and asking for help. An issue that could be resolved by normal people wouldn’t find its way to Group. If Anti-Skill could solve everything, Group would never have been created.

Accelerator spoke as if he found this to be a pain in the ass.

“Do we really have to act on this? You said there were plenty of other organizations like Group. Can’t we leave this to one of them?”

“We have different duties, so there’s no guarantee they would act on this. And it’s also highly likely that one of those organizations has betrayed Academy City. We have to go.”

Tsuchimikado continued to speak.

“That Virus Isolation Center has a number of unanalyzed viruses and a number of experimental viruses purposefully created by Academy City researchers. If they got out...Well, there’d be a panic.”

“How far ‘out’ do you mean?” said Musujime with a meaningful smile on her face.

There was a gap of 20 or 30 years between the scientific technology inside Academy City and outside of it. The same went for viruses. An old generation virus for Academy City machines would be a completely unknown threat to machines “outside”. And if a brand new virus that not even Academy City’s antivirus software could handle was leaked “outside”...

“I’m pretty sure Academy City’s security focuses more on keeping things in than keeping things out. So there should be a facility for that.”

“...The External Connection Terminals.”

Academy City was detached from the normal internet and an Academy City-only network had been created. The external lines that connected to the internet all had to pass through an External Connection Terminal to make contact.

“There’s a terminal in the north, the east, the west, and the south, right?”

They heard a bit of static over the RV’s speaker. The driver/operator was forced to speak.

“The emergency cut off of the External Connection Terminals has begun. The north terminal in District 3 is cut off. The east terminal in District 12 is cut off. The south terminal in District 2 is cut off. ...!? The west terminal in District 13 isn’t responding! I can’t confirm whether it has been cut off or not!!”

“Ha ha! Another easy to understand plan!!” Accelerator laughed after hearing that announcement.

Tsuchimikado gave a daring smile.

“Most likely, they’re luring us in. I don’t know who it is, but it seems they want to be scrapped.”

The RV started heading for District 13.

The driver’s anxious-sounding voice came over the speaker.

“Wh-what about the attempted assassination of Oyafune Monaka-san?”

“We’ll deal with it later.”

“In fact, it might be School that’s behind this as well.”

“Um...What about Unabara-san?”

“We were never planning on saving him.”

Part 5

Hamazura Shiage was losing his presence of mind over an electronic beeping in a back alley.

The sound was coming from the portable terminal in Mugino Shizuri’s pocket.

“Hey, should you really be ignoring that?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. If I don’t deal with it, someone else will.”

Even so, the terminal continued to beep. It was so insistent that Mugino started trembling, forcibly grabbed it, and yelled into it as if she was trying to bite it.

“Shut the hell up, you damn idiot!! Can’t you tell I don’t feel like answering!?”

“It’s always like this with you! I’m not contacting you because I want to!!”

It wasn’t on speakerphone, but the sound easily reached Hamazura as he listened from the side. The speaker was the mysterious woman that always gave orders to Item.

“There’s an emergency at the District 5 Virus Isolation Center, so you need to go and deal with it!”

“Ehh?”

“No, not ‘Ehh?’! It’s always like that with you! The powered suit group is busy searching for the body of someone called ‘Terra of the Left’ in Avignon. So get moving!!”

“I’m busy now, so can we deal with this later?”

Mugino’s tone of voice made it extremely clear she didn’t want to do this.

“It’s always like this with you!” the woman on the phone yelled back. “As I’m sure you know, Item’s job is to eliminate and erase elements of unrest in Academy City. So do your job already!”

“Yeah, but...”

“And you killed School’s sniper before, right? You said Oyafune Monaka wasn’t going to be assassinated, right? It’s always like this with you! If what you said was true, then why did it turn out like this!? I thought that was over, so I reported that the level of danger had fallen... I’m the one who’s mad here, so shape up!!”

It was like she was yelling at a waitress who had gotten her order wrong.

“Damn it. That’s it... I’ll ask someone else to deal with the Virus Isolation Center, so write a report on the attempted assassination for me. And have it done ASAP.”

“Sorry, but that isn’t happening.”

“And why the hell not!?”

“Because we’re about to go kill all of those bastards in School.”

The complaining woman’s voice suddenly stopped.

“Umm, could you make sure you shoot each one of them at least 10 times for me?”

“...Okay, that was awkward. As our manager, aren’t you supposed to try and stop us?”

“Don’t worry, my underling. I’ve hated School for a long time. And everything that worries me should be eliminated from the Earth!!”

“Gah ha ha ha ha!!” the woman laughed like a military commander and then hung up.

As she put the portable terminal back in her pocket, Mugino’s expression seemed to be asking if someone like that should really be the organization’s manager. Then she looked around.

“Hey, Hamazura. Can you really get us a ride?”

“You sure make that sound casual... But I suppose I can.”

As he spoke, Hamazura approached a passenger vehicle parked on the street. There was a fiberscope on a connector at the bottom of his cell phone that he used to send a small optical fiber thinner than soumen into the keyhole to check the arrangement of the pins. Hamazura used the image of the inside of the keyhole displayed on his phone to use a number of wires to unlock the door.

Hamazura got in the driver’s seat and checked the engine keyhole below the steering wheel.

“Huh, that’s a convenient skill,” said Mugino with real admiration in her voice as she got in the passenger seat.

Kinuhata, Frenda, and Takitsubo got in the backseat. It was a four door car made for families much like the taxis in the area, but it did feel a bit cramped with 5 people in it.

“Where are we going?”

“Kirigaoka Girls Academy in District 18. There’s a particle engineering lab near it. That’s the only place where the uproar over Oyafune led to a bit of disorder with the private guards being called in and some equipment being transported. The security there is now fairly insufficient due to that. It’s pretty easy to see the plan here.”

“There was only one place? That is simple.”

“Sorry, I forgot to mention that there were multiple places, but this was the only beneficial one.”

“I see,” responded Hamazura arbitrarily. “But particle engineering? If that really is School’s target, what are they after?”

“Who knows. But it’s better than dealing with the whole Oyafune Monaka thing, right? So let’s head out and clean up this mess some other bastard’s left.”

“Hmm,” said Hamazura as he easily started the engine.

Takitsubo’s voice came from the backseat.

“Hamazura, do you have a license?”

“You don’t need a card to drive; you need the skills.”

After responding, Hamazura smoothly departed in the automatic transmission car.

Part 6

Accelerator and the others headed through District 7 in the RV.

Tsuchimikado looked worriedly at his watch.

“...It’ll be another 10 minutes before we reach District 13.”

The west terminal hadn’t been cut off, but they could cut off access by going there and physically disconnecting the cables. Strict officials that dealt with the budget didn’t like that kind of method, but there wasn’t much of a choice left.

But the electronic alarm began ringing again.

Tsuchimikado shouted in response.

“What is it this time!?”

“Cracking in District 23 confirmed! A satellite control center belonging to an aerospace engineering laboratory is undergoing an electronic attack!!”

(Satellite?) thought Accelerator as he frowned.

The only satellite launched by Academy City up there was a spy satellite officially referred to as a weather satellite. Using that, one could observe Academy City and the surrounding area in excellent detail, but...

“This just keeps getting more and more interesting. Hikoboshi II has a large caliber ground-attack laser installed on it, right?”

“This is bad. The cracking on the Virus Isolation Center is still going, isn’t it?” added Musujime.

“They’re trying to split up the counter-measure team. The Virus Isolation Center is just a decoy to prevent us from going full force, but that doesn’t mean we can just ignore it either. Being a decoy doesn’t change how much damage it could do.”

“Do you think this is School, too?”

“I have no idea. It could be some other organization.”

“Wh-what are you going to do!? Where do you want me to take you!?”

“Ha ha. Isn’t that obvious?”

As he spoke, Accelerator kicked the RV’s side door with the bottom of his foot.

He must have already flipped the electrode’s switch, because his vector transformation power caused the metal door to fly out onto the street.

Tsuchimikado yelled out at him.

“Accelerator!!”

“I don’t like dealing with some bastard’s decoy. I’m headed to District 23. I’ll stop the cracking by destroying the huge antenna that’s used to contact the satellite. You can deal with the odd jobs without me.”

After saying what he wanted to say, Accelerator jumped out of the car without hesitating.

His jump took him in an unnatural trajectory. He passed over the center divider and landed in the passenger seat of a convertible driving the other direction. A normal person would have been crushed by the difference in speed, but it was no problem with the aid of some vectors.

The most flustered person was the driver of the convertible.

“Wah wah!? Wh-what? What!?”

“I’ll pay you for the gas and labor.”

The driver heard a small noise.

He could feel something pressed up against his cheek, but he couldn’t move his neck. However, he could see a black piece of metal that looked like a handgun in the rear-view mirror.

“Take me to District 23. And keep your eyes on the road.”

Part 7

(I’m bored.)

That’s what Hamazura Shiage was thinking while sitting in the driver’s seat of the stolen car while it was parked on the side of the street.

He was near Kirigaoka Girls Academy in District 18. About 100 meters in front of him was a square building. It was the particle engineering lab that School was attacking while Item intercepted them. A large fight must have developed between the two organizations.

Hamazura groaned while looking towards the building.

“Wow...About half the building’s been destroyed and there’s some kind of beam shooting out. That must be Mugino Shizuri. She’s going all out with her Level 5 powers as usual.”

The reinforced concrete building was collapsing in clouds of gray dust. Hamazura could feel the ground trembling even in the stolen car.

(Level 5, huh?)

The former leader of Skill-Out, Komaba Ritoku, had truly believed that they could defeat that kind of person.

Hamazura wondered if Skill-Out was still thinking of fighting now that it had lost its leader.

“...Tch.”

He lightly tapped on the steering wheel out of boredom.

At any rate, someone like him who ran from Skill-Out and was now working for espers had no right to say anything about it.

He opened the driver’s side door and stepped out in irritation.

Since he was supposed to have the car ready to go for Item at all times and the supervision of no parking zones had been strengthened recently, getting out of the car wasn’t the best idea. But Hamazura wanted to cheer himself up.

It was a holiday, so there weren’t very many people near Kirigaoka Girls Academy. Also, there were 3 sports cars parked in the parking lot.

Hamazura was surprised when he saw one of them.

(Ohhhh!? That’s an ’89 model Booster, isn’t it!? This was called the emperor of 4-doors!! N-no, stealing a car that stands out this much is too risky but...Screw it, we’re going home in a Booster!!)

Hamazura started taking his unlocking tools from his pocket while his breathing became slightly erratic in excitement and he imagined the low exhaust of that famous car that had moved the hearts of celebrities. He approached the high grade sports car that must have belonged to some adult with excellent taste.

“Hamazura!!”

“Yes!?”

Hamazura hurriedly stuck his tools in his pocket and turned around when he heard a woman’s voice from behind him.

A woman teacher wearing a green jersey was standing there.

Even in her jersey, the woman clearly had a nice figure. In fact, she was so beautiful it made you want to yell at her for wearing a jersey like that, but that wasn’t what mattered to Hamazura.

She was part of Skill-Out’s natural enemy, Anti-Skill.

He was pretty sure her name was Yomikawa Aiho.

“Huh? What are you doing here? I had heard you were taken in during the incident at Dangai University’s database center. So that wasn’t you? I’m glad to hear that.”

She spoke to him sociably, but they weren’t on particularly good terms and the good will only went in one direction. After all, why would he feel any good will towards the woman who had caught him on the streets at night and thrown him in jail on 14 separate occasions?

“Why the hell are you here, you old hag?”

“I would think that was obvious.”

As she spoke, Yomikawa pointed towards the particle engineering laboratory.

Hamazura brought his hand up to his forehead.

Item’s subordinate organization could conceal a lot of things, but it seemed not even they could perfectly hide a laboratory that was in the process of being destroyed.

Yomikawa put her hands on her hips and smiled at Hamazura.

“Y’know, I’m always hoping we’ll be able to rehabilitate you.”

“Hah? What are you talking abou-...?”

“Why are you bent over like you’re looking into that car’s keyhole? You’re not going to force me to bring out my handcuffs, are you?”

Hamazura’s shoulders jumped.

He couldn’t let himself get arrested here, so he shook his head back and forth.

“N-no! A baby!! There’s a baby trapped in the car!!”

“What!?” said Yomikawa as she hurriedly approached the car and pressed her hands against the glass as she tried to peer inside.

When she did, the car’s alarm went off.

The shrill noise just made Yomikawa more frantic and Hamazura whistled pretending not to be involved. That was when a station wagon driving at a reckless speed sped away from the crumbling particle engineering lab.

“!?”

The station wagon flew past Hamazura and Yomikawa just as Mugino Shizuri came running from the laboratory. She was dragging her fellow Item member, the airheaded Takitsubo Rikou, by the nape of her neck.

They jumped into the backseat of the 4-door car Hamazura had been in before.

“Hamazura!! Quit failing at hitting on that woman and get over here! We need to follow that station wagon!!”

“I’m not fucking hitting on her!!” Hamazura yelled back and ran back to the car.

It was too bad he couldn’t get the ’89 Booster, but he couldn’t exactly steal the thing right under Yomikawa’s nose.

He had jumped into the driver’s seat and started the engine when Yomikawa called out to him.

“Wait a second, Hamazura!! What’s with that car!?”

“Can’t you tell!? I got my license!!”

He came up with that really bad lie and stomped on the gas pedal more than was necessary because he just wanted to get away from Yomikawa as quickly as he could. The engine and the tires emitted an uncanny screech and the family car roared off leaving the jersey-wearing woman teacher behind.

After driving off, Hamazura realized something.

“H-hey. Where are Kinuhata and Frenda?”

“That isn’t enough to kill them. Right now, that station wagon comes first!!” responded Mugino in an irritated voice.

The edges of her short-sleeved coat were scorched black and her cheek was swollen as if it had been punched. Seeing those things in the rear-view mirror, Hamazura tried to imagine what had happened in that lab.

“How did this happen? Aren’t you #4?”

“They had a Level 5, too. This piece of shit named Kakine Teitoku. He’s #2.” Mugino responded sulkily. “But they didn’t get out of this unscathed. We took out a member of School. Although it didn’t seem like someone with any real power.”

She waved around a piece of mechanical headgear that must have been her prize for defeating that person. It would wrap 360 degrees around someone’s head like the rings of Saturn and had a number of plugs on it. The cords that came from the plugs were cut off partway like cut weeds. Hamazura didn’t know what the device was for, but the blood splattered on it scared him.

“So what are you going to do when we catch up to that station wagon?”

“Kick the asses of the people onboard and take back their cargo.”

“Their cargo?”

“The 'Tweezers'. It’s an attachment-type manipulator for microscopic object interference.”

“...I take it you’re not going to explain what that means.”

“Essentially, that’s what School is after!! You don’t need to understand. Just catch that station wagon!! Wait, can we even catch them with this car!?”

“Don’t worry.”

It wasn’t Hamazura that said that; it was Takitsubo.

She was sitting in the backseat with her arms and legs sprawled limply out.

“My AIM Stalker can track down the owner of any AIM diffusion field I’ve recorded. Even if they leave the solar system, I can search for them and find them.”

“See?” Hamazura arbitrarily added on. “With an excellent navigator like that, they won’t get away. The bigger question is what you’re going to do once we stop that station wa-...”

Hamazura’s words were cut off.

This was due to a giant mobile crane flying out from a side street.

“!?”

He didn’t have time to turn the wheel.

The monstrous mobile crane slammed into the center of the 4-door car Hamazura and the others were driving in. A terrible crushing noise rang in his brain. In response to the sensors, the airbag deployed from the steering wheel, but it wasn’t much use as they had been hit from the side.

Hamazura had been driving the car straight forward, but it was now moving to the side as if it was being pushed by the mobile crane.

They broke right through the guardrail, ran onto the sidewalk, and hit the wall of a building.

The 4-door car was completely immobilized between the yellow mobile crane and the concrete.

Whoever did this didn’t seem to care about causing a disturbance or damaging the area.

It seemed they were intending to kill Hamazura and the others.

“...Ow...”

“Damn it... That was School. They really want that station wagon to get away. They’re trying to slow us down!!” Mugino snarled.

The mobile crane backed up about 10 meters. A girl of about 14 was sitting in the driver’s seat that was surrounded by safety glass. She was short and slender and was wearing a short dress with an open back. It was the kind of dress one would expect the women at a hostess club to wear.

Hamazura thought she was planning on running into them again, but he was wrong.

The girl operated a lever and the crane arm extended. It did not have a metal hook for picking things up on the end.

It had a giant metal ball a few meters across that was used for destroying buildings.

“Shit!!” Mugino yelled and opened the back door, but the car’s frame had been warped too much for the door to open.

Hamazura pulled a lever to fold down the passenger seat.

“We can get out through the windshield!! Hurry!!”

He smashed the cracked windshield and jumped out onto the hood of the car. Mugino and Takitsubo climbed over the passenger seat to get into the front seat.

That was when the wrecking ball came swinging like a pendulum.

The giant mass of metal came roaring towards them. Mugino escaped through the windshield onto the hood first and Hamazura hurriedly grabbed Takitsubo’s hand and pulled her out, but the wrecking ball slammed into the side of the car.

There was a loud crash.

The shock threw the three of them down from the hood onto the ground. Hamazura tried to raise his head, but Mugino grabbed the back of his head. He was pushed to the ground and a second later the car was enveloped in fire as it exploded. It was amazing they all survived.

The mobile crane’s engine emitted a disconcerting noise.

It was continuing even when a number of onlookers had gathered after hearing the explosion.

Mugino Shizuri clicked her tongue.

“Let’s split up.”

“You aren’t going to fight, Ms. Level 5?”

“I’m after the 'Tweezers' on that station wagon. I’m not going to waste time on small fries. ...And that crane girl’s power is a troublesome one.”

As she spoke, Mugino crossed the road and entered a small pathway.

Takitsubo ran in a different direction.

Hamazura headed into an alley between buildings and ran at full speed, but he heard wet footsteps coming from behind him.

(Oh, shit! She came after me!!)

Hamazura’s throat went dry as he ran. It had just been a short girl driving the mobile crane, but she was a member of School, the group that had fought evenly with Item. He had no idea what kind of power she had, but it was something that a Level 5 like Mugino had called “troublesome”.

Hamazura continued to run away, started climbing up the metal emergency staircase on the side of one the buildings, and entered the building on an arbitrary floor.

The building seemed to be a student dorm.

He ran through a straight hallway and heard a door open behind him.

(She caught up to me...!?)

He turned around by reflex.

Sure enough, the short girl had entered through the same door he had. The girl in the showy dress held a ladies’ handgun in her hand. Basically, that meant it had a small grip.

(I’m dead!?)

Hamazura smacked his palm against the wall.

He had pressed a nearby button and a steel shutter fell down like a guillotine. The shutter’s purpose was to protect against out-of-control psychic powers. The girl’s eyes widened slightly and she fired her gun at Hamazura.

Bang bang! Two gunshots rang out.

Hamazura instinctively shut his eyes, but, when he opened them, there were no holes in the steel shutter. Looking at the monitor next to the button on the wall, he saw the girl click her tongue and look down at her own gun.

Apparently, she didn’t have the firepower to destroy the shutter.

(...So she can’t get through to me no matter what she does.)

Relief ran through his body.

He made the world’s stupidest expression, raised his hands, and shook his ass back and forth while yelling “Ee hee hee hee hee!!”.

“...”

The girl in the dress saw this on the monitor on her side of the shutter, put her handgun back on her thigh, and reached around to her back.

What she pulled out from the back of her waist was a handgun with a barrel about as thick as a can of coffee.

It was a small 40mm grenade launcher.

“O-oh, fuck. That’ll kill me for sure, won’t it!?”

Hamazura hurriedly ran back along the hallway, but the girl mercilessly pulled the grenade launcher’s trigger.

The shutter exploded and blew off in Hamazura’s direction. He was hit by a blast of fragments and flew more than 5 meters down the hallway before landing.

“Gh...Gaaah!?”

He somehow managed to get back up and ran wobbling down the hallway balancing himself with a hand on the wall.

Ahead of him was a terrace, so it was basically a dead end.

It seemed there was no stairway or elevator on that end of the hallway.

There was a 3-story drop on the other end of the railing.

However, behind him was the unknown girl from School.

He didn’t have to think twice about that decision.

(I’m definitely going for the 3-story dive!! Taking a leap of will-power and guts is 100 times better than facing someone as strong as her! The weak have our own weak way of living!!)

“Ha ha!! Being a loser is the beeeeessssttt!!”

Hamazura laughed loudly while running, stepped up on the railing, and jumped off of the third floor.

He didn’t even look down before jumping.

With a pursuer, he hadn’t had time to check what was below and he thought he might be too afraid to jump if he actually saw what was down there.

But a 3-story drop was nothing to laugh at.

(Shit. I hope there’s something to cushion my fall down there!!)

Hamazura looked down at the ground for the first time while in midair and saw a young mother happily pushing a baby carriage.

As he flew through the blue sky, Hamazura Shiage’s brain yelled “no” as loudly as it could.

“Gwoooooooohhhhh!?”

He was swinging his arms and legs around trying to get some distance between him and the carriage by air walking. Whether that had any effect or not, his large body landed about 15 cm to the side of the baby carriage.

A sharp pain ran from his heels to his ankles.

The young mother put her hand to her mouth in a refined expression of shock and the baby’s eyes opened so wide it forgot to cry.

“U-um...Who are you?” said the young mother.

“I’m the kind of hero that falls from the sky. It’s dangerous here, so get out of here, miss.”

Hamazura gave a refreshing smile as he spoke and ran down a nearby alley.

Part 8

“Tch!!” The girl of about 14 wearing the showy dress put away her grenade launcher and her handgun, put her hands on the railing of the terrace, and looked down at the ground from the third floor.

The target she had been chasing who had made that idiotic expression was nowhere to be seen.

Only a baby carriage and a young mother were down below.

The girl pulled out her cell phone and called a School comrade.

“I lost my target. There’s only a baby, a mother, and a baby carriage around here. ...Do you think it’s possible that man disguised himself as a baby, a mother, or a baby carriage?”

She was called an idiot and told to die in response, so she hung up and put her phone back in her pocket.

(I let my guard down because I thought he was nothing much. I should have just used my power from the beginning...)

She looked back down towards the ground looking annoyed, turned her back as if she had given up, and went back inside the student dorm to go find an elevator.

Part 9

The convertible Accelerator was riding in was headed for District 23.

He gave a sidelong glance towards the frightened man next to him and pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

After thinking for a second, he entered the three-digit number for Anti-Skill.

When he pressed the phone to his ear, he did not hear an operator from the Anti-Skill contact center. Instead he heard the “man on the phone” who gave instructions to Group.

“What are you trying to do?”

“I assumed you would cut in if I called that number. If you don’t like that I can use you like that, stop being so predictable.” responded Accelerator. “By the way, it seems things have changed. You people seem busy with School, so apparently you can’t control people just by talking with them on the phone. You haven’t talked to us directly so far today, because you’ve been too busy dealing with all that, right?”

“Do you really think that?”

“You’re trying to just smooth it over? Pathetic.”

Accelerator and the “man on the phone” remained silent for a moment.

Finally, Accelerator got to why he had called.

“Give me the information on the satellite being cracked, Hikoboshi II. What’s the output of the military laser equipped on it?”

“Oh, is that all you’re going to ask? You could always ask a more relevant question.”

“I don’t trust what you say enough to risk my life on it.”

“What a cruel thing to say,” the man’s voice responded. “Strictly speaking, the laser on Hikoboshi II is an optical bombing weapon that uses white light waves. And it is currently experimental not military. It heats its target up to about 4000 degrees, but white light waves have the power to destroy cell nuclei just like ultraviolet rays, so it can cause cancer quite quickly.”

(What a ridiculous toy.) thought Accelerator, but he said something else.

“...What’s the range of exposure?”

“Anywhere from a 5 meter radius to a 3 kilometer radius. Also, it cannot fire in quick succession. It can barely manage one shot in an hour. And the atmosphere randomly refracts the white light waves, so there is a slight margin of error in its accuracy.”

“I can’t tell you anything that’s still in the experimental stage though,” the man added lightly.

Accelerator hung up without saying anything more.

He sat in the passenger seat of the convertible thinking while staring at his phone in one hand and jabbing his handgun into the driver with his other.

(Burning down an area with a radius of 3 kilometer? What are they planning...?)

Then his phone started ringing.

He thought it was that man again, but he was wrong.

“This is...Accelerator-san, right? It’s Unabara.”

It was hard to understand him because it sounded like he was keeping his voice low or had his hand over the microphone or something.

“I’m in disguise right now, so speaking in this voice is dangerous. As such, I’d like to keep this brief.”

“Oh, so you’re speaking to me in secret behind School’s back? Sorry, but I’m not going to listen to a plea for help. I have to stop them from cracking the satellite. If you’re saying you can stop School, then I’ll listen.”

“I’m not with School.”

“Ah?”

“The one’s I’m with are the one’s cracking the satellite, but they’re Block not School.”

“...”

From what Unabara said, the organization known as Block was carrying out a plan on that day as well as School.

“What a pain. Then what about the sniper attack on Oyafune Monaka that School carried out?”

“Don’t ask me. ...Wait, sniper attack?”

Unabara sounded puzzled, but then he returned to the subject at hand.

“Before this, they attacked the Virus Isolation Center and one of the External Connection Terminals, so Academy City’s network counter-measure team must be in a state of confusion. They’ll be done with the cracking in another...20 minutes. Then Hikoboshi II will have fallen into Block’s hands.”

“God damn it,” Accelerator swore. “Why hasn’t District 23 temporarily frozen the satellite control center?”

“There are various reasons, but the main one is that the normal method of manually freezing it takes over an hour.”

When dealing with space, things cost a lot more, so even a temporary loss of connection could bring about major losses. Accelerator knew this, but it still pissed him off that they couldn’t just cut off the connection once it was known the satellite was being cracked.

“What is Block planning to do with Hikoboshi II?”

“My guess is that it has to do with the optical weapon on the satellite.”

“Are they trying to strike a deal?”

“No, they’re just going to attack.”

Accelerator clicked his tongue.

“What’s their target?”

“...District 13.”

(District 13?)

Accelerator frowned.

Tsuchimikado and Musujime were headed there to deal with the External Connection Terminal.

(Could they be trying to eliminate Group...?)

After thinking for a second, he decided that it wasn’t that. A large-scale action like taking control of a satellite lacked certainty. Just because they caused an incident didn’t guarantee that Group would head out to deal with it.

“But there aren’t any major facilities there other than the External Connection Terminal. It’s mostly a collection of kindergartens and elementary schools.”

“That’s their target,” responded Unabara in a low annoyed voice that made it sound like he disliked having to explain things. “Of all the districts in Academy City, District 13 has the most kindergartens and elementary schools. If they attack there, most of the city’s youngest residents will be killed. And what do you think would happen then? ...To put it bluntly, do you think any parent would want to send their children to a place where that had happened?”

“...”

“Academy City is a city of students. No matter how many residents it has, they will eventually graduate. Without new students, the city’s numbers will continue to fall until it can’t even function.”

“...So they’re trying to slowly kill the city over the course of the next decade?”

Since Academy City held a great amount of scientific technology, it would not collapse on the financial front so easily. However, that didn’t change the fact that an Academy City with no children would lose its reason to exist.

Accelerator thought for a second.

“Can you stop them there?”

“If I could, I wouldn’t have called.”

“Can we have the residents of District 13 evacuate?”

“If it caused a panic, it could be dangerous for the children in the district. And today is a holiday. The teachers may be able to gather all the students who are still in the dorms, but I don’t think they could do anything about the ones playing in the district.”

“You’re fucking useless. So I suppose I have no choice but to destroy the antenna that communicates with the satellite.”

“Please do. I will continue to gather information here and pass it on to you when I can.”

After saying that, Unabara hung up.

Accelerator put his phone back in his pocket and looked in the direction the convertible was driving.

(So in another 20 minutes they’ll have taken control of Hikoboshi II.)

The convertible would most likely reach District 23 in a little over 10 minutes.

There was no time to take things slowly.

“Hurry up. I have somewhere I need to be.”

Once again, he pushed the gun against the driver and the convertible faithfully sped up.

Part 10

Uiharu Kazari and Last Order were standing on a train station platform in District 7. This was the first time Last Order had seen a train, so she had been wandering around dangerously. Uiharu had grabbed her hand to keep her from doing so.

(Really...Why do I have to deal with this?)

Uiharu had given Last Order the change from the taxi and handed her over to Anti-Skill, but Last Order must have used some special skill because, before Uiharu knew it, she had snuck away from the station and was wandering around the streets again. Uiharu had realized that the same thing would continue to happen if she kept trying to hand her over, so she decided to help Last Order find the person she was looking for.

(You know, I wonder what kind of power “Last Order” is.)

Uiharu couldn’t imagine what that nickname meant just from hearing it. Some esper names were simple ones decided on by the schools like “Telekinesis” or “Electromaster” and some were decided on by the student like “Railgun”. Uiharu was guessing that this girl’s esper name was most likely one she had come up with herself.

“Why isn’t the train coming? says Misaka as Misaka tilts her head in puzzlement.”

“It looks like a freight train is passing through. By the way, where do you think the person you’re looking for is?”

“Hmm. I have a feeling he’s approaching from that direction, says Misaka as Misaka wrinkles her brow while answering.”

It seemed like Last Order was using some kind of power to search for this person, but it didn’t seem to be very precise.

“I wonder if I can really find him like this, says Misaka as Misaka becomes slightly downhearted.”

“It’ll be okay.”

“Thanks for the extremely general words of encouragement, says Misaka as Misaka gives her thanks despite how general they were.”

“I’ll give you a present so some energy can return to your ahoge.”

“Ehh!? You can freely take the flowers off of your head!? says Misaka as Misaka reveals her surprise!!”

“Here. It’s a hibiscus which means 'Well, let’s give it a shot.' in the language of flowers.”

“And now you’re shamelessly declaring incorrect meanings of flowers, says Misaka as Misaka becomes very confused!!”

While Last Order continued to chatter on, Uiharu ignored her and smiled.

That was when a loud noise reached Uiharu’s ears. She looked over and couldn’t see anything, but it had apparently been the sound of the exhaust from a sports car that had driven by at high speed.

“Where are they headed at that speed? Anti-Skill needs to work harder to catch those kinds of people.”

As Uiharu spoke, Last Order wrinkled her brow and started thinking about something.

Part 11

Hamazura Shiage ran out of the alley onto a major road.

He stopped there and surveyed the area while breathing heavily.

Some boys enjoying their day off looked at him in puzzlement, but he didn’t see any sign of his attacker. He wiped the sweat from his brow, bought some cold Oolong tea from a nearby vending machine, and finally relaxed while drinking it.

(W-well, I managed to survive... I wonder if Item is okay. Ah, damn it. I just want to abandon all this shit and go off on a journey somewhere.)

But his cell phone cruelly began to ring.

Hamazura groaned when he saw the display.

It was from Mugino Shizuri of Item.

“Yo. Since you answered, I guess you survived. And I’m assuming you didn’t screw up, get handcuffed, and had someone put the phone to your ear.”

“Yeah, I’m alive... I was the ‘lucky winner’, so I’m assuming you’re fine.”

“Good work with that. I had things a lot easier because of it. Sorry, but you need to come right back. You have some underling work to do.”

Hamazura made an unpleasant expression at the thought of work and Mugino continued.

Saying this didn’t bother her at all.

“I’ve got a body here I need you to dispose of.”

Part 12

The convertible Accelerator was riding in stopped near the terminal station in District 23.

He blankly handed some money to the young man in the driver’s seat and got out of the car.

This was the only station in District 23.

A lot of lines connected there, but the platform for freight trains was the closest one. Even though this was the final stop, the tracks continued on. The tracks connected to the switchyard where the trains were serviced and where trains with a large number of containers could unload.

Noticing that his cane was getting in the way, Accelerator moved around the circumference of the station and looked for the antenna. He was walking through the container storage area that was off limits to unauthorized people.

(I have a little less than 10 minutes. This is like the schedule of some famous musician.)

He turned his attention to the electrode around his neck.

(The antenna for the satellite is a few kilometers from here, but a normal car can’t go any farther than this.)

He had about 30 minutes of battery left. He wanted to avoid using it if at all possible, but he didn’t seem to have a choice here. Searching for a car now would be a pain and it would be faster to “run” using his vector transformation power anyway.

Thinking this, Accelerator moved his hand to the switch on the back of his neck. But...

“Oh. I can’t have you doing that.”

He heard a soft male voice come from directly behind him.

He hadn’t noticed anyone there.

“!!”

Accelerator quickly pulled out the handgun in his belt and turned around, but no one was there.

His body swayed slightly as he stood there with his modern cane.

He moved to push the electrode switch with the tip of the gun in his left hand, but...

“That’s your weakness, isn’t it?”

Someone grabbed his hand from behind.

“No matter how strong your power is, you can’t activate it without pressing that switch, hm?”

Before Accelerator could get his hand free, a heavy blow came to the side of his head. It wasn’t the feeling of being punched by a fist. It was a dull feeling that felt like being hit by a metal pipe or hammer.

He felt a liquid oozing from the side of his head.

“! Are you...from Block!?”

“No, no. I’m from Member not Block.”

A voice from behind.

Member.

One of the five organizations similar to Group and School.

(Fuck. If it isn’t one of these organizations, it’s another!!)

“It isn’t that I want the same thing they do. I just have to prevent that antenna for the satellite from being destroyed.”

Accelerator turned his head and looked back while swaying on his feet, but there was still no one there.

But he did not hesitate.

While still looking in the same direction, he swung his own leg directly backwards and hit the attacker with his foot. The shock freed his left hand and, without turning around, he shot 2 or 3 shots backwards.

“...!? Tch!!”

Sensing he had hit, Accelerator quickly flipped the switch for the electrode around his neck.

He switched it from normal mode to powered mode.

Then he forcefully turned around.

As before, no one was there.

But as he looked around he saw a man standing behind a railroad worker who had approached after hearing the gunshots.

The man had shallow bleeding injuries on his side and thighs. He was wearing a down jacket and the down was soaked red. He looked high-school aged and was pressing a Western-style saw against the railroad worker’s neck from behind.

Accelerator gave a scornful laugh.

“So you’re a teleportation-type esper who can only move behind other people. What a boring power. You can’t even be Level 4. And usually being able to teleport your own weight is enough to get you to Level 4.”

“...”

“You fucking loser. You can’t do the theoretical 11th dimensional calculations on your own, so you compensate by basing your calculations around the locations of others. That power is wasted on you.”

“...I don’t want to hear that from someone who relies on an electrode. Enough talking. The Professor asked me to do this too, so I’m going to stop you here.”

“A hostage? That guy isn’t even any use as a shield. And I’m after the antenna not you.”

“You won’t abandon the hostage.”

The attacker – Accelerator decided to call him Kill Point – laughed scornfully.

“If you would, I doubt you would have come here to stop Hikoboshi II. I can stop you with this guy’s life. But if you really think he isn’t enough, I can create an even greater sea of blood.”

Kill Point pressed the saw against the young railroad worker’s neck and the worker gave a slight yell.

“...You lack aesthetics,” said Accelerator as he held up his gun. “You simply have none of the aesthetics of a villain.”

“If you’re planning on shooting me, you should stop. I think that gun’s sight is horizontally off by quite a bit.”

Thinking about it, Accelerator realized that it did feel different than usual.

When he had shot Kill Point behind him, Kill Point had most likely messed with the setting on the sight. Accelerator could fix the sight if he wanted to, but there was no time to perform maintenance during this tense situation.

Even if the sight was off by a bit, Accelerator was skilled enough to easily hit his target.

But that changed when the target was using a hostage as a shield.

There were problems that could be dealt with using intuition and there were one’s that couldn’t.

“I see. This certainly is an interesting situation.”

“Well? What will you do?”

“This.”

As he said that, Accelerator turned the gun towards his own temple.

Before Kill Point could think, Accelerator unhesitatingly pulled the trigger.

Bang!! A gunshot rang out.

“Gh...Ahhhhhhhh!?”

Kill Point’s body was knocked backwards.

A dark red hole had opened in his shoulder. He tried to brace himself, but he still collapsed onto the ground.

Accelerator had altered the vector of the bullet he had shot himself in the head with so that it headed towards Kill Point.

He motioned his handgun to the side telling the railroad worker to move out of the way.

The railroad worker fled to the side so hurriedly he almost fell and Accelerator aimed his gun forward again.

“Looks like the sight really is off.” He put his finger on the trigger. “But I can correct for that by altering its vector when it hits me. A gun sight is nothing compared to the accuracy of my power.”

“Kh...”

Kill Point continued to face Accelerator and looked around by moving only his eyes.

A look of scorn appeared on Accelerator’s face when he saw that.

“Excellent. I don’t give a fuck who you move behind; I’ll still blow your brains out. You can run wherever you want, but with my next move I will pulverize you. Run, piggy. Let fear set in after what I told you sinks in.”

“...!!”

Kill Point’s throat went dry.

Accelerator ignored his expression.

“Now then. I’ll teach you one thing about the aesthetics you lack.”

A smile appeared on Accelerator’s lips as he spoke quietly.

“This is what a truly first-class villain is, you fucker.”

Bang bang!! Multiple gunshots rang out.

Kill Point resisted a bit, but he stopped moving before long.

Part 13

Hamazura Shiage was in a very large space.

The job that remained for him after having escaped the pursuer from School was to incinerate some unknown object.

He was in an old abandoned building that wasn’t used anymore. In the middle of the remnants of one of the building’s floors, a huge device sat as if enshrined. The container-sized mass of thick metal was an electric furnace normally used to dispose of lab animals. It used an enormous heat of approximately 3500 degrees to sterilize and destroy the animal corpses, and the various germs they may have.

“...How is this thing getting its power? I doubt plugging it into the wall would suffice,” Hamazura mumbled while looking at the large out-of-place device.

His job was simple.

He would open the metal cover that had a huge wheel on it like the door to a large vault, throw a black sleeping bag inside, close the metal cover again, and then operate the electric furnace. And it was preset, so all operating it involved was pressing the conspicuous red ignition button.

It was best not to think about what was in the bag.

Mugino Shizuri of Item had told him as much.

And Hamazura thought it was good advice.

A subordinate like Hamazura didn’t think too much about what the secret organizations like Item and School did. He was only there because it was necessary in order to survive in the city.

(...)

But as he felt an oddly raw weight in the black bag and felt the soft texture of a thick synthetic cloth when he grabbed it, the face of someone he had never met appeared in the back of his mind. Hamazura tried to shake it away, then threw the bag into the furnace and both shut and locked the thick metal cover.

Now he only had to press the red button.

The electrically created 3500 degree heat would dispose of the body, destroy the genetic information, and turn a human into nothing but ash in no time.

Hamazura thought for a second about the person in the bag, but he still brought his thumb up to the button.

He tried not to think about anything at all and all expression left his face.

That scared him a bit and his fingertips began trembling. When they did, the bottom of his thumb pressed the red button without him meaning to.

The “disposal” began with a low rumbling noise.

Hamazura stared at it without saying a word and finally took a step or two back before sitting down on the dust-covered floor.

“...”

Who had been in that bag?

It may have been a subordinate just like him and it may have been a major esper. It wasn’t necessarily a kid and he couldn’t rule out the possibility that it was an adult. It was probably an enemy, but Mugino very well could have killed an ally who screwed up. He didn’t know the circumstances surrounding the person’s death and it even could have been someone completely unrelated who happened to get caught up in it all.

And it was all being burned away to nothing.

Inside the thick metal device, a human was turning into something completely different.

Once the person became “ash” and was no longer legally recognized as a “human”, they would have disappeared without a trace. They might be thrown into the automated kitchen waste device, churned up, and shipped off as fertilizer. Even if “ash” was found in the trash, it wouldn’t be treated as having been a person. A body that had lost all genetic information wouldn’t be acceptable as material evidence.

“Hamazura.”

Hamazura Shiage heard a voice call out to him from behind, but he still didn’t move for a bit.

The electric furnace emitted a high-pitched beeping and a symbol indicating the incineration was complete appeared on the monitor.

“Hamazura. What’s wrong?”

The person calling out to him from behind was Takitsubo Rikou of Item.

Her esper name was AIM Stalker.

Unlike Hamazura, she had a Level 4 power.

He would probably have gone down the wrong path with power like that, but he was still quite envious.

“...What exactly is a human life?” Hamazura said while staring blankly towards the furnace.

It wasn’t the first time he had seen a corpse, but he still felt a great weight in his chest.

“Damn it. When did a Level 0 life become such a cheap thing...?”

He heard the girl’s voice call his name again.

He ignored her, got up, and opened the cover to the furnace in order to gather up the ash.

Hamazura Shiage’s job wasn’t over yet.

Part 14

Unabara Mitsuki was in a multi-tenant building in District 10.

The area he was in functioned as one of Block’s hideouts.

Currently, 3 members of Block and about a dozen fighters from the subordinate organization were gathered there. And Unabara Mitsuki had switched out with one of those main members.

“...Almost there now,” said Saku Tatsuhiko as he shook his large bear-like body.

A laptop computer was in front of him. It looked compact, but there was a cord stretching from it that led to what looked like an overfilled sandwich. It apparently had about 15 commercial CPUs spread out on it with liquid cooling tubes running between them.

Teshio, the muscular woman, looked at the screen and spoke to Saku.

“Did you do it?”

“More or less. Since I used the Virus Isolation Center as a dummy, District 23 was understaffed.” Saku moved his mouth without looking over to Teshio. “This is the first step towards saying goodbye to this shitty world where every little thing is permeated in the stench of Aleister.”

Saku wasn’t really paying attention to who was listening; he was mostly speaking to himself.

Even so, his words were powerful ones.

“This is only the first step. We’re still well off from the goal, but we’re on our way.”

“...”

Unabara casually looked over at the clock on the wall.

Block would have the satellite in a just a few more minutes.

Accelerator hadn’t contacted him, so he didn’t know whether the antenna had been destroyed yet or not. He turned his attention towards his pocket. He thought about the Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli he had there.

(...I could end this by destroying that computer, but I would never survive the aftermath.)

Sweat moistened his palms.

He couldn’t put off this decision.

But then Teshio Megumi spoke.

“It seems something happened in District 23. A number of Anti-Skills were taken out there. From the transmissions I was able to intercept, a rescue worker was surprised at the fact that none of the injuries were fatal.”

Everyone looked towards the speaking woman.

“Connecting the dots between the defeated Anti-Skills leads straight from the terminal station to the antenna. At tremendous speed, too. Much faster than a normal person could manage on foot.”

“What organization is behind it?” asked Saku. “It would have to be Member, right? It has to be those dogs of Aleister.”

“No,” said Teshio quickly. “It’s Group. I remember that white hair. If I remember correctly, he’s a Level 5 who has recently come to this world.”

(...She recognizes him?)

Unabara found that odd, but figured it out quickly.

The functionality of what Teshio held in her hand was more like a small business terminal than a cell phone. And on its screen was a grainy image that looked like it had been taken from a great distance.

According to the numbers on the edge of the image, it had been magnified 4000 times. Most likely, a member of Block’s subordinate organization who had been waiting outside District 23 had taken it.

The monitor showed Accelerator headed towards the antenna.

With his power, he could easily destroy the 25 meter-radius parabola.

And Block wasn’t going to take it sitting down.

(Not good! ...Actually, maybe this is fine. Even if they do have him, they can’t accurately snipe him from that distance.)

“What do we do?” Teshio Megumi plainly asked for instructions

All eyes turned to Saku.

“That should be obvious.”

Unabara felt tension run across his body as he heard that unworried voice.

They must have had some kind of counter-measure.

He speculated that they might have some kind of bomb set up near the antenna that could detonated remotely, but the large bear-like man gave a different answer.

“We pray for his success.”

At first, Unabara Mitsuki didn’t understand.

But then his thoughts recovered.

(Oh, no... They’re after...!?)

“A frontal assault on District 23 would have been difficult with our powers. But this can’t happen without the antenna being destroyed first. So we had to get some help from a more skilled idiot.”

“Surprisingly, we may have overthought this one. The Level 5 has reached the antenna.”

“The higher ups watching over all this must have opened a path for him. That area is crawling with air force-related weapons. Normally, an unmanned attack of mostly HsAFH-11 Attack Helicopters would have gone in to intercept him. Although it doesn’t matter because that Level 5 could have easily defeated them.”

(Our attention was drawn towards the optical weapon equipped on it, but Hikoboshi II’s primary function is to provide surveillance of Academy City and the surrounding areas. Without the antenna, both the attack functionality and the surveillance functionality will be taken out!!)

Unabara thought about the cell phone in his pocket, but it would be extremely difficult to get away and contact someone at a time like this.

Teshio stared at Saku’s face.

“Are we really going to use the people waiting outside the outer wall of District 11?”

“People like them are perfect for a plan like this. What? You aren’t having second thoughts about getting unrelated people wrapped up in this, are you?”

The large man ended the now-unneeded cracking program on the laptop, turned off the machine, and tossed it over to the subordinate members.

“Let’s go. There are 5000 mercenaries waiting for us outside the walls.”

October 9th 1:29 PM.

A certain satellite lost functionality because the antenna that communicated with it was destroyed.

Academy City’s defense capabilities had greatly fallen due to its surveillance network in the sky being gone.

Between the Lines 2

The Level 5 esper and School member known as Kakine Teitoku was in District 4.

It was an area lined with a lot of restaurants even for Academy City, so there were a lot of facilities dealing with food. One of them was a refrigerated warehouse for meat. It currently had a station wagon hidden in it.

“There’s no sign of Item. Looks like we lost them for now.”

Kakine opened the back of the station wagon and checked on what was inside.

It wasn’t frozen meat; it was a large metal box about the size of a small closet.

“...So those are the ‘Tweezers’,” muttered the driver who was a member of School’s subordinate organization.

A smile appeared on Kakine’s lips.

“An attachment-type manipulator for microscopic object interference. Well, simply put, it’s mechanical fingers that let you grab particles that are even smaller than atoms. Hence the name.”

All matter in the world was created from a combination of elementary particles. At the particle engineering lab, they would intentionally remove particles from matter to make it unstable and perform experiments.

Grabbing objects smaller than atoms was difficult to do with a traditional arm. The “Tweezers” were created to use things like magnetism, light waves, and electricity to “absorb” them.

“One wrong move and the atom could collapse.”

“Hah?”

“Nothing,” said Kakine. “There was a lot of pain-in-the-ass preparation what with replacing the sniper Item killed and shooting Oyafune, but it all paid off.”

The driver stared at the large device.

“But what are you going to do with this now that you have it?”

“What? I just explained it to you. I’m going to grab some tiny things. That leads to a way to get to Aleister.”

“???”

The driver had an expression that made it clear he didn’t understand, but Kakine didn’t give any further explanation. He opened up the tool box in the back of the station wagon, took out a screwdriver, and started loosening some screws on the large device.

“A-are you trying to break it?”

“I’m rearranging it,” said Kakine in an annoyed voice. “Do you know why it’s so big? To keep it from being stolen. If you gather together only the necessary parts, it must be a lot smaller.”

A clattering noise continued for a while.

The “Tweezers” had been rearranged into its optimized form.

Kakine had what looked like a metal glove in his hands. The index finger and the middle finger each had a long glass claw coming from them and the glass claws had what looked like even thinner metal stakes in them. On the back of the hand was a small monitor that looked like a cell phone.

The glass claws would extract the particles and the metal stakes inside would carry out various measurements.

“I-it’s that small?”

“Well, it is a state of the art piece of Academy City technology. Advancing too quickly can be a problem too.”

Kakine put his right hand in the glove in order to check on it.

“Okay, feels good. ...Contact the others. Time for the next step.”

The driver nodded in compliance.

When he did, a sharp metallic noise rang out through the refrigerated warehouse.

Kakine and the driver looked over and a door-shaped portion of the thick wall of the warehouse had been cut open. The wall collapsed inwards and the bright light of midday came pouring in.

No one was outside.

But the attacker’s influence was clearly coming towards them.

“Gyah! Gwaaaaahhh!?” screamed the driver suddenly.

Kakine looked over and saw the skin disappearing from the driver’s face. Then his fat disappeared followed by his muscles. Finally, his brain disappeared and his clothes and bones collapsed to the ground.

The sound as they hit the ground sounded like light plastic.

Kakine frowned slightly.

“Kakine Teitoku, huh? Losing a Level 5 here would be a shame.”

A voice reached Kakine’s ears, but he couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from.

He focused his attention in all directions and activated the “Tweezers” that he had just rearranged.

(I never would have guessed I’d have to use this here.)

“...Group, I assume. Or maybe Item.”

“Sorry, but I am from Member. Oh, Kakine boy, do you smoke?”

The voice from an unknown source was that of a middle-aged man.

“When people remove a cigarette from the box, they tap the box with their finger, right? When I was a kid, I didn’t understand why. However, I thought it looked cool, so I would tap my candy boxes.”

“Ahh?”

“I’m saying that you’re doing something like that now.”

“Are you making fun of me? Cause it sounds to me like you want to become a nice corpse.”

That was when an electronic beep came from the “Tweezers” on his right hand.

Looking at the monitor, he could see that there was some kind of tiny mechanical object mixed in with the particles of air the device had collected. In the world one could only see with an electron microscope, there was something obviously manmade.

“Nanodevices, hm? You tore off his cells one at a time.”

“No. Mine are nothing as grand as that. They have no circuitry or power. They merely give specific responses to specific frequencies. They’re just little bits of reflective alloy. I call them ‘Mimosa’.” The middle-aged man spoke in a bored voice from wherever he was. “But by using various frequencies, they can be controlled much like controlling a radio controlled car with a TV remote. Normally, they are placed on microorganisms in the air and spread around that way.”

A vague noise surrounded Kakine Teitoku.

He quickly looked around, but the Mimosa attacked before he could find a path of escape.

The Professor of Member was standing at leisure outside of the refrigerated warehouse along with a mechanical beast. In his hand was a small computer terminal that was displaying the status of the program controlling the Mimosa.

The Professor was in a bazaar that looked like it had been built along the sidewalk. Business vehicles were allowed to park in that area and a commercial van that looked like a crepe stand was opened up with all sorts of fruits inside.

The mechanical beast next to him spoke.

“So they were in the refrigerated warehouse in District 4 just like the higher ups said they would.”

“That’s the power of the upper classes. Academy City is their territory. The city is overflowing with strange technology. It’s impossible to run away.”

The Professor spoke quietly while biting into a fruit from a southern country that was so red it looked poisonous.

“Art brought me to despair in the winter when I was 12.”

The mechanical beast listened to the Professor’s words in silence.

“I adored European architecture. I fell in love with the large scale of the ‘creations’ that people had made over a long period of time in order to complete a single ideal of beauty. But, at the same time, they were hard to understand. It’s easy to look at the outer appearance of a building and call it beautiful. However, in order to thoroughly understand every little piece of the design, its large scale makes it necessary to put in an equally large amount of time. To be honest, there are just so many things to focus on that it becomes tiresome.”

“So that’s why you’re so attached to formulas.”

“Indeed,” the Professor nodded. “Formulas are wonderful. There is no waste, they are efficient. All sorts of beauty is included in the smallest possible space. In that alone, formulas have a beauty to them and they also have a haiku-like poetic beauty. And you can look through all that beauty in a single row without missing a thing. ...I want to find the beauty hiding in the corners of the world and softly admire that wonderful beauty. I will bow down to whoever I have to in order to do that. I don’t care if I’m called Aleister’s dog.”

The Professor looked down at his watch.

The Mimosa should be done eliminating the enemy.

(Aleister won’t be happy that I’ve killed the 2nd Level 5, but it shouldn’t be a problem as he can just make a new Level 5.)

“Okay, let’s go. This job will be over once the ‘Tweezers’ have been reclaimed and the other three with School have been taken out.”

“What about our Member teammate, Saraku, who was taken out near the terminal station in District 23?”

“Accelerator called him Kill Point, didn’t he? Well, he isn’t dead, so we can just leave him. If you have time, go retrieve him.”

The Professor spoke.

But the mechanical beast did not respond.

There was a loud explosion.

It came from within the refrigerated warehouse.

The great force shattered the glass on the buildings in the area. People ran around screaming and there was even a slight disturbance around the commercial van in the bazaar facing the sidewalk.

Dust enveloped the area.

Kakine Teitoku slowly walked out of the dust.

There was no injury on him.

Not even a scratch.

“Yo. So you say you were brought to despair in the winter when you were 12?”

The Professor hurriedly sent out commands to the Mimosa, but there was no response. Most of the tiny particles in the air had been blown away in the explosion, so the Mimosa in the area was too far away.

The Professor looked to be at his wit’s end and Kakine gave a small smile.

As he smiled he spoke.

“It’s about time you had another dose of despair.”