A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 8 (8 page)
“I wonder about what department District 23 was trying to deliver the luggage to in the first place, but investigating the robbers is probably more important. I think there’s a chance an outside organization hostile to Academy City is working behind the scenes. You have an eyewitness account, and besides, if they were from Academy City, too, they wouldn’t have relied on such a crude robbery.”
“…An outside organization hostile to the city. Could Musujime be related to something like that? Just who is she?”
“She’s been absent frequently from Kirigaoka Girls’ Academy. And they’re all excused absences, too. Which should never happen if she’s not doing work for Judgment.”
“Are you saying whatever work she’s doing compares to ours?”
Uiharu’s voice got smaller. “This isn’t confirmed, but according to some, she’s the guide. To the building with no windows or doors.”
“…The Academy City General Board chairman’s headquarters.”
It was a very movie-like rumor—that the leader of Academy City lived in a special building that could even absorb and disperse an impact from a nuclear missile. It had no entrances or exits, no windows or doors, so apparently they needed to use a “guide” who could teleport in and out.
But if those rumors were true (or if it were more than that) then Musujime would be familiar with circumstances the general populace wasn’t. It wouldn’t be strange for her to be in contact with some special people. And maybe the outside organization thought that was important.
“I do not know what Musujime’s circumstances are,” said Shirai, “but I will consider that she was in contact with an outside organization and caused this incident. The contents of the luggage…She called it the ‘remnant.’ Now that she has it…”
“…All she has to do is bring it to the organization waiting outside the city and hand it off to them.”
“Do you know what route she will take?” She reached for a change of underwear, but then noticed again that her hands had blood on them. She went to the sink instead and washed them. In a normal situation, she would have seemed like a dunce—a girl in pigtails washing her hands in the nude, cell phone between her face and shoulder.
“That one’s tough. With teleportation, it wouldn’t matter what route she took. You know as well as anyone that even Academy City’s security systems have blind spots.” She paused. “Oh, but if the security
would
catch her, that could actually give us a clue.”
“What do you mean?” asked Shirai, wiping her hands off with a towel and putting her feet through her panties. She pulled them up to her waist in one go—a little too far, so she pushed them back down a bit with her fingers.
“If she’s going to slip past the security systems, then we just have to check all the blind spots. Compared to all of Academy City, there’s quite a bit less ground to cover, right?”
“…You say it like it’s easy. I’m wounded, you know…Ow!” Right when she tried to hook her small brassiere around her back, a pain shot through her side. She must have caught her skin in it. Frowning at not having chosen a front-hook or a slip, she rubbed her side. Thankfully, it hadn’t caused
another
wound to open.
“…” Kuroko Shirai very briefly gave her underwear a once-over. Mikoto Misaka had called her tastes bad, and she felt (fairly seriously) down about that. However, she didn’t actually pay much attention to the underwear’s actual design. Underwear wasn’t for showing off—it was for wearing. She would take more comfortable underwear over the alternative any day. The fabric in underwear with childish designs on them sometimes felt thick and cheap, and it was distracting to have it rubbing against skin when she moved around. Seriously, if you were going to choose something like that, you might as well not be wearing anything under your skirt at all (though in her case, she needed to maintain her composure to use her abilities). She and Mikoto couldn’t agree on this, and it made her disappointed.
Once she was finished putting on her underwear, she wrapped the leather belts she used as metal-dart holders to her thighs. She didn’t have any spares. After rubbing disinfecting alcohol from the first-aid kit on the ones that had been stuck in her body, she packed them back into the belts.
“Umm, well, listen. If she was trying to get out of Academy City by crossing between blind spots starting at the scene, then including both underground and above ground, a number of routes are naturally available to her. So doing a thorough search would—”
“…Shh!” Shirai detected someone present and quickly hung up the phone. A moment later, she heard the sounds of someone coming into the room from beyond the thin bathroom door. Shooting a glance at the bathroom door, she realized she’d forgotten to lock it, and she hastily shut it and did so. The metallic
clink
echoed awfully unnaturally.
“?…Kuroko?”
There was no mistaking that voice. Even slightly muffled by the thin boards, she knew who it was right away. She would have only needed to hear her
breathe
to be confident it was Mikoto Misaka.
“What, are you taking a bath? You should at least turn the lights on when you come back here. It was pitch-black. What were you doing?”
Shirai gave a start. She couldn’t let Mikoto see how wrecked she’d gotten. She mustn’t even act in a way that would let her imagine what she looked like. The girl was far more the type to burden herself with the problems of others than she herself realized. “I-it’s called conserving energy, Big Sister. Poor little Kuroko was being kind and considerate, trying to slow global warming even a little bit.”
“Uh-huh. You know, Academy City is mostly wind-powered. Carbon dioxide has nothing to do with it, does it? And it’s supplemented by things that don’t run on fuel, like solar power, too. I mean, using the air conditioner is another problem, but…”
“Oh, really? And here I just wanted an excuse to invite you into a nice, dimly lit atmosphere, Big Sister. —Oh, come, Big Sister, that kind of groaning is very improper for a lady.” Shirai giggled, leaning against the door. The door vibrated; Mikoto must have done the same thing on the other side. As Shirai felt that, she remembered something.
Didn’t you think things were a little too convenient? Like how the useless person who stole this practically aimed to get wrapped up in a traffic jam? You couldn’t guess the reason
behind the electricity failure on the traffic lights
? There’s no possible way you wouldn’t know what kind of powers Tokiwadai’s ace has.
—She knew something was happening.
Mikoto Misaka sure has it rough. Someone blew up the Tree Diagram for her, so her nightmare ended.
—And she knew Mikoto Misaka had a lot to do with it.
But now they’re saying they’re going to repair it. If that happens, they’ll redo the experiment. So, well, I suppose I can sort of relate to her feeling she needs to struggle desperately against that.
—And she knew that even though Mikoto was wrapped up in these problems, she would never show a hint of distress or worry to Shirai—no, she didn’t
want
to.
She knew. All she had to do was put together the pieces to understand. Mikoto had her own issues, but she didn’t want to reveal them to Shirai, and someone else was responding to them. And whatever her reason may have been, she preferred Shirai to be that way…as if repelling her from some private circle.
If Shirai had done her best, had worked so hard she shed her own blood…
…then Mikoto Misaka would never be happy about it. Never. Because that meant Mikoto had gotten her wrapped up in her own private affairs.
But even still…
Shirai felt strongly that she wanted to do something for Mikoto. She wanted to lighten her load, even if she couldn’t do much. Even if the things Shirai devoted herself to were never revealed and that credit was given to someone else—she didn’t care. That’s what she wished for. Staring at her bloodied clothing from inside her wound-covered body, she clenched her teeth and prayed for it.
Kuroko Shirai didn’t know about any of the specifics.
She hadn’t been told anything, so she couldn’t make any judgments.
But she wanted to end it.
She wanted to make sure to take her out of the situation—of spilling her own blood for something.
And once she put an end to everything, she wanted them to be able to laugh together again without any background things to worry about, like they had today after school.
All alone, Kuroko Shirai made up her mind.
And to do that…
I will offer you serious lies, Big Sister, even if you don’t want me to.
“Big Sister, where have you been?”
“Hmm? Grabbing one or two accessories I missed out on buying, I suppose. Recently I’ve been looking all over for them, but I just can’t quite seem to find them. I just stopped back here to pick up something I forgot. I’ll be going out for a bit again. Oh, but don’t expect any souvenirs, Kuroko.”
What a weak argument. Shirai wondered what she’d do if she said she would come along with her, like she always did.
Recently
…
That means Big Sister
has
been doing something by herself lately. Looking for accessories? Top-secret ones, perhaps…? Good grief, you said it.
Shirai smiled thinly but didn’t back down. There was one thing she needed to say. The thing Mikoto had told her this afternoon. She would turn the implication of those words right back on her. “Hopefully it will not rain tonight. The weather forecasts haven’t been correct lately, after all.”
“…” For a brief moment, Mikoto inhaled as if surprised. Then, after a few moments of silence, she spoke, her voice a little softer than before—as if tired by something. “You’re right. Thanks for worrying about me. I’ll do my best to come back as soon as I can.”
She felt her leave the door. After pulling her back away from the thin boards, she seemed to exit the room. She heard the
bang
of the door to their room opening and closing.
“Anyway…” She took a breath, then, still in her underwear, snatched up her spare summer uniform and got her phone back out. There was something she needed to ask Uiharu. “Yes, that’s right. Could you be a dear and tell me where that utter piece of trash could have gone?”
After cleaning the bloodstains in the bathroom and dealing with her torn clothing, Shirai teleported again and exited onto the road behind the girls’ dormitory.
It was 8:30
PM
.
Privately, she was a little surprised it hadn’t even been two hours since going shopping with Mikoto.
At this hour, the transportation facilities of Academy City would be mostly shut down for the night. The bus and train operation schedules were all aligned with the end of the school day, one reason being to prevent kids from being out late. The only things on the roads would be the cars of faculty and university students, taxis, and other trucks for business purposes.
It seemed that the traffic had already cleared up.
Of course, there were very few wheeled vehicles in Academy City to begin with, so it made everything look smooth.
Shirai took a breath of air. Its smell and taste had already changed to that of the nighttime.
“Umm, I have some useful news, Shirai.” Her cell phone was saying something. “It doesn’t seem like Awaki Musujime is able to move her own body continuously like you do. There was a note about that in the data banks. Do you remember how I told you her abilities went crazy during a curriculum she took two years ago?”
“Yes, what about it?”
“After that, she frequently made use of the school counselors. I wonder if it could have traumatized her somehow. She hasn’t gotten good results in experiments to make her own body move, and apparently she has a history of pushing herself so hard that her health breaks down. Like every time she moves her body, she has to summon all her courage to do it. Which means…”
“…That if she kept trying to warp herself, she’d get mentally exhausted in no time flat, is that it?” Shirai bit her lip a little. “I suppose I didn’t see Musujime teleport her own body during that battle. If she could do that in the first place, it would have been faster for her to steal the luggage herself and run away than it would be to call in outside agents. We can move at high speeds, ignoring walls and roads—we don’t need to limit ourselves to traditional means of pursuit.”
Even Shirai’s own abilities largely varied based on her mental state on a given day. Maybe Musujime’s strength would plummet, too, if she dug up the girl’s trauma during combat.
Still, though.
Is that why such a powerful esper is still stuck down here with me in terms of Level?
With that bitter idea in mind, Shirai began to teleport. Every time she advanced eighty meters and set foot on the ground again, she’d immediately determine her next destination and warp there.
In honesty, her body was such a mess that she could barely walk. At times like these, the ability to freely move continuously at a high speed seemed quite reliable.
“In Musujime’s case, she may be able to move things from far away, which I can’t—but on the other hand, the calculations are that much more demanding. I can only move things I’m touching, but that means I don’t have to calculate the coordinates of its original location.”
“Yes…I suppose so. —You can…shrink the calculations…that way. Anyway—as for the predicted routes…Musujime could utilize without…using Move Point…”
Shirai paid close attention to the voice coming out of the phone, which was stuttering because of the side effects of teleportation, but before Uiharu had the time to finish, Shirai was given the proper directions by something else.
Boom!!
A thunder-like noise reverberated from somewhere far away.
Kuroko Shirai looked up at the night sky. “Could that have been…?”
Academy City’s transportation facilities, store hours, and the like were all essentially made to match school hours. Lights faded quickly as the sun set, so compared to other urban centers, this one had less artificial lights. The view of a sky full of stars tonight meant it was clear out, which implied there were no thunderheads—nothing to make lightning strike.
Then where had the scream of high-voltage electricity originated?
“Shirai, we have reports of a large-scale battle between espers happening in District 7, Area 1. It’s right on Musujime’s predicted escape route!” To overshadow the volume of Uiharu’s voice and to block the transmission of electromagnetic waves, thunder roared once again.
She knew for sure. There was no mistaking that tone color. “Big Sister!!” she shouted, changing course. While she felt carelessly exposing herself to Mikoto went against her style, when she imagined the girl being attacked by someone, she could no longer choose the option of staying put.
She used teleportation to move from point to point through space, one after another.
As she did, the sounds of seemingly violent sparks rang out like a bombing attack.
The men and women out, all older than Shirai, were looking that way dubiously, their night walks interrupted.
Shirai advanced on and on as though hurried by both of these things, discovering her destination was near at hand. She quit using her high-speed movement via continuous teleportation, moving toward the corner of the building—right where the blind spot was—from where she’d heard the immense sounds of electrical attacks.
As a detective might do when tailing a suspect, she poked her head around the side of the building to take a look.
And then she saw it.
It was a battlefield.
A battlefield created by a single girl.
Its location: a building under construction. Thinking back, it was the same place as the accident where the steel framework had collapsed on August 31st. They had removed the broken pieces of frame getting in the way and looked into strengthening the remaining sections already—and they had just begun to rebuild it…or so she recalled.
A minibus lay on its side in front of the building’s entrance.
Its windows were broken and its contents were strewn, but nobody was inside it.
Everyone who had been riding it had dived for cover inside the building under construction, hoping the scattered mess of steel frames would give them some kind of barrier.
All in all, about thirty men and women were hiding in the building. Some were armed with guns, and others were Academy City espers.
Those guns! I remember them. They’re the ones those guys I wrecked with the luggage were carrying…!!
Shirai sucked in her breath as she peeked out from the building’s shadows. Both the guns’ design and the way they held them were similar.
Nevertheless, Mikoto Misaka was just standing there next to the toppled bus.
I know who those people with the guns are. And that idiot woman said Big Sister was deeply involved with that luggage. Which means…
Given the format of all this, she could guess these were the guys trying to give the remnant to the outside organization.
Someone she knew was among them.
Awaki Musujime.
None could present an obstacle to Mikoto. There may have been a fallen minibus right there, but she wasn’t trying to use it as a shield. Common sense would suggest how utterly defenseless she was when faced with dozens of enemies all with ranged weapons…
…but she easily crushed that common sense, showing them what the nickname Railgun really meant.