“I’m bored.”

In any case, he’d have to cancel the special 50 percent–off deal for now.

Accelerator grabbed the man’s insect-like face with all five fingers like a basketball.

There was a rush of air as though he’d swung a metal bat. He roughly tossed the man in black away through a glassless window.

The defeated skidded across the asphalt. Without bothering to watch the comedy, the three surrounding minivans’ back doors slid open with a clatter.

But nobody got out.

There was only an endless array of gun muzzles on presentation.

Accelerator sighed at the sight, at the same time driving his fist straight down as if to vent his frustration. His vector-controlled strike dealt fatal damage to the vehicle’s frame, which was already twisted and broken. All its pipes began to crack apart, and sparks flew into them.

Bang!! came the explosive wind and heat, spreading in every direction, swallowing up all their surroundings.

He heard a series of muffled screams from the three minivans. Sure, they were inside, wearing masks over their faces, but an extremely hot wind mass had just struck them from point-blank range. Several, burned in their throats, writhed in pain, and a few even ended up rolling out of the opened sliding doors in the back of the vehicles.

“Fantastic play, guys,” came the voice from the flames. “I’ll make sure you look good dying. You’re welcome.”

Accelerator casually walked into the flames and wreckage, red like an opened pomegranate. His “reflection” could only last fifteen minutes, but it didn’t seem like it would be a problem here. Actually, if he broke step, he could end it in ten seconds.

Then…

“Come on, what’ve I been tellin’ ya?”

He heard a man’s voice from one of the automobiles surrounding him.

“It’ll take a lot more than this to crush that punk. You keep goin’ easy on him ’cause he’s a punk. That’s why I told you to let me out first, remember?”

A man was kicked out of the still-open rear sliding door. After him, a tall man wearing a white robe lumbered out. His expression showed no signs of damage. Despite being a scientist, he had a tattoo on his face. His hands were clad in machined gloves. They had a dumb, long name—“micro-manipulators” or something. As the name implied, though, they were supposedly precision engineering tools that enabled delicate work on a micrometer scale.

“…”

Accelerator’s brows knitted.

He knew this scientist.

“Pfft.”

And as soon as he saw him, he burst out laughing.

“Gya-ha-ha-ha-ha!! What’s with that suggestive entrance, eh, Kihara?! You don’t seem like the kind of nerd to get scared of someone’s face and look away!!”

Amata Kihara.

A man who, long ago, did the Ability Development on Academy City’s strongest Level Five esper.

Which also meant he was the most talented Ability Development scientist in the entire city.

“Look, I didn’t want to see your ugly face again, either. But I can’t do anything about what the higher-ups tell me, eh? They were all ‘It’s an emergency’ and ‘Do whatever it takes.’ So, uh, sorry, but do me a favor and let me crush you.”

Accelerator ignored the man in white’s bold front.

Everyone involved in researching Accelerator had been, without exception, afraid of his incredible abilities. In clearer terms, they’d never tried keeping him in one facility for more than two months. However lofty a scientist’s ambitions were, the moment they saw someone with gifts far outrivaling their own, without exception, they would hide in the corner, quivering.

Amata Kihara was no more than one of those scientists.

Actually, Accelerator didn’t even know any other types of scientist.

Kikyou Yoshikawa being the one exception.

Kihara’s shoulders drooped slightly in his lab coat. “Don’t be like that. Who do you think discovered your powers for you?”

“Yeah? What was that? You talkin’ to me about obligation and humanity? You one of those people who wants Accelerator to repay a favor? Shit, you’re hopeless. And also…” Accelerator put his left index finger up to his temple and began twirling it around. “Go be insane somewhere else. I need more than my hands to count the number of scientists who fucked with my body. You think I was gonna remember you out of all of them, Passerby A? I think nothing of you, so would ya mind getting out of my sight?”

“You really are one annoying punk, you know that?” Kihara crossed his arms like he was worried about the cold. He chuckled and looked at Accelerator. “Man, I wanna kill you. I really, really want to kill you. To be honest with you, I’ve always wanted to beat that face of yours. I didn’t before, since you were good research material, and you were still a brat, a fucking punk. What was I thinking? Knew I shoulda killed you back then. Man, I’m a failure. Ah-ha-ha, what the hell am I doing?”

He spread his arms out wide, his hands in those super-precision work gloves, reinforced with electrically contracted artificial muscles and small motors. Almost like he was welcoming back a lover.

Arms still spread, he began to approach Accelerator.

Recklessly.

The corners of the scientist’s lips twisted.

And he said this:

“Which means it’s time to die, you little shit.”

He let fly a lean, gloved fist made of metal at Accelerator’s face.

Accelerator, though, kept on smiling.

“What’s this idiot thinking?” he muttered.

He would accept Amata Kihara’s punch in that unguarded, wide-open stance of his, then break his arm as hard as he could and tie it into a slipknot.

Slam!!

The mechanical fist scraped off Accelerator’s skin and rattled his skull.

“Gah…ergh…?!”

The unexpected strike had shocked his brain even more.

His electrode choker switch was flipped to “on.”

His reflection was active.

Right now, he would have been able to blow himself up with a nuclear bomb and emerge unscathed.

And yet…

For some reason, his vector reflection wasn’t working at all.

“And also,” came Amata Kihara’s voice in his shaky, wavering awareness. A disappointed voice—a scornful one. “I don’t think anything of you, either, you little shit. Don’t get all stuck up just ’cause you’re a little powerful. I’ll say it again. Who the hell do you think gave you that bullshit ability? Come on, you remember now, don’t you?”

“Agh…”

Before Accelerator could say anything, Amata came in with another punch.

The glove created a strange gshhh noise.

The strike came in like a hammer, from above to below. And once again, his reflection meant nothing. His head slugged, Accelerator collapsed onto the wet road surface. The modern-looking crutch fell out of his hand. The plastic bag from the pharmacy fell to the ground, and its contents scattered about.

“Let me crush you already. I’ve got important things to do, too. Don’t have the time to fool around with the likes of you, got it?”

Kihara crushed the box of adhesive bandages underfoot.

The ones he’d bought for Last Order, specially made for children.

The cute-looking package, soiled with rainwater and mud.

“That ain’t like you,” Kihara said with a smirk. He rubbed his mechanical gloves together as if to check how he was doing. “Well, we’ll recover that for you. You can rest easy as I squash you and use you to paint the wall. That’d be more like you, right?”

“…!!”

Heat rushed to Accelerator’s head.

Amata Kihara had just said Accelerator wasn’t his objective. And that he’d recover “that thing” who seemed to be near him all the time.

In other words, that was his goal.

He was telling him he’d drag the person he called “that” down into the bloody world where Accelerator and Kihara lived.

“Don’t…you…,” managed Accelerator, down on all fours.

Kihara and the men in black had gotten right up close to him—in other words, approached him defenselessly—to hold him down to the ground. They looked down at him. Accelerator glared.

His lips turned up slightly into a muddy smile.

“…Fuck with me, you pieces of traaaaaaaaaaaaaash!!”

Boom!! went the wind as it swirled.

His ability was to manipulate vectors. If it had even a little strength, then regardless of its directionality, he could control it. And the wind—the atmospheric flows all around the planet—was no exception.

A local storm brewed.

The raging winds traveled at a controlled 120 meters per second; if it was a hurricane, it would have been M7 class, the highest there was. This violent wind force would even tear apart automobiles and house roofs. It was like a barrage of missiles.

“Kill them!” shouted Accelerator.

However—

“This won’t do.”

Beep.

There was a strangely dry sound, and as soon as he heard it, the violent wind mass Accelerator was controlling blew away. Like a balloon with a hole in it, the collected wind dispersed in every direction.

“?!”

He’d thought that would kill them for sure, but Kihara had gotten rid of it without so much as a concern.

He was beyond amazed—he was dumbfounded.

“So just die, will ya?”

Kihara picked up a nearby metal pipe and, with a gong!! smashed it into Accelerator’s face.

He heard terrible cracking noises from his face. The immediate, pain-induced cry lost its exit and became a muffled groan. Once Kihara heard that, he tossed the pipe aside.

“Ogh…rgh…”

In his hazy consciousness, Accelerator thought.

He knew something similar to what was happening.

That guy, who had easily wiped out his Level Five power, which he thought absolute, using only the palm of his hand. The guy who destroyed his impenetrable ability to reflect dealt blow after heavy blow to his delicate body.

Could this be…?

“Did you…develop an ability…on yourself…?”

“Gya-ha-ha! Ah, no, that’s not it. Why would I make myself into an experimental animal just to do that? We have lab rats for that. This ain’t anything special. Even if you weren’t using that insane power, I wouldn’t break a sweat crushing you one-on-one. So why am I putting so much effort into crushing a pip-squeak like you, anyway?”

“…”

“Man, I’m in a good mood. Exterminating pests always puts me in one. These guys are doing well today, too,” he said, opening and closing the fingers of his micro-manipulators.

Accelerator’s shoulders gave a start.

This wasn’t over.

He couldn’t be crushed so easily here.

“Ohhh!!” roared Accelerator, controlling vectors to jump off the ground like a spring. He recklessly swung his arms. His modern-looking crutch fell away from his right arm, but he couldn’t worry about that now.

He smashed five fingers at Amata Kihara.

The first time was a failure.

But the second time, his nails touched Kihara. He poured “energy” into them. Into the gloves he wore. He focused the vectors to a single point and turned the mechanical gloves into smithereens. Pieces flew all over.

“?!”

He could see Kihara’s surprise past the debris flying into the air.

Accelerator shoved his open five fingers toward his face.

Now you’re dead for sure, you shithead!!

He tore through the layer of machine parts and sent an attack certain to kill at the man’s face.

However…

“Oh, I get it. You thought these gloves were the secret to my strength, didn’t you?”

Kihara’s voice was calm.

Just by turning his neck, he easily avoided Accelerator’s strike, and on his face…

…was his usual grin.

“That ain’t it! Gya-ha-ha! Sorry for getting your hopes up like that!!”

Slam!! He buried his fist in Accelerator’s side.

The urge to vomit exploded within him, but even that was held down by force.

Kihara’s gleeful voice pounded on his eardrums. “Ha-ha! How long are you gonna keep pretending you’re the strongest, you pile of scrap?!”

Just as his body bent over in half, another punch flew at his head, which had come forward. He clattered to the road like a toy.

“Your reflection isn’t a perfect wall.”

Kihara slowly walked over to him.

Accelerator couldn’t move.

“All you do is make vectors comin’ at you the opposite. Then it’s easy, yeah? All I gotta do to beat the shit out of you is pull my fist back the moment before it hits you. Like, right up to the edge.”

He spoke like he was entertained.

He grinned like he was revealing the trick behind what he’d thought up.

“You’re reflecting a fist going away from you. Basically means you’re punching yourself! You get it, you masochistic pig?! Or is it too hard for your punk head to understand?!”

“!!”

Accelerator tried to get up, but Kihara’s foot came at him first. The scientist stomped on him with the sole of his shoe, again and again. He crushed parts of Accelerator’s body, tore away skin, and splattered blood that mixed with rainwater.

What…?

Accelerator could tell Kihara was using his ability against him. What he had no idea about, though, was what exactly was going on, whether such a thing was possible in reality rather than just on paper.

Either way, he decided reflection wouldn’t cut it. “Gahhhh!!”

This time, he tried to make wind by controlling airflow vectors, but once again, it all blew away upon hearing a dry beep.

“It’s the same thing,” said Kihara. “Your ability is based on vector calculations. I just have to fuck them up. So, you can’t control the wind, either. Control needs more complicated equations than just reflection. Same with program code. The more declarations you have, the more bugs are possible.” He paused. “Of course, that goes for human interference, too. Essentially, I just gotta put a little sound wave in the air, and it’ll jam your entire wind attack. As long as I emit sonic waves in directions that get into your equations’ blind spots, you know?”

He then took out a cell phone…no, a phone strap hanging from it. It was made of a soft material that made a sound when pressing its button. That was all it took to block his power.

“Damn…it…”

“How’s being stomped into the mud treating you? Your traits, your calculations, your personal reality—I know it all. How do you think I developed your ability?”

Thud!! Ka-thud!! Ger-thump!! A series of dull sounds.

A few drops of blood splashed onto Kihara’s face.

He kicked and kicked until he was short of breath. Then, as though it were the most hideous thing in the world, he scraped his red-stained shoe on the water-soaked road surface.

“Hmm? Pests really do take a long time to exterminate. Hey, you, get the thing out of the car. You know the one. Packed in the back, covered in dust.”

He waved his hand out, and to answer, one of the injured men in combat clothing dragged himself into the backseat of a minivan. He took something out and gave it to Kihara—a heavy-looking toolbox large enough for a full-sized hammer or saw to fit into.

“Weapons are more effective when they’re sloppy—or, perhaps, unsubtle. Kinda like how wooden chain saws are way more awesome than nonmetal assassination daggers.”

Accelerator, still on the ground, couldn’t say much. The raindrops continued to hit him as all he could manage was looking up at Kihara.

“Hey, Accelerator. You don’t know what ‘that thing’ is, do you?”

Kihara grinned.

“The thing” could have only been the small girl.

“I mean, think about it. Before the Level Six shift project, it was, uh, the Radio Noise development project, yeah? Wasn’t it even a little strange that they got the go sign as military production models? Why’d they take the third-place Railgun? Why not clone you instead? You were first place, right?”

“…”

“Why couldn’t they clone you? Why’d they start up the project with third place? That’s a hint, you know. A hint about something you don’t even know the surface of.”

“Hah,” laughed Accelerator. “You piece of shit…,” he muttered.

More than his lips were damaged. He felt blood seeping up from his throat and in between his teeth.

“…You understand even less about her than me, so I wouldn’t get so fuckin’ happy about saying random shit like that.”

“Hmm?” Kihara grinned, grabbing the heavy-looking toolbox by the corners, checking to see how it felt in his hands. Happily, he said, “How moving. She’s pretty happy about it, too.”

Accelerator’s heart skipped a beat.

His body wouldn’t move.

Nevertheless, still on the ground, on all fours, he turned his head.

He looked one hundred meters away.

And there—

There was…

Arms held by men in black clothing…

…was a small girl, hanging there limply.

“Target recovered, I guess.”

Amata Kihara’s voice sounded distant to Accelerator’s ears.

From down on the ground, he was looking at three people. Two were men, walking side by side, all in black. The third was Last Order, whom they were carrying like luggage. It was like they were holding a plastic bag with something heavy in it. The bottoms of her feet weren’t in contact with the ground. Like a hanging rope, it was the tops of her feet limply hitting the ground instead.

From here, he couldn’t see her face.

Like her limbs, her head hung like a branch in the wind, her bangs and the shadows hiding her face. And though it looked like a very painful position, she didn’t budge an inch. She was probably out cold. If he got closer, he knew he’d be able to see signs of life in her young body.

As though his arm was tired, one of the men violently pushed Last Order to another one of his associates. Still her limbs hung helplessly, with no reaction from her at all.

Kihara grinned. “Ah, well, I guess it ain’t listening anymore. I mean, our real mission was to take it alive, but can you really consider this living? I don’t wanna be the one writing the apology here.”

Fuck you, Accelerator tried to say.

She was still alive. She couldn’t be dead. If Last Order was dead, it would affect him, too, since all the Sisters were doing the substitute calculations for him…at least, that’s how he thought it worked.

Damn it, I’ve got no proof… Still down on the cold ground, he clenched his teeth. If she dies, I don’t know what kind of effects it would have! Never gonna test it, either, so how the fuck should I know?!

Without a mind for the writhing Accelerator, the men holding the unconscious Last Order came over to him—or more accurately, toward the minivan.

Kihara said their objective was Last Order.

He didn’t know where they planned on taking her, but if they threw her into that automobile, it was all over.

They’d drag her right back into that world stained in blood and darkness.

And then.

The probability she’d get out of there was likely zero.

Not gonna…happen…

Accelerator’s fingers crawled across the rain-soaked ground.

He put his last iota of energy into his beaten body, then looked up and shouted.

“Last Ordeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!!”

He thought he saw the girl’s shoulders move at being called.

Still on the ground, he lifted his arm.

He couldn’t rip Amata Kihara apart by controlling vectors. If he controlled the air and made a windstorm, Kihara would jam it with ease. If he used one of those methods of attack, he couldn’t take down this man in the lab coat. Given the situation he was in, his main consideration wasn’t crushing the man right now. Something else took priority.

Therefore…

“…!!” Accelerator bit down and slammed his hand down onto the damp asphalt.

Crash!! came the sound of destruction.

The extraordinary power blew the asphalt away, sending fragments in all directions and forcing Kihara back a bit.

He had less than a moment.

With the limited time he had, Accelerator’s hand grabbed hold of the “wind” for sure this time.

Gales howled as he controlled the vectors.

“Shit!!” he heard Kihara swear. The buffeting wind lance pierced right by Kihara and toward the men in black holding Last Order.

Wind speed: 120 meters per second.

The hurricane could tear the roofs off automobiles and houses. It wrenched her small body out of the men’s burly arms and flung her up and away. She crossed several ten-meter-high buildings, vanishing on the wind into the shadows of the scenery.

There was a strange gubuh from his throat.

Before he could think about holding it back, a chunk of blood came out of his mouth, and his face fell back to the rain-soaked road. The battery wasn’t drained, but he couldn’t devote enough mental energy to reflection anymore. Rainwater, mixed with blood and dirt, crept past the corners of his lips and onto his tongue.

“Ah, jeez, damn it,” said Kihara in a relaxed tone. “She’s not a golf ball. You can’t just be launching people yards away. The flight distance is perfect. Who the hell do you think is gonna go get her now? I ain’t doin’ it.”

“What should we do?” asked one of the men clad in black combat clothing, quietly seeking direction.

Kihara scratched his head with his right hand, which still had the remains of his glove on it. “Great…We split up, you know, into three groups. One group is on the main objective. Two stay with me. We got a lot to worry about—cleanup, the guys who went down over there, et cetera.”

“If I may, our primary orders are to capture Last Order, so shouldn’t the group assignments be—?”

“Oh?” Amata Kihara looked at his subordinate in blank amazement, then asked casually, “You’re, uh, the one recruited to Hound Dog recently, right?”

“Well, not exactly—”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Not tryin’ to pry into your affairs or anything. No fun hearing about how some sweaty guy met his end. But you don’t seem to know the rules, so let me explain them.”

Kihara cleared his throat, seeming disinterested.

“You’re a group of trash. You have no human rights. We can recruit as much trash as we need to replace you. If any of you get in the way of our incredibly important operation, I could kill you and it wouldn’t matter. Get it now? You’ve already died once, yeah? I’ll ask again. Am I clear?”

The sensation of raindrops sliding down his body disappeared.

Even the discomfort dissipated from the man in black who had been spoken to.

“We make the schedule ourselves here. Making me worry over some shitty little punks…It doesn’t make sense, see? You gonna make me worry about a shit like you on top of that?”

A dreadful emotion from Kihara’s body overtook their surroundings.

After seeing his subordinate unwittingly take a step back, he nodded simply. “Good, as long as we’re clear. I’m actually not at the end of my rope now, so I’ll take questions.”

“…Y-yes, sir. About taking Last Order alive—with what happened…”

“I’m sure the punk’s given that thought. Probably dropped her in a river somewhere.”

“If she was, sir, considering she was passed out, she may be in danger of drowning…”

“Idiot. She’ll wake up from the shock of hitting the water. Besides, I think she was at least conscious anyway. Just look around for anything that could’ve cushioned her fall and check nearby. She may be skilled at running away, but those bratty legs of hers can only take her so far. If that’s all it takes for us to lose her, I’d bust a gut laughing at you.”

“Yes, sir,” came several voices at once.

Without much talk, with only eyes and fingers as signals, their lone team scattered onto the roads.

Kihara looked down to see what had become of Accelerator, who was lying in a puddle. “Now, then.”

“Will we take him back as well, sir?”

“Nah, let’s kill him. When I look at someone who makes a ton of work for me, I get all angry-like. No reason to capture him anyway. Didn’t you see how annoying he is? Easiest thing with this kind of depressing, thinks-too-hard, self-righteous asshole is to kill him on the spot.”

He spoke like he was watching a caterpillar on a tree.

One person in combat gear drew his pistol, but Kihara shook his head. Dealing with Accelerator’s reflection was accomplished by “pulling back” his limbs in an odd way. One couldn’t do the same with a bullet.

This, of course, was a way of attacking only possible because Kihara had been the one to directly develop Accelerator’s ability. Even if he explained the trick, Kihara was probably the only one with a high enough combat level to pull off such delicate, split-second timing.

Kihara squatted and lifted the toolbox in his hands overhead.

It was far heavier than a hammer. It was a more primal, blunt weapon.

He aimed for Accelerator’s wrecked face as if to crush an empty can on the ground.

“Nice surprise there, punk, but now you gotta kill me. Dunno if you were tryin’ to make a crazy comeback or what, but we’ll get that thing in a cage before ten minutes are up.”

“…Shut up,” spat Accelerator.

“Oh?” Kihara’s eyes widened. He probably didn’t think Accelerator was actually awake.

“Piece of shit. You’d…never understand.”

“That so? All right, I’m killin’ you now. Those your last words?” Kihara barked out a laugh. “Have fun bein’ a shit stain on the road.”

“Damn,” muttered Accelerator without letting it show.

Kihara was right. At this rate, they’d catch Last Order. She had some ability to run away, but she was at an overwhelming disadvantage.

What was Yomikawa doing? Wasn’t Yoshikawa coming here with a gun? He knew the answer. Of course not. Nothing so convenient could ever happen. If someone else showed up to resolve everything, like puzzle pieces, whenever he ran into a situation he needed to get himself out of, nobody would ever stray from the path of righteousness. Universal brotherhood. Everyone smiles, everyone’s happy. Incredibly warm illusions, but nothing like that could ever come to pass.

…Someone…, thought Accelerator despite that. I need some luck here, a lucky illusion…I’ll give you the credit, if that’s what you want. Don’t even care if you laugh your ass off as he stomps on me.

Lying on the rain-soaked ground, an instant away from his skull being smashed in, the very picture of ugliness.

Someone, I don’t care who, get her…

His wish would never reach.

The toolbox mercilessly swung down to hammer into him.

An instant before it did…

“…What are you doing over there?”

“Eh?” Kihara’s raised arms froze in midair.

The guys wearing combat clothing turned around to where the voice came from.

It was not even twenty meters away. It’d probably come from one of the smaller side roads all of a sudden. On the nighttime streets under the drizzling rain, standing there with an umbrella up, was a person, illuminated by a streetlight, radiating dully.

The person had long, silver hair reaching down to the waist, white skin, and green eyes. She wore a showy nun’s habit, its white fabric embroidered with gold like a teacup. But there were safety pins stuck to it all over, making her outfit very unbalanced. In her hands was a calico that didn’t look like it belonged in this strained, tense world.

Accelerator, on the ground, remembered.

Remembered her.

Remembered her name.

2

“Damn it, Index. As soon as I found you, you disappeared again. Where on earth did you go?”

Touma Kamijou muttered to himself as he looked back and forth, to and fro.

After the last schools let out, the underground mall didn’t have many people in it. As always, it was a world of bare white fluorescent lights from which a person couldn’t tell day or night or the weather outside, but given the differences in population and music played inside stores, one could, little by little, feel time passing.

Kamijou, for his part, was still stuck trying to figure out why Index had fled home in the first place.

Incidentally, their conversation upon meeting had gone something like this.

“Academy City is complicated and annoying, and I don’t really get how it’s laid out. That’s why it took so long to search for you, Touma. Well, anyways, let’s go home, okay?”

“Wait, why did you come all the way here looking for me, anyway? …Actually, I bet it’s the usual I’m hungry thing.”

“Touma, you’re stupid!!”

“Gowah! Did you just bite me out of nowhere?!”

“If you think I only do anything when I’m hungry, then that’s a big mistake!!”

“But isn’t it more unusual for you to do anything for some other reason?!”

“Touma, you don’t have enough consideration. The white-haired person I met when I came here was a lot more considerate. He even let me eat hamburgers without asking what was wrong. You should be more kind like him, Touma.”

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t have anything to do with guys like that, after all. Oh, did you remember to thank him? You didn’t get anything else from him, did you?”

“Mgh. I know how to properly thank someone. But now that I think of it, I think he lent me this.”

“What? That’s just a packet of tissues.”

“Oh no! What is that person going to do now without this cutting-edge necessity? He must be worried! T-Touma, I have to go give this back real quick!!”

“Huh? But they’re just tissues. Blowing your nose in them and giving them back is what’ll worry him— Hey, don’t just sprint off like that! Listen to me! Index!!”

Calling her on a cell phone would have made things fast, but he knew hers was shut off as always. He wandered through the underground mall, peeking into fast-food places, but he couldn’t find her. She was looking for someone, so maybe she decided he wasn’t down here and went above ground. On the other hand, maybe she didn’t have a reason at all—the sister got lost in Academy City pretty often for someone with perfect memory.

Kamijou climbed up the stairs and left the mall.

“Huh?!” he muttered suddenly, looking at the sky. “It’s raining…”

The drizzling raindrops had dampened the road, making it black. Now that it was September, it was also understandably colder out than before.

…I didn’t leave the futon out to dry, did I? Did Index close the windows before leaving? Well, I’ll have to start by finding her, he thought, glancing at the sky, covered with thick clouds, as he continued walking for some reason or other. It was raining, but maybe it wasn’t bad enough to need an umbrella. He was close to the dorm anyway. He bought a cheap umbrella every time he went home in the rain, so there was a whole rack of them in his room now. It made him not want to go back into the mall to purchase another.

…Man, I feel like there’s a lot of Anti-Skill officers out today…

Maybe it was the time; maybe it was the weather. The darkened streets were unusually empty of students. There were only Anti-Skill officers around.

They were wandering about, decked out in defensive outfits of laminated plastic and shock-resistant urethane foam. It had probably been waterproof originally, but he felt bad for the ones patrolling without umbrellas in this somewhat chilly rain.

Hmm. Maybe if you’re out walking around too late they start directing people. I know how to slip past them…but Index doesn’t. And she’ll just make the conversation worse, then get directed to the station.

He decided to get her and bring her home before anything annoying happened and was about to look away from Anti-Skill, when…

There was a strange plop.

“…?”

Kamijou stopped.

An Anti-Skill officer in full armor standing right nearby, without any indication, had crumpled to the ground facedown. The puddles on the road began to overtake the officer. And still, he didn’t move. Waterproof was one thing, but that wasn’t a normal reaction. Even idiots didn’t jump into pools with raincoats on.

…Is he out cold?

Kamijou didn’t know how comfortable their official gear was.

But if it was like a cartoon character costume, the officer might dehydrate or get a fever. It was a little cold for Kamijou, but there were plenty of possibilities for the officer with all the thick armor on that wouldn’t apply to him.

Not good.

Kamijou’s eyes darted around.

No normal students around, but plenty of Anti-Skill officers.

Still, he went toward the fallen one for now.

And then.

This time, from somewhere else.

Kamijou’s ears heard a blat. The sound of someone falling. And not only once, either. One, then another, until the thuds transformed into one long sound.

“Wha…?”

He looked around, doubting his eyes, then froze.

Every one of the officers patrolling the night streets had fallen. It wasn’t like anything had hit them; they all just kind of dropped. And they weren’t even trembling, much less moving their fingertips. He could tell even from far away. They were completely out cold.

“Hey…What the hell?! Hey!!”

This time, he ran in a panic.

He went for the first officer to go down. The figure facedown in the puddle seemed to be male. Even in this state, though, Kamijou decided he could still suffocate, so he moved the man out of the puddle for the time being and flipped him faceup.

His body was hefty.

Whether it was his equipment or his actual body weight, he couldn’t tell.

What about the others?

He ran about but found nobody who seemed to be suffocating. He’d have carried them all into the underground mall if he could have, but he didn’t have the strength for it. All that weight would be like carrying around sandbags.

Calling for someone would have been a challenge, too.

The road they were on was fairly large, but Academy City was essentially a collection of school towns. Save for a few faculty-oriented entertainment districts, most of the city shut down when the sun set. The only stores with their lights on were convenience stores and restaurants with the permission to operate late into the night. The last trains and buses were done, and not a single car sat on the six-lane road. It didn’t get more discouraging than this. And in reality, he couldn’t see any signs of commotion from so many people collapsing. It seemed better to abandon any hope of someone nearby doing something about this.

This is originally the kind of situation Anti-Skill is for, too…

Kamijou peered into the face of the officer.

Nonmetal pieces covered most of his body, so unless he took them off, he wouldn’t know the extent of the man’s injuries. At least his clothing wasn’t dyed crimson or anything. He decided to imitate the thing from movies and TV dramas and put his hand to the man’s neck. The pulse of life he felt gave a reassuring signal to his fingertips. When he put his palm up to his neck, he could tell the man was breathing stably.

No threat to his life…at least, that’s how it looked.

But if the man wasn’t injured, what had caused this?

Anesthetic gas…? No…

That wouldn’t explain why only Kamijou was safe.

Either way, leaving it to his amateurish judgment would be bad.

All he could do was call an ambulance.

Kamijou took out his phone, then dialed a three-digit number to connect to a call center. He was nervous just pressing the call button to an emergency number like this, but it wasn’t the first time he had reported something. His thoughts were rather muddled, but he managed to explain the situation.

He snapped his cell phone closed.

In order to put it back in his pocket, he stood back up.

And then…

“…Zzz…zzh…”

There was a noise at his feet. He dropped his gaze. The fallen Anti-Skill officer still wasn’t moving even a fingertip. A radio was near his neck, though, which was where the static came from.

“Zzz-sshhhh-zzz…broken into. I repeat…sshhhzzzzzz!!…Gate breach confirmed! The intruder is entering the city—isn’t anyone listening? Our unit is taking another attack from unknown— Gwah?!”

Bss-shoo!! came a noise like a CRT television turning off.

The sound came from a wireless device. The person speaking must have been an officer somewhere else. The desperate words worried him, but now only an even static zzzz was coming from the square device. At a glance, it looked like an unadorned cell phone, but it probably worked totally differently. He didn’t feel like messing with it.

What was that…? thought Kamijou, looking away.

He went over the static-filled words that came over the radio.

…An intruder.

Which would mean someone came into Academy City from outside. It wasn’t clear whether that was related to the officers nearby going down like this. In either case, though, Kamijou’s thoughts were Hope Index is all right…

Not every enemy of the city was someone from the sorcery side, and even if it was a sorcerer, no rule said they would all go after Index. Still, she was the first thing he thought about, anyway.

This is bad, he thought, switching gears. It seemed best to find her soon to make sure she was safe, just in case.

And then…

“?”

Plop. A soft impact rolled through Kamijou’s side.

Someone seemed to have hit him…but the point of contact was weirdly low. Not around his chest, but lower, around his waist.

He glanced down.

The culprit was a small child. She was over a full head shorter than him. Probably around ten years old. Her brown hair just barely reached down to her shoulders.

Right, her name was… “Last Order, right?”

He heard a moan in response.

Her answer was muffled because she’d pushed her little face into Kamijou’s shirt. Rather than hitting him, it was more like she’d come up and hugged him. She was trembling all over, and her lack of body heat from the rain hitting her made its way through his shirt. She was far too soaked to have been out in this drizzle for a little while.

What happened? he wondered.

“Help…”

Still gripping the bottom of his shirt, Last Order looked up.

Her eyes were bright red and bloodshot, and clear liquid was dripping down one cheek.

Even in the cold rain, he could immediately tell that one drop apart.

She was—

She shouted.

“I’m begging you, save him…! pleads Misaka pleads Misaka!!”

Two girls crossed, connected to the two espers.

Their completely parallel paths should never have allowed them to meet.

But at the moment, their paths converged…

…The true story began, with Academy City as its stage.