Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 05/Prologue

Title - Prologue: 始まりの夜 Good_Bye_Yesterday.

Volume 05

Previous Chapter → Prologue

Next Chapter → 1

Prologue – Night of Opening Good_Bye_Yesterday
August 31, 12:00 AM.

A nosebleed.

It’s late at night. Kamijou’s holding his nose in the bathtub that had its hot water drained and wiped clean of every drop of water. The reason seems to be having eaten too many peanuts. Just to be safe, he puts away the cellphone he was using to the corner of the tub.

The bathroom is Kamijou’s private room, and also his bedroom. Even though he lives in a student dormitory, in the room near him is another girl who calls herself Index.

This "resident" is the biggest problem for the healthy high school student Kamijou Touma. Against the girl who became a "resident" here without a care, Kamijou locks himself in the bathroom at night to prevent himself from doing something that shouldn’t be done.

What’s mentionable is that Kamijou has no idea why he’s living together with a girl, as he lost his memories. To Kamijou, it’s that they’re living together for some reason.

Normally speaking, in this situation, the one that uses a lock is the girl… but whenever Index gets to the point where she’s in a deep sleep, she’ll open the lock and go to Kamijou’s side, so there’s no point in telling her to lock up.

Uu… tissue, tissue.

Kamijou holds his nose and opens the door. Index should be asleep by now. All the lights are off. In the weak moonlight, only the outlines of things can be seen.

From somewhere far off– probably outside the dorms- comes the sounds of fighting, though it’s not very clear when it goes to Kamijou’s room. Kamijou’s attention goes outside briefly and moves back into the room.

The room is very messy. Magazines and mangas that were read halfway through are spread all over the floor. The books on the shelves are messily arranged. A dozen wires are plugged into the TV, connecting it to several gaming consoles. On the glass-surfaced small table is a laptop, and on top of that is a plastic bottle containing a half-finished drink.

The bed is next to the wall, and the box of tissues should be somewhere close to the bed… Kamijou recollects the furniture arrangement and moves across the floor. When he got to the side of the bed, Kamijou’s foot crushes something. It feels like a cardboard box. After picking it up, he finds it to be a flattened tissue box.

“…Unlucky to the power of twenty. Ah, forget it; even if the tissue’s flat, it’s still usable.”

Even though it’ll be kind of gross putting tissue that’s been stepped on into the nose, he doesn’t have any other tissues available. Kamijou sighs, takes out a tissue from the flattened box and, after rolling it up, puts it into his nose.

At this time, light comes in through the window.

Kamijou’s dormitory is only two meters away from the dorm next to theirs; if they turn their lights on, even Kamijou’s room gets lit up.

Though the curtains are pulled over the window, it can’t block all the light coming in.

The artificial light dimly lights up the room, turning the place where only silhouettes can be seen into one where the color and texture of things can be discerned.

The scene that Kamijou sees makes him have some slight breathing problems.

The first thing that comes to mind is the slight breathing sounds.

Following the breathing sounds, he sees the girl sleeping peacefully on the bed.



The girl has an age about 14 to 15, long silver hair, and white skin. She's tiny in stature and light in weight, but her body temperature seem to be higher than a normal person’s. Even though nothing like cosmetics were applied, her skin still gives off a sweet and light aroma- one of her personal traits.

This girl who’s wearing only a loose shirt and sleeping soundly is called Index.

He doesn’t know if it’s because she was feeling a bit hot, but the blanket was kicked off the bed. The girl who’s sleeping on her side and with bent limbs looks like a baby asleep in a mother’s abdomen.

The bed isn’t big to begin with, but for some reason, she’s only sleeping in one corner of it.

The space left is almost like it’s specially left for someone.

Uu… it’s obvious who that space is for.

Kamijou’s face blushes in the darkness, but he shakes his head. Index’s casual actions stem from her trust in Kamijou- maybe slightly different to actual romantic feelings towards Kamijou. The impression she gives people is that of a pure child, without an ounce of adultness in her.

And the one that she trusts isn’t the Kamijou standing here now.

Kamijou Touma lost his memories, but Index doesn’t know this. In other words, the one she trusts is the Kamijou Touma "before the memory loss", and not the Kamijou Touma "standing here right now".

And so, Kamijou tells himself to not misunderstand, that these things don’t exist for his sake. Her defenseless way of sleeping, the thought of wanting to sleep in the same bed as him, the lips that faintly open with her breath, the small chest that heaves slightly whenever she breathes, the soft snow white legs that poke out of her loose shirt…

…Uh… how to say this, yes, I know, this is a bit…

Kamijou sweats slightly and stiffens up. At this time, the regular sound of Index’s light snoring stops. She starts to twist and turn on the bed, and her breathing becomes more focused. And then, the eyes that were closed opens.

“Mm… mm… Touma?”

Index says while rubbing her eyes.

“Ah, sorry, did I wake you?”

“I woke up because it got too bright. Ah, the ones on the other side opened their lights. Opening the lights at this time of night, they really don’t think of other people – "

Halfway through the sentence, Index suddenly stops.

Just as Kamijou is getting puzzled, he sees Index starting to check if her clothes are messed up. Then, she holds her shoulders while sitting on the bed, staring at Kamijou with a suspicious look.

“Uh, Touma, I have to ask you: what are you doing here?”

“What do you mean 'what am I doing here'? I’m just here to try and stop my nosebleed – ”

Halfway through, Kamijou finally realizes the current situation.

Index, who was asleep, is covered only by a loose shirt, and her legs daringly left out in the open, now finds Kamijou with tissues in his nose and other traces of having a nosebleed.

Q1: To a girl that just woke up, what would this situation mean?

Kamijou feels sweat unnaturally coming out of his palms. He has a very bad feeling about this. The eyes of the girl on the bed start to show signs of anger, which seems to prove the bad feeling’s accuracy. That’s right, don’t misunderstand, her being defenseless is only because of her trust in Kamijou Touma, not that she’s willing to give everything to Kamijou. Going into someone else’s bed while half-asleep is on a completely different dimension compared to giving one’s body to someone else while fully aware of things.

“Ah… Oi, oi, Index ojou-sama, don’t misunderstand. The old cliché of ‘nosebleed = excitement’ that appears in manga can’t possibly be in real life, that’s only a kind of expression–"

“Touma.”

Index cuts off Touma’s mumble.

Index’s face has a first-class expression of danger that looks like something between crying and being angry, and she asks:

“Can you swear to our Father in Heaven that you didn’t have any thoughts when you saw me sleeping?”

Index stares at Kamijou.

“Uu…” Kamijou panics slightly inside.

To be honest, Kamijou almost couldn’t handle it when he saw Index’s sleeping expression. Index’s sleeping expression was extremely cute, and her pure white legs also made Kamijou swallow his drool.

But while facing this girl who could explode at any time, these things can’t possibly be said.

The girl has a bad habit, and that’s biting people. When she’s in a good mood, she bites lightly on the arms; when in a bad mood, she bites viciously on the head. Though Kamijou hasn’t seen her do the same thing to anyone else aside from him, no matter what, this bad habit is giving Kamijou a lot of problems. A few clothes he has are already full of holes, and he now has to worry about scalp problems at a young age.

“Touma, can you swear?”

Index asks again, as if to double-check.

As part of the group that’s against bad habits like biting people’s heads, Kamijou can only pretend in an offhandedly manner and say:

“Ha! What are you saying, little lady? Your sleeping expression can’t possibly let people have those kinds of thoughts at all – ”

Before he’s finished, Index brutally rushes in and tackles Kamijou to the ground before proceeding to sit on him and gnaw at Kamijou’s head madly.

“'Can’t possibly let people have those kinds of thoughts at all'?! I’m still a girl regardless, and you have none of those kinds of thoughts at all! I still have my pride as a girl!”

The girl says with a fiery aura of anger and tears welling up in her eyes. This attack style of hers, speaking while biting down, makes Kamijou feels even more pain.

“Ah! So that’s what you meant! I got it wrong! Sorry, Index ojou-sama! Actually, after I, Kamijou Touma, saw your sleeping expression, my heart is pounding madly!”

“Changing your answer now is too late!”

“No matter what I choose, I’d get bitten right? Dammit! Not even the Railgun Mikoto is this violent!”

At this moment, one of Index’s eyebrows twitches.

“…Touma, who’s this 'Railgun Mikoto'?”

“Ah – ” The bad feeling just intensifies. “A relative of the deity Izanagi. So? It has a Japanese air to it right?” (Original novel note: Izanagi is the god of creation in Japanese folklore, the pronunciation of the latter half sounds similar to ‘mikoto’) (TN note: that’s what the original note in the Chinese novel says but I don’t see how it sounds like ‘mikoto’ here either…)

“Liar! You’re definitely lying! I may not know what a railgun is, but I can tell that it’s not something from Japanese traditional culture!”

“Whatever, I forgot how to write the deity Izanagi in kanji anyway! What’s wrong with a deity that can use railgun in Japanese folklore anyway – Ouch! Ouch!”

With the ferocious girl straddled on him, Kamijou wants to escape as soon as possible, but his center of gravity is being restricted and he can’t move away. Even though the right hand that’s the "Imagine Breaker" has the power to negate any supernatural power, it’s completely useless right now, so Kamijou is currently a literal Level 0 esper. Kamijou can only move his head freely. Now, the tissue that was in his nose flies out of it.

A red liquid blows out from his nose in a torrent.

Maybe it’s because she saw "blood" that Index finally calms down. Her eyebrows are slightly raised, and she doesn’t quite know how to handle this.

“To… Touma, your nose really is bleeding, how did this happen?”

“Ah? It’s nothing much, probably just that I ate too many peanuts.”

“…I actually lost to peanuts.”

The silver-hair and green-eyed sister sits on top of Kamijou and depressingly lowers her head. After carefully thinking about it, a girl wearing only a shirt and sitting on top of a guy isn’t something that happens in everyday life. Kamijou can feel something very soft on his stomach, but Index is so far gone in her anguish to care about it right now.

“Uu… Touma is actually the kind of guy that gets excited over peanuts. But don’t worry, I can still accept Touma being this kind of person.”

“Oi, can you please not twist things around like that?” Kamijou sighs and says, “Anyway, please get off me, I want to stop my nosebleed. Or just give me new tissues; I don’t want to put the used tissues back into my nose.”

“Tissue, tissue… Touma, where is it?”

Index looks left and right but seems to not see the box of tissues next to her. She sits on top of Kamijou and, tilting her head slightly, thinks for a moment. After a while, she seems to think of something and says:

“Touma, Touma, this is paper, too.”

“Are you kidding me!? Sticking copy paper that hard into my nose will definitely hurt the inside of it. Just move off me, Index, I’ll get the tissues–"

Halfway through, sound is suddenly cut off from Kamijou’s mouth.

Wearing a shocked expression, he stares at the words on the paper that Index passed over.

“Ah… eh? Wait, what does it say on here?”

“Eh? Let me have a look… It says ‘summer vacation homework, math problems’. Touma, can’t you read that well?”

Kamijou’s thought process completely freezes up.

That’s right, homework. Summer vacation homework. This summer vacation was very dramatic and fantasy-like for Kamijou to the point where it’s like a show. But in his memories, not one bit of them was dealing with the biggest obstacle: ‘summer vacation homework’…

With a thud, Kamijou, who still has the girl on top of him, turns his head around. In his sideways view, looking at the clock and calendar on the wall, he can see clearly what the time and date is.

August 31st, 12:25 in the morning.

There’s roughly 24 hours left until the end of summer vacation.

“…Haha, everyone must now think I’d say ‘such misfortune’ right? But once someone reaches the limit of being unlucky, not even something like that can be said. Haha… hahaha…”

“Touma, why is your tone of speech a bit weird? And who are you talking to?”