Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 05/Chapter 2

Title - Chapter 2: Ojou-sama's Railgun Doubt_Lovers.

Volume 05

Previous Chapter → 1

Next Chapter → 3

Part 1
August 31, 8:00 AM.

Within the esper development institute "Academy City", which has 2.3 million students, is Tokiwadai Middle School, a famous girls' school that’s ranked in the top 5 schools in the city. Focusing on only raising elite students, the student numbers do not even reach 200. In the school, there are currently two Level 5 espers and forty-seven Level 4 espers. Also worth noting is that one of the entry requirements for Tokiwadai Middle School is "Level 3 espers or above".

In the Tokiwadai School dorms, even during summer vacation, the morning life doesn’t change: wake up at seven in the morning, clean up to the level of "it doesn’t look too bad" within thirty minutes, roll call in the dining hall at seven-thirty, and finish breakfast by eight o’clock.

What’s mentionable is that the reason the dorm lets student have until eight to finish breakfast is because Tokiwadai Middle School encourages students to take the school bus. The limit before being late is 8:20 AM, so if one doesn’t take the bus, one would have to sprint full-speed on the way to school.

Today is August 31st; because it’s still summer vacation, after 8 AM and apart from dinner, curfew, and lights-out time, students have leisure time. All across the world, students are now hurrying to finish their summer homework, but at Tokiwadai Middle School, that feeling of anxiety cannot be felt in the slightest.

Misaka Mikoto, one of the Level 5 espers, sitting in the majestic and also ridiculously spacious dining room, spreads her arms out and yawns widely. Even though it’s summer vacation, she’s still in uniform. According to Tokiwadai’s school rules, the dorms are still part of the school, so students are forbidden from wearing casual clothing inside the dorms. Mikoto has shoulder-length hair, a stubborn look, and a mouth that, once she starts talking, won’t stop for twenty minutes- all traits that are far from the "ojou-sama" stereotype.

Then again, these aren’t traits that belong solely to Mikoto. The other female students around her that finished breakfast, still sat there, and are chatting with each other as a whole give the same impression as Mikoto. Even though they are in special circumstances, they are still middle school students in Japan. The classical ojou-samas that get described in manga and novels, whose hobby is equestrian riding and specialty is the piano, are extremely rare (on the other hand, those kind of people, though rare, do still exist).

Manga, manga… Oh, right, today is Monday.

Mikoto suddenly remembers something and stands up from her chair. Every Monday and Wednesday is when Mikoto stands at a corner store and read manga magazines. Something worth mentioning is that she doesn’t know that due to her reading them, it makes a lot of high-school students only able to buy magazines with the edges all messed up.

Normally, she only goes to the corner store and reads manga after school, but it’s summer vacation, so she can go and do it now. Mikoto wants to know who the culprit is in a manga that has a closed-room murder all the time, so she hurries and leaves early. Just when Mikoto is about to head off to the corner store, a girl in a maid outfit who is gathering the cutlery discovers her intentions. This girl is a middle school student for some home economics school working in the Tokiwadai Middle School girls' dorm for the purpose of gaining work experience. Practical work for the home economics school varies widely, and those that can get in to the Tokiwadai girl’s dorms are supposedly the finest of the finest.

“Misaka, Misaka --- are you going to the corner store or the book shop?”

“Today’s not the tenth, and it’s a Monday, so it’s the corner store. And – Tsuchimikado, after all, your role here is that of a practicing maid; shouldn't you not be talking to me so familiarly?” (original TN note: in the original Tsuchimikado Maika is using speech between equals/commoners to talk with Mikoto)

“Misaka, Misaka! If you’re going to the corner store, then buy a kinda strange manga for me- the kind of shoujo manga that’s not R-18, but still has lurid descriptions.”

“Ah, I remember, your interest is BL right? And, Tsuchimikado, after all, your role here is that of a practicing maid; shouldn't you not be making your patrons run errands for you?” (note: BL = Boy's Love)

“Misaka, Misaka! Men pushing down men isn’t my hobby, but the hobby of the head chef. I like the kind of manga where the brother and sister get into a messy relationship.”

“Wouldn’t that count as seinen manga and not shoujo manga then? And, Tsuchimikado, after all, your role here is that of a practicing maid; shouldn't you not be admitting that you like your own brother?”

Misaka sighs and walks out of the dining hall, past the excessively long corridor, and towards the main door. She comes across no one else, as most of the students, after eating breakfast, stayed in the dining hall chatting.

Misaka goes to the entrance hall and opens the huge front doors.

From the student dorms and heading outside, the view changes from an old western-style building to the street in a near-future fashion. There are no power lines; replacing them are wind power-generator propellers at the end of every corner. Barrel-shaped security robots that automatically patrol the streets come and go everywhere. A zeppelin with giant screens on its belly floats across the sky. The views of this "city" are different from those of a normal city, but for the residents here, it’s already very familiar, and they can no longer tell the difference between them.

Right across the student dorms that look like a western-style stone building is an open-24-hours general store. The difference between the two makes Mikoto smile slightly. Just when Mikoto is about to take a step onto the road… from the side suddenly comes a man’s voice.

“Ah, aren’t you Misaka-san? Good morning, where would you be going? Eh, I remember that you’re not in any clubs, right? If you don’t mind, would you care to walk together with me for a while?”

“Uu!” Mikoto instantly stiffens, tries to hide the look of 'met up with somebody extremely troublesome' from her face, and turns towards the direction of where the voice is coming from.

In front of her is someone older than Mikoto by one year, a tall and slim man. Though slightly thin, he has the body build of a sportsman. He has hair smooth and fine and, unlike a Japanese person, skin so white. A man that starts exercising from the basics. This means that even if he was holding a tennis racket or typing on a laptop keyboard, it’ll look fitting for him- really very advantageous. The sweat that comes out of him almost seems to sparkle, his face almost always has a warm smile… he’s that kind of person.

Unabara Mitsuki.

He’s one of the people that Mikoto finds hard to handle, and also the grandson of the director of Tokiwadai Middle School. In Academy City, where the main goal is "esper ability development", the power from that position is like that of the ruling family of a major corporation. Tokiwadai Middle School is a girls' school, so Unabara Mitsuki can’t enter the school grounds or the dorms, but everywhere else, he’s free to roam about.

Though the reason Mikoto labels him as a troublesome person isn’t because he’s someone that likes to show off his influences.

“Hmm, even though you’re not in a club, focusing on personal hobbies isn’t bad. Misaka-san, what kind of sports do you like? If you’re interested in tennis, equestrian riding, squash, or golf, you can tell me; in these areas, I may be able to give some pointers… eh? Are you alright? Aren’t you feeling well?”

“Ah… It’s… it’s nothing.”

From Unabara’s tone, he really seemed to worry; Mikoto couldn’t help but give a small sigh.

Unabara Mitsuki understands clearly what kind of enormous influence he can bring about, yet he never shows off these things. He always deliberately matches Mikoto’s values, talking to Mikoto as an equal. To Mikoto, the kind of "mature" personality that gauges the situation between the two rather makes her feel uncomfortable. But since the other party is using a "mature" way to get close to her, she can’t just deal with him the same way she does with the usual high school student and fire off a bolt of electricity as a response because that would make her feel like an immature child.

What makes Mikoto feel like Unabara’s hard to handle is that while meeting together, she always has to be careful and prudent. The mood doesn’t feel like a meeting between friends, but rather like fawning to a senpai at a school club.

Then again, this guy wasn't so bothersome a week ago, but recently, he comes to me on a daily basis… They say summer changes men… what a disagreeable way to change.

Carefully thinking about it, in the past, they were only at a level where they would greet each other if they meet while walking past each other. They might stand together and chat, but they wouldn’t interfere with the other person’s plans. Now is different; he became really aggressive- almost like he’s tracking Mikoto’s every move…

“Misaka-san?”

“Uu…” After Unabara called out, Mikoto involuntarily shrinks back her upper body slightly. While Mikoto was deep in thought, Unabara closed in and bent down to stare up at Mikoto’s face.

“Uh, don’t be so deep in thought, where were you going to go?”

“Ah… Uh… (Honestly, I’m one that laughs out loud while reading manga even if I’m in the store, so I try not to have people I know around me when I go read manga, but if it’s Shirai Kuroko, that baka, it wouldn’t really matter)."

“What?”

“Ah, nothing! Nothing, nothing! I didn’t just accidentally say what I was thinking out loud.”

“So there isn’t anything that's urgently needed to be done? Ah, if so, around here there’s a restaurant whose seafood is quite delicious; do I have the pleasure of inviting you over there?”

At this time right after breakfast? Mikoto thinks but doesn’t let it show on her face.

“Ah… but… but… Thank you for your invitation, but I have some private business to take care of…”

“Then take care of it now; I’ll come with you, too.”

“Uu… ah… I do have some things to do, but…”

“…?” Unabara involuntarily frowns and says, “Is it somewhere that’s inconvenient for me to go?”

“Ah, that’s right, that’s right!” Mikoto claps and says, “I… I'm now (uh…), right, right, going to the lingerie section of the department store; boys being there would be uncomfortable right?”

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t mind.”

Without the slightest hesitation, Unabara unthinkingly answers with a dazzling smile.

The excuse got broken so easily?! Mikoto in her heart cries out in anguish.

''Uu uu, what to do, what to do? Ah, right, I’ll just pretend I already have a date with some other guy! In that case, no matter what he says, he can’t really stick to me like this. Even though it’s old-fashioned, fine, I’ll just grab a guy, say something like ‘Sorry, did you wait long?’, and improvise something to fake it through. Even though it’ll give that unlucky guy some trouble, afterwards, I’ll treat him to a canned drink and that'll do!''

Mikoto looks around, trying to find a guy to play along with her act. However, today just has to be August 31st. In Academy City where 80% of the residents are students, today is "a day to stay at home and rush to complete the rest of the summer homework left".

In other words, there isn’t anyone in sight.

Uwah… is there no hope left? Mikoto once again cries out in anguish in her heart. In this instant, almost like a gift from the heavens, three boys walk out from a corner towards them.

Part 2
August 31, 8:25 AM.

Tsuchimikado Motoharu, Aogami Pierce.

The two that met up this morning seem to be classmates of Kamijou Touma; the key word being "seem" is because Kamijou lost his memories, and has no recollections of going to class.

For the Kamijou now, he originally shouldn’t have time to wander around on the streets. Before today, August 31st, his summer homework was a complete blank. The him right now could be said to be in a state of where every second is of the utmost importance.

Kamijou, who sank into homework hell right now, reasoned that this would be a long-term battle that’ll last to tomorrow morning, so he went to the corner store to try and buy some canned coffee. But today, the brand that he normally buys just got sold out, with not one can left. Just when Kamijou was thinking about which bastard took all the stickers that could be traded in for free stuff for himself, he got caught by Aogami and Tsuchimikado. The two classmates who had already finished all their homework wanted to play hard on the last day of summer vacation and make some good memories.

“Aaaaaaaaah! Today’s already the last day of summer vacation, Kami-yan! Sigh, and this year, there wasn't any encounter with any girls that fell from the sky, no finding of a catgirl in a cardboard box on a rainy day, nor even a meeting with a beautiful fiancée behind our doors that we never knew was engaged to us. It’s an incredibly normal summer vacation, the kind where novels describe with only one line ‘That high school student had a summer vacation’.”

Aogami Pierce, being a pessimist, says that in a fake Kansai accent. (TN: I have no idea how to make English sound like Kansai dialect, so I’ll leave it at that)

“Ah, I so want to be in love! Even though we’re in a co-ed school, I still want the new semester to be like one of those enviable love comedies where senpai, kouhai, teacher, students, iincho, childhood friends, and dorm manager are all girls who have no experience with boys!”

Being an optimist, Tsuchimikado Motoharu says in a peculiar tone.

Facing the two and their completely unrealistic views, Kamijou holds his hands to his head and cries out in anguish.

“Oi, oi, you two, don’t tell me you guys know that I, Kamijou Touma, am putting my life on the line rushing to do my summer homework, and came to disturb me because of that? Please don’t disturb me today! If you guys are my friends, then help me with my summer homework!”

“Isn’t this good, Kami-yan? If you don’t finish your homework, then you can get Komoe-sensei’s special personal tuition. Ah, then why did I finish my summer homework? Of course it’s to get praised by Komoe-sensei. No, no, I have followed Kami-yan’s example, and have an ulterior motive, too!”

“Even if we help Kami-yan, it’s not like it’ll get me a love comedy, right? If the math problems can make a mysterious bishoujo fall out of the sky, I’ll definitely help!”

Facing the two classmates who obviously view someone else’s misfortune as a joke, Kamijou involuntarily shows a dark smile.

“You two, you have no right to call yourselves friends! What's this 'bishoujo that falls from the sky'? Do the girls you like all belong to an aviators group or something!?”

Hearing Kamijou so loudly objecting, Tsuchimikado says, as if muttering to himself, “No, no, no, in this day and age, girls would fall from the sky and end up on verandas, you know.”

Kamijou doesn’t understand his reply, though, as Kamijou lost his memories.

Aogami Pierce on the other side even starts to state loudly,

“Ha, you’re too naïve, Kami-yan. I have a wide range of acceptance when it comes to women: not just fallen female main characters, but also foster sisters, foster mothers, foster daughters, twins, widows, senpais, kouhais, same-class classmates, teachers, childhood friends, ojou-samas, blondes, brunettes, brown-haired, silver-haired, long-haired, medium length-haired, short-haired, girls wearing bobby pins, wavy-haired, twin-tails, ponytails, one-sided ponytails, twin braids, ahoges, curly-haired, girls in sailor clothes, blazers, judogis, kyuudougis, kindergarden nurses, maids, policewomen, witches, shrine maidens, nuns, military women, secretaries, lolis, shotas, tsunderes, cheerleaders, stewardesses, waitresses, goth girls wearing black, goth girls wearing white, girls in China dresses, frail girls, albino girls, fantasists, girls with split personalities, queens, princesses, thigh-high socks, garter belts, girls who cross-dress as guys, girls who wear glasses, girls who wear an eyepatch, girls who wear bandages, girls in school swimsuits, one-piece swimsuits, bikinis, V-shaped bikinis, bikinis that barely cover anything, youkais, ghosts, animal-eared girls, etc.- any female is within my area of acceptance.”

“At least one of them isn’t a female, right?”

Kamijou says this with his last ounce of strength, as he can’t take much more of this. Then, Tsuchimikado, with a peculiar smile on his face, asks,

“Then again, what kind of girls does Kami-yan like?”

“…Dorm manager onee-sans- even temporary ones will do.” (TN: onee-san = older sister)

“We’re in a boys' dorm; even the manager’s an old geezer, too, you know?!”

“Shut up! Even I know that’s impossible in reality! I’m an only child, so of course I’d admire onee-san type girls; get off my case, you two!”

“Hm, so you like manager ‘onee-sans’ huh? Does that mean you have no feelings for imouto-type girls then? Seriously, basic characters like imouto-types are the best ones.”

Tsuchimikado, who has a real-life younger foster sister (TN: younger sister = imouto for anyone that doesn’t know) nods enthusiastically. At this point, both Kamijou and Aogami Pierce look at him with pity. Kamijou, as the representative for his friends, states,

“I say, as your friend, for the foster-sibling relationship between the two of you to last, there’s something you need to know.”

“Wh… What?”

“Your younger foster sister is someone that calls anyone she meets ‘Onii-chan’.” (TN: again, just in case people don’t know, onii-san = older brother, with the –san replaced by –chan as a term of endearment)

“WHAT did you say?!” Tsuchimikado rages, and lifts both hands up high.

“Im… Impossible! My younger sister, no matter the time, place, or reason, would never call any other man apart from me ‘Onii-chan’!”

“Really? The day before yesterday, in front of the station at the underground department store, I treated her to a meal at a restaurant there, and she said to me ‘Thank you, Onii-chan’.”

“Yesterday, I met her on that street back there, and she said to me ‘Good afternoon, Onii-chan’, too.”

With a crash of something being snapped, from the mouth of Tsuchimikado comes the sound of something being bitten apart.

“I’ll kill you both! How dare you try and get your hands on my younger sister!”

Like this, the fiery fist of an older brother strikes at Kamijou and Aogami Pierce.

Part 3
August 31, 8:35 AM.

From when she first saw the three until now, Misaka Mikoto was frozen solid for ten whole minutes. In this time, the three of them continued to play out a crazy brawl worthy of something from the last fifteen minutes of a Hollywood movie. Unabara at times would carefully wave his hands in front of Mikoto’s eyes while saying “Hellooo?”. But Mikoto doesn’t notice, her lips stuck at the form of saying the ‘S’ of ‘Sorry, did you wait long?’, gaping at the chaos between the three of them.

''Wait, wait, wait! Are those the only people that can act as a couple with me? Would Unabara really believe that one of them could be my boyfriend…? Uwaa, they’re actually talking about real-life younger foster sister issues!''

Mikoto finally unfreezes, and seriously holds her hands to her head in despair. Unabara at her side asks “Are you alright?”, and Mikoto quickly turns around and squeezes a smile out before starting to look around again. No, apart from those three, there isn’t anyone else in sight. And even those three in their fighting are gradually moving away from where Mikoto is. If she doesn’t ditch Unabara now, she’d be stuck with him for the whole day.

There are no other choices. Even though they are still fighting in a red-hot battle, which doesn’t look like they are playing or just messing around, Mikoto still decides to choose one from the three of them.

So who to choose?

''The first one, with blue hair and piercings… No way! This guy spouts jargon that even someone that reads a lot of manga like me can’t understand, and seems to use 2-dimensional logic on 3-dimensional girls!''

Mikoto shakes her head wildly.

''Then the second one, with blonde hair and sunglasses… not this guy either! From what they just said, this guy’s a dangerous character that has issues with a real-life younger foster sister!''

Mikoto shakes her head even more, to the point where she’s starting to get dizzy.

''Then the third one… eh? Is this guy… N, No way! Definitely not this guy! Ah, but… if I don’t choose him, then I’d have to choose the blue-haired one or the guy in sunglasses… Uu… This… Uwaaaaaaaaaa!''

“Ah, wait up! Where are you going, Misaka-san?”

From behind comes Unabara’s voice, but there’s no time for him now. Distance from target is about twenty meters. The boy who’s focused on the final battle has yet to notice the incoming attack.

Part 4
August 31, 8:40 AM.

“Sorry, did you wait long?”

A girl’s voice from behind makes Kamijou and the other two stop their battle right before the climax, with their faces showing impatience for the interruption. Of course none of them had promised to meet up with a girl, so they are all bitterly thinking, ''Oh, is there a bishounen idol around here or something? Either way, it has nothing to do with us, bastard!''

But after thinking about it, today is August 31st, and there’s nobody else around here…

“?” Just as Kamijou tilts his head in uncertainty,

“I asked you if you waited long; did you not hear me?!”

Kamijou’s back, around the level of his waist, is slammed by a girl charging at full speed. After a loud boom, Kamijou and the girl both go rolling along the footpath.

“D, Dammit, who the hell did this to me… eh? Why does it have to be you, Misaka?”

“…(What do you mean by why does it have to be me!? Ah… no, anyway, please play along!)”

Mikoto’s whisper makes Kamijou’s eyes spread wide open, and he says something like “Ah?”. On the other hand, Aogami Pierce and Tsuchimikado’s reply is…

“What? Ka… Kami-yan got hugged by a Tokiwadai student! After a shrine maiden, a nun, and Komoe-sensei, there’s another new Kamijou legend!?”

“…Kami-yan, just how many hidden female characters do you have in your route?” (TN note: a reference to gal-games.)

The thoughts of the two make Mikoto shake all over in anger. But she doesn’t make any replies; her actions were completely different from her usual demeanour. As a Level 5 Electromaster, she normally would send off many bolts of electricity when she gets mad, regardless of where she is.

“Ah, uh… Misaka-sama, what’s going on?”

“…(Shh! Don’t talk… Oh, dammit! The distance was too far, so he didn’t hear the talking over here. So you three were actually that loud? Fine…)”

Mikoto stares off somewhere and softly clenches her fists. A puzzled Kamijou follows her line of sight. Slightly further away on the footpath and looking slightly lonely is a cool-type boy standing. He doesn’t know how to react to Mikoto’s sudden and mysterious act, and freezes.

“Get off already!” says Kamijou; he looks impatient on the outside, but his heart is pounding furiously. After a deep breath, Mikoto yells,

“Ahaha! Sorry I’m late! Did you wait long? To pay you back, I’ll treat you to something, so please forgive me!”

“…Wha?”

Mikoto, who’s speaking loudly. Kamijou, who’s speechless. For Tsuchimikado and Aogami Pierce, time really does stop for them on this occasion. And the cool-type boy standing over there embarrassingly moves his gaze away.

Suddenly, *Bang*, all the windows of the Tokiwadai Girls' Middle School Dorm are opened at the same time.

“Ah…”

Mikoto’s smile freezes. The students standing next to the windows are continuously whispering excitedly to each other. The girl with twin ponytails, Shirai Kuroko, is in a state of shock, her mouth opening and closing but with nothing coming out. After a while, a mature woman’s silhouette shows up in one of the windows- apparently the dorm’s highest manager.

The mature woman seems to say something, though the voice is too quiet and the distance too far away. Kamijou and Mikoto couldn’t hear her at all, but the two can imagine in their heads what the frightful statement is:

“Interesting, you dare to rendezvous in front of the dorm with a boy. That’s some courage, Misaka.”

“Ah… ahaha!” Mikoto’s face is scarily contorted. “Ahahahaha! Uhuhuhuhu!”

Mikoto lets out a strangled laughter, grabs Kamijou’s hand and leaves the scene at a speed that’s literally equal to that of flight. Kamijou, who has no idea what’s going on, is dragged further and further away.

Part 5
August 31, 9:45 AM.

Just like that, Kamijou and Mikoto ran through the streets for an hour.

“Wait a sec! Isn’t this setting a bit strange!? Why did we have to run nonstop for an hour?”

“Shut up! Be quiet! Give me some time to think this through!”

Mikoto cries out and shakes her head vigorously.

Kamijou looks around. They are apparently at a side road, tall buildings all around them, with another smaller building seeming to be another student dorm.

Mikoto takes several deep breaths before finally calming down.

“Whoo… sorry, I kind of lost control back there. Let’s find some place to sit, I’ll tell you the current situation.”

“Ah? What current situation? Hey, did you just drag me into something troublesome again?”

“Ah, it’s almost ten, the stores are almost opening by now, right? Though we just had breakfast, how about we go for a hotdog?”

“Wait, wait! Don’t just ignore my question! Did you drag me into something troublesome again? I haven’t finished my summer homework yet! Not to mention you gave me so much trouble, do you think you can buy me off with one hotdog?”

“Hmm?” Mikoto puts her index finger on her chin and says,

“Then that’ll do.”

“What?”

“We’ll go for the most expensive hotdog in the world; that way, you won’t have any objections, right?”

“Uh, that wasn’t the point… Ahh, you’re not even listening to me!”

Kamijou doesn’t even have time to complain before being dragged off by Mikoto.

Part 6
August 31, 10:15 AM.

One for 2000 yen.

After seeing the price, Kamijou is speechless. Standing in a converted caravan, the vendor smiles half-heartedly after seeing the look on Kamijou’s face; he probably sees that look on his customers’ faces a lot.

“2000 yen… just what do they put in it that makes it this expensive?”

“If they told you, can they keep the business going? Ah, two hotdogs, please.”

Mikoto says while ordering the food. Kamijou looks at the movements of the vendor. The bread and the ingredients don’t differ much from normal ones, and he couldn’t see anything especially strange added in. To be brutally honest, if the hotdog here was compared to another vendor’s, there probably wouldn’t be any difference. The slightly small hotdog can’t even be called a proper meal- at most, just a slight snack.

Something like this actually can cost 2000 yen? Kamijou thinks while feeling fatigued, not knowing what to say. Mikoto takes the two hotdogs and pays for the both of them.

“Ah, hey… The money…”

“Don’t be so shocked, alright? Even hotdogs have difference in quality. Some vendors in Los Angeles actually have movie stars go to them in limos; why are you scared half to death by the difference in price?”

“That’s not what I meant. I’ll pay for my own share.”

“Ah? Don’t mind the small change; besides, taking out your wallet can be troublesome, right?”

Mikoto says so lightly, so the short-in-cash student Kamijou can only laugh hollowly. Apparently, Misaka Mikoto who attends Tokiwadai Middle School is still an authentic ojou-sama after all.

The hotdog seller, when choosing where to set up shop, probably has considered "places to eat", as there are benches nearby. The trees near the footpath stand against the sunlight like shields and looks cool enough… but in reality, it is still hot. The heat wave of the Kanto district should not be looked down upon. Though they couldn't be discerned, sounds of construction can be heard from far off.

“Here, take it.”

Kamijou takes a hotdog off Mikoto's hand, carefully observes it, then takes a bite out of it. Though somewhat unhappy about it, it is still fairly delicious. What makes him even more unhappy, however, is that he can’t really taste the difference between this one and one from any other store.

Mikoto bites the hotdog, carefully making sure that the mustard doesn’t get on her nose, and starts explaining the events to Kamijou. Unabara Mitsuki, that cool-type guy, has been sticking to her, and she has difficulty getting rid of him. Every day for this past week she has been subjected to his invitations, and to get rid of him, she needed someone to pretend to be her lover- and the only choice available was Kamijou.

Kamijou looks around, and of course, doesn’t see Unabara anywhere. After all, he couldn’t be hiding behind trees 24 hours a day, spying…

“Though, now that we lost that Unabara, there should be no need to act now, right? Even if we act in a place where he can’t see us, it’s meaningless.”

With Kamijou’s summer homework piled sky high, he really doesn’t have time today to get into other people’s problems.

“Hmm… though we’ve only lost him temporarily for now, I’d definitely be stuck with him next time, so I better use this chance to make sure he’ll never come bothering me again.”

“…Oi.”

“So if I be with you for the whole day today, let as many people see us as possible- even better if Unabara sees us a few times- just so the impression would be more reinforced. If we can make Unabara stay away from me, then it’s all good… What, why are you holding your head like that?”

“Nothing.” Kamijou holds his head and sighs.

In other words, Mikoto’s asking Kamijou to pretend to be her lover for the day. Kamijou’s very worried, though, since if the plan succeeds, he’ll become "a total bastard that goes after middle school students", even though Kamijou, who is living together with Index at this point, really doesn’t have to put up a self-righteous façade like that- but at least he doesn’t know how old Index is. Even a female teacher can look only twelve; a woman’s age is unfathomable.

And most importantly, he still has his summer homework to do. Due to various reasons, Kamijou really wants to refuse helping Mikoto, but he discovers that Mikoto’s eyes start to show some impatience, and this makes Kamijou somewhat alarmed. If she really got annoyed over this, he won’t just not have time to do his homework, but he will also be forced into a 24-hour iron man endurance battle (though for some reason, Kamijou’s only worried about the fight dragging on and not the possibility that he will lose).

Seeing Kamijou keep silent, Mikoto feels discontented and says,

“Oi, if you have any questions or thoughts, then say it already.”

“Thoughts, huh…? Do you want to rub the mustard off your nose first?”

“What?!” Mikoto blushes bright red. She wraps up the hotdog with a paper towel and puts it on the bench, turns away from Kamijou, and takes out her handkerchief, hastily trying to rub off the mustard on the tip of her nose.

“Uu?!”

Then Mikoto holds her nose, and her legs kick furiously. Apparently, she rubbed too quickly and accidently got mustard inside her nose.

“Ah… are you alright?”

Kamijou imitates Mikoto, wrapping up his hotdog in the same way and putting it down on the bench, before using his now-free hands to search his pockets, looking for whether he has tissues or handkerchiefs. At this point, Mikoto strains a smile and says,

“I’m… I’m alright. Actually, nothing happened.”

Looks like she wants to hide the fact that she made a mess of herself with the mustard at all costs. Mikoto turns back to Kamijou, her face trying to fake as if nothing were out of the ordinary, though that’s just on the surface, as apparently the mustard is still affecting her nose; she is not just blushing, her lips are also tightly pressed, suppressing the urge to let the tears flow. Even her eyebrows are quivering.

“Get… get on with it already, any questions or thoughts?”

“Eh, are you really alright? Then again, this is so like you, crying over something this small. You actually cry a lot, don’t you…?”

“Shut up! I said nothing happened, so nothing happened! Oi, don’t put up a resigned face and approach me with that tissue!”

Mikoto looks viciously at Kamijou, so he hurriedly retrieves his hands.

Fine, if she wants me to forget this, I’ll just pretend this never happened.

“Eh?”

Kamijou involuntarily lets out a slight sound.

In the small space between Kamijou and Mikoto are two tidily wrapped hotdogs. Needless to say, it is their hotdogs, but which one belonging to who can’t be distinguished.

Mikoto also notices this.

“Eh… Do you remember which one was yours?”

“I forgot; it’s probably the one on the right.”

Kamijou goes for one without much thought. At this time, Mikoto grabs Kamijou’s wrist with surprising speed.

Kamijou stops and looks over at Mikoto.

“Wait… wait a minute, let me check.”

“What?”

Mikoto grabs the one in Kamijou’s hand off him and compares the two of them. She peels the paper towel away and looks carefully at the bitten parts.

But to Kamijou, there isn’t much difference between the two. Both hotdogs were half-eaten, so there’s no difference in size. The ingredients for both were the same too.

Then again, it’s the exact same hotdog; Kamijou doesn’t understand why it should matter which one is which.

“Did you figure it out?”

“…”

“Did you figure it out?”

“…”

“Did you-”

“Ahh, I don’t know! Fine, as you said, you take the right and I’ll take the left! Seriously, you should at least care about this a little, baka!”

Kamijou takes the hotdog from a babbling Mikoto, tilting his head in puzzlement.

“Sigh, I don’t know what you are so uptight about; didn’t we order the same thing?”

He then bites into the hotdog as if nothing’s wrong. Of course, there isn’t any change in the taste either.

Mikoto, who until a while ago was still making a fuss, suddenly becomes quiet. For some reason, even her movements freeze up.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Mikoto answers.

Then after staring at her hotdog for a while, she finally nibbles into it like a small animal. Her face seems to blush slightly.

“…Back to the original topic, I need your help to ‘act’ with me to fool Unabara. Do you have any questions or thoughts?”

“I say, just what is wrong with you? You suddenly became so timid, does that means getting mustard on the nose actually has this kind of power–?”

“Shut up! It wasn’t because of that reason… Wait, just what am I saying!? Anyway, say any question or thoughts you have already!”

Mikoto, with a red face, leans over and shouts, their faces almost touching. Kamijou hurriedly leans backwards.

“Uwaa! Uh… Uh… my thoughts are ‘are you kidding me!?’, and my question is 'just what do we have to do to act like a couple?'”

“Eh? What do you mean doing what…?”

“What I mean is, what do we have to do so that we appear as a couple to everyone?”

“…”

“…”

Mikoto and Kamijou have completely no idea what to do next.

It’s not by doing something that two people become a couple, but that a true couple, no matter what they are doing, appears as a true couple; the inexperienced duo here apparently have no idea regarding that.

Part 7
August 31, 10:45 AM.

In the end, Kamijou and Mikoto decide to sit there and chat.

However, most students are hurrying to finish their summer homework, so the place is empty of people. The only one that can see the two of them talking is probably the hotdog vendor. The "let as many people see us as possible" part of the plan is failing miserably, from what Kamijou can see.

“So yeah, after the ‘experiment’, there’s less than ten Sisters left in Academy City; the rest of them got sent off to facilities ‘outside’ to adjust their bodies.”

“What? Sent to ‘outside’ facilities, is that alright? If the people ‘outside’ examine the Sisters, wouldn’t the contents of the esper development program be leaked out?”

“Some of the other companies and research facilities outside are also on the side of Academy City. Academy City can’t survive by itself; things such as allocating resources, obtaining various information, dealing with legal issues… there’s plenty of links that’s not seen on the surface.”

“Oh, so I guess that means they should be doing alright. That’s good, that’s good.”

At this point, Mikoto goes silent for a moment, as if displeased at something, with a somewhat unhappy look on her face. Kamijou doesn’t know the reason for that, but he follows suit and also falls silent.

“Wait, this doesn’t seem like what couples talk about, right?”

“Hmm, you’re right. Research facilities, Academy City’s influences, body adjustments, the things we’re talking about are pretty weird.”

“…(I meant we shouldn’t be talking about other girls.)”

“What?”

Kamijou doesn’t quite hear her, but Mikoto only replies with a “Nothing”.

Mikoto sneaks a glance at Kamijou’s face, only to see Kamijou with a bored face take out a pile of folded paper from his pockets. At a closer look, it seems to be a paper on old Japanese. Kamijou then takes out an automatic pencil and starts doing the questions.

“…Oi, do you understand the situation right now? How do we look like a couple right now? Just studying and leaving the girl at the side, do you think this is male-dominant medieval Europe or something?”

“Sigh, alright, alright, the Irewa Mikoto’s so moe~” (Original note: Irewa (?) is a term used in Japanese fandom used to describe plants, animals, or non-living things as a human, mostly as kawaii girls)

“So by Irewa, you mean you never took me as a human?!”

“Uwaa! Alright, treat this as a study session between couples, then! Honestly speaking, I haven’t even finished one section of my summer homework, this next 24-hour period is like a homework hell for me!”

“What’s summer homework?”

“…Eh, Misaka Mikoto ojou-sama, you don’t know what summer homework is?”

“Ah… come to think of it, I think I’ve heard of it before; it’s something for students so that they won’t slack off during the holidays and end up doing worse in their studies, right? Though even without these things, people shouldn’t slack off or get worse in their studies, right?”

Kamijou is speechless. Tokiwadai Middle School actually doesn’t have a thing like summer homework?

“Uu, that’s not fair, why does Tokiwadai have such freedom?”

“How should I know?” Mikoto shrugs off all responsibility with that one sentence.

“What kind of stuff do you get for summer homework?”

“Eh? You can have a look if you want, but these are questions for a high school student; a middle school student like you won’t understand it.”

“Just let me see already!”

Kamijou offhandedly looks aside at Mikoto before hurriedly leaning back from her. Mikoto, who leaned over to try and see his homework, is almost touching him cheek-to-cheek.

“Oh, is this for old Japanese? Though it looks like it's only simple revision.”

Mikoto doesn’t seem to realise this. She then takes the pencil off Kamijou and starts writing down the answers, almost completely leaning on Kamijou while doing so. Kamijou smells a slight faint scent of shampoo from her.

''Uwaa… Not… Not good! I don’t know why, but this isn’t good!''

No matter which part of his body he moves, he’d end up in contact with Mikoto’s body. Kamijou stiffens up to the point where he can’t move. After a while, he finally notices something.

“…Eh? How come you know how to do this?”

“How come you don’t?”

Mikoto answers as if it’s only natural, without any negative overtones in her comment. Kamijou involuntarily has a sudden urge to run away from her. Mikoto puts her hands on Kamijou’s shoulders, smiles gently and says,

“Don’t worry, everyone has something they're not good at. Ah, right, I’ll finish these questions for you in return for dragging you into this.”

“As a high school student, I’m getting tutored by a middle school student…”

“Ah… ahaha, uwa, you’re looking really sad about it. Do you want a drink to change the pace? I’ll go get some, and after that, we can keep going with the homework.”

“Ah? If we’re going to buy some drinks, shouldn’t I be the one that goes? Let me go walk around a bit to change the pace- not to mention I still owe you 2000 yen.”

“If I said I’ll go, then I’ll go; if these small matters get refused, it gets kind of awkward, right?”

Mikoto smiles half-heartedly while getting up from the bench, and runs off, leaving Kamijou alone. It doesn’t look like there are vending machines around here, so maybe she’s going to the nearest general store or something.

We’re basically just eating and drinking constantly, huh…?

Kamijou looks at the direction where Mikoto ran off to before lowering his head and staring at the old Japanese homework again. To be honest, in Kamijou’s eyes, the Japanese on the paper looks no different from English.

“…Sigh…”

Kamijou shakes his head tiredly, and moves his view away from the paper.

All of a sudden, a small dog runs past Touma, and on its collar is a leash. Apparently, it just ran away from its owner.

Kamijou is slightly surprised, looking at the escaping dog. At this point, a cool-type boy runs across Kamijou’s view and goes chasing after the dog. Kamijou still remembers that face; that person is Unabara Mitsuki. Not long after, he catches up with the dog, and holds onto the leash.

A while later, a boy who looks to be still in primary school catches up with Unabara. Apparently, this boy is the owner of that dog. Unabara hands the leash over to the boy, and also says a few things to him. This sight is almost like the cliché where one gets a balloon that got stuck on a tree for a child.

''That was so cool, so elegant. So these people actually exist. In terms of rarity, it should be as rare as a girl that runs away from home and ends up sitting on the swings at a park while crying.''

Kamijou thinks, half-amazed and half-impressed. Truth be told, he’s also one of those extremely rare people, the kind who saves girls being harassed from delinquents.

Kamijou and Unabara’s eyes meet.

Unabara apparently remembers Kamijou’s face, too. After showing a slight amount of surprise, he smiles something that appears similar to a grimace.

“Hello, may I ask what your name is?”

“Ah? I’m Kamijou Touma. You’re Unabara Mitsuki right?”

“Eh? I am Unabara Mitsuki, indeed, but how did you know my name?”

Unabara shows an astonished look. He doesn’t know that Kamijou already heard about him from Mikoto. Truth be told, Kamijou, who is busy with his homework, was dragged into this mess because of him.

“Does Unabara Mitsuki have any business with me, Kamijou Touma?”

“Ah, no, there isn’t really anything urgent.” Unabara seems a bit unbalanced, and says, “Uh, if you don’t mind, can you tell me what your relationship with Misaka-san is?”

“Does it bother you?”

“…Yes; when a guy appears next to a girl I like, it obviously bothers me.”

“Ooh…” Kamijou has a better opinion of Unabara after that.

This man is indeed really likable. Surprisingly, he’s someone who speaks his mind clearly. Kamijou respects this kind of people.

Hmm…

Kamijou thinks a bit more, as he only just got asked by Mikoto to act out a scenario to make Unabara completely give up.

“What kind of answer do you want to hear: the answer that’s expected or the answer that’s unexpected?”

“No answer you give would change what I have decided,” Unabara says without any hesitation.

From this, Unabara’s resolve can be seen. He plans to increase his own worth in Misaka’s eyes to gain the advantage rather than defeat the opponent. Maybe this action holds some amount of stubbornness and recklessness, but Unabara amazingly does not give off the negative feelings normally associated with that kind of act; maybe this is because he doesn’t act hostilely to Kamijou or hold resentment towards Mikoto.

Part 8
August 31, 11:02 AM.

After chatting with each other for a bit, Kamijou discovers that Unabara Mitsuki’s personality isn’t that bad.

Kamijou originally thought he was just another rich guy since he's the grandson of the director of Tokiwadai Middle School, so he must be one of those unlikable upper-class people- though Kamijou turned out to be mistaken on that.

“So I feel Misaka-san should be clearer when saying whether she likes or dislikes someone. Ah, the answer to that question is ③.”

“It’s ③… ③… Is it? But I feel she’s fairly direct when it comes to her feelings. Once, I forgot her name before, and I got attacked by her thunderbolts because of that.”

“I think for her being ‘direct’ here, it probably involved a certain amount of shyness and acting. To be honest, I don’t think I ever heard what she truly thinks, not even once. Ah, the answer to that question should be (4); ② is probably a trap.”

“Thanks. Hmm, after you said that, it seems to be the case.”

“Yeah, it’s like that. She doesn’t say what she thinks clearly, so someone like me is forced to go chasing after her continuously. I’m being direct, so why can’t she be direct as well and give me a clear-cut answer? Ah, that question’s ①.”

“Ah, it’s not (4)? Though you sure are brave. What you're doing right now is like getting a pistol while not knowing how many bullets are in it and playing Russian roulette with it. Even though there are only two outcomes, it’s not like the chances are exactly 50% each way.”

“I understand. I’m afraid that if I hear refusal from her mouth, I myself wouldn’t know how sad I would be. But…”

“But?”

“...I still can’t. I can’t do something that I know would make her cry, and still forcibly take possession of her. If I can’t let her obtain happiness, then there would be no point.”

Kamijou suddenly wants to root for him in his endeavour, but unfortunately, he already knows the outcome.

Ahh, youth.

Kamijou sighs. To be blunt, Kamijou cannot help at all when it comes to a thing like this. And after hearing these words that came from the bottom of Unabara’s heart, Kamijou doesn’t know whether he should still put on the "act" to try and fool him.

Suddenly, from the side comes the sounds of footsteps.

Kamijou turns and looks. Mikoto, who’s holding two plastic bottled drinks, is standing right in front of him, staring with a shocked expression.

“Hmm? What’s wrong with you…?”

Before Kamijou finishes asking, Mikoto strides out towards him, gesturing for him to stand up with her chin, as if to drag him away from Unabara.

“Come with me for a moment!”

“Ah… Oi!”

Kamijou looks over at Unabara. Unabara seems to be hurt from Mikoto’s actions, but he still maintains his smile. His expression becomes forced, though.

Mikoto looks at Unabara and says,

“Sorry, I have some business with this guy today.”

“Ah, is that so?”

“Yeah, sorry. Goodbye.”

Mikoto says with a smile. To Kamijou who understands her to some extent, Mikoto’s actions are unnatural, to say the least. Unabara also seems to notice this, and doesn’t try to argue with her. Then, Mikoto turns and walks away.

Kamijou’s troubled as to which side he should stay with, not knowing who to choose. Unabara smiles and says, “Please stay with her.”

Part 9
August 31, 11:20 AM.

After wordlessly walking for a while and ending up at a deserted side street, Mikoto finally stops. Kamijou almost walks into her at her sudden stop.

She turns forcibly and, with an expression filled with amazement and anger, says,

“What the hell is wrong with you? Don’t you know the reason why you have to act along? If you and Unabara became friends, wouldn’t it all have been meaningless?”

“…”

“Listen, right now, you’re now my… my… ‘lover’! All this is for Unabara Mitsuki to no longer come harassing me! Could you please not forget this basic goal?”

“…”

“What, why aren’t you saying anything?”

“I can’t,” Kamijou honestly says. “Because that guy’s serious. He already knows that doing so would only get him hurt in the end, yet he still honestly came out and stated his feelings for you. And he already decided that even if he’s hurt because of this, he won’t end up resenting you. I can’t trick someone like him, nor do I want to.”

“What…?”

Mikoto seems surprised, looking stunned at Kamijou.

Kamijou doesn’t realize Mikoto is slightly trembling.

“On the other hand, I want to ask you: what don’t you like about Unabara Mitsuki? Does he have some sort of serious flaw? Of course, if you don’t like him, it’s not right to force you to go out with him, either, though I do want to know the reason behind this.”

“…”

Mikoto stares at Kamijou, as if she wants to say something. But her lips are tightly pressed; not a word is able to be emitted from it- even her breathing seems to stop.

Kamijou and Mikoto prolong the silence.

After some time, Mikoto finally says,

“You…”

“?”

“…Mm, nothing.”

Mid-sentence, Mikoto seems to change her mind and doesn’t continue. She puts up a smile that says there’s nothing wrong, but her eyes show a bit of loneliness- at least, that’s what Kamijou is feeling.

Part 10
August 31, 11:45 AM.

In the side street, there are only Mikoto and the boy.

From the words that come out of the boy’s mouth, even from what is seen on the surface, what the impact of those words do to Mikoto is clear. She doesn’t know what "that feeling" that pulses through her heart is. But, she subconsciously feels that "that feeling" shouldn’t be shown- no, it could even be said that there is a force inside her that absolutely cannot let "that feeling" out.

On the other hand, this also means "that feeling" is so powerful that if she’s not careful, it would erupt from inside her. Mikoto is trying with all her might to suppress "that feeling", which is running around inside her like steam in a kettle.

It’s unbelievable.

Even though she knows "that feeling" shouldn’t be shown, suppressing it is making Mikoto feel painful beyond her belief. Does this mean that deep down, Mikoto wants to let out "that feeling"? No, that’s not it either. Just thinking about the aftermath of letting "that feeling" out makes her blush bright red.

In such complicated confusion, Mikoto doesn’t even know what "that feeling" is.

Mikoto herself doesn’t know what’s going on, and can only suppress all thoughts before they leave her mouth.

Mikoto now dimly realizes something.

Mikoto always had thought she was someone special. She believed that her distance with this boy was closer that that of anyone else around them. If the boy had a list with the names of a thousand people and while he was browsing through it, he came across the name "Misaka", he should be slightly interested in that instant and look at that name a bit longer.

However, in reality, that’s not the case.

It’s such a small realization, but it gives Mikoto’s heart a large shock. Why something this small hurts her so much, Mikoto doesn’t know- nor does she have a way to solve it. If possible, she really wants to run away. Mikoto wants to run away from this inexplicable pain so much.

But Mikoto can’t do that.

She doesn’t know why, but she can’t turn her back on him; she can’t leave the boy and not come back.

That would be very painful.

Compared to the pain now, it would be a lot more painful.

…Ahh, I’m such an idiot.

Mikoto sighs in her heart.

The boy seems to not notice the internal struggle of Mikoto, only asking with a puzzled voice,

“What are you smiling about?”

Part 11
August 31, 12:00 PM.

Kamijou and Mikoto walk to the main road, discussing what to do next about Unabara.

“Alright, what do you plan to do now? Do you want to continue the ‘act’? Or do you want to give it up?”

“…Sigh, what do you think we should do?”

“I’m planning to withdraw from the ‘act’. There’s really no point in continuing. And anyway, Unabara’s not the kind of person you think he is, right? Even if he’s rejected, he wouldn’t be angry at you.”

“Maybe so, but recently he changed; it’s like he’s a different person… Anyway, why are you helping him? What happened?”

“Nothing much, just asked him for some help on the homework I had.”

Mikoto frowns, so Kamijou passes the old Japanese homework over for her to have a look. After Unabara’s help, most of them were correctly answered.

But after Mikoto took a look, her expression goes serious.

“Indeed… the answers are correct.”

“Hmm? What are you trying to say?”

“Was he this smart? From what I remember, he shouldn’t be this good.”

“What? But he got the correct answer, didn’t he?”

“Mm… His grades at school are indeed top of the class… but his ability is Level 4 Telekinesis, a kind of unseen power that can control objects from a distance.”

“Does that have anything to do with his grades?”

“Of course it does.” Mikoto crosses her arms and says, “According to that nosy Shirai Kuroko’s behind-the-scenes investigations, he actually got his grades through cheating. His method is to put a thin layer of his ability on the computer screen for the exam, feel the minute heat and radiation, and reverse-engineer the correct answer… Simply put, it’s like a stethoscope. So, his grades and his knowledge have no connection.”

“Uwaa…” Kamijou is speechless. He has heard of a special kind of machine that can measure the slight magnetic field released to decode the electronic flow of information. But for a human to be able to achieve the same thing really makes Kamijou surprised.

“How come you can just stand there and say it like it’s nothing special?”

“It’s not that rare, is it? As an Electromaster myself, I can do similar things- for example, stealing information from a credit card's magnetic strip."

Looking at Mikoto saying it as if it’s nothing special, the Level 0 Kamijou Touma can only choose to keep silent.

Part 12
August 31, 12:12 PM.

Lunchtime.

Maybe it’s because he already had a hotdog that Kamijou doesn’t feel that hungry. But he just remembered Index being left alone in the student dorms. The kitchen has some food like bread that doesn’t need to be cooked before being eaten, though, so she shouldn’t starve. But knowing Index, she would probably just wait for Kamijou to get back, and not do anything.

“Alright, so the act stops here. To repay you, I’ll treat you to something. What do you want to eat?”

“You still want to eat? No, thanks, I’m not that hungry.”

“It’s to repay you, so just accept it already. Ah, the extra-large sized ‘hell’s fried rice’ that’s free if you can finish it in an hour! Do you want to try?”

“You’re just messing with me now, aren’t you?”

As it’s now time for food, many students come out looking for a place to eat, and the place starts to get bustling.

Kamijou follows Mikoto in the crowd, being careful not to lose her, and says,

“Wait, if we end the act now, how are you going to deal with Unabara?”

“I’ll handle that myself. I might get in some trouble with the director, but… Forget it, that's my problem.”

Mikoto’s tone seems to show that she’s resigned to whatever would come after that. Kamijou decides not to press the issue any further.

The two of them go to various places looking for a place to eat lunch, but all the restaurants are full. In the end, the two decide to buy some cheap hamburgers and just eat them outside. But even with this compromise, all the fast food retailers have long queues; guess they would be lining up for a while.

“I’ll go stand in the queue, you just go stay somewhere for a while. I’ll decide what to eat; there’s no problem, right?”

“Ah? We can just line up together, right?”

“Don’t worry. I’m the one that dragged you into this, so I should be doing some of the more boring stuff.”

After that, Mikoto goes and joins the queue. Maybe it’s because this shop is exceptionally popular that many more come soon afterward, and Mikoto is lost in the crowd.

If he tries to force his way into the crowd to join Mikoto, it probably won’t be good to the others around them, so Kamijou gives up on trying to go in and stays outside by himself.

''Uu, in the direct sunlight of summer, it’s probably worse out here than inside. Ahh, come to think of it, what am I going to do about my summer homework?''

Kamijou looks up and stares at the sun with an expression like a slowly drying potted plant. At this time, a familiar face shows up next to him.

Unabara Mitsuki.

“Eh? What are you doing here? And by yourself? Did you finish what you two were doing already?”

“Hmm? Ah, Misaka’s in there.” Kamijou points inside. “Do you want to go and talk to her? She should be calm enough now to be able to talk to you.”

“No, don’t bother; just then, she still seemed unhappy.”

Unabara says this with a troubled look on his face.

Part 13
August 31, 12:15 PM.

At the takeaway, it is as crowded as a train carriage during rush hour.

Mikoto in the crowd looks tiredly at the ceiling.

Summer, the crowd, the heat… Uu… The air conditioner is on, so why is it still so hot!?

Looking at the line that’s not moving, Mikoto’s considering whether to change to another shop. But looking back, there’s also a wall of people behind her. If she tries to go out now, she would also cause trouble for people.

Mikoto dryly laughs a few times. At this moment, someone pushes forcibly into the crowd from the back, amid the annoyance and displeasure of the people who moved aside like the tides parting.

Then, the crowd in front of her parts aside.

From the crowd, someone she’s very familiar with falls onto the ground.

“Eh? Hey, why are you-?”

“Run!”

He cuts off Mikoto’s sentence.

Covered in sweat, his right hand, for some reason, is covered with bandages.

The boy with bloodshot eyes yells crazily.

Part 14
August 31, 12:15 PM- the exact same time.

“Ah, thanks for helping me with my homework.”

Kamijou, who is standing on the hot summer sidewalk waiting for Mikoto, says this. In comparison, Unabara, in the same position, still manages to give off a cool atmosphere, smiles, and says,

“It’s nothing; I only did what I could with all my power.”

…‘with all my power’?

Kamijou feels that something isn’t quite right. Unabara also feels a slight pause in the conversation and asks,

“What’s wrong?”

“Mm… I want to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

“Are your grades good?”

Unabara pauses slightly before saying,

“Ah, sorry, did I get something wrong on the homework?”

“T, That’s not it…”

How could he ask ‘Didn’t you get your grades by cheating?’ in front of him? Kamijou hurriedly looks for some way to change the topic… Suddenly, his mouth stops moving.

“What’s wrong?” Unabara asks, slightly confused, but Kamijou doesn’t answer. Actually, nothing’s wrong with Unabara; what Kamijou is looking at is behind Unabara.

Behind Unabara Mitsuki. At the fast food shop Mikoto’s lining up in, due to it being lunchtime, it’s packed with people; plus, the students walking by make it seem even more crowded.

In this view full of people… Kamijou sees another Unabara Mitsuki.

The man whose face, height, clothes, and everything else look exactly like that of "Unabara" is soaked with sweat and has bloodshot eyes as he rushes into the fast food shop.

Seconds later, Unabara seems to notice where Kamijou is looking at and turns around to look at the fast food shop. But that man already pushed himself into the crowd.

Kamijou is very suspicious. Was it only someone who looked a lot like Unabara…? If it’s like that, then it’s too similar. Even though they feel slightly different, they look exactly the same on the outside… yes, just like Mikoto and Misaka Imouto.

“Hey, do you have any siblings?”

“No, I’m an only child. Why do you ask?”

“Uh… I just saw someone who looked a lot like you entering that shop.”

Kamijou points at the shop, and Unabara turns back and looks once more.

“Mm… I didn’t see, so I don’t quite understand what’s going on. You only got a glance at him, right? Could it be that it’s only the hair and clothes that looked the same? Anyway, I don’t have siblings.”

After that’s said, it seems to be right. Kamijou didn’t look that close, so he’s really not sure on the details. Now Unabara seems a bit anxious, taking a look at Kamijou before looking back at the direction of the fast food shop.

“Excuse me, but did that person really look like me that much?”

“Eh? Ah, mm. Not just like you, but almost… exactly the same, though it’s probably just someone that looks a lot like you; don’t be so worried.”

“That person who looked a lot like me went into the shop, and Misaka-san’s in the shop, too, right? I’m a bit worried.”

Unabara has a troubled expression on his face as he looks at the entrance to the fast food shop.

“Among the espers in this city, some supposedly have the ‘Metamorphose’ ability. Just like its name, it can make somebody’s face or body similar to someone else’s, though it’s apparently impossible to change it at the genetic level.”

Looking at the slightly nervous Unabara, Kamijou thinks that maybe he’s just worrying too much, though maybe it’s natural for him to be that way, since he likes Misaka.

“Hmm, it doesn’t matter if it’s someone that looks similar; we can just go in and check, right? Even though I think it may just be nothing, it’s good to clear things up as fast as possible.”

Kamijou walks towards the fast food shop, but Unabara instead takes a step back.

“Ah, no… I just made Misaka-san mad; if I really am just worrying too much and see Misaka-san like this, I’ll be troubled.”

“Why do you have a lonely smile when you say things like that? You just care about her, right?”

“Caring about her and being nosy are two different things. Sorry, if possible, can you go in and have a look if there’s anything wrong?”

“Alright, I get it, though even if this isn’t something I should intrude in, I feel that you don’t have to be so timid at this point. Just in this past week, she already refused several of your invitations, but you didn’t give up, right?”

“Uh, I don’t get what you are saying.”

“Ah, I meant…”

“All this week, I was at a club practice. I know she was avoiding me, so I thought that maybe I should let both sides cool off a bit first. Today’s the last day of summer vacation, and I wanted to see Misaka-san after I haven’t seen her for a while, so I came to look for her.”

Kamijou is surprised. According to Mikoto, "Unabara Mitsuki" had been going to harass her all this week- but "Unabara Mitsuki" himself says he’s been at club activities. If that’s the case, then who was it that had been going to Mikoto all this time?

Unabara doesn’t seem to know this. Kamijou doesn’t want to cause more unease for him, so he just runs past him and heads for the fast food shop.

But after running halfway there, Kamijou thinks of something. If Unabara cheats to get his grades, then how did he get the answers to his homework so easily?

As Kamijou questions this, from behind suddenly comes Unabara’s voice.

“Seriously, trying to fool people and not make a mistake isn’t easy.”

With a *Don!*, the center of Kamijou’s back gets hit by a strong impact. A few seconds later, Kamijou realizes it’s from a fist. Just like when a plastic bag full of air is suddenly stepped on, the air inside his lungs is pushed outside his body, not to mention him yelling in pain- he couldn’t even breathe.

Kamijou turns his head around, looks behind him, and sees Unabara Mitsuki with a cold stare looking back.

Kamijou doesn’t understand what’s going on; due to the lack of air, his head blanks out for a moment. Unabara puts his hand behind him and takes out something similar to a knife.

As Unabara stabs forward with his knife, Kamijou also steps forward hurriedly.

Kamijou feels the knife almost slash across his back, and starts sweating. But he still forces himself to breathe and open the distance between himself and Unabara to prevent a fatal blow. In such a large crowd, everything below the chest is blocked from sight by other people, so rather than covering Kamijou’s mouth and stabbing him, this is less obvious. If Unabara kills Kamijou this way, he can still blend into the crowd without anyone noticing his acts.

This isn’t a suicidal attack that takes the opponent down with him, but an assassination technique that puts one’s own safety first.

An act of violence carried out in broad daylight amongst a crowd of people.

But there’s no screams or disturbances; from this, one can see how skilled Unabara is.

Could it be…?

Kamijou feels himself losing his balance. He tries to stabilize himself, but his stumbling feet can’t stop. As if using "Unabara" as the center of a circle, Kamijou moves continuously.

Could it be… that this one is the fake…?

"Unabara Mitsuki" smiles slightly, as if seeing through Kamijou’s thought from his eyes.

Kamijou looks at "Unabara Mitsuki’s" hand, and sees him holding a knife made of black stone. It doesn’t look like it was made by cutting, but instead by chipping the rock itself.

Because it doesn’t look like a weapon, people around it don’t panic when they saw the stone knife.

Kamijou keeps trying to focus his head, blinded by the pain, and asks,

“…Dammit… Why… are you doing this…?”

“You’re asking me why? Because now is the crucial period of infiltrating… even if I explain it, you wouldn’t understand the importance of it, right? Then again, the real deal actually escaped. Guess this half-assed way of just imprisoning him was a mistake; I should’ve just killed him in the first place. Ah, just so you know, I’m not his brother or someone that looks similar to him. Apart from science’s ‘Metamorphose’ ability, there are other ways of changing one’s image into someone else’s.”

"Unabara Mitsuki" says this before pointing his stone knife at the sky.

Boom!

Something invisible flies past Kamijou’s cheek.

From the knife edge, something like an invisible laser shoots through, hitting an illegally parked car behind Kamijou. Almost like it has been branded, a complicated seal appears on the door of the car. Then from the seal, something invisible is spreading out. Just like an evil look at somebody else, it can’t be seen, but it can be felt. It seems that this phenomenon can’t be explained by science- almost as if it symbolizes the existence of a power outside science.

That’s magic.

After a second’s pause, a huge clatter is heard. The car’s doors, glass, frame, wheels… every part is disassembled.

Not "destroyed" by a rough cutting or pulling, but "disassembled" like a toy model being returned to the state it was in before being built.

Kamijou’s face goes white after seeing that.

If that incomprehensible attack hits the human body, what’s going to happen… can be easily imagined.

A disturbance spreads among the crowd like a wave, but nobody screams, nor do they panic. From their eyes, this is only an "unordinary phenomenon", and nobody thinks it is an "attack".

"Unabara Mitsuki" doesn’t even look at their surroundings.

Once again, he raises his knife.

“?!”

Kamijou starts to sweat profusely on his back.

Unabara’s attack is fearsome. Though Kamijou’s right hand has the ability to destroy any supernatural power, to be able to predict this kind of attack where it can’t be seen by the eyes is just as hard as trying to see and dodge bullets.

Mikoto’s electricity attacks may be similar in attack style, but after all, the electricity attack can be blocked by extending out the right hand and using it as a lightning rod to attract the attack over and negate it.

But this wouldn’t work against Unabara’s mysterious attacks.

And the most frightening thing is that the accuracy of the attack is very low. Kamijou is only five meters away from Unabara, without any defenses, and the attack still didn’t hit him. It has low accuracy, but its power is enough to destroy a car in one blow.

There are plenty of passersby who are surprised by the car being disassembled, but nobody thinks that it could be an attack on someone. Unabara doesn’t care about dragging somebody else into this mess. If this magician is allowed to rampage in this situation, a lot of people would be hit by stray shots.

“Dammit!”

Kamijou risks the danger of turning his back to Unabara in order to find a deserted place. He dashes into a side street, running frantically down the twisting and turning path.

The sounds of the invisible-weapon-wielding "enemy's" footsteps can be heard closing in step by step.

Part 15
August 31, 12:24 PM.

''Dammit! What the hell is going on? Why would a magician appear here?! What is he after?!''

Kamijou curses in his heart while running through the side streets.

First, he needs information on the enemy’s attack traits.

Kamijou takes out his cellphone while running. Fortunately for him, the enemy’s attack doesn’t have rapid-fire or much accuracy. But even so, being in a situation where the enemy’s attack is continuously fired from behind him still makes Kamijou feel pressured. The fingers holding the phone shiver involuntarily.

The ringing starts. Once, twice, three times, four times, five times, six times, seven times, eight times, nine times.

“Ah, uh, Hello! This is the Kamijou residence, yes!”

“Too slow!”

Kamijou shouts meaninglessly, and after hearing that, the girl on the other side also starts to get mad.

“Ah, is this voice Touma? Touma’s the one that’s slow! When can we eat lunch? Or should I go to Komoe’s house for help? If you don’t clearly say beforehand, I’m not going to know what to do!”

“Sorry, Index! We can talk about food later! I have something important to ask you right now!”

“What do you mean later?! Why does Touma always-?”

“Enough already, are you alright over there? Some magician showed up, and I don’t know what they are after, but they could be coming after you again! Tsuchimikado, that guy… he might be back at the dorms by now! Oi, Index! Go next door right now and take a look! That guy is on our side!”

“Touma… are you… being chased right now?”

Index seems to understand the situation, and her voice becomes quiet.

“That’s right! I’m running madly for my life right now! If possible, please give me some advice that’ll let me turn the current situation around!”

“…What’s the magician’s traits? Things like clothes, weapons, the way of speaking, or the way they act.”

Kamijou then mentions everything he knows about "Unabara Mitsuki" to Index, including how he changed into somebody else’s appearance and the stone knife he wields. After three seconds of short silence, Index replies,

“The black stone knife is obsidian, right? A spear made by using a mirror to reflect starlight… that should be the Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli.”

“Tlah… what?”

“Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli. It’s the name for the Aztec god of Venus and disasters; supposedly, his Spear can kill anyone that is under the light of Venus.”

Kamijou freezes. No matter what that legend was, it is way too preposterous. If that stone knife has that kind of power, humankind would’ve been gone from the world by now.

“What Venus… Index, you can skip the introduction. Anyway, what do I do now? I want to quickly–”

A loud *Boom* cuts off Kamijou’s whining.

The mysterious attack goes past Kamijou’s side and hits an air conditioner. Kamijou involuntarily sweats cold all over, and swiftly turns a corner.

“Touma! If you don’t listen carefully, the one in trouble is going to be you!”

“Sorry! Index-sama! I won’t complain to things experts say again! Please tell me some suggestions now! Immediately!”

“Mm, first, that ‘Spear’ is made from the light of Venus, remember that.”

Kamijou couldn’t help but look up. In the sky between the buildings… Venus can’t be seen. But that doesn’t mean "Venus doesn’t exist"- just that "the sunlight is too bright to be able to see Venus".

“But that’s unreasonable, right? Everybody in the world is under the light of Venus. If the power of the ‘Spear’ is as you say, no one can escape its power and humans would be extinct now, right?”

“Yeah, that’s why it’s classed as god-level magic- but that’s also its flaw, as humans can’t completely control magic used by gods.”

“What does that mean?”

“Simply put, humans can only use a replica of the ‘Spear’. If the real ‘Spear’ was used, all humans would die. I think the theory behind the replica should be using the obsidian knife as a ‘mirror’? The light of Venus from the sky gets reflected by the ‘mirror’ and reaches the enemy as the ‘Spear’. On the other hand, if you don’t get hit by the light, then you can avoid the attack by the ‘Spear’. If properly handled, Touma’s right hand can block the attack, too; the main point is how to find the unseen path of attack."

“Light that can’t be seen… basically, a laser weapon roughly the size of a pistol?”

“What’s a laser?”

He can imagine on the other side of the phone Index tilting her head in puzzlement.

Maybe it’s because he’s splitting his concentration that Kamijou kicks a bicycle accidentally. Kamijou tilts forward, and barely avoids falling down onto the ground.

*Boom!*, behind him comes a frightening sound.

Kamijou looks back, and the fallen bicycle has already been disassembled by the unseen attack into just frames and wheels. Looks like the accuracy of the magician’s "Spear" isn’t really that high. Kamijou sees the magician behind him raising the knife once more and quickly turns a corner.

“Dammit, that guy’s actually shooting something like that… At least look at the surroundings, you idiot!”

“Mm… the spell technique is like a ‘blueprint’; magic itself is only a ‘phenomenon’. As long as the technique isn’t leaked out, even if the magic is seen, it wouldn’t matter. Even if people without magic knowledge witness the ‘phenomenon’, they can’t reverse-engineer the ‘blueprint’.”

“Uh… that wasn’t what I was trying to say.”

Kamijou sighs, and turns to an even more narrow side path.

Even though every second counts right now, there are still questions left to ask.

“Dammit, so that means how this guy turned into Unabara is also a kind of Aztec magic?”

“That’s right, the Aztec priests have a technique that skins a sacrifice alive and allows them to wear their skin; this magic should be derived from that technique.”

Kamijou gasps.

Even though he knows right now that the situation is dangerous, Kamijou still is shocked enough to almost stop running.

“What… did you say about the skin?”

“Cut it off with a knife and wear it, though if it’s just for changing appearances, there’s no need to go that far; just cutting off 15 cm of the skin from the forearm and turning it into a charm is enough to give a certain amount of transformation effect.”

A horrible feeling starts creeping from Kamijou’s fingertips. The pursuer behind him now feels even more frightening.

“That’s way too scary, actually using skinning people to change appearances. Magicians really are all lunatics!”

“Oi, Touma, what you’re saying is job discrimination–!”

With no time to hear her babbling on, Kamijou turns off the phone.

The small side street is a lot shorter than Kamijou expected, but he’s now back on the main road again. Kamijou hurriedly runs towards the side street across the road. Behind him comes a few more frightening sounds of the "Spear" disassembling something.

''Should I run into a building? No, if the outer walls are gone, I’ll be buried alive! Not knowing the attack range is a problem. If I run into an underground street, I might still be buried alive!''

As Kamijou runs, he tries to understand the situation. The reason the magician’s after him probably has something to do with Index, right? She’s the library for grimoires, with 103,000 of them in her memory. The possibility of magicians from all over the world coming after her isn’t exactly low.

Though if that’s the case, there’s still something hard to understand. Why did that magician transform into ‘Unabara Mitsuki’? Unabara is Mikoto’s friend, and has no direct connection with Kamijou and Index. If he wants to assassinate Kamijou, then shouldn’t he transform into someone closer to Kamijou…?

Kamijou rushes to turn another corner.

“Dammit!”

Kamijou curses. The path in front of him is blocked due to the building next to it being under construction. Spades, bags of cement, and building machinery fill the narrow path; it’s impossible to pass. On top of the half-constructed building is the crane, moving materials overhead.

Even so, Kamijou still heads towards the working site, and turns around to look. The "enemy’s" footsteps are closing in from the corner behind him. There’s nowhere to run.

''What now? What now?!''

In the instant Kamijou looks around, ‘Unabara Mitsuki’ comes stepping out from around the corner. As soon as he sees Kamijou, he raises his black stone knife.

The distance between the two is only five meters.

But Kamijou doesn’t choose to swing his fist at "Unabara Mitsuki", instead grabbing a spade next to him. During this time, "Unabara Mitsuki" waves his black knife in the light, adjusting the angles bit by bit. Kamijou feels sweat covering his palms, and swings the spade down hard.

But his target isn’t "Unabara"; it's the cement bag next to him.

With a swish, the spade stabs through the bag. Kamijou continues the swing, and spreads the cement dust around them.

"Unabara’s" view, surroundings, and the sky are swallowed by the gray dust.

"Unabara" ignores it and swings the knife. At this point, he notices something.

The "Spear" doesn’t activate.

The link between "Venus" and the "mirror" is blocked by the cement dust. In this situation, the "Spear" made by the light of Venus cannot be used.

*Swish!* Something heavy flies past "Unabara Mitsuki’s" cheek.

He lowers himself and thinks it is probably the spade.

“Oooooooooohhhh!!”

Kamijou’s fist pierces through the gray curtain and reaches for him. "Unabara" reflexively bends down and avoids the fist. There isn’t any reason- just instinct. "Unabara" sweats, raises the obsidian knife, which is now only a normal weapon, and tries to slash it across Kamijou’s face. But "Unabara" doesn’t stabilize himself beforehand, so the attack isn’t very powerful. The tip of Kamijou’s foot swings with the sound of the wind, and impacts on the stomach of the bent-down "Unabara".

"Unabara" jumps back, trying to minimize the damage.

He notices that battling in the cement dust is disadvantageous for him, and decides to move back.

"Unabara" continues to move back another few steps, but Kamijou with a faster speed catches up to him instantly. From the structure of the human legs, their speed going forward is obviously faster than them moving back. Kamijou’s fist is about to be swung once more, so "Unabara" hurriedly raises his obsidian knife to try and counter it.

*Whoosh!*

At this instant, a sudden gust blows through the small alley.

The gray mist that covered everything is suddenly all gone. The sky, partially blocked by the surrounding buildings, is once again visible. The grace of the "light of Venus" once again descends onto "Unabara".

Unabara raises his knife, and corrects the angle.

Kamijou who is closing in now shows surprise.

“Hmph! Accept your fate!”

The angle’s set, connecting Venus, mirror, and the target. Focus the mana, chant the incantation, and the starlight will turn into a spear that can’t be seen and pierce directly through the enemy!

The symbol of Venus and disasters, the Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli.

Kamijou, in his panic, raises his right hand,

But is unable to determine the unseen path of attack.

Theoretically, this blow would move through the gap in the right hand’s defense and pierce the heart.

But nothing happens.

“What…?”

"Unabara Mitsuki" involuntarily says. To release the "Spear", several conditions must be met simultaneously- but the strike just then should have met those conditions; there was no reason for failure. The "Spear" should have been released, gone straight through Kamijou’s heart, and split his body cleanly like meat at the butchers.

"Unabara" looks at his obsidian knife with an expression like examining a torch that has ran out of power.

"Unabara" is astonished.

The obsidian knife in his hand actually has a layer of rough gray dust sticking to its surface. Just like a blackboard duster thick with chalk dust, its original color can’t even be seen.

The role of the obsidian knife is to be a "mirror", aiming to adjust and reflect the light of Venus that descends from the sky.

Once the "mirror" is no longer bright, it can’t connect the target with the light of Venus.

Pah! The sounds of Kamijou’s footsteps ring out.

He’s now right in front of "Unabara".

“?!”

If "Unabara" had discarded the obsidian knife and changed his tactics, then he might still have a chance to win. But "Unabara" can’t help but try and wipe off the dust on the obsidian knife. It isn’t hard to understand, since after comparing an equal chance of winning or losing by hand-to-hand combat with the sure-kill magic, anyone would choose the latter option. "Unabara" loses to the temptation of "just wiping off the dust with a single sweep".

The result is that he can’t react to the attack made by Kamijou in time.

A *Don!* sound bursts open. "Unabara" gets smashed into the ground, and the obsidian knife that he still kept until the last second finally leaves his hands.

Part 16
August 31, 12:36 PM.

Kamijou looks at "Unabara Mitsuki" that’s now fallen to the ground.

After "Unabara’s" face got punched, the surface of the whole face turned to dust accompanied by a sound of glass cracking. Underneath it is a magician’s face, looking younger than the real Unabara and also with a darker skin tone. There are still pieces of Unabara’s skin left on his face, making it look surreal- almost like skin that got burnt black by the sun being ripped off unceremoniously.

“Alright, now speak honestly,” Kamijou says while panting. “Why did you transform into ‘Unabara Mitsuki’?”

“Ha, even if I don’t say it clearly, can’t you understand it?”

“Understand it, my ass. Transforming into ‘Unabara’ wouldn’t help in attacking me, right? Why did you go after Unabara? Just to get close to Misaka? Is it because she’s my friend, so you’d finish her off as well?”

“…”

“Answer me. I’ve heard that your transforming technique is by peeling off Unabara’s skin; did you plan to do the same thing to Misaka? Misaka has nothing to do with the Magic side; why do you magicians want to drag her into this?”

Kamijou seems to be agitated, but Unabara’s tone is somewhat calm.

Plain and emotionless, the words flow slowly from his mouth.

“Unabara should have been erased.”

His voice isn’t cold like ice, but more like lukewarm water where emotion isn’t fluctuating.

“But at the point of death, he used his esper ability… Telekinesis. He changed every particle in his body into a solid block, going into a false death– maybe cryogenic stasis is a better term. Stabbing his heart was like stabbing a frozen slab of meat; no damage could be done. Not even the ‘Spear’ could take him apart. I had no other ideas, so I could only tie him up and lock him in the room…”

Looks like this magician has done a lot of research on Academy City, using scientific jargon such as Telekinesis and cryogenic stasis.

But what surprises Kamijou more is the overly plain voice. It sounds like forcing to play an old cassette when it has nearly fallen apart.

Unabara seems a bit satisfied looking at Kamijou’s face, and his voice gradually gains emotion.

“You ask what my aim in coming here is? I didn’t think that this would be your first question in this situation.”

Unabara seems to laugh at Kamijou from the bottom of his heart, and continues to speak. “Looks like you have no idea how dangerous your actions are.”

“What are you saying?”

“You don’t just have the 103,000 grimoires of ‘Index Librorum Prohibitum’ in your possession; you also have magicians of the English Anglican Church, Tokiwadai’s Level 5 esper, the trump card against vampires, and all sorts of other people gathered to your side.”

The magician says in a tone like he’s laughing at himself,

“The Magic side and the Science side were originally two worlds that could not coexist, but you are building an organization that incorporates both worlds. The ‘Kamijou Faction’ can now almost be called a separate entity. The ‘Organization’ that I belong to is afraid that a new organization like yours will destroy the world’s balance of power.”

Organization.

Like Academy City, the Christian Churches, the Magic Cabal, or some other major country?

“That’s why I was sent here, though my mission in the beginning wasn’t to transform into ‘Unabara’ or to eliminate anyone. I’ve only been in this city for a month, and transforming into ‘Unabara’ was also only a week ago. The original mission was just surveillance. All I needed to do was to make sure that the ‘Kamijou Faction’ has no influence to the balance of power, report to my superiors that ‘there’s no problem’, and finish the mission.”

The magician clenches his teeth.

“But you are too dangerous! From the bits and pieces I’ve gathered, in just this summer vacation period, you’ve already destroyed several ‘organizations’! Not only so, this ‘Faction’ of yours can’t be bought off by money or controlled by brute force. The movements of the ‘Kamijou Faction’ depend solely on your own emotions and whims! With such a huge unstable power, how can those ‘above’ possibly leave you alone?!”

“Wait… that that means…”

“That’s right. My target isn’t just the person known as ‘Kamijou Touma’, but all members in the ‘Kamijou Faction’. At this point, even if only you are killed, the bonds between the various members can’t be dissolved.”

The aim of "transforming" into a friend is this.

"Transform" into one of Kamijou’s friends, do some bad things, and lower the trust between members. When there’s no further use, "transform" into another friend and do the same things, using such methods to make the "Faction" collapse from the inside.

Even if the fact that "someone is disguised" is discovered, it wouldn’t matter; as long as "who’s been replaced" is not known, it will only drive each member apart, to the point where they no longer trust each other.

Internal collapse.

Such methods employed by spies have brought down countless dynasties throughout history. Even regimes that look robust can fall abruptly. A kind king can suddenly turn into a tyrant, manipulated by aides in the shadows. Because of the efficiency of the method and also its cruelty, myths about foxes and demons have been born in some countries.

“I was going to leave you last, but I guess it can’t be helped. As the mask of ‘Unabara Mitsuki’ has been found out, I’ll have to borrow your ‘face’ next!”

After that sentence, the magician literally flies towards the obsidian knife on the ground, swiftly wipes off the cement dust, and turns from the ground to release the "Spear".

But maybe the position of shooting is too forced that the place the "Spear" ended up shooting at is nowhere near Kamijou. The magician clucks, stands up, and raises the obsidian knife once more.

But now Kamijou is right in front of the magician.

“Che!”

The magician wants to release the "Spear", but Kamijou’s fist is faster. Kamijou’s right hand impacts the obsidian knife. Maybe Imagine Breaker has worked, as the obsidian knife turns to powder with a sound like glass breaking.

“Did you think I would just wait for you? That’s stup-!”

Kamijou’s words get cut off before he can finish.

The roar of metal clashing with one another comes from above him. Kamijou looks up involuntarily, and sees the steel beams falling from the half-finished building.

Apparently, the "Spear" that missed hit the building next to them.

That building hasn’t filled up with concrete yet, so it looks like a giant metal cube. The power of the "Spear" is to disassemble the physical form, so the steel beams that have been released from the nuts and bolts holding them together start to rain down onto both Kamijou and the magician.

“?!”

Kamijou and the magician both move backwards. A metal rod weighing several hundred kg stabs between the two, almost like a holy sword.

Seconds later, the whole building that was under construction starts to fall like an avalanche. Using common sense, they should be running for their lives right now. But if they run, the chance of capturing the magician would be gone, and the magician once more would turn into someone else and harm someone close to Kamijou.

Kamijou and the magician come into eye contact.

The magician looks into Kamijou’s eyes, and shows a peculiar smile.

''Dammit! My life is so unlucky!''

Kamijou curses inside, staring at the magician who also doesn’t plan to escape.

“Even though it’s a cliché line… I thought we could’ve been friends.”

The workers who were doing the construction are now escaping and roaring in anger. All the sounds from the workers are coming from ground level; apparently, there was nobody working on the building at the time. From the looks of it, there shouldn’t be anyone that won’t make it out.

“That thought has never crossed my mind.”

The magician answers without hesitation. A metal rod stabs into the ground next to him, but there is no change in his expression.

“It’s a shame, really such a shame.” Kamijou sighs and says, “So the thoughts about Misaka that came from your mouth are also false. Only this point makes me feel that this is such a shame… because now, this gives me a reason to beat you to a pulp.”

This sentence freezes the air.

A silence colder than darkness envelops their surroundings.

“…?”

The magician seems to have said something in a soft voice.

Before Kamijou even had time to frown, he repeats once more,

“Can’t a fake have those kinds of thoughts?” The magician grinds his teeth and says, “A fake can’t wish for peace? Does a fake not even have the right to have the thought of wanting to protect Misaka-san?”

“Ah…?”

The frightening sound of the collapsing building is now tossed to the back of Kamijou’s mind as he stares at the magician’s face.

“That’s right, I didn’t want to do this.”

The magician continues his words without care of the building that could fall any moment, and says,

“I didn’t even want to harm ‘Unabara’. Nobody being hurt in the end is the best conclusion, right? I like this city. From the time I came here a month ago, even though I can’t become a resident of this world, I still deeply loved this world that Misaka-san lives in.”

The magician continues on.

“But I have to do this. Because the results are out, the Kamijou Faction has been judged by those ‘above’ as a dangerous force. Can you understand what I felt when I turned into ‘Unabara’? To be forced to destroy the world that Misaka-san exists in, can you understand what I feel?”

The magician now shows the raw emotions on his contorted face.

“You couldn’t possibly know! Because you ruined everything! If you were milder in your actions so that I could report back ‘there’s no problem’, I could’ve left here in peace! That way, I didn’t have to attack Unabara or trick Misaka-san! That’s right, I am your ‘enemy’ now. But who did you think made things turn out this way?!”

An invisible killing intent radiates from the magician.

As if in reply to his roar, the topmost floor of the building starts falling with a *Boom*.

Kamijou looks into the magician’s eyes.

As for the collapsing building, he doesn’t even glance at it. He says,

“Do you truly like Misaka?”

As a spy that was planning to use Misaka, these words come from his mouth.

"Yeah," the magician says.

The topmost floor of the building turns into countless steel beams, falling down to the ground one by one.

“You want to protect the world that Misaka lives in?”

Even for the spy that was planning to use Misaka, these words come from his mouth.

"Yeah," the magician said.

The countless steel beams smash against the floors under it, resulting in more sections that break apart.

“But now, that is a dream that can’t come true. Now, I am your enemy. I don’t want to do this, but I have to. I have no other choice, no other path to choose. Or do you want me to be like a hero in the movies, fight against the whole organization by myself, and lose my life for nothing? I can’t do that. I’m not you; I can’t be a hero such as yourself.”

The magician says this, and incredibly shows a plain and weak smile.

“So that’s it.” Kamijou Touma finally understands.

That’s the thoughts of that magician. This man didn’t want to become his "enemy", but was forced to. This man is forced to destroy what he values most in this world with his own hands. Such tragedy is what twisted his heart.

There’s a man named Tsuchimikado Motoharu.

When he first called himself a spy, his casual demeanour really made an impression on Kamijou- but the truth wasn’t that simple. Tsuchimikado paid a large price, risking the danger of going against his orders in exchange for his freedom.

The magician in front of him now isn’t willing to take that risk.

It’s because he knows clearly how much of a coward he himself is that it’s harder to quench his anger. He hates Kamijou who destroyed his dream, but he hates himself more for not being able to protect his dream.

That’s the thoughts of that magician.

This man has poured all his twisted thoughts out, and is standing in front of Kamijou to block him.

Kamijou thinks that if so, then he must also fight with all his strength.

Kamijou can live his life freely, with nobody to restrain his movements, and can protect whatever he wants to protect at any time. The Kamijou like this must bring a lot more pain to the magician. In the magician’s eyes, Kamijou radiates so much dazzling light that he can’t look at him directly.

“Hmph, so the only choice left for you is to choose to kill her with your own hands?”

Even so, Kamijou still decides to fight with all his strength.

Against someone who speaks his thoughts, Kamijou can’t just deal with him half-heartedly.

“Apparently, I’ll have to kill that fantasy of yours first.”

The avalanche at the top of the building is almost like a giant’s hand crushing the whole structure.

Steel beams fall down like raindrops, but neither Kamijou nor the magician look up or try to retreat. They only clench their fists and charged, attempting to shrink the distance between the two to zero in as little time as possible!

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Kamijou’s fist impacts the magician’s face. The magician from the start doesn’t seem to plan on dodging; he unhesitatingly grabs Kamijou’s chest with both hands, and slams Kamijou into a wall. With a dull sound, the air inside Kamijou’s lungs is forced out.

The magician pushes Kamijou into the wall before using both his hands to strangle him. Kamijou aims for the magician’s stomach and kicks out. Maybe the magician was relying on magic too much and didn’t train his body that he doubles over after the kick.

Suddenly, a huge sound erupts from the steel beam stabbing down next to Kamijou. What’s more, another steel beam strikes onto that beam, resulting in a sound like a church’s bell ringing next to Kamijou’s ears.

“Uu…?!”

Kamijou’s body slightly shakes involuntarily.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!”

The magician, who is also shaking, instead tackles Kamijou. Kamijou falls over, and due to the loud noise that hits his brain, his movements become sluggish. On the other hand, though the magician is moving about like a drunkard, he can still aim precisely, and goes to move himself above Kamijou.

Kamijou tries desperately to escape the magician that’s trying to subdue him.

“Ah!”

At this time, Kamijou sees it.

A rain of steel beams is falling down, and one of them would pierce through both Kamijou and the magician immediately. It's less than twenty meters above them. There’s only a few seconds before impact. The magician is staring at Kamijou beneath him, and doesn’t realize the existence of the beam about to come down on top of him.

“Dodge it, you idiot!”

Kamijou kicks the magician who was about to hold him down in the stomach, and then slaps him once on his face.

The magician’s body rolls towards Kamijou’s left side, to a lying position… and then he realizes the situation.

Then, Kamijou and the magician glance at each other.

Facing the rain of steel beams, the magician doesn’t seem like wanting to dodge it. He only smiles- a slight, lonely smile. He understands clearly that even if he wins this battle, he won’t get anything from it.

Kamijou has no duty to save the magician.

Kamijou won’t be blamed by anyone for leaving the enemy for dead.

But…

“A fake can’t wish for peace?”

Even so…

“Does a fake not even have the right to have the thought of wanting to protect Misaka-san?”

''Ah, dammit! This guy is just too devious!''

Kamijou tries to grab the hand of the magician who’s still on the ground. The magician shows a shocked expression, and it makes Kamijou even more annoyed. Kamijou knows it’s already too late, but he still clenches his teeth.

A large amount of steel beams drops down from the sky, shaking the whole place.

Part 17
August 31, 12:47 PM.

A large amount of dust robs the place of being seen.

The people around there hear the noise, but no one gets curious enough to come around and see what’s going on. If ordinary people want to come around and look, then they’ll want to look from a safe place. In a situation like this where nobody knows where is safe, nobody’s reckless enough to come close.

“…Haha.”

In the middle of all the commotion, Kamijou smiles half-heartedly.

Kamijou ends up sitting on the floor, with a steel beam planted between his legs. Not only that, around him are countless steel beams, surrounding Kamijou- a lot like a small cottage seriously flawed in design and with a roof that’s full of holes. The steel beams have a delicate balance, as if they would crumble if blown by a breeze. But anyway, Kamijou escapes the fate of being buried alive.

''Am I just lucky…? That can’t be; my luck’s one of the worst there is. If that’s the case… oh, yeah, that Level 5 esper; if she uses the power to control electricity, controlling magnetism shouldn’t be a problem for her.''

That’s right, it wasn’t good luck at all. The path the beams were heading along was going to pierce through Kamijou. Apparently, some sort of power changed their path slightly before they fell on Kamijou.

Kamijou, who’s afraid that the roof would collapse any moment, looks around. He sees the magician lying between two of the steel beams that holds the roof together.

One of the magician’s hands is stuck in the gap between two steel beams. Though the magician’s hand wasn’t crushed, but instead stuck in a natural gap, it’s like a super-heavy handcuff was put on him.

The magician is incredulous at the fact that he’s still alive, and is stunned for a few moments.

After a while, he finally says,

“Did I lose?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t create this situation.”

Kamijou says while scratching his head. But the magician shakes his head. No matter the reason, he now can’t even move an inch; fighting on in this situation is impossible for victory.

“Guess it’s my loss.” The magician smiles slightly. “That way, my part in all this comes to an end. I don’t have to kill Misaka-san, or kill anyone else now, right?”

“…”

Kamijou doesn’t answer; he just looks at the magician.

Carefully thinking back, maybe in his heart, the magician was always conflicted. Even though he was serious about trying to kill Kamijou, his heart was clouded and may have held him back unconsciously- because once he emerged victorious in this battle, he’d have to kill Mikoto with his own hands.

If he used the "Spear" as his first attack, Kamijou wouldn’t have had time to dodge and would die then and there. When chasing Kamijou in the straight streets, after carefully thinking about it, he probably had several chances to accurately hit Kamijou in his back.

This magician doesn’t want to hurt Misaka Mikoto.

He doesn’t want to destroy the world that Misaka Mikoto lives in.

But his selfish wish is hard to come true. If it did, then his own life would be in danger, so he needs an excuse. Something like "I tried my best, but due to obstacles, I failed to complete the objective".

The enemy organization treats the "group led by the amateur Kamijou" as a very dangerous group, so even though Kamijou is an amateur in combat, his position, almost like being the boss of an organization, definitely qualifies for the "I tried my best" excuse.

“I think…” the magician says, “The attacks won’t just stop here. One failure by a small fry like me won’t be enough to convince the ‘above’ to give up. Instead, this will make them even more sure that the judgment of ‘Kamijou Faction is very dangerous’ is correct. My allies might appear next to you or Misaka-san; in the worst-case scenario, I might get the same order again.”

Kamijou silently listens to the magician’s words.

“Can I ask you to protect her?”

The magician asks.

“No matter where, no matter when, no matter who your opponent is, no matter how many times, as long as something like this happens, you’ll have to be a hero and go to her side to protect her. Can you promise me this?”

It’s what he dreamed of but can never bring into reality.

It’s his dearest wish, but he doesn’t have a choice other than to give the opportunity to someone else.

And then…

Kamijou only says one sentence.

And then nods.

“That’s the worst possible answer,” the magician lying on the ground says lightly while smiling.

Part 18
August 31, 12:37 PM.

Misaka Mikoto holds the hamburger-filled paper bag in her arms, leans her back on the wall of the corner around the two, and listens to their conversation.

Mikoto doesn’t hear everything in their conversation, though. When Mikoto found out that there were two Unabara Mitsukis and one of them started fighting with Kamijou, she started chasing after the two of them. Then she saw that Unabara’s face fell off like a mask, showing a completely different face, and after that, the half-finished building collapsed, incomprehensible things coming one after another. Also, Mikoto’s distance is pretty far from the two, so she can only hear parts of their conversation. The Mikoto, who spent much effort a moment ago to change the path of the steel beams, might be the one out of the three of them whose emotion is the most in turmoil.

But even so, Mikoto still understands vaguely.

Mikoto understands the reason they were fighting.

Why they fought.

And for whom they fought.

Mikoto shakes her head vigorously.

''I… I can’t misunderstand! I must be getting the wrong idea! His words definitely don’t have those meanings to it! He’s that kind of person; it’s not like he’s treating me as someone special!''

But her head that’s shaking vigorously to deny this still stops moving involuntarily.

Even though she knows she can’t get the wrong idea, her head still stops.

Uu…

Mikoto leans her head on the wall behind her. She knows that she’s blushing bright red without having to look in a mirror. It’s really unforgivable, Mikoto thinks. After hearing that kind of conversation in this situation, what kind of expression is she going to have when she walks out of here?

Especially the last sentence Kamijou said.

…I know I’m misunderstanding, but the way you said it is too easy for it to be mistaken otherwise, you big idiot!

Mikoto sighs. She doesn’t know how long it’ll take for the blush on her face to finally subside.

August 31, 1:04 PM.