Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 19/Chapter 1

Synopsis
On the night of October 17, in a nondescript hotel in Academy City, Accelerator attempts to make adjustments to his crutch, particularly to improve its support even in situations when his choker is not activated, while talking to Last Order about the dinner Yomikawa Aiho had prepared. Although Last Order is enjoying her life in the custody of the teacher from Anti-Skill, she remains concerned about Accelerator's current job, something that Accelerator just shrugged off considering his own abilities.

Meanwhile, Tsuchimikado Motoharu is roaming on District 7 and he is immediately caught ogling at "inappropriately dressed maids" by Maika, who proceeds to pummel him for his indecent looks at girls who do not know the real definition of a maid. In District 10, Musujime Awaki decides to visit the Reformatory where her comrades were detained after a failed "plan". As Awaki gathers her thoughts about freeing her comrades, she receives a call from Tsukuyomi Komoe who seems concerned for Awaki's future goals, and begins to help the esper in learning how to cook.

Lastly, Unabara Mitsuki is in a hospital in District 7 where he visits Xochitl. The girl, who is also an Aztec magician like him, did not show any gratitude for Mitsuki's package of traditional Aztec attire. Instead, she commented on his relative ease in controlling the same grimoire that required her body to be sacrificed just to act as its vessel. Soon, they talked about Xochitl's transformation into a weapon, as well as Mitsuki's own betrayal of his old comrades. In this short talk, Xochitl called Mitsuki by his real name, Etzali.

This intimate conversation is suddenly interrupted by Tsuchimikado, who began to open a topic about Mitsuki's choice of girls after seeing Xochitl, and Accelerator and Awaki wait outside as Motoharu brought an embarrassing turn on a simple roundup. Minutes later, Mitsuki asks about the next assignment of GROUP, and Tsuchimikado refers to the usual.

Elsewhere in the hospital where GROUP has gathered, Hamazura Shiage and Kinuhata Saiai prepare to visit Takitsubo Rikou, who is on a quick road to recovery after the Battle Royale incident, where she collapsed after excessive exposure to the Body Crystal. Saiai keeps teasing Shiage about his bunny girl fetish, something that was exposed when Saiai forces him to imagine of Rikou wearing a bunny suit.

Inside a limousine, Tsuchimikado relays information about GROUP's next target: Spark Signal, a group that attacks people who attempt to sell information from Academy City into entities outside of it. Currently, Spark Signal is losing control of itself, and has hijacked a particle accelerator known as the Hula Hoop located under the circular wall of Academy City, threatening to irradiate 30% of the city by overloading the particle accelerator unless certain conditions are met. These conditions, as well as other vital clues, remain unknown to GROUP. Accelerator, however, found the seemingly tense situation to be uninteresting and urges them to deal with it immediately.

Meanwhile, Saiai and Shiage begin planning a welcome party for Rikou's discharge from the hospital. As they discuss on which place to set up the party, Saiai opens the topic about their plans after the disbandment of ITEM. She is well prepared to continue doing covert ops, this time involving the Stargate Project, while Shiage pushes himself to do something to bring back Rikou from the Dark Side. Inevitably, Saiai quickly returns the topic to Shiage's fetish, and it culminates with Saiai letting a peek up her one-piece sweater.

GROUP heads to District 23 in response to the Spark Signal job. As they discuss the structure of the Hula Hoop complex, they agreed to use Accelerator as their main weapon in the operation, although they also considered Awaki's ability in breaking into the compound. Soon, using access codes Motoharu extracted from somewhere, they head to an elevator that sent them 150m underground. He then addresses Accelerator's problem with the signal of his choker, leaves Unabara to handle contact "the man on the other end of the line" and gives everyone 15 minutes to prepare.

At the end of those 15 minutes, GROUP, led by Accelerator, disturbs Spark Signal as it was about to kill its first hostage. 300 seconds later, the crisis was over, and Spark Signal was eliminated, and Accelerator disappeared immediately after.

As Awaki mocked Accelerator's "rescue" of the hostages, he becomes curious about the real objective of Spark Signal. He overheard their conversations before the assault, and the word "DRAGON" showed up among their objectives. He then concluded that by killing Spark Signal, they lost a vital link to DRAGON.

Between the Lines
Inside the office of the Board of Directors, Thomas Platinaburg converses with a woman named Stephanie Gorgeouspalace about the recovery of Sunazara Chimitsu, which was due to Platinaburg's quick decision to bring Sunazara to a medical facility outside of Academy City. Stephanie is indebted to Director Platinaburg for extending Sunazara's life, but she also knows of the director's implanting of nanodevices in Chimitsu's body, which can be used to shut off the life support systems used on her mentor. Knowing this, Stephanie stabbed this nanodevice back into Thomas' body and activated it, causing the immediate death of the director.

Stephanie then prepares her tool of the trade, a machine gun modified to accept shotgun ammunition, and emptied her rounds on Thomas' security detail, signalling her revenge against everyone in Academy City.

Adapted To

 * Anime: N/A
 * Manga: N/A

Characters
By order of appearance
 * Accelerator
 * Last Order
 * Tsuchimikado Motoharu
 * Tsuchimikado Maika
 * Musujime Awaki
 * Tsukuyomi Komoe (voice-only)
 * Etzali (as Unabara Mitsuki)
 * Xochitl
 * Hamazura Shiage
 * Kinuhata Saiai
 * Takitsubo Rikou
 * Thomas Platinaburg
 * Stephanie Gorgeouspalace

New Characters

 * Spark Signal members
 * Unnamed boy

Abilities

 * Accelerator (ability) - Accelerator
 * Move Point - Musujime Awaki

Locations

 * Academy City
 * School District 7
 * Reformatory
 * School District 23

Referbacks

 * The aftermath of the Battle Royale Arc is laid out in the early portions of this chapter.
 * Spark Signal is referenced against previously mentioned organizations as "a group that opposes information leaks to happen outside Academy City" (see Asociacion de Ciencia) and "a secretive group like the Hound Dog".
 * Sunazara Chimitsu is the sniper that was neutralized by Kinuhata Saiai during the thwarting of the assassination attempt against Director Oyafune Monaka.

Quotes

 * Unnamed boy: "No matter how much you people scheme, no matter what kind of horrible weapon you prepare, your crimes will never be forgiven. That’s what I believe. This world is far kinder than any of you villains believe!! No matter what you have planned to escape, there will be heroes to come and apprehend you! Everyone will be saved. Somewhere in this wide world there will be someone that will come and save everyone!"