Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume SS2/Chapter 11

Synopsis
A girl named Kumokawa Seria is sleeping on a line of chairs in her school's cafeteria, when a male teacher happens to walk by and reprimands her for her behavior, threatening to report it to her homeroom teacher. He is pulled away by an important phone call however, to which Seria grabs a handheld terminal on the table after he leaves, communicating with Kaizumi Tsugutoshi, who is the Director that she works for. She remarks that the outside world was getting rather noisy regarding the Gemstones lately, to which the director wonders where Seria gets her information from. Having confirmed her statement from his reaction, she brushes his question off by saying that he should be thankful for having such an excellent 'brain'. In response to Tsugutoshi's question about her thoughts regarding the whole situation, Seria bluntly states that they should leave it alone since the outside world can't do anything about it. She then sighs when Tsugutoshi expresses his skepticism at such a plan, and points out that he could easily suppress any complaints about the report since he was a member of the Board of Directors. However, Tsugutoshi complains that bureaucracy isn't that easy, even if his position was a rather important one.

Seria finally begins taking the situation a little more seriously, but to Tsugutosho's dismay starts eating a sandwich in the middle of talking. Mentioning the list of Gemstones Academy City has started compiling, she admits then its creation was started too late, seeing as how both United States of America and Russia began making their own lists upon noticing their activities. As she warns that they might interfere their work, Tsugutoshi questions why she would have suggested "leaving it be" if she had already knew about the competition for the list. Seria asks if their current problems are finding a way to eliminate the problem posed by the Gemstones scattered around the world, and to prevent other organizations creating their own Esper development program from analyzing them. Having confirmed her hypothesis when he replied yes, Seria explains that it isn't a problem if America and Russia are on the move, since both world powers couldn't finish their research no matter how many samples they gather. She further clarifies that this is because they have no clue what their data even means, while mocking their previous failures back in the Cold War.

In response to Tsugutoshi asking how she can be so sure, Seria cites Russia's research as an example, where they have a person activate their special power by praying fervently to the. Since the Russians can't distinguish between what is "miraculous" or not, they don't know what they are searching for and subsequently don't know which path to go down on. Still reluctant, Tsugutoshi demands proof for her claims, to which she rebukes that he must prepare the proof himself. For example, despite the many claims from institutions of developing Esper powers, the actual number of Gemstones are very rare. And thus she concludes that it would be highly unlikely for anyone to gather a meaningful number of 'samples' from across the world. As his 'brain', Seria says that it is the only option they have, so he should just bear with the extra paperwork.

Tsugutoshi proceeds to ask what a Gemstone truly is, causing Seria to point out that he had always assumed that Espers can only be created in Academy City, and thus only asked a question somebody influenced by them would ask. He hastily defends himself by saying he knows the theory behind them, bringing up the "diamonds" metaphor when describing Gemstones as having been created when the normal world replicated identical circumstances produced within the laboratory. However, he explains that Academy City's Gemstones don't seem hold proper abilities, almost as if their powers lie in a different direction than the straightforward ones found in Academy City.

When he cites Deep Blood and Imagine Breaker as examples, Seria adds the 7th-ranked Level 5 Esper to his list, explaining how Gemstones having strange powers is simply a unique characteristic of theirs. She says that even though they may not be powerful, they have value to Academy City due to their rarity. Finally, Seria advises Tsugutoshi that he shouldn't categorize the Imagine Breaker as a Gemstone. She says that its wielder is much more interesting than they think, even if she doesn't know the details. He then remains silent for a bit as he was surprised that Seria admitted that she "didn't know" something. Tsugutoshi remarks that Seria seems to be enjoying herself, and she replies that it is because thinking is part of her job.

After school, Seria witnesses Kamijou Touma having water sprayed all over his clothes from a sprinkler malfunction and laughs at his predicament. As she teases that the most meaningless things always happen to him, Touma tells her to shut up and complains that is simply his usual misfortune. Seria proposes that if Touma looks into how his misfortune works, then he might be able to find an interesting set of rules behind it. Touma then says that Seria seems to be enjoying herself, to which she confirms with a giggle, saying that it is events such as this that she loves life so much. She wistfully concludes that the school is overflowing with exciting things.

Characters
By order of appearance
 * Kamijou Touma

New Characters

 * Kumokawa Seria
 * Kaizumi Tsugutoshi

Abilities

 * N/A

Locations

 * A Certain High School (Cafeteria)

Referbacks

 * Sogiita Gunha is indirectly mentioned in the coversation as the 7th ranked.

Cultural References

 * The is referenced when Seria talks about Russia's esper research attempts.

Unanswered Questions

 * What is the Imagine Breaker's true nature, if it is not a Gemstone ability?