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Synopsis[]
July 1.
Mikoto is in a large shopping center in Russia. The purpose of this trip is an ability demonstration organized by Academy City and one of their partner organizations in Russia. The reason why Academy City agreed to this demonstration is to show others that Academy City has no intention of hiding anything to the partners. For that, Mikoto was sent alone without any guards or escorts from Academy City. In fact, it was all planned that Mikoto's power demonstration event will not give any more useful data for the researchers in Russia.
In the next few days, the demonstration event is going to take place in the shopping center that Mikoto is currently in. It is currently the world's largest shopping center complex, with hotels, duty-free shop, airports and other tourism facilities built around it. It's so large and the shops are so diverse that it can be considered as a theme park. But in reality, the shopping center complex is a large experiment for various kinds of consumer and economic behavior. Aside from being the World's largest shopping center, the complex also used a new system called the Semi-Open AR (Augmented Reality). It's a type of AR system that allows anyone to access information anywhere on walls, the ceiling, and the floor without the use of any personal devices. Aside from viewing information, the system is also used to display advertisements tailored for each user.
When she arrived in the shopping center, she was greeted by a woman called Setali S. Skinikia, who claims to be a "security guard". The "security guards" in that shopping center are very close to the Anti-Skill in terms of the nature of their jobs. Setali will be her guide for the next few days, and roughly briefed her on the schedule before escorting her to the hotel.
Setali also told Mikoto about an urban legend of the shopping center, one that Saten Ruiko also knows about back in Academy City. The urban legend is about "a very valuable orange", and the value of that orange increases over time. The story is that a tourist saw something called "a very valuable orange" in a souvenir shop while overseas, then the tourist bought it as a lucky charm and brought it back to his own country. After getting home, the tourist saw that the orange was slightly shaking, so he mailed the shop that he bought it from. He then got a reply saying that the orange is infested with over a hundred eggs of a species of ants called Red Long-Legged Army, which is very valuable. After reading the mail, the orange exploded.
Mikoto was told by Setali that she should not leave the hotel until the next day, which will be the rehearsal for the demonstration. This is because there may be people wanting to steal her DNA map or stop the demonstration, which will be bad for both Academy City and the partner organization. Inside the hotel room, Mikoto researched a bit about the details of the demonstration, then she decided to leave the hotel room. However, there were people watching the door to make sure that she doesn't leave, so she went out from the window. Her room is on the 20th floor, but with her powers this isn't an issue.
Welcome to Snack and Souvenir Shop Maguro Hiroi.
After she escaped from the room, she went back to the shopping center. While walking around, she noticed a section which is filled with small and insignificant stores, unlike other parts of the complex. Among those stores, the one that caught her attention was a snack and souvenir store called the Maguro Hiroi,[Notes 1] and the name was in Japanese, The store was filled with occult stuff such as old lambskin documents, small animal heads, and insects in jars filled with an unknown liquid. The person behind the counter was Lessar. After having a small chat, Mikoto left the store. As she left, Lessar told her to be aware of oranges.
As she was about to leave the complex and go back to the hotel, then saw an orange on the floor at the entrance. She immediately thought of the urban legend, but no one else seemed to care about it. Using the semi-open AR system, she researched a bit about the Red Long-Legged Army Ants. That species of ants is carnivorous, and the colonies hide inside fruits in order to lure prey during times of food shortage. There are also cases of those ants plaguing villages and killing people.
When she finished looking up the info, the orange was gone. Some kids were kicking it around like a ball. Mikoto found those kids kicking the orange around outside, and she noticed that the orange was slightly shaking. She found a metal bucket around, then used her powers to launch the bucket and cover the orange with it. After hearing the orange explode under the bucket, the shocked it around 20 times, then confirmed that the ants are all dead.
After this, Mikoto was brought to an interrogation room by another one of the "security guards" called Enirya G. Algonskaya, also a woman. There, Enirya told Mikoto that the urban legend was originally about a cactus instead of an orange. It only became an orange once it was spread to Academy City. Therefore the locals would not use an orange even if they were to make the urban legend a reality. Because of that, and the fact that the incident happened right when Mikoto came to Russia, Enirya suspected that it's actually Mikoto who created the exploding orange incident. Then Enrya left the room and left Mikoto alone. Mikoto was not afraid that anything would happen to her, simply because she really didn't do it and Academy City would not let Russia do anything to her. When she reached into her pocket to get a phone, she found a piece of orange peel and she didn't know how it got there. On the orange peel, there was a label with a QR code. She wanted to read the QR code with her cell phone, but the phone didn't recognize it. Then she used the semi-open AR system to scan it. After reaching the site in the QR code, she saw that the orange actually came in a box of 20. The rest of the oranges are actually still in the shopping center somewhere, and someone is planning to do something with them. She called for Enirya, but got no response, so she escaped from the room again using her powers.
Characters[]
By order of appearance:
New Characters[]
- Ran Ryuushu (嵐緑珠?)
- Eclek Savoge (エクレック＝ソボージュ?)
- Setali S. Skinikia
- Enirya G. Algonskaya
Abilities[]
New Abilities[]
Locations[]
New Locations[]
Trivia[]
Referbacks[]
No referbacks currently recorded for this chapter/episode.
Cultural References[]
No cultural references currently recorded for this chapter/episode.
Unanswered Questions[]
No unanswered questions currently recorded for this chapter/episode.
Notes[]
- ↑ The name of shop was Nihon Daruma (ニホンダルマ Nihondaruma?) in the side-story's original publication, but it was changed in Toaru Majutsu no Index: Gaiten Shoko Light Novel Volume 02