Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Prologue (section)

==Prologue: Four Girls==

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“Hey, Misaka-san! Over here!”

The uniformed girl who stood from her seat and waved was Saten Ruiko. In the shopping district after school, it was so easy to lose sight of someone if you didn’t do that. They had to resort to this even while speaking to each other over the phone. How had people met up in the city before everyone carried phones?

“Whew, the place sure gets crowded with 2.3 million people in the city.”

“And 1.8 million of those are students, so we all end up gathering at the same places.”

Misaka Mikoto and Shirai Kuroko chatted as they joined two other girls.

They were at a table in front of a chain café that could be found not just in District 7 but pretty much anywhere.

Uiharu Kazari, a girl with lots of flower decorations in her hair, decided to ask something she had been wondering for a while.

“You’re from the fancy Tokiwadai Middle School, so should you really be visiting such a cheap café?"

“Eh? Why wouldn’t we?” asked Misaka Mikoto, feeling like she had been transported to another spacetime as she cut a bite from a baked cheesecake with her fork. The tea and cheesecake set was only 580 yen, but its aroma was like something from the far-distant Palace of Versailles.

Fancy tea leaves were not infused with classy particles.

The drink shined so bright because it was chosen as the favorite of a classy person.

“(That’s Tokiwadai’s Ace for you. She’s rarer than the heart or star shaped cookies secretly included in some packages.)”

“(Wow, she’s the real deal. And on top of that, she’s also #3 of Academy City’s seven Level 5s.)”

Oblivious to the conversation held by the two ordinary girls, Mikoto lovingly folded up and retrieved the flier for a stuffed animal event placed on her tray. She was wholly focused on the frog mascot shown in the ad.

“Hm, the event is at that Ariake exhibition center. There’s no way I can sneak out all the way there.”

“Onee-sama, that is an ultra concerning comment coming from you. Please do not try it.”

“Ugh, it can be hard to believe we technically live in Tokyo sometimes.”

This was Academy City, located on the western side of Tokyo. The technology there was 20 or 30 years ahead of the outside world and esper power development was a normal part of the school curriculum there. Thanks to that, the entire city was surrounded by thick walls.

“Just don’t do anything that will get you arrested by Anti-Skill.”

“Yeah, I’d prefer to be arrested by the student-run Judgment than the teacher-run Anti-Skill.”

“Onee-sama.” Shirai’s tone dropped.

It was written plain on the justice girl’s face that she would make full use of her Level 4 Teleportation power to stop Mikoto if it came to that.

Academy City’s uniqueness went all the way down to its law enforcement. It was a strange place where the ordinary Japanese police and JSDF were nowhere to be found. Truly countless schools were contained in an area that covered 1/3 of Tokyo, but all of those students were classified into one of six Levels, from 0 to 5.

The strongest electrical power was Railgun, which could launch a flicked coin at three times the speed of sound.

The strongest psychological power was Mental Out, which some said could do anything in the field of the human mind.

Those two were known as the Ace and the Queen.

Misaka Mikoto was the former.

Her legends were widely known, but very few knew her for who she really was.

“Nooo! Gekota, Gekota, Gekota!”

“Please calm down, Onee-sama.”

“Gasp!? That’s it! If I can’t leave to visit Ariake, I just have to bring the event to Academy City. All it takes is going through the internet and modifying a few digital documents. This must be what they call a divine revelation!!”

“Don’t even think about it, Onee-sama!!”

This is a story of Academy City.

More specifically, it is a story about the girls who pour all their efforts into living there.

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