Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Endymion Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===

Academy City was known as a city of cutting edge science and a psychic powers development institution, but nothing particularly strange or distinctive could be found in the scene of the students walking to school in the morning.

Normally at least. But on this morning…

“Communication error. You cannot currently enter the Venus Probe Project Race. Please try again later.”

“…”

A boy named Kamijou Touma stood still in the middle of the pathway.

He held a cell phone in his right hand and a project page on a popular SNS could be seen on the small screen.

“…What are you doing?”

A girl called out to him from behind.

She was Misaka Mikoto. She was the ace of the prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School and Academy City’s #3 Level 5. She wore a white short-sleeve blouse, a beige summer sweater, and a gray pleated skirt. She had let out that confused question when she had realized the person blocking the flow of students heading to school was someone she knew.

The person in question, Kamijou Touma, was trembling.

“The entry page for this SNS project race has frozen because too many people are accessing it. But the next deadline is in 10 minutes! I don’t have time to wait!!”

“That’s the project linked with the Venus Probe Contest, right? With that ridiculous number of unmanned probes being launched into space, you have to predict which team will make the first discovery, right?”

“If you choose the probe to make the discovery, you get entered into a lottery for the right to name the discovery!!”

“Yeah, but even getting put into the lottery is still nowhere near 100% odds of getting to name it. That SNS has almost 1.5 million people on it in Academy City alone.”

“But I want to give an asteroid the name Kamijou Touma!!”

“Isn’t this contest about probes being sent to Venus?”

“I want to become a constellation in the night sky!!”

“That just makes it sound like you want to die.” But then a puzzled look appeared on Mikoto’s face. “Actually, I’m surprised you’re playing with something like this. I thought you weren’t too interested in this kind of thing.”

“My cell phone’s OS updated automatically recently and the SNS appeared then. The two companies must have some kind of agreement.”

“I-I see. By the way, how many friends do you have on there? I-if you just tell me your registration number, I could send you a request…”

“?”

Kamijou frowned because he could not quite make out what Mikoto was mumbling.

And then something turned his thoughts in a completely different direction.

“Touma!! You forgot to prepare a lunch for me again!!”

The loud voice of a pure white nun cut in.

Her name was Index.

She was gathering a lot of attention from the students heading to school, but she paid them no heed and continued toward Kamijou and Mikoto.

“Honestly, you always do this, Touma! Meals are the foundation of proper living!! What am I supposed to do if you neglect to make me one!?”

“…Can’t you just make your own meals?”

“People who know how to cook just don’t understand!!”

“I don’t think you should just give up because you don’t know how! And at any rate, I left you a lunch in the fridge!! Since you can’t use the microwave, I made you a giant vegetable and pork salad that doesn’t need to be heated up!!”

“I ate that snack ages ago!!”

“Can you please explain to me why you look so proud about that!?”

Mikoto had been completely expressionless for a while now.

And then she asked a question with her head tilted in puzzlement.

“Um, sorry to interrupt, but why are you acting like it is normal for you to make that girl’s meals and to look after her?”

“Fgh!? O-oh, um…!!”

“And I ''really'' want to know why you are yet again making me so angry for no reason!!”

“I’d like to ask why you suddenly started biri biri-ing!!”