Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume1 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===

There was a girl known as Index.

Strictly speaking, her name was Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

At first glance, she looked like a small girl with a childish build, long silver hair, and a white nun’s habit, but she was actually a strange person who worked as a grimoire library by memorizing at least 103,001 grimoires. She belonged to Necessarius, the 0th Parish of the Anglican Church. You might be wondering what that is, but that sort of thing apparently existed in the wide world beyond Academy City’s walls.

That is, magic.

That other supernatural power stood opposite of the esper powers that Academy City had introduced to the world using science.

“Christmastime♪ It’s Christmastime♪”

The clear winter sky meant it was cold enough for a lot of the previous day’s snow to remain on the ground, but the girl in question was smiling and singing to herself with the calico cat riding on her white hood. She had come here from England, but this song was in Japanese. Kamijou had no idea where she had picked it up from. Since she had a perfect memory, she could accurately memorize it all by overhearing it for a moment as the in-store music being played in an electronics store shown on TV.

Incidentally, someone who had mastered all forms of magic was known as a Magic God.

And there was apparently a risk of someone turning into one of those if they used all of the grimoires contained in her head.

“Hm, hm, hmm♪ Hydrogen♪ And helium♪”

“Wait, Index. What happened to Christmastime?”

(Damn, I managed to restart my phone by holding down that weird button for a bit, but it won’t connect to Komoe-sensei. What is causing this!? Is one of our devices busted!?)

“Listen, Index. We need to stop by Komoe-sensei’s place first. I need to meet that goddamn teacher in person and figure out what happened to my makeup lesson. Because this is a crucial issue that could get me held back.”

“Touma, let’s buy a turkey!! It’s fascinating how they’re selling them on the roadside!!”

“Are you even listening!? And those aren’t like cakes. I mean, doesn’t it scare you how cheap they are? Are those turkeys they sell at discount stores even real? They can design how meats look in the factory, right!? Convenience stores even sell these mysterious salad chickens that have all the bones removed and are shaped like gold bars. Those supposed turkeys might use some other kind of meat altogether, like how the negitoro at a conveyer belt sushi place might actually be moonfish.”

If ''Kamijou Touma'' of all people was afraid of how cheap something was, you knew it had to be bad. After all, this was the king of thrift! When his finances were in dire straits, he would start to have some dangerous thoughts: “If you stick a bunch of eggshells in the blender, could you eat them? Hey, I bet it wouldn’t kill you at least!!” The Christmas sales wars were built from love, desire, and mistrust. Just like the products bought at a global soccer tournament, the items making the city shine so bright would leave you wondering “what is this and why did I buy it?” just one day later.

Some elementary school girls were making a fuss in front of a store.

“Nyah!? They have a Santa catching kit!! Wh-when did Academy City invent this?”

“D-don’t buy that, Fremea-chan. That’s definitely a normal bug-catching net they couldn’t sell during the summer or even autumn.”

“Mister, I want one of these! I’ll pay using my phone – kaching!!”

“Ahh! How are you going to lure Santa in with sap jelly!?”

It was scary how wide a variety of joke products existed (most of which only added the “joke” so they could get away with it not actually working). Some would view it as a standard part of the season, while others would see it as a cruel scam targeted at children. It was similar to temple festival sharpshooting games in that sense.

But now was not the time to indulge in any of that.

Not until he knew what had become of his makeup lesson after his phone had frozen up!! ''That tiny teacher might as well be a doctor who wandered out of the OR and left on vacation while my stomach is still sliced open for an operation!!'' groaned Kamijou Touma while gnashing his teeth.

(Damn. My phone rebooted like normal but I still can’t connect, so the trouble has to be on her end. If an error on her part nearly corrupted my phone’s data, I need to get an apology out of her. And I need to avoid being held back. Even if it means blackmailing her!!)

He made a quick search on his still-functioning phone and saw no sign of other people having similar trouble.

The screen on the airship floating in the blue sky said nothing about a widespread communications disruption.

It scared him to think this was happening to him and only him. If he had been infected by something no one else had ever heard of, wouldn’t it slip right past his phone’s security?

(Please let her device be entirely busted!!)

He did not want to spend his Christmas Eve going on the journey of a clean install in order to troubleshoot his phone. Plus, he had no idea how to even do that with a phone as opposed to a computer. The ordinary factory reset mentioned on one corner of the settings screen probably would not cut it there. But what else was there? What was he supposed to do!? A sudden malfunction in the mobile device he always used brought nothing but unease. ''Please get better soon, you kind and beautiful dorm manager!!

(A-anyway, one thing at a time. I need to start with the solution I can try by just walking there.)

He was pretty sure Komoe-sensei lived in an apartment in Academy City’s District 7.

It was a two-story building with the stairs and passageways on the outside. More than that, the two-part washing machine was kept outside as well. Tsukuyomi Komoe, that 135cm teacher from a fantasy world, lived in that divine realm where only Showa-era manga artists and ronin students were allowed.

Kamijou walked up to the door that looked so thin his fist would break through if he knocked on it and he pressed the doorbell. But he heard no bell. Either the battery or the wiring was out. He had no choice but to rap his fist against the thin door.

“Excuse me, miss!! Would you care for a newspaper!? Buy now and it comes with two boxes of detergent!!”
His random choice of words received no response.

…

He had a bad feeling about this.

The door had a newspaper slot, so he brushed aside the entire concept of privacy by crouching down and opening the wide slot with his fingertips. There was no lucky pervert moment here. Not only was she not changing within, but he only found a dreary space where time seemed to have stopped.

(Don’t tell me.)

The neighbor’s door opened.

The woman who stepped out wore a red track suit, a thick coat that looked like it was made out of a futon, and spiral glasses. Since she was living in this apartment and dressed like that, Kamijou decided she was only allowed to be a manga artist.

“Um, my neighbor left to go somewhere three days ago. She asked me to collect her mail for her.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

He was pretty sure he remained frozen for 5 full seconds.

And then the pointy-haired boy screamed at the top of his lungs.

Tsukuyomi Komoe held his fate in her hands, yet she had gone missing. That teacher had been using her Santa costume and communication device to give him a remote lesson from wherever she had gone. That explained why she had been so reluctant to hold the makeup lesson at school. Plus, her neighbor had said she went “somewhere”. That meant the woman did not know where and he would receive no further hints here. He did not even know if she was still inside Academy City, so this would be far too difficult a search for him.

The woman in a track suit, coat, and spiral glasses was not the type to care about other people’s pain.

“Oh, whoops. I need to get back to day trading. With the big and bizarre wave of Christmastime in full force, I can’t keep my eyes off the screen for a moment. I can rest once I sell off all my stocks and can watch the last trading day of the year end with a smile on my face! Bye!!”

“How dare you dress like that when you’re rich!!”

She ignored him and shut the door. This place had to have incredibly low rent, so did she rent it out as a workplace separate from her actual home?

But now was not the time to be bothered by that unknown woman’s lifestyle.

Winter truly had arrived for Kamijou Touma.

And this winter was as barren as a nuclear winter.

“Touma, I’m hungry.”

“Yeah, probably so.”

He turned around with awfully slow movements.

He had a smile of shadows on his face.

Laughter may have been the last resort of the lonely person who had been abandoned by the world itself.

A great demon king had appeared in the modern world.

“Mwa ha ha ha ha!! I don’t care! Why should I even care anymore!! Fine, let’s spend the 24th enjoying ourselves! Ha ha, ah ha ha! I mean, if the problem is with the adults’ system, then I’m not at fault!!!!!! Hah hah hah! Gwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

No, pointy-haired one.

That right there is known as crying.