Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS3 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 2===

They needed to review what information they had.

Shirai and the others wanted to continue discussing the case, but Tokiwadai’s dorms had a strict curfew and they had no desire to remain at the family restaurant where so many Anti-Skill officers were investigating the crime scene. Their first order of business was to secure a location where they could set up camp and exchange information.

Saten raised her hand while walking down the road just before sunset.

“Ooh, ooh, ooh!! If we want a secret base, I vote we do it online! That way we can swap ideas anytime and anywhere and we can even talk during class!!”

“B-but…”

Sakibasu must have still been shaken after what happened.

She seemed to shrink down as she held her violin case in both hands, rubbed her black kneesocked legs together, and made a hesitant rebuttal.

“I do not know exactly how it works, but aren’t the adults monitoring everything that happens on the internet? I have heard the systems meant to protect personal information have a few exceptions, such as criminal investigations and court cases.”

“Anti-Skill isn’t going to actually destroy evidence, so it should not be much of an issue even if they do spy on our conversations.”

“…”

“Fine, fine. Uiharu, you do something about it.”

“Sigh. I just have to build a server that Anti-Skill can’t track us on, right? I’ll have that in no time.”

Rather than creating something new from the ground up, it felt more like she reached into a secret drawer and pulled out something she had made before. Shirai gave her a skeptical look that asked why she had this, but Uiharu was unfazed.

“There’s a bit of a trick to using it, but once you’re used to it, you’ll see it’s more convenient than a normal social media site. For now, I’ll register all our phones on each other’s friends lists.”

Electronic tones played from their pockets. When they checked the screens, they found a new icon, the addition of which none of them had authorized. Uiharu should not have even known Sakibasu’s phone number or email address. Mikoto should have known more about this stuff thanks to her ability to directly manipulate electricity, but not even she was immune.

“…Uiharu.”

“It seems wrong to criticize me when all I did was flawlessly carry out the task you gave me, Shirai-san. Oh, and it has an obvious icon now, but you can set that to be hidden. People often spy on your phone’s screen from the side or behind, so I recommend erasing the icon from the menu just in case.”

However.

Sakibasu Yuri was trembling while holding her phone in both hands.

“(Wah.)”

She stared intently at the screen and her cheeks started to grow flushed.

Her heart was racing to the point it looked like she might start hopping around.

“(Wah, wah. Friends… I’m finally internet friends with someone! And…and is this what they call a secret site!? What do I do, mother!? I’m turning into a bad girl! Tremble, tremble, tremble!!)”

“Sigh. So what should we do about this app? If you don’t like it, I can smack Uiharu and have her erase it without a trace. Um, Sakibasu-san?”

“No, leave it!! This is a sweet nectar I can never let my mother know about!!”

“?”

Shirai looked puzzled, but that was not the issue.

Mikoto clapped her hands lightly.

“Okay, let’s head home for today. We don’t know who they are, but don’t forget that there is an actual criminal out there. Get back to your dorms before it gets dark to make sure you’re safe. That might sound obvious, but we can’t afford to stumble right out of the gate. Let’s deal with this a step at a time.”

“Got it. Okay, we can meet in the app once we’re back!”

“Hee hee hee. Once I get a taste for this sweet flavor, there is no going back. Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee.”

After seeing Uiharu and Saten back to their dorm, it was time for Mikoto and the others to head to their own dorm. But sticking with Sakibasu 24/7 to protect her was not realistic with their school activities. Instead of protecting her by fighting and defeating the threat, they had to set up a situation where the attacker would have a hard time trying anything again.

Shirai turned back toward Sakibasu.

“Now, how about we get home?”

“Um?”

“Don’t look so surprised. We all live in the same Tokiwadai dorm, so there is no point in splitting up now.”

“(Gulp. You…you mean we will be walking home together? Hanging out with friends after school and wandering around the city? Is the path of the bad girl? Kyah, I can’t believe it, kyah, kyah!!)”

“Sakibasu-san?”

The girl’s strange shaking would not stop. It was so intense you would have thought her back was going to split open and giant wings would burst out.

They chose the most populated route back and discussed things along the way.

“Let’s get to the most fundamental question.”

“Yes, Onee-sama.”

“Who do you honestly think the target was? The four of us, or Sakibasu-san?”

When Mikoto had blocked the shotgun blasts, it had felt like all of the shots were clearly targeting their table. She was more or less certain of that.

And with that question in mind, Shirai considered a few pieces of information.

Sakibasu Yuri had enough wealth from the trading card game she had created at a young age to win a world-famous violin at auction, but that motive did not explain the timing of the attack. If the girl had been attacked several times already, she would not be living such a carefree life where she walked around alone with the Stativarius in its unlocked case. She seemed ignorant of human malice and hostility.

In that case…

“Does it all come down to the timing?”

Shirai arrived at that conclusion.

Mikoto real question was whether the attack was against the person who had defeated the Stativarius Ainsel or the person who had been protected by its legend. The foundation of that reasoning was the same as Anti-Skill’s, but Shirai could not help but consider the presence of that violin.

“Um.” Sakibasu nervously joined the conversation. “I do think it is incredible that you managed to break the Stativarius legend, but, well, ''what does that really matter''?”

“…That is the question, isn’t it?”

Word of Shirai Kuroko defeating that world-famous instrument would be spreading beyond Tokiwadai and the School Garden via the internet. And in fact, Anti-Skill had learned about it almost immediately. This was about a localized elective exam, but that did not matter if the students posted about it on social media, blogs, or message boards.

And with that in mind…

“I could understand why someone would hold a grudge if those expensive violins had lost all their value from this, but the Stativarius legend has been broken a few times before. Like when research showed the wavelength was not all that different from a normal violin’s. But that was not enough to shake their market value. No matter what is revealed, they still manage to fetch hundreds of millions at auction. So what would it matter that Kuroko defeated this one?”

Or maybe this was not about immediate profit.

For example, maybe there was a group that viewed the Stativarius legend as their faith and they refused to let anything hurt its reputation.

Mikoto continued while walking past the makeshift wall around a construction site.

“Whether or not this comes down to some kind of faith, do the Stativari have some kind of special value beyond money?”

She heard a quiet metallic thud.

She looked back, but there was no one there.

Only the sidewalk alongside the construction site’s thick metal wall and the simple metal door leading inside.

“Hm?”

“Onee-sama???”

“Hmm…”

Something must have bothered Mikoto because she walked back the way she had come. The door used a simple number lock like you could buy at a home improvement store, but she was not focused on that.

She was interested in the corner bordering the intersection.

“This really is weird.”

“What is?”

“This should normally be made from a clear material.”

“Um?”

Black-twintailed Sakibasu Yuri and chestnut twintailed Shirai Kuroko tilted their heads in synchronized confusion, so Mikoto pointed and explained.

“It’s worrying when you can’t see what they’re doing inside, right? That’s why they intentionally make a part of the wall transparent so you can see inside. I think they normally do it at the corner. It prevents complaints and unnecessary frustration.”

“But…this is just a normal metal wall, isn’t it?”

Mikoto nodded at Sakibasu’s question.

“And was the person who walked through the door just now really a construction worker? This place has been off limits for quite a while, but the construction never seems to end. And you can’t hear any construction going on right now, can you?”

“Hmm? But why would someone bother sneaking into there?”

“Hold on. There is a subway station here,” cut in Shirai while opening her phone’s map app. Hers was an unlocked Judgment version instead of the normal version. “The line has been shut down, but if the facility is still here, you would have free use of a large underground tunnel connecting stations. It would give you a shortcut around all the lights and buildings and you could avoid getting wet on rainy days.”

That might not sound like much on its own.

It was not like a chauffeured luxury car would come pick you up and you could not send out a GPS signal with an app to have a private helicopter or jet flown to you within five minutes. It was only a small luxury that required walking on your own two feet. For ease of use, buying a beat-up used scooter would be better.

However.

That was not what made it so sweet. Even a linear motor train or sub-orbital spacecraft ''would be meaningless if everyone had equal access to them.

''Monopolizing a service no one else had access to'' provided a small feeling of superiority.

And the more such things you accumulated, the more you would feel like a special person.

Maybe it was like a local celebrity showing up at a fully-booked restaurant and getting a seat at any time.

Maybe it was like using a private elevator that skipped straight past all the congestion on the other floors.

The excitement might be best compared to the feeling of being accepted into an invite-only social media group for entertainers. And this feeling had existed long before the internet in the form of salons and secret clubs.

Even in Tokiwadai, there were plenty of debates, meetings, and recreational activities you could only attend if you belonged to Shokuhou Misaki’s clique. Students ignorant of that trickster girl’s true nature apparently longed to join. In that case, you had to receive an invitation from an existing member, swear your loyalty to their Queen, pass a background check, and pass a few tests before you were finally given the “key” to attend those exclusive events.

It had nothing to do with how useful the items really were.

It could be a bag, a wristwatch, a ring, a fur coat, a cosmetic product, high heels, an odd-colored credit card, or an old musical instrument. The truly wealthy and luxurious people would show off by secretly possessing certain “keys” that set them apart from other people and allowed them take part in a secret community.

If that idea was common enough…

“Did the Stativarius function as a ‘key’ for this city?”

“But, Onee-sama, that doesn’t explain why someone would attack. No matter the result of the elective exam, a Stativarius is still a Stativarius. The Ainsel belongs to Sakibasu-san and this wouldn’t affect someone who owns a different Stativarius.”

“That depends on how we’re defining these ‘keys’.” Mikoto brought a hand to her slender chin. “If anyone with a Stativarius is given access to special services, then I think you would be right, Kuroko. But what if it’s ''owning a violin with the world’s greatest music'' that gives you access?”

“Ah.”

Sakibasu Yuri uttered a silly sound in the middle of it all.

Mikoto took that to mean she was right.

“Sakibasu-san. That attack might have killed your appetite, but beforehand, you wanted to see the secret menu so you could eat away your frustrations, right?”

“Y-yes. I often go to that family restaurant on the weekends and the manager always has a special menu to show me. That is what I was asking for, so I wonder why they pretended not to know what I meant. That was not my first time ordering pancakes there.”

She seemed legitimately confused, so she herself may not have understood how the restaurant worked.

There were services only available to those who owned “a violin with the world’s greatest music”. But since Sakibasu Yuri had carried her Stativarius Ainsel around with her everywhere, she had not even noticed she was being given access to something special.

That secret menu had now been taken from her. Mikoto was a little curious about what these special pancakes were, but this girl could no longer order the dishes listed on that menu.

In that case…

“Once the Stativari have been thrown down from their position at the top, the ‘key’ takes on a different form. Even if it was only taken to the #2 spot. That means you can no longer use the ‘key’ you spent hundreds of millions on at auction. So what’s next? An Almati? A Guarnari? Do you have to desperately throw down another mountain of cash at the auction to make your bid???”

Whoever it was would have been shut out.

Like their account had been banned.

The “key” they had gone to such effort to obtain had been made useless by someone else’s actions and they had been shut out of the special stores, famous social media groups, and other secret connections that made them feel special. That was sure to inspire fear and frustration.

It was unclear who this was, but they would never be able to allow the Stativarius’s defeat.

Was it about secret services, the right to buy new products early at a famous store, or an invitation-only social media group? Whatever had been taken from them by the shaking of the Stativarius’s value, they would do whatever it took to recover their position. Especially if they were someone with no other connections who felt they needed that in order to stand out.

So they would want to erase the result of that elective exam.

They would do whatever it took to eliminate anyone even slightly involved in that upset.

Mikoto brushed up her bangs as she stated her conclusion.

“Looks like we need to investigate that violin some more. That might tell us how many people would hold a grudge and how many enemies we might have.”