Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Misaki SS (section)

===Part 2===

The doll said her name was Misaki.

Shokuhou Misaki threw the doll into her handbag and left the dorm. She walked through the special district of the School Garden and made her way to the exit.

Tokiwadai Middle School was extremely strict about its curfew and had guards out at night, but she did not slip out the window, sneak along the walls, and zip from shadow to shadow. She already controlled everyone in the area. If she wanted to, she could use a single remote control to vanish from everyone’s mind and walk right through like she was invisible. (Although she could not fool the cameras and sensors.)

After leaving the School Garden without incident and entering the dangerous city night the adults always warned them about, she looked down at a large pamphlet as she walked.

It was the material on that doll museum.

Misaki poked her upper body out of the handbag and spoke.

“Calling it a doll museum is a complete lie. It’s actually a secret prison that closes people in a giant vault.”

“Well, I was curious why it had so much security given how few people visit and how little income it receives. I thought it might be wasting grant money, but I guess it’s actually running a different business on the side.”

Academy City of course had its official prisons, but what did they do with incidents that could not be made public or when they did not have time to go through the official process required to arrest a criminal? The hidden face of this doll museum was the answer.

It was a secret prison.

Even with guards patrolling around the clock, no one would question what was protected inside the unnecessarily thick walls and complex system of doors. No one cared what was inside the vault. The facility had all of the convenient excuses needed to build a prison right in the middle of the city.

“A building meant to store humanoid objects is actually used to strip actual humans of their rights and imprison them. Whoever made this has a sense of humor.”

“The Professor won’t be beaten by something like this!”

“Personally, I’d prefer she isn’t some powerful enemy.”

The pamphlet had a general map of the building, but it would not be very reliable here.

Shokuhou closed it, threw it in her handbag, and looked up.

It looked like the granite ground had been levelled off and polished to a shine. At the center of that perfect square of land was a cubic structure that resembled a giant die.

It was the doll museum which was actually something like a medieval tower used to unofficially imprison and punish people.

Bright lights on the ground illuminated the outside of the cubic doll museum and the “official side” had long since closed. The lights were meant to prevent that building alone from sinking into darkness and giving people a creepy impression.

“Just to be clear, there’s nothing you can do if you’re caught inside. You’ll be thrown in a cell without a trial, so normal Anti-Skill won’t show up and I doubt you’ll have a chance to escape.”

“(That might be what they’re after. This doll’s very existence is enough to know someone is obsessed with Academy City’s #5.)”

“?”

“Anyway, continuing on is the only way to find the truth.”

“But how? This place is as impregnable as Alcatraz.”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Shokuhou pulled a TV remote from her handbag and spun it in her hand like a gunman.

“Through the main entrance of course☆”