Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS2 Chapter5 (section)

=== Part 3 ===
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Shirai Kuroko was a Level 4 Teleporter.

That meant that she could freely enter and exit most places as long as she paid attention to where any electromagnetic and ultrasonic sensors were.

Uiharu had sent a list to her cell phone that she was using to head to the hotel where one of the groups was staying at. She then entered one of the members’ rooms.

She of course did not knock.

Nor did she use a card key.

Places like hotels would have cameras set up in the public areas such as the lobby, the lounge, the elevators, and the emergency stairways, but all the other places tended to have laxer security. For instance, the hallways and customer rooms had no cameras for the sake of privacy.

As such, no one could stop Shirai from teleporting in undetected.

She checked to see if she could hear anything on the other side of the door and then unhesitatingly entered the room.

“Now then…”

Shirai pulled thin gloves from her skirt’s pocket and put them on as she looked around. As expected, no one was there. The lights were not on. Holding a penlight in her mouth, she checked the closet and the bedside table.

She heard Uiharu’s voice coming from her small cell phone that was hooked to her ear like a headset.

“Shirai-san, please be careful. We don’t know what it is, but there could be something there with similar effects to the necklace of death.”

“If it was that easy, this would certainly go a lot faster.”

“How about you use the simple detection tool provided by Judgment? It’s the thing you can connect to the lower connector on your phone that acts as a sensor and puts together data on the composition of the air and whether there are harmful electromagnetic waves there.”

“Hm?”

“We all underwent training on how to use it the other day, remember!? Or does someone with top grades in a high class school have the ability to sleep through lessons, too!?”

As Uiharu squealed an explanation at her, Shirai followed the instructions and attached an unfamiliar device to her phone.

Shirai had a habit of walking around with items that she had been provided even if she did not know how to use them. The reason she did not put any effort into teaching herself how to use them was simple.

(If I teleport it, anything can be used as a weapon. There’s no point in trying to go for two birds with one stone.)

With that arbitrary thought, Shirai put the small cell phone back to her ear and looked around.

The only piece of luggage seemed to be a large suitcase.

It was locked, but that was no problem for Shirai.

By teleporting just the outer suitcase, she managed to get out the items inside.

Even if the person was a complete subordinate working odd jobs on the outer edges of the plan, someone in a group planning to carry out a terrorist attack would need to be prepared.

There were two major categories those preparations fell under.

The first was things like firearms and blades that reinforced one’s strength.

The second was things like fake passports and disguising wigs that hid oneself strengthening one’s safety.

Shirai fished through the luggage for a bit, but…

(…It looks like this was a miss.)

Shirai came to that conclusion as she was sending each object back into the suitcase with her teleportation. Not only did she not find the mysterious object in question, but she did not even find a single gun.

She hadn’t thought she would find the actual object so easily.

Shirai teleported out of the room and headed for the hotel where the next group was staying.

The misses continued.

But then, there were only 4 groups on the list.

She made it to the last one before long.

Shirai’s expectations had not been wrong.

“…”

The instant she teleported inside the room, something seemed off.

No one was inside.

There were no sensors or traps.

But there was something clearly different from the other hotels that had been misses. It was too clean. Of course, hotel rooms tended to be that way, but after staying there for an hour, the guest’s smell tended to cling to the place. Normally, slight traces would remain in the bed or the bathroom, but there was nothing there. It was like a model room.

There were no suitcases, coats, or any other objects belonging to the person staying there.

Shirai pulled out a few devices from her skirt’s pocket and checked the doorknob for fingerprints.

Nothing remained.

(I know you don’t leave any fingerprints behind if you wear gloves…)

Shirai came to her conclusion while touching the cell phone on her ear with a finger.

(…but cleaners enter the room every day. Since even their fingerprints are gone, the person staying her was not someone who just so happened to be wearing gloves. They had to have at least wiped off the doorknob.)

“Uiharu, I’ve got a hit here.”

“What should I do?”

“This was the group sent here from the Russian shopping mall for business training. Get me pictures of the 18 members, their identities, their schedule in Academy City, their current locations…and, well, just send me as much information on them as you can find.”

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