Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 4===

The following morning, Uiharu Kazari sent a message to all of their phones.

“GK> I have identified the riding suit’s manufacturer. Not many factories in Academy City use formaldehyde when tanning leather and only one place uses goat cream for treating their products.”

Misaka Mikoto snapped shut her phone and sighed.

It was currently the break after second period, so the day was far from over.

She glanced out the hallway window and muttered to herself.

“I really want to just leave.”

“Oh, dear. We seem to have a dangerous delinquent in our school.”

“…”

“I don’t have time to deal with a delinquent right now, so let’s leave it at that. Ugh, keeping up with social media is such a pain. Maybe I should have kept my friend list a lot shorter.”

A blob of fat walked by while using her phone. She would have been running into people if she were not holding onto the uniform of her clique’s CQC ringlet curl girl so that girl could lead her around. She tried picking a fight with Mikoto, but that was normal.

After patiently waiting until school had let out for the day, Misaka Mikoto left the School Garden with Shirai Kuroko and Sakibasu Yuri. Uiharu Kazari and Saten Ruiko were already waiting near the gate.

“Hey, Misaka-san. It’s so hard waiting until classes are over, isn’t it? We lost so much time!”

“Saten-san.”

Uiharu chided Saten like a rule-abiding student, but Mikoto honestly agreed with Saten. They were short on time. Not that she could say anything about it with Shirai around.

Sakibasu Yuri remained the top suspect for planning the shooting.

If nothing was done, the bored people online might decide she was a criminal based on no real evidence and spread her personal information around. And if the trail went cold, it was even possible Anti-Skill would leak her information to get things moving again.

That was part of the reason they had no time, but…

“(Hmm, based on the trends online, any tendency in that direction is being stifled by some powerful force. It’s like someone with an incredible amount of social media influence is working behind the scenes.)”

Uiharu’s assessment aside, their first order of business was using the riding suit’s purchase route to find the Telekinesis user.

“What is Anti-Skill doing?”

“They seem to have finished their investigation of the scene, but there was no one there for them to find, right? With only a fallen motorcycle and two shredded riding suits, they need to start their investigation by determining whether this was an accident or a crime. That said, they aren’t dumb enough to miss the connection between that and the attack on the family restaurant. It looks like their plan is to investigate the remains of the shotgun and the shotgun shells to see if they can figure out what this is all about.”

“Yeah, those are the most illegal looking parts of it all,” casually responded Shirai.

Come to think of it, she had worked with Uiharu to pull data from the insurance company’s server. They should have a list of clients with insurance policies on a Stativarius like Sakibasu’s – and thus a list of people who would hold a grudge over Sakibasu losing the violin competition. Were they making progress on decrypting that file?

Since that was what came to Mikoto’s mind, she must not have expected the gun to be much of a lead.

A shotgun was a special weapon with limited routes to acquire one, so it might seem easier to determine where it came from than with a knife or metal bat that could be found anywhere in the city.

However, this city’s darkness was deep.

Guns were almost entirely banned in this country, yet Mikoto knew of people who would pull one out like it was perfectly normal. If whoever was behind this had sunk to that level, then Anti-Skill would never reach those stagnant depths while searching the shallows. Checking the gun shops that followed all the rules would turn up nothing.

With normal products like the riding suits and electric motorcycle, they might have bought them normally. But when a risk was involved in simply acquiring them, they would have been cautious. It seemed unlikely they would have carelessly left a trail behind there.

Mikoto decided to let Anti-Skill try their method.

As long as they would not get in the way, she was willing to ignore them.

She decided to focus on pursuing the origin of the riding suits they had found.

Uiharu had done the preliminary research, so she led them to a surprising location.

Mikoto had expected an auto parts store or a sporting goods store, but…

“Wh-what is this place?”

There was a bear.

The giant bear was standing on its hind legs with its arms raised in a threatening pose. The real carnivore was far taller than Mikoto’s group, but it was frozen in that pose. Its colors were a little faded after being left out in the open.

The store’s sign said it was a model shop.

But when they peered in through the glass window, they saw deer, pheasants, and other animals frozen in time.

The entire area looked rundown. Academy City had a highly concentrated population due to its limited land, but this area was inefficiently crammed full of multi-tenant buildings three or four stories tall and a lot of the small shops on the street had their entrances covered by rusty metal shutters. There was barely anyone around. The only people in evidence were some workers loading industrial bags of expired flour and cornstarch into a truck parked on the side of the road.

Had this happened naturally, or was it the result of some kind of social construction experiment?

Uiharu Kazari had located the store in question, but even she sounded somewhat surprised by it.

“Taxidermy, formaldehyde, and transparent specimens… This appears to be a specialist in creating models made from what were once living animals. The riding suits were apparently patched together from extra materials.”

“E-extra materials?”

Shirai sounded hesitant, so Uiharu made sure to clarify.

“I said few factories use formaldehyde, remember? For example, when getting a deer stuffed, people who want to mount the head on the wall will just get the head done instead of the entire animal. The taxidermist will give the customer what they want, but that sometimes leaves them with part of the animal to throw out. So they will remove the skin from those parts and make bags, belts, or even riding suits from it.”

When making her analysis, Sakibasu had said formaldehyde was used to tan the leather. Was that simply because the store had that chemical on hand?

Doing that so as not to waste any part of the animal may have been a way of showing respect. …But did you really feel the need to show that kind of respect when it was a product being sold as an ornament instead of a trophy you had killed yourself?

Saten and Uiharu thought of taxidermy as a pastime for the rich, but Mikoto, Shirai, and Sakibasu seemed just as hesitant. It was possible real live high-class girls were not actually surrounded by suits of armor and giant paintings at all times.

But when they tried entering the front door…

“Wow.”

A low voice escaped Saten’s mouth. She may have been more surprised than impressed.

There were so many of them.

The store was not all that large, so it felt crowded. The shelves were decorated with frogs or snakes inside glass cylinders and animals were frozen in time while carelessly lined up where the sunlight would not reach them. Shallow, frame-like boxes contained butterflies and beetles pinned in place and there was even a hornet nest larger than a basketball.

A small counter seemed almost buried by the shelves along the wall.

The old man there was covered in wrinkles like an animal that had not been preserved properly. He wore a plain track suit and a large mask over his mouth. He seemed more worried about staining his clothes than about looking nice for customers. Mikoto was worried he might actually walk back and forth between the counter and his workplace without washing his hands.

He spoke to them in a barely understandable voice mumbled from behind the white mask. They could not see his lips, so it was even harder to make out what he was saying.

“What is it, young ladies? This isn’t the time of year for a summer project and I doubt you’re here for insect specimens.”

Some cheaters apparently came here for their bug-catching project instead of setting foot in the forest. Was that better or worse than the people who used Q&A sites or auction sites to do their homework?

Sakibasu began waving her hands side to side.

“Um, that is not why we are here.”

“Then what is it? Looking for a model skeleton made from real human bones?”

Shirai Kuroko and Uiharu Kazari of Judgment both did a spit take at that.

But they were not the first to lean forward in interest. They were beaten to it by Saten Ruiko, that black hole for any suspicious rumors.

“D-do you have one of those legendary items made from a real human!?”

“Those things aren’t as exciting as the old stories make them sound. In the old days, it wasn’t unusual for executed prisoners to have the flesh chemically stripped from their bones to be used as a teaching tool. It’s little different from putting real human hair onto a doll’s head. It’s nothing too strange.”

At this rate, they were going to get badly sidetracked.

Mikoto grabbed excited Saten’s shoulder and pulled her back.

“We’re here to ask about some riding suits made here.”

“Hm? You don’t look old enough to be bikers.”

“Onee-sama, let me handle this. Excuse me, but I am from Judgment. Could we speak for a moment?”

The old man behind the counter responded to Shirai by mumbling something through the mask.

He was hard to make out, so Shirai leaned forward without even thinking.

A moment later, a pump-action shotgun popped up from below the counter.

The close-range blast reverberated in the gut more than the ears.

In a way, the solid and invisible wall of sound was even more of a weapon than the metal balls rushing toward them at blinding speed. Uiharu and Saten screamed and fell back onto the floor.

In this case, that was the correct response.

Sakibasu Yuri was in more danger since she mostly just stood there. Her black kneesocked legs turned inward and she only cowered down a little.

And.

“Tch!!”

Separate from that, some bluish-white sparks flew through the air.

The scattershot should have flown straight toward them from less than a meter away, but it veered off course and instead shattered the cylindrical bottles of formaldehyde specimens behind them.

Judgment.

The mere mention of that name was enough to cause this.

The old man in a track suit and mask rose from his small chair and pulled the trigger again.

More and more gunshots rang out, but none of them hit. Now, did he realize what was happening? Mikoto was not actually using magnetism or the Lorentz force to manipulate the bullets tearing through the air. She was instead using an invisible hand to grab and move the sight on top of the pump-action shotgun itself.

It was the same as a flashlight’s beam.

Since the scatter shot spread out as it traveled, it was actually safer to be at point-blank range than further away. Shards from liquid-filled bottles and pieces of who-knows-what from broken stuffed animals scattered all around Mikoto.

However.

“He’s getting away.”

She grimaced even after producing such a superhuman result. That small old man had not cared whether or not he hit them. He had only needed to break as many of his own products as possible to buy enough time to slip out the back of the store.

This battle had begun unexpectedly.

Mikoto belatedly regretted coming here in their uniforms. They could not have predicted this, but they might have exposed their identities. They were already being targeted from all over the city, but this was unfortunate all the same.

“Kuroko, teleport behind the store! Uiharu-san, you look after Saten-san and Sakibasu-san. I don’t think they were actually hit, but it’s easy to overlook the pain when you’re full of adrenaline. Check with your eyes and hands to see if they were struck or cut anywhere!!”

“…Ugh…”

The only response was a groan from the floor.

Mikoto assumed someone was suffering from a headache due to the blood rushing to their head in a state of extreme tension and excitement, but she was wrong. A moment later, a unique chemical odor reached her nose as well. Her loafers were standing in some sort of puddle.

She could tell that was enough to remove the shine from those leather products.

Mikoto quickly covered her nose with a handkerchief.

(Formaldehyde?)

“Kuroko, change of plans!! Get those girls out of here immediately!!”

Formaldehyde was sealed inside bottles for a reason: it was highly volatile. And it was also highly toxic. It prevented decomposition because it killed all the microbes. If someone was exposed to it, it would take out their breathing and eyes first. They could not leave Uiharu and Saten collapsed on the floor here.

A metallic sound came from the back of the store.

Mikoto was afraid of another shotgun blast, but nothing happened.

The old man had apparently escaped out the back door.

“Kuroko, Sakibasu-san, take care of those two. I can’t let him get away!!”

“Onee-sama! It’s too dangerous to go without any support!!”

He had already disappeared from view, so if she was delayed any longer, he might really get away. She jumped over the narrow counter, burst out the opened metal door, and found herself in the back alley.

She was immediately greeted by a gunshot from the side, but she blocked it with a metal bucket packed full of kitchen garbage that she swung around with magnetism. A solid shield was not the only defense.

She heard some light footsteps.

(That way.)

She did not run directly after the man.

She leaped straight up, used magnetism to press the soles of her shoes against the building’s wall, and ran up to the multi-tenant building’s roof. The best strategy for a game of tag was to look down from above the maze.

However…

“…?”

(He’s gone? Where did Old Mr. Shotgun get off to!?)

No matter how swift-footed he might be, Mikoto doubted he could have escaped her elevated field of vision while running through the complex array of roads on an old man’s legs. Had he escaped into a building with a roof or hidden below one of the cars parked on the roadside? Had he made that choice by chance, or had he predicted this? Mikoto started to grow a little confused.

At the moment, she needed information.

She noticed something while leaning over to view the area below.

She immediately jumped from the roof, once more used magnetism to stand perpendicular to the wall, and ran down the wall to reach the ground.

She made her way to an area with a few plastic beer cases stacked up in what could not be the proper way.

Something like dirty brown bandages were balled up and stuffed inside there. She found they were a plain track suit, a large mask, running shoes, and so on. Formaldehyde had splashed across everything in that small store, so Mikoto made sure not to touch the discolored brown sash with her bare hands. And while she viewed it from a distance…

(Dried…skin?)

She seriously hoped it was not human skin. Although it was still creepy if it belonged to an animal.

This had likely been done with a chemical and not an esper power. After a bit, it started to smoke and then it suddenly burst into flames. Mikoto quickly pulled a thick cloth from nearby and flapped it over the top to put out the small fire.

(In the two previous attacks, they controlled riding suits with Telekinesis to make it look like a living human. And this time, the target disappeared while moving too quickly for an old man. Could it be…?)

“Was that old man the telekinetic assassin himself? No, an adult wouldn’t be using an esper power… Then are they not an old man at all? Was an esper wearing that skin to enhance their own movements like with a powered suit!?”

Yes, she had found the track suit, the creepy skin, and such, but she had not found the most shocking item: the shotgun.

If it was not here, did that mean the attacker still had it?

Mikoto quickly pulled her phone from her skirt pocket, started up their shared social media app, and spoke into it.

Why had that old man suddenly disappeared? He should still have been in view, so had she lost sight of him because he removed that skin to change his appearance?

And had he really continued to run away afterwards?

Because he feared the word “Judgment”?

(If not…)

Sakibasu Yuri was his assassination target and she was right here while he was armed with a shotgun. For that matter, was this situation even an accident for him?

Could he have been waiting here for Sakibasu to eventually track down the model shop and pay it a visit?

In other words, could he be traveling in a circle through the labyrinthine back alleys to return to the store?

“Kuroko! Look after Sakibasu-san and the others!! The telekinetic assassin might be headed-…”

''Bang!!

She heard the bursting of gunpowder directly from the vibrations of the air instead of through her phone.