Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter4 (section)

===Part 5===

To start with, they made sure 12-year-old Yugure Tsumebakei could focus on her exam interview. Having a recommendation gave her better odds than if not, but it was still crucial she performed well. Even if she was trying to find her sister, screwing this up really could influence the rest of her life.

“Don’t worry.”

When they parted ways, Mikoto exchanged numbers with her, held out her little finger, and made a promise. 

“Canary-chan is my classmate. I promise you I’ll find her, so you relax and go to your exam.”

“Okay…”

“I promise you there’s nothing to worry about. Now, get going. Akazame-sensei is calling.”

Mikoto kept a smile until the small girl had disappeared around the hallway corner.

And then…

“If a serious crime has occurred in the School Garden, it must be in one of the ''Lost Pieces''.”

Whether or not they were familiar with that term was plain to see on their faces.

There was suspicion of industrial spies trying to use the entrance exam season to sneak in and steal data, but this was still the untouchable School Garden. The security there wasn’t so lax that an entire person could just disappear. All the likely places were patrolled by Judgment or security robots and none of the security cameras at the limited gates out had shown Yugure Kanaria.

That meant she was inside the School Garden but in some unique cranny none of the five schools could touch. There was no way for her to disappear otherwise.

Mikoto and Shirai were familiar with the term. Uiharu and Saten were not.

Uiharu hesitantly asked about it.

“What are the Lost Pieces?”

“Do you remember what Saten-san said about the School Garden being the ultimate educational environment funded by the five schools here? She wasn’t wrong about that.” Mikoto pointed her thumb toward the entrance. “But to put it another way, the School Garden looks peaceful at first glance, but it’s actually locked in a constant struggle for power between the five schools. There are invisible lines dividing the ‘turfs’ of each school’s students. They’re like national borders. But there are some dangerous disputed zones that every school claims are theirs, causing tensions to grow.”

“Those are called the Lost Pieces,” said Kuroko. “Because they’re like missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle forming the School Garden. Since everyone claims them, no one can manage them properly. So those are the only areas not patrolled by security robots or monitored by security cameras. Not even the teachers can agree on which school is in charge of security there.”

And a lack of surveillance created a blind spot where unspeakable desires could be released. They might only look like an abandoned construction site or an artificial forest, but they meant so much more to the right people.

Humans were human. Mikoto knew better than anyone that the pure girls here were not saints. In fact, all the studying and perfect etiquette the adults forced onto them at all times could cause stress to build up until it exploded out in one of those unmonitored areas.

Bluish-white sparks crackled from Mikoto’s bangs.

“Honestly, finding this is the work of a secret delinquent from one of the schools is probably the best case scenario.”

“Yes, this is such an irritating time what with the industrial spies trying to sneak in during the entrance exams. Combine that with a justice-minded girl afflicted with a super slow-motion curse and I have a very bad feeling about this.”

The four of them rushed out of the school building.

The inorganic stone buildings along the European-style streets felt so much different now that they knew someone had gone missing here. And none of the people living in that peaceful world were aware of it. It felt like the part of a dystopian SF movie where the big corporation insists their new technology is perfectly safe. With the streets without a speck of litter and the smiling employees at the polished cafés, there was no darker side to be found, which only made the girls more suspicious of everything.

“What standards should we really be striving toward!? Is unquestioningly obeying the adults really the key to improving ourselves!?”

“Wow.”

But Saten reacted a little too sensitively to what she heard coming from the LCD ads on the decorative pillars.

“We have no intention of stopping with Tokiwadai! We intend to provide greater autonomy to every student in the School Garden and through that ensure we can all take responsibility in our own actions!! None of us should simply follow the rules the adults have set for us! Only by thinking through the reasons behind the rules we should follow can we find true consideration for each other!”

Did it really matter if they were testing replacing the wind turbines with solar panels? But Saten tapped Mikoto on the shoulder.

“Misaka-san, what is that?”

“A debate being held between the schools, I think. Like I said, as peaceful as things look here, the five schools are having constant turf wars. The adults think healthy competition provides fuel to increase our powers, so the adults never intervene to stop it.”

“Um, but that person is acting like a representative of Tokiwadai on TV,” said Uiharu.

“She can claim whatever she wants,” bluntly stated Mikoto. “I don’t know who ''that redhead'' is, but she’s not even part of the student council. Besides, Tokiwadai is focused more on individual esper powers and the conflicts between our cliques, so I don’t see what a debate like this can really accomplish. I can’t speak for the other four schools, but for us, this at most lets you advertise your club or clique. It isn’t popular enough for anyone to compete for the spot and no one will feel jealous seeing someone else calling themselves our representative.”

An eloquent speech with no group backing it wasn’t enough to solve anything in the real world. When there were problems between the students, it was simpler to either fight it out with their esper powers or have their cliques apply pressure to each other. And that didn’t just apply to Tokiwadai. The girls here still clung to the outdated traditions of the nobility, so they seemed to like the sound of the word “duel”. Otherwise, they wouldn’t praise Mikoto as the Ace for being the strongest individual or Shokuhou as the Queen for leading the strongest group.

Mikoto understood finding everything suspicious right now, but there was no point in wasting their time with the debate playing on TV. They had a much more real problem to face.

What had Tokiwadai 2nd Year Yugure Kanaria seen in a Lost Piece, who had made her vanish, and where had she ended up?

“Is that all?” complained Saten Ruko after taking a peek past the tall metal wall and into the abandoned construction site that was one of the Lost Pieces. “But it’s so normal. You described this as a lawless zone, so I was expecting to find every wall to be covered in post-apocalyptic graffiti.”

“Keep in mind this is still inside the School Garden.” Mikoto shrugged. “The official story is that construction of the building was protested in the name of scenery preservation, but I have my doubts. I think the real reason is an 8-story building here would have obstructed the phone signal at Shidarezakura. Does that sound like too modern a reason for a traditional girl’s school? No matter how much history or tradition a school has, all the students and teachers are constantly on their phones.”

While it was a construction site, there weren’t rough piles of pipes stacked up on the bare dirt. A building that looked an awful lot like a Greek temple had been abandoned half built. The plan had been for it to be a recreation facility including a gym and a bath, but those plans had been canceled and now it sat here unfinished.

There weren’t any signs as obvious as cigarette butts on the ground, but there were a few footprints. That meant there were some girls who found this place comfortable enough to visit.

“Uiharu,” said Shirai.

“Yes, yes. According to her Bank data, Yugure Kanaria’s shoe size is 22cm. Let’s see…I can use my PDA’s camera as an electronic ruler, but it looks like none of these were her.”

Photography was banned all across the School Garden and not just in Tokiwadai. Any function that used the camera would be deactivated without a Judgment device.

If Kanaria had come here and seen something she shouldn’t have, her footprints would be here. Since the whole point was for her to have been disappeared in one of the Lost Pieces, she wouldn’t have been knocked out elsewhere and carried here. Then the crime would have been noticed.

They concluded this Lost Piece wasn’t the one they wanted and moved to the next one.

Saten spoke up on the way there.

“Hey, wait. Judgment can access data on all our measurements?”

“Sex, age, height, and weight are the basic pieces of data needed to identify a suspicious figure seen on a security camera. And the more data we have, the better.”

“Weight too!? Please don’t tell me you have our body fat ratio!”

Saten felt like this should be a crisis for any girl, but Uiharu didn’t seem to care. Was it like how doctors were professionals and thus didn’t get flustered about seeing a patient naked?

All the LCD ads around were playing that debate from earlier. But Mikoto had missed the topic of debate, so she wasn’t entirely sure what the 5 schools were trying to say.

“Clean energy is not enough for us. I demand safe energy as well. We must do more than enjoy ourselves in the present. This is the first step toward being adults aware of our responsibility to the future. The wind turbines used across Academy City have received some criticism over the low frequency waves produced by the friction as they turn, so I suggest replacing them with silent solar energy.”

“Flying cars have already reached the practical stage of development. But can we really allow them to be managed by the existing driver’s license system? Should they require a pilot’s license, which is even more difficult to obtain? I say no. Why not create a new system that instead lowers the barrier to entry? As long as we can learn how to operate them safely, why can’t middle school students like ourselves use these flying cars?”

“Independence! We demand independence!! Leaving your parents and setting out on your own is a crucial step toward obtaining your own identity.”

Saten looked bored. A lot of people disliked that any voices at all were coming from the streetside LCD ads, so what they were saying didn’t matter.

“What the heck are they talking about?”

“They’re taking it in some confusing directions, but I think they might be debating on the general category of what it means to be an adult.”

At any rate, Mikoto guided them to some woods that seemed out of place among the stone buildings.

An unnatural thicket of conifer trees grew in between the buildings. It didn’t look like a well-maintained park.

“This artificial forest is next. The only other ones I’m familiar with are the subway station remains, the abandoned bell tower, and the server center that has never been run despite its ridiculous communications capacity.”

“Why would prestigious schools be fighting over those places? No, wait, forget I asked. I don’t want to get roped into any trouble for knowing the truth of this fancy place.”

Rumor-loving Saten actually opted out of learning some new rumors.

However…

“Onee-sama, I can’t help but wonder why you are familiar with so many different Lost Pieces. I am especially curious why you seemed to be checking a map on your phone while leading us here.”

Mikoto coughed and refused to look Shirai in the eye.

The position of Academy City’s #3 came with its own pressures, so sometimes she wanted to step away from all of that. She didn’t know for sure, but she guessed the #5 was also familiar with the Lost Pieces.

Uiharu viewed the area through her PDA and then shouted excitedly.

“Oh, a match! Official Tokiwadai loafers, 22cm. Of course, that isn’t enough to guarantee it’s her.”

“It’s still better than what we found at the constructions site. Let’s take a closer look.”

Mikoto’s group stepped into the artificial forest growing in a gap within the city.

However, the forest didn’t have anything going for it aside from the lack of surveillance. The conifer trees didn’t grow any fruit like apples or peaches and there weren’t any rhino beetles around during this season, so there was nothing exciting to find. They couldn’t even sit down on the ground without getting the dark soil on their uniforms. The artificial conifer forest was nothing more than a pollen factory.

Saten lost interest really fast.

“Huh. So when the girls here know no one is watching, the best they can come up with is go forest bathing? High society delinquents are lame.”

“Saten.”

“Shirai-san, I can understand getting together with your friends at that construction site,” said Uiharu. “But wouldn’t you just get swarmed by mosquitos if you came here during the summer?”

That was when Mikoto tilted her head with electricity crackling from her bangs.

“There’s something further in.”

“What is it, Onee-sama?”

“The microwaves I’m sending out are getting a weird reaction from the ground. This isn’t anything natural, like a rock or a fallen tree. It’s more artificial…square shaped even. Could it be a metal cover on the ground? But it doesn’t seem like a manhole cover. It’s too big. The reaction I’m getting is 2m across.”

“Wait, Misaka-san! There is no such thing as a square manhole. As a square, you could tilt it along the diagonal like this and the heavy lid would fall right in the hole, so they’re specifically designed to prevent that! All the manholes covers you see on the road are circles so they won’t fall through no matter how they’re situated on top!!”

All four of them exchanged a glance.

If Saten was right, then this metal cover wasn’t to a manhole. Then what was it? What other metal covers did you find on the ground?

Yugure Kanaria had gone missing after discovering something.

They may have been approaching whatever it was. Uiharu walked further into the woods with Mikoto and Shirai.

“Why is your head so full of useless trivia, Saten-san?”

“Because, Uiharu, manholes are a treasure trove of urban legends. Some say they’re holes meant to drop bodies in and others say there are bizarre monsters living below. The sewers they connect to are even said to be home to ''white alligators''.”

Uiharu wasn’t sure what to say when Saten looked so proud of herself for this. Had her friend failed to notice the “useless” qualifier she had used?

Mikoto came to a stop after reaching the point indicated by her microwaves.

“It’s here.”

“It looks like ordinary soil to me.”

“But look at my PDA, Shirai-san. Those 22cm footprints walk right up to this spot and then vanish.”

“What does that mean?” asked Saten.

Mikoto answered her by casually raising her right hand.

She was using her magnetic control.

The dark soil on top was blown away and a metal cover 2m long, 2m wide, and more than 3cm thick rose into Mikoto’s palm.

The square hole below revealed sturdy-looking stainless steel stairs leading down. Mikoto tossed the metal cover aside and aimed her phone’s LED light inside, but she still couldn’t see the bottom.

“I’ve heard they sell simple tornado shelters in America for people to bury in their yard, but I don’t think that’s what this is. I’m pretty sure those are more like burying a small storage shed, but this just keeps going deeper.”

“Wow! It’s like an evil secret base, Uiharu.”

“It couldn’t possibly be evil. This is the School Garden funded by those five super classy schools, remember?”

Uiharu’s comment put some very uncomfortable looks on Mikoto and Shirai’s faces.

This was far too largescale to be the work of an individual. It was probably one of those five schools that had built this underground facility.

And those same schools were fighting over who owned this artificial forest.

“What did you see, Canary-chan? This is starting to look really dangerous.”

“The footprints end here, so we have to go down these stairs to figure out what that person saw, don’t we? Don’t we!?”

Saten’s love of urban legends had her giddy with excitement at the prospect of pursuing this new mystery.

But had she really thought this through?

It was true Yugure Kanaria had probably descended these stairs since her footprints ended here, but the entrance had been sealed by that heavy metal cover and soil had been placed on top to hide it.

Kanaria couldn’t have done that from the inside. Not physically and not with her esper power, Micro Dying. They also hadn’t seen any of her footprints leading back out of the woods. Didn’t that mean something had had happened to her down those stairs and then someone else had shut the heavy metal cover from the outside and covered it with soil to delay anyone from discovering her?