Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 6===

Frenda Seivelun was led to an enormous park.

According to the unhoused man…

“My home is here and the bathroom and sinks are over there. Also, make sure to have two exits in mind at all times just in case. If anything happens, I’ll try to let you escape first, but I can’t guarantee that’ll work.”

“In the end, that’ll be fine.”

She found a brand new home. So this was a Japanese cardboard box house. Unlike a child’s game, it had a lot of small tricks used to ensure there were no gaps.

“Will you want to use this?”

“In the end, what is it?”

“I feel bad this is all I have, but I just thought a young kid like you wouldn’t be able to relax without access to information.”

He held out a palm-sized device with wired earphones. It looked like a music player…but was apparently a handheld radio. It couldn’t record and it apparently could only get AM broadcasts. In Academy City, not even the old men who loved horse racing used these. It had probably been sold at a deep discount at an electronics store, but it still couldn’t have been easy for an unhoused man to get.

She honestly appreciated it.

…Especially when she was being pursued by the police, Academy City, and the Mugino Family.

“Lend me one ear.”

Inside the cardboard box house, the man shared the wired earphones with her and she listened to the staticky radio broadcast. And as she pressed the button to change the frequency…

“It’s finally time! The next three hours will be hosted by a celebrity couple who’ve been together for 8 years now.”

“We have new information on the explosion in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The police have announced that it may have been an attack rather than an accident.”

“If you call within half an hour of this broadcast, we’ll give you an even better price!”

One of the stations had some interesting information (not the sales program selling a down bedding set), but the man was listening as well. Frenda feigned disinterest and continued tuning and finally settled on a music program.

The man looked a little surprised.

“I would have thought you preferred Western music.”

“Isn’t that a little broad of a category to count as a single genre?”

Couldn’t he at least narrow it down to a single country?

They listened to some music by the male idol Hitotsui Hajime for a while, but then someone called the man over. Apparently a friend.

Frenda heard a heavy noise like a concrete block being dragged. Was that a small shichirin grill they had set up on the tile ground? That said, they didn’t seem to be using the fancy bincho-tan charcoal. They apparently used burnable trash for fuel.

Frenda spoke to the second man. While wondering if she would ever be forced to give a name for herself.

“In the end, is that fish?”

“This season, everyone thinks about the salmon and tuna, but that means you can get the smaller fish really cheap. Expiration dates are the bane of a fish seller’s existence.”

“Ugh. Once you start naming fish, the craving for mackerel really sets in…”

“?”

That said, she doubted they had dug raw fish out of the garbage. It would go bad too quick on a summer day like this. These men had no money or insurance, so they actually paid close attention to their health. So had they gone out of their way to buy some to commemorate the beginning of Frenda’s unhoused life? Even though every bit of loose change they had would mean so much more than for the average worker?

“I heard you saved Taku-san’s ass. If you weren’t a kid, I’d’ve brought drinks.”

“In the end, I’m going to end up indebted to you like this.”

“Of course! Taku-san isn’t about to stay indebted to some kid. You’re supposed to let the adults look responsible, okay?”

Frenda smiled and chose to accept their kindness.

She appreciated it. Even if it did make them more conspicuous.