Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Virtual On Chapter2 (section)

===Part 10===

After scanning the swans, bugs, other things in the park, Kamijou and Index walked to the train station where they scanned the train and an extremely expensive-looking off-road bicycle. On the way, they had figured out a few methods of walking smoothly through the crowds.

Evening arrived in the meantime, so they decided to call it quits for the day.

The long weekend was not over yet. The players would advance to the finals tomorrow, so the excitement would be even greater than today.

Kamijou did not know where the Blue Stalker would appear during that.

“Touma, should I do that Defection thing too? It looks like it would let me zoom around real fast.”

“No, it would be safer to keep our options open. I want us to have someone who has Defected and someone who hasn’t. If it turns out you need a normal portable device to cancel the Defection, we would have trapped ourselves.”

“I see…” muttered Index, but he was keeping a secret from her.

Defection was much more dangerous than he had thought.

(According to Furashina…Misaka has Defected too. That worries me.)

He was both worried for her and worried about how she was using her Defected device. When he had seen her in the park, she had seemed cut off from daily life due to her cheerleader outfit. That was fine if she was only cheering on a friend, but things could take a turn for the worse in several ways if she was directly taking part in the tournament.

Plus, there was the ominous comment from Furashina Ririn, who may have been the model for Lilina and who might have a connection to Virtual-On’s mysterious developer.

What was it she had said when she saw Misaka Mikoto?

If possible, he did not want anyone else to get involved in the Defection. Of course, the rumors might only be rumors and it might all be perfectly safe, but he had a feeling that was unlikely to be the case.

If that was all this was, Tsuchimikado Motoharu would not have approached him with his “hidden face”.

And Tsuchimikado had said something else of note.

…''Nee-chin and that group should be taking action soon, nyah.

Nee-chin. Kanzaki Kaori. She was one of the world’s fewer than 20 Saints and an anti-magical combat expert who belonged to the Anglican Church’s 0th Parish Necessarius.

Her skill and strength were of course an issue, but there was a more fundamental problem there.

(This is spreading beyond Academy City and the science side…)

Kamijou silently gulped.

(Is this big enough that the magic side has to take action? In that case, Tsuchimikado might have been warning me as a magician. Virtual-On, a Next Generation Game, Defection, Reverse Convert… What is going on around me?)

“Touma, what is it?”

“Hm?”

Index peered up at him from below, so he smiled a little.

“We can’t eat out for two meals in a row, right? I can’t choose between tonkatsu and Salisbury steak for dinner. Since everyone’s cutting loose and enjoying the tournament, the more reliable supermarket sales might be wide open. This is our chance, Index.”

“T-Touma! I’ve heard of a wonderful term known as a mixed grill!!”

“Please give some thought to how hard something is to make!”

“But two meats might not be enough for a real mixed grill… Ah! We just have to add on crab cream croquettes for the perfect trinity!!”

“We don’t have to go with a mix. Just choose one of them!”

“Then what will it be!? What will our main dish be tonight!?”

“We could compromise and go with white flesh fish…”

“That’s worse! Way worse!! That’s not a compromise at all, Touma!!”

“Fried fish is great!! Apologize to the pollock of the seven seas!!”

Kamijou and Index bickered all the way back to the dorm.

But Kamijou realized something once they were back in their room…or rather, once he opened the fridge.

“Oh, no. We only have half a head of cabbage and a bottle of soy sauce.”

“T-Touma, you don’t need to keep soy sauce in the fridge.”

“Gwah, It’s a pain, but I guess I have to head out. I’ll stop by the supermarket, so you wait here.”

“I’ll go too! The supermarket has tasty-…”

“It’s about time you faced the facts, Index: you’ve been blacklisted from the tasty samples corner! It’s hard to get information on sales when you’re with me, so wait here until I’m back with the pollock.”

“Wahh!! Didn’t this start with tonkatsu and Salisbury steak as the options!?”

Index threw a tantrum on the floor, but Kamijou left her and the cat there and stepped back out the door.

(Now, then.)

He could set up a nice surprise for Index by coming back with tonkatsu meat after so much talk of fried fish. Kamijou Touma’s house-husband technique knew no bounds!!

And there was something else he had to focus on now.

“Lilina.”

“Yes, yeees. Should I provide information on nearby crowds and a list of sales?”

“Do that and include whether or not I can use those coupons. By the way, how is that Preset A that I put together today? Can I use it?”

“Yes, but it puts a little too much emphasis on speed. Basically, you have to make up for its thin armor by dodging, so it’s really more suited for experts. Given your average victory rate, I think it’ll negatively affect your growth.”

“Lilina, do you still have the data on the Blue Stalker battle?”

“Yes, of course. The results are automatically stored unless the data space is close to filling up. Knowing my user’s habits helps me perform my functions as a support AI.”

“Then I have a question: with all the unfair methods that thing used, do you really think a unit suited for beginners can beat them?”

“Well, no, not a chance. I suppose you should put together a preset meant for fighting the Blue Stalker and nothing else.”

He took the elevator to the ground floor and walked through the orange-dyed streets.

“Since you left your partner back there, I assume you’re planning to do more than just shop.”

“I want to see how Preset A is doing. If I can use it, that’s great. If I can’t, I can figure out how I need to alter it from here. But if I say that in front of Index, she’s sure to insist I experiment on her.”

“Yeah, and you ended up Defecting due to your battle with the Blue Stalker.”

“Lilina, can you search for those…um, the ones controlled by the CPU.”

“NPCs?”

“Yes, that. Can you search for NPC Virtuaroids? I don’t have to worry if they’re programs.”

“Yes, sir. Leave it to me.”

The small screen displayed a map of the nearby area and it was quickly filled with red dots. Each one was given a number and a different window provided a list of the unit used and the NPC’s name.

“Will I receive a penalty from repeated rough plays in an NPC battle too? And as that debt grows, I’ll enter a state similar to sensory deprivation until my personality collapses, I suffer organ failure from damage to my autonomic nerves, and possibly even disappear altogether. It’s hard to believe this could cause human beings to disappear entirely if the conditions are right, but maybe it’s just that I don’t want to believe it. I wish I knew the truth.”

“Then how about you start with the weakest NPC you can find?”

“If possible, I want one that uses Cypher.”

“Okay. Adjusting matching conditions. Searching for open users based on unit name. Hm, hm, hm…(searching)…done. How about this one, Touma-sama?”

One of the many red dots turned green.

An NPC named Strings was using Cypher.

Its win rate was below 20%. Matches against other players were the main draw of Virtual-On, so the program-controlled NPC Virtuaroids mostly only existed as practice opponents. Some of them seemed to be set up for beginners.

“There is also a Fei-Yen NPC nearby. It is named Warp Shooter. If you try to draw in the Cypher, you might also draw it in.”

“Both of their win rates are pretty low.”

“Well, NPCs are only meant to help rookies get used to the battles.”

“Okay, let’s go with them, Lilina. Our main focus is the Cypher, but we’ll keep going even if the Fei-Yen joins in.”

“Roger that. You can let me set up the match.”