Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume1 Prologue (section)

===Between the Lines 1===

Academy City had a population of about 2.3 million, 80% of whom were students.

The giant city took up a third of the Tokyo metropolitan area and the rules differed in many ways inside and outside the walls surrounding it. For example, law enforcement was not handled by the police. Instead, the citywide work was handled by the teachers of Anti-Skill and the work in individual schools was handled by the students in Judgment.

That was why gym teacher Yomikawa Aiho was also an Anti-Skill officer with the authority to use handcuffs and a handgun. She normally wore a green track suit whenever she went out and, even when she was beating down criminal boys and girls with her transparent shield and with a smile on her face, she had sworn to herself she would never aim a gun at a child no matter how powerful an esper they were. However, she was breaking one of her rules today.

She was wearing a black suit instead of her track suit.

She hoped she would not have to break the other rule.

Hoped very much.

“This way.”

On the instructions of a cold-voiced guide, she walked down a winding corridor. It would be easy to get lost in here and it would be hard to push a dolly through it. The basic principle was the same as old samurai mansions, but the idea here was not to make wielding a sword or spear difficult. The idea was to obstruct the movements of indoor combat drones. Obstacles that reflected EM and IR signals were inconspicuously worked into the architecture and the floor had meaningless steps up and down. The benevolent principles of barrier free design must have been turned on their head to design obstacles that wheels and treads could not pass.

From a technical standpoint, that might sound simple enough, but real architecture did not work the same as the bizarre mansions found in mystery novels. The government would never allow someone to design a building that intentionally prevented wheelchairs and crutches from getting through. That meant something lurked here that needed enough protection that breaking the rules was considered worth it.

There were no security cameras.

That may have been to avoid the risk of them being hacked and made to leak information outside.

A guard separate from her guide stood in front of a large composite armor door. Did he spend all day here? There was a folding chair next to the door.

Yomikawa frowned.

“I don’t recognize you.”

“I imagine not. You lack the authority to have seen me before.”

“Then do you serve one of the 12 Directors?”

Kaizumi.

Oyafune.

Nakimoto.

Shiokishi.

Yakumi.

Those were a few of the legendary figures that even Yomikawa had only heard bits and pieces of info about. Academy City held all of the planet’s technology and those 12 adult monsters formed the group with the most power over the city. But she had no way of knowing if the stories she had heard were true. All of those stories were as absurd as the ones about men in black who were in contact with aliens and Yomikawa personally had a feeling the truth was ''even worse''. These were the most crucial VIPs from a security standpoint, so it was not always clear when one of them died or was replaced.

“No.”

But the man waiting at the door like a machine rejected that idea.

And…

“I work for the ''one and only'' Board Chairman and no one else.”

“…”

This was on yet another level.

Yomikawa fell silent and the man spoke in a flat voice.

It was more or less a command.

“You require a body search.”

“I had one done at the entrance.”

“Now.”

He was even less verbose than a bank ATM. His educational history, skills, health, background, and behavior would have been thoroughly investigated before he was given this job, but “never questions his orders” must have been one of the necessary qualifications they were looking for.

Yomikawa raised both hands in her black suit and the gatekeeper pulled out a rod-shaped object. It resembled the colorful guidance lights that construction workers held in their hands to guide cars, but this was different. This was a sensor that used terahertz radiation. Their use had rapidly spread now that plastic submachineguns and assault rifles could be easily made by anyone using 3D printers. They could see through people’s clothing to detect even nonmetallic objects.

Esper powers were not the only thing to fear in Academy City.

The adults who formed 20% of the population used next-gen tech to control the children who formed 80% of the population and had supernatural powers.

“I will hold onto your phone.”

“If you must.”

“Please remove your tie pin. And is that your skirt’s side zipper?”

“Do you need to confiscate my bra hook too?”

The man passed the sensor over her front side and back side before responding in a robotic voice.

“That will not be necessary.”

The large door opened, but there was nothing on the other side. Only another door. The two layers of door provided extra security, but they also prevented the guards from spying on what was truly “inside”.

Once Yomikawa stepped into that cramped space, the door closed behind her, its closure was confirmed, and the second door’s rods unlocked.

She found a small room within. That must have been enough for its occupant.

It only contained a clear table and two cheap chairs.

It was also a ''windowless'' room.

“It’s been too long,” said Yomikawa Aiho as if gently releasing her breath.

The person with pale white hair sat in one of the chairs with his legs lightly crossed up on the table. His red eyes glared back at the visitor.

“So what led you to ask for me in particular?”

He may have been more than a decade her junior and the barrier of adult and minor lay between them, but she was the one who needed to show respect here. She wordlessly displayed that with the suit.

When she spoke that boy’s new title, her voice carried a sense of awe.

And also some disappointment.

“New Academy City Board Chairman Accelerator-san?”

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