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

===Part 1===

Misaka Mikoto sat on a bench on an Academy City District 7 building rooftop. She pulled the goggles up from her eyes and began sensing the cheers around her directly.

“Yes! We cleared the preliminaries, so we’re the District 7 representatives now!!”

“Th-that’s amazing. I never thought we would get to stand on that stage…”

Saten Ruiko and Uiharu Kazari were trembling in excitement nearby. They went to the same school, but they were not wearing their sailor uniforms today.

They wore cheerleader-style outfits colored a bright purple.

Needless to say, it was the same coloring seen on Mikoto’s Raiden and Shirai Kuroko’s Fei-Yen.

Which meant…

“Uuh… I just remembered.”

“What’s that bashful fidgeting for!? We’re the representatives! The district’s honor rests on our shoulders!! Hold your head high!!”

Mikoto had been engrossed in her Virtual-On battle a moment before, but she too was wearing a miniskirt. She had felt like she was inside a sealed, cocoon-like cockpit, but how had it looked to the people around her?

“P-pant, pant! Onee-sama’s bare legs are completely defenseless… But I can sense Onee-sama’s unique form of romance in how she keeps them tightly closed even in the middle of battle.”

“I had a feeling this would happen!!”

Mikoto moved her leg to stomp on the face of Shirai Kuroko, the twintail girl crawling on the floor right in front of her.

Saten was still excited and she made a suggestion from next to Mikoto.

[[Image:Index_VO_117.jpg|thumb]]

“Okay, okay! Let’s go have a victory party for clearing the preliminaries! We need to do something to celebrate the occasion! The usual family restaurant works, right!?”

“…Let me go change first.”

“You can’t. This uniform is District 7’s trademark now!”

Mikoto sighed.

Shokuhou Misaki, Tokiwadai Middle School’s other Level 5, came to mind. Now, which would do more psychological damage: wearing a dress and giving a speech on stage as a representative of their year, or walking around town in a cheerleader costume on the weekends?

As Mikoto stood up (while grabbing Shirai’s collar for trying to get an even better low-angle look from the floor), her portable device emitted a quiet beep.

In fact, all of their devices did.

Instead of an email or voice call, it was a request for a chat service that allowed a real-time exchange of short messages.

“Furashina: I saw your match. Congratulations on qualifying for the main tournament.”

“Oh! How about we invite Ririn-chan? She’s the one that introduced us to Virtual-On in the first place.”

Saten smiled and made that suggestion, but the response was an apologetic one.

“Furashina: I would love to join you, but I would have a hard time figuring out where anyone is in this crowd.”

“Yeah.”

“I suppose that is true.”

Anywhere near where the Virtuaroids were fighting would get incredibly crowded. It was enough to render the city nearly unrecognizable even to residents like Mikoto and the others. Even if they searched each other out while continuing the chat, there was no guarantee they would find each other. After all, they could easily miss each other even if they were waiting inside the same train station.

“Furashina: I have a terrible sense of direction and I’m no good with crowds, so I’ll enjoy the celebration from here.”

“Eh? Even with your portable device’s navigation?”

“Furashina: The 3D makes me nauseous. I can handle this text chat, but I prefer to avoid using any of the more graphical services for long.”

“If you say so.”

Mikoto did not ask any more questions.

They had tried to meet up a few times before, but they always just missed each other due to crowds near the meet-up spot. Mikoto and the others still needed to return the handkerchief she had dropped.

For that reason, they had only spoken with her online, but she did not seem to know all that much about the latest gadgets. They had first met her when they reached out a helping hand after seeing her having trouble with some light flaming on an SNS.

Overall, she was the small animal type.

She did appear to be attempting a variety of things, but some people needed more distance than others. It was possible this was the most comfortable distance for her.

(She seems a lot more like a proper underclassman than Kuroko.)

It had been a truly lucky find that she had introduced Virtual-On to them.

It was possible even she was surprised.

“Let’s get going, Onee-sama. That fight was quite mentally taxing, so it’s important we eat something sweet and relax.”

“No, no. We’ve got to come together as a team for tomorrow! We need to come up with all sorts of formations!!”

“Ahh… You mean we’re going to ignore the food and dive straight into strategizing mode?”

The 4 girls chatted as they left the rooftop.

They all held portable devices.

They spoke about Virtual-On as something perfectly normal.