Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume7 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===

She was running late.

That was Misaka Mikoto’s first impression.

The real problem was ending up in the hospital right at the end of the year. She had only been there for a few days to make sure nothing was wrong, but she hadn’t managed to rework her schedule during all the confusion and the new year had caught up to her before she was ready. All hope was lost. She had accomplished nothing and now the winter of her 14th year had ended without any real drama. Your second year of middle school only came once (not that she wanted a second chance from getting held back a year) and she had wasted it! How could she lie there in bed staring at her phone’s tiny screen!? All that noise outside was the fireworks for the countdown to midnight! Listen to them shout happy new year. That was how it was supposed to be. Wasn’t that kind of wild partying with no thought to the consequences what being a teenager was all about!?

The 14-year-old was seriously reconsidering her life.

So once midnight of January 1 arrived, Misaka Mikoto entered battle mode.

She of course broke several dorm rules by jumping right out the window.

“Pant, pant. O-Onee-sama, isn’t it about time we take a break?”

“It’s only been about 8 hours since midnight. New Year’s is all about endurance. Watching the sunrise, drinking amazake, paying hanetsuki, doing calligraphy, getting New Year’s money, eating the traditional food, pounding mochi, and visiting a shrine! I’m cramming as much of it into this one day as I can!!”

The twintails underclassman could teleport, but Mikoto was magnetically leaping from building to building with such speed even Shirai Kuroko was out of breath. In her brightly colored furisode, she looked like a neon shooting star.

And…

“Someone has far too much energy for first thing in the morning on New Year’s. Does Academy City’s Miss Thunder keep rumbling all year long?”

Mikoto’s eyebrows twitched when she heard a familiar voice.

The bottoms of her zori were drawn toward a balcony railing sticking out from the 10th floor of a skyscraper towering over 50 floors tall.

“And what are you doing here in that gaudy kimono? Let’s see, this floor is the Shinto shrine, isn’t it?”

The balcony contained a small café space. A bench covered in scarlet felt and a large tea ceremony umbrella were set up within a beautiful gravel garden (probably maintained by a cleaning robot with a special attachment resembling a giant comb). Shokuhou used both hands to hold a teacup with whitish contents – probably amazake. It must have met the queen’s strict standards for food and drink.

The balconies for the higher floors must have been on different sides of the building, so the view above was clear.

The girl who had gone to the trouble of visiting such a chilly location on New Year’s morning had it in her to wink for some reason.

“Your schedule might be wide open, Misaka-san, but those of us with lots of friends have plenty of events to attend during the holidays. Such as praying for my clique members to pass their entrance exams.”

“Really? You’re sure it isn’t that your plans to head home during the holiday weren’t ruined by spending time in the hospital with me?”

“Gh. My planning ability is not as poor as yours, so I did not wait until the last second to make my plans. I chose to remain in Academy City because my clique wanted me to.”

“(She’s like those apartment women who force their hobbies onto others without realizing no one else is enjoying it.)”

“You said that out loud on purpose, didn’t you?”

The Level 5s showed their support of the SDGs by producing sparks without any fuel even if it meant breaking the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Meanwhile, the twintails underclassman and the ringlets upperclassman exchanged a polite New Year’s greeting. Come to think of it, the ringlets girl was in the third year, so she had entrance exams to worry about. Tokiwadai was said to spend three years creating people who could make it in the real world.

Mikoto heard a metallic noise and looked over.

Her eyes immediately widened.

The girl there had short brown hair, pale skin, a thick coat that stood out among all the colorful furisode, an assault rifle with grenade launcher attachment worn over the shoulder, and a face identical to Mikoto’s. And she wasn’t alone. Three or four of them were in the shrine area at the same time.

Those were the mass-produced military clones created from a DNA map of Academy City’s #3.

They were known as the Sisters.

“Wh-what are you doing here out in the open!?”

The identical girls tilted their heads in the exact same way with no change of expression. They were so perfectly synchronized they looked like heads of wheat blowing in the wind.

“Misaka is providing security for the New Year’s shrine visitors, succinctly replies Misaka #10998.”

“This Misaka is on janitorial duty. What are you doing here, Original? asks Misaka #14979 with a tilt of her head.”

“Misaka is blowing off her duties in the District 2 museum to visit the shrine, reports Misaka #19090 with a cute upturned look.”

“Hm. Misaka was doing some people watching, but now she notices a lovely aroma coming from the free amazake area over there, says Misaka #10777, showing off her observational skills.”

“This is Misaka’s chance to participate in some economic activity, says Misaka #15850 while detecting a chance to cause some trouble. Like this!”

The Sisters were already getting off track all on their own.

Meanwhile, Shirai Kuroko was trembling.

“What!? S-so many Onee-samas. Am I already having my first dream of the year?”

The passersby all reacted in their own ways. Some curiously aimed their phone cameras at the clones that had been recently revealed to exist. Others walked right past the identical girls to line up for the offering box. They reacted about how they might for an unusual new design for a security robot.

“But they just aren’t the same as the real one. They lack that intangible divinity! They don’t have the aura of a goddess!!”

Shirai Kuroko still came to cling to Mikoto, so Mikoto intercepted her with a fist and pondered what was happening.

People were accepting those girls.

They were allowed to just be another part of the scenery – a harmless piece of the city.

Just like any of the students or teachers walking through here.

“…”

Misaka Mikoto narrowed her eyes as she watched it.

Maybe this was nothing more than an ordinary New Year’s scene.

But who could have imagined this could ever happen?

Shokuhou Misaki whispered in Mikoto’s ear with her cup of amazake held between her hands.

''Mikoto didn’t know the actual story behind it,'' but she had heard enough to guess this girl had established her own bond with the Sisters.

“Aren’t you glad you got to see this in your lifetime, Misaka-san?”

“It irks me I didn’t make it happen myself, but that’s a me problem and doesn’t mean anything to them.”

“It won’t all go this well. The people are still mostly just unsure what to make of this new revelation ability. The loving and righteous bashing will come once they’ve had time to process this☆”

“I’m well aware, social media queen. I don’t intend to sit back and let someone else handle it all.”

Twenty thousand Sisters had been made, but not even half of that remained.

She doubted she would ever forgive the person who had caused that, but she felt like she could accept that his remorse and his efforts toward atonement were genuine.

And…

“Hey, Misaka. Are you here for the shrine visit too?”

“I’m hungry, I’m hungry! Ohhhh!! There’s shiruko, zoni, and a mochi pounding festival!!”

She heard some familiar voices.

She looked over to see the pointy-haired boy and his strange companions approaching through the crowd. She could guess the usual nun had insisted they go to the balcony where they were giving out various New Year’s foods. First thing in the new year, that wasn’t enough to rattle her or Shokuhou.

However…

“(Who is that exhibitionist wearing a modified bikini in the middle of winter!? And why are those two holding hands when I’ve never even seen her before!!??)”

For once, Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki were in perfect sync. They had to be careful because, with Kamijou Touma, falling behind by even a day could make it just as hard to catch up as with a weekly battle manga.

Was she a fortuneteller? A dancer maybe? Given District 12’s scientific focus on mythology and religion, just about anything seemed possible. Strangely, the woman kept giving him murderous looks (but never tried to let go of his hand).

And then…

“Um…''have we met''?”

When the pointy-haired boy’s gaze wandered next to Mikoto, he hesitantly bowed his head, unsure what to do.

Shokuhou Misaki only smiled.

“Hm? What’s going on here?”

Misaka Mikoto was confused.

She couldn’t figure out why he was acting like he didn’t know Shokuhou.

The electric furisode middle schooler tilted her head until a look of realization appeared on her face.

“Oh, you’re implying you didn’t recognize her because the furisode and special hairstyle made her look more adult, aren’t you? Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m wearing a kimono too!!”

“Wait, why are you going nuts all of a sudden, electric girl? Can’t you at least give me a break from this nonsense on New Year’s!?”

“Hadn’t you heard that kimonos look bad on people with big boobs!?”

“That line of reasoning is only going to hurt you in the long- gyahhhh!?”

The shrine here was not dedicated to a god of thunder, yet lightning struck him all the same. That was a good summary of how Mr. Misfortune’s year was going.