Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume3 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 4===

“That was a yes to a bag? Oh, paying by card? Then just hold it next to the register until you hear the beep. How many chopsticks and hand towels would you like?”

“Oh, I’ll take two.”

“Two? Coming right up.”

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Inside a perfectly ordinary convenience store, Shirai Kuroko stared at the middle-aged man’s stooping back in disbelief.

“They really should have thanked you. And that’s a stingy habit you have.”

“Y-you don’t understand, Shirai-san. An old man like me can’t ask for just one pair of chopsticks because that’s like admitting to being single and lonely. And it’s even worse on Christmas!”

“Also, this is your job, not school committee work, so are you charging that as a business expense?”

“Are you insane! I can’t get try to charge this!! Am I going to arrest a criminal with my bento!? Or defuse a complex time bomb with the chopsticks or a toothpick!?”

“Workaholic.”

“Umm, I am technically a teacher, so my work is a public service.”

He muttered to himself for a bit. Just like with an ascetic monk, the old traditions about someone’s profession could make it hard for them to notice how modern people viewed them.

“By the way, um, why do you say they should have thanked me?”

“Sigh. It seems like the appropriate reception for one of our regulars.”

“Eh? Shirai…White Spring…a-are you serious? The entire holding company!? You’re even richer than I thought!!”

The glasses man gave a start after checking the name on the bag, but the girl in the Tokiwadai uniform wondered why he was making such a big deal about it. The unusual was the usual at that school.

(There are a lot of mysteries about Onee-sama’s family too.)

“Ah, but I do love the convenience store at Christmas. Ha ha. Seeing the people at the register tells me I’m not the only one alone on this holy night. Ah ha ha. Eh heh heh.”

“(Uh, oh. I probably shouldn’t tell him we’re running tests toward automated convenience stores.)”

The twintails middle school girl returned to the logistics vehicle while her kindness toward the man left her feeling a little gloomy.

Even fire trucks and ambulances used convenience stores and gas stations. It might seem rare, but it was common enough to still blend into the city background.

All of the large vehicle’s windows were covered, so once the automatic rectangular door shut, she could no longer tell where in the city she was.

The vehicle slowly began to move.

She stuck her hand in her skirt pocket in order to see where they were going on her phone’s map.

But she was interrupted by a dull crash like something had fallen from heaven to earth.

Something had landed on the roof.

It must have been a significant impact because the special vehicle swerved in an S-shape and slammed on its breaks. Shirai was thrown from her feet, but someone held her in place. She looked over to see it was that skinny but greasy man. She grimaced and then shouted a question.

“What just happened!?”

The operators did not reply. No surprise there.

She clicked her tongue and vanished into thin air. After teleporting outside the stopped logistics vehicle, she found the flat roof dented in at the center and the red lights broken. She appeared just in time to see something roll off from there to the asphalt.

It was a person.

“Wait!”

She ran over in a hurry to find a brown-haired boy. She guessed he was high school aged. Given the situation, he must have fallen from a considerable height. She started to look up on reflex, but then she froze.

She had seen his right hand.

That arm was limply sprawled out at his side, but it held something that appeared to be plastic but was no toy.

It was a real handgun.

(Is he part of the dark side too?)

“Suspect detained. He is in violation of the Swords and Firearms Control Law. Someone look him up on Outrank!!”

She gulped and faced him again.

She also kicked the handgun aside.

“I will not let this one die! Someone call an ambul-”

Just as she shouted that, the boy gathered some strength from somewhere and grabbed at her while lying on the road still covered in some hard snow.

“Shh!!”

She elbowed him in the jaw on reflex.

The delinquent boy rolled along the ground and struggled even though he lacked the strength to get up.

(That was a clean hit. Wh-where did he get this abnormal endurance…or persistence, maybe? I hope he isn’t high on something or other.)

“Sh-Shirai-saaan.”

The middle-aged man hesitantly called out to her from the large vehicle’s door.

He was awkwardly moving his hands every which way on a tablet while walking over.

“I-is that how it works? Oh, no! The camera started up! Shirai-san, oh, it just found a match in Outrank. He is indeed part of the dark side. His name is Hamazura Shiage!! He’s flagged for extra caution needed!”

“Is that so?”

“A normal medical stretcher wouldn’t be enough to restrain him. We have a special one with belts to strap him down in the truck, so we can use that.”

“Whatever works!! Just hurry!!”