Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter3 (section)

===Part 4===

The tracing investigation had begun.

Out on the main street, Mikoto and Shirai surreptitiously glanced over at the narrow, dimly-lit zone around the corner of a building.

“Why are we waiting here as backup?” complained Academy City’s #3 Level 5.

“I-it’s your own fault,” said Uiharu over the radio. “The underground message boards I follow are on the lookout for you and Shirai-san after you made such a scene destroying those other sellers. I mean, Shirai-san has such a hero complex she walked into the back alleys with her armband still on!”

“A sting operation!?” said Saten, also over the radio. “W-wow, why didn’t you tell me you were doing something so cool, Uiharu! You don’t have the disposition for undercover work, so let this rumor-loving, sexy, and risqué adult take over! Then we’re sure to save the world and the human ra-”

“You stay where you are, you hopeless troublemaker!” shouted the other three in perfect unison.

They must have all imagined the unpleasant future that was liable to lead to. They had needed someone there in order to cover all the exits, but they were worried sick having that girl acting alone after the grief she caused them during the Level Upper and Liberal Arts City incidents.

The adults of Anti-Skill were not just ignoring this problem. They were pursuing the criminal in their own way. It was more accurate to say Mikoto’s group was working on the case without permission.

The hope was they wouldn’t need to send in a Level 4 or a Level 5. That would be as overkill as firing a warship’s guns on the criminal hideout while the criminals were simply worried about a police raid.

Shirai sighed in frustration.

“So what’s this about message boards?”

“The criminal underworld prefers well-established services with simple functionality. Those are a lot safer than a social media group that uses a constantly evolving AI to detect dangerous posts.”

These things could get extremely complicated, but it sounded like the definitions of “safe” and “dangerous” were entirely reversed for ordinary people and criminals.

But whatever the reason, Mikoto and Shirai were currently watching Uiharu Kazari wandering in a dimly-lit part of District 15, Academy City’s largest shopping district. The timid girl looked out of her element in the back alley, but delinquents weren’t the only suckers who fell for criminal scams. Entertainers and athletes were arrested on drug charges all the time, so it obviously wasn’t just the outcasts who broke the law.

“Uiharu, why do they do this face to face instead of online?” asked Saten.

“Because online interactions will leave some kind of record. On the other hand, the buyer will be afraid to meet the mysterious seller in person. Phone cameras are so ubiquitous these days that you never know when someone might snap a photo of you.”

Something flew by over Uiharu’s head.

It was a multicopter drone, which were common enough now that they could easily be bought online.

“So the safest method is to put ExitApp on a thumb drive and piggyback that on the ordinary delivery network. The information I’ve gathered on the dark web says drone deliveries for online shops are constantly flying through District 15. That creates an invisible traffic network. From what I can tell, the seller wears large goggles to hide their face, intercepts the signal providing real-time tracking information for a package, covers the small thumb drive with rubber adhesive, and slingshots it up so it attaches to the bottom of the package.”

“These criminals are clever,” said Mikoto, looking exasperated.

“If only they could put this resourcefulness to better use,” said Shirai, looking the same.

With so many delivery drones flying around, Mikoto could borrow their cameras to keep an eye on things and Shirai could teleport in the instant Uiharu was in danger. The Level 5 and Level 4 were two of the highest ranked students at Tokiwadai Middle School. They never would have placed Uiharu at the vanguard without that kind of backup.

“Anyway, I know the seller with the ExitApp and a slingshot is going to appear here,” said Uiharu. “We can pursue them from here. And by tracing the path back from there, we should eventually – ksh – reach the person who actually created ExitApp – ksh.”

“Hm? Hold on, Uiharu-san. There’s some noise in the signal.”

“I-I’ve found – ksh – them! It has to be – ksh – that person. Wait – kssshhh – Misaka-san, can you – ksh – me? Um – ksshh – see – ksssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

“Damn. Kuroko!!”

Mikoto quickly slapped her partner’s shoulder, but the girl wobbled weakly. Mikoto looked over in shock to find Shirai wasn’t even looking her way. Her eyes were opened as wide as they would go while she stared into the dark alley. She was frozen in place.

“Sh-she…disappeared.”

“…”

“Uiharu suddenly vanished!! Wait just a second! I can’t teleport after her if I don’t know where she went!”