Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume4 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 5===

They were hesitant at first.

They had discovered something, so now they needed to leave the watch shop and travel outside.

Kamijou silently took a look out through the door, finding it was still dark. The city’s power was still on, so he could see all the lights looking so much like stars in the night sky. Which was more frightening – complete darkness or partial darkness? The distant lights would cover up any suspicious figures creeping up on them, but Kamijou’s group could not carelessly step out into the streetlights.

“A-are you sure this is a good idea?”

“You discovered it, remember?”

Kanzaki had said the sand magic sniper was gone, so she was more relaxed than the others. Othinus haughtily crossed her arms on Kamijou’s shoulder.

“Make sure to walk along the wall. You’re harder to find there than in the middle of the road.”

“D-doesn’t that depend on their angle?”

“There is no perfect protection against a surprise attack, so the idea is to always have a few doors or windows in mind you can escape into at a moment’s notice. And hold onto anything you have that can act as a smokescreen. That will prevent an attack from a distance. A camera flash or a car’s headlights can work there.”

“A car…?”

“Remember we’re on the lookout for a sniper,” said Stiyl. “Electric cars aren’t as silent as people think and a gasoline or diesel vehicle would be so loud you might as well be announcing your presence.”

When Stiyl took the first step outside, Kamijou remembered that flame magician could create smoke and mirages. There were still a lot of unknowns, like if he was faster than the sand magic or if the sand magician even relied on sight, but at least they would not be suicidally defenseless.

Assuming Kamijou did not accidentally destroy the protective magic with Imagine Breaker, of course.

“Please spare me that misfortune. Are you absolutely sure this is a good idea?”

Having to rely on Stiyl for survival was worrying in and of itself, but he had no other ideas.

They hesitantly walked through LA in search of the discovery he had made.

Once he took a look around the deserted city once more, he noticed a lot of disturbing things.

A military helicopter was crashed into the center of a skyscraper. Tanks and armored trucks had plunged into a frozen river running through a concrete waterway situated lower than the road level. None of it looked like ordinary accidents, so some kind of unrecorded battle must have been fought with R&C Occultics.

“Maybe it was for the sand,” said Kamijou while walking through the frigid city.

“What do you mean, Touma?” asked Index.

“The weatherstripping. What if it was ''to keep the sand out'', not for poison gas or whatever?”

“But why?”

He had no answer for Index’s innocent question.

But the sand was the only real threat he had seen so far. And it was some kind of magic not even Index could fully explain. It was unclear if every single LA citizen would have reached the right answer and acted accordingly after seeing that strange phenomenon. They may have simply decided the sand was dangerous and fled indoors to avoid it.

Stiyl butted in there.

His head was raised and his eyes focused on the distant buildings in order to locate the sand magic sniper, but even Kamijou could tell it was more to distract him from his nerves than because he actually expected to find the magician.

“Assumptions are dangerous. ''The enemy may have more than just sand magic.'' R&C Occultics is an enormous organization and they might have assigned more than one magician to guarding their HQ building.”

That was true. There had to be more to this they had not yet seen.

The duct tape weatherstripping had failed. At the very least, the people of LA must have read something wrong since they had all disappeared.

“More than that, it’s 20 below out here and it’s a few kilometers from the airport to downtown. Move around too much and we’ll wear ourselves out to dangerous levels. Are you sure this is worth checking out?”

“Stiyl, we would freeze to death just the same sitting around without any clues,” said Kanzaki. “Finding somewhere new to check is a good sign.”

“Fine, this way,” gestured Stiyl.

Kamijou frowned.

“The subway stairs?”

“I can’t think of a better defense against a sniper on the rooftops,” bluntly stated Stiyl. “And besides the temperature, we know something in this city caused 30 million people to disappear. Nothing about this makes sense. The things we can see aren’t what we need to fear most. Moving in secret would be best. If we have to walk for a while, isn’t it safer to do so underground?”

They descended the stairs and found no one in the station.

“It’s…surprisingly warm in here.”

Kamijou looked around curiously. He had always thought things were colder underground, but the biting cold vanished once they were inside the station. Kanzaki laughed.

“It’s the same as well water. Air and water will retain some heat without anything external affecting it. Whether you find it to be warm or cool depends on the environment you have been in.”

“Really?”

“Also, make sure to focus on your ears. I think even a magic novice like you can detect this one. It is faint, but can’t you hear it?”

“?”

“The station’s central heating is running.”

“Goddammit! That’s not mystical at all!!”

Kamijou greatly regretted feeling moved by what she said. Othinus breathed an exasperated sigh from his shoulder and Stiyl clicked his tongue in irritation.

Just then, a loud electronic buzzer sounded.

“Hyah!? Wh-what!?”

Index jumped like a surprised cat. The ticket gate still had power, so it tried to block their way forward. They had already done this at the airport, but it was no less shocking this time. Index looked extremely nervous, so Kamijou soothingly rubbed her back before they all jumped the ticket gate together. It saddened him how much easier it came this second time.

They did not wait for a train at the platform.

When they pried open the platform door and climbed down onto the tracks, Kamijou felt a squeezing at stomach.

The tunnel had power, so the fluorescent lights on the wall were on. But that was not enough to sweep away the darkness. The further they moved from the platform, the less they felt of the station’s central heating. A deadly chill once more creeped out from the thick concrete.

Graceful Kanzaki moved up alongside Kamijou and provided a warning.

“The subway might be deserted, but it still has power. Be careful.”

“You can’t trick me again. I know the trains can’t run with no one here.”

“Watch out, human!!!!!”

A blast of wind filled the tunnel.

He reflexively tried to push Index out of the way, but his body refused to move.

“Kenaz,” said a singsong voice.

Laminated rune cards spread out like confetti.

“Algiz and Teiwaz. Blameless assassin, remove yourself from our path.”

Thousands – no, tens of thousands – of cards covered the entire surface of the walls.

Then a swish of the tall priest’s arm eradicated every shadow in the tunnel. The yellow inspection car racing toward them hopped straight up, scraped against the ceiling, and soared over their heads.

Stiyl did not even bother listening to all the crashing of bending metal behind them. He extinguished his flame sword and then lit a new cigarette using one of the embers remaining at his fingertip.

Kamijou could not keep up with it all.

“Th-thanks?”

He was answered with utter contempt.

“I was not saving you.”

It pained him so much that he could not say anything when Stiyl clicked his tongue and kept moving down the tunnel.

Othinus provided a somewhat exasperated explanation from his shoulder.

“When control from the engineer’s seat and central control are both interrupted, the trains switch to an automated emergency mode. The ordinary trains leave the main tracks to wait at the switchyard or wherever else and a battery-powered inspection car is sent out for emergency maintenance and inspection of the tracks, the power lines, and the communication lines. And they will keep doing so until the source of the problem is discovered. If the machine can’t find the answer, it will keep looping forever.”

“…”

“What’s this, human? Did you freeze up because you aren’t sure whether or not to cry? You’re surprisingly weak-hearted.”

The enclosed space, the tension, and the low temperature messed with his sense of how far they had walked, but it had to have been more than for a picnic in the park.

Stiyl sighed.

“End of the line.”

“Already?” asked Kamijou.

The tall priest held his cigarette between his fingers and pointed straight ahead with it. The movement sent some air into it, so the orange light grew brighter, faintly illuminating their surroundings.

Dead ahead, the entire tunnel was blocked up by a plug of cracked sand. It almost looked like a thick wall of salt. Had it poured in from the station’s stairs or the platform?

“There should be an emergency exit. Search the walls.”

Kanzaki was right. A metal door led to some stairs that spiraled up to the surface. Once outside, the piercing chill felt like it had leveled up twice.

They were on the surface again.

Fear of that sand magic clutched at Kamijou’s heart once more.

Now was not the time to view the frigid city night that resembled the stars in the winter sky. He mentally went over the checklist from before: have several possible escape routes in mind and have a smokescreen ready, even if it was just a nearby fire extinguisher. Then he pulled on Index’s hand to walk alongside a nearby building wall.

“Where are we?”

“It’s a major road in between a college and a museum, so this must be Exposition Boulevard,” said Othinus. “That means we didn’t make it to Union Station… Still, we’re almost to downtown, so we just have to continue north.”

Kamijou looked in the opposite direction.

“A college and a museum, you say?”

“Those are large public institutions, yes, but given how empty the airport was, there is no chance we would find survivors gathered in either one of them. Seeing the space shuttle in the museum will have to wait until later. Focus on that smartwatch for now. You were the one that suspected it hinted at a downtown address.”

Different parts of Los Angeles apparently looked very different from each other. Compared to the area around the airport, this area had a lot of smaller buildings crammed in closer together. Unfortunately, they were all shops with a strangely fancy aura, so a grounded high school boy like Kamijou was reluctant to approach them. He got the feeling they would sell things like a slim and fashionable space suit designed for an idol to wear on stage. Covered with embroidered patches, of course.

“I did not expect to get this close before determining the risk,” said Stiyl.

“?”

“That’s R&C Occultics HQ.”

Kamijou gasped when Stiyl used his cigarette to point at a group of buildings towering up in the distance. One was taller than the rest. Its lights were still on, just like the others, but were there actually still people in that one? Or had all its ordinary employees been vanished along with everyone else?

“Do you think Anna is in there?”

“Beats me. We can see the building, but we can’t approach it yet. Until we know exactly what caused and triggered the disappearances, we need to assume its surrounded by an invisible minefield.”

2-1-5.

Did that address really exist here? Kamijou thought he might faint if it turned out to be the HQ building’s address.

He was nervous and skeptical of his own conclusion. He wanted to avoid doing anything conspicuous while this close to the HQ building. When they finally found the address indicated by the watch, they doubted the building held any grand secrets or was strictly guarded. Of all things, it was a restaurant that looked like it served junk food. But it appeared to be a privately run establishment, not a chain.

It was something of a letdown after arriving so close to the HQ, so Kamijou tilted his head.

“Is this a family restaurant?”

“They generally call them diners here,” smoothly replied Kanzaki with a small smile. “All the primary colors might make it look silly to our Japanese eyes, but the fading of the paint suggests it has been in business for a very long time. Downtown is prime real estate in LA. To survive so long in the harsh competition here, it must be well-established and beloved.”

It must have stayed open late into the night because the door was unlocked. Inside the restaurant called Cheap Party, they found the bright lights, gentle music, and heater were all still on. That actually made the place more disturbing.

But once they stepped inside, the warmth felt like a gift from god.

After experiencing that blessed warmth, Kamijou started to wonder if the ''duct tape weather stripping had been to keep out the cold''.

But Othinus made a more concerning comment from the shoulder of his cheap jacket.

“Solid tape weatherstripping with a boiler for heat? Almost makes you think the entire population of LA was trying to ''kill themselves with carbon monoxide poisoning.''”

The heat made the place feel heavenly, but that comment made him imagine he was feeling dizzy. But if he opened a window to vent the place out, he would only be letting the hellish minus-20 weather back in.

The pointy-haired boy groaned when he saw the large example pictures of the food options lined up above the counter. All of this was privately run? That suggested Americans would buy thick burgers and greasy carbonara as casually as you might buy okowa or dango at a shopping district. That explained why the floor was weirdly sticky with sand and grease.

But more than any of that, Kamijou turned his attention to the kitchen at the back of the empty restaurant.

“All the switches are still on. Thank goodness there wasn’t a fire.”

They did not see any suspicious figures in masks and sunglasses or any ultimate beam weapons shining a bright silver, so they split up and started to search the back of the place. Kamijou nervously switched off the kitchen’s gas burners and hot plates. What he guessed had once been chicken breasts were lined up on the grill like gyoza, but they had been burned worse than the aftermath of even the most inexperienced newlywed wife’s first attempt at cooking. They were nothing but charcoal – no, they were more like a black and crumbling stain stuck to the grill. Perhaps it had been premature to say there hadn’t been a fire. Had there actually been pillars of fire rising nearly to the ceiling that had since burned themselves out? And the sprinkler system’s water pipes must have frozen solid because nothing looked wet.

“AI appliances and smart houses, my ass. That’s the last time I trust a magician about tech. This wasn’t safe at all.”

“With a city this big, some buildings might have caught fire and we just haven’t noticed,” said Othinus.

That actually made Kamijou glad the people had entirely disappeared. At least they wouldn’t be caught in the flames and smoke. Assuming, of course, that the disappearance itself didn’t kill them.

Kamijou realized that the lack of bodies and blood stains was making it hard to believe they were dead.

But since the grill had been left on, someone must have been here originally. Then where had they gone? Who had done it? Why? And how?

Walking along the sandy floor and breathing in the warm air told him nothing. He was truly confused now, but while he searched around, he heard an unexpected noise.

It came from one of the metal lockers in the locker room at the back of the restaurant.

“…”

He stopped in front of the door.

The thin door did not look locked, so he reached out and hesitantly opened it.

“There really is something.”

[[Image:GT_Index_v04_105.jpg|thumb]]

Until this very moment, he had not been too confident that the holes on the watch band actually meant anything, so he sounded somewhat dazed by the discovery.

“There really was a secret.”

He found a girl of about 10 curled up with tears in her eyes.

She had silver hair and brown skin. The secret indicated by the watch turned out to be the sole survivor of the disappearances.