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

===Part 5===

Parks came in many forms.

They could be a grassy empty lot in the gap between buildings or they could be a vast forested region that provided a home for rare animals. The District 5 nature park that Kamijou and Index arrived at felt a lot like an outdoor event site.

Green surrounded a large manmade lake in the center. An indoor pool and a tennis court were located further out.

It had a jogging course and an outdoor concert stage instead of slides and swings for children, so it felt like it was meant for a slightly older demographic.

“C’mooon! The great Nakamura Mary is here, so get the viewers all fired up with an exciting battle!!”

“So this is what happens to a woman when she gets too full of herself…”

This too seemed to be a stage for the tournament. Not far away, an Apharmd and a Dordray were moving this way and that atop the neatly mowed grass and the manmade lake. Dordray had the exciting look of a giant construction machine, but Apharmd had the same “standard” image as Temjin. It was a little rounded and more humanlike and it used modern weaponry like machineguns and tonfas.

The open space was full of students and families enjoying the long weekend.

Kamijou sighed after taking refuge in a wooded area with a more obstructed view.

He could see the demarcated field with various displays dancing around, but he gave it a wide berth.

Observing the movements of those more experienced players could come in handy, but he was focused on the Material Analyze at the moment.

“There we go. There are plenty of small birds like doves and sparrows. And maybe I can ask someone walking their dog for permission to scan their pet. I might as well scan as many other animals as I can.”

“If you wish to use the Material Analyze feature, please remain within 1 meter of the target object for 10 seconds.”

“Pigeon, sparrow, bird skin, bird meatballs… Drool…”

“Surely you haven’t been adding flavor data to your Bal-Bados…”

No matter how annoyed Kamijou was, Index was still the more experienced Virtual-On player.

“So what exactly have you incorporated into your Bal-Bados?”

“Soda, of course. Mint, of course. Lime, of course. I made it just like the soda mint parfait that tragically doesn’t actually exist…”

“I was afraid of this! So anything ''other'' than food!?”

“Hm? Well, I gave it the balance of a balancing toy, the light weight of a paper airplane, and the toughness of a frying pan…but overall I guess I went for speed. Since tricky Bal-Bados’s original movements aren’t all that great.”

“Hmm. So there’s a lot you can do. With that much freedom, I feel like I’ll get lost if I don’t decide on a direction to start with.”

From there, he began his data hunting journey.

The pigeons showed zero – if not negative – caution around humans, so getting one of them was simple. They showed no sign of fleeing even with the bright lights and explosive noise of the clashing Virtuaroids. In fact, he had to be careful lest he accidentally kick one while walking around.

The sparrows proved more difficult. They were sensitive to light and noise and they refused to let him within a meter of them. 2 meters was the limit no matter how hard he tried. After some thought, he left the device on the grass and used string and wire to press the button from a distance.

He also scanned some other things he caught sight of like a grasshopper and a dragonfly. He would be incorporating their traits and structures into his Virtuaroid, so those small bugs could actually be quite useful. He had heard a lot trivia about the strength of spider webs and such.

After scanning a whole bunch of things, Lilina expressed some doubt from the screen.

“Touma-sama, what good is scanning that sign? That seems unnecessary for gathering Material Analyze data.”

“Don’t worry about it. These things can come in handy,” explained Kamijou as he walked away from the sign next to the manmade lake.

The sign was a notification concerning the water level adjustment drainage ditch.

Meanwhile, Index and the cat began to protest while following him around.

“Toumaaa, I’m hungry. It’s already lunchtime.”

“Oh? It’s that late already?”

He was worried about his finances, but he really did not want to head back to the dorm for lunch only to return to this park afterwards.

They ended up visiting the food cart zone that had appeared in a corner of the park’s parking lot through something of an unspoken agreement. The crowds were a bit of an annoyance, but these carts would not have all been there if not for the tournament.

“Lilina, perform a search.”

“Sure thing. Found something on the tournament’s official site. They have a portable device coupon accepted at any of the registered stands or carts.”

That was a relief.

He ignored all the stands selling portable device accessories such as POV cameras attached by the ear, sheet-style wireless keyboards, and drones that could be sent out for simple filming using the screen at one’s fingertips.

He focused on the ones selling food.

He saw the gold standards like ramen and oden, normal options like hot dogs and kebabs, and even dark horse options like skewered deep sea fish and peanut butter curry. Some were trailers lugged around by manpower and others were full-on vans.

“Let’s try them all! Them all!!”

“Not a chance!! You need to decide on ''one'', Index!!”

They looked around and ended up checking out a seafood bowl place that only served rejects. Of course, the “rejects” did not refer to the customers; it referred to the fish the fishermen had thrown out because they would never sell. Since no one ate them, their numbers grew and they tended to wreak havoc on the ecosystem.

Kamijou Touma convinced Index by saying their delicious meal would double as a social service, but his real reason was how super cheap the rejects were when compared to bluefin tuna or sweetfish.

“Mmm! It’s actually really good! But what kind of fish is this tuna-like one!?”

“It’s best not to think about it, Index. The long deep sea fish name wouldn’t mean anything to you anyway and I promise you you’d regret the pictures you found if you searched the name on your portable device!”

Kamijou and Index chowed down while on their feet. The cat was able to eat a special cat bowl that the guy running the cart had prepared for them. Everything not on the menu must have been sold at a bargain price because it was actually more cost-effective than the human lunches.

“Touma, what are we going to do now?”

“It might not be a bad idea to check out the zoo or aquarium, but then again…the Material Analyze might not work right through the glass. Would it just scan the glass? But light and air don’t seem to affect it…”

Because people payed by portable device, there was a wireless router sitting next to the cart’s register.

Kamijou looked over at it while holding his styrofoam bowl.

(A communication device… But I doubt I could move at the speed of light if I incorporated optical fiber. And even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to control it.)

“Ahh, that was yummy. Thanks for the meal.”

“It makes Kamijou-san a little sad you turned away from me and faced the guy at the cart when you said that…”

After they finished their lunch, Kamijou took his and Index’s bowls to a garbage can a short distance away.

(But if that blue Cypher really does show up again, how am I supposed to fight? Fire a long-range barrage to cut off their escape route? Stay close and keep attacking so they don’t have time to transform? The Material Analyze adjustments I choose will change depending on the answer.)

He opened the appropriate menu on his portable device and found 20 to 30 scan data files, from the cat and pigeon to small bugs. But they were essentially ingredients. What would he expand on and what would he throw out? He had a feeling those decisions were what mattered most.

Kamijou Touma had no way of knowing thanks to his amnesia, but the way Lilina spoke to him was like the aquatic mammal that had come with the word processor and spreadsheet software of an older age.

“Is something the matter? I am awaiting further inquiries.”

“It’s nothing.”

(I can just leave the data management to Lilina. I’ve heard some people do it all manually, though. …Maybe I should study up on all this. But if I go for it without knowing what I’m doing, I’ll probably screw it all up.)

He reached the recycling trash can while still deep in thought. Due to the crowds for the tournament, it was about to burst. But Kamijou Touma the House-Husband King had honed his lazy housework skills through life as a student, so that was not enough to bother him. He shoved the styrofoam bowls right on in.

That was when someone spoke to him from the side.

“Mumble, mumble…”

No, they may not have been speaking to him.

But he still turned a curious glance in that direction due to the location.

An impressive pile of garbage bags had formed right next to the trash cans for burnable and non-burnable trash. The clear bags seemed to contain grass clippings and fallen leaves, so they lacked the raw stench of kitchen waste.

Even so, was this any place for a girl to dive on top of the garbage bags and fall asleep?

Her bright hair was halfway between gold and silver, which he thought was called platinum blonde. Her hair was long, but the bangs covered one of her eyes and hid half her face. She was short and her slender body was covered by a blue outfit consisting of a white blouse with a large ribbon on the chest, a miniskirt, and a deep blue vest. Overall, it made her look like a ballerina or a figure skater. Although the pleated skirt was awfully short.

If that was all, he might have simply gasped.

[[Image:Index_VO_147.jpg|thumb]]

But this girl was brimming with an inhuman beauty that could almost be called fairylike.

But…

“…”

Kamijou covered his face with his hands.

The location could not have been worse. She felt as out of place as a teddy bear floating in a muddy river.

He honestly considered leaving. He even turned around, but then he faced her again.

He knew this was none of his business.

(But why is she sprawled out like that!? And with such a ridiculously short skirt!? Can’t you give me just one thing! Just ''one'' thing that makes me think she won’t be in trouble if I leave her here!?)

People tended not to gather in the trash area, but this was the day of the Virtual-On tournament and there was a thick wall of people not far away. And to make matters worse, someone could appear at any moment and yet it was a gloomy, deserted area.

He did not want to imagine what would happen in a strange collaboration between this defenseless girl and someone who lived a less-than-admirable life.

Once he finally resigned himself to his fate, Kamijou grabbed the shoulder of the girl sleeping peacefully in the pile of garbage bags. If an ally of justice arrived now, this visual would likely earn him a punishment.

“Hey, wake up! Why are you collapsed here!?”

“…Zzz…mumble, mumble?”

She woke up.

Surprisingly, her eyes were ruby red.

And they did not appear to be color contacts.

He could see no concern on her face, so it did not seem that she had fallen victim to an urban legend about having one’s organs taken after drinking too much. She looked like she had chosen this bed herself.

Still sprawled out on the garbage bags, the girl blinked her red eyes and spoke to him.

“Y-yawn… What in the world happened…?”

She shook her head, shaking her bangs in the process.

When Kamijou looked down at her face again, a strange sensation ran up his spine.

He recognized her.

“Huh? Lilina…?”

“Fweh?”

“What is it? Do you need something?”

Two voices replied.

He compared the face seen through the portable device and the face on the screen. The two girls looked almost…no, exactly the same.

There were differences in their clothing and coloring, but their appearances were shockingly similar. Confusion briefly fell over Kamijou, but after he chose not to write it off as a coincidence to just give up on thinking, 3 possibilities came to mind:

1. This girl had entered the real world from a portable device.

2. This girl was a cosplayer who had modeled her clothing after Lilina.

3. This girl was the model on which Lilina was based.

(Well, 2 or 3 would be the sensible choices.)

Then the girl said something else.

“Um, are you mistaking me for someone else?”

“What?”

“My name is Ririn. Furashina Ririn. My name is not Lilina…mumble…”

She did not seem all that interested.

It almost sounded like she was answering a wrong number in the middle of the night.

(She doesn’t seem interested in the tournament or Virtual-On either. Does that mean she isn’t a cosplayer?)

That left Possibility 3: This girl was the model on which Lilina was based. But if she was the model, then was she somehow connected to the developer of the Next Generation Game Virtual-On? Virtual-On was quite popular, but there were a lot of mysteries concerning who had made it and when. It felt like running across a living legend.

“Mumble…”

“Wait, wait, wait! Not there! Don’t go to sleep on the pile of trash!! There are plenty of better options! Like a bench!”

“I might not look it, but I’m a celebrity who can’t sleep in a bed with hard springs…”

“Aren’t you just driving up prices through inflation, you celebrity? Anyway, get out of there!!”

He grabbed her arm and tugged, but much to his surprise, she did not budge. Yes, picking up an entirely limp human being took a surprising amount of effort!!

As Kamijou grunted and groaned over the collapsed girl (looking incredibly suspicious as he did so), he spotted a familiar face walk by not far away.

It was Misaka Mikoto of prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School.

For some reason, she was wearing a light purple cheerleader-style outfit. He doubted she would choose to walk around the city dressed like that, so it may have had some connection to the tournament.

Perhaps she was cheering on a friend or competing herself.

Either way, he was glad to see her.

(I-I can’t do it on my own. This is perfect timing, so I should just ask for help.)

“Hey, Misak-…”

Just as he gave up and called out to her, something cut off his words.

Furashina Ririn had suddenly tugged on his arm. The unexpected force knocked him off balance and he was invited to the garbage bag bed as if he were lying over the slender girl.

“Wait, you-…mgah!?”

“Be quiet,” flatly said Furashina Ririn.

Incidentally, Kamijou had dived face-first into the girl’s flat chest while her hands firmly held his head in place, bringing him into a strange new zone.

But then she said more.

“She is dangerous. People like her are known as Hunter Hunters, so you need to be careful…”

“Mgah…what?” asked a puzzled Kamijou.

Was she referring to Mikoto with that unfamiliar term?

“A Hunter is a player who inflates their score by hunting down NPCs. A Hunter Hunter is a player who targets those players. And they are always residents of the Defected mode, just like you.”

His heart gave an icy leap in his chest.

How did she know he had Defected? And did that mean Mikoto had Defected too?

If Misaka Mikoto was participating in the tournament, wouldn’t that mean she continued to fight despite knowing the danger to those around her?

And if Furashina Ririn was Lilina’s model, she would have to be closely connected to Virtual-On’s developer.

How much did she know?

Could she provide a useful hint regarding the conflict with the Blue Stalker?

So many questions came to mind that he had difficulty judging the value of each individual one. His mind was near bursting and he did not have time to rank them all by importance.

“Wait, please wait. Can you explain everything from the beginning? Who exactly are you?”

Kamijou tried to get some information from her, but an unexpected interruption stopped him.

“…Touma.”

A low – frighteningly low – voice seemed to rise from the depths of hell.

“You were taking so long throwing out the trash that I thought you might have gotten into trouble. I was worried and came to check on you, but ''this'' is what I find?”

“Oh, Index-san.”

“Why so formal all of a sudden?”

“Please, please. I am trying to have an important discussion at the moment and I would greatly appreciate it if you did not complicate matters. So get lost!!”

“Not only are you attacking a girl on a pile of garbage, but you’re acting like a king too!? What is the meaning of this, Toumaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?”

With that shout, the world was dyed red and black.