Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter4 (section)

===Part 6===

Without anyone to stop her, Saten Ruiko likely would have rushed into the mysterious underground space to solve the mystery on her own. As can be seen from her stance on pursuing urban legends, she preferred to solve mysteries herself when she encountered them. And while this may be a rude and baseless prediction, it seemed likely she would have ended up in serious trouble and gotten beaten up.

But Shirai Kuroko and Uiharu Kazari were different.

Even without directly finding an assailant or victim, the evidence and situation they found told them a survivor had likely been sealed in by a third party. A 2m square of metal more than 3cm thick was too heavy for a 2nd year in middle school to lift, so closing that cover from outside was enough to charge the third party with at least abduction or confinement. In the worst case, their intent may have been to let her starve to death down there. It could be hard to tell without a single drop of blood to be found, but this was a legitimate(?) crime that could have taken a life.

And when faced with something like that, the correct course of action was to call Anti-Skill and get the adults’ help. There was no reason to rush in and act like this was a single player game. If Mikoto’s group got wiped out without letting anyone know, then no one would be able to rescue Yugure Kanaria from that underground space.

Saten complained, but then something occurred to her.

“Hold on, Shirai-san. Didn’t you say these Lost Pieces are unmonitored areas that none of the schools can touch? Will Anti-Skill even show up?”

“Even if no one is monitoring the area, a report of a kidnapping or murder is enough justification to raid the place. We’re not talking about a foreign embassy here.”

Shirai was exactly right.

A total of 20 or 30 people were sent in as reinforcements. That seemed like a lot. If you reported a purse snatching or an attempted convenience store robbery, there was no way that many would show up. So that number meant Anti-Skill was already considering the possibility this was a murder case. The normal crime scene preservation measures would require placing blue tarps over any doors and windows, stringing police tape around the area, and keeping away the press showing up with large cameras, so 20 or 30 was probably about right. Which made their presence all the more disturbing.

The ones carrying bulky silver cases around were probably the crime scene investigators. They didn’t only work murder cases, but knowing they had been called in for a case relating to a classmate was still worrying.

The adults in Anti-Skill allowed the children from Judgment join the investigation, which may have shown they understood the complicated status of the Lost Pieces.

Anti-Skill and Judgment ended up speaking at the same time.

“Understood. We will let Anti-Skill handle the rest.”

“No, hold on. We want all of you Judgment girls to help us search inside.”

Did they have to argue like that? Hadn’t they ever heard of teamwork? Mikoto’s group only wanted to find out if Yugure Kanaria was safe.

And whichever side of the argument they were on, Mikoto’s group only had one real option here. If they were going to confirm Kanaria was safe, everyone needed to pool their information and they needed as many people searching as they could get. Plus, none of them were the type who could sit around waiting for the result. They preferred to take action and actually do something.

Since the people in charge apparently saw them as a group working for Shirai Kuroko, Mikoto placed a hand on the center of her chest and spoke up.

“Very well. I am more than willing to help, Miss Judgment. Show us how the experts do it.”

“Okay, just follow me. You aren’t going to find unexplored underground spaces on your map app, so we need to be thorough. First of all, this is a special pen that shines in response to UV light. The UV light itself is built into the back end. I will teach you a few signs, so make sure to mark off all the rooms and pathways we have already checked. Since we don’t have a map, we’ll have to make one ourselves. If we run into something and have to run away, make sure to follow the path we took coming in. Ready, everyone? Here we go☆”

They descended the stainless steel stairs as a group.

But they ran into something unexpected almost immediately. It was deep. They had known their phone lights weren’t enough to see all the way down, but the stairs still seemed to continue on and on forever.

They had to have descended at least 100 steps. And without any landings or reversals along the way. They had to have already left the Lost Piece artificial forest.

They heard a deep groaning sound.

It was much too loud to be caused by their feet on the metal stairs.

Saten pointed her phone around nervously.

“Wh-what is this sound?”

“Is it an earthquake?”

Saten normally ran headlong into danger, so it was strange to see her clinging to Uiharu’s arm here.

Mikoto placed her hand on the smooth wall.

“For that matter…”

Where were they underground right now?

Was anyone really allowed to dig so much beneath the School Garden where the five schools competed so fiercely over their turf?

The shiny silver walls and floor looked even cheaper than the stairs. They may have been a lightweight aluminum alloy.

“Cool. This is practically a dungeon now,” said Saten Ruiko, sounding carefree.

There was an intersection up ahead and another a bit past that one, so this may have been a vast web of underground pathways.

There was no point in sticking together as a single group, so despite their disagreements, the Anti-Skill and Judgment members exchanged a nod and spread out across different pathways.

Mikoto’s group decided to stick together.

“So what is this place anyway?”

“Uuuiiihaaaruuu.”

“N-not now, Saten-san! Why would you even think of flipping my skirt with all this going on?”

“Oh, I already did it before we went down here. It just isn’t a proper Uiharu panty viewing if isn’t out in the sunlight.”

Uiharu Kazari shrieked and held down her skirt with both hands.

Meanwhile, Mikoto let some bluish-white sparks crackle from her bangs and rapped the back of her hand against the aluminum wall.

“That’s pretty thick, but it’s hollow inside. And based on the evenly spaced lines on the passageway’s walls, floor, and ceiling, could this be made from the metal cubes used for the foundation of a megafloat?”

“That’s ridiculous. Creating an underground wall out of those would requires so much extra digging,” said Shirai. “Burying a hollow cube is so much more work than just a flat wall.”

And the more digging required, the more money required. That was why the tunnels built through mountains generally took the shortest possible route and some would reduce the number of lanes or lower the ceiling to cut costs. Keeping the width and height the same from beginning to end for no real reason could lead to unbelievable costs in the end.

In the same way, a thick cube would cost so much more than a flat wall. When a width of 2m was enough for people to pass through, no one would dig a tunnel 6m wide for three times the cost and then fill in either side with cubes, leaving only the original 2m width.

However…

(Costly cubic walls, a megafloat foundation, and a network of underground passageways. And all of it was built in secret so no one in the School Garden would notice?)

Mikoto’s thoughts were cut off by an ear-splitting noise.

Saten shouted in surprise and pulled out her phone.

Uiharu snapped at her for once.

“What are you doing, Saten-san!?”

“It’s not my fault. The alarm won’t stop! I didn’t think we even got a signal down here!”

It wasn’t just Saten.

More of those loud electronic tones sounded from other passageways and around other corners. They reverberated and mixed together into a mass of noise that seemed to spread endlessly.

A deep groaning came from the lightweight aluminum alloy walls.

Shirai looked around.

“This isn’t a normal signal. Is it a more powerful disaster warning app alert?”

(No.)

Mikoto gulped.

(This isn’t an earthquake. When a fault in the crust grinds together, the friction produces static electricity, but I don’t sense anything like that.)

It was easy enough to say what this wasn’t, but then what was it? The low rumbling was so unusually regular it seemed more like some kind of machine.

Something felt extremely off to Mikoto.

She felt the frustration of seeing something dangerous approaching her but being unable to find the words to describe what exactly it was. Or maybe it was the groundless fear of a jinx where naming the thing would give it more power.

But her thoughts were cut off there.

Her phone’s light had found something in the vast underground space. Something on the floor there did not fit the smooth, metallic aesthetic. The dark, lumpy object was…

“A…person? Damn, it’s Canary-chan!!”

“Ah, Misaka-san!?”

“Uiharu, mark the wall with that special pen!!” said Shirai. “Forgetting to mark it could lead to trouble later!!

They were all in a hurry now.

A girl with long flaxen hair wore a Tokiwadai uniform. With Tokiwadai’s strict rules only the bangs and socks left room for individuality and Kanaria was wearing triple roll socks.

Yugure Kanaria lay face down on the floor. Mikoto had a bad feeling about this. If she hadn’t laid down on her own, she could have had trouble breathing. Either her mouth could have been covered or her weight could have applied pressure to her lungs.

Mikoto just about grabbed her shoulders and turned her on to her back, but then she stopped. Why was Kanaria collapsed down here and why couldn’t she get back up under her own power? It would be best to check her for injury before moving her.

But her classmate’s dry lips moved before she was done checking.

“Ah…kh…”

“Canary-chan, do you recognize me? Everything will be okay. There’s a bunch of Judgment and Anti-Skill here too!!”

“…was a…ctory.”

(…?)

Mikoto frowned.

What was that? Would she really suddenly use that word even if she was woozy?

It was possible Mikoto had misheard.

But it had sounded an awful lot like Yugure Kanaria had said something about a factory?

“It was a factory, Osprey-chan<ref>Kanaria refers to Mikoto as Osprey because Misaka is sort of similar to Misago, the Japanese word for the osprey.</ref>. This place was a factory.”

“What are you talking about, Canary-chan?”

“But I don’t think this is anywhere near enough. My, my. They know it too, which is why they wanted to keep their secret. It was all just a childish dream.”

“Start from the beginning please. What was a childish dream!?”

More deep rumbling.

Still kneeling next to her classmate, Mikoto looked up on reflex because she thought this was an earthquake.

But it wasn’t.

Yugure Kanaria knew more about what was going on, so she seemed to know what this was.

“It’s started. I couldn’t stop it. Oh, no. And now Hoatzin<ref>Tsumebakei is the Japanese word for the hoatzin.</ref> is going to be caught in the middle of it all.”

“What’s started!?”

“Independence Day,” said Kanaria, still lying face down and having trouble breathing. She was just like the bird chirping in the mines to warn of impending doom. “The School Garden is ''declaring independence'', Osprey-chan.”