Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS2 Chapter1 (section)

=== Part 7 ===
<br>
Much time had passed since the sun had completely set.

It was well past the time for dinner or even a bath.

Mikoto had not returned to the hotel. She had been led to one section of the shopping mall. It was not a place where normal customers went. The area was for only staff and the special workers known as security guards. It had been described as the “backyard”, but it was essentially an interrogation room for the security guards.

The room had a simple table and chairs, a recording device, and a one-way mirror covering one of the walls. It was not a comfortable place in the slightest. Even in that room the walls, floor, and ceiling were devices for the Semipublic AR, so it felt a bit unbalanced.

“I see. So there were army ant eggs within the orange,” muttered a female security guard.

It seemed her name was Enirya G. Algonskaya. She was a red-headed woman in her late twenties. Her exacting behavior vaguely reminded Mikoto of a certain frightening dorm supervisor.

“I watched over the bucket until you got there and there was no sign of any having escaped. They were all killed. However, I have no way of knowing if few of them could have made their way out while the child was kicking the orange. Just in case, I think you should spray some insecticide around the area.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

“…But what is going on here? That incident was exactly like the urban legend. Whoever did it must be some crazy bastard.”

“As you can tell, we are in the middle of the investigation, so we cannot say anything yet,” Enirya said without smiling. “Of course, that is assuming that there were actually crimson long-legged army ants there.”

“…What?”

“The remains we have recovered have been completely turned to ash, so ‘we cannot say anything yet’. We cannot deny the possibility that some show-off was faking an incident that did not actually occur.”

“Are you serious?”

“It is merely one possibility. For us, that would be the best possibility, but we of course have to think about the less desirable possibilities.” Enirya shrugged. “We are currently investigating where the orange may have come from. However, there are over 80 places both large and small selling produce. This could take some time. And if the orange was brought in from outside, it could be even more difficult.”

“…”

“By the way…”

“What?”

“Did you know that the urban legend about the very valuable orange originated from a famous story about a cactus? A traveler in Central America buys a cactus and becomes suspicious when it starts twitching back at home, so he calls the florist or souvenir shop….and so forth. Also, the contents were not originally army ants.”

“??? What are you trying to say?”

“The version of the story where the cactus has turned into an orange is exceedingly rare. At the very least, it is not spreading throughout Russia. My conclusion is that the story of the very valuable orange is an exceedingly local urban legend that is only told within Japan’s Academy City.”

A searching gaze stared at her.

Mikoto frowned.

“Wait a second. You don’t mean…”

“And there just so happens to be someone from Academy City here for a demonstration right now. You do not have any guards or supervisors with you, correct?” Enirya spoke slowly. “We are a cooperative institution, but we are not knowledgeable in the local information of Academy City. I only know what I just told you because I requested some information from Academy City regarding this case. …So don’t you find it odd? This incident seems to have been based on that urban legend, so the one who caused it must have known the story of the very valuable orange. Am I wrong?”

“You’ve got to be kidding!! I only just learned of that rumor!!”

“Even if you have special powers, you are still essentially a normal middle school girl. The fact that you managed to ‘coincidentally’ resolve that incident seems suspicious to me.”

“It’s your negligence that allowed that orange to be there in the first place! Why am I being treated like a suspect just because I disposed of it!? Did I hurt your pride as a security guard or something!?”

“Oh, you need not get so worked up today.” Enirya spread out her arms to bring Mikoto back under control. “We shall continue this once your attorney has been called in. Although to be honest, I would rather get the truth out of you now.”

“…”

Enirya stood up from her seat and then left the interrogation room without turning back.

A heavy noise reverberated through the room as the door shut.

She had not promised to return Mikoto to the hotel. Would Mikoto end up staying there all night? Or would she be thrown into some kind of cell? Neither choice sounded like much fun.

Mikoto felt that things had gotten bad.

Mikoto leaned back in her cheap chair and thought while staring up at the ceiling.

Had it all just been a coincidence? Or had someone wanted to cause her demonstration to fail worsening the relationship between Academy City and its cooperative institutions? Or was there some conspiracy working to acquire Mikoto’s DNA map? She had no way of knowing. There just was not enough information.

However, she was not too worried.

After all, she had not been the criminal behind the orange incident. She had no reason to be panicked. Even the orange had been completely dealt with. There was little chance of the crimson long-legged army ants causing any real damage. As such, she just had to wait for the suspicions pointed in her direction to be cleared up. After all, Academy City let their valuable Level 5 outside the city with no guards or supervisors as a sign of their trust of the cooperative institutions. If that just ended up with her being locked up, Academy City would not stay quiet.

To pass the time, Mikoto started to pull out her cell phone. When she stuck her hand in her skirt pocket, she felt something squishy. It felt like oily skin.

(Uuh…!? What???)

Mikoto pulled her hand out in surprise and found a torn off piece of orange rind. She had used her foot when checking on the contents of the bucket, but that piece must have gotten stuck to her clothes at some point.

There were no ants left, but it was still creepy. If any small eggs were stuck on her clothes anywhere, it would be a major problem. Mikoto put the orange rind on top of the simple table. She started to move as far away from it as she could.

Suddenly, Mikoto froze.

Something like a small sticker was stuck on the surface of the rind. It reminded her of a QR code. It may take one to a web page displaying information on the product. Mikoto had heard of pages like that for produce that gave the expiration date as well as information on the area and farm it was produced in. Simply put, a small sticker could not hold all that information.

Mikoto’s eyes were fixed on the QR code.

If that orange was a product, would it really have been delivered all on its own? If it had been delivered, it would not have been packed all on its own in a box.

In other words, there was more than one orange.

It was possible there were more than ten similar items somewhere in the shopping mall.

It was possible there were more than ten oranges filled with crimson long-legged army ants.

“Wait…” Mikoto muttered.

She stood up from her seat in panic and headed for the door.

“Wait!! Listen to me!! The orange incident may not be over!! There may have been other similar oranges delivered with it!! If they had crimson long-legged army ants in them too, then this shopping mall could turn into a storm of ant colonies!!”

However, there was no response. She tried turning the knob, but it did not budge and there was no sign of anyone coming even after she pounded on the door for a bit.

Mikoto ran over to the one-way mirror covering one wall.

“I know you can hear me!! I’m not asking you to release me now!! Check on this QR code!! You may be able to find out where and when the oranges were delivered!!”

There was no response.

For an instant, Mikoto considered blowing the door down with a Railgun blast, but she decided that would not be her best option. If she broke her way out like that, a lot of people would attempt to stop her. She did not think it would be impossible for her to defeat all of them, but it would take too much time. She did not have the time needed to deal with a bunch of small fries.

(The QR code…)

Mikoto pointed her cell phone camera at it, but there was no response. It seemed to be a different format. She looked around. The walls and floor had Semipublic AR functionality.

The fact that she had not been cut off from the network may have been because they considered her questionable but still likely innocent. At any rate, Mikoto brought her hands to the wall. After performing a few operations, she pressed the orange rind with the sticker on it directly up against the wall.

It must have read it with ultrasonic waves because a few windows opened up.

“A box of 20 entered today through the east gate. If one of them fell out, then there are still 19 of them!!”

Those crimson long-legged army ants were in oranges not in insect cages. The ants had a tendency to put a large number of eggs in a fruit waiting for prey when the number of ants making up the colony fell too low, but someone had likely purposefully created that situation.

Why?

First of all, they could bring in the ants without raising suspicion.

Second of all, they could make them breed seemingly endlessly upon removing the queen’s limiter.

In other words, a breeder had created a living time bomb with the oranges.

Had one of the oranges fallen out while in preparation for some kind of plan? Or had a number of them already been set up and that incident had been the first one to activate?

In any case, one thing was for sure.

The incident would not end only on the scale of what had already happened.

The real thing was yet to come.

A very valuable orange.

Urban legends could no longer just be laughed off in that shopping mall.

“…”

The other oranges had likely not “detonated” yet. If they had, the security guards would have been more panicked.

The time when the eggs would hatch and the ants would become active could likely be regulated by the temperature and humidity, but it was still based on living creatures. The breeder may not have been able to perfectly control the timing of the hatching of the eggs.

When Mikoto had thought things through that far, she heard a commotion on the other side of the door. They must have been watching her through the one-way mirror. They must have been waiting to make their move. However, they did not seem intent on asking her questions throughout the night either. The security guards were not going to listen to her. They were not going to investigate the oranges. In that case, they were nothing more than an obstacle to Mikoto.

Mikoto could manipulate magnetism.

She rotated the bolts fixing the table to the floor at high speed. She pressed the table into the corner of the square room where the door was to prevent it from being opened.

Now the security guards could not enter the room.

However, that also meant Mikoto could not leave through the door…

“They never seem to realize…” 

Mikoto headed for the small window in the interrogation room. The room was on the fifth floor. There was nothing in the room that could be used as a rope and what one could bring in was greatly restricted. As such, the security guards had let their guard down. There were no metal bars on the window.

Mikoto opened the window and leaned out.

“…that I can create as many footholds as I need using magnetism.”

She unhesitatingly jumped out.

As the bottom of her loafers scraped against the wall while she was in a pose like she was skiing, Mikoto thought.

Who in that city had she heard the story of the very valuable orange from?

Who had told her to watch out for oranges?

Where were the remaining living time bomb oranges set up?

She had a lot to investigate.

It seemed her demonstration truly was turning into something completely unexpected.

<br>
<br>
<noinclude>
== Notes ==
<references/>

<br>
<br>

{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:RailgunSS2_Illustrations|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:RailgunSS2_Chapter2}}
</noinclude>