Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item5 Epilogue

==Epilogue: The True Center==

The Daihaseisai was underway.

It was a hectic day ruled by blue skies and fearsome direct sunlight.

Even so, the city was peaceful. There was were no villainous plots or bombs.

The past wasn’t baring its fangs against anyone.

“Yum, yum☆”

(So this is what they’re doing now? A crepe. And the obvious mayo puts you at ease before the hidden anchovy-style flavor hits you. I thought I had mastered the art of the mackerel, but in the end, mackerels contain endless possibility.)

According to Takitsubo’s memory, the Advanced Lab had a few adult researchers in addition to A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko, but Frenda wasn’t too concerned.

Everyone on the dark side needed some kind of business to survive. But with their espers gone, those adults would have no luck in their dirty business. Once they were caught in the vicious cycle, they would have no chance at all to restart from nothing.

And while just about anything was acceptable on the dark side, it was still necessary to put in constant work to cover up the darker things. It went without saying what would happen to them once they lacked the money to protect themselves. Simply put, they would fall apart all on their own now.

Right now, basking in the light of the honest world was more important.

On the side of a street blocked off to cars, Frenda Seivelun was eating a tuna, mackerel, and lettuce crepe when someone called out to her.

It was a 7-year-old in athletic bloomers.

Frenda’s sister grabbed her hand as part of the borrowing race.

“Onee-chan, come with me! In the first place, I still have a shot at first place!!”

“Let’s see. You’re looking for…a grownup sexy woman? Damn those teachers. In the end, why would they ask first graders to borrow that!?”

Whether it was to help her sister win or to protest to the teachers, Frenda ran with the 7-year-old.

Along the street flooded with spectators.

She happened to catch a glimpse of Mugino Shizuri and Takitsubo Rikou through a gap in the crowd.

The light was the light and the dark was the dark.

Her eyes met with a teammate she entrusted her life to in the darkness, but at the moment Mugino chose to ignore her.

Expressionless Takitsubo Rikou, however, formed a megaphone with her hands and shouted.

As loud as she could manage.



“Go for it!!”



Mugino looked over at her in shock.

Kinuhata smiled bitterly while leaning against the railing of the pedestrian bridge overhead.

They didn’t stop Takitsubo.

Because they had protected the ordinary city where she could do these things.

And knowing the value of what they had risked their lives to protect might just give them the strength needed to survive.

Little by little, those shadowy girls were becoming involved in the honest world they had saved.

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