Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Endymion Chapter4 (section)

===Part 3===

The chairs were cramped, the table was sticky, and the noises of food preparation never ended, so it was not an environment conducive to sleep. Nevertheless, Kamijou and the others slept like a log until just before noon.

This meant Kamijou was skipping school, but he was in no situation to worry about that.

“I still have found no information on Ureapaddy,” said Stiyl via the prepaid cell phone. “Due to the attack on the satellite guidance vehicle, she is officially being treated as a possible important witness by Academy City. She has probably used some sort of spell to avoid being questioned by Anti-Skill. If I can find traces of that, I might be able to locate her.”

“Understood. What should we do?”

“Nothing in particular. Just ask Sozty about likely spots for using Brahma Astra and go around to each one.”

“Won’t that just leave us checking out the places Ureapaddy will most likely be avoiding?”

“It does not matter. We just need to give her the impression that we are tracking her down little by little. Sozty’s information and Index’s massive knowledge alone should be putting mental pressure on Ureapaddy. Even if we never find the right answer, she might make a mistake if she thinks we will.”

“So no matter what we do, we’re still waiting for her to make some kind of move?”

“It looks that way at first glance. But this will be decided by how much we can restrict Ureapaddy’s freedom and options during these three days. Even if it is only a bluff, we need to seal off the ‘large pathways’ as soon as possible. That way, if Ureapaddy later feels she has reached a stalemate, she will be forced to take some bold action that is more likely to leave us a crucial hint.”

If no matter what they did they could only wait for Ureapaddy to take some kind of action, they could not move the situation forward. It was possible they could be stuck in this stalled state all the way up to the time limit in three days.

And Ureapaddy of course did not want to be found. This was not a boy scout athletic event, so she would not leave behind obvious footprints or memos detailing her path as she travelled to her goal.

“So we just have to hope our enemy can still be shaken.”

“Exactly.”

The call with Stiyl ended.

Kamijou and the others left the ramen restaurant they had used in place of an inn and prepared to follow Stiyl’s instructions. Sozty seemed irritated that they were not striking a decisive blow, but she did not have any dramatic alternative ideas.

She said, “As I said before taking that nap, she will probably give priority to areas from which the stars are visible because the spell uses shooting stars. It would be best to go around to each of those places and set up a surveillance spiritual item.”

Index spoke up from the side.

“Touma, we need to focus on setting up a large number of them. Instead of hoping to actually catch Ureapaddy with the spiritual items, we can worry her by setting up lower level ones.”

“…? But Index, these surveillance spiritual items…they’re like cameras, right? Wouldn’t finding Ureapaddy with one of them be the best case scenario?”

Index sighed at Kamijou’s question.

“If we go all out in the creation of the spiritual items, we can only make so many. And if Ureapaddy knows we are getting serious, she will realize this is all we have. But if we create exceedingly simply-made spiritual items…”

“It will not take much time to make enough of them and my sister will have a harder time analyzing our ability if she happens to spot one. We just need to make her think we intentionally let her find it in order to guide her in a certain direction.”

“I see,” said Kamijou with a nod.

Their objective was to worry Ureapaddy. To do that, it was better to give an impression of taking meaningful roundabout actions rather than running down a direct path.

“Well, I guess the obvious place to start would be District 21. It’s such a mountainous area that it’s often used for astronomical observation facilities.”

Kamijou brought to mind the bus and train route maps in order to guide Index and Sozty.

But then…

“…?”

A painful sound tickled at Kamijou’s eardrums.

It sounded like television static.

Kamijou looked around in confusion. And then he spotted it. It was the large screen on the side wall of a department store. The screen had been displaying the sales rankings for new songs, but it went black just after emitting that static.

“What?”

And it did not end there. The destination display on a bus running nearby grew horribly garbled, the traffic lights started blinking with more than one light lit up at a time, and the cell phone in Kamijou’s pocket began emitting out-of-tune electronic tones very different from its set ringtone.

“Wah, wah! Touma, everything around here is going crazy!”

“The airship’s screen is messed up too. This seems to be pretty widespread.”

Index and Sozty seemed completely shocked by the situation.

For an instant, Kamijou put himself on guard because he recalled that Agni’s Festival Fire roasted people by amplifying the output of electromagnetic waves, but the situation did not develop that far. All electronics and other devices that used electromagnetic signals began malfunctioning, but nothing beyond that occurred.

He did not know what was causing it, but Kamijou pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

The phone was still emitting ridiculous electronic tones as if someone was randomly hitting the keys of a keyboard, but it seemed he was receiving a call from someone. He could not say anything more than “someone” because the screen was a mess of garbled text and nothing readable remained.

Among all of the oddities occurring, this was the only one Kamijou’s group could actually respond to.

Normally, answering a call from an unknown person held various risks such as it being some form of phone scam. However, the current situation held greater weight than those risks. Kamijou pressed the “accept call” button with his thumb in order to escape the pressure.

He then heard the voice of an unexpected person.

“…Ksshh… Kuroko, there’s a…of static, but can…hear me? …I have no…how long…phone call…last, so…listen. I…no time to answer questions…”

“Misaka?” muttered Kamijou in shock, but it seemed his voice was not reaching her.

In fact, he was doubtful the call had been meant for him.

He was pretty sure she did not know his number.

(Did some lines get mixed up due to whatever is causing all this strange static?)

It seemed Misaka Mikoto did not realize this.

She continued speaking.

“Kuroko, you all are probably…aware of…but a cooperative institution…in Australia…firing a ballistic shell...using a mass driver. It will…outside the atmosphere and…straight down on Academy City. It seems…city plans to…a device called Debris Storm…”

“What…?”

Some strange terms were mixed in with the staticky voice coming from his phone. One of them was “Debris Storm”.

“The device manipulates the flow of solar wind to…all of the space debris around…planet. If…succeeds, tens…thousands of pieces of debris…at several kilometers per second. The sandstorm-like…will fly around in space to…any suspicious objects. Whether…UFO or ballistic missile…be shot down with perfect accuracy. It is like a…missile defense net on…worldwide scale…”

A device that manipulated the tens of thousands of pieces of debris floating around the planet.

A device that could turn every one of them into a shooting star if used right.

“Not good! You have got to be kidding me!!”

“But…still only…the prototype phase. All of…electromagnetic interference is likely…side effect of the collision between…winds and debris not progressing as…had hoped. So Kuroko…no guarantee Debris Storm will…properly. We need to…”

The static grew more intense. No matter how much Kamijou shouted, Mikoto did not respond. At some point, the connection had ended. Even when he tried to redial, he did not even receive an automatic message.

“What is it?” asked Sozty, but Kamijou did not respond for a bit.

If that information had been correct, their initial assumption had just crumbled out from underneath them.

In other words…

“There might never have been a three day time limit…”

“What do you mean, Touma?”

“We assumed Ureapaddy planned to create artificial shooting stars by detonating sabotaged rockets when they were launched. But she never had to do that. There are already tens of thousands of pieces of trash called space debris floating around the planet. And if Academy City has a technology that can manipulate them…”

Ureapaddy’s attack on the Academy City satellite guidance vehicle had seemed nonsensical at first glance. If she had already sabotaged several rockets outside of the city, why had she taken the great risk to sabotage one inside the city as well?

But the situation changed if she had never needed any rockets in the first place. If she had not needed the rocket itself, why had Ureapaddy attacked that satellite guidance vehicle?

“The equipment and facilities related to space are concentrated in District 23. The same likely goes for this Debris Storm that can manipulate space debris. Normally, she would be unable to easily infiltrate that district. But the attitude control computer for the container on the top of the rocket is directly linked to the control system in District 23. If she was able to use that to take control of the Debris Storm equipment…”

“Would my sister be able to create tens of thousands of shooting stars whenever she wants?” muttered Sozty in utter shock.

Tens of thousands of pieces of space debris.

With that, the scale would spread beyond the sky above Academy City.

It was best to assume the skies above every part of the planet would be filled with shooting stars.