Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume16 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===

The dining hall.

That was a unique aspect of the girls dorm.

However, even with dinner at 7 PM, they had free time up until then.

So he still had plenty of time.

(The problem is that Index and Othinus can’t use the dining hall.)

“Kamijou-kun.”

He looked over curiously to find his classmate Himegami Aisa.

She must have gotten back before him because she was already in her casual clothing.

Apparently she still chose to wear a shrine maiden outfit for casual clothing.

“We were assigned a ton of homework. Can you handle it all on your own?”

“Ugh.”

“The esper development terminology changes all the time due to arguments among the academics, so you can’t just rely on what you memorized in the past.”

He couldn’t laugh this off as “just some homework.”

Komoe-sensei had said she was using homework to make up for the classes being shortened due to the first general whatever, so there might be some kind of penalty if he didn’t do a good job.

For a normal student that would probably amount to little more than a slap on the wrist, but Kamijou was in a tricky situation. He was struggling to avoid being held back. A single mistake during the third term might mean having to tragically repeat the first year.

Kamijou Touma trembled.

“I keep overcoming the risk of being held back, but it never goes away? Am I caught up in some kind of grand conspiracy? Could that tiny teacher be trying keep Kamijou-san in her class forever out of some twisted kind of love?”

“Want to do our homework together?”

“!? God yes!!”

And so it was time for a group study session with Himegami Aisa.

He had returned from the dead and gotten back in school, but the risk of repeating the year remained. He had to make sure he wasn’t crushed by this mountain of homework, leading to the red light flashing again.

So Kamijou first rushed to his room.

He figured there was no point in changing out of his uniform. He pulled out the textbooks, reference books, and notebooks he needed for his homework and then tossed his cumbersome school bag inside the room.

“Touma, I’m bored. Can’t you even say hello?”

“Maybe if you said ‘welcome back’ first, freeloader!! And sorry, but Kamijou-san has to deal with a towering mountain of homework. School may be out, but that doesn’t mean I have time to play! If I don’t do this, I really will get held back!”

“Ehhh? But I’m hungry…”

“You need to stop associating boredom with eating. That devastating thought process is hell on your health, Index.”

Othinus, however, was unusually quiet.

“…”

Kamijou rushed out of his room and ran down the emergency stairs. When he arrived on Himegami’s floor, he found someone else there.

It was Fukiyose Seiri.

She was in her school uniform.

“What the hell are you doing here, Kamijou?”

“Why is Fukiyose here?”

He looked to Himegami who sighed softly with a blank expression on her face.

Apparently she had been caught on the way here.

Fukiyose glared over at Kamijou.

“What, did you think you could barge into a girl’s room and be alone with her? Are you stupid?”

…

Did she have to ask that? Now he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

He had only been interested in getting his homework done to avoid being held back. That was almost certain to happen if he didn’t mend his ways, so it was a pressing issue. Yet he had a feeling that statement had just badly derailed that attempt.

All the doors along the hallway were identical, yet he suddenly felt a strange pressure coming from this one.

He was terrified.

Could they maybe visit a nearby library instead?

And just as Manly Kamijou Touma trembled and prepared to tearfully chicken out…

“Come on. Just come on in,” said Himegami.

She said it with a fair amount of force.

And with the room’s owner opening the door herself, there was no more room for argument.

When he looked to Himegami, she looked the other way.

Dammit, was she getting bashful?

Please someone take charge of this situation!!

“C-coming in…”

Kamijou kind of felt like he had to say something or the pressure of the girl’s room would have beaten him.

He noted a faint sweet aroma.

This was Himegami Aisa’s room.

There wasn’t much inside. That impression may not have been entirely due to any lack of hobbies on Himegami’s part. The lack of a bed in the room made the space look bigger. Apparently she was the futon type.

Then Himegami asked a question.

It was hard to tell with her general lack of expression, but her face looked a bit red.

“What is it? Is there something weird about my room?”

Fukiyose silently elbowed him in the side.

And pushed forward. ''But you were the one who got me all nervous about this in the first place!

Himegami said she would go buy something to eat and left the room.

With no kitchen space, the room didn’t even ave the bare minimum of a microwave or a fridge. Even with food available in the dining hall, it seemed inconvenient.

Left alone, Kamijou and Fukiyose sat around the tea table and pulled out their textbooks and reference books. The thickness of the stack of homework assigned by Komoe-sensei was enough to drain his willpower. Couldn’t they fit it all on a phone or something?

Kamijou was already fed up with it all.

“I just flipped through it, but why are Komoe-sensei’s questions always phrased so confusingly? Are they trick questions?”

“I think it’s an anti-AI measure. A lot of it is ways of keeping it from being summarized accurately.”

The forehead girl had a more reasonable explanation.

The door opened and Himegami returned.

She had brought cookies, chocolates, and a few 500mL bottles of barley tea. Even though it was midwinter January.

And with that it was time to grab their mechanical pencils and start the battle!



“Express the transformation of Maxwell’s demon. Focus on the phenomenon of data information being directly converted into energy. Describe the energy conversion cycle. Use a diagram. …We have to hand draw a diagram? Is this another anti-AI thing?”



“Quantum theory is based on observation, but telepathy and clairvoyance can be used to allow a single person to make observations from multiple points of view simultaneously. Explain what happens with the margin of error in the exceptional phenomena expected to affect the wave function of Particle A when it is observed simultaneously from multiple angles. …Hey, hold on. Dammit, Kamijou, are you already asleep?”



No, he was trying his best to stay awake because he knew he would have a math nightmare if he fell asleep now…

Observations were a sensory thing of seeing or noticing something, so why did they turn into wave functions, the Shrödinger equation, and other jumbles of letters and numbers that felt like a space alien language once they appeared on paper for a test? There were even letters in there you wouldn’t find anywhere between A and Z.

That aside.

While he didn’t at all understand the dark vortex of homework he had been cast into by the demon named Tsukuyomi Komoe, Kamijou did feel a strange sense of accomplishment.

This was everyday life in Academy City.

This was a normal school life with nothing threatening his survival and nothing dooming the world to destruction.

Kamijou stared into the distance, relishing this feeling of being alive.

And just then…



“(Oh? So this is the kind of thing you returned from the grave to experience?)”

The pointy-haired boy’s shoulders jumped.

He heard a voice coming from within his jacket. There was someone in his clothes!?

Kamijou Touma suddenly began squirming.

“(What are you doing here, Othinus!?)”

“(Keeping myself safe. You are only a guest in the girls dorm. You boys were ''only'' given a place here out of the kindness of the girls’ hearts because you had nowhere else to go, so they could kick you out at any time. A single problem could mean the end of this temporary peace. Not to mention that my divine self, the grimoire library, and the cat aren’t supposed to be living in the girls dorm at all. If you get in trouble related to the girls, we will be kicked out right along with you. I must keep that from happening. So this isn’t me meddling in your life. It is a necessary self-defense measure.)”

“(Thanks for the long-winded explanation, but what are you so worried abou-) shfh!?”

The two girls turned their attention to him. Giving him extremely curious looks.

He had felt a sharp pain under his clothes.

From a tiny fist hitting him right in the armpit. Under his clothes.

A deadly low voice reached him.

“(You think a god like me is worried?)”

“(T-try to behave if you don’t want Himegami and Fukiyose to find out.)”

“(Hmph. That’s my line.)”

“(Also, trouble related to the girls? Like what, Othinus? Kamijou Touma is a possessor of world-famous misfortune. There is no way in hell ''some unexplainable stroke of luck'' will get me on good terms with a girl.)”

“(You are even stupider than I thought, understander. Yes, you are plagued by misfortune, but this is one area where not even I can trust you. When it comes to girls, you have a tendency to assume the worst, bet against yourself, and fail miserably for it. You are having a study session in a girl’s dorm room. Why don’t you realize that alone puts you in ultra dangerous territory? Look, human. See what I mean?)”

There was something white below the low table.

It was made of cloth.

It was rolled up like a donut.

Kamijou Touma snorted with laughter.

“(What are you so afraid of, Othinus-san? Ah ha ha. Just because I’m in a sweet-smelling girl’s room doesn’t mean I’m going to just find her underwear lying around. That’s probably no more than a sock or a scrunchie. I know how things work when Kamijou-san’s generational bad luck is at work.) Hey, Himegami. What’s thi-”

It was not a scrunchie.

The black-haired shrine maiden had no use for one.

The garment in his hand really was underwear.

Under his clothes, a tiny fist drove itself into his navel. He dropped the garment below the table.

“Amyahpanteeeee!!!”

“?”

Himegami gave him a puzzled look.

He couldn’t let her find out.

He couldn’t let these sweet-smelling classmates know that, during a group study session in a girl’s room, he was secretly writhing around while toying with the girl’s panties beneath the low table and hiding a 15cm figurine girl below his clothes! That combination would have deadly results!!

“(See, it’s already happening. If I don’t keep an eye on this dumbass, who knows how many girls he’ll end up impregnating.)”

“(You’re so mad it actually calmed me down a little, but you seem excessively upset over nothing more than some underwear, Othinus. It’s the body that wears the underwear that matters! And that fact that it’s here means she must change in here instead of using the changing room. Ah ha ha h-)”



“Ohh?”



There wasn’t supposed to be anyone else here.

Yet he still heard a busty glasses girl’s whispered voice.



“I didn’t realize you had such a vivid imagination that a single piece of cloth could bring a scene like that to mind. And in such detail.”



“(Kaza…kiri-san? What are you doing here? Hold on. Is this girls dorm some kind of haunted building where supernatural people lose control or something!?)”

On the other side of the low table, Himegami and Fukiyose both tilted their heads.

Apparently they hadn’t noticed the unseen apparition.

“Stare…”

The pressure was incredible for something he couldn’t see. All of a sudden, he found himself trapped between the human girls and the divine and angelic type.

Was the apocalypse about to break loose?

For that reason, he couldn’t let Himegami and Fukiyose find out about the god (whose 15cm height let her hide under his clothes) and the angel who was fading into the air nearby. This mission was getting more challenging by the minute.

Kamijou slowly hid the garment below the low table.

He felt more trapped all the time.

“(Ehhhh? Wait, since when does Kazakiri use such an icy voice and lay on the pressure like that? I feel like we’ve entered new territory here.)”

“(By the way, why are you getting all excited by this icy reception from a normally nervous busty glasses girl?)”

“(Othinus, are you trying to turn me into a saint? Or are you a Trojan horse plotting to break down my mental barriers from the inside?)”

The study session meant to keep him from being held back had entered a new phase.

Actually, what was even going on? Having something to hide made it so much more nerve wracking!

“Um, let’s see. The next problem… Related to Physicist Young, the pinhole camera greatly contributed to humanity’s understanding of the wave theory of light. These work simply by letting light pass through a pinhole, but what is the optimal diameter for the pinhole? Dammit, Komoe-sensei just loves phrasing these confusingly.”

“It looks like a math problem at first, but it’s actually a memorization problem, right?”

“The answer is 0.4mm. …But look. You don’t get any points unless you justify your answer using the formulas for interference and diffraction.”

These anti-AI measures were such a pain!! Of course, if they didn’t have to follow instructions not found in the problem itself, then the AI could just do it all on its own.

“By the way, Fukiyose, what’s that? Isn’t there as small hole in your uniform? Like from a pin?”

“…Have you been staring at my chest?”

“Maybe you’re a perfect role model, but some of us can’t help it! Sexy boob moles are going to draw our attention!!”

And once it drew his attention, he got scared what Othinus might do to him.

After his shout of tearful desperation, Fukiyose sighed in annoyance.

“I don’t remember pinning anything there…but it’s on my chest. I was probably wearing a name tag or something. Those are common when working on things like festival committees.”

Himegami tilted her head.

And spoke.

“A 0.4mm pinhole. In other words. Even if we can’t see it. The optical image is being projected out from within? Like the underwear below the clothing?”

A loud commotion followed.

Fukiyose covered herself with both hands. Kamijou understood that was necessary. But he really wished she would do it in a way that didn’t look like she was squeezing her boobs together!

“Damn you, Kamijou.”

“That wasn’t me! Really, it’s not fair you didn’t headbutt Himegami for that one!!”

“It might be invisible to the naked eye. But a high spec smartphone might be able to see something.”

“~ ~ ~!!!?”

Was the forehead girl reacting more than usual because it had been a surprise attack from someone who normally didn’t say these things? Fukiyose would have kept her cool more if it were only Kamijou here. She was the kind of person who was unfazed even when he stumbled in on her changing. Of course, if he said that out loud, it would be enough of a bombshell to get his front teeth broken by her forehead.

Then Kamijou’s phone rang.

“Oh, dear. It’s your mother, Touma-san. Are you getting into some kind of trouble? A mother needs to keep her son from misbehaving, so I felt the need to give you a call.”

“…”

Kamijou Touma felt utterly bewildered with phone in hand. Hold on. He had already accepted that this girls dorm was a mysterious dimension that had a negative effect on 15cm gods and shy busty glasses angels, but wait a second. Since when were moms as super holy and invincible as gods and angels!?

A high school boy was hopelessly outmatched when it came to moms (without question), so Kamijou silently hung up and faced reality.

“Okay, okay. Everything’s all right, Fukiyose, so have something to drink and calm down. Here’s some barley tea.”

“Thanks…”

“I added three sugars just the way you like it.”

“Bfff! What is wrong with you!? Y-you can’t pump a girl full of wasted calories just for some stupid joke!”

“I wouldn’t talk about ‘pumping a girl full of’ something if I were you. It sounds indecent.”

“Dbhhbfbhhhh!!?”

Was this like that fountain? You know, the one in Singapore that looks like a lion but isn’t one.

Kamijou stared into the distance, but he also felt movement inside his jacket.

It was the 15cm god.

“(…)”

“(Whoa!? Hey, Othinus, don’t pinch me there! That’s Kamijou-san’s right nipple! Stop it, god. If you make me twitch like this, Himegami’s rolled up cloth will slip out from under the table!!)”

Himegami and Fukiyose both tilted their heads.