Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter4

==Chapter 4: Misaka Mikoto and the Death of Class==

===Part 1===

This was supposed to be Tokiwadai Middle School.

It was the most prestigious of the five fancy schools in the School Garden.

But Misaka Mikoto looked grim as she spied on the schoolyard from behind cover.

She had lost track of how many times she had repeated the same phrase today.

“Well, this sucks.”



“How about we take a vote? Who thinks Akazame-sensei is guilty?”

“Guilty!!” “Guilty!!” “Guilty!!” “Guilty!!” “Guilty!!” “Guilty!!”

The stadium-level roar was horrifying.

Those were cheers. All those voices were joined in anticipation and celebration.

The person using the megaphone used an old-fashioned dialect, but she was in fact a young girl. And the person about to be physically yanked from the ground by the neck was a female teacher.

No men were allowed in the School Garden, so the angry mob surrounding them was also entirely female.

“Do they really expect us to accept these new school rule proposals!? What right do they have to ban us from wearing silk or synthetic underwear!? What right do they have to demand we only wear cotton underwearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!?”

Shouts of support.

“What right do they have to ban the use of deodorant spray!? What right do they have to insist we only use certain brands of soap or shampoo!? There’s no rhyme or reason to it, so I can only imagine it’s based on some sick desires held by one of the grownups!! Find the sicko dictating our private lives while hiding behind the rest of the faculty!! Drag them out here so we can string them uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!!”

More shouts of support.

“They claim to have created the perfect environment to prepare us for life, but that was nothing but a lie! They don’t even see us as human! This place is a love doll factory where they transform us to cater to all their perverted ideals!! Death to all the teachers using the rules as an excuse to sexually harass us alllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!”

Thunderous shouts of support.

The shouting group was not some mob that had broken in. It was made of all the same girls who normally lived such pleasant lives in the School Garden.

Mikoto couldn’t bear to watch.

She agreed the new school rule proposals were awful, but they were just that: proposals. They would probably be rejected even if the students didn’t lift a finger.

“Yet they’re doing all this.”

Mikoto’s gaze focused on something that was perfectly innocent. You could find one at most any school. She didn’t know the technical term for it, but it was the metal pole used when raising a flag. It even had a device at the bottom that let you turn a crank to raise the flag.

But no one gathered around it had a flag with them.

The end of the thick wire was tied into a loop.

It went without saying that was meant to go around someone’s neck.

The meaning was clear. That shape itself was a well-known symbol.

(We haven’t even had dinner ''since that happened'', and they’re already doing this? A sanitized upbringing is a scary thing.)

It was absurd to think the upper classes never caused trouble. Did they never explode no matter what happened to them? Quite the opposite. Just look at all the wars and revolutions that had been fought around the world. No matter how graceful, refined, and ladylike the girl, she would still shout “kill” if the conditions were right.

This kind of thing was common in the west and these girls did love copying western culture.

(It doesn’t help they never learned how to vent their anger.)

Maybe some blame lay with the teachers for raising them that way. The students at a school like this probably questioned things less often than average. They weren’t used to feeling malice and they were easily influenced, so when it started to set in, it spread shockingly fast.

The girls raised here according to the adults’ wishes had completely derailed from those wishes and started rioting. It was like a failed attempt at winemaking that left the barrel full of mold.

People who tried to live pure lives without ever considering what that meant were easily shaken when the rules themselves came into question.

Pure crystals were fragile to external shocks.

Maybe Mikoto hadn’t been affected because she had exposed herself to enough impurities while wandering the streets on a daily basis.

(Even Shokuhou’s brainwashed world is better than this. In fact, where is that she-fox right now? That schemer must have taken in far more impurities than me.)

The megaphone voice continued to agitate the mob of girls.

If Mikoto didn’t intervene soon, the teacher standing up on the “gallows” would end up dangling from her neck like a mascot phone strap, but if she rushed in without a plan, she would end up ''like that'' as well. She was at the top of the ranks when it came to her power as an individual, but a battle against hundreds of high-level espers at once was something else entirely. Plus, even Academy City’s #3 had to worry about compatibility issues with a potential opponent.

Not to mention that she had to worry about keeping her friends Shirai, Uiharu, and Saten safe.

But more than any of that, no one won if a deadly fight broke out within Tokiwadai or the School Garden. They would only be pitting allies against each other.

Mikoto’s only enemy here was the agitator using the abnormal situation to transform the crowd of girls into an angry mob.

(On the other hand…)

She looked to the side.

When things got this bad, it was probably best to call in Anti-Skill from outside the School Garden, but that wasn’t an option this time and the reason why was right in front of her.

It was only three steps away.

The megafloat lightweight aluminum alloy used to build floating airports had been used to swiftly and secretly fortify the ground, but it hadn’t been perfect. Some squares of ground several meters long were just ''missing''.

Yes.

The blue of the open sky spread out before her.

The School Garden was currently floating at an altitude of 5000m.

She heard a deep thrumming.

The sound was even heavier than a chainsaw’s roar. It reminded her of a military transport plane’s engine, but the principle behind it probably wasn’t related to aircraft.

It was more like a flying car.

Or the coaxial rotors used for aerial photography drones.

(Geez. If all these cubes of earth crumbled, how many rotors the size of circular fields would we find inside? I’m sure they’re linked in parallel using a grid pattern, so shutting down individual ones would only imbalance the entire structure and send us crashing to the surface.)

That was why the ordinary laws and Academy City’s unique rules did not apply here.

She had a very physical reason she could not expect support from the adults. The entire area had been cut away before declaring its independence. No one could escape the aerial cage. Anyone who carelessly let it slip that they disagreed with the central agitator would be snitched on and ''end up like that''.

Misaka Mikoto’s exhalations were white.

How had this even happened?

She once repeated the same phrase she had used so many times today she had lost count.

“Well, this sucks.”

===Part 2===

The School Garden had not, of course, always been airborne.

It had been attached to the ground like normal until earlier that day.

===Part 3===

“Oh, wow. We’re actually inside the School Garden,” said Saten Ruiko.

She looked around the Western-style street, spread her arms horizontally like airplane wings, and flapped them up and own.

“Is it true Tokiwadai sometimes has real princesses come for the entrance exam? And they ignore all the diplomatic pressure, so they fail the princess if she isn’t up to snuff? Coming here just for fun makes me feel like a socialite☆”

She was even more excited than if she were going on a European vacation. Her step was so light it felt like someone needed to grab a hold of her before she floated away like a balloon.

Mikoto, who had come to meet her, smiled bitterly.

“You’ve been here before, remember? And there really isn’t anything here worth all the fuss. Right, Uiharu-sa-”

“Dwo ho ho ho!! Since they’re banning all photography to help protect their secrets, we have only once choice here: deep breaths! Take deep breaths, Saten-san! Inhale as many high society particles as you can so we can smuggle them home with us in our lungs and upgrade the rank of our souls!! Ohhhh ho ho ho ho! I-it actually came out right? The legendary ‘oh ho ho’ laugh comes so naturally to me here, Saten-san! I feel just like Cinderella. My soul has shed the dried husk of its skin to reveal its shining true form!! Now I can boldly use the all-purpose incantation that works for everything from ‘good morning’ to ‘goodbye’: good day to you alllll!!!! Yahoo!!”

(O-oh, no. Her dopamine levels are higher than Kuroko’s right now.)

Mikoto gulped and took a step back.

She always forgot how Uiharu Kazari was normally shy and sensible but had a weird obsession with high society girls. Make the wrong move with her and you could find yourself faced with a worldview disturbing for reasons entirely different from Shirai Kuroko’s. It was like seeing someone in a cult.

But Uiharu’s ‘oh ho ho’ laughter was not cult brainwashing. It was the same principle as the Osaka dialect imprinting on the language center of the brain after only about three days in Kansai.

In fact…

“Ohhhh ho ho ho!! Once I start assisting father in managing Kongou Airlines, we will build up a global flight network and even expand into the civilian spaceflight industry!!”

“My, that sounds wonderful, Kongou-san. It is always good to have realistic dreams.”

“The final frontiers are space, the deep sea, and I suppose the human mind. With your spirit, Kongou-sama, I imagine you will conquer all three. Hee hee.”

Yeah, most of the girls walking around here talked like they were at an opera or a masquerade, so it wasn’t surprising people who hadn’t built up a tolerance would be influenced. Just like people taking a Kansai vacation, they would probably go back to their usual way of talking after returning to their normal Academy City lives.

Anyway.

“This place isn’t as great as you think it is.” Mikoto had to smile bitterly since she knew the truth. “The teachers are always busy tacking on more incomprehensible rules. That hasn’t developed into a major issue yet since the student councils of the five schools always reject them, but it sounds like the teachers are even trying to determine what material of underwear we can wear.”

“But we’re barely ever allowed in here. What was it Tokiwadai is doing again? An interview entrance exam for recommended applicants? Whatever it was, I love that they’ve opened the place up for it.”

“It isn’t that simple,” sighed Shirai Kuroko who was feeling blue.

Since she had her armband on her right shoulder, her Judgment side was showing more than her Tokiwadai student side.

“When they open up the School Garden, people who normally can’t get in will sneak inside. We have to be ready for problems. Agh, needing to suspect anyone and everyone you see is so stressful. Just let me trust in the goodness of humanity!”

“Why would anyone cause trouble? The people coming in from outside are taking their entrance exam. And these are the ones who have a recommendation vouching for them, so I can’t imagine why they would cause trouble at the school they’re trying to get into.”

Saten wasn’t convinced, but Shirai shrugged.

“If any of them compare their academic abilities, academic record, and esper level to their rivals and conclude they can’t win, they might skip out on the interview and try to memorize as much as they can about Tokiwadai’s secret esper development tech. The past records show several cases of weirdly pessimistic yet optimistic people who are so convinced they’re going to fail they focus on gathering up as many ‘souvenirs’ as they can find.”

“Eh? But Tokiwadai is a middle school, so aren’t we talking about elementary schoolers? A-are there really people so jaded at that age that they’ll give up on getting into their dream school and work as an industrial spy for some bad grownups?”

“Sateeen. When you see those child actors turning on the waterworks in front of the camera, it isn’t because something sad happened to them. And I’m sorry to say there will always be a segment of the population who are talented but refuse to use that talent responsibly.”

Saten Ruiko herself had been in elementary school less than a year ago. And her skill at deception and cunning hadn’t popped into her head the instant she moved up to middle school.

The belief that all children were pure and innocent never survived long while working in law enforcement.

If it was true that no one could change who they were deep down, then the villains were already villains as children.

A thought that did the opposite of relieve the stress of Shirai’s job here.

“Fortunately, the struggle for one of the recommended spots has nothing at all to do with extreme commoners like us. Being heiress to a giant IT company or princess to an entire country isn’t enough to get through those super strict interviews, right? I’m never going to be a part of that world, so let’s go make the most of this School Garden visit in our own commoner way!!”

“(My point was to watch out for people resorting to crime because their ‘super strict interview; didn’t go so hot.)”

Mikoto and Shirai were out and about on a weekday morning because their classes were canceled for the day thanks to the entrance exam interviews. It seemed unlikely Uiharu and Saten’s school would be out too, so Mikoto was honestly worried they were skipping class for this.

“Please follow me, everyone. My name is Akazame-sensei. Now, when we turn this corner here, you will see the next landmark: Tokiwadai Middle School’s School Garden Dorm.”

“It’s called a crepe. You can eat one for a snack or as a meal. For a meal, you can put tuna, lettuce, and crushed-up potatoes inside. I personally recommend adding some homemade mayonnaise to make it extra delicious.”

“Onee-chaaan, where are youuu?”

There was a lot of chatter.

Supposedly, the crowds during this event were large enough to cause nearby seismographs to malfunction. That apparently caused disaster warning apps to send unnecessary alerts.

Maybe it was practice for the open campus being held later on or maybe it was meant to help the applicants judge what life here would be like, but a teacher was waving a small flag like a tour guide. A lot of food trucks were parked alongside the sidewalks and streets. And on closer inspection, there were a lot of small children not wearing uniforms. There was even a sparkly new flying car being shown off as a demonstration for something or other. It was basically just a bigger version of an aerial photography drone.

Mikoto stared off into the distance.

It wasn’t often you got to see Tokiwadai’s Ace indulge in schadenfreude.

“Poor Shokuhou. People come gawk at her dorm as a landmark now. Heh heh heh.”

“Misaka-san, your dorm has it way worse since it isn’t even inside the off-limits School Garden. People can stop by to take a look or even stake out the place any time of the year. Ah ha ha. Check the map on any urban legend site and your dorm’s location always has a pin in it. If anything, yours is the bigger landmark.”

Saten’s tone was light, but Mikoto was thoroughly petrified.

Meanwhile, Shirai’s focus was somewhere else entirely. She lightly tapped on Uiharu’s shoulder to gather the attention of the other girl wearing the same armband.

“That girl has called for her sister three times now. Outsiders aren’t allowed to take videos inside the School Garden, so I doubt this is a prank video meant to see how ordinary people react. It’s safe to assume she’s lost and I would put the risk level at low. Let’s go help her.”

“Fine, but…wait. Am I even allowed to do Judgment work in the School Garden?”

Technically speaking, all law enforcement work outdoors was Anti-Skill work.

But once those two switched to work mode, they were Judgment through and through. They eliminated their own inexperienced and unreliable side as soon as they spotted a small child crying on the side of the road. They were aware the best way to make someone feel safe was to avoid showing them the ordinary weakness everyone had.

The girl had shoulder length flaxen hair. Her bangs were cut along a perfect horizontal line, which added a touch of Japanese aesthetic. She was even shorter than relatively small Shirai, but she was wearing a suit. She may have been one of the applicants here for the entrance exam interview, but she looked more like she was dressed up for Shichi-Go-San.

“We are with Judgment. I am Shirai and this is Uiharu. Is something wrong, young lady?”

“Wow, look at Shirai-san. I never imagined that pervert could sound like the host of an educational program.”

Shirai felt like murdering Saten for that, but she did her best not to let it show on her face. They taught you how to speak to small children in Judgment, but of course an outsider wouldn’t know that.

“Be nice, Saten-san. She might be a pervert, but she’s the kind of pervert who can set her perversions aside when there’s work to be done.”

“Uiharu!? You’re not even an outsider, so maybe I really should murder you!”

She heard some quiet laughter.

It came from the girl. She had been tearfully calling for her sister before, but now she was laughing. Talk about a stroke of good luck. Shirai suddenly recalled a busty track suit teacher from some joint training they did with Anti-Skill saying you could help bridge the emotional gap between yourself and someone in need of help by acting silly and pretending to make harmless mistakes.

Whatever the case, the girl was willing to open up to them now.

“My sister isn’t here.”

“Oh, so you really are lost. What’s her name? Do you have a photo? In your phone’s photo album, maybe?”

“I don’t mean it like that.”

Uiharu was better at dealing with lost children than Shirai. She crouched down to the girl’s eye level and tried to get the information they needed to search out her sister, but the girl stopped her.

The record needle hit a small scratch and popped out of the expected groove.

It flew far off course.

“''My sister has gone missing.''”

===Part 4===

“Sigh. I haven’t been at this branch in forever.”

“But Branch 003 is the Tokiwadai branch, Shirai-san. It’s the one you actually belong to, for crying out loud. You shouldn’t spend so much time at Branch 177.”

“Come to think of it, doesn’t Shirai-san’s favorite teacup live over at Branch 177 nowadays?”

They complained while Shirai unlocked the door and they all walked in. The lost girl was among them.

The small girl’s name was Yugure Tsumebakei.

She wasn’t wearing a uniform and she was only 12. That meant she was in the 6th grade, which made it obvious what she was doing at the School Garden today. She was here for an exam interview at Tokiwadai.

Even though the School Garden was about the safest place someone could be, the children showing up for their crucial exam would normally be accompanied by a female family member like a mother or sister or some private bodyguards hired by their family. Bringing family was apparently popular because they were so rarely allowed inside Academy City. Tsumebakei was supposed to have had her sister Yugure Kanaria looking after her since she was a 2nd year at Tokiwadai.

“Oh, hey. So you’re Canary-chan’s sister, Yugure-san?”

Mikoto realized she recognized those flaxen bangs cut straight across like that. But Kanaria had long hair that fell to her hips.

“You are in the second year too, aren’t you, Misaka-san?” said Uiharu. “So is that sister a friend of yours?”

“A classmate. You do not want to mess with her.”

Her stupid mouth let that slip with a smile.

Just as the younger girl’s face had lit up at finding a friend of her lost family member – and one who knew her well enough to call her by a nickname – she was hit by that harsh comment. Clear drops were growing in the 12-year-old’s eyes.

Shirai Kuroko was in justice mode right now, so she shouted in a way that made one imagine a pair of horns growing from her forehead.

“Ugh, Onee-sama!!”

“Eh? Oh, I didn’t mean it like that! I meant you wouldn’t want to fight her because of her power, but she’s a nice person so it’s not like that would ever happen!!”

Mikoto quickly retracted her statement while pulling out her phone and trying to contact the girl in question. But she didn’t receive a response. Saying things looked bad would only have made the younger sister cry, so Mikoto made eye contact with Saten instead.

She couldn’t reach her classmate’s phone.

That meant it was either turned off or deep underground. But in Academy City, it was actually hard to find places that didn’t get a signal.

Saten took the hint and casually changed the subject.

“But you’re #3 in the entire city, Misaka-san. What kind of power makes you not want to fight her? Tokiwadai is crawling with monsters, isn’t it?”

“Micro Dying,” said Mikoto with a fair amount of exasperation in her voice. “Basically, Canary-chan’s power lets her kill all microscopic microbes with a touch. She’s ranked at Level 3, but she’s definitely stronger than that. You realllly don’t want to fight her.”

Yugure Tsumebakei fidgeted on the sofa, unsure how to react to this. She could tell this was meant as a compliment of her beloved big sister, but she clearly didn’t like how Mikoto’s compliments were so focused on fighting.

“Huh? But, Misaka-san, how is that any different from medicinal soap?”

Saten sounded confused by the explanation, so Mikoto smiled and clarified.

“Because she can rub her palm against your belly and wipe out all of your intestinal bacteria, both the good and the bad. We can only stay healthy because of the barrier of microbes protecting us. What do you think would happen to us if all of those microbes were suddenly taken from us? To be blunt, we would start growing mold inside our bodies and then it’s game over. We’d even have mold all over our skin and in our mouths.”

“Ew,” groaned Saten.

That girl could eliminate microbes at a touch, so she wouldn’t need a hazmat suit or a mask to protect against germs. She could even suicidally scatter all kinds of killer viruses around while remaining entirely unharmed herself. If she put her mind to it, she could become an assassin or cause devastation on an international scale. Mikoto honestly thought that power was more dangerous than her own Railgun if you looked just at how deadly it was.

''Yugure Kanaria’s power could be unimaginably dangerous when combined with the right kind of cunning, but the girl herself was peaceful and afflicted with a super slow-motion curse, so none of those possibilities had ever occurred to her.

Saten tilted her head.

“So, um, Tsumebakei-san was it?” asked Shirai. “Do you have a similar power?”

“No.”

Yugure Tsumebakei wasn’t obligated to answer since it wouldn’t help find her sister, but she must have been the trusting type. She answered the casual question with a shake of her head and went on to explain.

“My power is Macro Dying. It’s very different from my sister’s.”

“Macro?”

“I can pull the data from the Bank.” Uiharu looked like she was unsure if she should, but she had already completed the search. “Macro Dying. Level 4. She can increase the size of and control the red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, plasma, macrophages, cholesterol, amino acids, and other components in her blood. For example, she can cause a white blood cell to grow to 2m across and have it swallow and digest an attacker nearly instantly. Huh, that is an extremely rare type of power. Even more so than Shirai-san’s Teleportation.”

Even Mikoto couldn’t believe her ears.

How many of those components were in a single drop of blood? She was pretty sure there were 5 to 10 thousand of the white blood cells that fought foreign invaders. If that explanation was accurate, then she was the type of high-level esper who could basically command an army. That contrasted Mikoto or Shirai whose strengths were as an individual. It was certainly a different category from her sister Kanaria, but it was similarly difficult to rank on the Level scale. Mikoto could think of a number of clever ways to make use of that power. One idea even made her hold a hand to her forehead. If that power still applied with transfusions and dialysis, couldn’t that girl basically bring about the end of the world?

Saten, being Saten, was focused squarely on the Level system.

“So this cute little thing is secretly a monster on the inside? Ugh, and she’s a Level 4 at her age? It feels like I’m in a bicycle race and someone just passed me using a rocket engine. But I guess she is the kind of genius girl who gets recommended to apply to Tokiwadai.”

“I really don’t like my power.”

“Why not? It’s Level 4!”

“I don’t like needles, but I have to extract some of my blood every time I use my power.”

Come to think of it, she would need to do that, wouldn’t she?

In that sense, her power required a lot of setup in a way Mikoto’s didn’t.

Shirai Kuroko started to recommend the girl converted to the Church of Onee-sama so she could trigger a nosebleed at will using her fantasies, but Mikoto smiled and shut her up with a solid punch.

“So what makes you say Canary-chan has ''gone missing''?”



It was finally time to get down to business.

When they had first approached Yugure Tsumebakei, she had said her sister had “gone missing”. It didn’t sound like she had just been waiting at the wrong time or location or they had gotten separated in a crowd.

“My sister is missing,” said Yugure Tsumebakei with her small fists clenched in her lap. “We were supposed to meet up right away, but she called to say she was searching for something. She said she couldn’t let someone find out she was searching for whatever it was, but she promised to come meet me as soon as she was done. I waited and waited, but she never showed up.”

That meant the girl was ''up to something'' during the entrance exams.

Mikoto and Shirai exchanged a glance and Shirai formed an X with her index fingers in front of her lips. The look in her eyes said, “I know, but don’t you dare say anything that would worry her.” Very forcefully said it, at that.

There were three general possibilities here.

1. Kanaria’s disappearance had nothing to do with the suspicious circumstances. For example, she had made a quick detour for a snack and forgotten all about her promise to meet with her sister, or she couldn’t answer her phone or meet her sister because a teacher was getting after her over some minor infraction. There were any number of peaceful possibilities like that.

2. Kanaria’s disappearance had everything to do with the suspicious circumstances. For example, she had tried to reveal some of the data theft common during entrance exam season and got herself into trouble.

3. Yugure Kanaria herself was stealing secret information.

Mikoto sighed.

“It doesn’t prove much of anything, but Canary-chan is in the newspaper club. And for how easygoing she is, she’s a stickler for keeping promises and has a strong sense of justice.”

“Oh? If she has an overabundance of justice, she should come join us in Judgment.”

“She’s afflicted with a super slow-motion curse, so apparently she failed the physical exam when she tried to join.”

“She fai- she couldn’t get past that? I-I thought it was just for show. I mean, it’s so insultingly easy even ''Uiharu'' passed.”

“Shirai-san…” groaned Uiharu, but everyone ignored her.

Shirai had avoided using the word “fail” after remembering Yugure Tsumebakei was here for an exam.

Mikoto sighed.

“She apparently joined the newspaper club to help create a civilian group that could increase transparency by keeping an eye on both Anti-Skill and Judgement. So I’m guessing this is option number 2.”

But that wasn’t enough to put her sister at ease. Even if Kanaria was innocent of all wrongdoing, they still couldn’t get in touch with her. The presence of a separate villain removed all suspicion from her, but it did nothing to guarantee her safety.

What had she found and who had she been pursuing?

If she had been so busy she had left her little sister all alone, she must have been approaching the climax of whatever story she was pursuing for the newspaper. But then someone had gotten in her way and now she had gone missing.

Mikoto concluded that learning what story she was working on would be the fastest way to figure out how to help her.

“But, Misaka-san.”

They weren’t in the familiar Branch 177, but Saten had already figured out how to use the kitchenette and had made herself some cocoa with warm milk. But after some thought, she passed it to young Tsumebakei instead of drinking it herself.

“This is the School Garden. It’s the ultimate educational environment funded by Tokiwadai and four other fancy schools. Is there even crime here? And we’re talking about an entire person disappearing without a trace.”

Saten would be aware that, if you wanted to keep a worried witness’s trust, you could never bluntly reject what they told you, no matter how absurd it might sound.

So her question was meant to lead into a response from an expert.

She had stepped on the landmine herself by immediately rejecting the idea and saying it wasn’t possible because she hoped to ease some of lonely Yugure Tsumebakei’s worries.

So she started sweating when Mikoto didn’t immediately respond.

The look on her face said she really wanted someone to follow up on her question.

“Um, uh, Misaka-san? Shirai-san? Hello?”

She tried to get an answer out of them again, but both the Tokiwadai students were reluctant to speak.

Mikoto looked to Shirai.

“What do you think, Kuroko?”

“I have my doubts about those stories, but I suppose it is a possibility.”

===Part 5===

To start with, they made sure 12-year-old Yugure Tsumebakei could focus on her exam interview. Having a recommendation gave her better odds than if not, but it was still crucial she performed well. Even if she was trying to find her sister, screwing this up really could influence the rest of her life.

“Don’t worry.”

When they parted ways, Mikoto exchanged numbers with her, held out her little finger, and made a promise. 

“Canary-chan is my classmate. I promise you I’ll find her, so you relax and go to your exam.”

“Okay…”

“I promise you there’s nothing to worry about. Now, get going. Akazame-sensei is calling.”

Mikoto kept a smile until the small girl had disappeared around the hallway corner.

And then…

“If a serious crime has occurred in the School Garden, it must be in one of the ''Lost Pieces''.”

Whether or not they were familiar with that term was plain to see on their faces.

There was suspicion of industrial spies trying to use the entrance exam season to sneak in and steal data, but this was still the untouchable School Garden. The security there wasn’t so lax that an entire person could just disappear. All the likely places were patrolled by Judgment or security robots and none of the security cameras at the limited gates out had shown Yugure Kanaria.

That meant she was inside the School Garden but in some unique cranny none of the five schools could touch. There was no way for her to disappear otherwise.

Mikoto and Shirai were familiar with the term. Uiharu and Saten were not.

Uiharu hesitantly asked about it.

“What are the Lost Pieces?”

“Do you remember what Saten-san said about the School Garden being the ultimate educational environment funded by the five schools here? She wasn’t wrong about that.” Mikoto pointed her thumb toward the entrance. “But to put it another way, the School Garden looks peaceful at first glance, but it’s actually locked in a constant struggle for power between the five schools. There are invisible lines dividing the ‘turfs’ of each school’s students. They’re like national borders. But there are some dangerous disputed zones that every school claims are theirs, causing tensions to grow.”

“Those are called the Lost Pieces,” said Kuroko. “Because they’re like missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle forming the School Garden. Since everyone claims them, no one can manage them properly. So those are the only areas not patrolled by security robots or monitored by security cameras. Not even the teachers can agree on which school is in charge of security there.”

And a lack of surveillance created a blind spot where unspeakable desires could be released. They might only look like an abandoned construction site or an artificial forest, but they meant so much more to the right people.

Humans were human. Mikoto knew better than anyone that the pure girls here were not saints. In fact, all the studying and perfect etiquette the adults forced onto them at all times could cause stress to build up until it exploded out in one of those unmonitored areas.

Bluish-white sparks crackled from Mikoto’s bangs.

“Honestly, finding this is the work of a secret delinquent from one of the schools is probably the best case scenario.”

“Yes, this is such an irritating time what with the industrial spies trying to sneak in during the entrance exams. Combine that with a justice-minded girl afflicted with a super slow-motion curse and I have a very bad feeling about this.”

The four of them rushed out of the school building.

The inorganic stone buildings along the European-style streets felt so much different now that they knew someone had gone missing here. And none of the people living in that peaceful world were aware of it. It felt like the part of a dystopian SF movie where the big corporation insists their new technology is perfectly safe. With the streets without a speck of litter and the smiling employees at the polished cafés, there was no darker side to be found, which only made the girls more suspicious of everything.

“What standards should we really be striving toward!? Is unquestioningly obeying the adults really the key to improving ourselves!?”

“Wow.”

But Saten reacted a little too sensitively to what she heard coming from the LCD ads on the decorative pillars.

“We have no intention of stopping with Tokiwadai! We intend to provide greater autonomy to every student in the School Garden and through that ensure we can all take responsibility in our own actions!! None of us should simply follow the rules the adults have set for us! Only by thinking through the reasons behind the rules we should follow can we find true consideration for each other!”

Did it really matter if they were testing replacing the wind turbines with solar panels? But Saten tapped Mikoto on the shoulder.

“Misaka-san, what is that?”

“A debate being held between the schools, I think. Like I said, as peaceful as things look here, the five schools are having constant turf wars. The adults think healthy competition provides fuel to increase our powers, so the adults never intervene to stop it.”

“Um, but that person is acting like a representative of Tokiwadai on TV,” said Uiharu.

“She can claim whatever she wants,” bluntly stated Mikoto. “I don’t know who ''that redhead'' is, but she’s not even part of the student council. Besides, Tokiwadai is focused more on individual esper powers and the conflicts between our cliques, so I don’t see what a debate like this can really accomplish. I can’t speak for the other four schools, but for us, this at most lets you advertise your club or clique. It isn’t popular enough for anyone to compete for the spot and no one will feel jealous seeing someone else calling themselves our representative.”

An eloquent speech with no group backing it wasn’t enough to solve anything in the real world. When there were problems between the students, it was simpler to either fight it out with their esper powers or have their cliques apply pressure to each other. And that didn’t just apply to Tokiwadai. The girls here still clung to the outdated traditions of the nobility, so they seemed to like the sound of the word “duel”. Otherwise, they wouldn’t praise Mikoto as the Ace for being the strongest individual or Shokuhou as the Queen for leading the strongest group.

Mikoto understood finding everything suspicious right now, but there was no point in wasting their time with the debate playing on TV. They had a much more real problem to face.

What had Tokiwadai 2nd Year Yugure Kanaria seen in a Lost Piece, who had made her vanish, and where had she ended up?

“Is that all?” complained Saten Ruko after taking a peek past the tall metal wall and into the abandoned construction site that was one of the Lost Pieces. “But it’s so normal. You described this as a lawless zone, so I was expecting to find every wall to be covered in post-apocalyptic graffiti.”

“Keep in mind this is still inside the School Garden.” Mikoto shrugged. “The official story is that construction of the building was protested in the name of scenery preservation, but I have my doubts. I think the real reason is an 8-story building here would have obstructed the phone signal at Shidarezakura. Does that sound like too modern a reason for a traditional girl’s school? No matter how much history or tradition a school has, all the students and teachers are constantly on their phones.”

While it was a construction site, there weren’t rough piles of pipes stacked up on the bare dirt. A building that looked an awful lot like a Greek temple had been abandoned half built. The plan had been for it to be a recreation facility including a gym and a bath, but those plans had been canceled and now it sat here unfinished.

There weren’t any signs as obvious as cigarette butts on the ground, but there were a few footprints. That meant there were some girls who found this place comfortable enough to visit.

“Uiharu,” said Shirai.

“Yes, yes. According to her Bank data, Yugure Kanaria’s shoe size is 22cm. Let’s see…I can use my PDA’s camera as an electronic ruler, but it looks like none of these were her.”

Photography was banned all across the School Garden and not just in Tokiwadai. Any function that used the camera would be deactivated without a Judgment device.

If Kanaria had come here and seen something she shouldn’t have, her footprints would be here. Since the whole point was for her to have been disappeared in one of the Lost Pieces, she wouldn’t have been knocked out elsewhere and carried here. Then the crime would have been noticed.

They concluded this Lost Piece wasn’t the one they wanted and moved to the next one.

Saten spoke up on the way there.

“Hey, wait. Judgment can access data on all our measurements?”

“Sex, age, height, and weight are the basic pieces of data needed to identify a suspicious figure seen on a security camera. And the more data we have, the better.”

“Weight too!? Please don’t tell me you have our body fat ratio!”

Saten felt like this should be a crisis for any girl, but Uiharu didn’t seem to care. Was it like how doctors were professionals and thus didn’t get flustered about seeing a patient naked?

All the LCD ads around were playing that debate from earlier. But Mikoto had missed the topic of debate, so she wasn’t entirely sure what the 5 schools were trying to say.

“Clean energy is not enough for us. I demand safe energy as well. We must do more than enjoy ourselves in the present. This is the first step toward being adults aware of our responsibility to the future. The wind turbines used across Academy City have received some criticism over the low frequency waves produced by the friction as they turn, so I suggest replacing them with silent solar energy.”

“Flying cars have already reached the practical stage of development. But can we really allow them to be managed by the existing driver’s license system? Should they require a pilot’s license, which is even more difficult to obtain? I say no. Why not create a new system that instead lowers the barrier to entry? As long as we can learn how to operate them safely, why can’t middle school students like ourselves use these flying cars?”

“Independence! We demand independence!! Leaving your parents and setting out on your own is a crucial step toward obtaining your own identity.”

Saten looked bored. A lot of people disliked that any voices at all were coming from the streetside LCD ads, so what they were saying didn’t matter.

“What the heck are they talking about?”

“They’re taking it in some confusing directions, but I think they might be debating on the general category of what it means to be an adult.”

At any rate, Mikoto guided them to some woods that seemed out of place among the stone buildings.

An unnatural thicket of conifer trees grew in between the buildings. It didn’t look like a well-maintained park.

“This artificial forest is next. The only other ones I’m familiar with are the subway station remains, the abandoned bell tower, and the server center that has never been run despite its ridiculous communications capacity.”

“Why would prestigious schools be fighting over those places? No, wait, forget I asked. I don’t want to get roped into any trouble for knowing the truth of this fancy place.”

Rumor-loving Saten actually opted out of learning some new rumors.

However…

“Onee-sama, I can’t help but wonder why you are familiar with so many different Lost Pieces. I am especially curious why you seemed to be checking a map on your phone while leading us here.”

Mikoto coughed and refused to look Shirai in the eye.

The position of Academy City’s #3 came with its own pressures, so sometimes she wanted to step away from all of that. She didn’t know for sure, but she guessed the #5 was also familiar with the Lost Pieces.

Uiharu viewed the area through her PDA and then shouted excitedly.

“Oh, a match! Official Tokiwadai loafers, 22cm. Of course, that isn’t enough to guarantee it’s her.”

“It’s still better than what we found at the constructions site. Let’s take a closer look.”

Mikoto’s group stepped into the artificial forest growing in a gap within the city.

However, the forest didn’t have anything going for it aside from the lack of surveillance. The conifer trees didn’t grow any fruit like apples or peaches and there weren’t any rhino beetles around during this season, so there was nothing exciting to find. They couldn’t even sit down on the ground without getting the dark soil on their uniforms. The artificial conifer forest was nothing more than a pollen factory.

Saten lost interest really fast.

“Huh. So when the girls here know no one is watching, the best they can come up with is go forest bathing? High society delinquents are lame.”

“Saten.”

“Shirai-san, I can understand getting together with your friends at that construction site,” said Uiharu. “But wouldn’t you just get swarmed by mosquitos if you came here during the summer?”

That was when Mikoto tilted her head with electricity crackling from her bangs.

“There’s something further in.”

“What is it, Onee-sama?”

“The microwaves I’m sending out are getting a weird reaction from the ground. This isn’t anything natural, like a rock or a fallen tree. It’s more artificial…square shaped even. Could it be a metal cover on the ground? But it doesn’t seem like a manhole cover. It’s too big. The reaction I’m getting is 2m across.”

“Wait, Misaka-san! There is no such thing as a square manhole. As a square, you could tilt it along the diagonal like this and the heavy lid would fall right in the hole, so they’re specifically designed to prevent that! All the manholes covers you see on the road are circles so they won’t fall through no matter how they’re situated on top!!”

All four of them exchanged a glance.

If Saten was right, then this metal cover wasn’t to a manhole. Then what was it? What other metal covers did you find on the ground?

Yugure Kanaria had gone missing after discovering something.

They may have been approaching whatever it was. Uiharu walked further into the woods with Mikoto and Shirai.

“Why is your head so full of useless trivia, Saten-san?”

“Because, Uiharu, manholes are a treasure trove of urban legends. Some say they’re holes meant to drop bodies in and others say there are bizarre monsters living below. The sewers they connect to are even said to be home to ''white alligators''.”

Uiharu wasn’t sure what to say when Saten looked so proud of herself for this. Had her friend failed to notice the “useless” qualifier she had used?

Mikoto came to a stop after reaching the point indicated by her microwaves.

“It’s here.”

“It looks like ordinary soil to me.”

“But look at my PDA, Shirai-san. Those 22cm footprints walk right up to this spot and then vanish.”

“What does that mean?” asked Saten.

Mikoto answered her by casually raising her right hand.

She was using her magnetic control.

The dark soil on top was blown away and a metal cover 2m long, 2m wide, and more than 3cm thick rose into Mikoto’s palm.

The square hole below revealed sturdy-looking stainless steel stairs leading down. Mikoto tossed the metal cover aside and aimed her phone’s LED light inside, but she still couldn’t see the bottom.

“I’ve heard they sell simple tornado shelters in America for people to bury in their yard, but I don’t think that’s what this is. I’m pretty sure those are more like burying a small storage shed, but this just keeps going deeper.”

“Wow! It’s like an evil secret base, Uiharu.”

“It couldn’t possibly be evil. This is the School Garden funded by those five super classy schools, remember?”

Uiharu’s comment put some very uncomfortable looks on Mikoto and Shirai’s faces.

This was far too largescale to be the work of an individual. It was probably one of those five schools that had built this underground facility.

And those same schools were fighting over who owned this artificial forest.

“What did you see, Canary-chan? This is starting to look really dangerous.”

“The footprints end here, so we have to go down these stairs to figure out what that person saw, don’t we? Don’t we!?”

Saten’s love of urban legends had her giddy with excitement at the prospect of pursuing this new mystery.

But had she really thought this through?

It was true Yugure Kanaria had probably descended these stairs since her footprints ended here, but the entrance had been sealed by that heavy metal cover and soil had been placed on top to hide it.

Kanaria couldn’t have done that from the inside. Not physically and not with her esper power, Micro Dying. They also hadn’t seen any of her footprints leading back out of the woods. Didn’t that mean something had had happened to her down those stairs and then someone else had shut the heavy metal cover from the outside and covered it with soil to delay anyone from discovering her?

===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.”

===Part 7===

Shortly before that, 12-year-old Yugure Tsumebakei couldn’t focus on what she was saying.

The teachers across from her looked uncertain.

But not because she was saying anything weird.

Her responses to the interview had been perfect. They had been so painfully perfect they almost seemed robotic.

Mikoto’s group had contacted the adults, so the teachers would know about her situation. That meant they would be aware the young hopeful student was preoccupied. The School Garden was supposed to be unquestionably safe yet her sister had gone missing there. Anyone would have difficulty focusing on their entrance exam in those circumstances, so the Tokiwadai teachers’ opinions were split.

Some wanted to make an exception and push back her interview to a later date.

Some thought it would be unfair to the other hopeful students to allow any kind of exception.

Although none of them considered that their thoughtfulness actually put more pressure on her young heart. The interviewers, who were meant to place pressure on her, were all being unusually nice, which made her think something really bad had happened to her sister.

“Yugure-san, why don’t you take a break?” suggested the woman directly across from her. Akazame-sensei, was it? “Don’t worry. It will not affect the evaluation of your exam.”

The two factions of teachers had settled on that as a compromise.

All entrance exams were a coldhearted system used to select some people over others, but some kindness was allowed as well. The decisions made on those exams could literally influence the rest of someone’s life, after all. And the interviewers did not do this because they wanted to fail people. They wanted to find the most qualified people in the group.

Don’t worry.

That phrase made Tsumebakei look down at her right pinky finger.

An apparent friend of her sister had said the same thing while making a promise. She had nothing to prove that friend could make good on the promise, but she had to believe in it.

She thanked the teachers and left the exam room on unsteady legs, but what was she supposed to do now? If running around outside would find her sister, she was willing to run all the way around the planet, but she knew it wasn’t that simple.

After leaving the building, her own weight got the better of her and she collapsed onto the ground.

She was smart enough to know there was nothing she could do.

She understood that all too well in her own young way.

“Uhh.”

Why did this have to happen?

She had said all sorts of nice-sounding things to the teachers during the interview, but she didn’t actually have any grand dreams for her future. She only wanted to go to the same school as her sister. She only wanted to walk to school with her beloved sister every day. Had that been wrong of her? She didn’t know what had actually happened, but would her sister not have gotten into trouble today if she hadn’t tried to go to Tokiwadai?

Maybe she had been wrong to want that.

What if it was her fault her sister was in trouble?

But then why was it her sister who had to suffer and not her?

“No. I don’t care about Tokiwadai anymore. I don’t care about my future, so I’ll give up on all my dreams. Just give Onee-chan back…”

What was done was done, so this bargaining was meaningless.

She wasn’t even sure who or what she was bargaining with. Was she asking an invisible demon to alter fate to bring her sister back to her?

But she wasn’t even allowed that self-destructive wish. She was no more than a powerless observer.

And while she sat on the ground feeling so pitiful, things took a turn for her.

Yes…

“Oh? What are you doing out here?”

She heard a voice.

When she raised her lowered head, she saw a girl with long blonde hair.

“Who are you?”

“Hee hee. You must be Hoatzin-san☆ I’m Canary-san’s friend.”

Her heart leapt in her chest.

And the older blonde girl had more to say.

“Did Misaka-san’s group not contact you because they wanted you to focus on your interviewing ability? Fortunately, I heard allll about what happened from them☆”

“…?”

“You have nothing to worry about.”

The sweet-smelling girl bent her knees to bring herself to Tsumebakei’s eye level.

“Misaka-san found Canary-chan just like she promised.”

“Ah.”

“The school is looking after her, so there really, truly is nothing to worry about. She’s receiving medical care now, but it’s nothing serious. You should be able to see her soon.”

“Ahh, wahhhhhhh!!”

Tsumebakei leaped into the older girl’s arms and bawled.

“I was scared!! So scared!!”

“Anyone would be.”

“Onee-chan, sob, Onee-chan. I thought this was my fault. I thought none of it would have happened if I hadn’t tried to go to Tokiwadai!!”

“You were overthinking it. That would never happen.”

The confidence in the blonde girl’s voice soaked into lonely Tsumebakei’s heart like nothing else.

“Now listen, Hoatzin-san. Your dreams aren’t going to hurt anyone. There’s no reason at all to stop yourself from wanting to walk to school with and go to school with your sister. So throw out all that worrying ability. Turn around, march back into that building, and do your very best at that interview. I’m sure Canary-san wants to go to school with you too☆”

“Okay!!” she cheerfully replied, still clinging to the older girl.

All the dark feelings had vanished from her heart.

“Huh? But wait a second.”

“Yes?”

“How did you know my dream was to go to school with my sister? I never even told her about-”



Shokuhou Misaki pressed the button on the TV remote pressed against the girl’s back.

Yugure Tsumebakei fainted like her power switch had been flipped.

This was Academy City’s #5 Level 5, Mental Out, the strongest of the psychological powers.

She gently patted the back of the girl who had fallen into sweet dreams, but the blonde queen also clicked her tongue at her own mistake.

“Well, I sure screwed that one up!! I went as far as ''digging up'' their pet names for each other and then ruin it all with a stupid mistake!? Knowing someone ''too well'' has its own problems. I really do mess up the details when I try to work my adlib ability. I was supposed to put her at ease even if it meant lying to her and then I end up knocking her out about as forcibly as possible.”

Yes.

Young Tsumebakei normally wouldn’t open up so much to a middle schooler she had never met. Even if that middle schooler had been wearing a Judgment armband and had mentioned someone she knew like Misaka, she would have been on her guard.

But none of that mattered to Mental Out.

Shokuhou Misaki had not in fact been in contact with Misaka Mikoto since the two of them did not get along at all.

She had been smiling with Yugure Tsumebakei and mechanically constructing a conversation by assessing the situation and choosing the best phrase to use next like she was choosing a chess move. Whenever she pulled one statement from Tsumebakei’s mouth, she obtained all the surrounding terms as well. Once she had drawn out the terms “Misaka-san”, “searching for” and “Yugure Kanaria”, it wasn’t hard to find the right things to say to soothe the crying child. But this time, Shokuhou had delved too deep into the target’s mind and it had all backfired.

(No one tells the people they truly love about their plans for the future. How could I forget something so basic? When did my sensibilities get so distorted?)

“Queen.”

“Hokaze, I order you to treat this girl like she is me and protect her life, her assets, and everything else she holds dear. Protect her with your life☆”

That ringlets girl was Shokuhou’s most trusted aide and bodyguard and she always faithfully carried out her queen’s commands. Thus, when she asked a question, it was only to confirm some information she felt was necessary to carry out that command.

Hokaze Junko expressed her concern.

“Is something about to happen that will require me to protect her with my life? But Tokiwadai is so peaceful.”

“The usual state of affairs isn’t going to apply much longer. We’re about to see a major panic brought on by some extreme Peter Pan Syndromes.”

Then Shokuhou Misaki looked away and grumbled under her breath.

Disaster warning app alerts were going off all around. The chain reaction was like ripples spreading throughout the School Garden and it would reach Shokuhou and Hokaze’s phones eventually.

The low rumbling below their feet was growing.

That rumbling came from a large number of enormous motors.

“What are you even doing, Misaka-san?”

===Part 8===

The School Garden, which contained five girls’ schools including Tokiwadai Middle School, flew high into the sky.

The ground had been secretly reinforced with a megafloat foundation and the near endless solar energy collected while above the clouds was used to pour an overwhelming amount of power into a vertical takeoff system that was essentially a much larger version of a flying car.

Yugure Kanaria had called this Independence Day.

Mikoto’s group had failed to stop it.

===Part 9===

That brings us back to where we started.

Misaka Mikoto clicked her tongue at the changed world she saw while spying on the schoolyard.

(We’re 5000m up and the entire ground below the School Garden was remade in secret? What kind of tech did they even use?)

There was a strong tone of exasperation in Mikoto’s thoughts.

To be fair, the Eurotunnel linking the UK and France was nearly 40km long and the total length of a major city’s subway had to be hundreds if not thousands of kilometers. As a collection of 5 schools, the School Garden was only a few kilometers across. Digging below it, reinforcing it, creating an artificial space there, and using cubes of lightweight aluminum alloy to transform the ground into a giant aerial float wasn’t impossible.

(But just like with the Eurotunnel or a major city’s subway, actually doing it would require amounts of money discussed in national budgets. Some of the girls here are absurdly rich, but this goes beyond what even they could do as a prank.)

Only a few hours had passed since it had all started. It wasn’t even dinnertime yet.

Barely any time had passed since inviting Uiharu and Saten into the School Garden. The sun hadn’t set and the sky was still blue.

Nevertheless.

A redhead with shoulder length hair held a megaphone at the center of it all. Based on her figure, she had to be a year older than Mikoto, making her a third year. Unfortunately, her uniform was a Tokiwadai one.

The agitator spoke with a tiara sparkling on her head.

“How about we take a vote? Who thinks Akazame-sensei is guilty?”

“Guilty!!” “Guilty!!” “Guilty!!” “Guilty!!” “Guilty!!” “Guilty!!”

Could they run away? Even if it meant jumping from an altitude of 5000m?

No one made those reckless but understandable suggestions.

In fact, they all agreed.

Did they not care who was in charge as long as they personally were safe? Or had they taken a liking to this newfound freedom even if it was self-destructive?

A teacher had been forced up onto the “gallows”, which was actually the metal flagpole. The thick metal wire hanging from the pole looked sinister with its end tied into a loop.

The usual safe and comfortable School Garden was nowhere to be found. Academy City’s rules no longer applied and Japan’s constitution probably didn’t either.

This was an airborne jail with no escape in any direction.

Mikoto glanced down at her phone. It did have a signal, but the connection timed out when she tried to access any sites outside of the School Garden. Cell phone signals couldn’t reach 5000m into the air, so she couldn’t access the surface.

(Did whoever did this set up a huge base antenna of their own? Or is this a satellite connection?)

Whatever the case, she couldn’t call for help.

She could only trust that Academy City’s adults were working toward a solution without needing anyone to point out to them that a chunk of the city had taken flight.

If this was a scaled-up version of a flying car, then it would use electric motors. But to keep something the size of the School Garden airborne would require high-level synchronization from a large number of large motors. If Mikoto stopped them one by one with her power, the large flat structure could easily tilt and then crash down into the surface.

This could have led to a panic, but the scales had tilted in the culprit’s favor. Once it was made clear they could live here and resume their ordinary life indefinitely here, most of the students would decide it was a problem but not one they needed to risk their safety to solve right away.

How did the water supply work after leaving the ground? Maybe they could move around at will and they would resupply by passing below rainclouds.

Imagine a long line in front of a sweets shop. What if a lost child were crying right next to that line? Any one person from the line only needed to leave the line, kneel down, and help the child with a smile, but would anyone choose to be that one person? If they left the line, they lost their chance to buy the sweets they wanted.

This was known as passive acceptance.

And the culprit had provided another factor here as well: active acceptance.

“All of Academy City’s social problems were created by the adults!”

The agitator used her megaphone to speak to the crowd around her.

This was the real reason everyone was so incensed.

“Why did they need to separate us out by Level if all they want to do is mess with our brains to develop esper powers!? Why do the researchers get to cover up all the horrific things they do in the name of ‘protecting city secrets’!? Because this city is designed to benefit the adults! The growth of your students shouldn’t be something you budget out!! If they let us choose how far we take our own development, so much tragedy and frustration could be avoided. At the very least, we could accept whatever happened as the result of our own actions!! So I say to you Academy City needs no teachers. If this is truly meant to be a city of academia, it should be a city designed to promote learning. This small area – not even a full district – can act as a test case. Once we prove the effectiveness of this method, the rest of the city will follow! Our actions here will truly liberate Academy City!!”

(The agitator is the redhead from that debate. Canary-chan made it sound like a group was behind it, so I bet the other schools’ debaters were in on it too.)

Solar power and flying cars.

The ideas presented by the other debaters had been used in this as well, so it was best to assume the debaters from each of the 5 schools were the ones behind this.

Independence.

That bizarre suggestion may have been slipped into people’s minds ahead of time through the debate being played all across the School Garden. If the supposed opponents were actually in cahoots, they could use their debate to guide the listeners’ thoughts toward whatever conclusion they wanted.

Unlike a speech where one person spoke to the audience, a debate between two people did not let the audience construct their own ideas. The audience was only meant to decide which of the two viewpoints they agreed with. Even if both sides’ ideas were crazy, the audience was forced to choose one or the other. And if both sides were supporting independence with different wordings, what would the audience end up choosing?

(I can’t believe they’re actually trying to hang someone over all those stupid school rules about underwear and deodorant. Too many people here don’t know how to blow off steam, so their frustrations just build up until something lets it explode out like this!!)

“But it’s more than that.”

Yes, they may have contained a bomb ready to blow.

But most any ordinary person was the same. If anyone really was living a truly stress-free life, they were probably unintentionally causing untold amounts of stress for everyone around them.

The current state of affairs required a spark to cause that powder keg to explode.

What had done it?

(I doubt they would explode this readily even with all the small daily frustrations building up. Was it the pressure of suddenly finding themselves trapped up here? Was it the mental backlash of finding themselves freed of the city’s rules? Or is the lower air pressure up here affecting their blood flow?)

No, it wasn’t any of those.

Misaka Mikoto was focused on a specific person. And the technology she held.

“That megaphone is producing more than just sound.”

It depended on the wavelength, but electromagnetic waves were reflected by a lot of things.

That included moisture. Even an invisible mist could have its location and thickness accurately measured from how it reflected those waves. A weather radar used that principle on a larger scale.

(Even simple moisture can make people feel sweaty and subconsciously make them irritable. Add specific chemicals into the mix and it would be even more effective. For example, an ''itching'' compound like a polypeptide or urushiol.)

If something physical had triggered this explosion, it was unlikely words alone could dissuade them now. But grabbing Shokuhou by the collar and forcing her to use Mental Out was a fundamentally flawed idea.

For example, what if Shokuhou used her psychological power on someone under purely chemical general anesthesia? Would they break free of the effects of the halothane or nitrous oxide to get up and walk around on her command? It might be possible to let that arrogant queen smugly push out her oversized chest and solve this, but there was no guarantee. The sample size was too small.

“Well, this sucks.”

Mikoto hated that she still hadn’t gotten the full story out of Yugure Kanaria since she was too weak.

What was the factory she had mentioned?

“Of course, running the School Garden costs money. A very large sum of money. However!! Do we really need the teachers for that!? In case you hadn’t noticed, we have a fair amount of wealth ourselves. Some of us have started our own businesses instead of just using our parents’ money! So again I ask you: do we really need the headmaster and director ordering us around to keep the School Garden running? We do not!! We already have enough money to look after ourselves!! And we know how to make more money! So why compromise and bring the teachers’ dirty money into the mix!? That brings only corruption!!”

Mikoto looked away for a moment and then sighed.

(Yeah, I don’t think Shokuhou can help here.)

Mikoto had been less interested in the #5 herself and more in the Tokiwadai’s largest clique using its superior numbers to solve this, but it didn’t look like they would be able to act right away. For one, Shokuhou would have to protect everyone who idolized her and, even if she did have superior numbers, she would have a hard time protecting all of her people if it came to all-out war. So she wouldn’t make that choice until she saw a real chance at victory.

And even if her clique was the largest in Tokiwadai, that proportion changed when looking at all 5 schools. In a conflict with everyone involved, the Shokuhou Clique would be the hunted minority.

Would Shokuhou and her clique choose to feign agreement with the agitator regardless of what they actually thought? She could even use Mental Out to guide her people’s actions so they didn’t let the truth slip.

Playing the long game like that wasn’t Mikoto’s style, which may have been why she and Shokuhou didn’t get along. Which in turn meant it wasn’t Shokuhou’s style to make the childish choice to immediately battle the harm before her eyes like Mikoto did.

Of course they got irritated whenever they saw each other.

“Anyway.”

Mikoto looked back to the schoolyard.

At this rate, that teacher was going to be execution #1. The students would place the wire around her neck, turn the crank, and hoist her corpse high like a flag to flap in the breeze.

And most likely, once they ''actually'' executed someone, something deep inside the School Garden would break and there would be no stopping them. Whether they woke from this dream or not, the students gathered here wouldn’t be able to trust they were doing the right thing.

And while having trouble breathing, Yugure Kanaria had said she hadn’t been able to stop it. She didn’t need to feel responsible, but if anyone died from this, it would apply even more pressure to the already weakened girl. And to the little sister who had to see her older sister like that.

Mikoto couldn’t just sit idly by and watch.

Shokuhou had her way of doing things, but so did Mikoto.

A strong crackle of electricity burst from her bangs as she made a decision only Tokiwadai’s Ace could make.

“It’s time to jump into the thick of things!! Because preserving life matters more than anything else!!”

===Part 10===

“Phew.”

The dorm manager who ruled Tokiwadai’s outside dorm with an iron fist removed the binoculars from her eyes.

She sighed.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been gladder I wasn’t on campus for work.”

If she had been, the angry girls would have captured her and given her the honor of being execution #1. It was necessary for her job, but she knew she had made herself a hated figure among the students.

Your daily actions could come back to bite you.

(Well, I’m sure the director will take care of it. The biggest problem is probably Watanabe-sensei. She holds something of a damsel in distress position despite her age, so I hope she hadn’t been captured.)

===Part 11===

It all happened at once.

Partially because waiting for the count of three would have been too slow to save Akazame-sensei.

“Hm!!”

Misaka Mikoto took control of a metal construction panel a few centimeters thick and bigger than a tatami mat. She magnetically threw it, caught the teacher standing on the gallows 70m ahead, and launched her past the gathered crowd and outside Tokiwadai’s grounds.

Of course…

“We have a traitor!” The agitator’s voice exploded from the megaphone. “We have a traitor among us!! That traitor’s name is Misaka Mikoto!! That Level 5 is here to rescue the filthy teachers so she doesn’t have to give up all the perks those problematic adults granted herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”

The girls all turned toward her with fully bloodshot eyes.

(Don’t look at me like you’re diehard fans and I interrupted your concert, dammit!!)

Ironically another trait of these high society girls was a reluctance to be the odd one out no matter the situation.

Mikoto wanted to ask them how they hoped to live a comfortable life when people were shouting “guilty” and pulling out the hanging wire.

As soon as she ran out of the thicket, the artificial woods were blown away. She didn’t have time to determine if it was fire, ice, wind, or rock that had done it. Hundreds of different powers flew her way and destroyed the very scenery 

Fortunately, Mikoto didn’t need to defeat everyone gathered around the makeshift gallows.

In fact, everyone other than the agitator were merely schoolmates. Fighting her own side would be a waste of time.

(That means running away is my best bet, but will a magnetically-powered dash really be enough to escape them!?)

Bluish-white sparks scattered from her bangs before the many beams of light could reach her.

Then she jumped 5m straight up, planted her feet on the school wall, and leaped up to the roof.

The attacks immediately ceased.

(They don’t see a need to fix this right away because they can still live their ordinary lives. That’s how the passive acceptance works, so they won’t want to destroy the school that plays a crucial role in those ordinary lives!!)

“Bingo!!”

“''Are you sure about that.''”

She didn’t even have time to gasp.

Her consciousness was rattled by a blow to the side of her head. A heavy weapon had hit her. If she had lost her magnetic control, it would have knocked her clean off the roof.

There was someone up here with her!

“Tch!!”

“Why the surprise? The walls here aren’t perfectly smooth. The contestants at the Climbing World Cup can scale a 15m wall in just a bit over 5s. Plus, we can cheat with our powers.”

Mikoto chose to ignore what this girl said for now. The information might be useful, but she hadn’t searched it out and verified it herself. Anything the enemy said without prompting was too risky to take at face value.

She heard a heavy swishing sound.

They were several meters apart, but that was no reason to relax. The enemy held the megaphone in one hand while her other hand held a rod longer than a mop and twirled it like a baton.

The end of that rod carried the deadly combination of an axe and a spear.

“A halberd?”

“That attack should have taken off your head, but your last-second step forward meant the shaft hit you instead of the blade. Well done, little girl.”

The agitator grinned and slammed the butt of the shaft against the roof.

She looked to be the same age as Mikoto or a year older.

Her shoulder-length red hair was decorated by a tiara inlaid with jewels. A large chest pushed out her blazer uniform.

Her face showed beautiful white skin, but the legs emerging from her short skirt were covered in thick leather. Rather than stockings or tights, these were probably riding breeches.

“Resanerié Sadis Dialine, 3rd year. Tokiwadai Middle School Debate Representative and Equestrian Combat Club Captain. I have more titles, but I needn’t bore you with them, I hope?”

Mikoto decided the debate representative part could be safely ignored.

Another part sounded much more important.

“Equestrian combat club?”

“It’s a minor club, so I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it.”

Was that why she wielded the halberd in one hand despite its great size? This wasn’t ordinary spear technique. It was a martial art designed to provide as much power as possible while staying balanced and keeping one hand on the reins at all times.

She held the megaphone in one hand and the halberd in the other.

Resanerié smiled boldly while wielding both the pen and the sword.

“Why the caution? I am no threat to the great Level 5 said to be Tokiwadai’s Ace despite not joining any of our many clubs.”

“You’re awfully self-deprecating for how haughty you look. Don’t you have any confidence in yourself?”

“Shut up, flat chest. You know those probably aren’t growing any more, don’t you?”

“…”

“…”

Misaka Mikoto and Resanerié Sadis Dialine clashed head on.

The agitator wasn’t like the rest of the angry mob.

If Mikoto defeated her, this would end. It might not end as soon as Resanerié was defeated since all 5 debate participants were probably working together, but it would still have a major impact on bringing Tokiwadai back to normal.

Thus, she didn’t hesitate to produce an iron sand sword in her hand.

That sword used its rapid vibration to slice through any substance like a chainsaw and it could also change form at will. Its default form resembled a one-handed sword, but it could also stretch out more like a whip.

However.

“My, my.” The voice that reached Mikoto’s eardrums carried pity. “Is that blatantly self-taught style really enough to handle me?”

“!?”

Orange sparks exploded out.

But Resanerié’s halberd remained intact.

That weapon had a spear, an axe, and a sharp hook on the back of the axe. The iron sand sword caught the thick axe…or it sure looked like it had to Mikoto. But after the burst of sparks, it was Mikoto who staggered back.

Her attack had been deflected.

“Wha-!?”

“You rapidly vibrate the iron sand, so, much like a chainsaw, that sword gains its superb cutting edge by repeatedly cutting at the same spot with miniscule blades.” The redhead smirked. “That cutting edge can never reach my halberd if I deflect it in the instant of a single vibration, before the vibration wave can repeat. What’s wrong, Academy City’s #3? Did you think your weapon was so formidable it couldn’t be countered?”

(Yeah, right. That’s like saying a running chainsaw won’t hurt you if you poke your fingertip against it for just an instant. It’s ridiculous!!)

But the fact remained that her halberd had survived contact with the iron sand sword.

In fact, Resanerié was swinging it toward Mikoto now.

Now that Mikoto had failed to end the battle on her first move, it was Resanerié’s turn.

(What kind of monster is she? How is my power as the #3 not working against her!?)

Just as Mikoto tried to fall back, she felt a tug at her leg.

Resanerié had lowered the halberd’s tip, moved it past Mikoto’s leg, caught the heel side of Mikoto’s ankle with the hook, and yanked hard.

Her weight seemed to vanish as she toppled backwards.

She gave up on preparing for impact with the rooftop. Instead, she magnetically suspended herself in midair for a single second while she curled up, made a full vertical rotation, and pressed her feet against the roof again.

She heard three swooshing sounds in that time.

The halberd tore into the rooftop.

If she had landed safely or hit the roof hard, the sharp tip would have destroyed her vitals. The weapon moved so smoothly, it reminded her more of a chameleon’s tongue than a metal spear.

The redhead girl looked annoyed.

“That’s cheating.”

“How are esper powers cheating in a city of espers!?”

The axe dropped straight down like a lightning bolt.

Mikoto quickly swung her body to the side, but the halberd swooped diagonally back up to pursue her. If she hadn’t doubled over and held down her fluttering skirt, the hook would have caught the cloth.

“So close. I was hoping to strip you naked.”

Of course, it wouldn’t have been anything as harmless as that.

Once you kept your target from moving, they might as well be asking to be killed. Mikoto was done for if she was dragged to the roof by her clothes. Resanerié could jab with her spear or swing down her axe to kill her instantly.

Resanerié easily twirled her halberd.

“Dragging your opponent from their horse and killing them on the ground is the standard tactic for a horseback knight, but with a soldier not wearing full armor, you can instead catch them by their collar and strangle them to death with their own clothing.”

(So you’re going to hook my clothes? How stupid are you!? I’m not going to let you carry out your plan after you explain it to me!!)

A high-pitched whistle left the gap between Resanerié’s alluring lips.

At the same time, Mikoto sent her EM radar from her entire body at full power.

Resanerié made a jab from head on instead of swinging the hook from the side. The sharp spear tip sliced off a few strands of Mikoto’s hair, but that was all. The deadly jab was sharp and heavy, but it failed to find its target and swished through empty air.

Mikoto had finally managed to dodge.

Such a heavy halberd would create a larger opening when it missed, so Mikoto focused on her brow, sent electricity scattering from her bangs, and prepared to launch a counterattack. However…

“''Now the return trip.''”

“Really!?”

The weapon tore through the air again. If Mikoto hadn’t immediately aborted her attack and swung her head in the opposite direction, the axe blade would have caught her on the side of the face as Resanerié pulled it back, tearing off her ear and cheek and leaving nothing to cover half her teeth. Just like pressing a saw against a piece of lumber and pulling it with all your might.

They reassessed the distance between them.

“There is no good translation of halberd in Japanese. Some have tried by inventing compound words like ‘axe-spear’, but I say that fails to adequately describe this weapon.”

All this was done with just the one hand.

Her other hand still held the megaphone she hadn’t even needed to use.

“There are many uniquely Western weapons – the rapier, the dagger, the bastard sword, the pike, the francisca, the morning star, the arbalest, etc. – but the halberd is the most difficult one to learn. Since it can be used as a spear, an axe, and a hook, it can cut, stab, and catch depending on how it is used. It can also be used in a wide variety of contexts: slashing from the ground, stabbing from horseback, or reaching out from a boat and catching the enemy. Even the professional mercenaries gave up trying to master it and invented the inferior battle hook by stripping away everything but the one aspect.”

“…”

“However.”

Mikoto continued watching carefully while Resanerié grinned and twirled the long, heavy halberd like a baton. She did so as casually as a bored student spinning a pen during class.

That showed just how much she had mastered the weapon.

“Any knight who sticks with it and masters its use will become the greatest warrior. I possess an endless number of options, so you can never perfectly predict my actions and I am not so poorly trained that you can dodge when you have to react after the fact.”

(So does her power directly boost her physical strength, or does it control steel or metal?)

Mikoto took a few steps back while carefully judging the distance between them and also making full us use of her mind without letting her thoughts show.

She wiped the sweat from her brow and wanted to believe it wasn’t a cold sweat.

“Are you really planning to keep the School Garden in the sky indefinitely? As some independent state of students beyond the reach of the adults?”

“Heh heh. A wonderful ''new life'' well worth writing in your diary, don’t you think?”

“You can’t be serious. You’ve trapped us in this small world where no one and nothing can get in or out. We might as well all have washed ashore on a desert island. Everyone might be excited now like they just ran away from home, but they will feel the pressure soon enough. I won’t say it’s impossible for people to live without any connection to others, but an isolated life has far more inconveniences than the other way around.”

“I have no interest in a life of riches and plenty. For that matter, is a single student at any of the 5 schools fixated on money? Why would we be when we were all privileged enough to have never experienced poverty?”

“…”

(Or does she have a precog power letting her predict my actions?)

“This will not change the minds of the elites of the School Garden. Especially when I give them a push in the right direction with this.” Resanerié winked and waved the megaphone she held on her other hand. “And it is that lack of interest in direct earnings that prevents the students here from understanding the lengths the adults are willing to go for money. Why rank our powers? Why create an official school caste system that covers the entire city? Because it is a twisted measuring stick the adults use to compare us and determine what research they should fund for the most efficient profit. Isn’t that right, ''#3''?”

“I see. You do have a way with words. Maybe that makes the immediate future look bright, but you aren’t considering what happens a week from now.”

An iron sand sword wasn’t enough.

So should she go with a lightning spear next or skip straight to a Railgun?

To reiterate, Resanerié was still only using one hand.

Mikoto didn’t know how far that girl’s skill went, but she at least had enough skill to concern Academy City’s #3.

(Did she climb the wall without any kind of assistance from her power? Can that even be explained with ordinary physics? Could she have messed with my memory or perception? In fact, could that weird megaphone and how she so easily manipulated everyone in Tokiwadai be related to her power?)

“Oh? Why the wide-eyed look? Are you trying to figure out my power while keeping the damage to a minimum and engaging me in conversation? A valiant attempt, but I’m sorry to say ''I have yet to use my power.''”

“…”

Goose bumps formed all across Mikoto’s skin.

Was Resanerié really twirling that heavy halberd around with just one hand using simple martial arts and no support from her esper power? Even though Mikoto was just barely keeping up while relying heavily on her Level 5 power?

That did not bode well.

The rules would change once Resanerié Sadis Dialine started fighting as an esper. Mikoto had no way of preventing it.

“Now, that should be enough of a warmup.”

Resanerié licked her lips and squeezed her halberd tight.

“''It’s time to take this seriously.''”

Misaka Mikoto was a Level 5 known as the Railgun for her ability to launch an arcade coin at three times the speed of sound.

That meant she could function at those speeds if she focused her mind.

She was also sending weak microwaves from her upper body as a type of radar, so she would never overlook an incoming object. She had honed that skill to the point that she could accurately detect and shoot down each and every nonmetallic shard sent flying when a bomb exploded.

And yet.

Nevertheless.

“Gahhhhhh           ahhhhhhhhhhhhh            ahhhhhhh           ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh          ahhhh     ah    ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

She had no idea how long she had been screaming.

The fury of the blade was so intense she felt like the flow of time had stopped.

She wasn’t sure if it was the halberd’s spear, axe, hook, thick shaft, or butt end that directly struck her.

With a sound like a manual transmission car’s shift lever operating, the redhead in a tiara came to a stop. Her right arm dangled limply at her side.

“Oops. I overdid it and dislocated my shoulder again. That’s what I get for not loosening up the joint with some stretches first.”

But Mikoto could not strike back. She had failed to block the fierce attack, so she had been bloodily pushed over the edge of the roof. She now scattered red as she fell toward the courtyard rather than the schoolyard.

“You’ve taken this prank too far, rich girl.”

“Rich girl? I am not like the rest of you,” calmly replied Resanerié, roughly forcing her shoulder back into the socket with her other hand. “I am Resanerié Sadis Dialine, ''empress of the Dialine Empire in Eastern Europe.'' I wield a different sort of power than you children who hide behind your parents’ backs and show off the silly allowances they give you.”

Tokiwadai’s students came from all sorts of backgrounds. Some came from well-established families with a long history and others were set to take over as president of their parent’s massive corporation. There had even been rumors of an actual princess transferring in.

So was that tiara not something she had donned after the completion of her twisted coup? Maybe it was a national treasure and maybe it was a royal tradition, but she had a reason worth earning an exception to Tokiwadai’s dress code.

The setup for this plan had required the kind of money discussed in national budgets.

The identity of the enemy had been staring Mikoto in the face all along. She had been wrong to dismiss the possibility over a simple “surely not”.

(I can’t believe this girl!)

But that was as far as Mikoto got.

Gravity grabbed at her body and she started plummeting straight down.

She really might have died there if she hadn’t just barely managed to hang onto consciousness and magnetically pulled herself toward the school’s wall as she fell.

“Gahh!!”

The difficulty breathing and the dizziness were worse than the pain.

She checked her injuries and tied a handkerchief around her leg.

(Gh. I don’t need to settle this right away. I achieved my goal when I rescued Akazame-sensei from being hanged! I need to make myself scarce.)

“She’s over here, over here, over herrrrrre!”

The agitator’s amplified voice shouted from the rooftop overhead. Resanerié didn’t seem interested in jumping down and pursuing Mikoto herself.

The halberd was not her only weapon.

The megaphone in her other hand said more.

“The traitor Misaka Mikoto has fallen into the courtyard!! If you believe in independence, then lend us a hand by killing herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”

Unnatural stars twinkled in the blue sky.

No, those were esper powers dropping back down after being launched up like arrows from the schoolyard. This threat was one of pure numbers.

Mikoto had no choice but to turn tail and run.

“Damn!!”

“Did you think the threat had passed because you rescued one measly teacher.”

The dirt was torn up and launched higher than Mikoto’s head.

A mocking voice called out from the roof behind her.

“All I need to do is catch someone else and place them on the gallows!! ''It does not matter to me who we kill first''. Ah ha ha. Do you have any idea how many teachers there are in the School Garden as a whole? And at 5000m up, they can only run so far. We have you outnumbered, so we will hunt them down eventually. With no avenue of escape, we will seek out every last teacher, so do you really think you can save them all, Misaka Mikoto!?”

(This sucks!! She really understands how to lay on the pressure and tighten the screws!!)

===Part 12===

Atop Tokiwadai Middle School’s roof, the empress with shoulder-length red hair, white skin, riding breeches below her uniform skirt, and a tiara on her head looked upon the world below her.

Misaka Mikoto was gone, but it seemed unlikely the girl would attempt a freefall from an altitude of 5000m without any kind of preparation.

“Hm.”

“Empress.”

Resanerié had not called for them, but four people had appeared on the roof with her. They stayed close enough to protect her from anything without ever obstructing her view.

Her attorney, Tougyo Kea.

Her maid, Renka Ephilty.

Her accountant, Sanki Ai.

Her chef, Shitatsuzumi Yoshiko.

Including Empress Resanerié herself, they were the debate representatives from the five schools. They had originally been ordinary(?) girls from the School Garden. Maybe she had wanted to fight back against her retainers back in the empire, but she had ended up with her own servants here.

Tougyo Kea, the attorney in a fancy suit, respectfully bowed her head and asked a question.

As a defense attorney, she used debate as a weapon just as well as the empress.

“What should we do now?”

“Let’s see.”

Tougyo may have hoped Resanerié would order them to chase after Mikoto.

But now was not the time to release the hounds.

“Spending too much on this problem would only weigh us down.”

Resanerié held something about the size of a grape between her fingers. It was probably a jelly bean.

“These are good. How do you make them?”

“They are nothing special. By instantly injecting the gum syrup while ''pressurized to around 100 thousand atmospheres'', the flavor can permeate it while ignoring the osmotic pressure.”

The chef’s murmured response made the maid, Renka Ephilty, sigh.

She didn’t like how Shitatsuzumi Yoshiko’s artisanal spirit meant she had to verbally explain each dish after it was eaten. Even though they were technically from their schools’ respective debate teams.

But their individual tastes were irrelevant as long as they could put a smile on their empress’s face.

“If she insists on running, we can use that to our advantage. Identify any students in your schools that look obedient but you doubt really are. Ask them to pursue Misaka Mikoto and if they show any reluctance, send them to be executed as traitors. That should make a decent loyalty test.”

“Do you have anyone in mind within Tokiwadai?” asked Attorney Tougyo Kea.

Resanerié did not hesitate to respond.

“I think I will start with Shokuhou Misaki and her clique and then add a few more after them.”

“What a shame. They would make powerful allies,” said Accountant Sanki Ai who only ever viewed things numerically.

“Fool. You mustn’t hesitate if you want to avoid being killed in your sleep.”

Just as Resanerié Sadis Dialine responded, something sprinkled from her hand. That was all that remained of her seemingly indestructible halberd. Its powerful silhouette was nowhere to be found. Only the red rust powder scattering in the wind.

“What a pain. I thought stainless steel wasn’t supposed to rust. It’s the same story with steel, aluminum, and bronze. I really wish I had a more permanent partner by now.”

“It is resistant to rust, not immune to it. And that is how your power works, so you just need to accept it.”

“True,” sighed Resanerié, scratching her head with one hand, realizing she still had rust powder in that hand, and drooping her shoulders.

Maid Renka Ephilty quickly pulled out a towel.

“E-Empress, if you want a metal that won’t rust, why not create a pure gold halberd next?”

“Why would I create a weapon out of such a soft metal? Besides, it would be ''meaningless'' that way.”

Resanerié rejected the idea and then looked to the courtyard again.

She had lost her halberd, but she was not emptyhanded. Her other hand held the megaphone with a trigger power switch. That device was designed to secretly send out a fine mist containing an itching component along with its highly directional noise.

She was not above using tricks.

Charisma was just one weapon in a true monarch’s arsenal. No one could run an entire nation with nothing but talent and luck.

“The halberd is not my ''only'' weapon, Misaka Mikoto. You might be in a more difficult situation than me.”

===Part 13===

Mikoto had escaped Tokiwadai’s grounds, but she couldn’t relax yet.

“Damn. I really wish I had some of that Judgment hemostatic cream.”

She viewed her various injuries and clicked her tongue. Tying cloths around the wounds to stanch the bleeding wouldn’t be enough.

But she couldn’t rely on the others either. She wasn’t acting alone this time. She had to think about Shirai, Uiharu, Saten, and Yugure Kanaria, who they had only just rescued from deep underground. If she fled straight back to them, someone could tail her back to the hideout.

The School Garden was functioning surprisingly well. The buildings hadn’t collapsed and the windows hadn’t shattered. The underground infrastructure for electricity, gas, and water had to have been cut off, but the modifications to the ground must have accounted for that.

Mikoto glanced up at the solar panels on top of a nearby traffic light and building roof.

(I see. So they’re using solar for electricity. They might move below rainclouds for water, but what about gas? We might last a while with the big propane tanks found out behind restaurants.)

But one thing was hopelessly insufficient: people.

The Western-style stone-paved streets were empty.

Assuming Resanerié hadn’t been bluffing, then it was primarily the teachers being rounded up for execution. But with a mob of high-level espers roaming in search of victims, the other adults weren’t going to be manning the registers right now.

Besides, Resanerié’s group had no real reason to faithfully stay true to their word. It could all fall apart on a whim at any time.

(But where did the adults disappear to? And what about the kids here for entrance exams? Well, they might not be willing to tell me since I would look like any other student to them.)

Since the School Garden only accepted high-level Espers, it was possible the teachers had secret shelters built into the schools. There had to still be a fair number of Anti-Skill officers here too, but they had to worry about ammunition and fuel in a way espers didn’t. Without backup, it was unlikely they could suppress an angry mob of more than 1000 high-level espers from the 5 schools.

“?”

Mikoto’s shoulders shook.

Footsteps sounded awfully loud with the streets so empty. She used magnetism to jump up to the roof of a stone building.

Someone was running along the road below.

“Nwohhhhh!! Where are you, Misaka-san!? Where are you Misaka-san!? Where are you, Misaka-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!”

(Yikes, it’s Kongou-san. I have nothing against her and I know she’s not a bad person, but she really needs to be less impressionable! She has a real knack for tearing down all the goodwill she’s spent so much time and energy building up!)

Mikoto facepalmed at the Japanese-style black-haired girl’s behavior.

Kongou Mitsuko’s Aero Hand let her create air ejection points on any object she touched, so she could be a lot of trouble if she played her cards right. She could apparently launch a broadcast tower into the stratosphere, so she had Mikoto’s Railgun beat when it came to simple attack range. Since the School Garden was currently an isolated space located high in the sky, Kongou could start wearing her down with projectile attacks and finally knock her over the edge into the 5000m abyss of the sky.

On the other hand, Kongou’s power was limited to that side of things.

She could not cheat and locate her target using precognition or clairvoyance, so she wasn’t a threat as long as Mikoto hid from her.

The bigger problem was…

(An esper who can cheat like that.)

“Hee hee. I heard that, Misaka-sama.”

“Damn!”

Hearing a voice in her head, Mikoto spun around and saw a bob cut girl smiling and waving from the building across the road Kongou had run down.

That was Kobayashi Satori of the Shokuhou Clique.

Wasn’t she a telepath who gained a general sense of where someone she was “connected” to was located!?

(But I’m pretty sure Kobayashi-san’s power has a range limit. And she can’t move very fast. I can lose her if I move to a building two or three streets down!!)

“Perhaps, but I can hear every word you think while connected to you. It is possible to divide your thoughts into ones I can hear and ones I cannot, so how about we hold a study group later on? Also, I may not be much of a fighter myself, but that is why I generally provide communications support for our vanguard.”

''Crash!!!

The entire stone building shook below Mikoto.

Wait a second.

The wireless fire alarm should have warned Mikoto if the only door onto the roof had opened, but she hadn’t sensed anything. Then how had that “crash” come from the very center of the roof? The building was surrounded by wide roads and the rooftop itself was a 40m square. So where had that “crash” jumped from and how had it landed there!?

“Uh, oh.”

Mikoto hesitantly turned around again.

In the center of the square roof, a girl with gorgeous ringlets was crouched on one knee, presumably the pose she had landed in. Electricity crackled through her hair, but it was being ''used'' in a very different way from Mikoto’s.

She was the second in command of the Shokuhou Clique, the largest clique in Tokiwadai.

She fully specialized in physical combat, she acted as her Queen’s bodyguard, and she probably worked to defeat that Queen’s enemies as well.

(This is really bad!!)

“Hokaze…-san!?”

“I do apologize, Misaka-sama.”

She wasn’t even smiling.

She was unarmed, but that was no reason to let your guard down. Her Rampage Dress used weak electrical signals to push her muscles past their limits, so that extreme grappler could fold up a black bulletproof car with her bare hands. And she had to be well aware of how destructive she could be.

Kobayashi Satori had already completed her job.

She had only needed to accurately guide Hokaze Junko to Misaka Mikoto’s coordinates.

“But the Queen’s ‘optimization’ is absolute☆”

The wind roared and the concrete cracked when the girl simply stepped forward.

Mikoto scattered some bright electricity to dazzle Hokaze, but she also jumped from the edge of the roof. She gained nothing by getting into an extended battle with that monster. And her recent experience with that halberd had taught her she had trouble with martial artists.

If Hokaze caught her, it was all over.

That monster left even the #3 Railgun thinking that.

At least I can move through the air more freely than her! I just have to move to another building’s wall or rooftop to put some distance between-)

“Hee hee hee.”

“…”

That laughter was close.

How was it so close!?

Mikoto was using magnetism to leap to the building across the street 30m below, but the laughter sounded an awful lot like it came from right by her ear!?

“Are you serious? You can do that with leg strength alone!?”

“Yes, I am very serious☆”

With a loud crash, Hokaze’s fist dropped straight down, altering Mikoto’s trajectory and sending her hurtling toward the temporary ground like an artillery shell. And that was after Mikoto magnetically tore a sign from a building wall and used it as a shield. A direct hit may have literally caused her body to explode.

Magnetism was a wonderful thing. She could still move thanks to decelerating herself with that.

“E-eek!! What is with this post-apocalyptic genocide dimension? I’m never making myself visible again!! I’m staying in the safety of my own personal flower garden!!”

Mikoto heard a voice coming from seemingly empty air.

The Shokuhou Clique seemed to have its own issues, but Mikoto couldn’t focus on that at the moment.

“Don’t worry. If you want to run away, then get to it. I won’t attack unless you attack me first.”

“Bff!? Turning invisible is the only thing I have going for me and your microwave radar can see right through it!?”

Mikoto heard the dull sound of scraping concrete from up above.

Electricity crackled from her bangs. She maybe could have intercepted Hokaze with a lightning spear if the girl had dropped straight down, but Hokaze instead kicked off multiple walls to bounce around like a pinball and take an unpredictable route down. Rolling out of the way was the most Mikoto could manage.

(Damn. She uses hers different, but she is an electric esper, so can she predict my actions by sensing the faint magnetic and EM fluctuations!?)

Mikoto could not sense when Hokaze switched her power on and off. Maybe it was a natural talent on Hokaze’s part, or maybe Shokuhou had demanded she develop a few trump cards for use in a fight against Mikoto. Knowing Shokuhou Misaki, probably the latter.

Where was the scheming she-fox anyway!?

“H-Hokaze-san? Um, is it all possible we could have a civil discussion over tea instead?”

“I am sorry. It pains me to say this, but the Queen has decided to see how this plays out and has ordered us to play along with the bizarre things going on, so the clique has been tasked with capturing you to earn the trust of the independents led by Resanerié-sama.”

“If you feel bad, could you maybe not attack quite so fiercely? If those had hit me, I would have died.”

“My lack of hesitation likely comes from the ‘optimization’ the Queen provided to lessen the psychological burden from the fear of death and the pressure brought on by the current situation. …Oh?”

“?”

“How strange. I have this unusual fluttering in my chest and it seems I am dying to fight you. Wh-what has come over me? Oh, dear. Oh, my. Pant, pant. Ahh, I so want to surpass my limits as a person by dancing the dance of death with you! I can’t seem to help myself!!”

“Why would you do this to me now, Shokuhou you she-fooooooooooooooooooooooox!?”

===Part 14===

That extreme battle was shaking the ground and blasting the air.

While everyone was focused on that and directing their main fighting force there, Shokuhou Misaki walked down the European street unharassed. She was still leading the 12-year-old girl by the hand, but the girl had a blank look in her eyes and her mind had been altered so she did nothing more than obediently walk in the direction she was led by the hand.

“Everyone seems to be overlooking it because of how chilly it is, but the UV rays are strong up here. Far worse even than on Mount Fuji, so I’m glad I secured some suntan lotion as my top priority☆”

Her Mental Out was practically a cheat code when it came to other people, but it left her extremely vulnerable to nonhuman enemies like machines and military dogs.

In that sense…

(It was lucky the School Garden’s security cameras were vulnerable to the changing temperature and pressure at an altitude of 5000m.)

However, she hadn’t confirmed that every single security camera on the streets had malfunctioned. Whenever she spotted a camera, she had to observe it from a distance and confirm its lens wasn’t adjusting its focus before she could keep going.

And while traveling carefully through the School Garden like that…

“I see. So this is where you were hiding☆”

The food trucks that were everywhere on event days would function as sheltered hideouts without including any of the security cameras linked to the School Garden’s security servers. They would normally have a drive recorder in the front and back, but those would have been removed to meet the School Garden’s demands for any vehicle entering from outside.

In other words, Resanerié’s group could not see inside.

Shirai Kuroko pulled a metal dart from her thigh belt while holding her breath inside, but she poked her head above the counter on the side when she realized who it was.

“Geh. Shokuhou Misaki.”

“Does this mean they’ve found us. Umm, Shirai-san!?”

“Hey, there isn’t much room, Saten-san, so quit moving around. Hot, hot! The hot water for the cup yakisoba is spilling on me!?”

They appeared to be enjoying a sad meal chock full of preservatives and artificial flavors. Shokuhou refused to eat anything but natural ingredients, so those complex chemical equations looked like long-term suicide to her. And how were they making cup noodles when the reduced pressure of their high altitude would have shifted the boiling point of water?

“No need to freak out. First, I wanted to return this girl to you.”

Shokuhou aimed her remote and then the girl gasped.

And…

“Onee-chan!!”

Tsumebakei’s face lit up when she saw Kanaria weakly emerge from the food truck. Shokuhou narrowed her eyes when she saw the small girl spread her arms and run right into her sister.

She showed her face as a girl rather than as the Queen.

“Onee-chan, Onee-chan!!”

“Now, now. Don’t cry, Hoatzin. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Sniff, sniff. That’s Onee-chan’s scent. You’re so warm and soft! You really are the best. Hee hee. No one is as huggable as you!!”

Gradually growing more and more worried, Saten decided to interject.

“W-wait. I thought this was an emotional reunion, so why is it starting to feel uncomfortably Shirai-y?”

But Kanaria herself only seemed to be the doting big sister type.

Shirai brushed her twintail back from her shoulder.

“Heh. People are born with a love of their Onee-sama, search long and hard throughout life for something better, and always return to their Onee-sama in the end. That girl appears to have already arrived at the truth of her soul. She shows real promise for such a young girl.”

“Riiiiight. Can we get down to business please?”

Noticing the conversation derailing to the ends of the universe, Tokiwadai’s Queen cut in.

Shirai frowned.

“Business? What are you even doing here? And without your bodyguard Hokaze-san, I notice.”

“Oh, Hokaze is over thataway, working hard to keep me and this girl safe. Otherwise I never could have made it all this way without Resanerié’s group noticing, even if I was dodging all the security cameras. And since it wouldn’t count as a crime when done in self-defense during an emergency, she earns a perfect score if she happens to accidentally kill Misaka-san while she’s at it☆” It was unclear how serious Shokuhou was as she (seriously) said that, but then she shrugged. “At first glance, it looks like everything is going according to plan for Resanerié Sadis Dialine, but that isn’t actually true, is it? She loses points for having to rush in and silence someone who stumbled onto her secret, she loses further points for allowing anyone to notice that took place, and she loses major points for failing to silence that person and allowing her to be rescued. Do you see where I am going with this?”

Uiharu gulped.

“Y-you mean the Achilles heel of her plan was out where someone could see it? So we just need to know what Kanaria-san saw underground and why she was attacked!!”

Everyone turned toward the Tokiwadai 2nd year who was Mikoto’s classmate and belonged to the newspaper club.

Mikoto had said she would be extremely powerful if she used her power right. And that she had a very strong sense of justice and was afflicted with a super slow-motion curse.

“My, my. It was a factory,” began Yugure Kanaria while letting her huggy sister hug away. “If all they wanted to do was artificially reinforce the School Garden’s ground so it would survive floating in the sky, they would only need to fill it with the cubes of lightweight aluminum alloy used for megafloats, right? My, my. But the space down there was filled with passageways and rooms. That means it was more than just a foundation. That space was added for some kind of purpose. Namely, as a factory.”

She had mentioned this factory back when she was first rescued.

The question was what that factory was meant to do.

“Resanerié’s independents are using two different ideas to bind the thoughts of the School Garden’s students. The first is active acceptance. By painting the teachers and researchers as evil, they have created a fictional enemy to bring the students together. Even though it, well, isn’t clear if the adults really are doing all those bad things.”

Kanaria hugged Tsumebakei like a stuffed animal.

“The other is passive acceptance. The students can continue their usual lives even after the School Garden has declared independence and the adults have been removed. That makes it look like accepting the status quo is the smarter decision compared to resisting and possibly coming to harm. Even if people see a lost child crying next to a long line, will they want to waste all the time they have spent in line to help? My, my. Deep down, they know it is wrong, but as long as enough people are convinced that not protesting is the smart thing to do, Resanerié can keep the crowds quiet. That is the basic principle behind a dictatorship where a minority ruling class controls the majority.”

Some might wonder why a middle schooler could discuss the “basic principle” behind such a dangerous world, but there was a simple answer: Tokiwadai also taught about ''dictatorships and how to psychologically control people.''

Anyone who opposed the executions would be treated like they were wicked people agreeing with the many incidents where the scientists had caused so much harm and had it all covered up by the city’s leaders, so the majority would decide it was smarter to keep any more extreme opinions to themselves.

They would show neither agreement nor disagreement with what was happening, but in the end, that was the same as letting it happen.

“Quite the dictatorship we’ve got here,” said Shokuhou. “It sounds silly, but it’s effective. She has done her homework on human psychology.”

“A-are you kidding me? How is this living their usual lives? If they really do execute someone as a group, then they will all be guilty of murder!”

“Which is exactly why the people who provided support at any stage along the way need to protect the dictatorship that protects them from any law or international treaty they might have broken☆ They won’t be able to take a step outside of these narrow borders without getting arrested. If she successfully sets up a situation where the students have to insist what other countries consider to be evil is considered patriotism in their own country, then those students will be forced to keep up the farce forever.”

“But that isn’t possible,” said Yugure Kanaria.

Everyone turned toward the girl who had witnessed something definitive.

“I don’t see how that factory can possibly be enough. I don’t know if the design was flawed to begin with or if there was some trouble and they couldn’t acquire the necessary machinery in time, but they can’t do it. Based on what I saw down there – my, my – they cannot keep the promises they have made everyone.”

“S-so what exactly is this factory?” hesitantly asked Uiharu. “I don’t see how a factory fits into any of this.”

“Do you remember how the passive acceptance works? My, my. Resanerié’s group says they can preserve everyone’s usual lives without the adults, so the students decide it is best to stay silent for now.”

“What about it?”

“My, my. There are certain necessities for people to live their lives.” Yugure Kanaria approached the crux of the issue. “That vast underground space contains a combination of an artificial vegetable factory and a clone meat factory like the ones found in Academy City’s agricultural buildings. But its specs are not nearly enough to support everyone in the School Garden. That is why they need these executions. I think they hope to solve the problem by reducing the number of mouths to feed.”

Reducing the number of mouths.

That phrase made it hard to believe they were talking about the present day.

What year was it?

Shokuhou Misaki didn’t shy away from harsher thoughts, so she decided to get the ball rolling again.

“Do you have actual data supporting this?”

“R-right here.”

Even with her super slow motion curse, Kanaria seemed intimidated into action by a direct question from the #5.

She hesitantly reached into the chest of her uniform and pulled out a long piece of plastic a bit bigger than a pencil lead case.

It was a digital voice recorder used when doing journalism work for the newspaper club.

Her phone would be able to record voices as well, but everyone would be on the lookout for something everyone carried. The separate device was useful for making a show of switching off her phone while using the voice recorder in secret.

But that wasn’t what mattered this time.

“I found a console in the factory and copied the facility’s specs onto the recorder’s flash memory. My, my. All the detailed numbers might seem confusing, but if you convert it into a graph, it shouldn’t take long to notice the production and consumption rates are out of balance.”

“Let me see that,” said Uiharu Kazari, pulling out her PDA. “I can reveal this to everyone no matter what security they have in place. It looks like the School Garden’s intranet is functioning, so let’s use this to open everyone’s eyes to the truth.”

===Part 15===

“…No.”

The case didn’t directly affect her.

But it still led her to realize the truth.

“No.”

He couldn’t speak for himself.

He couldn’t even form facial expressions.

But everyone knew he was a living being with a mind of his own.

And yet….

“I’ll take care of him. I’ll take care of everything! So please don’t pull the plug! He didn’t do anything wrong! So please wait! Please!!”

It was over before she knew it.

It only happened because he showed no sign of recovery and caring for him indefinitely was considered a waste of money and personnel. Well, that and his genes weren’t considered valuable enough. That was all it took for a life to be lost.

That was when she realized the truth.

She realized it all had to do with what the doctors found most convenient.

Yes. And if that was how the adults did things, wouldn’t they also throw out her and her fellow students in the end?



“Hm?”

Hearing a splashing sound, the redheaded empress blinked drowsily and pulled her face back out of the bathwater.

“Oops. I feel asleep in the bath.”

She must have been even more exhausted than she had thought. Or maybe the thinner oxygen and stronger UV rays of the 5000m altitude were getting to her. Maybe she should have expected this exhaustion when the plan had run into a series of snags before it even got off the ground.

She had taken a bath to help refresh herself, but it had only sapped her of more strength. She languidly pulled herself out of the tub and walked to the dressing room where she lazily dried off and dressed in a new set of clothes.

(You fools. The blouse still smells of starch.)

She wore a Tokiwadai winter uniform with riding breeches below the skirt.

She already had a new halberd ready. Based on the feel and the heft, it appeared to be a titanium alloy, but not even that would last 10 minutes if she went all out.

That weapon symbolized her position in the equestrian combat club.

She twirled it like a baton and rested it on her shoulder before placing the tiara on her wet hair, leaving the shower room’s dressing room, and walking down the school hallway.

She spotted her attorney in a fancy suit.

“Where is Misaka Mikoto? I heard she was battling the Shokuhou Clique after we sent them after her as a loyalty test, but what became of that?”

“Th-that’s the thing…”

“If that hasn’t flushed her out like we wanted, then use a hostage. Capture some teacher or another and prepare her for execution. Announce the time of the execution over the speakers and Misaka Mikoto is sure to show up to stop it.”

“It isn’t that.” The attorney sounded unusually flustered. “She appears to be headed this way.”

“?”

“Misaka Mikoto and the Shokuhou Clique are still fighting while constantly on the move. B-but they appear to be charging toward Tokiwadai to drag us into their fight as well!!”

===Part 16===

Mikoto needed to settle things with Resanerié no matter what.

Unfortunately, that agitator was an empress who controlled the elites from all five School Garden schools. With that much security, sneaking in and catching her unawares would be nigh impossible.

At the same time, the Shokuhou Clique needed to attack Mikoto and send her to be executed in order to escape suspicion.

If that fight continued much longer, Mikoto felt like she would have exhausted herself before even reaching Resanerié.

But there was a loophole there.

None of it was a problem if she could constantly move through the School Garden while engaged in a serious battle with the Shokuhou Clique. That let Hokaze and the others preserve their position while the explosions and whatnot produced by their flashy attacks created a smokescreen for Mikoto to move ever closer to Resanerié.

Berserker Hokaze appeared to be assisting with that act. …Although it didn’t seem to be entirely an act with her.

Hokaze whispered so only Mikoto would hear while she threw punches and kicks at extreme close range. The explosions produced by the other clique members’ stray shots were much too loud for her lowered voice to travel far.

“(That sums up what the Queen told us regarding the problems facing Resanerié-sama’s independence and what she did on the roof after you left. Hopefully that will help you analyze her power!)”

“(Thanks, Hokaze-san.)”

“(Also, the assignment to search for you was apparently a loyalty test for anyone she suspected might consider siding with you. Most likely, um, Kongou-sama and the pair from the swim team have not lost their heads and are only pretending to search for you in order to protect you.)”

“(Eh? O-oh, no!! Kongou-san does get fired up easily, but she never crosses that line, does she? I ''thought'' she was acting weird! I need to apologize for ever suspecting her later on!!)”

“(Also, she said her Aero Hand has no cap on how many ejection points it can produce, so if she can move to the underside of the School Garden and place a thousand or ten thousand points there, you can electrically destroy the synchronized grid of coaxial rotors while she uses Aero Hand to slow the School Garden’s descent enough for a safe landing.)”

“(The daughter of Kongou Airlines used her expertise in all things aerial to come up with a better plan than anyone else!? I ''really'' need to apologize!!)”

It was becoming pretty obvious they were only making bright flashes of light and loud booms while moving as a group, so the elites who really did agree with Resanerié’s group were starting to notice and take action.

But once they got close, it wasn’t hard to deal with them.

Mikoto would zap them with a high-voltage current or Hokaze and the rest of the Shokuhou Clique would hit them with a “stray” fireball, ultrasonic wave, or whatever else. This was of course a major gamble for the Shokuhou Clique. If this ended quickly, everything would work out, but if not and they could no longer explain their actions, they would find themselves cornered.

But they had chosen to trust in Mikoto’s ability as an individual fighter.

Resanerié used a halberd and a megaphone.

If Mikoto could prevent her from using the weapon that gave her control over the group, the tides would turn.

“(Now, hurry!! I believe Resanerié-sama is using Tokiwadai as her base!!)”

“(Thanks, Hokaze-san. And the rest of you too. I’ll treat all of you but Shokuhou to something later!!)”

Mikoto entered the Tokiwadai campus with those parting words, but the ringlets girl looked displeased. She looked like someone had seriously suggested they order their katsu curry without the cutlet, the sauce, the vegetables, or the rice.

Mikoto heard a dull swishing sound from the center of the schoolyard expertly tended by the school gardener.

That was the sound of a halberd slicing through the air.

“So you came.”

“It turns out Canary-chan tracked down the truth. You really screwed up not killing her. The School Garden doesn’t have enough food to be self-sufficient, does it? I only heard a bit about it when I rescued her, but this little world of yours is about to learn all about the truth she discovered underground. Since we have ''a hacker even more skilled than me'' on our side.”

“So what?”

“?”

Resanerié didn’t even hesitate.

Mikoto frowned for a moment. This didn’t seem to be an act. Was she planning to establish a reign of terror to rule over the people by force if necessary?

“What choice did I have? Her Micro Dying can kill all the microbes living in symbiosis with us, so it is the deadliest single attack to use against us humans. You can’t even approach her safely without a full body hazmat suit on. She couldn’t actually reach the factory’s products from that section, so the cleverest plan should have been to weaken her from a distance and then shut the exit so she starved down there.”

“Thanks. If you had said you couldn’t bring yourself to kill her, I would have lost the will to go all out against you. Now I won’t have any qualms about ''finishing this''.”

“Keep in mind I am the tyrant who tried to slaughter all of the teachers to achieve my goals. Even the ones I have never met.”

Misaka Mikoto and Resanerié Sadis Dialine clashed without a second’s hesitation.

===Part 17===

Tokiwadai Middle School’s schoolyard was not the only battlefield.

Nowhere was safe across the School Garden isolated at an altitude of 5000m.

For example, the main road lined with so many food trucks.

“Tch! Why are there so many of them?”

Shokuhou Misaki clicked her tongue while twirling a TV remote in her hand.

The dull metallic clangs came from the people surrounding the food truck she was hiding in.

An attorney.

A maid.

An accountant.

A chef.

Did they not bring a crowd because the Shokuhou Clique was keeping everyone else busy despite being outnumbered? Or had they not wanted to bring the ordinary students until the secret data had been thoroughly erased?

“Boy, do I hope Misaka-san reveal the plan early because she let that battle dimension she lives in get to her head. Like telling Resanerié that Kanaria-san has solid evidence or that we have a hacker.”

“Personally, I think the problem is how you led these dangerous people straight to us!!” protested Shirai.

There was no time to determine the truth of the matter.

Their top priority was to defend Uiharu Kazari during the countdown until the factory’s contradiction was publicly revealed.

They also wanted to prevent any harm coming to Yugure Kanari and Tsumebakei.

Shokuhou kissed the tip of her remote and winked at the twintails girl standing alongside her.

“Care to name our targets?”

“You will only complicate matters, so stay put until I am done!!”

Shirai Kuroko silently vanished.

Based on her movements, she seemed to have her sights on the maid or the chef.

Tokiwadai’s Queen sighed.

(Oh? She doesn’t even consider relying on the #5’s power here? Does that come from her pride as a Judgment member? She really is wasted on Misaka-san.)

That said, she didn’t want to sit idly by while that girl got beaten up for that.

She was through watching on as justice lovers came to harm.

“I-I-I-I can f-f-fight too!! I mean it!! Just, uh, hand me a bat and I’m unstoppable!”

“You can be the hacker’s last line of defense, so you’re staying here☆”

Shokuhou used Mental Out to silence the girl who nearly charged right at the enemy before anyone had even seen their powers. …Shokuhou would never again let an overzealous Level 0 come to harm on her watch.

“Now, then,” muttered Shokuhou Misaki as she turned back around.

She heard the scrape of a shoe sole against the pavement. It came from the attorney.

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, #5.”

“Yeah, yeah. Cut the pre-battle formalities.”

Sensing a lengthy introduction coming, Shokuhou Misaki cut her off with an annoyed wave of her hand.

That girl shamelessly thought she could outdo Academy City’s #5 with words.

Only someone whose actions were unswayed by words and numbers could manage that.

“You were careless to face me directly.”

She removed the kissed remote from her lips.

And she aimed it.

“For better or for worse, you have a human mind.”

Aimed it dead ahead.

“And that’s all I need for checkmate☆”

She was #5 of Academy City’s seven Level 5s.

Do not underestimate Mental Out.

===Part 18===

This time, Resanerié was not messing around.

Misaka Mikoto was nothing but trouble for her. Her top priority was Yugure Kanaria who knew the truth, so she wanted to deal with Mikoto as quickly as possible and hunt down Kanaria along with the outsider Uiharu.

Even if Resanerié’s side had control of the School Garden’s data network, Mikoto’s power could likely break through all the security and transmit the necessary data. If the fatal flaw in their independence was revealed, no one could predict which side the students of the five schools would take.

So she came in fast and hard.

It was like a silver gale.

The halberd technique was already enough to overwhelm Mikoto, but now its destructive power was boosted by her esper power to the point that she could easily dislocate her shoulder if she didn’t stretch in advance.

However.

“Now that I know how it works…”

“?”

“Your power doesn’t scare me!!!”

An explosion erupted directly below them.

Mikoto had magnetically pulled on a water pipe until it broke and the fountaining water formed a wall between them.

Resanerié’s power forcibly increased the speed of her weapon, so Mikoto only had to slow it back down to negate that boost. At normal speed, Mikoto could just barely dodge the halberd using her full-body microwave radar.

The axe split the air, but Mikoto had swung her head aside to dodge it while also taking a large jump back.

“You sounded awfully confident when you said the start of our first battle was only a warmup, but if that’s all it was, you wouldn’t have risked it when facing an enemy. You didn’t start using your power right away because you were nervous. You wanted to learn as many of my attacks and idiosyncrasies as you could so you knew when to activate your power to win with ease.”

“…”

“Your power is strong, but it has a time limit,” plainly stated Mikoto. “''Someone told me'' your precious halberd crumbled into rust after our battle on the roof. Your power is a telekinetic control of rust, isn’t it? Once you activate it, you can break all of your limits and fight with such speed you can dislocate your shoulder, but it also causes your weapon to rapidly rust and break apart. How long does it last? 5 minutes? 10? If you run into any surprises and the battle goes on long, your weapon crumbles before you’re done.”

“It’s called Crimson Manager.”

“From what I’ve seen, I doubt it’s only Level 3. If you can pull out rebar and steel beams with that same speed and force, then I bet you could break any bank vault or warship you wanted. That means you’re probably Level 4 like Kuroko. But,” added Misaka Mikoto. “You haven’t reached Level 5.”

A beam of light shined bright.

She had pulled an arcade coin from her pocket and tried to launch it, but the metal coin rusted away before she could accelerate it. The orange beam failed to form a stable line and fanned out toward Resanerié’s right side before vanishing.

Resanerié made her next attack just as the attempt failed.

Mikoto tried to respond with an iron sand sword, but…

(Tch. She can rust my coins and the iron sand!! I’m not sure what her effective range is!!)

But that didn’t matter.

The oxidation of rapid rusting produced heat. A hand warmer was a good example of that.

So Mikoto increased the friction even further to set the collection of iron sand on fire.

Then she sent the wall of flames directly toward Resanerié.

Several dull crashes followed.

Resanerié was launched backwards, where she rolled a few times along the ground while the shoulder of Mikoto’s uniform was torn away by the halberd’s hook. A few centimeters higher and it would have torn off her ear.

Resanerié still hadn’t let go of the halberd.

That insistence must have left her with a few shallow cuts from her own blade as she rolled. She slowly got back up with some red spilling from her cheek.

“I am empress of the Dialine Empire.”

“Why should I care?”

“You don’t know? Because, unlike the rest of you, I must eventually return to my home country. And what happens to the Academy City esper power developed inside my brain then?”

“…”

Did it all stem from this?

After spending years developing that power, Academy City would not want her to bring it back to her country. So once her schooling here was complete, the adults would insist on removing her power. Something would happen to preserve the secrets of esper development. So was she trying to eliminate the adult teachers and researchers who would attempt to steal her power from her?

Mikoto considered it, but she shook her head.

She wielded a halberd.

She wore riding breeches under her skirt.

She had been showing off hints at a deeper personal problem this entire time.

“You’re the captain of the equestrian combat club.”

“?”

“You learned to wield that giant halberd with one hand so you could fight while holding the reins and you still prefer to wear riding breeches below your uniform. But there is one thing you’re missing.”

Namely…

“''What happened to your horse?''”

“''Bistorio was forced to retire after breaking a leg during a training accident. And his genes weren’t considered valuable enough to let him live on as a stud.''”

===Part 19===

She kept vanishing into thin air.

When repeatedly teleporting around, Shirai Kuroko could make use of most anything. For example, a leaf floating in the air or a slight bump on a building wall could make a reliable foothold for her.

Nevertheless, she was forced to fight a defensive battle.

Yes. Teleportation did not provide a direct defense. When worried about an enemy attack, she had to focus on hopping every which way to dodge that attack.

And in this case…

“Explosions!?”

“F-feel free to interpret it that way.”

A gloomy girl in a chef’s uniform accurately targeted her from a distance. She muttered quietly while throwing invisible shockwaves Shirai’s way. The instant after Shirai vanished, one tore into the very space she had vacated, leaving a crater in the building wall behind.

Invisible attacks were a pain to deal with.

If the first one hadn’t crushed a leaf in the wind on its way to her, it might have killed her.

There were plenty of wind espers like Kongou Mitsuko, but this one seemed different. She made some casual movements meant to hide how she was rubbing something in her hand.

That would produce friction, so her power likely started with heating something.

“So it is just explosions.”

“I-it is not!! There are plenty of other possibilities!”

She must have wanted to keep her power a secret, but attempting to camouflage after your opponent had already grown suspicious was a waste of time.

Shirai Kuroko didn’t quite understand since the identity of her power was plainly obvious whenever she used it, but there were people who preferred to keep the identity of their power a secret.

“Do you control flammable gasses or aerosols? No, any material produces some traces of flammable gas when burned, so do you amplify that? I’m guessing this is a highly convenient and dangerous explosion power that lets you trigger a large explosion from the burning of any object you want.”

“N-no, no, definitely not!!”

An explosion was technically an expansion of gas using the process of combustion. The substances commonly known as explosives simply accelerated that process so much that objects were pushed away quickly enough to cause damage.

Burning anything, even paper or wood, would produce some trace amounts of flammable gas.

What if someone could accelerate that speed 100 times, 1000 times, or even more?

“How are you so perceptive!? You aren’t cheating and looking me up in the Bank, are you!?”

“Oh, that’s a great idea. You aren’t even wearing a mask, so I can use my Judgment authority to look you up.”

“Oh, god!! No, no, noooooo!!!” she screamed, tearfully.

That move was apparently considered taboo in these supernatural battles of mutual deception. Shirai doubted any investigative agency or law enforcement organization would waste its time playing along with the criminals’ riddles, though.

But no matter how stupid this girl was, her power was very real.

“Gah!?”

“F-feeling faint?”

The attacks were invisible.

But that wasn’t what mattered.

An attack had definitely hit Shirai Kuroko.

“Using a pressure cooker affects the flavor of the food. A high enough pressure allows the seasonings to permeate the meat while ignoring the osmotic pressure. Heh…heh. If I use an explosive blast providing pressure of about 1000 atmospheres to launch a mist of ''vinegar'' in a fan shape, I can ignore your skin’s defenses and directly inject it into your bloodstream.”

“Vin-?”

“Vinegar. In other words CH<sub>3</sub>COOH at a concentration of 3%. Oh, and your entire body is going to experience hellish pain in a few more seconds. But I was actually showing you some mercy by not using alcohol.”

She must have been confident Shirai could not move any more.

The chef swung her hand horizontally. The scenery grew distorted there. It was invisible, but she had likely concentrated a shockwave into a 2m kitchen knife.

She had the power to slice an elephant in two if she wanted.

“To be honest, I never cared about any of this good or evil nonsense. But the freedom to ignore all the rules did appeal to me. I never did mange to track down one legend spoken of in this city.”

“…?”

“I know shouldn’t be saying this. I know it’s wrong.”

The chef girl grinned while holding a giant knife formed by sharpening a shockwave created from an explosion’s flammable gas.

“''Just once, I wanted to try cooking up a human.''”



Attorney Tougyo Kea and #5 Shokuhou Misaki calmly confronted each other.

Neither of them moved.

A stillness surrounded them.

But that didn’t mean nothing was happening.

“Sense Striker,” whispered Tougyo Kea, smiling thinly. “This power is meant to give my empress a relaxing time with no trivialities to distract her, but it can also be used to attack.”

“…”

“I do not need bright lights or loud noises to take out people’s senses. Just like you can sense the pressure of a stranger standing directly behind you on the elevator late at night, people’s senses are surprisingly vague. At times, they can shove aside the commonly defined five senses to influence the mind. Like how a hand held in the snow for too long will feel warm or how the larger of two objects of the same weight will feel lighter. Anything like that will work. I can create the ''physical'' illusions that lead people to reject their ordinary senses of sight and hearing.”

Shokuhou Misaki did not respond.

She remained entirely motionless.

“Your power controls the mind.”

It was clear she was not responding. 

“But you must indicate a target with a remote each time you use it. Your power is reliant on your ordinary five senses, so you aren’t a threat if I keep your body from moving.”

“…”

“And once your power is taken from you, you are well below average. I can kill you at my leisure.”

Just as she said that, a small flame appeared on the back of her hand.

“?”

She reflexively shook her hand to the side before it hit her.

What was that?

Could Shokuhou Misaki’s power light a physical flame?

When she took a look around, she realized her surroundings were engulfed in flames. The two of them were surrounded.

That was enough to clue her in.

In front of her, the girl who supposedly had her senses fooled was smiling thinly.

“It’s an illusion.”

She felt pain like being pricked by countless needles.

The burning sensation on her skin was so realistic.

“Whatever you might do to me, it’s no more than an illusion!! Your phantasms don’t scare me!!!”

''I am fine,'' Tougyo Kea told herself.

She only had to avoid shock brought on by fear.

Whatever harm she might come to in this illusion could not affect the physical world.

“True,” readily admitted her opponent. “This is simply an illusion☆ None of it is actually happening.”

Shokuhou Misaki’s bottom half turned into a snake.

No, it was covered by scales, but they were fish scales.

The attorney’s eyes widened as Shokuhou’s scaley legs split into 12 and flames wrapped around each one. The collision of fine soot sent thick jolts of electricity through the flames.

The beautiful monster grew to overwhelming size and looked down upon her.

She put her hands behind her head to show off her body, stuck out her tongue a little, and winked.

The attorney could only look up and sweat.

“But can you ever escape this imaginary labyrinth?”



Another of the four servants, the maid named Renka Ephilty, took aim at Shokuhou Misaki.

That was Academy City’s #5, so defeating her in a direct confrontation would be difficult.

But who said anything about fighting 1-on-1?

The maid didn’t know how much longer the attorney would last, but she had done enough by getting Mental Out to focus on her alone. After all, this was the #5. Her psychological power was most effective in group battles, so having that power used for a 1-on-1 battle was the perfect opportunity. Now all the maid had to do was blow a hole in the side of Shokuhou Misaki’s head while she stood there locked in an imaginary battle with the attorney.

Renka Ephilty could do that.

She crouched down and took another step.

That was enough to tear apart the air and launch the maid forward like an arrow. She glided less than a meter off the ground. The researchers had described her power as ground effect wings, but she imagined herself as a flying fish.

Her power was called Fly Racing.

That Level 3 power let her create giant wings by controlling hard plastics like the extensions in her hair and the wires keeping the shape of her maid uniform.

She knew a Level 3 was no match for a Level 5, but her lack of skill didn’t matter to her in the slightest.

It was that very lack that had taught her to be straightforward to a fault.

She never tried to accomplish three steps at once. She would complete one step at a time.

It was extremely inefficient and caused her lots of problems, but if she could pull it off faster than anyone else, then it was her greatest shortcut. Even if she made mistakes due to her lack of skill, they didn’t truly count as mistakes if she could make up for them before anyone else could take advantage of them.

(My max gliding speed is 1100km/h. My weight is 52kg, so if I sacrifice one of my arms, I can do more than blast a hole in the #5’s head; I can tear it clean off!!)

“My, my. It isn’t that you move in slow motion – you just live an awkward life, don’t you?”

“!?”

Out of nowhere, a voice whispered from the side.

In fact, a girl was keeping up with her. The Tokiwadai student with the face of a super slow motion curse was moving at the same speed as her!?

“My power is Micro Dying. My, my. All it an do is kill mold, germs, bacteria, and any other microbe at a touch.”

Renka didn’t see how that power would let her move at subsonic speed.

But it did.

“Did you know? Some molds, spores, and other microbes that dislike drying out and exposure to oxygen will create a slime to protect themselves. My, my. I only need to choose which microbes to leave alive and I can slide along the ground or the wall like I am skating. I just apply my power to the soles of my shoes or to the surface below me.”

“…”

Renka was soaked with sweat.

This girl’s power didn’t just slaughter all microbes. She could pick and choose which ones to kill.

If she wanted to, she could create a biological weapon or a vaccine against it.

She was unbeatable.

Battling that monster of a girl was the beginning of a devastating defeat.

But Shokuhou Misaki was right there. So even if Renka couldn’t win as an individual, she could still send herself slamming into that defenseless girl at top speed.

“Reach her.”

She could do this for her empress. She could still use her unskilled life to kill that genius leader.

That would be enough.

“I don’t care!! Because I still win. I just have to reach herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”

“No, I don’t think so.”

The other girl gently reached out.

It didn’t matter if the distance was a kilometer, a meter, a centimeter, or a millimeter.

If Renka didn’t reach Shokuhou, then her attempt was over.

“You set foot within my arm’s reach. My, my. And in that range, I control all living things protected by microbes.”

“…!!”

Didn’t you know?

Yugure Kanaria’s power had scary potential, she was afflicted with a super slow motion curse, she was a stickler for keeping promises, and she had approached the truth of this incident as part of the newspaper club.

But in addition to all of that, Misaka Mikoto of all people had said she had a ''strong'' sense of justice.

“And I will not let a life under my control be wasted.”



The maid spun out and crashed into the hedge shrubbery dividing the street from the sidewalk. But that wasn’t all. She was tangled up in something like a spiderweb. It was probably a harmless form of slime mold. Because without that, her speed would have shredded her flesh and shattered her bones.

Shokuhou Misaki remained unharmed.

But the accountant named Sanki Ai’s calculations said that was acceptable.

(Pretend you have been defeated. No, you don’t have to pretend. Actually being close to death works as well.)

She must not fear the possibility of loss.

Loss was not a problem if it led to even greater profit.

What mattered was whether the final account came out in the black or in the red.

(Plus Equipment.)

Sanki Ai’s power was a telekinesis that formed a fine fabric that fit so perfectly skintight it reached every pore. It was stronger than velcro. It attached the skin more easily and it took in more air than tying on a normal cloth, so it was far more effective at stopping bleeding than a bandage. She could also switch off her power at will, so removing it was no trouble.

It didn’t help with broken bones, but even if she didn’t, strictly speaking, heal them, she could still get someone fighting again as long as they had a way of forcing their body to move again.

That let her disguise how many on her side were still capable of fighting. That was her most effective strategy.

(The people the enemy thinks are already defeated are my greatest trump card. If I hide and secretly bring our side back into the fight, we can attack from the enemy’s blind spot just when they think they have won and let their guard down. That makes a counterattack perfectly possible!!)

Just then, she found something standing in her way. It was a small girl of only 12 glaring at the accountant. Maybe it was the extreme tension or excitement brought on by her anger, but her little nose was dripping blood even though no one had hit her.

She spoke in an oddly low voice for her small shape.

“Why does everyone keep doing this?”

She wiped up some of the red with her thumb.

A change came over it.

The world quickly filled with grotesqueries.

A single drop of blood was said to contain between five and ten thousand white blood cells. All of those now grew to a size of 2m.

And white blood cells were an extremely ferocious component of blood that consumed and eliminated any foreign bodies in the blood.

Macro Dying revealed its true power here.

“Stop being mean to my sisterrrrrrrrrr!!!”



The sea of white blood cells attacked Shirai Kuroko and the chef as well.

The chef still held the 2m knife created by concentrating the invisible shockwave formed from the flammable gas she amplified with Material Flare.

“What the-!?”

“Do you really have time for distractions?”

With that icy question, several metal darts stabbed into the chef’s body.

Red blood splattered from her.

True disbelief filled her eyes this time. Her expression said she was viewing something even more revolting than the giant white blood cells.

Shirai Kuroko had completed her calculations without delay.

But how?

Vinegar had been injected into her bloodstream. She should have been suffering from enough pain to kill her from shock unless she underwent dialysis!!

“My power is Teleportation,” murmured Shirai. “I can transport myself or anything I touch while ignoring the restrictions of three-dimensional space.”

“Gah…you mean you teleported the vinegar from your blood?” The chef immediately rejected the idea. “You couldn’t have. You aren’t powerful enough to be immune to all biological and chemical weapons!! If you could do that, not even nuclear fallout could kill you!!”

“Very true.”

Shirai Kuroko tapped the back of her head and sighed.

No, wait.

What was that?

Did she have ''a metal dart stabbed into the back of her own head?

“But by applying pressure to the outside of my skull and triggering an evenly distributed headache, I can cut off all other pain. Of course, if my aim was off by just a few millimeters, I would end up with total paralysis instead.”

Was she crazy?

A headache from external skull pressure was the absolute worst kind of headache, rivaling a subarachnoid hemorrhage. That was not a normal way of pushing yourself. How could she go that far to keep herself focused on this battle!?

But that was where it ended.

With a pleasant “thud!!”, the chef dropped straight to the ground.

A dart had stabbed into the center of her forehead, but it was not meant to destroy her brain. By stabbing the dart almost but not quite to her skull, the vibration had knocked her unconscious.

That was just how accurately Shirai Kuroko could control her Teleportation.

With the four assassins defeated, no one remained to stop them.

Uiharu poked her head out of the food truck with her PDA in both hands.

“Everything’s set. I can release the data whenever you’re ready!!”

It all came down to that.

That was their one and only win condition.

===Part 20===

She lurched.

Resanerié Sadis Dialine had prided herself in being untouchable, but this was all it took.

That horse was no longer with her.

Her Bistorio.

That was the true motivation behind the fearsome empress’s self-destructive actions that had captured the entire School Garden.

“They removed the medical equipment, turned away the vet, and refused to even euthanize him, letting him die in pain.”

In Tokiwadai’s schoolyard, a certain girl’s smile was torn apart by emotion as she roared.

These were the feelings of someone who had their greatest treasure, whatever that might be, cruelly taken from them.

“When I saw that, I realized they didn’t treat humans any better. If the adults decide your treatment costs and genetic value aren’t worth it, the same could happen to any of us. Which is why having everyone declare independence is the only way to protect ourselves!!”

“…”

Misaka Mikoto did not nod or shake her head.

But she did think this girl was a fool.

The teachers had not protected the partner she cared about more than her own life. Providing medical treatment and rehabilitation was not worth the costs since he could no longer be used in matches, so the club supervisor and the other teachers had ended the horse’s life without Resanerié’s permission. Her hatred and sorrow had been too great for her to contain.

Had she decided that wasn’t a good enough reason to fight?

Had she given up on the idea of anyone helping her without actually asking anyone first and decided to blot out her righteous motivations with lies?

The debate representatives had convinced so many people to go along with the absurd idea of declaring independence and sending the School Garden into the sky, so if she had been honest about her reasons, Mikoto would have helped with her fight.

She would have gladly fought with all her might then.

“I…”

“What?”

“I think taking revenge on the teachers because you couldn’t accept that a single precious life was taken is a lot cooler and a lot more becoming of you than some nonsense about declaring independence and launching the School Garden into the sky.”

“!?”

Resanerié said nothing more.

Mikoto could actually hear her biting her lip.

The halberd tore through the air as it approached too fast to be seen. It flew in a fierce jab as straight as straight could be. Mikoto spun around, stripped off her blazer, and let the attack catch it.

In fact, she wrapped the garment around the halberd’s complex blade to give her a grip on it.

“What!?”

“The halberd’s complex design allows it to jab, cut, or catch as a spear, an axe, or a hook.”

Mikoto pulled hard on the wrapped cloth.

With them playing tug-of-war, Resanerié could not properly wield the halberd. And heavy weapons needed enough movement range for a large swing to gain sufficient force.

It did have a blade, but it wasn’t a famous katana capable of slicing through a piece of paper that fell upon its blade.

With several layers of the blazer wrapped and tangled around it, it couldn’t slice through the uniform fabric.

Once a blade couldn’t cut you, it was no longer a threat.

“But if I let it hit me, it can ''accidentally'' hit me with a part you didn’t intend for, can’t it? You’re the one that said the halberd is tricky to use. And the cloth stops you from using the spear, axe, or hook no matter which one it actually catches!!”

Mikoto flicked something up with her right thumb: an arcade coin.

She had dealt with the halberd, but Resanerié hadn’t lost Crimson Manager.

“That won’t work on me!!”

“I know. Which is why I really hope you use your full power on it.”

Mikoto showed no hesitation as a sign of respect. She stretched out her arm alongside the trapped halberd and took aim.

“If I launch a Railgun from point-blank range, you had better make the coin rust away to nothing because I don’t want you dying here so soon after I learn how cool you can be!!!”

An explosive boom and a shockwave shook the entire School Garden as it floated 5000m above the ground.

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